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19th July 2012 Archive

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  • Microsoft picks October 26 for Windows 8 launch

    101 days left to develop an explanation for Metro

    Mark October 26th down in your diary: that's the day Microsoft has chosen to release Windows 8 into the wild. Windows leader Steve Sinofsky revealed the release date at Microsoft's annual sales meeting today and Redmond quickly emitted an organic, engaging, and convincingly human blog post with the news and the image below to …

    Windows 8 19 Jul 00:07

  • Dumpling squid do it WHENEVER THEY CAN, FOR HOURS ON END!

    Need a bit of a rest afterwards, though

    Physicists don’t get all the fun: biology researchers from the University of Melbourne have discovered that a species of squid indulges in three-hour mating sessions, but at the cost of a “reduced ability to swim” for as much as 30 minutes afterwards. (Actually, to The Register that seems like a remarkable recuperative …

    Science 19 Jul 00:15

  • Oracle scales back plans for Java 8

    Cuts out Jigsaw, aims for two-year release cycle

    Oracle is moving to drop a major component from its upcoming Java 8 release, in an effort to get the flagging Java development process back on track. The component, known as Project Jigsaw, was an addition to the language that would have allowed Java developers to write and distribute programs as modules. It would also have …

    Developer 19 Jul 00:57

  • Wired broadband adoption dips as wireless flies

    OECD data offers grim view of broadband's GDP-boosting prowess

    The developed world has lost its appetite for terrestrial internet connections, but is hungry for vast increases in wireless connectivity, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) latest data on broadband adoption among its 34 members. The new data asserts that residents of OECD …

    Networks 19 Jul 02:28

  • Chinese gov splurges £102 MILLION to replace pirated software

    Microsoft rubs hands with glee...

    The Chinese government has put its money where its mouth is, spending around US$160 million (£102m) to replace pirated software in central and provincial government offices with the real thing. The outlay comes as part of the second phase of a national plan to stamp out software piracy in the public sector, according to the …

    Business 19 Jul 03:53

  • Humanity increasingly sitting on collective arse

    Pre-Olympics study finds third of humans physically inactive, inc. 63% of Brits

    The richer the nation in which you live, the greater the chance that you'll have a lifestyle that includes little physical activity. Nasty health problems are the likely result, but technology has the potential to address the issue. So says a new study, Global physical activity levels: surveillance progress, pitfalls, and …

    Science 19 Jul 04:08

  • French credit card allows Wikileaks donations

    Assange hopes to raise EU$1m thanks to Carte Bleue

    Wikileaks is back in the donation-accepting business and hopes to raise EUR1 million thanks to French credit card system Carte Bleue. The organisation claims to have been financially crippled after a lengthy fight against VISA and Mastercard’s banking blockade. To circumvent the impasse, Julian Assange’s crew has launched a …

    Policy 19 Jul 04:28

  • Internet Defense League to save the web from evil governments

    Holy global web censorship takedown, Batman!

    Not for profit rights group Fight for the Future will on Thursday launch the Internet Defense League, a new initiative designed to help internet stakeholders fight back whenever their rights are threatened by the man. The League will launch tonight in San Francisco, Washington DC, New York, London and, bizarrely, Ulaanbaatar, …

    Security 19 Jul 05:20

  • YouTube blurs faces to protect the innocent

    New feature designed to help anonymise activists

    YouTube has launched a feature that blurs faces in videos uploaded to the site. In a blog post introducing the feature, the Google unit offers two use cases for the tool: "Whether you want to share sensitive protest footage without exposing the faces of the activists involved, or share the winning point in your 8-year-old’s …

    Security 19 Jul 05:57

  • LG Optimus 4X HD quad-core Android phone review

    Understated excellence

    I was never much of a fan of LG’s Android phones, they struck me as rather ordinary and frequently hampered by an unhealthy obsession with 3D. But suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere South Korea’s other phone maker has delivered an absolute blinder. Between you and me, this may prove to be the best Android handset of 2012. …

    reghardware 19 Jul 07:00

  • China lays out glorious eight-point infosec masterplan

    Aims to protect the people and the nation

    The Chinese government has released sweeping new information security guidelines designed to enable public and private bodies to protect themselves more effectively against new cyber threats. The State Council’s long list of recommendations spans just about every conceivable aspect of information security, painting a picture …

