Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 17 Issue 32
Volume 17, Issue 32 Atari Online News, Etc. August 28, 2015
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2006
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
Henk Robbers
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org
and click on "Subscriptions".
OR subscribe to A-ONE by sending a message to: dpj@atarinews.org
and your address will be added to the distribution list.
To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE
Please make sure that you include the same address that you used to
subscribe from.
To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
following sites:
http://people.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm
Now available:
http://www.atarinews.org
Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1732 08/28/06
~ Atari Coldfire Project ~ People Are Talking! ~ Atari AHCC v5.2!
~ Facebook PA Called 'M'! ~ Pirate Sites Ban Win10 ~ Email Here To Stay!
~ PlayStation Plus Offer! ~ Get Hacked? Get Sued! ~ Next Firebee Update!
~ Twitter and Free Speech ~ Hillary's Fake Support ~ XCOM 2 Gets Delayed!
-* Assassin's Creed Syndicate! *-
-* Final Atari Sale Is No Urban Legend *-
-* Twitter Shuts Down "Deleted Tweets" Sites! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, let's try it again this week and see how well we do with every
"type" of A-ONE edition. We added a couple of PCs to our family of
computers over the past couple of weeks - adding a tower system to
my office. Now there is a [fairly] new iMac and now a new PC. I
still don't have the PC loaded with all of the software that I
want/need, but hopefully I have enough of the former software that I
was using to get A-ONE out [more] regularly. I don't have my
copy of WinZIP replaced yet, so please let me know if you're running
into problems uncompressing the archive that's currently going out.
Like every year, I can't believe that Labor Day weekend is almost
upon us again! I feel like we just finished that horrible winter
and we're starting to get geared up for a nice Spring and Summer!
Where does the time go?? Well, I guess I better get cranking on
getting in more grilling time; it's time to load up on a few more
steaks and beer!
So, now that I'm getting closer to getting back to "normal," let's
wrap up this week's issue and get it out the door to you!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
AHCC v5.2
By Henk Robbers
There is a new version available on my home page (see sig).
Changes:
august 23 2015
v5.2
Shell:
Compare folders:
Mismatch display order of filenames reversed.
Double clicking 'Mismatch': first file is left on top.
Compare files: (^2)
flipflop between red and green according to equality
of selected lines. (red: unequal, green : equal).
Compiler:
Small code improvements (no effects).
Small improvements in the optimizer.
Nicer display of options with -v.
fixed spurious denying of duplicate typ definitions
in some cases.
Library ahccgem:
Added function vq_vgdos in vdi_wstn.c
Calc:
(type Esc in journal)
Prompt '>'.
Assembler:
Deny operands of the form symbol.w .
shift Dn interpreted as shift #1,Dn (like Pure Asm).
Implement Local statement for labels in macros.
accept .w on swap instruction.
--
Groeten; Regards.
Henk Robbers. http://members.chello.nl/h.robbers
Interactive disassembler: Digger; http://digger.atari.org
A Home Cooked C compiler: AHCC; http://ahcc.atari.org
The Atari Coldfire Project
The Atari Coldfire Project is proud to announce the new Web Site
firebee.org and is now accepting pre-orders for the 2nd Series
FireBee Computer System.
The FireBee is a new Atari-compatible computer. A FireBee is
similar to an Atari Falcon and works very much like one. It will
run most of the Atari compatible software that would run on a
Falcon. Different to older Ataris and their clones, the FireBee
is a modern computer that supports almost everything you'd
expect from a today's machine, like USB ports, Ethernet,
SD-card reader and more.
Technical Specifications:
ColdFire-Processor with 264 MHz.
Powerful FPGA with 128 MB Graphics- and Special-RAM, 512 KB
SRAM and 8 MB Flash-Memory (ROM) for the Operating System.
Firmware Updates are easily available via software.
Single Tasking operating system FireTOS (based on the
Falcon-TOS 4.04) and the Open-Source operating System EmuTOS
inside the Flash-ROM.
512 MByte DDR SD-RAM.
DVI-I Monitor Connector (VGA per Adapter possible).
5x USB 2.0 (4x external and 1x internal).
Ethernet 10/100, High Speed-Serial port.
Compact Flash- and SD-Card-Slot.
Sound: Line in, Line out, Mic (mono).
Atari-compatible connectors:
2 TT/Falcon IDE-Busses, ST/TT Floppy, Atari-Keyboard with
Mouse, Printer Port parallel, RS-232 serial, MIDI
in/out/thru.
Operating Systems currently capable of running on a FireBee :
FireTOS Atari based single tasking TOS OS.
EmuTOS - Open Source single tasking TOS OS.
uClinux Linux for Microcontrollers.
