cd00r.c is a proof of concept code to test the idea of a completely invisible (read: not listening) backdoor server. Standard backdoors and remote access services have one major problem - the port's they are listening on are visible on the system console as well as from outside (by port scanning). To activate the remote access service, one has to send several packets (TCP SYN) to ports on the target system. Which ports in which order and how many of them can be defined in the source code. Homepage: http://www.phenoelit.de/. By FX
Run a program that generates graphs, and display the graphs on a couple of Sun IPX's (can't use IPC's because no color framebuffer) in the front office. We use IPX's to display this stuff in color, and we use rpc.rstatd on IPC's (since the graphs don't need color) for monitoring load/cpu/packets/hdd for all the computers on the network.
Just run an ethernet cable up front, and put a hub, a few of those machines, and a few 17" sun monitors up, and you'll be good as gold.
It may not be exactly what you want, but you can get (at a glance) a good view of what's going on in your network, without having to ssh to the firewall or walk back to the NOC. We have the monitors up on those little wall-mount TV stands so that we can just glance up at them.
strongly recommend treating this case with more objectivity instead of cracking anti-SCO comments.
As pointed out elsewhere:
Slashdot is not a news reporting center. It is, for all intents and purposes, a weblog. When someone says on slashdot that sco are a bunch of rotten cock smokers, it's just a comment made by an independant, anonymous, netzien.
I just wanted to point out that a campain to get http://sco.com to be linked from google when you search for Rotten cock-smokers is a great idea.
I also wanted to point out that not only is http://sco.com listed as the top search for Litigious Bastards, but it also seems that they're the top list for bastards on google.
MACs have always represented a luxury/SUV computer.
Incorrect.
MACs have always represented Media Access Control id numbers, which are hard coded into ethernet devices at the factory and which are (in theory) unique.
Macintosh Computers (Macs) have always represented a luxury/SUV computer is not entirely correct. The Apple Macintosh was supposed to be a high-powered, low-cost personal computer that people could actually use for useful things. Compared to the 286s of the day, which cost a bundle, it was fairly cheap.
I would suggest NOT doing that. Those holes are designed to be electrically grounded to the chassis.
Incorrect. ATX Power supplies have a plethera of ground wires, which ground inside the power supply, which ground into the wall outlet. What good would grounding something to your case do? There's no electrical difference, unless your floor is the ground and your case isn't on plastic feet.
Many cases (including mine) provide *plastic* risers for motherboards.
All I was saying is that great things come from open source and proprietary software, and yet neither has changed the face of computing in the past few years.
Spreadsheets are a good example. What else could a spreadsheet need to do. Once you get the basic design down - it makes tables and does math functions on them - you can only extend it. So, you add graphs and formulaes. And then... it's about done. You really can't do anything else to it that anyone needs, except adding small features and tweaking.
So, open source and microsoft spreadsheet programs have changed little since, oh, office97 or so.
I just wanted to point out that not everyone uses Open Source Software just because it's open, which automatically means that it's better. Use what you like. I really think that if the linux community made a car, it'd have 4 steering wheels and a radio on the gearshift, but you'd have to manually bucket-brigade the gas from the tank to the engine, cause no one would have made a hose that fits both.
Bullshit. I can't think of a single intriguing interesting or useful piece of mainstream software that has come out in the commercial sector in the past 4 years.
Games. DVD Instant Copy.
Your turn.
See, the thing is, most software markets have software to fill them. There isn't a need for a lot more software, excepting that which exists and upgraded versions of said. Mozilla? Been around more than 4 years. Star/Open Office? More than 4 years old. GNUmeric? Old. KDE? Old. Ximian? Old. qmail? Old.
1.) Old software doesn't mean bad software. 2.) People write software that other people need. If no one needs it, no one will want / buy it. No new needs, no new software. New features, though.
Don't be so elitest. Use what works for you. A lot of people think new software and new whiz-bang features are a pain in the ass. I happen to use software that I think is the best available for what I want it to do, and it's a personal opinion, but I'm happy. You find your software, and stop preaching.
