When you make up your own crypto, it's only secure against people stupider than you, and there are lots of people smarter than the designers of the Open Smart Grid Protocol, who rolled their own (terrible) crypto rather than availing themselves of the numerous, excellent, free public cryptographic protocols.
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Love them or loathe them, the Beat Generation helped define the literature and poetics of an era. Their countercultural explorations pushed the boundaries of polite society from the mid-1940s through the mid-1960s.
Android has no shortage of browsers to choose from, and while they've all got something to make them unique there are a few things they all do the same.
Mobile browsing is a mixed bag. You get some sites that offer a mobile version with no way to get to the real homepage, desktop-focused sites that hide features behind pop-ups that break the mobile experience, ads everywhere, and no real way to know what you're going to get until you go tot he website on your phone. This is before you take into account the way your browser is going to behave when faced with different web technologies and languages, which is its own unique experience.
Google has made it clear that there needs to be a focus on mobile experiences moving forward, but there are still some basic things the browser needs to do in order to make the experience manageable. With that in mind, we've assembled a quick list of simple things you can do to keep yourself sane while browsing on your mobile device.
In an effort to make piracy less visible, copyright holders send dozens of millions of takedown notices to Google every month.
Unfortunately not all of these requests are as accurate as they should be.
Due to the high number of often automated notices and the fact that copyright holders don’t check the validity of all requests, there are many questionable takedowns.
This week BBC Worldwide reported a record number of infringing links to Google, targeting more than 25,000 webpages. We decided to go through the links and it wasn’t hard to find several URLs that are clearly not infringing.
For example, one of the notices targets the IMDb pages of Top Gear, The Game and Top Fails.
The Internet Movie Database is one of the prime sources for movie and TV fans to get information and doesn’t host or link to infringing content, so taking these pages offline only hurts the BBC.
Perhaps even more worrying is that the same notice also lists the British home of the video site Dailymotion as “infringing.” While this page may have linked to unauthorized material in the past, it’s certainly doesn’t warrant the removal of the entire homepage.
Unfortunately this notice is not an isolated incident. In recent years we’ve highlighted countless examples of takedown requests that censor legitimate content, often hurting traffic for the affected sites.
The good news is that Google appears to have white-listed several domains, including the IMDb and Dailymotion. This means that while the links reported by the BBC were not removed, less prominent sites may not be so lucky.
As mentioned previously the DMCA notice surge is a growing problem, with Google now removing more than a million links each day on average. Since Google and other websites can’t possibly verify every DMCA claim, the problem is only expected to increase.
Few of us have the time or energy to declutter our entire home in one go, but in 30 minutes or less every day over a month and a half? It just might be possible. This plan can help.
Stephanie of the Keeper of the Home blog offers a 40-day challenge for whole-house decluttering. In her free PDF, she offers practical advice for cleaning out your home and suggests an area for decluttering each day—from your kitchen utensils drawer to your closets.
The goal: find at least 10 items to donate, toss out, or save for a garage sale from each area. Clutter is such a mental and physical drain. Imagine how much lighter and better you’d feel with 400 or so items cleared out.
This is sort of like The FlyLady’s hand-holding/coaching for getting your house in order, but in easy checklist form.
Ramsey Orta was hounded, framed, beaten and jailed by cops who also beat his disabled mother -- and he's not the only citizen journalist who faced reprisals for recording the NYPD's public execution of Eric Garner.
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Professors Martin Gilens (Princeton University) and Benjamin I. Page (Northwestern University) looked at more than 20 years worth of data to answer a simple question: Does the government represent the people?
Their study took data from nearly 2000 public opinion surveys and compared it to the policies that ended up becoming law. In other words, they compared what the public wanted to what the government actually did. What they found was extremely unsettling: The opinions of 90% of Americans has essentially no impact at all.
Android users may soon be able to ride herd on their apps with fine-grained permission controls, Bloomberg sources say. If so, it's about time.
According to "people familiar with the matter,” Google will let people cherry-pick the data that mobile apps can jack into. In other words, those smartphone and tablet users could stop an app from gleaning contacts and location, but let it pull from, say, their photos.
Google won’t confirm or deny the rumor, but it would make plenty of sense. Currently, when an app asks for access to different types of data, usually when you first install it, your only option is to allow them all or to punt on installation altogether.
Android 4.3 offered a brief glimmer of hope, thanks to a hidden feature known as App Ops that offered more user control over permissions. It looked like a step in the right direction—up until Google shut it down.
Greater user control has been a key reason for some people to consider alternatives like CyanogenMod, which makes an App Ops-like setting standard in its version of Android. Privacy concerns also fuel companies like security-centric Blackphone, which has also modified Android to give users more fine-grained controls. Now it appears Google may have taken up its App Ops tool once more.
The timing may help substantiate the rumor. Google I/O, the company’s annual developer conference, takes place later this month. The agenda covers a large array of technologies—including Android for Work and some sort of new moonshot wearable, not to mention an early look at the next evolution of Android, among other things.
