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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 17 Issue 35
Volume 17, Issue 35 Atari Online News, Etc. September 18, 2015
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2015
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1735 09/18/15
~ Stingrays Need Warrant ~ People Are Talking! ~ Firebee Update!
~ Destiny Improvements! ~ Xbox One Getting Edge! ~ Twitter.com Back Up!
~ Microsoft Has Own Linux ~ Hatari 1.0.9 Released ~ Win 10: Stealth OS!
-* Pentagon's Cyber 'Scorecard' *-
-* Unnoticed Firefox Attacker for Year *-
-* Facebook Is Creating A New Dislike Button! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Another week passes, and another week closer to the demise of
another summer. I know, every year I whine about every season
change. Can't help it, time flies by too quickly! Just as I'm
getting used to one season, it's gone! Go figure!
Speaking of "another one,", let's get to this week's issue!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Hatari 1.9.0 Has Been Released
Hello
A new Hatari version 1.9.0 has just been released. You can get it
from http://hatari.tuxfamily.org/ or directly in
http://download.tuxfamily.org/hatari/
Sources are available, as well as prebuilt binaries for Windows
(in 32 bit and 64 bit mode) and OSX.
Thanks to all the people who contributed to this version with
code, ideas, bug reports.
Brief changelog :
- Major update of the CPU for Falcon emulation, based on the
latest version of WinUAE CPU :
68060, MMU, data/instruction cache, better prefetch pipeline,
cycle accuracy, stack frame, ...
- Memory : extra TT-RAM support for TT & Falcon emulation
- MFP : better emulation of GPIP, AER and DDR
- Gemdos HD emulation : better support for mapping of filenames
with international encoding
- MIDI : many accuracy improvements
- Some fixes for video, blitter, dsp
- More options for using ACSI and IDE disk images
- Various changes in the UI
- Various changes in the debugger
See release-notes.txt for the full changelog.
Fixed demos :
- Graphix Sound 2 in Relapse by Cybernetics (blitter+cpu, bus
arbitration)
- RGBeast by Aggression (video, writing to video counter during
active display)
- My Socks Are Weapons by Legacy (video, reading video counter
in high res)
Fixed games:
- Superior 65 - Blood Money (cpu, exception stack and bus error)
(note that this version is bugged and will crash with TOS 1.04 or
1.62)
- Obitus (STX version) (fdc, seek+verify on a track with no
sector)
- The Teller (STX/CTR version) (cpu, exception stack and address
error)
- War Heli (cpu, exception stack for address error and prefetch)
Fixed programs:
- Realtime and M by Eric Ameres (midi + mfp, toggle bit 0 of AER)
- Notator (midi, more precise TDRE bit in status register)
Special Bonus : this release comes with a small STE intro
included in the archives :D
See it here http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=66364 or here
http://download.tuxfamily.org/hatari/demos/hatari_1.9/
Nicolas
FireBee News Update
Fred Horvat
This week I just want to give a plug to a program I started using
on the FireBee and under Aranym also to tell you something I just
discovered that has always been in XaAES that I never knew was
there. Lastly tell of my upcoming plan with the FireBee.
