SDR Computers At Smith Mountain Lake, VA

The Best Android Phones

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:39:00 +0000

February 7, 2012 28 Comments
The Best Android Phones
The greatest thing about Google's Android mobile OS: You have your choice of top-notch handsets on all four major carriers. Behold, the best Android phones you can buy right now.

It's hard to believe that it's been little more than three years since Google's open-source Android mobile operating system hit the scene. When the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, was released, the mobile landscape looked very different. Most people carried simple handsets that focused on making calls. If you were lucky, you could listen to music or play games on your mobile phone. Back then, you didn't have to have a smartphone that ran thousands of apps to let you, in the palm of your hand, do many of the things your computer could do. Apps weren't even a thing yet. Apple had only released the iPhone 3G and launched its groundbreaking App Store a couple of months earlier.
It was the introduction of Android that helped propel the app-based smartphone to what it is today. The thing Android offered, which Apple's iPhone couldn't, was choice. Since it was an open-source platform, several hardware manufacturers could use the OS on their handsets, and a variety of wireless carriers could offer those phones—and they did.
Today, you can find hordes of Android phones on each of the major carriers. At the time of this writing, there were more than 20 Android handsets available on Verizon Wireless alone. According to NPD, Android owned 47 percent of the U.S. smartphone market in the last quarter of 2011.
That's a lot of very similar phones to choose from. To come up with our list, we've chosen two to three winners for each of the four major carriers from our highest-rated phones. And for the contract-phobic, we've thrown in the best unlocked handset. If you've settled on Android as your mobile platform, these phones are your best bets—for now, that is. At this rate of growth, we can assure you that there's another great 'Droid right around the corner.

Credit: Wendy Sheehan Donnell134digg
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Android market share to near 50 percent

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:22:00 +0000

The Android operating system may soon own nearly 50 percent of the smartphone market, Gartner said today.
According to the market researcher, more than 296 million smartphones shipped last year. Out of that, Symbian secured 37.6 percent market share, followed by Android's 22.7 percent share, and BlackBerry OS with 16 percent of the market. In 2011, the number of smartphone shipments around the world will explode to nearly 468 million units. That growth will help Android snag 38.5 percent market share by the end of the year, followed by Apple's iOS at 19.4 percent, and Symbian at 19.2 percent, Gartner said.
But it's next year that might just be the most eye-opening find in Gartner's analysis. According to the company, more than 630 million smartphones will ship worldwide in 2012, and Android will own 49.2 percent of the market, easily dominating its second-place competitor, iOS, with 18.9 percent share. Research In Motion's BlackBerry operating system will nab the third spot with 12.6 percent share of the smartphone space.

Credit: cnet
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20051610-17.html#ixzz1ZNJCScLe

Google Music

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:43:00 +0000

One of the first services that Google unveiled at this week's Google I/O conference was its new cloud-based music player, Google Music. I've spend the last 12 hours using the beta of Google Music and for someone like me, with multiple PCs, a Mac, a Motorola Xoom and a Motorola Droid X, it's the Holy Grail of music players. Gone are the days of trying to copy and sync music from my main PC to everywhere else. Now, no matter where I am, as long as I've got Internet access, I've got access to my entire music collection.
The idea behind Google Music is simple -- upload your music collection to a Google server and then access that music collection from the cloud using a PC, Mac or Android device. iPhone and iPad users look to be out of luck, at least for now, because Google hasn't developed an iOS app for Google Music, and the Web-based version requires Flash, which iOS doesn't support.
You upload your collection via a Music Manager application that you download and install for either a Windows PC or a Mac. Google has made the upload process exceedingly simple. After installation, it asks whether you use iTunes or Windows Media Player for your music collection, and then automatically grabs and uploads all your music. If you prefer, you can tell it to grab music from only your music folder or from multiple other folders instead.

Your music uploads in the background; you can start listening immediately, even while the files upload. How long the upload takes will vary according to the size of your collection and your bandwidth. In my case, it took more than 13 hours to upload my nearly 2,200 music files.
Google Music handles MP3, AAC, WMA and FLAC formats, and lets you store up to 20,000 files. How much storage space that translates to will vary according to the average file size of your music. If your average file size per song is 3GB, for example, that would mean about 60GB of space.
This is significantly better than Amazon's recently released Amazon Cloud Player -- Amazon's player doesn't handle WMA and limits your total storage space to 5GB, regardless of the number of files. However, Amazon stores any kind of file, not just music -- and if you buy an MP3 album from Amazon, that limit goes up to 20GB. In addition, MP3 purchases from Amazon don't count against that limit. Apple users are out of luck here as well, because Google Music doesn't support M4P (Apple DRM) or M4A (Apple Lossless) files.

