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19th September 2012 Archive

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  • Dice swallows Slashdot, SourceForge, Freecode in $20m deal

    Geek sites welcome their new recruiter overlords

    Dice Holdings, which runs a number of job-listing sites including Dice.com, has acquired open source code-hosting repository SourceForge, software-index site Freecode, and tech-news discussion site Slashdot from parent company Geeknet, in a deal valued at $20m. "The acquisition of these premier technology sites fits squarely …

    Business 19 Sep 00:37

  • ABC sends lawyers after iView freeware

    Client for Australia's iPlayer equivalent under threat on Linux and Android

    Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, has unleashed its legal team on the creator of an alternative frontend app for ABC’s iView, issuing a stern take down notice. The offending free software, Python-iView, allows users to watch content from the ABC's iView media player, which is functionally similar to the BBC's iPlayer …

    Policy 19 Sep 02:37

  • ITU suggests replaceable cables for power supplies

    Standards body hopes to reduce e-waste, match connectors with voltages

    The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has kicked off its Green Standards Week with a proposal for the world to standardise the power supply units (PSUs) provided with devices like mobile phones and laptop computers. One of the standards the ITU proposes would see the ubiquitous devices equipped with replaceable …

    Hardware 19 Sep 04:11

  • New European weather satellite reaches orbit

    Euro space agencies forecast better forecasts

    The European Space Agency (ESA) and European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) have announced the successful launch of a new weather satellite expected to provide a major source of data for weather forecasts. Metop-B, as the bird is known, ascended on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan's …

    Science 19 Sep 05:22

  • Casio to enter tablet market with twin-cam scanner

    'Paper Writer' will convert hand-written notes into digital form

    Watch and calculator-purveyor Casio is set to enter the tablet space with a flourish with the launch of the Paper Writer, a 10.1in device featuring document scanning functionality which could appeal to business travellers. The tablet features two five megapixel cameras and is powered by an as-yet-unnamed 1.5Ghz dual-core …

    Hardware 19 Sep 05:56

  • Governments block YouTube over that video

    Feeling the backlash. O' the cat

    Google’s YouTube service is under fire across the Muslim world after several governments blocked the site outright after the web giant refused to remove or restrict access to a video uploaded by a US filmmaker ridiculing the Prophet Muhammed. The 13 minute video, a trailer for an amateurish film called the Innocence of Muslims …

    Policy 19 Sep 06:06

  • Baidu's patriotic doodle ruffles Japanese feathers

    Chinese users offered chance to plant flag on disputed islands, instead of rioting

    Chinese search giant Baidu is in fire-fighting mode after releasing an ill-advised doodle on its homepage on Tuesday depicting the disputed Diaoyu Islands – a move which could harm its international operations. September 18 was the anniversary of the Mukden, or Manchurian, Incident of 1931 which led to the Japanese invasion of …

    Business 19 Sep 06:28

  • Ten backpacks for tech-heads

    Product Round-up Carry on computing

    Whether its kids heading back to school, businessmen smartening up for the autumn slugfest, or campers scraping out the remnants of various summer picnics, there are punters aplenty on the hunt for new travel apparel this month. And while the traditional shoulder-strap design for laptop bags still adorns the city streets, those …

    Hardware 19 Sep 07:00

  • AGIMO's final cloud guidance released

    Urges modest pilots when first vaporising IT

    The Australian Government Information Management Office has released its final Guide to Implementing Cloud Services (PDF). The document advises caution, suggesting that when considering cloud government agencies need to remember that “Like any new delivery model, a first step is to target low risk, low value applications or …

    Policy 19 Sep 07:19

  • EU ponders £30bn BAE-EADS mega aerospace-military borg

    Brussels sayin' yes to gov's pieces o' eight could make or break deal

    Questions remain over the likely outcome of a proposed £30bn merger between BAE Systems and EADS which would create the world's second-biggest aerospace and defence company. Securing government approval for the deal from the French, German and British governments is considered to be pivotal to the merger going ahead. While …

