There has been a huge shift in advertising dollars to the Internet, away from TV and newspapers, with no sign that this will change anytime soon. The 10 network mentioned in the article has probably lost 90% of their advertising revenue to this fundamental shift. Viewers lost to Netflix, and other more convenient and legal streaming services, is likely to be far greater than the loses to piracy.
It doesn't help that the crap shown of the 10 network, like stupid "reality TV", is just not bringing those that still watch TV over from the other TV networks. From my perspective this is illustrated by the two movies discussed in the summary which they would have to pay me a lot to watch. Their network has made some very bad programming and management decisions for several years and that is now catching up with them.
I'm in my 40's and watch a hell of a lot more Netflix and Youtube than I do the TV networks. Being in control of what I watch and when I watch it is important. It also helps that I can watch those services anywhere that my phone has a signal...
Terrorists have used cars and truck to carry bombs, or just run over people. Cars and trucks have been used by terrorists many times in their attacks. If it is logical for drones to have a kill switch, why shouldn't cars and trucks?
Drones are used by a minority, made up of hobbyists and professionals, which makes it an easier group to target, even though any sane person could see that drones account for a minuscule proportion of terrorist attacks. Pressure cookers have been used in attacks more often than drones...
The full version of windows 10 is not limited to store apps. That is a huge limitation when their store has had little success with developers and users. This BS is not full windows 10 and that should be clear to everyone. The motivation is obviously to try to save their failing store by leaving users no alternative.
WTF has happened to slashdot??? It looks like another go at the beta site fail that the previous owners tried and that didn't work out too well for them.
I liked being able to skim the summaries quickly to decide what I wanted to read. Clicking on titles to get summaries did not take long to piss me off.
Windows 7 will be my last version of Windows on any computer that I own.
MS tactics is forcing upgrades to win 10 would have been enough to put me off. However, bundling spyware and adware right in with the OS guaranteed that I would never have win 10. Right now, my employer has win 7 on our work computers but they will probably have little choice but to move to 10. My personal use on windows is pretty much just gaming and a few specialised applications which I can live without.
Linux has long been my main OS at home and I wouldn't even boot into windows monthly now. Most of my games run perfectly on Linux. While I like a couple of the MS Office applications, open source alternatives that run on Linux do just about everything that I could ever want.
I lot of friends and relatives are moving to Linux or dumping their desktop OS and moving to Android tablets because that have used Win 10 on their laptops and absolutely hated it. People are often horrified to learn that Windows 10 is spying on them. Windows is not going to die but it is losing market share.
I've been using Firefox since the early versions and it is only in the last couple of years that it has given me any problems. The most frustrating is strange crashes on mainstream websites, on multiple platforms. By far the worst Firefox version is on Android which really pisses me off. I like checking in on several websites on my Android tablet of a morning and Firefox crashes more than once a day and I am really sick of that stupid sorry message...
I also use Firefox on Linux and Windows - both have problems - and the only reason I keep using it is the support for plugins and extensions that I want and that Chrome does not support on Android. If Mozilla screws with those, there is no reason to just move to Chrome and forget about Firefox. While I do not think that Mozilla will care about the loss on one user, I suspect there are more people in a similar position which is why Firefox has been losing market share for a while. Maybe someone will fork Firefox and Mozilla will just fade away.
Chrome is the only browser I use on my work PC and is used at home for Netflix on Linux. It isn't terrible, just lacking some of the extension I have on Firefox that make it inconvenient to use.
MS is just likely to piss off OEMs with these demands. Windows has been a failure on mobile devices and OEMs cannot afford to build devices that will not turn a profit. Windows is only hanging on the the desktop/laptop market because everyone just sees it as the default OS, even when they hate it. If MS can convince OEMs that there is a market, by backing up the targets with tangible market research, there is a chance that they will get their way. Bullying OEMs that are already selling products with alternative operating systems is unlikely to work.
HP, ASUS, Dell, Acer and other MS OEMs have released chromebooks that are much lower priced than Windows laptops but still capable of meeting the needs of many consumers. Business customers are less likely to give up Windows and turn to a chromebooks but it does show OEMs are keeping their options open. I would not expect these OEMs to entirely abandon Windows but would expect them to only release windows with product lines that they know has a profitable market. A miscalculation in MS demands could easily result in fewer devices shipping with Windows.
I've seen Windows 10 updates make a computer unusable for hours, particularly for any application where a bit of processing power it needed. Forcing actions that interfere with the owner's use of a computer is another malware trait to add to the adware and spyware that MS bundled with Win 10. It is hard to believe that MS is actually getting away with this sort of behaviour. There are real consequences for Windows users, particularly those in small business that rely on MS products to operate their business but are too small to have the extra control that MS might allow large companies.
