The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

9th November 2012 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Is Telstra setting its sights on Metronode?

    Interested in Leighton assets: reports

    Although a Nextgen buy would probably be blocked by Australia’s competition regulator, reports are emerging that Telstra has its eye on the Leighton-owned data centre operation, Metronode. Leighton Holdings has its telecommunications assets on the block as it tries to put its balance book in better shape for the stock jocks. …

    Networks 9 Nov 00:33

  • Conroy says filter demise a win for community consultation

    EFA pleased by decision, Australian Christian Lobby wants wider blocks

    Stephen Conroy, Australia’s Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, as spun the decision not to introduce a comprehensive internet filter as a win for child protection advocates. Speaking to ABC Radio’s AM program, Conroy said “we've actually reached agreement with the industry to block child …

    Policy 9 Nov 00:42

  • HP revs up Integrity, Superdomes for Itanium 9500s

    Several new leases on life, with an option to buy

    Now that Intel's "Poulson" Itanium 9500 processors are out and Oracle is supporting its database on HP-UX 11i v3 running atop those processors, HP CEO Meg Whitman has two fewer things to worry about. The life of Ric Lewis, the new general manager of the Business Critical Systems division who took over that job late last week, is …

    Servers 9 Nov 01:17

  • Oracle snaps up Instantis to beef up Fusion and Primavera

    Project management system for cloud and in-house code

    Oracle has acquired project management software house Instantis, and says it will integrate the company's code into its Primavera and Fusion Applications platforms. "Organizations realize the need for a more simplified approach to address project portfolio management initiatives and yet most solutions are too complicated and …

    Business 9 Nov 01:22

  • Google launches third-world mobile web land grab

    Aims to corner 'next billion users' with Free Zone

    Google has chosen the Philippines as the first country in which to try out Google Free Zone, a new program aimed at getting phone users in developing nations onto the mobile internet by way of the search giant's ad-supported online properties. The service, which Google launched on Thursday in partnership with wireless carrier …

    Mobile 9 Nov 01:46

  • Apple seeks cooling fan patent for iPhone, iPad

    Don't laugh, it's not as wacky as it sounds. Oh, never mind: laugh

    A future iPad – or even iPhone – might have a cooling fan inside, if a just-published patent application ever makes it off the drawing board and into an iOS device. The application, "Cooling System for Mobile Electronic Devices", was published on Thursday by the US Patent and Trademark Office, and describes the combination of …

    Hardware 9 Nov 02:36

  • Facebook warehousing 180 PETABYTES of data a year

    The Social Network open-sources ‘Corona’ tool used to manage the deluge

    Facebook’s data warehouses grow by “Over half a petabyte … every 24 hours”, according to an explanatory note The Social Network’s Engineering team has issued to explain a new release of open source code. The note says the warehouse performs "ad-hoc queries, data pipelines, and custom MapReduce jobs process this raw data around …

    Software 9 Nov 03:11

  • Ericsson claims TD-LTE record with 223 Mbps squirt

    At least until world+dog catches up

    Ericsson is claiming the current speed record for time division multiplexed LTE in a demonstration for China Mobile that hit 223 Mbps. There’s a caveat, however: while the demonstration used an off-the-shelf base station, there won’t be consumer devices able to exploit the technology until 2014. Ericsson says the demo puts …

    Networks 9 Nov 03:17

  • Malaysia protests rare earth processing plant

    Australian miner gets thumbs up from judge, loses court of public opinion

    Despite promising “Zero harm and sustainable development” and winning a court case permitting it to build a rare earth processing plant, Australian rare earth miner and processor Lynas Corp has failed to win favor from Malaysians who fear its investment will saddle the country with toxic waste. Lynas’ base is West Australia, …

    Business 9 Nov 03:49

  • Sony hack boss Schaaff quits

    New CEO Kazuo Hirai makes his mark

    The changes continue at ailing Japanese electronics giant Sony, as Tim Schaaff, president of the firm’s online entertainment business during the massive data breach of 2011, announced his decision to quit at the end of the year. Schaaff, a protégé of former CEO Howard Stringer, was hired from Apple in 2005 to become president …

    Business 9 Nov 04:25

  • Red peril paranoia hits Twitter

    Allegations fly of state-sponsored hack to silence dissent during Party Congress

    China watchers put two and two together and made five yesterday after pointing fingers at Chinese state-sponsored hackers whom they suspected of trying to break into their Twitter accounts. Several high profile Tweeters from academia, media and elsewhere began suspecting foul play after having their passwords reset and …

