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13th September 2011 Archive

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  • Miranda Kerr suffers digital deletion

    Domain authority shuts her down after cybersquatting

    Australia’s domain name authority auDA has shut down and deleted the domain mirandakerr.com.au in a public stand against cybersquatting. The domain bearing the name of the supermodel recently attracted media attention as its former owner domain speculator James Wester suggested that it could be worth up to $200,000 on the …

    Hosting 13 Sep 2011, 00:02

  • Why Android houses should give Google the 'fork you'

    Open...and Shut Follow the Amazon

    As details leak about just how closed Google's Android development can be, the billion-dollar question is why mobile handset manufacturers bother to play ball with Mountain View at all. It's not so much Google's practice of keeping Android development closed for prolonged periods, but rather its favoritism toward certain …

    Mobile 13 Sep 2011, 00:59

  • Out of the diamond planet, a research group emerges

    Taking the long wide view of astronomy

    Sydney University is leading a research collaboration that inverts the familiar approach to astronomy: instead of more powerful telescopes looking at smaller parts of the sky, CAASTRO (Centre for All-sky Astrophysics) will be concentrating on whole-of-sky astronomy. The other partners in the group are the Australian National …

    HPC 13 Sep 2011, 01:00

  • AppFog dev cloud envelops Ruby, Node

    PHP maven takes fight to Heroku

    This summer, PHP Fog changed its name to AppFog, vowing to expanded its "platform cloud" beyond PHP. And now it has. On Tuesday, the Portland, Oregon-based startup announced that its online service – a means of building, deploying, and readily scaling applications – now handles Ruby and Node.js as well as PHP. "We've spent a …

    Cloud 13 Sep 2011, 04:00

  • State-sponsored spies collaborate with crimeware gang

    The Unholy APT-botnet union

    Hackers sponsored by the Chinese government and other nations are collaborating with profit-driven malware gangs to infiltrate corporate networks storing government secrets and other sensitive data, researchers say. In many ways, the relationship between state-sponsored actors and organized crime groups that target online bank …

    Security 13 Sep 2011, 05:00

  • iRobot Roomba 780 automated vacuum cleaner

    Review Rug munching machine

    The Roomba is the most widely known of the robot cleaners, and with competition mounting, the company, iRobot, has not been sitting on its laurels. The Roomba 780 is the latest model, and boasts a larger collecting bin, built in scheduling and HEPA filters. iRobot's Roomba 780 boasts improved battery management Also, …

    Hardware 13 Sep 2011, 06:00

  • Seagate adding flash embulgement to Thins

    Anorexic platter fatter but still good for ultrabooks

    Seagate is thinking of fattening up its single platter Momentus Thin drive with flash, making a Hybrid Thin. Momentus drives are 2-platter 2.5-inch drives for notebook computers and the like. They spin at 5,400 or 7,200rpm and store up to 750GB of data. The Momentus XT is one of these with 500GB capacity plus a 4GB fillip of …

    Storage 13 Sep 2011, 08:00

  • Big Music trumpets ‘Cliff Richard’ term extension

    EU seals copyright deal - with strings attached

    There’s quiet satisfaction across large parts of the music industry as Europe formally extends the copyright term on sound recordings from 50 to 70 years. The music business fought off a rearguard action from Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom – whose raging against the corruption of the European Parliament may have eased the …

    Media 13 Sep 2011, 08:29

  • More details on HP's OpenStack cloud coming

    What do you mean, even we don't know what they are yet?

    Hewlett-Packard Co plans to share more details of its OpenStack-based cloud service at the end of September, The Reg understands. The world's largest PC maker is expected to announce pricing, a roadmap, technology integration, and details of its ecosystem of partners for the cloud, sources in the OpenStack community have told …

    Cloud 13 Sep 2011, 08:58

  • Hands-On Data Centre

    Broadcast Practical management to help you take control

    In the real world, you need to manage hundreds of apps, multiple operating systems, many classes of service. And now they're asking for cloud, too. What do you do with the rest of your day? Watch our latest Regcast, that's what. On September 15th at 11:00 BST we will be teaming up with datacentre expert Gordon McKenna at …

    Data Center 13 Sep 2011, 09:07

  • Minister seeks to rip 'Like' buttons off German gov web

    Sozialtechnologie-Schweinhunde und ihre gefallensknöpfe!

