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Sara et Sara

Né(e) le 11 août 2016

10 ans

Depuis sa naissance

Suivez les premières fois, les découvertes et tous les souvenirs de notre enfant.

Notre journal

Tous nos moments

De l’attente aux premières années, retrouvez ici les étapes et les souvenirs qui composent notre histoire.

Les échographies

Battery for Fujitsu FPCBP325AP

Beancounters like boxes you can point at, particularly when they have big black-and-white labels saying “CORP-MailServer-01”. Auditor-baiting is a great game, and you can only do it if you have core stuff in your DC.You may, of course, end up deciding to move your entire production application world into the cloud. It's inexpensive, security isn't regarded as an excessive problem, and support costs generally go down markedly when someone else has to look after the hardware and the software upgrades.Even if you do, though, the data centre remains the ideal place to do your architecture tests and prototyping – trying things out and seeing how they behave. The example I gave earlier about inviting people to pull the connection out of the simulated WAN link is exactly what I'm talking about: a platform that physically exists but isn't part of the production infrastructure. It's got routers, servers, switches, storage, bits of cable, its own internet connection, and preferably additional tools such as a WAN emulator, dedicated PC for network monitoring, and so on.The cloud has a fairly core problem: it's the cloud. You have no idea of the underlying hardware, or how far server A physically sits from server B. You have high-level monitoring but nothing below a very abstract set of statistics, so although you could use something like PerfMon/TypePerf at the Windows level (or the Linux equivalent if you're an Open Source kind of person) you have no idea what's going on on the network.


Particularly for an application specialist this is a big deal: in any networked application each contact between endpoints has several phases, from the initial DNS lookup right at the end of the delivery of the results to the user. In the cloud you just can't see this – so research on how your apps perform in this regard needs you to have some kind of data centre presence with some real, physical equipment in it.And the beauty is that you can often equip your R&D “lab” without costing the earth. After all, you didn't throw out those end-of-life switches or routers, did you? In most cases you replace kit not because it's completely unusable but because the vendor no longer supports it and hence it's no use in a business-critical infrastructure. So if you gave me a few Cisco 2600s routers, 3750G switches, ASA5510s, four-year-old Dell servers and the like I'd be perfectly happy. Although you'll need to buy some stuff, it won't be an expensive ground-up purchase.And the point is I'd be able to let my gang run riot with them and practise stuff. Flash an ancient copy of the ASA firmware onto a 5510 and let them figure out how to upgrade it to the latest release without breaking the VPN connection. We can unplug things and see how the database copes, and whether it manages to get its bearings and pick up where it left off once the connection comes back.



Engineers are like children: we like stuff that's new, and we like trying stuff out and finding things out for ourselves
Buy some assorted hard disks – SATA and SAS spinning disks and various types of Flash drive – and do real benchmarks and show yourself just what the difference is. Record what you see, because when you then look back to the cloud for your production systems you'll be so much more convinced that (say) the extra performance of the SSD storage option is worth it – because you'll remember that “Holy crap!” moment when you saw how fast the benchmark was on your own physical box, run by your own fair hand.The cloud abstracts everything too much to be useful for infrastructure research and testing, and so an in-house alternative is the obvious way to go.And the thing is, engineers are like children: we like stuff that's new, and we like trying stuff out and finding things out for ourselves. And if this can involve real engineering, with real metal boxes (preferably with the lids off where possible), and flashing lights, and bits of electric string, all the better.And this means physical kit. On our premises. Combine this with the undeniable fact that experimenting is fun, and it's the obvious way of getting the fun stuff back into the data centre.


Video People who bought the first batch of Microsoft's Surface Book slab-tops are furious that a glitch causes the screens to flicker.Microsoft's support forums and the Surface subreddit are filled with folks claiming their displays erratically wink completely on and off. This happens, we're told, whether the tablet is running on its own or when it's docked in its base station.A small number of customers have flagged some issues with their Surface Book, a Redmond spokesperson told The Register. We are working hard to resolve them quickly and easily with Windows Update.
The reports come just two days into the retail run for the high-end Microsoft tablet-notebook convertible. Marketed as a high-end expansion on the Surface Pro, the Surface Book starts at a price of $1500 and offers up to an Intel Core i7 processor and 1TB SSD in the tablet, with an additional Nvidia discrete GPU built into the keyboard dock.That high-priced, hefty hardware package seems to be coming with some early hiccups. A video captured by one Surface Book owner shows the mysterious screen flicker in action.



Just got my unit, i7 512GB. Applied all the updates (including the recent firmware). My screen keeps flickering on/off, whether or not the screen is docked, user Jarem said of the problem.I've tried resetting but the issue still persists. It also seems independent of running apps or focused windows. Adjusting the brightness doesn't resolve the issue.It doesn't seem to do it when the screen is attached in laptop mode, but flipping the screen around makes it flicker like crazy, wrote user JohnnyLocust.Spent about 2 hours with tech support on the phone. All we did was a complete factory reset and reinstall the latest firmware and drivers. One hour later, the flicker started right back up.While the cause of the flickering has not yet been determined, users have suggested the problem may be related to Hyper-V, as some reported that disabling the Windows 10 hypervisor alleviates the flickering issue.Though many Windows users will not need Hyper-V enabled, the issue could be a problem for the Surface book in particular, as Redmond has positioned the tablet, with its in-dock discrete GPU, as a solution for high-end enterprise users. This week, the pair developing the Novena open laptop have provided an update on their work. The idea is to develop a usable system that is completely open to customization and scrutiny – from the electronics to the firmware to the operating system to the applications.This is ideal for people paranoid there is malicious code hidden in closed-source drivers and firmware in their motherboards and hardware, or just fed up with insecure and broken closed-source software from manufacturers.

Les échographies

Battery for Sony VGP-BPS2C

That Kermani's physical machine was seized by the police suggests that communications between himself and his sources were unavailable to the police through RIPA. Such unavailability has been a gripe of the British government in recent months, with suggestions of banning end-to-end encrypted communications – but not encryption wholesale – left open by Baroness Shields, ironically the minister for internet safety and security, in the coming Investigatory Powers Bill.Michelle Stanistreet, secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said: There are serious questions to be answered about why the order obtained by the police warranted the seizing of a journalist's laptop - which may well have contained confidential information on other sources and other stories too. Terrorism laws should not be used as convenient cloaks to sidestep measures that protect press freedom and the ability of journalists to inform the public and to hold power to account.If Kermani's communications were encrypted on his device, he may now face a compulsory disclosure order under Section 49 of RIPA which would compel him to disclose the cryptographic key protecting his communications or face a maximum of two years in prison.Ian Katz, editor of Newsnight, said: While we would not seek to obstruct any police investigation we are concerned that the use of the Terrorism Act to obtain communication between journalists and sources will make it very difficult for reporters to cover this issue of critical public interest.


The cloud is a fabulous concept. If you want to try something out, or prototype your latest idea, or give yourself a relatively inexpensive disaster recovery setup, get in there and run up a cloud-based installation.There's something that the cloud lacks, though: it's just not fun or cool. Lists of virtual machines in the Azure management GUI aren't sexy. Neither is the pop-up on AWS that tells you the settings you need to paste into your router to get your VPN up and running. And incidentally, Microsoft and Amazon, I'm not having a pop specifically at you – they're just random examples that apply to the cloud in general rather to than any one supplier in particular.One of the things that has to stay in your data centre, assuming you have one, is the infrastructure that runs it. There's nothing quite as impressive as a spankingly tidy cabinet, every cable run perfectly along the cable management tray, perhaps colour-coded for important connections.I've had managers and auditors become wide-eyed and gasp when I've opened the cabinet door on a particularly sexy collection of flashing lights and cables (not, I hasten to add, my own cabling handiwork – happily I used to have a colleague called Chris who was amazing at that stuff).



And if your hardware vendor does cool kit, that's a bonus. My favourite was 3PAR's (now HP's) funky racks with yellow flashes across the doors. A colleague once referred to the yellow rack and the humming of the disks therein as “a box of angry bees”. What I do know is that everyone commented on it.Sadly, of course, the best any vendor can hope to achieve is second best, because the best-looking piece of kit ever devised has been out of production for years.Someone told me only this week of her experience rather a lot of years ago when she was a trainee accountant at the UK Atomic Energy Authority … and she went to see the Cray in its data centre. If you think anything can beat a proper Cray (the Cray-1, not one of those poncey 19-inch-rack-with-funky-doors ones they do these days), you're welcome to submit challenges in the Comments section of this page.


I come from a world of running resilient global infrastructures. This tends to mean a global network connected to a bunch of kit at each location that largely follows a standard architecture, since if everything's the same it's a breeze to manage. So you have the same firewalls, same family of switches, the same remote management servers, the same fileservers, the same storage devices, and so on at each site; the only thing that will usually change was the number of switches in the stack, reflecting the fact that some offices are bigger and have more users than others. And of course the only real way to test the resilience of your kit is to have a real setup to play with.Doing it for real has two key advantages. First, you're proving conclusively that it does what you expect. Yes, you can emulate a link failure by downing the port on (say) the WAN router, but it's still electrically connected in some cases. I've seen instances where downing the port didn't cause the link to go down entirely, but pulling the cable did – handy to know when you're testing your failover design.Second, though, is when you're trying to sell the idea of the CFO, or the company's investment committee, so they'll give you the money to actually do it.Take a bunch of senior managers to the data centre, open up the rack on your test network, run up a funky streamed music video on your laptop, and invite them to do their worst. “Pick a switch and pull the power on it,” you can tell them, and the video keeps on humming.



Stuff the power back in and watch the monitoring alerts all turn green when the switch is back on line. Invite them to pull the cable from the primary (simulated) WAN connection in the knowledge that it's supposed to be resilient; see the video pause for a few seconds while BGP re-converges and then pick up where it left off without you doing anything.If you're a techie, you think this is cool and you feel smug; if you're a manager you think the techie is some kind of wizard who does weird magic because until this point they thought this whole resilient technology was unfounded bollocks that you made up.Of course you could have demonstrated this from a distance by electronically downing ports, but being there in person and seeing it for real is worth a thousand semi-artificial demos.In these days of cloud computing, auditors can be a royal pain in the arse. Particularly the younger ones who are sent to do the initial on-site interviews and whose sole contribution to the process is the ability to write down what they're told.I love taking auditors to data centres. They're so used to people saying: “Oh, that's in the cloud” or “It's in our service provider's premises … here's a photocopy of their ISO27001 certificate” that they spend their lives with a suspicious look on their face.So it's great when they ask: “Can you tell me where XXX is stored?” You email the data centre receptionist surreptitiously to tell him to be particularly pedantic about ID, then shepherd the auditors outside, hop in the car, drive down to the data centre, go through the (now overly onerous) entry procedure, open the door of cabinet C23, point to the third disk shelf down, and say: “It's on there.” Even better, you nod to cabinet D14 and mention: “Oh, it's in there as well, and I won't bother showing you the other data centre as it's a long way away, but it's there too.”


Les achats

Batterie pour Dell Vostro 1440

Mais, voici le réel attrait de ce dernier : il utilise des « oscillateurs » et des microphones afin de produire un effet de « son surround » sans dénaturer l’environnement sonore autour de vous. Grâce à une méthode de conversation Push-to-Talk (PTT), ce casque est capable de recueillir le son de plusieurs appareils sur une liaison radio bidirectionnelle. Ceci est l’incarnation actuelle du Samsung Ahead. Mais, le dépôt de brevet de la société va un peu plus loin.Le Samsung Ahead pourrait être un concurrent au Microsoft HoloLensLe Samsung Ahead pourrait être un concurrent au Microsoft HoloLens
Une vision encore floueCe dernier décrit un système d’exploitation pour un « dispositif électronique numérique » offrant un support intégré pour des « modules d’affichage électroniques » comme un écran, ainsi que le matériel nécessaire pour la lecture de « MP3 » et « MP4 » et pour la « communication numérique ». Des caméras sont également mentionnées, faisant référence à un « appareil photo numérique » et à un « caméscope ».Sous quelle forme les futurs appareils Ahead pourraient prendre est un total mystère. Néanmoins, la connectivité avec le smartphone est une composante essentielle. Selon le dépôt, un casque Ahead se baserait sur une forme de norme « sans fil » pour la « messagerie instantanée portable ».


Quelle que soit sa finalité, est-ce que le Samsung « Ahead » ne serait pas un rival au Microsoft HoloLens, le casque de réalité mixte qui utilise la réalité augmentée pour superposer des informations numériques sur le monde réel ?Le HoloLens de Microsoft, disponible dès maintenant pour les développeurs, coûte 3 000 dollars. À moins que Microsoft réduise considérablement le prix sur la version grand public, cela pourrait être un obstacle pour beaucoup de passionnés d’hologramme. Bien qu’il soit impressionnant, Windows Holographic et le succès des casques de réalité mixte dépendront du support des développeurs et des casques moins chers. Microsoft le sait déjà, ce qui explique pourquoi la société permet à d’autres entreprises de construire des casques semblables aux HoloLens. Le fabricant de PC Asus a déjà confirmé être en train de construire son propre casque HoloLens.Samsung, toujours à l’affût de la prochaine technologie à succès, serait stupide de ne pas explorer la piste d’un casque semblable aux HoloLens. Comme toujours, une marque (ou un dépôt de brevet) ne confirme pas que le produit sera lancé. Néanmoins, il permet de laisser quelques spéculations.



Alors qu’il reste un mois avant que Microsoft arrête de pousser gratuitement aux utilisateurs sous Windows 7/8.1 la mise à jour pour Windows 10, nous pouvons imaginer ce que certains d’entre vous pensent ceci : bonne nouvelle, les fâcheux rappels de mise à jour vont disparaître.En effet, ce n’est un secret pour personne que Microsoft pousse activement Windows 10, conduisant à certains effets indésirables, comme ceux d’une mise à jour qu’il est difficile de retirer, et allant jusqu’à l’installation sans l’autorisation expresse de l’utilisateur.Toutefois, l’agressivité apportée par Microsoft dans le cadre de son dernier OS pourrait lui coûter cher. En effet, la société vient d’accepter de payer à une femme en Californie 10 000 dollars pour une installation non désirée de Windows 10.Terri Goldstein est une agente immobilière dont l’ordinateur professionnel est devenu pratiquement inutilisable après l’installation de Windows 10, en dépit qu’elle n’ait jamais autorisé la mise à niveau. Si ce processus vous est peut-être arrivé, sachez que Goldstein a remporté son procès contre Microsoft, demandant une compensation pour perte de salaire, ainsi qu’un autre ordinateur.


« Personne ne m’a jamais demandé si je voulais mettre à jour », a rapporté Goldstein au Seattle Times, ajoutant qu’elle n’avait même pas entendu parler de Windows 10 en premier lieu.Bien que la mise à jour automatique vers Windows 10 permet aux propriétaires de profiter de l’offre de mise à jour gratuite de Microsoft avant qu’elle ne disparaisse fin juillet — pour ne pas mentionner que la firme s’assure que davantage de gens sont sur la même plate-forme, l’installation du système d’exploitation sans leur autorisation expresse/connaissance est un moyen assez facile de se retourner contre le géant de Redmond.Est-ce que cela ouvre la porte à des dépôts de plaintes contre ceux qui sont réticents à passer à Windows 10 ? Est-ce que Microsoft va stopper son processus de pousser Windows 10 quelles qu’en soient les conséquences, et à n’importe quel prix ? Nous ne le saurons pas avec certitude, mais on peut imaginer que de nouvelles stratégies sont en ce moment discutées dans les services marketing et juridique de Microsoft.Néanmoins, la bonne nouvelle est que la poussée agressive de Microsoft pour obtenir Windows 10 semble avoir été un réel succès, puisque l’utilisation du nouveau système d’exploitation a dépassé celle de toutes les versions antérieures de Windows. Mais, cela à un prix…


Si les appareils photo instantanés peuvent être un succès lors de fêtes, ils restent néanmoins des objets assez chers pour une utilisation occasionnelle. Heureusement, des solutions annexes existent, comme la gamme d’imprimantes Share de Fujifilm qui aident à atténuer ces difficultés en imprimant des versions instantanées de photos prises à partir de smartphones.Aujourd’hui, ce processus est encore amélioré grâce à la nouvelle Fujifilm Instax Share SP-2. Plus rapide que la version originale SP-1, la Fujifilm Instax Share SP-2 peut imprimer toute image sur votre appareil photo numérique en 10 secondes environ. Les fichiers d’image que l’imprimante prend en charge sont les formats JPEG et PNG.Connectée avec l’application mobile SHARE, disponible sur Android et iOS, les utilisateurs peuvent se connecter sans fil à un réseau Wi-Fi dédié de la SP-2. De là, les images peuvent être téléversées, modifiées, et même combinées en un collage spécial avant qu’elles ne soient imprimées — quelque chose qu’un appareil photo instantané classique ne pourra jamais faire.En plus de divers réglages de filtres, contraste, luminosité et saturation, une image peut également être imprimée sur deux photos séparées et combinées pour un effet panoramique — utile pour les plans larges enregistrés sur votre smartphone.



