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10th October 2011 Archive

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  • Behind iVEC’s ‘big science’ supercomputer

    Putting Australia’s West on the map

    Each of its 96 nodes has two six-core Intel Xeon X5650s, one NVIDIA Tesla C2050 GPU, and 48 GB of RAM, but the SGI “Fornax” supercomputer opened late September as part of Western Australia’s Pawsey Centre project is still a test bed in some ways. The demands of “big science” are so intensive, and the data sets so diverse …

    HPC 10 Oct 00:01

  • Napster boys are back with Airtime

    Backed by the Valley's VC elite

    The dynamic digital duo from Napster, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, are back with a new social video platform called Airtime. Neither will detail what Airtime does – although it was formerly known as Supyo – but some commentators have tipped it will be a less sleazy version of Chatroulette. Fanning has emerged as Airtime CEO …

    Media 10 Oct 00:39

  • Can network architectures break the speed limit?

    Bandwidth is never enough

    How much bandwidth is enough? The answer is almost always: how much do you have and what will it cost? The two major networking architectures in the world, InfiniBand and Ethernet, have been struggling to keep up with the bandwidth demands of corporate data centres and service providers, which want increasingly wide networks …

    Enterprise Tech 10 Oct 01:00

  • The life and times of Steven Paul Jobs, Part Two

    Empire-building inspirational visionary, or megalomaniacal swine?

    Before Steve Jobs introduced the iMac on May 6, 1998, his life – as we detailed earlier – had been a roller-coaster of ups and downs. After the iMac shipped on August 15 of that same year, however, he and the company he led traded that carnival ride for a rocket. The iMac was an immediate success. "We have had a phenomenal …

    PCs & Chips 10 Oct 02:04

  • Scientists break card that secures homes, offices, transit

    Does hack of Mifare DESFire Smartcard affect NASA, too?

    Scientists have circumvented the encryption used to protect a smartcard that's widely used to restrict access in corporate and government buildings, and to process payments in public transit systems, a feat that makes it possible to clone perfect replicas of the digital keys and steal or modify their contents. The attack, …

    Security 10 Oct 05:00

  • Brit boffins' bendy bamboo bike breakthrough

    Photo update Velocipede survives Alps trip, goes on sale

    The first UK-built bamboo bike has been shown off at the Cycle Show in Birmingham. One of the bamboo bikes from the range. Image courtesy RAW Bamboo Bikes The large grass velocipede is the brainchild of designers from Oxford Brookes University, who say that the bamboo has the strength of steel but the responsiveness of …

    Science 10 Oct 07:57

  • HP and Hynix to produce the memristor goods by 2013

    18 months to go, baby

    An HP/Hynix memristor product should be here in 18 months – and PCM, MRAM and RRAM are all memristor-type technologies... As reported by EETimes, this came out at the International Electronics Forum in Seville, in a presentation by Stan Williams, a senior HP Labs Fellow. The report quotes Williams saying: "We have a lot of …

    PCs & Chips 10 Oct 08:29

  • Twitter update: @regsecurity – The Reg bags imposter

    It's ours, all ours ...

    After a flurry of activity, we have gained control of @elreg, a Twitter fan feed with about 5,000 followers. Thank you, Adam Wood, for looking after that for us. We have also gained @theregister and @regsecurity after filing trademark abuse reports with Twitter. Thank you, Twitter. @theregister was a moribund RSS-to-Twitter …

    Site News 10 Oct 09:02

  • Citrix pushes the pedal on NetScaler appliance metal

    2,048-bit SSL coprocessor nitro

    Citrix Systems made a lot of noise by acquiring XenSource a few years back for a half billion bucks, but it still makes a lot of money from its NetScaler line of web application acceleration appliances. These include physical implementations (MPX), virtual ones (VPX) running inside of virtual machines, and the high-end ones for …

    Servers 10 Oct 09:24

  • Biker gang plunders Covent Garden Apple Store

    Two held over digital scrumping

    Grieving Apple Store staff arrived to work this morning to find their Covent Garden shop had been plundered overnight by a biker gang. Two men are being questioned by coppers after the "smash and grab" raid at 1am today, just days after the death of billionaire Apple baron Steve Jobs. Coppers were alerted after a gang of …