    Security 9 Nov 05:01

  • Bargain! Desperate Comet SLASHES price of £4,400 iPod Nano

    Pic No wonder they had cash flow problems

    Comet has generously slashed 97 per cent off the price of an Apple iPod Nano, touting the pocket-stroker at £129 rather than an eye-watering, er, £4,444. Until now the chain's clearance sale may not have impressed deal-hungry shoppers, but this saving was sadly too good to be true. The photo below shows a standard Nano model …

    The Channel 9 Nov 06:01

  • HP: Look to the East, admins! Lo, it is Project Dawn

    Sneak Reg preview of cheapo 3PAR storage stocking fillers

    Dawn is approaching for HP storage, and the sun will rise on two new low-end 3PAR storage arrays providing a future for legacy EVA array users. Currently there are three 3PAR models HP is focussing on: The high-end P10000 with its fourth generation ASIC speeding its operations; it was announced in August 2011 and stores up …

    Storage 9 Nov 06:29

  • Japanese car nuts build racecars powered by shouting 'Brrrm! Brrrrrm!'

    Vid Next: Planes which fly on 'Eeeeaaauuuooow'

    A team of Japanese car enthusiasts, backed by Nissan, have created a toy racetrack where cars speed along dependent on the driver's ability to imitate a V6 in full throttle. The "Voice Driver Cup" is a PR stunt promoting Nissan's new sports model, the Fair Lady 370Z, but involves Japanese developers making car noises into …

    Bootnotes 9 Nov 06:58

  • Amazon Web Services will make it into G-Cloud 3.0, says UK.gov

    Weird: Won't be OK'd for use pan-gov until 9 months later

    Amazon Web Services will be on the official list of approved services for used by civil servants through the G-Cloud catalogue - this time for sure. That's the message from G-Cloud programme director Denise McDonagh, who said Amazon only missed the cut on the second iteration of G-Cloud thanks to timing. "We don't have Amazon …

    Cloud 9 Nov 07:27

  • Volkswagen Beetle car review

    Retro done right

    Retro car designs fall into one of two categories. The Good like the Fiat 500 and the Bad like the 1998 VW Beetle and BMW’s huge Mini. The 1998 Beetle was a particularly bad example with underpinnings that represented a nadir of VW engineering and a body that betrayed its lazy California-penned origins. It was an insult to …

    reghardware 9 Nov 08:00

  • Will Santa be working overtime to shift Win 8 kit? No. Yes! Maybe

    'You! yes, you! STOP putting cash in Apple's pocket'

    Cash-strapped punters are unlikely to dig deep for a premium-priced Windows 8 PC this Christmas, says Gartner. The bean counter reckons sales into UK channels will be flattish in the fourth quarter compared to the same period a year ago when the market slumped by a fifth - the worst decline in half a decade. Clearly Gartner, …

    The Channel 9 Nov 08:29

  • Judge drops TV ad-block block: So how will anyone pay for TV now?

    Analysis The future could be a lot grimmer than ad breaks

    The US ruling that automatically stripping out the ads doesn't cause TV broadcasters irreparable harm might be legally accurate, but logistically it's nonsense and a decision we might all live to regret. Fox will appeal against the dismissal of its request for an injunction against Dish Networks, but it looks likely the TV …

    Media 9 Nov 09:00

  • At last, a bionic arm that passes the Beer, Egg and Looks Cool tests

    Vid Blender mishap man's excellent Blighty-made robo limb

    A British man who lost his right forearm in an industrial blending accident has been demonstrating a bionic replacement that's sensitive enough to grasp and pick up eggs without cracking them and strong enough to hold his beer. RSLSteeper, the British firm behind the BeBionic3 arm and hand, claim it’s the most advanced …

    Science 9 Nov 09:19

  • iPhone senses you typing on table, bit of wood etc, turns vibes to text

    bUt wH3rE \Re TH3 f7x<iNG kEYs @?

