Slashdot Mirror

Go ahead, justify the fact it's a poor performer. We know you already live-and-breathe Apple. Go ahead, walk into a stereo shop and ask why their products don't sound as good as a HomePod. Go ahead and cheer-lead your locked in product once again, and stay on that Apple reserve!

Man, I think the only subject we agree on is contained in your tagline.

Go ahead, justify the fact it's a poor performer. We know you already live-and-breathe Apple. Go ahead, walk into a stereo shop and ask why their products don't sound as good as a HomePod. Go ahead and cheer-lead your locked in product once again, and stay on that Apple reserve!

Prior to the rules being adopted, some two years back, had ISP's actually done this thing you fear?

Yes they had and there is proof. They didn't charge their subscribers they extorted money from companies wanting to get to their subscribers. "It would be a shame if everyone of our internet subscribers constantly got **buffering** screens when trying to stream content from your site. If you pay us a % of your revenue we'll make sure that doesn't happen."

OTA DVRs? Nah, can't find those anywhere.

The whole nvidia thing is a moot point; you don't even need to get that far to see the ads. Here's a collection of ads that have been found on Windows 10:

Ad to install Microsoft's shopping extension:
https://www.cnet.com/news/wind...

Ad to buy tomb raider from Windows store:
https://www.howtogeek.com/2432...
(Side note: This is why Microsoft no longer allows you to disable the lock screen on desktop systems. Yes, you can turn the lock screen ads off, but Microsoft wants you to get used to seeing it there meanwhile.)

Ad to browse bing for rewards points:
http://core0.staticworld.net/i...

Ad to install Office:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...

Ads to buy Solitaire:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...
(Side note: Windows 10 now includes lots of freemium and trialware apps in general, like Candy Crush, which is another form of advertising. Also, didn't solitaire used to be totally free?)

Ads in the share tool:
https://betanews.com/wp-conten...
(In that screenshot, most of these apps aren't installed, thus these are ads to install these apps.)

Ads in the ink workspace:
http://cdn.windowsreport.com/w...

Ad telling you to stop using firefox:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/l6JL...

Ad telling you to stop using chrome:
http://www.laptopmag.com/image...

Another ad telling you to switch to edge for bing rewards:
https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-c...

Ad telling you to subscribe to onedrive:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...

Ad to buy apps on the start menu:
https://davescomputertips.com/...

So TFA is correct, windows 10 IS an ad platform.

The whole nvidia thing is a moot point; you don't even need to get that far to see the ads. Here's a collection of ads that have been found on Windows 10:

Ad to install Microsoft's shopping extension:
https://www.cnet.com/news/wind...

Ad to buy tomb raider from Windows store:
https://www.howtogeek.com/2432...
(Side note: This is why Microsoft no longer allows you to disable the lock screen on desktop systems. Yes, you can turn the lock screen ads off, but Microsoft wants you to get used to seeing it there meanwhile.)

Ad to browse bing for rewards points:
http://core0.staticworld.net/i...

Ad to install Office:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...

Ads to buy Solitaire:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...
(Side note: Windows 10 now includes lots of freemium and trialware apps in general, like Candy Crush, which is another form of advertising. Also, didn't solitaire used to be totally free?)

Ads in the share tool:
https://betanews.com/wp-conten...
(In that screenshot, most of these apps aren't installed, thus these are ads to install these apps.)

Ads in the ink workspace:
http://cdn.windowsreport.com/w...

Ad telling you to stop using firefox:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/l6JL...

Ad telling you to stop using chrome:
http://www.laptopmag.com/image...

Another ad telling you to switch to edge for bing rewards:
https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-c...

Ad telling you to subscribe to onedrive:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...

Ad to buy apps on the start menu:
https://davescomputertips.com/...

So TFA is correct, windows 10 IS an ad platform.

The whole nvidia thing is a moot point; you don't even need to get that far to see the ads. Here's a collection of ads that have been found on Windows 10:

Ad to install Microsoft's shopping extension:
https://www.cnet.com/news/wind...

Ad to buy tomb raider from Windows store:
https://www.howtogeek.com/2432...
(Side note: This is why Microsoft no longer allows you to disable the lock screen on desktop systems. Yes, you can turn the lock screen ads off, but Microsoft wants you to get used to seeing it there meanwhile.)

Ad to browse bing for rewards points:
http://core0.staticworld.net/i...

Ad to install Office:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...

Ads to buy Solitaire:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...
(Side note: Windows 10 now includes lots of freemium and trialware apps in general, like Candy Crush, which is another form of advertising. Also, didn't solitaire used to be totally free?)

Ads in the share tool:
https://betanews.com/wp-conten...
(In that screenshot, most of these apps aren't installed, thus these are ads to install these apps.)