    Security 10 Oct 09:41

  • HP UK sales hit by PC biz uncertainty

    Leo's legacy lingers

    Demand for HP PCs waned in the UK following the disastrous decision to make public its strategic review of the Personal Systems Group, analyst figures reveal. The US tech titan downplayed the potential impact of blundering former CEO Leo Apotheker's poor handling of the situation, but the early signs indicate a resultant loss …

    Channel Register 10 Oct 09:50

  • Samsung sets back smartphone launch for Steve J

    Wrong time to praise a new Jesus Phone rival, apparently

    Samsung has claimed it did indeed decide to delay the announcement of its next Googlephone, dubbed the Nexus Prime, out of respect for the late Steve Jobs. "We decided it was not the right time to announce a new product while the world was expressing tribute to Steve Jobs' passing," a Samsung spokesman told the Reuters …

    reghardware 10 Oct 09:56

  • Olloclip three-in-one lens

    Geek Treat of the Week Optical expaaaaaaansion for the iPhone

    So Apple’s surprise non-announcement last week still made your original iPhone 4 feel a bit less special? Well, before you ditch and switch, maybe this is the alternative: bling up! Olloclip is a three-in-one lens attachment that adds plenty of extra zing to the iPhone 4’s standard lens, and of course any photo apps you might …

    reghardware 10 Oct 10:00

  • BT and F1 legend punt miracle diet in Twitter hijack

    The return of the Acai Berry scam

    BT Business and former F1 driver Nigel Mansell both fell victim to a Twitter hijack punting a well-known diet pill spam scam. Followers of both @btbusiness and @Mansell5 were on Friday both directed towards a weight loss site, featuring an advertorial on the supposed miracle Acai Berry diet at newzonlines(dot)com. BT Business …

    Security 10 Oct 10:16

  • E-book maker speeds E Ink Pearl tech

    Bookeen unveils High Speed ​​Ink System

    French e-book reader maker Bookeen, seemingly unfazed by Amazon's new Kindles, has announced the first of "a new generation of electronic books" with a new display tech. Dubbed the High Speed ​​Ink System (HSIS), the technology will debut with the Cybook Odyssey, due out in Europe in the "coming weeks", Bookeen said. Alas, it …

    reghardware 10 Oct 10:28

  • US rocketeer thunders to 121,000ft

    Mighty thruster vies for altitude prize

    A US rocketeer's mighty thruster has thundered to 121,000ft above Nevada, in the process returning some seriously impressive footage. Derek Deville's Qu8k soared from the launchpad at Black Rock Desert on 30 September. Here's the full-fat vid of the mission, and there's a shorter version right here: Qu8k was built to take …

    Science 10 Oct 10:29

  • RIM touches BlackBerrys together to swap content

    Rubbing off on one another

    Research in Motion has brought its community of BlackBerry users closer together with a new system for connecting one another's smartphones and sharing multimedia content. BlackBerry Tag allows users to share contact information, content and URLs, simply by tapping phones together. 'Tap to share' can instantly add each device …

    reghardware 10 Oct 10:30

  • Could! Yahoo! be! sold! to! private! buyers?

    Rumours of firm leaving public market to recover in peace

    Yahoo! co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang wants to take the ailing web company out of the stock market in a deal with private equity firms, if the latest speculation on the firm's future is to be believed. People close to the inner mechanisms of Yahoo! have been doing their thing with Reuters, whispering to the newswire that …

    Business 10 Oct 10:44

  • RMS swallowed by Pinnacle Telecom

    Reseller and services biz flogged after profits turned to losses

    Bosses at Redstone Managed Security (RMS) have sold up to cloud provider Pinnacle Telecom for £468,000, less than half the value of the deal they struck in an MBO last December. At the tail end of 2010, RMS management sealed a £1m bid for the security reselling and services outfit with previous owner Redstone – including £500, …

