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25th May 2012 Archive

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  • Sunshine nudges asteroid into odd orbit

    NASA spots drift in 1999 RQ36

    New NASA measurements of the orbit of the half-kilometer asteroid 1999 RQ36 have given space science its most precise measurement of such space rocks' orbit – and revealed a 160km deviation from the orbit predicted by gravity. The drift, which showed up by comparing observations made in 1999, 2005, and September 2011, is due …

    Science 25 May 01:00

  • Google's 7in tablet stalled for last-minute tweaks

    Asus-built device now rumoured for July release

    Google fans eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Chocolate Factory’s much-hyped 7in tablet are going to have to wait a little longer after reports suggested it wouldn’t hit the stores until July. Taiwanese news site Digitimes got the tip from “sources from the upstream supply chain”, who said shipments of the first 600,000 …

    Data Center 25 May 03:43

  • Police cuff hundreds in £7.3 MILLION phone scam

    Two plane-loads of crooks flown to China, amid suspicions of high-level Police corruption

    Police across South East Asia have swooped on an international telephone fraud gang, arresting over 480 people in eight countries after an investigation lasting six months. The alleged gang members, most of whom are Chinese and Taiwanese, are suspected of conning their victims out of 73 million yuan (£7.3m), according to a …

    Policy 25 May 03:48

  • HTC One V Android smartphone

    Review High five?

    In the beginning was the Hero and then came the Legend, and now the Legend has sired the One V. Yes, the V is the runt of the One litter but its forebears had a solid following and, as a one-time Hero owner, I’m hoping the bloodline is in good health. Another one: HTC's One V With the One V, HTC’s design has reached its …

    Phones 25 May 06:00

  • Queensland Police warn of tax refund phishing

    Fake email mimics Australian Taxation Office formats

    Queensland Police are warning residents of the Sunshine State about a new phishing scam that sees emails arrive in Australian Taxation Office (ATO) livery, complete with promise of a refund. Such emails are, we imagine here in El RegM’s antipodean eyrie, probably the only email one really wants to open from the ATO. …

    Security 25 May 06:11

  • Nokia and Symbian still number one in China

    Most users still on legacy platforms and feature phones

    Android may have an insurmountable lead in the Chinese smartphone market, but when it comes to internet-connected mobiles Symbian and Nokia are still number one according to new stats from search giant Baidu. The company’s latest quarterly Mobile Internet Development Trends Report for Q1 2012 measured only internet-connected …

    Networks 25 May 06:16

  • Real Networks will refund $2m to grumpy punters

    Fesses up to 'disappointing' customers with pre-clicked boxes for 'free' trials

    Real Networks has agreed to hand over US$2.0m to satisfy disgruntled customers, who were railroaded into buying content thanks to pre-clicked boxes in web forms or “free” offers that nonetheless requested credit card details and did not make recurring costs plain. Consumers who, upon realising their error, requested refunds, …

    Business 25 May 06:42

  • NHS axes HealthSpace: 'Just too difficult' to use

    Secure personal health record project canned from March 2013

    The Department of Health has confirmed that HealthSpace, NHS patients' personal health records organiser, will close by March 2013. It follows a speech this week by Dr Charles Gutteridge, national clinical director for informatics at the Department of Health, at the Westminister Health Forum in London. Gutteridge said in the …

    Government 25 May 07:02

  • NMap 6.0 arrives

    Fyodor’s finest since 2009

    Popular open source network discovery and security auditing tool Nmap has reached version 6.0. The new code hit the Net last Monday, complete with a message from coder Gordon Lyon, aka Fyodor, that the new version represents “almost three years of work, 3,924 code commits, and more than a dozen point releases since the big …

    Security 25 May 07:15

  • Mega 12ft interactive electro-whiteboard lures GTC12 punters

    HPC blog Uses crunchy Nvidia graphics cards

    While wandering the exhibit floor at GTC12, my attention was captured by what looked like a massive (12ft x 4ft, 3.66m x 1.22m) electronic whiteboard with fast-moving screens portraying information in lots of different forms. Each window was being created, resized, moved, then closed at high speed without lag or distracting …

    HPC 25 May 07:27

  • Huawei mimics Nokia Siemens Networks marketing

    Plagiarism or total coincidence?

