Tuesday 30 April 2013

Amazon goes legit with cloud certification plan

'Enterprisey enough for ya?' bellow Bezos & Co.


Watch out Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, and HP. There's a new reassuringly dull certificate in town, and it's coming for your devs.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/30/amazon_aws_certification/

CO2 in atmosphere about to hit 400ppm for first time in human history

Carbon emissions are reaching a worrying milestone

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is about to rise above the 400 parts per million threshold for the first time in human history.


The milestone is not to be regarded as any kind of scientific "tipping point" for climate change, but it is an important psychological barrier -- at no time in the history of human civilisation has there been such a high concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere.


By: Ian Steadman, Edited by: Olivia Solon


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/30/carbon-dioxide-400ppm

Twitter responds to hacking: 'Attacks will continue'



Twitter has responded to high profile news organisations such as the Associated Press and The Guardian having their Twitter accounts hacked by sending out a best practice advice email.


The email came via the social media site's partnerships team which manages Twitter's relationships with the media industry from a best practice perspective.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Ian Steadman


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/30/twitter-security-advice

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.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/30/bt_o2_4g/

SoftLayer hoists Riak NoSQL datastore onto its cloud

Basho hopes to mine rich seam of cloudy dev gold


Open source NoSQL datastore specialist Basho has teamed up with SoftLayer to hoist the free and paid-for versions of Riak into the cloud.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/30/softlayer_basho/

Virgin Galactic spaceship has first rocket-powered flight



Virgin Galactic's suborbital space vehicle SpaceShipTwo had its first rocket-powered flight on 29 April, going supersonic during its 16 second engine burn. The flight is an important step forward towards commercial operations.


The spaceline's founder, Sir Richard Branson, was on the ground at Mojave to witness the test flight. "The first powered flight of Virgin Spaceship Enterprise was without any doubt, our single most important flight test to date. For the first time, we were able to prove the key components of the system, fully integrated and in flight. Today's supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion of the spaceship's powered flight envelope, with a very realistic goal of full space flight by the year's end. We saw history in the making today and I couldn't be more proud of everyone involved," said Branson.


By: Charles Black, Sen.com, Edited by: Kadhim Shubber


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/30/virgin-galactic-first-powered-flight

T-Mobile UK punters break for freedom in inflation-busting bill row

What do you mean, the small print doesn't apply?


T-Mobile UK punters reckon they can avoid the mobile network's latest price rise - after the operator swelled its prices beyond inflation.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/30/t_mobile_price_change/

Monday 29 April 2013

AppFog PaaS drops Rackspace IaaS

Low demand leads to shutdown as PaaS runs to private clouds


Platform-as-a-service provider AppFog is evaporating its cloudy bridge to Rackspace due to poor customer demand, in yet another case of the fluffy industry coming to terms with hard business realities.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/29/appfog_drops_rackspace/

GreenBytes' data smite knight gets Citrix green light

IO Engine approved for cloudy virtual desktops


GreenBytes' all-flash IO Offload Engine has been certified by Citrix as compatible with XenServer, clearing the way for it to accelerate the cloudy outsourcer's virtual desktops.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/29/greenbytes_citrix/

Google Plus minus Meebo Bar equals Google minus $100m

'Buy 'em out, boys'


Google will axe the Meebo website widget bar just one year after buying the company that built it.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/29/meebo_google_scrapped/

Eucalyptus clones more AWS features for cloud control freak

Auto scaling, elastic load balancing, and CloudWatch for the private cloud


Amazon Web Services will not build you a private copy of its own cloudy infrastructure for your own use, and it believes, as its top brass reiterated again last week, that there is no such thing as a private cloud.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/29/eucalyptus_clones_more_aws_features/

Peak txt: 1.5 BEELLLION more chat app msgs sent than SMSes a day

Only spam and robots save phone texts from IM stampede


WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger and other online chat apps handled more messages than telcos handled texts, says market research biz Informa.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/29/sms_im/

Record-breaking pulsar confirms Einstein's theory of general relativity



Astronomers have discovered an exotic double object, the most massive neutron star confirmed so far closely orbited by a white dwarf star, which confirms Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.


An international team, using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope, along with radio telescopes around the world, have found a tiny, but unusually heavy neutron star that spins 25 times each second, orbited every two and a half hours by a white dwarf star. The neutron star is a pulsar that is giving off radio waves that can be picked up on Earth by radio telescopes.


By: Jenny Winder, SEN.com, Edited by: Kadhim Shubber


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/29/general-relativity-confirmation

Canadian TV station wails: NFC bonking... it's not SAFE

Credit card cloning? Sigh, we've been here before


Another North American TV network has discovered credit card numbers can be read using a phone, and whipped itself into a media frenzy due to its failure to understand how NFC works.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/29/cbc_nfc_tv/

Tight White Spaces to be penetrated in Blighty this year - Ofcom

And you can get your hands on it by 2014, fingers crossed


White Space networking kit will get large-scale trials later this year, to see if multiple databases and radio protocols can be deployed without knocking TV off the air.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/29/ofcom_white_space_trial/

Cat ladies turned brand-squatters poke fun at religious right

Redditors, Tweets duped as well, what's not to like?


Redditers in Australia – and others – got a giggle out of one of the better bits of brand-squat-spoofing to arise on the Interwebs in recent times.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/29/australian_cat_ladies/

Boffins strap turbocharger to BitTorrent

P2P that goes FASTER as load increases


Cue a new round of fast-network scare-mongering from the world's content owners: a group of information theorists from the US, France and Finland believe that with a bit of tweaking, P2P networks can become even more efficient.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/28/super_scalable_p2p_proposal/

Saturday 27 April 2013

The NBN questions Malcolm Turnbull won't answer

How you gonna call?


In the nearly three weeks since Australia's opposition parties released their policy for a faster-and-cheaper-to-implement national broadband network (NBN) reliant on VDSL to bring 50Mbps connections to most homes and businesses, oceans of digital ink have been spilled analysing the plan.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/27/nbn_questions_for_malcolm_turnbull/

Brazil and Peru fight Amazon.com over .amazon top-level domain

Amazon

Online retailer Amazon is facing opposition from Brazil and Peru over its claim for the .amazon global top-level domain name (gTLD).


