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First off, all virus come from the internet nowadays. Yeah there's USB stick, but, in most case, you plug them between stuff at your house.

Add a good browser paired with ad-block kinda remove all threat from your usual website. Now even Chrome block you from entering website with reported attack. Even sending virus through email seems like a challenge with build-in antivirus check scanning the crap out of every byte in your attached file.

And, as a final layer of security, there's the new Microsoft antivirus (Defender, ex. Microsoft Security defender) that seem to give a decent security. And it's got the most importing feature that all others antivirus seem to lack, it's not a virus itself.

How many time I have checked a slow laptop only to uninstall Norton and see it running fine again? And what about the other free antivirus? When they don't put adware and trick you into giving them money, they just simply sell your data : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...

So, back to my initial question, are antiviruses still relevant today?

Now that average consumers are buying wireless routers, we have meaningless speed fixation and corresponding price inflation. Take a look at some of the absolutely horrible advice offered on consumer-grade router reviews, by doing a google search for "wireless router ratings."

Exhibit 1: Forbes: Choosing the best wireless router
The page is one big chart showing theoretical speeds, and recommending getting 802.11ac. 802.11a is the 5Ghz standard that was discarded for dead since it doesn't penetrate through walls. Whoops! That's why for 10 years, hardly any router or NIC supported it. It's kinda useless in most homes. For a while, 5Ghz was billed as a way to do high-speed over short distances. Since people may have multiple network devices in one room or cubicle, you could put a 5Ghz router in each one. The range is so short they won't interfere with each other. But that was too expensive, and the moderate speed boost wasn't worth it.

But it's faster, so "oooooh shiny" now it is back!

Exhibit 2: Wireless routers at Newegg
An observant shopper soon learns that routers are speed rated: N150, N300, AC1750, AC1900, AC2600, AC5300, etc. By this system, a G54 router is ancient. They make it look like buying a 100Mhz CPU in 2.6Ghz era. But if you ask "Why would I need a 5300Mbps router when my internet is 50Mbps?" The only reason to buy a router with such a high rating is that you will probably get a fraction of that actual speed. But even that number doesn't correlate because the number in AC5300 refers to the "A" speed that most devices don't even support. So the number is doubly meaningless.

This stupid system is so prevalent that people sometimes think that AC1750 is the model number. They get confused and buy the wrong router, or can't figure out why there are 5 routers all called the BrandName AC1750.

Exhibit 3: PC magazine recommends the most expensive consumer routers ever
PC Magazine's recommended routers: $300, $250, $174, and $17. Wow, that's quite a price difference. Unless you have lots and lots of people using the wireless network, and some kind of crazy university-sized internet pipe, and devices that support the 5Ghz band, that $17 router will do just as well as the $300 router.

What these review sites need to do is actually measure wireless performance at various ranges and in different rooms. Unless they do that, the speed ratings are meaningless.

Really? Do you have any idea of what you are talking about? 802.11a and 802.11ac are two different standards. 802.11ac is the latest WiFi standard and supports 2.4ghz and 5ghz operations. The AC#### can be a bit misleading though as it combines the maximum link speeds of all the streams on 2.4ghz and 5ghz channels (AC1300 can be 400mbit on 2.4ghz and 867mbit on 5ghz or it can be 1,300mbit on the 5ghz band only). 802.11ac routers support beam forming - using multiple antenna to create a strong signal in a single axis to improve range and signal integrity.
My ASUS 802.11ac router is advertised as a AC1900, it supports up to 600mbit on 2.4ghz (ac or n) and 1,300mbit on 5ghz (ac only). I get a weak 5ghz signal at my carport (~25m from the router) but it has to pass through 3 exterior brick walls and a shed (really bad angle, I could move the router to reduce that to 1 exterior wall but I don't care enough for that) and I get a 2.4ghz ac connection at my daughter's playgroup hall which is about 100m away through a shared exterior wall and a brick exterior wall.
The 802.11n router that my ISP gave me doesn't give enough of a signal on even the 2.4ghz band to make the router detectable at my carport.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11ac

Now that average consumers are buying wireless routers, we have meaningless speed fixation and corresponding price inflation. Take a look at some of the absolutely horrible advice offered on consumer-grade router reviews, by doing a google search for "wireless router ratings."

