29th > June > 2012 Archive
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Pigment powered gadgets
The natural pigment, melanin, which endows humans and animals eye, skin and hair colour is set to be the driving force behind a new generation of bio-powered gadgets.
Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Review
The only Batman I have ever cared about is the cynical desperate anti-hero of Frank Miller's The Dark Night Returns but Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes may have just changed my mind.
Free tool inspects all your personal 'ware automatically
Secunia has taken the wraps off a new version of its consumer patch management tool, Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) version 3.0.
DataCore orchestra tunes up for the Ninth SANsymphony
DataCore has pushed out its ninth SANsymphony release, which is orchestrated for the cloud, large data centre deployments, and storage-as-a-service.
The Open Rights Group gets rights wrong again
Opinion
When Open Rights Group executive director Jim Killock opens his mouth, his foot soon disappears inside. The UK's leading digital rights advocate has just demonstrated still more difficulty understanding the "rights" the group campaigns about.
UK spectrum row: What we need is more national disasters
Future of Wireless
The problem with UK radio spectrum policy, apparently, is that we have too much competition and not enough proper disasters, which means our emergency services won't get enough radio spectrum until people start dying.
PS3 fans buy more digital content than Xbox buffs do
British PS3 owners are more willing to splash the cash on digital content than their Xbox 360 counterparts, it has been claimed.
'Backing out of a failed update really ought to be a trivial matter...'
QuotW
This was the week when there was an almighty tech disaster at RBS and Natwest that froze millions out of their bank accounts. Stories abounded of houses lost because sales hadn't gone through, people stuck in prison because their bail hadn't been paid and legions of folks just plain old p***ed off because they couldn't put their hands on their own money.
BPM today, tomorrow and beyond
Broadcast
Are you tough enough to take on Business Process Management (BPM) and win? Someone has to. It has never been more important to handle workflow efficiently.
Teleconferencing 'shifts hundreds of NHS bed-blockers out the door'
The Whittington hospital NHS trust is speeding its discharge rates and saving about £150,000 a year by using teleconferencing, according to Jar O'Brien, team leader for Islington's community rehabilitation services.
Nexus 7 and Surface: A bonanza for landfill miners
Comment
It would be charitable (that is, untrue) to call the consumer electronics strategies of Microsoft and Google coherent today. But what they lack in coherence they make up for in er, … sheer recklessness. That's OK, then.
Half-Life 3 concept art leaves fans wanting more
Concept art for Half-Life 3 has leaked onto the web, whetting fans appetites for what might be in store if Valve ever releases the long-awaited followup.
Join the gov consultation on net porn ... and have your identity revealed
A parental internet controls consultation document released by the Department for Education yesterday is currently exposing the email addresses, unencrypted passwords and sensitive answers of members of the public who fill in the associated form.
Reg hack attempts gutsiest expenses claim EVER
We're certain that plenty of Reg readers have at one time or another been given short shrift by the company finance department for presenting a dodgy receipt as part of an expenses claim.
Vodafone to let you roam in Europe at UK prices
New European Commission-imposed EU mobile data roaming price regulations kick in on Sunday, and Vodafone has announced a modification of its European roaming package.
First lady taikonaut and pals plunge into the dirt after space mating
The three taikonauts aboard Shenzhou-9 have returned safely to Earth, touching down in northern China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region as planned.
B&O Beoplay A3
Accessory of the Week
Stick an iPad in B&O’s Beoplay A3, take a step or two back and look at it square on. It looks like a mini B&O TV. Put it down on a kitchen worktop or office shelf and you have a video player or jukebox capable of producing rich, full-bodied audio which does iPad far more justice than its own tiny speaker.
Open-source password keeper to get 'minor' weekend security fix
The developer of KeePass, the popular open-source password management utility, has promised an update this weekend following the discovery of a "minor" security bug in the tool.
Apple patent may foretell an end to iPhone autocorrect Tourette's
An Apple patent application just published by the US Patent Office shows that the masterminds of Cupertino have figured out (or hope to figure out) a cunning way to work out what words you're going to tap into your little Jesus mobe before you type it.
Governments probe domain land-snatch: many.gTLDs.suck
Governments have started to put ICANN's massive top-level domain name expansion under scrutiny, after the revelation of 1,930 applications for new naming suffixes two weeks ago.
Just how do you build the perfect Olympic stadium?
London Olympics
On 27 July, London will be transformed as the biggest celebration of sports in the world kicks off in the newly built Olympic Stadium in Stratford.
BMW, Toyota to build fuel cells for sports cars
BMW and Toyota are to work together on the development of fuel cell and electric powertrains, the two automotive giants said today.
Android Jelly Bean won't get Flash Player
As part of the slow death of Adobe's Flash Player, the company has announced it won't be making a certified version for Android's new 4.1 OS – aka Jelly Bean.
