A pity that the article does not give any indication of how he it could be better done. A gut feeling that 'we are doing this all wrong' is not much (practical) use without some idea of how we should be doing it.
That's because there are none that are satisfactory.
First, we have to accept the fact that computers and the internet are a necessity to participate in a modern economy. Especially in developed nations - where it's extremely difficult to do anything without the Internet, including stuff like apply for a job. Still possible to do it the "old way" but they're rapidly being abandoned as ancient and costly. Even retail jobs are starting to demand online applications.
With that under our belt, the next thing to realize is that we can't expect the entire population to become computer experts. Cars are a necessary evil as well, but we don't expect the entire population to become a mechanic, either. (Nor do we expect a mechanic to be able to debug problems with their computerized diagnostic tools - unless you're the masochist that doesn't mind being billed at $75/hr for him to recompile the kernel). Literally, everyone outside tech-related fields (and a large number of people IN tech related fields) have much better things to do with their time than babysit a computer - these things should just work.
The final thing to know is well, Dancing pigs - given a choice between dancing animals and security, users will pick dancing animals every time.
So what can we do about it?
We can restrict the Internet to those with "internet licenses", similar to the way we license drivers, and implement annual "computer inspections" like vehicle inspections. Of course, this has many issues of its own.
Or we could lock down computers and require them to operate on a white list basis, but given Dancing Pigs, most uesrs will just whitelist everything. The atternative is said computer can only run whitelisted software, but that gets techies all riled up (even though right now such systems are completely voluntary, though popular).
The other alternative is we have to live with it, accept the fact that the vast majority of the population are using computers as a tool to get stuff done and will never be "techies". Status quo.
a group of songs from each of Final Fantasy's first 13 main series titles are available for play
13 songs is like two animated formulaic disney movies worth of music... How much would you pay for 2 DVDs and 2 soundtrack CDs? Probably end up over $40.
There are 5 songs each from FF1-FF13. Or a minimum of 65 separate songs. Not 13.
You have the opening and finale themes from each game (granted a few are similar), a signature battle theme, a signature character theme, and a signature theme from the game itself (usually the one with vocals in the later games). That's at a minimum, too - there are other unlockable songs and DLC.
The 3D is useless and best played while it's off.
The 3DS does have a pretty good set of speakers for a portable device - more than well worth it compared to the generally crap speakers on most phones (the Dolby Surround is surprisingly good inside the sweet spot (which is larger than the 3D sweet spot)).
It's surprising it's not a phone app, but then again, Squeenix's releases on phones tend to be generally pricey ($15+). But at least Android shines here in not having to jailbreak and install hacked patches to get the game much cheaper.
I can tell. The lens and F stop have nothing to do with speed, the shutter does. Of course with fast shutter speed you need fast film (is there still any around?) and a larger aperture (F-stop).
The lens has nothing to do with a camera's speed.
And you're speaking nonsense.
First, there are three variables at play when taking a photo. The shutter speed, the aperture size (usually expressed as a fraction of focal length, f), and the "film" speed (sensitivity).
A properly exposed photo (usually desired in most cases excepting artistic composition) is where sufficient photons hit the light-sensitive medium to generate a usable image. With 3 variables to play with, there is a whole range of settings that will generate an image.
Hence the concepts of stuff like "stops" - where you can halve the shutter speed (1/30th from 1/60th, say), but also close down the aperture (by half) and still end up with a good exposure. Or decrease the media's sensitivity.
What you use depends on the situation and artistic effects you want to put on it - larger apertures reduce depth of field, faster shutters "freeze" fast motion, more sensitive recording media generally are noisier/grainier, etc.
A "fast" lens is called that because it has a very wide aperture that can let in lots of light, meaning you can get very nicely exposed photos at very high shutter speeds, thus capturing faster motion. A "slow" lens means the aperture is smaller and thus requires a longer exposure time (slower shutter speed).
Remember, it's all about getting the proper exposure, and playing with the three variables will generate many configurations of apeture/shutter/sensitivity that will work. The one you use depends on the situation.
Actually I think china is pretty aggressive in protecting its industries from foreign patent infringement it just isn't so aggressive in protecting western countries from infringement.
Actually, most countries are like that. I'm fairly certain it's the same in the US as well. Infringe on a foreign country's copyright/patent/whatever? No big deal. But infringe on OUR copyright/patent/whatever? Very Big Deal(tm).
Plenty of pirated video suppliers operating commercially in the US that aren't prosecuted because the MPAA/RIAA/etc have nothing nor do they care about enforcing other's copyrights (they're only about THEIR copyrights, after all).
This happens even WITH all the international agreements.
Another pity is that (almost) no commercially available devices that will implement this chip will actually run a free OS....
I'm certain there will be lots - 64-bit isn't currently too important for the consumer space (really, you need 4GB of RAM in your phone?).
