Weekend tech reading: Satya Nadella on MS' future, new CISPA-like bill, DA: Inquision gameplay video

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Bold ambition & our core As we start FY15, I want to thank you for all of your contributions this past year. I'm proud of what we collectively achieved even as we drove significant changes in our business and organization. It's energizing to feel the momentum and enthusiasm building. The day I took on my new role I said that our industry does not respect tradition – it only respects innovation. I also said that in order to accelerate our innovation, we must rediscover our soul -- our unique core. We must all understand and embrace what only Microsoft can contribute to the world and how we can once again change the world. Satya Nadella

Congress is about to vote on a terrible new cybersecurity bill There's a new cybersecurity bill making its way through Congress, sponsored and written by Diane Feinstein (D-CA), and critics are already calling it a new backdoor for surveillance by the National Security Agency. The Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing Act of 2014 (CISA) was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday, putting it on track for a Senate vote this summer. But like its controversial predecessors, the bill is coming under fire as a step backwards in the fight for surveillance reform. The Verge

Exclusive: Upcoming games to support Mantle Today we bring you an update to our March post with Mantle-supported games. As you can see the list has grown, and we have some very cool games coming. The list is divided into 3 groups: games that are released, unreleased, and games that are not yet confirmed to support Mantle, however developers have signed for private AMD beta program. Games in beta program may or may not support Mantle, but these games will be Gaming Evolved titles for sure. Videocardz

Alcatel-Lucent sets new world record broadband speed of 10 Gbps for transmission of data over traditional copper telephone lines Bell Labs, the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent, has set a new broadband speed record of 10 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) using traditional copper telephone lines and a prototype technology that demonstrates how existing copper access networks can be used to deliver 1Gbps symmetrical ultra-broadband access services. Alcatel-Lucent

Unbundling innovation: Samsung, PCs and China It seems pretty clear now that the Android OEM world is starting to play out pretty much like the PC world. The industry has become unbundled vertically between components, devices, operating system and application software & services. The components are commoditised and OEMs cannot differentiate on software, so they are entering a race to the bottom of cheaper and cheaper and more and more commoditised products, much like the PC industry. Benadict Evans

Judge orders unmasking of Amazon.com "negative" reviewers A federal judge has granted a nutritional supplement firm's request to help it learn the identities of those who allegedly left "phony negative" reviews of its products on Amazon.com. The decision means that Ubervita may issue subpoena's to Amazon.com and Cragslist to cough up the identities of those behind a "campaign of dirty tricks against Ubervita in a wrongful effort to put Ubervita at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace". Ars Technica

Dragon Age: Inquisition gameplay series -- E3 demo part one: The Hinterlands Join creative director Mike Laidlaw as he walks you through part one of the award winning Dragon Age: Inquisition E3 gameplay demo. In part one, explore the largest Dragon Age world ever created and lead your followers in a battle against a High Dragon. Dragon Age: Inquisition releases on October 7, 2014.

"Nano-pixels" hold huge potential for flexible, low-power, high-res screens The Retina displays featured on Apple's iPhone 4 and 5 models pack a pixel density of 326 ppi, with individual pixels measuring 78 micrometers. That might seem plenty good enough given the average human eye is unable to differentiate between the individual pixels, but scientists in the UK have now developed technology that could lead to extremely high-resolution displays that put such pixel densities to shame. Gizmag

Waiting for dark Amir Taaki and Cody Wilson are cruising north through Texas on Interstate 35 in the 4:30 am predawn darkness. One of the headlights on the aging BMW Wilson's driving is burned out, and he's wearing sunglasses. "They're prescription," he says drily. It's May Day, every anarchist's favorite holiday, and the two 26-year-olds have marked the occasion by releasing a piece of software that represents their best attempt so far to undermine every government in the world. Wired

Crooks seek revival of 'Gameover Zeus' botnet Cybercrooks today began taking steps to resurrect the Gameover ZeuS botnet, a complex crime machine that has been blamed for the theft more than $100 million from banks, businesses and consumers worldwide. The revival attempt comes roughly five weeks after the FBI joined several nations, researchers and security firms in a global and thus far successful effort to eradicate it. Krebs on Security

Hulu to stream 'South Park' as more players jostle for online rights While the media moguls in Sun Valley, Idaho, jockeyed for parking spaces for their jets and hunted for safe havens in a consolidating content world, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the boy-men behind "South Park," were in Los Angeles, proving again that if you make content people love -- it's harder than it looks -- it doesn’t matter how many paradigms shift. The NY Times