    Nokia Siemens Networks has pointed out close similarities between its marketing material and Huawei's. “Rarely does a competitor turn out to be your biggest fan. But that’s the only conclusion that can be drawn from the ringing endorsement of how we market our consulting by Chinese company Huawei,” says a Nokia Siemens …

    Business 25 May 07:37

  • Hefty Euro reseller: 'We laugh in the face of recession. Ha ha'

    Specialist Computer Holdings sees sales and profits rise

    Specialist Computer Holdings (SCH) tweaked the nose of the recession to record double-digit sales and profit rises in fiscal 2012 ended March. According to unaudited numbers seen by El Reg, the Midlands-based parent of reseller SCC and distie group SDG grew turnover 10 per cent to more than £2.75bn and operating profits by 50 …

    The Channel 25 May 07:58

  • Facebookers trigger vote to choke Zuck's data suck

    50,000 punters sound off on privacy policy rewrite

    Facebook may be forced to make changes to its data use policy after campaigners helped drive enough complaints about the company's own proposed amendments to trigger a user vote on the matter. Under Facebook's 'Statement of Rights and Responsibilities' the company is obliged to allow its users to vote on alternatives the …

    Business 25 May 08:35

  • Belkin YourType Folio

    Accessory of the Week Laptop conversion kit

    There’s no shortage of iPad keyboard cases to choose from, but this one from Belkin, designed for the new iPad, has a neat trick up its sleeve: the keyboard is detachable, held in place by Velcro. That might not sound like a big deal, but it allows you to vary both the angle of the iPad’s screen and the distance between …

    Tablets 25 May 09:00

  • Spring tech sales bloom as Brits grab tablets

    E-book readers, media streamers too

    It won't surprise anyone to learn that Brits are buying more tablets than ever before, but they're increasingly keen on e-book readers and set-top media players too. So the latest UK retail over-the-counter sales figures from market watcher GfK, covering April 2012, reveal. Year on year, tablet unit sales were up 214.2 per …

    Tablets 25 May 09:13

  • Silicon Roundabout touts startup jobs for 'ninjas' this weekend

    800 tech roles from 100 companies... and FREE coffee

    Got your own nunchuks? Spent a day learning HTML? Get down to Shoreditch's Silicon Roundabout this weekend and get yourself a job at a startup. A waged job. Silicon MilkRoundabout, the hiring fair for startups, hits London this weekend, and 800 jobs are going at over 100 of the "top tech startups in the UK", according to the …

    Jobs 25 May 09:22

  • Diablo III dev rolls 12d6, scores PC sales record

    Trebles and Skillrunes all round

    Diablo III has become the fastest selling PC game of all time, publisher Blizzard has claimed, after shifting 3.5m copies within 24 hours of release. Despite a few niggling problems with the game - which Blizzard is readying a patch for, it said - Diablo III hit shelves last week and was snapped up by record numbers of PC …

    Games 25 May 09:25

  • Aga cooks up phone-controlled 'iOven'

    Stove jobs

    Aga, oven maker by appointment to the rural chattering classes, has turned up the heat of technology on famously basic ranges to create the iTotal Control Oven, a stove equipped with a cellular modem to allow chefs to command their cooker remotely. The iTotal Control Oven not only connects to the web, but its built-in Sim, …

    Hardware 25 May 09:33

  • Big Blue flaunts scantily clad Xeon E3, E5 racks

    Pics Disrobed servers give Dell an eyeful in 4-socket arena

    Like all the other tier one server makers, IBM is ramping up shipments on the next wave of Xeon chips from Intel inside of its System x, BladeCenter, and Flex System machinery. Big Blue says the new machines will help fill in some gaps in its x86 system lineup, which previously had been exploited by rivals Hewlett-Packard and …

    Data Center 25 May 09:44

  • Crazy Texans dunk servers in DEEP FRYERS

    HPC blog | Vid Will 2012 be the year of immersive mineral oil cooling?

    I first met the Green Revolution guys back at SC09 in Portland, Oregon. As I roamed the exhibit hall, people kept telling me to check out “those guys with the deep fryers full of servers”. At last I found them out in the lobby, which is the kids’ table section of the show. Above is a quick video of their demo that I shot …

    HPC 25 May 10:06

  • And the worst film NEVER made is...

