The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

17th September 2012 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Canonical aligns Ubuntu Server with quick-change OpenStack

    Updates Landscape control freak for Linux machines

    Canonical, the distributor of the Ubuntu variant of Linux, wants to be on the cutting edge and be stable at the same time. And as anyone who has dated knows, that is a tough balancing act that few people can manage. But a new strategy from Canonical will line up the fast-changing OpenStack cloud control freak that is part of the …

    Servers 17 Sep 00:38

  • Key evidence in Assange case dissolves

    Intimate single-use garment doesn't contain white-haired one's DNA

    The case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may be on the brink of collapse following claims from the defence team that the central piece of evidence used in the case does not contain Assange’s DNA. According to details that have emerged in a 100-page police report submitted after witnesses were interviewed and forensic …

    Policy 17 Sep 00:49

  • Smack your phones up, says Microsoft

    Patent says mobes need a firm whack to shut them up

    Microsoft has filed for a patent on a new technique that allow users of mobile devices to silence them by delivering a firm whack. Patent application 20120231838, aka CONTROLLING AUDIO OF A DEVICE, aims to patent: “A method comprising: in a mobile communications device: receiving information indicative of acceleration of the …

    Hardware 17 Sep 01:25

  • Opportunity finds new patch of 'berries' on Mars

    Microbe-made Mars rocks mystery re-opens as Curiosity keeps trundling

    The Curiosity rover kept trundling away over the weekend, with NASA reporting the vehicle has now moved 142 meters. More exciting Martian action over the weekend took place at a spot NASA calls “an outcrop called Kirkwood in the Cape York segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater.” Ye Olde Opportunity rover is still hard …

    Science 17 Sep 02:14

  • Office to propel Windows tablets past Android in 2015

    Apple to stay on top of fondleslab fight says Taiwanese analyst

    Taiwan-based analyst TrendForce says Windows-based tablets will overtake Android's market share by 2015, thanks to the presence of Microsoft Office on the devices. The prediction can be found in a report titled 2010-2015 Market Shares of Tablet PC Operating Systems by analyst Eric Chiou from TrendForce. The prediction has been …

    Software 17 Sep 03:59

  • Boffins receive quantum key from moving plane

    Alice and Bob play catch

    A group of German researchers has taken a step closer to achieving quantum key distribution with satellites, receiving quantum keys transmitted by a moving airplane. The experiment is described in this paper (PDF) presented to the QCrypt conference in Singapore last week. Led by Sebastian Nauerth at the Ludwig Maximilian …

    Science 17 Sep 05:02

  • French firm snatches Italian set-top contract from Blighty's Amino

    Merde

    French digital video specialist Technicolor has snatched away a central set top contract from UK's Amino, the set top company that has so far blazed a trail in the hybrid Intel-based set top market. Technicolor has announced that it will supply the next generation set top for Telecom Italia‘s Cubovision. The MediaPlay range of …

    Media 17 Sep 06:59

  • Dropbox drops JavaScript, brews CoffeeScript

    23,000 lines of code converted, but why?

    Dropbox has stopped using JavaScript whenever it codes for browsers and has instead adopted CoffeeScript by re-writing 23,000 lines of code. DropBox developers Dan W, Ziga M and Chris V explain their choice in a blog post, offering brevity of syntax as their main concern and citing the following statistics from the company's …

    Developer 17 Sep 07:00

  • G-Cloud: Please excuse our 'overlapping' frameworks

    We've moved beyond 'traditional' contracts, mmm'kay?

    The G-Cloud team says that in a move away from traditional frameworks, it is setting up "multiple overlapping frameworks" which it says are each compliant with the Official Journal of the European Union process. A blog post on the G-Cloud website explains that bidding for G-Cloud contracts can become "unusual" – and that once …

    Government 17 Sep 07:34

  • Experts: What ICO should know BEFORE your private info ends up in a skip

    Businesses do need 'explicit consent' before outsourcing data protection – legal eagles

    The view of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) that businesses do not require individuals' "explicit consent" in order to contract others to process their sensitive personal data is in contrast with the wording of data protection law, according to two experts. A spokesperson for the UK's data protection watchdog told …

    Government 17 Sep 08:02

  • New hottest-ever extreme temperature records now easier to achieve

    1922 Italian army reading in Libya expunged from files

    Americans having just sweltered through a baking summer may not believe it, but there have been hotter ones in the past: for instance in 1913, when the second-highest temperature ever recorded - a brutal 56.7°C or 134 Fahrenheit - was seen in California's Death Valley. Until this year, the disbelieving American reader might be …

