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14th September 2011 Archive

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  • Oz authors join book scanning lawsuit

    Our children aren’t orphans, says ASA

    The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced that it is joining an American lawsuit against the publication of US universities’ scanned-book archive. With the Google book scanning settlement due to return to court this week, America’s Authors’ Guild is leading the charge against HathiTrust, a group of libraries …

    Music and Media 14 Sep 00:01

  • CPU cycles for stars: theSkyNet wants your sandbox

    And you can win a trip to the desert

    The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research is the latest to borrow the name of the Terminator antagonist with theSkyNet, a project to crowd-source spare CPU cycles to process astronomy data. It uses Nereus software from UK company eMedia Track to farm out the processing to a local user’s Java sandbox. The data will …

    Science 14 Sep 00:30

  • Google flight search engine lifts off

    Soars into antitrust airspace

    Google has launched its flight search service, five months after sealing the acquisition of flight-data outfit ITA Software. Unveiled on Tuesday with a blog post, the service is a means of searching airline schedules. If you type "flights from Chicago to Denver" into Google's main search engine, for example, a "Flights" link ( …

    Music and Media 14 Sep 00:31

  • 'Find My Car' iPhone app finds anyone’s car

    Blogger tags security and privacy howler

    An iPhone app released a few days ago called “Find My Car” has just turned into a PR disaster for shopping centre operator Westfield. The idea seemed neat enough: download the app, and if you lose your car, just enter the number plate, which Westfield’s cameras had captured and indexed. Someone forgetting where they’d parked …

    Security 14 Sep 02:24

  • Android banking trojan intercepts security texts

    Thought you were so clever, Mr Banker Guy

    Developers of the SpyEye banking trojan have started bundling it with malware for phones running Google's Android operating system to intercept text messages many financial institutions use to prevent fraud, researchers said. The trojan known as Spitmo is SpyEye's first in-the-wild malware to target Android, Ayelet Heyman, a …

    Malware 14 Sep 04:00

  • Hands on with the Windows 8 fondleslab

    BUILD Beefy tablet passes muster

    Developers attending Microsoft's BUILD conference will go home with a brand new Windows 8 tablet from Samsung. And it's not half bad. The fondleslab is rather curiously named the Samsung Windows 8 Developer Preview PC – no mention of the word tablet – and it's unlikely to see the light of day as a commercial product. But it …

    Music and Media 14 Sep 04:49

  • Malware burrows deep into computer BIOS to escape AV

    Mebromi rootkit also targets master boot record

    Researchers have discovered one of the first pieces of malware ever used in the wild that modifies the software on the motherboard of infected computers to ensure the infection can't be easily eradicated. Known as Trojan.Mebromi, the rootkit reflashes the BIOS of computers it attacks to add malicious instructions that are …

    Malware 14 Sep 04:53

  • Intel preps 15-Watt 'Sandy Bridge' for micro servers

    IDF 2011 Brings back the Pentium

    Micro servers – those tiny machines suitable for dedicated hosting and Web infrastructure workloads – are not exactly taking the market by storm, but they are carving out a niche for themselves. At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco today, Naveen Bohra, a product marketing engineer at the chip maker, trotted out …

    Servers 14 Sep 04:57

  • Intel's Xeon E5 server chips due 'early 2012'

    IDF 2011 Wait 'til next year

    Intel CEO Paul Otellini gave the opening keynote at the company's Developer Forum this morning in San Francisco, and uncharacteristically, he didn't have much to say about servers. That's because contrary to the expectations of many customers, Intel is not ready to launch the Xeon E5 server variants of its "Sandy Bridge" …

    Servers 14 Sep 05:00

  • Ten... digital voice recorders

    Product Round-up Modern dictators

    As mobile phones and other electronic gizmos generally pack their own voice recorders these days, the necessity of buying of a standalone dictaphone seems doubtful. Yet a dedicated model has distinct advantages with typically better recording quality, a longer battery life and voice actuation. Also, recordings are not going to …

    reghardware 14 Sep 06:00

  • More transistors, Moore’s Law, less juice

    “Koomey’s Law” examines power per computation

    It looks like an accident that Moore’s Law has been shadowed by a parallel phenomenon: that over time, the amount of power required per unit of computation falls. That’s the conclusion of Stanford PhD and consulting professor Jonathan Koomey, whose work has already been dubbed “Koomey’s Law”. As Koomey writes in a paper to be …