War On Standby: Do the figures actually stack up?
Analysis
The War On Standby rumbles on: this week, courtesy of the UK government and "third sector" quangocracy, we heard yet again that gadgets left on standby suck vast, planet-wrecking, expensive amounts of energy from our electricity sockets.
Ultrabook demand soars Stateside
That Ultrabooks have grabbed almost 11 per cent of the $700-and-up Windows notebook market in the US during the first five months of the year sounds impressive, until you realise how small that market segment is.
Tsinghua, NUDT flatten rivals in ISC cluster smackdown
ISC 2012
The 2012 ISC Student Cluster Challenge ended last week, and it’s high time we take a look at the winners, the awards and some of the results.
Resellers: Cloud is BIG, but it's a sales commission minefield
We’ve all read about how cloud computing is "more than just a buzzword" or a passing phase. And we’re all well-versed in selling the benefits of cloud and managed services in terms of cost-savings, flexibility, managing complex tasks and only paying for what you use.
Chrome hits iPhone and iPad, storms to top of download chart
Google's new Chrome browser for iOS has stormed the iTunes download charts - hitting the top spot for free apps worldwide. Announced at a dev meeting yesterday, the mobile browser was quietly released in Apple's App Store on 26 June.
Gouged by cloud - but it's so convenient
Open ... and Shut
Most everyone believes that cloud computing is taking off in a big way. Finding agreement on why it's booming is a bit more problematic. The issue becomes particularly nettlesome for private cloud adoption, which is either heavily driven by public cloud cost management... or the exact opposite, depending on whom you ask.
Do you work in IT at RBS? Or at the next place to get hit ...?
Those nice people at RBS have provided me with a worked example for how you can best get through fan-hitting situations without having to take up minicab driving or going to work in local government.
Apple's Mountain Lion to offer automatic security updates
Apple is building in automatic update checking into the next version of Mac OS X – Mountain Lion.
HPC cloud belches from top UK universities
At last, one can rent tens of thousands of cores-worth of HPC teraFLOPS on demand from an HPC cloud.
Ethiopia: we are not jailing Skype users
The Ethiopian government has refuted reports that anyone caught using Skype in the country will go to jail. It insists the claims publicised by western media are completely groundless.
Berkshire bigboy 2e2 in the pink - apart from crushing debt burden
Integrator 2e2 recorded steep losses in calendar 2011 caused by crippling interest repayments, discontinued operations and restructuring costs, but despite all this, some progress was made in the underlying operations.
Mad fan-fitted mouse keeps mitts moisture-free
Suffer from excessively sweaty palms when you're gaming on your PC? Accessory maker Thermaltake has a - rather bizarre, IMHO - answer: a mouse with its own tiny clip-on fan.
Stratfor settles class-action over Anon megahack with freebies
Stratfor has agreed to forgo $1.75m in income to settle a class action lawsuit arising from a high-profile hack by hacktivist group Anonymous against the global intelligence firm's systems last December.
Behold: Today marks Year Five of the iPhone Era
Apple has been credited with the first smartphone, with creating the mobile application business and pioneering touch interfacing. None of these things are true: but actually the launch of the iPhone, five years ago, was a much bigger revolution than that.
IBM chiefs order pay freeze at US services tentacle
Update
The employees at the Global Technology Services unit of Big Blue got some unwelcome but probably not unexpected news that there would not be a broad-based salary increase at the unit this year. There are also reports that IBM has frozen salaries of higher-level executives across the company, which the company has not confirmed.
Gov IT buying body: Mega hardware gig to save £6.5m in 2013
The forthcoming mega IT Hardware & Services public sector framework is expected to yield savings of £6.5m this year, according to Government Procurement Services (GPS).
Capita ITS asks to-be-axed staffers to pose for marketing pic
Capita IT Services staff waiting to hear if they have a future at the integrator-cum-reseller have been invited to attend a photo shoot to be used in marketing material.
Jaw-jaw no more-more as calls fall down tally of phone tasks
You think phones are for making calls? No longer, if a poll conducted by O2 is anything to go by. Talking to people is not even in the top three activities folk spend most time doing on their handsets.
Two weeks 'til the internet disappears, for 58 Fortune 500 companies
Even though the DNSChanger safety net deadline expires in just two weeks, 12 per cent of Fortune 500 firms still have at least one infected machine on their network, according to a new survey.
Mac-based Trojan targets Uyghur activists
Security researchers have intercepted a Mac-based Trojan attack targeting Uyghur human rights activists.
Apple hardware fixer Bob Mansfield retires from Cupertino
Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, has announced his retirement from the company after 13 years in situ, and it seems he's also walking away from tens of millions in unclaimed share options.
Texan team paints batteries onto beer steins
Researchers in Texas have discovered a way to break down the components of a battery into liquid form and paint power cells onto everyday objects.
