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29th June 2011 Archive

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  • Mosman Council Website copied by Anonymous

    Wget would have worked nearly as well

    Australian democracy stubbornly fails to teeter on the brink of collapse this morning, after a bunch of script-kiddies mistakenly published a backup copy of a public Website in the delusional belief that they’d achieved yet another stunning coup in the “anti-sec” campaign. Anonymous’s self-aggrandizing but ultimately risible …

    Security 29 Jun 00:01

  • Microsoft hires Disney man for consumer crusade

    Corporate mission: to be less stodgy

    Microsoft has raided the Walt Disney Corporation to fill a position tasked with flogging Windows 8 to consumers buying PCs and tablets next year. The company appointed former Disney director of brand strategy Jay Victor as its own director of brand strategy, working in Microsoft's Central Marketing Group (CMG). Victor has been …

    Software 29 Jun 00:22

  • Vodafone to correct billing error

    Other ports? What other ports?

    Vodafone’s woes in Australia continue, with the mobile carrier notifying customers that it will be implementing a “correction” to its billing system. While users won’t get stung with retrospective charges, the change will see more usage counted against customers’ data caps. The changes apply to P2P apps, VoIP traffic, and “ …

    Mobile 29 Jun 00:30

  • Google field tests (yet another) Facebook rival

    Everyone is not your friend

    Google has introduced yet another another answer to Facebook, rolling out a social networking "field trial" dubbed "Google+". Mountain View describes the project as a means of connecting with people online more like you do "in real life". "We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software," reads a …

    Music and Media 29 Jun 00:30

  • ABC vs Sky News for $220m deal to beam Oz TV into Asia

    Conroy trumps Rudd as decision-maker

    Controversy has hit the tender process for a Au$220m 10-year contract to broadcast Australian television into Asia via the Australia Network. Australia's national broadcaster, ABC and Sky News are facing off for the tender, which was issued late last year by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Last week, however, the …

    Business 29 Jun 01:00

  • News Corp buys parenting blog for $45m

    Former Seek exec makes millions

    News Corp has acquired a slew of parenting-focused blogs for a reported AU$45m from online entrepreneur Katie May. The six-year-old online blog network Kidspot includes related entities Birth.com.au, Kidspot.co.nz, The Spot, SheSpot, Mums Say and Baby and Kids Market. May was formerly a marketing executive at Phillip Morris …

    Business 29 Jun 01:30

  • VMware whitewashes self in open source

    Open...and Shut The new Red Hat. And the new Red Hat rival

    It is perhaps not obvious why VMware, the paragon of proprietary software profits, has become such an open campaigner for open source, open standards, and open APIs. What has changed to make openness a sound business decision for a company that continues to mint money with its various closed-source products? I've spent a fair …

    Infrastructure 29 Jun 03:00

  • Boffins triple battery life with metal foam

    Power pores pump Lithium-ion

    Japanese researchers have developed a new material they estimate can triple the capacity of lithium-ion batteries. The breakthrough comes courtesy of Sumitomo Electric Industries, which has set up a "small-scale production line" at its Osaka Works R&D center to produce the battery-boosting material, which they call "Aluminum- …

    Science 29 Jun 04:13

  • Bidders crowd MySpace

    Going for a song

    MySpace’s new owner is expected to be announced this week as speculation suggests that News Corp is in final negotiations with two potential buyers, advertising network Specific Media and private equity firm Golden Gate Capital. The price tag for the failed social network has been mooted as US$35 million, a fraction of New …

    Business 29 Jun 04:20

  • History's first papal tweet launches Vatican website

    Primo pipio a Benedictus XVI

    His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has tweeted history's first papal tweet. With the touch of a finger – not, however, the one adorned with the Annulus Piscatoris – the Bishop of Rome tapped an iPad to tweet to the world that the Vatican's online news service, News.va, has launched. Lauded as "A Historic Tweet" by News.va, …

    Music and Media 29 Jun 05:00

  • LG Optimus Black

    Review No, not a new Harry Potter villain...

