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IT

Submission + - Options for Good (Not Expensive) Office Backbone For a Small Startup 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I recently joined a startup, we have about 10 people altogether in various roles / responsibilities, and I handle most of the system / IT responsibilities (when I'm not in my primary role, which is software development). When trying to price licenses, I'm finding Microsoft offerings require quite a bit of upfront cost, so I'm trying the alternative solutions. LibreOffice and Google Docs work fine for the most part (we also have some MS Office users); however I'm having trouble getting a good / cheap / free solution to email, contacts, calendaring and user management in general. We have some Mac users, Windows users, need desktop clients for most of these uses as well — and there doesn't seem to be a solution that satisfies these myriad combinations. iCloud doesn't natively support non @me.com addresses (workarounds seem prone to breakage so far), Windows Live Mail doesn't support Google's CalDAV, there doesn't seem to be anything that can provide a company-wide Contacts support, etc. Ideally I can deploy a solution that has the following: Sharing calendar (or look at other people's calendar), Company-wide Contacts Address Book, Add new employee / consultants and take them offline too (in terms of user permissions, access), Clients available on Windows, OSX, possibly mobile, which support the calendaring / meeting invites / contacts list set up. Maybe I'm just out of my depths here — can Slashdot provide some direction as to what I can look at? Or is a Hosted Exchange the cheapest option? Disclaimer: I did come from a company that uses Exchange / Outlook — but the costs seem high.
Communications

Submission + - VoIP Provider Files Net Neutrality Complaint With FCC (pcworld.com)

Submitted by himilean
himilean writes: A Florida VoIP carrier has filed a net neutrality complaint against a Georgia utility and broadband provider, after the utility accused the VoIP firm of theft of service for using its network to deliver voice service without paying for it.

L2Networks filed the net neutrality complaint with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission Tuesday, the first formal complaint since the FCC passed net neutrality rules in December 2010. L2Networks' filing comes after the telecommunications manager for the City of Albany Water, Gas & Light Commission, a municipal utility in Georgia, filed a theft-of-service complaint with the Dougherty County Police Department in Albany earlier this year.

So- Would this not be considered the most abusive power of all within the legal system? Does this mean if I Skype my buddy and he's on Comcast, Comcast can file theft charges against me?
KDE

Submission + - KDE announces the Make Play Live Partner Network (kde.org)

Submitted by
jrepin
jrepin writes: "In the wake of the announcement of the first ever KDE powered tablet, quite a few interesting things are happening in the background. One of them is the formation of a professional Partner Network for devices such as the Vivaldi tablet. The Make Play Live Partner Program is designed to build and support a collaborative business and economic network. Members work together to provide comprehensive professional service and product offerings around Plasma Active and devices such as Vivaldi. Professional support options make it easier to convince potential parties, such as users, clients, customers and partners, bringing KDE software to a larger group of users. Nine organizations have already joined."
Movies

Submission + - The Price of Military Tech Assistance in Movies (vice.com)

Submitted by derekmead
derekmead writes: Last week at Camp David, President Obama met up with fellow NATO leaders to discuss the road ahead in Afghanistan. Although no one there used the language of defeat, the implicit message was clear: the war has gone nowhere in the past few years and it’s time to start packing up. Meanwhile, what raked in $25.5 million at the box office? Battleship. And who provided director Peter Berg with the war technology that beats the aliens? The U.S. military.

He’s not the only one: the past few years have seen an explosion of high-profile cooperation between the armed forces and the movie industry. If the most powerful armed force in history isn’t winning in reality, it certainly is on the big screen. And like so many problematic aspects of late capitalism, the military-Hollywood complex has a grimly understandable logic.
Android

Submission + - Another Rasberry Pi? $49 ARM SBC with Android (apc.io) 1

Submitted by n7ytd
n7ytd writes: Announced today with an 800 MHz VIA core, the 170 x 85mm board is expected to ship this July. With a "Neo ITX" form factor, VIA touts the single-board computer as a "bicycle for your mind".
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Launches 'so.cl' Network (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by
benfrog
benfrog writes: "Microsoft just quietly launched so.cl, its own sort-of-clone of Facebook, Google+, and the like. It also pretty much sponges off of them, in that you can log in with your Facebook ID and it will contact your Facebook friends if you want it to. They've also (wisely?) put Bing Search at the center of the (currently invitation-only) site."
Data Storage

