Hardware 22 - The Second Day Magazine

Hardware 22 - The Second Day Magazine

Posted on 23rd Apr 2011 at 09:52 by Podcast with 7 comments

It?s podcast time again, and this time we?re talking about all the lovely hardware we?ve seen in our labs over the last few weeks. Clive starts off by telling us all about the AMD Radeon HD 6790, and why it?s only likely to be around for a relatively short period of time.

We also get chance to quiz Antony on the Silverstone TJ11, which it was his pleasure to review. The case is humungous, but isn?t quite the water-cooling behemoth we expected. Paul then gives us an account of his recent trip to Istanbul to cover the MSI Master Overclocking Arena European finals. Extreme overclocking and benchmarking is a funny old world, and it?s always interesting to get to see the action first hand.

Finally, we find time to discuss some of the larger tech news stories such as Seagate swallowing up Samsung?s hard disk production division, and the rumour that AMD is planning to mass produce its Radeon HD 7000-series GPUs in May.

Hardware 22 - The Second Day Magazine

As always, we've also set up our weekly competition too, the lucky winner of which will walk away with a Speedlink Strike FX wireless gamepad. This game pad is compatible with both the PC and PlayStation 3, and functions at distances of up to 10m.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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Farm Subsidies Become Target Amid Spending Cuts

This week, Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and the chairman of the House Budget Committee, told reporters, ?We shouldn?t be giving corporate farms, these large agribusiness companies, subsidies. I strongly believe that.?

His budget proposal would take $30 billion out of the farm program over the next decade.

Representative Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia and the majority leader, attended the first session of debt-limit negotiations on Thursday with a list of areas where he saw a potential agreement between Republicans and the White House, including farm subsidies.

A confluence of factors have lined up against the farm programs. While the rest of the economy remains largely stagnant, commodities prices and farm incomes have remained at a protracted high. The House Agriculture Committee, while still dominated by farm state members, is now peppered with freshmen who view cuts to these programs as an essential part of the broader attack on the federal deficit, the centerpiece of their campaigns.

Further, after taking a beating from constituents concerning their Medicare proposal last month, Republicans are eager to find an area of common ground with Democrats. Farm subsidies seem to fit the bill; conservatives condemn them as intrusions into the free market, liberals denounce them for encouraging environmentally harmful overfarming, and both sides see them as a form of corporate welfare.

What is more, some subsidies have placed the nation in violation of trade agreements, and members from both sides of the aisle have questioned why, with biofuel mandates creating such demand for ethanol, the government needs to subsidize it.

Powerful interests and political traditions continue to constrain efforts to cut subsidies. While all the free-market Republicans back reducing subsidies in general, some continue to support targeted aid like the subsidies long enjoyed by ethanol. Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker and likely presidential candidate, has been assertively arguing in favor of maintaining ethanol subsidies in the face of intense criticism from backers of market reforms like the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal.

But in both parties there is a sense that support for subsidies is waning. This year, Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, one of the nation?s biggest farming states, told the state?s farm bureau to expect cuts. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan and chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, told reporters at a state agriculture conference that ?making sure that we?re doing our part in being fiscally responsible? would be the biggest challenge in the next farm bill.

Others are thinking in a similar vein.

?I have been telling folks that the pie is getting smaller,? said Representative Reid Ribble, a Republican freshman from Wisconsin who sits on the House Agriculture Committee. ?I am hearing from constituents back home that they want to see the government have less involvement in the pricing. There is a kind of a tenor right now that will allow us to have a significant change.?

Farm advocates say they hope they can stave off the worst.

?The scrutiny of farm programs is stronger than ever,? said Chuck Conner, president of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. ?It?s not that farmers don?t want to participate in deficit reduction,  but at the same time, we hope people appreciate that all other federal programs have skyrocketed, which is why we are in this mess, and farm subsidies have not.?

Historically, federal farm subsidies have operated like piles of laundry: there are constant efforts to make them go away, but they always rise right up again.