FreeMiNT Popular Atari Open Source highly customizable
GEM based multitasking OS.
When purchasing the optional CF Card with FreeMiNT preinstalled
about 50 programs are included such as Web Browser, FTP Client,
Image Viewer, PDF Viewer, Help System, Development Software and
more. High quality aluminium custom mini-cases are availaible in
4 different colours as optional addon. As the software, the
entire hardware is Open Source, all construction files are
availaible for the public.
For more information on the FireBee computer and how to pre-order
please
go to: http://firebee.org/
Firebee Update
In my last article I was discussing the things I like and
disliked on the FireBee and forgot one of the most import
benefits of the FireBee, RAM and plenty of it! With 512MB of
RAM I cannot see myself ever running out of RAM. By todays
standard 512MB of RAM is barely anything with a modern
Operating System. Most Atari applications use very little RAM.
So 512MB is a huge amount. My main TT was a 4ST/4TT RAM
machine and I rarely ran into problems. My Falcon was 14MB and
again I rarely ran into problems. Granted that was 20 or so
years ago and todays Atari programs such as Operating Systems,
Web Browsers, and Media players require more RAM that my old TT
or Falcon may have needed additional RAM but not 512MB.
This submission is going to be extra short this week. Tonight
I am getting ready for the ACEC Swap Meet in Columbus Ohio. I
will be bringing the FireBee for people to try out. For more
information : http://www.angelfire.com/oh4/acec/acec.html
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - PlayStation Plus Free Games!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Assassin's Creed Syndicate Date!
'XCOM 2' Delayed Until 2016!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
PlayStation Plus Free Games of September 2015 for PS4, PS3, and Vita
Sony has revealed the six free games that PlayStation Plus members
can download for free in September, one of which Plus members had
a hand in choosing.
As a result of the Vote to Play initiative, Grow Home will be one
of the PS4's free games next month. It's making its debut on PS4
in September and will be free right out of the gate for Plus
members. The other two games that Plus members were able to vote
for, Armello and Zombie Vikings, will each be 30 percent off from
September 1-15.
Thanks to Cross-Buy support, PS4 owners get a total of four games
in September, while PS3 and Vita owners get two each.
PlayStation 4:
Grow Home
Super Time Force Ultra
Teslagrad
Xeodrifter
PlayStation 3:
Teslagrad
Twisted Metal
PlayStation Vita:
La Mulana EX
Xeodrifter
Assassin's Creed Syndicate PC Release Date Announced
Ubisoft, the company behind Assassin's Creed Syndicate has
confirmed that the game will be coming to PC on November 19.
It's coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 (PS4) almost a month
earlier on October 23. The delay is inevitable considering how
poorly the last entry in the series, Assassin's Creed Unity,
performed on the PC.
"We have introduced several new improvements to our production
pipeline and validation process, which allowed us to focus on
polishing, stabilizing and optimizing the PC version very early
on in the project," said Sam Kovalev, Studio Production Manager
at Ubisoft Kiev on Ubisoft's blog. "This has been one of the top
priorities for the production team this year."
"The additional four weeks are for us to really bear down and
finalise all of the polish and optimisation, to make sure the
game and all of its systems are stable when it launches, so it
runs smoothly for all players starting on day one," he explained
further.
While the final PC requirements have not been announced, there
will be no limit in terms of frame-rate or resolution the company
confirmed. The game's recommended system specifications will
target a 1080p resolution and 30 frames per second.
In the past, the company has delayed games for a variety of
reasons ranging from adding DRM to extra testing across a variety
of hardware. And though Ubisoft had earlier said the PC version
of Assassin's Creed Syndicate will be delayed, it's good to know
when it would exactly hit.
'XCOM 2' Delayed Until February 2016
XCOM 2 was supposed to launch in November, but apparently
planet-wide alien invasions are tricky to schedule. Firaxis has
pushed XCOM 2's release date back to February 5, 2016, noting
that the game isn't up to the studio's standards quite yet.
"We've set a high bar for the sequel and the entire team has
been working hard to make sure we deliver a great follow-up to
Enemy Unknown," a short blog post reads. "We just need a little
more time to make it the best possible game."
Firaxis wants XCOM 2 to have "more depth, more replayability and
more investment in your soldiers," the post continues. XCOM 2 is
a sequel to 2012's widely acclaimed strategy game, XCOM: Enemy
Unknown, and it's a continuation of the strategy franchise that
began in 1993. In XCOM 2, Earth is overrun by hostile alien
forces and players are part of a guerrilla resistance squad
attempting to take back the planet. There's still no word on a
console or mobile launch for the new game.
Delays are a common sight in the video game universe, and just
this week we asked one developer why his game was pushed back two
whole years after receiving a ton of early attention. The short
answer? "It's complicated."