In XaAES (the graphical user interface used in FreeMiNT on the
FireBee) I just happened to notice this week of something rather
useful. A Task Manager similar to what is in most operating
systems that shows you all the running programs, their ID,
percentage of CPU used, state, RAM Used and more. To access this
in FreeMiNT in the upper left most option on the desktop menu
bar select Clients > XaXAES, from there the menu will be for
XaXAES, select Process > Task Manager. Now you will see the
Task Manager window with what I described above and more. For
more information about XaXAES you can go to the unofficial site:
http://xaaes.atariforge.org/
Now this brings me to another program I just started using on the
FireBee and under Aranym and that is Taskbar. It can be found
here: http://atari.nvg.org/download/Taskbar-4.12.zip
Best way to describe this application it is similar to the
Windows 95 or higher Taskbar. It has a Start Button, Control
Panel Button to your CPXs, Documents Button to your last used
documents, shows currently running applications, and programs
that you can launch that is user defined. When I was using
MagiC on my TT I used an application called Appline that was
similar though I dont recall as customizable. Besides showing
what programs were loaded it showed all the way to the right how
much free RAM was available. I had a 8MB RAM TT (4ST/4TT) and
20 years ago that was a lot of RAM for what I was doing, I still
kept an eye on my RAM usage. I mainly us Taskbar today to see
what programs are currently running and to see individually how
much RAM each program is using. What I discovered is on some
Web Sites how heavy RAM usage is and that some programs dont
always quit when you close them. Occasionally Netsurf will not
always end. So from Taskbar I right mouse click on Netsurf and
then select Quit or Kill to end the program. Also from Taskbar
I will right mouse click on a running program to see the RAM
usage. Most programs show what I expect but occasionally I am
surprised in the amount of RAM required to load a Web Page.
http://weather.com takes 124MB in Netsurf just to load the main
page. Thankfully on the FireBee RAM is plentiful and this is
not an issue but still surprising and good to know. Currently I
am not using the Program Launcher function in Taskbar. Not that
I dislike it but I still dont have my list of applications
tested or settled on yet. I may use this functionality in the
future but for right now I choose not to.
After having the FireBee for a couple of months now I decided
that I will do my best to set the FireBee up to be a day to day
or a main use machine. Categories that I feel I need to address
are :
Web Browsing
Email
Document Handling
Networking
Printing
Media Handling
Gaming
Backup
Some of these categories will be easier to deal with than others.
In the coming weeks I will start addressing each of these.
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Improvements Abound in 'Destiny: The Taken King'
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Xbox One Getting Windows 10's "Edge" Browser!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Improvements Abound in 'Destiny: The Taken King'
A year into a committed relationship is roughly the time when the
romance starts to lose a bit of its spark. Youve heard most of
your partners stories, youve seen their embarrassing junior
high photos, and youve become accustomed to their quirks. There
just arent many surprises left.
Thats a little how I feel about Destiny, the epic sci-fi shooter
birthed from the same loins that gave us the original Halo
trilogy. As a guy whos sunk roughly 500 hours into the game
since its release last year, Ive pretty much seen it all. Ive
vanquished alien armies with my arsenal of futuristic weaponry.
Ive massacred thousands of rival Guardians, the protectors of
Destinys besieged solar system, in online play. Ive explored
every inch of Venus, Mars, the moon, and the rusted ruins of
post-apocalyptic Earth. No raids remain unraided, no strikes are
left unstruck.
To be honest, this relationship is getting a bit stale. Which
makes Destiny: The Taken King kind of like having your partner
greet you at the door with two tickets to Paris and a bottle of
champagne.
Releasing just days after the one-year anniversary of Destinys
initial launch, The Taken King is a $40 downloadable add-on
(it's also part of a $60 Legendary Edition that includes the
original game plus the two earlier expansions). And while this
isnt a full-fledged sequel, The Taken King provides a ton of
stuff to see, do, collect, and, of course, shoot in the face.
The Taken Kings story-driven campaign revolves around Oryx, an
alien demigod who looks distressingly like the demon from
Fantasia that gave me bed-wetting nightmares as a kid. Oryx is
very, very angry that we killed his son, Crota the big baddie
from The Dark Below and hes plotting his revenge on the
solar system from a monstrous spaceship parked in the rings of
Saturn.
To that end, Oryx has abducted countless numbers of Destinys
aliens the Fallen, Vex, Cabal and Hive and twisted them
into weird, shimmery shadow creatures with new weapons and
abilities. Fallen Captains can lob giant spheres of toxic
darkness, Cabal Phalanxes shields have repulsors that can knock
you flying, and Vex Hobgoblins, who were pretty big pains to
begin with, now have freakin energy mortars. Cynics might cry,
Theyre just the old enemies with new skins and new guns! and
that wouldnt be entirely incorrect but the Taken are still
unfamiliar enough to feel novel.
