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Submission + - Windows chief struggles to explain the consumer value proposition of Windows (citeworld.com) 2

Submitted by mattydread23
mattydread23 writes: Microsoft's new Windows chief Terry Myerson gave a presentation to financial analysts today, and one asked him a very good question: When I see all these mobile Windows devices — phones, tablets, convertibles — in Best Buy, why should I want one? What's the consumer value proposition of Windows devices? His struggle to answer the question shows that there may not BE a good answer. Back when Windows was all we had, we used it for everything. Now, a lot of functions — communication, gaming, web browsing — can be served by other platforms better, cheaper, or both. This is a tough question, but one Microsoft has to solve if the Windows brand is to remain relevant.

Comment Re:resistive touchscreen Luddites. (Score 3, Insightful) 109

by preflex (#45580373) Attached to: Neo900 Hacker Phone Reaches Minimum Number of Pre-Orders For Production
One of the reasons I bought the n900 rather than one of the others was the wonderful resistive touchscreen. It was an excellent choice, as it was so much more precise than the capacitive screens on all the iOS and Android devices at the time. I could actually use the tiny UI elements in desktop apps running from a debian chroot.

Submission + - Lawsuits Could Turn Chimpanzees Into Legal Persons (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: This morning, an animal rights group known as the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) filed a lawsuit in a New York Supreme Court in an attempt to get a judge to declare that chimpanzees are legal persons and should be freed from captivity. The suit is the first of three to be filed in three New York counties this week. They target two research chimps at Stony Brook University and two chimps on private property, and are the opening salvo in a coordinated effort to grant “legal personhood” to a variety of animals across the United States. If NhRP is successful in New York, it would upend millennia of law defining animals as property and could set off a “chain reaction” that could bleed over to other jurisdictions, says Richard Cupp, a law professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and a prominent critic of animal rights. “But if they lose it could be a giant step backward for the movement. They’re playing with fire.”

Comment Re:What's Jolla? What's Sailfish? (Score 1) 118

by preflex (#45564455) Attached to: Sailfish Can Officially Be Installed To Android Devices
I agree. The article and summary are badly written. However, parent was complaining there was no "hint" as to the identities of Jolla and Sailfish. He was so emphatic about the word "hint" that he used the emphasis tag. I simply pointed out that there were plenty of hints available, and that those hints should indicate whether the article might fall within his interests. He could simply ask, "Am I interested in installing an alternative OS on an Android phone?". If yes, research Jolla and Sailfish. If no, don't.

I understand that he didn't really want hints, and that he wanted explicit background information. However, parent's statements were so exaggerated that they undermined his argument by being demonstrably false.

Comment Re:What's Jolla? What's Sailfish? (Score 2, Informative) 118

by preflex (#45563715) Attached to: Sailfish Can Officially Be Installed To Android Devices

would it kill you just to give a hint of what Jolla and Sailfish are?

They gave you several hints.

"Jolla CEO Tomi Pienimäki": Hmm. Jolla must be a corporation. That name sounds Finnish.

"If Jolla truly is compatible with Android devices...": Jolla seems to be making some sort of cell phone software.

"Is Jolla going to let individual users to install the Sailfish operating system ..." Sailfish is an operating system for cell phones.

So, Jolla is a Finnish cell phone company that is producing an OS called Sailfish. It will be installable on Android devices. It seems like you would have enough information there to know if you want to know more. They've even provided all the relevant keywords: "Jolla", "Sailfish", which you can enter into a search engine to find more information

Complaining about this makes you appear stupid and lazy.

Comment Re:Where's the outrage?! (Score 1) 255

by preflex (#45550391) Attached to: CyanogenMod Installer Removed From Google Play Store

It isn't a one-click method to install the CM firmware though - just a method of making the installation via PC less painless.

Oooh! Great! Where do I download? I've been looking for ways to make installing 3rd party firmwares more painful. As it stands right now, the process is far too pleasant and enjoyable.

Submission + - The Burning Bridges of Ubuntu (datamation.com)

Submitted by jammag
jammag writes: "Whether Ubuntu is declining is still debatable. However, in the last couple of months, one thing is clear: internally and externally, its commercial arm Canonical appears to be throwing the idea of community overboard as though it was ballast in a balloon about to crash." So claims a top Linux pundit, pointing out instances of community discontent and apparent ham-handeness on Mark Shuttleworth's part. Yet isn't this just routine kvetching in the open source community?

Submission + - NSA Spied On Porn Habits As Part Of Plan To Discredit 'Radicalizers' (huffingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Jah-Wren Ryel
Jah-Wren Ryel writes: The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document.

This plan is remarkably similar to the way the FBI tried to blackmail Martin Luther King, aka "the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation," with an audiotape they got by bugging his bedroom.

Submission + - Weapons You Can Build from Items Sold in Airport Stores After the TSA Checkpoint (terminalcornucopia.com)

Submitted by Jah-Wren Ryel
Jah-Wren Ryel writes: In early-2013, independent security researcher, Evan “treefort” Booth, began working to answer one simple question: Can common items sold in airports after the security screening be used to build lethal weapons? As it turns out, even a marginally “MacGyver-esque” attacker can breeze through terminal gift shops, restaurants, magazine stands and duty-free shops to find everything needed to wage war on an airplane.

Submission + - Astronomers Discover Largest Structure in the Universe (medium.com)

Submitted by KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: Until now, the largest known structure in the Universe was the Huge-LQG (Large Quasar Group), a cluster of 73 quasars stretching over a distance of 4 billion light years. Now astronomers say they've spotted something even bigger in data from gamma ray bursts, the final explosions of energy released by stars as they die and the universe's most energetic events. Astronomers have measured the distance to 283 of these bursts and mapped their position in the universe. This throws up a surprise. At a distance of ten billion light years, there are more gamma ray bursts than expected if they were evenly distributed throughout the universe. This implies the existence of a structure at this distance that is about ten billion light years across and so dwarfs the Huge-LQG. What's odd about the discovery is that the Cosmological principle--one of the fundamental tenets of cosmology--holds that the distribution of matter in the universe will appear uniform if viewed at a large enough scale. And yet, structures clearly emerge at every scale astronomers can see. The new discovery doesn't disprove the principle but it does provide some interesting food for thought for theorists.

Submission + - How Snowden Did It (darkreading.com)

Submitted by ancientribe
ancientribe writes: Key clues are emerging that provide a clearer picture of how Edward Snowden may have pulled off the most epic insider leak in history. Security firm Venafi says it has figured out how it all went down: Snowden fabricated SSH keys and self-signed digital certificates to access and ultimately steal the NSA documents, Venafi has concluded based on public information on the breach and their analysis. Venafi is also publicly challenging the NSA and Snowden to prove its conclusion wrong.

Submission + - U.S. Government Circulates Watch List of Buyers of Polygraph Book/DVD/Training 1

Submitted by George Maschke
George Maschke writes: Investigative reporter Marisa Taylor of the McClatchy newspaper group reports that a list of 4,904 individuals who purchased a book, DVD, or personal training on how to pass a polygraph test has been circulated to nearly 30 federal agencies including the CIA, NSA, DIA, DOE, TSA, IRS, and FDA. Most of the individuals on the list purchased former police polygraphist Doug Williams' book, How to Sting the Polygraph, which explains how to pass or beat a polygraph test. Williams also sells a DVD on the subject and offers in-person training. In February 2013, federal law enforcement officials seized Williams' business records, from which the watch list was primarily compiled. Williams has not been charged with a crime.

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