Ads in the ink workspace:
http://cdn.windowsreport.com/w...

Ad telling you to stop using firefox:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/l6JL...

Ad telling you to stop using chrome:
http://www.laptopmag.com/image...

Another ad telling you to switch to edge for bing rewards:
https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-c...

Ad telling you to subscribe to onedrive:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...

Ad to buy apps on the start menu:
https://davescomputertips.com/...

So TFA is correct, windows 10 IS an ad platform.

"Toshiba" brand TVs in the US are manufactured by Taiwan-based Compal Electronics.

Look at the screenshot. There is a third choice. Windows 7 users may hot recognize it because it's in the new "Metro" UI style.
See: http://images.techhive.com/ima...
That word "here" in blue is a clickable link. Click on it and you can get somewhere to cancel the upgrade (not sure what it looks like there though).

Of course the Microsoft lawyers will interpret passive action as passive consent to the upgrade.

Umm...Why would I be Satya? If you read my post history, I'm a pretty big critic of Windows Phone. It's biggest problem is that it's just not relevant...to anybody...And that starts with its UI. A few years back, somebody at Microsoft created this blog post:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/thinku...

It's a well written post, with a few wonderful examples of why information overload is bad. Even with their UI talent knowing information overload is a real problem, they go and create a UI that looks like this:

http://in4mactiondotcom2.files...

Now look at Android's stock UI, which has these variations depending on OEM:

http://images.techhive.com/ima...

And behind walled gardens, general purpose software can being targeted, not just general purpose hardware. Since you mentioned Kodi that's a great example. It was pulled from the Amazon app store because it might encourage piracy for the masses. Of course it's trivial to sideload a Fire TV with the apk so it's not completely draconian. But it serves as a reminder that usage can be controlled through direct access restrictions as well as DRM laws.

http://www.techhive.com/articl...

Because I'm bored...

Sony
http://www.techhive.com/articl...

Microsoft
http://www.escapistmagazine.co...

Nintendo
http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
http://toucharcade.com/2014/05...

>> The chip could self-destruct on command

Congratulations! You've invented the Sony Vaio!
http://www.techhive.com/articl...

Use a $35 Chromecast!

You can send your entire screen to your TV with a Chromecast. You'll probably want to find some kind of wireless keyboard and/or mouse to do this.

You could also look at Android TV and see if there's a screen mirroring application. I don't know if Android TV can run ordinary Android apps, but if it can, there's already a screen mirroring program.

Finally, stick PCs are a thing. You could always run a screen sharing program on a stick PC.

IMO, I think trying to connect a PC to a TV is quickly becoming more effort than it's worth. This is for the following reasons:

• - I used to use my $1200 HTPC for Netflix and Youtube. Now, it's much easier to use a $35 Chromecast for these applications
• - Now that Android TV came out, I think we'll get a much better experience with apps designed for a remote control instead of PC apps designed for a mouse and keyboard.
• - Many smart TVs will have Android TV built-in.

Search any technology with "for seniors" after it and you'll find companies designing products with them in mind. Like this tablet, for instance:

http://www.techhive.com/articl...

The company that starts a branded line of electronic products and services with simple/familiar and definitely rarely updated interfaces is going to make a nice chunk of change.

A quick rant. One thing I'd like to see personally are beepers for seniors. Knew a senior (now passed) who lived well enough alone but was often unreachable because she would never use or charge her simple cellphone and would sometimes not hang up the house phone properly. I figure Get her a beeper! Runs for over a month on two AAAs! She can just leave it on in her purse and we could always beep her and have her call us. And she was a retired nurse, so she'd be familiar with the technology. But by the mid-2000s beepers had gone the way of the dodo.

.

You are correct. ""the company continues to make the same mistake over and over. Google's mistake" is not a mistake.

Look:

"IBM Just Bet $3 Billion Of Its Research Budget On The Death Of Moore's Law" http://www.forbes.com/sites/al...

From "Microsoft, the world's best kept R&D secret" http://www.techhive.com/articl... :

"In 2011 alone, Microsoft's R&D budget reached a record high of $9.6 billion (yes, with a "B").", "Blending touch and touchscreens" "Windows 8 will be a success"

Ok, I made up the last one.

Still, of course Google sees this as a long-term potential, perhaps decades away, or less. Volvo has the same thing, on the road:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/mot...


There's a scene in the cult 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film Total Recall in which our hero jumps in a driverless taxi, part of a fleet that ferries passengers around a nameless city, using unspecified technology to safely navigate traffic and pedestrians.