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Final Atari Sale Is No Urban Legend
It's been a year and a half since Atari's infamous E.T. The
Extra-Terrestrial has been unearthed from the Alamogordo
landfill. Gamers and collectors from around the country made a
pilgrimage to Alamogordo to see if the gaming world's biggest
urban legend was true.
One man, who knew Atari's deepest darkest secret, uncovered it's
concrete tomb with the help of a film crew who documented the
entire process. That man was Operational Consultant Joe
Lewandowski, who is regarded as Alamogordo's Indiana Jones.
Lewandowski announced the grand total from the Atari dig sale on
eBay to City Commissioners at their regular City Commission
meeting Tuesday. The final sale results totaled a staggering
$107,930.15. The city of Alamogordo will receive $65,037.78 and
the Tularosa Basin Historical Society will get $16,259.44.
Expenses like shipping fees totaled $26,632.93.
Lewandowski said there's still 297 cartridges left that he's
holding in an archive. What's to become of them is still unknown
at this time.
"There's 297 we're still holding in an archive that we'll sell at
a later date when we decide what to do with them," he said. "I
might sell those if a second movie comes out but for now we're
just holding them. The film company got 100 games, 23 went to
museums and we had 881 that we actually sold. They were sold in
45 states and 14 countries."
The Atari cartridges made their way to several museums around the
world such as the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the Henry Ford
Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, the Hamilton Toy Museum in Ontario,
Canada, and the Deutsches Film Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.
Out of the 881 games that were sold, six games were sold to
Brazil and Australia, three in Singapore, 22 in France, 54 in
Canada and over 752 in the United States alone just to name a
few.
The highest Atari 2600 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial cartridge went
for $1,535. Over 60 titles were sold on eBay including Asteroids,
Missile Command, Warlords, Defender, Star Raiders, Swordquest,
Phoenix, Centipede and Super Breakout.
Based on Steven Spielberg's blockbuster film, Atari's E.T. The
Extra-Terrestrial was released in 1982 after only 34 days of
development. It quickly became known as one of the worst video
games ever created, and is considered by many the final blow
that collapsed Atari.
Though the game sold well during the holidays, E.T.
The-Extra-Terrestrial did not live up to its financial
expectations as was told in the documentary "Atari: Game Over"
directed by Zak Penn.
In a previous Daily News article, Lewandowski stated that he is
still planning on making a second film but has not made anything
official.
"I have a bunch of stories in this story book I hope to use some
day and I have all their addresses and contacts. If it works out
it would be fun to cruise around with a movie camera and film
all these people," he said.
Lewandowski said he does not have a title for the film yet but is
also looking for the ripple effect of the Atari burial.
"I'm hoping that if the second movie ever comes out, I can
release some more games," he said. "It would increase their value
for the city."
Lewandowski also said that he would like to come before the City
Commission again on Sept. 22 to discuss recommendations on what
to do with the money.
"I would like to come back on Sept. 22, I have some
recommendations that I would like to present with the money," he
said. "The $65,000 is yours you can do what you want with it but
I don't want to see it go to pot holes or sewer lines."
City Commissioner Nadia Sikes thanked Lewandowski for his hard
work and what the sale means to the city.
"I just want to take a moment to thank Joe Lewandowski for all the
hard work. I wouldn't consider myself a real nay-sayer of what was
going to transpire with the sale of the games but I have to say I
am so impressed with what you've done," Sikes said. "Under no
circumstances did I ever think you were going to sell over $60,000
worth of games."
Lewandowski said he was more surprised than anyone but was proud
for what he was able to do and to call Alamogordo E.T.'s final
resting place.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Court Says The FTC Can Slap Companies for Getting Hacked
For companies like the dating site Ashley Madison or the health
insurer Anthem, financial loss, customer anger and professional
embarrassment arent the only consequences of getting massively
gutted by hackers. Now a court has confirmed that theres a
three-letter agency that can dish out punishment, too.
In a decision published Monday, a U.S. appellate court ruled that
the Federal Trade Commission has the authority to sue Wyndham
Hotels for allowing hackers to steal more than 600,000 customers
data from its computer systems in 2008 and 2009, leading to more
than $10 million in fraudulent charges. The ruling more widely
cements the agencys power to regulate and fine firms that lose
consumer data to hackers, if the companies engaged in what the
FTC deems unfair or deceptive business practices. At a time
when ever-more-private data is constantly getting breached, the
decision affirms the FTCs role as a digital watchdog with
actual teeth.
