There is a post (in Russian) that explains Yandex's position better.
It's quite long-winded, but boils down to the fact that several phone manufacturers were told that they will be globally denied access to Google services if they ship a Russian regional version with Yandex's competing services pre-installed.
It's not just a matter of "in Russia, choose between having Google Play / Google services and Yandex", but "try to pre-install competitors in one market and we won't give you Google Play access anywhere".
[...] they will have to either test on Developer Edition, Nightly, or one of the unbranded builds [...]
Yes, there was much outcry when Chrome killed non-signed extensions installs, but at least it allows to load a development ("unpacked") version of any extension in the stable version. This is essential for testing, after all, to ensure it works and you can debug it on the platform most users actually run.
For wireless notebooks on battery power, OOB communication is available when the system is awake and connected to the corporate network, even if the OS is down.
So no magical "I'll maintain that WiFi connection even when asleep"
Fast forward a few days, and someone tracked that bug down to an incorrect setting in Chrome code: https://codereview.chromium.or... So yes, it was very straightforward, and wasn't drivers' fault.
If you edit the video (even doing nothing) with YT tools, it will reprocess it from the source that's still kept by Google, according to https://twitter.com/Christophe...
1. This is not optional for videos that support it. If it was processed as 60fps video, then 1080p and 720p streams will only be served as 60fps. 2. Chrome has an outstanding crippling bug for months now in H/W decoding: https://code.google.com/p/chro... with the only viable workaround "disable HW decoding"
Those two combined together mean that 1080p60 is unwatchable on decent but not sparkling-new laptops under Windows, dropping frames / freezing constantly.
What I prefer in the Kickstarter model is that the money is not actually taken until the project funding deadline.
It allows to easily adjust the funding if you want to switch pledge levels (which is an absolute headache on IndieGoGo), and rectify impulsive decisions to fund something.
It also gives a sort of "time to comment". If a potentially fraudulent campaign gains traction, there are usually people sweeping in to confront project creators about it. Extreme case of that was even brought up here on Slashdot, with the iFind tags campaign, that resulted in the project being busted by Kickstarter - all before funds were collected.
With IndieGoGo? Funds are taken immediately. Good luck with refunds.
You should treat both sides as untrustworthy. Fabricated evidence, or just total lack thereof, is used by both sides.
It's an amazing trait of modern wars. We often say that cyberwarfare is the threat of the future, but right now information wars, shaping public opinion that's malleable and not always critical enough of the fact presented, is maybe a bigger thing than actual firefights on the ground. Modern technology makes information easy to manipulate, easy to inject into public view, and far, far easier to spread.
Unless a war goes on in your homeland right next to you, you can't really tell if you're being told the truth.
> For example, the VP9 codec that’s used in High Definition YouTube videos shows a 15% improvement in decoding performance.
Except that with this version, hardware-accelerated decoding broke scaling, so it now seems to scale as nearest-neighbor. Thankfully, on Windows it's possible to override hardware decoding with chrome://flags, which is a workaround for now.
First, those restrictions have recently been kicked up a notch in ridiculousness. Some publishers now disallow gift copies in those "cheaper" regions - presumably, to stop such cross-region trading, but you can't even gift the game to someone within the region.
Second, it's important to remember that region restrictions are entirely up to the publisher. As far as I can tell, Steam more or less mandates cheaper prices for Russian region, but adding restrictions is entirely publisher's decision. For instance, no digital copy of a Valve game was ever subject to those restrictions (retail is another matter though). Most indies don't opt for regional versions.
Like you always did. Developer mode did not change this time around.
Also, how do I run the custom extensions that are used in our company and should not be publically available?
Enterprise install policy is unchanged. If you can use it, you can use extensions from any source. Even NPAPI extensions, which are now banned from Store.
How about extensions that are installed with some hardware, like the one that makes Dymo labelwriters accessible from JavaScript?
It's probably not an extension, but a plugin. That's a bit different, but they will also be going away end of this year.
I understand that there are several viable workarounds. Especially since on Windows, ChromeSxS actually works (hello, #38598), using unstable is relatively painless. But I can't shake off the feeling that you got a nice bonus of enforcing CWS TOS on the largest chunk of your userbase.
Non-Web-Store extensions never had auto-update to begin with. The only difference between loading unpacked and side-loading is that it's a bit trickier to install unpacked, and Chrome will warn you every time you start up.
This is simply not true. I've been an extension developer for quite a long time, and I've always hosted a beta version of my extension outside CWS, with auto-update, using update_url key in the manifest.
And that's why I had to scramble to move my beta version to CWS unlisted before 33 hit stable. If I missed the announcement, it would be slightly painful to recover. I wonder though, if you've engineered the hard block of an extension to still look for updates. So that a user who had an extension blocked by this would later get the extension back if the developer submitted it to the webstore with the pem file.
You should dig around the website 365 tomorrows, which publishes daily science fiction short stories, "flash fiction". It's frequently quite thought provoking and is exactly about exploring how future can change our lives in form of short peeks into it.
Being pedantic here, but the summary is slightly wrong. The comic strip's name is "PHD comics", where PHD = Piled Higher and Deeper. It's obviously a play on Ph.D., but facts are facts.
Slashdot Mirror
There is a post (in Russian) that explains Yandex's position better.
It's quite long-winded, but boils down to the fact that several phone manufacturers were told that they will be globally denied access to Google services if they ship a Russian regional version with Yandex's competing services pre-installed.
It's not just a matter of "in Russia, choose between having Google Play / Google services and Yandex", but "try to pre-install competitors in one market and we won't give you Google Play access anywhere".
[...] they will have to either test on Developer Edition, Nightly, or one of the unbranded builds [...]
