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Title: Microsoft confirms it's killing off the Internet Explorer brand with Windows 10
Source:
http://www.winbeta.org/news/microsoft-confirms-its-killing-i
URL Source: http://WinBeta
Published: Mar 17, 2015
Author: Hammad Saleem
Post Date: 2015-03-17 08:24:12 by Willie Green
Keywords: None
Views: 10353
Comments: 32
Internet Explorer is not a popular name when it comes to browsers, and Microsoft has tried various things to boost brand recognition of their browser and improve its reputation. Recently, the company confirmed that Internet Explorer is going away for good. While speaking at Microsoft's Convergence yesterday, the company's marketing chief Chris Capossela said the company is looking for a new name and brand for their browser.
"We’re now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10," said Capossela. "We’ll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we’ll also have a new browser called Project Spartan, which is codenamed Project Spartan. We have to name the thing."
Although the company is killing the Internet Explorer brand, it will not go away completely. It will exist in some form for enterprises, but the new Project Spartan will be the default browser for users in Windows 10 when it comes to web access. Project Spartan comes with a number of enticing new features such as extension support, reader mode, annotation abilities, Cortana integration and much more. We've offered our readers a closer look at some of the features which will be introduced with the new browser, which you can check out here.
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| Notice how I said ask Cortana, the function is actually called “Ask Cortana”. It works by highlighting the word or phrase in question, right click, and selecting “Ask Cortana”. It works for a wide array of things, including locations, foods, companies, and more. When interacting with Cortana, you’ll mostly see her in a sidebar that slides out from the right hand side when needed. She doesn’t sit on screen 24/7, so your browsing experience won’t be interrupted. She’ll only pop out when you ask her to, either by using the Ask Cortana feature or clicking on her when she offers information. |
Sounds like a way for M$ to funnel users to Bing by default, an old Microsoft trick.
Of course, the described right-click base functionality is well-established in other browsers because M$ stole the idea from them, par for the course with Redmond.
I use a very nice extension for Firefox that lets you highlight any text and do instant searches from a custom list of search engines. I can select text and right-click and select a default search (DDG) or choose to search via Ixquick, Google, Google Translate, Google Images, YouTube, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, IMDB. And you can add/remove search engines from the list.
Highly recommended for Firefox users.
Mozilla: InstantFox
#2. To: TooConservative (#1)
Mozilla approves Nazi-themed,
anti-feminism Firefox extension
By Mihaita Bamburic
BetaNews
3/16/15
Mozilla could soon find itself at the center of a new controversy, as it just approved a Firefox extension, called Men Kampf, designed with the sole purpose of replacing so-called "radfem rethoric [sic] with nazi friendly alternatives".
Men Kampf scans the page that the Firefox user visits for any words considered to be linked to feminism -- certainly not radical feminism, as claimed in the description -- and replaces them, on the fly, with said "alternatives". As such, an article about feminism will quickly appear to be one about nazism. The developer behind the extension, Erim Secla, says that it's all "just for fun" in Men Kampf's description. Except that it's not.
It's offensive. While feminism is a movement that aims to make the world a better place by promoting equality, nazism is a movement which is linked to one of the darkest periods in history, when millions of people lost their lives and were discriminated against because those who shared the ideology strongly believed in and promoted inequality. Tomato, tomato, eh?
You can see Men Kampf in action by opening the Wikipedia page about Feminism in Firefox, and then another browser. Below is how it looks on Firefox and Google Chrome, respectively.
Next, I wanted to see how Men Kampf works on pages that aren't linked to feminism, so I opened Facebook. Here's how the signup page looks on Firefox and Chrome, respectively -- the extension, in this case, replaces "Male" with "Jew".
Men Kampf is apparently inspired by a Chrome extension called "Man Kampf" (in reality, it's called Men Kampf and is available in the Chrome Web Store), which is equally offensive. The Chrome counterpart "Turns SJW nonsense into pro-Nazi propaganda. Changes words such as 'Men' into 'Jews' to make any radical feminist post sound like something straight out of Hitler's mouth!", claims its developer in the description.
As you may notice in the screenshot posted at the top of the page, the Firefox add-on store lists it as "preliminary reviewed". What does that mean? Well, it means that Mozilla's editors have reviewed the source code for "security issues and major policy violations", before deeming it fit for the store. However, that does not automatically mean that the app has also been installed, prior to approval; in most cases Mozilla says this doesn't happen.
