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23rd March 2012 Archive

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  • Java-centric video house moves to Azure

    IPTV aspirant farewells FOSS

    Australian cloud based online video platform Movideo has hooked up with Microsoft in a four year strategic technology agreement that will see the IPTV aspirant deploy its wares globally. Movideo, which is part of the ASX listed content company, the MCM Entertainment Group, will migrate its integrated online video platform to …

    Software 23 Mar 00:04

  • Record-breaking laser pulse boosts fusion power hopes

    One giant step towards 'creating a miniature star on Earth'

    The world's most powerful laser has fired a record-breaking pulse that exceeded even its own design goals. For 23 billionths of a second, the 192 ultraviolet lasers in the National Ignition Facility generated the equivalent of 411 trillion watts of peak power, which the NIF described as being 1,000 times more energy than the …

    Science 23 Mar 00:15

  • End in sight for IT jobs outsourcing massacre

    No CIO is going to offshore his own job

    The offshoring of IT work to developing countries has been very popular with accountants looking to cut costs, but the limits are being reached of what jobs can conceivably be sent overseas. Research by The Hackett Group estimates that of the 8.2 million business service jobs available in the US and Europe in 2002, only around …

    Jobs 23 Mar 00:19

  • SKA committee defers final decision

    Australia/NZ still in running for super-scope

    The Australia-New Zealand bid to host the Euro1.5 billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA)uber satellite project is not lost. Despite reports earlier in the month that recommendations had been tipping rival bidder South Africa in the box seat, the SKA Organisation said it will delay its decision to further discuss the opportunities …

    Science 23 Mar 00:25

  • NetApp to unleash virtual array

    ONTAP-V to go on sale soon

    NetApp will join the virtual storage appliance party by releasing the ONTAP-V product it currently resells only through Fujitsu and it's Primergy BX400 S1 server. ONTAP-V joins an VMware's Virtual Storage Appliance and HP's LeftHand products in offering an alternative to conventional arrays, which bundle hardware and software …

    Storage 23 Mar 01:41

  • GIANT KANGAROOS wiped out by humans, not climate change

    Ancient poo suggests hunters proved too tough for giant marsupials

    In a land before time – or at least Australia about 40,000 years ago – five meter kangaroos bounded across the landscape. Some were fleeing colossal marsupial lions. Others were trying to stay out of the way of Emus twice the size of today's specimens or Diprotodon Optatum, a rhinoceros-like beastie that was the largest …

    Science 23 Mar 02:51

  • Football rules punt Oz IPTV into touch

    Minister will decide who gets to play with balls and when

    Australia's nacent IPTV industry won't be able to win business with the entertainment industry's time honoured practice of paying outrageous prices for exclusive rights to broadcast live sport, thanks to a new plan outlined yesterday by Minster for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Stephen Conroy. …

    Policy 23 Mar 03:21

  • China takes Android and iOS activations crown

    Smart device growth surging in People's Republic

    China has passed yet another mobile milestone, beating the US to top spot in iOS and Android activations for the first time and surging to become the world’s fastest growing market for mobile applications, according to new stats from mobile analytics firm Flurry. The stats highlight the rapid maturation of the country’s mobile …

    Networks 23 Mar 04:00

  • Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

    Review Dead again

    At the core of zombie fiction lies a deep-seated sense of hopelessness and inevitability. That no matter how hard you fight, no matter how many lucky escapes you pull off, and no matter where you flee to, your eventual, grisly demise is assured by the indomitable Pepé Le Pews of horror. Is statue hiding behind there? That …

    reghardware 23 Mar 07:00

  • China's censors out in force as coup rumours spread

    Is the Party about to implode? Nah, probably not

    China’s internet censors have been forced into overdrive this week after rumours swirled the country’s popular micro-blogging weibo platforms of an attempted coup in Beijing and the mysterious death of a man driving a Ferrari in the capital. Twitter users presumably using a VPN or other set-up to access the banned site in …

    Policy 23 Mar 07:59

  • Singapore lures big biz with mega data protection regime

    Citizens may get protection from telesales pests too...

