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8th March 2012 Archive

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  • Restaurant takes the piss, recycles it as fertiliser

    Oz diner closes canola loop with world-first loos

    A Melbourne restaurant is collecting its patrons' urine and turning it into fertiliser. Smart Planet reports that tulip farmer and green installation guru Joost Bakker's latest Greenhouse pop up restaurant has purpose-built loos which take the piss for later re-use. The restaurant relies on canola oil and the wee is used to …

    Science 8 Mar 2012, 00:01

  • Everything you ever wanted to know about private cloud

    Keeping it to yourself

    The idea of cloud computing usually suggests vast server and storage resources delivered by external providers. The benefits, we are told, are legion: you pay only for what you use, you scale up to what you need, procurement costs are minimal, operational overhead reduced, and so on. But many organisations remain concerned …

    Cloud 8 Mar 2012, 00:30

  • SimCity to return after 10-year holiday

    2013 version adds 'robust multiplayer mode'

    Electronic Arts has announced it will bring out the first new version of its iconic game SimCity in a decade, with the new build due out in 2013. The new version, SimCity for PC, will include 3D graphics, the ability to build bendy roads and, most importantly, add a multiplayer and social twist to the game. Friends will be …

    Applications 8 Mar 2012, 00:37

  • GRAIL lunar orbiters get down to business

    First data coming in from Ebb and Flow

    NASA reports that its twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft in orbit around the Moon have begun sending back data. The mission's two craft, named Ebb and Flow after a public competition, will spend the next three months in orbit around our only natural satellite, measuring its gravitational field. …

    Science 8 Mar 2012, 00:51

  • Disaster preparation gamified for Oz kids

    iOs game teaches 10-15 year olds how to survive storms, floods

    Australia's Federal Government has released an iOs game, Before the Flood, to teach ten to fifteen year olds what to do when water levels start to rise. The app's release is both timely and unfortunate. In 2011 Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, experienced severe flooding that damaged thousands of homes, so the game's …

    Policy 8 Mar 2012, 05:37

  • Australia considers national digital archive

    Copyright Act amendment could see all electronic publications in National Library

    Australia's Legal Deposit requirement, which compels publishers to send copies of all books to the National Library, may be extended to digital works. The potential extension of the Legal Deposit is discussed in a new Consultation Paper issued by the Federal Attorney General's Department. The current scheme is a decidedly pre …

    Policy 8 Mar 2012, 06:07

  • Inside Sony's Home Entertainment HQ in Japan

    Feature Image is everything, say Bravia boffins

    Sony is getting back to basics in an effort to revitalise its underperforming TV division. After haemorrhaging cash for eight long years, a fresh management team are betting the farm on new display technologies and a return to core values in order to turn things around. To see just how sweeping these changes are, the iconic …

    Hardware 8 Mar 2012, 07:00

  • Lingerie-clad she-devils romp past watchdog

    NSFW ASA rejects Agent Provocateur vid complaint

    The Advertising Standards Authority has rejected a complaint that an Agent Provocateur video featuring a pack of lingerie-clad she-devils menacing another woman is "disturbing and misogynistic". The vid first appeared on the company's website last November to punt its Soiree 2011-2012 collection. The ASA summarises that it …

    Bootnotes 8 Mar 2012, 08:02

  • Top Brit authors turn flamethrowers on barmy IPO

    Bureaucrats, and Amazon, under fire

    Britain's best-loved storytellers turned their fire on the People's Revolutionary Council of Newport yesterday – otherwise known as the Intellectual Property Office. The IPO wants to use the power of the state to rob authors of the right to see any royalties from sales into education. Just like that. And no, this is not a joke …

    Law 8 Mar 2012, 08:32

  • Ofcom supremo dreams of filling WORLD'S cracks

    Gaps in spectrum need a lick of white paint

    Ofcom's chief executive has been telling Brussels about the importance of White Spaces, and how Europe should be leading the shift to dynamic spectrum allocation rather than following behind the Americans. Speaking at the Dynamic Spectrum Access Forum, Ed Richards reminded the crowd that filling the White Spaces – locally …

