There may be an argument to be had that at least some of these are not stolen but rather replaced with M2 Macbooks since those came out (and there are tech companies out there that will updgrade), however yes, most of these are likely to be stolen since the M1 is still such a formidable machine.

At the same time one would think that M1 Macbooks that are part of a replacement program with M2 silicone would be unlocked and already reset when they reach a used machine store since those companies would likely have a competent IT support crew who would impose on their users to remove their credentials and subsequently unlock the machines to pass them on for sale/whatever.

... is that people who adopted it don't understand really how things work. The moment one installs a backdoor into a program, that can be found and accessed by anyone. And usually the people looking for those are either working for security companies (case in which it isn't that much of a problem, provided those people's ethics are intact) or not - and it's the latter that carries some issues with it.

I can understand the concern for security, however this exposes everybody, not only people with malicious intent, and it can have effects that ripple beyond getting law enforcement new tools. It can put everybody's data at risk and this means everybody, from large corporations who are using backdoored software to individuals trying to protect their naughty (or not) private pictures.

I suppose it all boils down to stopping usage of the cloud, storing everything locally with drawer HD and/or optical medium backups, middle fingering iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and so on. Losing convenience over gaining safety and security is one way of dealing with the whole issue.

As for browsing histories and what not, I don't really think people who wish to do harm are googling incriminating stuff or accessing suspect websites, so it's all looking rather pointless. Then again, people give up their data rather easily e.g. to Google for convenience, so the issue lies with educating people. I fear though that when it will become apparent to everybody, it will be too late. People don't realise it now, in the 11th hour, albeit there are strong warnings out there - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

illness with most victims in 2016.

You can't do proper computing on a tablet, no matter how much you'd like to do it. Yes, maybe on an Android tablet, but it's still a diluted experience compared to a proper computer.

Tablet-like devices are simply consumers' devices. You can't create properly on them. Yes, there's Raspberry Pi, but that's not really an option. For people who grew up with computers in their exposive evolution days starting with the first x86 processors I think it's quite sad to look upon the current times where kids are exhilarated to tap tap tap on a tablet instead of trying to look behind the shinies directly at the source.

Fully agree with this, the issue I see though is reach. Their first price point was ~300$, then the launch price was almost double. This limited their reach immensely, people will shell out 300, but 5-600 is already way too much for something that is v1 (no, DK don't count). If you want to fix stuff, you make it affordable so more people buy it, thus you have a solid base of customers to do surveys on.

And no, I don't buy the R&D shit. It's just Facebook trying to cash in on their 2-3bil cow when they paid 19 bil for Whatsapp. Top lols.

They don't mention their own piece of hardware as being poorly priced (almost the same price as a PC capable of driving it) and that the applications are quite limited.

I've been an early adopter for Leap Motion. Never again. I'll just wait for Oculus/Vive V3, if they ever make it there.

I am sorry about your losses and the things your brother went through, but taking the blood out of your body to mix it with oxygen and then reintroducing it back is really an immense risk added to the patient. Look up the risks associated with extracorporeal circulation, look up acquired von Willebrand deficit, look up venous thrombosis.

You can say whatever you feel like, however it doesn't change the fact that external ventilation (look up NIV as well) is still the best way to get oxygen in the body who needs it. Same with canullas for getting iv medication as opposed to more long term solutions like picc or hickman lines which are associated with huge infection risks, thrombosis, etc.

As a doctor I would never consider safer a thing that is continually piercing your skin, or worse, is perpetually indwelling in a blood vessel. The danger of infection, thrombosis, autoimmune response and a lot of other nasty stuff is just too high. Not to mention that long term iv lines are also subject to the danger of abuse or misuse (albeit this only applies to some people).

Genetic therapy for diabetes holds a lot of promise, restoring the pancreas' ability to secrete insulin is the only cure, anything else is just treatment.

And I do disagree with the big pharma tendencies of looking into treatments mainly rather than cures, although there is a fine line here between being wary and tinfoiling stuff.

There should be extension cables that would have a trip switch for voltages that are that high. Trip switches should really be included in the computing device itself, really. Since when people connect light bulbs or any appliance directly to the main generator without anything inbetween?

I didn't know that, however I fail to see how that is in any way relevant to the home users. I haven't seen _any_ photographer use JPEG2000. At all. Anywhere in their process flow. Nor have I seen any regular user use this format. There is even a good piece on here http://petapixel.com/2015/09/1...

I understand what you are trying to say, however it still is a niche that it's used in. And unfortunately the compatibility is as widespread as the popularity of a file format. If PNG was only used in a handful of niche applications you wouldn't have all the photo editors being taught how to read it and process it.

Makes me want to think, really, are new standards really necessary?

Also, JPEG2000 is dead and buried and I'm using PNG for photography editing. It goes without saying that if you can process the raw file from the camera, you can also use PNG to save it/resize it and then export it to JPEG for web or other formats as required for printing.

I suppose it was bound to come to this, but even if they intercepted petabytes of data, how are they going to decrypt it uber fast when storage media is slow even by today's computers' standards?

It would be an incredibly fast process, but first you have to find the needle in the hay field and then splice it open, and whilst the latter would be solved by quantum computers, the former is still in the works.

But still I feel the need to say it. “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

... there's still a long-ish way to go until Windows 10 is out. And I'm afraid it'll come with surprises that we don't want (more bloatware? Advertising?).

I'm impressed by the performance boosts Windows got through 8, 8.1 and now 10, but unfortunately that is not enough for an OS. I'm uncomfortable with navigating the OS, something which should be seamless, logical and extremely easy to do; imagine if you had to think about every step you take whilst you go shopping.

I've also installed Windows 7, 8, 8.1 on a Macbook Pro and it's terrible. Oh, it is fast, trouble is the energy management is so poor the processor is overheating so the fans go turbo-mode. Not a pleasant experience.

I'll stick to 7 for the moment and OS X, they do the job properly without the hassle of a sad smilie BSOD.

I backed this up for the simple reason that I like card games and I love The Oatmeal's illustrations. I also like cats. It is that simple.

And I also think that creativity is at a premium nowadays, and each manifestation of it should be embraced and supported as much as possible.