In its simpliest form, all eugenics is, is the breeding for specific traits and we've been doing that since well before the time of Christ. We do it today not only with animals (look at what's happened to dogs and cattle).
Your research assignment of the day is to examine the novel "Time Enough for Love" by Robert Heinlen and examine his treatment of Eugenics through out. The Only clue I will give you is this "Ira Howard Foundation".
Here's the Cheat Sheet for those to busy to read and think.
Ira Howard, dies very young - Knowing he was dying, he creates a foundation with the express purpose of extending the Human Lifespan and funds it. The foundation is well endowed and uses the money to establish a selective breeding program to meet its stated purpose. The money is paid to selected families to encourage the breeding of children from "Long Lived" trees with the minimum requirement being that a grandparent on both sides had to live into their 8th/9th decade. Thus the Howard Families are established and others could be added to them if they met the required standards.
Heinlen certainly ran with the idea based upon what was known about genetics and eugenics at the time he wrote it and he did cover the aspect of defectives in a sensible manner and with sensitivity.
Yea. Smith really took the idea of breeding the so called best humans (as defined by the Arisians) to its logical conclusion. The main thing to keep in mind is that eugenics are and have been practiced for countless centuries on earth and is called selective breeding as the Eugenics term fell out of favor due to the Nazi's efforts but it does not invalidate the term or the basic premise behind the science.
For those interested in it, read Ghorings Essays on the Arryan Race. His proposal could have been successful if carried out in the manner he covered. It just would have taken multiple generations (1000+ estimated) to gain the desired traits. Hitler though felt that it was also neccessary to control Europe so the project could be done.
If you're going to mention EE.Doc Smith's Lensman Series don't forget the Skylark of Space and his other books.
Another author that I haven't seen mentioned is James P. Hogan and his Giant's Star trilogy. Starts off with "Inherit the Star" and goes from there. Good combination of Hard Science and future projections in the same vein as Asimov and Clarke. He's got several others that get a bit techy that I never could get into. One novel that's a fun read is the Cunninham Equations and then theres the Myth Series by Robert Asprin. Damn funny books with plenty of puns. Another series is the Fools Company, a space foreign legion series about a wealthy officer being assigned to the legions company of screwups.
Which is why I've gone the other direction by ensuring that my user name is well known and Like Dvorak, I don't care if you like me, just so long as you know my name.
There were metalurgical tests ran on the samples recovered when the wreck was found. Those tests showed that the hull plating was not what had been specified. Instead it was brittle due too high a Carbon Content and the information was on I believe the Discovery Channel so the video's may still be available.
The only true answer is to ask the IT dept first. Otherwise you risk the real possibility of being fired for little gain.
As a small business IT admin, we had an employee that violated the written policies and as soon as it was discovered they were fired for good cause. Keep in mind that no business is going to retain an employee that knowingly violates policy as the legal risks are too damn expensive. It's cheaper to get rid of the problem employee.
Once again, the first thing to do is ask as most companies shouldn't have any problem clarifying how and what constitutes a violation and if it's a large company, get it in writing for your records - CYA if they decide you violated the policy. If they wont put it in writing, forget it and get your own system to take with.
There is nothing to prevent the OEM from installing a 4+GB flash drive on the Mobo as part of this program. Does the app need to be larger then that? Don't think so if it's working at the hardware level.
This is something that it seems too many techs/geeks have forgotten. They're used to either buying in a corporate environment, meaning it doesn't come out of their pocket or they make enough that $40 isn't that much money so let me tell you how that $40 can affect them.
1st off, I'm an insulin dependant diabetic and my insulin costs $250 a vial times 2 as I have to take 2 different types (fast/slow acting). Now I need 4 vials of slow acting a month with 1.25 vials of the fast acting each month. Think about how much I'm spending just for Insulin alone and doesn't include my other diabetic meds and supplies that also are not covered by insurance as I'm unemployed but not classified as disabled enough to qualify for Medicare that would cover all of my diabetic meds.
Seeing as how we all probably know someone who's in that kind of a bind (parent/relative) that we may be helping, if everyone who thinks throwing money is a viable solution would just chip in and give the OP a $5 dollar donation to build/buy a new system, we could easily solve the worlds problems but Money doesn't solve all of the problems. Sometimes you need to teach a man to fish instead of giving him a fish. The one solves the long term problem while the other only addresses the immediate need for food.
I'm using Win7-64 and a radeon card. The drivers work fine so that shouldn't be a problem. What may be a problem is AGP instead of PCIe. Those drivers for Xp64 were 32bit and worked quite well in testing. The problem was that Xp64 stunk as far as stability goes. Personally, I'd say bite the cost and get an Upgrade version of Win7 as it will have both 32/64 versions. Of course before you do, you'll need to run the Vista/Win7 upgrade advisor to see what software wont work. Not much at this point but you could be in for an expensive surprise if you don't.
and instead of moving to Chrome, I decided to see just how bad IE9 really was and got the surprise of my life as it proved to be more stable the either FF or Chrome and didn't use anymore memory then FF/Chrome with 20 tabs open. The only thing I still don't like is that MS hasn't gotten it through their head to Deny All by default and allow us to select what is allowed to run but no, flash is enabled on all sites along with java script and any other damn plug-in that's installed such as Acrobat Reader; all of which are infection vectors that MS could fix simply by Denying all and asking if a website should be allowed to run flash/shockwave/javascripts and what not. Give me the option to either permanetly or temporarily enable it for each website that wants permission and as people figure out who the advertisers are, the damn flash ads would no longer be seen and we'd finally get them moved to HTML5.
