Registry design pattern...good or bad?

The following code is from a tutorial (http://net.tutsplus.com/php/creating-a-php5-framework-part-1/), not mine.

I have a few questions about this code...

• The article claims it is using the "registry design pattern"; is that the universal name for this design in the industry?
• Is there another similar patter out there that would be a better option?
• Is this pattern considered to be good practice to implement in the context of an MVC framework?

I just want to figure out if I should use this design pattern in my own implementation of a MVC framework. Thanks!

<?php
/**
 * The PCARegistry object
 * Implements the Registry and Singleton design patterns
 * @version 0.1
 * @author Michael Peacock
 */
class PCARegistry {

/**
 * Our array of objects
 * @access private
 */
private static $objects = array();

/**
 * Our array of settings
 * @access private
 */
private static $settings = array();

/**
 * The frameworks human readable name
 * @access private
 */
private static $frameworkName = 'PCA Framework version 0.1';

/**
 * The instance of the registry
 * @access private
 */
private static $instance;

/**
 * Private constructor to prevent it being created directly
 * @access private
 */
private function __construct()
{

}

/**
 * singleton method used to access the object
 * @access public
 * @return 
 */
public static function singleton()
{
    if( !isset( self::$instance ) )
    {
        $obj = __CLASS__;
        self::$instance = new $obj;
    }

    return self::$instance;
}

/**
 * prevent cloning of the object: issues an E_USER_ERROR if this is attempted
 */
public function __clone()
{
    trigger_error( 'Cloning the registry is not permitted', E_USER_ERROR );
}

/**
 * Stores an object in the registry
 * @param String $object the name of the object
 * @param String $key the key for the array
 * @ret