    A Swiss designer says he has created an iPhone keyboard that turns vibrations from fingertips on a tabletop into key-presses. Software keyboards are nothing new, and neither is the ability to project a keyboard on to any solid surface, but existing solutions need scanners or touchscreen surfaces to detect one's fingers. But …

    Applications 9 Nov 09:36

  • LOHAN slips BRA over BOOBIES in ballocket backronym buffoonery

    Alternative sensible(ish) suggestions invited for control board moniker

    Our invitation to readers to come up with a snappy acronym/backronym for our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) mission's electronic control board appears to have awoken the sniggering schoolboy inside some of you. Special Projects Bureau tradition dictates that we have an entertaining moniker for our endeavours, …

    SPB 9 Nov 10:01

  • Windows 8, Surface slabs ALREADY need critical security patch

    Mega vulns affect ALL Windows kit from XP onward

    Microsoft will release critical updates for Windows 8 and other software on November's Patch Tuesday next week. The upgrades will arrive within weeks of the Win 8 launch at the end of last month. All supported versions of the Windows operating system from XP SP3 up to and including Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 will need …

    Security 9 Nov 10:17

  • The Z-Factor: Meet the Simon Cowell of Linux

    Open ... and Shut Zemlin, ecosystems and pushing Penguins

    Canonical chief Mark Shuttleworth - a friend and my former boss at Canonical - has never had much love for rival Linux vendor Red Hat. So when he labelled Red Hat Enterprise Linux "legacy" technology during his keynote at LinuxCon in Barcelona, Spain, this week, aligning it with Solaris' faded glory, it was perhaps not …

    Operating Systems 9 Nov 10:40

  • BOFH: Can't you just ... NO, I JUST CAN'T

    Episode 11 Taking exception to exceptional exceptions

    "EVERYONE IS A F**KING EXCEPTION!" the PFY snarls - beating me to the very same exclamation by nanoseconds. "What do you mean everyone is an exception?" the Boss asks. "It's the life of a bloody systems admin, people want you to make exceptions for them!" the PFY shouts. "Passwords, web filters, extra file space. People want …

    BOFH 9 Nov 11:00

  • The GPL self-destruct mechanism that is killing Linux

    Analysis Festering hacks, endlessly copied and pasted - thanks Eric!

    Does one of the biggest-ever revolutions in software, open source, contain the seeds of its own decay and destruction? Poul-Henning Kamp, a noted FreeBSD developer and creator of the Varnish web-server cache, wrote this year that the open-source world's bazaar development model - described in Eric Raymond's book The Cathedral …

    Developer 9 Nov 11:12

  • High school kids wrestle uni students in mini-cluster match

    SC12 LittleFe foes prepare for battle at SC12

    Now that the US elections are over, it’s obvious that the world’s attention has shifted to the upcoming Student Cluster Competition (SCC), which will kick off next Monday at SC12 in Salt Lake City. The traditional ‘Big Iron’ competition (details here) has teams of undergraduates benchmarking their home-grown clusters to see …

    HPC 9 Nov 11:29

  • Assassin's Creed 3 game review

    Scales and tales

    "His name is Desmond Miles and he has brought us to the end." So begins Assassin's Creed 3. Frankly, if you believe this really is the end then you'll believe anything. No, rather than an end, AC3 is a fresh beginning, a place for new hero Connor Kenway to "rise" as the game's tagline puts it – form an orderly queue behind …

    reghardware 9 Nov 11:30

  • Navy SEALs from Bin Laden kill unit spanked for video game work

    Alright men. Who HASN'T got a media deal of some kind?

    Seven members of US special forces have been slapped on the wrist and had their pay docked for revealing ‘trade secrets’ to a games developer. According to US TV network CBS, the seven soldiers, all active members of SEAL Team 6*, spent two days last summer telling Medal of Honor: Warfighter creator Electronic Arts about …

    Media 9 Nov 11:44

  • Apple's 'inaccurate statements and FALSE INNUENDO'

    QuotW 'Our attention was drawn to an online mag called el Reg'

    This was the week when Cupertino finally published that statement on its website about how Samsung never infringed on the iPad, but naturally they buried it for Brits under the fold by resizing the whole front page. Apple had previously published a surly acknowledgement following UK court defeat against Samsung, which led …

    Software 9 Nov 12:00

  • UK chancellor dishes extra £60m to European Space Agency

    Hopes to boost mythical British 'space sector'

    The UK is to spend an extra £60m to £70m a year on space technology, by upping its commitment to the European Space Agency (ESA). The Chancellor George Osborne announced today that Britain was willing to commit an average of £240m a year for the next five years to ESA, mainly in capital. The country currently gives the agency …

    Government 9 Nov 12:14

  • Tomb-raid boffins find golden hoard of the warrior Thracians

    Spartan-arse-kickers who produced Spartacus

    Archaeologists in Bulgaria are chuffed today to announce that golden treasures and artifacts produced by the ancient Thracians have been discovered in a subterranean tomb complex in the north of the country. The treasures include snake-headed bracelets, a golden crown or tiara type affair, a golden horse head and piles of …