The sci-fi film is set in 2084. But the world's first fleet of self-driving city vehicles is almost here, 70 years ahead of schedule and courtesy of Volvo. The Swedish car maker is to unleash 100 of them on the public roads of Gothenburg in a two-year project.

It's called Drive Me, a joint initiative between the manufacturer and various local agencies. It's backed by the national government and designed to discover the benefits to society of autonomous driving. Positioning country and company as pioneers in the subject won't hurt either.

For now, five prototype Volvos have been let loose as the technology is perfected ahead of the January 2017 launch.


So, Google is perfectly in tune with the zeitgeist.

Under the Hood, Windows 7 Is Vista's Twin

They're working on it.

According to this timeline of GPS, the first to market with a hand-GPS was the Magellan NAV 1000 in 1989.

However, in 1990, the DoD decreased the accuracy of the system - before the start of the First Gulf War.

In 1994, the FAA and Clinton tells the worldwide (commercial) airline industry that GPS is free for them to use for the "foreseeable future"

1995 was when the first GPS constellation was finally complete, so that at least 4 satellites were always visible from any point on at Earth.

Source: http://www.techhive.com/articl...

The reason Marc Cuban is wealthy is because he had a dumb idea and was able to sell it to Yahoo before they realized they should only buy companies with paying customers rather than a pie-in-the-sky idea. Marc Cuban sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo, and they didn't know how to get any subscribers and that asset eventually evaporated into nothing.

Then Marc Cuban started HDnet cable channel thinking he would corner the market on producing high-definition cable TV content. Then all the other cable channels began broadcasting in HD and the property floundered for a reason to exist until Ryan Seacrest bought and rebranded it as another entertainment variety channel-- AXS..

Take a read of Cuban's blog. It's fun to click around in the archives to read his thoughts on the direction of future technology trends. Like when he predicted just ten years ago people would go into video rental stores to have movies transferred to a physical hard drive instead of walking out with optical disk media.. Somehow he didn't see the rise of Netflix and Redbox, did he?

Cuban and Ballmer have a LOT in common. When a board of directors selects either of them to be the CEO of a multi-billion $ company, their opinion might be relevant. Right now, the industry and stock market has a lack of faith in the decision-making powers of these two.

According at least one study it's not. Also it's harder to ban passengers than phones, and laws need to take practicality into account.

A curved back makes complete sense in a phone because it's easier to hold and less likely for you to drop it. That's why almost every single mobile phone ever made up to Android/iPhone had them.

You may like them, but the feeling is far from universal.

ooh, poor uber. they have to have drivers pass an exam and get proper insurance. that's NOT anti-competitive.. that's actually extremely helpful to know exactly what they have to do to be legit...

but HERE is what's anti-competitive... (hint: its not the governments, or even the taxi drivers, doing this shit):

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/1...
http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/0...
http://www.techhive.com/articl...

do not blindly go "ohh, poor uber. thats not fair'' every time a government takes a stand against them. they do NOT deserve the support. they should get a red hot poker shoved up their collective corporate asses for how they conduct their business... and then they should be banned for not having proper insurance, drivers licensed/permitted to carry passengers for hire, and regularly inspected vehicles... just as germany did... but globally.

I agree. Lets start with An Open Letter to Hobbyists by our good ol pal, William Henry Gates III from the date of Feb, 3 1976. Thirty eight years later and the mentality at Microsoft hasn't really changed much. Let's not forget the Halloween Documents back from 1998. How can we forget the Initiave for Software Choice led by our friends at Microsoft back in 2002. Dare anyone to forget the Microsoft Get the Facts campaign? Or how about Microsoft messing with OLPC. How about the recent attempt at making us think ODF is bad? I think I am going to have to pull the BS card on this article as well.

Sorry to spoil your irrational bigotry:

http://www.techhive.com/articl...

...there will still be cooks, stylists, hairdressers, ...).

No there won't.

Just the other day I ate some savory pancakes before going to my hairdresser for a cut.

When I got home, my girlfiend (not a typo) took one look at my hair and left me. But that's ok because I just got a REAL girlfriend, and she is AWESOME!!!.

Probably thses:
http://www.techhive.com/article/122590/article.html

I have seen them on fast food drive throughs and some vending machines. It seems to be spreading. Your phone is becoming your Shadowrun Credstick...

Windows 8 has less market share then even Windows Vista. http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/04/windows-8-market-share-100031382-large.png

A hierarchical display, like the column browser?