The two countries have lodged objections with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which is managing the expansion of the domain name system, over the website's claim.


By: Duncan Geere, Edited by: Nate Lanxon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/27/amazon-vs-amazon

Friday 26 April 2013

Cloud vendors name the price to go private

You probably don't need to spend more than this


There's only so much you should spent on commodity cloud services before you consider other options like getting a discount, moving back to your own servers, or to a private managed cloud, according to cloud providers and customers.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/26/cloud_magic_number/

T-mobile US in invisible handset handcuff contract smackdown

'No restrictions' ads caused nose growth, pant fires - AG


T-Mobile USA's no-restriction contract turns out to have restrictions, and while they might seem obvious to some the state Attorney General in Washington feels they weren't obvious enough.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/26/t_mobile_nose/

Wired.co.uk Podcast 121: UK porn block, 3D-printed liver, girl scouts

Wired podcast

This week we discuss a proposed block on porn over UK public Wi-Fi, advances in 3D-printing human organs and the rest of the week in Wired news.


By: Olivia Solon,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/podcast/episode-121

Caldicott: NHS workers should 'have the confidence to share information'

'As important as duty to protect patient confidentiality'


Dame Fiona Caldicott, who is scrutinising the government's plan to hand NHS patient records to private companies, today gave the proposals the thumbs-up - with a few caveats, naturally.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/26/caldicott_review_nhs/

Inside the cycleplex: the weird, wild world of Google Bikes

Google bikes

Not far from Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, there's a nondescript building that looks like it might be home to stealth startup. But if you walk in the front door, you won't find cubicles or computers. You'll find a secret bike shop where people like Robert Jimenez and Terry Mac twist wrenches and true tires all day long, rocking out to AC/DC and Pink Floyd. Then, if you slip into the back room, you'll see them: 1,300 green, blue, red and yellow Google Bikes, stacked Santa's workshop-style as far the eye can see.


This building is the nervous system for a remarkable campus-wide bike-sharing program that doubles as a mirror of the search giant's corporate culture.


By: Robert McMillan, Edited by: Kadhim Shubber


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/26/google-bikes

Pirate Bay docks in Iceland

Low odds on legal whack-a-mole resuming in Reykjavik real soon now


The Pirate Bay has found a new home in Iceland.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/26/pirate_bay_iceland/

NetApp taps Oz cloud lab for federation exploration

University of Melbourne's Cloud Lab cooks up SLAs for ops in multiple public clouds


NetApp has approached the University of Melbourne's Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems (CLOUDS) Laboratory, seeking collaboration around the Labs' research specialties in federated public clouds.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/26/netapp_university_of_melbourne_cloud_lab/

Thursday 25 April 2013

Verizon sniffing around Vodafone's US stake again

$100bn in used greenbacks would spark serious tax bill


Verizon is putting together a $100bn bid for Vodafone's stake in its wireless business, and is ready to take the offer public if a boardroom deal can't be agreed.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/verizon_vodafone/

Kindlevision? Amazon reportedly developing set-top tellybox

Hey guys, maybe we could do watches too!


Amazon will be the latest tech biz to release a set-top TV box later this year, according to the rumour mill, incorporating its video-on-demand services.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/amazon_set_top_box_rumour/

Not even Facebook, Apple's millions can halt Fusion-io's bleed

Still, there's always next quarter for flash biz


Storage firm Fusion-io reported ugly results for its third fiscal 2013 quarter, with revenues down - albeit higher than analysts had expected - and a thumping loss.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/fusion_io_q3fy2013/

Virgin Media: SO SORRY we fined your dead dad £10 for unpaid bill

'Being deceased, it's probably slipped his mind' says son-in-law


Virgin Media has apologised after charging a dead man £10 for being unable to pay his broadband bill.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/virgin_bill_bereaved/

Tesco pulls listing for Call of Duty: Ghosts

Call of Duty: Ghosts - as spotted by OPM

Tesco Direct may have accidentally poured cold water on whatever surprise launch spectacular Activision had planned for Call of Duty: Ghosts.


According to OPM, a listings page on Tesco's website briefly appeared giving the title a 30 December 2013 release date. Although the date seems unlikely as it would miss all the Christmas sales traffic an end-of-year release around November time would make sense.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/25/call-of-duty-ghosts

EC to Google rivals: Test proposals to fix search dominance concerns

'Half-hearted attempt to dilute anti-competitive effects' - claims Foundem


Brussels' competition chief Joaquin Almunia has given Google's rivals one month to test the ad giant's commitments to change how it runs its dominant search business in the European Union.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/ec_gives_google_rivals_one_month_to_market_test_search_tweaks/

Wannabe ZFS rival Exablox decloaks MYSTERY NAS box

It's managed through the cloud. That's what you wanted, right?


Mystery storage startup Exablox has finally uncloaked its secret project - which turned out to be a simple scale-out filer managed through a cloud-based utility.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/exablox_oneblox_lotsablox/

Mars One opens applications for one-way ticket to Mars



It's time, if you're so inclined, to plunk down a reservation for a one-way ticket to Mars. The privately funded Mars One foundation recently opened up applications for astronauts to take a journey to the Red Planet in 2022/23. Return trips, the organisers said, just aren't feasible with the technology we have.


From a wide field of applicants, organisers said two women and two men will be selected to make the journey. The technology that takes them there has been tested before, and the potential for a worldwide audience will be there given four billion people will have the internet by then, said Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp.


By: Elizabeth Howell, SEN.com, Edited by: Kadhim Shubber


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/25/mars-one-applications

Schumacher to drive F1® car around historic Nordschleife

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher will return to the wheel of a Formula One car on May 19 to complete a demonstration lap around Germany's historic Nurburgring Nordschleife in Mercedes' 2011 F1 W02. Schumacher, 44, who retired from the sport at the end of 2012, wants to use the lap to say thank you to German fans for their loyal support during his F1 career

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14509.html

Pirelli tweak hard tyre as latest nominations revealed

Formula One racing's official tyre suppliers Pirelli have announced that their orange-marked hard tyre will change to a different compound from the next round of the championship in Spain. “After evaluating tyre performance over the balance of the first four races, we took the decision - in consultation with all of the teams," said Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14508.html

Consciousness after death: strange tales from resuscitation medicine



Sam Parnia practices resuscitation medicine. In other words, he helps bring people back from the dead -- and some return with stories. Their tales could help save lives, and even challenge traditional scientific ideas about the nature of consciousness.