    LG distinguished itself recently by releasing the UK’s first smartphone with a dual-core processor. But while the Optimus 2X grabbed all the headlines, LG also delivered another high-end handset - single-core, this time - the Optimus Black. Optimus Black: are LG bosses JK Rowling wannabes? The name Black hardly …

    reghardware 29 Jun 06:00

  • The Royal Mail tells us about its private cloud projects

    Broadcast: 11am A tale of virtualisation

    Recently we brought you the feelgood tale "Royal Mail Moves to the Cloud" , in which intrepid Adrian Steel and his trusty sidekick Glyn Knaresborough migrated 30,000 desktops into the cumulus - and lived to tell Reg readers their heartwarming story. They were so good, we had to give them easter eggs and make them answer all the …

    SaaS 29 Jun 07:12

  • Technology investors urge US politicians to reject web-blocking law

    Tech backers say proposed copyright protection law will 'chill investment'

    A proposed US law that would block access to websites that host copyright-infringing material would "throttle innovation and hurt American competitiveness", a group of technology investors has told US legislators. US Congress members should reject the proposed new law, the proposed Protect IP Act (PIPA), the investors said in …

    Government 29 Jun 09:04

  • Google bolsters monopoly defence

    Gamekeeper turned poacher

    Google has hired ex-state prosecutor Jeffrey Blattner who helped run the Department of Justice case against Microsoft. Microsoft faced a long battle with the DoJ and individual US states on various anti-trust charges. Following the settlement in 2002 it had to put up with government oversight of its business for several years …

    Financial News 29 Jun 09:15

  • Universal wireless tech to gain HDMI

    60GHz WiGig to replace even more wires

    WiGig, the 60GHz wireless networking tech capable of delivering gigabit speeds, is to gain HDMI compatibility. The organisation behind the technology, the WiGig Alliance, last night announced the finalisation of the first release of its WiGig Bus Extension (WBE), a so-called "protocol adaption layer" that allows traffic from …

    reghardware 29 Jun 09:15

  • Draw and fold working circuitry with the silver-ink pen

    Surely the ultimate, wantable badge of the Übergeek

    Top boffins in Illinois have invented a truly joyous piece of kit: a pen full of silver ink which can be used to draw functioning electronic circuitry on paper, wood (including – of course – breadboards) and other suitable surfaces. "Pen-based printing allows one to construct electronic devices 'on-the-fly'," says Jennifer …

    PCs & Chips 29 Jun 09:20

  • Square gets $1bn valuation with $100m investment

    So hip it has trouble seeing over its pelvis

    Square has raised another $100m, giving the payment processor a valuation of $1bn and a new board member in the shape of Mary Meeker, a partner at investor KPCB. The $100m investment follows $27.5m that was dropped into the business in January, and the original $10m raised on the back of Twitter-founder Jack Dorsey's idea. …

    Financial News 29 Jun 09:41

  • Microsoft releases first service pack for Office 2010

    SP1 arrives as Office 365 pulls out of station

    Microsoft released Office 2010 service pack 1 earlier this week, while it was trying to capture the world's attention with its cloudy Office 365 effort. The company pushed out a private beta build of the code in November last year to a select bunch of testers through its MS Connect web portal. Office 2010 SP1 arrives just one …

    Applications 29 Jun 09:58

  • When hybrid clouds are a mixed blessing

    Aiming for the best of both worlds

    Cloud computing is a perfect fit for some, while others prefer the flexibility, security and certainty of in-house applications. Between the two are those looking to embrace the cloud without throwing their IT investments out with the bath water, and for them the hybrid cloud seems to be the way forward. What is involved and …

    Data Centre 29 Jun 10:00

  • Replication 101: How to make quick copies of your data

    Best to keep a spare set

    In art, a replicas does not have the same value as an original. But in computing, replicas are as perfect as the original if done fast enough. In a virtualised data centre where resources scale up and down according to demand, the failure of a storage array can drastically hinder responsiveness. Replication can protect you …