    Science 9 Nov 12:28

  • US condom rules 'will cause nasty RED RINGS on porn stars' todgers'

    'Typical' smut stud too well equipped to wear FDA rubbers

    City of Angels porn actors will in future be required to sport condoms for their performances after Los Angeles County voters gave the thumbs up to the "Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act", aka "Measure B". The act was proposed to prevent "thousands of performers contracting preventable sexually transmitted infections, …

    Bootnotes 9 Nov 12:44

  • HORNY ALIEN vegetarian monsters once ROAMED CANADA

    Spikey featured dinosaurs weighed two tons

    Paleoboffins have discovered a new terrifying, alien, twin horned dinosaur that roamed the earth 78 million years ago. Who're you calling alien horned face? Credit: Julius T. Csotonyi The newly named Xenoceratops foremostensis was around 20 feet long, weighed two tons and is the oldest known large-bodied horned dinosaur …

    Science 9 Nov 12:45

  • A bitter spill to swallow, or 'how to smeg up your keyboard'

    Something for the Weekend, Sir? And passwords? Arse-words more like...

    Trouble at mill. Someone’s password isn’t working. It’s day two for one of the casuals and he’s forgotten what the temporary password is. It’s been an entire 24 hours and his natural creativity doesn’t extend to remembering how to type ‘Passw0rd’. Brilliant. I remind him of his password and he gets annoyed with me. He’s the …

    Hardware 9 Nov 13:00

  • Computer sports betting pool: WIN PILES OF virtual CASH!

    SC12 Time to pick your cluster compo favourites

    As the greatest event in computer sports – the SC12 Student Cluster Competition (SCC) – prepares to kick off next week, tension is rising worldwide. Hordes of fans and industry insiders are analysing the computing tasks, picking their favorite team or teams, and arguing about it with their friends and even their enemies. We’ve …

    HPC 9 Nov 13:04

  • Apple-v-Samsung $1bn iPhone fine: 'Jury foreman was biased'

    The employer of the spouse of my enemy's lawyer

    Apple's billion dollar patent court victory should be dismissed, Samsung say, because the jury foreman in the case was biased. Samsung's call for a retrial in the fight between the two tech giants will be heard on 6th December by judge Lucy Koh in the same San Jose court where the original verdict was handed down. New …

    Law 9 Nov 13:19

  • Microsoft to biz: Just so you get off XP, we don't mind if you go Win 7

    But Windows 8 is Business Class all the way

    Despite the shiny, consumer-friendly crayon box of Surface and the Glee-style TV ads, Microsoft wants us to know that Windows 8 has a serious side, and is perfect for the enterprise. But it seems that a lot of its business-class features might be inaccessible to the very people it is attempting to target. At an event in London …

    Windows 8 9 Nov 13:38

  • Groupon redundancy special offer tips, shares plunge

    Hordes of employees storm the exits

    Groupon has disappointed expectations once again, driving its shares down nearly 17 per cent to an all-time low. The daily deals bazaar posted revenues for the third quarter amounting less than its own estimates and well short of Wall Street’s already quite cautious expectations, despite getting a bump from a bunch of unused …

    Financial News 9 Nov 13:43

  • 20 years of GSM digital mobile phones

    How far the cellphone has come since the Nokia 1011

    Twenty years ago today, on 9 November 1992, Nokia launched the world's first commercially available GSM digital mobile phone - the Nokia 1011 - strengthening consumer interest in the world of mobile connectivity. The candybar device - which weighed a whopping 475g and could sustain a conversation for no more than 90 minutes - …

    Mobile 9 Nov 13:57

  • Microsoft's touching Xmas gift for Brits: MORE licensing price hikes

    Updated versions means updated prices

    Microsoft has wrapped up a bunch of pre-Chrimbo licensing price hikes for channel partners to deliver to customers at the start of next month. Redmond handed out a summer treat by bumping up volume licences for UK firms from 1 July as it aligned pricing to the Euro. These rises ranged from 1.7 per cent for Open Classic to 25.9 …

    The Channel 9 Nov 14:02

  • FalconStor brings in bankers after ELEVEN crummy quarters

    Liable to be broken up for parts

    Struggling data protection and virtualisation SW vendor FalconStor recorded more losses for its third 2012 quarter and has appointed Wells Fargo to look at "strategic alternatives" for the company; code for a possible break-up or outright sale. Third quarter 2012 revenues were up 4 per cent sequentially at $17.1m, a 9 per cent …

