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22nd April 2011 Archive

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  • No, iPhone location tracking isn't harmless and here's why

    Analysis Secret Apple database already being tapped by cops

    It didn't take long for the blogosphere to pooh pooh research presented on Wednesday that detailed a file in Apple iPhones and iPads unknown to the vast majority of its users that stored a long list of their time-stamped locations, sometimes with alarming detail. On Thursday, a forensics expert who sells software to law …

    ID 22 Apr 00:51

  • Brit outfit rolls own virtual server appliances

    Rack and roll

    A British consulting company that specializes in server virtualization was so frustrated by the mismatch between general purpose x64-based servers and what the popular hypervisors from VMware and Citrix Systems required that it has rejigged itself into a hardware vendor pushing what it calls virtual machine appliances. Virtual …

    Virtualization 22 Apr 05:00

  • Portal 2

    Review No peace to the puzzles

    “The best solution to a problem,” says GLaDOS, “is usually the easiest one.” She's right, of course. But then she always is. Portal players know all too well how inadvisable it is to disagree with Aperture Science's sociopathic AI caretaker, but it's surprising how often her maxim proves true during the sequel to Valve's much- …

    reghardware 22 Apr 06:00

  • Floating website, hidden 'get' bills

    WAR on the Cloud, Part 2 Damon is 4 cents short of a free and cloudy solution

    In my last piece, I took the first steps in moving part of my own homegrown website's "cloud" into Amazon's commodity AWS cloud, using the pretty front-end in Eclipse. That left me with some hope (it all worked quite well technically) and a few worries (I couldn't see how to avoid unlimited "ambush bills"). This time I tie up …

    Platform 22 Apr 08:00

  • How to build a national cellular wireless network for £50m

    It's easy when all your customers are machines

    A team of 20 developers in Cambridge wants to build a new radio network covering the entire country, but plans to cut costs by only offering connectivity to silicon-based customers. The team has set up a company called Neul with plans to make use of unused TV frequencies ("white spaces"), and is busy designing base stations …

    Mobile 22 Apr 08:00

  • BOFH: People get annoyed when you try to debug them

    Episode 4 Conceal your special gift and do not harness it until the time of the Gathering

    "You know what I hate?" the PFY asks one morning, looking up from a sheaf of bright pink pages. "Oooh!" I say "I know this! Short people. Short MEN to be more precise. Short men in authority positions. Short men in authority positions and Mac users. Short men in authority, Mac users and the fact that NO programmable remote …

    BOFH 22 Apr 10:00

  • 'Real' JavaScript benchmark topped by...Microsoft

    Google Chrome dead last

    Douglas Crockford - the man who "discovered" JSON and a senior JavaScript architect at Yahoo! – has released a new benchmark designed to test the "actual" performance of the major web browsers on "real" JavaScript applications. And according to the test, the browser with the speediest JavaScript engine...is not Google Chrome. …

    Developer 22 Apr 17:21

  • Samsung countersues Apple on new ground

    The best defense is a good offense

    Samsung has countersued Apple in response to the raft of patent- and trademark-infringment lawsuits that Cupertino launched against it earlier this week. But the Korean electronics giant isn't fighting back against Apple's allegations that it appropriated the iPhone and iPad's look-and-feel. Instead, it's mounting its …

    Mobile 22 Apr 18:57

  • Amazon cloud still on fritz after 36 hours

    'All hands on deck'

    Amazon's cloud is still on the fritz, a day and a half after the company first reported connection problems, latency issues, and increased error rates across the service. But on Friday morning, the company said that full service should be restored for a "majority" of users by the afternoon Pacific time. "We continue to see …

    Infrastructure 22 Apr 21:20

  • Google location tracking can invade privacy, hackers say

    Unique IDs + router addresses = potential abuse

    If you've got a Wi-Fi network, chances are Google has used its top-selling Android mobile operating system to store your router's precise location and broadcast it for all the world to see. Google has been compiling the publicly accessible database of router locations in its quest to build a service, a la Skyhook, that …

    ID 22 Apr 21:25

  • ET, phone back: Alien quest seeks earthling coders

    Open source joins Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence

    It was the year of Star Wars and Close Encounters, and in the flatlands of Ohio, a man stumbled upon something possibly alien in origin. On August 17, 1977, Ohio State University astronomer Jerry Ehman was sitting at his kitchen table, pouring over pages of printouts from the SETI Project's Big Ear radio telescope's computers …

    Infrastructure 22 Apr 22:08

  • Greenpeace spies soot lining in cloud data centers

    Cough computing

    Cloud computing may have a silver lining, but it's apparently covered in soot. The silver lining is that public clouds compel companies to share servers, storage, and networks and run fewer machines at higher utilization rates than they would if they bought capacity individually. But for environmental watchdog Greenpeace …

    Infrastructure 22 Apr 22:29