    Data Centre 29 Jun 10:00

  • OverDrive

    iOS App of the Week E-library lending comes to the Walled Garden

    Apple’s iBooks Store is as slick – and expensive – as you’d expect any Apple product to be, but it’s not the only source of digital books for the iPhone and iPad. Alongside apps from commercial rivals such as Amazon's Kindle, I recently discovered an app called OverDrive that gives you online access to the UK’s public lending …

    reghardware 29 Jun 10:00

  • Bloke ordered to remove offensive numberplate

    Telecoms boss says 'BO11 LUX' to DVLA

    A Chesterfield telecoms boss has told the DVLA to naff off after the agency accidentally sold him the entertaining numberplate "BO11 LUX", then ordered him to remove it from his car. Alan Clarke, 49, spunked £399 last November down at the agency's website to grab the 'nads-themed plate, and slapped it on his new Range Rover. …

    Bootnotes 29 Jun 10:36

  • Lenovo ThinkPad pad emerges

    Fondleslab folio combo

    Lenovo President Rory Read said earlier this month that the company is working on an Android-based ThinkPad tablet, and the gadget has now had its first outing, in Brazil. The 10.1in, 1280 x 800 tablet is based on Android 3.1 Honeycomb, local Portuguese-language site Ztop reports, running on an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core chip. …

    reghardware 29 Jun 10:39

  • Smut lure powers Tumblr phish scam

    Thousands hooked

    Security watchers are warning about a massive phishing attack against Tumblr users. Maliciously constructed web pages designed to look like legitimate Tumblr addresses have been poisoned with links that supposedly offer access to lurid content, providing prospective marks log in to the micro-blogging service. Users who fall …

    Enterprise Security 29 Jun 10:54

  • Oracle woos dealers with cash to stem sliding server sales

    Forget about IBM and HP, Oracle loves you

    Oracle is trying to stage a partner love-in by clarifying its policy on direct selling and setting in motion plans to pay resellers rebates for the first time in its history, but partners warn the devil will be in the implementation. The US tech monster engendered channel disillusionment on the day it completed the purchase of …

    Channel Register 29 Jun 11:02

  • Nokia 'thinnest smartphone ever' slips out

    Symbian Belle not the end?

    While Nokia's impetus is clearly with Windows Phones, the company insists Symbian is far from kaput, a sentiment supported by the seeming leak of several fresh Symbian smartphones, with one described as the thinnest of its kind ever. Snaps of another diddy smartphone, the Nokia N5, were upped by Excellular yesterday, showing …

    reghardware 29 Jun 11:04

  • Does Office365 keep its promises?

    Broadcast 13:00 BST Find out now

    The end of June marks the launch of Microsoft's biggest cloud initiative so far: Office 365. Some of you will have been playing with the beta, some of you will have it scheduled for the future, and some of you will see it implemented over your dead bodies. Today at 13:00 BST (8AM EST) we've got Penman Designs - who have been …

    SaaS 29 Jun 11:05

  • StorSimple stares down EMC and NetApp

    Comment Disruption afoot

    StorSimple's cloud front-end appliance technology is a massive disruptive threat to mainstream enterprise storage array providers. At a briefing in Sunnyvale we found out that StorSimple is about separating off the top two tiers from an enterprise storage array, the SSD and fast SAS disk drives and putting them in a 3U …

    Storage 29 Jun 11:09

  • Atlantis go for 8 July blast-off

    Green light for 'incredibly important' last shuttle mission

    Space shuttle Atlantis will blast off to the International Space Station on Friday, 8 July at 15:26 GMT, NASA has confirmed. Following a Flight Readiness Review, the agency has given a go for the last shuttle mission to deliver the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module to the orbiting outpost, bearing supplies and spares. …

    Space 29 Jun 11:12

  • Does it pay to be bad? Silver Lake's Skype sale fine print

    Don't be evil stupid

    We knew there had to be something evil when Microsoft was involved but in this story of the purchase of Skype it isn't actually the Evil Empire of Redmond, at least not according to Reuters journo Felix Salmon. He's branded Silver Lake, the seller, as being evil, rather than Ballmer's Ball Boys*. It's an issue of semantics. …

