14th May 2008 Archive

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Adaptec makes low-end RAID gear ROC hard

Series 5 begat Series 2

Adaptec is launching a new line of entry-level unified serial RAID controllers today, using the revamped design of its top-tier Series 5 gear announced in March. The Series 2 controllers can handle hardware RAID 0, 1, and 10 for SAS and SATA disk arrays, as well as tape drives using SAS expanders. The devices run on a 800MHz …

Data Networking 14 May 00:28
SMS costs more than using Hubble Space Telescope

Teenagers. Harder to reach than distant galaxies

A British boffin has calculated that text messages are a horrendously expensive method of handling information, costing many times more than it does to access data from the Hubble Space Telescope. "Hubble is by no means a cheap mission," says Dr Nigel Bannister, a space scientist at the University of Leicester. "But mobile …

Mobile 14 May 06:02
Wireless can be good for your health

Ofcom stares into healthcare crystal ball

With an aging population there's going to be bundles more cash to splash on health care in years to come, if you believe UK regulator Ofcom and this year's edition of its future technology report, the Wireless World of Tomorrow. The admittedly optimistic economic predictions see the cost of healthcare rising to £215bn by 2025 …

Wireless 14 May 09:01
MoD begins full UFO-files public release

~~Alien puppet regime starts coverup propaganda dump~~

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has begun releasing its voluminous files regarding unidentified flying objects, aerial phenomena, possible alien visitations etc. The documents will all become available to the public via the National Archives over the next three years. UFOs of various kinds have been sighted and reported to …

Government 14 May 09:04
NASA bites nails over Phoenix landing

Lander's Red Planet encounter looms

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is on its final approach for a slated touch-down on the Red Planet's Arctic region on 25 May amid a certain amount of nail-biting as to whether it will survive the landing. Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, admitted yesterday: "This is not a trip to grandma's …

Space 14 May 09:25
Craigslist gets personal with eBay countersuit

'Used shareholding unlawfully'

Craigslist has filed a blistering countersuit against rival and shareholder eBay, accusing the auction giant of a range of transgressions including abusing its role on classified ad site's board. Documents accuse the online tat seller of unfair and unlawful competition, false advertising, trademark infringement, unfair …

Financial News 14 May 09:51
Google trials Street View face-blurring tech

International anonymity for New Yorkers

Google has begun to roll out Street View images with the faces of innocent bystanders to its drive-by captures suitably blurred - a response to increasing privacy concerns over the service's indiscriminate broadcasting of the unwashed masses. A post on the Google Earth and Maps blog earlier this week explained the search …

Applications 14 May 09:55
Dell denies death of XPS to aid Alienware

One for custom jobs, the other for mass-produced systems

Dell has denied that it plans to kill off the XPS gaming PC brand and promote its Alienware gaming PC subsidiary instead. Both names will "live on", it said last night. That the PC giant intends to knock XPS on the head was suggested this week by the Wall Street Journal. There's certainly cross-over between Alienware and XPS …

Reg Hardware 14 May 09:56
Asimo conducts symphony orchestra

Video Honda robot takes to the stage

Honda’s famous white robot has given the first musical performance of its life – conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Late last month, Register Hardware reported how the car manufacturer had inked plans to showcase Asimo's musical skills at a specially arranged …

Reg Hardware 14 May 10:07
Domed projection screen promises immersive gaming

One to watch?

The dream of totally immersive videogaming could soon become reality, thanks to one gaming geek’s efforts to create a full-field-of-vision display system. The jDome could submerge you into GTA IV shoot-outs Inventor John Nilsson claims to have already been granted a patent for his jDome, which is essentially a hemispherical …

Reg Hardware 14 May 10:17
MySpace wins record $230m judgement against spammers

'Spamford' Wallace hauled over the coals

MySpace has won a $230 million anti-spam judgment against notorious spammer Sanford Wallace and his partner Walter Rines. US District Judge Audrey Collins made the order - reckoned to be the largest ever in an anti-spam case - after the duo failed to appear in court. The pair were found responsible for orchestrating a phishing …

Spam 14 May 10:40
Touchscreen BlackBerry 'Thunder' to storm to market in Q3?

RIM rumbles on

Stormclouds could be forming over Research in Motion's headquarters - and for once we're not referring to the 3G iPhone. It has been claimed that the company will unveil a touchscreen BlackBerry in Q3. Although website BGR hasn’t shared the source of this information, the website claims the device is codenamed 'Thunder' and is …

Reg Hardware 14 May 10:56
O2 XDA Orbit 2 smartphone

Review Rather good?

What we have here is basically a traditional Windows Mobile smartphone loaded to the gunwales with Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, 3.6Mb/s HSDPA, quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge, three-megapixel camera, FM radio, 8GB-capable MicroSD slot and a touchscreen. Under the hood the Orbit is driven by the same 400MHz chip as the Touch Dual, and comes …

Reg Hardware 14 May 11:02
Supermarket goes hi-tech to stop kids buying booze and cigs

How old are you?