Exhibit 1: Forbes: Choosing the best wireless router
The page is one big chart showing theoretical speeds, and recommending getting 802.11ac. 802.11a is the 5Ghz standard that was discarded for dead since it doesn't penetrate through walls. Whoops! That's why for 10 years, hardly any router or NIC supported it. It's kinda useless in most homes. For a while, 5Ghz was billed as a way to do high-speed over short distances. Since people may have multiple network devices in one room or cubicle, you could put a 5Ghz router in each one. The range is so short they won't interfere with each other. But that was too expensive, and the moderate speed boost wasn't worth it.

But it's faster, so "oooooh shiny" now it is back!

Exhibit 2: Wireless routers at Newegg
An observant shopper soon learns that routers are speed rated: N150, N300, AC1750, AC1900, AC2600, AC5300, etc. By this system, a G54 router is ancient. They make it look like buying a 100Mhz CPU in 2.6Ghz era. But if you ask "Why would I need a 5300Mbps router when my internet is 50Mbps?" The only reason to buy a router with such a high rating is that you will probably get a fraction of that actual speed. But even that number doesn't correlate because the number in AC5300 refers to the "A" speed that most devices don't even support. So the number is doubly meaningless.

This stupid system is so prevalent that people sometimes think that AC1750 is the model number. They get confused and buy the wrong router, or can't figure out why there are 5 routers all called the BrandName AC1750.

Exhibit 3: PC magazine recommends the most expensive consumer routers ever
PC Magazine's recommended routers: $300, $250, $174, and $17. Wow, that's quite a price difference. Unless you have lots and lots of people using the wireless network, and some kind of crazy university-sized internet pipe, and devices that support the 5Ghz band, that $17 router will do just as well as the $300 router.

What these review sites need to do is actually measure wireless performance at various ranges and in different rooms. Unless they do that, the speed ratings are meaningless.

Streaming really only works today because a majority of video watchers are not using streaming.

Where do you get that figure from? My understanding is that a huge percentage of people watching videos online are doing so via Netflix, Prime, Hulu, YouTube, etc. And with the exception of SOME Prime users (who can download for offline use), that's ALL, 100% streaming. Heck, we already know that Netflix has the single largest share of Internet bandwidth usage at 37%.

In the US we have a very large percentage of internet subscriber that can't download a two hour movie in two hours or less.

??? 4 megabits per second speed translates to roughly 1.8 gigabytes per hour, and it would seem that covers 80% of Americans. Seems like most Americans can download or stream 2 hour movies relatively easily.

It's just practical sense to download during off-peak hours and then watch whenever you want. Helps too if lots of people are downloading the same thing because then you can cache it on a local server, use multicast for a neighborhood, things like that.

Sure, unless you don't always know what you feel like watching ahead of time. Streaming services are popular because if I want to watch House of Cards tonight, but then actually change my mind tonight and want to watch Daredevil, well, no big deal. Offline playback capability is nice, but not the main feature for a lot of us.

eMachines

Seriously? That brand was discontinued years ago. But, fun fact: by 2004 their quality control was second only to Apple.

That IS interesting. Just like the restaurant that has just almost been shut down because of the health code violations is usually the cleanest restaurant in town, AFTER they clean up all the things the Inspector found.

But the reason I mentioned eMachines was that I was talking about computers now in LANDFILLS... ;-)

eMachines

Seriously? That brand was discontinued years ago. But, fun fact: by 2004 their quality control was second only to Apple.

WTF? $500 isn't cheap enough???

No, it isn't, and what you get for $500 is a shitty computer to boot...

