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24th February 2011 Archive

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  • Security shocker: Android apps send private data in clear

    Facebook's persistent SSL isn't

    Cellphones running the Android operating system fail to encrypt data sent to and from Facebook and Google Calendar, shortcomings that could jeopardize hundreds of millions of users' privacy, a computer scientist says. In a simple exercise for his undergraduate security class, Rice University professor Dan Wallach connected a …

    Security 24 Feb 00:31

  • Man admits hacking into NASA, e-commerce servers

    $275,000 siphoned

    A Texas man has admitted hacking into servers owned by an e-commerce company and making off with about $275,000. Jeremey Parker of Houston also copped to charges of breaking into servers maintained by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and causing some $43,000 of damage. The hacking spree spanned a 10-month …

    Crime 24 Feb 01:18

  • iiNet wins AFACT appeal

    Freetards still not ISP’s responsibility, says Federal Court

    Another chapter in the iiNet versus the movie industry saga (colloquially known as “AFACT versus iiNet", after the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, the industry’s mouthpiece) is closed, with the Federal Court dismissing the industry’s appeal against the ISP. The plaintiffs (Roadshow Films and a number of other …

    Law 24 Feb 03:36

  • Apple: iTunes ascends to the heavens this spring

    $1bn data center turns on

    Apple appears poised to float a flurry of its services into the cloud, as its $1bn data center in North Carolina approaches its start-up date. That bit of news was dropped during the Q&A session at Apple's annual general meeting on Wednesday, according to AppleInsider, which was in attendance at the shareholders-only meeting …

    Cloud 24 Feb 04:45

  • Google opens Android front in Zuckerberg data war

    Nexus S contacts divorced from Facebook friends

    Google has opened up yet another front in its longstanding war with Facebook over who gets to know who your friends are, updating its Nexus S Android phone so that the handset's contacts application no longer dovetails with Mark Zuckerberg's social networking behemoth. Mountain View is still unhappy with Facebook's refusal to …

    ID 24 Feb 06:47

  • BT Home Hub 3 ADSL Wi-Fi router

    Review End of the line for signal box failure?

    Everything is wireless these days, it seems. It’s convenient, effective and liberating not to be tied down to a laptop or whatever with wires. But if you find your Wi-Fi behaves erratically, dropping connections or stuttering to a stop when you’re streaming video, say, you’ll know it’s not always plain sailing. And then when you …

    reghardware 24 Feb 07:00

  • Discovery poised for final mission

    Everything 'going beautifully' for launch tonight

    Space shuttle Discovery is poised to launch tonight on its 39th and final mission – a last trip to the International Space Station which will end a career stretching over 26 years. NASA last night retracted the rotating service structure which protects the venerable vehicle on Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A – ahead of …

    Space 24 Feb 09:09

  • QLogic: Software FCoE can't cut it

    Interview Intel indifference

    What does a HW Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) vendor think of Intel's software FCoE stack? We asked QLogic's Host Solutions Group through Henrik Hansen, its European marketing director. Intel has released an openly available Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) software stack so users can send and receive messages to Fibre …

    Cloud 24 Feb 10:04

  • Bloggable clickjacks its way into English

    Time to get trolleyed, tbh

    The interwebs and technology continue to exert their heavy influence on our beloved mother tongue, with the latest contributions to make the Oxford Dictionaries Online including “bloggable”, “clickjacking”, “cyberbullying”,“cybersecurity” and “scareware”. The inexorable rise of mobile phoneisms is well-represented, with newish …

    Bootnotes 24 Feb 10:07

  • New balesio appliance liposuctions fat out of files

    For Windows unstructured files

    Swiss Windows data reduction startup balesio has introduced an appliance to suck the fat out of unstructured Windows files. These include Office, Excel, PowerPoint and Sharepoint files and other unstructured – meaning not-database – files in the Windows PC and server world. The software, which balesio announced last week, …

    Storage 24 Feb 10:14

  • Doctors warn on patient data

    Who gets to read your medical file?

