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27th April 2012 Archive

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  • Predatory IP threatening the progress of open innovation

    PARC celebrates 10 years anniversary with a warning

    The predatory use of intellectual property by companies and individuals is causing a serious impediment to the process of open innovation that is driving the latest changes in technology. Henry Chesbrough, executive director of open innovation at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, said that the patents were originally …

    Business 27 Apr 2012, 01:44

  • TV Now was too good, and that was its downfall

    Optus loss not the end of the road

    Absent an appeal to the High Court, Optus’ TV Now service infringes copyright. It is not, however, a threat to the whole of the Internet, cloud services – nor even, necessarily, to the use of cloud to record TV. Although there will, indubitably, be people crying doom – and in spite of the victors’ crowing, which includes AFL …

    Media 27 Apr 2012, 02:00

  • Patriotic hackers face off in South China Sea

    Dispute over islands claimed by China and Philippines goes online

    The Philippine government has appealed in vain for patriotic hackers in the country to “be the bigger man” and not retaliate against China for a series of suspected attacks on university and government web sites, as the stand-off between the two countries over a set of disputed islands continues. The Scarborough Shoal – also …

    Security 27 Apr 2012, 04:21

  • New satellite will blow your socks off - and spot them from spaaaace

    WorldView-3 can pick out things as small as 31cm

    A new satellite set to fly in 2014 will offer the chance to spot objects just 31 centimetres across … from SPAAAAAACE. WorldView-3 will be thrust 617 kilometres into the heavens atop an Atlas V rocket and will boast several different sensors, the better to provide images to customers including the US National Oceanic and …

    Networks 27 Apr 2012, 04:51

  • Basic instinct: how we used to code

    Retro Week In praise of Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code

    I’ve recently caught myself, like some horrific solo re-write of the Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen sketch, waxing lyrical to my two iPod-wielding young ‘uns about the good old days; when men were men, computers were effectively clockwork, and computer games… well, come to think about it, they still cost about 69p. But you …

    Vintage 27 Apr 2012, 06:00

  • No sex please, we're Telstra

    No more NSFW vids on BigPond

    Telstra has decided not to promote access to “adult oriented content” on BigPond's video download service. The directive from Telstra CEO David Thodey came after customer complaints over the availability of adult-orientated movies or videos that objectify women. In an email to staff Thodey said that he agreed with the …

    Networks 27 Apr 2012, 06:24

  • Microsoft guns for web sales biz in piracy crackdown

    Seeks ONE MILLION pounds from pesky license evaders

    Microsoft reportedly has two more companies in its sight as the software giant’s licensing crackdown focuses on China. Redmond said it is seeking compensation of at least at least 10 million yuan (£980,000) and a printed apology in the People’s Daily from two Beijing-based e-commerce firms for installing pirated versions of …

    Policy 27 Apr 2012, 06:28

  • Northamber lay-offs put it in the red

    Back in profit at operating level, though

    Northamber headed itself off from reporting a profit for the third quarter after it trimmed its workforce in the face of declining sales of volume products. The veteran distie said in a trading statement yesterday it enjoyed an "encouraging" quarter but in typical Eeyore-ish style said it is too early to determine if "green …

    The Channel 27 Apr 2012, 07:00

  • You can flog 'used' software, but read Ts&Cs first – ECJ

    Program-makers don't lose all their rights when cash touches palm...

    Companies that sell 'used' licences for other firms' copyrighted computer programs that are downloadable from the internet can legitimately do so – but only provided the terms of the rights-holders' licence do not put a bar on reproduction without their consent, a legal advisor to the EU's top court has said. Advocate General …

    Law 27 Apr 2012, 07:04

  • Samsung DOUBLES profits on strong phone sales

    Battle of the superlatives as Huawei predicts great things

    Mobile tech giants Samsung and Huawei turned up the heat on their rivals this week after the Korean electronics behemoth doubled its profits in the first quarter thanks to stellar phone sales and its Chinese rival revealed ambitious plans to sell over 100 million mobiles this year. Samsung’s Q1 financials surpassed even its …