Acer Aspire - Intel i3 - 3.6GHz - $300 http://amzn.to/1UxLhFh

For $200 less, you get a computer that is more than double the performance of the $500 Mac Mini, AND you can actually expand it. Add more RAM if you want, put a SSD in if you want, etc.

Plus, it comes with an actual keyboard and mouse to boot, something the Mac Mini lacks.

Really? Better performance? With a i3?

PC Mag doesn't think so...

Oh, and by the time you "expand" it, it's hardly $300 now, is it?

And the Piece of Resistance? Windows 10. And don't say "Linux", because we're talking about a VIABLE solution for a REAL front office desktop, not Linux, sorry.

And another thing: That Mac mini will still be sitting there, quietly chugging along, long after that shitbox Acer has a Power Supply failure, and the cheap-ass no-crowbar PS takes out the mobo, AND every connected USB and video device along with it. Don't EVEN think it can't happen...

Now how good of a value is that $300 machine?

Fact is, even the low-end Mac mini has more than enough shit in the tank for a very wide range of "front office", Laboratory, Software and Web Development, and Document and "Media" Creation Applications. IOW, the things that businesses of many types need to do.

As a developer, child windows with WS_LAYERED property (proper transparency) are nice. Other than that Windows stays pretty much out of the way. I haven't had a problem with it. There are a bunch of settings you can change to protect your privacy, if you worry about that kind of thing.

If you use Google, they READ YOUR EMAIL and sell it for profit! Use Microsoft Outlook.com instead, they'll NEVER read your email!

You can buy a 'burner' Android phone for $10

Which make and model? I searched Google for 10 dollar android phone and found several results talking about the same $9.82 LG L16 and L15G on TracFone that Walmart sold in November of last year. Among these results was an article warning me that the offer resembled a clearance and thus unlikely to remain available. The starter Android phone recommended in the article was a Posh Orion Mini, which Amazon shows for $50.

never activate or buy time for it

I fear that trying to run one of these apps without cellular service won't get past the app's "please enter the validation code texted to you to confirm that you're a real person" screen.

http://blog.emaze.net/2013/08/...
http://blog.ptsecurity.com/201...
http://blogs.pcmag.com/securit...
http://ea.github.io/blog/2013/...
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* PARTIAL QUOTING ME Ash-Fox? Again?? The lists I am putting out are going to CRUSH your do-nothing ass on router "reliability" & security... lol!

(My routers don't go down by the way loser...)

APK

P.S.=> So much for your faith in routers alone stupid (225 in total, 15 posts with 15 items each)... apk

Beyond that, all I need from the manual is ... a reference for anything nonstandard.

Here you're calling me an idiot and a moron, insinuating that I'm poor (never been able to afford a 2013 Ford Fusion) and/or a child (a bedtime? really?), all the while acting like all of the above yourself. And all this talk of tissues? Projecting, much?

Further, you might want to fact-check before you call me a moron when you are wrong. Lane-keeping has been out there for well longer than 15 years, Mitsubishi first released it in Japan in 1992, as an option on the Debonair. If I had to guess, that's longer than you've been alive, so I wouldn't expect you to know that. As for lane-correction (e.g. lane-keeping with steering assist), that's been out for 14 years, not 15, but you were close.

My Bluetooth keyboard has the same footprint as the case for my Nexus 7, barely weighs anything, charges from USB, lasts for hours, and disconnects from the case because it's only held on with 4 magnets. It weighs less than the tablet.

You can even get ones which fold to the size of a phone.

The iClever Portable Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard measures 10 by 3.5 by 0.3 inches when open. When closed, it measures by 5.75 by 3.5 by 0.75 inches. It weighs 6.24 ounces, making it one of the most compact and lightweight keyboards we've tested.

That review is from December.

You don't need to carry around a big keyboard, and for almost any tablet you can get a case which holds the tablet and houses a keyboard in not much more space than the tablet. Which means the detachable tablet can be yours for the price of an easily gotten accessory.

Buy one, don't buy one ... it's up to you. But this is a problem people have been actively solving for years now.

