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Comment Adobe tried already (Score 1) 297

by SquarePixel (#41421769) Attached to: Can Microsoft Really Convince People To Subscribe To Software?

Adobe has recently made their full software suite available for a monthly fee. Compared to paying several thousands for the software, you only pay $70 per month. For me that seems much better. If, on the other hand, I would like make longer commitment to Adobe's software, I could buy the whole suite, too!
Businesses

Can Microsoft Really Convince People To Subscribe To Software? 297

Posted by timothy from the file-formats-are-what-matter dept.
curtwoodward writes "For most consumers, monthly subscriptions are still something for magazines and cable TV. With Office 365, Microsoft is about to embark on a huge social experiment to see if they'll also pay that way for basic software. But in doing so, Microsoft has jacked up prices on its old fee structure to make subscriptions seem like a better deal. And that could really leave a bad impression with financially struggling consumers."
Government

Federal Judge Says No Right To Secret Ballot, OKs Barcoded Ballots 584

Posted by timothy from the it's-the-little-things dept.
doug141 writes "A Colorado county put bar codes on printed ballots in a last minute effort to comply with a rule about eliminating identifying markings. Citizens sued, because the bar codes can still be traced back to individual voters. In a surprise ruling, Denver U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello said the U.S. Constitution did not contain a 'fundamental right' to secret ballots, and that the citizens could not show their voting rights had been violated, nor that they might suffer any specific injury from the bar codes."
EU

Submission + - Google Faces Heavy Antitrust Fines in the EU (networkworld.com)

Submitted by SquarePixel
SquarePixel writes: Europe's competition watchdog is considering formal proceedings against Google over antitrust complaints about the way it promotes its own services in search results, potentially exposing the company to a fine of 10 percent of its global turnover. Google is accused of using its search service to direct users to its own services and to reduce the visibility of competing websites and services. If the Commission found Google guilty of breaking E.U. competition rules, it could restrict Google's business activities in Europe and fine the company up to 10 percent of its annual global revenue (US$37.9 billion last year).
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook Disables Facial Recognition in EU (theverge.com)

Submitted by SquarePixel
SquarePixel writes: Facebook has disabled facial recognition features on its site for all new European users. The move follows stringent privacy recommendations made by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. Facebook plans to delete all Tag Suggest information and delete the feature for existing EU users by October 15th at the latest. "The news comes as the DPC publishes a lengthy report on a re-audit of the company, which has its European headquarters in Dublin. The report is broadly positive, and the decision to disable Tag Suggest appears to have played a major role in assuaging the Commissioner's office."
Businesses

When the Hiring Boss Is an Algorithm 245

Posted by Soulskill from the doesn't-care-why-manhole-covers-are-round dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Joseph Walker writes at the WSJ that although personality tests have a long history in hiring, sophisticated software has now made it possible to evaluate more candidates, amass more data and peer more deeply into applicants' personal lives and interests. This allows employers to predict specific outcomes, such as whether a prospective hire will quit too soon, file disability claims, or steal. For example after a half-year trial that cut attrition by a fifth, Xerox now leaves all hiring for its 48,700 call-center jobs to software. Xerox used to pay lots of attention to applicants who had done the job before. Then, an algorithm told the company that experience doesn't matter. It determined what does matter in a good call-center worker — one who won't quit before the company recoups its $5,000 investment in training. By putting applicants through a battery of tests and then tracking their job performance, Evolv has developed a model for the ideal call-center worker (PDF). The data recommend a person who lives near the job, has reliable transportation and uses one or more social networks, but not more than four. He or she tends not to be overly inquisitive or empathetic, but is creative. 'Some of the assumptions we had weren't valid,' says Connie Harvey, Xerox's chief operating officer of commercial services. However, data-based hiring can expose companies to legal risk. Practices that even unintentionally filter out older or minority applicants can be illegal under federal equal opportunity laws. If a hiring practice is challenged in court as discriminatory, a company must show the criteria it is using are proven to predict success in the job."
Microsoft

Submission + - How Microsoft is wooing college kids to write apps for Windows 8 (businessweek.com)

Submitted by SquarePixel
SquarePixel writes: Bloomberg has an interesting story about Microsoft's efforts to simultaneously woo younger workers and to get more apps into its Windows Store. "Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, designed Windows 8 for touch-screen technology included in the company's first tablet, Surface, and other devices coming this year. To gain share in tablets, a market expected by DisplaySearch to reach $66.4 billion in 2012, Microsoft needs enough apps to challenge the more than 200,000 available for iPad. Using student recruits is one way Microsoft can woo app developers who are used to building programs for mobile phones and tablets, where the company has little and no share, respectively. Luring programmers before graduation is particularly critical for recruitment in the U.S., which lags behind countries such as India and China in its ability to crank out qualified engineers."
China

Submission + - Google Stops Offering Free Music Service In China (pcworld.com)

Submitted by SquarePixel
SquarePixel writes: Google has yanked its free music service in China after being unable to make it popular enough. The service offered Chinese people free licensed music downloads and was launched in 2009 to compete with the rival search engine Baidu. "Once China's second largest search provider, Google has now fallen to fourth place, overtaken by other local companies. — Google's popularity in the country has waned ever since 2010, when the company pulled the plug on its China-based search engine following disputes with the government over censorship and hacking concerns. Google's market share is at 5 percent, while Baidu's is 74 percent".
Google

Submission + - Microsoft Urging Safari Users To Use Bing (thenextweb.com)

Submitted by SquarePixel
SquarePixel writes: Microsoft is urging Safari users to switch to Bing after Google was fined $22.5 million for violating Safari privacy settings. "Microsoft is keen to make sure that no-one forgets this, let alone Safari users, and the page summarizes the events that took place". It tells users how Google promised not to track Safari users, but tracked them without their permission and used this data to serve them advertisement. Lastly, it tells how Google was fined $22.5 million for this and suggests users to try the more privacy oriented Bing search engine.

Comment Re:"a number of user interface designers" (Score 2, Informative) 484

by SquarePixel (#41386023) Attached to: Designers Criticize Apple's User Interface For OS X and iOS

As you said, not knowing the OS is the problem. However, some things are clearly intended to distance OS X from Windows, while providing no usability improvement.
Just the other day, I spent some 45 seconds trying to delete a file the Windows way. First I realized there was no Delete key, which is annoying even if it's not strictly the OS' fault. So I tried backspace, seems like a logical alternative when you want to delete stuff. Nope, so I tried right-clicking and all sorts of weird click+button combinations I could remember.

Only then did I remember that you must absolutely drag files to the trash.

No you don't. Cmd+Backspace deletes them just fine.

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