23rd August 2012 Archive

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ATO casts loving eyes over cybercrime intercept powers

I want what she’s having…

Hot on the heels of the passage of Australia’s Cybercrime Amendment Bill – which expands Australia’s interception regime in an effort to bring it into line with European practices – the Australian Taxation Office is reportedly looking for more interception powers as well. If this report in The Australian is accurate, it …

Policy 23 Aug 00:14
Lawyers: We'll pillory porn pirates who don't pay up

Priests, police will be among first named

A law firm from the southern German town of Regensburg has threatened to reveal the names of internet users whom it claims illegally distributed pornography over file-sharing networks – unless, that is, the accused pony up some cash. As reported by the English-language German newspaper The Local, the firm of Urmann and …

Law 23 Aug 00:38
Want a Windows 8 Start Button? Open source to the rescue!

'Classic Shell' can banish Interface Formerly Known As Metro

Windows 8 users need not do without a Start button, thanks to an open source application titled Classic Shell that can banish the Interface Formerly Known As Metro (TIFKAM). El Reg's antipodean lab installed Classic Shell on a Windows 8 RTM virtual machine running under Oracle VirtualBox on Mac OS 10.7.4. We can report that …

Windows 8 23 Aug 01:23
Australia threatens telcos with mobile roaming price laws

Roaming profit margins fall from 1000% to 300% but governments want more

Australia and New Zealand are considering legislation to prevent mobile carriers gouging customers when they use their phones overseas. Australia's Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, and New Zealand's Minister for Communications and Information Technology Amy Adams MP (not …

Networks 23 Aug 02:50
Samsung strides onto the catwalk

Phone-y fashion outlets will hit China in 2014

Never a company to take its foot of the accelerator, Samsung has decided to follow-up its success as the leading smartphone vendor in the world’s largest mobile market by launching a range of fashion outlets in China. The Korean giant’s 8ight Seconds clothing brand will enter the Chinese market in 2014, piggy backing on the …

Business 23 Aug 04:15
Driving a car? There's an app for that

Griffith University researchers build Android-piloted car

Researchers at Australia's Griffith University have built an electric car that can be driven, without human intervention, by software runing on an Android smartphone. Dr Jun Jo of the University's Institute for Integrated and Intelligent Systems said the car, built by students from Helensvale State High School, tests the …

Science 23 Aug 05:55
Hong Kong, not China keeping Syria online

PCCW carries lion's share of traffic to war-torn land

Hong Kong telecoms giant PCCW (sometimes known as Pacific Century CyberWorks) is all-but-single-handedly keeping Syria online as US sanctions and probable infrastructure issues hit the war-torn country. The number of significant internet outages in Syria over the past six weeks or so has been increasing, with sole domestic …

Networks 23 Aug 06:20
China to probe black holes, search for aliens

Look out space, the Chinese are coming...

China will ramp up its space exploration plans from 2014, with shiny new kit to probe black holes, study dark matter and search for signs of alien life, according to one of the country’s top astro-boffins. Su Dingqiang, former president of the Chinese Astronomical Society and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, revealed …

Science 23 Aug 06:45
Samsung Galaxy Beam Android projector phone review

Putting on a display

Samsung's first Galaxy Beam, the GT-i8520, was a tremendously thick, heavy and expensive handset that very few bought. Having had a rethink, the company is now trying the whole smartphone-with-a-projector idea again with the GT-i8530. Essentially, this handset amounts to a Galaxy Advance S with a Digital Light Processing …

Phones 23 Aug 07:00
ICO to probe Essex council over data leak

Service users told their information 'has been compromised'

The Information Commissioner's Office is making enquiries into a leak of data possibly involving the details up to 400 users of services provided by Essex county council. The council said that all affected residents had been informed. It has not yet been confirmed that the leak amounts to an offence under the Data Protection Act …

Law 23 Aug 07:25
REVEALED: Everything Everywhere new 4G logo ... a SNAIL?

Here's a tip: Needs more go-faster stripes

Everything Everywhere has chosen a surprising design to accompany the launch of its 4G next-gen mobile broadband in Britain, we've discovered. Ten trademarks were registered with the Intellectual Property Office on 29 May, and have now emerged: the ten include the phrases "4G Every", "4G Everywhere", "4G Everything Everywhere …

Media 23 Aug 08:02
Hunt vows: 'UK will have fastest broadband in Europe by 2015'

Did I say best? I meant fastest - it's the same thing, right?

