Barence - Slashdot User

Submission + - Man arrested for photo of burning poppy on Facebook (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by

Barence

on Monday November 12, 2012 @05:47AM

Barence writes: "A British man has been arrested for posting a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook. The poppy is a symbol of remembrance for those who died in war, and the arrest was made on Remembrance Sunday.

"A man from Aylesham has tonight been arrested on suspicion of malicious telecommunications," Kent police said in a statement after the arrest. "This follows a posting on a social network site of a burning poppy. He is currently in police custody awaiting interview."

The arrest has been criticised by legal experts. "What was the point of winning either World War if, in 2012, someone can be casually arrested by @kent_police for burning a poppy?" tweeted David Allen Green, who helped clear the British man who was prosecuted for a joke tweet threatening to blow up an airport."

Submission + - Metro apps are now called "Windows Store apps" (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Barence on Tuesday October 30, 2012 @09:06PM

Barence writes: The apps we used to (and many of us still) call Metro apps have a new official name: Windows Store apps. The name was revealed by Microsoft's Tim O'Brien in a media Q&A session at the company's Build 2012 conference in Redmond. In the same session, O'Brien assured the audience that the traditional Windows desktop would still have its place for as long as the demand remained. "Are we just going to shift resources away from the old thing into the new thing? No, that’s not the case at all."

Submission + - All aboard the mini-ITX steam train (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Wednesday October 24, 2012 @07:12AM

Barence writes: "It looks like a train and moves along a track like a train, but this £265 model locomotive isn't quite what it seems. That's because the Lian Li PC-CK101 is actually a fully functional mini-ITX PC, complete with its own battery-powered engine and — if you want to be really authentic — even a vapouriser to belch out steam. USB 3 ports sit along the side of the engine, with a discreet slot for a slimline DVD writer in the front, just below the power button right on the nose. It's not an easy build — space is tight in the cattle-class carriage — but it's highly entertaining once it's assembled and on the move."

Submission + - The 4G data cap that's broken in 5 mins (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Tuesday October 23, 2012 @06:58AM

Barence writes: "The tariffs have been announced for Britain's first 4G network and they include a data cap that customers will break within five minutes.

EE's high-speed data service will start from £36 a month — or £21 a month SIM-only — although the lowest package's 500MB download limit might put data-focused early adopters off. With EE claiming average network speeds of up to 12Mbits/sec, that means users could theoretically exceed their cap in just over five minutes of full-speed downloads — or a little over ten seconds a day.

There are no unlimited data deals."

Submission + - Inside the Ultrabook factory (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Saturday October 13, 2012 @05:11AM

Barence writes: "PC Pro has been given rare access to Samsung’s Korean HQ to find out what challenges were faced in making the slimmest laptop in the world.

The feature reveals the processes Samsung's designers went through to create the Series 9 laptop in only 9,000 man hours, such as how every laptop case starts life as a brick of aluminium, and how CNC machining hollows out the laptop’s body to within an accuracy of one-thousandth of a millimetre.

The feature also reveals the battery of stress tests each laptop design is put through. "To our right, a laptop is clamped tight to a metal plate, while a metal arm tirelessly thrusts a dummy D-SUB socket in and out of its right-hand edge. That metal arm repeats the process 4,500 times before the laptop moves to the next test bench, and the process starts again. Every port on the laptop undergoes the same process before it’s declared fit for purpose.""

Submission + - Can a €10 ebook reader take on the Kindle? (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Thursday October 11, 2012 @11:16AM

Barence writes: "Think Kindles are too expensive? German company Txtr does too, so it plans to launch its own Beagle ebook reader at a price that may be as low as €9.90. The catch? That price is only likely if you get the Beagle with a mobile phone contract — a deal that makes some sense as a smartphone app is required to get books onto the device. With a few other drawbacks too — only five books at a time, and a store that lacks the depth of Amazon — the thin and light Beagle is aimed at the kind of mainstream user who hasn't yet delved into the world of ebooks."

Submission + - How bee brains could inspire AI in flying robots (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Thursday October 04, 2012 @07:26AM

Barence writes: "Researchers at two UK universities are trying to use the guidance systems and intelligence inside the brain of a bee to improve artificial intelligence in autonomous flying robots. The AI for autonomous controls has long troubled automation experts, but the scientists believe modelling their systems on brain power found in nature could solve many issues – especially given the rise of parallel computing in graphics processors, which can be repurposed to model brain patterns. PC Pro spoke to lead researcher James Marshall about the research."