    Financial News 29 Jun 11:16

  • Virgin teases with TiVo iPad app snap

    Keeping mum on the details

    Virgin Media has revealed it's working on an iPad app that'll tap into its TiVo-designed DVR, Media TV. As proof, it 'leaked' this snap: It also invited hacks and bloggers to "speculate as you wish" based on the "few things in the image that may pique your interest". All we can see is a spotlights icon placed upside down …

    reghardware 29 Jun 11:22

  • Microsoft patent points to Skype snooping

    Just what the government ordered

    A new Microsoft patent points towards Skype becoming equipped for lawful interception, which could be important as the service grows up to challenge traditional telcos. The patent was filed back in 2009, but published* last week and picked up by Computerworld. Titled "Legal Intercept", it covers one way in which a VoIP-based …

    Government 29 Jun 11:41

  • Facebook claimant gets new lawyer

    All change for alleged half-owner

    Paul Ceglia, the man who claims half-ownership of Facebook, has got a new law firm after big name law firm DLA Piper withdrew from the case. He is now being represented by San Diego attorneys Jeff and Lake. These eminent ambulance-chasers replace the rather better known DLA Piper. The case has been labelled 'an outrageous, …

    Law 29 Jun 11:51

  • Ads watchdog bites Virgin Media over 'con' claims

    Dirty denigration

    The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld eight out of eight complaints brought by BT and Sky against rival service provider Virgin Media's 'Stop the Broadband Con' ad campaign. Virgin's plan was to highlight that ISPs don't deliver the broadband speeds they claim to offer, a result of the infamous 'up to' caveat …

    reghardware 29 Jun 11:53

  • Shadows of the Damned

    Review Resident devil

    The old saying goes that if you go to hell, you'll be far too busy shaking hands with friends to care. Well, not in Shadows of the Damned's hell, you won't. Your finger's never off the trigger long enough to shake with fear, let alone shake hands with anyone. Lighten up, mate Developed under the banner of Grasshopper …

    reghardware 29 Jun 12:00

  • Connectivity: the weakest link in cloud computing?

    Reg Research You give your view

    Cloud computing makes you so dependent on the network, and often even the public internet. So how can it be a sensible option? If the comms slow down, the user experience takes a dive. Lose the link completely, and you’re stuffed. We have been hearing such questions and objections from nay-sayers ever since commercial hosted …

    Infrastructure 29 Jun 12:00

  • Keenan on CRU, open data and the Royal Society

    UEA fired at feet - Royal Society replicated the experiment

    Doug Keenan, the statistician whose work highlighted severe flaws in the work of the Climatic Research Unit at East Anglia, has welcomed the Sunshine order to open up the station records. Scientists need the raw data to replicate temperature records, but CRU refused to release the data requested - a subset of weather station …

    Environment 29 Jun 12:25

  • DotGovLabs opens to public

    'Skunkworks' team crowdsources digital solutions to public service problems

    A development hub set up to find innovative digital solutions to public service problems has been made open to the public. DotGovLabs, run by the Cabinet Office's "skunkworks" team, can now be accessed by anyone, as opposed to by invite only. The project involves crowdsourcing ideas from innovators from outside government to …

    Government 29 Jun 12:27

  • EC chips in a third for €22.3m splurge on photonic networking

    I see the light, and the light is fast

    The European Commission is spending €7.43m on developing technologies for better fibre networking, with five member countries stumping up twice that for local funding. The projects were selected by the EC and the interested countries – Austria, Germany, Poland, the UK and Israel – with the split funding intended to get …

    Data Networking 29 Jun 12:30

  • London Olympics shop in Union Jack outrage

    Rebrands British standard, heads likely to roll

    We suspect that whoever is responsible for outsourcing this particular London Olympics commemorative keyring to a Chinese manufacturer may shortly be dancing the Tyburn jig, once Her Maj Liz II gets wind of just what has happened to the Union Jack*: Mercifully, this trio of "computer-generated Smurf" Wenlock, Lisa Simpson …

