General Stanley A McChrystal, the leader of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, was shown a PowerPoint slide in Kabul last summer that was meant to portray the complexity of American military strategy, but looked more like a bowl of spaghetti. When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war,
General McChrystal dryly remarked, one of his advisers recalled, as the room erupted in laughter. The slide has since bounced around the Internet as an example of a military tool that has spun out of control. Like an insurgency, PowerPoint has crept into the daily lives of military commanders and reached the level of near obsession. The amount of time expended on PowerPoint, the Microsoft presentation program of computer-generated charts, graphs and bullet points, has made it a running joke in the Pentagon and in Iraq and Afghanistan
Simplenote replaces the Notes app on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. When you download Simplenote, you get free access to our web app and a variety of desktop apps, so you can access your notes from anywhere — via Simplenote
One of the adjustments those new to the Mac need to make is to familiarize themselves with the Command key. Although I switch hit and use Windows at work and a Mac when I’m not working, I’ve always preferred it over Control. Its proximity next to the space bar allows me to use my thumb, as opposed to my pinky finger with the Control key, for keyboard shortcuts. I find it particularly faster for copying and pasting. The clover-looking key (it’s actually an infinite loop), which had always been accompanied by an Apple logo until recently, sometimes behaves in ways similar to the Control key in the Windows world. At other times, however, it doesn’t. Whether you’re a recent Mac switcher or a seasoned Mac user, here are some shortcuts using the Command key to help you speed your way through tasks — via The Unofficial Apple Weblog
Google’s latest search engine feature enables users to search for individual TV episodes and sort the results by season in each series. Just search for a TV series like Mad Men or The Office, then click the Show options…
button above the results. A panel appears on the left with several options; you can click Videos
to narrow your search to videos, and after that the option to search for Episodes
instead of All videos
A Russian company is marketing a devastating new cruise missile system which can be hidden inside a shipping container, giving any merchant vessel the capability to wipe out an aircraft carrier. Potential customers for the formidable Club-K system include Kremlin allies Iran and Venezuela, say defense experts. They worry that countries could pass on the satellite-guided missiles, which are very hard to detect, to terrorist groups
Yesterday was ANZAC day, which is the Australia and New Zealand equivalent of our Memorial Day. (ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.) ANZAC biscuits are a classic cookie that myth associates with World War I (they’re still getting over Gallipoli, and rightly so). My husband is Australian, so of course I wanted to make a good batch of ANZAC biscuits for him yesterday — via CRAFT
A visual representation of colours in different cultures — via Information is Beautiful
This site is meant to provide all users with improved access to World Bank data and to make that data easier to find and use. We will continue to add to the databases available and welcome suggestions on how we can improve the site for users — via The World Bank
Google has been fined $US8500 (AU$9100) in Brazil after an anonymous internet user posted defamatory messages on one of its sites against a priest, calling him a paedophile
, media reported on Sunday. A court in the state of Minas Gerais ruled in favour of the 54-year-old priest, identified by his initials JR, after rejecting Google’s argument that the US web giant was not responsible for what users posted on its Orkut social networking site
Tobacco giants are using Facebook to subvert bans and international conventions against cigarette advertising, a study by University of Sydney researchers published in the British Medical Journal has found
The Government of India has just introduced a major new copyright reform package. Of particular note from a Canadian perspective are the approaches to fair dealing and anti-circumvention. On fair dealing, the provision is expanded to cover private and personal use
. On anti-circumvention, the bill is consistent with implementing the WIPO Internet treaties in a manner that retains equal rights both online and offline. The provision specifically targets circumvention for the purposes of copyright infringement and does not target the distribution or marketing of devices that can be used to circumvent
You should never feel like your hard drive is holding out on you. Anyone should be able to back up, recover files, boot multiple systems, upgrade, or otherwise improve their storage space. These tips explain the possibilities and procedures — via lifehacker
Sharing your credit card and online purchases with friends on the web sounds risky and it is. We’ve just discovered that several credit card transactions shared on social networking site Blippy have been exposed — with full credit card numbers included — in Google search results
A man on a flight from West Africa to New York City was removed from the plane and detained Thursday after authorities apparently added him to a no-fly list during the trip. Customs and Border Protection agents detained the man while the Delta Air Lines jet stopped to refuel in San Juan, Puerto Rico after an overnight trip from Dakar, Senegal. Passengers said that the captain announced over the intercom that the man had been added to a roster of people banned from travel to the US while the plane was in flight
Pierre Omidyar, the chairman of eBay, is entering the news business with an online service in Hawaii. By charging $19.99 (£13) a month for membership, Omidyar hopes to accomplish what newspapers and other media organisations have long struggled with — having readers pay for content and making local news profitable
Google is looking to boost headcount in Sydney by around 15 per cent which would tip its local workforce to just over 400 people. The internet giant employs approximately 350 people in Australia and has 51 job openings for positions. A surging demand for its enterprise solutions, namely Google Apps and Geo — comprising Google Maps and Google Earth — has been the driving force behind the job spike, says Google Asia-Pacific enterprise managing director Doug Farber
A drunken street golf game with foam balls has led to a serious civil rights issue, pitting computer geeks against police practices. Eric Rachner, a Seattle cyber security expert and one of the golf players, wasn’t satisfied when the city dismissed charges against him after a possibly illegal arrest for refusing to provide identification. Rachner discovered through sleuthing that police had withheld video-recorded evidence in his case
If Australia signs the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), internet service providers (ISPs) may be obliged to hand over the identity of its users to those defending copyright. The European Commission of Trade has released a draft of the agreement, which aims to establish international standards on how to enforce intellectual property rights, and has involved countries around the world including Australia. Signatories to the ACTA will be required to ensure that copyright holders can sue intermediaries
whose services are used to infringe intellectual property
A flawed McAfee antivirus update sent enterprise administrators scrambling today as the new signatures quarantined a crucial Windows system file, crippling an unknown number of Windows XP computers
Telstra has patched a data breach on its business web site that had the potential to reveal personal information, such as date of birth, of 700 customers. Telstra confirmed that the only details that could be sighted without the need to log-in were the name, address and account number of a customer. But afterwards, it was confirmed that a customer account holder’s date of birth (DOB) could also be seen
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