The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

31st October 2011 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Mint Wireless exits channel

    Disto no more

    Mint Wireless has announced the sale of its technology distribution business to Hong Kong-based Speed Channel Limited. The Mint Technology subsidiary sells memory, computer and phone accessories, A/V, software and cameras, including the hand-held range of Pico projectors. In its announcement to the Australian Securities …

    Business 31 Oct 00:16

  • Halloween Hardware

    Product round-up Spooks to be had

    Look out, it's Halloween 2011, where nobody questions strangers that give young kids sweets, those with a crude sense of humour get dressed up as Steve Jobs, and sales reps get annoyed by random people knocking on their door. If you're someone who gets into the spirit, then consider some of the following Halloween gadgets. …

    reghardware 31 Oct 07:00

  • MPs back more powers for ICO

    Watchdog needs sharper teeth, says committee

    The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) should have the power to issue custodial sentences for breaches of the Data Protection Act, going further than its current powers of issuing fines to organisations which breach the act, Parliament's justice committee has said. In a report titled Referral fees and the theft of …

    Law 31 Oct 08:01

  • London Underground seeks advice about ICT infrastructure

    Will hold talks with tech suppliers on future tube system

    London Underground (LU) has invited technology suppliers to discussions aimed at helping it understand how to develop a communications infrastructure for its next generation of tube railway systems. The organisation says it wants to talk about trends and innovation, particularly in communications and networking technology, …

    Public Sector 31 Oct 08:30

  • Facebook's Swedish data centre will be subject to Snoop Law

    It's the law, innit... bitch

    The icy location is a big advantage for the new data centre that Facebook is planning in the northern Swedish town of Lulea. But while the frigid Arctic winds will fan the servers, it's the legal climate that could get hot. A controversial Swedish internet surveillance law passed in 2008 allows the government there to …

    Storage 31 Oct 09:00

  • Personal data blaggers should go to jail, MPs say

    People who 'blag' personal info or sell it on should face prison – committee

    A report by the Justice Committee suggests that fines do little to discourage breaches of the Data Protection Act (DPA) because the financial rewards of doing so can be so great. "Using deception to obtain personal information or selling it on without permission are serious offences that cause great harm. Magistrates and …

    Law 31 Oct 09:29

  • QLogic showers in gravy as parent Emulex hits dry spell

    Spun out as spin-out booms

    Quarterly results show Emulex spinout QLogic quietly excelling while Emulex is still trying to dig itself out of a hole. Both companies sell Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs), and Ethernet connectivity products such as converged network adapters (CNAs). Emulex has silicon products that provide connectivity inside arrays, …

    Servers 31 Oct 09:44

  • Official: Kindles get heavier as you add e-books

    Don't worry, you won't notice

    Download an e-book and your reader gets (microscopically) heavier. So says University of California at Berkeley boffin John Kubiatowicz in the pages of the New York Times. His argument: that energy is bound in the process of storing the book's bits in the reader's Flash memory and, according to Einstein's most famous equation …

    reghardware 31 Oct 09:48

  • Google-Moto pulls in $228m following settlement with RIM

    Mystery 'company' ponied up $175m in cash alone

    Google's new acquisition Motorola Mobility says it has bagged $228m so far from a patent licensing deal with another, unnamed company – which appears likely to be BlackBerry maker RIM. The Chocolate Factory's new mobile hardware tentacle got an upfront cash payment of $175m and a licensing agreement that brought its pre-tax …

    Financial News 31 Oct 10:01

  • GoPro HD Hero 2

    Geek Treat of the Week Tough shooter

    Surfer dude and Reg Hardware reviewer Giles Hill waxed lyrical about the HD Hero when he tried it out last year, and the developers at GoPro have just launched a new version of their rugged, outdoorsy and underwatery action-cam. The HD Hero 2 looks virtually identical to its predecessor, but has been upgraded in a number of …

    reghardware 31 Oct 10:03

  • EU in 4G mobile 'digital dividend' divvy-up proposal

    800MHz band which used to carry telly is good for range

    The EU Council of Ministers has thrashed out a proposal for harmonising the 800MHz band for telephony services across Europe, potentially allowing for 4G roaming in 2013. The deal has been agreed between ministers and the MEPs making up the Industry Research and Energy Committee; it now needs to be voted through by the full …

    Mobile 31 Oct 10:13

  • Brits buy 3.1m Freeview HD devices

    Maybe even more if there were more channels?

