Free Republic

Would like to hear what fellow FR gamers think of the new Fallout 4 game. I tried Fallout 3 but didn't care for it. I'm not a fan of open worlds or RPG's. I prefer linear games, like BioShock, Uncharted, Dead Space, etc. Is Fallout 4 living up to the hype? Is it open world like Fallout 3?

I've known Linus Torvalds, Linux's inventor, for over 20 years. We're not chums, but we like each other.Lately, Torvalds has been getting a lot of flack for his management style. Linus doesn't suffer fools gladly. He has one way of judging people in his business of developing the Linux kernel: How good is your code?Nothing else matters. As Torvalds said earlier this year at the Linux.conf.au Conference, "I'm not a nice person, and I don't care about you. I care about the technology and the kernel-that's what's important to me." Now, I can deal with that kind of person. If...

Ransomware targeting Linux servers has been thwarted by hard working security boffins, with help from the software itself, mere days after its existence was made public.The Linux.Encoder.1 ransomware seeks Linux systems to encrypt and like others of its ilk demands owners pay BitCoins to have files decrypted. But the first iteration of the malware has, like most betas, proven fallible.Not only can it be decrypted using scripts without the need for ransoms to be paid, but it can re-encrypt itself, corrupting files and even encrypting the ransom note that directs victims how to pay the extortion.Bitdefender security wonks report both...

... Google has surprised users by announcing it will extend support for its Chrome web browser running on Microsoft's old Windows XP operating system until April 2016. Windows XP was sunset in April last year, with security patches no longer available for the obsolete operating system. Google at the time said support for Chrome on XP would be ditched at the same time as Microsoft ceased to provide updates for its operating system.

... Microsoft user forums have been flooded with complaints of issues with Outlook following the company's recent release of its monthly Patch Tuesday update bundle. The software giant released four critical patches and eight others ranked 'important' in its bundle earlier this week. But one of the patches - MS15-115 - is creating unintended side effects for Outlook users. The patch was intended to address a flaw in Windows' handling of fonts, and prevent remote code execution if an attacker convinces a user to either open a malicious document or visit an untrusted webpage that contains embedded fonts.

Since the badware scare about "attack sites", I've been seeing odd character replacements in some linked articles and thread titles.

The El Reg inbox has been flooded with reports of a serious cock-up by Microsoft's patching squad, with one of Tuesday's fixes causing killer problems for Outlook. "We are looking into reports from some customers who are experiencing difficulties with Outlook after installing Windows KB 3097877. An immediate review is under way," a Microsoft spokesperson told us. The problem is with software in one of the four critical patches issued in yesterday's Patch Tuesday bundle – MS15-115. This was supposed to fix a flaw in the way Windows handles fonts, but has had some unexpected side effects for some Outlook...

I don't know if this has impacted anybody else, but in recent weeks, I've noticed that HTML special characters are not rendering properly in HTML posts. For example, the character “ is rendering as “, the character ” is rendering as ”, and so on. A screenshot of a typical thread is here: Needless to say, that is really irritating. There is a workaround for this: replace these special characters with their corresponding HTML codes. The ones that FR is currently having problems with are as follows: ‘ "left single quote" ‘ ’ "right single quote" ’ “ "left double...

The iPad Pro Wednesday, 11 November 2015 First impressions last a lifetime, goes the adage. You’re going to have to forget your first impressions of the iPad to understand the iPad Pro. When Apple introduced the original iPad in 2010, it was explicitly positioned in a new role for a device — somewhere between an iPhone and a MacBook. That seems obvious, but the problem, for the iPad, is that people loved their iPhones and MacBooks. The only way iPad would succeed, Steve Jobs said, was if it were “far better at doing some key things” than either an iPhone...

Alpha 2, The World's First Humanoid Robot for the Family. Intelligent, Interactive and Expandable!

Home owner insurance companies exempting solar panels and associated equipment from coverage. Have you received notice? Do you care?

First, let's give props to Google for recognizing Veterans Day at all. They have a history of failing to recognize traditional American holidays.That said, let us take a look at the Google Doodle they presented us:See anything missing? I sure do.No white males. From left to right: A brown-skinned elderly male (presumabley light-black or hispanic). A white female. An black male. A hispanic male. A yellow-skinned male (presumably asian). A black female. A woman who is either white or light-hispanic.White males are now the only acceptable ignored and persecuted class.If they are to hold us to such exacting racial equality...

Many of you will remember how Ahmed "Clock boy" took apart a clock and stuck it into a pencil box. This "brilliant" feat of Engineering won him praise from President Dumbo. Well I just ran across a story featuring a 13 year old boy who built his own version of "Google Glass". This boy demonstrates real skill and real ability, unlike Ahmed who simply took a clock apart and stuck it in a box before he brought it to school.

Does Linus Torvalds fail to take security in the Linux kernel seriously, and is the world doomed because of it? That's what the Washington Post suggests in a recent article about security in the open source OS. The Post sums up Torvalds's take on security as follows: "Security of any system can never be perfect. So it always must be weighed against other priorities -- such as speed, flexibility and ease of use -- in a series of inherently nuanced trade-offs."The Post also describes Torvalds as "the man who holds the future of the Internet in his hands."Taken together, the...

Google Doodle for Veteran's Day: The Airman has an Officer's service cap insignia (Eagle without circle,) but enlisted lapel insignia (U.S. with circle.) Oh well, at least Google tried to honor our servicemen and women. Happy Veteran's Day to all of our veterans.

Ransomware authors continue their hunt for new sources of income. After targeting consumer and then business computers, they’ve now expanded their attacks to Web servers. Malware researchers from Russian antivirus vendor Doctor Web have recently discovered a new malware program for Linux-based systems that they’ve dubbed Linux.Encoder.1.

Fallout 4 fans who were disheartened by the terrible reviews of Carlsberg’s Fallout 4 beer will be happy to know that the Jones Soda/Target Nuka Cola Quantum collaboration is getting great reviews. It’s no surprise then that Target’s website seems to indicate that the soda is completely sold out in many of the store’s locations and unavailable for online shipping. The answer to this may surprise you – according to redditor /u/HellraiserGN, Target employees may be buying the soda to re-sell on eBay as it’s bound to become a valuable collector’s item. Another redditor, /u/viiiktor456 reported that they arrived at...

T-Mobile’s whole “uncarrier” thing, an occasional series of events where CEO John Legere gets on a stage and puts down his cellular competition, has been going on for a few years now. But for its tenth event, T-Mo went big. Say goodbye to video streaming nomming away your data.We had a feeling this was coming, and Legere just confirmed things during an event in LA, describing the move as “disrupting the scam” that is cellular data. It works a lot like Music Freedom, which T-Mobile introduced in June last year. It works with 24 different services including Netflix, HBO, Hulu,...

The browser will keep working, but users of unsupported operating systems won't get updates. Windows XP will be getting even less secure next year, when Google stops updating Chrome for users of Microsoft's nearly geriatric operating system. The company announced today that PCs running XP and Vista will be able to keep using Chrome after April 2016, but Google will cease providing updates to its browser, including security-focused patches. That same deal goes for Mac users running OS 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8. Google said it was turning off the updates because the makers of all five OSs had stopped providing...

Question: Somehow, my sig got messed up and I can't figure out how to change it to what I want. Can anyone help me with this? Thank you.