Riddle me this. What does it matter how fast the Jscript rendering is if they're never allowed due to Noscript?
The answer is pretty fucking simple. It doesn't and yes I have no script in the deny all mode by default and only allow it on sites that I absolutely need the extra functionality or that simply don't work without it. Guess what, that's a grand total of 8 sites out of everything I visit regularly and I don't miss it, nor do I mind the few extra moments while FF reloads the page when I enable scripts. Gives me a change to see if I really need them on it.
and yet my experience is the complete opposite of yours. The system I'm running is an AMD Athlon 220 x2 (65watt) and FF 10.2 had been open for over 2 weeks and was only using 650k worth of memory before a reboot. I'm seeing the memory slowly climbing back up towards that level again but then I have 13 extensions loaded with 26+ tabs open, 7 of which are Google related, so it could be one of their scripts. I do see the occaisional senior moment when the damn UI freezes and that's because it's a single thread so when one of my tabs is loading, it tends to freeze for a moment and I hope they get that one fixed soon.
The big issue I had was the damn rapid release schedule. To many of my extensions suddenly weren't compatible yet turning off compatibility checking and adding the compatibility reporter, I've yet to have an extension for the 4.0 update that failed to work with 10.2 and between. Talk about annoying. The main reason I've upgraded from 3.6 is the major changes and if I could revert back, I'd do so but the bookmarks and prefs aren't compatible (idiots changed the format when unneeded). Then there's another problem, Google isn't supporting FF 3 because their policy is to Officially support only the last 3 generations of a browser and guess what, FF3 is 7 generations behind, so they no longer support it in their website design. This means most of the Google pages are now forced into basic HTML mode for those who haven't upgraded and I need the advanced features, otherwise I wouldn't be using Google for more then mail. Anyone want to confirm that?
As far as Chrome goes, I got tired of Google changing the damn UI every update, many times for no obvious reason. Then it got to the point that it was buggy as hell and guess what, No god damn support from Google, just like for all of their products. They couldn't help me find the way out of a wet paper bag becuase it's not in their blood.
The expectation that a PC would be able to function at the same level relative to the rest of the computing world after 10+ years as it did when you purchased it is absolutely asinine.
And I'm a business admin and fully expect the computers I purchase/build to do their job for the same 10 years. Keep in mind that job does not involve YouTube, Flash and other garbage but productive work that earns the company money, so I don't give a damn about interactive content. If the system does the job it was selected for, then it's good enough for my users as I'm not going to sign off on a hot system for every Tom/Dick and Harry in the company until we need them. Also those who think interactive web content is awsome have the attention span of a fucking gnat. Oh Shinny!! Lets do it. Most of that interactive crap is just that, crap and it violates the accesibility standards of both the EU and the U.S. meaning they're breaking the law. Guess what I happen to enjoy? Pointing out to those idiot webmasters/designers the various Accessibility Statues and their designs to the relavent Agencies such as the ADA for corrective action.
Seems to be working as many sites have finally gotten the message and quit using the shit. As someone who uses Noscript in the "Deny All" mode, I can state that I'm having less trouble finding websites that don't depend upon that so called interactive crap other then porn or with a specific use for it such as calculators. As the admin for a small business, I've locked down the systems to prevent as many of those drive by installs of AV 2012, Zuesbot and others by simply not allowing that damn interactive content to run in the first place and guess what, if you're using Noscript and have it setup to denyall as many others do, then you really aint using Interactive content anymore then my users can and for the same damn reasons. It's either annoying, you don't trust the damn site and it prevents many of those drive by installs that infest the net from happening in the first place, which almost everyone agrees is a "Good Thing".
You may use the same old argument that the Band-Aid of faster processors and more memory makes it a moot point...
I agree that a faster CPU is a bandaid to the issue but More RAM is not.
Why does it take you 2.8 GB of RAM to do something that used to be done in 32 MB with room to spare?
Oh, right... Aero...:)
Sorry but Areo (WDF) is using less then 2M on my system, so that's disproved. My FF install is only using 650K of memory according to Task Manager yet I'm using 1/2 of my 16GB of memory. Why is that? Maybe it's got to do with the fact that I have Outlook, Word, Onenote, KeepPass, Truecrypt, Firefox and a couple of Java Apps all running at the same time yet I've got plenty of CPU cycles to spare.
