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Here's a SMALL partial only sample of OpenBid/realtime bidding & other ad networks malware makers have taken advantage of to infect you with:

http://www.itworld.com/securit...

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.co...

http://www.zdnet.com/ad-exec-o...

http://search.slashdot.org/sto...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023...

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.co...

http://www.securityweek.com/ea...

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/m...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

APK

P.S.=> See subject & those links (AND we're free of ads that not only INFECT US, but also STEAL BANDWIDTH & SPEED WE PAY FOR MONTHLY too)

... apk

"The PC has stopped being the primary computing device of most people meaning that if they don't make it big on the mobile front they'll be irrelevant in the long run."

Agreed. But I think Microsoft will not "make it big" with mobile software.

Products that face low sales because of abuse and foolishness:

Windows: If you have Windows 7, why get a new version? At some point the version you have is enough. Apparently there aren't any new features in Windows 10 that are attractive to customers. Apparently the new features in Windows 10 are all anti-customer.

Google is becoming more and more abusive: F.T.C. Is Said to Investigate Claims That Google Used Android to Promote Its Products.

Apple iPhones: What will the future iPhone 7 have that the iPhone 6 doesn't have? Digital Turnip Twaddling? At some point people will stop rushing to buy new iPhones.

Apple watches? Now that Steve Jobs is dead, Apple no longer releases easy-to-use products. Apple now does the Microsoft thing and releases buggy products that it slowly fixes. Articles:

Verdict: "... there's a learning curve you have to overcome..."

Seven problems facing the Apple Watch

Apple Watch: Issues We Know Of And Possible Fixes.

Opinion: One month later, fixing 15 early Apple Watch problems seems straightforward

These 8 problems with the Apple Watch are 'infuriating'

9 of the biggest complaints about the Apple Watch so far

8 Infuriating Problems With The Apple Watch

>> America Runs Out of IPv4 Internet Addresses

Again?
http://arstechnica.com/informa...
http://www.zdnet.com/article/n... ...

Here's a SMALL partial only sample of OpenBid & other ad networks malware makers have taken advantage of to infect you with:

http://www.itworld.com/securit...

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.co...

http://www.zdnet.com/ad-exec-o...

http://search.slashdot.org/sto...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023...

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.co...

http://www.securityweek.com/ea...

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/m...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

APK

P.S.=> See subject & those links (AND we're free of ads that not only INFECT US, but also STEAL BANDWIDTH & SPEED WE PAY FOR MONTHLY too) - to be continued in my next subsequent post with MORE of the same information for you vs. your b.s. advertiser

... apk

Solandri : "All Microsoft had to do was add native dialing and cellular chipset support to WinCE .. Apple knows a lot about computers. They didn't know phones"

"The original iPhone .. had a 3.5-inch LCD screen at 320x480 and 163ppi, a quad-band 2G EDGE data radio, 802.11b.g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, and a 2 megapixel camera" ref

Microsoft shows up late to the smartphone party

Here's a SMALL partial only sample of OpenBid ad networks malware makers have taken advantage of to infect you with:

http://www.itworld.com/securit...

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.co...

http://www.zdnet.com/ad-exec-o...

http://search.slashdot.org/sto...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023...

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.co...

http://www.securityweek.com/ea...

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/m...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

APK

P.S.=> See subject & those links...

... apk

but it really got bad during the financial collapse of 2008.

Ya know what was really strange to me? During the deep recession of late 2008 to 2010, Apple's stock (and marketshare) SURGED, while the rest of the industry TANKED.

As you mentioned, Apple products are not bargain-basement; but for whatever reason, they weathered the economic storms of the Recession with AMAZING performance!

Frankly, it amazed me, too. But facts is facts, and you didn't check them. So here you go...

Well considering how many people are sticking to or buying Galaxy S5 phones and S6 sales are horrible, I'd say that maybe these features are more valued than you and Samsung would like to believe.

