Free Republic

Of the millions of gamblers who have rushed to play Texas Hold 'Em and other fast-growing poker games online, Roger Gabriel isn't the most intimidating. The 30-year-old Newport Beach engineer started playing for money only a month ago. He lurks online at the tables for the chicken-hearted; even there, where the biggest ante is 4 cents, he can't win consistently. But Gabriel has a potentially powerful alter ego. In his spare time, he's perfecting a computer program to go online and play the game for him. His BlackShark software is still a work in progress, but Gabriel has no doubt...

"How do you deal with society when its paradigm of what is right is so dominant?" Doug Engelbart, the 1960s computer visionary asked me the other evening. It's a question he has pondered many times over the past 20 years or so, ever since his research funding was taken away. Mr Engelbart and his teams of researchers at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) shaped the look and feel of the PC, as John Markoff chronicles in his latest book What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry. Mr Markoff's book raises the profile of Mr...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (June 10) - E-mails claiming pop star Michael Jackson, on trial on sex abuse charges, has tried to kill himself are being spread by hackers as a means to break into computers, a British antivirus firm said on Friday. The hackers have sent e-mails with the subject "Re: Suicidal attempt" and the message text: "Last night, while in his Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson has made a suicidal attempt", said security software specialists at Sophos. Jackson is awaiting a California court verdict on charges of child molestation. The e-mail asks recipients to click on a link that takes them...

I sure could use some help for a couple of problems I'm running into. My dad died a few months ago and I'm trying to make sure my mother's computer stays updated. What I am finding is that everything new programs install very slowly. Last night she bought a new HP all in one scanner, printer etc. Last night, I tried to install it and in 12 hours now it has only 31 percent installed. It is still trying to install, but it is just so slow. I would take it out and start over, but the install screen has...

A Shanghai man was sentenced to death this week after a dispute over ownership of a virtual sword in an online game led to a real-life slaying. Shanghai Number 2 Intermediate People's Court gave online gamer Qiu Chengwei the death sentence with a two-year reprieve after he slew another player, Zhu Caoyuan, last October, according to a report published this week in the official newspaper China Daily. As long as Qiu behaves well in prison and is not found to have committed other crimes, his sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment, and he may only serve 15 years, the...

An effort to create the first computer simulation of the entire human brain, right down to the molecular level, was launched on Monday. The “Blue Brain” project, a collaboration between IBM and a Swiss university team, will involve building a custom-made supercomputer based on IBM’s Blue Gene design. The hope is that the virtual brain will help shed light on some aspects of human cognition, such as perception, memory and perhaps even consciousness. It will be the first time humans will be able to observe the electrical code our brains use to represent the world, and to do so in...

Microsoft has been left scratching their collective heads after their popular MSN Korea site went offline after it was discovered that the site had been hacked and was being used to steal user passwords. The site was down for 10 hours, and was confirmed by Microsoft - the company acted quickly on the reported security breach and has launched an investigation. A program similar to the exploit code was found on some Chinese websites - Microsoft believes that the exploit was due to the operators of the server neglecting to install necessary security updates. The MSN Korea server is run...

Okay, I'm an idiot. Now that we've established that, can anyone help me figure out what is freaking out my computer? I'm in a really bad fix because I work in a law office and because of this problem our e-filings are at a standstill. Naturally it falls on me to fix this, because the attorney is even more clueless than I am. We have a Windows 2002 system...I think...hooked to an HP Laserjet 3030 all-in-one printer/scanner/fax. Three times in the last two weeks I have gotten the message "Not set up on PC" in the little scanner window when...

This happened to me twice about 30 seconds apart about 2 mins after I had posted a none DU partyline post. Attempted Intrusion "Portscan" against your machine was detected and blocked Intruder: 68.6.16.30(domain(53)) Risk Level: Medium Protocol: UDP Attacked IP: MASTER(192.168.1.100). Attacked Port: 1171 Anyone else been attacked while not toeing the line at DU?

Modulating A Beam Of Light With Electricity by Bill Steele Ithaca NY (SPX) May 20, 2005 Much of our electronics could soon be replaced by photonics, in which beams of light flitting through microscopic channels on a silicon chip replace electrons in wires. Photonic chips would carry more data, use less power and work smoothly with fiber-optic communications systems. The trick is to get electronics and photonics to talk to each other. Now Cornell University researchers have taken a major step forward in bridging this communication gap by developing a silicon device that allows an electrical signal to modulate a...