Au prix de 199,95 dollars — 149,90 euros pour le modèle SP-1, l’imprimante SP-2 est disponible en deux coloris — or et argent — et fonctionne avec les packs photo Instax Mini, vendus 10 euros pour 10 feuilles.À environ un euro par photo, la photographie instantanée n’est pas moins chère, mais vous aurez désormais le choix du cliché à imprimer.Chaque géant de la technologie dispose d’un outil ou d’une plate-forme visant à améliorer la façon dont les étudiants et les enfants apprennent à coder : Apple a Swift Playgrounds, Microsoft a son école Imagine Academy, et Google a plusieurs programmes pour les enseignants. Mais, le géant de la recherche veut essayer quelque chose de nouveau avec son Project Bloks, une plate-forme matérielle ouverte pour les « développeurs, les designers et les chercheurs » qui souhaitent créer des expériences de programmation physique pour les enfants.Bloks ressemble fortement à une programmation avec des blocs de LEGO. On commence par une rondelle, qui peut avoir différentes formes, et qui est utilisée pour interagir avec un objet. Celle-ci peut avoir diverses instructions, comme activer/désactiver, aller à gauche, sauter ou encore lancer de la musique. En plaçant cette rondelle sur une carte, cela va instantanément permettre de lire les instructions à l’aide d’un capteur capacitif. Vous pouvez connecter plusieurs cartes entre elles, finissant par devenir le cerveau de votre création. Ces cartes sont conçues sur un Raspberry Pi Zero, et fournissent l’énergie et la connectivité.

Les échographies

Akku für Acer AS07A51

In Australien soll sie das Netz stabilisieren, ein Zusammenbruch der Stromversorgung wie 2016 soll sie verhindern. Damals tobte ein Sturm über Südaustralien, der das Netz für drei Tage zusammenbrechen ließ. 1,7 Millionen Einwohner und die Industrie saßen ohne Strom da, nichts ging mehr.


Nun soll die Batterie von Tesla, die dreimal so leistungsfähig ist wie bestehende Systeme, Netzausfälle überbrücken, wie Musk twitterte. Immerhin könnte die Batterie 30.000 Haushalte vorübergehend versorgen.


Sollte es länger dauern als 100 Tagen bis die Batterie fertig ans Netz angeschlossen ist, will Musk sie sogar verschenken. Da würden sich die Regierung von Südaustralien und Neoen freuen. Das französische Unternehmen baut gerade den Windpark Hornsdale Farm bei Jamestown in Südaustralien, wo die Batterie zum Einsatz kommen soll. Den Preis beziffern Experten auf rund 200 Mio. Dollar.


Normalerweise besteht die Aufgabe der Batterie im Peak-Shaving: Sie speichert die überschüssige Energie, die der Windpark erzeugt, wenn der Wind weht und wenig Nachfrage herrscht. In windarmen Zeiten mit hoher Nachfrage gibt sie die elektrische Energie ab.


Tesla hat bereits die bisher größte Li-Ionen-Batterie in Kalifornien installiert, die 80 MWh erreicht und die das Unternehmen in 90 Tagen gebaut hat.


Musk gibt sich zuversichtlich, auch das neu gesetzte Ziel erreichen zu können: Nur einige technische Hürden müssten noch überwunden werden.


Technische Hürden zu überwinden – darin kennt sich Elon Musk aus: 2016 hat Tesla 76.000 Autos ausgeliefert, 2018 sollen es bereits 500.000 sein und 2020 rund 1 Million. Profitabel war das Geschäft bisher nicht. Dennoch katapultierten Anleger die Börsenkapitalisierung von Tesla über die Marke von General Motors. Denn sie halten den visionär Musk für einen neuen Ford des Zeitaltes des Elektroautos, der mit dem Model 3 ein Analogon zur berühmten Tin Lizzy auf den Markt bringen und die Autowelt ein weiteres Mal revolutionieren will. Bis er auf insgesamt mehrere Millionen ausgelieferte Autos und Milliarden-Gewinne wie die etablierten US-Autohersteller kommen kann, dürften allerdings noch technische Hürden zu überwinden sein.


Derweil hat über die letzten Tage die Euphorie der Tesla-Anleger offenbar etwas nachgelassen. Schleppender Absatz und Probleme mit den Sicherheitsniveau der Tesla-Autos hatten zu Kursabschlägen geführt, im Moment scheint bezüglich der Börsenkapitalisierung General Motors wieder die Nase vorne zu haben.



Optionen für Energiespeicher


Doch zurück zu den Batterien für die Speicherung von großen Energiemengen, wie sie zur Stabilisierung des Netzes und zum Peak-Shaving Einsatz finden. Große Firmen wie Siemens, ABB und Schneider Electric tummeln sich in diesem Markt genauso wie kleinere Start-up-Firmen, etwa die die 2005 in Berlin gegründete Younicos, die kürzlich die britische Aggreko für 46 Mio. Euro übernommen hatte. Younicos hat bisher Batteriesysteme mit einer Gesamtkapazität von 200 MW errichtet oder baut sie gerade.


Li-Ionen-Batterien sind nicht die einzigen Techniken, die die Grundlage für solche Großbatterien bilden können. Je nach Anwendungsfall kommen verschiedene Batterietypen, darunter auch Redox-Flow-Typen. Auch an Brennstoffzellen, die speziell für diesen Einsatzzweck gedacht sind, arbeiten verschiedene Hersteller, darunter die britische Gencell.


Eine aktuelle Studie des niederländischen Finanzinstituts ING sagt voraus, dass Batterie-Elektroautos spätestens 2035 den Verbrennungsmotor überholen werden. Während der Absatz von Stromern in China dank massiver staatlicher Fördermaßnahmen rasant steigt, verkauft sich der alternative Antrieb in Europa und den USA derzeit nur schleppend. Das Interesse an Elektroautos steigt jedoch zunehmend.


Kaufinteressenten, die gerne umsteigen würden, fürchten mit elektrischen Autos im Alltag Probleme zu bekommen. Vor allem die vergleichsweise geringen Reichweiten und lange Ladezeiten aktueller Modelle sowie fehlende öffentliche Ladepunkte schrecken viele ab. Als weiteres großes Hindernis für den Durchbruch von Elektromobilität gelten die oft noch hohen Preisaufschläge für E-Autos.


ING geht davon aus, dass die meisten Probleme rein elektrisch angetriebener Fahrzeuge im nächsten Jahrzehnt verschwinden. Maßgeblich verantwortlich dafür werden laut den Analysen der Bank Akkus der nächsten Generation mit mehr Leistung zu günstigeren Preisen sein. Kostenunterschiede zwischen Batterie-Elektroautos und vergleichbaren Verbrennern soll es spätestens 2028 nicht mehr geben.


Bereits für 2024 geht ING davon aus, dass die Gesamtbetriebskosten eines VW e-Golf im Vergleich zu der Benziner-Version deutlich niedriger liegen werden. Besitzer eines vollelektrischen Golf sollen demnach in knapp sieben Jahren 2500 Euro pro Jahr sparen können.


Solarspeicher: Bürger glauben an Erfolg der Batterie


In Deutschland sind inzwischen rund 60.000 Solarbatterien verbaut.

Dass es zukünftig noch mehr werden, davon gehen knapp 75 Prozent der befragten Bürger aus. Die Mehrheit von ihnen (42%) meint, dass die Batterien bis 2025 ihren Durchbruch erleben. Dies zeigt eine repräsentative Umfrage von YouGov im Auftrag vom Energie- und IT-Unternehmen LichtBlick.



Ungefähr jeder neunte Bundesbürger gibt an, dass er bis 2020 mit einem Durchbruch der Batteriespeicher rechnet. „Wer heute eine PV-Anlage auf seinem Dach installiert, sollte direkt auch einen Batteriespeicher mit einplanen,“ so Gero Lücking, Geschäftsführung Energiewirtschaft bei LichtBlick. „Die Speicherkapazität steigt und die Preise fallen. Bis 2020 sollen sie im Vergleich zu 2015 um 45 Prozent fallen.“ Doch noch ist der Preis der größte Hindernisgrund. 63 Prozent der Befragten geben an, dass die Kosten den Ausbau der Batterien hindern. Viele fühlen sich jedoch auch unzureichend informiert. 39 Prozent sagen, dass sie zu wenig über die Vorteile einer Batterie wissen. Weiteren 38 Prozent mangelt es an Informationen zu Fördermöglichkeiten. Ein zusätzliches Hemmnis ist für mehr als ein Drittel der Befragten, dass Mieter bislang nicht von der Installation eines Solarspeichers profitieren.


Etwa sieben Prozent der Befragten sind beim Thema PV-Strom und Solarspeicher selbst aktiv geworden: Sie haben bereits eine Solaranlage und/oder einen Speicher installiert. Fast ein Fünftel der Bürger denkt über eine Installation nach. Im Vergleich zu 2015 ist dieser Anteil leicht gestiegen. Vor zwei Jahren gaben sechs Prozent der Befragten an, eine PV-Anlage und/oder einen Speicher im Haus zu haben und 16 Prozent haben über einen Einbau nachgedacht.


Seit Anfang des Jahres ist LichtBlick in den Batteriemarkt eingestiegen und vermittelt Speicher der Hersteller Fronius und sonnen. „Wir denken das Thema Speicher heute schon vernetzt“, so Gero Lücking. „Alle Batterien im Angebot können zur SchwarmBatterie® werden, das heißt, dass sie zukünftig vernetzt im Schwarm mit den Energiemärkten kommunizieren und je nach Bedarf Strom speichern oder wieder ins Netz abgeben können.“ Neben dem Beitrag für die Energiewende werden Batterien so noch wirtschaftlicher für die Besitzer.

Les achats

Battery for Acer TravelMate 5744

Skateboarder almost caught your heels? Cyclist overshooting the white line by a metre? Someone looking too intently at their smartphone to walk in a straight line? Take that! And that! Don’t mess with me, I’ll blow you away!Come the great legal revolution, my firing range will also be lined up with auto checkouts from supermarkets, cash machines that keep showing me ads, gas engineers who hand me leaflets about Hive, and everyone everywhere even remotely involved with the Internet of Things. Intrusive, every single one.Google is apparently going to fold Chrome OS into Android, potentially killing the development of a secure, lightweight desktop OS in the process.The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, claims engineers at the Mountain View giant have spent the past two years merging Chrome OS into Android.The end result will be an all-encompassing OS for mobile devices and notebooks, we're told. The software will be demonstrated by the end of 2016, and released the next year, the WSJ claims.Chrome OS was pitched as an operating system for low-powered netbooks, and is largely aimed at the education market. It is built from the open-source Chromium OS, a minimal Gentoo-derived GNU/Linux operating system that pretty much does everything through the Chrome (or Chromium) web browser.


Although it can run a handful of native apps offline, it's mostly a terminal to the web: word processing, games, social nattering, and so on, can all be done online through the browser.The integration of Chrome OS into Android is not unexpected: a merging of the two operating systems has been on the cards since 2013, when Google Android exec Andy Rubin was replaced by Chrome OS veteran Sundar Pichai. A year later, Google showed off technology allowing Android apps to run on Chrome OS systems, and today Pichai is Google's chief exec.The reported move is not without its critics, particularly in the security community. While Chrome OS is praised for its minimal attack surface and locked-down sandboxed browser environment, Android has been riddled with vulnerabilities. If development of Chrome OS stalls while Googlers focus on building a laptop-friendly Android, that's what you might call bad news.Microsoft released build 10572 of Windows 10 Mobile last week, hot on the heels of build 10549, as the release date nears for the first Windows 10 smartphones, the Lumia 950 and 950XL, expected in November.



The company has not made it easy for Windows Insiders keeping up with the builds. Both 10549 and 10572 require first resetting your phone back to Windows Phone 8.1, which means double the effort.The Windows Phone story is heartbreaking for its fans, with Microsoft first acquiring Nokia, the main device vendor, and then dismantling most of it, declaring a change of strategy. What the new strategy is has never been clearly articulated, but it seems to involve a retreat from the mainstream smartphone market. Microsoft phones will instead be ultra-portable PCs, aimed at business and productivity users, with the ability to connect to full-size displays, keyboard and mouse.This feature, called Continuum, requires new hardware, even though Windows 10 Mobile will install on most existing Windows 8.1 devices. The reason seems to be lack of dual-display capability in existing hardware.Existing devices, like the Lumia 830 on which this review is being typed, can connect wirelessly to full-size displays, but only with display mirroring, limiting the screen resolution. True Continuum displays different content on each screen. Therefore the forthcoming HD-500 Display Dock requires a Lumia 950 or 950XL.Despite this limitation, there are features in this build that seem to be aimed at Continuum users. After connecting to an external display, there is an Advanced setting appears that only offers “Mirror what’s on my device”, but which would presumably have further options on new hardware.


You can also reduce the size of the text and other on-screen items, making it almost unreadable on the phone itself, but more usable on the connected display. This makes it feasible to type a document in Word Mobile, though I cannot pretend it is a great experience. Connecting a Bluetooth mouse is no-go for me; the mouse works, but types random repeating characters as a side-effect. Without a mouse, it is fiddly to perform operations like taking a screenshot, inserting it into the document, and cropping it. I found myself looking forward to finishing the document on a real PC.Another issue is power management. In full Windows 10, you can vary how quickly the screen goes off after inactivity, according to whether the device is on battery or external power. This is not possible in the current build, and screen time-outs are particularly annoying since the wireless display disconnects.Continuum lets you connect to an external display with dual screens
Continuum lets you connect to an external display with dual screens
Real Continuum will be a better experience, though no doubt there will still be annoyances. The open question here is how useful it will be. It only makes sense if you are travelling without a laptop or tablet, and to use it you will need keyboard, mouse and a display with either the Microsoft dock or wireless connectivity. It is unlikely to replace a PC since x86 applications will not run. It all sounds rather niche.How is Windows 10 Mobile shaping up as a smartphone OS? It is usable though there is still occasional jerkiness on the Lumia 830 used for this review. There are several things to like. App navigation is excellent, with the Start menu available by swiping in from the right, and pinned tiles which support groups as well as multiple sizes. Cortana, Microsoft's digital assistant, makes more sense on a phone than on a PC, and works rather well, with decent voice recognition as well as handy features like reading incoming texts and accepting dictated replies, now fixed to be always on (as an option) rather than restricted to Bluetoooth audio. Give Cortana a sum to do, and a calculator appears embedded in the reply, another neat feature.



Police have seized the laptop of a BBC journalist who had interviewed men identifying themselves with jihadist organisation Islamic State in order to access these communications.The laptop of Secunder Kermani was taken by police under powers available through the Terrorism Act 2000, according to the Independent.The Register understands Kermani has not been detained or questioned.Kermani, a journalist with BBC's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight, had produced interviews and features on British-born terrorists and others from Western backgrounds sympathetic to jihadist organisation Islamic State.While the seizure was ostensibly to acquire the journalist's communications with one such source, it is notable because it forced Kermani to hand over his personal property, rather than a standard request to an internet service provider to collect retained communications data.According to a BBC spokesperson: Police obtained an order under the Terrorism Act requiring the BBC to hand over communication between a Newsnight journalist and a man in Syria who had publicly identified himself as an IS member. The man had featured in Newsnight reports and was not a confidential source.While controversy persists regarding police powers under RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) to target the communications of journalists, previous complaints triggered reforms that now require the police to obtain a court-issued warrant before targeting journalists' communications. However, the Interception of Communication Commissioner's Office (IOCCO) reported this year that many police forces were failing to do so.