Samsung Silent on Disastrous S6 Sales
  - "Has the reduced battery life and removal of expandable storage in the new models proved a bigger negative in customer eyes than was expected?"

Why Samsung Galaxy S6 sales suck
  - "Samsung took things that S5 owners liked - features such as a removable battery and microSD card slot - and dumped them from the S6 design in order to make a smartphone that looked and felt more like the iPhone."

Then Microsoft bailed them out to avoid anti-trust problems.

Incorrect - Microsoft coughed up the cash because they were facing a massive copyright infringement lawsuit that they would surely lose, and took the settlement way out.

Here's the relevant bit:

Here are some backstory that recasts the myth in a different light:

Microsoft's $150 stock investment was the result of a settlement of a lawsuit. In fact, the investment was just an initial payment for other "substantial balancing payments" that would be spread out over then next few years, then Apple CFO Fred Anderson said at the time.

The exact amount of the settlement is still unknown as far as I am aware. I've seen estimates from $500 million to more than $1 billion.

The two companies would cross-license all their existing patents, and any new patents that would become available during the next five years.

That Apple would make Internet Explorer the default browser for the Mac. If this seems strange, then understand that it meant that Microsoft would support IE for the next 5 years, during a time when IE was the primary browser on the market and when sites were designed specifically to support it.

What was this legal action that gave Apple so much leverage over Redmond? It was a strange one: the Apple Computer v. San Francisco Canyon Co. lawsuit.

I'm all for helping little guys get started, but it's amazing how much they miss out on. Even high profile projects (like the Raspberry Pi) seem to miss out on things like FCC/CE/UL certifications.

Another one that I like to point out is the Ouya. They were trying to deliver an Android Box, a controller, and a custom Android build and marketplace for the same price that most other companies were asking for just an Android Box. It was pretty easy to tell from the start that they were going to have to cut a lot of corners on the product to meet the price they advertised.

This implies that the Netics report has figures to an accuracy of better than 0.01%, which I find, to put it mildly, surprising.

I was going to post something along the lines that I am prepared to believe that an organisation might find it more efficient to use Microsoft products instead of open source, but that given the unbelievable precison of the figures:
(1) I don't trust the figures, and (2) I don't trust anyone who prepares a report with unbelievably precise figures: at best, they are being lazy in not rounding the raw figures, or worse they don't understand what they are doing, or at worst they are being deliberately misleading:

Spurious accuracy seduces journalists time and time again
Wikipedia - False Precision
Slashdotters may enjoy the 3.5inch floppy diskette story. Personal computers with 3.5 inch diskette drives were commonly specified as having 88.9 mm drives in metric countries, 88.9 mm being the exact, though overly precise, conversion of 3.5 inches. In fact, the diskettes are 90 mm wide everywhere in the world per ISO/IEC 9529-1 specification, 3.5 inch being an approximation. (I had intended to put an "allegedly" in front of that story, but the Wikipedia article links to that ISO/IEC specification and to an HP specifications sheet with the width of the diskette drive being 3.5in/88.9 mm!)

That was what I intended to post. Then it occurred to me to look at the Microsoft Italy page linked in the ZDNet article:
https://news.microsoft.com/it-...

Using Google Translate gives:
... with OpenOffice annual spending per user has been estimated at more than 500 euros, much higher than the previous annual spending Office user of about 118 Euros ...
... The annual expenditure per user with Office 365 is also approximately 197 euros ...
... the net annual spending per user falls further to around 110 euros ...

The "more than 500" is fine and the "around 110" is probably ok.
Being picky, the "about 118" and "approximately 197" should probably be rounded.

Even so, that is much better than the ludicrous "precision" of the figures in the ZDNet article. I assume Federico Guerrini (for Italy's got tech) didn't invent the figures in the ZDNet article, so a plausible guess is:

1. Maybe the Netics researchers' report did give figures to "better" than 0.01% "accuracy".
2. Someone in news.microsoft.com/it had the good sense to round these figures for their news item.
3. The ZDNet article by Federico Guerrini used the figures directly from the Netics report.

