Daily Archives: September 22, 2016

China Confirms Its Space Station Is Falling Back to Earth

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In a press conference on Wednesday, Chinese officials appear to have confirmed what many observers have long suspected: that China is no longer in control of its space station.

China’s Tiangong-1 space station has been orbiting the planet for about 5 years now, but recently it was decommissioned and the Chinese astronauts returned to the surface. In a press conference last week, China announced that the space station would be falling back to earth at some point in late 2017.

Source: China Confirms Its Space Station Is Falling Back to Earth

Stop Piracy? Legal Alternatives Beat Legal Threats, Research Shows

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Threatening file-sharers with high fines or even prison sentences is not the best way to stop piracy. New research published by UK researchers shows that perceived risk has no effect on people’s file-sharing habits. Instead, the entertainment industries should focus on improving the legal options, so these can compete with file-sharing.

Source: Stop Piracy? Legal Alternatives Beat Legal Threats, Research Shows – TorrentFreak

The movie industry understood this better than the music industry. The music industry decided to try to sue everyone on the planet (including, funnily enough, themselves). The movie industry solution involved releasing movies on the same day globally, going to DVD faster after movies were out of the cinema and decreasing the price of DVDs (with them going on sale fairly quickly after). Netflix etc are also part of this flexible policy.

Microsoft deletes Windows 10 nagware from Windows 7 and 8

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“This update removes the Get Windows 10 app and other software related to the Windows 10 free upgrade offer that expired on July 29, 2016,” Microsoft’s article says, advising that no action other than a restart will be required to do the deed.

Source: Microsoft deletes Windows 10 nagware from Windows 7 and 8

phew! I can start just updating my windows again now, without worrying about it suddenly becoming spyware for MS.

Some Lenovo PCs can’t run Linux

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Linux users are worried that some of Lenovo’s PCs, such as variants of the Yoga 710 and Yoga 900, aren’t allowing them to install their preferred operating system. They note that the systems’ solid-state drives use a RAID mode that Linux doesn’t understand. That’s unpleasant enough, but Lenovo’s initial handling of complaints didn’t help. Its staff locked support forum threads discussing the topic, and a Lenovo Product Expert on Best Buy claims that a Yoga 900’s use of a pure, Signature Edition take on Windows 10 Home meant that it was “locked per our agreement with Microsoft.” If that was true, it’d be pretty damning — it’d suggest that at least some Signature Edition systems are purposefully set up to exclude non-Windows platforms.

Source: Some Lenovo PCs can’t run Linux (update: Microsoft response)

Ouch Lenovo!