Free Republic

In the past, one thing that’s always separated Google from its rivals has been the ability to use Google services across many platforms. Whether you owned an iPhone, an iPad, a Mac, or a Windows PC, you always had access to Google services like Search, Maps, and Docs. Of course, Google would prefer that you use Android and Chromebooks, but that rarely felt like a requirement. At this year’s Google I/O conference, we’re starting to see a different strategy emerge. Google is now making the case that if you want the full Google experience, you need to use Android devices...

In the days and weeks since Apple’s WWDC keynote, something’s been bugging me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then, recently, while sitting at the airport, I launched Safari and pulled up Apple’s official privacy policy. At first glance, it seemed to be the standard boilerplate issued by the gray suited legal department of a large enterprise, full of the same legalese you see on nearly any site that collects your personal information. But then I focused on some of the details, and a certain simplicity emerged: Personal information will only be shared by Apple to provide...

For years, Linux has ruled supercomputing. So, it came as no surprise to anyone at the Linux Enterprise End-User Summit near Wall Street that once again the Top500 group found in its latest supercomputer ranking that Linux was the fastest of the fast operating systems. With 97 percent of the world's fastest supercomputers running Linux,the open-source operating system has eliminated almost all its rivals. As one Red Hat representative said, "The only thing that would be surprising about Linux being the top dog would be if anything else even came close." He doesn't have any reason to worry.In the latest contest, not only...

Hmmm.. The excuse given tonight at the hearings

Mint KDE 17 is finally released!

Researchers have discovered a crucial security problem in Google Play, the official Android app store. The study is the first to make a large-scale measurement of the huge marketplace, using PlayDrone, a tool they developed to circumvent Google security to successfully download Google Play apps and recover their sources. Some of the secret keys, including Facebook and LinkedIn, were discovered by PlayDrone, a tool developed by Columbia Engineering researchers that uses hacking techniques to circumvent Google security to successfully download Google Play apps and recover their sources. In a paper presented -- and awarded the Ken Sevcik Outstanding Student Paper...

Apple announced a new lower-cost dual-core iMac today, and Geekbench 3 results for it are already appearing on the Geekbench Browser. Let's see how the new iMac performs compared to other iMacs. When compared to the rest of the iMac lineup, the new iMac has reasonable single-core performance — it's almost identifcal to the entry-level quad-core iMac. Multi-core performance is significantly lower due to the lower number of cores (2 cores vs 4 cores). One interesting thing about the new iMacs is that they use a low-voltage i5-4260U "Haswell" processor (the same processor is used in the MacBook Air). Why...

Insiders also tell the New York Post the naked pictures were allegedly posted on a blog purportedly belonging to Morales, and it's illegal in California to falsely impersonate others online. More woes for Charney: On Friday, a video of him dancing naked in front of two female employees surfaced.

Waste coffee grinds could be turned into a sustainable fuel to power vehicles, scientists have found. Oil can be extracted from coffee grounds by soaking them in an organic solvent, before being chemically transformed into biodiesel via a process called 'transesterification', according to researchers from the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies at University of Bath. As part of the study, the researchers made biofuel from ground coffee produced in 20 different geographic regions, including caffeinated and decaffeinated forms, as well as Robusta and Arabica varieties. "Around 8 million tonnes of coffee are produced globally each year and ground waste coffee...

South Korea’s current fetish with ‘watching people eat’, or ‘dinner porn’ as the crazy is now known has uncovered a new star. The dinner porn craze involves no sex of course, but simply watching other people eat – online, on TV, wherever. According to a report on asiaone.com, quoting Elite Daily, Tae Ryun Huh is the new and emerging Korean sensation. No just because she eats, but because of how much she eats. And then this amazing fact – the school worker weighs 48kg. Tae Ryun Huh invited TV cameras to watch her eat and the South Korean show discovered...

ProtonMail is a new email service that is developed by a team of scientists working at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. Our goal is simple: we want to protect people around the world from the mass surveillance that is currently being perpetrated by governments and corporations around the world. We believe that privacy is a fundamental human right that must be protected at any cost. The advent of the internet has now made all of us more vulnerable to mass surveillance than at any other point in human history. The disappearance of online privacy is...

