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3rd May 2012 Archive

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  • Black hole swallows star in GALACTIC SUPER-GUZZLE!

    Astroid-gazing telescope catches distant star flare-out

    With billions of galaxies to choose from, it shouldn’t be hard to catch, but it is. Astronomers are celebrating after capturing the whole sequence of a star falling into a supermassive black hole. The event happens roughly once every 10,000 years per galaxy*, but you still have to be looking in the right place at the right …

    Science 3 May 2012, 00:04

  • EA unplugs Rock Band for iOS

    The day the music dies is May 31

    The iOS version of Rock Band will go out of tune forever on May 31. Users have spotted the image below when they try to play the game. EA has confirmed the news in its help forums that the servers underpinning the game will go the riff boneyard on May 31. In case the company does a naughty, we took a screen shot of the …

    Games 3 May 2012, 00:19

  • Software functionality not subject to copyright: EU court

    WPL-vs-SAS case gets Court of Justice opinion

    In a far-reaching decision for the software industry, the European Court of Justice has decided that the functionality of software – as distinct from the actual code – is not covered by copyright. The decision concludes a long-running court case first brought by SAS against World Programming Limited (WPL). WPL had gotten …

    Policy 3 May 2012, 01:08

  • Pilots asking not to fly F-22 after oxygen problems

    Take my breath away

    Some of the US Air Force's top pilots are asking not to fly the highest-tech aircraft in the fleet over fears about the safety of the oxygen system built into the F-22 Raptor. "It's shocking to me as a fighter pilot and former commander of Air Combat Command that a pilot would decline to get into that airplane," retired four- …

    Policy 3 May 2012, 01:24

  • Facebook's new Open Compute V2 servers

    AMD and Intel do boards for high freaky trading

    Now that Intel and AMD have finally launched their respective Xeon E5-5600 and Opteron 6200 processors for two-socket servers, the Open Compute Project, a foundation created by Facebook to open source its data center technologies, can finally divulge the feeds and speeds of the Open Compute V2 machines. That's precisely what …

    Cloud 3 May 2012, 02:02

  • Why embossed credit cards are here to stay

    Mobile blackspots, global compatibility, keep bumpy numbers alive

    Embossed numbers on credit cards are here to stay, and probably for a very long time, say the big three credit card issuers. The raised numbering on credit cards may seem anachronistic given that EMV chips are increasingly being adopted around the world, while magnetic strip cards have been with us for decades. The long …

    Business 3 May 2012, 04:51

  • Google unleashes BigQuery analytics tool

    Big Data reaches the cloud

    Do you have a few hundred million rows of data that need sorting? If so, Google wants you to send them in the direction of its new BigQuery cloud analytics service, which has left beta status behind it and is now ready to crunch real, live data in exchange for your hard-won cash. Big G launched the service in November 2011. …

    Cloud 3 May 2012, 05:28

  • European Space Agency heads for Jupiter's moons

    JUICE mission will inspect Europa, Callisto and Ganymede

    The European Space Agency has decided against pursuing the New Gravitational wave Observatory (NGO) the Advanced Telescope for High-Energy Astrophysics (ATHENA) and will instead head for Jupiter with a craft dubbed the Jupiter Icy moons Explorer - or JUICE for short. An artist's impression of the ESA's JUICE probe JUICE …

    Science 3 May 2012, 05:51

  • SnapGuide

    iOS App of the Week RTFM? WTFM!

    There are zillions of ‘how to’ apps that provide expert – or not-so-expert – advice on pretty much any topic you care to name. However, SnapGuide is a free app that puts you in the driving seat and allows you to share your know-how and wisdom with the rest of the world. If there’s something that you’re really good at – whether …

    Phones 3 May 2012, 06:00

  • Wayward footballer turns to iPod cure

    The crowd roars

    Australian Rules footballer Sam Reid of the Sydney Swans may turn to technology in an attempt to repair his wayward kicking. Reid plays as a key forward, a position in which his job* is to launch his 195cm frame over the top of other players, catch the ball and then kick a goal. Reid's problem is that, in 2012, he's been …