Install RealPlayer, and then start -> run -> gpedit.msc -> Administrative Templates -> System -> "Don't run specified windows applications", and add everything real player you can find. Fire up the thing and check your process list, etc.
Then, go download TARA's winamp plugin, and get winamp 2.7x and up or winamp5.
Then, adjust your file associations. RealPlayer files now play in Winamp, one of the most lean and ad free pieces of software out there.
Personally, I give it a few weeks in hacker hands before someone figures out how to kill the reaction.
Step 1.) Open DVDDecrypter, rip to.iso on hard disk. Step 2.) Mount as virual generic DVD-Rom with DaemonTools Step 3.) Open InstantCopy, transcode DVD, burn to disc.
I have spent a considerable amount in the computer underground and have seen many ways in which clever individuals trick unsuspecting users. I don't think most people have a clue just how bad things are.
Seriously, to me this sounds like sensationalism. Like, a good sound byte to attract attention. If you tell people that things are worse than they could ever imagine, you're not going to do much except scare people. And most of the time it's not that bad.
I'd like to think that (like most slashdotters) I'm not unaware of what goes on in the "computer underground". I'm not in it, but it's not like I'm ignorant of the fact that it exists. The tools on packetstorm are enough to scare any non-tech person into submission, if they knew what they could do, yet I don't lose sleep over it.
I'd like to think that, while there are lots of "dumb" users out there, there are a lot of us tech guys, the guys behind the switches and administering the servers, who are looking out for them, much like shepards.
There are a couple of simple rules to follow: 1.) If it's on the internet, it can be hacked. 2.) If it's backed up, it can be restored. 3.) If it's patched, it's less likely to be exploited. 4.) Ease of use and security are inversely proportional.
I don't resent people like my mom who wouldn't know spyware from cookware. I do what I can for her, computer wise. And she cooks for me when I come home. I consider it an even trade.
But, really the point that I was trying to get across is not that the moz browser it's self is bad. I really like it, despite a few things that I find annoying.
It's some of the people that use it that I find reprehensible. Most of the people, including most of the main devs, are great. I just really can't stand it when someone presumes to know what another person should use, and wants to force it on them as if it would solve all their problems, and they should feel greatful for the attention.
Yeah, I've never been one of the "Nuclear Anything Is Bad" crowd - I'm fully behind things like nuclear power plants - but, and correct me if I'm wrong, the current plan for a nuke-propelled mars craft goes something like this:
Take cardboard christmas wrapping paper tube. Duck tape steel plate to one end. Place stick of dynamite below steel plate. Pray. Ignite.
Except on bigger scale.
That kind of frightens me, to be perfectly honest. I really think we need to rethink this.
Yeah, or instead of being a complete jerk, you can just, oh, i dunno, tell them about Google Toolbar.
Mozilla is good. It's not the end all be all of web browsing. It has some neat features. It doesn't work with all websites. It renders some things stupid. It has a tendancy to ignore css pixel sizes (standards-wha?). It is not without bugs (check bugzilla). Some people like their browser resident in memory so it doesn't take forever to start. Since you can't unload I.E., and running the mozilla tray icon takes up 20+ megs of memory (doing nothing), I.E. is much faster (i use it for this reason among others, such as improper rendering).
There are a lot of cool things about mozilla. The are some bad things about mozilla.
However, the worst thing about mozilla by far is the eliteist attitude of the people who use it and say that everything else sucks. Couldn't you just say "Rather than using the browser you're using, why not try mozilla? It has a lot of the features you want, plus some extras that make web browsing pleasant"?? But, what you said was "YOUR BROWSER IS TEH SUXORZ. I SAY MOSILA CAUSE I'M L33T!!1!". And then you tell people to shut up?
Lemme guess. You're from New England, right? Or at least north of Virginia and west of the Mississippi. Try some southern courtesy, it goes a long way.
This illustrates perfectly how the free-market can work without overbearing monopolistic influence: Red Hat ends support for certain software, users can (and apparently do) go elsewhere.
