22nd September 2010 Archive

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SCADA worm a 'nation state search-and-destroy weapon'

With giant bullseye on Iran nukes

A highly sophisticated computer worm that has burrowed into industrial systems worldwide over the past year may have been a “search-and-destroy weapon” built to take out Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor, according to news reports published on Tuesday. The articles from IDG News and The Christian Science Monitor said the Stuxnet …

Security 22 Sep 2010, 00:12
RIM's iPad rival 'arrives next week'

BlackPad on launch pad

Blackberry maker Research in Motion "could" unveil its iPad challenger next week at its developer conference in San Francisco, according to a report citing "people familiar with RIM's plans." The Wall Street Journal reports that the long rumored RIM tablet – referred to by some within the company as the "BlackPad" – will reach …

Tablets 22 Sep 2010, 03:00
Startup takes WAN optimization to the clouds

You don't need no stinking box (most of the time)

There's a new WAN optimization startup in town, taking on the likes of Riverbed, Citrix Systems, Blue Coat, and Cisco Systems with some freshly minted Series A funding and, you guessed it, a cloudy approach to delivering WAN optimization. Aryaka Networks came out of stealth mode today and was founded by Ajit Gupta, who …

Data Networking 22 Sep 2010, 04:00
Weather gets granular with GPUs

HPC Blog Just say NOAA

Everyone complains about the weather, but no one is doing anything about it. The folks at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aren't doing anything about the weather. They're too busy trying to figure out what it's going to do tomorrow and next week. I sat in on a very interesting presentation from NOAA …

HPC 22 Sep 2010, 05:16
Oracle stamps authority on Java roadmap

OpenWorld JavaOne Sun doesn't work here anymore

Oracle has laid out plans for the future of Java while the official body responsible for stewarding the world's favorite programming language sits in limbo. Oracle server technologies head Thomas Kurian has laid out a roadmap of changes to the delayed Java Development Kit (JDK) and features for Java SE Java EE designed to take …

Developer 22 Sep 2010, 05:23
UK schools to maintain ICT spending

Despite budget constraints

Most UK schools are set to keep ICT budgets flat next year, according to research by the British Educational Suppliers Association. The ICT in UK State Schools report by the trade body for educational suppliers' reveals that 58 per cent of primary schools and 51 per cent of secondary schools are likely to maintain planned ICT …

The Channel 22 Sep 2010, 06:00
Philips 32PFL9705 Ambilight 32in LED backlit TV

Review Magic lantern?

Ambilight, the curious multi-coloured backlighting effect exclusive to Philips, is a remarkable thing. It doesn’t suit every programme – do you really want splashes of colour on the wall around the TV when you’re watching sombre announcements on the news? – but for entertainment it is an impressive, immersive addition. Paints …

Hardware 22 Sep 2010, 07:00
Youth Justice Board about to face legal onslaught

Children's rights group ARCH prepares for war

The Youth Justice Board and the Information Commissioner (ICO) may have reached a polite gentleman’s agreement that, even if the law is being broken, that’s OK for now, because the ICO got it wrong in the first place. But it may be too little, too late for children’s rights organisation ARCH, which is now threatening local …

Government 22 Sep 2010, 08:00
GPU-CPU hybrids promise the moon*

HPC Blog *Code headaches not included

I've been busy all day talking, listening, and maybe even learning a thing or two at the 2010 GPU Tech Conference. The speaker from the NOAA session (topic of another blog) put the move toward GPUs into perspective toward the end of his talk today with two key points. His first point was that big HPC advances tend to come at …

HPC 22 Sep 2010, 08:00
Europe sets minimum PNR standards

Transfers for terror and serious crime only

The European Commission has set minimum standards under which countries should agree to exchange airline passenger name information with nations outside the EU. The guidelines will underline new Passenger Name Record agreements with Australia, Canada and the US. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström said PNR …

Law 22 Sep 2010, 08:20
Head in the clouds

Sysadmin blog Trevor swoons over Cloudmin

There are two major categories of x86 virtualisation; separate and shared kernel. Separate kernel virtualisation provides greater isolation at the expense of a small virtualisation overhead. Shared kernel virtualisation reduces the overhead required to provide containerised operating systems but with fewer barriers between …

