My iPhone 7 matches my three-year-old laptop's Geekbench score. I fully expect another 2-3 years from my laptop -- most of my friends and relatives seem to be keeping theirs for 5-7 years. So, it hardly seems unreasonable to expect a top-end phone to last 4-5 years.
I'm not going to register to read the full report. But, based on the article, it seems likely they're using two sources of data: 1) a survey (which probably has an item asking about password re-use), and data from the corporate version of the app that shows, in aggregate, how many passwords a person has stored.
Fair enough -- I was going from my faulty memory. I probably would have purchased a Pixel had one actually been available. To Apple's credit, they have been good about providing updates well beyond two years, and after dropping $750 on a phone, I definitely plan to use it for more than two years.
I recently sucked up my pride and bought my first iPhone. Why? Motorola stopped updating my Moto G after less than two years. I considered buying their new model, but they seem reluctant to commit to even quarterly updates, and I doubt they will update for more than two years. I considered a Google Pixel, but they were sold out, and it's unclear how long Google will commit to maintaining a monthly patch schedule for any given model of phone.
I also purchased my first Apple laptop a few years back, mostly to run products from DEVONtechnologies (which are Mac-only). I've been happy with it, but can't say it's turned me into a loyalist.
Am I comfortable with all aspects of Apple's computing philosophy? Definitely not. But, they make good quality, reliable products and take security and privacy very seriously. Given the competition, they've earned my money.
There's a tool here to check whether a particular user has had his/her e-mail and password dumped. Most of them haven't been posted yet but supposedly this site will be updated if more are leaked.
http://davidba.in/DropBoxCheck...
An article in the Atlantic earlier this year discussed a technology apparently widely employed by hospitals to monitor whether patients are experiencing "interoperative awareness" during surgery: a Bispectral Index (BIS) monitor, which performs a electroencephalogram continuously during surgery and checks it against patterns thought to indicate conscious awareness. In early testing, it looked like it could detect most cases of interoperative awareness and was quickly adopted in hospitals from around 2004, but its reliability is now in question and the device, though still widely used, is controversial.
From TFA, it seems this system is aimed at understanding brain damage and not at preventing interoperative awareness. Unfortunately the article doesn't give enough detail to know if the new tool is also based on EEG (I can't access the original study through the paywall). But, if it is, and if it gives a better sense of what patients are aware of, maybe it will have some use in the operating room as well.
In Afghanistan, part of the point seems to be to encourage some rough adeherence to local norms to reduce resentment of the US presence among locals. Hence, the ban on alcohol for US military in Afghanistan and, from TFA, in Afghanistan "commanders have forbidden any sexual encounters between unwed people." Questionable whether this is effective, but it originated as part of a bigger package of trying to discourage US forces from living in a complete bubble, separate from the political and social systems they're trying to change.
In the Iraq case described in the article, there seemed to be some concern (misguided in my view) that hooking up online, posting nudies on CL, etc., is prejudicial to the "good order and discipline in the armed forces." While agreed that the Secret Service exhibited very poor discipline in soliciting prostitutes in Colombia, I'm not sure I see how a "casual encounter" between two soldiers in Baghdad undermines good order or discipline.
From the article:
"The methane could be the result of biological processes. It could also be an "abiotic" geochemical process, however, or the result of volcanic or hydrothermal activity on the red planet."
Not to burst your methane bubble or anything.
Yeah, and I don't know much about his record there. But presumably we're voting mainly on competing world views. Whether or not he was effective and aggressive as a senator is not going to be a deciding factor for most people, given only two major candidates to choose from. If one disagrees with Bush's political outlook, it's not exactly a plus if he's been 'decisive' in implementing it.
Point taken, though. These candidates are forced to make a lot of grandiose statements about their ambitions, and it's a rare one who has the on-the-ground record to back them up.
But that excuse will run out in about a week, so we'd better come up with another one. Interesting point, actually... maybe a shrewd political operative could use the upcoming session to his advantage.
It's politics, man, on both sides. The Washington Post did an analysis of both candidates' spending and revenue proposals, and the budget defecit comes out to about the same for both of them. The difference stems mainly from the fact that Bush would 'spend' about 600bn on tax cuts while Kerry would funnel a comparable amount into new health care programs. But those are campaign promises, and the two administrations could in fact wind up looking quite different when it comes to fiscal policy.
But yeah.
have heard plenty of stories about people walking into unlocked rooms.
If you go to an urban school (NYU, GWU...), this sometimes includes homeless people looking for a place to stay. No joke!
I should add that while I have my doubts about the suitability of Linux for at-home desktop use, I imagine that it could work very well in an administered corporate environment. Maybe we'll see (are seeing?) a takeoff there before we see one with home users.
It came with Gimp 1.something...
I downloaded three CD ISOs. There certainly was no shortage of software, though as I said there are a couple of Windows programs that I need that were a pain to run under Wine. Could I dual boot? Yes. But there is nothing that Linux does for me that Windows does not.