Credit:computerworld

Google’s Android becomes the world’s leading smart phone platform

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:41:00 +0000

Canalys today published its final Q4 2010 global country-level smart phone market data, which revealed that Google’s Android has become the leading platform. Shipments of Android-based smart phones reached 32.9 million, while devices running Nokia’s Symbian platform trailed slightly at 31.0 million worldwide. But Nokia did retain its position as the leading global smart phone vendor, with a share of 28%. The fourth quarter also saw the worldwide smart phone market continue to soar, with shipments of 101.2 million units representing year-on-year growth of 89%. The final quarter took shipments for the year to fractionally below 300 million units, with an annual growth rate of 80% over 2009.

In Q4 2010, volumes of Google OS-based smart phones (Android, OMS and Tapas) were again boosted by strong performances from a number of vendors, notably LG, Samsung, Acer and HTC, whose volumes across these platforms grew 4,127%, 1,474%, 709% and 371% respectively year-on-year. HTC and Samsung together accounted for nearly 45% of Google OS-based handset shipments.

‘The US landscape will shift dramatically this coming year, as a result of the Verizon-Apple agreement,’ said Canalys Analyst Tim Shepherd. ‘Verizon will move its focus away from the Droid range, but the overall market impact will mean less carrier-exclusive deals, while increasing the AT&T opportunity for Android vendors, such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung.’ Android was by far the largest smart phone platform in the US market in Q4 2010, with shipments of 12.1 million units – nearly three times those of RIM’s BlackBerry devices. Windows Phone 7 devices appeared too late in the quarter to take full advantage of holiday season purchasing. As a result, Microsoft lost share in the United States, from 8% in Q4 2009 to 5% in Q4 2010.

Analysis of the published country-level data shows that, around the world, the strength of smart phone performances remained diverse. In South Korea, for example, shipments grew from under 700,000 units in Q4 2009 to just under 3.4 million units in Q4 2010, making the country a top 10 market. In Japan, Android shipments have taken off over the past year, with nearly 1.4 million units shipping from local as well as international vendors, such as HTC. More Japanese vendors have also announced plans to launch Android devices in 2011, such as NEC Casio and Panasonic. Under pressure from Huawei and Samsung in particular, Nokia’s share in China slipped to 56%, down from 76% a year ago, despite growing its volume in the country by over 70% in the same period. Albeit from a smaller base, the Chinese market grew 134% year-on-year, notably faster than the US market, which grew at 64% in the quarter.

Credit: Canalys

Investments place value of Facebook at $50 billion

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:26:00 +0000

NEW YORK – An injection of cash that values Facebook at $50 billion will help it delay going public for at least another year, giving the company breathing room to focus on long-term ambition rather than short-term profit.

The infusion — $500 million from elite investment house Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor, according to a report by The New York Times — represents the most emphatic endorsement yet of Facebook's potential to make money in online social networking.

It places the company at twice the value of Internet giant Yahoo and about equal to what well-established names such as Boeing and Kraft Foods are worth on the open market.

More important, it buys time for Facebook to keep its books private and not have to cater to the demands of the market. And it gives 26-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg room to grow into his role as the public face of a multinational company.

Zuckerberg is widely believed to be more comfortable operating behind the scenes, thinking about technology and business, than engaging in public discourse, says Standard & Poor's equity analyst Scott Kessler, who follows large Internet companies.

"There is still some question whether he has the persona to be a public CEO and, if he doesn't, would he be willing to cede control to someone who does," says Mark Heeson, president of the National Venture Capital Association, a trade group that represents firms that invest in startups. "That is probably an issue that Facebook's board has been discussing for some time."

As it nears the seventh anniversary of its founding in a Harvard dorm room, Facebook is already slightly more mature than Google was when it went public, in 2004. At the time, investors placed Google's value at about $24 billion.

By the time Google turned 7, in September 2005, its market value had ballooned to about $90 billion, and the company wound up with $6 billion in revenue that year.

Google, like Facebook, wanted to stay private as long as possible to avoid public scrutiny of its finances, investor complaints about its strategy and potential management distractions.

