5th December 2011 Archive

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It's the customer, not stupid

Broadcast Data deluge, data desert, or both?

Organisations of all shapes and sizes know they can no longer just spend money on new technology, especially in the light of today's economic travails. Such an approach, common enough, results in information and process silos. Not good. With the information deluge getting every more deluge-y, and with belts tightening and …

Applications 5 Dec 2011, 07:00
Blighty promised £43m prang-predicting supercomputer

Science minister pledges £158m to boost Brit boffins' IT

The government is to invest £158m in IT infrastructure, including data storage, networks and high performance computing, to support research institutions and industry. Announcing the move, David Willetts, the minister for universities and science, said the largest allocation will pay for a national supercomputer to support …

Government 5 Dec 2011, 08:01
Cross-border shopping wars: EC proposes free online arbitration

Better refs for inter-country click-trade buy boost

The European Commission has proposed a free online dispute resolution platform through which traders and consumers could resolve disputes over online purchases. The Commission has published a draft regulation on online dispute resolution and said that a new platform would save time in ending consumer disputes and "ease …

Government 5 Dec 2011, 08:33
Bankrupt Borders flogs 65,536 IP addresses at $12 a pop

Scarce network numbers offloaded to healthcare biz

The bankrupt bookseller Borders wants to sell its stash of 65,536 IP addresses to healthcare software vendor Cerner for $12 per address. The bust high street chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, and has been selling off its assets to pay its creditors ever since. The address sale is one of its last …

Hosting 5 Dec 2011, 09:01
Man gets £12,500 after girlfriend probes his medical data

Nurse ex-partner's data breach cost him a job

This is a rare event indeed: a data subject has taken successful action for compensation under section 13 of the Data Protection Act. Normally what happens if a data controller has caused damage is that there is an out-of-court settlement with a gagging (sorry "confidentiality") clause so no-one is the wiser. The claimant …

Law 5 Dec 2011, 09:31
Silverlit Spy Cam

Geek Treat of the Week Spy in the sky

Never mind all my boasting about training for a helicopter pilot licence to help me survive the zombie apocalypse, it's been a long time since I had a go at flying anything. Looking back, that was a mistake because this Spy Cam 'copter is fun, fun, fun. I was really impressed at how simple this toy chopper is to set up and use …

Hardware 5 Dec 2011, 10:00
Ideas pits physical servers against fake ones

Sizing up the clouds

Looking to try to size up the workloads running on your physical servers and see what it would take to move them onto public clouds? There's an app for that. Server research specialists Ideas International have puffed up an online application called CloudSizer that does just that. The company has spent years coming up with its …

Servers 5 Dec 2011, 10:21
Samsung Galaxy Note

Review Wee tablet, big phone? No, the ideal in-betweener

With Android tablets starting at seven inches and phones now reaching just under five, something was bound to come along to occupy what little middle ground remains and blur the distinction between phone and tablet irrecoverably. That something is the Galaxy Note. The Note is a fair bit taller and wider than your average …

Phones 5 Dec 2011, 10:21
Mozilla denies OS X Leopard 2012 kill

Discussions will happen

Mozilla has denied that the death of Firefox on OS X Leopard, released just four years ago, is coming. The browser operation has downplayed a proposal, broached by one of Firefox’s developers, to stop supporting OS X 10.5 with Firefox 13. This version of Firefox is due to ship on or near 5 June 2012. The proposal was floated …

Developer 5 Dec 2011, 10:42
Flash prices FALL

Thai floods mask falling demand

Flash chip prices are falling thanks to over-supply and slow markets in Europe and the USA. NAND contract prices eased in the second half of November, as reported in Digitimes. How come? The recent Thai floods paralysed the hard drive supply chain - and this was supposed to stimulate demand for NAND flash, as manufacturers …

The Channel 5 Dec 2011, 10:46
Turn your WinPhone into an Xbox remote

xBox xmas

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Dashboard update this week will introduce a smart phone application that turns your Windows Phone handset into an Xbox system remote. The Xbox LIVE for Windows Phone application will let you browse and search through films, TV programs, games and other content available via Xbox 360. The app will let you …