    Broadband 8 Mar 2012, 09:04

  • Crims fall back on old-school cons to avoid anti-fraud tech

    Cheque, telephone banking swindles soar

    Crims are returning to more traditional cheque and telephone banking fraud techniques according to stats from the UK Card Association. Total losses on credit and debit card scams fell seven per cent to £341m in 2011 - the lowest since the turn of the millennium - and online banking fraud was down 24 per cent to £35.4m despite …

    The Channel 8 Mar 2012, 09:29

  • Poynt

    iOS App of the Week Steer yourself to cheaper petrol

    With the price of petrol hitting yet another all-time high, I decided to try and find an app that could save us all some money when we fill up our tanks. Also available on BlackBerry and Android, Poynt started out as an app for locating nearby businesses, such as restaurants and cinemas. But the developer recently partnered …

    Science 8 Mar 2012, 10:00

  • Hands on with the Apple iPad 3

    First look We fondle the new fondleslab

    Last night, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed the company’s latest tablet. It’s the new iPad, folks. And this year it’s just called "the new iPad", not iPad 3 or iPad HD. To some, it means that 2011’s model, the iPad 2, sounds newer than the latest, 2012 one. But more important than the name, should you buy one? Ladies and …

    Tablets 8 Mar 2012, 10:11

  • Proview demands 'new iPad' sales halt in China

    And before Apple's even announced a launch date

    Ailing monitor biz Proview has done its best to spoil the third-gen iPad party by ordering Chinese distributors to not sell the shiny new tablet due to Apple’s unresolved trademark dispute with the firm. Proview’s Shenzhen affiliate Proview Technology sent an open letter to Chinese resellers and suppliers urging them to drop …

    Tablets 8 Mar 2012, 10:19

  • Chinese tech firms fingered for military collaboration

    US defence report alleges firms help army's R&D

    The People’s Liberation Army is actively arming and developing its soldiers with advanced information warfare capabilities which would represent a “genuine risk” to US military operations in the event of a conflict, a new report has alleged. Contractor Northrop Grumman’s detailed 136-page report (PDF) for the US government on …

    Government 8 Mar 2012, 10:43

  • Banks toss $8bn into Facebook's lap ahead of IPO

    Not worried that FB's coughed to having fake users

    Facebook has admitted that some of its 845 million accounts might be fake or duplicated user identities, but that doesn't seem to be worrying the banks since they have doubled the social network's loans to $8bn to take care of its market debut. Facebook said in additional filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC …

    Financial News 8 Mar 2012, 11:01

  • Sky excludes Android with F1 app

    'Not significant enough'

    Sky has risked the wrath of F1 fans by revealing there are no plans to launch an Android version of its forthcoming Formula 1 iPad app. The broadcaster, set to launch its Sky Sports F1 HD channel this Friday, announced that while there is an iPad app in the works, Android isn't used on a significant enough scale for the …

    Phones 8 Mar 2012, 11:13

  • New iPad 4G data connection will only work in America

    UK's Freeview TV, existing 3G squat on slab's LTE freqs

    One of the main new features in Apple's just-announced third iPad is 4G mobile networking: but keen fanbois planning to purchase it should note that the new fondleslab will only be able to achieve 4G connection in North America for the foreseeable future. Even in the States it won't be able to change networks. The "New iPad" …

    Broadband 8 Mar 2012, 11:14

  • Telefonica flashes cash, jangles office keys to lure UK startups

    They're only in it for the money

    Telefonica will provide offices on Tottenham Court Road to 20 startups, along with funding of up to €50,000 (£41.8k), pushing entrepreneurs to develop ideas, but mostly to make more money. The project is called Wayra, and follows similar efforts in Madrid and Barcelona. Telefonica (owners of the O2 band) will provide desk …

    Small Biz 8 Mar 2012, 11:34

  • IBM shines light on terabit-per-second optical chip

    The hole truth

    Need to get a lot of data - and I mean a lot of data - around your system? Look no further than this new chip from IBM: a part capable of shifting one trillion bits every second. It's only a prototype, of course, but the part Big Blue marketing bods are calling the Holey Optochip can, claim the companies' spin merchants, …