You just might find there's actually a product which does what you want it to, without costing an arm and a leg, and without being a big bulky thing to carry around.

It's not always convenient to have a desktop or a desktop replacement, which is why laptops exist in the first place.

Laptops are desktop replacements.

Definition of: desktop replacement
desktop replacement

Generally refers to a laptop that has the speed, storage and usability of a desktop computer. It implies a large screen and tactile keyboard, although such external peripherals may be plugged into a portable computer of any size. See laptop.

According to this article:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...

Sony's request has been denied because it's too confusing to a trademark that already exists: "LP Let'z Play," which is too likely to cause "consumer confusion" that Sony's offering is in some way related to Let'z Play of America's trademark.

Data centers suffer from very rapid capital depreciation. Kryder's Law means your storage hardware loses half its value every 13 months. It is a very competitive business, and only large scale automated data centers can be competitive. This is the start of the shake out, not the end. You will soon see more companies exit the business.

Until someone tells them data centers = cloud infrastructure. Seriously, if they want to be a cloud provider then they need the biggest most massive and efficient data centers. Or are we talking purely about small and medium data centers and colocs?

Sure, co-location is far too expensive relative to provisioning on-demand cloud infrastructure to justify for small and medium size businesses. And large businesses can set up their own data centers in-house. I could see some medium to large businesses buying these data centers just to avoid having to build their own from scratch.

The cloud will always suffer from the problem of physical custody of data. Where some data is too sensitive to trust to someone else's security even if that security is probably better than your own.

But for everything else the cloud is where it is at.

Data centers suffer from very rapid capital depreciation. Kryder's Law means your storage hardware loses half its value every 13 months. It is a very competitive business, and only large scale automated data centers can be competitive. This is the start of the shake out, not the end. You will soon see more companies exit the business.

http://blog.emaze.net/2013/08/...
http://blog.ptsecurity.com/201...
http://blogs.pcmag.com/securit...
http://ea.github.io/blog/2013/...
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APK

P.S.=> So much for your faith in routers alone stupid (225 in total, 15 posts with 15 items each)... apk

I swapped the 3G wireless and WiFi wireless cards in my Lenovo and saw no issues. They do lock down drivers for security, but I had no problem with loading up the new cards, once I properly loaded the manufacturer drivers. I was planning on going from my current E530 to a new Y70. Maybe it's different across their different lines, but the Thinkpad E530 had no issues with 3rd party wireless and RAM (I never swapped the battery. 3+ years, and still working well, and never found anyone who made a larger capacity batter, including Lenovo). http://www.newegg.com/Product/... 17.3" touchscreen and 960M, not many in that category, most gaming laptops don't do touch screen. But we got a tablet-like http://au.pcmag.com/acer-aspir... for cheap on sale and liked it, and having a touch screen, so wanted to go touch-only going forward. I can't find anything with a 17.3" or larger touchscreen and a 960m or better video card anywhere else, at any price, and the Lenovo Y70 is only about $1000 on sale.

... clearly none of you have even tested a build of win10 because you are still whining about non-existent issues.

As someone who has a Windows 10 box, I'll agree that it's not a dream OS for stability, but it still has a large number of issues that people keep hammering. Not convinced? Here are a few articles about Windows 10 data collection from PC Mag and ComputerWorld. How to regain some privacy at Polygon and Techtimes. Finally, that Microsoft doesn't see (or care) about the privacy risk for all this data collection. Nor have they explained what is being collected, for what purpose, how it is being stored, and who has access to it. I had to add rules to my home router to block traffic to MS's servers, something I doubt the typical user would do.

On top of that, there's plenty of issues even with games. MS took down GFWL in favor of their store. However, older GFWL games will install the old software automatically, and give you some interesting crashes (SSF4:AE and SFxTekken both crashed miserably and forced a reboot). Other games require reinstallation or reacquiring of assets through Steam (Saints Row 4 is one). Some are unable to play fullscreen (Xeodrifter is one example). Some will simply only run when the planets are aligned (DmC: Devil May Cry starts as a service for some stupid reason... I rarely get the actual game).

