19th April 2013 Archive

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Bad Microsoft patch trapped you in a boot loop? Here's your fix

Bootable ISO can roll back botched Windows 7 update

Microsoft has thrown a life preserver to customers whose PCs were sunk by a recent botched security patch, in the form of a bootable recovery disk that can automatically uninstall the offending update. Redmond first owned up to its error on April 12, when it admitted that some customers experienced problems after installing …

Science 19 Apr 00:17
Amazon's flash-backed database gets EVEN FASTER

Relational features for the non-relational DB

Amazon has tuned-up its flash-backed DynamoDB database so that more complex queries can be done in less time. Amazon announced the upgrade on Thursday, which sees the cloud computing company add in a "Local Secondary Index" (LSI) feature that lets admins create five additional indexes across which to query, letting the DB do …

Cloud 19 Apr 00:39
IBM selling x86 server business to Lenovo?

Talks ongoing, likely only System x racks and towers, not FlexSystems

There are rumors swirling around, again, that IBM is looking to sell off all or a portion of its x86 server business to Chinese PC maker and server partner Lenovo Group. US channel mag CRN caught wind of something going down between IBM and Lenovo on Thursday and referenced an anonymous source with knowledge of the talks now …

Cloud Infrastructure 19 Apr 01:04
NBN Co still on budget, CEO claims

Won't cost $AU90 billion

While avoiding direct political comment on the federal opposition's fibre-to-the-node plans, NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley has told the parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network he believes the project will still be able to meet its $37.4 billion capital budget. Quigley told the committee there's “no reason to …

Government 19 Apr 01:47
The fast-growing energy source set to replace oil: Yes, it's COAL

Renewables have had virtually no effect on CO₂ emissions

The emergence of renewable power has had essentially no effect on the amount of carbon emissions involved in energy generation, according to a new report. The new analysis is from the International Energy Agency. According to the IEA: The Energy Sector Carbon Intensity Index (ESCII) shows how much carbon dioxide is emitted, …

Government 19 Apr 05:03
Game designer spills beans on chubby-fancying chap with his stolen Mac

'He's f*cked with the wrong nerd', rages bloke

A video game designer says he's planning to cash in on his story of spying on a chubby-fancying pr0n-lover who came into possession of his stolen laptop. The London-based designer, who prefers to remain anonymous, is looking to monetise his (NSFW) Plumpergeddon blog detailing his surveillance of his Macbook Pro’s new owner. …

Security 19 Apr 06:02
WD glams up SmartWare with Dropbox

Keeping your cat and baby photos FOREVER

WD has glammed up its SmartWare consumer backup software with a Pro version embracing Dropbox. Smartware presents you with a file-folder view of your, er, files, through its control centre. You can tell it to continuously backups of your files and folders, or scheduled snapshots - hourly, daily, monthly - using the specified …

Storage 19 Apr 06:28
More Brits ditch Apple tablets for Amazon, Google, Samsung kit

But iPad Mini is still the UK adults' top-rated slate

Almost a fifth of the UK’s adult population now owns a fondleslab, and while most of them have a tablet with a bitten fruit icon on the back, Apple’s dominance is slipping. So says YouGov, a pollster, which regularly asks Brits about their technology purchases. During the first three months of 2012, 73 per cent of British …

Tablets 19 Apr 07:02
It's a CLUSTER-OFF: Asian students prep for tense, live HPC smackdown

HPC blog $16k top prize and cluster-boffin glory up for grabs

The first annual Asia Student Cluster Challenge (ASCC) culminates this week with a final round of competition that brings 10 university teams to Shanghai for a live cluster-off. The teams traveling to Shanghai made it past 32 other universities vying to compete in the live finale. Teams will compete for top benchmark scores on …

HPC 19 Apr 07:28
Touchscreen killer? Cam boffinry cut'n'pastes from real things

Vid Bit like tech from Minority Report flick

Japanese boffins at Fujitsu have been showing off new user-interface technology which uses advanced image processing to effectively digitise physical content, allowing users to manipulate it like they would with a touchscreen interface. The system consists of a camera and projector so that a user can select a piece of physical …

Hardware 19 Apr 08:04
Kaminario: We've made K2 faster, cheaper - NOW will you buy all-flash arrays?

