prisoninmate writes: Today is the last day of the Ubuntu Online Summit 2016, and the Ubuntu developers discussed the future of the Ubuntu Desktop for Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) and beyond. It looks like Snaps (Snappy) and Unity 8 with Mir are slowly conquering the Ubuntu Desktop, at least according to Canonical's Will Cooke, Ubuntu Desktop Manager. Work has already begun on pushing these new and modern technologies to the Ubuntu Desktop, as Ubuntu 16.04 LTS has just received support for installing Snaps from the Ubuntu Snappy Store. Canonical's Will Cooke has mentioned the fact that the Unity 7 desktop enters its twilight years, which means that it gets fewer features and it's being reduced to only critical and OEM work. This is because Unity 8 desktop is getting all the attention now, and it will become the default desktop session somewhere after Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After writing off his chances at the start of the campaign, Republicans must now accept Donald Trump as their candidate.

After writing off his chances at the start of the campaign, Republicans must now accept Donald Trump as their candidate.

An anonymous reader writes: Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have been all the rage lately, as many claim they are healthier than traditional tobacco cigarettes. Since they are so relatively new to the market, the government hasn't been able to effectively study them and determine whether or not they should be regulated like traditional cigarettes and smokeless tobacco -- until now. The FDA has released their final rule Thursday, broadening the definition of tobacco products to include e-cigarettes, hookahs, pipe tobacco, premium cigars, little cigars and other products. "Going forward, the FDA will be able to review new tobacco products not yet on the market, help prevent misleading claims by tobacco product manufacturers, evaluate the ingredients of tobacco products and how they are made, and communicate the potential risks of tobacco products," the agency said. The new rule will go into effect immediately. According to CDC data from 2014, e-cigarette use among adults has gone up about 12.6%. People under the age of 18 will no longer be able to buy these products with the new regulations, and the products will be required to be sold in child-resistant packaging. In addition, the government will now be able to have a say in what goes into the products. Previously, there was no law mandating that manufacturers tell you what you are inhaling when trying their products.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes: According to Pew Research Center, there's an increasingly growing fear among Americans about cyberattacks. In fact, it's the second most feared entity to them, the first being ISIS. The terrorist group is scary by design, relying on propaganda videos and ultra-violent attacks to spread fear and project power. But coming in second right after the terrorist group was the prospect of country-on-country cyberwar: a digital raid to steal another government's information, for example, or a large-scale attack on a nation's electrical grid. Cyberattacks are a major threat in the minds of 72 percent of Americans, and a minor threat to another 22 percent. Cyberwar hasn't been on Americans' minds to this degree since 2013. That year, for the first time, Americans ranked cyberattacks as a top threat, placing it second after the threat from Islamic extremists like al-Qaeda. But in the intervening years, Americans turned their attention to nuclear threats.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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LinkedIn to support Instant Articles?

davewiner

There are a few troubling things about this Buzzfeed piece saying that LinkedIn is creating their "own version" of Instant Articles.

1. Why their own version? Why not just use the one we're already creating for Facebook? We don't need to have a proliferation of mostly-compatible feed formats. IA is great. The guy who goes second gets to set the standard. Don't fork, emulate. Embrace without extending.
2. And why just just with publishers? Why not talk with bloggers? I think ultimately this will be a similar kind of mistake to the ones that political parties made. Publishers are like big donors. Bloggers are equivalent to voters and grassroots organizers. 
3. The bloggers haven't gone away, big platform people, it's just that you don't see them because your platforms aren't accommodating us. If you tweak things, just a little, you'll find we're even better friends than the big publishers. Get your thinking out of the 20th century box. 

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LinkedIn to support Instant Articles?

davewiner

There are a few troubling things about this Buzzfeed piece saying that LinkedIn is creating their "own version" of Instant Articles.

1. Why their own version? Why not just use the one we're already creating for Facebook? We don't need to have a proliferation of mostly-compatible feed formats. IA is great. The guy who goes second gets to set the standard. Don't fork, emulate. Embrace without extending.
2. And why just just with publishers? Why not talk with bloggers? I think ultimately this will be a similar kind of mistake to the ones that political parties made. Publishers are like big donors. Bloggers are equivalent to voters and grassroots organizers. 
3. The bloggers haven't gone away, big platform people, it's just that you don't see them because your platforms aren't accommodating us. If you tweak things, just a little, you'll find we're even better friends than the big publishers. Get your thinking out of the 20th century box. 

Perl module for accessing Sailthru's API

Perl module for accessing Sailthru's API