>> company finances don't matter to nerds (who...hold...company stock)
In additional to Apple, also hold own a bunch of stock in GM, Exxon, and other random companies. But I don't need to hear about their quarterly earnings on Slashdot - there are plenty of other outlets that do a hell of a better job of that.
Slow news day? How about something that nerds might care about. We all know Apple is coasting (and the stock price will gradually decline), but unless someone's started a Kickstarter to acquire Macbook from Apple's disinterested management team, then how 'bout saving the front page space for something that...er...matters?
Yes. The Zelda series evolved into one where there were multiple links acting in different time lines. The Ocarina Link's play was unique and innovative, and I bet Nintendo could have milked that timeline for a half-dozen spin-off games, maybe even an MMO when the Wii came out, instead of crapping out:
>> "Shitty Mask game"???????????????
Majora's Mask. Way too hard for many Zelda players with its three day time limit, and it required a physical expansion pack.
1) Sonic and Mega Man aren't Nintendo's franchises to capitalize on. They'd need Sega or Capcom (respectively) to bring those to their platform.
But they're being dumb-asses not to reach out to these franchises for more than the characters they lent to Super Smash Brothers. People want GAMES, not just another "hey, remember when you could actually buy and play MegaMan games" moment.
2) Nintendo won't have a gravestone anytime soon.
I'll bet the Switch will be Nintendo's last platform. That's enough of a gravestone for me.
I bought one last Christmas for the kids - was about $250 bundled with Splatoon and Super Smash Brothers. I picked it up largely because our last two Wiis had expired and I wanted to move to hard drive-based games. I really only invested in the upgraded party games: Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario World and they did a pretty good job with those. One of my son's also picked up Skyward Sword and played it (as a Wii disc).
I think what will be shortly be written on Nintendo's gravestone will be its inability to capitalize on its second tier franchises: the Metroids, Starfoxes, Sonics, Megamans, and Kid Icaruses of the world, and its inability to get on the DLC bandwagon. They'll also be smacking themselves for not fully building out the "Ocarina Zelda" line - almost indisputably one of the best games ever. (And when they tried...it was that shitty "Mask" game rather than the MMO or moar tunes that would have been huge cash cows.)
As Nintendo buyers, we've shown an incredible ability to buy more of the same - the gameplay is almost always excellent (except you Starfox Zero/3) - and we'd be happy to buy more levels, more worlds, more tracks. Nintendo finally got on the DLC bandwagon with Mario Kart (and yes, we bought them all...er both) but they've lately behaved like the DNC to American voters: we try to vote with our pocketbooks and they still try to feed us crap no one wants anyway.
Also, I think someone saw a pot of gold with the stupid Amibo doodads. I still haven't bought any of those and probably never will.
>> We already expand our fleet during the Christmas months. Planes come out from the desert...every transit-sized van from Penske/Ryder/Uhaul gets reserved
I think we agree then: FedEx/UPS don't actually OWN the capacity needed to fulfill Amazon at peak. For Amazon then, the opportunity is to cut out the middleman (FedEx/UPS) and contract the extra peak capacity itself, provided it can find cost savings managing it itself rather than contracting through FedEx/UPS.
But in any case, I think it's settled that FedEx/UPS would NOT be happy to "build out their respective fleet" if that fleet is going to have to sit on FedEx/UPS's books as an idle asset that they own.
Given that the investigation probably started under Obama, and that Obama's been tight with Google, Apple and other US-based phone makers, and Obama's Justice Department took time off police brutality to go after the phone division of Panasonic...I'd probably start looking for any corrupt links on the Democratic aisle for this one.
>> both FedEx and UPS would be more than happy to build out their respective fleet
Not sure about that. Remember that retailers like Amazon do a disproportionate amount of business around Christmas. If you build a fleet to completely support that capacity, you're likely wasting money on overcapacity (extra planes, too many pilots, etc.) the rest of the year. That's why retailers (and farms, etc.) hire "seasonal" employees that are only needed when things are busiest.
>> building a facility at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport
^^^ This. Article summary, as usual, sucks.
