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18th July 2011 Archive

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  • TPG swoops on cloud hosting firm

    Makes generous bid for IntraPower

    TPG Telecom, the Australian ISP, is to buy cloud hosting outfit IntraPower for $12.8m, well above market price. IntraPower has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and provides IT, infrastructure, voice and data communications services to around 2000 customers. TPG executive chairman David Teoh said “the TPG Group's …

    Business 18 Jul 00:01

  • Fun and games in userland

    A brief history of virtualisation

    Operating-system level virtualisation As we explained in part 2 of this series, A brief history of virtualisation, in the 1960s, it was a sound move to run one OS on top of a totally different one. On the hardware of the time, full multi-user time-sharing was a big challenge, which virtualisation neatly sidestepped by splitting …

    Enterprise Tech 18 Jul 01:00

  • Google gets Punchd

    $10m for compsci graduates

    Punchd, a loyalty service on mobile phones, was acquired by Google last week for a speculated US$10 million. The start-up is expected to beef up Google Wallet, the search engine's mobile commerce offering. For businesses, Punchd allows them to acquire information about customers. Users are alerted by email when a loyalty …

    Business 18 Jul 01:00

  • Is Anon ready for the social network?

    Rules without tyranny is harder than it seems

    The story so far is that Anonymous – or someone associated with Anonymous, or someone cynically riding on the back of Anonymous, who knows? – has set up a site that will offer some kind of social network. According to TechSpot, the idea (and the “Alpha” Website, anonplus.com) arose when Google+ allegedly banned an unknown …

    Security 18 Jul 02:00

  • Google: The one trick pony learns a second trick

    Open...and Shut It sells ads. And it clones other people's products

    Google has a nasty habit of cannibalizing others' businesses based on its own seemingly unassailable lead in search and online advertising. The problem is that each time this involves giving away free software and services to undermine competitors at the expense of growing its own. Or can Google make a business from giving …

    Business 18 Jul 03:40

  • World's first turbine powered Batmobile hits roads

    Bang. Pow. Boom ting!

    When it comes to customisation, some people really push the boat car out. Check out this homemade road-legal Batmobile, based on the caped crusader's motor from Tim Burton's 1989 film Batman. The 20ft long vehicle is powered by a Boeing turbine engine originally used on a Navy aircraft. Casey Putsch from restoration outlet …

    reghardware 18 Jul 08:53

  • SpaceShipOne designer produces hybrid flying car

    Famous engineer Burt Rutan's swan song

    Burt Rutan, the famous engineer behind the Ansari X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne and many other amazing aircraft, has produced a hybrid-electric aeroplane which can also be driven on roads as his final design before retirement. The BiPod features twin fuselages equipped with electrically driven wheels and propellers (though the …

    Science 18 Jul 09:11

  • Azure: it's Windows but not as we know it

    Moving an application to the cloud

    If Microsoft Azure is just Windows in the cloud, is it easy to move a Windows application from your servers to Azure? The answer is a definite “maybe”. An Azure instance is just a Windows virtual server, and you can even use a remote desktop to log in and have a look. Your ASP.NET code should run just as well on Azure as it …

    Cloud Developer 18 Jul 09:24

  • NASA 'nauts wrap box-shifting duties at space station

    Raffaello module ready for return to Earth

    The combined crews of space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station's Expedition 28 have wrapped the unloading of the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module. The module is now packed with 5,666 pounds (2.57 tonnes) of waste and scrap kit, and will be moved back today to the shuttle's cargo bay. Once that's done, …

    Space 18 Jul 09:29

  • Blighty's top cop quits over phone-hacking scandal

    'Severe discomfort' as Rebekah Brooks cuffed by police

    The phone-hacking scandal enveloping Rupert Murdoch's media empire and the Metropolitan police intensified yesterday when Scotland Yard arrested ex-News International boss Rebekah Brooks and the head of the Metropolitan Police - Britain's most senior policeman - resigned after it was revealed he had hired a News of the World …

    Music and Media 18 Jul 09:44

  • Tosh admits customer accounts pillaged

    Everything but credit card details snaffled

    Toshiba says that unidentified hackers have stolen customer records belonging to 7,500 of its customers. Credit cards details were not compromised, but emails, addresses, passwords and phone numbers all went missing. The company said the hackers gained access to a US server. The hack came to light on 11 July and customers …