    Government 19 Sep 07:34

  • Budget-slash fest shaves 10% off IT mercenaries' day rates

    But RBS tech fiasco may shower COBOL mateys in gold

    Cost-cutting at banks and a squeeze in the public sector have pushed IT contractor day rates in the UK down by £38 since 2010. Freelancing tech bods are therefore taking home £9,000 a year less than two years ago. But the recent RBS/Natwest banking crash offers a silver lining for developers: those skilled in the ancient ways …

    Jobs 19 Sep 08:01

  • Euro watchdog: We need ONE definition of 'illegal content' across EU

    Scurvy server dogs threatened with the plank

    The European Commission should define what is meant by "illegal content" in order enable content 'hosts' to better understand what responsibilities they have to remove or disable access to such material, an EU privacy watchdog has said. The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Peter Hustinx said that hosting service …

    Government 19 Sep 08:17

  • iPass Wi-Fi hands the boss control, staff get the bill

    All hands on deck

    IT departments tired of forking out to keep staff connected to the internet will be delighted by iPass Open Mobile Express: it leaves control with bosses while letting the workers pay for it. California-headquartered iPass aggregates a million or so Wi-Fi hotspots around the world, allowing enterprises to pay one bill for all …

    Broadband 19 Sep 08:41

  • 'Stuff must be FREE, except when it's MINE! Yarr!' - top German pirate

    Talks like a pirate, walks like a 'privileges pussy'

    A senior German Pirate Party executive who once described intellectual property as "disgusting" has resorted to the DMCA to thwart pirates. Executive board member Julia Schramm [bio] has written diatribes against what she calls "the content mafia". That was before she snagged a €100,000 book deal with Random House, the publisher …

    Media 19 Sep 08:58

  • Even slimmer PS3 out next week

    Flash storage version inbound too

    Sony has introduced the expected new, slimmer, curvier PlayStation 3 and pledged to put it on sale next week. The PS3 Even Slimmer takes up just three-quarters of the space the PS3 Slim does. It'll come in 12GB and 500GB capacities, Sony said today at the console revamp's Tokyo Game Show debut. The former contains Flash …

    Games 19 Sep 09:05

  • Pushdo botnet's smokescreen traffic hits legitimate websites

    Aargh, cap'n, the server be like to founder

    Cybercrooks behind the resilient Pushdo botnet are bombarding legitimate small websites with bogus traffic in order to camouflage requests to the zombie network's command and control servers. A varying cast of around 300 genuine (mostly smaller) websites is at the receiving end of queries from zombie drones infected with the …

    Security 19 Sep 09:19

  • iPhone 5 sleuth work points to $199 component costs

    Virtual deconstruction

    Each iPhone 5 costs Apple $207 to make, it has been estimated. Actually, make that 'guessed'. Market watcher IHS iSuppli hasn't had an iPhone 5 to take apart yet, so it's presumably had to work from the component photos leaked onto the internet over the past few months and from its knowledge of the phone's capabilities and the …

    Apps 19 Sep 09:32

  • Hello Miracast vid-beaming: ANOTHER thing the iPhone 5 hasn't got

    Shiver me timbers, 'tis on the Galaxy SIII though

    The Wi-Fi Alliance has formally launched Miracast, the 5GHz peer-to-peer wireless connection for echoing a phone onto a TV, with a test suite and the first devices supporting the protocol. Those devices are the Samsung Galaxy SIII and Echo-P Series TVs, with support promised for the Note range of tablets. Less-specific …

    Apps 19 Sep 09:36

  • Phone hack scandal: Cop, two scribes nabbed in bung brouhaha

    Clapped in irons by the King's men, d'ye see?

    Two journalists and one serving police officer were arrested early this morning under suspicion of corruption and allegations relating to misconduct in a public office. Scotland Yard cops working on the Operation Elveden inquiry into claims of police bung-taking, which is an investigation happening in conjunction with the Met' …

    Media 19 Sep 09:43

  • So many devices, so little policy

    So what are you waiting for? Matey

    Every one of your users has a computer at home, maybe a laptop, definitely a phone, and likes to log in from someone else's computer from time to time. They're carrying your data around, but often not your security policy. You know how hard it is to match policy form device to device, location to location. If only it were …