Servers 22 Sep 2010, 09:30
US college girls: Fatter roomie helps control 1st-year plumpening

Rubenesque cohabitees set good example, apparently

In a groundbreaking study, American researchers reveal that all US college girls tend to find their clothes fitting tighter in their first year as they gain weight. However, in a shock finding, it seems that those who are assigned a plump roommate will embulgen themselves less than those who find themselves living with a skinny …

Science 22 Sep 2010, 09:31
Leica revamps rangefinder and compact models

£20k M9 special edition, anyone?

Leica has announced some changes to its line-up at Photokina, with its rangefinder stalwart, the M9 getting a titanium makeover and, at the lower end, there are two new cameras, the D-Lux 5 compact and V-Lux 2 superzoom. The M9's full metal jacket Limited to just 500 models worldwide, this showpiece M9 still retains its …

Hardware 22 Sep 2010, 09:58
Is Seagate poised to go private?

What spins around goes around

Seagate has been in discussion with a pair of private equity firms about a move off the stock market and back into private ownership, according to reports. The alleged discussions have been reported by normally reliable Reuters, Bloomberg and others. The talks between Seagate, TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners have not …

Storage 22 Sep 2010, 10:14
Twitter blames website upgrade for re-introducing XSS hole

Rainbow tweets point to crock of sh...

Twitter said it identified and fixed the cross site scripting flaw that led to meltdown on Tuesday a month ago, only to undo this fix with a later web site update. The revamp - which reintroduced a flaw that meant JavaScript could be injected into Tweets - was unrelated to the recent introduction of New Twitter. The cross-site …

Security 22 Sep 2010, 10:21
Microsoft hopes divi rise will buy off investors

Multi-billion dollar debt hike too

Microsoft is upping its share dividend by three cents, or 23 per cent, in a move to placate investors who've struggled to see much return on the stock in recent months. Peter Klein, CFO at Microsoft, said the move, alongside the firm's share buyback programme, was evidence of its confidence in long-term growth. Microsoft …

Financial News 22 Sep 2010, 10:21
Piracy threats lawyer mocks 4chan DDoS attack

'Big whoop'

ACS:Law, the firm of solicitors being investigated by authorities over thousands of threatening letters to alleged unlawful filesharers, was attacked by net activists linked to 4chan overnight. The firm's website was brought back online at about 10.45am, following a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) strike. It follows …

Law 22 Sep 2010, 10:24
Czechs stop Google Street View

Ignored our laws

Google will not get permission to continue developing its Street View database of images unless it obeys Czech laws. The Office for Personal Data Protection said that Google, as a US company, must appoint a representative in the Czech Republic to act as data controller. It has not done so. The regulator also said: "In order …

Law 22 Sep 2010, 10:42
Paris brushes off Japanese ejection over coke bust

Wants to focus on fragrance and fashion lines

Paris Hilton was barred from entering Japan this morning after a six hour grilling by immigration officials curious about her position on nose candy. The talented model/actress/heiress, was stopped at Tokyo airport on Tuesday when she attempted to enter the country to promote her fashion and fragrance lines. Apparently Hilton …

Bootnotes 22 Sep 2010, 10:45
LG launches low-cost BlackBerry rival

Town about town

After a cut-price alternative to a BlackBerry? LG may have what you're after: the Curve-esque C300. Also called the Town, the C300 has a 2.4in display mounted above a Qwerty microkeyboard. There's a 2Mp camera on the back for ad hoc snapping, plus push email and Facebook and Twitter read-outs to keep your social circle up to …

Phones 22 Sep 2010, 11:04
Visa looks at NYC wave-pay trial, says 'I wanna be a part of it'

No Oyster, Octopus or Orca required

Visa is joining MasterCard in testing proximity payments systems on the New York City Subway, providing pay-at-turnstile functionality, rather than the stored-credit kind used elsewhere. Reuters tells us that Visa will be joining the trial, which already enables New Yorkers to buy some subway tickets with PayPass cards (from …