    Science 17 Sep 08:18

  • Why lock your digits to a phone? Telefonica to flog cloudy numbers

    Voice-minute cash cow is slowly dying

    Mobile operators are facing an inevitable squeeze as voice minutes disappear and the golden goose of messaging dies, but O2 owner Telefonica Digital has a plan: bring on the Chuckle Brothers and shell the OS out of existence. In the UK, mobile voice minutes are in decline for the first time in the history of telephony. It's an …

    Broadband 17 Sep 08:43

  • Memo to openSUSE 12.2: More polish, less angst

    Review Consumer transition a work in progress

    Chameleon fans, rejoice: openSUSE 12.2 is finally here. This release, due more than two months ago, has been plagued with delays. Ordinarily a few delays might not be a big deal; bugs happen and most users would agree a late, stable release is better than an on-time buggy one. However, with this development cycle the delays …

    Operating Systems 17 Sep 08:59

  • Space Station 'nauts touch down on Kazakh steppe

    Sparky spacemen trio return after power-supply job done

    Three International Space Station crew have made it safely back home, landing early this morning in Kazakhstan in the Soyuz TMA-04M. Cosmonauts commander Gennady Padalka, flight engineer Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut and flight engineer Joe Acaba touched down just before 4am BST (8:53 local time), after decoupling from the …

    Science 17 Sep 09:34

  • Apple admits iCloud 'unacceptable', vows to not go titsup again

    iYawn 5 maker in 10-hour email outage outrage

    Apple has apologised to fanbois hit by an iCloud outage, and described the ten-hour downtime as "not acceptable". Access to email accounts was the main casualty when the online storage cloud burst last week. Business owners in particular were peeved when they couldn't pick up their e-correspondence for a working day. At the …

    Cloud 17 Sep 10:16

  • Google defends drowning Acer's newborn Alibaba Linux mobe

    Android biz fears den of 40,000 thieves

    Google exec Andy Rubin has defended his advertising giant's decision to block Acer from launching a mobile phone for Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, claiming the Android ecosystem is quite fragmented enough. The phone was supposed to launch on Friday, but hours before the event Acer, the handset's manufacturer, pulled out …

    Mobile 17 Sep 10:28

  • iPhone 5 tops benchmark chart

    Seemingly beats phones, tablets

    Apple's upcoming iPhone 5 is one of the fastest ARM devices out there, beating even the Asus-made Google Nexus 7, if benchmark data posted online are to be believed. An entry in the Geekbench database spotted this weekend - the figures were uploaded yesterday - shows the new handset clocking up a score of 1601. The readout …

    reghardware 17 Sep 10:32

  • Oi, don't leave Cymru in broadband slow lane, MPs warn

    Welsh demand alternatives to BT fibre

    The UK government's broadband rollout plan fails to address the needs of businesses in Wales, MPs have warned in a report published today. The dossier highlights an apparent "gap" in internet access in more remote parts of Cymru. The House of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee cautioned that too many "slow spots" and "not spots" …

    Broadband 17 Sep 10:44

  • Sony snoozes over substandard PS Plus service

    No fix after months

    Sony's latest pledge to fix Europe's faulty PS Plus subscription service "as quickly as possible" will do little to appease users, who were told the exact same thing two months ago. The PlayStation Plus subscription is supposed to give PSN users access to heaps of additional content. However, many of these freebies, discounts …

    reghardware 17 Sep 10:46

  • Freebie virus scan biz punts belt-and-braces security for suits

    Two AV software products are better than one

    Malwarebytes, the anti-virus firm best known for its freebie scanner software, branched out into the enterprise with the launch of corporate products on Monday. Malwarebytes Enterprise Edition (MEE) is designed to catch malware that other anti-virus programs sometimes miss, including some strains of blended attacks (for …

    Security 17 Sep 11:01

  • Manchester is 'PIRATE CAPITAL of the UK'

    Brits snap up Ed Sheeran, Rihanna from '43m BitTorrent' downloads

    Manchester is Britain's biggest cove of pirate downloaders, claims a Shoreditch-based music upstart. Mancunians have a particular craving for illegal copies of smirking indie crooner Ed Sheeran's albums and singles, we're told. The northern city is the piracy capital of the UK, according to a new study by London-headquartered …