    Broadband 8 Mar 2012, 11:46

  • Web 2.0 cash wad surge spunked on telly ads in UK

    Ad revenues grew in 2011 thanks to Google and chums

    TV advert spending went up in the UK last year, fuelled partly by telly slots bought by web firms that mostly make their money from online advertising. Goggle-box ad revenue in the country grew by 2.2 per cent to a new record high of £4.36bn. It outperformed the total UK ad market, which only rose by 1.5 per cent, according to …

    Media 8 Mar 2012, 11:47

  • Renault Mégane 265 Trophy 2.0 turbo

    Review Tuned to perfection

    Lap times around the fearsome 13 mile Nürburgring have become a touchstone for performance road cars in recent years. Renault’s new Mégane 265 Trophy has been hustled around in 8m 08s, which is the current lap record for a front-wheel drive car. Not a subtle car To put that into context, a well driven Porsche 911 GT4 can …

    Science 8 Mar 2012, 12:00

  • Anonymous takes down Vatican website

    This one's for the kids, and, er, selling indulgences in the Middle Ages

    Italian hackers affiliated with hacktivist collective Anonymous pushed the Vatican's website offline last night. The hack was in "retribution" for the child abuse scandals in the Catholic Church and Vatican-endorsed acts going back thousands of years, the group claimed in a message. A Jesuit father confirmed to the The …

    Security 8 Mar 2012, 12:17

  • Virgin TiVo iPad app out in September

    Long gestation

    Virgin Media will finally release its long-promised TiVo-tapping app for the iPad in September, the cableco's CEO has revealed. Speaking at Cable Congress 2012 in Brussels, Virgin chief Neil Berkett claimed the company is registering new TiVo installations at a rate of one every 15 seconds, Broadband TV News reports. All …

    Phones 8 Mar 2012, 12:30

  • SUPERCOMPUTER vs your computer in bang-for-buck battle

    HPC blog iPad 2 pwns Cray-2? Wife’s desktop beats all?

    A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog here (Exascale by 2018: Crazy...or possible?) that looked at how long it took the industry to hit noteworthy HPC milestones. Chatter in the comments section (aside from the guy who assailed me for a typo, and for not explicitly calling out ‘per second’ denotations) discussed what these …

    HPC 8 Mar 2012, 12:33

  • NASA to blast 5 rockets in 5 min in jet stream test

    Turbulence-mapping will light up night sky

    NASA is planning to light up the night sky in the next month, sending five rockets at the same time to the edge of space to find out more about the jet stream winds that circle the planet. The space agency is waiting for a clear night between 14 March and 4 April to blast off the five sounding rockets, known as the Anomalous …

    Science 8 Mar 2012, 12:43

  • Netflix lets Apple TV owners subscribe on screen

    Cough up through iTunes too

    When Apple ships the new Apple TV on 16 March, owners of the small set-top box will be able to sign up for Netflix on screen and pay for the subscription streaming service through their iTunes account. Netflix said the tie-in will allow ATV 3 owners to watch "thousands of hours" of 1080p HD content. Folk using the ATV 2 won' …

    Hardware 8 Mar 2012, 12:51

  • Sky has lots in Store for Anytime+

    Think outside the Box Office

    Sky has veered away from the Box Office setup, integrating it into a new Sky Store within the company's video on-demand service, Anytime+. The number of titles available has increased with Anytime+ customers now able to choose from over 1000 pay-per-view movies, from new blockbusters to 99p classics. Those with a Sky Movies …

    Hardware 8 Mar 2012, 12:59

  • SOPA poked an angry bear and set it loose on the net

    Interview Free Ride author Rob Levine on copyright and Wikipedia

    I'm not defending greedy bastard corporations, says author Rob Levine, and you don't have to either. But we need something better than a broken digital economy. Published last year, Levine's book Free Ride seemed acutely well-timed. Online discussions about digital copyright are now so cliched, an artificially intelligent …

    Law 8 Mar 2012, 13:01

  • PlayStation Network to be flooded with freemium games

    Sony keen on 'free to play, cough up to win' titles

    The PlayStation Network may soon be awash with free-to-play games, after Sony announced its interest in the freemium approach and keenness to tap into the casual games market. The company has changed its philosophy towards gaming and is now “open to any business model”, said Sony's US developer relations chief, Ted Regulski, …

