News & Information
Hyde Abbey Bowls Website Launched
Posted on 4th April 2013 | News and Information | The Glitch
I'm
pleased to announce the release of
new website created by The Glitch. Hyde Abbey Bowls Club is
situated in the heart of the historic city of Winchester in
the North Walls Recreation Ground. As the club was founded
in circa 1812 they have just enjoyed a very busy bicentenary
year which included the visit of the Bowls England team. The
club members enjoy the excellent facilities of a bar, fully
equipped kitchen and most importantly, one of the finest
greens in the county that regularly hosts Hampshire County
and Southampton & District Association games. New members
are always welcome especially new bowlers who will be fully
supported in developing their game.
For more information visit their new site:
http://www.hydeabbeybowls.co.uk/
BT's Solution to Slow ADSL Connections
Posted on 8th November 2012 | News and Information | The Glitch
The roll
out of new superfast fibre services should eventually reach
up to 90% of the UK by 2014; unfortunately this still leaves
many thousands of users with poor or even no broadband
connections. Although BT continues to seek affordable
solutions to providing broadband to remote parts of the UK,
it is currently trialing (with good
results) a device that boosts standard ADSL broadband
connections. This solution isn't trying to provide broadband
connections to areas that don't already have one, it's
merely trying to boost the speed of existing, very slow,
ADSL connections. This is achieved by placing a small
repeater or 'Regenerator' unit between the exchange and the
customer's premises. Customers in a trial group who were
suffering from slow ADSL connections (well under 1MB/s) have
seen a significant improvement in speed of up to 4MB/s;
although these speeds are nothing to write home about, they
do provide a much more usable connection. Sadly, BT
has not indicated a launch date for their 'Regenerator'
units as yet.
Posted on 31st August 2012 | News and Information | The Glitch
First the floppy disc was officially announced as dead,
now there are reports that optical media will soon go the
same way. It was back in April 2010 that Sony announced that it was to cease production of floppy disks,
but two years later and a quick search online still brings
up a good selection of both media and drives. So you will
have to forgive for being just a little skeptical when a
manufacturer leaves the optical storage arena, and then
declares the optical media market is dead, because its just
not true. Even if optical storage is
on the decline, it will be many, many years before it will
become difficult to source.
Apple's
share price dropped 5% after a report that it's Q2 sales
decreased by more than 3 million units. But Apple is
shrugging off the results, stating that a significant number
of consumers were waiting for the new iPhone 5 model (due to
be launched at some point in September/October). This drop
in sales has been seen previously, albeit not so large, but
it's a stark reminder to Apple that its continued success is
reliant upon it producing desirable, innovative,
high-quality devices. Ultimately, as with any company, their
new products need to be a significant improvement on the
last to maintain their market position!
EU Approves Sale of Used Licences
In
a landmark case the European Court of Justice has ruled that
companies can sell used software licences.
The case saw 'usedSoft' win it's case against 'Oracle' over
reselling used versions of it's software licences, even
after 'Ocacle' said that it breached the terms of it's
licence. 'usedSoft' is a company that purchases spare
licences from businesses and liquidators and then resells
them. Although major software developers may be concerned by
this new ruling, there was some solace, in that the EU court
did state that multi-user licenses could not be broken down
and sold off individually.
Microsoft Kills Home & Small Business Server
In
a move that has surprised many, Microsoft has announced that
it will no longer offer 'Windows Home' or 'Windows Small
Business' Server products. Windows Home Server 2011 and
Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard will be
amalgamated into a new product called 'Windows Server 2012
Essentials'. Even though this is a sensible move by
Microsoft, and does bring so very welcome/important
improvements, it does have a significant down side; Home
users will see a price increase and a diluting of features
that the perhaps only the home market utilize, while the
small business sector sees standard, critical features such
as bundled Exchange and Share Point services being removed.
Although Microsoft have done a great job with Server 2012, I
think it has also, now limited its scope significantly!
