I never understood why anyone thought they were an iconic studio. The only game they ever delivered in the scale and originality they promised was Black & White. Fable, while good, was already showing cracks (compared to what Molyneux promised) and the only other original IP was The Movies, which - while also being an interesting concept - was a costly flop. That's all. Their last decade was basically spilling out Fable sequels in worsening quality, parallel of how Molyneux became more and more depressed and actually mad. After (and actually before) he left, there wasn't a strong, visionary lead there. Microsoft was actually merciful to keep them around this long.
"someone is going to do something awful that involves encrypted communication. At that point, the corporations look bad."
What? People do awful things with encrypted communication centuries. Tell me one event that would make general society and the media say "well, ok, the government can listen to all our communications from now on". It can never be justified. Frankly, setting up strong, practically uncrackable communication channels is too easy (and free) to not be the default.
This. Why Nintendo isn't in full-in on mobile platforms is beyond me. They should have been long running separate or tie-in AAA franchises on iOS and Android, maybe abandoning own hardware altogether (maybe make an own Android phone line).
Maybe it's because the company is run by depressed men in their 50s.
Sorry but all your said features are already there (I can only speak for Android here): you can mute individual apps since 4.4, and while the default mail client usually sucks (note that chances from vendor to vendor) GMail is most often preinstalled and it's superb.
Also, if you have a big enough development community, software differences are non-existent - devs will almost always come up with a similar, if not better solution.
Actions you committed under whatever name you currently used at that time (if in the real world, real name) should be accessible, if crawled or backed up. There is no "forced forgetfulness" in the real world: if you walk a street drunk and naked, you can't force bypassers to forgot your sorry face. Forced erasure of fairly recorded content in the name of "fair image" is just censorship in disguise.
Why is he surprised?
This dev created a tool that manipulates FB's core features (even if only on the front-end) - sure, it is used by a niche slice of users, but its a threat that FB understandably tries to marginalize, if not ericadate.
Instead of anonimity and silent work, SocFixer's dev made his person public, he even contacted and taunted FB (while crying loud to its users through in-app messages) - he still naively believes that his public outcry and a few thousand users would push FB to continue to let him propagate this hack right on a FB page.
I absolutely love Social Fixer and respect Matt Kruse's work, but his irresponsibility in not being anonymous with this type of project will now probably kill this great tool.
The more Bill Gates interviews I read, the more assured I am that he really is tired of the tech industry. He won't be a Wozniak-type of guy who will critically observe MS or other companies, judge platforms or review products. He endorses coding, talks about future technologies in broad terms, but he must be really pressed by reporters to share anything relevant to current affairs. He couldn't care less.
I would never, ever buy a product or service suggested by a graphical browser ad. For big brands, I just ignore it, for any previously unknown brand, it makes the advertised item cheap and phoney. There are so many better, and less obtrusive ways. Clearly marked articles (that are in line with the rest of the articles on a site), infobox in a related article, sponsored tweets, anything that fits the content on a site, and doesn't want to jump out.
I really don't know why most Android tablets lack the USB port - the OS support is there, the advantages are huge, and battery drain can be solely blamed on the pheripherial. Now Microsoft takes the marketing fame for a feature that some less known Android devices had for years.
Back when Elop arrived, Nokia had to make a choice. They obvious one was to go Android, but they tought - and this was completely sane thinking - that WP as a platform has no real flagships. Filling this spot, now with an MS guy on board, seemed indeed like a more creative idea. They rushed out a whole new range, and the Lumia line came with the limited WP7.5 on board, followed by mixed reactions and meager sales.
But I have to admit that by now, with WP8/Lumia 920, Nokia made everything it could. Even with shortening reserves, they pushed R&D came out with standout features like the stabilized camera system. They created/refined a clear, iconic design. WP8 as a platform is still very limited to customization, but Nokia made a range of apps, based on the content of their most/last valuable asset, Navteq.
And still, it probably won't be enough. People distance themselves from WP ecosystem, and (at least on the outside) WP8 does not bring much to the table. Win8 is another story, but I don't think it will drive up phone sales, even if the design language/kernel is common. And the disappointed WP7 userbase won't come back.
Looking at Nokia's work in the past 2 years, I think they made a choice that can be rightfully defended, but still, it was the wrong one. Android would have allowed much, much more freedom on the software front (even if Navteq resources could not have been used, and standout software solutions was never really Nokia's strength).
