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14th November 2012 Archive

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  • Sex offenders need internet access, judge rules

    Banning online access 'unreasonable'

    A British court has ruled that denying a sex offender access to the internet is an unreasonable intrusion into his civil rights. "Nowadays it is entirely unreasonable to ban anybody from accessing the internet in their home," Mr Justice Collins ruled at the court of appeal in London, the Guardian reports. The case stemmed …

    Law 14 Nov 00:08

  • Cisco cuts costs, boosts profits faster than sales

    Servers, NDS buy fills in switch and router gaps

    After a number of other big IT players stumbled in the third calendar quarter, Wall Street was braced for a possible slowdown at networking giant and now converged-system supplier Cisco Systems. It seems that all that muscle tightening was for naught, because Cisco was able to do better than expected in the quarter ended in …

    Financial News 14 Nov 00:33

  • VCE zaps vBlocks with shrink ray

    Stack-in-a-box vendor wants wants to bundle ISVs into appliances

    VCE, the stack-in-a-box vendor jointly owned by EMC, Intel, VMware and Cisco, is working on smaller versions of its vBlocks and also plans to build versions of its products optimised to run certain applications. VCE Chief Technology Officer Trey Layton said the company is already working on an eensy-weensy vBlock for …

    Datacenter 14 Nov 00:40

  • Microsoft offers Internet Explorer 10 preview for Windows 7

    'Try Windows 8's browser, we think you'll like it'

    As promised, Microsoft has shipped a new build of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7, bringing the "fast and fluid" web experience of its latest web browser to the earlier version of its OS ... almost. A production-ready version of IE10 has come bundled with Windows 8 since it began shipping in October, and with Windows Server …

    Applications 14 Nov 00:54

  • Google stats show government net spying on the rise

    Requests for user data, content blocking both up

    Google published the latest edition of its Transparency Report on Tuesday, and if there's one thing we can learn from its findings, it's that government surveillance and government interference with online services are both increasing – at a worryingly rapid rate. Twice each year, the Chocolate Factory publishes a report …

    Government 14 Nov 02:39

  • Big Data CIOs: don't look for aliens that aren't there

    RoI planning is key ... but not too much of it

    CIOs have been urged to pull their collective fingers out when it comes to Big Data projects, with experts warning that excessive planning can delay initiatives to the point where the intelligence they generate is useless to the business. Speaking at IDC’s Asia Pacific Business Analytics Conference 2012 in Hong Kong, emerging …

    Management 14 Nov 02:45

  • Job ad seeks devs to work two hour days in Australia

    Small waking time overlap enough for Perth company hit by tight jobs market

    Want to work a two-hour work day in Australia, without all the hassle of moving to the anitpodes? Perth company Realcognita may have just the job for you, after it published a job ad seeking staff whose “Working hours must at least overlap 2 hours of Perth business hours (GMT+8).” Right now that means almost anyone from …

    Jobs 14 Nov 03:55

  • Toyota motors ahead with radar crash avoidance tech

    Pre-collision system ready to roll out as test site begins operations

    Japanese car giant Toyota is ready to roll out new radar-based collision avoidance technology which could soon see certain high speed crashes a thing of the past. The firm’s Pre-collision System (PCS) uses millimeter-wave radar signals to alert the driver by visual display and warning sound when there is a risk of crashing …

    Science 14 Nov 04:11

  • Brits admit to using mobile phones during sex - and not in a good way

    Hang on, I'm just in the middle of someone

    One in 20 Brits admit using a mobile phone during sex - and not in a good way - while almost half check mail while pretending to listen to their significant other talking. More than half of us use our phones in bed, but that's forgivable as "checking email" is a marvellous excuse for another five minutes under the duvet. It is …

    Mobile 14 Nov 05:58

  • McAfee ‘not a suspect’: CNN report

    Belize police still keen to talk to him

    The story of John McAfee’s pursuit in Belize has taken an odd turn: a police spokesperson has told CNN that the anti-virus pioneer is “not a suspect” in the investigation surrounding the murder of his neighbour. This CNN report states that McAfee is still being sought for questioning. Wired has reported that he buried himself …