The FTC originally sued Wyndham in 2012 over the lack of security
that led to its massive hack. But before the case proceeded,
Wyndham appealed to a higher court to dismiss it, arguing that
the FTC didnt have the authority to punish the hotel chain for
its breach. The third circuit courts new decision spells out
that Wyndhams breach is exactly the sort of unfair or
deceptive business practice the FTC is empowered to stop,
sending Wyndham back to face the FTCs lawsuit in a lower court.
A company does not act equitably when it publishes a privacy
policy to attract customers who are concerned about data privacy,
fails to make good on that promise by investing inadequate
resources in cybersecurity, exposes its unsuspecting customers
to substantial financial injury, and retains the profits of
their business, reads the courts ruling.
For consumer privacy watchdogs, the ruling comes as a relief,
solidifying another serious legal incentive for companies to
invest in protecting their customers data, according to
Electronic Privacy Information Center attorney Alan Butler. This
a huge victory for the FTC, but also for American consumers,
says Butler, who filed an amicus brief defending the FTCs
authority earlier in the case. We see services and companies
being hacked on an almost daily basis now. Having the FTC out
there, bringing actions against companies that fail to protect
consumers data is a critical tool.
Wyndham Hotels, for its part, vowed to continue its case in the
lower court. The company points out that the appellate court
ruled on the FTCs authority, not the specific allegations the
agency made against Wyndham, namely that it had failed to
adequately protect its customers. We believe the facts will show
the FTCs allegations are unfounded, reads a statement from
Wyndham spokesperson Michael Valentino. Safeguarding personal
information remains a top priority for our company, and with the
dramatic increase in the number and severity of cyberattacks on
both public and private institutions, we believe consumers will
be best served by the government and businesses working together
collaboratively rather than as adversaries.
Even if Wyndham does eventually lose its case against the FTC, it
likely wont be fined, says Berkeley Law professor Chris
Hofnagle. Instead, it could face the kind of privacy probation
that is a frequent outcome of the FTCs privacy suits against
firms, in which the agency closely oversees its data protection
systems for a period as long as 20 years, with the option to
later impose fines for any violation of the standards it imposes.
But aside from Wyndham itself, the appellate ruling establishes a
more important precedent for the legal consequences of a data
breach. Had Wyndham won at the third circuit, it would have
called into question the FTCs ability to police privacy and
security, says Hofnagle, describing that avoided outcome as a
disaster for the agency. This is a major deal.
In its original lawsuit, the FTC accused Wyndham of a long litany
of privacy fails, from storing credit card information unencrypted
to lacking firewalls to using easily-guessed passwords. The agency
compared those practices to Wyndhams published privacy policy
which promised that it did use some kinds of encryption to protect
consumer data as well as firewalls and other safeguards and
argued that its insecurity amounted to unfair business
practices.
Wyndham had specifically challenged that unfair claim, arguing
that it hadnt actually engaged in the unscrupulous or
unethical behavior that it said the FTCs standard requires. But
the appellate court wasnt persuaded; It ruled that the alleged
mismatches between its data protection and its privacy policy
were sufficient to meet that unfair standard, without any
accusations of unethical behavior necessary.
The Court also rejected another argument from Wyndham that if the
FTC were allowed to punish companies for this sort of data breach,
it would be allowed to sue any supermarket thats sloppy about
sweeping up banana peels, opening the door to unfair practice
claims run amok. On that point, the Court snapped back: Were
Wyndham a supermarket, leaving so many banana peels all over the
place that 619,000 customers fall hardly suggests it should be
immune from liability.
The appellate ruling doesnt necessarily grant the FTC new powers
so much as dispel legal questions around the power it already
possesses to be a data security watchdog, says Berkeleys
Hofnagle. As data breaches increasingly become a source of real
suffering for consumerssee the reports of suicides that have
already resulted from Ashley Madisons scandalous data spill
the agencys mandate more important than ever.
The law has always imposed responsibility on companies for the
care of their customers. When youre in the restaurant you have
to be protected against slips and falls or food-borne illness,
says Hofnagle. Data is just something new that companies have
to protect if they want to bear the benefits of collecting it.
Twitter Shuts Down 30 Sites Dedicated To
Saving Politicians' Deleted Tweets
Twitter has shut down a network of sites dedicated to archiving
deleted tweets from politicians around the world. The sites
collectively known as Politwoops were overseen by the Open
State Foundation (OSF), which reported that Twitter suspended
their API access on Friday, August 21st. Twitter reportedly told
the OSF that its decision was the result of thoughtful internal
deliberation and close consideration of a number of factors,
and that the social media site didnt distinguish between
politicians and regular users.
Imagine how nerve-racking terrifying, even tweeting would be
if it was immutable and irrevocable? Twitter reportedly told the
OSF. No one user is more deserving of that ability than another.
Indeed, deleting a tweet is an expression of the users voice.
