Domain: computerworld.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to computerworld.com.
Comments · 2,453
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Microsoft is EXTREMELY poorly-managed.
My understanding: Microsoft is an EXTREMELY poorly-managed company. I think much more attention should be given to that.
Microsoft trash talks Windows 10 LTSC -- again (Dec. 5, 2018)
Microsoft scrambles to limit PR damage over abusive AI bot Tay. (Nov. 30, 2017)
Guess what country sued Microsoft over abusive user data collection! -- Brazil (Apr. 28, 2018) Bad adjective: "beloved" Windows 10.
Apparently the present worsening management began with Ballmer-osis: Microsoft Is Filled With Abusive Managers And Overworked Employees, Says Tell-All Book (May 23, 2012)
But Microsoft was always abusive, apparently: 'Crush Them': An Oral History of the Lawsuit That Upended Silicon Valley. (May 18, 2018)
Bill Gates still runs Microsoft: Two years ago, during a Jan. 17, 2017 discussion with Charlie Rose, Bill Gates said he spends "15 percent" of his time managing Microsoft. I interpreted that to mean that Gates is still extremely involved and very influential. Did Gates want the mess that is Windows 10?
From the transcript at that Charlie Rose web page:
08:42
"Bill Gates: I'm there about 15 percent of the time. And I get to work just on the R and D part, brainstorming with people, thinking, OK, how are we going to take this artificial intelligence and make it understand, help you use your time better. It's a very exciting time in software. There's five companies that are, you know, in a really strong position. Microsoft is leading in some really cool stuff so --"
It seems obvious that Bill Gates still has a huge amount of overall influence on the management of Microsoft, even if he mostly focuses on other subjects.
Lately, Windows users are not allowed to know what Windows updates actually do. In the past, for example, users were pushed to Windows 10, without giving their permission. So, now Windows 7 customers will be paying for updates that may be abusive.
Some of the many stories about Windows 10 indicate deliberate abuse of customers:
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC." (Aug. 4, 2015)
Microsoft's Intolerable Windows 10 Aggression (May 27, 2016)
Microsoft is infesting Windows 10 with annoying ads (March 17, 2017)
Microsoft, stop sabotaging Windows 10. (March 21, 2017) -
Re:Phasing out Internet Explorer
Here are the numbers since you decided to post some bullshit you made up.
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Re:The garden wall provides no safety.
While you're certainly espousing a popular sentiment, the facts don't bear out anything you've said.
Take a look at the mobile malware reports from the last few years and if you parse through the details you'll see two consistent trends:
1) Android accounts for the vast majority of malware—about 98% in 2013, rising to within a rounding error of 100% at this point—but that...
2) Nearly all Android malware is coming from sources outside the Google Play Store, mostly via stores in the Middle East and Asia.Taken together, iOS and Android account for nearly the entire smartphone market, yet the number of threats within their walls (i.e. available in Apple's App Store or Google's Play Store) is less than 0.1% of what is outside their walls. As such, despite the baseless assertions of a random Slashdotter that "the garden wall provides no safety", there's actually a fairly meaningful and measurable amount of safety being provided by those walls. And even when there are leaks, they tend to be caught quickly. The malware mentioned in the summary affected 5,000 devices (at most) before it was removed, which is a drop in the bucket compared to 2+ billion Android devices that are in active use. It's important to keep things in perspective, lest you be misled into thinking that a problem is bigger than it is.
Hell, the only reason why these sorts of lapses are still newsworthy is because the walled gardens have been so successful at keeping their users safe.
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"Seriously overpriced"? No.
You're a techie. She is not. You can do your own support. She cannot. Who's gonna do the support?
If you're up for the support you can try and give her a linux laptop. That'll run libreoffice and a browser just fine. Otherwise:
Go talk to IBM about windows and TCO, eh. Then stump up and buy the mac. Possibly a second hand one, but a mac.
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Re:Skeptical
From TFS:
For no obvious reason, Google changed YouTube to add a hidden, empty HTML element that overlaid each video.
Am I the only one who was struck by the critical modifier "obvous" in the above quote?
Given that the same paragraph points out:
Microsoft asked Google if the company could remove the element, to no avail.