    Storage 9 Nov 14:37

  • Top IT bods bail out of new Universal Credit online dole system

    'As you would expect, with 6 months until go', says gov

    The Department for Work and Pensions has strenuously denied that its Universal Credit project will be derailed by the departure of key IT employees. Universal Credit aims to overhaul Blighty's benefits system by merging six government handouts into one regular payment that can be claimed and managed online. It is due to go …

    Government 9 Nov 14:57

  • Bloke flogged $1.2m of pirated Microsoft gear on eBay, say Feds

    People scrambled for illicit MS Office 2003 and XP Pro

    A US man has been charged with selling counterfeit Microsoft software valued at more than $1.2m. Bruce Alan Edward, 48, of Atlanta, Michigan, is accused of five counts of criminal copyright infringement, and one count of mail fraud, over the alleged resale of pirated software sourced from the far East. According to his charge …

    Security 9 Nov 15:23

  • Swedish boffins: An ICE AGE is coming, only CO2 can save us

    Forget Hurricane Sandy - fear the peat powered freeze

    A group of Swedish scientists at the University of Gothenburg have published a paper in which they argue that spreading peatlands are inexorably driving planet Earth into its next ice age, and the only thing holding back catastrophe is humanity's hotly debated atmospheric carbon emissions. "We are probably entering a new ice …

    Science 9 Nov 15:58

  • Analyst: There are LOADS of iPhone 5s, Apple is keeping them back

    Treat the fanbois mean, keep 'em keen

    Apple is not short on iPhone 5s but is likely to be holding them back artificially for commercial reasons, an analyst said today. Walter Piecyk of Research Group BTIG said that the three to four week delay on online iPhone orders was a commercial wheeze rather than an indicator of throttling in the supply chain. Piecyk was …

    Hardware 9 Nov 16:23

  • FOlA judges: Secret 28 who made the BBC Green will not be named

    Lay beaks have interesting histories on FOI, 'deniers'

    As expected, the BBC has won its legal battle against blogger Tony Newbery. Newbery wanted the list of "scientific experts" who attended a BBC seminar at which, according to the BBC Trust, they convinced the broadcaster to abandon impartiality and take a firmly warmist position when reporting climate change. When the Beeb …

    Media 9 Nov 16:29

  • Cray ends battle with Appro by ingesting it alive

    If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em

    Cray is going to top off a pretty good year financially if it can get the many-petaflopping Titan and Blue Waters supercomputers accepted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Illinois. There's a good chance those machines will be accepted, but it creates a problem: the $188m Blue Waters deal was an unexpected …

    HPC 9 Nov 16:55

  • 'Bundle' signals from SPACE seize control of small car in Germany

    ISS 'naut takes the wheel of Lego motor in bundlenet test

    An internet hookup intended for interplanetary use has been used by an astronaut on the International Space Station to drive a small lego car located in a laboratory in Germany. Station commander Sunita Williams was able to drive the car around the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt last month by sending out …

    Science 9 Nov 17:27

  • Walmart workers filmed playing iPad frisbee

    Apple-lobbing contest

    Four Walmart employees were said to have been sacked this week after filming themselves deliberately throwing what they claim are boxed iPads around one of the supermarket chain's stockrooms. The workers, from Walmart's Pikeville, Kentucky store, can be seen lobbing boxes carelessly around the room. “This is why you don’t buy …

    Hardware 9 Nov 17:39

  • This is Frankfurt calling: Scattered outbreaks of hot crunchiness

    SNW Europe A mixed grill storage smorgasbord newsfeast

    This is the second installment of El Reg's coverage of StorageNetworkWorld Europe, aka Powering The Cloud, bringing you another smorgasbord of storage goodness from the biggest storage show in the old coutries. Some of it's hot, and some is even crunchy... so dip in. BridgeSTOR and DDFS BridgeSTOR CEO John Matze told us more …

    Storage 9 Nov 18:03

  • SEC staffers slammed for serious security snafus

    Took unsecured laptops to Black Hat hacker's soirée

    There are red faces at the Securities and Exchange Commission after a report highlighted computer security failings by agency staff that forced it to spend $200,000 to check whether it had lost critical information. Staff at the Trading and Markets Division were found to have stored highly confidential and market-sensitive …

    Security 9 Nov 18:46

  • US whacks sanctions on Iranians for web, TV censorship

    Comms minister better cancel that trip to Florida

    The US has announced sanctions against Iran's communications minister and three other Iranians, as well as five companies and government departments in the Middle Eastern nation, for censoring the internet and media. The State Department said a statement yesterday it will prohibit American firms and individuals from doing …