    Business 27 Apr 2012, 07:15

  • Blackpool ICT boss: BYOD doesn't save money

    It would cost less for council to cough for new kit

    Rolling out bring your own device (BYOD) policy is costing Blackpool Council more than it would to provide the mobiles itself, according to the local authority's head of ICT services. Councils considering implementing bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives should not think of them as a money-saving exercise, Tony Doyle, head …

    Government 27 Apr 2012, 07:27

  • Oz court blows away cloud PVRs

    Carriers don’t have same copying and time shifting rights as individuals

    Australia’s Federal Court has decided that personal video recorders in the cloud violate (PVRs) sporting groups’ copyright. The decision came in a case that saw Australia’s Rugby League sue telco Optus over its Tv Now service. TV Now allows subscribers to record television programs and then stream them to their mobile devices …

    Cloud 27 Apr 2012, 07:45

  • Ghost of HTML5 future: Web browser botnets

    B-Sides With great power comes great responsibility ... to not pwn the interweb

    HTML5 will allow web designers to pull off tricks that were previously only possible with Adobe Flash or convoluted JavaScript. But the technology, already widely supported by web browsers, creates plenty of opportunities for causing mischief. During a presentation at the B-Sides Conference in London on Wednesday, Robert …

    Security 27 Apr 2012, 08:01

  • The Big Reg data centre survey

    Calling all the unsung data centre heroes

    When it comes to data centres, we know that most of you think they are pretty modern and up to date, although some tweaking wouldn’t go amiss. We also know that many of you have started consolidating servers by using virtualisation to make better use of your existing kit – and a fair number of you think that you’ve got about as …

    Data Center 27 Apr 2012, 08:16

  • 'We're going to have a renaissance – let's do it'

    Quotw Plus: 'We just want people to invent their own stuff'

    This was the week when it looked like the case against Megaupload and Kim Dotcom could be brought to its knees on the mere technicality that the site had never been served with papers in the US. Unfortunately, the criminal conspiracy charges in America are vital to the trial, and without a charge carrying a five-year maximum …

    Bootnotes 27 Apr 2012, 08:34

  • Arcam rPac

    Accessory of the Week Sound investment?

    Arcam’s rPac is a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) and headphone amp designed for anyone who listens to music on a computer. Or, more accurately, anyone who does so and cares about audio quality. Relying on the computer to perform the digital to analogue conversion usually results in noisy tracks and jitter, thanks to the …

    Laptops 27 Apr 2012, 09:00

  • The shortest Google Drive review you'll read today

    Comment Known unknown error leaves Mac in neutral

    Google notified your humble Reg scribe that Google Drive for the Mac was ready. It installed and promptly crashed. Here's the slow-motion replay: Download and unpack the software to to the Mac's applications folder, double-click on it, agree to the licence, and watch it automatically synchronise your files with your online …

    Cloud 27 Apr 2012, 09:21

  • FTC hires hotshot lawyer for Google antitrust probe

    Paves way for courtroom showdown with Larry Page

    Google could face court action over its business practices, after the US consumer watchdog – the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – appeared to step up its antitrust scrutiny of the company on Thursday. The FTC reportedly hired a well-known outside litigator in a move that could indicate the Chocolate Factory might land up in …

    Management 27 Apr 2012, 09:41

  • MIT boffins play BUILDING-SIZED Tetris

    HPC blog Video: Now this is what you call 'scale out'

    This is one of those stories that just makes me grin and giggle (not a simpering, girlish giggle, but a strong, manly giggle). In their latest display of technical hackery, MIT students built a Tetris game that uses an entire building as the game board. Kevin Fogarty has the story with video here, or you can watch it embedded …

    HPC 27 Apr 2012, 10:02

  • Steve Jobs' death clears way for Broadway star to play Woz

    But we STILL don't know who'll play Ballmer

    Sticking with their casting policy of picking actors-who-look-quite-a-lot-like-the-character, the makers of the Steve Jobs biopic are in talks with tubby TV funnyman Josh Gad for the part of Steve Wozniak. The biographical movie, simply titled Jobs, will detail the life of billionaire biz baron adored Apple co-founder Steve …