Phones 5 Dec 2011, 11:11
Mozambique menaced by flesh-eating bananas

Emails warn of carnivorous fruit

Banana sales in Mozambican capital Maputo have taken a serious hit as a result of email and text message warnings of the dire consequences of contact with killer plantains. In response to a hoax alert that bananas imported from KwaZulu-Natal province in neighbouring South Africa were carrying the necrotizing fasciitis …

Bootnotes 5 Dec 2011, 11:20
GCHQ spooks' code-breaking puzzle solved

'Rather disappointing', says prof - both puzzle and prize

The GCHQ-set code-breaking puzzle was solved over the weekend. The signals intelligence agency last week set a puzzle at canyoucrackit.co.uk in its attempt to unearth potential recruits beyond its traditional graduate programme. Late last week it emerged that the successful completion page for the puzzle was available by a …

Developer 5 Dec 2011, 11:30
Samsung rolls out 'fastest' laptop mini SSDs

mSata for speed

Samsung has taken the wraps off a dinky mSata SSD for notebooks. Set to be available in 32, 64, 128 and 256GB capacities, the drives will use Samsung's own 20nm NAND Flash chips. They'll hook up to the host over a 6Gb/s Sata bus using a mini Sata interconnect. Samsung claimed the drives deliver "the industry’s highest …

Hardware 5 Dec 2011, 11:37
Assange™ can request final hearing against Swedish extradition

WikiLeaker-in-chief to take fight to Supreme Court

Julian Assange can request a final appeal against his extradition to Sweden, judges ruled this morning. They accepted that the WikiLeaks founder could ask the Supreme Court for permission to appeal on the grounds of "general public importance". Technically, the High Court in fact refused to let Assange have the right to …

Law 5 Dec 2011, 11:44
Samsung brings out superskinny flash drives for ultrabooks

It's no good. Who wants a cheaper, better MacBook Air?

Samsung is shipping mini-Serial ATA interface solid state drives for ultrabooks, the attempt by Intel to spark a Windows equivalent of MacBook Air thin notebooks into being. It has extended its PM830 range of 2Xnm class, 2-bit multi-level cell SSDs, with their 6Gbit/s SATA interface and 128, 256, and 512GB capacity points, by …

The Channel 5 Dec 2011, 11:57
Tablets to outship regular notebooks by 2016

But Ultrabooks will keep the clamshell on top

Intel may be hoping that 40 per cent of the notebooks that ship in 2012 will be Ultrabooks, but independent research suggests the chip giant will have to wait until 2015. Forecasts from market watcher iSuppli made public by Samsung puts 2012's Ultrabook tally at just 12 per cent of notebook shipments. Mind you, that still …

Laptops 5 Dec 2011, 12:03
Take this survey: Win an iPad 2

Promotion Here's the deal

Neverfail, the business continuity software specialist, is offering Reg readers in the UK the chance to enter a lucky dip which will see the winner take away a shiny new iPad 2. Oh yes. The taking part is easy, but read the large print below. You need to complete a short survey about business continuity, which includes a few …

Site News 5 Dec 2011, 12:30
Japan, Russia in plan for elephant to birth CLONE MAMMOTH

Dumbo surrogate crucial to Pleistocene Park scheme

Japanese and Russian boffins are planning to impregnate an elephant with a mammoth embryo cloned from viable fossil DNA discovered frozen beneath the icy Siberian tundra, according to reports. AFP reports that a joint team of boffins from Japan and Russia discovered mammoth DNA - which they consider to be in good enough …

Science 5 Dec 2011, 12:46
2011's Best... E-book Readers

Xmas Gift Guide For lovers of literature

World+Dog might fancy a glossy, colour tablet, but for the more literary inclined an e-book reader will likely prove a more suitable option. Yes, they're not as flash as fondleslabs, but their screens are legible both indoors and out, and their batteries last an age between charges. And, to please the canny gift buyer, they're …