The $50 billion is more than twice as much as the market's valuation of Yahoo. It's also worth more than eBay, but still less than Amazon.com — not to mention Google, which now stands at nearly $200 billion.

Facebook has grown quickly as a business, even as it seeks to retain a startup culture, valuing innovation, hiring the smartest engineers from its neighbors and gobbling up small tech companies.

It has swelled to more than 500 million users, about half of whom log in on a given day. Each month they share more than 30 billion links, notes, photos and other types of content. Facebook "Like" buttons are everywhere online.

Facebook is free and makes money from selling highly targeted ads. Investors are increasingly convinced it is destined to become a marketing mecca. It has cemented its place as the king of social media, much as Google did for online search.

The New York Times reported the investment over the weekend, citing unnamed people involved with the deal. Facebook and Goldman Sachs declined to comment Monday.

Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies, which focuses on Internet properties, already has a 10 percent stake in Facebook, but the nod from Goldman Sachs is a sign of just how big the Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup has become even outside tech circles.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Lou Kerner, who has been bullish on social media and Facebook in particular, says Facebook is well worth $50 billion.

He says it's still 15 percent less than the going rate on private stock exchanges such as SecondMarket and SharesPost, where stock is generally sold by former employees or early investors in these companies. Kerner thinks the company could trade at $100 billion if it went public.

Not that Facebook is in any rush. Zuckerberg has been coy about a possible initial public offering, recently telling CBS' "60 Minutes" that he doesn't see selling the company or going public as an end goal, as a lot of entrepreneurs seem to.

That approach is "like you win when you go public. And that's just not how I see it," he said in the broadcast, which aired Dec. 5.

There are many reasons for Facebook to put off an IPO, a big one being that it doesn't need the money, as the latest investment shows. Companies go public to get access to capital, and Facebook clearly has access to capital, Kerner says.

Going public is also a big time commitment for senior management — time they could otherwise spend running the company, he says. Zuckerberg has been deeply involved in Facebook since its founding and shows no signs of wanting to give that up to cash out. He's even pledged to give away at least half of his wealth along with a slew of much older billionaires such as Carl Icahn and Barry Diller.

And Facebook, which already faces government scrutiny for the way it handles the troves of personal information its users share, would be subject to even more poring eyes were it to go public, Kerner notes.

"If I'm Facebook, I don't think I ever want to go public," he says.

The company discloses very limited financial information now, but that will change if it amasses at least 500 shareholders. Once a company with at least $10 million in assets crosses that threshold, the Securities and Exchange Commission requires it to disclose its finances and other crucial information. That regulation triggered Google's IPO in 2004.

Exactly how many shareholders Facebook has is not publicly known. The Times said Goldman hopes to circumvent the rule by counting itself as just one investor while pooling investments from thousands of its own clients.

Separately, Facebook in 2008 created a restricted class of shares for new employees that can't be sold until the company goes public. The SEC exempted these shares from being counted toward the 500-stockholder cap.

The agency is looking into whether recent trading in private Facebook stock may be enough to require more disclosure.

Facebook hasn't said whether it is making money under the accounting rules used by public companies, though in 2009 it announced it was bringing in more than it was spending. Research firm eMarketer estimates that Facebook generated $1.29 billion in online ad revenue in 2010 and will rake in $1.76 billion in 2011.

Digital Sky Technologies — together with sister company Mail.ru, which had its IPO in London in November — already owned about 10 percent of Facebook. A person answering the phone at the company's office in Moscow said no one was available to comment.

Microsoft also owns a small stake in Facebook. It invested $240 million in Facebook in 2007 in exchange for a 1.6 percent stake, at the time implying a valuation of $15 billion.

Goldman Sachs, by cozying up to Facebook now, could be gaining an inside track to handle the eventual IPO, says Reena Aggarwal, a Georgetown University finance professor specializing in investment banking and IPOs.

"This looks like a very smart move by Goldman because it helps them get their foot in the door," she said.

Credit: API

WikiLeaks supporters' group abandons cyber attacks

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 12:38:00 +0000

LONDON — A loose grouping of cyber activists supporting WikiLeaks has abandoned its strategy of online attacks on organizations seen as hostile to the site in favor of spreading the leaked documents far and wide online.

Internet activists operating under the name "Anonymous" temporarily brought down this week the websites of credit card giants MasterCard and Visa — both of which had stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks.