    Enterprise Security 18 Jul 09:51

  • Ion Audio iCade arcade-style iPad cabinet

    Geek Treat of the Week I game therefore iPad

    Let's get the negative out of the way right from the start: the iCade is a bit on the crap side. But then that's kind of how it should be. Ion's iCade: beep, beep, beep.... schboom As if you couldn't guess from the pics, the iCade is an iPad stand that mimics the arcade game cabinets of yesteryear. Like them, it's made out …

    reghardware 18 Jul 10:00

  • Educating Verity the OU way

    Stob 'The skin of my C++ custard remained unruffled'

    I think I mentioned that I was doing an Open University PGDip course in software development. (For those not familiar with the institution, the Open University has rightly been described as a sort of mental gym. You join with great enthusiasm; then, after three months, having attended just twice, you can drop out and ask for the …

    Verity Stob 18 Jul 10:00

  • Valve strengthens Steam setup

    System of a download

    Valve has announced an update to its Steam games shop which promises to make the download system "better, stronger and faster". Data will be sent through an HTTP system more firewall-friendly than before, automatically taking advantage of web-caching proxies installed at ISPs. The new system will also make updates smaller, …

    reghardware 18 Jul 10:38

  • VeriSign to raise .com, .net prices

    57 billion lookups a day don't come for free

    VeriSign has announced plans to raise the price of .com and .net domain names again. The .net price increase comes just a few weeks after the company renewed its registry contract with industry overseer ICANN. From 15 January, 2012, the company said that it intends to charge $7.85 for a .com, up from $7.34, and added that . …

    Hosting 18 Jul 10:52

  • Ofcom ignores radio in annual report

    Here's our carbon footprint, though...

    Don't touch that dial: Ofcom's annual report devotes more space to diversity targets and the quango's own carbon emissions than it does to the state of British radio. The regulator touts its Times award as one of the Top 50 employers for women and Stonewall Award as a Diversity Champion in its 114-page state-of-the-quango …

    Music and Media 18 Jul 11:13

  • AMD says Xbox 720 graphics to be good as Avatar

    Hardware is hardcore, exec hints

    Chip maker AMD has hinted that the Xbox 360's successor will be able to deliver computer graphics to match those in James Cameron's movie Avatar. In an interview with the US incarnation of the Official Xbox Magazine, AMD exec Neal Robison claimed that gamers have "a lot to be excited about", the Examiner reports Robison …

    reghardware 18 Jul 11:15

  • Cost-cutting spurs PC sales in Europe: UK stuck in a rut

    Analysts don't understand how bad it is, says analyst

    The European PC market remains one big bargain basement clear-out, according to Q2 stats from channel analyst Context. Sales-out data collated from major distributors in the region showed that vendors' price-cutting efforts to reduce the glut of PCs in the supply chain fuelled a 3 per cent sales rise but as a result, …

    Channel Register 18 Jul 11:46

  • HP TouchPad 32GB WebOS tablet

    Review Cross my Palm...

    What a difference a year makes. Had HP's TouchPad - which went on sale in the UK this past Friday - debuted 12 months ago, maybe even as few as seven, it would have stood tall alongside the competition. But coming six months or so after the iPad 2, let alone the iPad 1, HP's offering in many ways feels distinctly behind the …

    reghardware 18 Jul 12:00

  • CERN 'gags' physicists in cosmic ray climate experiment

    What do these results mean? Not allowed to tell you

    The chief of the world's leading physics lab at CERN in Geneva has prohibited scientists from drawing conclusions from a major experiment. The CLOUD ("Cosmics Leaving Outdoor Droplets") experiment examines the role that energetic particles from deep space play in cloud formation. CLOUD uses CERN's proton synchrotron to examine …

    Science 18 Jul 12:01

  • Everything Everywhere boss jacks it in

    Personal reasons

    Tom Alexander, the boss of Everything Everywhere, has left the company for personal reasons. Staff were told this morning – at the same time that a press release was sent out. CEO Tom Alexander leaves on 31 August and Olaf Swantee takes over on 1 September. Swantee currently runs France Telecom's European operations, …

    Business 18 Jul 12:35

  • HTC loses prelim patent ruling to Apple, takes stock hit

    Early goal for Jobs in patent battle

    HTC violated two patents held by Apple, the US International Trade Commission confirmed in a preliminary ruling late last week. However, the decision has yet to secure the backing of ITC commissioners. Despite that, the Financial Times reports that shares in HTC have tumbled 6.5 per cent as fears grew that the Taiwanese phone …