"The MonoRover's power adapter is legitimately scary."

Hmm... Actually, I think we've been saying this backwards for years. You want a high signal to noise ratio. The lower the signal to noise ratio, the more difficult it is to filter out the noise. An SNR = 0 means, essentially, that the noise is the same level as the signal, thus it is harder to filter for. A higher SNR, say 10, is "good" in that you get more signal than you do noise.

So, in your case, you had a lower signal to noise ratio because there was more noise than there could have been. Even knowing better, I too have said it that way for years and I've seen lots of other people state it backwards just like you and I. A while back, maybe a few weeks ago, I saw an intelligent poster mention it and I thought they had it backwards. Being wise enough to know when to look before leaping, I did some thinking and I did some searching.

It turns out, I'm now pretty sure, we've been saying it backwards. I've dug out another link, this wasn't the one that I read, and will cite it here:
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclope...

You *want* a high signal to noise ratio. (Think about it.) You want more signal than noise. I wonder if there's a negative? Where there's more noise than signal? Maybe we can just call it a NSR. I'd guess an SNR -4 would be that there's four times more noise than signal but I don't think I've ever heard it expressed that way. Hmm... Google indicates there's a negative SNR (expressed in dB) but I clicked through nary a single result.

have you clicked and read the descriptions of ANY of those? osx has had just as many of these "viruses that require the user to be stupid AND do most of the virus' work".

btw, does "flashback" ring any bells? it forced apple to remove the "doesn't get pc viruses" from its "why you'll love a mac" page.

http://www.welivesecurity.com/... http://securitywatch.pcmag.com...

Are you stoned or just stupid?

Both of your lists show NO Malware that did not rely EXCLUSIVELY on Social Engineering AND DIRECT USER INTERACTION to Infect the host computer (Mac). That is a Trojan, not a Virus.

That is in stark contrast to the Wikipedia list, which nicely categorized the Linux Malware into Trojans, Worms, etc.

NEXT!

have you clicked and read the descriptions of ANY of those? osx has had just as many of these "viruses that require the user to be stupid AND do most of the virus' work".

btw, does "flashback" ring any bells? it forced apple to remove the "doesn't get pc viruses" from its "why you'll love a mac" page.

http://www.welivesecurity.com/...
http://securitywatch.pcmag.com...

A third approach is to have a robot independent of the vehicle which can drive it, and presumably can switch from one vehicle to another. The best example of this I'm aware of is Yamaha's motobot which is capable of riding a motorcycle on a track. I'm not sure how much of the article is speculation rather than existing capability. http://pcmag.com/robotics-automation-products/39534/news/this-yamaha-robot-can-drive-a-motorcyle

"Frustrated by adversaries continued success at circumventing or defeating cyber defense and monitoring technologies, DARPA is looking to fund new approaches"

This is ironic considering DARPA designed TCP/IP

1. Javascript benchmarks. They should be outlawed, period. They test the software (browser) more than the CPU. Also they are probably single threaded or close to be.

2. On-screen 3D game benchmarks. Because they favor phones with low-res display such as iPhones.

None of the benchmarks in TFA even consider RAM size and flash memory speed, which both have real-world benefits.

I'm sure that ALL of these benchmarks are done by Apple shills.

Right.

Oh, and whiner, I found this and this about the memory subsystem in the iPhone 6s. Glad you asked!

No time wasted mapping buttons on a USB/BT generic HID controller.

can't remember the last time I did that with my 360 controller

That's because game developers hardcoded a special case button layout for your brand of controller. There are too many available makes and models of controller for PC and mobile for game developers to be able to special-case everything's button layouts. With a console, on the other hand, either your controller is automatically configured or it's incompatible. This is a yes-or-no proposition easily understood by the majority of the market that does not use Slashdot.

not really quite a lot of cheaters abound on console and pc platforms

How do modern PC games work around aimbots, wallhacks, and the like?

being able to have three computers capable of doing much more then just playing games/browsing the web

I guess it depends on how many games you play and whether they come with some sort of quantity discount for a home LAN.

