Site news: new commenting and login system is on the loose
If you noticed a little wonkiness here and there on Ars Friday afternoon, don't panic! We've been transitioning our user database and comments over to a new system we've been working on.
We'll expound on all the benefits of the new system and perhaps some of the technical details later on, but over the weekend we're more interested in learning if anyone runs into any weird bugs on their systems. We've been beta testing it locally for a while and we're satisfied that the system is ready for wider use.
This article (and all articles from here on out) will be the only articles using the new commenting system. All posts prior to this one will use the old AJAX system.
Here are the top-line details of the new system:
- New comment threads use an absolute minimum of JavaScript. No longer do you need JavaScript enabled to read or make comments on the site. The only feature which currently requires JavaScript is editing a post; we'll be looking for ways to eliminate this in the future.
- There still is a tiny bit of JavaScript, however. We use it for editing, like I said, and for when you click on the "reply" links. This will prepopulate the text area with the text of the post you're replying to, replete with the right UBB tags.
- We've also moved to a more reliable, stable, and tweakable backend for our user database and profiles. This means you'll be logging in and managing your profiles at a different location—arstechnica.com/civis, instead of civis.arstechnica.com. We think this will eliminate a lot of minor irritations you may have experienced in the past. The coolest thing? We have a lot more flexibility in how we expand these types of services in the future.
- While we're talking about flexibility, our new system will let us more easily and quickly explore new commenting features in a way we weren't able to do before. We'll also be able to run down commenting and user database bugs a lot more easily now.
- The first example of the above is that you should now see comment counts on articles and all over the site beginning with this article. This was something we couldn't easily do before and which was made easy by this switch.
That's all for now. If you're running into any reproducible bugs or simply cannot login to the new system, please e-mail us at civis@arstechnica.com or let us know in the comments—assuming you can comment.
In addition, if you have any specific questions about what we're up to here, leave those questions in the comments (or e-mail us at the aforementioned address) and we'll do our best to answer.
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EU seeks Street View picture purge
Google has had a very tough month in the EU, and it isn't getting any better. So far, its executives have been convicted in Italian courts and an investigation has been launched into whether the company's search rankings are anticompetitive. Now, a different service has found itself in the crosshairs of European regulators: Street View. The EU has been uneasy about Street View from the very beginning, and several Europeans nation has taken action against it. For Street View, this week has been déjà vu all over again.
On the continental level, the Associated Press obtained a letter from EU regulators to Google in which they expressed concern about the company's retention policy for Street View images (Reuters is reporting this as well). It's undoubtedly fairly expensive to completely crawl a city or country, which would make it advantageous to retain images for as long as possible. The downside to this is that the images can go stale—buildings are torn down, new ones built, and businesses come and go. Google has apparently decided, undoubtedly after running the numbers through one algorithm or another, that its ideal retention time for Street View images is a year.
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Parallels cuts virtualization down to the bare metal on Xserve
Parallels, known for its virtualization solutions for both desktops and servers, has announced another option for creating virtual servers on Apple's Xserve. The recently announced Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition lets admins create Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux virtual servers without the overhead of running Mac OS X Server as a host OS.
Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition utilizes the comany's own hypervisor to provide both hardware virtualization for creating independent virtual machines running either Mac OS X Server, Windows, or Linux, as well as OS virtualization for running Linux-based Virtuozzo containers. An included virtual machine migration tool makes it easy to move virtual machines from one physical machine to another, or encapsulate entire environments from a physical server into a virtual machine. Configuration templates enable creating new virtual servers with a just a few mouse clicks.
"The 33 percent year-on-year increase in sales of Macintosh computers reported by Apple this quarter indicates a growing interest in Apple hardware," Parallels CEO Serguei Beloussov said in a statement. Beloussov added that the product allows IT admins to capitalize on Mac OS X server while also having the flexibility to run Windows and Linux workloads.
One interesting application of the Bare Metal Edition is that it enables Web hosting companies to offer Mac OS X Server-based virtual private servers. VPSs are usually one option in between an expensive dedicated server and the more common, inexpensive shared Web hosting accounts. Hosting company Go Daddy announced yesterday during Parallels Summit 2010 conference that it will begin offering Mac OS X Server VPS service to its customers using Bare Metal Edition.
Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition can run on any Intel-based Mac that supports VT-x, though it is recommended for Xserves or Mac Pros for the maximum benefit. If you have an Xserve or Mac Pro that you've been considering targeting for virtualization, you can download a free trial version today. Standard licensing, which includes Parallels Virtual Automation and one year of Gold support, costs $1,999.