    Media 17 Sep 11:35

  • Got a BMW? Thicko thieves can EASILY NICK IT with $30 box

    Your flash motor - gone in 180 seconds

    BMWs and other high-end cars are being stolen by unskilled criminals using a $30 tool developed by hackers to pwn the onboard security systems. The new tool is capable of reprogramming a blank key, and allows non-techie car thieves to steal a vehicle within two or three minutes or less. On-board diagnostics (OBD) bypass tools …

    Security 17 Sep 11:52

  • Redstone throws £9.9m at sickly managed services firm in all-share deal

    Buyer finally found for Maxima's core bits

    Cloud and network integrator Redstone made a bid today for troubled managed services provider (MSP) Maxima, valuing the firm at £9.9m. The all-share deal between the AIM-listed firms equates to a 38 per cent premium on Maxima's market cap. Including the MSP's net debt of £3.9m at the end of May 2012, the acquisition represents …

    Channel Register 17 Sep 11:55

  • Apple 'hasn't really run out of iPhone 5s AT ALL'

    'They're in there playing Jenga with them', whispers mole

    In a revelation that seems set to shake the technology world to its very foundations, a clandestine Register source has informed us that secretive shiny-stuff behemoth Apple could easily supply more than enough iPhone 5s to meet initial demand: but that it deliberately chose not to. Our source, known to us only by the codename …

    Bootnotes 17 Sep 12:09

  • Fears mount over future of Voyager Networks

    Loss-making Cisco UC specialist has credit issues and is paying disties late

    Concerns are mounting over the future of Coventry-based Cisco Gold partner Voyager Networks. The unified communications specialist, established in 1993, is already on many distributors' watch lists after posting a string of results that show declining trade and operating losses. But sources claim Voyager has seen its credit …

    Channel Register 17 Sep 12:27

  • Google to axe IE 8 support, cuts off Windows XP lifeline

    Waves goodbye to old Microsoft browser on 15 November

    Google confirmed late last week that it would soon be killing off support for Microsoft's now aged browser, Internet Explorer 8, which also means it no longer gives a stuff about Windows XP hold-outs. The company said in a blog post on Friday that it would discontinue support for IE 8 on 15 November, claiming the move was …

    Applications 17 Sep 12:36

  • Microsoft bod dreams up 'Star Trek holodeck' games console

    Downloads complete, hit Enter when ready

    Microsoft wants to push Xbox games beyond the screen and put them all over the sitting room, reveals a patent application published by the US Patent Office last week. The idea sketched out by MS optical engineer Gritsko Perez in the patent application 'Immersive Display Experience' would create a peripheral display around the …

    Bootnotes 17 Sep 12:57

  • Fanboys order 2m iPhone 5s in 24 hours

    Record obsession

    Millions of fanboys have asked Apple to send them an iPhone 5, two million of them within 24 hours of orders first being taken for the new handset. That, claimed Apple today, is "more than double the previous record of one million held by iPhone 4S". The iPhone 4S was announced just under a year ago, on 4 October 2011. Apple …

    reghardware 17 Sep 13:04

  • BT to win Norfolk broadband contract - if Europe gives the nod

    Hopes to ink fibre rollout deal over next few weeks

    BT has been chosen by Norfolk County Council as the preferred bidder for a £39.3m contract to run fibre-optic broadband out to the sticks. However, the agreement between the national telco and Norfolk won't be sealed until later this year, and is subject to Europe's approval: the European Commission stalled the deal to …

    Broadband 17 Sep 13:40

  • PC share of DRAM biz falls below 50%

    First time since the early 80s

    PCs, once the final destination for almost all of the world's memory chips, now consume less than half of the world's DRAM shipments. During Q2, only 49 per cent of DRAM shipments ended up in desktop and laptop PCs, down from 50.2 per cent in Q1, market watcher IHS iSuppli said this weekend. This at a time when new machines …

    reghardware 17 Sep 13:46

  • IT biz bosses are 'BIGGEST job cutters' in the US

    And these are just the redundancies we know about

    Not only does automation help companies reduce their payrolls, the relentless competition among IT and telecom equipment and service suppliers - and the drive to ever-higher profit levels - is causing them to shed workers instead of adding them. So says the headhunters and employment analysts at consultancy biz Challenger, …

    CIO 17 Sep 14:28

  • Job-hunting honeybees rely on 'meth' to find work

    Pic Workers nurse or forage by brain chemistry

    Honeybees have no choice about what career they'd like: their destiny is hardwired into their genes - much like Fry in Futurama, who wakes up from cryogenic storage to be assigned a job based on his capabilities. The hapless honeybee only has two possible professions. It can go forth and forage - a varied work life that …

    Science 17 Sep 15:15

  • Game to lure customers with free Wi-Fi

    Easier than ever to find cheaper prices on the web?

