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22nd January 2013 Archive

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  • Plug-in pwning challenge brings Pwn2Own prizes to $US560k

    Adobe and Java under the spotlight

    The organizers of the Pwn2Own hacking competition held at the annual CanSecWest security conference have upped the prize pool to $US560,000 and will now be offering prizes for hacking web plug-ins from Adobe and Oracle. The contest, which dropped mobile phone hacking last year, has added web plug-in hacking to the prize pool. …

    Security 22 Jan 01:16

  • Facebook puts some brains in Open Vault JBOD storage

    Open Compute 2013 ARM or Atom, pick your embedded CPU and interconnect poison

    At last week's Open Compute Summit 2013, the people behind the open source hardware project were showing off some enhancements for the Open Vault JBOD storage array that Facebook has cooked up for its own use in its two newest data centers and presumably will be added to its existing data center. The Open Vault array, known by …

    Storage 22 Jan 01:29

  • Japanese boffins tout infrared specs to thwart facial recognition

    Privacy fightback

    Don’t like the idea of having your mug identified in secret by a hidden camera? Neither does associate professor Isao Echizen of Japan’s National Institute of Informatics. As he notes in this paper: As a result of developments in facial recognition technology in Google images, Facebook, etc. and the popularization of …

    Science 22 Jan 01:33

  • BEST reiterates ‘no solar forcing’ claim

    Chooses unknown journal for peer-reviewed publication

    Richard Muller, whose Koch Foundation-funded Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project has sparked an ongoing controversy since 2011, has hit the news again with the publication of his paper in a peer-reviewed journal. In the paper, BEST reiterates its claim that including solar forcing doesn’t improve measurement of warming …

    Science 22 Jan 02:07

  • Opera sings WebKit's tune for new mobile browser

    'Ice' project will freeze out Opera's own Presto

    WebKit, the open source web page rendering engine used in Chrome and Safari, is about to pick up another sliver of market share after Norwegian browser-maker Opera revealed it will drop its own rendering engine in a forthcoming mobile browser. Opera has, for many years, used its own Presto rendering engine, but that apparently …

    Software 22 Jan 03:50

  • RIM extends BB10 port-a-thon after dev stampede

    If this is death, pass the hemlock

    Developers have ported another 19,000 apps to BlackBerry 10, leading Research in Motion (RIM) to extend the deadline for its various programs aimed at encouraging coders to commit to its platform. As we noted last week, a previous port-fest saw 15,000 apps readied for the new version of the other major fruity mobile operating …

    Mobile 22 Jan 05:01

  • Nokia lets Lumia 820 owners 3D print their own case

    The birth of BYOP?

    Nokia has posted the templates 3D printer users need to make their own shell or case for its Lumia 820 smartphone. The mobe is already designed to swap some of its plastic parts, with the rear plate available as inert plastic or one of Nokia's inductive charging gadgets. Three different batches of files are offered to DIY …

    Apps 22 Jan 05:32

  • Huawei set to leapfrog Ericsson ... if the sums add up

    Estimated eight per cent revenue growth is half earlier prediction

    Chinese telecoms kit maker Huawei could be set to leapfrog market leader Ericsson after it estimated 2012 revenue will jump eight per cent year-on-year to 220.2 billion yuan (£22.4bn). The Shenzhen-based company released unaudited results yesterday in which it said it expected profits to surge 33 per cent from 2011 to reach 15 …

    Business 22 Jan 05:45

  • Another new asteroid-mining firm: 'First commercial space fleet'

    Plus 'breakthrough' in space manufacturing

    A new space mining venture is all set to do battle with James Cameron’s asteroid mining outfit in an industry that isn’t even certain to be possible yet. Deep Space Industries will announce “the world’s first fleet of commercial asteroid-prospecting spacecraft” later today in Santa Monica. The cosmic drill firm’s founders, “ …

    Science 22 Jan 06:05

  • India gets paranoid about foreign tech

    Offshore telecoms kit banned from broadband, own fab on agenda to secure military kit

    India’s national security paranoia reached new levels this week as reports emerged that all foreign vendors have been banned from supplying networking kit for its national broadband project, while the government wants to produce its own chips for use in sensitive installations. The government has previously decided not to …

