Comment Re: Oh, Zuck... (Score 1) 78
Yes. I backed the DK1 on Kickstarter and own a Rift. Doesnâ(TM)t change my opinion.
Comment Oh, Zuck... (Score 4, Interesting) 78
So they took what Carmack said and did the opposite. Instead of light and cheap, they went for the Cadillac. Sounds more like Zuck wanted a fancy toy and insisted on his way. I don't doubt there's a place for the Quest Pro in the marketplace - maybe even an important one for specific use cases - but I get Carmack's frustration.
I mean if nothing else, I guess the Quest Pro is still cheaper than the HoloLens, but MSFT is getting that government money for defense and other industrial uses. Meta is trying to do VR second life as the primary focus, with, "it also games" (while most consumers mostly just want the entertainment side.. I don't think there's a lot of native demand to loiter in VR environments...
Comment Re: Could, but it's shit (Score 1) 129
Usually FTTH is run over GPON. The most common standard is still 2.5G down / 1.25G up shareable by up to 32 nodes. There is also 10G GPON, 10G down, 2.5G up, but I have no idea how common it is. My local FTTH carrier is on a 2.5/1.25 system selling symmetric 1G service. Still plenty fast for residential, but definitely a shared medium. Have to control costs somehow. Residential customers don't want to pay traditional metro-e costs.
Submission + - How do you see you life after Firefox 52 ESR? (mozilla.org)
Artem Tashkinov writes: Soon to be released Firefox 56 says that out of 35+ add-ons that I have installed only a single one is a proper WebExtension which means that Firefox 57 will disable over 95% of my add-ons many of which I just cannot live without and for most of them there are simply no alternatives. This number of add-ons sound like an overkill, but actually they are all pretty neat and improve your browsing abilities. That's the reason why I'm using Firefox 52 ESR, which still fully supports XUL add-ons, however after June 2018, it will stop being supported.
Let's list the most famous ones:
Let's list the most famous ones:
- DownThemAll is still largely irreplaceable since you can download from many parts of the internet much faster if you split the downloaded files in chunks and download them simultaneously;
- GreaseMonkey allows you to fix or extend your favourite websites using JavaScript;
- Lazarus: Form Recovery has saved my time and life numerous times; it regularly backups the contents of web forms and allows to restore them after browser restart or accidental page refresh;
- NoScript: allows you to whitelist JS execution only for websites that you really trust; JS has been used as an attack and tracking tool since its inception;
- Status-4-Ever and Classic Theme Restorer return Firefox to the time when it was a powerful tool with its own identity and looks, and not a Chrome clone;
- UnMHT add-on allows you to save complete web pages as a single MHT file;
So what will you do less than a year from now?
Submission + - NSA's DoublePulsar Kernel Exploit A 'Bloodbath' (threatpost.com)
msm1267 writes: A little more than two weeks after the latest ShadowBrokers leak of NSA hacking tools, experts are certain that the DoublePulsar post-exploitation Windows kernel attack will have similar staying power to the Conficker bug, and that pen-testers will be finding servers exposed to the flaws patched in MS17-010 for years to come.
MS17-010 was released in March and it closes a number of holes in Windows SMB Server exploited by the NSA. Exploits such as EternalBlue, EternalChampion, EternalSynergy and EternalRomance that are part of the Fuzzbunch exploit platform all drop DoublePulsar onto compromised hosts. DoublePulsar is a sophisticated memory-based kernel payload that hooks onto x86 and 64-bit systems and allows an attacker to execute any raw shellcode payload they wish.
“This is a full ring0 payload that gives you full control over the system and you can do what you want to it,” said Sean Dillon, senior security analyst at RiskSense. Dillon was the first to reverse-engineer a DoublePulsar payload, and published his analysis last Friday.
“This is going to be on networks for years to come. The last major vulnerability of this class was MS08-067, and it’s still found in a lot of places,” Dillon said. “I find it everywhere. This is the most critical Windows patch since that vulnerability.”
Dan Tentler, founder and CEO of Phobos Group, said internet-net wide scans he’s running have found about 3.1 percent of vulnerable machines are already infected (between 62,000 and 65,000 so far), and that percentage is likely to go up as scans continue.
“This is easily describable as a bloodbath,” Tentler said.
MS17-010 was released in March and it closes a number of holes in Windows SMB Server exploited by the NSA. Exploits such as EternalBlue, EternalChampion, EternalSynergy and EternalRomance that are part of the Fuzzbunch exploit platform all drop DoublePulsar onto compromised hosts. DoublePulsar is a sophisticated memory-based kernel payload that hooks onto x86 and 64-bit systems and allows an attacker to execute any raw shellcode payload they wish.
“This is a full ring0 payload that gives you full control over the system and you can do what you want to it,” said Sean Dillon, senior security analyst at RiskSense. Dillon was the first to reverse-engineer a DoublePulsar payload, and published his analysis last Friday.
