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30th June 2011 Archive

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  • Digital content faces rating scrutiny

    Classification reforms usher in red tape for new media

    Apps could soon be subject to the same classification regulation as film and video games in Australia, if a new draft of reforms from the committee reviewing the National Classification Scheme is accepted. Coming from a Liberal party-dominated committee, the recommendations carry more than a little irony, given that last week …

    Government 30 Jun 2011, 00:30

  • Atom smasher claims Hadoop cloud migration victory

    Big-data love in the datacenter

    Commodity servers running big CPUs with fat cores are not necessarily the best at running the Hadoop. Just ask the bunch of customers who have bought Atom-smasher micro servers from SeaMicro to crunch their big-data workloads. SeaMicro has been peddling its SM10000-64 micro server, based on Intel's dual-core, 64-bit Atom N570 …

    Servers 30 Jun 2011, 00:36

  • Twitter co-founder quits day job

    Stone reunites with Williams for Obvious start-ups

    The last standing full-time Twitter founder, Biz Stone, is leaving the house of Tweets to return to the incubator hub that originally spawned the micro-blogging empire. Stone will re-team with Twitter co-founder Evan Williams and former Twitter VP Jason Goldman in their original venture, the Obvious Corporation. Stone has not …

    Business 30 Jun 2011, 01:00

  • AppSense in HP tie-up

    Win pushes UK vendor towards NASDAQ future

    Hewlett-Packard is to make the AppSense user virtualization platform a “core part” of its Client Virtualization Reference Architecture, in a tie-up announced today. The agreement puts the AppSense technologies alongside those from Microsoft, VMWare and Citrix in HPs suite – and gives AppSense access to HP’s markets worldwide …

    Virtualization 30 Jun 2011, 02:30

  • Chess crown stripped in plagiarism furore

    Computer champion copied code

    Knights and pawns are being brandished in the rarified world of computer chess, with program Rybka and its developer Vasik Rajlich stripped of the world title on a charge of plagiarism. According to Chessvibes, the controversy has been simmering since February this year, when Rybka lost in a game against a rival program, …

    Bootnotes 30 Jun 2011, 02:31

  • CA coughs up $330m in cash for apps dev house

    Interactive TKO borged

    Software conglomerate CA Technologies has borged another company in its ongoing effort to make its wares relevant in an increasingly virtual and cloudy IT world. CA, formerly known as Computer Associates, has paid a whopping $330m in cash to acquire Interactive TKO, an application development and lifecycle management tool …

    Financial News 30 Jun 2011, 02:46

  • Microsoft floats 'site-ready' IE10 preview

    Firefox kerfuffle rolls on

    Microsoft has released another preview version of Internet Explorer 10, and it has used the occasion to once again explain how it loves the enterprise more than Firefox. On Wednesday, the company released the second platform preview of IE 10 featuring what it called the "HTML5 engine" behind recent demos of the browser on …

    Applications 30 Jun 2011, 03:10

  • IBM boffins claim phase change memory breakthrough

    Catch my drift

    Fast and reliable non-volatile memory of some sort that will replace flash memory is the dream of more than a few semiconductor researchers and chip makers. And boffins at IBM Research in Zurich, Switzerland, think they have come up with a new encoding technique that will allow for multi-level cell (MLC) phase change memory to …

    Hardware 30 Jun 2011, 04:26

  • Hackers steal personal data of military, gov personnel

    Please don't feed the spear phishers

    Hackers breached the security of a defense industry news website and stole sensitive subscriber information that could be used in attacks targeting the US military and its contractors. Gannet Co., publisher of DefenseNews, disclosed the bad news in an advisory published Monday. Data exposed included subscribers' first and last …

    Security 30 Jun 2011, 05:03

  • Digital Rupert’s bumper $545m loss

    MySpace sold to Specific Media with Timberlake as star investor

    The very expensive, sorry tale of how to turn a cool digital business into a boring corporate leper has ended with a painful US$545 million loss for News Corp and perhaps a chance at resurrection for MySpace. Following a prolonged sale process the social network has been sold for a bargain $35 million, to digital ad network …

