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18th October 2012 Archive

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  • Australia ponders patent refresh to restrain trolls

    Simple 'innovation patents' likely to get tougher regs to stop holders blocking rivals

    Australia’s patent system will be overhauled to make life harder for cynical abusers of the patent process. The review will focus on 'innovation patents', a type of patent introduced in 2001 to encourage IP protection for SMEs and function to protect “simple inventions and improvements to existing technologies”. Such patents …

    Policy 18 Oct 00:14

  • Huawei, ZTE probe showed no evidence of spying

    All they did was sell lousy equipment

    An 18-month investigation by the US House Intelligence Committee into Chinese networking vendors Huawei and ZTE revealed no evidence that either company has been involved in espionage, sources claim. As reported by Reuters on Wednesday, two sources familiar with the probe said that "certain parts of government really wanted" …

    Government 18 Oct 00:24

  • Caltech shrinks optical accelerometers

    A light alternative to tracking mobes

    The practical limit to tracking a smartphone-owner’s movements in real time – beneath the resolution of GPS and associated location-tracking technologies – is the sensitivity of the motion sensor. Researchers at Caltech say they’ve taken a step towards very fine motion sensors, using nano-scale waveguides. Today’s smartphones …

    Science 18 Oct 01:00

  • Man files FCC complaint over AT&T FaceTime blocking

    Fist shaken vigorously

    A San Francisco man has filed a complaint against AT&T with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the carrier's decision to charge customers extra to use Apple's FaceTime video conferencing on its 3G and 4G networks. The man, an architect who wishes to remain anonymous, told Business Insider on Wednesday that …

    Mobile 18 Oct 01:34

  • Boffins explain research with interpretive dance

    Dance your Ph.D. winner scores with 'The romantic revolution of Lightness & Strength'

    Australian scientists have won this year's Dance your PhD competition, an event boffins who explain their work with interpretive dance. Material scientist Peter Liddicoat, from the University of Sydney, took out the competition with a performance of A super-alloy is born: The romantic revolution of Lightness & Strength, …

    Science 18 Oct 01:40

  • Barley’s giant genome sequenced and open-sourced

    Boffins build better booze bible

    Better beer from genome sequencing is just one possible outcome from research that included the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) and the University of Adelaide. As well as the usual published-in-Nature for their research paper, the genome sequence and other resources have been published here and here, or …

    Science 18 Oct 03:02

  • ZTE execs halve pay until profits return

    Top brass sacrifice as middle management fail to volunteer for own cuts

    Executives at Chinese telecoms kit maker ZTE have agreed to take a whopping 50 per cent pay cut until the beleaguered firm claws its way back into the black. The Shenzhen-based tech giant, which is the world’s fifth largest smartphone maker by shipments, earlier this week predicted a 260 per cent, or 1.75bn yuan (£174m), drop …

    Financial News 18 Oct 03:22

  • Kiwi spook stood down after Dotcom SNAFU

    Dotcom talks up Megabox, Google, as only surviving movie studios

    A senior employee at New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to have been sent on gardening leave, as the Bureau and other government agencies investigate the Kim Dotcom affair. In recent works it has emerged that the GCSB conducted surveillance of Dotcom under laws that empower it to spy on …

    Policy 18 Oct 04:53

  • Air China passenger arrested for in-flight phone abuse

    Five days in Beijing slammer for unlucky punter

    Passengers on Chinese airlines were reminded this week that there’s no such thing as 'Airplane Mode' for mobiles in China, after one unfortunate passenger en route from Canada who repeatedly used his smartphone camera and music player was banged up on arrival by Beijing police. The unlucky passenger, surnamed Du, ignored the …

    Law 18 Oct 05:07

  • IBM claims first with Hadoop data security suite

    Big Data tools bonanza from Big Blue

    IBM is launching what it claims is the first data security system for Hadoop, as part of its biggest product rollout of security software and services yet seen from the company. Big Blue's not the highest profile security firm, but it has been buying in a lot of talent over the last three years and last year grouped staff and …

    Software 18 Oct 06:24

  • Chinese 'Thunder God' plant could crush cancer

    Traditional medicine zapped pancreatic cancer in mice

    Scientists believe a plant used for centuries in Chinese medicine may offer a cure for the pancreatic cancer that afflicted Apple talisman Steve Jobs and many others worldwide each year. Boffins from University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center have been testing Minnelide, a drug extracted from the lei gong ten or ‘thunder …

    Science 18 Oct 07:00

  • Apple iPod Nano 7G review

    The quest for the correct compact form-factor continues...