If so, then I suggest that the Italian ZDNet reporters take their Microsoft colleagues out for a long lunch and learn how to treat statistics properly, including asking *really* hard and probing questions to any researchers who use inappropriate precision.

If not, then I am really intrigued as to why the ZDNet article has those "precise" figures.

Well, Oracle (or a flack thereof) explained why they dumped the post (quoted in full in an update on TFA):

"The security of our products and services has always been critically important to Oracle. Oracle has a robust program of product security assurance and works with third party researchers and customers to jointly ensure that applications built with Oracle technology are secure. We removed the post as it does not reflect our beliefs or our relationship with our customers."

Methinks Ms. Davidson may find herself forced into 'spending more time with her family', and updating her resumé fairly soon...

Yes, it tells the time. The watch shows text messages on an iPhone so that it isn't necessary to take the phone out of a pocket. But, does that justify paying $500 or $1,000?

Would you want your company to suffer the destruction of reputation faced by Apple?

Seven problems facing the Apple Watch

Apple Watch: Issues We Know Of And Possible Fixes.

Opinion: One month later, fixing 15 early Apple Watch problems seems straightforward

These 8 problems with the Apple Watch are 'infuriating'

9 of the biggest complaints about the Apple Watch so far

8 Infuriating Problems With The Apple Watch

I really don't see why so many are ragging on the WinPhone. How many here have actually used one? The wife has one and its quite nice, the UI was easier for her to pick up than either my Android 4.4 or the iPhone 5 she had previously, its got good battery life, excellent speech to text (frankly more accurate than my Android), comfortable in the hand, decent screen, the only real complaint I could level at the thing is that they don't have a flagship that compares with the latest Galaxy or iPhone but if you compare like hardware to like hardware? they run very nicely.

Oh and as an added bonus since MSFT handles all the updates we don't have to worry about the carrier abandoning her or having to find a hacked ROM as I did on my HTC because the phone had support end 3 minutes after it left the factory, in fact hers is on the first round release list so she should get Win10 on release. Previous updates have been as easy as "push button, let phone reboot" without having to actively hunt or did as I had to and look for ROMs with my previous phone. Hell I would have probably went with WinPhone but I like to get customized ROMs with speed tweaks and the like and that is the one place Android has a real leg up, at least for me, but then again I'm not the average phone user.

My current phone (A BLU Studio Mini LTE) has gotten the 4.4.2 update, will it get 5 without me having to find a hacked ROM? Who knows, probably not if history is an indicator, and I've had Android phones that never got a single update from the carrier and were just left to rot. At least with the Lumia that gamble is gone and if they release a flagship phone I have zero doubt I'll be getting one for the wife, she just loves how easy and reliable her WinPhone is.

What makes you think that MS will use Windows Update to change settings?

Because they've done it before.

'Under the patent piece of the deal, Microsoft acquired 8,500 design patents covering phone manufacturing from Nokia. Microsoft is also licensing another 30,000 "utility" patents from Nokia for ten years, with the option to renew in perpetuity.' ref

When they bought Nokia, the rally cry was, "WE ARE MARSHALL!!!!"

'Under the patent piece of the deal, Microsoft acquired 8,500 design patents covering phone manufacturing from Nokia. Microsoft is also licensing another 30,000 "utility" patents from Nokia for ten years, with the option to renew in perpetuity.' ref

Turns out, high up in the stratosphere the winds are predictable and have just the patterns they need. They did simulations using real-world wind data and found it was quite feasible to navigate balloons effectively to maintain coverage using only prevailing winds.

Since 2012 they've been trialling in New Zealand, Brazil and other places, they've increased balloon flight times from 50 days to over 6 months (despite expert scepticism), and now they're close to ready to roll out a commercial service. Pretty sure they've done their research by now.