    Law 14 Nov 06:02

  • Internet Explorer becomes Korean election issue

    Presidential candidate promises to kill crypto standard locking nation into IE

    Microsoft’s Internet Explorer market share may soon take a tumble in South Korea if presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo wins looming elections. The hot seat hopeful plans to abolish an anachronistic government crypto standard which has effectively locked users into Internet Explorer for over a decade. At the tail end of the …

    Security 14 Nov 06:18

  • Petabyte provider makes a run at Amazon's fattest customers

    Wafer thin mint, sir? Oh go on

    DataDirect Networks has updated its high-end WOS object storage system and says it's lower-cost than Amazon for petabyte-and-above deployments. WOS, Web Object Scaler, v2.5, is intended for petabyte-class deployments and not for entry-level or mid-market object storage. The claim is that it enables private and public cloud …

    Storage 14 Nov 06:34

  • 4GEE data marketing campaign accidentally gets Irishmen salivating

    Jaysus that's a startlin' reasonable price, so it is

    A Reg reader has pointed out a little cultural snafu in Everything Everywhere's campaign for its 4G service. Everything Everywhere has naturally gone for EE as a moniker, making the campaign's logo, and Twitter hashtag, 4GEE. Unfortunately, the word 'gee' has a number of connotations that Everything Everywhere might not be …

    Mobile 14 Nov 06:55

  • Cawing retail vultures circle dying Comet, might rip some chunks off

    Aaark! Aaark! say Maplins, Dixons, webshops

    Both bricks-and-mortar and web-based traders are looking to pick through the bones of sickened retail outfit Comet. The receivers Deloitte landed at Comet's doorstep on 2 November to take over operations and have set about cutting costs and finding buyers for the business, which is likely to be broken up. According to sources …

    The Channel 14 Nov 07:22

  • Kobo Mini 5in compact e-reader review

    Pocket-friendly alternative to the mass-market paperback

    If you think the Kindles and Nooks of this world are too large, Kobo has an alternative: the Mini, a pocket-sized e-ink e-reader with a 5in screen. Kobo's Mini: pocket friendly for your e-paperbacks Most e-readers out there have 6in panels, but the Mini’s is no less readable for the reduction in size. Kobo’s own 6in Glo …

    Tablets 14 Nov 08:00

  • EU standardises hamtagonistic powerline network tech

    Bearded brotherhood pledges eternal vigilance

    The second vote on EN50561-1, the EU standard for running Ethernet over mains circuits, has passed, putting the standard on the books, much to the annoyance of the UK amateur radio operator community. EN50561-1 requires that all Powerline Telecommunication (PLT) kit, which carries networking signals over the mains electrical …

    Networks 14 Nov 08:28

  • Flash outfit: You bring the cloud, we'll bring the puffening

    Mmm, delicious flaky multi-app puffs

    Flash array start-up SolidFire is going full tilt into the cloud, punting its arrays as multi-app performance engines offering less than $4/GB costs. We first wrote about SolidFire here. It says its SF3010 and SF6010 arrays can be clustered using 10Gbit/s Ethernet in 100-node setups offering more than 2PB of capacity and 5 …

    Storage 14 Nov 08:54

  • Apple stops Caring in Italy, probably all Europe soon

    Questionably supportable support questioned by EU

    Apple has reportedly stopped selling its extended warranty, AppleCare, in Italian stores following prompts from Europe's Justice minister that the company wasn't respecting EU-mandated guarantees. AppleCare will still be available though the company's web site, but won't be sold in stores - according to leaked e-mails sent to …

    Hardware 14 Nov 09:16

  • Nintendo Wii U set to out-sell predecessor at launch

    But it will never be as popular long term

    Nintendo will shift more Wii Us in the first three months of release than it managed with the console's predecessor, analysts claim. But an estimated 53 million sales by the end of 2016 puts projected long-term success of the tablet-inspired console quite some way behind. Nintendo is said to have 5.5 million Wii U units in …