The US arm of Politwoops was shut down in June this year, but this
new decision affects countries all over the world including
Canada, Egypt, India, Ireland, South Korea, Tunisia, Turkey,
Norway, and the UK. The Diplotwoops site, dedicated to archiving
deleted tweets from diplomats, was also shut down, with the OSF
noting that all the accounts had been extensively used and
cited by journalists around the world. The organizations
director, Arjan El Fassed, commented: What politicians say in
public should be available to anyone. This is not about typos,
but it is a unique insight on how messages from elected
politicians can change without notice.
The British arm of Politwoops, known by the handle @deletedbyMPs,
was among those affected by Twitters decision. Jules Mattsson,
who runs the account, told The Guardian: Its a terrible shame
that Twitter has made this decision. Politwoops has been an
important new tool in political accountability in the UK and
abroad. Politicians are all too happy to use social media to
campaign, but if we lose the ability for this to be properly
preserved, it becomes a one-way tool.
53 Times Twitter Violated Free Speech, According to Tweeters
At Yahoo Tech, we make no claim to be constitutional scholars.
But after just a few minutes scanning hundreds of online rants
lamenting that social media services are supressing free
speech, were starting to feel a bit like Thomas Jefferson and
James Madison.
First Amendment outrage buzzed across Twitter earlier this week
when it was revealed that the microblogging platform would no
longer support Politwoops, a global network of 30 websites that
were collecting politicians deleted tweets. Twitter had already
quit supplying information about deleted tweets to Politwoopss
U.S. site in June.
Politwoopss argument was that the public has a right to know when
elected officials erase their public statements; Twitters
counter-argument was that politicians should have as much right to
privacy including the ability to delete tweets made in haste
as normal humans do. (Twitter won that fight.)
Some tweeters saw these as repressive moves by Twitter, similar
to its attempts to ban hate speech and bullying, allow users to
mute or block others, and deactivate accounts at the requests of
government bodies. And, naturally, they took to Twitter to
complain about it.
We wont go into great detail about how wrong that line of
thinking is. The tl;dr version is the First Amendment applies to
supression of speech by government entities, not corporations.
But we are more than happy to supply you with a slew of
rant-tweets covering the topic, solely for your amusement.
Consider it our way of celebrating freedom of speech.
Pirate Sites Ban Windows 10 Over Privacy Worries
There's been a good amount of privacy freak-out over Windows 10.
Concerns have been sparked by things such as the Wi-Fi password
sharing feature and the fact that Windows 10 by default shares a
lot of your personal information - contacts, calendar details,
text and touch input, location data, and what Ars Technica calls
"a whole lot more" - with Microsoft's servers.
Of late, that paranoia has spiked over the notion that Microsoft
plans to keep people from running conterfeit software.
The notion came out of Microsoft's new Windows 10 update
procedures, which, coupled with the company's Services Agreement,
could allow Redmond to block pirated content and unauthorized
hardware andreach right out and wipe torrents clean off of
people's hard drives.
Fear spread that, in the words of one report, "Microsoft has
practically baked DRM [digital rights management] into the core
of Windows 10".
Cooler heads pointed out that this a) wasn't new, seeing that the
new service agreement was published on 4 June and took effect
August 1, and b) is simply wrong, since the service agreement
applies to services, not to Windows 10 - specifically, it looks
like it applies only to services provided directly from
Microsoft, including Xbox, Xbox Live and Microsoft's Windows
Games.
In other words, Microsoft can't disable a copy of a third-party
software installed on your hard drive.
Such clarifications haven't stopped the paranoia about a piracy
kill switch.
It's gotten to the point where, as TorrentFreak reports, some
smaller pirate sites have become so concerned that Windows 10
systems will phone home with too many hints about their users,
that the sites' administrators have started blocking Windows
users from the BitTorrent trackers hosted on their sites.
One of those sites, iTS, released a statement which referred to
Windows 10's "outrageous privacy violations", which, it says,
include...
[sending] the contents of your local disks directly to one of
their servers.
"Obviously," the administrators continue, "this goes way too far
and is a serious threat to sites like ours which is why we had to
take measures."
Thus, since Thursday, Windows 10 has officially been banned from
iTS until "special versions" surface that undo this purported
privacy wreckage.
The statement also references what iTS calls "one of the largest
anti-piracy companies", MarkMonitor.
That actually turns out to be a company that Microsoft has
worked with for years in areas such as the monitoring of
phishing attacks.
Other torrent tracking sites are considering following in the
footsteps of iTS, including BB and FSC - all of these being
smaller pirate sites found on the dark web, as opposed to
larger, well-known sites such as The Pirate Bay.
TorrentFreak quotes a statement from BB to its users:
We have also found [Windows 10] will be gathering information
on users P2P use to be shared with anti-piracy groups.