I, for one, did not immediately jump to the conclusion that, by including the empty <div> element, Google was purposefully attempting to hurt Edge's performance on YouTube. Instead, my thought was, "Well, Google very possibly refused to remove that element because it has plans to stick some code in there in the near future - and the Edge team's casual lack of concern for standards compliance really put the onus on them to fix their own broken-ass browser code."
Of course, the fact that Edge currently has a paltry 4.2% share of the global web browser market (IE, by contrast, and from the same December 8, 2018 analysis, still has a 9.6% share, despite Edge doing all kinds of underhanded stuff to make itself the default browser for Windows 10 users) might also have entered into the big G's decision in regard to Microsoft's request. A lot of the browser share statistics reports out there (try entering "edge browser market share" in your favorite search engine and you'll see what I mean when I say "a lot") simply lump all versions of IE together with Edge, because Edge's chunk of the web browser user base worldwide is so pitifully tiny that even Opera kicks its ass.
Edge is just a shitty browser, period. And I don't say that because its rendering engine is slow (it's not, empty <div> elements aside), or because it has a very limited selection of add-ons that people actually want (which it does), but because Microsoft made the Day 1 decision to make it as difficult as possible for ordinary, non-geek users to change Edge's default download directory to one of their own choosing. (And, yes, I'm aware that deliberately-user-hostile design decision was eventually revisited - but only after that practice, and others "of like kidney," apparently caused nearly everyone who got "upgraded" to Win 10 against their will to say, "Oh, HELL no!" - and actually use Edge only to download and switch their default browser to Chrome, or Firefox, or Opera, or anything other than the blecherous initial version of Edge.)
Edge is now and has been since its earliest inception an example of classic Microsoft arrogance, just like the "upgrade" to Windows 10 it forced down the throats of Win 7 users. It deserves to die, just as Windows 10 deserves to die. (I'm convinced that Win 10 would dry up and blow entirely away, if ever the Linux community got its collective shit together and decided to make all the different distros completely interchangeable - so that end users don't have to take their machines down to bare metal to switch from one to the other - and, most importantly, to fix WINE, so that everything that runs on Windows also runs transparently on Linux, without requiring the end user to know or care how that works. And I mean everything, including MS Office, Adobe and other graphics and design software, DAWs, and every damned game ever written for the Windows platform.)
Oh, and I think it's probably also worth noting that Google is notoriously unresponsive to requests to fix its code, regardless of who makes them. Just as an example, there've been a godzillion requests that they fix the desktop version of Calendar, so it offers the fine-grained scheduling that the Android edition offers. That hasn't happened, and, at this point, it probably never will - despite the fact that you can only add another user's calendar entries to your own by using the desktop version (something I needed to do so that my wife and I could mak
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Re:LTE is good enough
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Mozilla is lying - not independent at all
Mozilla regularly points out it develops the only independent browser -- meaning it's not tied to a tech company that has priorities which often don't align with the web
From this bit of news which states that Google pays Mozilla 300m per year, no they aren't independent like they claim. But I do understand what they mean though. 2 big companies using the same engine means less "competition". THen again, Microsoft's IE was always problematic and the devs that took care of it didn't seem to know what they were doing most of the time. When you ask any webdev to work on a webpage and request them to be 100% compatible with IE, firefox and google, they started to rip their hair off because they had to get IE compatible with their webpage. So yes, IE was very problematic.
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Re:Anyone have....
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Re:So iPhone lets you "listen in" on the conversatI am not sure what you mean, but it is obviously not that hard to listen in to a mobil call. Every government routinely does this.
The hardware to do this obviously is going to include more than an iPhone, but any phone is a receiver of radio signals, and the hardware is there to filter for the desired signal. On can image that the phone can be hacked to filter for singnal based on transmission IMSI instead of destination.
I will agree there is no news here. Every responsible government is monitoring the communications of every other government, in particular the head of government. Because Trump follows none of the safety protocols, and because interception has become so routine, we must assume that every government has a recording of every conversation he has. To do anything less would be irresponsible to the point of negligence.
Yes, the specifics may be inaccurate, and we can argue semantics, but the basic security issue is undeniable, and the fix is simple. The reality is that Trump is putting the nation at risk by refusing to follow protocol.
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Microsoft a huge influence on the tech industry?