    Games 8 Mar 2012, 13:04

  • Stratfor email hackers were tricked into using Feds' server

    Spotlight on source of WikiLeaks' files

    WikiLeaks – and Julian Assange – could get caught up in the investigation into the LulzSec takedown saga because it published the internal emails of Stratfor, the private global intelligence firm that was attacked by Anonymous hackers, it has emerged. A warrant authorising the arrest of the prime suspect in the Stratfor raid …

    Government 8 Mar 2012, 13:36

  • New iPad: Crack open your wallets, fanbois, here's what it'll cost

    659 quid for top-price fondleslab in Blighty

    The new iPad that was revealed to feverish fanbois last night in San Fran will be on UK shelves in about a week's time - 16 March. Yes, Brits, you can pre-order one now, or grab a sleeping bag and start making your way to Regent Street. The new iPad will be available in black or white, pricing will be the same as the iPad 2 …

    Hardware 8 Mar 2012, 14:02

  • Pollster charts rise and rise of the e-book reader

    But is the boom coming to an end?

    Nearly a third of adults in the US now read books on a tablet or e-book readers. But rather a lot of those who don't have no plans to do so, suggesting that the e-book market, despite colossal growth over the past two years, may be reaching its limits. These stats come from psephologist Harris Poll, which earlier this year …

    Tablets 8 Mar 2012, 14:17

  • Job-seeking IT pro? Head for China

    But you'll probably need to speak the lingo, recruiter warns

    China’s explosive economic growth has led to a boom in job opportunities for ex-pat IT managers who fancy a new challenge, although the market remains intolerant of those without the requisite language skills or cultural know-how, according to a leading recruiter. The newly released Salary & Employment forecast 2012 (PDF) from …

    Financial News 8 Mar 2012, 14:28

  • Orange 3G data network goes titsup

    Fault stretches from Glasgow to Bristol, at least

    Some Orange customers are without data at the moment as a network fault of some sort has knocked out 3G across the country - and the cause isn't known. Orange admits that punters have lost data connectivity, but is struggling to work out how many customers and in what areas. Here at El Reg we've had reports from both ends of …

    Mobile 8 Mar 2012, 14:49

  • MYSTERY programming language found in Duqu

    Anti-virus boffins appeal to devs for help

    Security researchers are appealing for help after discovering that part of the Duqu Trojan was written in an unknown programming language. Duqu is a sophisticated Trojan reckoned to have been created by the same group behind the infamous Stuxnet worm. While the finely tuned Stuxnet worm was designed to home in on specific …

    Security 8 Mar 2012, 15:02

  • Huawei erects channel flag in Europe

    Chinese kit-maker wants a slice of the enterprise pie

    Huawei Enterprise aims to accredit a large army of foot soldiers after taking the covers off a channel programme and IT pro training camp. The Chinese manufacturer has added more meat around its expansion plans with the long-awaited, obligatory two-tier dealer framework. "The channel is a key component to Huawei Enterprise's …

    The Channel 8 Mar 2012, 15:21

  • World's Raspberry Pi supply jammed in factory blunder

    Unprotected network jacks spark delay fears

    Shipments of the long-awaited and heavily fought over Raspberry Pi boards could be delayed thanks to a manufacturing cock-up. The assembly lines churning out the first 10,000 units used the wrong kind of RJ45 networking jack, according to the team behind the $35 Linux computer, and the parts will need to be replaced before …

    Hardware 8 Mar 2012, 15:24

  • US Justice Department threatens Apple and publishers with court battle

    Alleges firms conspired to push ebook prices up

    The US Justice Department has warned Apple and five big publishing houses that they may be seeing the inside of a courtroom for allegedly inflating the prices of ebooks if they can't settle the issue between themselves. People familiar with the matter went whispering to the Wall Street Journal saying that some of the parties …

    Law 8 Mar 2012, 16:02

  • Commtech Distribution to set up UK beachhead

    Names channel veteran Mark Walker as boss

    Channel vet Mark Walker is to front Irish wholesaler Commtech Distribution's expansion into the UK. Walker was made redundant by Azlan, enterprise arm of broadline distie Computer 2000 in November as part of a structural overhaul, which also saw the exit of marketing director Simon Welch and the entire Avaya business unit. A …