Mobile 22 Sep 2010, 11:07
MS pitches Windows 7 at biz world ahead of Chrome OS release

Don't wait for ~~Google rival~~ Internet Explorer 9, urges Ballmer crew

Microsoft is telling biz punters not to put off upgrading their operating system to Windows 7 while they wait for Internet Explorer 9 to be released. Unsurprisingly, the software vendor is encouraging business customers to adopt Windows 7 ahead of the expected spring 2011 arrival of IE 9. Redmond typically pushes customers to …

Applications 22 Sep 2010, 11:08
4chan invades Tea Party website

Spiked

A website run by the conservative Tea Party movement was overrun by the denizens of 4chan on Tuesday. Website vulnerabilities on the official teaparty.org website allowed pranksters to divert surfers landing on the photo section of the site to smut and shock sites. It's unclear what website security shortcomings were exploited …

Security 22 Sep 2010, 11:32
Moses' parting of the Red Sea: New sim explains whole thing

Israelites not chosen people, merely extremely lucky

Computer-modelling scientists say that there may be a factual basis for the passage in the Bible where God parts the Red Sea in order to allow through Moses and the Israelites and then allows the waters back again to drown the pursuing forces of Pharaoh. According to top boffins based at the US National Centre for …

Science 22 Sep 2010, 12:11
Disability rights activist chains self to tax office desk

Opinion Taking the direct route on system failures

Poor system design and large inflexible bureaucracies are encouraging outraged punters to take the law into their own hands. Is this healthy? Or is government slowly teaching the electorate that the only way to get things sorted is by direct action and being unreasonable? Take the case of disability rights activist Clair Lewis …

Government 22 Sep 2010, 12:12
Swedes brew up 18.5 per cent 'Ace of Spades Porter'

Porter? You'll need a porter alright

A Swedish brewery has concocted a tipple that packs an impressive 18.5 per cent alcohol content, giving the country's citizens something to conclusively celebrate in the wake of an a depressingly inconclusive election. The recipe for Sigtuna Brygghus' Ace of Spades Imperial Stout includes fresh figs, raisins, honey and almost …

Bootnotes 22 Sep 2010, 12:14
Google crowdsources card index for 'humanity's last library'

Garbage in, garbage out

Google has responded to criticism of the quality of its books metadata - by inviting anyone to write anything they want. Before you read on, remember that Google Books could become the world's digital library by default - it's been called "the last library" - since nobody is likely to do the scanning ever again. However, for …

Media 22 Sep 2010, 12:15
Panasonic expands Micro Four Thirds range

Lumix DMC-GH2 notches up 24p video

Panasonic has introduced the Lumix DMC-GH2, the latest addition to its growing range of Micro Four Thirds interchangeable lens cameras. This model raises the game of this format in a number of ways with its 16.1Mp CMOS sensor set to satisfy stills shooters. HD ready and then some Physically, it looks more like the DMC-G2 …

Hardware 22 Sep 2010, 12:15
Apple iPod Shuffle 4G

Review Not-so-slight return

The iPod Shuffle's entire history is a testament to the fact that Apple doesn't always get products right. The fact it exists at all shows Steve Jobs was wrong to say that consumers don't really want low-cost, plug'n'go music players. They do, and if the number of Shuffles seen on lapels and bagstraps around the capital is …

Hardware 22 Sep 2010, 12:32
Xerox joins HP in printing by email

Just be sure the spam filter is in place

Xerox will issue an email address to any Extensible Interface Platform print, enabling printing by email without requiring drivers or even a local connection to the printer. Printing by email was introduced by HP in June, but is still limited to three models of printer and (by default) relies on secret email addresses to …

Management 22 Sep 2010, 12:41
Bristol Council mulls mixed FOSS, Microsoft upgrade

One step back, two steps forward

A Bristol City councillor is trying to convince the council’s cabinet to adopt open source software alongside Microsoft’s Office and Windows 7. The council has been seen as something of a poster child for open source public sector contracts in the past. In November 2004 it declared plans to shift 5,000 workers off proprietary …