    Bootnotes 3 May 2012, 06:30

  • RIM wakes up woozy in Australia

    Apple store stunt snares blogger, criticism

    Research In Motion's attempts to remind Australians that its phones can be quite useful for business have rebounded on the embattled company. The first salvos in the campaign were fired last week, when journalists (not El Reg, as it happens) were sent black pieces of paper bearing the words “Wake Up”, but without any hint as …

    Business 3 May 2012, 06:44

  • Office 365 in the real world

    Live today The Devil, and much of the goodness, is in the detail

    Today at 11am BST The Register’s Lucy Sheriff will be joined by Julian Elve, of The Schools Network, to talk about his recent Office 365 migration. Julian is responsible for an environment that you might classify as ‘normal’ enough for generic SaaS services and distributed enough to see serious benefits from cloud based …

    Small Biz 3 May 2012, 07:00

  • HP: Our 3PAR kit can cram twice as many VMs into your server

    Offers 'virtual guarantee' to back punchy boast

    HP is so confident its 3PAR storage arrays will double a server's virtual machine count that it's guaranteeing it - and will pay for any extra 3PAR storage needed beyond what it replaces to get to the 2x VM count number. The HP Get Virtual Guarantee Program states uncompromisingly: Clients deploying HP 3PAR systems with …

    Storage 3 May 2012, 07:20

  • BSkyB boss: 'I don't work for Rupert Murdoch, remember'

    He's just some guy

    The boss of BSkyB isn't Rupert Murdoch despite what many might think. Today the UK broadcaster and telco reminded the world of that fact as it attempted to distance itself from the 81-year-old media mogul, who has been labelled by MPs as being "not fit" to run a multinational outfit. BSkyB - much as in the case of Virgin Media …

    Broadband 3 May 2012, 07:38

  • Britain prepares for government by iPad

    Fondleslab rule as MPs offered free fruitware

    MPs may have had their heavy parliamentary drinking habits curtailed, but the 650 politicos occupying the Palace of Westminster might be cheered by the fact that they will soon be issued with their very own fondleslab. Taxpayers, however, might be less impressed given that the upgrade from laptops to Apple iPads will cost …

    Government 3 May 2012, 08:02

  • Pentos Systems goes titsup

    UPDATED HP and Microsoft minnow calls in the administrators

    Hampshire-based reseller Pentos Systems has given up the ghost and called in the administrators after nearly 20 years in business. The HP Gold partner, which held a specialisation in workstations, is now in the hands of corporate recovery and insolvency practitioner Irwin Insolvency. Gerald Irwin is the administrator and John …

    The Channel 3 May 2012, 08:11

  • Telly is becoming moving wallpaper for constantly online Brits

    Plus: UK is nation of liars - only 14% admit viewing porn

    Wiggin's gigantic annual media survey is out and, as ever, the results are full of intriguing figures covering everything from fondleslabs to filth. This year's responses to the Digital Entertainment Survey [PDF] will leave TV executives, streaming services and pirates feeling anxious - while book publishers and social …

    Media 3 May 2012, 08:20

  • NHS trust goes 100% over IT budget in patient records rollout cockup

    A £1m here, a £1m there ... it adds up after a while

    North Bristol NHS trust has confirmed it has overspent on its IT budget by almost 100 per cent in recent months as a consequence of the rollout of its Cerner electronic patient record (EPR) system. The trust has spent £4.5m implementing the Cerner system to date, the majority of which was spent during this January and February …

    Government 3 May 2012, 08:38

  • Hampshire council throws BYOD party, hires extra security

    Just in case a mobe gets lost - with your info on it

    Hampshire county council is to begin rolling out a bring your own device (BYOD) scheme later this year. The council has already begun trialling a programme of allowing staff to use personal devices for business tasks with a view to a wider implementation across the organisation in the autumn. The trial is investigating what …

    Security 3 May 2012, 09:11

  • Praise for slick six's entries in dirty snaps compo

    Old computer buffs get the glory

    On 14 April we had old computer buffs salivating over our dirty snaps puzzle, and now we can celebrate the top six Reg readers who sent in their answers to the puzzle. Picture 1 is of a logic element from a first-generation IBM mainframe, the 700 series which used vacuum tubes. The later 7000 series used transistors. Picture …

    Hardware 3 May 2012, 09:34

  • Beyond the macro jockies: Salesforce lures devs with Java juggle

    Serious enough in an Amazon world?

