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16th March 2012 Archive

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  • Public service plans paperless future

    Digital continuity plan plans to boost Oz government's governance

    Australia’s National Archives has hatched a plan to get federal government agencies digitising everything, the better to preserve it for the future. The new Digital Continuity Plan http://www.naa.gov.au/records-management/agency/digital/digital-continuity/plan/index.aspx has been developed because the Archives think “ …

    Policy 16 Mar 00:03

  • Silicon nanowires: The Next Big Thing™ in chip design

    CPTF 2012 The 'pigs in a blanket' of process technology

    The next step in transistor architecture will likely be silicon nanowires – extremely thin silicon wires that will form the transistor's chanel, surrounded on all sides by a wrap-around silicon oxide, high-K metal gate. "It's the ultimate fully-depleted device," the director of IBM's Semiconductor Research & Development Center …

    PCs & Chips 16 Mar 00:52

  • NASA unveils eye-popping molten moon and luna tour videos

    Flyover and formation history of our celestial companion

    NASA has released two videos to celebrate the 1,000th operational day of its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The first vid, dubbed "Evolution of the Moon," traces the likely origin of the Moon, starting around 4.5 billion years ago when it is thought a chunk of Earth was knocked into orbit after a major collision. The Moon …

    Space 16 Mar 01:01

  • Tourists follow GPS, drive into sea

    Sticky, wet, embarrassing end after 500 metre mud drive

    Dodgy GPS systems have claimed three more victims, after a trio of Japanese tourists tried to reach Stradbroke Island off Australia’s Gold Coast in a small car. The Bayside Bulletin and Redland Times report that the three, despite the presence of lots and lots of water between their origin and intended destination, took their …

    Odds and Sods 16 Mar 01:46

  • Australia lacks cash for cybercrime study

    Institute of Criminology rates online menace with old third party data

    The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) does not have the resources to repeat its 2009 Australian Business Assessment of Computer User Security (ABACUS) study into the prevalence of cybercrime in Australia. An AIC spokesperson told The Register that the cost and complexity involved in an ABACUS study is not something the …

    Policy 16 Mar 02:21

  • China ready to slap down US in smartphone wars

    No turning back after 2012 as Brazil and India close in on UK

    In another sign of the shifting balance of power on the global technology stage, China is set to steam ahead of the US to become the leading market for smartphone shipments in 2012, while the UK will be overtaken by India and Brazil by 2016, according to analyst IDC. The firm’s latest Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker …

    Data Centre 16 Mar 03:21

  • Aussie fatties tell fewer porkies

    BMI self-reporting less inaccurate over time, but data still wobbly

    Australians are less likely to lie about their height and weight than was the case in the past, and exaggerate less about their dimensions, according to a new analysis by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). But we still tell an unhealthy amount of fibs about our bodies, leading the ABS to a strict regime of statistical …

    Science 16 Mar 03:24

  • Samsung and LG hit with MASSIVE price fixing fine

    Korean mobile firms colluded to con punters

    South Korean regulator the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has slapped a 45.3bn won (£25.5m) fine on mobile phone operators and handset makers in the country including Samsung and LG after finding them guilty of price fixing and consumer fraud. The Yonhap news agency reported that handset giants Samsung Electronics Co and LG along …

    Networks 16 Mar 03:41

  • Canon PowerShot S100 GPS compact camera

    Review The pocket professional

    As the latest incarnation of Canon’s highly-regarded PowerShot S range of enthusiast-grade compact cameras, the new PowerShot S100 has a lot to live up to. More than point and shoot: Canon's PowerShot S100 Where the S95 was a relatively minor upgrade to the very popular S90 reviewed previously, the S100 is a more …

    reghardware 16 Mar 07:00

  • Hackers hit 112 Indian gov sites in three months

    Pakistan suspected of cross-border cyber mischief

    There was embarrassing news for the Indian government this week as one of its ministers was forced to admit that over 100 of its web sites had been hacked in just three months at the beginning of the year, including that of a state-owned telecoms company. Minister for communications and IT, Sachin Pilot, revealed in a written …

    Policy 16 Mar 07:39

  • Euro watchdog: Telcos ARE strangling VoIP and P2P traffic

    BEREC gives 1st report card – It's not your imagination

    EU telecoms companies are commonly using 'traffic management' practices to block Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic and peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing activity online, an EU regulator has said. The Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC) said it had established the "common" use of the practices as part of …

