There are many possible extraction mechanisms that have nothing to do with oil.
Care to list one that scalable? Not to mention, fixation of hydrogen so it won't evaporate has so far shown *very* low energy densities. Energy density is exactly why gasoline is king (for now).
Compared to gas, battery tech may seem a bit "cloudy" but hydrogen has truly been vapor since as long as I've been tracking it (early 90s).
EV cars are here and now, even if they don't have the range of gas cars (which really, only exist because there's a distribution network of gas stations that make gas range "feasible"). Hydrogen cars, like fusion power, seem like they'll always be 5 years in the future (or more distant).
Telsa is doing yeoman's work in reducing range anxiety.
n the end the ethnology that will win out, for those reasons and others, is Hydrogen. Cars will still be electric, they just won't have to lug around a literal ton of batteries
If there's one thing I agree with Musk about, it's that Hydrogen is a dead-end technology, and only exists as a potential is that it's backed by the oil companies, who want inferior options to exist, especially if the only extraction method is going to be fossil-fuel based anyway.
My first job out of school was in the insurance industry.... Get out. The grass is greener, just about anywhere. Even banking.
I've had several insurance industry clients when doing consulting at a large software firm. Smart tech folks, and complicated systems. Of course, Insurance is quite a racket - by accounting purposes, they simply don't lose (reinsurance and then government backing for disasters). Perhaps they're smarter than you think.
The Moto X was actually an outstanding phone. I dumped my gs3 for one. I think the real end-game here was getting Samsung back in line.
So was a primary reason to prevent the Samsung android singularity?
I think Google and Samsung are going to have clashes again in the future. Google has created a monster in South Korea, and this recent patent "harmonization" isn't going to prevent other "growing pains" as Samsung continues to eclipse any and all Android vendors (and continue to put pressure on Apple).
I was hoping that HTC would regain some territory with the HTC One, it looked like a great phone - iPhone quality build+display, but Android flexibility, and even some of the Sense UI looked decent (i.e., not bloated).
That didn't happen. Samsung is owning Android right now, and seemingly even more every day.
Isn't it sad then that the DNC is at minimum, the equal of the GOP in bloodthirst.
Obama tripled the troops in Afghanistan, opposed the treaty on cluster bombs, drone bombs anyone he feels like, tried to extend Iraq, failed, and instead called himself a peacemaker.
While I don't disagree with any of your comment, I suspect the reality is more bleak than you paint - the GOP nominee (McCain) would likely have started a war with Iran if he had won [1].
For this parody of choice, sign me up for the lesser evil. GOP aint it, and haven't been for years. Whine about Obama all you want - until there is a less bloodthirsty choice you're promoting, you are pissing in the wind.
Sounds like your plain old customer "renegotiation" where they ask the vendor to lower prices. Have no fear - I would bet solid money that Office stays preinstalled on any UK Govt builds.
Only question is how much money they can save by threatening to leave. The UK government of cronies (doing their best to improve on US-style cronyism) would not benefit from any vendor graft if the vendor doesn't ever get paid, would they?
No danger of anything happening here as long as UK government is still for sale (Vote of no confidence? That's not remotely possible anymore given the Tory/Lib alliance charter).
A community-scale pilot project by the Rich Earth Institute is demonstrating a fairly low-tech and cost-effective way to reclaim two thirds of the phosphorus and 85% of the nitrogen from human waste: recycling urine (which is nearly sterile and can be further sanitized very easily) directly into fertilizer. (Yes, #1 really does have a lot more fertilizer value than #2!) It's also being done in various public projects in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and by lots of gardeners around the world. There's also this book that talks about the history of urine as an industrial feedstock and modern methods for using it as a fertilizer at large or small scale.
The problem with this in the modern world is the vast amount of pharmaceuticals in your average modern human, of which, yes, a good amount is secreted in urine.
You know, where Android supplants all other OSs and electronic-based lifeforms?
Yeah, not going to happen. Google is now going to monetize, so you'll see forks like Amazon FireOS. Or you might see a resurgence of WindowsPhone Yes Android will continue to dominate, but it's not going to become some monoculture.
