Month: April 2017

Windows Vista's Start menu and its integrated Search box. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Today Windows Update sees the first mainstream release of the Windows 10 Creators Update and the last public patches, ever, for Windows Vista.

Released to manufacturing on November 8, 2006 and shipping to consumers on January 30, 2007, Windows Vista had a troubled development and a troubled life once it shipped. But it was an essential Windows release, laying the groundwork for Windows 7 and beyond. For all the criticism that Vista and Microsoft received, the company never really backtracked on the contentious aspects of the release. After a while, those aspects just stopped being contentious.

Troubled development

Windows Vista was originally meant to be grander in scope and ambition. Microsoft's Longhorn project envisaged a new database-like file system known as WinFS, a radically new development model and set of APIs based on .NET, and a 3D accelerated user interface built using these APIs.

A November 2014 rally at the White House. Public input played an important role in the net neutrality debate. (credit: Stephen Melkisethian)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai reportedly wants to get rid of the FCC's net neutrality rules and replace them with "voluntary" commitments from ISPs. The theory goes something like this: as long as ISPs commit to protecting net neutrality in their terms of service, the FCC can eliminate its rules while the Federal Trade Commission would punish ISPs that fail to comply with their net neutrality promises.

Under ideal circumstances, this could prevent ISPs from committing egregious violations of net neutrality principles. But "voluntary" isn't just a euphemism—ISPs would only be bound by net neutrality requirements as long as they promise to follow them.

Even if all ISPs put the promise into their terms of service agreements, it's not clear what would stop them from removing the promise later. If any new ISPs enter the market, it's also unclear what would compel them to make the same promises. And those aren’t the only problems that would make net neutrality enforcement more difficult under Pai's proposal.

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our partners at TechBargains, the Dealmaster is here with a big list of deals for your shopping needs. The top item this week is a $10 promo credit on Amazon when you sign up for a 30-day free trial to Amazon Music. You'll need to enter your credit card number for the trial, but the service is easy enough to cancel in your Amazon settings. Then you get a free $10! We also have the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller back in stock, along with 35 percent off SanDisk SSDs, flash memory, and USB drives.

• Amazon Music Offer: $10 Amazon Promo Credit w/ 30-Day Free Trial Amazon Music Sign Up (New users only - easy to cancel in settings).
• Dell Inspiron 15 Core i7-7500u Kaby Lake 1080p 15.6" Laptop w/ AMD Radeon R7 4GB GPU for $573.99 (use code: TENOFF - list price $749.99).
• 50" Vizio P-Series 4K UltraHD Home Theater Display w/ HDR Vision, 6" Tablet Remote and $300 Dell gift card for $849.99 (list price $999.99).
• Bowers & Wilkins P3 Wireless Bluetooth Headphones (REFURB) for $63.99 (use code: SALE3 - list price $80).
• Nintendo Switch Pro Controller for $69 (Back in Stock & Shipping).
• Toucan Outdoor HD Security Camera (Powered via Light Socket Outlet) w/ Siren & 2-Way Audio for $134.99 (list price $199.99).
• 1TB SanDisk Ultra II 1TB Solid State Drive for $249.99 (list price $329.99).
• 128GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSDXC Flash Card for $32.99 (list price $42.95).
• 16.4FT Flexible LED Light Strip for $3.99 (use code: 8V8G5RCB - list price $19.99).
• Udemy $10 Online Courses: AWS Solutions Architect, An Entire MBA in 1 Course, iOS App Development and more.
• Lowest price! TurboTax Deluxe + State for $34.89 (Premier for $48 | Home & Business for $51).

Laptop and desktop computers

• Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Intel Core i5-6300HQ Quad SKYLAKE 15.6" 4K Touch Gaming Laptop w/ 4GB GTX 960M $734.99 (use Guest Checkout & Apply code: April50Off - list price $999.99).
• Dell PowerEdge T30 Intel Pentium G4400 Dual-Core Mini Tower Server for $199 (use code: 199T30 - list price $379).
• Dell Inspiron 15 Core i7-7500u Kaby Lake 1080p 15.6" Laptop w/ AMD Radeon R7 4GB GPU for $573.99 (use code: TENOFF - list price $749.99).
• Back in stock! Amazon Fire 7 Tablet for Kids 16GB w/ 2yr Warranty, Free Case, and 1yr Amazon FreeTime for $79.99 (list price $99.99).

For more desktop computer deals, visit the TechBargains site.

The Google Assistant, Google's voice assistant that powers the Google app on Android phones, tablets, and Google Home, has just gotten a major downgrade. In a move reminiscent of all the forced and user-hostile Google+ integrations, Google has gutted the Google Assistant's shopping list functionality in order to turn it into a big advertisement for Google's shopping site, Google Express.

The shopping list has been a major feature of the Google Assistant. You can say "Add milk to my shopping list," and the Google Assistant would dutifully store this information somewhere. The shopping list used to live in Google Keep. Keep is Google's primary note-taking app, making it a natural home for the shopping list with lots of useful tools and management options. Now the shopping list lives in Google Express. Express is an online shopping site, and it has no business becoming a dedicated place to store a shopping list that probably has nothing to do with Google's online marketplace.

Enlarge / Maat Mons, one of the volcanoes of Venus, in a model created with radar data from the Magellan mission. (credit: NASA/JPL)

As we've explored the Solar System, some items we're familiar with from Earth's geology have kept appearing in new places. Glaciers, volcanoes, and geysers have all been found on other planets and moons. With all that's familiar, it's easy to forget that one of the defining features of Earth's geology—plate tectonics—is notably absent. There are some hints of it on the icy crust of Europa, but it would have to be powered by a different mechanism there.

If there was an obvious candidate for hosting plates, it would be Venus, similar in size and composition to the Earth and home to active volcanoes. But most of Venus' surface appears to have been there for hundreds of millions of years with no sign of the tectonic recycling we have on Earth. New research, however, suggests that some of Venus' crust does get recycled, just through a radically different process—one that may have been active early in Earth's history.

While we've been able to map Venus' surface, the planet's thick atmosphere has limited what we know about its surface, and we've not had the sort of repeated imaging that can reveal active geology. Even though we know its surface is littered with volcanoes, for example, we're not currently certain whether any of them are active. But crater counts suggest that most of the material on the surface is hundreds of millions of years old and had been put in place by massive eruptions.