I suspect the primary reason for this is to maintain high ad prices by not charging advertisers for useless click. For instance, if I were to post this response on a mobile platform, I would first have to close the ad tab at the bottom so I could click the submit button. Sometimes instead of closing the ad, I click it. If the advertiser is getting charged per click, and google were the provider, this would generate revenue for Google while providing negative value for the advertiser, as it would tend to make me dislike the advertiser. This would tend to push ad rates down, which still would not compensate for the negative end user impression.

Ding ding ding ding! We have a winner.

Of course Google is trying to reduce accidental ad clicks - because accidentals reduce ad rates if advertisers feel most people are not viewing the ad because they want to.

And you can bet more than a few advertisers probably pulled their campaigns after seeing most of their money went to Google over people who never intended to follow through with the ad.

Anytime Google does something beneficial to the users, it's probably because the advertisers got pissed off. Here, it would be advertisers getting pissed off paying for accidental taps.

Google rarely, if ever, allows real malware to slip through. Yes, there is adware and exploitive free to play games, but you can uninstall them and they're gone. What makes malware malware is you need to ffr to get rid of it.

Sorry, not true. Maybe if you stick on the straight and narrow "Google" ads, but Google owns most of the ad networks out there, including your favorites like DoubleClick (famous pop ups and pop unders, and more than a few times sent infected ads), AdMob (who does most of the mobile advertising - Google themselves don't do it), as well as several others. Google owns the online advertising business - the only ones they don't are the scummy ones who advertise on bittorrent sites and the like

My watch has force touch, and I'm not a big fan. You have to push a little too much to make me comfortable, it's not a natural motion. It's also just a binary thing, you either tap or force touch. There's no gradient of pressure. We'll see what the implementation is on the watch

You can really think of it as the touch equivalent of "right click". Something that touch screens do poorly is how to emulate a right-click or contextual action. Many do it as a touch-hold (press your finger to the screen for a second). If you're able to sense pressure, that lets you avoid the delay and just call up a contextual action by pressing hard.

Though, you'd probably need feedback to show that you did press hard enough... like a tap.

I worked for a company that had similar policies - they installed tons of spyware on their system. The spyware would monitor what files got written, what files got opened, and so on, and it would visibly slow down the PC. (The tons of other management apps they had on it didn't help, either).

And these were brand new i7 laptops, running Windows 7.

A few weeks into the deployment, and people were complaining about sluggishness or other odd behavior, and ended up getting their antivirus swapped out which seemed to fix some of the oddities. The others suddenly got BSODs constantly - they coudln't go through a whole day of work without a BSOD in the middle of it, and it turned out the old antivirus was having a conflict with the disk encryption software. (One effect of being switched to new antivirus was they also switch encryption software to Bitlocker), and I remember that the machines without BSODs had their encryption and antivirus swapped out.

And yes, they spied on you. If you copied source code to a USB drive, you could expect either an email the next day from IT asking why you did it (CC'd to your manager), or have IT security and your manager come up to you and ask what you did it for.

They also spied on what you did - employees have been fired for playing a pirated movie on their laptops at home, on the off time. And I'm sure it was heavily scrutinized, given there were perfectly legitimate reasons to have stuff like VLC on your PC, or movie files (you needed them for testing).

Heck, the source code thing caught a few people who needed to do testing - testing USB hardware by doing basic file I/O (they copied the source tree to serve as test files). And it was especially fun since one of the processors had firmware and you had to copy the firmware you just compiled using USB for testing. It was all too easy to include a few source files in there...

About the only good thing was they had a backup utility so when you connected over VPN or to their network, the backup would run and get you most of the way should your hard drive crap out. But that was the only good slowdown that happened. You learned to connect to the VPN when you got into work, let it backup your PC while you get your coffee etc,

2) A battery back is physically bigger than a phone battery and most require an extra cable. How is that ever going to be more convienent then just carrying another charged battery?

How do you charge said battery? I know Samsung, for some models, make a "dock" so you can stuff your battery in that and charge it. But otherwise, you have to charge it in your phone. If you're using the second battery, you then have to swap out the batteries, then put your phone back on charge. If you're like me, you forget to do so a few hours later and now you have a dead battery and a charged one, and no time to charge the dead battery.

With an external pack, I plug the charger to the external pack, and either plug the phone into another charger, or into the pack, and they all charge in a chain. In the morning, the pack and phone is charged, and I didn't have to anything more complex than put them both to a charger.