With the growing number of users, data and gadgets on Google’s plate, the company likely saw no choice but to ditch its wholesale approach to permissions now. People using Android devices at work or wearing them on their bodies wouldn’t want apps pilfering extra information just to install a photo or game app.
Consider it part of Google’s push for tighter security in Android. Whatever the company’s reasoning, it’s long overdue.
"This will be my last one,” he told Australian talkshow host Dr. Oz. “It just felt like it was the right time to do it. And let’s be honest, 17 years! I never thought in a million years it would last, so I’m so grateful to the fans for the opportunity of playing it. I kind of have in my head what we’re going to do in this last one. It just feels like this is the perfect way to go out."
Nothing is yet known about the new Wolverine’s plot, though director James Mangold and Jackman have been swapping ideas and Michael Green has been converting them to screenplay form.
All involved will want to make sure this is a solid swansong for the actor’s unprecedented stint as James "Logan" Howlett. He made his debut in 2000 in X-Men, and continued through X2, The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, First Class (in a striking cameo), The Wolverine, and Days Of Future Past. It's currently unclear (possibly being kept top secret) if he's part of the currently shooting X-Men: Apocalypse, which is out on May 19, 2016. The as-yet-untitled third solo Wolverine currently has a release date of March 2, 2017.
The question this raises, of course, is how the X-universe will fare without Jackman. Will Logan be put out to grass or re-cast as quickly as possible. The fanboy campaigns for a shorter and hairier replacement begin now...
The first season hasn’t even made it to these shores yet, but US network ABC has just announced that it will bring Marvel’s Agent Carter back for a second season.
Agent Carter, which stars Hayley Atwell in her familiar role as Peggy Carter from Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and (SPOILER WARNING) a cameo in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, will return for more tales from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s early days.
Nothing is yet known about the plot for the second season, though the final episode of the first – Bigger Spoiler Alert here – saw a brief appearance from Toby Jones’ slimy scientist Dr. Arnim Zola. Also unannounced? How many episodes will form the second run, though it’s logical to assume that it will again offer eight, filling the slot between the halves of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., which itself will be back for a third season.
In related American telly news, The Muppets – another arm of the Disney family – will make their return to the small screen with a show that promises to take a look at their lives and relationships. Not, perhaps, an angle we’d thought anyone would choose to explore, but we’ll wait and see how it turns out.
Everyone has something they want to do with their life in the future. Not everyone has specific, practical goals to get there. When you’re planning out your future, ask yourself if these are really goals, or just fantasies.
As business blog Entrepreneur points out, focusing too much on lofty dreams without a practical plan more often leads to disappointment than success. While we’re constantly bombarded with messages to reach for the stars, the fact is that unless you have a plan to get a job with SpaceX, the stars are just a fantasy:
Visualizing goals is perfectly fine, but excessively fantasizing is a grave mistake. Instead of setting “goals” around lofty outcomes, work on tangible, actionable things that can affect the here and the now.
That doesn’t mean you can’t be ambitious. Plenty of people have done incredible things because they set goals that sounded fantastic. However, far more people have wished to do something with no plan and got frustrated when they never accomplished it.
If you want to play classic ports or new PC games on your phone or tablet, then April was definitely your month. Between the blockbuster adventure game Broken Age and classics like Ys, there's a lot of non-mobile goodness to go around. But don't worry: there are a few original games to investigate as well, notably Implosion and the third entry in the Sorcery series. Here in no particular order are our top picks, along with some honorable mentions.
April was a bit sparse when it comes to new apps - there aren't any real standouts, though Facebook certainly made a splash with its self-branded phone dialer. The rest of the best picks from last month are mostly advanced tools for power users, or in the case of the impressive edjing, experienced music producers. Here in no particular order are our picks for the best of the lot, plus a few honorable mentions that might have broader appeal.
Last month, it was revealed that Germany's electronic surveillance agency, the BND, spent years spying for the NSA, snagging communications on European politicians and defense contractors. The revelation has caused a scandal in Germany, and Reutersreports that the BND has now stopped sharing the sensitive information.
According to Reuters, the decision was made after "a row" within the German government, and the BND is demanding detailed explanations before handing over information, which the US agency has reportedly declined to provide. (Those rules were already in place for phone and fax information, and that information will continue to be passed along.)
"Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10." That was the message from Microsoft employee Jerry Nixon, a developer evangelist speaking at the company's Ignite conference this week. Nixon was explaining how Microsoft was launching Windows 8.1 last year, but in the background it was developing Windows 10. Now, Microsoft employees can talk freely about future updates to Windows 10 because there's no secret update in the works coming next. It's all just Windows 10. While it immediately sounds like Microsoft is killing off Windows and not doing future versions, the reality is a little more complex. The future is "Windows as a service."
Greasemonky (Chrome/Firefox/Opera/Safari/Android): The Windows download world is in a sad state. Tons of download sites, including popular ones like Sourceforge and Adobe, bundle extra crapware with their installers. AntiAdware is a simple script that blocks these, so you don’t have to worry about getting tricked.