    Business 30 Jun 2011, 05:10

  • Yahoo! tech boss gazes beyond Hadoop

    MapReduce goes only so fast

    Hadoop underpins everything from Facebook to eBay to Yahoo!, but it's not designed for online applications. Based on Google MapReduce – the distributed software platform that was long used to build the search giant's web index – Hadoop was designed for off-line data-crunching. It's used to feed online services – to, say, build …

    Business 30 Jun 2011, 05:16

  • Koreans visit Tesco through subway hoardings

    Fresh fruit and veg from the underground

    Tesco is causing quite a stir in South Korea with a virtual shopping experience that encourages customers to scan billboards on the subway. The company, which is known as HomePlus in South Korea, has started filling subway stations with virtual store shelves - billboards of products with QR codes attached. Shoppers simply scan …

    Phones 30 Jun 2011, 06:00

  • Lenovo Thinkpad X220T 12.5in tablet PC

    Review A fondleslab too far?

    A recent business profile of Lenovo in a national newspaper made an interesting assertion. "Anyone you spot on the Tube using a ThinkPad has almost certainly obtained it from their employer," claimed the reporter. Tablet with a twist: Lenovo's ThinkPad X220T Well, discerning readers know this isn’t true. The build quality, …

    Tablets 30 Jun 2011, 06:05

  • Oracle's Java plan trapped in last century

    Clouds leave Ellison behind

    Oracle's roadmap for Javas 7 and 8 shows it recognizes the world is pulling away and leaving Java with last-century concepts and ideals. Java 7 is meant to set the foundation for a cloud-friendly platform, but the real cloud-ready features won't make an appearance until Java 8 in 2013 at the earliest. While Larry and company …

    Developer 30 Jun 2011, 06:09

  • Lloyds aims 15,000 job cuts at IT and back office

    Banking group to withdraw from 15 countries

    LloydsTSB is cutting another 15,000 jobs but will not be shutting branches as part of its strategic review. The main targets will be back office staff, a press officer confirmed but was unable to give further details. It is not shutting branches except as part of Project Verde – the EU-mandated scheme to sell off 632 branches …

    Business 30 Jun 2011, 08:38

  • 17 flock to see Gordon Ramsay turkey

    Love's Kitchen takes £121 in opening week

    Sweary chef Gordon Ramsay looks a likely Razzie candidate after his film debut attracted just 17 cinemagoers in its opening week. Romcom Love's Kitchen opened in the UK last Friday, and the Sun reckons it took a lean 121 quid in five cinemas, or "£1 more than the cost of a meal at one of his posh restaurants". The movie …

    Bootnotes 30 Jun 2011, 08:46

  • Efficiency and Reform Group 'has saved over £3bn'

    It's all about understanding

    The Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG) has helped to save government £3bn-£4bn over the past few months, its lead official has told a group of MPs. Ian Watmore, the government's chief operating officer, was responding to questions at parliament's public accounts committee hearing on the efficiency landscape. He said that, while …

    Government 30 Jun 2011, 09:24

  • How that Oracle and Pillar earn-out really works

    Comment Losses need reversing

    Pillar investors will only receive cash from Oracle for the Pillar acquisition if Pillar revenues in 2014 exceed net losses from 2011 to 2014. The acquisition is structured so Oracle boss Larry Ellison's half billion dollar loan to Pillar is turned into preferred stock with other investors holding common stock. Larry gets 1.5 …

    Storage 30 Jun 2011, 09:25

  • German vulture detective hits turbulence

    Bird-brained search-and-rescue scavenger

    German police in Lower Saxony hoping to train a vulture to seek out dead bodies are having issues with the bird's training. Sherlock is one of team of three turkey vultures whom police had hoped to turn into a flying CSI unit. The plan was that they'd be fitted with GPS trackers so police could follow him when he swooped into …

    Bootnotes 30 Jun 2011, 09:26

  • HP TouchPad 9.7in WebOS tablet

    Hands On The true alternative to Android and Apple?