    Hardware 14 Sep 06:35

  • Overland Storage preps private cloud rescue

    Oh my white fluffy knight, take me away from all this

    Troubled tape and disk storage vendor Overland Storage has seen revenues drop and losses rise over its last fiscal year, but fared better in its final quarter. A clustered filer product and private cloud offering is coming, hopefully lifting Overland out of the prolonged hole it has been in. The fourth quarter (Q4 2011), …

    Cloud Business 14 Sep 08:00

  • Twitter contests ad company's 'tweets' trademark

    If you aren't a bird, you can't use our word

    Twitter said that a trademark belonging to Twittad "threatens to block" it from registering "tweet" as its own "legitimate" mark, according to the company's legal submission to a district court in San Francisco. Twittad owns the trademark "Let Your Ad Meet Tweets". It is a company that "offers online advertising services …

    Law 14 Sep 08:19

  • Winklevoss twins: Zuck on our salty nuts

    Rapier wit on display as brothers stick oar in again

    The Winklevoss twins are back in the limelight (well, sort of) by starring in a US telly advert for pistachios that sends up the brothers' legal fight with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The twins' well-publicised claims that Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook from their Harvard network ConnectU bagged them a $65m …

    Music and Media 14 Sep 08:39

  • Facebook security profiling doesn't like African log-ins

    Social network nearly cost Kenyan employee his job

    A tip-off from a source has turned up an interesting quirk in Facebook's security measures. He claims the social networking site appears to discriminate against log-ins from Africa. Our tipster, Raj from Vancouver, Canada, has an interesting if unusual set of circumstances. Raj runs a tech business and uses Facebook to …

    Networks 14 Sep 09:00

  • Virgin Media finally offers network options on SuperHub

    For best 5GHz results, get rid of your walls and doors

    Virgin Media has finally issued an update for its SuperHub box that allows its customers to configure custom network set-ups with the kit. The latest firmware upgrade (R30) comes seven months after VM debuted SuperHub, which was immediately hampered by stability issues and slow connections. Many customers grumbled about the …

    Networks 14 Sep 09:01

  • Google plan to kill Javascript with Dart, fight off Apple

    Leaked email speaks of battle to save the web from iOS

    Google has apparently invented its Dart web programming language as a replacement for Javascript. Dart, revealed last week, has been conceived as a way to overcome what Google has determined are "fundamental flaws" in Javascript, according to what purports to be a leaked internal company email from November 2010. These flaws …

    Developer 14 Sep 09:29

  • TouchPad sales doubled after it was discontinued

    Fire sale caught fire: Last chance at Carphone Warehouse

    Hewlett-Packard doubled its fondleslab shipments after revealing plans to ditch them and more importantly gutting the price. Channel analyst Context says HP TouchPad flogged nearly 31,000 devices across the UK, Germany and France in August – twice the amount in July – after a very slow start to the month and confirmation mid- …

    Channel Register 14 Sep 09:44

  • Star Control

    Antique Code Show Captain's log...

    Star Control 2 is a bloody good game, but not the game I fell in love with. Yet it was playing the original Star Control on my Sega Genesis that just makes me feel all squidgy inside. With colour spaceships that battle across my screen to eerie alien toonz, I didn't need Arnie in Total Recall to fulfil my sci-fi fetish. …

    reghardware 14 Sep 10:00

  • Winter for webOS, winter for Droid, but springtime for iPad!

    Sing along with the fondle-slab forecast

    IDC has upped fondleslab shipment forecasts as the mature PC market looks set to plateau. The beancounter reckons 62.5 million tablets will be flogged into channels worldwide this year, up nearly 17 per cent on the previous estimates, while the mature PC market is forecast to edge up just 3 per cent. The increase comes on the …

    Channel Register 14 Sep 10:13

  • Apple pulls smartphone slavery app

    Child labour exposé 'excessively objectionable'

    An iPhone game that documents the process of creating a smartphone has been removed from the App store, after its content proved too excessive for Apple's guidelines. Molleindustria's Phone Story takes a humorous stab at the controversial process of smartphone manufacture, from mining in the Congo to the abysmal factory …

    reghardware 14 Sep 10:27

  • LOHAN to suck mighty thruster as it goes off, in a shed

    Our cunning DIY hypobaric rocket-test rig

    Our piece earlier this week on possible power plants for our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) rocket-powered spaceplane got you lot thinking about how one would go about testing a rocket motor which needs to fire at altitude and -60°C. To recap, experts gathered at International Rocket Week advised us to go for an …

