Saturday 30 June 2012

Amazon cloud knocked out by violent storms in Virginia



Mother Nature huffs and puffs a derecho


A wave of "hurricane-like" thunderstorms ripped across Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia on Friday night, leaving more than 3.5 million people without power and knocking out the US-East-1 data center operated by Amazon Web Services.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/30/amazon_cloud_storm_outage/

TiVo plunges into Swedes after penetrating Virgin Media



Gets another pipe into the box


The announcement that Com Hem of Sweden has cut a deal with TiVo this week shows how the TiVo strategy is rolling out in Europe and points to more and more deals being likely in the future. Expect it to drift outside of Europe soon, as well.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/30/tivo_lands_another_major_european_cable_company/

Friday 29 June 2012

Behold: Today marks Year Five of the iPhone Era



Fire. The Wheel. Steam engines. Just trinkets


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.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/29/iphone_at_five/

Wired.co.uk Podcast 82: Google IO, lightning weapons, brain simulators



Wired podcast

This week we discuss the Google X Lab computer that learned to recognise cats, the US army's plans to build a 50 billion watt laser canon, Ofcom's proposals for dealing with UK filesharers and the rest of the week in Wired news.


By: Nate Lanxon,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/podcast/episode-82

BAE Systems' GPS rival Navsop uses radio signals to get your position



Radio antenna

UK defence firm BAE Systems has come up with a positioning system that it says "could make GPS obsolete."


It's called Navigation via Signals of Opportunity (Navsop) and uses the different signals that populate the airwaves -- including Wi-Fi, TV and mobile phone signals -- to calculate the user's location. It can find your current position, down to within a few metres.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/29/bae-gps

HPC cloud belches from top UK universities



Rent yourself a rack at the (tera)FLOPhouse


At last, one can rent tens of thousands of cores-worth of HPC teraFLOPS on demand from an HPC cloud.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/29/core/

United States 2012 - now on sale



The 2012 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix takes place on November 16-18 and tickets are now available on Formula1.com. Making its first appearance on the F1 calendar, an all-new venue in Austin, Texas will provide a race-going experience like no other. For a unique insight into one of the paddock's most exciting destinations

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13516.html

Black hole-hunting telescope Nustar snaps its first photo



black holes

Nasa's black hole-hunting Nustar telescope has taken its first images, the sharpest ever photos of high energy x-rays in deep space.


The Nustar (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) observatory was launched on 13 June, with the main objective of documenting high-energy events in deep space, such as black holes. It is able to produce images with 100 times more sensitivity and 10 times more resolution than any other x-ray telescope, including its predecessors Chandra and XMM-Newton.


By: Liat Clark, Edited by: Olivia Solon


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/29/nustar-black-hole-photos

Chrome hits iPhone and iPad, storms to top of download chart



Google slips new tentacle into fanbois' walled garden


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.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/29/google_chrome_ios_app/

Android Jelly Bean won't get Flash Player



Never mind, there's lots of HTML5 porn content now


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.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/29/no_flash_jelly_bean/

Slug-like creature pushes animal existence back 30 million years



Bilaterian tracks

Geologists from the University of Alberta have made a discovery that pushes the existence of animals back by 30 million years.


Life has been around on Earth for about 3.5 billion years, but actual animals -- multicellular, eukaryotic organisms -- are only half a billion years old. The oldest confirmed animal was a slug-like organism called Kimberella, dated at 555 million years old.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/29/animal-existence

Governments probe domain land-snatch: many.gTLDs.suck



Patagonia? You mean that's a place?


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.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/29/domain_land_grab_under_the_microscope/

Teams gear up for Goodwood Festival of Speed



Formula One fans may not have a Grand Prix to enjoy this weekend but they can satiate their F1 obsession at the UK's Goodwood Festival of Speed. Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Caterham are all scheduled to attend the annual three-day celebration of motorsport, which gets underway on Friday. Goodwood regulars Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton will be two of the many drivers present

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13514.html

Great Britain preview quotes - Caterham, Mercedes, HRT



Great Britain is home to eight of the 12 Formula One teams, in full or in part, so it's no wonder there's always a special atmosphere in the paddock at Silverstone, one the calendar's oldest, fastest and most challenging venues. Those involved in the 2012 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix discuss their prospects

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13513.html

Royal Society review: fracking is safe, as long as it's regulated



Frack off

A UK review by the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering has concluded that fracking can be undertaken safely, as long as "best practices are implemented and robustly enforced through regulation."


Fracking (short for hydraulic fracturing) is a process where highly-pressurised liquid is fired into the ground, splintering rocks many hundreds of metres below the surface. Oil and gas escapes, which is then collected up for fuel.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/29/fracking-good

Become driver and team boss with F1 Online: The Game™



Codemasters® have announced that F1 Online: The Game has entered open beta. F1 Online: The Game is the fun, new, free-to-play online racing and management browser game in production at Codemasters Racing Studios under exclusive worldwide agreement with Formula One World Championship Limited. To mark the launch, Codemasters has premiered the first gameplay video

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13512.html

RIM delays BlackBerry 10 launch after rubbish results



Revenues down 33 per cent, US customers fleeing


RIM has reported disastrous quarterly results and is delaying the launch of the new BlackBerry 10 operating system until next year at the earliest.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/28/rim_blackberry10_delay/

Nextgen connects data centres for cloud boom



Australia loves big, fat data


The rise of cloud based services and data centre proliferation has prompted Nextgen Networks to launch a premium grade transmission service connecting nominated data centres in mainland capital cities.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/28/nextgen_hooks_up_data_centres/

Thursday 28 June 2012

Santander presents vision of London F1™ street race



Santander, sponsors of next weekend's 2012 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix, have released a spectacular concept film, featuring McLaren's Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, exploring how an F1 race in London might look. The CGI film, with an imagined 5.156-kilometre circuit taking in some of the UK capital's most famous landmarks, was produced following a detailed feasibility study

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13511.html

Farewell Minitel ...