However, in the "policies on specific add-on practices" it's clearly stated that "Add-ons that make changes to web content in ways that are non-obvious or difficult to trace by their users" would not be permitted -- an example of a page where the extension infringes upon this policy is Facebook. Another is the Wikipedia page for Gender equality, where only certain words are replaced, like "men" with "Jews" and "women" with "Germans". I've reached out to Mozilla for clarification.
But, surprisingly, Mozilla does not have a policy in place which would prevent extensions that promote Nazism from being approved. Anything goes, as long as it meets the technical criteria. But perhaps it's time to reconsider. After all, Mozilla is a self-proclaimed supporter of equality, isn't it?
Update 1: Mozilla responded, saying that the extension has been removed. At the time of writing this article, the extension's landing page says "This add-on has been disabled by an administrator". A statement will follow.
Update 2:Here comes the statement. "Mozilla reviews and responds expeditiously to reports of abuse. 'Men Kampf' was removed after Mozilla received such reports today and it was determined that the add-on violates our Conditions of Use", says Mozilla director of marketplace and content ecosystem Bertrand Neveux.
As you can see, Mozilla acted swiftly to remove the extension from the Firefox add-ons store, following reports. Meanwhile, the similar Men Kampf for Chrome continues to be available in Chrome Web Store.
#3. To: Willie Green (#2) (Edited)
Update 2:Here comes the statement. "Mozilla reviews and responds expeditiously to reports of abuse. 'Men Kampf' was removed after Mozilla received such reports today and it was determined that the add-on violates our Conditions of Use", says Mozilla director of marketplace and content ecosystem Bertrand Neveux.
Proper response by Mozilla. It's just a rehash of the old jive filter and valspeak DOS programs of yesteryear that would modify text files to sound like Da Hood or some Valley Girl. The jive program was used to fight lawsuit trolling for copyright infringement when the Scientologists tried to use it to sue anyone who published their internal books to expose their scamming. So the opponents of Scientology took to running the programs through the jive filter to publish them online. You could then easily create an unjive program to restore them.
Download: Jive1.zip, a 1999 Windows app that can translate Jive, Texan, or Valley Girl. [Scans clean with current AVG Free]
While a novelty extension may be short-lived trivia fun, it is not really comparable to either InstantFox or to M$'s new Cortana and their extensive right-click search engine features.
As you can see, Mozilla acted swiftly to remove the extension from the Firefox add-ons store, following reports. Meanwhile, the similar Men Kampf for Chrome continues to be available in Chrome Web Store.
Well, Google manages its Play Store for Android phones rather poorly, to the great detriment of the entire platform. They tolerate too many bad apps, spyware, etc. So the Chrome Store can't do much better. Apple's stricter iTunes store has done more more to establish trust in its professionalism and filtering of bad apps and spyware.
Android will never truly dominate and take on Apple head to head until Google fixes the Play Store. You would think that Samsung, at the very least, would finally notice and take some action to force this outcome. I would actually prefer that Samsung start their own Samsung Store if they can't get Google to fix Play Store.
#4. To: TooConservative (#3)
Sounds like a way for M$ to funnel users to Bing by default, an old Microsoft trick.
Yeah, it seems like everybody is up to the same old tricks again.
I came across the Mozzila FemiNazi story when I was searching the news for some other recent stories I had come across:
Beating Google Inc (GOOG) in Search Engine War
Mozilla, the creator of Firefox, made its decision last November to terminate its business relations with Google Inc (GOOGL) and decided to go for Yahoo, Inc’s (YHOO) browser instead in a five-year contract that gave Google a big headache.
So Microsoft = Bing
Firefox = Yahoo!
And Google = Chrome (or Chromium) browser
I believe Google also has Chrome OS & Android..
#5. To: Willie Green (#4)
Mozilla, the creator of Firefox, made its decision last November to terminate its business relations with Google Inc (GOOGL) and decided to go for Yahoo, Inc’s (YHOO) browser instead in a five-year contract that gave Google a big headache.
This is a small concession to Yahoo in exchange for a large commercial partnership.
Google grew quickly in part due to its affiliation with Mozilla. People forget about this old partnership.
Then Google thought that Android and Chrome OS was much nicer and they wouldn't have to make nice so much to Mozilla. So Firefox market share started dropping.
Mozilla made the right deal with Yahoo. The partnership also cements upcoming versions of Javascript, written by Brendan Eich who got chased out of CEO at Mozilla over his gay marriage comments. Eich is still an important Mozilla player as they try to launch Firefox OS to compete with Android and Apple smartphone marketplaces.