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Battery for Dell Inspiron 1526

This camera is so sensitive that we used it to differentiate between identical twins and the system got the right one, Skaugen explained.The camera can also be used to personalize games, mapping the player's face and body into player characters. Skaugen said that Intel has been working with Electronic Arts to add this into games, and the early results are looking very good.In China, Tencent is also adding the technology to dating sites to eliminate the nasty shock of meeting someone who looks nothing like their photo. Skaugen joked that startups should start building profile editing software.All of this is for laptops, but desktop systems are also going to rise again, Skaugen predicted, with gamers driving growth. Gamers typically refresh their systems every two years, compared to nearly six for standard desktop users.The big loser in all of this is going to be the tablet market, Skaugen said. Intel had got the growth in tablets wrong, he said, and is now revising its forecasts.18 months ago many people thought that tablet sales were going to cross over PCs in 2014; now we're sure they won't ever, Skaugen said. At Intel we've taken a billion units out of our forecasts in the last year. The Mountain View ad giant said on Monday that it has no immediate plans to kill off Chrome OS nor the army of lightweight Chromebook PCs it has spawned: the web goliath has promised a regular six-week software cycle and guaranteed auto-updates for five years for the operating system.


After that, of course, who knows? Maybe it'll find a comfy spot on the shelf next to Google Reader, Google Wave, Google Code, and Google Talk.Over the last few days, there's been some confusion about the future of Chrome OS and Chromebooks based on speculation that Chrome OS will be folded into Android, blogged Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google senior vice president for Android, Chrome OS, and Chromecast.While we've been working on ways to bring together the best of both operating systems, there's no plan to phase out Chrome OS.This followed rumors that Google was going to fold Chrome OS into Android to form a single operating system that was mobile and laptop friendly.It was speculated that this effort would focus Google engineers on the Chrome-droid hybrid, and put Chrome OS and the open-source Chromium project – the Linux-powered basis of Chrome OS – on the back burner.This drew outcry from folks who feared that in the process of merging the two operating systems, Google will mothball a pretty secure lightweight desktop OS (Chromium) in favor of developing a vulnerability-riddled phone platform (Android).



Lockheimer has been the point man for Google's response, issuing public denials that Chrome OS was going to be phased out in favor of a PC-flavored build of Android.Designed for low-cost lightweight notebooks, Chrome OS relies in large part on in-browser applications that are isolated into sandboxes that limit their reach to other components. Google estimates that 30,000 Chrome OS devices are activated every day in US schools.Even in issuing the denial, Lockheimer noted that Google was indeed looking to integrate more of Android into Chrome OS. He noted moves such as last year's launch of the App Runtime for Chrome (ARC) tool allowing Chromebooks to run Android mobile applications.We have plans to release even more features for Chrome OS, the Google senior VP said, such as a new media player, a visual refresh based on Material Design, improved performance, and of course, a continued focus on security.What that means for the future of Chrome OS remains to be seen. In the meantime, however, the Chocolate Factory stresses that the OS isn't going anywhere. Well, not for another five years, anyway. Something for the Weekend, Sir? There’s nothing worse in journalism than a big-mouthed writer who can’t take what he gives. So I would like to thank all those readers who emailed me personally to offer their opinions on last week’s column in which I cast doubt on Hollywood’s portrayal of computer hackers as sharp-witted and articulate with washboard abs rather than fat, spotty and smelling of Lynx and tramp sick.A special note of appreciation goes to those who expressed shock at my apparent lack of respect for the mighty Iron Maiden before going on to tell me which popular music combos they thought were rubbish.It was a eye-opener. I had hoped The Reg’s readership might be getting younger but I never imagined it included quite so many children.


This being the case, allow me to enhance the SEO standing of this week’s column by making an unnecessary reference to The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Thank you for your indulgence.Speaking of youngsters, I was browsing in a charity bookshop yesterday in which I noticed an old book called How to Photograph Children. One imagines it will remain gathering dust on that shelf for quite a while. It’s not exactly the kind of tome you’d wish to be seen with tucked under your arm as you bicycle back to the vicarage, is it?There is an innate creepiness about the act of watching children. This possibly explains the decision by Judge Rebecca Ward this week in the US to clear the charges made against a bloke who shot down a drone hovering over his back garden. William Merideth said he believed the drone was spying on his two girls and, being an ordinary protective father whose primary concern is for the safety of his kids, reached for the nearest shotgun lying about the house and blasted the motherfucker out of the sky.Hailing from northern Yurp, I am a stranger to back-garden gun culture. Guns themselves I have no trouble with, except when used outside club competition and forestry hunting. Perhaps for this reason, European gun owners are treated as charming throwbacks to a more innocent era rather than as survivalist psychos and ego-supremacists in constant terror of something made up in their own heads.


In France, for example, hunters are treated as figures of some amusement. Although there are cases of hunters catching careless ramblers with stray buckshot while trying to track down wild boar, they are much more likely to end up accidentally shooting their own dogs and even each other in their hapless adventures.I have heard that in many locations around the US, you can shoot whomever you like just as long as they’re on your property. This must be handy when you’ve run out of bottles and tin cans but it must make visits from family over Christmas a tense affair, what with all those simmering life-long disagreements ready to explode into an almighty bloodbath simply by leaving the cap off the toothpaste.So I am transfixed by the court’s finding that Mr Merideth is within his rights to shoot down a drone invading his personal space – not because I am appalled but because I think it’s absolutely fantastic. To me, he sounds like Fuzzy Lumpkins from the Power Puff Girls for digital generation.
Just think of all those intrusive CCTV cameras staring at you as you leave the front door, tracking you down the street, watching as you wait for a bus, record your every sniff and cough while on the bus itself, following you into work and sniggering at you all day to make sure you’re at your desk. Bugger the drones, let’s poke all those fixed-camera bastards in the eye!Then there are the unwelcome intrusions into my personal cyberspace to deal with. Perhaps I could persuade a judge to justify my violent retaliative action against every Nigerian scammer and American spammer attempting to fill my inbox.



As for Google’s laughably targeted ads or those irrelevant crap promotions you keep seeing on Twitter, how would you like a slug of digital lead between your virtual eyes, pal? Oh and what about GCHQ prying through my children’s web history? Bloody paedos, the lot of them.There are plenty of other instances when instant retribution would do me nicely.I recently had to deliver a presentation of a bespoke development project to a customer, directed onto a company laptop that had been set up with the software. Just as we began, she began plugging in an unfamiliar computer. When challenged, she said she felt more comfortable using her own laptop from home than the one I’d spent a week configuring. She refused to be talked out of it.Rather than desperately trying to install Oracle runtime and shitloads of support files before delivering what turned out to be the most incompetent tech demo since the dawn of the industrial age, what I should have done was reach into my shoulder bag for a shotgun and blasted her laptop into aluminium filings. And I’d have had the might of the courts behind me.Don’t stop there. Does the postman keep invading your private space with bills? Blamm!!! Is that nice old lady from the other end of the street about to ask you to mind her cats while she goes on another cruise to the West Indies? Kapow!!! The next time your neighbour climbs a 20ft ladder to “trim the hedge” just outside your living room window and remains there all afternoon watching your TV, take the fucker out with a Glock model 40.

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Battery for FPCBP145AP

I have started reviewing USB cables on Amazon because I have gotten fed up with the early cables from third-party vendors that so blatantly flaunt the specification, and I want to hold them to task, he wrote on Google+.You may not just get weird behavior from your devices with these bad cables ... What some of these vendors are doing is downright dangerous.The problems stem from manufacturers not complying with the interface's specifications, specifically the use of resistors: a 56kΩ pull-up resistor should be connected to the Vbus pin to signal that one end of the cable or converter is a legacy USB device that can't handle a 3A current draw.Some converters do not feature this pull-up. So, for example, a Type-C gadget could attempt to draw 3A from a USB 2.0 host or charger via one of these dodgy cables, and cause damage to the wiring and electronics.Leung has taken to publishing reviews on Amazon for USB Type-C cables using the name LaughingMan, and the results have been no laughing matter. Of the 13 cables tested so far, only three were up to spec on power – but even then, some of the highly rated cables weren't fully compatible with USB Type-C when it came to data rates, due to the use of USB 2.0 cabling.


Understandably, Leung used his new Google Chrome Pixel laptop and Nexus smartphone for the tests. He has published Linux commands that can be used to test the efficacy of cables, along with the results needed to know that the hardware will perform as expected.Cabling is a contentious issue in the industry, in part because unscrupulous vendors have tried, and succeeded, to skin consumers for massively expensive HDMI cables. Now the same trick appears to be in play for USB Type-C, so buyer beware. Hewlett Packard Inc is turning to partners to help drive business among the enterprise and small and mid-markets in the UK and Ireland.HP Inc Wednesday announced it would convert 300 of the region's largest, direct business accounts into indirect relationships to woo partners.The newly independent computer and printer-maker told The Reg it wants to grow its business alongside that of partners in “key” growth areas.Those areas are managed services, mobility and core PC.HP won’t remove itself entirely from the relationship with customers, rather fulfilment will now be in the hands of partners eager to sign up.Neil Sawyer, UKI channel director, told The Reg: “A lot of those companies have a rich history and heritage with the partners they work with.”



Also, HP will work with groups of partners serving small and mid-market companies in one of six verticals that changes every 60 days.Sawyer said that every 60 days HP would look at new vertical markets to deliver new opportunities.Verticals will include legal, financial services, transport and logistics.“We see huge growth in the small business and mid-market segments,” Sawyer said. “We want to work with those partners and to collaborate.”Changes will be rolled out over the next three weeks, and with HP looking for partners “who show and interest in working with us [HP Inc] pro-actively.”HP has made much of “pockets of growth”, which it translates as core PC and laptop business, printing services and laser imaging, and mobility.Within the PC core, it is targeting the PC; what it calls hybrid PCs; and immersive technology, such as 3D printing and also 3D workstations for designer.“We remain committed to the core PC and laptop business,” Sawyer said.All well and good, HP Inc might well need partners, but why should partners work with HP?The split from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) has left it a vastly reduced operation – approximately 60,000 head count versus more than 200,000 for HPE.And while the PC maker is smaller, it’s facing an unchanged dynamic – the problems, challengers and challenges that landed HP in the predicament that led to split, have not gone away. If anything they will seem even larger to HP Inc by virtue of the fact that HP the PC-maker has shrunk in size.


HP is trading on past reputation and status as world and UKI number-one in PC sales. Also, it remains a Fortune 100 firm with $50bn revenue.Managing director UKI George Brasher said: “We are going to be able to be a more nimble company and come up with more innovative programmes.”Sawyer echoed that: “We have to keep re-inventing how we go to market and work with partners, with new processes and improved processes that makes us more nimble and dynamic as a business.” ICGS The last few years haven't been good for the PC market as the old upgrade cycle died and buyers piled into tablets and smartphones. But Intel is convinced the PC will rise again, thanks to new hardware and form factors.I honestly feel this is a once in a decade moment, enthused Kirk Skaugen, GM of Intel's client computing group during his keynote at the Intel Capital Global Summit this week.Today there are more than a billion PCs that are more than three years old and a third of a billion that are over five years old. People are swinging back to the PC and are refreshing their systems.It used to be the case that people upgraded their PCs every two years or so, but in the last five years silicon has got so powerful that no one saw the need. They still don't, but Skaugen is betting that new form factors, particularly the two-in-one detachable-screen systems, will be a major growth driver.



Sales of two-in-one systems are up 150 per cent, he claimed, and are leading to people wanting to refresh their PCs up to 18 months earlier than they would have. The new form factors – including mini-computers – are also inspiring companies that haven't been big in laptops to get in the game he said, citing Microsoft's Surface Book and InFocus' $99 Kangaroo PC as examples.Without the growth in two-in-ones, the laptop market in the US would have shown 4 per cent negative growth, Skaugen said, but the new designs have bumped that up to 1 per cent growth. The new hardware that such systems are starting to carry, particularly 3D cameras, is also going to have people rushing back to laptops, he opined.In the next few weeks both HP and Lenovo are going to be releasing laptops with 3D cameras built into the lid, and Intel has been working with Microsoft to make them integral to the Windows 10 Hello biometric security system. The camera scans the user's face and then opens the operating system, and Intel hopes the system will also replace password logins for websites.Traditionally facial recognition has been relatively easy to fool – just holding up a picture of a face worked often – but Skaugen said the new cameras make this impossible. They take 270-degree scans of the user and have an IR component to make sure that a warm human is in its view.


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Batterie pour Acer UM09A73

Pourtant, les fans de Microsoft, ou ceux qui sont fortement plongés dans l’écosystème de produits Microsoft aura du mal à trouver smartphone sous Windows 10 Mobile plus impressionnant que le Lumia 950 XL. De plus, et même si l’expérience n’est pas encore optimale, la promesse de Continuum reste une perspective réellement intéressante. Cette caractéristique pourrait devenir le fer-de-lance de la firme de Redmond dans les mois à venir.Microsoft Lumia 950 XL : boutons tactilesMicrosoft Lumia 950 XL : boutons tactiles
Sinon, avec son prix de 499 euros, le Microsoft Lumia 950 XL manque simplement d’une killer feature qui pourrait attirer les consommateurs, au lieu que ces derniers optent pour un appareil Android de qualité supérieure, et à des prix plus raisonnables, comme le Google Nexus 6P de Huawei. Cependant, je dois reconnaître que les phablettes qui jouent dans la même cour que le Lumia 950 XL commencent généralement à partir de 700 euros et plus. Mais compte tenu des quelques lacunes du smartphone, cela pourrait être préjudiciable.Lorsque Microsoft a lancé Windows 10 l’été dernier, la firme de Redmond a promis qu’elle serait disponible en tant que mise à jour gratuite pour la première année de disponibilité pour toute personne exécutant Windows 7 ou une version ultérieure. Et puis, la société a commencé à pousser gratuitement la mise à jour, coûte que coûte.Tout d’abord, la société a poussé une mise à jour de Windows qui ajoute une icône de mise à niveau dans la barre d’état du système. Ensuite, l’entreprise a commencé à peaufiner la conception de cette notification, de telle sorte que la tentative de fermeture pourrait entraîner le déclenchement par inadvertance d’une mise à niveau.


Maintenant, le vice-président de Microsoft, Terry Myserson, a rapporté que la société met à jour la conception de la notification de mise à niveau de Windows 10 pour faciliter sa compréhension, et également faciliter sa fermeture (entraînant le rejet de la mise à niveau). La société va également offrir un support technique et une assistance gratuite pour revenir à Windows 7 ou 8.1.Bien que louable, le changement arrive un peu tard. L’offre de mise à niveau gratuite de Microsoft doit se terminer le 29 juillet, et il est probable que la mise à jour de Windows 10 Anniversary Update arrivera quelques jours plus tard.Alors que Anniversary Update est une mise à jour gratuite pour toute personne exécutant déjà Windows 10, l’offre de mise à jour gratuite initiale expire pour tous les utilisateurs sous Windows 7/8. 1 qui souhaitent mettre à niveau à partir d’une version antérieure de Windows. Ces derniers devront payer pour obtenir une licence.Alors, pourquoi ce changement ? Cela pourrait être lié au fait que plus tôt cette semaine, Microsoft a dû payer 10 000 dollars à un utilisateur qui a reçu la mise à jour sur son ordinateur sans sa permission – Microsoft admet n’avoir fait aucune faute, mais a pensé que cela coûtait moins cher de fournir cette somme, que de continuer à payer des avocats pour se défendre.



Cette année, Chrome OS, le système d’exploitation de bureau de Google sera équipé de la capacité d’exécuter des applications Android. Et, il semble que HP sera parmi les premières entreprises à tirer parti des nouvelles fonctionnalités. HP met à jour sa gamme de Chromebook avec un nouveau modèle, le Chromebook HP 11 G5, avec un prix de départ de 189 dollars, et apportant une excellente autonomie de 12,5 heures ainsi qu’un écran tactile en option.Le nouveau Chromebook HP 11 G5 est le premier Chromebook de la société à être disponible avec un écran tactile, qui sera utile lorsque les applications Android pour Chrome OS deviennent plus largement disponibles un peu plus tard dans l’année. Comme attendu, le Chromebook HP 11 G5 dispose d’un écran de 11,6 pouces d’une résolution de 1 366 x 768 pixels et d’un processeur Intel Celeron N3060 Braswell.Lorsqu’il est configuré avec un écran tactile, l’ordinateur portable doit peser environ 1,18 kg, et offrira 11 heures d’autonomie. Un modèle non tactile pèse 1,13 kg, et a une autonomie de 12,5 heures.L’ordinateur a une épaisseur d’environ 1,82 cm, et dispose d’une connectivité Wi-Fi 802.11ac, du Bluetooth 4.2, deux ports USB 3.1, un port HDMI 1.4, une prise casque et un lecteur de carte micro SDXC. HP offrira des modèles avec 2 ou 4 Go de mémoire vive (RAM), et 16 ou 32 Go de stockage.


