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Boot up: Google's AdSense clawback, HTC's Windows M8, data carpentry(Guardian Web Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) A burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team 19-year-old lost $46,000 in Google Adsense rules ban >> Business Insider Jim Edwards: until the beginning of this year MesTextos.com was doing very well indeed. [Its creator Idris] Sami was running Google's AdSense advertising system on his site. It allows web site publishers to display search ads powered by Google and take a cut of the revenues. By December 2013 so many people were clicking on MesTextos' ads that Sami's Google account hit $46,000. But then he learned that if you're an AdSense partner and you don't run ads on your site exactly the way Google wants, the search giant will punish you. The worst part is the Kafkaesque twist – it won't tell you why it's punishing you; the guilty need not be told their crimes. Choose Firefox now, or later you won't get a choice >> Well, I'm Back Robert O'Callahan has been working on Mozilla since 1999, and is now full-time: Google is bent on establishing platform domination unlike anything we've ever seen, even from late-1990s Microsoft. Google controls Android, which is winning; Chrome, which is winning; and key Web properties in Search, Youtube, Gmail and Docs, which are all winning. The potential for lock-in is vast and they're already exploiting it, for example by restricting certain Google Docs features (e.g. offline support) to Chrome users, and by writing contracts with Android OEMs forcing them to make Chrome the default browser. Other bad things are happening that I can't even talk about. Individual people and groups want to do the right thing but the corporation routes around them. (E.g. PNaCl and Chromecast avoided Blink's Web standards commitments by declaring themselves not part of Blink.) His advice: "stop using Chrome now." Will he lobby Mozilla not to take funding from Google to make its search Firefox's default too? That provided about 85% of Mozilla's total funding. HTC One with Windows Phone: another great phone you won't buy >> WSJ Joanna Stern: A carbon copy of the Android model I've loved since its debut in March, the One's bright and crisp 5in 1080p screen is enclosed in a solid piece of aluminum, giving it a weight that suggests higher quality than the plastic wares from LG, Samsung and Nokia. And despite its thinner dimensions, it can last all day long on a charge, even with the screen brightness cranked up. Like on the Android model, my biggest complaint is about its ultrapixel camera — along with a second camera that strictly captures depth information to allow you to refocus photos after you take them. Despite the gimmicks, the photos just don't turn out as sharp and well balanced as the ones you'd take with the priciest Nokia Lumia Windows Phones. That said, it does capture photos faster than any smartphone I've tested and if you're vying to be a better selfie-snapper than Kim Kardashian herself, the 5-megapixel front-facing camera is what you need. So if all things are now equal in hardware, software must be Windows Phone's big problem, right? That used to be the case for the late-to-the-party platform, but it certainly isn't anymore. Windows Phone is now as good an operating system as the others. I find it easier to navigate than Android, yet more customisable than iOS. Essentially, the answer to "why doesn't Windows Phone sell more?" seems to be "because people don't buy it". Data carpentry >> David Mimno Mimno takes issue with a New York Times article suggesting that there are lots of "data janitors" who "wrangle" or "munge" datasets before they can be usefully applied: Data carpentry probably has something to do with wishing I could make things like Carrie Roy, but I should start by saying what I don't like about the "data cleaning" or "janitor work" terms. To me these imply that there is some kind of pure or clean data buried in a thin layer of non-clean data, and that one need only hose the dataset off to reveal the hard porcelain underneath the muck. In reality, the process is more like deciding how to cut into a piece of material, or how much to plane down a surface. It's not that there's any real distinction between good and bad, it's more that some parts are softer or knottier than others. Judgement is critical. The scale of data work is more like woodworking, as well. Sometimes you may have a whole tree in front of you, and only need a single board. There's nothing wrong with the rest of it, you just don't need it right now. 'Stone Age' wearables market to explode as shipments set to grow over 1000% | Press Wire | News Shipments of smart wearables are expected to grow from 9.7m in 2013 to 135m in 2018, according to new forecasts. Analyst firm CCS Insight said that the growth – some 1,291% – would be led by wrist-worn devices, which will account for 87% of wearables to be shipped in 2018. Such devices will comprise 68m smartwatches and 50m smart bands with no screen or with a minimal, one-line display. Stand-alone cellular wearables are also a growing segment, with "a number of high-profile devices with their own SIM cards" expected to be announced in the coming months, CCS said. Over 5m wearables were sold in North America in 2013, and over 40% of all wearable devices currently in use are there. Compare the computing power of a smartphone from 2010 with one from the present; that's the sort of difference that a wearable in 2018 should have over those being released now. The Windows Store is a cesspool of scams — why doesn't Microsoft care? >> Howto Geek Chris Hoffman: Microsoft hasn't been encouraging quality apps. Instead, they just want quantity. In March, 2013, Microsoft ran a promotion where they paid developers $100 for each app they submitted to the Windows Store or Windows Phone Store. They paid up to $2000 to each developer. Here's the page from Archive.org describing the "Keep The Cash" promotion. Microsoft has scrubbed the official pages about this from their MSDN website. So, if you're a developer who spent months creating an amazing app, you only got $100. if you're a developer who could pump out twenty terrible apps in a few weeks, you'd get $2000. Microsoft's promotion encouraged developers to do the minimum amount of possible work and create a bunch of bad apps. (Thanks @pxr4t2 for the link.) If driverless cars save lives, where will we get organs? >> Fortune Erin Griffith: Technological advances often come with unintended consequences, though, which is why these predictions support [Bree] Pettis's [of Makerbot] case that organ donations would be adversely impacted by safer driving. Motor vehicle accidents are the largest contributor to organ donations after natural-cause deaths. Since 1994, 16% of all organ donations came from motor vehicle accidents, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The inventory pressure from increasing adoption of self-driving cars will add to an already shrinking pool of organ donors. Traffic deaths have been in decline since 1969, when they peaked at 55,043. The drop occurred for a number of reasons: drunk driving deaths have fallen, seat belt use has increased, air bags are more effective, and we drive less. …More than 123,000 people in the U.S. are currently in need of an organ, and 18 people die each day waiting, according to the Department of Health & Human Services. Unintended consequences? Linux-on-the-desktop pioneer Munich now considering a switch back to Windows >> Ars Technica Peter Bright: The world is still waiting for the year of Linux on the desktop, but in 2003 it looked as if that goal was within reach. Back then, the city of Munich announced plans to switch from Microsoft technology to Linux on 14,000 PCs belonging to the city's municipal government. While the scheme suffered delays, it was completed in December 2013. There's only been one small problem: users aren't happy with the software, and the government isn't happy with the price. The switch was motivated by a desire to reduce licensing costs and end the city's dependence on a single company. City of Munich PCs were running Windows NT 4, and the end of support for that operating system meant that it was going to incur significant licensing costs to upgrade. In response, the plan was to migrate to OpenOffice and Debian Linux. Later, the plan was updated to use LibreOffice and Ubuntu. German media is reporting that the city is now considering a switch back to Microsoft in response to these complaints. The city is putting together an independent expert group to look at the problem, and if that group recommends using Microsoft software, Deputy Mayor Josef Schmid of the CSU party says that a switch back isn't impossible. Key problems: file compatibility (Munich-generated files were problematic for others) and price - because of the custom programming required, and lack of simple integration with smartphones via mail servers. Techrepublic quotes Munich's spokesperson saying it's a review for future use, but confirms problems over file compatibility. You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on Pinboard To suggest a link, either add it below or tag it with @gdntech on the free Delicious service. (c) 2014 Guardian Newspapers Limited. |