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Submission + - LG breaks TVs with software "upgrade"

Submitted by Sooner Boomer
Sooner Boomer writes: I bought an LG 47" TV last year (2013). The picture was good, and it would play not only 3D video from a Blu-Ray player, but also would play 3D video files from an attached USB drive. Not any more. After a forced update to the software, which I did everything to avoid, LG removed much of the functionality from the TV. A 3D video file, still on a USB stick in the TV from before the update, will not play. In fact, they have removed the media player entirely. Their response:

I understand your concern and apologize for the inconvenience. I am afraid that the update cannot be uninstalled. With the latest update the TV changed to Jelly Bean. However, as it was announced directly from adobe, Android will no longer support flash player on the latest versions of the OS (Jelly Bean). Hence, all Google TV&#39s updated to jelly bean will no longer have flash support. Adobe has stopped supporting flash on the new versions of android. This is also the reason why media player is no longer available on the TV. ... Now, about the files that it won’t play, that part doesn’t seem normal.

No shit Sherlock. It's not normal. You REMOVED the media player and a bunch of other features! So, Slasdotters, what are my options?

Submission + - Dell Spyware? 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I recently purchased a laptop from Dell for a friend. Yesterday I received a call from Dell, that the laptop was downloading material which may make it susceptible to malware. They were very insistent that they had not installed spyware by default, but could not explain rationally how they had come by this information. While I'm not concerned about what my friend is doing with his new laptop, I am very concerned that Dell is monitoring the internet activity of this machine. I want to ensure that my friend has a clean experience, so what's the consensus on limiting the spying? I don't have access to the machine, so any directions on which services to disable or programs to uninstall would need to be followed by a very non-tech person. Any hope on getting Dell to stop the monitoring?

Submission + - Google's Free and Open Android Software is a Myth (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by DavidGilbert99
DavidGilbert99 writes: Google loves to tell anyone who will listen about the benefits of its open source mobile software Android and how it helps drive rather than stifle innovation. The ruth is somewhat different. If you want access to what most people think of as Android (with Gmail, Maps, Search and Google Play access) then you have to pay and you have to agree to a strict set of criteria, as newly discovered documents show, including pre-installing all of Google's apps and using them as default options within your smartphone/tablet.

Submission + - Slashdot's new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevant (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Technology Lab / Information Technology
Slashdot’s new interface could kill what keeps Slashdot relevant
Flashy revamp seeks to draw new faces to the community—at the cost of the old.

by Lee Hutchinson — Feb 12 2014, 6:55pm E

        Web Culture

131

In the modern responsive Web Three Point Oh Internet, Slashdot stands like a thing frozen in time—it's a coelacanth stuck incongruously in an aquarium full of more colorful fish. The technology news aggregator site has been around since 1997, making it positively ancient as websites are reckoned. More importantly, Slashdot's long focus on open source technology news and topics has caused it to accrete a user base that tends to be extremely technical, extremely skilled, and extremely opinionated.

That user base is itself the main reason why Slashdot continues to thrive, even as its throwback interface makes it look to untrained eyes like a dated relic. Though the site is frequently a source of deep and rich commentary on topics, the barrier for new users to engage in the site's discussions is relatively high—certainly higher than, say, reddit (or even Ars). This doesn't cause much concern to the average Slashdot user, but tech job listing site Dice.com (which bought Slashdot in September 2012, along with Sourceforge and a number of other digital properties) appears to have decided it's time to drag Slashdot's interface into the 21st century in order to make things comfortable for everyone—old and new users alike.

Submission + - FCC said to be considering monitoring radio and TV news content (wsj.com) 4

Submitted by sixoh1
sixoh1 writes: According to an op-ed in today's WSJ (tiered subscription model) by Ajit Pai (current FCC commissioner, nominated by Obama):

Last May the FCC proposed an initiative to thrust the federal government into newsrooms across the country. With its "Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs," or CIN, the agency plans to send researchers to grill reporters, editors and station owners about how they decide which stories to run. A field test in Columbia, S.C., is scheduled to begin this spring.

