The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

18th November 2011 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Obama security in Oz lost booklet FAIL

    Procedures manual leaked to press via Canberra gutter

    The frenzy and excitement surrounding President Obama’s visit to Australia seems to have been too much even for some hapless staffer in the entourage: a booklet outlining his down-to-the-minute schedule and details of his security convoy has been found in a Canberra street. According to The Age, which found the booklet, it …

    Bootnotes 18 Nov 00:02

  • Microsoft and Samsung uncloak slimmer Surface

    Touchable tabletop maxi-tab goes second-gen

    Microsoft and Samsung have confirmed that the next iteration of the Surface tabletop computer system will go on sale soon. The Samsung SUR40 will feature a 40-inch 1,920-by-1,080-pixel touch screen with a 178 degree viewing angle in a 1,095 x 728 x 707.4 mm table that weighs 45kg. The guts of the machine include an Athlon X2 …

    Hardware 18 Nov 01:12

  • Yelp plans $100m IPO on value of '$1bn to $2bn'

    Profits are soooo overrated

    Here comes yet another web-based company's initial public offering: crowdsourced reviews site Yelp has filed a Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating that it plans to raise $1m in an IPO. Not that the company thinks of itself as being worth that paltry amount, of course. Although the Form S-1 …

    Financial News 18 Nov 01:22

  • World's first Win 8 malware 'bootkit' to debut next week

    'Stoned Lite' too impaired to defeat UEFI

    A security researcher said that he has developed malware for Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 8 operating system that is able to load during boot-up when it's run on older PCs. Peter Kleissner said Stoned Lite – as the latest version of his bootkit is called – doesn't bypass defenses that will be available to people using …

    Security 18 Nov 01:26

  • Telstra creates new digital unit - tosses in fun stuff

    Poaches TVNZ CEO with $AU100m to spend on gear

    Telstra has re-focussed its ambitions to morph into a media-centric carrier, consolidating all its media businesses into a single division - Telstra Digital Media. Telstra’s digital media assets, including Foxtel, earn $AU4 billion in annual revenue and employ approximately 4,000 people. The new division will manage Telstra’s …

    Business 18 Nov 04:56

  • Panasonic SC-BTT270 5.1 Blu-ray home theatre

    Review AV do-it-all for Lilliputian lounges

    For an all inclusive Blu-ray home cinema, this Panasonic system sure comes in a small box. But everything you need for 21st century surround sound is inside, including satellite speakers and subwoofer, Blu-ray receiver and metres of colour coded bell-wire. Thankfully, the SC-BTT270 sounds somewhat larger than it looks. …

    reghardware 18 Nov 07:00

  • Seagate's Luczo: 'Expect a year of misery'

    Soggy disk drives weigh on supply chain

    Seagate boss Steve Luczo reckons suppliers should brace themselves for 12 months of disk drive pain. Quoted in Bloomberg, Luczo says that the overall disk drive supply chain has been heavily impacted by the Thai floods with many smaller component suppliers down in the supply chain depths flooded out. He mentions 130 suppliers …

    Storage 18 Nov 07:29

  • eBay opens real-world UK tat bazaar for Xmas greed peak

    Pop-up boutique shoppers will need smartphones to buy

    eBay is launching its first UK store, albeit temporarily, this Christmas to allow shoppers to browse in the physical world before buying online. The pop-up boutique opens in London's West End for just five days from 1 December in what is expected to be the peak buying period for the year. Dubbed a "Quick Response (QR) code …

    Channel Register 18 Nov 08:31

  • Web smut barons sue over .xxx 'shakedown'

    Sites drag ICANN, ICM into court

    Two of the biggest porn companies on the net want to put a stop to the .xxx top-level domain, and they've taken their demands to court. Manwin and Digital Playground yesterday sued domain name system overseer ICANN and .xxx manager ICM Registry on antitrust grounds, claiming that ICM has been "extorting defensive registrations …

    Hosting 18 Nov 09:02

  • Microsoft names and shames pirate software traders

    Yarr, we plundered Redmond's galleon, admit Brit firms

    Microsoft has reached out-of-court settlements with five computer resellers that 'fessed up to illegally loading hard disks with pirated software and flogging bootleg programs. The firms were conveniently named and shamed on Thursday for Play Fair Day – previously dubbed Consumer Action Day – which the industry is using to …

    Channel Register 18 Nov 09:16

  • Attention swingbellies: Pizza sauce is a healthy vegetable

    Does that mean garlic bread is a herb?

