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19th March 2012 Archive

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  • New XO PC model lands in Uruguay

    Marvell-powered OLPC product arrives in Montevideo

    The One Laptop Per Child organisation’s latest creation, the XO 1.75, has touched down in Uruguay. The South American nation has ordered 60,000 of the new models, to join 570,000 earlier editions of the XO already in the hands of the country’s primary school children. The new model is the first XO to use Marvell’s Armada ARM …

    Hardware 19 Mar 01:00

  • Apple to reveal plans on Monday for $97.6bn cash hoard

    Dividends expected – but what else?

    Apple released a brief announcement late Sunday afternoon, Cupertino time, that it would hold a conference call and webcast on Monday morning to talk about plans for its jumbo, humongous, Brobdingnagian, elephantine, and gargantuan cash hoard. That pile of cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities sat at $97.6bn as of …

    Business 19 Mar 01:11

  • QLD flood report calls for emergency services broadband network

    Says digital radio a dud for data, also critical of some insurers’ service

    The Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry’s Final Report calls for the creation of a dedicated wireless broadband network for the emergency services. The report finds that says black spots for the analogue radios used by Queensland emergency services at the time of the floods were “inevitable”, before going on to endorse …

    Public Sector 19 Mar 02:07

  • China's police ignore real name rules ... so far

    Users reportedly still able to post on weibos despite strict registration rules

    Users of China’s hugely popular social media platforms must now register with their real-names if they want to be granted posting rights after a strict new government ruling came into force on Friday night, although reports suggest that the rules have yet to be enforced across the board. The new system has been rolled out …

    Public Sector 19 Mar 04:08

  • Extended software support 'immoral and indefensible'

    Gartner analyst outlines alternative plan for software maintenance fees

    Are extended software support fees immoral and indefensible? That’s a question that one Gartner analyst has just, in a roundabout way, answered in the affirmative. The analyst in question is Rob Addy, a research director in Gartner's Technology & Service Provider Research division whose bio says he specialises in software and …

    Software 19 Mar 04:21

  • New steganography technique relies on letter shapes

    Indian researchers say cunning scheme is secure, has good signal:noise ratio

    A trio of Indian researchers have proposed a method of steganography which hides messages in by using non-random distribution of letters with or without straight lines. Steganography is a group of techniques for hiding messages in plain sight. Microdots, tiny text written inside a full stop and only legible when magnified, are …

    Security 19 Mar 05:13

  • Writers' alliance throws the book at Apple 'piracy'

    Group alleges App Store is full of unlicensed copies

    Apple’s legal troubles in China took a turn for the worse at the weekend after it emerged that a group of writers filed a 50 million yuan (£5m) lawsuit alleging that the fruity tech giant is illegally selling unlicensed copies of their books on its App Store. State-run news agency Xinhua reported that the 22 writers, who have …

    Public Sector 19 Mar 06:11

  • China’s handset-makers plan home-grown platforms

    Apple, Android takedown on the cards as 4G roll-out looms

    Analysis China’s mobile phone market is about to hit an epic milestone of one billion users, but experts are split over whether the country’s 4G plans will succeed, while opportunities for non-local tech companies could become increasingly limited in the region as homegrown mobile platform players emerge. With official figures …

    Networks 19 Mar 06:16

  • Vimeo takedown leads to court loss

    First damages award for unauthorised removal of content

    An Australian artist, Richard Bell, has won a case against a film-maker who asked Vimeo to remove a film about him. His lawyers say it is “the first time damages have been awarded where a third party had content removed from the Internet without legal justification.” Bell’s law firm King & Wood Mallesons state that Bell “... …

    Music and Media 19 Mar 06:30

  • E.ON to flog stake in wind farms to private firms

    EU energy behemoth will finance new plant every 18 months

    Energy giant E.ON is to seek private investment for three large offshore wind farms, it has announced. The investment would be in addition to the €2 billion it said it will invest itself in the projects. The company said that it was looking at ways of creating "more value with less capital" as it announced the €2bn in three …

    Energy 19 Mar 08:02

  • Met plod will use 1980s software to police Olympics

    Aging special ops tech CUTS THEM OFF from central command...

