This is pretty interesting - as of the time that I'm posting this, there are 41 comments and almost no moderation on this story. I regularly see stories posted at 10PM pacific and wake up the next morning to see 200+ posts, but not in this case.
I suppose that we could say that this is just not really a story of interest. Perhaps, although before you make that argument, do you think that the comment count and moderation would be a little different if the headline had been:
FTC Releases Apple Privacy Audit, Blacks Out the Details
This article implies that http://www.celebritynetworth.com/ is inaccurate with their wealth estimates! How could that possibly be? If they were inaccurate, how could they possibly have that domain name and be quoted in highly moderated slashdot comments?
buy a small SD flash card and spend $25 on a Raspberry Pi and work through this tutorial as you work through your intro course [cam.ac.uk]. Then when you're done you can get the Raspberry Pi to start and have the sole purpose be to display your letter to the staff. Just mail them the Raspberry Pi, the flash card, a USB to USB Micro cord and a short HDMI cable. Just write instructions to plug it into a USB port and monitor then in the letter explain how you used the GNU Toolchain and wrote the rest of this code yourself.
To provide a little perspective - the submitter is taking an Introduction to Computers course while obtaining an associates degree. This pretty much guarantees he is attending a community college, which is the equivalent of a vocational school, if you are unfamiliar with the term. The other people attending this course will be literature, sociology, philosophy, and psychology majors seeking to obtain a two year degree in their field. For most of these people, the concept of Excel is far beyond what they will ever deal with.
The S3 came out months before the iPhone 5. The S3 has:
Higher resolution screen
I thought it was a widely held opinion on slashdot that a higher resolution screen on a phone or tablet was actually a bad thing, not a good thing. I think that the moderation on pretty much every slashdot story dealing with the iPhone/iPad screen in the last few months has proven this to be the case.
You are a slashdot user. Looking at your user id, it doesn't look like you pay slashdot, so I wouldn't consider you a customer. I would consider the advertisers on slashdot to be slashdot's customers. I don't know that slashdot shares your information with the advertisers, but slashdot is able to command dollars for advertisements based on the fact that they have X users that fit a particular demographic. Also, the advertising capabilities provided by slashdot may allow advertisers to obtain information on you that can used to track you outside of slashdot. To that degree, you could be considered a product.
Also odd that people would repeatedly buy products for a decade that lack what they want, and that is all accomplished through the magic of marketing. Maybe this perception is actually wrong and people evaluate whether they like a product and make repeat purchases based on that decision. Maybe perception of a product is different from a hardware spec and a feature list.
I love their idea that we should update the application icons to be represented with more modern tools. Here are some icon suggestions for different apps that people might use based on the tool that they now use for that functionality:
Phone - cell phone
Calculator - cell phone
Note taker - cell phone
Music player - cell phone
Camera - cell phone
Web browser - cell phone
Photo viewer - cell phone
Facebook - cell phone
Calendar - cell phone
Alarm clock - cell phone
Contacts - cell phone
Comments above point out that the Galaxy S3 had 9 million preorders vs the iPhone 5's 2 million. If I apply your logic to those numbers, am I to believe that Android 'fanboys' are a much worse flock? Or maybe people are just buying products that they want and we can stop associating one brand or the other with our egos.
I love how they included the comment about Metro not being a great UI for a desktop. Well designed for winning over the slashdot crowd. Remember, you won't look like a shill if you insert a few harmless disparaging remarks about the company you are representing.
I also love the fragmentation comment which is obviously pandering to the Apple crowd in an attempt for some up mods.
While this comment is lowly moderated now, those of you who came to this story early will have noticed that it started with a very high score.
As Microsoft prepares for the launch of Windows Phone 8 devices, its most important push into the smartphone industry to date
How is this Microsoft's most important push into the smartphone industry to date? Why is this more important than Windows 7? Because it is happening now?
I assume that you posted AC because you actually know how this works but couldn't resist trolling to spread misinformation.
The change to the iPhone 4 doubled the screen resolution. The iPhone 4 can detect whether an app is "high res" or not, and then render it appropriately. The developer doesn't need to do anything.