As for search, the full-library keyword search is more than enough 99% of the time I'm looking to jump to an artist/album, but if you want to get more complex, smart playlists let you search your library for files using just about any criteria and combination you can imagine (no regex though, not that I've ever found need to regex search my music). Smart playlists are seriously iTunes' most powerful feature and I've never seen it satisfactorily duplicated in any other music player.

iTunes' database/spreadsheetness is it's most powerful feature - you're not limited to just one set folder hierarchy for navigating your music. iTunes gives the user a myriad ways to look at their data; sometimes too many, really. TBH, all the newer UI views that make iTunes "pretty" instead of looking like a spreadsheet are simply more silly and time-consuming to navigate. Fortunately they've left the spreadsheet-style views available for people who aren't afraid of data.

iTunes certainly has lots of issues, especially on Windows where it's buggy and (from what I hear) slow, and it suffers terribly from a decade of feature-creep and try-to-be-everything-for-interfacing-with-iOS, but if you simply use it as a music library/player it can be fantastic.

FWIW I'm just looking into advertising on Twitter for my product, some people reports that twitter is comparable to adwords for some situations and way better than Facebook: http://www.techhive.com/article/2030740/do-social-media-ads-really-work-we-put-them-to-the-test-.html

I'm a very light user but when I noticed "sponsored tweets" in my feed I actually read/consumed almost all of the info in them before I realized they were sponsored. And I wasn't annoyed that I did, more lightly amused that they got me to read the ad and that it didn't feel bad. I think it's b/c of the short format of everything. It's after that experience that I decided to place ads myself.

So, again, FWIW, I decided to give Twitter some money, just to see what happens, which I'd *never* do with Facebook. Can't imagine I'm the only one.

The main proponents of this are all the safety nuts out there who feel that we can't drive safely. What you're missing in all the accident data is the fact that 1) Cellphones and in-car distractions (Nav Systems, etc.) are killing more people every year, it's on the rise. 2) Drunk Driving and Drugs are the leading cause of traffic fatalities. Since the government won't be able to control your behavior they'll just stick you in some little box that will take all responsibility away from you and most of these studies coming out are all sponsored by the government. Sorry, I choose not to listen to a bunch of drivel put out by some paid-for think tank research. Maybe someday if I can no longer drive because of age, then I'd probably consider it but this is a bureaucrat's dream of controlling people's lives. Too much traffic or smog? we'll slow you down or not let you drive today. Had too much to drink? We'll take you right over to the rehab center where you can get dried out? Drugs in your system? We'll just drive you over to the police and they can arrest you.

"FOSSie Faction"

That was by far one of the more ignorant things I have ever seen on Slashdot by the way.

Obviously Apple aren't giving full information about how it works. But the hashing part has been mentioned in several places.

This is the best source of information I found. It includes both what Apple have revealed, together with some informed speculation.

http://www.techhive.com/article/2048514/the-iphone-5s-fingerprint-reader-what-you-need-to-know.html

Actually the most interesting part is that the scanner takes a capacitative rather than optical image. Which explains why the lens isn't transparent (to visible light) and why it's not going to be fooled by photos and photocopies of fingerprints.

It also means that even if someone did get access to the image (which seems impossible), it wouldn't match up with optical fingerprints they might have from elsewhere.

Stallman's position isn't a surprise. I expect him to advocate open source software over any proprietary software. He has for thirty plus years. Why would he change now? There is one thing he overlooks when he says:

'I don't think the US government should use operating systems made in China,' ... 'for the same reason that most governments shouldn't use operating systems made in the US

Stallman overlooks the fact that various foreign governments already have access to the Windows source.

Microsoft to Share Source Code With Governments

Microsoft Corp. announced this week it is making the programming code for its Office 2003 software suite available to government agencies around the globe, a move partly aimed at allowing them to inspect the product for flaws and security problems.

Though Microsoft usually guards such software coding tightly, the step is an extension of an initiative the company began in January 2003 giving about 60 governments access to the inner workings of the Windows operating system. This is the first time the software giant has shared the source code for Office, which includes the Word text processing, Excel spreadsheet, and PowerPoint presentation programs.

Microsoft Grants Governments Access to Windows

Because your bank card lacks a feature key to any phone: A camera.

Feasible: http://www.techhive.com/article/94623/article.html

Wild enough?

a 3D printer doesn't just do the electronics. and it doesn't assemble multiple components into one.

There are already single printers that do multiple colors and a small variety of similar materials (up to 14 different materials in one run.)
http://www.techhive.com/article/256691/this_3d_printer_can_use_up_to_14_materials_makes_3d_printing_more_awesome.html

And there are singular printers that (each) do different materials (stainless steel, ceramic, rubber, ABS, glass, sandstone, even chocolate!)

It won't be long until there is no 'assembly' phase. The object is just printed out complete. Airbus is already looking into this: "Airbus Explores Building Planes With Giant 3D Printers"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2012/07/11/airbus-explores-a-future-where-planes-are-built-with-giant-3d-printers/