Slashdot’s gotten over 17,000 votes in its poll about which web browser people use on their desktop. (The current leader? Firefox, with 53% of the vote, followed by Chrome with 30%.)
But Slashdot reader koavf asks an interesting follow-up question: “What’s everyone’s go-to Plan B browser and why?”

To start the conversation, here’s how James Gelinas (a contributor at Kim Komando’s tech advice site) recently reviewed the major browsers:

He calls Chrome “a safe, speedy browser that’s compatible with nearly every page on the internet” but also says that Chrome “is notorious as a resource hog, and it can drastically slow your computer down if you have too many tabs open.”
“Additionally, the perks of having your Google Account connected to your browser can quickly turn into downsides for the privacy-minded among is. If you’re uncomfortable with your browser knowing your searching and spending behaviors, Chrome may not be the best choice for you.”

He calls Firefox “the choice for safety”.
“Predating Chrome by 6 years, Firefox was the top choice for savvy Netizens in the early Aughts. Although Chrome has captured a large segment of its user base, that doesn’t mean the Fox is bad. In fact, Mozilla is greatly appreciated by fans and analysts for its steadfast dedication to user privacy… Speedwise, Firefox isn’t a slouch either. The browser is lighter weight than Chrome and is capable of loading some websites even faster.”

He calls Apple’s Safari and Microsoft Edge “the default choice…because both of these browsers come bundled with new computers.”
“Neither one has glaring drawbacks, but they tend to lack some of the security features and extensions found in more popular browsers. Speedwise, however, both Edge and Safari are able to gain the upper hand against their competition. When it comes to startup time and functions, the apps are extremely lightweight on your system’s resources. This is because they’re part of the Mac and Window’s operating systems, respectively, and are optimized for performance in that environment.”

Finally, he gives the Tor browser an honorable mention. (“It’s still one of the best anonymous web browsers available. It’s so reliable, in fact, that people living under repressive governments often turn to it for their internet needs — installing it on covert USB sticks to use on public computers.”) And he awards a “dishonorable mention” to Internet Explorer. (“Not only is the browser no longer supported by Microsoft, but it’s also vulnerable to a host of malware and adware threats.”)

But what do Slashdot’s readers think? Putting aside your primary desktop browser — what’s your own go-to “Plan B” web browser, and why? Leave your best answers in the comments.

What’s your “backup” browser?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Ask Slashdot: What’s Your ‘Backup’ Browser?

NPR notes today’s “supercomputer-driven” weather modelling can crunch huge amounts of data to accurately forecast the weather a week in advance — pointing out that “a six-day weather forecast today is as good as a two-day forecast was in the 1970s.”

Here’s some highlights from their interview with Andrew Blum, author of The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast :

One of the things that’s happened as the scale in the system has shifted to the computers is that it’s no longer bound by past experience. It’s no longer, the meteorologists say, “Well, this happened in the past, we can expect it to happen again.” We’re more ready for these new extremes because we’re not held down by past expectations…
The models are really a kind of ongoing concern. … They run ahead in time, and then every six hours or every 12 hours, they compare their own forecast with the latest observations. And so the models in reality are … sort of dancing together, where the model makes a forecast and it’s corrected slightly by the observations that are coming in…

It’s definitely run by individual nations — but individual nations with their systems tied together… It’s a 150-year-old system of governments collaborating with each other as a global public good… The positive example from last month was with Cyclone Fani in India. And this was a very similar storm to one 20 years ago, that tens of thousands of people had died. This time around, the forecast came far enough in advance and with enough confidence that the Indian government was able to move a million people out of the way.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – How The Advance Weather Forecast Got Good

Lancaster University has announced a “universal computer memory” breakthrough combining the fast, low-energy storage of DRAM memory with the robustness of flash memory. They’re now envisioning ultra-low energy consumption computers which would never need to boot up — and can “instantaneously and imperceptibly” slip into an energy-saving sleep mode.
Long-time Slashdot reader Hrrrg pointed us to this announcement:
A U.S. patent has been awarded for the electronic memory device with another patent pending, while several companies have expressed an interest or are actively involved in the research. The inventors of the device used quantum mechanics to solve the dilemma of choosing between stable, long-term data storage and low-energy writing and erasing… [Specifically, “by exploiting the quantum-mechanical properties of an asymmetric triple resonant-tunnelling barrier.”]

Physics Professor Manus Hayne of Lancaster University said, “Our device has an intrinsic data storage time that is predicted to exceed the age of the Universe, yet it can record or delete data using 100 times less energy than DRAM.”
The announcement predicts the technology could reduce peak power consumption in data centers by 20%.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Researchers Claim Robust ‘Universal Computer Memory’ Breakthrough

An anonymous reader quotes CNET:
A former Equifax executive who sold his stock in the consumer credit reporting firm before it announced a massive data breach has been sentenced to four months in federal prison for insider trading. Jun Ying, former chief information officer for the company’s US Information Solutions, was also ordered to pay about $117,000 in restitution and a $55,000 fine, the US Attorney’s Office said Thursday… Ying sold all his shares in Equifax, making more than $950,000. Ying’s insider trading happened 10 days before Equifax publicly announced its breach.
Ying, 44, is the second Equifax employee convicted of insider trading related to the data breach. Sudhakar Reddy Bonthu, a former Equifax software development manager, pleaded guilty in 2018 to using the insider information to make more than $75,000 on the stock market. Bonthu was ordered to serve eight months home confinement, pay a $50,000 fine and forfeit the proceeds from the stock sale.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak said that Ying had “thought of his own financial gain before the millions of people exposed in this data breach even knew they were victims.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Former Equifax CIO Sentenced to 4 Months in Prison for Insider Training

Slashdot reader MojoKid writes:

AMD announced its 3rd Gen Ryzen 3000 series processors at Computex earlier this month and the company’s Zen 2 architecture is promised to bring single threaded performance parity with Intel but exceedingly better multithreaded throughput in content creation and other high-end workloads.

Intel has obviously taken notice of AMD’s Zen 2 advancements and nowhere is its renewed keen focus more evident than in an internal memo that just leaked out to public venues. The memo was originally posted on Intel’s internal “Circuit News” employee portal and it’s quite revealing. The memo, which is entitled, “AMD competitive profile: Where we go toe-to-toe, why they are resurgent, which chips of ours beat theirs”, is a surprisingly frank look at how AMD has managed to get the best of Intel, at least currently, and how the company should manage this renewed or “resurgent” competitive threat.
What’s most surprising about the memo, which was penned by Circuit News Managing Editor Walden Kirsch, is how flattering it is in general to AMD, pointing out that it was the best-performing stock on the S&P 500 for 2018. In terms of Zen 2 and AMD’s Ryzen 3000 series, the author notes, “Intel 9th Gen Core processors are likely to lead AMD’s Ryzen-based products on lightly threaded productivity benchmarks as well as many gaming benchmarks,” Kirsch writes in the memo. “For multi-threaded workloads, such as heavy content creation workloads, AMD’s Matisse is expected to lead.” All in, the internal memo is a rather insightful and well-reasoned look at the threat that AMD poses to Intel and how the company might respond.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Leaked Internal Intel Memo Acknowledges ‘Resurgent’, ‘Formidable’ AMD