Problems with Windows are only going to get worse. Many businesses are unwilling to give up Win 7 and put up with the shit that MS is trying to force on them with Win 10. The same customers mostly avoided Win 8 so are using a OS that MS will abandon, without supplying a functional replacement. MS seems to be completely lost and confused, with an attitude of refusing to give customers what they want but still expecting them to buy their crap.
If Linux companies are smart about this, there could be a huge jump in Linux adoption that convinces more software companies to port their products to Linux. Time will tell. I know from personal experience that it has been very easy to get Win 10 users ready to try Linux.
Windows is losing relevancy as the shift to mobile devices continues and many people no longer need a desktop OS. A sign of just how significant this has become is MS releasing several products onto Android. There are an increasing number of large developers that have little interest in Windows, preferring to focus on other platforms. If MS loses their near monopoly of the desktop OS market, their whole world could come crashing down very quickly.
Educating the public to privacy and security issues is a worthwhile exercise. Maybe it isn't a backdoor but people seem to be increasingly concerned when it is suggested that their messages can be intercepted and read by third parties. This can only be a good thing. Our privacy has been eroded by several large corporations and a weird fascination with social media. Several companies want access to all of our data but the number of high profile breaches illustrate a significant risk in trusting others with anything particularly sensitive.
If people want their messaging to be secure and private, they need to understand that end to end encryption is required and the standard for this method must be that it is not exploitable, through poor security implementation or backdoors. Sending commercially sensitive business information through an insecure communications method is just stupid and might not be legal in some circumstances. We also have our own sensitive financial or personal information that could be misused in the wrong hands. Getting people to Consider security and privacy issues a little more is a positive.
One of the most annoying forms of PC based malware has long been adware. It is now new to have adware being bundled with applications, only to be found and removed by the better antivirus products. Now that MS bundles adware in Win 10, those poor fools with win 10 are stuck with this malware. On the positive side, it does make it insanely easy to show people just how bad and creepy Win 10 is and show that MS cannot be trusted.
As others have pointed out, Windows 10 is bundled with malware right from Microsoft, in the form of spyware and adware. Forced updates happening at inconvenient times can leave a win 10 almost useless, particular if what you are trying to do is CPU intensive. There is a lot of lost productivity around the way MS has forced updates, even when they don't break something important. I know people that just gave up on the personal win 10 laptops because they just couldn't use them when they wanted. Updates on Win 7 are not entirely painless but you can at least schedule them for a more convenient time.
My workplace is on Win 7 and I cannot see them changing to 10.
I'm writing this on my Linux desktop which does not come bundled with malware and where updates can be run without interfering with using the computer. Win 10 has providest the greatest boost to Linux adoption that I've even seen.
The music industry fought hard against streaming music services, claiming they would destroy the music industry, and what they tried to kill has actually saved them. This is just more evidence that the music industry does not understand their customers or their own industry. They blamed pirates for the falling profits when studies has shown casual pirates to be some of the biggest spending customers of legal music. Maybe the obvious point should have been that pirates do not like to wait for their music and would happily pay for service that gives them immediate access to the music they crave.
While streaming may have saved the music industry, it is also just one technology that illustrates how the world has moved on from the traditional music distribution methods. A artist can sell directly to their customers through streaming services, leaving the big labels with less control over the industry and providing content producers with much more freedom to profit from their work. There have been many stories pointing out how little artists have been paid by their labels which kept the bulk of the profits. Successful but broke artists can be a thing of the past.
Consumers win through easier access to music and by having more music to choose from.
Companies often try to use licenses and agreements to get around laws. It can be amusing when they find out that this doesn't actually work. The laws specifying the circumstance where a refund is required are very simple and not unreasonable. A customer that just changes their mind has no legal right to a refund. A product that does not live up to the claims there were made by the seller, is defective or not fit for purpose must be refunded. A truthful seller has nothing to fear.
The ACCC regularly goes after companies for breaches of Australian corporate law and $3M is not a big fine when you consider Steam refused a lot of refunds where it was legally required to give a refund. Only weeks ago a drug company was fined $6M over misleading claims. Individual offences can be up to $10M per breach.
In Australia it is actually an offence for seller to put up sign stating that no refunds are give under any circumstances.
When it comes to software being fit for purpose and living up to the original claims there are extra complications compared to a physical product. An update that changes functionality so that the original claims are not met or that makes the software no long fit for purpose could leave the buyer with a right for a refund. It might not be a complete refund, depending on the time it was in use and actual changes but it give sellers something to consider. Again, an honest and truthful seller that does not screw their customers has nothing to fear.