    Singapore based data protection law specialist Rosemary Lee of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said the Personal Data Protection Bill (74-page/387KB PDF) being proposed by Singapore's government would establish a single data protection regime for the nation for the first time. The draft legislation sets out …

    Law 23 Mar 08:01

  • Fujitsu has phone fraudsters in its sights

    Last call for pesky scammers who target the elderly

    Boffins at Fujitsu and Japan’s Nagoya university are claiming to have successfully developed technology designed to prevent phone scammers by recognising certain keywords and detecting changes in voice pitch and level. The technology was developed as part of the "Modelling and Detecting Overtrust from Behaviour Signals" …

    Security 23 Mar 08:01

  • Council to chuck £28m wad at schools' ICT supplier

    Seeks 3-year deal for storage, servers, netbooks and, er, iPads

    Staffordshire county council has published a tender for suppliers to join a wide-ranging ICT framework agreement for use within schools and other education establishments for both administration and curriculum purposes. It includes the provision of servers, storage, workstations, portable devices, software, wireless technology …

    The Channel 23 Mar 08:27

  • Medieval warming WAS global – new science contradicts IPCC

    'It was consensual' claims looking shaky

    More peer-reviewed science contradicting the warming-alarmist "scientific consensus" was announced yesterday, as a new study shows that the well-documented warm period which took place in medieval times was not limited to Europe, or the northern hemisphere: it reached all the way to Antarctica. The research involved the …

    Science 23 Mar 08:58

  • Third European supply podule blasts off en route to space station

    Robot freighters now coming off assembly line annually

    The third European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-3) robot supply craft to the International Space Station blasted off successfully from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 04:34 GMT this morning. Watch live streaming video from eurospaceagency at livestream.com The ATV, named Edoardo Amaldi after the famous Italian …

    Science 23 Mar 09:21

  • Scores of US federal agencies still open to 2008 cache attack

    Alphabet soup still wide open to poisoning

    US federal agencies are still struggling to roll out mandated technology that would make it much harder for attackers to spoof their websites. The Federal Information Security Management Act set a December 2010 deadline to deploy DNSSEC, or DNS Security Extensions, on federal domains. However a survey by Domain Name System …

    Security 23 Mar 09:27

  • BT Vision to stream UKTV channels

    Fresh outlet for BBC repeats

    UKTV, the BBC co-owned satellite and cable channel, is to open an IPTV stream through BT Vision. BT's customers will be able to subscribe to UKTV content or access programmes on a one-off basis. Toward the end of the year, a number of UKTV's channels - Watch, Dynamo and BBC repeat channel Gold - will themselves be streamed. …

    reghardware 23 Mar 09:59

  • HP and EMC battle for the soul of server storage

    Donatelli repels Gelsinger storage invasion

    There is a fight going on for the soul of server storage and HP and EMC are in the front line trenches getting ready for all-out marketing war. HP's strategy depends upon smartening up its ProLiant servers. The eighth generation ProLiant is turbo-charging its storage with a Smart Array containing solid state drives and Smart …

    Storage 23 Mar 10:03

  • Snowboards and BIG DATA for WORLD PEACE

    ¡Bong! You pay, I save the day. Simples!

    [After a minor accident snowboarding in Tignes this week, Mr Bong has submitted a shorter column than usual. Thank the Lord - ed.] Food Fight Fab.com's Chief Creative Officer There was the usual kvetching from backward-looking naysayers and cynics after Wired covered the Shoreditch Tech scene this week. The reporter …

    Media 23 Mar 10:23

  • BOFH: Dawn raid on Fort BOFH

    Episode 3 Good morning, Mr Simmons. Ready for our little game?

    You know, sometimes I wish someone just had the balls to say they want a new iPad cos it looks cool. That they have no clue of what the f$*# they’d use it for, but their kids think they’re great and they can’t be stuffed forking out the money themselves for one so they figure the company should just get one and save them the …

    BOFH 23 Mar 10:40

  • Sony to serve Ice Cream Sandwich to tablets

    Android 4.0.3 in April

    Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich is coming to Sony's Tablet S and Tablet P fondleslabs - review links below, folks - the Japanese giant has revealed. The confirmation only covers Japan, but it's a fair bet that ICS will be released to tablets globally, even if it's not posted outside of Japan immediately. There, the Android 4.0. …

    reghardware 23 Mar 10:49

  • El Reg Forums FAQ

    Site news Have we missed anything?

    First of all Read the house rules. < Forums FAQ Badges In November 2012, The Register introduced gold, silver and bronze badges for commentards, along with forum privileges for each badge. The qualifying thresholds for badges are: Bronze More than one year members and more than 100 posts in the last 12 months. Silver …

    Site News 23 Mar 11:00

  • Half of iPad 3s sold will sport 4G, says bank

    More punters favour faster connectivtiy

    Brits may have no need for the new iPad's 4G connectivity, but Americans are going to lap up the LTE-enabled tablet, UBS has forecast. That, the bank believes, will result in heightened demand for the 4G iPad 3 to the extent that it will account for almost half of the iPad 3s sold by Apple. The ratio of Wi-Fi only to Wi-Fi + …

    reghardware 23 Mar 11:06

  • Cocky Foxconn tells tech biz: We'll design your mobes, you do the ads

    Factory barons upbeat after smashing profit prediction

    The phone-making division of Foxconn swung into the black with a net profit of $75.1m (£47.5m) in 2011, according to its latest preliminary report to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange [PDF]. It also offered to take care of all the tough stuff in product design, leaving the marketing and branding to its tech titan clients. The …