France says farewell to the Minitel – the little box that connected a country http://t.co/NWowTTgo

News Corp proposes divorce, Murdoch will look after TV biz



Doesn't he love his red-topped kids anymore?


News Corp has confirmed the heavily rumoured plan to split Rupert Murdoch's empire in two, with the company's publishing wing parting ways with the broadcasting and entertainment division. It also means Murdoch is further distancing himself from his beloved newspaper biz.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/28/news_corp_divorce/

Techies evac'd as raging wildfire menaces $100m Colorado data centre



Thousands flee as flames eat into city


A massive HP data centre in Colorado Springs is in danger of being destroyed by a wildfire raging near by.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/28/wildfire_threatens_hp_data_centre/

Ministers consult public on 'opt in for smut' plans



Just tick here, sir, in the 'I am a pervert' box


Imagine a future where you are demanded to declare to your ISP that you wish to view pornography online?…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/28/public_consultation_internet_smut_filtering/

UK.gov: Some Open Data are more open than others



Greatest Living Briton's star ratings will show you which


The government’s long-awaited Open Data white paper, published this morning, introduces standards for “higher data usability”, according to the minister in charge.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/28/open_data_white_paper/

Unilever revamps IT for agility



And tells us how it’s getting on


On the 11th of July at 10:30am we’re broadcasting live with Garry Meaburn, the operations effectiveness and tooling manager at Unilever, dishing out practical tips on how to build a dynamic IT operation using private cloud principles. Garry's currently a good way through this sizable project.…







via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/28/unilever_broadcast/

BT Vision beats rivals to honour of being worst UK Pay-TV



TalkTalk grip on worst-broadband place remains firm


BT Vision is the most complained about pay TV service in the UK, regulator Ofcom said, receiving nearly four times as many whinges in the first quarter of this year as Virgin Media and nine times as many as Sky.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/28/ofcom_complaint_ranking/

BT reveals UK test areas for 330Mbps direct fibre connections



Fibre

BT has revealed plans to test its lightning-fast "FTTP on Demand" broadband in areas like High Wycombe and Cornwall. This lets power users beg BT to link a fibre cable directly to their home.


BT already offers Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC), where a fibre cable runs from the exchange to a roadside box nearer to end-users' premises. That gets you speeds of about 80Mbps. Run that fibre from the exchange to a router, and you'll get staggering speeds of up to 330Mbps.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/28/bt-fibre-to-the-premises

Glock: I'll be fighting fit for Silverstone



Marussia's Timo Glock is confident he will be well enough to race at next weekend's 2012 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix. Glock was forced to sit out the last round in Valencia after being struck down with an intestinal infection, but is now on the mend. "Generally I am feeling much better,” said the German in a statement on the team's official website. “I still feel a little weak in the legs, but otherwise I am okay. It was obviously very disappointing that I was forced to miss the race in Valencia, but that is the way it goes sometimes. You cannot just ignore the symptoms I was experiencing.”

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13510.html

US army builds lightning bolt laser weapon



lightening

The US army has successfully tested a laser device that shoots out 50 billion watt-powered bolts of lightning.


"We never got tired of the lightning bolts zapping our simulated targets," admitted George Fischer, a physicist leading the project at the Picatinny Arsenal research lab in New Jersey.


By: Liat Clark, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/28/lightning-bolt-laser

BT to fibre up another 98 exchanges, puffs 'FTTP on demand' offer



You have to demand to pay some of the installation bill


Earlier this week, BT announced the company's latest phased rollout of its fibre optic-cabling technology in the UK. Blighty's national telco has said that BT's Openreach engineers will be upgrading another 98 exchanges. However, the national telco declined to tell The Register the exact split between fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) and fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/28/bt_fibre_exchange_rollout_plus_fttp_on_demand/

Montezemolo: Ferrari can't get complacent



After a tough winter, Ferrari have been exceeding everyone's expectations so far this year, and last weekend driver Fernando Alonso became the season's first repeat victor at the European round. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, however, has warned the team they must not grow complacent and must keep pushing if they are to keep their rivals at bay. “I don't want outsiders to think that one win is enough for us to put on a fireworks display,” said Di Montezemolo in the Scuderia's traditional post-victory gathering at their Maranello factory. “I know how much you are working, how many sacrifices have been made, but I am the first to know that all of us, without exception, must still give something more.

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13509.html

Valve reveals Source Filmmaker: a movie studio in a game engine



Source Filmmaker

Valve has released a free movie-making tool that allows you to make animated shorts inside the same engine that powers games like Left 4 Dead and Portal.


Source Filmmaker allows you to jump between the world of cartoony shooter Team Fortress 2, and a sophisticated movie editor. That means you can make characters move, jump and shoot just by aiming a camera at them and then playing the game as normal.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/28/source-filmmaker

Google's Nexus Q is more than just a home entertainment hub



Nexus Q

Joe Britt hands me his latest creation, a black ball with glittering LED lights around the middle, and implores me to examine it. He wants me to feel how solid and heavy the device is -- about a kilogram -- to experience the smooth operation of its moving parts, and to see the care used in laying out its internal electronics. It is a very analog moment, akin to how I felt buying my first audio receiver. Back then there were three tests: How did the music sound? How did the knobs feel when you turned them? How cool did it look in the store?