The program is rooted in the response to the Great Depression, when the nation enjoyed a largely agrarian economy and the federal government recognized that farmers lacked a safety net.

The program has evolved over the years into a series of direct payments, insurance programs, low-cost loans and other benefits. The programs come up for reauthorization every five years, and farm advocates lobby hard against efforts to meaningfully reduce them, though some have been reformed over the years.

?Substantial cuts to agriculture have already been made,? Ms. Stabenow said in an e-mail. ?And we?ll continue measuring the performance of every program to reduce the deficit and maximize effectiveness.?

In 2011, taxpayers are projected to pay roughly $16 billion in aid to farmers through various programs, according to figures from the Congressional Budget Office.

The most controversial of these programs are the $5 billion in annual so-called direct payments to farmers of corn, soybeans and other crops, awarded simply for owning tillable farm land, even if they do not plant on it.

?If we can?t figure out a way at this point to trim these payments,? said Representative Ron Kind, Democrat of Wisconsin, who has long fought against farm subsidies, ?then it is just embarrassing.?

Large cuts to the agriculture subsidies will not go far in taming federal spending.

?Cutting farm subsidies doesn?t bring that kind of ongoing savings,? said  Tyler Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University, comparing cuts to farm programs with longer term restructuring to entitlement programs like Medicare. ?Still, it is a great one-time gain, and it means lower prices for consumers and is a good idea all around.?

Farmers and their advocates insist that the subsidies have been demonized and overstated.

?Every time you read an article saying Congress better be looking at farm programs I am scratching my head,? Mr. Conner said. ?When people think of the U.S.D.A. budget they think of farm programs, but it is really more a rounding error.?

But Mr. Kind and others say the push for broad budget cuts is working in their favor.

?The political dynamics have shifted in light of deficit reduction,? he said. ?I am cautiously optimistic.?

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Why ?The Check-In? will live on in 2011 and beyond

An anonymous author on Read Write Web recently proclaimed the death of the Check-In in 2011, pointing to factors such as falling numbers on Foursquare and modest check-ins on Facebook Places as indicators of the decline in interest among users. At the time this caused a bit of a stir among the blogging community and Shel Holtz responded with a balanced look at how the check-in isn?t changing, but evolving. Despite long being critical of location based services and the very concept of checking-in, I?m going to say that 2011 could be the year that the check-in arrives, albeit differently to how we thought it might look.

Checking-in takes on a life of its own

Since the introduction of Facebook Places, the very concept of checking in has crossed over into the mainstream and begun to take on a life of its own. While checking in on Facebook Places might not have reached overly impressive numbers quite yet, the type of person that is checking in is changing quickly. I have friends checking in on Facebook that would have laughed at my use of Twitter and called me the ultimate geek if I dared to mention the likes of Foursquare. These are people not embedded in the ?techy? space, yet I see them checking into Places and even, creating their own Places such as checking into their kitchen / aka ?Holly?s restaurant? etc.

Facebook Places has allowed the check-in to grow and develop into what it always should have been: a social tool. This isn?t about checking in for the perks of a location based service itself (finding others near you, earning badges etc.), but serving more as a shout out, or a way to share something funny with your friends by creating your own fictional Place. This isn?t something that Foursquare could have supported, with its limited userbase.

The concept of checking in is also taking on a life of its own as it moves way beyond the confines of a location based network. Checking in is evolving as the shorthand for tracking your virtual life. GetGlue was the first site to really use this to great effect, offering people the chance to check in to TV shows, websites etc. This is where the idea of checking in gets interesting and extends its reach even further into the mainstream. You?ll find a lot more people who want to check in to their favourite TV show while it?s on and see who else is viewing, than you would the likes of people checking into a cinema just for the sake of it.

We will always check in for free stuff

As simplistic as this may seem, as consumers we will pretty much do anything for a brand if it means we get something for free, cheap, or can avail of discounts. This is perhaps the biggest reason that check-ins won?t die. Companies are hungry for data about their customers or potential customers. Location-based data is about as useful as it gets and brands will get even further into the concept of offering deals or rewards in return for checking-in. And as much as they?re willing to do this, people will respond.

