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6th July 2012 Archive

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  • Microsoft lobs licensing liposuction at Server 2012

    Slims down to four builds, sheds Home and Small Business Server

    Microsoft has unveiled licensing terms for its upcoming Windows Server 2012, slimming down to four versions and ending the Home and Small Business Server options. "Windows Server 2012 delivers a dramatically simplified licensing experience," says Redmond. "Shaped by feedback from customers and partners, the new Windows Server …

    Operating Systems 6 Jul 00:41

  • Huawai teams with Aussie investors to launch APAC cable

    Quest Telecom set to be Asia's latest submarine cable guys

    Quest Telecom, the Hong Kong based subsidiary of Australian diversified investment outfit Quest Investments, has signed an MoU with Huawei Marine Networks to develop and launch integrated submarine optic cable systems throughout the Asia Pacific. The company has not dabbled in the costly deployment of submarine cables before, …

    Business 6 Jul 04:08

  • HP patents teleprompter-esque transparent screen tech

    Slat-tastic gear will mean you can never trust a window

    HP has bagged a US patent on its way of making a see-through screen, which will let users see stuff onscreen as well as whatever's behind it. The tech biggun isn't saying that it came up with the idea of a see-through screen or it should be the only one to have one, it's just made sure that its solution for how to make one …

    Science 6 Jul 06:31

  • Private cloud outfit chooses X-IO ISE instead of forklift SAN upgrade

    Damn things aren't even getting warm

    Private cloud outfit RTW Hosting, facing a costly filer forklift upgrade to remedy pressing performance problems, has spent a million dollars on X-IO's sealed ISE storage canisters and says it got itself a twenty-fold improvement in virtual machine deployment speed. RTW provides VoIP and remote desktop services and has …

    Cloud 6 Jul 07:04

  • Suppliers race to bag first G-Cloud accredited platform

    Mine's bigger than yours

    The race is on in the channel to pocket the first G-Cloud pan-government accreditation for infrastructure- and software-as-a-service platforms. The awards will be made this month but industry sources tell The Channel that Memset, Skyscape, SCC and FCO Services (the IT arm of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office) are in the …

    Channel Register 6 Jul 07:14

  • Libya's new rulers fire up Gaddafi's surveillance tech

    Snooped-upon become snoopers, snoop on former snoopers

    Libya's transitional government has quietly reactivated the surveillance technology it inherited from the Gaddafi regime, the Wall Street Journal reports. The technology is been used to track the mobile phone calls and online communications of Gaddafi loyalists. Government officials told the paper that they have seen dozens of …

    Security 6 Jul 07:28

  • UK is first class for train Wi-Fi in Europe

    Commuting sucks time, not productivity... OK, it just sucks

    On-train wireless internet connectivity is growing fast in Europe - but even faster in the UK, which now has more than 2,000 Wi-Fi equipped carriages. This supposedly makes passengers far more productive during their waking hours, much to the annoyance of rail operator HS2. Tech consultancy BWCS has been looking at the …

    Broadband 6 Jul 07:46

  • Panasonic Eluga DL1 waterproof Android

    Review Dunked in beer and still talking

    Over the course of the last decade Panasonic all but vanished from the European consumer mobile phone market but it’s back with a bang with the Eluga - an acronym of ‘elegant user-oriented gateway’. Or at least back with a loud thump - the bang is really the Eluga Power, a 5in 720p Qualcomm Krait-powered beast due later this …

    reghardware 6 Jul 08:00

  • Dell's partners fear divorce after firm beds new squeeze

    Quest acquisition could upset CommVault and Symantec deals

    CommVault and Symantec will be getting the jitters now that Dell is buying Quest, having acquired AppAssure and its continuous data protection technology just a few months back. Now it looks like the hardware giant is plumping up its portfolio of software with its latest acquisition... which might make its partnerships with the …

    Storage 6 Jul 08:17

  • Shuttleworth: Why Windows 8 made us ditch GPL Linux loader

    Ubuntu supremo fears security keys could fall into wrong hands

    Ubuntu daddy Mark Shuttleworth has defended Canonical’s decision to play ball with Microsoft's Windows 8 security policy that could stop “unauthorised” Linux builds from booting on new PCs and tablets. Manufacturers must enable a feature called Secure Boot in their products' UEFI firmware in order to be officially labelled …

    Security 6 Jul 08:41

  • My dad found the Higgs boson! Reminiscences of a CERN kid

    Hold it buddy - US atom bureau pass, but born in Iran?

