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21st June 2012 Archive

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  • The Hague says Apple infringed Samsung patent

    Incremental win in excremental battle

    The worldwide lawyers’ progressive dinner that is Apple-versus-Samsung has stopped over for a quick dessert in The Netherlands, where a court has decided that Samsung has been wronged and should receive damages. It’s only a partial win, however: the case brought in The Hague covered four 3G patents, but the court has only …

    Law 21 Jun 00:06

  • European Parliament prepares for crucial ACTA vote

    2.8 million people say no to treaty

    On Thursday the European Parliament's International Trade Committee will vote on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and give its recommendations on whether or not to recommend the controversial treaty. Some votes are already pretty clear: Scottish MEP David Martin's opposition, for example is plain. He is serving …

    Law 21 Jun 02:07

  • Gigapixel camera heralds new world of snoopery

    You want detail? We got detail

    If you listen very carefully, you can hear the owners of high-end digital SLRs yelling “I want it!” at their computer screens: Duke University researchers have stitched together 98 “microcameras” into a 50-gigapixel monster called AWARE 2. As the researchers note in their paper in Nature (abstract here), “Ubiquitous gigapixel …

    Hardware 21 Jun 02:32

  • TPG hit with AUD$2m fine

    ACCC takes action on tricky telco ads

    The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has again taken a local telco to task for dodgy advertising practices. This time the offender is TPG Internet, which has has been ordered by the Federal Court to hand over AUD$2 million in civil pecuniary penalties for false and misleading national advertising campaign. The …

    Law 21 Jun 02:43

  • Chinese search newbie Jike takes on Baidu and Google

    It's government-owned but promises 'natural' search

    Chinese government-owned search engine Jike took another step towards competing with the big boys, Baidu and Google, a year after its launch by announcing advertising on the site. Jike was set up by state mouthpiece the People’s Daily and launched to great fanfare by former ping pong superstar Deng Yaping in June 2011. Up …

    Networks 21 Jun 04:02

  • Nigerian scams are hyper-efficient idiot finders

    The bigger the lie, the bigger the pile of cash scammers scoop, says MSFT boffin

    A Microsoft researcher, Cormac Herley, has penned a paper titled “Why do Nigerian Scammers Say They are from Nigeria?” (PDF), and concludes the whoppers the scam includes are actually a very efficient way of finding likely targets. Herley's analysis suggests the scam works because it quickly passes BS-detection thresholds in …

    Security 21 Jun 04:39

  • Philips 46PFL9706T 46in 3D smart TV

    Review Inspired by the eyes of a moth

    Philips TVs have long been synonymous with technical ingenuity. From an evangelical support of HD Mac and PAL Plus, through to the launch of 21:9, the brand has never shied away from pushing the televisual envelope. At least in the short term, that tradition looks set to continue under the stewardship of its new owner, TP Vision …

    reghardware 21 Jun 06:00

  • Whamcloud flogs wild Lustre pig into obedience with data whip

    ISC 2012 It's the only language these open brutes understand

    Whamcloud is adding enterprise-type data management features to the open-source Lustre parallel file system. Whamcloud is a Lustre development company counting some Lustre inventors in its ranks. Lustre is a parallel file system enabling hundreds and thousands of supercomputer compute nodes to access file data at the same time …

    Storage 21 Jun 07:02

  • Apple desperate to prevent nightmare scenario of iPad in Iranian hands

    Vid Power of 'slab too awesome to risk in sale to US citizen

    An Apple Store in the US state of Georgia refused to sell an iPad to an American teenager because she spoke the Iranian language Farsi in the store. A student in the nearby city of Atlanta was also banned from buying an iPhone for the same reason, according to a report by local TV channel WSBTV. "I just can't sell this to you …

    Bootnotes 21 Jun 07:18

  • Pricey China could put off ex-pat IT pros

    Rocketing living costs may be good news for Hong Kong

    Ex pat IT professionals could soon find more job opportunities appearing in Hong Kong than on the mainland after new research revealed rocketing living costs in some Chinese cities, forcing employers to reconsider where they locate candidates. The rankings for HR support firm ECA International’s Cost of Living Survey are based …

    Jobs 21 Jun 07:31

  • LinkedIn faces class action suit over password leak

    People can take data from us, but not money

    LinkedIn is facing a class action suit over the security breach that saw millions of users' passwords posted online. Illinois resident Katie Szpyrka leads the complaint, which alleges that LinkedIn failed to "properly safeguard its users' personally identifiable information". The complaint filed in California accuses the …

