Technical News - 14 December 2011

• First Solar Hits 4-Year Low, Cuts '11 Guidance, Forecasts '12 Below Street
  December 14, 2011
  Shares of First Solar Inc. (FSLR) are being pummeled this morning, with the stock down nearly 13% in electronic trading. Investors are reacting to yet another cut to fiscal 2011 earnings projections, a weak outlook for fiscal 2012, and a reorganization that includes the departure of Chief Accounting Officer James Zhu.
  
• Russian security council chief wants Web regulation (Reuters)
  December 14, 2011
  Reuters - The Internet must be subject to "reasonable regulation," the head of Russia's Security Council said in remarks published on Wednesday, a fresh sign of Kremlin concern about the use of social networks to promote anti-government protests.
  
• German solar maker Solon hits the skids
  December 14, 2011
  Solar manufacturer Solon files for insolvency, the latest victim of a crushing price war in solar that has helped bring down at least three U.S.-based solar manufacturers.
  
• First Solar Short Circuits After Cutting Guidance
  December 14, 2011
  First Solar, a producer of solar power systems and components, warned that it will not hit its fiscal 2011 earnings targets, cutting guidance on both the top and bottom lines.
  
• ITC needs more time to hand down Apple-HTC ruling
  December 14, 2011
  HTC says the U.S. International Trade Commission won't make its ruling until Monday. The ruling was already delayed to Wednesday in a previous move by the court.
  
• Belgian gunman killed cleaning woman before attack
  December 14, 2011
  LIEGE, Belgium (Reuters) - Belgian investigators found the apparent first victim of a gunman who attacked Christmas shoppers and schoolchildren in the city of Liege, and expressed bafflement on Wednesday over why a small-time criminal turned into a multiple killer.
  

  

  
  
• Analysis: China's $300 billion fund a wake-up call to U.S.
  December 14, 2011
  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's plan for a new $300 billion sovereign wealth fund is as much a warning to Washington as it is a body blow to Brussels.
  

  

  
  
• Pressure for more ECB action after summit falls short
  December 14, 2011
  PARIS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Pressure mounted on Wednesday for the European Central Bank to intervene more decisively after financial markets judged that yet another EU summit had failed to resolve the euro zone's debt crisis.
  

  

  
  
• Olympus reveals $1 billion balance sheet hit, stirs merger talk
  December 14, 2011
  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp ironed out its crooked accounts on Wednesday after a 13-year fraud, with a $1.1 billion dent in its balance sheet triggering speculation it will need to merge, sell assets or raise capital to repair its finances.
  

  

  
  
• Olympus reveals $1 billion balance sheet hit, stirs merger talk
  December 14, 2011
  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp ironed out its crooked accounts on Wednesday after a 13-year fraud, with a $1.1 billion dent in its balance sheet triggering speculation it will need to merge, sell assets or raise capital to repair its finances.
  

  

  
  
• Apple founding contract fetches $1.5 million at auction
  December 14, 2011
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The contract that established Apple as a corporate entity in 1976 sold at auction on Tuesday for $1.59 million, 10 times its estimated price, two months after the death of high-profile co-founder Steve Jobs.
  

  

  
  
• Apple founding contract fetches $1.5 million at auction (Reuters)
  December 14, 2011
  Reuters - The contract that established Apple as a corporate entity in 1976 sold at auction on Tuesday for $1.59 million, 10 times its estimated price, two months after the death of high-profile co-founder Steve Jobs.
  
  
  
• Steve Jobs' Last Big Failure: iAds
  December 14, 2011
  

  In recent years, it seemed that Steve Jobs could do no wrong. Whether it was the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad--you name it--the late Apple cofounder and chairman had the golden touch. Then there's iAd. The mobile advertising service, introduced almost a year and a half ago, was supposed to launch Apple
  
• Sony, Universal and Fox Caught Pirating Through BitTorrent
  December 14, 2011
  
  
  New submitter Bad_Feeling sends in a followup to the story we discussed on Monday about a new site that scanned a few popular torrent trackers and linked torrents to IP addresses. The folks at TorrentFreak decided to check IP addresses belonging to major companies in the entertainment industry and published lists of pirated files from several, including Fox, Sony, and NBC Universal. Of course, they used the information to make a slightly different point than the industry usually does: "By highlighting the above our intention is not to get anyone into trouble, and for that reason we masked out the end of the IP addresses to avoid a witch hunt. An IP address is not a person, IP addresses can be shared among many people, and anyone can be behind a keyboard at any given time."
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  
• How warm can you run your datacenter?
  December 14, 2011
  Intel wants you to start to consider running your datacenters almost 30 degrees warmer than you are running them now, citing the huge potential energy savings of such a move.
  
