Top Twenty Stories

1. Not cool, Adobe: Give the Ninite guys a job, not the middle finger

   Sysadmin blog Top toolmaker told to stop installing crapware-free Flash

   Adobe wants the ability to easily roll out Flash updates removed from Ninite, the sysadmin Swiss army knife. I'm going to explain why this is a terrible thing. First, though, I would like to discuss the real-world practical uses of products such as Ninite. Ninite is used by systems administrators and ordinary folk alike to …

2. 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 …

3. AMD reveals potent parallel processing breakthrough

   Upcoming Kaveri processor will drink from shared-memory Holy Grail

   AMD has released details on its implementation of The Next Big Thing in processor evolution, and in the process has unleashed the TNBT of acronyms: the AMD APU (CPU+GPU) HSA hUMA. Before your eyes glaze over and you click away from this page, know that if this scheme is widely adopted, it could be of great benefit to both …

4. 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 …

5. 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 …

6. 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 …

7. Barnes & Noble bungs Raspberry Pi-priced Nook on shelves

   That makes the cheap-as-chips e-reader cool now, right?

   In a perhaps desperate bid to drum up sales, Barnes & Noble is selling its Nook E Ink-based e-book reader for a pound less than 30 quid - a discount of £50. If you want the version with an illuminated screen, it’ll be £69 - £40 less than it usually is. Oh, and the firm’s 9-inch Nook HD+ tablet has also had its price slashed, …

8. 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 …

9. CLIMATE CHANGE forces women into PROSTITUTION - US politicians

   Is there anything bad it doesn't cause?

   A group of American politicians has introduced a resolution into Congress saying that climate change (among many other bad things it does) forces women into prostitution, and that as a result the USA should use "gender sensitive frameworks" in battling the scourge of global warming. House Concurrent Resolution 36 of the 113th …

10. Ultra-hackable Google Glass could be a security nightmare

    Easy root access opens spyware floodgates

    Google's high-tech Glass headsets might be a gadget enthusiast's dream, but in their current form they're far too vulnerable to malicious hacking, according to one developer who has had access to the devices. In a lengthy blog post on Tuesday, technology consultant Jay Freeman – who goes by the hacker handle "Saurik" – gave a …

11. 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 …

12. Atoms star in ball-bothering boffins' Big Blue movie

    Vid Bantam blockbuster boy bewilders Reg bloke

    IBM Research has proved its worth by moving atoms across a screen to create the world's smallest movie. Big Blue has gone much better with its atomic animation A Boy and His Atom. The movie has 242 frames and lasts just under 100 seconds; any more and it would rapidly become turgidly boring, in your humble hack's opinion. Each …

13. 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, …

14. Is the IT industry short on Cobolers? This could be your lucky day

    Sometimes a CV needs a few fossils

    Let's make one thing clear: your previous jobs are not the reason why you were hired. You were hired for having skills that bosses need. People are employed because they are needed to do things that must be done, not because they can do something that is merely desired. It’s not all bad news. The current Big Data hype means …

15. 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. …

16. Review: Panasonic Toughpad FZ-G1 WinPro 8 tablet

    Vid Fancy a shower with your fondleslab? Or booting it down the stairs?

    In the UK, Panasonic is not known as a high-street PC player - but the company’s Tough range of products makes quite an impression in the world of business. Out in the field you’ll spot them in the hands of BT engineers and the like where the manufacturer's rugged laptops, and now tablets, survive the rigours of white-van man …

17. 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 …

18. 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 …

19. Opportunity rover stuck in standby mode after Martian blackout

    Updated Have they tried turning it off and then on again?

    NASA is trying to reactivate its Martian rover Opportunity after it switched itself into standby mode during a communications quiet period, but engineers have had no luck as yet at restoring control. The space agency hasn't been communicating with its Martian rovers for the last few weeks as there has been a solar conjunction …

20. 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 …