“This is going to be on networks for years to come. The last major vulnerability of this class was MS08-067, and it’s still found in a lot of places,” Dillon said. “I find it everywhere. This is the most critical Windows patch since that vulnerability.”
Dan Tentler, founder and CEO of Phobos Group, said internet-net wide scans he’s running have found about 3.1 percent of vulnerable machines are already infected (between 62,000 and 65,000 so far), and that percentage is likely to go up as scans continue.
“This is easily describable as a bloodbath,” Tentler said.
Submission + - City of Munich IT Lead: "There are no larger problems with LiMux"
Qbertino writes: As heise.de reports (German article), Karl-Heinz Schneider, lead of Munichs local system house company IT@M, responsible for Munichs IT setup, says that he was surprised about plans to decomission LiMux, the Cities staple IT project of migrating to mainly FOSS.
He goes on to claim "IT@M doesn't know of any larger technical issues with LiMux and LibreOffice." ... "We do not see pressing technical reasons to switch to MS and MS Office. [...] The concil [in their recent plans] didn't even follow the analysts suggestion to stick with using LibreOffice."
Furthermore Schneider stated that "System failures that angered citizens in recent years never were related to the LiMux project, but due to new bureaucratic procedures ..." and apparently decisions by unqualified personel at the administrative level, as Munichs administration itself states.
Raise your hand if this sort of thing sounds familiar to you. :-)
He goes on to claim "IT@M doesn't know of any larger technical issues with LiMux and LibreOffice."
Furthermore Schneider stated that "System failures that angered citizens in recent years never were related to the LiMux project, but due to new bureaucratic procedures
Raise your hand if this sort of thing sounds familiar to you.
Comment Re:And? (Score 1) 198
Thanks for this response. I'm familiar with exchange-traded options but not employer-granted options. And, as I never exercise options, I hadn't fully considered strategies involving exercising them. Appreciate it.
Comment Re:And? (Score 1) 198
Technically, you don't *need* $400K to exercise the stock options. You can do an immediate exercise -> sell and just take the profits of the difference between the strike price and current price of the instrument. However, doing that means instant capital gains tax hit, and also if you think the stock will continue to do alright and/or you want to collect dividends, you've lost the opportunity to hold the stock - which *would* require the $400K outlay.
Submission + - SPAM: Scientists have found a way to get every last drop of ketchup out of the bottle
schwit1 writes: In its manufacture, the container must first be coated on the inside with a rough surface. A very thin layer is then placed over this. And, finally, a liquid is added that fills in any troughs to form a very slippery surface — like an oily floor.
The ketchup hovers on top and just glides out of the bottle.
According to Prof Kripa Varanasi, who developed the slippery surface, the technology is completely safe.
"The cool thing about it is that because the coating is a composite of solid and liquid, it can be tailored to the product. So for food, we make the coating out of food-based materials and so you can actually eat it."
The technology's co-inventor Dr David Smith told me that it could also help reduce waste.
The ketchup hovers on top and just glides out of the bottle.
According to Prof Kripa Varanasi, who developed the slippery surface, the technology is completely safe.
"The cool thing about it is that because the coating is a composite of solid and liquid, it can be tailored to the product. So for food, we make the coating out of food-based materials and so you can actually eat it."
The technology's co-inventor Dr David Smith told me that it could also help reduce waste.
Pretty slick.
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Mozilla will deprecate XUL add-ons before the end of 2017 2
Artem Tashkinov writes: Mozilla has published a plan of add-ons deprecation in future Firefox releases. Firefox 53 will run in multi process mode by default for all users with some exceptions. Most add ons will continue to function, however certain add ons have already ceased to function because they don't expect multi user mode under the hood. Firefox 54-56 will introduce even more changes which will ultimately break even more addons. Firefox 57, which will be preliminarily released on the 28th of Novermber, 2017, will only run WebExtensions: which means no XUL (overlay) add ons, no bootstrapped extensions, no SDK extensions and no Embedded WebExtensions. In other words by this date the chromification of Firefox will have been completed. If you depend on XUL add ons your only choice past this date will be Pale Moon.
Submission + - Mozilla to Drop Support for All NPAPI Plugins in Firefox 52, Except Flash (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Starting with March 7, when Mozilla is scheduled to release Firefox 52, all plugins built on the old NPAPI technology will stop working in Firefox, except for Flash, which Mozilla plans to support for a few more versions. This means technologies such as Java, Silverlight, and various audio and video codecs won't work on Firefox.
These plugins once helped the web move forward, but as time advanced, the Internet's standards groups developed standalone Web APIs and alternative technologies to support most of these features without the need of special plugins.