Ham Radio Deluxe is proprietary software but was originally free to use. That changed after a change of ownership. The free versions had no restrictions and worked exceptionally well with my radio gear. I have not used the new paid version of HRD because I don't like how this played out or the tactics of the new owner. I got my ham license 25 years ago and still have radios that require a license, although I don't really use them very much. Ham radio is not dead but there are many convenient methods of communication today that it is just one option of many.
Since Linux is my main OS now, I've use a some Linux based software with my radios but nothing as user friendly as the original HRD. That does not mean that there isn't good ham radio software available for Linux, just that it can take a bit more effort to get working and to use. One day I'll get my radio gear out again and take the time to get Linux setup with some of the good software available.
Spyware and adware were once universally considered to be malware but there appears to be some exceptions now... Many ad supported mobile apps are known to leak personal data to Ad networks with no protections on how that data or sold. This should be considered spyware but many people are willing to accept it. While the subject of this article is a more extreme example of the spectrum of spyware, it isn't clear where people draw the line. Without strong legal protections, consumers are at the mercy of device manufacturers that are driven by profit, with little interest in looking after their customers privacy. Manufacturers might be embarrassed when the a caught out with poor security practises or when they are spying on users but that is a pretty weak form of protection.
A scary escalation is the move of this sort of software from the mobile device to traditional computing platforms (laptop and desktop). Windows 10 telemetry could, and should, be considered to be spyware. After MS started displaying ads it became adware as well.
When it is law enforcement or security agencies spying on the public there is much more of a reaction than when a company does it.
There are very few applications for a DDoS attack that could be considered legal. The FBI, and other law enforcement agencies, should be arresting those that break the law. Maybe that will leave them less time to spy on the rest of us...
There are more victims in a DDoS attack than the target. They can include: * The people or organisations with infected devices that launch the attack that can have actual costs due to the use of their connections. * Internet service providers. * The rest of us that just want to be able to surf the net without reduced performance. * Those that have a legitimate reason and right to access the target of the attack.
I can't see any reason to feel sympathetic towards the customers of DDoS for hire that get caught. Lock them up like any other criminal.
Many years ago, McAfee was a good AV product but it has been junk for several years now. Unfortunately, it is getting tough to find a reliable AV that is suitable for computer literate customers. This story is not the only example of McAfee actually reducing the security of the machines it is installed on.
In the past, I encouraged people in a business environment to used the AV product that they preferred. That diversity can help to catch threats that a single product misses. Those with McAfee installed were the laptops that were most often infected by a virus and often the evidence of infection came from other computers with different AV products that prevented an infection. It was scary just how bad it was so I had to change the policy to ban it.
Unfortunately, it is tough to find a good AV product, that is reliable and does not cause more problems than an extensive infection. Too many false positives, huge drops in performance, interruption work of productive work with forced reboots and annoying popups are widespread. I used AVG for many years, including in a volume licensed business environment, until it became crapware as well... Now I rely on other security products and systems that a virus resistant.
Telemetry should be able to be switched off entirely, on all Windows installs, so that our right to privacy in respected. Many of the apps that I use include telemetry but I only use those that provide an option to disable their telemetry, even though I will allow telemetry from some trusted apps. MS have repeated demonstrated that they cannot be trusted and it is scary that the released an entire OS that is actually spyware. In any case, it means that Windows 7 will be the last version I allow to be installed on any computer I own.
If Windows update doesn't work without telemetry, that is a demonstration of MS incompetence and a very bad design decision. Linux is my main OS and it sends no telemetry for updates, while still managing to install updates. Those Linux updates also cover every piece of software I have installed in that OS, not just OS updates.
While I largely agree with what you have said, the reality is that tariffs are common and I'd be surprised if any "free trade" agreements result in tariff free trade. By international standards, Australia does have low tariffs on imports and has been phasing out a lot of tariffs. The US and China both have much high import tariffs and it is true that the best deals we have been able to make is a reduction in tariffs in our trade agreements.
Unfortunately, protectionist policies are not going away any time soon. In democracies there are political consequences in doing away with tariffs or subsidies and there are some powerful lobby groups in some countries. Politicians might be professional liars and corrupt but they are not quick to commit political suicide...
As an Australian, Trump killing the TPP is a good thing. There are some parts of the TPP that would have forced some crazy laws on us, without opening up enough trade opportunities. Stripping out everything that US wanted in the TPP and the other countries involved going ahead with a new agreement should be relatively easy. The US is probably not going to be hurt by not being involved and most of the other countries involved will do better, with the likely exceptions of Canada and Mexico.