    The Metropolitan Police Service will use software from the 1980s to coordinate the command and communications of its policing operations during the London Olympic Games. The software, known as MetOps, is installed in the force's special operations room (SOR), the central control room providing communications support during …

    Policing 19 Mar 08:33

  • Robotics breakthrough blasts crud from that bit behind the lav

    Removable-bottom bot reaches for your fiddly bits

    A water-pumping squeegee-wielding robot that can reach the awkward no man's land around the back of the loo was unveiled this week - a product launch narrowly overshadowed by the new iPad's debut. At 3.5in (8.9cm) tall and 6.5in (16.5cm) in diameter, the nimble iRobot Scooba 230 is designed to reach your fiddly bits. The muck- …

    Rise of the Machines 19 Mar 09:03

  • LOHAN's fantastical flying truss menaces kiddies

    'Please quit releasing balloons', pleads animal lover

    We at El Reg's Special Projects Bureau generally have little contact with the internet commentard mosh pit, where the bottom feeders vie for immortality in the pantheon of the obtuse. However, from time to time, we're obliged to confront the unwashed masses down at YouTube, which as readers will be aware is the Rwandan …

    SPB 19 Mar 09:27

  • HP wheels out ProLiant refresh for some channel lovin'

    Gen8 boxes offer five-month ROI

    HP says the soon-to-launch ProLiant Gen8 servers represent a much-needed refresh opportunity for dealers. Codenamed Project Voyager, the line was designed to be easier and cheaper to manage: HP claims it has a 95 per cent first-time fix rate and 70 per cent more compute power per watt. The boxes hit the street at the end of …

    Channel Register 19 Mar 09:31

  • iPad 3 costs Apple 30% more to make than iPad 2

    More fondleslab for your folding

    One thing Apple's doing with its massive cash mountain: giving punters more iPad for their money. The News iPad - aka the iPad 3 - costs as much to buy as the iPad 2 did, but it costs a lot more to make. Case in point: the 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad 2 has an estimated bill-of-materials and assembly cost of $245.10 per unit, market …

    reghardware 19 Mar 09:55

  • Belkin Dual-Band Travel Router

    Geek Treat of the Week Pocket Wi-Fi

    The premise behind Belkin’s dual-band travel router is simple: you arrive at a hotel with multiple devices capable of connecting to the internet over Wi-Fi, but there’s only one connection in the room and it’s Ethernet-shaped. The solution: this boy, which allows you to set-up a 2.4GHz and/or 5GHz wireless network in the room …

    reghardware 19 Mar 10:00

  • Microsoft: No next-gen Xbox in 2012

    E3 rumours squashed

    Those anticipating an Xbox '720' reveal at games industry shindig E3 2012 will be disappointed. Microsoft has insisted it will not discuss next-gen consoles at all this year. Company spokesman David Dennis quashed widespread speculation that the world was preparing for a major console unveiling this summer. “There will be no …

    reghardware 19 Mar 10:21

  • iPad bludgeons to death two UK Apple reseller shops

    Brighton, Edinburgh Cancom stores axed, staff given notice

    Trams Group management confirmed it has entered a 30-day consultation with former Cancom UK staff over the closure of several retail outlets. As revealed by Channel Register last week, Trams swallowed the UK arm of Apple Premium Reseller (APR) Cancom and has wasted no time in seeking ways to return the loss-making operation to …

    Channel Register 19 Mar 10:42

  • Cache bang wallop! Huge loads spark NetApp flash crash

    Sysadmins gnash at FAS6000 array fault

    Some high-end NetApp FAS6000 arrays are suffering failures that cause them to halt and restart. NetApp is fixing the problem. NetApp Flash Cache PCIe card El Reg understands that several FAS6000 customers in Europe have discovered that their arrays stop working while under heavy load and abruptly restart. This interrupts …

