Reg reader unlocks secrets of LHC restart

Exclusive As all the world knows, the Large Hadron Collider - the mightiest particle-punisher in the world and possible portal to other dimensions - is shortly to fire up again, following last year's catastrophic liquid helium superfluid explosion.

You can learn that much by following other media outlets like any ignorant drone. But you are a tech-savvy Register reader, which means that you can follow events at the LHC live as they happen on CERN's own web pages, which are mostly open for anyone to view - though rather hard to find.

Reg reader unlocks secrets of LHC restart

We should emphasise that this is in no way due to any effort or goodness at Vulture Central. Rather it's the result of public-spirited efforts by Reg reader Chris Stephens. Just as amateur stargazers are usually the best source of information on top-secret spy satellites, enthusiastic LHC-watcher Chris is the man to go to for all the latest supercold superpowered superconductor supercollider news.

It was a tip-off from Chris, in fact, who had noticed climbing temperatures on part of the Collider's mighty magnetic ring, which enabled us to break the story of the baguette-bombing bird which temporarily scuttled the colossal machine two weeks back.

Inspired by having first caused a story to break on the Reg and then seeing it go global as it was shamelessly lifted without attribution by mainstream media outlets worldwide, Chris has now created an "unofficial" LHC portal with links to all the various fascinating CERN webpages, which are at the moment so little known.

In a superb twist, Chris tells us that the main users of the LHC Portal so far are in fact CERN personnel, who evidently find it the handiest way of navigating around their own websites. The portal is now linked to from at least one of CERN's internal sites.

T-Mobile Customers Suffer Data Breach

T-Mobile is again giving its customers -- and prospective customers -- reason to be nervous.

Most U.S. Sidekick device users suffered severe data losses in October, when they permanently lost photos, contacts, and calendar entries. T-Mobile then suspended the sales of Sidekick devices, which has only been resumed this week. Earlier this month, T-Mobile U.S. customers also experienced widespread service disruption for both voice calls and text messages.

This time, staff at the U.K. operations of wireless carrier T-Mobile have sold personal data of thousands of customers. Millions of records from customers were brokered to third parties, who then approached customers whose contracts were soon to expire.

T-Mobile, the country's fourth largest mobile phone company, said that its customers' data was sold without the company's knowledge, a T-Mobile spokesperson told the BBC. The breach is the biggest of its kind so far, according to Christopher Graham, U.K.'s Information Commissioner, whose office is preparing to prosecute the T-Mobile staff responsible for selling the personal data.

T-Mobile Customers Suffer Data Breach

With a U.K. workforce of around 6500, T-Mobile has more than 16 million U.K. customers (a 15 percent market share) and announced recently its plan to merge with Orange, the country's third largest wireless carrier -- creating a market leader above O2 and Vodafone with more than 28 million customers (and responsibility for even more records).

Suspicions of the customers' data breach were raised when customers whose contracts were due to expire soon were contacted regarding switching to a different carrier. T-Mobile said that it has identified the source of the breach, which then alerted the U.K.'s Information Commissioner. The yet-unnamed offenders could face fines up to$9000 each, but no jail time.