    Games 14 Nov 09:35

  • Dell to sell Brit firm's 'fastest in the world' HPC arrays

    Deal inked, Xyratex gets chance to ride the elephant

    Dell is going to resell Xyratex ClusterStor high-performance computing arrays, which should be good news for the UK data-storage firm after its recent Q4 tumble on the back of crummy enterprise demand and tumbling disk drive sales. ClusterStor is Xyratex's supercomputing and high-performance computing (HPC) storage array, …

    HPC 14 Nov 09:42

  • Black Ops 2 blunder has Mass Effect on buyers

    Disc burning botch distresses PC gamers

    PC gamers who rushed to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 yesterday found themselves unable to play the new release when they found they received Mass Effect 2, a title published by Activision's fierce rival EA, instead. Gamers affected by the glitch - currently venting their spleen in several forums, including Steam and Reddit - …

    Media 14 Nov 09:51

  • What happened to comics for kids? Hell, what happened to COMICS?

    It's time to go back to basics

    In central London, there’s a giant-sized superheroes, space ’n’ science fiction shop. Among the pricey objects on offer – £479.99 for a replica Alien egg, for example, or £152.99 for a Star Wars dart board – there are action figures, t-shirts, books, DVDs and - even now - comics. On packed shelves of glossy colour mags, we have …

    Media 14 Nov 10:01

  • Skyfall makers 3D printed Bond's DB5

    Exploding cars a la model

    The makers of James Bond's latest outing, Skyfall, cut a couple corners in production and used modern 3D printing techniques to fake the decimation of a classic 1960s Aston Martin DB5. You wouldn't steal a car but now you can download one The movie studio contacted Augsberg-based 3D print firm Voxeljet to make 1:3 scale …

    Hardware 14 Nov 10:11

  • Windows 8 Euro PC sales SHOCKER: Results actually not bad

    'Real opportunity for MS here' says gobsmacked analyst

    Windows 8 sent the PC market's heartbeat up a tick or two in the period either side of launch but the pulse was still far from racing. Then again no one expected it to be, save maybe for OEMs, which simply crossed fingers and closed their eyes tightly in the hope of an uplift in sales instead of the downward or flatlining …

    The Channel 14 Nov 10:19

  • Sony wants cash to get out of tellies, into mobile, CMOS and games

    Hands out magic beans that grow into share-stalks in 2017

    Sony has announced it will issue five-year convertible bonds, which will change into stock in 2017, to raise ¥150bn (£1.18bn, $1.89bn) for acquisitions and investments. A third of the cash will go into snapping up that stake in Olympus, announced in September, and another ¥10bn (£79m, $125m) will go towards the acquisition of …

    Financial News 14 Nov 10:39

  • El Reg mulls commentard icon portfolio shake-up

    ROFLcopter? You gazing at crumbs in navel? Let us know...

    The El Reg Central Overseeing Commentard Soviet has been instructed to put out feelers to determine whether you, our beloved readers, fancy some extra comments icons to add to the mighty arsenal available to better express your feelings on topics of international import. It's been 18 months or so since we last had an …

    Bootnotes 14 Nov 11:00

  • Wozniak to star in crazed iOS action game, rescuing missus 'J-Woz'

    Attempt to get intellectuals to watch action movies?

    The wild-haired genius behind the Apple II is to star in a iOS game, "Woz with a Coz" - understood to be the first iOS game ever to feature Steve Wozniak, the engineer and Apple co-founder. For no discernible reason the game features the computer engineer rampaging through a fictional city with Hollywood hard man Danny Trejo, …

    Media 14 Nov 11:14

  • Ballmer comes not to praise Sinofsky but to bury him

    Perhaps he was Caesar, not Caligula?

    Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's staff memo following Steven Sinofsky's departure isn't exactly awash with praise for a man once tipped for the software giant's throne. The world of Microsoft was turned upside down by Windows 8 chief Sinofsky's sudden exit just three weeks after the launch of the new operating system. Rather than …

    Business 14 Nov 11:27

  • Subjects bestow Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 on Queen

    Serfs' stories saved on a ten-inch teblet for the pelace

    The Queen is getting a tablet - sorry, ‘teblet’ - and it’s a Samsung. A Galaxy Note 10.1 will be presented to QE 2.0 today and it will come pre-loaded with the specially selected reminiscences of some 60 of her subjects, one for each year of her reign and taken from the Jubilee Time Capsule project. The State broadcaster, the …

    Hardware 14 Nov 11:28

  • BT buys Tikit, figures to flog tech to law firms

    Well, who's got all the money, after all?

    Directors at UK legal IT services outfit Tikit are set for a £4.5m windfall after telecoms giant BT agreed to buy the company on Wednesday morning. The cash deal valued at £64.2m was accompanied by a generous 17.5 per cent premium of 416 pence a share for Tikit. The company's closing price on Tuesday, prior to BT's …

    Financial News 14 Nov 11:45

  • Warner recalls Xbox Lego Lord of the Rings 'demo' discs

    Label piercing

    Warner Bros is recalling Xbox 360 copies of Lego Lord of the Rings game after they were incorrectly labelled as demo discs before being shipped to retailers. The blunder appears to have only affected US shoppers, with Walmart, Target and Toys'R'Us the only outlets to receive the misprinted discs. According to Warner Bros - …

    Media 14 Nov 11:54

  • Liberator: the untold story of the first British laptop part 2

    Feature Out to launch

    It is 1984 and Bernard Terry, a civil servant, has devised a 'portable text processor' to make his fellow civil servants more productive in the office and out. Electronics giant Thorn EMI has agreed to manufacturer the machine, which will eventually be called the Liberator and become Britain's first laptop computer. Thorn has …

    Vintage 14 Nov 12:00

  • RIM adds VoIP digivoice calls to BBM youngster-messaging ware

    Skype, Facetime ... the writing's on the wall

    BlackBerry Messenger 7 will support VoIP calls as well as messaging, and is available now to download to BlackBerry OS 6 or better, with 5 to follow soon. It's a beta version, but adds a Voice Call button to the BBM experience, when the other party has the software installed and is connected to a Wi-Fi network, instantly …

    Mobile 14 Nov 12:18

  • Northamber: UK economy stuck in 'U-bend', Olympics hasn't flushed it

    Get out the plunger! Sales and profits clogged

    Northamber's colourful boss says the UK economy remains stuck in the U-bend - not helped by the Olympics - and the industry is in a "state of flux" making short term forecasts less certain. So it is just another ordinary interim statement from David Philips, chairman at the Surrey-based wholesaler, who warned that Q1 turnover …

    The Channel 14 Nov 12:21

  • Skype IDs hijackable by ANY FOOL who knows your email address

    Doesn't need access to it, just to know it. Sheesh!

    A vulnerability in Skype allows anyone to hijack its users' accounts just by knowing or guessing a punter's registered email address. The embarrassing security hole, which is trivial to abuse, was first discussed on a Russian underground forum three months ago. Last night a Russian blog publicised the bug, and details of the …

    Security 14 Nov 12:25

  • Thousands of Australians and satellite view spectacular total eclipse

    Vids Dark Dawn Down Under wows crowds and boffins

    As Aussies enjoyed a spectacular total eclipse of the Sun lastnight, the European Space Agency's Proba-2 satellite orbiting out in space also got an eyeful as it passed in and out of the moon's shadow zone. Proba-2, a Sun-watching sat, orbits the Earth around 14.5 times a day. It dipped in and out of the Moon's shadow during …

    Science 14 Nov 12:31

  • Apple 'less innovative' at laptops than Lenovo

    But beats the pants off rivals when it comes to selling them

    Asus and Lenovo both offer more innovative Ultrabook-style laptops than Apple, though the Mac maker has the pair of them licked when it comes to implementing that innovation. So says market watcher ABI Research, which reckons Apple “outscores its rivals significantly in implementation” if not in innovation. For proof, look no …

    Laptops 14 Nov 12:50

  • MS plugs 'highly exploitable' IE 9 hole in November Patch Tuesday

    Plus 3 jabs for Win 8 baby ... can they ward off VUPEN?