    When your Dad’s a bus driver or a bank manager life must be simple. Bring-your-kids-to-work day involves things like garages and spreadsheets: when I was little it meant trying not to step in front of a particle beam. As a child I attended the playgroup at CERN while my older sister was enrolled at their international school …

    Science 6 Jul 09:00

  • BT to patrol MoD's cyber borders for another 7 years

    Seeing off bedroom hackers and gov spooks... but how much will it cost?

    The UK's Ministry of Defence will rely on BT to defend its electronic borders for another seven years, the company has announced, extending its existing arrangement. BT has been providing cyber security to the MoD for a while, and helped write the UK National Cyber Security Strategy as well as being a member of the UK Cyber …

    Security 6 Jul 09:17

  • Tech biz today is WORSE than dot-com bubble days

    Open ... and Shut Floating firms like it's 1999

    Tech industry titans are fond of reminding us just how different 2012 is than the irrationally exuberant days of the dot-come bubble and crash, and they're right. According to some data, today is even worse. Worse than 1999? Is that possible? Definitely maybe. There's no question that the heyday of the dot-com boom was frothy …

    CIO 6 Jul 09:32

  • Former Intrinsic boss Mason pitches up at avsnet

    Joined by ex-colleague Justin Anderson

    Former Intrinsic Technology boss Mike Mason has surfaced at reseller minnow avsnet as non-exec chairman. Mason exited Lancashire-based Intrinsic in March, less than eight months after a management buy-out, as The Channel revealed at the time. The Surrey-based video conferencing and unified comms provider has also binned its …

    Channel Register 6 Jul 09:33

  • Seagate fscks up: Disk drive sales fall short by $500m

    Quality slip and flood-proof competitors fingered

    Seagate will miss its fourth quarter's sales target as its competitors recover faster than expected from floods that knackered hard drive supplies. The storage biz also had a quality-control issue with an enterprise disk product, which reduced shipments by 1.5 million units to 66 million, and increased costs. It issued a …

    Storage 6 Jul 09:46

  • BOFH: The back-up backdown smackdown

    Episode 6 And that's what happens when you don't listen to your friendly BOFH

    "So is all the data gone?" the voice whimpers over the hands-free. "Did you take a backup like I told you?" I ask. "No." "Then yes, it's all gone," I say. "You either put a backup client on your laptop and back it up to the backup server or connect an external disk and use that - but if you use nothing..." "I don't …

    BOFH 6 Jul 10:02

  • China reveals new strategy of stockpiling rare earths

    We don't need no steenkin' WTO

    Tech supply chain jitters are set to resurface after it emerged that China has begun the strategic stockpiling of rare earth minerals. State-run business title the China Securities Journal broke the news, but didn’t elaborate on exactly when the programme had begun. China produces 90 per cent of the world's rare earth …

    CIO 6 Jul 10:14

  • Samsung: World LOVES our chips 'n' mobes – expect a record quarter

    But investors unimpressed by soaring smartphone sales

    Samsung is expecting to announce yet another quarter of record profits at the end of this month, no doubt driven by its Galaxy smartphone sales. The Korean tech giant said its second quarter operating profit will have shot up 14.5 per cent from the previous quarter and 79 per cent from the same quarter last year to 6.7 …

    Financial News 6 Jul 10:32

  • The Archers INVADE Guernsey, rebrand it Borchester

    Gov website falls to BBC soap opera incursion

    Offshore tax haven Guernsey briefly rebranded itself as the metropolitan area of "Borchester" in a cock-up with the island state's website. Anyone visiting gov.gg to find out about the isle's services were surprised to find municipal information about the fictional town that features in twee BBC radio soap opera The Archers. …

    Media 6 Jul 10:47

  • Door creaks and girl farts: computing in the real world

    Something for the weekend, Sir? Stop designing for spaceships

    A few weeks ago I dissed the expensive new Apple MacBook Pro for trading a downgraded component spec in return for a pretty display and solid-state memory. In passing, I gave an example of this downgrade: the lack of a CD drive. Several readers helpfully commented that they hadn’t used CD media in ages and wouldn’t miss an …

    reghardware 6 Jul 11:02

  • Mega French operator SFR prepares to slash another €500m in costs

    Heads will roll with Catbert in charge...

