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Submission + - Mozilla will deprecate XUL add-ons before the end of 2017 2

Submitted by Artem Tashkinov
Artem Tashkinov writes: Mozilla has published a plan of add-ons deprecation in future Firefox releases. Firefox 53 will run in multi process mode by default for all users with some exceptions. Most add ons will continue to function, however certain add ons have already ceased to function because they don't expect multi user mode under the hood. Firefox 54-56 will introduce even more changes which will ultimately break even more addons. Firefox 57, which will be preliminarily released on the 28th of Novermber, 2017, will only run WebExtensions: which means no XUL (overlay) add ons, no bootstrapped extensions, no SDK extensions and no Embedded WebExtensions. In other words by this date the chromification of Firefox will have been completed. If you depend on XUL add ons your only choice past this date will be Pale Moon.

Submission + - Mozilla to Drop Support for All NPAPI Plugins in Firefox 52, Except Flash (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Starting with March 7, when Mozilla is scheduled to release Firefox 52, all plugins built on the old NPAPI technology will stop working in Firefox, except for Flash, which Mozilla plans to support for a few more versions. This means technologies such as Java, Silverlight, and various audio and video codecs won't work on Firefox.

These plugins once helped the web move forward, but as time advanced, the Internet's standards groups developed standalone Web APIs and alternative technologies to support most of these features without the need of special plugins.

The old NPAPI plugins will continue to work in the Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) 52, but will eventually be deprecated in ESR 53. A series of hacks are available that will allow Firefox users to continue using old NPAPI plugins past Firefox 52, by switching the update channel from Firefox Stable to Firefox ESR.

Submission + - Peter Thiel thinks Silicon Valley has a sex problem (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: Silicon Valley has a sex problem, according to Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor who is an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump.

In a must-read interview with The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, Thiel points out that techies in Silicon Valley are not having very much sex, and that it was part of the reason why so many people in the region criticized Trump's comment from the Billy Bush tape.

Silicon Valley has the highest ratio of single men to single women, while the tech industry as a whole has struggled with gender imbalance for decades. (However, it's worth noting that the San Francisco metropolitan area also has the highest ratio of people who identify as LGBT in the US).

In fact, Dr. Sandra Lindholm, a sex therapist and clinical psychologist in the Bay Area, recently told Forbes that she's now seeing an uptick in young, male clients who complain about a variety of sexual challenges and issues.

"They’re coming to sex therapy because they don’t feel they have time or energy for sex," Lindhold said.

Some of the common issues include low sexual desire, difficulty meeting women, and performance issues. Plus, she points out people in tech generally have a reputation for being introverted. Another particular issue that frequently comes up is what she calls "tech overload": people spend so much time on their gadgets that they "forget about being in the moment."

Although there's no official data on Silicon Valley's sex frequency, a 2012 survey by condom maker Trojan revealed that Bay Area residents had the least amount of sex and the shortest time in bed, in a sample of 10 major US cities including New York, Chicago, Miami, and so on.

Submission + - Scientists create auto-focusing smart glasses that adjust to wearer's eyesight (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by drunkdrone
drunkdrone writes: A team of engineers has developed a pair of eyeglasses that automatically adjust focal length based on what the wearer is looking at.

The so-called adaptive eyeglasses contain special liquid lenses and sensors that make them capable of focusing on both nearby and faraway objects, without the wearer having to switch frames.

The 'smart glasses' have been developed by a team of engineers at the University of Utah and could do away with the need for bifocals entirely. And, because the lenses continually adjust to the wearer's eyesight, there's no need to continually change prescriptions as eyesight deteriorates with age: all the wearer has to do is programme in their prescription using a smartphone companion app and they're set for life.

Submission + - China Announces Deployment of New Long Range Nuclear Missile (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: In a rare move, China has publicly announced the deployment of a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The Dong Feng (“East Wind”) -41 missile, or DF-41, can carry up to a dozen nuclear warheads and China claims it has the longest range of any nuclear missile in the world. The announcement of the missiles is likely a warning to U.S. President Donald Trump, who is known for sharply worded anti-Chinese rhetoric and has announced plans for a new ballistic missile system.

According to China’s Global Times newspaper, the People’s Liberation Army has deployed its newest intercontinental ballistic missile to Heilongjiang Province. The article cited eyewitness photos culled from Chinese social media by news media in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The photos showed heavy missile launchers, also known as transporter/erector/launchers (TELs) moving through Daqing City in Heilongjiang.

The DF-41 is described by Global Times as the most advanced ICBM in the world. It reportedly has a range of 8,699 miles, enough to hit any target on Earth with the exception of South America and parts of Antarctica. It can carry up to 12 nuclear warheads, and travels on China’s nationwide network of roads to make it difficult to track down and destroy.

Comment Re:Vivaldi who? (Score 1) 261

by damacus (#53732575) Attached to: Vivaldi CEO: Stop Your Anti-Competitive Practices With Edge, Microsoft!

I feel you're being a bit pedantic here. As you said, we're not talking about the general public - the audience is Slashdot. Vivaldi and Microsoft are both tech companies. However, they are dramatically different in size, age, and valuation. Further, Firefox is 14+ years old and has almost 7%[1] of the browser market - and that's a number that's dropping. Vivaldi is in the 2% "other" category and isn't even mentioned by name in my source. Wikipedia is 16 years old. Wikipedia appears in tons of internet searches. Similarly, if you search web browser, you'll probably see Chrome and Firefox listed. Chances are, you won't see Vivaldi except for perhaps a mention of the latest news.

