Citi to file claim with Nasdaq over Facebook IPOcalypse
Joins UBS in tussle for cash from teeny compensation pot
Citigroup is planning to file a claim for its piece of the $62m compensation pot Nasdaq is required to dole out after the Facebook IPOcalypse.
The bank is all set to apply for the existing compensation, but it's still leaving its other options open, according to the sources whispering to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. …
Library ebooks must SELF-DESTRUCT if scribes want dosh - review
Shovel UK taxpayer cash this way please, say publishers
The UK government will consider paying writers each time their ebooks and audio books are borrowed from public libraries - just like scribes are recompensed when their dead-tree tomes are loaned.
Culture minister Ed Vaizey announced a decision will be made after a formal review concluded libraries must stock digital titles or …
Star Trek phaser sells for a STUNNING $231,000
KHAAAAAANNNNNNNNN't believe I paid that much for it!
Captain Kirk's phaser weapon from the second pilot of the 1960s Star Trek series has sold for an illogical $231,000 at auction.
Captain Kirk and Dr McCoy from the original Star Trek series Phasers on stunned: Kirk, left, and McCoy
The phaser, used by the character played by William "Khan!" Shatner, was expected to sell for …
US judge: no class action against tech giants' 'wage-control pact'
Disgruntled unpoached bods can continue battle, however
A US judge is refusing to allow tech employees to band together and sue Apple, Google, and other tech firms in a class-action suit over those companies' alleged "no-hire pact" to keep wages down.
District Judge Lucy Koh said that the pact affected workers in too many different ways to allow them to be lumped together, and denied …
German court says nein to Apple's slide-to-unlock patent
Appeal is on its way
Apple's slide-to-unlock patent has been ruled invalid by a German court because it's not really an "innovation" in the eyes of European patent law.
The Bundespatentgericht (federal patent court) in Munich ruled that the famous patent is invalid because European law doesn't allow for the patenting of software that doesn't …
Samsung didn't break quarterly profit record, consoles itself with $7.7bn
Plans to coin it by flogging cheap models next quarter
Samsung Electronics said today that it won't be posting record quarterly earnings for the first time since 2011 when it announces profit for January to March this year.
The Korean chaebol said that it estimates an operating profit of about 8.7 trillion won ($7.7bn) for the first quarter of 2013 on sales of around 52 trillion won …
Movie bosses demand Google take down takedown notices
Arrgh, cut myself on this damn double-edged sword
Movie studios have taken the fight against piracy to a whole new level by sending takedown notices to Google asking it to remove links to their takedown notices.
NBC Universal and 20th Century Fox are meta-fighting the Chocolate Factory because its search links to takedown notices on sites like Chilling Effects could be used as …
Hubble boffins: Incredibly old supernova could explain EVERYTHING
Might also answer poser: 'If supernovae were popcorn...'
NASA's Hubble telescope has spotted the most distant massive star explosion of its kind ever, one which could help boffins understand the very fabric of the universe.
Hubble view of supernova SN Wilson
The telescope picked out Supernova UDS10Wil, also known as SN Wilson, in the night sky. The star apparently blew up over 10 …
'To employers, Jobs would just seem like a jerk in bad clothing'
QuotW Plus: 'Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone'
This was the week when Tim Cook issued an apology to every Apple-adoring fanboi in China about how lousy the firm's customer service and warranty policies in the country were.
The fruity chief was prompted by lots of state-controlled news outlet pressure, along with, presumably, the prickling of his conscience, to say in an open …
Guide man Frommer buys his name back from Google, plans eBooks
Presumably nobody will seek the content in Google+
Google has handed the rights to the Frommer brand of travel guides back to Arthur Frommer, after the Chocolate Factory snapped it up from publisher Wiley just last year.
The Choc Factory said that it had picked out the bits of Frommer it wanted for its own services and was now giving the brand back to Arthur for an undisclosed …
Bitcoin briefly soars to record $147 high, driven by Cyprus bank flap
Attraction of non-gov currency draws punters
Virtual currency Bitcoin soared to a record high of nearly $147 yesterday as Euro-spurred interest continued to boost its exchange rate.
The e-cash fell back later in the day to $117, but the value of all Bitcoins in circulation is still well on its way to $1.4bn.
The online dosh has rocketed from just $10 last November as the …
Disney shutters Star Wars game unit with 200 layoffs
Incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented jobless
Just a few months after snapping up George Lucas' Star Wars empire, Disney is shutting down its game unit LucasArts and laying off around 200 employees.
