Oh did your video playback drop frames? -sorry we need to download this update now.
Sorry, were you enjoying your nice fps in that game? Well we had to let Defender calculate the SHA256 of all your files now.
Did you prefer to work in silence? Oh lets just initiate the full update sequence behind your back and have the fans spin to 100%
Did the userinterface become sluggish? Sorry, we can't explain why that happens when an update is pending, please just update now.
Oh so you wanted to shut down and leave office in a hurry? Can't let you do that. Lets upgrade windows now for the next 45 minutes.
Arh we see you just booted into Windows. We assume you did this to let us run all our service scripts in parallel right away, so you can sit and wait for your laptop to become responsive.
I get it, we want to keep the OS updated. But the current state of Windows if ridiculous.
I know. These days my Miele tumble dryer keeps stopping before the clothes are actually dry, beeping with this annoying sound and a faulty error code. Almost as annoying as an uranium rod stuck in a reactor.
The problem is that Oracles services will now be integrated into Slack.
Given Oracles unethical practises, like for instance their unforgivable sneaky push of the Ask Toolbar into Java updates and millions of browsers, I will go lengths to avoid products which can affect our business if/when Oracle makes yet another sneaky move.
Since Slack hosts and handles sensitive data for our team, we may have to find another IM platform now that Oracle is involved.
From a security, ethical and economical point of view it will be the correct decision to leave Slack if Oracle can access the IM data.
It is also the only way to show other enterprise companies that unethical behaviour will have economical long term consequences.
I had the exact same problem with svxhost and the update service and spent a lot of time trying to fix the problem. Once fixed it would come back a few weeks later.
I want my OS to support my productivity. It must never ever start resource intensive work behind my back when Im working. It may leave a notice about some pending updates or task that needs to be done, but it has to stay out of my way when I work. When Im working in my texteditor, listening to music, having an email client open and perhaps a few reasonable browser tabs, I want my computer running silent and cool with very low CPU load.
I actually don't care if it's "hard" to accomplish. We're talking MS. They have the resources to do this right, and they have failed. I paid for my Win7 and Microsoft is not honoring their end of the deal.
Solution:
I installed Debian on my old UX31 laptop. I installed Ubuntu on my new Spectre x360. Dual boot just in case. Everything works like a charm. No special drivers. Haven't used Windows since.
So while the Edge browser currently will use a few microwatts less that other browsers, the Windows OS will happily run the wuauserv at random times, cranking one full CPU core to 100% for hours, forcing the CPU fan to maximum speed, beautifully turning electric energy into useless heat at a very high rate.
This happens kind of randomly both while the user actually tries to get work done and when the computer has been idle for a few minutes. (Who decided that this service is actually more important than letting the user actually use the computer? And yes, you can feel the lag in certain programs when the service kicks in.)
I know the Edge and OS team probably never ever meet or even speak together. But I would say before such huge flaws in the OS has been fixed, the tiny optimizations in the Edge brower which currently has less than 4% market share, doesn't matter.
Sure it's a nice principle to have your application run with as little resource load as possible. But in this case it seems like a premature optimization.
Back in the days when the next new model would feature groundbreaking changes in our digital intercation, I would throw away any older mobile to get the next new hot thing.
Now that new models don't introduce anything new of value (at least for the last couple of years) I would rather stick with my old model as long as it actually works.
The problem is that for no real reason all models become insanely slow about the time when the next new model is introduced. A few thousand images, mail or text messages should in no way slow down the interface as it obviously happens on all models I've ever owned regardless of vendor.
Sure I know that the vendors want us all to buy a new phone every 1.5 year, but from a broader point of view it would be in everybodys interest to keep phones updated with security updates and running as long as vital parts of the phone is working.
I would like to pay a flat yearly fee to keep my phone uptodate past the standard two year actual life span my phone sees today. With hundreds of millions owners of the same model, I feel the owners have the capacity to pay for any update they could possibly want.
As long as the vendors are allowed to hold back updates, discard optimizations and abandon OSes we will see tons of happy hardware trashed only for the benefit of the vendors. Take a read on broken windows...
I agree, a lot of the so called "mobile" versions of websites are crap. Usually because features are removed and the mobile version has its own source code different from the the original site.
But quite many websites have a really nice 100% functional mobile derivative of the original "desktop" version, with much nicer UX, navigation and even speed compared to an unaltered "desktop" version on a mobile device.
