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Hey, I don't live in a third world country either. My mayor spends a lot of time talking roads and sewers.

If the public bureaucrats have everything in hand (ha!), why even bother holding an election?

There will be tweets (or weibos as the case may be), until the government gets around to blocking them. For example this one and these.

It's pretty clear that this wasn't just a little fight, but it seems to be under control at this point. The cops were out in force, and there appear to have been military personnel on the scene as well.

This is really not debatable, or questionable, or a question of "if and why" - they banned him, for life. It is in the video, from Miller himself, who says, around 50 seconds into the linked video, "The good thing about Apple is, it's only a 1 year ban, where I'm banned from Google for... lifetime." Or, if you're really concerned that somebody somehow spliced in a convincing fake of his voice on that video, you can read it in his own words, from his twitter feed:

http://twitter.com/0xcharlie/statuses/231200006038761472

So... your thoughts on Google, Android, Andy Rubin et. al., in light of this? If Apple banning him for a year for exploiting a security hole (even for research) is moronic... how infinitely more stupid is Google for issuing a lifetime ban for simply being "associated" with someone who exploited a hole in the same manner?

http://twitter.com/0xcharlie/statuses/231200006038761472

Result # 9 from the google search: "Charlie Miller Google Play Ban" from Mr. Miller's own twitter feed, in his own words. He was banned for, in his words, "being associated with Jon Oberheide" - one of the researchers who discovered a flaw in Android's Bouncer security program that he exploited by putting multiple bogus apps up on the Play Store.

So... he didn't even exploit the security hole in Google Play - he just happened to be 'working with or associated with' someone who did.

How you feeling about Google now? They're not only banning the person who found the issue, they're banning people associated with the people reporting the issue, including Miller's wife.

Mark Lynas ( https://twitter.com/mark_lynas ) picked some interesting points out of the paper (and links to a mirror of the paper).

30% of the 20 control rats also got tumours.

This tweet from end June by
Primate Labs seems to indicate the international SGS3 scores significantly higher than the iPhone5, i.e. geekbench 1,789 vs 1,601

Please, notify the European Commission.

I am positively sure they will not like this.

(I don't have any appropriate channels, otherwise I would have done it)

Twitter Neelie: @NeelieKroesEU

You tell us to forget about Google apps and app store and then bring it up again?

Google Play and Google Apps run on Android. They are not open, and no one has ever claimed otherwise. No one is forced to use them. You can use other large app stores like Amazon or getjar.

It's not as open as your pet project? Too bad. The Jelly Bean source code has been out for a while. No other major OEM has released a Jelly Bean device yet (well you can count Asus). Want to beat them to it? Go for it: http://twitter.com/Arubin/status/27808662429

You've got several things wrong..

1. Don't use any official Android distributions (operate as a niche/self-supported market, ie. Amazon)
2. Use any combination of Android and forked android-derived distributions, but can't join the OHA
3. Join the OHA and use only an official Google Android derived OS

That's completely wrong.

You have several choices:

1) Develop an Android compatible device, compatible with existing Android applications, and don't pay a cent to Google or anyone else for Android.

Sell your devices with getjar app store, Amazon app store, Bing as default search, Nokia maps, change the UI, whatever the hell you want as long as you don't break compatibility.

2) Do 1) and also join OHA. Still don't pay a cent to Google, still sell your devices with getjar app store, Amazon app store, Bing as default search, Nokia maps, change the UI, whatever the hell you want as long as you don't break compatibility.

3) Do 1) and 2) and also license Google applications and the Google Play app store.

4) Use the open source Android code (definition of open) and do whatever the hell you want with it like Amazon, modify it, make it incompatible with Google's Store and current Android applications, don't pay anything to Google, don't join the OHA, get the source code for new versions of Android soon after Google announces them, make your own app store.

Acer chose option 3) for their current devices. Google said if they're doing option 4) with Alibaba, they cannot also do option 2) and/or 3). And Acer made their choice, nothing was forced on them. All Google could do was force Acer to leave the OHA and refuse to license Google Play and other Google applications to them. Acer could still make Android compatible devices, even continue to sell their current devices with the Amazon app store for example. They chose to remain part of the OHA.

the OEMs are already way behind in keeping official Android up to date in their design and production pipelines even with that inside track and help from Google. An OEM on its own trying to make an official Android device is thus at a large disadvantage against OEMs that are part of the OHA.