Operating Systems 22 Sep 2010, 12:49
Trojan poses as skeleton key jailbreak utility

greenpois0n and the poison pill

Miscreants have created a Trojan that poses as a rumoured jailbreak utility for the latest iPhones. A utility reportedly in development will allow users to run software of their choice on any Apple smartphone, even those running iOS 4.0.2 or iOS 4.1. The greenpois0n utility takes advantage of a security shortcoming in bootrom …

Security 22 Sep 2010, 14:02
T-Mobile to fling Froyo at Samsung Galaxy S guys

Update coming this month

T-Mobile UK has confirmed that its Samsung Galaxy S smartphone customers will be getting Android 2.2 at the end of the month. Curiously, it's not being delivered over the air, but rather through the Kies application Samsung ships with its handsets. That means you'll need a Windows PC on which to install Kies, download the …

Mobile 22 Sep 2010, 14:06
Lettuce head e-fit draws a blank

Coppers fail to bag Salad-haired thief

Hampshire Police have not received a single phone call or other lead on the whereabouts of the lettuce-headed burglar, despite his lactucan locks appearing on more media outlets than Paris Hilton's last upskirt shot. Have you seen this salad? Lettuce know if you spot him, Kos Hampshire police have no other Romaining leads …

Law 22 Sep 2010, 14:19
Blighty's carriers to field Windows Phone 7

Anyone care?

All of Britain's mobile phone networks will offer Windows Phone 7 handsets "later this year", Microsoft has revealed. Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U will get to sell them, but that's no surprise, perhaps. The most recent round of rumours narrow that window to sometime next month, but that's not a detail Microsoft confirmed …

Mobile 22 Sep 2010, 14:24
GPU Tech Conference - Tuesday show recap

GPU Tech Video Blog GPU-riffic!

We had NVIDIA's Ujesh Desai give us a recap of the day's events at the GPU Technology Conference. He's the VP of product marketing for all NVIDIA products - we covered that topic in detail right off the bat. In the accompanying video, we talked about how the GPU conference has taken off this year, hit on some of the …

HPC 22 Sep 2010, 14:43
From Cameron to Gazza, everyone loves Angry Birds

Mobile gaming just isn't cool any more

David Cameron is, it seems, a big fan of Angry Birds, which has also ensnared footballer Gazza, though we don't know if either of them has opted for the Eagle. The Prime Ministerial news was tweeted by Andy Payne, chairman of the UK Interactive Entertainment Association, though Number 10 has yet to confirm that virtual pig …

Mobile 22 Sep 2010, 14:53
China's Nebulae supercomputer - zero to second in 3 months

HPC Blog The perils of big-system assembly

Those of you interested in what it really takes to bring up a massive system don't want to miss the "Lessons Learned Deploying the World's First GPU-Based Petaflop System" session. In it, NVIDIA's senior hardware architect, Dale Southard, discusses his experience with China's Nebulae supercomputer - which, in addition to being …

HPC 22 Sep 2010, 14:54
Portable, rapid DNA analysis tech developed

Could allow mobile database checks by plods

Mobile fingerprint-checking equipment is already controversial before it has even rolled out widely. An announcement today may presage the next such row, as developers say they will soon roll out a "compact" machine based on "a small, single chip" which will massively reduce the amount of time taken to check a DNA sample. The …

Law 22 Sep 2010, 15:15
Seagate straddles two horses in next gen disk race

HAMR and BPM

Seagate has patented a technology that combines heat-assisted magnetic recording and patterned media. Patent WO/2004/107323 refers to Patterned Media for Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR). The back story here is that the hard disk drive industry has to transition to a new recording technology because, as the magnetic …

Storage 22 Sep 2010, 15:22
Vodafone shares subscriber info with world+dog

For your convenience

Vodafone has been caught taking liberties with customers' email accounts, and it seems at least some of the customers aren't happy about the practice. The problem is with the password reminder feature on the “My account” section of the carrier's website. All you have to do is enter the phone number of the person you're …

Mobile 22 Sep 2010, 15:58
AT&T chief: 'All your iPhone are belong to us'

