Free Republic

In the heyday of analog computing, Vladimir Lukyanov designed an advanced computer that used water as the storage media. Various tubes, tanks, valves, pumps and sluices churned out solutions for the user based on variables such as changing tax rates or increasing money supply. From the Russian magazine Science and Life: Built in 1936, this machine was “the world’s first computer for solving [partial] differential equations,” which “for half a century has been the only means of calculations of a wide range of problems in mathematical physics.” Absolutely its most amazing aspect is that solving such complex mathematical equations meant...

The self-incriminating clause of the Fifth Amendment is always a great help for defendants who want to keep their encrypted hard drives from being decrypted when prosecution asks for it, until now. A Colorado federal judge has ruled that decrypting a computer hard drive does not violate the defendant’s rights. The ruling came in a case against Ramona Fricosu, who is charged with mortgage fraud. She had argued that decrypting the data on her hard drive would require her to testify against herself, which is prohibited by the US Bill of Rights. But Judge Robert Blackburn decided differently. According to...

If you paid any attention to the rumblings in the technology industry this week, you would know that Apple released a piece of software that will supposedly revolutionize the educational industry. iBooks Author is the culmination of many years of internal developments at Apple. Modernizing education was, of course, the passion of Apple's late legendary leader, Steve Jobs, and was the project he most wanted to see come to light. Let me be clear, what Apple released Thursday, Jan. 19., is revolutionary. It will change many aspects of education within the United States and potentially worldwide. However, it will not...

As many as 10 fake iPad 2s, all made of slabs of modeling clay, were recently sold at electronic stores in Vancouver, British Columbia. Best Buy and Future Shop have launched investigations into how the scam was pulled off. The tablet computers, like most Apple products, are known for their sleek and simple designs. But there's no mistaking the iPad for one of the world's oldest "tablet devices." Still, most electronic products cannot be returned to stores. For the the stores and customers to be fooled by the clay replacements, the thieves must have successfully weighed out the clay portions...

Brand new computer.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A hacker who goes by the name of 'Yama Tough' threatened Saturday to release next week the full source code for Symantec Corp's flagship Norton Antivirus software. "This coming Tuesday behold the full Norton Antivirus 1,7Gb src, the rest will follow," Yama Tough posted via Twitter.

Running Windows XP on Dell GX-280. Have Realtek RTL series wireless internet USB plug installed. When I reboot the computer, the wireless connection fails and I have to re-enter the network setup and re-enter the wireless password key again to reconnect. Sometimes several times. How can I prevent this from happening? I have tried both with the firewall active and deactivated. Thanks.

Hi! It's me again, the technologically-challenged mom. My Dell Dimension has been warning me for weeks now that it is about to go to the big junkyard in the sky. Since it is 4 years old, my husband is insisting that I get me a new PC. Problem is, righ after Christmas shopping, the last thing I want to do is to spend more money. But then, I can't get much done with a PC that keeps freezing every 10-15 min! I have been pricing PCs. Originally I wanted to get another Dell, so as to use my monitor, mouse......

UPS came today and delivered a pkg I wasn't expecting. I called the wife to see if she had ordered something and she said it was my present, and that I should open it to make sure it worked as advertised. It's a Tablet! Specifically, it's a Pandigital SuperNova DLX. And, wow, thing has nearly everything. The specs... 8” Capacitive Touch Digital (Multi-touch) TFT LCD Resolution 600x800 pixels Dimensions Outer case: 6.25”w x 8.5”h Screen: 8” Android OS Version 2.3 Adobe Flash Player Version 10.3 Compatible Media Sources Up to 32GB microSDTM (SDHC) card Compatible File Formats Kindle eBooks =...

