Free Republic

AUSTRALIANS would be forced to install anti-virus and firewall software on their computers before being allowed to connect to the internet under a new plan to fight cyber crime. And if their computer did get infected, internet service providers like Telstra and Optus could cut off their connection until the problem was resolved. Those are two of the recommendations to come from a year-long inquiry into cyber crime by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications. Results of the inquiry, titled Hackers, Fraudsters and Botnets: Tackling the Problem of Cyber Crime, were released last night in a 260-page report....

I am using Audacity to edit an audio file. Within this file, I would like to select a portion and add an effect. I want the effect to begin no earlier and no later than what I want. Similar to the ending. Right now,I am selecting a portion of the file based on an educated guess. Then I listen to the whole selection, and adjust the beginning and ending of the selection accordingly. The problem is, doing it this way takes a long time, because I have to listen to the whole selection. I thought I could just jump to...

SNIPPET: "OTTAWA — The May 18 firebombing of an Ottawa bank was feared to be just the start of a "domestic terrorism" campaign launched by three anarchists bent on acts of destruction at the G20 summit in Toronto, with one of the accused firebombers stockpiling boxes of ammunition and gunpowder, the Ottawa Citizen has learned." SNIPPET: "Ottawa Police Chief Vern White had publicly branded those who attacked the bank branch as terrorists days after the firebombing, which was filmed and posted online in a "catch-me-if-you-can" video by a group called FFFC-Ottawa. The acronym stands for Fight for Freedom Coalition, according...

This is the quintessential sort of clue you hear on the TV game show “Jeopardy!” It’s witty (the clue’s category is “Postcards From the Edge”), demands a large store of trivia and requires contestants to make confident, split-second decisions. This particular clue appeared in a mock version of the game in December, held in Hawthorne, N.Y. at one of I.B.M.’s research labs. Two contestants — Dorothy Gilmartin, a health teacher with her hair tied back in a ponytail, and Alison Kolani, a copy editor — furrowed their brows in concentration. Who would be the first to answer?

"ANSWER: BULENT YILDIRIM'S LAPTOP COMPUTER, AMONG OTHER THINGS" SNIPPET: "Question: What did the IDF collect from the Mavi Marmara." SNIPPET: "The reader may recall that Turkey's Islamist Prime Minister Recep Erdogan was formerly the mayor of Istanbul - thus we see a likely connection between IHH's purchase of the Mavi Marmara and Erdogan cronies in the Istanbul Deniz Otobusleri."

  The Iranian Red Crescent is planning to send two ships to Gaza this week it was announced on Monday. AFP quotes Red Crescent director for international affairs Abdolrauf Adibzadeh  as saying: "One ship will carry donations made by the people and the other will carry relief workers. The ships will be sent to Gaza by end of this week."  

A recently-released report from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard L. Skinner reveals serious flaws in the department's computer network.

I have reinstalled XP Pro and can't hookup via wireless

cientists are planning to use the largest supercomputers to simulate life on Earth, including the financial system, economies and whole societies. The project is called "Living Earth Simulator" and part of a huge EU research initiative named FuturIcT. Supercomputers are already being used to explore complex social and economic problems that science can understand in no other way. For example, ETH Zurich's professor for transport engineering Kay Axhausen is simulating the travel activities of all 7.5 Million inhabitants of Switzerland to forecast and mitigate traffic congestion. Other researchers at the ETH -- all working within its Competence Center for Coping...

HOUSTON—A federal grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas returned an indictment today charging Barry Walter Bujol, Jr., with attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization and aggravated identity theft, U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno and FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge Richard C. Powers announced today. “Protecting the American public from the threat of terrorism, both international and home-grown, is the highest priority of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas,” said U.S. Attorney Moreno. “Proactive investigative efforts and cooperation between the...

Over the last two decades, antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe have imposed fines and restrictions on Microsoft and Intel to try to prevent them from abusing their dominant position in several markets. However, they have cast a largely blind eye on Apple's iTunes -- until now. Antitrust investigators with the U.S. Department of Justice are conducting an extensive inquiry into Apple's online music business, interviewing Apple employees, internet music company employees, and music label employees according to the New York Times. At the core of the investigation is the allegation that Apple applied pressure to force music labels...

SNIPPET: "Israel Air Force jets attacked three tunnels in the Gaza Strip in a joint Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet operation on Thursday night, several hours after a Qassam rocket hit the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council. Two of the targets attacked were in the southern Strip and one was in the northern Strip. According to the IDF, terrorists were using the tunnels to try to infiltrate Israel. The IDF Spokesperson's Office said the tunnels were located about 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) from the border fence and that the targets were hit. There have been no reports of injuries among...

I've been trying for weeks to EXPORT or SYNCRONIZE all my Outlook 2007 data from one Vista computer to another. Not just contacts, but EVERYTHING, including, calendar, to do list, settings, fonts, and signatures. Help! I'm just about brain dead trying to do this... it shouldn't be so complicated! Rick

The U.S. Geological Survey says a computer at its Berkeley station erroneously concluded a a magnitude 5 earthquake occurred in Napa (above).

Times Square Is Evacuated in Bomb Scare The scene at Times Square on Saturday night after police found a suspicious package inside a Pathfinder on West 45th Street. RAY RIVERA and KARIN HENRY May 1, 2010 A bomb in Times Square led to the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening, the police said. There was no explosion. “It appears to be a car bomb left in a Pathfinder between Seventh and Eighth,” said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. The device, he said, contained “explosive...

When it comes to computer technology, thin is always in. It's indisputable that the thinner, lighter, clearer, the better when dealing with the latest computer gadget. This keyboard is the epitome of the high standards expected of the technological version of the fashion industry. It's based on image as well, that is, image recognition technology. It judges clicking depending on the image of the size and where your finger touches the keyboard.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A computer system that the Census Bureau needs to manage its door-to-door count of the U.S. population remained buggy and prone to crash a day before enumerators were set to begin their work, government officials said Friday. The bureau's Paper Based Operations Control System did not function reliably in tests and, despite hardware and software upgrades, "may not be able to perform as needed under full operational loads," the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a report. "So far, it is not as stable as it needs to be," GAO Strategic Issues Director Robert Goldenkoff said...

Note: The following text is a quote: Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Two Brooklyn Men with Conspiring to Provide Material Support to al Qaeda PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, GEORGE VENIZELOS, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, announced the indictment of U.S. citizens WESAM EL-HANAFI and SABIRHAN HASANOFF for allegedly conspiring to provide material support, including computer advice and assistance, to al Qaeda. EL-HANAFI and HASANOFF are expected to be presented...

The U.S. tech industry lost about 250,000 jobs last year, about 4% of its total workforce, but is seeing signs of a hiring turnaround, particularly in software services, according to TechAmerica, an industry group. (snip) Phil Bond, TechAmerica's president and CEO, said that among the things his group is seeking from Congress to help improve the tech business climate overall is an extension of the research and development tax credit, which is "grievously overdue." Without this tax credit, "we are de facto encouraging the outsourcing of innovation around the world," Bond said. A number of other countries, including Canada, have...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - AOL Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!aol/quotes/nls/aol (AOL 26.93, -1.08, -3.86%) said Wednesday that earnings fell by 59% in the first quarter. Net income for the period was $34.7 million, or 32 cents a share, compared to net income of $82.7 million, or 78 cents a share, in the same period last year.