2nd May 2013 Archive

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SAP loses appeal in long-running $345m patent case

Time to pay the piper

A US federal court has rejected German software maker SAP's bid to overturn a $345m judgment against it, in a move that could finally end a patent-infringement lawsuit that has already dragged on for nearly six years. Versata, a maker of business rules engine software, first brought suit against SAP in 2007 over allegations …

Business 2 May 00:12
Gaming app ENSLAVES punter PCs in Bitcoin mining ring

Some secret software to go with your deathmatch, sir?

A competitive gaming company has admitted that for two weeks in April its software client was hijacking league members' PCs to mine Bitcoins. In an eyebrow-raising turn of events, the company, ESEA Gaming, admitted on Wednesday that its software client had been running Bitcoin-mining algorithms on customer PCs since April 14, …

Security 2 May 00:23
New NASA rover lands in frigid alien hell tomorrow

Welcome to Greenland, GROVER

NASA's newest rover, the Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research (GROVER), tomorrow (May 3rd) starts operations in a frigid alien hell with a climate utterly inimical to human life: the ice sheets of Greenland. GROVER follows familiar design specs: NASA describes it as “tank-like”, an apt choice of words …

Science 2 May 00:40
Terabit trial gives Telstra some backbone

Ericsson demos “fastest ever” long-haul link

The 995 kilometre optic fibre link from Sydney to Melbourne has played host to Australia's first demonstration of a commercial terabit-per-second fibre system. Announcing the demonstration, Telstra's director of transport and routing engineering David Robertson noted that it owns the largest amount of fibre in the country, and …

Networks 2 May 00:46
Research explodes myth that older programmers are obsolete

Old dogs can learn new tricks, if they're allowed to

There's a prevailing ethos among IT hirers that younger is better when it comes to programmers, but a study by academics in North Carolina suggests that employers might be missing a trick by not hiring the grizzled veterans of the coding world. Research into how our brains evolve over time suggests our intelligence functions …

Developer 2 May 01:04
Quantum researchers control qubit with light

Diamonds are a ~~girl's~~ quantum computer's best friend

As the hunt continues for ways to manipulate qubits in solid state devices, UC Santa Barbara researchers have demonstrated using a laser to manipulate a qubit in diamond. The qubit in question is actually considered a defect in a diamond's crystalline structure: it's called a “nitrogen-vacancy centre”, in which a nitrogen atom …

Science 2 May 01:26
A10 ships new iron, OS

Layer 4 connections per-second-per-Watt as a measure of green, anyone?

A10 Networks has announced new gateway devices and a revision to its ACOS operating system. The three new chunks of metal are the 6430 / 6430S (same unit, with and without SSL support) and the half-the-power, half-the-price 5430S. A10's director of product marketing Paul Nicholson introduced El Reg to yet another measure of …

Networks 2 May 01:42
NetApp's Tour de France quest falls flat

Who wants to be cycling's 'secret sauce' anyway?

When big vendors take on major sporting sponsorships, the first thing that usually happens is lots of shiny happy marketing material about just how the vendor's technology will propel athletes to success. So when NetApp in 2012 threw its name, technology and cash behind German cycling team Endura the group at the centre of the …

Media 2 May 02:34
'Chinese' attack sucks secrets from US defence contractor

Comment Crew blamed for three-year attack on QinetiQ

Just when it looked like US-China relations couldn’t get any more frosty, news has emerged that defence contractor QinetiQ suffered a massive breach of classified data over three years which may have leaked advanced military secrets to the infamous PLA-linked hacking gang Comment Crew. Bloomberg spoke to Verizon’s Terremark …

Security 2 May 04:54
Want to know what CIA spooks really think of spy movies and books?

Tinker, tailor, soldier, critic

CIA spooks are attempting to prove they deserve the word intelligence in their job titles by moonlighting as arts critics. Writing for the CIA's Studies in Intelligence house journal, spies have been scribbling reviews of books and films, sometimes taking on pseudonyms to mask their true identities. Studies in Intelligence …

Media 2 May 05:02
Java applets run wild inside Notes

'Full compromise' possible

Attackers with a desire to rummage around inside the PCs of Notes users can do so merely by sending HTML emails containing a Java applet or JavaScript, IBM has admitted in a security advisory. Full Disclosure describes the effects as potentially nasty, saying "This can be used to load arbitrary Java applets from remote sources …

Security 2 May 05:16