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22nd October 2012 Archive

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  • European Space Agency to launch exoplanet-spotter

    CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite wins comp for fast, cheap missions

    The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected a project called Cheops – short for CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite – as the winner of its new process for choosing fast, cheap, space missions. The agency issued its Call for Small Missions in March 2012. Cheops emerged triumphant over 25 other submissions. The ESA says “ …

    Science 22 Oct 01:46

  • Samsung's Japanese iPhone block bid fails

    Fruity phone remains on sale in Japan as court dismisses patent infringement claims

    Apple’s global patent dispute with Samsung took another twist at the weekend after it was revealed a Tokyo court rejected a request by the Korean electronics giant for an injunction to stop all iPhone sales in Japan. Samsung’s patent infringement claims revolved around technology used in the iPhone 4 and 4S for the downloading …

    Law 22 Oct 03:43

  • Alcatel Lucent battles unions in bid to slash 5,500 jobs

    Low cost threat from China looms large

    Ailing telecoms kit maker Alcatel Lucent is facing a typically robust response from French unions as it tries to slash costs, and over 5,000 jobs, in a bid to compete better - especially against low-cost rivals from China. The firm first announced plans to cut more than six per cent from its 78,000 strong global workforce back …

    Business 22 Oct 05:00

  • Researchers find not all EC2 instances are created equal

    Different Xeon and Opteron CPUs sold under same name and at same price

    Researchers from Deutsch Telekom Laboratories and Finland's Aalto University have claimed it is possible to detect the CPUs of servers powering at Amazon Web Services' (AWS') Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), and that the fact the cloudy giant uses different kit in different places means users can select more powerful servers at the …

    Cloud 22 Oct 05:26

  • Naughty Siri breaks law by listing Chinese escorts

    Siri, am I going to jail for a very, very long time?

    Voice-activated digital assistant Siri has discovered a rebellious streak which could put it on collision course with the Chinese authorities, after appearing to answer user requests on where to find pornography and prostitutes. It seems Siri is a lot more worldly wise than its pre-teen age would have us believe, apparently …

    Mobile 22 Oct 06:30

  • Apple iPod Touch 5G review

    Super, sexy media star about to be killed by cheap tablets?

    It’s fitting that this is the fifth generation of the iPod Touch, because what you’ve got here is, in effect, an upgrade almost as ambitious as the recently launched iPhone 5. Like the iPhone 5, the new Touch has had a bit of a growth spurt, stretching just over a centimetre to accommodate a larger 4in, 1136 x 640 “Retina” …

    reghardware 22 Oct 07:00

  • Her Majesty's Secret Service opens a Q-Branch apprentice scheme

    Want a completely blank spot on your CV? Apply here

    A scheme to recruit technical apprentices to work in MI5*, MI6** and UK communications spook central GCHQ*** is now open and accepting applications. Successful Q-Branch apprentices will do paid work tackling cyber threats and organised crime, deep in the intelligence service headquarters in Cheltenham and London. The young …

    Jobs 22 Oct 07:29

  • Nimble, Cisco gang up to hammer out VDI ref template

    Like there's a party in my desktop and everyone's invited

    Hybrid flash/disk array startup Nimble Storage has effectively joined Cisco's server partner channel with a VDI reference architecture promising low-cost VDI serving off its arrays. The architecture supports 1,000 VDI users, takes up a trivial 3U of rack space, and costs $43,000 – $43 per desktop. That contrasts with a Tintri …

    Storage 22 Oct 07:59

  • British sheep falling behind Continental sheep in broadbaaaand race

    #sheepneedtwitter Fork out, for all our sakes

    Hello. I'm British, and I'm a sheep. And right now, that's no place to be. We're a vital part of the economy - Britain has 20 million sheep, and we give you more lamb than anyone else in Europe. You, the two-legged taxpayer, already recognise how vital we are. Every sheep farmer receives £20,000 per farm per year. But …

    Bootnotes 22 Oct 08:20

  • TiVo: Cisco and pals could owe us BILLIONS over DVR patents

    Check this, Apple - A patent battle over actual technology

    Since 2004, Faultline has been championing the idea that someone must have invented the DVR, and that it is a genuine invention, not a set of software patents like the flimsy patents filed by Apple, which we do not believe will ever stand up to scrutiny. And if TiVo genuinely does own those patents, which the last three court …

