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8th March 2013 Archive

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  • 'We the People' seek to double NASA budget – at least

    Is 1% of the total US budget too much to spend on space?

    Calling all space fans: point your browser to the Obama White House's "We the People" petition website and sign onto an effort to ensure that NASA is funded to at least 1 per cent of the US annual budget. "NASA advances our nation when well-funded;" the petition argues, "by guaranteeing that no less than 1 per cent of federal …

    Science 8 Mar 00:15

  • Google, MPEG LA kiss and make up in WebM patent spat

    Open source VP8 codec now officially legit

    Google and the MPEG LA licensing body have announced that they have reached a licensing agreement for patents related to the Chocolate Factory's WebM streaming media technology, clearing the cloud of potential litigation that has loomed over the format for more than two years. At issue was VP8, the codec used for the video …

    Media 8 Mar 00:20

  • Safety authorities to hold hearings into Boeing 787's battery woes

    Investigators still stumped, fleet still grounded

    There's no end in sight for Boeing's woes with its combustible 787 Dreamliner: the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its interim report about a fire on one of the aircraft, and announced that a full investigation into the 787's batteries will begin next month. "The information developed through the …

    Hardware 8 Mar 00:31

  • OLPC rebuts 'kids with laptops read less' study

    Tests didn't look at overall OLPC impact, found kids weren't getting good at PC use

    The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative has published a response to a study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) that found kids given the program's signature PC didn't learn much and spent less time reading. The study, available here (PDF) , is titled Home Computers and Child Outcomes: Short-Term Impacts from a …

    Hardware 8 Mar 00:50

  • Georgia Tech proposes terabit NFC antenna

    Graphene to handle sum-millimeter radio waves

    A group from Georgia Tech is hoping to build a micro-scale graphene antenna that would support terabit – or even hundred-terabit – radio communications. Why micro-scale? Because the researchers are looking at handling radio waves that in the terahertz range, getting close to the far infrared, where the wavelengths involved are …

    Networks 8 Mar 01:40

  • Pwn2Own: IE10, Firefox, Chrome, Reader, Java hacks land $500k

    Google's Chrome OS withstands attack in security contest

    It's back to the drawing board for coders at Microsoft, Google, Adobe, Mozilla, and Oracle after entrants in the annual Pwn2Own contest waltzed off with over half a million dollars in prizes for exploiting security holes in popular software. At this year's CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, contestants had a choice …

    Security 8 Mar 02:04

  • Red Hat: We still love Java 6, even if Oracle doesn't

    Says it's taking over leadership of OpenJDK 6

    Red Hat has announced that it is assuming the leadership of the OpenJDK 6 community, just days after Oracle issued what it said would be the final patch for version 6 of its commercial Java SE 6 Development Kit. Oracle posted JDK 6 Update 43 on Monday as an emergency patch for the latest in a series of severe vulnerabilities …

    Developer 8 Mar 02:15

  • Irish Senator suggests net users register passport and IP address

    Committee hearing on abuse of social media also offers pay-to-post as troll-stopper

    A Parliamentary committee hearing in the Republic of Ireland on “the abuse of social media and cyber-bullying” has heard a proposal to control trolls and other unsavoury online creatures by registering internet users with their passport numbers or IP addresses. The Committee also heard an idea to charge internet users to …

    Policy 8 Mar 03:07

  • Photoshop fakery exposed by fake Photoshop tool

    Free download restores models' flaws

    Beauty products brand Dove, one arm of the Unilever conglomerate, has pranked graphic designers with a new Photoshop tool. Dove has long championed a “Campaign for Real Beauty” by using women who aren't professional models in its advertising. The fact that other Unilever brands still use all sorts of stereotypes is a irony …

    Software 8 Mar 04:02

  • Google sends Street View car into Fukushima dead zone

    Displaced residents of Namie can't go home, can at least Google it

    Google’s Street View project took an unusual left turn this week after one of it's familiar camera mounted cars took to the streets of Namie – a town in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture deserted nearly two years ago after the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. A Google spokesperson confirmed to The Reg that the unusual …