“I'm a IT professional who cut his teeth on Windows 3.11. Everyone has their issues with how windows work, but you have to admit he along with Bill Gates had a huge influence on the tech industry.”
I'm a IT professional who cut his teeth on VAX/VMX, DECwindows, Novell Netware and the original Mac and in my professional opinion Win3.11 was a toy. It may be news to you but computing didn't start with Windows 3.11 and the huge influence you speak of is that everyone thinks it's normal for your computer to get compromised by opening an email attachment or clicking on a malicous URL.
And in the original Gates Allen partnership, Gates did of course diddle him out of a fair share, 64% to 36% cause he (Gates) did ‘most of the work on BASIC’. Not that Gates did write BASIC from scratch, as it was a clone of a version he acquired from a DECUS User Group and enhanced quite a bit. -
Yea, right...
Yea, Chrome OS is such a threat to Windows, that Google is adding the ability to run Windows to Chromebooks.
/shttps://www.computerworld.com/...
Yea, it is only rumor, but Google is about profit and getting data wherever they can. They will happily let you run Windows on their Chromebooks and you can bet that data-gathering will be built in the drives/platform-support. It's a win-win for MS and Google.
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Re:Making modern software for outdated platforms
OK, so, lemme get this straight.
Microsoft has tried to manipulate people using malware tactics to twist your arm into wiping out Windows 7 for a Windows 10 install they can control, has uninstalled applications without asking during their updates, has had to be forced by the EU to reveal the data they're sucking from your computer, and this was just the stuff I could find with five minutes on Google. If I bothered to spend a half hour on this I'm sure I could come up with dozens more things, all consistent with Microsoft's long history of generally pulling every dirty trick in the book that they could, which only abated as long as the DoJ watched them like a hawk.
And you're going to try to sell us that they're doing this for our own good?
You REALLY believe that?
SERIOUSLY?
Did you, like the FCC, also believe it when the Internet companies PROMISED (cross-their-heart-and-hope-to-die) they wouldn't abuse the lack of net neutrality, because they wanted net neutrality too, or whatever crap they were peddling at the time?
Microsoft and all the other large tech companies have only their own pocketbook and access to power in mind, and your data is how they intend to expand both. Specifically, CONTROLLING your data, whether you like it or not, by slowly converting your computing devices into a dumb terminal under their control. The whole PC platform has slowly but surely moved in this direction for a while now, whether the users like it or not, because they're doing their best to crush or assimilate all choice. Ultimately what Microsoft wants is for you to have a dumb terminal where it is illegal for you to do anything they do not allow on it. If they could get away with it, for "computing safety" they would probably MANDATE that you can't have any kind of computer other than a dumb terminal, because it's "too dangerous" to let the filthy peasantry have access to general purpose computers and unfiltered, uncensored, uncontrolled network access.
Windows 10 is a nice, big part of that, as is slowly dragging their applications (and your work) into their cloud infrastructure, and making sure that you don't own program licenses, you RENT your software from them.
The magical improvements don't need half these changes, and most, if not ALL, of them could easily be made to existing OS's, but their business model is switching to controlling the computing infrastructure, so they can't allow that. As such, they plan to lock you, and your data, into paying them forever, and obeying their dictates as to what you can and can't do with your data, software, and computer. They also get to change around your computer in whatever manner they like for whatever purposes they deem fit. Plus as a bonus the government can use them to enforce whatever crackpot laws they want to. Whether you love or hate Trump, Hillary, or anyone else, this should give you very serious pause.
These approaches are both subtle and gross. A rather gross one is changing your OS because they twisted around a dialog box or asked a naive user, swapped things around overnight, and gave them the "choice," right when they needed their data, whether to keep what they did to things (not even knowing what those things were in most cases), or to spend hours uninstalling their "upgrade" and leave you with the mangled remains of your previously perfectly functional Windows 7 installation (uninstalling an OS is not a nic
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Re:They may think what they wrote is true, but,
Thanks very much. We're on 7 right now for desktops. This sounds like the ticket for upgrade. Lots of licenses. Thousands. Maybe they'll help us. The crash and burn versions were 2008 and 2012.
You should get a LTSB iso from MS and give it a whirl on a test system or two or three.