No, the real benefit will come from the high end stuff - servers mostly. And you can bet that servers run Linux. Now there's a lightweight lower-power machine that can probably do 90% of the server tasks Sure it won't run a DBMS in most cases, but there's probably more than enough power to run a whole cluster of webservers (since you can probably fit a ton in a 1U chassis).
Hell, Microsoft might be forced to make an ARM version of Windows Server just to compete.
Reparability means that it is not so damaged that it cannot be repaired: it connotes something about the level of damage of the object.
"Unrepairability" may be a useful neologism to distinguish those products that are designed to restrict just who can repair them.
On the flip side, someone pointed out that a user who buys a replacement battery will probably just toss the old battery in the trash, rather than recycling them (no, you can't blue-box it but have to drop it off somewhere).
Since Apple will take all their computers back for recycling, by making it non-user-servicable, having ti returned to Apple means the whole product is recycled, rather than bits and pieces thrown away as their repaired.
If they don't manufacture physical objects, and the companies are "only buying the specs" then how do ARM processors get built?
There are two kinds of ARM licensees. One is purely a block licensee - these guys basically buy the ARM RTL ready to be synthesized and plopped on silicon (or tested on FPGAs). Most ARM licensees go this route.
The other is a microarchitecture license. There are only 3 known ones - Marvell (acquired from Intel who got it from Compaq, who got it from DEC), Qualcomm, and Apple (who actually invested in ARM very early on). These guys basically get access to the RTL and can make their own changes to it - basically to make an instruction-set compatible version of the ARM processor that doesn't have to be derived from
ARM generates the architecture and cores, and now they've basically put in place the necessary code to support their upcoming 64-bit processors.
And while no silicon current exists of the 64-bit (AArch64 - ARM Architecture 64-bit, the 32-bit one we're familiar with is now called AArch32), ARM would've tested it on FPGAs against their cores, so they'll work.
Of course, you haven't done Linux until you've tried to boot it on an FPGA system where the processor runs at 5MHz or so. Or faster if you disable items. (Linux 3.x took around 3-5 minutes to boot in a minimal configuration from "Uncompressing Linux" until it got to a shell prompt. One configuration with dual processors I've used only ran at 2.5MHz. Took 20 minutes to boot - 10 minutes from "Uncompressing Linux" to "done. Booting the kernel", and a further 10 to go from that to shell prompt.).
Receivers - well, you have normal receive rules, though the cellphone one is pretty much invalid these days as no one uses AMPS anymore.
Transmitters - the rule basically says if you have a software transmitter, that software better only allow transmission on the licensed bands.
There aren't any special rules other than "don't transmit where you're not licensed to". The rule for software options is basically ensuring that the user cannot misprogram their transmitter and operate out of band and interfere with other licensed services.
It's the same as an old style transmitter - care should be taken so users cannot readily change the operating frequency and power so they create interference.
And yes, the fines are like that because they apply to unlicensed transmitters as well - if you're transmitting on a band you're not supposed to, you, the user can find your equipment confiscated and fined.
The law is perfectly adequate - manufacturers need to ensure their SDR cannot be used out of the licensed bands (and power envelopes). It's an "SDR" rule because in an old style transmitter, the output stages normally dictate that you can't transmit out of band anyhow without retuning. But since an SDR can be free to transmit on any band without limitation, the software must ensure it's within the license and the user can't trivially modify it to be out of spec.
SDRs are everywhere - the modern cellphone, wifi radio, bluetooth, etc., they're all SDRs internally. These normally have very specific front ends and filters so even if you could set them out of band, they are out of tune and don't transmit squat.
It's a fair rule and prevents frequency anarchy (and frequencies are set aside for various uses).
We all know how GPS works, and even the basics of the math behind it, but where does one find more in-depth mateirals? Like if one were to create a GPS receiver, how to translate those signals into something useful? Not just dumping the equations out and say "solve this" but working step by step through a solution and then adding in corrections like relativity?
Hackers â" the Mark Zuckerberg variety, not the identity thieves â" have long crammed into odd or tiny spaces and worked together to solve problems.
Wait, Mark Zuck is not an identity thief?
Is it stealing if someone just gives it to you?
After all, the information on Facebook is provided voluntarily by its users. It wasn't obtained through hacking their computers or purchasing their information from the various databaes. It was provided to Facebook free of charge by the user.
It's really hard to steal what people are giving you. Of course, sometimes people need a bit more convincing, but that's what "privacy" controls are for. Give them a false sense of control and they'll open right up. Keeping something "private" on Facebook is like telling someone a secret you don't want to spread.
They are not responsible for their hopefully grown-up customers that are all obviously trusted by the banks to have credit cards.
Sure, they should have known better than to trust users to change their passwords, but some people need to learn the hard way. At most, this means a few weeks of sleepless nights for their PR-department.
OTOH, I wonder if all 140,000 customers who used the default passowrd actually USED the account? It sounds like it was a customer service portal thing - not something they normally login with. For those people, they probalby managed their account by phone rather than thinking to log into the customer service potral and do all their changes there?
