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LibreOffice Gets a Streamlined Makeover With 4.4 Release 148

Posted by samzenpus from the check-it-out dept.
TechCurmudgeon sends word that LibreOffice 4.4 has been released. "The Document foundation announced availability of the latest version of LibreOffice on Thursday, which it says is the most beautiful version of the open source productivity suite yet. LibreOffice 4.4 also fixes some compatibility issues with files that are saved in Microsoft's OOXML formats. LibreOffice 4.4 has got a lot of UX and design love," Jan "Kendy" Holesovsky, who leads the design team for Libreoffice, said in a statement. LibreOffice 4.4 is currently available for Windows."

Comment Re:think of the children (Score 1) 250

This isn't really a plus for society. Medical care for those gamers who reach adulthood will tax the rest of us heavily.

I agree. While we're at it, we should stop people from reading, watching movies, coding, painting, or any other activity that involves them being inactive and placing a burden on society.

This is a silly argument. Damage to a person's health in the pursuit of their interests is in no way unique to gaming. Likening gaming to watching porn is exactly as valid as likening it to any of the examples listed above.

Submission + - Publishers withdraw more than 120 fake papers (nature.com)

Submitted by bmahersciwriter
bmahersciwriter writes: Over the past two years, computer scientist Cyril Labbé of Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, has catalogued computer-generated papers that made it into more than 30 published conference proceedings between 2008 and 2013. Sixteen appeared in publications by Springer, which is headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, and more than 100 were published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), based in New York. Both publishers, which were privately informed by Labbé, say that they are now removing the papers.

Submission + - Amazon: We Can Ship Items Before Customers Order (wsj.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The WSJ is reporting that Amazon has obtained a patent for "anticipatory shipping,'' and claims it knows its customers so well it can start shipping even before orders are placed.

The technique could cut delivery time and discourage consumers from visiting physical stores. In the patent document, Amazon says delays between ordering and receiving purchases “may dissuade customers from buying items from online merchants.”

Of course, Amazon’s algorithms might sometimes err, prompting costly returns. To minimize those costs, Amazon said it might consider giving customers discounts, or convert the unwanted delivery into a gift. “Delivering the package to the given customer as a promotional gift may be used to build goodwill,” the patent said.

Considering the problems that can arise when shipping something a customer did not order anticipatory shipping has the potential to backfire faster than an Amazon drone can deliver.

Submission + - How to kick Microsoft out of your organisation (techrepublic.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The story behind Munich City Council's decision to ditch Microsoft Windows and Office in favour of open source software. The project leader talks about why the shift was primarily about freedom, in this case freeing itself from being tied into Microsoft's infrastructure and having control over the software it uses. He talks about how the council managed to keep on track such a large project, affecting 15,000 people and spanning nine years. He also warns against organisations justifying the shift to open source software on the grounds that it will save money, arguing this approach is always likely to fail.

Submission + - Yahoo Encrypting Data in Wake of NSA Revelations (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: Following reports that the NSA aggressively targets Google and Yahoo servers for surveillance, Yahoo is working to encrypt much of the data flowing through its datacenters. “As you know, there have been a number of reports over the last six months about the U.S. government secretly accessing user data without the knowledge of tech companies, including Yahoo,” Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wrote in a Nov. 18 blog posting. “I want to reiterate what we have said in the past: Yahoo has never given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency.” In order to make Yahoo’s systems more secure, she added, the company is introducing SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption to Yahoo Mail with a 2048-bit key. That security measure will supposedly be in place by January 8, 2014. Beyond that, Yahoo plans on encrypting all information that moves between its datacenters by the end of the first quarter of 2014. Around that same time, the company will give users the option to encrypt all data flowing to and from Yahoo; it will also “work closely with our international Mail partners to ensure that Yahoo co-branded Mail accounts are https-enabled,” Mayer wrote. (While it’s not a crushing expense for massive companies such as Yahoo, introducing this sort of security does add to infrastructure and engineering costs, and takes time to actually put in place.)

Submission + - Explorer plans hunt for Genghis Khan's long-lost tomb (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: The tomb of brutal Mongolian emperor Genghis Khan — the one who created the world’s most powerful empire by raiding and invading across Eurasia, not Kirk's nemesis — is a lost treasure archaeologists have sought for years. And one man thinks he knows where it is. Last fall Alan Nichols, the president of The Explorers Club, mapped out possible locations for the tomb of Khan (also known as Chinnggis Qa'an). His hypothesis: Khan’s tomb is located in the Liupan Mountains in Northern China, where the emperor who was born in 1162 is said to have perished from an arrow wound in August 1227. Next fall, Nichols plans the next phase of his research: pinpointing Khan’s exact resting place. “Ghengis Khan’s tomb is my obsession,” Nichols, a noted authority on the emperor, said recently. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But I’m not happy just reading about it, or knowing about it. I need to have my feet on it.”

Submission + - Duke Univ. Device Converts Stray Wireless Energy Into Electricity for Charging (computerworld.com)

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: Engineers at Duke University say they've constructed a device that can collect stray wireless signals and convert them into energy to charge batteries in devices such as cell phones and tablets. The WiFi collection device, made of cheap copper coils and fiberglass, can even aggregate energy from satellite signals and sound waves.The researchers created a series of five fiberglass and copper energy conductors on a circuit board, which was able to convert microwaves into 7.3V of electrical energy. By comparison, Universal Serial Bus (USB) chargers for small electronic devices provide about 5V of power. The device, the researchers say, is as efficient as solar cells with an energy conversion rate of 37%.

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