You're absolutely right. It is great for free market. At Netmar (where I work), we've switched away from using RedHat as our default distro, and we're now using Debian.
Another posative side effect is that we've now expanded our offerings since the redhat crash. We now support (officially, before it was unofficial) Debian, RedHat, Mandrake, Gentoo, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Solaris x86. (http://netmar.com/services/dedicated.html)
This RedHat thing will be good for us in the end, I think. It puts us in new markets, where we can say "we support that" to most of the major distros. We used redhat before because it's what most software (i.e. plesk and cold fusion) ran on, and therefore, was what most customers wanted.
if Indian IT companies do such bad work, why are over half of Carnegie Mellon's highest-rated programming companies Indian?
Superriority via numbers? There's 1.1 Billion of 'em. For every skilled american programmer, statistically, they've got 4 people of the same intellect.
BTW. Perhaphs you should RTFA? It's cheap for it's intended market. But then again, you're the expert here. Perhaps you should go and chat to Mercedes or BMW. I guess they don't know what they're doing pricing cars that expensive, they'll never make any money that way.
What what what?
Mabey you should read my parent post (RMFPP, or some such other stupid acronym, since you seem to like them). He said that it was unlikely that they're doing much more than breaking even on that mini-pod. I called bullshit on his post. Surely you can see that, right?
I'm not claiming there's not a market for more expensive, luxury items of all sorts.
What I am saying is BMW and Mercedes make buttloads of cash on everything they sell. Just like apple.
Not everyone needs 15GBs, Some people need something really small.
Heh, i'm going to go ahead and reply to myself and eliminate the threat of flamebait about mac = less expensive.
Here you go: SYSTEM A
Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
1GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x512
160GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Subtotal $3,520.00
Compared to this: SYSTEM B ASUS SK8V, SATA Raid, S.940, 800FSB, Audio/LAN, DDR333/400, Retail Box AMD Athlon(TM) 64 FX51 1024K 800FSB S.940 Retail Box w/Cooling Fan 2x 512Mb DDR400 PC3200 Reg ECC Samsung (1Gb Total) 250Gb Serial ATA WD2500JD 8Mb 7200rpm AGP (8x) ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128Mb DDR Dual Head/TV/DVI OEM Toshiba SD-R5112 IDE Beige 4x DVD-R/RW OEM Integrated 10 / 100 / 1000 Mbps Gigabit LAN Adapter Integrated IEEE1394b (FireWire) Port RaidmaX CP868S Silver MidTower 420W P.S. w/2 Front USB Microsoft Windows XP Home
1) It costs that much to produce, and that price is barely above break even.
In related news:
Dell introuduces the Dell Jukebox. $250 (actually on sale for $224) 15GB 2 inch backlit LCD 16 hour battery life 4.1" x 2.7" x 0.86", 7.6 oz Supports MP3, WMA, WAV
Compared to the mini-pod? Yeah, whatever. $250 4GB 2 inch backlit LCD 8 hour battery life 1.6 inch backlit screen 3.6" x 2.0" x 0.5" 3.6 oz. Supports MP3, WAV, ACC
Drawbacks to dell jukebox? It's not quite as small. BFD, it's cheaper, and 250% more space.
I don't think appe is losing money on the mini-pod. In fact, I can't imagine a universe in which they aren't making shitloads of money after materials cost. That's not to say that they're not losing money cause they spent too much comming up with the designer colors, but, dude, $250 for 4GB?? No, they're insane.
They should have made it 1GB, and look the same as it does now, and sold it for $129. I'd be first in line, and it'd be really popular.
Yeah, I know it's really long, but check out this review from Ain'tItCool News:
----snip----
HOBBIT-MAN: THE KING RETURNS Whenever cool movie series get to the third movie they suck dicks like they're trying to become Emperor of Dicksuck-ylvania. George Lucas had Star Wars, and then Empire Kicks Ass, and then all of a sudden it's Planet of Furry Faggoty Fuckheads. Then he had to make two more to feed the Suck Demon that was holding his children hostage, and those movies went beyond gay to where they're paying old people to take a dump on them.