    Bootnotes 27 Apr 2012, 10:18

  • Barclaycard site falls over, web payments impossible

    DNS failure locks out punters for 16 HOURS and counting

    Barclaycard customers trying to buy things online have found that their cards don't work. The Barclaycard problems started at 6pm yesterday and are still dragging on. It appears as if it's a DNS failure that has booted the payment processor and all customer accounts offline. The site throws up "can't find the server at secure. …

    Small Biz 27 Apr 2012, 10:39

  • Nintendo: PS3 rules Europe, Xbox tops US

    Go figures

    Nintendo told investors last night that Sony's PlayStation 3 is leading the race in European console adoption, with the number of units snapped up exceeding sales of its own 3DS handheld, as well as those of Microsoft's Xbox 360. Source: Nintendo The company's data, revealed at a Ninty investor conference this week, shows …

    Games 27 Apr 2012, 10:42

  • Computer nostalgia is 10 PRINT 'BOLLOCKS'

    Something for the Weekend, Sir? Memory wobblier than a Sinclair Rampack

    "The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back! Turn back! Turn back! Turn back!" A good sign that you've reached middle age - apart from making mid-1970s ELO references - is when you discover a colleague's date of birth and can remember exactly what you were doing on that day. The sign of old age is almost the same, …

    Hardware 27 Apr 2012, 11:00

  • Gigantic lava spirals wreck Mars ice valley theory

    Student goes looking for water, finds yet more rock

    A boffin-in-training has discovered huge snail-like coils of lava on Mars that suggest the flow of molten rock formed valleys on the surface rather than ice. For years scientists have wondered if parts of the Red Planet were long ago shaped by frozen water, the presence of which supports hope that there is or was life on the …

    Science 27 Apr 2012, 11:12

  • Samsung... no, Apple... no, Samsung tops Q1 smartphone sales chart

    Bean counters come up with different totals

    Here's a classic case of why you shouldn't rely entirely on market watchers: two of them yesterday claimed different phone makers top the world smartphone charts. In the blue corner, we have Strategy Analytics, lifting Samsung's arm up high and emailing us to say the South Korean giant's 44.5m estimated smartphone shipments …

    Phones 27 Apr 2012, 11:20

  • Standing NEXT to an HTML coder is like standing NEXT TO GOD

    ¡Bong! Give me the boy

    ”The New Aesthetic has the ‘scenius’ of London’s Silicon Roundabout to support it. These people are working creatives of Bridle’s generation, with their networked tentacles sunk deep in interaction design, literature, fashion and architecture. If you wanted a creative movement whose logo is a Predator supported by glossy, …

    Small Biz 27 Apr 2012, 11:28

  • Panasonic touts monster 8k by 4k 'flickerless' plasma

    145in big enough for ya?

    Panasonic has revealed it will produce a 145in plasma screen with a resolution of 7680 x 4320, the world's first 8k display not to require a backlight, apparently. The Super Hi-Vision project - detailed on the Panasonic press site, but hidden behind a password to keep the great unwashed and bloggers out, and let real journos …

    Hardware 27 Apr 2012, 11:29

  • Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: Like it or not, this Linux grows on you

    Review Happiness is HUD+Unity

    Ubuntu 12.04, the fourth major Long Term Support (LTS) release for Ubuntu, is serious stuff. LTS editions of Ubuntu are delivered every two years and have extended support from Canonical. They also set the look of the coming years' releases. And this LTS, codenamed Precise Pangolin, has had its support extended from three to …

    Operating Systems 27 Apr 2012, 11:43

  • Inside Turing: Computer boffinry to cuffing cups to radiators

    Life celebrated at Bletchley as Reg reader crafts Android Enigma

    The National Museum of Computing celebrated the upcoming centenary of the birth of Alan Turing with a lecture at Bletchley Park on Thursday night. The event, Turing and his Times, is the second of three Turing-themed events linking three of the top computing museums in the world*. Turing and his Times featured a talk by …

