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19th September 2011 Archive

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  • 3D printing for artificial blood vessels

    Igor! Fire the laser!

    In Pay the Printer, Philip K Dick imagined a species called “Printers” who could organically create perfect copies of complex objects. In this world, the increasingly-popular 3D printer can’t create a car, but its ability to produce simple 3D objects is being used to create blood vessels. The researchers, led by Fraunhofer’s …

    Biology 19 Sep 00:30

  • Diminutive robot to attempt Iron Man Triathalon

    Plastic Man Triathlon in this case

    A 20-inch robot powered by just three rechargeable batteries will take on the gruelling Iron Man triathlon course. Because it can. The robot – consisting of a small green and white body and a modest battery-pack will have to swim, run and bike for 230km (143miles). Mr Evolta comes with three interchangeable body parts, which …

    Rise of the Machines 19 Sep 07:02

  • Anobit brings out second generation of Genesis SSD

    Well it's not Genesis any more then, is it?

    Anobit's second-generation Genesis solid-state drive has pretty much double the performance of its first-gen sibling. The latest Genesis is a 2.5-inch form factor SSD with either 6GB/s SATA (T series) or 6GB/s SAS (S series) interfaces. In terms of capacity, it's available in 100, 200 or 400GB, as before, but 800GB and greater …

    Storage 19 Sep 07:30

  • Buckinghamshire council seeks managed ICT deal

    £100m pork cloud in the offing

    Buckinghamshire County Council has invited tenders for a wide range of managed ICT services which will be underpinned by the Public Services Network (PSN). The four-year framework deal is worth between £20m and £100m and has been published by Buckinghamshire on behalf of itself and local authorities in adjacent counties and …

    Cloud Business 19 Sep 07:59

  • Google reveals 'leap smear' NTP technique

    Copes with problems of living on spinning space boulder

    Google has to lie to computers in order not to upset them with the vagaries of earthly time. The text-ads colossus has just written a blog post on how it adjusts its computer systems to deal with leap seconds – by lying to them a bit with a technique it calls "leap smear", where the search giant adds a few milliseconds bit by …

    Bootnotes 19 Sep 08:30

  • New Intel 710: The numbers don't look good

    Apparent stinker from Chipzilla

    Intel's delayed 710 SSD, its X25-E replacement, has arrived at last, after having been initially outed back in July. It's a fairly standard – for these days – 25nm, 2-bit MLC solid state drive, with 100, 200 and 300GB capacity points. But it has wildly skewed read and write performance and poor-to-average bandwidth numbers. …

    Storage 19 Sep 08:58

  • Intel: You may already be using Xeon E5 without knowing it

    IDF 2011 In service with secret users: The rest of us must wait

    Do you know why Intel hasn't launched the Sandy Bridge-EP Xeon E5 processor for two-socket servers? Neither do we, but after attending Intel Developer Forum last week, we have some pretty good guesses. Given the relative dearth of processor news at the IDF show, the attendees and vendors that El Reg spoke to at the show had …

    HPC 19 Sep 09:14

  • Verity's secret shame revealed

    Stob Password techniques and retrospective Daleks

    I defrosted my ideas box, and found several morsels which wouldn't make a whole meal in themselves, but nonetheless needed eating. Palmed off Here you are: a free chance get to laugh at-not-with me. I am a Palm Pre owner, pretty much the last one in the box. I hold this status in a work environment of iPeople. I feel my …

    Verity Stob 19 Sep 09:41

  • M-Audio Keystation Mini 32

    Geek Treat of the Week iPad savvy MIDI controller

    It always pays to read the fine print, especially when it’s to be found on the bottom of a box, while on the top the label says, ‘Works with iPad’. Such is the case with M-Audio’s Keystation Mini 32, a really rather good portable keyboard controller for mobile musos and the classroom. This host powered 32-note USB keyboard isn …

    reghardware 19 Sep 10:00

  • Samsung preps anti-iPhone 5 lawsuit before it's even out

    'They will only escape us by removing phone capability'

    Samsung will try to get the iPhone 5 banned in Korea by using a patent lawsuit to block the phone, a source has told the Korean Times. A Samsung executive told the paper that the next edition of the iPhone will almost certainly break patents that Samsung holds in Korea. The exec told the paper: "Just after the arrival of the …

    Mobile 19 Sep 10:11

  • Google now a serious rival to Microsoft in cloud email

    Small players to be squashed as giant fatboys wrestle

    Gmail is emerging as a threat to the big boys in the enterprise email industry, despite holding just one per cent of the market and Google's refusal to tweak its service to suit individual customers. The Chocolate Factory also faces a bitter battle with Microsoft in the email cloud space - a war that could trample over other …

    SaaS 19 Sep 10:20

  • Oracle rushes out emergency Apache DoS patch

    Sysadmins shouldn't hang about with this one...