    Media 22 Oct 08:39

  • Prosecutor seeks sports-bodies guidance on troll-hunting rulebook

    Ropes in athletes in quest to end trial by Stephen Fry

    The views of sports men and women about social media trolling cases are being sought by the director of public prosecutions. Keir Starmer said late last week that he wanted to extend the consultation process he announced in September to include comments from the Football Association, the England and Wales Cricket Board, the …

    Media 22 Oct 09:01

  • EMC bigwig jumps overboard and gets gobbled up by Barracuda

    Backup man had a backup plan all along

    EMC has lost its backup and recovery systems executive head after BJ Jenkins jumped ship for a role heading up Barracuda Networks. Jenkins became the boss of EMC's BRS business in January this year, replacing Frank Slootman, the ex-CEO of acquired Data Domain. Jenkins reported to Pat Gelsinger, who was then EMC's Information …

    Storage 22 Oct 09:21

  • IBM slices UK GTS contractor rates

    Ninety per cent of something or a hundred per cent of nothing

    IT contractors working for IBM Global Technology Services (GTS) in the UK are being hit with a 10 per cent rate cut from this week. A Reg reader said that IT bods were being told that they had to accept the rate reduction from this weekend. Recruitment firm Hays confirmed that contractors were getting their pay chopped, but …

    Jobs 22 Oct 09:52

  • Windows 8: Microsoft will declare victory, but will anyone believe it?

    Channel feeling 'impotent' as major launch nears

    If you’re having a hard time getting excited about Windows 8, you’re not alone. While Microsoft has steadily ramped up expectations and extolled the new operating system’s virtues for much of the last year, few of the software company’s traditional manufacturing partners and channel solution providers are seeing much …

    The Channel 22 Oct 09:58

  • Avnet devours reseller BrightStar Partners

    'We're buying it for the services, don't ya know'

    Avnet Technology Solutions (ATS) continues to expand its IT services biz after hoovering up an IBM reseller stateside that also houses a consultancy and software operation. The distie titan has already blurred the traditional business boundaries between wholesalers and solution providers by acquiring Pepperweed Consulting, …

    The Channel 22 Oct 10:17

  • I just LOVE Server 2012, but count me out on Windows 8 for now

    Sysadmin blog Some of us consumers don't like consumer stuff

    Overall, I think Windows 8 is a truly wonderful operating system. The under-the-hood changes make it a fantastic improvement over Windows 7. I am completely in love with Server 2012; I can't imagine the next few years without it. Despite being in love with the technology underpinning Windows 8, I ultimately have to walk away …

    Windows 8 22 Oct 10:18

  • SAP vows to unravel user snarl-up over software licensing

    Survey shows misery and despair among customers

    SAP is "actively discussing" ways to make its software licensing easier to understand, the software giant has told The Reg. A spokesperson for SAP, the world’s largest maker of business software, said it plans to announce specifics “shortly.” SAP didn’t provide any more details, but the statement follows a damning …

    Developer 22 Oct 10:52

  • Head of Facebook EMEA tentacle to become Tech City UK chief

    Former Bebo-ite to queen it over digital Shoreditch

    London's Tech City has poached a top Facebook VP to become its new CEO. In what is seen as a coup for the Tech City Investment Organisation, Joanna Shields, VP and Managing Director of Facebook Europe, Middle East and Africa has now taken up the £115,000-a-year CEO job. The work will involve her pushing forward Tech City's key …

    Media 22 Oct 11:05

  • Four in ten Brits have had to change all their passwords to foil crooks

    Also, teens warned that saucy pics may be re-used as porn

    A survey of over 3,000 Brits has discovered that more than half (56 per cent) have been targeted by online criminals with a successful attack costing, on average, £247 per person. The study, released on Monday to coincide with the start of the annual Get Safe Online awareness week, discovered that almost one in five (17 per …

    Security 22 Oct 11:29

  • XBMC coders acquire TVonics brand

    Exclusive UK DVR set to return

    Key assets once owned by TVonics, the UK digital video recorder maker which collapsed into administration in June 2012, have been acquired by a UK developer with a view to create a set-top box based on the popular open source media player, XBMC. Peterborough-based Pulse-Eight today said it had bought the TVonics brand, the …

    reghardware 22 Oct 12:01

  • Boffinry group shakes tin for effort to build Babbage's Analytical Engine

    Doesn't rule out Kickstarter at some point in future

    The group behind the attempt to build Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine has started accepting donated funding for the first stage of the project, a 3D computer simulation. Plan 28 want to start the ancient computer build with a 3D working simulation, computer historian John Graham-Cumming said. For that, the group, started …