Studies frequently site that the main reason for following a brand online through Facebook or Twitter, is to avail of discounts. The same will apply for check-ins. As the author in the Read Write Web article rightly claims, the shine of checking in somewhere rubs off after a while as we get used to what we?ll fine when we do. But as long as we can get something in return, the check-in will only increase. And the introduction of Facebook?s new Deals product (separate to Places deals) will signal even more opportunities for brands to incentivise check-ins.

Businesses want check-ins

As long as businesses are fueling the demand for checking in, consumers will respond.  As we see new concept sites take off, such as Groupon, it?s plain to see that these services live and die by the investment (in time and money) made by businesses. Merchant Circle, a social network for business owners, claims that since Facebook Places has arrived, 32% of its users are promoting their business on Facebook Places, with a further 12% planning to do so. If businesses take to Places like they have done to business pages, then the checkin is certainly here to stay. And with Facebook offering analytics for Place owners through Facebook Insights, the offering just becomes even more attractive. Businesses might be able to respond to the demand, but they can also set it as well. As mobile Facebook Deals roll out across Europe making it easier for a company to offer a deal, the number of check-ins will rise with this.

Smartphone penetration

A point overlooked perhaps in both the commentaries of the journey of the check-in, is the penetration of smartphone apps and how this contributed to the very mechanic of checking in. The type of person who would be interested in checking it to tell their friends where they are, is different to the average smartphone user. As smartphone usage grows however, this will only contribute to the amount of people checking in both virtually and physically. Let?s not forget either that Facebook has over 200 million active mobile users that they can tap into, and this is slowly translating into numbers.

200,000 users have checked into LA Airport for example, from the launch of Places up to March 2011. Facebook is also responding to its large mobile userbase by expanding the check-in offering even a short time after launch. It recently announced the ability to check into Events via its mobile site, with this due to roll out to the iPhone app soon. This further socialises checking-in and actually gives even more of a reason to do so. You might not expect to find friends while you?re checking into your local cafe, but Event checkins is an inherently social experience.

Is it all semantics?

The problem with proclaiming the death of the check-in is that it all comes down to semantics. Checking in to location based services is one thing, but checking into an online property is different altogether. While I don?t think the check-in will die any time soon, this could easily evolve into the concept of tagging. Calling it this alone instantly makes it resonate with users. We?re familiar with the concept of tagging in photos, and if you can tag yourself at a location or website, the likelihood is you will see this as a more social activity, lending itself also to the activity of tagging friends. The idea of tagging yourself and your friends online is growing, and is extending well outside of Facebook. This on its own could see the concept of tagging becoming far more ubiquitous. A way to track you and your social friends? lives, by bridging the gap between offline and online. Tag your friend if they were at the cinema with you, or tag them in a movie listing if you just saw the DVD together at home.

Check-in games are dead

While Facebook has led to a mainstream adoption of check-ins on mobile and location, the concept of checking in for games ? points, mayorships, badges etc. is certainly not here to stay. A recent report looked at the motivations for checking in via a geolocation app. While the majority who used these services cited deals as the main motivator, only a small amount of people claimed they checked in to receive points:

And as Facebook increase their penetration into the geolocation market, this figure will only decrease. There are no gaming features on Facebook Places, meaning that people will continue to use it for deals and sharing. If you want a real location-based game without all the badges, check out Turf Geography Club.

Pure-play check-ins are dead

As much as I believe the check-in is here to stay for now, I firmly believe that the shelf life of pure-play check-in services are very short, whether you?re talking about the likes of a Foursquare or Gowalla, or virtual check-ins such as GetGlue. If services like this would are to stay around, then they need to get smart about how they integrate with Facebook, way beyond introducing a Like button onto the site. The sad but inevitable fact is that if the check-in is to live on, then it?s going to live on within Facebook. There are too few people interested in setting up a profile on a specialist site such as IntoNow, if they can do the same thing through Facebook. It is the only platform right now that can uniquely benefit from the mass userbase needed to make check-ins work, combined with businesses set up on there who have a vested interest in seeing the checkin succeed. What we?re talking about here however, is much, much more than the Facebook Like button, which some could argue serves the same function as a check-in. But while the Like button is a way of sharing interesting content with your friends, the concept of checking-in is about documenting your actual journey and sharing this.