The United States, enraged and embarrassed by WikiLeaks' publication of thousands of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables, has leant on organizations from Amazon to online payments service PayPal — which have now withdrawn services to WikiLeaks.

In an overnight blog post, Anonymous announced a change of strategy, saying it now aimed to publish parts of the confidential U.S. diplomatic cables as widely as possible and in ways that made them as hard as possible to trace.

The cyber activists briefly brought down PayPal's official blog by bombarding it with requests this week but failed to harm retail and Web-hosting giant Amazon, which withdrew its services to WikiLeaks more than a week ago.

"We have, at best, given them a black eye. The game has changed. When the game changes, so too must our strategies," said the blog post announcing "Operation: Leakspin."

The activists are now encouraging supporters to search through leaked cables on the WikiLeaks site and publish summaries of ones that have been least exposed, labeling them so they are hard to find by any authority seeking to quash them.

"Use misleading tags, everything from "Tea Party" to "Bieber." Post snippets of the leaks everywhere," the blog said, referring to the U.S. grassroots conservative movement and the 16-year-old Canadian pop phenomenon Justin Bieber.

Similar strategies have been used in the past on YouTube and the now-defunct Napster by users seeking to share video and music while dodging copyright crackdowns.

The activists had previously been using denial-of-service attacks, in which they bombarded the Web servers of the perceived enemies of WikiLeaks with requests that crashed the sites, in an operation named "Operation Payback."

Credit ;Reuters

DRAM prices to keep falling through the first half of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:30:00 +0000

The price of DRAM, the main memory inside personal computers, will likely keep falling throughout the first half of next year before a recovery takes hold, analysts and market researchers say.

The chips, which are important to the overall speed of a computer, have been pricey over the past year because of a PC industry recovery. But in recent months, shaky consumer confidence has hurt PC sales and sent chip prices down. Increased production by DRAM makers has further hurt chip prices, and more factory capacity is coming on line that will keep DRAM prices on the decline.

The price of high-end 2GB DDR3 (double data rate, third generation) DRAM modules declined to US$25 in the first half of November, down 46 percent from its peak of US$46.50 in the first half of this year, according to DRAMeXchange. The market researcher forecast the price will fall to US$20 by the end of this year.

Increased output by Samsung Electronics has recently pushed the price lower, while production increases by its rivals has kept up price pressure in the fourth quarter, DRAMeXchange said.

Samsung expanded capital spending aggressively early this year, with 9 trillion Korean won (US$7.8 billion) earmarked for its memory chip business, a massive sum for one company. During its third quarter investors' conference, Samsung executives said they expected DRAM prices to fall as much as 30 percent by the end of this year.

iSuppli analyst Mike Howard, believes Samsung aims to capture as much as 50 percent market share in DRAM and has worked hard to expand and upgrade its factories.

"By investing heavily in expanding production and advancing its manufacturing technology, the company has been able to cut pricing and to eat into the market share of its competitors," he said in a statement.

Samsung's share of the global DRAM market surged to 40.7 percent in the third quarter, up from 35.4 percent in the second quarter.

Falling DRAM prices normally mean PC buyers will find bargains when shopping for new computers. This time, while prices may fall for DRAM modules sold in stores, PC vendors appear to be planning to offer better overall systems instead of lowering prices.

At a recent investors' conference, Gianfranco Lanci, president and CEO of Acer, said prices of a number of components had fallen, including DRAM and LCD panels, but, "you're probably not going to see the price [of a PC] going down, you're likely to see the specs going up."

Acer is one of the world's biggest PC vendors.

Investment banking firm Credit Suisse forecast the DRAM market will remain in oversupply through the middle of 2011 but will regain footing in the second half of the year. The firm said quarterly DRAM revenue will likely bottom in the first quarter of next year before starting to recover in the second quarter.

Microsoft Says Malware Causing Blue Screen Crashes

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:33:00 +0000

A hard-to-detect rootkit may be causing Windows XP systems to crash following Microsoft's latest security updates.

Windows users began flooding Windows support forums this week, saying that their computers had been rendered unusable with a blue-screen-of-death (BSOD) error after installing Microsoft's February security updates, released Tuesday. On Thursday, Microsoft stopped shipping the MS10-015 update, which had been linked to the issue, and said it was investigating.

On Friday, Microsoft offered a preliminary conclusion, saying that malicious software may be to blame. "Malware on the system can cause the behavior," wrote Microsoft spokesman Jerry Bryant on a company blog. "We are not yet ruling out other potential causes at this time and are still investigating."