The Australian economy depends more on trade with China than with the US and we already have a free trade agreement with China, although China still has too many tariffs. China is already pushing their own broad alternative to the TPP which might mean further tariff reductions. A trade war between the US and China could have some positives for the rest of the world.
I suspect there might be more to the story. Maybe a transaction was attempted on their credit card before they updated their address. In any case, Google needs to do a better job in dealing with these situations. It is not reasonable to be forced to create a new account and lose all of your purchases. It does highlight a critical weakness in buying virtual media through online services, like Google. If you've purchased apps, music, books, movies, etc. through Google and they disable your account, it is all gone. Buying physical media is still safer because it is harder to lose your CD/DVD/paper book libraries.
I moved a while ago and this story prompted me to take a look at the address details Google has on me... The scary thing is that one of the two credit cards still had my old address but that wasn't shown until I chose to edit that card because the web interface just shows a large icon for each card with only the type of card, part of the number and expiry date, no address details. Going to change my address for that card offered a drop down with my new address. The address on the other card was correct. Digging further showed my old address in "payments profile" which might have caused problems. I my case, I would have had to update my address in three places which seems strange. Other sites I use will list all of the addresses I have registered on file in a single place, separating them into the various billing, residential and delivery addresses.
The popularity and security weaknesses in IoT devices has lower the bar so that anyone with a bit of IT knowledge can take out large companies. We should take a step back from the IoT buzzword and remember that consumer side devices has been online for a long time. Other consumer equipment, such as routers and web cams, have long been a source an area with weak security and hardcoded passwords. The problem is that these devices are out there and there is no way of fixing them all.
Unless better attack mitigation approaches are put in place, on the broader Internet infrastructure and not just the attach victims, these sorts of attacks will only become more common. Unfortunately, there seems to be little willingness to do this. It is true that this isn't an easy fix and changes will cause their own problems but the consequences of doing nothing could be much worse.
I really hope that Samsung does not kill the Note line. That would leave me desperate for another manufacturer to bring out an equivalent.
I remember going out of my way to spend over US$3,000 on a Windows laptop with a screen the rotated so it was over the keyboard and had a digitiser that allowed my to take handwritten notes. When it was new, it had a useful battery life of over 10 hours and it took it to every meeting. It was amazing that I no longer had to carry, or produce, any paperwork when traveling. Being able to take my notes and use handwriting recognition to turn them into something that I could share with colleagues made me more productive. Filling in the many forms that I used in my job on that screen was a pleasure. Being in a minority with this doesn't bother me at all.
I've had a few Android phones and a couple of those were Notes. In fact, I'm still using a Note 4 and have no interest in replacing it. Having a removable battery and SDcard support is important to me and Samsung dropped both in the Note 5... Right now, my two year old Note 4 can be made as good as new by simply putting in a new battery. For much more than a quick note, I find using the on screen keyboards annoying and will just take a handwritten note or use handwriting recognition. They only time typing is my preferred input method is when I'm using a full size (real) keyboard.
I also have a Note tablet that I use for a lot of personal notes. It is used for my morning web browsing and it great for reading books, pdfs and office documents because it has a high resolution screen and weighs very little.
While smart watches do have their uses, it is still a niche market. Many smart phone users do not want or need a smart watch. Most of the people I know stopped wearing a watch when they started carrying a smart phone because it is pretty easy to check the time on their phone. Fitness trackers existed before smart watches and are a simple alternative at a lower cost, for a segment of the market that might consider purchasing a smart watch. There are plenty of people that still like to wear the more traditional, dumb, watch and never have to worry about charging the watch batteries.
When smart watches first came out, the early adopters ran out the buy one but they are not representative of the markets as a whole. Some of those people might have found the reality of smart watches disappointing and others are just not interested in upgrading yet. The initial rush to buy was unlikely to be sustained but that does not mean the smart watch is dead.
Personally, I only rarely wear my old digital watch but love the fact that I never have to charge the battery and it will go several years before a replacement battery is needed. It is also just about indestructible, waterproof and has a few useful sensors. My smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop and media centre PC provide more than enough computing and time online to be left without a need for a smart watch. Maybe, if they get a huge increase in battery life and get much tougher, I might consider a smart watch sometime in the future.
I've used hardware from several open source, and not really open source, hardware projects that have attracted a lot of clones. The biggest problem is that the clones are often not exactly the same as the official versions. Clone can have higher version numbers to mislead consumers into believing they are better than others. Even something as simple as different connectors catch people out.
Over time it can become a confusing mess for everyone involved, making support of every clone impractical. If you want to offer some help to clone buyers, limiting that support to a list of approved clones, that meet minimum requirements, is a way of avoiding insanity.