    French operator SFR plans to cut costs by at least €500m (£398.5m) next year, according to union sources, and that's in addition to the €450m in cuts already in process. SFR isn't the only French operator who'll be shedding staff next year, Reuters reports that Bouygues will be laying off 556 people from its telecoms unit as …

    Mobile 6 Jul 11:16

  • Forget Ultrabooks and Win 8 - only fondleslabs can save us now

    Western Europe PC space a busted flush, says Context

    Only the fondleslab can save the flatlining PC market this year, as sales of traditional platforms continue to flatline – and nothing on the horizon suggests a buying frenzy is likely in the second half of the year. At least this is the view of top channel bean-counter Context, which tracks distributor output. The analyst …

    Hardware 6 Jul 11:31

  • Two-horse! race! to! seize! Yahoo! poisoned! chalice!

    Stand-in boss Levinsohn versus Hulu head Kilar

    Yahoo! is expected to make interim CEO Ross Levinsohn's role permanent or snag Hulu.com boss Jason Kilar as its new chief executive. The rumour mill is working overtime on speculation over who will head up the struggling web firm: people close to the company have blabbed that it's now a two-horse race. "It’s pretty much a …

    Financial News 6 Jul 11:47

  • Behind every great athlete is a nervous network engineer

    London Olympics A short history of Olympics communications

    Had there been a functioning mobile network in Greece in 490BC, the messenger Pheidippides wouldn’t have had to run from Marathon to Athens, only to breathe his last as he delivered news of victory over the Persians. The modern reenactment of his feat in the Olympic marathon would have been a much shorter event, although the …

    Mobile 6 Jul 11:57

  • Microsoft's XML 0-day fix expected in July Patch Tuesday

    Hack attack smack

    Microsoft is planning to release nine bulletins, three critical, as part of the July edition of its Patch Tuesday monthly update cycle. One of the three crucial advisories is expected* to offer patches for a serious XML Core Services vulnerability, disclosed but not fixed in June’s Patch Tuesday. This vulnerability has been …

    Security 6 Jul 12:01

  • NatWest seeks volunteers to bonk with their iPhones

    Hurry, only 1,000 NFC payment cases up for grabs

    NatWest is asking volunteers to test its pay-by-bonk service on their iPhones, and is looking for 1,000 of its customers willing to wrap their iPhone in an iCarte case with embedded NFC. The trial was slipped quietly out on NatWest website, and spotted by NFC World. The iCarte case has been knocking around since 2009, and has …

    Broadband 6 Jul 12:19

  • Apple 'fesses up: We broke App Store downloads

    Now, get back to lining our pockets

    An Apple App Store server spat out broken copies of several high-profile titles this week, the iPad maker has admitted. Updates for popular software including Instapaper and Angry Birds in Space were corrupted when downloaded, causing the programs to crash when fanbois attempted to use them. Instapaper dev Marco Ament …

    Applications 6 Jul 12:37

  • Ex-Alibaba GM cuffed as bribery scandal resurfaces

    E-commerce giant booted him out in March

    A former general manager at one of e-commerce giant Alibaba’s web businesses has been arrested by Chinese police on suspicion of bribery, as the scandal-hit firm struggles to move on from long-standing allegations of corruption. China’s biggest e-commerce business revealed the news on Thursday that Yan Limin, until recently …

    Security 6 Jul 13:03

  • Stay 10 steps ahead of big vendors before they steal your lunch

    Emerge from data centres with pockets laden with gold

    So far the data centre channel has been reasonably resilient to the economic downturn, but news of a double-dip recession will send many resellers scrambling for their tin helmets. The reality is that value-added resellers (VARs) are being squeezed like never before, and a most unlikely threat has emerged: big vendors offering …

    Channel Register 6 Jul 13:09

  • Moles expose Amazon smartphone plan

    Big phone or little tablet?

    Amazon is working on a smartphone - Kindle-branded, presumably - to take on Apple and Samsung, it has been claimed. Two moles have stepped up to spill the beans. One says Amazon is working with contract manufacturer Foxconn, news agency Bloomberg reports. The other source says that the online retailer is quietly licensing the …

    reghardware 6 Jul 14:01

  • 'Amazon plans iPhone-killing Android mobe' – report

    Might use mega-Chinese contractor Foxconn for the build

    It was only a matter of time before rumours started circulating that Amazon wanted to build a smartphone, since every tech firm worth their salt these days has to be rumoured to be taking on either the iPhone or the iPad. Since Amazon has already sort of taken on the iPad with its hugely successful ereader, it could now be …

    Mobile 6 Jul 14:02

  • Post-pub nosh deathmatch: Haggis pakora v huevos rancheros

    Braveheart battles Pancho Villa

    It's been more than a month on the salads and with our necks in the fruit bowl for the Special Projects Bureau's elite post-pub nosh deathmatch team, following the mealy pudding v migas clash of titans. We reckon our arteries have recovered sufficiently to make another foray into the calorie-packed world of nourishment …