#6. To: Willie Green, TooConservative (#0)
I'm still mostly using the Opera browser - because
it most closely resembles the old Netscape
browser. Or maybe just because I'm a loon.
Who can tell?
But Firefox is always there - as is IE - but I don't use Chrome.
#7. To: Chuck_Wagon (#6)
Did you get your ZBOX yet, Chuck?
#8. To: Willie Green, ALL (#0) (Edited)
"We’re now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10," said Capossela. "We’ll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we’ll also have a new browser called Project Spartan, which is codenamed Project Spartan. We have to name the thing."
She has another name behind the name ~ "The United Kingdom (English) localised version of Cortana is voiced by Ginnie Watson, an Anglo-French actress, singer/songwriter and voice-over artist".
Microsoft Cortana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Cortana
Microsoft Cortana.svg Cortana WP8.1.png Cortana in Windows Phone 8.1
Developer(s) Microsoft
Initial release April 2, 2014; 11 months ago.[1]
Platform
Windows Phone, Microsoft Band, Windows 10 (future)
Available in
English · French · German · Chinese (Mandarin) · Italian · Spanish
Type Intelligent personal assistant
License Proprietary
Microsoft Cortana is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Microsoft for Windows Phone 8.1,[2] Microsoft Band,[3][4] and Windows 10.[5]
It is named after Cortana, an artificial intelligence character in Microsoft's Halo video game series, with Jen Taylor, the character's voice actress, returning to voice the personal assistant's US-specific version. [6]
Cortana was demonstrated for the first time at the Microsoft BUILD Developer Conference (April 2–4, 2014) in San Francisco.[1] It has been launched as a key ingredient of Microsoft's planned "makeover" of the future operating systems for Windows Phone and Windows.[2] As of 2015, Cortana is available as a beta to all users of Windows Phone 8.1 in the United States (US English), China (Mandarin Chinese), and the United Kingdom (UK English). Users in certain countries can also choose to opt-in to the alpha for the English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish versions of Cortana as of August 2014.[7]
Microsoft expects Cortana to be available globally by early 2015.
Features Cortana's features include being able to set reminders, recognize natural voice without the user having to input a predefined series of commands, and answer questions using information from Bing (like current weather and traffic conditions, sports scores, and biographies).[8][9][10] Windows 8.1's universal Bing SmartSearch features are incorporated into Cortana, which replaces the previous Bing Search app which is activated when a user presses the "Search" button on their device.[11] Cortana also includes a music recognition service. [12] Cortana can also roll dice and flip a coin by asking the commands "roll a dice" (one die), "roll the dice" (two dice), and "flip a coin",[13] Concert Watch is a feature that helps Cortana determine which bands or musicians you are interested in by monitoring your Bing searches.[14] Cortana also integrates with the Microsoft Band for Windows Phone devices if connected via bluetooth. [15][16] On the Microsoft Band Cortana can make reminders and bring phone notifications.[17]
Since the Lumia Denim series, launched in October 2014, active listening was added to Cortana, enabling it to be triggered with the phrase: “Hey Cortana,” even across the room and without the need to touch the phone. After the trigger phrase is spoken, Cortana can be controlled normally for tasks like setting a reminder, asking a question, or launching an app.[18] Some devices from the United Kingdom by O2 have received the Lumia Denim update without the feature but this was later clarified as a bug and Microsoft had since fixed it.[19]
Cortana also integrates with services like Foursquare to provide restaurant and local attraction recommendations.[20]
§Notebook The "Notebook" is where personal information such as interests, location data, reminders, and contacts will be stored for access by Cortana. Cortana will be able to draw upon and add to this data in order to learn the user's specific patterns and behaviors. The user will be able to view this information, with the aim of offering greater control over privacy settings by allowing them to specify what information is collected, "a level of control that goes beyond comparable assistants".[21] Users can also delete information from the "Notebook" if they deem it undesirable for Cortana to know.[22]
§Design[edit]
Most versions of Cortana take the form of two nested, animated circles.[23] The circles are animated to indicate certain activities such as searching or talking.