Trapped subs ease Verizon threat

It's commonly accepted that AT&T's iPhone exclusivity will end soon when Apple adds Verizon to its US carriers — but AT&T's chief exec isn't worried, citing the fact that his subs are trapped. "If you look at the iPhone base, about 80 per cent is either on a family-talk plan or in a business relationship with us," CEO Randall …

Mobile 22 Sep 2010, 16:04
Power Assure revs data center power control wares

NASA onboard

Power Assure, a startup founded in 2007 that came out of stealth mode last summer, wants to take control of your data center. Or, more precisely, it wants to sell you a power management tool that allows you to do so and radically reduce the amount of juice you consume. This week, Power Assure has tweaked up its Dynamic Power …

Data Center 22 Sep 2010, 16:24
Facebook OKed by Canada privacy czar (for now)

Canuck eyes Zuck

Facebook has resolved the data-sharing issues that lead to an investigation by Canada's privacy commissioner, according to the commissioner herself. But she says her work with Facebook isn't over. "While we are satisfied that the changes address the concerns raised during our investigation, there is still room for improvement …

Media 22 Sep 2010, 17:18
IE captain flees Microsoft for Google

'I want to do good,' vows 15-year Redmond vet

After fifteen years of work on Internet Explorer, browser architect Chris Wilson is leaving Microsoft for Google. "As I reached the conclusion that I’d helped IE along as much as I could, I felt it was a good time to reassess where I ultimately want to go with my career, and I realized that I really needed to stretch my wings …

Applications 22 Sep 2010, 18:16
Flaws on ESPN Fantasy Football site make cheating a snap

Game fixing trivial

ESPN's Fantasy Football site is riddled with flaws that allow players to rig games, a security researcher says. The online contest allows players to pretend they are owners of American football teams as they compete against other imaginary owners to pick a winning lineup from real-life members of the National Football League. …

Media 22 Sep 2010, 19:11
Google frees Gmail updates from Android

(A little) less fragmentation

Google has freed Gmail updates from its Android mobile operating system, releasing a new version of its email app to the Android Marketplace. Previously, Gmail updates were only released with new versions of the OS. "Gmail updates aren’t tied to Android version releases anymore. Now you can get new Gmail stuff faster without …

Applications 22 Sep 2010, 19:15
Oracle preps Google and Microsoft Office challenger

OpenWorld Cloud Office floats Java against AJAX

The Google and Microsoft Office two-way online productivity tussle is about to turn into a three way, with Oracle pitching a pro-Java, anti AJAX-option. Oracle is "right on the edge" of delivering a preview edition of its Cloud Office suite, unveiled in January, says the database giant's chief software architect, Edward …

Applications 22 Sep 2010, 19:41
Google's Microsoft browser outlives Wave nonsense

Chrome IE takes bow

Google has removed the beta tag from Chrome Frame, the Internet Explorer plug-in that turns Microsoft's browser into a Google browser. More than three months after it was officially released as a beta, Chrome Frame is now officially stable. Beta users will be automatically upgraded to the stable version over the next few days …

Applications 22 Sep 2010, 21:39
IGF and crazy cabbies pull world together

Internet Governance Forum The end is not nigh

Having spent three days grumbling and moaning about the Internet Governance Forum 2010, I pre-decided it was time to highlight the good stuff, the reason why people from 107 different countries bothered to attend. If you asked pretty much anyone at the event if the numbers were up or down this year, everyone would have said …

Networks 22 Sep 2010, 22:00
Red Hat revenues bulge 20%

Channel the hero in Q2

Commercial Linux and middleware distributor Red Hat continued to grow at a nice clip in its second fiscal quarter ended on August 31, with sales up 19.7 per cent to $219.8m. But even after keeping cost growth under this level, a much higher tax bill compared to the year-ago quarter walloped the company's net income, which fell …

Financial News 22 Sep 2010, 22:01
Google mounts attack on penis-pill pushers

One minion at a time

Google says it has mounted a legal offensive against website operators who use its ad services to hawk penis-enlargement pills and other prescription drugs to people in the US without a license. In a federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the search behemoth accused the owners of two websites of intentionally bypassing prohibitions …

Security 22 Sep 2010, 23:40