Good news everyone! A new (user-visible) feature! Story images!

Okay, so trying to find an acceptable 64x64 pixel icon for each story got old pretty fast. There never seemed to be enough of them and they didn't always fit the article correctly. But with today's news sites wanting lots of eye candy, most articles already have at least one relevant image of the story. So we'll just make a small thumbnail of that!

You can change the quality of the thumbnail using the "Story Image Style" in your settings page. Or you can opt to keep the icons or disable the images altogether. If you have a high resolution screen (e.g. Apple's Retina displays) with a pixel ratio greater than the traditional 1:1, you can select one of the "High Resolution" options to get a sharper image.

While the initial disclosures by Edward Snowden revealed how US authorities are conducting mass surveillance on the world's communications, further reporting by the Guardian newspaper uncovered that UK intelligence services were just as involved in this global spying apparatus. Faced with the prospect of further public scrutiny and accountability, the UK Government gave the Guardian newspaper an ultimatum: hand over the classified documents or destroy them. The Guardian decided that having the documents destroyed was the best option.


That's the beginning of the story, not the end of it, and it gets more troubling as you read on. Have a look at this article over at Privacy International [ed. note: an oxymoron if there ever were one] and find out that the UK's security services had an unnatural interest in keyboards and certain components of modern, mobile telephone technology.

Any questions? Just call.

Journalist Quinn Norton writes on the broken culture of computer security. From complex software flawed with 0-days to human error and general culture prone to feeling powerless, she explains how security is currently just a mirage.

Is computer security really just a wishful dream?

Smart watches are evolving. After a somewhat inauspicious start and some missteps, manufacturers and designers are getting a better handle on what the market wants. Or what I want, anyway. Have a look at this new wristwatch from a company called Kairos . The Verge is reviewing it, and while it's not on the market yet, the combination of classic, mechanical wristwatch with a smart screen overlay looks phenomenal. The Verge points out Kairos is a start-up. Can they succeed where the big guns have failed?

Here's the world's biggest X-Men fan. Not only has he gained fame for building a set of fully operational, retractable Wolverine claws , he has now tipped his hat to Magneto by building a set of magnetic shoes that allow him to walk on the ceiling .

Gear up with these two things and your next office team meeting just got a lot more interesting.

One thing is certain about Android phones and tablets: it keeps getting cheaper to have one. HP has thrown itself into the fray with a $99 tablet boasting some mediocre specs and a great price tag:

The tablet rocks specs not that much better than HP's ill-fated Palm TouchPad. The 7-inch screen has a resolution of 1024 x 600 and the package is powered by an Allwinner Technology A31 SoC that features four Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1 GHz along with a Power VR SGX544MP2 GPU and 1GB of RAM. But it's only $99.

Get one now for cheap, so when they release Android 5 ("Lollipop") you can cash in on all the rumored new features , like fitness links, upgrades to security, audio, and video, and Project Hera , "Google's effort to unify the Chrome browser with Android and Search."

May 18th is international Bitcoin Pizza Day . From ABC:

The first Bitcoin transaction, according to Internet lore, was for two Papa John's pizzas delivered to a guy in Florida named Laszlo Hanyecz, who ponied up 10,000 bitcoin (about $30) in exchange for the pies.

"It was a good pizza," Hanyecz, 32, told ABC News today.

More than one company is now trying to make a big deal out of Bitcoin Pizza Day to drum up some business, increase demand for Bitcoins, and sell pizza. Eat a nice, cheesy slice while you ponder the ramifications of Gitchain , the "unholy matrimony of Bitcoin and Github." With weird science like this, Cthulhu can only be days away ...

Hey, what the heck? There aren't enough submissions in the Pipedot queue? I'm outta here! (storms out of the room) #iamgoogle

This is a lesson in how to make a hashtag out of yourself (and make a fool of yourself, too). Read the NYPost article and find descriptions of this guy that include "boor, mean, inconsiderate, smug, self-important, jerk, hissy-fit, and of course, douchenozzle.

Nice work, Scott Jenson, Google executive.

In 2011 the US Congress passed the "America Invents Act" , a so-called "patent reform" bill that seemed more like a wish list for companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Intellectual Ventures that file lots of patents and enforce them vigorously as part (or all) of their business model. That bill was signed into law by President Obama.

A follow-up bill oriented more towards what the rest of us might consider patent reform, aimed at protecting businesses from patent trolls and nuisance lawsuits was passed by the US House of Representatives last year by a vote of 325 to 91; it included provisions for requiring patent ownership to be more transparent, more specific language in infringement lawsuits, plaintiff liability for legal costs in unsuccessful lawsuits, delaying legal discovery during a lawsuit until the court has finished reviewing the claims, and allowing companies to protect end users against skip-level infringement lawsuits.

However, the counterpart bill in the Senate was postponed indefinitely on Wednesday by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, apparently because of infighting between the pro-reform faction (Internet companies including Google, Facebook, and Amazon; other tech companies such as Verizon; and retailers) and the go-slow faction (pharmaceutical companies, trial lawyers and universities). Here's the statement from the universities on the postponement.

[Ed note: there seems to be general consensus that patent reform is desperately necessary to correct a deeply flawed system. But if government is unable to do it, then what do we do?]

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has just published his review of the new Surface Pro 3 tablet by Microsoft. It's about an 800 word article, but it can be summed up with one word: "Meh." SJVN concludes, " Too little hardware, too late, for too much money . " From the article:

Microsoft would argue they're not going after the low-end market. Microsoft's avowed target audience are the people today who buy a MacBook Air and the iPad. Really? Microsoft thinks that the Surface Pro 3 is going to persuade the Apple faithful to move to Windows 8.1? Come on! If there's any tech audience that's more faithful to their brand than Apple true-believers, I don't know who they are - and I spend most of my time hanging out with the Linux crew. For that matter, it seems to me that Microsoft isn't that clear on their target audience. Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Surface Computing Panos Panay told Mary Jo Foley that they're still calling the Surface Pro 3 a tablet even though "tablets have not landed" and not really hitting the productivity sweet spot.

So what's the deal? Any Surface Pros in your future? Does Microsoft have a chance? Or is this just one more data point in the graph that shows Microsoft has jumped the shark ? Or heck, is the next version of the Surface Pro going to be the one that sweeps consumers off their feet? Grab your ipads and let us know ...