    HP has learned from Apple. Not simply by mimicking - or judging it to be the correct size in any case - the iPad's 9.7in screen defined dimensions, but by avoiding the obvious operating system: Android. Hardware being what it is, the only true way to differentiate your product is the user experience, and WebOS allows - as iOS …

    Tablets 30 Jun 2011, 09:42

  • Everything is converging on the network

    Keep traffic moving

    According to my dictionary (a book, not one of those new-fangled online jobs), convergence is “the act of coming together”. In networking terms that originally meant voice over IP technology carrying circuit-switched telephone traffic over the same wiring as packet-switched data. More recently, however, it has evolved to mean …

    Data Center 30 Jun 2011, 10:00

  • Spikes in demand get lost in the cloud

    Which service is best?

    One approach to smoothing out application demand is a load-balanced server farm. Another is virtualisation to bring extra resources to bear when needed. But what about public cloud services? Surely they could be used to mop up excess demand? More disk space, more bandwidth? Certainly, how would you like to pay? The answer …

    Data Center 30 Jun 2011, 10:00

  • Wholesaler swallows VADition whole

    Exclusive Networks Group pats belly

    Distie veterans Neil Ledger and Ian Morris have flogged VADition to fellow security and networking wholesaler Exclusive Networks Group for an undisclosed sum. A sale of the Hampshire-based business follows on from French-owned Exclusive's acquisition of security distributor Arc Technology in 2009. "This is a strategic …

    The Channel 30 Jun 2011, 10:05

  • Apple's white MacBook drought set to flip to gush

    Entry-level device to flood European channels next week

    The constraint on channel bully boy Apple's low-end white MacBook is set to end next week, according to well-placed sources in the vendor's supply chain. This scotches rumours that the severe shortages were caused by the US giant running down production of the $999 notebook signalling the pending arrival of the next generation …

    Laptops 30 Jun 2011, 10:06

  • Lego lover builds big Barad-dûr replica

    Tower record?

    Some folk have got too much time on their hands. Then again, sometimes those people deserve to be applauded for their efforts. Like this guy, a dedicated Lego fanatic who whiled away the final months of 2010 building this incredibly detailed Barad-dûr replica out of roughly 50,000 Lego blocks. Source: Kevin J Walter Its …

    Hardware 30 Jun 2011, 10:13

  • Olympus rewrites Pen system camera specs

    Mini, Lite and flagship models announced

    Olympus has taken the wraps off three new members of its micro four-thirds system camera family, Pen. The additions include the Pen Mini "the world’s smallest and lightest system camera", according to Olympus. A challenger for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3 then. Also dubbed the E-PM1, the Mini is aimed at folk after a point-and- …

    Hardware 30 Jun 2011, 10:24

  • Brainscan breakthrough: Working robot limbs come closer

    Brains in jars controlling cyber colossi, too, of course

    Canadian brain boffins are chuffed to announce a new breakthrough in the tricky business of machine mind-reading: they have developed a method of working out from brain scans what physical action a person is about to carry out – before he or she can actually do it. "This is a considerable step forward in our understanding of …

    Science 30 Jun 2011, 10:25

  • Feds on trail of LulzSec raid Ohio house

    And Lulzers turn on m_nerva

    The international investigation into the notorious LulzSec hacking crew has moved from the UK to the US Midwest with the search of a house in Hamilton, Ohio by FBI agents. Feds searched the house without making any arrests – at least initially – according to local media reports (here and here). It is unclear whether …

    Security 30 Jun 2011, 10:26

  • The Cube: Apple's daftest, strangest romance

    This Old Box Ten years on, we remember the bonkers box

    Ten years ago on Sunday, Apple called it quits on one of its oddest products ever, the G4 Cube. The Cube was a strange and wonderful machine that continues to fascinate today - but it was widely perceived to have failed. Some people thoroughly enjoyed the failure, thinking it served Apple right. Dull people will always cheer …