Disc games mean no risk of hitting your ISP's cap.

hasn't been playing attention to more recent console games

All tested PS4 games worked without having to go online and download the patch.

AdBlock Plus: Extortion or Smart Business? | John C. Dvorak | http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...
Adblock Plus demands cash from websites to whitelist ads | http://www.digitaltrends.com/w...

Is that extortion? the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

A German court says it isn't. http://blog.pagefair.com/2015/...

Still stinks, but. People use adblockers to block ads. Not to only see ads where the advertiser greases the palm of some third party promising to block ads.

Well, it's a fairly effective anti-virus for free.

If it cuts the number of free users without cutting their paying user base, then it's no loss to them.

However, I keep up on the most effective anti-virus and no longer use them as they were not in the top group last year.

Here's a current comparison for 2015.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...

It focuses on paid but the free version quality is analogous.

AVG rates 3.5 stars. Not something I'd care to use.

I use a combination of malwarebytes and avast on my different machines currently.

I'm fairly unlikely to pay for anti-virus.

Because of the Windows 10 set up, my next computer will probably be a Linux machine. I've been noodling around the edges for about 8 years (including running a knoppix boot disk and going to a software stack that runs on linux and windows).

A timely PC MAG review rating many free anti-virus programs: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...

Don't let the door hit your bum on the way out, AVG

Since Edge comes from the same company that makes the OS used to run those benchmarks, the fact the it did not win in all, or even most of, instances is a failure.

Um, No...

I'm sure that there is a trade-off where optimizing for specific content, which can have an effect on the loading time of other content. So, it would make sense for some browsers to have an edge depending on the test format.

Also, the benchmark includes checking for support for specific formats and functions, some more esoteric than others. For example, the HTML5 test includes a test for Ogg Theora. Mozilla and Opera were proponents of this format and support it, but it appears that it is being left in the dust for H.264 and VP9/10. Edge's lack of support for this format would hurt it in this benchmark, but in reality it's a moot point as very few web sites use this format.

"Edge gets 402 points on the HTML5Test.com test compared with 526 for Chrome and 467 for Firefox out of a possible 555 points. A lot of this is for code that very few sites use, such as Ogg Theora video, but some useful capabilities like Web notifications and WebRTC support for mic and camera access are still missing."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...

Take all benchmarks with a grain of salt...

I was actually wondering if they were reported by the vice principal trying to monitor children in their homes with "educational spyware" installed on the laptops, much like that previously reported on Slashdot.

                      http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...

But these AT&T hotspots are intended for AT&T's paying customers. They're not free hotspots for freeloaders.

I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion given that it sounded like it was an open wifi spot in an airport. There was no mention that this was a paid access point, like with the Boingo partnership a few years ago. The article calls it "free", but it actually required paid access, so apparently there's some confusion on PC Mag's part as to what the word "free" means.

My guess? Few customers bothered with the paid access plans, so they're trying to figure out other ways of monetizing those hotspots, and some genius MBA thought this plan up after typing "How to monetize your network" into Google search.

If AT&T isn't up for offering free wifi hotspots to non-customers, that's their business. I just don't approve of this particular advertising practice. It's actually exposing the user to more risk of malware (albeit a small one), but more critically, it sets a terrible precedent.

If it is one thing MS does well it is backwards capability.

I pretty much laughed at this. I can tell you that the backwards compatibility statement from MS about 4.5 is patently false. Just try doing an elevation of privileges on an unprivileged process (ie, actually elevate the process above its base privilege). Works on .NET4, not on .NET 4.5, or, more accurately, not on .NET 4.5 on 2008SR2. It might work on .NET 4.5 2008... I didn't check. But, more telling is the last clause, which says well, maybe we aren't backwards compatible, but we allow you to run the previous versions of .NET in those cases, except for .NET4, which we completely nerfed. You also get stories like driver complaints or office issues or even with the new xbox.