The government's pledge to provide countrywide broadband access by 2015 has received another boost from the Culture Secretary, who has promised the "fastest broadband of any major European country". In a speech at Google's Campus in East London, Jeremy Hunt said that speed was the most important aspect of the government's …

Broadband 23 Aug 08:18
Not in China? No shrunken IBM Storwize array for you

Covert move by Big Blue

IBM has stealthily released a smaller version of its StorWize V7000, the V3500, restricting its sale to Taiwan, mainland China, Hong Kong and the Chinese territory of Macau. Big Blue hasn't explained why the handy little V3500 won't ship outside of PROC and ROC*. The Storwize V7000 is a mid-range block storage array using SAN …

Storage 23 Aug 08:41
MoD to become even more top-heavy as a result of personnel cuts

Top brass to shrink by 3% (or less) in 20% bloodbath

The UK's Ministry of Defence is a famously top-heavy organisation: the navy has at least one admiral for every warship it possesses, the RAF has an air-marshal or two for every fighting squadron and the army has approximately 10 times as many generals as it could possibly need to command itself in combat. And that's not even to …

Government 23 Aug 09:02
Investor pulls out of Facebook, pumps cash into pork-printing joint

As you do

News that maverick venture capitalist Peter Thiel dumped 20 million Facebook shares – about $400m worth – last week was accompanied by an announcement about a small investment he made around the same time: in a printable meat company. Looks like biotech company Modern Meadow's ambition to print out a "pork sheet" is more …

Science 23 Aug 09:15
Titanic storage wrestlers grapple in summer frenzy

Keep up at the back there

This week is turning out to be a massive raft of storage news. Ready for the deluge? Here we go: In the flash galaxy, astronomers have discovered a Micron cluster formed from little flashes of light: Flash cache software supplier VeloBit has a sampling programme with Micron, the memory chip fryer. Customers get a bundled …

Storage 23 Aug 09:39
Sony Mobile moves out of Swedish lovenest after break-up

Heads back home after Ericsson split, leaves 1,000 redundancies in its wake

Sony Mobile is moving its headquarters from Sweden to Tokyo, where parent group Sony Corporation is headquartered, and laying off 1,000 people as it reshapes the company it took total control of back in February. Most of the layoffs will be in Lund, Sweden, where 650 staff will lose their jobs thanks to the closure of the old …

Mobile 23 Aug 09:58
Ice core shows Antarctic Peninsula warming is nothing unusual

Press release flatly contradicts what boffins said

New ice core data from the Antarctic Peninsula has revealed that temperatures in the region during the past 10,000 years have often been higher than they are today, and that warming of the sort seen there recently has also occurred in the pre-industrial past. The new data are derived from a massive new 364m-long core extracted …

Science 23 Aug 10:16
Facebook, Instagram nuptials get US watchdog blessing

Show me your ring in a share-reliant sling... bitch

Facebook's proposed $1bn buyout of photo filter Instagram has been cleared by the US Federal Trade Commission. The greenlight follows the UK's merger and acquisitions regulator confirming last week that it was unconcerned about the takeover affecting competition in Blighty. Meanwhile, the FTC seemed equally apathetic about …

Financial News 23 Aug 10:28
LG making thin screens possibly FOR THE NEW iPHONE

New touchscreens churned out for mysterious 'customer'

LG Display has fuelled rumours of the imminent arrival of the iPhone 5 as its CEO announced the production on a new, thinner display. The new screens will have built-in touch sensors, components widely speculated to be involved in the latest Jesus mobe. Chief exec Han Sang Beom told reporters in South Korea that work had …

Mobile 23 Aug 10:44
LOHAN sets clock ticking for explosive climax

Just what our mission control board will do, and when...

Work is proceeding apace on our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) "Swift" control board, as recently unveiled to an astounded world. Anthony Stirk and Neil Barnes are beavering away at assembling the board and tackling the coding, respectively. Earlier this week Anthony got the GPS chip on the Swift up and running - …

SPB 23 Aug 11:01
Citi rubbishes Nasdaq compensation offer for Facebook IPOcalypse

'Give us ALL our money back, not just a few million'

Citigroup has let the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) know that it is not happy with the Nasdaq stock exchange's offer of $62m compensation for the Facebook IPOcalypse. Citi went to town on how badly it thinks Nasdaq mishandled the first day of Facebook trading in a 17-page letter to SEC yesterday, published [PDF] by …

Financial News 23 Aug 11:14
AT&T defends FaceTime price gouge

Apple aren't our competition, so we're free to nobble them

AT&T has been busy defending its decision to ban FaceTime video chat from its 3G and 4G networks, unless punters shell out additional cash, to the sound of an incensed blogosphere screaming "net neutrality". In a blog wittering AT&T’s "Senior Vice President-Federal Regulatory and Chief Privacy Officer" Bob Quinn defends the …

