Author: kenmay

Microsoft’s First Azure Hosted Service Is Powered By Linux

jones_supa (887896) writes “Canonical, through John Zannos, VP Cloud Alliances, has proudly announced that the first ever Microsoft Azure hosted service will be powered by Ubuntu Linux. This piece of news comes from the Strata + Hadoop World Conference, which takes place this week in California. The fact of the matter is that the news came from Microsoft who announced the preview of Azure HDInsight (an Apache Hadoop-based hosted service) on Ubuntu clusters yesterday at the said event. This is definitely great news for Canonical, as their operating system is getting recognized for being extremely reliable when handling Big Data. Ubuntu is now the leading cloud and scale-out Linux-based operating system.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft’s First Azure Hosted Service Is Powered By Linux

Apple will fix your older MacBook Pro’s video problems for free

Did you snag a MacBook Pro before 2014 only to run into corrupted video , no video at all or spontaneous reboots? You won’t have to shell out for a fix if you’re out of warranty. After more than a year of reports, Apple is launching a repair program that will mend your laptop for free if its graphics are going haywire. You’re covered so long as you bought a 15- or 17-inch MacBook Pro between early 2011 and the end of 2013, including the first two generations of Retina models . The program will be available as of February 20th if you’re in the US or Canada, and a week later in the rest of the world. Only a “small percentage” of systems are affected, Apple says, but it won’t hurt to check coverage even if everything is hunky dory. Filed under: Laptops , Apple Comments Source: Apple

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Apple will fix your older MacBook Pro’s video problems for free

Scotland’s Police Lose Data Because of Programmer’s Error

Anne Thwacks writes Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Mawson told the [Scottish Police Authority] committee that a total of 20, 086 records had been lost because a computer programmer pressed the wrong button between May and July last year. He added: “….they had been properly put on the system by the officers as a result of stopping and searching people, but we lost the outcome of it as a computer programming error. We have been working really hard to recover that data. I have personally overseen the sending out of several thousand emails to officers and follow-up audits. We have been working hard with HMICS to oversee everything that we do, to make sure it is done properly and I am pleased to say that the vast majority of that data, those results, are now back on the system.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Scotland’s Police Lose Data Because of Programmer’s Error

Oh boy: Facebook for mobile lets you add stickers to photos

Well, here’s a nice Facebook feature for the more fun-loving users: the social network now lets you add stickers to photos before you even post them from an iPhone or an Android device. The social network launched a separate sticker app in December, but that one’s only for pictures to be sent through Messenger . Also, its built-in stickers were only for use in private messages and the comments section , prompting anyone who wanted cute accoutrements in their pictures to turn to third-party apps. Now, you’ll see a small icon at the bottom of each uploaded image, which you can click to see all the stickers you can use. These graphics can be resized, rotated, moved to another location — or just straight up deleted if you change your mind. Sure, go on and roll your eyes at the news, but we promise you teens and tweens will eat this up: cue the rise of super- kawaii , sticker-ridden Facebook selfies. Filed under: Misc , Mobile , Facebook Comments Source: iTunes , Google Play

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Oh boy: Facebook for mobile lets you add stickers to photos

Resistant Bacterial Infection Outbreak At California Hospital

puddingebola writes From the article: “A potentially deadly “superbug” resistant to antibiotics has infected seven patients, including two who died, and more than 160 others were exposed at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center through contaminated medical instruments, the hospital revealed. The drug-resistant superbug known as CRE was likely transmitted to the Los Angeles patients by contaminated medical scopes during endoscopic procedures that took place between October 2014 and January 2015, a university statement said. ” UCLA says the infections occurred via contaminated endoscopes that were sterilized according to the manufacturer’s specifications. (Note: beware autoplaying video ad; adjust your volume accordingly.) Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Resistant Bacterial Infection Outbreak At California Hospital

Microsoft is offering money for your old Surface (if you buy a new one)

