I think it's more about the end of the MHz wars. Nowadays, to get more power, you add more cores. If you can't do that, you add more boxes.

If you've got a single threaded million instruction blob of code, it's not executing very much faster today than it was a few years ago. If you're able to break it into a dozen pieces, then you can execute it faster and cheaper now than you could a few years ago, though.

Moore's law hasn't really run out of steam, it more that it's rules have changed a bit - the raw power may be going up and getting cheaper, but the way to use it all has changed.

Back on topic, I'd say TFA is roughly right - the data centre isn't going through mainframe/big iron/commodity hardware changes any longer. Things are getting refined and improved, but the major shifts in approach seem to be coming to an end.

As others above have mentioned, there's still plenty going on in the world of coding/testing/deploying. In some sense, stabilising the physical kit gives us room to think about those things in more detail.

I have no idea what I'm talking about here, but could the tap be applied while they're still laying the cable? I mean, at some point a ship with a coil of cable sets off from the US, unreeling the cable as it goes. Once it's a couple of kilometers away, the NSA sends in the sub and applies the tap before the ship's even got over the horizon. Presumably that'd work, wouldn't it? Or do they have the cable lit with some sort of test data while they're laying it?

Not all bugs are in difficult code ...just in difficult tasks. Going to the management meetings ought to make their machine explode ;-)

How about RedPhone + TextSecure?

Although if cells are your bag, then Llama can trigger events based on the ones you're tuned to.

There's a Mrs. Jenkins? No wonder my CI system can't keep it's mind on the job at hand.

Yeah, we sort of need "The Only University Masters course NOT certified by GCHQ" ;-)

Come to think of it, if there were such an online course, I'd probably take it...

As a spectator, I wonder how many of the recent presidents I can think of will/have written or said anything as insightful and eloquent as any of the quotes above.

Expanding it out the senate - even with all those extra stuffed shirts to choose from, how many now?

I hope they have a good EULA ;-)

I don't have my 'phones handy, so had to watch with the sound off. The video doesn't show the machine actually working, which makes it a pretty boring watch. Hell, even the guy in the checked shirt looks bored talking about it.

I know us geeks aren't great at PR, but if you've got a machine that does something and you're at a trade show, then make sure your machine runs 24x7 - even if it's not your machine and it's just an incidental part of what you do, it's still better than leaving it idle.

Wasn't there some bug where Chrome left your microphone on and used Google's text-to-speech to listen in on everything you said? (http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/01/speech-recognition-hack-turns-google-chrome-into-advanced-bugging-device/)

I'm sure Firefox has some "duh!" bugs too, but I have to say, this Chrome was was pretty awful.

> wish there was another choice. the whole mobile data thing really unnerves me with how bad the scene really is.

http://jolla.com/ ?

...and be sure to spread that malware that uses Tor for command and control. Even your elderly neighbour could be a terrorist! Add to the fact that she gives sweets to the kids that come around asking if they can get their ball back from her garden, and you've got a paedo-terrorist. They're the worst kind of all.

You're confused who the 'leaders' are. It certainly isn't the politicians, and it was never the people.

...and a few other places besides. The toilets at my work are probably the first place these people should be looking.

You realise dropbox is free, right? Why should they do something expensive like offer encryption on a service that is (a) free, and (b) for sharing files. Sharing's hard if your stuff is encrypted, and sharing is the source of most of Dropbox's value.

If you want encryption, then fine, do it yourself. You obviously know that your stuff won't be indexable or shareable so won't be calling for support or slagging Dropbox off online when you find indexing and sharing not working.

There's room to suggest Dropbox should offer a pay-for encrypted service. The thing is, no matter how well they do it, it'll always be vulnerable to government interference, and it'll never be fully trusted anyway. BYO means no government interference and trust *for the relatively small number of people who care* without raising the costs too much for the multitudes who don't.