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21st November 2012 Archive

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  • NASA admits hiding 'really good' news from Martian soil

    Rechecking Curiosity data before historic announcement

    It appears the Curiosity rover on Mars has had some exciting news, but NASA controllers have said that they're keeping quiet about it until the facts have been checked. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," John Grotzinger, principal investigator for Curiosity told NPR. According to …

    Science 21 Nov 00:15

  • First FIRE TORNADO documented in Australia

    500 homes destroyed by fire so powerful it spawned intense storms

    A fire in Australia grew so powerful that it spawned a tornado nearly 500 metres wide, contributing to the destruction of more than 500 homes. The documentation of the tornado is said to be important because while columns of flame known as “fire whirls” have previously been observed, full-scale tornadoes caused by fire are …

    Science 21 Nov 00:31

  • Mozilla's Social add-on MERGES Facebook with Firefox

    Be afraid. Be very afraid

    Do people say you spend too much time on Facebook? Do you actually worry that viewing other websites might be cutting into your Facebook time? Then the Mozilla Foundation has the Firefox add-on for you. Facebook Messenger for Firefox integrates the social network's controls directly into the browser's user interface, making it …

    Applications 21 Nov 01:07

  • Epic e-tail fail down under

    Click Frenzy falls flat, with bad news for Magento and UltraServe

    Australia’s IT and retail communities are picking up the pieces today, after an epic e-commerce fail that has seen a much-hyped ‘click frenzy’ fail to satisfy most punters. Online retailing is under-developed in in Australia. Few established retailers take it seriously or do it well, while international giants like Amazon have …

    Business 21 Nov 02:47

  • BT: Olympics cyber attackers were amateurs

    No match for exhaustive planning and over-provisioning

    Twelve year old hacktivists and journalists with infected laptops were the biggest info security threats to the London 2012 Games - an event which in the end was notable for the absence of a major cyber attack, BT has revealed. The telco giant was in charge of supporting the official London2012.com site and the huge IP …

    Security 21 Nov 05:08

  • Web users: We've got NO IDEA if we're stealing content or not

    Intellectual property? That's like military intelligence

    An Ofcom survey, paid for by the UK's Intellectual Property Office, has found that almost half of internet users think they're stealing stuff, but they're far from certain. The survey polled 4,400 people, and concluded that half of them don't know if the content they're downloading is legitimate or not, while only one in six …

    Law 21 Nov 06:01

  • Sacre Bleu! US fingered for Flame attack on Élysée Palace

    Reports from France say May hit covered up by Sarkozy team

    US-sponsored snoopers hacked into the computers of the Élysée Palace earlier this year ahead of the French presidential election and lifted top secret information, using what appears to be the notorious Flame malware, a French newspaper has alleged. The attack, which occurred in May a few days before the second round of the …

    Security 21 Nov 06:22

  • Evildoers can now turn all sites on a Linux server into silent hell-pits

    Admins won't even know they're poisoning their visitors

    An advanced Linux malware strain can automatically hijack websites hosted on compromised servers to attack web surfers with drive-by-downloads. The software nasty targets machines running 64-bit GNU/Linux and a web server, and acts like a rootkit by hiding itself from administrators. A browser fetching a website served by the …

    Security 21 Nov 06:29

  • Sharp chopper falls on early-retire plan as employees flee in droves

    We wanted to lose some people, but not that many

    Ailing Japanese electronics maker Sharp has been forced to suspend its early retirement programme ahead of time due to the large numbers looking to cash in and check out. The under-fire Osaka-based firm, which predicted losses of ¥250bn (£1.92bn) for the year ending March 2013, has been looking to offload staff in a cost- …

    Business 21 Nov 07:01

  • UN: APAC is world's most digitally divided region

    Urges massive investment in land and under-sea fibre

    The Asia Pacific region is the world's most digitally divided, with huge investment in land and sea-based fibre optic networks and improved public-private partnerships necessary to close the gap between the haves and have-nots, the UN has said. The UN’s Economic and Social Commission for APAC (ESCAP) is holding a three day …

