Slashdot Mirror
Startup Turns Fixing Your Grandma's PC Into a Game
First time accepted submitter thecrazyivan writes "As companies like Reddit and Foursquare have shown, Internet users enjoy earning points in arbitrary social games. So why not apply that competitive motivation to something useful, like cleaning up the world's PCs? A startup called Jumpshot is raising funds to launch a new, friendlier form of computer security. Jumpshot is still in its infancy, but it seems to have excited plenty of users with its potential: The company launched a Kickstarter project and almost immediately raised nearly three times its funding goal."
http://www2.b3ta.com/realistic-internet-simulator/
So people are going to let strangers delete files on their computers. And this is supposed to *improve* security? Ummm, is it only me who sees the extreme irony in this plan?
You can do it, use VBScript my friend.
8 meg of RAM was the minimum requirement to run Win95, not typical, which I would say was closer to 32 meg. Puppy Linux will run in 16 meg of RAM with a HD swap file (a little slow of course) and I can't think of a more user friendly OS than the ol' Pupster.
c:\> findstr /?
...]]
/B Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line.
/E Matches pattern if at the end of a line.
/L Uses search strings literally.
/R Uses search strings as regular expressions.
Searches for strings in files.
FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
[/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
strings [[drive:][path]filename[
Or even better get her an IPAD.
Sorry, but not everyone wants to compile kernels and dealing with a driver breaking Xorg or the UI of Unity/Gnome-Shell. Asking her to find repositories for xfce defeats the purpose as she would not understand that nor need too.
http://saveie6.com/
Hey, I want in! I can create a kickstarter project and give it a cool name. It'll save the world! Enhance productivity! Save kittens! It's a social media internet plugin with synergistic fladoodles to map space age polymers with THE CLOUD for amazing geotargeted ad space and unlimited business opportunities for expansion and growth. And it's written in haskell and assembly, motherfucker, years ahead of it's time. I have my business plan all thought out:
1. Raise money through kickstarter
2. Finish writing business plan
3. ?
4. Profit!
sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
First off Grannies barely know how to use a computer at all. How would they find this site? Do they even know what malware is? For those that do they are terrified of clicking links as we told them ads and links are bad right?
The last few years infections are so bad the most effective way is to do a full rewipe. Many corporations do that too even for minor software issues as they do not have time to fix it. Rootkits are bad and permanent slowdowns result even if the bug is removed due to the damage.
It sounds to me this guy was desperate to get funding as there are a million mycleanpc or wecleanyourpcee clones out there and no VC would fund his startup unless he did something different.
http://saveie6.com/
It's a Wall Street Conspiracy to condition kids to work for points instead of money. On the other hand, it could be the much needed push to transition us to Star Trek economics, which would be really bad for Wall Street. So this game is really like a metaphor for life. The Man wants you to work for free, until everybody does work for free and nobody can afford to pay The Man any more. At which point there is a huge recession, and the next thing you know, you are going back in time to try and save a whale.
This game sounds fun.
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
Almost modded you "flamebait" for that one...
So as far as I can tell, even after reading the so called technical explanation, it reboots the computer into Linux and then downloads magic buzzword driven pixie dust from the cloud, thus allowing it to solve all your computer problems.
Hmm I bet emacs would enable to use the webcam and include photos of her grandkids in an email using an automated lisp macro.
You forgot to mention the cute little USB guys.
c:\> findstr /?
/R Uses search strings as regular expressions.
[...]
But findstr is no sed replacement - it can't do search and replace as far as I know.
Also if you're using /R you'll most probably also want to use /C, or findstr will split the string at every space into multiple regexes. I found that very confusing when I used findstr /R for the first time.
When I have to fix the PC, I just want to fix the PC. Please spare me any attempt to make a boring game out of it.
Instant search is a wonderful tool. Basically, it is always searching and indexing your hard drive, in order to save you several nanoseconds on the rare occasion that you actually need to search for something.
Instant search, or indexing, is among the first bits of trash that I turn off, if and when I install a Windows operating system.
Would you leave your car idling in the garage all night long, so that when you come out in the morning, you won't need to defrost the windshield?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
It's really not a game, just a reward system, similar to Slashdot karma.
The removal concept isn't new either; if you use any OS (typically Windows PE or Linux live) that isn't the infected one, it makes everything much easier. The most interesting thing about all of it is their patent-pending "one-time modification to the Windows bootloader". Not exactly something you want to get wrong, but I think it's a serious step in the right direction.
Troll? What Windows 95 era computer with Linux is going to become a powerful workstation.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
You don't need to be an apple fanboy to suggest/buy an iPad.
My father was a programmer in the 1970s. He hired the guy who invented the BBS for a project he was working on for an IBM 370 mainframe. He was a rebel and was one of the first IT managers to recommend switching from mainframe to IBM XT PCs with DOS before it was fashionable.
What does he prefer to use today? An IPAD. He knows how to turn on his aging XP machine but he does not know the newest fads and is paranoid about malware but is smart enough to use Firefox after reading about it in the New York Times. He is considered a neophyte today and does not know what HTML 5 is nor cares. He does not know hold old XP is and refused to upgrade. He can barely work Itunes. He doesn't need to learn or know anymore.
An IPAD lets him browse the news and email. That is all he needs and he likes the fact that he can take everywhere and it is much faster and less complicated than a desktop. Easy, simple, secure.
Your brain wipes that stuff when you no longer use it or have a need to anymore.
http://saveie6.com/
Instant search is a wonderful tool. Basically, it is always searching and indexing your hard drive, in order to save you several nanoseconds on the rare occasion that you actually need to search for something.
Instant search, or indexing, is among the first bits of trash that I turn off, if and when I install a Windows operating system.
Would you leave your car idling in the garage all night long, so that when you come out in the morning, you won't need to defrost the windshield?
That was true with Vista. Windows 7 is much much less aggresive. If you are not saving files it does not continually re-index. On a brand new system it may do the search for a few seconds. My laptop which constantly swapped with Vista hardly ever pings the hard drive like mad anymore with indexing. It only does so when it gets low on ram.
I stuck with Vista and held my nose on this machine because I had 90 files school and work related and when taking notes studying on my own I would lose track of things discussed in class and in my own notes from lecture. Instant search was a life saver and the number one feature for business use over XP in my opinion. They are great for accountants and sales people too with lots of files.
Turn it on for a day? After 2 minutes it wont peg your HD that much at all. Vista just did a very crappy job with it.
http://saveie6.com/
Install computer with windows - crapware from a disk. install all updates possible, get all the basic need to have software make image, either hard disk or just restore point
when grandma starts sending out korean bride/porn links, restore, have dinner. Move on with life.
I was a computer tech since the days of the 386, till about 2005 ... the only time anyone was requiring that I repair their shited up OS instead of doing it the better way of reinstalling fresh, was when they were loaded down with pirate software that someone else installed for them with a bum copy of windows, no disk's
Its a waste of everyone's time, the machine still runs like ass, the virus / malware comes back, you end up spending a shit ton of time just for the fucker to come back a week later, with an angry customer threatening you cause their computer is back to shit out of luck all because of some 200$ program they copied from work cant be lost or they will die
fuck that, and fuck them
Would you leave your car idling in the garage all night long, so that when you come out in the morning, you won't need to defrost the windshield?
For those of us from the midwest or Canada: is this some sort of trick question?
But findstr is no sed replacement - it can't do search and replace as far as I know.
And as we know, THIS is the reasons most home users prefer linux.