    Government 22 Jan 06:41

  • Bong: My DIGITAL KINGDOM for a HORSE

    ¡Bong! My Travel Diary: All the fresh goss plus a soupçon of hoss

    "Victory in guerrilla war is conditioned upon keeping the membership pure and clean" - Mao Tse-Tung Organization For Guerilla Warfare Chapter 5 MOCOA, COLOMBIA - Word reaches me from London that the snow is piling up on all sides, causing panic and giddiness. The snow is piling up on all sides here in rural Colombia too, with …

    Bootnotes 22 Jan 07:04

  • Beware the coming of the ROGUE CLOUDS, wails Symantec

    Some of your firm's vital data is already on Dropbox

    With one eye on Larry Ellison's Oracle in 2011 Salesforce chief Marc Benioff attacked “fake clouds” saying they aren’t the future. Oracle - late to clouds - threatened to challenge Benioff’s message of using public clouds that house your data next to other customers' data in a secure, multi-tenant model with the idea of …

    Cloud 22 Jan 08:02

  • Biz network shows HALF of Nimbus Data's staffers left in 1 year

    But sink-or-swim policy might just work for 'NAS storage pizza box' firm

    Startup Nimbus Data has endured an exodus of recently hired executives as well as a high level of staff turnover. But the storage firm maintains that it's a high-growth company and staff have to succeed or depart. The company, founded in 2006 to sell Breeze unified iSCSI and NAS storage "pizzaboxes" running its Halo software, …

    Storage 22 Jan 08:33

  • UK taxmen turn heat on tax-swerving big biz, hope to smoke out £1bn

    HMRC probes surge in 'profit shifting' trick

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has increased its focus on international businesses it suspects of using profit shifting techniques to avoid taxes in the UK, according to figures obtained by Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. A freedom of information (FOI) request made by the firm showed that the department's large …

    Business 22 Jan 09:01

  • Lloyds TSB, Halifax tech stumbles into the cold, goes titsup for hours

    'Something from the weekend' stopped your payments going through

    Lloyds TSB and Halifax saw their faster payments system fall down yesterday morning after a computer problem at the weekend stretched into the beginning of the week. The Faster Payments System processes payments within a few hours instead of the next day turnaround required to clock transactions over older systems. According …

    Business 22 Jan 09:32

  • How to build a BONKERS 7.5TB, 10GbE test lab for under £60,000

    Part Two Sysadmin Trevor runs the sums, builds a dream rig

    In part one of The Register's Build A Bonkers Test Lab feature, I showed you how to build a test lab on the cheap; great for a home or SMB setup, but what if we need to test 10GbE? Part two is a wander through my current test lab to see how I've managed to pull together enough testing capability to give enterprise-class …

    Datacenter 22 Jan 10:04

  • Foxit outfoxes fiendish flaw to fix foxed-up Firefox PDF plugin

    Buffer-boundary bashing bug blatted

    Foxit Software has fixed a critical security hole in its PDF plugin for web browsers. A bug in the code allowed overly long URLs in web links to crash the utility - billed as a "better" alternative to Adobe's software - or potentially inject malicious code into vulnerable Windows systems. The stack-based buffer overflow flaw …

    Cloud 22 Jan 10:32

  • Ex-Microsoft cloud chap James Henigan crowned Rise king

    'It was sensible we made him the public face'

    Cloud infrastructure and hosted services biz Rise has plonked its IT services director James Henigan into the managing director's hot seat. The previous top boss Alex Hilton left in September and Sue MacDermott, head of channel at Rise, kept the chair warm in the interim. Andy Burton, CEO at Fasthosts Internet Group which …

    The Channel 22 Jan 10:59

  • WD wolfs down Arkeia, gets bellyful of SMB storage

    Backup + disk offering = trouble for vendor rivals

    Disk drive manufacturer Western Digital, which has angling for a while to muscle into the SMB market, is buying privately owned backup software company Arkeia Software for its backup software and appliances. The myriad other suppliers in the fractured SMB data protection market now face having to compete with a giant. The …

    Storage 22 Jan 11:11

  • Ballmer now flings out work rivals, rather than chairs, claims ex-Microsoftie

    'It's Steve's way or the highway'

    An ex-Microsoft chap has accused potty-mouthed CEO Steve Ballmer of throwing any possible pretenders to his chieftainship out of the company. At least it's no longer chairs being tossed around. Joachim Kempin, who left the Windows giant under a cloud in 2002, has written a tell-all book about his time at Redmond that is less …