Yes, there was much outcry when Chrome killed non-signed extensions installs, but at least it allows to load a development ("unpacked") version of any extension in the stable version. This is essential for testing, after all, to ensure it works and you can debug it on the platform most users actually run.
If FF does not allow it, well, nuts.
Quoting the same article
For wireless notebooks on battery power, OOB communication is available when the system is awake and connected to the corporate network, even if the OS is down.
So no magical "I'll maintain that WiFi connection even when asleep"
Fast forward a few days, and someone tracked that bug down to an incorrect setting in Chrome code: https://codereview.chromium.or...
So yes, it was very straightforward, and wasn't drivers' fault.
If you edit the video (even doing nothing) with YT tools, it will reprocess it from the source that's still kept by Google, according to https://twitter.com/Christophe...
There are some problems with this.
1. This is not optional for videos that support it. If it was processed as 60fps video, then 1080p and 720p streams will only be served as 60fps.
2. Chrome has an outstanding crippling bug for months now in H/W decoding: https://code.google.com/p/chro... with the only viable workaround "disable HW decoding"
Those two combined together mean that 1080p60 is unwatchable on decent but not sparkling-new laptops under Windows, dropping frames / freezing constantly.
The (late) Pictures For Sad Children had a very relevant comic.
On the Gear VR? They've got accelerometer data. It's probably not as precise as external tracking, but still.
What I prefer in the Kickstarter model is that the money is not actually taken until the project funding deadline.
It allows to easily adjust the funding if you want to switch pledge levels (which is an absolute headache on IndieGoGo), and rectify impulsive decisions to fund something.
It also gives a sort of "time to comment". If a potentially fraudulent campaign gains traction, there are usually people sweeping in to confront project creators about it. Extreme case of that was even brought up here on Slashdot, with the iFind tags campaign, that resulted in the project being busted by Kickstarter - all before funds were collected.
With IndieGoGo? Funds are taken immediately. Good luck with refunds.
You should treat both sides as untrustworthy. Fabricated evidence, or just total lack thereof, is used by both sides.
It's an amazing trait of modern wars. We often say that cyberwarfare is the threat of the future, but right now information wars, shaping public opinion that's malleable and not always critical enough of the fact presented, is maybe a bigger thing than actual firefights on the ground. Modern technology makes information easy to manipulate, easy to inject into public view, and far, far easier to spread.
Unless a war goes on in your homeland right next to you, you can't really tell if you're being told the truth.
> For example, the VP9 codec that’s used in High Definition YouTube videos shows a 15% improvement in decoding performance.
Except that with this version, hardware-accelerated decoding broke scaling, so it now seems to scale as nearest-neighbor. Thankfully, on Windows it's possible to override hardware decoding with chrome://flags, which is a workaround for now.
ark.intel.com qualifies as "easily accessible", no?
In terms of thermonuclear fuel supply in the Sun, it's a good approximation. We're talking about space here.
A couple of points.
First, those restrictions have recently been kicked up a notch in ridiculousness. Some publishers now disallow gift copies in those "cheaper" regions - presumably, to stop such cross-region trading, but you can't even gift the game to someone within the region.
Second, it's important to remember that region restrictions are entirely up to the publisher. As far as I can tell, Steam more or less mandates cheaper prices for Russian region, but adding restrictions is entirely publisher's decision. For instance, no digital copy of a Valve game was ever subject to those restrictions (retail is another matter though). Most indies don't opt for regional versions.
Great. Now, do you have a spare tablet around for every target android version?
The RSS headline is even more hilarious.
Hackers Ransom European Domino's Customer Data (including Favourite Toppings) For €3
So how do I develop extensions?
Like you always did. Developer mode did not change this time around.
Also, how do I run the custom extensions that are used in our company and should not be publically available?
Enterprise install policy is unchanged. If you can use it, you can use extensions from any source. Even NPAPI extensions, which are now banned from Store.
How about extensions that are installed with some hardware, like the one that makes Dymo labelwriters accessible from JavaScript?
It's probably not an extension, but a plugin. That's a bit different, but they will also be going away end of this year.
You can use unpackaged extensions (that cannot auto-update) like alw.. Sorry, with a nagging prompt every time you launch Chrome.
A joke I've read recently:
I'm not sure if "R is written by statisticians, for statisticians" is a good thing e.g. "stadiums are built by footballers, for footballers"
What severance package?
"...was terminated by the security company..."
Golden casket, I guess. Man, corporate politics those days.
Users don't react to them well.
Thanks for the reply.
I understand that there are several viable workarounds. Especially since on Windows, ChromeSxS actually works (hello, #38598), using unstable is relatively painless. But I can't shake off the feeling that you got a nice bonus of enforcing CWS TOS on the largest chunk of your userbase.
Non-Web-Store extensions never had auto-update to begin with. The only difference between loading unpacked and side-loading is that it's a bit trickier to install unpacked, and Chrome will warn you every time you start up.
This is simply not true. I've been an extension developer for quite a long time, and I've always hosted a beta version of my extension outside CWS, with auto-update, using update_url key in the manifest.
And that's why I had to scramble to move my beta version to CWS unlisted before 33 hit stable. If I missed the announcement, it would be slightly painful to recover.
I wonder though, if you've engineered the hard block of an extension to still look for updates. So that a user who had an extension blocked by this would later get the extension back if the developer submitted it to the webstore with the pem file.
You should dig around the website 365 tomorrows, which publishes daily science fiction short stories, "flash fiction".
It's frequently quite thought provoking and is exactly about exploring how future can change our lives in form of short peeks into it.
Being pedantic here, but the summary is slightly wrong. The comic strip's name is "PHD comics", where PHD = Piled Higher and Deeper. It's obviously a play on Ph.D., but facts are facts.
Sadly, I also juggle a couple of devices too.