    Oracle broke with tradition with the publication of an unscheduled security update last weekend. The fix – which addresses a DoS vulnerability in its Apache web server software – represents only the fifth time that Oracle has published a security fix outside the quarterly patch update batch it began at the start of 2005, net …

    Enterprise Security 19 Sep 10:29

  • Computacenter networking boss Godwin heads to Avnet

    Set to run Middle East region in time for European winter

    Avnet Technology Solutions has plucked Computacenter's (CC) data centre and networking boss Henry Godwin from the UK to run its Middle East and Africa operation. For Godwin this represents a return to his roots, as he previously did time in distribution before moving to services-based-reseller CC. Godwin was the HP and …

    Channel Register 19 Sep 10:30

  • Angry Birds theme park takes off in China

    Grand scale gaming

    An Angry Birds theme park has opened in China where punters can literally catapult cuddly squawkers at green pig balloons scattered among delicately built toy castles. The unlicensed attraction, labelled as the first 3D Angry Birds game, is part of the park's stress-reduction festival that runs this September, CNN Go reports …

    reghardware 19 Sep 10:34

  • Chinese bloke gets eel lodged up todger

    Anguilline exfoliation treatment ends in 'severe pain'

    A Chinese man who slid into a spa tub full of eels to enjoy some rejuvenating piscine exfoliation ended up in hospital with one of the slippery customers lodged firmly up his todger. Zhang Nan, of Honghu, Hubei Province, recounted: "I climbed into the bath and I could feel the eels nibbling my body. But then suddenly I felt a …

    Bootnotes 19 Sep 10:39

  • Drupal's Torvalds figure gets life-sucking Android app

    How you know you've arrived in the tech world

    "Is this for real?" the Torvalds of Drupal tweeted this weekend, before continuing: "Dries Buytaert Android App". Yes, Dries, it is real. Buytaert, the founder and leader of Drupal, has been turned into an application for download on the Android marketplace. Called simply "Dries", the application claims it'll tell you …

    Developer 19 Sep 10:50

  • Give me 10 gig Ethernet now!

    This back up is so backed up

    Data storage demands within the enterprise grow every year. Managing this data is a challenge for organisations of all sizes, writes Trevor Pott. The data we move around is now practically measured in terabytes. Depending on your data usage and backup requirements, traditional gigabit Ethernet is simply too slow. Consider for …

    Sysadmin blog 19 Sep 11:01

  • Pirate party hauls in Berlin state election booty

    Angela's party came second. Awwww Arrr

    Piratenpartei Deutschland, the German Pirate Party, has won 8.9 per cent of votes cast in Berlin's state elections. It is the highest vote share the oddballs have ever received in Germany, and early estimates suggest the vote earns it 14 or 15 seats in the 130-seat Berlin regional parliament. The vote also saw a 17.6 per cent …

    Government 19 Sep 11:14

  • Royal rugby star bar snog CCTV upload - bouncer in court

    'You did something wrong to your nation'

    A man has appeared in court after allegedly uploading CCTV footage that apparently showed England rugby star Mike Tindall being kissed by a blonde woman. Jonathan Dixon, 40, appeared at Queenstown District Court, New Zealand, according to a BBC report, accused of "accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose". No plea …

    Enterprise Security 19 Sep 11:28

  • Gaps in the apps mean shops miss out on sales

    UK retailers losing millions because of poor integration

    UK shops in every industry are missing out on millions of pounds in additional sales because they don't have online services, or the ones they do have aren't good enough to close out sales, according to a new study. Deficit in sales growth, by sector, due to poor customer experience online. Graphic courtesy of Head London …

    Developer 19 Sep 11:41

  • Qualcomm showing signs of turning soft with age

    Analysis New hardware hard to see at annual show'n'tell

    There's more to learn from the absences at Qualcomm's annual showcase than from what's actually on the shelves, with colour screens and wireless charging pushed out by social networking and augmented reality. Every year, Qualcomm Europe demonstrates its cutting-edge tech to network operators, media folk, and employees over …

    PCs & Chips 19 Sep 11:50

  • Apple MacBook Air 11in Core i5 notebook

    Review Small wonder?