    The Channel 8 Mar 2012, 16:04

  • Microsoft tech turns any object into a touchscreen

    Projector-cum-detector

    Microsoft's research team has revealed a shoulder-mounted projector-cum-detector that can turn any surface in front of you into a gesture-sensitive display. The Wearable Multitouch Projector uses Kinect-like motion and depth cameras, as well as a pico projector, to let users turn any flat (ish) surface into a touchscreen. …

    Hardware 8 Mar 2012, 16:04

  • Elgato's Thunderbolt SSD goes on sale

    External SSD shuns USB 3.0

    TV tuner specialist Elgato's surprise foray into storage goes on sale this week. Its solid-state drive is packed into a case the same size as an average portable hard drive. But instead of a USB 2.0 port, there's a Thunderbolt connector. That makes it available for use with modern Macs - and any Windows machine equipped with …

    Hardware 8 Mar 2012, 16:09

  • SECRET of the flashing Amazon jungle Drobo EXPLAINED

    Data-hungry daemon came from the clouds

    Drobo, the stylish desktop and small rackable storage box supplier, is finally adding flash drives to its rack-mounted box plus Amazon cloud storage for backup. Drobo's B1200i 12-slot, iSCSI SAN product for small and medium business users was announced with SSD support in February 2011. Thirteen months later, it has arrived - …

    Cloud 8 Mar 2012, 16:34

  • 3D: 10% of LCD TVs in 2011, 25% in 2012

    Passive catching up with active

    Still think 3D TVs are popular? We hate to say it, but only ten per cent of LCD TV panels that shipped in 2011 were 3D capable. So reveals market watcher NPD DisplaySearch, which noted that some 212m LCD TV panels shipped last year. That said, the picture isn't entirely a poor one for 3D. Its share of LCD TV panel shipments …

    Hardware 8 Mar 2012, 16:36

  • Cisco outs third gen UCS blades and racks

    California dreaming

    When Intel launched its "transformational" "Nehalem-EP" Xeon 5500 processors for two-socket boxes three years ago, Cisco Systems picked that moment to jump into the server racket and got pole position on the announcements. It's three years on now and while Cisco is not yet a tier-one server maker, it has built a business with a …

    Servers 8 Mar 2012, 16:48

  • Titanic director James Cameron prepares for deep sea dive

    Filmmaker to plummet to the deepest point in the ocean

    James Cameron, the man behind water-logged blockbusters like Titanic and The Abyss, has announced his intention to dive alone to the deepest point in the ocean in the next few weeks and bring back some of the alien creatures that live there. Cameron has already dived deeper than any other human on a solo mission, when he …

    Science 8 Mar 2012, 17:07

  • Lenovo recalls 160,000 all-in-one PCs after blaze warning

    Potentially incendiary ThinkCentres must come back

    Lenovo wants punters to send back a grand total of 160,000 ThinkCentre all-in-one desktop PCs because the machines' power supplies might overheat and burst into flames. The Mexico-made machines went out under the monikers M70z and M90z during the period May 2010 through January 2012, Lenovo said. US agency the Consumer …

    Hardware 8 Mar 2012, 17:08

  • 'The new iPad' selling out at AT&T

    White guys in short supply

    If you're planning to preorder your "The new iPad", you better get cracking – some models of Apple's revamped "magical and revolutionary" fondleslab are already on backorder. As of 8:30am Pacific time on Thursday, two capacities of the 4G model of the white "The new iPad" from AT&T were listed on Apple's online store as "Ships …

    Mobile 8 Mar 2012, 17:27

  • Tim Cook's post-PC iPad domination dream crushed by reality

    Gartner reckons 400 million desktops will shift in 2013

    Despite Tim Cook's declaration that we live in a post-PC world as he presented the new iPad to the world, analysts at Gartner forecast that demand for PCs will accelerate in the next two years. Apple CEO Cook dreams of a world in which fondleslabs not only outsell PCs but render them irrelevant. These stats suggest otherwise …