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Congress told that Comcast/NBC merger a big crapshoot
Congress held another hearing on Comcast's proposed buyout of NBC Universal on Thursday, and as at earlier gatherings, the critics came out swinging. The merger will cost jobs, Communications Workers of America President Larry Roberts warned the House Judiciary Committee. As a result of debt incurred by the transaction, he contended, "the new entity will be under intense pressure to cut costs... Absent firm commitments from Comcast and NBC to maintain current employment levels, there is no reason to believe that the Comcast/NBC joint venture will not follow this pattern."
Meanwhile Jean Prewitt of the Independent Film and Television Alliance told the Committee that "what is good for Comcast and NBC is not good for the American public." She urged the government not to bless the merger without strong commitments that independent filmmakers will have access to the new network.
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Three-strikes petition gets attention of 10 Downing Street
In a sign of just how charged the debate over Internet disconnections has become, the UK Prime Minister's office has weighed in on the matter. "We will not terminate the accounts of infringers," said a statement from 10 Downing Street. "It is very hard to see how this could be deemed proportionate except in the most extreme—and therefore probably criminal—cases."
Still, the UK government remains open to "account suspensions." Is it a distinction without a difference?
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Cars and guns: General Knoxx for Borderlands brings the pain
The newest package of content for Borderlands has been released on both the PC and the PlayStation Network after its launch on the Xbox 360. The content picks up the story where the game left off—something of a deviation after the side-stories of the last two content packs—and "the Secret Armory of General Knoxx" will give you quite a challenge.
So what's included? Hours of content. A new vehicle that can seat four players. New weapons. New bad guys... including enemies that ride Skags. Characters you know and love will pop up throughout the story, and they're put to good use. Above all, this is funny stuff, and it shows that Gearbox is learning how to best take advantage of the world it has created. The downloadable content is getting better and better, giving the game some impressive legs.
For $10, this is a no-brainer, and it's great to jump back into the game with everything feeling fresh and new. Here's the kicker, though: the content may raise the level cap to 61, but to play the content you'll need to be in a specific point in your game. You'll need to be less than level 40 to for the enemies to be a challenge in the first playthrough, or above level 50 to stand a chance in your second playthrough. Why is that a problem? My character was in the mid-40s when I downloaded the content. It was a choice between either blowing through it, or getting stomped.
Still, this is a great amount of content, an extension to the story, and a great value. There is no reason not to pick it up.
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Recommendation algorithm wants to show you something new
When it comes to recommendation systems, everybody's looking to increase accuracy: the Netflix Prize was awarded last July for an algorithm that improved the accuracy of the service's recommendation algorithm by 10 percent. However, computer scientists are finding a new metric to improve upon: recommendation diversity. In a paper that will be released by PNAS, a group of scientists are pushing the limits of recommendation systems, creating new algorithms that will make more tangential recommendations to users, which can help expand their interests, which will increase the longevity and utility of the recommendation system itself.
Accuracy has long been the most prized measurement in recommending content, like movies, links, or music. However, computer scientists note that this type of system can narrow the field of interest for each user the more it is used. Improved accuracy can result in a strong filtering based on a user's interests, until the system can only recommend a small subset of all the content it has to offer.
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Apple files alt iPhone input, physical "key" login patents
Two recently published patent applications from Apple caught our attention for their craftiness. One shows how to use the iPhone's camera as an alternate gesture input method; the other details a system using a uniquely shaped signet to log in to a computer.
The first patent, "Camera as Input Interface," adds alternate input methods for a touchscreen phone, particularly useful when the touchscreen is pressed against your face during a phone call. The patent describes a method using the built-in camera as a gesture detector, recognizing "swiping" up, down, left, or right using a finger. The gestures could be used to control voicemail, for instance, by swiping "forward" or "back" to skip to the next or previous message. The input could be augmented with accelerometer data to recognize a "tap" as well, according to the patent application.
MacRumors notes that Apple has filed a number of alternate input methods for the iPhone, including a rear surface or an outer bezel that are also touch-sensitive.
The second patent, "Shape Detecting Input Device," describes a system using a touchscreen to recognize uniquely shaped signets, and to perform actions associated with a specific shape. One application would be to log in a unique user based on the recognized shape. This is similar to the now-defunct practice of stamping a seal from a signet ring into sealing wax to verify a document's authenticity or source. If such a signet were indeed on a ring, it could also be used to unlock an iPhone.
Apple's patent suggests that unique signet shapes could be embedded in a ring, a tag, a card, a stamp, or even a key. Other suggested actions initiated by the signet shape recognition include configuring a system to a unique user's needs, launching certain applications, or encrypting or decrypting messages or other content, making the signet like a modern, high-tech decoder ring.
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