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higherpurpose

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Can we please stop using MPEG-LA technologies on the web?! This nonsense will never end otherwise. At best you buy a few years with some new technology while they pretend to not charge you so everyone adopts the technology. And then they come knocking.

The only way to end this cycle is to stop using their technologies. Full stop.

Honestly, the whole account "integration" just pisses me off. I want my Gmail account to be separated from my Youtube account and from the Maps account.

The main reason (by far) Google unified them is so they they can more easily track everyone across multiple properties.

How are the crypto libraries in the "new" Java versions? I've heard pretty bad stuff about the default security configurations in Java.

Which is funny because the reason Qualcomm screwed up recently (besides all the anti-competitive/antitrust issues) is because it didn't come out with its own next-generation custom CPU core sooner, and had to use stock ARM IP which I guess it didn't have much experience in handling.

The shareholders' "solution" is what will destroy the company. Qualcomm would've been fine in the next 2 quarters, once it passed the Snapdragon 810 generation.

I don't know why they freaked out so badly after just one bad quarter (and after Qualcomm has constantly grown for the past 5 years) to the point where they want to split the company. That seems rather crazy. I wonder if there's something else besides next-quarter-profit thinking behind this motivation.

Indeed, and I remember the vast majority of the people getting super excited at the possibility of "getting an OTA update that can improve your acceleration by 0.1s" - without realizing what exactly that means in terms of security. In particular, that others could also control your engine and car the same way through updates.

The car manufacturers who do OTA updates for their cars are sitting on time-bombs. The clock is ticking for them until people get killed this way (regardless of them using HTTPS or signed updates - which some manufacturers don't even use now).

So you're okay with spy agencies (from all over the world) as well as drug cartels and other criminal organizations having the power to kill you in an almost untraceable way while you're on the highway?

Also, the US gov has been using these entertainment systems to spy on people for more than a decade...it's already been happening. Unfortunately, I can't find the link now, but it was a post from 2001 or 2003 on NYT and I think they were using Ford Sync to do it.

The recall doesn’t actually require Chrysler owners to bring their cars, trucks and SUVs to a dealer. Instead, they’ll be sent a USB drive with a software update they can install through the port on their vehicle’s dashboard.

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/jeep-hack-chrysler-recalls-1-4m...

Chrysler says it’s also taken steps to block the digital attack Miller and Valasek demonstrated with “network-level security measures”—presumably security tools that detect and block the attack on Sprint’s network, the cellular carrier that connect Chrysler’s vehicles to the Internet.

Oh great, they'll install an antivirus and think they've fixed the problem.

You don't have to charge $1,000 for a DMCA to ensure it's only used for "serious" violations. You could at least punish the "wrong" DMCA with a $10,000 fee. It won't be quite as effective, but it wouldn't affect starting artists and it would still be orders of magnitude more effective than the current system in weeding out the bad DMCAs.

The problem is that if health-destroying "performance enhancers" start to be seen as "acceptable" in sports, most performers will feel obligated to take them if they want to continue their careers, even if they'd normally wouldn't want to do that.

It's kind of how if everyone is allowed to cheat to pass an exam, the ones that don't want to cheat (even if the exam is so hard that they could fail) would be seen as fools (and arguably would be fools for taking the chance to lose the exam by not cheating).

Speaking of which - any recent updates on Daala? How is it coming along? Is it already better than HEVC? Close enough?

Also it should've been obvious that this would happen with HEVC. Typical bait and switch strategy. Make it so they depend on you, then raise prices. That's why everyone in the industry should've been more bullish on open source standards.

Or like the piracy alert system in the US, which the White House "only mediated" and the ISPs' "volunteered".

I type some query in the Cortana search bar and press Enter, it launches Edge extremely fast.

Probably something to do with the fact that Edge/Cortana is already loaded at Windows start? So in a way it's a "trick" to starter "faster".