    The US government will officially declare pizza sauce a vegetable* in its own right, if Congress passes a rule change to recategorise the runny topping as a full-fledged vegetable this week. The expected ruling will come as part of lawmakers' annual spending bill for the US Department of Agriculture, and provision for …

    Small Biz 18 Nov 09:31

  • Kids demand Apple kit for Chrimble

    Oi, Santa, where's my f***in iPad?

    You grown-ups may not give a fig for fruit-flavoured products, but it's clear youngsters love Apple. Respected US market research firm Nielsen asked a playground full of 6- to 12-year-olds what they want for Christmas, and Apple kit took the top three places on the list. The most desired item by far is the iPad. Some 44 per …

    reghardware 18 Nov 09:38

  • Android Market free-for-all blamed for malware avalanche

    Symbian VXers advance on the Droids

    Android mobile malware samples have increased more than five-fold since July alone, according to a study by Juniper Networks. The ability of anyone to develop and publish an application to the Android Market – in contrast to the more restrictive model applied by Apple for iOS – is at least partly to blame for the huge increase …

    Security 18 Nov 09:39

  • Microsoft Dryad trampled in Hadoop stampede

    Redmond flees wild big-data crunching elephant

    Microsoft is surrendering to the Google-inspired Hadoop it once sought to challenge with its own big-data crunching architecture. There will be no further updates to Dryad, officially called "LINQ to HPC", and Dryad won't be developed as a product, Microsoft has said. The news was tucked in a blog post announcing availability …

    Channel Register 18 Nov 09:44

  • Henge Docks Docking Station

    Accessory of the Week Low-cost cable holder for your MacBook

    It’s less technically sophisticated than the Techne Byte-Dock port replicator we reviewed recently, but the Docking Station from Henge Docks is a darn site prettier and a lot less expensive. Sold here in the UK by MobileFun, the Docking Station is available in several sizes to suit everything from the now-discontinued 13in …

    reghardware 18 Nov 10:00

  • Microsoft wants slower flash chips

    For the cloud

    Microsoft wants slower flash chips that skimp on power use in its big, big data centres. EETimes reports Dileep Bhandarkar, Microsoft's chief architect for global foundation services – he helps design Redmond's massive data centres – saying he doesn't need the highest IOPS NAND. He needs more IOPS than disk systems but wants …

    Channel Register 18 Nov 10:09

  • Northamber: PC stock mountain hurt us

    Q1 sales down nearly 30 per cent, operating losses confirmed

    Sales at veteran distie Northamber collapsed in its fiscal Q1 ended 30 September as the IT market ran aground and it steered clear of unprofitable product lines. The UK's first wholesaler revealed that sequentially, revenues were up 9 per cent but on a year ago comparison they tanked nearly 30 per cent and it made an operating …

    Channel Register 18 Nov 10:19

  • 3m iPad 3 'retina' screens sent to Apple by month's end

    LG, Samsung and Sharp punch out the panels

    Apple's next iPad will indeed feature a 2048 x 1536 "retina" display - if an Asian whisperer is right to say LG, Samsung and Sharp have already shipped more than one million such screens to the fruit-flavoured firm. This month, claims the mole, they will ship two million units to Apple, DigiTimes says. Separate reports have …

    reghardware 18 Nov 10:22

  • Assange hires Pirate Bay lawyer

    The WikiLeaker-in-chief does know the TPB 4 lost the case, right?

