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Microsoft

Microsoft Has Been Watching, and It Says You're Getting Used To Windows 8 675

Posted by samzenpus from the how-I-learned-to-love-windows dept.
Dupple writes "Microsoft's user data shows that users are getting used to dealing with the Windows 8 user interface, reports this article at MIT Technology Review. Despite some of the more scathing reviews of Windows 8, ordinary users are getting along with it just fine, according to Julie Larson-Green, the Microsoft executive who leads Windows product development. Data collected automatically from some Windows users, she says, show they are adjusting to some of the new operating system's controversial features without problems 'So far we're seeing very encouraging things,' Larson-Green says of the large volume of data that Microsoft receives every day from people using Windows 8 who have chosen to join the company's 'customer experience improvement program.' All users are invited to enroll in that program when they first log into the new operating system. If they do so, anonymized information about how they are using the operating system is sent to Microsoft. Referring to complaints from some quarters, Larson-Green says: 'Even with the rumblings, we feel confident that it's a moment in time more than an actual problem.'"

Comment Camera != Camera in phone (Score 1) 179

by tomservo84 (#41177757) Attached to: Samsung Unveils Windows Phone 8 Device and Android-Based Camera

First is whether these cameras will have enough additional functionality to justify the added cost and weight when most people already have a serviceable camera in their phone.

UGH!! I'm getting tired of these types of comments. A camera in your phone is just not able to match an actual CAMERA for quality use. Until a phone has optical zoom and can accommodate lenses (which immediately makes it much less easily portable) this will not be possible.

P.S. Can we get rid of Timothy as an editor, or can he PLEASE take the time to fix the submissions before posting? I swear at least 95% of the time there is a story with misspellings/extra unnecessary words, etc., it's his.
Google

Submission + - Google search now "thinks more like a human" (cnn.com)

Submitted by tomservo84
tomservo84 writes: "So, let's say you're doing a Google search for "Kings." Did you mean the L.A. hockey team or the Sacramento basketball team? Maybe the TV show? Or maybe you actually wanted to know something about monarchs." Google today announced Knowledge Graph, which will Google says will make the results appear more 'human'.

Submission + - Slashdot Disable Ads Gone 1

Submitted by tomservo84
tomservo84 writes: The "Disable Ads" option is just...GONE.

Whahappen?
Transportation

Submission + - Geely McCar Features a Built-in Electric Scooter (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: One of the most imaginative concept cars we've ever seen turned up at Auto Shanghai this week and it didn't come from Japan, Germany, France or America – it was the result of two years work in China by Geely engineers and is the synthesis of over 60 IP-protected ideas. In essence, it's an ultra compact, two-door, four-seater with a built-in, folding three wheeled electric scooter in the rear. When the scooter is docked, the car shares both its battery and electric motor to extend the all-electric range or ensure the scooter is fully charged. The McCar is proposed as having choice of gas-electric hybrid or fully electric powerplants.
Businesses

Used Game Penalty Escalates With SOCOM 4 325

Posted by Soulskill from the blood-from-a-stone dept.
Technologizer reports on this unwelcome development for used game buyers: "SOCOM 4: US Navy Seals charts a new course in punishing used game buyers, and it’s at once better and worse than the status quo of $10 online passes. As described on the official Playstation Blog, SOCOM 4 will let all players access the game’s multiplayer portion — as it should, because online play has always been SOCOM’s main attraction — but used game buyers will miss out on special guns, game types, and other perks to be added later. To get these features with a used copy of the game, you’ll have to buy a $15 activation code. Sony’s spinning this bundle of features, dubbed 'SOCOM Pro,' as an enhancement for new game buyers, rather than a drawback for used copies. It’s semantics, sure, but it’s also the direction in which these used game restrictions should be going."
Games

Submission + - FPS Gaming and the 'Just World Hypothesis' 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Jamie Madigan writes that when people witness someone subjected to some misfortune, they’re susceptible to suggestions that the person deserved it and thus see the misfortune as evidence of karma or justice –hence the “Just” in “Just World Hypothesis”. Now consider the controversial new first-person shooter Homefront, which has you play as an freedom fighter in an America occupied by a North Korean superpower where the introduction to the game goes to great lengths to relieve you of any moral misgivings you might have about plugging away at the enemies it’s getting ready to throw at you. "You see enemy soldiers not only brutalizing American civilians, but outright murdering a mother in front of her children and callously tossing corpses around," writes Madigan, a gamer with a Ph.D. in psychology, who writes on the psychology of successful games. "The message is clear: Hey, these guys are evil. When we give you a gun, SHOOT THEM and FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT." Madigan says that the interesting thing about Homefront is that it’s not leaving any blanks to be filled in which robs the game of some narrative depth. "Some of my favorite gaming moments over the years have been born of difficult decisions about who to let live and who to gun down. Let me decide, act, and ruminate on those actions once the smoke clears; that will keep the game with me for longer.""
Security

French Hacker Arrested After Bragging On TV 134

Posted by samzenpus from the foot-in-mouth-disease dept.
Orome1 writes "A French hacker has effectually tied a noose around his own neck when he bragged about hacking into the systems of a big government contractor on national TV. He participated in a television program called Further investigation, and he said — and demonstrated — that he has gained access to computers belonging to the French Army and Thales Group, a French company that provides information systems and services for the aerospace, defense, and security markets. He was arrested 6 days after the program was aired. The police discovered on his computer a great number of compromised credit card and bank account data."

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