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30th April 2013 Archive

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  • Azure is Microsoft's billion-dollar baby – maybe

    More like a whole lot of software sold to partners

    Curt Anderson, CFO for Microsoft's Server & Tools Business, was feeling chatty during an interview with Bloomberg, bragging that in the past year Redmond topped the $1bn sales mark with Windows Azure. Or, maybe not. The Bloomberg story doesn't quote whatever Anderson said directly, and if you read down a bit further into the …

    Cloud Infrastructure 30 Apr 00:03

  • BT unleashes SIP licensing troll army

    Small players collateral damage in Google-versus-BT patent drone-war

    VoIP-to-PSTN termination providers and SIP vendors will be watching their inboxes for a lawyer's letter from BT, which has kicked off a taxing licensing program levying a fee on the industry, based on a list of 99 patents. As noted in Australian telco newsletter Communications Day, the move seems to have caught the VoIP …

    Law 30 Apr 00:04

  • The Chromebooks are coming! New models due late 2013

    Will battle head to head with Android notebooks

    While sales of Windows PCs and notebooks continue to disappoint, Acer, Asus, and other hardware makers are readying a new volley of Chromebooks to launch in the second half of 2013, sources close to the companies' Asia-based supply chains claim. According to a report in Taiwanese tech pub DigiTimes, the new push will be …

    Laptops 30 Apr 00:43

  • Google Now lands on iOS

    Siri: What's it like to have competition in your backyard?

    Google has released its signature search app, Google Now, on Apple's iOS. Google's search apps have been on iOS for years and have included voice search for quite some time. The new release is notable inasmuch as it brings some of Google's more advanced search services that resemble, challenge or surpass Apple's own voice- …

    Software 30 Apr 02:50

  • China became world's BIGGEST PC market in 2012

    PRC yokels have a penchant for desktops and 14-in notebooks

    China has surpassed the US as the world’s largest PC market, in terms of annual sales, with the nation's huge untapped rural market offering manufacturers a rare growth opportunity, according to industry watcher IHS iSuppli. PC shipments in China during 2012 reached 69 million units, three million more than the States could …

    Hardware 30 Apr 03:09

  • Pivotal a 'cult' led by charismatic visionaries

    Asian head says talks already under way with VCE

    Pivotal, the EMC-and-VMware spinout, is no ordinary company but is instead akin to a “cult”, according to Melissa Ries, the company's general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan. Ries' domain covers nations including Australia, India and Taiwan and about 15 per cent of the company's 1250 staff. Most are in pre-sales, sales or …

    Cloud Infrastructure 30 Apr 04:04

  • Apache attack drives traffic to malware

    Blackhole redirect served by modified daemon binary

    A security researcher is warning that an attack on the Apache Web server is increasingly showing up in the wild, and has published a free Python tool to check their configurations. The attack is designed to avoid leaving disk footprints, according to this post analysing the backdoor. It exists as a modified httpd file that …

    Security 30 Apr 04:28

  • Continued lack of women in tech bemoaned by ex-techie lady MP

    'Women would never have made automated supermarket tills'

    The number of women enrolled in training courses preparing them to work in the tech industry has not changed for 30 years, an MP has told the House of Commons. Ahead of a debate last Friday on “attracting girls to ICT careers”, Labour MP and former shadow minister for innovation Chi Onwurah warned that Britain's tech sector …

    Jobs 30 Apr 05:04

  • Japan's naughty nurses scam free meals with mobile games

    Hungry women trick unsuspecting otaku into paying for grub

    Japan’s male mobile gaming geeks are being taken for a ride in ever-greater numbers by hungry, cash-poor women who befriend them online before tricking them into paying for an expensive dinner for two. This particularly devious scam is on the rise in the Land of the Rising Sun as single Japanese women struggle to pay the bills …

    Games 30 Apr 05:16

  • Pirates scoff at games dev sim's in-game piracy lesson

    Dev seeds cracked version of 'Game Dev Tycoon', watches as Pirates run rampant

    Australian games developer Greenheart Games has released a cracked version of its own product – a games business simulation called “Game Dev Tycoon” – as an experiment in education of pirates and their reaction to a game that tells them their software-pinching ways are evil. The startup outfit detailed its exploits here, …

