Barence - Slashdot User

Submission + - How much mobile data do you need? (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Monday January 21, 2013 @06:37AM

Barence writes: "When choosing a new phone tariff, how do you know how much data is enough? It's a dilemma most of us face every two years, so PC Pro took a two-pronged approach to answering the question. First, they tested some of the most commonly cited data hog apps to see just how quickly they can swallow your allowance; second, they asked 100 readers to track their 3G and Wi-Fi usage to find out how much data people actually use. The results should help you make your next choice.."

Submission + - Twitter's BBC hashtag shows visitors hardcore porn images (pcpro.co.uk) 1

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Barence

on Wednesday January 16, 2013 @10:36AM

Barence writes: "PC Pro has discovered an unfortunate consequence of Twitter's new image preview feature — visitors searching for the UK's national broadcaster, the BBC, are having their screens filled with highly explicit porn.

Twitter automatically displays images linked to from tweets, including searches for particular hashtags. #bbc refers to both the British Broadcasting Corporation and an abbreviation commonly used by pornography sites.

A search for that hashtag throws up graphic images with no warning of adult content, alongside trailers for Radio 1 shows and BBC nature programmes."

Submission + - The keyboard that pops out of a tablet screen (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Saturday January 12, 2013 @05:54AM

Barence writes: "PC Pro reports on an extraordinary tablet keyboard that physically emerges from the touchscreen of a tablet or smartphone.

The Tactus screen includes what the company describes as a "tactile layer" that uses liquid to expand the surface of the screen, creating little bumps under each key that effectively create a physical keyboard. When the keyboard isn't needed, the liquid pressure is reduced and the screen returns to its normal flat state.

PC Pro has recorded a video of the keyboard in action."

Submission + - 3D printing: what's out there and how much does it cost (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Friday January 11, 2013 @06:40AM

Barence writes: "3D printing is a fascinating technology, but until very recently it's always been just out of reach for most of us. That's changing this year, as evidenced by four big 3D printing companies showing off their consumer wares at CES 2013. PC Pro sought out the booths of MakerBot, Afinia, Formlabs and 3D Systems, and this quick guide to 3D printing rounds up what's out there, who it's for and what technology it uses, and how much it all costs."

Submission + - Kinect IllumiRoom makes TV screen as big as your walls (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Thursday January 10, 2013 @09:17AM

Barence writes: "Microsoft used Samsung's CES 2013 keynote to show a brief but very cool demo of something its Research team has been working on. IllumiRoom uses a Kinect for Windows sensor combined with a projector to extend a game beyond the boundaries of your TV and onto the surrounding walls — even if there are bookcases and shelves in the way — and it does so "in real-time without any need to custom pre-process the graphics". It's just a concept for now, with more news expected at the CHI 2013 human-computer interaction conference in April. Eric Rudder, Microsoft’s chief technology strategy officer, says the demo "only covers educational and entertainment scenarios but the possibilities are endless"."

Submission + - Has Adobe made Creative Suite 2 a free download? (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Tuesday January 08, 2013 @09:42AM

Barence writes: "Adobe insists it isn't offering Creative Suite 2 as a free download — even though it's published a website offering a full version of the software with valid serial codes.

The company says the confusion stems from a technical problem, which forced it to make copies of Creative Suite 2 available for download from its website, after issues with its activation server. The suite includes software such as Photoshop, InDesign and Premiere Pro from 2005, and works on Macs and PCs.

"Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2," the company said in a post on its forums. "You are only legally entitled to download and install with that serial number if you have a valid license to the product!" Whether that will stop anyone is a different matter entirely...

"

Submission + - Building the world's seventh fastest supercomputer (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Tuesday January 08, 2013 @07:21AM

Barence writes: "On Monday, the world's seventh fastest supercomputer went live in Texas. Stampede is a Dell PowerEdge C8220 cluster packed with Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors: it has more than 6,000 compute nodes, more than 96,000 processing cores and 205TB of memory, for close to ten petaflops of peak performance. Built by the Texas Advanced Computing Center, it took two years to develop and will serve the needs of open science research. PC Pro sat down with TACC's director Jay Boisseau to find out what goes into building a supercomputer like Stampede, how everything is paid for, what can go wrong — and what happens to supercomputers when they retire."

Submission + - Lenovo launches 27in table PC - plays Air Hockey (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Monday January 07, 2013 @05:35AM

Barence writes: "Lenovo has launched a 27in tabletop PC at CES that can — among other things — be used to play Air Hockey and Monopoly. PC Pro has videos of the huge touchscreen PC — the IdeaCentre Horizon — being used for both board games and a rather sluggish game of Air Hockey, played with mini-pucks on the surface of the screen. The device can also be used with mini-joysticks that suck into place in the corners of the screen, potentially making this one of the most unusual gaming PCs to be launched in years."