For more information on Windows Server 2012 Essentials visit
the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server-essentials/default.aspx
O2
is a leading provider of mobile services, it handles around
125 million calls each and every day, and currently has
around 23 million UK customers. With such a large user base
there is always the potential that a significant number of
users would be effected by any problems that arise, in fact
over 8 million customers were caught up in the problems O2
had recently. The issue seems to have stemmed from a network
upgrade to one of their core switching systems (in
preparation for the London 2012 Olympics), that affected the
way handsets were registered/recognized on their network. O2
reacted quickly to resolve the problem, drafting in hundreds
of engineers to resolve the issue; they were also quick to
offer compensation to all affected users.
RBS Group IT Staff Cuts To Blame?
After
many days of disruption and inconvenience it seems that the
RBS Group have finally sorted out there banking system
problems. Some are blaming the 30,000 IT job cuts the group
has slashed over the last couple of years, which many
believe has left them vulnerable and without in-house
systems knowledge. The problem seems to have stemmed from a
critical clearing system that did not run correctly for
three nights in a row, leaving payments unprocessed and
accounts out-of-date. The bank has promised to compensate
all those affected by the issue, and the FSA (Financial
Services Authority) has indicated it will leave no stone
unturned in order to find out the reason for this
appalling failure.
Office 2010 Starter Edition Ends
Office
2010 Starter Edition was one of Microsoft's better ideas,
providing users of new Windows 7 PCs with cut down versions
of Word 2010 and Excel 2010 (supported by advertising). This
offered basic word processing and spreadsheet functionality
to the masses, and allowed a quick upgrade route for people
requiring a more powerful suite of software. Unfortunately
the free version of Office 2010 (Starter Edition) will soon
be replaced with an Office 2010 try and/or buy setup,
effectively doing away with the free version altogether.
This is a big mistake in my opinion, and a decision more
than likely based on making some extra cash, rather than a
tactical decision to squeeze out the competition; looks like
Open Office/Libre Office
will be getting a lot more downloads in the coming months!
Apple
is to offer free, built-in, turn-by-turn Satnav functionally
in the new version of their mobile operating system iOS 6.
Not only will the implementation support live traffic
information and be integrated with Apple's voice-recognition
assistant Siri, but it will also contain 3D models of cities
and landmarks for easier route recognition (Early
indications suggest that Apple maybe using TomTom's map
data, although this is still to be verified). Apple has
suggested that iOS 6 will be available by the autumn for
most iPhone and iPad devices, unfortunately the Satnav
function may only be compatible with later models!
LinkedIn
has confirmed that around 4% of it's 160 million users have
had their account passwords stolen after a a file
containing more than 6 million passwords was posted on the
internet. The file contents is protected with the use of a
cryptographic hash function, making it much more difficult
to decode, and although not impossible, it will take time before
any data can be accessed. LinkedIn has already sent all affected
users a passwords reset request, but it's recommended that
all users change their password as a precaution, especially
if your current password is not unique to your LinkedIn account.
IPv6
is a new 128bit hexadecimal based address system that will
eventually replace the current (IPv4) 32bit numeric system;
this is needed because the current IPv4 address pool is now
becoming exhausted due to our ever increasing need to
connect internet enabled devices. June 6th represents the
launch date of IPv6 worldwide, after a successful test last
year during 'World IPv6 Day'.
More than 3,000 organisations will participate in the
initial launch, with many more thousands coming on-line as
the weeks progress; but it's important to understand that
'World IPv6 Launch Day' is voluntary, and is simply a tool
to highlight the work required to ensure the continued,
uninterrupted, operation of the internet, and gather
momentum behind the most important change in the way the
internet connects us together!
Facebook
shares continue to tumble from their Initial Public Offering
(IPO) of $38. Currently below $30 the over-hyped share price
could not be sustained. Shareholders seem a little angry
with their investment, with some launching 'Class Action
Lawsuits' against Facebook and it's bank (Morgan Stanley).
It's surprising that anyone would think that Facebook was a
great investment, especially at such a high price, in fact
many experts expect Facebook share prices to drop to around
the $20 mark in the next few weeks, but what I really don't
understand is all the whinnying from people with more money
than sense...Facebook...shares...really!