    Britons have acquired 3.1m Freeview HD devices - TVs, receivers and DVRs - Freeview reported last week. In total, 18m homes have a Freeview-capable device of some kind, be it HD or standard definition. Just under 58 per cent of homes - 10.2m - pick up Freeview on a TV rather than a set-top box. There are 1.8m Freeview HD TVs …

    reghardware 31 Oct 10:23

  • Panasonic sniffs doom on the wind in telly market

    Struggles to digest Sanyo, cope with rising yen

    Panasonic Corporation is now expecting to make a loss in its fiscal year 2012, after slurping Sanyo while dealing with falling consumer demand combined with a soaring yen to take its toll on the company. The Japanese firm says it now thinks pre-tax loss will be 430 billion yen (£3.44bn) instead of a pre-tax profit of 100 …

    Financial News 31 Oct 10:33

  • Samsung bleats 'bout bendy blowers for 2012

    Twist and spout

    Samsung has announced it will introduce flexible mobile phones next year, with the prospect of bendy tablets and other tech close behind. During a company financial results conference, Samsung's investor relations chief Robert Yi said: "The flexible display, we are looking to introduce sometime in 2012, hopefully the earlier …

    reghardware 31 Oct 10:38

  • Canonical: Mobile OEMs are going to love our Linux

    Umbongo will be useful bargaining tool - Shuttleworth

    Ubuntu, the free and user-friendly Mac-a-like flavour of Linux, will be targeted at mobile phones, tablets and smart TVs. The new OS could chew into Google's Android market share, although it's not expected to hit devices until April 2014, Mark Shuttleworth (founder of Ubuntu developer Canonical) said in an interview ahead of …

    Operating Systems 31 Oct 10:43

  • BT hires another battalion of troops to speed fibre rollout

    Ex-military types to blow two-thirds of Blighty 'by 2014'

    BT has brushed aside the possibility that it could be hampered by any number of problems that might delay its plan to push "superfast" broadband to two thirds of the UK come 2015 2014, by hiring 520 more ex-armed forces bods. The company said today it had jumped one year ahead of the original target it set for rolling out BT's …

    Data Networking 31 Oct 10:57

  • Nokia celebrates milestone with nostalgic exhibition

    Built from bricks

    To celebrate the 19th anniversary of the release of the Nokia's classic handset, the 1011 - the world's first commercially available GSM digital phone - the Finnish phone giant is holding an exhibition showcasing the various designs that made the company such a driving force during the mobile market's boom years. The show, …

    reghardware 31 Oct 11:05

  • Android 'stands on Microsoft's shoulders', says MS lawyer

    And there is only a modest charge for doing so

    A top Microsoft legal eagle has moaned that Android smartphones and the like are profiting from cash that his bosses have invested in research and development. "These devices have moved from having a rudimentary phone system to being a full-fledged computer, with a sophisticated, modern operating system. In doing that, they …

    PCs & Chips 31 Oct 11:13

  • 'Ghost hunter' set to become Tory Euro-MP

    'Investigator of the unexplained' headed for Brussels

    An expert on the paranormal, who bills himself online as "the GhostHunter", is set to become one of Britain's members of the European Parliament, according to reports. The Financial Times says that Rupert Matthews is "poised" to become the next Conservative MEP for the east Midlands. Matthews has apparently had over 200 books …