The old NPAPI plugins will continue to work in the Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) 52, but will eventually be deprecated in ESR 53. A series of hacks are available that will allow Firefox users to continue using old NPAPI plugins past Firefox 52, by switching the update channel from Firefox Stable to Firefox ESR.
These plugins once helped the web move forward, but as time advanced, the Internet's standards groups developed standalone Web APIs and alternative technologies to support most of these features without the need of special plugins.
The old NPAPI plugins will continue to work in the Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) 52, but will eventually be deprecated in ESR 53. A series of hacks are available that will allow Firefox users to continue using old NPAPI plugins past Firefox 52, by switching the update channel from Firefox Stable to Firefox ESR.
Submission + - Peter Thiel thinks Silicon Valley has a sex problem (businessinsider.com)
SonicSpike writes: Silicon Valley has a sex problem, according to Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor who is an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump.
In a must-read interview with The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, Thiel points out that techies in Silicon Valley are not having very much sex, and that it was part of the reason why so many people in the region criticized Trump's comment from the Billy Bush tape.
Silicon Valley has the highest ratio of single men to single women, while the tech industry as a whole has struggled with gender imbalance for decades. (However, it's worth noting that the San Francisco metropolitan area also has the highest ratio of people who identify as LGBT in the US).
In fact, Dr. Sandra Lindholm, a sex therapist and clinical psychologist in the Bay Area, recently told Forbes that she's now seeing an uptick in young, male clients who complain about a variety of sexual challenges and issues.
"They’re coming to sex therapy because they don’t feel they have time or energy for sex," Lindhold said.
Some of the common issues include low sexual desire, difficulty meeting women, and performance issues. Plus, she points out people in tech generally have a reputation for being introverted. Another particular issue that frequently comes up is what she calls "tech overload": people spend so much time on their gadgets that they "forget about being in the moment."
Although there's no official data on Silicon Valley's sex frequency, a 2012 survey by condom maker Trojan revealed that Bay Area residents had the least amount of sex and the shortest time in bed, in a sample of 10 major US cities including New York, Chicago, Miami, and so on.
In a must-read interview with The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, Thiel points out that techies in Silicon Valley are not having very much sex, and that it was part of the reason why so many people in the region criticized Trump's comment from the Billy Bush tape.
Silicon Valley has the highest ratio of single men to single women, while the tech industry as a whole has struggled with gender imbalance for decades. (However, it's worth noting that the San Francisco metropolitan area also has the highest ratio of people who identify as LGBT in the US).
In fact, Dr. Sandra Lindholm, a sex therapist and clinical psychologist in the Bay Area, recently told Forbes that she's now seeing an uptick in young, male clients who complain about a variety of sexual challenges and issues.
"They’re coming to sex therapy because they don’t feel they have time or energy for sex," Lindhold said.
Some of the common issues include low sexual desire, difficulty meeting women, and performance issues. Plus, she points out people in tech generally have a reputation for being introverted. Another particular issue that frequently comes up is what she calls "tech overload": people spend so much time on their gadgets that they "forget about being in the moment."
Although there's no official data on Silicon Valley's sex frequency, a 2012 survey by condom maker Trojan revealed that Bay Area residents had the least amount of sex and the shortest time in bed, in a sample of 10 major US cities including New York, Chicago, Miami, and so on.
Comment Re:Vivaldi who? (Score 1) 261
I feel you're being a bit pedantic here. As you said, we're not talking about the general public - the audience is Slashdot. Vivaldi and Microsoft are both tech companies. However, they are dramatically different in size, age, and valuation. Further, Firefox is 14+ years old and has almost 7%[1] of the browser market - and that's a number that's dropping. Vivaldi is in the 2% "other" category and isn't even mentioned by name in my source. Wikipedia is 16 years old. Wikipedia appears in tons of internet searches. Similarly, if you search web browser, you'll probably see Chrome and Firefox listed. Chances are, you won't see Vivaldi except for perhaps a mention of the latest news.
My post about MSFT's $500bn valuation was a terse dismissal of a strange response during a brief break during my workday - not a fully formed argument.
Comment Re:Vivaldi who? (Score 1) 261
Koch Industries I would have guessed was in the top 5-10. I am surprised they're not a lot larger than that. I know who they are and what they do. I suspect a goodly number of slashdot regulars would recognize their name and probably know they're involved in energy. Cargill probably not. I didn't think of them, nor know their business. Maybe not shadowy enough to catch popular interest? =)
Anyway, while it's interesting trivia, I'm not sure the relevance or your point if you were making one relevant to the thread. Microsoft is an old public company. Koch / Cargill are old private companies. Vivaldi is a 2 year old private company with 35 employees. I think it is fair that articles provide this background and refute GP's snark that it's akin to asking them to provide background on Microsoft.
Comment Re:Vivaldi who? (Score 1) 261
Microsoft is a ~$500bn company. I think it's fair to assume most people know of them...
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