Broadband 23 Aug 11:28
Study: If your antivirus doesn't sniff 'new' malware in 6 days, it never will

But opposing researcher smacks down the finding

Mainstream antivirus software only has small window for detecting and blocking attacks, according to a controversial new study. Host-based intrusion prevention firm Carbon Black found that if an antivirus package had failed to detect a piece of 'new' (recently discovered) malware within six days of its first being detected by …

Security 23 Aug 11:46
Sony pushes patent for interactive TV ads

Makes a play for commercial gaming

Sony has aspirations for television commercials with interactive network games, recently published patents reveal. The Japanese firm wants its games consoles to detect when an advert has an interactive segment, which could then be turned into mini-games playable against other viewers glued to the box. Of course, these games …

Games 23 Aug 11:53
Nokia, Samsung and pals team up to map malls, stations

Alliance aims to develop standard for mobile floor plans

Nokia and Samsung have teamed up to try to standardise the technology used to for indoor location services. The firms, together with Sony, British chip designer CSR and 18 other companies, have launched the In-Location Alliance to launch standards-based services, starting with Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy technology and Wi-Fi …

Broadband 23 Aug 12:07
OFT makes special exemption for bumpkins' wayleave charges

Milking the cows of ~~industry~~ BT to speed up broadband rollout

Getting faster broadband connections in rural areas remains a bugbear for many of the locals who live in the harder-to-reach parts of Blighty. So clarification from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on competition law relating to wayleave rates has been unsurprisingly welcomed by landowners in the countryside today. The …

Broadband 23 Aug 12:24
Password hints easily snaffled from Windows PCs

Psst, you might want to encrypt that

Punters' password hints are easily extracted from the latest Microsoft Windows machines, security researchers have discovered. TrustWave SpiderLabs uncovered a key called "UserPasswordHint" during wider research into how the Redmond operating system stores password hashes. Subsequent studies showed it was easy to extract and …

Security 23 Aug 12:43
Capita's IT Services top dog legs it after just 6 months

Jogs out door left open by biz boss after mega redundancy programme

Capita IT Services boss Mark Quartermaine is leaving the company just six months after he landed the job. He follows operations director Russ Hewitt, who quit the firm a month ago. In an announcement to employees, seen by The Channel, Mark Wyllie, executive director at Capita, said that Quartermaine would be heading for the …

The Channel 23 Aug 13:02
We're raising generations of MUTANT KIDS, says Icelandic study

Trend to later dadhood drives evolution of X-men. Sort of

The trend for women to have children with older chaps than of yore is causing many more mutations among children, according to a study of the genetics of Icelandic families. There's no call to panic regarding the new generations of mutant kids, however: they shouldn't be unduly prone to either troublesome superpowers nor more …

Science 23 Aug 13:03
SCC handed top-level clearance to flog secure cloudy kit on G-Cloud

First supplier to get pan-government security rating

Reseller and integrator SCC has been cleared to sell secure cloud services across all government departments through G-Cloud. SCC has announced pan-government accreditation for nine services sold under its OptimizeCloud, which have been granted an Impact Level 2 and 3 rating by government inspectors. Under G-Cloud, companies …

The Channel 23 Aug 13:27
Red alert! Google assembles crack team to AVOID privacy gaffes

Just how can we stop our dastardly behaviour attracting the Feds?

Google has answered the beeping red telephone, pressed the red button and assembled a "red team" as it's known in security parlance - all after seeing red over the US Federal Trade Commission's small-change fine for tracking Safari users. The team will try to crack Google's software and penetrate its networks to critically …

Security 23 Aug 14:02
Tech conferences: Not just here for the FREE BEER

Sysadmin blog It's all about the social networking... ~~bitch~~ mate

Tech conferences have real value to sysadmins, something that goes far deeper than the cynical tropes of expensing beer out to the company or a free vacation. The excuse used to sell conference attendance to the brass is that they provide valuable training and a good look at upcoming technologies. The real value is in the …

Servers 23 Aug 14:39
Red hot chilli peppers floor Bristol shoplifter

Unwisely scoffs booty, collapses, vomits, cops a cuffing

A Bristol shoplifter got a shock lesson in the awesome power of the Scotch Bonnet after ill-advisedly deciding to scoff a handful of the napalm peppers he'd swiped from a store, before attempting to leg it from the scene. Marcus Banwell, 39, barely got outside Singh Stores in the St Paul's district of the city, because "within …

