Most of us believe that removing DRM from music is better than any DRM system that could be thought up. We told them how stupid it was when they decided to go with DRM. My opinion of the this is something like this:
Dear RIAA,
We told you not to do it and you did it anyway. It's YOUR baby. It's a teenager now and it's pissed off at the world. You made it, you deal with it.
So what's so hard about implementing encryption? Seriously. It's easy to implement and use and it can put MANY minds at easy knowing that recovery of the data is virtually impossible. I still think the UK is on the right track with the law punishing the company owners when something goes awry and they lose their tapes. Chairman would suddenly take note of yet another way the could get fired, and I'm sure they'd take steps to keep their job.
I have a HP tx1000 series laptop. It's an AMD Sempron with an Nvidia 6350(I think). If I boot up the computer and sit at the desktop for a few mins the video card temp stabilizes at just over 200F! I completely believe this and I've been BURNED by my damn laptop because I touched something next to my laptop after I sat it down for 2 mins(a fork). I'm NOT happy at all and I intend to call HP and see what they can do about it.
I'm sure everyone here remembers the geeksquad incident with people looking for porn and trying to compile a collection of all the porn they could. Or the guy this week that got arrested because a rep at CompUSA(I think) found kiddie porn on his computer while looking for pictures to put on a DVD to test the drive they just installed. It is in the nature of some people they are going to spy on other people's drives. Especially so here in the USA. Not sure why but people seem to be addicted with getting into everyone else's personal lives.
Now, just because you got the disk back doesn't mean they didn't look over your data anyway. I always encrypt my drives completely with a FDE program. That way if it does fall into the wrong hands they can't do anything with it anyway. My personal opinion, if you don't want someone going through your drive, you should either:
1. Take it to a repair center and watch them do the repair. 2. Take it to a friend/relative whom you know won't go fishing through your stuff. 3. Learn to fix it yourself. 4. Replace it yourself and use those handy dandy backups(you did do backups right?) 5. Suck it up and accept that some minimum wage freak is gonna go through all your stuff with a fine toothed comb looking for goodies.
Now, #5 might not be a big deal if you have something like source code, they might not know enough about programming to realize what they have and how valuable it is if they wanted to use it against you. In the end, it would be great if the IT industry had some kind of checks and balances to keep everyone honest and separate those who are honest from those who are lying kniving thieves, but this is the world we live in. Until someone can come up with an effective way to keep everyone honest, FDE is needed.
Me personally.. if I had a drive that wasn't encrypted I'd value the data and the cost of the replacement drive. If losing the data to the wrong hands could cost you millions of dollars, a $200 drive isn't too much to throw out yourself and replace. If it has no real value then why not RMA it? The choice is yours, so make it a good one.
Although my first instinct was to call them a patent troll I will have to admit that they are at least filing the patent now. I really hate it when patent troll company x waits 5 years, THEN files for patent infringement. Granted, I'm not thoroughly familiar on their patent nor Nigerian law, but these guys do deserve some credit for at least trying to defend their own patents. I still hate them, but at least they're filing now and not in 5 years like quite a few other patent trolls do.
Does caring about whether the GPL has been violated matter? Whether I care or not is not the point. The point is that ASUS is currently in violation of GPL. I bet that if I stole something from ASUS they'd come after me the second I appeared to interfere with their products.
Patents are supposed to protect an inventor's invention so that other's can't duplicate it allowing the inventor to earn money for his invention. Generally speaking a patented idea is a good idea. Yet lately I'm seeing more and more patents being approved that just seem downright bad ideas. They are trying to protect themselves from potential 'bad customers'(being those that will only buy once or twice). How can someone even think of something as idiotic as this? Seriously? They're already marking some people as 'bad customers' before we've gotten our merchandise!!!
I may be wrong, but I remember reading somewhere that the US Navy owned something around 80% of the Hafnium known to exist for their nuclear reactors. Sure they have more than they can use, but its better to have too much than run out. Hafnium is very rare and extremely important in the design of nuclear reactors for many countries.
No way your computer draws only 65W, unless you have a VERY old computer or a shuttle that can barely do anything. Laptops at the store that are 'power efficient' use 90W power supplies. My system which is in no way a power house, draws 98W idle. Not to mention your power supply is at max 85% efficient.
Why would companies spend resources on a Linux version of their software if their software works with Wine just fine? Blizzard wrote a Windows client for WoW that is ported to Linux with Wine for free. What more can a company want than someone else doing the work for them for free? Any company that spends vast amounts of resources to port a product to Linux when it can be emulated with wine just fine probably isn't making good business decisions anyway, and won't stay in business long.
On the flip side, Wine could very well be hindering games from being 'Linux native' because wine is capable of providing the performance needed to get the job done. There is no incentive to provide such software for Linux users because they can use Wine.