Extra batteries are for chumps unless your phone has special charging dock that lets you charge it outside the phone. Charging batteries in the phone is annoying unless you remember to swap them once the existing one fills up. And most likely, you'll forget, so you're back to one battery again.

I've never seen such push back over something that really is much more annoying. Sure an external pack is bulkier, but they are way more convenient to use - especially when charging.

It's like removable batteries for laptops - so the low battery warning goes off, what do you do? Shut everything down and change the battery? (Old Apple laptops back in the day had a 5 minute battery so you could suspend the laptop to RAM, then swap the main battery without losing RAM and then resume where you left off, back in the days when people carried several batteries as a matter of course, and there were charging bays and all that...). I don't think many Windows laptops did - once the battery ran low, you had to shut it down, swap, then boot it back up. And these days I don't think any computer has a temporary battery for swapping while suspending.

Agreed. On the other hand... what plane can't tolerate a drone strike? Not really up on drones but seems to me the vast majority are smaller and lighter than a lot of birds. Bird strikes obviously aren't good if they hit an engine. But outside of that I'm trying to figger out what the major problem is. So did the drone encroach the planes airspace or did the plane encroach the drones airspace?

A bird strike is damaging. If you have altitude, you have options. Firefighting aircraft don't have altitude - they're working at 1500' or less. At that altitude, if something happens, there aren't many options. If the engine is damaged (yes, the plane survives, but that doesn't mean it doesn't incur damage. You can survive an earthquake or a car accident, but that doesn't mean you're not severely injured), there are serious issues about getting out there.

Flying in a fire is extremely difficult, too - the air is extremely turbulent from the heat, and you have to maintain a narrow line so your water/retardant has most effect - too high and it scatters, useless, too low and you lay a narrow thick line that doesn't cover much area.

Last thing you want to do while concentrating on flying through is worry about other traffic. In fact, in most active aerial firefighting, one aircraft serves as a traffic controller - each aircraft, be it a waterbomber, helicopter with bambi bucket, or other vehicle is carefully sequenced and told where to drop. An unauthorized party - be it drone, aircraft or other vehicle calls off this out of safety of the third party (while rare, a sudden drop of water can cause significant damage or crash a light aircraft, endangering the people inside).

And in a fire zone, the airspace is restricted. It doesn't matter if the drone was flying before the fire - once the fire starts up, the area is immediately restricted airspace. I had to fly around wildfire restricted zones which happened to encroach in the approach path of an airport - it doesn't matter - you have to divert around the zone. ATC helps by keeping you away, but you're expected to know about the airspace restrictions.

Pay more for the background check, apparently. They shouldn't take a long time, especially since they're mostly worthless.

No, paying more doesn't help.

I know of several background check companies. One of them checks everything in your resume - they verify that yes, you attended College U. between those dates you claimed, and that yes, you were in the right department (that information's mostly public). They even go and verify your past employers. When you hire people from other countries, it takes even longer (the larger companies have scouts in other countries).

Then there are ones that check your references, and they have to give a couple of weeks for responses as well. I got fed up doing so many of those I just answer basic questions so it takes no longer than 2 minutes. Because the only information they need is the start date and end date. I'm not going to divulge salary information to a third party, nor am I going to offer opinions or judgements. The last two require ME to do work, and sorry, you didn't pay me to answer your questions.

And what's with them doing it in the most obnoxious way possible? I get an email with a word document or HTML file, and they want me to FAX IT BACK?! I didn't bother with the ones who couldn't even be courteous enough to give me a toll free number.

Perhaps those background check companies need to look at themselves first and realize that the people they're checking are busy folks too, and if they want answers, making it as frictionless as possible to answer would go a long way to getting better responses. Hell, mail me a letter, enclose a $5 gift card, and I'll be more than happy to spend 10 minutes doing your thing. And if you're doing that, SASE please, so all I have to do is drop it in the mailbox.

Show you did some effort (even if it was Bob in the mailroom whose job is to take a printout of your forms, stuff in a gift card and a return envelope into a bigger envelope, and drop it in the mailbox).

I still wonder how could Google access these files, if CRC does not allow this.

The same way other companies like "expert sex change" (.com, if you must) used to show up in the rankings, but if you go there, you see paywall after paywall.

Basically the sites look for the Googlebot user-agent and adjust their results slightly - by exposing the entire content of the page. So all of it is nicely indexed by Google, and when you search, they show up. But the answer (which Google got to see) is hidden away through logins because you're not Google.

