From what I've read, it looks like a decent IDE, comparable with similar items (Eclipse, for example.) The fact that it allows one to display text and other items and see how it will look on a number of devices at once is a nice touch.
The proof will be in the pudding -- I wonder how usable it will be as a day to day tool for app developers and coding houses, especially with multiple people doing check-ins and such.
Interesting that TFA talks about an activation key likely misused/abused.
I'm sure the shop has the skills to operate legitimately. An OEM version of Windows mainly requires a sticker to be peeled from the back of the DVD case and slapped onto the machine, and that one OEM copy of Windows goes out per machine sold. Not rocket science. Here in the US, $130 is the "retail" charge for an OEM copy.
IMHO, this is a non-issue.
In my experience, RAM is usually the second thing that causes slowdowns.
The first are either obvious malware, or the countless junkware programs that add ghost loopback VPNs for adding ads in transit, browser add-ons, random crap that sits in memory and phones home to Bog-knows-what, "virus" scanning utilities which pop up and say there is a major infection, and the only way it can be fixed is via a credit card, and so on. The best way to fix this is to back up the box via an image, dump all documents, completely nuke the OS HDD (boot from Windows media, get a command prompt , diskpart, run clean all on the disk after selecting it), and reinstall the OS and patches [1] from scratch before the machine ever goes back onto the network. Then, reinstall apps, AV program, and toss the data files back on (after a scan, of course.) Crapware is the #1 cause of a machine being dog slow. Well, a Windows machine, that is. If it is any other OS, the #1 cause will almost invariably be a RAM bottleneck.
[1]: I use Offline WSUS, which works pretty well.
Even with that in mind, capacity is still in high demand (the guys selling SSD upgrades for MBPs seem to be doing quite well.) Any user with a clue has some sort of backup drive (be it a Mac with Time Machine, a Windows machine with TrueImage, a Linux box with amanda/zmanda, or something.) Eventually, that backup drive will fill up with changes. A smarter user will be at least changing out HDDs every so often so that if the computer and the external drive are destroyed, the data is still accessible.
There are two battery technologies that I know of which can support more charge cycles than lead-acid. One is NiFe, which are expensive and hold less... but they will last a long time (which makes them quite usable for solar storage batteries), and the other are supercaps. Supercaps have come a long way, but they still don't have the energy density needed. However, since they use physical properties to store electricity rather than chemical, their useful life is far greater than almost all batteries.
The problem with lead-acid is that if you go below 50% SoC, the batteries take permanent damage. They require some tuning to get a proper battery charge cycle, and they need desulfation, something which few chargers are able to do. Of course, lead-acid batteries are innately toxic.
Could be that's why they're doing this, so that the next time someone starts talking about River Crabs they can more easily do something about it, though if so I'm not sure what's stopping them already.
There is also the issue of lead-acid batteries (which are the ones generally used for solar energy storage) getting damaged if they go below 50% state of charge. So, it might wind up being 28 days of storage to prolong the life of the batteries if lead-acid. Of course, other types of batteries (Li-whatever, NiFe, etc.) have different advantages/disadvantages [1], so it might be good to consider another storage type.
If we can get a battery type that can store within 1-2 orders of magnitude as much energy per volume as gasoline, this would fundamentally change things.
[1]: Unlike lead-acid batteries where you can have multiple chargers and items discharging, lithium-ion batteries require a smart device controlling the juice going in and out to ensure that the batteries don't encounter a "thermal runaway" condition and explode.
Of course, there is the issue of getting locked out by forgetting one's PIN. Again, picking on SecurID, people forget if they put their PIN before the number or after, so this can blow one password entry attempt. Fumble-finger again, and that can easily use up three attempts, locking someone out indefinitely.
Don't forget scenarios. The senior sales person is out at a client site, he lost his token, and has to have access to the internal company's network for some charts or demos, or else he may lose a sale. How is this handled? SecurID can handle lost tokens via remote. Other token systems like the old SafeNet eToken Pros can have the device password/PIN recovered via a challenge/response system, but it takes some IT planning to have that set up and running.