My question is, had there been a slashdotter on the Jury, would the verdict have been the same? Both in the reguard that the majority of us think this is BS, but also because we realize how all this software REALLY works, and can tell the Jurors how it really works?
I'm sure that as part of the Jury selection the #1 question was 'Are you skilled with computers?'. If you said yes you couldn't participate.
Correct, but terrorist will use whatever is the easiest means to get the end result, terror. It does not matter if it is OnStar, EMP, nuclear, biological, chemical, or even throwing rocks at your dog. If it is something terrorists wants to use and it is convenient then they'll use it.
Look at Skype. Brought down by what is being told is a bug.
What would happen if Onstar had some kind of problem? Buffer overflow that ends up disabling every vehicle in their database. BIG BIG problems for everyone. And what if the vehicles DON'T re-enable later automatically. Can you imagine every vehicle everywhere having to be sent to a 'dealership for repair'?
A fuse might solve the problem, but how many people are really going to remove a fuse? You yourself said it's the ignorant and apathetic nature of society. The nature of society is 'If it isn't broke why pull the fuse?' Not to mention that pulling that fuse disables ALL of the OnStar functions. Some people might not want to disable it all. Especially since the consumer(read: you and me) will pay for this stuff to be put in a car even if choose to de-fuse. And what do we do if removing the fuse disables OnStar AND the car?
So what happens 10 years from now when everyone has it in their vehicle and some hacker figures out a way to stall all the cars in LA? Imagine someone being able to control all the vehicles in the USA(or maybe the world!). This would be a very useful tool for terrorists. I promise I won't be running out to buy a car with OnStar!
Assuming that a terrorist is able to stop all the cars in the USA in one nice swoop, does the vehicle automatically re-enable after 30 seconds? What kind of limitations are there on the OnStar's ability to control the vehicle after it has been disabled? Does the care auto re-enable after so much time and can't be disabled again until it's 'reset' locally?
I can't even begin to imagine all of the bad things that can go wrong with this setup. This is yet another reason why the futuristic shows that show everthing 'connected' is bad for us.
We're the laughingstock for continually buying the OS despite numerous security problems. Let's not talk about the 'secret hidden update' that MS did a few short weeks ago. In the end, Mr. Enduser is the laughingstock for buying the OS knowing damn well all the problems that comes with it.
So everyone's talking about how much pain AMD is in. Bleeding cash 24x7. So they've spent money on R&D for a 3 core processor!? Are you kidding me? Did they REALLY think there's gonna be a big market for three core computers!?
This seems like almost as bad of a decision as Intel made going with Netburst. The difference being Intel could afford to make a big mistake. AMD doesn't have that luxury, and their new luxury might be going bankrupt. Sure, Intel went with Netburst because it solved several technical problems at the time. But what problems does this solve for AMD? It seems like it would have been more cost conscious to design the 4 core, and if one core fails then just enable the 3 cores.
But seriously, what market is this really gonna be useful for? People generally are in 2 categories. Surf the net, check email, maybe some light gaming(in which case a dual core is plenty). Or a power user, playing some of the most advanced games in the world(in which case a quad core is what they buy). Where's the user that does both and isn't going to spring for a quad core, yet go buy those $50+ games every month? It doesn't make sense to me.
But the definition of 'geek' varies from person to person.
To my mom a geek is: Someone that can fix my computer when it breaks.
To me it means: Someone that has an understanding of what computer parts are needed to assemble one from scratch and has a THOROUGH understanding of computers.
TO PC world it might mean:
1. They want to be able to fix computers. Not today, and not tomorrow, but someday, maybe. 2. They know how to turn it on and off and know when it doesn't boot up it's broken and needs fixed. 3. They are a hardcore computer guru, knowing all of the commonly used programming languages that are deeply intimate with everything there is to know about Microsoft. 4. They are smart and use Linux and don't need no stinkin' upgraded warranty. 5. Gosh, we can scam customers out of SO much money! Let's go to town and see how far we get!
So take your pick at what definition they want to use. And yes, THOROUGH could be broken down further, but I wanted to emphasize thorough because so many people think they know alot and really are pretty blind.
I always rate someone's knowledge not by what they know, but what they realize they don't know.
Slashdot Mirror
But what is 'fair' is not always 'right'. Make things 'right'! This one is actually fixable.
Most of us believe that removing DRM from music is better than any DRM system that could be thought up. We told them how stupid it was when they decided to go with DRM. My opinion of the this is something like this:
Dear RIAA,
We told you not to do it and you did it anyway. It's YOUR baby. It's a teenager now and it's pissed off at the world. You made it, you deal with it.