    Julian Assange has ditched his Swedish legal counsel and lined up a new defence team in readiness for a likely return to the country to face allegations of sexual molestation and rape against two women. His new lawyers include Per Samuelson, who in 2009 represented Carl Lundström – one of the co-founders of notorious …

    Law 18 Nov 10:29

  • Southampton hampton vice shocker: Exclusive snap

    Todger, ring, firemen, camera, lights, action...

    The eye-watering story last week about the Southampton bloke who got his wedding tackle trapped in a metal ring prompted the usual reader calls for photographic proof of the todger vice ordeal. To recap, the victim of the spam javelin mishap had to be freed by fireman from his ill-advised stiffie enhancer, after Southampton …

    Bootnotes 18 Nov 10:39

  • Nominet claws back cops' automatic .UK takedown power

    New plan: court order needed in some cases

    UK cops hoping to swiftly shutdown .uk websites accused of being involved in counterfeiting will have a harder time under proposed changes to Nominet policy. Under the changes, which will affect all .uk domain names, Nominet will be able to deny a site suspension request unless police provide a court order or the site is …

    Hosting 18 Nov 10:51

  • BOFH: The day the office budget bombed – literally

    Episode 19 Explosive network kit Trojan

    “And this was the extinguisher here, was it?” the Health and Safety feeb asks. “That’s the one!” I say. “And you don’t know of any reason how it came to be filled with diesel instead of water?” “None!” the PFY lies. “But then it may have been like that when we took the building over!” Luckily the H&S droid isn’t likely to …

    BOFH 18 Nov 11:00

  • 'Morons! Zuckerberg, are you listening?'

    QuotW 'As to Mars – it is a planet that does not like Earthlings'

    This was the week when recruiter Dominic Connor was stirring equal measures of admiration and ire from Reg readers with his calculated putdowns of IT job-getting skills, both at the application stage and once the BOFHs get their foot in the door. It was also the week when Team Register got its hands on the hot list of PE12 VRT …

    Bootnotes 18 Nov 11:11

  • Nokia's next Windows Phone leaked in dev ad

    Lumia 900 looks Ace

    Nokia's next addition to its WinPho range has slipped out in a commercial for developers. Say hello to the Nokia Lumia 900. The video, which was accidentally upped to Nokia's public YouTube channel before being marked private, reveals little about the Lumia 900's specs, but shows a very Lumia-like handset alongside some self- …

    reghardware 18 Nov 11:15

  • Silicon Valley web giants face 10-year tech exit

    Open ... And Shut Why Google, Facebook and Twitter are risky bets

    Silicon Valley companies continue to get outsized valuations, cast as high-growth tech companies. But while Twitter, Facebook, Google, Groupon, and other so-called tech bellwethers continue to grow, it's increasingly difficult to tell them apart from their kissing cousins in the media, advertising, and retail businesses. Do …

    Developer 18 Nov 11:21

  • UK cops: 'We thwarted Royal Wedding web attack plot'

    Kid cuffed in DDoS probe

    UK cybercops have claimed credit for preventing attempts to blast the official Royal Wedding website offline in April, following the arrest of a teenager suspected of masterminding the attack. Detective Superintendent Charlie McMurdie said that preemptive action was taken to keep the site, dedicated to the marriage of Prince …

    Security 18 Nov 11:25

  • Greener Arctic may be down to lemming poo, not climate

    Swarming sex-mad rodents fertilise grasses

    Recent satellite observations showing "greening" of some Arctic regions - until now put down to global warming permitting plants to grow more easily in the frozen north - may in fact be explained by large numbers of lemmings defecating on the affected areas, so fertilising green plants. "Our paper confirms that we really need …

    Science 18 Nov 11:26

  • Irish website promises you'll never miss a funeral again

    All the deaths you want, plus interactive mapping

    Irish netizens and their country's diaspora need never miss an important demise in their homeland again, after the launch of DeathIreland.com. The site promises to keep subscribers "up to date with all the deaths in your town, city or county - and much more". The much more appears to be interactive mapping to every church and …