I'm curious, genuinely, as to why all the "@#$!% Windows!" posts are being so happily upvoted, while the ones that are rationally pointing out the upside to MS's new direction are seemingly being ignored. You would think, with all the bitching that is normally done here concerning closed versus open, overly expensive software versus free or low-cost alternatives, that people might actually stop with the automatic MS-hate and consider their stance anew.

No software is EVER bug-free (own an Android phone? Enjoying all that perfection?); OSes are complex environments, and sometimes you just can not get every feature in place in a reasonable amount of time. At some point, you have to declare that you've reached a close of a phase of development. Despite our glee at the old "nah, that's a feature" joke, I don't think anyone honestly believes a company with as much money at stake as MS has really has a "screw it" attitude. They're a HUGE company, and for anyone who's ever worked in that sort of environment, you know that you actually have to marvel that any product at all EVER ships.

In part, it is because no OS is ever perfect (you Mac users take a look back, and you'll remember how bad the OS really was years ago, and admit that it too has its own unique problems even today despite being dramatically improved) that MS has moved to this model - fixes to issues can hopefully happen more quickly, new features added sooner.

Along with this new model of publishing Windows comes something else (relatively) new for MS - a new monetization method. For all the grousing about how old and lame the Redmond folks are, now that they are embracing the "freemium" model used by many mobile apps (ads for the free version, or pay to remove them) there's all the complaints for moving to the "new school" way of business. The second - and a little more understandable but I think still defensible in today's environment - complaint is privacy (mainly, the sale of your habits to merchants). First, while not easy for the newbie to do, 10 can be locked down fairly well (PC Mag has a decent article, and it's not the only one); second, if you use Facebook, Twitter, or other social platform, or any search engine, you began giving up privacy the moment your fingers touched a keyboard. If your activities are highly illegal (not just minor film/music torrenting) and you haven't been caught, you're already not worried about this issue; for the average person, yes we don't like the idea of targeted ads and trending our preferences, but to say that there's a person sitting around looking at that data and saying, "Aha! Bob Smith, I *knew* you were into midget clown rodeos!" - well, that's just silly. The only privacy I really, honestly care about is banking, taxes, and when I watch porn - my wife is cool with that last part, but I don't want my kids to type something in only to have YouPorn instead of YouTube pop up. Local browsing, then, is still hidden from other "common" users on my machine, and if I choose to do things like bank on line, I simply have to hope and trust that the certs on the HTTPS connection the bank provides haven't been compromised. That's going to be true for any platform I use to do these things.

I applaud MS for attempting to move in a new direction - it shows, finally, a willingness to change, even if there are missteps along the way. They will have issues with Windows, just as all other OSes do. They will piss people off from time to time. But to complain because they don't do something, then complain because they do? That's not proper criticism, it's just bias.

Actually it's been scientifically proven that Apple fans view that brand as they would a religion:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...

I'm not going to pretend T-Mobile is an angel, but I think they've truly changed the industry.

I don't know about changing the industry, but other carriers have made moves to match T-Mobile, which has resulted in more consumer-friendly options across the board. So kudos to T-Mo for that. But the whole "Un-Carrier" schtick wasn't done from altruism, it was a strategic play decided on when T-Mobile didn't have many options except to be disruptive.

Flash back four years ago and T-Mobile is recognizing the decreasing distance between its rock and its hard place. It was the fourth largest carrier in the US, in a business where scale is EVERYTHING. (Think of it this way: you need 40,000 towers or so to cover the country whether you have 10 million subscribers or 100 million subscribers, so divide up their support costs per customer and...) T-Mo is owned by Deutsche Telekom, which had enjoyed being in the growing US market (compared to Europe) but basically said at this point, "your network is mediocre but making it genuinely good would cost billions and billions of dollars, which we don't want to spend. We will be trying to sell you as soon as we can. Barring that, figure a way out of this and send us a postcard once in a while on how it's going."