"The evidence we have so far is that human consciousness does not become annihilated," said Parnia, a doctor at Stony Brook University Hospital and director of the school's resuscitation research program. "It continues for a few hours after death, albeit in a hibernated state we cannot see from the outside."


Resuscitation medicine grew out of the mid-twentieth century discovery of CPR, the medical procedure by which hearts that have stopped beating are revived. Originally effective for a few minutes after cardiac arrest, advances in CPR have pushed that time to a half-hour or more.


By: Brandon Keim, Edited by: Kadhim Shubber


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/25/consciousness-after-death

O2 scoffs at call-centre outsource fears, forgets to rule it out completely

Just speculation, but it might happen


Rumours that O2 UK plans to outsource all its telephone support work have been dismissed as speculation by the mobile network operator. The cynical among us will note that's not the same as completely ruling it out.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/o2_capita/

Crackdown looming on premium-rate phone number internet ads

Hey, it's a way to make money off the internet!


Time may be short for companies who make a living with internet-promoted premium phone numbers, as the UK regulator of such matters opens a second consultation aimed at denying them obscurity.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/phonepayplus_icss/

Tough luck, lappies: Brits favour fingersome fondleslabs, phones

Can notebook sales survive the clamour for touchscreen tech?


Tablets have been outselling desktop and notebook PCs combined here in Blighty, and they could well be about to generate more revenue for their manufacturers too, data from GfK, a market watcher, suggests.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/brits_demands_touchscreens_says_market_watcher/

O2 to turn your innocent nipper into Silicon Roundabout hipster

Scout Camp for the 21st Centur- Hey wait a second...


O2 will be running 28 UK events titled Think Big School, pushing 3,000 youngsters through two days of training so they can learn to write code and pitch business ideas like a skinny-tie-and-sneakers-wearing Shoreditch type.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/o2_big_think/

Rackspace plugs event monitoring into its servers

Expands cloud monitoring tech with "Virgo" agent project


Rackspace has broadened the capabilities of its cloud monitoring technology by letting admins put an agent on their servers to get a clearer idea of how apps are using hardware resources.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/25/rackspace_server_monitoring/

Sprint promises to take 2G into the Internet of Things

They'll be no refarming round here


Sprint has committed to keeping its 2G network operational beyond AT&T and Verizon, hoping to sign up some machines even if fleshy humans wander away.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/sprint_2g/

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Pivotal takes guts of Google, sells to enterprises

Small team aims to clone Google-stack for enterprises


Pivotal wants to build and sell the systems that run Google, but though its ambition may be bold, its claims are as yet more visions than statements of fact.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/pivotal_launch/

MetroPCS shareholders approve sweetened T-Mobile merger

$1.5bn cash offer seals the deal


Shareholders in US mobile minnow MetroPCS have approved an improved offer from Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA subsidiary after the Germans sweetened the terms of their offer.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/metropcs_aprrove_improved_tmobile_merger/

Xbox announce unveiling date for next console



The next generation Xbox (Durango, Xbox 720 - whatever you're currently calling it) will be announced by Microsoft on 21 May.


The unveiling won't be an exclusive journalist-only event but follows Sony's Playstation 4 model of "reveal via global livestream then see you at E3!" The stream will be available on Xbox.com, Xbox LIVE and, if you're going to be in the US or Canada, on Spike TV.


By: Philippa Warr,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/24/xbox-unveiling-date

Behold Ubuntu Server 13.04: Focus on hypervisors and OpenStack

A Raring Ringtail riding a Grizzly smoking a Havana


It is getting hard to see where Ubuntu Server ends and where the OpenStack cloud controller begins - and this is absolutely intentional on the part of Canonical, the corporate entity behind the Ubuntu distribution of the Linux operating system.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/canonical_ubuntu_server_13_04/

General Electric pours $105 MEEELION into Pivotal Initiative

Skunkworks lab for the industrial internet


General Electric is pouring $105m into Pivotal, a skunkworks cloud and big data company spun-out of VMware and EMC.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/ge_pivotal/

Cameron: Get those saucy websites off Blighty's public Wi-Fi

'Good, clean' wireless for babycino-chugging cherubs


Prime Minister David Cameron is once again crusading against online pornography after he admitted late last year that network-level smut filtering was a "crude system".…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/cameron_demands_wifi_smut_ban/

Hidden dragon Huawei: 'We’re making increased efforts at transparency'

Can the telecoms kit maker make it big in biz IT?


Huawei sent out a clear signal to its competitors in the global enterprise IT market on Tuesday with predictions of stellar growth for the vendor’s smallest business group over the next five years to reach revenues of $10bn by 2017. But analysts are sceptical about its chances of becoming a genuinely disruptive alternative to the likes of industry veterans Cisco, HP and IBM.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/huawei_enterprise_dragon_plans/

Amazon: Hard luck Microsoft, AWS will always be cheaper

We're in the driving seat and the only way is down


Amazon’s struck back at Microsoft camp over its "lowering" of its cloud computing prices by touting Amazon’s track record for saving money.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/werner_vogels_aws_prices_go_down/

Speaking in Tech: Your OpenStack plug-in is NOT a meaningful code contribution

Talking smack about vendors ... Plus: How to unfollow Amy Lewis






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/speaking_in_tech_episode_66/

Apple profits fall for first time in almost a decade

iPad

Apple had an earnings call today, giving the low down on the company's performance for its second quarter of 2013. Overall, there weren't any big surprises -- but that doesn't mean it was all good news.


The Cupertino company beat analyst estimates on a number of fronts, including total revenue and iPhone and iPad sales. But profits fell for the first time in almost ten years.