Here's a quick link that seems to explain it fairly well, but they do regurgitate the MS line about LTSB being intended for "special" systems that normal people don't use: https://www.computerworld.com/...
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Re:A bunch of phone manufacturers are happy!
Given a choice between malware outbreak and killer multi-patterning issues I would take the malware outbreak every time. But I would also instantly ban Windows inside the corporate perimeter, it's a simple cost benefit thing. Lord help them if they store primary engineering assets on Windows machines.
It only took a single full day meltdown for the London Stock Exchange to learn this lesson.
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Re:Oh well
Might be, I was actually thinking more about something I read earlier related to Windows 10 Enterprise (I think) going to a DaaS subscription service where everything is run and controlled from the cloud by Microsoft.
Looked again and found this.
With DaaS Windows coming, say goodbye to your PC as you know it
When Windows 7 Pro goes EOL unless something changes that is when my Microsoft experience ends ;)
Just my 2 cents ;) -
Re:Curious..
the willingness of people to trust what they see on Twitter and elsewhere is another side of the problem that needs attention
What?!? You expect people to think for themselves? But we've trained them from school to only regurgitate facts and just expect that the internet (Google, Bing) can always accurately answer their questions. The computer is always right, and has been ever since green-bar paper.
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Microsoft is self-destructive.
"All of Windows 10 program is done by India."
Prakesh, that is interesting. Windows 10 has made Microsoft's bad reputation far, far worse, in my opinion.
You also said, "That is why Microsoft has gone to India, because we know that privacy is a problems."
In 2 of your sentences, there are 2 mistakes in your English. That's what we are seeing in Windows 10. There are many, many sloppy bugs.
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC." (August 4, 2015)
7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you.... (March 3, 2016)
Microsoft again forced upgrades on Win10 machines specifically set to block updates (March 12, 2018) -
Spyware, bugs, ads are some of Microsoft's abuses.
"... Microsoft fired all of their testers a few years ago?"
Op-Ed: Microsoft layoff e-mail typifies inhuman corporate insensitivity (July 17, 2014)
Microsoft job cuts far worse than rumored, could reach 18,000 (July 17, 2014)
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC." (August 4, 2015)
7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you.... (March 3, 2016)
Microsoft again forced upgrades on Win10 machines specifically set to block updates (March 12, 2018)
Those 5 articles are part of a longer history of abuse and other extremely poor management by Microsoft:
Microsoft Is Filled With Abusive Managers And Overworked Employees, Says Tell-All Book (May 23, 2012) -
Re:Microsoft has redeemed itself.
I would be more inclined to share your outlook, were it not for the way Windows 10 was shoved onto people's computers, and the way Windows 10 spies on its users.
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Microsoft is SCHOCKINGLY self-destructive.
As long as windows 10 is spyware, changing to it is not "upgrading" or "modernizing". It's acceptance of abuse.
Many, many people agree with what you said. Microsoft is shockingly self-destructive. A few of the many, many negative articles:
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."
7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you.
Microsoft again forced upgrades on Win10 machines specifically set to block updates (March 12, 2018) -
Re:Do it
It is all over the net but sure it Yvan propaganda.
"Stuxnet was a game-changer because it opened people's eyes to the fact that a cyber event can actually result in physical damage," says Mark Weatherford, deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity in the National Protection Programs Directorate at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
This is not rocket science. Not very hard to apprehend. Seems just like some people do not want to understand. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" -- Upton Sinclair
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Ugly problem (It's okay to laugh.)
Ugly problem: Billionaires must spend time deciding what to do with their money.
Who has a better life? A surfer who pays his parents $500 per month to live in their basement, or a billionaire? A serious investigation of all the associated details may sometimes indicate that the surfer has a better life.
Maybe the surfer is not doing anything that is destructive to other people.
Bill Gates said he still manages Microsoft: "I'm there about 15 percent of the time." Even though he is rich, Bill Gates spends his time managing a company that took advantage of technical limits (People can't change operating systems easily.) to abuse people.
Examples of abuse by Microsoft and Bill Gates:
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."
7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you.
Microsoft again forced upgrades on Win10 machines specifically set to block updates (March 12, 2018)
Abusing people is a really, really ugly life. -
So sadly self-destructive, it is difficult to joke
"... Windows 10 is useless as an operating system, it's just a toy made by monkeys."
