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1st February 2013 Archive

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  • Quantum crypto still not proven, claim Cambridge experts

    Thirty years of experiments still haven’t proven quantum entanglement

    Two killjoy researchers from the University of Cambridge have cast doubt on whether quantum cryptography can be regarded as ‘provably secure’ – and are asking whether today’s quantum computing experimentation is demonstrating classical rather than quantum effects. Computer scientists Ross Anderson and Robert Brady have …

    Science 1 Feb 00:15

  • UK cookies cop changes own policy to ‘implied consent’

    Information Commissioner’s Office says deadly threat to privacy now well understood

    The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the agency charged with implementing the EU’s ePrivacy Directive insisting web publishers tell their readers about how they use cookies, has changed its own cookie policy to one of implied consent rather than asking visitors to its website to formally opt in to receiving cookies. …

    Policy 1 Feb 01:09

  • Apple loses bid to ban US sales of aging Samsung smartphone

    Not the best week for Apple's legal team – but pity is not in order

    A US appeals court has denied Apple's request for a rehearing of an injunction, instituted last June but reversed last October, that would have stopped Samsung from selling its year-old Galaxy Nexus smartphone in the US. The denial, reports Fox Business, was issued in a short statement by the US Court of Appeals for the …

    Law 1 Feb 01:24

  • Apple blocks Java on the Mac over security concerns

    Will no one rid us of this turbulent software?

    It's been a rough couple of weeks for Java. Security issues are dogging the code, the latest fix may cause almost as many problems as it solves, and now Apple has decided to block Java completely. French blog MacGeneration originally picked up the blockade, noticing that an update to Apple's XProtect now blocks all versions of …

    Security 1 Feb 02:04

  • Microsoft teases IE10 for Win7 with Blocker Toolkit

    Could it finally be ready to ship?

    Microsoft has dropped a strong hint that the long-awaited version of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 might actually ship soon – ironically, by releasing a tool that blocks installation of the browser on users' PCs. According to Microsoft's FAQ, the Internet Explorer 10 Blocker Toolkit will prevent Windows Update from …

    Software 1 Feb 02:05

  • Google begs for secrecy as it files Glass design with FCC

    Chocolate Factory doesn't want pics, manual, seen in public

    Google has lodged information about its forthcoming “Glass” spectacle-mounted computer with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), but has asked that many details be kept from the public eye. Available here, the eight PDF files the FCC has made public comprise correspondence between Google and the FCC and the results …

    Hardware 1 Feb 03:18

  • Symantec: Don't blame us for New York Times hack

    AV giant says AV isn't enough these days...

    Symantec has taken the unusual step of commenting on a story about a customer, issuing a robust statement denying its anti-virus products were to blame for sophisticated targeted attack on the New York Times. The Gray Lady revealed yesterday that it had been persistently attacked for four months by China-based cyber insurgents …

    Security 1 Feb 04:53

  • Facebook finds new way to wring hundreds from users

    A gift card? For me? You shouldn't have, Mark!

    Facebook has finally found a way to get its users to hand over hundreds of dollars, by creating its own gift cards. The US-only cards (the URL facebook.com/fbcard doesn’t work in Vulture South and presumably also has trouble in other nations) allow one to pump a gift card full of credit that can then be spent at just four …

    Networks 1 Feb 05:13

  • India's most trusted brand Nokia hit with £1.5bn tax bill

    Good and bad news for well-loved but allegedly finance-finessing Finns

    Nokia’s efforts to turn around its flagging fortunes received a jolt this week after it emerged that income tax officials in India are preparing to hit the firm with a Rs. 13,000 crore (£1.5bn) bill for tax violations. In a classic piece of timing, the news came as Europe’s largest technology company was named winner of India’ …

    Financial News 1 Feb 05:26

  • Axed staffers hijack HMV Twitter account: 'We're tweeting LIVE from HR'

    Marketing director: 'How do I shut down Twitter?'

    A hijacker claiming to be an axed HMV worker took over the music retailer's official Twitter stream yesterday to tell the world of a "mass execution" taking place at HQ. A fortnight ago HMV (His Master's Voice) called in the administrators when bosses realised they were likely to miss banking covenants at the end of January. …

    Media 1 Feb 06:05

  • Chinese web company faked Microsoft patch to force download

    Chinese government slams firm for anti-competitive practice

    China's government has slapped fast-growing Chinese web firm Qihoo with a warning for unfair competition, alleging the firm used its security software to trick users into downloading its browser. The warning(via TechInAsia), handed down last week, has been made public by China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce ( …

    Law 1 Feb 06:34

  • Biz data-furtler CommVault reveals unexpected riches

    Who says you need more than one product?