    Having sold something like 350 million iPods in the last decade, Apple has quite sensibly stuck to pretty much the same basic designs for most of the iPod range. The glaring exception to that rule is the ever-changing, shape-shifing iPod Nano. This is the seventh version of the Nano in seven years, and in that time it’s …

    Hardware 18 Oct 07:01

  • Users grumble after Adobe cancels Acrobat X Suite

    'Detailed analysis of product offerings' leads to more expensive software

    Adobe has cancelled its Acrobat X Suite – launched just 18 months ago - and now recommends its customers acquire a more expensive product. The company has buried slipped a statement about the cancellation of the suite into its FAQ for Acrobat. The suite bundled Adobe Acrobat X Pro, Designer ES2, Photoshop CS5, Adobe Captivate …

    Applications 18 Oct 07:15

  • BOFH: Uninterruptible patsy supply

    Episode 9 'We are having a special this week on proton charging and storage of the beast'

    "What the fuck just happened?" the Boss garbles, crashing around Mission Control like a madman after dashing down two flights of stairs from the 4th floor boardroom. "Uh.... UPS failure," the PFY says calmly, glancing up from his monitor briefly. "Well aren't you going to do anything about it?" "I am," he responds. "I have …

    BOFH 18 Oct 07:30

  • Canonical flings out Ubuntu 12.10 – now with OPTIONAL Bezos suck

    Web-desktop love is our future

    Canonical is bowed but undaunted after the bashing it took from Penguins over its recent integration of Amazon searches with its Linux desktop. The company has promised further integration between web and desktop as it today released Ubuntu 12.10. Asked by The Reg whether there would be more tie-ins like the one between its …

    Developer 18 Oct 08:00

  • O2 to save the British High Street ... with money-off vouchers

    Freebies for free, if you're a SME

    O2 is opening its free voucher scheme to every small retailer in the UK, even those which aren't O2 customers, as long as they're not franchised from a megacorp and have a high-street presence. The free scheme, which allows retailers to offer money-off vouchers to O2 customers, was launched in July, but was only available to …

    Small Biz 18 Oct 08:19

  • Ice sheets may stabilise for centuries, regardless of warming

    The tap filling up the oceans sometimes just turns off

    Ice sheets retreating due to global warming often suddenly stabilise for "decades to centuries" no matter that the warming is still going on, scientists have found. The new research would seem likely to have an impact on forecasts seeking to predict sea-level rise in coming times. Boffins at Cambridge, Durham and Sheffield …

    Science 18 Oct 08:38

  • On-demand streamed music services compared

    Feature How Xbox Music stacks up against the competition

    As Microsoft Xbox Music upon the masses this week, streaming over 30 million songs to groovetastic gamers and Windows PC users, we decided to see how it stacks up against the competition. The market is awash with Spotify-style streaming services, which vary in catalogue numbers, mobile support, pricing and their respective …

    Hardware 18 Oct 08:51

  • Tintri, it's the marmite of Virtual Desktops

    You gentlemen will relish my sauce, promises rival

    It seems that an ever-increasing number of companies are using Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Gartner predicts that by 2012, penetration on the enterprise PC sector will be 60 per cent. The vendors which provide accompanying software and gear are likewise fighting for your investment, as evidenced by the flurry of …

    Storage 18 Oct 08:55

  • Virgin Media's blighted SuperHub NOW comes with extra squeal (oink)

    Exclusive Netgear kit has even started to whine!

    If Virgin Media's SuperHub could speak it might well be saying: "Please put me out of my misery, Mr Boss Man". And now the modem/router combi networking box has indeed started to whine, whistle and squeal – perhaps about its inadequacy – to the telco's long-suffering customers. The company has admitted to The Register that …

    Broadband 18 Oct 09:17

  • Hold my feet to the fire using open gov data, pleads minister

    Smell of burning socks to waft along Whitehall?

    Head of the Cabinet Office Francis Maude has told journalists that he wants them to pore over government data and hold the feet of ministers "against the fire". Opening a conference to mark the Open Government Partnership today, he gave a rallying cry to the media everywhere to use data to hold governments to account. …

    Government 18 Oct 09:39

  • One year on, SSL servers STILL cower before the BEAST

    70% of sites still vulnerable to cookie monster

    The latest monthly survey by the SSL Labs project has discovered that many SSL sites remain vulnerable to the BEAST attack, more than a year after the underlying vulnerability was demonstrated by security researchers. BEAST is short for Browser Exploit Against SSL/TLS. The stealthy piece of JavaScript works with a network …

    Security 18 Oct 09:59

  • Morse! Shoved! Out of! Yahoo! Beneath! Giant! Golden! Parachute!

