I know it's fun to hate on Microsoft but it's worth noting that Linux has no protection from this kind of malware either. With this change the user directory on Windows will actually be more secure than the user directory in Linux.

If they can't support their systems running Windows, which is much easier to maintain and have user's accept, then they definitely won't be able to support Linux on their shoestring budget. Supporting software themselves? Hah.

It doesn't matter where you live in Europe that is a fantastic wage. That's the equivalent of $93,158/year. So I'm not sure if you're bragging or complaining or what but your comment is either insidious or ignorant.

Zero. XP is unsupported and there is no reasonable assumption that it is secure.

WebAssembly doesn't allow your code to do anything more than what normal JavaScript can do. It's really just a faster way to run JavaScript. It's not any kind of major shift except for allowing faster apps to be developed. There's really no need for signing as you wouldn't sign JavaScript either.

It's interesting seeing Facebook taking on YouTube. It's always good to have more competition but it feels like Facebook is a different experience and will make it much harder to "watch real videos".

Right now Facebook is stream oriented and we do watch some short videos while scrolling but that will never turn into the kind of engagement that incentivizes ads. They will likely make a separate portal, but how many people will actually go there? The other "portals" Facebook currently has like shopping, offers, games, etc are not very popular and hard to integrate with the stream.

Also the huge hurdle is getting a video app onto all of the players out there. Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, DVRs, Bluray players, etc. That's... not going to happen fast. The only way you will be able to watch these videos is through a phone and that's not a great experience.

We'll see how they fare I guess.

Java and Javascript are two distinct words. You can't just chop a word in half and call it quits. Th wou b sil.

If we're going to be pedantic we should at least be pedantically correct.

Encryption is not tied to any one country. If they switch from AES (which has no backdoors) to ANYTHING ELSE then it is by definition less secure. There is no security benefit from using their own encryption. Even a conspiracy theorist would admit that the chances of AES being broken by even the NSA is close to 0.

So this change by China is not about protecting itself from foreign governments but is completely about controlling information and allowing itself to spy on its citizens.

You need a citation that security updates make a computer safer?

Same reasons as always. Lazy and incompetent IT staff at corporations, low knowledge techies that disable Windows Update, long beards who only install certain updates manually after reading the associated KB article and self-determining whether or not they need an update.

This is one of the reasons that Microsoft set Windows Update to be automatic in Windows 10. It makes the OS much safer and generally makes the internet safer as a whole.

"If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." -Todd Akin

Going through the Earth wouldn't make the distance from Hawaii to Chicago that much shorter. Your ping would still be high.

Define "way too many". There's tons of space around and at least in the US we are actually under populated which is one of the things that contributes to our high quality of life.

Every time someone predicts that the world's population will hit a wall in what it can support, we will run out of food, die from diseases, etc they have been wrong.

You have no idea how Android, the Linux kernel, or open source software works. I guess that's why you're hiding behind AC.

Each manufacturer is akin to a different distro of Linux. You in fact do have to wait for Fedora or Ubuntu to update their packages before you can apt-get them. You don't get them immediately. Nobody can force them to hurry up. Not Google, not you. They control the keys to apt-get.

This is because Fedora/Ubuntu/etc can modify the kernel source and the source of any package that goes into their system. They also have to make sure they all work together. Nobody else can do it for them because they don't know what changes they've made or how a change will impact the system as a whole.

Samsung maintains their own distro of Android. They control the kernel source. They control the packages included. They make a LOT of changes to the system. Only Samsung can update the packages they use and only Samsung can push out an update. Nobody can do it for them even if they wanted to.

Say what you will about lawsuits in America but they sure do work great for cases like this. This poor guy has years of his life completely ruined and will possibly have people hate him for the rest of his life because of the implication. Also this kind of stuff still shows up on background checks even if it's removed from your record. I would bet good money that he will have a harder time finding work in the future.

Does 1 year's salary make up for that? It sure wouldn't for me.