    Germany's consumer protection minister Ilse Aigner is once again calling on her peers to ditch the use of Facebook by government officials, citing what she believes are valid "justified legal doubts" raised about the social network. In a letter to German newspaper Spiegel, Aigner wrote to urge her cabinet colleagues to "no …

    Government 13 Sep 2011, 09:18

  • Dolby wins licensing fees on BlackBerry, PlayBook

    Lawyers successful in $15m RIM job

    Dolby Laboratories has scored in the patent wars, winning "standard terms" from Research in Motion in two lawsuits over use of audio technologies. RIM, maker of BlackBerrys and PlayBooks, will now pay licensing fees to Dolby, the company said, without disclosing the financial details of the arrangement. However, Dolby told …

    Business 13 Sep 2011, 09:19

  • Lincs bloke fined in deceased hedgehog outrage

    Broad daylight cable-laying rocks the Fens

    A Lincolnshire man who decided to take a dump on a dead hedgehog on a roadside verge in broad daylight has been fined £100 for the cable-laying outrage. Victor Ford, 34, was caught with his pants down at 1.20pm on 3 July, when a passing copper spotted him on Balmoral Avenue, Spalding, "squatting over the grass verge with his …

    Bootnotes 13 Sep 2011, 09:38

  • Pentax launches superzoom snapper

    Long range shooter

    Pentax has announced an addition to its Optio RZ camera series, with a fresh compact snapper that packs a powerful zoom. The Optio RZ18 is a 16MP digital point-and-shoot with an 80 to 6400 ISO range. Its optical zoom has an 18x magnification with the 4.5-81mm lens (35mm camera equivalent to 25-450mm) offering a decent wide- …

    Hardware 13 Sep 2011, 09:39

  • Skifta

    Android App of the Week Streams at your fingertips

    With so many connected devices now carrying a DLNA or UPnP sticker, shunting media from or through your phone – to a Wi-Fi enabled music player, telly or gaming console – is fast becoming an everyday requirement.   Getting started with source options Some handsets have built-in tech to handle this but I’ve yet to encounter …

    Phones 13 Sep 2011, 10:00

  • MPs blast dole-office-online plans

    Poor folk can't afford internet until they're on benefit

    The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) plans to get 80 per cent of Jobseeker's Allowance claimants transacting online by September 2013, but has no clear plan of how to achieve this, says the public accounts committee. In its report titled Reducing Costs in the Department for Work and Pensions (40-page/364KB PDF), the …

    Government 13 Sep 2011, 10:15

  • Momentary Micron skirt-lift reveals big flashy box

    Enterprise SSD to stride the catwalk next Monday

    Micron is dropping heavy hints about a new enterprise solid-state storage system next Monday. Scott Shadley, a senior manager in Micron's product marketing organisation, has tweeted merrily away, saying: "Wonder what it is that @MicronTechNews and @RealSSD are going to share @ #SDNYC... catch the preso on Monday twitpic.com/ …

    Storage 13 Sep 2011, 10:39

  • Ofcom begins crackdown on auto-renew telco contracts

    'Man, we're already totally competitive', grumbles BT

    Telcos have until the end of this year to lock landline and broadband customers into automatically renewed contracts after Ofcom kiboshed the practice. Currently, unless a punter opts out, some ISPs including BT automatically renew such contracts, and apply penalties to small biz and residential customers who leave their …

    Broadband 13 Sep 2011, 11:00

  • AMD: Windows-8-on-ARM app compatibility is relative

    No hard and fast answer on legacy apps

    The matter of whether existing Windows applications will run on Windows 8 on ARM – putting them on tablets – has been kicked back and forth a lot this year. Intel this spring pointed out that Windows applications running on x86 for PCs won't run on Windows 8 on ARM. Intel senior vice president Renée James, speaking at an …

    Operating Systems 13 Sep 2011, 11:07

  • Is Cisco's 16-year CEO Chambers ready to go?