L’ordinateur portable sera disponible « à travers les partenaires de distribution » en juillet, et dans les boutiques au mois d’octobre — de l’autre côte de l’Atlantique avant tout !Alors que le Chromebook HP 11 G5 ne supporte pas les applications Android pour son lancement, Google travaille à apporter un support pour les applications Android et le Google Play Store à tous les récents appareils sous Chrome OS plus tard dans l’année. Vous n’avez pas besoin d’un écran tactile pour exécuter des applications Android, mais certaines applications fonctionneront probablement mieux que d’autres sur les appareils non tactiles.Jusqu’à présent, le seul appareil Chrome OS sur lequel pouvez exécuter des applications Android est le ASUS Chromebook Flip, mais Google prévoit de déployer un support pour le Acer Chromebook R11 et le Google Chromebook Pixel (2015) prochainement. D’autres périphériques sont évoqués dans un futur proche.Vous avez probablement une enceinte Bluetooth dans votre maison, mais savez-vous comment cela fonctionne ? Bose espère lever ce mystère avec sa nouvelle BOSEbuild Speaker Cube, une enceinte Bluetooth que vous concevrez vous même. C’est la mode du Do-it-Yourself (DIY) !



Le Speaker Cube est le premier produit de la nouvelle gamme de produits éducatifs de Bose, conçus pour éduquer les enfants âgés de 8 ans et plus (et peut-être les adultes également) à la science, la technologie, l’ingénierie et les mathématiques. À l’intérieur du kit, vous obtenez un panneau de commande, un aimant, une bobine, un haut-parleur, des coques personnalisables et un châssis pour loger tout cela. Les seuls outils dont vous aurez besoin sont une paire de ciseaux et du ruban adhésif.Il est dommage que le panneau de commande inclus avec le BOSEbuild Speaker Cube soit livré préassemblé au lieu d’enseigner aux enfants les circuits. Le kit enceinte ne contient pas de piles, ce qui signifie que vous aurez besoin de la brancher à une prise murale.Alors que l’enceinte elle-même fonctionne avec tout appareil équipé d’une connectivité Bluetooth 3.0 ou supérieur, le kit fonctionne mieux avec un iDevice — un iPhone ou un iPad. En effet, l’application autonome BOSEbuild Sound qui contient les instructions et les options de personnalisation fonctionne uniquement avec iOS 8.0 ou une version ultérieure. L’application vous permet de programmer différentes couleurs et des effets LED, comme changer la couleur avec de la musique. Dommage que Bose n’ait pas conçu son application pour Android !


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Battery for Apple PowerBook G4 12inch

Blackhat Europe Synopsys security boffin Ian Haken says un-patched PCs in enterprises are at risk of having user accounts popped and Bitlocker bypassed, in an attack he describes as trivial to perform.The attack vector, sealed off in the latest round of Redmond patches (MS15-122), affect those Windows machines that are part of network domains, notably those in enterprise fleets.Only sadistic sysadmins whose users suffer having to enter pre-boot passwords are immune, Haken says.Haken says attackers with access to a lost or stolen laptop can spoofing the relevant network domain, to set up a fake user account which matches the username for the victim's computer.The fake account needs to be set with a creation date in the past. The password set does not matter.Once the victim machine connects to the spoofed domain, Windows will throw a password reset prompt that will change the credentials in the computer's local cache.The laptop could then be disconnected from the spoofed domain and accessed using the changed credentials.Haken says in the paper Bypassing Local Windows Authentication to Defeat Full Disk [pdf] presented at BlackHat Europe the attack is not foiled by Redmond's Trusted Platform Module. Here's a sample of his thinking:


... the domain controller is remote, and since the attacker has physical control of the machine, the attacker also has control of network communication and can direct communication to an attacker-controlled mock domain controller.
Since a machine with passwordless BitLocker will transparently retrieve the decryption key and boot to the Windows login screen, Windows authentication becomes the attack surface for defeating BitLocker.There is no easy fix without Microsoft's patch. Those admins who do not or cannot apply the patches can disable local credential caching, but that means users cannot login offline. Apple CEO Tim Cook is telling customers not to expect a Mac answer to the Microsoft Surface Pro any time soon.The Apple boss said in an interview with Ireland's Independent that the Cupertino giant has no desire to merge its iOS mobile operating system and its Macintosh desktop and notebook lines with a hybrid tablet that would run OS X.



We feel strongly that customers are not really looking for a converged Mac and iPad. Because what that would wind up doing, or what we're worried would happen, is that neither experience would be as good as the customer wants, Cook was quoted as saying.So we want to make the best tablet in the world and the best Mac in the world. And putting those two together would not achieve either.Instead, Apple would much rather you buy both a tablet and laptop. And an iPhone and Apple Watch, while you're at it.The approach from Cook is a stark contrast to rival Microsoft, who has been making every effort possible to merge desktops, tablets, and mobile devices under the banner of Windows 10 and the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book models.Apple, meanwhile, has tossed its own entry into the enterprise tablet market with its iPad Pro. The 12.9-inch iOS slab went on sale last week and online orders are currently listing anywhere from one day to 5-7 days shipping wait.The iPad line, in general, hasn't seen the success that other Apple products have enjoyed in recent quarters. In Apple's most recent quarter, both shipments and revenues for the iPad line were down 20 per cent from the previous year.


Cook, meanwhile, has been over to Europe speaking at Trinity College Dublin and sitting down with the press to preach the virtues of various Apple devices.Teacher laptop purchase schemes in several states are under question, after a Federal Court ruling that a Victorian programme is illegal.Victorian teachers were expected to provide their own laptops, and were required to lease the machines from the Department of Education, at rates between AU$4 and $17 per fortnight, paid by automatic salary deduction.Two years after launching action in 2013, the Australian Education Union had its win in the Federal Court on Friday, reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.As we reported in 2011, the state's standard four-year lease also meant teachers were paying to lug around obsolete hardware, and the state also seemed to impose an “Apple tax” of its very own. At that time, a $799 Lenovo (presumably complete with vendor spyware) was leased at $4 a fortnight, but if a teacher wanted an $899 MacBook they'd pay nearly triple the lease ($11.50).The scam scheme was protected by a Department of Education policy that forbade teachers from bringing their own machines.



Federal Court Justice Mordecai Bromberg found that practically everything about the scheme was illegal under the Fair Work Act 2009: teachers had no choice whether or not to take part in the programme, costs were excessive, and teachers didn't get fair value for their money.The decision also found that use of the equipment was for the benefit not of teachers, but of the department.If the decision stands, the Victorian Department of Education will have to repay as much as $20 million to its teachers, but the decision reaches beyond that state, since New South Wales and Western Australia operate similar programmes. A Google engineer says some discount USB Type-C converter cables are substandard and could cause damage by drawing too much juice.One of the big advantages of the USB Type-C design is never again having to guess which way up the plug has to be to fit in its hole; the other advantage is power transmission.A Type-C 1.1 laptop, phone or other device can draw up to 3A, although it should lower this to between 0.5A and 1.5A when connected to an older power source, such as a USB 2.0 Type-A charger.Googler Benson Leung has been doing some testing and the results are alarming: some cheaper converter cables and adapters are allowing too much current to flow through them.

Les présentations

Battery for Samsung AA-PB9NC6W/E

Following last week's Paris attacks, the French National Assembly has today voted to extend the nation's state of emergency for a further three months. It will also amend powers established in the original 1955 legislation in light of technological developments.Despite the murders of 129 victims, and the deaths of the seven terrorists, the state of emergency bill has alarmed civil liberties campaigners, who are concerned about several measures they deem authoritarian, particularly the expansive powers police have been granted to conduct computer searches, net censorship, and curtail the freedom of association.The bill passed through the lower parliamentary house in France this morning with a vote of 551-6. It will be read by the Senate tomorrow, and if it passes would be adopted on Friday afternoon. It is the first ever amendment of the 1955 act.Before the vote, Prime Minster Manuel Valls warned the National Assembly of the dangers the nation faced from terrorists, stating that there could also be a risk of chemical or biological weapons.Valls also announced that the ring-leader of the latest Paris attacks had been killed in a pre-dawn raid, while adding that €400m had been earmarked to further fund the nation's state of emergency crackdown.


While extending the emergency to three months, the bill will also extend new powers to the police, ostensibly for preventing terrorism through increasing the legal room available for them to make searches and seizures, as well the ability to place citizens under house arrest.French advocacy group La Quadrature du Net described the extension as unjustified by any reason other than to circumvent the principle of separation of powers. Since the beginning of the emergency last Saturday, many searches are conducted for administrative cases under common law, with no connection to the fight against terrorism, and foreshadow a police state that the extension of three months the risk of trivialising.French security forces have conducted over 400 raids since last Friday's terrorist attacks, and have made 60 arrests.Earlier this year, a BBC journalist's laptop was seized by police in the UK under counter-terror legislation. La Quadrature welcomed a modification in the bill which protects journalists from such seizures during the state of emergency.Their equipment is not protected if it is used at home, however, as the bill extends the police's administrative search powers to searching data processing systems. Le Quadrature stated these searches can happen on any equipment, including storage present on the place or reachable 'through a initial system or available for the initial system'.



La Quadrature spokesperson Adrienne Charmet told The Register: We are hoping certain provisions, especially those allowing the Minister of the Interior to censor websites, are not included in the bill when it passes through the Senate.The principle behind a state of emergency is to make a police state. It is to transfer justice to the police – La Quadrature du Net
We are particularly concerned with the police ability to restrict the freedom of association on security ground. If we invite people to a cryptoparty and the police believe cryptography is a security threat then they could force us to disband, added Charmet. Of course we hope it wouldn't be used against us, but there is no protection in the law.Despite the recent surveillance law passed in France, these attacks happened. We don't accept that the population must remain under mass surveillance while terrorists are not being placed under targeted surveillance, said Charmet. The principle behind a state of emergency is to make a police state, she explained. It is to transfer justice to the police.La Quadrature du Net will be calling on citizens to encourage members of the Assembly to launch an inquiry to whether surveillance legislation is fit for duty, following the attacks of last Friday. Cleveland Police in the north east of England allegedly used counter-terrorism powers to hunt down a whistleblower within its ranks. That's according to a complaint filed to the UK's cop watchdog, the IPCC.


Worryingly, the Cleveland force used the anti-terror powers to access the phone records of three journalists.The complaint was made by the Police Federation, which told The Register it concerns the alleged misuse of a RIPA application by Cleveland Police. IPCC standard practice in these incidents is to immediately forward the complaint to the police force in question, which is then responsible for dealing with it.According to the Echo, the federation alleged that a RIPA application was made in 2012 and listed three journalists from The Northern Echo, a solicitor and two Police Federation representatives. The organisation claimed the application had asked for permission to access data from the mobile phones of these individuals from January to May 2012.The Register understands there was no prosecution of the suspected whistleblower, who had made allegations about institutional racism within Cleveland Police and has since left the force.The use of powers provided under RIPA to target journalists has consistently raised alarm. A revision was made in March this year to RIPA, titled the Acquisition and Disclosure of Communications Data: Code of Practice which was intended to explicitly force police employees to get a judge's permission to hoover up people's metadata. The application regarding the Echo's journalists was made in 2012.



However, of the two reported incidents following on from the changes in which no judicial approval was sought, neither police force was named.At the time the Interception of Communications Commissioner, Sir Anthony May, stated this was because naming and shaming [might] have the unintended consequence of undermining the open and co-operative self reporting of errors.One force was outed by the journalists' publication in question, however, when the Scottish Sunday Herald accused Police Scotland of committing multiple breaches of the code.Peter Barron, the Echo's editor, said: These allegations are a matter of serious concern – that a police force should apparently go to these lengths to identify the source of a story which was clearly in the public interest. This is surely not what the legislation was intended to do and the fact that Cleveland Police will neither confirm nor deny the allegations adds to our concerns.It follows an incident less than a year ago, when a RIPA request to Vodafone for a journalist's records led to the company spaffing 1,760 journalists' protected records to the Metropolitan Police. Last month, the laptop of a journalist with BBC's Newsnight was lifted by police using an order under the Terrorism Act.Protection for journalists is a touted part of the draft Investigatory Powers Bill, as it will be considered a sensitive profession along with medicine and law.The Register has attempted to contact Cleveland Police several times, but they were not answering their phones at the time of publication.


Les achats

Battery for HP Pavilion N6100

Dell was thrust into the spotlight yesterday when researchers first broke word of eDellRoot, a rogue certificate authority quietly installed on Windows machines that can be exploited by man-in-the-middle attackers to decrypt people's encrypted web traffic.The Texas PC-slinger said the issue was merely a mishap related to its user support tools. Dell bristled at suggestions the flaw should be considered malware or adware, but nonetheless it has provided users with a removal tool.The American biz has also pushed a software update that will automatically remove the vulnerable root CA cert from its machines. Dell has published a guide on how to remove the web security backdoor it installed in its Windows laptops and desktop PCs.This confirms what we all know by now – that Dell was selling computers with a rather embarrassing hole it in their defenses.New models from the XPS, Precision and Inspiron families include a powerful root CA certificate called eDellRoot, which puts the machines' owners at risk of identity theft and banking fraud.The self-signed certificate is bundled with its private key, which is a boon for man-in-the-middle attackers: for example, if an affected Dell connects to a malicious Wi-Fi hotspot, whoever runs that hotspot can use Dell's cert and key to silently decrypt the victims' web traffic. This would reveal their usernames, passwords, session cookies and other sensitive details, when shopping or banking online, or connecting to any other HTTPS-protected website.Stunningly, the certificate cannot be simply removed: a .DLL plugin included with the root certificate reinstalls the file if it is deleted. One has to delete the .DLL – Dell.Foundation.Agent.Plugins.eDell.dll – as well as the eDellRoot certificate.


Dell has posted information [.docx] on how to do this properly, and future machines will not include the dangerous root CA cert. A software update process will run from November 24 that will remove the certificate automatically from machines, we're told.The recent situation raised is related to an on-the-box support certificate intended to provide a better, faster and easier customer support experience. Unfortunately, the certificate introduced an unintended security vulnerability.
Dell said that it started including the root CA certificate with machines in August, although an Inspiron 15 series laptop we bought in July has an eDellRoot certificate on it.We deeply regret that this has happened and are taking steps to address it, added Laura Thomas, Dell's chief blogger.The certificate is not malware or adware. Rather, it was intended to provide the system service tag to Dell online support allowing us to quickly identify the computer model, making it easier and faster to service our customers. This certificate is not being used to collect personal customer information.



It’s also important to note that the certificate will not reinstall itself once it is properly removed using the recommended Dell process.If you've got a new Dell, you can check here to see if you the dodgy root CA cert installed. For everyone, we'll leave you with this nightmare fuel... Updated The rogue root certificate in new Dell computers – a certificate that allows people to be spied on when banking and shopping online – will magically reinstall itself even when deleted.El Reg can confirm that the eDellRoot root CA cert, discovered over the weekend, automatically reappears when removed from the Windows operating system. We tried this on a Windows 8 Inspiron 15 series laptop that was bought in July this year for our San Francisco office.You can find the dangerous certificate by opening up the Start menu, select Run, type in certmgr.msc into the box and hit Enter. Then open up the Trusted Root Certification Authority folder on the left, then Certificates, and in the window should appear eDellRoot. That's the SOB you're looking for. Right-click over it, hit Remove, click through the warning box. And it's gone.


Then reboot, reopen certmgr.msc – the Windows certificate manager – and search for the certificate eDellRoot. Bingo, it's back. Visiting one of the websites that test whether you have a vulnerable certificate installed reveals that, yes, the removed root CA cert was put back during or after the reboot.Lenovo had a similar party trick with its bloatware earlier this year, using Microsoft's Windows Platform Binary Table. How Dell reinstates the missing certificate is not clear at this stage.
But the cat came back the very next day, er, reboot ... the Dell eDellRoot cert that just won't die (click to enlarge)
This means that the recommended procedure to get rid of the vulnerable root CA file on Windows will not work, as the component reappears upon restart. The certificate, issued by Dell in April and expires in 2039, contains a private key that can be extracted and used to pull off man-in-the-middle attacks on Dell owners – like Lenovo's Superfish cluster-fsck.For example, usernames, passwords, session cookies and other sensitive information can be silently siphoned from affected Dell machines when they connect to the web through malicious Wi-Fi hotspots in cafes, hospitals, airports, and so on.People with recent XPS, Precision and Inspiron models should use Mozilla's Firefox to browse the web as this software has its own set of trusted certification authorities, and ignores the dangerous eDellRoot cert.