Likewise, today Apple announced that the iPhone will automatically display existing apps in a letterbox format, essentially rendering them exactly how they were rendered pre-iPhone 5.
But iPhones update to new versions of iOS. The only reason that somebody would have an old version of iOS is that for some weird reason they repeatedly tell the phone not to update. This isn't similar to the case with many Android vendors and carriers, where updates are actually being blocked (note, this is not Androids fault, it is the vendors and carriers).
iOS6 is supported all the way back to the iPhone 3GS. How is this creating any fragmentation?
With the free market bit I don't think that they are labeling anyone as crazy. Rather, they seem to be suggesting that free market proponents will dismiss evidence that counters their established views, which is probably true of many people who hold ideologies.
One interesting aspect of the report is that the conspiracy theorists tend to side with the corporations over science. While I do see how this is an attractive conspiracy, I would think that people would be more likely to think that the companies are conspiring against science to further their economic goals.
My local newspaper's website used to automatically play audible ads, which was extremely annoying when I would be reading the news in the morning while my wife was still sleeping. Especially because I tend to have the computer's volume turned up loud enough for listening to music while I'm doing other stuff.
I've been told that they stopped this practice some time back. I wouldn't know as they lost me as a customer permanently for doing this.
I'm also a bit baffled how a slot makes the phone "bulkier"
I'm not arguing for or against removable SD cards, but I will point out that the presence of a slot will add "bulk". In order for a slot to support any sort of wear that would be experienced by inserting/removing the card multiple times, you are going to end up with infrastructure that consumes some space. Now, we are talking at the level of a few millimeters in each direction, but this does add to the bulk of the phone and reserves the space that the slot will consume. Given that phones are already slim these days, you can actually shave off a perceptible amount by having the card baked in.
Now, you can debate that people shouldn't care about thin phones, or that an interchangeable SD trumps thinness, but I do think that buying patterns would suggest that a significant population of the consumer disagrees. A good counter argument to help us sleep at night would be to label those consumers as sheep who are obsessed with "teh shinyz".
Well, a complication here is that these IDs were obtainable from a number of places in the past when they were still used. For example, you could grab them out of photos or URLs created by some apps. It is possible that someone was able to mine a large number of these, as the issue was fairly well known.
Notice, this isn't being presented as a security issue. Rather, the big news here is that the FBI would have a list of these IDs, implying that Apple was helping the FBI track users. That could be the case, or somebody could be trying to generate some really bad publicity for Apple.
How is this different from other stores? My local grocery chain doesn't stock Playboy in the magazine section. McDonalds doesn't offer Pepsi products. Target doesn't sell Walmart generics. Barnes and Noble doesn't carry my novel. It seems pretty common for stores to limit products that they sell based on all sorts of criteria. I assume you have the same disdain for their censorship and mourn the spiral to mediocrity they create.
The most shocking part of this entire patent is this:
10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the identity of the first user based on the received image includes determining the identity of the first user based on one or more of: a relative position, size, and/or shape of the eyes, nose, cheekbones, and/or jaw of the user in the image of the user
It appears that the person who wrote this patent has no background in actual facial recognition techniques and bases their knowledge on what they have seen in movies. This would be easily circumvented by using even the most introductory academic approach such as Principle Components Analysis.
Doesn't work unless you do it with a stereo camera and verify that it's the person in person and not a photo of that person.
I assume you didn't read the patent...
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a plurality of two-dimensional images of the first user via the camera, the plurality of two-dimensional images being taken from a plurality of different perspectives relative to the user's face, wherein the plurality of two-dimensional images, in combination, provide three-dimensional information about thee user's face; and determining the identity of the first user based on the three-dimensional information about the user's face provided by the plurality of received two-dimensional images.
Exactly - the location of your driving is already trackable, whether by cell phone or a combination of license plate and traffic camera. The real difference here is that a networked car could provide more information on how you're driving. Now, I'm no fan of the "if you've go nothing to hide..." argument, but I could see convincing arguments that this may be a positive thing.