Britt wants me to respond this way. In our two hours together, with his partner Matt Hershenson, they bring up the intersection of technology and liberal arts -- as Apple's Steve Jobs liked to call it -- half a dozen times. Once, to make his point, Britt reminds me of record parties, those 1970s gatherings where teenagers lugged their music to friends' houses in milk crates.


By: Fred Vogelstein, Edited by: Ian Steadman


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/28/google-nexus-q

Moon 2.0: the second generation of lunar exploration



Moon

Lunar exploration has always been exclusively a matter for nation states, but it is now within the reach of private enterprise and a growing number of companies are looking to explore the Moon in the next few years

By: Charles Black, Sen.com, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/28/moon-2

Nexus 7 pre-order page fail...

I just found something rather funnny....

Go to the Google Play Nexus 7 pre-order page and play the YouTube video that's there. Enable the English language captions (subtitles) on the video and prepare to laugh at them :)

An example: "... nearly far enough so we could enjoy under the microscope an injury for palm ..."

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Microsoft concocts cloudy mixture with System Center 2012



False dawn or genuine breakthrough?


Is it possible to have cloud and on-premise computing intermingled in a hybrid called the private cloud?…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/27/system_center_2012_private_cloud/

Google announces ball-shaped Nexus Q media streamer



Nexus Q

In California at Google's I/O conference, the search giant has announced an intriguing ball-shaped media streaming device, running Android.


It's called the Nexus Q, and represents what Hugo Barra from Google calls: "a new era in consumer electronics." Barra added: "Software, hardware, and the cloud are opening up new possibilities," and said that it's the first hardware product that Google has built from the ground up -- as opposed to getting an existing technology company to build it, like it has with its phones and the Nexus 7 tablet.


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/nexus-q

Asus and Google partner on Nexus 7 Android tablet



Nexus 7

Do consumers want a 7-inch tablet for consuming content? Google evidently thinks so, as it's launched one at its I/O conference in California.


"We wanted to design a Google experience that is optimized around all the content on Google Play," said Hugo Barra, announcing the Nexus 7. "We wanted you to be delighted when you access this content."


By: Duncan Geere,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/google-nexus-7

Google rolls out Android 4.1: Jelly Bean



Jelly Bean

At Google's I/O conference in California, the company has announced the latest edition of Android -- 4.1, codenamed Jelly Bean.


"Jelly Bean builds on what we created with Ice Cream Sandwich," said Hugo Barra, adding that the 100 million total activations of Android figure announced in 2011 has been quadrupled to 400 million.


By: Duncan Geere, Edited by: Liat Clark


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/android-jellybean

Wordpress founder endorses distributed workforce





Companies should move away from self-destructive, factory models of work where people are rewarded for arriving early and staying late, says Matt Mullenweg, founding developer of WordPress.com.


Speaking at the Guardian's Activate summit, he described the distributed working practices of WordPress's parent company Automattic, which are inspired by the Open Source movement. WordPress.com receives more than 340 million unique visitors per month, with 100,000 new websites set up each day.


"We have taken the best people from all over the world who are unified by a vision. We have people in 25 countries and 90 cities and don't even have a headquarters right now. I don't care how someone lives or how good their spoken English is. I do all of my interviews on Skype text chat -- all that matters is their work," he said.


By: Olivia Solon,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/distributed-companies-matt-mullenweg

Mexican meteorite contains all-new mineral, panguite



Allende meteorite

A material previously unknown to science has been discovered in a meteorite that struck Mexico some 40 years ago. The substance, named panguite, could be among the oldest minerals formed in the solar system.


The Allende meteorite exploded in the skies above Mexico in 1969, scattering its chemically-enriched guts over the state of Chihuahua. It's the largest carbonaceous chondrite (a class of primitive meteorites) found on Earth, and is one of the best-studied space rocks in history.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/meteorite-mineral-panguite

Nokia's 41-megapixel PureView cameraphone shunned by UK networks



Pureview

Customers of O2 hoping for an upgrade to Nokia's new 41-megapixel camera phone, the 808 PureView, are out of luck: O2 has decided not to offer the handset in the UK.


A spokesperson for O2 confirmed the decision to Wired.co.uk today, although didn't cite specific reasons for it. T-Mobile has also informed us that it has "no current plans" to offer the phone either.


By: Nate Lanxon, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/pureview-network-support

Astronomers find a huge star-forming galaxy that shouldn't exist



Galaxy

Astronomers have spotted one of the rarest and most extreme galaxy clusters in the universe and, behind it, an object that shouldn't exist.


Galaxy clusters are collections of galaxies that orbit one another and are the most massive objects in the universe. The newly discovered cluster, first detected by the Hubble space telescope, is over 500 trillion times the mass of the sun. It is located approximately 10 billion light-years away. Because looking out into the distant cosmos means also looking back in time, the cluster formed during an era when the universe was a quarter its present age.


By: Adam Mann, Edited by: Ian Steadman


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/galaxy-that-shouldnt-exist

Pirate Party's Rick Falkvinge: online activism is 'not enough'



Anonymous

Online activism is not enough; you need to get people out onto the streets in order to have real-world political influence, argues Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Swedish Pirate Party.


Speaking on a panel at Guardian Activate, he said: "Discussing something online is not enough. You need to bring people out into the streets so that others can see people that they identify with or else people are not going to take a new movement to heart. You need to give people role models, using social markers and making people feel included."


By: Olivia Solon, Edited by: Duncan Geere


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/rick-falkvinge-online-activism

Occupy hasn't changed much because it lacks centralised leadership



Occupy

Movements such as Occupy have done a great job of inspiring people but haven't managed to achieve true, concrete change, according to John Moore, CEO of Government in The Lab.


