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16th January 2013 Archive

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  • NASA aims Curiosity's percussive drill at pink, veiny target

    It's hammer time for first Mars drilling mission

    NASA has selected the first site for the Curiosity rover to drill into, the first time a man-made object has penetrated the bedrock of the Red Planet. "Drilling into a rock to collect a sample will be this mission's most challenging activity since the landing. It has never been done on Mars," said Mars Science Laboratory …

    Science 16 Jan 00:14

  • Patent trolling surges, but righteous cavalry on the way

    The next battle in the troll wars is up to you, Reg reader

    Patent trolling is a "cancer" that poses an "existential threat" to US business – especially startups – according to a panel of experts at last week's CES 2013. But there are plans in the works to fight back. "There's a great quote from Scientific American," congressman Peter DeFazio told his audience at a CES 2013 panel. " …

    Law 16 Jan 00:54

  • Juniper to build its own software-defined networking stack

    Carving up network software even more than OpenFlow

    Juniper Networks is not, it turns out, all that enthusiastic about the OpenFlow technology that is at the heart of a lot of software-defined network (SDN) strategies these days. But don't be confused. That does not mean that Juniper doesn't believe in SDN or has not been quietly putting together its own SDN battle plan to take …

    Data Networking 16 Jan 01:14

  • Symantec to offload Altiris: report

    Vision for 'total package' of security and endpoint management slipping away

    Almost six years to the day since announcing it would acquire infrastructure management outfit Altiris for a cool $US830m, Symantec is said to be offloading the company. The Wall Street Journal reports “people familiar with the process” Symantec is willing to offload the products it acquired for less than the purchase price. …

    Financial News 16 Jan 01:22

  • Security audit finds dev OUTSOURCED his JOB to China to goof off at work

    Cunning scheme netted him 'best in company' awards

    A security audit of a US critical infrastructure company last year revealed that its star developer had outsourced his own job to a Chinese subcontractor and was spending all his work time playing around on the internet. The firm's telecommunications supplier Verizon was called in after the company set up a basic VPN system …

    Business 16 Jan 01:29

  • Microsoft to give free TV ad to top-voted Windows Phone 8 app

    App dev deathmatch offers thousands in prizes

    Microsoft wants to convince more developers to build apps for its Windows Phone 8 smartphone platform, and to do so, it has taken its cue from none other than Research in Motion. RIM's market share has suffered during the wait for it to launch its new BlackBerry 10 platform, but it has managed to stir up a fair number of …

    Developer 16 Jan 01:57

  • Myanmar to open telecoms to foreigners

    Two licenses up for tender

    One of Asia’s last closed telecommunications markets is to loosen up, with Myanmar announcing its tender for two telecommunications licenses will be open to foreign companies. The nation is hoping for a rapid expansion of its telecommunications sector and services, with an ambitious target from today’s 10 percent mobile …

    Policy 16 Jan 02:04

  • Soot forces temperatures more than thought: AGU

    Dumping diesel, fireplaces, could buy time while world sorts out CO2

    A paper just published by the American Geophysical Union has elevated the role of soot – “black carbon” in the science – to a new high in terms of its climate influence. According to the new study, soot is a stronger influencer of the global climate than methane. While the study doesn’t downplay the dominant role of carbon …

    Science 16 Jan 02:39

  • IT boom driving candidate hungry Honkers

    Job opps galore out East, but you may have to do the talking

    Ex-pat IT professionals looking to kick start the new year with a new career in a far-flung destination could do worse than Hong Kong or Singapore, where the tech sector is short of job candidates and is snapping up new recruits, according to international agency Hudson. The recruiter‘s Employment Trends report for Q1 2013 …

    Jobs 16 Jan 02:40

  • Social networks give Australia a throat to choke

    Regular government meetings the prize for signing complaint-handling plan

    Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo! and YouTube have stuck out their necks and offered Australia’s federal government the chance to choke them under a new “Cooperative Arrangement for Complaints Handling” launched by Prime Minister Julia Gillard. In return, the four get regular meetings with government. Cyber-bullying and trolling …

    Policy 16 Jan 03:47

  • Korean boffins crack art of bendy batteries

    Discovery could herald more flexible phones

    South Korean boffins have discovered the secret to flexible, shape-conforming lithium ion batteries in what could be a major step on the road to flexible smartphones. The researchers, led by professor Lee Sang-young of South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, made the discovery by developing “fluid- …

