40846539
submission
yakatz writes:
In the all-good-things-come-to-an-end department, Google has announced that they are no longer taking new users for the free version of Google Apps. An source at Google who would like to remain anonymous said that, like others in the freemium market, they found that businesses outgrew the free service very quickly and want support or more features without paying. Many hosting companies, including the host I use, Namecheap, offer integration with Google Apps to take a load off their mail servers. This move will certainly affect them.
19999070
submission
yakatz writes:
Coming soon after rumors that OEMs can pick up an early build of Windows 8, a Russian website has screenshots of the upgrade (translation, original here, english summary here) from Windows 7 to Windows 8 (ending in a blue screen, which is no longer blue).
This screenshot of the desktop is telling.
19762486
submission
yakatz writes:
The countdown clock to the 2012 games in London failed less than a day after it was unveiled. There was also trouble with the ticket payment processing system (which only accepts Visa cards) which did not allow card-holders whose cards' expire before August to purchase tickets.
Not a great way to get started.
19267186
submission
yakatz writes:
I am a CS student and I have been looking for a good security related research project.
The trouble is I am afraid of being sanctioned for uncovering security problems in a system. Other students have been threatened with criminal prosecution by University officials (which is stopped when a tenured professor steps in). It seems to be normal now that companies sue to cover up security research instead of fixing the problem.
This story from the Washington Post only deepens my concern.
So my question is: How do you do security research without the risks of ending up in court or in jail?
12083224
submission
yakatz writes:
Don't copy this code.
It is designed to teach about insecure development (and hopefully how to avoid it)
10743658
submission
yakatz writes:
An interesting idea...
9910788
submission
yakatz writes:
The supreme court put a major limit on the 40 year old Miranda Rights on Wednesday, when they said that requests for a lawyer expire after 14 days.
9484426
submission
yakatz writes:
I have noticed over the last few months that I have had many requests for just-out-of-warranty service for hardware problems.
For example, a customer with a 13-month old computer gets "USB over current error" on ever boot.
I tried contacting Dell, since I have been having the most trouble with Dell computers. Dell regular tech support and Dell parts keep directing me to Dell out-of-warranty support, who wants to charge me a fortune just to re-diagnose that a USB port is broken.
At this point, some of my customers have given up and would just buy the replacement parts, but Dell is making it very hard to obtain exactly the same parts.
I am wondering if anyone else has noticed this trend? Does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with these issues (i.e. talking to manufacturers, not diagnosing the problems)?
9259284
submission
yakatz writes:
Google just sent this message to all of the Google Hosted Apps admins:Dear Google Apps admin,
In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.
We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.
Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.
Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.
In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.
Thank you for your continued support!
Sincerely,
The Google Apps team
9259018
submission
yakatz writes:
Google just sent this email to all of their Google Apps admins
Dear Google Apps admin,
In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.
We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.
Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.
Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.
In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.
Thank you for your continued support!
Sincerely,
The Google Apps team
7876480
submission
yakatz writes:
A number of cold weather American states are reporting their dismay at finding out that LED traffic lights are so energy efficient that they do not produce enough excess heat to dissipate any snow that covers them.
5927321
submission
yakatz writes:
Google announced today that they have acquired reCaptcha. This technology will help prevent fraud while helping Google add books to Google Books and old newspapers to Google News.
4652463
submission
Yehuda writes:
Yet another breach of sensitive, unencrypted data is making news in the United Kingdom. This time the breach puts Royal Air Force staff at serious risk of being targeted for blackmail by foreign intelligence services or others.
The breach involves audio recordings with high-ranking air force officers who were being interviewed in-depth for a security clearance. In the interviews, the officers disclosed information about extra-marital affairs, drug abuse, visits to prostitutes, medical conditions, criminal convictions and debt histories — information the military needed to determine their security risk.
The recordings were stored on three unencrypted hard drives that disappeared last year.
