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Google takes the fight to Microsoft and AppleFor those of you who have been eager to see what's going on with Google's upcoming Chrome OS, today is your big change. Google just announced that Chrome OS 4.0.223 beta is now available for download. The open source operating system is based on Linux and is aimed at the growing netbook sector which are taking over the PC market.

Players of a new video game are reportedly cast as terrorists who murder unarmed civilians in an airport in scenes described as "reminiscent of last year's mass killings in Mumbai". Secret video footage of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was leaked earlier this morning, showing one level where characters wearing body armour over business suits shoot down other characters. The footage of the massacre — described by gaming blog IGN as "some of the most violent-looking and realistic scenes we've seen in a video game" — was published on YouTube but later pulled because of "copyright infringement". It showed...

Opinion: Apple was blindsided by Windows 7. It wasn’t the product which they saw coming, it was the sustaining marketing budget and positive reviews from Apple loyalists like Walt Mossberg they didn’t see (though several Mac fans have told me that Steve Jobs has taken Walt to task and he is changing his tune).As a result they have shifted their negative campaign against Windows Vista into a FUD campaign against Windows 7 using innuendo and association to disparage Microsoft’s new platform. You can see the ads here but broken promises and PC News are pure but well done FUD. Granted...

Bored Boston government workers are goofing off on Facebook and other popular social networking sites on taxpayer time, boasting of napping during meetings, playing “Mafia Wars,” creating anagrams of their names and planning Halloween costumes. The poster girl for the on-the-clock cyber-slacking is Amy Derjue, who earns $39,000 a year as Boston City Council President Michael Ross’ communications director. The former Boston magazine blogger regularly updates her personal status on Facebook and Twitter throughout the work day, brazenly joking to her online pals about snoozing at a hearing, writing snarky comments about the reality TV show “Jon & Kate Plus...

Quote: 27 October 2009 MEANWHILE, AT AL-MA'ARK FORUM... ...it is reported that an al-Faloja member was snatched in Gaza (and perhaps another in Saudi Arabia?). Posted on 27 October 2009 @ 13:24

Note: Posted here for archival purposes only. 27 October 2009 POOR FIGO... ...he's evidently feeling lonely.

Cisco boffins infiltrate a botnet to find out about online crime By posing as a rogue programmer, Cisco researchers gained a unique insight into the world of botnets and their owners Poor education, a criminal record and a dislike of authority can all turn programmers bad. That's the finding of Cisco researchers who posed as botmasters to enter the world of online crime. "I wanna do what I wanna do, whenever I want," one botmaster told the researchers. By posing online as a rogue programmer, the researchers got him to reveal how he spams thousands of instant messenger users with...

The number of Web sites hosting malicious software, either intentionally or unwittingly, is rising rapidly, according to statistics to be released on Tuesday from Dasient. More than 640,000 Web sites and about 5.8 million pages are infected with malware, according to Dasient, which was founded by former Googlers to offer services to help Web sites stay malware-free and off blacklists. That figure for infected pages is nearly double what Microsoft estimated in a report in April. Meanwhile, the Google blacklist of malware infected sites has more than doubled in the last year, registering as many as 40,000 new sites in...

After King County Superior Court Judge Gregory Canova awarded Microsoft an $8.7 million judgment in a 2008 lawsuit involving unpaid software licenses, he might have been surprised to learn that Microsoft isn’t actually in the software licensing business in Washington – or at least that’s what it reports to the state Department of Revenue. For tax purposes, Microsoft reports that it’s earned its estimated $143 billion in software licensing revenue in Nevada, where there is no licensing tax. However, for legal purposes, Microsoft executes its licensing contracts so they are governed by and rely on the protections of Washington law...

Do you remember when James Bond escaped a sticky situation in Tomorrow Never Dies using his remote-controlled car? Well now technology has jumped from the world of fiction to reality. Computer scientists in Germany have developed an iPhone application that turns the smartphone into a remote control for their self-constructed car. The driver can operate the steering, brakes, and accelerator pedal with just a few strokes of the mobile's touchscreen.A video camera placed on the dashboard transmits a signal to the iPhone, which allows the 'remote driver' to see everything in front of the car and adjust the car's movements...