    'Termination without cause'

    Yahoo's sacked chief financial officer Tim Morse is going to get a nice little package for his "termination without cause". Morse, who briefly stood in as interim CEO after ex-chief Carol Bartz got the boot, was himself shown the door by ex-Googler and current top dog Marissa Mayer in September and immediately replaced by …

    Financial News 18 Oct 10:18

  • Whose cloud is the open-sourciest... Who cares?

    Open ... and Shut Money talks, a Twitter meme walks

    Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, the thought police are back. For years, the open source community was torn apart by fractious debates over what "open" meant and who was open enough. As we've moved beyond name calling to focus on getting work done, the same old debate has shifted to cloud computing, …

    Developer 18 Oct 10:40

  • Ofcom probe into telcos jacking-up charges halfway through contracts

    You only thought you had a good deal

    Mid-contract price rises implemented by telcos are currently being scrutinised by Blighty's communications regulator Ofcom, after it found a number of problems with customer subscriptions to landline, broadband and mobile services. The watchdog said it was looking at ways to better protect punters from prices being jacked up …

    Networks 18 Oct 10:59

  • 'Four horsemen' posse: This here security town needs a new sheriff

    Body which issues CISSP tin stars set for shakeup?

    As the overpriced beers flowed and dusk approached in central London pubs surrounding the venue of RSA Europe last week, talk often turned towards the (ISC)2 security certification body. (ISC)2, which administers the widely recognised Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) qualification, was "a waste of …

    Security 18 Oct 11:21

  • McKinnon case is NOT a precedent – says his own lawyer

    Cold comfort for O'Dwyer, Cleary et al

    Solicitors representing Gary McKinnon said that his victory in being saved from extradition does not set a precedent in other cases. Home Secretary Teresa May withdrew an extradition order against McKinnon on Tuesday, marking the successful end to a eight-year campaign to resist his extraction to the US to answer to charges …

    Law 18 Oct 11:38

  • Google hails hacks to WinPho 8 spoiler event

    3G Nexus 7 unwrapping?

    Crafty Google is hosting an announcement a week on Monday - the same day Microsoft will be formally launching Windows Phone 8. It’s also less than a week after Apple is expected to announced the ‘iPad Mini’. The 29 October Google launch, for which is begun mailing out invites tagged “The Playground is now open”, takes place in …

    Tablets 18 Oct 11:41

  • Outfit which will save your Freeview TV from 4G interference stands up

    Hurray, 4G signal! Boo, the telly doesn't work! Call DMSL

    The UK's mobile networks, in agreement with Ofcom and the Ministry of Fun, have set up a company to spend the £180m assigned to make sure that Freeview reception isn't knocked off the air by 4G. Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited will fill the role described as "MitCo" (mitigation company) in the various consultations and …

    Hardware 18 Oct 11:59

  • Sanitary towel firm's 'CEO' sets traumatised man straight

    'Bought her five boxes, she still hasn't been skydiving'

    Sanitary towel outfit Bodyform has gained itself some serious internet kudos with a video response to a Brit chap's complaint that women's periods are not a rollercoaster ride of joy and outdoor activity, as the firm's ads suggest. Richard Neill recently challenged Bodyform on Facebook: Hi, as a man I must ask why you have …

    Bootnotes 18 Oct 12:19

  • Microsoft plans big licencing price hikes, shifting to per-Device model

    Merry Christmas you turkeys

    Microsoft is planning to spread a unique brand of festive cheer before Christmas by bumping up the price of Client Accessing Licenses (CAL). Customers have two options when considering a CAL: the User CAL gives an individual user server client access for an unlimited number of devices; the Device CAL provides access to a …

    The Channel 18 Oct 12:44

  • Nokia earnings pain masks intact war chest, brewing counterattack

    And don't forget the dumbphone sector either

    Nokia reported another painful quarter today and warned of more to come. The Finnish phone giant reported sales were down 19 per cent year-on-year to €7.2bn for Q3, with an operating loss of €576m. On the positive side the war chest of net cash is unperturbed at €3.6bn, and Nokia's networks division and feature phones did well …

    Financial News 18 Oct 13:18

  • UltraViolet universal movie format still a no-show

    But the online film locker has 5m members

    UltraViolet, Hollywood’s attempt to tie physical media to movie downloads through an online locker, now has more than 5m accounts under its belt, but it’s still not ready for prime time: it’s key feature, a universal file format, is still not ready to be rolled out. UV was launched a year ago. By February 2012, it had clocked …