Tries to tempt nervous execs with flash density increase

The VC-backed storage crew at Kaminario make three types of K2 array: K2-D, which has DRAM modules; K2-H, with both DRAM and flash; and K2-F, which is all-flash and uses Fusion-io flash cards. But despite a market which is somewhat put off by the high cost of all-flash products - and despite a slew of rivals entering the same …

Storage 19 Apr 08:29
The Reg puts Vulture inside the Large Hadron Collider

Pics No sign of any superpowers yet ...

It's probably the greatest scientific experiment of our time (or at least the biggest), a 27km round tunnel that fires trillions of protons in opposite directions over 11,000 times a second at 99.9999991 per cent of the speed of light lying under the Alps in Europe. The entrance to the Large Hadron Collider beauty The Large …

Science 19 Apr 09:05
Insight warns Q1 sales and operating profits to fall

Leaky sales blamed on North America and bottom line slip on EMEA

Insight Enterprises hasn't managed to dust off the economic cobwebs just yet if prelim calendar Q1 financials are anything to go by. The reselling powerhouse said today it expects revenues to decline five per cent on the same quarter a year ago to $1.2bn, and warned operating profit will drop to $17m from $25.6m - excluding …

The Channel 19 Apr 09:25
Review: NetAtmo Urban Weather Station

The new obsession you've been waiting for

Do we need a new obsession? Isn’t Facebook and Twitter enough for most folk? Some argue the British are obsessed about the weather. It’s hardly surprising we talk about it all the time, the weather here changes so much, it never fails to be topical. Well that’s how it used to be. Lately, Blighty has been blighted by a godawful …

Hardware 19 Apr 09:29
SaaS: Plugging the communications gap for small businesses

Distributed thinking

Yahoo!’s decision last month to axe home working prompted much debate. Common reactions ranged from outrage through incredulity to the sad shaking of heads over the fact that CEO Marissa Mayer is clearly out of touch with the modern world. Some of the reasons cited for this controversial move, however, are worth noting. The …

Cloud 19 Apr 09:44
Malwarebytes declares Windows 'malicious', nukes 1,000s of PCs

Biz boss apologies to the entire world

A dodgy software update for virus-killer Malwarebytes disabled thousands of PCs before a fix was issued this week. Malwarebytes' database version v2013.04.15.12 erroneously flagged core Windows system files as malicious, resulting in unstable - and in some cases unbootable - machines. Windows system files were wrongly …

Security 19 Apr 09:59
ZTE ejects from Iran as Feds probe spy-tech export claims

Chinese telecoms dragon wants to keep US sweet

Chinese telecoms kit maker ZTE says it has finally wound up its business dealings in Iran, bar existing customers, as the firm tries to move on following allegations it broke US sanctions by flogging spy technology to the Islamic republic. Chairman Hou Weigui told Reuters the Shenzhen firm had “basically stopped”. “We have to …

Networks 19 Apr 10:19
'He's F**KED with the wrong nerd ... I warned I'd go public'

Quotw Plus: 'You have to be a complete Facebook junkee to use Home'

This was the week when head hypocrite honcho at Google Eric Schmidt gave the world his two cents on the privacy concerns surrounding unauthorised photos taken of people and their homes. The photos taken by civilian drones of course, not those taken from cars with "Street View" emblazoned on them. He said: How would you feel …

Bootnotes 19 Apr 10:39
British bookworms deem Amazon 'evil'

Something for the Weekend, Sir? Chuck away your e-reader - everyone else is

“My only real prediction is that it’s all changing.” Well, ask a stupid question - in this case, about the future of book publishing. The lobotomy-inducingly obvious answer was provided by author Neil Gaiman. If I’d written this prediction here on El Reg, I would have been derided as a time-waster specialising in stating the …

