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Australian Technology
Chris Duckett
TechRepublic Staff
Chris Duckett

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Use BrowserID for email address validation
If handling email address verification sounds like too much hard work, then BrowserID could be the registration solution that you are after.
Posted by Chris Duckett | February 5, 2012, 8:34 PM PST
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AtG Weekend Gaming: HTML5 games, id on github
After a hard week of work, relax with this selection of games. Some are in-browser, others are classics from John Carmack and id software.
Posted by Chris Duckett | February 2, 2012, 6:07 PM PST | Latest comment by Slayer_
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Firefox 10 tooling closes in on Firebug
Mozilla has launched Firefox 10, a release packed with an improved set of developer tools, and is the first release to be covered with extended support.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 31, 2012, 8:50 PM PST | Latest comment by apotheon
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PC-BSD: a BSD for the workstation
If I were to pick any BSD for everyday desktop use at the moment, then PC-BSD would be my first port of call.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 30, 2012, 10:19 PM PST
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Around the Grounds: Drupal wrap, Nokia in Oz, and the why of wat
Get the wrap on Drupal Downunder 2012, Nokia announcing the date of its return to Australia, and is JavaScript as crazy as the haters suggest?
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 29, 2012, 8:54 PM PST
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Beware stricter Manifest checking in Android ICS
Find out why your application is working fine in Gingerbread and on the Ice Cream Sandwich virtual machine, but why you cannot run it on an ICS physical device.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 26, 2012, 7:32 PM PST
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Linux.conf.au 2012 wrap
Australia's leading open-source conference is over for another year. Here's the list of our entire coverage in one place.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 24, 2012, 8:59 PM PST
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Drupal drops IE7 support
The popular content-management system is to leave IE7 behind.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 23, 2012, 4:25 PM PST
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Android workshops coming to AU/NZ
Google will be staging a series of workshops for accomplished Android developers from next week.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 22, 2012, 8:06 PM PST
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Untested buggy UEFI headed for prime-time
A leading Linux kernel developer says UEFI is big, bloated and bad for Linux.
Posted by Stilgherrian | January 22, 2012, 7:24 PM PST | Latest comment by todd_dsm
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Linux.conf.au 2012: planes, sounds and freedom
For security researcher, software hacker and activist Jacob Appelbaum, the equation is clear. Anyone working on surveillance or censorship technology is part of a serious global problem.
Posted by Stilgherrian | January 20, 2012, 6:48 PM PST
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Linux.conf.au 2012: cyborg lawyer demands source
Lawyer Karen Sandler's heart condition means she needs a pacemaker-defibrillator to avoid sudden death, so she has one simple question: what software does it run?
Posted by Stilgherrian | January 19, 2012, 4:24 PM PST | Latest comment by dogknees
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Visual Studio gets achievements
Gamification for coding has hit the big time as Microsoft's Channel 9 releases Visual Studio Achievements Beta.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 18, 2012, 9:17 PM PST
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Use the good-looking PHP documentation
There are few people who would claim that the standard PHP API-documentation website is nice to look at, but there is a better version baking that you can use today.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 18, 2012, 8:30 PM PST
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Linux.conf.au 2012: FreedomBox's privacy
Open software isn't just a programming- and software-licensing methodology; it's also a political philosophy and a revolutionary movement -- something made clear by Linux projects like FreedomBox.
Posted by Stilgherrian | January 18, 2012, 4:26 PM PST
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Taking BSD one step further
PC-BSD is to FreeBSD what Ubuntu is to Debian, without most of the mess.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 17, 2012, 8:45 PM PST
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Open source needed to save democracy
Open source software developers face greater risks today than they ever have, to the point where the constraints inherent in proprietary software now represent a risk to democracy.
Posted by Stilgherrian | January 17, 2012, 4:53 PM PST | Latest comment by dogknees
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Linux.conf.au 2012: three threats and a balloon
The Linux operating system and other open software projects are under threat because they've failed to develop the sympathy for users manifested by companies such as Apple, according to luminary...
Posted by Stilgherrian | January 17, 2012, 1:59 PM PST
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LibreOffice's massive method removal
If you think your code base is massive, spare a thought for LibreOffice, as the project has only recently managed to remove half of the known unused methods in its code base.
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 12, 2012, 7:39 PM PST | Latest comment by pgit
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Purge your Google Chat list of Google+ contacts
One of the surprises of adding a large number of people on Google+ is that everyone will appear in your Google Chat contact list. But using a hidden-away option will return your list to a more...
Posted by Chris Duckett | January 11, 2012, 4:29 PM PST | Latest comment by leonardcrl
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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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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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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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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

