    Policy 21 Nov 07:22

  • LAST EVER British typewriter manufactured in Wales

    Oldtime machine was like a printer with a QWERTY keyboard

    Britain's last ever typewriter has rolled off the assembly line at Brother's factory in Wales. The first commercially successful typewriter The Brother CM1000 electronic typewriter, one of 5.8m typewriters made at the factory since 1985, has been donated to the Science Museum in London. The factory will now run a recycling …

    Hardware 21 Nov 07:26

  • Ten... PC games you may have missed

    Product Round-up Shooting stars

    So now my Panda is Level 90 I thought it might be time to get my head out of the Brewmasters keg and have a look a selection of other games that have been released while I have been in my MMO reverie. If you don't fancy playing COD: BO2 or Halo 4 and are bored of relentless franchise titles then take a look at the games below. …

    Games 21 Nov 08:00

  • YARR! Library Wi-Fi PIRATES can't be touched by Queen's men!

    Who would win in a fight between librarians and pirates?

    Identifying your nearest public library will soon be dead easy: just look for the skull-and-crossbones flag draped over the entrance, or follow the greasy-haired blokes in trench coats. Communications watchdog Ofcom confirmed on Tuesday that libraries, universities and public Wi-Fi network providers will be exempt from anti- …

    Media 21 Nov 08:27

  • Nearly 90% of SAP customers find its cloud pricing confusing

    Can't you make this fog more transparent, plead users

    SAP users don't understand the software giant's cloud pricing and more than half think the firm is not offering enough incentives to move online. Eighty per cent of customers don't understand how to upgrade from SAP's on-premises suites to its On Demand offerings or how to combine the two, according to research by the UK and …

    Cloud 21 Nov 09:01

  • Pocket Wi-Fi hotspots paralyse Chinese metro lines

    Using free band to run trains oddly didn't turn out well

    Shenzhen Metro is blaming customer Wi-Fi for disruptions to its service. The subway system for the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province, China, depends on the unlicensed 2.4GHz band to link up its signalling systems. Following network failures in October, and a trial blocking of 3G signals earlier this month, the Shenzhen …

    Mobile 21 Nov 09:19

  • ScaleIO virtual SAN firms begins to surface, mostly still concealed

    Reg binoculars scan protruding periscope, antennae

    A pair of NetApp/Topio bright young things with a dash of Storwize and XtremeIO have their very own virtual SAN startup, ScaleIO. The idea - as with HP LeftHand's Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA) and similar offerings - is to use a server's own disks, typically directly-attached, and group them with other servers' disks to form …

    Storage 21 Nov 09:39

  • Want to run your own Apple shop? Start with £70k of German chairs

    Cupertino bottom inspectors' checklist for Premium chums

    Marvel at the lavish Corian countertops and the shimmering metallic shelving forming a temple of Jobsian worship. Be still and know that you are in the hands of one of Apple's premium resellers. Around you are hushed voices discussing iPads and iMacs, and the occasional ripple of excitement from a fanbois. But there may be …

    The Channel 21 Nov 10:00

  • Prince William 'day with my chopper' pics reveal more than intended

    Palace whoopsie leads to embarrassing exposures

    The UK's Ministry of Defence was obliged to reset user names and passwords following the publication of pictures of the Duke of Cambridge at work on a military base. Four of the 10 pictures, released by St James's Palace, showed Prince William at work at RAF Valley but failed to blur or disguise sensitive information in …

    Security 21 Nov 10:16

  • PGP Zimmermann teams with Navy SEALs, SAS techies in London

    Offers 'Silent Phone' crypto to biz, aid workers

    Encryption guru Phil Zimmermann is going after security conscious users with his new venture Silent Circle, a security start-up offering ultra-secure VoIP and texting services. Silent Circle, which opened a UK office this week, charges a monthly subscription of $20 (£13) per month for a bundle of secure voice, text and video …

    Security 21 Nov 10:28

  • Beeb rights swapper swaps shop to swap-shop for red-tops

    Paytard portal plan gets granular

    James Lancaster, the former head of rights negotiations at the BBC, has been picked for the new UK digital copyright exchange project. The exchange is intended to allow easier licensing and use of copyrighted digital material. Lancaster will head the new Copyright Licensing Steering Group (CLSG), and his work will involve …