    Poll result Drumroll, please

    Well, ladies and gentlemen, the time has come to announce the winner of our reader poll to select the worst film never made. And the winner is... Yes indeed, the nightmarish prospect of Eddie Murphy as Jar-Jar Binks swung the popular vote, with The Phantom Menace: The Musical securing 380 thumbs-up. For inflicting this …

    Bootnotes 25 May 10:18

  • Instagram-owner Facebook emits in-house camera app

    And yes, it has colour filters

    Facebook has launched a new Instagram-like mobile camera app via Apple's iTunes store. The social network, which inelegantly plonked itself on the Nasdaq a week ago, said in April that it planned to buy photo-sharing startup Instagram in a $1bn cash-and-stock deal. Observers considered the proposed buyout of that app to be a …

    Business 25 May 10:28

  • London picked as test bed for Skynet-like Intel tech

    New UK lab pledged to study citizens in real-time

    London will be a guinea pig for future smart city technology after Intel pledged to spend a slice of £25m ($40m) on a new lab in the capital. The chipmaker will also plough millions into research centres dotted around Blighty. Intel will set up the unwieldily monikered Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected …

    Business 25 May 10:45

  • Max Payne 3

    Review Time to kill

    With a tip of the hat to director John Woo and The Matrix, Remedy Entertainment's Max Payne wowed the gaming world in 2001 with its unique slow-mo shooting action. And since Max Payne 2 appeared in 2003, I've been holding my breath in anticipation of the third in the series. Squintessential character Although with Rockstar …

    Games 25 May 11:00

  • Ex-Lloyds bank digital security chief 'submitted £2.5m in false exes'

    Head of Fraud, indeed

    A former Lloyds Banking Group head of digital banking fraud and security has been charged with defrauding her employer. Prosecutors said that Jessica Harper had submitted false expenses claims that totalled £2.46m. The Crown Prosecution Service's deputy head of the central fraud group, Andrew Penhale, said in a statement: …

    Business 25 May 11:16

  • Vatican in pact with Microsoft to initiate world's youths into Office

    None might buy or sell save with the Number of the Beast ... which is 365

    The Vatican has blessed Microsoft's cloud apps strategy in the shape of deal that could see Office 365 being rolled out to 43 million Catholic students worldwide. The secretive and highly conservative organisation, condemned by some as the Anti-Christ, will initially provide the software suite to 4.5 million students via the …

    The Channel 25 May 11:32

  • EU beaks to rule on Microsoft's $1.1bn fine appeal in June

    Redmond challenged record antitrust punishment

    On 27 June, Microsoft will find out whether its appeal against a record antitrust penalty has been successful in the EU's General Court. In February 2008, the European Commission added another €899m ($1.13bn) to the fine Microsoft was expected to pay for failing to comply with an original antitrust ruling in 2004. The second …

    Financial News 25 May 11:49

  • How to keep your money safe if the euro implodes

    A Channel Reg cut-and-keep guide...

    This is your handy guide to surviving the coming disintegration of the euro. Umm, OK, the coming possible, maybe even likely, disintegration of the euro. The current betting from the major banks is that there's a 50 to 75 per cent chance that Greece will leave before the year end. There's at least one Nobel Laureate who thinks …

    The Channel 25 May 12:01

  • Dixons keeps wolves from the revolving credit facility door

    Can bricks-and-mortar houses resist lupine halitosis forever?

    Dixons Retail has inked a £300m revolving credit facility with its financial backers that should ease the cash flow of Blighty's largest retailer. The deal extends Dixons current facility, which was due to mature next year, until the end of June 2015. Sources say this will provide short term guarantees that should keep the …

    The Channel 25 May 12:21

  • Passwords are for AES-holes

    Something for the Weekend, Sir? Security is an illusion

    When did you reach burnout? For me, it was spring 2009. Looking back, I did well to last as long as I did but the constant pressure of coming up with something new, again and again, became too much. I'm not confessing to an emotional crisis, by the way. I'm talking about my ability to create new system logins that I can …

    Hardware 25 May 12:39

  • 'We're public now, so could you please click on an ad or two'

    Quotw Plus: 'Disaster for Apple!'

