16th February 2011 Archive

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Humans shamed in round two of Jeopardy! showdown

Slippery when wetware

The second round of the Jeopardy! showdown pitting humanity against IBM's Watson supercomputer did not go so well for the carbon-based lifeforms, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. If the IBM machine was capable of diabolical laughter, it would have let out a rather lengthy cackle. This was the middle round of the three-part …

HPC 16 Feb 2011, 02:19
AdBlock Plus: Open source for fun (not funds)

Open...and Shut Labor of software love

Even as open source has become big business, some of the world's most popular open-source projects remain labors of love for a growing body of developers. Such developers invest years of their lives writing code and fielding complaints from free riders, and they actually seem to like it. Or love it, in the case of the lead …

Applications 16 Feb 2011, 04:00
Vodafone Aus off the hook, kind of

A 50-50 verdict from Privacy Commissioner

The Australian Privacy Commissioner has delivered a 50-50 verdict in his report on breaches of customer privacy in Vodafone’s computer system. On the one hand, the allegation that data on “four million Vodafone customers including their billing and call records were uploaded onto a publicly accessible website” has been found …

Business 16 Feb 2011, 04:03
Man pockets $8m running computer fraud ring

Zombies dialed premium phone numbers

A New Hampshire man has admitted pocketing almost $8 million in a scheme that infected people's computers with software that forced their modems to surreptitiously dial premium phone numbers. Asu Pala, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and five counts of failing to filed a US income tax …

Crime 16 Feb 2011, 04:44
Rackspace promises 'big name' OpenStack power shift

Open source cloud kit set for mystery advisory board

Rackspace will help create a new advisory board for the OpenStack project, the year-old open source effort to build Amazon-like "infrastructure clouds". This board will include "big backers and enterprise users" and "open-source" thought leaders, and it will drive the overall vision of the project. Rackspace tells The Reg that …

Platform 16 Feb 2011, 05:11
Dell to buy AMD?

All hat and no cattle

With Intel and Advanced Micro Devices both cranking the clocks on their respective Xeon and Opteron server processors this week and Dell admitting that it's on the prowl for acquisitions, tongues have started to wag about the possibility of PC and server maker Dell snapping up AMD. Barron's, the supposedly more thoughtful part …

Channel Register 16 Feb 2011, 06:00
iXtreamer dock with IPTV

Review Media hub for iFans

If you’re an iDevice owner and fancy hooking it up to your telly – but would rather not pay £80 for the rather basic combination of Apple’s Universal Dock equipped with component or composite cables – then the iXtreamer is one option that stands out from the multitude of iThing third party docking systems. More than just a …

reghardware 16 Feb 2011, 07:00
Texas antitrust investigators request Google 'ad rate formula'

Plus docs on 'manual override' of search results

Texas antitrust investigators have asked Google to turn over its formula for setting advertising rates and documents that show "manual overriding or altering of” its search rankings, according to a report citing a letter from the Texas attorney general's office. Bloomberg reports that Kim Van Winkle, an assistant attorney …

Government 16 Feb 2011, 07:56
London councils reveal joint IT jobs cut plan

Report outlines plans to cut 10 to 12 posts

Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Kensington & Chelsea have said they will save £400,000 annually by axing a number of IT posts In a document titled "Tri-borough proposals report: bold ideas for challenging times", the three local authorities outline plans to cut 10 to 12 IT posts "excluding schools' ICT support". The …

Government 16 Feb 2011, 08:00
Coming soon: Die Hard 5 - The Zimmer Frame

Bruce Willis dusts off the arthritis tablets

Since he's no longer required to save Earth from asteroid armageddon, Bruce Willis has been checking out potential helmsmen for Die Hard 5 - The Zimmer Frame. Actually, we made that last bit of the title up, since any suggestion that Willis is too geriatric to reprise his role as John McClane would doubtless be a matter for a …

Entertainment 16 Feb 2011, 08:10
Micro Focus shares drop on update

Targets missed, shares whacked

Micro Focus shares lost a quarter of their value yesterday as the software company warned markets it was unlikely to hit sales or profit targets for the year. Interim results for the six months to 31 October 2010 showed profits and turnover were lower than expected, although the company has cut debt. Micro Focus shares fell …