And somewhere in Cupertino, Tim Cook is laughing quietly...
1. They make it so easy to steal identities. A name and a matching social security number is all they ask, extend credit and are willing to eat their financial losses of identity theft. But the people whose identities are stolen have a long and arduous task of cleaning up their credit history. They make so difficult to freeze and lock my credit report to prevent identity theft by huge lobbying effort.
The solution to this should be conceptually simple: a "gang" needs to get together and steal the identities of various rich people, CEOs (especially those in banking), politicians, etc. Give away those identities (name and matching SSN is all that's needed, as you say) on the internet in places where lots of nefarious people will use them.
Do you still live in the 90's? Nowadays the FBI and local swat team will raid that "gang" as a matter of priority. We live in a plutocracy. Only money is represented. Remember the golden rule: he who has the gold makes the rules.
What is funny is NONE of the illegal versions of films are done in local theaters general seating. NONE. They are done by the staff in the booth or more typically the screeners are recoded at the Studio it's self.
Only the utter crap wanna-be releases are camcorder in a theater.
But the MPAA wants us to feel like dirty criminals when we go to the theater instead of cleaning their own house like they need to.
Winners: Security State fascists and MPAA for expanding their power at taxpayer's expense. Losers: everyone else. It's not like you're going to stop watching movies is it?
Guys like this are what gives glass a bad name. Its about what you would expect a theater to do if you pointed a camera at the screen the whole time. That said, you couldn't really record the whole movie, and even if you could, it would be jittery and not great resolution. Yet another case of misunderstood technology being foolishly abused.
At what point does this become GOogle's problem for creating such a conflict-generating product? Can't they make it painfully and obviously clear when it's recording so Glass wearers can say "hey, it's not recording - here's the pamphlet from Google - that's what they guarantee"?
Or make it so it's detachable from prescription lenses. I mean, that's just a bad idea - a camera that you don't ever know is recording combined with a necessity like prescription lenses.
Google needs to stop treating Glass as some "experiment" when it's users are being pulled over and ticketed or detained in theaters. Post clear guidelines to avoid being harassed by "authorities" (random people - that's not a problem yet, IIRC).
Yeah, first question would have been "Am I being detained?" followed by "I want to call my attorney and I don't consent to a search", all while recording audio at a minimum to his Google Drive.
They have to stop questioning him until an attorney arrives or anything they get is inadmissible. Of course, "cooperating" with the FBI, while really stupid, won't necessarily stop the interview process.
Why didn't he just invoke his rights and wait for an attorney. Yes, he did nothing wrong. But the FBI doesn't know that and would have held him anyway.
Just a quick question - I thought recording requires consent from both parties? Or is this just for phone conversations? Can you record audio anywhere then use that for evidence later on? Esp. on private premises?
This is going to happen more and more - wearable tech which augments is going to merge with prosthetic tech which enables / replaces. In future people who are currently blind may see via retinal implants coupled to electronic glasses with cameras (which may or may not record - how would you know ?).
There is so much in this story that's just crazy. 1) A wearable camera that is affixed to prescription glasses and not removable - who's bright idea is this? Google didn't provide any way for those around the wearer to know it's definitely NOT recording. Google FAIL, Wearer FAIL. 2) Theater owner that spies on watches and snitches to *law enformcement* because they're afraid of MPAA coming down on them for the sin of "copying a movie" (despite the fact that such a recording would look like shit). Media elite FAIL. 3) Police that abuse wearer by interrogating him for hours because - who the fuck cares about the constitituoin? Blue Omierta FAIL.
This story is a whole train wreck of colliding FAIL. No wonder it's going to have 1000+ comments on/. (Slashdot WIN!)
What I genuinely don't understand is - why break backward compatibility? Why not just layer touch on top of the existing UI?
Microsoft are desperate to get into mobile. No-one wants a smart phone with no apps. No-one wants to write apps for a smart phone OS with no users. Hence Microsoft had to push the smart phone OS onto the desktop so developers might think they'd have a market for their apps. Except no-one wants to buy a desktop PC with a smart phone OS.