Here's the breakdown in plain English.


By: Christina Bonnington, Edited by: Kadhim Shubber


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/24/apple-q2-earnings

EE: Of course we're going to get 1m 4G users by the end of the year!

Brave numerical spinning by EE, but is it enough?


Everything Everywhere put a brave spin on its latest 4G numbers today and insisted it was on course for its goal of 1 MEEEELION users by the end of the year.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/4g_waving_drowning_or_what/

BitTorrent offers file synch tool for PCs and NAS

Peer-to-peer file sharing for backup and collaboration … honestly


BitTorrent has opened the Alpha testing program for its new BitTorrent Sync tool to all.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/bit_torrent_sync_for_nas/

AWS says private clouds aren't real clouds

Veep visits Sydney, reveals new support centre, throws darts at VMware et al


Amazon Web Services (AWS) Adam Selipsky has told an event in Sydney, Australia, that private clouds aren't really clouds.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/24/aws_lashes_private_clouds/

TPG might bid for spectrum: reports

Junior telco dons the 'red underpants'


Australia's spectrum auction may have had a dark horse entry, with reports emerging that TPG has registered as a bidder.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/23/tpg_registered_for_spectrum_auction/

Oz broadband speeds collapsed in 2012

Bottomless thirst for downloads chokes the tubes


Akamai's State of the Internet report reveals a sharp slowdown in Australian Internet download speeds to the end of 2012.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/23/oz_bb_speed_collapse/

VMware profits flat-line even as services revenues grow

Virtzilla launches Project Zephyr vCloud Hybrid Service on May 21


Say what you will about VMware, but it has been brilliant about extracting the most amount of profit possible out of what used to be a virtual monopoly on x86 server virtualization in the data center. But competition from Microsoft and various open source alternatives, particularly the OpenStack-KVM combo, is putting the squeeze on Virtzilla's profits.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/23/vmware_q1_2013_numbers/

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Huawei: 'We're not interested in US market'

Cuts enterprise sales projections by one-third


Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei has revised its enterprise sales projections downward after admitting that it has given up on plans to expand into the US market.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/23/huawei_not_interested_in_us/

White House backs US web sales tax - eBay hits panic alarm

Think about what you're doing here, wails net bazaar


The White House has backed a bill that would give US states the ability to demand sales tax from online retailers, while the Senate clears the law for formal voting.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/23/mfa_white_house_senate_vote/

Ferrari targeting perfection following Bahrain woes

Team principal Stefano Domenicali has said that Ferrari must 'be perfect in every area' if they are to avoid dropping more points and challenge for both titles in 2013. Domenicali's words come in the wake of the Scuderia's difficult race in Bahrain in which Fernando Alonso fell back down the field because of a DRS problem and Felipe Massa was slowed by two tyre-related issues

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14506.html

Twitter signs ad deal for MEELLIONS with marketing bods

Telly-watching tweeters targeted by dosh-generating deal


Twitter is well on its way to becoming an advertising giant after signing one of its biggest deals so far with media agency Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG).…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/23/twitter_ad_deal_smg/

The Pirate Bay now accepting Bitcoin donations



The Pirate Bay has opened its doors to public donations in the form of Bitcoins.


The BitTorrent site has hitherto been funded by other methods such as banner advertising but, as the digital currency makes it far harder to trace funding, Bitcoins are a viable option for those who want to support the site anonymously despite (or perhaps because of) its slightly problematic legal standing.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/23/bitcoin-pirate-bay

Swedish company teaches Asian cooking using Instagram

Ask CT Food

There are few things more divisive than the act of Instagramming one's meal. Those who don't do it find it incredibly annoying; those that do do it are amazed that anyone could find it so offensive (even though it so very much is).


However, a Swedish food supplier has launched a service that makes practical use of Instagram, for those who want to recreate restaurant meals at home.


By: Ian Steadman, Edited by: Liat Clark


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/23/instagram-reverse-engineer-food

Google Now likely to step into iGoogle breach

Google Now offers context-dependent cards, for example subway information while at the platform

With Google's current homepage option, iGoogle, set to go the way of the dodo in November 2013, it looks increasingly likely that Google Now is being groomed as a replacement.


Google Now is an adaptive personal assistant-style app which is currently available for the company's Android operating system. It uses cards -- ways of dividing information into chunks depending on subject -- to display the information you are most likely to need at a given time using cues drawn from other Google services like the Calendar or Gmail.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/23/google-now

BlackBerry OS 10.1 leaks its secret goo over all the web

Half-basked next version to try, if you're made enough


A work-in-progress build of the next BlackBerry OS, version 10.1, has leaked onto the interwebs.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/23/blackberry_bb10point1_leak/

Chinese IEEE members want MAC control for cognitive radio

Spectrum licences? Who needs 'em when radios can find their own airspace


For those in the mood for deep wireless communication geekery, a group of Chinese researchers has released a proposed protocol for MAC layer behaviour of cognitive radio systems.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/23/cognitive_radio_mac_proposal/

Voda wants NBN access to boost regional 4G spread

Country Oz needs a fibre diet to suck nutrients out of wireless broadband


Vodafone has said it's hoping that the rollout of the National Broadband Network will give it the chance to improve country mobile services.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/23/voda_seeks_regional_backhaul_under_nbn/

Cloudmeter pulls big data from the network, not the servers

Adds Insight app nanny to Stream data siphoner


Last year, Atomic Labs, the creator of the Pion web analytics tool, changed its name to Cloudmeter, raised some money, and set above to make its analytics tool more broadly useful for enterprises. Pion has been transformed into a broader tool called Stream, which runs on premises, and Cloudmeter has cooked up an adjunct application performance management tool called Insight, which runs on the Amazon Web Services cloud.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/22/cloudmeter_stream_insight/

Monday 22 April 2013

CA piles into API management with Layer 7 acquisition

If stuff is moving to the cloud, you might as well own the transfer point


CA Technologies has hopped into API management via the acquisition of Layer 7 technologies as the company continues to reinvent itself for the software-as-a-service era.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/22/ca_layer7_api_management/