All work has ceased on the two new games announced last year, Star Wars: 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault, although they could be revived if another game-maker takes over.
In …
Twitter, the new stock ticker tape - and the SEC is OK with this
Investors: Tune into tweets or Facebook for biz info
Financial watchdog the SEC has ruled that listed companies can make key announcements and publish financial info on Facebook and Twitter. The decision follows an investigation sparked by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.
Hastings posted on Facebook in June that subscribers to video-on-demand biz Netflix had watched more than a billion …
Major blow for Apple: 'Bounce back' patent bounced back by USPTO
Finality isn't final, art wasn't prior, wails Apple
The infamous "bounce-back" Apple patent has been mostly rejected by the US Patent Office, a decision that will have a major impact on the fruity firm's legal battles with Samsung.
Sammy was quick to point out the ruling on the patent to the court, as the jury in the recent billion-dollar Californian case ruled that 21 accused …
ANCIENT CURSED RING known to TOLKIEN goes on display
In the land of Hampshire where the Shadows lie
A supposedly cursed gold ring that may have been the inspiration for the One Ring in JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth fantasies has gone on display at The Vyne house in Hampshire.
Frodo and the One Ring Unusually complex disposal and recycling guidelines on this exhibit
The National Trust and the Tolkien Society have put the Roman …
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- …
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 …
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 …
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- …
'I've read all the Harry Potters - and I'm proud to have done so for adverts'
QuotW 'After they gave me $millions, I discovered Yahoo! has an inspirational goal'
This was the week when Stephen Fry didn't get upset with The Register, he just called everyone at Vulture Central "cruel and vicious".
Fry was not upset about Reg hack Andrew Orlowski's calling him out on a wee slip of the tongue when talking about Alan Turing, when he said that he was responsible for the first programmable …
Living in the middle of a big city? Your broadband may still be crap
No cloud movies for you if you lose the postcode lottery
Living in a city centre is no guarantee of nimble broadband speeds in Blighty, as download rates are a postcode lottery.
A new study by uSwitch revealed that folks living in the Barbican area of London have internet connections as slow as 5.3Mbps, while users in Charlton in Greenwich are zipping along four times as fast with …
Boffins probe into moons – and associated rings – 'beyond snow line'
They were here when this was all fields – of protonebula
Saturn's rings have been knocking around the galaxy since around the time our Solar System was born, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has shown. Though not in ring form the whole time, obviously.
Extreme brightness dichotomy on the surface of Saturn moon Iapetus The extreme brightness dichotomy of Saturn moon Iapetus. Credit: NASA/JPL …
Man's 'I own half of Facebook' claim branded 'fabrication' by judge
Testy beak writes 155-page book, throws it at him
A US judge has recommended that the lawsuit of Paul Ceglia, the New York wood-pellet salesman who claimed he owned half of Facebook, be thrown out because it's a pack of lies.
Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio said that the alleged 2003 contract with Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg - which Ceglia claimed entitled him to half of the …
Foxconn master fails to sink teeth into tasty Sharp stake
Bleeding display biz is the one that got away
The deadline for Foxconn daddy Hon Hai to come up with a new deal for a stake in wheezing monitor biz Sharp has passed without the companies coming to any arrangement.
Hon Hai was in talks to take as much as 9.9 per cent of the Japanese firm and a deal was first signed this time last year for ¥66.9bn ($806m, £507m). But the …
Free speechers want into Apple and Samsung sealed court filings
Want everything but the formula for Coke, complains beak
A coalition of media and free speech advocates have tried to convince a US court that sealed documents in Apple and Samsung's patent smackdown should be made public.
The group, which includes news outlets like the New York Times and Bloomberg along with nonprofits like the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the …
Forget the invisibility cloak: Boffins invent INVISIBILITY FISHNETS
Embarrassed how your legs look on radar? Fixed
Boffins have developed the thinnest invisibility fabric ever made, just 0.15mm thick, great for carrying around Harry Potter-style.
Harry Potter in his invisibility cloak
Unfortunately the miracle "fishnet" copper-polycarbonate textile doesn't work in the visible spectrum.
The device scores points for its slim silhouette and …
300 UK domains pilfered, MASSIVE security lapse blamed
Exclusive 123-Reg, Nominet investigate website control-panel bug
What appears to be a glaringly obvious security hole has been blamed for the snatching of 300 domains hosted by one web-hosting firm last year, The Reg has discovered.