    Media 21 Nov 10:38

  • Intel pays Creative $50m for ZiiLabs GPU licence, people

    Small change for one firm, lifeblood for the other

    Creative Labs is to all sell parts of its graphics chip wing, ZiiLabs, to Intel for $50 million (£31.4 million). The deal involves a $30 million payment for “certain engineering resources and assets” from ZiiLabs' UK operation and a further $2 million for “the licensing of certain technologies... relating to ZiiLabs' high …

    Hardware 21 Nov 10:46

  • Total APPLE DESKTOP ABSENCE set to last past XMAS - sources

    'I can't cry, I'm all cried out,' mourns supplier

    Apple's channel partners and customers will have a desktop shaped hole in their respective portfolio and shopping list this Chrimbo. The new 21.5-inch iMacs were due to start shipping in late November and the 27 inch model was expected in December, but the word in the supply chain is that no products are likely to arrive in …

    The Channel 21 Nov 10:58

  • US federal transport crash investigators ditch BlackBerry for iPhones

    Hm, this train wreck seems to involve RIM in some way

    The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has followed other federal agencies in ditching Blackberry for iPhone. But it's not just because they love the retina screen, the public sector agency has blamed their Blackberry devices for being unreliable in a document on the FedBizOpps site explaining why they are …

    Mobile 21 Nov 11:04

  • Just what you needed: A cell phone with a remote control. No, really

    Got an amazingly huge coat with pockets too far away?

    Bluetooth has achieved its dream of being in a remote control, sadly it’s a remote for a mobile phone and not a TV, but surely a step in the right direction. The keyring-sized LG One Key can be used to find one's Optimus VU2 handset, fire up the camera for self-portraits and even control music playback, though with only one …

    Mobile 21 Nov 11:21

  • Apple: Sure, here's the HTC patent pact. WITH numbers blanked out

    Oh Samsung, talking about money is SO crass

    Apple has told Samsung that it will provide a copy of its agreement with HTC to a US court, but only if it's heavily redacted and all monetary terms are blanked out. Samsung filed on Friday to try to get Apple to produce the settlement and patent license agreement with HTC, claiming the document is relevant to its own patent …

    Law 21 Nov 11:33

  • NASA SECRET DISCOVERY ON MARS: Meteor offers possible clue

    Space rock was flung to Earth after asteroid strike

    All the boffinry world is alive with speculation as to just what the as yet unnannounced "one for the history books" discovered by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity might be. But a recently-published study may offer a clue. In the investigation, researchers from NASA's Johnson Space Center, the Carnegie Institution and the Lunar and …

    Science 21 Nov 11:55

  • Why do Smart TV UIs suck?

    Feature Inconsistent, inconvenient and in my *!#!!?* telly

    Years ago, TVs were simple. My grandparents’ set, for example, had a single channel-change button which clunked through to the next VHF preset each time you pushed it. My own family's TV had two standards, enabling us to “Switch to U for BBC 2” in time for Play Away. Inevitably, matters have became much more complicated than …

    Media 21 Nov 12:00

  • Netscape founder pays off MASSIVE tax bill with Facebook shares

    Marc Andreessen offloads $54.1m worth of stock

    Marc Andreessen - a Facebook insider who serves on the company's board - held true to his promise on Monday by selling stock worth $54.1m in the recently floated free-content ad network to pay off tax obligations. To do that, the Netscape founder needed to offload roughly 2.3 million Facebook shares. Andreessen had agreed in …

    Financial News 21 Nov 12:10

  • Another not very long period of time, another GiffGaff collapse

    Bumbling mobile service tumbles into gutter again

    O2's cut-price operation GiffGaff is down again, with customers unable to make outgoing calls for the last half hour - and no sign of a fix in sight. GiffGaff outages are becoming all too common, to the point where a failure in data yesterday wasn't worth reporting, but when users are disconnected entirely it seems worthy of …

    Mobile 21 Nov 12:19

  • Outrage over AT&T iPad data slurp hacker conviction

    Greyhats lifted names and emails without busting security

    A grey hat hacker has been found guilty of breaching AT&T's site security to obtain iPad customer data. Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer, 27, from New York, was convicted of conspiracy to hack and identity fraud over his role in a 2010 exploit against an AT&T account maintenance website that resulted in the leak of 120,000 email …