Can anyone help? When I click on a link I often get the message: Error Not Found The requested URL was not found on this server and the URL that pops up is: http://www.adsourcecorp.com/404_not_found.htm Any help would be appreciated. mcenedo

Ill. Library Getting Fingerprint Scanners May 21, 2005 NAPERVILLE, Ill. (AP) -- Library officials in this suburb west of Chicago have come up with a high-tech solution for keeping unauthorized visitors from using their computers: fingerprint scans. The scanners - to be installed on 130 library computers this summer - will verify the identity of computer users. Library officials said they wanted to tighten computer access because many people borrow library cards and pass codes from friends or family to log on. The technology also will help the library implement a new policy that allows parents to put filters on...

I bit off the political but I need some help with a Mac I just started using. I'm making a switch from PC to a Mac. Always used the PC format but figured with what I heard about Mac that I would make the plunge. What always seems to help me when I start using a new program, or in this case, a new operating system, is to get one or two pointers from people that are familure with it. So, I turn to the experts at FR and ask, What are the two or three most useful tips for...

In an attempt to pre-empt computer hackers, Microsoft is developing "virtual" PCs to scour the web for previously unseen attack code. At the software giant's Cybersecurity and Systems Management lab, based in Washington State, US, researchers are building a squad of the virtual PCs - created in software rather than hardware - to explore the darker corners of the world wide web. To any website they visit, the machines appear to be a normal home computer. But the PCs are seeking out code designed to attack a computer and will sound an alarm if any code is executed in contravention...

More than a third of the software installed on PCs worldwide during 2004 was pirated, with losses from unauthorized software increasing by $4 billion from 2003, according to a study released this week by the software trade group Business Software Alliance. Thirty-five percent of all software installed on PCs was pirated, down from 36 percent in 2003, according to the study, conducted by research firm IDC. Estimated losses from software piracy climbed, however, from $29 billion to $33 billion, as both the legal and unauthorized software markets grew from 2003 to 2004. IDC estimated that $90 billion worth of software...

A string of break-ins last month at Lima businesses had police baffled - until a laptop computer disappeared from an insurance office on Cable Court. Tracking software on the stolen machine alerted a Tennessee company to its location, which allowed police to track down the computer and a suspect. Chad Thompson, 32, was arraigned yesterday in Lima Municipal Court on one count of breaking and entering, police said. He was being held in the Allen County Jail on $10,000 bond. Lima police Detective Tim Clark said the tracking software - known as "CyberAngel" - provided the break in a case...

NEW YORK (AP) - A computer problem at an unidentified stock trader caused erroneous, exaggerated prices - some as high as $950 per share - to be posted to the Nasdaq Stock Market Friday morning for 1,680 different stocks, a spokeswoman for the Nasdaq said. The Nasdaq said it continued to review all trades between 9:19 a.m. and approximately 9:40 a.m., when the problem occurred. While the stocks affected represent more than half of the 3,200 companies listed on the Nasdaq, the vast majority of them were among the Nasdaq's most infrequently traded stocks. The problem has been corrected, Nasdaq...

IN A SINGLE Sunday, the New York Times managed to call iPods unhip and denounce high school theater as a “refuge of nerds and spazzes.” Talk about having one’s finger on the pulse of pop culture. With the media in the doghouse according to mainstream America, is it really wise to insult Broadway and Apple in one day? I think we should all go Times Square and listen to “West Side Story,” freshly downloaded from iTunes, Apple’s online music store. That would send the Great Gray Lady straight “Into the Woods” for sure. We could protest all the way to...

DENVER -- Imagine receiving a phone call from a stranger who knew your most private thoughts, knew what you looked like, knew your Social Security number, and even knew how much you make and where you work. That happened to a Colorado woman after she took her computer to a major electronics store. Her situation may be surprising given all the warnings about identity theft. But it's not surprising if you think for a moment about what's on your personal computer. There may be files about your income, business records, taxes, personal e-mails, dirty jokes, pictures and more. It's all...

I think about it all the time. I crave it when I'm not doing it. I wake up and want to do it. No matter how much I do it, I always want more. I can't stop. It's computer games. My name is InHisService, and I am an Acroholic. My favorite computer game in the world is "Acrophobia" which I've been playing for about 6 months. You are given letters, and you make acros; example: WTHIGOWA, What the hell is going on with Acrophobia? The game began freezing all the time, every time you'd go in. There's a chat room,...