    November's Patch Tuesday brought six updates, four of them critical, starring fixes for Windows 8 and a patch that addresses a highly exploitable vulnerability in IE 9. Vulnerability management firm Qualys rates the Internet Explorer update (MS12-071) as easily the most urgent. Left unpatched, the set of four flaws easily lend …

    Security 14 Nov 12:57

  • ROGUE PLANET WITHOUT A SUN spotted in interstellar space

    Blue world all alone just 100 lightyears away

    In images, it doesn’t look like much: just a blue dot against the black of space. What’s exciting about this little planet is that it has somehow manage to escape its star. Even getting an image of the object, dubbed CFBDSIR2149, is a pretty good trick: CFBDSIR2149 is only visible in the infrared, and then, only just (it …

    Science 14 Nov 13:02

  • Mobile phone sales slump bites Nokia

    Finnish firm ahead of Apple but trailing Samsung

    Nokia may have plunged down the chart of best-selling smartphone makers, but at least it can console itself with the knowledge that it’s still up toward the top of the broader mobile phone supplier table. ‘Toward the top’ but not ‘at the top’, of course. According to market watcher Gartner, Nokia is merely the world’s second …

    Mobile 14 Nov 13:15

  • Twitter simps fall for 'Obama punched a guy' vid promise scam

    Brits, Swedes keenest to see Prez swing a fist

    A spam campaign doing the rounds on Twitter that implausibly offers to show a picture, and then a video, of US President Obama punching someone in the face is ultimately designed to spread the infamous Koobface worm. Prospective victims typically receive a direct message on Twitter, which contains the text “Check out Obama …

    Security 14 Nov 13:34

  • New flexible lens works like the one in your eye - and could replace it

    Smaller and simpler focusing and zooming in future cams

    Scientists have created an artificial eye lens out of 800,000 layers of plastic that could revolutionise eye implants and aerial surveillance. Based on research from 2008 published in journal Optics Express, the new plastic eye closely copies the structure of the human eye and other natural materials including tendons and …

    Science 14 Nov 13:44

  • Two scam apps stink up iTunes store, pulled thanks to Reg reader

    Eye of the Vulture backs up porous Cupertino iron curtain

    Apple allowed two scam apps to appear in its App Store - and the dodgy software remained on sale for five days until a Reg reader raised the alarm. The two paid-for programs, built by developer JB Solutions, do not work as advertised in the online shop, sparking a surge in negative feedback comments left by ripped-off fanbois …

    Applications 14 Nov 14:02

  • Dell greases Euro storage partners' palms with $10m

    Let's lubricate some sales >wink< know what I'm saying?

    Dell is putting $10m discount dollars on the table for Western Europe channel partners who close enterprise business by the end of the year. Partners will get their cash via an additional discount of 5% on all "qualifying" orders between now and New Year’s Eve. The enterprise orders that count are Dell PowerEdge, Compellent, …

    Storage 14 Nov 14:04

  • Watchdog halts Toyota Grand Theft Auto-esque advert

    CGI GT86 promo prompts reckless driving fears

    An advert for the Toyota GT86 has been banned in the UK after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) judged that it glamorises reckless driving. The Toyota 'Real Deal' ad - which was released on YouTube and shown in UK cinemas - features a virtual male who discovers 'feeling' after he hops into the driving seat of the GT86 …

    Media 14 Nov 14:11

  • Zynga CFO cuts out the middleman and moves to Facebook

    Show me the money, says latest departing exec

    Sinking ship Zynga has lost yet another senior executive, as chief financial officer Dave Wehner abandons the firm for a glittering career at Facebook. Zynga said that Wehner had resigned for a "senior finance position" at the social network that more or less provides Zynga's revenues. "Dave remains a good friend to us all …