Dell's support line tells people the certificate doesn't cause any threat to the system. On Twitter, the IT giant said: Customer security and privacy is a top concern for Dell. We are investigating the issue and will have further updates soon.According to an analysis [PDF] by Duo Security, a bundled plugin reinstalls the root CA file if it is removed. First, you must delete Dell.Foundation.Agent.Plugins.eDell.dll from your system (search for it) and then remove the eDellRoot root CA certificate.The cert, we're told, is used with the plugin for receiving cryptographically signed telemetry requests; said telemetry includes things like the machine's service tag, a seven-character serial number that identifies the computer model, if not the individual machine.This highlights a disturbing trend among original equipment manufacturer (OEM) hardware vendors. Tampering with certificate stores exposes users to unnecessary, increased risk, the Duo team – Darren Kemp, Mikhail Davidov, and Kyle Lady – wrote in their report.Tampering with the certificate store is a questionable practice, and OEM’s need to be careful when adding new trusted certificates, especially root certificates. Sadly, OEM manufacturers seem to not be learning from historical mistakes and keep making them over and over.



Dell ships computers with all the tools necessary for crooks to spy on the owners' online banking, shopping, webmail, and more.The US IT titan installs a powerful root CA certificate, including its private key, on its Windows notebooks and desktops. These can be abused by eavesdropping miscreants to silently decrypt encrypted web browser traffic without victims noticing.If you try to remove the dodgy certificate, the file is automatically reinstalled during or after the next boot up. The self-signed root CA cert appears to have been created in early April this year, and expires in the year 2039.How can this certificate be abused? Well, an attacker could, for example, set up a malicious Wi-Fi hotspot in a cafe or hospital, intercept connections from Dell machines, and then automatically strip away the encryption – a classic man-in-the-middle attack, all enabled by Dell's security blunder.The decrypted traffic will include usernames, passwords, session cookies, and other sensitive information. The root CA certificate – eDellRoot – can even be used to sign programs, allowing scumbags to dress up malware as legit apps.Web browsers, and other software, running on the affected Dell hardware will trust any certificates issued by eDellRoot. When the browser tries to connect to, say, your bank's HTTPS-protected website, it could in fact be connecting to a malicious system on your network, such as the aforementioned evil wireless hotspot. This system can pretend to be your bank's website, using an eDellRoot-signed SSL certificate, and you would be none the wiser as you type in your username and password. The intercepting system can even log into the bank on your behalf and pass the webpages back to your browser so you're none the wiser of what's going on.


Dell customers reported over the weekend finding the root CA certificate on newer Dell XPS, Precision and Inspiron desktops and notebooks.So far, we've seen reports on Twitter and Reddit of the following affected gear: the XPS 15, Latitude E7450, Inspirion 5548, Inspirion 5000, Inspiron 3647, and the Precision M4800.Information security expert Kenn White has created a webpage that demonstrates how vulnerable Dell computers will happily accept HTTPS connections signed with the eDellRoot key.Crucially, White also said Firefox is not affected by the rogue certificate because it uses its own set of trusted certs.Another site to test whether your Dell is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks can be found here.Dell computer owner Joe Nord, who blogged details of the certificate installed in his Inspirion machine, noted the obvious security flaw with eDellRoot.Root certificates are always self-signed, so all I really know is that eDellRoot says eDellRoot is legit, he explained. Where it breaks down is that the private key IS PRESENT on my computer and that means ... bad.Dell has yet to respond to a request for comment on the matter, although the Dell Cares support account on Twitter is downplaying the risk of attack for users:The issue is just like Lenovo's February Superfish scandal in which the PC-slinger was caught loading its machines with a tool capable of intercepting SSL traffic and injecting adverts into pages. In fact, the Dell certificate was created months after the Superfish blowup – was no one at the Texas goliath paying attention?


Mes rendez-vous

Batterie pour ASUS K72JE

Étant donné que le service n’est pas encore disponible au grand public, malheureusement je n’ai pas été en mesure de confirmer ce qui se passe une fois que vous appuyez sur le bouton « Run Speed Test ». Cependant, Engadget a réussi à accéder à la fonctionnalité, mettant en évidence une interface assez simple.Le test mesure la vitesse de téléchargement (download), la vitesse de téléversement (upload), et la latence de votre connexion. Les meilleures connexions Internet sont celles qui disposent de vitesses de téléchargement et de téléversement élevées, mais qui ont une faible latence. Pour rappel :La vitesse de téléchargement permet de savoir comment les informations peuvent être transférées chez vous. Elle affecte des choses comme la durée qu’il faut pour télécharger de gros fichiers ou afficher des pages Web avec beaucoup d’images. La vitesse de téléchargement est mesurée en Mb/s (mégabits par seconde)
La vitesse de téléversement permet de savoir comment une information peut être transférée par vous. Elle affecte des choses comme le temps qu’il faut pour poster des photos sur les réseaux sociaux. Là encore, la vitesse est mesurée en Mb/s (mégabits par seconde)
La mesure de latence est la rapidité avec laquelle vous obtenez une réponse du serveur. Un faible temps de réponse est important pour les applications en temps réel, comme les appels vidéo et les jeux en ligne. La latence est mesurée en millisecondes (ms)
L’expérience du géant du Web arrive environ un mois après que Netflix a lancé Fast.com pour vérifier les vitesses de connexion en temps réel. Le site utilise les serveurs de l’entreprise pour estimer automatiquement la vitesse de téléchargement actuelle. Vous n’avez pas besoin d’être un membre de Netflix pour l’essayer, et Fast.com fonctionne globalement sur des appareils comme les smartphones, les ordinateurs ou les Smart TV équipées d’un navigateur Web.


Si Google a rien dit au sujet de son service, étant donné son désir à garder l’utilisateur dans sa gamme de services, je ne serais pas surpris d’une annonce dans les prochains jours.Microsoft a publié des dizaines de mises à jour de Windows 10 depuis le lancement du système d’exploitation il y a un an. Mais, la plus grande mise à jour est attendue le 2 août. Celle-ci est nommée Windows 10 Anniversary Update, et n’est pas vraiment une surprise.Microsoft nous a déjà parlé de quelques-unes des nouvelles fonctionnalités clés en mars dernier — lors de la Build 2016, et les membres du programme Windows Insider Preview testent cette nouvelle itération depuis un certain temps.Mais maintenant, nous savons que la mise à jour Anniversary Update sera disponible gratuitement pour tous les utilisateurs de Windows 10 à partir du 2 août. Il est probable que les PC seront commercialisés avec la nouvelle version de l’OS à la même date. Donc, qu’est-ce qu’il y a de nouveau dans Windows 10 Anniversary Update ?



La mise à jour Anniversary Update de Windows 10 arrive !La mise à jour Anniversary Update de Windows 10 arrive !
Windows Ink fournit de nouveaux outils pour le support du stylet, incluant Smart Sticky Notes, le nouveau menu Windows Ink Workspace, et de nouvelles fonctionnalités spécifiques dédiées au stylet pour des applications clés, comme dans Office et Maps
Utiliser Windows Hello et le navigateur Microsoft Edge pour vous connecter à (certains) sites Web en utilisant une empreinte digitale, la reconnaissance faciale, ou d’autres caractéristiques de sécurité biométriques
Il y a une option pour programmer des analyses automatiques pour les logiciels malveillants à l’aide de Windows Defender
Certaines fonctionnalités de l’assistant numérique Cortana de Microsoft peuvent désormais être accessibles à partir de l’écran de déverrouillage, de sorte que vous pouvez obtenir des réponses à des questions, lancer la musique, ou définir un rappel. Cortana peut désormais fournir des notifications sur tous les appareils que vous utilisez — donc si vous recherchez des instructions sur votre PC sous Windows 10, vous pouvez les partager sur votre smartphone
Le navigateur Web Microsoft Edge prend désormais en charge les extensions telles que LastPass et AdBlock Plus
Xbox Play Anywhere vous permet d’acheter un jeu à partir du Windows Store et de jouer à celui-ci sur tout appareil relié à votre compte
Windows Ink va être plus puissant !Windows Ink va être plus puissant !
Alors que la mise à jour Windows 10 Anniversary Update est gratuite pour les utilisateurs sous Windows 10, elle ne le sera pas si vous utilisez Windows 7 ou Windows 8.1.


Pendant l’année écoulée, Microsoft a laissé les utilisateurs passer gratuitement à Windows 10 à partir de ces systèmes d’exploitation. Mais la promotion se termine le 29 juillet. Après cette période, vous aurez à payer le plein tarif pour une licence Windows 10 si vous souhaitez mettre à niveau à partir d’une première version du système d’exploitation.Les ports jack 3,5 mm et Lightning sont deux composantes essentielles pour les propriétaires d’un iDevice. Néanmoins, il semble que tous les jours il y a une nouvelle rumeur qui conduirait à la disparition de l’un, pour une montée en puissance de l’autre au sein de l’iPhone 7. Aujourd’hui, n’est pas une exception à la règle.L’iPhone 7 devrait donc en finir avec la prise casque jack utilisée depuis longtemps. Une telle action devrait permettre à Apple de rendre l’appareil plus mince. Alors que certaines rumeurs indiquent qu’Apple inclura des écouteurs Bluetooth en remplacement du traditionnel casque de 3,5 mm, une nouvelle fuite révèle qu’Apple pourrait plutôt simplement inclure un casque filaire Lightning.Une série d’images a fait surface sur le réseau social Weibo et relayées par iPhone7.nl, qui semblent montrer des écouteurs EarPods standards pour l’iPhone, mais avec un embout Lightning à la place d’un embout de 3,5 mm.


Allons-nous réellement voir des EarPods avec un embout Lightning ?Allons-nous réellement voir des EarPods avec un embout Lightning ?
Il est important de prendre cette image avec des pincettes, car elle pourrait assez facilement être modifiée. Après tout, ce genre de produit ne serait pas la chose la plus difficile à falsifier. Étant donné que le connecteur semble être beaucoup plus grand que celui d’un câble Lightning standard, on peut légitimement s’interroger sur sa véracité. Pourtant, il est important de se rappeler que, dans le cas d’un casque, un convertisseur numérique analogique est nécessaire pour convertir des uns et des zéros en quelque chose que l’oreille humaine peut comprendre.Cependant, si celle-ci est authentique, cela confirme bien toutes les spéculations que nous avons eues depuis quelques mois. Quoi qu’il en soit, si Apple abandonne sa prise jack, cela signifie que tous vos accessoires audio deviendront incompatibles. Peut-être que la meilleure solution serait d’offrir des écouteurs Lightning, comme ceux visibles dans la dernière fuite, ainsi qu’un adaptateur Lightning vers une prise jack 3,5 mm. On peut rêver.



Bien sûr, nous devrions prochainement découvrir la vérité. Si Apple se tient à son agenda de mise à niveau, l’iPhone 7 devrait être révélé au mois de septembre.Si vous avez récemment remarqué un manque flagrant d’articles de presse et de clips TV dans votre flux d’actualité Facebook, il n’y a pas que vous. Ce mercredi, le réseau social a annoncé qu’il allait peaufiner ses algorithmes de prioritisation. Autrement dit, votre fil d’actualité Facebook va changer pour mettre le focus sur les publications de votre famille et vos amis, et « celles de ceux avec qui vous interagissez le plus ». Si le géant social est sur tous les fronts pour pousser un maximum de contenu de ses partenaires, il a réalisé que les gens préfèrent des mises à jour régulières sur ce que leurs amis font.Dans un article de blog publié hier, Facebook affirme que la nouvelle réorganisation du flux d’actualité devrait à la fois « informer… [et] divertir ». Le géant bleu indique également que l’authenticité est la clé : « les commentaires que nous avons reçus indiquent que les histoires authentiques sont celles qui parlent le plus à quelqu’un ». Évidemment, cela intervient trop tard pour avoir un impact sur les discussions du Brexit.


Plus précisément, votre flux d’actualité favorisera le contenu que vous avez signalé « comme important pour vous ». « Si vous avez tendance à aimer les photos de votre sœur », a écrit le vice-président de Facebook, Adam Mosseri, « nous les mettrons en tête de liste de votre flux afin que vous ne manquiez pas ce qu’elle a écrit pendant que vous étiez absent ».Cependant, les pages, qui permettent aux entreprises, aux marques et aux organisations de partager leurs informations et de se connecter avec les gens, ne vont pas forcément apprécier ce remaniement. En effet, les pages seront subjectivement classées en fonction dont elles vous « divertissent » et elles vous « informent ». Les nouvelles à propos d’une célébrité que vous suivez de près, les événements autour de votre ville natale, ou une recette d’un chef préféré pourront parfois apparaître aux côtés des actions de vos amis les plus proches, ou pourront être reléguées au second plan.Bien que l’impact puisse être drastique pour certaines organisations, Facebook a précisé avoir placé l’expérience utilisateur en premier lieu. « En fin de compte, vous savez ce qui est le plus significatif pour vous », a déclaré Mosseri. « Puisque le flux d’actualité évolue, nous allons continuer à concevoir des outils qui sont faciles à utiliser pour vous, afin de fournir une expérience plus personnalisée ».

Mes rendez-vous

Akku für Dell Precision M4500

Vor 20 Jahren gelang Forschern in England die erste Kernfusion. Das Ende aller Energiesorgen sei in Sicht, jubelten sie damals. Wie die Kernfusion theoretisch funktioniert und warum sie praktisch nicht funktioniert.


Wie läuft die Kernfusion ab?

In der Theorie ganz einfach: Schwere und überschwere Wasserstoffkerne (Deuterium und Tritium) verschmelzen zu einem neuen Element, zu Helium. Dabei wird sehr viel Energie frei. Die Sonne funktioniert ähnlich.


Was ist so toll daran?

Wäre die Kernfusion kommerziell nutzbar, hätten unsere Energiesorgen ein Ende. Der Brennstoff ist überall auf der Welt verfügbar – in nahezu unerschöpflichem Ausmaß. „Eine Badewanne voll Wasser und das Lithium einer verbrauchten Laptop-Batterie können eine Familie für 50 Jahre mit Strom versorgen“, erklärt Astrophysiker Günther Hasinger. Zudem gilt die Kernfusion als sicher und sauber. Bei der Reaktion entsteht kein CO2, und der Betrieb der Anlagen, meinen Fusionsforscher, wäre katastrophenfrei. Falls etwas schiefgeht, wird die Reaktion einfach aufhören – und nicht, wie bei der Kernspaltung, aus dem Ruder laufen.


Wenn es so einfach ist, warum funktioniert es dann nicht?

Damit die Kerne verschmelzen können, müssen Forscher schweren und überschweren Wasserstoff sehr nah zusammenführen. Die Kerne sind aber positiv geladen und stoßen sich ab. Damit die Kerne diese Abstoßung überwinden können, verleihen ihnen die Forscher großen Schwung. Dazu wird das Gas extrem erhitzt, auf einhundert Millionen Grad. Dieses ultraheiße und sehr dünne Gas birgt ein Problem: Packt man es in irgendein Gefäß, kommt es mit seiner Umgebung in Berührung, kühlt dadurch ab, und die Wasserstoffkerne verlieren an Geschwindigkeit. Sie sind dann nicht mehr in der Lage, die Abstoßung zu durchbrechen. Die Lösung ist ein Käfig aus magnetischen Feldern. Die Teilchen schweben somit und kommen nicht mit Materie in Kontakt. Außerdem hält der Käfig das Plasma zusammen, wodurch die Fusionsreaktion sofort abbrechen würde. In der britischen Forschungseinrichtung JET (Joint European Torus) ist genau dies vor zwanzig Jahren zum ersten Mal gelungen. Bislang wird aber mehr Energie eingesetzt, als bei der Verschmelzung entsteht.



Welche großen Forschungsprojekte gibt es?

Nahezu alle europäischen Länder forschen an der Kernfusion, Anlagen gibt es in Deutschland zum Beispiel in Garching und in Greifswald. Außerdem entsteht im südfranzösischen Cadarache der Forschungsreaktor ITER (von „International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor“, lateinisch aber auch „der Weg“). Die Finanzierung teilen sich die EU, die USA, Japan, Russland, China, Indien und Südkorea. Insgesamt soll das Vorhaben 7,2 Milliarden Euro kosten. ITER soll 2020 den Forschungsbetrieb aufnehmen. Alle Fusionsforscher glauben, dass dies der nächste große Schritt ist.


Es ist ein grauer Herbstnachmittag, knapp über 10 Grad Celsius. Viele Wohnwagen auf dem Campingplatz Meyersgrund bei Manebach sind bereits für den Winter vertäut. Planen sind über Fenster gespannt. Gartenliegen und zusammengefaltete Vorzelte stapeln sich in Verschlägen. Nur noch wenige Camper sind da. Nebensaison. Um den Platz herum türmen sich die Höhen des Thüringer Waldes auf. Nadelbäume, so weit das Auge reicht. Der Campingplatz ist zum größten Teil mit Dauercampern bevölkert. Die Stützen der Wohnwagen sind oft schon mit Gras bewachsen, stehen seit Monaten oder Jahren.