A source told El Reg that anyone with a hosting package from 123-Reg, and hence an account control panel, simply had to change the final section of the URL …
NASA chief: Earth is DOOMED if we spot a big asteroid at short notice
Action on REAL threat to the planet 'put off for decades'
Billions of dollars are needed to keep the Earth safe from asteroids like the one that smashed into Russia last month, experts have told the US government.
Planetoid crashes into primordial Earth
While NASA has made good progress cataloguing nearly 93 per cent of larger Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), smaller meteorites like the …
One-time wannabe governor charged for Facebook share Ponzi scheme
What's worse, real Facebook shares or pretend ones?
A US financier has been charged with running a $13.2m Ponzi scheme, supposedly trading in Facebook and other social networks' pre-IPO shares despite the fact that he didn't have access to them.
Craig Berkman, a former Oregon gubernatorial candidate now living in Florida, had allegedly promised his investors that he had insider …
Twitter patents sending messages, promises not to sue everyone
Do no evil - we've heard THAT one before
Twitter has patented a messaging service in which users follow each other and send messages that don't have specific recipients - or in other words, Twitter.
The approved patent, originally filed in 2007 but published this week, describes pretty much how Twitter and tweeting work, and lists Twitter founders Jack Dorsey and Biz …
Phone, internet corps SNUB US government's cybersecurity ABCs
20 computer defences rejected by telecoms industry
Phone companies and ISPs in the US have convinced a top advisory panel to hold back the American government from forcing a set of basic IT cybersecurity standards on them.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set up a group of experts to figure out if the communications industry should be forced to adapt 20 "critical …
Software bug halts Curiosity: Nuke lab bot in safe mode
Thank GOD for buffer overrun checks, eh NASA?
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is parked in "safe mode" again after being laid low by a software bug. The fault was triggered by an unexpected command-file size, which the machine detected before it was too late.
Curiosity self-portrait at Rocknest in the Gale Crater Curiosity's selfie on the Red Planet
The nuclear-powered space …
eBay chief Donahoe sees his package nearly DOUBLE in size
Online bazaar does so well that CEO gets $29.7m compensation
eBay chief John Donahoe saw his compensation package shoot up 81 per cent last year to a whopping $29.7m as the online bazaar's stock grew 68 per cent.
Donahoe was handsomely rewarded for the growth the marketplace site and its payment business PayPal saw last year, with a salary bump of three per cent to $970,353.
That was …
Reader slain? 'Even the Google apologists on G+ are p****d off'
Quotw Plus: 'How many more hours are your servers going to be down?'
This was the week in which the internet discovered that, astonishingly, everybody on the planet is a fan of Google Reader after Google announced it was switching off the service because no one wanted it. At least, it seemed everybody is a fan of it, judging by the outpouring of rage across the web at the news.
The Chocolate …
Crack Bombe squad dismantles Reg encryption in an hour
It's no Enigma. Plus GCHQ seeks apprentice SPIES
Crack codebreakers from the Bombe squad took just over an hour to decipher a Reg message encoded on an Enigma machine yesterday.
The rather unimaginative text, "Reg readers say hi" (sorry, your hack was put on the spot) was sent via Twitter from the Big Bang Fair in London on a real German Enigma machine and then deciphered at …
eBay: Our paid Google advertising was a total waste of money
The buck stops there. Well, 75¢ of it does anyway
eBay has claimed that Google's paid search ads aren't worth the money for big-name brands, after it conducted a study showing that found it was only getting 25 cents back for every dollar it spent.
eBay Research Labs looked at the online bazaar's sales after it gave up on search ads in some regions but left them on in others. …
JPMorgan Chase is latest US bank in MYSTERY web savaging
Islamic 'Cyber Fighters' back for more dotcom beatings?
JPMorgan Chase's website went kaput yesterday when the bank became the latest US financial institution to find itself on the business end of a distributed denial-of-service assault.
Visitors to chase.com were shown a "website temporarily down" message on the front page, although the bank's mobile apps were said to be working. …
Eric Schmidt trousers his monstrous package at Google
Extra big reinforced pants needed to contain massive wads
Top Googler Eric Schmidt is getting a tasty $6m bonus for his performance at the Chocolate Factory this year, part of a package of $15m getting spread around among the C-suite Oompa Loompas.
Neither of the firm's co-founders, chief exec Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are getting a 2012 bonus: but Google's top lawyer, the head …
GoDaddy gone, daddy: Websites go titsup in server assault
Globo-hosting biz battles DDoS attack
A number of websites hosted by GoDaddy were blasted offline this week in a distributed denial-of-service attack.
The company's servers in Europe struggled under the volley on Monday afternoon and continued to suffer until yesterday evening after GoDaddy installed network traffic filters to block the assaults.