I recently upgraded from a meager 4GB to the full 16GB that the board supports because it was so cheap (god damn filter) Less then $100 for 4x 4GB sticks of DDR3. Hell I only needed 4x 2GB sticks to get a reasonable boost but the cost difference was $20 between the 8 and 16 gigs, so of course I spent the extra 20 dollars and got the max the board supports. What this means to me is that I shouldn't need to replace my system for at least 5+ years and more likely 10 unless the board dies. The only planned upgrades to this system are storage as it always seems to be running low due to family photos and our ever growing music collection, all of which is on my system and streamed to the others in the house. Makes backups far easier as it's a single point to backup instead of the 4 desktops and 3 laptops though I am definately looking at building a WHS system for media streaming and file storage. Means I can then drop all of the desktops down to 80GB drives when their current drives finally die.
And it's idiotic not loading a page in a new tab when you're on a dialup connection.
I've been using multiple tabs in FF since the 2.0 days when I was still on dialup. Made lots of sense to allow a page to load in the background while I was reading the current tab. I use it even today because some of the sites I visit sometimes go down, yet if I have multiple pages from them open, I can continue reading them until they restore things. Another issue is that some sites tend to be very slow responding at times and multiple tabs helps quite a bit there as I can have pages loading in the background, just as I did when on dialup.
Another issue is when I'm searching for things through Google. I've sometimes had as many as 100 tabs open while looking for specific information and 50+ tabs isn't uncommon.
26 tabs here and open for the last 2 weeks using 10.2. Still only using 650k according to Task Manager with 9 extensions installed. No memory leaks and I don't shut my system down unless forced to reboot by Windows Updates. Otherwise it's on 24/7 with FF open.
On the OP's question, all I can say is check out Opera since they officially still support Win2k. Don't know if it's any better as once they added everything and the kitchen sink into it, I quit using it. Don't need a Bt Client or Email client along with Usenet client. Much prefer the setup I've been using for the last several years - FF for web, Outlook for mail (yes I have to use it) along with uTorrent 1.8 Build 1644 for obvious reasons and since my ISP dropped newsgroup access, there's little use for client anymore.
For those suggesting he upgrade/replace the system, get real people. When you're on a limited budget, the cost of a system upgrade can be prohibitive as it also includes software that may not be available and that doesn't work on later versions. I've encountered that over the years with some software that wont run on Win7-64 but I'm lucky in that there were options that did the same thing but if there wasn't an alternative, I wouldn't have upgraded because the cost would be higher then sticking with the same system and in the case of Win2K, it's far more modular then XP so with some proper thought, it's quite possible to strip an install down to run comfortably in as little as 16M, XP requires a Minimum of 128M just to run unless you use Nlite to strip it down but you break to many things due to the monolithic nature of XP. IE/WMP are both needed along with a whole rash of other things to keep anykind of funcitonality yet Win2K works fine with the OS, TCP/IP networking if you don't need the crap that MS insists is part of the base build. Media Playback, Silverlight, mail/usenet access, printing.
Hell Win7 is just as bad with all the drivers it loads that aren't on my system. Things like the Cannon Bubblejet printer! Hell I haven't seen one of those in over a decade and don't think they've been made for 15+years, so why does MS insist on loading the driver? Thankgod for Ruscovich and his Autoruns app. I've managed to speed up the boot time by unchecking drivers that simply do not apply to my system. Things like Raid Controllers and those many pesky printer drivers. I did keep the ones that are actually related to my hardware and I'd love Win8 to get that right. Only load the drivers actually needed based on the hardware detected at boot or those specifically installed by the user/admin.
There's another aspect of raytracing that many don't even get. It's the Military aspects, such as being able to efficiently calculate the origin of a shot (backtrace). For things like this (think about the final action in Last StarFighter) and you suddenly realize that Intel isn't working on this for gamers but for the Military. Lots more money to be made when you consider all of the CiC systems that would benefit from the ability to backtrace incoming fire and take it out with the appropriate weapon (StarShip Troopers/BattleStar Galactica). That's where they're going with this.
As someone who lives in So. Cal. I'm well aware of the distances involved and for us, the Nissan Leaf is a non issue simply because we live in a rural area. Many times, our round trip distance is in excess of 180 miles and we do that only 1-2 times a month. Our routine driving (groceries, medical, work) is a meager 30 miles round trip and the Volt would be almost perfect for it but we can't justify the cost of one when the Prius is $10k less, even with the damn federal subsidy. There are plenty of models out there in the 30k range that look and perform better then the poor Volt.
And this is why I absolutely refuse to give up my 65. It's got absolutely no electronics that I didn't install nor does it require them to operate safely and efficiently and I didn't have to invest into $30+k worth of tools to fix the damn thing when something breaks.
Currently, the only electronics installed are the LED rear tail light and front turn signal bulbs, drop in electronic ignition module (replaced the points/condensor) HID head lamps and the invertor I use to charge my laptop when traveling. Don't have a DC cord for it and don't need one as I've already got the normal power brick.
My Ti99-4a could boot and load a program in less then 5 seconds and that was to a spreadsheet. Saving data though took a while even with the blasted expansion bay because the floppy was so slow but the OS and Programs loaded from Rom/Cartridge and while I was learning to use an IBM PC, I seriously wondered why IBM hadn't gone that route. Much faster and you didn't have the issues with someone screwing up the programs as they were R.O.. ROM costs didn't appear that expensive as Atari certainly used them and the games didn't cost an arm/leg/firstborn at the time.