Joke: Yes, Windows 10 is useless. However, the World Huge Association of Monkeys, WHAM!, says you are not sufficiently respectful of monkeys. Monkeys act in their own self-interest.
With Windows 10, Microsoft has been extremely self-destructive. If Microsoft had spent a billion dollars running ads trying to get negative responses from professionals who are knowledgeable about computers, those ads would not have been as effective as Windows 10 at destroying whatever positive thoughts people had about Microsoft.
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."
7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you.
Microsoft again forced upgrades on Win10 machines specifically set to block updates (March 12, 2018) -
Re:Perhaps a better analysis:
This is not correct: You said, "The open source community often would talk about the Bill Gates/Ballmer era tactic of embrace, extend, extinguish, and that's all well and good but neither of those people work at the company now."
Bill Gates said he still manages Microsoft: "I'm there about 15 percent of the time."
Microsoft has become EVEN MORE extremely abusive, in my opinion, and the opinion of many others. Two of many, many examples:
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."
7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you.
Microsoft again forced upgrades on Win10 machines specifically set to block updates (March 12, 2018) -
Re:Aren't we already....
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Re:Perhaps they can call it iAd?
Well played - for those that don't know... Apple has already eyed the ad businesses, and went in boots and all - pronouncing a pending revolution in ads - it didn't end well...
... because they didn't release enough personal information to the advertisers - Try to find that claim about any other ad network..
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Re:Welcome to 2013!
Here's a great quote stating it's a new Apple thing:
The inference of the current story is that Apple has now figured out how to invite strangers into this element of its technology in such a way as to provide end user convenience while maintaining a consistent user experience and high degrees of security and privacy.
Before Apple, it never worked, it was tough to use, inconsistent, and insecure. Now Apple - courageously - has solved all those issues! Hurray!
Sounds to me like yellow journalism on top of yellow journalism.
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Re:Welcome to 2013!Here's a great quote stating it's a new Apple thing:
The inference of the current story is that Apple has now figured out how to invite strangers into this element of its technology in such a way as to provide end user convenience while maintaining a consistent user experience and high degrees of security and privacy.
Before Apple, it never worked, it was tough to use, inconsistent, and insecure. Now Apple - courageously - has solved all those issues! Hurray!
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Re:Kim Jong Don Absolutely Knows What HIV Is
https://www.computerworld.com/...
Gates himself has strenuously denied making the comment. In a newspaper column that he wrote in the mid-1990s, Gates responded to a student's question about the quote: "I've said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time." Later in the column, he added, "I keep bumping into that silly quotation attributed to me that says 640K of memory is enough. There's never a citation; the quotation just floats like a rumor, repeated again and again."
3 possible scenarios.
1) He really did say it.
2) Someone else said it, and incorrectly attributed it to Gates.
3) Gates did say it, doesn't remember because it was a minor comment in another conversation and the quote is taken out of context.It's possible that option 1 is real and Gates doesn't remember saying it. It seems ridiculous now, but maybe didn't when he said it.
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Re:Kim Jong Don Absolutely Knows What HIV Is
https://www.computerworld.com/... Gates himself has strenuously denied making the comment. In a newspaper column that he wrote in the mid-1990s, Gates responded to a student's question about the quote: "I've said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time." Later in the column, he added, "I keep bumping into that silly quotation attributed to me that says 640K of memory is enough. There's never a citation; the quotation just floats like a rumor, repeated again and again."
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Re:Apple wanted to be advertising driven
[T]here's really not much to it. As insightful as it was, Apple's treasure trove of my personal data is a drop in the ocean to what social networks or search giants have on me, because Apple is primarily a hardware maker and not ad-driven, like Facebook and Google, which use your data to pitch you ads.
You can thank the fact that iAds failed miserably (because Facebook and Google already locked-down the ad sector) or they'd have even more information on you, given the lock-in/walled-garden approach they have.
iAd failed because Apple didn't give out "enough" personal information, you deceptive little shitheel. https://www.computerworld.com/article/2475874/data-privacy/apple-values-your-privacy--ads-firms-complain.html
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Re:Worst. Idea. Ever.