The shutdowns are getting faster, too. Now, 30 days from announcement to "all your data is gone" is apparently acceptable. Don't put something in the "cloud" and go on a long trip.
A long sabattical, more likely. MobileMe's shutdown was announced over a year ago (when iCloud was announced). iWork was always a beta thing with "final pricing to come later". And I think iWork.com has been around a heck of a long time - at least a couple of years (a Google-like beta). But since it was beta, you shouldn't rely on it since it can be shut down, metamorphosed or change. After all, relying on it is akin to using the Windows 8 previews as if it was final - it's going ot shut down soon enough. Heck, wasn't there a Windows 7 open beta that managed to wipe all your media files when you run it?
Interestingly, MobileMe's sync is down (the shutdown having happened), but users can still get at their files and stuff for another month or so in case they really missed every possible announcement of its shutdown.
So iWork being shut down - not a big deal (it's really migrating to iCloud so I'd be surprised if things really changed). MobileMe was a bigger deal since people paid for it, but you had over a year, and Apple did give a couple of extensions and refused to take money for expanded MobileMe services...
Was curious how these guys could send text messages to people looking like they came from you (because there's no way for an app to get its hands on your phone number) - but realized from TFA that the user was prompted to enter their mobile phone number into a text box (and no validation was done on that). So, for idiots, it might look like it was coming from you. But there's no F'in way I'm entering my phone number into an app I download from the app store.
Odd, considering there are APIs to get the phone number already. Especially since well, your phone should know its number already.
I find it interesting though that since the iOS APIs disallow sending SMSes without user confirmation, that they have to be using a third party SMS service. An interesting runaround to the iOS restrictions in that case.
Time for Apple to tell us who the offender was... they have their name and address after all.
...for fireworks to be like that, just constant rockets and explosions non-stop for 10-20 minutes. Why do fireworks shows limit their bursts to a Grand Finale?
Put me in charge of destroying money like this, and I'll create a number of bursts that keep you watching for the entire show, leading up to a ridiculous ending worthy of shore shelling from the Iowa.
Fireworks shows are shows, and multi-media experiences. Which mean it's not all just boom-boom-boom like some bad rap song, but carefully choreographed visuals in time with music.
In fact, the timing of the explosions with the music is an extremely precise art - fireworks aren't that precise, but being able to take into account that and producing a good show overall is extremely competitive. Especially with other pyro that doesn't necessary fly up and explode.
Then again, it's the US. Finely crafted pyro shows? Who gives a damn - people just want to see big loud booms and call it a night. (And yes, they do make mortars whose sole purpose is to just make big loud booms...).
The minerals are theirs; why shouldn't they keep them?
The problem is they entered into trade agreements. Which means that they get to sell stuff without tarriffs imposed, in exchange for the other country to sell stuff to them without tariffs.
These agreements may have included raw materials as well.
Not to say that it doesn't happen elsewhere (the US is notorious for imposing trade restrictions when it turns out that the agreed to free trade agreements mean some lobbying group is losing out).
Why would it matter to Youtube if somebody rips the sound track from a video? If it's an issue of unauthorized copies, then shouldn't the video with the unauthorized soundtrack on itin the first place be taken down?
Probably not if YOU do it. But if someone else does it, it's a Big Deal.
If you haven't noticed, YouTube has ads - they have ads that play before the video plays (if only they could determine if I'm watching a 1 minute video, to NOT show me a 3 minute ad...). They also have pop up ads that show about 10 seconds in (the yellow line in the bar gives it away).
Google's revenue source is ads. Basically a site like this means Google's serving up video (for free) without making it back as an eyeball in ad revenue. And for YouTube original content, those ad views also go back to the creator, so it's possible Google even loses money on that - paying the creator for a view that never happened.
If it wasn't so expensive to host, you could bet that MP3 rippers would be a fairly minor issue - there would be sites that let you view YouTube videos ad-free.
What Google did is perfectly consistent and doesn't matter about the source material, the RIAA, MPAA, whatever. They will ensure they get their ad views.
Hell, I'm surprised Google didn't just sign up a bunch of audio ads and insert them in the audio stream when it detects the site.
Huh, then you have to wonder whether the signature process failed or the hash process failed...if the signature process failed and the App Store not only passed incorrectly signed apps onto devices but allowed them to be installed, that's a security vulnerability.
I'd suspect something a bit more innoculous.- like data center storage corruption.
iOS apps are encrypted - or rather, parts of them are. The executable has portions of its code and data segments encrypted, and the list of encrypted parts and the decryption key are then encrypted with the user's Apple ID key. That key is transferred to the device so that iOS can decrypt the binary encryptoin key and the list of encrypted segments (there aren't any headers).
The reason apps can crash would include either the encryption table is blank and iOS decrypts the binary incorrectly (probable cause - disk full) thus causing corrupt code and data to be executed, or perhaps everything IS encrypted properly, but the binary is corrupt.