§Miscellaneous[edit]
Cortana features a "do-not-disturb" mode in which users can specify "quiet hours", something that is already available for Windows Phone 8.1 users.[24] Users can change the settings so that Cortana calls users by their names (or nicknames).[22] It also has an extensive library of Easter Eggs, consisting of witty and pre-determined remarks.[25][26]
Cortana correctly predicted the winners of the first 14 matches of the 2014 FIFA World Cup knockout stage, including the semi-finals, before it incorrectly picked Brazil over the Netherlands in the third place play-off match. This streak topped Paul the Octopus who correctly predicted all 7 of Germany's 2010 FIFA World Cup matches as well as the Final.[27][28][29][30] Furthermore Cortana can also predict the games of various other sports such as the NBA, the NFL,[31] the Super Bowl,[32] the ICC Cricket world cup[33] and various European Football Leagues. Cortana can also solve mathematical equations, convert units such as between Celsius and Fahrenheit, meters and feet, and calculate the exchange rate between currencies including Bitcoin.[34]
§Region
The Chinese version of Cortana, Xiao Na Cortana is region-specific, and adapts its voice to match the everyday language, culture and speech patterns of the country its user lives in. For example, the UK version of Cortana speaks with a British accent and uses British idioms, while the Chinese version, known as Xiao Na, speaks Mandarin Chinese and has an icon featuring a face and two eyes. [35] Cortana also localizes to fit the needs of its user, and will display relevant information on subject areas such as local sports teams, businesses, TV series and stock exchanges. Cortana has been released in several countries since its launch including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Canada, Australia, India, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy and is expected to come to more countries over time.[36]
The United Kingdom (English) localised version of Cortana is voiced by Ginnie Watson, an Anglo-French actress, singer/songwriter and voice-over artist.[
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Cortana
("We sing about God because we believe in Him. We are not trying to offend anybody, but the evidence that we have seen of Him in our small little lives trumps your opinion about whether or not He exists". ~ Jeff Foxworthy)
#9. To: Willie Green (#7)
Did you get your ZBOX yet, Chuck?
Nope.
Leaning more this way -
AMD A4-6300 3.7GHz Dual-Core APU/MSI A58M-E33 mATX
MB/4GB DDR3 1600 Adata XPG V1 Memory/LG 24X
DVDRW/Ultra X-Blaster V2 Case w/450W PSU Barebones
$149.99
And the WD1 TB drive ($54.99)
Brings us to slightly over $200 - eh, why not, eh?
Why sacrifice A LOT - for 50 bucks? eh?
AMD A Series A4-6300 - 3.7 GHz - 2 Cores - 1 MB Cache - Socket FM2 - Box - AD6300OKHLBOX
ADATA XPG V1 4GB Desktop Memory Module - DDR3 1600, PC3-12800, Blue - AX3U1600C4G11-SD
Ultra XBlaster Mid-Tower V2 Case - ATX, MicroATX, USB 2.0, Audio,
6x 3.5" Bays, 3x 5.25" Bays, 7x PCI Slots, Includes 450W PSU LG - Internal DVD Burner - Internal, SATA Interface, Buffer: 2MB,
24x DVD RW, Black - OEM - GH24NSC0B
MSI A58M-E33 Micro ATX Motherboard - FM2+ Socket, AMD A58 Chipset, DDR3 Memory, PCIe 3.0 x16, Gigabit LAN, VGA, HDMI, DirectX 11, RAID Support
#10. To: Chuck_Wagon (#9)
Brings us to slightly over $200 - eh, why not, eh?
Why sacrifice A LOT - for 50 bucks? eh?
Looks like a nice system to me, Chuck!
I'd be tempted by it myself if I didn't already have the smaller 2½" notebook hard drive to use.
The Zotac has a much smaller case, of course... And supposedly consumes less electricity...
but those usually aren't deciding factors in the overall scheme of things...
And as long as you're not wasting $40 at Staples for $5 worth of work, I'd say it's a pretty good deal!
#11. To: Willie Green (#10) (Edited)
And as long as you're not wasting $40 at Staples ...
Yep, you're heading down the right track there... LOL...
#12. To: Willie Green (#10)
And as long as you're not wasting $40 at Staples for $5 worth of work, I'd say it's a pretty good deal!
You know it.
#13. To: Willie Green (#10)
Looks like a nice system to me, Chuck!
Woo Hoo!
#14. To: Chuck_Wagon (#9)
Nope. Leaning more this way -
You've gotten by for this long so I would wait for summer or fall.
Some great new mini boxes in the $200 range are coming out. I mentioned a few in that last thread.
#15. To: TooConservative (#14)
You've gotten by for this long...
Hey, I'm just barely scraping by with this old Celeron-D box.
And heck - I now have no backup internet machine.
This WAS my backup internet machine.
If this thing blows out then I'm dead in the water.