    Games 30 Apr 05:37

  • Another negative climate feedback: Warmer plants cool the planet

    Tree hugging really does fight global warming

    Another powerful negative-feedback mechanism which acts to reduce the effects of global warming has been identified, as scientists say that rising temperatures cause plants to emit higher levels of planet-cooling aerosols. "Aerosol effects on climate are one of the main uncertainties in climate models," explains Pauli Paasonen …

    Science 30 Apr 06:03

  • Red-hot students, an all-day romp and an £11,000 bonanza

    ASC'13 Yup, China's cluster-crafting combat contest concludes

    Red-hot cluster-building students from Tsinghua University in Beijing stepped up their already high-level game - and took two of the three awards up for grabs at the inaugural Asia Student Cluster Challenge (ASC’13) finals last week in Shanghai. ASC’13 is the first leg in 2013’s Student Cluster Competition Triple Crown - a …

    HPC 30 Apr 06:33

  • British biz walking around with 'Hack Me' sign taped to its back

    Gov cyber strategy? There is one? Good lord

    Britain’s businesses are being left vulnerable to crippling cyber attacks due to a severe lack of security skills, according to a technology trade body. The Institute of Engineering and Technology found that barely one in ten small to medium enterprises (SMEs) had “sufficient skills and resources in place” to repel threats …

    Small Biz 30 Apr 06:58

  • T-Mobile UK punters break for freedom in inflation-busting bill row

    What do you mean, the small print doesn't apply?

    T-Mobile UK punters reckon they can avoid the mobile network's latest price rise - after the operator swelled its prices beyond inflation. The T-Mobile contract states that its bills may increase in step with the Retail Price Index, a government-calculated rate of inflation. When this figure reached 3.3 per cent, T-Mobile and …

    Mobile 30 Apr 07:26

  • Stealthy storage startup PernixData picks up VMware guru

    Flying Dutchman weighs anchor for accelerated seas

    Early-stage US start-up PernixData has decided it needs a European evangelist and persuaded VMware's Frank Denneman to jump ship. Denneman is, or rather was, a senior architect in technical marketing at VMware, based in the Amsterdam area. He has co-authored three VMware-focussed technical books, and is widely acclaimed as a …

    Storage 30 Apr 08:04

  • Object Storage: A solution in search of a problem?

    Blocks and Files This industry deserves an OSCAR

    Generally, it seems to me that object storage is suffering from a failure to launch despite more than a dozen suppliers pushing it. Many of these same vendors seem to have their heads in the sand with regard to their place in the marketplace - they seem to ignore the fact that end-user buyers are confused about what object- …

    Storage 30 Apr 08:28

  • Crap computers in a crap box: Smart-meter blackouts risk to UK

    Analysis Sniff a device's wireless, pwn a power plant, warns Brit biz

    You'd be forgiven for thinking this is the plot of a Saturday night BBC2 drama: hackers tinkering with smart electricity meters deliberately cut the power to whole neighbourhoods. But, according to a UK computer security biz, weak authentication checks and a lack of other security controls on said equipment could allow just …

    Security 30 Apr 09:06

  • Fanbois vs fandroids: Punters display 'tribal loyalty'

    Buying a new mobe? You'll stick with the same maker - survey

    Does how you feel about your current smartphone really inform the handset you’ll acquire two, three or four years hence? The Yankee Group, a market watcher, thinks it might. And that’s good news for Apple. Possibly. Apple currently sits just behind Google in the future purchasing stakes. According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech …

    Phones 30 Apr 09:33

  • Quid-a-day nosh challenge hack in bullet-hard chickpea drama

    Obstinate legume resists force of steaming cauldron

    Day two of my "Live Below the Line" challenge has kicked off with another two fried egg sarnies and a couple of cuppas, following a long, hungry cooking slog yesterday thanks to some particularly obstinate chickpeas. To recap, I'm subsisting until for five days on just £1 a day for nosh as part of "an innovative awareness and …

    SPB 30 Apr 10:04

  • IBM storage crew: Why bury your BEST kit at the back of the larder?