What's particularly nasty is that apparently it sends the
results of local(!!) searches to a well known anti-piracy
company directly, so as soon as you have one known p2p or scene
release on your local disk
BAM!
And similar warnings have gone out from FSC to its users:
As we all know, Microsoft recently released Windows 10. You
as a member should know, that we as a site are thinking about
banning the OS from FSC. That would mean you cannot use the site
with the OS installed.
Is there anything to back up this level of fear?
As Ars Technica notes, Windows 10 does in fact step up the data
collection compared with earlier Windows iterations, due in large
part to extra services such as the digital assistant Cortana.
Such new services use more data and consequently bloat up the
service and privacy agreements with far more verbiage, as
Microsoft presumably tries to keep itself out of a Google-esque
spot of trouble over unclear privacy policy.
But it seems that convenience is the only thing that might keep
users locked into this mainlining of data back to Microsoft's
servers.
You can keep much of your privacy - and your personal data along
with it - on your PC, if you have the fortitude to flip quite a
few toggles during installation.
As TorrentFreak notes, educating users about how to configure
the new OS for optimized privacy, as Ars has done, might be a
tad more helpful than barring the gates against Windows 10
users.
True, if the piracy sites' gates are barred, Windows 10 users
might be that much less inclined to avail themselves of pirated
games, software or other content that could harbor dangerous
malware.
But beyond leaving users to the mercy of the moat alligators,
barring the gates just doesn't do much to illuminate just what
privacy threats are swimming around in those waters or how to
properly wrestle with them.
Firefox To Support Chrome Extensions
Extensions are a popular way to add functionality to your browser,
but just like app development, developers often have to make
several different versions of their extensions for different
browsers. Mozilla wants to cut down on that hassle and allow
extensions made for Chrome to also work on Firefox.
"We would like add-on development to be more like Web development:
the same code should run in multiple browsers according to
behavior set by standards, with comprehensive documentation
available from multiple vendors," Mozilla said in a blog post.
So Mozilla has a new Blink-compatible API in Firefox called
WebExtensions, which will allow extensions code for Chrome and
Opera (and maybe Microsoft Edge one day) to run on Firefox "with
few changes."
"WebExtensions will behave like other Firefox add-ons; they will
be signed by Mozilla, and discoverable through addons.mozilla.org
(AMO) or through the developer's website," the company said. "With
this API, extension developers should be able to make the same
extension available on Firefox and Chrome with a minimal number of
changes to repackage for each platform."
WebExtensions is currently available in the Developer Edition of
Firefox 42. Details about how to test them are on the Mozilla
wiki.
Mozilla acknowledged that the move will result in trade-offs.
"Developers who already support Chrome extensions will benefit
since they will have one codebase to support instead of two,"
Mozilla said. "Developers of Firefox-only add-ons will have to
make changes. Those changes may require considerable development
effort up-front, but we feel the end result will be worth that
effort for both Firefox's users and developers."
Mozilla posted a link to a blog post that it said is a "must-read
for people who are concerned about how the add-ons they develop,
use, and love will continue to be part of Firefox."
Mozilla also provided details on Electrolysis, "which uses a
separate operating system process to run Web content." As
TechCrunch noted, this means Mozilla will separate browser tabs
and the user interface, so a tab crash doesn't crash the entire
browser.
The final release for Electrolysis will be determined based on user
testing, but Mozilla published a rough outline of when it will roll
out. Next up: Electrolysis will be available to users as an
"opt-in" on the beta channel on Sept. 22.
Facebooks Siri-Like Personal Assistant Is Called M
Facebook has launched its own personal assistant, and youll find
it right inside an app youre already using every day: Messenger.
Today marks the introduction of M, which VP David Marcus
describes as a personal digital assistant inside of Messenger
that completes tasks and finds information on your behalf. Its
powered by artificial intelligence thats trained and
supervised by people. Previous rumors indicated there would be
a human component to Facebooks approach.
Marcus writes:
Unlike other AI-based services in the market, M can actually
complete tasks on your behalf. It can purchase items, get gifts
delivered to your loved ones, book restaurants, travel
arrangements, appointments and way more.
So Facebook is positioning M as a step beyond what competing
assistants like Siri, Google Now, and Cortana are capable of.
According to Wired, a few hundred Facebook users in the San
Francisco bay area will be invited into this first-run test of M.
To prevent automated errors, a team of Facebooks own contractors,
known as M Trainers, are responsible for pushing Ms most powerful
features through and booking actual reservations, buying products,
and so on.