Even this summer, with MATRIX: SUDDENLY GAY and TERMINATOR: I LOVE COCK, the Rule of the Suck-y Third Movie got re-proven. If the third X-Men movie had come out this summer it probably would have been some crippled crock of crap where Wheelchair Charlie traps Fuck Yeah Wolverine in an illusion mind-trap where Wolverine thinks he's a time traveler from a hundred years ago romancing Meg Ryan in right-now New York. Of course, the X-Men movie would try to redeem itself in the third act by having Wolverine realize it's a mind-illusion and cut Meg's head off and play dodgeball with it, but it would be too late and here comes my extra large Sprite at the screen.
But guess what? One movie series turned that rule on its head. One 3-movie series said, "Wait a minute, we're going to make the 3rd movie SO tits it will make the FIRST two movies look gay."
I just saw HOBBIT-MAN: THE KING RETURNS and that's the movie I was talking about in the last paragraph. This movie will make you forget that if you stick a knife in your belly you'll bleed to death so do not bring a knife to this movie.
It's also, thank fucking God, LOUD. Even if you bring an iPod so you can listen to VH during the Elf parts you'll take it off because I swear to fucking Roth you do NOT know where the next big bang is going to come from, or when something big is going to crunch someone's skull while you picture that person getting their skull crushed is really your neighbor upstairs that plays Dido all day or that dude at the Starbucks who's always reading and looking all smart.
Oh yeah, the movie is also 3 hours and 20 minutes, and I think it's almost four hours if you sit through all the credits (it was all pencil sketches of the characters, which I think means they ran out of money). So if you bring some chick who's all like, "I have a spinning class tomorrow" or "I'm thirsty" tell her to go home and watch Gay Dudes and the Straight Guy because this movie takes fucking commitment. I saw the one dude in front of me who was with this girl, and the President of Warner Brothers came out and said, "This movie is three hours and twenty minutes," and before I could say, "So what, gaylord" the chick says to the dude she's with that she has to GO. And he LET her go because this movie kicks so much ass you can SENSE it even before it starts. And this chick was a stone fox, and he probably could have made out with her, but he was like, "I'm going make out with this movie," that's how good it is. See ya, hottie.
This movie starts with the origin of Golem - that creepy guy who looks like Iggy Pop and wears Tarzan pants and wants the invisible-ring. He's still on a quest with the two hobbits - Rudy from the film RUDY and Fredo - to throw the ring into a volcano (this is like a serious version of JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO). The ring is also evil but you keep thinking, while you watch it, that someone should put it on and check out some boobs. I have a feeling those scenes will be in the DVDs.
At the same time, the two other midget-men and the giant hippies have seriously fucked up that one evil guy's tower (he was Count Duke in Star Wars: Every Cock in the Universe Up My Ass Part II), and they hook back up with Magneto, and also that chick with the bow and arrows and finally the Giant Midget with the Axe. Oh, and also that I Don't Want to be the King/I Am Destined to Be the King Dude is with them, and he has this whole other story where he pretty much decides to be the
Thank you very much. I really appreciate the links.
I've been wondering how to do a lot of computer things with a kid, like when the kid needs to write a paper, or wants to play a game, or whatnot... and i don't think i should be setting the example that pirating $500 worth of ms office and $300 worth of games is good....
Slashdot Mirror
Not according to my relatively old, but still useful, ports list. (Credits to Jason/Play from #irchelp on irc2.att.net and darkbot)
~Will
NOT a new idea.
Item 16605 on Packetstorm, posted June 13 2000:
cd00r.c is a proof of concept code to test the idea of a completely invisible (read: not listening) backdoor server. Standard backdoors and remote access services have one major problem - the port's they are listening on are visible on the system console as well as from outside (by port scanning). To activate the remote access service, one has to send several packets (TCP SYN) to ports on the target system. Which ports in which order and how many of them can be defined in the source code. Homepage: http://www.phenoelit.de/. By FX
Run a program that generates graphs, and display the graphs on a couple of Sun IPX's (can't use IPC's because no color framebuffer) in the front office. We use IPX's to display this stuff in color, and we use rpc.rstatd on IPC's (since the graphs don't need color) for monitoring load/cpu/packets/hdd for all the computers on the network.