Julius Otto wohnt auf dem Campingplatz in Manebach. Er will versuchen in seinem Wohnwagen den Winter über zu leben. Oder zu überleben. Das könnte hart werden, vor allem, weil er selbst sagt: So richtig vorbereitet bin ich nicht. Vor dem kalten Winter im Thüringer Wald schützen ihn nur der knappe Zentimeter Blech der Außenwand seines Wohnwagens. Und die Heizung. In die setzt er seine größten Hoffnungen.


Otto studiert im siebten Semester Ingenieurinformatik an der TU in Ilmenau, hat blaue Augen, einen Dreitagebart, wuschelige Locken und trägt zweckmäßige Kleidung; Dicker Fleecepullover, feste Schuhe und Jeans.


Ursprünglich sei die Idee gewesen, günstiger als in seiner Studentenwohnung zu leben, sagt der 23-Jährige. Daraus wird aber wohl nichts. Wesentlich unter den 200 Euro, die Otto für sein Zimmer im Dachgeschoss in der Innenstadt bezahlt hat, wird er auf dem Campingplatz nicht leben können.


Für den Stellplatz zahlt Otto 65 Euro im Monat. Er geht davon aus, das gleiche noch einmal für Gas ausgeben zu müssen, um seine Heizung zu befeuern. Dazu kommen jedes Mal 50 Cent, wenn Otto duschen will. Das mag nicht nach viel klingen, aber das läppert sich, sagt er. Außerdem muss er noch einen Handyvertrag bezahlen, damit er ins Internet kommt.


Es ist keine Geschichte über Wohnungsknappheit in Ilmenau oder Studentenarmut, die Otto erzählt. Vielmehr eine Geschichte vom Selbstbeweis und Selbsttest.


Den Wohnwagen - 30 Jahre alt, aus der Nähe von Köln - hat Otto im Internet gefunden und für 850 Euro gekauft. Er riecht etwas zerwohnt. Sein Vorzelt hat er aus Bochum, die Holzpaletten, auf dem es steht, aus Dresden. Er ist viel gefahren für seinen Traum von der studentischen Eigentumswohnung.


Julius Otto will durchhalten, den Winter überstehen. Er studiert seit sechs Semestern in Ilmenau. Otto weiß also genau, dass es hier kalt wird. Sehr kalt.


Es ist ein Survival-Trip, wie er es nennt. Eine Schnapsidee? Nein, sagt er. Die Idee ist seit Jahren gereift. Er hat sich bewusst für den Versuch entschieden. Es ist eine Art Selbsttest. Sein Traum ist es, autark zu leben.


Aber warum das entbehrungsreiche Leben auf dem Campingplatz? Ich bin im Gegensatz zu vielen meiner Kommilitonen auf dem Land aufgewachsen, sagt Otto. Er kommt aus Bad Freienwalde im Osten Brandenburgs an der polnischen Grenze. Von dort ist er das selbstbestimmte Leben fernab der Stadt gewöhnt. Mit allen Vor- und Nachteilen. Außerdem glaubt Otto an das Leben im Eigentum.



Er mag die Idee nicht besonders, zur Miete zu wohnen. In meiner alten Studentenwohnung in Ilmenau hatte ich viele Holzbalken im Zimmer. In die durfte ich keine Löcher bohren. Das hat mich immer gestört. Von Zuhause ist er es gewohnt, an seiner Wohnung zu basteln. Er ist Heimwerker. Einer, der gerne optimiert, tüftelt und plant. Das kann er in seinem Wohnwagen jetzt ausleben.


Vor seinem Camper hat Otto zwei Solarpaneele aufgestellt. Die leisten nicht viel. Es reicht an sonnigen Tagen für ein paar Stunden Licht und an sehr guten Tagen für das Laden einer Laptop-Batterie. Also eher ein Notstromaggregat als eine Grundversorgung.


Otto will für die Paneele eine Nachführung bauen, damit sie sich automatisch nach dem Sonnenstand ausrichten. Außerdem will er die Lampen im Wohnwagen von 220 auf 12 Volt umrüsten. Für die autarke Ernährung wollte er eigentlich ein Gemüsebeet anlegen. Das hat ihm der Campingplatz-Chef aber verboten.


Er will beide Wohn-Welten verbinden; Die der Mietwohnungen und die der Eigentumswohnungen. Mobilität und Selbstbestimmung. Meine Großeltern leben auf einem größeren Hof in Brandenburg. Das Eigentum verpflichtet. Die werden nie wieder wegziehen, selbst wenn sie wollten, sagt Otto.


Mes rendez-vous

Battery for Acer AS10D3E

Those who contribute to the campaign as individuals will need US$249 to get their hands on an Infinity and patience because it won't ship until September 2016. That's rather a long time to wait for a modestly-specced tablet, especially when those worried about obsolescence of kids' computers can pick up a Raspberry Pi Zero for the price of a coffee or landfill Android kit at supermarkets for very reasonable prices. Having already lived through one virtual reality hype cycle, I’m surprised to find that 2015 has been punctuated of a number of experiences proving that virtual reality may finally be nearing the mainstream. In February, I experienced some of the new head-mounted displays - and found first-generation Oculus Rift unimpressive. Quick on the heels of that, I got a taste of some immersive video, footage gathered by an expensive, fancy camera that capture a full sphere around the device.Watching an LA Lakers game from centre court seats, I realised virtual reality (VR) had a shot at being really big. The future of sports broadcasting will favour a mixture of ultra-high-definition broadcasting (Tokyo plans 8K resolution for their 2020 Olympics) and live, streaming immersion - provided our data networks can handle the traffic.I watched carefully as Oculus, Samsung, Sony and Valve each made their respective hardware announcements over the last few months, drawing a line under 2016 as the Year of VR Hardware.


First to market of all of these - because it’s by far the simplest - Samsung’s Gear VR launches this week around the world. Last week, from the comfort of a high-end carrier’s storefront on Istanbul’s main shopping drag, I donned the Gear VR to have a look around.In a quarter of century of work on VR systems - from those I hacked together myself, all the way to supercomputer-based products that cost millions of dollars - I had never had such a fluid VR experience.The essence of VR relies on a close coordination between the orientation of the head and what gets rendered to the screen. Sensors read the orientation, feeding that into the relevant software, which quickly updates the display. Get this wrong, and people quickly become motion sick. We’re not accustomed to any desynchronisation between our head movements and the view from our eyes - it’s a signal that we’ve eaten something that’s poisoning us, and vomiting your guts up offers a cure.How much desynchronisation people can tolerate varies from person to person. Anecdotes suggest women are more sensitive to this ‘simulator sickness’ than men, but almost everyone will begin to feel sick if the delay between head motion and display changes runs to more than a tenth of a second.



That’s going to be the big barrier for Google’s Cardboard, a wonderfully accessible bit of kit which converts your average smartphone into a full head-mounted display. Smartphones can track the position of your head, but do it slowly, and not particularly accurately. There’s never been a need for a smartphone to provide either the speed or the accuracy that might prevent people from losing their lunch.The Gear VR has those high-speed high-accuracy sensors built into the unit - sending something like 1000 updates per second to the software. That close coupling between sensor and software created a smoothness and comfort in the immersive experience that made it feel more like putting on a comfortable old shoe than strapping on a heavy, clumsy spacesuit. Everywhere I looked in that virtual world - and I looked everywhere, making quite a spectacle of myself amidst the Turks having a Saturday visit to the shops - the display followed immediately, seamlessly, and effortlessly.Considering Gear VR is quite likely to be the least capable of all of the forthcoming VR systems, it’s reasonable to predict 2016 will be very much like 1947 - the year television broadcasting was introduced across the United States. Those first sets were huge boxes with tiny displays and were a very significant purchase for most households. Still, televisions sold in the millions, and within a decade half of all American homes owned one.


That’s about to happen again, and likely just as quickly. By 2025 well over a hundred million homes in the US - and probably another two hundred million worldwide - will be equipped with consumer VR systems. They’ll be used in concert with all of the other screens that have proliferated through our world (television, laptop, tablet, smartphone, wearable) to provide an immersive experience, when people have the time, inclination or need for immersion.Yet hardware is not enough. Once people don their head-mounts, what do they see? What are they doing? At present there are only a handful of individuals anywhere in the world who have any experience creating immersive content, and almost all of that content has been one-off projects, experiments in the emerging medium.We need to be able to have an army of trained professionals - as we do in film and television and video gaming - ready to work in the production facilities of the 21st century, churning out a growing supply of content for these new devices. We don’t know how to write for immersion, or direct, or light, or use the camera, or edit, or record sound, etc. All of the skills they teach at any decent film school will need to be rediscovered, reinvented, and adapted to the new medium of immersion.


That’s not going to happen overnight. But that training ought to to start today, because demand for immersive content is going to skyrocket. A year from now we’ll likely be in a world where demand has greatly exceeded supply. That’s an opportunity - but it’s also a danger, because if people can’t find enough novelty in the immersive world, they’ll walk away from it, and the technology will once again fail to live up to the hype. Analysis Dell ships Windows computers with software that lets websites slurp up the machine's exact specifications, warranty status, and other details without the user knowing.This information can be used to build a fingerprint that potentially identifies a person while she browses across the web. It can be abused by phishers and scammers, who can quote the information to trick victims into thinking they're talking to a legit Dell employee. And, well, it's just plain rude.A website created by a bloke called Slipstream – previously in these pages for exposing security holes in UK school IT software – shows exactly how it can work.This proof-of-concept code exploits a weakness in the design of Dell's support software to access the computer's seven-character service tag – an identifier that Dell's support website uses to look up information on the machine, including the model number, installed components, and warranty data.



Visit Slip's page above to see it in action – assuming you have a Dell running Dell Foundation Services. Be warned, though, it does play some fun chiptune music, so mute your speakers if you're still at work.Slipstream says his website does not exploit the eDellRoot root CA certificate that turned up in new models of Dell laptops and PCs – but the Dell Foundation Services software that uses the dodgy cert.As documented by Duo Security, Dell Foundation Services starts up a web server on TCP port 7779 that accepts requests for the service tag.and the foundation services returns exactly that – the service tag. No authentication required. This serial code can then be fed into Dell's support site to look up information about the machine.The Register has tested the proof-of-concept site and verified that it does indeed pull up the service code on an Inspiron 15 series laptop bought in July. Slipstream also confirmed to The Reg that his script works even when the vulnerable root CA cert is removed by Dell's prescribed methods.Aside from the possibility that a scammer could use the support number to gain user trust for a phony tech support call or other security con job, the proof-of-concept demonstrates just how deeply a third party can probe into a user's system by exploiting Dell's now-notorious support tools.


Les présentations

Battery for Samsung RC512

Two of those PCs I bought were dead on arrival, so strictly speaking they didn’t break down: they never even worked in the first place. One was so badly assembled that its heat sink had fallen off the processor, and during its journey by van to my office, it had swung wildly around inside the case, smashing the motherboard and PCI cards into multiple segments of razor-sharp green plastic.When the delivery man plonked the box on the floor, you could hear all the pieces jangling about like a bag of spanners. He was most miffed when I refused to sign. As he heaved the melodious box back on the van, he had to content himself with the thought that, one day in the future, he’d have the opportunity to purchase his own bacon-scented banana hammock.So while I have been sorely tempted to buy a Microsoft Surface Pro rather than, say, an Apple iPad Pro, experience has warned me that the former could be a short-term investment. One of my colleagues bought one and, although he thinks it’s brilliant, the bloody thing seems to spend more time in a workshop being fixed under warranty than it does in his own possession.


I want to be fair to Microsoft, so in the interests of balance let me say just this: either the Surface Pro or my colleague has not been assembled correctly.Building obsolescence into products is the bane of the modern age, but sometimes this has inadvertent benefits for the user. One example I noted last week was Belkin’s N150 router, whose built-in web server was said to suffer from a Telnet backdoor. Why worry, I thought, when you know that the router will stop working of its own accord after six months?No offence to Belkin but heck, what can I say? They might be lovely people but plasticky home network products sold at attractively low prices simply don’t last long. I'm embarrassed to say that I have bought my fair share of Belkin in the past and every single one ended up broken in under a year.As with my incorrectly assembled colleague, perhaps I am at fault. Perhaps I have just been unlucky, no doubt caused by not purchasing a twig of heather off that crone in Blackpool back in 1974. I had my chance and blew it.In my less enlightened days, I even owned a cheap pocket modem that used to drive me mad with connection problems right up to the day when it simply fell to pieces of its own accord as I plugged in a phone cable. It was if it had finally given up on existence altogether and decided to spontaneously decompose in my hands as a parting gesture of defiance.



These days, I refuse to buy any network box of any type, even for home use, unless it comes in a metal case held together with screws.Besides, that 2019 date for Microsoft units to overtake those of iOS and Android tablets is suspiciously familiar. Isn’t that when Bladerunner is set? You know, the film about dangerous products that had a built-in four-year lifespan before self-destructing?Windows 10 is not proving as popular as Microsoft’s earlier clients – even the hated ones – among the channel.The number of PCs pre-installed with Windows 10 moving through western Europe’s distribution channel in the four months since launch is lower than for Windows 7, and the hated Windows Vista and Windows 8 over the same post-launch period, according to market research firm Context.On the plus side, Context noted a “considerable” increase between October and November.Windows 10 was pre-installed on 67 per cent of home, and 25 per cent of business machines, in the first-two weeks of November. That compares with 43 per cent of home, and 17 per cent of business, for the month before.


PC makers driving growth were Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, ASUS and Acer, with most of the machines sold being notebooks, some 93 per cent.Of these notebooks, 14 per cent employed detachable or convertible screens.But while Windows 10 is growing, its uptake among PC makers is behind the curve, historically speaking.Windows 7 was resident on 86 per cent of machines during the same four-month period after its 2009 release with Windows Vista and Windows 8 on 88 per cent and 90 per cent, respectively.Context doesn’t explain the differences, but reasons might include the fact PC makers and channel partners were heavily bought into earlier clients.Experience, underwhelming demand for machines, and politics with Redmond as the firm has introduced its own Surface laptop, will have dampened enthusiasm. Comment There was a refresh release of Spectrum Scale earlier in November, and the ability of IBM to keep on pushing improvements into the scalable enterprise storage solution is impressive and underlines the task facing startups such as Rozo in building new scale-out file systems.


It also underlines how Spectrum Scale will not simply fall over and die because Softlayer has bought Cleversafe.Spectrum Scale as a completely functional virtual machine in a complementary download for installation on a laptop, desktop or server. Testers can see the latest UI, try out unified file and object storage, and test HDFS transparency. However, there are limitations:

GUI has extensions so that common administrative tasks, including policy setting, can be all run without needing a single instance of the command line.
The GUI has a dashboard showing what is happening in the cluster, the connections to the clients and the trends. If you have two clusters, some IBM storage then Spectrum Control will provide end-to-end visibility and trending.
Drop-in use cases for proof-of-concept testing of HBase, Hadoop or Big Insights. Spectrum Scale's HDFS (Hadoop File System) transparency means you can just point the application at it and it runs, with no lock-in since no app modification is necessary.
Spectrum Scale has natively supported Swift and Amazon S3 protocols, not gateways, so you can combine object and file storage, for leading performance and true file interoperability.
Faster data access using local disk or flash for write caching to complement the existing read caching.
There is also policy-driven compression, which could result in savings on cache space, meaning more data can effectively sit in cache and speed things up.

Our understanding is that IBM paid up to half a billion dollars for Cleversafe, with extra payments if performance targets are met over the next few months.



IBM, meaning Softlayer, originally wanted to buy Amplidata but a $130m bid was exceeded, with HGST paying up to $300m for the object storage startup.Clearly, Softlayer believes object storage has a role that parallel file systems, for all Spectrum Scale's maturity, can't match. One Education, the Australian offshoot of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, has hit the crowdfunding trail to find the resources needed to build its heir to the project's XO computer.As we've previously reported, One Education's new “Infinity” is a modular computer that allows users to swap out the device's battery, camera, screen and radio. The idea is that as kids grow, they need different hardware, but that it is expensive wasteful to buy complete new computers every time a child outgrows or wears out a component.One Education has also made Android its OS of choice, offering a rather richer ecoystem than the original XO.Last August, the organisation offered pre-sales for its first 1,000 devices. Now the outfit has taken to crowdfunding to get the next batch out the door. The campaign is an unusual one as it seeks cash from the public and from schools who pledge to buy a fleet of Infinity machines.