    Law 21 Jun 07:41

  • Windows 8 'harder for malware to exploit', says security analysis

    Getting penetrated doesn't mean they own you

    Microsoft’s upcoming operating system is a step forward in security, at least according to a security researcher who is among the first to take a detailed look at early releases of Windows 8. Chris Valasek, a senior security research scientist at development testing firm Coverity, began examining the security features of …

    Windows 8 21 Jun 08:00

  • Samsung offers cool green RAM for the same cold hard greenbacks

    ISC12 Confidentially admits being 'generations ahead' of rivals

    Samsung is promoting its green memory here at ISC 2012 in Hamburg, Germany, saying its 20nm-class DRAM uses less electricity than 50nm-class RAM and runs cooler too. Oh, and it costs the same. To set the scene, consider an HPC set-up with 400 compute nodes, each with 96GB of 50nm-class RAM. Going by a Samsung figures that …

    Hardware 21 Jun 08:14

  • Row on between publishers, researchers over data mining techniques

    IPO attempts to data mine consultation responses

    Plans to enable researchers to use computerised techniques to read information contained in journal articles without infringing publishers' rights have drawn "strongly divided" views from the industry, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has said. The IPO has published (40-page/450KB PDF) a summary of responses it received …

    Law 21 Jun 08:28

  • New body to supervise as your NHS file includes more and more stuff

    64b/1: Circumstances of asphyxiation. Auto-erotic (Y/N)

    The Department of Health is setting up a new organisation to oversee the scope of the clinical content in the NHS Summary Care Record (SCR). An SCR is an electronic patient record that sums up all of the data collected in the course of all an individual's treatments by the NHS. The new body will be known as the Summary Care …

    Government 21 Jun 08:44

  • Panasas on server flash cache: 'What problem are you solving?'

    ISC12 We don't need the speed, we don't heed the feed

    Storage array feeding of server flash caches is not needed for high-performance computing because network latency is negligible - according to parallel storage biz Panasas. Geoffrey Noer, Panasas's senior product marketing director, tells the Reg: "We are not under pressure from our customers to deliver more performance. In …

    Storage 21 Jun 09:03

  • Microsoft set to 'do a Nexus' with its Surface tablet

    Acer boss Shih argues it will be a one-off play

    Microsoft’s much-hyped tablet PC launch is a one-off designed to boost Windows 8 adoption and encourage other manufacturers to produce their own tablets based on the OS, Acer’s outspoken founder Stan Shih has argued. Production of the 10.6in device was shrouded in such secrecy that its launch earlier this week took many …

    Data Center 21 Jun 09:14

  • Sony taps bug peepers to kill gloss-screen glare

    Fly's Eyes Wagner inspired?

    Love the colour reproduction of glossy screens but hate their reflectivity? Sony may have the solution: a film capable of ensuring the former yet massively reducing the latter. Presented at this month's SID conference - an international gathering of screen specialists - the Sony tech, developed by its chemicals division, takes …

    reghardware 21 Jun 09:23

  • Brutal web vice of the People's Republic crushes innovation, growth

    Analysis Our man in China eyes up prospects for digital

    Recent high profile scandals in China, the fall of Poliburo member Bo Xilai and the US Embassy dash of human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, have highlighted the limits and the grim extent of country’s world-leading online censorship regime. However, web firms within the People’s Republic and online businesses looking to …

    Business 21 Jun 09:30

  • Dixons Retail: A mirror held up to Europe

    Southern pain, northern gain, Pixmania ruining it for everyone

    Dixons Retail's top and bottom lines slipped in fiscal 2012 ended 28 April, according to preliminary results. Group pre-tax profits fell to £70.8m, down from £85.3m in the previous financial year and sales dipped three per cent to £8.05bn, compared to £8.3bn in fiscal 2011. The total loss before tax narrowed to £118.8m from £ …

    The Channel 21 Jun 09:44

  • Samsung to probe Galaxy S III blaze claim

    Hot product got too hot?