Just run an ethernet cable up front, and put a hub, a few of those machines, and a few 17" sun monitors up, and you'll be good as gold.
It may not be exactly what you want, but you can get (at a glance) a good view of what's going on in your network, without having to ssh to the firewall or walk back to the NOC. We have the monitors up on those little wall-mount TV stands so that we can just glance up at them.
~Will
strongly recommend treating this case with more objectivity instead of cracking anti-SCO comments.
As pointed out elsewhere:
Slashdot is not a news reporting center. It is, for all intents and purposes, a weblog. When someone says on slashdot that sco are a bunch of rotten cock smokers, it's just a comment made by an independant, anonymous, netzien.
~wx
I just wanted to point out that a campain to get http://sco.com to be linked from google when you search for Rotten cock-smokers is a great idea.
I also wanted to point out that not only is http://sco.com listed as the top search for Litigious Bastards, but it also seems that they're the top list for bastards on google.
Googlebombing is fun! Sco are a bunch of rotten cock smokers".
~Wx
oh, and!!!
McIntosh is a brand of high-end stereo amplifier!
WEeeeEEEEeeeEEE!!!1!
Heh.
Incorrect.
MAC is a brand of cab for 18-wheeler truck!
round and round we go!
MACs have always represented a luxury/SUV computer.
Incorrect.
MACs have always represented Media Access Control id numbers, which are hard coded into ethernet devices at the factory and which are (in theory) unique.
Macintosh Computers (Macs) have always represented a luxury/SUV computer is not entirely correct. The Apple Macintosh was supposed to be a high-powered, low-cost personal computer that people could actually use for useful things. Compared to the 286s of the day, which cost a bundle, it was fairly cheap.
~Will
*HAHA* Obligitory joke to the effect of:
WOWzerz! Their webserver must be running on a gamecube, too!!1! We slahsdot teh server!
Nothing more to see here, move along.
~Will
I would suggest NOT doing that. Those holes are designed to be electrically grounded to the chassis.
Incorrect. ATX Power supplies have a plethera of ground wires, which ground inside the power supply, which ground into the wall outlet. What good would grounding something to your case do? There's no electrical difference, unless your floor is the ground and your case isn't on plastic feet.
Many cases (including mine) provide *plastic* risers for motherboards.
~Will
OK, right. I get you.
All I was saying is that great things come from open source and proprietary software, and yet neither has changed the face of computing in the past few years.
Spreadsheets are a good example. What else could a spreadsheet need to do. Once you get the basic design down - it makes tables and does math functions on them - you can only extend it. So, you add graphs and formulaes. And then... it's about done. You really can't do anything else to it that anyone needs, except adding small features and tweaking.
So, open source and microsoft spreadsheet programs have changed little since, oh, office97 or so.
I just wanted to point out that not everyone uses Open Source Software just because it's open, which automatically means that it's better. Use what you like. I really think that if the linux community made a car, it'd have 4 steering wheels and a radio on the gearshift, but you'd have to manually bucket-brigade the gas from the tank to the engine, cause no one would have made a hose that fits both.
~Will
Bullshit. I can't think of a single intriguing interesting or useful piece of mainstream software that has come out in the commercial sector in the past 4 years.
Games.
DVD Instant Copy.
Your turn.
See, the thing is, most software markets have software to fill them. There isn't a need for a lot more software, excepting that which exists and upgraded versions of said.
Mozilla? Been around more than 4 years. Star/Open Office? More than 4 years old. GNUmeric? Old. KDE? Old. Ximian? Old. qmail? Old.
1.) Old software doesn't mean bad software.
2.) People write software that other people need. If no one needs it, no one will want / buy it. No new needs, no new software. New features, though.