    CommVault's government and enterprise customers bought its software in record numbers, leading to a spike in revenues and a sudden onrush of affection from Wall St brokers when it beat estimates for both sales and profits. That said, the firm is a one-trick pony, but what a pony; the nag just keeps on running. CommVault …

    Storage 1 Feb 07:08

  • Sick software nasty uses child abuse pics to extort infected victims

    Pay €100 'fine' to rid PCs of horror images

    Depraved miscreants are spreading vile ransomware that displays images of child abuse on infected PCs and demands payment to remove them. Typically, this sort of malware pretends to be an official piece of police software and pops up a text message accusing victims of breaking the law - usually for downloading copyrighted …

    Security 1 Feb 08:04

  • Netbooks were a GOOD thing and we threw them under a bus

    Fondleslabs and ultrabooks? Only if you've got deep pockets and short attention spans

    Packing for a week-and-a-half road trip to Silicon Valley and back triggered a moment of introspection over the impending end of netbook production. I had some devices to choose from for my journey. I could have taken my Alienware MX18, my first-generation Samsung Galaxy Tab, my Asus Transformer, my Samsung NF210 Netbook, my …

    Laptops 1 Feb 08:33

  • Bring out your dead: Reg readers reveal filthy, filthy PCs...

    Ventblockers Computers' hellish interiors reveal further horrors

    It's been over three years since El Reg readers rocked the IT world to the very foundations on which it rests with chilling photographic evidence of the horrors which lurk within PCs worldwide. Twelve months later, and the shockers just kept on coming, allowing a second spine-tingling round-up of grotesque dust creatures, …

    Hardware 1 Feb 09:03

  • HP reels in late for LTO-6 party, yells: Tape is BA-ACK

    'Tape storage is experiencing a resurgence'

    HP has launched its LTO-6 tape products and rebranded all its tape hardware under the StoreEver name, saying the tape goodies are now an integrated part of its Converged Storage product set. It's late to the LTO-6 party, following IBM, Quantum, Oracle, and SpectraLogic. Better late than never though. The general manager of HP' …

    Storage 1 Feb 09:34

  • Brussels reviews Google's plan for not being abusive and dominant

    'OK, let's check if this can work. No, don't Google it'

    The competition wing of the European Commission confirmed this morning that its officials were currently poring over Google's latest search business remedy proposals, after the company submitted a document to Brussels yesterday. "We have received proposals by Google which we are now analysing," said Antoine Colombani, who is a …

    Government 1 Feb 10:02

  • We're not making this up: Apple trademarks the SHOP

    Rectangular tables protected, no word on rounded corners

    After trademarking the leaf and patenting the rectangle, Apple has outdone itself by trademarking the shop. The US Patent and Trademark office last week granted Apple's application to trademark a retail store featuring computers. It is the "distinctive design and layout" that Apple now holds the unique design rights to, thanks …

    Business 1 Feb 10:34

  • Google's Glasses: The tech with specs appeal?

    Something for the Weekend, Sir? Don’t push that into my face...

    I don't like wearing a wristwatch because it's uncomfortable. As the prime minister always says when being evasive or unintelligible, let’s be clear about this: I wear a wristwatch on most days but I find that doing so is uncomfortable. I would never wear a watch at home. I strap it on when I set off to a customer site and take …

    Hardware 1 Feb 10:47

  • It's a CLUSTERPLUCK: Isilon array gobbles 4TB drives

    Third more in same space

    Isilon, EMC's scale-out filer product, now stores 33 per cent more data after adding support for 4TB disk drives. It used to top out at just over 15PB in a single pool, with an NL-Series system using 3TB SATA disks. Now it can store up to 20PB in a single volume with 4TB SATA spinners, and, EMC says, use 30 per cent less …

    Storage 1 Feb 10:59

  • The problem with deploying storage for a private cloud is...

    block challenges and find solutions

    The storage architecture you will need for a private cloud deployment will probably be very different to what you have today. So what level of performance, and what attributes does it need to have? And how do you migrate from what you have now into what you have next? What will you need to spend, and what are the common mistakes …

    Storage 1 Feb 11:06

  • Plunging BT sales hit every branch of the biz on way down

    Even Openreach couldn't save it this time. Pesky watchdogs blamed

    BT reported to the City this morning a total revenue fall of 6 per cent for the national telco's final three months of 2012. It said sales, excluding specific items relating to "regulatory decisions" on historic Ethernet pricing, hit £4.5bn during the period, down from £4.77bn a year earlier. Adjusted pre-tax profit climbed 7 …

    Networks 1 Feb 11:23

  • Oh, Sony, you big tease: Mystery PlayStation reveal date set

    Gamers, Wall St a-quiver in anticipation of a PS4 glimpse

    Sony has called on hacks and analysts to come to New York next month for an event focused on the PlayStation - an invite that's left pundits and fans predicting the unveiling of the long-awaited PlayStation 4. Naturally, Sony isn’t saying, confirming only that the electronics giant will be discussing its PlayStation business …

    Games 1 Feb 11:38

  • Space Shuttle Columbia disaster remembered 10 years on

    Feature What really happened to the mission that grounded NASA's orbiter fleet?