    Telecoms 16 Mar 08:03

  • Telefonica tosses its dosh at pay-by-bonk upstart

    Boku is preferred partner for mobile payments

    Mobile-payment processor Boku has raised another $35m in finance, including some from its new BFF Telefonica who has awarded the company preferred-partner status for its developing wallet offerings. Telefonica, owner of the O2 brand, chipped in a significant proportion of that money, but more importantly it has agreed to make …

    Small Biz 16 Mar 08:29

  • HMRC snatches back £200m in Aspire outsource rejig

    Revised deal gives taxman more 'control'

    HM Revenue and Customs will save more than £200m by 2017 after renegotiating its Aspire outsourcing contract with Capgemini, according to Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude. The Aspire deal covers IT services including desktops, laptops and a number of tax and credit systems such as online VAT filing. The contract, which is …

    Government 16 Mar 09:03

  • Rogue IPO bureaucrats feel MPs' red-hot probe

    Sudden interest in how IP policy is made

    A powerful all-party group of MPs will examine how IP policy is made in the UK in a new formal enquiry – firing a tranquilliser dart at executive agency the Intellectual Property Office. John Whittingdale, chairman of the Select Committee on Culture Media and Sport, will lead the group, with Pete Wishart vice-chairing, under …

    Government 16 Mar 09:28

  • UK lags US in online content spending

    Britons: tight as a crab's chuff or canny consumers?

    Brits are often said to be behind the Americans when it comes to technology. That's not always the case, but it certainly is with digital content that punters part with their hard-earned for. US market research company Nielsen questioned tablet owners on both sides of the Atlantic about their content purchases. In almost all …

    reghardware 16 Mar 09:32

  • Eddie Murphy heading for worst movie ever glory

    A Thousand Words takes a critical shoeing

    Eddie Murphy looks a dead cert for the Razzies and possibly the worst movie ever award as critics queue up to give his A Thousand Words a righteous shoeing. The movie currently rates 0% on Rotten Tomatoes "Tomatometer", based on 42 reviews. The website summarises the plot thus: Eddie Murphy is Jack McCall, a fast-talking …

    Bootnotes 16 Mar 10:01

  • Films-on-USB kiosks come to airports

    Movie downloaders please proceed to gate four

    Travelling to the US this summer? Take your Android tablet or Windows laptop with out and you may be able to grab a movie or two on USB stick for the flight home. The oddly named Digiboo this week began rolling out kiosks at US airports which allow travellers to buy or rent one or two films which are copied onto a USB Flash …

    reghardware 16 Mar 10:11

  • Atmospheric CO2 set to SOAR from 0.0004 to 0.0007 - OECD

    Pesky poor folk will be wanting some energy

    The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has issued a forecast saying that - unless something big changes - the level of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere is set to rise significantly as the planet's population swells and its poorer nations start to develop their economies and use more energy. In a new document …

    Energy 16 Mar 10:15

  • Mega squid use HUMONGOUS eyes to spot ravenous sperm whales

    Boffins float theory on colossal creatures' eyesight

    Ocean-researching boffins reckon they have figured out why giant and colossal deep sea-dwelling squid need the largest eyes in the animal kingdom: to spot huge predators like sperm whales. Fresh head of a giant squid caught in 1981 by fisherman Henry Olsen. Picture by Ernie Choy at the pier, reproduced in the study. The …

    Biology 16 Mar 10:24

  • Sprint to hit the eject button in LightSquared deal today

    Light at the end of the tunnel winks out

    The Wall Street Journal reckons Sprint is going to pull out of its deal with LightSquared later today, leaving the box-of-frogs mobile broadband biz with nothing but $65m and a top-flight legal team. The news comes as no surprise, even though it has not yet been confirmed by either party, only by the newspaper's contacts at …

    Wireless 16 Mar 10:39

  • Mobile app privacy: You get what you pay for

    Analysis GSMA privacy-by-design guidelines embraced by carriers ... but not app stores

    Mobile app privacy controversies have dominated the technology headlines over recent weeks, but the push for tighter privacy standards may upset existing business models, which often use targeted advertising to subsidise the price users pay for the apps. Last month it was discovered that iPhone apps Path and Hipster were …

