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Facebook

Submission + - Facebook Is Most Hated Social Media Company

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Inc. reports that Facebook, the most visited site on the Internet, is also among the most hated, scoring 64 on a 100-point scale, which puts the company in the bottom five percent of private sector companies and in the same range as airlines and cable companies, "two perennially low-scoring industries with terrible customer satisfaction," according to the results of a survey by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. "Customers have shown that, so far, they have been willing to suffer through a poor user experience in order to enjoy the benefits Facebook provides," according to the report. "For companies that provide low levels of customer satisfaction, repeat business is always a challenge unless customers lack adequate choices, as in the case of near monopolies." Overall, social media is one of the lowest-scoring industries measured by the ACSI—only airlines, newspapers, and subscription television services score lower. However, among social media companies, Wikipedia tops the list with a score of 77. "Like Google, Wikipedia’s user interface has remained very consistent over the years, and its nonprofit standing means that it has not been impacted by commercialization and marketing unlike many other social media sites.""
Security

Submission + - Perhaps the First Denial of Service (DoS) Attack? (platohistory.org)

An anonymous reader writes: Way back in 1974, Dave Dennis, then aged 13, decided to try out the -ext- TUTOR command on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois, and see if he could cause all the terminals of other users to go offline. It worked. And he never got caught. Of course, the powers that be eventually caught on and fixed the -ext- command so terminals by default didn't automatically receive -ext-'s sent from other locations.

Comment Re:No thanks (Score 1) 215

Hulu is ad supported. Youtube is charging money. Hulu finds it profitable to discriminate because some regions bring them less ad revenue than others. Youtube on the other hand will profit equally from countries other than the US.

Comment Re:My word! (Score 1) 52

They don't hate cars, you exceedingly small prick, just the exceedingly small pricks that use them to break the law. Perhaps this is too difficult for a person with such an exceedingly small prick to understand.

People using their pricks for more than they were intended cause posts like parent

Technology

Submission + - GM rolls the last big block V-8 off the line (buffalonews.com)

DesScorp writes: "It's the end of an era in auto technology, as the very last big block V-8 engine from GM has rolled off the production line. The L18 engine was the last variant of an engine that had been in continuous production for over 50 years. The big blocks powered everything from the classic muscle cars of the 60's and 70's, to heavy duty trucks today. News last June triggered a rush of orders for the engine. The Buffalo News reported "When GM said last June the L18 would be eliminated by year’s end, the announcement triggered another show of devotion to the product. Some customers ordered two years’ worth of L18s, to put on the shelf for future use". More than 5 million big blocks have been produced over the engine's history."
Cellphones

Android's Success a Threat To Free Software? 416

Glyn Moody writes "Two years after its launch, Google's Linux-based Android platform is finally making its presence felt in the world of smartphones. Around 20,000 apps have been written for it. Although well behind the iPhone's tally, that's significantly more than just a few months ago. But there's a problem: few of these Android apps are free software. Instead, we seem to be witnessing the birth of a new hybrid stack — open source underneath, and proprietary on top. If, as many believe, mobile phones will become the main computing platform for most of the world, that could be a big problem for the health of the free software ecosystem. So what, if anything, should the community be doing about it?"
Google

Submission + - Android's Success a Threat to Free Software? (linuxjournal.com)

Glyn Moody writes: Two years after its launch, Google's Linux-based Android platform is finally making its presence felt in the world of smartphones. Around 20,000 apps have been written for it: although well behind the iPhone's tally, that's significantly more than just a few months ago. But there's a problem: few of these Android apps are free software. Instead, we seem to be witnessing the birth of a new hybrid stack: open source underneath, and proprietary on top. If, as many believe, mobile phones will become the main computing platform for most of the world, that could be a big problem for the health of the free software ecosystem. So what, if anything, should the community be doing about it?

Submission + - When Developers Work Late, Should Manager Stay? (earthweb.com) 4

jammag writes: A veteran developer looks back — in irritation — at those times he had to work late, and his unskilled manager stayed too, just to look over his shoulder and add worry and fret to the process. Now that same developer, lo and behold, is a manager himself — and recently stayed late to ride herd over late-working developers. "And guess what? Yep, I hadnâât coded in years and never in the language he had to work with." Yet now he understood: his own butt was on the line so he was staying put. Still, does it really help developers to have management hovering in late evening, even if the boss handles pizza delivery?

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