    Hardware 18 Oct 13:24

  • Insider 'fesses up: Amazon's Glacier cloud is made of ... TAPE

    IP Expo El Reg storage man Chris Mellor gets the scoop at IP Expo

    It's October and that show has come around again – IP Expo, the successor to Storage Expo. This year, the UK's "premier IT trade show" took place in Earl's Court, and saw a busy floor with lots of stands, lots of lead-hunting stand staff and the usual assortment of attention-grabbing oddities, like a man dressed as an HP Cloud, …

    Storage 18 Oct 13:29

  • Canonical to Windows XP cliff-clingers: Ubuntu safety net's ready... now jump

    Windows 8 concentrates the mind

    The 25th of October is an auspicious date on the Microsoft calendar. It's not just the date Redmond intends to release Windows 8; it's also the same date that Microsoft released Windows XP, back in 2001. Here's another big date, only slightly more ominous: 8 April, 2014. That's when, if you're still running Windows XP, you …

    Developer 18 Oct 13:49

  • Google data center spies on ITSELF: 'Like a boring version of Doom'

    Reveals Stormtroopers, propellerheads, ravenous blondes

    Google has drawn back the curtain on one of its US data center complexes, with a Street-View-style tour of its tentacle in Lenoir, North Carolina. One Reg reader described the whole experience as "like a boring version of Doom", and an initial shufti appeared to confirm this analysis: However, we are treated to an eyeful …

    Datacenter 18 Oct 14:00

  • Slideshow: A History of James Bond in 20 Games

    Licensed to play

    As the latest James Bond game - 007 Legends - shoots its way to shop shelves this week ahead of Skyfall's release on 26 October, we decided jump aboard the nostalgia train with a look back at Bond-theme games from yesteryear. Get bent! Since the very first virtual 007 adventure - the Parker Brother's James Bond 007 - gamers …

    Games 18 Oct 14:10

  • BBC Watchdog crew sink teeth into dodgy PC repair shops

    You don't need to know anything about IT to get this job...

    The reputation of the UK's computer repair industry took another hammering last week following a BBC Watchdog investigation into two Worcestershire-based computer repair firms. The flagship consumer affairs programme looked into Click 4 PC and Click Computers in response to reports from viewers about missing personal data, …

    The Channel 18 Oct 14:40

  • Moon was formed when PLANET SMASHED INTO EARTH

    'Theia' absorbed into core, lies beneath our feet today

    That old theory that the Moon was formed out of fragments of Earth blasted into space after a massive planetary collision 4.5 billion years ago has gained support from two new studies. Boffins have tried to figure out exactly how a giant impact in our solar system made the Moon. Previous theories have suggested that the …

    Science 18 Oct 14:42

  • Ay caramba, Ubuntu 12.10: Get it right on Amazon!

    Review NSFW, laughable results - what were they thinking?

    There's much to admire in Canonical’s Quantal Quetzal, which continues to refine and improve the Unity desktop, but you'd be forgiven if you missed the positives thanks to the late injection of a little Bezos since Ubuntu 12.04. As if the move to Unity hadn’t been contentious (and bumpy) enough, Canonical has dipped into …

    Developer 18 Oct 15:00

  • Citrix lowers sword, will take more time on 'Project Avalon' virty PC broker

    Scaling to 1 million desktops... not so easy

    Citrix Systems is hosting its Synergy partner and user conference in Barcelona this week, and has done a core dump on them with a barrage of announcements intended to demonstrate that Citrix, too, is down with the modern, post-PC, cloudy world. More than anything else, the announcements are trumpeting that the firm has made a …

    Virtualization 18 Oct 15:19

  • Apple loses UK 'Samsung copied us' appeal: Must publicly GROVEL

    In font no smaller than 14-point Arial, judge insists

    Apple has lost an appeal over a UK ruling that said Samsung fondleslabs don't copy iPad's design and the fruity firm better put out an ad that says so. Cupertino immediately appealed when it not only lost the case but was ordered to take out advertisements and post on its website's front page that Samsung didn't copy the …

    Law 18 Oct 15:57

  • Twitter censors bow to police, suppress Nazi tweets

    First they came for the national socialists ...