    Security 21 Nov 12:31

  • DEKATRON reborn: Full details on World's Oldest Digital Computer

    Feature OK iPad kids, let's see how you do on paper tape

    The world’s oldest working digital computer was rebooted on Tuesday following a painstaking three-year refurbishment. The slow-but-steady machine will now be used to educate school-age programmers. The Harwell Dekatron – AKA The WITCH Computer - crunched its first calculations 61 years ago and was used to build Britain’s first …

    Datacenter 21 Nov 12:45

  • Sam Sung found in Apple Store SHOCKER

    Amusingly named fruitchomp bloke. Genius

    The business card of an Apple store employee in Vancouver has gone loco on the internet as the world delighted in the fact that he was called Sam Sung. Toronto Web Developer Shaun O'Toole tweeted a photo of Sam Sung's Apple Store business card two days ago and it has been reposted all over the web. Despite rumours that the …

    Bootnotes 21 Nov 12:58

  • 'There may come a day when Hobbits promote slot machines ...'

    But it is not THIS day, insist spawn of Tolkien

    Just weeks before The Hobbit hits the big screen, the family of author JRR Tolkien is once again suing the film's producers. The Tolkien estate and the book's publisher Harper Collins claim Warner Bros, its subsidiary New Line and Hobbit rights-holder Saul Zaentz Company are overstepping their bounds by slapping The Hobbit on …

    Media 21 Nov 13:13

  • BLAZING HEAVENLY gas BRIDGE filament links galactic clusters

    Bifröst, the burning on-ramp to Valhalla, seen at last

    The European Space Agency's Planck space telescope has discovered a bridge of hot gas connecting two galactic clusters across ten million light-years of intergalactic space. Planck tries to capture pictures of the ancient light of the cosmos, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This faint light tootles around the universe …

    Science 21 Nov 13:22

  • Speaking in Tech: HP skunks Autonomy - Really, Meg... really?

    Podcast Plus: Ellison Rage Twinkies, Farley on gorillas

    It's another exciting episode of El Reg's techcast, hosted by Greg Knieriemen, Ed Saipetch and Sarah Vela. This week, Ed returns from his secret mission while Sarah is on a vision quest in New Mexico. The infamous Marc Farley from Microsoft is the special guest... and gives us the scoop on life as a Microsoftie and what's cool …

    Business 21 Nov 13:44

  • Nokia HERE iOS maps app review

    Can the Finnish phone firm solve Apple's navigation woes?

    There’s never been a better time to publish a mapping app for iOS. Apple’s own Maps app is a laughing stock and Google is apparently dithering over whether to bother submitting an app version of its mapping solution for Apple’s approval, or lack thereof. So Nokia has stepped into the breach with HERE, a re-branded version of its …

    Mobile 21 Nov 13:47

  • 'Rare for tech not to be involved in child abuse cases'

    'Hysterical' report claims huge amounts of molestation

    A report that identified more than 16,000 British children who could be at "high risk of child exploitation" during a 12-month period has also highlighted the apparent dangers kids face when using the internet. It warned: Technology forms part of most people’s lives, especially those of young people. As a result it has been …

    Government 21 Nov 13:53

  • Skype 3.0 lands on Android tabs, says all your bass are belong to it

    And heeyy, take a look at this cool Microsoft login ...

    Skype for Android is up to version three, promising better sound and tablet-friendly menus along with Microsoft account sign-in as Redmond continues to merge user accounts. The claim to improved sound is credible. The variability of Skype's audio makes it hard to pin down, but apparently there's a better audo codec called SILK …

    Mobile 21 Nov 14:07

  • HP: Autonomy had us believing in a false IDOL

    'Negative margin, low-end, little or no software'

    HP has laid out the "accounting improprieties and misrepresentations" allegedly used by Autonomy to inflate its value just before HP bought the British biz. Hapless Hewlett-Packard yesterday took an $8.8bn bath on the acquisition following the findings of an internal probe. It said a senior member of Autonomy's leadership team …

    Financial News 21 Nov 14:29

  • AARGH! We're ALL DOOMED, bellows UN - right on schedule

    It REALLY is the last chance this time, honest. Ho hum

    With the next round of international climate change talks looming, the usual sources are issuing the usual warnings that if massive cuts in carbon emissions aren't agreed then we're definitely really doomed this time. This time it's the UN Environment Programme, which has just lobbed out a report saying that the "Greenhouse …

    Science 21 Nov 14:52

  • Ex-Nokians fish MeeGo out of bin, launch Sailfish OS

    This is perfectly edible, man, what's wrong with you?