In preparation for The Taken Kings release, developer Bungie
recently tweaked and tuned several core aspects of Destiny. They
simplified the character advancement system, raised the maximum
experience level from 34 to 40, and streamlined objectives into
something very much like an RPG quest log. Theyve also
expunged Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklages lackluster
voiceover for Ghost, your wee robotic sidekick. (Your A.I. pal
is now voiced by Nolan North, star of approximately 829 other
video games. He does a fine job, though I still kind of miss
Dinklebot.)
But what makes The Taken King so refreshing is that it actually
feels like a cohesive story now. Characters who were little more
than window dressing in the Guardians home base are now featured
in cinematic cutscenes and plentiful radio chatter, particularly
Cayde-6 (voiced by Firefly and Castle star Nathan Fillion), the
droll mentor to Destinys Hunter class. As we learn more about
Oryxs agenda through an interconnected series of missions and
quests (including an awesome mini-arc that unlocks a new subclass
and superpower for your character), we see Cayde-6 and pals
banter, bicker and take pot shots at each other. Its a small
thing, sure, but in Destinys visually lush yet emotionally
barren universe, it feels like a big deal.
The Taken Kings campaign includes stops at familiar Destiny
locales that now open up into brand new areas with new objectives,
enemies, plot chunks, and gameplay mechanics. Guardians will crash
Crotas funeral on the moon, fight a giant Shank in the bowels of
Rasputins bunker, steal a cloaking device for Eris Morns ship,
and very likely get lost in Oryxs creepy floating castle.
If these names and places are gibberish to you, fear not: The
Taken King aims to make Destiny playable for first-timers, and
the expansion will give newbies the option of immediately
elevating a single character to level 25, the minimum recommended
starting point for The Taken Kings content. If you have the
time, though, try to play through the whole thing from the
beginning. Destinys intertwined game mechanics can be a bit
confusing if youre simply plopped into the deep end.
Whats also impressive about The Taken King is how much more there
is to do once the story bits are finished. You might journey to
Oryx's Dreadnaught to fight the Shield Brothers, a pair of Cabal
giants who feel like oversized Super Mario enemies. Or enter the
Court of Oryx, an arena that allows players to trigger
ultra-challenging public events. Or try the two new online
Crucible variants including Destinys take on capture the flag,
dubbed Rift across a fresh set of multiplayer maps. Or take on
a Hive warrior in the Dreadnaught's prison, which is cloaked in
paranoia-inducing near-darkness. Or venture deep into the Vault
of Glass, home of the original Destinys co-op raid, for a
mission that reveals the fate of the legendary time-trapped
Guardian named Praedyth.
(Speaking of raids, The Taken Kings new end-game uber-mission,
called Kings Fall, goes live on September 18. Its the one thing
I've yet to play, but Im betting it will involve killing Oryx
once and for all. And that it will be ridiculously, wondrously
hard.)
Bungie and publisher Activision envision Destiny as a 10-year
series of expansions and sequels, and it will always be
something of a work in progress. The Taken King smooths out many
of the original games rough edges, beefs up its lore,
introduces a staggering amount of new content, and even makes a
lot of the older stuff feel sort of fresh again.
That said, for every element of Destiny that Bungie has improved
as the game enters its second year, theres another that could
still use work. Newcomers jumping into The Taken King might be
perplexed by the number of moving parts in the game that aren't
particularly well explained, something thats always been one of
Destinys core weaknesses (and isnt helped by the
encyclopedia-like Grimoire card system, which remains in
desperate need of a complete overhaul.)
And once players hit level 40 which shouldnt take more than a
solid afternoon of play the familiar loop of repeating
missions in the hopes of securing better weapons and armor begins
to set in, especially since this gear feeds directly into your
characters Light level, a secondary benchmark for determining
the activities you can tackle. With The Taken King, theres now a
lot more variety in the places you can go, the loot you can hunt
for, and the aliens you can perforate in the hopes of getting
that sweet new fusion rifle or rocket launcher, but that
lingering sense of deja vu never quite goes away.