Applications 16 Feb 2011, 10:01
Schmidt promises to get 'permission' before taking over our world

MWC You're in the mobile business now

Eric Schmidt wants us to love the Earth more, and tells us that the more information we share with Google the easier that will be – all with our permission of course. Google's CEO mentioned our permission nine times during his keynote presentation at the congress yesterday, almost every point made was bracketed with the …

Mobile 16 Feb 2011, 10:07
HTC shuns Honeycomb for Android tablet debut

Gingerbread instead

Smartphone maker HTC's upcoming Android tablet, Flyer, will run the Gingerbread version of the operating system, not the tablet-centric Honeycomb. Flyer was launched yesterday at Mobile World Congress (MWC). At the time, HTC didn't say which version of Android the 7in tablet would use, stressing instead that it will be …

reghardware 16 Feb 2011, 10:12
LG claims 'flicker free' 3D TV first

Independently tested, apparently

LG has taken the wraps off what it claims is the world's first 3D TV to be independently checked and approved for lack of flicker. Dubbed the Cinema 3D - aka the LW5700 - the telly was given the 'flicker free' thumbs up by European test labs TÜV and Intertek, LG said. The company claimed the telly "practically eliminates the …

reghardware 16 Feb 2011, 10:29
RSA pushes single sign-on into the clouds

Just the one dear

RSA has launched a set of services designed to foster trust between business and cloud service providers. Cloud Trust Authority from the security division of EMC is designed to tap into the growing market for cloud computing with a roster of technologies and services, the first of which is an Identity Service. Partially based …

Platform 16 Feb 2011, 10:34
Rhapsody bristles at Apple subscription grab

I'm just a poor boy from a poor family ...

Apple's subscription scheme, introduced yesterday, extends to all online content, not just newspapers. Movie and music services and ebooks must pay a tithe to Apple, if they're deemed to be bringing in new customers via the Jobsian platform. Those customers pay a recurring fee. "Our philosophy is simple: when Apple brings a …

Music and Media 16 Feb 2011, 11:08
Microsoft loses global ad head to Facebook

Social network upstart poaches Carolyn Everson

Microsoft went to a lot of effort to find the right person to head up its global advertising unit last summer, but after less than a year Carolyn Everson has quit Redmond for a job with Facebook. All Things Digital broke the news yesterday that Everson had been hired by Facebook as its global sales veep. The social data …

Music and Media 16 Feb 2011, 11:19
NASA's Stardust braves cometary flak

Survives photographic close encounter with Tempel 1

NASA's Stardust spacecraft has survived a close encounter with comet Tempel 1, during which it took a few substantial hits from cometary flak. The craft passed within 111 miles of the comet at 20:40 p.m. PST on 14 February (04:40 GMT on 15 February), and has returned some impressive photos of the distant body. As well as 72 …

Space 16 Feb 2011, 11:41
Gov will pay £2.25m compo to ID card suppliers

Money down drain says Blunkett ... who should know

The cost of compensating suppliers after the scrapping of the ID card scheme is likely to hit £2.25m, Home Office Damian Green has confirmed. Green disclosed the figure in a letter to former Labour Home Secretary and erstwhile ID card enthusiast David Blunkett, the Daily Telegraph reports. On top of the payments of £2.25m to …

Government 16 Feb 2011, 11:43
Acer taps out yet more tablets

MWC 2011 Ten-inchers and seven-inchers

Acer's 10.1in Iconia Tab A500 wasn't the only tablet the PC giant announced this week: it also took the wraps off a 7in Android-based alternative and a second ten-incher, this one running Windows. The W500 will come with Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit runing on a 1GHz AMD C-50 chip with integrated Radeon graphics. Acer has …

reghardware 16 Feb 2011, 11:51
Dinky Florida machine 'could whup world No 1 computer's ass'

Chinese brute vs 'reconfigurable' two-fridge tiddler

Which is the most powerful computer in the world? Easy: the Tianhe-1A at Tianjin in China. Just ask the chaps at the TOP500 supercomputer list – or President Barack Obama. "Just recently, China became home of ... the world’s fastest computer," said the prez in his latest State of the Union speech. That makes the high …

Infrastructure 16 Feb 2011, 11:59
Dissenting Nokia shareholders stop throwing toys from pram