    Science 16 Jan 04:29

  • China shoves Beidou intro tractors, trucks and buses

    Latest decree from on high turns up heat on GPS

    The Chinese government has mandated the use of its new satellite navigation system Beidou (BDS) in several classes of vehicle across nine provinces, as the sat nav war between it and the United States' GPS heats up. The Ministry of Transport made the decree on Tuesday – covering Jiangsu, Anhui, Hebei, Shaanxi, Shandong, Hunan …

    Networks 16 Jan 06:06

  • EMC polishes up entry-level VMAX for biz types

    Enhanced VMAX 10K

    EMC has revved up its entry-level VMAX 10K system with faster processors, a new Enginuity version and the addition of Federated Storage Tiering and cold data compression, among other goodies. The VMAX 10K sits above the VMAXe, the low-end VMAX, and forms the first rung on the mainstream enterprise array VMAX ladder which has …

    Storage 16 Jan 07:03

  • Speaking in Tech: Why EMC is like a club, geek gifts and more

    Podcast Chad Sakac: 'There is no API that defines storage services'

    Welcome to our first enterprise and consumer tech cast of the year. Join your hosts Greg Knieriemen, Ed Saipetch and Sarah Vela along with repeat offender Chad Sakac, senior veep of Global Systems Engineering at EMC, as they discuss the hiring culture at EMC, what they got for Christmas, OpenStack, current trends in enterprise …

    Cloud 16 Jan 07:28

  • Amazon rainforest starts making phone calls

    Trees get Gemalto radio tech, can ring the cops

    Trees in Brazil are being fitted with mobile telephones so they can call for help when they're cut down, alerting the authorities to illegal logging as soon as the logs get into range. The Invisible Tracck is the size of a fag packet, and battery-powered, so it can be hidden in the branches of a tree and automatically …

    Mobile 16 Jan 08:03

  • The forkers saving open source from a corporate bear hug

    Open ... and Shut Promising tale of Portugal's Salt man

    Open source has long had a strong corporate element to it, perhaps starting in earnest when IBM pledged to spend $1bn on Linux back in 2000. Despite the benefits of corporate funding of open-source software - more money, more source code written - some question whether open source has become too corporate. For those who worry …

    Developer 16 Jan 08:33

  • Wanna really insult someone? Log off and yell it in the street - gov

    Being rude in Blighty now lawful unless you're on Twitter or Facebook

    It will be legally safe to insult someone on the street - but not online - according to Home Secretary Theresa May. Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 was amended by the House of Lords last year to remove the ban on "insulting" language. May announced this week that the coalition government will allow the change to stand …

    Law 16 Jan 09:03

  • STEC's flash daddy on SSD rivals, NAND and having your OWN controller tech

    3-bit flash needs TLC, says Mark Moshayedi

    Mark Moshayedi, CEO of flash pioneer STEC, doesn't think "flash is forever". While his firm is now battling it out in the enterprise solid state drive space, he has a different vision for the future. El Reg storage desk recently met with Moshayedi, where he expanded on the firm's current strategies and explained how it had saved …

    Storage 16 Jan 09:29

  • Facebook shoves biz pal Microsoft aside, unzips new Graph Search

    Analysis Everyone invited to the party, except Bing... bitch

    Facebook took a major step away from Microsoft on Tuesday by confirming it had built a search product for its network without any involvement from its Redmondian biz partner, which has a $240m stake in Mark Zuckerberg's ad empire. While it remains the case that Microsoft's Bing continues to power web search on Facebook, the …

    Networks 16 Jan 09:58

  • Datatec sets off profit drop klaxon as Westcon sales slip

    Year's predicted revenue slides $100m

    South Africa-based channel powerhouse Datatec issued a sales and profit warning this morning after revealing weaker than expected trade in its distribution wing Westcon. The group, which also owns UK-headquartered integrator Logicalis, said revenues are now estimated to be roughly $5.4bn for fiscal 2013, ending 28 February, …

    The Channel 16 Jan 10:23

  • NRA: Video games kill people, not guns. And here's our video game

    First-person shooter for Second-Amendment drum bangers

    Just weeks after the vice-president of the US National Rifle Association blamed video games for gun crime, the outspoken organisation has released an iPhone video game. NRA: Practice Range is a first-person shooter available from the iTunes Store as a free app for iPads as well as Apple smartmobes. It incorporates a live feed …

    Games 16 Jan 10:33

  • Spy romp Zero Dark Thirty: The tech behind the special effects

    Captain, we need those digital files, NOW!