Why in hell are are we accepting living in a shittier world just because we've decided not to let scientists keeping us moving forward?
Because, sometimes, you have to force them to "work around the problem" just like the internet works around damage. A very good example of this revolves around the G.W.Bush executive order cutting stem cell research funds because the only stem cells being researched were from aborted fetuses. Now we've got the ability to revert skin cells back to stem cells becuase the scientists were forced to look at the alternatives instead of taking the easiest route.
It wont always work but someone will come up with true Cold Fusion and it isn't going to be from one of the big names in science doing so as they are to used to things being done in a certain manner. Hell many of them are so locked into the mindset that they wouldn't even recognize "This is strange" and look at it. Instead they normalize their data and toss out the potential discovery of cold fusion, higgs bosun, contact by ET and a whole bunch of other things because it didn't fit the experimental model.
Gods give me strength. It's more fun looking at some of the damn screwy results and trying to figure out where it came from. Most times it's a data error but sometimes it's trully anomolous and should be looked into further in case it offers a direction towards something interesting. How many Science Fiction Stories have been based upon the anomolous result that gives us FTL travel, Transporters, Replicators or Time Travel? To me, that's what is wrong with scientific research. It's become to formalized and stagnant, which is why the next real breakthrough is going to come completely out of the blue.
Nope! What we need to do is re-enact the damn windfall profit tax but at 100 percent for any profit over 10 percent and start hitting the companies showing these record profits. We also need to change the accounting rules so they can't fudge the books to show less profit. If the money is made and they are basing a CEO's bonus on it, then they need to be paying a tax on it.
I'm going to burn some karma but the IRS needs to tell Apple that they either start spending some of the money they've got in the bank or distribute it as a dividend. Otherwise you're going to loose 80 percent of it as a Tax on excess retained earnings. The same thing MS was told that got them paying a dividend after 20+ years of not paying anything. The shareholders will love them, the IRS will love it because of all the extra taxes and the government will love it because of all the extra income from those taxes that can then be used to fund some other damn pork barrel project.
Then I hate to inform you that Facebook knows as much if not moreso then Google does about you. You also forgot the Facebook Content Distribution Network and all of those Like Buttons and yes they combine all of that information with your profile, just like Google and MS are doing. The big question, Is facebook doing anything different then Google or Microsoft?
Being a bit more Paranoid, I have to wonder just what data Windows is sending to MS as I've not seen anything in the last year where anyone has looked at the full network traffic. They could easily gain access to anything they about you, from all the installed apps (windows updates) through your log-in details for every site you visit because they control the OS. There's little preventing them from doing it and most people are even agreeing with them having the option to collect such data from multiple apps. Check out what Office, all of the Live tools, Security Essentials and such have in regards to improving the customer experience. That's right, almost everything in Windows now includes the option to send data back to MS to improve the Customer Experience. The only problem is, we have no idea what data they're actuall collecting but I can tell that they've put into place the ability to collect anything the OS has on you as a user but do people care? Doesn't seem like it and nobody has bothered to really stay on top of what data is being sent to them.
As to the recent updates/consolidation of Google Privacy Policies, it actually makes things easier for us to keep track of changes there as they're all in a single place instead of scattered, with changes being made to each policy that you then have to read. I'd much rather have the new system as it not only is easier to read and understand but spells out the differences based upon service (orkut/picassa/gmail - others), those that they are required by law/regulation that they have to perform. Before you complain, you should have at least read the damn things. I personally have hard copy of all the relevent privacy policies that I agreed to when I started using the various google services I do but I've also taken the time to compare/contrast and actually read the new ones and don't see what everyone is bitching about. Google has always collected as much information on everybody that they can because it's their business being nosy. That's been the case from the beginning and it's not gotten any worse since they purchased DoubleClick. Google became evil the day they incorporated because corporations by the structure of the laws, have to maximize profit over every other item.
Sure, the CIA isn't authorized to spy on American Citizens but that does not apply to both the NSA and the FBI who are authorized. The reason the CIA isn't authorized is turf building by J. Edward Hoover of the FBI. He managed to get domestic spying restricted to the FBI using the argument that any efforts by Military assets would be a waste of their time and efforts when the Dept. Of Defense (Pentagon) should be concerned with Russia and other potential military agressors. Simply put, he told Congress that the military didn't have the needed manpower or expertise to handle domestic inteligence gathering and got the restriction codified into the agencies mandates. Of course, the NSA being the National Security Agency is authorized to spy on American Citizens though they usually don't and it's not because of resources but the signal to noise ratio. They've got enough with trying to figure out what the next leader of Cuba is going to have for dinner.
Oh Goody, I can now print out those nuclear warhead plans on my printer in Istanbul and seel them to Iran. Yes it's a bit of a stretch but then, you do need to configure each user correctly when setting a system up. As a sometimes Linux Admin (my own box) I've always added my daily user to the various groups such as root/users/cdrom groups as those are the minimum needed. The only other groups I've found any need for are dbus/usb, games and audio. Everything else gets added as needed when it's discovered that there's a lack of functionality.