At least they now go out in glory, and not staring in the oblivion, like BlackBerry.
As far as I understand, Win8 has no less freedom for apps/games than Android. You either ship your standalone pack (installer/.apk), or use Market/GPlay (and thereby accept a list of rules). I rarely see articles like this that state that censorship/certification issues are only affecting WinRT (and even in that case, everything is parallel to iOS - so what's new, really?).
Aside from phones/tablets, why do developers carve so hard for the built-in AppStore? There is Steam, and possible future solutions, like - who knows - maybe a Cydia-like free store platform for Win8.
It's not that people hate to upgrade. Maybe, just maybe... XP is still big because with Vista's driver regulation dropped support for every system that was produced 2-3 years before it. Just here in our house there are 2 PCs that are still perfectly adequate for browsing (~2Ghz CPU), I need Windows on them, I have no other choice. Imagine this for big business. Even if Win8 would be the best thing ever, if it would drop support for Win7 drivers, Win7 would also be dominant for a decade, if not longer.
I don't want to mention the Apple Effect, but still, I mention the Apple Effect: it's the Apple Effect.
Developers think more and more often that there exists a holy path of usage, one that is so smooth, elegant and minimal that everyone finds it pleasing. Mayor usage patterns are becoming linear, and the user is left with the fact that changing background, color, and font-size are now billed advanced and sophisticated personalization options. Less options, less support problems, less things to understand.
It's one thing they want to emphasize a new design formula - they can create a Surface brand around that, and even standarize the Windows/Office logos to match this change... but to change one of the most known corporate logo in the industry? All just to reflect and match a visual layout that will necessarily be replaced in 3-6 years?
I don't see the moral problem here. Do most of the readers hate banner ads? Yup, they do. Ads that don't evoke sympathy are not effective anyway. There are tons of other ways that are not obtrusive: modified article headers ("sponsored by"), dedicated article boxes, hell, even "click to continue" stopper pages - and the content pages can remain clean.
Slashdot Mirror
You have a lot of third-party options for a better GUI - for example ConEmu.
Sony likes this.
Either this is Android-based, or their last hardware-based gaming platform.
Sure, why wouldn't it be? Since the 9x era all that's changed was its location
I never understood why anyone thought they were an iconic studio. The only game they ever delivered in the scale and originality they promised was Black & White. Fable, while good, was already showing cracks (compared to what Molyneux promised) and the only other original IP was The Movies, which - while also being an interesting concept - was a costly flop. That's all. Their last decade was basically spilling out Fable sequels in worsening quality, parallel of how Molyneux became more and more depressed and actually mad. After (and actually before) he left, there wasn't a strong, visionary lead there. Microsoft was actually merciful to keep them around this long.
"someone is going to do something awful that involves encrypted communication. At that point, the corporations look bad." What? People do awful things with encrypted communication centuries. Tell me one event that would make general society and the media say "well, ok, the government can listen to all our communications from now on". It can never be justified. Frankly, setting up strong, practically uncrackable communication channels is too easy (and free) to not be the default.
This. Why Nintendo isn't in full-in on mobile platforms is beyond me. They should have been long running separate or tie-in AAA franchises on iOS and Android, maybe abandoning own hardware altogether (maybe make an own Android phone line). Maybe it's because the company is run by depressed men in their 50s.
Sorry but all your said features are already there (I can only speak for Android here): you can mute individual apps since 4.4, and while the default mail client usually sucks (note that chances from vendor to vendor) GMail is most often preinstalled and it's superb. Also, if you have a big enough development community, software differences are non-existent - devs will almost always come up with a similar, if not better solution.
Actions you committed under whatever name you currently used at that time (if in the real world, real name) should be accessible, if crawled or backed up. There is no "forced forgetfulness" in the real world: if you walk a street drunk and naked, you can't force bypassers to forgot your sorry face. Forced erasure of fairly recorded content in the name of "fair image" is just censorship in disguise.
I also thought it was lame first, but actually it has use, the same traditional swords have: to protect the hand holding the sword.