    SPB 6 Jul 14:31

  • Wish you were here? NASA rover beams postcard from Mars

    Pic 'Great views, lovely long walk, see you soon! Opportunity xoxo'

    Mars rover Opportunity has sent back this panoramic holiday snap of the Martian winter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State University The robot wintered on an outcrop on the Endeavour crater, and this photo shows its own tracks across the ruddy terrain as well as its solar arrays and decks in the foreground. The …

    Science 6 Jul 15:05

  • Dell seeks Linux fans to try cut-price Ubuntu Ultrabook

    'Help us build dev device of choice'

    Dell is tempting Linux developers with the promise of a cut-price XPS 13 Ultrabook running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. The machine is the outcome of Dell's Project Sputnik, which it kicked off back in May in a bid to create, with the commmunity's help, the best laptop for coders. The PC giant isn't quite ready to put the machine on …

    reghardware 6 Jul 15:10

  • Watch out for the GIGANTIC ALIEN JELLYFISH, warns space boffin

    Floating horror blobominations roam ice-moon skies

    A British satellite expert reckons aliens will be enormous bewildering monsters ideal for depicting on telly science shows, the very sort of programme the government adviser is happy to front. Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock said extraterrestrials could be football-field-size jellyfish with orange stomaches that float in the skies of …

    Science 6 Jul 15:26

  • Phone-raiding Trojan slips past Apple’s App Store censors

    Find And Call is actually Slurp, Stalk And Spam

    A mobile Trojan that secretly sends the phone's whereabouts and its address book to spammers has slipped into Apple's App Store and Google's Play marketplace. Called Find And Call, the malware includes a "find your friends" feature that uploads a user's phonebook contents to servers under the control of the application's …

    Security 6 Jul 15:58

  • IT pulls its job creation weight in June in the US

    Be nice if somebody else took some of the weight

    A lot of things might be sizzling or even on fire right now in the United States, but job creation is not one of them. The monthly jobs report put out by the US Department of Labor is sure to put everyone in a bad mood for the long, hot weekend, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that only 80,000 jobs were added to …

    Jobs 6 Jul 17:01

  • Gamers bereft as Xbox Live takes a dive

    Updated Microsoft working on it

    Microsoft's Xbox Live service is down, apparently across the world, and Redmond is trying to sort out the problems so gamers can get their Friday fix. The Xbox support team confirmed the outage in a Twitter message at 5:20UT, and thanked users for their patience on the status page. The Zune network is also down (not that that …

    Media 6 Jul 17:45

  • Mozilla Foundation and EFF join hunt for Syrian open source developer

    One of our developers is missing

    The open source community and human rights organizations have joined forces to find a software developer who has been missing for months following the recent civil unrest in Syria. Bassel Khartabil, a 31-year-old computer engineer, was the project leader of Aiki Framework, an open source tool for building web applications. He …

    Developer 6 Jul 18:03

  • Informatica caught flat-footed by revenue shortfall

    Blames stingy Europeans, skittish Americans

    June was not a particularly fun month for data-integration software specialist Informatica, which has just put out preliminary financial figures for its second quarter ended last week. Those numbers show that companies in the EMEA slammed on the spending brakes, and that American companies with a presence in Europe or which …

    Financial News 6 Jul 18:39

  • Cisco backs down on cloud control of routers

    Full reverse-ferret over Linksys 'upgrade'

    Cisco has completed its climb-down over who gets to control Linksys routers, it or the people who bought them. At the start of this week, Cisco updated the firmware of the Linksys EA4500, EA3500, and EA2700 routers so that they could be fully configured using only its Connect Cloud service rather than via local management …

    Cloud 6 Jul 20:52

  • Mozilla shoots down Thunderbird, hatches new release model

    'This bird's not dead, it's just pining for the fjords'

    Mozilla has announced a new plan for the ongoing development of its Thunderbird email client that it says will provide for a stable product and continued opportunity for innovation That's all well and good, but the contents of a leaked internal Mozilla memo suggest that the full picture may be less rosy than it seems. The …

    Applications 6 Jul 22:53

  • Revealed at last: Universe's intergalactic dark matter skeleton

    Boffins' first glimpse of the structural framework of our universe

    Higgs, Schmiggs... When that infinitesimal speck was sucking up all the journalistic oxygen on Independence Day, another momentous scientific discovery was also being announced: the first observation of filaments of dark matter, the stuff that forms the "skeleton" of our universe. Invisible, inexplicable dark matter makes up …

    Science 6 Jul 22:55