HP
is still the worlds largest PC manufacturer, and employs
almost 350,000 people worldwide. Although HP saw profits of
well over $1.5bn in the second quarter of 2012; this figure
represented a 30% drop on the same quarter last year. HP now
plans to restructure, in the hope to save billions;
unfortunately this means unwelcome redundancies with up to
27,000 jobs being cut. HP employs around 20,000 staff in the
UK and it's likely that up to 8% of this workforce will be
shed in the next couple of years.
Diablo
3 Fastest-Selling PC Game
Blizzard
Entertainment's latest PC gaming title has sold more than
3.5 million copies in the first day of release, breaking all
previous records, to become the world's fastest-selling PC
game. In fact Diablo III's popularity has now risen to well
over 6 million active players. Blizzard Entertainment first
officially announced Diablo III almost 4 years ago in 2008,
but development started way back in 2001. Diablo III is a
fantasy/horror role playing game, that employs a well
recognised, globally enjoyed mix of hack and slash & dungeon
crawl genres.
Intel
continues to invest heavily in research and development and
is on target to shrink its latest 'Ivy Bridge' processor
fabrication process (currently at 22nm) down to a mere 14nm
by 2013...and it doesn't stop there, as Intel is confident
that they will continue to improve their chip production
process down to a 10nm by 2015. Ultimately this means faster
processors that are still energy efficient, allowing the
production of much more powerful processors. This will not
only provide much more mobile processing power, but ensures
the continued development of class leading desktop CPUs.
The
deadline for compliance with the EU e-Privacy directive fast
approaches (25th May 2012). The EU Cookie law states that
all website owners must audit their website's cookie usage
and assess how intrusive they are; based on these finding
website owners must apply an appropriate consent mechanism.
As a minimum, all sites should have clearly defined 'Privacy
Policy' that is made available on every page; it should
fully explain (amongst other things) the use and content of
all cookies used. This should be supported by a statement or
even notification on the 'Home Page' that cookies are being
used and that usage of the website is based on this
understanding. Unfortunately, sites that rely heavily on
cookies will need to consider more complex consent measures.
Visit the following link for more information about the EU
Cookie Law:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/privacy_and_electronic_communications/
It
seems VMWare is the latest company to be concerned by a
security breech that has seen many thousands of email
accounts compromised at a Beijing-based China National
Import & Export Corp (CEIEC) defense contractor. The hacker
responsible claims the Chinese company is at the center of
significant criminal activity and that the accounts contain
information pertaining to US military and law enforcement
agencies, as well as large American firms. Although this
must be a concern to many, EMC the owners of VMWare were
quick to point out that the source code posted was in fact
several years old and of little significance to their
current virtual server platform. Saying this, many now
speculate whether the hacker might soon publish far more
sensitive information.
In
November last year the FBI arrested a number of cyber
criminals operated under the company name "Rove Digital".
These criminals were distributing malware that redirected
infected systems to their rouge DNS server network, which in
turn sent users to fake, malicious websites. A court order
allowed the ISC (Internet Systems Consortium) to take
control of the rouge servers and terminated all malevolent
links and content, and in doing so prevent any further harm
to redirected traffic; importantly this action allowed
infected machines to continue to link to the internet even
though their DNS entries had been changed. On July 9th this court order expires
and the "Rove Digital" server network will be shutdown
completely; when this happens any remaining computer systems
still infected with the 'DNS Changer' malware will lose
connectivity with the internet. Make sure your system is not
one of them!
To check for and/or remove the DNS
Changer malware visit:
http://www.dcwg.org/fix/
Intel's
'Tri-Gate' or 3D transistor based processors
are finally here. These new
chips are based on Intel's 22nm process, their
smallest yet. The 'Ivy Bridge' architecture significantly
reduces power requirements (by up to 20%) and operating
temperatures, while still providing an improvement in
performance. The chips also debut Intel new 2500 and 4000
series HD graphics cores, which support DirectX 11 and Open
GL 3.1; these new GPU's are said to be up to 33% faster than
the previous 'Sandy Bridge' on-chip graphics.
BT is now
able to offer a faster connection to their fibre broadband
customers. BT's 'Infinity 2' package has been boosted from
40Mbits/sec to 80Mbits/sec, effectively doubling its speed.