It is through Facebook that the check-in can really live on and extend way beyond our current understanding and use of it. As an increasingly small amount of our time is actually spent offline, the check-in is going to be a vital way of staying in contact with your friends and sharing your social experience. Status updates will likely evolve into a shout out while checking in somewhere, as we become more comfortable with the concept of combining the two. There?s also check-ins for the sake of it because it?s still novel (where we are now) and check-ins becoming the necessary, default way of staying connected and combining your virtual and physical lives (where we are headed).

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/05/06/why-the-check-in-will-live-on-in-2011-and-beyond/

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How Three-Dimensional Transistors Went from Lab to Fab

How Three-Dimensional Transistors Went from Lab to Fab

Apple's new iMac gets early access to Intel's Z68 chipset

Intel's new Z68 chipset is slated to arrive in the first half of May as a hybrid between the P67 and the H67 for the LGA 1155 platform. Besides allowing better CPU overclocking and enabling the Quick Sync transcoding technology that is embedded into Sandy Bridge processors, the high-end chipset is introducing something called 'Smart Response Technology'. Its official debut is expected within a week, but apparently Apple has been granted early access.

As reported earlier this week, Apple unveiled a fresh batch of iMacs that packed a bevy of noteworthy upgrades beneath its aluminum enclosure, including faster processors and graphics as well as Intel's new Thunderbolt interface. But a recent teardown from iFixit revealed the machine also utilizes Intel's still unreleased BD82Z68 platform controller.

There's already speculation that that Apple might enable Intel's Smart Response Technology in their machines, which is said to boost system performance by marrying a conventional hard drive to a relatively small SSD. While that might be in the cards in the future for now there's no indication of Intel's SSD caching technology being used on the new iMac.

Apple does offer a SSD option in its latest iMacs but it involves a 256GB drive rather than the much smaller-capacity drives envisioned for SSD caching. Although you'll still get a nice boost by using it as your operating system and applications drive, the idea behind Intel's Smart Response Technology is that you'd be able to get a similar boost while spending much less on a smaller drive. Only the most frequently accessed data is automatically moved onto the SSD for fast access while users see a single drive on their computer instead of one for the SSD and another for the HDD.

That said, Apple could always add the option of a smaller solid-state drive later. A recent leak shows Intel is preparing to launch a "Larsen Creek" SSD with 20GB capacity for use within an SRT-based setup. The drive is scheduled to launch in Q3 2011 according to the latest roadmaps and is said to offer a substantial boost in performance a boot times.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/43676-apples-new-imac-gets-early-access-to-intels-z68-chipset.html

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At Firehouse in Midtown, a V.I.P. Stops By for Lunch

?The main reason I came here is because I heard the food is pretty good,? Mr. Obama said at the firehouse on Eighth Avenue at 48th Street, home to Engine Company 54, Ladder Company 4 and Battalion 9.

Firefighter Ceravolo, who is known as Chef around the station, cooked the president?s lunch with Firefighter John Fila. Would the meal measure up? Would the president ask for seconds, the firehouse equivalent of a four-star review? Would the president return to Washington and ask the White House kitchen to serve what he had had there?

From what Firefighter Ceravolo and Firefighter Fila said after they had cleared away the dishes, the answer was maybe.

?He looked like he liked everything,? Firefighter Ceravolo said after the president?s departure, though Firefighter Fila said Mr. Obama had loved the eggplant parmigiana but had left the shrimp and the scallops untouched.

Firefighter Ceravolo, 48, arrived before dawn to prepare what may be his most famous menu ever. The Fire Department said he was a 21-year veteran who had spent his whole career at Engine Company 54, Ladder Company 4, where a wall of plaques commemorates 15 firefighters who died on 9/11.