    Financial News 23 Mar 11:16

  • Thai floods derail Hadron-colliding antimatter boffinry

    CERN experiment runs low on hard disks

    The world's hard drive shortage, caused by deadly flooding in Thailand, is holding back CERN's antimatter research, a top scientist at the boffinry nerve center said last night. Analysis of figures spewing out of the Large Hadron Collider was compromised by a lack of storage space, said Peter Clarke, who works on the CERN LHCb …

    Storage 23 Mar 11:42

  • Arcam rDock

    Accessory of the Week The cradle will RAAAWK

    Arcam’s rDock is a hefty slab of cast alloy, designed to accommodate an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad in it’s Dock connector. A rubber base means it won’t slide around your desk or hi-fi unit when you're docking and undocking your iDevice, and a strip of rubber along the front of the stand protects the back of your Apple gadget …

    reghardware 23 Mar 12:00

  • Florida man 'fesses to naked Scarlett Johansson outrage

    Hot pics nicked from email boxes, leaked to gossip rags

    A Florida man has admitted hacking into the email accounts of celebrities including Mila Kunis and Scarlett Johansson. Christopher Chaney, 35, of Jacksonville, Florida, agreed on Monday to plead guilty to nine felony charges including computer hacking and wiretapping, AP reports. The plea follows Chaney's arrest in October …

    Security 23 Mar 12:18

  • Intel next-gen netbook chip to sport Ivy Bridge graphics

    What, with a 1024 x 600 screen and Windows Starter?

    Hardware sites are abuzz with news that Intel is preparing a 22nm Atom chip with a state-of-the-art integrated graphics core on board. The CPU is codenamed Valley View and it'll be part of a platform called Balboa Pier, slides that have leaked out of kit maker Advantech reveal. Balboa Pier will is the follow-up to netbook …

    reghardware 23 Mar 12:24

  • Hard-up Iceland plumps for cheaper open source

    Public sector has one year to flee from Microsoft and co

    Iceland’s government is accelerating its move to open source at the expense of proprietary software from the likes of Microsoft and Oracle. The government has launched a one-year migration project moving public institutions to open-source software and is working on a call for a tender to buy services based on free and open- …

    Government 23 Mar 12:41

  • iPhone outsells RIM's BlackBerry in Canada for the first time

    But sexting Middle Eastern teens remain loyal to BBM

    The iPhone is outselling the BlackBerry in its home territory, Canada, in another humiliating mark of decline for mobe-makers RIM. BlackBerry sold 2.08 million handsets in Canada in 2011 compared to iPhone sales of 2.85 million, according to figures from IDC and Bloomberg. Canadians have remained loyal to Ontario-based RIM …

    Mobile 23 Mar 12:57

  • Computacenter rips up £43m council contract over razor-thin margin

    Five-year ICT deal ends before it begins

    Computacenter chief exec Mike Norris says the reseller giant stepped out of an ICT services contract with Cumbria County Council (CC) before kick-off because it was "confident" the deal would be loss-making. The council in January, apparently prematurely, confirmed Computacenter as the preferred bidder for a five-year contract …

    The Channel 23 Mar 13:02

  • US movie viewers make sudden shift to net

    More films watched online this year than on disc

    Lovefilm subscribers in the UK are already streaming more content over the net than they're receiving on disc through the post, and now it's been claimed that folk in the US will acquire more paid video content online this year than on physical media. According to IHS Screen Digest, a market watcher, Americans will this year …

    reghardware 23 Mar 13:11

  • Google patents mobile ads that sense noise, temp, light

    Hey, you look cold - there's a coat shop over there

    Google wants to deliver adverts based on the environment around people, as well as their behavioural profile, and has filed for a patent on the concept. The premise of US patent 8,138,930 is that a phone, or other device, can detect a lot more than the current location of the user, it often knows the local temperature as well …

    Mobile 23 Mar 13:19

  • Analyst eyes Q3 2013 for Xbox 720 release

    Seller of pre-owned games spins against disc-less console

    Microsoft's next Xbox console will launch in Q3 2013 and, contrary to widespread rumours, will not be a download-only platform, one analyst reckons. "Although not yet confirmed by Microsoft, we believe the next generation Xbox console could launch in the fall of 2013," said Doug Creutz, a soothsayer at Cowan & Company, a …

    reghardware 23 Mar 13:27

  • Apple tightens grip on tablet market with iPad 2 and 3 pincer move

    Comment Just when you thought it was safe to go into the mid market ...