The enterprise software gravy train stalled in 2012

Big data, analytics, and cloud build up a head of steam


The world spends about twice as much dough on enterprise software as it does on data center hardware, and that software is also where a lot of the profit for the IT sector comes from. So when enterprise software revenues don't grow as fast as they have in prior years, it has ripple effects on the IT industry as a whole.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/22/idc_enterprise_software_sales/

Vettel samples Russia's new Sochi circuit

Red Bull's triple world champion Sebastian Vettel made history on Monday by becoming the first Formula One driver to experience the new Sochi Olympic Park Circuit, which hopes to host a Russian round on the 2014 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar. Vettel, fresh from his emphatic victory in Bahrain, was joined by former F1 driver David Coulthard in driving part of the track, which is still under construction, in an Infiniti road car

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14504.html

Brain has a 'search mode' to find lost objects



When we're scouting round for Important Objects Which We Know Are Around Here Somewhere (if only we could just remember where) the brain activates specific regions to help with the search.


As a result, regions of the brain usually employed in other tasks -- recognition of unrelated objects or processing abstract thought -- are hijacked for the search mission.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Ian Steadman


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/22/brain-search-system

Platform clouds can make enterprises all teeth and no tail

Red Hat and VMware want to be your private parts


The cloud is at the same point in its history that proprietary minicomputers were at three decades ago.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/22/paas_clouds/

Scottish National Gallery eyes rooftop beehives



The Scottish National Gallery is considering a foray into beekeeping with hives positioned on its roof to generate honey.


The project has been proposed by Victor Contini, owner of the National Gallery's cafe, and would involve two beehives being placed on the roof of the gallery building. Honey produced on-site could then be sold to tourists or used in the cafe.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/22/national-gallery-bees

Facebook to plonk $1.5bn data centre in Iowa - report

FarmVille for realsies... bitch


Facebook is reportedly building a $1.5bn data centre in the US state of Iowa - but for now the company is remaining quiet about its plans.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/22/facebook_iowa_data_centre_project_catapult/

'Most powerful telescope in history' gets go ahead



The Universe has steadily been opening up its secrets as more and more giant telescopes spring up like mushrooms around the world. Now approval has been given to build an optical observatory on Hawaii that, for a while, will be the largest on the planet.


The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project won a permit for its construction from the Hawaiian Board of Land and Natural Resources. It means it can now become the latest large instrument to operate from the ideal location near the summit of Mauna Kea, an extinct volcano.


By: Paul Sutherland, Sen.com, Edited by: Kadhim Shubber


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/22/tmt

Web minister Miller insists UK's 2015 broadband target will be hit

Fibre will reach 10m households by end of Parliament, minister claims


Culture Secretary Maria Miller insisted during parliamentary questioning that the government's £680m Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) project will hit its target of bringing download speeds of at least 2Mbit/s to almost every Brit by 2015.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/22/maria_miller_dodges_bduk_delay_question/

Sunday 21 April 2013

Turnbull 'flat out' seeking NBN killer blow

Why does the philosopher prince of broadband care about a half-a-percent saving?


Australia's broadband debate is beginning to take on elements of farce.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/21/turnbull_grasping_at_straws/

FIA post-race press conference - Bahrain

After winning the 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Pirx at Sakhir, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull was quizzed by the media about his race. Read what he and the second and third place finishers - Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean - had to say in the FIA post-race press conference transcript

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14501.html

Lovefilm will pilot TV shows online

Amazon

Amazon's streaming service Lovefilm will pilot a range of comedies and children's shows online in new plans announced by the web retail giant.


A stable of fourteen different shows, including Alpha House and Zombieland, will be put to the public vote to decide whether they get made into full series.


By: Duncan Geere, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/20/lovefilm-programming

Fukushima cleanup hit by significant setbacks

Fukushima on 13 March 2011

The repair of the Fukushima nuclear plant following Japan's 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami is making slow progressaccording to Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority.


"The Fukushima Daiichi plant remains in an unstable condition, and there is concern that we cannot prevent another accident," said Shunichi Tanaka, the organisation's chairman.


By: Duncan Geere,


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/21/fukushima-cleanup

Race - Vettel dominates Bahrain thriller for Red Bull

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel utterly dominated the 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix in Sakhir on Sunday, but it was the thrilling action behind him for which the race will be remembered. Vettel took the lead shortly after the start of the race, whilst behind him the Lotus pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean came through numerous battles to grab the final two podium spots

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14499.html

Lulzsec hacker Recursion sentenced to a year in jail

Lulzsec

Cody Kretsinger, better known as Recursion, has been handed a year in prison and 1,000 hours of community service by a judge in LA after hacking Sony Pictures' website.


Kretsinger pleased guilty in April 2012 to conspiracy and unauthorised impairment of a protected computer after admitting his membership of the hacking group Lulzsec. The group's reign of digital terror was short-lived, but included many high-profile targets including the NHS, the CIA, PBS, the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency, and Sony's PlayStation network.


By: Duncan Geere,


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/21/recursion-in-jail

Race - selected team and driver quotes

Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne on his early exit; Fernando Alonso on his DRS troubles; McLaren's Jenson Button and Sergio Perez on their non-stop battles for position; Force India's Paul di Resta on missing out on a podium finish but matching his best Formula One finish to date; and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel on clinching a dominant 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/2013/4/14498.html

Saturday 20 April 2013

Lovefilm will pilot TV shows online

Amazon

Amazon's streaming service Lovefilm will pilot a range of comedies and children's shows online in new plans announced by the web retail giant.


A stable of fourteen different shows, including Alpha House and Zombieland, will be put to the public vote to decide whether they get made into full series.


By: Duncan Geere,


Continue reading...



via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/20/horsehead-nebula-reimaged

FIA post-qualifying press conference - Bahrain

After securing Mercedes' second pole position of the season in Bahrain, a delighted Nico Rosberg faced the media in the official FIA press conference. Alongside him were Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, who'll start second on the gird, and Ferrari Fernando Alonso, who'll start third

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14492.html

LA girl scouts can get video game design badge

Girl Scouts

The Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles have partnered with Women in Games International to launch a badge for designing videogames.