The president, accompanied by Salvatore J. Cassano, the fire commissioner, and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, examined the plaques as he walked through the firehouse. Mr. Obama also described to the firefighters the tension that he and others at the White House felt on Sunday night as they monitored the mission in which Osama bin Laden was killed.

The firefighters said they appreciated the symbolism of the visit and were grateful that the president had kept his promise to capture or kill Bin Laden.

?A lot of us didn?t know if that time would ever come, but it did,? Firefighter Fila said. ?It?s good to see a politician follow through on something.?

Edward S. Kilduff, the chief of department, said the president was ?a wonderful guest.?

?He put everybody at ease right away,? Chief Kilduff said, adding that Mr. Obama thanked the firefighters for their service before taking off his jacket and settling in for a long conversation. At one point it turned to baseball and the relative merits of the Mets, the Yankees, the White Sox and the Cubs.

?He was a really down-to-earth guy,? said Firefighter Ceravolo, who called the president?s visit ?a really spectacular thing.?

?The whole thing was great, just great,? he added.

He also deadpanned that ?we are all invited to the White House for lunch.?

?Just kidding,? he said a moment later.

But Firefighter Ceravolo declined, through a Fire Department spokesman, to provide any recipes. Maybe, the spokesman suggested, Firefighter Ceravolo did not want to reveal some secret ingredient.

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Gaming 25 - Hegway Seaven

Gaming 25 - Hegway Seaven

Posted on 1st May 2011 at 10:28 by Podcast with 13 comments

It's only a short week this week what with all the bank holidays and such like but Paul, Joe and Clive still managed to find time to sit down and mull over some of the goings on in the gaming world.

First up, predictably, is the current situation with Sony's PlayStation Network. The service is currently down due to a hacking attack and Sony are currently rushing to rebuild the network from the ground up. This is little comfort to the 75 million PSN users though who have been told that the hackers made off with their personal details and possibly their credit card details too.

We then move on to discuss Portal 2 and what we thought of one of the most eagerly anticipated games of the last 12 months. There is no doubt that the game is great fun, but there are a few niggles in there too.

Finally up for debate is Nintendo's announcement that it's working on the successor to it's immensely popular Wii console. The console is currently titled Project Cafe and there are only a few shaky details about the specifications of it but it's interesting to see Nintendo setting out its stall relatively early on in the next-gen console wars.


As always, we've also set up our weekly competition too, the lucky winner of which will walk away with a Speedlink Strike FX wireless gamepad. This game pad is compatible with both the PC and PlayStation 3, and functions at distances of up to 10m.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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Khosla Biofuel IPO Draws Doubters

In 2004, a startup called Nanosys tried to go public. It had recruited some of the world's top nanoscientists for its board and had bought up hundreds of nanotech patents. The idea was that it could revolutionize TV displays, batteries, and maybe even golf balls. It had no product, but so what? Nanotech seemed like it could change everything.

That is when a venture capitalist named Vinod Khosla, then with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, cried fraud. A speech of Khosla's at Stanford University helped to not only torpedo the Nanosys IPO but also burst a short-lived nanotech bubble.

Here's what Khosla said at the time: "Personally, I think it is the wrong model for a company, and I think it is a shame that they are going public, because I do not think they are in a position to be predictable enough. And whether they are doing it knowingly or unknowingly, there is a reasonable likelihood that they will defraud the public market."

Now Khosla's the one being questioned. "I am looking at Vinod Khosla's S-1 filing of KiOR, which has a grand total of zero ($0) revenue," wrote venture capitalist Larry Bock in an e-mail. Bock cofounded Nanosys and was behind the aborted IPO. "Should Vinod be kept accountable?"

For several years, Khosla Ventures has been plowing money into green-energy startups. Now Khosla has begun cashing out by pushing some of his next-generation biofuels companies public. Recent Khosla-backed biofuels IPOs include Amyris and Gevo, and now comes KiOR?a Pasadena, Texas, company that says it will turn wood chips into gasoline and diesel. It expects to raise $100 million in its IPO.