Awareness of responsive features in the design phase, proper implementation in HTML and clever use of CSS media queries will do most of the job even in highly complex websites.
Agreed, sometimes a bit of JavaScript is required, and this may feel less clean. But compared to the advantages of a proper mobile version, I can live with that.
By your logic we should have two busdrivers, two truckdrivers for trucks transporting dangerous stuff, two persons in the gasoline truck at the aitport, two persons for all situations where a single person could hurt more than X persons.
It's not about inconvenience. Everybody would agree that if a single inconvenient precaution would eliminate a threat then it's worth it.
Having two persons in the cockpit means that a suicidal pilot would have to hurt the other person in order to crash the plane from high altitude. How does that prevent the pilot crashing the plane during a critical moment during takeoff or landing?
There is no way regulations can protect us against cruel anomalies.
At some point we have to decide if the next technology should be safer/better measured by ALL metrics or if it suffices to be significantly safer/better in the majority of most important metrics.
I get your tumbleweed vs. coyote example. But say overall traffic mortality rates are reduced by 75% by introducing Driverless Cars Version 1.0 but mortality rates in certain rare type of accidents increase.
Would you rather have a higher chance of getting killed by surrounding human driven traffic in order to have the final desiscion of where to crash your car in ethically loaded incidents?
If driverless cars proves to be safer, the arguments regarding vaccines would may apply to the discussion.
The bundling of AskToolbar with Java is a prominent example of browser hijacking, and Oracle does this in the open without even bothering to comment on the issue.
Until the end of 2014 danish citizens have been forced to use Java in order to access our banks and public accounts. The automatic updates install the AskToolbar. Even if you manually succeded in uninstalling it earlier.
In the attempt to create a secure channel of communication via Java, everybody was served a third party browser toolbar which scrapes your pageviews and records your every move on the internet.
This is how much Oracle cares about security and privacy on the internet.
In Denmark we're forced to install Java in order to access our banks and tax accounts because the national two-factor security plugin is Java only.
This way the public is elegantly taught that installing browser toolbars is a good thing in order to browse the web securely.
Oracle Denmark does not reply when asked if this is not a serious security or privacy concern.
Nets, the vendor of the Java applet, explains that Oracle can do what they want, and see no reason to argue with Oracle.
Christians Panton, a danish researcher, wrote an experimental JavaScript replacement by reverse engineering the applet, and was met by serious threats from Nets that they would sue him for patent infringements if he was to release the source code or product.
I sure hope that future politicians are more aware of digital social responsibility and enforce stuff like open protocols and open source for our digital infrastructure. In particular bundling or side installing thirdparty products should be strictly forbidden as a contractor for the public. In this case it would force Nets to reimplement their product the day Oracle bundled the Ask Toolbar crapware.
Several artists and labels have pulled their titles or complete works already.
In the preferences section it's possible to enable display of titles no longer available. This way I at least get to keep my original playlists regardless of changing licences between copyright holders and Spotify.
This of course won't help if Spotify disappears over night, but it's a nice feature.
I assume that no service will be able to promise persistent availability of all tracks and artists, so I consider this is the best I can get from a streaming service.
Upgrading the 3G to iOS 4 rendered my phone incredibly slow. It was a shame because I was actually happy with my phone, and I felt that Apple this way forced me to buy a newer model.
I just can't stand the feeling of knowing some hardware is capable of performing great but crippled by intension, careless coders or a careless company.
I consequently explored the new Android models and found a model I really like.
Dodging and burning amounts to the same as developing variants of exposures from the same raw file into layers and then mask and clip desired layers. As a photographer he should know that.
I'm sure he only used one original raw file for the photo, but the retouch he has applied disqualifies it as a pices of documentary
If local changes of contrast (or levels, saturization, exposure or similar adjustments) are allowed, then how do we define local?
Local could be an area of the picture, a face, an eye, a single pixel, or some bunch of cleverly selected pixels.
Any raw format digital or analogue has to be developed in some way, and as such interpretated. But for World Press Photo contests or any images claiming to document reality, only global changes should be allowed.
Slashdot Mirror
I get it, we want to keep the OS updated. But the current state of Windows if ridiculous.
SLU has worked with Alexa for Business to create 100 custom questions
Those are rookie numbers. Seriously, 100?
I know. These days my Miele tumble dryer keeps stopping before the clothes are actually dry, beeping with this annoying sound and a faulty error code. Almost as annoying as an uranium rod stuck in a reactor.