Young female game designers need to use E-line's Gamestar Mechanic software to earn the badge, which is compatible with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) initiative.


By: Duncan Geere,


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/20/la-girl-scouts-can-get-video-game-design-badge

Qualifying - Rosberg beats Vettel to take surprise Sakhir pole

Mercedes' Nico Rosberg took an unexpected pole on Saturday in Bahrain, with a best time of 1m 32.330s putting him over two-tenths of a second clear of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso had to settle for third after aborting a messy final Q3 run. Lewis Hamilton in the other Mercedes qualified fourth but will start ninth after receiving a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14491.html

Qualifying - selected team and driver quotes

Caterham's Charles Pic on out-qualifying the Marussias in his updated CT03; Williams' Pastor Maldonado on missing Q2 by a zero margin; Lotus's Romain Grosjean on why he failed to make the top-ten shootout; Ferrari's Felipe Massa on gambling on hard tyres in Q3; and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg on claiming the second pole position of his Formula One career. All 22 drivers and senior team personnel report back on Saturday's action

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14490.html

Grid penalty for Hamilton after gearbox change

Lewis Hamilton will drop five places on the grid for the 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix following a gearbox change, Mercedes have confirmed. The 2008 world champion suffered an apparent left rear tyre delamination at the end of final practice on Saturday morning and following an inspection of his F1 W04, the team opted to replace the gearbox before qualifying

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14487.html

Final practice - Ferrari on top again with Alonso

Fernando Alonso ensured that Ferrari will head into qualifying on a high after topping the final practice session for the 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir on Saturday morning. The Spaniard survived a mid-session spin to set the fastest time ahead of the Red Bull pair of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14486.html

Google shakes up US utility with green power tariff

Pays more on electricity to pay less on Greenpeace damage control


Google is using its giant pile of money to try and change how utility companies work, so that more businesses can buy their power from renewable sources.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/19/google_green_datacenter_tariff/

Friday 19 April 2013

How much will Google pay to bring fiber to Provo, Utah? Try $1

Not a bad price for a $39m network build-out


Choosing the small city of Provo, Utah as the next location to receive Google's high-speed fiber internet service must have been a no-brainer, as the online giant will reportedly pay just $1 to set up shop in the area.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/19/google_fiber_provo_one_dollar/

FIA Friday press conference - Bahrain

Team representatives - Stefano Domenicali (Ferrari), Monisha Kaltenborn (Sauber), Martin Whitmarsh (Mclaren), Paul Hembery (Pirelli), Eric Boullier (Lotus). Q: Stefano, I have no previous experience but I'm sure the role of team principal at Ferrari is not the easiest job in the world, but it has seemed - apart from the front wing on Fernando's car in Malaysia

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14484.html

Who's a Siri boy, then? Apple hoards your voices for TWO years

Privacy campaigners demand 'high justification' for query cache


A leading UK privacy warrior has urged Apple to explain itself after the tech titan admitted Siri queries are kept on record for two years.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/19/apple_siri_voice_eu/

Study: ants 'switch careers' as they get older



Ants change jobs as they age, a study that followed the lives of individual ants has found.


The career progression was discovered by a team at the University of Lausanene in Switzerland who tagged and tracked every individual in six colonies of carpenter ants.


Young ants were more likely to be nurses, taking care of the queen ant and her young, while older ants were more likely to be foragers, gathering food for the colony. In the middle of their "careers" the ants were commonly cleaners.


By: Kadhim Shubber, Edited by: Ian Steadman


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/19/ant-careers

Euro states stick fingers in ears to Huawei, ZTE tech 'dump' claims

La, la, la. We can't hear you


A number of EU countries aren't keen on backing the European Commission's bid for a formal investigation of Chinese telecoms manufacturers Huawei and ZTE, Sweden has said.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/19/eu_reluctant_chinese_telco_probe/

Wired.co.uk Podcast 120: Incest prevention, anti-rape bra, Boston manhunt

Wired podcast

This week the team discusses a bra designed to ward off rapists, an app designed to help Iclandic residents avoid marrying a relative, and Reddit's involvement in solving the Boston bombings.


By: Nate Lanxon,


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/podcast/episode-120

Friday practice - selected team and driver quotes

Lotus, Ferrari and Red Bull all made an impression on the timesheets during the first day of the Bahrain weekend. The leading teams and their rivals reflect on their early progress at Sakhir...

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14480.html

Practice Two - Raikkonen edges Webber in Sakhir

Kimi Raikkonen rose to the top of the timesheets at Sakhir on Friday afternoon, as he set the fastest time of the day for Lotus in 1m 34.154s to beat Mark Webber's Red Bull by 0.030s. Webber, who lapped in 1m 34.184s, was followed by his team mate Sebastian Vettel on 1m 34.282s, and the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa which sandwiched Paul di Resta's Force India

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14479.html

ZTE ejects from Iran as Feds probe spy-tech export claims

Chinese telecoms dragon wants to keep US sweet


Chinese telecoms kit maker ZTE says it has finally wound up its business dealings in Iran, bar existing customers, as the firm tries to move on following allegations it broke US sanctions by flogging spy technology to the Islamic republic.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/19/zte_iran_finished/

Ofcom fines TalkTalk £750,000 over nuisance calls



Ofcom has handed TalkTalk a £750,000 fine after the company made around 9,000 silent or abandoned calls during a 2011 telemarketing campaign.


Calls are deemed to be abandoned if the caller hangs up after the recipient has answered. Ofcom's regulations stipulate that these calls must include a recorded information message noting who called and how to opt out of future calls. Silent calls are similar but instead of hanging up when the person answers there is just silence.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Kadhim Shubber


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/19/talktalk-fine

Endless oceans cover newly discovered, possibly habitable, planets



Nasa scientists have discovered an alien solar system that they believe has two planets that are completely submerged under water.


The worlds, dubbed super-Earths because they are rocky and larger than our own planet, are orbiting a star called Kepler-62 that lies 1,200 light-years away in the constellation of Lyra.


Both exist in the so-called habitable zone around their home star where water essential for life as we know it can exist as a liquid.