After what part of Apple's seperate iPad vs. iPhone appstore categories did Microsoft fail to learn that form factor matters? I guess from their point of view, Windows runs on UMPCs all the way up to big iron so what the hell - why should display size and input factors matter?
Even a rabid zombie squirrel couldn't have made a more silly over-reaction than what happened. The only way Microsoft deals with others is "crush/squeeze" so clearly they felt they just needed to "pressure" users into using a Touch OS on non-touch computers. WTF.
Microsoft is starting to realize that being just a software company in a shrinking market is a bad position to be in. They want to get people stuck in their Microsoft account/Microsoft app store/Bing/Skype/Outlook.com mail/Office 365 subscriptions in order to generate revenue off of people in the long term instead of just the initial sale. The large number of Chromebooks sold in 2013 was likely a wake up call - not only do they come with Google Docs which people are starting to use instead of Microsoft Office, but Microsoft Office actually can't be sold to those customers except for Office Web Apps through a live.com account.
See, the difference between Microsoft and Google or Apple, is that people gladly and willingly signed up [1] for Google logins and AppleIDs because the products are simply that much better than the competition. The complaints are largely dwarfed out by by happy (or at least non-complaining) users.
Microsoft's position for Win8 is completely compromised by Metro being a BAD idea on desktops. Had they executed this better, they could have delivered something that kept the goodness of Win7, but slowly put pressure on App devs (ie, sexy new interface/foundation classes only avaialble for WinStore release) to move. Even Apple with all their skill at app stores couldn't force all the Mac App dev to happen in the Store (and Mac devs were very interested).
Just like a driver asleep at the wheel waking up to see a cliff oncoming (that was visible for miles had they been awake), and veering wildly to avoid falling off.. Microsoft is trying to force the situation, and losing it by over-compensating.
[1] note: the whole strongarming of G+ onto the existing Google products is more Microsoft-ish - I wonder if that's due to all the ex-softies that joined Google?
I've only used skype a few times. What is skype fraud?
My understanding of skype is it's basically a video phone using your general purpose computer.
I read some of TFA looking for what types of fraud they are talking about, but didn't see any detail. They mention credit card fraud, but that's not a feature of skype. I mean, if some stranger knocks on your door, and when you answer, asks for your credit card number, and you give your credit card number, that's not a weakness in your door or lock, that's a weakness in you.
What I do with my landline is never answer if I don't recognize the number or name in the caller ID. Couldn't I do the same with skype, never answer if I don't know who is calling? There you go, 100% fraud prevention.
I imagine by fraud it's what happened to my wife over a hotmail account that looked just her yahoo account. Someone phished details about us, created a hotmail account with the same userid, broke into the yahoo account, stole and imported the contact list to hotmail and then erased the list in yahoo, then using the hotmail fraud account, sent out a bunch of spam asking for money to my wife's contacts and colleagues (saying we were stuck in Mexico or something). The letter was very well done, including the names of our children and friends. All emails incoing to the yahoo account were being forwarded to hotmail as well.
Sadly, a gullible, trusting coworker did send $500. While my wife could eventually restore her access to her yahoo account, the fraud hotmail account was not closable by her, because it was not opened by her, and thus hotmail support presented us with no options. If I didn't know someone who worked at Microsoft (who helped to close the account), the emails might have continued. The only thing is, I'm surprised the attacker didn't
I imagine the same sort of thing could happen on Skype as a parallel communication mechanism.
I'm sure it will get crushed, but it will cost someone a good deal of money. That's the issue. Even many bad patent and copyright claims can be defeated in court, but you have to have the money to get there. In part, this is the fault of morons working for trademark and patent offices, and in part it is due to lawyers, of which there are far too many, and far too few severe repercussions for abuse of process.
You failed to blame the real culprit - the soulless corporation (and their zombie leadership) that requests this broad of a trademark. The CEO is probably having a great laugh at all of this, but we should really not let them off the hook.
It's not a question of "hate the game/playa" but more that bad playas can and do change the game for the worse and so should be punished to set an example.. What if Apple had trademarked the word Air for computing products and handheld devices [1]? Note they didn't - they're specific trademarks of actual products.