But while The Taken King isnt perfect, its a step in the right
direction for Destiny. And it might be enough to make you fall in
love all over again. For another year, at least.
Whats Hot: Cool story missions; Memorable character
interactions; Lots of new places to visit and new guns to play
with; Improves some core gameplay systems;
Whats Not: Still more work to be done; Could be overwhelming
to newcomers; Pricey for players who already own the game;
R.I.P. Dinklebot
Xbox One Getting Windows 10's "Edge" Browser
A version of Microsoft Edge, the new browser included with
Windows 10, is coming to Xbox One.
Microsoft confirmed the news this week on Twitter by bluntly
responding to a user, "Yes, Edge will be coming to Xbox One."
The company did not say if Edge on Xbox One will have the same
features as the PC edition, but you can probably expect some
fine-tuning for its console release.
Edge will presumably replace (or live alongside) the existing
Internet Explorer Xbox One app. Edge became the default browser
with the release of Windows 10 on PC, but it did not entirely
replace Internet Explorer.
The new browser, on PC at least, supports Microsoft's virtual
assistant technology, Cortana, and functionality that lets you
draw directly on-screen via Web Note to annotate pages and then
share them. The browser also comes with a new page layout for
tabs, including links and thumbnails for websites you visit most
frequently. For more on Edge, check out the video preview above
from GameSpot sister site CNET.
During a recent podcast, Microsoft's Mike Ybarra talked about
Windows 10's forthcoming integration with Xbox One, which is
scheduled to land sometime "post-summer." Bringing the OS to Xbox
One is not as simple as you might think, he said, noting that it
involved the team creating a highly customized version of
Windows 10 built specifically for Xbox One. This is called
OneCore.
"Windows 10 for desktop PCs has incredible momentum right now,"
Ybarra said. "We're going to bring all of that efficiency to
Xbox One."
As of the end of August 10, Windows 10 had reached 75 million
installs. Overall, Microsoft is aiming to hit 1 billion Windows 10
devices by 2018. In other recent Xbox/Windows news, a top
Microsoft executive said the Xbox One is "literally a Windows
device."
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Pentagon Designing Cyber 'Scorecard' To Stay Ahead of Hackers
The U.S. Defense Department is building a massive, electronic
system to provide an overview of the vulnerabilities of the
military's computer networks, weapons systems, and installations,
and help officials prioritize how to fix them, the deputy
commander of U.S. Cyber Command said on Thursday.
Air Force Lieutenant General Kevin McLaughlin told Reuters
officials should reach agreement on a framework within months,
with a goal of turning the system into an automated "scorecard"
in coming years.
The effort, being led by the Pentagon's chief information
officer, grew out of a critical report about cyber threats
released earlier this year by the Pentagon's chief weapons
tester, and escalating cyber attacks by China and Russia.
The report by Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon's director of
testing and evaluation, warned that nearly every major U.S.
weapons system was vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Initial data entry would be done by hand, but the goal was to
create a fully automated system that would help defense
officials instantaneously detect and respond to cyber attacks,
McLaughlin said after a speech at the annual Billington
Cybersecurity Summit.
McLaughlin told the conference that Cyber Command had already set
up about half of 133 planned cyber response teams with about
6,200 people, and all of them would achieve an initial
operational capability by the end of 2016.
He said the initial focus of the new scorecard would be on the
greatest threats, including weapons systems fielded 30 years ago
before the cyber threat was fully understand, as well as newer
systems that were not secure enough.
"Theres probably not enough money in the world to fix all those
things, but the question is whats most important, where should
we put our resources as we eat the elephant one bite at a time,"
he said.
McLaughlin said the scorecard was initially intended to look at
weapons and networks, but the Pentagon was now looking at a
broader and more sophisticated approach that also accounted for
how data was moved among agencies within the military.
U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force officials, who also spoke at the
event, mapped out their own cybersecurity efforts, citing new
levels of communication and collaboration among the services
around these issues.
