Allergy test

Nottingham University scientists have scooped a prestigious national award for developing a technique that can test for up to 5,000 different allergens from just one drop of blood.

The new basophil-microarray based allergy assay is the brainchild of researchers at NottinghamUniversity’s schools of pharmacy and biosciences, in collaboration with the Centre for Respiratory Research at NottinghamCityHospital.

Their innovation has won them a Da Vinci award in the Breakthrough Technology category, which comes with a £15,000 prize to use towards furthering their research.

PSP2 may feature PowerVR chipset for graphics

Sony is allegedly looking to achieve a slice of Apple's gaming pie – praise of the iPod touch and iPhone's graphics hardware have come from industry giants John Carmack and Sega – as it has apparently signed a license agreement for the PowerVR SGX chipset. EE Timeswrites that an anonymous deal was signed Monday, with little details readily available, which sources say is to outfit the PSP2 with the SGX55x chipset.

Allergy test

Nottingham University scientists have scooped a prestigious national award for developing a technique that can test for up to 5,000 different allergens from just one drop of blood.

The new basophil-microarray based allergy assay is the brainchild of researchers at NottinghamUniversity’s schools of pharmacy and biosciences, in collaboration with the Centre for Respiratory Research at NottinghamCityHospital.

Their innovation has won them a Da Vinci award in the Breakthrough Technology category, which comes with a £15,000 prize to use towards furthering their research.

Benchmarks: AMD's 45nm 'Shanghai' Opteron

AMD's 'Shanghai' processors are the company's first chips to utilize the improved performance and efficiency of 45nm technology. ZDNet Germany tests show that they have made up important ground on Intel Xeon chips.

AMD's 45nm chips have arrived almost exactly one year after the first Intel processors to use the same feature size currently the most advanced process used in mainstream processor production. Codenamed 'Shanghai', the new AMD processors are arriving first in quad-core Opterons for two-, four- and eight-processor server platforms, enabling up to 32 cores per server. Phenom variants for desktops, codenamed Deneb, are due in the first quarter of 2009.

Text analytics helps find what you're searching for

Commentary--Enterprise search is still growing, evolving and improving. Its main purpose continues to be to help users find the answers to business questions hidden in a complex myriad of sources. Questions and queries, such as How did the analysts react to our Q2 earnings results or Tell me about the Blackberry Bold, are the basis to an enterprise search system returning accurate results. However, as search becomes more and more of a commodity, many people are beginning to ask whats next for the enterprise search industry. How can we make it even more compelling and offer a new level of search experience? Search experts have come up with an answer by combining search technologies with the fast-evolving area of text analytics.

A guide to cutting IT costs

For the past few months everyone was hoping the IT industry might be saved the worst of the credit crunch fallout, on the basis that technology is vital to enterprise strategies to increase efficiency, improve services and ultimately benefit the bottom line. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that CIOs, along with businesses in general, are now facing increased pressures to reduce their IT costs.

In addressing cost cuts, however, one of the central issues that need to be considered is the 'balance of value'. That is, it is crucial to resist the often knee-jerk reaction to simply cut IT costs down to the bone. Rather, one needs to look at the cost/productivity equation: how to reduce costs while at the same time increasing operational efficiency and competitive advantage.

A guide to cutting IT costs

For the past few months everyone was hoping the IT industry might be saved the worst of the credit crunch fallout, on the basis that technology is vital to enterprise strategies to increase efficiency, improve services and ultimately benefit the bottom line. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that CIOs, along with businesses in general, are now facing increased pressures to reduce their IT costs.

In addressing cost cuts, however, one of the central issues that need to be considered is the 'balance of value'. That is, it is crucial to resist the often knee-jerk reaction to simply cut IT costs down to the bone. Rather, one needs to look at the cost/productivity equation: how to reduce costs while at the same time increasing operational efficiency and competitive advantage.

A guide to cutting IT costs

For the past few months everyone was hoping the IT industry might be saved the worst of the credit crunch fallout, on the basis that technology is vital to enterprise strategies to increase efficiency, improve services and ultimately benefit the bottom line. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that CIOs, along with businesses in general, are now facing increased pressures to reduce their IT costs.

