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Comment Re:I don't get it (Score 1) 283

So it's slightly cheaper than an older iPad, but gets worse battery life. It has a fraction of the software of an iPad, and isn't as easy to whip out and use since you have to fold out the keyboard. It's less features than an netbook (which you could restrict down to be malware free) but at the same cost.

I'm just not sure about the value on these things.
Government

Submission + - FTC throws down robocall gauntlet: $50,000 for best way to stop annoying calls (networkworld.com) 4

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "It's not clear if the Federal Trade Commission is throwing up its hands at the problem or just wants some new ideas about how to combat it, but the agency is now offering $50,000 to anyone who can create what it calls an innovative way to block that will block illegal commercial robocalls on landlines and mobile phones."
NASA

Submission + - Curiosity discovers unidentified, metallic object on Mars (extremetech.com) 1

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "A few hundred million miles away on the surface of the Red Planet, Mars rover Curiosity has discovered an unidentified, shiny, metallic object. Now, before you get too excited, the most likely explanation is that bright object is part of the rover that has fallen off — or perhaps some debris from MSL Curiosity’s landing on Mars, nine weeks ago. There is the distinct possibility, however, that this object is actually native to Mars, which would be far more exciting. It could be the tip of a larger object, or perhaps some kind of exotic, metallic Martian pebble (a piece of metal ore, perhaps). Close-up imagery will now be captured and analyzed, and within the next few days we should know if it's simply a piece of Curiosity — or something a whole lot more exciting indeed."
Debian

Submission + - Steam for Linux to Arrive 'In a Few Days' (omgubuntu.co.uk)

Submitted by
sharksfan98
sharksfan98 writes: "Steam’s arrival on Linux isn’t a secret – and even when it was it was a poorly kept one.

The company have been internally testing the Linux client for a while, and recently announced that an ‘external’ beta Linux users would be coming out ‘sometime in October’. No specific date was given.

But, today, a request from Canonical’s Bryce H. to Ubuntu developers has offered up a more definite time-frame – one that seems to be happening this week

He wrote in his request:

“Could an archive or SRU admin accept nvidia-common and jockey from the upload queue?

  These are needed for the Valve Steam release that happens in a few days.”

The bad-ish news is that only 1000 people will have access to the external beta to begin with. So as close as its release is it won’t be landing in the laps of everyone quite yet.

But it’s still exciting, no?"

Submission + - Hiring Smokers – Banned In South Florida City (huffingtonpost.com) 3

Submitted by Penurious Penguin
Penurious Penguin writes: On October 2, City Commissioners of Delray Beach finalized a policy which prohibits agencies from hiring employees who use tobacco products. Delray Beach isn't alone though; other Florida cities such as Hollywood and Hallandale Beach, require prospective employees to sign affidavits declaring themselves tobacco-free for 12 months prior to the date of application. Throughout the states, both government and businesses are moving to ban tobacco-use beyond working hours. Many medical facilities, e.g. hospitals, have already, or intend to implement similar policy. In some more-aggressive environments referred to as nicotine-free, employee urine-samples can be taken and tested for any presence of nicotine, not excluding that from gum or patches. Employees testing positive can be terminated.

The primary rationale behind these policies has been frugality, citing greater insurance-costs for smokers, and the savings implied by eliminating them from the workforce. In some less aggressive situations, persistent smokers are imposed a "Tobacco User Surcharge" of $20 per paycheck and offered waived co-payments for smoking-cessation drugs.

Efforts to cut expenses and encourage better health seem perfectly normal. Policy prohibiting activities otherwise legal, but unbefitting a workplace environment also seem normal. However, employers or government defining employee's domestic lifestyles is a relatively new concept, especially when nothing illegal is involved. It would be difficult, if not impossible to argue that smoking is without consequences; but is breeching the boundaries of the household inconsequential?

Times do change, and adaptation is often a necessary burden. But have they changed so much that we'd now postpone the Manhattan project for 12 months because Oppenheimer had toked his pipe? Would we confine our vision to the Milky Way or snub the 1373 Cincinnati because Hubble smoked his? Would we shun relativity, or shelve the works of Tolkien because he and C. S. Lewis had done the same? If so, then where will it stop? Will we soon scan employees for signs of excessive sugar, trans-fats and cholesterol? Will we have authenticated and logged aerobics classes? I, for one, welcome answers from our new salubrious overlords.
Google

Submission + - Steve Jobs Wanted Google Search Eradicated From iOS (gizmodo.com.au)

Submitted by Cute and Cuddly
Cute and Cuddly writes: Bloomberg Businessweek’s analytical dissection of Apple post-iPhone 5 launch is mostly full of things we already knew: Tim Cook is different to Steve Jobs. Apple is still doing phenomenally well. Everyone hates Apple Maps. But one thing that stood out was the fact that Steve Jobs was so incensed with Google that he not only wanted to remove Maps from iOS, but also Google search. Whoa.
Android