I had the pleasure of having beer with Theo when he was in Edmonton, AB several years ago. He even refused to let me go to the ATM to grab cash; he bought the beer for me.
My only complaint about the guy was that he was way too smart, and I struggled to keep up with all the computing security things we discussed. Hardly the worst complaint to have about him:)
He just has zero patience for bullshit, and I think that's why people complain about his personality. If you ever get the opportunity to meet him in person, I believe you'd rethink this meme about him being an ass.
So you're effectively providing a high-profile case of the Greater Internet Fuckwad theory?
In fact, I can't remember the last time Microsoft shelled out even a measly billion dollars for an acquisition.
MS paid $7.3B for aQuantive in 2007, $8.5B for Skype in 2011, and 5.4B Euros for Nokia just 4 months ago.
Just because Microsoft is spending like a drunken sailor doesn't mean Google should as well unless that's another way for them to compete with Microsoft
Seriously, Apple and Amazon don't need to make multi-billion dollar acquisitions, they buy key talent and tech, not entire markets, and rely on organic innovation (or at least put their own spin on the acquisition).
I would buy one if there was a mode to "ignore any adjustment by 15 year old daughter."
Now it might just be possible - with Google+ integration and the upcoming eyeNest (including a camera for user identification), you should be able to require face-unlock on the device. Just make sure your daughter isn't on your "Nest" circle.
Oh, and did I tell you about how the Nest circle works? Your Nest will cooperate with other Nest devices whose owners are in your Nest circle and vice-versa, and engage "social temperatures" suitable for the climate of your conversations will be automatically set. Share more than just your pictures and personal data!
It makes Apple money now but in the long run it hurts them. Apple can never really be a business OS because there simply "isn't the option for that" and that's where the stable money is. The consumers they are courting are fickle and will abandon their brand when something trendier comes along.
Fickle? No, corporations are fickle. They will see something that's marginally less expensive (even though the new vendor may have crap for support or no established reliability record) and based on some middle-manager or bean-counter's move, they will switch. Corporations don't pay up-front, they force you to accept custom contracts, then withhold payment when their requirements aren't met.
No, it's the corporate customers who are a pain in the ass and disloyal. If you happen to have the image down, and provide real service, and have established reliability, the individual consumers will take care of the marketing for you.
It's quite simple, really: a) If somebody is in "Metro" mode they stay there until they deliberately switch to "desktop". b) If somebody is in "desktop" mode, they stay on the desktop until they deliberately switch to "Metro".
Switching between the two should be an easy gesture, maybe even a special new key on machines with a proper mouse/screen/keyboard.
(And maybe the "scroll lock" key could work for us Model M diehards - is that really too much to ask? It even means we get a "Metro" warning light on the keyboard as a bonus feature).
How hard can that be?
Microsoft should just make Metro apps the new "Widgets" because, let's face it, that's what they're best designed to be. Just like in OSX and Win7, I should be able to pull up the widgets and hide them, and maybe persist one in my desktop screen over other windows.
The reason MS is sticking Metro in our face like some crazed pervert, is that they plan to make money off it - with their usual approach, by forcing their developers and user base to adopt it, and not by making it appealing. That's all MS knows - software tyranny, so I'd be surprised if they do anything different.
Unfortunately, I feel this band-aid of using multiple monitors has held back the rise of bigger monitors in general.
You're blaming the victim. I don't use a single 30"+ monitor because my work place is too cheap to shell out for one, despite it being a comparably slow-depreciation item vs. a PC.
At home, I use a wall-mounted 50" LCD TV from a few feet away combined with my laptop screen (which is retina, so very nice for small text).
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There are many possible extraction mechanisms that have nothing to do with oil.
Care to list one that scalable? Not to mention, fixation of hydrogen so it won't evaporate has so far shown *very* low energy densities. Energy density is exactly why gasoline is king (for now).
Compared to gas, battery tech may seem a bit "cloudy" but hydrogen has truly been vapor since as long as I've been tracking it (early 90s).