    Science 22 Oct 12:11

  • IDC: Cloud really WILL save melting economy, just like the EU said

    Study finds cloud will create 3.8 MEELLION jobs by 2020

    Only regulatory intervention by the EU will give punters the necessary comfort to dive into the cloud. Or so says beancounter IDC, in a study commissioned by the, er, EC, just weeks after the EC itself said it plans to cobble together industry standards across its 27 member states. The analyst "modelled" different scenarios …

    The Channel 22 Oct 12:40

  • BT and Virgin sue over £10m state-funded Birmingham broadband

    Telcos: 'New broadband service is a dangerous precedent'

    BT and Virgin Media have thrown another legal block in front of a £10m investment in Birmingham's broadband infrastructure. The two telcos are dragging Birmingham City Council back to the European Commission by challenging a decision to allow the City council to improve broadband pipes. It means that the £10m investment plan …

    Broadband 22 Oct 13:28

  • US data centers get bigger, but there are fewer of them – survey

    The big get bigger up in the clouds, driven by storage

    So how many data centers, server rooms, and data closets do you think there are in the United States? You guess maybe 20,000? Maybe 100,000? Try 2.94 million, at least according to the box-counters at IDC. This is a much larger number than you might expect, and considering there are tens of millions of small businesses in the …

    Datacenter 22 Oct 14:31

  • Boris 'games rot brains' Johnson hosts game art expo

    Exhibition launched at Mayor's HQ

    City Hall - home of the London Mayor - plays host to a games-related art exhibition this week as the London Games Festival draws to a close. Curiously, the exhibition is "supported" by Mayor Boris Johnson, who in December 2006 wrote on his blog and in the Daily Telegraph that "computer games rot the brain" [secondary source; …

    reghardware 22 Oct 14:42

  • Windows 8 versions will confuse the punters, say OEMs

    Consumers must rely on retailers to explain difference between Basic x86 and RT

    The various flavours of Windows about to hit the street will confound consumers, a panel of analysts and OEMs concluded at the recent Canalys Channels Forum. Redmond is preparing to release the Basic x86 Windows 8 (Standard, Pro and Enterprise) and Windows RT operating systems on 26 October, with Windows Phone 8 out in a week …

    The Channel 22 Oct 15:02

  • Can climate change be changed back again? Maybe, say boffins

    Futurama giant ice-cube method not on the cards, though

    Climate boffins now reckon that solar geoengineering could be done safely by targeting specific regions. Solar geoengineering basically works by reflecting sunshine back into space, thereby offsetting global warming. Scientists would pump aerosols into the stratosphere or create low altitude marine clouds to scatter solar …

    Science 22 Oct 15:22

  • Skype for Windows 8 is coming: Always on, always in your contacts

    And TWO SCREENS OF SMILEYS - that's worth $8bn, right?

    Microsoft has dropped the veil on the next version of Skype a few days before it launches on Thursday with Windows 8. The video chat service has been reworked to be always-on and compatible with the live tiles and asymmetric grid that are at the core of the new user interface. Skype for Windows 8 will be "immersive and …

    Windows 8 22 Oct 15:47

  • Amazon accused of remotely wiping punter's Kindle

    Policy abuse claimed

    It’s bad enough that when you ‘buy’ an e-book, you’re really only renting it, but now we hear that at least one e-book seller will, it has been alleged, wipe your device if it sees fit. Norwegian writer Martin Bekkelund tells the story of a chum, called Linn, who claims to have had her Kindle remotely wiped by Amazon UK. Linn …

    reghardware 22 Oct 16:09

  • Cisco tames Hadoop with Tidal workload control freak

    Hadoop World Forges big-data bundles on UCS iron

    Everybody is trying to make a buck or two on Hadoop big-data munching, and Cisco Systems is no exception. It's trying to get the jump on others by making its Hadoop World announcements just as people are arriving at this week's New York event and figuring out what to do after all the yammering is done. Cisco is making two …

