Free Republic

Trains delayed by porn-surfing rail worker Published: 7 Apr 10 14:58 CET   A 52-year-old rail worker reprimanded two years ago for visiting pornographic websites at work has escaped with just a second warning despite repeatedly causing trains to be delayed in eastern Sweden. The Swedish Rail Administration's (Banverket) disciplinary board issued the follow-up warning in March after the signal operator's litany of workplace transgressions led to numerous delays at Gävle station.  In the two-year period since his porn habits led the administration's local computer network to become infected with viruses, the 52-year-old has routinely been summoned to formal meetings with his boss to discuss his...

A loathsome computer scam crippled my laptop, and I wanted revenge. It began nearly three weeks ago. While I was browsing the Internet, a scary red alert popped up on my screen. Viruses and worms had been detected on my computer! I must "click here" for a full security scan! It looked legitimate. The logo and page design reminded me of my own antivirus program. I clicked. Big mistake.

Two Navy fighter pilots have been grounded for their low flyover at a Georgia Tech football game in downtown Atlanta in November, according to several media reports. The aviators, identified by the Virginian-Pilot newspaper as Lt. Cmdr. Marc Fryman and Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Condon, are both Tech graduates. They flew F/A-18 Super Hornets a few hundred feet above Bobby Dodd Stadium after the national anthem prior to the Tech-Wake Forest game on Nov. 7. Navy rules require flyovers to be done at 1,000 feet or higher, according to NavyTimes. The Navy assigned Fryman and Condon to non-flying jobs. Several videos...

Enlarge Image Limit breaker? The crystal structure of Fe16N2, which one group of researchers says beats the predicted limit for magnetism in a material. Credit: Jian-Ping Wang PORTLAND, OREGON—There are limits to just how magnetic a material can be. Or so researchers thought. A compound of iron and nitrogen is about 18% more magnetic than the most magnetic material currently known, a team of materials scientists claims. If such magnets could be produced commercially, they could, for example, allow electronics manufactures to equip computer hard drives with smaller "write heads" capable of cramming them with more information. Other researchers...

Mr. Pinto is the first chief technology officer of a major American tech company to move to China. The company, Applied Materials, is one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent firms. It supplied equipment used to perfect the first computer chips. Today, it is the world’s biggest supplier of the equipment used to make semiconductors, solar panels and flat-panel displays. On the other side of Xian from Applied Materials sits Thermal Power Research Institute, China’s world-leading laboratory on cleaner coal. The company has just licensed its latest design to Future Fuels in the United States. Future Fuels will ship the equipment...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-national-broadband-plan Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 16, 2010 Statement from the President on the National Broadband Plan America today is on the verge of a broadband-driven Internet era that will unleash innovation, create new jobs and industries, provide consumers with new powerful sources of information, enhance American safety and security, and connect communities in ways that strengthen our democracy. Just as past generations of Americans met the great infrastructure challenges of the day, such as building the Transcontinental...

Scientists have already created mini-cyborgs out of living cells and semiconductor materials, but now biological cells can also contain tiny silicon chips, which could become sensors that monitor microscopic activities, deliver drugs to target cells or even repair cell structures. According to Nanowerk, experiments found that living human cells can ingest or receive injections of silicon chips and continue functioning as usual for the most part. More than 90 percent of chip-containing HeLa cells — the first immortal human cell line derived from a poor, cancer-stricken woman – still survived a week after receiving their silicon loads. Other studies have...

I received the kb971033 update last Month. I made sure it was unchecked, and did not allow it to install. Yesterday I received more updates, so this AM I looked at them. They were OK, but, I noticed that kb971033 had disappeared from the list of updates waiting to be installed. I did not "hide" kb971033, but, just to be sure, I "unhid" updates, and it was not there either. Then, paranoid that it self installed (as MS has been known to do), I checked Programs in the Control Panel, and it wasn't there either. I did a search...

Tyranny is afoot. And this evil arrives in the guise of secondhand books and cheap Chinese trinkets. So beware. Actually, if anyone ever needed an obvious illustration of how government overreach can damage an economy, he need look no further than the Colorado Legislature's foolish attempt to wheedle a few extra bucks out of consumers via an Internet sales tax. After legislation forcing online companies to collect sales tax passed, Amazon.com moved to protect its consumers and long-term interests by severing its ties with Colorado. Unfortunately, this meant closing its associates program, which involved an estimated 5,000 jobs. Amazon's actions...

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.