    Business 19 Sep 09:59

  • Inside the guts of a fiendish Internet Explorer 0-day attack

    Sysadmin blog Bite down, matey, surgeon Pott's got his chopper out

    The latest use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer is being actively exploited in the wild. While this comes as a surprise to nobody, we all get to live in fear for a while until the software giant manages to get a patch out the door. In the interests of attempting to overcome a particularly nasty bout of …

    Datacenter 19 Sep 10:06

  • Who queues for an iPhone 5? Protesters, hipsters and the jobless

    Pics These lubbers be strange 'uns, and no mistake

    The iPhone 5 doesn't go on sale until 8am on Friday, 21 September - yet lines of fanbois, socio-averse hipsters, campaigners and self-promoting twits awaiting the new mobe are already clogging the pavements outside Apple Stores. Yesterday on the steps of London's flagship Regent Street pomaceous-product outlet, punters …

    Apps 19 Sep 10:24

  • ASA keelhauls Ebuyer AGAIN - this time for dodgy disk ad

    Belay that promo, these cost savings be lies

    Web souk Ebuyer has been scolded for misleading promos about the price and warranty options for a disk drive. This is the second time this year the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has sent the East Yorkshire-based online reseller to the naughty step: back in July the toothless watchdog pulled apart Ebuyer's sales pitch for …

    The Channel 19 Sep 10:30

  • Yahoo! punts! $3.6bn! to! shareholders! after! Alibaba! deal!

    Gold, by the powers! Now, what'll us do with it, eh?

    Yahoo! has closed the $7.6bn stage of its sale of stock to Alibaba, bagging $4.3bn in cash after taxes and fees. Alibaba has long wanted the share in its stock sold back to Yahoo! so it can have greater independence and go for its own stock market flotation in the next few years. But it took over two years of negotiations for …

    Financial News 19 Sep 10:44

  • Report: Microsoft to cop it from Brussels in Browser Choice affair

    Ballmer's back to feel the licking o' the cat

    Microsoft is reportedly set to be whacked with a Statement of Objections from European Commission competition officials over the software giant's foolish browser-choice gaffe in which users of the Windows OS were steered into using the firm's IE software. According to Bloomberg, which cited two anonymous sources familiar with …

    Government 19 Sep 10:58

  • Gigantic Roman bathtime-fun mosaic found under Turkish field

    Buried treasure, me hearties! Darr, there be no gold here

    Bone-bothering boffins have uncovered a massive Roman mosaic in southern Turkey, proving that the ancient Empire's influence reached far into the area. The humungous mosaic, uncovered by a farmer in his field next to a still-standing bathing structure, is 1,600 square feet of meticulously crafted workmanship. It was built at …

    Science 19 Sep 11:24

  • GCHQ in new challenge for cyber security wannabes

    So me lad, ye think ye can repel boarders, eh?

    GCHQ, the nerve centre for UK eavesdropping spooks, has launched a new attempt to persuade tech-savvy Brits to defend their nation rather than seek lucrative employment in private companies. Officials at the Government Communications Headquarters are after potential cyber spooks aged 16 and over who are not already working in …

    Security 19 Sep 11:58

  • Juries: The only reason ANYONE understands patent law AT ALL

    Andrew's Mailbag Give us honest men, not a parcel o' wiggy land-sharks

    Apple's recent mobile patent trial victory over Samsung has raised the spectre of justice being done behind closed doors by self-appointed elites. Today, it's the norm for juries to decide patent disputes. Jury trials oblige the parties to speak in plain language. And there's plenty of wiggle room for cantankerous citizens to …

    Law 19 Sep 12:28

  • Dell sets out Win8 tablet, Ultrabook, all-in-one stall

    Business, as usual

    Dell unveiled its latest business products for the upcoming Windows 8 platform this morning. The firm flaunted its forthcoming tablet, all-in-one and Ultrabook, all of which come with Dell's high-end security protocols for the serious business user. This includes Dell's data protection encryption services and support for …

    Laptops 19 Sep 12:36

  • 'Programming on Windows 8 just like playing bingo' - Microsoft VP

    Avast, ye Redmond buckos, where's me variadic template?