    Bootnotes 18 Nov 11:35

  • Dell disk drive prices soar as rivals hold firm

    BTO model and minimal inventory holding to blame, says analyst

    Dell enterprise disk drive prices have soared by up to 35 per cent in the two weeks following the events in Thailand. Context data reveals average sales prices (ASPs) for Dell HDDs grew 6.9 per cent as of 31 October but hikes were more pronounced on larger capacity specs, with a 3 per cent rise on drives below 600GB and the …

    Channel Register 18 Nov 11:44

  • Neutrinos still FASTER THAN LIGHT in second test

    Take that, Einstein

    The boffins who sent sub-atomic particles on a faster-than-light journey into the past have done another successful experiment that confirms the results. In the original test, 15,000 beams of neutrinos were fired over three years from CERN near Geneva 720km to Gran Sasso in Italy and the particles arrived at their destination …

    Science 18 Nov 11:46

  • Tech productivity tactics

    Broadcast Home improvements for the perfect flexible worker

    It's clear that there are fundamental changes happening in the way people, and businesses, want to work. The relentless pace of technology developments has given us ever better and more connected notebooks, and now smartphones and tablets. This means we can work wherever and whenever it suits. That's all well and good, but …

    CIO 18 Nov 11:53

  • Archos outs budget 9in Android tablet

    Arnova novum

    Archos has introduced its latest Arnova budget tablet: the 9.7in 9 G2. The spec's not so bad - 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, 768 x 1024 capacitive touchscreen, 8GB of Flash, Micro SD storage expansion, 802.11g Wi-Fi - but the Arnova 9 G2 only runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Still, Archos promised that "thousands" of apps can be …

    reghardware 18 Nov 11:56

  • Nikon 1 J1 interchangeable lens compact camera

    Review Late to the party and making a scene

    Somewhat late to the game, Nikon has finally released its Nikon 1 range of compact, mirrorless cameras which use a new CX-format sensor and a range of interchangeable lenses. The J1 model is currently the entry-level Nikon One camera The Nikon 1 range currently comprises V1 and J1 variants. Excellent build quality and high …

    reghardware 18 Nov 12:00

  • Microsoft investors' love for Ballmer wanes

    Chief chair chucker gets to stay, though

    Under-fire Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer got the backing of shareholders in the annual board election but his popularity has waned slightly. Redmond's bald eagle, who just this week batted away investors that are keen to see the software giant break up and spin off certain divisions, was yesterday re-elected to the top table by …

    Channel Register 18 Nov 12:01

  • Reg reader seeks living room Myth advice - can you help?

    Reader Assistance Care from the community

    We received the following plea for assistance from Reg Hardware reader Ian Bonham this morning: Dear Reg Hardware, As Chrimbo closes on us, I'm looking at a new family TV and Blu-ray to keep the ankle-biters quiet while I enjoy a bit of much deserved downtime. I am in a bit of a quandary though. As a dedicated Penguin, I have …

    reghardware 18 Nov 12:07

  • Mysterious sat-pic China desert markings - EXPLAINED

    NASA expert enlightens puzzled Google Earth fans

    The grids of white lines in China's Gobi desert that have got the world's conspiracy theorists in a lather for a week, are actually calibration targets used to help China's spy satellites, says a NASA researcher. Since the 65ft-wide white line patterns were spotted on Google Earth, it has been speculated that they were …

    Science 18 Nov 12:09

  • Woomera: Ghosts of Britain's space past

    El Reg treads the Prohibited Area

    During our recent Oz roadtrip in pursuit of the World Solar Challenge, El Reg's Special Projects Bureau made a lightning visit to Woomera, where Britain's space programme was played out and, ultimately, laid to rest. The town (pictured below on Google Earth) was established in 1947 as the core of a joint Anglo-Australian …

