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Showing posts from June, 2011

Trials of 'super WiFi' that uses white space between TV channels to begin in Cambridge

By DAMIEN GAYLE Last updated at 9:24 AM on 29th June 2011 Trials of a new breed of 'super WiFi' that uses the white space between TV channels are set to begin in Cambridge. Microsoft, the BBC, BSkyB and BT are among the tech giants investigating how the gaps in frequencies between TV broadcasts can be used to transmit broadband. They hope the technology could help them create 'super WiFi' networks that can support bandwidth hungry mobile internet devices like smartphones and tablet computers. The aim of the trials, which begin this week, is to show that the new services do not interfere with TV signals. So-called 'white space' includes the unused frequencies in the TV spectrum - between 470MHz and 790MHz - which are left empty to avoid broadcasts leaking into one and other. With wavelengths much lower than regular WiFi, these frequencies are able to travel further and penetrate much more deeply into buildings, raising the possibility of regional broadba

UBCC Announces the Release of Revised Payroll Software to Handle July 1st, 2011 Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) Change

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June 27, 2011 – Taos, New Mexico - Universal Business Computing Company ( www.ubcc.com ), the leading provider of high volume, high productivity software for accounting and payroll professionals, announced the release of an enhancement in the UBCC Unified Payroll to allow clients, on a client-by-client basis, to use the old 0.8 percent rate or the new 0.6 percent rate.  The July 1 st , 2011 expiration of the 0.2 percent FUTA tax surcharge means is that the Federal Unemployment tax must be reported at 0.8 percent for the wages paid first half of the year, and 0.6 percent for wages paid the second half of the year.  Because almost no payroll software was designed to handle this change, payroll software providers and payroll service bureaus will have to significantly change their software to comply with this unprecedented mid-year change.  UBCC, in keeping with one of its core software design criteria of providing the upmost in flexibility, has solved this problem by allowing a client

Netflix Lets You Downgrade Video Quality So You Don't Hit Bandwidth Caps

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By   Ben Popken With providers like AT&T and Comcast adding on limits to how much bandwidth you can use per month, Netflix has rolled out a feature that lets you downgrade the streaming video quality so you don't use as much data and incur overages. After you're logged into your Netflix account, just go into https://account.netflix.com/HdToggle and select from one of three options. "Good quality" at up to .3 GB per hour, "Better quality" at up to .7 GB per hour, and "Best" at up to 1GB per hour or up to 2.3GB/hr for HD. Recently AT&T added on a 150 GB cap for DSL users and a 250 GB cap for U-Verse customers. Users still report getting a blank page when they try to look at the "bandwidth meter" promise by AT&T, but if you're a heavy Netflix and data user and start to see fees for overages on your bill, downgrading your Netflix stream could help you stay under the threshold. http://consum

Desktops and Notebooks: Firefox 5 Browser Launches, Boasting Tweaks, Security, Privacy

By Nicholas Kolakowski on 2011-06-23       Mozilla's new Firefox 5.0 for PCs and Firefox for Android aim to offer users a best-of-class combination of security, privacy and speed. Coming a mere three months after the release of Firefox 4, this latest browser supposedly includes more than 1,000 improvements and performance enhancements. However, features like "Do Not Track" may do more to draw users increasingly leery of the Web's rampant data mining. For most consumers, downloading and installing Firefox 5 will only take a few minutes, although larger companies still deploying Firefox 4 could become annoyed at having to switch so soon. Despite those hundreds of improvements, Firefox 5 doesn't seem to offer a radically different experience from its predecessor. Certainly, it addresses security concerns left over from Firefox 4, whose life essentially ends with this release. But for the most part, Mozilla's latest offering embraces the same streamlined desi