    Datacenter 22 Oct 18:10

  • Gates: Microsoft will merge Phone and Windows platforms

    One OS to rule them all

    The code-sharing between the Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 operating systems is just the start of a long-term plan to merge the two into a universal OS, company cofounder and chairman Bill Gates has promised. "We're certainly sharing between Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 – sharing the user interface, sharing some of those …

    Windows 8 22 Oct 18:32

  • HP detunes Violin, tunes up 3PAR

    Violin: 'The current HP Violin relationship remains unchanged'

    HP has decided to curtail its reselling agreement with Violin Memory in favour of concentrating on 3PAR solid-state storage. HP has been reselling Violin Memory's v-31xx and v-32xx flash memory array products since July of last year via a Hardware Product Purchase Agreement (HPPA). We understand it has no intention of …

    Storage 22 Oct 18:49

  • Astroboffins out FREAK 'BI' GALAXY

    Elliptical? Spiral? We report, you decide

    A team of astrophysicists have discovered the first celestial agglomeration that qualifies as both an old, settled-down ellipical galaxy and a young, vigorous spiral galaxy. Centarus A, more prosaically known as NGC 5128 and discovered in 1826, has long been recognized as an elliptical galaxy, but a paper in The Astrophysical …

    Science 22 Oct 20:19

  • Minnesota backpedals from online education ban

    Free lifelong learning not a threat after all

    The US state of Minnesota has backed away from a policy that would have banned providers of free web-based higher education from offering courses to its residents. Last week, El Reg reported that online education startup Coursera was forced to add a clause to its terms of service forbidding Minnesotans from taking its courses …

    Law 22 Oct 20:22

  • Amazon's Virginia cloud data center knocked out – again

    Can't blame mother nature this time

    Amazon Web Services' Ashburn, Virginia, data center is giving the retailing and cloud computing giant headaches again, and Bezos can't blame the fickleness and severity of the weather this time around as he could back in late June when a hurricane-like line of thunderstorms ripped across the Ohio Valley and knocked out power to …

    Datacenter 22 Oct 20:37

  • Aus student data stored for Google ads

    EU reforms may keep students commercial free

    Australian students may be spared potentially invasive digital data access from Google following the Privacy Commission’s decision to back the EU’s reforms regarding Google's new privacy policy. European data protection agencies have given Google a four month deadline to fix its new privacy policy which the agencies claim do …

    Security 22 Oct 20:43

  • Yahoo! treads! water! in! slow! third! quarter!

    Sweetens up shareholders with $4bn bonus

    In her first full quarterly results since taking the helm of the good ship Yahoo! Marissa Meyer reported it was steady as she goes, with revenues and operations results bobbing up or down only a percentage point or two. "Yahoo! had a solid third quarter, and we are encouraged by the stabilization in search and display revenue …

    Financial News 22 Oct 21:12

  • Samsung Display: Apple hasn't kicked our LCDs out of its garden

    Updated Denies reports that its kit was chucked over the wall

    Recent reports quoting a "Samsung Display spokesperson" saying its LCDs will no longer be part of the Apple ecosystem have been contested by the Korean company. According to the Korea Times, Samsung Display currently ranks as Apple’s number-one LCD supplier, delivering more than 15 million devices since the beginning of the …

    Business 22 Oct 21:23

  • Big data to be normal by 2020

    If we can convince our kids to be data scientists

    Big data is big business right now, and it will not only be embiggening as this decade rolls on, but it will become normal, like enterprise resource planning, supply chain and customer management, and other perfectly normal parts of the corporate computing landscape. But that will only happen, it seems, if we get people …

    HPC 22 Oct 23:26

  • NYU boffins demo tiny tractor beam

    To beam the impossible beam

    While using light pressure to move something in the same direction as light is well-understood, using beams to pull objects is a bit more difficult. Now, a couple of Davids from New York University – Ruffner and Grier, respectively – have demonstrated just that. In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, and available in …

    Science 22 Oct 23:29

  • Kindle Touch bites the dust

    You're only allowed to touch the Paperwhite

    Just a week after removing the jumbo-sized Kindle DX from its range of e-readers, Amazon has erased the Kindle Touch from its catalogue too. The Touch was introduced just last year, as a mid-range e-reading option that improved on the eensy-weensy keyboard offered in early Kindles, and was rather more elegant to use than the …

    Hardware 22 Oct 23:35