And how does Mozilla get their money?
https://www.computerworld.com/... -
Re:Sure sure sure
Well, obviously that means it didn't happen! Jesus, some people.
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Re:Sure sure sure
Well, obviously that means it didn't happen! Jesus, some people.
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Re:Mythological war on coal.
Clinton publicly promised to kill off H1B
Citation required.
Clinton claimed H1B holders taking jobs from citizens was "Heartbreaking", but did not promise to do anything about it.
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Re:Oh no!
What is dead though is https://www.computerworld.com/.... They could not even sell their own phone, blew $7.6 billion dollars not to mention destroying a company and unemploying it's staff . Now it's all Windows anal probe 10 and you have no right to privacy or the right to control what software is installed on your computer once you install windows anal probe 10. They are just a disgusting company.
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Re:Admission of inadequacy
You do realise that your definition of "wrong software" is anything that runs potentially untrusted code that does not also contain spectre specific mitigation.
Yes, I'm sure that you carefully vet all of the code that is running on your personal computer to ensure that it cannot break out of its virtualization sandbox.
Conversely, I'm sure that you're allowing third parties to execute code on your personal computer all the time and not just in a web browser.
Because if it's the former, you're a liar, and if it's the latter, you have just about the most inefficient ad hoc datacenter operation of all time.
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Re:Admission of inadequacy
You mean like having your passwords, encryption keys, and who knows what else swiped via javascript thus making using a web browser on most sites (which require javascript to function thanks to AJAX and such) a huge security risk?
So it's your position that browser mitigations do not exist or are insufficient?
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Re:So, What...
There is a ton of room for improvement in terms of energy efficiency. Combine that with increased renewables, improving battery technology, and a transmission system capable of moving more power from where it is generated to where it is used and you can dramatically reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Unsubsidized renewable energy is now the cheapest energy source on the planet (not quite in the US yet, due to our relatively low energy costs compared to other countries). Xcel Energy recently won an energy contract in Arizona with their solar + storage offering priced at just $0.036/kWh, which is a game changer. Prices will only keep falling, while fossil fuel prices will either stay where they are or rise.
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I really don't care about the name...
... I am more concerned whether or not it will work? Howls of pain from Win10 1607 and 1703 users who were forced to upgrade to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update today.. Microsoft has to stop using residential customers as their alpha-testers.
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Re:They got caught. [Re:Apple (Focxonn) okay?]
Because they have been caught installing spyware in the firmware.
Sounds like Sony.
Their response was "oh, that wasn't us, it was somebody else."
Oh, here is a difference. Sony was more like "screw you, we'll do it again"
Anyway. You aren't going to get a phone without spyware. What you should look out for depends on who you are and where you work.
Do the Chinese have interest in stealing your knowledge? If not then you can probably get a Huawei without worrying.
Are you dealing with information that US government agencies can use against you if you ever got in trouble with them? If not then you can probably get an American phone.
Note that the latter part only matters for things you keep on your phone. If you e-mail it in plaintext somewhere or transfer it through phone calls then it doesn't really matter what phone you have. -
Update Tuesday tomorrow!
It's almost like Christmas Eve today... I can't wait to see what breaks. https://www.computerworld.com/...
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forced upgrades
Looks like all of those forced upgrades to Windows 10 finally paid off for Microsoft!
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They laughed at China's super computer too
Until China shown them how CPUs are made and kicked their ass.
China's New Supercomputer Puts the US Even Further Behind
https://www.wired.com/2016/06/...China builds worldâ(TM)s fastest supercomputer without U.S. chips
Chinaâ(TM)s massive system runs real applications and is ânot just a stunt machine,â(TM) says top U.S. supercomputing researcher
https://www.computerworld.com/...There is no U.S.-made system that comes close to the performance of China's new system, the Sunway TaihuLight. Its theoretical peak performance is 124.5 petaflops, according to the latest biannual release today of the world's Top500 supercomputers. It is the first system to exceed 100 petaflops. A petaflop equals one thousand trillion (one quadrillion) sustained floating-point operations per second.
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285 Linux distributions!!!
Those who arrange Linux have apparently never heard of cooperation. (What did you say? Co-what??? Is that an English word?)
