1. Apple will release several cool new products.
2. A Windows security hole will be discovered.
3. Internet use will increase.
4. Zune will not overtake the iPod.
5. The prices of hard drives and DRAM will continue to fall.
6. The circulation of print newspapers will continue to decline.
7. Interest groups will raise a stink over violence in video games.
8. A major technology company will introduce a new form of DRM...which will fail miserably.
9. The next version of Mac OS X will be visually and technically superior to Windows Vista.
10. Duke Nukem Forever will not be released.
I know I'm going out on a limb here, but trust me. I'm a science fiction writer. I can see the future!
The man who put his life on the line to tell the truth about the evil's of communism is one of the great intellectual heroes of our day, as well someone of absolute integrity and moral authority. Alas, he is also 88 years old, and it's hard to conceive of him undertaking the rigors of a political campaign, or even the office of President, at that age. but one can dream...
I haven't been this shocked since I found out pro-wrestling was fake!
If Hollywood isn't accurate regarding computer technology, I shudder to think what else they've depicted might be wrong. Next you're going to tell me good guys don't have unlimited ammunition, you can't trick a killer to confesing to a murder on national television, and that ugly women can't be transformed into supermodels merely by taking off their glasses!
Actually, the headline I wanted to use was "Google Now Officially a Nuclear Power; Microsoft Sets Pants to Brown Alert", but it was too long to fit in Slashdot's headline space...
Actually, I think that Google would be far more trustworthy with nuclear weapons than Iran or North Korea.
Obligatory science fiction refernce: Vernor Vinge's "The Ungoverned"
I see you're trying to perform Frippitronics! Would you like to:
Feed guitar notes into delay, reverb and replay tape-loop system?
Hire Brian Eno to help you?
Reform King Crimson yet again?
Sell out to Microsoft?
Personally, I'm going to wait until the remixed, remasterd versions of the Vista sounds come out with additional material in a special boxed set available only from Discipline Global Mobile...
Today I finally got an ebay phising scam spam e-mail that was almost good enough to fool me, if I hadn't been paying attention:
It looked like a real question from eBay.
It was actually for a real item I had listed (albeit a closed auction listing).
The contact name was a real eBay bidder, and clicking on the linked name brought up the actual eBay user's page.
BUT...clicking on the response button took you to a sign-in page on a phising site.
Most of the eBay phising attempts I get are pretty laughable, but this was good enough to be worth warning about, as someone has finally written a sophisticated enough phising bot to send these out based on listings.
So, if you weren't already doing this before, to answer eBay mail, go in through your MyEbay link rather than any mail link to answer eBay mail.
"Where can we expect to find the greatest threat of ID theft?"
That's easy: sitting in a database on an unpatched Windows box with access to the internet. What's the average time before an unprotected Windows box with default safety configuration is rooted after connecting to the Internet? Something like three minutes?
As long as people store vital iformation on inherantly insecure Windows boxen, ID theft will continue to occur.
"Since the creations by Walt Disney of Space Mountain and EPCOT, progressives have attempted to show us a picture of how technology will affect our future lives.
1. It's a lot older than Disney World. 1939 World's fair, anyone? Or before that, how about a more radical example, like the Italian Futurists.
2. "Progressives" - "I don't think that word means what you think it means." These days, "Progressive" means "a liberal, but we can't call him a liberal because that phrase is too unpopular with voters." Do you mean a futurist? A student of progress?
More often than not, these pictures become laughable after 20 years. Not for Royal Philips Electronics
Uh, who died and made you Hari Seldon? You have absolutely no way of knowing that Phillips' vision won't look equally laughable 20 years down the road. History suggests it will be just as laughable. If you could see the future, you'd be investing in the stock market, not posting to Slashdot.
The future will not only be stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine...
Now we need to find a whining Japanese teenage boy who will be required to share living quarters with lots of hot girl and who be the only one who can pilot the mech to save the world.
All hail our giant cyborg President! May death come quickly to his enemies!
OK, we now return you to your regular Slashdotting.
Someday, future generations will thank me for the vast treasure-trove of research data provided by my meticulously saved folder of penis-enlargement spam and Windows viruses...
Also, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge probably cost, at most, hundreds of thousands of Pre-WWII dollars. The Big Dig has already cost over $14 billion.
Hmmm, I wonder what computer company would want to buy OpenGL? It would have to be someone that doesn't have a DirectX license,or already used OpenGL in its operating system. I wonder who that could be?
What all these have in common is that they would be based on original novels, rather than, say, spinoff novels based on a particular campaign setting based on a particular Role Playing Game based loosely on The Lord of the Rings. Really, do we need a movie based on Dragonlance anymore than we need, say, a novelization of the video game Doom? (You've got to hand it to Linaweaver and ab Hugh for written four books based on a game who's actual description would be "He ran. He ran. He shot the monster. He ran. He shot the monster. He flipped a switch. He shot the monster. He got a bigger gun. He shot the monster...")