    Doctors' group the British Medical Association is warning the coalition government that it risks putting ease of access ahead of patient confidentiality as it reforms NHS IT systems. The BMA warned that the Health Bill provides various groups and bodies with access to your personal health file. The Secretary of State for …

    Government 24 Feb 10:34

  • Watching you, watching me: Video in the workplace

    Webcast The future of business communication?

    There have been many false dawns for video collaboration at work. We've all bought videoconferencing systems for the board that don't get used, struggled to find a use for the video cameras on our laptops and waited for the promise of video phones to be delivered. But do the technologies, the standards and the networks we have …

    Tech Panel 24 Feb 10:42

  • Voyeurs invited to watch space truck dock

    Live video as Johannes Kepler couples with ISS today

    Fans of live video matings can catch the docking of the Johannes Kepler space truck and the International Space Station's Zvezda module later this afternoon. The happy event is expected at 16:45 CET (15:45 GMT), and the European Space Agency will be streaming live footage from 15:15 GMT, right here. The 20-tonne Johannes …

    Space 24 Feb 10:43

  • Severe bug deadlocks BIND

    DNS lookup system peril

    Developers have published a fix to tackle a high-risk flaw in BIND, the widely used Domain Name Services (DNS) software. The flaw creates a potential mechanism for miscreants to crash systems running vulnerable version of the name-to-IP-address translation software. Left unaddressed, the vulnerability can provide a means to …

    Operating Systems 24 Feb 10:51

  • Firefox 4 squeezes onto phones

    Foxy ... Android ...

    Firefox 4 is now available for Android, able to sync bookmarks with its desktop cousin and offer a stable, if occasionally slow, browsing experience. Available as a free download for Nokia's Maemo-based N900, and in the Android Market for 2.0 and above, the new beta release of Firefox takes a long time to start up, and …

    Mobile 24 Feb 11:04

  • Former Microsoft exec barred from taking job at Salesforce

    US judge rules in favour of Redmond on non-compete contract

    Microsoft ex-worldwide government general manager Matt Miszewski has been told by a US judge that he can't take a similar job with cloud computing rival Salesforce.com. Judge Kimberly Prochnau ruled in Washington's King County Superior Court yesterday that Miszewski, who only joined Salesforce in January this year, was in " …

    Cloud 24 Feb 11:06

  • Conviction overturned for abuse images bought from bookshop

    The Waterstones defence

    A London judge has dismissed child pornography charges brought against a man who was prosecuted for possessing books bought from a bookshop. The judge said if the Crown Prosecution Service really believed these books contained "Level One" images of child sexual abuse then it should take action against publishers or retailers …

    Law 24 Feb 11:24

  • Court OK's Assange Sweden extradition, given 7 days to appeal

    WikiLeaker-in-chief to face questions in sex assault investigation

    WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is to be extradited to Sweden, following a ruling by a judge at South East London's Belmarsh magistrates court this morning. Assange has seven days to bring an appeal against the extradition to Sweden to face questions regarding two alleged sexual assaults in the country. Judge Howard Riddle …

    Law 24 Feb 11:30

  • 'Most stupid criminal ever' blew cover on Facebook

    Burglar posted gloating self-portrait from victim's own laptop

    A man who stole a laptop, then used it to post a gloating self-portrait of himself on the victim's Facebook page is challenging for the title of the world's thickest criminal. Last December, Rodney Knight Jr, 19, broke into the house of Washington Post journalist Marc Fisher and lifted "a bunch of stuff", including cash, a …

    Bootnotes 24 Feb 11:46

  • Capita to get fat on govt cuts

    2010 results were 'robust'

    Outsourcing giant Capita turned in "robust" results for 2010, despite a challenging business environment and a tightening of the government spending tap. Overall revenues were £1.7bn, up 2 per cent on the year. It reported "underlying profit before tax" of £364.2m, up 12 per cent on the year. This excludes items such as …