    Secret internal wars of succession said to be underway

    Rumours that Cisco CEO and chairman John Chambers may be considering his resignation have gathered pace. Chambers has spent 16 years at the head of the firm. While he is not about to be ousted in a blaze of ignominy like some other tech CEO departures we could mention, the question of who Chambers' likely heir may be has …

    Business 13 Sep 2011, 11:14

  • HP extends deadline as Autonomy shareholders drag feet

    What could lie behind this odd reluctance?

    HP has extended the acceptance deadline for its Autonomy bid as fewer than half the UK software developers' shareholders approved the £7bn deal. Yesterday's closing date for agreeing on HP's £25.50 per share offer made on 19 August passed with just 42 per cent of Autonomy investors giving the thumbs-up, despite the deal …

    Business 13 Sep 2011, 11:32

  • BT to fibre-up another 114 exchanges

    'Local monopolies benefit no one' thunders exec

    BT is upgrading a further 114 exchanges – the majority of which will receive fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) technology. The telco said this morning that the latest rollout would serve one million homes and businesses in the UK. The latest exchanges earmarked by BT are listed here. Its Openreach division said that it planned to …

    Broadband 13 Sep 2011, 11:42

  • Mainframe shops (a little) more optimistic about System z

    zEnterprise bump to turn into a grind

    There are only about 4,000 IBM mainframe shops in the world, but they sure do spend a lot of money. And according to a new survey, they are going to keep on spending it for the foreseeable future. IBM is not the only player with skin in the System z game. BMC Software, which sells provisioning, monitoring, and management …

    Servers 13 Sep 2011, 11:45

  • Cloud startup's business model defies laws of physics

    'INFINITE storage' for $10/month

    Start-up Bitcasa invites you to shove all your data into the cloud and use your hard drive as a cache. It's offering infinite storage capacity, it says, for 10 bucks a month. Really. Bitcasa says it is different from Nirvanix, Mozy and others because it is not a cloud-based backup company. It's different from Dropbox because …

    Cloud 13 Sep 2011, 11:58

  • Dead Island

    Review Death takes a holiday

    Sweaty locals and voodoo always remind me of Angel Heart and I was as confused as Mickey Rourke after watching Dead Island's appalling intro. Seriously, who says "git" these days? Must be all those red pills and JD. This may explain the reverse time trailer I saw a few months back, which mislead me into thinking there might be …

    Games 13 Sep 2011, 12:00

  • Nintendo 3DS gets more stick

    Pad pushing performance enhancer

    Nintendo is touting an attachment to the 3DS, which plonks an additional slide pad to the right of the button set and readies the handheld machine for dual-stick gaming action. This extra functionality puts it on a par with more conventional console controllers. Whispers of such a device have been around a while now, but the …

    Games 13 Sep 2011, 12:10

  • Murdoch to reappear before MPs in phone-hack case

    Simply can't do without his company

    MPs are expected to grill James Murdoch for a second time, but no date has been set by the media, culture and sports committee yet. The News International chairman, son of News Corp mogul Rupert Murdoch, will be asked in to Parliament again only after the MPs Tom Watson, Louise Mensch and their committee colleagues have heard …

    Security 13 Sep 2011, 12:14

  • Facebook music dashboard: Revenue at last?

    Analysis Ad-clicker pennies are not enough ... bitch

    We all know why Facebook has such astronomical valuations. It is already as ubiquitous as Tesco. It is a place a billion people go to: whereas they only ever leave Google search, to go somewhere else. But people hanging around, poking, throwing cows, ignoring the adverts and goofing around doesn’t pay the rent. To increase …

    Networks 13 Sep 2011, 12:30

  • Got a non-iPad tablet? Weirdo

    Actually even Jobsian slabbers are a small minority

    Around 3.62 million Britons are fondling slabs, 73 per cent of which are an Apple iPad, according to new research. Kantar Worldpanel ComTech's survey results show the number of fondleslab owners in Great Britain is set to grow, with over half the potential tablet-purchasers longing to smear an iPad. "Apple’s achievements in …

    Hardware 13 Sep 2011, 12:44

  • Anti-gay bus baron rages at being stuffed in Google closet

    'It's not up to them where I appear on their site!'