Sincerely,
Slashdot.org
So what's so hard about implementing encryption? Seriously. It's easy to implement and use and it can put MANY minds at easy knowing that recovery of the data is virtually impossible. I still think the UK is on the right track with the law punishing the company owners when something goes awry and they lose their tapes. Chairman would suddenly take note of yet another way the could get fired, and I'm sure they'd take steps to keep their job.
I have a HP tx1000 series laptop. It's an AMD Sempron with an Nvidia 6350(I think). If I boot up the computer and sit at the desktop for a few mins the video card temp stabilizes at just over 200F! I completely believe this and I've been BURNED by my damn laptop because I touched something next to my laptop after I sat it down for 2 mins(a fork). I'm NOT happy at all and I intend to call HP and see what they can do about it.
Does Unobtanium burn bright white too? Anyone got a sample and can confirm?
Isn't private data supposed to be... well.. private?
I know, common sense need not apply here apparently.
Sorry.. wrong message. I'm stupid today :P Of course, I might be stupid every day and I just don't know it!
Isn't private data supposed to be... well... private?
I know.. I know.. Common sense need not apply, right?
I'm sure everyone here remembers the geeksquad incident with people looking for porn and trying to compile a collection of all the porn they could. Or the guy this week that got arrested because a rep at CompUSA(I think) found kiddie porn on his computer while looking for pictures to put on a DVD to test the drive they just installed. It is in the nature of some people they are going to spy on other people's drives. Especially so here in the USA. Not sure why but people seem to be addicted with getting into everyone else's personal lives.
Now, just because you got the disk back doesn't mean they didn't look over your data anyway. I always encrypt my drives completely with a FDE program. That way if it does fall into the wrong hands they can't do anything with it anyway. My personal opinion, if you don't want someone going through your drive, you should either:
1. Take it to a repair center and watch them do the repair.
2. Take it to a friend/relative whom you know won't go fishing through your stuff.
3. Learn to fix it yourself.
4. Replace it yourself and use those handy dandy backups(you did do backups right?)
5. Suck it up and accept that some minimum wage freak is gonna go through all your stuff with a fine toothed comb looking for goodies.
Now, #5 might not be a big deal if you have something like source code, they might not know enough about programming to realize what they have and how valuable it is if they wanted to use it against you. In the end, it would be great if the IT industry had some kind of checks and balances to keep everyone honest and separate those who are honest from those who are lying kniving thieves, but this is the world we live in. Until someone can come up with an effective way to keep everyone honest, FDE is needed.
Me personally.. if I had a drive that wasn't encrypted I'd value the data and the cost of the replacement drive. If losing the data to the wrong hands could cost you millions of dollars, a $200 drive isn't too much to throw out yourself and replace. If it has no real value then why not RMA it? The choice is yours, so make it a good one.
Although my first instinct was to call them a patent troll I will have to admit that they are at least filing the patent now. I really hate it when patent troll company x waits 5 years, THEN files for patent infringement. Granted, I'm not thoroughly familiar on their patent nor Nigerian law, but these guys do deserve some credit for at least trying to defend their own patents. I still hate them, but at least they're filing now and not in 5 years like quite a few other patent trolls do.
Does caring about whether the GPL has been violated matter? Whether I care or not is not the point. The point is that ASUS is currently in violation of GPL. I bet that if I stole something from ASUS they'd come after me the second I appeared to interfere with their products.
Patents are supposed to protect an inventor's invention so that other's can't duplicate it allowing the inventor to earn money for his invention. Generally speaking a patented idea is a good idea. Yet lately I'm seeing more and more patents being approved that just seem downright bad ideas. They are trying to protect themselves from potential 'bad customers'(being those that will only buy once or twice). How can someone even think of something as idiotic as this? Seriously? They're already marking some people as 'bad customers' before we've gotten our merchandise!!!
My problem with the post: Why on god's great earth are we having to rely on goverment regulation to maintain free trade in the US?
I may be wrong, but I remember reading somewhere that the US Navy owned something around 80% of the Hafnium known to exist for their nuclear reactors. Sure they have more than they can use, but its better to have too much than run out. Hafnium is very rare and extremely important in the design of nuclear reactors for many countries.
No way your computer draws only 65W, unless you have a VERY old computer or a shuttle that can barely do anything. Laptops at the store that are 'power efficient' use 90W power supplies. My system which is in no way a power house, draws 98W idle. Not to mention your power supply is at max 85% efficient.
Why would companies spend resources on a Linux version of their software if their software works with Wine just fine? Blizzard wrote a Windows client for WoW that is ported to Linux with Wine for free. What more can a company want than someone else doing the work for them for free? Any company that spends vast amounts of resources to port a product to Linux when it can be emulated with wine just fine probably isn't making good business decisions anyway, and won't stay in business long. On the flip side, Wine could very well be hindering games from being 'Linux native' because wine is capable of providing the performance needed to get the job done. There is no incentive to provide such software for Linux users because they can use Wine.
