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10th November 2011 Archive

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  • Drag queening for the birds say Spanish boffins

    Priscilla, Queen of the Raptors

    Fetch out the sequins: Spanish biologists working in western France have explained a curious characteristic of a bird called the marsh harrier: some males “dress” as females in their permanent plumage to win chicks and territory. The boffins, led by Audrey Sternalski of the Instituto de Investigacion en Recursos Cingeticos in …

    Biology 10 Nov 00:01

  • Barnes & Noble complain to DoJ over Redmond nobbling

    Using patents to price Android out of the market

    Barnes & Noble has reportedly complained to the US Department of Justice over Microsoft’s recent lawsuit alleging patent violations for using Android. The company used Android on its Nook e-book reader, launched earlier this week, and has decided to fight Microsoft’s legal claims rather than kowtowing to Redmond and paying …

    Mobile 10 Nov 00:08

  • Server biz saves Cisco profits

    China's Huawei is now the big threat

    Networking giant and server upstart Cisco Systems' financial results for its most recent quarter show that it's moving in the right direction – even though it has some ways to go and a rabble of competitors that want to take a piece out of its hide. And what direction might that be? It's coming back to its senses and competing …

    Channel Register 10 Nov 00:29

  • HP earns Greenpeace eco-purity snog

    Other techs dealt logging and greenwashing FAIL

    The latest annual Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics is out, and Nokia has lost its three-year reign at the top to an up-and-coming HP. Before anyone starts popping compostable champagne corks, it’s worth pointing out that none of the 15 companies studied over the last year managed more than six out of ten on Greenpeace’s …

    Environment 10 Nov 01:01

  • Google ices native Gmail app for BlackBerry

    RIM: the Rodney Dangerfield of smartphone makers

    Beleagured RIM continues to suffer the slow torture of death by a thousand cuts: Google is dropping support for its native Gmail app for BlackBerry. Announced in a Google Apps blog post entitled, fittingly enough, "Deprecation of Gmail App for BlackBerry", Google will cease supporting the native BlackBerry Gmail app on …

    Mobile 10 Nov 01:31

  • City IT manager accused of brazenly stealing mayor's email

    Automated script made it easy, feds say

    A former IT manager for the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, was arrested on Wednesday on charges he intercepted emails sent to and from its sitting mayor and other top city officials, and forwarded them to others. Patrick Ricciardi, 45, of Hoboken, used an automated script to access every email sent to or received by Mayor Dawn …

    Enterprise Security 10 Nov 01:50

  • Divorcing couple ordered to share Facebook and dating site logins

    Be careful who you poke

    A squabbling couple have been ordered to exchange the passwords for each other’s Facebook pages and dating website accounts. The problems started when Stephen Gallion, who is in the process of divorcing his wife Courtney, suspected there may be evidence of her ambivalence towards him and their offspring on her Facebook page. …

    Music and Media 10 Nov 01:50

  • Nokia Lumia 800

    Review Finn Win phone comes out fighting

    For the first time in ages, it's possible to recommend a Nokia phone to somebody in the pub. Nokia's first Windows-based device is the company's most attractive consumer product for some years, at least in the modern era of touchscreen smartphones. A reversal of fortune? Nokia's Lumia 800: Nokia simply hasn't had a decent …

    reghardware 10 Nov 07:00

  • Old apps must die when you migrate to the cloud

    Boil down your portfolio

    How many applications is too many? In March, Capgemini issued its 2011 Application Landscape report, which surveyed almost 100 companies application portfolios. It found that 60 per cent of enterprise respondents had more applications than they needed. In large and enterprise-class firms, a bigger proportion of people felt …

    Network Futures 10 Nov 07:12

  • NetApp proudly exhibits fresh box

    Solid entry leaves you wanting more

    NetApp has updated its entry-level FAS2000 products with a new FAS2240 and a lower-priced entry-level array. There were three FAS2000 arrays; entry-level 2020 (introduced Sep' 2007), mid-range 2040 (Sep 2009 intro), and high-end 2050 (Sep 2007 intro). The FAS2020 and 2050 systems go away. The previously mid-range FAS2040 has …