EV cars are here and now, even if they don't have the range of gas cars (which really, only exist because there's a distribution network of gas stations that make gas range "feasible"). Hydrogen cars, like fusion power, seem like they'll always be 5 years in the future (or more distant).
Telsa is doing yeoman's work in reducing range anxiety.
n the end the ethnology that will win out, for those reasons and others, is Hydrogen. Cars will still be electric, they just won't have to lug around a literal ton of batteries
If there's one thing I agree with Musk about, it's that Hydrogen is a dead-end technology, and only exists as a potential is that it's backed by the oil companies, who want inferior options to exist, especially if the only extraction method is going to be fossil-fuel based anyway.
...might become much easier to design.
On the other hand, not sure how this will help with airplanes, where the entire cabin is simply "rumbling" including whatever one-way surface
My first job out of school was in the insurance industry. ...
Get out. The grass is greener, just about anywhere. Even banking.
I've had several insurance industry clients when doing consulting at a large software firm. Smart tech folks, and complicated systems. Of course, Insurance is quite a racket - by accounting purposes, they simply don't lose (reinsurance and then government backing for disasters). Perhaps they're smarter than you think.
The Moto X was actually an outstanding phone. I dumped my gs3 for one. I think the real end-game here was getting Samsung back in line.
So was a primary reason to prevent the Samsung android singularity?
I think Google and Samsung are going to have clashes again in the future. Google has created a monster in South Korea, and this recent patent "harmonization" isn't going to prevent other "growing pains" as Samsung continues to eclipse any and all Android vendors (and continue to put pressure on Apple).
I was hoping that HTC would regain some territory with the HTC One, it looked like a great phone - iPhone quality build+display, but Android flexibility, and even some of the Sense UI looked decent (i.e., not bloated).
That didn't happen. Samsung is owning Android right now, and seemingly even more every day.
Isn't it sad then that the DNC is at minimum, the equal of the GOP in bloodthirst.
Obama tripled the troops in Afghanistan, opposed the treaty on cluster bombs, drone bombs anyone he feels like, tried to extend Iraq, failed, and instead called himself a peacemaker.
While I don't disagree with any of your comment, I suspect the reality is more bleak than you paint - the GOP nominee (McCain) would likely have started a war with Iran if he had won [1].
For this parody of choice, sign me up for the lesser evil. GOP aint it, and haven't been for years. Whine about Obama all you want - until there is a less bloodthirsty choice you're promoting, you are pissing in the wind.
[1] http://www.npr.org/templates/s...
Sounds like your plain old customer "renegotiation" where they ask the vendor to lower prices. Have no fear - I would bet solid money that Office stays preinstalled on any UK Govt builds.
Only question is how much money they can save by threatening to leave. The UK government of cronies (doing their best to improve on US-style cronyism) would not benefit from any vendor graft if the vendor doesn't ever get paid, would they?
No danger of anything happening here as long as UK government is still for sale (Vote of no confidence? That's not remotely possible anymore given the Tory/Lib alliance charter).
A community-scale pilot project by the Rich Earth Institute is demonstrating a fairly low-tech and cost-effective way to reclaim two thirds of the phosphorus and 85% of the nitrogen from human waste: recycling urine (which is nearly sterile and can be further sanitized very easily) directly into fertilizer. (Yes, #1 really does have a lot more fertilizer value than #2!) It's also being done in various public projects in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and by lots of gardeners around the world. There's also this book that talks about the history of urine as an industrial feedstock and modern methods for using it as a fertilizer at large or small scale.
The problem with this in the modern world is the vast amount of pharmaceuticals in your average modern human, of which, yes, a good amount is secreted in urine.
(warning: pdf) http://www.ecosan.at/ssp/issue...
You know, where Android supplants all other OSs and electronic-based lifeforms?
Yeah, not going to happen. Google is now going to monetize, so you'll see forks like Amazon FireOS. Or you might see a resurgence of WindowsPhone Yes Android will continue to dominate, but it's not going to become some monoculture.
And somewhere in Cupertino, Tim Cook is laughing quietly...