Submission + - Does crowdfunding work? (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Saturday September 29, 2012 @02:54PM

Barence writes: "Is it really practical to fund a business from hundreds of small donations harvested over the internet? With Kickstarter grabbing the headlines with some high-profile projects, it's all too easy to assume crowdfunding is great, the obvious solution for a business that needs investment. But just how feasible is it for most businesses? This feature looks at several lower-profile examples and investigates the positives and negatives of this new way to raise money."

Submission + - The BlackBerry typo that landed a man in jail (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Friday September 28, 2012 @05:39AM

Barence writes: "A British man was jailed for 18 months for accidentally sending an explicit text message to his entire address book.

24-year-old swimming coach, Craig Evans, intended to send a text message to his girlfriend asking her for sex. Instead, the message was accidentally sent to his entire BlackBerry address book, including two girls, aged 13 and 14, from his swimming class.

He was subsequently arrested and charged with “causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity”, and – incredibly – jailed for 18 months at Birmingham Crown Court in July. Yesterday, an appeal's court freed Evans, although he wasn't cleared — the sentence was merely reduced to a nine-month suspended jail term."

Submission + - AMD Trinity APUs get benchmarked (pcpro.co.uk) 1

Submitted by

Barence

on Thursday September 27, 2012 @06:26AM

Barence writes: "AMD’s APUs combine processor and graphics core in the same chip. Its latest Trinity chips are more powerful than ever, thanks to current-generation Radeon graphics and the same processing cores as AMD's full-fat FX processors. They’re designed to take down Intel’s Core i3 chips, and the first application and gaming benchmarks are out. With a slight improvement in applications and much more so in games, they're a genuine alternative to the Core i3."

Submission + - What's the best way to sync email across devices? (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Monday September 24, 2012 @08:41AM

Barence writes: "How many email-capable devices do you own? And how many do you use on a regular basis? That's the question posed by PC Pro's Paul Ockenden, who says it's not unusual for someone to have a work PC, a home PC, a laptop, a phone and possibly a tablet, all needing access to the same email account. Or more likely, multiple accounts. Paul runs through the best ways to sync email when you have multiple devices scattered around the home and office."

Submission + - Microsoft Office 2013 in depth (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Friday September 21, 2012 @11:48AM

Barence writes: "PC Pro has an in-depth look at the whole Office 2013 suite, from the traditional applications right through to all the new cloud features and subscriptions. It includes a detailed look at Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote, running through design changes, touch interfaces, new features and things that should have been improved but remain untouched. There's also a look at Office 2013 in the cloud. The Office 365 Home Premium Preview is still available to download."

Submission + - Android could save Nokia, but not its boss (pcpro.co.uk) 3

Submitted by

Barence

on Wednesday September 19, 2012 @09:55AM

Barence writes: "Nokia chief executive has only a few months left to prove he can turn around the ailing smartphone maker, according to analysts. Investors and analysts say the chief executive has until early 2013 to prove he made the right choice by partnering with Microsoft Windows or his future at the loss-making company will be called into question. Indeed, many believe the company's best hope of survival is to jump to Android — a u-turn that would almost certainly finish the Nokia career of former Microsoft man Elop.

Experts say said Nokia should focus on rolling out smartphones running on Google's Android software for millions of consumers in emerging markets who often still prefer Nokia's brand. That would, however, mean the end of Elop. "He's totally a Microsoft guy, so it is natural that he would have to step down then," said Juha Varis, who holds Nokia shares as part of the Danske Invest Finnish Equity Fund."

Submission + - Create your own Raspberry Pi game with Scratch and Python (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Barence on Friday September 14, 2012 @10:19AM

Barence writes: PC Pro has produced a selection of tutorials to help budding Raspberry Pi programmers this weekend. For the beginners, there's a 20-step guide to creating a game called Crustacean Storm, using the simple drag-and-drop approach of Scratch. They're also offering a £250 prize to whoever creates the best game of their own using Scratch. Then there's a more advanced guide to creating a shoot-em-up called Raspberry Pie using Python. Don't worry if you don't have a Raspberry Pi yet: both tutorials can be followed on a PC.

Submission + - School regrets swapping laptops for iPads (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by

Barence

on Tuesday September 11, 2012 @10:55AM

Barence writes: "PC Pro has a story of a school that swapped all its staff laptops for iPads — and now wants to switch them back. "Most staff are IT illiterate and jumped at the chance of exchanging their laptop for an iPad," a teacher from the school told PC Pro. Now, however: "the staff room is full of regret."

Difficulties editing old Word and PowerPoint documents, transferring work to and from the device without USB sticks, and problems with projecting the iPad's display to the classroom — bizarrely, using an Apple TV — have led to staff once again reaching for their Windows laptops."

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