    Bootnotes 27 Apr 2012, 12:01

  • James May 'hologram' raves about old tech at Science Museum

    Pictures Top Gear's Captain Slow stars in mobe app

    Top Gear presenter James May has been transformed into a floating chatterbox spectre that hovers next to exhibits in the London Science Museum. In a new app hyped as "the first augmented-reality application to fuse a TV personality with museum exhibits", the curly-haired petrolhead is superimposed on a phone's camera display …

    Applications 27 Apr 2012, 12:16

  • Microsoft squashes Hotmail password hijack bug

    Hackers offer to crack accounts for £12

    Microsoft has smacked down a Hotmail bug that allowed hackers to lock users out of their own accounts. Redmond took one day to slap down a glitch that allowed anyone with a Firefox add-on to remotely reset the password of a Hotmail account. The Tamper Data add-on allowed hackers to siphon off the outgoing HTTP request from the …

    Security 27 Apr 2012, 12:31

  • Shock sales surge sends Amazon shares soaring

    Investors reassured by Q1 results

    Amazon shares rose at least 16 per cent in pre-market trading today after the etailing giant reported a lift in first quarter revenue. Analysts had been concerned that spending on new products like the Kindle Fire and the usual cost-cutting behaviour of the online firm could heavily impact on profits. But Amazon said its net …

    Financial News 27 Apr 2012, 12:42

  • Europe seals air passenger name-swap deal with US

    PNR welcomed by EU council

    A contentious new deal allowing the European Union to swap airline passenger information with US officials has been agreed by EU interior ministers. The transfer of Passenger Name Records (PNR) data by carriers that operate passenger flights between the two regions grants the US Department of Homeland Security access to such …

    Government 27 Apr 2012, 13:02

  • Sony planned Xperia Play with dual keyboard design

    Brick layers

    Sony has flirted with the idea of an Xperia Play-style handset that features both a gamepad and a physical keyboard pieced together through two sliding drawers tucked behind the phone's display. The designs were revealed through recently published patents, which show Sony's gaming handset equipped with its familiar button …

    Phones 27 Apr 2012, 13:16

  • Betting on Box in a SkyDrive and Google Drive world

    Open ... and Shut Documents in the sky

    As the desktop is consumed by the rising tablet market, the file system as we know it is doomed. No, we won't suddenly lose the need to keep track of files and folders. But how we do so is undergoing a dramatic shift. As Funambol founder Fabrizio Capobianco explains, our files increasingly live within apps. But not really. …

    Management 27 Apr 2012, 13:32

  • Samsung overtakes Nokia, Apple in mobile handset race

    Objective one, achieved

    Samsung has overtaken Nokia in phone handset shipments according to Q1 2012 figures from analysts. Ten years ago a Samsung executive told your correspondent the South Korean electronics giant was going to be bigger in phones than Nokia, and today that's apparently happened. The numbers come from Strategy Analytics and show …

    Phones 27 Apr 2012, 14:01

  • Zynga shares wobble as biz bleeds $85.4m in Q1

    Farmville HQ reports net loss despite revenue hike

    Freshly public online gaming outfit Zynga reported a first quarter net loss of $85.4m to Wall Street yesterday. The company, which has catapulted its sales off the back of Facebook, where it derives around 93 per cent of its revenue from the social network, had earnings of $17m in the same period a year earlier. Revenue …

    Financial News 27 Apr 2012, 14:24

  • Cure IT ills with a holistic approach to management

    Lighten the load

    When systems are implemented and managed in isolation, it can be difficult to get an end-to-end view of how they interact. That in turn makes it difficult to troubleshoot problems when they arise and to understand the impact potential changes are likely to have. We know from research conducted over several years that few …