Moore puts this down to a lack of centralised leadership. "There were more than 2000 Occupy protests but their sets of demands were very different and it was so decentralised that, although it has made a mark, nothing has really come out of it in terms of real change," he said.


By: Olivia Solon, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/john-moore-government-in-the-lab

Chinese manufacturer VTech accused of human rights abuses



china

A US non-profit organisation has published a damning report detailing a long list of human rights abuses at the Chinese factories of technology manufacturer VTech.


The Institute for Labour and Global Human Rights commissioned a business research firm to investigate VTech's Dongguan factory, where 10,000 employees reportedly earn 70p an hour, stand up for 12 to 15 hours a day, are at times beaten by a police force-like team of security staff and forced to work mandatory overtime that exceeds China's statutory limit by 237 to 273 percent.


By: Liat Clark, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/vtech-human-rights-abuses

This rock-paper-scissors robot cheats



Rock Paper Scissors robot

Roboticists from the Ishikawa Oku lab at the University of Tokyo have made a rock-paper-scissors robot, which cheats its way to a near-100-percent win-rate.


The robotic hand has three fingers, and can bend its pinkies into a first (rock) an outstretched palm (paper) and two fingers pointing out (paper). When it plays against a human, it makes the winning move every single time.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/rps-robot

20 things I learned on Day One of TEDGlobal



Chris Anderson and Bruno Giussani open TEDGlobal 2012 - June 25 - 29, 2012, Edinburgh, Scotland

I'm in Edinburgh this week among 850 curious optimists at the fifth TEDGlobal event in the UK (and any pessimists among them are at least trying to sound like optimists).


There are guests and speakers here from around 
71 countries, and the international mix -- you run into investors and social activists, a princess and a war photographer -- ensures magnificent serendipity. This remains one of the highest-calibre speaker events in the country, and it's a credit to Bruno Giussani, Chris Anderson, Tom Rielly, June Cohen and team that they continue to source some of the world's best (and often most unlikely) storytellers.


My notebook is too full to give you a verbatim breakdown of the first day's events. So instead, I'm going to share 20 things I've learned so far at TEDGlobal.


By: David Rowan, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/20-things-learned-at-ted

We need a "macroscope" in order to help effect societal change



Blue Marble

We need a "macroscope" to allow us to see the detail and the long-range view simultaneously, according to Berg's CEO Matt Webb, speaking at the Guardian Activate summit.


A macroscope is, according to designer John Thackara, "something that helps us see what the aggregation of many small actions looks like when added together". His theory is that such a device could help to focus ideas in the same way that a microscope focuses light, because it's seldom true that experts have access to both the micro and the macro views simultaneously.


Webb mentioned Stewart Brand, who in 1966 campaigned to make Nasa turn their satellite cameras away from space and back towards Earth. He sold badges for 25 cents each asking "Why haven't we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet?". He hoped that the image of our planet might be a powerful symbol. In 1968, Nasa took the first picture of Earth, followed by the famous Blue Marble picture in 1972. "Turning the satellites towards Earth made us look at ourselves as never before," Webb said.


He went on to explain that even the cleverest people in the world who can understand the human impact of the credit crunch cannot tell a cohesive story about the macroeconomic situation, because it is too big to see or grasp. Where is the picture of the whole financial system, he asked. A macroscope would allow us to see the both the human impact of the financial crisis and the globalised financial system at the same time.


"If you are close enough to see the thickness of a human hair, you can't see both ends of the hair at the same time," he added.


The same, he argued, applies to society. People need to be able to understand the role that their individual actions play in creating societal change. He talked about the fact that it took around 100 million man-hours to put a man on the Moon, and the same amount to build Wikipedia. These enormous human achievements are the result of many individual hours. "How do we choose between a Moon landing or an online encyclopaedia of the world's knowledge? It just sort of happens."


He then set a challenge to the audience to set aside just 100 hours to work on a project - "create soething, learn to sketch, learn a language, build a wall… do something." Following a previous talk where he had set the audience the same challenge, he had been contacted by a German man called Florian Sieper who had taken his 100 hours to organise an event called Porkcamp. This was an event which brought together farmers, abattoir owners, chefs, food critics and food lovers over a weekend to understand the supply chain of pork, from pig to table. Florian has since launched a business off the back of Porkcamp, called Foodtrips, which organises trips to understand where food comes from.


"He has created a business around something that he loves. Put aside 100 hours. Society is not something we are in, it is something that we do," he concluded.


By: Olivia Solon, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/matt-webb-activate-macroscope

Apple launches dedicated podcasts app for iPhone and iPad



Podcasts

Apple has released a dedicated podcasts app for iPhone and iPad, which recommends top stations and automatically downloads new episodes.


The free app is a pretty basic podcatcher. To find podcasts, you can look through the iTunes catalogue, search for a favourite show, or tap "Top Stations" to find popular podcasts in topics like arts, video games, social sciences and sports.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/apple-podcasts

Automated bank scam 'Operation High Roller' stole from the rich



To give to unknown auto-mule crims in the cloud


Security researchers have uncovered a sophisticated, multi-tiered financial fraud ring that may have defrauded businesses, wealthy individuals and banks of tens of millions of dollars.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/27/automated_banking_scam/

New York education startup General Assembly opens in London





General Assembly, a global education network for entrepreneurs, has launched its first campus outside of the US, in London.