    Storage 19 Mar 11:01

  • HP unveils hamper of Ivy Bridge notebooks

    Pavilions pack punches

    HP has revealed a host of Intel Ivy Bridge notebooks with a potential release mooted for next month. While still unsure of exact dates for when Intel plans to formally roll out its newest processor, three of the four HP laptops just announced are set to hit shelves with it. These are the HP Pavilion dv4-5000, dv6-7000 and …

    reghardware 19 Mar 11:04

  • Google: No SEO boost from vanity top-level domain grab

    Registry smacked down for gTLD boast

    Google has denied that companies will be able to get a search engine ranking boost by obtaining new vanity top-level domain names from ICANN. The company's webspam guru, Matt Cutts, said this week that organisations "shouldn't register a TLD in the mistaken belief that you'll get some sort of boost in search engine rankings …

    Hosting 19 Mar 11:17

  • Alterations may be needed to make SaaS fit

    Suits you, Sir?

    Software as a service (SaaS) may be a great way to shirk some capital expenditure by not having to buy servers and software, but how will it fit in with what you already have? Whether you are farming out CRM, document management, contact management or procurement, you probably have some locally hosted applications that you …

    SaaS 19 Mar 11:30

  • Secret Sony slate sports quad-core Tegra 3 spec

    Benchmark boasts brawny braincells

    Sony is readying tablet replacements already, with benchmarks for a mysterious device known only as the V150 showing quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 specifications in online benchmark results. As Sony's tablet offerings released last year both pack the now outdated Tegra 2 processor, it should come as no surprise the Japanese firm is …

    reghardware 19 Mar 11:33

  • Pope Benedict in .XXX pro-Islam cybersquat drama

    Ratz not very nice

    A Turkish cybersquatter has registered at least a dozen variants of Pope Benedict's name as .xxx internet domains and is using them to promote Islam. Cybersquatted sites including PopeBenedict.xxx currently proclaim "Everyone will find Islam" alongside pictures of the Quran and Kaaba. Unsurprisingly, the sites also state that …

    Hosting 19 Mar 11:43

  • Hackers jailbreak new iPad hours after it hits the shelves

    Video Custom code rope-ladder up the Apple garden wall

    Hardware enthusiasts managed to find multiple different ways to jailbreak the new iPad over the weekend, hours after the release of Apple's latest fondleslab. Hackers were quickly able to develop custom code that allowed them to escape Apple's walled garden and install unapproved apps on the new iPad with iOS 5.1. Three …

    Developer 19 Mar 12:03

  • Hardware hacker rigs up VR for Skyrim

    Immersive Dragonborn experience

    Bethesda's Skyrim is an immersive experience as it is, but combine it with a set of Sony VR goggles and Microsoft's motion-sensing add-on, Kinect, and you get one of the most fun-looking gaming rigs I have ever seen. In the video below, one PC gamer shows how to turn the Elder Scrolls into a virtual reality experience. His …

    reghardware 19 Mar 12:17

  • Firefox gobbles H.264 to serve up vids to mobes, slabs

    Mozillans tired of waiting for Google

    Mozilla is doing a deal with the patent devil to serve video to users via Firefox on smartphones and tablets. The freedom-luvvin’ web shop will allow Firefox to play video on existing decoders on devices, including the patent-encumbered H.264, licensed by the MPEG-LA patent pool. In a project here, the decoding would work on …

    Developer 19 Mar 12:21

  • Surprise! Facebook, Twitter still not THAT important for news

    Social media is over-hyped, concludes report

    Twitter and Facebook are failing to create the sort of news revolution that some Web2.0 junkies might like to believe is already largely in play, a new report about the current state of media has revealed. Pew Research Center (PRC), which surveyed 3,000 participants in the US, found in its new study that "recommendations from …