    Government 31 Oct 11:19

  • Motorola Mobility to sack 800 ahead of Google gobble

    No in-office laundry or massages for you

    Motorola Mobility Holdings is firing some 800 staff ahead of being swallowed by search engine supertanker Google. The $12.5bn bid for the maker of mobile phones and set-top devices was tabled by Google in August and the deal is expected to close by the end of this year or early next – subject to shareholder and regulatory …

    Financial News 31 Oct 11:27

  • Anonymous threatens Mexican drug cartel

    Hacktivists wade into bloody narco wars

    The Mexican branch of Anonymous have threatened to expose members of Los Zetas unless the drug cartel releases a kidnapped member of the hacking collective. In an ultimatum posted on YouTube, Anonymous threatens to publish data on cartel members and affiliates in Veracruz unless an unnamed male victim is freed by 5 November. …

    Crime 31 Oct 11:36

  • Building cloud-optimised networks

    Expert Clinic Combining fabric infrastructure, operational nous, and service delivery models

    Three experts look at building cloud-optimised networks from the operational point of view, a fabric-based infrastructure point of view, and a service delivery model point of view. Each viewpoint is valid, different, and not enough on its own. Taking the three together gives us an idea of the complexity of cloud undertakings. …

    Network Fabric 31 Oct 11:45

  • Solar power boom 'unsustainable', says Gov

    Massive payouts to rooftop panel owners to be slashed

    The Great British Solar Power rush may soon come to a dramatic halt: the amount knocked off 'leccy bills for solar-powered homes will be slashed. Energy minister Greg Barker confirmed today that if cuts to the feed-in tariff (FiT) aren't made, his budget will simply run out. But by how much will it be reduced? Details leaked by …

    Small Biz 31 Oct 11:47

  • Minecraft upstages Portal 2 in arty game prize

    Block heads?

    Who would have guessed that Minecraft is a work of cultural and artistic significance? Thank goodness we have the judges behind the inaugural GameCity Prize to tell us. The Prize was announced this weekend at GameCity, a Nottingham-hosted event that is apparently "Europe’s biggest annual videogame culture festival". Event and …

    reghardware 31 Oct 11:50

  • Zombify Me

    Horror App of the Week 'Tis the season to be scary

    Sitting round waiting for the new season of The Walking Dead to start can get boring. You see, I like zombies and anything to do with zombies, so the Zombify Me app for iPhone is a no-brainer… see what I did there?   Zombify Me: You can capture new images or transform old ones Being able to either take a pic of a friend or …

    reghardware 31 Oct 12:00

  • Scotland Yard trackers operate fake mobile base stations

    Reports say cops are running secret air wing too

    London's Metropolitan Police are using fake base stations to intercept mobile-phone calls, not to mention running a covert air wing, according to reports over the weekend. The base stations come from Leeds-based Datong plc, and can blanket a 10km2 area within which every mobile phone is tracked and monitored, according to the …

    ID 31 Oct 12:06

  • Top GCHQ spook warns of 'disturbing' levels of cyber-raids

    All of Blighty subject to continual slurping

    With a crunch conference on government cyber-security starting tomorrow, the director of government spook den GCHQ, Iain Lobban, said Britain had faced a "disturbing" number of digital attacks in recent months. Attackers had targeted citizens' data, credit card numbers and industry secrets, Lobban said. "I can attest to …

    Enterprise Security 31 Oct 12:16

  • Don't let Halloween malware haunt your PC

    Trick or tweet

    Halloween celebrations on Monday are likely to be haunted by rampant malware infections and an onslaught of internet scams, security watchers warn. Wicked writers of devilish code are likely to take advantage of the festivities to spook surfers with search engine poisoning attacks that point browsers towards websites infected …

    Security 31 Oct 12:29

  • HTC foretells 2012 move to 4G in US, 'advanced markets'

    Sees massive bulgening in smartphone sales to mainland

    HTC sold almost twice as many smartphones in the third quarter of this year than it did in the same period last year, according to its quarterly results. It's no wonder the Great Patent Wars are hotting up, as the Android and Microsoft partner sold 13.2 million mobes in July to September, up 93 per cent from 2010's third …