General Assembly provides classes, events and courses that educate people in technology, business and design. Topics range from software development and fundraising, through to fireside chats with founders of successful companies. It has launched with the support of 10 Downing Street, UKTI and investors including Yuri Milner.


By: Olivia Solon, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/27/general-assembly-london-launch

Automatic Wi-Fi roam, signup and billing via SIM card to be tested



Like cellular data but without the cell network


Thirty-seven communications companies around the world have signed up to trial Hotspot 2 Wi-Fi roaming – and billing – using commercially available routers later this year, it has been announced. Hotspot 2 tech allows a mobile handset (or tablet, or ereader) to automatically detect, connect to and register with a Wi-Fi base station. But while Hotspot 2 has the potential to be more disruptive than Wi-Fi was, the disruption may already have started.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/27/hotspot_2/

Microsoft: We tried to use Azure ourselves last year, and couldn't



But now we're fully ready to cannibalise our own server biz


In the first half of 2011, Microsoft made a series of changes at the top of the team running Windows Azure, its cloud.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/27/microsoft_windows_azure_cloud_epiphany/

Tech giants on trial as report reveals more Chinese factory abuses



VTech in the firing line as attention shifts from Foxconn


Analysis First it was Apple and Foxconn, now Motorola, AT&T, Sony, Deutsche Telekom and others have come under the spotlight after a new report made shocking allegations of human and labour rights violations at the Chinese factories of technology supplier VTech.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/27/vtech_rights_abuses_china_factories/

Tuesday 26 June 2012

Telstra’s filter supplier also blocks for Qatar, Yemen, UAE



The company you keep


Netsweeper, the Internet filtering supplier linked to Telstra’s voluntary filter trial is also a supplier to the Yemen, the UAE and Qatar.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/netsweeper_and_telstra/

Cliqr control freaks apps across many clouds



Google I Owe – and Foundation Capital, too


Moving applications between clouds is arguably not much easier than moving them from physical machines, and there are very good (if disappointed) economic reasons for that.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/cliqr_technologies_cloudcenter/

Balsamiq is freaking awesome!

I realise that I'm late to the game, but I've recently started using Balsamiq (www.balsamiq.com) to create website wireframes for a project I'm engaged in. I tried a couple of alternatives first, but they didn't quite hit the spot (mostly due to the lack of collaboration features). I must say that Balsamiq is freaking awesome! It does just what I need and has enough collaboration tools for the small, geographically diverse, group I'm engaged with to work well together.

I'm using their web-based solution currently, but may migrate to the app in the future...

Has anyone tried Balsamiq, but ended up using an alternative?

Red Hat shifts PaaS cloud into production gear



OpenShift morphs into FreeShift, MegaShift, and PetaShift


Red Hat is hosting its JBoss World and Red Hat Summit events side-by-side in Boston this week, where it kicked off the festivities by revealing its plans to commercialize its OpenShift platform cloud, which had thus far been in beta and relegated mostly to Java developers looking for a place to let their code roam on Shadowman's nickel.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/redhat_openshift_paas_cloud_update/

Amsterdam datacentre uses underground aquifers to regulate temperatures



Datacentre

A datacentre in Amsterdam has drilled down into a vast underground aquifer to regulate temperatures in the summer and winter.


The TelecityGroup datacentre pumps cold groundwater stored naturally in the subsurface chamber up to its cooling units in the summer, so that excess heat can be dispersed. In the winter, the now-warmer water can be pumped to the surface to be cooled by low external temperatures, stored in the ground, and then used again during the next summer.


By: Duncan Geere, Edited by: Liat Clark


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/26/aquifer-cooling

Ford's Traffic Jam Assist makes your car autonomous during gridlock



Ford Traffic Jam Assist

Ford is taking its first steps into autonomous vehicles, with an upcoming Traffic Jam Assist system that automatically drives your car in stop-start gridlock situations.


When the system is on, your vehicle keeps pace with the traffic flow, automatically accelerating and braking as the jam slowly slinks along the motorway. You're free to read a newspaper, check your phone or sip on your morning coffee.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/26/ford-traffic-jam

Anxiety grips HP as new EMEA chief comes aboard from Nokia



Atmos was much worse at my old job


HP could not find an internal candidate to lead the Technology Consulting business across EMEA, so it has raided Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and made off with Eric Pradier.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.channelregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/hp_movers_and_shakers/

Facebook briefly activates a test feature to Find Friends Nearby



Find Friends Nearby

Facebook seemed to be taking a step in the location-based app direction with the launch of Find Friends Nearby. But only hours after releasing the new -- yet very unofficial -- feature, the company reeled it back in, pulling it from its iOS and Android apps, and disabling the mobile page.


The new feature initially gave Facebook users a landing page on which to find other users who were within a certain vicinity. It was yet another move indicating Facebook's commitment to broadening its mobile experience.


By: Alexandra Chang, Edited by: Ian Steadman


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/26/facebook-find-friends-nearby

US trade body to 'revisit' Motorola's sole patent win over Apple



Commission must eye initial ruling, decide whether to BAN iPHONE in USA


The US International Trade Commission has said that it will be revisiting an initial ruling made in April that Apple had infringed on one of Motorola Mobility's patents.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/itc_looks_again_at_apple_infringement/

How do you market a tech startup?

Creating awareness for a fledgling tech business is not easy, especially if you are creating a new product or service category where you also have to educate the market....


http://www.kernelmag.com/comment/opinion/2564/how-do-you-market-a-tech-start-up/

Facebook replaces non-Facebook mail addresses on Timeline



We're big in mail the way Google+ is big in social! Bitch


Over the weekend Mark Zuckerberg's recently floated company began quietly displaying @Facebook email addresses on all of its users' Timelines.…





via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/facebook_email_addresses_displayed_on_timeline/

Ofcom outlines 'three strikes' anti-piracy rules and costs



Pirate flag

Telecoms regulator Ofcom has detailed the code that ISPs and copyright holders must abide by, when enforcing the contentious Digital Economy Act -- a law where prolific pirates can face legal action after three warnings.


