letters

Thu
15
Dec
John Lister's picture

Google Publishes Previously Secret FBI Letters

Google has published eight letters sent by the FBI demanding details about its users. Normally the company isn't allowed to even acknowledge the letters exist. The letters, known as National Security Letters, are formal demands from the FBI for ... details about users - in this case, Google users. The letters are controversial for two reasons; first, the demands can be made without a specific search order, something that raises constitutional issues. The second is that Google isn't normally allowed to tell the user about the demand. While it's been argued that doing so may tip off a ... (view more)

Wed
13
May
John Lister's picture

Scientists One Step Closer to Building Human Brain

Scientists have designed a simple computer circuit to successfully recognize three different letters. It sounds unimpressive, but it's actually a huge step towards replicating and learning more about the human brain. One of the curious things about ... a computer is that although it is considerably faster than a human at basic calculations (which are what its operations boil down to), there are certain tasks at which it is far inferior. Most of these tasks involve 'human' abilities, such as judgment and making snap decisions. A good example is situations which involve a large number ... (view more)

Fri
27
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

'Three Strikes' Policy Targets Illegal File-Sharing

Authorities in New Zealand are currently testing a new "three strikes" policy designed to reduce copyright infringement. It's not yet clear, however, if the idea is having a significant deterrent effect on illegal file-sharing. The 'test' policy is ... based on the idea that a customer deserves two warnings about his or her alleged infringements, and then can face serious consequences for a third instance of illegal activity. In New Zealand, a law introduced last year allows a copyright holder to take a three-time infringer to a special tribunal where they can be fined as much as NZ $15,000 ( ... (view more)

Mon
30
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

Major Changes On Cards For Website Address System

There are major changes in store for the way Internet addresses work; The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which runs the system used to 'translate' website addresses to the particular computer used to store each site's ... content, held its annual general meeting this week. It has backed plans to completely overhaul the top level domain system, which involves the letters that come after the final period in a site address. At the moment, the only letters which can be used are a two letter code for each country (such as .ca for Canada), or a few generic domains such as ... (view more)

Fri
09
Jun
Dennis Faas's picture

Insert Symbols: MS Word

In your documents, sometimes you have to include symbols other than the standard letters, numbers and characters that appear on the keyboard. MS Word has many interesting symbols for you to use: everyday items such as the degree symbol (98.6°),  ...Greek letters (ΦΒΚ or ψ), letters needed in foreign words (such as résumé or Senõr), and even cute little pictures (such as  and §). You must use these symbols when they're needed in the text, but the pictures, sometimes called "dingbats," can be used for decoration. To begin, click to the insertion point where you ...view more)

Tue
01
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Web Server Upgrade, Part 2

It's been one heck of an enduring battle, but after waging war with the new web server gremlins -- and after standing vigilantly for the last 5 days in hopes that the hosting company could resolve a number of outstanding issues -- I finally decided ... that "enough was enough" and had the system re-imaged [formatted] all over again. Of course, this meant that I had to reinstate all the dedicated web server software and web pages by remote command-line. Not fun. It was a royal pain in the neck, but it appears that the second walk-thru has cleared the path and things *seem* to be much ... (view more)

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