McLaughlin said U.S. military commanders were far more attuned to
cyber threats than in earlier years. He said Cyber Command spot
checks and inspections were now being flagged to the command's
top leader, Admiral Mike Rogers, which had spurred greater
accountability than in earlier years.
US Law Enforcement Now Needs A Warrant To Use Stingrays
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday released a new and
enhanced policy to cover the use of "stingrays" - tracking
devices that mimic cell phone towers, tricking phones into
connecting with them to reveal their precise location.
The new policy, designed to "establish a higher and more
consistent legal standard and increase privacy protections",
states that all federal agencies must now obtain a search
warrant - based on probable cause - before using cell-site
simulators.
There are, of course, a few exceptions to the warranted
procedure - agencies can forego a chat with a local judge if
they believe the swift use of a cell-site simulator would be key
in protecting human life, avoiding serious injuries or in the
pursuit of a suspected fugitive attempting to flee justice. A
warrant can also be dispensed with when a federal agent believes
criminal evidence is about to be destroyed.
While a cynic may suggest such exceptions could become the norm,
the DOJ believes otherwise, noting that all such instances must
be recorded.
Another issue addressed by the new policy concerns the use of
collected data as part of criminal investigations. While agencies
have often claimed that cell-site simulators are incapable of
collecting the contents of emails, text messages, images and call
data - doubts have remained. Now, it has been made clear that
devices must not be configured to intercept any such data
whatsoever.
The new policy explicitly prevents agents from collecting data
on the actual phone - such as emails, texts, contact lists and
images - as part of an investigation.
And even the data that the agents are permitted to collect -
such as location of the phone - must be erased, either when it
is finished with or once per day (whichever comes soonest). If
the target's phone number is not known, data must be erased
within 30 days.
Such an addition to the policy is important given the fact that
one of the biggest concerns over stingrays surrounds the
collection of data from all mobiles within range, not just the
one that is being tracked by law enforcement officers.
So far then, the new policy sounds like a victory for privacy
advocates but there is one snag - it only applies to federal
agencies, and not regular law enforcement types who have been
known to use stingrays and equivalent devices to solve petty
crime.
It's perhaps then, unsurprising to learn that the American Civil
Liberties Union is hardly jumping for joy over the new guidance.
Staff attorney Nathan Freed Wessler said the move was a
"positive first step" but noted that further progress was
required in regard to the use of stingrays by regular police
forces to whom the policy does not relate.
Further progress was required, he said, adding that:
The Justice Department must close these loopholes, and
Congress should act to pass more comprehensive legislation to
ensure that Americans' privacy is protected from these devices
and other location tracking technologies.
The Department of Justice, however, said federal agencies had
always obtained the appropriate legal authority to use cell-site
simulators anyway, which appears to suggest future warrants may
not be too hard to come by - new policy or not.
Despite the secrecy surrounding stingrays and other similar tools
up until now, Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates said
their use "has been instrumental in aiding law enforcement in a
broad array of investigations", saying the technology had helped
in a variety of cases including fugitive investigations,
complicated drugs cases and kidnappings.
The new policy, she said, would allow future use of stingrays
and other cell-site simulators to be undertaken in a consistent
and well-managed way that would be "respectful of individuals
privacy and civil liberties".
Twitter.com Back Up After Suffering Outage
Twitter.com suffered an outage Monday, leaving some users
frustrated.
USA Today reported that users began receiving an error message
that something is technically wrong at 2:45 p.m. ET.
VentureBeat reported that the outage only seemed to affect
Twitters Web client, with its mobile app and the TweetDeck app
continuing to work. The micro-blogging site was down for
approximately 35 minutes, it reported.
Twitter has not yet revealed the cause of the outage, but
confirmed that Twitter.com experienced some problems. Earlier
today, some users may have experienced issues accessing
twitter.com. This issue is now resolved, Twitter Support
tweeted at 3:37 p.m. ET.
Users took to other social media to vent their frustration about
the outage, according to USA Today.
