Comment Edu / Ent Licensing? (Score 1) 658
How in the hell are they going to handle large scale enterprise or educational software deployments? Hand out an org's login and password? Set a licensing server?
FU Adobe. FU good.
Comment Pie Party (Score 1) 180
People from my work bring various kinds of pies from home and we have a sampling at 3:14 in the afternoon. Corny, but tasty! My favorite are the small fried apple pies. Yuuuummmmmmm.
Comment Do Not Want Desktop Reader (Score 2) 287
My problem is that I liked being able to dump all of my feeds into Google Reader as sort of a central storage, then use various iOS apps to read them later on.
I do not have time to read them during the day, so a desktop application or web reader is useless to me. I just want a central convenient storage area for my feeds and a good mobile app to read them later that night.
I will have to hold off moving my Google Reader feeds until I see where Reeder may be going with their app development.
Submission + - Ten pi-fect projects for your new Raspberry Pi (theregister.co.uk)
iComp writes: "There was an article a while back, in Scientific American I think, that posed the question: given a super-powerful computer, with infinite computing power shoe-horned into a coke can, what would you do with it?*
The arrival of the Raspberry Pi (RPi) prompted a similar sort of question: given an (almost) disposable PC with late-1990s power, what would you do with it? Other than, of course, to use it as a cheap media centre.
Yes, yes, we all know it supposed purpose is to teach kids to code, but I mean, come on, where's the fun in that? If the target audience are anything like my two iPod junkies, then just learning to writing code is only going to interest the tiniest minority. Thankfully, it turns out that there's quite a lot you can do with your RPi. Which is important, because your average Linux head isn't going to persuade ten year olds to start pootling around with Scratch. But if a £29 PC is merely the gateway to doing other more exciting STUFF, then they may have to learn some coding to get it all to work."
The arrival of the Raspberry Pi (RPi) prompted a similar sort of question: given an (almost) disposable PC with late-1990s power, what would you do with it? Other than, of course, to use it as a cheap media centre.
Yes, yes, we all know it supposed purpose is to teach kids to code, but I mean, come on, where's the fun in that? If the target audience are anything like my two iPod junkies, then just learning to writing code is only going to interest the tiniest minority. Thankfully, it turns out that there's quite a lot you can do with your RPi. Which is important, because your average Linux head isn't going to persuade ten year olds to start pootling around with Scratch. But if a £29 PC is merely the gateway to doing other more exciting STUFF, then they may have to learn some coding to get it all to work."
Submission + - Modder proves SimCity can run offline indefinitely (geek.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Ever since SimCity launched, there has been a suspicion that the need for the game to always be connected to a server was mainly a form of DRM, not for social game features and multiplayer. Then a Maxis developer came forward to confirm the game doesn’t actually need a server to function, suggesting the information coming out of EA wasn’t the whole truth. Now EA and Maxis have some explaining to do as a modder has managed to get the game running offline indefinitely.
Submission + - Microsoft cuts the price of Windows 8 and Office in response to slow sales. (extremetech.com) 1
whoever57 writes: A report in ExtremeTech (quoting an article in the Wall Street Journal) details price cuts that Microsft has made for sales of Windows 8 and Office to OEMs in response to slow adoption. According to the report, the price of a dual pack of Windows 8 and Office for touchscreen devices under 10.8 inches has been cut to only $30 from the prior price of $120. The Wall Street Journal attributes the claim to anaonymous sources, hwever, other sites, including Digitimes report information that tends to confirm the original claim.
Submission + - Cryptographers Break Commonly Used RC4 Cipher For Web Encryption (forbes.com)
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: At the Fast Software Encryption conference in Singapore earlier this week, University of Illinois at Chicago Professor Dan Bernstein presented a method for breaking TLS and SSL web encryption when it's combined with the popular stream cipher RC4 invented by Ron Rivest in 1987. Bernstein demonstrated that when the same message is encrypted enough times--about a billion--comparing the ciphertext can allow the message to be deciphered. While that sounds impractical, Bernstein argued it can be achieved with a compromised website, a malicious ad or a hijacked router.
It's long been suspected that RC4 had weakness based on biases in how it generates random numbers. But sites have nonetheless been moving back to the scheme in response to news of vulnerabilities in AES and Triple DES exploited by recent cryptographic attacks like BEAST and Lucky 13, both of which showed flaws in SSL and TLS in combination with block ciphers. With the news of RC4's insecurity it now seems that it's likely safer to stick with those more modern ciphers and depend on browser vendors to patch the flaws used by those other attacks.
It's long been suspected that RC4 had weakness based on biases in how it generates random numbers. But sites have nonetheless been moving back to the scheme in response to news of vulnerabilities in AES and Triple DES exploited by recent cryptographic attacks like BEAST and Lucky 13, both of which showed flaws in SSL and TLS in combination with block ciphers. With the news of RC4's insecurity it now seems that it's likely safer to stick with those more modern ciphers and depend on browser vendors to patch the flaws used by those other attacks.
Submission + - Google removing ad-blockers from Play (androidpolice.com)
SirJorgelOfBorgel writes: It appears Google has begun removing ad-blocker apps for Android from the Play store, citing breached of the Play Store Developer Distribution Agreement. The apps would be welcome back as soon as they no longer violated the agreement, though that doesn't seem possible while keeping the apps' core functionality intact.
