Bad news for the little browser that could: not only is Firefox no longer a "little browser" but it is increasingly having trouble competing. Back in 2009, Firefox was on the rise. But now, not only is Chrome eating its lunch but Firefox's user share is actually slipping.
Netmarketshare provides the data and
SJVN provides the analysis/funeral rites. He suggests:
For Firefox to remain a web browser power, it needs to make big improvements and it needs to make them now. Otherwise, Firefox may yet follow its predecessor Netscape into the web's past.
[ed. note: as a steadfast Opera user since 2000, this is all fascinating. Opera seems pegged-for-life at 3%]
Seems like 80% of the world's scientists are working diligently on designing the newest smart-watch or cellphone. Boring! This poll asks:
where should we be investing our time and energy? Understanding that to a degree, there is overlap in disciplines (better waste disposal could easily lead to progress in energy production, for example), where should we be investing our time and energy for maximum human impact?
This is a borda poll, so give "1" to your first preference and "6" to the field you prefer the least, etc., and we'll see which fields float to the top.
Good news from our friends over at
Soylent News! They have finished their incorporation as a
Public Benefit Corporation under the "SoylentNews PBC" name. While this structure is not a full
501(c) Non-Profit Organization, it does convey the founding idea of "we aren't just another company out to maximize profits and screw our users" while also being significantly easier to setup (no tax exemption issues to deal with.)
Pipedot and Soylent News both launched at nearly at the same time in reaction to Slashdot's obnoxious disregard of its user base. While each site has its own strengths, they both fill nearly the exact same roll as an alternative to Slashdot. Because I don't want to split our already rather small community and duplicate the same effort,
I'd suggest everyone reading Pipedot to look at Soylent News for daily news and discussion.
This
does not mean that I'm abandoning Pipedot or stopping the development of the
code rewrite project - I'm just giving notice to Pipedot readers that I'm focusing my efforts on development and not on posting a dozen news articles every day / excessively advertising for new users / recruiting new staff / etc... Of course, if you do want to help out, or submit a news article, or help spread the word - by all means, please do!
Pipecode continues to add features and functionality and will continue to progress for the foreseeable future. For example: users can now upload images, share news links, micro-blog their status and other nifty things well beyond what Slashdot ever offered. Our wonderful editor (zafiro17) has volunteered
his own website as a guinea pig for the upcoming syndication support. Soon, articles and comments will no longer be tied to a single host and flow in a larger "network" of servers.
Yes, everyone is angry that Facebook
manipulated 700,000 users' timelines to see if they could help researchers prove emotions are contagious. But John Foreman isn't just annoyed about it.
As a data scientist, he's thought deeply about where this is headed, and it's not good. He brings up the
Kuleshov Effect first described by a Russian scientist, that images matter less than the sequence in which they are stitched together. And he concludes:
In this particular study in PNAS, we can see that the promise of data modeling at Facebook is not to "let humans be more human." It's not to "free their minds."
All of that machine reasoning isn't trying to make us more human so much as it is trying to make us more sad and predictable. And just wait until deep learning applied to image recognition can recognize and stream my selfie at Krispie Kreme next to a tagged photo of me and my love handles at the beach. Data-driven inferiority complexes for all!
The promise of data modeling at Facebook is to place us in chains made from the juxtaposition of our own content. We'll be driven into pens made of a few profitable emotional states where marketing content waits for us like a cattle gun to the skull.
This is an interesting read. Not surprising, but disappointing nonetheless. Time to ditch Facebook and spend more time on Twitter? He's got thoughts about that too.
Ever wish you could be transported across town at 250 kilometers per hour via magnetic transport tech? Get your butt over to Tel Aviv, Israel, then.