    Infrastructure 10 Nov 08:03

  • Virgin Media, TalkTalk snub kind offer to block Newzbin2

    MPA urged ISPs to follow court order against BT

    The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has asked two other UK internet service providers (ISPs) to consent to a court order that would force them to block their customers' access to a copyright-infringing website. The MPA previously won a High Court ruling against BT forcing it to "block or attempt to block" access to the …

    Music and Media 10 Nov 08:33

  • Basement-dwelling BOFH to be sent into Spaaaace

    And probably back again, in database admin compo

    A UK company has launched a competition to send one lucky database administrator into space. All the fortunate BOFH has to do is answer some sci-fi based video quiz questions online, complete some simple SQL tasks and fill in an application form. Oh, and survive an X-Factor-style vote-off where the talent in question is their …

    Cloud Business 10 Nov 08:43

  • Pollution from car exhausts 'helps city dwellers fight stress'

    Toxic monoxide acts as benign narcotic, claims prof

    Toxic carbon monoxide emitted from engine exhausts, inhaled in low levels by city dwellers, has a narcotic effect which helps people to resist various other stresses of urban life such as noise – that's the controversial claim made by an Israeli professor investigating conditions in Tel Aviv. According to a press release …

    Environment 10 Nov 09:02

  • IBM's UK captain Bligh relieves TalkTalk biz boss

    Telco's Lawton walks but doesn't talk

    TalkTalk Business UK bigwig Paul Lawton has quit to "pursue opportunities outside of the business", the carrier has confirmed. Lawton, who joined the firm in 2006, is set to be replaced as managing director by IBM UK veep Charles Bligh and TalkTalk is warming a seat for the new man on its group exec team to represent the biz …

    Channel Register 10 Nov 09:14

  • NHS staff rapped for gossiping about patients on Facebook

    Dozens of warnings and sackings over growing web misuse

    Improper use of social media, especially Facebook, is leading to disciplinary action against staff at a number of English trusts. Figures released to Guardian Healthcare show that 72 separate actions were carried out by 16 trusts against staff who inappropriately used social media between 2008-09 and October 2011. The data, …

    Networks 10 Nov 09:32

  • Mars, Moon, solar system could be littered with alien artifacts

    Boffins' calculations offer answer to Fermi Paradox

    It's one of the top alien-related puzzlers: Given the vast number of stars out there, and the great age of the universe, if intelligent life other than ourselves exists even very uncommonly ... why haven't we met it yet? Surely, somewhere in the multitudes of other stars, at some remote juncture in the past, some alien …

    Space 10 Nov 09:44

  • Instapaper 4.0

    iOS App of the Week Read 'em and heap

    Instapaper has been around on Macs, PCs and various mobile platforms for a few years now and I’d started to take it for granted, only using it to save the occasional long or important article that I knew I’d want to come back to at a later date. However, the iOS app has just had a big update to version 4 that has reworked the …

    reghardware 10 Nov 10:00

  • Apple: No Siri for old iPhone owners. Well, not from us

    What, don't you have £499? Well, boo hoo

    Siri will not be rolled out to the owners of older iPhone models a blogger has claimed. The wonders and joys of the talkie virtual assistant software will only be available to those who shell out £499 for the newest model of the iPhone according to emails received from Apple engineers and posted on the blog of Michael Steeber …

    Cloud Business 10 Nov 10:09

  • Amazon ups Kindle Fire production...

    ...as punters choose the tablet over an iPad

    Demand for Amazon's 7in tablet, the Kindle Fire, is sufficiently strong to prompt the online retailer to increase its production orders by 42 per cent, it has been claimed. Amazon originally asked to be sent 3.5m Fires from Taiwanese factories before 2011 is out. Now it wants 5m of the devices, say component makers, according …

    reghardware 10 Nov 10:16

  • Dating sites can be haven for sex pests, say cops

    Some people online might not be who they say they are

    The capital's coppers are warning lonely hearts to think about their safety when signing up to online dating sites because they can be a haven for sex offenders. “Whilst the majority of clients are unlikely to have ulterior or dubious motives for using dating sites, it could still be something of a refuge for potential sex …