    This was the week when Facebook stocks took an early drubbing in the market before recovering somewhat to a more stable, albeit reduced, price. The social network wasn't able to find its feet in time to stop a slew of lawsuits from disgruntled investors who jointly and severally blame Facebook, Zuckerberg, the IPO underwriting …

    Business 25 May 12:42

  • Barclays Online Offline again

    You can take it to the bank. In fact you'll have to

    Barclays Online banking has suffered its second weekday working-hours outage in a matter of days, offering only intermittent service for most of this morning according to Register readers and throwing a complete double-six at lunchtime today. "Live Help" folk on the Barclays site noted that: "We are aware that our online …

    Business 25 May 12:58

  • Fujitsu, TalkTalk bag Post Office contract spurned by BT

    Broadband platform manoeuvres for snail mail outfit

    Fujitsu and its strategic partner TalkTalk have won a contract that could be worth £500m to supply a broadband network to the Post Office. BT had been the Post Office's previous provider, having inked a four-year deal in May 2007 with the national telco's wholesale wing supplying kit and customer support to make the national …

    Business 25 May 13:29

  • Dragon starts final approach to International Space Station

    Rendezvous sensors need last-minute tweak, but SpaceX is a go

    The SpaceX Dragon is still approaching the International Space Station and on course, with a few minor delays. Snapshot of the Dragon on final approach. Credit: NASA TV At the moment, NASA is projecting a grapple time – when the ISS's robotic arm Canadarm will reach out and grab the Dragon – of 10.02am EDT, or 15.02 BST, …

    Science 25 May 13:48

  • Dell's past glories might be working against it

    To be like HP? Or not to be like HP? And what's with the silence on channel?

    Dell's Q1 earnings call this saw the one-time bete noire of traditional IT suppliers undershoot expectations, and admit that it was walking away from business where it couldn't compete and where it was having trouble closing "transactional" business. It also virtually bypassed the question of the channel. The fact that it was …

    The Channel 25 May 13:56

  • Toshiba America says no to new netbooks

    Want a small laptop? Get an Ultrabook

    Another sure sign the netbook's day is done: Toshiba's US wing has confirmed it will no longer offer new versions of the laptop-lite machines. Wondering where the heck the Intel Atom N2600-based Toshiba NB510 had got to, US netbook site Liliputing asked the company when the Cedar Trail machine might be expected to arrive …

    Laptops 25 May 14:16

  • Ten... Star Wars videogame classics

    Round-up 35 years, six movies, 120 games

    Star Wars - there was no 'A New Hope' or 'Episode IV' back then - shot onto cinema screens on 25 May 1977, which means the franchise celebrates its 35th birthday today. A day for celebration, then, that might be enough of an excuse for you to revisit our Star Wars gift guide and snap up some Tatooine tat, much to the dismay of …

    Games 25 May 14:26

  • SpaceX joy as Space Station robo-arm grabs Dragon's tail

    Elon Musk's team makes history, astronaut has cheesy line ready

    Elon Musk's SpaceX has just made history with the first ever commercial cargoship to be captured by the International Space Station's robotic arm. ISS captures the Dragon. Credit: NASA TV Flying above northwestern Australia, flight engineer Don Pettit aboard the ISS reached out with the Canadarm and grabbed the Dragon at 9. …

    Science 25 May 14:39

  • Man's car warns of AIR RAID OVER LONDON

    Pic Reg reader narrowly escapes Kensington-Chiswick warzone

    Reg reader Graham Schofield was this morning offered perhaps the most sensational reason for being late to work we've ever seen: an air raid affecting the A4 in west London. Mercifully for Graham, his Audi's satnav flagged up the conflagration before he got caught in the crossfire resulting from what we assume is a serious …

    Bootnotes 25 May 15:01

  • Absinthe 2 lifts iOS 5.1.1 gadgets over garden wall

    Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak

    iDevice jailbreakers: you can now take almost all of Apple's iOS 5.1.1 gadgets out of the walled garden, thanks to hacking tool Absinthe 2.0, released today. The jailbreak software, which only works with iOS 5.1.1 - past versions of the mobile operating system have working jailbreaks already - and will open any iPhone, the …

