Free Republic

I think that the two newest releases of Google Chrome are broken. Version 47.0.2526.111 m Version 48.0.2564.82 m I get the spinning blue circle for NO reason at all occasionally. All other applications function normally. RAM usage for Chrome appears to be normal. There's rumblings on Chrome forums, but I don't see a definitive in-your-face "It's Broken!" yet.

I'm having problems with Internet Explorer.I am looking for help.Before I go on...Yes, I am logged on.Seems I have a text sizing issue with IE.Suddenly started last week. Text sizing won't stay consistent. I open a new tab or window and I get tiny text. Usually when I refresh a time or two or three, it'll straighten itself out.Then other times, it goes larger instead of correct size.I've messed with zoom. I've messed with text size.I also have a problem with boxes that I have to type in. No matter the zoom level or text size setting, I have a...

Turn on the Android spigot, please. According to Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOG) free mobile operating system Android has generated $31 billion in revenues for the company. The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company has filed a lawsuit accusing Google of using Java to develop Android without paying dues. “Look at the extraordinary magnitude of commerciality here,” Oracle attorney Annette Hurst is quoted as telling a federal magistrate attorney judge in the courtroom in a Bloomberg piece. The revenue amount for Android is not peanuts. But, it still falls short of Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) earnings from iPhone by a wide...

Starting today, Windows Insiders will get access to a new commitment option in Cortana for Windows 10. Commitments is very similar to the existing flight and delivery tracking in Cortana, but it's designed to pick up on emails where you promise your boss to finish a particular project in time. "Cortana will look for emails where you've said you're going to do something," explains Microsoft's Marcus Ash in an interview with The Verge. If you send an email to a friend or colleague with content like "I'll get back to you by next week" or "I'll have this finished by...

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt is on the record as dismissing the importance of privacy. Back in 2009, when Schmidt was asked during an interview whether people should share information with Google as if it were a "trusted friend", he responded, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."But when an Oracle attorney disclosed in court on January 14 that Google has made US$31 billion from its Android operating system, of which US$22 billion is profit, Google was quick to ask that the document revealing this fact...

There was a glitch that wouldn't let anyone post a response the last time I did this, so I'm going to try it again. TheRobb7 My son and I were interested in watching the Xbox play the NFL season against itself in Franchise Mode. We would watch 1 game a week and simulate the rest. PROBLEM : we can't get the Xbox to do it. It will only play against itself in Exhibition Mode, which means that we couldn't compile stats and standings. Does anyone out there know of a work-around?

The video shows the robot solving the Rubik's Cube at times of 1.196 seconds, 1.152 seconds, 1.047 seconds and 1.019 seconds, as the machine displayed not just extreme speed in the task, but also consistency in keeping the solving time between 1 second and 1.2 seconds. The machine is built using 3D-printed frames, stepper motors, and four USB web cameras that are connected to a PC. The cameras scan the Rubik's Cube to begin analyzing the puzzle through the Kociemba solving algorithm, and the solution is then carried out by the robot in lightning fast movements. The Rubik's Cube being...

Tablets on New England Patriots' sideline fail, preventing coaches and players from using the devices to review plays. Microsoft's tablet partnership with the National Football League has not always been smooth. After Microsoft struck a reported $400 million deal in 2013 with the NFL to have its Surfaces exclusively on team sidelines for reviewing plays, TV commentators kept referring to them as "iPads." At the time, it was said that networks were constantly reminding their talkers that the Surface looks nothing like an iPad and should therefore be referred to by its actual name. Microsoft suffered another public black eye...

Shmoocon Foxglove Security bod Stephen Breen has strung together dusty unpatched Windows vulnerabilities to gain local system-level access on Windows versions up to 8.1. The unholy zero-day concoction, reported to Microsoft in September and still unpatched, is a reliable way of p0wning Windows for attackers that have managed to pop user machines. Breen released exploit code for his attack dubbed Hot Potato following his talk at the Shmoocon conference in Washington over the weekend. "Hot Potato takes advantage of known issues in Windows to gain local privilege escalation in default configurations, namely NTLM relay -\- specifically HTTP-SMB relay - and...

something with a bit more power that also happens to be based on the x86 architecture? If so, the JaguarBoard currently seeking funding on Kickstarter may be worth a look. The JaguarBoard is an x86-based single board computer that measures just 101.9mm x 64.5mm x 1.6mm. It's powered by Intel's quad-core Atom Z3735G (1.33GHz that boosts up to 1.83GHz) mated with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of local eMMC storage. The board features one HDMI 1.4 port, a 10/100 LAN port, three USB 2.0 ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, two COM ports, an SDIO port, four GPIO pins and an...