    Following the launch of Apple’s new iPad the company has been criticised again for the lack of design overhaul, with some arguing this will inhibit sales. But the 7 March actually saw yet another Apple masterstroke – for two reasons. Firstly, while largely unchanged on the outside, the New iPad’s launch focused on the software …

    The Channel 23 Mar 13:44

  • Baffling barcode-on-steroids stickers plaster the EARTH

    Sysadmin blog 18 years on, QR codes are getting even stickier

    QR codes are everywhere. They have completely overrun Japan and are becoming well-established in the rest of the world as well. There are plenty of convenient uses for this technology, as well as several less carefully considered uses. QR codes were created in 1994 by Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave. There was a need for a …

    Servers 23 Mar 14:02

  • Windows Phone left on launchpad by Angry Birds in spaaace

    Updated Microsoft lacks the gravity to attract a port

    Rovio has shunned Windows Phone for the latest outing of the super-soaraway Angry Birds franchise, saying that it can't support every platform and has no plans to support that one. Angry Birds in Space is out for iOS (£1.99), Mac (£2.99), PC (£4.97) and Android (free but plastered with ads), but notably absent is a Windows …

    Developer 23 Mar 14:27

  • Moneybags Apple loses $1.2m Italian warranty fine scrap

    Foxconn-rebrand biz sets sights on formal appeal

    An Italian court has refused to suspend fines slapped on Apple for failing to properly advertise EU-mandated warranties. Local rag Le Repubblica reports that Apple's attempt to delay the payout was rejected at a hearing in Lazio this week. The bench recognised that Apple's online store was now complying with the law, but a …

    Business 23 Mar 14:39

  • Has virtualization really ended all your worries?

    The very real limits of happiness

    OK, so you’ve virtualised a bunch of servers and saved yourself a bit of money on hardware. Life is a little easier because you no longer have to go through the server procurement and provisioning cycle quite so often to meet new requirements. But has anything fundamentally changed in the way you manage systems and deliver IT …

    Service Assurance 23 Mar 15:00

  • Revealed: Google's SECRET London office

    Remarkable snaps of subterranean bunker complex

    Earlier this week, El Reg got its sweaty paws on some exclusive snaps of the new Google outpost in London's Central St Giles building. Our correspondent noted that some staff will relocate to the new pad from the search monolith's current base in Victoria, but wondered just where the rest of the Google drones would end up once …

    SPB 23 Mar 15:18

  • Worst movie poll screening delayed 7 days

    Sheer weight of nominations buries El Reg

    We've been obliged to postpone our promised poll of the worst film ever until next Friday due to a stampede of nominations. Thanks to everyone who offered their suggestion as to what constitutes the most heinous crime against the filmmaker's art, and we're still working our way through the mountain of celluloid shame. One …

    Bootnotes 23 Mar 15:42

  • RAC's Bristol data centre breaks down

    Day-long outage sparked by server crash

    Motor insurance biz RAC suffered a day-long outage after something went kaput in its data centre in Bristol. The server farm is still titsup, an RAC spokesperson told The Reg, and the cause of the cock-up is unknown. The RAC website is working but services involving sales and member accounts have been affected by the downtime …

    CIO 23 Mar 15:55

  • Wave, Buzz... Android? What Apple teaches Google

    Open ... and Shut Freedom is more than just a word

    For developers looking to avoid the Dementor's Kiss of Apple's all-consuming iOS ecosystem, Google has long played the knight in shining open-source armour. Indeed, latest data from IDC and Appcelerator suggest developers are still betting big on Google, expecting its broad range of social products to mint them money. But given …

    Developer 23 Mar 16:01

  • More 'retina' display piccies spied within Mac OS X

    Mountain Lion paving way for pixeltastic MacBooks?

    Software hackers have been uncovering ultra-high resolution graphics in Apple OS updates for more than a year now, so it comes as no surprise that Ars Technica has found a few more, in the Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Developer Preview. We'd like to add that the beta release of Apple's Messages app, currently available for Lion …

    reghardware 23 Mar 16:10

  • Hackers booby-trap WordPress site with botnet-weaving Trojan

    Crooks lure punters in with LinkedIn lies

    Malware-flingers are taking advantage of vulnerable WordPress sites as part of an attack ultimately designed to spread an information-stealing botnet agent. Cybercrooks begin the attack by planting malicious scripts on vulnerable sites. Prospective marks are then lured to compromised sites via spammed messages that purport to …

    Security 23 Mar 16:28

  • Rovio: Actually there will be Angry Birds Space on Windows Phone

    'What? No, nobody called from Redmond or Nokia'

    Rovio has apparently changed its mind, with the company's CEO telling Reuters that a Windows Phone 7 port of Angry Birds in Space is in the offing, though he's not saying when. That contradicts what the company's chief marketing officer told Bloomberg earlier, but CEO outranks head of marketing so we're betting that Angry …

    Operating Systems 23 Mar 16:29

  • US broadcasters put the squeeze on small-town cable TV

    You're gonna pay more for less service, hayseed. Gotta problem with that?