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In its simpliest form, all eugenics is, is the breeding for specific traits and we've been doing that since well before the time of Christ. We do it today not only with animals (look at what's happened to dogs and cattle).
Your research assignment of the day is to examine the novel "Time Enough for Love" by Robert Heinlen and examine his treatment of Eugenics through out. The Only clue I will give you is this "Ira Howard Foundation".
Here's the Cheat Sheet for those to busy to read and think.
Ira Howard, dies very young - Knowing he was dying, he creates a foundation with the express purpose of extending the Human Lifespan and funds it. The foundation is well endowed and uses the money to establish a selective breeding program to meet its stated purpose. The money is paid to selected families to encourage the breeding of children from "Long Lived" trees with the minimum requirement being that a grandparent on both sides had to live into their 8th/9th decade. Thus the Howard Families are established and others could be added to them if they met the required standards.
Heinlen certainly ran with the idea based upon what was known about genetics and eugenics at the time he wrote it and he did cover the aspect of defectives in a sensible manner and with sensitivity.
Yea. Smith really took the idea of breeding the so called best humans (as defined by the Arisians) to its logical conclusion. The main thing to keep in mind is that eugenics are and have been practiced for countless centuries on earth and is called selective breeding as the Eugenics term fell out of favor due to the Nazi's efforts but it does not invalidate the term or the basic premise behind the science.
For those interested in it, read Ghorings Essays on the Arryan Race. His proposal could have been successful if carried out in the manner he covered. It just would have taken multiple generations (1000+ estimated) to gain the desired traits. Hitler though felt that it was also neccessary to control Europe so the project could be done.
If you're going to mention EE.Doc Smith's Lensman Series don't forget the Skylark of Space and his other books.
Another author that I haven't seen mentioned is James P. Hogan and his Giant's Star trilogy. Starts off with "Inherit the Star" and goes from there. Good combination of Hard Science and future projections in the same vein as Asimov and Clarke. He's got several others that get a bit techy that I never could get into. One novel that's a fun read is the Cunninham Equations and then theres the Myth Series by Robert Asprin. Damn funny books with plenty of puns. Another series is the Fools Company, a space foreign legion series about a wealthy officer being assigned to the legions company of screwups.
Which is why I've gone the other direction by ensuring that my user name is well known and Like Dvorak, I don't care if you like me, just so long as you know my name.
There were metalurgical tests ran on the samples recovered when the wreck was found. Those tests showed that the hull plating was not what had been specified. Instead it was brittle due too high a Carbon Content and the information was on I believe the Discovery Channel so the video's may still be available.
The only true answer is to ask the IT dept first. Otherwise you risk the real possibility of being fired for little gain.
As a small business IT admin, we had an employee that violated the written policies and as soon as it was discovered they were fired for good cause. Keep in mind that no business is going to retain an employee that knowingly violates policy as the legal risks are too damn expensive. It's cheaper to get rid of the problem employee.
Once again, the first thing to do is ask as most companies shouldn't have any problem clarifying how and what constitutes a violation and if it's a large company, get it in writing for your records - CYA if they decide you violated the policy. If they wont put it in writing, forget it and get your own system to take with.
There is nothing to prevent the OEM from installing a 4+GB flash drive on the Mobo as part of this program. Does the app need to be larger then that? Don't think so if it's working at the hardware level.
This is something that it seems too many techs/geeks have forgotten. They're used to either buying in a corporate environment, meaning it doesn't come out of their pocket or they make enough that $40 isn't that much money so let me tell you how that $40 can affect them.
Seeing as how we all probably know someone who's in that kind of a bind (parent/relative) that we may be helping, if everyone who thinks throwing money is a viable solution would just chip in and give the OP a $5 dollar donation to build/buy a new system, we could easily solve the worlds problems but Money doesn't solve all of the problems. Sometimes you need to teach a man to fish instead of giving him a fish. The one solves the long term problem while the other only addresses the immediate need for food.
I'm using Win7-64 and a radeon card. The drivers work fine so that shouldn't be a problem. What may be a problem is AGP instead of PCIe. Those drivers for Xp64 were 32bit and worked quite well in testing. The problem was that Xp64 stunk as far as stability goes. Personally, I'd say bite the cost and get an Upgrade version of Win7 as it will have both 32/64 versions. Of course before you do, you'll need to run the Vista/Win7 upgrade advisor to see what software wont work. Not much at this point but you could be in for an expensive surprise if you don't.
and instead of moving to Chrome, I decided to see just how bad IE9 really was and got the surprise of my life as it proved to be more stable the either FF or Chrome and didn't use anymore memory then FF/Chrome with 20 tabs open. The only thing I still don't like is that MS hasn't gotten it through their head to Deny All by default and allow us to select what is allowed to run but no, flash is enabled on all sites along with java script and any other damn plug-in that's installed such as Acrobat Reader; all of which are infection vectors that MS could fix simply by Denying all and asking if a website should be allowed to run flash/shockwave/javascripts and what not. Give me the option to either permanetly or temporarily enable it for each website that wants permission and as people figure out who the advertisers are, the damn flash ads would no longer be seen and we'd finally get them moved to HTML5.