    Policing 10 Nov 10:22

  • Mystery of MAGNETIC ROCKS FOUND ON MOON cracked

    Apollo 'nauts baffling finds caused by moon spoon dynamo

    Scientists say they may finally have cracked a long-standing boffinry conundrum – the mystery of why it is that the Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts of the 1960s and '70s are magnetic. The Moon, unlike the Earth, has no global magnetic field – a compass would not work on the lunar surface – and so its rocks …

    Space 10 Nov 10:31

  • New tap turns water into super-cleaning potion

    Boffins add ultrasound and bubbly goodness

    Scientists in Southampton have been given a grant by the Royal Society to develop an ultrasonic tap head that makes water clean better. By introducing bubbles and ultrasound to the water, the new nozzle developed by Professor Tim Leighton and Dr Peter Birkin ramps up the ability of the water to shift dirt and cuts down on …

    Science 10 Nov 10:42

  • Is Apple nobbling iPhones to avoid more patent misery?

    Android-like autocorrect discovered hidden in iOS 5

    iOS 5 has a hidden autocorrect function, suggesting words along the top of the keyboard in an Android-like XT9 fashion, which can be enabled with a minor configuration tweak. The feature was spotted by self-proclaimed iOS hacker Sonny Dickson, and 9 To 5 Mac has the step-by-step guide to enable it – for those who'd prefer to …

    Mobile 10 Nov 10:51

  • Sony: Pssst! Want access to the PlayStation on Android SDK?

    Series game devs only. No time wasters

    Sony is seeking US and UK "content developers" who'd like to code for its PlayStation Suite - the framework that allows Android-based devices to run PlayStation-branded games. Sony Computer Entertainment today said is open to applications from companies keen to participate in a closed beta test of the Suite, due to go live …

    reghardware 10 Nov 10:55

  • Why your tech CV sucks

    And here's how we can help

    No, really. Your CV really, really stinks. I read these things for a living and the quality varies a lot more than it should considering what you are selling. Over the next few years you are asking to be paid more than the cost of a Ferrari and the desk space, computer kit and coffee you use over that time means you cost at …

    Jobs 10 Nov 11:02

  • ICT education quango will learn to wield Sword of Twitter

    There is no try. Only do!

    Jisc, the ICT education quango, has announced that it will take part in a project to find how the social media technology behind Twitter and Facebook can be used to capture educational content and then be fed to users and publishers. The organisation will be working on the 10-month project with the Learning Registry, an open- …

    Cloud 10 Nov 11:13

  • Only an open standard lance can slay EMC's cache demon

    Blocks and Files Put your heads together, lads

    Having EMC storage arrays direct hot data into a flash bank is great, but only if you're happy using EMC's cache gear. Wouldn't it be rather nice if there was an open and widely used server flash interface that could be used by all PCIe flash cards and PCIe flash-using vendors? Suppose QLogic adds a flash cache to its …

    Storage 10 Nov 11:22

  • Mexican drug runners torture and decapitate blogger

    El Mod of social network ritually murdered

    The moderator of a Mexican social network has been tortured and ritually murdered by local drug lords in the latest cartel-related killing in the country. The victim, identified in an accompanying message as "El Rascatripas" (The Fiddler/Scratcher) was tortured and decapitated before his body was dumped in the early hours of …

    Crime 10 Nov 11:31

  • UK to big brands: Get off our Facebook, mate!

    Netizens spurn biz on social sites

    Nearly two-thirds of Britons would prefer big-name brands to stay off social networks, according to a new survey. The crusty old Brits are the most bothered by advertising on Facebook, Twitter and the like, with 61 per cent of social network users saying they'd prefer not to engage with brands on social media, compared to 60 …

    Music and Media 10 Nov 11:41

  • Another hushed HTC blower set for 2012 debut

    Ville your Sandwich with Ice Cream

    Fresh in the wake of this week's quad-core HTC handset leak comes another beefy blower expected for 2012. The HTC 'Ville' will launch in April powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, BGR reports. It'll rock up with a 4.3in 540 x 960 OLED display and an 8Mp snapper with 1080p video …

    reghardware 10 Nov 11:43

  • Flasher macs popular among data centre nerds

    FlashMax will give server apps a fright

    FlashMax sounds like a used car salesman from Essex. It's actually Virident's latest server flash card to replace the TachION and comes as Virident pockets $21m in extra funding from VCs keen to invest in the hottest flash market of them all. Fusion-io opened the door to the booming server flash market and tons of would-be …