Slashdot Mirror
There has been a huge shift in advertising dollars to the Internet, away from TV and newspapers, with no sign that this will change anytime soon. The 10 network mentioned in the article has probably lost 90% of their advertising revenue to this fundamental shift. Viewers lost to Netflix, and other more convenient and legal streaming services, is likely to be far greater than the loses to piracy.
It doesn't help that the crap shown of the 10 network, like stupid "reality TV", is just not bringing those that still watch TV over from the other TV networks. From my perspective this is illustrated by the two movies discussed in the summary which they would have to pay me a lot to watch. Their network has made some very bad programming and management decisions for several years and that is now catching up with them.
I'm in my 40's and watch a hell of a lot more Netflix and Youtube than I do the TV networks. Being in control of what I watch and when I watch it is important. It also helps that I can watch those services anywhere that my phone has a signal...
Terrorists have used cars and truck to carry bombs, or just run over people. Cars and trucks have been used by terrorists many times in their attacks. If it is logical for drones to have a kill switch, why shouldn't cars and trucks?
Drones are used by a minority, made up of hobbyists and professionals, which makes it an easier group to target, even though any sane person could see that drones account for a minuscule proportion of terrorist attacks. Pressure cookers have been used in attacks more often than drones...
The full version of windows 10 is not limited to store apps. That is a huge limitation when their store has had little success with developers and users. This BS is not full windows 10 and that should be clear to everyone. The motivation is obviously to try to save their failing store by leaving users no alternative.
WTF has happened to slashdot??? It looks like another go at the beta site fail that the previous owners tried and that didn't work out too well for them.
I liked being able to skim the summaries quickly to decide what I wanted to read. Clicking on titles to get summaries did not take long to piss me off.
Windows 7 will be my last version of Windows on any computer that I own.
MS tactics is forcing upgrades to win 10 would have been enough to put me off. However, bundling spyware and adware right in with the OS guaranteed that I would never have win 10. Right now, my employer has win 7 on our work computers but they will probably have little choice but to move to 10. My personal use on windows is pretty much just gaming and a few specialised applications which I can live without.
Linux has long been my main OS at home and I wouldn't even boot into windows monthly now. Most of my games run perfectly on Linux. While I like a couple of the MS Office applications, open source alternatives that run on Linux do just about everything that I could ever want.
I lot of friends and relatives are moving to Linux or dumping their desktop OS and moving to Android tablets because that have used Win 10 on their laptops and absolutely hated it. People are often horrified to learn that Windows 10 is spying on them. Windows is not going to die but it is losing market share.
I've been using Firefox since the early versions and it is only in the last couple of years that it has given me any problems. The most frustrating is strange crashes on mainstream websites, on multiple platforms. By far the worst Firefox version is on Android which really pisses me off. I like checking in on several websites on my Android tablet of a morning and Firefox crashes more than once a day and I am really sick of that stupid sorry message...
I also use Firefox on Linux and Windows - both have problems - and the only reason I keep using it is the support for plugins and extensions that I want and that Chrome does not support on Android. If Mozilla screws with those, there is no reason to just move to Chrome and forget about Firefox. While I do not think that Mozilla will care about the loss on one user, I suspect there are more people in a similar position which is why Firefox has been losing market share for a while. Maybe someone will fork Firefox and Mozilla will just fade away.
Chrome is the only browser I use on my work PC and is used at home for Netflix on Linux. It isn't terrible, just lacking some of the extension I have on Firefox that make it inconvenient to use.
MS is just likely to piss off OEMs with these demands. Windows has been a failure on mobile devices and OEMs cannot afford to build devices that will not turn a profit. Windows is only hanging on the the desktop/laptop market because everyone just sees it as the default OS, even when they hate it. If MS can convince OEMs that there is a market, by backing up the targets with tangible market research, there is a chance that they will get their way. Bullying OEMs that are already selling products with alternative operating systems is unlikely to work.
HP, ASUS, Dell, Acer and other MS OEMs have released chromebooks that are much lower priced than Windows laptops but still capable of meeting the needs of many consumers. Business customers are less likely to give up Windows and turn to a chromebooks but it does show OEMs are keeping their options open. I would not expect these OEMs to entirely abandon Windows but would expect them to only release windows with product lines that they know has a profitable market. A miscalculation in MS demands could easily result in fewer devices shipping with Windows.
I've seen Windows 10 updates make a computer unusable for hours, particularly for any application where a bit of processing power it needed. Forcing actions that interfere with the owner's use of a computer is another malware trait to add to the adware and spyware that MS bundled with Win 10. It is hard to believe that MS is actually getting away with this sort of behaviour. There are real consequences for Windows users, particularly those in small business that rely on MS products to operate their business but are too small to have the extra control that MS might allow large companies.