    Business 22 Jan 11:33

  • Cabinet Office chucks hefty rulebook at paper-chewing gov bods

    Swot up ... or face the wrath of The Maude

    The Cabinet Office expects all government offices with new or redesigned online transactional services created after April to be compliant with its money-saving, IT-tightening digital service standards by April 2014, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said yesterday at a gathering of "digital warriors". Outlining the …

    Government 22 Jan 11:46

  • Review: Infiniti M35h hybrid sports saloon

    To infinity and... er... Skelmersdale

    If you’ve got a little over 40 grand lying about and fancy a four-door hybrid sports saloon then Infiniti - the posh bit of Nissan in a relationship similar to that between Lexus and Toyota - would have you know that the latest M35h is not only the fastest, but also the cheapest car of its type. Tempting words. After all who …

    Hardware 22 Jan 12:01

  • Telefonica Germany starts bonking with friends

    Slow steps towards making cash history

    Telefonica customers in Germany who have a Samsung NFC phone will be able to pay by bonk from next month as the operator starts "friendly user" testing as a prelude to national rollout. Any customer with a Galaxy SIII or Ace 2 will be able to sign up, receiving a replacement SIM which can host an instance of the operator-owned …

    Mobile 22 Jan 12:16

  • RIM's Heins beams: BB10 must walk the walk before we talk the talk

    Vid Door held ajar for nuke-plant smartphone OS licensing

    RIM will leave the door open for those wishing to license its QNX-powered smartphone operating system - but not just yet. CEO Thorsten Heins has told Die Welt that BlackBerry OS 10 must prove itself in the marketplace before any deals can be cut, but he didn't rule out any agreements. “First we have to fulfil our promises. If …

    Mobile 22 Jan 12:34

  • Greedy Sky admits: We crippled broadband with TOO MANY users

    Overloaded Unlimited package actually rather limited

    Sky has confessed it has overloaded its broadband service by putting far too many Brits onto its network. The media giant told The Register that it has run out of capacity in certain corners of the UK, which has knackered its users' internet connectivity at peak times. Subscribers to Sky Broadband Unlimited in Doncaster, North …

    Broadband 22 Jan 12:43

  • Entire Reg readership would fill 205 Olympic-sized swimming pools

    Laid head-to-toe, they'd also stretch 13,013km

    Last week, we announced that according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, a record 7,326,907 unique users visited El Reg in November 2012. Impressive stuff, which prompted one reader to ask: "Is it just me, or does anyone else want to know how many Olympic-size swimming pools that number of visitors would fill?" An excellent …

    SPB 22 Jan 12:59

  • Phones 4U scrambles onto EE's back, flings out own virtual network

    Everybody's doing it

    Phones 4U, the mobile phone retailer, is launching a mobile virtual network that piggybacks on EE's infrastructure so it can offer 4G later in the year. The network will be known as Life Mobile, and joins a roster of 69 or so so-called MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) running in the UK. Of these, 25 are already camped …

    Mobile 22 Jan 13:22

  • Megaupload outed file-sharers to Feds months before Dotcom raid

    'Good corporate citizen' spiel from lawyer enrages Anons

    Megaupload assisted a US prosecution of a smaller file-sharing service in 2010, 18 months before it itself was the target of a high-profile copyright-infringement lawsuit. The Kim Dotcom-fronted file-hosting website Megaupload turned over details of five of its users in response to a June 2010 warrant [PDF] against NinjaVideo …

    Law 22 Jan 13:58

  • Acer slashes book worth of brands by £76m

    Value of Gateway, Packard Bell, eMachines and E-Ten cut

    Acer has slashed the book worth of PC brands in its stables by the tune of NT$3.5bn (£76.1m). The write-down, relating to acquired firms including Gateway, Packard Bell, eMachines and e-Ten, will be seen in the 2012 annual report. "This asset impairment evaluation has no impact on the business operation and working capital," …

    The Channel 22 Jan 14:41

  • Google v Microsoft mobile war: Who's REALLY to blame?