    Windows developers have suffered multiple changes of direction in recent years. There is Win32, WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), Silverlight, and now WinRT (Windows Runtime), the platform formerly known as Metro. Can they be confident in the longevity of the new thing, or might it be swept away in favour of some other new …

    Windows 8 19 Sep 13:01

  • Raspberry Pi patch adds warranty-safe overclocking

    1GHz Turbo Mode debuts

    The Raspberry Pi Foundation has equipped its credit card-sized computer with an overclocking - and overvolting - mode that doesn't tear up your warranty when you activate it. The organisation is pitching the update as the introduction of a "turbo mode" which dynamically ups the core voltage and frequency but only so long as …

    Hardware 19 Sep 13:02

  • Publishers, Apple bend over for EU eBooks probe

    They'm scurvy price-dogs, arr, but be Black Jeff Bezos worse?

    Four of the publishers in the Europe’s antitrust ebooks price-fixing probe, along with Apple, have offered to scrap their agency model in Europe and allow retailers to set any price they want for ebooks. The offer, if accepted, would hold good for two years. The parties have also offered to suspend "most favoured nation" …

    Media 19 Sep 13:28

  • Arista touts next-gen switch as malleable as a T-1000 Terminator

    Plunder me x86, programmable pipeline, and OpenFlow booty

    Nobody has had his fingers in so much of the data centre pie as Andy Bechtolsheim, founder of Sun Microsystems, Granite Systems, Kealia, and Arista Networks. When Bechtolsheim and his team of techies at Arista say they have come up with their own way of doing software-defined networks (SDN) with their switches, people will stop …

    Data Networking 19 Sep 13:54

  • Size matters: Bromium 'microvisor' to guard PCs for big biz

    Clap these mutinous dogs in th' app brig, mister mate

    Bromium, the security software company that was started by the techies who brought us the Xen open-source hypervisor out of Cambridge University, has brought vSentry, its first product, to market. But unless you are buying a new PC from a partner who is bundling the vSentry tool on a new machine, you probably won't be able to …

    Virtualization 19 Sep 14:25

  • New vicious UEFI bootkit vuln found for Windows 8

    Arr, 'tis typical: Redmond swabs lag behind OS X, again

    Security researchers have discovered security shortcomings in Windows 8 that create a means to infect the upcoming operating system with rootkit-style malware. Italian security consultants ITSEC discovered the security hole following an analysis of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), a successor to the legacy …

    Windows 8 19 Sep 15:02

  • Speaking in Tech: We infiltrate Hitachi Data Systems' secret labs

    Podcast How to keep data doubloons out of Davy Jones' bitlocker

    It's that time again for the Speaking in Tech podcast hosted by Greg Knieriemen, Ed Saipetch and Sarah Vela - although she's taking the week off while Ed and Greg are live at the Hitachi Data Systems Day in Santa Clara, California. Our special guests this week are Ken Wood, director of technology and strategy at HDS, and The …

    Storage 19 Sep 15:30

  • Samsung's appeal gaffe keeps Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned in US

    Ye swung y'self from t'yardarm this time, growls beak

    Samsung has failed to persuade a US judge to lift a temporary sales ban on its Galaxy Tab 10.1 - even though the slab wasn't found to be infringing Apple's designs in the pair's epic patent trial. The tablet was the only piece of Sammy gear that went into the court showdown with a preliminary injunction on it, after Judge Lucy …

    Law 19 Sep 16:03

  • UK.gov will struggle to avoid pain in further IT cuts, says HP bigwig

    Me cutlass is hittin' bone now, King's man

    Blighty's government will be hard pushed to further slash its tech spending as it enters a second round of cost cutting. And "cross-department collaboration" will be needed if better results are to be achieved. Or so says HP UK top boss Nick Wilson, who described the Cabinet Office's methods to eke out budget reductions with …

    The Channel 19 Sep 16:19

  • Google acts against prostitution app after complaints from Congress

    Scurvy droid pimp pulled off, d'ye see

    Google has removed a sex trade app from its Google Play marketplace – but only after pressure from Members of the US Congress. The Udoopi app bills itself as ‘the first Escorts 2.0 app’ and promises ‘All the paid sex of your city geolocated and always available on your mobile, iPad and computer. JOIN THE SEX CLUB.’ The …

