jbrodkin - Slashdot User

Submission + - "Why the hell does this mouse need to connect to the Internet?" (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Thursday November 08, 2012 @05:34PM

jbrodkin writes: "In this hyper-connected, networked world, many more of our devices are getting linked to the cloud, whether we want them to or not. That's sometimes good, and sometimes bad, so when a basic device like a mouse requires a user to go online and set up an account to activate all of its functionality, people are understandably going to ask why? The latest entry in the saga of "Why the hell does this thing need to connect to the Internet?" comes from Razer, which has caused an uproar by asking users to register gaming mice on the Internet. While it's mainly for syncing settings across devices, gamers are complaining that certain functionality might not be available unless you create an online account for your mouse. Razer has responded to the controversy, but its answers aren't entirely satisfactory."

Submission + - Motorola asks ITC to ban every Mac, iPad, and most iPhones (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Wednesday September 19, 2012 @02:13PM

jbrodkin writes: "The International Trade Commission voted yesterday to investigate Apple for patent infringement allegations launched by the Google-owned Motorola Mobility. As expected, Motorola is asking for import bans on just about every iOS device, including iPhones, iPods, and iPads. What might be surprising is that Motorola is also asking for a ban on every type of Mac OS X computer, claiming Apple's iMessage technology infringes a Motorola patent. While it's hard to imagine Motorola succeeding, the ITC will make a formal investigation to consider its request to ban imports of all Mac laptops and desktops, all iPads, and most iPhones."

Submission + - Microsoft deserves credit for Windows 8 innovations even if people hate them (bgr.com) 1

Submitted by brocket66 on Wednesday August 22, 2012 @11:45AM

brocket66 writes: After years of gliding by on Bill Gates' past success in making Windows the dominant desktop operating system, Microsoft is finally innovating and taking risks again with Windows 8. While the changes might anger some users, in the long run this is a good thing for the tech industry. After all, it's better to fail from trying to hard than to fail from not trying at all.

Submission + - Windows 8 Mail leaves users pining for the desktop—or even their phones (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Friday July 13, 2012 @03:09PM

jbrodkin writes: "The e-mail client in Windows 8 is the shell of a potentially good application—but Microsoft hasn't given it the proper care it deserves. With less than a month before Windows 8 hits RTM, Mail is a mess that doesn't support IMAP, can't connect to servers with self-signed certificates, and lacks basic features like flagging messages for followup. Metro Mail is feature-deficient compared not just to other desktop and tablet apps—it's behind Microsoft's own phone platform. Whether used on a tablet or desktop, this in-depth look concludes that Metro Mail in its current form will have users pining for a real desktop application."

Submission + - Resurrecting an old Windows PC with Ubuntu Linux (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Monday May 28, 2012 @11:42AM

jbrodkin writes: "Taking old hardware and making it seem new again is something most Slashdot readers have probably done a few times... here's an example of taking a Windows XP PC that had degraded into a slow malware magnet and resurrecting it with Ubuntu (and a little extra RAM). It's not perfect, but for a computer that's needed primarily for Web browsing and email, Ubuntu does the job and makes the old hardware seem smooth and fast."

Submission + - Microsoft wins US import ban on Motorola's Android devices (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by jbrodkin on Friday May 18, 2012 @06:00PM

jbrodkin writes: The US International Trade Commission today ordered an import ban on Motorola Mobility Android products, agreeing with Microsoft that the devices infringe a Microsoft patent on “generating meeting requests” from a mobile device. The import ban stems from a December ruling that the Motorola Atrix, Droid, and Xoom (among 18 total devices) infringed the patent, which Microsoft says is related to Exchange ActiveSync technology. Today, the ITC said in a “final determination of violation” that “the appropriate form of relief in this investigation is a limited exclusion order prohibiting the unlicensed entry for consumption of mobile devices, associated software and components thereof covered by ... United States Patent No. 6,370,566 and that are manufactured abroad by or on behalf of, or imported by or on behalf of, Motorola.” Motorola (which is being acquired by Google) was the last major Android device maker not to pay off Microsoft in a patent licensing deal. Microsoft has already responded to the decision, saying it hopes Motorola will now reconsider.

Submission + - Best Buy's surprisingly insecure approach to new PC setup (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Wednesday May 16, 2012 @06:45PM

jbrodkin writes: "Best Buy is employing some surprisingly shoddy security practice when ringing up customers who buy new PCs. If you decide to pay Best Buy extra cash to set up a computer, Best Buy wants you to write down your desired PC password in a form and hand it to a Best Buy employee. Perhaps even worse, the forms are given out to any PC buyers, not just ones who want extra services, and are written in a confusing manner that could lead people to divulging the passwords to their e-mail accounts."