    The founder of Stagecoach is accusing Google of censoring him by dumping his personal website from their search engine results. Sir Brian Souter is a Scottish businessman who controversially funded a campaign in 2000 to keep the anti-gay legislation of Section 28 in the Local Government and Finance Act. Could it be Sir Brian's …

    Bootnotes 13 Sep 2011, 12:58

  • AMD snags Guinness World Record for clockiest chip

    IDF A pint of vitamin G for AMD

    The overclocking scamps of "Team AMD FX" are celebrating the Intel Developer Forum's opening day in their own special way: by accepting a fastest-chip-ever award at an event a mere block away from Intel's geekfest. "We applaud AMD for their entry into Guinness World Records for achieving the Highest Frequency of a Computer …

    Hardware 13 Sep 2011, 13:00

  • Maxima sale talks with 'interested parties' are over

    Not that interested, as it turned out

    Maxima has ended discussions with potential suitors over a sale of the business, the IT reseller and managed services outfit confirmed today. The IBM, Microsoft and Oracle house kickstarted a strategic review in April to explore options including bringing on board outside investment, and selling all or parts of the …

    The Channel 13 Sep 2011, 13:24

  • Hunt: We'll slightly inconvenience pirate sites

    And let that be a lesson to them! No, not that lesson

    In August the government said it wouldn't implement the Digital Economy Act's web-blocking powers. But it still thinks pirate websites hurt British business and wants something to make accessing them more more difficult, and to make sanctions against them less expensive. But what might all this look like? According to a leak …

    Government 13 Sep 2011, 13:41

  • SAP coughs $20m to feds in Oracle slurp spat

    Ellison's lawyers undaunted as legal orgy continues

    SAP will cough up $20m to resolve the criminal side of its spat with rival Oracle over illegal software downloading by SAP's subsidiary TomorrowNow. US Department of Justice prosecutors charged the subsidiary with 12 criminal counts in connection with the unlawful slurping of Oracle software. SAP agreed to settle the case, but …

    Business 13 Sep 2011, 13:57

  • Belgians aim to be third neutral-net nation

    Obviously some doubts could be cast on their neutrality

    Belgium could be the second European country after the Netherlands to adopt net neutrality for both fixed and mobile networks. Three political parties have joined forces to launch a proposed law (in Dutch), which they hope will be approved early next year. If accepted, all internet traffic in Belgium needs to be treated …

    Networks 13 Sep 2011, 14:46

  • DRAM, Flash in same box named after killer mountain

    But it's OK: Unlikely to kill you, not actually mountain

    You can now buy a tiered solid state device with both DRAM and flash because Kaminario has added Fusion-io flash to its DRAM-based K2 storage box. Kaminario introduced its K2 solid state storage device using DRAM last year, competing with DRAM RamSans from Texas Memory Systems. A flash option was quietly introduced earlier …

    Storage 13 Sep 2011, 15:20

  • Windows 8: First contact with Microsoft Touch

    Preview Strong enough to ARMwrestle Android and iOS?

    Microsoft is facing up to the million-dollar question: how does it compete with Apple's iPad and Google's Android when Windows was designed for keyboard and mouse rather than touch control? Microsoft's answer has been to create a platform based on Metro, the design style in Windows Phone 7. Metro apps run full-screen without …

    Developer 13 Sep 2011, 16:05

  • NASA offers space shuttle food and tiles to schools

    See if you can tell which is which, kids!