    SPB 18 Nov 12:21

  • Samsung v iPhone 4S French entrenchment: 'TOTAL WAR'

    'They won't leave us alone', sob Apple lawyers to judge

    Apple's lawyers have accused Samsung of waging all-out patent war in the latest battleground for the world-spanning dispute between the two firms. The tech giants are now in Paris to argue over Samsung's attempt to get a preliminary injunction against the iPhone 4S in France, based on alleged infringement of its 3G patents. " …

    Hardware 18 Nov 12:28

  • Ghanaian she-devil chews off bloke's 'nad sack

    Jeans no protection from sharp-toothed fury

    A 31-year-old Ghanaian woman is unsurprisingly languishing in jail after chewing off a chap's scrotum. According to this eye-watering report (NSFW, trust us), 45-year-old farmer Kwadwo Owusu incurred the wrath of she-devil Akua Serwaah Bonsu by preventing a fight between her and some other women at a funeral. While returning …

    Bootnotes 18 Nov 12:39

  • Update knackers hundreds of Zendesk helpdesks

    Fix blunder Twitter chunder 'great confusion' followed

    The boss at cloud-based online helpdesk software provider Zendesk has apologised for a brief outage last night that suspended 360 client accounts. The firm, which counts big names including Adobe, Sony, Xerox, Groupon, Dropbox and Rackspace among its customers, experienced unexpected downtime for forty minutes from 22.15 GMT …

    Small Biz 18 Nov 12:43

  • Free the people from office chains and commuting pain!

    Give the Transport minister an easy life. And buy our stuff!

    Norman Baker, the UK's Transport Minister, has outlined a consortium dedicated to getting more people working away from the office, for the good of the economy, and the planet. The "Anywhere Working" consortium is backed by big businesses, businesses who stand to make money from more remote working admittedly, but the unions …

    Small Biz 18 Nov 12:51

  • Does tech suffer blurred vision on 3D future?

    Part 1 Death of field...

    With the advent (again) of 3D, the movie industry has over the past couple of years turned big-time to IT for support. Over the same period the TV manufacturers have been looking to 3D to boost sales that started flagging once the first craze for HD has passed. So how are the effects of the current 3D phase showing up on the IT …

    Media 18 Nov 13:00

  • Shock result: UK's largest city best place to get IT job

    Tech employment site releases interactive map of IT sector salaries

    In a stunning turn of events, it has transpired that the best place in the UK to get a developer job is London, and that Londoners get the best money too, so if you dream of pulling off a C++ coding job in Newquay then change your dream now, though I'm sure it's a nice place to live. Jobs site theitjobboard has drawn up an …

    Servers 18 Nov 13:11

  • Surprise Royal Society prize win by wave-watching author

    All kinds of waves from Mexican to seaside

    British designer and author Gavin Pretor-Pinney has won the 2011 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books for his popular science entry The Wavewatcher's Companion. “I’m really grateful to the jury, the Royal Society and [sponsor] Winton Capital Management. What interests me in science is that it follows from being curious …

    Science 18 Nov 13:21

  • Assassin's Creed: Revelations

    Review Organised climb

    It might just be me, but as Ezio Auditore effortlessly scales yet another tower, it’s hard to shake the feeling we've been here before. I know it's the continuation of a story arc, and I know that the game's engine – as already rolled out in last year's Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – is already adequate enough in its animation …

    reghardware 18 Nov 13:31

  • Brussels: Water cannot be sold as remedy for dehydration

    May not be essential to life, either

    Brussels prompted a flood of abuse this week by apparently banning bottled water vendors from promoting their products as a counter to dehydration. The European Food Standards Agency was asked to consider its "opinion on the scientific substantiation of a health claim related to water and reduced risk of development of …

    Government 18 Nov 13:40

  • IBM in the software era: Big Blue man gives HP a seminar

    From atop vast pile of cash

    Euro recessionary scares aside, success for IBM is increasingly coming from software. Software sales aren't just growing, up 16.9 per cent during the giants second quarter, so is profitability with software group margins up 88.4 per cent. Sales were down quarter on quarter in Q3, but still grew just over 12 per cent compared …

