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22nd February 2013 Archive

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  • Google reveals Glass details in patent application

    Lasers burning images onto your retina? What could go possibly wrong?

    The US Patent and Trademark Office has published a Google patent application that provides a raft of details about that company's much-ballyhooed "Glass" augmented-reality spectacles. The term Glass, however, is not sufficiently patentesian for the USPTO and Google's patent lawyers. The application in question, filed on August …

    Hardware 22 Feb 00:15

  • Ubuntu Preview alpha arrives for fondleslabs and phones

    Beware – it's for brave Nexus device owners only

    As promised, Canonical has released the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview, complete with full source code and installation images for supported devices. The company warns, however, that this early, alpha-quality release is strictly for developers and enthusiasts only. "While a huge amount of Engineering and Design work has been …

    Operating Systems 22 Feb 00:28

  • Emulex under second investor assault

    First Elliott and now Altai

    Emulex, faced with a relatively static Fibre Channel HBA market and with the great white Ethernet-carrying FCoE alternative being as lively as a lethargic turtle, has decided to buy Endace, a New Zealand–based concern with Ethernet deep traffic inspection and analysis gear, so as to expand its addressable market. This got up …

    Business 22 Feb 00:36

  • Open source app can detect text's authors

    Bible, US constitution analysed. Next: your kids school work and your email

    A group of Adelaide researchers has released an open-source tool that helps identify document authorship by comparing texts. While their own test cases – and therefore the headlines – concentrated on identifying the authors of historical documents, it seems to The Register that any number of modern uses of such a tool might …

    Software 22 Feb 00:43

  • Drone quadracopters throw and catch inverted pendulum

    Video Let the spear-throwing killbot FUD commence

    All those stories you've read lately about drones invading your privacy by photographing you from afar? Kids' stuff … now that we have the evidence below of drones throwing and catching an inverted pendulum. That trick has been accomplished by boffins at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, where a “Flying …

    Science 22 Feb 00:56

  • Whitman: Absolutely not going to break up HP

    The patient 'showed some improvement' in Q1

    The rumors go 'round and 'round about HP spinning off its PC business or doing some other kinds of breakup, and CEO Meg Whitman put a stop to them – maybe for once and for all, maybe not – on a conference call today to discuss the company's financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2013 ended on January 31. "We …

    Financial News 22 Feb 01:06

  • Google App Engine update eases cloudy mobile app development

    Cloud Endpoints let Android and iOS apps plug into Google’s backend

    Google has updated its platform-as-a-service to ease mobile app development in the cloud. The "Cloud Endpoints" feature was pushed out in its preview form by Google on Thursday, along with support for the Java 7 runtime on its App Engine platform-as-a-service. "Cloud Endpoints gets rid of all the plumbing code associated with …

    Developer 22 Feb 01:09

  • Hipsters have spoken: Microsoft is 'hip to be square'

    Porcine aviation squadron ready for take off

    Microsoft is getting hip again, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, but Google's still the coolest kid in school. The polling organization asked the US's finest 18 and 29-year-olds what the coolest tech brands are, and for the first time in a long while around half answered Microsoft. The generation that grew up with an Xbox – …

    Business 22 Feb 01:35

  • Microsoft legal beagle calls for patent reform cooperation

    'Fix what's broken, don't break what's working'

    Microsoft has urged government, the courts, and industry to work together to help improve the US patent system, but also cautioned against breaking those aspects of the system that do work. "There is no question that the U.S. patent system has tremendous strengths but also significant weaknesses," Microsoft executive VP and …

    Policy 22 Feb 02:04

  • Ericsson plans NZ fibre facility

    Duct-building in Porirua

    Ericsson has its eye on contracts in New Zealand’s Ultra Fast Broadband and Rural Broadband Initiative projects, announcing its intention to build a $NZ15 million fibre duct facility in Porirua, north of Wellington. The vendor holds contracts with telecommunications utility Chorus (responsible for 70 percent of the premises to …

    Business 22 Feb 02:56

  • Security report becomes security risk

    Mandiant's report on Chinese hacking used as bait in spear phishing attacks

    A high profile security report released earlier this week detailing Chinese military involvement in widespread online attacks is itself now being used as a lure in spear-phishing attacks, according to researchers. The report, APT1: Exposing One of China's Cyber Espionage Units, published by security firm Mandiant, made …

