And that's exactly why they don't do a 32GB iPhone. They want to sell the $499 model. The 16GB model is a low anchor, that's a basic marketing technique.
And comparing an iPhone with an Android phone on specs is pointless. We all know that you can get more for cheaper with Android, but you won't get an iPhone.
The convenience would be worth the risk if it was convenient. Trouble is : it's not. The biggest problem is the lack of standardization. You can't buy any AC unit and expect it to be able to connect to any smart thermostat. You can't expect your IoT alarm clock to be able to turn on your IoT coffee machine without buying a specific machine, which, incidentally, makes poor coffee. And that's the problem, I buy things based on cost and how well they perform as things : I want a washing machine that washes well, doesn't use up too much water, doesn't make too much noise, is robust, affordable, etc... That's already a lot to ask so I don't want to add the "can it connect to the rest of my network" criteria, especially if there is a 99% chance that it doesn't.
Snowden used free software to commit what is basically a crime and brags about it... That his crime is defensible using whistleblower protection, that it is "for greater good" doesn't make it different from a technical standpoint.
And while anyone that understand the idea behind free software and encryption know that it can help good citizens and criminals alike but it may not be the same for the general public. And many of them view Snowden as a traitor.
Great writers don't tend to be highly intelligent (if they were, they'd get work that pays better).
Pay doesn't determine intelligence. If you are intelligent and use that for money, then you will certainly earn a lot. But there is more to life than money, it is well known that passed a certain point, more money doesn't make you much happier. And a trait of intelligent people is that they can do what they like the way they like and still manage to make a living, even if it isn't millions.
Initially, the story was pretty innocuous : the FBI asks Apple to push a special firmware on a single iPhone so that they can recover data they have a warrant for. Apple said no. On one side, it isn't an end-of-the-world privacy shattering demand that will doom us all. Provided that Apple is rightfully compensated for the work involved it is pretty benign (remember : only one phone will get the update, the FBI has a warrant). Maybe the compensation part is actually what started it all. On the other side it is not like the phone contains the keys that will prevent WW3, investigations can continue without it. And Apple doesn't have to go out of its way to cover what looks a lot like a screwup from the FBI.
It has now evolved into a heated argument between some of the most influential people in the world. It has become symbolic, with technically very little behind it.
The US government repeatedly asked Linus Torvalds for the source code of Linux. I heard they are pretty pissed off, something about being called "git" if I remember correctly.
If executing one man per month reduced car accidents to 0, should the government approve such execution?
This is a variant of the trolley problem. The "human" answers can be very different depending on how the problem is formulated despite the end result being the same : kill one to save five.
With fast-food chains going after anything human with their human employees, it is no wonder they found that machines are more effective. When the person taking orders has to follow a precise script and take order within a certain time, that the kitchen is all about timers and calibrated doses, what's the advantage of having humans in the first place? In a real restaurant, you can ask for advise, make special demands (within limits), the chef can compose with unusual ingredients. Commercially, they know the little attentions that can make you a returning customer. This is what humans are for. And this is part of the reason people are ready to pay more in a good restaurant, because you have real, competent humans rather than robots in human bodies.
Not when there is already an "official" method that requires a physical manipulation.
A typical Android root method that is tolerated by manufacturers requires you to reboot, press a specific button combination, connect your device to a computer via USB and run a program on the computer. This way, you can be reasonably sure that the user is the one why initiated the root procedure and not some malware. Root has serious security implications, so anything that guarantees that it really is the user's choice is a good thing.
Android is not iOS, there is plenty of choice for devices that can be rooted without shady exploits. We shouldn't rejoice when such vulnerabilities appear.
Planes pretty much fly themselves nowadays, and they are safer than ever. In Airbus jets, the stick is just a glorified game controller that sends commands to be interpreted by the autopilot according to a set of "laws". Should the pilot do something that the plane doesn't like, it will just ignore it. There are overrides of course but the idea is that the computer controls everything. No OTA yet, but one must consider that things are different in the aviation world. That's a world where in case the manufacturer screws up, the defective part has to be repaired at the customers expense or the plane is grounded.
The 5 "horror stories" are just regular hacks that happened in an hospital context. Nothing along the lines of "hacking insulin pumps to kill patients". TFA doesn't mentions any health-related harm. Only the potential problems caused by the resulting delays are mentioned.
Here are the "horror stories" 1- Stolen (as in copied) X-ray pictures 2- DDoS causing temporary internet outage 3- Doctors getting scammed for Amazon gift cards 4- Spam sending malware causing a temporary ban of the hospital mail servers 5- The most serious one : a ransomware caused the hospital network to be down for 1 week, and cost another $17000
... which has now been replaced by Google's complete dominance of the mobile market. Hmmmm... let's see here... fire.... frying pan... I can't quite decide which version of monoculture hell I'd rather be stuck in.
Google doesn't have complete dominance. Apple is still strong and most importantly, Google doesn't control all of Android. Google controls the Play Services, the rest of Android (AOSP) is free software. There are plenty of Android devices that are totally de-Googlified, especially in China.