    Channel Register 24 Feb 12:01

  • IT pros get Google Apps certified

    Get online and get a badge

    Google is offering certification to IT professionals who can show their skills in flogging, installing and maintaining the search giant's online applications. First out of the blocks is the Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist badge for people who can move data to, configure and deploy Google Apps. The search and …

    Cloud 24 Feb 12:07

  • Facebook 'stalker tracker' tool just makes you a spammer

    Paranoia don't pay, see

    Scammers are attempting to tap into users' concerns about social network privacy with a tool that supposedly allows surfers to monitor who's stalking them on Facebook. The rogue applications supposedly offer information about who has viewed one's Facebook profile, and how many times it has been viewed. In reality the app, …

    ID 24 Feb 12:21

  • Samsung goes super slim with Notebook 9 series

    Tries to bite into Apple

    Samsung released a super-slim notebook today in a bid to compete with Apple's MacBook Air. The company also said it will increase laptop sales by 80 per cent in 2011. The 13.3in Notebook 9 Series is 16mm thick and weighs 1.3kg. It runs on a Core i5 processor and comes with a seven-hour battery life. Samsung says it will cost …

    reghardware 24 Feb 12:22

  • Electric cars not as 'green' as advertised

    Quelle surprise

    Electric cars may be cheaper to run, but they're as guilty for CO2 emissions as the internal combustion engine. So say consumer watchdog Which? researchers, who compared the energy consumed when charging electric cars to that of several efficient diesel vehicles and concluded there was minimal difference. For example, the …

    reghardware 24 Feb 12:59

  • Samsung Wave II Bada OS smartphone

    Review HD handset video editing on a budget

    The original Samsung Wave came out last year to general approval as a cut-price smartphone running on the company’s new Bada operating system – a curious development given Samsung’s own endorsement of Android. Testing the water: Samsung's Wave II However, Bada was always intended to offer smartphone functionality for a …

    reghardware 24 Feb 13:01

  • Operators to get new SMS 999 obligation

    hlp, I nd a dr qik

    Operators will soon have to support emergency text messaging, as Ofcom updates the universal service obligations to include number-porting within a day and a 24-month cap on contracts too. Ofcom has been testing 999 by text message for a while. The service was originally aimed at deaf people, and required handsets to be …

    Telecoms 24 Feb 13:22

  • John le Carré archives to rest at Bodleian Library

    Oxford to protect manuscripts, diaries from moles

    John le Carré has donated his literary archive to Oxford's Bodleian Library, delivering a crushing blow to archive-hungry American universities and a well-known East Anglian breeding ground for moles alike. Le Carré, or David Cornwell to use his real name, studied modern languages at Oxford before becoming a civil servant cum …

    Music and Media 24 Feb 13:25

  • Nintendo brings fibre to Elephant & Castle

    Kirby weaves his way into the UK's greyest area

    Nintendo is brightening up south London's Elephant & Castle today, with a colourful array of knitted fabrics to celebrate the release of Kirby's Epic Yarn for Wii. Recent YouGov research, commissioned by Nintendo, found that 32 per cent of Londoners voted Elephant & Castle the greyest area in the UK. This busy urban …

    reghardware 24 Feb 13:32

  • Survey sets out to pin down nation's pr0n habits

    Semiotics of smut sought for the good of us all

    A ground-breaking and timely survey of how individuals use porn was launched yesterday. The aim of this survey, available online at pornresearch.org, is to collect evidence around the everyday uses of pornography and find out how the people who use it feel it fits into their lives. Ultimately, the data may be used to challenge …

    Law 24 Feb 14:49

  • WikiLeaks boss labels UK extradition order a 'rubber stamping process'

