Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Next step: deprecate API(s) (Score 3, Interesting) 131

The pessimist in me thinks that if anything is to be learned of past history of Firefox development, the next step after removing a feature from core and into extensions is to deprecate / remove the API(s) this extension relies on to function. Or at least the APIs that enable it to work in a comfortable manner vs. UI experience.

Personally I use RSS feeds of 7 different blogs (wow, blogs still exist?) in order to easily follow when new posts are made. It's not much, but at least I don't have to manually check them out, quick browse through live bookmark menu is enough.

Comment Re:It's in the SouthBridge not CPU dammit (Score 1) 181

Actually some sources say that it has been in the "North Bridge", e.g. what has been known as "Platform Controller Hub" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ) for some time. For example, see ME references in https://www.intel.com/content/...

However, it is stated in the above Wikipedia article: "Beginning with ultra-low-power Broadwells and continuing with mobile Skylake processors, Intel incorporated the clock, PCI controller, and southbridge IO controllers into the CPU package, eliminating the PCH for a system on a chip (SOC) design." This makes it unclear whether also the ME component has been integrated into the CPU package in SoC style in these newer CPUs (assuming that it has been there in the first place.) ... I sure wish Intel themselves would explain all this. And also state their reasons for pushing this crap.

Comment Re:Dear Browser Manufaturers. (Score 1) 95

I see that you don't realize that randomizing, etc. just makes your "signature" more unique. And if you give less information, it makes you more unique too.

The best way to be less unique would be to be very average, or at least look like the majority - e.g. probably the average Windows installation with basic fonts, etc. and most common version of Firefox/Chrome (which varies as time goes by).

Comment ... just like Java (Score 5, Funny) 192

The first thing that popped out as I glanced through the post was:

"They can cross oceans.... Slowly. They only move at 1-2 knots, which is a great speed for data collection."

And I thought to myself, "slowly? .. well, it's father of Java, after all."

Comment Story misleading and sensationalist (Score 5, Informative) 234

TFA and the original source (press release from Forum Nokia, http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/nokia-developer-news/2011/03/25/open-letter-to-developer-community ) reveal that:

Over the past weeks we have been evaluating our Symbian roadmap and now feel confident we will have a strong portfolio of new products during our transition period - i.e. 2011 and 2012.

And further ..

Iâ(TM)ve been asked many times how long we will support Symbian and Iâ(TM)m sure for many of you it feels we have been avoiding the question. The truth is, it is very difficult to provide a single answer. We hope to bring devices based on Windows Phone to market as quickly as possible, but Windows Phone will not have all language and all localization capabilities from day one. [...] That is why we cannot give you the date when Symbian will no longer be supported.

Finally it is stated:

What I can promise you is that we will not just abandon Symbian users or developers. As a very minimum, we have a legal obligation, varying in length between countries, to support users for a period of time after the last product has been sold.

So there's nothing saying that Nokia will suddenly stop supporting Symbian in 2012. It'll just fade out gradually, and even they don't admit knowing when it will fade out completely.

Comment Re:Yes, as I've said many times.... (Score 1) 456

Uhm, Wine does not work that way. It does not allow access to hardware level any more than any other user-space application gets, there is simply a emulation layer for D3D implemented that "translates" the API to OpenGL. Windows software using OpenGL, on the other hand, gets a much thinner wrapper to pass OGL calls to native OGL.

Comment Re:Nvidia (Score 1) 456

This won't be an issue anytime soon, as I see it. I doubt Wayland will be _really_ ready for prime-time until, say, 5 years from now on. And Nvidia may just seem disinterested outwards, it is entirely possible they are simply just considering the issue internally and do not want to make any verbal commitments, as is typical for companies.

Comment Re:Symbian sure try hard to prevent you developing (Score 1) 423

I remember the "process", or rather the pain, of using Symbian SDK being on about the same level nearly 9 years ago. Which is exactly why Symbian is shit, and how Nokia in general sucks -- they've had a headstart of 10 years to make Symbian development experience better, but it's still the same piece of pigeon poop it was nearly decade ago.

Google and Apple have done better in way lesser time, and seemingly had the sense to avoid at least some of Symbian's mistakes (albeit they seem to have problems of their own, of course), but Nokia hasn't had the sensibility to improve their primary platform. I guess they finally did admit Symbian's inferiority by the partial move to Maemo/Meego.

I'm not even going to start with the often confusing mess that Symbian platform itself is...

Comment Re:Better solution: read only media (Score 3, Insightful) 264

And what about those BIOS/EFI[1] firmware-based hypervisor rootkits? If someone is able to gain root access in a given system that is somehow "vulnerable" in such way that a permanent EFI (or similar) rootkit can installed, then you'll be fucked even with the read-only media and all.

Speaking of which, I don't understand why manufacturers are so eagerly adding all this new intelligence into the firmware. What do we need it for anyway? IMO it would be so much simpler from security perspective, if the OS would be at the bottom of it all. Added complexity adds new possibilities for exploitation.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Firmware_Interface

The Internet

Submission + - French 3 strikes law returns with judicial oversig (arstechnica.com)

suraj.sun writes: French "3 strikes" law returns, now with judicial oversight!

The French Senate has once again approved a reworked version of the country's controversial "three strikes" bill designed to appease the Constitutional Council. Instead of a state-appointed agency cutting off those accused of being repeat offenders, judges will have the final say over punishment.

The approval comes exactly one month after the country's Constitutional Council ripped apart the previous version of the Création et Internet law.

Bring in the judges

Not content to let the idea die, President Nicolas Sarkozy's administration reworked the law in hopes of making it amenable to the Council--instead of HADOPI deciding on its own to cut off users on the third strike, it will now report offenders to the courts. A judge can then choose to ban the user from the Internet, fine him or her 300,000 (according to the AFP), or hand over a two-year prison sentence.

Those who are merely providing an Internet connection to dirty pirates can be fined 1,500 and/or receive a month-long temp ban from the online world. (A group of French hackers has already begun to work on software that cracks the passwords on locked WiFi networks so that there's an element of plausible deniability when law enforcement tries to go after home network owners.)

The Senate approved this version of the bill with a vote of 189-142 this week, sending it to the National Assembly for final passage.

ARS Technica : http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/its-baack-french-3-strikes-law-gets-another-go-from-senate.ars

Slashdot Top Deals

God help those who do not help themselves. -- Wilson Mizner

Working...