Riddle me this. What does it matter how fast the Jscript rendering is if they're never allowed due to Noscript?
The answer is pretty fucking simple. It doesn't and yes I have no script in the deny all mode by default and only allow it on sites that I absolutely need the extra functionality or that simply don't work without it. Guess what, that's a grand total of 8 sites out of everything I visit regularly and I don't miss it, nor do I mind the few extra moments while FF reloads the page when I enable scripts. Gives me a change to see if I really need them on it.
and yet my experience is the complete opposite of yours. The system I'm running is an AMD Athlon 220 x2 (65watt) and FF 10.2 had been open for over 2 weeks and was only using 650k worth of memory before a reboot. I'm seeing the memory slowly climbing back up towards that level again but then I have 13 extensions loaded with 26+ tabs open, 7 of which are Google related, so it could be one of their scripts. I do see the occaisional senior moment when the damn UI freezes and that's because it's a single thread so when one of my tabs is loading, it tends to freeze for a moment and I hope they get that one fixed soon.
The big issue I had was the damn rapid release schedule. To many of my extensions suddenly weren't compatible yet turning off compatibility checking and adding the compatibility reporter, I've yet to have an extension for the 4.0 update that failed to work with 10.2 and between. Talk about annoying. The main reason I've upgraded from 3.6 is the major changes and if I could revert back, I'd do so but the bookmarks and prefs aren't compatible (idiots changed the format when unneeded). Then there's another problem, Google isn't supporting FF 3 because their policy is to Officially support only the last 3 generations of a browser and guess what, FF3 is 7 generations behind, so they no longer support it in their website design. This means most of the Google pages are now forced into basic HTML mode for those who haven't upgraded and I need the advanced features, otherwise I wouldn't be using Google for more then mail. Anyone want to confirm that?
As far as Chrome goes, I got tired of Google changing the damn UI every update, many times for no obvious reason. Then it got to the point that it was buggy as hell and guess what, No god damn support from Google, just like for all of their products. They couldn't help me find the way out of a wet paper bag becuase it's not in their blood.
The expectation that a PC would be able to function at the same level relative to the rest of the computing world after 10+ years as it did when you purchased it is absolutely asinine.
And I'm a business admin and fully expect the computers I purchase/build to do their job for the same 10 years. Keep in mind that job does not involve YouTube, Flash and other garbage but productive work that earns the company money, so I don't give a damn about interactive content. If the system does the job it was selected for, then it's good enough for my users as I'm not going to sign off on a hot system for every Tom/Dick and Harry in the company until we need them. Also those who think interactive web content is awsome have the attention span of a fucking gnat. Oh Shinny!! Lets do it. Most of that interactive crap is just that, crap and it violates the accesibility standards of both the EU and the U.S. meaning they're breaking the law. Guess what I happen to enjoy? Pointing out to those idiot webmasters/designers the various Accessibility Statues and their designs to the relavent Agencies such as the ADA for corrective action.
Seems to be working as many sites have finally gotten the message and quit using the shit. As someone who uses Noscript in the "Deny All" mode, I can state that I'm having less trouble finding websites that don't depend upon that so called interactive crap other then porn or with a specific use for it such as calculators. As the admin for a small business, I've locked down the systems to prevent as many of those drive by installs of AV 2012, Zuesbot and others by simply not allowing that damn interactive content to run in the first place and guess what, if you're using Noscript and have it setup to denyall as many others do, then you really aint using Interactive content anymore then my users can and for the same damn reasons. It's either annoying, you don't trust the damn site and it prevents many of those drive by installs that infest the net from happening in the first place, which almost everyone agrees is a "Good Thing".
You may use the same old argument that the Band-Aid of faster processors and more memory makes it a moot point...
I agree that a faster CPU is a bandaid to the issue but More RAM is not.
Why does it take you 2.8 GB of RAM to do something that used to be done in 32 MB with room to spare?
Oh, right... Aero... :)
Sorry but Areo (WDF) is using less then 2M on my system, so that's disproved. My FF install is only using 650K of memory according to Task Manager yet I'm using 1/2 of my 16GB of memory. Why is that? Maybe it's got to do with the fact that I have Outlook, Word, Onenote, KeepPass, Truecrypt, Firefox and a couple of Java Apps all running at the same time yet I've got plenty of CPU cycles to spare.
I recently upgraded from a meager 4GB to the full 16GB that the board supports because it was so cheap (god damn filter) Less then $100 for 4x 4GB sticks of DDR3. Hell I only needed 4x 2GB sticks to get a reasonable boost but the cost difference was $20 between the 8 and 16 gigs, so of course I spent the extra 20 dollars and got the max the board supports. What this means to me is that I shouldn't need to replace my system for at least 5+ years and more likely 10 unless the board dies. The only planned upgrades to this system are storage as it always seems to be running low due to family photos and our ever growing music collection, all of which is on my system and streamed to the others in the house. Makes backups far easier as it's a single point to backup instead of the 4 desktops and 3 laptops though I am definately looking at building a WHS system for media streaming and file storage. Means I can then drop all of the desktops down to 80GB drives when their current drives finally die.