Good move on Amazon's part, I think. The airport's been a long-time Delta secondary hub, but Delta's been pulling out (e.g., http://www.wcpo.com/money/local-business-news/delta-airlines-confirms-a-14-percent-service-cut-at-cvg-airport-in-northern-kentucky), so there's plenty of local capacity ready to jump on this.
This one actually makes a bit of strategic sense. Re-read this last line: "(Airbus's stated goal) is to get air taxis in service in about 10 years, possibly partnering with ride-hailing companies like Uber." In other words, what Airbus is trying to do is find a rich and somewhat gullible company that's ready to invest in silly ideas that will generate lots of press, and they are hoping Uber will bite on the vaporware (as many governments do today). Airbus never actually has to produce anything - remember that defense contractors already know how to play a 10-year tease - but their shareholders would benefits from a nice infusion of the targeted mark's cash.
>> every $50+ non-waterproof windable watches on the market are not "watches"
If they aren't primarily functional, they're "jewelry". I have a pretty watches too but I really only wear them when I'm in business casual or better attire.
I'll consider that POS a "watch" when it can go months between battery charges, costs less than $50, can be used when I'm in whitewater, and has tactile buttons I can find in the dark. (In other words, when it can replace a simple Timex Ironman.)
HTTPS negotiation was never the "slow" part - it's always been the Javascript, single-pixel images and other crap imported from dozens of other sites. Developers have been driving me nuts with "we can't use HTTPS for our snowflake app - it'll slow the user experience" BS for years.
>> I keep all my email viruses in a folder to see how long it takes AV software to catch up. It can take weeks. Sometimes they never do.
I do this too. I also have a folder on Google Drive called "Viruses" for exactly the same purpose. It's been getting pretty full lately; I feel a little like Egon with his neighborhood-sized twinkie.
All the AVs today pretty much catch the same low-hanging fruit, and there's no good reason to buy a third-party bolt-on anymore.
That said, I'm getting annoyed with AV packages still not being able to flag things like base-64-encoded Powershell scripts or Office doc VBS scripts that make direct references to system libraries. Almost all the malware that's made it through our defenses in the past six months has used one of these two techniques (plus a little code obfuscation, but still), and none of the AV packages I've tested (via sites that scan against dozens of packages) have ever flagged any of the most effective offenders.
US Judge Rejects Suit Over Face Scanning for Video Game Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal January 31, 2017 | 0 Comments Two athletes whose images were scanned for a video game have been bounced from court on their claim that the game maker violated a law protecting biometric information. Brother-and-sister video basketball players Ricardo and Vanessa Vigil were leading a class action that claimed Take-Two Interactive, which manufactured the NBA 2K15 game, ran afoul of an Illinois law that governs biometric identifiers such as retina or iris scans, fingerprints, voiceprints, or scans of hand and face geometry. The Vigils agreed to have their faces scanned to create digital avatars for NBA 2K15, but said they didn't know their images would be available in unencrypted form online. They tried to hold Take-Two liable under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) in Vigil v. Take-Two Interactive Software, 15-cv-8211. Southern District Judge John Koeltl, in a ruling issued Monday, said the Vigils lacked standing to sue under the act because they had not alleged a concrete injury, and also failed to state a claim. Illinois passed the BIPA in 2008 to encourage the use of biometric identifiers in commercial transactions and safeguard their use. The law governs disclosure, consent and retention requirements. Violators can pay up to $1,000 per violation, $5,000 in the case of recklessness. The plaintiffs bar recently has been stepping up suits under the act. In 2016, a judge in the Northern District of California refused to dismiss a class action against Facebook; Six Flags is defending a lawsuit over its use of fingerprints, or finger scans, for season pass members in state court in Illinois; and Shutterfly is a defendant in an action in the Northern District of Illinois. The Vigils said they didn't understand that Take-Two would collect and retain their images, and the company set no retention schedule for guidelines for permanently destroying biometric identifiers. They also said Take-Two failed to obtain a meaningful release. Koeltl, however, called the purported violations of the act "at best, marginal." "There is no allegation that the plaintiffs did not understand that the only purpose of the MyPlayer feature was to create a personalized basketball avatar for in-game play, including in multiplayer mode," he wrote. "And there is no allegation that the plaintiffs' face scans have been disseminated in any form other than to the gamers who played in multiplayer games with the plaintiffs." Koeltl also said the heart of the complaint was that, while the Vigils agreed to have their faces scanned, they didn't explicitly consent to have their identifiers scanned and retained, a violation of their "biometric privacy." "Regardless of whether the plaintiffs understood the ins-and-outs of the face scanning technology, or knew that their faces were 'biometric identifiers' under the BIPA, the plaintiffs plainly understood that the MyPlayer feature had to collect data based upon their unique faces to create the personalized basketball avatars," he wrote. Robert Schwartz, a partner at Irell & Manella, said Monday that Koeltl's opinion was welcomed in a burgeoning field with little case law. "The good thing is he gave this a comprehensive analysis," Schwartz said. "It's a road map which can guide other judges facing this novel statute." The plaintiffs were led by John Carey and David Milian of Carey Rodriguez Milian Gonya. They did not return calls seeking comment. Mark Hamblett can be reached via email or on Twitter @Mark_Hamblett.