You used to be able to see it through the cache links, and I think Google is actually cracking down on people who try to SEO by targeting the bot (you don't see expert sex change on the list anymore).

But sites like CRC did the same - if you were Google, you got more access. You might want to try browsing the web as Googlebot...

He doesn't. He's appealing to beliefs, whether supported by science or not - first, the belief that wifi radiation can be dangerous, and second, the belief that his widget is safer than the competition.

I'd say the competitor has poor marketing.

With that "pregnant woman" setting, I'd go and say "My router is much safer than theirs. Theirs emits dangerous wifi - so dangerous they have to put in a pregnant woman setting to prevent their wifi from hurting your unborn child. Our wifi doesn't need that setting as it's inherently safer and won't hurt your unborn child!"

After all, it can go either way - either admit their setting is better. or trash their setting as evidence they need it, while yours doesn't.

The thing is, as a drone pilot, if I see a fire, the last thing I want to do is get in the way of firefighters and/or emergency services.

That's because you were probably raised right and still have the sense you were born with.

We can't assume the same about everybody else. In fact, it's safest to assume everyone else has no idea how to behave and will fuck stuff up more often than not.

In fact, I can imagine a reason why people would bring their drone into a wildfire - cool video shoot.

Sadly, it appears taking shots of things from new and unusual angles to get the view on YouTube seems to be the order of the day.

I mean, when you can bring your drone over a wildfire to get cool video of that fire burning down someone's house, that'll bring the clicks and the money.

And you know YouTube pays people too much when they can destroy a $10,000 Apple Watch Edition and pay for it from the YouTube proceeds.

So yeah, catch a wildfire from a cool angle burning up someone's prized possession, make serious cash, who cares if you're putting people's property or lives in danger. Just the YouTube clicks matter.

DHCPv6 is nothing like DHCPv4. It was designed from the ground up differently, just like IPv6 itself was. It's the only mechanism out there that an IPv6 network admin has to control which devices get which addresses. Denying a DHCPv6 solution just forces people into a 2 sizes fit all, which is far from ideal. Also, DHCPv6 is the only thing that allows one to have, say /96 subnets (assuming that they don't give a fuck to SLAAC) or even a /128 assignment.

And there are many valid uses of DHCP where IPv6 doesn't exist, or is insufficient. RA and RADNS works for the most basic case, but enterprise needs are far more varied.

I mean, think desktop management - it's not unusual to have DHCP right now give the PC an IP and boot it off the network (DHCP options for boot-server and boot-file) - otherwise known as PXE, as well as in an OS environment for the OS to pick up which is the authentication server it should use (LDAP, Active Directory, etc) and so on.

I suppose IPv6's way is to have those services announce themselves over the network, but then it becomes limited to a network segment and you start filling the network up with broadcasts. Plus, it's a lot harder to manage - for example, you can give someone a new PC by noting its MAC address and the OS install/download/etc happen automatically by plugging it in and booting it up. to that configuration.

see, in the US (for those not from here) if we call you a 'contractor' in the software field, then we can have you work 40 hours/week minimum, likely ask for more and not pay more (just guilting you into working more, the unspoken threat is to cancel your contract the very next day). but the super sweet deal they get is that they don't cover your healthcare (not one penny), they don't cover the national holidays, the religious holidays or even your actual sick days. all that costs you a day's pay for each day you take off during those times. we have a lot of US monday holidays and, as a contractor, I hated it. I got 32 hours of pay that week, other fulltime employees got their full week's pay and 1 day loss of pay is actually a lot, when you add it up. and no, as a contractor, you do NOT get paid more than the f/t guys. that stopped happening 10 or 20 years ago, at least. today, the contractor in sw is the lowest rank, the most disposable and everyone knows it.

That mean contracting's not for you. First off, you need better negotiation skills. And potentially sales skills because you're supposed to negotiate all those things in your contract.

Your hourly rate should include extra money to pay for your benefits and your taxes that the employer would've paid. And the contract is for a definite period of time - it cannot be indefinite (or you and your company run a real risk of being reclassified as employee), so add in a holiday bonus to the rate. If you make $30/hr as a FT employee, you had better be charging out $50+ as contractor to cover extra expenses, vacation, PTO, etc.

Your contract should also include termination clauses - penalties paid if terminated early. If you're good, you can get it so you get full payment for rest of the contract, if not, you can make it so you get 30 days.

And while you're drafting your contract, add in IP provisions because it's appropriate.