    Vintage 30 Jun 2011, 10:40

  • New plan: Send humans into space, keep the robots on Earth

    Usual space exploration model topsy-turvinated by ESA

    Barring certain exceptions, as everyone knows, the usual way for humanity to explore other planets or astronomical bodies is that we send out sophisticated robots to have a look round, controlled by teams of humans here on Earth. Vorsprung durch Robotertechnik But that's boring, according to bigwigs at the European Space …

    Science 30 Jun 2011, 11:41

  • Skype brings cross-platform video to Android

    No more pretending to be in the office

    Skype's Android client now supports cross-platform video calling, so mobile users can see desktop users and no one has to feel jealous of Apple's FaceTime any more. The new capability is limited to four models of Android handset, the Desire S, Xperia Neo and Pro and (of course) the Nexus S, but if you have one of those phones …

    Mobile 30 Jun 2011, 11:43

  • Patriot hackers disrupt al-Qaeda websites

    Ellen Degeneres teaches bombers to bake cupcakes

    Patriot hackers have interfered with al Qaeda's ability to issue videos and messages to supporters via a series of apparently coordinated denial of service attacks against Jihadist websites. No one has claimed responsibility for the reportedly sophisticated denial of service attacks. Denial of service attacks, at their most …

    Government 30 Jun 2011, 11:45

  • Strike hits police, ICO and the Rev

    HMRC not looking good either

    The Information Commissioner's Office has had to shut its helpline today because of industrial action. Nine out of ten Metropolitan Police workers who deal with public enquiries are also out on strike. Police officers are covering the service, the Met said. A spokeswoman for the ICO said the helpline normally deals with …

    Government 30 Jun 2011, 11:48

  • Feds shut down poker site

    With a bit of help from wee Channel Island

    One of the world's most successful poker sites, FullTiltPoker.com, has been shut down by the FBI. Back in April, the Feds arrested 11 people for falling foul of US internet gambling laws, including the three founders of the web's biggest such sites. The site itself has now been shut. Viewing from the UK shows a simple system …

    Financial News 30 Jun 2011, 11:59

  • Pricey Apple Thunderbolt cable inner chippery exposed

    40 quid for wires... and 12 chips

    Want to know why Apple is charging £39 - $50 in the US - for its Thunderbolt cable? For once it's not entirely the company's price-high-for-fanboys policy - the cable is an active transmitter. Apple's Thunderbolt cable: on the outside... The kit disassemblers at iFixit.com have found that the cable, which connects Macs to …

    Hardware 30 Jun 2011, 12:02

  • T-Mobile to tout 'truly unlimited' mobile data plan

    Surf's up

    T-Mobile has made a complete Scrooge-around on its mobile data allowances, announcing a "truly unlimited" deal for new and existing customers. Over the summer, new punters, or those eligible for upgrade, can take up the offer if the take out a two-year contract of £25.54 or more. Those who are not yet eligible for the upgrade …

    Mobile 30 Jun 2011, 12:13

  • Star Wars fans want Sony sued over game shutdown

    Fear of loss, a path to the dark side is

    Fans of the LucasArts' MMOG, Star Wars Galaxies, are so upset by Sony Online Entertainment's decision to axe the title this December, that they claim they're planning to file a lawsuit. Star Wars Galaxies was launched in 2003 and after several disliked updates, started to lose its popularity. Now, with the contract almost up, …

    Games 30 Jun 2011, 12:29

  • The freakonomics of smut: Does it actually cause rape?

    Comment Plenty of reasons for thugs never to leave the house

    Does porn cause rape? It could do: rape fantasies causing porn is a certainty. While there are many who would argue that porn causes rape, what we would really like to know is whether it is true. There's not much actual evidence that it does, that seeing graphic representations of sex, even violent sex, increases the acting …

    Law 30 Jun 2011, 12:42

  • Radio society responds to radio selloff

    Difficult details, dodgy premise

    The RSGB reckons that 500MHz of spectrum, which the Ministry of Fun wants to see sold off by 2020, isn't empty, and hasn't much application anyway. In an open response to the Ministry's proposals, which explain how it plans to find huge swaths of spectrum with which to meet the insatiable demand for more bandwidth, the Radio …

    Broadband 30 Jun 2011, 12:46

  • Spam volumes show massive drop - but why?