    Storage 10 Nov 11:52

  • Renault Fluence ZE

    First Look The first affordable, practical electric car

    With Renault-Nissan now having splurged €4bn (£3.4bn) on its e-car projects, it’s about time we saw some iron beyond the frankly rather too US-oriented Leaf. That time has now arrived: Renault officially unveiled the Fluence in Lisbon last week. The Fluence won’t be the first Renault e-car we see in the UK. That honour will …

    reghardware 10 Nov 12:01

  • HP finds role for its ex-networking boss

    Barry Bonnett heads network services across EMEA

    HP's former UK networking boss Barry Bonnett has made an internal move into the firm's services organisation. As revealed by El Reg, Bonnett walked away from the upper deck of the networking biz unit after less than a year in charge but was not expected to leave the company completely. Now it seems that HP is keen to not lose …

    Channel Register 10 Nov 12:03

  • Hong Kongers fight for right to stand in line for iPhone 4S

    Foreign pro queuers face wrath of indigenous amateurs

    Apple's Hong Kong store appeared to have banned the traditional queue fest ahead of its launch of the iPhone 4S this weekend, after "tongue fights" between "professional" queuers and their amateur counterparts threatened to get much nastier. The queueing "ban" came after a day of rising tensions, which culminated in police " …

    Mobile 10 Nov 12:12

  • Results in on why life, the universe and everything exists

    10-year study indicates that theoretically it shouldn't

    It's one of the most difficult questions that human philosophy and science have ever faced: Why are we here? Why is the universe and all that's in it here? The question becomes particularly knotty when one reflects on modern physics and the issue of antimatter. Theory shows that at the creation of the universe, equal amounts …

    Physics 10 Nov 12:23

  • Az mayor offers Prince Harry beer and pizza in fornication row

    Bud and a 12 inch pepperoni unlikely to dampen royal ardour

    The Mayor of Gila Bend, Arizona has offered Prince Harry a pizza supper and a "beer summit" to lay to rest claims that he warned the third in line to the throne off fornicating with the local ladies. However, the proposed booze-up is bound to be interpreted as a cunning ruse designed to render the playboy prince incapable of …

    Bootnotes 10 Nov 12:31

  • Ultrabooks are doomed unless prices tumble

    A minimum 25 per cent cut required, says analyst

    Ultrabooks are likely to be a flop with hard-up shoppers until prices fall by at least 25 per cent, market watcher Gartner has warned. Reports today from the Far East indicate that early adoption rates of the nascent platform have fallen below expectations: Acer and Asustek are reported to have slashed orders with their …

    Channel Register 10 Nov 12:42

  • Apple agrees to replace dodgy MacBook power cords

    Be frayed, be very frayed

    Apple will replace strained MagSafe cords, even if they are out of warranty, to settle a lawsuit brought against the fruity tech titan. Apple declared as such on its site today, bringing peace to the troubled minds of punters whose MacBooks shipped with the original T-style MagSafe adapters that are infamously prone to fraying …

    PCs & Chips 10 Nov 12:51

  • Where are all the decent handheld scribbling tools?

    Part 1 Shove your fondleslab, we want a keyboard

    As the market for computerised devices grows ever bigger and the internet takes over its users' social lives, it's a good time to be a gadget fan. They're everywhere, from smartphones and fondleslabs to pocket games consoles. There are notebooks of every size and shape from netbooks to desktop replacements. What were once mere …

    PCs & Chips 10 Nov 13:01

  • Murdoch blames other NI execs for phone-hacking scandal

    Claims he knew nothing of widespread voicemail tapping at NotW

    James Murdoch has once again defended himself against allegations that he knew in 2008 that phone-hacking was more widespread than one "rogue reporter" at the company's now-closed Sunday tabloid News of the World. The News International chairman told MPs today that he was given "sufficient information" at a 30-minute meeting …