Tablets 19 Apr 11:00
Chinese state tightwads help strangle Asia-Pacific PC sales in 2013

Not even Windows 8 and Ultrabooks can stem the tide

Asia-Pacific has well and truly succumbed to the global economic malaise, with the region’s PC market declining 13 per cent year-on-year in the last quarter – its first ever double digit drop, according to IDC. Not even the launch of Windows 8 in China in October and more Intel-powered ultrabooks could stop PC sales sliding to …

The Channel 19 Apr 11:25
Readers, we need you... for LOHAN ignition failsafe brainwaves

Last call for back-up rocket-sparking designs

The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team is inviting experts among our super readers to submit final proposals for a back-up ignition system for our Vulture 2 spaceplane's mighty rocket motor. As SPB ballocket regulars know, the primary system designed to light LOHAN's fire is the Special Project Electronic …

SPB 19 Apr 11:44
Ex-LulzSec bloke to spend a YEAR in the cooler for Sony hack

And pay $600,000 to Hollywood giant. Who's laughing now?

A former LulzSec hacker has been jailed for a year for ransacking Sony Pictures Entertainment's computer systems. Cody Kretsinger, 25, from Decatur, Illinois - better known to his fellow LulzSec cohorts as "Recursion" - was also ordered to carry out 1,000 hours of community service, and a year of home detention, following his …

Security 19 Apr 12:11
Blackstone gives up on $25bn bid to snatch Dell from Mr Dell

You know what? Knock yourself out, Michael

Private-equity fund Blackstone has reportedly given up its efforts to splurge $25bn on whipping Dell out from under Michael Dell's nose. Blackstone, which is a Dell shareholder, and activist investor Carl Icahn had hoped to together make a rival bid for the Texan computer giant, but are now unconvinced that it is worth more …

Business 19 Apr 12:44
WikiLeaker Assange, Google's Schmidt and a secret 5-hour chinwag

'We are obviously sympathetic' revealed in transcript

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt privately met WikiLeaker-in-chief Julian Assange while the computer hacker was holed up under strict bail terms. Australia-born Assange™ was staying in Norfolk, England, at the time of the chat - while waiting to find out whether he would be extradited to Sweden to face questions over …

Media 19 Apr 13:08
Euro states stick fingers in ears to Huawei, ZTE tech 'dump' claims

La, la, la. We can't hear you

A number of EU countries aren't keen on backing the European Commission's bid for a formal investigation of Chinese telecoms manufacturers Huawei and ZTE, Sweden has said. The commission's trade watchdog has been collecting evidence on alleged subsidies and "dumping" - selling products below cost to undercut European rivals - …

Government 19 Apr 13:32
Former 2e2 director Marke rocks up at Daisy Group

Acquisitive telco creates CTO role

Acquisitive telco services player Daisy Group has created a chief technology officer role for former 2e2 director Nathan Marke. Marke was CTO at 2e2 for nearly four and a half years from August 2008 until the Berkshire-based integrator bit the dust earlier this year. Prior to that he was sales director at Prime Business …

The Channel 19 Apr 13:33
Google's Page drops the A-bomb: Google Glass runs Android

Chief Googler confirms choice of techno-goggle OS

Google chief exec Larry Page has confirmed his company's techno-spectacles Google Glass will run some form of Android. During an earnings call yesterday for Google's first-quarter 2013 financial numbers, Page revealed the choice of operating system when asked about the new product and how it would fit in the existing Google …

Operating Systems 19 Apr 14:10
Shut the CANUCK up! Sony offers $1m to hacked gamers

Not our fault, but here's free stuff anyway, Canada

Canadian gamers affected by the hacking of Sony's Playstation Network have been offered compensation worth $1m by the entertainment giant. An email titled “PSN-SOE-Canada Settlement” went out this week to gamers in Canada offering small sops to anyone affected by the outage in 2011. Any Canadian who started an account on the …

Games 19 Apr 14:31
It's official! Register hack is an alcohol-flushed cave dweller