    Botnets switched to denial of service duties. Yay!

    Spam levels have dropped massively in recent months, though researchers fear this is simply because botnet operators have switched their attention to more lucrative activities. Junk mail volumes - which reached 90 per cent last summer - are down to 75 per cent this summer, net security firm Symantec reports. The 15 percentage …

    Security 30 Jun 2011, 12:52

  • Gov piles pressure on News Corp in BSkyB bid

    We're watching you, matey

    An independent director will have to sit in on Sky News board meetings when editorial decisions are being made if News Corporation's bid to takeover BSkyB is successful and the news provider is spun off into a separate company, the Government said today. The independent director has to have senior editorial or journalistic …

    Media 30 Jun 2011, 13:12

  • Solix offers application euthanasia services

    Application morticians, when apps become ExAPPS

    Applications come to their end of life and have to be retired along with their data; there's no point in backing up data from dead apps. Solix is a euthanasia expert for moribund applications. At a briefing in Santa Clara, we learned that the company was founded in 2002 by CEO Sai Gundavelli who came from Cisco. There are …

    Storage 30 Jun 2011, 13:25

  • Microsoft: Office 365 outages 'will' happen

    Installs cash-back scheme to counter crappiness

    Microsoft is confident that Office 365 – its second generation cloud service – will prove more resilient than the Business Productivity Online Suite but it cannot guarantee uptime. BPOS gained a pretty bad rep due to a series of outages, the most recent coming just last week, and users were praying that the new cloud iteration …

    Applications 30 Jun 2011, 13:59

  • Wimbledon grunters turned down by viewers

    Served over the 'net

    If you've avoided the bustle of public strikes by putting your feet up in front of the telly, you'll undoubtedly spend your day surrounded by grunts of a different kind. Wimbledon is in full swing and the ladies are in action again today, battling it out for the trophy of who can yell the loudest. Now viewers can adjust the …

    Hardware 30 Jun 2011, 14:18

  • Big Blue offers staff Apples

    Hey, You! It's Macs not ThinkPads

    IBMers used to be famous for filing lots of patents and for uniforms of dark blue suits and white shirts, but an internal email seen by the Reg suggests black turtle-necks, faded jeans and berets might be more in order now. Admittedly IBM flogged off its PC business to Lenovo some time ago, but we didn't expect them to so …

    Hardware 30 Jun 2011, 14:25

  • Reg Hardware launches review looker-upper

    Site News Catch up on your kit-test reading

    You asked for a more accessible read-out of the reviews published by Reg Hardware - and you've now got it. Reg Hardware now sports a dedicated Reviews section. Take a look and you'll see we've pulled out the six most recent reviews in each of our product channels, complete with roll-over pop-ups giving you our verdict. Just …

    Site News 30 Jun 2011, 14:30

  • Amazon throws tax hissy-fit, dumps California affiliates

    Taxes are for the little people. And Wal-Mart...

    Amazon and Overstock have severed their agreements with affiliates based in California, in an overnight response to the imposition of a sales tax for online retailers of physical goods. Online retailers are exempt from sales taxes, but dead-broke California introduced such a law on Wednesday night. "We oppose this bill because …

    Financial News 30 Jun 2011, 14:50

  • Moderatrix kisses the Reg goodbye

    Commentard scourge says emotional farewell

    In news sure to send the massed ranks of Reg commentards running for the tissue box for the other reason, the Moderatrix is packing up her paddles and departing for dungeons new. Yes, I shall be leaving you all to fight amongst yourselves after the best part of four years at the well of IT shoutpouring. It's been an education …

