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7th December 2011 Archive

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  • Oracle whips out Solaris 11 system lasher

    Say farewell to some Cluster 3.3 features

    Oracle has duly announced the high availability clustering companion to the new Solaris 11 operating system, and as you might expect from a company that is pitching its own SPARC-based "engineered system" stacks, a whole bunch of third-party software and hardware that was supported with the prior Solaris Cluster 3.3 code has not …

    Servers 7 Dec 00:27

  • Microsoft seeks to woo developers with Windows 8 store

    Goes live in February, suggesting 2012 OS launch

    Microsoft is looking to woo application developers to its Windows 8 software store with more flexible licensing than usual, and a purported larger user base. Speaking at an event in San Francisco, Antoine Leblond, vice president of Windows Web Services, said that Microsoft would allow developers much greater flexibility than …

    Developer 7 Dec 02:06

  • Fruit Ninja dev takes Sydney studio

    Stoner maintains NSW gov digital hub focus

    Seven digital media projects have been awarded $AU3 million in funding from the NSW government to help bolster the state’s digital gaming sector. High profile Queensland based games developer Halfbrick Studio, the architect of Fruit Ninja, took a slice of the funding which will see the gaming house open a Sydney based arm. " …

    Business 7 Dec 04:04

  • OWC 6G Mercury Aura Pro Express SSD

    Review Speedier solid-state storage for your MacBook Air

    Macs were never made to be messed with. Apple has softened its approach to aftermarket upgrades in recent years, a little, making it easy to switch out both the memory and hard drive in most MacBooks made in the past couple of years. But the MacBook Air is still a bit of an upgrader's island - you can't even bump up the Ram as …

    reghardware 7 Dec 07:00

  • Headmaster freezes schoolkids for Gaia

    Earth Goddess requires sacrifices

    Pagan gods traditionally required human sacrifices – preferably of children – and a West Country academy school appears to be leading the way. To give pupils a lesson in "sustainability" they'll never forget, headmaster Rob Benzie of Ansford Academy in Castle Cary, Somerset, ordered a "No Power Day ... as an experiment to see if …

    Energy 7 Dec 08:02

  • Texas Memory Systems gets some enterprise street cred

    High availability flash array here at last

    Texas Memory Systems (TMS) is getting some enterprise cred – by introducing a high-availability, shared-access RamSan flash array. Competitors such as Violin Memory have criticised TMS RamSan flash SAN arrays for not having high-availability (HA) features that enterprises require when running business-critical applications. …

    Storage 7 Dec 08:33

  • Solar winds are blowing away the Moon's topsoil - NASA

    Plasma storms 'sandblast' decatonnes of lunar dirt into space

    Solar winds and plasma storms are "sandblasting" the Moon, according to top NASA boffins, causing large amounts of lunar surface material to be blown off into space. The new discoveries come to us from simulations conducted by NASA's Dynamic Response of the Environment At the Moon (DREAM) team. In particular the DREAMers …

    Space 7 Dec 09:00

  • Row over Korean election DDoS attack heats up

    Ruling party staffer accused of disrupting Seoul mayoral by-election

    A political scandal is brewing in Korea over alleged denial of service attacks against the National Election Commission (NEC) website. Police have arrested the 27-year-old personal assistant of ruling Grand National Party politician Choi Gu-sik over the alleged cyber-assault, which disrupted a Seoul mayoral by-election back in …

    Security 7 Dec 09:23

  • UK.gov uses Experian data to sniff out fraudsters

    HMRC and DWP ink deal with agency to detect tax and benefits cheats

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have signed a deal with credit reference agency Experian to use its data to detect fraud and error in the tax credits and benefits systems. They said that a recent pilot protected more than £16m of potential losses in tax credits, and that the move …

    Government 7 Dec 09:41

  • Rainbow Islands

    Antique Code Show Cutesy-cutesy

    I know you played this. Admit it, darn you! Or at least you coveted it from afar as I did, watching my little sister Chloe play it and waiting till she fell asleep to sneak into her room to worship it’s vivid iridescent rays - or as close as you can get with just 4096 colors! Rainbow Islands is one of the most successful …

    reghardware 7 Dec 10:00

  • Patent tax break takes effect in April 2013

    'Patent Box' is strong incentive for UK companies to develop IP

    A 10 per cent corporation tax rate will apply to profits from companies' worldwide trading activities which are attributable to qualifying patents, the Treasury confirmed in draft Finance Bill 2012 legislation published today, establishing the 'Patent Box' tax regime. The Patent Box will allow companies to elect to apply a 10 …

    Law 7 Dec 10:17

  • IMFT exposes its incredible shrinking NAND

    Nand shrinks: 20nm and counting

    NAND shrinks sounds like a way of describing flash psychoanalysts who sort out NAND neuroses as flash dies go a bit haywire. It actually refers to the shrinking process geometry size of cells in NAND manufacturing. Intel Micron Flash Technologies (IMFT) has just announced a 128Gbit capacity 20nm flash cell using 2-bit multi- …

    Storage 7 Dec 10:41

  • Oz rail company sold USB keys from lost property in auction

    All your brollies, data sticks and lost scarves are belong to us...