Submission + - Hidden HTML Can Wipe Some Samsung Galaxy S3's

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Telegraph reports that security researcher Ravi Borgaonkar, demonstrated code, now circulating freely online and comprising just 11 digits and symbols, that can be embedded in HTML code that will wipe some Galaxy S3's, Samsung's flagship Android smartphones and restore the phone to its factory settings without permission. The whole attack takes just two or three seconds and once launched there is nothing a Samsung owner can do to stop it, Borgaonkar says. The demonstration drew gasps and applause from assembled security experts at a computer security conference in Argentina and raises the threat that malicious hackers could trick Samsung smartphone owners into wiping gigabytes of data, simply by clicking a link. Borgaonkar says he has uncovered more codes built into Samsung devices that could be used in says attacks but says he did not want to reveal them because they could be useful to criminals. One code will “kill the SIM card and that the only way to guard against the attacks is to switch off "service loading" in settings, and disable QR code and NFC apps. Pau Oliva, a Spanish telecoms engineer and security blogger who tested the attack, demanded to know “what were Samsung engineers smoking when they set a code to do a factory reset?” Teri Daley, senior director of public relations at Samsung, said in an interview that the company had found that the problem was addressed in a software update issued months ago, so only customers using older versions of the software would be vulnerable and that the company was now trying to determine the specific models and software versions that were affected by the vulnerability."

Comment Re:Always with the jabs (Score 1) 513

by MBCook (#41427587) Attached to: iOS 6 Adoption Tops 25% After Just 48 Hours

For the record, I just Googled "Samsung Jelly Bean" and found that story. I wanted to choose a phone I knew was popular so there was a chance at having data. I didn't know it had compatibility issues, I simply recognized the name and figured it might make a decent comparison.

By "across all their devices" I simply meant that people were upgrading. I didn't mean that as a jab against the Android release process (which I know is a disaster due to the carriers, what isn't that carriers touch).

I simply meant "this well known Android phone got an update, in a similar time frame to Apple, how many people updated that phone"? I wasn't trying to compare the full platforms.

Comment Re:Always with the jabs (Score 4, Interesting) 513

by MBCook (#41425655) Attached to: iOS 6 Adoption Tops 25% After Just 48 Hours

According to c|net, as of yesterday Verizon Galaxy Nexus users could download Jelly Bean. Within 24 hours, Apple had 15% penetration across all their devices. I wonder what the percentage is of Galaxy Nexus users?

Are there any very popular Android phones that have received an update in the last year or so that had the update adopted that fast?

I don't know what the Android process is like, but I can say that the iOS process is really slick. At this point, Apple has it down to a science. The update was trivial to install, didn't take too long, and was easily configured on first boot. The 5.1 update process (which was the first delta update, so it was only ~50 MB instead of 700+) was especially fast.
Android

Submission + - Android Hacked via NFC on the Samsung Galaxy S 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Security researchers participating in the Mobile Pwn2Own contest at the EuSecWest Conference in Amsterdam today demonstrated how to hack Android through a Near Field Communication (NFC) vulnerability. The 0day exploit was developed by four MWR Labs employees (two in South Africa and two in the UK) for a Samsung Galaxy S 3 phone running Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Two separate security holes were leveraged to completely takeover the device, and download all the data from it.

Comment Re:Wow. (Score 3, Interesting) 428

by MBCook (#41362111) Attached to: Apple Confirms iPhone 5 Preorders Top 2 Million In 24 Hours

Some people will, because they always want the latest and the best. But there are a lot of people like me (with an iPhone 4) or my little sister (who has a 3GS) who are eligible for the full subsidy and for whom it's a major upgrade. For me it's much faster, includes Siri, and a much better camera. For my little sister it's vastly faster, includes a retina display, Siri, a vastly better camera, it's thinner, etc.

Not everyone ordering is coming off a 4S. I'd imagine most are coming from the 4 or below.
Programming

Submission + - Can anyone become a programmer? (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: A Q&A on Ars Technica asks about an old adage that many programmers stick to: "It takes a certain type of mind to learn programming, and not everyone can do it."

Users at Stack Exchange are wading in with their answers, but what do Slashdot users think about that question?

Comment Re:Fanbois be quiet... (Score 2) 543

by MBCook (#41341315) Attached to: iPhone 5 Scorns Standards Promise To European Commission

If you do, it's not micro-USB anymore. And if you wanted to call it "USB" then you have to get the standard committee to approve it. At that point you'd just have a non-proprietary Apple connector, but it still wouldn't be compatible with any other phones or cables without an adapter. Plus we already have USB A, B, micro-A, micro-B, micro-AB, 5 pin mini-B, 4 pin mini-B, USB 3 A, USB 3 B, and USB 3 micro-B.

They all have problems. USB A would be good, expect it's a perfect rectangle that can't be inserted in either direction. There is no way to tell if you have it right-side-up or not. Some of the later ones, like micro-B, are obviously keyed so they can't be inserted the wrong way, but they still have to be positioned correctly. Plus most of the micro ones are so short they don't feel like they're gripped very well by the device (at least in my limited experience).

FireWire 400 had a great connector. It only went in one way, but it was very easy to figure out which way it went either visually or by feel. The FireWire 800 connector is quite a bit worse. It has a small notch on top so can feel which end is up on the cable, but it's not visually distinct enough.

I think Apple actually came up with a very nice design. I haven't touched one yet (so it could turn out to feel terrible), but it seems well designed.

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