    Samsung has confirmed it will investigate claims that its Galaxy S III Android smartphone may be susceptible to overheating, causing damage to the case and the devices within. The Korean giant said it was alerted to the potential problem by online reports and pictures of a heat-damaged S III. It is attempting to get hold of …

    reghardware 21 Jun 09:50

  • Larry Ellison buys island 1000x bigger than Branson's

    No details yet on volcano, submarine dock etc

    Billionaire CEO Larry Ellison has fulfilled the dream of mega-rich folks everywhere: he has just bought his very own island. If you like piña colada... Credit: Hawaii Tourism Authority/Pierce M Myers Photography The Oracle chief has snapped up the sixth-largest island in Hawaii, Lanai, in a deal with Castle & Cooke, a …

    Bootnotes 21 Jun 10:13

  • Supercomputer flash kings: TLC needs, er, TLC

    ISC12 Three-layer cell NAND, the iron bicycle of memory

    Here at Hamburg's supercomputer fest, three merchants of flash were plying their wares. What did they think about the chances of 3-layer cell (TLC) NAND, the stuff that's cheaper than MLC but slower and with a drastically shorter working life? Cue shaking of heads and whole stack engagement. The problem is well-known. MLC …

    Storage 21 Jun 10:27

  • Realising the benefits of cloud for mobile workers

    Vid Like it or not, it's here

    Even today, many enterprise users are unsure about cloud computing. They don't understand what it means, and they think that it's mere hype. And yet mobile devices primed for the cloud are making their way into the enterprise, whether IT departments like it or not. Understanding how the cloud works, and what it can offer mobile …

    Small Biz 21 Jun 10:32

  • Brits spent £334 each year on games

    Moving to mobile

    The average British gamer spent £334 on their hobby last year, it has been calculated. An email survey conducted over a three-day period by games retail site ShopTo asked over 9000 people about their gaming habits. The response was that, on average, each punter picked up 16 titles during 2011, with the majority of respondents …

    reghardware 21 Jun 10:39

  • Choose Smarter: Ten… Class 10 SDHC Cards

    Product Round-up Sharp cards

    Until the day when broadband is truly fast and all devices have wireless internet access as well as sync'n'store services such as Dropbox or Google Drive, memory cards will remain the most convenient general-purpose, pocketable storage medium. They help everyone to move documents, photos, music and videos around safely and …

    reghardware 21 Jun 10:42

  • Crime Map

    iOS App of the Week Watching the defectives

    It’s often been said that there’s big difference between the public’s perception of crime – getting worse all the time, the country’s going to the dogs, blah-Daily-Mail-blah – and the actual crime figures that have shown a decrease in recent years. Of course, there’s plenty of statistical information about UK crime rates …

    reghardware 21 Jun 11:00

  • Amount of meat we eat will barely affect future climate change

    Look at the numbers, forget the spin

    For the last few days, the mainstream British media have been assuring us that rich westerners must seriously cut down the amount of meat we eat - and the rest of the world must keep to its current meat-light diet - in order to stave off planetary apocalypse. But what are the facts? The reports are all based on this paper in …

    Science 21 Jun 11:11

  • Oracle accepts a nice round number in damages from Google

    Let's get this over with so we can appeal already

    Oracle has agreed to accept damages of $0 from Google in the Java case for the small bit of copyright infringement of which the judge found it guilty. Judge William Alsup cleared the Chocolate Factory of most of Oracle's infringement claims last month and ruled that Google had copied only a few small bits of Java code. Oracle …

    Software 21 Jun 11:19

  • Former Acer CEO Lanci trousered £27m after PC-mountain cockup

    We just wanted issue settled quickly, says Wang

    Acer's former CEO pocketed a tidy pay-off worth NT$1.28bn (£27.2m) after exiting the Taiwanese PC giant last year, the vendor has revealed. Lanci left the firm in March 2011 following a boardroom bust-up over the future direction of the company and carried the can over a calamitous inventory cock-up that forced Acer to write …

    The Channel 21 Jun 11:31

  • Amazon Android App Store to invade Europe

    Temptations for developers

    Amazon will bring its Android App Store to Europe, tempting more developers to jump on board with a new revenue split, an easier submission process and a pledge to waive annual fees. The Amazon Android App Store will expand its reach to the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, with more countries planned following an initial …

    reghardware 21 Jun 11:37

  • Pirate Bay founders appeal to EC to save them from Swedish justice

    It is famously a very oppressive place

    Two founders of notorious BitTorrent search website, The Pirate Bay, are bidding to get an earlier Swedish court verdict overturned at the European Court of Human Rights. Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Carl Lundström and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg were handed prison sentences and hefty fines in 2009 for their involvement in running …