    Security 22 Feb 03:49

  • Facebook reveals plan for new archival data centre

    Bit barn will hold all the photos you don't care about any more

    Facebook has discussed details of a new data centre it is building to house photos nobody looks at any more. The Social Network TM already has two data centres in the spot the new one will splash down, namely the town of Prineville, Oregon. Facebook's going back to Prineville because the town's altitude and climate mean its …

    Datacenter 22 Feb 04:14

  • Turkish tattooists test talent with QR code ad

    Tattoo parlour hopefuls urged to swap irons for pen

    The bafflingly ubiquitous Quick Response (QR) code may have finally found its ideal use case after a Turkish tattoo parlour decided to feature the 21st century bar-code in an ingenious scheme to weed out job applicants. Istanbul ad agency BÜRO was recently hired by upmarket tattoo emporium Berrge Tattoo to help it hire some …

    Software 22 Feb 05:06

  • Build your own 180TB NAS for $US1,942.59 (plus disk)

    Cloud storage outfit Backblaze again open sources design that influences Netflix's storage

    Cloud storage company Backblaze may not quite have the cachet of the folks playing in the Open Compute Project, but that hasn't stopped the company open-sourcing the design it's cooked up for the JBOD-like rigs it uses to power its service. And after receiving a million page impressions for the release of its first design, the …

    Storage 22 Feb 05:48

  • US woman cuffed for 'booking strippers for 16th birthday bash'

    'Intimate' entertainment endangered teen welfare, cops claim

    A New York woman is in a spot of bother after allegedly arranging for strippers to liven up a young man's 16th birthday bash. The District Attorney said charges of endangering the welfare of a child had been laid against Judy Viger, 33, of Gansevoort, north of Albany, in connection with allegations that she had hired two …

    Bootnotes 22 Feb 06:09

  • Official: More than 7 million Brits have NEVER accessed the interwebs

    Oldsters, disabled and poor all left behind

    Brits who are disabled, over the age of 75 or poor are among the vast majority of people living in the UK who make up more than 7 million citizens found to have never been online, official government figures show. People over the age of 75 are - perhaps unsurprisingly - the age group least likely to have ever accessed the …

    Broadband 22 Feb 07:04

  • Virident gives server flash vendors the fear with 'sharing tool'

    PCIe flash card maker punts Connect software

    Virident, the PCIe flash card and software supplier Seagate loves to the extent of a $40m investment and OEM supply deal, says you can share server flash and make it highly available with its Connect software. This will probably give server flash industry leader Fusion-io something to get a little concerned about. Virident's …

    Storage 22 Feb 07:29

  • Bill Gates: 'Microsoft didn't MISS cell phone' bandwagon

    Quotw Plus: 'Trolls are just trying to hijack somebody else's idea'

    This was the week when US President Barack Obama let everyone know that Google Hangouts are a thing! POTUS indulged in a little "Fireside Hangout" to chat about issues raised in his earlier State of the Union address. When asked about software patents and the patent snarking that goes on, Obama came down hard on patent trolls, …

    Bootnotes 22 Feb 08:06

  • Delving deep into Microsoft's 'Cloud OS'

    Live broadcast Does Windows Server 2012 deliver on its promise?

    Microsoft claims that Windows Server 2012 is the "Cloud OS", but is that a serious statement or just marketing hype? We know that thousands of you who are Windows Server users are planning to migrate to private cloud in 2013, so the answer matters as much to you as it does to us. Join The Reg's Tim Phillips for a live …

    Datacenter 22 Feb 08:22

  • Woman nails 'cheating boyf' on Russian 'Street View'

    Spots paramour pair in Perm panorama

    A Russian woman has ditched her boyfriend of five years after spotting him with another squeeze on the local equivalent of Street View. Marina Voinova, 24, said she was searching Yandex Maps for an address in Perm when she got an eyeful of her other half, named only as "Sasha", on an incriminating stroll (click for a bigger …

    Bootnotes 22 Feb 08:24

  • 4G in the UK? Why the smart money still says 'Meh'

    Analysis Along with the industry

    Last September, when the UK's first 4G service emerged, I promised to sit out the switch to high-speed mobile broadband for as long as possible. What I didn't expect was the mobile industry joining me on the sidelines. Budge up, please - it's getting a bit crowded here. It would not be fair to say the UK mobile industry is …