Consider the following situation - you get into an accident with another person. Records show that you generally stay within the speed limit and obey traffic laws, such as signaling while changing lanes and coming to a full stop at traffic signs. The guy that hit you has a very different record - speeds, weaves in and out of traffic, never signals, runs stop signs, etc. That wouldn't exactly be bad information to have. In fact, from a public safety perspective, that might make a case for a stronger fine or a revoked license.
Now, realize, I'm not saying "come into my house and sift through my drawers and file system". More like, "if you get into an accident on a public road, it is reasonable that information about your driving record would be available for court review."
Slashdot Mirror
This is pretty interesting - as of the time that I'm posting this, there are 41 comments and almost no moderation on this story. I regularly see stories posted at 10PM pacific and wake up the next morning to see 200+ posts, but not in this case.
I suppose that we could say that this is just not really a story of interest. Perhaps, although before you make that argument, do you think that the comment count and moderation would be a little different if the headline had been:
FTC Releases Apple Privacy Audit, Blacks Out the Details
This article implies that http://www.celebritynetworth.com/ is inaccurate with their wealth estimates! How could that possibly be? If they were inaccurate, how could they possibly have that domain name and be quoted in highly moderated slashdot comments?
//#reset-to-factory_s234!n
To provide a little perspective - the submitter is taking an Introduction to Computers course while obtaining an associates degree. This pretty much guarantees he is attending a community college, which is the equivalent of a vocational school, if you are unfamiliar with the term. The other people attending this course will be literature, sociology, philosophy, and psychology majors seeking to obtain a two year degree in their field. For most of these people, the concept of Excel is far beyond what they will ever deal with.
I thought it was a widely held opinion on slashdot that a higher resolution screen on a phone or tablet was actually a bad thing, not a good thing. I think that the moderation on pretty much every slashdot story dealing with the iPhone/iPad screen in the last few months has proven this to be the case.
You are a slashdot user. Looking at your user id, it doesn't look like you pay slashdot, so I wouldn't consider you a customer. I would consider the advertisers on slashdot to be slashdot's customers. I don't know that slashdot shares your information with the advertisers, but slashdot is able to command dollars for advertisements based on the fact that they have X users that fit a particular demographic. Also, the advertising capabilities provided by slashdot may allow advertisers to obtain information on you that can used to track you outside of slashdot. To that degree, you could be considered a product.
Also odd that people would repeatedly buy products for a decade that lack what they want, and that is all accomplished through the magic of marketing. Maybe this perception is actually wrong and people evaluate whether they like a product and make repeat purchases based on that decision. Maybe perception of a product is different from a hardware spec and a feature list.
I love their idea that we should update the application icons to be represented with more modern tools. Here are some icon suggestions for different apps that people might use based on the tool that they now use for that functionality:
Phone - cell phone
Calculator - cell phone
Note taker - cell phone
Music player - cell phone
Camera - cell phone
Web browser - cell phone
Photo viewer - cell phone
Facebook - cell phone
Calendar - cell phone
Alarm clock - cell phone
Contacts - cell phone
Comments above point out that the Galaxy S3 had 9 million preorders vs the iPhone 5's 2 million. If I apply your logic to those numbers, am I to believe that Android 'fanboys' are a much worse flock? Or maybe people are just buying products that they want and we can stop associating one brand or the other with our egos.
It might be more effective to rally support for your idea in seven months. People have short attention spans.
I love how they included the comment about Metro not being a great UI for a desktop. Well designed for winning over the slashdot crowd. Remember, you won't look like a shill if you insert a few harmless disparaging remarks about the company you are representing.
I also love the fragmentation comment which is obviously pandering to the Apple crowd in an attempt for some up mods.
While this comment is lowly moderated now, those of you who came to this story early will have noticed that it started with a very high score.
How is this Microsoft's most important push into the smartphone industry to date? Why is this more important than Windows 7? Because it is happening now?
I assume that you posted AC because you actually know how this works but couldn't resist trolling to spread misinformation.
The change to the iPhone 4 doubled the screen resolution. The iPhone 4 can detect whether an app is "high res" or not, and then render it appropriately. The developer doesn't need to do anything.
