Facebook: “Armes Internet für arme Menschen”

Facebook will Indiens Bevölkerung online bringen, aber der Widerstand wächst. Die Frage: Ist das Projekt Free Basics gut gemeint oder eine Gefahr für ein freies Netz? (Mark Zuckerberg, Spam)

Facebook will Indiens Bevölkerung online bringen, aber der Widerstand wächst. Die Frage: Ist das Projekt Free Basics gut gemeint oder eine Gefahr für ein freies Netz? (Mark Zuckerberg, Spam)

Education Edition: Microsoft kauft MinecraftEdu

Minecraft gehört Microsoft bereits, jetzt kündigt der Softwarekonzern auch die Übernahme der für Schulen gedachten Erweiterung MinecraftEdu an. Im Sommer 2016 soll es eine Neuauflage namens Education Edition geben. (Minecraft, Microsoft)

Minecraft gehört Microsoft bereits, jetzt kündigt der Softwarekonzern auch die Übernahme der für Schulen gedachten Erweiterung MinecraftEdu an. Im Sommer 2016 soll es eine Neuauflage namens Education Edition geben. (Minecraft, Microsoft)

Panasonic launches Lumix CM10 Android-powered camera

Panasonic launches Lumix CM10 Android-powered camera

About a year after launching the Lumix CM1 smartphone with a high-quality camera lens, Panasonic is introducing a new model that looks virtually identical. But the new Panasonic Lumix CM10 has one key difference: it’s not a phone. It’s just an Android-powered point-and-shoot camera with a 28mm Leica DC lens, a 20 megapixel, 1 inch […]

Panasonic launches Lumix CM10 Android-powered camera is a post from: Liliputing

Panasonic launches Lumix CM10 Android-powered camera

About a year after launching the Lumix CM1 smartphone with a high-quality camera lens, Panasonic is introducing a new model that looks virtually identical. But the new Panasonic Lumix CM10 has one key difference: it’s not a phone. It’s just an Android-powered point-and-shoot camera with a 28mm Leica DC lens, a 20 megapixel, 1 inch […]

Panasonic launches Lumix CM10 Android-powered camera is a post from: Liliputing

Numbers don’t lie—it’s time to build your own router

With more speed available and hardware that can’t adapt, DIY builds offer peak performance.

I've noticed a trend lately. Rather than replacing a router when it literally stops working, I've needed to act earlier—swapping in new gear because an old router could no longer keep up with increasing Internet speeds available in the area. (Note, I am duly thankful for this problem.) As the latest example, a whole bunch of Netgear ProSafe 318G routers failed me for the last time as small businesses have upgraded from 1.5-9mbps traditional T1 connections to 50mbps coax (cable).

Yes, coax—not fiber. Even coax has proved too much for the old ProSafe series. These devices didn't just fail to keep up, they fell flat on their faces. Frequently, the old routers dropped speed test results from 9mbps with the old connection to 3mbps or less with the 50mbps connection. Obviously, that doesn't fly.

These days, the answer increasingly seems to be wireless routers. These tend to be long on slick-looking plastic and brightly colored Web interfaces but short on technical features and reliability. What's a mercenary sysadmin to do? Well, at its core, anything with two physical network interfaces can be a router. And today, there are lots and lots of relatively fast, inexpensive, and (super important!) fully solid-state generic boxes out there.

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Security: XSS-Lücke in Yahoo-Mail gefixt

Eine XSS-Lücke in Yahoo-Mail ermöglichte es Angreifern, fremde Accounts zu übernehmen. Sie hätten alle E-Mails der Nutzer weiterleiten und ausgehende E-Mails mit Viren infizieren können, schreibt ein Sicherheitsforscher. Yahoo hat bereits reagiert. (Security, Yahoo)

Eine XSS-Lücke in Yahoo-Mail ermöglichte es Angreifern, fremde Accounts zu übernehmen. Sie hätten alle E-Mails der Nutzer weiterleiten und ausgehende E-Mails mit Viren infizieren können, schreibt ein Sicherheitsforscher. Yahoo hat bereits reagiert. (Security, Yahoo)