Supermarket chain Budgens has begun trialling facial-recognition technology in one of its London stores in a bid to thwart attempts by the city’s teenagers to buy alcopops and smokes illegally. The trial uses a face-recognition system developed by firms OmniPerception and Charton. The unnamed Budgens store now has a camera …

Reg Hardware 14 May 11:11
Music coalition takes on Microsoft, Google and pals

You are entering my white space

A coalition representing the American music industry has petitioned the FCC - with typically understated claims - to prevent exploitation of white-space frequencies, claiming that such use will interfere with wireless microphones. "The white spaces proposals being considered by the FCC could turn 'Music City' into a silent …

Mobile 14 May 11:12
Vatican star watcher says aliens may be out there

ET spiritus sancti

The Catholic Church’s top astronomer has said there is no contradiction between the one true faith and believing in aliens. The statement will surely spark speculation that the Church knows more than it’s letting on and is preparing the world for some pretty big revelations, or at least laying the groundwork for mass …

Space 14 May 11:16
Dimension Data makes cloud free forecast

No bust, all boom?

Computer services firm Dimension Data Holdings Plc saw first half group revenue climb 23 per cent to $2.17bn and expects the good news to keep coming. The South Africa-headquartered company reported a 58.6 per cent leap in pre-tax profit of $89.7m for the six months ended 31 March 2008, compared to $56.5m a year earlier. Net …

Channel Register 14 May 11:36
Giant Eee PC menaces London

Caught on camera

A man dressed as a huge Asus Eee PC terrified shoppers on London's busy Tottenham Court Road earlier this month, recently released footage of the incident has revealed. Armed with a pair of three-fingered gloves, the menace waylaid passers-by in a bid to relieve them up to £350 - albeit in return for a small, ultra-mobile …

Reg Hardware 14 May 11:53
Bell Canada chokes P2P and privacy?

'J'accuse!'

What's worse than an ISP throttling your peer-to-peer traffic? An ISP throttling your peer-to-peer traffic while stepping on your privacy. Late last week, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) fired a letter to the country's privacy czar, urging an investigation into the traffic shaping practices of …

Telecoms 14 May 12:02
Icahn builds Yahoo! stake

Activist investors at the gate

Carl Icahn has quietly built up a four per cent stake in Yahoo! since Microsoft withdrew its offer for the company. Icahn has a history of launching proxy bids for companies he considers have lost their way. In April he won two seats on Motorola's board. His main demand, that Motorola sell off its handset business, was …

Financial News 14 May 12:18
Royal Navy warships could run on sunflower oil - if fresh

'Dammit, Number One, this fuel's gone mouldy'

A study by marine engineering experts has set out the likely effects of using biodiesel fuel in Royal Navy warships. As British warships are mostly powered by gas turbines derived from aircraft jet engines, the results are also interesting in the context of future biofuelled aviation and power generation. The current Jane's …

Government 14 May 12:19
Sony: world PS3 sales pass 12.8m consoles

Sony not worried about Xbox 360

Strong sales across all of Sony’s PlayStation hardware range over the past financial year have left the electronics giant feeling confident that it can still fend off Microsoft’s Xbox 360. During the financial year ended 31 March 2008, Sony sold 9.2m PlayStation 3 consoles globally – an increase of 5.6m on the previous …

Reg Hardware 14 May 12:28
Nvidia completes absorption of physics chip maker

Ageia brand lives on as hardware add-in

Nvidia has now absorbed Ageia, the developer of physics processing chips it acquired earlier this year. It's busily separating Ageia's silicon from the accompanying software. Nvidia announced its intention to buy Ageia back in February. Until then, Ageia had offered its PhysX physics chip and software to allow games developers …

Reg Hardware 14 May 13:14
HP leaves Dell with an EDS-shaped hole

Analysis Partner swap leaves Dell feeling at a loose end

Dell looks like being one of the losers after HP’s buy of EDS yesterday. Well, apart from the staff who are likely to be axed, the EDS customers who will have to live through the integration of the two companies, and HP shareholders who have already seen a slide in the company’s shareprice since news of the $13.9bn deal broke …

Channel Register 14 May 13:29
Bulletproof quantum crypto dinged by implementation weakness

Trust but verify

Security researchers have identified possible weaknesses in quantum cryptography implementations. A team from Linköping University in Sweden has also come up with suggestions about how the attack could be blocked. Quantum cryptography allows two users on an optical fibre network to exchange secret keys. It takes advantage of …

Enterprise Security 14 May 13:41
True Group deploys near-field from the SIM

Not waiting for NFC handsets

TrueMove, the mobile arm of Thailand's media conglomerate the True Corporation, is deploying near-field payments and ticketing, but they're not waiting for compatible handsets as they've managed to squeeze the technology into their SIMs. Embedding the technology into the SIM gives the operator complete control, and means it …

Mobile 14 May 14:07
Samsung to demo next-gen, 240Hz LCD TV tech

OLED beater?