By: Paul Sutherland, Sen.com, Edited by: Kadhim Shubber


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/19/exoplanet-waterworlds

SaaS: Plugging the communications gap for small businesses

Distributed thinking


Yahoo!’s decision last month to axe home working prompted much debate. Common reactions ranged from outrage through incredulity to the sad shaking of heads over the fact that CEO Marissa Mayer is clearly out of touch with the modern world.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/19/comms_saas/

Practice One - Massa leads Ferrari 1-2 in Bahrain

Ferrari got their 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix campaign off to the best possible start in Sakhir on Friday morning when Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso ended FP1 first and second fastest. Massa lapped his F138 in 1m 34.487s on Pirelli's orange-marked hard tyre, with Alonso 0.077s down on 1m 34.564s

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14478.html

Thursday 18 April 2013

Amazon: S3 cloud contains two trillion objects

'We've doubled our big number in a year'


Amazon Web Services now has over two trillion objects within its S3 storage cloud, just one year after Bezos & Co. smashed through the one-trillion ceiling.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/amazon_2_trillion_s3/

Feds urged to probe four US cell big boys over Android holes

Security threat means 'unfair and deceptive business practices'


The four biggest US cell networks could face a government probe, following allegations that security updates for Android smartphones have been held back, leaving millions of Americans vulnerable to hackers.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/aclu_carrier_investigation/

FIA Thursday press conference - Bahrain

Jenson Button and Felipe Massa were two of the drivers who took part in Thursday's FIA press conference in Bahrain... Q: Jenson, before we get on to this weekend in Bahrain, a general question for you

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14472.html

John Lewis offers broadband with all connected devices



Department store, John Lewis, is aiming to capture a slice of the broadband market by giving away a six month broadband subscription when customers purchase connected devices.


The company deems "connected devices" to cover the 80 percent of their technology offering which either requires the internet to function or is internet-ready -- smart TVs, Kindles, wifi printers, tablets and so on.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/18/john-lewis-broadband

Twitter's new music service is finally open to the public



Twitter's much-heralded music app, Twitter Music, is finally open to the public.


The new service, which is only available on iPhone and web at the moment, mines the wealth of data from tweets to find and showcase trending tracks and emerging artists.


Users can stream music through the app by signing into Spotify and Rdio, and a #NowPlaying dashboard shows you the music that the people you follow have tweeted about. It also connects to iTunes but that will only play track previews. There are suggestions that service will also allow hook ups with YouTube, Soundcloud and Vevo.


By: Kadhim Shubber, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/18/twitter-music-app

Shuttleworth: Canonical is fast and easy with OpenStack clouds

You don't just build a cloud, you have to maintain it


Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of the Ubuntu distribution of Linux, has wanted to turn his creation into a cloud platform for years, he said during his keynote at the OpenStack Summit in Portland, Oregon on Wednesday.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/canonical_ubuntu_openstack/

Gonzalez gets Bahrain Friday outing for Marussia

Marussia's Venezuelan reserve driver Rodolfo Gonzalez will make his first official Grand Prix appearance this weekend when he takes part in Friday's opening practice session in Bahrain. It is the first of several FP1 outings scheduled for Gonzalez this season. “I'm really happy with this opportunity to drive in my first FP1 session of the season,” said the 26-year-old

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14471.html

Sony harness lets you mount camera on dog



Sony has announced a harness which allows dog owners to mount a camera on their pet and record the world from the canine point-of-view.


The dog harness (AKA-DM1) is part of a range of accessories for Sony's HDR-AS15 Action Cam and will be released in Japan on 26 April with a recommended retail price of 5,250 yen (around £35).


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/18/dog-camera

Ofcom fines TalkTalk AGAIN - a whopping £750k over 'abandoned calls' gaffe

Budget ISP's call centre teams were SilentSilent


Ofcom has once again fined telco TalkTalk, after the company swamped potential customers with silent calls. It now has to pay £750,000 for failing to comply with UK law.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/ofcom_fines_talktalk_again/

Death tests assess how isolation shortens lifespan of social creatures



When social animals are separated from their colony and placed into isolation, their lifespan is reduced, a study finds.


In 1944, two French entomologists -- Pierre Paul Grasse and Remy Chauvin -- separated small groups of social insects (between 1 and 10 bees) from their colony to measure their respective life span. They found that groups of 10 individuals lived longer than groups of 1 or 2 individuals. This suggested that the lifespan of individuals may be affected by their interaction with the group to which they belong.


By: Olivia Solon, Edited by: Ian Steadman


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/18/social-animals-life-expectancy

TREELLION DOLLAR mobe bonk-bank alliance goes for barcodes

Stripey bonanza - if everyone can get into bed together


The consortium of US retailers hoping to own pay-by-bonk have signed Gemalto to process their payments, revealing that on-screen bar codes lie at the centre of the scheme.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/mcx_gemalto/

T-Mobile UK ordered into humiliating Full Monty strip

Cap mobe speeds all you like BUT DON'T TOUCH BITTORRENT


T-Mobile UK can no longer describe its "Full Monty" mobile broadband tariff as "unlimited", thanks to a ruling by the advertising watchdog.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/asa_t_mobile/

FIA press conference schedule - Bahrain

Thursday in Sakhir will see drivers including McLaren's Jenson Button and Ferrari's Felipe Massa face the press, while on Friday it will be team and tyre bosses fielding the media's questions. The line-up in full

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14470.html

Londoners in mass test of telly tech savvy as 4G filters mailed out

Come on granny, you must know where your booster is?


Some 28,000 London suburbanites will have 40 days to fit their free 4G filters, before Freeview television frequencies are swamped with faked 4G networking signals in a mass test of the British public's ability to plug stuff in.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/at800_mailing/

Vint Cerf endorses SDN

Is this the fall of the stupid network?


One of the reasons for the rise of the Internet was that it was stupid: by throwing buckets of bandwidth at any problem, and attaching the intelligence to the network edge, it could ship bits around vastly cheaper than telco carrier networks.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/18/cerf_endorses_sdn/

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Virgin Media updates punishments for excessive data use



Virgin Media has tweaked its traffic-management policy -- that's the controversial one which deals with data usage thresholds and penalties for exceeding them -- to be "more flexible and responsive".