The thought experiment I was about 15 minutes late for my first phone call with Jan Scheuermann. When I tried to apologize for keeping her waiting, she stopped me. "I wasn't just sitting around waiting for you, you know," she said, before catching herself. "Well, actually I was sitting around." Scheuermann, who is 54, has been paralyzed for 14 years. Technology Review

Firefox web browser popularity wanes When you take a look at Net Applications' web desktop browser market share reports over the long run two things stand out. One, there's the rise of Google's Chrome to second place, and two,Mozilla's Firefox's steep decline. How bad is Firefox's fall? In June 2014, Firefox hit a new five-year low of 15.6 percent market share. ZDNet

Finnish national broadcaster will transmit blockchain over terrestrial digital TV network The Finnish national broadcaster has partnered with Kryptoradio to broadcast the Bitcoin blockchain over the digital television network making it accessible over a non-Internet channel to 95% of the Finnish population. Boing Boing

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https://www.techspot.com/news/57393-weekend-tech-reading-satya-nadella-on-ms-future-new-cispa-like-bill-da-inquision-gameplay-video.html

 

[robb213]

It boggles my mind how people like Feinstein and the vast majority of the legislative branch continue to get reelected when they show literally time after time they give no ****s about their constituents.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Bold Ambition & Our Core - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/ceo/index.html

Our passion is to enable people to thrive in this mobile-first and cloud-first world.

They lost me right there. As much as I would like to say the cloud is not where we are headed, I would be a fool to say it. And with that said; that is not where I think we should go, but that is where the industry and government wants to take us. Everyone could have their own personal cloud, that power/process for all their handheld devices. But then how would that help the industry/government monitor us.

There definition of cloud is too public for me. There is nothing personal about the cloud and never will be. There is nothing secure about the cloud and you would be a fool to think otherwise. I'm not going to risk loosing access to my files because some service was frozen or worse, permanently shut down.

On another note the Cloud is about like Taxi services. Cloud will only be found usable in high populated areas. In low populated areas, the Could will be less accessible in public and people will opt not to use it were they do have access. We lack a bridge between PC's and cellular service, or widespread wireless hotspots for accessing the cloud. Besides the Internet infrastructure is not strong enough to support the Cloud in everyone's home.

 

[wastedkill]

"Alcatel-Lucent sets new world record broadband speed of 10 Gbps for transmission of data over traditional copper telephone lines"

So Fiber Optic cables now mean.. what exactly?

 

[cliffordcooley]

@wastedkill, thats an interesting question.

And it also raises the question of when everyone will see these speeds as an option on their current land-line connections. As it is the downside to Fiber Optic is availability, where nearly everyone currently has a land-line available to them.

Edit:
Doesn't this have a short range which also requires fiber optics as the main backbone. Therefore reducing the cost in connection/maintenance for fiber system deployment.

 

[captaincranky]

Judge orders unmasking of Amazon.com "negative" reviewersA federal judge has granted a nutritional supplement firm's request to help it learn the identities of those who allegedly left "phony negative" reviews of its products on Amazon.com. The decision means that Ubervita may issue subpoena's to Amazon.com and Cragslist to cough up the identities of those behind a "campaign of dirty tricks against Ubervita in a wrongful effort to put Ubervita at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace". Ars Technica

When you come right down to it the nutritional supplement industry is pretty much a "dirty trick", in and of itself.

They're constantly making claims of medicinal properties for dietary supplements, while completely avoiding having to support those claims by claiming immunity from the FDA, because then, they start claiming their products are, "foods" again.

So, "medicines" when you're advertising these products, which then revert to being "foods", when the government calls you to task on those claims. Pretty sweet racket, is it not?

"Ubervita"....really? It sounds like their advertising director wastes a hour of company time every day, sitting on the can, reading this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche After all, you can't have the "uberman", if you don't give your kids, "uber-vitamins"

 

[cliffordcooley]

Judge orders unmasking of Amazon.com "negative" reviewers A federal judge has granted a nutritional supplement firm's request to help it learn the identities of those who allegedly left "phony negative" reviews of its products on Amazon.com.

I don't have a problem with that. Anyone making a negative (or positive for that matter) review should have balls of steel and stand behind what they said. Or face consequences of a crime, as punishable as false advertising.

 

[Nima304]

"Alcatel-Lucent sets new world record broadband speed of 10 Gbps for transmission of data over traditional copper telephone lines"

So Fiber Optic cables now mean.. what exactly?

Fiber optic cables have a far longer range than traditional copper media. Essentially, you can transmit signals over fiber over a longer distance before that signal needs to be amplified.

 

[Nima304]

Judge orders unmasking of Amazon.com "negative" reviewers A federal judge has granted a nutritional supplement firm's request to help it learn the identities of those who allegedly left "phony negative" reviews of its products on Amazon.com.

