As someone has said elsewhere, the more important issue here is here:

http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-weekly-200827-200951

The previous graph shows something we already know: that people happily flit between versions of the same browser, especially home users. This graph shows browser-family usage. And it shows a steady decline of IE against FF and Chrome.

But again, actually, that's not the important issue here. Here's what matters: the browser war was won when IE's monopoly was broken. Developing for just IE used to be a legitimate business practice - you were only alienating 10% of your customers, and most of them had IE on their system anyway. I remember when all my online banking required IE, as did a bunch of other sites I wanted to use.

I couldn't care less if Chrome eats FF's market-share. If Safari trumps them both. What matters, what's important, is the forced interoperability that comes from not having one browser with 90% coverage. And when that happens, everyone wins: as is rapidly becoming that case. Each new version of IE becomes more and more standards compliant, because they can no longer abuse their monopoly.

-P

Hey buddy,

I have my account on the highest level of lock-down. However, if you get the URL to my profile, or you're a friend of a friend, you can still see (and I can't block this):

- My friend list, in its entirety
- Pages of which I'm a fan
- Profile photo
- An option to send me a friend request
- Some other stuff

None of which I wanted. My circumstances are somewhat special, because not everyone needs or wants this level of security, but I do, and I used to have it, and now it's gone away.

-P

Awesome points; this is the kind of post that we need a "Best Of" flag for.

Did you look at the link? It links to a website that ... provides the technology to embed Sparklines in Excel.

The problem isn't technology it's biology: brain surgery is risky and it will remain risky in 2020.

While i've been a fan of RTSs since the days of the brotherhood of nod, it does seem to be much more difficult to find good ones these days.

In particular co-op RTSs seem to be non-existent and most that do support it seem like it was added at the last moment on a whim. If you're interested in a game that has more focus on the S part of RTS, and excellent co-op opportunities, i recommend AI War: Fleet Command. It's an indy game written by a developer who actually cares about it's playerbase(No i'm not that developer, but I do play the game), and makes free DLC available almost every week with bug fixes, gameplay improvements, new units, etc. The gameplay is very asymmetrical. The enemy has already taken over the galaxy and is now distracted with other pursuits. The more planets you capture and the more structures you destroy the more annoyed the enemy becomes, sending larger and more powerful fleets against you. You can't go recklessly taking over every planet you encounter because the enemy would soon be mighty pissed and send everything it has against you.

It's not for everyone, however you should at least check it out if you're finding the RTS platform has been lacking as of late.

There's a fork that combines everything into one window.

If Windows has a back door that the NSA can use, how would they prevent foreign intelligence agencies from using it?

Lock the back door using strong asymmetric cryptography.

Then even if the other intelligence agencies get hold of the source code (or tear the code apart and grok every bit) it does them no good. They have to steal the private key or crack the cypher to open the door.

Anyone remember when Slashdot used to be News for Nerds?

Hasn't Recaptcha pretty much solved the captcha issue? Only words that OCR can't read are shown ... by definition!

-P

It's nice that you have the time to deal with Windows and/or Linux. Three hours of my time spent fighting XF86Config / working out why Flash doesn't work on some Linux machine, or dealing with Windows' little monkey fingers ... urk.

I buy Mac hardware because it works with OS X with the minimum amount of hassle. My dev server and occasional-use Windows machine live nicely sandboxed in VMWare fusion...

You know, I think MS are missing the point. That part where 'Lauren' says: "I'm not cool enough to own a Mac!" ...

If people were driven by price over form-factor/design/advertising/SteveJobsMagicSauce then iPod's wouldn't be as dramatically popular as they are. People own iPod's because they're cool, because they're a premium product, because they're heavily marketed, and because, in my experience, they're a joy to own.

The $300 she's saving in this advert pales in comparison to tuition fees she'll be paying. For a machine she'll be using every day for three years...

-P

News at 11.

Apple is a very successful company with steadily increasing market share. You live in a basement. So I mean, it's nice that you took the time to share your deep thoughts about "WHAT MAC IS DOING WRONG FOR ME!?!? LOLOLOL".

I'd love to hear any thoughts you might share about:

- How to fix the world economy
- Israel/Palestine
- How to pick up chicks

Perchance you have a newsletter?

I don't understand why people get so up in arms about this stuff.

Total times CCTV coverage in the UK has been abused in some Orwellian circle-jerk fantasy like people are always warning it is: 0

Total times CCTV coverage has put bad people away: hundreds

Seriously, what are you guys doing that means you mind being on camera?