What if a crippling attack struck the country's digital infrastructure? Experts including current and former officials tackle the question. The results show that the peril is real and growing. The crisis began when college basketball fans downloaded a free March Madness application to their smart phones. The app hid spyware that stole passwords, intercepted e-mails and created havoc. Soon 60 million cellphones were dead. The Internet crashed, finance and commerce collapsed, and most of the nation's electric grid went dark. White House aides discussed putting the Army in American cities. "We're in uncharted territory here," was the most common refrain...

PCTV has not worked for 2 days. And neither do any of the other popular links that worked before (e.g., Zaphedia). Can you test a working feed before responding? Much thanks in advance. Sneakyuser

As you may have heard, last week there was a bit of kerfuffle over Google's Buzz and its implications for privacy. And Google has responded: We've heard your feedback loud and clear, and since we launched Google Buzz four days ago, we've been working around the clock to address the concerns you've raised. Today, we wanted to let you know about a number of changes we'll be making over the next few days based on all the feedback we've received. First, auto-following. With Google Buzz, we wanted to make the getting started experience as quick and easy as possible, so...

Recently, I bought a pair of those new Western Digital Caviar Green drives. These new drives represent a transitional point from 512-byte sectors to 4096-byte sectors. A number of articles have been published recently about this, explaining the benefits and some of the challenges that we'll be facing during this transition. Reportedly, Linux should unaffected by some of the pitfalls of this transition, but my own experimentation has shown that Linux is just as vulnerable to the potential performance impact as Windows XP. Despite this issue being known about for a long time, basic Linux tools for partitioning and formatting...

I am a Computer Hardware tech. I bought a computer display replacement part through eBay. I received the part today. The eBay listing said it was coming from Bkyln, NY, and the post mark confirms that. Here's the issue...It bears a label that says..."Not for Sale in, Use in, or Importation into the United States." I bought the same part number that was in the unit, which is the same as listed in the Dell Service Manual, with the slight exception of the Revision identifier, and it cross references back to the original revision identifier, as well.

US Government recommends weighing laptop before and after each visit. Senior executives in US IT companies have been advised by the US Government to follow extremely strict policies for visits to China which extend far beyond standard software protection. The policies encourage them to leave their standard IT equipment at home and to buy separate gear only for use in China. Mark Bregman, chief technology officer at security firm Symantec said he left his MacBook Pro behind in the US and took his MacBook Air whenever he flew to China. Bregman said he only ever used the Air in China...

January 3, 2010 CYBERSECURITY Wanted: ‘Cyber Ninjas’ By CHRISTOPHER DREW FOR a regional competition last spring, eight students from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, spent six months of Saturdays practicing how to defend a typical business computer network from attacks. Then, over two grueling days, they outscored teams from five other schools at blocking worms and other efforts to disrupt their e-mail and Internet systems. For the six seniors in the group, all in computer information systems, the victory was even sweeter. Boeing, the giant aerospace and military company, offered them jobs. Boeing’s decision to snap up all the graduates...

In many worst case scenarios, a hard drive wipe is the final solution to ridding a system of an infection. But the absolute worst case scenario is if a virus attacks the BIOS, making detection and cleaning an incredible challenge. Viruses that target the BIOS arenÂ’t new, but often they are specific to a type of hardware. Researchers have now demonstrated a new type of attack that could install a rootkit on the BIOS of common systems, making it very lethal and effective. Anibal L. Sacco and Alfredo A. Ortego of Core Security Technologies released a presentation detailing the exploit...

Computerworld - A New Jersey judge has ordered the shutdown of three H-1B opposition Web sites and seeks information about the identity of anonymous posters. On Dec. 23, Middlesex County Superior Court Judge James Hurley ordered firms that register domains and provide hosting services -- GoDaddy Inc., Network Solutions, Comcast Cable Communications Inc. and DiscountASP.Net, to disable the three sites, ITgrunt.com, Endh1b.com, and Guestworkerfraud.com. Facebook Inc. was also ordered to disable ITgrunt's Facebook page.

CAMP UR, Iraq –The Tallil Regional Training Center here established a high-speed network Nov. 15. Its 12 networked computers will be used by Iraqi soldiers to conduct administrative tasks at the RTC. Iraqi Staff Brig. Gen. Arif initiated the process to obtain the computer lab after identifying deficiencies in RTC administrative tasks. The new network allows computer users to share professional files with colleagues as well as manage personal files with password protection. Arif, who led the ribbon cutting ceremony marking the opening of the lab, challenged the RTC staff members to continue to increase their technological skills. He...