That's simply not true. Some of the first non Google devices to come out with Android 4.0 were from Chinese low end manufacturers who are not part of the OHA, much before the bigger well known OHA members. That was because the OEMs insist on customizing their devices to distinguish them from stock Android. And far from being uncompetitive, those manufacturers have been incredibly successful. Some have gone on to license Google Play and Google Apps. Want to beat Google? Make your own app store and your own apps that are better than Google's proprietary apps like Maps Gmail etc. Amazon are trying. Acer didn't want to take up that challenge. No one forced Acer to do anything. They made a choice.

What Microsoft did was refuse to sell Windows to OEMs

Wrong, Microsoft did not do that. They got into trouble for a similar thing that Google is doing now(though Android is not a monopoly so it's a different legal situation here). Microsoft withheld OEM incentives(which included discounts, advertising money etc.) from the OEMs that didn't toe their line. Google is withholding incentives like early code access(and perhaps will increase the price for or remove access to the Android app store, Google apps on the device which are neither free nor Free). Good luck with competition with the other Android OEMs if that happens, which is why Acer backtracker REAL quick and even canceled a scheduled launch event which companies do only in cases of dire need.

I don't see any difference with the Microsoft situation except these three

1. Android doesn't have a monopoly (although it's 67% marketshare in the market and since Acer can't get a iOS license which is the other 22% of the market, it's effectively a monopoly as far as Acer's options to get any revenue are concerned).

2. Android is "open", so they could probably go the Amazon route, fork Android, get AOSP code super late when competitors have already released devices with the latest and greatest OS and features, build an app store from scratch, get hundreds of thousands of developers to submit apps, develop in house replacements for Google Maps, GMail, Currents, etc. etc. etc. Or maybe try to hook up with Amazon and get access to the store. But again, good luck with competing with Samsung, HTC, Motorola, LG, Sony given these constraints.

Anyway this is pretty ironic coming from Google, given the same Andy Rubin's tweet about being open:

https://twitter.com/bttp/statuses/27864903610

http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/19/andy-rubin-twitter/

Well would you look at that. Earlier today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs went on a bit of a tirade against Google and Android in particular. And you know that couldn’t have made Android chief Andy Rubin too happy. But how was he going to respond? Well, he decided to awaken his dormant Twitter account and send his first tweet tonight. And sure enough, it’s clearly (but subtly) in response to Jobs.

Without further ado, here is Andy Rubin’s first tweet:

the definition of open: “mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make”

For those keeping score at home, that’s Rubin using some geeked-out lingo to explain exactly what open is to Steve Jobs. In other words: Android.

They build an open source operating system. When they refuse to release Honeycomb, people start claiming they're going back on the open source commitment. They release ICS and JB source code less than a week after the official announcement. They literally give Android away for free - http://twitter.com/Arubin/status/27808662429

Yet they get far more criticism than Microsoft and Apple running increasingly closed ecosystems. They get blamed for Android fragmentation. Now, when they decide to do something about fragmentation, they get blamed again. It's pretty simple isn't it, you join OHA and you maintain compatibility with Android. Or you don't, like Amazon, and take the source code for free and whatever the hell you want with it. Is that really so onerous for Acer?

When Android OEMs get sued with crap patents, Google gets blamed. Even when it's Samsung, a far bigger company who is making the majority of profits off Android (Google isn't making nearly as much), Google is somehow supposed to show up and save the day for them. When Google registers patents of their own, every time there's a Slashdot story about the pot calling the kettle black although Google have NEVER used patents to sue anyone except in retaliation, not their search patents, not their Hadoop, Mapreduce, etc. patents.

If you're an Android device used, you should be glad Google is doing this. The last thing we need is another Amazon. Try playing with a Kindle Fire - Amazon completely skinned Amazon and made it incompatible with normal Android apps. I have tried putting many in through apks, most install but almost none work properly. Despite coming with a powerful dual core processor, the devices are terribly slow and laggy. The browser is awful compared to Chrome or Safari on mobile devices. They could have gone with a completely skinned version of compatible Android, with their own skin but retain compatibility with apps. Instead, we get different versions of Android apps for the Kindle Fire. I am not sure this even works in Amazon's favour, they could still have sold all the content and made proper tablets offering real tablet functionality, not glorified content consumption devices with terribly proprietary software.

Here's the kicker:
You don't have to pay Google a cent to retain Android compatibility. Amazon could do exactly what they are doing now: run their own app store instead of using Google Play, use Nokia maps, use Bing as the default search engine, put their own browser in that tracks all websites you visit. Google's own Motorola branded handset, the RAZR M ships with the Amazon app store installed. I don't know why Google let this happen, it makes no business sense. But it's good for us consumers, you don't even have to be tied to the Google Play store.