    Financial News 31 Oct 12:43

  • Adventures in Tech: Taking the plunge into IPv6

    Part 1 Our intrepid reporter does it, but you'll still have to

    The threat from the fast-dwindling supply of mainstream "IPv4" Internet addresses for new users is a bit like Y2K creeping up on us all over again. Almost no one can see beyond the cost of code review, systems change, hardware upgrades and general upheaval into the brave fairly-old world of IPv6 - but putting it off forever isn' …

    Infrastructure 31 Oct 13:00

  • ASUS: 'We run out of hard disks at the end of the month'

    Good job we make all those Flash-based netbooks

    ASUS managed a slight increase in profit for the third quarter of this year, despite the global slowdown in PC sales. ASUS is still shipping notebooks, but has also been strong in netbooks and has launched its own fondleslab range, all siblings to its popular Eee PC netbook, led by the Eee Pad Transformer, but to eventually …

    Storage 31 Oct 13:18

  • Two iPads put a hole through man's wallet stomach

    Halloween fancy dress fans, eat your heart out

    As technology evolves, so does the potential for increasingly scary and horrific looks this Halloween. Check this guy out for a prime example. By taping a pair of iPad 2s to his body - one on his chest, the other on his back - Mark Rober managed to create the gaping stomach effect famously bestowed upon Goldie Hawn in Death …

    reghardware 31 Oct 13:25

  • University students chase cluster victory

    SC11 Throw down showdown in Seattle

    The field is set. Eight student teams have been selected to compete in the ultimate computer sports event of our time – the Supercomputing 2011 (SC11) Student Cluster Challenge, aka the SCC… aka Cluster for Glory… aka Clusterbowl, Cluster Cup, and Cluster-geddon. I know that the vast majority of readers feverishly follow this …

    SC 2011 31 Oct 13:34

  • Check Point scoffs security dashboard firm

    Will add bells and whistles in a GRC/SIEM stylie

    Check Point has acquired governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) firm Dynasec. Financial terms of the deal, announced Monday, were undisclosed. The acquisition allows Check Point to extend its 3D Security line of firewalls and VPNs to add features that enable companies to "view security as a business process, focusing …

    Enterprise Security 31 Oct 13:42

  • Public transport 'is bad for commuters' health'

    Long car journeys better for you than short ones, too

    Swedish researchers have carried out a survey which, they say, reveals that commuting by public transport or by car damages people's health compared to making the journey to work by foot or bicycle. Curiously, the research also appeared to show that a long commute by car led to better health than a short drive in. The survey …

    Cloud Business 31 Oct 13:58

  • Google signs Deepak Chopra and Madonna in TV blitzkrieg

    We're not attacking the telly biz! Oh wait, no, we are

    Two months ago Google chairman Eric Schmidt assured TV industry executives that Google was complementary to them, not a competitor. All the Chocolate Factory wanted to do, he said, was help. But as Schmidt was delivering his honeyed words, Google was busy putting the final touches to its TV blitz. The company will unleash 100 …

    Cloud Business 31 Oct 14:19

  • Is your network taking on a life of its own?

    Meet the complexity challenge

    Networking has always been something of a dark art, but you would have thought it would get easier as technologies mature. In fact, technology, along with users’ expectations of it, is making the network manager's jobs more difficult than ever. Virtualisation and private clouds, combined with unified networking and next- …

    Network Futures 31 Oct 14:20

  • Desperate RIM in 'buy two PlayBooks, get one free' offer

    Plus leather slab-sleeve for unloved stroker

    RIM has resorted to giving away its little-fondled BlackBerry PlayBook as part of a promo to drive sales to biz customers stateside. In a deal usually reserved for commodity items in supermarkets, US firms will be able to buy two PlayBooks and get one free – of the same spec – from now until the end of the year. As previously …