    Site News 30 Jun 2011, 15:00

  • Intel takes CPU market share from AMD in Q1

    Catches chipset bug bullet in teeth

    The chip watchers at iSuppli say that Intel continued to gain processor market share even though it was hit by a bug in a chipset used with its "Sandy Bridge" desktop, laptop, and entry server platforms. According to the latest stats from iSuppli, both x86 and x64 microprocessors as a group continue to take market share away …

    Hardware 30 Jun 2011, 15:29

  • Ballmer leaves investors speechless in Seattle

    He won't go quietly, huh

    The pressure must be getting to Microsoft's very own bald eagle Steve Ballmer as he issued a stinging public rebuke - for the first time - to dissenting investors calling for his head, and used the soon-to-be released fiscal 2011 results to back up his reputation. According to reports in the Seattle Times, Microsoft's CEO …

    Financial News 30 Jun 2011, 15:44

  • AMD gets in Intel's grille with desktop Fusion rollout

    'We win', howls AMD

    AMD's first desktop Fusion processors were detailed on Thursday, and the company marked their debut with a confident blast at its megacompetitor, Intel. "We win – that's our competitive positioning," Sasa Marinkovic, AMD's head of desktops and software product marketing told a press gathering when the A-Series APUs ( …

    Hardware 30 Jun 2011, 17:24

  • Xboxer SWATTED by armed cops after online spat

    When games get (really) ugly

    The family of a 15-year-old Xbox player was raided by heavily armed police after a disaffected online opponent made a hoax emergency call claiming there was a home invasion in progress. According to news reports, SWAT, or special weapons and tactics, police entered the Naples, Florida, residence of Hunter Gelinas after …

    Security 30 Jun 2011, 19:21

  • Gartner forecast reinflates IT spending balloon

    Cloud cash promised

    For the second time this year, the prognosticators at market researcher Gartner have revised upwards their IT spending projections for 2011, and now are calling for a spending increase of 7.1 per cent worldwide, to $3.67 trillion. Hardware is hot, hot, hot. Despite a slowdown in PC spending, corporate budgets are going …

    Business 30 Jun 2011, 20:23

  • Testing time for updated Javascript standard

    Improved web apps interop promised

    A "minimal but needed update" to ECMAScript, also known as Javascript, has been ratified by standards chiefs who have promised greater consistency between browsers. ECMA-262 edition 5.1 packs a number of "editorial corrections" and bug fixes that it promised will make ECMA-262 edition "easier" and allow for better …

    Software 30 Jun 2011, 20:34

  • Google's epic graph cruncher mimicked with open source

    And then there was GoldenOrb

    Unlike Facebook or Yahoo!, Google is loath to open source its back-end software. For many, this is a sore point, as the search giant has built its famously distributed infrastructure atop countless open source tools fashioned outside the walls of the Googleplex. But Mountain View does give back in less-direct ways. In some …

    Software 30 Jun 2011, 20:36

  • Microsoft bags two more Android patent deals

    The rising cost of 'free'

    Microsoft has inked two more patent licensing agreements with Android hardware manufacturers. Onkyo Corp and Velocity Micro have each signed agreements with Redmond that will mean Microsoft receives royalties on Android tablets sold by the two companies. Details of the agreements were not revealed, but it's standard practice …

    Mobile 30 Jun 2011, 21:50

  • Insider says doom looms at RIM

    BlackBerry apps 'suck', dev tools '%&@!$#%'

    Times are tough at RIM, home of the fading BlackBerry. Sales are slipping, profits are evaporating, and now a high-level staffer has written to the company's co-presidents to inform them that "things have never been more chaotic," urging them to make "bold decisions" to right the ship – before it's too late. "We're all reading …

    Mobile 30 Jun 2011, 22:50

  • NBN Co launches satellite services

    Rural Oz gets 6Mbps

    The National Broadband Network company has started offering commercial services via its Interim Satellite Service designed for residents, small businesses and indigenous communities in rural Australia. Four retail service providers are offering NBN Co's Interim Satellite services: Bordernet, Clear Networks, Harbour IT and …

    Broadband 30 Jun 2011, 23:30