According to Curiosity itself https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/232524619528167425 there's no microphone. So those sounds were either recorded during some other project or made in a studio somewhere specifically for that video.

I was the one to my the "Anonymous Coward" comment because I was too lazy to login, but I'm not too lazy to back my post up with facts, especially when a dumbass would rather mock the poster than actually address what was said. Here is the Tech Crunch article where they admit their mistake and stop blaming Anonymous: http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/10/godaddy-outage-takes-down-millions-of-sites/ Here is where the person taking credit says it was not Anonymous, but a solo act: https://twitter.com/AnonymousOwn3r/status/245227793334546432 Anything relevant you would like to add, kaizendojo? Or just more worthless snark?

Doesn't seem like Anonymous is particularly united in their belief this had anything to do with them.

Although Anonymous takes full responsibility for the fact that I am a Coward.

If you only want to read ebooks, then yeah, a simple e-ink reader (especially one with such a dense dot matrix) is the way to go. Alas, there are issues with the name!

But we're talking about lock screen ads, and this thing doesn't even have a lock screen.

And not I didn't come up with this analysis, Nate Silver did. http://www.twitter.com/fivethirtyeight

Is that supposed to make it credible? It's kind of like quoting Coke's criticism of Pepsi. Except of course that Silver's livelyhood depends on marketing himself, while the others are published and tenured university professors.

This is the model that passed peer review despite not passing the smell test, right?
Also the model that hasn't predicted anything yet? It simply correctly models past elections back to 1980. That's not quite the same thing.

A lot of it is also crap: The model for example claims a huge multiplier effect for unemployment ONLY for incumbent Dems, incumbent Reps are not affect by unemployment in this model.

Basically they threw bunch of crap of crap together , tweaked it until they got past elections correct... it also required them to be able to selectively dismiss 7 measurements from 8 elections

And not I didn't come up with this analysis, Nate Silver did. http://www.twitter.com/fivethirtyeight

According to friends who have visited Svartholm, he is being held on terrorism charges not related to TPB, but still on the request of Sweden:
https://twitter.com/brokep/status/243609656126230528
https://twitter.com/brokep/status/243611708386574336

Peter Sunde, a TPB founder, seems to think that it is related to the fact that Svartholm's company used to host WikiLeaks.

According to friends who have visited Svartholm, he is being held on terrorism charges not related to TPB, but still on the request of Sweden:
https://twitter.com/brokep/status/243609656126230528
https://twitter.com/brokep/status/243611708386574336

Peter Sunde, a TPB founder, seems to think that it is related to the fact that Svartholm's company used to host WikiLeaks.

"Seems strange that Jeremy Hunt is getting a hard time for believing in homeopathy. The Education Secretary believes in God. " - http://twitter.com/frankieboyle/status/242964690030960640

(his daughter)
https://twitter.com/EmmaHeming/statuses/242631258310594562

Somebody from Slashdot ought to read these comments and update the story... it's totally a hoax according to his wife.

Nope, actually the message is this story is made up.

Bruce Willis has decided...

Actually, Bruce Willis has done no such thing. According to his wife, the story is made up.

If a story sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Well, the craft suffered another malfunction, this time in flight. It appeared that nothing touched the ground or hit anything, it just broke in mid-flight. Nobody was hurt, and it appears that a new record for height was reached, as the last flight unofficially broke nine feet. More info on the team's twitter feed.

The aircraft was damaged Thursday evening after another attempt at altitude. The team has repaired the craft though and resumed testing just a few minutes ago. The flights are taking place at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex, 8001 Sheriff Road, Landover, MD 20785, if you want to see their latest attempts!

His purpose is not to save everyone regardless, it is to offer a reward to only those who seek him and do what he requires. To everyone else who chooses to ignore it, God chooses to ignore them. They are left to themselves. Not a punishment per se - just that the reward is only offered to those who really want it.

Sounds like you're still fully under the thumb to me. You should read up on ancient Norse, Slavic, Greek & Roman religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Paganism, Voodoo/ Santeria... if you'd like to get some perspective. They're all full of great stories, and can be vessels for encouraging moral / cultural attitudes, and for inspiring great (or at least extreme) deeds in their followers, but when you know about the alternatives you might come to question whether the Abrahamic god is any more valid than all the others that exist / have existed. To put it more tritely

I'm not an atheist, and I'm not saying there's no God(s), just that we shouldn't presume to know anything about him/it/them just because we've only been exposed to one set of ideas about him/it/them. Ideas which are in all likelihood those of a human being.