My question is, had there been a slashdotter on the Jury, would the verdict have been the same? Both in the reguard that the majority of us think this is BS, but also because we realize how all this software REALLY works, and can tell the Jurors how it really works?
I'm sure that as part of the Jury selection the #1 question was 'Are you skilled with computers?'. If you said yes you couldn't participate.
You want to RISK not helping them! Oh my god no!!!!!!!
If the vehicle was stationary why would you care about disabling it? Just tell the cops where it is and they can drive over and get it!
Correct, but terrorist will use whatever is the easiest means to get the end result, terror. It does not matter if it is OnStar, EMP, nuclear, biological, chemical, or even throwing rocks at your dog. If it is something terrorists wants to use and it is convenient then they'll use it.
Look at Skype. Brought down by what is being told is a bug.
What would happen if Onstar had some kind of problem? Buffer overflow that ends up disabling every vehicle in their database. BIG BIG problems for everyone. And what if the vehicles DON'T re-enable later automatically. Can you imagine every vehicle everywhere having to be sent to a 'dealership for repair'?
A fuse might solve the problem, but how many people are really going to remove a fuse? You yourself said it's the ignorant and apathetic nature of society. The nature of society is 'If it isn't broke why pull the fuse?' Not to mention that pulling that fuse disables ALL of the OnStar functions. Some people might not want to disable it all. Especially since the consumer(read: you and me) will pay for this stuff to be put in a car even if choose to de-fuse. And what do we do if removing the fuse disables OnStar AND the car?
So what happens 10 years from now when everyone has it in their vehicle and some hacker figures out a way to stall all the cars in LA? Imagine someone being able to control all the vehicles in the USA(or maybe the world!). This would be a very useful tool for terrorists. I promise I won't be running out to buy a car with OnStar!
Assuming that a terrorist is able to stop all the cars in the USA in one nice swoop, does the vehicle automatically re-enable after 30 seconds? What kind of limitations are there on the OnStar's ability to control the vehicle after it has been disabled? Does the care auto re-enable after so much time and can't be disabled again until it's 'reset' locally?
I can't even begin to imagine all of the bad things that can go wrong with this setup. This is yet another reason why the futuristic shows that show everthing 'connected' is bad for us.
We're the laughingstock for continually buying the OS despite numerous security problems. Let's not talk about the 'secret hidden update' that MS did a few short weeks ago. In the end, Mr. Enduser is the laughingstock for buying the OS knowing damn well all the problems that comes with it.
Um... That's not what others are saying. The triple core phenom is actually DESIGNED to be 3 cores, not 4 cores with 1 disabled cause it was broke.
So everyone's talking about how much pain AMD is in. Bleeding cash 24x7. So they've spent money on R&D for a 3 core processor!? Are you kidding me? Did they REALLY think there's gonna be a big market for three core computers!?
This seems like almost as bad of a decision as Intel made going with Netburst. The difference being Intel could afford to make a big mistake. AMD doesn't have that luxury, and their new luxury might be going bankrupt. Sure, Intel went with Netburst because it solved several technical problems at the time. But what problems does this solve for AMD? It seems like it would have been more cost conscious to design the 4 core, and if one core fails then just enable the 3 cores.
But seriously, what market is this really gonna be useful for? People generally are in 2 categories. Surf the net, check email, maybe some light gaming(in which case a dual core is plenty). Or a power user, playing some of the most advanced games in the world(in which case a quad core is what they buy). Where's the user that does both and isn't going to spring for a quad core, yet go buy those $50+ games every month? It doesn't make sense to me.
But the definition of 'geek' varies from person to person.
To my mom a geek is: Someone that can fix my computer when it breaks.
To me it means: Someone that has an understanding of what computer parts are needed to assemble one from scratch and has a THOROUGH understanding of computers.
TO PC world it might mean:
1. They want to be able to fix computers. Not today, and not tomorrow, but someday, maybe.
2. They know how to turn it on and off and know when it doesn't boot up it's broken and needs fixed.
3. They are a hardcore computer guru, knowing all of the commonly used programming languages that are deeply intimate with everything there is to know about Microsoft.
4. They are smart and use Linux and don't need no stinkin' upgraded warranty.
5. Gosh, we can scam customers out of SO much money! Let's go to town and see how far we get!
So take your pick at what definition they want to use. And yes, THOROUGH could be broken down further, but I wanted to emphasize thorough because so many people think they know alot and really are pretty blind.
I always rate someone's knowledge not by what they know, but what they realize they don't know.