1. They make it so easy to steal identities. A name and a matching social security number is all they ask, extend credit and are willing to eat their financial losses of identity theft. But the people whose identities are stolen have a long and arduous task of cleaning up their credit history. They make so difficult to freeze and lock my credit report to prevent identity theft by huge lobbying effort.
The solution to this should be conceptually simple: a "gang" needs to get together and steal the identities of various rich people, CEOs (especially those in banking), politicians, etc. Give away those identities (name and matching SSN is all that's needed, as you say) on the internet in places where lots of nefarious people will use them.
Do you still live in the 90's? Nowadays the FBI and local swat team will raid that "gang" as a matter of priority. We live in a plutocracy. Only money is represented. Remember the golden rule: he who has the gold makes the rules.
Well you can count, but you're not quite clear on the concept of a patent troll.
Not all Trolls are NPEs, you know. Sometimes even a big player in the industry "trolls a bit" on the side (see: Microsoft's Android patents).
What is funny is NONE of the illegal versions of films are done in local theaters general seating. NONE. They are done by the staff in the booth or more typically the screeners are recoded at the Studio it's self.
Only the utter crap wanna-be releases are camcorder in a theater.
But the MPAA wants us to feel like dirty criminals when we go to the theater instead of cleaning their own house like they need to.
Winners: Security State fascists and MPAA for expanding their power at taxpayer's expense. Losers: everyone else. It's not like you're going to stop watching movies is it?
Guys like this are what gives glass a bad name. Its about what you would expect a theater to do if you pointed a camera at the screen the whole time. That said, you couldn't really record the whole movie, and even if you could, it would be jittery and not great resolution. Yet another case of misunderstood technology being foolishly abused.
At what point does this become GOogle's problem for creating such a conflict-generating product? Can't they make it painfully and obviously clear when it's recording so Glass wearers can say "hey, it's not recording - here's the pamphlet from Google - that's what they guarantee"?
Or make it so it's detachable from prescription lenses. I mean, that's just a bad idea - a camera that you don't ever know is recording combined with a necessity like prescription lenses.
Google needs to stop treating Glass as some "experiment" when it's users are being pulled over and ticketed or detained in theaters. Post clear guidelines to avoid being harassed by "authorities" (random people - that's not a problem yet, IIRC).
Yeah, first question would have been "Am I being detained?" followed by "I want to call my attorney and I don't consent to a search", all while recording audio at a minimum to his Google Drive.
They have to stop questioning him until an attorney arrives or anything they get is inadmissible. Of course, "cooperating" with the FBI, while really stupid, won't necessarily stop the interview process.
Why didn't he just invoke his rights and wait for an attorney. Yes, he did nothing wrong. But the FBI doesn't know that and would have held him anyway.
Just a quick question - I thought recording requires consent from both parties? Or is this just for phone conversations? Can you record audio anywhere then use that for evidence later on? Esp. on private premises?
This is going to happen more and more - wearable tech which augments is going to merge with prosthetic tech which enables / replaces. In future people who are currently blind may see via retinal implants coupled to electronic glasses with cameras (which may or may not record - how would you know ?).
There is so much in this story that's just crazy.
1) A wearable camera that is affixed to prescription glasses and not removable - who's bright idea is this? Google didn't provide any way for those around the wearer to know it's definitely NOT recording. Google FAIL, Wearer FAIL.
2) Theater owner that spies on watches and snitches to *law enformcement* because they're afraid of MPAA coming down on them for the sin of "copying a movie" (despite the fact that such a recording would look like shit). Media elite FAIL.
3) Police that abuse wearer by interrogating him for hours because - who the fuck cares about the constitituoin? Blue Omierta FAIL.
This story is a whole train wreck of colliding FAIL. No wonder it's going to have 1000+ comments on /. (Slashdot WIN!)
What I genuinely don't understand is - why break backward compatibility? Why not just layer touch on top of the existing UI?
Microsoft are desperate to get into mobile.
No-one wants a smart phone with no apps.
No-one wants to write apps for a smart phone OS with no users.
