What To Expect With Windows 9 545
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?
FBI Completes New Face Recognition System 129
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.
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.
Ontario Government Wants To Regulate the Internet 184
An anonymous reader writes This afternoon, the Ontario government appeared before the CRTC as
part of its future of television hearing. Michael Geist reports
that it issued a clear call for new regulation of so-called new
media companies such as Netflix and Google. The government states: "In order to create a more level playing field, the ministry
recommends decreasing this regulatory imbalance. The ministry
believes the best way to accomplish this is to expand the
regulation of new media TV, rather than by lightening the current
regulation of traditional TV." What does the expansion of regulation involve? For the Ontario
government, it includes regulating
foreign online video services such as Google and Netflix, but
exempting Canadian services.
Comment Re:Lennart Poetterings rebuttal (Score 2) 613
Interesting, it's nice to know that you can still use syslog along side systemd's journald. From the limited remarks, it appears you still get full syslog output.
Comment Re:What's wrong with Windows Server? (Score 1) 613
I was thinking the same thing. Gentoo has decent support for dependencies, better than Upstart in my opinion, and was working years earlier.
Looks like Gentoo will also support systemd.
Comment Re:I can ignore tabs somehow (Score 3) 171
Interesting, from the PDF you linked:
Potential for revenue; paying for top-tier placement for first-run
Comment Re:Work for the man, not for mankind (Score 3, Interesting) 171
To compete with Google [Chrome] they need to not rely on Google for 90% of their funding.
As long as the ads are clearly marked with no privacy implications (no pre-fetch of those sponsored tiles that sends cookies, exec's javascript, pings 40 trackers, etc.) then I support the move.
It's sad, but if Mozilla dies, will any free software group fill their void? The Net would never be the same...
Comment Re:Correlation Does Not Imply Causation (Score 1) 281
So does "Paleo" involve capturing wild goats or sheep, feeding and milking them for many days to get enough cream to make butter?
I guess it depends how long in the past we are talking about. Early nomadic people didn't have domesticated animals they herded around. Even the dog is only ~ 30k years old.
Comment Re:Tobacco Companies (Score 1) 281
I wonder if in 50 years we'll see the same legal actions and moral conscience swing towards processed food makers as the late 20th century saw towards tobacco companies.
Comment Re:Correlation Does Not Imply Causation (Score 1) 281
Try exercise for a minimum of 6 weeks about 3-4 times a week (something you like, sports or even walking on the golf course) and you'll find you /want/ to do more of it. And if your mind and body are in shape, the last 10 years might not be so bad.
Comment Re:Correlation Does Not Imply Causation (Score 1) 281
Cut the butter, cheese, and sour cream from the paleo diet, unless "paleo" now includes domesticated animals and stationary time to ferment and age milk (like agrarian). You might be thinking of another fad diet: Atkins.
Comment Re:Correlation Does Not Imply Causation (Score 1) 281
And humans can easily beat horses and dogs at ultra marathons (>= 100 miles).
Comment Re:This is important (Score 1) 161
How is this algorithm any different than Wolfram Alpha? Both are light on actual details and they both claim to do the same thing.
Comment Time for a Race (Score 2) 109
Race Qwerty vs Dvorak vs Steno at Type Racer.
Clearly some people type much faster than a measly 120 WPM (as TFA indicated) using a qwerty layout.