    Bootnotes 29 Jun 12:32

  • Cloudera promises 'Google-like' Big Data dream in minutes

    Updated Hadoop shop automates so you don't have to

    Cloudera has delivered a "substantial" update to its open source Hadoop distribution. On Wednesday, Cloudera rolled out Cloudera Enterprise 3.5, two months after shipping a major upgrade to its Hadoop distribution called Cloudera Distribution of Apache Hadoop (CDH) 3.0. Whereas CDH 3.0 expanded Cloudera's Hadoop stack from …

    Business 29 Jun 12:35

  • Police body defends controversial procurement deal

    Sprint ii framework predicted to save £18m over three years

    The National Policing Improvement Agency has defended its decision to force the Met in England and Wales to procure IT kit exclusively from the Sprint ii framework, citing cost savings in the two months since it was implemented. This will scupper any lingering hopes resellers had that the NPIA would backtrack on its …

    Channel Register 29 Jun 12:45

  • 90% of visitors declined ICO website's opt-out cookie

    Oh sir... it's only wafer thin... Just the one, sir...

    As we know, no one is on time in implementing the EU's cookies directive. Well, two countries managed to get their laws in place in time, the other 25 didn't bother. The UK has given everyone a year to comply, a year longer than we're supposed to have. Not fixing your website doesn't seem to be an option, given the £500,000 …

    Government 29 Jun 13:10

  • Budget airlines warned over 'hidden' debit card charges

    Surprise surcharge shocker

    UK consumer watchdogs are threatening enforcement action against airlines and other travel firms over allegedly misleading debit and credit card surcharging practices. The Office of Fair Trading said it was considering action under consumer protection laws in response to a complaint by consumer rights magazine Which?, which …

    Financial News 29 Jun 13:25

  • Oracle buying Ellison-backed Pillar Data

    Fills SAN hole in storage line-up

    Oracle is buying CEO Larry Ellison's privately-funded Pillar Data Systems storage company. Pillar was founded in 2001 by Mike Workman, its CEO, and funded by Ellison's own investment vehicle, Tako Ventures. It has devised, built and is selling its Axiom storage arrays, ones using a 3-box design, with storage Bricks, up to 8 …

    Storage 29 Jun 13:28

  • Canada buys Obama's reject Brit choppers for spare parts

    Lesson for the Royal Navy and RAF?

    Canada has snapped up a rejected fleet of US presidential helicopters, intending to break up the choppers for spare parts to keep its own search-and-rescue aircraft flying. The British forces may wish they had struck such a deal, as they too operate the "Merlin" copter in large numbers - and they too have severe difficulties in …

    Government 29 Jun 13:35

  • Boffin hacks Wi-Fi to double mobile gadget battery life

    Saving your beacon

    Want to significantly boost your smartphone's battery life? US Duke University researcher Justin Manweiler reckons he's worked out how. Manweiler's work centres on Wi-Fi, specifically when the phone - or tablet or laptop, for that matter - is operating within range of more than one wireless access point. If access points are …

    reghardware 29 Jun 13:40

  • Scientists print out solar cells using inkjet tech

    Sheet hot

    While 3D printers spew out house keys, ladies' swimwear and even compete with Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen department, the lowly inkjet has effectively been shoved aside. There's still some life in the old boy yet, though, after scientists used one to print solar cells. Boffins from Oregon State University (OSU) claim to have …

    reghardware 29 Jun 13:51

  • Sony bomby-batteries pre-fingered

    Market stitch-up mucho?