How about making a movie based on the best speculative fiction has to offer? Sure, 9 times out of 10 Hollywood is going to screw it up. But that's true of anything Hollywood touches. Why not at least reach for greatness?
CBS News? Would this be the special Dan Rather edition, with Microsoft Word 1972, indluding the the Extra Special Font Kerning package? Man, that would be well worth $29!
I'll beleive Communist China is serious about stopping spammers when they start treating them like Falun Gong members. You know, like imprisoning them in forced labor camps and working them to death. Or maybe torturing them. But until they're willing to treat spammers with the same harsh methods the Communist Party reserves for those trying to exercise freedom of religion, I doubt I'll see any reduction of spam in my mailbox.
Slashdot Mirror
2. A Windows security hole will be discovered.
3. Internet use will increase.
4. Zune will not overtake the iPod.
5. The prices of hard drives and DRAM will continue to fall.
6. The circulation of print newspapers will continue to decline.
7. Interest groups will raise a stink over violence in video games.
8. A major technology company will introduce a new form of DRM...which will fail miserably.
9. The next version of Mac OS X will be visually and technically superior to Windows Vista.
10. Duke Nukem Forever will not be released.
I know I'm going out on a limb here, but trust me. I'm a science fiction writer. I can see the future!
The man who put his life on the line to tell the truth about the evil's of communism is one of the great intellectual heroes of our day, as well someone of absolute integrity and moral authority. Alas, he is also 88 years old, and it's hard to conceive of him undertaking the rigors of a political campaign, or even the office of President, at that age. but one can dream...
If Hollywood isn't accurate regarding computer technology, I shudder to think what else they've depicted might be wrong. Next you're going to tell me good guys don't have unlimited ammunition, you can't trick a killer to confesing to a murder on national television, and that ugly women can't be transformed into supermodels merely by taking off their glasses!
By stipulating that all fund be distributed in a set period of time, Gates avoids this problem.
Actually, I think that Google would be far more trustworthy with nuclear weapons than Iran or North Korea.
Obligatory science fiction refernce: Vernor Vinge's "The Ungoverned"
- Feed guitar notes into delay, reverb and replay tape-loop system?
- Hire Brian Eno to help you?
- Reform King Crimson yet again?
- Sell out to Microsoft?
Personally, I'm going to wait until the remixed, remasterd versions of the Vista sounds come out with additional material in a special boxed set available only from Discipline Global Mobile...Most of the eBay phising attempts I get are pretty laughable, but this was good enough to be worth warning about, as someone has finally written a sophisticated enough phising bot to send these out based on listings.
So, if you weren't already doing this before, to answer eBay mail, go in through your MyEbay link rather than any mail link to answer eBay mail.
That's easy: sitting in a database on an unpatched Windows box with access to the internet. What's the average time before an unprotected Windows box with default safety configuration is rooted after connecting to the Internet? Something like three minutes?
As long as people store vital iformation on inherantly insecure Windows boxen, ID theft will continue to occur.
Just count yourself fortunate that they've given up on their branding idea...
2. "Progressives" - "I don't think that word means what you think it means." These days, "Progressive" means "a liberal, but we can't call him a liberal because that phrase is too unpopular with voters." Do you mean a futurist? A student of progress? Uh, who died and made you Hari Seldon? You have absolutely no way of knowing that Phillips' vision won't look equally laughable 20 years down the road. History suggests it will be just as laughable. If you could see the future, you'd be investing in the stock market, not posting to Slashdot.
The future will not only be stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine...
OK, we now return you to your regular Slashdotting.
One person has already died as the reult of shoddy practices on the Big Dig.
Also, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge probably cost, at most, hundreds of thousands of Pre-WWII dollars. The Big Dig has already cost over $14 billion.
(cough cough Apple cough cough)
What all these have in common is that they would be based on original novels, rather than, say, spinoff novels based on a particular campaign setting based on a particular Role Playing Game based loosely on The Lord of the Rings. Really, do we need a movie based on Dragonlance anymore than we need, say, a novelization of the video game Doom? (You've got to hand it to Linaweaver and ab Hugh for written four books based on a game who's actual description would be "He ran. He ran. He shot the monster. He ran. He shot the monster. He flipped a switch. He shot the monster. He got a bigger gun. He shot the monster...")
How about making a movie based on the best speculative fiction has to offer? Sure, 9 times out of 10 Hollywood is going to screw it up. But that's true of anything Hollywood touches. Why not at least reach for greatness?
(The confused can click here.)
Maybe people should pass until a real news organization starts putting out DVDs...