External Link: Farewell to Evan Michael Gross, Author of Spell Catcher TidBITS(cached at July 20, 2012, 11:39 pm)

It was with great sadness that we heard about the sudden passing of Evan Michael Gross at the end of June 2012. One the earliest adopters of the Mac, Evan was best known as the author of Spell Catcher, the standalone spelling utility that started out life as Thunder in 1986 before being renamed to Spell Catcher in 1998. In 1999, Spell Catcher started being distributed by Casady & Greene, which also distributed SoundJam, the predecessor to iTunes. In 2005, Evan’s Rainmaker Research took over distribution.

 

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Zimbabwe närmar sig ny författning SvD Utrikes(cached at July 20, 2012, 11:38 pm)

I Zimbabwe är lagstiftarna efter tre års arbete färdiga med utkastet till en ny författning som ska begränsa presidentens makt.
26 döda i bussolycka i Mexiko SvD Utrikes(cached at July 20, 2012, 11:38 pm)

Minst 26 personer dödades och 27 skadades, varav 18 allvarligt, när en buss körde av en bro i västra Mexiko under fredagen.
Movie Review: <em>The Dark Knight Rises</em> Slashdotby samzenpus on movies at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at July 20, 2012, 11:37 pm)


Unless you've managed to not watch anything in the past three weeks, you're aware that Chris Nolan's final Batman movie is out. With Christian Bale as the low-talking caped crusader, The Dark Knight Rises is two hours and forty-five minutes of of fun. While it lacks a stand-out personal performance like Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight, it is still a decent ending to this round of Batman movies. There are plenty of familiar faces, and a few new ones as well. Read below for my take on the movie, but be warned: there might be a few spoilers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Halvt ton kokain hittat i Argentina SvD Utrikes(cached at July 20, 2012, 11:08 pm)

Argentinska myndigheter har hittat mer än ett halvt ton kokain gömt i ett mudderverk på väg till Nigeria.
Hollande får sänkt lön med ny budget SvD Utrikes(cached at July 20, 2012, 11:08 pm)

Det franska underhuset godkände i dag en reviderad budget för 2012, som bland annat innehåller lönesänkningar för presidenten och ministrarna.
Tre kilo trotyl i bomben i Bulgarien SvD Utrikes(cached at July 20, 2012, 11:08 pm)

Självmordsbombaren som i onsdags sprängde en buss med israeliska turister i Bulgarien använde tre kilo trotyl, sade landets inrikesminister i dag.
Bilrånare höll 69-åring som gisslan SvD Inrikes(cached at July 20, 2012, 11:08 pm)

En bilrånare har dömts till fyra års fängelse efter att ha hållit en 69-årig man som gisslan och sedan försvunnit med hans bil.
Federal Agencies Lagging Behind In Data Center Plans Slashdotby Soulskill on government at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at July 20, 2012, 11:07 pm)


Nerval's Lobster writes with news that U.S. federal agencies are falling behind in their efforts to consolidate government data centers. Current plans call for a savings of $2.4 billion and the closing of over a thousand data centers, but 17 of 24 agencies still haven't provided details on their IT infrastructure and usage. A new report from the Government Accountability Office highlights the problems with this consolidation effort. "Data centers represent a significant cost to the federal government. Electricity to operate federal servers and data centers costs around $450 million a year, according to an EPA estimate cited in the report. Moreover, federal agencies reported limited reuse of data centers, along with server utilization rates dipping as low as 5 percent. The GAO report features agencies claiming several challenges on the way to data-center consolidation. These included accepting cultural change as part of the consolidation; funding the consolidation and identifying the resulting cost savings; operational challenges including procurement and resource constraints; and difficulties in planning a migration strategy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Russia punk band to stay in pre-trial custody AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 20, 2012, 11:00 pm)

Three members of Pussy Riot face up to seven years in prison for storming church altar and singing anti-Putin song.
Colombia's Nasa to put 'rebels' on trial AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 20, 2012, 11:00 pm)

Tribal elders say they will decide fate of suspects involved in attack on civilians in country's southwest.
Bahrain protesters renew clashes with police AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 20, 2012, 11:00 pm)

Opposition activists battle with riot police in Manama after government moves to make political marches illegal.
Judge: Cops Can Impersonate Owner Of Seized Cell Phones Slashdotby Soulskill on cellphones at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at July 20, 2012, 10:37 pm)


Aryden writes with news of a recent court decision in which a judge ruled it was acceptable for police to impersonate the owner of a cell phone they had seized, in order to extract information from the owner's friends. The ruling stems from an incident in 2009 when police officers seized the iPhone of a suspected drug dealer, then used text messages to set up a meeting with another person seeking drugs. "'There is no long history and tradition of strict legislative protection of a text message sent to, displayed, and received from its intended destination, another person's iPhone,' Penoyar wrote in his decision. He pointed to a 1990 case in which the police seized a suspected drug dealer's pager as an example. The officers observed which phone numbers appeared on the pager, called those numbers back, and arranged fake drug purchases with the people on the other end of the line. A federal appeals court held that the pager owner's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure were not violated because the pager is 'nothing more than a contemporary receptacle for telephone numbers,' akin to an address book. The court also held that someone who sends his phone number to a pager has no reasonable expectation of privacy because he can't be sure that the pager will be in the hands of its owner. Judge Penoyar said that the same reasoning applies to text messages sent to an iPhone. While text messages may be legally protected in transit, he argued that they lose privacy protections once they have been delivered to a target device in the hands of the police.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lenovo CEO Gives His $3M Bonus To 10k Workers Slashdotby Soulskill on business at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at July 20, 2012, 10:37 pm)


ndogg writes "Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing has decided to give his $3,000,000USD bonus to his workers instead of keeping it. Those 10,000 employees include receptionists, production line workers, and assistants. That works out to about 2,000 yuan or $300 per employee, which is about a month's worth of salary."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Colombia's Nasa to put 'rebels' on trial AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at July 20, 2012, 10:30 pm)

Tribal elders say they will decide fate of suspects involved in attack on civilians in country's southwest.