Yes, contractors suck, especially if you lack the skills to sell yourself. Yes, if your company is switching you, it sucks and you will probably agree to something just for stability, which is the wrong thing to do. Or at the very least, make it a super-short 30 day contract so your exploitation period is short while you regroup and negotiate better terms. At the same time, use that time to look for another job - because either way, you're free to do so. As a contractor, the company cannot limit you from checking out other prospects or even doing multiple jobs.

SSDs just make it worse, since when they fail, they are usually impossible to recover.

My hard drive failures generally tend to be unrecoverable - sure I might be able to get pieces of data, but once they go, it's generally gone. SSDs just up and dying is no real biggie (backups!).

I suppose the real sad thing is that Microsoft had one of the best backup solutions for networked Windows computers, especially in a home/SOHO setting. Windows Home Server had a stupidly simple to use backup system - it worked at a file and image level so if you were upgrading or restoring, you popped in the boot DVD, booted the PC with the new hard drive off it, logged into your WHS, and clicked "restore". Couple of hours later and your PC is up and running.

And it backed up all PCs nightly - woke them up, did the backup, put them back to sleep. Plus all your usual de-duplicating and other things. And in the few cases where a PC needs drivers, the backup created a driver folder you can view on another PC, copy those to a thumb drive, and when the boot DVD prompted, you stuck those in and it loaded them.

it was also stupidly simple to use - install the Windows Home Server connector, add it to the backup rotation and done.

I generally don't pay much attention to the music (of course I'm aware it's there) when I'm watching a film.

But seeing as he's done the tunes for a few that a I really like I might try digging out a few soundtracks, or watching with the picture off.

You might think you don't, but you actually do. Even if you're not aware of it.

Sound is actually a critical part of a motion picture - more so than the picture itself! Many studies have been conducted (and you can do it yourself, too) - with the sound muted (turn on subtitles), you'll find the movie is actually lacking. Reverse it - with the picture off and the sound on, and it doesn't matter - you get the full range of emotions and environment that the director was trying to create, even though you're not actually seeing the images. That's how important sound is.

Even before the era of talkies where you had a gramophone or piano player, they were doing the same thing - to provide context and emphasis for the images.

And the movie's score plays a VERY important role in emotional development - it's not just putting some music to fill in some gaps, but the right choice of instruments, tempo and cues adds excitement to action sequences, suspense during sneak scenes, sorrow or sadness during bad events, etc.

If you have a movie that is particularly moving, try watching it without sound and you'll wonder what the big deal was.

Oh and yes, the music is intended to be background music - you're not supposed to notice it unless the director really has a lull in the dialog or effects or is doing a hero sequence. That's what makes it even more powerful.

If you have a particularly good ear, and given modern movies typically follow a standard three-act structure, pay attention to the hero theme - first when it plays out at the beginning ("everything's going great!"), then see how it evolves in the second act (hero is challenged) and third act (hero is wounded and must somehow overcome). And finally after the denouement, hear the theme again (hero succeeds).

It's somewhat ironic, that in a motion picture, sound is probably the most important aspect of it, not the picture.

If we don't want to save the world because it's "not profitable", then we are truly fucked. What are we, Ferengi?

Actually, the real reason it's "not profitable" is because of cost externalization.

If I burn toxic chemicals and release it into the atmosphere, it costs me very little. it costs society a lot (increased health care for those downwind, etc).

And that's why it's "not profitable". We haven't costed out a lot of things - it's still cheaper to pollute than to control pollution.

Rarely is stuff truly "free" - it just means it isn't priced right. Spewing toxic chemicals in the air is effectively free, because the only people who pay are those downwind.

It doesn't help that you have people in the government that are used to purchasing Ships... They don't seem to comprehend software, the speed at which it changes, the technology changes, etc... They want to buy a unit of something and then just perform maintenance (if your software breaks you should just be able to add a coat of paint right?).

Actually, software maintenance is a thing - software needs to be maintained just like a gearbox or an engine or a nuclear reactor. Here they're paying Microsoft to maintain it - effectively Microsoft is a contractor.

And it makes sense too - even in an embedded system, isolated from the internet, there's still opportunities for infection (you still need to get data into and out of the system, and USB keys are stupidly easy ways to update core components.

Heck, infected USB keys was one way the USAF got their drone consoles infected - mission waypoints etc., were stored on USB keys and copied to the consoles (beats hand-entering the data!), and well, there you go.

As for why Windows, well, if someone writes a really specialized piece of software, and you use it, you pretty much are stuck with what OS they use. It doesn't have to be custom development, just a piece of really niche software that you need.