    Media 14 Nov 14:22

  • Microsoft flings free Xboxes to long-term Live lovers

    Ten-year loyalty reward

    Microsoft is giving some of its long-standing Xbox Live members a limited edition Xbox 360, free of charge, in celebration of the online service's ten year anniversary. A number of gamers expressed their joy this week when they received an Xbox Live Limited Edition Xbox 360 in the post without prior warning. Microsoft's Larry …

    Games 14 Nov 14:46

  • Curious robot rover Curiosity chews a second mouthful of Mars dirt

    Truly, these Earthling probe droids behave curiously

    The Mars rover has stuck a pinch of the fine sand and dust of the Red Planet into its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument for its second soil analysis. An earlier scoop of Martian surface has already popped out results from Curiosity's CheMin instrument showing the mineralogical makeup of the soil. SAM examines the …

    Science 14 Nov 14:48

  • Finally - a solution to let people make money online WITHOUT ads?

    Possible belated outbreak of common sense about to happen

    The UK's copyright industries have agreed to fund new content trading exchanges, which will make it easier to use images and other creative works at a lower cost. That's according to Richard Hooper, the ex-Ofcom bigwig tasked by the government to oversee the creation of these copyright hubs. Arguably, this is something …

    Media 14 Nov 15:20

  • Android and Apple OS shares show mountain MS must climb

    Windows Phone outshipped even by Bada in Q3

    Microsoft’s Windows Phone mobile operating system was loaded on 2.4 per cent of the smartphones that shipped around the world during the third quarter of 2012. Even if the new version, Windows Phone 8, isn’t a major success, it should still lift the OS past Symbian. Nokia’s other, older mobile OS was to found on 2.6 per cent …

    Mobile 14 Nov 15:25

  • Paying for Windows Server 2012: Worse than using it?

    Live Chat Readers chat about licensing complexity and dealing with Redmond

    Paying too much, getting audited by Microsoft, unused licenses – Microsoft licensing is bureaucratic headache that often detracts from the joy of using the software. Fortunately with Windows Server 2012, Microsoft has made some fundamental changes to the way it boxes and charges that make things easier and clearer. No wonder …

    Software 14 Nov 16:00

  • Rockstar ramps it up with Grand Theft Auto V reveal

    Three's a crowd

    Rockstar's GTA V publicity went into overdrive today with a new trailer and more details about what the game has in store for fans. For starters, the publisher says GTA V's game world will be bigger than San Andreas, GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption combined. Memorising your way around may prove tricky, especially as the entire …

    Games 14 Nov 16:07

  • China strikes blow for property rights, British move to collectivism

    Comment Let a hundred flowers bloom, and give them away

    The afternoon M'Lords will debate a bill in Parliament which seeks to weaken your rights over the stuff you create. Buried in the Business and Enterprise Reform Bill, which is being debated today, are measures to "collectivise" intellectual property via extended collective licensing - all in the name of reforming 'orphan works' …

    Media 14 Nov 16:29

  • Meet the all-girl HPC cluster boffins of 'Team Venus' - on Video

    SC12 Plus Boston twins from Team Chowdah

    It's time to meet some of the Big Iron cluster war contenders. Team Venus, the all-female Student Cluster Competition (SCC) team from the University of the Pacific, tells us how they found their way into the competition in their profile video below. They also discuss how they’re looking to encourage women to enter STEM ( …

    HPC 14 Nov 16:51

  • Snow and ice fail to freeze battlin' Big Iron bots in their tracks

    SC12 Four more student cluster teams face the El Reg cameras

    It's time, once again, to meet some more plucky contenders in the SC12 Student Cluster Competition. Team Slippery Rock We meet the Slippery Rock team for the first time. They’re competing in the Mini Iron LittleFe division of the cluster-building contest. In the video they explain their strategy for achieving the best …

    HPC 14 Nov 17:36

  • DataDirect plunks $100m on storage array disguised as a super

    File servers running app code? So mad it might just work

    Supercomputer storage supplier DataDirect Network is setting up a $100m exascale computing lab. The goal is to hit one quintillion floating-point operations per second, and DDN hopes this mind-boggling level of number-crunching will be reached by 2018. The company is going to direct its funds to: Accelerating IO with a new …