Hence Microsoft had to push the smart phone OS onto the desktop so developers might think they'd have a market for their apps.
Except no-one wants to buy a desktop PC with a smart phone OS.
After what part of Apple's seperate iPad vs. iPhone appstore categories did Microsoft fail to learn that form factor matters? I guess from their point of view, Windows runs on UMPCs all the way up to big iron so what the hell - why should display size and input factors matter?
Even a rabid zombie squirrel couldn't have made a more silly over-reaction than what happened. The only way Microsoft deals with others is "crush/squeeze" so clearly they felt they just needed to "pressure" users into using a Touch OS on non-touch computers. WTF.
Microsoft is starting to realize that being just a software company in a shrinking market is a bad position to be in. They want to get people stuck in their Microsoft account/Microsoft app store/Bing/Skype/Outlook.com mail/Office 365 subscriptions in order to generate revenue off of people in the long term instead of just the initial sale. The large number of Chromebooks sold in 2013 was likely a wake up call - not only do they come with Google Docs which people are starting to use instead of Microsoft Office, but Microsoft Office actually can't be sold to those customers except for Office Web Apps through a live.com account.
See, the difference between Microsoft and Google or Apple, is that people gladly and willingly signed up [1] for Google logins and AppleIDs because the products are simply that much better than the competition. The complaints are largely dwarfed out by by happy (or at least non-complaining) users.
Microsoft's position for Win8 is completely compromised by Metro being a BAD idea on desktops. Had they executed this better, they could have delivered something that kept the goodness of Win7, but slowly put pressure on App devs (ie, sexy new interface/foundation classes only avaialble for WinStore release) to move. Even Apple with all their skill at app stores couldn't force all the Mac App dev to happen in the Store (and Mac devs were very interested).
Just like a driver asleep at the wheel waking up to see a cliff oncoming (that was visible for miles had they been awake), and veering wildly to avoid falling off.. Microsoft is trying to force the situation, and losing it by over-compensating.
[1] note: the whole strongarming of G+ onto the existing Google products is more Microsoft-ish - I wonder if that's due to all the ex-softies that joined Google?
I've only used skype a few times. What is skype fraud?
My understanding of skype is it's basically a video phone using your general purpose computer.
I read some of TFA looking for what types of fraud they are talking about, but didn't see any detail. They mention credit card fraud, but that's not a feature of skype. I mean, if some stranger knocks on your door, and when you answer, asks for your credit card number, and you give your credit card number, that's not a weakness in your door or lock, that's a weakness in you.
What I do with my landline is never answer if I don't recognize the number or name in the caller ID. Couldn't I do the same with skype, never answer if I don't know who is calling? There you go, 100% fraud prevention.
I imagine by fraud it's what happened to my wife over a hotmail account that looked just her yahoo account. Someone phished details about us, created a hotmail account with the same userid, broke into the yahoo account, stole and imported the contact list to hotmail and then erased the list in yahoo, then using the hotmail fraud account, sent out a bunch of spam asking for money to my wife's contacts and colleagues (saying we were stuck in Mexico or something). The letter was very well done, including the names of our children and friends. All emails incoing to the yahoo account were being forwarded to hotmail as well.
Sadly, a gullible, trusting coworker did send $500. While my wife could eventually restore her access to her yahoo account, the fraud hotmail account was not closable by her, because it was not opened by her, and thus hotmail support presented us with no options. If I didn't know someone who worked at Microsoft (who helped to close the account), the emails might have continued. The only thing is, I'm surprised the attacker didn't
I imagine the same sort of thing could happen on Skype as a parallel communication mechanism.
I'm sure it will get crushed, but it will cost someone a good deal of money. That's the issue. Even many bad patent and copyright claims can be defeated in court, but you have to have the money to get there. In part, this is the fault of morons working for trademark and patent offices, and in part it is due to lawyers, of which there are far too many, and far too few severe repercussions for abuse of process.
You failed to blame the real culprit - the soulless corporation (and their zombie leadership) that requests this broad of a trademark. The CEO is probably having a great laugh at all of this, but we should really not let them off the hook.