    Small cable TV networks are having to increase their prices just to offer content that the owner will happily give away, and they want the FCC to do something about it. The content in question is broadcast TV channels, which are free to receive if you've got a roof-top antenna and a decent line of sight, but are also normally …

    Media 23 Mar 17:03

  • Facebook: Your boss asks for your password, we'll sue him! Maybe

    Or we might delete you. That will help

    Facebook's Chief Privacy Officer has condemned employers who ask for the Facebook log-ins of employees or job applicants. It comes after a young man blogged that a potential employer had asked for his Facebook password during a job interview. In a note on the Privacy page added this morning, FB Privacy honcho Erin Egan also …

    Jobs 23 Mar 17:29

  • Investor sues Oracle over $200m whistleblower payout

    Ellison & Co. charged with 'gross mismanagement'

    An Oracle shareholder has filed a lawsuit against Larry Ellison & Co. for "gross mismanagement" in their handling of a long-running whistleblower case, alleging that by fighting a case they knew to be grounded in fact, they drove the ultimate settlement up to a hefty $200m. "Rather than attempt to settle all claims at that …

    Business 23 Mar 17:34

  • Survey scammers fling spam at Pinterest punters

    Black Hat Tools offers spring bot collection...

    Cybercrooks have latched on the success of social networking site Pinterest by launching a variety of money-making scams. Just like Facebook before it, Pinterest has become a haven for survey scams. Would-be marks are invited to complete surveys under the pretext that they might win an iPad or obtain a discount voucher. In …

    Security 23 Mar 17:44

  • Micron's revenues circle drain for third straight quarter

    Down, down, down for DRAM and flash maker

    The numbers are straightforward. In its second financial 2012 quarter, ending 1 March, DRAM and NAND maker Micron sold $2.1bn of chips and SSDs and made a loss of $224m. This reflects the deepening of a trend that has been underway for seven quarters, with declining revenues and falling profits turning into losses. If you have …

    Financial News 23 Mar 18:02

  • Pro-China hackers target Tibetan activists with malware

    Spammers in the service of the People's Republic

    Pro-China hackers have started spoofing security firm AlienVault's email address in spam messages in an attempt to infect pro-Tibetan recipients with malware. The move follows days after the security tools firm warned that AlienVault about spear phishing attacks against a number of Tibetan organisations. The spear-phishing …

    Security 23 Mar 19:01

  • Dutch birdman admits flight was filmic fantasy

    Human-powered flap'n'fly too good to be true, sadly

    The "Flying Dutchman" who enthralled world+dog earlier this week with a video of him flying through the wild blue yonder by flapping homemade wings has admitted that the entire airborne affair was but a hoax. And so was the name of the supposedly intrepid aviator: "Jarno Smeets" is in actuality a fictional character created by …

    Science 23 Mar 19:54

  • Robotic surgeon successful in first prostate snip

    Low-cost robot could save NHS millions

    A man suffering from cancer has become the first Briton to have his prostate removed by robotic surgery. Stuart Ellis, from Cheadle Hulme, had his prostate removed by surgeons at Stepping Hill Hospital in Greater Manchester using a handheld robotic device called Kymerax, which is used via keyhole surgery to deal with …

    Science 23 Mar 20:28

  • 'Intelligent systems' poised to outsell PCs, smartphones

    IDC: ARM facing shrinking market share

    Analyst house IDC predicts that the traditional embedded-systems market is reaching an inflection point where a new breed of intelligent devices will take over the market and drive the current fashionable terms de jour: Big Data and "the internet of things". IDC defines intelligent systems as those that use a high-level …

    Hardware 23 Mar 22:56

  • AT&T profiting from Nigerian scammers, DoJ charges

    Lawsuit alleges abuse costing taxpayers 'millions'

    AT&T can't catch a break from the US government. First the feds squashed Big Phone's proposed merger with Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA, and now the Department of Justice has slapped a suit on the company for alleged improper billing for services intended for use by the deaf and hard of hearing. The service in question is IP …

    Broadband 23 Mar 23:58