Free Republic

I'll try to make this as short as possible, because I never know when a page is going to load. As you may recall, I started having connection issues about three and a half months ago. After eliminating every other issue I wound up getting another (rebuilt) computer. Late last month the same issue began showing up so I returned the computer to the repair shop at which I bought it. They hooked it up to their connection and announced that there was nothing wrong with it. As recently as last Sunday this thing was working like a top. Now...

So, this weekend's news in the tech world was flooded with a "story" about how a "chatbot" passed the Turing Test for "the first time," with lots of publications buying every point in the story and talking about what a big deal it was. Except, almost everything about the story is bogus and a bunch of gullible reporters ran with it, because that's what they do. First, here's the press release from the University of Reading, which should have set off all sorts of alarm bells for any reporter. Here are some quotes, almost all of which are misleading...

Let’s talk about the coolest substance ever: graphene. It’s one atom thick, (about one-millionth the thickness of a single strand of hair), it’s 100 times stronger than steel, and it conducts electricity like nothing else. It’s a supermaterial that is quietly changing the course of technology. Here’s why you should get excited about it: It will turn computers into transformers It is now being suggested that graphene can be changed into different configurations on the fly by simply manipulating it with lasers. That means that it could take on the form of different computers in just seconds, freeing us from...

Fugitive Edward Snowden on Friday challenged the NSA’s insistence that it has no evidence he tried to raise concerns about the agency’s surveillance activity before he began leaking government documents to reporters, calling the response a “clearly tailored and incomplete leak ... for a political advantage.” “The NSA's new discovery of written contact between me and its lawyers -- after more than a year of denying any such contact existed - raises serious concerns,” Snowden said in an email Friday to NBC News. “It reveals as false the NSA's claim to Barton Gellman of the Washington Post in December of...

Sure there are technical forums that discuss btrfs, the shiny new filesystem for Linux but my experience has shown that FReepers meet or exceed the technical expertise anywhere on the net. The two cutting-edge filesystems that are (supposedly) impervious to bitrot are btrfs and zfs (which has a Linux implementation, older than what Oracle has now closed off).

The United States on Monday charged five Chinese military officers and accused them of hacking into American nuclear, metal and solar companies to steal trade secrets, ratcheting up tensions between the two world powers over cyber espionage. China immediately denied the charges, saying in a strongly worded Foreign Ministry statement the U.S. grand jury indictment was "made up" and would damage trust between the two nations. Officials in Washington have argued for years that cyber espionage is a top national security concern.

The U.S. Department of Justice wants new authority to hack and search remote computers during investigations, saying the new rules are needed because of complex criminal schemes sometimes using millions of machines spread across the country. Digital rights groups say the request from the DOJ for authority to search computers outside the district where an investigation is based raises concerns about Internet security and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. “By expanding federal law enforcement’s power to secretly exploit ‘zero-day’ vulnerabilities in software and Internet platforms, the proposal threatens to weaken Internet security for all of us,” Nathan...

A man has filed a lawsuit in Florida for the right to marry his MacBook computer, according to the UK Telegraph newspaper. Chris Sevier argues that if same-sex marriages are allowed, on the grounds that one can marry anyone they love, then Sever should be allowed to marry his computer. Apparently it is not just any computer that turns Sevier’s head, but the massive inventory of pornography stored on it: “Over time, I began preferring sex with my computer over sex with real women. Naturally, I ‘fell in love’ with my computer and preferred having sex with it over all...

Asking for opinions on the best budget tablet. Something big enough for me to work on -- i.e., be able to type easily and see the display without holding it six inches from my face. Not worried about communications -- as long as it's got WiFi built in (which I'm sure they all do), I can use my cellphone as a mobile hotspot to transfer/send files. This is intended to be a replacement for a working laptop/notebook. And again -- "budget" is the keyword. Thanks all!.

The old Dell Latitude e5500 appears to have reached the end of its useful life (Final report from tech due this afternoon) I am loooking for advice on a replacement. I use it for photo, video and audio editing for YouTube, web sites and my radio program. It would have to be very mobile but have a big enough screen for video editing. The Dell Alienware 14 has been suggested, but spec'd out, it runs $1.5K. That seems a little steep to me. Advice?

