Free Republic

Got weird phone call (Clearwater, FL number), someone (foreign accent) claiming to be working for company doing support for Microsoft. Verifying that I am running legit Win 7 and they are having problems with my computer sending messages. Asking me to run some program, seeing warning and then asking me to allow them to access my computer remotely and "fix" the problem. Red flag went up, I asked how he got my phone number, apparently from Win 7 registration, which I don't remember providing. Smells like takeover of my computer. Anyone else experienced this? New scam to take over our...

Wow, no one saw this coming. The University of Florida announced this past week that it was dropping its computer science department, which will allow it to save about $1.7 million $1.4 million. The school is eliminating all funding for teaching assistants in computer science, cutting the graduate and research programs entirely, and moving the tattered remnants into other departments.

For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer. Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down. The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're...

A French physicist with the European atomic research centre near Geneva was charged with terrorism offences by a Paris judge last night after investigators said that he offered to work with the North African branch of al-Qaeda. Adlène Hicheur, 32, who is of Algerian origin, was arrested last week with his younger brother after intelligence agents intercepted his alleged internet contacts with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The physicist, who works at the giant atomic collider at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research), which straddles Swiss and French territory, told the Islamic group that he was interested in committing an...

The recovery of objects obscured by scattering is an important goal in imaging and has been approached by exploiting, for example, coherence properties, ballistic photons or penetrating wavelengths. Common methods use scattered light transmitted through an occluding material, although these fail if the occluder is opaque. Light is scattered not only by transmission through objects, but also by multiple reflection from diffuse surfaces in a scene. This reflected light contains information about the scene that becomes mixed by the diffuse reflections before reaching the image sensor. This mixing is difficult to decode using traditional cameras. Here we report the combination...

I've had more and more difficulties with accessing webpages (serious slowdown and pages freezing up) along with rapid bumping-off of being logged in to different websites (such as IMDb, eBay, etc.), for which I should be permanently logged in (or at least in eBay's case, for 24 hours). I go through maybe 5-10 pages or less and I get inexplicably knocked off. Again, it's not localized to just a few websites, but across the board. This computer is less than 2 years old, doesn't have a lot of memory used (or junk cluttering the system). I have Kaspersky anti-virus and...

Computer problems cause tax returns to be delayedBy Curtis McCloud Updated: Feb 17, 2012 6:44 PM EST COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) - Taxpayers who filed their income taxes early may experience a two to three week delay. Antonio Houston is one out of the hundreds of folks who say they have yet to receive their 2011 tax refund. "I've been waiting for a long time and it's just kind of crazy. I guess the IRS just messed up screwed up but I don't know what's going on," Houston said. Gloria Bowden with Global Tax Service in Columbus told News Leader 9...

Anybody having a problem with ad.doubleclick redirecting to an error page. I was having this problem on Hotair and now it is on the Daily Caller. Ran spybot and malewarebytes to no avail. I can get to the home page but when I click on article it redirects to a error page saying internet explorer cannot display the webpage. Any ideas out there? Thanks

Media Response to Anita Li, from the Toronto Star Since you took the time to email us with your requests like we asked, I’ll take the time to give you an honest follow-up response. You’ll have to forgive me for doing so publicly though; again I want to be sure my words are portrayed the way I actually say them, not cut together to make entirely different points. Your questions were: Q: Why did you decide to reprimand your daughter over a public medium like YouTube? A: Well, I actually just had to load the video file itself on YouTube...

I am trying to find info on 3 different computers. First, the Compaq Desk Pro 386 of 1986...how much did it cost brand new when it was first hit the stores? Second, the same info for the HP Vectra 486 of 1990. And finally, what make of computer offered for sale the very first pentium I 60Mhz computer and what was the model name/number?

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...