    Networks 8 Mar 04:08

  • World's 'smallest' mobe unveiled in Japan

    Forget phablets, this tiddler has a one-inch screen

    At a time when smartphone screens are getting bigger and bigger, Japanese outfit Willcom has bucked the trend and announced what it claims is the world’s smallest and lightest mobile phone. The little-known electronics vendor will launch the munchkin-sized “Strap Phone 2 WX06A” on 21 March. It features a tiny 96x64 resolution …

    Phones 8 Mar 05:42

  • IBM moves Power Systems manufacturing from Minnesota to Mexico

    A return to Guadalajara, where the weather and supply chain are better

    It is the end of an era – the minicomputer era to be precise – for the IBMers who work in the company's sprawling Rochester, Minnesota facility. Their jobs are moving to Mexico. Big Blue had a meeting with the approximately 2,800 employees in the facility on Tuesday afternoon and told them it would cease manufacturing …

    Management 8 Mar 05:57

  • Canuck rumps resist Street View arsebusters

    NSFW Blue moon shines bright in Nova Scotia

    Google's Street View has been around long enough to become part of the internet scenery, although it continues to offer interesting scenery for those with a sharp eye. The Great Satan of Mountain View addressed early privacy concerns with its face-blurring algorithm, while the company's dedicated censorship SWAT teams were on …

    Bootnotes 8 Mar 06:02

  • Red wine may be ELIXIR OF YOUTH

    Boffins isolate ageing-retardant catalyst in bottom of bottle

    The medicinal properties of the odd glass of red wine have long been document, and embraced. But now an international team of boffins has published a paper asserting that a particular compound found in red can activate an anti-ageing protein. The substance in question is called resveratrol and it has long been suspected of …

    Science 8 Mar 06:11

  • Cheeky Boston fires up x86-to-ARM porting cloud for server apps

    Chuckles about 'ARM as a service' and AaaS all around

    If you are a developer and you want to get a jump on the ARM server wave and port your applications from an x86 processor or another chip architecture – hey, the latter could happen – getting your hands on some of the nifty new server iron can be problematic. An ARM server is not exactly a volume product, and neither are …

    Servers 8 Mar 06:32

  • Review: Supermicro FatTwin

    Trevor likes his servers hot and dense

    My testlab has a new arrival: a Supermicro FatTwin™ F617R2-F73. As always when something lands in my lab, I will valiantly kick the crap out of it on behalf of El Reg's discerning readership. There are already a few different systems in my testlab - let's see how this thing stacks up. I'd like to kick off this review by …

    Servers 8 Mar 07:03

  • Tech titans: Give it a rest with the SEP injunctions, wouldja? - economists

    Standard-essential patent owners should be more FRANDly

    Standard-essential patent owners should be required to try to settle licensing disputes out of court in a bid to restrict the affects of litigation on market innovation, three prominent economists have said. In a paper for the Competition Policy International (CPI) think tank, Kai-Uwe Kühn, Howard Shelanski and Fiona Scott …

    Government 8 Mar 07:32

  • The DIY spy-in-the-sky: From kites to octocopters

    A beginner's guide to aerial surveillance

    Last week, we offered a brief history of aerial surveillance, with a promise to give a few pointers to the budding DIY spy-in-the-sky. Interest in airborne photography has skyrocketed in the past few years, driven by the availability of lightweight cameras packing plenty of pixels at bargain basement prices. Such kit allows …

    SPB 8 Mar 08:03

  • Dot Hill: Performance isn't everything... check out our, er, cheap capacity

    Storage array pusher gets creative with SPC benchmark rankings

    Mid-range storage array vendor Dot Hill has presented its SPC-1 performance benchmark results in a left-field way to make it stand-out from the crowd, saying it leads as the best performer on a $/GB (capacity) measure. It's announced "exceptional value for mid-range customers," with its AssuredSAN Pro 5000 Series storage array …

