Top Twenty Stories

1. US boffin builds 32-way Raspberry Pi cluster

   Beowulf cluster built for the price of a single PC

   Boise University PhD candidate Joshua Kiepert has built a 32-way Beowulf cluster from Raspberry Pis. Kiepert says his research focuses on “developing a novel data sharing system for wireless sensor networks to facilitate in-network collaborative processing of sensor data.” To study that field Kipert figured he would need a …

2. Massive EXPLOSION visible to naked eye SEEN ON MOON

   Vid 'Equivalent to 5 TONNES of TNT going off', says NASA

   Sensational news today from the Moon, as skywatchers say a huge explosion - as bright as a star, and visible from Earth with the naked eye - has been seen on the lunar surface. "It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before," splutters Bill Cooke, a top NASA boffin. According to NASA, …

3. Rogue Nokia splinter cell drops its Jolla phone A-BOMB

   Ota tuo, vihreä robotti Google!

   Smartphone upstart Jolla - founded by a bunch of ex-Nokia engineers - has finally unveiled a device. The gadget's technical details are few and far between at this moment. The handset itself won't be available until the end of the year, but anyone willing to plonk down €100 can get get in line early for the €399 phone and bag …

4. So you want to be a contractor? Well, here's how it works

   Free advice from Reg headhunter Dominic Connor

   Back in the heady days of 1984, working on the development of Microsoft Unix (yes, that was a real product, AKA Xenix), we needed to write an Ethernet driver, but none of us really felt up to that. We needed to hire an expensive specialist. And so I met my first contractor, who turned up in a far better car than anyone else …

5. Dell's PC-on-a-stick landing in July: report

   Wyse up, suckers, could this be a new set-side-stick?

   Dell's project Ophelia, an Android-PC-on-a-stick effort revealed at CES last January, is apparently set to debut in July. PC World brings us news that Dell will bring the product to the world in a few short weeks at around $US100. The idea behind the device is to offer user a very lightweight client device that users can …

6. Last time CO2 was this high, the world was underwater? NO, actually

   Ice sheets DIDN'T melt 3 million years B.C., say boffins

   OK, so levels of atmospheric CO2 are rising through 0.0004 (or 400 parts per million) at the moment. Disaster, right? The last time the world saw carbon levels like this, some three million years ago, the mighty ice sheets of Greenland and the Antarctic had melted from the heat and the seas were 35 metres higher than they are …

7. Intel's answer to ARM: Customisable x86 chips with HIDDEN POWERS

   Let's all play find the secret hardware register

   With new CEO Brian Krzanich and new president Renée James in control of Intel, all kinds of changes are very likely in store: the chip giant wants to expand beyond its dominance in PCs (a declining market) and servers (one that is profitable but not growing very much) to other aspects of the computing landscape. And one such …

8. Gay marriage? We'll put a stop to that 'human BUG', says Nintendo

   Sayōnara, Mr and Mr Robotto

   A bug that permitted same-sex marriage in a Nintendo game was a mistake by the developer rather than a victory for equality, we're told. Gamers playing Tomodachi Collection: New Life - the latest version of The Sims-like role-playing game for the 3DS handheld - noticed they had the option of allowing male characters to marry …

9. They WANT to EAT YOUR COMPUTER - welcome your ANT overlords

   Whole corner of America faces life without computers

   A massive horde of computer-killing "crazy ants" are invading the southeastern US, killing other species as they go. New research released today in the journal Biological Invasions warns the aliens have wiped out at least one other ant invader, the exotic fire ant, but are also targeting local ants with deadly precision. More …

10. The iWatch is coming! The iWatch is coming!

    Reports: Apple's wrister to have 1.5-inch OLED, test units being built

    The Apple iWatch rumor mill has rumbled to life yet again, with one report that Apple is sampling 1.5-inch OLED displays for the li'l fellow, and a second that long-time iKit assembler Foxconn has received orders for a test batch of the "wearable computing" device. On Monday, MacRumors spotted an article in the Japanese Apple- …

11. AT&T to relax restrictions on FaceTime, video chat

    New contractual shenanigans to arrive in June?