Most real people won't care. Allowing fake people controlled by government agencies to make the rules. What you propose is like a jury trial but without a system ensuring active participation and that people are indeed people.
A friend of mine was doing a PhD thesis. Paywalled content was simply ignored, as if it didn't exist. Sad but true. Thankfully most authors offered alternative ways of getting articles.
Quite the opposite in fact. By the very nature of Bitcoin, it is impossible to hide a transaction. The only thing you can hide is the person behind a given address. By allowing small payment in BTC to a named account, Microsoft can deanonymize a few transactions.
No, I think the real reason they stopped using Bitcoin is much more down to earth. By allowing Bitcoin payment, they expected to get a few extra sales, turned out it wasn't worth the hassle, so they killed it. Another possibility is that they weren't satisfied with the payment processors.
Can anyone give the actual theorem as formulated by Tamar? Because what she found sounds obvious, the proof is well within reach of a relatively gifted 10th-grader helped by a teacher and isn't new. In itself, nothing impressive. The interesting part would be if she found some particularly clever way of solving the problem of if her proof shows some particularly deep understanding of maths.
Don't know about Russia but in France, it is forbidden to wear clothing designed to hide your face in public space. It was conceived as an anti-Burka law but it may apply to hoodies. It is no more serious than a parking ticket and it is rarely put in practice but it can give the police a reason to arrest you.
The reason task killers can decrease battery life on Android is that when an app subscribed to an event and isn't running, it is started. So the task killer may cause the app to be regularly restarted instead of just staying in memory. Task killers only help with buggy apps that can sometimes go crazy instead of properly getting into standby.
Some task killers are a bit better and can prevent apps from restarting. These can really improve your battery life, in exchange, you usually lose all background features from the app (notifications, sync,...)
If Snowden knows that the FBI claim is bullshit, why doesn't he explains how it is supposed to work or at least give us an idea. It is not like he really cares about disclosing classified information... Well, the FBI or NSA can probably infiltrate Apple and attempt to steal the key or infect the firmware from the inside but I won't complain if they decide not to do it like this.
Browser based ad blockers can block ads before the request is made while hosts files let the request pass but redirect it to a black hole. It means that in theory, browser-based adblocking can be faster.
Slashdot Mirror
And that's exactly why they don't do a 32GB iPhone. They want to sell the $499 model.
The 16GB model is a low anchor, that's a basic marketing technique.
And comparing an iPhone with an Android phone on specs is pointless. We all know that you can get more for cheaper with Android, but you won't get an iPhone.
The convenience would be worth the risk if it was convenient.
Trouble is : it's not. The biggest problem is the lack of standardization. You can't buy any AC unit and expect it to be able to connect to any smart thermostat. You can't expect your IoT alarm clock to be able to turn on your IoT coffee machine without buying a specific machine, which, incidentally, makes poor coffee.
And that's the problem, I buy things based on cost and how well they perform as things : I want a washing machine that washes well, doesn't use up too much water, doesn't make too much noise, is robust, affordable, etc... That's already a lot to ask so I don't want to add the "can it connect to the rest of my network" criteria, especially if there is a 99% chance that it doesn't.
Snowden used free software to commit what is basically a crime and brags about it...
That his crime is defensible using whistleblower protection, that it is "for greater good" doesn't make it different from a technical standpoint.
And while anyone that understand the idea behind free software and encryption know that it can help good citizens and criminals alike but it may not be the same for the general public. And many of them view Snowden as a traitor.
Great writers don't tend to be highly intelligent (if they were, they'd get work that pays better).
Pay doesn't determine intelligence. If you are intelligent and use that for money, then you will certainly earn a lot.
But there is more to life than money, it is well known that passed a certain point, more money doesn't make you much happier. And a trait of intelligent people is that they can do what they like the way they like and still manage to make a living, even if it isn't millions.
https://xkcd.com/1329/
Initially, the story was pretty innocuous : the FBI asks Apple to push a special firmware on a single iPhone so that they can recover data they have a warrant for. Apple said no.
On one side, it isn't an end-of-the-world privacy shattering demand that will doom us all. Provided that Apple is rightfully compensated for the work involved it is pretty benign (remember : only one phone will get the update, the FBI has a warrant). Maybe the compensation part is actually what started it all.
On the other side it is not like the phone contains the keys that will prevent WW3, investigations can continue without it. And Apple doesn't have to go out of its way to cover what looks a lot like a screwup from the FBI.
It has now evolved into a heated argument between some of the most influential people in the world. It has become symbolic, with technically very little behind it.
The US government repeatedly asked Linus Torvalds for the source code of Linux.
I heard they are pretty pissed off, something about being called "git" if I remember correctly.
If executing one man per month reduced car accidents to 0, should the government approve such execution?
This is a variant of the trolley problem.
The "human" answers can be very different depending on how the problem is formulated despite the end result being the same : kill one to save five.
With fast-food chains going after anything human with their human employees, it is no wonder they found that machines are more effective.