The former would be erratic - some people would find it works correctly, others not, and it wouldn't matter if updates happened because it would occur on any download. The latter would mean the storage system has failed and thus during the DRM process, it's DRM'ing corrupt binaries.
Since it's specific binaries that do this, perhaps some of Apple's massive storage servers have failed catastrophically. (they use iSilon/EMC storage servers at their NC datacenter I believe). And also why re-uploaded versions of same work - they were put on more stable storage.
FYI - the way pirated apps work is they run the app, then use GDB to halt execution. Then they use GDB to dump the running image back out to get the decrypted version which then replaces the encrypted chunks with the decrypted versions.
I would also guess that Apple's "fixing it" because I kept running into issues downloading ("This application is not currently available").
What exactly in the iPhone is new or novel? Everything done in it has been done in other phones before it, all they did was package up everyone else's innovations make it pretty and slap a logo on it and claim they invented the phone market. Slide to unlock was as obvious as it gets when your dealing with a touch screen. How would you propose you unlock a smart phone?
Yep, that's why RIM, Nokia/Symbian, Windows Mobile, PalmOS are doing SO well these days. After all, the iPhone couldn't even compete against these smartphone heavyweights.
As for unlocking, let's see. Windows Mobile used either the keypad (hit Start, hit 9 I think). or tap the button marked "Unlock". Nokias were similer tap-to-unlock (touchscreen only - the ones with keypads you hit a key combo like menu for a couple of seconds or such).
And nothing out of Apple is innovative other than the packaging. An iPhone in 2007 did LESS than what a Symbian, WinMo, PalmOS, or Blackberry did back then. Just like an iPod in 2001 couldn't compete ("No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame"). Hell, we always awed Japanese phones for having the latest and greatest all crammed in there.
It just turns out packaging (and presentation) is actually much more important that people realize and laundry lists of features mean little (especially when items are implemented poorly, or definitions get stretched). (See aforementioned Japanese cellphones).
And yes, the same goes for Android. Even early versions of Android were still way better than than the smartphones that came before it (and iOS+Android basically pummelled them out of the market). Android was more "techy", up until ICS or so where Google really improved the UI significantly (haven't had a chance to try JB yet, but I'm told it's even better).
I've been reading these critiques of "stack ranking" and, as a former MS employee, I understand why MS does "stack ranking" even though it's ultimately detrimental to the organization. Microsoft is a sales focused organization, not a technology focused one. When managing sales people, you want to keep the highest performers happy (and selling as much as possible). Nothing motivates a salesman more than knowing that if they don't produce, out the door they go.
Since Microsoft has always been run by salespeople (Billy G. included and Ballmer is the quintessential salesjerk), it makes sense that they should use sales management techniques within the organization. the problem, of course, is that just because you're not one of the top developers on a dev team, it doesn't mean that you suck. It means that you have colleagues that you can learn from and improve your skills -- potentially making a good developer a great developer.
True, but the big reason why it sucks is obvious. When you have a group of more than 1 person, there will ALWAYS be a better performer in the group. Even if you took two identical people, with identical training, depending on how you evaluate, one of them will perform better than the other. Of course, change how you evaluate, and you'll find the roles reversed.
In every group, there will always be a top performer, and a lousy performer. The issue is that lousy performer may be the top performer in another gorup, or change the criteria by some insignificant thing and the rankings can easily change.
Heck, take 10 groups of 10 people, and take the top performer of each to form anew group. Well, one of the top performers will be on the failing edge.
Or shuffle the tasks around and the top performer on Windows might become toe lousiest performer on Office, and switch again and the mediocre guy on Office might be the top guy on Xbox.
It's a great way to lose top talent - just because in the current evaluation they're the worst of the group. Hell, you might be dismissing someone you could objectively measure (on say, 1-100) 99.9999999999 vs. 99.9999999998.
Yes, I've tried to use Android up to and including honeycomb and found them pretty much unusuable. I mean, I try a Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the store, and I can't even swipe between pages on the home screen without stutter. And it's running on more powerful hardware than the (at the time) original iPad I had.
Now that I've played with ICS a lot when it came out and am definitely very impressed - ICS fixed a LOT of issues with Android, and even though I like iOS, I can finally say ICS is a worthy competitor to iOS. Jelly Bean makes it even more so.
Now the focus is on the apps - to not look like amateurish pieces of crap. Other than maybe a handful of Android apps (e.g., Dolphin Browser), most Android apps look horrible, and outside of that handful, the ones that look good are that way because they came from iOS.
Why not do what every ISP is doing - for every DNS request hitting the server, send them to a page that tells them their PC is infected and how to clean it.
They have to click again in order to get through. Set the TTL of the DNS caching to nil so it happens practically every link - simply bombard them through annoyance?
Oh, and sure it'll break stuff like e-mail and all sorts of other non-HTTP protocols, which is good because they'll hopefully call tech support or something.