Elopocalypse: Day Five

The anonymous Nokia investors who boldly launched a "Plan B" for the company are giving up after just 48 hours. The group called for the dismissal of CEO Stephen Elop and outlined an alternative strategy based on high-margin, Nokia-developed platforms. But despite gathering thousands of supportive Tweets (1,585) and Facebook " …

Mobile 16 Feb 2011, 12:00
IT grad claims £5m for crap degree

University sued for a 2.2, pays out 0.0

A graduate from the University of Bradford has had his case to get his degree upgraded thrown out of court. Tony Chinedu Wogu got a 2.2 from Bradford after completing a two-year HND course elsewhere. Unhappy with his "drinker's degree" Wogu went to court claiming discrimination and seeking £5m compensation and a better grade …

Law 16 Feb 2011, 12:03
Just Mobile AluPen metal iPad stylus

Txt Take Tap, type and swipe

Product reviews in 140 characters. Just Mobile AluPen Pictures Want our Txt Take on your gadget? Just send it in to Reg Hardware. Details here.

reghardware 16 Feb 2011, 12:04
Freedoms Bill good for CCTV, not for privacy

Code of practice in surveillance leaves little to protect privacy

The Protection of Freedoms Bill promotes efficient CCTV surveillance, but not effective privacy. The hype surrounding the CCTV/ANPR provisions in the Protection of Freedoms Bill is misplaced. In fact, I would argue the bill’s provision for a Statutory Code of Practice in the CCTV area represents little change on the privacy …

Policing 16 Feb 2011, 12:18
Startup offers penalty-free file data reduction

Magic from Swiss gnomes

Swiss startup balesio, staffed by all of nine people, has devised a penalty-free way of reducing unstructured data file sizes without altering the original file format, meaning no rehydration or decompression is needed to read the reduced size files. Its Native File Optimisation (NFO) software technology analyses unstructured …

Storage 16 Feb 2011, 12:43
UK Border Agency: Good at making cash, crap at making decisions

Poor score for points-based immigration

The UK Border Agency is failing to show consistency when making decisions about intra-company transfers and is more focused on making money, the organisation's chief inspector has said. John Vine, the Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency, carried out his inspection between July and August 2010. He found …

Government 16 Feb 2011, 12:45
Steelseries World of Warcraft mouse and keyboard

Review Steampunk peripherals – how very 19th century

During the knuckle-grinding twilight hours spent levelling my Worgen warrior chick in World of Warcraft Cataclysm I had been pondering when I would get a go on some dedicated peripherals. Lucky for me Steelseries has seen fit to supply some goodies. WoW your friends? Steelseries' Cataclysm mouse First out the bag is the …

reghardware 16 Feb 2011, 13:00
Census threatens spies' cover

Judges, top cops also fear data debagging

The first casualty of next month’s 2011 census could be the secret identities of Britain’s top spies – not to mention the location of senior police officers, judges and intelligence eavesdroppers as well. This follows a release from the Official of National Statistics (ONS) last week, reminding all UK employees that they will …

Government 16 Feb 2011, 13:02
Watchdog turns a blind eye to Danish fu*king

Det er en fu*king lettelse, admits satellite broadcaster

The Advertising Standards Authority has turned a blind eye to Danish "fucking" after ruling the word isn't particularly offensive in the land of Carlsberg, bacon and Lego. The landmark decision comes in response to a single complaint about an advert for telecoms provider TDC, broadcast on TV3 Denmark, which contained the …

Bootnotes 16 Feb 2011, 13:07
US Secret Service tabletop training toytown goes virtual

No more going 'brrmm' and moving model cars about

You know the US Secret Service? Famously it isn't actually the secret service of the USA; that's the CIA. What the Secret Service mainly does is investigate financial and computer crimes, though it is much better known for providing bodyguards and security teams for the President, vice-president and other major US public figures …

Science 16 Feb 2011, 13:50
MS fesses on silent security fixes

Shh! We're huntin' wabbits

Microsoft has explained its rationale for quietly fixing some security vulnerabilities without issuing an associated bulletin. Such "silent updates" have been happening for years, but have escaped much notice outside the small community of reverse engineers. Normally the bugs in question are close relatives of disclosed …

Enterprise Security 16 Feb 2011, 13:53
Knife-waving knob nabs fat stack of jazz mags

Surrey town shocked by sharp-supported shag-sheet snatch

A small hamlet in Surrey has been left reeling after a knife-wielding thief stole a whole top shelf's load of adult magazines. The masked raider struck the shop cum post office in Gomshall on Tuesday afternoon, the Surrey Advertiser reports. He first demanded money from the shop keeper, who resisted until he was pushed with a …

Bootnotes 16 Feb 2011, 13:54
Nvidia pledges to pass water on Core 2 Duo this summer

MWC 2011 But will it come a codename cropper?