    SPB 14 Sep 10:30

  • Moto beat Google up by a third in Googorola haggling

    Chocolateers unable to contain their lust

    Google was so eager to land Motorola Mobility, it raised its offer by 33 per cent over two weeks of negotiations, according to a regulatory filing. The Chocolate Factory first offered $30 per share to bag the hardware firm's patents, but Motorola, on the advice of their financial guys, were having none of it - and suggested …

    Financial News 14 Sep 10:43

  • Xperia Ray beams down to Blighty

    Up for contract

    Sony Ericsson has at last launched its latest Android smartphone - the Xperia Ray - which can now be picked up here in Blighty from a range of service providers. O2 revealed its Xperia Ray prices, with the handset offered for free on a £15.50 a month contract. This'll fetch you 200 minutes and unlimited texts. Meanwhile, …

    reghardware 14 Sep 10:44

  • Facebook lets users have separated social, er, Circles

    You know when you said no spam? Say it again ... bitch

    Facebook slotted a new feature into the ubiquitous social network yesterday that immediately got the blogosphere arguing over whether the company was copying Google+ and its people-curating Circles function. Zuckerberg's people were quick to point out that Facebook was here way before Google got into the networking biz. " …

    Networks 14 Sep 10:56

  • ASA probes Microsoft cloud reliability claims

    It's only Office 365 if you round up

    The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) is checking out a complaint about claims from Microsoft that it can guarantee 99.9 per cent uptime on its cloud services. The Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) has been prone to outages. And even its successor, Office 365, has gone down twice since its launch in late June, leading …

    Channel Register 14 Sep 11:12

  • Feds probe eBay over Craigslist plunder allegations

    Tit-for-tat tat spat goes criminal

    US prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into allegations eBay employees stole confidential information from Craigslist, according to a grand jury subpoena. The two internet companies have been slugging it out in the civil courts for years, with Craigslist insisting eBay used its stake in the classified ad website …

    Business 14 Sep 11:25

  • Report: Involve IT experts in releasing gov datasets

    All too easy to violate privacy without tech insight

    A review (84-page/927KB PDF) of information transparency and privacy commissioned by the Cabinet Office has concluded that IT experts should help decide whether to release datasets and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) should have a greater technical awareness. The review was led by Dr Kieron O'Hara, senior research …

    Government 14 Sep 11:42

  • Intel-Google love-in leaves MeeGo going nowhere

    Comment Red-headed penguin stepchild Cinderella

    Intel has jumped into bed with Google, but the palpable excitement emanating from both companies seems incongruous - as it signals doom for the chip giant's child from its previous marriage of convenience, MeeGo. It was only nineteen months ago that Intel and Nokia announced they were combining their respective Linux platforms …

    Developer 14 Sep 11:58

  • Defendant presents Playmobil rendering of court in court

    Creates requirement for impossible infinitesimal figures

    A Maltese woman accused of fraud and breach of copyright for flogging Playmobil dioramas on eBay earned herself a few pints on the El Reg Bootnotes department yesterday by turning up in court with a miniature rendering of her own trial. Vicky Vassallo was dragged before the beak for selling "sets of Playmobil figures built …

    Bootnotes 14 Sep 12:29

  • Celebs, victims selected to join in phone-hack probe

    Rowling, Gazza, McCanns, Hugh Grant ... not Rebekah

    Former News International boss Rebekah Brooks will not take part in a judicial inquiry into culture, practices and ethics of the British press. Brooks, who resigned from her job at NI in July after closing the "toxic" News of the World as allegations of widespread phone-hacking practices at the Sunday tabloid unfolded, had …

    ID 14 Sep 12:38

  • HTC knocks out the Beats

    Sonic Sensation

    HTC has officially unveiled the HTC Sensation XE, the first of many handsets to feature Beats audio technology. Essentially a refreshed version of the HTC Sensation, the XE packs a faster processor, better battery life and of course, the Beats audio tech which HTC recently acquired a controlling stake in. The Sensation XE is …

    reghardware 14 Sep 12:41

  • UK cyber security plan delayed till October

    'Tier 1 national priority' wasn't ready in time

    The UK government's Cyber Security Strategy publication for this year is now expected in mid-October, after being delayed until after the party conference season. The Minister for Cyber Security, Francis Maude, was due to make a parliamentary statement on the strategy before the end of the month, but Thursday is the last day …