All new BT Infinity customers will automatically get the
faster speed, and existing customers will be able to apply
for an upgrade by starting a new contract. If the new
super fast download speed wasn't enough to sway you, then
the fact that BT has also significantly increased the
'upload' speed of their new fibre service, from 10Mbits/sec
to 19Mbits/sec should do it. In fact BT's new
'upload' speed is said to be the fastest available in the
UK!
500,000 Strong Apple Mac Botnet
This
article is for all Apple Mac owners who don't think they
need anti-virus software installed on their systems. A least
500,000 Apple computers (and still growing), have now been
infected by the 'BackDoor.Flashback.39' malware, these
infected machines are all connected forming an enormous
Botnet. The malware uses Safari to steal passwords, banking
details and to perform search redirection and is basically
pretty nasty. The malware infiltrates the Mac system when an
infected site is visited (and there are a large number of
sites infected...4 million and growing), at which point an
executable file is downloaded its payload installed and
connection to the Botnet is established. If you are worried
about your Mac being infected make sure you are using some
kind of Anti-virus protection, Sophos provide a free
anti-virus application for Mac's see the link below.
For more information on free Apple Mac anti-virus software
visit:
http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition/download.aspx
EU Mobile Data Roaming To Be Capped
It
was back in 2009 that the EU was set to bring in a group of
laws to cap the cost of data roaming while traveling
in Europe, unfortunately it has taken the European
Parliament a lot longer to bring in its ruling. But this is
all about to change with a ruling set for May that will see
a cap set at 0.70c/MB, falling to 0.20c/MB by 2014. Although
this will still add up when using data intensive
applications, it does mean that sending the odd email or
accessing the internet while in Europe will soon be far more
affordable, and something many more people will be more
inclined to try as the worry of excessive costs will be
significantly reduced.
Earth
hour is in it's Sixth year, and support is growing every
year. To show your support and that you care about climate
change, just switch off as many of your electrical devices
as you can on Saturday 31st March at 8.30pm, for an hour.
Many, significant landmarks will also go dark for an hour,
with Tower Bridge, London Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral to
name but three, along with tens of thousands of businesses,
organisations and individuals. Why not visit the link below
and see how your area of the UK compares by visiting the
'Earth Hour Around You' section.
To sign-up and see how your area is doing visit:
http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/
Seagate
has recently made a significant breakthrough in linear bit
density, using a new technique called HAMR which stands for
'heat-assisted magnetic recording'. This new process has
allowed Seagate to achieve a linear bit density of 1TB per
square inch, which is more than a 50% improvement on their
standard PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording) technique in
use currently. Ultimately this will mean a doubling in
storage capacity in the near future, but Seagate have stated
that this technology is scalable and that even 10TB per
square inch are theoretically possible, although they are
quick to state that 60TB hard drives are still some way off
yet!
Colin Hall Publishing Website Launched
I'm
pleased to announce the release of
new website created by The Glitch. Colin Hall Publishing is
celebrating 15 years in publishing, they specialise in
Books, Photos, Greeting Cards and even DVDs of transport,
mostly ships and steam trains typically in and around the
South of England. There are some great photos in their
library, so if your interested in an image of the QE2
sailing out of Southampton or the Oliver Cromwell steaming
through Hilsea, why not spend a brief moment browsing
thought their collection.
For more information visit their new site:
http://www.colin-hall-publishing.co.uk/
Apple have
released their latest iPad, although they have not called it
the iPad 3, but instead they have named it 'New iPad'. Sadly
many think it's a ridiculous name, one that will serve to
confuse and irritate people rather than be considered a
clever marketing ploy...predictable no, stupid yes! But I
digress, the specifications of the 'New iPad' reveal a new
3.1 million pixel high resolution (2048x1536) screen, a
5-megapixel (1080p) camera (like that found on the iPhone
4s), a new dual-core A5X processor with integrated quad-core
graphics and 4G connectivity. The 'New iPad' is more of an
organic update to the iPad 2, and although all these updates
are noteworthy and worthwhile improvements, there's nothing
here that is truly ground breaking...maybe next year, when
they release the 'Newer iPad' (lol) we will see something
truly special!!!!