    Channel Register 10 Oct 10:52

  • The effects of Consumerisation results

    Reg Research The readers speak

    The results of our mega-survey on consumerisation are in. It was a big sucker, and all those who completed it should be congratulated for their stamina and commitment. And your efforts really are appreciated, because we learned a lot. In the first part of the survey, we asked readers to tell us about their own use of personal …

    Data Centre 10 Oct 11:00

  • Orange and T-Mobile join hands with 3G coverage

    Everything Everywhere getting there

    Orange and T-Mobile have extended their joint reach by making it possible for their respective customer bases to use 3G signals from both networks. When the companies joined forces under the Everything Everywhere banner in 2010, they underwent a "big switch-on" and opened up the 2G channels - voice, basically - to patrons …

    reghardware 10 Oct 11:01

  • Boffins fear killer gamma death blasts from space

    Short, hard and hot eruptions lead to unhappy ending...

    Boffins have discovered that short hard bursts of radiation in space caused by colliding stars could be as dangerous to the world's atmosphere as longer, high-energy ones. Studies have already shown that long bursts of gamma radiation from space, such as those caused by supernovae and extreme solar flares, can punch holes in …

    Science 10 Oct 11:14

  • German hackers snare wiretap Trojan, accuse gov of writing it...

    Who would admit to writing crappy code anyway?

    German hackers have captured and analysed a cyber-sleuth Trojan which they claim may have been used by police to tap Skype calls and IM chats of criminal or terrorist suspects. German wiretap laws do in fact permit the use of a "Bundestrojaner" ("Federal Trojan"), which has been used by police to record VoIP conversations for …

    Security 10 Oct 11:29

  • Zombie browser with evil past returns from the grave

    Regular and 'adult' versions promise to keep viruses from 'breeding'

    A rogue browser package has re-appeared online years after security researchers thought it was gone for good. Yapbrowser first appeared in 2006, inciting marks to use what was touted as a full-function web browser client. In reality, the software was jammed packed with adware from notorious (now defunct) outfit Zango. Users …

    Security 10 Oct 11:46

  • Toshiba Qosmio X770 17.3in 3D gaming notebook

    Review Fully loaded

    When Toshiba UK announced the launch of the Qosmio X770 3D – a new gaming laptop with stereoscopic 3D graphics and a 17.3in HD screen, I immediately thought: could this be an Alienware killer? Toshiba has been said to lag behind other manufacturers when it comes to high-end gaming laptops, but after spending time with the X770 I …

    reghardware 10 Oct 12:00

  • Email and compliance: How not to blow the storage budget?

    Commentards, we need your input

    Compliance. Was there ever a word to strike such terror into the heart of the average techie? (OK, “Audit”. But don’t blame us, we didn’t want to say it…) Juggling the often conflicting requirements of your budget and compliance is enough to give anyone a headache. So help us out with a question, if you would be so good. …

    Software 10 Oct 12:01

  • Hero Ordnance Surveyors dodge bullets, tweet as they map

    Just a mappin' and a-fussin' and a tweetin' and a 'cussin...

    Surveyors for Ordnance Survey maps have taken to Twitter to help the public understand what they are doing, with a Twittermap of the UK plotting their thoughts and observations as they roam the country, looking at roads and measuring things. The OS Mastermap receives 5,000 changes every day, as houses are taken down, roads are …

    Software 10 Oct 12:15

  • Huawei bolsters UK Advisory Board

    The baroness, the web seller and the TfL director

    Huawei has filled out the ranks of its UK Advisory Board with a peer, an IT industry veteran and a non-exec with a finger in quite a few pies. The sleeping Chinese giant – in the European enterprise market anyway – planted former UK Trade and Investment mandarin Sir Andrew Cahn at the head of the panel earlier this year. Now …

    Channel Register 10 Oct 12:29

  • Android Marketplace blocked by Great Firewall of China

    Dalai Lama ding-dong

    China appears to have tightened up its Great Firewall, interfering with Google services in what appears to be a reprisal against the Chocolate Factory playing politics. Access to the Android Marketplace has been blocked entirely from within China as The Next Web reports, but locals are also complaining that Android handsets …