Submission + - VMware confirms source code leak, LulzSec-affiliated hacker takes credit (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Wednesday April 25, 2012 @03:52PM

jbrodkin writes: "VMware yesterday confirmed a leak of source code from the ESX hypervisor. The code was posted on Pastebin on April 8 by a hacker calling himself "Hardcore Charlie," who says he was friends with the now-arrested leader of LulzSec. In confirming the theft, VMware said there is a "possibility that more files may be posted in the future." The good news is that the code dates from 2003 to 2004. VMware is shifting customers to a newer, more secure hypervisor called ESXi, but ESX is still heavily used in IT shops across the land."

Comment Re:Absurd (Score 4, Informative) 273

by jbrodkin on Thursday April 19, 2012 @01:51PM (#39736061) Attached to: Cringely Predicts IBM Will Shed 78% of US Employees By 2015

Also, I submitted (and wrote) the article that rebutted the 2007 one: http://it.slashdot.org/story/07/05/07/2116251/analysts-call-ibm-layoff-estimates-hogwash?sdsrc=rel Cringely was claiming that IBM was about to lay off its ENTIRE US workforce. Come on, at some point you have to exercise a little common sense and not report things that just can't be true.

Comment Re:Absurd (Score 4, Insightful) 273

by jbrodkin on Thursday April 19, 2012 @01:48PM (#39736013) Attached to: Cringely Predicts IBM Will Shed 78% of US Employees By 2015

No, it didn't happen because it was never a realistic prediction. Those types of layoffs happen at failing companies. IBM is not a failing company, it is a company making massive profits and revenue. I think IBM probably has too many employees, and is making cuts that percentage-wise are small and likely make sense from a business standpoint. But the company had no need in 2007 to shed massive amounts of workers, and no need to do so now. The idea that the Cringely article from 2007 prevented IBM from laying off a third of its work force is ridiculous. That is not how companies make decisions.

Comment Absurd (Score 5, Informative) 273

by jbrodkin on Thursday April 19, 2012 @12:26PM (#39735071) Attached to: Cringely Predicts IBM Will Shed 78% of US Employees By 2015

The Cringely prediction cited as being "approximately true" (http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070504_002027.html) was nothing of the sort. Cringely predicted IBM would imminently lay off 150,000 employees. That was five years. Didn't happen.

Submission + - Facebook asserts trademark on word "book" in new user agreement (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Friday March 23, 2012 @01:37PM

jbrodkin writes: "Facebook is trying to expand its trademark rights over the word "book" by adding the claim to a newly revised version of its "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities," the agreement all users implicitly consent to by using or accessing Facebook. The company has registered trademarks over its name and many variations of it, but not on the word "book". By inserting the trademark claim into the Facebook user agreement, the company hopes to bolster its standing in lawsuits against sites that incorporate the word "book"."

Comment Personal time (Score 1) 480

by jbrodkin on Monday March 19, 2012 @07:25PM (#39408577) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Are Your Tips For Working From Home?

Working at home is the BEST. If you have a job you like, and you want to do good work, motivation is no problem. If anything, the problem is trying to carve out non-working hours. Still, if you need to get a quick thing done at midnight, it's quite convenient since you've already got your work computer set up. I've even been exercising more since I began working from home as I can take a quick break during the day, in which I get on the mini-elliptical and watch the previous night's episode of the Colbert Report (all about 5 feet away from my desk).

Submission + - CEO dares Microsoft to sue him by flouting software licensing rules (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Monday March 19, 2012 @05:13PM

jbrodkin writes: "Virtual desktop vendors are up in arms about the preferential treatment one company seems to be getting from Microsoft. To protest, tuCloud CEO Guise Bule is forming a new company that will intentionally violate Microsoft's licensing policies. The move is highly unusual, given the fact that vendors re-selling Microsoft software are typically unwilling to bite the hand that feeds them. "If they sue that business, I'll appear in court and shout and scream 'antitrust, anticompetitive behavior,'" Bule said. "I don't think they want that because they can't justify their licensing.""

Submission + - How Red Hat killed its core product—and became a billion-dollar business (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by

jbrodkin

on Tuesday February 28, 2012 @10:17PM

jbrodkin writes: "A decade ago, Linux developer Red Hat faced a decision that would make or break the company: whether to stop producing the very product that gave Red Hat its name. The company was built on Red Hat Linux, but when executive Paul Cormier joined the company as vice president of engineering in 2001, he knew Red Hat's devotion to open source alone couldn't create a business model capable of standing up to the Microsofts and Oracles of the world. He pushed for drastic action. Despite internal dissent (some engineers called Cormier "crazy") Red Hat dumped its free (as in beer) Red Hat Linux for the pricey, subscription-based, yet still open source Red Hat Enterprise Linux, creating a business model without disregarding the principles on which it was founded. Almost a decade later, the decision has paid off many times over: Red Hat will become the first billion-dollar open source company after its fiscal year ends Feb. 29."

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