"We have confirmed cases where removing malware allows the system to boot," Bryant said in a Twitter message.

Windows XP user Patrick Barnes said he'd traced the issue to a malicious rootkit program known as TDSS that he found on one of his systems.

In a post to the Internet Storm Center, Barnes said that he'd identified a nonworking file on his system called atapi.sys. When he submitted the file for analysis it turned out to be the TDSS rootkit.

It may not be the only cause of the problem, however.

"From the reports I have been receiving, the infected atapi.sys is the most common cause of this blue screen," Barnes wrote in his post. "However, any driver that references the updated kernel bits incorrectly can also cause this blue screen."

Barnes posted standalone utility that removes the TDSS infection, however.

Users must first remove the rootkit from their hard drive before they can repair the issue or apply the security update, Barnes wrote in the Internet Storm Center post. People who have experienced the BSOD should remove their hard drive and then scan it for infections using another PC to make sure they catch it. "If atapi.sys is removed, you will need to replace it from installation media or from another Windows system of the same version," Barnes wrote. "Restore your hard drive and attempt to boot again. If it still does not boot, you may try a repair installation of Windows. If that still does not work, you may need to reload your computer."

Because TDSS uses crafty techniques to hide itself on the operating system, many antivirus programs have a hard time detecting it, said Roel Schouwenberg, a Kaspersky antivirus researcher. "The more I look into it, the more plausible it becomes that this is indeed the (main) issue behind the BSOD. MS10-015 is a kernel update with atapi.sys containing the extremely advanced TDSS kernel rootkit," he said via instant message. "Microsoft pulling the patch obviously says something about how widespread this thing is."

Barnes' repair instructions "make sense," Schouwenberg said. "Given the nature of the BSOD I doubt there's an easier way."

Microsoft has said that the issue affects a "limited number" of customers

Google becoming "giant monopoly"

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:16:00 +0000

BERLIN (Reuters) – Internet search engine Google Inc is becoming a "giant monopoly" like Microsoft and could face legal action if it does not become more transparent, Germany's justice minister said.

In an interview with weekly magazine Der Spiegel Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said she was concerned the firm was accruing too much power and information about citizens via programs like Google Earth and Google Books.

"All in all, what's taking shape there to a large extent is a giant monopoly, similar to Microsoft," the minister said.

"My initial response is not to ban something or stop something. But I do want to create more transparency and ensure that users know what is going on with their data," she added.

"I think the companies have an obligation here, and a lot of things ought to be improved. If that doesn't happen soon we may have to take action as legislators."

A liberal member of the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger also served as justice minister between 1992 and 1996, when she stood down in protest about moves to allow the state more scope to snoop on citizens.

A spokesman for Google in Germany said offering users full transparency was central to how the company operated and that it was constantly working to make improvements in this realm.

SDR Computers At Smith Mountain Lake, VA: Franklin County Sheriff Arrested

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:32:00 +0000

SDR Computers At Smith Mountain Lake, VA: Franklin County Sheriff Arrested

Franklin County Sheriff Arrested

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:49:00 +0000

Ewell Hunt is indicted on charges of not properly maintaining records. His daughter, Ashley, was reportedly being paid for hours she did not work. The 19-year-old also reportedly accompanied deputies on drug buys.
A scathing grand jury report on the Franklin County Sheriff's Office describes a dysfunctional agency where the sheriff's teenage daughter disrupted the chain of command and lax evidence handling allowed seized drugs to show up at the high school.

Sheriff Ewell Hunt was arrested Monday after a special grand jury indicted him on a misdemeanor charge of not properly maintaining the records Virginia law requires a sheriff to keep.

A statement from Hunt's attorney, William Stanley, said Hunt is innocent.

"We completely disagree with the conclusions, speculations, and conjecture that are the underpinnings of the report," the statement said.

Hunt, who is finishing his second year as sheriff, has no plans to resign, the statement said.

The charge against him follows other serious allegations against sheriffs in Henry and Page counties in recent years.

The special grand jury spent more than six months investigating the sheriff's office after allegations that Ashley Hunt was getting paid for hours she hadn't worked. She was not indicted.

A report by the special grand jury made public Monday described Ashley Hunt's work schedule as "very irregular and, in its extreme, surprising and highly suspicious." The panel found that the sheriff had directed Maj. Josh Carter to approve Ashley Hunt's timecards, even though Carter questioned their accuracy.