Microsoft
have finally made available its 'Consumer Preview' of
Windows 8, but it's important to understand this software is
still very much pre-release and as such will more than
likely contain bugs and may lack features that will be
available in the final operating system. It's also important
to be aware that this release is totally unsupported by
Microsoft and so, if you run into any issues, you're on your
own. As with the 'Developer Preview' it's not recommended
you install this as your default operating system on your
main computer, but either install it as a virtual machine or
on a spare computer, if you have one lying around that meets
the requirements of Windows 8.
For more information
and a link to the download visit the following link:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download
East African Connectivity Blackout
It
was back in December 2008
when a ship's anchor cut through communication cables
running between Sicily and Tunisia causing major disruption
for the region, and now it seems something similar has
happen off the coast of Mombasa when a ship severed the
Sub-Saharan Undersea Cable TEAMS (The East African Marine
System) that provides Kenya and surrounding areas with the
majority of their communications. This event has been made
all the worse because of another damaged cable in the area
which saw Djibouti and Port Sudan services cut. There are at
least 13 main sub-sea communications cables that surround
the coast of Africa, and these incidents shows just how
fragile and vulnerable the region's infrastructure really
is. Repairs are already underway but it could be weeks
before all services are returned to normal!
Government
Unworried by Solar Event
It
seems the UK government is being pretty complacent over the
possibility of a 'Solar Event', with no real contingency
plans or plans to protect it's infrastructure against a
significant event, should it occur. But the facts are clear,
due to increased solar activity over the next few years, the
likelihood of a Solar event is far more likely. The last
time our Sun went though a similar, heighten period of
activity was back in September 1859, when many fires were
reported as telegraph wires spontaneously shorted out
across the US and Europe. And this is the biggest issue, are
modern communications infrastructure is now more susceptible
to the magnetically charged plasma that can be ejected by
the Sun during a significant solar flare (or coronal mass
ejection) and even more complex to repair. Lets hope the UK
government begins to plan a appropriate contingency,
otherwise it could get pretty difficult if a significant
event occurs!
With each
new release of Windows comes a new look logo, sometimes
they represent a major overhaul in branding, other times they're more organic in there
redesign, this time Microsoft have gone for a simplistic
light-blue, window logo. Some have already started to comment
that it's not particularly exciting, and that it almost looks like Microsoft couldn't be
bothered to design a logo. Although this might be a
little on the harsh side, it does look like someone has
taken a glance at the first four tiles of the 'Windows Phone
7' operating system and decided that it would make a good
logo; ultimately it's pretty uninspiring stuff, lets just
hope they didn't pay too much for it, because that would be
very embarrassing!
SOCA Shuts Down Illegal Website
The
Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has arrested the
owners of a website which is said to have offered downloads
of copyrighted material. The 'rnbxclusive' website was
seized and its illegal content removed with only a SOCA
warning message left behind. This is the first site that the
UK's serious organised crime agency has acted against, and
indicates a step change in their determination to crack down
on illegal content. Visitors have been left stunned by the
blunt nature of SOCA's message, which initially stated "If
you have downloaded music using this website you may have
committed a criminal offence which carries a maximum penalty
of up to ten years imprisonment and an unlimited fine under
UK law". This message has now been toned down, but don't
think this is an indicate that SOCA is softening their
stance, as action on further sites (that host illegal
material) is expected!
Apple Requests Factory Inspections
Apple
has been under pressure for years to do more to ensure its
foreign manufacturing plans are safe places to work and that
its employees are looked after properly. So it was a good
sign that Apple themselves requested that the FLA (Fair
Labor Association) audit 90% of their suppliers
(including Foxconn, Wintek and Quanta), with instructions to
leave no stone unturned. In fact, if the audits go as far as
indicated, the depth and scale of the investigations are
said to be unprecedented. Some might say this is too little
too late, and that Apple is just buckling under mounting
bad press over its work ethics, but this is a little
disingenuous, as Apple did not need to go this far. More
over Apple knows that it will be judged not by the findings
of these reports, but by the actions it takes to correct any
issues found, and any failure to act could damage Apple's
reputation irreparably.