    Salesforce is growing: just not enough or in the right direction, it seems. The company that started life serving up customer relationship management (CRM) as a service to the suits is now reaching out to real coders. The company, which claims more than 50,000 customers, saw subscriptions to its hosted apps increase by nearly …

    Management 3 May 2012, 10:02

  • Everything Everywhere flexes 4G muscles at Ofcom, rivals

    Telco gives high-speed mobe bandwagon a shove

    Everything Everywhere switched on another 4G trial network yesterday, proving that it has the radio spectrum and the political support to deploy the high-speed mobile broadband standard in Blighty - if only the pesky regulator would let it. The Cumbrian network was switched on by Education Secretary Michael Gove with local MP …

    Mobile 3 May 2012, 10:22

  • Scotland Yard officers cuff ex-cop in latest police bung probe

    27th arrest in Op Elveden inquiry – courtesy of tip-off from News Corp

    A retired special ops detective has been arrested by officers investigating allegations of illegal payments to police in relation to an ongoing inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal that has swamped Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper business. The Met confirmed this morning that they had cuffed a 57-year-old man at his home …

    Law 3 May 2012, 10:32

  • Nokia: 'hybrid' mobiles will save us

    Finnish first

    Nokia is working on "hybrid" mobile devices and harbours the hope that future tablets, fresh form-factors and cross-breed tech will turn around the Finnish phone giant's handset business. This combination of new products and services will "make a difference", claimed chairman Jorma Ollila, who revealed Nokia's plans in a …

    Phones 3 May 2012, 10:38

  • Oracle: HP settlement is 'not going to happen'

    Lawsuit over Itanium processor to hit trial on 29 May

    An Oracle attorney has said that the company won't be settling with HP in the lawsuit over the Itanium processor, after the judge denied both their motions to summarily hand over the win to them. At a hearing in California yesterday, Dan Wall said a settlement "isn't going to happen", Reuters reported. "In this one, it is not …

    Law 3 May 2012, 10:42

  • ARM creators Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber

    Unsung Heroes of Tech Part Two: the accidental chip

    The Story so Far At Acorn, Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber have designed the BBC Micro, basing the machine on the ageing MOS 6502 processor. Their next challenge: to choose the CPU for the popular micro's successor. Now read on... While Sinclair attempted to move upmarket with the launch of the QL in early 1984, Acorn was …

    Hardware 3 May 2012, 11:00

  • TVonics, RNIB launch speech-synthesising DVR

    'You have been watching...'

    Set-top box maker TVonics has equipped its 500GB DTR-HD500 Freeview HD recorder with text-to-speech tech, the better to help blind and partially sighted folk enjoy what's been on the box. Created in co-operation with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), the DVR reads out the Freeview electronic programme guide …

    Hardware 3 May 2012, 11:01

  • GCHQ's spy death riddle shines light on UK hacker war

    Was Gareth Williams spotted at Blackhat or Defcon?

    British intelligence agent Dr Gareth Williams’ last mission before he was “unlawfully killed” was to infiltrate and report on US hacker meetings, evidence given at his inquest this week has indicated. Williams appears to have been one of a team of intelligence officers and agents sent to penetrate hacking networks in the US …

    Security 3 May 2012, 11:14

  • O2 drops Joggler family tablet

    No more support for Linux gadget

    O2 is severing support for its 7in Linux-based tablet, the Joggler, at the end of the month. The touchscreen gadget, launched in 2009 and pitched as punters' "new fridge door", was aimed at folk looking for technological help in keeping their family life organised. This week, O2 began pushing a firmware update to the device …

    Mobile 3 May 2012, 11:29

  • Symantec: Big as ever... just not growing

    Tripled profits but flat revs in Q4 disappoint shareholders

    Symantec earned a staggering amount of money in its latest quarter but is stuck fast at a $1.6 to $1.7bn quarterly revenue level, seemingly unable to grow. It made $6,73bn in its fiscal 2012 year (fy212), a huge sum, and up 9 per cent on the prior year's $6.19bn. The final fy2012 quarter saw revenues of $1.68bn, which was down …