- Drink loads of buttermilk (the salty/sour ones, my choice). It is culturally used as a coolant in parts of middle east and most of India since the days of the dinosaurs.
Another popular one is to eat lots of watermelons - also used as a way to keep cool without refridgeration in many parts of the world (they keep, after all). And they also hydrate, which is extremely important (even though it can be 100% humidity, your body still sweats and expels surprisingly large amounts of water).
Also, switch hours - avoid doing anything during the hottest part of the day (afternoon) - just sleep and do your other activities in the much cooler early morning hours. If your work allows, come in at 10pm and work through 6AM or so then get sleeping through the afternoon and evening until the sun goes down. It'll be hard to sleep in the heat, but it's harder still to work in it. You'll find many outside workers do that in the desert, for example.
I agree, the word "hard" and "Sudoku" should not be used in the same sentence. When i still gave coding lessons, i used "solving Sudoku" as an easy example right after "Hello world".
Depends how you define it.
If you brute-force it, it's pretty easy.
However, there's no skill nor challenge in doing so. The challenge relies on a solver that doesn't just guess all the way, but applies standard solving techniques to solve it. It's a lot harder than a brute-force solver, but it tends to be a bit more "satisfying" in its solution
Every (valid) sudoku can be brute-forced. But not every one can be solved.
Incorrect. DRM is merely a form of TiVoization, which the GPLv2 allows.
GPLv3 does not allow it because it demands all installation and build keys so DRM and TiVoization aren't issues anymore.
Now, DRM and TiVoization violate the SPIRIT of the GPL, but not the letter (of GPLv2), in a rather roundabout way (the GPL was created to keep software free, but never really considered that the hardware may prevent the software from running).
Now, Apple doesn't pretend to understand the licensing issues - the requirement is that the software is free to be distributed, so when a copyright holder objects, Apple removes it. That guy and the FSF object (which is their right), but many other authors do not (as long as source is available).
GPLv3 was created to be completely clear about this, and they are by definition, incompatible.
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That's because there are none that are satisfactory.
First, we have to accept the fact that computers and the internet are a necessity to participate in a modern economy. Especially in developed nations - where it's extremely difficult to do anything without the Internet, including stuff like apply for a job. Still possible to do it the "old way" but they're rapidly being abandoned as ancient and costly. Even retail jobs are starting to demand online applications.
With that under our belt, the next thing to realize is that we can't expect the entire population to become computer experts. Cars are a necessary evil as well, but we don't expect the entire population to become a mechanic, either. (Nor do we expect a mechanic to be able to debug problems with their computerized diagnostic tools - unless you're the masochist that doesn't mind being billed at $75/hr for him to recompile the kernel). Literally, everyone outside tech-related fields (and a large number of people IN tech related fields) have much better things to do with their time than babysit a computer - these things should just work.
The final thing to know is well, Dancing pigs - given a choice between dancing animals and security, users will pick dancing animals every time.
So what can we do about it?
We can restrict the Internet to those with "internet licenses", similar to the way we license drivers, and implement annual "computer inspections" like vehicle inspections. Of course, this has many issues of its own.
Or we could lock down computers and require them to operate on a white list basis, but given Dancing Pigs, most uesrs will just whitelist everything. The atternative is said computer can only run whitelisted software, but that gets techies all riled up (even though right now such systems are completely voluntary, though popular).
The other alternative is we have to live with it, accept the fact that the vast majority of the population are using computers as a tool to get stuff done and will never be "techies". Status quo.
There are 5 songs each from FF1-FF13. Or a minimum of 65 separate songs. Not 13.
You have the opening and finale themes from each game (granted a few are similar), a signature battle theme, a signature character theme, and a signature theme from the game itself (usually the one with vocals in the later games). That's at a minimum, too - there are other unlockable songs and DLC.
The 3D is useless and best played while it's off.
The 3DS does have a pretty good set of speakers for a portable device - more than well worth it compared to the generally crap speakers on most phones (the Dolby Surround is surprisingly good inside the sweet spot (which is larger than the 3D sweet spot)).
It's surprising it's not a phone app, but then again, Squeenix's releases on phones tend to be generally pricey ($15+). But at least Android shines here in not having to jailbreak and install hacked patches to get the game much cheaper.
And you're speaking nonsense.
First, there are three variables at play when taking a photo. The shutter speed, the aperture size (usually expressed as a fraction of focal length, f), and the "film" speed (sensitivity).
A properly exposed photo (usually desired in most cases excepting artistic composition) is where sufficient photons hit the light-sensitive medium to generate a usable image. With 3 variables to play with, there is a whole range of settings that will generate an image.
Hence the concepts of stuff like "stops" - where you can halve the shutter speed (1/30th from 1/60th, say), but also close down the aperture (by half) and still end up with a good exposure. Or decrease the media's sensitivity.
What you use depends on the situation and artistic effects you want to put on it - larger apertures reduce depth of field, faster shutters "freeze" fast motion, more sensitive recording media generally are noisier/grainier, etc.