Two cores is not enough for chip maker Nvidia, so today it demo'd 'Project Kal-El' - aka Tegra 3 - its first quad-core processor for mobile devices. 'Kal-El' can drive a 2560 x 1600 display and run 1440p video smoothly on it. Not much call for that in a phone perhaps, but next year's tablets - imagine an iPad with a pixel …

reghardware 16 Feb 2011, 14:04
Telcos plan to capitalise on the data explosion

MWC Show me the money...

Barcelona is abuzz with predictions for the forthcoming explosion in mobile data, but more interesting are the predictions about how users are going to pay for it. The predictions for data traffic over the next few years range from 25 times (Ericsson) to 270 times (Hauwei), and operators are starting to look at more …

Telecoms 16 Feb 2011, 14:13
Storm brews over Chinese synchronised goldfish

Magic trick cruel, say animal rights groups

Chinese animal rights activists are up in arms over an impressive synchronised goldfish magic trick, due to hit TV screens tomorrow in one of the variety programmes marking the end of the new year holiday. According to the BBC, magician Fu Yandong releases half a dozen goldfish into a shallow tank, and "somehow gets them to …

Bootnotes 16 Feb 2011, 14:14
Nvidia four-core chip to power quad-res Apple iPad

Comment If only

Nvidia's move to go public on its four-core processor plans come, some readers will recall, just a month or so after it was claimed Apple's second-generation iPad will sport just such a chip, and weeks after it was suggested the iPad 3 will be out as early as the autumn. Nonsense, said some. Apple wouldn't release iPad 2 this …

reghardware 16 Feb 2011, 14:42
Sex offenders will get a review – after 15 years

It's the least government could do ... really, the least

Government ministers are bracing themselves for a storm of protest today, as the Home Secretary announced plans in the Commons to grant sex Offenders the right to appeal against a continued obligation to notify the authorities of their whereabouts. This follows a case in the UK Supreme Court last year in which two convicted …

Policing 16 Feb 2011, 15:14
Virgin tempts Brits with fee-free TiVo

1000 boxes up for grabs

Virgin Media has offered 1000 customers one of the first of its new TiVo boxes and a free annual subscription to the PVR service to go with it - possibly even free usage for life. Punters today started to receive special Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-style tickets in the post, each encouraging them to register online by 24 …

reghardware 16 Feb 2011, 15:36
Google undercuts Apple in publisher revenues dash

One Pass passes wind at Cupertino

Google has undercut Apple by releasing a web-based billing system for publishers, just one day after the Jobsian outfit unveiled its own 30 per cent subscription model. Mountain View has dubbed the service 'One Pass', but anyone currently attempting to sign up to it might hit an interwebulator roadblock: at time of writing, …

Applications 16 Feb 2011, 15:44
Airport face-scanning robots switched off

Updated: Can't tell arse from face

Facial recognition scanners at Manchester Airport have been switched off after an incident in which the robot guard let a couple through the gate even though they had swapped passports. An immigration officer stopped the couple after they got through the barrier. The UK Border Agency told the Beeb: "Following the incident, …

Government 16 Feb 2011, 15:48
Winamp advises forum password reset after mystery hack

Just a precaution, you understand

Winamp is advising users of its media player software who frequent its forum to change their passwords after a security breach resulted in the disclosure of thousands of email addresses. The breach only exposed users' email addresses, so the forum logon password change policy is purely a precaution, according to Winamp. The …

Enterprise Security 16 Feb 2011, 15:54
Gadget makes bombs, mines go off 'on average' 20m away

What's the value of σ here, exactly?

Colombian and Swiss boffins say they have developed a cunning electromagnetic device which can make landmines or terrorist bombs explode from a distance. Félix Vega and Nicolas Mora, doctoral students at the école polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, developed the bomb-triggering device as part of their …

Science 16 Feb 2011, 16:22
What sealed Nokia's fate?