    AT&T Wireless plans to lift some of its restrictions on the use of mobile video chat apps by the end of this year, according to a statement the carrier released on Monday. AT&T started limiting its customers' access to bandwidth-heavy chat apps in 2012, when Apple first enabled the use of its FaceTime video chat over mobile …

12. Chocolate Factory chucks out Checkout

    Stick your stuff in our Wallet

    Google Checkout is the latest product to check into the Chocolate Factory's hospice, with merchants told it will be farewelled in six months. Merchants using the service are being encouraged to switch to Google Wallet Instant Buy or find another payment processor – a move which involves a lot more disruption to the small …

13. Nintendo throws flaming legal barrel at YouTubing fans

    All your walk-through vid revenue are belong to us

    Nintendo has contacted fans who post walk-through videos of its games to YouTube, claiming all revenue from their efforts. Gamer Zack Scott brought the practice to light in a Facebook post. Scott is a member of Let's Play, a community in which folks post "videos in which the author records the complete gameplay of a video game …

14. Canadian regulators welcome US Bitcoin refugees with open arms

    Money laundering not a problem here, eh

    Canadian Bitcoin traders will not be clobbered by laws similar to those being used to target virtual currency exchanges in America, according to a leaked letter from the country's financial investigations unit. The Register has seen a letter from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) which …

15. Marks & Sparks accused of silently bonking punters over the tills

    Analysis Bank cards bought stuff ALL BY THEMSELVES, say shoppers

    High-street socks'n'frocks chain Marks and Spencer is accused of quietly taking money from shoppers' contactless bank cards at the tills. The accusations come from Radio 4's Money Box listeners, who called in to report that M&S had billed cards in purses and handbags over the air, unbeknownst to customers who had intended to …

16. Petshop iPad fanboi charged with filming up young model's skirt

    LAPD throws book at fondleslabber

    A Los Angeles fanboi has been charged (PDF) with using an iPad to take upskirt footage of an underwear model. Julio Mario Medal, 38, stands accused of using his big shiny fondleslab to gaze up 22-year-old Brittanie Weaver's skirt and shoot a film about her naughty bits. Brittanie Weaver The blonde beauty claimed he had …

17. Biz bods: Tile-tastic Windows 8? NOOO. We lust after 'mature' Win 7

    Tired corporates prefer predecessor, says analyst

    Windows 8 won't become an enterprise IT standard as customers dump Microsoft's legacy PC operating system XP. Instead, corporate IT departments will stick to what they know and install Windows 7. That’s according to technology analyst Forrester, which reckoned Windows 7 is fast becoming the de-facto PC operating system for big …

18. MYSTERY Nokia Lumia with gazillion-pixel camera 'spotted'

    With 20Mp sensor - NOW will you try Windows Phone 8?

    Nokia will plug the boffinry behind the 41-megapixel camera in its 808 PureView phone into a new Lumia smartmobe, it is rumoured. The technology involves a gigantic sensor capable of taking gazillion-pixel photographs and clever software to refine the image into a sharp 3MP, 5MP or 8MP shot. The results can match the output of …

19. WordPress warns of mass Tumblr defections after Yahoo! deal

    Hipster smut is safe for now, says Mayer

    News of Tumblr's purchase by Yahoo! has prompted a flood of established users to flee that social-media site, according to WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. In a blog post, Mullenweg said that around 400 to 600 Tumblr users typically import their content into WordPress every hour, with 67 exports per hour exiting the blogging …

20. Space dogs and Dragons: A brief history of reentry tech

    How a flying Frenchman paved the way for space exploration

    In August 1960, Soviet dogs Belka and Strelka1 - accompanied by several mice - became the first animals to travel into space and return alive. Belka and Strelka seen inside the Vostok capsule Packed into their Vostok spacecraft, the space canines relied on some venerable technology to return to terra firma - technology …