    A new phone OS based on the work Nokia abandoned on its Linux-based mobile OS has been unveiled in Helsinki. Jolla is a start-up run by former Nokia staffers devised to build on the old MeeGo project, which is now called Mer. The Sailfish OS is Mer with proprietary elements: a new user interface. Jolla has an agreement with …

    Operating Systems 21 Nov 14:57

  • Dish: With these restrictions, FCC, you are totally crippling us

    H Block? Chopping block more like, snivels wouldbe cellco

    FCC Chair Julius Genachowski has said that Dish Networks will get its licence for a US mobile network, but with restrictions that the company claims will fatally undermine its business. Approval would allow Dish to use frequencies hitherto reserved for satellite communications with an earth-based network, but the restrictions …

    Mobile 21 Nov 15:02

  • The Man Who Stole Greece: Cuffed chap had data on most of country

    Seemed to be doing better than the tax authorities

    Greek police have cuffed a suspect who allegedly stole personal data of three-quarters of the country's population as part of an attempted industrial-scale ID theft scam. The unnamed 35-year-old computer programmer is suspected of attempting to flog nine million records containing ID card data, addresses, tax identification …

    Security 21 Nov 15:32

  • Apple cultists slaver as Mothership landing now foretold in 2016

    Feverish fanbois desperate for full specs on utility shed

    Apple's bid to build a UFO-like complex has been pushed back a year because it was late submitting the final plans to officials. The giant doughnut-shaped office is now expected to be open for business in 2016, if Cupertino City Council approves it, rather than 2015 as Apple had hoped. The final plans, first sketched out by …

    Business 21 Nov 15:46

  • Microsoft-Motorola patent row: Google wants $4 BEELLION a year

    'How do you feel about 0.025% of that?' enquires Redmond

    Google has suggested that Microsoft should pay around $4bn a year for the wireless and video patents of Motorola that Redmond uses in its Xbox and Surface fondleslab. An expert witness at the trial, originally between Microsoft and Motorola but now including new Motorola Mobility owner Google, testified that Microsoft would …

    Law 21 Nov 16:01

  • Google to UN: Internet FREEDOM IS FREE, and must remain so

    Fears 'secretive' govs plan to make it pay for stuff

    Google has attacked a "closed-door meeting" of United Nations' regulators organised by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) taking place next month. The Chocolate Factory claimed that some of the proposals to overhaul the 1988 comms treaty could be bad news for free speech. The company also expressed concerns that …

    Networks 21 Nov 16:37

  • Samsung brews half-asleep OCTO CORE phone brain MONSTER

    Set to burst upon a terrified world late in 2013

    Samsung will tear the wraps off an eight-core ARM processor in February although half of the chip will spend most of its life asleep. The architecture is called big.Little, which ARM presented in October last year. Four cores run software all the time if they can, and the other four are only powered up when the user launches a …

    Hardware 21 Nov 16:57

  • Russia steps into NASA's place on upcoming ESA Mars plans

    UK, in 'historic' move, to help on manned US Orion ship

    The European Space Agency has approved an agreement to get Russian help for the ExoMars missions that NASA dropped out of. The ESA, which just finished its annual ministerial council meeting, said that Roscosmos would get the Martian missions in 2016 and 2018 off the ground with its Proton rockets, sending first a satellite to …

    Science 21 Nov 17:18

  • AT&T randomly letting some customers use FaceTime on cellular

    Hurray, fanboi visagerie all over my slabber jabber

    AT&T customers on tiered data plans with LTE devices can already use Apple's FaceTime over mobile connections, but now the operator is spreading the love just in time for the holidays. For AT&T customers on new unlimited tariffs, and those hanging on to old contracts, Apple's decision to permit FaceTime over cellular on iOS6 …