Deutsche did in fact shortly agree to sell T-Mobile to AT&T, which ultimately fell through due to FCC/antitrust objections. T-Mo couldn't compete based on economies of scale, and they couldn't compete based on network; their strategy had always been to have good coverage in urban/suburban areas but skip the more rural areas that you need to have really good reach but are not very cost-efficient. T-Mobile basically had to do something creative or die. Given that choice, to their credit, the opted for the former.

With that being said - and even though they have passed Sprint to become the #3 carrier in the US by customers - the fact that they are offering consumer-friendly deals and adding subscribers doesn't mean they are actually in a position to be profitable in the long run. Hint: there's a reason that T-Mobile was engaged in talks to be acquired by Sprint last year, and then again with DISH Network this year... companies with sound long-term economic prospects don't go around seeking to be bought by larger companies.

Depends on the manufacturer.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...

Magnetic memory (the re-invention of core memory with much higher density) has already been done. I believe the advantage was non-volatility, just like magnetic core memory. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/...

I suppose the fact that tech conferences sell women (In case you've never been) doesn't tell you anything about the current state of the industry? And only this year has it occurred to anyone that using strippers to sell gadgets is unprofessional.

It is not that women can't pursue technical careers, but that misogynistic attitudes and cultures discourage them from hanging out with a bunch of disrespectful cads that treat them like hunks of meat.

I think the "make 'em pay" model, has a lot to do with why so many people are cord cutting. So this strategy by the TV companies, isn't really a long term solution but more like a placeholder to buy them time to find a new way to fund their companies.

WACOM you say? Yes they do them for iOS.

http://uk.pcmag.com/tablets/13...

And there are several other companies that also do pressure sensitive styluses for iOS.

LOL ... I'm pretty sure audiophiles aren't running speakers PC Mag lauded for "thumping, powerful Bluetooth audio" and portable design and which were available in pink.

Not even a little.

I do not vouch for the validity nor do I know what your definition is... I did have this in my favorites though:

http://securitywatch.pcmag.com...

You can say that those are infected applications but that is splitting hairs as far as I am concerned. Computers do not get viruses. People do. Security is a process and not an application - this is true for all computers.

'cause he himself is a KGB apparatchik.

It is believed that Gates' parents also pulled strings in IBM that got him the DOS contract.

"when IBM CEO John Opel heard Microsoft would get the contract, he said "Oh is that Mary Gates' boy's company?" since Opel and Bill Gates' mother served together on the national board of the United Way. Ref

I've not found the PC Mag 2012 best apps listing either, but here's a PC Magazine review of NQ Vault. They seem to be under the impression it provides better security than it actually does. Shame they gave it a relatively nice review despite acknowledging that it's kind of buggy! I note that user-reviews both on the Google Play page and the above PC Mag review mention it loosing their data... which isn't a huge surprise if it's buggy.

Being as it hails from Dallas, I'd assume they tried patenting XOR as a security method and then trolling every equally incompetent "data security" company they could think of before deciding to hack their own one together?!

I was (perhaps a bit pedantically) objecting to the apparent argument that any shape will do because your fingers will wrap around it. I can think of shapes that you could hold but wouldn't like working with.

I first grabbed a computer mouse in 1984 and I've been using them ever since, without hand pain. How long to I have to wait to find out?

That means that the shape(s) you've been using is/are adequate (possibly for most normal hands of roughly similar size). The ordinary mouse I use at work is symmetric and gives me no issues, but early mice wouldn't work as well for long hours, and I know from experience that tiny "laptop" mice kill my thumb adductors. OTOH (no pun intended), I know people who work *better* with tiny mice, either because they have small hands or because of injury.

Lastly, TFA is about gamers. They mouse like their lives depend on it (some do make a living off it) and it's not unthinkable that the situation resembles other activities like shooting or golf to some degree, where subtle differences in performance and myth complicate gear choices.

Sounds a lot like OnLive's 'microconsole', except with some real horsepower.