Don't be so elitest. Use what works for you. A lot of people think new software and new whiz-bang features are a pain in the ass. I happen to use software that I think is the best available for what I want it to do, and it's a personal opinion, but I'm happy. You find your software, and stop preaching.
~Will
You know what you can also do?
Install RealPlayer, and then start -> run -> gpedit.msc -> Administrative Templates -> System -> "Don't run specified windows applications", and add everything real player you can find. Fire up the thing and check your process list, etc.
Then, go download TARA's winamp plugin, and get winamp 2.7x and up or winamp5.
Then, adjust your file associations. RealPlayer files now play in Winamp, one of the most lean and ad free pieces of software out there.
Booyah.
~Will
Personally, I give it a few weeks in hacker hands before someone figures out how to kill the reaction.
.iso on hard disk.
Step 1.) Open DVDDecrypter, rip to
Step 2.) Mount as virual generic DVD-Rom with DaemonTools
Step 3.) Open InstantCopy, transcode DVD, burn to disc.
Yep.
I have spent a considerable amount in the computer underground and have seen many ways in which clever individuals trick unsuspecting users. I don't think most people have a clue just how bad things are.
Seriously, to me this sounds like sensationalism. Like, a good sound byte to attract attention. If you tell people that things are worse than they could ever imagine, you're not going to do much except scare people. And most of the time it's not that bad.
I'd like to think that (like most slashdotters) I'm not unaware of what goes on in the "computer underground". I'm not in it, but it's not like I'm ignorant of the fact that it exists. The tools on packetstorm are enough to scare any non-tech person into submission, if they knew what they could do, yet I don't lose sleep over it.
I'd like to think that, while there are lots of "dumb" users out there, there are a lot of us tech guys, the guys behind the switches and administering the servers, who are looking out for them, much like shepards.
There are a couple of simple rules to follow:
1.) If it's on the internet, it can be hacked.
2.) If it's backed up, it can be restored.
3.) If it's patched, it's less likely to be exploited.
4.) Ease of use and security are inversely proportional.
I don't resent people like my mom who wouldn't know spyware from cookware. I do what I can for her, computer wise. And she cooks for me when I come home. I consider it an even trade.
~Will
OK, fair enough.
But, really the point that I was trying to get across is not that the moz browser it's self is bad. I really like it, despite a few things that I find annoying.
It's some of the people that use it that I find reprehensible. Most of the people, including most of the main devs, are great. I just really can't stand it when someone presumes to know what another person should use, and wants to force it on them as if it would solve all their problems, and they should feel greatful for the attention.
~Will
Yeah, I've never been one of the "Nuclear Anything Is Bad" crowd - I'm fully behind things like nuclear power plants - but, and correct me if I'm wrong, the current plan for a nuke-propelled mars craft goes something like this:
Take cardboard christmas wrapping paper tube.
Duck tape steel plate to one end.
Place stick of dynamite below steel plate.
Pray.
Ignite.
Except on bigger scale.
That kind of frightens me, to be perfectly honest. I really think we need to rethink this.
~Will
Yeah, or instead of being a complete jerk, you can just, oh, i dunno, tell them about Google Toolbar.
Mozilla is good. It's not the end all be all of web browsing. It has some neat features. It doesn't work with all websites. It renders some things stupid. It has a tendancy to ignore css pixel sizes (standards-wha?). It is not without bugs (check bugzilla). Some people like their browser resident in memory so it doesn't take forever to start. Since you can't unload I.E., and running the mozilla tray icon takes up 20+ megs of memory (doing nothing), I.E. is much faster (i use it for this reason among others, such as improper rendering).
There are a lot of cool things about mozilla. The are some bad things about mozilla.
However, the worst thing about mozilla by far is the eliteist attitude of the people who use it and say that everything else sucks. Couldn't you just say "Rather than using the browser you're using, why not try mozilla? It has a lot of the features you want, plus some extras that make web browsing pleasant"?? But, what you said was "YOUR BROWSER IS TEH SUXORZ. I SAY MOSILA CAUSE I'M L33T!!1!". And then you tell people to shut up?