    Financial News 3 May 2012, 11:31

  • Insight biz tremor topples EMEA operating profits

    But global sales machines keep on pumping cash

    Insight Enterprises saw EMEA operating profits decline by nearly a third in Q1 largely due to restructuring charges. This was a blemish on a decent set of numbers for the global reseller, given the biting economic climate: sales rose two per cent year-on-year to $1.24bn, operating profits climbed 12 per cent to $25.6m and net …

    The Channel 3 May 2012, 11:39

  • London Olympics 'not immune' to cyber attack

    Blighty puts together crack team to guard against intrusion

    Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has warned that the London Olympics will not be immune to cyber attack. The man who urged all Blighty to start stocking up on petrol by pouring it into jerry cans said that a crack team has been set up dedicated to guarding the Games against attack. "The Beijing Olympics saw 12 million …

    Security 3 May 2012, 11:46

  • Microsoft mulls phone-style contracts for Xbox

    Subsidised console coming?

    Microsoft has plans for a subscription package that'll offer customers an Xbox 360 console and Kinect add-on, as well as access to the Xbox Live Gold service and media content, for a monthly fee. The two-year Xbox subscription could be launched in the US as early as next week, the Verge reports. Microsoft will punt a 4GB Xbox …

    Games 3 May 2012, 11:51

  • Star Trek's Wesley Crusher blasts Google+ landgrab

    Wil Wheaton asks blogosphere to Stand By Him on Choc Factory outrage

    A former Star Trek: The Next Generation actor, who is plastered all over the internet, has blasted Google for trying to force people into signing up to its social network. Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher, son of chief medical officer Dr Beverly Crusher in the popular TV series, attacked Google after he discovered that …

    Media 3 May 2012, 12:01

  • Virgin Media cuts Pirate Bay access for millions of punters

    First major telco to implement court order

    Virgin Media has become the first major telco in Blighty to implement a court order blocking access to notorious BitTorrent search website The Pirate Bay. The move follows a demand in London's High Court late last Friday from Mr Justice Arnold, who told Virgin Media, TalkTalk, BSkyB, Telefonica and Everything Everywhere to …

    Hosting 3 May 2012, 12:19

  • UK's new drivers now in safe hands... of laser-wielding robots

    Credit-card chip biz promises 80m non-forgeable licences

    Secure token biz Gemalto has landed the contract to print the next 80 million identity documents for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), including next-gen driving licences to be deployed next year. The new licences will feature laser-etched edges, making them even harder to copy, but they'll also be compliant with …

    Science 3 May 2012, 12:38

  • Crazy old black hole's X-ray ultra-belch makes galaxy blush

    Space telescope sniffs outburst more powerful than MILLION Suns

    A powerful blast of X-rays - equivalent to the energy emitted by a MILLION Suns - has been fired out of a black hole in the spiral galaxy M83, lighting up the space around it. Credit: Left: ESO/VLT and NASA/CXC/Curtin University/R. Sorla. Right: NASA/STScl/Middlebury College/F. Winkler et al. Over several years, NASA's …

    Science 3 May 2012, 13:02

  • Botnet army flicks 'off' switch at UK crime agency website

    Suspiciously close to Soca's shutdown of stolen-data shops

    The UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency's website has been taken offline following a DDoS attack that started last night and is still going on. SOCA decided to take the site down itself around 10pm last night to stop the distributed denial of service attack from bothering other connected websites. "We took the site off …

    Security 3 May 2012, 13:26

  • Man sues pr0n starlet after Twitter rejection

    Follow me or face the judge

    When you follow someone on Twitter, only for them to not return the favour, are you left with a feeling of rejection? Does it rile you up into a vengeful fit of rage? Either way, one thing you should never do is take that person to court. You will look like an idiot and it might be exposed by bloodthirsty news publications …

