Windows 8 on ARM: The Desktop, Office, But Not Much More →
Microsoft has long said that Windows on ARM will not include an x86 emulator, so legacy applications would never run directly on the platform, but there was always the possibility that existing desktop applications could be recompiled. That option is now unambiguously eliminated, with Microsoft saying "WOA does not support running, emulating, or porting existing x86/64 desktop apps." Office is a special, unique case.
My bet is that the only reason the legacy desktop exists in Windows 8 on ARM is because Office couldn't port their software to a touch-friendly Metro UI before the release, and we can't bear to sell a computer that can't run Office. I think Microsoft cedes a lot of either competitive advantage or user simplicity by not going all-in one way or the other, and I think the iPad benefits.
Inside Stripe →
The Paypal competitor backed by Paypal cofounders. And yes, being a techie I did look at the API and the service they provide. Definitely a good design.
If I try my best and fail, well, I tried my best.
— Steve Jobs, 1998
Facebook has a culture of arrogance. It prides itself on a 'move fast and break things' attitude, which I find grossly inappropriate for organisation entrusted with the personal and private data of over 800 million people.
— Paul Robert Lloyd, Facebook and the Future of the Web
Book References in the Digital Age →
How do we reference locations in electronic books?
My small group ran into this problem when we were trying to reference sentences in three or four different revisions ofWild at Heart with different page layouts and a Kindle copy. Not easy to do.
The Mercenary Techie Who Troubleshoots for Drug Dealers and Jealous Lovers →
Martin is a digital fixer. He wants me to call him a "mercenary hacker," although "renegade IT guy" probably better represents his skillset. Through a long history of hanging out with hackers, selling surveillance gear, and laboring on the fringes of the tech industry, Martin has developed a combination of technical skill and lack of scruples that makes him perfect for dirty jobs involving electronics.
Technology doesn't always serve to better society.
In 1870, a new cable was laid between England and France, and Napoleon III used it to send a congratulatory message to Queen Victoria. Hours later, a French fisherman hauled the cable up into his boat, identified it as either the tail of a sea monster or a new species of gold-bearing seaweed, and cut off a chunk to take home. Thus was inaugurated an almost incredibly hostile relationship between the cable industry and fishermen.
— Wired, "Mother Earth Mother Board", a discussion of material pertaining to the business and technology of Undersea Fiber-Optic Cables, as well as an account of the laying of the longest wire on Earth.
Flying Robots Build A (Small) Tower Near Paris →
Four helicopterish thingies swooped through the air, somehow avoiding each other, and one by one, settled on some "brick dispensers." Using small plungers they then plucked one brick at a time, carried each to the "building site" and slowly created a wall. It took a few days, but what emerged is a twisting, undulating tower, designed by Swiss architects Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler.
Pretty sweet design, too:
Crowd-Sourced Biotech: Gamers Tweak Protein, Give It Big Activity Boost →
Until recently, all FoldIt players have been asked to do is figure out how existing proteins fold. That has now changed; the people behind the FoldIt project have added tools that allow players to engineer new variants of an old protein. Once again, the gamers have come through, figuring out changes that dramatically improve the protein's activity.
Collision in the Making Between Self-Driving Cars and How the World Works →
Even as Google tests its small fleet of self-driving vehicles on California highways, legal scholars and government officials are warning that society has only begun wrestling with the changes that would be required in a system created a century ago to meet the challenge of horseless carriages.