According to the guys over at PanicaTech, Israel is getting ready to build the world's first ultra-modern transport system. From the article:
Company SkyTran, based at the National Research Center NASA Ames in California (USA), is going to create in Tel Aviv, the world's first high-speed rail transportation system-Maglev. Each "composition" will be designed for two people. At the moment, together with engineers from SkyTran NASA engaged in manufacturing the necessary elements, structures and capsules, which will then be sent to Israel for further installation of the transport network.
Initially, before the end of 2015 it is planned to construct a circular branch length of only about 400 meters. To test. If all goes well, then Tel Aviv will become the first city in the world, which will be installed full futuristic public transport system Maglev.
[Ed. note: yes, but can you drink a coffee at that speed?]
As of 2014 the Australian Government requires all tax payers using electronic tax return software to first register with the new myGov registry. myGov was introduced recently as a single signon for Australian government services.
Technical issues with myGov have prevented online tax lodgement using ATO software resulting in unhappy tax payers venting on social media.
myGov is the Department of Human Services system which was
recently demonstrated to have a security flaw which exposed private health and family information.
The New York Times has just published a blistering review of BuzzFeed. Yes, BuzzFeed is maddening and crazy and frenetic and vaguely unnerving, but the NYT nails it:
The site knows that successful diversion depends on continually toggling its joystick between micronostalgia for the past ("55 Things Only '90s Teenage Girls Can Understand") and microexaminations of the latest microtrend ("The 'Gingers Have Souls' Kid Just Released a Hip-Hop Music Video"). BuzzFeed will simultaneously pretend that joy is an ever-renewable resource ("13 Cute Kid Vines You'll Watch Over and Over Again") while also hinting that our stores of happiness are dangerously low and dwindling ("13 Holidays You've Been Celebrating Totally Wrong"). ...
In fact, the more time you spend on BuzzFeed, the more the boundaries between "win" and "fail" seem to blur. After a while, it's impossible not to slip into a disassociative trance, in which you surrender to the allure of some perpetual, trivial nowhereland, nestled somewhere between "15 Cats That You Don't Want to Mess With" and the "44 Hong Kong Movie Subtitles Gone Wrong."
Have a look at the Onion parody they reference, too: it's awesome. But that brings up an interesting question: we've got Facebook's Timeline (which we now know is manipulated), Reddit, various sites like this one, and dozens of big and small sites trying to be the first and fastest to spot or create trends, broach news subjects, or get people talking (and viewing advertisements). Is this as far as we're going to go? What's the next step? Are sites like Slashdot old news? Is the BuzzFeed frenzy ultimately unsustainable? Is it "32 news sites you should be reading daily"?
Probably time to admit I'm addicted to these awesome little gadget boards and devices.
And I just discovered this one: the HummingBoard.
Get ready to fall in love with new HummingBoard - a small and powerful, low-cost ARM computer that ignites the imagination. Whatever your dream, the HummingBoard will help make it happen - the possibilities for creating the next great IoT innovation are truly limitless. The HummingBoard allows you to run many open source operating systems - such as Ubuntu, Debian and Arch - as well as Android and XBMC. With its core technology based on SolidRun's state-of-the-art Micro System on a Module (MicroSOM), it has ready-to-use OS images, and its open hardware comes with full schematics and layout. Best of all, as a Linux single board computer, the HummingBoard is backed by the global digital maker community, which means you can alter the product in any way you like and get full kernel upstreaming support and all the assistance you need.
The big, obvious advantage is that the USB hub is powered, which would allow you to connect it to an external hard drive full of your data, something that's kind of a hassle with the Raspberry Pi (well, not a
huge hassle, but an extra step).
Samsung has announced they'll be discontinuing production of Plasma televisions, citing lack of demand. Panasonic has already quit, and it seems LG is about to do the same. Samsung has declared:
"We plan to continue our PDP TV business until the end of this year, due to changes in market demands. We remain committed to providing consumers with products that meet their needs, and will increase our focus on growth opportunities in UHD TV's and Curved TV's."
But wait, what about me? How am I supposed to
watch all those great shows now?