1998: Intel exec: MS wanted to 'extend, embrace and extinguish' competition.

Not quite a full roll back to previous policies....they have a tool you can download that will allow you to hide and skip particular updates that you choose (I believe):

http://www.zdnet.com/article/m...

For most folks (who wouldn't know how to use this) its full on install everything, including device drivers - no change in default policy (what a nightmare).

12,500 of the 18,000 were Nokia people, yes, but that still leaves 5,000 Microsoft people who got axed. The group of Microsoft employees that took the biggest hit was the QA testers. See here for example.

The organizational changes Myerson mentions as being completed in the U.S. yesterday are focused largely around decreasing the number of testers as compared to the number of developers, resulting in layoffs of a number of those testers.

If you look at some of the recent patch debacles, it becomes fairly clear that there isn't nearly enough testing being done. Almost every Patch Tuesday for the last year has included multiple patches that broke stuff for a subset of users, and ultimately had to be recalled, fixed, and re-released. There are some patches that have gone through the recall and re-release cycle three times before Microsoft got it "right." Doesn't seem to bode well for Windows 10.

MS seems to have released a troubleshooting tool to block these kinds of updates: http://www.zdnet.com/article/m...

AC a bit of reading shows Australia has some super computer ambitions and spending.
Quantum computer work has been great for funding.
"Quantum storage breakthrough key to 'unbreakable' encryption A new quantum hard drive jointly developed by researchers in Australia and New Zealand could lead the way to an 'unbreakable' worldwide data encryption network."(January 12, 2015)
http://www.zdnet.com/article/q...
"Powerful quantum computers move a step closer to reality A research team from Australia has pushed quantum computers closer to fruition, but a former NSA director warns that the technology could break encryption" (October 2014)

It irritates me every time I hear this ruddy nonsense that keeps spewing out of Seattle and San Fransisco that we're not cranking out enough computer science graduates.

Hey Microsoft! Newsflash! Computer science majors rise and fall as starting salaries rise and fall.

If you want to see more majors, raise your starting salaries. Stop firing everyone and outsourcing to India.

The Symantec report quotes numbers - not reasons. The referenced "story" just quotes a summary of figures from the Report.

The biggest changes to email in the last year have not been arrests or deaths of spammers - but the implementation of SPF, DKIM and DMARC by email providers.

Especially in my experience, has greatly increased the amount of email rejected for delivery (so sorry, the claimed source is clearly spoofed, now filed in the big round grey folder). The "direct"/email marketing forums are full of "entrepreneurs" complaining about it (boo-fucking-hoo).

Primarily it stops forged From headers with providers that reject failures or missing authentication (e.g. Yahoo), Secondly it (DMARC) increases spam reports by providers that use the data, resulting in faster and more accurate spam filters from the suppliers.

Next year will be hell on spammers as many email providers follow Yahoo's lead and change their DMARC policy to "p=reject". Maybe then we'll see mailing list providers stop whining about the policy and work-around it (instead of continuing to do things the way they've always done things in a changing world), and they'll see a reduction in the amount of spam they are resending. Anecdotal evidence is that they've all seen an increase in spam as spammers target mail providers that don't enforce SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

Sure the full implementation will piss off some that aren't actually spammers (*cough*MailChimp*cough) but it'll also make phishing a lot harder. Eventually it may even shut up those who don't understand it, well, maybe. It isn't perfect, though it's not a bad as clueless Seltzer claims. In a perfect world people would deploy DNSSEC on their email servers so better sender authentication methods could be used - and all email senders and recipients would use and understand PGP (fat chance of that happening).

Well they do break the OS. And I got tired after posting of the most visible instances.

8500 of those, including manufacturing processes for those phones. They also bought perpetual licenses for every other patent Nokia has outside of the NSN stuff. MS also gets the protection of 60 or so cross-licenses Nokia had with other companies like Qualcomm, Motorola Mobility, and Motorola Solutions. Here's an article about those patent licenses and purchases.