In addressing cost cuts, however, one of the central issues that need to be considered is the 'balance of value'. That is, it is crucial to resist the often knee-jerk reaction to simply cut IT costs down to the bone. Rather, one needs to look at the cost/productivity equation: how to reduce costs while at the same time increasing operational efficiency and competitive advantage.

Mac OS X targeted by Trojan and backdoor tool

Two pieces of malicious software affecting Apple's Mac OS X appeared this week: a Trojan horse with the ability to download and install malicious code of an attacker's choice, and a hacker tool for creating backdoors, according to security vendors.

The Trojan called 'OSX.RSPlug.D' by Intego, the Mac security specialist that discovered the threat is a variant on an older piece of malicious code but with a new installer, Intego said.

Sun updates NetBeans with PHP support

Sun Microsystems on Wednesday introduced a version of the open-source NetBeans integrated development environment (IDE), with expanded support for web and Java software development.

The highlights of NetBeans IDE 6.5 are the addition of support for the PHP scripting language and a preview version of support for Python. Sun has been expanding the range of programming languages supported in the NetBeans IDE this year, adding Ruby on Rails in May's release of the NetBeans IDE 6.1.

Mobile industry calls for RFID payment push

The GSM Association has called on phone manufacturers to build RFID technology into handsets from mid-2009, in a bid to kick start the mobile-payment industry.

The technology, known as Near Field Communications (NFC), is the same kind of contactless payment connectivity that is built into London's Oyster travel card and the latest generation of bank cards. On Tuesday, at the start of the Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, the GSMA said building NFC into phones would "ensure that consumers can reap the benefits of mobile-payment services as soon as possible".

Mozilla to end support for Firefox 2

The Mozilla Foundation is planning to end support for the Firefox 2 browser in mid-December, despite the persistence of significant flaws in the most-recent version of the popular browser.

The 'end of life' (EOL) plan for Firefox 2 is part of Mozilla's policy of ending support for previous versions of a product six months after a new version's release. It is designed to allow Mozilla developers to focus their efforts on the current browser version, Firefox 3, released in mid-May.

Jaquar chases Roadrunner for fastest supercomputer

Cray's XT5 Jaguar supercomputer has narrowly missed displacing IBM's Roadrunner system as the world's fastest supercomputer, according to the results of the bi-annual 'Top500' supercomputing list announced on Friday.

Gartner: 85 percent of companies using open source

Eighty-five percent of companies are already using open-source software, with most of the remaining 15 percent expecting to do so within the next year, according to analysts at Gartner.

However, only 31 percent of companies surveyed by the analyst house had formal policies for evaluating and procuring open-source software (OSS). Gartner conducted its survey of 274 end-user organizations across the Asia/Pacific, Europe and North American markets in May and June, and announced the results on Monday.

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 unleashed

Version 3.0 of the universal serial bus specification has been released.

Unveiled on Monday by the USB Implementers Forum, the USB 3.0 spec can theoretically support data-transfer speeds of up to 4.8Gbps 10 times the speed provided by USB 2.0.

The new standard, also known as SuperSpeed USB, is also expected to be more power-efficient than its predecessor.

"SuperSpeed USB is the next advancement in ubiquitous technology," Jeff Ravencraft, the president of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the industry group that promotes USB technology, said in a statement on Monday. "Today's consumers are using rich media and large digital files that need to be easily and quickly transferred from PCs to devices and vice versa. SuperSpeed USB meets the needs of everyone, from the tech-savvy executive to the average home user."

Greening the data center

Commentary--Energy efficiency is a significant global issue today, and is expected to be even more important in the future. For the IT industry, concerns about affordable energy are playing out in data centers. Rising costs of energy -- along with limited availability of energy in some areas are forcing the IT industry to take a new approach in designing and managing data centers.

Data centers have doubled their energy use in the past five years, while U.S. commercial electrical costs increased by 10 percent from 2005-2006. With continued projected increases in energy consumption, at some companies, the situation is critical. Gartner research firm estimates that 70 percent of the Global 1,000 -- the worlds largest enterprises -- will need to modernize their data centers within the next five years.

Ubuntu to run on ARM-based netbooks

Canonical has announced it will be developing a version of its Ubuntu Linux desktop operating system specifically for ARM's Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processor architectures.