    Mobile 21 Nov 17:32

  • Wii U 'has been JAILBROKEN' via legacy games, say homebrewers

    Backwards compatible with backdoors

    A squad of techies claim they've cracked Nintendo's anti-piracy defences in the Wii U days after the games console hit US shelves. The hack, the gaming equivalent of jail-breaking, allows home-made games, pirate copies of titles and other unauthorised software to run on the Wii U, according to wiiuhacks.com. The attack appears …

    Games 21 Nov 17:40

  • 10 Gigabit Ethernet still too expensive on servers

    Another reason why x86 server sales 'underwhelm'

    It may not be entirely clear what is holding back the x86 server racket in the most recent quarter – round up the usual suspects – but networking market watcher Dell'Oro says it knows what isn't helping as it was expected: 10 Gigabit Ethernet. In a report casing the 10GE server adapter market it is a bit hard to figure out …

    Servers 21 Nov 17:52

  • Cluster cake pulled open: Oozes cores, GPU gravy, mineral oil

    SC12 Recipe for Student Cluster Compo destruction

    At last, I can reveal the final configurations of the systems the SC12 Student Cluster Competition (SCC) warriors brought to Salt Lake City last week. Here’s the gear they were running… First, kudos to all of the sponsors who generously provided so much equipment at no cost to the cluster crown competitors. (There isn’t a …

    HPC 21 Nov 18:00

  • Licensing snafu leaves Windows 8 open to PIRATES

    Free add-on gives more than bargained for

    Microsoft's decision to offer the Windows Media Center Pack for Windows 8 as a free download may be coming back to bite it, as software pirates have reportedly discovered a way to use the add-on to permanently activate pilfered copies of Windows. The trick, as a few Reddit users discovered, involves activating Windows 8 …

    Operating Systems 21 Nov 21:04

  • Texan schoolgirl expelled for refusing to wear RFID tag

    Updated Wants to avoid 'the mark of the beast'

    A plan by a San Antonio school district to continuously monitor its students using RFID has run into legal problems after one of them took a stand against being forced to use the tracking technology. Northside Independent School District (NISD) in San Antonio, Texas has spent over $500,000 on its "Student Locator Project," a …

    Security 21 Nov 21:06

  • Australian Government's CIO Anne Steward retires

    Hailed as "a great government CIO" by Gartner

    Australia's Chief Information Officer Anne Steward has retired. The news went public in a blog post titled 'Moving On' in which the outgoing CIO says she'll clean out her desk, in the nicest way possible, at the end of the year. Steward has overseen a fascinating period for Australian government technology policy. During her …

    Government 21 Nov 21:57

  • ESO says dwarf planet Makemake lacks atmosphere

    First look at Kuiper Belt object also reveals no shroud of gases

    Makemake, one of the solar system’s five dwarf planets, has been found to have no atmosphere. The tiny ball of rock is just two-thirds the size of Pluto and orbits even farther out in the Kuiper Belt. Scientists had posited the dwarf planet, named for the creator god in Easter Island mythology, would possess an atmosphere, …

    Science 21 Nov 22:32

  • Amazon EC2 cloud does Windows Server 2012

    Cloudy OS-on-Elastic Beanstalk action

    Microsoft wants you to build your clouds out of the new Windows Server 2012 operating system, and it wants you to run applications on its Windows Azure cloud, too. But if it can't get you to go all-Redmond, then it will settle for you running Windows Server 2012 on Amazon's cloudy competition, the EC2 compute cloud and the …

    Cloud 21 Nov 23:04

  • Microsoft dragging its feet on Linux Secure Boot fix

    Linux Foundation's workaround held up by roadblocks

    The Linux Foundation's promised workaround that will allow Linux to boot on Windows 8 PCs has yet to clear Microsoft's code certification process, although the exact reason for the hold-up remains unclear. As The Reg reported previously, the Secure Boot feature of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) found on …

    Operating Systems 21 Nov 23:21