My post about MSFT's $500bn valuation was a terse dismissal of a strange response during a brief break during my workday - not a fully formed argument. :-)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Comment Re:Vivaldi who? (Score 1) 261

by damacus (#53730805) Attached to: Vivaldi CEO: Stop Your Anti-Competitive Practices With Edge, Microsoft!

Koch Industries I would have guessed was in the top 5-10. I am surprised they're not a lot larger than that. I know who they are and what they do. I suspect a goodly number of slashdot regulars would recognize their name and probably know they're involved in energy. Cargill probably not. I didn't think of them, nor know their business. Maybe not shadowy enough to catch popular interest? =)

Anyway, while it's interesting trivia, I'm not sure the relevance or your point if you were making one relevant to the thread. Microsoft is an old public company. Koch / Cargill are old private companies. Vivaldi is a 2 year old private company with 35 employees. I think it is fair that articles provide this background and refute GP's snark that it's akin to asking them to provide background on Microsoft.

Submission + - Dropbox Kept Files Around for Years Due to 'Delete' Bug (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Dropbox engineers have fixed what appears to be a very ancient bug that during the past two weeks has resurfaced previously deleted folders for several Dropbox users. In some of the complaints users reported seeing folders they deleted in 2009 reappear on their devices overnight. After seeing mysterious folders appear in their profile, some users thought they were hacked.

Last week, a Dropbox employee provided an explanation to what happened, blaming the issue on an old bug that affected the metadata of soon-to-be-deleted folders. Instead of deleting the files, as users wanted and regardless of metadata issues, Dropbox choose to keep those files around for years, and eventually restored them due to a blunder. In its File retention Policy, Dropbox says it will keep files around a maximum 60 days after users deleted them.

Submission + - Obamacare repeal has gig economy worried (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: Repealing the Affordable Care Act without a replacement leaves some 18 million without health insuance in the first year alone, the Congressional Budget Office warned Tuesday. Millions more will lose insurance later on. The estimate includes independent, or gig, workers who use Fiverr's job marketplace. "The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is incredibly important," said Brent Messenger, Fiverr's global head of community. A wholesale repeal of the ACA, or Obamacare, will not only "negatively impact our marketplace but the gig economy as a whole," he said. Republicans in Congress and President-elect Donald Trump are promising an Obamacare replacement, but so far they haven't delivered it. That is making people nervous, because some of the ACA's provisions — including coverage for pre-existing conditions — are very important, especially to older independent workers, Jane Langeman, an independent management consultant and president of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP), "Many of us are on our second-career as independent business owners and have a lot of life and pre-existing conditions under our belts," said Langeman. "The Affordable Care Act made it easier for business owners to even get health insurance, especially when faced with pre-existing health conditions," she said.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Why Did 3D TVs And Stereoscopic 3D Television Broadcasting Fail? 2

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: Just a few years ago the future seemed bright for 3D TVs. The 3D film Avatar smashed all box office records. Every Hollywood Studio wanted to make big 3D films. The major TV set manufacturers from LG to Phillips to Panasonic all wanted in on the 3D TV action. A 3D disc format called BluRay 3D was agreed on. Sony went as far as putting free 3D TVs in popular Pubs in London to show Brits how cool watching Football ("Soccer" in the U.S.) in Stereo 3D is. Tens of millions of dollars of 3D TV related ads ran on TV stations across the world. 3D Televisions and 3D content was, simply put, the biggest show in town for a while as far as consumer electronics goes. Then the whole circus gradually collapsed — 3D TVs failed to sell well and create the multi-Billion Dollar profits anticipated. 3D@home failed to catch on with consumers. Shooting genuine Stereo 3D films (not "post conversions") proved to be expensive and technically challenging. BluRay 3D was only modestly successful. Even Nvidia's Stereo 3D solutions for PC gamers failed. What, in your opinion, went wrong? Were early 3D TV sets too highly priced? Were there too few 3D films and 3D TV stations available to watch (aka "The Content Problem")? Did people hate wearing active/passive plastic 3D glasses in the living room? Was the price of BluRay 3D films and BluRay 3D players set too high? Was there something wrong with the Stereo 3D effect the industry tried to popularize? Did too many people suffer 3D viewing related "headaches", "dizzyness", "eyesight problems" and similar? Was the then still quite new 1080HD 2D Television simply "good enough" for the average TV viewer? Another related question: If things went so wrong with 3D TVs, what guarantee is there that the new 3D VR/AR trend won't collapse along similar lines as well?

 

Submission + - FBI never examined hacked DNC servers (buzzfeed.com) 2

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: “According to one intelligence official who spoke to the publication, no U.S. intelligence agency has performed its own forensics analysis on the hacked servers. Instead, the official said, the bureau and other agencies have relied on analysis done by the third-party security firm CrowdStrike, which investigated the breach for the DNC.”

Comment Come on... (Score 4, Informative) 296

I can't believe you guys posted this crap. This is stale - the news itself about the land crater dates back to 2006. Next, this article is from *The Sun* which is akin to National Enquirer. Nazi UFO base? Give me a break...... The WLC itself is pretty cool and interesting, but there are other articles that would've sucked a lot less. Here's an example: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/heres... CHOOSE A BETTER SOURCE.

Submission + - GRIZZLY STEPPE: Technical report on DNC hack (nymag.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Following weeks of accusations and insinuations — and counterclaims and skepticism — about the role of the Russian government in this summer’s hack of the Democratic National Committee’s email (an attack given the evocative name “GRIZZLY STEPPE” by the Department of Homeland Security) a new joint report was published today by the DHS and FBI. The question is, does the new report actually clear anything up?

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