But the artificial intelligence at play seems significant, with M
responding to your initial queries with follow-up questions and
updates as tasks move towards completion. And if youre worried
about privacy or creepy factor, for now M isnt pulling from your
Facebook history to complete any of its functions. This might
eventually change though with permission. (Users are never told
whether theyre being assisted by a computer or Ms human helpers,
Wired notes.) Marcus notes that M will expand slowly over time,
but eventually should make its way to all Facebook users kicking
off a new stage of digital assistant competition with Apple,
Google, Microsoft, and smaller companies trying their hand.
Hillary Clinton Has More Than a Million Fake Twitter Followers
Fake Twitter followers abound among the U.S. presidential
candidates as they gear up for the election in 2016. And Hillary
Clinton isnt the only candidate with more than a million of
them. GOP frontrunner Donald Trump also has well over a million
fake followers. Other candidates have them, too, but not as many
(in large part because they dont have as many followers,
period).
In fact, almost every person on Twitter has some fake followers.
I have them, but since I have relatively few followers compared
to real celebrities, I have fewer fake ones. Chances are you have
fake followers, too.
As far as the election goes, present numbers show Clinton and
Trump well ahead of the pack in both presidential polling and
Twitter followers the real and the fake kind. So if we were to
consider the size of a candidates Twitter following as a kind
of crude proxy for political popularity or electability, then
questions about what it means to have a large number of fake
Twitter followers become even more fascinating.
What makes a Twitter follower fake?
We found out how abundant fake Twitter users are thanks to a site
called TwitterAudit, which analyzes Twitter accounts and then
tells you how many of that accounts followers are real and how
many are fake. TwitterAudit isnt the only service that does
this. Theres also the StatusPeople site; unlike TwitterAudit,
StatusPeople will show you who some of those fake users are, how
many it considers actually fake and how many are just inactive.
But what, exactly, is a fake follower?
Shaking hands, kissing babies, and amassing phony Twitter
followers. (Data courtesy of TwitterAudit Click here to see a
larger version)
Fake followers are a mix of inactive Twitter users (who signed
up but never log on), completely fake users that are created for
the sole purpose of following people, and spam bots that are
programmatically set up to tweet ads and malicious content,
explained David Caplan, co-founder of TwitterAudit.
Clearly, the definition of a fake follower is open to
interpretation. Some of the followers that these services
consider fake are actually news collection services that harvest
tweets and use them to find and publish news stories; when I
tweet about this story after its posted, those services will
pick up that tweet, and then may put this story on their pages,
or include a link back to Yahoo Tech.
In other words, fake doesnt necessarily mean theyre not real
followers. It could mean that theyre just not individual users
who are constantly following, responding, and adding other
followers.
The obvious question, then, is: Where do those fake followers
come from? As you might expect, theres an app for that more
precisely, a website called Social Followers that promises to
add thousands of new names to your list.
It certainly shouldnt be assumed that any of todays
presidential campaigns would need to use a social media blasting
service to gain followers that could be considered fakes. These
types of accounts also have a propensity to show up on their own
not so much because theyre really fake, but because theyre
lurkers who read Twitter feeds but dont do a lot of tweeting on
their own.
In addition, Caplan said that people with a large number of
followers more than a million seem to have a higher
percentage of followers his company considers fake.
For large accounts (1 million+ followers), the percentage of
real followers sometimes tends towards 50%, Caplan said in an
email. This doesnt necessarily mean the other 50% are fake.
Its more likely that many users are just inactive or use Twitter
to occasionally read tweets. For large accounts, if the score is
60% (real followers) then Id say that is a pretty good score.
Are there downsides to having a lot of fake followers?
So should you (or a candidate for president of the United States)
worry that a large portion of the people reading your tweets
are a bunch of fakes? The answer there is a firm maybe.
Twitter spokesman Nick Pacilio points to Twitters spam policy,
which specifically bans the practice of getting fake followers.
Using or promoting third-party services or apps that claim to
get you more followers (such as follower trains, sites promising
more followers fast or any other site that offers to
automatically add followers to your account).
Meaning that, if you take advantage of a service that adds fake
followers, Twitter could cancel your account. But when asked if
this rule is actually enforced, Twitter did not respond.
The issue of fake Twitter followers otherwise seems pretty
harmless. It boosts your ego to have people think you have a lot
of followers, and it might boost your Klout score, but does it
cause any harm?
Fake followers arent inherently bad, Caplan said, they are
just a dishonest form of using social media. They can be leveraged
to inflate someones reputation. People will most likely follow
someone who already has many followers, so buying followers is a
way to boost your follower count in the future. Fake followers can
also be used to commit fraud in the sense that you can inflate the
value of your Twitter account for advertising purposes without
creating any real value.