Les échographies

Battery for Toshiba PA3635U-1BRM

The report contains incidents contributed by organisations including the CERT Insider Threat Center; CrowdStrike, Deloitte; the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit, Kaspersky Lab and the US Secret Service, amongst others. The study also includes the US Health and Human Services incident database and a significant number of incidents from the US Veteran’s Administration, as reported to Congress.“Many organisations are not doing enough to protect this highly sensitive and confidential data,” said Suzanne Widup, senior security analyst and lead author for the Verizon Enterprise Solutions report. “This can lead to significant consequences impacting an individual and their family and increasing healthcare costs for governments, organisations and individuals. Protected Health Information is highly coveted by today’s cybercriminals,” she added.According to recent studies reference in the report, people are withholding (sometimes critical) information from their healthcare providers because they are concerned that there could be a data breach.“Healthcare organisations need to realise that patients trust them with their data and if that trust is broken, the implications can be huge,” Widup concluded.


The number of external and internal actors in personal health information breaches is nearly equal with just five percentage points difference, meaning there is more insider misuse than hacker action in this area than for data privacy breaks more generally. Detailed health records make it easier for criminals to engage in both identity theft and medical billing fraud.Differences are also evident in how the breach occurs. The primary action of attack is theft of lost portable devices (laptop, tablets, thumb drives), followed by error which can simply be sending a medical report to the wrong recipient or losing a laptop. These two, combined with a third area of employee abuse, make up 86 per cent of all breaches of personal health info data breaches, according to Verizon.Earlier this years the FBI issued a warning to healthcare providers stating that “the healthcare” industry is not as resilient to cyber intrusions compared to the financial and retail sectors, and warning that the possibility of increased cyber intrusions is therefore “likely.”Verizon’s report – which offers insights and recommendations on best practice in protecting health-related private data – is available here. The ship is a year from completion, so there is plenty of time yet to bin it for a more up-to-date and secure version of the venerable operating system.The Ministry of Defence is not returning our calls, but this could always be, as one reader says, “comedy wallpaper on a technician’s laptop...”



You can check out the BBC News report about the Queen Elizabeth here. The XP wallpaper makes its appearance at 1m 25s.A 47-year-old who posed as a 13-year-old girl in order to extort more than £40,000 from paedophiles was sentenced to nine years in prison earlier this year.Lee Philip Rees, of Marlborough Road in Roath, Cardiff, was found guilty at Cardiff Crown Court of 31 counts of computer hacking, distributing indecent photographs of children and blackmail. He was sent down in June.Rees had been placed on probation for possession of indecent photographs of children back in 1989. He was arrested in 2011 after his wife, from whom he was separated, and her new partner passed his laptop – along with their suspicions that it contained indecent images – to the police.The scam, as Rees admitted, involved pretending to be a teenage girl in chat rooms to bait paedophiles. Rees tricked his victims into downloading a remote access tool along with a video. Through this, he planted obscene images on their machines and took screencaps of it before threatening to forward their personal details to local schools and the media. He also maintained a website where he published his victims' details.Although he was arrested in connection with the scam in 2014, Rees went on to blackmail a further victim while on bail, according to the South Wales Evening Post.


Police reportedly found conversations in which Rees had boasted of his extortion and encouraged others to "paedo hunt" – despite, according to Wales Online, a psychiatric assessment having concluded that Rees himself was a paedophile.Rees described the extortion money as a "fine" but shunned the cybercrim currency of choice by opting for Amazon vouchers instead of Bitcoin. He would demand payments of between £25 and £100. Additionally, he described himself as being very close to a family in Thailand, to whom he would send roughly £500 a month.Sentencing Rees, Judge Eleri Rees – who is not related to the convict – said: "Having read all of the evidence and, in particular, the chat logs, I have reached the conclusion that you derived much enjoyment and satisfaction in controlling and manipulating these individuals, preying on their fears and extracting for yourself significant financial gain." Something for the Weekend, Sir? My underwear smells of bacon. The idea, I think, is to make carnivorous members of society salivate in the unlikely event that they should ever bring their faces into close proximity of my shreddies.Unable to test the effectiveness of this theory "in the field", as it were, I am forced to take it on trust. That said, I can confirm that the effect on vegetarians, membership of whom includes Half Life Wife, is significantly different, if hardly unexpected.


I imagine that anyone would react the same way as HLW upon encountering bacon-scented underwear: to express their distaste using the classic Gonnabee-Hugh method.Those of you who have a fetish for this kind of thing might wish to avail themselves of such porcine-perfumed pleasures by picking up their own stinky grundies for just $19.99 a pair.However, I should warn the less foresighted, not to mention olfactory challenged, among you that there might be a teensy design fault in the concept: once you pop the skid-catchers in the wash, the piggy pong will be dramatically reduced, if not blessedly removed altogether. Removing the smell from one’s smugglers is, after all, one of the principal project outcomes you come to expect from putting them in a warm cycle with a scoop of Daz.This is frustrating. Surely the manufacturers must know that even those of us in the IT trade put their clothes in a washing machine from time to time. It's as if they knew the product was destined for imminent ruination and yet it was all part of their evil plan. In order to maintain the consumerist cycle, they want you to break stuff.
Once the initial humorous "Wake up and smell the bacon" gag – and I emphasise “gag” – has worn off, your twenty-dollar chundies will end up the same as all the cheapo manties you bought from the supermarket, except with a large picture of a strip of bacon incongruously printed on the front. And with crushing inevitability, you will be forced to store them away in the bottom drawer along with other embarrassing undergarments you have acquired over the years, such as that basque you bought for the wife but never had the courage to show her and the novelty Y-fronts you ended up with after last year’s office Secret Santa – the one featuring a cartoon of a worm sitting on an angler’s hook alongside the motto “Girl Bait”.



Is it really a design flaw, though, or just an acknowledgement that certain products are developed with the expectation that they won’t be used more than once?I only ask because it might help clear up an argument I’ve been having regarding Microsoft’s Surface Pro computers. Apparently, sales are doing extremely well. There is even talk that it is catching up with the Apple iPads in terms of market penetration and that Microsoft will be the fastest-growing tablet maker by 2019.Now, I happen to think they’re the best pro-class tablet you can buy while simultaneously being the worst. The problem is the usual one with all PC kit: I suspect it might not be built to last.Over the last 20 years or so, I have bashed my way through one desktop or laptop computer after another, hanging on to them right up to the point at which they explode or spontaneously collapse into a heap of loose components. And at the risk of upsetting the sensibility of many readers, I acknowledge that all the Apple Macs I ever owned have lasted at least three times longer than their equivalent Windows PCs.With the exception of the ghastly Computer Warehouse Mac-clone crap I bought out of curiosity in the 1990s, all the Macs that passed through Dabbs ownership are still working, many having since been donated and put to good use somewhere else. All my PCs, on the other hand, broke down at some point and ended up as landfill – except for their hard disk platters, which I use as coffee mug coasters at home.

Mes rendez-vous

Batterie pour HP COMPAQ 6530s

Évidemment, s’il s’agit d’une idée intéressante, elle va certainement être assez coûteuse. De plus, et surtout dans les premiers mois de sa naissance, il faudrait mieux exposer votre bébé à l’homme avant de lui introduire un tas de gadgets. Allez, mettons de côté ce brevet !Apple est en pourparlers pour acheter Tidal, le service de streaming de musique, dirigé par l’emblématique rappeur Jay Z. Des sources anonymes proches du dossier indiquent au Wall Street Journal que les négociations sont en cours, et pourraient aboutir à un accord. Bien que logique, un porte-parole de Tidal nie que la société est en pourparlers avec Apple.Mais si des discussions ont lieu, pourquoi Apple a envie d’acheter Tidal alors que la firme de Cupertino a déjà son propre service d’abonnement avec Apple Music ? Pas pour sa base d’utilisateurs, semble-t-il.Une raison évidente est pour mettre la main sur l’expertise et la technologie de Tidal. Il est actuellement le seul service de musique par abonnement qui offre une qualité de streaming « Hi-Fi » — comparable à celle d’un CD — pour 19,99 dollars par mois.Apple a probablement un œil sur Tidal pour ses exclusivitésApple a probablement un œil sur Tidal pour ses exclusivités
Parmi les 3 millions d’abonnés du service, près de la moitié d’entre eux paient pour l’abonnement Hi-Fi. Autrement dit, cela suggère qu’il y a des passionnés prêts à payer plus cher pour avoir un meilleur son. Apple pourrait puiser dans la technologie audio de Tidal pour offrir une option plus onéreuse à son offre de base de 9,99 euros par mois pour ceux qui sont prêts à payer.


Mais, la technologie et une offre haut de gamme ne sont pas tout ce qu’Apple a à gagner. La firme a probablement un œil sur Tidal pour ses exclusivités, et son influence dans l’industrie de la musique, un secteur très renfermé. Jay Z a apporté avec succès au service des grands noms comme Rihanna et Kanye West. Pour Apple, avoir des stars, signifie une plus grande influence dans le monde de la musique. Apple Music a déjà ses propres exclusivités, mais Tidal serait un plus au service.La capacité d’exploiter des artistes serait également un énorme avantage pour Apple, car la firme cherche à poursuivre ses activités en tant que marque de style de vie, et pas seulement une entreprise de haute technologie.La rumeur d’aujourd’hui vient tout juste un an après qu’Apple a lancé son service de streaming, qui compte environ 15 millions d’abonnés, soit à peu près la moitié de Spotify. Si l’acquisition de Tidal ne va pas significativement stimuler sa base de données utilisateur, les exclusivités qu’elle apporterait pourraient probablement attirer plus de monde à l’avenir.Nous avons entendu de multiples rumeurs depuis un certain temps que la prochaine itération de Nexus de la part de HTC serait une paire de smartphones, et pas seulement une version. Néanmoins, la semaine dernière, nous avons eu un aperçu du plus petit modèle de la gamme, le HTC « Sailfish ». Bien que son grand frère, le HTC Nexus Marlin, ait été évoqué, nous ne disposions pas de spécification le concernant. Du moins, jusqu’à aujourd’hui.



Cette fuite provient par l’intermédiaire d’Android Police, qui a obtenu les soi-disant spécifications à partir d’une de ses sources. Selon cette source, le HTC Nexus Marlin sera équipé d’un processeur quadricœur de Qualcomm, de 4 Go de mémoire vive (RAM), de 32 ou 128 Go de stockage et d’un écran AMOLED de 5,5 d’une résolution QHD, soit 2 560 × 1 440 pixels. On y retrouverait un port USB Type-C, une caméra arrière de 12 mégapixels et une caméra frontale de 8 mégapixels, un capteur d’empreintes digitales incrusté à l’arrière, une batterie d’une capacité de 3 450 mAh et une connectivité Bluetooth 4.2.Notez que la taille de l’écran est 0.2 pouce plus petite que celle qui l’on retrouve sur l’actuel Nexus 6P, une phablette que Huawei et Google ont conjointement lancée l’année dernière, comme une option plus grande pour ceux qui ne voulaient pas le modèle plus petit Nexus 5X de LG.Il est intéressant de noter est que le Marlin semble venir en seulement deux variantes : 32 Go et 128 Go. Cela pourrait être également le cas avec le HTC Sailfish, qui offrira les mêmes options de stockage. Si cela s’avère authentique, alors les seules différences entre le Sailfish et le HTC Nexus Marlin seront la taille, la capacité de la batterie, et la résolution. Les acheteurs pourraient être influencés par la préférence de la taille du smartphone ou des différences de prix entre les deux appareils.Si vous êtes un fervent utilisateur de Google Maps sur mobile, vous vous êtes peut-être déjà retrouvé dans des situations par le passé où vous avez voulu ajouter des destinations multiples à votre voyage. Malheureusement, la capacité de le faire a disparu de l’application depuis trop longtemps . Eh bien, ces jours semblent révolus, grâce à la dernière mise à jour de Google Maps pour Android.


Comme Android Police le souligne, des utilisateurs ont signalé l’ajout possible de destinations multiples dans Google Maps en version 9.31. Autrement dit, si vous ne possédez pas cette version de Maps, vous allez devoir attendre un peu jusqu’à ce qu’elle soit mise en œuvre pour vous. Même si vous disposez de la dernière version de l’application, il semble que Google ait besoin d’activer la fonctionnalité pour certains utilisateurs.Une fois que vous avez la mise à jour, vous verrez un bouton « Ajouter destination » apparaître, qui vous permettra d’ajouter davantage de destinations à votre itinéraire.Google Maps sur Android arrive enfin avec l'ajout de destinations multiplesGoogle Maps sur Android arrive enfin avec l’ajout de destinations multiples
Auparavant, vous étiez en mesure d’ajouter des arrêts à votre voyage, mais le processus était plutôt laborieux puisqu’il fallait passer par l’icône « recherche ». Maintenant, vous pouvez ajouter autant de destinations que vous voulez avant de commencer à naviguer à votre première destination. Cela signifie aussi que vous serez en mesure de planifier votre itinéraire plus facilement. Les destinations sont notées sur l’application par des lettres, et peuvent être réorganisées avant de partir à votre road trip.



D’autres changements dans la nouvelle application comprennent un nouveau design du calendrier qui fournit des statistiques sur les voyages que vous avez effectués. Le nouveau design reprend les concepts de Google Photos, ce qui contribue à créer un sentiment d’unité à travers l’écosystème de Google.Google a mis beaucoup de moyens en œuvre dans le développement et l’amélioration de Maps depuis des années. Aujourd’hui, le résultat est au rendez-vous !L’attente est terminée ! Android N, la prochaine version d’Android attendue cet été a officiellement un nom : Android Nougat. Désolé, pour tous ceux qui avaient misé sur Android Nutella. Vous n’aimez pas le nom ? Au moins, ce sera toujours plus facile à dire que Marshmallow.Mis à part le nom officiel, aucun autre détail n’a été divulgué sur la nouvelle version d’Android. Je vous le ferais savoir dès lors que nous aurons des détails sur son lancement. Pour ceux désireux de tester Android Nougat, le système d’exploitation mobile est actuellement disponible en version bêta pour certains appareils, vous donnant un aperçu de quelques-unes des nouvelles fonctionnalités.
Les principales caractéristiques de la prochaine version d’Android incluent un support pour un mode multifenêtre (vous permettant d’interagir avec deux ou plusieurs applications en même temps), un nouvel outil d’économiseur de données, et une installation plus rapide des applications et des mises à jour du système d’exploitation.

Les présentations

Akku für ASUS G53JW

Geschichten über brennende oder explodierende Akkus stammen meist aus der Zeit der Nickel-Cadmium-Batterien. Bei Lithium-Ionen-Akkus, die sich in heutigen Smartphones und Laptops befinden, ist das praktisch ausgeschlossen, sagt Matthias Baumann vom Tüv Rheinland. Die Schutzmechanismen innerhalb der Zelle und des Ladegerätes - in dem Falle des Telefons oder des Laptops - verhindern ein Überladen. Funktioniert der Akku korrekt, stoppt der Ladevorgang bei voller Ladung oder zu hoher Temperatur automatisch. Ist der Akku voll aufgeladen, während das Gerät noch am Netz hängt, wird zunächst dessen Energie verbraucht, zum Beispiel, bis der Akku nur noch 95 Prozent hat. Dann werden die fehlenden 5 Prozent aufgeladen, sagt Sergej Rothermel vom Batterieforschungszentrum MEET aus Münster. Das schont den Akku, der Nutzer kriegt davon aber nichts mit.


Korrekt - allerdings nicht für neue Batterien. Nickel-Cadmium Batterien, wie sie früher eingesetzt wurden, litten unter dem sogenannten Memory Effekt, sagt Tobias Placke vom MEET. Wurden die Akkus nicht komplett entladen, konnte es passieren, dass ihre Kapazität sank. Sie merkten sich, wie viel Energie zwischen den Ladezyklen verbraucht wurde. In heutigen Lithium-Ionen-Zellen gibt es diesen Effekt nicht mehr. Bei den Nickel-Metallhydrid-Akkus - also den wieder aufladbaren Batterien, die man beispielsweise in Videospielcontrollern verwenden kann - lässt sich dieser Effekt durch einen erneuten, vollständigen Ladezyklus rückgängig machen.Prinzipiell richtig, da die ersten Ladezyklen der Lithium-Ionen-Akkus die kritischsten sind. Aber genau aus diesem Grund werden diese Zyklen bereits im Werk durchgeführt, sagt Dirk Uwe Sauer von der RWTH Aachen. Auch ist es für die Lebensdauer eher schädlich, den Akku immer von ganz leer auf ganz voll aufzuladen. Diese sogenannten tiefen Zyklen verkürzen die Lebensdauer, sagt Sergej Rothermel. Flache Zyklen - also, den Akku von 20 auf 70 Prozent aufladen, sind hingegen optimal. Die meisten Hersteller empfehlen bei Auslieferung, den Akku zunächst vollständig zu laden. Das liegt daran, dass sie nicht voll aufgeladen ausgeliefert werden.