    Can't be sent to US without UK approval though

    Julian Assange was awarded bail this afternoon, after his lawyers secured funds understood to total £200,000. The WikiLeaks founder learned earlier today that he would be extradited to Sweden to face questions regarding two alleged sexual assaults in the country, following a ruling by Judge Howard Riddle at Belmarsh …

    Law 24 Feb 15:13

  • Apple's MacBook Pros chucked out ahead of iPad 2

    5-4-3-2-1 – Thunderbolts are go

    Apple parked its most diehard fans on the horns of a dilemma this afternoon, as it launched a range of new Macbook Pros, just a week before it unveils the latest iPad. The updated 13-inch MacBook Pros are kitted out with Core i5 or Core i7 dual-core Intel chips running at up to 2.7GHz. They feature Intel HD Graphics 3000. The …

    PCs & Chips 24 Feb 15:27

  • Norway gov mulls blocking online gambling

    Probably not political, though

    The Norwegian government this week indicated it is considering blocking the ISP addresses of companies that offer gambling online. This follows a survey, attributed to the Norsk Tipping state gambling monopoly, suggesting that tough measures to curb online gambling already taken by the Norwegian government had failed: far from …

    Government 24 Feb 15:29

  • LightSquared squares off against GPS worriers

    Just what the competition ordered

    The FCC refused to rescind LightSquared's licence over potential GPS interference, so now the general public is being courted in the hope of a less well-informed decision. "GPS dead zones" are threatened if LightSquared is permitted to go through with its plan to deploy LTE technology in satellite frequencies. Reports, and …

    Mobile 24 Feb 15:46

  • Microsoft bricking lesson bodes badly for Elop's Brave New Nokia

    There are times when you need a bureaucracy...

    Not to heap more misery upon Nokia employees, but if you are a depressed Finnish employee, we recommend you stop reading now and turn to this adorable story about a rabbit adopting some kittens. What you are about to read throws Elop's challenge to the company into a whole new light. Earlier this week Microsoft issued, and …

    Mobile 24 Feb 16:02

  • Jester claims credit for knocking Westboro Baptist Church offline

    Tango down, he tweets

    Patriot hacker The Jester has claimed credit for denial of service attacks against the controversial Westboro Baptist Church. The self-proclaimed activist revealed in a twitter update that he had torn into the Church's website in protests against its pickets on the funerals of American servicemen with anti-gay signs. "www. …

    Crime 24 Feb 16:08

  • How to make power conversion less sucky

    And a whole lot cheaper

    A stealth startup company whose power-conversion tech could save billions through reductions in energy loss, has gone public, revealing why companies such as Google and Kleiner Perkins have invested heavily in its ambitious plans. Transphorm reduces the amount of power lost when energy is converted from one form to another. …

    reghardware 24 Feb 16:19

  • Intel throws Thunderbolt

    USB 3.0 smackdown!

    Now we know why Intel was dragging its feet with USB 3.0 support - it's got its own competing interconnect that's twice as fast in Thunderbolt (formerly known as Light Peak). Thunderbolt is a 10Gbit/s, bi-directional, dual channel, copper link containing an Intel controller chip and supporting two protocols: DisplayPort and …

    PCs & Chips 24 Feb 16:53

  • Phone seller pre-peddles white iPhone 4 for UNDER A GRAND!

    Free unicorn when you buy five or more

    A UK phone sales house has advertised white iPhone 4s, along with a cracking £919 price tag. As far as Apple's product range goes, the white iPhone 4 is somewhere between the Unicorn and the lost Ninth legion. We can't be sure if it's disappeared or never existed in the first place. However, if the Expansys website is …

    Mobile 24 Feb 16:54

  • SGI lays off 4 per cent of workforce

    HPC belt-tightening

    Supercomputer maker Silicon Graphics tightened its financial belt yesterday, announcing that it was laying off employees to make its fiscal 2011 numbers. In an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, the company said that its board of directors had authorized a workforce reduction on February 18 and …