    Storage 8 Mar 08:29

  • Congratulations, freetards: You are THE FIVE PER CENT

    Keep calm and carry on pirating, fellas

    Meet the most pampered group in the UK. Bankers? Farmers? Wind-farm operators? The depressed river mussel? Actually, none of the above. It's copyright infringers. New research from UK communications regulator Ofcom shows that filling your boots with pirate downloads remains risk free and a money saver, particularly if you …

    Media 8 Mar 09:03

  • Single IPv6 packet KILLS Kaspersky-protected PCs, fix emerges

    Windows PCs frozen to death by firewall bug

    Kaspersky Lab has fixed a bug that could freeze PCs with Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 installed if they received a specially malformed IPv6 packet. Earlier this week infosec bod Marc Heuse reported that sending a fragmented IPv6 network packet with multiple extension headers, one of which is unusually long, to a Windows …

    Security 8 Mar 09:36

  • 'Seriously Kelly? I may as well call YOU the unelected networks tsar'

    Quotw Plus: 'Why do PC manufacturers even bother any more?'

    This was the week that hard-working Reg hack Kelly Fiveash came in for some flack over her presentation of Steelie Neelie's latest comments on the lack of IT skills in Europe. Kroes said in a speech at CeBIT that the European Commission had put together a €1m coalition to address the issue: This coalition is not about …

    Bootnotes 8 Mar 10:04

  • Malware devs offer $100 a pop for 'active' Google Play accounts

    Underground market is full of Android wrongness

    Virus writers are paying top dollar for access to "active" Google Play accounts to help them spread mobile malware across the Android ecosystem. Google charges $25 to Android developers who wish to sell their wares through the Google Play marketplace but a denizen of an underground cybercrime forum is offering to purchase …

    Security 8 Mar 10:37

  • Kovio gets help convincing world to buy into printed NFC

    Symphony Teleca follows Android into supporting Kovio tech

    Symphony Teleca will be helping NFC-specialist Kovio realise its dream of dropping printed NFC tags into just about everything, bringing its analytical and technical skills to bear on Kovio's product line. Symphony Teleca, a product development strategist and analyst, describes itself as a "partner for captivating connected …

    Mobile 8 Mar 11:03

  • Microsoft preps UPDATE EVERYTHING patch batch

    Latest turn of the Hamster Wheel of Pain

    Microsoft plans to deliver seven bulletins next week, four critical, and three important, as part of the March edition of its regular Patch Tuesday update cycle. The most troublesome of the critical vulnerabilities carries a remote code execution risk and affects every version of Windows - from XP SP3 up to Windows 8 and …

    Security 8 Mar 11:19

  • Virgin Mobile doffs its cap: Web speed limit axed after outrage

    For now, at least, as telco scrambles to fix dicky network

    Virgin Mobile UK has suspended its internet speed cap while it tries to get its network reliability back up to scratch. Large numbers of the operator's customers suffered intermittent connectivity over the last week or so, quite possibly related to the company's attempt to impose a 2Mbit-per-second cap on mobile internet …

    Mobile 8 Mar 11:44

  • Chaos Theory causes password entry pandemonium

    Something for the Weekend, Sir? Justin Bieber’s balls are the key to login loghorrea

    There are things in this tiny microcosm of the universe that I will never comprehend. For example, why do so many humans require the assistance of spectacles? How does the phase of the moon affect emotional behaviour? And what is it about the otherwise harmless, uncontroversial and inoffensive Justin Bieber that makes me want to …

    Laptops 8 Mar 12:04

  • Google AXES another 1,200 employees from Motorola workforce

    'In markets where we're not competitive and we're losing money'

    Google is cutting loose another 10 per cent of its Motorola Mobility workforce - which means 1,200 employees at the smartphone maker face redundancy. The move comes after 4,000 jobs in the Motorola wing of Google's biz were axed in August 2012. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Motorola workers were told …

