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2nd April 2013 Archive

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  • IBM socialises Notes mail to stop your yammering

    First post-Lotus release assumes you want to spend all day on email

    IBM has released its first Big-blue-branded version of Notes, emphasising its social-media-like features and the ability to create “embedded experiences” in a new email client that aims to let you spend more time each day doing email. Big Blue's desire to have you spend more time using an email client is not an act of sadism. …

    Software 2 Apr 00:07

  • Court refuses to block Aereo's personal streaming TV service

    Networks seek to stifle Big Apple sapling

    The New York Second Circuit Court of Appeals has refused a request by the big networks to shutter the TV streaming service Aereo set up by billionaire media mogul Barry Diller. Aereo used thousands of tiny antennas at its base station in Brooklyn to pick up TV signals and either store or stream them directly to subscribers in …

    Media 2 Apr 00:53

  • Former WinPhone exec tapped for skunkworks Amazon gig

    Ex-Microsoftie to oversee retailer's secret phone?

    Charlie Kindel, a former Microsoft exec who once managed developer outreach for Windows Phone, among other things, has reportedly joined Amazon to oversee a secret project in "a totally new area" for the online retailer. Kindel tipped his hand regarding the new position on Monday when he updated his LinkedIn page to reflect …

    Business 2 Apr 01:15

  • IT and comms power consumption could surge in 2013

    Sleep, ye routers, sleep

    An Italian researcher has predicted that the global Internet's power demands will surge by 19 percent during 2013, compared to 2012 – and that over time, such ballooning electricity demand will become unsustainable. In a paper published in Science last week (abstract), University of Catania researcher Diego Reforgiato urges …

    Datacenter 2 Apr 01:24

  • OpenDNS plots expansion with new funding

    Adds Juniper alumnus to board

    OpenDNS is plotting an expansion both to its global presence and to the services it offers, with the appointment of former Juniper EVP Stefan Dyckerhoff joins as a member of the OpenDNS board, bringing with him an unspecified slab of funding under his Sutter Hill Ventures fund. OpenDNS says the funding and management expertise …

    Networks 2 Apr 02:07

  • Lotsa lasers an option for the Next Big Physics

    What's next after colliders?

    If you thought the world of big physics was drawing to a close with the confirmation that yes, the Higgs boson appears to be a boson and appears to be a Higgs, think again: CERN's boffins, along with thinkers of deep thoughts from École Polytechnique, Southampton University's Optoelectronics Centre and Jena are imagining what …

    Science 2 Apr 03:58

  • Virty network whisperer Midokura takes VC cash

    Skeptical SDN punters unlikely to start paying en masse till 2014

    Software-defined networking startup Midokura has raised $17.3m to help it hunt a rarely seen creature: a punter who actually pays for SDN. Midokura's cash infusion was delivered by Japanese government–backed sovereign fund the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, the company announced on Tuesday, along with investments …

    Data Networking 2 Apr 05:00

  • Amazon joins Dropbox clones, hints at cloud storage margins

    Upgraded consumer storage service undercuts S3 prices how exactly?

    Amazon.com has become the latest outfit to decide copying Dropbox is a fine idea, further cloudifying its Cloud Drive with a desktop client that does the usual store 'n' synch between multiple devices while also offering some interesting insights into cloud economics. The nominally-profitable online retailer has operated Cloud …

    Cloud 2 Apr 05:09

  • Rocket boffinry in pictures: Gulp the Devil's venom and light a match

    Feature How scientists sup from Wernher von Braun's cup

    It's been more than 70 years since the first successful test flight of the German Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V2) - the weapon that paved the way for subsequent rocket-based efforts to escape Earth's surly bonds. On 3 October 1942, a team headed by Wernher von Braun watched its creation rise from the launchpad at Peenemünde, little …

    SPB 2 Apr 06:17

  • BitTorrent opens kimono, gets out one-to-many streaming tool

    Has Bram finally cracked what the BBC couldn't?