• Scientists home in on missing link of physics
  December 14, 2011
  GENEVA (Reuters) - International scientists said on Tuesday they had found signs of the Higgs boson, an elementary sub-atomic particle believed to have played a vital role in the creation of the universe after the Big Bang.
  

  

  
  
• Paypal plans daily deal coupons
  December 14, 2011
  The online payment service for eBay plans to launch a discount coupon service in 2012, posing competition to Groupon and Livingsocial.
  
• The two reasons I avoided Android and finally upgraded to the relatively boring iPhone 4S
  December 14, 2011
  Would you take the easy path and go with a workable, if uninspiring iPhone 4GS? Or, would you take a chance on the wild world of malware and go with Android?
  
• May the Force Be With Your Nuts
  December 14, 2011
  It's that Nutcracker Suite time of year, and Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers are after your nuts.
  
• "Ico, Ico, See How I Go" - Ueda leaves Sony
  December 14, 2011
  Fumito Ueda, whose long-suspected departure from Sony Computer Entertainment has now been confirmed, is absolutely a critic's developer. His games 'Ico' and 'Shadow of the Colossus' attracted extraordinary praise for their ability to do something games at the time were not known for - to generate emotional connections through beautiful presentation of game mechanics. In 'Ico', the player had to guide a helpless deuteragonist through a deadly castle, leading her by the hand. In 'Shadow of the Colossus', vast, strangely beautiful monsters had to be killed, during which environmental destruction the player developed a growing emotional bond with their horse.
  
• Waitrose uses augmented reality app for Christmas Magic
  December 14, 2011
  Waitrose has incorporated Blippar, an augmented reality app to enhance its interaction with viewers using Android or iPhone during its 'Christmas Magic' campaign.
  
• Islamists pursue gains in Egypt's phased election
  December 14, 2011
  CAIRO (Reuters) - Rival Islamist groups sought more gains in the second round of Egypt's parliamentary election on Wednesday, with liberals also fighting for a voice in an army-led transition that began with the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.
  

  

  
  
• Google moves to delete fraud apps
  December 14, 2011
  Google has been forced to delete 22 applications from its Android Market after a dangerous text message fraud scam was discovered.
  
• Nokia Siemens Scales Down Presence in Iran
  December 14, 2011
  Telecommunications vendor Nokia Siemens Networks is further limiting the way it does business in Iran, as the international stance against the country is...
  
  
  
  
• Alienware revamps its Aurora gaming desktop PC, adds Sandy Bridge-E processors
  December 14, 2011
  Alienware has rebooted its Aurora gaming desktop, giving it new aggressive styling and loading it with the latest hardware.The vents along the top of the case not only give the new Aurora a...
  
• Digital divide and social media: Connectivity doesn't end the digital divide, skills do.
  December 14, 2011
  Whether we like it or not, we live in a very unequal and stratified world. We live in societies in which inequality is ignored in education, science, and in the social media. As Internet technologies are rapidly evolving and new digital divides on the Internet emerge, we must move beyond, at some point, a singular concern over Internet access and technological infrastructure issues. We must tackle socio-cultural differences, we must focus on Internet skills, literacies and social media usage.
  Recently I finished a study on social inequalities from an Internet perspective (to be published next year) where I examined moving beyond digital inequalities in the context of the technological infrastructure and Internet access. Primarily, those inequalities in the networked world are: the lack of digital and media literacies; critical thinking and communication skills in order to navigate and evaluate data online; an information and knowledge gap; and collaboration and participatory inequalities.
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• Last-minute green gadget gift guide
  December 14, 2011
  Want your solar charger to play while it's juicing up? Sick of replacing your keyboard batteries? Here are 7 green gadgets for the green enthusiasts on your list (including you)
  
• Email discounts up 30 percent this holiday season (report)
  December 14, 2011
  Half-off discounts from retailers delivered via email are up significantly holiday season, according to a new report from Experian CheetahMail, a unit of Experian Marketing Services.The use of...
  