Problems with Windows are only going to get worse. Many businesses are unwilling to give up Win 7 and put up with the shit that MS is trying to force on them with Win 10. The same customers mostly avoided Win 8 so are using a OS that MS will abandon, without supplying a functional replacement. MS seems to be completely lost and confused, with an attitude of refusing to give customers what they want but still expecting them to buy their crap.
If Linux companies are smart about this, there could be a huge jump in Linux adoption that convinces more software companies to port their products to Linux. Time will tell. I know from personal experience that it has been very easy to get Win 10 users ready to try Linux.
Windows is losing relevancy as the shift to mobile devices continues and many people no longer need a desktop OS. A sign of just how significant this has become is MS releasing several products onto Android. There are an increasing number of large developers that have little interest in Windows, preferring to focus on other platforms. If MS loses their near monopoly of the desktop OS market, their whole world could come crashing down very quickly.
Educating the public to privacy and security issues is a worthwhile exercise. Maybe it isn't a backdoor but people seem to be increasingly concerned when it is suggested that their messages can be intercepted and read by third parties. This can only be a good thing. Our privacy has been eroded by several large corporations and a weird fascination with social media. Several companies want access to all of our data but the number of high profile breaches illustrate a significant risk in trusting others with anything particularly sensitive.
If people want their messaging to be secure and private, they need to understand that end to end encryption is required and the standard for this method must be that it is not exploitable, through poor security implementation or backdoors. Sending commercially sensitive business information through an insecure communications method is just stupid and might not be legal in some circumstances. We also have our own sensitive financial or personal information that could be misused in the wrong hands. Getting people to Consider security and privacy issues a little more is a positive.
One of the most annoying forms of PC based malware has long been adware. It is now new to have adware being bundled with applications, only to be found and removed by the better antivirus products. Now that MS bundles adware in Win 10, those poor fools with win 10 are stuck with this malware. On the positive side, it does make it insanely easy to show people just how bad and creepy Win 10 is and show that MS cannot be trusted.
As others have pointed out, Windows 10 is bundled with malware right from Microsoft, in the form of spyware and adware. Forced updates happening at inconvenient times can leave a win 10 almost useless, particular if what you are trying to do is CPU intensive. There is a lot of lost productivity around the way MS has forced updates, even when they don't break something important. I know people that just gave up on the personal win 10 laptops because they just couldn't use them when they wanted. Updates on Win 7 are not entirely painless but you can at least schedule them for a more convenient time.
My workplace is on Win 7 and I cannot see them changing to 10.
I'm writing this on my Linux desktop which does not come bundled with malware and where updates can be run without interfering with using the computer. Win 10 has providest the greatest boost to Linux adoption that I've even seen.
The music industry fought hard against streaming music services, claiming they would destroy the music industry, and what they tried to kill has actually saved them. This is just more evidence that the music industry does not understand their customers or their own industry. They blamed pirates for the falling profits when studies has shown casual pirates to be some of the biggest spending customers of legal music. Maybe the obvious point should have been that pirates do not like to wait for their music and would happily pay for service that gives them immediate access to the music they crave.
While streaming may have saved the music industry, it is also just one technology that illustrates how the world has moved on from the traditional music distribution methods. A artist can sell directly to their customers through streaming services, leaving the big labels with less control over the industry and providing content producers with much more freedom to profit from their work. There have been many stories pointing out how little artists have been paid by their labels which kept the bulk of the profits. Successful but broke artists can be a thing of the past.
Consumers win through easier access to music and by having more music to choose from.
Companies often try to use licenses and agreements to get around laws. It can be amusing when they find out that this doesn't actually work. The laws specifying the circumstance where a refund is required are very simple and not unreasonable. A customer that just changes their mind has no legal right to a refund. A product that does not live up to the claims there were made by the seller, is defective or not fit for purpose must be refunded. A truthful seller has nothing to fear.
The ACCC regularly goes after companies for breaches of Australian corporate law and $3M is not a big fine when you consider Steam refused a lot of refunds where it was legally required to give a refund. Only weeks ago a drug company was fined $6M over misleading claims. Individual offences can be up to $10M per breach.
In Australia it is actually an offence for seller to put up sign stating that no refunds are give under any circumstances.
When it comes to software being fit for purpose and living up to the original claims there are extra complications compared to a physical product. An update that changes functionality so that the original claims are not met or that makes the software no long fit for purpose could leave the buyer with a right for a refund. It might not be a complete refund, depending on the time it was in use and actual changes but it give sellers something to consider. Again, an honest and truthful seller that does not screw their customers has nothing to fear.