    Mobile 16 Mar 11:00

  • High Court confirms 'cheap DVD' tax loophole will close

    Rules Chancellor's plan is not illegal

    The English High Court has ruled that the government may close a tax loophole allowing online retailers to ship low-cost goods from the Channel Islands VAT free. Chancellor George Osborne said in November 2011 that the Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) provision would be abolished on 1 April 2012. The plan was challenged in …

    reghardware 16 Mar 11:03

  • Panic on the streets of Google+? Choc Factory hires Digg founder

    Kevin Rose Milked by ID-obsessed search giant

    Google has reportedly hired Digg founder Kevin Rose, who earlier this week shuttered his latest startup project, Milk Inc, to allow the outfit to shift to an unspecified new project. It turns out, according to a scoop from Liz Gannes over at All Things Digital, that Rose is moving to the Chocolate Factory with his Milk team. …

    Developer 16 Mar 11:17

  • Apple iPad 3 data contracts compared

    Which network has the best deals?

    Apple's new iPad - read our first look at the new tablet here - went on sale today. Want one of the 3G-enabled models? To help you work out which network will offer you the best data deal, we've compared carriers' tariffs to see how they match up. As it stands, Three offers the best bang for your buck, with more 3G data than …

    reghardware 16 Mar 11:21

  • 'When you disagreed with Steve Jobs, you lost'

    Quotw Plus: 'It's the biggest copyright blag in UK history'

    This was the week when Android updates started making their way very slowly to Samsung Galaxy S2s and HTC mobes. And there was loads of chat about the imminent arrival of the new iPad, including the shock news that there would be shortages on the day of release. Gasp! (Fanbois were hurt in the making of this story). This was …

    Bootnotes 16 Mar 11:33

  • Groupon monstered in OFT complaints probe

    Updated: Watchdog orders deals site to improve by June

    Groupon will change the way it does business in Blighty after the Office of Fair Trading concluded a lengthy investigation into the company, which trades as MyCityDeal Ltd. The consumer watchdog kicked off a probe into Groupon in July following a high number of complaints from consumers about the "daily deals" firm's claims in …

    Law 16 Mar 11:39

  • TDK BA100 earphones

    Accessory of the Week Balanced armatures, anyone?

    While these boys from TDK may look like a typical pair of in-ear 'phones, they actually take a different approach to most earphones in the way they deliver sound. They used balanced armature technology rather than dynamic drivers. These micro drivers fit a woofer, mid-range driver and a tweeter into each earpiece. The result …

    reghardware 16 Mar 12:00

  • Smartphone users sue Apple, Facebook over mobile app privacy

    18 social media firms slapped with lawsuit

    Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and Apple, Foursquare and 13 other prominent social media firms have been hit with a lawsuit accusing them of supplying mobile applications that invade users' privacy. The class-action lawsuit was filed by 13 private individuals in Austin, Texas – where geek tech fest SXSW has just shut up shop. The …

    Law 16 Mar 12:16

  • Three zeroes Samsung Galaxy S II upfront fee

    No handset cost, only a monthly sub

    We rather like the Samsung Galaxy S II - you can read our thoughts on this tasty Android smartphone here - and now you can get one for next to nowt. Three is offering the 4.3in - handy if you're one of the many folk who favour a large display - dual-core handset for free on a £25-a-month two-year contract. The catch: you have …

    reghardware 16 Mar 12:19

  • Apple Store staff outnumber queues as new iPad goes on sale

    Pics Moist jocks mop up with 'pads

    Braying hordes of fanbois hungry for new iPads failed to turn up outside Blighty's Apple stores today despite months of rumour, hype and speculation. Although slab shoppers were nonchalant in London, they were positively wet in Scotland. A queue of hundreds swiftly ebbed away outside the fruity tech titan's Regent Street …

    PCs & Chips 16 Mar 12:28

  • Take your hands off me - I'm a tech VC superstar!

    ¡Bong! Hotspot hobos tussled with the wrong fellow

    Effendi, entrepreneurs! The Bongster is back from Texas! Every year, the brightest talent in Shoreditch's vibrant tech scene swaps the workspaces and mentor-ins of N1 and E2 for the sweet smelling grass of Austin, Texas, for SXSWi. And so did I. As the founder of ¡Bong! Ventures, I am the enabler behind some of the best-known …

    Media 16 Mar 12:32

  • HDD prices to remain 'inflated' until August

    Going down muuuch more slowly after huge flood-linked hike

    HDD prices are falling eight times more slowly than they rose in the weeks after the flooding in Thailand and look likely to remain inflated until mid-summer. Idealo.co.uk monitored vendors' online average selling prices (ASPs) across its five price comparison portals and found that disk drives went up 100 per cent in 33 days …

