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The next billion is the potential PC market in the developing world. We know they won't be buying MACS because Apple's Steve Jobs has admitted it won't be worth it to his company. A lot of different companies are trying to come up with affordable PCs that businesses, families, schools, and students in developing countries can buy. But everyone is having a hard time pinning down just what it is they will want. 1. What traditional features do they keep and which are kept out? 2. Will users be offended if they feel they are getting a dumbed-down version? 3....

Generally, when someone makes a teddy bear-themed gadget, his/her intention is to overwhelm bystanders with cuteness. But whoever created this little guy, whose head has to be removed in order to access the internal USB drive, must have watched one too many Tim Burton movies. No word on how much it holds or if there are any plans to make these available for purchase, but with your own bear, a thumb drive, some thread and a closet full of skeletons, you can probably make your own without too much effort.

I belong to a Vets' association and I attempting to put all the past Newsletters on CD in a format that is secure not allowing changes and searchable to both a MAC and a PC. Below, is the process used as a test. I am in dire need for some solutions and hope there is someone out there that has used various software to accomplish a similar result. My dilemma: First, I OCR scan using MS Office Document & Imaging. I save the .tif file and send the text to Word 2002. Next, I run spellcheck on the newly created...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A computer hacker got into the U.S. agency that guards the country's nuclear weapons stockpile and stole the personal records of at least 1,500 employees and contractors, a senior U.S. lawmaker said on Friday. The target of the hacker, the National Nuclear Safety Administration, is the latest agency to reveal that sensitive private information about government workers was stolen. The incident happened last September but top Energy Department officials were not told about it until this week, prompting the chairman of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee to demand the resignation of the head of...

I've got a problem with my home computer and I was wondering if someone could help me? My system is: AMD Anthlon Processor 1.24GHz, 384MB of RAM Windows XP Prof with SP2 Cox Cable (ISP) Everything was working fine until about a week ago. And it only happens when I start a browser (Internet Explorer and Firefox), but my system will hang and lock up while web pages load and it takes forever for them to load up, worse than if I had dial up. My curser will also disappear for a while and if I try to toggle between...

Computer-based fraudsters are finding new ways to trick people -- not technology -- to get the information they seek "Lawsuit against you," reads the subject line in an e-mail that hit thousands of in-boxes around the world last month. In flawless legalese, the message warns recipients that they recently sent an unsolicited fax to the sender's office. Citing U.S. civil code, its prohibition on sending junk faxes, and an actual $11 million settlement by restaurant chain Hooters, the missive threatens a lawsuit over the alleged junk fax. "If you do not pay me $500 by the deadline for payment, I...

Cnet.com linked to a new site which might be useful for FReepers. AllYouCanUpload.webshots.comOffers free, unlimited photo hosting without the need to register. They write, "It's an easy, one-click way to host images on MySpace, blogs, and eBay [or FreeRepublic]." There is also the great alternative, Photobucket.com, which has all the above features (but with the need to register), plus photo storage.

Mozilla Corp. on Saturday released the third alpha version of Firefox 2.0, code-named "Bon Echo," with additions that include a built-in anti-phishing feature and suggestions for searches run in Google and Yahoo. The anti-phishing feature in Firefox is courtesy of Google, which released the code for a Firefox extension, or plug-in, to the Mozilla Foundation for use in the browser. As with the two earlier alphas, Mozilla stressed that the early look was intended for "Web application developers and our testing community" only. "Current users of Mozilla Firefox 1.x should not use Bon Echo Alpha 3," the company added in...

I have to give someone a digital image. The image is supposed to be 4" x 6" @ 300 dpi. Frankly, I'm unclear how to do so. My camera has several settings, but none of them correspond to 300 dpi. The settings are - 640 x 480 pixels - 1024 x 768 pixels - 1600 x 1200 pixels - 2272 x 1704 pixels How do pixels relate to dpi? Thanks.

I would like to send a newsletter to people who "opt-in" to receive it. I'd like specifically for people to be able to opt in by going to my web site and filling out a form. I have no intentions of sending "spam," in other words. I've looked at information about G-Lock Easymail (yes, the company does have an interesting name, but it's not what you think lol) and Savicom. What is your experience or impression of these products? Do either or both allow for automated sign up? What is the signficance of the featuer that a user can send...