    Government 9 Nov 19:08

  • Worried dad invents pepper-spray iPhone case

    Christmas shopping for your precious snowflake? $40 and it's yours

    An Arizona man concerned for the safety of his college-bound daughter has created a personal-protection device that she's sure to carry with her everywhere: an iPhone case that doubles as a pepper-spray shooter. "Most co-eds don't go anywhere without their smartphone," inventor Scott McPherson notes on the website of his …

    Hardware 9 Nov 19:38

  • NetApp feeds HPC monster: How much cache? That would be telling

    E-Series arrays get major update

    NetApp has boosted its high performance computing style storage arrays, the "not-ONTAP" E-Series arrays, by adding a solid state drive cache, better data protection and new network connectivity options. But the storage vendor is keeping quiet on flash cache capacity. NetApp's HPC style arrays ingest and disgorging data faster …

    Storage 9 Nov 20:11

  • Bitcoin Friday sale event kicks off with deep discounts

    Buy a car with Bitcoins, save $5,000

    A group of businesses from  the Bitcoin community have teamed up to offer their own version of a "Black Friday" sale, with the twin aims of increasing awareness of the digital currency and stimulating the economy around it. For those unfamiliar with American customs, Black Friday in the US refers to the day after Thanksgiving …

    Business 9 Nov 20:12

  • Cisco sets ex-CIA spook to hunt down leaking staffer

    Updated You can run, but you can't hide

    Cisco appears to be rather annoyed that one of its staff has been leaking memos to the press, and its vice president of global labs (and former CIA operative) Michael Quinn has sent a chilling email to staff warning he will hunt down the culprit. "The person or persons whom felt it was cool or correct to share this internal …

    Data Networking 9 Nov 20:29

  • Astroboffins spot smiley face on Mercury

    Taking a break from science, NASA's hard-working orbiter finds a friend

    It may not be an image as mysterious as the "Face on Mars" spotted by Viking I in 1976, but NASA's MESSENGER Mercury orbiter has snapped a shot of whimsical smiley-faced crater on that desolate planet. "It looks like even the craters on Mercury have heard of Bob Ross!" NASA exclaimed when unveiling the photo, referring to the …

    Science 9 Nov 20:52

  • Forget what vendors think: What’s YOUR vision for the data centre?

    Research Are you really going to cloudify everything?

    Given the chance, any IT vendor or service provider will launch into their company’s vision for the future... your future. If it’s Salesforce.com or Google, that will be a future in which you wave goodbye to all of your servers, storage and networking kit. If it’s IBM, HP or Microsoft, their crystal ball will envision you …

    Data Networking 9 Nov 21:39

  • China blocks all Google services as new leader anointed

    Great Firewall locks down Middle Kingdom

    The Great Firewall of China swung shut on Google this Friday as the Communist Party prepares to anoint its new leader, with search, Gmail, and other subdomains run by Google completely dead. The move comes as the ruling elite in China are gathered at the 18th National Congress in Beijing to anoint elect the new glorious leader …

    Networks 9 Nov 22:07

  • DDN pulls muzzle off hybrid Big Data gobbler

    Eats seven times as much as rivals, says proud owner

    DataDirect Networks has announced its SFA7700 hybrid flash and disk drive scale-out filer appliance for Big Data and high-performance computing-type applications. It's the latest in a series of Big Data announcements that take into account the convergement trend, and DDN must be hoping that its latest beastly appliance can hold …

    Storage 9 Nov 22:10

  • Fedora 'Spherical Cow' delayed by bugs, Secure Boot

    Release pushed back until 2013

    Delays continue to plague development of the popular Fedora Linux distribution, with Fedora 18's original November ship date now pushed back to January 2013 at the earliest. Ordinarily, the Fedora Project aims to ship a new version of the OS twice annually, with new releases arriving on the Tuesdays closest to May 1 and …

    Operating Systems 9 Nov 23:06

  • Microsoft Surface Touch keyboards self-destruct – and more

    Who'll be the first to cry 'Keyboardgate!' Oh ...

    It appears that your brand-spanking-new Microsoft Surface may need more than the security patch The Reg told you about – you may also need a physical patch for its Touch Cover keyboard. According to multiple posts on Microsoft's Surface Forum, the edge of Surface Touch keyboards can split open at the seam where the keyboard- …

    Hardware 9 Nov 23:45