    Channel Register 16 Mar 12:41

  • Apple slide-to-unlock spat with Samsung hits the buffers

    Mannheim wants Munich to make up its mind

    A judge in Germany has put the brakes on Apple's complaint that Samsung copied its slide-to-unlock technology while awaiting the outcome of a separate lawsuit progressing elsewhere in the country. The court in Mannheim announced it won't be doing any more legal stuff on the smartphone feature until proceedings in Munich have …

    Law 16 Mar 12:58

  • Hands on with Kinect Star Wars

    First look Forced to exhaustion

    I had a chance this week to play on a near-final build of the upcoming Kinect Star Wars to get an impression of the game ahead of its launch early next month. The title has come a long way since its E3 2011 build - my last attempt to wield an invisible lightsabre. If you exclude any in-front-of-the-mirror embarrassments at …

    reghardware 16 Mar 13:03

  • GiffGaff goes titsup again in 'leccy cable gaffe

    People power no substitute for mains voltage

    People-powered O2 spinoff GiffGaff suffered an outage this morning, apparently due to a power cut, and there's no estimated time-to-fix as yet. The network, whose USP is that it's run by its customers, explains that a burst water main has wrecked the electricity supply to one of its central control sites, leaving the entire …

    Mobile 16 Mar 13:14

  • LOHAN to straddle meaty titanium rod

    Skirt lifted on cunning Vulture 2 launch plan

    After much head-scratching, and a good number of beermat sketches, we're finally ready to unveil our concept for the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) Vulture 2 launch platform. To recap, we've been pondering just how to attach our spaceplane to the carbon-fibre fantastical flying truss which will carry it …

    SPB 16 Mar 13:28

  • PoC code uses super-critical Windows bug to crash PCs

    Crash code real, but Sabu worm rumours ... not so much

    Security watchers have discovered proof-of-concept code that attempts to exploit a high-risk Windows security hole, causing computers to crash. The exploit attacks a RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) flaw patched by Microsoft on Tuesday. Redmond's security staffers warned at the time that the critical update (MS12-020) was of a …

    Malware 16 Mar 13:44

  • Busty blogger bursts Bulgarian airbag in mud-wrestle blunder

    'It feels bumpy and bubbly' blurts Swedish babe

    A silicone-enhanced Swede has added mud wrestling to the list of activities it's best to avoid if you've had a jub job, after dislodging one of her implants during a reality TV show. "Buxom" blonde Lina Hellqvist was competing in Djungelns Drottning ("Queen of the Jungle") as one of ten "beautiful big city girls" when she …

    Bootnotes 16 Mar 13:58

  • EC likely to probe Universal-EMI mega-merger

    Digital worries

    The European Commission is "all but certain" to investigate the mega-merger of Universal Music and EMI, according to sources cited (paywall) in the Financial Times. The merger reduces the four major record labels to three: UMG, Sony and Warner, with the newly enlarged Universal taking 40 per cent of the market. The Commission …

    Government 16 Mar 14:17

  • Lawyers of Mordor retreat from The Hobbit

    Southampton boozer spared legal sword

    It's doubles all round at The Hobbit boozer in Southampton at the news that the Saul Zaentz Company (SZC) has called off the lawyers of Mordor, who were attempting to take down the Portswood pub for trademark infringement. SZC wrote to The Hobbit pointing out it had "exclusive worldwide rights to motion picture, merchandising …

    Bootnotes 16 Mar 14:31

  • New NASA snap of game developer's electric cart FOUND ON MOON

    Probe in low pass over Garriott's radioactive tub-rover

    An orbiting NASA probe has taken new and ultra-detailed pictures of an electric rover vehicle owned by a multimillionaire games developer and space tourist, left abandoned on the Moon after it broke down. Fliptop lid visible still open - see below The probe in question is our old friend the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO …

    Space 16 Mar 14:41

  • SourceForge pulls off fake, 'Trojan-wrapped' Anonymous OS tool

    AnonOps: Distro is nothing to do with us...