    Storagebod One jar of exquisite truffles hidden behind 20 different brands of baked bean

    El Reg storage man Chris Mellor’s pieces on IBM’s storage revenues here and here make for some interesting reading. Things are not looking great with the exception of XIV and Storwize products. I am not sure whether Mellor’s analysis is entirely correct as it is hard to get any granularity from IBM. But his take on Big Blue …

    Storage 30 Apr 10:24

  • Salesforce boots SAP from customer-wrangling software top slot

    SaaS outsold on-premises in 2012, says Gartner

    Software-as-a-service provider Salesforce has beaten on-premises incumbents to become the biggest provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software. CRM software is used to organise and automate customer service, marketing and sales. Marc Benioff’s company stole the number-one spot from SAP last year, beating the …

    The Channel 30 Apr 11:06

  • Is this the first ever web page? If not, CERN would like to know

    Eggheads recreate what could be the original website

    Boffinry nerve-centre CERN has attempted to recreate the very first website to mark 20 years since the official launch of the World Wide Web. It is feared the first ever web page is lost to the sands of time as it was changed daily and any backups are few and far between. However the team has pulled up a snapshot of the very …

    Applications 30 Apr 11:24

  • 2,000km-wide Eye-of-Sauron MONSTER hurricane spotted on Saturn

    Cassini craft spots massive swirler atop planet's north pole

    Stargazing NASA scientists have snapped an image of a massive hurricane on Saturn whose vortex is 20 times larger than the average size of the eye of its earthly cousins.* The blowy behemoth boasts an eye estimated to be over 2,000km (1,250 miles) wide, which is more than large enough to spot any troublesome hobbits heading …

    Science 30 Apr 11:47

  • Oi, journos. Try NOT to get hacked again. Lots of love, Twitter

    Hackers have painted a bullseye on hacks' heads, chat site warns

    Twitter has warned news agencies that hackers could strike again unless journalists take basic precautions - like using a decent password. The micro-blogging site wrote to a number of news outlets warning that hackers consider them "high value" targets. Their note of caution comes as the Syrian Electronic Army continued their …

    Media 30 Apr 12:05

  • Yahoo! tries! to! tempt! TV! crowd! with! tiny! dick!

    Original comedy telly and sex-talking celebs coming to the Purple Palace

    Yahoo! is taking a leaf out of Netflix and Amazon's books and beefing up its media offerings with six original TV shows, including one about a bite-sized private detective. It has also partnered up with pro-wrestling outfit WWE in a bid to lure in internet TV watchers. Just a week after bagging the exclusive rights to stream …

    Media 30 Apr 12:19

  • Brits on benefits: 'Dole office site only works on PCs over 10 YEARS OLD'

    UK.gov snubs blind, disabled and pensioners

    Benefits claimants signing up for disability living allowance online are told they cannot use modern browsers, smartphones or even Macs. The Department for Work and Pensions' microsite - available at www.dwp.gov.uk/eservice - states that folks should use it for claiming attendance allowance, disability living allowance and …

    Government 30 Apr 12:44

  • SoftLayer hoists Riak NoSQL datastore onto its cloud

    Basho hopes to mine rich seam of cloudy dev gold

    Open source NoSQL datastore specialist Basho has teamed up with SoftLayer to hoist the free and paid-for versions of Riak into the cloud. The availability of Riak and Riak Enterprise on SoftLayer's mid-tier infrastructure cloud sees Basho try and open up another shaft to let it tap the seam of cash that it, like other open- …

    Cloud 30 Apr 13:00

  • Huawei boss: Next CEO won't be member of my family

    Company won't go public either, Ren confirms in leaked internal email

    The Chinese telecoms giant won't be listing itself on any public exchange, and the founder's kids won't be taking up the reins either - as their dad reckons they're not up to the job. Ren Zhengfei, who founded Huawei with a fistful of cash back in 1988, is now 68 years of age. Rumours have been circulating that he'd pass …