BT
To Provide 300Mbits/sec FTTP
It
was back in October 2011 that
BT announced plans for a 300Mbits/sec Fibre-to-the-Premise
(FTTP) service, now called 'FTTP on demand' the service,
which is being aimed at businesses, will allow any customer
who currently has FTTC (Fibre-to-the-Cabinet) to request the
installation of a dedicated fibre cable from the Cabinet
directly to their property. As of yet, no announcement has
been made over the cost of said installation or indeed the
on-going fees for the 300Mbit service, but don't expect it
to be cheap (out of the reach of most private individuals).
BT hopes to begin to offer this service by 2013. Saying
this, if you need a speed boost above and beyond your
current 40Mbit connection, then you shouldn't have to wait
too long, as BT hopes to start upgrading all customers to
their 80Mbit service within the next few months.
Like
the 'Codecademy', the 'Khan Academy' are on a mission to help people learn, but rather
than specialising in computer programming like the 'Code
Year' course, it covers a much broader subject base. Khan
has over 2,800 videos and almost 300 exercises and
assessments, covering everything from Algebra to Venture
Capital. Khan is a not for profit organization, with an objective to provide free, world-class
education to anyone, anywhere. The 'Gates Foundation' and
Google's 'Project 10 to the 100' both see incredible value in the
project and are currently supporting them, and it's easy to
see why, this is a truly excellent site with many great
resources.
To explore this free resource, visit the following link:
http://www.khanacademy.org/
Sony,
once the innovator and market leader in almost everything
they turned their hand to, is bracing itself for its forth
consecutive year in the red. Sony has indicated they will
post another massive $2.9 billion loss this year, pushing
Sony ever closer to breaking point. Sony is now pinning all
it's hopes on their newly appointed CEO Kazuo Hirai, who
will replace Howard Stringer. Hirai has been with Sony for
many years and is said to be responsible for successfully
reviving the PlayStation gaming console division. Sony is
hoping Hirai can do the same for the rest of the business,
although any changes will have to be pretty radical if Sony
is to survive intact!
It
was back in June 2010 (18
months ago) that the last Microsoft Office suite (Office
2010) was released, but there are now positive signs that a
new version is getting closer to release with the news that
a technical preview of Office 15 has been made available to
a small number of Microsoft Partners to allow them to gather
initial feedback. Although this is encouraging news, most of
us will have to wait until the public beta is released later
this year. Sadly, very little is still known about Office
15, but you can bet that it will be fully optimized for tablet/touch
control. One interesting rumor is that there may even be an office 15
for Apple's ipad...but I will believe that when I seen it!
An oversight during a routine
update, left a flaw in O2's system that could have
potentially allowed websites to gather the mobile phone
number of any O2 smart phone being used to surf the
internet. The flaw was reported quickly and O2
investigated immediately and corrected the mistake within 24
hours. The flaw was active for 15 days, and would have
required a website to know to actively interrogate the
mobile phone's for its number, thus it was more of a
potential flaw and not, in my mind, a particularly prevalent
threat to O2 customers; never-the-less O2 did make a mistake
and have apologized for any concern caused. Saying this, it
is an industry wide standard that mobile phone operators
share their customer's numbers with what they call 'Trusted
Partners'. In fact, I would be more concerned by who these
'partners' were, rather than a 'potential' exploit that was
only active for a few days!
Windows 8 might not be out until the middle of the year at the
earliest, but you can download the 'Developer Preview' if
you are interested in taking an advanced look at Microsoft's
latest Operating System. However, its not for the faint
hearted, as this is an early, beta build that is both buggy
and entirely unsupported by Microsoft. It will not install
as an upgrade, and it can't be uninstalled without a full
reformat of your system, so the recommended way to dip your
toe in the water is to install it as a virtual machine,
unless you have a spare machine lying around that happens to
fit the hardware requirements of Windows 8.
For more information Visit the following link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516
The
name might suggest something to do with fruit, but this is
simply a fun name for an
inexpensive, credit card sized computer. This mini machine
is being created in the hope that it will inspire a new
generation of technology whizz kids, much like the BBC Micro
and Sinclair ZX Spectrum did in the early 80s. It utilises a 700 MHz Arm 11 chip
(similar to that found in
mobile phones) and comes in two configurations, one with 128MB of onboard RAM and the
other with 256MB RAM and 10/100 Ethernet port. Both versions come with HDMI port, DSI display connector,
USB 2.0 port, SD Card slot, Audio jack, RCA Video Jack and a micro USB power port. There are also GPIO Headers for
interfacing. The power frugal Pi will even run well using
4xAA batteries. It currently supports RISC OS, Linux Debian, Fedora and ArchLinux.
