mrseb

Hi. Do you have any more info on that? A screenshot maybe? And ideally the URL that's being called. Will help us find the bad ad (if there is indeed one).

We've updated the story - did some more investigation. Definitely looks like it was Telecity.

Yeah, I don't think we have such a public statement at the moment - and maybe that's something we should rectify. All I can tell you is that native content/advertorial would be very, very clearly labelled. We would never try to sneak anything through.

In general, Ars is _very_ above board. Our reputation and authority are everything. That's why we're one of the very few publications that doesn't do native advertising - we're just not sure how you can do that, and still somehow expect the reader to trust what you write.

But yeah, I appreciate that just saying "trust us!" is a bit difficult on the Internet today :)

Heya. I'm the editor of Ars Technica UK, where this story was originally published.

It's not native advertising. The author just really likes the 911. Ars doesn't do native advertising/advertorial. We do some sponsored stuff, but those posts are clearly marked.

Author here. I was being ironic :)

I'm an equal-opportunities OS user. I have two Linux boxes (Slackware!), two Windows boxes, and an OS X laptop within arm's reach of my desk. I was just poking fun at the Year of Desktop Linux thing -- it's a bit of a meme/running joke in tech blogger circles.

Ditto. The OP probably just visits Wikipedia a lot, so Google is bumping it up to the top.

It's a bit of a leap to go from 'Zynga must tell Facebook about any games it's about to launch' to 'FACEBOOK CAN VETO ZYNGA GAMES OMG!'

Facebook probably just wants a little warning so that it can get its software and hardware resources into position.

Yea, I actually played with that sentence a few times. I thought about making it clear that Firefox and Thunderbird weren't called Firefox and Thunderbird when they were part of Mozilla Suite... but the codebases are the same, I think. Sometimes you have to know where to draw the line, to keep things clear :)

Yep, very good point. Inserted a paragraph about it on page five ("Firefox 1.0") - thanks :)

Aza Raskin has written about the Home button before: http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/the-problem-with-home/

And other iPhone buttons, too: http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/in_my_recent_article_about/

I'm blushing :)

Yes, I actually got to the last paragraph and realized that I could then dive into Google Fiber and Chrome OS... but I had to wrap it up!

There's definitely more to say about Google and/or Facebook taking of the web, though, that's for sure.

re: 6 -- there were very few performance tweaks in FF6. Mostly CSS3 and HTML5 additions. FF7 is the 'performance' build (Azure, first round of start-up, smaller memory footprint). FF8 seems to have some performance bits -- and presumably it will have some feature additions, too (but I need to investigate).

Can echo that Nightly (8) is very stable on Windows, too.

I thought about throwing 'silver' in before the 'surfer', but now I'm glad I didn't.

Thanks, I'll put that into the story.

I agree -- I wasn't suggesting that the efficiency would go over readers' heads. I was generalizing :)

I will add the efficiency of the technology to the story now.

Hi, author here.

I agree, there is a lot more that tech blogs could do to help the reader. The problem is, that kind of extra detail isn't really possible without specializing -- and if you specialize, you limit the size of your audience.

The other problem is writing the stories: it would be awesome to have a writer for every kind of topic, so that every story can be tackled with complete background knowledge... but that's just not feasible. Instead, most tech blogs have writers with 'beats' that they cover -- but even then, if the 'green technologies' writer is out for the day, someone else has to tackle it.

So for the most part, we tech bloggers just try to get a good grasp of the technology, and then boil it down into a form that's easy to read and understand. The resultant story quality is variable and depends a lot on how much time and effort you put into it, and your background knowledge -- but I like to think I do a fairly good job :)

Direct link to the NASA gallery: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/e27depa... (delicious 6000*4000 photographs)

AFAIK, Apple relaxed the restriction on cross-compiled code (Flash-to-iOS) last year.

This isn't a dynamic interpreter is it? The Android Java code is compiled, and then inserted into an iOS Dalvik wrapper app.

I am not an Apple or Android developer tho', so perhaps I have misunderstood the question.

re: your first point -- I looked into the MBP tear-down on iFixit when I wrote this post. They identify a chip that is 'probably the Thunderbolt controller' -- but yes, I don't think they identified if there was a separate DisplayPort controller, or whether it's built into the Thunderbolt controller.

I am sure that there are many technologies that are inherently better than USB -- but it's not always the better technology that wins. (VHS vs. Betmax...)

Don't generalize, by the way - if details are false or irrelevant, please mention them so that they can be rectified.

No, true enough.

It would be cool if Intel spoke out about the actual cost of Light Peak -- I mean, _can_ it be as cheap as USB 3.0, or is it inherently an expensive technology?

FireWire controllers, for example, are still many times more expensive than the USB equivalent.

I suspect Intel is a bit torn between USB 3.0 and Light Peak integration. Light Peak would be very expensive to integrate into every motherboard they ship -- but yes, Light Peak definitely has a stronger chance of taking off because of the Intel link.

Don't forget, Intel is due to integrate USB 3.0 at some point, too...

Don't forget, Sony was the other large proponent of FireWire. They have a big vested interest with their video gear, I guess.

Could the USB-IF actually block a fiber-and-wire USB-socket-compatible implementation?

That figure is from an OEM. I was just shying away from the (magnificently over-used) phrase 'according to unnamed sources familiar with the situation...'

Also, look at the Matrox pricing! (Or the prices of any other Thunderbolt-enabled devices that are coming to market -- if you can find them; there are not many yet...)

It should be comparable. It's hard to say, without putting two machines side by side and seeing which one boots fastest/lasts the longest :)

If the hardware is the same, though, performance should be the same.

As a British tech blogger who writes on American tech sites, I've spent a lot of time arguing this particular subject with editors, copy editors, and proof readers.

Grammar should help the reader, not hinder. Logical/readable grammar all the way.

All things considered, I'm not sure whether an SSD is really necessary for an OS that runs Web apps. Nice, for sure, but...

I wonder if there's a significant difference between HDD and SSD boot and return-from-hibernate times.

No, your English isn't failing you; you're correct! It doesn't explain that he has since left Last.fm.

Author here.

I've put 'co-founder' back into the post's title -- sorry about the ambiguity.