Comment Re:Got a new laptop at work... (Score 1) 90
Yes, and we'll all be driving flying cars and there will be no more world hunger.
Like most things too good to be true, don't count on it...
Submission + - New FCC Report Says AT&T and Verizon Zero-Rating Violates Net Neutrality (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Just a week and a half before he is set to leave office, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has issued a new report stating that the zero-rated video services offered by AT&T and Verizon may violate the FCC’s Open Internet Order. Assembled by the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, the report focuses on sponsored data programs, which allow companies to pay carriers to exempt exempt their data from customers' data caps. According to the report, many of those packages simply aren’t playing fair. “While observing that AT&T provided incomplete responses to staff inquires,” Wheeler wrote to Senators, “the report states that the limited information available supports a conclusion that AT&T offers Sponsored Data to third-party content providers at terms and conditions that are effectively less favorable than those it offers to its affiliate, DirecTV.” In theory, sponsored data should be an even playing field, with providers bearing the costs and making the same charges regardless of who’s footing the bill. But according to the report, AT&T treats the DirectTV partnership very differently from an unaffiliated sponsored data system, giving the service a strong advantage over competitors. “AT&T appears to view the network cost of Sponsored Data for DIRECTV Now as effectively de minimis,” the report concludes. While AT&T still bears some cost for all that free traffic, it's small enough that the carrier doesn't seem to care. The report raises similar concerns regarding Verizon’s Go90 program, although it concludes Verizon’s program may be less damaging. Notably, the letter does not raise the same concerns about T-Mobile’s BingeOn video deal, since it “charges all edge providers the same zero rate for participating.”
Submission + - Can Your Fingerprints be Stolen from a Photo?` (phys.org)
Tulsa_Time writes: Japan researchers warn of fingerprint theft from 'peace' sign...
Research by a team at Japan's National Institute of Informatics (NII) says so, raising alarm bells over the popular two-fingered pose. Fingerprint recognition technology is becoming widely available to verify identities, such as when logging on to smartphones, tablets and laptop computers.
But the proliferation of mobile devices with high-quality cameras and social media sites where photographs can be easily posted is raising the risk of personal information being leaked.
The NII researchers were able to copy fingerprints based on photos taken by a digital camera three metres (nine feet) away from the subject.
Research by a team at Japan's National Institute of Informatics (NII) says so, raising alarm bells over the popular two-fingered pose. Fingerprint recognition technology is becoming widely available to verify identities, such as when logging on to smartphones, tablets and laptop computers.
But the proliferation of mobile devices with high-quality cameras and social media sites where photographs can be easily posted is raising the risk of personal information being leaked.
The NII researchers were able to copy fingerprints based on photos taken by a digital camera three metres (nine feet) away from the subject.
Submission + - Latest Adobe Acrobat Reader Update Silently Installs Chrome Extension (bleepingcomputer.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: The latest Adobe Acrobat Reader security update (v15.023.20053), besides delivering security updates, also secretly installs the Adobe Acrobat extension in the user's Chrome browser.
There is no mention of this "special package" on Acrobat's changelog, and surprise-surprise, the extension comes with anonymous data collection turned on by default.
There is no mention of this "special package" on Acrobat's changelog, and surprise-surprise, the extension comes with anonymous data collection turned on by default.
Comment Ha! (Score 1) 94
"its inventors were granted"
Inventors. Yeah, right!
Comment Re:Ya think ? (Score 2) 254
Don't you get that there won't ever again be a service pack?
Now it's just an endless stream of never-ending down-your-throat install-without-asking updates?
Get used to it. Or install Linux, I for one did.
Submission + - Social Media Is Killing Discourse Because It's Too Much Like TV (technologyreview.com)
Joe_NoOne writes: Like TV [social media] now increasingly entertains us, and even more so than television it amplifies our existing beliefs and habits. It makes us feel more than think, and it comforts more than challenges. The result is a deeply fragmented society, driven by emotions, and radicalized by lack of contact and challenge from outside. This is why Oxford Dictionaries designated “post-truth” as the word of 2016: an adjective "relating to circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotional appeals."
Traditional television still entails some degree of surprise. What you see on television news is still picked by human curators, and even though it must be entertaining to qualify as worthy of expensive production, it is still likely to challenge some of our opinions (emotions, that is). Social media, in contrast, uses algorithms to encourage comfort and complaisance, since its entire business model is built upon maximizing the time users spend inside of it.
Traditional television still entails some degree of surprise. What you see on television news is still picked by human curators, and even though it must be entertaining to qualify as worthy of expensive production, it is still likely to challenge some of our opinions (emotions, that is). Social media, in contrast, uses algorithms to encourage comfort and complaisance, since its entire business model is built upon maximizing the time users spend inside of it.
Comment Connectivity (Score 1) 559
English is not my native language, but isn't this wrong?
Shouldn't it be 'connection' instead of 'connectivity'?
Comment Re:Damn... (Score 1) 24
This just serves to remind everyone that this is how people think of copyrights, even those that benefit from them.
Simple, intuitive actions will always win over artificial, constrained rules, even for the rule makers.
Just take a moment to think about how many of Warner's own employees are probably doing the same?
Comment Re:mathematica? (Score 1) 216
Am I supposed to be impressed by "a 4-line solution to a traveling salesman tour" when that 4 line solution calls a library function called "FindShortestTour()"?
Do you count all the lines of code behind methods in other languages? Maybe you only write machine language... So maybe this is just higher-level language, if you will, with a greater level of abstraction than we are used to.
Comment Another World (Score 1) 672
I'm amazed no one made a remark about "another world"...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_World_(video_game)
Comment Re:well.. (Score 1) 657
That is such a narrow-minded way to look at it.
I for one don't limit my imagination by what others have done before.
Any programmable device (like the iPhone) is open to anyone's imagination to tinkering. The sky (or the hardware) is the limit, and is thinking like ends up making new hardware more and more limited.
I'm sad to see that most people will actually be glad to pay more for a less functional device in order to 'keep it simple', while ignoring themselves as responsible for the most of the 'confusion' going on.
You simply can't expect new technologies to adapt to you, you must adapt to them if you're ever to take advantage of them.
People don't listen to music nowadays the same way we used to listen to vinyl records before.
Things change, and if you don't invest at least some time and attention on what's going on, then you end up blaming the wrong people for your limitations.
I for one don't limit my imagination by what others have done before.
Any programmable device (like the iPhone) is open to anyone's imagination to tinkering. The sky (or the hardware) is the limit, and is thinking like ends up making new hardware more and more limited.
I'm sad to see that most people will actually be glad to pay more for a less functional device in order to 'keep it simple', while ignoring themselves as responsible for the most of the 'confusion' going on.
You simply can't expect new technologies to adapt to you, you must adapt to them if you're ever to take advantage of them.
People don't listen to music nowadays the same way we used to listen to vinyl records before.
Things change, and if you don't invest at least some time and attention on what's going on, then you end up blaming the wrong people for your limitations.
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