In case "Motorola Mobility" doesn't ring quite the right bell, that's the portion of Motorola that Google bought and then sold to Arris Group and Lenovo as two separate pieces, keeping a third piece and all but about 2000 patents.

This significantly weakens the case of any Android phone manufacturer trying to settle patent suits against Microsoft in a patent-for-patent cross licensing swap. The patents Microsoft actually owns are one thing. The massive number of patents they already have a license to that could otherwise be used MAD-style in a back-and-forth license fee case are another entirely.

Also if you want to do in-field software updates

....why don't also stop trolling with their patents the companies that uses Android. http://www.zdnet.com/article/m...

Tell that to:

Automattic
Mozilla
GitHub
Basecamp (formerly 37signals) (who even wrote a book about how great remote working can be)

along with a myriad of other companies who work either entirely remotely, or have very liberal policies around remote working.

Most, if not all of whom, can be considered to be quite successful within their field.

i watched an interview with linus torvalds where he showed off his programming walking desk (treadmill/desk combo).

i think that is the best solution and i'm planning to do the same for my new study (current one doesn't have enough room). he reckons a "zombie shuffling mode" aka walking at 1 mph is the top speed at which he can comfortably read, type and use mouse on his computer.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/l...
https://plus.google.com/+Linus...

The timing is awful, this was essentially just banned in New Zealand.

If you just need one extra screen, you could use an iPad: http://www.zdnet.com/article/d...
Of course, it looks to be Windows/Mac only and limited to one iPad, but they say they're actively working on it.

I've considered doing something like this. It would be simple in linux to set up a vnc server on a virtual monitor and then just use a vnc client on the ipad to display the screen. It could then be wireless. Might not work great for videos on the "second monitor" but would work great for the type of things that I typically use my second monitor for.

If you just need one extra screen, you could use an iPad: http://www.zdnet.com/article/d...
Of course, it looks to be Windows/Mac only and limited to one iPad, but they say they're actively working on it.

The issue is that business people are still "the enemy" in Spain. See Start a business in Spain: mission impossible?. There is the difficulty of legally starting a company, employment regulations (25% night pay, 22 weeks paid vacation, weird "labor contract" rules, 3 weeks severance pay for someone even if you lay them off after one year), high business taxes. Then there is the difficulty of getting any credit, and it takes nearly two years to enforce a contract through the courts.

On the other hand, there are new labor reforms going into place in Spain that may reduce the burden on employers, good info here on entrepreneurism in Spain.

I would assume based on the OP/summary, it's dual licensed MPL/GPL source code, otherwise you are correct...

However, the summary also mentions iOS, and I was under the impression that GPL apps on the Apple AppStore are a no go?

eg. http://www.zdnet.com/article/n...

It's amazing to me how much Slashdot readers hate discussing business management. Discussing business management is often painful, but I think we should accept the pain and get the job done. For example:

Marissa Meyer is not competent, in my opinion. A dishonest or sneaky CEO should be fired. This is the 2nd recent nasty manipulation Meyer has arranged. This is the first:

Has Firefox been Embraced and Extended with the intention of Extinguishing it by Microsoft? Mozilla Foundation now gets most of its money from Microsoft. Microsoft pays Yahoo. Yahoo pays Mozilla Foundation to make "Yahoo search" (actually Microsoft Bing search) the default search engine in Firefox. Most people don't have the technical knowledge to know how they've been manipulated, or how to restore the default search engine to Google search. Marissa Meyer's sneakiness is damaging Firefox's reputation.

The Thunderbird and SeaMonkey Composer GUIs have been damaged, apparently deliberately. Every time you do a file save, the newer versions of both ask for a new file name, and don't suggest the last file name chosen. The damage was reported several months ago, but has not been fixed. Is that another example of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish? People who feel forced away from Thunderbird may choose Microsoft software to replace it. Is that what Microsoft is trying to accomplish?