    BitTorrent’s live streaming protocol has finally emerged into the daylight after years of development. The beta program is now public. You can try it. The broadcast data is assigned to small groups - "clubs" - which then share the stream with a UDP protocol. Congestion control is added at the last hop. There’s more detail in …

    Networks 2 Apr 06:34

  • Ex-NASA OpenStackers launch Nebula cloud control freak appliance

    Forget OpenStack software disties, says OpenStack co-founder Kemp

    Chris Kemp, the former NASA CTO who helped build the wonking Nebula infrastructure cloud for the US space agency and the techie from the NASA side who spearheaded the development of OpenStack along with Rackspace Hosting, knows about as much about control-freaking clouds with OpenStack as anyone else on the planet – and that's …

    Cloud Infrastructure 2 Apr 07:02

  • Hi-tech horses racing: how to stay Happy down in the Valley

    Reg hack takes a punt on tech at Hong Kong’s iconic racecourse

    Hong Kongers love to gamble. It’s a serious business over here, and one that can generate at least HK$100m (£8.5m) in turnover from every race. That money goes to the Hong Kong Jockey Club, a venerable institution formed by the British in 1884 to promote horse racing, which has a monopoly on betting in the city-state. Every …

    Management 2 Apr 07:30

  • Just what is Oracle going to plop out as its golden storage egg?

    Analysis A plan must be hatched, or its hardware biz is fried

    What's going on with Oracle storage? Besides tape, which seems to be doing fine, does the IT giant have a long-term, viable external storage array product line at all? Oracle's general hardware business is in decline. Witness the chart below showing quarterly overall sales including hardware product revenues; storage sales …

    Storage 2 Apr 08:04

  • How the iPad ruined the lives of IT architects

    The problem of defining solution availability in 2013

    For IT architects, one of the most important non-functional requirements to determine is the availability needs of a system’s users. It’s often expensive and risky adding availability features to an already deployed solution, so getting it right first time is important. In current times however, we’re being asked to regularly …

    Management 2 Apr 08:30

  • Animal Liberation drone surveillance plan draws fire

    Australian farmers not comfortable with aerial observation

    Animal Liberation Australia has acquired a drone and plans to fly over farms and film animal cruelty. Mark Pearson, Animal Liberation's executive director, told The Reg concerned members of the public told him about drones and their potential application capturing aerial surveillance of mistreated animals. Pearson said he put …

    Security 2 Apr 08:36

  • Sync'n'share specialist Egnyte signs senior staff to spark growth

    Spanking fresh executives - that's the route to success

    Cloud storage and sync'n'share startup Egnyte is trying to ignite its growth rocket boosters by adding fresh new executives and board directors. Egnyte was founded in 2007 and provides what it calls "enterprise-class file sharing" to around 30,000 customers, storing some 12PB of their data in three data centres, two in the US …

    Storage 2 Apr 09:03

  • So, Twitter. 200m twits. How will you make your first billion? Oh, ads.

    There's money to be made in laconic e-jibber-jabber. RT pls LOL

    Microblogging website Twitter is all set to tweet its way into billion-dollar revenues in the next two years, apparently thanks to its growing mobile ad revenue. Beancounters at market research firm eMarketer now estimate that Twitter will earn $582.8m in global ad revenue this year, $950m next year and then break the billion- …

    Media 2 Apr 09:27

  • Review: Jabra Revo Wireless headphones

    NFC-enabled, Bluetooth-connected cans with Dolby Digital Plus sonic enhancement

    I’ve tried a fair few wireless headphones over the past ten years, almost all of them unsatisfactory in one way or another. Many of the early ones were over-the-ear jobs with those round-the-back-of-your-head bands, but all suffered from either excessive weight - thanks to the on-board battery - or simply didn’t play for long. …

    Phones 2 Apr 10:00

  • Net neutrality? We've heard of it, says Ofcom

    You want mobile Skype, choose your network with care

    Ofcom's annual plan is out, setting the regulator's priorities for the next 12 months, and while much of it is structured diagrams and aspirational statements there are some snippets worthy of greater attention. Ofcom has, for example, decided that treating all packets of internet traffic as equals without discriminating …

    Networks 2 Apr 10:27

  • Head of privacy at Google leaves. Yes, that's a real job

    You will be put in charge instead. That's Mr You to you

    Google's top privacy wonk Alma Whitten is stepping down from her role at the company after three years in the job. Her departure comes just weeks after Anne Toth, who was poached by Whitten from Yahoo! in 2011 to head up privacy at Google+, departed from Mountain View for personal reasons. Forbes reported that Whitten was …