    For years this particular Mac user preferred to carry around an X-Series ThinkPad, despite having a house full of Apple laptops. That's because Apple could offer nothing with comparable size and weight. It was worth putting up with Windows or Ubuntu to gain the convenience of a smaller lighter machine. Entry level: Apple's …

    reghardware 19 Sep 12:00

  • The amazing shipping container: How it changed the world

    The other reason everything says 'Made In China'

    Keith Tantlinger has just died. He's someone you almost certainly haven't heard of and someone who – along with Malcolm McLean (no, not McLaren) – changed our world to the extent that it would have been almost unrecognisable to our forefathers. They also – if you want to squint at it – made the European Union redundant six …

    Channel Register 19 Sep 12:14

  • Google grasps German Groupon-a-like

    After failing to buy up actual Groupon

    Google has acquired coupon site, DailyDeal.de, according to a statement on the German company's website. DailyDeal, started by brothers Fabian and Ferry Heilemann at the end of 2009, has reportedly grown fast, with Fabian saying in April that the company expected a turnover of €30m to €40m for 2011 after selling over 250,000 …

    Financial News 19 Sep 12:29

  • Lanci's Lenovo move 'negative' for Acer – Morgan Stanley

    Former CEO's shift to rival may damage Taiwanese giant

    Lenovo's appointment of PC industry big hitter Gianfranco Lanci will heap further pressure on his former employer Acer, according to Morgan Stanley. Lanci – who left the Taiwanese notebook giant Acer in March after a board-level disagreement over strategic direction – moved to Lenovo to consult on its consumer biz at the end …

    Channel Register 19 Sep 12:45

  • Go Daddy mass hack points surfers towards malware

    Password-snaffling miscreants hijack 445 sites

    Hundreds of Go Daddy sites were compromised to point towards a site hosting malware last weekend. The mass hack of around 445 sites involved the injection of hostile code into the .htaccess files of the sites. Go Daddy quickly removed the hostile code before working with its customers to take back full control of the sites, …

    Enterprise Security 19 Sep 12:58

  • Maxima turns to M&A veteran after sale talks go stale

    Managed services firm hires Ian Smith as non-exec director

    Maxima has hired buy-and-build specialist Ian Smith as a non-exec director in the wake of its failed attempt to sell the business. The London Stock Exchange listed managed services provider last week revealed that it had been unable to thrash out a deal with several interested suitors and that the offer period had lapsed. The …

    Channel Register 19 Sep 13:12

  • Online gamers strike major blow in battle against AIDS

    Distributed human-brain cluster cracks protein conundrum

    A bunch of gamers have untangled the structure of a key protein in the virus that causes AIDS, a mystery that has left scientists stumped for decades. It took just three weeks for players of online game Foldit to predict an accurate model for the protein – a type of enzyme called a retroviral protease that has a critical role …

    Biology 19 Sep 13:19

  • Avere menaces NetApp with accelerators

    Promises satisfaction without short-stroking

    Avere says it is capturing business that would have gone to NetApp because its clustered accelerators cost less than NetApp storage upgrades, and run faster. The FXT products from Avere are called optimisers by the company, and they sit in front of filers. They use tiers of storage, including DRAM, NV-RAM, flash and 10K SAS …

    Storage 19 Sep 13:42

  • NASA releases asteroid flyby video from Dawn probe

    Clanger homeworld boasts Everest-beating space mountain

    NASA has released a new video showing Vesta, giant queen of the asteroid belt, in unprecedented detail. One of the highlights of the new data, collected by NASA's ion-engine space probe dawn in orbit around the mighty space boulder, is an espceially precipitous region located at the body's south pole. The space agency …

    Space 19 Sep 13:58

  • Blighty's Android fans get British English voice control

    Rind and rind the rindabite

    Google has revealed that Voice Actions, the series of spoken commands that allows users to control their Android phone just by talking to it, now supports good ol' British English. The company announced on Friday that folk in the UK - not to mention France, Italy, Germany and Spain - can all now use the Voice Actions feature …

    reghardware 19 Sep 14:03

  • Dell: HP's PC exit is an opportunity, not a death knell

    Without hardware, there can be no software or services

    It doesn't want to buy out Hewlett Packard's PC business, but Dell is going to keep making and selling computers – Michael Dell told FT.com yesterday. Dell sees HP's surprise exit from the field as an opportunity for Dell rather than a harbinger of doom for the industry. The Dell CEO maintained that hardware still matters and …

    Financial News 19 Sep 14:22

  • Japan's biggest defence contractor hit by hackers

    Submarine plant, missile factory among targets

    Japan's biggest defence contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has become the victim of a malware-based hack attack. The firm said that the attack resulted in the infection of 10 of its sites across Japan, including its submarine manufacturing plant in Kobe and a facility in Nagoya which makes engine parts for missiles. In …

    Enterprise Security 19 Sep 14:42

  • NASA: Beam me up some power, Scotty

    Space boffins want to drive future craft by RAYGUN

    NASA boffins are looking into making a science-fiction staple - the idea of transmitting power to spacecraft using lasers or microwaves - into reality. Sending enough energy to replace commonly-used present day space propulsion via laser beam would be quite a feat. One of the most powerful lasers in the world that's capable of …