    Phones 3 May 2012, 13:54

  • Glider pilot 'swallowed camera memory' say plunge tragedy cops

    Attempt to purge the record will backfire, say plods

    A hang-gliding pilot who allegedly ate a memory card from a video camera has been charged with obstructing the course of justice by a Canadian court and has been held in custody until it re-emerges. William Jonathan Orders is accused of swallowing the card from a video camera mounted on his glider in an attempt to derail an …

    Law 3 May 2012, 14:02

  • Microsoft kills Windows Live brand

    Windows 8 incriminated

    Microsoft is killing its Windows Live brand ahead of launching Windows 8, citing "customer confusion". In a mercifully short Windows 8 blog Microsoft said it’s ripping the meaningless umbrella from a bunch of online services. Windows Live covers Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger and is the prefix to its Web 2.0 me-too …

    Management 3 May 2012, 14:28

  • EA asks for customer opinion on Origin

    Let off some Steam

    EA wants to know why some gamers have voiced disapproval at its Origin service, creating a blog to encourage discussion on the matter. The blog, Continuing the Origin Conversation, invites users to comment on their best and worst features of the software, as well as anything they'd like to see implemented in future. As is …

    Games 3 May 2012, 14:53

  • Acer vows to lose its rep as cheap consumer tat-pusher

    Bins reseller programme, rolls out new shiny B2B scheme

    Acer UK has flushed away its previous channel programme after polishing off a shiny new scheme to underpin its pursuit of biz customers. The once high-flying consumer brand, best known for punting low-cost notebooks in huge volumes, is trying to spread its tendrils in the commercial markets and needs tools to more effectively …

    The Channel 3 May 2012, 14:57

  • Google counters juice V8 Javascript engine

    Beta channels primed

    Google’s V8 engine is getting more picky about the Javascript code it optimises to boost the performance of the search giant’s browser. The current developer and beta channel releases of Chrome now come with a version of V8 that uses a new counters-based algorithm to decide which functions to optimise, Google has revealed. …

    Developer 3 May 2012, 14:59

  • Globe-spanning patent bombs touted by Euro, UN pen-pushers

    EPO, WIPO agree to revamp worldwide rights treaty

    The European and UN patent-handling bodies have agreed to join forces to encourage companies and inventors to file their designs under an improved worldwide Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The treaty allows intellectual property registered in one nation to be acknowledged in other countries that have signed up to the pact, so …

    Law 3 May 2012, 15:33

  • iPad swipes more of tablet market

    Apple defies gravity as Kindle burns low

    Apple extended its lead in the tablet market during the first three months of the year, as much because of a slump in sales of rival product as the arrival of the iPad 3. So said market watcher IDC today, pointing the finger at Amazon, which, it claimed, shipped just 750,000 Kindle Fire tablets in Q1, down from 4.8m in the …

    Tablets 3 May 2012, 15:46

  • Suppressed data on mutant H5N1 human-killer virus PUBLISHED

    Information wants to be free

    Strains of bird flu that could spread among humans have been created in the lab - and now full details on just how this was done have been published openly, raising fears that the research could be used by terrorists to craft a deadly bio-weapon plague. Bird flu, or H5N1, has killed more than half of the 600 people it is known …

    Security 3 May 2012, 16:01

  • Apple to dominate tablet biz, PC market for years

    Fondleslabs more popular than notebooks by 2016

    Apple took a greater share of the tablet market during Q1 and, in a remarkable turnaround, will continue to do so through 2013, market watcher NPD DisplaySearch believes. The exceptionally bullish DisplaySearch even reckons more tablets will ship in 2016 than notebooks. Thus far the consensus has been that Apple's market …

    Tablets 3 May 2012, 16:15

  • Data warehouse sales soar in Q1 for Teradata

    Marketeers of the world, crunch!