It's not a question of "hate the game/playa" but more that bad playas can and do change the game for the worse and so should be punished to set an example.. What if Apple had trademarked the word Air for computing products and handheld devices [1]? Note they didn't - they're specific trademarks of actual products.
[1] https://www.apple.com/legal/in...
I had the pleasure of having beer with Theo when he was in Edmonton, AB several years ago. He even refused to let me go to the ATM to grab cash; he bought the beer for me.
My only complaint about the guy was that he was way too smart, and I struggled to keep up with all the computing security things we discussed. Hardly the worst complaint to have about him :)
He just has zero patience for bullshit, and I think that's why people complain about his personality. If you ever get the opportunity to meet him in person, I believe you'd rethink this meme about him being an ass.
So you're effectively providing a high-profile case of the Greater Internet Fuckwad theory?
http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/2004/04/02/penny_arcades_greater_internet_fuckwad_theory/
In fact, I can't remember the last time Microsoft shelled out even a measly billion dollars for an acquisition.
MS paid $7.3B for aQuantive in 2007, $8.5B for Skype in 2011, and 5.4B Euros for Nokia just 4 months ago.
Just because Microsoft is spending like a drunken sailor doesn't mean Google should as well unless that's another way for them to compete with Microsoft
Seriously, Apple and Amazon don't need to make multi-billion dollar acquisitions, they buy key talent and tech, not entire markets, and rely on organic innovation (or at least put their own spin on the acquisition).
We have a Nest and love it.
I would buy one if there was a mode to "ignore any adjustment by 15 year old daughter."
Now it might just be possible - with Google+ integration and the upcoming eyeNest (including a camera for user identification), you should be able to require face-unlock on the device. Just make sure your daughter isn't on your "Nest" circle.
Oh, and did I tell you about how the Nest circle works? Your Nest will cooperate with other Nest devices whose owners are in your Nest circle and vice-versa, and engage "social temperatures" suitable for the climate of your conversations will be automatically set. Share more than just your pictures and personal data!
Well, it works for Apple...
It makes Apple money now but in the long run it hurts them. Apple can never really be a business OS because there simply "isn't the option for that" and that's where the stable money is. The consumers they are courting are fickle and will abandon their brand when something trendier comes along.
Fickle? No, corporations are fickle. They will see something that's marginally less expensive (even though the new vendor may have crap for support or no established reliability record) and based on some middle-manager or bean-counter's move, they will switch. Corporations don't pay up-front, they force you to accept custom contracts, then withhold payment when their requirements aren't met.
No, it's the corporate customers who are a pain in the ass and disloyal. If you happen to have the image down, and provide real service, and have established reliability, the individual consumers will take care of the marketing for you.
They should hire me to fix it...
It's quite simple, really:
a) If somebody is in "Metro" mode they stay there until they deliberately switch to "desktop".
b) If somebody is in "desktop" mode, they stay on the desktop until they deliberately switch to "Metro".
Switching between the two should be an easy gesture, maybe even a special new key on machines with a proper mouse/screen/keyboard.
(And maybe the "scroll lock" key could work for us Model M diehards - is that really too much to ask? It even means we get a "Metro" warning light on the keyboard as a bonus feature).
How hard can that be?
Microsoft should just make Metro apps the new "Widgets" because, let's face it, that's what they're best designed to be. Just like in OSX and Win7, I should be able to pull up the widgets and hide them, and maybe persist one in my desktop screen over other windows.
The reason MS is sticking Metro in our face like some crazed pervert, is that they plan to make money off it - with their usual approach, by forcing their developers and user base to adopt it, and not by making it appealing. That's all MS knows - software tyranny, so I'd be surprised if they do anything different.
Unfortunately, I feel this band-aid of using multiple monitors has held back the rise of bigger monitors in general.
You're blaming the victim. I don't use a single 30"+ monitor because my work place is too cheap to shell out for one, despite it being a comparably slow-depreciation item vs. a PC.
At home, I use a wall-mounted 50" LCD TV from a few feet away combined with my laptop screen (which is retina, so very nice for small text).