Don't rush to the tin-foil hats, but at the same time we're seeing a fight over Net-Neutrality, do we want to see a precedent set that allows the FCC to select favored content?

Comment Knowing how to USE versus Program computers (Score 1) 387

by knorthern knight (#46134537) Attached to: Should Everybody Learn To Code?

> At the very least, everyone needs to understand that their phones don't
> run on magic. And maybe fewer people would look for source code by opening
> an exe in Notepad.

And now for the "Obligatory Car Analogy". Does every driver really need to understand the Carmot Cycle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... which is the basic theory underlying heat engines, including cars? Answer *NO*. Except for engine designers, most people only need to know how to *USE* their car...
* If it's a manual transmission, don't push the engine RPM past the red line on the tachometer
* If the "engine light" comes on, pull over to the side of the road and stop as soon as safely possible
* etc, etc.

Similarly, people need to know how to *USE* computers for their jobs, and at home. Just as everybody has "safe driving" pounded into their head, "safe computing" should also be taught.

Learn the basics of spreadsheets, word processors, email, etc. Scripting languages, spreadsheet macros, etc are nice. But VBA and Visual Basic and C++ for everybody is not necessary, nor possible.

Comment Re:I think you're thinking too hard and the author (Score 1) 503

I have a 24 inch 1920x1080 LCD monitor. I only go fullscreen if I'm watching HD video, or working on a large photo in GIMP, or working on a honking big spreadsheet. I often have two web browsers side-by-each at 960x1080, or 2 or 3 xterms open.

I run icewm with multiple work areas, grouped by tasks. The taskbar enables me to launch stuff, and then it gets out of the way.

Comment Re:Ridiculous (Score 1) 160

> If they were certain to make more money by selling
> Photoshop for three bucks, why wouldn't they do it?

The post that started this sub-thread stated...

> Sure if Photoshop sold for $3 to ***EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO OWNS A PC***
(my emphasis)

Not everybody on the planet would want Photoshop, even if it was free.

Comment Please stop targetting browsers/devices (Score 1) 731

by knorthern knight (#45996735) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Are AdBlock's Days Numbered?

> I need to somehow automagically figure out what device you are using,
> the screen sizes, interface capabilities, etc. and CUSTOMIZE
> my style sheets (one more nail in the fucktard coffin) just for your device.

Dear web-developer... PLEASE stop strying to customize for what you think my browser+device combo is. You are a pain in the ass. I use 3 different browsers at times, all on Linux...

1) Firefox under linux. When I go to live365.com internet radio, with the native user agent, part of the player selection menu is missing, and I can't play music, When I fake the user agent as Firefox on Windows, it works properly.

2) When I go to various sites with Opera, on my desktop, they seem to think it's "Opera Mobile", and I get the crappy mobile site. Mobile sites are such a bleeping joke that XKCD laughs at them... http://xkcd.com/1174/ http://xkcd.com/869/ I have to lie about the user agent to get the desktop version web page.

3) Ditto for uzbl, which is a webkit-based desktop browser. Some web sites see "webkit" and think it's a mobile browser.

Dear web developers... if I *WANTED* to go to "m.bad.example.com" I'd go there. If I ask for "bad.example.com", without the "m", please respect my wishes.

Hint for web developers... you can get away with one web site for mobile and desktop. Smartphones no longer have 240x160 pixel displays. Retina screens can have resolutions equivalant to regular desktops. And smartphones have this ability called pinch-and-zoom. A couple of rules to follow...
1) Allow resizing, so that pinch-and-zoom works.
2) Avoid Schlockwave Trash, and you'll be viewable vy iphone/ipad users

Submission + - Refrigerator Part of Botnet (latimes.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Security researchers at Proofpoint have uncovered the very first wide-scale hack that involved television sets and at least one refrigerator.

In this case, hackers broke into more than 100,000 everyday consumer gadgets, such as home-networking routers, connected multi-media centers, televisions, and at least one refrigerator, Proofpoint says. They then used those objects to send more than 750,000 malicious emails to enterprises and individuals worldwide.

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