"When the iPhone debuted, it was widely criticized for having no buttons/keys. Now people think the iPhone's design is 'obvious.' "
- Dan Frakes

Which leads to this thought:

You just don’t use weasel-y statements like “I never tested positive” instead of “I never, ever took anything, ever” for no reason...

https://twitter.com/dnanian/status/239051323658620928

From this article "The fundraiser goal was reached in six days, put over the top by $33,333 from an anonymous donor." ... I wonder who this anonymous donor may be.

Close!

Now it's taken to social media to turn public opinion against lasing of rocks.

Here's the rock's Twitter account.

That is false. God Bless the internet.

To everyone posting here, thank you all for the donations and thoughts. It was a long and challenging project but I am very proud of the end result. I'm considering a second project, if anyone is interested in hearing about it in the next couple of weeks, please make sure to follow us on Twitter/FB/our blog etc: https://twitter.com/ajdunn83 or /musopen or our blog at blog.musopen.org Thanks again, Aaron Dunn Musopen.org

I bet Sarcastic Rover's feeling much better about Mars now: http://twitter.com/SarcasticRover.

Alright, so this is the part that baffles me:

Nearly eighteen months ago, we gave developers guidance that they should not build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience." And to reiterate what I wrote in my last post, that guidance continues to apply today.

Ok, so developers need to do something to differentiate. Got it.

We will require all applications that display Tweets to adhere to these. Among them: linking @usernames to the appropriate Twitter profile, displaying appropriate Tweet actions (e.g. Retweet, reply and favorite) and scaling display of Tweets appropriately based on the device. If your application displays Tweets to users, and it doesn't adhere to our Display Requirements, we reserve the right to revoke your application key.

Right! So developers shouldn't build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter experience - and instead they should differentiate by building apps that adhere strictly to the UI requirements. These requirements provide explicit detail as to how to create a client that mimics and reproduces the mainstream Twitter experience.

Wait, how's that again?

I've been on imageboards for years and years, yet that diagram from TFA and the words beneath it are the most offensive things I've ever seen. I don't think I can look at either of them directly.

I don't see evilness but I see abusiveness, Microsoft like behavior, example: hiding Thunderbolt to OSs that doesn't expose themselves with the name Darwin

How the heck do people this dumb get to be a CEO of anything: http://twitter.com/KactusOTP/

https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/235824711601360898

Hope it's true.

https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/235824711601360898

The source linked by the parent is misleading. The events are being live-tweeted by one James Albury. He has since clarified that:

I wouldnt describe it as a raid. The police entered side door peaceably. I dont think area they are in is sovereign Ecuadorian.

Just regular, everyday police. Not armed or anything and were apparently allowed in by Ecuadorian officials.

Are you sure about that? There's people in there at least - invited or not, I don't know.
https://twitter.com/alburyj/status/235906217413865473

It tends to remind me of AOL.

I doubt there's 18 million people that interested in him.

In him, sure, more than 18 million are probably objectively interested in him. Interested in his spammy twitter feed? Have you seen that thing? Good lord no. Most of those 18 million have to be zombie accounts which haven't been logged into for years or purchased accounts.

https://twitter.com/BarackObama

""20% of Iowa’s electricity now comes from wind, powering our homes and our businesses in a way that’s clean and renewable."—President Obama"

"Summer sale: Pick up a tank top for 25% off with the code VOTEOBAMA: http://ofa.bo/UhQJeo "

A feed with important stuff to say, sure, I could see that. Now one post a day, sure. But a spam drivel deluge every 30 minutes all day every day? Who would want to be constantly interrupted with a spam stream like that?

Apple may not be winning in market share, but they're KILLING IT in profits:

Apple captured 73% of phone industry profits and Samsung captured 26%. HTC took 1%. Everybody else lost money.

That was 3 months ago. (May 2012)

The creator of the petition says that the petition expired at the expected time. Nothing to see here.

"Installing surface software on @MarsCuriosity takes longer than on my laptop, but doesn't remind me to restart every 15 min when done. #MSL" - Bobak F, via Twitter

Sorry, I wasn't able to find a source for the rooting comment at the time. Here it is: https://twitter.com/playouya/status/225096975568207872

There is another ( well actually there is a third one as well ) less publicized lander project at NASA, check out the flight videos at http://nasa.gov/roboticlander
Coincidentally, it just did a successful untethered test flight today, see http://twitter.com/nasamightyeagle