If you've been holding off on buying a new computer, Microsoft Windows 7 will be a good excuse to get back into the game. And if you've been weighing a Mac versus a Windows PC, then you should know that "7" pushes the scales on the Windows side. But should you upgrade your aging computer, even if you're running Windows XP? And should you use the occasion to buy a new PC? Those are certain to be the questions on the minds of millions, and it's the main topic we tackle this installment of Tech Tuesday. After the upgrade debate...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAYf_BF-CUg Video: “A Mom’s Song” Video Description - Quote: teapartyscv October 26, 2009 This song is written and performed by a Tea Party Patriot Mom, Strong message for those who what to give away our freedoms. Support your local tea party. Visit http://www.teapartyscv.com for more info Category: News & Politics Tags: Moms Song Tea Party Information

Steve Ballmer recently stated that Windows 7 is the best version of Windows ever. Now that Windows 7 is officially out, the public at large can join that debate and determine if Windows 7 is the best version of Windows yet, or even the greatest operating system of all time. Let's consider the hypothetical question of whether Windows 7 is the greatest operating system of all time. Before the flaming comments start flowing about what a Microsoft fanboy I am, let me begin by stating that it's a hypothetical question, not a statement of opinion, never mind an assessment of...

The more I think and learn about the curious pricing of the 27” iMac, the more bizarre and incredible it seems. It has a resolution of 2560x1440, which no other monitor in the industry seems to have (that I can find). 30” LCDs are the same width but 1600 tall. Shrinking 2560-wide into a screen that’s 3” smaller diagonally yields an impressive pixel density, especially given the panel’s still-immense size. It has an IPS panel. IPS is the best and most expensive LCD type, giving the best viewing angle and the least color- and brightness-shifting as the angle increases in...

I have a confession: I'm a switcher. My long journey with Windows, which began even before Windows with MS-DOS, ended with Windows Vista. While so many others navigated the Vista debacle by sticking with Windows XP, I gave Vista a try -- and gave up. I leapt to the Mac OS. Could Windows 7 lure me back? Windows 7 was built to fix the problems that plagued Vista, and it unquestionably succeeds in doing that. It's a bit less bloated, and it runs a bit faster. The annoying security alerts from User Account Control have been quieted. And the compatibility...

Tilera on Monday announced new general-purpose CPUs, including a 100-core chip, as it tries to make its way into the server market dominated by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. The two-year-old startup's Tile-GX series of chips are targeted at servers and appliances that execute Web-related functions such as indexing, Web search and video search, said Anant Agarwal, cofounder and chief technology officer of Tilera, which is based in San Jose, California. The chips have the attributes of a general-purpose CPU as they can run the Linux OS and other applications commonly used to serve Web data. "You can run us...

Facebook users in Britain said the Web site 's latest feature, which encourages people to contact old friends, is bringing up deceased people as suggestions. The new feature, which went live during the weekend, appears in the form of an automatically generated box suggesting the user logged in "reconnect" with a specific friend they have not contacted in a while. Dozens of users reported the box was suggesting deceased friends only hours after the feature was launched, Sky News reported Monday. A 27-year-old Facebook user who gave her name as Emma said she was distressed to be confronted with a...

In the dark world of the cybercriminal economy, computer viruses battle not just against anti-virus security software, but even other strains of malware for control of infected PCs, security researchers said. A strain of Trojan malware identified as Bredo contains code that disables the Zeus/Zbot Trojan and moves files to prevent Zeus from reinstalling itself on reboot, according to security researchers from Sophos. Malware authors have previously targeted other malware as a way to keep PCs under their control and not controlled by a rival bot herder. The cybercriminals use networks of infected PCs - called botnets - to distribute...

After nearly a year-long build-up, Microsoft’s ongoing pre-launch campaign to woo computer users has come to a close, with the public launch of Microsoft’s latest and greatest desktop OS, Windows 7.Windows 7 is being born in to a world of uncertainty, one Microsoft has never faced before to such a degree. Apple’s (and Mac OS X) market share is the highest it’s been in over a decade. Linux has finally gained however small a foothold in home computers through netbooks. And what was Microsoft’s next-gen operating system, Windows Vista, has taken enough backlash that it’s going to be in therapy...