Tablets 5 Dec 2011, 13:03
Potential ALIEN LIFE habitats FOUND ON MOONS

Endor, Pandora turn out to be inspired guesses

International boffins, poring over the results from mighty telescopes both spacegoing and ground-bound, say they have identified at least 16 potentially habitable Earth-like planets orbiting other stars: and at least 30 potentially habitable moons along the lines of the scientifictional Endor and Pandora, orbiting planets in …

Science 5 Dec 2011, 13:10
Snowbound Alaskan survives on frozen beer

Quick drive ends in terrifying Coors Light ordeal

An Alaskan man who ill-advisedly went for a drive without adequate emergency supplies and got stuck in a snow drift was obliged to subsist for three days on nothing more than frozen cans of beer. Clifton Vial left Nome, on the Bering Sea, in his Toyota Tacoma last Monday night for a quick jaunt north. Some 40 miles (64km) from …

Bootnotes 5 Dec 2011, 13:31
Sony region-locks digital content on PS Vita

But games region-free

The PlayStation Vita will be region-locked for digital content, Sony has confirmed. It said the device requires a factory reset to jump between different PlayStation Network accounts. Sony Japan's Third-Party Relations chief, Brad Douglas, confirmed the news through Twitter, highlighting that the next-gen PSP also limits …

Games 5 Dec 2011, 13:42
No Samsung ban for Apple in US

Fruity firm loses bid to block smartphone sales

A US court has rejected Apple's bid to get an early ban on Samsung products in the country. The iPhone-maker was looking for a preliminary injunction against the Korean firm's products based on patent infringements. To succeed in winning a ban, Apple needed to show that it would be harmed more by Samsung continuing to sell …

Law 5 Dec 2011, 13:52
Insurance giant: IT dealers will survive the downturn

A lot of b2b resellers are 'agile' and can 'adapt' - Euler Hermes boss

The UK boss at credit insurer Euler Hermes reckons that although channel insolvencies may edge up again next year, B2B resellers are in comparatively rude health. The number of IT dealers hitting the wall returned to levels not seen since the dot-com bust during the first half of 2011 and are forecast to remain high as the …

The Channel 5 Dec 2011, 14:13
Anti-Kremlin websites complain of DDoS attacks

Election fraud monitors: 'We were silenced as Russia went to the polls'

Websites publicising doubts about the fairness of the Russian parliamentary election last weekend have become the victim of denial of service attacks. Popular Russian radio station Moscow Echo and election-monitoring group Golos, the website of opposition weekly New Times as well as several other sites were left inaccessible …

Security 5 Dec 2011, 14:34
InMage: VMware backup can be done 80% faster

V3 of vContinuum

Initial virtual machine backup and replication over a wide area network can be up to 80 per cent faster with v3.0 of InMage's vContinuum software, says the company. V3.0 was developed to back up and restore virtual machines better in large VMware environments. With the rise of the virtual machines (VMs) there has been a …

Storage 5 Dec 2011, 14:55
IDC: Google needs DEEP tablet price slash to crack Apple

Must collaborate with rivals to stop iPad's dominance - analyst

Google must work closely with the fondleslab makers to slash prices if it is to loosen Apple's strangehold on the market. Or so says research analyst IDC, armed with data showing that the iPad accounted for three-quarters of the 1 million tablet devices shipped into the UK during Q3. "Apple has tight control of the platform …

The Channel 5 Dec 2011, 15:16
Mexico shuts down drug gang's antennas, radios

Army says deadly Las Zetas used some of the kit to track the military

The Mexican government has shut down a secret mobile network reckoned to be run by one of the country's drug cartels, possibly the ruthless Zetas. Military army troops confiscated 1,400 radios, 2,600 mobile phones, computer equipment, 167 antennas and 166 power supplies including solar panels as part of the operation. The kit …

Security 5 Dec 2011, 15:37
Swiss insist file-sharers don't hurt copyright holders

