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Australian Technology
Chris Duckett
TechRepublic Staff
Chris Duckett

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AtG: ABC gets Rails, Australia tax on Kinect, Firefox ESR
A study on the ABC online store about moving from ASP to Ruby on Rails; Aussies will pay more for Kinect for Windows; and Firefox gets an extended support release.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 10, 2012, 9:05 PM PST | Latest comment by dogknees
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Will Android get a root store?
CyanogenMod mulls whether it should take the next step and create an app store for root apps.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 10, 2012, 7:40 PM PST
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PyCon Australia opens call for topics
In a twist on the standard conference call for proposals that conferences have, PyCon Australia is seeking to hear what users want before the proposals are sent in.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 10, 2012, 5:13 PM PST
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Go cross-platform with PhoneGap:Build
One reason to use PhoneGap is to develop for multiple mobile platforms easily, but do you really want to create a separate development environment for each platform? I thought not.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 8, 2012, 5:15 PM PST | Latest comment by BuySellWordPress
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AtG: Aussie slim wires, wiping Windows 8, is net access a human right?
Today's Around the Grounds features Aussie universities creating wires only four atoms wide; Vint Cerf claims that net access is not a human right; Ed 1.6 appears; and Windows 8 comes with wipe...
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 5, 2012, 5:31 PM PST
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Creating a quick and easy GNOME 3 extension
One of the good aspects of GNOME 3 is its extension framework. We take a baby step into this world by making an icon for the top panel.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 4, 2012, 8:24 PM PST
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Linux Mint launches Cinnamon desktop
Not content with its Mint GNOME Shell Extensions (MGSE), nor with GNOME 2 replacement MATE, Linux Mint has decided to launch a new GNOME 3-based desktop dubbed Cinnamon.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 3, 2012, 9:47 PM PST | Latest comment by bni1369@...
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Fixing Fedora's Wi-Fi with Wicd
If you've had trouble getting Fedora to connect to WPA2 Wi-Fi access points, then throw out NetworkManager and replace it with wicd.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 3, 2012, 7:24 PM PST | Latest comment by pgit
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AtG: Work with Hawking, .NET hash fix, 28c3 and Pi vids
Microsoft has released an out-of-schedule fix for a hashing vulnerability; there's a technical job going with Professor Stephen Hawking; and plenty of security videos to watch over the holidays.
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 29, 2011, 6:13 PM PST
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Around the Grounds: iiNet buys Internode, Raspberry Pi update, and VNC in JS
The Australian ISP landscape just gotten a bit smaller; pictures arrive of the $25 computer that could; and now we can have VNC in a browser, thanks to Node.js.
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 22, 2011, 3:24 PM PST
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Firefox 9 launches with type inferred JavaScript
The cries of Firefox being slow will be subdued with the release of an improved JavaScript engine for Mozilla's browser.
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 20, 2011, 7:07 PM PST
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Try these languages in your browser
If you want to learn a new programming language, its possible to get a small taste by visiting one of these websites before you start creating a new development environment.
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 18, 2011, 5:04 PM PST | Latest comment by TexasJetter
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Australia to lead IE6/7 sunsetting
Automatic upgrading of Internet Explorer is coming to a desktop near you in 2012.
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 15, 2011, 3:07 PM PST | Latest comment by CharlieSpencer_Palmetto
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Microsoft opens up Messenger with XMPP access
An XMPP interface has been exposed for Windows Live Messenger, allowing standards-compliant communication clients to make use of the MSN protocol.
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 14, 2011, 8:56 PM PST
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Victoria heats up for January conferences
Come January 2012, Victoria will be the place to be for technical conferences.
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 14, 2011, 6:37 PM PST | Latest comment by Michael Jay
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LinkedIn turns presentation to dust.js
The social network for professionals has moved its presentation layer from off the server to the client via the dust.js library.
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 13, 2011, 9:03 PM PST | Latest comment by seanferd
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Atlassian uses FaceTime to create portal
Admit it: you want your office to have portal video conferencing, too.
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 12, 2011, 6:43 PM PST
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Use sessionStorage for quick form storage
Rather than having lines of code on the back-end reserving form data, a couple of lines of JavaScript can make life easier.
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 11, 2011, 9:20 PM PST
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Around the Grounds: WebSocket becomes RFC 6455, Geelong gets $100K
One of the cornerstone technologies of the next generation of websites, WebSockets, has become standardised by the IETF, and the Victorian State Government has stumped up for ICT funding in Geelong.
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 11, 2011, 3:56 PM PST
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AtG: CityRail's USB woes, RIM double whammy, and Windows Store
Did you know Sydney's RailCorp sells USB keys in pristine condition, complete with user information?
Posted by Chris Duckett | December 7, 2011, 4:02 PM PST | Latest comment by HAL 9000
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Android Studio can fix Android development
Google has finally decided to get rid of the Eclipse albatross from Android's neck.