Submission + - What's in Steve Ballmer's inbox? (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Thursday January 03, 2013 @04:52AM

Barence writes: "When Microsoft last year launched Outlook.com, the company carelessly left the SteveBallmer@Outlook.com address vacant. It was snapped up by the editor of PC Pro, giving an insight into the type of emails the public sends to the Microsoft CEO.

Among the messages sent to the account are complaints about the Windows 8 interface, a plea from someone who was "literally driven crazy" by Windows Server product keys, and someone who wants Windows Phone's calendar to remind him when he's being paid. There's also a more sinister complaint from someone who claims they were the victim of racial discrimination when applying for a job at a Microsoft Store."

Submission + - Geek comics: an illustrated history (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Thursday December 27, 2012 @06:52AM

Barence writes: "For as long as there’s been a tech industry, there have been cartoons lampooning it. PC Pro explores the evolution of the geek comic, running from Dilbert to xkcd.

"It’s no surprise that xkcd managed to do in a single panel what most obituaries were struggling to do in a thousand words," writes PC Pro of the site's tribute to Neil Armstrong. "Geek comics are the tech world’s fairground mirror, presenting a truth that’s distorted but still familiar. ""

Submission + - Rise of the mobile processors (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Monday December 17, 2012 @06:24AM

Barence writes: "Something strange is happening, something that could leave the latest developments in desktop CPUs and GPUs looking like a sideshow. What if the real battle for the future of computing isn’t between Intel and AMD, but Intel and ARM? What if the next crucial step in graphics technology comes not from Nvidia, but from Imagination Technologies or Qualcomm? What if mobile processor technology is the mainstream? This feature looks at the phenomenal rise in power of mobile components, and asks the experts whether they'll soon be capable of handling all of our needs."

Submission + - The zero-day bounty hunters (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Monday December 10, 2012 @06:28AM

Barence writes: "Fewer than 1% of the exploits detected by Microsoft in the first half of last year were against so-called zero-day vulnerabilities – those that were previously unknown. That figure raises a question: if the vast majority of real-world exploits are “known threats”, what makes zero days so valuable that they have spawned a hidden industry of bounty-hunting researchers? The zero-day bounty hunters looks at the big money involved in finding zero-day vulnerabilities, what kind of people — with good and bad intentions — make it their business to look for them, and whether offering "bounties" is actually the wisest way for the security industry to handle the issue. It also includes an interview with a professional security researcher and ethical hacker about how and why he does what he does."

Submission + - Hit game makes £52 in first week on Windows RT Read more: Great Big War G (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Friday December 07, 2012 @10:29AM

Barence writes: "Great Big War Game, a popular iOS and Android app, made only £52 in its first week on Windows RT. In an angry blog post titled "Windows RT — Born to fail", UK-based developer Rubicon blamed Microsoft for the paltry sum and said it won't be bringing any more of its titles to the fledgling platform. It seems Microsoft refused to promote the app as it would only run on Windows RT devices. However, Microsoft quickly got in touch with Rubicon, and the post was deleted and replaced with an apologetic response saying "Microsoft have graciously decided work with us to iron out the problems and get us past this incident". Rubicon will be hoping that £52 figure improves quickly, as it spent £10,000 porting the game to Windows RT."

Submission + - Rise of the online code schools (pcpro.co.uk)

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Barence

on Monday November 26, 2012 @06:22AM

Barence writes: "When it comes to programming, the classroom is moving online. A new wave of start-ups has burst onto the scene over the last year, bringing interactive lessons and gamification techniques to the subject to make coding trendy again. From Codecademy — and its incredibly successful Code Year initiative — to Khan Academy, Code School and Udacity, online learning is now sophisticated and high-tech — but is it good enough to replace the classroom? “We are the first five or six chapters in a book,” says Code School's Gregg Pollack in this exploration of online code classes, but with the number of sites and lessons growing by the week that might not be the case for long."

Submission + - Which is the best Linux distro for you? (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Friday November 16, 2012 @11:10AM

Barence writes: "To the average mainstream Windows user, Linux can be an unusual and sometimes frightening prospect. So for this feature PC Pro has taken an unusual approach. In keeping with the open source Linux philosophy, its eight distro reviews are part-based on a wiki, to which numerous readers contributed over a period of six weeks. The results combine PC Pro's own testing and analysis with real-world community experience for an all-round view. There's no winner, as different distros will suit different needs, but the feature gives verdicts on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Mint, openSUSE, Puppy Linux and PCLinuxOS, along with a look at how touchscreens fare with various Linux distros at the helm."

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