    Policy 19 Jul 07:06

  • Fake Facebook photo tag ruse smears malware on PCs

    Doon't be a foool, doon't click oon that link

    Spam emails have attempted to trick Facebookers into visiting virus-stuffed web pages by claiming users have been tagged in photos. The counterfeit messages appear to have been sent by the dominant social networking website, but the "From" address is misspelled as "Faceboook.com" among other mistakes. The emails feature …

    Security 19 Jul 07:35

  • Coraid peers over shoulder, pushes out another ZFS-based NAS head

    Two years later, tries its luck with Oracle-based system

    Ethernet SAN storage supplier Coraid has announced its filer head, an Oracle ZFS-based product, two years after NetApp smacked it down for attempting the same thing with a Nexenta ZFS-based product. It has also beat off some pretty big competition to score Sony as a marquee user of its EtherDrive storage product. The ZX-Series …

    Storage 19 Jul 08:03

  • UK.gov: Real time PAYE and new benefits systems WILL work

    Ministers: No really

    HMRC's real time information (RTI) project is "very much on track" to being a "successful government IT project", and universal credit is on time and on budget, exchequer secretary to the treasury David Gauke and welfare reform minister Lord Freud have said. The ministers' comments follow a recent report by the All-Party …

    Government 19 Jul 08:22

  • Expert: EU Microsoft competition fine could reach $7bn

    Oh go on, Brussels, give it to Greece

    Microsoft could face a fine of up to $7bn (£4.49bn) if EU competition regulators find that the company failed to comply with a "critical remedy" it agreed to implement in 2009 to alleviate concerns that it was acting anti-competitively, an expert has said. The European Commission has opened an investigation into whether …

    Applications 19 Jul 08:44

  • Java won the smartphone wars (and nobody noticed)

    'If my battery runs out I'll call you back on the landline'

    Haven’t you noticed? Java, the red-headed stepchild of the phone world, has conquered the world by default. The platform written off just a few years ago as bloated, cumbersome and inefficient is now inescapable. It’s actually down to desperation by the two fallen stars of the handset world, Nokia and RIM. Android, another …

    Mobile 19 Jul 09:02

  • WD game-centric set-top spied on web

    FCC briefly spills beans

    It's getting harder to call Western Digital a hard drive company. One of its next offerings, for instance, is a new WD TV set-top box, the Play. Spotted in US Federal Communications Commission emissions testing reports, the TV-connected gadget appears to take the basic WD TV media playback functionality and add casual on-telly …

    reghardware 19 Jul 09:13

  • Hey, starving storage wannabes! Michael Dell wants to give you CASH

    $60m in the Fluid Data Storage Fund pot

    Dell Ventures, the Dell investment arm, has a hefty $60m pile of greenbacks to dish out to early-stage storage startups. The cash has been assigned to the Dell Fluid Data Storage Fund and the fund managers want to invest in five to 10 promising storage start-ups and assign $3m to $5m to each one for an equity position. Dell is …

    Storage 19 Jul 09:17

  • Dell readies Linux Ultrabook for autumn release

    Windows 8 refuseniks form an orderly queue

    If you're in the right neck of the woods, you'll be able to buy a Dell Ultrabook pre-loaded with Linux this coming autumn. The PC giant last night said it was moving its Project Sputnik - a scheme to create a developer-friendly Linux laptop - from pilot to product. The machine in question is an XPS 13 with a custom build of …

    reghardware 19 Jul 09:40

  • Compare the Market loses .XXX smut-squat appeal

    It's not that simples, is it?

    Meerkat-obsessed Compare the Market, which became the first company to lose a cybersquatting complaint over a .xxx domain name, has lost its appeal against the ruling. BGL Group, which owns the Compare The Market brand, lost its first case against the owner of comparethemarket.xxx in May, after a Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) …

    Hosting 19 Jul 09:44

  • Judge: Apple must run ads saying Samsung DIDN'T copy the iPad

    What next? Macs aren't very good value for money?