The act will see copyright owners send infringement reports to broadband providers BT, Everything Everywhere, O2, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media. In turn, those ISPs will send letters to their customers whose accounts are connected to the report.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/26/ofcom-rules-and-prices

A Twitter bot so convincing that people sympathise with "her"



Greg Marra

When Greg Marra built @Trackgirl, he designed her as an experiment to see if an automated program could worm its way into online networks of real people.


What he didn't expect is that people would actually care what happened to @Trackgirl.


By: Robert McMillan, Edited by: Ian Steadman


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/26/twitter-bot-people-like

Sheryl Sandberg finally adds woman's touch to Facebook board



She makes us get bigger ... bitch


Mark Zuckerberg's right-hand woman, Sheryl Sandberg, has joined Facebook's no-longer-male-only board of directors.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/sheryl_sandberg_joins_facebook_board/

Jargon watch: July 2012



Zombie debtor

This month Wired defines the meaning of zombie debtor, tweetation and Möbius strip journalism.


By: Paul McFedries, Edited by: Ian Steadman


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/07/start/jargon-watch

Apple, Penguin, Macmillan to face feds in court - next year



G-men want more time to probe Fruitbook affair


Apple and book publishers are facing a trial next year over the allegations they colluded on ebook prices to squeeze Amazon out of the market.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/apple_ebook_trial_2013/

Bonking for money to be built into the next iPhone



Just rub it against the sweet spot to get what you want


Dismantling code aledgedly from the next iPhone 9-to-5 Mac has discovered Near Field Communications embedded in the hardware, paving the way for Apple Commerce come 2013.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/iphone_nfc/

Net publishing happens in the server AND the eyeball, says EU Bot



Ambiguity rips up the very fabric of time and space


Online publishing of information takes place both in the location from where the information is served and the loaction where it is read, an advisor to Europe's highest court has said.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/yves_bot_says_uk_high_court_is_wrong_on_internet_publishing/

Group launches to promote iOS for business



All aboard the Apple love train


Corporate fanbois rejoice – a new consortium has been launched in Japan designed to spur the adoption of iOS in enterprise environments.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/apple_ios_japan_consortium/

Boffins demo 2.5 Tbps OAM-modulated light signal



‘Twisted wave’ trick works with light


Back in March, a group of Italian and Swedish radio researchers demonstrated that a characteristic of radio waves called orbital angular momentum (OAM) can be used as a multiplexing technique, vastly increasing the theoretical capacity of wireless transmissions.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/25/twisted_wave_works_with_light/

Monday 25 June 2012

Soho Stories app tells the seedy history of central London



Soho Stories

What do you think of when you think of the National Trust? Men in waistcoats, or ivy-covered listed buildings, or wet weekends in the country with your parents. Crumpets, perhaps. However, it's likely not strippers and drugs and sex shops and all the other neon joys of Soho, London's seediest area.


A new app, Soho Stories, sees the National Trust celebrating the personal and the cultural aspects of Soho. Once the app knows where you are -- and after a genial greeting from Barry Cryer, who explains the app's mecahnics -- it plays audio related to your immediate surroundings. As you walk through the historic, and often sticky, streets of Soho, you'll be regaled with the wonderful tales of who used to work at which shop, or which phone box used to be particularly popular with heroin addicts.


By: Ian Steadman, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/25/soho-stories

Fail Tale: Peter Cochrane on the collapse of his tech incubator ConceptLabs





In 2000, former BT CTO Peter Cochrane founded a tech incubator called ConceptLabs with a team from Apple Computers in Silicon Valley. The aim was to create an "idea-to-market" incubator that could be syndicated globally, providing support infrastructure spanning the cultivation of an idea through to a full IPO. ConceptLabs would find ideas people and bring the business and marketing nous required to take the idea to market. Within 18 months the company had seven companies that were looking strong, but then the dot.com bubble burst, and investment evaporated and ConceptLabs had to be closed down at the end of 2003. Cochrane talks to Wired.co.uk about what went wrong.


By: Wired.co.uk Staff, Edited by: Olivia Solon


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/25/fail-tale-conceptlabs

UK net-biz cleanup squad plans to establish international operations



IWF says battle against vile imagery needs to go global


The Internet Watch Foundation has made improvement of international co-operation a key objective in the next phase of its fight against the online distribution of child abuse content.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/25/iwf_action_plan/

Two Lulzec members plead guilty to hacking Soca, CIA websites



Anonymous

Two members of Lulzsec have admitted to hacking into high profile websites, such as the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency, and the CIA.


At Southwark Crown Court, 20 year old Ryan Cleary and 19 year old Jake Davis admitted to being members of Lulzsec -- an upstart offshoot of Anonymous -- and entered guilty pleas to a series of computer crime offences.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/25/two-lulzec-members-plead-guilty

Mensch pal Bozier defends Menshn security, dubs critics 'snippy geeks'



'Your SQL is like what my 4-yr-old would write'


The launch of a Twitter-like messaging service co-founded by UK politician Louise Mensch on Sunday has been accompanied by a huge security flap.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/25/menshn_security/

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales joins fight against O'Dwyer extradition



Jimmy Wales

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has started a petition to halt the US extradition of TVShack creator Richard O'Dwyer.