    High capacity and fast data access is vital in the world of digital film processing, and its IT bods are always on the look out for their next speed and capacity fix. Networked storage biz Avere worked with post-production house Image Engine to feed its need for speed in rendering spy thriller Zero Dark Thirty - directed by The …

    Storage 16 Jan 11:34

  • France stalls plan to make Google and pals foot broadband rollout

    'Obscure panel' mulls web giants funding new high-speed networks

    France has put off plans to force Google and other web giants to help build broadband networks. The nation has instead handed off the controversial issue to a governmental panel described by activists as "an obscure committee". Fleur Pellerin, France's junior minister for the digital economy, told a roundtable on net …

    Hosting 16 Jan 11:47

  • BT's 'six-month free broadband' offer is a big fat FIB - ads watchdog

    Misleading advert banned in second ruling of 2013

    BT misled customers by wrongly claiming that one of its broadband products was "free for six months", says Blighty's ad watchdog. This is the second time this year the national telco has been scolded by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The offending press advert boasted that "the UK's most complete broadband package …

    Broadband 16 Jan 12:12

  • Lynch mob of bankers say they'll stump up cash to take Dell private

    Financing deal not a problem for four top banks, whisper sources

    Dell is a little bit closer to selling itself off, with at least four major banks willing to put up the money, according to knowledgeable sources. The rumour, reported by Reuters, was enough to send shares in the PC firm up over 7 per cent in New York trading yesterday. Dell is supposedly looking for private equity buyers to …

    Business 16 Jan 12:41

  • Here we go again: New NHS patient database plan sets off alarm bells

    Health Sec Hunt wants your records in the cloud by 2018

    A paperless NHS that stores patient records in the cloud will be floated by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt today. His plan to get medical files into a giant database by 2018 is already stoking fears given the public sector's poor record of protecting sensitive information. Hunt will claim in a speech to right-wing think tank …

    Government 16 Jan 13:15

  • Look out, fanbois: One in two nicked mobes is an iPhone - cops

    But at least you're 'young', 'professional' and 'partying'

    Half of the phones stolen in London over the summer were iPhones, the capital's cops reported this week. According to new statistics, phone-related crime, particularly snatching, was up year on year. Between April and September, 28,800 mobes out of 56,680 nicked handsets in London were Apple pocket strokers. That's an average …

    Security 16 Jan 13:55

  • Skytap fires up Hadoop data-chewer as cloud crash-test dummy

    Eager to work with and compete against Amazon – someday

    Hadoop might be a popular tool for munching on unstructured data, but setting up and tuning the software requires a lot more expertise than many people have and it takes a lot of time, too. That makes it a perfect piece of software to put on a cloud, provided you can either generate your data there to begin with or pipe it over …

    Cloud 16 Jan 14:13

  • Playboy fined £100k by Blighty watchdog for FLASHING SMUT at kids

    Websites didn't verify age, Ofcom rules

    Playboy - the world's best-known porn brand - has been fined £100k ($160k) by Britain's communications regulator, after the publisher failed to prevent children from accessing smutty material on its websites. Ofcom said that Playboy TV and Demand Adult had "allowed users to access hardcore videos and images without having …

    Media 16 Jan 14:36

  • Viruses infect vital control systems at TWO US power stations

    'Sophisticated' malware snuck in via USB drive

    Two US power stations were infected by malware in the last quarter of 2012, according to a report by the US Department of Homeland Security's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT). USB flash drives packed with software nasties were blamed for a compromise of industrial control systems in both …

    Security 16 Jan 14:58

  • Fusion-io touts cheap-as-chips flash to Apple, Facebook and chums

    Want a retail discount? You'll need to buy in bulk

    Fusion-io is pushing the idea of all-flash servers for HPC and other large scale data centre applications that need a 100 or more commodity servers, and has made its 1,000+ server hyperscale flash card technology available for down market. These ioScale PCIe cards scale from 410GB, doubling through 825GB, 1.65TB on to 3.2TB …

    Storage 16 Jan 15:27

  • Bloke blasts Sprint for fingering his home as phone thieves' den

    Welcome to Wayne's world: Multiple missing mobes mistakenly tracked

    Phones lost and stolen in Las Vegas are mistakenly telling their owners they're at the house of one Wayne Dobson, who's getting pretty angry at the late night demands and visits from the police. We're indebted to the Las Vegas Review-Journal which tells us that Dobson's plight has been ongoing for two years. It follows what …

    Mobile 16 Jan 16:04

  • Last call for your chance to win an HP ENVY x2 tablet

    Competition The slate for folk who like their laptops skinny

    Don't forget, folks, you still have time to cat your votes for the latest Reg Hardware Awards - your chance to name the best and worst tech products of the past 12 months. More to the point, it's also your opportunity to win one of HP's "extraordinary" new ENVY x2 convertible tablets worth £799. Use the ENVY x2 as a tablet, …