Posted by Chris Duckett | May 16, 2013, 7:29 PM PDT | Latest comment by jannie.nel
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Dealing with Windows 8 Mail
The Mail app that arrives with Windows 8 is essentially a web mail system and has no tools to set mail rules or automate spam deletion. But can one man get by on that alone?
Posted by Tony McSherry | January 28, 2013, 4:00 PM PST | Latest comment by erikaf
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Using placeholder text in HTML5 forms across all browsers
The placeholder attribute on input elements is a handy timesaver, once we've dealt with old versions of Internet Explorer.
Posted by Chris Duckett | September 6, 2012, 4:10 PM PDT
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Combining Windows 8 and a Retina MacBook
A new Microsoft operating system meets new Apple hardware; what's the worst that could happen?
Posted by Chris Duckett | August 21, 2012, 4:47 PM PDT | Latest comment by arch_aya
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A lesson on piracy, distribution, or marketing?
Independent software companies have a hard task of getting their wares in front of an audience; has a pair of brothers cracked that nut?
Posted by Chris Duckett | April 29, 2013, 11:20 PM PDT | Latest comment by aidemzo_adanac
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App by app, Google is bringing self-serving Intents to iOS
Google makes it easier for iOS app developers to integrate with Chrome.
Posted by Chris Duckett | May 7, 2013, 7:31 PM PDT
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How to set up printing from tablets and phones
More and more user time is spent nowadays with mobile devices, but the lingering need to print remains for many.
Posted by Tony McSherry | February 4, 2013, 7:22 PM PST | Latest comment by erikaf
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Installing Windows 7 from USB
As netbooks get more popular and optical drives become less and less of an assumption, there are many times when a USB install of an operating system is a far better choice than the old DVD/CD we...
Posted by Chris Duckett | November 10, 2011, 9:06 PM PST | Latest comment by wizard57m-cnet
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Programming for Android on Android
Although it may sound counter-intuitive, it is possible to create fully fledged Android applications on Android devices. We take a look at the apps that allow it to happen.
Posted by Chris Duckett | April 3, 2012, 8:02 PM PDT | Latest comment by jkameleon@...
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The realities of mobility and hitting the road
Over the past couple of years, the increase in connectivity has even changed the way people go on holidays.
Posted by Tony McSherry | May 6, 2013, 6:03 PM PDT | Latest comment by mongocrush
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Control Vim with voice commands
Struggling to grok Vim from the keyboard? Maybe voice commands are the solution.
Posted by Chris Duckett | May 12, 2013, 6:43 PM PDT
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Claim 25GB from Microsoft on updated SkyDrive
Microsoft has updated SkyDrive to support Windows desktops, OS X and iPad -- but at the same time has revised the storage limit from 25GB to 7GB, unless you claim to reserve the existing 25GB limit.
Posted by Chris Duckett | April 23, 2012, 10:14 PM PDT | Latest comment by SkyDriveBad
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Getting your Firefox tabs back
Next time you get that sinking feeling that you've lost all your Firefox tabs, don't despair; there is a solution.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 29, 2013, 3:26 PM PST | Latest comment by Yorkshirelad90
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Moving to Arch Linux from Fedora
Chris Duckett details his move from Fedora to Arch Linux and learns that testing in a virtual machine is one thing, actually committing to change is another.
Posted by Chris Duckett | August 7, 2012, 4:29 PM PDT | Latest comment by lsatenstein@...
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Set-up an environment for Android, Eclipse and PhoneGap
PhoneGap is the cross-platform framework that allows developers to create mobile applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript -- but getting going with the platform requires a few hoop jumps.
Posted by Chris Duckett | October 31, 2011, 6:25 PM PDT
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Making a sortable ListView in Android
Creating a list of items in Android is simple, but what if you want to make those items sortable by dragging them? Now things start to get interesting.
Posted by Chris Duckett | February 21, 2012, 9:39 PM PST
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Hands on with HTC's Windows Phone 8X
There's a lot to explore in Windows Phone, and the integrated UI across multiple Windows platforms, the familiar tools, and SkyDrive are hard to beat.
Posted by Tony McSherry | January 7, 2013, 9:02 PM PST | Latest comment by Neon Zeon
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Using Tor and Firefox config on Android
It is possible to use Firefox and Twitter on Android with full Tor anonymity
Posted by Chris Duckett | June 28, 2012, 6:40 PM PDT
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A look at Internet Explorer 10 on Windows RT
The new version of Internet Explorer comes in two varieties: a well-known desktop version and the new Windows RT version.
Posted by Tony McSherry | January 20, 2013, 4:31 PM PST | Latest comment by Duke E Love
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Keeping an eye on Chrome's memory usage
Keeping track of Chrome's memory usage is easier said than done when it is spread over multiple processes.
Posted by Chris Duckett | October 14, 2012, 6:12 PM PDT

