    Mobile 22 Feb 09:04

  • Bundestag holds 'unusual' hearing on German Copyright Act

    Expert: May indicate parliamentary 'push-back' on copyright reform

    A "highly unusual" additional parliamentary hearing on proposed changes to German copyright law is a sign that there is increasing opposition to the publisher-driven plans, an expert has said. A cross-party sub committee on new media is scheduled to stage a hearing of stakeholders' views on the proposed amendments to the …

    Government 22 Feb 09:24

  • Mobile World Congress: Rise of the machines, er, mobiles

    Live Chat Thursday, 1400 GMT: Chat to the El Reg team back from Barcelona

    This year's annual Mobile World Congress marks a major departure, with machines battling the usual line-up of handset-makers for control. From Monday 25 February, there will be cars on show plus an entire street filled with machines talking to each other. The Reg is descending on Barcelona to parse this talk of machine-to- …

    MWC 22 Feb 10:04

  • SimCity Classic

    Antique Code Show Micromanage your own mock metropolis

    Doughnuts. Doughnuts are what I think of when someone mentions SimCity in my vicinity. Not because I used to cram them into my face, Homer Simpson-style, while I played, but rather because, back in my childhood, I was obsessed with arranging my own ‘simmed’ city in perfect concentric 'doughnuts'. Squares in three-by-three …

    Games 22 Feb 10:28

  • Orange offers €40k for the best bit of NFC bonking

    App compo to drive adoption of the radio comms tech

    France Telecom-Orange is offering forty grand in prize money to best applications using NFC, with a €5K bonus if it relies on an Orange SIM too. The competition is being run by the French arm of Orange, so the details are in French, but it's open to anyone who has a good idea for an NFC app and is looking for a some financial …

    Mobile 22 Feb 10:30

  • BOFH: Climb the corp ladder - and use your boss as a bullet shield

    Episode 1 Top tips on getting ahead, BOFH-style

    "It's like progress bars," I say to the PFY during a discussion about the relative merits of the company management as we ride the lift to the CEO's office to fix some laptop crisis. "All too often the bar itself bears no relationship whatsoever to the amount of time you're going to wait. In the same way the salary of a …

    BOFH 22 Feb 10:59

  • NBC.com HACKED to spread bank account-raiding Trojan

    'No user info compromised' insists US telly network

    The website of US TV network ‪NBC‬ was hacked to deliver Java and PDF exploits. The attack against NBC.com - which hosts entertainment and TV content - used a cybercrime toolkit called Redkit that was ultimately aimed at delivering Citadel, a banking Trojan. NBC acted promptly to cleaned up its promotional site, admitting the …

    Security 22 Feb 11:17

  • Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter hipsters exposed in Zendesk data raid

    Hacker slurps email info from helpdesk biz

    Customer service provider Zendesk has been hacked - potentially blowing the lid on the anonymity of some users of Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr. Zendesk, which handles helpdesk emails for the aforementioned trendy blog trio, copped to the breach of its network in a blog post last night. It admitted its system was illegally …

    Security 22 Feb 11:43

  • Official: Cloud computing invented by two technophobic old geezers

    Something for the Weekend, Sir? Blue sky thinking by mistake

    Not a day goes by without a dozen press releases on the topic of cloud computing thrusting their way into my inbox (ooh, matron). I think I’ve made my opinions of the cloud con clear enough in previous columns but for the benefit of newer readers, let’s just say that I think it’s cock. Well, that is, cloud computing itself isn …

    Vintage 22 Feb 12:03

  • Happy birthday, LP: Can you believe it's only 65?

    From scratchy spinner to flash and now the cloud

    This storage medium progressed from spinning disk to flash and then entered the cloud... Sound familiar? It's the long-playing music album and this year marks the sixty-fifth anniversary of its inception. The 33 1/3rpm vinyl long-playing record was devised in 1948 by Columbia Records and was an upgrade on the prior 78rpm 12- …

    Storage 22 Feb 12:44

  • Brit SAP house G3 Global slurps 2e2's SAP house

    Diagonal moves from Morse to 2e2... to an SME in Weybridge

    SAP Gold partner G3 Global - based in Surrey - has acquired 2e2-owned Diagonal Consulting in a cash deal, it confirmed this morning. Buyers for Diagonal, which was taken over by Morse in 2004 - itself swallowed by 2e2 in 2010 - were sought after administrator FTI Consulting was called into the UK ops last month. Chris Gunter …