PHOTO CAPTION - SNIPPET: "Officials believe that more members of the so-called Düsseldorf cell may still be at large." SNIPPET: "Halil S. is a man who knows his way around computers. When he went online..." SNIPPET: "German security officials allege that the 27-year-old is the fourth member of the so-called "Düsselfdorf Cell." The group is believed to be the al-Qaida cell currently active in Germany and tasked with carrying out a major attack in Europe. Three other members of the cell, Moroccan Abdeladim el-K. and two accomplices, were arrested in late April and are being held in custody. Authorities believe...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.west-midlands.police.uk/latest-news/press-release.asp?id=2915 Birmingham man sentenced to three years for terrorism offences 12 December 2011 Updated: 13 December 2011 A bookshop owner from Birmingham has been sentenced to three years in prison for possessing and distributing terrorist publications, following a nine-week trial at Kingston Crown Court. A jury yesterday (Monday 12) found the 32-year-old Ahmed Faraz guilty of seven counts of dissemination of terrorist publications and four counts of possession of information likely to be of use to a person committing or preparing for an act of terrorism. Seven other similar charges will lie on...

Gamma International UK Ltd. touts its ability to send a “fake iTunes update” that can infect computers with surveillance software, according to one of the company’s marketing videos.< snip> ...the type of intrusion used by criminals trying to steal people’s financial details.< snip> ...All of the hacking companies say they sell their tools to law enforcement and governments to help them track down criminals.< snip>

School Cop Teamed Up with Special Ed Teacher to Run Adult WebsitesBy Emma G. Gallegos in News on November 17, 2011 1:40 PM A high school in the Central Valley is investigating a school cop who teamed up with a high school special education teacher to start up a stable of adult websites. The teacher, Heidi Kaeslin, could run into trouble with the Stockton district where she teaches if they find out that she was running the site from school computers. She has been placed on leave, while a computer forensics expert looks at her classroom computer, according to Recordnet.com....

Trying to find a good tablet for email and simple internet tasks for Mom age 83. A tablet that goes from boot up to listing new email messages in the least number of steps a priority; It doesn't need to be a power machine (no gaming etc) but quick and easy to use for simple tasks. Thanks in Advance!!

FR is usually full of smart guys unlike liberals. Had to ask this question, anyone who owns a website probably heard on Filezilla or just heading to your host cpanel to change or update info on your site. Our IT guy is on vacation and we wanted to add some stuff (specifically images) to sub sections say, departments section A or go SECTION B. Like ESPN with basketball as 1 section to NFL to section 2. We opened up Filezilla and all we could find is folder DOCS, CGI BIN, DISTRIBUTOR and IMAGES. The actual sections are missing so we...

Tokyo, November 2, 2011 — RIKEN and Fujitsu today announced that the "K computer(1)," which is a supercomputer currently under their joint development, has achieved a LINPACK(2) benchmark performance of 10.51 petaflops (10.51 quadrillion floating point operations per second). The supercomputer system used for these tests is in its final configuration of 864 racks, comprising a total of 88,128 interconnected CPUs. With an execution efficiency of 93.2%, this system further exceeds its first place winning performance on the 37th TOP500 list(3) international ranking of supercomputers published in June 2011, where it scored 93.0%. Although development is still underway to adjust...

Have am running XP. I have two copy to disk utilities: the copy disk utility in Windows and a disk management utility called Nero. When I use the Windows utility to try and copy photos onto a CD, it copies everything and then says, "Copy Finished. Finalizing... 5 seconds to go." And then it freezes there, not copying anything but showing the origin photos as washed-out icons. If I close it nothing is copied. When I use Nero, similar thing. It finishes, says "Copy Complete." Fine. I then try to read the images copied to the CD and see the...

There is no possible interpretation of this under which this isn't wildly unconstitutional. While the test is only going to be TEMPORARY, I DO NOT TRUST THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WITH THIS POWER, NOR SHOULD ANY AMERICAN! No one man should have the ability to shut down ALL RADIO & TV broadcasting. If this were to be done when the Obama Regime actually intended to carry out certain plans to further consolidate and usurp power, rather than a 'test,' it would constitute the grossest violation of the Constitution in American history. It would mark the beginning of a real-live dictatorship...

Can someone recommend a good pop-up stopper (preferrably free)? I have one installed but pop-ups have nearly stopped my PC from downloading anything. Thanks.

I have an older PC computer that is kinda slow. It has a SD Card reader, that functions like another drive. Can I reconfigure the system so that Windows 'scratch pad' memory is on a 8 GB SD card in the slot so that it doesn't have to use the hard drive, and thus would be faster? Thanks in advance for all your comments..........