    Media 21 Jun 11:51

  • Turing Machine brought to life with Lego

    Researchers put their Mindstorms to it

    Check out this badass Turing Machine made from a single Lego Mindstorms Nxt kit, an impressive reincarnation of the classic concept conceived by maths boffin Alan Turing in 1936. While Turing's idea had an infinite tape, the researchers that built this particular machine were limited to just 32. Put together by Jereon van …

    reghardware 21 Jun 11:54

  • Campaign to reduce RIM jobs gets underway

    Push email folk to get the push from next week

    The axe has started swinging at RIM in the latest round of job cuts, the beleaguered BlackBerry maker has confirmed. The Canadian firm plans to slash at least $1bn from operating expenses by next March, the close of its fiscal 2013, amid industry talk that as many as 6,000 heads could roll. A company mouthpiece told The …

    Financial News 21 Jun 12:55

  • The reseller lining in the SME security cloud

    Mining the threat landscape

    On paper, the cloud is a wonderful thing for small businesses. It gives even the smallest of firms access to enterprise-level software, reduces capital expenditure, and is increasingly seen as being a good move for security, too. This is a turnaround in recent months, says Ben Gower, MD at Perspicuity, a UK SaaS (software-as-a …

    The Channel 21 Jun 13:23

  • Major London problem hits BT broadband across southeast

    Updated 'Turn it off and on again'. No, really

    BT is struggling to get its broadband service up and running in parts of the capital and across the southeast of England this afternoon, after the telecoms giant was hit by a massive outage. The company has coughed to a "serious incident" and is currently broadcasting its woes on Twitter. BT is in fact fielding messages from …

    Broadband 21 Jun 13:37

  • Vatican subtly shifts its position on The Blues Brothers

    No obvious signs of Templar involvement, however

    The Vatican has subtly shifted its stance on the Blues Brothers, with in-house(ofgod) magazine Osservatore Romano declaring the 33-year-old movie “a modern classic”. The latest blessing, which coincides with an Italian outing for the movie on the 30th anniversary of John Belushi’s death, represents a reworking of the paper’s …

    Bootnotes 21 Jun 13:51

  • Tech fault at RBS and Natwest freezes millions of UK bank balances

    No fix date available for devastated customers

    RBS and Natwest have failed to register inbound payments for up to three days, customers have reported, leaving people unable to pay for bills, travel and even food. The banks - both owned by RBS Group - have confirmed that technical glitches have left bank accounts displaying the wrong balances and certain services unavailable …

    Financial News 21 Jun 14:16

  • Hungry Ian Smith eats another slice of Accumuli

    Security firm gets buy-and-build general

    Buy-and-build specialist Ian Smith is upping its stake in Basingstoke-based managed security player Accumuli under a "put and call option". Smith entered into the buyer's arrangement in January 2010 to provide a war chest for acquisitions, which gave him the right to buy more than 7.4 million shares at a price of 6.5 pence – …

    The Channel 21 Jun 14:33

  • Sequoia: Can anyone learn to wield this mighty HPC weapon?

    Podcast Top500 co-founder Dr Jack Dongarra talks to the Reg

    Here at ISC 2012 in Hamburg, I sat in on a podcast with Rich Brueckner of insideHPC and Dr Jack Dongarra, co-founder of the Top500 list. We talked about the 20-year evolution of the list and, of course, Sequoia, the BlueGene/Q system that topped the June 2012 rankings. Dr Dongarra spoke about Sequoia’s very impressive number …

    HPC 21 Jun 15:00

  • Motorola demands 'excessive' Xbox royalties

    Microsoft rejects lawsuit settlement

    Microsoft has rejected part of a patent infringement lawsuit settlement offer from Motorola Mobility, claiming the Google-owned firm's demand for 2.25 per cent of the price of every Xbox sold is excessive. Both companies are in bitter dispute over the technology built into each other's products. In an attempt to bring the …

    reghardware 21 Jun 15:23

  • Rare AutoCAD worm lifted blueprints from Peru, sent them to China

    Reverse engineering superseded by forward engineering

    Security watchers have discovered a worm that targets drawings created in AutoCAD software for computer-aided design (CAD). Tens of thousands of drawings have been swiped using the malware, which is likely to have been designed for industrial espionage, according to antivirus firm Eset. The worm, dubbed ACAD/Medre.A, steals …

