[!]

Speaking of spy camera, cameras in the cable box to monitor TV viewers.

The technology includes cameras and microphones that are installed on DVRs or cable boxes and analyzes viewers' responses, behaviors and statements to various ads - and then provides advertisements that are targeted to the particular household.

Specifically, the technology can monitor sleeping, eating, exercising, reading and more, AdWeek reported.

"This may sound preposterous, but it's neither a joke nor an exaggeration," said Mr. Capuano in a statement, AdWeek reported. "These DVRs would essentially observe consumers as they watch television as a way to super-target ads. It is an incredible invasion of privacy."

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[!]

The wording is important. See what they are calling people who criticize something bad, that's right, if you dislike Windows 8 Playskool or Retard edition, you are now officially a "detractor". True story.

Gartner: Windows 8.1 'could quiet most of' Windows 8's detractors.

Some users complained about the lack of discoverability, help or cues for the new user experience, and many rejected Windows 8 because of the changes. Based on the information currently available, we believe Windows 8.1 features could quiet most of its detractors.

[!]

I already posted this here but I think it's also suitable in here. Apparently, if you say "Shame" on Ars Technica, you are a "troll".

You may only regurgitate corporate agenda. Nothing more, nothing less.

Such "news" sources should have zero credibility.

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[!]

Google preparing "Google Mine" for organizing and sharing your stuff on Google+.

Google Mine will reportedly soon be integrated with Google+ so that users can share their belongings with friends in circles they so designate. The new service will also allow G+ users to rate and review items as well, so that anyone in your Google+ stream that you allow, can see the items and your opinion of them. Reportedly there is also an Android app on the way for Mine, which seems like a natural of course, for sharing your stuff on the go. What's perhaps most interesting about the prospects of Google+ Mine could be the secondary benefit that Google receives from data 'mining' your shares on the items you own, use or want.

They couldn't have chosen a more ironic name for it if they tried to...

YouTube removes video of reactions to being videoed.

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GeekWire reports that YouTube has removed Surveillance Camera Man's latest video of people's sometimes-violent reactions to being videoed, citing its policy of prohibiting content designed to harass, threaten or bully ("This video has been removed as a violation of YouTube's policy prohibiting content designed to harass, bully or threaten"). In a neat coincidence, the YouTube ban comes just after similar complaints were lodged against Google Glass. 'Some people also seem to feel threatened by Google Glass,' Philip De Cortes wrote in Google Glass Will Fail. 'They wonder if they're being recorded, and they feel like the tool could be used against them in some way.'

What's good for the goose is good for the gander... or is it?

Remember kids! They will watch you but you cannot watch them back!

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[!]

Microsoft's vision for SkyDrive in Windows 8.1.

With Windows 8.1, Microsoft has gone further than ever before in integrating SkyDrive into its OS - and the company hopes its users will soon embrace it as their default file storage solution

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Hey, Ballmer! Take your stinking paws off my files and data, you damned dirty ape!

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[!]

This is way beyond creepy digital stalker.

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Microsoft adds 'Mood Detection' to smartphones.

Researchers at Microsoft Research have produced a prototype software system that can be used on smartphones to infer a user's mood. The 'MoodScope' system produced by researchers uses smartphone usage patterns to determine whether someone is happy, calm, excited, bored or stressed and could potentially add a new dimension to to mobile apps (as well as, as the researchers note, open up a Pandora's Box of privacy issues). The researchers created a low-power background service for iPhones and Android handsets that (with training) can offer reasonable detection of mood and offers and API that app developers could hook into.

Dear Microsoft, YOU CAN FUCK OFF!

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[!]

Well, Microsoft appears determined to lose their market share, their desktop market won't sustain much more. Check this thing out about the upcoming Windows 8.1:

Microsoft to add Bing ads to Windows 8.1 search.

Microsoft ... announced that it will add its Bing Ads system to the new version of Windows ... it will offer a feature called Smart Search that allows users to conduct a search in Windows that will look for information on the Web ... Microsoft said its advertisers will be able to target users not just on Web search results pages but directly inside Windows Smart Search ... the ad will send people to, as well as click-to-call info and site links ...

Don't you get a warm fuzzy feeling from the following line?

The goal, Pann says, is to give advertisers access to consumers across a broader variety of their daily activities, not just when they're overtly conducting a search.

Ps. It seems to be on by default.

KILL IT WITH FIRE!

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[!]

And here is Ars Technica not biting the hand which feeds it. A very positive article about advertisement inside Windows 8.1 search results: Bing-powered Windows 8.1 heralds a better, smarter Microsoft.

Suddenly, the same functionality that was built into Ubuntu which brought their condemnation by publishing the EFF calls Ubuntu's Amazon search result feature a "major privacy problem" article about Ubuntu:

It's a major privacy problem if you can't find things on your own computer without broadcasting what you're looking for to the world...

...is now "better and smart" and as they admit here, this thing has "deep integration":

"Deep integration is proof positive that the company is actually working together."

In Windows 8.1, Bing has a deeper integration. Some of this is immediately visible; other parts are more subtle. Together, they suggest that Microsoft is not the company it once was. It's a better one.

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Of course, in both of these cases, this function should be KILLED WITH FIRE!

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For those who don't get it. They didn't kill this thing with fire when it first was introduced inside Ubuntu before it naturally would start laying eggs.

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[CharlotteTheHarlot]

I didn't read all the comment pages but thankfully it seems that they are kicking Microsoft around pretty good.

Ars Technica is approaching The Verge in the diluted jack-of-all-trades competition, and is approaching NeoWin for idiotic staff and arrogance.

Judging by the comment scoring, they have quite a crowd of lurking ( or cheating ) MicroBots which also places them near NeoWin.

[!]

Sad state of affairs, I mean, Ars Technica used to be an excellent read just a few 10-12 months ago. Lately, there are a ton of moronic so called "articles" that they write and publish. All of them full of some sort of agenda. For the icing on the cake, the herd of tards below the articles spewing molten bullshit in the comments section.

Something definitely changed over there in the past months. It's like the body snatchers, they first create something nice to gather everyone and then take over it and morph it if ever so slowly into some hideous beast.

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