    Hardware 8 Mar 2012, 17:37

  • HD glitch for Apple TV punters

    A lawyer has just rung Cupertino

    HBO isn't giving up its box seat for anybody – not even Apple. The premium cable channel, which won a global reputation by investing in quality shows for intelligent grown-ups, including The Wire and The Sopranos, is also a distribution channel for other people's stuff – that's how it made its revenue before diversifying into …

    Media 8 Mar 2012, 17:58

  • Microsoft rolls over as Uniloc wins decade-long war

    Oz David bags Redmond Goliath

    Uniloc, the Australian software developer that has been embroiled in a decade long legal battle with Microsoft over copyright infringement, has reached settlement terms with its bete noir. Founded by Australian Ric Richardson twenty years ago when he devised a product to prevent software piracy, Uniloc took on the software …

    Business 8 Mar 2012, 21:19

  • NOAA picks IBM for supercomputer storm chasing

    Updated Power out, Xeon in

    The server executives at Big Blue are probably breathing a bit easier now that the company managed to survive a competitive bidding process on a monster supercomputer contract at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the climate modeling arm of the US Department of Commerce. As a result, IBM has the potential to …

    HPC 8 Mar 2012, 21:21

  • Solar storm arrives, nobody notices

    ‘Spin’ deceived forecasters

    If you notice the complete absence of global catastrophe, it’s because the solar storm that arrived after this week’s series of eruptions from the Sun only struck the Earth a glancing blow. Now, as people are noticing that the power grid didn’t collapse, computers didn’t fail worldwide, and GPS still worked (as well as it ever …

    Science 8 Mar 2012, 22:00

  • Microsoft talking turkey with OnLive over Office to iPad

    Strangle VDI at birth or tax it?

    Microsoft has said it is "actively engaged" in discussions over licensing terms with OnLive over its service streaming Office to iPads. OnLive is one of a range of companies offering the ability for owners of the world's most popular fondleslab to use Office documents via VDI. Microsoft has so far remained quiet on its plans …

    Cloud 8 Mar 2012, 22:21

  • NICTA mines for hot rocks

    Big data set to down tools for geothermal activity

    Drills are set to be dumped for sophisticated data analytics in a $AU5 million initiative featuring geothermal university experts from across four states working with Australian research facility NICTA, in the pursuit of geothermal energy targets. The two year ‘big data’ analytics project supported by the Australian Centre for …

    Business 8 Mar 2012, 22:30

  • NASA: The future of space is public/private partnerships

    Google and others dream of heading to the stars

    The future of space exploration is going to be dependent on a mix of public and private money, and it's likely that the first Mars colonization missions will be commercial operations. Dr. S. Pete Worden, director at NASA Ames Research Center, told The Register that the agency was firmly enmeshing itself with the private sector …

    Science 8 Mar 2012, 22:41

  • Flying Spaghetti Monster's works spotted in space

    Boffins find noodly galactic gas filaments

    Astrophysicists have found that galaxies can produce tails of “filamentary structures” with a noodle-like appearance. In a paper titled “The Flying Spaghetti Monster: Impact of magnetic fields on ram pressure stripping in disk galaxies”, researchers M. Ruszkowski, M. Bruggen, D. Lee and M.S. Shin suggest that certain …

    Science 8 Mar 2012, 22:45

  • Apple to Google Maps: ‘Get lost’

    iPhoto geo-tagging switched to OpenStreetMap

    Thanks heavens it’s only for photo-tagging: Apple has tossed yet another gauntlet onto the ground in its ongoing spat with Google, dropping Google Maps out of iPhoto for iOS and opting for OpenStreetMap instead. The move was the subject of speculation for a few days before being announced on the OpenStreetMap Foundation blog …

    Business 8 Mar 2012, 22:45

  • NetApp reveals Exadata backup plan

    Exadata users want more than Oracle backup

    NetApp has quietly announced, through its blogs and user community, a backup solution for Oracle's Exadata appliances. Oracle has previously suggested its own storage kit is the best place to protect the contents of Exadata boxes, but the NetApp 'Technical Report', titled Deploying a Backup Solution and Dev/Test Platform for …

    Storage 8 Mar 2012, 23:24