All three companies are early-stage. They're still building plants and proving their ideas. None have turned a profit. KiOR may be the earliest-stage yet. Its SEC filing is long on PowerPoint slogans ("We Drilled Deep Into the Problem ... Not Into Our Planet") but so far KiOR hasn't sold a drop of fuel and cautions investors that "we have no experience producing renewable transportation fuels at the scale needed for the development of our business." The company says it is counting on a $1 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to build its plants.

Bock now says he wants some "intellectual honesty" from his rival.

So Technology Review asked Khosla whether pre-revenue biofuels companies should be going public. Khosla sent back a detailed memo explaining why biofuels is not like nanotech. Here's a summary:

Existing markets: Biofuels are end applications with large markets, not just technologies.

Proven technology: In many cases the manufacturing or yield of technology has been proven.

Big payoffs: The payback from success is huge. That was not always true in biotech and nanotech, where there is more risk from competitors. In biofuels, the markets are so huge that if 10 companies produced the same product, each could be a billion-dollar business without interfering with the others.

Predictability: If a company can give investors accurate expectations for the next two to three years, then they can consider an IPO. This is true of biofuels now but not of nanotech in 2004.

Khosla's main point is that the fuels market is gigantic, whereas Nanosys was all about technologies looking for problems to solve. He argues that having interesting technology without a compelling market is not a good place to be as a business. Even Nanosys's current chief financial officer, John Page, agrees with that. "That is a fairly accurate assessment of where Nanosys was in 2004." Nanosys recently reorganized in an effort to generate more revenue from LEDs and batteries.

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A bug in Skype for Mac could give hackers root access to OS X [Updated]

Australian security consultant Gordon Maddern has discovered a bug in Skype for Mac that could potentially give attackers complete access to OS X, reports The Register. All an attacker would have to do is send a message with an attachment in a Skype chat session to gain control of the victim?s Mac. Update below.

The bug is apparently present in the most current version of Skype for Mac and was discovered accidentally while Maddern was chatting with a colleague.

?About a month ago I was chatting on Skype to a colleague about a payload for one of our clients,? he told The Register. ?Completely by accident, my payload executed in my colleagues Skype client. So I decided to test another mac and sent the payload to my girlfriend. She wasn?t too happy with me as it also left her Skype unusable for several days.

He then wrote a proof-of-concept attack that allowed him to remotely gain shell access on a targeted Mac. Because the payload is sent in an instant message, it?s possible that the affected Mac could then be used to infect a host of other Macs, allowing the attack to grow exponentially.

He originally posted about the hack on his blog Pure Hacking and says that he has notified Skype about the issue. He says that they responded with the basic thank you response and that it is ?aware of this issue and will be addressing it in the next hotfix.?

Maddern then goes on to say that a month had gone by at the time of his posting and there had yet to be a fix released for the bug. It?s also unclear if any interaction from the user affected would be required to activate the attack.

We have contacted Skype to see if they are indeed aware of the bug and will update this post if they get back to us.

Update: Skype has posted an article on their blog stating that the vulnerability had been addressed in a patch on April 14th. It says that it was already aware of the issue when it was contacted by Pure Hacking.

At the time they alerted us, we were already aware of the issue and were working on a fix to protect Skype users from this vulnerability, as we take our users? security very seriously. We subsequently released a hotfix for this problem in a minor update (Skype for Mac version 5.1.0.922) on April 14th.

Because they felt that the issue had not been exploited this update was not an ?alert? update that would push a notice to Skype users to apply it. This means that many out there using Skype for Mac are still susceptible to this bug. To fix the vulnerability, just click on Skype and Check for Updates. The hotfix will show up as available.

Skype says that the next update will also contain the fix and will issue a prompt to users to encourage them to apply the patch.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/05/06/a-bug-in-skype-for-mac-could-give-hackers-root-access-to-os-x/

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