Comment Business or Pleasure? (Score 1) 658
I guess my answer would have to be whether I was traveling "for business or pleasure". In other words, do I time travel to go and see things I personally want to see? Or to alter/observer time in order to make a profit?
If I wanted to make a profit 100 years back or forward would be the best bet. Anything more than that and chaos/fate would have its way with it all.
The neat thing is that this question reminded me of a book I read years ago called "Pilgrim" by Saberhagen. A rogue time traveler decides to go back in time to gather ancient relics and works of art to make a fortune for himself. It all goes fairly well until he starts trying to sell his goods in the late 20th century when carbon dating blows his scam out of the water. "What?!? What do you mean this 2,000 yr old vase is only 5 yrs old?" So he then tries to grab goods and store them in "safe houses" where they can sit undisturbed for years (naturally aging to avoid carbon dating issues), and then swoop in years later to gather them once they have been "time cooked". That then causes things to get even more crazy as you start having early Asian dynasty vases appearing in found Aztec tombs and the like.
Wacky little story. Not groundbreaking or epic, but fairly fun. Think of it as a "Dr. Who crossed with a Ferengi" type of story.
Comment too true! too true! (Score 1) 432
It has been many a month since a comment made me laugh out loud and scare my coworkers across the hall. I damn near snorted out Coke after reading that one. Congrats to you sir or madam!
Comment Personal Experiment (Score 1) 448
This post hits close to home...
A year or so ago (pre-Unity), I decided to try an experiment around the office. We had some desktop users who were claiming to need a notebook for things (travel, presentations, etc...). We have tons of old notebooks that we cannot donate or trash yet due to the specifics of the funding they were purchased with. I took a couple of the old notebooks and prepped them with Ubuntu then themed it to resemble Windows (was not going for a 100% duplication). "My Computer", "My Documents", etc... Put appropriate shortcuts on the desktop and handed it over to a couple of users to try out. Now keep in mind the office had not yet switched to Windows 7. With the exception of the IT group the rest of the office was XP.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and I had scheduled a "check up" to see how things were going. I was getting worried because I had not heard anything out of most of them. My guess was they freaked out and just did not use the notebooks.
Instead I found out that they really like their "new, fast computers". They especially liked the non-Ribbon interface of Open Office over what they had seen from Office 2010.
Now a few things to point out... These were typical “worker drone” users here. No special software like AutoCad, Photoshop, etc is needed in their daily work. Give them a web browser and “Office” and they have what they need. I did have a problem getting the notebooks to print to a networked Ricoh copier/scanner/kitchensink device, but the Ricoh was brand new at the time so that might not be an issue if it was a little older.
All in all the experiment worked out much better than I expected. All except one of the users wanted to keep their notebooks around, so since they were working ok we let them until it came time for us to change out the dept’s computers to Win 7. When we changed over, they received notebooks with docking stations instead of desktops so there was no need for the linux notebooks.
This might be an anomaly instead of the rule, but considering the target users, it all worked out better than I expected. I have not tried a similar experiment since Unity came around. I think that would cause a much more "alien" feel to it than the older version of Ubuntu did. Not that users can't get used to it, but if one of the goals is to minimize distraction and alienation, then I don't think Unity will help matters much.
Comment Do Not vs Would Like To (Score 1) 308
I would honestly have to check the do not play box, but that does not mean I do not want to do so. After moving into a family life there is only so much time to go around.
Submission + - Microsoft Pushing Bing Desktop via Microsoft Update (digitaltrends.com)
ossuary writes: In an attempt to get Bing in front of more users, Microsoft has started pushing Bing Desktop out as an optional update to those using Microsoft Update. As an update service, Microsoft Update should only be updating software on a computer, not installing new things.
Submission + - US Army wants ball drop drone (suasnews.com)
garymortimer writes: "The objective of this effort is to develop a non-lethal warhead for use on miniature organic precision munitions. Non-lethal is defined as a warhead which is not deadly to the target personnel but is incapacitating for a period of time. The new warhead must be modular in nature, self contained and interchangeable with the standard lethal warhead. This effort will require innovative research and advancements in non-lethal technologies which can be packaged within a very small volume and weight.
Potential commercial applications might include, but are not limited to: crowd control for local law enforcement; border protection for Homeland Security; or temporary incapacitation of non violent criminals for local SWAT teams and/or law enforcement."
Potential commercial applications might include, but are not limited to: crowd control for local law enforcement; border protection for Homeland Security; or temporary incapacitation of non violent criminals for local SWAT teams and/or law enforcement."
Comment Possible High "Parental Factor" (Score 4, Insightful) 201
I can see this being aimed at tech-dumb parents/grandparents. Might be huge for my "business-smart but tech-dumb" bro-in-law who doesn't mind paying a fortune for a mobile data plan. I don't see how this gives any halfway tech-literate person anything better than what they can do on their own with a good ripper and a NAS.
If they also provided a local DRM-Free file for home/traveling non-streamed viewing when you take your disc in, I could see it being more popular, but as is, I am not interested in the slightest.