Ganz im Gegenteil: Akkus sollten möglichst kühl gelagert werden. Zehn Grad Temperaturerhöhung verdoppeln die Alterungsgeschwindigkeit, sagt Dirk Uwe Sauer. Der Forscher empfiehlt sogar, Akkus gut verpackt im Kühlschrank zu lagern. Zum Beispiel den des Laptops, wenn er hauptsächlich wie ein Desktop im Dauereinsatz auf dem Schreibtisch ist und am Stromnetz hängt. Allerdings sollten sie dann nicht ganz leer sein. Bei ca. 20 Prozent Ladung lassen sich Akkus am besten lagern, wenn die Lebensdauer verlängert werden soll. Vor dem nächsten Aufladen muss der Akku jedoch wieder Zimmertemperatur annehmen.Für Bleibatterien, etwa für Autos und Motorrädern, gilt das tatsächlich. Bei Lithium-Ionen-Batterien nicht. Ein Lithium-Ionen-Akku altert am schnellsten, wenn er im vollgeladenen Zustand ist. Allerdings sollten Akkus auch nicht leer gelagert werden, sagt Dirk Uwe Sauer. Durch die Selbstentladung kann es passieren, dass ein Akku zu leer wird und deshalb vom Ladegerät nicht mehr geladen werden kann. Ein E-Bike mit leerem Akku über den Winter im Keller zu lagern ist sicherlich nicht gut. Zwar ist der Keller klimatisch gut geeignet - aber die Ladung sollte bei 20 Prozent liegen. Will man auf Nummer sicher gehen, sollte gelegentlich der Ladezustand überprüft werden.


Kein Problem. Smartphones und Notebooks mit Lithium-Ionen-Akkus kann man problemlos während der Ladung nutzen. Im Gegensatz zu den alten Akkutechnologien können sie diese jederzeit laden, den Ladevorgang unterbrechen und dann wieder weiter aufladen, sagt Matthias Baumann vom Tüv Rheinland. Das macht dem Akku nichts.München (dpa) - Das Geschäft mit Personal Computern geht auch in Deutschland weiter stetig zurück. Nach Berechnungen der Marktforscher von Gartner wurden im ersten Quartal des Jahres hierzulande 2,53 Millionen PCs verkauft, das entspricht einem Rückgang um 7,8 Prozent.Demnach gingen die Verkaufszahlen bei Desktop-PCs um 12 Prozent zurück, Notebooks verzeichneten einen Rückgang von 5 Prozent. Vor allem die Nachfrage der Konsumenten trübte das Geschäft. Endverbraucher bleiben gegenüber PCs weiterhin eher gleichgültig, sagte Gartner-Analystin Meike Escherich. Stattdessen nutzen sie Smartphones zunehmend auch zu Hause.Der Absatz bei privaten Nutzern ging demnach sogar um 22 Prozent zurück. Abgefedert wurde der Trend von der Nachfrage bei Geschäftskunden, hier gab es sogar ein Plus von 6 Prozent. Für das zweite Halbjahr erwartet Escherich, dass Unternehmen mit dem Umstieg auf Windows 10 beginnen werden. Ob das mit einem Austausch von PCs einhergehen wird, bleibe abzuwarten.Nicht alle Hersteller sind laut Escherich bei dem anhaltenden Druck auf dem Markt in der Lage, sich zu behaupten. So sei das mittlere Marktsegment in den vergangenen Jahren weitgehend zusammengebrochen. Samsung, Sony und Toshiba haben seit 2011 zusammengenommen 10 Prozent Marktanteil in Deutschland verloren.



Lenovo behauptet sich demnach weiter mit einem Anteil von 20,8 Prozent als Marktführer, trotz eines Absatzrückgangs von 11,8 Prozent. Es folgen HP mit 18,7 Prozent, Asus mit 10 Prozent und Acer mit 8 Prozent Marktanteil. Innerhalb eines Jahres sackten die Verkäufe des Viertplatzierten um satte 30,2 Prozent ab.Acers Chromebook 14 kommt mit Aluminiumgehäuse, zwei USB-3.0-Anschlüssen und bis zu 14 Stunden Batterielaufzeit. Der Googlecomputer ist mit HD- und Full-HD-Bildschirm lieferbar (1366 zu 768 Pixel/1920 zu 1080 Pixel), hat maximal vier Gigabyte (GB) Arbeitsspeicher und bis zu 32 GB Festspeicher - mehr Speicher gibt es dann über Googles Onlinespeicher Drive. Ab Juni gibt es für Chromebooks auch Zugang zum Android Play Store, was die Nutzbarkeit noch einmal erweitert. Kosten: Ab 329 Euro aufwärts für die kleinste Ausstattung.


Mes rendez-vous

Battery for Dell Studio 1537

Software based on XP is used to run the command suites of most of Blighty's major warships, including the Type 23 frigate fleet and the newer Type 45 destroyers, the last of which entered service in 2013.HMS Queen Elizabeth will begin her sea trials in August 2016 that the MoD said will last until mid-2017, after which she will be officially handed over to the Royal Navy.Following this, the ship will go over to the East Coast USA for flight trials in 2018 for the F35b, but all her systems will be complete and operational in 2017, and be fully in service as the flagship vessel from 2020, the MoD said.On-Call Welcome again to On-Call, our Friday column in which readers tell their tales of being asked to get stuff done under awkward circumstances.This week, reader “WG” shared a tale from 2010, when a client asked for some very major changes to be made to an industrial system that had been left largely untouched for 25 years.WG and his colleagues tried to dissuade the client, because documentation of the system had somehow managed to disappear over the years. The folks that built the system were retired and scattered to the winds.“Everyone in the industry advised us not to touch a thing and to walk away from the job,” WG told us.


But then, just a couple of weeks before Christmas came the request to do the job, before Christmas of course.“A less than really sharp manager agreed,” which meant that in the days before December 23rd WG “was going flat out trying to get my head round a program written by a novice programmer for an ancient logic controller in a horribly arcane language.”“Then on Christmas Eve myself and a colleague went on site to do the installation. By the way, did I mention that we couldn't do any preliminary tests because they wouldn't shut down the system until the night before?”“Initially we couldn't get the laptop to talk to the old controller. It took us several hours to work out that not only was the connecting cable non-standard wiring, but so was the communications. Eventually we got the software on, and started making cautious tests - we hadn't wired the new valve in at this point just in case there were problems.”



“First, the control sequence was not the same as what we'd been told, so that involved rewriting the program on-site to take this into account.”“Next, the original programmer liked to do 'clever' tricks with his programs. These always come back to bite you years later - and indeed we were seriously puzzled as to why variables were apparently changing themselves and screwing up our corrections.”WG and his colleague “realised the guy had discovered a way of bulk updating large blocks of data, which he'd proceeded to use enthusiastically, blissfully unaware that this also corrupted variables in the 'gaps' that he wasn't using but we were trying to!”“After this was sorted we connected up the new valve, which had been pre-wired for us, only to discover that the 'telltale' that was supposed to send back a message to tell us which way the valve was positioned wasn't changing, so we went to examine the valve itself.”Inspecting the valve mean climbing narrow metal stairs and gantries.“My colleague got there first,” WG recalls, “and came out with a burst of the most interesting invective. You see, this valve was driven by compressed air, and our electronics just supplied a trigger. This normally works fine, but you do actually have to pipe in an air supply! We then had our only short break while the factory maintenance crew frantically rigged up a temporary air line.”


Before long the valve was switching over correctly. But WG and his mate wanted to double-check to make sure all was well and when they did, found that the main plumbing had been done in reverse.“Our first thought was to just change the software so the 'off' state of the valve was reversed, only we were quickly informed that when unpowered it had to be in the open position.”The maintenance crew climbed the gantries again and, amid “much banging and swearing” went over everything in as much detail as possible.”“We weren't happy that the valve common was shared with the signal common, but weren't going to try to re-run over 70 ft of cable woven into the factory structure, so put filters on the PLC inputs and hoped.”Job done! Or so WG thought until control system's monitor died. WG thinks all the switching things off and on did for it, and fair enough after 25 years' service. One trip down into the offices to find an unused monitor later, and WG thought it was finally time to head home for some egg nogg.But first, a final test to make sure the night's work hadn't caused a problem elsewhere in the factory.



A main divert valve stuck but that had nothing to do with WG's work. But he had to hang around to make sure all was well.“We started at 8:30AM and worked through until 10:00PM without stopping, except the one time for a cup of tea and a snack (supplied by considerate shop-floor staff).WG made it home for Christmas, albeit without knowing if his work had done the trick because the client wouldn't run the whole system until the new year. His clients, however, declared themselves happy. Which was enough at the time!Have you been called out to work over the festive season? We'll be running On-Call stories every day next week, so if you've a Christmas cracker to share, send me a Christmas card. Stolen medical information is a prevalent problem across multiple industries, according to a new study by Verizon.The issue is compounded because many organisations outside of the healthcare sector do not even realise they even hold this type of data.Common sources of protected health information are employee records (including workers’ compensation claims) or information for health programs. These repositories are frequently poorly protected.Medical data loss is not just a problem for the healthcare. According to Verizon, 90 per cent of all industries have suffered a data breach that resulted in the loss of medical data, including: retail, finance, mining and educational sectors, amongst others.


Verizon’s researchers analysed 931 incidents of confirmed protected health information breaches involving more than 392 million records. The global study covered 25 countries across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.One in five health record breaches involved privilege misuse. Staff not infrequently abused their privileges in order snoop and look at medical records health on the same local area network or on a weakly secure database server on the corporate intranet.Loss of unencrypted devices is a major problem for the healthcare industry itself. Around a third (31.3 per cent) of incidents where human error was involved in one way or another in data breaches were down to lost devices.The one positive trend in this area over the last five years is that it’s taking less time for organisations to realise they have a problem. Even so only 31 per cent of incidents are found within days: 31.25 per cent took months and 18.75 per cent took years to find.Verizon’s 2015 Protected Health Information Data Breach Report was compiled by the same team that puts together the firm's Data Breach Investigation Report, a benchmark annual study of data breaches.The health information reports focuses on the problem of medical data loss, from how it is disclosed, to who is causing it and what can be done to combat it.


Les échographies

Battery for Apple A1406

The utilitarian reason that people use to justify paying such a hefty premium for a Surface Pro is dual use. In the horrible marketing jargon, it does both lean forward for work, and lean back for watching TV, or dorking around on social media.Of course you don’t need a hybrid machine to do this: you can do much of this with a cheap tablet and keyboard combo, and then have several hundred (or more) pounds left in your pocket. (Last year’s iPad Air 32GB + keyboard = a shade over £400). The only thing you can’t do with this combo, and Android combos are cheaper, is run x86 applications.Yet the drawbacks of the Surface as a dorking-around-machine are obvious once you start using it. The range of content and cool apps is terrible, and without content and cool apps, any tablet is just a dumb screen.There’s no getting away from it, the Surface Pro a very smart looking piece of industrial design indeed. The magnesium unibody case looks and feels great. This year it has barely changed. It’s a tiny bit (50g) lighter and thinner, but you’d have trouble telling them apart side by side unless you were familiar with the Surface range, and even then, you’d probably have to pick them up to be sure. The power button has moved (it’s on the top when you’re using it in landscape mode). It has much stronger magnets down the side for a much improved Pen - and the Pen now comes “free”.


The Surface’s display has been amped up from 2160x1440 to 2736x1824, all in the same 12.3 inch diagonal. The designers have all but done away with the bezel. The display was the most startling thing about the Pro 3, and it’s even better now.The Surface Pro 4 has one spooky, Minority Report party trick. It uses biometric scanning to log you in. It couldn’t be any more futuristic unless a hoverbot popped up in front of your face then flew out again. The machine actually uses two cameras and an IR sensor to authenticate you, so you’re not holding up a picture. I found this worked uncannily well, unlike the iris scan on the new Lumias, where it guzzles power constantly, and then once it’s glommed onto a face, only recognises you some of the time.As well as a new pen, Microsoft has upgraded the keyboard (not included, of course) quite substantially. The fourth generation Surface keyboard has more spacious keys, with real distance between them, and a much larger touchpad that’s now glass. It’s terrific, and you can use the fourth-gen keyboard with a Surface Pro 3. And to be honest, given the woes I am about to describe, I wouldn’t blame you if you did.



But Microsoft wouldn’t have an absurdly aggressive launch just for a keyboard and pen, could you? Apparently so.The problems began when I began to use it, for if the Surface Pro 4 is the “Surface Pro 3 only more so”, that unfortunately includes the flaws of the SP3. My first SP4 review unit wouldn’t wake up the screen after a few days. This issue plagued early review samples, and Microsoft kindly swapped out the dodgy one.Leaving aside its versatility and design, I found the SP3 actually scored poorly compared to rival Ultrabooks for battery life and reliability - and this a PC that really cooks. Not in a good way. I concluded that there is room for a version of the kids' classic, Go The Fuck To Sleep - aimed not at parents, but Surface Pro owners. This is a machine that doesn’t go the fuck to sleep. I got used to having my bag warmed from the inside by the SP4.Battery life teetered too, barely extending to four hours in practical terms. I really wanted to show off my swanky SP4, but out of necessity, ended up taking my usual notetaking options with me instead: an ancient Thinkpad X series, or an iPad Air with a Bluetooth keyboard. How much I wondered is down to errant drivers, or the immature OS?


One thing really surprised me: Windows 8.1 is a far more natural fit for the Surface's kind of hybrid than Windows 10. The SP4 is Windows 10 only, so I’m basing this judgement from using the SP3 with Windows 8.1, and the SP4 with Win10. If you'd suggested at the start of the year that anyone would be wishing that Windows 8.x ran on their PC, I'd have thought them a bit odd.But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised: Surface was designed to showcase the new Windows paradigm, with its touch-first UI, that also served up a desktop when you needed to run grown-up apps. What made Windows 8’s design so annoying to desktop users is actually a boon on dual-use devices. When you rip the keyboard off a Surface you want a tablet, touch-first UI. What you get instead is Windows 10’s designed-by-committee compromise.In fact, “design” isn’t a word I’d readily associate with Windows 10: it’s more of a tentative peace agreement between warring factions. When you detach the keyboard from a Surface now, it goes into a “touch-friendlier” mode but that’s it. The Explorer elements (icons) get a little larger. But the Tablet Mode desktop loses its bold, cartoon-like simplicity and its broad sweeping gestures. It’s harder to use, and harder to read. The spidery font and hard-to-distinguish wireframe icons just don’t seem natural here.



Like the latest Lumias, the Surface Pro 4 seems to me great hardware let down by the software. Windows 10 is going to take time to get ready (six months after I said it needed at least six months, it isn’t close). Meanwhile rivals are catering to the “lean forward and lean back” hybrid in their own way.HP’s Elite X2 is a hybrid that’s similar to the Surface but with a stronger battery, more ports and a SIM card. Lenovo’s Yoga range is broader, with the high end offering a better screen, and Lenovo is set to unveil some serious Surface competition at CES in a couple of weeks.Britain's new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers will be Windows XP-free zones, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed to The Register.Readers made us aware that a technician working aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth itself, which is a year away from completion, had the famous Windows XP rolling hills desktop background used by Microsoft’s ancient OS on his screen.The UK government negotiated a Custom Support Agreement in April 2014 when the software was classified as end-of-life, so the departments and agencies could use it without worrying about no more patches being written.But it seems this was indeed comedy wallpaper on the laptop owned by a white coat, for the MoD told us HMS Queen Elizabeth will be using more up-to-date software.The warship is “currently undergoing fitting-out in her test, integration and commissioning phase in Rosyth,” the spokesman said.“The MoD can confirm that Windows XP will not be used by any onboard system when the ship becomes operational,” the spokesman added. “This also applies to HMS Prince of Wales.”Prince of Wales is the second of the UK's two new carriers. It's notable that the MoD doesn't state that either ship won't use XP at all – only when they become operational, which doesn't rule it out altogether. El Reg has asked the MoD about this but they refused to comment on this point.