Ham Radio Deluxe is proprietary software but was originally free to use. That changed after a change of ownership. The free versions had no restrictions and worked exceptionally well with my radio gear. I have not used the new paid version of HRD because I don't like how this played out or the tactics of the new owner. I got my ham license 25 years ago and still have radios that require a license, although I don't really use them very much. Ham radio is not dead but there are many convenient methods of communication today that it is just one option of many.
Since Linux is my main OS now, I've use a some Linux based software with my radios but nothing as user friendly as the original HRD. That does not mean that there isn't good ham radio software available for Linux, just that it can take a bit more effort to get working and to use. One day I'll get my radio gear out again and take the time to get Linux setup with some of the good software available.
Spyware and adware were once universally considered to be malware but there appears to be some exceptions now... Many ad supported mobile apps are known to leak personal data to Ad networks with no protections on how that data or sold. This should be considered spyware but many people are willing to accept it. While the subject of this article is a more extreme example of the spectrum of spyware, it isn't clear where people draw the line. Without strong legal protections, consumers are at the mercy of device manufacturers that are driven by profit, with little interest in looking after their customers privacy. Manufacturers might be embarrassed when the a caught out with poor security practises or when they are spying on users but that is a pretty weak form of protection.
A scary escalation is the move of this sort of software from the mobile device to traditional computing platforms (laptop and desktop). Windows 10 telemetry could, and should, be considered to be spyware. After MS started displaying ads it became adware as well.
When it is law enforcement or security agencies spying on the public there is much more of a reaction than when a company does it.
There are very few applications for a DDoS attack that could be considered legal. The FBI, and other law enforcement agencies, should be arresting those that break the law. Maybe that will leave them less time to spy on the rest of us...
There are more victims in a DDoS attack than the target. They can include:
* The people or organisations with infected devices that launch the attack that can have actual costs due to the use of their connections.
* Internet service providers.
* The rest of us that just want to be able to surf the net without reduced performance.
* Those that have a legitimate reason and right to access the target of the attack.
I can't see any reason to feel sympathetic towards the customers of DDoS for hire that get caught. Lock them up like any other criminal.
Many years ago, McAfee was a good AV product but it has been junk for several years now. Unfortunately, it is getting tough to find a reliable AV that is suitable for computer literate customers. This story is not the only example of McAfee actually reducing the security of the machines it is installed on.
In the past, I encouraged people in a business environment to used the AV product that they preferred. That diversity can help to catch threats that a single product misses. Those with McAfee installed were the laptops that were most often infected by a virus and often the evidence of infection came from other computers with different AV products that prevented an infection. It was scary just how bad it was so I had to change the policy to ban it.
Unfortunately, it is tough to find a good AV product, that is reliable and does not cause more problems than an extensive infection. Too many false positives, huge drops in performance, interruption work of productive work with forced reboots and annoying popups are widespread. I used AVG for many years, including in a volume licensed business environment, until it became crapware as well... Now I rely on other security products and systems that a virus resistant.
Telemetry should be able to be switched off entirely, on all Windows installs, so that our right to privacy in respected. Many of the apps that I use include telemetry but I only use those that provide an option to disable their telemetry, even though I will allow telemetry from some trusted apps. MS have repeated demonstrated that they cannot be trusted and it is scary that the released an entire OS that is actually spyware. In any case, it means that Windows 7 will be the last version I allow to be installed on any computer I own.
If Windows update doesn't work without telemetry, that is a demonstration of MS incompetence and a very bad design decision. Linux is my main OS and it sends no telemetry for updates, while still managing to install updates. Those Linux updates also cover every piece of software I have installed in that OS, not just OS updates.
While I largely agree with what you have said, the reality is that tariffs are common and I'd be surprised if any "free trade" agreements result in tariff free trade. By international standards, Australia does have low tariffs on imports and has been phasing out a lot of tariffs. The US and China both have much high import tariffs and it is true that the best deals we have been able to make is a reduction in tariffs in our trade agreements.
Unfortunately, protectionist policies are not going away any time soon. In democracies there are political consequences in doing away with tariffs or subsidies and there are some powerful lobby groups in some countries. Politicians might be professional liars and corrupt but they are not quick to commit political suicide...
As an Australian, Trump killing the TPP is a good thing. There are some parts of the TPP that would have forced some crazy laws on us, without opening up enough trade opportunities. Stripping out everything that US wanted in the TPP and the other countries involved going ahead with a new agreement should be relatively easy. The US is probably not going to be hurt by not being involved and most of the other countries involved will do better, with the likely exceptions of Canada and Mexico.