    Management 30 Apr 13:29

  • Judge sets the date for Patent Smackdown 2: The Damages

    Apple and Samsung go toe-to-toe again in November

    US Judge Lucy Koh has told Apple and Samsung they'll be back in court in November to try to decide whether the fruity firm deserves an extra $450m damages for alleged patent infringement. The judge has set trial dates for the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 18th of the month in front of eight new jurors, after a previous jury found …

    Law 30 Apr 14:04

  • Credit safety net ripped from under elder IT distie Northamber

    Sliding trade at Surrey-based wholesaler fingered

    QBE Insurance has removed entire lines of trade credit insurance on Surrey-based distributor Northamber, The Channel can reveal. Declining trade at one of the oldest wholesalers of IT gear in Blighty is understood to be the reason behind indemnifier QBE's decision, say our sources. Disties Computers Unlimited (Janson Group) …

    The Channel 30 Apr 14:27

  • What's that noise upstairs? It's a shakeup at enormo reseller Insight

    Welcome back, boss, your temp replacement did an excellent job...

    The EMEA division of reseller giant Insight Enterprises has welcomed back former UK boss Emma de Sousa on a permanent basis. She vacated the role from early 2012 to go on maternity leave, and EMEA veep for partner management Justin Griffiths babysat the position until her return as UK and Ireland managing director. But …

    The Channel 30 Apr 14:44

  • BT and O2 ink deal to build mega 4G network

    Prodigal child needs paternal backend support

    BT has reached out to its prodigal child O2 and offered to help build it a flashy new 4G network - for a few hundred million quid. It has signed a 10-year deal with O2 owner Telefonica UK to work on a 4G network which will be used by millions of O2 mobile customers. The deal is said to be worth around £500m over the next …

    Mobile 30 Apr 15:04

  • Bechtle's double digit sales, profit hike in UK? Satisfactory, says parent firm

    Wait a sec, isn't there a Euro meltdown on?

    A double digit hike in sales and profits at the Brit arm of reselling powerhouse Bechtle was merely described as "satisfactory" by its German owner. Coming in the middle of the steepest economic downturn ever, The Channel - suggests the parent firm is perhaps being a little too ruthlessly rational. Sales for calendar 2012 at …

    The Channel 30 Apr 15:34

  • Intel supremo backs biz pal SoftBank's billion-dollar bid for Sprint

    Otellini: Japanese have made a 'very compelling' offer

    Intel chief Paul Otellini has told a US regulator that he backs SoftBank's bid for Sprint rather than Dish Network's counter-offer. Otellini said in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, seen by Reuters, that the $20.1bn offer from Japan's SoftBank for the US's third largest cell network operator would be good for …

    Financial News 30 Apr 16:13

  • Apple: You thought Google dodged taxes? Get a load of THIS

    'The market is going to be all over it...'

    Apple has embarked on one of the biggest bond offerings in history as part of a ploy to avoid tax. Cupertino will soon begin issuing bonds in what will be one of the biggest debt sales of all time, it announced today. The plan is part of a scheme to funnel cash back to investors over the next three years. After its stock …

    Financial News 30 Apr 17:27

  • MongoDB gets incremental restores ... for a price

    10Gen cranks monetization handle to lift MongoDB into the cloud

    MongoDB steward 10Gen is trying to squeeze money out of heavy users of the open source NoSQL database, and has set aside almost a petabyte of raw storage to deal with initial demand for a new backup-and-restore service. Like other companies that shepherd an open source product (Canonical – Ubuntu, Basho – Riak, et cetera), …

    Software 30 Apr 18:00

  • Fujitsu sells off microcontroller and analog chip biz to Spansion

    Japanese giant books a loss in 2012, optimistic about 2013

    It's been a busy day at Japanese IT giant Fujitsu, with the company reporting its financial results for its fiscal 2012 year ending in March (that's not a typo) and also announcing that it has spun off its microcontroller and analog device business to the flash-memory maker Spansion. Back in February, Fujitsu announced a …

    Business 30 Apr 18:12

  • BlackBerry CEO: Tablets will be dead in 5 years

    PlayBook, anyone?