The problem is that Oracles services will now be integrated into Slack.
Given Oracles unethical practises, like for instance their unforgivable sneaky push of the Ask Toolbar into Java updates and millions of browsers, I will go lengths to avoid products which can affect our business if/when Oracle makes yet another sneaky move.
Since Slack hosts and handles sensitive data for our team, we may have to find another IM platform now that Oracle is involved.
From a security, ethical and economical point of view it will be the correct decision to leave Slack if Oracle can access the IM data.
It is also the only way to show other enterprise companies that unethical behaviour will have economical long term consequences.
Petya's Telemetry shows Microsoft infections in 196 Countries Around the World
In an attempt to escape internal firewalls Watson deploys malware infected USB drives to IBM clients.
I had the exact same problem with svxhost and the update service and spent a lot of time trying to fix the problem. Once fixed it would come back a few weeks later.
I want my OS to support my productivity. It must never ever start resource intensive work behind my back when Im working. It may leave a notice about some pending updates or task that needs to be done, but it has to stay out of my way when I work. When Im working in my texteditor, listening to music, having an email client open and perhaps a few reasonable browser tabs, I want my computer running silent and cool with very low CPU load.
I actually don't care if it's "hard" to accomplish. We're talking MS. They have the resources to do this right, and they have failed. I paid for my Win7 and Microsoft is not honoring their end of the deal.
Solution:
I installed Debian on my old UX31 laptop. I installed Ubuntu on my new Spectre x360. Dual boot just in case. Everything works like a charm. No special drivers. Haven't used Windows since.
That feeling.
So while the Edge browser currently will use a few microwatts less that other browsers, the Windows OS will happily run the wuauserv at random times, cranking one full CPU core to 100% for hours, forcing the CPU fan to maximum speed, beautifully turning electric energy into useless heat at a very high rate.
This happens kind of randomly both while the user actually tries to get work done and when the computer has been idle for a few minutes. (Who decided that this service is actually more important than letting the user actually use the computer? And yes, you can feel the lag in certain programs when the service kicks in.)
I know the Edge and OS team probably never ever meet or even speak together. But I would say before such huge flaws in the OS has been fixed, the tiny optimizations in the Edge brower which currently has less than 4% market share, doesn't matter.
Sure it's a nice principle to have your application run with as little resource load as possible. But in this case it seems like a premature optimization.
Back in the days when the next new model would feature groundbreaking changes in our digital intercation, I would throw away any older mobile to get the next new hot thing.
Now that new models don't introduce anything new of value (at least for the last couple of years) I would rather stick with my old model as long as it actually works.
The problem is that for no real reason all models become insanely slow about the time when the next new model is introduced. A few thousand images, mail or text messages should in no way slow down the interface as it obviously happens on all models I've ever owned regardless of vendor.
Sure I know that the vendors want us all to buy a new phone every 1.5 year, but from a broader point of view it would be in everybodys interest to keep phones updated with security updates and running as long as vital parts of the phone is working.
I would like to pay a flat yearly fee to keep my phone uptodate past the standard two year actual life span my phone sees today. With hundreds of millions owners of the same model, I feel the owners have the capacity to pay for any update they could possibly want.
As long as the vendors are allowed to hold back updates, discard optimizations and abandon OSes we will see tons of happy hardware trashed only for the benefit of the vendors. Take a read on broken windows...
You don't know that Google will do that.
Even IF they do that, would that be an acceptable price to pay compared to not having an internet connection?
I think I would prefer a cookie and internet access to no connection.
This feature belongs with the browser, not the website.
Just as a screen reader should not be implemented in the website, but in the browser.
Use a browser that allows for zooming. Or request the feature from your favorite browser vendor.
I agree, a lot of the so called "mobile" versions of websites are crap. Usually because features are removed and the mobile version has its own source code different from the the original site.
But quite many websites have a really nice 100% functional mobile derivative of the original "desktop" version, with much nicer UX, navigation and even speed compared to an unaltered "desktop" version on a mobile device.
Awareness of responsive features in the design phase, proper implementation in HTML and clever use of CSS media queries will do most of the job even in highly complex websites.
Agreed, sometimes a bit of JavaScript is required, and this may feel less clean. But compared to the advantages of a proper mobile version, I can live with that.