    Security 2 Apr 10:57

  • Merde! Dummkopf! Google Translate used as spam cloak

    Cock-doc pillmongers use tech out of Inception movie

    Spammers are using Google Translate to disguise links to dodgy websites. All sorts of internet pond life, particularly purveyors of blue pills purporting to pump blokes' performance between the sheets, are relying on the reputation of Google's language translation service to smuggle web links through mail filters. Security …

    Security 2 Apr 11:23

  • Judge: Facebook must see Timelines Inc in court over trademark

    Just want to punch you really hard in the Face ... bitch

    Facebook has failed to convince a judge to toss out a trademark infringement lawsuit regarding the free content ad platform's use of the term "Timeline". Timelines Inc, which created a website in 2009 that records and shares historic events, flung a sueball at Facebook in late 2011 when it alleged that Mark Zuckerberg's …

    Media 2 Apr 11:43

  • Model S 'leccycar selling better than expected, says Tesla

    Even devastatingly negative publicity is good publicity

    Tesla Motors has sold a few more electric cars than anticipated, prompting the Elon Musk-run biz to cautiously expect a profit in the first quarter of 2013. Today the manufacturer told shareholders and US financial watchdog the Securities and and Exchange Commission that it has sold 4,750 Model S cars - 250 more than the 4,500 …

    Science 2 Apr 11:59

  • Brits, Germans, French, Dutch, Spanish and Italians ALL to probe Google

    Six nations pull out microscopes, eye ad giant's ass

    Google faces possible legal action from six different data protection regulators in Europe - including the British Information Commissioner - after the advertising giant failed to comply with an order to make changes to its privacy policy. France's Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), which was tasked …

    Cloud 2 Apr 12:16

  • Federal lawyers, MIT threatened following Aaron Swartz' death

    Persecuted prosecutors get guillotine decap postcards

    Prosecutors associated with the case against the late Aaron Swartz have received "harassing and threatening communications", including postcards of disembodied heads pictured next to guillotines. Government lawyers have detailed the harassment in a court filing urging the court to keep details of the case redacted to protect …

    Law 2 Apr 12:58

  • Steve Jobs to supervise iPhone 6 FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE

    Cold dead genius to relinquish control in 2014, maybe

    Apple designed the next two versions of the iPhone while Steve Jobs was alive, it has been claimed. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón was told by an Apple representative that the next two iPhone models "preceded Tim Cook", according to a report in The Examiner. He met with Apple’s government liaison Michael …

    Phones 2 Apr 13:43

  • ROBOT COCKROACH SWARM unleashed in Sheffield lab

    Vid Immediately makes off with pizza box

    Robot boffins have trained a swarm of mini-machines to work together, finding each other and grouping together to carry out simple tasks. The 40-strong Robot Swarm Inspired by Nature (see video above) can fetch and carry much larger objects by working together like ants. They can also regroup after being scattered across the …

    Science 2 Apr 14:58

  • EMC chief: Why today's IT channel will soon cease to exist

    It's cloud or never

    If I had to suggest just one hallmark of the IT channel, I would choose stability. The various organisations that make up the chain have clearly defined roles and well-established business models. But this state of affairs is about to undergo a period of great change. This change has already started, but the pace is set to …

    The Channel 2 Apr 15:23

  • Boss of Irish-based R&D hub: Man, this place is the back of beyond

    No path beaten to our door, regardless of mousetrap quality

    EMC Ireland country manager Bob Savage is distinctly underwhelmed by Cork Airport. There are 3,000 EMC staff in its Ballincollig, County Cork operation and they are managed by Savage who has been in the country manager role for five years. In an interview in the Irish Independent, he says Cork airport suffers from not having …

    Storage 2 Apr 15:43

  • Paul Allen gets out wad, plans investments in Silicon Valley firms

    Mothership full of money sets down in Palo Alto

    Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is dipping into his billionaire pockets for an office in Silicon Valley to make new investments in emerging tech and internet companies. The office will be part of Allen's Vulcan Capital, the investment arm of Vulcan, which manages the former Redmonder's personal $15bn fortune. The Palo Alto- …

    Financial News 2 Apr 15:51

  • Boardroom brouhaha brewing at Emulex after Endace buy

    Why not buy shares instead, demands share holder

    You win some; you lose some. Emulex has completed its acquisition of networking analytics company Endace against the opposition of activist investor Elliott Management, but had to accept the appointment of two Elliott nominees to its board. Emulex mostly sells SAN Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) and has a line of Ethernet Converged …