A "fast" lens is called that because it has a very wide aperture that can let in lots of light, meaning you can get very nicely exposed photos at very high shutter speeds, thus capturing faster motion. A "slow" lens means the aperture is smaller and thus requires a longer exposure time (slower shutter speed).
Remember, it's all about getting the proper exposure, and playing with the three variables will generate many configurations of apeture/shutter/sensitivity that will work. The one you use depends on the situation.
Actually, most countries are like that. I'm fairly certain it's the same in the US as well. Infringe on a foreign country's copyright/patent/whatever? No big deal. But infringe on OUR copyright/patent/whatever? Very Big Deal(tm).
Plenty of pirated video suppliers operating commercially in the US that aren't prosecuted because the MPAA/RIAA/etc have nothing nor do they care about enforcing other's copyrights (they're only about THEIR copyrights, after all).
This happens even WITH all the international agreements.
Most North American banks implement what is known as "Wish-it-Was Two Factor" authentication..
Which is nothing more than another password.
I'm certain there will be lots - 64-bit isn't currently too important for the consumer space (really, you need 4GB of RAM in your phone?).
No, the real benefit will come from the high end stuff - servers mostly. And you can bet that servers run Linux. Now there's a lightweight lower-power machine that can probably do 90% of the server tasks Sure it won't run a DBMS in most cases, but there's probably more than enough power to run a whole cluster of webservers (since you can probably fit a ton in a 1U chassis).
Hell, Microsoft might be forced to make an ARM version of Windows Server just to compete.
On the flip side, someone pointed out that a user who buys a replacement battery will probably just toss the old battery in the trash, rather than recycling them (no, you can't blue-box it but have to drop it off somewhere).
Since Apple will take all their computers back for recycling, by making it non-user-servicable, having ti returned to Apple means the whole product is recycled, rather than bits and pieces thrown away as their repaired.
It's an interesting point.
There are two kinds of ARM licensees. One is purely a block licensee - these guys basically buy the ARM RTL ready to be synthesized and plopped on silicon (or tested on FPGAs). Most ARM licensees go this route.
The other is a microarchitecture license. There are only 3 known ones - Marvell (acquired from Intel who got it from Compaq, who got it from DEC), Qualcomm, and Apple (who actually invested in ARM very early on). These guys basically get access to the RTL and can make their own changes to it - basically to make an instruction-set compatible version of the ARM processor that doesn't have to be derived from
ARM generates the architecture and cores, and now they've basically put in place the necessary code to support their upcoming 64-bit processors.
And while no silicon current exists of the 64-bit (AArch64 - ARM Architecture 64-bit, the 32-bit one we're familiar with is now called AArch32), ARM would've tested it on FPGAs against their cores, so they'll work.
Of course, you haven't done Linux until you've tried to boot it on an FPGA system where the processor runs at 5MHz or so. Or faster if you disable items. (Linux 3.x took around 3-5 minutes to boot in a minimal configuration from "Uncompressing Linux" until it got to a shell prompt. One configuration with dual processors I've used only ran at 2.5MHz. Took 20 minutes to boot - 10 minutes from "Uncompressing Linux" to "done. Booting the kernel", and a further 10 to go from that to shell prompt.).
There is basically no regulation on SDRs.
Receivers - well, you have normal receive rules, though the cellphone one is pretty much invalid these days as no one uses AMPS anymore.
Transmitters - the rule basically says if you have a software transmitter, that software better only allow transmission on the licensed bands.
There aren't any special rules other than "don't transmit where you're not licensed to". The rule for software options is basically ensuring that the user cannot misprogram their transmitter and operate out of band and interfere with other licensed services.
It's the same as an old style transmitter - care should be taken so users cannot readily change the operating frequency and power so they create interference.
And yes, the fines are like that because they apply to unlicensed transmitters as well - if you're transmitting on a band you're not supposed to, you, the user can find your equipment confiscated and fined.
The law is perfectly adequate - manufacturers need to ensure their SDR cannot be used out of the licensed bands (and power envelopes). It's an "SDR" rule because in an old style transmitter, the output stages normally dictate that you can't transmit out of band anyhow without retuning. But since an SDR can be free to transmit on any band without limitation, the software must ensure it's within the license and the user can't trivially modify it to be out of spec.
SDRs are everywhere - the modern cellphone, wifi radio, bluetooth, etc., they're all SDRs internally. These normally have very specific front ends and filters so even if you could set them out of band, they are out of tune and don't transmit squat.
It's a fair rule and prevents frequency anarchy (and frequencies are set aside for various uses).
We all know how GPS works, and even the basics of the math behind it, but where does one find more in-depth mateirals? Like if one were to create a GPS receiver, how to translate those signals into something useful? Not just dumping the equations out and say "solve this" but working step by step through a solution and then adding in corrections like relativity?
Is it stealing if someone just gives it to you?