The FCC has approved a notice of proposed rule making on the subject of net neutrality, and here are a few questions and answers to help shine a light on what that means. (See "FCC takes first step toward net neutrality rules")What exactly did the FCC do?The FCC agreed to consider what regulations, if any, to impose on ISPs about the applications and services that they allow, ban or rate limit. The process calls for formally proposing rules and holding public hearings on them. A vote about the rules themselves will take place sometime next year. What is net neutrality...

Determining whether or not to apply the ultimate slur of Internet derision to a site — whether it’s “gay” or not — might become a lot more subjective a process, if two competing for-profit groups have their way. Each wants to spearhead the development of a .gay suffix for use in internet domains. The two groups aren’t very different.. One is the Dot Gay Alliance at dotgay.org, headed up by Joe Dolce, a longtime gay activist who got the idea when helped creating the .eco domain. When Al Gore said he would support .eco if half the proceeds from the...

At Mozilla, we regularly get anguished emails from people who have paid to download Firefox, and have then discovered a) that it's actually free, and b) that it's very hard to get the company they paid to stop charging their credit card. For those who have never had the misfortune to visit one of these trap sites, I thought people might be interested in a walkthrough of the user experience.

Tilera isn't a name you see on our pages too often (alright, never), because their products almost have nothing to do with what we normally deal with, such as desktop CPUs... or products you'd have in your machine at home. Their processors are interesting, though, because although they are designed for certain purposes (embedded, DSP, FPGA, x86), the numbers they boast can catch anyone's attention.According to the company, the new TILEPro64 processors are twice as fast as the previous generation, and offer a 35x better performance/watt ratio over Intel Xeon Quad-Cores. Despite the hefty jump in performance over their previous...

Every once in awhile, I see an article in which the author seems surprised that Apple sells anything at all to the federal government. Or that they haven't given up on the small success the company has had. While it's true that Apple's total sales to local, state, and federal government is small compared to expenditures for Windows products, it's not exactly chump change either. Here's an example of such an article that caught my eye. It's not that the perception that Apple isn't widely used in the U.S. government is wrong. Rather, the perspective of the author is bound...

SEOUL, South Korea - The Internet is set to undergo one of the biggest changes in its four-decade history with the expected approval this week of international domain names — or addresses — that can be written in languages other than English, an official said Monday. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN — the non-profit group that oversees domain names — is holding a meeting this week in Seoul. Domain names are the monikers behind every Web site, e-mail address and Twitter post, such as ".com" and other suffixes. One of the key issues to be...

NYT tech columnist, Mac man and former Broadway musical conductor, David Pogue, takes a moment at the Boston Book Festival yesterday (where he talked ebooks, surprise, surprise) to sing us his tribute to Steve Jobs: You Tube Video: “Don’t Cry For Me, Cupertino”

There’s nothing geeks love more than to argue mobile phone platforms. Here’s Matt Blaisdell saying that apps weren’t key to iPhone’s success. That’s true, but now that Apple has apps the world has changed and challengers to the iPhone will find it very tough. Here’s why: everyone is using a different set of 20 apps. Trillions of combinations. You can see this on Appsfire’s VIP list (my iPhone apps are listed there, along with a number of others). None of us have the same set of apps. So, to get me off of the iPhone you are going to have...

I just realized I have a serious addiction problem. I am addicted to Free Republic. Here are my stats You've posted a total of 706 threads and 42,891 replies. How much of an addict are you?

If you're on Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking site, you could be the next victim. Experts say cybercrooks are lurking just a mouse click away on popular social networking sites. That's because more cyberthieves are targeting increasingly popular social networking sites that provide a gold mine of personal information, according to the FBI. Since 2006, nearly 3,200 account hijacking cases have been reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. It starts with a friend updating his or her status or sending...