    CIO 18 Nov 13:51

  • Overland struggles to keep its head above water

    Praying for patent suit to inflate its dinghy

    It sure isn't a snap as Overland reported quarterly results that still show hopes of a long-awaited recovery are unsatisfied. One swallow doesn't make a summer but it sure would be nice to see a swallow, any swallow. Revenues for its second financial 2012 quarter were $14.1m, 20 per cent down on the year-ago quarter. Ouch. …

    Virtualization 18 Nov 14:01

  • Reg readers say: Having the right info is key to productivity

    Anyone here work in Financial Services? Help us out

    Ensuring that people have the information they need when they need it is the single most important element when it comes to productivity in the workplace. At least, that’s what you guys told us when we conducted a survey on end user productivity earlier this year. However, your answers to our questions also made it amply clear …

    CIO 18 Nov 14:08

  • Afghan elders refuse to be labelled pimps by number 39

    Have no truck with concept of pimping their rides either

    Plans to extend the London 39 bus route from Putney Bridge Station to Kabul are reportedly on hold after the number of shame caused a bit of a rumpus at a gathering of Afghan elders. President Hamid Karzai convened the "loya jirga" to chew the fat over US-Afghan relations, but made the mistake of dividing the shindig into 40 …

    Bootnotes 18 Nov 14:19

  • Busted Russian Mars probe could go to Moon instead

    Phobos-Grunt to become Lunok-Grunt instead?

    Lost Russian probe Phobos-Grunt could give up its trek to Mars and instead head to the Moon if communication isn't established in the next few days. Space agency Roscosmos has given engineers until 21 November to contact the spacecraft, which is somewhere in orbit around Earth, because a flight to the Red Planet's moon Phobos …

    Science 18 Nov 14:22

  • Mobile operators warned on 'unlimited' data gouging

    We meant the bill, not how many bytes you can have

    A UK watchdog has urged mobile operators to obey the spirit of rules on data billing, not the letter, if they don't want greater restrictions imposed. Calling for more useful information for customers, the UK's Communications Ombudsman reckons it might be necessary for telcos to send out warnings when punters approach their …

    Mobile 18 Nov 14:29

  • Pakistan bans rude text messages

    'Fondleslab' is offensive apparently

    Text messaging has long been derided for diminished linguistic skills and increased profanity, especially among yoof. In a bid to tackle the issue, officials in Pakistan have forced mobile operators to block all texts that feature specific offensive words. The country's telecoms regulator, the Pakistan Telecomminication …

    reghardware 18 Nov 14:32

  • Size doesn't matter to database thrusting Clustrix

    Easily pleased, quickly done

    Clustrix clustered server nodes loaded with Intel SSDs chew through parallelised database queries in a flash. At a press event in San Jose, database startup Clustrix introduced its new CEO and described its technology. CEO Robin Purohit joined Clustrix 30 days ago, coming from HP and Mercury, and Veritas before that. His …

    Storage 18 Nov 14:44

  • Jaguar to Titan? Not so bad…

    Keptacular Metamorphis

    At SC11 I had the opportunity to talk to some of the people responsible for the biggest computer upgrade known to man. Oak Ridge National Labs is upgrading its current Cray XT5 ‘Jaguar’ system to a Cray XT6 system that will be known as ‘Titan’. It’s quite a facelift. Today, Jaguar is a 1.75 PFlop supercomputer with more than …

    HPC 18 Nov 15:00

  • Hypersonic missile successfully hits Ronald Reagan

    Mach 8 glider warhead covers 2,400 miles in 20-odd mins

    The US Army - yes, Army - has announced a successful test flight by a prototype hypersonic missile. The Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW) demonstrator took off from the island of Kauai on a three-stage rocket booster at 1:30 AM local time yesterday, and splashed down close to its target coordinates some 2,400 miles away at the …