    Tablets 16 Jan 16:11

  • Climate watch: 2012 figures confirm global warming still stalled

    'One more year of numbers not significant', says NASA

    The two major US temperature databases have released their consolidated results for 2012, and as had been expected, global warming has failed to occur for approximately the fourteenth year running. One of the US agencies downgraded 2012 to tenth-hottest ever: it had been on track to rank as 9th hottest. The tenth-hottest …

    Science 16 Jan 16:28

  • Another Apple retail chief crashes out the door

    Third 'great leader' in as many months moves in

    The Apple exec tipped to take over as head of its Retail unit has just quit the company, it was announced yesterday. Jerry McDougal, vice president of Retail at Apple since 2000 has resigned to spend more time with his family. McDougal's exit comes three months after his former boss John Browett, was booted out from his role …

    Business 16 Jan 16:57

  • Fans of dead data 'liberator' Swartz press Obama to sack prosecutor

    'Aaron's Law' to ease 'outlandish' US computer laws

    A new online petition has called for the firing of US attorney Carmen Ortiz for pursuing Aaron Swartz with charges that could have put him in prison for at least three decades. Meanwhile, Democrat congresswoman Zoe Lofgren has drawn up a new bill called "Aaron's Law" to amend the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act used to …

    Law 16 Jan 17:29

  • Woz flash firm Fusion-io has a gift for Facebook open-sourcers

    Open Compute Project given ioScale designs

    Fusion-io is open-sourcing its ioScale hardware design and plans to donate it to Facebook's Open Compute Project (OCP). But anyone who uses the ioScale design kit will have to use Fusion-io's own-brand controller tech. At the Open Compute Summit running today and tomorrow in Santa Clara, Fusion-io co-founder and CEO David …

    Storage 16 Jan 18:02

  • AMD+friends forge 'Roadrunner' Open Compute server mobo

    Open Compute 2013 Opteron 6300s get a thumbs up from Facebook

    Struggling server processor and chipset maker Advanced Micro Devices is getting some friendly help from the Open Compute Project, the open-source hardware effort started by Facebook in April 2011. Or, conversely, AMD is being friendly with the Open Compute Project to try to boost sales of its latest Opteron 6300s now that the …

    Servers 16 Jan 18:16

  • Globalstar: Don't be afraid of our private Wi-Fi superhighway plan

    Bluetooth SIG and Wi-Fi group: But you'll run us off the road!

    Globalstar's plan to refarm its satellite spectrum into a privately held Wi-Fi channel has come under fire from the Wi-Fi Alliance and Bluetooth SIG, which reckon it will edge out the unlicensed users. Globalstar maintains that the Wi-Fi Alliance has misunderstood its FCC request, which asks the regulator to let it run a …

    Mobile 16 Jan 19:33

  • Surprised? Old Java exploit helped spread Red October spyware

    New Java exploit can be yours for $5,000

    Unpatched Java installations may have helped spread the malware responsible for the recently uncovered "Red October" cyber-spying campaign, researchers at Seculert have revealed. Kaspersky Labs first disclosed the existence of Red October on Monday, claiming that the program had been responsible for attacks on systems in …

    Security 16 Jan 21:12

  • AMD lawsuit claims spying ring took secrets to Nvidia

    Over 150,000 documents slurped by four managers

    AMD is suing four former managers for intellectual property theft, claiming that they set up a spying ring within the company before jumping ship and joining its rival, Nvidia. "This is an extraordinary case of trade secret transfer/misappropriation and strategic employee solicitation," reads AMD's court filing in …

    Business 16 Jan 22:02

  • Facebook friends bash servers, storage, and racks into bits

    Open Compute 2013 Realizing the dream of independently upgradeable subsystems

    When you are the company the size of Facebook, you get to dictate the terms of your server acquisitions to your vendors, and a year and a half ago, the social network did a remarkable and unselfish thing and opened up the hardware specs for its first data center and the servers that were built to run in them as the Open Compute …

    Servers 16 Jan 22:32

  • Canada rejects US bid for Megaupload info, kind of

    Not quite a win for Kim Dotcom

    As the Megaupload cases in New Zealand and America grind on, the Department of Justice has been handed a small rebuff in Canada, with an Ontario court rejected its request for access to all data on servers seized in that country. Michael Geist reports that the judgment was handed down last week. Thirty-two servers were seized …

    Law 16 Jan 23:29