    Business 18 Jul 12:58

  • MPs round on plans to offshore gov IT work

    DWP bods to move from being employees to customers

    MPs are cranking up the pressure on government to safeguard the jobs of up to 200 HP IT workers amid plans to outsource the positions to India. Employees involved in the Adams 2 contract with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) are in the process of training up a team from Bangalore which will ultimately replace them as …

    Government 18 Jul 13:05

  • SeaMicro pushes 'Atom smasher' to 768 cores in 10U box

    A lot more bang for some more bucks

    The drumbeat of system upgrades continues apace at microserver startup SeaMicro, with the company launching its third server node for its SM10000 "Atom smasher" in the past nine months. The new machine is based on the same Atom N570 chip and related NM10 Express chipset from Intel that was used in the prior generation of …

    Servers 18 Jul 13:08

  • Yates of the Yard quits Met over phone-hacking scandal

    Last man out, leave your resignation on the desk

    Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner John Yates quit his job with the Metropolitan Police this afternoon. The Met issued this brief statement: "Assistant Commissioner John Yates has this afternoon indicated his intention to resign to the Chair of the MPA [Metropolitan Police Authority]. "This has been accepted. AC Yates …

    Music and Media 18 Jul 13:38

  • UK dodgy-political-donor watch database canned

    Like we need a list to find corruption

    A New Labour database designed to ferret out corrupt contributions to political parties has been canned. The Co-ordinated Online Record of Electors (CORE) was meant to make it easier for parties to spot contributions from non-resident donors as well as to run the database and deal with queries. The Coalition government claims …

    Government 18 Jul 14:01

  • Asda offloads affordable Archos fondleslabs

    Tablets for budget shoppers

    Supermarket chain Asda is offering a low-cost tablet so folk on a shoestring can now pick up an 8in model for less than £100. The Archos Arnova 8 tablet is slightly behind the curve in tech-terms, running an outdated OS, Android 2.1 Éclair, on an 800 x 600 resistive touchscreen. The slate features built-in Wi-Fi and 4GB of …

    reghardware 18 Jul 14:08

  • Atlantis bids final farewell to space station

    Hatches closed as last shuttle mission draws to a close

    The crew of space shuttle Atlantis have said their farewells to the residents of the International Space Station, and closed the hatches between the shuttle and the orbiting outpost for the last time. Commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley, and mission specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim were joined by ISS commander …

    Space 18 Jul 14:44

  • Dixons Retail boss pockets £1m in face of consumer meltdown

    Browett takes big pay cut but walks away with a smile

    Dixons Retail chief exec John Browett trousered over £1m in rewards during the most recent financial year, despite the group posting steep losses as it struggled to cope with the consumer meltdown. Browett, who joined Dixons from Tesco in 2007, is masterminding a major cost-cutting drive to turn the losses into profits by …

    Channel Register 18 Jul 15:27

  • Toshiba Tablet 2.0 struck with 'sleep of death' bug

    Some Thrive fail to wake up

    Toshiba's second attempt at an Android tablet seems not to be living up to its name. Some Thrive units are ailing. According to reports from the US, where the fondleslab has just gone on sale, a fair few Thrives are not waking up once put to sleep, their annoyed owners are claiming on the manufacturer's online forum. Posters …

    reghardware 18 Jul 15:36

  • Nokia reportedly readies mass price cuts

    Cheap phones to pave way for WinPho?

    Nokia is readying a ten per cent price cut across its entire smartphone product line this September, it has been claimed. Eldar Murtazin, owner of Russian website Mobile-Review.com, claimed on Twitter that the Finnish mobile giants will implement a price cut as it struggles for market share worldwide. Murtazin is believed to …

    reghardware 18 Jul 15:42

  • Oracle bestows Sparc T4 beta on 'select' customers

    Updated Sparc T4 server chip not slipping into 2012

    "Select" customers who use Sparc-based Solaris systems are being asked to participate in a beta program for Oracle's next-generation of Sparc T4 systems. And briefly, thanks to a typo in a blog post, it also appeared that those Sparc T4 machines had slipped into 2012 – but worry not: they're still on schedule. According to a …

    Servers 18 Jul 16:22

  • Apple plans to prune iPhone 3GS price

    Budget oldie to tackle low-end Androids?