    Government 18 Nov 15:10

  • Punctured Google+ leaks bored users

    Numbers falling like Page's teardrops in the rain

    Google+ is struggling to retain interest from users who sign-up to the social network. Figures seen by the LA Times suggest that the number of punters using Google's service, which hooks into a person's Gmail profile and functions as a contender to Facebook, is haphazardly dialling up occasionally and down often. Hitwise told …

    Cloud 18 Nov 15:16

  • HP welcomes activist investor onto board

    Better to have him inside the tent, pissing, um, everywhere

    HP has found a seat on the board for activist stakeholder Ralph Whitworth, co-founder at Relational Investors which should buy his silence - in public at least - for a couple of years while CEO Meg Whitman steadies the ship. Relational bought 17.3 million HP shares or 0.9 per cent of the total stock in August following …

    Financial News 18 Nov 15:36

  • Flash array start-up SolidFire begins the hard sell

    'Virtualising performance'... with IOPS to spare

    Flash array startup SolidFire says it virtualises performance. What does it mean? At a press briefing in Arista's offices (yes, Arista), we learnt that SolidFire offers an all-flash array with in-line deduplication, compression and thin provisioning to effectively increase the capacity and lower the cost/GB of its product …

    Virtualization 18 Nov 15:59

  • HELL ON EARTH: The Great Dying

    Volcanos almost wiped out life on Earth 250m years ago

    Archaeologists looking at soil in China have seen traces of a time when the earth burned, sulphur filled the air and three quarters of living creatures died. Investigating the biggest mass extinction in the earth's history - a team led by Shu-zhong Shen of Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology examined two dozen cross …

    Science 18 Nov 16:04

  • DARPA boffins develop unfeasibly light metal fluff-structure

    Nano-nickel wonder stuff bar can rest atop a dandelion

    Boffins at California's HRL Laboratories have developed what they claim is the world's lightest material, a nickel structure that is a hundred times lighter than styrofoam. World's lightest material Credit: Dan Little for HRL Laboratories Working with colleagues from the California Institute of Technology and the University …

    Science 18 Nov 16:13

  • Men busted 'for touting Facebook and Twitter shares'

    Groupon, Bloom Energy etc: These guys owned it all

    The US Securities and Exchange Commission has closed down an investment scam that was touting pre-IPO shares in Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and Groupon. The SEC alleges that Florida resident John Mattera and others set up a new hedge fund named The Praetorian Global Fund. The Commission alleged that the suspects had claimed to …

    Cloud 18 Nov 16:17

  • Microsoft's Hadoop-hugging SQL Server 2012 gets closer

    Just the barber in today's virty cloud world

    Microsoft's delivered a near-final version of the Hadoop-friendly next version of its database. The company has made the SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate (RC) available for download here. RC is the last stage before final product and Microsoft called the database's RC "a production quality release" that includes access to …

    Virtualization 18 Nov 16:26

  • Narcissistic, greedy: What Wikipedia says about its appeal

    NSFW Or rather what Reg readers have made the site say

    It's time for the annual Wikipedia fundraising drive. But for once it's providing hours of fun for bored office workers - thanks to an unfortunate juxtaposition. The appeal for cash features various Wikipedia contributors - and Maximum Leader Jimbo Wales. Unfortunately the alignment of the page heading underneath the appeal …

    Bootnotes 18 Nov 16:38

  • Some go gracefully in the Channel - and some go messily

    Some don't pick up revolver left tactfully on the desk

    Liquidators of defunct reseller Skye IT have confirmed to El Reg that the firm ran up massive debts of £1.9m. As revealed last month, the Chelmsford-based dealer decided to call it a day after encountering insurmountable cash flow difficulties and laid off all 40 staff. A meeting of creditors was held at the London offices of …

    Channel Register 18 Nov 16:58

  • Moon goodness: Far side of Luna in full colour

    Rear of our rounded companion in all her glory

    If you enjoy scanning your eyes over the magnificent curves and craters of our planet's closest companion, then you'll probably love this lush high res stereo image of the far side of the Moon recently uploaded to the net by a team at the Arizona State University. The farside of the moon in colour relief, screengrab LROC …

    Science 18 Nov 17:00

  • Sparc M4 chips etched by Oracle, not Fujitsu

    Exclusive Sunset for Sparc64 in SMP servers?