    Twitter has blocked access to a banned Neo-Nazi group in Germany after a request from the local police. Hannover police asked for the ban after disbanding the far-right group and seizing its assets during an criminal investigation into it. "All its accounts in social networks have to be closed immediately," the police wrote …

    Media 18 Oct 15:58

  • Ancient 16m-yr-old beastie caught riding on much bigger flying mount

    Astounding images of tiny aerial equestrian

    A new 3D x-ray technique has revealed a tiny jumping wingless arthropod making a break for freedom after hitching a ride on a mayfly's wing - only to be caught in a drop of amber and frozen for the next 16 million years. Scientists at Manchester University uncovered the ancient story when Dr David Penney and colleagues decided …

    Science 18 Oct 16:53

  • Cray bags InfiniBand, Lustre smarties from SystemFabricWorks

    SFW to focus on system integration

    For the past decade, SystemFabricWorks of Austin, Texas, has been doing development work on high-speed networks and storage systems as well as system integration work for vendors and big supercomputing labs. So that it can focus on its system integration work, SFW has come to an arrangement with supercomputer maker Cray, which …

    HPC 18 Oct 17:24

  • Google shares dive as profits reported down 20%

    Trading suspended until market calms down

    Google caused something of a stir by releasing its quarterly financials ahead of schedule – and the results aren't good. Net income for the third quarter was $2.18bn, compared to $2.73bn this time last year, with non-GAAP income down to $3.01bn, compared to $3.18bn on the same time period. Overall revenues were up 45 per cent …

    Financial News 18 Oct 17:43

  • Good news for Relational DBAs

    Comment Looks like there will still be demand for your services

    Those advocating emerging technologies and ideas often talk as if IT is a zero sum game. When something new comes along, the assumption is that something old needs to move aside to make way. We have seen this happen on a number of occasions in the data management space, with frequent claims relational databases becoming less and …

    Jobs 18 Oct 18:38

  • Newsweek succumbs to ad slippage, will kill print pub

    Bets its future on fondleslab subscribers

    Citing "the challenging print advertising environment," Newsweek – which will turn 80 next year – has announced that it is canning its print publication and transforming itself into a single, worldwide digital edition, Newsweek Global. "Newsweek will transition to an all-digital format in early 2013," wrote The Newsweek Daily …

    Media 18 Oct 19:22

  • Apple ordered to open its books on iPhone, iPad profits

    'Show us the money' says Judge Koh

    The judge in the ongoing Apple versus Samsung patent trial has ruled that Cupertino must disclose financial information on the profitability of its iPad and iPhone lines so that proper damages can be assessed. Apple won the initial stage of its trial against Samsung over the Korean manufacturer's infringement of Cupertino's …

    Law 18 Oct 19:54

  • Google rolls out new, cheaper Chromebooks 'for everyone'

    Atom chips swapped out for ARM

    Google announced the latest generation of its Chromebook browser appliances on Thursday, featuring a higher-resolution screen, an ARM processor, and a tablet-challenging list price of $249. The new Chromebooks are manufactured by Samsung, although this time they have no specific model number. The South Korean manufacturer is …

    Hardware 18 Oct 20:23

  • Outback Communities Authority plans NBN extension

    Plans to scope privately-funded satellite alternative for 8% of Australia

    The Outback Communities Authority (OCA), a government agency that provides services to remote areas in the Australian State of South Australia, will shortly endorse a strategy to build a wireless network for remote areas of the State. The OCA administers parts of South Australia where, thanks to very low population density, no …

    Government 18 Oct 20:45

  • AMD posts $157m loss, will lay off 15% of workers this quarter

    They said it was going to be bad, and they were right

    One week ago, AMD warned investors that its financial results for its third quarter of 2012 were going to be worse than it had previously estimated, with revenues down about 10 per cent from the previous quarter rather than the 1 per cent, plus or minus 3 per cent, that they had forecasted earlier. They were spot on – not that …

    Financial News 18 Oct 20:53

  • Alt root user suing ICANN over dot-Web

    ION has wanted the gTLD since 2000

    A company called Image Online Design is suing ICANN over rights to the .Web gTLD, to try and prevent the Internet names administrator from giving the domain to anybody else. According to DomainIncite, the basis of its complaint is that IOD has had an application for the domain rights in front of ICANN since its first “proof of …

    Networks 18 Oct 22:22

  • Dell dream team fantasizes about flashy and easy infrastructure

    Wakes up with Active System 'enterprise solution' in hand

    The enterprise strategy event in San Francisco hosted by Dell on Thursday was not just a coming out party for a new line of converged systems from the Texan titan, but also a coming out party for a new executive team responsible for enterprise products. That team includes top execs from Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, and IBM …

    Servers 18 Oct 22:58