    Someone in RailCorp will be nursing a bruised ego after selling a pile of USB keys lost on trains in the authority’s regular lost property auction. It may have never raised an eyebrow, except that the keys were bought by the keen-eyed Paul Ducklin of Sophos. What Ducklin thought of as a good source of research into user habits …

    Security 7 Dec 11:01

  • RIM gives up on BBX name after court order

    BBX trademark already belonged to US software company

    A US court has granted a temporary restraining order banning Research in Motion from using the name BBX for its new operating system. Software firm BASIS International filed for infringement of the trademark last month and the court granted the injunction yesterday, saying: BASIS is likely to prevail on its trademark …

    Law 7 Dec 11:16

  • Thieves plunder apartment for Facebook booty

    Don't flash your wares online, advises Sao Paulo cop

    São Paulo police are warning of the perils of flashing your wealth on Facebook after a teenager's snaps of his electronic equipment and foreign holidays on the social network prompted thieves to rob his family's apartment. The unnamed 16-year-old was targeted by a student at his school when he "boasted among friends and put …

    Crime 7 Dec 11:32

  • ICO smacks Welsh council with record £130k fine

    Vulnerable child's data sent to same stranger who received the last breach...

    Data privacy watchdogs have fined Powys County Council £130,000, the highest fine the ICO has ever levied, for failing to protect the personal data of vulnerable young people. The Information Commissioner’s Office got out the big stick to punish the Welsh council after it sent details of a child protection case to the wrong …

    Government 7 Dec 11:47

  • 2011's Best... Cars

    Round up Petrolheadonism

    Sky-high petrol prices and environmental concerns are leading to a revolution inside the average car. Across the board, we are seeing increases in power and reductions in emissions and consumption that even a decade ago would have been called fanciful. And let’s not forget the electric car. No matter where you stand on the …

    reghardware 7 Dec 12:00

  • Secrets of the asteroid belt: Vesta actually more like a planet

    NASA spacecraft finds complex rock formations

    New images of the asteroid Vesta captured by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft indicate it’s more like a planet than a dead rock. Different rocks and minerals on the surface of Vesta. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Vesta is a unique asteroid because of the wide variety of rocks and mineral types found on it, illustrated in …

    Space 7 Dec 12:16

  • Current Comet owner hit with half year loss

    Kesa looks forward to offloading ailing retailer

    Kesa Electricals, the for-the-moment owner of UK retailer Comet, has announced a loss for the first six months of the fiscal year, as consumer appetite for big electronics flags. The group made a loss before tax of €147.7m in the six months to the end of October this year, compared to a profit of €27.2m in the same period of …

    Financial News 7 Dec 12:33

  • Groupon still on ASA naughty step with more complaints upheld

    Too many boobs in e-coupon site's basket

    Groupon has yet again been busted by the Advertising Standards Authority for misleading customers with separate promotions on its website. This brings the grand total of complaints brought against the e-coupon outfit to 50 for the year, and 2011 isn't even over yet. MyCityDeal Ltd, which trades as Groupon, was told that …

    Media 7 Dec 12:47

  • New Turing petition calls for criminal pardon

    Originator of original government apology petition describes move as a 'mistake'

    A petition for the UK government to pardon computer pioneer Alan Turing for his criminal conviction for homosexuality has attracted more than 6,000 signatures. The latest e-petition is different from the successful petition two years ago calling on the British Government asking to apologise for its persecution of Alan Turing …

    Government 7 Dec 13:04

  • Alec Baldwin kicked off plane for playing with his phone

    Hollywood star - glued to word game - gets marching orders

    Alec Baldwin claimed he was booted off a plane at Los Angeles international airport yesterday, after a flight attendant complained about him playing with a game on his mobile phone. The 30 Rock star, who was hoping to fly to New York on an American Airlines plane, took to his Twitter account to moan about his ejection from the …

    Mobile 7 Dec 13:18

  • Netflix snubs 'Tech City' for Luxembourg

    Media2.0sluts mourn

    In another blow to star of the Coalition's "digital economy" strategy, Netflix has decided to base its European HQ in Luxembourg, not "TechCity". Although Netflix is using the UK to spearhead its UK expansion - launching its video-on-demand streaming service here first next year - it will instead be “joining the many internet …

    Media 7 Dec 13:39

  • Facebook finally rolls out Timeline feature... but only in NZ

    Kiwis first to SHARE their story with the WORLD

    Kiwis are the guinea pigs for Facebook's Timeline feature, which the company announced in September with a lot of fanfare, but is now cautiously rolling out to users of the site. New Zealanders are the first to see Timeline show up in their Facebook accounts. We're guessing that means at least one million people in that …