• Europe accepts IBM antitrust concession; Drops investigation
  December 14, 2011
  European antitrust chiefs will drop an investigation into IBM, after concessions were made to steer the Commission away from a ruling.
  
• Put e-gifts in virtual stockings this holiday
  December 14, 2011
  Digital gifts may be tough to wrap. But they can be more convenient for both givers and recipients.
  

  

  
  
• Google Gets Alfred But It's Certainly No Siri
  December 14, 2011
  
  
• Five New Management Metrics You Need To Know
  December 14, 2011
  After years of leading teams and watching some of the best startup CEOs in the world, I’ve learned that the most important metrics are often ones you never read about on the income statement or in the financial press.
  
• Gadget gifts for the fitness forward
  December 14, 2011
  Have a friend or relative who's a fitness fanatic? Here are a few healthy gadget gifts they are sure to enjoy.
  

  

  
  
• Secret behind Microsoft iPad apps
  December 14, 2011
  Microsoft is releasing one iPad app after another, and hopes we don't figure out why it is doing so.
  
• BodyGuardz ScreenGuardz and UltraTough Clear for iPhone 4S (review)
  December 14, 2011
  I am a strong believer in applying screen protectors to the high priced smartphones of today since we tend to throw them in our jeans pockets and carry them naked.
  
• Rep. Issa: SOPA won't be approved unless fixed
  December 14, 2011
  GOP committee chairman says Stop Online Piracy Act hands the attorney general far too much power and will be too "controversial" for Republican leaders to send to the House floor for a vote.
  
• From Netflix to iTunes: What to expect in 2012
  December 14, 2011
  Amazon could really push Netflix in the coming year, while iTunes may surrender market share to burgeoning music subscription services.
  
• Off the Beam: Did a U.S. Radar Research Station Disable Russia's Phobos Probe?
  December 14, 2011
  After 19 attempts over 51 years, Russia has yet to chalk up a fully successful mission to Mars . That includes its ambitious Phobos–Grunt probe , launched November 8 from Kazakhstan and now stranded in low Earth orbit . Unable to regain control of the spacecraft, the Russians now expect it to fall back to Earth around January 9. [More]
  
  
  
  
  
• Carrier IQ 'may have' collected text messages
  December 14, 2011
  This is why software like Carrier IQ is a bad idea.
  
• Japan's Nexon in $1.2bn float
  December 14, 2011
  Online gaming company Nexon gets a lukewarm response from investors to its $1.2bn initial public offering, Japan's biggest this year.
  
• UK data regulator issues cookie warning; Google faces compliance challenge
  December 14, 2011
  The UK data protection agency is preparing its vat of dough for an online cookie fight, giving companies and businesses six months to prepare for a change in the law.
  
• EU accepts IBM antitrust concessions, ends probe
  December 14, 2011
  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators accepted concessions offered by International Business Machines Corp to end an antitrust investigation and avert a possible fine, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
  

  

  
  
• What Microsoft Should and Shouldn't Do For the Xbox 720
  December 14, 2011
  
  
  donniebaseball23 writes "Xbox 360 just came off a record November, with more than 1.7 million units sold in the U.S., but behind closed doors Microsoft is planning its next move for the successor to the popular console. Plenty of Xbox 720 rumors have surfaced in recent months, but veteran games journalist Chris Morris has filtered through them to provide a realistic take on what Microsoft should and shouldn't do with Xbox 360's successor. In particular, he notes that Microsoft should adopt the Blu-ray format from Sony. 'A DVD drive as a medium for storing larger and larger games is outdated – and it steps on the toes of a system that bills itself as the high definition leader,' Morris writes. 'Microsoft resisted the move to Blu-ray this generation without any ill effects. It even survived picking the losing side in the format battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, but it can't rely on the DVD to take it into the next generation.'"
  Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  
• Firefox 9.0 Beta 6
  December 14, 2011
  The Web is all about innovation, and Firefox sets the pace with dozens of new features to deliver a faster, more secure and customizable Web browsing experience for all.
  
  

  

  
  
• Vuze 4.7.0.2
  December 14, 2011
  Vuze (formerly Azureus) is a free BitTorrent client used to transfer files via the BitTorrent protocol. Vuze is written in Java, and uses the Azureus Engine. Vuze offers multiple torrent downloads, queuing/priority systems (on torrents and files), start/stop seeding options and instant access to numerous pieces of information about your torrents.