After all, the information on Facebook is provided voluntarily by its users. It wasn't obtained through hacking their computers or purchasing their information from the various databaes. It was provided to Facebook free of charge by the user.
It's really hard to steal what people are giving you. Of course, sometimes people need a bit more convincing, but that's what "privacy" controls are for. Give them a false sense of control and they'll open right up. Keeping something "private" on Facebook is like telling someone a secret you don't want to spread.
OTOH, I wonder if all 140,000 customers who used the default passowrd actually USED the account? It sounds like it was a customer service portal thing - not something they normally login with. For those people, they probalby managed their account by phone rather than thinking to log into the customer service potral and do all their changes there?
A long sabattical, more likely. MobileMe's shutdown was announced over a year ago (when iCloud was announced). iWork was always a beta thing with "final pricing to come later". And I think iWork.com has been around a heck of a long time - at least a couple of years (a Google-like beta). But since it was beta, you shouldn't rely on it since it can be shut down, metamorphosed or change. After all, relying on it is akin to using the Windows 8 previews as if it was final - it's going ot shut down soon enough. Heck, wasn't there a Windows 7 open beta that managed to wipe all your media files when you run it?
Interestingly, MobileMe's sync is down (the shutdown having happened), but users can still get at their files and stuff for another month or so in case they really missed every possible announcement of its shutdown.
So iWork being shut down - not a big deal (it's really migrating to iCloud so I'd be surprised if things really changed). MobileMe was a bigger deal since people paid for it, but you had over a year, and Apple did give a couple of extensions and refused to take money for expanded MobileMe services...
Odd, considering there are APIs to get the phone number already. Especially since well, your phone should know its number already.
I find it interesting though that since the iOS APIs disallow sending SMSes without user confirmation, that they have to be using a third party SMS service. An interesting runaround to the iOS restrictions in that case.
Time for Apple to tell us who the offender was... they have their name and address after all.
Fireworks shows are shows, and multi-media experiences. Which mean it's not all just boom-boom-boom like some bad rap song, but carefully choreographed visuals in time with music.
In fact, the timing of the explosions with the music is an extremely precise art - fireworks aren't that precise, but being able to take into account that and producing a good show overall is extremely competitive. Especially with other pyro that doesn't necessary fly up and explode.
Then again, it's the US. Finely crafted pyro shows? Who gives a damn - people just want to see big loud booms and call it a night. (And yes, they do make mortars whose sole purpose is to just make big loud booms...).
The problem is they entered into trade agreements. Which means that they get to sell stuff without tarriffs imposed, in exchange for the other country to sell stuff to them without tariffs.
These agreements may have included raw materials as well.
Not to say that it doesn't happen elsewhere (the US is notorious for imposing trade restrictions when it turns out that the agreed to free trade agreements mean some lobbying group is losing out).
Probably not if YOU do it. But if someone else does it, it's a Big Deal.
If you haven't noticed, YouTube has ads - they have ads that play before the video plays (if only they could determine if I'm watching a 1 minute video, to NOT show me a 3 minute ad...). They also have pop up ads that show about 10 seconds in (the yellow line in the bar gives it away).
Google's revenue source is ads. Basically a site like this means Google's serving up video (for free) without making it back as an eyeball in ad revenue. And for YouTube original content, those ad views also go back to the creator, so it's possible Google even loses money on that - paying the creator for a view that never happened.
If it wasn't so expensive to host, you could bet that MP3 rippers would be a fairly minor issue - there would be sites that let you view YouTube videos ad-free.
What Google did is perfectly consistent and doesn't matter about the source material, the RIAA, MPAA, whatever. They will ensure they get their ad views.
Hell, I'm surprised Google didn't just sign up a bunch of audio ads and insert them in the audio stream when it detects the site.
I'd suspect something a bit more innoculous.- like data center storage corruption.
iOS apps are encrypted - or rather, parts of them are. The executable has portions of its code and data segments encrypted, and the list of encrypted parts and the decryption key are then encrypted with the user's Apple ID key. That key is transferred to the device so that iOS can decrypt the binary encryptoin key and the list of encrypted segments (there aren't any headers).
The reason apps can crash would include either the encryption table is blank and iOS decrypts the binary incorrectly (probable cause - disk full) thus causing corrupt code and data to be executed, or perhaps everything IS encrypted properly, but the binary is corrupt.
The former would be erratic - some people would find it works correctly, others not, and it wouldn't matter if updates happened because it would occur on any download. The latter would mean the storage system has failed and thus during the DRM process, it's DRM'ing corrupt binaries.
Since it's specific binaries that do this, perhaps some of Apple's massive storage servers have failed catastrophically. (they use iSilon/EMC storage servers at their NC datacenter I believe). And also why re-uploaded versions of same work - they were put on more stable storage.
FYI - the way pirated apps work is they run the app, then use GDB to halt execution. Then they use GDB to dump the running image back out to get the decrypted version which then replaces the encrypted chunks with the decrypted versions.