    Networks 19 Mar 12:39

  • Portal 2 prevails at Bafta game awards

    EA guns down Activision

    EA enjoyed considerable success at last Friday's British Academy of Film and Television Videogames Awards 2012 when several of the publisher's games snapped up prestigious statues. The accolade of Game of the Year went to Valve's highly-rated puzzler Portal 2, a title EA helped distribute, while Battlefield 3 - its fastest …

    reghardware 19 Mar 12:45

  • ARM's ultra-low-power fridge-puter chips: Just what the CIA ordered

    'He's just had a Scotch egg, sir' 'Ha! I knew it!'

    Prototypes of a new tiny, ultra low-power ARM-licensed processor will be demonstrated at an engineering conference in California next week. The chips are so small and energy efficient that they're aimed at wirelessly hooking up kitchen appliances, light bulbs and 'leccy meters to your network. And to the CIA. Will this lead to …

    PCs & Chips 19 Mar 13:02

  • Brit LulzSec suspect charged over NHS, plod web attacks

    Tabloid rag and top spooks also among alleged targets

    An alleged member of hacker group LulzSec appeared in a London court on Friday charged with conspiracy over cyber-attacks against websites maintained by the CIA and the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency. Ryan Ackroyd, 25, of Oak Road, Mexborough, Doncaster, is also charged with breaking into systems maintained by the NHS and …

    Crime 19 Mar 13:17

  • Apple New iPad Wi-Fi only

    Review The screen's the star

    Let’s cut to the chase. The "new iPad" doesn’t have the much-rumoured haptic touch technology. In fact, its list of major new features can be counted on the fingers of one hand. It doesn’t even have a number after its name. How disappointing is that? And yet, after a weekend of gazing longingly at the imperceptible pixels on …

    reghardware 19 Mar 13:21

  • BBC boss Mark Thompson sets quit date

    Not going anywhere until after the Olympics

    BBC director-general Mark Thompson has handed in his resignation and will serve out his notice at the public service broadcaster until autumn this year. He told staff this morning that he had quit the top job after eight years of running the Beeb. Thompson said: This morning I told Lord Patten that I believe that an …

    Music and Media 19 Mar 13:43

  • Apple announces dividends, share buy-back

    'We concluded that we had plenty of cash to run the business'

    Apple has announced that it will begin issuing a per-share dividend of $2.65 per quarter, and will also initiate a share buy-back program. Together, these efforts will reduce Cupertino's cash hoard by about $45bn in the next three years. Speaking of Apple's cash, CEO Tim Cook said in a conference call on Monday morning that " …

    Financial News 19 Mar 13:53

  • London Mayor Boris grilled on Virgin's Underground penetration

    Answered - who, what and for how long

    Virgin Media's London Underground wireless monopoly will last five years, but that's all right 'cos it didn't cost Transport for London a penny and other companies were allowed to bid. Responding to questions from Mayorwatch, TfL explained that Virgin Media is paying to provide public Wi-Fi over infrastructure that was being …

    Wireless 19 Mar 14:09

  • FAA mulls scrapping in-flight iPad, Kindle ban

    What's good for the captain is good for the passengers

    The FAA is planning a "fresh look" at the use of gadgets during take off and landing, reasoning that if pilots are using them then it's probably OK for passengers too. Talking to the New York Times, the US Federal Aviation Authority said it was bored of waiting for airlines to take the initiative in testing whether electronics …

    Government 19 Mar 14:27

  • Air authority to rethink gadget use on planes

    E-book reading to be permitted during take-off and landing?