Submission + - 60TB Disk Drives Could Be Reality In 2016 (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "The maximum areal densities of hard disk drives are expected to more than double by 2016, according to IHS iSuppli. Hard drive company Seagate has also predicted a doubling of drive density, and now IHS iSuppli is confirming what the vendor community already knew. Leading the way for greater disk density will be technologies such as heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), which Seagate patented in 2006. Seagate has already said it will be able to produce a 60TB 3.5-in. hard drive by 2016. Laptop drives could reach 10TB to 20TB in the same time frame, IHS iSuppli stated. It said areal densities are projected to climb to a maximum 1,800 Gbits per square inch per platter by 2016, up from 744 Gbits per square inch in 2011. Areal density equals bit density, or bits of information per inch of a track multiplied by tracks per inch on a drive platter. From 2011 to 2016, the five-year compound annual growth rate for HDD areal densities will be equivalent to 19%, IHS iSuppli wrote in its report. This year, hard drive areal densities are estimated to reach 780Gbits per square inch per platter, and then rise to 900Gbits per square inch next year. '"The rise in areal density will pave the way for continued growth of the [hard disk drive] industry,' said Fang Zhang, an analyst for storage systems at IHS."
Chrome

Submission + - Chrome Browser Usage Artificially Boosted (windowsteamblog.com)

Submitted by bonch
bonch writes: Chrome was recently called the world's no.1 browser, but Microsoft is accusing the source, StatCounter, of using flawed methodology. When a user enters a search in Chrome, the browser preloads an invisible tab not shown to the user, and these were being counted by StatCounter. Net Applications, another usage tracking group, ignores these invisible tabs and reports IE at 54%, Firefox at 20.20%, and Chrome at 18.85%.
Piracy

Submission + - MPAA Agent Poses As Homebuyer To Catch Pirates (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by bonch
bonch writes: The MPAA used an undercover agent posing as a potential homebuyer to gain access to the home of a British couple charged with running a streaming links site. UK authorities decided not to pursue the case, but the MPAA continued, focusing on a Boston programmer who worked on the site, leading to an unprecedented legal maneuver whereby U.S. charges were dropped in exchange for testimony in a UK fraud case.
Biotech

Submission + - EU Blocks France Ban Of Monsanto's Maize (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "Days after France attempted to ban a genetically-modified strain of maize created by the controversial agricultural company Monsanto, based in St. Louis, Mo., the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) rejected France's grounds on Monday for banning the maize, even though France believes the corn is harmful to the environment. Monsanto's maize, known as MON 810 or its trade name "YieldGuard," was introduced in 1997 as corn with naturally-occurring soil bacteria inserted into its DNA structure that could better resist insects, as the pests simply can't digest the protein produced by the bacterium. But while the GM maize can keep stalk borers away, some experts believe the crop can be harmful to plants and other animals. The EFSA, however, rejected France's ban on the crop, citing a lack of evidence. France has fought this battle before: The country banned Monsanto's maize in 2008, but after a court overturned the ban in November, the French government reinstated the ban again in March after protesters organized across the globe and spoke out against Monsanto's unnatural crops."
Canada

Submission + - Canadian Telcos Secretly Supporting Internet Surveillance Legislation (michaelgeist.ca) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Canada's proposed Internet surveillance was back in the news last week after speculation grew that government intends to keep the bill in legislative limbo until it dies on the order paper. This morning, Michael Geist reports that nearly of the major Canadian telecom and cable companies have been secretly working with the government for months on the Internet surveillance bill. The secret group has been given access to a 17 page outline of planned regulations and raised questions of surveillance of social networks and cloud computing facilities.

Submission + - Minecraft mod adds emulated 6502 processor

Submitted by
Direwolf20
Direwolf20 writes: "The Red Power 2 mod for Minecraft has recently been updated, and it adds a fully emulated 6502 processor that can be programmed in assembly, but comes with a Forth interpreter. From the article:
"Eloraam calls it the 65EL02, because "it supports all the 6502, 65C02, and part of the 65C816 instruction set" as well as "a set of completely new instructions and two addressing modes." Since the 65EL02 is an 8-bit CPU, Eloraam didn't have as many options for programming environments as we have on today's 64-bit computers. While it's possible to program the 65EL02 in assembly language, for general use she chose to implement a Forth interpreter. Further technical information about RedPower Control's 65EL02 is available on Eloraam's blog RP Control Internals, and on the RedPower wiki's page for Red Power Control."

Fair disclosure: The video linked in the article is mine"

Submission + - WHMCS data compromised by good old social engineering (softpedia.com)

Submitted by howhardcanitbetocrea
howhardcanitbetocrea writes: WHMCS has had 500k records leaked, credit cards included, by hackers calling themselves ugnazis. Apparently ugnazis succeeded in obtaining login details from the billing software's host by using social engineering Ugnazis accuse WHMCS of knowingly offering services to fraudsters.

After almost 24 hours ugnazis still seems to have control of WHMCS twitter account @whmcs and is regularly updating their exploits. These tweets are also feeding into WHMCS software.
ISS

Submission + - SpaceX's Falcon9 Successfully Reaches Orbit (latimes.com)

Submitted by terrymaster69
terrymaster69 writes: After an aborted launch attempt last week, SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon9 rocket Tuesday at 3:44 am EST. SpaceX's founder Elon Musk tweeted: "Falcon flew perfectly!! Dragon in orbit, comm locked and solar arrays active!! Feels like a giant weight just came off my back :)" The Dragon capsule is scheduled to dock with the ISS on May 25th.

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