    Phones 25 May 15:15

  • Microsoft corrects itself: 'We expect fewer people to use Windows 8'

    El Reg drills into Ballmer's '500 million by 2013' figure

    Microsoft doesn’t really expect that 500 million "users" will have Windows 8 next year, but it’s still juggling the numbers. The company has said reported comments by chief executive Steve Ballmer on Windows 8 uptake in 2013 are a "restatement of data" by a company employee in December 2011, and that these stats relate to …

    Management 25 May 15:28

  • IBM bans Dropbox, Siri and rival cloud tech at work

    BYOD doesn't save cash, leaves Big Blue with security headache

    IBM has banned employees from using Dropbox and Apple's iCloud at work as it claws back permission to use third-party cloud services. The rethink has also resulted in a edict against the iPhone 4S's Siri voice recognition technology at Big Blue. Jeanette Horan, IBM’s chief information officer, told MIT's Technology Review that …

    Cloud 25 May 16:01

  • Tim Cook spurns $75m Apple divvy

    Can't be bothered carrying small change

    At a time when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is coming under flak for his personal gains from Facebook shares, Tim Cook has turned down a $75 million dividend on his Apple shares. It's the first time since Steve Jobs took over in 1997 that Apple are issuing shareholder dividends. And Cook has offered to forgo the dividends due …

    Financial News 25 May 16:24

  • Hackers threaten fresh wave of anti-capitalist web rioting

    Sticking it to The Man, man, but for lulz too

    A new activist group is drumming up recruits for a cyberwar campaign against corporate giants due to launch on Friday, 25 May. TheWikiBoat intends to hit a high profile list of more than 40 multinationals - including BT, Best Buy, Tesco, McDonald's, Wal-Mart and Apple - with denial of service attacks as well as attempts to …

    Management 25 May 17:01

  • Dell may fatten up software offering by swallowing Quest

    VC deal has only just been done

    Dell could be looking to buy Quest Software, according to reports. Bloomberg cites informed sources and says Dell tried to buy Quest when the software company agreed in March this year to go private and be bought by InSight Venture Partners for around $2bn. That transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this …

    Financial News 25 May 18:02

  • Steve Jobs' death clears way for vibrating Apple tool

    Actually he was alive when patent was submitted, but still a surprise

    Steve Jobs famously hated the idea of styluses on tablet computers. But, er, it looks like Apple is thinking about making one given the revelations from the US Patent Office yesterday. The Patent Office has published two pending patent applications from Apple relating to styluses that would work with iPad and iPhone: the first …

    Hardware 25 May 18:31

  • US mayor and son charged with hacking into opposition site

    We'd rather be fending off global cyberwar, sniff Feds

    A small town US mayor and his son have been arrested over allegations they hacked into a website calling for his recall. Dr Felix Roque, 55, the mayor of West New York, New Jersey, and Joseph Roque, 22, of Passaic County, allegedly hacked into recallroque.com and illegally accessed e-mails in February. Joseph Roque is accused …

    Security 25 May 18:32

  • NetApp's Cloud Czar predicts the death of VMAX

    Tier 1 is old-school, says CTO

    Blocks and Files NetApp's CTO of cloud is predicting the death of EMC's VMAX and other tier 1 storage arrays. What will kick them off the data centre stage? Flash arrays and storage-class memory, apparently. Val Bercovici, NetApp's "Big Data and Cloud Czar", sees basically two storage tiers in the now not-so-distant future: …

    Cloud 25 May 19:04

  • MySQL's growing NoSQL problem

    Open ... and Shut Web application payback

    Just a few short years ago, MySQL was the undisputed king of the open-source database hill. But with the NoSQL market emerging at an 82 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), it's looking like MySQL may get bulldozed by its NoSQL peers. While this shift toward NoSQL provides an interesting commentary on where the …

    Management 25 May 21:03

  • South Africa and Australia to share SKA

    Africa to be main site for giant radio telescope

    The square kilometre array (SKA) will be shared between Australia and South Africa. The colossal radio telescope was the subject of bids from both nations, each of which hoped to secure the rights to host hundreds of radio telescopes with a combined surface area of one square kilometre. The SKA Committee decided on Friday, …

    Science 25 May 23:39