UK customers …
Curiosity's MYSTERY MARS find: NASA reveals THE TRUTH
Pic Strange dust may today unlock secrets of Martian life
NASA will show the world today just what its Curiosity rover discovered in its study of the first Martian rock powder sample.
First Curiosity drilling sample in the scoop SCOOP! Yes, Curiosity scooped up this soil from Martian surface
The space agency will hold a press conference at 1700 GMT (1000 PDT, 1300 EDT) to reveal the …
Cash-strapped AMD drills for green gold in Lone Star State
Chip biz flogs campus for $164m, but wants to stay put
Processor bakery AMD will sell off and lease back its offices in Austin, Texas, to raise $164m in much-needed cash.
The chipmaker will sign a 12-year lease on the "Lone Star Campus", with an optional extension clause if the firm decides to stay on at the location.
It's not the first time that AMD has shifted some real estate to …
Stats-crunchers toss ebooks into Blighty's 2013 inflation basket
Leave Freeview box and champers balanced on sweeties rack by the till
The Office for National Statistics has added ebooks to the basket of goods and services used to calculate Britian's rate of inflation, while Freeview boxes have been tipped out.
The ONS said that ebooks were needed in the shopping basket that represents the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and Retail Prices Index (RPI) in the UK, as …
Starlight-sifting boffins can now spot ALIEN LIFE LIGHT YEARS AWAY
Pics New method filters out glare for rapid chemical analysis
Boffins have made a breakthrough in the search for alien life with a new technique for determining the colours, chemical composition and even physical characteristics of exoplanets that are light years away.
Chemical analysis progression of HR8799 planets Chemical analysis progression of HR8799 planets
Credit: American Museum …
Sony chairman Howard Stringer set to retire, explore 'new world'
First foreign CEO leaves for good
Sony chair and former CEO Howard Stringer is set to retire from the firm completely this June.
The Welsh-born businessman already left his CEO seat last year after seven years on the job and will now leave the board entirely.
Stringer spent 15 years at Sony after a three-decades-long stint at US broadcaster CBS and rose to …
Deja vote: Iran blocks VPN use ahead of elections
Crashes YouTube and Facebook at the same time - report
Iranian authorities have blocked the use of most virtual private network (VPNs) to stop people in the country from circumventing the government's internet filter, three months before the country holds its presidential election.
"Within the last few days illegal VPN ports in the country have been blocked," Ramezanali Sobhani-Fard …
Ancient revellers came to party... and build Stonehenge - boffins
Thousands of Brits feasted, caroused, erected massive stone circle
Stonehenge was actually an ancient rave spot for Brits from all over the country, new research has suggested.
Stonehenge from the north east
There are more theories about the origins and reasons for Stonehenge than there are stones in the monument - Ancient clock? Wiccan ritual site? Alien-built technology? Secret location of …
Multimillionaire Brit games dev wants your cash for Shroud of the Avatar
Lord British kickstarts new fantasy RPG
Multimillionaire games developer, moon rover owner and space tourist Richard Garriott has taken to Kickstarter to try to get funding for his new video game.
Shroud of the Avatar game on Kickstarter
Garriott, aka Lord British, is looking for $1m to make Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, which gamers have been describing …
'Seriously Kelly? I may as well call YOU the unelected networks tsar'
Quotw Plus: 'Why do PC manufacturers even bother any more?'
This was the week that hard-working Reg hack Kelly Fiveash came in for some flack over her presentation of Steelie Neelie's latest comments on the lack of IT skills in Europe.
Kroes said in a speech at CeBIT that the European Commission had put together a €1m coalition to address the issue:
This coalition is not about …
Samsung grabs Sharp shard, brings pain to Apple supply chain
Hey Cupertino... gonna miss your screen time?
Samsung has shipped up in Apple's pitch by taking a three per cent stake in cash-strapped component supplier Sharp for ¥10.4bn ($111m).
Instead of top iDevice manufacturer Foxconn nabbing a bit of Sharp, an idea that had previously been floated, the fruity firm will see Sammy screens being made side by side with its own …
Google to offer 'same-day delivery' Amazon Prime killer - report
New shopping service at least $10 cheaper too, whisper sources
Google is reportedly prepping a new shopping delivery service to compete with Amazon's Prime subscriber service, called "Google Shopping Express".
Just for a bit of oneupmanship, Express will give folks same-day delivery instead of Prime's two-day promise, Reuters and TechCrunch reported a source "familiar with the test" as …