Which would NOT be a good thing...
Yeah - I could possibly cobble together some antique parts
from the basement and build a working machine - maybe -
but forget that...
Time for a new machine.
#16. To: TooConservative, Willie Green (#14)
Time for a new machine.
Yesterday afternoon (Thursday) I took (UPS)
delivery of $225 (after rebate) of parts
for the 3.8Ghz (4Ghz in 'turbo' mode) desktop
AMD machine that I described in posts 9 and 13.
So after dinner tonight I shall spread a used table
cover over the dining room table, unpack the two
boxes, and start perusing the parts.
(Not enough room on the workbench, really...)
Sounds like fun, eh? Sure...
#17. To: Chuck_Wagon (#16)
Sounds like fun. Not sure about your vid card overall but it won't matter much if you're not a gamer.
I still recommend 8GB of RAM. Best investment you can make (other than buying 16GB or 32GB).
#18. To: Chuck_Wagon (#16)
Sounds like fun, eh? Sure...
Good luck, Chuck!
And stay away from Staples!
#19. To: Willie Green (#18) (Edited)
Good luck...
Thanks.
Processor, memory and CPU fan are mounted and wired.
Motherboard is mounted in the case. Just got to mount
and wire the 1 TB Western Digital hard drive and the
DVD-RW drive, put the case back together, connect
keyboard, mouse and monitor - plug it in and hit the
switch - and see what happens. But right now I'm taking
a break.
#20. To: TooConservative (#17)
I still recommend 8GB of RAM.
This motherboard has 4 memory slots and maxes out at 32 GB.
This thing came with a 4 GB module - so that's what I'm
starting out with. I can certainly add more later.
#21. To: Chuck_Wagon (#19)
Hey what are those things on the back of the case called "Watertube inlets"???
Are you supposed to hook up a garden hose or some kind of external cooling pump / radiator to keep it from overheating or what???
#22. To: Willie Green (#21)
..."Watertube inlets"???...
I dunno.
I'm not gonna mess with 'em.
Reminds me too much of the time my neighbors ice
maker in their freezer broke while they were away on
vacation. Leaked water all over. Ruined the hardwood
floors and everything. What a mess...
#23. To: Willie Green (#21) (Edited)
#24. To: Pericles, Chuck_Wagon (#23)
#25. To: Chuck_Wagon (#19)
But right now I'm taking a break.
So did it work or not?
#26. To: TooConservative (#25)
So did it work or not?
My 'break' turned into a full night's sleep.
It's Sunday morning, just getting started again.
I'll let y'all know when I'm ready to 'flip the switch'.
Wish me good luck in my ongoing tribulations...
#27. To: Chuck_Wagon (#26)
It's been 10 days since your parts arrived. Any luck getting the new machine to work?
#28. To: TooConservative (#27)
Any luck getting the new machine to work?
Not yet. It's a combination of other things that
need doing, and laziness really.
The other things are:
I'm reorganizing a different computer in order to
use it as a machine to manage investments and
run the Metatrader investment software platform.
And trying to research whether Metatrader 5 is
now stable and mature enough to be used instead
of Metatrader 4.
The other major thing I'm doing is organizing my
financial (tax) paperwork so that I can
efficiently fork the money I make from the
investments over to the government.
I'm also working on my mother's taxes -
because she herself has has never done it -
Dad always did. And I never touched my Dad's
finances. But he passed away last October.
He told me: "Everything you'll need is in the big
filing cabinet, and the big black binders on
my bedroom shelves, and on my computer."
So everything is going swell. Peachy-keen, really.
#29. To: TooConservative (#1)
Sounds like a way for M$ to funnel users to Bing by default, an old Microsoft trick.
There isn't any "trick". Bing is the knowledgebase for Cortana.
Bing is also the knowledgebase for Apple's Siri.
#30. To: cranko (#29) (Edited)
Bing is only one of the search engines for Siri. It also uses Yahoo and Google and others like Wolfram.
#31. To: cranko, TooConservative (#29)
...Bing...
Just a couple of hours ago I deleted the 'Bing Bar'
from this machine. I never used it, and I seriously
need disk space on this (my temporary internet machine)
until I finish assembling the parts on my dining room
table (from Tiger Direct) into a functional machine.
#32. To: TooConservative (#30) (Edited)
Bing is only one of the search engines for Siri. It also uses Yahoo and Google and others like Wolfram.
No.
Yahoo abandoned it's own search engine for Bing in 2010.
Siri left Google for Bing in 2013.
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