    BlackBerry chief Thorsten Heins reckons slabs will be dead in half a decade, by which point his firm will be the front runner in mobile computing. Two predictions in a Bloomberg report, both of which might come back to the haunt Heins, who replaced former joint CEO's Jim Balsilie and Mike Lazaridis at the start of 2012. The …

    The Channel 30 Apr 18:13

  • Feds want to fine companies that refuse wiretap requests

    Apparatchiks whine that technology's making it too tough

    Draft legislation to impose fines on companies that refuse to provide wiretap facilities to US federal agents is in the planning stages, government officials have told the Washington Post under condition of anonymity. Initial plans are for an automatic fine for refusal in the range of tens of thousands of dollars, an amount …

    Policy 30 Apr 18:29

  • Cloudera revs up Impala SQL for Hadoop

    Big-data elephant to pronk like a gazelle - or roar like a Chevy

    Commercial Hadoop distributor Cloudera is first out of the gate with a true SQL layer that sits atop Hadoop. It lets normal people – if you can call people who've mastered SQL normal – perform ad hoc queries in real time against information crammed into the Hadoop Distributed File System or the HBase database that rides atop …

    Cloud Infrastructure 30 Apr 19:43

  • Budweiser's bonkable Buddy Cup brings Facebook to the pub

    Toast now, stalk later – no convo required

    Are you spending so much time on Facebook that the prospect of actually going out and socializing has become a little unnerving? Don't worry; mega-brewer Budweiser has got you covered, with a new beverage cup that helps merge the physical and online worlds. "The Buddy Cup brings together the in-bar experience with Facebook, …

    Hardware 30 Apr 21:09

  • Amazon goes legit with cloud certification plan

    'Enterprisey enough for ya?' bellow Bezos & Co.

    Watch out Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, and HP. There's a new reassuringly dull certificate in town, and it's coming for your devs. Amazon Web Services has launched a global certfication program so that technologists can get something to stick on their CV and use as a lever to extract more cash from current and future employers …

    Cloud 30 Apr 21:24

  • ESA retires Herschel space telescope as too hot to handle

    Lonely star-spotter stranded 1.5 million km from Earth

    The European Space Agency has formally retired the Herschel space telescope after nearly four years of operation, and has placed it in a parking orbit that will keep it out of Earth's way. Herschel's at rest at last Hershcel, along with the Planck space telescope, was launched on May 14, 2009, and is stationed 1,500,000 …

    Science 30 Apr 21:37

  • Alibaba splurges half a billion on a slice of 'Chinese Twitter'

    E-tailer sees commercial opportunity in Weibo

    Alibaba has moved into social media with a $586m splurge on an 18 per cent stake in China's Twitter, Weibo. The Chinese e-tailer nabbed the microblogging site stake from Sina on Monday, valuing Weibo at more than $3.2bn. The companies reckon that their alliance will generate $380m in advertising and other revenue for Weibo in …

    Financial News 30 Apr 21:51

  • One of the world's oldest experiments crawls towards a fall

    Fever pitch excitement at planet's most boring webcam

    Grab a coffee, fire up the browser, open the webcam, and wait: sometime soon – perhaps within days – a drop of pitch will fall, and for the first time, the event might actually have spectators. One of the world's longest continuous scientific experiments, at Queensland University, lives under a bell jar in a university foyer. …

    Science 30 Apr 23:05

  • Cray peddles more iron than expected in Q1

    Not enough to keep it from booking a loss, though

    It is tough to find a choppier business than the supercomputer market, and Cray CEO Peter Ungaro had to remind Wall Street once again to not judge the company on a single quarter, and particularly on the first quarter that it has just turned in. While the company's top line was a little better than expected, issues with the …

    HPC 30 Apr 23:29