    Channel Register 31 Oct 14:38

  • Farewell then, Sony Ericsson

    The Reg looks back over a rollercoaster decade

    It promised to bring together the best of Swedish design and Japanese consumer electronics marketing, and at times, it did. But after 10 years and one month, Sony has pulled the plug on its mobile phone venture with Ericsson. The venture was born out of necessity, with two great storied giants forming a sort of losers' …

    PCs & Chips 31 Oct 14:57

  • From Frogger to fluid dynamics

    SC11 Exhibits run the gamut

    We’re closing in on SC11, the annual HPC love fest that kicks off this year in Seattle on November 12th. The SC (stands for Super Computing) events are different from every other industry gathering. They are part educational symposium, with hundreds of hours of sessions where researchers present their findings and HPC experts …

    HPC 31 Oct 15:00

  • Steve Jobs' last words: 'OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.'

    He looked at partner and kids 'and then beyond them'

    A eulogy for Steve Jobs written and delivered by his sister was published over the weekend. It reveals many personal details of the techbiz titan's life, among them his last words as he lay dying with his family around him. According to Mona Simpson, Jobs' sister and a professor of English at the University of California, his …

    PCs & Chips 31 Oct 15:29

  • National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

    SCC team profile 2010 Champion returns to defend crown

    Student Cluster Competition time is fast approaching. Below is our first competitor profile and check out our introduction here. Last year, the team from Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) overcame some adversity to take the 2010 Student Cluster Challenge (SCC) crown* as the overall winner. The team also won a blue …

    SC 2011 31 Oct 15:39

  • BBC iPlayer to require TV licence

    The cost of catch-up

    Watching BBC iPlayer may soon be illegal if you do not possess a TV licence if proposals under consideration by the government become law. As it stands, any UK resident viewing a live broadcast - be that on their TV, games console, mobile phone or fondleslab - must pay the annual licence fee of £145.50. But it is not …

    reghardware 31 Oct 15:57

  • Apple confirmed as buyer of 3D mapping firm

    Plotting split from Google Mapping services?

    Apple has been confirmed as the the buyer of 3D maps company C3 technologies, which was sold over the summer to a undeclared company. The C3 mapping team have remained in their Swedish offices according to 9to5Mac whose unamed sources tipped it to the involvement of Apple, but the C3 team are all working now on a product for …

    Developer 31 Oct 16:01

  • National University of Defense Technology, China

    SCC team profile Team Tianhe looks for Seattle glory

    China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) is the same organization that brought to life the 2.56 PetaFLOP Tianhe-1A supercomputer. This system, with more than 14,000 Intel Westmere processors (186,368 cores) and 7,168 NVIDIA Tesla GPUs, shocked the world when it came out of nowhere to take the top slot on the …

    SC 2011 31 Oct 16:04

  • Argentina stakes online claim on Falklands

    Territorial dispute spills over into cyberspace

    Argentina has complained about the continued existence of the Falkland Islands' top-level internet address .fk, according to a local internet users society and other sources. The nation's foreign ministry has written to global domain name overseer ICANN to claim the Falklands belong to Argentina, according to Internauta. "The …

    Hosting 31 Oct 16:19

  • Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica

    SCC Team Profile: Rainforest Eagles attack clustering

    Lending a tropical air to the SC11 Student Cluster Challenge are the Rainforest Eagles from Costa Rica’s Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (ITCR-ITS). This is the first team from central America, and at latitude 10° north, the southernmost team to date. So if you wagered that Taiwan, at 25° north, would be the competitor …

    SC 2011 31 Oct 16:25

  • Biz bosses are catching fondleslab fever, says distie

    Not just for watching cat videos, then

    Biz customers are slowly falling for the charms of the fondleslab and finally calling on resellers to provide them, the boss of Ingram Micro reckons. According to Greg Spierkel, chief exec at the world's largest IT distie, the touchy tech tablets were "mostly slated" for the consumer market and were typically sold direct by …