    The Channel 22 Feb 13:04

  • Bees use 'electrical SIXTH SENSE' to nail nectar-stuffed flowers

    Sparks fly when bumbles see plants for plundering, say Brit bio-boffins

    There's electricity in the air when bees meet flowers: according to a new study, the blooms and approaching insects uses electrical signals to find out whether there is nectar and pollen to spare. My spidey bumble senses are tingling As they fly through the air, bumblebees acquire a positive electric charge, while flowers, …

    Science 22 Feb 13:04

  • What's NFC? PayPal lobs Chip and PIN readers at UK small biz

    Just as the world moves to pay-by-bonk

    Accepting credit cards just got even easier, with PayPal and iZettle both announcing Chip and PIN readers suitable for European markets where mag-stripes are considered passe. PayPal Here has been around in the US for a while, allowing merchants to take credit-card payments into their PayPal accounts, but like rival service …

    Small Biz 22 Feb 13:24

  • Privacy warriors slam MEPs over 'corporate-friendly' data law rewrite

    Euro politicos 'undermine trust and confidence', argue campaigners

    Privacy campaigners are up in arms about a European Parliament committee's decision to adopt a drafted opinion on data protection that some have argued further waters down Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding's proposed rewrite of DP law. Lobbyists from the European Digital Rights (EDRi) group warned that the move could cripple …

    Law 22 Feb 13:39

  • Council IT bod in the dock for flogging scrap work PC parts

    Saving disks from scrapyard landed him on the scrapheap

    A council IT worker who flogged his employers' scrap kit on eBay for £10,000 has been ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work by a court. Ian Holwell, 52, grabbed PCs and laptops due to be disposed by Derbyshire County Council and stripped out their parts to sell online. But he was rumbled and sacked after a whistleblower …

    Policy 22 Feb 14:13

  • Pah! Social, file-sharing apps are SAFE compared to biz apps

    Malware threats not where corporates think they are

    Threats from social networking, video and filesharing pale in comparison to malicious content in business critical apps, according to a survey by network security firm Palo Alto Networks. While 339 social networking, video, and file-sharing applications represent 20 per cent of network bandwidth use, they account for less than …

    Security 22 Feb 14:36

  • Dell and pals pop $51m into all-flash array upstart's wallet

    Healthy chunk o' change for Skyera's B-round

    While Dell the man is busying himself with taking Dell the company private, Dell Ventures has taken the lead in a $51.6m second funding round for all-flash array startup Skyera. Dell alone - of the major systems and storage vendors - has no all-flash array strategy, at least not a public one. In November last year its storage …

    Storage 22 Feb 14:59

  • BBC's new bosses - the lawyers - strike out Savile probe testimony

    Comment Why the blanks matter the most

    What's the difference between the NHS and the BBC? You can't get fired from the NHS, and you can't get fired from the BBC. It's a trick question. As we know from the Mid Staffordshire hospitals scandal, despite "the terrible and unnecessary suffering of hundreds of people" from poor care, nobody was sacked. The lowliest staff …

    Media 22 Feb 15:29

  • Google given more time to prove to Brussels it's NOT 'abusive' in search

    Almunia sets deadline (of sorts) for second half of 2013

    The two-year long competition probe of Google's search business in Europe is poised to continue at least into the second half of this year, commissioner Joaquin Almunia has confirmed. "We can reach an agreement after the summer break. We can envisage this as a possible deadline," he said on Friday, according to Reuters. The …

    Government 22 Feb 15:57

  • Who said run rate reselling was 'boring'? Oh... Softcat did

    But Marlow-based dealer still making mint from it

    Unstoppable reseller juggernaut Softcat claims its top and bottom lines swelled 40 per cent in its first half of fiscal 2013 under the leadership of MD Colin Brown who joined from Microsoft last year. Martin Hellawell, veteran of the fast growing Marlow-based biz moved upstairs to the chairman's office last autumn to replace …

    The Channel 22 Feb 15:58

  • Blackberry Z10 sales fail to impress analysts

    Early forecasts being revised downward

    It’s no exaggeration to say that the future of BlackBerry, the renamed Research in Motion, is hanging on success of its new BlackBerry smartphones, the Q10 and, particularly, the Z10. Revised forecasts from a number of market watchers suggest the troubled company has not yet put its woes behind it. Earlier this week, two …