    Good news, frequent flyers: the US Federal Aviation Administration is to once again assess whether gadget owners should be allowed to use their tech toys throughout flights, not just when their aircraft is up in the Big Blue. “The FAA is taking a fresh look at the use of personal electronic devices on aircraft,” the agency …

    reghardware 19 Mar 14:35

  • Huawei raids rivals' channels to pilfer dealer partners

    1k targeted across Western Europe for 2012

    Huawei wants to bed 1,000 resellers across Western Europe this year as it tries to crank up the pressure on rivals. The Chinese giant has already signed a bunch of distributors in the region including SDG and Micro P in the UK and recently lifted the covers off its first channel programme in preparation for more concerted …

    Channel Register 19 Mar 14:36

  • Google Apps guru dumps Choc Factory for sugar daddy

    No longer steering the Enterprise

    Google's product veep Dave Girouard resigned from the company late last week to take on a job with a startup that is backed by Mountain View's venture capital wing. Girouard, who had championed Google's Apps brands aimed at businesses, had worked at the world's largest ad broker since 2004. He revealed his departure on Google …

    Applications 19 Mar 14:38

  • Earth once had hazy methane atmosphere like ice-moon Titan

    Microbial flatulence dominated the pre-oxygen era

    Billions of years ago, before Earth's atmosphere had oxygen, it periodically possessed a "haze" of organic chemicals including methane, boffins have discovered. During these periods the planet's air was more like that of Titan, ice moon of Saturn, than the stuff we breathe today. "Models have previously suggested that the …

    Energy 19 Mar 15:00

  • BBC Micro team to celebrate historic machine's 30th year

    Acorn antiques

    The brains behind the BBC Micro are this weekend getting together to relive the glory days of the 1980s home computer revolution. The event, Beeb@30, takes place at ARM's Cambridge HQ, on Sunday, 25 March. Confirmed guests include key Acorn staff: company founders Chris Curry and Hermann Hauser, and BBC Micro design team …

    reghardware 19 Mar 15:02

  • ICANN prez calls out own board over conflicts of interest

    Departing chief accused of risking the net

    The board of directors of internet overseer ICANN is said to be fuming after its ethics were called into question by the organisation's outgoing president and CEO. Rod Beckstrom, who is set to the leave the domain name policy group in July, took to the stage at ICANN's public meeting here in San Jose, Costa Rica on Monday to …

    Hosting 19 Mar 15:03

  • So, what IS the worst film ever made?

    Reader nominations invited for celluloid hell poll

    Our piece last week on Eddie Murphy's cinematic train-wreck A Thousand Words - a possible nominee for the worst film ever - had El Reg commentards queuing up to recount their celluloid nightmare experiences. And chilling reading it made, to be sure. Inspired by your litany of cinematic shame, we've decided to run a poll this …

    Entertainment 19 Mar 15:32

  • Merciless Cloud will slay storage arrays - Nasuni chief

    Cloud storage gateway firm talks up, er, cloud storage

    Nasuni has a message for enterprise storage vendors: Your days are numbered. Nasuni CEO and co-founder Andres Rodriguez has said that enterprise data centres with enterprise storage arrays are going to be hollowed out. Hot primary data will go into local flash storage, he says. Everything else – the not-so-hot, the nearline …

    Infrastructure 19 Mar 16:02

  • Foxconn won't sue over fabricated radio brickbats

    'Our corporate image has been totally ruined,' but that's okay

    The Chinese contract manufacturer vilified in the now-discredited public radio broadcast assailing its working conditions may be licking its wounds, but it won't seek redress in court. "Our corporate image has been totally ruined," Foxconn spokesman Simon Hsing told Reuters. "The point is whatever media that cited the program …

    Business 19 Mar 16:05

  • That MYSTERY Duqu Trojan language: Plain old C

    How quaint

    An appeal for help from the programming community has allowed antivirus analysts to classify the unknown language used to develop key components of the Duqu Trojan. Duqu creates a backdoor on compromised SCADA-based industrial control systems. The malware is closely related to the nuke plant centrifuge-busting Stuxnet worm and …

