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Android

Submission + - Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs. iPad 2 Smackdown (deviceguru.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: DeviceGuru's 10-inch tablet smackdown pits Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 against Apple's iPad 2. At price parity the iPad 2 is probably a better bet for the average user since it's a more stable, near-perfect device with a rich assortment of apps for nearly every possible function you'd like to perform on a tablet, reasons the post. However, with the Samsung tablet's cost of goods rumored to be around $215 versus $260 for the iPad 2 for comparable models, Samsung could drop its 10-inch tablet's price to $425 and pose a serious challenge to Apple's device. But will they...?
Technology

Submission + - Time may fly erratically, come September (nerc.com) 1

Submitted by
ibsteve2u
ibsteve2u writes: "Field trials for the elimination of the time error correction (the intentional increase or decrease of the 60 Hz frequency many household clocks rely upon to keep time in order to compensate for load-driven variations) applied to the nation's electricity grid are tentatively scheduled to begin in September:

While it is intuitively obvious that any frequency offset that moves target frequency away from the reference point to which all other frequency sensitive devices (such as relays) have been indexed will have a potential impact on those devices' performance, the industry has by and large regarded Time Error Corrections as harmless and necessary as part of the service it provides to its customers. However, in light of this data, NERC's stakeholders are now questioning whether or not the intentional movement closer to (or in some cases, further away from) the trigger settings of frequency-based protection devices as is evidenced during Time Error Correction events is appropriate.

Accordingly, NERC is planning a Field Trial during which the practice of doing Time Error Corrections will be suspended. What will this affect? We don't think it will have much affect at all, but just to be safe, we are reaching out to various industries to get their thoughts on this. Those industries include appliance manufacturers, software companies, chemical manufacturers, companies that make automation equipment, computer manufacturers, and many others.

"
Linux

Submission + - Trashcan for the command line (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
mchnz
mchnz writes: "I've created collectfs — a FUSE filesystem that wraps an existing Linux directory hierarchy and collects all clobbered files into a trash directory. Collectfs provides versioned file history for development tools such as vi, make, gcc, sed, and awk by implementing trash collection at the filesystem level where it belongs."
Government

Submission + - What if you could solve the deficit? (publicradio.org) 4

Submitted by pha7boy
pha7boy writes: As people are wondering if Congress will ever be able to solve the budget/deficit crisis, do they understand the complexities involved in the decision making process? Alternatively, do Tea-Party-ers in Congress understand the impact of cutting programs such as education, research, or healthcare?

The Wilson Center's Science and Technology Innovation program, together with American Public Media created Budget Hero, a web game allowing players to try and balance the budget and solve the deficit problem by making policy choices. While the game might not offer ready made policy solutions, it goes a long way toward explaining the trade-offs one has to make in the quest to reduce the deficit.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft pays university to use Office 365 (nebraska.edu)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "Microsoft is providing $250,000 in Business Incentive Funds to help us migrate from Lotus Notes to Office 365. That funding will pay for some consulting and licenses to convert a large percentage of our users from Lotus Notes to Office 365. We will also use that funding to pay for a Microsoft Premier Support agreement covering email and Microsoft Office applications for the entire University. "
Open Source

Submission + - Stealing My Free Code! (wordpress.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I recently found out that the company I used to work for is removing all the open source licenses (GPL and MIT) from my work and distributing it as proprietary software and taking all the credit despite the fact that they contributed nothing to it. They are even renaming it something really silly. What should I do?
Security

Submission + - Millions of DNS Servers at Risk From New BIND Bugs (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: The Internet Systems Consortium is warning organizations about a pair of vulnerabilities in existing releases of the ubiquitous BIND DNS server one of which enables an attacker to stop the software from running on remote DNS servers.

The high-severity vulnerability in many versions of the BIND software has the effect of causing the BIND server to exit when it receives a specially formatted packet. The ISC said that although it isn't aware of any public exploits for the bug, it still recommends that organizations upgrade to one of the newer versions of BIND
Australia

Submission + - Telcos under siege in flooded Queensland (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by lukehopewell1
lukehopewell1 writes: Vodafone has restored service to Queensland customers as it and other telcos work feverishly to protect network assets in the flooded areas. One telco is even covering its telephone exchange buildings in plastic wrap and expanding foam to keep the flood water out.

Telstra told ZDNet Australia that its NextG network was holding strong thanks to battery back-ups in affected areas and well-prepared exchange technicians.

"Some of our techs have been sandbagging and sleeping overnight at exchanges. St George telephone exchange was even wrapped in plastic to defend it from floodwaters," Telstra said.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh addressed the nation this afternoon and told Brisbane to brace for flood waters higher than the 1974 peak of 6.6 metres by Thursday.

Floods have already taken nine lives in the state.
Government

Submission + - Obama Admin Taking Aim At Leakers (msn.com)

Submitted by krou
krou writes: As fallout from the Wikileaks "Cablegate" continues, the Obama administration is taking active steps to try prevent further leaks. A recent executive order signed by President Obama 'prescribes a uniform system for classifying, safeguarding, and declassifying national security information, including information relating to defense against transnational terrorism'. In addition, a highly detailed 11-page memo (PDF) has instructed agencies to assess “any perceived vulnerabilities, weaknesses, or gaps in automated systems in the post-WikiLeaks environment", and also to implement "insider threat" programs — similar to those used in the CIA — to ferret out possible whistle-blowers. Suggestions include using psychiatrists to monitor 'relative happiness' and their 'despondence and grumpiness' in order to assess their trustworthiness. Agencies have also been asked whether they 'capture evidence of pre-employment and/or post-employment activities or participation in on-line media data mining sites like WikiLeaks or Open Leaks?' or if 'all employees required to report their contacts with the media?' FAS have described the steps as being 'paranoia, not security' and 'absurd'.
Australia

Submission + - Aussie Retailers lobby for tax on online purchases (theage.com.au) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Major Australian retailers are running a print advertising campaign, to get the government to decrease the amount where the Goods and Services tax (Australian Sales tax) comes into effect for all online purchases. Currently, the tax free amount is at $1000 AUD for online purchases. The retailers, such as Target, Harvey Norman, David Jones, Myer and other retailers are lobbying through newspapers and are considering to launch a television commercial. The print adverts are claiming that if the amount remains the same, Australian jobs will be lost and the Economy will be harmed. This is facing a massive backlash from consumers, and the governments assistant treasurer said it was an action by stores to fix the issues effecting them.

Submission + - Curious about FreeBSD? Try VirtualBSD 4

Submitted by ReeceTarbert
ReeceTarbert writes: If you are curious about FreeBSD but don't have the time or the resources to install it and customize it, VirtualBSD might be right for you: it's a VMware appliance based on FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE that comes with the Xfce 4.6 Desktop Environment and some of the most common applications so it can be used right out of the box. The best part? This is a genuine FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE, which means you can either stick to the desktop or dig around in the knowledge that you are dealing with The Real Thing. If the screenshots whet your appetite why don't you got to the download page and grab the torrent file right away?

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