The changes apply to the brand's 30mb and over broadband tier and lead with the fact that the punitive speed reduction for exceeding usage could only apply for one hour and only in the direction of the issue. For example, going over your download limit would only affect your download speed.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Liat Clark


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/17/virgin-traffic-speeds

Samsung: Posting of fake HTC hate was 'unfortunate'

Watchdog probes anonymous comments slating rival's mobes


Samsung staffers slated smartphone arch-rival HTC in fake online reviews - and now a Taiwanese watchdog is investigating.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/17/samsung_htc_comments/

Speaking in Tech: Put away the tissues - come have beers in London with us

Whether they be tears of rage or sorrow, join us for a post-funeral StorageBeer






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/17/speaking_in_tech_episode/

Biologists give insects 'nanosuits' to protect them in a vacuum

Mosquito (not wearing a nanosuit)

By creating nanosuits to protect insects while inside a vacuum, scientists can now study the living creatures using scanning electron microscopes (SEM).


Putting living organisms inside the high vacuum required by a SEM generally results in their swift death, however, by bombarding particular insects with electron beams or ionised plasma particles, biologists were able to create a polymer coating which prevented extreme dehydration while in the vacuum.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Olivia Solon


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/17/insect-nanosuits

Data for the Boston Marathon investigation will be crowdsourced

Boston Marathon

The investigation of 15 April's deadly twin bombings in Boston will rely to an extraordinary extent on crowdsourced surveillance, provided by marathon spectators' mobile phone photos, Vine videos, and Instagram feeds.


Investigators in Boston, led by FBI special agent in charge Richard DesLauriers, want to see any and all imagery taken by anyone and everyone where the blasts occurred Monday. In an unusual move, the team of local, state and federal authorities investigating the crime openly called for spectators to provide any images or video they might have, all of which could potentially provide leads or evidence in the case.


"We'd like to review any type of media," to include "video [and] photographic evidence" of the attack that killed three and injured more than 150 people, Gene Marquez of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said on 16 April.


By: Spencer Ackerman, Edited by: Kadhim Shubber


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/17/boston-crowdsourced

Kovalainen rejoins Caterham as reserve

Heikki Kovalainen will take part in first practice for this weekend's 2013 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix after rejoining Caterham to serve as one of two reserve drivers alongside Alexander Rossi. Kovalainen, a former race winner with McLaren, competed for Caterham from 2010 to 2012, before he and team mate Vitaly Petrov were dropped in favour of Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde for the 2013 season

via Formula1.com - Latest Headlines http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/4/14466.html

Cloudscaling licenses Juniper virty networking for new OpenStack distro

Getting ready for Grizzly with OCS 2.5 this summer


Cloudscaling, one of the upstarts trying to become the Red Hat of OpenStack, has unveiled OCS 2.5, the third major release of its Open Cloud System. While it prepares for the coming of "Grizzly" - the latest OpenStack release - Cloudscaling has also inked a deal with Juniper Networks to put Juniper's virtual networking software at the heart of the virtual private computing extensions that it is adding to OpenStack.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/17/cloudscaling_ocs_2_5_openstack_juniper/

Eerie satnav boffinry claims it can predict THE FUTURE

In 20ft stop, turn around, don't bother eating at that restaurant


Do you hate driving in the city? Do you fly into a rage when you can’t find a parking spot after spending hours in heavy traffic on the way to your destination?…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/17/car_gpu_tech/

Angry Birds fire back: Vulture cousins menace UK city's mobiles

Brits must suffer until mast eggs hatch


Vodafone engineers dispatched to fix a Southampton mobile mast found a nesting Peregrine falcon - a protected species which must be left alone until its eggs hatch - leaving local residents with limited mobile coverage.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/17/falcon/

O2 tries something completely new: Honesty

Monthly bill to be torn from real cost of 'free' phone


O2 hired circus performers this week to launch its new Refresh tariff, which it was forced to confirm ahead of schedule thanks to a media leak.…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/17/o2_refresh/

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Verizon Terremark backs Xen-CloudStack combo for clouds

Can you hear me now, VMware ESXi and vCloud?


Hot on the heels of the open source Xen hypervisor being moved over to the Linux Foundation as an official collaborative project, Citrix Systems, which has controlled the Xen community as well as the open source CloudStack cloud controller that is one of the viable alternatives to OpenStack, has scored the Terremark cloud subsidiary of telco giant Verizon as an enthusiastic backer of both Xen and CloudStack.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/16/verizon_terremark_backs_xen_cloudstack/

Samsung vs Apple: which smartphone do Reg readers prefer?

Satisfaction, loyalty and the iPhone boredom factor


Reg readers feel strongly about their smartphones. This much was clear when Freeform Dynamics analysed the results of a recent research study looking at Reg readers' habits and activity with respect to smartphones, tablets, TV viewing and electronic gaming (discussed in a previous article),…




via The Register - Networks

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/16/reg_readers_smartphone_preferences/

Web host Linode, hackers clash over credit-card raid claim

Crooks boast of swiped privates via ColdFusion hole


Crooks claim they gained access to server hosting biz Linode's customer passwords and credit card details.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/16/linode_breach/

Microsoft: FINE! We'll match Amazon - by HIKING cloud prices

Reassuringly expensive Redmond ramps rivalry


What's the difference between Windows Azure and Amazon Web Services? Very little – or so says Microsoft, which has made a new commitment to match the web bazaar's pricing for basic cloud services.…






via The Register - Cloud

http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/16/microsoft_azure_ga/

Ofcom pursues truly free 0800 mobile calls



Ofcom have announced plans to make calls to 0800 numbers free of charge from all telephones, including mobiles.


The announcement comes as part of a wider drive by the telecoms watchdog to simplify and clarify the charges around 'non-geographic' phone numbers, meaning those that begin 08, 09 and 118.


By: Philippa Warr, Edited by: Ian Steadman


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via Wired.co.uk



http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/16/ofcom-0800-numbers