I don't have a problem with that. Anyone making a negative (or positive for that matter) review should have balls of steel and stand behind what they said. Or face consequences of a crime, as punishable as false advertising.

As long as someone is verified to have owned the product, I don't care if they choose to leave a review anonymously. My issue is with people who've never bought something leaving BS reviews about it.

 

[cliffordcooley]

@Nima304, that is a good point!

 

[Per Hansson]

"Alcatel-Lucent sets new world record broadband speed of 10 Gbps for transmission of data over traditional copper telephone lines"

So Fiber Optic cables now mean.. what exactly?

Yea right, it requires bonding, meaning two copper pairs. Maximum length is 30m and it was achieved in laboratory conditions. Good luck replicating that with your telcos 20 year old copper lines outside in the rain, with 20 other subscribers on the same telephone line!

Infact they can't even do 100m with a simple gigabit connection.
Normal CAT6a Ethernet can do 100m at 10Gbps over copper cables.
A single strand fiber can do 20km at 1Gbps, and that is duplex if sending & receiving on different wavelengths.
Cost for the sender and transmitter is less than $100

 

[cliffordcooley]

@Per Hansson, I'm glad someone can keep us straight with the facts.

 

[GhostRyder]

I don't have a problem with that. Anyone making a negative (or positive for that matter) review should have balls of steel and stand behind what they said. Or face consequences of a crime, as punishable as false advertising.

As long as someone is verified to have owned the product, I don't care if they choose to leave a review anonymously. My issue is with people who've never bought something leaving BS reviews about it.

I agree, its really ridiculous on newegg, amazon, or wherever when I read reviews about a product then I don't see verified owner or that the complaints are something that seem peculiar in an of itself. Its really pathetic when people write false reviews on a product they have never tried or based off an experience with a past product and they think that they can just hide behind that computer screen with no consequences.

There should be consequences to this, it can hurt companies products and detour a purchase.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Judge orders unmasking of Amazon.com "negative" reviewers A federal judge has granted a nutritional supplement firm's request to help it learn the identities of those who allegedly left "phony negative" reviews of its products on Amazon.com.

I don't have a problem with that. Anyone making a negative (or positive for that matter) review should have balls of steel and stand behind what they said. Or face consequences of a crime, as punishable as false advertising.

Plus if someone is leaving a bad review, it should be feedback, not really bashing the product (unless of course, the product is legit garbage or the reviewer is a you know what).

 

[ET3D]

Bold Ambition & Our Core - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/ceo/index.html

Our passion is to enable people to thrive in this mobile-first and cloud-first world.

They lost me right there. As much as I would like to say the cloud is not where we are headed, I would be a fool to say it.

Which is why Nadella's direction is the right one. He's not there to go against the grain, he's there to make Microsoft successful, and try to do that by making what people need. Making mobile and cloud more convenient and more secure is exactly what people need. It may not be the best thing for them, if you consider privacy, but it's what people do and they're unlikely to stop, so might as well make the best of it, for both Microsoft and its users.

That doesn't mean that I'm completely enthusiastic about this direction, but I certainly appreciate things he said, such as making Windows the most secure OS and universal Windows apps.

 

[cliffordcooley]

and try to do that by making what people need.

You lost me right there. Need! Do we absolutely need anything more than we already have? I think not! It is not the peoples desires that MS is following. Consumers are simply followers, they do not have leading capabilities.

 

[ET3D]

You lost me right there. Need! Do we absolutely need anything more than we already have? I think not! It is not the peoples desires that MS is following. Consumers are simply followers, they do not have leading capabilities.

Yes, we need more security in our current use, which is what Nadella says MS will try to offer. That's certainly something that we need. If MS can make things simpler to use, that's also something that's good.

As for the last part MS has proved time and again that it follows what people want. It's made decisions numerous times and went back after consumers didn't agree with them. Consumers certainly make their voice heard, either online or with their wallet. Consumers certainly show appreciation for form, functionality and price (usually not all of these at the same time).

 

[cliffordcooley]

Yes, we need more security in our current use, which is what Nadella says MS will try to offer. That's certainly something that we need. If MS can make things simpler to use, that's also something that's good.

As for the last part MS has proved time and again that it follows what people want.

That is laughable at little they listen and how long it is before they think they can change it again.

 

[ET3D]

That is laughable at little they listen and how long it is before they think they can change it again.

Show me one company which is listening more. Perhaps MS is making more mistakes than others, but they've gone back on quite a few decisions. Take as a recent example the unbundling of Kinect. That shows the power consumers have.