    On February 1st, 2003 at 08:00 CST residents of Texas witnessed the once mighty Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrate into a 12,000mph fireball. Almost 17 years to the day since the Challenger disaster, President G. W. Bush delivered the news to the world, “The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors.” STS-107 payload bay …

    SPB 1 Feb 12:00

  • Samsung's squillionaire supremo scuttles siblings' shares snatch

    Lee Kun-Hee wins lawsuit at heart of chaebol power struggle

    Samsung chairman Lee Kun-Hee has won a lawsuit against his brother and sister to keep control of the electronics leviathan. The victory in a battle over stock ownership means Lee, son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-Chull, will keep $3.7bn (£2.5n) in Sammy shares: a controlling stake in the company. The chairman faced three …

    Business 1 Feb 12:19

  • 'Why can't we say we're happy to be RIMmed on a daily basis?'

    Quotw Plus: 'Keep hairdryer four, five inches from the iPhone'

    Deflating news reached El Reg's headline writers this week in the form of RIM's name change to BlackBerry. Of course, it also launched two new phones running its QNX-powered smartphone operating system: BlackBerry OS 10. Reg reader SouthPacificPom noted this may be the end of snigger-worthy puns: "This is a sad day indeed. …

    Bootnotes 1 Feb 12:37

  • Pub o' clock comes early for C&W biz customers silenced by titsup phones

    Inbound calls swallowed by black hole

    Business customers of Vodafone-owned Cable & Wireless have been complaining about the telecoms outfit this morning after it was hit by a major outage apparently affecting the whole of the UK. The Register understands that punters are unable to receive inbound calls to the category of numbers whose prefix includes 0800 and 0845 …

    Networks 1 Feb 12:59

  • Stricken giant 2e2 may be sold off in one by Monday - sources

    Most staff paid for January, implored to stay aboard

    The sale of fallen integrator 2e2 may be finalised as early as Monday with administrator FTI Consulting looking to offload all of the UK biz to just one buyer, say people close to the talks. All of the major household names in the channel are understood to have looked under the hood of the Berkshire-based company since ten UK …

    The Channel 1 Feb 13:28

  • Hungry Daisy Group scoffs The Net Crowd

    Yum yum, tasty IP'n'data nourishment

    Acquisitive telco services player Daisy Group has swallowed IP data specialist minnow The Net Crowd (TNC) for an undisclosed sum. This adds a data and convergence play to the telco and Unified Comms businesses that are already housed by the group. Berkshire-based TNC only set up shop in 2009 and resells networking kit from …

    The Channel 1 Feb 13:29

  • Facebook's Google, Bing events snub: It's a BUG, NOT a FEATURE

    Exclusive Soon as we fix it, everyone is welcome ... bitch

    Facebook still wants to operate on the web by allowing "public" parts of its vast database to be indexed on search engines such as Google and Bing. But it appeared earlier this week as though the Mark Zuckerberg-run company had - in the wake of launching Graph Search - began squirrelling away such results relating to public …

    Networks 1 Feb 14:01

  • Ball-gazer on 2013: More like Crystal Maze for channel biz

    BYOD, buyouts, VDI - Will you start the fans, please?

    Well, it’s that time of the year again: time to engage in some belated amateur crystal ball gazing to pick out the channel trends of the next 12 months. In all honesty, I think 2012 went better than any of us could have hoped, given the continued macro-economic slump throughout Europe. Considering the less-than-glorious …

    The Channel 1 Feb 14:15

  • Filthy! old! blog! bug! blamed! for! Yahoo! webmail! hijacks!