    Media 7 Dec 14:02

  • Brit balloonist reclaims UK altitude record

    Hits 40,986 metres, then invades Belgium

    A proud Brit enthusiast has reclaimed the UK altitude record for a helium-filled meteorological balloon - hitting 40,986m just a few months after Oz student Mark Jessop's globe soared to 40,575m above East Anglia. Dave Akerman launched his Buzznik payload (see pic), on Saturday from his home village of Brightwalton, in …

    SPB 7 Dec 14:22

  • Acer CEO: No more 'cheap and unprofitable' products

    Sets sights on ultrabooks...

    Acer is plotting a return to profits that partly rests on the success of the ultrabook after revealing it is close to completing its operational and management overhaul. The Taiwanese giant posted losses for the past two consecutive quarters as it dealt with an inventory crisis caused by a consumer spending freeze made worse …

    Channel Register 7 Dec 14:43

  • British athlete puts self on eBay

    Sprinter uses auction to get sponsors for London Olympics

    A British sprinter has put himself on sale on eBay to try to get the sponsorship he needs to run in the London 2012 Olympics. James Ellington, who is the UK’s third fastest 200m runner, missed out on getting a sponsorship deal after four years of injuries, but is now coming from “his best ever season”, according to the eBay ad …

    Small Biz 7 Dec 15:04

  • God particle may be within our grasp

    Rumours of Higgs sightings precede latest results seminar

    Physicists working on the Large Hadron Collider will be announcing their latest batch of results at a seminar next week. It’s only been a day since CERN announced the seminar at which the ATLAS and CMS experiments would present the status of their search for the elusive God particle, but the blogosphere is already alight with …

    Physics 7 Dec 15:22

  • SSDs choked by crummy disk interfaces

    Gotta be PCIe and not SAS or SATA

    A flash device that can put out 100,000 IOPS shouldn't be crippled by a disk interface geared to dealing with the 200 or so IOPS delivered by individual slow hard disk drives. Disk drives suffer from the wait before the read head is positioned over the target track; 11msecs for a random read and 13msecs for a random write on …

    Storage 7 Dec 15:43

  • Gadget-hackers post how-to on BlackBerry PlayBook jailbreak

    Roots you, sir

    Gadget enthusiasts have produced a detailed guide on how to jailbreak BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. A video showing the rooting of the RIM-manufactured device was published last week by the same group, without an explanation of how they did it. The new guide explains that the technique, which involves using a custom hacking …

    PCs & Chips 7 Dec 16:04

  • New species of dinosaur discovered... in museum

    Dusty fossil of horny Canadian beast

    Bone-bothering boffins have discovered an entirely new species of horned dinosaur, despite having parts of its skull for the last hundred years. Artist's restoration of the head of Spinops sternbergorum. Credit: Dmitry Bogdanov, courtesy of Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology The fossilised remains of parts of the skull …

    Biology 7 Dec 16:27

  • Early 2012 date for UK Kindle Fire debut

    No joy from Santa, then

    Amazon will release the Kindle Fire over here in the UK during January 2012, it has been claimed. The Android-based Fire went on sale in the US on 15 November for $199 (£127), a price point that has got a lot of folk in the UK eager to get their mitts on one. They won't get it before Christmas, a mole claiming to be close to …

    reghardware 7 Dec 16:35

  • ASA upholds customer complaint against eBuyer

    Watchdog: Negative comments are also 'useful'

    The Advertising Standards Agency has rapped eBuyer over a Wi-Fi internet radio promo that it concluded misled consumers. The watchdog received a complaint claiming eBuyer was trying to create a favourable impression of the Foehn & Hirsch product by selecting 17 positive reviews and displaying them next to a four-and-a-half out …

    Small Biz 7 Dec 16:43

  • Even brilliant sysadmins need help plugging holes

    Sysadmin blog External audits fix issues you didn't know were there

    While we must never allow ourselves to fall into the habit of thinking that security is somebody else's problem, the time has come to accept that external help is required. We accept the necessity of outside help in many other areas of business. Yet even when IT security audits are offered at no cost, companies are still …

    Servers 7 Dec 17:05

  • HP readies fresh WebOS update

    CEO's verdict on OS' future due next week

    HP CEP Meg Whitman is expected to announce the fate of WebOS next week. If the claimed imminent release of version 3.0.5 of the tablet'n'phone operating system is correct, the omens for the OS may be good. HP released WebOS 3.0.4 in October and its successor's first Release Candidate has just been issued to developers, …

    reghardware 7 Dec 17:09

  • Man fights felony hacking charge for accessing wife's email

    Gmail showed her having extramarital affair

    A Michigan appeals court is trying to decide whether the state's anti hacking law should be invoked against a man who broke into his wife's Gmail account to see if she was having an affair. Leon Walker, 34, faces a maximum of five years in prison for using a shared family computer to read his wife's personal email after she …