Perhaps I would have had a better experience with a $60 package instead of the download edition, but I have no reason to believe that I would.
I sensed a few months ago that Linux was getting to be more feasible for desktop use by non-geeks. When I saw that Mankdrake 10 Official had been released, I downloaded the ISOs, formatted my hard drive, and installed Linux in place of Win2k. It lasted about a month.
It's not that Mandrake wasn't good, but the overall experience just wasn't as hassle-free as Windows. I figured out how to install RPMs and build programs from source, and was generally able to troubleshoot when things when wrong. My digital camera and CD burner worked without trouble. But I couldn't get GIMP 2.0 to install properly (and I certainly tried). And configuring Wine to run some of the Windows programs that I need for work and recreation (Garmin MapSource, for example), proved impossible. Spurred by a few other annoyances, I decided to move back to Windows.
No doubt I could have tried harder. I'm probably in the top 2% of the US population in terms of competence with computers and surely, given the time, I could have made most everything work. But why would I want to invest the hours in Linux when Windows almost never gives me problems? The Windows installer works great, 2k is pretty stable, and I've never had any security issues (I patch regularly and use Firefox and Thunderbird).
Yeah, Linux is pretty good--far better than the last time that I tried it (Red Hat, five or six years ago). It's Free. But Windows works better for me, and with less hassle.
Now, I will concede this: setting up Linux as a "grandma box" might work great. Grandma would be able to surf the web, use e-mail, and manage her digital photos easily, and without having to worry too much about viruses, spyware, and adware. But I'm not grandma... I know how to avoid such nasties.
Anyway, maybe I'll feel motivated to try Linux again in a few years.
Slightly off-topic, but I've long wondered whether running one of these programs decreases the lifespan of a computer. Do the excess heat and months of constant usage take a toll on the processor and other components?
My P3/900 laptop, for one, sure gets hot when I run Folding@Home.
Looks like we've managed to/. the phone line! They're hanging up as fast as soon as they pick up... could hear other phones ringing in the background.
Haven't had this much fun on the phone since fifth grade!
Considering the amount of reasoned, informed debate his submission has generated, it's clear that the question of teaching assembly language to beginning CS students is worthy of slashdotters' attention. His submission may have an element of self-interest, but its content has obviously prompted a lot of discussion--which is, after all, what we're here for.
Slashdot Mirror
My iPhone 7 matches my three-year-old laptop's Geekbench score. I fully expect another 2-3 years from my laptop -- most of my friends and relatives seem to be keeping theirs for 5-7 years. So, it hardly seems unreasonable to expect a top-end phone to last 4-5 years.
I'm not going to register to read the full report. But, based on the article, it seems likely they're using two sources of data: 1) a survey (which probably has an item asking about password re-use), and data from the corporate version of the app that shows, in aggregate, how many passwords a person has stored.
Cool. But, any assurance that these phones will get frequent security updates? Budget-constrained consumers also deserve security.
Fair enough -- I was going from my faulty memory. I probably would have purchased a Pixel had one actually been available. To Apple's credit, they have been good about providing updates well beyond two years, and after dropping $750 on a phone, I definitely plan to use it for more than two years.
I recently sucked up my pride and bought my first iPhone. Why? Motorola stopped updating my Moto G after less than two years. I considered buying their new model, but they seem reluctant to commit to even quarterly updates, and I doubt they will update for more than two years. I considered a Google Pixel, but they were sold out, and it's unclear how long Google will commit to maintaining a monthly patch schedule for any given model of phone. I also purchased my first Apple laptop a few years back, mostly to run products from DEVONtechnologies (which are Mac-only). I've been happy with it, but can't say it's turned me into a loyalist. Am I comfortable with all aspects of Apple's computing philosophy? Definitely not. But, they make good quality, reliable products and take security and privacy very seriously. Given the competition, they've earned my money.
There's a tool here to check whether a particular user has had his/her e-mail and password dumped. Most of them haven't been posted yet but supposedly this site will be updated if more are leaked. http://davidba.in/DropBoxCheck...
An article in the Atlantic earlier this year discussed a technology apparently widely employed by hospitals to monitor whether patients are experiencing "interoperative awareness" during surgery: a Bispectral Index (BIS) monitor, which performs a electroencephalogram continuously during surgery and checks it against patterns thought to indicate conscious awareness. In early testing, it looked like it could detect most cases of interoperative awareness and was quickly adopted in hospitals from around 2004, but its reliability is now in question and the device, though still widely used, is controversial.
From TFA, it seems this system is aimed at understanding brain damage and not at preventing interoperative awareness. Unfortunately the article doesn't give enough detail to know if the new tool is also based on EEG (I can't access the original study through the paywall). But, if it is, and if it gives a better sense of what patients are aware of, maybe it will have some use in the operating room as well.