    Policy 10 Oct 12:44

  • Cornish villagers treated to 4G trial

    Telcos agree to test tech together

    The collaborative trial of 4G networking tech has kicked off in Cornwall, with the intention of providing internet access to 200 people around St Newlyn East, half of them mobile. It's the combination of fixed and mobile subscribers, using the same frequency, which makes the trials interesting. LTE is already deployed in half …

    Networks 10 Oct 13:01

  • Steve Jobs: The Movie in the works

    Sony Pictures bags $1m rights to biopic iMovie

    After tributes from world leaders and spontaneous commemorations at Apple stores, Steve Jobs is to be honoured as only America knows how – with a Hollywood biopic. Sony Pictures has made a magnanimous offer for the rushed-to-press authorised biography by Walter Isaacson, originally due to come out in 2012 and then at the end …

    Media 10 Oct 13:21

  • Think 2014 if you're waiting for 4G in the UK

    Comment Ofcom juggles warring operators

    The UK is trialling 4G technology, while the rest of the world is deploying it, because our regulator hasn't the resources to mediate between operators bleating about the injustice of it all. Like warring siblings the UK's network operators constantly cry foul, demanding the regulator redress historical grievances and …

    Networks 10 Oct 13:41

  • Motorola punts Android into the enterprise

    £1,000 fondleslab for shopkeepers, not shoppers

    Motorola Solutions, the bit of Motorola that makes money and wasn't bought by Google, has nonetheless launched an Android tablet – but one aimed at retailers, not retail. The ET1 is a 7in tablet that is guaranteed against a 1.2-metre drop onto concrete, sealed against moisture and has a hot-swappable battery – though out of …

    Networks 10 Oct 13:58

  • Netflix cans Qwikster

    DVD rentals pulled back into streaming biz

    Netflix has canned Qwikster and will be bringing in the spun-off DVD rental operation back into the company's main business. "We are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs," CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings blogged today. "This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, …

    reghardware 10 Oct 14:14

  • iPhone 4S pay-monthly tariffs compared

    How low will they go?

    Apple's latest smartphone, the iPhone 4S, goes on sale in Blighty at the end of the week. All the UK's major networks will offer it. So which of them have the best deals? Most contracts are based on a two-year commitment and significantly vary, not only in price but in terms of what you get for your wonga. We've taken the …

    reghardware 10 Oct 14:23

  • BlackBerry BBM, email downed in epic FAIL

    Online service outage in Europe, Middle East and Africa

    BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa have been cut off from their online services because of a major fault at Research in Motion (RIM) in Canada. Irate owners haven't been able to get into their emails, browse the web or use the service that is most precious to them – instant messenger BBM. BBM is the major …

    Networks 10 Oct 14:40

  • Stallman: Jobs exerted 'malign influence' on computing

    Analysis Misfiring bearded firebrand should stick to software

    Veteran free software firebrand Richard Stallman has upset the apple cart by speaking out against the international canonisation of Steve Jobs Citing 1980s Chicago Mayor Harold Washington talking about a one-time rival, GPL licence author Richard Stallman reckons while he's not glad Jobs is dead, he is glad Jobs is gone. …

    Operating Systems 10 Oct 15:06

  • Would you trust a dot-bank site more than a dot-com?

    Top-level domain for verified banks only proposed

    Would an exclusive internet address for banks help prevent phishing and identity theft? That's the hope of a new project from a financial services trade group in the US, which plans to apply to domain name overseer ICANN early next year for a ".bank" top-level domain. BITS, the technology policy arm of the Financial Services …

    Hosting 10 Oct 15:19

  • Virus infects killer US air drone fleet

    Key-logger just won't go away

    Computers controlling the US Air Force's killer Predator and Reaper drones have been infected by a key-logging virus, according to a mole who spoke to Wired. And the malware is not going away despite serious efforts to nuke it. The remote-controlled bomb planes have flown in missions since the discovery of the virus two weeks …