The above phone number is a scam at the very least or a phone spoofing scheme at it's worst. If you receive a phone call from this number Do Not Answer It! Do Not Call It! No one will answer and if it is indeed a spoofing call it's possible some one is trying to trap your info. I have received several of these calls and no message is ever left. If you can block it on your phone do so. My service provider is conducting an investigation and will be blocking this number for me. I made the mistake...

MEXICO’S IMMIGRATION LAW:(a.k.a. General Law on Population) Mexico’s Immigration Law (General Law on Population) 1999 • Mexico welcomes only foreigners who will be useful to Mexican society: - Foreigners are admitted into Mexico “according to their possibilities of contributing to national progress.” (Article 32) - Immigration officials must “ensure” that “immigrants will be useful elements for the country and that they have the necessary funds for their sustenance” and for their dependents. (Article 34) - Foreigners may be barred from the country if their presence upsets “the equilibrium of the national demographics,” when foreigners are deemed detrimental to “economic or...

Thousands of music videos are expected to soon disappear off of YouTube because the independent record labels behind those artists are not involved in new deals being cut by the Google-owned streaming site. YouTube will announce in "a matter of days" that videos on the site featuring recording artists from some independent labels will be blocked, the FT reports. The ban is aimed at forcing the "refusenik" labels into signing licensing agreements with a new service, coming soon from Google. When the forthcoming service, YouTube Music Pass, is finally launched later this summer, subscribers are expected to be able to...

Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc will start mass production of Apple Inc's first smartwatch in July, according to a source familiar with the matter, as the tech giant tries to prove it can still innovate against rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. The watch, which remains unnamed but which company followers have dubbed the iWatch, will be Apple's first foray into a niche product category that many remain skeptical about, especially as to whether it can drive profits amid cooling growth in tech gadgets. Apple will introduce a smartwatch with a display that likely measures 2.5 inches diagonally and is slightly rectangular,...

It was on this day 30 years ago that the X Window System was first announced. Back on 19 June 1984, Robert Scheifler announced a window system for the VS100 that was based upon the W system at the time. The initial X performance on a VS100 was about twice as fast, the code was in development for a few weeks and already showing signs of stability, and developers at MIT were startiing to build applications to run on X.

I gave a cursory read to the Code of Conduct in the updated Microsoft Services Agreement, which, among other things, states under Prohibited Uses states, You will not upload, post, transmit, transfer, distribute, or facilitate distribution of any content (including text, images, sound, video, data, information, or software) or otherwise use the service in a way that: ...Threatens...defames...degrades, victimizes, or intimidates an individual or group of individuals for any reason, including on the basis of age...sexual orientation, race or religion, or incites or encourages anyone else to do so. Obviously, this is purposely ambiguous and broad ("for any reason"!), but...

The scent messages, called oNotes, are composed in an iPhone app called oSnap, which also launched today. Using oSnap, users can mix and match from 32 primitive aromas to produce more than 300,000 unique scents, Edwards said. The 32 aromas are placed inside oPhone's eight "oChips," which could be thought of as a printer's ink cartridges. When the device receives an oNote, it releases the corresponding aroma based on the aromatic tags assigned to the image. Each scent is designed to last roughly 10 seconds, about the same time that people take to sense an aroma, Edwards told reporters in...

GCI celebrated the launch of 3G data service in Bethel by flying in 6,000 McDonald’s cheeseburgers. The Friday lunchtime crowd stretched out and around the parking lot of the Long House Hotel. Standing over 100 people in line for burgers, GCI’s Vice President for Wireless Services, Dan Boyette, says crews are continuing to tweak the network, but it appears to be functioning as intended. “All of those things that people really had trouble doing before like browsing the internet or sending pictures..that sort of thing will work fine now with the 3G speed, while it’s tough with the 2G or...

If you think that the world's greatest inventions came from the fevered minds of solitary geniuses, think again. As you scan this list of the 10 inventions that changed the world, note how many of them perfected workable designs. 10. Plow Compared to some of the gleaming, electronic inventions that fill our lives today, the plow doesn't seem very exciting. It's a simple cutting tool used to carve a furrow into the soil, churning it up to expose nutrients and prepare it for planting. Yet the plow is probably the one invention that made all others possible. No one knows...