SMA Solar: Deutscher Konzern verbündet sich mit Tesla

Der Wechselrichterhersteller SMA Solar verbündet sich mit Tesla bei Energiespeichern. Die TecDax-Firma erwartet einen schnellen Durchbruch bei Billig-Akkus – und hofft auf ein Milliardengeschäft. (Solarenergie, Technologie)

Der Wechselrichterhersteller SMA Solar verbündet sich mit Tesla bei Energiespeichern. Die TecDax-Firma erwartet einen schnellen Durchbruch bei Billig-Akkus - und hofft auf ein Milliardengeschäft. (Solarenergie, Technologie)

AMD slams “biased” and “unreliable” Intel benchmarks

Says SYSmark doesn’t represent true performance, compares to VW emissions scandal.

AMD, a company famous for its subtlety and restraint when dealing with competitors, is once again accusing Intel of unfair business practices, this time around dodgy benchmarks. Rather than provide useful metrics to consumers, AMD says Intel's use of the SYSmark benchmarking tool unfairly favours Intel products by putting too much emphasis on raw CPU performance. It even went as far to compare said practice to the recent VW emissions scandal, in which diesel engines could detect when they were having their emissions tested, changing their performance accordingly to improve results.

"Information provided by even the most established organisations can be misleading," explains AMD's John Hampton in a video titled "Truth or Myth?: Is SYSmark a Reliable Benchmark?" on YouTube. The video, in which a po-faced Hampton and technical sidekick Tony Salinas explain the Intel problem in true 60 Minutes style, shows SYSmark on a pair of PCs, one powered by an Intel Core i5 processor and the other by an AMD FX chip. The Core i5 system scored 987, while a "comparable AMD platform" running an FX processor scored 659. "That's a delta of 50 percent. Quite astonishing and not realistic in what real life performance is like," says Salinas.

To try and prove that AMD's chips are comparable to Intel's in real-world usage scenarios, the pair then boot up PCMark8, which has "activity going on on the CPU, GPU, and video sub-components of the system." The performance delta drops down to around seven percent. To hammer the point home they then load up a custom script, which looks at the time taken to complete a set of tasks within Microsoft Office. The Intel system completed it in 62 seconds, while the AMD system completed it in 64, thus providing the "better representation of real performance" the company is so keen to share.

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Giant icebergs help the Southern Ocean soak up carbon

Giant icebergs could account for up to 20 percent of carbon sequestration

(credit: Patrick Rowe, NSF)

The natural movement of carbon through the Earth and its inhabitants is essential to life as we know it. Carbon is needed in our atmosphere for photosynthesis, it’s present in plants and our bodies, and it’s expelled back into the atmosphere by our respiration.

The world’s ocean represents a significant sink in the global carbon cycle, containing the majority of the world’s CO2 in a dissolved form. Dissolved CO2 is required for many chemical and biochemical processes critical for marine organisms. For example, the sunlit level of the ocean is filled with phytoplankton, an organism that uses sunlight and dissolved carbon dioxide to create sugars via photosynthesis.

Iron is a trace nutrient that is critical for photosynthesis. The Southern Ocean has low concentrations of dissolved iron compared to other oceans, leading to lower levels of carbon sequestration—approximately 10 percent of the global sequestration. However, scientists think that sources of iron can lead to elevated localized levels, which could dramatically increase carbon sequestration. The impact of these local changes on the overall carbon sequestration of the Southern Ocean is not well understood.

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Linux: Networkmanager 1.2 verbessert Privatsphäre der Nutzer

Linux-Nutzer können mit der kommenden Version 1.2 des Networkmanagers ihre Privatsphäre schützen, indem Mac-Adressen zufällig erzeugt und IPv6-Adressen abgesichert werden. Weitere neue Funktionen verbessern den Umgang mit der Software. (Linux, Applikationen)

Linux-Nutzer können mit der kommenden Version 1.2 des Networkmanagers ihre Privatsphäre schützen, indem Mac-Adressen zufällig erzeugt und IPv6-Adressen abgesichert werden. Weitere neue Funktionen verbessern den Umgang mit der Software. (Linux, Applikationen)