    Service Assurance 27 Apr 2012, 14:42

  • Elgamal, Marlinspike join dream team tackling SSL screw-ups

    Infosec 2012 Security superheroes turn e-commerce Avengers

    A non-profit organisation has brought together a team of experts to tackle SSL governance and implementation issues and promote best practice. The Trustworthy Internet Movement (TIM) is convening a task force that includes Taher Elgamal, one of the creators of the SSL protocol; Moxie Marlinspike, creator of Convergence; Ivan …

    Security 27 Apr 2012, 15:02

  • Space-cadet Schwartz blows chunks out of Oracle's Java suit

    Analysis Thanks Jonathan. Come back any time

    Google unveiled its secret weapon against Oracle this week: Jonathan Schwartz. The first third of the IP trial, which is expected to last eight weeks, deals with copyright. Patents and trademark claims come next. This week it was Google's turn to defend itself against Oracle's copyright infringement claims, and Schwartz was …

    Management 27 Apr 2012, 15:32

  • Apple fanboi offers to change name to get WWDC ticket

    Will also do your community service - too late for Lohan

    A crazed Apple fanboi has offered to change his name by deed poll to the name of whoever will sell him a ticket to the Apple dev conference in June. In an ad posted on Craigslist, the man (we assume he's a man) lays out his offer: "I will legally change my name to yours for a WWDC ticket – $1,600." For some software devs …

    Developer 27 Apr 2012, 15:49

  • Shuttle Enterprise comes home to New York

    Buzzing the Big Apple

    It's not every day NASA does a flyby for us, but the El Reg space desk pulled a few strings with the Obama Administration to have Space Shuttle Enterprise do her final flight into New York harbor and up the Hudson River and down again on a chilly and cloudy morning right over the head of the New York bureau. Enterprise has …

    Science 27 Apr 2012, 16:20

  • Redmond man unmasked: UK.gov open standards stalled

    Updated Findings scrapped after 'conflict of interest'

    The government has had to delay closure of talks on open standards in public sector IT following what it called a "conflict of interest" involving a Microsoft consultant. The Cabinet Office has extended the consultation period by a month and will also re-run a roundtable that had involved the consultant. The Cabinet says that …

    Government 27 Apr 2012, 16:27

  • Google to FCC: Protecting Street View coder didn't derail probe

    No need to out engineer in Wi-Fi data slurp, says ad giant

    Google has claimed to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that protecting the identity of the engineer responsible for the Street View data slurp had no consequence on the watchdog's investigation. The probe ended with the FCC fining Google $25,000 for impeding its inquiry into the company's fleet of photo-snapping …

    Business 27 Apr 2012, 17:01

  • WD soaked in sales cash bonanza after Thai flood hell

    Number 2 HDD maker banks record net income

    Western Digital, the world's number two hard drive vendor, is bouncing back after Thai floods wiped out disk assembly lines - but not quite enough to grab Seagate's crown. WD has included just three weeks of acquired Hitachi GST's earnings, $614m, in its third quarter fiscal 2012 results, but even so has seen a pronounced …

    The Channel 27 Apr 2012, 17:29

  • iPhone 5 in ICE CREAM SANDWICH photo riddle

    Pic Microsoft browser on Android, according to shock snap

    An eagle-eyed Reg reader has sent this shocking reveal of the iPhone 5 on a billboard in China, but it's all confused. Is this the iPhone 5?! Oh, the humanity! Why is Apple putting Internet Explorer on the next Jesus-mobe? And why is it only 3G? Shouldn't it at least pretend to be 4G for some countries while actually being …

    Bootnotes 27 Apr 2012, 18:07

  • Intuit ups SMB cloud credentials with Demandforce buy

    $425m in cash for cloud marketing machine

    With the US tax season largely out of the way Intuit, makers of Quicken and TurboTax financial software, has paid $425m for SaaS marketing operation Demandforce to make a bigger play for the lucrative SMB cloud sector. Demandforce has around 35,000 customers in the US and Canada and offers a package of marketing and …

    Cloud 27 Apr 2012, 20:19