    Apple must run a national ad campaign saying that Samsung did not copy them, a High Court judge ruled yesterday - according to this Bloomberg report and a draft court order seen by The Reg. Judge Birss of the Patents Court instructed Apple to run ads displaying the notice in newspapers and magazines including the Daily Mail, …

    Law 19 Jul 09:55

  • IT pro to storm Everest in Bletchley Park cash quest

    She's tackled SharePoint, she can tackle ANYTHING

    An IT bod has vowed to clamber up Everest to raise £20k for Blighty's National Museum of Computing and Bletchley Park Trust - and she wants sponsorship and people to tackle the trek with her. Astrid Byro, a tech consultant and publicity officer for the Association of C and C++ Users, is heading to the mountain's base camp, …

    Bootnotes 19 Jul 10:18

  • Hubble spots ancient spiral galaxy that SHOULD NOT EXIST

    Milky-Way-like shape 'should be space train wreck'

    Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have spotted an ancient spiral galaxy that's so neat and tidy it shouldn’t even exist. Although there are plenty of spiral galaxies these days - including our own Milky Way - in the early millennia of the universe, galaxies were a lot more messed up. "As you go back in time to the …

    Science 19 Jul 10:49

  • Pure Stream takes on AirPlay

    Avoid the Apple tax

    Pure’s Sensia 200D Connect has been on its web site for a while, but now you can actually buy one. This latest incarnation of the company’s touchscreen Wi-Fi radio is a significant revamp on the original Sensia and showcases Pure Stream, which enables content to play wirelessly from Android and iOS devices. It’s an obvious take …

    reghardware 19 Jul 11:01

  • Apple finally grabs apple.co.uk – after just 16 years

    Beret types make way for turtle-neck wearers

    Apple has finally taken control of the internet domain name apple.co.uk, which has been in third-party hands since at least 1996. The change of ownership, which appears to have occurred on 6 July, means visitors to the URL are now bounced to the UK version of the official Apple website at apple.com. Previously, the domain was …

    Hosting 19 Jul 11:03

  • Scotland Yard collars seventh computer-hack suspect

    Met tight-lipped after latest Operation Tuleta swoop

    A seventh computer-hacking suspect was arrested this morning by detectives who are also probing separate allegations of voicemail interception at Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers. Scotland Yard is yet to put out an official statement, but officers confirmed to The Register that an unnamed man, whose age and alleged offences …

    Security 19 Jul 11:25

  • Vodafone silences punters in mini-mast upgrade bungle

    Have you tried turning it off and on again?

    Vodafone customers relying on Sure Signal boxes for mobile connectivity have been hit by an update that left them less connected than ever. The boxes are femtocells – small cellular base stations – hooked up to punters' broadband connections to boost Voda's phone network in areas with patchy coverage. Not every Sure Signal …

    Mobile 19 Jul 11:42

  • Firefox 14 tabs no longer sneak a peek at users' privates

    Cache me if you can

    Mozilla has plugged a privacy-related security hole in Firefox 13 and released a fixed version of its web browser. The flaw allowed the software's speed-dial-alike "new tab" feature to take snapshots of supposedly secure HTTPS sessions. Punters sounded the alarm over the feature that, for example, revealed online bank account …

    Security 19 Jul 12:02

  • Google Nexus 7 shipping cock-up enrages fandroids

    'My face will spontaneously combust if it doesn't arrive today'

    Google hasn't cloaked itself in greatness if the number of complaints from a legion of frustrated customers awaiting the arrival of the Nexus 7 is anything to go by. Those who pre-ordered the Jelly Bean Android-powered fondleslab from the web giant's online Play store late last month have told of shipping delays and poor …

    Channel Register 19 Jul 12:17

  • UK sysadmins pry open wallets for servers ... but not for long

    Expect purses to snap shut in Q2, says analyst

    IDC reckons the UK server space staged a slight recovery in Q1 with spending and unit shipments rising by low single digits, but has warned that preliminary results suggest that Q2 will look weaker. Some 82,000 servers were sold in the UK in the opening three months of the year, up 1.4 per cent on the same period a year ago, …