Change in subject: It's amazing how fast computer programming languages die. Pascal died in 2 years. Java is almost dead because the U.S. government issued a very negative warning.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/l...
http://www.itwire.com/business...
covered here http://linux.slashdot.org/stor...

Here.

Because it's the navy. They have nukes.

Here.

"Stockholm is the home of billion dollar startups in Europe, and by one measure the Swedish capital is second only to Silicon Valley as the birthplace for the world's most successful internet companies." http://www.zdnet.com/article/s... On the other hand there is a lot of other cities that also makes the list. Like London and Helsinki among others.

Actually, it is an emulator (comment credit link, story link.) I presume that the graphics part has to be tested and/or diddled for every title, and so there will be frequent updates to the emulator. (I made the same speculation you did earlier...)

Yes, the 360 will be software emulated. It sounds like games are not ported, but the same binary will be used.

If the feature were practical at the beginning, Microsoft would have stolen the show from PS4 by providing backwards compat on day one. More users would have upgraded immediately. That is too obvious to assume this is something they have been holding out.

It is not a port, it is a 360 software emulator. That emulator took a time to develop (right), and based on my linked article I get the sense that the emulator is tweaked per-title to focus on the performance characteristics that are specific to that game.

According to Mary Jo Foley, this statement was provided by Microsoft officials:

What we did was essentially built a virtual Xbox 360 console entirely in software. So when you launch a game via Xbox One Backward Compatibility, you'll see that the game first starts up a virtual Xbox 360 console, then launches the title. The work is ongoing as each title requires individual packaging and validation work to enable that virtual console capability, but we're committed to continually rolling out new titles each month.

This doesn't sound like porting a game, or a game that is very similar. It's the exact same game running in software emulation.

But the emulator may be adjusted on a per-title basis to ensure optimal performance.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/e...

Also, thanks for ruining Slashdot by turning it to anti-MS circlejerk over the years. RIP Slashdot ghost town.

This. Would anyone still use an FTDI chip?

a) They'll also be offering key distribution.

b) Yes! 1) It prevents whoever is intercepting my emails (lets assume facebook is feeding info to the NSA here, but it could still keep out the Iranians/cybercriminals etc) knowing that Susie (networks:I hate Ahmadinejad) communicates with me. ie. Communications metadata - a pretty big thing. 2) It moves to towards a model of (increased) privacy by default.This is good because it makes bulk collection much more difficult (even if they can crack the encryption it vastly ups the resources they need), leads to widespread adoption of encryption for "important" stuff too and removes the stigma/guilt by association of encryption usage.

Wait, I thought that any time now we'd have the "Year of the Linux Desktop!" It has only been promised to us for 20 years now.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/2...

That was from 2004.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story...

That is from 2005, but has some interesting observations from years past

http://linux.slashdot.org/stor...

That one is from 2007, it asks "Is 2008 the Year of the Linux Desktop?"

---

NO IT IS NOT AND IT NEVER WILL BE. Yea, yea, a few techies use it and will probably always use it. It will run millions of servers and continue to do so. And 10 years from now, 95% of desktop and notebook PCs will continue to run Windows.

Not to muddy the waters, and perhaps a little off topic, but I've read several articles that estimate Microsoft brings in between $2 billion to $8.8 billion in license fees from harware makers using Android. These are two year old posts:

https://www.google.com/#q=micr...

http://www.zdnet.com/article/m...

And,

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ti...

The last link asserts MS makes five times as much from these fees than it does on the Windows Phone OS. There have been recent developments in settling disputes about fees paid by Samsung to Microsoft, so some of the numbers are not up to date, but one point that's clear, Android is not free to hardware makers and indirectly to hardware purchasers but do result in substantial Microsoft revenue.