...which is yet another reason why Windows phone failed. For example:
MICROSOFT> Here's your Windows phone. USER> Cool! Now I just need to install MAME and Steam and... MICROSOFT> No, you can't do that. USER> Er...well...here's your phone back then.
>> Windows 10 that will be able to run only...apps installed from the Windows Store. Think of it as being similar to the version of Windows 10 formerly known as Windows RT or the Windows 8.1 with Bing SKU.
No, think of it as Windows Phone...without the phone.
I thought half the point of putting the baby to sleep was to get a few minutes/hours to yourself to recuperate. Unless your kid is deathly ill, who would want to strap an beeping/blooping health monitor to it? (Have you ever tried to sleep in a hospital?)
Slashdot Mirror
>> company finances don't matter to nerds (who...hold...company stock)
In additional to Apple, also hold own a bunch of stock in GM, Exxon, and other random companies. But I don't need to hear about their quarterly earnings on Slashdot - there are plenty of other outlets that do a hell of a better job of that.
Happy to hear they're sticking to regular 5-year plans. Those have always turned out well.
>> Did Apple Really Have a Record Quarter?
Slow news day? How about something that nerds might care about. We all know Apple is coasting (and the stock price will gradually decline), but unless someone's started a Kickstarter to acquire Macbook from Apple's disinterested management team, then how 'bout saving the front page space for something that...er...matters?
>> Random Venture Capitalist says "there's nothing new to invent"
Says a guy about to hang it up, right?
>> Sonic and Megaman? "
See reply above.
>> Fully building out the ocarina zelda line"????
Yes. The Zelda series evolved into one where there were multiple links acting in different time lines. The Ocarina Link's play was unique and innovative, and I bet Nintendo could have milked that timeline for a half-dozen spin-off games, maybe even an MMO when the Wii came out, instead of crapping out:
>> "Shitty Mask game"???????????????
Majora's Mask. Way too hard for many Zelda players with its three day time limit, and it required a physical expansion pack.
1) Sonic and Mega Man aren't Nintendo's franchises to capitalize on. They'd need Sega or Capcom (respectively) to bring those to their platform.
But they're being dumb-asses not to reach out to these franchises for more than the characters they lent to Super Smash Brothers. People want GAMES, not just another "hey, remember when you could actually buy and play MegaMan games" moment.
2) Nintendo won't have a gravestone anytime soon.
I'll bet the Switch will be Nintendo's last platform. That's enough of a gravestone for me.
I bought one last Christmas for the kids - was about $250 bundled with Splatoon and Super Smash Brothers. I picked it up largely because our last two Wiis had expired and I wanted to move to hard drive-based games. I really only invested in the upgraded party games: Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario World and they did a pretty good job with those. One of my son's also picked up Skyward Sword and played it (as a Wii disc).
I think what will be shortly be written on Nintendo's gravestone will be its inability to capitalize on its second tier franchises: the Metroids, Starfoxes, Sonics, Megamans, and Kid Icaruses of the world, and its inability to get on the DLC bandwagon. They'll also be smacking themselves for not fully building out the "Ocarina Zelda" line - almost indisputably one of the best games ever. (And when they tried...it was that shitty "Mask" game rather than the MMO or moar tunes that would have been huge cash cows.)