The Australian economy depends more on trade with China than with the US and we already have a free trade agreement with China, although China still has too many tariffs. China is already pushing their own broad alternative to the TPP which might mean further tariff reductions. A trade war between the US and China could have some positives for the rest of the world.
I suspect there might be more to the story. Maybe a transaction was attempted on their credit card before they updated their address. In any case, Google needs to do a better job in dealing with these situations. It is not reasonable to be forced to create a new account and lose all of your purchases. It does highlight a critical weakness in buying virtual media through online services, like Google. If you've purchased apps, music, books, movies, etc. through Google and they disable your account, it is all gone. Buying physical media is still safer because it is harder to lose your CD/DVD/paper book libraries.
I moved a while ago and this story prompted me to take a look at the address details Google has on me... The scary thing is that one of the two credit cards still had my old address but that wasn't shown until I chose to edit that card because the web interface just shows a large icon for each card with only the type of card, part of the number and expiry date, no address details. Going to change my address for that card offered a drop down with my new address. The address on the other card was correct. Digging further showed my old address in "payments profile" which might have caused problems. I my case, I would have had to update my address in three places which seems strange. Other sites I use will list all of the addresses I have registered on file in a single place, separating them into the various billing, residential and delivery addresses.
The popularity and security weaknesses in IoT devices has lower the bar so that anyone with a bit of IT knowledge can take out large companies. We should take a step back from the IoT buzzword and remember that consumer side devices has been online for a long time. Other consumer equipment, such as routers and web cams, have long been a source an area with weak security and hardcoded passwords. The problem is that these devices are out there and there is no way of fixing them all.
Unless better attack mitigation approaches are put in place, on the broader Internet infrastructure and not just the attach victims, these sorts of attacks will only become more common. Unfortunately, there seems to be little willingness to do this. It is true that this isn't an easy fix and changes will cause their own problems but the consequences of doing nothing could be much worse.
I really hope that Samsung does not kill the Note line. That would leave me desperate for another manufacturer to bring out an equivalent.
I remember going out of my way to spend over US$3,000 on a Windows laptop with a screen the rotated so it was over the keyboard and had a digitiser that allowed my to take handwritten notes. When it was new, it had a useful battery life of over 10 hours and it took it to every meeting. It was amazing that I no longer had to carry, or produce, any paperwork when traveling. Being able to take my notes and use handwriting recognition to turn them into something that I could share with colleagues made me more productive. Filling in the many forms that I used in my job on that screen was a pleasure. Being in a minority with this doesn't bother me at all.
I've had a few Android phones and a couple of those were Notes. In fact, I'm still using a Note 4 and have no interest in replacing it. Having a removable battery and SDcard support is important to me and Samsung dropped both in the Note 5... Right now, my two year old Note 4 can be made as good as new by simply putting in a new battery. For much more than a quick note, I find using the on screen keyboards annoying and will just take a handwritten note or use handwriting recognition. They only time typing is my preferred input method is when I'm using a full size (real) keyboard.
I also have a Note tablet that I use for a lot of personal notes. It is used for my morning web browsing and it great for reading books, pdfs and office documents because it has a high resolution screen and weighs very little.
While smart watches do have their uses, it is still a niche market. Many smart phone users do not want or need a smart watch. Most of the people I know stopped wearing a watch when they started carrying a smart phone because it is pretty easy to check the time on their phone. Fitness trackers existed before smart watches and are a simple alternative at a lower cost, for a segment of the market that might consider purchasing a smart watch. There are plenty of people that still like to wear the more traditional, dumb, watch and never have to worry about charging the watch batteries.
When smart watches first came out, the early adopters ran out the buy one but they are not representative of the markets as a whole. Some of those people might have found the reality of smart watches disappointing and others are just not interested in upgrading yet. The initial rush to buy was unlikely to be sustained but that does not mean the smart watch is dead.
Personally, I only rarely wear my old digital watch but love the fact that I never have to charge the battery and it will go several years before a replacement battery is needed. It is also just about indestructible, waterproof and has a few useful sensors. My smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop and media centre PC provide more than enough computing and time online to be left without a need for a smart watch. Maybe, if they get a huge increase in battery life and get much tougher, I might consider a smart watch sometime in the future.
I've used hardware from several open source, and not really open source, hardware projects that have attracted a lot of clones. The biggest problem is that the clones are often not exactly the same as the official versions. Clone can have higher version numbers to mislead consumers into believing they are better than others. Even something as simple as different connectors catch people out.
Over time it can become a confusing mess for everyone involved, making support of every clone impractical. If you want to offer some help to clone buyers, limiting that support to a list of approved clones, that meet minimum requirements, is a way of avoiding insanity.