Carter reported the issue to the commonwealth attorney's office. The sheriff fired Carter, and Lt. Allan Arrington, in May.

Sheriff Ewell Hunt"I'm just glad the report is out and it clears any wrongdoing on my part," Carter said Monday.

"I've always prided myself on doing the right thing."

The report said that Carter improperly approved Ashley Hunt's timecards, but that it didn't rise to the level of a criminal offense.

Ashley Hunt earned $11,494 last year.

The report found that not only was Ashley Hunt paid for time she didn't work, but she also went with deputies to stakeouts, drug buys, drug arrests and roundups without proper training and without being a sworn officer.

And once, the sheriff, who was in a department vehicle with his daughter, let her drive as they pursued a suspect at speeds up to 90 miles per hour, according to the report.

Ashley Hunt was hired at the sheriff's office as a part-time temporary employee when she was 14 years old. Hunt was then a lieutenant under former Sheriff Quint Overton.

At some point before January 2008, Ashley Hunt became the primary person responsible for purchasing, storage issuance and the management of equipment and supplies including uniforms, communication equipment, vehicles and other items, according to the report. It also said that she issued those items to those deputies whom she favored.

By January 2008, when Hunt was sworn in as sheriff, Ashley Hunt "self-prescribed her duties" and took on responsibilities of sworn deputies, the report says. She had access to police radios, and wore clothing that resembled or were identical to the deputies' uniforms.

"Ashley Hunt's employment was detrimental to the morale of the Sheriff's Department," the report says. "Her assignments were well beyond the usual responsibility given and tasks performed by other temporary, part-time clerks."

The report also said Ashley Hunt countermanded officers and disrespected the sheriff with uncontrolled emotional outbursts.

"She played an important, if not pivotal role, in preventing the Sheriff from realizing the potential of his staff and maintaining leadership," the report said.

Stanley, Ewell Hunt's attorney, also defended Ashley Hunt. "We completely disagree with the unfounded statements and conclusions about Ashley," he wrote.

The special grand jury also looked into the handling of evidence.

When Hunt was sworn in, the sheriff's office had a practice of storing evidence in closets, cars and "other questionably secure locations," the report said.

Following a January 2008 directive, deputies were supposed to have turned in all of their evidence.

The panel found "scant evidence" that deputies followed the directive.

In March 2008, the sheriff's office began storing evidence at a storage facility and hired a part-time evidence technician.

In June 2008, Arrington's son was charged with having illicit drugs at Franklin County High School. The special grand jury concluded that the drugs likely came from Arrington's evidence. The grand jury tried to locate all of the evidence connected to Arrington, but found that at least 26 bags of evidence remain missing.

The panel found that Arrington improperly possessed controlled substances because of the sheriff's office's lack of policy. He was not charged because his actions lacked criminal intent, the report said.

Arrington could not be reached Monday.

Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood did not return phone calls Monday about whether the mismanagement of evidence has, or might, affect the prosecution of cases in his office.

Pittsylvania County Commonwealth's Attorney David Grimes, the special prosecutor in the case, also could not be reached Monday.

Members of the special grand jury contacted Monday said they were directed by a judge not to speak publicly about the report.

Hunt is the latest Western Virginia sheriff indicted in recent years, following Frank Cassell in Henry County and Danny Presgraves in Page County.

Cassell eventually pleaded guilty to making a false statement to investigators and was sentenced to eight months in prison and fined $15,000.

Presgraves pleaded guilty to racketeering and was given a 19-month prison sentence and fined $1,000. A $75,000 forfeiture also was imposed against Presgraves.

Credit: Roanoke.com

Microsoft: Windows 7 on track for 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:35:00 +0000

•Finally Microsoft has gone on the record: The next version of Windows, known currently only as Windows 7, is slated for delivery to consumers by 2010. The confirmation is a reversal of months of Microsoft's refusal to commit to a ship date for the product, or even more than a vague acknowledgment that, yes, there would be another version of Windows somewhere down the line.
Windows 7 development seems well underway now. In fact the company has delivered a version of the OS to government regulators so it could be checked for compliance with the various antitrust rulings and verdicts against the company. (One quite credible rumor says that Windows 7 will be highly integrated with Microsoft's Windows Live online services, hence the additional antitrust concern.) But other than looking at leaked timelines and conjecture about what Windows 7 might look like, no reliable intel has emerged about features, interface, or much of anything else. (When rumors swirl around an updated version of Paint and the Calculator, you know there's not much to talk about.)