P2P still OK for personal use, government rules

The Swiss government has ruled that downloading pirated copies of films, music and videogames for personal use will remain legal because it is of not detrimental to copyright owners. Last year, the Swiss Senate ordered an investigation into the impact downloading may have on society, in case further legislation was required on …

Hardware 5 Dec 2011, 15:50
NASA probe now closer than ANY OTHER spacecraft to Pluto

Breaks Voyager 1 record set in 1986

A NASA probe came closer to Pluto than any other vessel in the history of space travel on 2 December. The New Horizons mission broke the closest-approach mark to the dwarf planet of 1.58 billion kilometers that was set by NASA's Voyager 1 in January 1986. To reach that milestone, the spacecraft spent 2,143 days, or nearly six …

Science 5 Dec 2011, 15:58
Former RIM Indonesia chief faces negligence charge over stampede

Cops say Canadian banned from travelling overseas

Indonesian police have said they may charge the outgoing Research in Motion chief in the country with negligence in connection to the stampede last month at a BlackBerry event in a mall in Jakarta. Canadian Andrew Cobham is one of four people who could be charged with negligence leading to injury over the event on 25 November …

Mobile 5 Dec 2011, 16:19
Napster will live on in the UK

Update No Rhapsody name change here

Napster has won itself a reprieve - at least in the UK and Germany. The name will continue in these two European territories, a local spokesman insisted today. "There is no intention to close Napster in either Germany or the UK," he told Reg Hardware. Last week, Rhapsody, which in November bought Napster from US retail giant …

Hardware 5 Dec 2011, 16:21
Vote for the year's best mobile kit

Reg Hardware Awards 2011 Name the best - and the worst - kit of 2011

Ladies and gentlemen, the annual Reg Hardware Awards are here and, once again, we need your help finding the best - and the worst - consumer electronics and infotech products of 2011. This week, we're calling for your nominations for our Mobile category, which gathers together our Smartphone of the Year, Smartphone OS of the …

reghardware 5 Dec 2011, 16:25
Microsoft's futurologists virtualise the poor

They'll always be with us - just less smelly

Beggars will still be with us in the future, according to a futuristic video by Microsoft's Office Labs team - but at least technology will be able to keep our distance from them. The video is called "Microsoft Productivity Future Vision" and the blurb invites us to "Watch how future technology will help people make better use …

Developer 5 Dec 2011, 16:39
Asus phone-tablet pair set for 2012 launch

Quad-core, of course

Asus' tablet-docking smartphone, the Padfone, will make its debut at Mobile World Congress 2012 and sport an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. The company's anticipated tablet-uniter will touch down early next year, says netbook journalist Nicole Scott, who claimed to have good authority when she made the announcement during an …

Tablets 5 Dec 2011, 16:43
Former ICO deputy head denies blocking press probe

'I never said the press was too big to take on'

The ICO’s deputy commissioner has denied ever saying that the press was “too big” for the commission to take on. A former senior investigator for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) told the Leveson Inquiry last Friday that he was asked not to pursue a case that pointed to private investigators getting confidential …

Government 5 Dec 2011, 17:01
NASA confirms first Earth candidate in habitable zone

Kepler finds Earth 2.0 just 600 light years away

NASA’s Kepler mission has spotted the first possibility for a planet to escape to if it turns out the Mayans were right about 2012. Artist's concept of Kepler 22b. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech The mission has confirmed the first planet in the so-called ‘habitable zone’ around a star – the area where water could exist on …

Science 5 Dec 2011, 17:22
Storage software sales strong

Second-largest revenue quarter

Storage software sales for the third 2011 quarter were the second highest ever, with Hitachi recording the highest annual growth followed by market leader EMC. NetApp, Symantec and IBM grew less than the average though, with NetApp nearly flat at 0.3 per cent. IDC said total storage software revenues were $3.5bn, 9.7 per cent …

Storage 5 Dec 2011, 17:42
Big Blue buys little green partner

IBM gets into unemployment, welfare management

If you work for IBM and you get the sack, it may be Big Blue that administers your unemployment or welfare payments from your local government. That's because IBM has acquired Cúram Software, a Dublin, Ireland–based provider of a "social enterprise management" suite oddly enough called the Business Application Suite. Cúram – …

The Channel 5 Dec 2011, 19:10
New Apple data center to snuggle with Facebook?