AntiAdware is a greasemonkey script, so you’ll need Greasemonkey for Firefox or Tampermonkey for Chrome to install it (you can install it manually in Chrome as well, but it won’t receive updates). AntiAdware blocks adware on nearly 40 sites, including Sourceforge, Softonic, Adobe.com, CNET, and a number of file hosting services like Filefactory.
Note that AntiAdware won’t block crapware that’s normally built into a given app’s installer, but it will block crapware that download sites add. For example, it’ll remove the McAffee checkbox on Adobe.com, or make the main download button on Sourceforge link to the plain installer (rather than the SourceForge installer). In most cases, you can easily avoid these things on your own, but if you’re particularly click-happy, you might miss them. It’s also great for installing on a tech-unsavvy friend or relative’s computer.
Hit the link below to read more and download the script.
There's a new dialer app on the way for Cyanogen OS users, thanks to a partnership with Truecaller.
Smartphones have, for the most part, taken our ability to communicate and improved it dramatically. There are more ways to reach out to the rest of the world than ever before, and whether you're into text only, face to face video, or good old fashioned audio calls you can reach out with relatively little effort. There's one small piece of voice communication that has taken a backseat in this new generation of communication, due largely to carrier efforts to monetize the technology and users deciding they could live without it. Caller ID as a service has changed quite a bit from the days of the little LCD display next to your home phone, and the folks at Cyanogen have decided to work with one of the more impressive companies keeping this service alive today to implement an integrated solution in their next dialer app.
When Marissa Mayer became Yahoo’s CEO in 2012, she was greeted with a viral internet campaign from one of the company’s most loved — and neglected — properties. "Dear Marissa Mayer," began the website created by entrepreneur Sean Bonner. "Please make Flickr awesome again!" The path-breaking photo-sharing site, which doubled as a forerunner for modern social networks, had fallen into disrepair. But within a few months, Mayer responded with a redesigned mobile app, some powerful new editing features, and a truly generous offer: a full terabyte of free storage.
The moves succeeded in introducing Flickr to a new generation of users. From late 2010 to today, the service has grown from 5 billion photos to 11 billion photos. But along the way,...
A federal court has made a limited ruling against the NSA's mass collection of phone records. In a filing posted today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals writes that the phone records program "exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized," overturning a decision from 2013.
The American Civil Liberties Union brought its case against Director of National Intelligence James Clapper after Edward Snowden revealed that a government surveillance program was collecting metadata — including time stamps, phone numbers, and durations of calls — for millions of phone numbers. The NSA justified the program under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the government to collect "tangible things" relevant to a national security...
That's the guiding mantra / rallying cry / marketing pitch for Marvel's Cinematic Universe. Every film exists in the same continuity, pushing along a large meta-narrative one two-hour (or so) chapter at a time. The continuity, of course, is only skin deep. A tragic death of a fan favorite in the first Avengers is quickly reversed for the television show, with some weirdly hokey justification. Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark comes to a beautifully acted emotional revelation at the end of every film, only to inexplicably backtrack before the next big stage show.
But there is one driving force that unifies all the robot-alien-hero fighting, and it's the infinity stones — six rocks of inexplicable power that combine to...
Amazon continues to support its poorly received Fire Phone with a new over-the-air update that brings its Android version up to KitKat, along with a ton of new features.
The new version number for the Fire OS after this version is installed is 4.6.1.
How did it feel getting cut off by Twitter with just 2 hours notice? “It sucked” says Meerkat founder Ben Rubin. That’s why it’s determined to treat developers with more respect. In the nine weeks since Meerkat launched, 37 developers have built companion experiences to the livestreaming apps on its unofficial, private API, including stream discovery, automatic uploads… Read More
In an effort to make piracy less visible, copyright holders send dozens of millions of takedown notices to Google every month.
Have you ever felt like the government doesn’t really care what you think?
The age of marketed versioning is over. Off the top of your head, do you even know what version of Chrome or Firefox you're using?
If you want to play classic ports or new PC games on your phone or tablet, then April was definitely your month. Between the blockbuster adventure game Broken Age and classics like Ys, there's a lot of non-mobile goodness to go around. But don't worry: there are a few original games to investigate as well, notably Implosion and the third entry in the Sorcery series. Here in no particular order are our top picks, along with some honorable mentions.
April was a bit sparse when it comes to new apps - there aren't any real standouts, though Facebook certainly made a splash with its self-branded phone dialer. The rest of the best picks from last month are mostly advanced tools for power users, or in the case of the impressive edjing, experienced music producers. Here in no particular order are our picks for the best of the lot, plus a few honorable mentions that might have broader appeal.
How did it feel getting cut off by Twitter with just 2 hours notice? “It sucked” says Meerkat founder Ben Rubin. That’s why it’s determined to treat developers with more respect. In the nine weeks since Meerkat launched, 37 developers have built companion experiences to the livestreaming apps on its unofficial, private API, including stream discovery, automatic uploads… Read More