    Storage 2 Apr 16:04

  • HP fuels second-gen Moonshot servers for April 8 launch

    Rocketing into the clouds and elite data centers with hyperscale iron

    The next-generation of HP's "Project Moonshot" super-dense servers for hyperscale data centers, code-named "Gemini", are being prepped for their long-awaited launch next Monday. HP has a lot a stake with Project Moonshot, not the least of which being the viability of high-volume server manufacturing for big data-center …

    Servers 2 Apr 16:12

  • China to Apple: 'Apology accepted – but watch your step'

    Mission accomplished, attack dogs called off

    Proving that state-controlled media can turn on a dime when they see it to their advantage, the Chinese tabloid Global Times, a subsidiary of the Communist Party of China's People's Daily, has praised Apple CEO Tim Cook's open letter, issued Monday, in which he offered his "sincere apologies" for Apple's customer-service …

    Management 2 Apr 18:23

  • Newvem enlists tech support friends to squelch AWS hiccups

    No one likes AWS support – and they don't fix stuff anyway

    Newvem, which has carved a niche for itself babysitting compute and storage capacity on the Amazon Web Services cloud with its Cloud Care service, is now brokering tech-support services with third parties to help get their AWS setups correctly configured and keep them that way. Sometimes you create a new business, and …

    Cloud Infrastructure 2 Apr 18:35

  • Playboy submits to Apple with nudity-free 'Pornography 2.0' app

    Now you can prove you really do read it just for the articles

    Playboy has finally produced an iOS app that gets around Apple's rather prudish attitude to things even mildly pornographic: an online edition that excludes the long-standing grumble mag's main selling point. "We're taking everything that has made Playboy great and re-imagining it for the iPhone, while reinventing our …

    Media 2 Apr 18:48

  • Microsoft's summer update will be called Windows 8.1

    'Windows Blue' to see return of old-school version numbers

    Microsoft has thought long and hard about what to officially call the forthcoming Windows 8 upgrade package codenamed "Windows Blue", and the verdict is ... Windows 8.1. So sayeth veteran Redmond-watcher Mary Jo Foley, who cites an anonymous tipster. Lending credence to the rumor, Foley directs us to a Twitter post made by …

    Operating Systems 2 Apr 19:27

  • VMware teaches Serengeti big-data virt new Hadoop tricks

    Probably shuffling off to Pivotal soon

    It comes as no surprise that VMware wants companies to run everything virtually rather than on bare metal, and for several years it has pushed the idea of virtualizing the Hadoop stack to make it run better and easier to manage. The tool it created to do that, called Project Serengeti, now has some feature tweaks to try to …

    Cloud Infrastructure 2 Apr 21:24

  • ICANN under fire as Verisign warns of rushed domain-name expansion

    gTLD activation unlikely before August, ICANN confirms

    ICANN's big generic top-level domain (gTLD) rollout, planned for April 23, needs to be delayed because the system isn't ready, Verisign and others are warning – and ICANN itself has told The Register that the first gTLD domains won't come online until at least August. "April is a launch date in the sense that it's a public …

    Security 2 Apr 21:37

  • 'Australia's so big freight costs are high' claims don't add up

    El Reg turns shipping agent to test price gouge explanations

    One of the fallback positions of IT vendors defending their high Australian prices has been to remind Australia that shipping and transport are expensive here. So, ever your servant – and confronted with the kind of slow-news-day syndrome that can happen only when America is still busy trying to identify which stories were …

    Business 2 Apr 21:54

  • Alcatel-Lucent uncloaks its software-defined network tech

    Troubled company dispatches SDN lifeboat named Nuage Networks

    Alcatel-Lucent subsidiary Nuage Networks has leaped into the crowded money-pit of software-defined networking (SDN) with a technology suite designed for carriers and large enterprises. The "Virtualized Services Platform" (VSP), announced on Tuesday by Nuage, is a proprietary network virtualization overlay that uses distributed …

    Data Networking 2 Apr 22:12

  • Memory vendors pile on '3D' stacking standard

    HMC 1.0 in the wild

    More memory responding faster in a smaller footprint: that's what chip vendors are hoping to achieve with the announcement of the HMC 1.0 specification. The standard, available here, sets down the specs for memory chip stacking using through-silicon vias (TSVs). In other words: individual memory dies, stacked vertically on top …

    Hardware 2 Apr 23:16