    Developer 19 Mar 16:33

  • Two more big hitters leave Azlan

    Sales director Breen and biz dev bigwig Bond have split

    Another pair of industry vets are splitting with Azlan, The Register can reveal. The enterprise arm of IT broadliner Computer 2000 underwent a restructure last year following the arrival of new broom Colin McGregor, aligning business units to IBM, HP and Cisco rather than vertical markets. As part of this overhaul, marketing …

    Channel Register 19 Mar 16:47

  • Windows 8 for Kindle-like gear hinted by Microsoft bigwig

    COO talks up Metro's much-loved consistent UI

    Microsoft has given its strongest hint yet that Windows 8 on ARM (WoA) will run on a new generation of Kindle-style e-readers. The company's chief operating officer Kevin Turner opened Microsoft’s Dynamics 2012 conference by rattling off a list of devices that’ll benefit from a consistent user interface because Windows 8 runs …

    Windows 8 19 Mar 17:02

  • Samsung opens up the Ice Cream Sandwich

    Galaxy SII update, with added source

    Samsung has posted the source code for its Ice Cream Sandwich, Android version 4 for the Galaxy SII, opening the way for hackers to create their own Android spin. The release follows three iterations of Gingerbread (the last incarnation of Android v2) which are also available from Samsung in all their open-source glory, and …

    Operating Systems 19 Mar 17:34

  • HP loses Vertica big data boss

    Lynch is gone, but at least Lynch is still there

    Chris Lynch, the boss of HP's Vertica subsidiary, has walked the plank. Vertica and its real time data analytics software was bought by HP in April 2010 for about $350m, according to SiliconAngle. This was then HP CEO Leo Apotheker's first software purchase. It was followed by the 2011 Autonomy acquisition, Apotheker's …

    Cloud Business 19 Mar 18:03

  • Citrix: Stream Office from Windows Server, not Windows 7

    OnLive is doing it AllWrong

    Citrix Systems is tweaking a bunch of tools that it has tailored for its XenDesktop desktop virtualization and XenApp application virtualization tools, and is using the opportunity to remind everyone that there is a perfectly legal – in the Microsoft-licensing sense of that word – way to stream Office applications down to end …

    Cloud 19 Mar 18:31

  • Pirate Bay plans sky-high flying proxy servers

    RIAA will need to muster Air Force to stop LOSS

    The Pirate Bay says it is planning a fleet of airborne servers to evade the attempts of anti-piracy forces to shut down their file-sharing service. And, no, it's not yet April Fools' Day. The team behind the site says that the falling cost of GPS and remote-controlled drone technology, coupled with the advent of systems such …

    Music and Media 19 Mar 18:59

  • Acer smears punters' lives over iCloud clone for Android

    Photos, Office docs gobbled up by AcerCloud

    Acer has launched an iCloud-like cloud data-sharing service as part of its PC business re-energising initiative. Consumer users with AcerCloud can now share a content library on their Acer PC with Android tablets and phones across all brands. Acer Windows PC users can share their documents, music, photos and videos across all …

    Platform 19 Mar 19:04

  • Mike Daisey’s Sydney video reveals more grey areas

    Sydney Opera House "looking into" monologist’s 2011 performance

    The Sydney Opera House “will be looking into” appearances under its roof by controversial Monologist Mike Daisey. The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs a monologue Daisey performs in which he describes practices at the Foxconn plant where Apple products are made, was last week disowned by influential US radio program This …

    Music and Media 19 Mar 19:14

  • ClearStory uncloaks with big data visualization vision

    Teaching elephants to draw pictures for CEOs

    Yet another big-data company has come out of stealth mode, and this one, called ClearStory Data, has its sights set on making it easier for companies to mash-up and visualize data sets rather than just focusing on data-munching itself. The founders of ClearStory – Sharmila Mulligan, John Cieslewicz, and Vaibhav Nivargi – all …

    Cloud 19 Mar 20:10

  • Latest Linux kernel 3.3 comes with added Android

    Two becoming one in forking reunion

    The latest kernel update for Linux has been released, and features supporting Android are back for the first time since 2010, along with improved processor and networking support. "For a long time, code from the Android project has not been merged back to the Linux repositories due to disagreement between developers from both …