O'Dwyer is the 24-year-old British student who made TVShack, which provided links to other websites which hosted pirated copies of TV shows and movies. It was an aggregation tool, and did not host any copyright-infringing content.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/25/jimmy-wales-petition

Google unwraps cloudy personnel/fleet tracking via Droid



Makes wind turbines work better too, seemingly. Bonus


Google wants to track your staff, and let you know where they are as well as what they're supposed to be doing, with a cloudy dispatch system called Google Maps Coordinate…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/25/google_maps_coordinate/

China is racing past US, rest of world - and into the Cloud



EMC bigwig's amazing claim


China has finally stepped out from the shadow of the United States and is leading the world at the cutting edge of cloud computing deployments, according to EMC.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/25/china_world_leader_cloud/

RIM 'pondering sell-off of hardware biz' to focus on messaging



Sunday Times what-if session spills onto the paper


Troubled BlackBerry maker RIM could be getting out of the hardware business, with the Sunday Times reporting a plan to cut RIM in two and flog off the hardware division to focus on messaging and device management.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/25/rim_division/

Test driving the Tesla Model S



Tesla Model S

It's been nearly four years since Tesla announced plans to expand its electric line-up from a singular sports car to a four-door, five-seat sedan. In the interim, the upstart automaker has grown its dealer network, secured more funding, revealed a crossover concept, and purchased and converted the former NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA to begin production of the Model S.


And that's where we're at today, joined by a smattering of press, investors, and a handful of EV early adopters who've plunked down deposits and are finally taking delivery of one of the first 10 full-size, fully electric, US-built sedans.


By: Damon Lavrinc, Edited by: Ian Steadman


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/25/tesla-model-s-test-drive

Chinese astronauts complete manual docking with space lab



Shenzhou 9

China's Shenzhou 9 spacecraft successfully completed a manual docking procedure with its orbiting space lab Tiangong-1 on 24 June. It was the first manual docking of China's space programme.


The Shenzhou 9 spacecraft started the day joined to Tiangong-1, the two having achieved an automated rendez-vous on 18 June.


By: Charles Black, Sen.com, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/25/exoplanets-in-close-orbit

Galapagos' last Pinta Island tortoise, 'Lonesome George', has died



Lonesome George

Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island tortoise in the world and an icon for Galapagos conservation, has died. His death renders the subspecies Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni extinct.


George was first seen on the Galapagos island of Pinta in 1971, by Hungarian mollusk researcher József Vágvölgyi. George was the very last of his indigenous subspecies, after introduced feral goats had devastated the island's vegetation.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/25/lonesome-george-rip

US govt asks Huawei and ZTE for more answers



Dumping allegations added to security questions


US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee chair, congressman Mike Rogers, has turned yet another blowtorch onto Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE, alleging that the Chinese government is subsidizing the price of kit they sell in America.…





via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/25/us_gov_scrtinizes_chinese_vendors/

Sunday 24 June 2012

Posner to Apple, Motorola: 'don’t come back'



Case dismissed, with prejudice


Judge Richard Posner of Chicago has ended the Apple-versus-Motorola legal battle, at least in America: not only has he dismissed the case, he has done so “with prejudice”, meaning the two companies can’t try to defibrillate the lawsuit with a new filing.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/24/posner_skewers_apple_and_motorola/

Maldonado penalised over Hamilton clash



Williams' Pastor Maldonado has had 20 seconds added to his race time by the European Grand Prix stewards after colliding with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap in Valencia. As a result of the penalty, Maldonado drops from 10th to 12th in the final classification. The Venezuelan was penalised for 'failing to rejoin the track in a safe manner' after he ran off the circuit while attempting to pass Hamilton for third place

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13503.html

Silverstone penalties for Kobayashi and Vergne



Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi and Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne have both been handed grid penalties for the forthcoming British round after causing collisions in Valencia on Sunday. Kobayashi will be demoted five places on the grid, following his collision with the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Vergne, meanwhile, received a 10-place grid drop and a €25,000 fine after colliding with the Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham on the Lap 27. The stewards at the European round have been busy after the race, with investigations into Pastor Maldonado's collision with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher's use of DRS under yellow flags understood to still be ongoing.

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13502.html

FIA post-race press conference - Europe



Drivers: 1 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), 2 - Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus), 3 - Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) Q: Three former Ferrari world champions on the podium but Fernando this is a pretty good weekend to be a Spanish sportsman called Alonso. A fabulous victory for yourself. Fernando Alonso: Yeah. It's difficult to express in words what is the feeling now. Winning a

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13501.html

Race - selected team and driver quotes



McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, Lotus's Romain Grosjean and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel on their devastating early exits; Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne and Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen on their collision; Red Bull's Mark Webber on fighting back from 19th on the grid to finish fourth; Mercedes' Michael Schumacher on claiming his first podium finish since returning to the sport; and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso on his spectacular victory. All the drivers and senior team personnel report back on Sunday's action

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13499.html

Glock ruled out of Valencia race on health grounds



Marussia's Timo Glock will play no part in Sunday's 2012 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe after taking doctors' advice on the stomach bug that also caused him to miss Saturday's qualifying session. “Timo received medical guidance yesterday afternoon and his symptoms suggest that he is suffering from an intestinal infection

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13496.html

Owning a cloud means learning to love the business



Start a beautiful relationship


One of the problems with trying to improve things is that not everyone appreciates it.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/24/private_cloud_services/

Saturday 23 June 2012

FIA post-qualifying press conference - Europe



Drivers: 1 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing); 2 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren); 3 - Pastor Maldonado (Williams). Q: Congratulations Sebastian, a third pole in a row at this race and only one flying lap in Q3 to try to do it. Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, one shot there in the end, which turned out to turned out to be a very good lap. Q1 and Q2 were not to our liking

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13491.html

Vettel gets pole in Valencia

Vettel put in a fantastic performance, putting him in pole position for tomorrow's race.