    Prominent members of Anonymous have said that a open-source distro bearing the hacktivist group's moniker is nothing to do with them and is likely to be riddled with Trojans. Anonymous OS Live – supposedly an Ubuntu-based OS, which advertises itself as being pre-loaded with various hacking tools and utilities (Tor, John the …

    Malware 16 Mar 14:49

  • Watchdogs quiz Google in Safari cookie-stalking probe

    Privacy gaffe grabs FTC, CNIL attention

    Regulators on both sides of the Pond are snapping on the surgical gloves after Google was caught bypassing privacy settings on Safari browsers. People on the inside track have whispered to the Wall Street Journal that the US Federal Trade Commission and France's CNIL are now investigating the search'n'advertising giant over …

    Government 16 Mar 15:02

  • Apple iPad 3 Sim-only contracts compared

    Got the hardware, need a deal?

    Many of you may have already purchased your new iPads directly from the Apple store, and as such will probably be looking for a Sim-only deal to make the most of your device on the move. We've compiled a list of the deals out there for you to consider. While Three again offers a commendable data package, with 10GB for £15, T- …

    reghardware 16 Mar 15:23

  • PayPal turns smartphones into checkout tills

    Android and iOS swipe-and-go small biz boon

    PayPal has announced a card reader for Android and iOS phones, turning them into mobile payment systems. Called PayPal Here, the triangular device plugs into the phone via a jack and allows merchants to swipe credit cards and accept PayPal payments. The accompanying Here app also allows the phone's camera to scan and process …

    Small Biz 16 Mar 15:29

  • iPhone stroking keeps us satisfied the most, say fanbois

    Poll: We like big batts and we cannot lie

    The latest JD Power poll once again puts Apple's iPhone well ahead of the competition in terms of customer satisfaction, and nailed crappy 4G smartphone battery life as punters' biggest bugbear. The iPhone topped out the survey, scoring 839 on a thousand-point scale compared to HTC's 798 and Samsung's 769. Palm trailed in at …

    Mobile 16 Mar 16:01

  • Austrian daredevil Baumgartner skydives from 71,581ft

    Pic Sets sights on 102,800ft record

    Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner is well on the way to breaking the highest free-fall record after successfully jumping yesterday from 71,581ft (21,817m) The Red Bull-sponsored high-flier took to the skies over Roswell, New Mexico in a custom-built pressurised space capsule and pressure suit, slung under a whopping helium …

    Space 16 Mar 16:21

  • Yahoo! Facebook! litigation! trips! patent! trigger!

    Open ... and Shut Mutual Assured Destruction for web companies

    There's no such thing as a "defensive patent." No matter how good the intentions of the companies amassing these patents, as the recent Yahoo! broadside against Facebook shows, desperate times make for desperate patent-holders. And a desperate patent-holder will struggle against the temptation to become a troll. Just ask Andy …

    Law 16 Mar 16:31

  • 15in MacBook Air will go HEAD TO HEAD with MacBook Pro in April

    Vendor spills beans at trade show

    Apple has a 15 inch MacBook Air in the works and it's coming out in April, a Mac accessories manufacturer has told Electric Pig. The unnamed accessories maker dropped the tip at CU Exposed, a trade fair for MacBook accessories on 13 March. Currently only available in the 11 inch and 13 inch form factors, the debut of 15 inch …

    PCs & Chips 16 Mar 16:47

  • Encyclopaedia Britannica - Ah, the memories

    HPC blog Leaves gap for man with plastic binder, 'cloudy edition'...

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc has announced that after 250 years, it’s throwing in the towel on print editions and moving to all-digital delivery of alphabetised facts and figures. Encyclopaedia Britannica was a touchstone of my youth. You couldn’t go to a state fair or school event without seeing someone seated at a table …

    HPC 16 Mar 17:05

  • Global server sales shrivel as EMEA leads retreat

    x86 tanks roll over RISC/Unix fortifications

    The global server market took a revenue dive in the fourth quarter, with the analysts at IDC figuring that sales revenues sunk 7.2 per cent to $14.2bn, although shipments rose by 2 per cent to 2.2 million units. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa did their part in keeping both sets of numbers down. IDC did some dicing and …

    Servers 16 Mar 17:12

  • Blighty's largest iPad reseller formed in biz gobble deal

    Exclusive Trams swallows Cancom

    London-based reseller Trams Group has snapped up the UK operations of Cancom from its German parent Cancom AG for an undisclosed sum. This is the second acquisition the Apple Authorised reseller has made - it took over Rapid Group in 2008 - since directors Warren Peel and Alex Page led an MBO nearly nine years ago. The …

    Channel Register 16 Mar 17:15

  • Fujitsu's King K thrashes Top 500 rivals

    Supercomputer's amazing 10-plus petaflops with 706,000 cores

    Fujitsu's K computer has confirmed its place as emperor of the Top 500 supercomputer list with an incredible 10.51 petaflops. The K computer – RIKEN, a Japanese government science and technology research institute, after the Japanese word for 1016, "Kei" – was conceived in 2006. Detailed design took place from 2007 to 2009, …

    HPC 16 Mar 17:32

  • LightSquared sheds a lonely tear as Sprint legs it

    We can still be friends... right?