    Security 14 Sep 12:52

  • Beyond WAR: How I bitchslapped Google

    WAR on the cloud 5 Bagging the sticky eyeball

    In part 4 I had a quick peek at the performance of Rackspace's CDN and liked what I saw. Now I'm starting to use the CDN with my main site, but I discovered that I had plenty of other things to fix to make the CDN worthwhile and get my home page faster to load than Google's! Speed matters A fast-loading web page, especially …

    Infrastructure 14 Sep 13:00

  • Securo-boffins call for 'self-aware' defensive technologies

    Say they should be used to protect 'leccy, gas, water

    Security boffins should concentrate on creating self-aware technologies that can learn from cyber attacks, summit experts say, proving that none of them have ever seen a movie about artificial intelligence. Participants at the inaugural World Cyber Security Technology Research summit also reckoned figuring out how to protect …

    Security 14 Sep 13:58

  • Romanian dragon-wolves aim for virtualised security

    BitDefender looks to build bigger with BRICs

    BitDefender is focusing on providing better security for virtualised environments and says expansion into emerging markets is key to its plans for growth. The Romanian firm wants to help firms implementing server consolidation projects to improve their security with a virtual appliance so that companies do not have to run anti …

    Virtualization 14 Sep 14:21

  • Now Windows 8 goes into the ring to face Apple's iOS

    Analysis Bloodied webOS, RIM tag in the big bruiser

    Does Windows 8 mean Microsoft can finally close the technology and credibility gap with Apple, putting a touchable mass-market version of Windows on tablets? Less than 24 hours after Microsoft released an incomplete preview of Windows 8, some say "yes". Apple ushered in the post-PC era, but Windows 8 is the post-post PC era, …

    Developer 14 Sep 14:36

  • University of Tsukuba orders 800Tflop Xeon E5 hybrid

    Ceepie-Geepie splices x64, GPUs into powerful chimera

    Supercomputer upstart Appro International has bagged a deal to supply Tsukuba University in Japan with an 800 teraflops machine based on Intel's impending "Sandy Bridge" Xeon E5 processors. The chip maker is hosting its Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco this week, but is not expected to divulge much about the server …

    HPC 14 Sep 15:00

  • Be chums offer 1Gbit/s fibre-to-the-premises in London

    Hyperoptic hypes its optics

    A new ISP arrived today courtesy of Be Broadband's founders, offering extremely speedy fibre connections. However the telco currently has very limited reach to some larger residential and commercial properties in London. Hyperoptic is offering 1 Gbit/s fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) to some homes and businesses in the capital …

    Telecoms 14 Sep 15:35

  • Intel goes virtual to root out rootkits

    IDF 2011 DeepSafe: Follow the malware

    Intel bought McAfee so it could bring antivirus and intrusion detection closer to the chip, and with DeepSafe – a technology that CEO Paul Otellini previewed at Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco this week – the company will be making good on that promise. DeepSafe will put some of the antivirus code underneath the …

    Security 14 Sep 16:28

  • Windows Server 8 plays catch-up with VMware and Unix

    Preview Microsoft rolls 'cloud-based operating system'

    "The cloud is a tectonic shift," said Microsoft's corporate vice president of server and cloud Bill Laing, introducing an in-depth press preview of Windows Server 8 and mixing metaphors with abandon. In response to this cloudy earthquake, the company is declaring Server 8 to be a cloud-based operating system, though note that …

    Developer 14 Sep 16:30

  • Apple preps MacBook Pro refresh

    Sandy Bridge speed bumps ahead

    Apple is preparing a Macbook Pro refresh, that'll bring all models up to speed with Intel's current Core i5 and i7 processors. Sources told AppleInsider that the refresh is on the cards as early as the end of this month, in order to keep competitive over the holiday season ahead of the Ivy Bridge next-gen refresh in Q2 2012. …

    reghardware 14 Sep 16:42

  • Intel keeps mum on Ice Cream Sarnie support for Atom tablets

    IDF 2011 Focusing on Honeycomb

    Expect to see the first Intel-based tablets running Android in Q1 2012. They might even run Ice Cream Sandwich. Intel isn't saying. ICS support is still "to be determined", the chip giant indicated during a discussion about Android on Intel tablets at IDF. Instead, it was highlighting Android 3.2's support for its tablet- …

    reghardware 14 Sep 18:22

  • Intel pitches netbook-cum-tablet 'hybrids'

    IDF 2011 Best of both worlds - or neither fish nor fowl?