'Maverick' said to be planned in Oregon

Apple is reported to be planning a massive data center just a quarter-mile south of Facebook's facility in Prineville, Oregon. So say a pair of sources "with direct knowledge of Apple's plans," speaking with Oregon Live, the online news service of The Oregonian. Apple and Facebook are already data-center neighbors – but in …

Servers 5 Dec 2011, 20:27
Redmond rolls with Exchange 2010 SP2 update

OWA for all and hybrid cloud support

Microsoft has released the second service pack for Exchange 2010, including a tweak for mobile Outlook Web App (OWA) and better support for Exchange in hybrid cloud systems. The 535.2MB download, which needs Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard (or just Standard) to run, …

Applications 5 Dec 2011, 20:41
HP tempts Elite computer buyers with capacious Box

Adds online storage to three hardware lines

HP has done a deal with online storage firm Box to offer reduced cost – or free – services to buyers of the Compaq 6200 and 6005 Pro series and Compaq 8200 Elite series PCs. The deal sees 6200 and 6005 Pro Series buyers getting 10GB of free storage from Box in the first year of operation, and a reduced annual rate for those …

Small Biz 5 Dec 2011, 21:28
Australia Network stays in Aunty's lap

Murdoch empire out in cold as tender scrapped

The Australian government has scrapped all future intentions for a competitive tender for the Australia Network broadcasting contract and has instead handed national public broadcaster the ABC with a permanent contract. Cabinet met last night to discuss the contentious issue and make a decision on the vexed ten-year, $AU223 …

Media 5 Dec 2011, 21:57
$AU1.7 million for speech-text startup

Swag of inventions in $AU10 million handout round

Australian speech–to-text streaming technology Ai-Live has been awarded a $AU1.7 million dollar government development grant to accelerate global commercialisation of its platform. The platform is targeted at the disability sector particularly for education and employment applications. Ai-Live has conducted pilot studies in …

Business 5 Dec 2011, 22:00
Supermassive surprise: the biggest black holes EVER

A blackholearama of a day!

Here’s a genuine record-breaker: a black hole with nearly ten billion times the mass of our Sun, an event horizon that would stretch five times further than the orbit of Pluto if we had the misfortune to have it drop in, and a gravitational sphere of 4,000 light-years. With such a huge mass and long reach, it’s no surprise …

Science 5 Dec 2011, 22:30
Former HP boss Patricia Dunn dies at 58

Obituary Legacy sullied by 'pretexting' scandal

Patricia Dunn, former chairman of HP, died on Sunday at the age of 58 after a long fight with cancer. Dunn was appointed to the top job at HP in 2005 after joining the board in 1998. She lasted barely a year before being forced out and charged with hiring a team of private investigators to tap the phones of journalists and …

Business 5 Dec 2011, 23:20
Oracle fires Itanium countersuit at HP

Right back at you, ~~Leo~~ Meg

Late Friday, Oracle filed a countersuit against HP, which sued Oracle back in June because Oracle said in March that it would not be developing future releases of its database, middleware, and application software on future Itanium processors. It's hard to tell who is stretching the truth more it in the ongoing lawsuit, and …

Servers 5 Dec 2011, 23:23
It's ba-ack. Exploit revives slain browser history bug

Attack reveals recently visited websites

A Google researcher has resurrected an attack that allows website operators to steal the browsing history of visitors almost a year after all major browser makers introduced changes to close the gaping privacy hole. Proof-of-concept code recently posted by Google security researcher Michal Zalewski works against the majority of …

Security 5 Dec 2011, 23:31