    Unpatched WordPress flaw clears way for inbox takeovers

    Yahoo! webmail accounts are being hijacked by hackers exploiting an eight-month-old bug in the web giant's blog, security biz Bitdefender warns. Messages with a short link to an apparently harmless MSNBC web-page are being spread to compromise mailboxes: the link actually points to a completely different website hosting …

    Security 1 Feb 14:29

  • Windows Server 2012 kicks ass: discuss

    Reg commentards weigh in

    A little experiment from us: we are rounding up comments on a couple of articles - and turning them into articles. Some might call this stretching the material - social media types might call it amplification. But we think that not all of our commentards are mad - and many have very interesting insights to share. Yesterday we …

    Servers 1 Feb 14:42

  • First the NYT, now the Wall Street Journal: But are hacking attacks from China new?

    Analysis If this is a surprise, where have you been for a decade? Mars?

    The Wall Street Journal is the latest media titan after the New York Times to admit it was raided by Chinese hackers. The WSJ confessed on Thursday a day after the NYT similarly blamed intruders linked to China's military for a persistent four-month assault against its computer systems. The attack against the NYT used a …

    Security 1 Feb 15:23

  • HP workers halt legal fight against bosses over 29,000 job cuts

    Disagreements settled, negotiations resumed

    HP employees have "withdrawn" legal action against the company and agreed to return to the negotiating table to hear CEO Meg Whitman's plan to cut 29,000 jobs. The collective of HP workers, who are supported by numerous unions, sued the vendor and claimed it had not properly consulted staff and made the redundancy process …

    The Channel 1 Feb 15:49

  • Cloud doctors, DevOps and unconferences: Pass the Vicodin

    Storagebod Get past annoying 'unpanel' tweeters and they're actually quite useful

    At the recent London CloudCamp - "an unconference where early adopters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas" - there was a lot of discussion about DevOps on the UnPanel. As the discussion went on, I was expecting the stage to be stormed by some of the older members in the audience. Certainly some of the tweets and the …

    Storage 1 Feb 16:11

  • US IT services sector takes some job hits in January

    Ousted tech guys may be able to get jobs down the mines

    An expected, a slowdown in job creation in the United States in January with the Fiscal Cliff looming was massively offset by revisions in the job creation rate for November and December - according to this morning's report from the US Department of Labor. Like clockwork, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issues its monthly jobs …

    Jobs 1 Feb 16:37

  • Rotund Mega baron Dotcom offers bounty for breaking his crypto

    Can you burst the bulging cloud locker for €10,000?

    Kim Dotcom is offering a prize of € 10,000 ($13,600) for anyone who can break the cryptography of Mega, his recently launched cloud-based storage site. Mega's launch last month was meet by criticism from multiple security researchers. Everything a user uploads is encrypted before it leaves their browser, using a master key …

    Security 1 Feb 16:57

  • Linux boot doesn't smash Samsung laptops any more

    Penguins console tearful owners of shiny new bricks

    Samsung laptops will no longer be irreparably destroyed when their users try to boot Linux on them, kernel chieftain Linus Torvalds made certain today. The brainboxes down at Ubuntu-maker Canonical penguinery issued a warning over the incompatibiity and have been tackling the nuclear bug that destroyed the whole Samusung …

    Laptops 1 Feb 18:02

  • Samsung mocks Apple lawsuit in SuperBowl teaser ad

    Video But who besides insiders will get the joke?

    Samsung has released a star-studded teaser video for its ad that will run during this Sunday's SuperBowl "El Plato Supremé", a clip that mocks patent and copyright litigation – and, by extension, its long-running adversary, Apple. In the video, funnymen Bob Odenkirk, Seth Rogen, and Paul Rudd are seen discussing ad ideas for …

    Media 1 Feb 18:05

  • Michael Dell to buy himself on Monday?

    Big Mike wants Wall Street to stop playing with his ball

    Michael Dell may not cash out and do a leveraged buyout of the company that bears his name, but instead put his own money where his mouth has been and buy majority control the eponymous pride of Round Rock, Texas. And, according to the latest reports, he could finalize the deal to take Dell private as soon as Monday. Saying " …

    Business 1 Feb 20:31

  • Oracle loses appeal in HP row over Itanium

    Next up: How much will it have to pay?

    Oracle's last-ditch effort to wriggle out of a judgment requiring it to continue support for HP's Itanium-based servers has failed, leaving only the issue of damages to be resolved. In August 2012, a San Jose, California court ruled that Oracle had violated the terms of its contract with HP when it announced that it would no …

    Business 1 Feb 21:53

  • Nokia shares $1.35bn EU graphene research grant

    Handy if that whole WinPhone business doesn't work out

    The EU has awarded a €1bn ($1.35bn) grant to the Graphene Flagship consortium in a ten-year project bringing academics and industrialists together to commercialize graphene, and hopefully spur economic growth. The grant comes from the EU's Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) program, which seeks to boost the introduction of …

    Science 1 Feb 22:56