Hamilton starts second, with Button down in ninth. Webber didn't make it past Q1 due to a DRS failure, and starts 19th.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/6/13489.html

NatWest computer glitch 'fixed but backlog remains'

The computer error that has affected thousands of NatWest customers has been fixed, a spokeswoman has said.

But the company, owned by the RBS group, is still working through a long backlog of accounts, she said.

ITU denies plans for global internet power-grab



Details sticky WC-IT plans for online rewiring


The ITU has finalized its proposals for rewriting the regulations governing internet traffic, which will be decided at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WC-IT) being held in Dubai this December.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/22/itu_plans_internet_regulation/

Friday 22 June 2012

Apple's iPhone 5 connector said to be a control freak



30-pin? Nope. Micro-USB? Nope. Power grab? Yup


Rumors that the iPhone's familiar 30-pin connector will be replaced in the iPhone 5 with a Micro-USB port have riled the fanbois universe, inciting charges of planned obsolecense and worse. New reports, however, point not to a standard Micro-USB port, but a new – and proprietary – Apple port.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/22/iphone_port/

ICANN anoints new internet kingpin



Meet the new boss, not like the old boss


The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has confirmed that it will have new CEO to replace outgoing boss Rod Beckstrom, but not until October.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/22/icann_new_ceo/

Powering your iPad costs $1.36 per year



And other wacky stats from wooly electro-boffins


If you charge your fully depleted iPad every other day, it'll cost you a buck thirty-six per year, according to a just-released study by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) of Palo Alto, California.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/22/wacky_power_stats/

Wired.co.uk Podcast 81: Robot fingers, meat swallowing, Alan Turing



Wired podcast

This week we learn how robots have been given human-like fingers, how eating less meat could help the climate, Microsoft's plans to challenge the iPad with Surface, we mark Alan Turing's centenary and discuss the rest of the week in Wired news


By: Nate Lanxon,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/podcast/episode-81

Google accidentally outs Android 'Jelly Bean' ahead of I/O keynote



Jellybeans

Google has accidentally revealed that the next update to the Android operating system will be nicknamed "Jelly Bean".


Since Android version 1.5, Google has given each update of the OS a dessert-themed name, starting with each successive letter of the alphabet. Examples include Cupcake, Donut, Eclair and, the most recent release, Ice Cream Sandwich.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/22/google-jelly-bean

Facebook loses face: Faced down in faceoff over face-placing



OK, we'll get out of your Face ... bitch


Facebook is expected to cough up around $20m, and amend certain features of the site, to end litigation brought against the dominant social network following the arrival of its much-disliked "sponsored stories" feature.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/22/facebook_sponsored_stories_settlement/

Kickstarter stats: less than half of all projects get funded



Kickstarter

Kickstarter has launched a page to show off the statistics of projects on its site. So we now know that less than half of all Kickstarter projects manage to pull in their funding target. While fashion projects often fail, dance-related pitches are largely successful.


If you've never used Kickstarter, it's a site where smart people like inventors, designers and movie-makers can pitch an idea and then ask the community to chip in a few dollars to help bring that product to life.


By: Mark Brown, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/22/kickstarter-stats-page

Light could be manipulated into a tractor beam



Light refraction

Tractor beams -- which allow spaceships to pick up and shift objects without physically touching them -- have long been a staple of science fiction.


Previous attempts to build them have relied on inducing electric or magnetic charges, using heat to create air pressure differences, and even attempting to manipulate gravity. However, a physicist has proposed and intriguing new possibility -- one that uses nothing but light.


By: Ian Steadman, Edited by: Duncan Geere


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/22/tractor-beam-a-possibility

Nintendo announces giant 3DS XL portable console



Nintendo 3DS XL

Nintendo has announced a super-sized version of its 3DS handheld, which it calls the 3DS XL.


The console has 4.88-inch top screen (compared to the 3.58-inch screen on the 3DS), and a 4.18-inch bottom display (previously 3.02-inches). To accommodate, the console is 155 mm wide to the 3DS's 134 mm, and is a fair bit heavier to hold, too.


By: Mark Brown,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/22/3ds-xl-announced

Texas sues Google for 'withholding' documents from antitrust probe



That thing about making information easier to find ...


Google is being sued by the Texas Attorney General's office in the US, because - it has been alleged - the search giant "withheld" documents from a competition investigation of the company.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/22/google_sued_by_texas_ag/

Neo-Nazis scoop YouTube ad revenue from UK telcos



Blood and dishonour


Neo-Nazis operating in the UK have reportedly used YouTube's advertising revenue-sharing system to gobble up payments from companies that include BT, O2 and Virgin Media.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/22/youtube_neo_nazi_ads_virgin_media_o2_bt/

If AWS is the Walmart of cloud, is OpenStack the Soviet Union?

The stage was set for a lively debate between public cloud rivals at GigaOM Structure in San Francisco Thursday – representatives from Citrix, Eucalyptus and the OpenStack project certainly delivered. Nebula CEO and OpenStack co-founder Chris Kemp didn’t even get past the introductions before he challenged his fellow panelists on their “closed” cloud implementations and embrace of Amazon Web Services’ API, which he compared to the Walmart of infrastructure.

http://gigaom.com/cloud/if-aws-is-the-walmart-of-cloud-is-openstack-the-soviet-union/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=linkedin