Still have a Surface RT that you relegated to the closet after you realized that it couldn’t run “real” Windows apps? Don’t send that tablet to the recyclers just yet — it might just get you some credit toward a much more useful model. Microsoft is running a US promotion that will let you trade in any Surface by March 8th and get cash toward the purchase of a Surface Pro 3 . So long as the outgoing device is in good working order, you’ll get as much as $650 off a shiny new slate — if it’s one of the more recent ones. Be sure to gauge the value of your ancient gear before you jump on this offer, though. As with many first-party trade-in deals, Microsoft is being a bit stingy — you’ll get just $84 for a 32GB Surface RT, and even a decked-out 512GB Surface Pro 2 will net you a mere $361. The only way to hit that alluring $650 mark is to hand in a 256GB, Core i5-equipped Surface Pro 3… which defeats the point, really. This promo makes the most sense if you’re more concerned about the hassles of selling on sites like Craigslist or eBay than wringing out every potential dollar. Filed under: Tablets , Microsoft Comments Via: SuperSite for Windows Source: Microsoft

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Microsoft is offering money for your old Surface (if you buy a new one)

How cable networks speed up shows to squeeze in more ads

If you’re still watching cable (and apparently we’re not), it turns out that channels like TBS and TNT are now speeding up syndicated programs, classics films and other shows by as much as 7 percent. The trend was noticed by Snopes and others, thanks to a user called ITClassics who compared the same episodes as aired now and years ago. A Seinfeld episode that originally ran 25 minutes was nearly 22 after the process, letting the broadcaster fit in about six extra spots. As the WSJ pointed out, ads now run an average of 15.8 minutes per hour on cable, and one unnamed cable exec said that “it’s a way to keep the revenue from going down as much as the ratings.” As we’ve reported before, cable and premium channels are losing viewership to Netflix and other less aggravating forms of content delivery. In order to make up for the lost revenue, TNT et. al. are speeding up syndicated shows like Seinfeld and Friends in a way that’s not too noticeable, letting them fit in a few more ads per half hour. They’re also irritating classic movie lovers by speeding up titles like the Wizard of Oz and King Kong (1933), giving the big ape a less menacing growl. The stations might be squeezing out a few more bucks, but as some Redditors pointed out, they’re probably turning even more folks away from cable . Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD Comments Source: Snopes , ITClassics (YouTube)

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How cable networks speed up shows to squeeze in more ads

Samsung’s Portable SSD T1 Tested

MojoKid writes The bulk of today’s high-capacity external storage devices still rely on mechanical hard disk drives with spinning media and other delicate parts. Solid state drives are much faster and less susceptible to damage from vibration, of course. That being the case, Samsung saw an opportunity to capitalize on a market segment that hasn’t seen enough development it seems–external SSDs. There are already external storage devices that use full-sized SSDs, but Samsung’s new Portable SSD T1 is more akin to a thumb drive, only a little wider and typically much faster. Utilizing Samsung’s 3D Vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology and a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface, the Portable SSD T1 redlines at up to 450MB/s when reading or writing data sequentially, claims Samsung. For random read and write activities, Samsung rates the drive at up to 8, 000 IOPS and 21, 000 IOPS, respectively. Pricing is more in-line with high-performance standalone SSDs, with this 1TB model reviewed here arriving at about $579. In testing, the drive did live up to its performance and bandwidth claims as well. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Samsung’s Portable SSD T1 Tested

An ‘Alien’ movie is coming from the creator of ‘District 9’

District 9 creator Neill Blomkamp gave sci-fi fans a brief glimmer of hope in January, when he teased that he had secretly been working on an Alien sequel that had (apparently) been scuttled. Well, it might be back on again — Blomkamp is now claiming on Instagram (with support from Variety sources) that the project is “officially [his] next film.” There’s no word on the movie’s plot or when it might hit theaters, but his sneak peek showed concept art that included Ripley in an alien-like suit, Weyland-Yutani’s headquaters and the return of Aliens ‘ Corporal Hicks. Fox hasn’t chimed in yet, but it’s likely just a matter of time if this pans out. The real question is whether Blomkamp can return the franchise to its former glory. While he hit it big with District 9 and shows promise with his upcoming flick Chappie , the mixed reviews of Elysium suggest that Blomkamp doesn’t automatically produce box office gold. And Variety notes that Alien director Ridley Scott won’t be involved — he’s too busy with his follow-up to Prometheus , so it’s all on the (relatively) new guy to make this work. Um… So I think it’s officially my next film. #alien A photo posted by Brownsnout (@neillblomkamp) on Feb 18, 2015 at 3:55pm PST Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD Comments Source: Neill Blomkamp (Instagram) , Variety

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An ‘Alien’ movie is coming from the creator of ‘District 9’