As Nintendo buyers, we've shown an incredible ability to buy more of the same - the gameplay is almost always excellent (except you Starfox Zero/3) - and we'd be happy to buy more levels, more worlds, more tracks. Nintendo finally got on the DLC bandwagon with Mario Kart (and yes, we bought them all...er both) but they've lately behaved like the DNC to American voters: we try to vote with our pocketbooks and they still try to feed us crap no one wants anyway.
Also, I think someone saw a pot of gold with the stupid Amibo doodads. I still haven't bought any of those and probably never will.
>> desires met through math: ...truth
Clearly, he's never met a statistician.
>> some people experience a kind of transcendent wonder that they're seeing something true about the universe
Those would be the ones that took an illegal substance before solving for x.
>> We already expand our fleet during the Christmas months. Planes come out from the desert...every transit-sized van from Penske/Ryder/Uhaul gets reserved
I think we agree then: FedEx/UPS don't actually OWN the capacity needed to fulfill Amazon at peak. For Amazon then, the opportunity is to cut out the middleman (FedEx/UPS) and contract the extra peak capacity itself, provided it can find cost savings managing it itself rather than contracting through FedEx/UPS.
But in any case, I think it's settled that FedEx/UPS would NOT be happy to "build out their respective fleet" if that fleet is going to have to sit on FedEx/UPS's books as an idle asset that they own.
>> If Panasonic bribe Trump is that OK
Given that the investigation probably started under Obama, and that Obama's been tight with Google, Apple and other US-based phone makers, and Obama's Justice Department took time off police brutality to go after the phone division of Panasonic...I'd probably start looking for any corrupt links on the Democratic aisle for this one.
>> both FedEx and UPS would be more than happy to build out their respective fleet
Not sure about that. Remember that retailers like Amazon do a disproportionate amount of business around Christmas. If you build a fleet to completely support that capacity, you're likely wasting money on overcapacity (extra planes, too many pilots, etc.) the rest of the year. That's why retailers (and farms, etc.) hire "seasonal" employees that are only needed when things are busiest.
>> building a facility at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport
^^^ This. Article summary, as usual, sucks.
Good move on Amazon's part, I think. The airport's been a long-time Delta secondary hub, but Delta's been pulling out (e.g., http://www.wcpo.com/money/local-business-news/delta-airlines-confirms-a-14-percent-service-cut-at-cvg-airport-in-northern-kentucky), so there's plenty of local capacity ready to jump on this.
>> file a lawsuit for stupid ideas
This one actually makes a bit of strategic sense. Re-read this last line: "(Airbus's stated goal) is to get air taxis in service in about 10 years, possibly partnering with ride-hailing companies like Uber." In other words, what Airbus is trying to do is find a rich and somewhat gullible company that's ready to invest in silly ideas that will generate lots of press, and they are hoping Uber will bite on the vaporware (as many governments do today). Airbus never actually has to produce anything - remember that defense contractors already know how to play a 10-year tease - but their shareholders would benefits from a nice infusion of the targeted mark's cash.
>> every $50+ non-waterproof windable watches on the market are not "watches"
If they aren't primarily functional, they're "jewelry". I have a pretty watches too but I really only wear them when I'm in business casual or better attire.
>> just consider Apple Watch a "watch", period.
I'll consider that POS a "watch" when it can go months between battery charges, costs less than $50, can be used when I'm in whitewater, and has tactile buttons I can find in the dark. (In other words, when it can replace a simple Timex Ironman.)
HTTPS negotiation was never the "slow" part - it's always been the Javascript, single-pixel images and other crap imported from dozens of other sites. Developers have been driving me nuts with "we can't use HTTPS for our snowflake app - it'll slow the user experience" BS for years.
>> I keep all my email viruses in a folder to see how long it takes AV software to catch up. It can take weeks. Sometimes they never do.
I do this too. I also have a folder on Google Drive called "Viruses" for exactly the same purpose. It's been getting pretty full lately; I feel a little like Egon with his neighborhood-sized twinkie.
All the AVs today pretty much catch the same low-hanging fruit, and there's no good reason to buy a third-party bolt-on anymore.