The fraud that Caplan mentions refers to celebrities who get paid
for things such as product mentions made from their Twitter
accounts. So for those select few that can get paid to tweet, fake
followers can be deceptive. Otherwise, theyre probably harmless.
And since those fake followers probably arent registered voters,
they dont really matter to the candidates, either.
Love Them Or Loathe Them, Emails Are Here To Stay
If seeing an inbox full of hundreds of emails fills you with
dread, get used to it, because they are here to stay and will
remain a constant in the workplace, according to a survey
released on Wednesday.
Despite the popularity of instant messaging, texting and social
media, the poll showed that email is the top communications tool
at work and will grow in importance over the next five years.
In the online survey, comprising 400 U.S. white-collar, adult
workers, nearly half of the respondents said they think their use
of emails for work will increase in coming years. Nineteen percent
said it will go up substantially.
More than 90 percent of the workers admitted they checked personal
emails at work and 87 percent looked at business emails outside of
working hours.
"Email is and will remain a cornerstone of the workplace culture,"
said Kristin Naragon, of computer software company Adobe Systems
Inc, which commissioned the poll.
"Certainly, lots of companies are trying to break into that space
with productivity tools, but email is not going anywhere," she
added in an interview.
The workers questioned in the poll estimated they spend 6.3 hours
a day checking emails, with 3.2 hours devoted to work emails and
3.1 hours to personal messages.
Naragon said Americans are so concerned about keeping in touch they
monitor emails around the clock, in socially unacceptable settings
and during potentially dangerous times.
Nearly 80 percent said they look at emails before going into the
office and 30 percent said they checked their inbox while still
in bed in the morning. Half of the respondents also monitored
emails during their vacations.
The numbers were even higher for 18-34 year olds, with 45 percent
opening emails upon waking up. More than a quarter of millennials
also admitted checking emails while driving.
"Millennials are so addicted to emails that half can't even use
the bathroom without checking their email," said Naragon.
But she added that people are aware of their addiction and have
tried to regain a better life balance. Forty percent said they had
tried a self-imposed email detox, of which 87 percent lasted an
average of five days.
When asked about the most annoying thing about emails, 28 percent
said it was scrolling down too far to read the entire message.
Nearly 40 percent of workers also said they would prefer to get
fewer emails.
Start Me Up! Microsoft's Breakthrough OS Windows 95 Turns 20
Exactly twenty years ago Monday, Microsoft launched a new version
of its desktop operating system that would end up in the hands of
millions as PCs dominated Macs and other, lesser brands in the
late '90s. It was, of course, Windows 95.
It was a sort of golden age of PC buying: HP, Dell and Gateway
were living high on the hog as everyone scrambled to get the most
megahertz (no gigahertz in those days) in their processors, and
wars were being fought over any number of standards, from discs
to hard drives to interfaces.
The long-delayed Windows 95 borrowed features from competitors to
make computers easy to work and play on though occasionally
you'd have to drop into the DOS command line and type out
commands manually.
Perhaps the most important addition was the now-iconic Start
button, which put your applications, recent documents and
important settings all in one place. That Start button has been
in every version of the OS ever since except for a brief
absence in Windows 8, about which users complained so much that
the feature was restored in the just-released Windows 10.
Windows 95 also introduced the Microsoft Network, a rival to AOL
that introduced many people to email and the Web. Networking,
multiple users and multitasking were also new and improved in
the OS. Win 95 dominated the market, driving out rivals like OS/2
and Apple, though the latter would return in force with OS X a
few years later.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is televised on a big screen as he
introduces Windows 95 during the inaugural presentation of
Microsoft's new operating system at the firm's Redmond, Washington
campus on August 24, 1995. The presentation, which included
demonstrations of the software and a carnival, was attended by 500
journalists, 2000 guests, and 9000 Microsoft employees.
You may remember being bombarded with advertisements at the time,
or perhaps even seeing the Empire State Building lit up in Windows
red, green, blue and yellow Microsoft famously spent hundreds of
millions promoting the OS.
And the soundtrack to it all was, of course, the Rolling Stones'
"Start Me Up," which Microsoft paid handsomely to license. If you
want to relive those days well, you'll have a bit of trouble
finding a computer that will run Windows 95 you can listen to the
Stones song: Microsoft has made it a free download for the rest of
the day.
=~=~=~=
Atari Online News, Etc. is a weekly publication covering the entire
Atari community. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted
at the beginning of any article, to Atari user groups and not for
profit publications only under the following terms: articles must
remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of
each article reprinted. Other reprints granted upon approval of
request. Send requests to: dpj@atarinews.org
No issue of Atari Online News, Etc. may be included on any commercial
media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial online service or
internet site, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without
the expressed consent or permission from the Publisher or Editor of
Atari Online News, Etc.
Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do
not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All
material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.