    Financial News 24 Feb 17:11

  • AMD's Bulldozer cores to push to 3.5 GHz and beyond

    ISSCC Big bump in oomph per socket

    Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices lifted the veil a bit on the "Bulldozer" core module at the IEEE's International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, showing off the power savings and faster clock speeds that the new design will allow for its workstation and server processors. As is the case with most of the …

    Servers 24 Feb 17:28

  • Juniper flat-packs data centre networking

    One layer is all you need

    Juniper Networks has announced its QFabric "flat pack" single layer data centre networking scheme. Designed for virtualised data centres heavy on virtual servers, QFabric is the fruit of Juniper's Project Stratus. Network-using devices connect to the QFabric via QF/Node products, the first one being the QFX3500. These edge …

    Data Networking 24 Feb 17:29

  • Space truck docks with ISS

    Johannes Kepler mated with orbiting outpost

    European space truck the Johannes Kepler successfully docked with the International Space Station this afternoon. The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) made initial contact with the orbiting outpost at 15:58 GMT without the need for human intervention, and is now clamped to Russia’s Zvezda module. It is carrying 4,534kg of …

    Space 24 Feb 17:32

  • Lenovo flaunts ThinkPad with 30 hour battery life

    Charge of the Light Brigade

    Lenovo has unveiled the latest range of ThinkPads, which includes the T420s - a lightweight notebook with a battery life of up to 30 hours. The PC maker revealed six models on Tuesday: the T420s, T420, T520, L420, L520 and W520. All come with better power management and voice calling features, with the latter boosted by dual …

    reghardware 24 Feb 17:44

  • Apple brings multi-touch, full-disk crypto to latest OS X

    10.7 Lion unleashed to developers

    Apple has released a developer version of its next-generation Mac operating system, which the company says brings many of the features found in the iPad to its popular line of desktop and laptop computers. The preview of Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, is available from the Mac App Store now to members of the Mac Developer Program …

    Operating Systems 24 Feb 19:19

  • Fujitsu relieves Ballmer's iPad pressure

    Tablets for businesses, not for fun

    Pressed by investors over the iPad's success, Steve Ballmer last year promised Microsoft's response was coming and - later - that it would shame the iPad. It became clear, though, the army of Windows pads being raised wouldn't deploy in full force until 2011, with the delivery of Intel's Oak Trail generation of Atom chips. …

    PCs & Chips 24 Feb 19:29

  • Reactions to iiNet's copyright win

    ISPs hope vainly that this is the end of the fight

    It may have taken A$6.5 million, but iiNet has secured a landmark court decision defending its position against a consortium of movie studios and AFACT, that is should not be held responsible for the illegal downloading of filmed content by its users. The Australian Internet industry has widely welcomed the Federal Court …

    Law 24 Feb 20:38

  • Intel: 'PC makers took the light out of Light Peak'

    Thunderbolt will go optical. One day

    Intel originally designed its Light Peak interconnect as an optical technology that would replace all other PC connections, handling everything from LAN to storage devices to monitors. But after the company unveiled it in 2009, PC manufacturers called for a cheaper electrical incarnation – i.e. non-optical – and due to other …

    PCs & Chips 24 Feb 21:09

  • Thunderbolt: A new way to hack Macs

    Blind trust turned on by default

    The 10Gbit/s interconnect Apple introduced Thursday in a new line of Macbook Pros may or may not change the way the world connects external hard drives and other peripherals to their computers. But it's safe to say the newfangled copper link likely contains the same security weakness that for years has accompanied another Mac …

    Security 24 Feb 22:15

  • Google wheels (another) Trojan App inside Microsoft Office

    Google Office joins Chrome IE and Gmail Outlook

    Google has officially released its tool for turning Microsoft Office into an online Google collaboration machine. In late November, Mountain View introduced a beta version of Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, an Office plugin that lets users collaborate on Microsoft files via Google's backend infrastructure. Now, the …

    Cloud 24 Feb 22:54