That said, I'm getting annoyed with AV packages still not being able to flag things like base-64-encoded Powershell scripts or Office doc VBS scripts that make direct references to system libraries. Almost all the malware that's made it through our defenses in the past six months has used one of these two techniques (plus a little code obfuscation, but still), and none of the AV packages I've tested (via sites that scan against dozens of packages) have ever flagged any of the most effective offenders.
US Judge Rejects Suit Over Face Scanning for Video Game
Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal
January 31, 2017 | 0 Comments
Two athletes whose images were scanned for a video game have been bounced from court on their claim that the game maker violated a law protecting biometric information.
Brother-and-sister video basketball players Ricardo and Vanessa Vigil were leading a class action that claimed Take-Two Interactive, which manufactured the NBA 2K15 game, ran afoul of an Illinois law that governs biometric identifiers such as retina or iris scans, fingerprints, voiceprints, or scans of hand and face geometry.
The Vigils agreed to have their faces scanned to create digital avatars for NBA 2K15, but said they didn't know their images would be available in unencrypted form online. They tried to hold Take-Two liable under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) in Vigil v. Take-Two Interactive Software, 15-cv-8211.
Southern District Judge John Koeltl, in a ruling issued Monday, said the Vigils lacked standing to sue under the act because they had not alleged a concrete injury, and also failed to state a claim.
Illinois passed the BIPA in 2008 to encourage the use of biometric identifiers in commercial transactions and safeguard their use. The law governs disclosure, consent and retention requirements. Violators can pay up to $1,000 per violation, $5,000 in the case of recklessness.
The plaintiffs bar recently has been stepping up suits under the act. In 2016, a judge in the Northern District of California refused to dismiss a class action against Facebook; Six Flags is defending a lawsuit over its use of fingerprints, or finger scans, for season pass members in state court in Illinois; and Shutterfly is a defendant in an action in the Northern District of Illinois.
The Vigils said they didn't understand that Take-Two would collect and retain their images, and the company set no retention schedule for guidelines for permanently destroying biometric identifiers. They also said Take-Two failed to obtain a meaningful release.
Koeltl, however, called the purported violations of the act "at best, marginal."
"There is no allegation that the plaintiffs did not understand that the only purpose of the MyPlayer feature was to create a personalized basketball avatar for in-game play, including in multiplayer mode," he wrote. "And there is no allegation that the plaintiffs' face scans have been disseminated in any form other than to the gamers who played in multiplayer games with the plaintiffs."
Koeltl also said the heart of the complaint was that, while the Vigils agreed to have their faces scanned, they didn't explicitly consent to have their identifiers scanned and retained, a violation of their "biometric privacy."
"Regardless of whether the plaintiffs understood the ins-and-outs of the face scanning technology, or knew that their faces were 'biometric identifiers' under the BIPA, the plaintiffs plainly understood that the MyPlayer feature had to collect data based upon their unique faces to create the personalized basketball avatars," he wrote.
Robert Schwartz, a partner at Irell & Manella, said Monday that Koeltl's opinion was welcomed in a burgeoning field with little case law.
"The good thing is he gave this a comprehensive analysis," Schwartz said. "It's a road map which can guide other judges facing this novel statute."
The plaintiffs were led by John Carey and David Milian of Carey Rodriguez Milian Gonya. They did not return calls seeking comment.
Mark Hamblett can be reached via email or on Twitter @Mark_Hamblett.
The amount of needful that will get done could drop as much as 15%.
>> bill introduced by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat...Trump's immigration policies
Nice to see some bipartisan agreement and action again, right?
...which is yet another reason why Windows phone failed. For example:
MICROSOFT> Here's your Windows phone.
USER> Cool! Now I just need to install MAME and Steam and...
MICROSOFT> No, you can't do that.
USER> Er...well...here's your phone back then.
>> Windows 10 that will be able to run only ...apps installed from the Windows Store. Think of it as being similar to the version of Windows 10 formerly known as Windows RT or the Windows 8.1 with Bing SKU.
No, think of it as Windows Phone...without the phone.
I thought half the point of putting the baby to sleep was to get a few minutes/hours to yourself to recuperate. Unless your kid is deathly ill, who would want to strap an beeping/blooping health monitor to it? (Have you ever tried to sleep in a hospital?)