    If you were wondering if all this yammering about big data is real, data warehousing pioneer Teradata has just turned in the best first quarter in its history and the best quarter for product growth that the company has ever had. So at least as far as Teradata is concerned, big data is big business. With the Petadata not …

    Financial News 3 May 2012, 16:28

  • Bought a new Mac Pro? 1-in-100 chance it'll destroy your data

    Dodgy drives spark Apple UK recall

    Apple is recalling a batch of Mac Pro towers in the UK after a "small number" sold last month turned out to have defective hard disks, Channel Reg has learned. The dodgy drives put fanboys' data at risk, Apple said in its recall notice. One UK biz boss told us that he was chasing down a small number of the several hundred Mac …

    The Channel 3 May 2012, 16:59

  • 'Giant vampire squid' seeks social media guru

    Money talks, Goldman Sachs tweets

    Goldman Sachs, the bank described as a "giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity", is looking for a social media community manager. The role of the job, as the title suggests, will be to "foster a positive community". A third of the time will be spent devleoping community strategy, and 60 per cent will involve " …

    Jobs 3 May 2012, 17:33

  • Samsung shows 'designed for humans' handset

    Galaxy S III offers 'whole new experience like never before'

    Samsung has unwrapped the Galaxy S III, a handset it boasted is "best smartphone in the world" thanks to its "nature-inspired" design, voice recognition and eye-tracking. The handset is based around a 4.8in, 1280 x 720 OLED display and Samsung's quad-core Exynos processor. It'll provide LTE and 3G HSPA+ connectivity. It will …

    Phones 3 May 2012, 19:07

  • Oracle claims $777m in new trial over SAP infringement

    TomorrowNow business balls-up haunts SAP

    Oracle is going back to court with a claim of $776.7m against SAP over the software-stealing antics of subsidiary TomorrowNow. Larry Ellison's crew got an award of $1.3bn in 2010 after TomorrowNow admitted filching Oracle's intellectual property and taking it to SAP when the German software house bought the company out. Co-CEO …

    Business 3 May 2012, 19:41

  • ElasticHosts makes cloudy servers newbie friendly

    Partners with Cloudways, Hybrid Sites

    ElasticHosts, the British hosting and cloudy infrastructure provider that is pitting its homegrown ElasticStack cloud fabric against the likes of VMware and the OpenStack and CloudStack projects, has tweaked its cloud offerings to make them suitable to relatively unsophisticated users. Founders Richard Davies, the company's …

    Cloud 3 May 2012, 19:42

  • Baidu sets up shop in Australia

    China's Google-slayer wants your searches

    China’s Google killer Baidu has set up shop in Australia as it moves on an aggressive international expansion drive. Baidu, a JV with China Search International, is China's biggest search engine with over 429 million users and is actively ramping up its global ambitions. The Sydney based office is being run by former Telstra …

    Business 3 May 2012, 21:48

  • Facebook lowballs on initial IPO price

    Let a thousand bubbles bloom

    Facebook has filed its initial documents for the most anticipated social networking IPO of the current bubble, surprising some with a lowish estimate of $77bn to $96bn for the company. Shares in the company will be traded under the moniker of FB and are expected to go for between $28 and $35 a share, with an initial stake of …

    Business 3 May 2012, 22:32

  • MSFT kicks Chinese partner over security leak

    Hangzhou DPTech stripped of partner status

    Six weeks after Microsoft was accused of leaking attack code for a security flaw, Redmond has pointed the finger at a Chinese firewall company and revoked its partner status. Via its Computer Security Response blog, Microsoft’s Director of Trustworthy Computing, Yunsun Wee, has tersely announced the decision, writing “we …

    Security 3 May 2012, 22:38

  • Princeton solar researchers take leaf from plants’ book

    Rough surfaces better at capturing sunlight

    Solar power researchers at Princeton University have discovered that by mimicking the surface of leaves, they can create solar cells that are better at capturing sunlight for a 47 percent efficiency boost. In the kind of discovery that’s obvious after the fact, the researchers have “roughed up” the surface of their cells, in …

    Science 3 May 2012, 22:41

  • iOS Rock Band gets back together

    Blue note as error spread confusion, anger

    EA's iOS version of Rock Band isn't breaking up, after all. Yesterday we reported that players of the app were seeing a message advising them of the game's demise. EA has since stated that's not the case and has sent us a statement to this effect: "Rock Band for iOS will remain live - the in-app message users received …

    Games 3 May 2012, 23:27