But the best part of it is the £25 asking price, which
should help make it truly universal.
For more information Visit the following link:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
SOPA Could Cripple the
Internet
I'm
all for preventing copyright infringement, but (SOPA) the
‘Stop Online Piracy Act’, which is currently being
considered by the US government, goes way too far. Under the
new Act, any person creating a link to a site would have to
check the entire site for copyright infringement. Every
phrase, every picture, every video on every page would have
to be checked and verified (and this assumes you know it
infringes copyright). Even web search results would be
covered under the proposed law, it's truly stupid. If you're
found guilty (whether living in or outside the US) your
website would be removed, your domain confiscated, your IP
address blacklisted and all this without legal process. So
join 'The Glitch' and support the protest of this ludicrous
act, (along with many thousands of other sites) we ‘Go Dark’
for a day on the 18 January 2012.
The Qualcomm Foundation announced at the ‘Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas‘ that it will offer a 10 million dollar
prize to anyone who successfully creates a non-invasive,
portable medical tool capable of capturing "key health
metrics and diagnose a set of 15 diseases". This idea comes
straight from science fiction with devices such as Star
Trek’s ‘Tricorder’ being used diagnose an illness just by
quickly scanning a person’s body. Although it’s unlikely
anyone will produce such a device in the near future, this prize
on offer will no doubt be enough to catalyze someone to make
progress in this essential area of technology and medicine.
'Code Year' is a new idea from
a start-up
company called 'Codecademy'. Basically, anyone can sign up to their free website course to receive an
interactive programming lesson each week, via email. The
idea behind the site is simple, to get people interested in
coding at a time when the numbers of skilled programmers is
in decline. The site has been a
huge success so far, and has seen well over 6 million lessons completed
within the first 4 weeks of going live. The site is a
wonderful idea, and it's likely to see many more millions sign up
over the coming months,
especially considering the recent report slating the way computing,
and more especially programming, is currently being taught
in UK schools.
To sign-up to this free resource, visit the following link:
http://codeyear.com/
Facebook Worm Steals
Passwords
A
Worm virus dubbed ‘Ramnit’ has (to date) managed to gather more than 45,000 Facebook
user's passwords. Once harvested the Malware then goes on to
use the stolen
credentials to transmit malicious links via
the user’s friends list. It has been estimated that well
over 800,000 computers have been infected by ‘Ramnit’ since
September of last year. The issue is not directly
associated with any specific security flaw with their
service, but Facebook are still urging users to read their comprehensive ‘Guide to
Facebook Security’ document, which contains some good advice
on how to keep your accounts safe.
To download a copy of the guide, visit the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/safety/attachment/Guide to Facebook
Security.pdf
Comet in Counterfeit Microsoft Media Dispute
Well
known retail store ‘Comet’ is defending its position over
claims that it illegally copied Microsoft operating system
media. The issue stems from the fact that Microsoft stopped
providing recovery media for all new computer systems that
came pre-installed with a Microsoft operating system. This
move then required customers, often with little or no
knowledge, to try and create their own backup, which, more
often than not, proved too complex or was simply
inconvenient. This had the knock on effect that customers
were left unable to restore their systems in the event of a
serious crash. So Comet is arguing that they were simply
providing good customer service, although it's still not
clear whether they was profiting from the service, or
whether any charges made were simply covering costs.
I have
started the New Year with a fresh banner to head up my web
pages and a new '0845 519 5319' contact number (all previous
contact numbers are still available). I have also created a
Tweeter page, but please be aware that this is very new and
so not a lot of active content has been posted at the
moment. Two of the main projects for the site this year are
to finally get my 'Search Index' fully updated and working
as only a small amount of the site is currently searchable,
and to finish updating my PDF Guides, other than that I
welcome any comments and suggestions that you may have.
Happy 2012 from 'The Glitch'.