In Afghanistan, part of the point seems to be to encourage some rough adeherence to local norms to reduce resentment of the US presence among locals. Hence, the ban on alcohol for US military in Afghanistan and, from TFA, in Afghanistan "commanders have forbidden any sexual encounters between unwed people." Questionable whether this is effective, but it originated as part of a bigger package of trying to discourage US forces from living in a complete bubble, separate from the political and social systems they're trying to change.
In the Iraq case described in the article, there seemed to be some concern (misguided in my view) that hooking up online, posting nudies on CL, etc., is prejudicial to the "good order and discipline in the armed forces." While agreed that the Secret Service exhibited very poor discipline in soliciting prostitutes in Colombia, I'm not sure I see how a "casual encounter" between two soldiers in Baghdad undermines good order or discipline.
There's some background on the domain name here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex.com
From the article: "The methane could be the result of biological processes. It could also be an "abiotic" geochemical process, however, or the result of volcanic or hydrothermal activity on the red planet." Not to burst your methane bubble or anything.
Yeah, and I don't know much about his record there. But presumably we're voting mainly on competing world views. Whether or not he was effective and aggressive as a senator is not going to be a deciding factor for most people, given only two major candidates to choose from. If one disagrees with Bush's political outlook, it's not exactly a plus if he's been 'decisive' in implementing it. Point taken, though. These candidates are forced to make a lot of grandiose statements about their ambitions, and it's a rare one who has the on-the-ground record to back them up.
But that excuse will run out in about a week, so we'd better come up with another one. Interesting point, actually... maybe a shrewd political operative could use the upcoming session to his advantage. It's politics, man, on both sides. The Washington Post did an analysis of both candidates' spending and revenue proposals, and the budget defecit comes out to about the same for both of them. The difference stems mainly from the fact that Bush would 'spend' about 600bn on tax cuts while Kerry would funnel a comparable amount into new health care programs. But those are campaign promises, and the two administrations could in fact wind up looking quite different when it comes to fiscal policy. But yeah.
Congress is not currently in session.
have heard plenty of stories about people walking into unlocked rooms. If you go to an urban school (NYU, GWU...), this sometimes includes homeless people looking for a place to stay. No joke!
Metamoderated as unfair, FYI. =)
I should add that while I have my doubts about the suitability of Linux for at-home desktop use, I imagine that it could work very well in an administered corporate environment. Maybe we'll see (are seeing?) a takeoff there before we see one with home users.
It came with Gimp 1.something... I downloaded three CD ISOs. There certainly was no shortage of software, though as I said there are a couple of Windows programs that I need that were a pain to run under Wine. Could I dual boot? Yes. But there is nothing that Linux does for me that Windows does not. Perhaps I would have had a better experience with a $60 package instead of the download edition, but I have no reason to believe that I would.
I sensed a few months ago that Linux was getting to be more feasible for desktop use by non-geeks. When I saw that Mankdrake 10 Official had been released, I downloaded the ISOs, formatted my hard drive, and installed Linux in place of Win2k. It lasted about a month.
It's not that Mandrake wasn't good, but the overall experience just wasn't as hassle-free as Windows. I figured out how to install RPMs and build programs from source, and was generally able to troubleshoot when things when wrong. My digital camera and CD burner worked without trouble. But I couldn't get GIMP 2.0 to install properly (and I certainly tried). And configuring Wine to run some of the Windows programs that I need for work and recreation (Garmin MapSource, for example), proved impossible. Spurred by a few other annoyances, I decided to move back to Windows.
No doubt I could have tried harder. I'm probably in the top 2% of the US population in terms of competence with computers and surely, given the time, I could have made most everything work. But why would I want to invest the hours in Linux when Windows almost never gives me problems? The Windows installer works great, 2k is pretty stable, and I've never had any security issues (I patch regularly and use Firefox and Thunderbird).
Yeah, Linux is pretty good--far better than the last time that I tried it (Red Hat, five or six years ago). It's Free. But Windows works better for me, and with less hassle.
Now, I will concede this: setting up Linux as a "grandma box" might work great. Grandma would be able to surf the web, use e-mail, and manage her digital photos easily, and without having to worry too much about viruses, spyware, and adware. But I'm not grandma... I know how to avoid such nasties.
Anyway, maybe I'll feel motivated to try Linux again in a few years.
Slightly off-topic, but I've long wondered whether running one of these programs decreases the lifespan of a computer. Do the excess heat and months of constant usage take a toll on the processor and other components? My P3/900 laptop, for one, sure gets hot when I run Folding@Home.
Looks like we've managed to /. the phone line! They're hanging up as fast as soon as they pick up... could hear other phones ringing in the background.
Haven't had this much fun on the phone since fifth grade!
Considering the amount of reasoned, informed debate his submission has generated, it's clear that the question of teaching assembly language to beginning CS students is worthy of slashdotters' attention. His submission may have an element of self-interest, but its content has obviously prompted a lot of discussion--which is, after all, what we're here for.