I hope someone, more knowledgable than myself can help me solve a computer problem. Recently, whenever I try to watch a youtube video I'm not able to get any sound, but when I click on the live feed of a radio station the sound is fine. Can someone perhaps give some ideas on how to solve this very annoying problem? Thanks to any who can help.

A programming overhaul of the White House's Web site has set the tech world abuzz. For low-techies, it's a snooze — you won't notice a thing.The online-savvy administration on Saturday switched to open-source code for www.whitehouse.gov — meaning the programming language is written in public view, available for public use and able for people to edit."We now have a technology platform to get more and more voices on the site," White House new media director Macon Phillips told The Associated Press hours before the new site went live on Saturday. "This is state-of-the-art technology and the government is a participant...

"Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen vow they will deflect the fighting to Kampala and Bujumbura" Shabelle: SOMALIA SNIPPET: "MOGADISHU (Sh.M. Network) – the Islamist officials of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen have Friday talked about yesterday’s shelling in Somali capital Mogadishu and said that they will deflect the fighting in Mogadishu Kampala and Bujumbura." SNIPPET: "The official of Harakat Al-shabab Mujahideen had threatened to the African Union troops reiterating that they will replace the fighting continuing in Mogadishu to the capital cities of Uganda and Burundi."

What is it? Where is it? What's it do? ZoneAlarm Firewall

I had two, but they both no longer work

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer appeared on NBC's Today Show on Thursday to shill his company's Vista service pack, er, "Windows 7" and spent the entire segment in front of an older model (note the latches above the screen) Apple MacBook Pro (courtesy of an NBC graphic designer — Mac user, no doubt — who must have a wicked sense of humor): Direct link to video via Hulu here. Of course, it's easy to run Windows 7 (or any other Windows version, Linux, etc.) and non-Mac applications on OS-unlimited Macs natively (via Apple's Boot Camp) and/or via fast virtualization (VMWare Fusion,...

Canada's big Internet carriers have scored a major victory, as the telecommunication regulator ruled it is okay for them to slow down some of the Web traffic travelling to customers' personal computers – as long as the companies explain ahead of time what they are doing. In a decision that clarifies its approach to the practice known as traffic shaping, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said Wednesday that companies such as Bell Canada, BCE-T Rogers Communications Inc. RCI.B-T and Telus Corp. T-T should do everything they can to expand network capacity.But if they have to slow down or “throttle”...

The court case filed by an Illinois County Sheriff alleging the Craigslist website abets prostitution was thrown out by a federal judge this week. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart contended that the erotic services portion of the website constituted a "horrific" breach of U.S. law, alleging that the site had facilitated the largest source of prostitution in the country. He also said Craigslist aids underage pimping and human trafficking, ABC News reports. Federal Judge John Grady, however, ruled that the intermediary website cannot be held liable for assisting customers who misuse their service to break the law. "If users routinely...

I think the saying goes that those that don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. This is likely to point with Apple this month as they sit stunned that Windows 7 is doing so well and they are left looking foolish with products priced out of the segment. Their big news this week was a couple of PCs, a new keyboard and a multi-touch mouse. This last will likely go down in history as one of the lamest devices yet as they should know, given the iPhone, that touch is connected to the screen and not anything else....

My router / ethernet switch stopped working last night. How do I fix it? I was surfing the web last night when all of a sudden I couldn't reload several web pages. I restarted the cable modem, but that didn't fix the problem. I then noticed that the network icon had an "X" on it. The diagnostic program suggested I might have an unplugged network cable. I checked another computer on the network, and it wasn't connected either. I then tested the internet connection by connecting the cable modem directly to the computer, and it worked.

Time for some humor on the subject matter. I know my fellow IT Geeks will be good at this one. What does the "7" mean in Windows "7"? 7: The year it was supposed to be released (2007). 7: The number of hours it will take to upgrade. 7: How much companies will have to multiply their IT staff for support. 7: The average quantity of software you had that won't work in "7". 7: The number of crashes you will expect each day. 7: The months it will take Microsoft to patch half of the security leaks. 7: The...