And it's idiotic not loading a page in a new tab when you're on a dialup connection.
I've been using multiple tabs in FF since the 2.0 days when I was still on dialup. Made lots of sense to allow a page to load in the background while I was reading the current tab. I use it even today because some of the sites I visit sometimes go down, yet if I have multiple pages from them open, I can continue reading them until they restore things. Another issue is that some sites tend to be very slow responding at times and multiple tabs helps quite a bit there as I can have pages loading in the background, just as I did when on dialup.
Another issue is when I'm searching for things through Google. I've sometimes had as many as 100 tabs open while looking for specific information and 50+ tabs isn't uncommon.
26 tabs here and open for the last 2 weeks using 10.2. Still only using 650k according to Task Manager with 9 extensions installed. No memory leaks and I don't shut my system down unless forced to reboot by Windows Updates. Otherwise it's on 24/7 with FF open.
On the OP's question, all I can say is check out Opera since they officially still support Win2k. Don't know if it's any better as once they added everything and the kitchen sink into it, I quit using it. Don't need a Bt Client or Email client along with Usenet client. Much prefer the setup I've been using for the last several years - FF for web, Outlook for mail (yes I have to use it) along with uTorrent 1.8 Build 1644 for obvious reasons and since my ISP dropped newsgroup access, there's little use for client anymore.
For those suggesting he upgrade/replace the system, get real people. When you're on a limited budget, the cost of a system upgrade can be prohibitive as it also includes software that may not be available and that doesn't work on later versions. I've encountered that over the years with some software that wont run on Win7-64 but I'm lucky in that there were options that did the same thing but if there wasn't an alternative, I wouldn't have upgraded because the cost would be higher then sticking with the same system and in the case of Win2K, it's far more modular then XP so with some proper thought, it's quite possible to strip an install down to run comfortably in as little as 16M, XP requires a Minimum of 128M just to run unless you use Nlite to strip it down but you break to many things due to the monolithic nature of XP. IE/WMP are both needed along with a whole rash of other things to keep anykind of funcitonality yet Win2K works fine with the OS, TCP/IP networking if you don't need the crap that MS insists is part of the base build. Media Playback, Silverlight, mail/usenet access, printing.
Hell Win7 is just as bad with all the drivers it loads that aren't on my system. Things like the Cannon Bubblejet printer! Hell I haven't seen one of those in over a decade and don't think they've been made for 15+years, so why does MS insist on loading the driver? Thankgod for Ruscovich and his Autoruns app. I've managed to speed up the boot time by unchecking drivers that simply do not apply to my system. Things like Raid Controllers and those many pesky printer drivers. I did keep the ones that are actually related to my hardware and I'd love Win8 to get that right. Only load the drivers actually needed based on the hardware detected at boot or those specifically installed by the user/admin.
There's another aspect of raytracing that many don't even get. It's the Military aspects, such as being able to efficiently calculate the origin of a shot (backtrace). For things like this (think about the final action in Last StarFighter) and you suddenly realize that Intel isn't working on this for gamers but for the Military. Lots more money to be made when you consider all of the CiC systems that would benefit from the ability to backtrace incoming fire and take it out with the appropriate weapon (StarShip Troopers/BattleStar Galactica). That's where they're going with this.
As someone who lives in So. Cal. I'm well aware of the distances involved and for us, the Nissan Leaf is a non issue simply because we live in a rural area. Many times, our round trip distance is in excess of 180 miles and we do that only 1-2 times a month. Our routine driving (groceries, medical, work) is a meager 30 miles round trip and the Volt would be almost perfect for it but we can't justify the cost of one when the Prius is $10k less, even with the damn federal subsidy. There are plenty of models out there in the 30k range that look and perform better then the poor Volt.
And this is why I absolutely refuse to give up my 65. It's got absolutely no electronics that I didn't install nor does it require them to operate safely and efficiently and I didn't have to invest into $30+k worth of tools to fix the damn thing when something breaks.
Currently, the only electronics installed are the LED rear tail light and front turn signal bulbs, drop in electronic ignition module (replaced the points/condensor) HID head lamps and the invertor I use to charge my laptop when traveling. Don't have a DC cord for it and don't need one as I've already got the normal power brick.
My Ti99-4a could boot and load a program in less then 5 seconds and that was to a spreadsheet. Saving data though took a while even with the blasted expansion bay because the floppy was so slow but the OS and Programs loaded from Rom/Cartridge and while I was learning to use an IBM PC, I seriously wondered why IBM hadn't gone that route. Much faster and you didn't have the issues with someone screwing up the programs as they were R.O.. ROM costs didn't appear that expensive as Atari certainly used them and the games didn't cost an arm/leg/firstborn at the time.
