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Comment Re:Wait what? (Score 4, Interesting) 74

That was exactly my reaction... Broadband was available, and a company like Microsoft would have been in a position to make it available (i.e. pay the local cable company to extend their broadband network to his home). I know of a much smaller (10 person) company who paid the local telco to install a T1 line outside city limits for their CEO not much later than 2000.

It is just that Microsoft as a whole viewed the Internet at the time as a "not-invented-here" competition that they could overtake with proprietary breakage like Internet Explorer...

United States

The 'Vast Majority' of America's Voting Machines Use Windows 7 or Older Systems (apnews.com) 152

Many of America's voting machines are depending on an outdated Microsoft operating system, reports the Associated Press. "The vast majority of 10,000 election jurisdictions nationwide use Windows 7 or an older operating system to create ballots, program voting machines, tally votes and report counts." That's significant because Windows 7 reaches its "end of life" on Jan. 14, meaning Microsoft stops providing technical support and producing "patches" to fix software vulnerabilities, which hackers can exploit. In a statement to the AP, Microsoft said Friday it would offer continued Windows 7 security updates for a fee through 2023.

Critics say the situation is an example of what happens when private companies ultimately determine the security level of election systems with a lack of federal requirements or oversight....

It's unclear whether the often hefty expense of security updates would be paid by vendors operating on razor-thin profit margins or cash-strapped jurisdictions. It's also uncertain if a version running on Windows 10, which has more security features, can be certified and rolled out in time for primaries.

The Associated Press contacted the Coalition for Good Governance, an election integrity advocacy organization, and received this comment from the group's the executive director.

"Is this a bad joke?"

Comment Where are the links about the supposed pressure? (Score 1) 284

In the link provided shows the reaction of the CDT, where "CDT Senior Counsel Harley Geiger" states quite the opposite: "This is quite disappointing given the consensus by the public, Congress, the President, and two independent review groups that ending bulk collection is necessary"

Comment And yet, no international data option (Score 3, Interesting) 404

The carrier who would be best positioned (at least in Europe) to offer a decent data roaming option due to their relationship with the German carrier of the same name, and who partially owns them, only provides the insane price of $15 per MB (yes, per megabyte) for international data roaming. For comparison, Verizon and AT&T provide 100 MB for $20...

Comment Re:That's too bad, RIP Symbian... (Score 1) 102

What about the many SIP-clients available on the AppStore?

I use XS4ALL SIP-client every day, and it reroutes my VOIP too!

The world is bigger without Nokia!

What about them? They require a separate app, Symbian had it built in, and the "Internet calling" capability was integrated directly with the contacts, you could choose to call using cell phone or SIP from the same dialer (including using 3G data, not only WiFi). It is just one example of things that have been standard on Symbian years before other platforms had them. Another example, the panorama picture feature on iPhone 5 - that was available years earlier on Symbian. As I said, it is not one single thing, it is the combination of OS features and hardware capabilities that was superior.

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