You can't always tell if a virus has taken over a Windows computer, but many anti-virus programs leave no doubt about their presence. They'll embed toolbars in Web browsers and e-mail programs, then pop up notices after downloading the latest virus definitions. The ones that charge for those updates will nag you to renew; the ones that don't may prod you to upgrade to a paid version. The new, free Microsoft Security Essentialsdoesn't follow that pattern. This download for Windows XP, Vista and 7 seems downright meek: You don't have to click past upsells for a premium edition when you...

Thought I would bring an fyi to freeper students and educators who have a valid .edu address. Microsoft has a time limited offer for Windows 7 and MS Office. You can purchase Windows 7 Professional upgrade version for 29.99 and MS Office for 59.95. Some schools have a partnership deal with MS and some others don't with this you can purchase software at the price the partner schools receive it. This is a time limited offer though as it ends on Jan 3, 2010.

Yes, Windows 7 didn't even hit the market until Thursday. But that hasn't stopped a fog of myths from enveloping the newest version of the much loved--and much hated--PC operating system from Microsoft. [Slide Show: The Best of What's New in Windows 7.] The software giant hoped that wide exposure to Windows 7 would help smooth its entry. Microsoft let millions of consumers and professionals download test versions of the operating system. And by a wide margin, testers have found the new system to be the best yet from Microsoft. Version 7 is leaner, more useful, and prettier than past...

A couple of weeks ago, I asked Hot Air readers if they would immediately upgrade from their current operating system to the newly-released Windows 7.  Only 16% said they would change operating systems immediately, while 37% said that they would keep their XP software until forced to change.  Surprisingly, 10% said they would stick with Vista, which has become a lot more stable, but is still a resource hog. Because I’m either a tech geek or a fool, I decided to upgrade immediately.  I have a high-powered laptop that consistently underperformed, at least in my opinion, under Vista.  While I...

For the past 2weeks i have noticed significnt keyboard lag, wrds running together and letter drop when I type eitherin a documet or on aforum. If you can read what precedes this sentence it will show you exactly what is happening. I have a generic USB keyboard (Logitech) and have reinstaled the driver and the keyboard to no avail. Any suggestions?

Psystar Corporation will begin selling the software it uses to run OS X Snow Leopard on generic Intel hardware. Available for download directly from Psystar.com, the Rebel EFI suite allows users to easily install any OS on their computer. Available today, Rebel EFI allows machines with Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, i7 or Xeon Nehalem CPUs to install any modern operating system, including Mac's newest release of OS X. Users would simply download the new software from Psystar.com, burn it onto a CD and follow the onscreen instructions to easily install the OS. Miami, FL (PRWEB) October 22,...

The contenders: Microsoft Windows 7 vs. Apple Snow Leopard Microsoft Windows 7 (Professional) Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard It's not often that the two most popular operating systems get major updates so close to each other, so we couldn't resist throwing them into a cage match together. Already we can hear some of you screaming that Snow Leopard isn't a major update--we know this one's personal! But is Windows 7 nothing more than "Vista done right"? Microsoft's severe stumble with Vista aside, Windows 7 clearly positions the operating system for the future, with a new look that integrates heavily...

I've been ruminating the past few days on why Apple (AAPL) is doing so well with it's pricey high-end products and services during a recession. The answer came as I was reading Wednesday's New York Times column by Thomas Friedman, whom I deeply admire and read anything and everything he puts out. Friedman points out that the winners in today's fast-shifting U.S. job market are the ones demonstrating "entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity." He says, "They are the new untouchables," in contrast to other still highly educated but less creative types. Friedman cites Harvard University labor expert Lawrence Katz, who explains...

I am still not able to open my FReepmail. Am I the only one having a problem?

Nokia sues Apple claiming iPhone infringement of Nokia GSM, UMTS and WLAN patentsNokia today sued Apple claiming iPhone patent infringement. Nokia's press release, verbatim: Nokia sues Apple in Delaware District Court for infringement of Nokia GSM, UMTS and WLAN patents October 22, 2009 Espoo, Finland - Nokia announced that it has today filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware, alleging that Apple's iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN (WLAN) standards. As a leading innovator in wireless communications, Nokia has created one of the strongest and broadest patent portfolios in the...