    Business 10 Nov 13:16

  • Nazi Star Trek episode finally broadcast in Germany

    ST:SS aired after watershed

    German television has finally aired an episode of Star Trek, which was previously held from broadcast due to a Nazi theme that ran throughout. Filmed in 1968 for the second season of the original series, Patterns of Force features Kirk and Spock dressed in Nazi uniforms, trying to blend into a planet overrun by aliens that …

    reghardware 10 Nov 13:28

  • NetApp faces probe into Syrian spooks' use of its storage kit

    FAS racks 'used to slurp email' despite export ban

    NetApp faces a grilling by US senators after its storage gear helped Syrian spooks to spy on anti-government protesters during a crackdown that resulted in more than 3,500 deaths. Contrary to US sanctions, Italian surveillance biz Area used a load of NetApp's FAS storage kit to slurp emails sent by Syrian demonstrators, …

    Storage 10 Nov 13:44

  • Nokia's Windows comeback: Great but what's next?

    Reviewer's Notebook Lumia 800 arrived in the nick of time

    Back in February, people muttered that Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop was a Trojan Horse sent to destroy the company and deliver the remains of the chopped up cadaver to Microsoft. Those mutterings continue. But having used Nokia's new Windows phone (here's my review) it doesn't look quite like that. Microsoft's software has given …

    Mobile 10 Nov 14:01

  • Kansas IT boss found faking CV resigns

    Gov Brownback to seek truth-telling meat-cutter

    The new head of Kansas' state IT department has resigned after he was found to have put a degree from a fake university on his CV. Jim Mann, 58, former CIO of Lawson Products Inc and The Havi Group claimed he had a degree in Business Administration from the University of Devonshire on his CV but this was revealed to be a buy- …

    CIO 10 Nov 14:11

  • Smartphones rocket past consoles for mobile game sales

    Way more spent on Android, iOS than DS, PSP

    Two years ago, Nintendo's handheld games consoles accounted for 70 per cent of the money made selling mobile games to Americans. This year, they will account for a little over a third of the total. So says Flurry, a company that tracks sales of mobile games. The cause of Nintendo's plunging market share: Android and iOS. Back …

    reghardware 10 Nov 14:18

  • The Register goes Live on 22 Nov 2011

    Brian Cox, Genevieve Bell and Bruce Schneier in waiting

    We’ve got five places left* for what promises to be the sci-tech event of the year – The Register and Intel Live 2011. It’s going to be a day with El Reg and some of the brightest brains in science and technology, and it’s all happening by the Thames. We have Professor Brian Cox, from the telly, Mr (Security) Bruce Schneier …

    CIO 10 Nov 14:20

  • Atari fires greatest gaming hits onto Android

    Relive the 1980s on your smartphone or tablet

    Atari has released its compendium of classic games on Android. Atari Greatest Hits is an emulator that's free to download, though the games themselves - some 100 of them - cost extra. Missile Command comes free. Some games come from Atari arcade machines, others from its VCS home videogame system.   All the classics are …

    reghardware 10 Nov 14:23

  • UK.gov moves to close VAT loophole on etailers

    Big boys will no longer be able to slip through

    The UK government is planning to close the loophole in tax law that was allowing online retailers to funnel goods through the Channel Islands and thereby evade import VAT. The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke told the Commons yesterday that there would be further reforms to the relief from import VAT known as …

    Small Biz 10 Nov 14:29

  • Thai flood ripples set to impact entire world PC market

    Forecast graphs dip into the red zone

    The Thai floods have dampened Goldman Sachs outlook for global PC sales forcing it to downgrade forecasts for this quarter and next. The devastation to the disk drive industry, particularly WD and Toshiba, is starting to feed through into the supply chain with PC vendors already confirming price rises and warning of shortages …

    Channel Register 10 Nov 14:44

  • Mobile scaremongers want warning stickers on EVERYTHING

    Analysis This'll get The Mail into a right lather

    Mobilewise - the tireless promoters of the dangers inherent in mobile telephony - has a new report blaming mobiles for everything from cancer to infertility, and it wants sticky warning labels to alert the world. Not that Mobilewise has any new research to report, or any specific claims to make, it's just bundled all the …