Lemme guess. You're from New England, right? Or at least north of Virginia and west of the Mississippi. Try some southern courtesy, it goes a long way.
~Willl
This illustrates perfectly how the free-market can work without overbearing monopolistic influence: Red Hat ends support for certain software, users can (and apparently do) go elsewhere.
You're absolutely right. It is great for free market. At Netmar (where I work), we've switched away from using RedHat as our default distro, and we're now using Debian.
Another posative side effect is that we've now expanded our offerings since the redhat crash. We now support (officially, before it was unofficial) Debian, RedHat, Mandrake, Gentoo, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Solaris x86. (http://netmar.com/services/dedicated.html)
This RedHat thing will be good for us in the end, I think. It puts us in new markets, where we can say "we support that" to most of the major distros. We used redhat before because it's what most software (i.e. plesk and cold fusion) ran on, and therefore, was what most customers wanted.
~Will
if Indian IT companies do such bad work, why are over half of Carnegie Mellon's highest-rated programming companies Indian?
Superriority via numbers? There's 1.1 Billion of 'em. For every skilled american programmer, statistically, they've got 4 people of the same intellect.
~Will
BTW. Perhaphs you should RTFA? It's cheap for it's intended market. But then again, you're the expert here. Perhaps you should go and chat to Mercedes or BMW. I guess they don't know what they're doing pricing cars that expensive, they'll never make any money that way.
What what what?
Mabey you should read my parent post (RMFPP, or some such other stupid acronym, since you seem to like them). He said that it was unlikely that they're doing much more than breaking even on that mini-pod. I called bullshit on his post. Surely you can see that, right?
I'm not claiming there's not a market for more expensive, luxury items of all sorts.
What I am saying is BMW and Mercedes make buttloads of cash on everything they sell. Just like apple.
Not everyone needs 15GBs, Some people need something really small.
Sounds like you're all set, already!
Heh, i'm going to go ahead and reply to myself and eliminate the threat of flamebait about mac = less expensive.
Here you go: SYSTEM A
Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
1GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x512
160GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Subtotal $3,520.00
Compared to this: SYSTEM B
ASUS SK8V, SATA Raid, S.940, 800FSB, Audio/LAN, DDR333/400, Retail Box
AMD Athlon(TM) 64 FX51 1024K 800FSB S.940 Retail Box w/Cooling Fan
2x 512Mb DDR400 PC3200 Reg ECC Samsung (1Gb Total)
250Gb Serial ATA WD2500JD 8Mb 7200rpm
AGP (8x) ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128Mb DDR Dual Head/TV/DVI OEM
Toshiba SD-R5112 IDE Beige 4x DVD-R/RW OEM
Integrated 10 / 100 / 1000 Mbps Gigabit LAN Adapter
Integrated IEEE1394b (FireWire) Port
RaidmaX CP868S Silver MidTower 420W P.S. w/2 Front USB
Microsoft Windows XP Home
Subtotal: $2235.54 (americancomputech.com)
I guarantee System B beats system A.
~Wx
1) It costs that much to produce, and that price is barely above break even.
In related news:
Dell introuduces the Dell Jukebox.
$250 (actually on sale for $224)
15GB
2 inch backlit LCD
16 hour battery life
4.1" x 2.7" x 0.86", 7.6 oz
Supports MP3, WMA, WAV
Compared to the mini-pod? Yeah, whatever.
$250
4GB
2 inch backlit LCD
8 hour battery life
1.6 inch backlit screen
3.6" x 2.0" x 0.5" 3.6 oz.
Supports MP3, WAV, ACC
Drawbacks to dell jukebox? It's not quite as small. BFD, it's cheaper, and 250% more space.
I don't think appe is losing money on the mini-pod. In fact, I can't imagine a universe in which they aren't making shitloads of money after materials cost. That's not to say that they're not losing money cause they spent too much comming up with the designer colors, but, dude, $250 for 4GB?? No, they're insane.