    The iPhone 3GS is set to drop in price this summer, as Apple attempts to broaden its share of the mobile market by offering a smartphone for folk on a budget. "Reliable" sources broke the news to BGR which says Apple's preparationg of a low cost iPhone is as simple as bringing down the price of the 2009's 3GS. Then with the …

    reghardware 18 Jul 16:34

  • Adobe snarfs up electronic signature automator

    EchoSign to bolster PDF inventor's online doc services

    Adobe Systems has acquired the online electronic-signature and signature-automation provider EchoSign. "We're extremely pleased to announce that EchoSign is now part of the Acrobat family," enthused EchoSign CEO Jason Lemkin and Adobe Acrobat headman Kevin Lynch in a post on the just-acquired company's blog – and, yes, that's …

    Software 18 Jul 17:58

  • Seagate ships slim, fast Pulsar XT SSD

    Slower, fatter version in the wings

    Seagate is shipping its Pulsar XT.2 SSD with an SPC-1C benchmark rating, and has a second slower but higher capacity SSD coming soon. The 2.5-inch Pulsar XT.2 is available in up to 400GB capacities, has a 6Gbit/s SAS interface, and is built from fast single-level–cell flash. Seagate submitted the drive to the SPC benchmark …

    Storage 18 Jul 18:20

  • Cisco doubles Catalyst Ethernet ports to 60 watts of juicy juice

    More power to ya'

    Networking giant Cisco Systems has cranked up the amount of juice its Catalyst 4500E switches can pump out over Ethernet to 60 watts – another step toward its goal of making its switches the throbbing heart of the modern office. The Catalyst 4500E switch was announced last October with 848Gb/sec of aggregate switching …

    Data Networking 18 Jul 19:51

  • Pacific Fibre signs up undersea cable supplier

    TE SubCom cordage to link Sydney, Auckland, Los Angeles

    Pacific Fibre has awarded TE SubCom, formerly Tyco Telecommunications, with the supply contract for its undersea cable system. The two-cable, 12,750km-long cable system will link Australia and New Zealand via a trans-Tasman cable, while connecting New Zealand to the United States via a trans-Pacific cable. The cable landing …

    Business 18 Jul 20:00

  • Microsoft turns screws on bot herders with hefty reward

    $250,000 for arrest of notorious Rustock operators

    Microsoft is offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those who controlled Rustock, a recently dismantled botnet that in its heyday was one of the biggest sources of illegal spam. Monday's announcement of the bounty comes four months after Microsoft waged a novel campaign to take down Rustock, which …

    Malware 18 Jul 20:32

  • Amazon tackles soaring textbook prices

    Kindle ebook rentals boost beer bucks

    Amazon is sending its Kindle ebook reader off to college, enrolling it in a program to help save students from the crushing burden of skyrocketing textbook prices. "We're excited to offer students an option to rent Kindle textbooks and only pay for the time they need – with savings up to 80 per cent off the print list price on …

    Music and Media 18 Jul 20:58

  • Cisco lays off 6,500 workers, execs

    And sells off another 5,000 to Foxconn

    Networking giant Cisco Systems is going to get 11,500 employees smaller. After Wall Street closed today, Cisco said that it was going to cut 6,500 workers to get its costs more in line with its revenue streams, and added that it was selling off a set-top box manufacturing plant in Mexico with 5,000 employees to Chinese …

    Financial News 18 Jul 21:37

  • Hacked Sun site greatly exaggerates Murdoch's death

    Sunday Times, other Murdoch sites, also down

    Hackers breached the security of Rupert Murdoch's Sun website and briefly redirected many visitors to a hoax article falsely claiming the tabloid media tycoon had been found dead in his garden. The hack caused many people visiting thesun.co.uk to instead reach www.new-times.co.uk/sun/, which contained a story headlined "Media …

    Enterprise Security 18 Jul 23:11

  • IBM profits hum along nicely in second quarter

    Centenarian mints money like prime-of-life mogul

    The name is International Business Machines, and perhaps better than any other company in the corporate IT sector, 100-year-old Big Blue is able to follow growth wherever it is on the planet, and capitalize on it. In the second quarter ended in June, IBM raked in $26.7bn in sales, up 12.4 percent, and brought $3.66bn to the …

    Financial News 18 Jul 23:33

  • Cellnet moves into online retail

    Nearly a million for a startup equals Off Your Trolley

    ASX listed telecommunications accessories distributor Cellnet has taken a strategic stake in online discount grocery start-up, Off Your Trolley. Cellnet said that the strategic investment was the next step in it's online strategy and expects Off Your Trolley to make a positive contribution to its earnings in the current …

    Business 18 Jul 23:34