    Operating Systems 19 Mar 20:18

  • Microsoft exec: 'Cloud a half-trillion dollar biz by 2020'

    Convergence 2012 From tentative trend to full-bore juggernaut

    The uptake of cloud services is accelerating faster than initially thought, and could be a half a trillion dollar business by the end of the decade, Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner told attendees of the Convergence 2012 conference in Houston, Texas, on Monday. Turner talked up Microsoft's cloud, Windows Azure, …

    Channel Register 19 Mar 21:33

  • Windows 8 tablet freezes in Microsoft keynote demo

    Convergence 2012 Houston, Metro UI's got a problem

    You've got to hand it to Kirill Tatarinov, the head of Microsoft's ERP division. The Russian Rocket was cool as a cucumber on Monday when a demo of the Windows 8 Metro UI running on a touch-screen tablet crashed and burned during the opening keynote of Convergence 2012. Microsoft is indeed making big, bold bets with the …

    Windows 8 19 Mar 21:55

  • Free apps suck your power: researchers

    Angry Birds, user tracking, advertising and flat batteries

    As you tap away at your free copy of Angry Birds and sneer at those who pay for games, consider this: how much is it costing you in battery life? Plenty, according to a study conducted by researchers from Microsoft and Purdue University. Their work, which presents the results produced by an energy profiling tool called eprof, …

    Networks 19 Mar 22:06

  • Aussie hardcore gamers set to be legit

    R18+ classification poised to pass Parliament

    The lengthy struggle to install an R18+ category for the Australian computer gaming sector is closer to fruition, with legislation passing the House of Representatives yesterday. The legislation, which brings the gaming industry into the 21st century and in line with film classification, passed in the House of Representatives …

    Music and Media 19 Mar 22:17

  • Singers set to swing with cloud boom

    12,000 jobs in next four years

    Cloud computing is expected to stimulate the creation of 12,000 new jobs in Singapore by 2015. According to a new research report from IDC commissioned by Microsoft Singapore, IT spending is expected to grow by 16% over the next four years, however Singapore is expected to show a 30.6% growth in cloud-generated jobs. The …

    Cloud 19 Mar 22:45

  • NetZero back in the game with free-ish 4G

    It's time to party like it's 1998

    NetZero, the first ISP to offer free dial-up internet back in 1998, is back in the game with an offer of nearly free 4G mobile internet using Sprint's remaining WiMax infrastructure. Under the terms of the new service, users buy a USB dongle for $49.95, or a hotspot capable of supporting eight connections for $99.95, and get a …

    Mobile 19 Mar 23:23

  • Einstein online archive expands

    Thousands of docs hit the ‘net

    As a commemoration of the 133rd birthday of Albert Einstein, the online archives of his work are being expanded to contain more than 80,000 documents. According to Caltech, which conducts the Einstein Papers Project, the site will ultimately hold all the documents held jointly by Caltech and the Einstein Archives at Hebrew …

    Physics 19 Mar 23:25

  • Humans best crossword-puzzling computer

    Dr Fill is no Deep Blue or Watson – yet

    Officially, humans are the only ones who can enter the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which was held in Brooklyn, New York over the weekend. But this time artificial intelligence expert Matt Ginsberg of On Time Systems has put his Dr Fill crossword solver to the test. As the results show, you don't have to throw out your …

    HPC 19 Mar 23:34

  • Samsung backside-bitten by emoticon patent trollery

    WHEN WILL THE MADNESS CEASE?

    Samsung’s patent lawsuit against Apple over emoticons has bitten the smartphone maker in the behind, with a patent troll hoarder called Varia now suing Samsung over the same thing. At the bottom of it all is our relentless pursuit of the laziest possible way to carry out the most mundane activities. Since emoticons are …

    Law 19 Mar 23:41