They should have made it 1GB, and look the same as it does now, and sold it for $129. I'd be first in line, and it'd be really popular.
But, no. Apple = = more expensive (surprise!)
~Will
Yeah, I know it's really long, but check out this review from Ain'tItCool News:
----snip----
HOBBIT-MAN: THE KING RETURNS
Whenever cool movie series get to the third movie they suck dicks like they're trying to become Emperor of Dicksuck-ylvania. George Lucas had Star Wars, and then Empire Kicks Ass, and then all of a sudden it's Planet of Furry Faggoty Fuckheads. Then he had to make two more to feed the Suck Demon that was holding his children hostage, and those movies went beyond gay to where they're paying old people to take a dump on them.
Even this summer, with MATRIX: SUDDENLY GAY and TERMINATOR: I LOVE COCK, the Rule of the Suck-y Third Movie got re-proven. If the third X-Men movie had come out this summer it probably would have been some crippled crock of crap where Wheelchair Charlie traps Fuck Yeah Wolverine in an illusion mind-trap where Wolverine thinks he's a time traveler from a hundred years ago romancing Meg Ryan in right-now New York. Of course, the X-Men movie would try to redeem itself in the third act by having Wolverine realize it's a mind-illusion and cut Meg's head off and play dodgeball with it, but it would be too late and here comes my extra large Sprite at the screen.
But guess what? One movie series turned that rule on its head. One 3-movie series said, "Wait a minute, we're going to make the 3rd movie SO tits it will make the FIRST two movies look gay."
I just saw HOBBIT-MAN: THE KING RETURNS and that's the movie I was talking about in the last paragraph. This movie will make you forget that if you stick a knife in your belly you'll bleed to death so do not bring a knife to this movie.
It's also, thank fucking God, LOUD. Even if you bring an iPod so you can listen to VH during the Elf parts you'll take it off because I swear to fucking Roth you do NOT know where the next big bang is going to come from, or when something big is going to crunch someone's skull while you picture that person getting their skull crushed is really your neighbor upstairs that plays Dido all day or that dude at the Starbucks who's always reading and looking all smart.
Oh yeah, the movie is also 3 hours and 20 minutes, and I think it's almost four hours if you sit through all the credits (it was all pencil sketches of the characters, which I think means they ran out of money). So if you bring some chick who's all like, "I have a spinning class tomorrow" or "I'm thirsty" tell her to go home and watch Gay Dudes and the Straight Guy because this movie takes fucking commitment. I saw the one dude in front of me who was with this girl, and the President of Warner Brothers came out and said, "This movie is three hours and twenty minutes," and before I could say, "So what, gaylord" the chick says to the dude she's with that she has to GO. And he LET her go because this movie kicks so much ass you can SENSE it even before it starts. And this chick was a stone fox, and he probably could have made out with her, but he was like, "I'm going make out with this movie," that's how good it is. See ya, hottie.
This movie starts with the origin of Golem - that creepy guy who looks like Iggy Pop and wears Tarzan pants and wants the invisible-ring. He's still on a quest with the two hobbits - Rudy from the film RUDY and Fredo - to throw the ring into a volcano (this is like a serious version of JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO). The ring is also evil but you keep thinking, while you watch it, that someone should put it on and check out some boobs. I have a feeling those scenes will be in the DVDs.
At the same time, the two other midget-men and the giant hippies have seriously fucked up that one evil guy's tower (he was Count Duke in Star Wars: Every Cock in the Universe Up My Ass Part II), and they hook back up with Magneto, and also that chick with the bow and arrows and finally the Giant Midget with the Axe. Oh, and also that I Don't Want to be the King/I Am Destined to Be the King Dude is with them, and he has this whole other story where he pretty much decides to be the
Thank you very much. I really appreciate the links.
I've been wondering how to do a lot of computer things with a kid, like when the kid needs to write a paper, or wants to play a game, or whatnot... and i don't think i should be setting the example that pirating $500 worth of ms office and $300 worth of games is good....