Why in hell are are we accepting living in a shittier world just because we've decided not to let scientists keeping us moving forward?
Because, sometimes, you have to force them to "work around the problem" just like the internet works around damage. A very good example of this revolves around the G.W.Bush executive order cutting stem cell research funds because the only stem cells being researched were from aborted fetuses. Now we've got the ability to revert skin cells back to stem cells becuase the scientists were forced to look at the alternatives instead of taking the easiest route.
It wont always work but someone will come up with true Cold Fusion and it isn't going to be from one of the big names in science doing so as they are to used to things being done in a certain manner. Hell many of them are so locked into the mindset that they wouldn't even recognize "This is strange" and look at it. Instead they normalize their data and toss out the potential discovery of cold fusion, higgs bosun, contact by ET and a whole bunch of other things because it didn't fit the experimental model.
Gods give me strength. It's more fun looking at some of the damn screwy results and trying to figure out where it came from. Most times it's a data error but sometimes it's trully anomolous and should be looked into further in case it offers a direction towards something interesting. How many Science Fiction Stories have been based upon the anomolous result that gives us FTL travel, Transporters, Replicators or Time Travel? To me, that's what is wrong with scientific research. It's become to formalized and stagnant, which is why the next real breakthrough is going to come completely out of the blue.
Nope! What we need to do is re-enact the damn windfall profit tax but at 100 percent for any profit over 10 percent and start hitting the companies showing these record profits. We also need to change the accounting rules so they can't fudge the books to show less profit. If the money is made and they are basing a CEO's bonus on it, then they need to be paying a tax on it.
I'm going to burn some karma but the IRS needs to tell Apple that they either start spending some of the money they've got in the bank or distribute it as a dividend. Otherwise you're going to loose 80 percent of it as a Tax on excess retained earnings. The same thing MS was told that got them paying a dividend after 20+ years of not paying anything. The shareholders will love them, the IRS will love it because of all the extra taxes and the government will love it because of all the extra income from those taxes that can then be used to fund some other damn pork barrel project.
Then I hate to inform you that Facebook knows as much if not moreso then Google does about you. You also forgot the Facebook Content Distribution Network and all of those Like Buttons and yes they combine all of that information with your profile, just like Google and MS are doing. The big question, Is facebook doing anything different then Google or Microsoft?
Being a bit more Paranoid, I have to wonder just what data Windows is sending to MS as I've not seen anything in the last year where anyone has looked at the full network traffic. They could easily gain access to anything they about you, from all the installed apps (windows updates) through your log-in details for every site you visit because they control the OS. There's little preventing them from doing it and most people are even agreeing with them having the option to collect such data from multiple apps. Check out what Office, all of the Live tools, Security Essentials and such have in regards to improving the customer experience. That's right, almost everything in Windows now includes the option to send data back to MS to improve the Customer Experience. The only problem is, we have no idea what data they're actuall collecting but I can tell that they've put into place the ability to collect anything the OS has on you as a user but do people care? Doesn't seem like it and nobody has bothered to really stay on top of what data is being sent to them.
As to the recent updates/consolidation of Google Privacy Policies, it actually makes things easier for us to keep track of changes there as they're all in a single place instead of scattered, with changes being made to each policy that you then have to read. I'd much rather have the new system as it not only is easier to read and understand but spells out the differences based upon service (orkut/picassa/gmail - others), those that they are required by law/regulation that they have to perform. Before you complain, you should have at least read the damn things. I personally have hard copy of all the relevent privacy policies that I agreed to when I started using the various google services I do but I've also taken the time to compare/contrast and actually read the new ones and don't see what everyone is bitching about. Google has always collected as much information on everybody that they can because it's their business being nosy. That's been the case from the beginning and it's not gotten any worse since they purchased DoubleClick. Google became evil the day they incorporated because corporations by the structure of the laws, have to maximize profit over every other item.
Sure, the CIA isn't authorized to spy on American Citizens but that does not apply to both the NSA and the FBI who are authorized. The reason the CIA isn't authorized is turf building by J. Edward Hoover of the FBI. He managed to get domestic spying restricted to the FBI using the argument that any efforts by Military assets would be a waste of their time and efforts when the Dept. Of Defense (Pentagon) should be concerned with Russia and other potential military agressors. Simply put, he told Congress that the military didn't have the needed manpower or expertise to handle domestic inteligence gathering and got the restriction codified into the agencies mandates. Of course, the NSA being the National Security Agency is authorized to spy on American Citizens though they usually don't and it's not because of resources but the signal to noise ratio. They've got enough with trying to figure out what the next leader of Cuba is going to have for dinner.
Oh Goody, I can now print out those nuclear warhead plans on my printer in Istanbul and seel them to Iran. Yes it's a bit of a stretch but then, you do need to configure each user correctly when setting a system up. As a sometimes Linux Admin (my own box) I've always added my daily user to the various groups such as root/users/cdrom groups as those are the minimum needed. The only other groups I've found any need for are dbus/usb, games and audio. Everything else gets added as needed when it's discovered that there's a lack of functionality.