GLITCH NEWS
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'.