    Servers 19 Jul 12:43

  • Google HARVESTS African mobile numbers with Gmail SMS

    Welcome to Google+, we hope you... TXT FOR MORE

    Google has created a not-exactly-secure Gmail-over-text-message service for use on old mobiles in parts of Africa. The advertising colossus said Gmail SMS will be made available to punters in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya for the time being. Users of Google's webmail service in these countries can allow their inbound emails to be …

    Mobile 19 Jul 13:02

  • Nokia flogged 4m Lumias, still bled €826m this quarter

    Plenty of money left in the bank, for now

    Nokia managed to shift 4 million Lumia handsets in the second quarter of 2012, and while it didn't make money during the period, it isn't as broke as many had feared it would be. Overall sales were down by almost 20 per cent compared to the same period in 2011, but despite predictions that cash reserves would dip below €4bn, …

    Financial News 19 Jul 13:34

  • Barnes & Noble: You won't need a Nook to read our ebooks

    Boldly goes where Kindle went in 2010

    Bookseller Barnes & Noble has played catch-up with Kindle by launching a web version of its shop. Nook for web – accessed via Barnes & Noble's library site – is a web platform that will make the store and a "reader experience" available on all major PC and Mac browsers – avoiding the annoying sign-in, a la Amazon's Cloud …

    Media 19 Jul 14:02

  • Google ordered to censor 'torrent', 'megaupload' and more words

    French Supreme Court bans pirate lingo from searches

    The French Supreme Court has ruled that Google should censor the words ‘torrent’, ‘rapidshare’ and ‘megaupload’ from its Instant and Autocomplete search services. Music industry group SNEP asked the court to stop the terms from coming up in Google’s searches because, it claimed, the Chocolate Factory was thereby facilitating …

    Media 19 Jul 14:32

  • Like clouds, like Big Data? You'll love our tape library – Oracle

    Vendor bets that growing biz punters will cough for the SL150

    There's life in mid-range tape libraries yet, and Oracle has a new one, an SL150 chugging down data at 10TB/hour, faster than the competing kit from Quantum and Spectra. It's aiming the new kit at medium-sized businesses that are finding that they need a more grown-up storage solution. Tape libraries are used for storing …

    Storage 19 Jul 15:04

  • Mega spam-spewing Grum botnet finally KO'd

    Zombies lingered until security bods shot 'em down

    Security researchers have dealt a knockout blow to Grum, one of the most prolific spam-distribution botnets. Command-and-control servers in the Netherlands were taken out on Monday, but that still left zombie control nodes in Russia and Panama up and running. According to security researchers, pressure was applied on a …

    Security 19 Jul 15:15

  • Mellanox makes InfiniBand hay while the sun shines

    But can you hear the ground shake? Chipzilla's a-comin'

    If someone (that means you, Larry Ellison, and maybe you, Michael Dell, or maybe you, Ginni Rometty) was thinking about buying networking chip, switch, and adapter maker Mellanox Technologies, it is probably too late unless that certain someone wants to spend a whole lotta cash doing the deal. Mellanox just wrapped up its …

    Data Networking 19 Jul 15:38

  • Oracle tries to bust out of storage also-ran box

    Software giant: Basic storage kit? We do that too

    Oracle says it is seeing strong growth in its NAS, SAN and tape storage portfolio. Maybe a high-end Axiom array is coming but, even so, there's no sign Oracle is about to emerge from the IDC Storage Tracker's "Others" category. The data excludes Oracle's engineered Exa- systems (Exadata, Exalytics, etc) and refers to basic …

    Storage 19 Jul 16:06

  • VCE hires Cisco exec to run the company

    Takes nearly a year to fill the role

    VCE has finally added a CEO to the top of its management stack after operating without one for almost a year. The converged infrastructure player - a collaboration between EMC, Cisco and VMware - has lured Praveen Akkiraju, Cisco senior veep and GM for the Services Routing Technology Group. The new man climbing on board …

    Data Networking 19 Jul 16:27

  • Home Office doc 'not qualified' to assess McKinnon suicide risk

    Accused UFO hunting gov hacker still fighting extradition

    Computer hacker Gary McKinnon has refused to be assessed for suicide risk by a Home Office appointed doctor, because the doctor chosen had no experience of patients with Aspergers, his mother Janis Sharp told BBC local radio today. McKinnon, who hacked into US government computers in 2002, has Asperger's syndrome. The 46 year- …

    Law 19 Jul 16:58

  • OCZ shares jump as Seagate gobble speculation echoes

    Will the big fellow slurp the flashy hustler?