I would also guess that Apple's "fixing it" because I kept running into issues downloading ("This application is not currently available").
Yep, that's why RIM, Nokia/Symbian, Windows Mobile, PalmOS are doing SO well these days. After all, the iPhone couldn't even compete against these smartphone heavyweights.
As for unlocking, let's see. Windows Mobile used either the keypad (hit Start, hit 9 I think). or tap the button marked "Unlock". Nokias were similer tap-to-unlock (touchscreen only - the ones with keypads you hit a key combo like menu for a couple of seconds or such).
And nothing out of Apple is innovative other than the packaging. An iPhone in 2007 did LESS than what a Symbian, WinMo, PalmOS, or Blackberry did back then. Just like an iPod in 2001 couldn't compete ("No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame"). Hell, we always awed Japanese phones for having the latest and greatest all crammed in there.
It just turns out packaging (and presentation) is actually much more important that people realize and laundry lists of features mean little (especially when items are implemented poorly, or definitions get stretched). (See aforementioned Japanese cellphones).
And yes, the same goes for Android. Even early versions of Android were still way better than than the smartphones that came before it (and iOS+Android basically pummelled them out of the market). Android was more "techy", up until ICS or so where Google really improved the UI significantly (haven't had a chance to try JB yet, but I'm told it's even better).
True, but the big reason why it sucks is obvious. When you have a group of more than 1 person, there will ALWAYS be a better performer in the group. Even if you took two identical people, with identical training, depending on how you evaluate, one of them will perform better than the other. Of course, change how you evaluate, and you'll find the roles reversed.
In every group, there will always be a top performer, and a lousy performer. The issue is that lousy performer may be the top performer in another gorup, or change the criteria by some insignificant thing and the rankings can easily change.
Heck, take 10 groups of 10 people, and take the top performer of each to form anew group. Well, one of the top performers will be on the failing edge.
Or shuffle the tasks around and the top performer on Windows might become toe lousiest performer on Office, and switch again and the mediocre guy on Office might be the top guy on Xbox.
It's a great way to lose top talent - just because in the current evaluation they're the worst of the group. Hell, you might be dismissing someone you could objectively measure (on say, 1-100) 99.9999999999 vs. 99.9999999998.
Yes, I've tried to use Android up to and including honeycomb and found them pretty much unusuable. I mean, I try a Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the store, and I can't even swipe between pages on the home screen without stutter. And it's running on more powerful hardware than the (at the time) original iPad I had.
Now that I've played with ICS a lot when it came out and am definitely very impressed - ICS fixed a LOT of issues with Android, and even though I like iOS, I can finally say ICS is a worthy competitor to iOS. Jelly Bean makes it even more so.
Now the focus is on the apps - to not look like amateurish pieces of crap. Other than maybe a handful of Android apps (e.g., Dolphin Browser), most Android apps look horrible, and outside of that handful, the ones that look good are that way because they came from iOS.
Why not do what every ISP is doing - for every DNS request hitting the server, send them to a page that tells them their PC is infected and how to clean it.
They have to click again in order to get through. Set the TTL of the DNS caching to nil so it happens practically every link - simply bombard them through annoyance?
Oh, and sure it'll break stuff like e-mail and all sorts of other non-HTTP protocols, which is good because they'll hopefully call tech support or something.
Another popular one is to eat lots of watermelons - also used as a way to keep cool without refridgeration in many parts of the world (they keep, after all). And they also hydrate, which is extremely important (even though it can be 100% humidity, your body still sweats and expels surprisingly large amounts of water).
Also, switch hours - avoid doing anything during the hottest part of the day (afternoon) - just sleep and do your other activities in the much cooler early morning hours. If your work allows, come in at 10pm and work through 6AM or so then get sleeping through the afternoon and evening until the sun goes down. It'll be hard to sleep in the heat, but it's harder still to work in it. You'll find many outside workers do that in the desert, for example.
Depends how you define it.
If you brute-force it, it's pretty easy.
However, there's no skill nor challenge in doing so. The challenge relies on a solver that doesn't just guess all the way, but applies standard solving techniques to solve it. It's a lot harder than a brute-force solver, but it tends to be a bit more "satisfying" in its solution
Every (valid) sudoku can be brute-forced. But not every one can be solved.
Incorrect. DRM is merely a form of TiVoization, which the GPLv2 allows.
GPLv3 does not allow it because it demands all installation and build keys so DRM and TiVoization aren't issues anymore.
Now, DRM and TiVoization violate the SPIRIT of the GPL, but not the letter (of GPLv2), in a rather roundabout way (the GPL was created to keep software free, but never really considered that the hardware may prevent the software from running).
Now, Apple doesn't pretend to understand the licensing issues - the requirement is that the software is free to be distributed, so when a copyright holder objects, Apple removes it. That guy and the FSF object (which is their right), but many other authors do not (as long as source is available).
GPLv3 was created to be completely clear about this, and they are by definition, incompatible.