    The US Department of Justice is considering a full-blown investigation into Sony's rechargeable batteries. Sony told Bloomberg that it had received a request for information on 3 May but declined further comment. Such a request is normally part of early DoJ probing - short of formal and public investigation. Presumably the …

    PCs & Chips 29 Jun 14:19

  • Chinese gov demands less news in internet channels

    Seeks to achieve what western media does effortlessly

    The Chinese regulator has tightened guidelines for video services that get too close to reporting news, resulting in at least one service replacing its news channel with the more-usual internet inanity. The notice issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), explains that that the regulator intends …

    Government 29 Jun 14:38

  • Apigee beefs API service for payment card transactions

    PCI for API

    Apigee – a Silicon Valley startup offering various tools for managing and using APIs across the interwebs – has announced a new online service for providing financial-transaction APIs that comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Known as Apigee Enterprise Cloud PCI, the service is operated from …

    Developer 29 Jun 15:00

  • Cloud 'will spur server sales'

    Boxes worth $9.4bn by 2015, says analyst

    Investments in private and public clouds will spur worldwide server sales over the next four years to the tune of $9.4bn (£5.8bn), according to IDC. The bean counter estimates 1.2 million systems that underpin public cloud deployments will be shipped by 2015, a compound annual growth rate of 21 per cent and 570,000 servers to …

    Business 29 Jun 15:01

  • Anonymous smites Orlando after charity arrests

    Two fingers to Florida over homeless beef

    Hacktivist group Anonymous has taken to the streets in the Disney World resort town of Orlando, central Florida as part of a protest against the arrests of people supplying food to the homeless. The group also launched a denial of service attack against a local tourism website, orlandofloridaguide.com, as a reprisal for …

    Crime 29 Jun 15:14

  • Sony says virtual reality is virtually a reality

    'Got the power to do it,' says exec

    Amid the reshuffle of company positions, Sony has talked up the future of gaming. Don't worry, though, it's not another PS4 or Vita story, but the Holy Grail of home entertainment, virtual reality. Remember Sony's head mounted display which was on show at CES 2011? Well, apparently the tech is now evolved enough to deploy. …

    reghardware 29 Jun 15:19

  • Vodafone hikes PAYG call costs

    Inflation nation

    Vodafone has left its Pay As You Go customers with a sour taste in their mouths after increasing the cost of calls by up to £1.50 a minute. From the middle of next month, Vodafone punters on the Simply price plan will be stung with a hike. Calls to any network, standard landline, or voicemail, will jump four pence to 25p per …

    reghardware 29 Jun 15:31

  • Dwarfish two-legged dino 'was greatest head-butter ever'

    Glasgow not yet built at the time

    A bipedal dinosaur about the size of a German shepherd has been crowned the all-time headbutt champion of the world by Canadian boffins. Researchers in Alberta, following extensive analysis of the skulls of various species which are known to indulge in headbutting, say that the herbivorous pachycephalosaur Stegoceras validum …

    Biology 29 Jun 15:39

  • OpenOffice.org site goes offline, Oracle declines to comment

    OpenJDK portal also out of action...

    Two URLs including the OpenOffice.org domain owned by software giant Oracle are currently displaying error messages, but the Larry Ellison-run company is declining to explain why the sites are down. The openjdk.java.net is also currently failing to load. Both sites carry the same "Error 503 – service unavailable" message, and …

    Applications 29 Jun 15:50

  • Samsung runs to the ITC to seek Apple ban

    What, a litigation route left unexplored?

    Samsung has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission seeking to ban the import of Apple handsets which it claims are in breach of its patents. The filing relates to the ongoing patent spat between Samsung and Apple. The ITC has the power, if it thinks that a patent is being infringed, to prevent infringing …

    Mobile 29 Jun 16:04

  • Microsoft confirms departure of ID, access boss

    Exclusive Conrad Bayer becomes latest victim in big shake-up

    Microsoft's general manager for its troubled identity and access unit has left the company, The Register has learned. We've been badgering the software vendor since Kim Cameron quit his post at Redmond in May to find out what changes were afoot within the group. Microsoft has stuck to declining to tell us anything about the …