    HPC 14 Nov 17:37

  • Skype fixes flaw that let anyone with your email address hijack you

    Could have been nasty - and was, for some people

    Skype said it has resolved a password reset bug that made it possible to hijack accounts held with the VoIP service simply by knowing an email address. The vulnerability, which was simple to abuse, first surfaced on a Russian underground forum three months ago before going mainstream when it appeared on Reddit early on …

    Security 14 Nov 17:42

  • Texans forget deep fryer, add GPUs to lasso data-crunching crown

    SC12 Why marine bilge pumps are VITAL cluster computing tools

    Meet the 2012 edition of the Texas Longhorn Student Cluster Competition team. This video was shot right after they received the scientific application data sets and had begun their initial processing. We discuss how they parcel up the work in their cluster and how they now have tools that give them a much better idea of what …

    HPC 14 Nov 17:46

  • Tianhe-1A schoolkids bring their best game, GPUs to cluster punchup

    SC12 Chinese teams quietly confident

    Here’s a look at one of the two Chinese entries into the SC12 Student Cluster Competition. These kids are from the University of Science and Technology and are not only battling their cluster competitors, but are also fighting jet-lag, 8.5 inches (21cm) of snow, and my inability to speak slowly/clearly enough to be understood …

    HPC 14 Nov 17:46

  • Boiler Makers swing hammer at SC12, Team Taiwan tries for a three-peat

    SC12 More contenders in battle for cluster domination

    Team Taiwan (from Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University) has a chance to become a three time Overall Award winner at the SC12 Student Cluster Competition here in Salt Lake City. They notched their first win at SC10 in New Orleans, repeated the feat the next year in Seattle, and are now looking for the hat trick in Salt Lake. …

    HPC 14 Nov 17:47

  • Federal advisors urge Congress to look into China's cyber attacks

    Chinese are 'spies', 'pirates' and 'thieves'

    A federal advisory group has told the US Congress that it should be doing an in-depth investigation of Chinese cyber spying and that it should create tougher penalties for companies that benefit from corporate espionage. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its annual report to the government that China …

    Government 14 Nov 18:15

  • New York Times uses palpably fake pic to illustrate Syrian warfare

    Strong smell of First Person Shooter

    The New York Times has used an obviously faked image with a strong resemblance to videogame visuals to illustrate the conflict in Syria, an eagle eyed Reg reader has pointed out. The story 'Ordering More Airstrikes, Syria Calls French Recognition of Rebels 'Immoral' ' carries a picture of a fighter holding a gun and firing …

    Media 14 Nov 18:29

  • Apple to settle with Samsung? Korean honcho: 'Fuggedaboutit'

    Despite HTC's settlement, Samsung won't negotiate 'at all'

    Although HTC and Apple reached an out-of-court settlement of their patent-infringement squabbles on Saturday, don't expect such an amicable armistice in Cupertino's ongoing patent war with Samsung. "It may be true that HTC may have agreed to pay 300 billion won ($276m) to Apple, but we don't intend to [negotiate] at all," said …

    Law 14 Nov 18:56

  • Israel declares war on Hamas via Twitter

    Video Muslim Brotherhood may unfriend on Facebook

    The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) took to Twitter to declare war on Hamas shortly after they launched a series of airstrikes against the Palestinian group's leadership. In days of yore, the commencement of military action was decided by diplomats and announced over the radio or in solemn TV statements. In this social-media …

    Media 14 Nov 18:56

  • Alan Sugar's YouView loses brand judgment in court

    You're FIRED, lawyers; another bad day for the BBC

    Lord Sugar's net-based TV service YouView lost a High Court appeal over the use of its brand name late last week. The trademark scuffle with little-known telco Total Ltd, which is based in Gloucestershire, could yet force YouView to limit use of its brand. The service, which is basically "iPlayer in hardware" is backed by …