"During the Twitter outage, I checked and found Facebook still
exists," tweeted @jamestaranto.
Glad @twitter is online again so I can #twitter the outage!,
tweeted @HaraldMuehlhoff.
Unnoticed Firefox Attacker Had Access To
Severe Vulnerabilities for Over A Year
An attacker with access to security-sensitive information about
the Firefox web browser went unnoticed for up to two years,
putting hundreds of millions of users at risk.
The attacker was able to spy on highly sensitive information by
gaining access to a privileged account on Bugzilla@Mozilla, the
bug tracking software the Mozilla corporation uses to store
information about flaws in its software.
The company behind the popular web browser has revealed details
of the breach in an FAQ document. It explains that the attacker
gained access to information about 185 non-public bugs, of
which 53 were classed as severe vulnerabilities.
Ten of those severe vulnerabilities were not fixed when the
attacker became aware of them, meaning that they could have been
used to attack Firefox, and at least one of them was used
in-the-wild.
The window of opportunity to successfully exploit that bug was
less than 36 days, but three of the bugs were known to the
attacker and un-patched for far longer; two for more than 130
days and one for almost a year.
In the face of such an open window of opportunity, Mozilla's
boilerplate assurance that "there is no indication that any of
the other bugs the attacker accessed have been exploited" isn't
very reassuring - absence of evidence is not evidence of
absence after all.
Mozilla's bug tracking system appears to have been infiltrated
because of password reuse by one of its privileged users.
The attacker acquired the password of a privileged Bugzilla
user, who had access to security sensitive information.
Information uncovered in our investigation suggests that the
user reused their Bugzilla password with another website, and
the password was revealed through a data breach at that site...
There are some indications that the attacker may have had access
since September 2013.
When a website is compromised and users' passwords are exposed,
the attackers behind the breach will often try those same
passwords on a range of other sites, making it imperative to
never use the same password twice.
We don't know which site the user's password was originally
stolen from but the timing fits with a very high profile hack
indeed. In September 2013 Adobe suffered a giant data breach,
losing about 150 million records, including a vast trove of
passwords that hadn't been stored properly.
As you might expect, Mozilla has responded to the exposure of
this highly sensitive data by beefing up its security:
Passwords have been reset for all privileged users, and
going forward, all privileged users will be required to use two
factor authentication to log in to Bugzilla. Second, we are
reducing the access that each Bugzilla user is granted in order
to limit the amount of information that could potentially be
exposed in the event of unauthorized access. Third, we are
increasing the amount of auditing we do on the actions of
privileged users so that we can detect suspicious activity more
quickly and accurately.
With so much malware being distributed via compromised websites,
web browsers have been at the security sharp end for years and,
by and large, they enjoy a solid reputation for seeking out and
dealing with security issues.
Which makes it all the more surprising, and more than a little
disappointing, that this attack might have been prevented with
some fairly basic password best practice.
If the user in question hadn't reused their password then the
attacker would not have had an opportunity to access Bugzilla.
And if Bugzilla had been equipped with two-factor authentication
(2FA), an attacker with the right password could still have been
thwarted.
If you are a Firefox user and you are using the latest version
of the software then you are not at risk from any of the
vulnerabilities the attacker had access to. If you are not using
the latest version, update now!
Facebook Is Creating A Dislike Button, Mark Zuckerberg Confirms
Thumbs-down... or up? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed
during the company's Q&A session on Tuesday, Sept. 15, that the
social media network is in the process of rolling out a
"Dislike" button after countless requests from users.
"I think people have asked about the dislike button for many
years," Zuckerberg, 31, said at the company's headquarters. "Today
is a special day because today is the day I can say were working
on it and shipping it."
However, Zuckerberg noted that the network didn't want to model
itself after Reddit, which allows users to vote stories up or
down based on content. "That isnt what were here to build in
the world," the CEO told reporters.
He said the use of a "dislike" button would be for sad posts -
deaths, crises, and other negative everyday life situations
faced by its users. The expectant dad surprised many fans after
he opened up recently about his wife Priscilla Chan's fertility
struggles in their pregnancy announcement.