Finally! I was without a computer all week last week and then found out frday that the old computer was beyond repair. I got this one for a good price and it seems a much better computer; videos play well for one thing. Right now there are only two problems: 1)Although I set up my two e-mail accounts on Outlook Express correctly and exactly as I'm supposed to, one of them refuses to work (fortunately, not my main one). The other one resolutely refuses to do so even though there is absolutely no logical reason for this. Also, this is...

I get this now. just happened after downloading Hitman Pro after my free trial expired and then attempting reboot. Not sure if this is related to that. When I try CTRL+ALT+DEL , I just get the same message. so how do I reboot?(no, I no longer have the boot disk or program CD) Toshiba Satellite L505-S6946 and Vista Home Premium...

The California Department of Motor Vehicles Saturday said there is no evidence showing a direct breach of its computer system but it would open an investigation "out of an abundance of caution." Earlier Saturday, security blogger Brian Krebs reported that banks in California and elsewhere were alerted by MasterCard about compromised cards that had all been used for online transactions at the California DMV. The agency said it would pursue its investigation in conjunction with state and federal law enforcement.

IBM's Watson: Designed to Learn Like a Human by Randy J. Guliuzza, P.E., M.D. * On March 5, 2014, the IBM supercomputer "Watson" became a pioneer virtual chef, inadvertently showcasing the remarkably superior hardware and software found between our ears. This intelligent machine, named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, produced recipes based on a series of algorithms that cross-referenced data on flavor compounds to people's likes and dislikes. "The supercomputer made its debut as a chef at a Las Vegas tech conference last week, and so far has produced gourmet, fusion fare like a Swiss-Thai asparagus quiche, an Austrian...

I received a notice of Copyright Infringement at my office today. It says someone downloaded a file called Let It Snow on 2/22/14 at 7:49GMT and the ip address listed is 173.23.1.91. I am really concerned and don't know what my first step should be in combating this problem. Does anyone have any advice about this, I would greatly appreciate any help with this matter.

Microsoft is currently experimenting with a free version of Windows 8.1 that could boost the number of people using the operating system. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the company is building "Windows 8.1 with Bing," a version that will bundle key Microsoft apps and services. While early versions of the software have leaked online, we understand that Windows 8.1 with Bing is an experimental project that aims to bring a low-cost version of Windows to consumers... We’re told that Microsoft is aiming to position Windows 8.1 with Bing as a free or low-cost upgrade for Windows...

TECHNOLOGY 7887 kHz, Your Home for Classic Cuban Espionage Radio The shortwave radio signals that the alleged Russian spies were using are still surprisingly effective. By Brett Sokol Posted Tuesday, July 6, 2010, at 1:53 PM ET The FBI documents that accompanied last week's arrest of 10 alleged Russian spies are alternately creepy—who knew the Tribeca Barnes & Noble was a hotbed of espionage?—and comical—turns out even foreign spies wanted to cash in on suburban New Jersey's real estate boom. With a nod to Boris and Natasha, the accused are also said to have used short-wave radio, a 1920s-era technology...

“[The company D-Wave] makes a new type of computer called a quantum computer that’s so radical and strange, people are still trying to figure out what it’s for and how to use it…. The supercooled niobium chip at the heart of the D-Wave Two has 512 qubits and therefore could in theory perform 2^512 operations simultaneously. That’s more calculations than there are atoms in the universe, by many orders of magnitude…. Naturally, a lot of people want one. This is the age of Big Data, and we’re burying ourselves in ­­information—search queries, genomes, credit-card purchases, phone records, retail transactions, social...

There are a number of annual training requirements we have to meet in the Marine Corps. It being the 21st Century, some of those have to do with cyber awareness and protecting information of various kinds. Since common sense is not a common virtue we are all subjected to online training in protecting personally identifiable information and classified material. Not completing the training will result in the Marine Corps turning off our access to e-mail and internet at work. This sounds more like a reward than a consequence but remember what I said about sense being common. The cyber counter...