Don't try this at home--not if you want to have a working computer. Search for "Free Screensavers," we're told, and 64% of the sites you'll find are the kinds that can gum up your machine with spyware or a computer virus. A team of researchers, let by Ben Edelman and Hannah Rosenbaum of a British firm called Site Advisor, tried entering 1,394 popular search terms into the web's most popular search engines--Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and Ask.com. They came up with a chart you may find both amusing and sobering. Even if you search for something as harmless as "I...

"Rarely in parliamentary life have those elected by the nation - deputies and senators - been subjected to so many letters, e-mails, menaces and pressures," Michel Charasse, a senator since 1981, said during the debate, to resounding applause from his colleagues. "I would ask the Senate staff to rigorously clean the corridors of the lobbyists from all sides who jump on us as soon as we leave the hall." Some legislators criticized the presence of representatives from two music retailers, Fnac and Virgin, who entered the National Assembly during debate on a law that would affect them. The store representatives,...

IBM, Red Hat, and Novell Named in Suit that Goes Down in Flames Daniel Wallace's second anti-GPL suit accusing IBM, Red Hat and Novell of predatory price-fixing and restraint of trade has gone down in flames like his first against the Free Software Foundation, which wrote the license. The second decision came from a different judge in the Southern District of Indiana and, like the first judge and the FSF complaint, he found that Wallace didn't properly state a claim. He said he accepted the allegations as true but that Wallace didn't allege anticompetitive effects in an identifiable market by...

VANITY: computer assistance :( my addled brain | 05/05/06 | Spacetrucker Posted on 05/05/2006 1:56:46 PM PDT by Spacetrucker I am having a difficult time figuring out a problem with my laptop (HP pavilion zv 5000). It powers up fine on AC power, but will not run on battery power at all. The control panel says the battery is in good working order, at 100% charge, and I have run the troubleshooter on it several times to no avail. I am hoping that this may be some kind of program thing that has the battery switched off (before you ask...

Here's a paragraph from a longer Washington Prowler feature of The American Spectator: "What makes Weber's cynical support of the legislation even worse, say Republican Hill staffers, is that his activities also aid MoveOn.org, the extremist, left-wing organization, which is now being financially backed by Google so that MoveOn can help Google with "Net Neutrality." Google has become the single largest private corporate underwriter of MoveOn. According to sources in the Democrat National Committee, MoveOn has received more than $1 million from Google and its lobbyists in Washington to create grassroots support for the Internet regulation legislation. Some of that...

Revealed: The identity of the BBC's latest star 13/05/06 A computer expert has described his astonishment at seeing the BBC's 24-hour news channel interview supposed taxi driver Guy Goma in the mistaken belief it was him. Guy Kewney - a white, bearded technology expert - was astonished to see himself appear on screen as a black man with an apparent French accent. He was even more shocked to see himself unable to answer basic questions about the legal battle between the Beatles' Apple Corps and Apple Computer over the use of an apple symbol. Mr Kewney, an IT journalist, watched...

25 uses for your old PC If you've replaced your old computer, don't just throw it away. There are some great things it could do. Read on for a few ideas. If you have just bought yourself a replacement computer and find yourself with a spare heap of hardware in the house, what are your options? It's tempting to get rid of the original PC once and for all but, on the other hand, it served you well once and surely you can find a productive use for it now. Then again, having just splashed out on your new kit,...

My wife has a Toshiba Salliete R15-S822, Running XP Home2 SP2. It has built-in wireless. Up unitl now, it has worked fine. Now, all of a sudden, it has lost wireless capability. I know that Fn-F8 is supposed to toggle the wireless capability on and off However, nothing happened. Nothing appeard on the screen to indicate that sysstem was reacting to the keybard presses. What else can I look for? thanks.

I am having a difficult time figuring out a problem with my laptop (HP pavilion zv 5000). It powers up fine on AC power, but will not run on battery power at all. The control panel says the battery is in good working order, at 100% charge, and I have run the troubleshooter on it several times to no avail. I am hoping that this may be some kind of program thing that has the battery switched off (before you ask I looked - the battery is enabled) because until next week I cannot afford to buy a new battery...

The Antikythera mechanism The clockwork computer Sep 19th 2002 From The Economist print edition An ancient piece of clockwork shows the deep roots of modern technology WHEN a Greek sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck of a cargo ship off the tiny island of Antikythera in 1900, it was the statues lying on the seabed that made the greatest impression on him. He returned to the surface, removed his helmet, and gabbled that he had found a heap of dead, naked women. The ship's cargo of luxury goods also included jewellery, pottery, fine furniture, wine and bronzes dating...