    Security 21 Jun 15:54

  • Red Hat pumps up Enterprise Linux to 6.3

    Get ready to become a digital numad

    Ahead of its Red Hat Summit in Boston next week and the reporting of its financial results for fiscal Q1 yesterday, commercial Linux distributor Red Hat is pushing out its next iteration of the Enterprise Linux operating system for servers and workstations. RHEL 6.0 launched in November 2010, and it was a major update, with …

    Servers 21 Jun 15:57

  • European vote hammers another nail into ACTA's coffin

    Will no one rid us of this turbulent treaty?

    The European Parliament's International Trade Committee (INTA) has voted decisively to reject the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and is recommending that the treaty be rejected in next month's plenary vote. "I welcome the result of today's vote. I am pleased that the committee has acknowledged the …

    Law 21 Jun 17:15

  • AMD puts network, chip guru in charge of Opterons

    Server CTO departed last December

    AMD's new CEO Rory Read has been shaking things up in the past couple of months while at the same time settling things down – particularly on the Opteron server chip front. To help accomplish both, he's made a major management move, hiring Suresh Gopalakrishnan to be vice president and general manager of AMD's server business …

    Servers 21 Jun 18:53

  • NASA sniffs water ice on Moon – maybe

    Don't schedule that lunar hockey game just yet

    The unusually bright floor of an ancient crater at the Moon's south pole may be proof that over 20 per cent of it may be coated with water ice. Or not. "There may be multiple explanations for the observed brightness throughout the crater," said Maria Zuber, the lead investigator of the team who authored a paper published …

    Science 21 Jun 19:26

  • Finnish PM rules out Nokia rescue package

    Local heroes must sink or swim

    The Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen has ruled out any government rescue package for ailing Nokia, saying the company is on its own. If any Finnish company is too big to fail, it would have been Nokia. At its height, the company was responsible for a quarter of all Finnish exports and accounted for nearly 5 per cent of …

    Mobile 21 Jun 19:28

  • Twitter back online (mostly) after unexplained outage

    Updated Thar blows the Fail Whale

    Twitter users have been outraged after services failed for a few hours on Thursday, but there are still reports of the Fail Whale surfacing on occasion. The problems started around 9am Pacific Time (5pm UT) and, after service resumption, it failed again around 90 minutes later. As we post this piece just before 2pm Pacific …

    Media 21 Jun 20:58

  • Apple cops $AU2.5m fine for misleading consumers

    There’s eight minutes that Cupertino will never get back

    The "Apple 4G deception" imbroglio in Australia has concluded with the company slapped with a $AU2.5 million dollar fine for advertising capabilities it couldn’t deliver down under. Australia’s competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, brought the Federal Court action against Cupertino for its …

    Law 21 Jun 21:55

  • NuStar spreads its arms out wide

    Long, strong mast ready for black holes

    The NuStar X-ray telescope mission has taken a key step towards going live, successfully deploying its 10-meter mast, according to NASA. The mast, separates the telescope’s mirrors from its detectors, was folded for the lift into space. It took just 26 minutes for the scope’s 56 cube-shaped units to be inched outwards by a …

    Science 21 Jun 22:30

  • Google launches field force management tool

    "Coordinate" aims to extend maps dominance into businesses

    The Sydney-based team that gave the world Google Maps has released a new product, “Google Maps Coordinate”, which offers field force management through a web app and Android. The new service, launched at 9:00 AM Sydney time today, replicates many other field force management tools with features that allow administrators to …

    Networks 21 Jun 23:00

  • Apple flat-screen TV to ship by holiday season?

    Includes 'special' motion detection, 'unique' remote control

    It's time for another rumor about Apple's long-buzzed-about flat-screen television – and here comes one, right on schedule: it'll ship in time for 2012's holiday shopping season. "A holiday launch would make for a very merry holiday season for Apple and consumers," wrote Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White in an …

    Data Center 21 Jun 23:34

  • FCC boss applauds moves to block UN internet control

    ITU headman warns of trouble from 'credulous members of the public'

    FCC chairman Julius Genachowski has issued a public statement of support after a senior Congressional committee unanimously approved a resolution condemning moves to bring the internet under new management. Government representatives should "continue working to implement the position of the United States on Internet governance …

    Government 21 Jun 23:35