    LightSquared is framing Sprint's departure in the best way it can, promising that the pair will remain friends and may even hook up again some time if they're both drunk enough. Sprint's departure from the infrastructure-sharing deal was widely expected, and reported, but Sprint takes with it LightSquared's best hope of …

    Wireless 16 Mar 18:04

  • SF iPad launch subdued as Apple fans wise up

    Why queue when you can shop online?

    Apple's rabid fans may be getting smarter, if the subdued launch of "The new iPad" at the Apple's flagship store in San Francisco was anything to go by. For the iPad 2 launch in March 2011, fans (and this unlucky hack) lined up around four sides of a city block in order to get a camera-equipped fondleslab. This time, however, …

    Mobile 16 Mar 18:16

  • Supersonic silent biplane COMING SOON ...ish

    Boffins meld old with new to snuff out sonic boom

    Aviation experts are coming up with a 60-year-old solution to a modern problem - how to create a cheap, fuel-efficient and quiet supersonic aeroplane. This is their breakthrough solution: US Navy biplane in flight in December 1934 Researchers from MIT and Stanford have shown via computer modelling that a modified biplane …

    Physics 16 Mar 18:36

  • Rutgers student guilty, faces 10 years for webcam spying

    Gay roomie committed suicide after being outed

    Rutgers student Dharun Ravi is facing a possible ten years in prison after he used his webcam to spy on a gay roommate and broadcast the resulting video. In 2010, Ravi's 18-year old roommate, Tyler Clementi, was filmed with an unidentified partner by Ravi and a friend, who then showed the footage around their campus and …

    Crime 16 Mar 18:48

  • Enormous Apple market cap swells and swells ... like a bubble

    Software-reskinning box designer 'worth' $586 beeellion

    Apple's total share value pushed beyond the totemic $500 billion mark it reached two weeks ago to hit a heady $542 billion in trading this morning. That made the iPad seller worth more than the entire American Retail Sector, as defined by the Standard & Poor's survey of the top 500 American retailers. Graph via ZeroHedge …

    Financial News 16 Mar 18:56

  • Microsoft SharePoint exposes privates in sniffing hack

    Updated You've been X-Framed

    Sensitive information held in content management system Microsoft SharePoint is vulnerable to mining as the result of a newly discovered attack, security researchers warn. So-called frame-sniffing attacks involve the use of a hidden HTML frame to load a target website inside the attacker's malicious webpage. Using the tactic, …

    ID 16 Mar 19:34

  • Russia plans manned moon shot by 2030

    Space exploration on the cheap

    The Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos has submitted to its government a draft set of ambitious plans for its activities through 2030, including sending a manned craft around the moon, building ion-powered space tugs, and trying again to visit Mars. As was true with their failed Phobos-Grunt Mars probe, Roscosmos plans to …

    Space 16 Mar 19:36

  • Microsoft accused of leaking RDP attack code

    Epic security fail

    The newly-found attack code that exploits critical flaws in Microsoft's RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) system appears to have been leaked by Microsoft or one of its partners, says the researcher who originally discovered it. Luigi Auriemma, an Italian security researcher who originally reported the flaw to Microsoft, has …

    Security 16 Mar 21:59

  • 'This American Life' disowns Apple-bashing blockbuster

    Writer lies, defends 'Apple is evil' BS as dramatic license

    The überpopular US public-radio show This American Life has retracted a story it aired in January – the most listened-to show in its history – in which monologist Mike Daisey detailed what he claimed were his personal experiences when investigating heinous working conditions in plants operated by Apple's Chinese contract …

    Media 16 Mar 22:59

  • More evidence that neutrinos are NOT faster than light

    Boffins pour cold water on time travel plans, hyperdrive

    Just in case there was any doubt that our current understanding of physics remains unimpeached, those OPERA boffins probably definitely didn't prove that neutrinos can go faster than the speed of light. More boffins, this time involved in the ICARUS experiment between CERN and the Gran Sasso lab in Italy, reported a new …

    Physics 16 Mar 23:59