    Developer 29 Jun 16:08

  • Tag Heuer readies €4700 Froyo phone

    Ferrari price, Vauxhall spec

    Would you pay €4700 (£4222) for a smartphone running Android 2.2 Froyo? Posh watchmaker Tag Heuer hopes you will - it's working on just such a beast. There's a teaser on Tag Heuer's own website, but watch blog A Blog To Read has been mailed some snaps of the gadget and the specs. Tag has gone OTT with the rubber-backed …

    reghardware 29 Jun 16:26

  • Deduping the digital universe

    The great wall of iPads

    The EMC-sponsored IDC digital universe study (pdf) is masterful marketing, as great as Gartner's Magic Quadrant. The study is like a Hubble Space Telescope for the digital universe, showing us more detail every year into the bizarre world of digital data. It's Big Data big time, with 1.8 zettabytes, roughly the number of bite …

    Blocks and Files 29 Jun 17:00

  • Infosmack goes cloudwalking in China

    Ringside interview

    This marks the beginning of another new Infosmack podcast, the Infosmack Ringside podcast, hosted by Marc Farley. His guest on this show is Roger Strukhoff and they talk about the development of cloud infrastructures in China and the unique political and economic forces that are shaping the future of technology in the region …

    Infosmack 29 Jun 18:00

  • Key internet address server sees spike in traffic

    K-root down, but not (yet) out

    Traffic hitting a key internet address look-up server in Europe has spiked over the past 24 hours, reaching loads that are four times higher than normal. It's still not clear what's causing the sharp increase in queries to the K-root, which is maintained by the RIPE Coordination Network Centre. Engineers with the Netherlands- …

    Hosting 29 Jun 18:08

  • Oracle: 'Google owes $2.6bn in damages'

    Android number nailed

    Oracle wants $2.6bn in damages from Google in its case against Android, which Larry Ellison's company claims infringes Java patents it owns. Oracle claims the figure is based on the $200m per year that it claims Google stands to make from Android over a 10-year period. The number itself is the work of Boston University …

    Business 29 Jun 18:22

  • Intel plans Oak Trail successors for Windows 8 arrival

    "One-two chip-software punch" reported

    Microsoft may have given up on its Intel x86 monogamy, but Chipzilla reckons it will have new Atom chips ready in time for Windows 8 tablets next year. Intel is reported to be planning the arrival of the "Clover Trail" platform and its "Cloverview" Atom processor for Windows 8 so that they will be a "nice one-two chip-software …

    PCs & Chips 29 Jun 19:22

  • MapR unleashes two 'next-generation' Hadoop distros

    Well, one next-generation, and one free semi-next

    MapR Technologies – a Silicon Valley startup that spent the last two years revamping Hadoop for use in the enterprise – has unveiled two new ditributions of the distributed number-crunching platform. On Wednesday, amidst Yahoo!'s annual Hadoop Summit in Santa Clara, California, MapR announced a free offering known as the Map3 …

    Software 29 Jun 19:31

  • Middle man: Dell expands on growth plans

    Smart phones and tablets for biz

    Michael Dell is not been spending the same amount of time contemplating his navel as he did a few years back, immediately before the tech company that bears his name hit a rough patch and he returned to straighten things out. Dell and his top brass do, though, spend a lot of time thinking about the belly of the IT market – …

    Financial News 29 Jun 21:01

  • IBM preps mini-mainframe for launch

    The System z upgrade cycle continues

    The word on the street is that Big Blue is getting set to launch the so-called Business Class iteration of its System z mainframe, a midrange-class machine to complement last year's System zEnterprise 196 server. The announcement is set for some time in July, most likely in the first week after the 4th of July holiday in the …

    Servers 29 Jun 21:39

  • 'Indestructible' rootkit enslaves 4.5m PCs in 3 months

    Latest TDSS embraces p2p, antivirus

    One of the world's stealthiest pieces of malware infected more than 4.5 million PCs in just three months, making it possible for its authors to force keyloggers, adware, and other malicious programs on the compromised machines at any time. The TDSS rootkit burst on the scene in 2008 and quickly earned the begrudging respect of …

    Malware 29 Jun 21:54