    Channel Register 31 Oct 16:40

  • Samsung reveals Ice Cream Sarnie updates for 2012

    Galaxies that get a slice

    Samsung Italy has let slip which Galaxy phones and tablets it plans to provide with with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich updates, all due next year. According to the South Korean giant, the following models will gain ICS: Galaxy S II Galaxy Note Galaxy Tab 10.1 Galaxy Tab 8.9 Galaxy Tab 7.7 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus While …

    reghardware 31 Oct 16:43

  • Gloves off in NYSE: Red Hat trading tech face-off

    OpenMAMA pitted against AMQP in finance system battle

    It was a bit perplexing when two weeks ago, apropos of nothing, commercial Linux distributor Red Hat affirmed its commitment to the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) messaging integration software that is at the heart of its Enterprise MRG-Messaging variant of the Linux stack it sells. Now we know why. This morning, the …

    Operating Systems 31 Oct 17:01

  • Sony may break up with Samsung

    Japanese firm considers ending LCD joint venture

    Sony is considering breaking up its joint venture with Samsung on LCD panels so it can cut its costs, according to a number of reports. Sources familiar with the matter were chatting with Nikkei and Reuters to say that the Japanese firm was hoping to strike a deal by the end of this year to sell its stake, which is nearly half …

    Business 31 Oct 17:20

  • LightSquared pulls out all the stops to get FCC approval

    Financial shenanigans, conflicts of interest and a technical solution?

    LightSquared is fighting with every weapon at its disposal to win the war of public perception, and get FCC approval for its controversial network before the cash runs out. The wannabe-network operator reckons it has solved the GPS-interference problem, but the battle is now political. So it's accusing a prime government …

    Wireless 31 Oct 17:40

  • Open-sourcers suggest Linux secure boot block workarounds

    If the boot fits ...

    The Linux Foundation has published a how-to guide for PC makers on implementing UEFI's Secure Boot functionality without preventing the post-sale installation of Linux on Windows 8 machines. UEFI (the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) secure boot specs currently under discussion would mean PCs would only boot from a …

    Operating Systems 31 Oct 18:01

  • Microsoft confirms Kinect SDK for business in 2012

    Let a thousand RSI lawsuits bloom

    Microsoft has confirmed it will release a full commercial SDK for the Kinect in early 2012, and it’s hoping that the technology will cross the chasm from gaming into the business world. Steve Ballmer promised the Kinect SDK would be released at this January’s CES, and in February Microsoft confirmed a beta version for …

    Developer 31 Oct 18:21

  • Another reason to jail-break your iPhone 4: You can get Siri

    Fiddly, but possible

    Apple withheld Siri from iPhone 4 as a straightforward ploy to get people to fork out another £499 for its new iPhone. But there's no reason Siri can't run on the 4 – and you can get it on there by jail-breaking your phone. Siri ran perfectly well as an app on 3GS too before Apple yanked it from the iTunes store when it bought …

    PCs & Chips 31 Oct 18:29

  • China responds to satellite hack charge: 'Nuh-uh!'

    'We oppose all hacking'

    Surprising no one, the Chinese government has denied that it had anything to do with the hacking of two US satellites in 2007 and 2008. "This report is untrue and has ulterior motives. It's not worth a comment," commented Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei at a Monday press briefing, reports Reuters. The report to which Hong …

    Security 31 Oct 18:42

  • China to take women to heaven and back

    Manned 2012 spaceships could have two female taikonauts

    China is considering sending two female astronauts into space on its first manned missions to its space lab module next year. An unmanned spacecraft, Shenzhou-8, is launching this evening and will be testing space docking with Tiangong-1. If the mission is successful, China is planning Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 next year, at …

    Space 31 Oct 19:01

  • Ultrabook sales 'falling short of targets'

