Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Safari

Is Safari the New Internet Explorer? 311

Posted by Soulskill from the dem's-fightin'-woids dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Software developer Nolan Lawson says Apple's Safari has taken the place of Microsoft's Internet Explorer as the major browser that lags behind all the others. This comes shortly after the Edge Conference, where major players in web technologies got together to discuss the state of the industry and what's ahead. Lawson says Mozilla, Google, Opera, and Microsoft were all in attendance and willing to talk — but not Apple.

"It's hard to get insight into why Apple is behaving this way. They never send anyone to web conferences, their Surfin' Safari blog is a shadow of its former self, and nobody knows what the next version of Safari will contain until that year's WWDC. In a sense, Apple is like Santa Claus, descending yearly to give us some much-anticipated presents, with no forewarning about which of our wishes he'll grant this year. And frankly, the presents have been getting smaller and smaller lately."

He argues, "At this point, we in the web community need to come to terms with the fact that Safari has become the new IE. Microsoft is repentant these days, Google is pushing the web as far as it can go, and Mozilla is still being Mozilla. Apple is really the one singer in that barbershop quartet hitting all the sour notes, and it's time we start talking about it openly instead of tiptoeing around it like we're going to hurt somebody's feelings."
Bitcoin

Greek Financial Crisis Is an Opportunity For Bitcoin 359

Posted by Soulskill from the all-about-the-bitjamins dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Greece's economy has been in trouble for several years, now, and a major vote next weekend will shake it up even further. The country can't pay its debts, and the upcoming referendum will decide whether they face increased austerity measures or start the process of exiting the Euro. One side effect of the crisis is that alternative currencies like Bitcoin suddenly look much more attractive as the "normal" currencies become unstable. "Tony Gallippi, the co-founder of bitcoin payment processor Bitpay, tweeted on Sunday night that he expected the price of bitcoin to rise to between $610 and $1,250 if Greece exits the Euro. The currency is currently worth $250. Part of the reason why the crisis is so tempting for proponents of the cryptocurrency is the echoes of a previous crisis in the Eurozone: the banking collapse in Cyprus in 2013, which saw that nation also impose capital controls to prevent massive outflows of currency from the panicking country. That collapse came at the same time as the first major boom in the price of bitcoin, which began the year at less than $20 and peaked at ten times that by early April – before it all came crashing down."

Comment Re:Infinity (Score 1) 1067

Asking what is X divided by zero is no different than asking what is Y plus red, or what is Z times pineapple.

I say focus on a proper mathematical answer for multiplying by blue first, and then apply it to the equally nonsensical divide by zero question.

Everybody knows that Z times pineapple is the square root of unicorn - by definition.

Comment Re:The downside is taxpayers... (Score 1) 283

Internet access is nearly as important as electricity in our modern age.

Perhaps. But why not just give the poor a basic income supplement, and let them decide for themselves what to spend it on? Some of them may use it for Internet, but others may use it to buy food or medicine. Why should the government presume to know their priorities better than they do.

Golly, I wonder if any politicians supporting this program received campaign contributions from Comcast and TWC.

Because then conservatives would complain that the poor spend their government subsidy on non-essentials. Just look at Republican efforts to prevent food stamps from being used for food they consider "luxury" items, like sushi.
Security

Samsung Cellphone Keyboard Software Vulnerable To Attack 104

Posted by Soulskill from the not-quite-under-their-thumb dept.
Adesso writes: A serious security problem in the default Samsung keyboard installed on many of the company's cellphones has been lurking since December 2014 (CVE-2015-2865). When the phone tries to update the keyboard, it fails to encrypt the executable file. This means attackers on the same network can replace the update file with a malicious one of their own. Affected devices include the Galaxy S6, S5, S4, and S4 mini — roughly 600 million of which are in use. There's no known fix at the moment, aside from avoiding insecure Wi-Fi networks or switching phones. The researcher who presented these findings at the Blackhat security conference says Samsung has provided a patch to carriers, but he can't find out if any of them have applied the patch. The bug is currently still active on the devices he tested.
The Media

Pirate Party Founder Rick Falkvinge Launches News Service 66

Posted by Soulskill from the news-for-the-meme-generation dept.
New submitter lillgud writes: Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party, has unveiled a news service to compete against "oldmedia." The news stories will be three sentences in length, and distributed within shareable images. Falkvinge says this obviates certain parts of the industry — for example, there will be no need for clickbait headlines, because there's nothing to click on. The business model is based around advertising, but those ads will simply be a watermark on the image. Thus, no worries about adblock, and no concerns about ad networks collecting information from users. The service is targeted to be operational in Q3. Each writer will be paid in accordance to a revenue sharing model, and Falkvinge's goal is for each part-time writer to receive €125/month in exchange for four stories (12 sentences).
China

Report: Russia and China Crack Encrypted Snowden Files 546

Posted by timothy from the parallel-efforts dept.
New submitter garyisabusyguy writes with word that, according to London's Sunday Times, "Russia and China have cracked the top-secret cache of files stolen by the fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden, forcing MI6 to pull agents out of live operations in hostile countries, according to senior officials in Downing Street, the Home Office and the security services," and suggests this non-paywalled Reuters version, too. "MI6 has decided that it is too dangerous to operate in Russia or China," writes the submitter. "This removes intelligence capabilities that have existed throughout the Cold War, and which may have helped to prevent a 'hot' nuclear war. Have the actions of Snowden, and, apparently, the use of weak encryption, made the world less safe?"
Earth

EPA Says No Evidence That Fracking Has "Widespread" Impact On Drinking Water 266

Posted by samzenpus from the go-ahead-and-drink-it dept.
sycodon writes: A long-awaited EPA report on hydraulic fracturing concludes that the extraction process has "not led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources." The report also cautions of potential contamination of water supplies if safeguards are not maintained. "The study was undertaken over several years and we worked very closely with industry throughout the process," Tom Burke, EPA's science advisor and deputy assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Research and Development, said on a conference call hosted by the agency.

Comment Re:That poor man (Score 1) 272

Cal residential rates average about 15cents/kwh, a 2.5KWH panel would need about 17.8 cents per kwh to save them $818 in the first year.

I don't know where you get your data, but I'm assuming that's the state average. In urban areas it is higher, much higher, especially if you go over "baseline." When I lived in Orange County we were never within baseline, because we actually turned on lights, cooked food, watched TV, and dared to run the AC when it was 100 degrees.

Slashdot Top Deals

FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed -- it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer. -- A.J. Perlis

Close