Likewise, today Apple announced that the iPhone will automatically display existing apps in a letterbox format, essentially rendering them exactly how they were rendered pre-iPhone 5.
But iPhones update to new versions of iOS. The only reason that somebody would have an old version of iOS is that for some weird reason they repeatedly tell the phone not to update. This isn't similar to the case with many Android vendors and carriers, where updates are actually being blocked (note, this is not Androids fault, it is the vendors and carriers).
iOS6 is supported all the way back to the iPhone 3GS. How is this creating any fragmentation?
With the free market bit I don't think that they are labeling anyone as crazy. Rather, they seem to be suggesting that free market proponents will dismiss evidence that counters their established views, which is probably true of many people who hold ideologies.
One interesting aspect of the report is that the conspiracy theorists tend to side with the corporations over science. While I do see how this is an attractive conspiracy, I would think that people would be more likely to think that the companies are conspiring against science to further their economic goals.
My local newspaper's website used to automatically play audible ads, which was extremely annoying when I would be reading the news in the morning while my wife was still sleeping. Especially because I tend to have the computer's volume turned up loud enough for listening to music while I'm doing other stuff.
I've been told that they stopped this practice some time back. I wouldn't know as they lost me as a customer permanently for doing this.
I'm not arguing for or against removable SD cards, but I will point out that the presence of a slot will add "bulk". In order for a slot to support any sort of wear that would be experienced by inserting/removing the card multiple times, you are going to end up with infrastructure that consumes some space. Now, we are talking at the level of a few millimeters in each direction, but this does add to the bulk of the phone and reserves the space that the slot will consume. Given that phones are already slim these days, you can actually shave off a perceptible amount by having the card baked in.
Now, you can debate that people shouldn't care about thin phones, or that an interchangeable SD trumps thinness, but I do think that buying patterns would suggest that a significant population of the consumer disagrees. A good counter argument to help us sleep at night would be to label those consumers as sheep who are obsessed with "teh shinyz".
Well, a complication here is that these IDs were obtainable from a number of places in the past when they were still used. For example, you could grab them out of photos or URLs created by some apps. It is possible that someone was able to mine a large number of these, as the issue was fairly well known.
Notice, this isn't being presented as a security issue. Rather, the big news here is that the FBI would have a list of these IDs, implying that Apple was helping the FBI track users. That could be the case, or somebody could be trying to generate some really bad publicity for Apple.
Wait a minute...the magic mouse doesn't have buttons...
How is this different from other stores? My local grocery chain doesn't stock Playboy in the magazine section. McDonalds doesn't offer Pepsi products. Target doesn't sell Walmart generics. Barnes and Noble doesn't carry my novel. It seems pretty common for stores to limit products that they sell based on all sorts of criteria. I assume you have the same disdain for their censorship and mourn the spiral to mediocrity they create.
It appears that the person who wrote this patent has no background in actual facial recognition techniques and bases their knowledge on what they have seen in movies. This would be easily circumvented by using even the most introductory academic approach such as Principle Components Analysis.
I assume you didn't read the patent...
Well, insightful none the less!
Ah, I can answer my own question - Samsung makes some parts for Apple. I see what you're doing. Those slimy bastards.
Why would we care about working conditions at a non-Apple factory?
Exactly - the location of your driving is already trackable, whether by cell phone or a combination of license plate and traffic camera. The real difference here is that a networked car could provide more information on how you're driving. Now, I'm no fan of the "if you've go nothing to hide..." argument, but I could see convincing arguments that this may be a positive thing.
Consider the following situation - you get into an accident with another person. Records show that you generally stay within the speed limit and obey traffic laws, such as signaling while changing lanes and coming to a full stop at traffic signs. The guy that hit you has a very different record - speeds, weaves in and out of traffic, never signals, runs stop signs, etc. That wouldn't exactly be bad information to have. In fact, from a public safety perspective, that might make a case for a stronger fine or a revoked license.
Now, realize, I'm not saying "come into my house and sift through my drawers and file system". More like, "if you get into an accident on a public road, it is reasonable that information about your driving record would be available for court review."