Microsoft pushes out surprise Surface Pro 3 firmware update for better business security [Update]
Microsoft has released a surprise second firmware update for the Surface Pro 3 this month. This software download is designed primarily for business and enterprise users to offer them better security for the 12-inch tablet.
You don’t get to play the gender card to promote piss-poor writing
When you use “People are only attacking me because I’m a woman” as a marketing tool, you hurt every other female professional out there on the Internet.
A tweet today got me irrationally, stupidly, Peter Cohen-levels of angry. Namely, this tweet by Quartz writer Emma-Kate Symons.
Cult of Mac attacks! Male Apple worshippers on warpath after my point of view piece mocking their Messiah for @qz http://t.co/wITexTAwff
— Emma-Kate Symons (@eksymons) March 25, 2015
Now, I’ve seen and personally experienced the wrath that comes from angry jerks with Opinions on the Internet, so I can’t necessarily prove that Symons wasn’t getting gendered attacks the likes of “Stop writing this drivel and go back to the kitchen.”
But it’s the way she promotes it like a newspaper headline that infuriates me.
“Look, Internet! I was right! The Mac fanboys ARE a cult, and they’re after me! Read my piece quickly before they figure out some hacking magic to tear me down.”
Symons doesn’t link to abusive tweets or post horrible email screenshots in that tweet. She doesn’t treat her harassment as serious, or concerning. Instead, she tells Twitter of her harassment the way she’s promoted any other number of stories on her feed: With an inciting exclamation point and inflammatory words.
No, I can’t say that Symons wasn’t harassed for her piss-poor article comparing the new book Becoming Steve Jobs with the ever-popular “Apple is a cult religion” tag line. I’d believe it if she said she was, because people say some real shit to women in this line of work if they disagree with them.
But based on the publicly available tweets I’ve seen, including Gruber’s 6:43PM question over her reading of the Jobs book that seems to have set her timeline off, the only thing Symons was being harassed over was her inflammatory click-bait writing.
It’s entirely possible that she was being sent email after email of insulting, disgusting remarks on her personal life, and that, not Gruber’s question and the subsequent outpouring, was what prompted her 9PM tweet complaining about “male Apple worshippers.” She has every right to be infuriated over personally-insulting emails.
If that tweet was based entirely around Symons trying to stir up further controversy for her article by promoting it as something the “Cult of Mac” was attacking her for, however — that really gets my goat.
There are women whose lives are being threatened for speaking their minds on tech topics. There are women who every day get unspeakably disgusting emails and Tweets about their bodies, their lives, their children, and their spouses. There are women who have left this field because the harassment is too much to bear.
For a woman in technology to instead use those events as an inspirational buzzword to get her more clicks for a terrible piece of writing? That, to me, is almost as despicable as the jerks who send women terrible emails in the first place.
I could be totally off-base in reading Symons’s tweet. But the fact that I can’t tell whether or not this is true harassment or a publicity stunt — that’s what hurts the most. It makes it that much harder to separate the wolf cries from the true emergencies. And in an age when we’re fighting like hell to validate the struggles that women do have in the tech industry, muddled messages like these hold us back.
Todoist has a bright future on Windows with TaskCrunch acquisition
Todoist is a hugely popular, cross-platform task managing service that hasn’t traditionally had a great presence on Windows. That looks set to change with the company’s acquisition of TaskCrunch, a third-party client that syncs with Todoist, and the developer behind it.
Jan Kratochvil will become Todoist’s first full-time developer for Windows.
Windows 10 preview users can now benchmark their DirectX 12 PC with new test
Futuremark has updated the Advanced Edition and Professional Edition versions of its 3DMark benchmarking software that adds an API Overhead feature test that supports DirectX 12 in the latest 10041 build of the Windows 10 Technical Preview.
MLB Manager 2015 lets you micromanage your way to baseball victory
In MLB Manager 2015, you’ll guide your favorite Major League Baseball teams through their seasons with careful micromanagement. Set rosters, trade players, and more as you try to bring victory to your franchise.
MLB Manager 2015 is officially licensed by Major League Baseball, and uses all of the franchises you know and love in the game. Each team has the projected 40-man roster that they’ll have on Opening Day 2015. You can set lineups, depth charts, pitching staff, and call shots as games play out. You can even handle contract signings, negotiate trades, and promote players from the minor leagues.
In addition to playing through an MLB season, you can also play in one of four fictional baseball setups, as well as in historical MLB games. Historical seasons come as in-app purchases. For $0.99, you can buy one season, while $4.99 will net you a 10-season bundle. You can also grab all 114 available historical season at once for $19.99.
MLB Manager 2015 is available from the App Store right now.
- $4.99 – Download Now
MLB Manager 2015 lets you micromanage your way to baseball victory
In MLB Manager 2015, you’ll guide your favorite Major League Baseball teams through their seasons with careful micromanagement. Set rosters, trade players, and more as you try to bring victory to your franchise.
Nexus 6 now on sale in six more countries via the Google Store
Google’s Nexus 6 smartphone is now available for purchase in six more countries via the company’s Google Store site.
The new markets for the 6-inch Android 5.0 Lollipop smartphone are Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, and Portugal.
TouchMousePointer gives you a virtual trackpad for your Windows tablet
Small icons and menus with rollover effects are a couple of things that Windows tablet users can have difficulties with. There’s a free solution that can help and it’s called TouchMousePointer. It’s a virtual trackpad on your screen. It’s especially helpful when you’re in desktop mode on Windows 8.1 navigating through the control panel or Internet Explorer settings. It also works with Windows 10 Technical Preview.
Want to see it in action? Check out our hands-on video.
Windows 10 10041 preview build gets another update to fix sign-in bug
Microsoft is rolling out yet another small update to the 10041 build of its Windows 10 technical preview. It’s been created to fix a bug that apparently has been keeping some users from signing into the OS.