    ID 7 Dec 17:42

  • Dell pulls Streak 7 from US online store

    Insists still committed to tablets

    Dell has stressed it is not abandoning the fondleslab market despite deciding to pull the Streak 7 from its online store stateside. All vendors have struggled to elbow Apple's iPad out of the top spot. HP gave up the WebOS tablet ghost in the summer and channel sources are expecting RIM to bow out in the next nine to 12 months …

    Channel Register 7 Dec 18:03

  • Apple poaches Brit sales boss from HP's PC group

    Channel assault on corporates

    Apple has poached HP PSG channel sales director Trevor Evans to mastermind its assault on the corporate market, The Register can reveal. Evans is already on gardening leave and takes the helm of Apple's B2B partner network at the end of January, sources say. In an internal memo sent to staff and leaked to El Reg, PSG UK boss …

    Channel Register 7 Dec 18:54

  • Server business stalls in EMEA

    Western Europe hits new low

    Server sellers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa didn't have as much fun as their counterparts in North America and Asia in the third quarter, according to statistics compiled by the box counters at IDC. IDC reckons that factory revenues for server makers in the EMEA region were up only six-tenths of a per cent in Q3, to …

    Servers 7 Dec 19:30

  • Google hands Britain’s eTown award to Scunthorpe

    Well there’s nowt else to do in Scunny

    Google has awarded Scunthorpe the title of Britain’s eTown, the UK locale that saw the strongest growth in AdWords use over the last year. The town, known for its dwindling iron and steel works, dodgy MP and unfortunately misspelt name, was at the top of 20 towns named in the UK for seeing growth in small businesses using …

    Media 7 Dec 20:37

  • Yahoo! invests in New York uber studio

    Content creation hub set for March launch

    Yahoo! is building a production studio in Manhattan in a bid to ramp up in-house content development for distribution across its global platform. The production facility is set to open by mid-March and features two sets, seven edit rooms, control room and green room, the Hollywood Reporter reveals. The Manhattan studio space …

    Business 7 Dec 21:30

  • HP's David Scott - After the Honeymoon

    Nekkid Tech at HP Discover

    Last week Nigel hooked up with former podcasting washup deadbeat ass kissing loser old friend and Infosmack legend Greg Knieriemen at HP Discover in Vienna. Nigel and Greg hooked up with Senior VP of HP Storage David Scott to shoot a joint Infosmack/Nekkid Tech podcast. On the show they talk all things storage and all things HP …

    Data Centre 7 Dec 22:15

  • BREAKTHROUGH: Feisty startup slashes chip power by 50%

    SuVolta to Intel: 'The future is the $10 chip, not the $200 chip'

    An impressively staffed startup by the name of SuVolta has teamed up with Japanese heavyweight Fujitsu Semiconductor to create a new chip-baking technique that promises low-power, inexpensive chips created in a highly scalable process and manufactured using equipment that's already ready in chip foundries. Yes, that …

    PCs & Chips 7 Dec 22:29

  • Shoppers a boon for Oz Post

    E-tailing could be the postmasters best friend

    Australia Post has punctured the myth that Internet imports are killing Australian business, telling a conference that most 'net purchases in this country are from local e-tailers. CEO Ahmed Fahour told the Committee for Economic Development (CEDA) event that around 70 percent of Post's once-waning parcel business now comes …

    Business 7 Dec 22:30

  • Eyes on stalks: ancient predator a real monster

    Throw this shrimp on the barbie

    A group of scientists working on fossils from Kangaroo Island in South Australia has turned up a Cambrian predator with horror-movie specs: razor serrations in a circular mouth, claws at the front of its head, and compound eyes on stalks. Taagged Anomalocaris (roughly “irregular shrimp”, or perhaps “abnormal shrimp”), the …

    Biology 7 Dec 23:00

  • Bill Gates discusses nuclear development deal with China

    TerraPower plans new form of low-risk nuclear reactor

    Bill Gates is holding talks with the China National Nuclear Corporation about building the first of a new breed of nuclear reactors that are fueled with what is currently considered radioactive waste. The system, dubbed a travelling wave reactor, is being developed by Intellectual Ventures, the investment vehicle and sometime …

    Physics 7 Dec 23:07

  • Stars behind the clouds: Oz government wants ratings

    Security, privacy and trust should be standardized

    The Federal government has decided that the pursuit of cloud computing is so urgent that it’s just released a cloud issues paper dated October. The report, prepared by industry advisory both the Information Technology Industry Innovation Council (ITIIC), recommends a ramp-up of cloud computing research in this country to be …

    Cloud 7 Dec 23:30