"What they really want is the ability to express empathy,"
Zuckerberg said Tuesday of creating the functionality. "Not
every moment is a good moment."
He also shared that it's been in the development stages for some
time. The company previously decided against building the button
- despite complaints from users -- because it didn't want to
evoke negative reactions.
"Its surprisingly complicated to make an interaction that will
be simple," he revealed of the process.
Facebook Users Express Concerns Over Possible 'Dislike' Button
Facebook users took to the social media site on Wednesday to react
to the company's decision to test what Facebook Inc Chief
Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg called a "dislike button" - and
not everyone liked the idea.
In a town hall-style question and answer session Tuesday,
Zuckerberg took questions from users about topics ranging from
virtual reality to his wife's pregnancy. Yet most Facebook users
fixated on his announcement that the 1.5-billion user social
network was working on adding a button other than "like."
Users flooded Zuckerberg's official Facebook page with nearly
3,000 comments largely about the dislike option. While some said
they would use Facebook more if the button were introduced,
others said it would lead to cyberbullying and more negativity
on the site.
"Please don't put a dislike button, as much as there is times I
would love it, would much rather express my thoughts in words to
be completely direct on my opinion," said user Andrea Robichaud.
Users have been asking for a dislike button for several years,
Zuckerberg said, though it may not necessarily be named dislike
or be represented with a thumbs down. He added that the company
was preparing to test a version of the button.
"Not every moment is a good moment," Zuckerberg said.
The button's aim, he said, would be to express empathy on posts
that may reference topics where "like" is not the appropriate
response, such as the refugee crisis or the death of a loved
one.
Some users offered alternative suggestions that they thought
would minimize harassment on the site, such as adding a
"sympathy" button instead or allowing users to opt out of the
"dislike" button on their posts.
Others took a more humorous approach. Vince Vogel suggested
Facebook offer "public smile, private smile, private frown and
public frown" instead of like and dislike.
Analysts are not expecting a huge financial payoff if the
company goes forward, and Facebook shares rose slightly
Wednesday on the first full trading session after the
announcement, up 0.5 percent to around $93.40.
"If it takes off it will help engagement," said Stern Agee
analyst Arvind Bhatia, although noting the revenue impact would
not be great. "This is probably more in response to what
Facebook sees as a feature requested by users."
Microsoft Has Built Its Own Linux Operating System
Sit Tight on your seats, because you're gonna get a Shock.
Microsoft has developed an Operating System powered by LINUX.
Close your mouth first. Its True!
Microsoft has built its own Linux-based operating system called
Azure Cloud Switch (ACS) and believe me, under Satya Nadella,
Microsoft has become more open than ever.
According to the announcement made through an official blog post
on Microsoft website, Azure Cloud Switch (ACS) describes as
"cross-platform modular operating system for data center
networking built on Linux." or Simply, "Commodity switch
software stack for data center networks".
The Purpose of developing Linux-based Azure Cloud Switch (ACS)
operating system at Microsoft is to make it simpler to control
the hardware from multiple vendors (such as Switches) that
powers their cloud-based services.
And here's the Kicker:
"Running on Linux, ACS [Azure Cloud Switch] is able to make
use of its vibrant ecosystem. ACS allows to use and extend Open
Source, Microsoft, and Third Party applications."
However, Microsoft's Linux distribution is not going to appear
on Desktops or Servers anytime soon, because this isn't a
typical consumer-grade Operating System.
For Now, Azure Cloud Switch (ACS) Linux OS is just an internal
tool that Microsoft uses to "debug, fix as well as test
software bugs much faster", scale down software and develop
features for enterprise and cloud computing services.
Microsoft Azure Cloud Switch (ACS) was demonstrated at the
SIGCOMM conference in August 2015 at Imperial College London.
This move by Satya Nadella's Microsoft is really significant.
If youre interested in the technical deep dive into Azure Cloud
Switch (ACS), you will find it on the Microsoft Azure blog.
