6th April 2012 Archive

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Zuckerberg escapes scrutiny in Facebook ownership case

Ceglia wins time for experts to examine his claims

Paul Ceglia, who is claiming ownership of half of social-networking giant Facebook, won't get to cross-examine CEO Mark Zuckerberg or examine his computer records, a court ruled on Wednesday – but he has bought himself some time to get in expert witnesses. "We are very pleased with today’s ruling," Orin Snyder, a New York …

Law 6 Apr 00:07
NASA reviews nine astrophysics missions, loves 'em all

Kepler, Swift, Fermi, Spitzer extended – 'There are no clunkers here'

NASA has published its biannual Senior Review of Operating Missions, and the news is good for space-science buffs: all nine missions reviewed will receive continued funding, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope, which are identified as "the two most important missions in this Senior Review." …

Space 6 Apr 00:48
China blames web for gun smuggling crims

State tries to justify even greater online snooping

The Chinese authorities are blaming the world wide web and multinational delivery companies for a rise in gun smuggling into the People’s Republic. A China Daily report claimed that criminal gangs are increasingly turning to the web to trade illegal weapons and then using express delivery networks to ship them into the country …

Security 6 Apr 05:38
HTC One X Android smartphone

Review Quad-core corker

HTC messed up in 2011 by releasing too many similar handsets. There was nothing actually wrong with phones likes the Sensation, Sensation XL, Sensation XE or Incredible S but equally none of them had me itching to upgrade my Desire HD ahead of schedule. The X factor: HTC's One X Now HTC is hoping to turn things around by …

reghardware 6 Apr 06:00
APAC IT spend to grow THREE TIMES faster than rest of the world

But report highlights digital divide in the region

Asia Pacific is powering ahead of the rest of the world and driving a recovery in global IT spending forecast to total $3.7 trillion (£2.3tr) in 2012, according to the latest data from Gartner. While total worldwide growth is set to stand at 2.5 per cent this year, down from the analyst’s previous forecast of 3.7 per cent, the …

Business 6 Apr 07:00
Hacktivist 'Hardcore Charlie' claims China military hack

Anonymous-affiliated hacker exposes alleged US army docs

A hacker affiliated to hacktivist group Anonymous and dubbed Hardcore Charlie claims to have broken into the IT systems of a Chinese military contractor and exposed documents related to the US war effort in Afghanistan. The hacker first announced the news on Monday via this tweet: “CHINA military contractor CEIEC owneed like …

Security 6 Apr 09:00
Windows 3.1 rebooted: Microsoft's DOS destroyer turns 20

Memory errors, files flung - how did Redmond win?

Yes it crashed a lot. It crashed less than its predecessor though, and kept Microsoft on the path to desktop domination. This was Windows 3.1, released on 6 April 1992, nearly two years after Windows 3.0 was pushed out in May 1990. Minimum system requirements are MS-DOS 3.1 or later, 2MB RAM, and a hard drive with 6MB free. …

Windows 8 6 Apr 10:04
Facebook: 'Outrageous, wanton, reckless, callous, disgraceful, wilful'

QuotW Plus: 'Aah! My Eyes!' (new Visual Studio)

This was the week when 70,000 stalkers/just friendly guys were left without a a way to cyber-search out the ladies. iOS app Girls Around Me, which used Foursquare and Facebook APIs to spot females in the immediate area, was booted off amid cries of "Stalker!" But the app maker, I Free, insisted it was an innocent socialising …

Bootnotes 6 Apr 10:30
The iPad 3 would make me so horny...

Something for the Weekend, Sir? ...if it wasn't so sucky

In my Dad's generation, middle-aged men of means would buy new cars at the end of every July because that's when new licence plates came out. Their old cars would be traded in as part-exchange, sold to third parties through classified ads, or passed magnanimously to relatives. This was regarded as civilised and financially …

reghardware 6 Apr 11:00
US job creation stalls in March

Or does it?

The US economy lost a bit of momentum in March, if you gauge it by job creation, falling well short of the needed 200,000-plus net new jobs that are needed just to keep up with population growth, and well below any level necessary to make a dent in the unemployment rate. According to the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor …

Jobs 6 Apr 17:32
Sergey Brin creates spectacle with Project Glass prototypes

Charity event snap shows lightweight design

Sergey Brin has been showing off Google's prototype Project Glass augmented-reality spectacles at a charity event in San Francisco. On Thursday evening Brin attended a "Dining in the Dark" event for the nonprofit Foundation Fighting Blindness, and used the opportunity to show off the glasses that Google started publicizing …

Hardware 6 Apr 17:43
Apple flooded with iPad 3 wireless connection complaints

Fractious fanbois fume at fondleslab FAIL

A tsunami of complaints about Apple's "The new iPad" – aka the iPad 3 – are filling Cupertino's discussion forums, claiming that the 3G and 4G connectivity of Apple's überpopular fondleslab is bollixed. "The new iPad has unstable 3G connection" is the title of one forum thread in which the thread-initiator reports: "3G icon is …

Hardware 6 Apr 19:42
MPAA boss: 'SOPA isn’t dead yet'

House debates CISPA – SOPA on steroids

Former senator and current head of the Motion Picture Ass. of America Chris Dodd hopes to resurrect the reviled SOPA anti-piracy legislation in another form, but it appears the US House of Representatives is beating him to it a new bill that makes SOPA look sensible. Dodd, speaking in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, …

Law 6 Apr 19:53
AT&T to allow unlocking of out-of-contract iPhones

Paid up? Then you're good to go on Easter Sunday

Beginning this Sunday, AT&T will let some customers unlock their iPhones, thus allowing them to use another carrier's service – provided, of course, that the carrier's network is compatible with the newly unlocked iPhone. An older GSM-only AT&T phone would not be able to hop aboard Verzon's CDMA network, for example. When the …

Mobile 6 Apr 22:00
Twitter slams top five spammers with legal suit

Big bird gets busy

Twitter has filed a legal suit against five entities for selling tools that send out spam tweets and clog up its network. The suit names TweetAttacks, TweetAdder, and TweetBuddy, plus James Lucero of Justinlover.info and Garland Harris of Troption.com as its targets. In the legal filing, Twitter says that it has had to pour …

Spam 6 Apr 23:45
Rabid skunks attack US

Thirsty, deadly stinkers driven by drought

A persistent drought and a mild winter has caused a spike in the number of rabid skunks invading the the suburban landscapes of states from up in South Dakota to down in New Mexico. "Everyone is afraid of skunks because you don't want to get sprayed," South Dakota state epidemiologist Lon Kightlinger told The Wall Steet …

Biology 6 Apr 23:46