Bootnotes 23 Aug 15:04
Train crash knocks out fibre cables, delays 9/11 hearing

Maryland derailment sliced communication lines to US naval base in Cuba

A 9/11 pretrial hearing at Guantanamo Bay was postponed on Wednesday after a coal-train crash that killed two women in Baltimore, Maryland, disrupted internet connections to the 45-square-mile US naval base in Cuba. The whole thing was later altogether abandoned due to a tropical storm. Fibre optic lines were damaged in the …

Media 23 Aug 15:27
Broken Sword franchise gets crowd funding boost

Gaming classic revisits 2D roots

Revolution Software is back with a fresh instalment of Broken Sword. The team has opted to take the franchise back to 2D and self-publish the game, reaching out for financial support on money-please website Kickstarter. The latest edition - Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse - is already in development, with most of the …

Games 23 Aug 15:40
Microsoft's new retro-flavoured logo channels Channel 4

Logo watch Metro is dead, long live the Metro-inspired rebrand

Microsoft has redrawn its corporate logo for the first time since the 1980s in a move likely to have the web boiling over its significance. Out is the fluttering Windows flag with Microsoft spelled using a bold black typeface and the "o" slashed by the "s". In is a four-piece square that looks like a Simon memory game, with " …

Windows 8 23 Aug 16:11
McAfee splats bug that knocked punters offline

The internet? Oh no, far too dangerous for you to go alone

Antivirus maker McAfee has fixed a problem that cut off punters' internet connections earlier this week. The snafu, caused by a dodgy update for the Intel-owned malware whack-a-mole product, also knackered enterprise versions although it didn't send users offline. For both the consumer and business builds, the error was traced …

Security 23 Aug 16:29
Rovio sticks some Martian action into Angry Birds Space

Plonks Curiosity where no rover has gone before...

For possibly no other reason than it hasn't had any other fantastic ideas lately, Rovio Entertainment has updated its Angry Birds Space app to include the Martian terrain. It's all about Mars over at NASA these days, what with the Curiosity finally tootling about the planet and the agency's Jet Propulsion Lab bagging some …

Media 23 Aug 16:59
LulzSec sneak Sabu buys six more months of freedom

Federal grass gets more time in pasture

Hector Xavier Monsegur, aka Subu, who allegedly led and then sold out the LulzSec hacking group, has bought himself another six months of freedom from the big house. The US Department of Justice has filed a motion in the New York courts to keep Monsegur on the streets until February 2013 due to his "ongoing cooperation with …

Security 23 Aug 17:57
VMware desktop virt refresh lets you run Windows 8 everywhere

Run Windows 8 inside Windows 8, hey, why not

Just days ahead of its annual VMworld conference in San Francisco, VMware has announced new versions of its consumer desktop virtualization solutions for Windows and Mac OS X, both with improved support for Windows 8. VMware Workstation 9, which the company announced on Thursday, has been optimized for running on Windows 8 …

Windows 8 23 Aug 20:02
Pentagon develops 'Plan X' for next-gen online combat

'Battle units' to defend global networks

The Pentagon is asking for submissions for its next generation of online defenses with a workshop organized by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the tools to protect US networks. The Foundational Cyberwarfare (Plan X) Proposers’ Day Workshop will be held on September 27 at DARPA's conference …

Security 23 Aug 20:53
Akihabara unplugged: Tokyo's electric town falls flat

Reg hack finds fancy dress maids playing darts, but few unique gadgets

Special report Tokyo's Akihabara district may be fabled the world over as a geek wonderland and a tech writer's dream, but the reality as El Reg found out last weekend is rather different. Step out of the station’s “Electric Town” (denki machi) exit today and it’s difficult to see what all the fuss is about. Along spotlessly …

Business 23 Aug 22:45
Boffins confirm sunspot-weather link

Sunspots still don’t account for climate change

A group of scientists led by German researcher Frank Sirocko of the Johannes Gutenberg University at Mainz has provided a long-term statistical study relating weather to the Sun’s 11-year cycle. The study, carried out in conjunction with the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich, Switzerland, used records of …

Science 23 Aug 23:02
New US rule aims to crack down on Congolese capacitors

Companies must report use of minerals from conflict areas

In an effort to stem the flow of foreign money into war-torn Africa, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued new rules requiring manufacturers to publicly disclose whether they use minerals extracted from the conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or any neighboring countries. Conflict diamonds, …

Business 23 Aug 23:08