Budget DNA test reveals our man's genome secrets

It's official: this Reg hack is 2.7 per cent Neanderthal, belongs to the J1c3b haplogroup, is at increased risk of coronary heart disease and Restless Legs Syndrome, has wet ear wax, and slightly decreased odds of suffering male pattern baldness. That's according to the enlightening results of a personal genome test by 23andMe …

SPB 19 Apr 15:04
How to save UK's open data: Meet the 'Fair Value Licence'

Comment Data hippies! Stop singing Kumbaya and get real

The Royal Mail's postcode database is to be privatised and campaigners for "open data" are furious. But they only have themselves to blame; the open data campaign has been conducted with staggering utopian naivety. I strongly support the idea of opening up public datasets and I'm going to explain how open data can succeed, …

Government 19 Apr 15:32
YouTube beats off $1bn Viacom copyright case once AGAIN

Judge still reckons video site is a 'safe harbour'

The courts have once more sided with YouTube in the copyright case brought against it by Viacom and others. The billion-dollar lawsuit was first filed way back in 2007, not long after Google snapped up the video streaming service. Viacom alleged that YouTube was knowingly allowing copyright-infringing material to be posted …

Media 19 Apr 15:59
Who's a Siri boy, then? Apple hoards your voices for TWO years

Privacy campaigners demand 'high justification' for query cache

A leading UK privacy warrior has urged Apple to explain itself after the tech titan admitted Siri queries are kept on record for two years. Nick Pickles, director of pressure group Big Brother Watch, spoke out after the iPhone maker today revealed exactly how long it retains questions fired at its voice-controlled personal …

Cloud 19 Apr 16:59
Google shakes up US utility with green power tariff

Pays more on electricity to pay less on Greenpeace damage control

Google is using its giant pile of money to try and change how utility companies work, so that more businesses can buy their power from renewable sources. As part of a $600m expansion of its North Carolina data center, Google's local utility provider Duke Energy has pledged to develop a renewable energy tariff for Google and …

Cloud 19 Apr 17:47
Chinese firm deluged with applications for e-smut appraising job

$32,400 a year to find the obscene online

A Chinese company has received 5,000 resumes and 300,000 emails expressing interest after it advertised for a "chief appraiser" of pornography. Safety Alliance, a company looking to offer web filtering in the already-restricted Middle Kingdom internet, is recruiting five people to check for obscene or "harmful" content online …

Media 19 Apr 18:30
Notebook makers turn to Android in face of Windows woes

Intel said to be leading push for Googly convertibles

Dissatisfied with sales of Windows 8 notebook and tablets, major PC vendors have reportedly joined Intel in a new push to launch convertible fondleslabs based on Google's Android OS. So sayeth the supply-chain sleuths at Taiwanese tech news site DigiTimes, which cites anonymous sources inside the notebook vendors. Chinese …

Laptops 19 Apr 18:43
Ants have careers; you don't want them

Jury out on whether as crushing as rat race, but it's close...

Ants don't have a career ladder, they have a career hole, and only the wiliest of the insects can avoid falling down it according to the latest research. A particular genus of carpenter ants (Camponotus fellah) exist in a complex social structure, where their first jobs see them caring for the queen and her offspring, and as …

Science 19 Apr 21:17
How much will Google pay to bring fiber to Provo, Utah? Try $1

Not a bad price for a $39m network build-out

Choosing the small city of Provo, Utah as the next location to receive Google's high-speed fiber internet service must have been a no-brainer, as the online giant will reportedly pay just $1 to set up shop in the area. That's in part because, unlike Kansas City and Austin, Texas before it, Google won't actually need to build …

Broadband 19 Apr 21:52
jQuery 2.0 kicks old Internet Explorer versions to the curb

Leaner, faster code base for 'the modern web'

Popular JavaScript library jQuery has reached version 2.0, and as expected, the new release drops support for older versions of Internet Explorer, including IE 6, 7, and 8. Many developers have come to rely on jQuery to ease some of the headaches of developing sophisticated, cross-browser web UIs, particularly where it comes …

Developer 19 Apr 23:06