    Business 8 Mar 12:24

  • Cisco Gold partner Cisilion boosts fiscal 2012 profits

    Services comes good, competition hit hardware and software margins sales

    Bottom-line boosting IT services worked well for Cisco Gold house Cisilion in its last fiscal year while hardware and software licensing margins tightened. Results just filed at Companies House show that in the year to 31 May 2012, sales at the Surrey-based network integrator grew 10 per cent to £26m, in line with management …

    The Channel 8 Mar 12:30

  • LOHAN seeks rocketeer for explosive relationship

    GSOH, love of travel, Level 2 certificate...

    Despite an apparent lull of late on the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) front, we are moving apace towards finally getting our Vulture 2 aircraft aloft. There have been some dramatic developments recently regarding a launch site for our audacious ballocket mission, which for reasons of security we're not presently …

    SPB 8 Mar 12:38

  • BAN SMUT, rage MEPs: Purpose of internet must be EXTERMINATED

    Euro grumble-flick block bid bashed as attack on freedom

    MEPs are being urged to back a non-binding resolution that calls on the European Parliament to, in effect, ban pornography from the internet. A group of Euro politicos hope the web filth block will bring about a "genuine culture of equality" online. A motion was tabled this week by the EU's committee on women’s rights and …

    Broadband 8 Mar 12:59

  • Advanced Computer Software gulps down Computer Software Holdings

    Kerching! ACS splashes £110m cash in buyout of CSH

    Advanced Computer Software Group has hoovered up accounting software outfit Computer Software Holdings from HgCapital LLP for £110m in an all-cash deal. The healthcare and biz management software and services firm added that the buyout of CSH was the company's biggest acquisition to date. “The business and many of the …

    The Channel 8 Mar 14:04

  • Here's the $4.99 utility that might just have saved Windows 8

    Vid Is Microsoft listening, though?

    Veteran software outfit Stardock has offered Microsoft an elegant way to escape its Windows 8 Metro Notro dilemma. With Windows 8, Redmond foisted a new and radical touchscreen-driven user interface on a desktop PC market that was already in a once-in-a-generation slump - and both consumer sales and enterprise interest have …

    Operating Systems 8 Mar 14:04

  • Leaked: The 'secret OAuth app keys' to Twitter's VIP lounge

    Rogue apps could pose as micro-blogging site's Very Important Programs

    Twitter's private OAuth login keys, used by the website's official applications to get preferential treatment from the micro-blogging site, have apparently been leaked. The secret credentials could now allow any software to masquerade as an approved Twitter client. A set of key pairs uploaded to Github are supposedly used by …

    Networks 8 Mar 15:03

  • US economy defies Fiscal Cliff, creates plenty of IT services jobs

    Computer manufacturing hits the skids a bit

    The US federal government's budget crisis at the end of 2012 did mess with America's economy and the jobs market in particular. But according to the latest employment report from the Department of Labor, companies were a tad more resilient in the face of the Fiscal Cliff than many had expected. As El Reg reported a month ago, …

    Management 8 Mar 16:10

  • Yahoo! webmail! hijacks! are! back!...

    Didn't! they! fix! that?!

    Yahoo! has blamed cross-site scripting security bugs, which it claims to have squashed, for a recent upsurge in webmail account takeovers. Over the last few days several Reg readers have been in touch to complain that their Yahoo! webmail accounts have been hijacked or to point us towards complaints on various support forums …

    Security 8 Mar 16:56

  • Private equity crew prep CDW IPO after $7.3bn buyout - report

    Hah! They said we paid too mu.. Oh crap...