    Troubled high street retailer Game is attempting to get customers back into its stores by offering them free Wi-Fi access. The gratis wireless internet will be delivered through a new partnership with BT, and will be rolled out in Game stores by Christmas. Game also touted a new, free smartphone app which will allow punters …

    reghardware 17 Sep 15:15

  • Winklevoss twins stuff $1m into social network for the FILTHY RICH

    Zuck on that, Mark

    Wanna know what the world's been lacking? A social network for hedge-fund bods, of course. And who better to be at the helm of such a brave Web2.0 venture than square-jawed Olympic rowing twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss - who rose from the ashes of their legal spat with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to plunge some of their …

    Networks 17 Sep 15:39

  • Flame espionage weapon linked to MORE mystery malware

    Command systems weren't just directing data-raiding worm

    Forensic analysis of two command-and-control servers for the Flame espionage worm has revealed that the infamous malware has been around for longer than suspected - and has links to other mystery software nasties. Flame was built by a group of at least four developers as early as December 2006, according to freshly published …

    Security 17 Sep 16:26

  • Ballmer: Win8 'certainly surpasses' Win95 in importance

    And that rumour of a $199 Surface? Fuggedaboutit

    Acording to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, 2012 is "the most epic year in Microsoft history," and the launch of Windows 8 is a bigger deal to Redmond than the launch of Windows 95. "Windows 95 was certainly the biggest thing in the last 20 years until now," Ballmer told The Seattle Times. "I think Windows 8 certainly surpasses …

    Media 17 Sep 18:23

  • Yahoo! ditches! BlackBerry! for! 'smart! fun!' phones!

    Updated RIM's platform not smart enough to give away

    Apparently, new Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer doesn't think BlackBerrys count as smartphones: she has launched a program to give a free smartphone to every employee, but handsets from Research in Motion (RIM) didn't make the cut. "Ideally, we'd like our employees to have devices similar to our users, so we can think and work as the …

    Mobile 17 Sep 19:36

  • CFO Seifert finds AMD's executive exit door, walks through it

    Yet another leadership transition for Intel's only ARMless competitor

    The personnel changes in AMD's executive suites continue with the resignation of the company's CFO, Thomas Seifert, on Monday. "Seifert's departure is not based on any disagreement over the company's accounting principles or practices, or financial statement disclosures," the company assured investors in a statement announcing …

    Business 17 Sep 21:32

  • HP's Whitman promises 'more beautiful' PCs

    This Apple company might be onto something

    Building PCs and laptops that are better looking and more instantly recognizable to consumers is a key component of HP's strategy to turn around its struggling PC division, according to CEO Meg Whitman. "I don't think we kept up with the innovation," Whitman said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "The whole market …

    Hardware 17 Sep 21:35

  • Huawei previews Cisco-killin' E9000 modular system

    Pulling the telecom-to-datacenter California alley-oop

    Chinese telecom giant and increasingly important server player Huawei Technologies is moving from racks and blades into modular designs that use a mix of both approaches – and look very much like modular kit from Cisco Systems, IBM, and Hitachi, as well as the newer bladish iron from HP and Dell. The likeness between the …

    Servers 17 Sep 22:03

  • Users told: Get rid of Internet Explorer (again)

    It’s more like an exploit than a browser

    Internet Explorer users have been told to ditch the application and switch to another browser, pronto. The warning comes from Rapid7, which describes a hole that’s exploitable by visiting a malicious Website (and, of course, in the world of Twitter and shortened URLs, it’s so much easier to get users to visit such sites). …

    Security 17 Sep 22:17

  • Monster camera preps for dark energy search

    Fermi’s 570 megapixel giant gets snappy

    Fermilab’s Dark Energy Camera has captured its first images, as a test run for the Dark Energy Survey due to begin in December 2012. The TARDIS-sized, 62-CCD, 570 megapixel camera, mounted on the Victor M. Blanco telescope at the National Science Foundation’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile, can shoot …

    Science 17 Sep 22:53

  • Vague data retention proposal draws IIA ire and friendly fire

    Meanwhile, government also mulls better privacy protection for Australians

    The vagueness of the Australian government discussion paper for “potential reforms of National Security legislation” is becoming the focus of the country’s data retention debate. On Friday, September 14, Senator John Faulkner, a member of the joint parliamentary committee conducting hearings into the proposals, expressed …

    Policy 17 Sep 23:01