    Security 10 Oct 15:39

  • Laptop shoots spike into owner's hand

    DVD drive part springs into action

    Watching DVDs may be bad for your health - specially if the drive on your laptop decides to shoot you. William Warner suffered horrendous hand injuries after his notebook spat out a sharp sliver of metal that pierced his palm, the New Zealand Herald reports. The component in question was the optical drive's track-holder, an …

    reghardware 10 Oct 15:40

  • Google shoots Dart at JavaScript

    It's really not a JavaScript killer, insists author

    Google has previewed what could be a JavaScript killer while denying the new language is designed to rid the internet of JavaScript. Two of the Google engineers behind Dart unveiled the search giant's new language at the opening of the Goto Conference in Denmark on Monday. Dart has been built by Google's language experts to …

    Software 10 Oct 15:51

  • NetApp's STEALTH launch of ONTAP 8.1

    Could already be on a server near you...

    If you were expecting NetApp to launch Data ONTAP 8.1 with a splash, forget it. The software is shipping already; no fuss, no muss, no splash, no bash, no nothing. John Rollason, NetApp's senior manager in the company's EMEA organisation, told The Reg ONTAP 8.1 had been shipping since 22 September. He said it features …

    Storage 10 Oct 16:01

  • AT&T asks Apple to signal iPhone 4S is a 4G phone

    LTE isn't 4G, and HSPA+ certainly ain't

    US carrier AT&T wants Apple's iPhone 4S to show "4G" in the handset's status bar when the gadget connects to its HSPA+ network. An internal memo leaked to website The Verge shows that AT&T says it's working with Apple to get the change implemented in a future version of iOS. If this is indeed the case and it is applied …

    reghardware 10 Oct 16:13

  • iPhone 4S pre-orders obliterate sales records

    24 hours, one million shiny-shiny seekers

    Over one million seekers of the latest shiny-shiny surrendered their credit card info to Apple on the first day of iPhone 4S pre-order availability, securing their place in line for the latest iteration of the überpopular smartphone. The iPhone 4S Although the iPhone 4S may have been met with more than a bit of a "meh" from …

    Mobile 10 Oct 17:29

  • Your organization’s security depends on everyone

    Live Broadcast Big and small security fundamentals

    Social networks, local admins, unpatched software, missing USBs: the causes of security problems in your business are often not just the big stuff that tries to get inside the firewall, it's the little problems that are already on the inside. On October 13th at 16:00 BST/11:00 EDT, our latest live Regcast questions- Could …

    Security 10 Oct 18:46

  • Genetics and technology make Columbus Day a fraud

    But who cares, it’s a day off

    Monday's Columbus Day holiday may celebrate the first time a European "discovered" the Americas, but there’s an increasing amount of technical and genetic evidence that shows the Genoese navigator was very late to the party. The whole basis for the holiday, celebrated on the second Monday of every October, is a wee bit suspect …

    Science 10 Oct 20:13

  • Hulu still flirting with suitors despite Yahoo! pull out

    Premature exit as Yang considers own future

    Yahoo! is believed to have pulled out of negotiations to acquire Hulu, leaving Dish, Google and Amazon all still vying for the asset. The Wall Street Journal reports that Hulu's powerhouse owners are still mulling over the merits of selling. Hulu is owned by News, Walt Disney, Comcast/NBCUniversal and private equity firm …

    Media 10 Oct 21:42

  • Sims outlines Oz network regulation again

    Calming the debate

    As the ACCC, under the hand of new chair Rod Sims, settles down to the work of sifting through submissions about NBN wholesale access, there’s probably a sense of relief at the welcome distraction provided by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Normally, having the new chair of the ACCC discuss the NBN in a speech – as he did on …

    Telecoms 10 Oct 22:00

  • Oz broadband speeds leap 917% in TWO WEEKS!

    Akamai versus Pando: the fun of speed surveys

    Just a little over a fortnight ago, Australia’s average broadband speed was just 348 Kbps; now, apparently, it’s 3.54 Mbps, a stunning ten-times acceleration. The difference, of course, is who’s reporting what. The earlier Pando Network report, which El Reg ignored because local data beyond the headline wasn’t available, was …

    Telecoms 10 Oct 23:30