By your logic we should have two busdrivers, two truckdrivers for trucks transporting dangerous stuff, two persons in the gasoline truck at the aitport, two persons for all situations where a single person could hurt more than X persons.
It's not about inconvenience. Everybody would agree that if a single inconvenient precaution would eliminate a threat then it's worth it.
Having two persons in the cockpit means that a suicidal pilot would have to hurt the other person in order to crash the plane from high altitude. How does that prevent the pilot crashing the plane during a critical moment during takeoff or landing?
There is no way regulations can protect us against cruel anomalies.
At some point we have to decide if the next technology should be safer/better measured by ALL metrics or if it suffices to be significantly safer/better in the majority of most important metrics.
I get your tumbleweed vs. coyote example. But say overall traffic mortality rates are reduced by 75% by introducing Driverless Cars Version 1.0 but mortality rates in certain rare type of accidents increase.
Would you rather have a higher chance of getting killed by surrounding human driven traffic in order to have the final desiscion of where to crash your car in ethically loaded incidents?
If driverless cars proves to be safer, the arguments regarding vaccines would may apply to the discussion.
In other words, security by obscurity?
We have several Macs that have developed significant decay over time. I'm pretty sure Apple products is not exempted from this weakness.
The question is unbalanced. Learning to code is one or more courses out of many other courses in many fields.
I would say N years of daily work and practice could outbalance a N years degree
The bundling of AskToolbar with Java is a prominent example of browser hijacking, and Oracle does this in the open without even bothering to comment on the issue.
Until the end of 2014 danish citizens have been forced to use Java in order to access our banks and public accounts. The automatic updates install the AskToolbar. Even if you manually succeded in uninstalling it earlier.
In the attempt to create a secure channel of communication via Java, everybody was served a third party browser toolbar which scrapes your pageviews and records your every move on the internet.
This is how much Oracle cares about security and privacy on the internet.
I agree, measuring reliability like this is strange.
Even more disturbing is the number of drives being tested. What is the statistical significance of their results?
The test as specified by the Singularity involves a computer posting information to the general public of human beings.
The information contains false postulates about human researchers claiming various degrees of achieved artificial intelligence.
Based on comments collected across the Interwebs the Singularity estimates the current state of human percepted supremacy
In Denmark we're forced to install Java in order to access our banks and tax accounts because the national two-factor security plugin is Java only.
This way the public is elegantly taught that installing browser toolbars is a good thing in order to browse the web securely.
Oracle Denmark does not reply when asked if this is not a serious security or privacy concern.
Nets, the vendor of the Java applet, explains that Oracle can do what they want, and see no reason to argue with Oracle.
Christians Panton, a danish researcher, wrote an experimental JavaScript replacement by reverse engineering the applet, and was met by serious threats from Nets that they would sue him for patent infringements if he was to release the source code or product.
I sure hope that future politicians are more aware of digital social responsibility and enforce stuff like open protocols and open source for our digital infrastructure. In particular bundling or side installing thirdparty products should be strictly forbidden as a contractor for the public. In this case it would force Nets to reimplement their product the day Oracle bundled the Ask Toolbar crapware.
Several artists and labels have pulled their titles or complete works already.
In the preferences section it's possible to enable display of titles no longer available. This way I at least get to keep my original playlists regardless of changing licences between copyright holders and Spotify.
This of course won't help if Spotify disappears over night, but it's a nice feature.
I assume that no service will be able to promise persistent availability of all tracks and artists, so I consider this is the best I can get from a streaming service.
Upgrading the 3G to iOS 4 rendered my phone incredibly slow. It was a shame because I was actually happy with my phone, and I felt that Apple this way forced me to buy a newer model. I just can't stand the feeling of knowing some hardware is capable of performing great but crippled by intension, careless coders or a careless company. I consequently explored the new Android models and found a model I really like.
Dodging and burning amounts to the same as developing variants of exposures from the same raw file into layers and then mask and clip desired layers. As a photographer he should know that.
I'm sure he only used one original raw file for the photo, but the retouch he has applied disqualifies it as a pices of documentary
If local changes of contrast (or levels, saturization, exposure or similar adjustments) are allowed, then how do we define local?
Local could be an area of the picture, a face, an eye, a single pixel, or some bunch of cleverly selected pixels.
Any raw format digital or analogue has to be developed in some way, and as such interpretated. But for World Press Photo contests or any images claiming to document reality, only global changes should be allowed.