This story about Linux makes me laugh: The number of Linux distributions is declining. AMAZING QUOTE from that story of 2 years ago: "In 2011, the Distrowatch database of active Linux distributions peaked at 323. Currently, however, it lists only 285."
285 different ways to do one thing!!! "Only" 285? Quote from the parent comment: "You know Linux Desktop is a junk OS from the fact an app may require version 2.5 of a library and another one might require no more than 2.4, and Desktop Linux offers no way around the problem."
Linux has VERY poor documentation. A friend of mine said this perhaps 20 years ago: "It's free but you will spend at least a week getting it to work." So, Linux is NOT free. It is VERY expensive!!! VERY! If you are a teenager and like tinkering, and have nothing else to do besides play video games, the cost may be acceptable. Or maybe you are installing Linux on 50 computers. Otherwise probably not.
Windows is "spyware" and the documentation is often poor. But at least there is only 1 current version. Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. It's an OS that shows you ads while you are trying to work. But, at least at present, you can stop the advertising: 7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you, and how to stop them.
Could you go to prison for recommending Windows, a "spyware" OS? Oh well, there's that. You need a signed contract that the customer understands that Microsoft has control at all times. Or, you can deliver the "Enterprise" version, which Microsoft doesn't allow most customers to have; maybe that isn't spyware. Or, maybe it is: For real Windows 10 privacy, you need the China Government Edition.
But at least, with Windows, you won't be involved with the ENORMOUS complexity of Linux. One example: The Debian Family Tree. That's just one of the "family trees"! If you have a son, tell him not to make 200 women pregnant.
Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu Linux said: "many members of the free software community are just deeply anti-social types".
That comment by Shuttleworth on Google Plus is an example of Google being insufficiently managed. It apparently isn't possible to link directly to Mark Shuttleworth's comment. It's necessary to click on "View 173 previous comments" and search for "muppets". (Wow! Google Plus is an example of people liking to use a huge amount of Javascript. Why so much Javascript? Are they teaching themselves about Javascript?)
A long time ago, at a convention, I got into a long discussion with Mark Shuttleworth. I gave him a manual I had written about dealing with the social issues of technology. The only result? Shuttleworth criticized me for giving him a paper copy. He was flying home after the convention; I -
Re:chepaest?
Wrong, as is the summary. Solar and wind (even unsubsidized) are now the cheapest energy source in the world.
Maybe the editors at qz should check their own website before approving articles, unless of course they aspire to become Slashdot editors.
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Re:Wrong conclusion?
Techincal issues in equipment have been known as bugs for many years prior to the famous moth-in-relay incident. https://www.computerworld.com/...
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Is Google on the List
Will I receive a warning every time I perform a search in Firefox's default search field? That will get annoying fast.
Google Employees Hit by Sabre Breach - http://www.securityweek.com/go...
What about submitting a Firefox bug? They've been breached too.
Mozilla admits bug-tracker breach led to attacks against Firefox users - https://www.computerworld.com/... -
Try a Book?
There's probably lots of "Windows for Dummies" type of books out there, but something specifically for Mac users is what you're asking for. Actually, a quick search just now uncovered dozens of books and articles for Windows users moving to a Mac, but almost nothing in the other direction. Hmmm? I did discover THIS article, however.
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Apparently people have very short term memories
I've been repeating this for quite a while now, but I dunno for what reason, people have apparently forgotten all about the case involving the Canadian Mounted Police, a master decryption key for all non-enterprise accounts, and extremely crappy response from your same very own John Chen who was also the CEO back at the time.
Let me refresh people's memories:
https://www.theverge.com/2016/...
https://news.vice.com/article/...
http://blogs.blackberry.com/20...
https://www.computerworld.com/...If anyone was stupid enough to fall into the obvious and very false statement that the new Blackberry had better costumer protection in place in comparison to Apple or other Android brands, it's on you for not doing very basic research.
It's like getting surprized with a new round of scandals of Lenovo laptops having malware pre-loaded on their bios. There have been enough cases to know what the position of the company is. If you are still throwing your money at them, you are just reinforcing the behavior and proving to them that it's acceptable.
John Chen has said nothing there that he didn't already say in the past. While he is the CEO of the company, such behavior is to be expected. Anyone who cares about their own personal privacy and about having proper standards on costumer protection should've already let go of the brand by now.