    Phones 22 Feb 16:29

  • PSF warns on angry trademark attacks: Python coders, this is not our way

    Hacktivism and threats 'not who we are or how we act'

    Python fans have been chastised over their attacks on a tiny web host embroiled in dispute over the Python trademark in Europe that saw the police called in. Top officials from the Python Software Foundation have urged civility and restraint in the dispute, saying death threats and hactivism against the web hosting company - …

    Developer 22 Feb 16:56

  • Is world's first space tourist Dennis Tito planning a trip to Mars?

    Millionaire teases 'historic journey' to Red Planet

    The internet is aflutter with rumours that millionaire Dennis Tito, the world's first space tourist, is planning a private manned mission to Mars in just five years' time. The wires were set jangling by a press release announcing a "once-in-a-generation space journey", details of which would be given at a press conference on …

    Science 22 Feb 17:14

  • Rackspace cuts network bandwidth prices on its cloud

    Adds tiered pricing with volume discounts for storage capacity

    Rackspace, which bills itself as "the open cloud company", is cutting prices in its ongoing effort to tear a chunk or three of business away from closed source Amazon Web Services, the public-cloud leader. Amazon didn't just build the first viable public cloud, it keeps cutting the price on its various compute, storage, and …

    Cloud Infrastructure 22 Feb 17:19

  • RIAA: Google failing on anti-piracy push

    Six-month report card: FAIL

    The Recording Industry Ass. of America has issued a report on Google's progress in cutting the availability of pirate websites in its search results, and the verdict isn't so much "could try harder" as "you are an utter failure," as this hack's Latin teacher once judged him. "Our initial analysis concludes that so far Google's …

    Media 22 Feb 19:39

  • Cheap iPhone mini 'makes sense' for world domination

    Morgan Stanley analyst: China won't gobble leftovers

    After meeting with Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, one well-placed analyst sees "several signs" that offering a lower-priced iPhone "makes sense." Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty's reasoning about the release of the long-rumored, downsized iPhone "mini" or "nano", says Forbes, is based on the success of the iPad mini in …

    Phones 22 Feb 19:59

  • Google announces I/O conference registration

    Prepare for Glastonbury-like techie stampede

    F5 keys the world over trembled today, as Google announced the date when registration opens for its popular conference Google I/O. Googlephiles can register for boffinry, keynotes, and the likely chance of some gratis Chocolate Factory devices from 7:00am PDT on March 13, 2013, according to a post made to the G+ Google …

    Developer 22 Feb 21:10

  • iPhone-maker Foxconn not gonna save Sharp

    Sharp starts making plans to save itself without help

    iPhone-maker Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, will not come to the rescue of floundering Japanese manufacturers Sharp, says Reuters. Sharp will have to look to itself to save its wilting electronics manufacturing business, says Reuters' unnamed source. Sharp had asked the Taiwanese bits-maker Hon Hai for a …

    Business 22 Feb 21:13

  • HTC settles with FTC over smartphone security holes

    Promises to do better next time

    The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced a settlement with smartphone-maker HTC over complaints that its handsets are riddled with security failings, and the government watchdog says it will check on compliance for ... wait for it ... the next 20 years. The FTC complaint claims that when HTC customized Android and …

    Security 22 Feb 21:55

  • Microsoft secure Azure Storage goes down WORLDWIDE

    Updated Looks like Redmond forgot to renew a security certificate...

    Microsoft's Windows Azure storage cloud is having worldwide problems with secure SSL storage, probably because Redmond let the HTTPS certificate expire. Being 'in the pink' is not good news for Windows Azure, as this screenshot from the Windows Azure Service Dashboard attests (click to enlarge) The problems were first …

    Cloud 22 Feb 22:11

  • Success for Einhorn: Judge blocks vote on Apple's Proposal 2

    Tim Cook faces interesting shareholder meeting next week

    Hedge-fund manager David Einhorn has scored a technical victory in his fight to block Apple from amending its charter at next week's shareholder meeting. Earlier this month, Einhorn filed his legal suit with another investor, claiming that Apple was showing a "depression era" attitude to money by amassing a cash pile of $137bn …

    Law 22 Feb 23:35