    Media 14 Nov 19:01

  • AWS flicks switch for S3-to-Glacier migration

    Ice your data

    Amazon Web Services has turned on a new facility that allows migration of data from its S3 cloud storage service to its new Glacier cloud archive service. Glacier was launched a few weeks ago, and offers cloud storage at $0.01/Gb/month for most US regions ($0.011 in some North California areas and Ireland, and $0.012 in Tokyo …

    Storage 14 Nov 19:33

  • Facebook gets into jobs market with recruitment board

    Social Jobs Partnership bears fruit – finally

    Facebook has developed an application aimed at matching its users with available jobs as part of an initiative with the US government dubbed the Social Jobs Partnership (SJP). "Nearly a year ago, the US Department of Labor joined the Social Jobs Partnership to explore better ways to connect people with job information through …

    Jobs 14 Nov 21:28

  • Humans becoming steadily STUPIDER, says brainiac boffin

    Genetic decline means Athenians of 1000 BC smarter than us

    A US biologist is of the opinion that human brainpower peaked thousands of years ago, and that our smarts have been declining ever since. "I would be willing to wager that if an average citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our …

    Science 14 Nov 21:28

  • Zeebox lands down under

    Social media and Aussie TV set to converge in one app

    UK developed social TV platform zeebox has hit Australian screens following its US launch last September. The zeebox platform, the brainchild of former BBC iPlayer architect Anthony Rose and ex EMI exec Ernesto Schmitt, has been backed locally the Ten Network but remains broadcaster agnostic. The social TV app is available …

    Networks 14 Nov 21:32

  • Cray notches up two Urika graph analysis appliance sales

    Will invest $15m in YarcData 'threadmonsters' in 2013

    It has been a busy couple of weeks for supercomputer maker Cray, with the rollout of the 27-petaflops "Titan" supercomputer, the debut of the next-generation XC30 system, and the acquisition of sometime HPC rival Appro International. News that Cray had sold two of its Urika big data analytics appliances got a little lost in the …

    HPC 14 Nov 21:47

  • America to send space radar to Australia

    Eye on space junk, Chinese launches

    A base in Western Australia will host a Southern Hemisphere outpost of America’s Space Surveillance Network (SSN), with a space-watching radar to be relocated from Antigua. The agreement to move the radar formalises a proposal detailed in the Defence Capability Plan released in July. In a communiqué released at the end of the …

    Government 14 Nov 22:05

  • Microsoft aims Windows Embedded 8 at $1.4 trillion market

    Six flavors to arrive in early 2013

    With the much-ballyhooed launches of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 behind it, Microsoft has now announced its product road map for the less consumer-centric version of its OS platform: Windows Embedded. Targeting the so-called Internet of Things, Windows Embedded 8 will come packaged in a variety of flavors to suit the full …

    Operating Systems 14 Nov 22:25

  • Red Hat to mash up KVM hypervisor and Gluster file system

    Shadowman, Chipzilla kick in dough to 10gen for MongoDB stake

    Red Hat bought its way into server virtualization by acquiring Qumranet and gave the world the KVM hypervisor, commercialized as Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. Several years later, it bought its way into clustered file systems by eating Gluster and commercializing its eponymous file system as Red Hat Storage Server. And now …

    Servers 14 Nov 22:42

  • Race for new top level domains now officially a lottery

    Applicants for .adult and .sexy will meet in airport hotel

    The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has set December 17 as the date on which it will conduct the "prioritization draw" for new generic top level domains (gTLDs) and has announced the process will officially be a lottery. Thousands of applications for new gTLDs have been received, as organisations …

    Hosting 14 Nov 23:43

  • Texas Instruments sheds 1,700 staff in smartphone retreat

    Internet of things needs less manpower

    Texas Instruments is shedding around 5 per cent of its global workforce as the company abandons its ambitions in the smartphone arena and focuses on embedded systems. "We have a great opportunity to reshape our OMAP processor and wireless connectivity product lines to concentrate on embedded markets. Momentum is already …

    Business 14 Nov 23:44