    Can't decide whether you want a tablet or a netbook? Have both, says Intel. The chip giant today pitched the notion of a hybrid device, skinnier than a netbook but thicker than a tablet by bringing the latter a built-in keyboard. It's not a new notion, of course. Dell launched the Inspiron Duo last year, and during 2011 the …

    reghardware 14 Sep 18:55

  • Ballmer reprises 'developers, developers, developers' chant

    BUILD Windows is a money machine, howls MS boss

    Steve Ballmer has told developers that if they want the biggest market for their software, the only choice is Microsoft. In a surprise appearance at Microsoft's BUILD conference in Anaheim, California on Wednesday, Ballmer said that when Windows 8 goes live, there will be 500 million machines capable of running the new OS, and …

    Developer 14 Sep 19:13

  • Pano Logic woos SMBs with 'one-step' VDI

    Size of step may vary

    Desktop virtualization outfit Pano Logic has uncloaked two new server contraptions that feed virtual desktops to its "zero clients", curiously small silver cubes meant to replace big and beefy client PCs. With these server bundles, the Redwood City, California outfit is wooing all those small- and medium-sized businesses that …

    Small Biz 14 Sep 19:42

  • Windows 8 to ship with built-in malware protection

    'Tons of security features' added

    Microsoft's next version of Windows will ship with "tons of security features," including one that automatically scans boot drives for malware and a revamped version of the Windows Defender antivirus program, company executives said. At the company's BUILD conference in Anaheim, California on Tuesday, Corporate Vice President …

    Malware 14 Sep 20:44

  • Intel demos Panel Self-Refresh power-saving tech

    IDF 2011 DisplayPort screens store their own picture

    Intel today demo'd an interesting screen-based power-conservation technology: Panel Self-Refresh (PSR), part of the Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) standard. PSR incorporates a frame buffer into the display's own electronics, allowing it to refresh the screen's pixels directly rather than continuously requesting image data from the …

    reghardware 14 Sep 22:05

  • Qantas trials iPad in the sky

    Apple boards the flying kangaroo

    Qantas has decided to trial Apple iPads as an in-flight entertainment option on selected flights from October. The Australian carrier has been considering the technology platform for some time. Qantas will pre-load the iPads with content including television shows, movies and music to be delivered to all passengers on one …

    Business 14 Sep 22:28

  • Kogan sparks new controversy

    Parallel imports into Oz to undercut local channels

    In a move that’s certain to spark hot debate, serial controversialist and electronics retailer Kogan has announced that customers can buy kit from Apple, Nikon, Canon and Samsung from its site. As the company coyly describes its new offerings, it is sourcing the brand-name kit “higher up in the supply chain, and selling direct …

    Channel Register 14 Sep 22:28

  • TomorrowNow pleads guilty to illegal Oracle slurping

    Defunct SAP outfit agrees to $20m fine

    TomorrowNow has pleaded guilty to criminal charges that it illegally downloaded copyrighted Oracle software in an effort to pry customers from the database giant between December 2006 and April 2007. According to a statement from United States Attorney Melinda Haag, the former SAP subsidiary – which was shut down in 2008 – has …

    Applications 14 Sep 22:49

  • Kiwi rugby rats warned to keep eye on the hacker ball

    When PBXs go bad...

    New Zealand business owners gripped by Rugby World Cup fever have been warned to keep an eye on their PBXs during festivities. The New Zealand Telecommunication Carriers Forum (TCF) claims that the incidence of PBX fraud has increased four-fold during 2010, with around 30 to 40 New Zealand companies getting hit by …

    Security 14 Sep 23:30

  • Intel laptop boss to make Ultrabooks context savvy

    IDF 2011 Optional sensor tech to become mandatory

    Pundits have been talking about building GPS and other sensors into notebooks for some years. Now it may actually happen. Optional for the moment, Intel is planning to mandate the addition of a variety of sensors into its Ultrabook spec. Speaking after his IDF keynote today, Intel's PC Group chief, Mooly Eden, said he wants …

    reghardware 14 Sep 23:38