ARM-based processors have traditionally been used in small devices such as mobile phones, but it emerged in October that ARM's technology would soon be used in netbooks, the new breed of small, low-cost notebook PCs. Thursday's announcement builds on that revelation, as well as on Canonical's announcement in June that it would create netbook-specific distributions of Ubuntu.

Net bombarded by heaviest ever attacks this year

Online networks suffered their heaviest brute force attacks to date this year, with more sites than ever coming under sustained assault.

IP networks were bombarded by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks attempts to make networks unreachable by flooding them with traffic as intense as 40Gbps, a survey of 70 IP network operators worldwide has claimed.

The report by Arbor Networks says that the largest sustained attacks in the last two years were 24 Gbps and 17 Gbps, a 67 per cent increase in attack scale over last year.

A fraud ring or social networking - it's the same thing

SAS is unique among tech heavyweights for its private ownership - the business intelligence (BI) company has been run for more than 30 years by its co-founder and majority owner, Jim Goodnight.

silicon.com sat down with SAS's CEO in Las Vegas this week to find out his thoughts on cloud computing, succession planning and the iPhone.

silicon.com: It's been one year since SAS and Teradata announced a strategic partnership. Could there be a merger on the cards?

It's up to tech to save the world

The technology industry can play a major role in tackling global disease and battling climate change, according to the executive director of Google.org, Larry Brilliant.

Speaking at Salesforce.com's Dreamforce user conference in San Francisco this week, Brilliant said Google's charitable arm, Google.org, has donated around $150m (95m) in grants to charitable organizations since 2004 and allotted around $350m in online advertising space to not-for-profit organizations.

Ubiquity of location intelligence is near

Commentary--Information about location has never been more available or more widely used. Businesses rely on it to plan store and office placement and logistics and to learn about their customers. Consumers use it to get directions and find places to shop.

Ballmer calls Google's Android 'way behind'

Sydney, Australia--Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday dismissed Google's Android operating system, saying he believed it was financially unsound.

Speaking at Telstra's annual investment day, Ballmer said that Android was Google's first phone operating system and that designing one wasn't easy. "They can hire smart guys, hire a lot of people, blah dee blah dee blah, but you know they start out way behind in a certain sense," he said.

Schneier slams US border biometrics

Security expert and BT chief security-technology officer Bruce Schneier has attacked the US-Visit border-biometrics program, saying it has had "zero benefit" in terms of security.

Speaking to ZDNet UK last week, Schneier said that there was little evidence that the US-Visit program, which takes fingerprints and retinal scans from all visitors to the United States, had made any impact on reducing the threat from criminals and terrorists.

Cloud-computing zombies for $299 per month

Cloud-computing crimeware means networks of zombie machines can be hired to steal online-banking details for as little as $299 (185) per month.

'Fraud as a service' is opening up computer crime to people with no technical expertise, warned Uri Rivner, head of new technology at security company RSA.

Speaking at the RSA Conference Europe 2008 in London, Rivner laid the pricing bare, revealing how fraudsters offer botnet networks as a subscription service, with patching and upgrades thrown in.

How hackers were thwarted at the Beijing Olympics

The security team behind the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games has revealed how it found the real risks hidden within the millions of alerts received every day.

Faced with 12 million alerts per day, the team at the Games' worldwide IT partner, Atos Origin, used in-house risk-management technology to reduce the alerts to just 90 critical alarms, focusing on the most serious risks.

Honey traps were also used to trap several hackers, using results terminals with security holes to lure criminals into attempting to install applications.

How hackers were thwarted at the Beijing Olympics

The security team behind the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games has revealed how it found the real risks hidden within the millions of alerts received every day.

Faced with 12 million alerts per day, the team at the Games' worldwide IT partner, Atos Origin, used in-house risk-management technology to reduce the alerts to just 90 critical alarms, focusing on the most serious risks.

Honey traps were also used to trap several hackers, using results terminals with security holes to lure criminals into attempting to install applications.

Sony recalls 100,000 PC batteries

SAN FRANCISCO/TOKYO--Sony said five PC makers including Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba will recall 100,000 computer battery packs made by the Japanese electronics maker due to a fire hazard.