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Windows

What To Expect With Windows 9 545

Posted by Soulskill from the solid-color-rectangles dept.
snydeq writes: Two weeks before the its official unveiling, this article provides a roundup of what to expect and the open questions around Windows 9, given Build 9834 leaks and confirmations springing up all over the Web. The desktop's Start Menu, Metro apps running in resizable windows on the desktop, virtual desktops, Notification Center, and Storage Sense, are among the presumed features in store for Windows 9. Chief among the open questions are the fates of Internet Explorer, Cortana, and the Metro Start Screen. Changes to Windows 9 will provide an inkling of where Nadella will lead Microsoft in the years ahead. What's your litmus test on Windows 9?
Privacy

FBI Completes New Face Recognition System 129

Posted by Soulskill from the they-know-what-you-did-last-summer dept.
Advocatus Diaboli writes: According to a report from Gizmodo, "After six years and over one billion dollars in development, the FBI has just announced that its new biometric facial recognition software system is finally complete. Meaning that, starting soon, photos of tens of millions of U.S. citizen's faces will be captured by the national system on a daily basis. The Next Generation Identification (NGI) program will logs all of those faces, and will reference them against its growing database in the event of a crime. It's not just faces, though. Thanks to the shared database dubbed the Interstate Photo System (IPS), everything from tattoos to scars to a person's irises could be enough to secure an ID. What's more, the FBI is estimating that NGI will include as many as 52 million individual faces by next year, collecting identified faces from mug shots and some job applications." Techdirt points out that an assessment of how this system affects privacy was supposed to have preceded the actual rollout. Unfortunately, that assessment is nowhere to be found.

Two recent news items are related. First, at a music festival in Boston last year, face recognition software was tested on festival-goers. Boston police denied involvement, but were seen using the software, and much of the data was carelessly made available online. Second, both Ford and GM are working on bringing face recognition software to cars. It's intended for safety and security — it can act as authentication and to make sure the driver is paying attention to the road.

Comment Re:Let's see your portfolio. (Score 1) 392

by LWATCDR (#47920419) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Any Place For Liberal Arts Degrees In Tech?

You do realise that it is an all things being equal is assumed.

Yes someone with an English Lit degree from Yale that has written several FOSS apps and contributed to the Linux Kernel will win over someone from the University of Guam that with a CS degree and nothing else.
I also question the very concept that a Liberal Arts education will give you better critical thinking skills than ta CS degree from the same University.

Comment Re:You mean... (Score 1) 243

by LordLimecat (#47919889) Attached to: AT&T Proposes Net Neutrality Compromise

I don't generally consider arbitrarily slowing down the transfer rate from Netflix to myself to be providing "a pipe with a fixed bandwidth".

I was speaking to now, not the hypothetical future. To my knowledge, noone is currently throttling in the manner you describe (its more to do with peering agreements).

But if I am capable of 1mbps, yet am only getting 1kbps because they don't like the competition from Netflix, fuck them.

Thats not whats been happening
Education

Ask Slashdot: Any Place For Liberal Arts Degrees In Tech? 392

Posted by timothy from the be-the-legacy-hire dept.
Nerval's Lobster (2598977) writes A new article in Fast Company suggests tech CEOs want employees with liberal arts degrees, because those graduates have critical thinking skills. Meanwhile, a new article on Dice (yes, yes, we know) posits that STEM degrees such as data science, IT admin, and electrical engineering are what science-and-tech companies are going to want for the foreseeable future. What do you think? What place do those with liberal arts degrees have in companies such as, say, Tesla or a biomedical engineering firm?

Comment Re:Translation... (Score 1) 200

by LWATCDR (#47918569) Attached to: WSJ Reports Boeing To Beat SpaceX For Manned Taxi To ISS

Not Bribes but jobs. The simple truth is that a government program like this is often driven by requirements and job creation. If you have two systems and one is going to make more jobs in the area that you happen to represent than the other a senator will support the one from his area. That is just common sense.
I do believe that the Boeing proposal had two advantages over the SpaceX and DreamChaser.
Lower risk and more political clout. Not bribes but congress people that will support it for job creation in their areas.

Comment Re:One of those strange rules of war. (Score 1) 180

by LWATCDR (#47917119) Attached to: How Governments Are Getting Around the UN's Ban On Blinding Laser Weapons

Yet you are not in jail for refusing to pay your taxes or protesting.....
So you parade you self loathing for all to see to try feel morally superior yet will not risk anything much less your physical life to stop it.
Please keep your emotional self loathing, self righteousness, and your facade of moral superiority to yourself or put yourself on the line and do something about it.

Frankly I have studied enough history that I believe that the way to security and frankly the least suffering it to fight the small war before you have no choice but to fight the big, morally clear cut war. That is my take on history.

Sorry but the "Peace" movement lost any legitimacy when they protested at the former republican vice presidents home after President Obama got elected. Their silence on the bombing of ISIL and the moving of troops to Iraq and the future bombing of Syria, the bombing of Libya, and drone strikes in Somalia just proves that they are nothing but a PR arm for the Democratic party wrapped in false morality. In fact I have seen almost no peace protests for a few years now.

Comment Re:Translation... (Score 5, Informative) 200

by LWATCDR (#47917027) Attached to: WSJ Reports Boeing To Beat SpaceX For Manned Taxi To ISS

The new powered landing Dragon is a "high risk" design. The Dreamchaser is also a "high risk" design plus you have all the "Shuttle was flawed" group that wants nothing to do with wings in space.
Boeing vs SpaceX? without doing all the number crunching it is hard to make an educated judgment.
As to the Politics SpaceX is in Ca, Tx, and FL. Boeing in in Ca, Tx, Fl, Washington, and Ks but the killer is that there headquarters is in... Chicago.

Comment Re:You mean... (Score 1) 243

by LordLimecat (#47916899) Attached to: AT&T Proposes Net Neutrality Compromise

The throttling due to bandwidth constraints occurs when it hits the last leg of the connection-- as it is sent to your router. What your router does at that point doesnt change the limitations on bandwidth upstream of it.

ISPs should provide a pipe with a fixed bandwidth the user pays for.

They do.

And user can decide what traffic to prioritize inside his own network.

You can, but prioritization doesnt help very much after the chokepoint.

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