Why is he surprised? This dev created a tool that manipulates FB's core features (even if only on the front-end) - sure, it is used by a niche slice of users, but its a threat that FB understandably tries to marginalize, if not ericadate. Instead of anonimity and silent work, SocFixer's dev made his person public, he even contacted and taunted FB (while crying loud to its users through in-app messages) - he still naively believes that his public outcry and a few thousand users would push FB to continue to let him propagate this hack right on a FB page. I absolutely love Social Fixer and respect Matt Kruse's work, but his irresponsibility in not being anonymous with this type of project will now probably kill this great tool.
The more Bill Gates interviews I read, the more assured I am that he really is tired of the tech industry. He won't be a Wozniak-type of guy who will critically observe MS or other companies, judge platforms or review products. He endorses coding, talks about future technologies in broad terms, but he must be really pressed by reporters to share anything relevant to current affairs. He couldn't care less.
I would never, ever buy a product or service suggested by a graphical browser ad. For big brands, I just ignore it, for any previously unknown brand, it makes the advertised item cheap and phoney. There are so many better, and less obtrusive ways. Clearly marked articles (that are in line with the rest of the articles on a site), infobox in a related article, sponsored tweets, anything that fits the content on a site, and doesn't want to jump out.
I really don't know why most Android tablets lack the USB port - the OS support is there, the advantages are huge, and battery drain can be solely blamed on the pheripherial. Now Microsoft takes the marketing fame for a feature that some less known Android devices had for years.
Back when Elop arrived, Nokia had to make a choice. They obvious one was to go Android, but they tought - and this was completely sane thinking - that WP as a platform has no real flagships. Filling this spot, now with an MS guy on board, seemed indeed like a more creative idea. They rushed out a whole new range, and the Lumia line came with the limited WP7.5 on board, followed by mixed reactions and meager sales.
But I have to admit that by now, with WP8/Lumia 920, Nokia made everything it could. Even with shortening reserves, they pushed R&D came out with standout features like the stabilized camera system. They created/refined a clear, iconic design. WP8 as a platform is still very limited to customization, but Nokia made a range of apps, based on the content of their most/last valuable asset, Navteq.
And still, it probably won't be enough. People distance themselves from WP ecosystem, and (at least on the outside) WP8 does not bring much to the table. Win8 is another story, but I don't think it will drive up phone sales, even if the design language/kernel is common. And the disappointed WP7 userbase won't come back. Looking at Nokia's work in the past 2 years, I think they made a choice that can be rightfully defended, but still, it was the wrong one. Android would have allowed much, much more freedom on the software front (even if Navteq resources could not have been used, and standout software solutions was never really Nokia's strength).
At least they now go out in glory, and not staring in the oblivion, like BlackBerry.
As far as I understand, Win8 has no less freedom for apps/games than Android. You either ship your standalone pack (installer/.apk), or use Market/GPlay (and thereby accept a list of rules). I rarely see articles like this that state that censorship/certification issues are only affecting WinRT (and even in that case, everything is parallel to iOS - so what's new, really?). Aside from phones/tablets, why do developers carve so hard for the built-in AppStore? There is Steam, and possible future solutions, like - who knows - maybe a Cydia-like free store platform for Win8.
It's not that people hate to upgrade. Maybe, just maybe... XP is still big because with Vista's driver regulation dropped support for every system that was produced 2-3 years before it. Just here in our house there are 2 PCs that are still perfectly adequate for browsing (~2Ghz CPU), I need Windows on them, I have no other choice. Imagine this for big business. Even if Win8 would be the best thing ever, if it would drop support for Win7 drivers, Win7 would also be dominant for a decade, if not longer.
I don't want to mention the Apple Effect, but still, I mention the Apple Effect: it's the Apple Effect. Developers think more and more often that there exists a holy path of usage, one that is so smooth, elegant and minimal that everyone finds it pleasing. Mayor usage patterns are becoming linear, and the user is left with the fact that changing background, color, and font-size are now billed advanced and sophisticated personalization options. Less options, less support problems, less things to understand.
It's one thing they want to emphasize a new design formula - they can create a Surface brand around that, and even standarize the Windows/Office logos to match this change... but to change one of the most known corporate logo in the industry? All just to reflect and match a visual layout that will necessarily be replaced in 3-6 years?
I don't see the moral problem here. Do most of the readers hate banner ads? Yup, they do. Ads that don't evoke sympathy are not effective anyway. There are tons of other ways that are not obtrusive: modified article headers ("sponsored by"), dedicated article boxes, hell, even "click to continue" stopper pages - and the content pages can remain clean.