    Food and heat-resistant tiles once destined for orbit will soon end up in the grubby little hands of schoolchildren, in a scheme aimed at inspiring a future generation of astronauts and space engineers. NASA are selling off dehydrated space food and shuttle tiles built to resist temperatures of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit to …

    Science 13 Sep 2011, 16:45

  • Intel pushes Ultrabooks for Xmas

    IDF 2011 But admits better ones coming in the new year

    Intel may be keen for World+Dog to buy an Ultrabook this Christmas - it's "working with industry partners to deliver mainstream-priced products beginning this holiday season" - but smart buyers may choose to wait until 2012. The chip giant will show off Ultrabooks based on its upcoming 22nm 'Ivy Bridge' CPU "early next year", …

    Laptops 13 Sep 2011, 17:58

  • Intel, Google 'optimize' chips for Android

    IDF 2011 Today, tomorrow, and forevermore

    Intel will add another layer to its ongoing partnership with Google, announcing that the two companies will work together to optimize all future releases of Android for Intel-architecture processors. "Google and Intel have been working together as partners in computing solutions for many years in the data center, on Google TV …

    Phones 13 Sep 2011, 18:56

  • Stonebraker's VoltDB adds catastrophe protection

    'NewSQL' 2.0

    VoltDB – the new-age database outfit founded by industry high priest Mike Stonebraker – has unveiled version 2.0 of its flagship distributed database, offering new logging tools designed to protect users from catastrophic system failures. The new version also offers a browser-based tool meant to facilitate the development of …

    Applications 13 Sep 2011, 20:08

  • Intel wireless display tech coming to netbooks, tablets, phones

    IDF 2011 Will gain multi-room music streaming too

    Intel's Wireless Display - aka WiDi - technology is set to expand into music streaming and to a broader array of devices. Intel's WiDi 2.0 currently works on notebooks equipped with a Sandy Bridge processor and any one of a number of Intel's Centrino-branded Wi-Fi cards. When 'Cedar Trail', Intel's next netbook platform, …

    Hardware 13 Sep 2011, 21:30

  • Intel promises '20X' power reduction with 'Haswell' chips

    IDC 2011 Sandy Bridge successor aims for Ultrabooks

    Intel claims that platforms built around its Haswell microarchitecture – the successor to the today's Sandy Bridge, scheduled for 2013 – will use one-twentieth the power of today's stingiest low-power platforms. "Haswell was designed to enable a 30 per cent reduction in connected standby power over the currently shipping …

    Hardware 13 Sep 2011, 21:40

  • Bittorrent.com's software download hacked to serve malware

    File-sharing with fake AV

    Attackers hijacked two popular Bittorrent websites and tampered with their download mechanisms, causing visitors trying to obtain file-sharing software to instead receive malware. The hacks on bittorrent.com and utorrent.com replaced the sites' standard software downloads with a piece of fake antivirus software known as …

    Security 13 Sep 2011, 21:53

  • Health Services Union boss accused of IT tender badness

    Cops called to sort out double-dipping

    The national president of the Health Services Union (HSU), Michael Williamson, is at the centre of a New South Wales police investigation over allegations of secret commissions and serious conflicts of interest. Williamson, who is also the vice-president of the NSW Australian Labor Party, appears to have kept his position as …

    Business 13 Sep 2011, 22:29

  • Microsoft touts Windows 8 fondleslabness

    BUILD Would you like to touch my operating system?

    Steven Sinofsky has touted Windows 8 as one Microsoft's most significant redesigns since the arrival of Windows 95 more than 15 years ago. On Tuesday, in Anaheim, California, Sinofsky used the opening keynote of the Microsoft's BUILD developer conference to show off the current Windows 8 build, the forthcoming Windows Store, …

    Operating Systems 13 Sep 2011, 22:43

  • Aussie Sex Party takes the whip to .xxx domains

    Gives ICM Registry a dressing-down

    The Australian Sex Party has joined a growing international chorus of voices accusing ICANN and ICM Registry of a shakedown over the .xxx domain space. Companies that don’t want their domain names appearing in front of the already-notorious dot-triple-x are facing an October 28 deadline to register with ICM, the sole …

    Hosting 13 Sep 2011, 23:30