    The relationship between Oracle, acquirer of the Sun Microsystems server business, and Fujitsu, licenser of the Sparc instruction set and maker of its own Sparc iron – you can't even call it clone iron since Sun and then Oracle have been selling the Sparc Enterprise M systems for years – has been particularly inscrutable for the …

    Servers 18 Nov 17:22

  • Cryptocard gobbles tasty, dead number puzzle startup

    Cloud token option to fatten offerings

    Cryptocard has acquired the patents and intellectual property of GrIDsure, a UK pattern-based authentication start-up that became insolvent earlier this month. Term of the deal, announced Friday, were undisclosed. The acquired technology will be added to Cryptocard's existing cloud-based authentication services portfolio, …

    Cloud 18 Nov 18:02

  • Making connections: The world according to Intel

    Evolution explained

    With the year winding down, I'd like to pull out a crystal ball and peer in. It is not my crystal ball I want to examine here but rather Intel's. Let's start with the networking. We all know that Intel makes networking gear. Specifically, it makes some of the best PC network interface cards (NICs) available. It should be a …

    Enterprise Tech 18 Nov 18:18

  • Quest Software hangs toolmaker VKernel on its utility belt

    On a quest for virtualization domination

    In what has to be the shortest press release in the history of IT, Quest Software announced that it had acquired VKernel, which peddles a capacity management, optimization, and chargeback system for VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors. Quest says that VKernel – based in Boston, Massachusetts – would be operated as an …

    Virtualization 18 Nov 19:30

  • Google's Brin and wife plop half-million into Wikipedia's hat

    It's pledge-drive time, and Sergey's feeling flush

    The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit publisher of Wikipedia and its affiliate sites, has received a $500,000 grant from the Brin Wojcicki Foundation, a philanthropic organization set up by Google cofounder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki, cofounder of "personal genetic information" website 23andMe. "This grant is an …

    Media 18 Nov 20:25

  • Motorola welcomes Google slurp with open arms

    99 out of 100 shareholders choose Google

    Motorola shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to accept Google’s $12.5bn bid to buy the company’s mobile phone arm, and any patents it may happen to have lying around. Over 99 per cent of shareholders who voted approved of the deal, representing nearly three-quarters of the total shares. Google had hoped to see the purchase …

    Mobile 18 Nov 20:31

  • Second water utility reportedly hit by hack attack

    Proof-of-concept intrusion

    Images posted online suggest that hackers may have gained unauthorized access to computers controlling a second water treatment facility, a claim that raises additional concerns about of the security of the US's critical infrastructure. Five computer screenshots posted early Friday purport to show the user interface used to …

    Security 18 Nov 21:26

  • Microsoft seeks patent on employee spy system

    HR software from hell

    Microsoft has filed a patent for a system that monitors the behavior of employees via computers, phone calls, and physical gestures, and alerts human resources if anyone is behaving outside of preferred norms. The patent describes how an increase in an employee’s trust in the boss is the equivalent to a pay rise, so to promote …

    Applications 18 Nov 22:04

  • Clooney fingered for Steve Jobs role in Hollywood biopic

    Former ER partners battle for sacred turtleneck

    Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney has been named as a lead contender for the role of Steve Jobs in the inevitable cash-in movie, planned to start filming next year. Although Jobs is barely cool inside his tastefully-designed final resting place, the race is on to find someone to sum up the hippy-turned-ruthless-tycoon. …

    Bootnotes 18 Nov 23:10