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2012? Could be up, could be down

Logica said its 2012 revenues could go up or down as it turned in full year 2011 figures that showed a massive drop in profits.…

'World's thinnest' claim

Samsung's refreshed Series 9 laptop has been given a release date, with the compact notebook set to land on consumers' laps as early as next week.…

Android Trojans soar, Mac viruses fall off a cliff

The volume of malware samples detected by McAfee passed the 75 million milestone late last year, the Intel-owned security firm reported this week.…

The Apache Software Foundation officially released the Apache 2.4 today as the first major update to this leading open-source web-server in more than a half-decade. Apache 2.4 is slated to deliver superior performance to its 2.2 predecessor and better compete with the growingly-popular NGINX web-server...

High five core

Fujitsu aims to blow the roof off Mobile World Congress (MWC) next week when it formally launches its latest smartphone, which packs the five-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor - the best a man can get.…

Baffled ITC denies plotting internet land-grab

Foreign governments are lining up to wrest control of the internet from freedom-loving hippies, thunders FCC commissioner Robert McDowell in a call to arms in the Wall Street Journal.…

'Our craziest adventures yet,' promises Amy Pond

The BBC's spinners have worked themselves into a right state over the news that filming has kicked off on the seventh series of Doctor Who. Viewers are promised 14 "blockbuster-movie episodes" as Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan embark on "their final, rollercoaster voyage" with Matt Smith's Time Lord.…

The Bad Astronomer writes "The extrasolar planet GJ 1214b was discovered in 2009 orbiting a nearby (40 light year distant) red dwarf star. The planet was quickly found to have a thick atmosphere, but it wasn't known at the time if the composition was water vapor or a hazy shroud of particulates. New Hubble observations confirm the atmosphere of the exoplanet is rich in water, comprising up to 50% of the atmosphere's mass (PDF). At 230 degrees Celsius, this means the planet is shrouded in steam."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Flatulent fallen star farts supermassive-grade hurricane

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has caught a whiff of the fastest ever wind blowing from the gases around a stellar-mass black hole.…

This guide describes how to easily monitor Ubuntu's system resources with Indicator-Multiload and SysPeek.

Tech titan faces tablet knockout in dozens of China's cities

In a predictable move, Asian monitor minnow Proview has decided that it is in fact now ready to hold talks with Apple over the IPAD trademark dispute which threatens to throttle global supplies of Cupertino’s shiny fondleslab.…

Doesn't want to be lumped in with riffraff like Facebook, Google

Despite spending most of the past few years trying to make its services more social, Yahoo! is now claiming that it is definitely NOT a social network - and resents being lumped in with Google and Facebook to face charges in India of hosting “objectionable content” online.…

Cool your boots with quantum pornPatents for a crappy, short-lived muffin-, strawberry- and porn-fuelled search engine created by three ex-Googlers have been scooped up by the Chocolate Factory.…

Don't plug Wang into railway power socket

Electricity thieves beware: if the battery charge in your phone or laptop is getting a little too low for comfort, don’t just stick your tech gear into the first available plug socket or you could find yourself in the back of a police van.…

kodiaktau writes "Google is working to deliver a heads-up display allowing users access to email, maps and other tools through a wearable interface. According to the NY Times' sources, the device will be available later this year, and sell for prices comparable to smartphones. 'The people familiar with the Google glasses said they would be Android-based, and will include a small screen that will sit a few inches from someone’s eye. They will also have a 3G or 4G data connection and a number of sensors including motion and GPS. ... The glasses will have a low-resolution built-in camera that will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby, according to the Google employees. The glasses are not designed to be worn constantly — although Google expects some of the nerdiest users will wear them a lot — but will be more like smartphones, used when needed.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

What are the odds? Cambridge boffins work it out

Four-digit banking PINs are almost as insecure as website passwords, according to a study by Cambridge University computer scientists.…

Hey big spender, Birmingham

UK local authorities spent a total of £515m installing, operating and maintaining CCTV between 2007-11, according to the privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch.…

In this installment, I'll recount how I recently composed a nice business letter using TeX/LaTeX. A template will be provided, along with some basic explanations, that could be useful to those wishing to create their own letters using this document processing system.

Media to blame for believing us reporting our forecasts

Analysis The Mystic Met has bewitched MPs who have recommended the forecasters are given the swanky new supercomputer they want.…

Now it's spoiling for a fight against Chinese rivals

MWC Ericsson, freed from Sony and getting in its retaliation first, used a Mobile World Congress pre-event briefing to set out its Far East battle plans - which included mobile wallet payments and buying billing biz Telcordia and carrier-cosy Wi-Fi company BelAir Networks.…