Microsoft and its hardware partners have revealed the list of Intel Skylake-based PCs that will lose support after 18 months if the computers are downgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 7 or 8.1. The software giant along with Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC today outlined a list of 100 PCs that will fall victim to a policy change outlined by Microsoft earlier this month. The company previously said it would support downgrades to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 until January 2020 and January 2023. But on January 16, Microsoft backtracked on its pledge for newer hardware featuring Intel's Skylake processors....

Announced in October 2015, and released a month later, Microsoft's Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL smartphones have not set the world alight. The first 'out of the box' Windows 10 powered smartphones occupy a curious pivot point in Microsoft's plans. What do they tell us about the direction of Microsoft and how it will approach mobile in 2016? Between them they represent the end of a line of smartphones that stretches back to Nokia's 2011 decision to go with Windows Phone rather than Android, They also represent Microsoft's future attitudes to smartphones as a single element of a wide...

Are there any Linux gurus here? I've looked around online and asked some questions in various forums, but I'm not getting anywhere. I've found explanations of how to set it up, but no examples. I have yet to get it working. I am trying to configure an environment with several Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 virtual machines. All of these machines need to be NTP clients of my NTP server. The NTP server uses MD5 authentication, and I need to have the Linux clients authenticate the NTP traffic. Can someone please post a working "ntp.conf" and "keys" file so that...

I was a big fan in the early 80's. I had a week long correspondence with him in the mid 90's. I loved reading his Chaos Manner column in Byte magazine along with Garcia s circuit cellar. It was a great mag. I've been rereading some of his works lately and just reminiscing. Jerry Pournelle s Iron law: ...in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach...

However, a recent article posted on the website Kotaku said that the release date of Destiny's supposed second installment was moved to 2017 from September 2016, which was earlier reported. The post cited individuals familiar with Bungie's plans for the game, adding that the game studio is currently in a state of constant flux. Some of the team leaders involved in the Destiny 2 development are still evaluating how they should approach the coming month. Neither Bungie nor Destiny's publisher, Activision, has provided any official statement regarding the rumors, and it is likely that both companies will remain focused on...

How do you watch the NFL games online tomorrow free, w/o some scam signup routine ?

Be like Bill -- is the new hilarious guideline for social media use that could seriously make the world a better place. The memes are the creation of Eugeniu Croitoru, a Moldovan man who lives in Milan, Italy. Be like Bill -- employs tongue-in-cheek humor to advise readers on things pertaining to social norms in real life and online behavior.

Future parent? Recent Parent? As a fairly old first-time parent, I thought I'd share some things I hadn't known about for entertaining young kids. (I'd be thrilled if this thread was eternal because new parents share their discoveries.) My son is 3. He still seems a long way away from when he cares whether a toy was a brand name or a home made. Fantastic. Home-made entertainment isn't nearly so hard. But this isn't ONLY about home-made entertainment. Modeling clay is much better than Play-dough. Play-dough actually sucks. With a young kid, you can't control when it's going to dry...

Got my first iPhone as a gift. Tried to get an Apple ID. I have entered an email address and all the other info. Apple sent me a verification code. Actually, five codes because none of them work to activate my account. Got a 6th code to try but when I again try to access the ID page, it asks for my account ID and then says it is already taken (Duh!) and won't let me to enter the code. How do I access the page into which to enter the verification code? This is why people avoid computers.

I purchased an Amazon Echo for my wife for Christmas, so she's been researching the various quirky things the echo can do. One of the things she discovered is that Alexa (one of the two naming options for the Echo) will tell republican and democrat jokes. I decided to check it out. ME: Alexa, tell me a republican joke. ALEXA: How many Republicans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?One. But millions will volunteer to get rid of anything dark. Alexa is a leftist whore.