It is not the first time that Microsoft is partnering with rival
technologies.
Earlier this year, Microsoft had announced its partnership with
Cyanogen, the most popular third-party ROM for Android phones
and tablets.
And Cyanogen is reportedly working on deeper integration of
Microsofts Digital personal virtual assistant, Cortana, into
its latest version of Operating System.
Windows 10, The Stealth OS
To think that a couple of months ago we were worried that the
Internet might not be able to hold up against the pent-up demand
for Windows 10. The Internet did just fine, as it turns out
even better than we knew. Because we have recently discovered
that all along, Microsoft has been sending Windows 10 bits to
those of us who have Windows 7 or 8.x on our PCs, whether we
asked for them or not. Did I say sending? Thats a bit mild.
What Microsoft has been doing is force-feeding us Windows 10,
sneaking it past our perimeter, planting it on our hard drives
with no notice, shoving it through our Internet connections,
no matter how narrow our broadband.
Yes, Im a bit incensed.
It all started when an Inquirer reader found, hiding in the hidden
directory $Windows.~BT on his PC, all of the Windows 10
installation files, even though he had not reserved a copy. Up
to 6GB worth of them.
Some people were a mite upset about this. Especially people with
small solid-state drives and slow Internet speeds.
I have seen Microsoft do a lot of sketchy things over the years,
but when I first heard this story, I thought, Microsoft wouldnt
do this. Pitch Windows 10 right on my Windows desktop? Sure, I
could believe that. But to actually sneak the bytes onto my
computer? Surely not! Some things just arent done. Its as if a
colleague started living in your basement without ever telling
you. You feel as if your space has been violated, but in a way
you never even imagined might happen.
The thing is, big tech companies should have a clue that this
kind of thing is not welcome. I mean, just look at what happened
to Apple when it gave the U2 album Songs of Innocence away to
everyone with an iCloud account. It was a PR disaster
unmitigated by whatever good will lay behind the gesture.
After the news about the stealth Windows 10 downloads broke, I
checked my Windows machines, and sure enough, Microsoft had sent
me unwanted freebies. My first thought: Well, thats not so bad.
I have a 120Mbps Internet connection, and the smallest Windows
hard drive in the house comes in at 500GB. I can handle it OK.
Also, unlike people who have been having serious stability
problems with Windows 10, Windows 10 has worked well for me.
Well, it runs remarkably well for whats really a beta. Talk to
me after the October/November update before asking me if Id
recommend it for real use.
And, of course, I dont use Windows 10s built-in apps. The Mail
app, in particular, tends to blow up with messy results for
Outlook.com or Office 365 users. And lets not even talk about
Windows Store, which seems to spend more time frozen than working.
Oh, and come to think of it, Windows 10 still seems remarkably
snoopy to me.
You know what? On second thought, I really, really dont want
Microsoft shoving Windows 10 down to my computers until Im good
and ready.
I also really dont like Microsoft telling me that automatically
downloading a new, radically different operating system is an
industry practice that reduces time for installation and ensures
device readiness. Because its not.
Ive been working in IT for closing in on 30 years now, and
writing about it for almost as long, and never once has any
company pushed a new operating system on me in the normal course
of business. Yes, programs do that sometimes. Chrome and Firefox
spring to mind, but operating systems are a lot bigger deal than
Web browsers.
Microsoft has since retracted that industry practice line, but
it still rankles, and Im still annoyed at having Windows 10
forced into my machines.
Say I was a system administrator. Would I want my users having
Windows 10 appearing on their PCs? No, I wouldnt. Id have
enough trouble keeping porn and games off their boxes without
contending with a brand-new Windows OS.
Even at home, though, when I enable Windows Update automatic
updates, I just want the top security patches for the operating
system I already have, not a whole freaking operating system.
Let me make this simple for you, Microsoft. The next time you
want to promote your next-generation operating system, in 2020
or so, do not shove it down my throat.
Ahem.
Thank you.
=~=~=~=
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