It's the bureaucracy, stupid

"Nokia and Symbian was the last of the European software business, it's gone overnight. That's depressing," an industry veteran told me on Friday afternoon. As I wrote several years ago, Nokia was a company that could set global standards for consumer electronics, and do so from a cold and remote corner of Europe, using its …

Mobile 16 Feb 2011, 16:51
Sun spews out massive solar flare

Likely to switch on Northern Lights

The Britsh Geological Survey yesterday issued a space weather warning following the ejection of three substantial solar flares from the Sun's surface. On 13 February, "rapidly growing" sunspot 1158 let rip with an ominous-sounding "M6.6-category X-ray irradiance magnitude blast" - the strongest of the year to that date, and …

Space 16 Feb 2011, 17:17
Windows 0day could allow complete hijacking

Beware of malformed Browser Elections

Security researchers have warned of a new vulnerability afflicting older versions of Windows that could allow attackers to take complete control of machines running the operating systems. The flaw in “BowserWriteErrorLogEntry()” function within the Windows mrxsmb.sys driver “could be exploited by remote attackers or malicious …

Security 16 Feb 2011, 17:55
Apple rips mobile PC crown from HP

Fondleslabs included

Apple has vaulted to number one in worldwide mobile-computing market share in the fourth quarter of 2010 – leapfrogging both HP and Acer – thanks to the surging popularity of its "magical and revolutionary" fondleslab, the iPad. At least that's the word from one research outfit. "While we anticipate increased competition in …

Channel Register 16 Feb 2011, 18:50
RIM boss: 'Our PlayBook shames the You Know What'

MWC 2011 Unruly mob boos iPhone

Never has anyone spent so much time talking about Apple without saying the ‘A’ word than RIM CEO Jim Balsillie as he showed off the company's upcoming PlayBook tablet at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Playing to the gallery of operators – a congregation that booed when the iPhone 4 won ‘best handset’ at last night’s GSMA …

Mobile 16 Feb 2011, 19:28
Cloud to 'shrink channel'

The guy on the horse is called Famine

The cloud-computing boom is bad news for channel organisations, according to analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. At a media trends briefing in Sydney yesterday, analyst Arun Chandrasekaran said cloud computing squeezed resellers from both ends: software vendors offering SaaS were cutting into boxed application sales, while the …

Channel Register 16 Feb 2011, 20:17
Hostworks in NSW Food Authority win

Name-and-shame list gets new home

Broadcast Australia-owned Hostworks has won a government contract with The NSW Food Authority to manage digital media operations for its online presence. Hostworks will provide a portfolio of services to the Authority, including its utility computing platform, a service-comprising infrastructure, and management tools to ensure …

Business 16 Feb 2011, 20:18
Botnets claim 7-fold increase in victims

Are we winning the cybercrime war yet?

Botnets used in banking credential theft and other criminal enterprises made huge gains in 2010, claiming more than seven times as many victims as the previous year, according to a report issued by a security firm that follows the large networks of infected machines. The dramatic increase was fueled by improvements in DIY …

Security 16 Feb 2011, 21:15
Make it Intel: CSIRO needs new kit to replace supercomputer

Make it Linux, if you please

Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO (Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation), has issued a tender to replace its Silicon Graphics Altix 4700 systems with Linux x86-based kit. The tender, which closes on 1 March, seeks a system with double the capacity of the Altix, compatibility with existing …

HPC 16 Feb 2011, 22:07
IBM tweaks blade and network gear

Fat blade for databases

IBM this week made good on its promise of delivering another appliance server for the blade chassis bolt-on for its System zEnterprise 196 mainframe, while also slapping some labels and new prices on the top-of-rack switches that it controls through last year's acquisition of Blade Network Technologies. IBM is also offering a …

Servers 16 Feb 2011, 22:38
Oracle floats Java EE for cloud

Reform, regrets, and compromise?

Oracle has begun pushing another new version of Java while planning to shake up the group responsible for Java whose rules it has ignored in the past. The database giant says it's working with the Java Community Process (JCP) on a set of proposals for Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 7.0 that will make Java EE "relevant for …

Developer 16 Feb 2011, 23:45