    Mobile 10 Nov 15:02

  • Clean-up begins after biggest ever botnet takedown

    Ghost (Click) Busters

    A clean-up operation following the takedown of what has been described as the biggest cyber-scam scam ever has begun. Six Estonian suspects have been charged, and one Russian suspect remains at large, over a malware-based DNS changer scam that affected 4 million PCs worldwide, generating an estimated $14m in the process. The …

    Security 10 Nov 15:19

  • ARM rolls out new GPU, loses head

    One 18 months from market, one leaving in May

    One of ARM's founders, not to mention a co-designer of the eponymous chip, will be retiring from his presidential role next year to spend more time with his money, though not until May. Tudor Brown has been at ARM 21 years, and was at Acorn before that, where he worked on the ARM chip. That chip was designed for the Archimedes …

    PCs & Chips 10 Nov 15:39

  • Chief inspector sacked for 'advertising uniformed self online for sex'

    Boy into too much blue, apparently

    An unnamed chief inspector, who allegedly trawled a website looking for sex while advertising himself dressed in police uniform, was sacked today. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said that a central London-based 46-year-old Met officer was dismissed, following a two-day hearing into claims of gross …

    Bootnotes 10 Nov 16:02

  • Apple's iPad not so shiny once you get it home

    Brits too busy to fondle their slabs...

    Many Brits can't be bothered to use their fruity fondleslabs once they have them and don't think they're worth the money, a new study has found. The survey, by money-off coupon site MyVoucherCodes, showed that over a quarter of UK iPad users only used their Apple tablet once a week and one in 10 don't even bother with it that …

    PCs & Chips 10 Nov 16:19

  • Eurozone crisis: We're all dooomed! Here's why

    Analysis Imagine someone on £10K with a £50K credit card bill

    Quite what is actually happening over the Eurozone I can't actually tell you: it's not that things change too fast to write about them, it's that things change to fast to read about them. Berlusconi still PM? Italian bond yields over or under 7 per cent? That changes as often and as fast as Berlusconi does condoms. France to go …

    Government 10 Nov 16:39

  • US weather boffins tap IBM for 1.6 petaflops super

    Jumping from Power to Xeon chips

    The US National Center for Atmospheric Research has fallen behind in the race for more powerful parallel supercomputers, and it needs a petaflops-class machine to run its weather and climate modeling simulations. The only trouble is, there's no power at its Boulder, Colorado facility to juice up such a behemoth. And so, NCAR …

    Servers 10 Nov 16:46

  • OFFICIAL: Last Western Black rhino snuffs it

    Poached ... and fried

    The last of the Western Black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes), a rare species of black rhino, has died and the survival of the northern white configuration hangs in the balance, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The revelation was made as part of the IUCN's Red List, which it claims is a …

    Environment 10 Nov 17:01

  • IBM rises to the optimisation challenge

    The right tools for the job

    In computing, it sometimes pays to specialise. Generic systems will handle most computational needs, but they may not excel at them. For larger companies, honing systems to handle specialised tasks involving large amounts of data could help to make data centres more efficient. This is what workload optimisation is for. …

    Network Futures 10 Nov 17:16

  • Happy birthday, Tech City: Have another confusing map

    PM hobnobs with startup upstarts at party

    The UK Prime Minister went down to the Silicon Roundabout on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of his Tech City initiative and unveil an interactive map of it all. Tech City developers from Trampoline Systems and designers from Playgen put together the map, which includes "analytics to highlight the flourishing community …

    Music and Media 10 Nov 17:29

  • Mm, Silverlight, what's that smell? Yes, it's death

    HTML5 challengers dead or looking distinctly peaky

    Microsoft hasn't denied rumours that they are about to pull the plug on Silverlight, its development platform for rich Web design. Often compared to Flash, Silverlight could be about to get the same treatment as Adobe's platform and get dumped in favour of leaner, quicker, more energy-efficient HTML5. Adobe recently ditched …

    Cloud Business 10 Nov 17:52

  • US doctors demand right to advise on gun ownership

    Strangely not on household chemicals, cars, hot tubs etc

    Doctors in America are up in arms over the suggestion that they have no business advising their patients on gun ownership and safety. The incensed medics insist that it's their duty to tell Americans not to keep guns in the home, or if they do, to keep them unloaded and locked away. The debate on this issue was kicked off in …