When the person taking orders has to follow a precise script and take order within a certain time, that the kitchen is all about timers and calibrated doses, what's the advantage of having humans in the first place?
In a real restaurant, you can ask for advise, make special demands (within limits), the chef can compose with unusual ingredients. Commercially, they know the little attentions that can make you a returning customer. This is what humans are for. And this is part of the reason people are ready to pay more in a good restaurant, because you have real, competent humans rather than robots in human bodies.
Not when there is already an "official" method that requires a physical manipulation.
A typical Android root method that is tolerated by manufacturers requires you to reboot, press a specific button combination, connect your device to a computer via USB and run a program on the computer. This way, you can be reasonably sure that the user is the one why initiated the root procedure and not some malware. Root has serious security implications, so anything that guarantees that it really is the user's choice is a good thing.
Android is not iOS, there is plenty of choice for devices that can be rooted without shady exploits. We shouldn't rejoice when such vulnerabilities appear.
Planes pretty much fly themselves nowadays, and they are safer than ever.
In Airbus jets, the stick is just a glorified game controller that sends commands to be interpreted by the autopilot according to a set of "laws". Should the pilot do something that the plane doesn't like, it will just ignore it. There are overrides of course but the idea is that the computer controls everything.
No OTA yet, but one must consider that things are different in the aviation world. That's a world where in case the manufacturer screws up, the defective part has to be repaired at the customers expense or the plane is grounded.
The 5 "horror stories" are just regular hacks that happened in an hospital context. Nothing along the lines of "hacking insulin pumps to kill patients". TFA doesn't mentions any health-related harm. Only the potential problems caused by the resulting delays are mentioned.
Here are the "horror stories"
1- Stolen (as in copied) X-ray pictures
2- DDoS causing temporary internet outage
3- Doctors getting scammed for Amazon gift cards
4- Spam sending malware causing a temporary ban of the hospital mail servers
5- The most serious one : a ransomware caused the hospital network to be down for 1 week, and cost another $17000
... which has now been replaced by Google's complete dominance of the mobile market. Hmmmm... let's see here... fire.... frying pan... I can't quite decide which version of monoculture hell I'd rather be stuck in.
Google doesn't have complete dominance. Apple is still strong and most importantly, Google doesn't control all of Android.
Google controls the Play Services, the rest of Android (AOSP) is free software. There are plenty of Android devices that are totally de-Googlified, especially in China.
Most real people won't care. Allowing fake people controlled by government agencies to make the rules.
What you propose is like a jury trial but without a system ensuring active participation and that people are indeed people.
support for OpenH264 codex
The OpenH264 codex is a big improvement over the scroll of Theora.
A friend of mine was doing a PhD thesis. Paywalled content was simply ignored, as if it didn't exist. Sad but true.
Thankfully most authors offered alternative ways of getting articles.
Here is an obligatory xkcd for you : https://xkcd.com/1002/
Quite the opposite in fact.
By the very nature of Bitcoin, it is impossible to hide a transaction. The only thing you can hide is the person behind a given address. By allowing small payment in BTC to a named account, Microsoft can deanonymize a few transactions.
No, I think the real reason they stopped using Bitcoin is much more down to earth. By allowing Bitcoin payment, they expected to get a few extra sales, turned out it wasn't worth the hassle, so they killed it. Another possibility is that they weren't satisfied with the payment processors.
Can anyone give the actual theorem as formulated by Tamar?
Because what she found sounds obvious, the proof is well within reach of a relatively gifted 10th-grader helped by a teacher and isn't new. In itself, nothing impressive.
The interesting part would be if she found some particularly clever way of solving the problem of if her proof shows some particularly deep understanding of maths.
Did you work for the RIAA?
Reminds me of "oh my god, a torrent, let's sue for 1 billion dollars"
Don't know about Russia but in France, it is forbidden to wear clothing designed to hide your face in public space.
It was conceived as an anti-Burka law but it may apply to hoodies. It is no more serious than a parking ticket and it is rarely put in practice but it can give the police a reason to arrest you.
I don't think a humanity that doesn't care about "useless" things like space exploration is worth saving...
The reason task killers can decrease battery life on Android is that when an app subscribed to an event and isn't running, it is started. So the task killer may cause the app to be regularly restarted instead of just staying in memory.
Task killers only help with buggy apps that can sometimes go crazy instead of properly getting into standby.
Some task killers are a bit better and can prevent apps from restarting. These can really improve your battery life, in exchange, you usually lose all background features from the app (notifications, sync, ...)
If Snowden knows that the FBI claim is bullshit, why doesn't he explains how it is supposed to work or at least give us an idea. It is not like he really cares about disclosing classified information...
Well, the FBI or NSA can probably infiltrate Apple and attempt to steal the key or infect the firmware from the inside but I won't complain if they decide not to do it like this.
Browser based ad blockers can block ads before the request is made while hosts files let the request pass but redirect it to a black hole.
It means that in theory, browser-based adblocking can be faster.