    'Never buy version 1.0' rule in play

    Those slim, svelte, sexy ultrabooks that Intel has been flogging may be having a hard time finding buyers due to their relatively high prices. So say sources speaking with the Taiwanese market-watchers at DigiTimes, which reported on Monday that both Acer and Asustek, which had expected to sell between 200,000 and 300,000 of …

    PCs & Chips 31 Oct 19:46

  • Dozens of chemical firms hit in espionage hack attack

    Defense contractors, Fortune 100 companies, too

    Dozens of companies in the defense and chemical industries have been targeted in an industrial espionage campaign that steals confidential data from computers infected with malware, researchers from Symantec said. At least 29 companies involved in the research, development, and manufacture of chemicals and an additional 19 …

    Security 31 Oct 19:58

  • Olympus gets government grilling after firing nosy Brit boss

    Japanese prime minister cites multimillion dollar 'irregularities'

    The Japanese prime minister has called for clarification from Olympus’ board of directors over hundreds of millions of dollars in fees paid out during recent takeovers – deals the company’s short-lived British CEO claims he was fired for investigating. In an interview with the Financial Times, PM Yoshihiko Noda said the board …

    Business 31 Oct 20:00

  • China fires up homegrown petaflops super

    The Sunway Bluelight special

    The Chinese government has booted up the first of three homegrown, petaflops-class massively parallel supercomputers based on indigenous technology. The Sunway Bluelight – or Divinity Blue-Ray depending on how you want to translate its name from Chinese – is based on a 16-core processor, rumored to be a derivative of the DEC …

    HPC 31 Oct 21:15

  • Illicit Bitcoin miners steal resources from infected Macs

    Passwords, browsing history also harvested

    Security researchers have identified malware that hijacks the resources of infected Macs to illegally mint the digital currency known as Bitcoin. The DevilRobber.A trojan has been circulating on The Pirate Bay and other BitTorrent trackers, where it's bundled with the Mac OS X image-editing application Graphic Converter, …

    Malware 31 Oct 21:24

  • Kiwi devs look to export 3D urban-planning tech

    Get first round of funding

    New Zealand-based 3D visualisation company Nextspace has secured a round of VC funding to assist in the export of its interactive Visual City technology. The funding amount was not disclosed but the round was led by Auckland-based ICE Angels and represents one of the biggest investments it has made this year. The range of the …

    Business 31 Oct 21:37

  • More big boxen for boffins

    CSIRO seeks more metal

    The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation – CSIRO to you and I – has gone to market for an upgrade to a 64-processor system in Canberra. The Sandy Bridge upgrade to support “future processor architectures” will also have to support PCI-e 3.0 with 40 lanes per CPU socket. Each node will have a minimum of …

    HPC 31 Oct 22:00

  • Optus taps Arianespace for satellite launch

    Number ten to fly in 2013

    Arianespace has announced that it has been signed to lift Optus’ tenth satellite into orbit in mid-2013. The satellite will be lifted from the Guiana Space Centre using the Ariane 5 lifter. Optus 10 will be Arianespace’s sixth launch for the carrier since 1987 (back when the satellites were operated by the formerly government- …

    Telecoms 31 Oct 22:30

  • NEXTDC details rapid rollout

    AGM told electricity shortages will challenge Oz cloud

    With its first 3,000 square meters now operational, Australian data centre startup NEXTDC says its rollout plans for 2012 and 2013 will see it generating revenue from the current financial year. Citing research that shows data centre occupancy in A/NZ has doubled since 2004 (when many Australian data centres were still …

    Cloud 31 Oct 23:30

  • Boffins' PETMAN robot mimics human gym rats

    Does pushups, walks, squats, and sweats

    Engineers at Boston Dynamics are showing off its PETMAN robot as it does calisthenics and simulates the actions of everyday soldiers. The PETMAN robot, which stands for Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin, is capable of walking and running, performing pushups and squat thrusts, and mimics the breathing patterns, heat output, …

    Rise of the Machines 31 Oct 23:44