    Bootnotes 10 Nov 18:27

  • Boffins build electric car from a single molecule

    Titchy transport won't get you far

    Dutch scientists have reported building a car that's a single molecule wide and is powered by electrons. The car is built out of a single molecule for the body, with four paddle-shaped “wheels” at the corners. Then electrons were applied by moving the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope close to the device, causing the …

    Physics 10 Nov 19:51

  • Apple kills code-signing bug that threatened iPhone users

    Hacker who discovered it remains excommunicated

    Apple has patched a serious bug in iPhones and iPads that allowed attackers to embed secret payloads in iTunes App Store offerings that were never approved during the official submission process. Charlie Miller, who is principal research consultant at security firm Accuvant, was kicked out of the iOS developer program on …

    Security 10 Nov 19:54

  • Student Cluster Comp – an inside look

    SC11 Texas insider spills all on 2010 effort

    In my continuing effort to provide the most comprehensive coverage of the upcoming SC11 Student Cluster Competition, I spent a few minutes on the phone with Jason Kilmer – a member of the 2010 University of Texas team. The Longhorns were the first team to break the Teraflop barrier (among three) and also notched the highest …

    SC 2011 10 Nov 20:30

  • AMD revs up server channel for Opteron 6200 push

    Time to start thinking outside of the same old box

    Chipmaker AMD is getting ready to launch its "Interlagos" line of server processors, which are expected to be called the Opteron 6200s. AMD won't say when the launch is, but it is saying that its server channel is primed and pumped to get peddling. These 16-core Interlagos beasts are really two eight-core chips that share the …

    Channel Register 10 Nov 21:26

  • Lockheed Martin splurges $AU10 million on security lab

    At home in Canberra

    Lockheed Martin has added a cyber-security centre in Canberra to an international network of labs that includes facilities in the US and UK. Its NextGen Cyber Innovation and Technology Centre (NCITE) is now under construction, and will comprise 900 square meters of floor space. Due for its official opening in March 2012, …

    Business 10 Nov 21:30

  • Alcatel-Lucent secures biggest GPON deal in China

    Beats local foes Huawei, ZTE to the punch

    China Unicom has selected Alcatel-Lucent as the key supplier for its proposed fibre broadband access network, one of the largest GPON broadband projects in China to date. Alcatel-Lucent beat local Chinese vendors Huawei, ZTE and Fibrehome to secure the deal. The deployment includes the extension of China Unicom’s broadband …

    Business 10 Nov 22:00

  • Army to deploy jumping robots in Afghanistan

    Sand Flea machine can leap 24 foot walls

    The US Army will be testing a new type of reconnaissance robot designed to jump over walls and through windows, without putting soldiers in the line of fire. Dubbed the Sand Flea, the four wheeled device is about the size of a shoebox and weighs roughly ten pounds, and is capable of jumping up to 24 feet. The robot uses a …

    Science 10 Nov 22:10

  • Death match between site and writer over Twitter account

    Account with 17,000 followers appraised at $340,000

    A mobile products review site is locked in a fierce battle with one of its former writers over who is the rightful owner of a Twitter account with 17,000 followers that was set up before he ended his employment. PhoneDog sued Noah Kravitz in July in a complaint that claimed the password and followers for the Twitter account @ …

    Music and Media 10 Nov 22:11

  • Aus radio industry wants content quotas punted

    Radio stars to lose protection in the Internet age

    Peak radio industry body Commercial Radio Australia has called for the scrapping of quotas for local music on radio nationally and dropping the minimum local program content rules for regional areas. In its submission to the government’s Convergence Review the CRA claims that maintaining local content levels is ''unsustainable …

    Music and Media 10 Nov 23:00

  • NASA spills last details of Mars space truck trip

    Skycrane landing, mountain climbing, nail biting

    NASA Mars Science Laboratory is buttoned up into its fairing atop its Atlas booster, ready for liftoff on November 25 with touchdown scheduled for August of next year – a reentry and landing that will have NASA space boffins biting their nails. "Any entry, descent, and landing on Mars is a place where you take pause and bite …

    Space 10 Nov 23:28