    The private equity boys are preparing to flip US technology shop CDW back to the market, Reuters reports. CDW has hired bankers to deliver an IPO later this year, Reuters reports. The financial services firms are reported to be JPMorgan Chase & Co, Barclays and Goldman Sachs Group. The proposed IPO could raise about $750m, an …

    The Channel 8 Mar 17:31

  • Dear Facebook: I heard the news today, oh boy

    Comment A lucky man who hoped to catch the ad gravy train

    Facebook has been tugging apart and putting back together its website over the past year, trying to make more cash out of its network and hopefully see its stock rocket now that it has Wall Street to answer to. The revamp has been a bit like watching a petulant child yank off the arms, legs, and head of a Barbie Doll, then …

    Media 8 Mar 17:44

  • Oklahoma woman cuffed with loaded .22 in pork holster

    Officer pulls piece from intimate hidey-hole

    An Oklahoma woman busted on drugs and firearms charges earlier this week was found to have concealed a loaded .22 revolver in her vagina, the Smoking Gun reports. Christie Dawn Harris, 28, was cuffed in the early hours of Monday morning in Ada, some 120km souteast of Oklahoma City. Cops spotted her and Jennifer Delancy …

    Bootnotes 8 Mar 17:46

  • HTC slays Nokia's two-headed Android patent dragon in Germany

    'Another major setback' chortles mobe rival

    Nokia has lost a patent-infringement lawsuit it brought against rival phone-maker HTC. Nokia was upset about the way HTC's Android phones talked to Google app stores, claiming the communication ripped off its protected technologies. A German court ruled HTC did not infringe the Nokia-owned patent EP0812120 – called the ’120 …

    Mobile 8 Mar 18:04

  • Amazon accused of knocking off AWS customers' products

    Exclusive Partners: Cloud kingpin playing the copycat game

    The torrential growth of Amazon Web Services' cloud is coming at the expense of the web giant's customers, some of its partners contend – and they're not happy about the tactics being used by the company. For several months, Amazon has been encroaching onto the turf of other companies, typically by producing knockoffs of …

    Cloud 8 Mar 19:25

  • Study: Megaupload closure boosted Hollywood sales 10%

    Based on Tinseltown's figures, that is

    A new study claims that the revenues of two anonymous Hollywood studios rose between 6 to 10 per cent in countries where digital sales are available, after the cyberlocker site Megaupload was shut down. "Our analysis shows that the shutdown of a major online piracy site can increase digital media sales, and by extension we …

    Media 8 Mar 19:37

  • Microsoft backs law banning Google Apps from schools

    For God's sake, think of the children!

    Microsoft is backing a bill in Massachusetts that would effectively force schools to stop using Google Apps, or any other service that uses students' data. "Any person who provides a cloud computing service to an educational institution operating within the State shall process data of a student enrolled in kindergarten through …

    Cloud 8 Mar 21:34

  • Apple ordered to surrender coveted docs in iOS privacy lawsuit

    'We no longer trust you,' says court

    A US magistrate has ordered Apple to show in great detail how it goes about searching for documents it has been ordered to provide to plaintiffs in an ongoing personal information–slurping lawsuit, noting that he no longer trusts Cupertino's efforts to be on the up-and-up. "Luckily for Plaintiffs, Apple has provided more than …

    Law 8 Mar 22:47

  • PayPal enters 21st Century with developer tools refresh

    REST-based APIs, mobile SDK among first wave of updates

    Online payments giant PayPal has spruced up its developer tools with new APIs, a new mobile SDK, and a new, one-stop developer website – all changes that company execs admit are long overdue. "Back in 2009, PayPal was the first financial company to open up its payments APIs for developers around the world," PayPal CTO James …

    Developer 8 Mar 23:04

  • Amazon slashes DynamoDB prices

    NoSQL flash-backed database gets cheaper

    Amazon has slashed the cost of DynamoDB as the cloud giant passes on operational savings to customers. The price cut was announced by Amazon on Thursday, and sees dramatic reductions in provisioned throughput costs, along with the price of indexed storage. "Rapid adoption has allowed us to benefit from the scale economies …

    Developer 8 Mar 23:20