RSA SecurID is one of the standard 2FA methods that can be used, and it works well without needing a special dialog on the screen (which may be needed for some challenge/response systems.) It has been around for a long time.
Of course, there is one major problem: The cost. The keyfobs are not cheap. The seeds which are required for apps on smartphones are also not cheap. The RSA Authentication Manager servers are not cheap, and you need multiples of these at the core office and branches.
Then there is the concern about hacking. RSA uses their own algorithm to get the authentication server and the keyfob to work. Is it as secure as the open source Google Authenticator? Who knows.
RSA SecurID on the edges, either via VPN, Citrix, or both? Yes, this is a wise thing to do. RSA for every AD access? The return on security investment would be minimal compared to just setting a wise password policy [1].
[1]: There were
The first time any glitches happen with the authentication system (and they will), the people mentioned by the parent will come down like a ton of bricks, asking why a system that costs productivity without obvious security merits is in place.
Replacing a core authentication mechanism takes a lot of buy-in, not just from management, but by users who have management's ear. One "this is keeping me from doing my work" E-mail from someone with some cloud in a company can sink a project like this.
The reason I wonder if 2FA can be at least moved to the edge or used for VPN logins is that it makes things a lot less of a headache.
Usually for internal AD, having a third party authentication apparatus strapped on can bring about issues. For example, if the system is a challenge/response system and a Web app is authenticating from AD, it likely won't have a window to present the 2FA challenge. SecurID is the only one I know which gets around this since there is no challenge token presented... users just enter in their password and the number off their token, and it logs them in with the standard username/password box. However, the downside of SecurID is that it is not cheap, and requires at least two servers to authenticate the tokens.
Internal logins, I'd just stick with AD unless there was really a need for internal security (expensive). If so, I'd then go with CAC/PIV tokens because they are fairly standard, have a wide use with the US government, and work with most major applications.
Now the edge is a completely different beast. You can set up RADIUS servers to use the Google Authenticator, SecurID, smart cards, or one's flavor of choice. This way, users can log in via 2FA, but the internal network doesn't need to have any major changes done to it.
Maybe a tiering system would be useful. I've seen some drive arrays that use SSD for caching. So, a SSD that can take a lot of info and forgets it after a month or two can be good enough in this case, assuming enough ECC to realize the cache data is damaged and to fetch from the spinning platters the bits needed to complete the read. Another example of this would be a write cache on a HBA. That way, the machine could send writes to the SSD cache, the HBA tells the machine the write is complete and then feeds the SAN a relatively easy sequential write to take care of.
On the other end of the spectrum, we really need archival grade media. No hard drives are built to hold data for 20 years, and SSDs will have the electrons wave farewell never to return if left alone for a long time. The only media that I could say could go 20 years sitting on a shelf would be LTO tape, or a well designed optical format.
I can see it now, tattoos that automatically update for the latest fashion trend with the wearer just visiting the tattoo artist just for a firmware download. This month, it might be tribal designs. Next month, pithy poetry written on the chest and arms. Skulls and spikes after that, then maybe a cyber theme when something Matrix themed comes out.
I'm sure there would definitely be a market for this. Perhaps even have the tattoos disappear for the work day and reappear at 5:00, with the special designs for the goth night at the club on Fridays.
I'd go for Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2. The advantage of this over W8 or W8.1 are a few things. What comes to mind is offline deduplication,, a built in backup tool (wbadmin) which reasonably works, a ZFS-like volume manager (Storage Spaces) which can do autotiering, and a decent hypervisor built in.
The only "real" battery saver utility I've seen on any device which actually was useful is the Extreme Battery Saver mode on the HTC One M8. This drops all network connections, changes the launcher to a simple one, stops all background apps, and allows for the phone, texting, and clock/alarm. This has come very much in handy, allowing for a phone to run multiple days on a single battery charge.
8 Catfish = 1 Octo-puss