Samsung has developed what it claims its the world's first LCD panel with a 240Hz image frame rate - double that offered by top-end LCD tellies today. The South Korean giant said it will be showing off a 15in prototype next week, but admitted it will be three years before the new technology goes into mass-production. Samsung …

Reg Hardware 14 May 14:22
Atari unveils Wii Fit rival

Console-based fitness

If you think Wii Fit is too physically taxing, then you’ll be glad to hear that Atari has developed a simpler version. Atari's Family Trainer: a simplified Wii Fit The basic concept behind Family Trainer is similar to Wii Fit, but rather than a step-on board, Atari’s version uses an interactive floor mat. Hopefully, the mat …

Reg Hardware 14 May 14:25
EC slaps Becta complaint on the Microsoft evidence pile

Forms 'indirect' part of anti-trust probe

The European Commission (EC) will not treat Becta’s interoperability grumbles about Microsoft as a formal complaint. However, the Commission has confirmed it will “indirectly” look at evidence submitted by the agency as part of its ongoing investigation into anti-trust allegations against the software giant. Becta said …

Channel Register 14 May 15:06
MSI card-cooler 'inspired by weed'

The underwater variety, no less...

MSI engineers have found stimulation in the briny depths for its latest graphics card innovation: a cooling fan with vanes modeled on seaweed. MSI's seaweed fan close up The Taiwanese company didn't say how it came up with the notion of basing its technology on underwater flora, but it did claim that the blade design makes …

Reg Hardware 14 May 15:10
EU IT commissariat has lightbulb moment over green IT

Like watching your dad dance

The European Commission has decided that it is the information technology industry's job to lead the Euro Community into a greener future by reducing energy use and therefore carbon emissions. The Commission has adopted a new Communication which pushes the Information, Technology and Communications industry to reduce its own …

Government 14 May 15:21
How to rescue Java from the men in suits

JavaOne Gives us liberty, not legalese

Open source and Java developers are calling on Java's governing body - the Java Community Process - to open up beyond the big players. Members of a JavaOne panel on the JCP, open source and standards have expressed their frustrations with a process they believe puts corporate interests first when it comes to Java. For once, it …

Developer 14 May 15:38
Build a 1TB MacBook

MCE's guide to storage bloat

MCE Technologies has a dual 500GB hard disk drive kit to produce 1TB MacBooks by using the SuperDrive optical disk drive bay. The kit uses two 2.5-inch drives spinning at 5,400 or 7,200rpm and with capacities of 100, 120, 160, 250 or 500GB. One replaces the standard drive whilst the other replaces the SuperDrive optical disk …

Channel Register 14 May 17:27
Oracle substitutes previews for product

JDeveloper 11g - a work (still) in progress

Exactly a year after releasing the first preview of version 11g of its JDeveloper Java integrated development environment (IDE), Oracle has quietly slipped out preview number four - yes, count 'em - four. But despite a significant number of updated and new features Oracle has still to reveal a date for the first full …

Applications 14 May 17:28
Spammers open new front on social networking sites

Poked full of Viagra

Social networking sites have become the new front in the war against spam, according to security watchers. In the six months leading up to March 2008, social networking sites saw a four-fold growth in the amount of spam on their network. At several major social networking sites, 30 per cent of new accounts created are …

Spam 14 May 18:10
Google kills Anonymous AdSense account

Exclusive How Scientology funded the anti-Scientology movement

Google has murdered the AdSense account run by one of the web's most influential anti-Scientology sites. Yesterday, the search giant cut off all ads served to Enturbulation, a fledgling site dedicated to promoting activism against the Church of Scientology and all its related organizations. This could have something do with …

Applications 14 May 18:52
IBM rejects deduplication for new VTL

A 3.4PB beast

IBM has revealed a new TS7530 virtual tape system with no deduplication capabilities at all, just hardware compression. The Virtualization Engine TS7530 is presented by IBM as an intervening system between open systems servers and tape with tape being the final resting place for data. It is designed to augment the tape backup …

Storage 14 May 20:13
Scientists discover galaxy's youngest supernova

Victorian stellar explosion

Where have all the Milky Way's supernovas gone? Contrary to what would seem a basic survival instinct, many astronomers are positively keen to get more catastrophic, solar-system-busting explosions in our home galaxy. But until recently, a good Jerry Bruckheimer space opera hasn't appeared to reach Earth since the seventeenth …

Space 14 May 20:54
Botnet sics zombie soldiers on gimpy websites

More SQL injection insanity

The miscreants who have poisoned more than half a million web pages aren't the only attackers thinking big. People behind a botnet known as Asprox have recently rejiggered their army to infect websites in a similar fashion. Asprox zombies have recently been blessed with a tool that sniffs out potentially vulnerable sites …

Enterprise Security 14 May 22:06