    It's just like the old days of sparring tech titans

    Microsoft first learned about Google's plans to drop support for Redmond's ActiveSync for those signing up for a free Google account last summer, but now it wants the search giant to delay the decision, according to a report. Google's plan to drop push email, calendar and contacts syncing via the ActiveSync protocol emerged …

    Mobile 22 Jan 15:10

  • Invasion of the Killer Slablets: How BYOD can be good for channel

    Consumerisation of IT needn't be a problem

    With a new wave of low-cost tablets hitting the shelves of retailers globally last Christmas – some starting at as little as £100 – consumers of all ages and professions rushed out to grab their very own before the "sold out" sign appeared. But as tablet prices decrease, the potential business impact of the consumerisation of …

    The Channel 22 Jan 15:14

  • Asteroid-mining 'FireFlys' will be ready for action by 2015, vows space firm

    Deep Space Industries: Our probes will suck up their fuel there, too

    A second commercial venture to mine the near infinite resources of outer space has been started, and Deep Space Industries (DSI) is promising its spacecraft and 3D printers will allow successful mining operations within a decade. The venture says that it will have its first class of 55lb (25kg) "FireFly" probes ready for …

    Science 22 Jan 15:20

  • New stats: Blighty's PC market ended 2012 on its KNEES

    Windows 8 branded a wash-out as slabs hog the cash

    Retailers and distributors replenished PC stocks cautiously during Q4 last year in a nod to concerns over weak consumer demand for Windows 8 and the perennial threat posed by slablets, according to recent sales and shipment stats. IDC prelim stats show shipments of notebooks and desktops into the channel declined nearly 5 per …

    The Channel 22 Jan 16:08

  • Mobes, web filth 'PORNIFYING' our kids, warns top Labour MP

    Youngsters powerless to resist 'hardcore American porn'

    Labour's health spokeswoman Diane Abbott will today warn that Britain's culture is "increasingly pornified" and hyper-sexualises adolescents. The shadow minister reckons today's technology - specifically, the proliferation of internet connectivity and cameras in every phone - damages British teens and society. That bullies …

    Media 22 Jan 16:33

  • iPhone hangs on in US, Japan, but EVERYONE ELSE bought an Android

    Smartphone wars: WinPhone got some love in Blighty, but it's bad news for RIM

    A day before Apple's quarterly results land, Tim Cook will also have to deal with the some unwelcome stats on iOS smartphone market share, showing that the iPhone still trails Android in all markets but the US and Japan. The US remains Apple's global heartland, and Christmas sales stats from consumer group Kantar World Panel …

    Mobile 22 Jan 17:13

  • Microsoft to pump cash into Dell buyout deal?

    Said to pay billions to join Silver Lake and founder Dell

    The word on the street is that Michael Dell and his rich friends are having an easy time finding the many billions of dollars needed to do a leveraged buyout of the PC and server maker and take it private, especially now that Microsoft has entered the picture with as much as $3bn to invest in the deal. According to a report ( …

    Business 22 Jan 19:05

  • Spanish startup to ship first Mozilla-phones

    ‘Developer preview’ devices to ship in February

    Mozilla has taken a small step closer to finding out whether the world wants another smartphone operating system, with Spanish startup Geeksphone (working with Telefonica) announcing developer previews of two Firefox-based devices. Details are relatively sketchy about the two Qualcomm Snapdragon-based 3G mobiles. One, the Keon …

    Apps 22 Jan 21:48

  • Microsoft's Intel-powered Surface Pro to launch in February

    New accessories coming, too

    Microsoft has announced the next major push in its Surface consumer hardware campaign, including the launch date of Surface Windows 8 Pro, the Intel-powered big brother to the ARM-based Surface Windows RT fondleslab that debuted in October. In a press release on Tuesday, the software giant said its latest tablet will arrive in …

    Laptops 22 Jan 21:49

  • AMD's chip-supply reassessment leads to big quarterly losses

    'But if you ignore that charge, we're doing okay'

    AMD has released its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2012, and as expected, the numbers aren't pretty. In early December, AMD slashed its Wafer Supply Agreement with its chip-baking partner, Globalfoundries, and warned investors that it was going to take a sharp hit due to that action. They were right. If that …

    Financial News 22 Jan 21:58

  • Swartz suicide won't change computer crime policy, says prosecutor

    Questions grow over second hacker suicide

    The aggressive prosecution of computer crimes won't be changed in light of the suicide of internet activist Aaron Swartz, a spokeswoman for Boston US Attorney Carmen Ortiz has said. "Absolutely not," Ortiz told the Boston Herald. "We thought the case was reasonably handled and we would not have done things differently. We're …

    Law 22 Jan 22:12