Still, 2010 isn't sounding like too long to wait for a new OS, for those users looking to leapfrog Vista and go directly from XP to W7. Of course, Microsoft would greatly prefer you buy Vista immediately instead of waiting, hence the silent treatment on Windows 7.

Meanwhile, a new build of Windows 7 is rumored for arrival in the late spring or early summer. Hopefully the code will fall into more hands by then, along with the opportunity for us all to take a little closer look. Stay tuned.

Why Is Google Spelled Wrong? 'Googlle' Celebrates 11th Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:53:00 +0000

Eagle-eyed web users may have noticed that 'Google' is spelled "Googlle' today. Our Google overlords spelled the name of their website "Googlle" on Sunday morning. So why is Google spelled wrong? To celebrate Google's 11th birthday, Google has two Ls in it to represent the number 11.
Of course, the real question is when is Google's birthday? Last year, Google put up its 10th birthday logo on September 2 and its Wikipedia entry, Google was incorporated company on Sep. 4 1998.
It seems that Google can't seem to figure out their birthdate or how to spell Google. Still, they seem be doing something right. One of the top Google Trends right now is "Why is Google spelled wrong?" So even when the site looks like they've made a mistake, people still look to it for answers.

Microsoft tablet snatches the spotlight

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:26:00 +0000

Courier tablet ... a first look at the new device that is reportedly being developed by Microsoft.
Microsoft has snatched back some of the limelight in its long-running battle with Apple after pictures of a prototype tablet computer reportedly being developed by the software giant shook the blogosphere this week.
Details of the tablet PC, published on gadget website Gizmodo, caught industry watchers completely unaware and closely followed reports of a similar tablet device leaked by Apple insiders in July.
A tablet PC is typically smaller than a laptop but larger than a personal digital assistant (PDA), can function as a web browser, media player or book reader and is operated by stylus or touchscreen.
Although Microsoft founder Bill Gates has been evangelising on the merits of tablet devices for more than a decade, the images are the first evidence of an actual device in the pipeline.
Gizmodo reported that the Courier is a late-stage prototype featuring dual 7-inch screens, which are hinged together and operated by pen and touch. It said the device might also feature wireless charging and a digital camera.
“The Courier user experience presented here is almost the exact opposite of what everyone expects the Apple tablet to be, a kung fu eagle claw to Apple's tiger style,” Gizmodo said.
Some industry commentators consider the device a direct challenge to Apple as it comes under pressure to produce a new gadget to rival the runaway success of the iPod MP3 player and the iPhone.
Based on leaked news reports of Apple's tablet, its device would differ substantially from the Courier prototype. With a 10-inch screen, it is expected to take the form of a large iPhone and function as a games console, book reader and home media and internet hub.
Apple's device may even be in stores before Christmas, according to a report in the Financial Times, which may account for the timing of the Courier prototype leak.
However, some technology news sites remained sceptical about Microsoft's credentials to compete with Apple on this new front.
“It's nice to get excited about a drawing of a fantasy product. We'd all love a cheap, digital booklet that takes pictures and loads maps super-fast over the Internet," wrote Dan Frommer from the Silicon Valley Insider.
"But let's not lose touch with reality - and Microsoft's history in the gadget industry. When's the last time Redmond actually made something that works like this? What's changed that might make this a reality now?”
Microsoft is yet to make any official endorsement of the prototype, but technology news website Cnet said the Courier was one of several prototypes being developed under the watch of company executive J. Allard.
“Microsoft has been trying to keep Allard's work under wraps - even locating Allard's team well away from the rest of Microsoft's main Redmond campus. Until it was shown by Gizmodo, not only was Courier's existence a surprise to many outside Redmond, few inside the company were aware of it either,” Cnet said.
Although Microsoft dominates the software sector, it has not had the smoothest of rides in developing hardware. Its Zune music player has struggled to make headway against the iPod and the Xbox360 gaming console has had its own issues, with a large number of users reporting serious hardware faults.
In other moves against its long-time rival, Microsoft announced plans in July to open retail spaces next door to Apple stores. It has also been trying to hit back against a highly targeted advertising campaign by Apple that portrays PC users as nerds who have fallen behind the times.