    Media 19 Sep 16:59

  • Sleep easy, Tim Cook: Surface, Win8 tablet shipments looking poor

    These fondleslab galleons be barely worth pillaging

    Microsoft's Surface and OEM Windows-based tab sales are forecast to be low this Christmas season as price and "consumer confusion" limits appeal, bean counter IDC claimed. It seems World + dog can't get enough of the slab fondling phenomena as demand has forced IDC to up its Q4 forecasts by nearly ten million boxes but Apple and …

    The Channel 19 Sep 17:18

  • Dell bends shiny server linings for denser clouds

    Zeus chassis, lightning not included

    You can only cram so much stuff into a chassis that is two rack units high, and so server maker Dell is shifting to a 4U chassis for its latest "Zeus" PowerEdge C8000 design. The new Zeus chassis is designed from the ground up to pack more CPUs, coprocessors, and storage into a 4U space than Dell was able to get into two 2U …

    Servers 19 Sep 17:18

  • Apple iOS 6 review

    Review 200 new features, but you'd never know it

    OK, so when iOS 6 arrives in an hour or so, you'll rush to download it no matter what. You may as well, it's free, especially if you're not using any old apps that might warrant compatibility fears. Apple has promised the new operating system delivers more than 200 new features, but the vast majority of those aren't user- …

    Apps 19 Sep 17:19

  • Zuckerberg loses $8bn in Facebook IPO fiasco

    Wee lad's Forbes 400 booty ranking mercilessly keelhauled

    File this under "Problems you'll never have": Facebook headman Mark Zuckerberg lost over $8bn of his net worth due to his company's wretched IPO. This news comes from The Forbes 400, that magazine's annual list of the 400 richest Americans. This year, Zuckerberg sank from 2011's ranking of 14th on the list with a net worth of …

    Business 19 Sep 18:00

  • Chase joins Bank of America in possible Islamic attack outage

    Another target of the 'Cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam'?

    The consumer website of JPMorgan Chase was unavailable on Wednesday afternoon, possibly due to the same hack attack that caused Bank of America to go intermittently dark on Tuesday after threats from a group incensed by the execrable Innocence of Muslims film that has caused turmoil in the Islamic world. "We're experiencing …

    Security 19 Sep 19:29

  • OpenStack Foundation launches with $10m in funding

    NASA, Rackspace experts jump ship to Nebula

    The OpenStack cloud controller and related projects developed under the Big Red O are finally and officially free of Rackspace Hosting, which has by and large been steering its development since July 2010, when the project was founded. Unsatisfied with the closed nature of VMware's vCloud and the quasi-proprietary nature of …

    Virtualization 19 Sep 20:24

  • CrimTrac seeks new CIO after incumbent joins Gartner

    New leader can expect lots and lots of meetings with bureaucrats

    CrimTrac, Australia's agency charged with facilitating intelligence-sharing between States, Territories and the Commonwealth, is looking for a new CIO after incumbent Darin Brumby joined analyst firm Gartner. Brumby's LinkedIn profile reveals the move, as does the fact that CrimTrac has advertised for his replacement. Gartner …

    Jobs 19 Sep 22:00

  • SUSE updates Linux control freak

    Shadowman in a chameleon suit wearing a Red Hat

    SUSE Linux, the division of software conglomerate Attachmate that develops and sells the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server distribution of Linux, is hosting its SUSECon user and developer conference this week in Orlando, Florida and is using the occasion to launch SUSE Manager 1.7, a substantial update to the Linux server control …

    Virtualization 19 Sep 22:05

  • Did GM food cause GIANT TUMOURS IN RATS?

    French study under fire

    A French study claiming to link genetically modified crops to cancer has come under fire almost the instant it was released. The study has dropped like a bomb into the “Frankenstein crops” debate. Californians are due to vote in November on Proposition 37 which would mandate GM labeling on all foodstuffs. In Australia, …

    Science 19 Sep 23:00

  • Microsoft promises two-step IE fix

    Protection first, then an update

    Microsoft has promised it will release a fix “in the next few days” to address the recently-identified flaw in Internet Explorer. At the time of writing, it is only possible to work around the bug, or stop using Internet Explorer, if one wishes to avoid the potential effects of attacks exploiting the vulnerability. In a new …

    Software 19 Sep 23:39