    Space 19 Sep 15:04

  • Boffins crack smartphone Wi-Fi for greater battery life

    Juice magicians

    Researchers have worked out another method for dramatically boosting a smartphone's battery life, by devising a new "subconscious" mode of operation. A couple of boffins from the University of Michigan have created a conceptual system called E-MILi, or Energy-Minimalising Idle Listening, that looks at the energy wasted when …

    reghardware 19 Sep 15:21

  • Fox turns LightSquared political

    GOP angered by billionaire's ties to Democrats

    Wannabe network operator LightSquared is under attack from Republicans who have asked for an investigation into whether the White House pressured its Air Force Space Commander into changing his testimony on possible GPS interference caused by LightSquared's activities. The accusation is fiercely denied by LightSquared and the …

    Wireless 19 Sep 15:41

  • Microsoft's high-risk Windows 8 .NET switch

    Revenge of COM, or something like it

    Microsoft spooked .NET developers earlier this year by emphasising HTML and JavaScript as the programming platform for Windows 8. Any questions were met with the answer: "Wait until BUILD." Well, BUILD took place last week, so what is happening with .NET and Windows? You can frame the beginning of this story in various …

    Developer 19 Sep 16:05

  • Netflix: How to completely screw up

    DVDs-by-email success story is losing customers...

    As recently as June, Netflix looked like one of the biggest consumer success stories in digital media. The company was already synonymous with DVDs-by-email, an idea imitated worldwide, and was bundling on-demand TV and movie streaming at an incredibly low price. By May, Netflix traffic had overtaken Bittorrent volumes in the …

    Music and Media 19 Sep 17:29

  • IBM pitches overclocked Xeons to Wall Street

    Hot server for hedge funds

    Big Blue has joined the ranks of server makers that are pitching servers using over-clocked processors to latency-sensitive financial services companies. IBM's new System x3650 M3 HF server is based on Intel's "Everest" Xeon 5698 variant of the "Westmere-EP" Xeon 5600 lineup, which has four of its six cores disabled and which …

    Servers 19 Sep 17:55

  • Apple makes a hash of password security (again)

    Shadow boxing

    Apple has dropped a couple of monumental password security clangers with the release on OS X Lion, according to security blogger Patrick Dunstan. Dunstan, who posted an important piece on cracking Mac OS X passwords a couple of years ago, decided to revisit the subject with the release of OS X Lion (version 10.7). He …

    Security 19 Sep 19:32

  • Microsoft 'paid over £1m to silence UK exec over sexism'

    Claims of papering over the glass ceiling

    Microsoft has been accused of paying a senior executive over a million pounds in a settlement to silence claims that she was passed over for promotion to the head of Redmond’s UK operations. An anonymous source told The Daily Telegraph that Natalie Ayres had been passed over for the top job in 2006, despite her 15 years with …

    Channel Register 19 Sep 19:59

  • Hackers break SSL encryption used by millions of sites

    Beware of BEAST decrypting secret PayPal cookies

    Researchers have discovered a serious weakness in virtually all websites protected by the secure sockets layer protocol that allows attackers to silently decrypt data that's passing between a webserver and an end-user browser. The vulnerability resides in versions 1.0 and earlier of TLS, or transport layer security, the …

    ID 19 Sep 21:10

  • Craig Wireless splashes $US5.5m on Woosh

    Buys Kiwi ISP

    New Zealand wireless ISP, Woosh, has been snapped up by Californian headquartered telecommunications company Craig Wireless Systems for $US5.5m. Under the deal, Craig Wireless subsidiary Craig Wireless South will take on Woosh’s debt from investors Kuwait Finance House, New Zealand Australia Private Equity Fund, and Bridge Ltd …

    Business 19 Sep 22:24

  • Red Hat's open virtualization mob signs up 200 members

    Assault on VMware grows

    The Open Virtualization Alliance (OVA) – the Red Hat-led corsortium that's campaigning for open source alternatives to the VMware hypervisor – has grown to 200 members since its launch in May. On Monday, the OVA said that many of the new members come from emerging markets in Asia and Latin America and over half of its members …

    Virtualization 19 Sep 23:26

  • Samsung fights back downunder

    Launches countersuit against Apple

    The ongoing Apple vs Samsung Electronics tablet patent battle has taken a new twist with Samsung filing a counter lawsuit in Australia. Bloomberg reports that a Samsung Electronics spokesman confirmed that a counter claim was filed in the federal court of Australia, which alleges violation of seven Samsung patents. The fresh …

    Mobile 19 Sep 23:30