    Reuters is reporting that flash products hustler OCZ may have received a buyout offer from Seagate and its shares are up a fifth. Reuters quotes an industry blog, Fudzilla, which ran a speculative story about the potential deal and said there was more than one suitor. Micron is identified as one such. OCZ has grown quickly …

    Storage 19 Jul 17:31

  • Apple building 'tactical' data center with 'mantrap' doors

    Compact, high-security partner for ginormous North Carolina facility

    Apple has filed permit papers revealing that it plans to build a high-security "tactical" data center on the grounds of its humongous $1bn center in Maiden, North Carolina. Although dwarfed by the main Maiden data center's 500,000 square feet, the new 21,030 square foot building – budgeted for a mere $1,885,129, according to …

    Business 19 Jul 18:39

  • Apple iOS 6 beta limits number of apps per device

    Don't worry, fanbois, it's a high number – a really high number

    The beta versions of Apple's iOS 6 limit the number of apps that you can have installed on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch – a limitation that didn't exist on iOS 4 or iOS 5. The limit, however, is high enough that only the most app-happy Apple-kit owners would hit the wall, according to a post by "macjeff" on the Mid …

    Mobile 19 Jul 20:22

  • As promised, AMD posts disappointing financial results

    And don't get your hopes up for next quarter, either

    AMD has released its financial results for its second quarter 2012, and as they had warned earlier this month, revenues dipped by 11 per cent from the previous quarter, hitting $1.41bn. "Overall weakness in the global economy, softer consumer spending and lower channel demand for our desktop processors in China and Europe made …

    Financial News 19 Jul 20:55

  • Dell details plans for 'remixed' software strategy

    Lots of hardware, software, service mash-ups

    Dell has provided more details of its reinvigorated software strategy on Thursday, coming in the wake of its $2.4bn acquisition of Quest Software. "This is a very interesting time to be thinking about going into the software business. There's more disruptive stuff going on than I can ever remember," said John Swainson, …

    Software 19 Jul 21:01

  • OpenStack cloud fluffer growing faster than Linux

    Analysis Two years in, and still not quite a cloud operating system

    The OpenStack cloud controller, launched two years ago to the day by techies at NASA Ames Research Center and Rackspace Hosting, has come a long way in its infancy. With Hewlett-Packard and Rackspace ramping up clouds based on the current "Essex" release, OpenStack is only just learning to walk. But it won't be long before …

    Cloud 19 Jul 22:38

  • Boffins demo passwords even users don’t know

    Using neuroscience to bolster crypto

    What if you could use a password with 38 bits of entropy without memorizing it? Stanford University researchers think they've found a way to deliver. Their argument is that attackers can steal passwords from ill-defended servers, install keyloggers in drive-by attacks, or force people to hand over their security tokens. The …

    Security 19 Jul 22:56

  • Microsoft hires former Hillary Clinton adviser as top strategist

    His mission: Put lipstick on Bing

    Microsoft is a company that divides opinion, which may explain why it has hired Mark Penn, a political strategist and pollster who served as senior strategist for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, as its new corporate VP for strategic and special projects. "Mark has an incredible background in research, …

    Business 19 Jul 23:01

  • Super Micro misses target in June quarter

    A Sandy Bridge too far

    Motherboard and whitebox server maker Super Micro pre-announced its financial results for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 ending in June, and it looks like it's not going to make its numbers. In a statement, Super Micro said that it would book revenues of approximately $275m, which is just under the range of $280m to $310m …

    Financial News 19 Jul 23:06