It's Virginia, for godsake! They only took "Family Reunion" off the official, Virginia Is For Lovers, list of "Best Places To Meet Hot Babes" last week.
Why didn't they publish a detailed description of their exploit? If they don't supply enough information to let any script kiddie with "toolz" create havoc and end Western Civilization, they must be just blowing smoke and sowing FUD, right?
The thing people who try to impose crap like this never seem to realize is that it's easy to track honest people as they go about their daily business. People with bad intent can usually defeat systems like this with about five minutes' thought. Meanwhile, the information being collected infallibly winds up being spread around to friends of the collectors. Canadian Social Insurance Numbers were assigned exclusively for tax purposes. Now, you get video store clerks asking for your SIN when you apply for a damned movie card.
Bottom line: the only criminals who get caught by these systems are the dummies. So the end result is just a little Darwinian natural selection for your crooks while all the rest of us lose freedom and privacy.
I doubt whether it was originally intended as such, but I'm betting that the utter failure of Vista is going to mean Windows 7 will be rushed into production long before it's ready, and in a completely different form that what was originally conceived.
In short, I suspect Windows 7 will wind up being The Pig That Is Vista with lipstick...probably eye-liner and blush, too.
If you like car analogies (they have a lousy reputation in these parts), you might want to compare the bus with four of those over-sized vans. Seating for 40 or more, and cheaper than the bus.
I guess there must be some kind of law in the United States that says you'd have to build one big plant instead of maybe 5 smaller ones, thus reducing the scale-up proportionally?
"New York Country Lawyer" Ray Beckerman has probably done more to publicize the RIAA's thuggish, bullying tactics in clear, concise, non-legalese language than just about anybody else in the United States. And he's certainly done more than his share against them in court, if I understand correctly. It's no surprise they're targeting him.
I hope the Slashdot community is ready to help the guy out if necessary, because he's helped keep the RIAA and similar scumbags off all of our necks.
The only way something like this makes sense is if a candidate has to respond on the record in real time. Otherwise, they just farm it out to an underling, who will provide a nice, safe, reasonably accurate series of answers.
I want to know if the candidate himself could pass a grade school science exam before he gets to make calls on science policy. Even somebody who gets spoon-fed their information has to have enough basic awareness of the subject to know when he's hearing a line of crap from his advisers.
What really irritates me is that just sending or receiving an e-mail from a particular address, or even general location, could be enough to get you well and truly screwed. Time for some kind of TwInternet...one that includes a whole bunch of off-shore infrastructure that scrubs stuff thoroughly on its way from A to B. One without a bunch of fascists in the driver's seat.
Give me a year to study and I'll be able to pass that test, and more. On the other hand, one of my best friends is an amazing IT guy. I love him like a brother, but I wouldn't trust him to manage a lemonade stand. Nor would 20 years of training make him any better.
Simply a case of competition driving another cycle of improvement. Those people who like to claim there's no reason for open source developers to improve and innovate often forget that your basic human being is a competitive critter at heart.
"...are we talking 24 hours of word processing, or 24 hours of actually using your computer?"
Are we talking about doing actual work or downloading pr0n while you doze in your chair at a conference?
I've seen more people try to weasel out of commitments because there was no recording secretary taking minutes at a meeting than I've ever seen weeping and gnashing their teeth because the 25th PowerPoint presentation of the day died along with a laptop battery.
I always knew I was brighter than everybody else. Now my love of between-meal snacks is explained, as well. Truly, this is a banner day in Canadian research!
If only they could somehow tie in above-average masculine endowment (if you get my drift), good looks and, of course, modest demeanor, my presence on Earth would finally be explained.
I await the expected shower of acclaim with my usual blend of aplomb and unpretentious good grace. And appropriate willingness to seek cover from a shower of more tangible (and less agreeable) expressions of esteem.
Honda should pick up Toyota's all-electric "dropped ball" and run with it. If memory serves, Toyota used to have a 100% electric car and stopped making it. Since ALL of my weekday driving is well within about 50 kilometres of home, I'd kill for one.
Have you reached the point yet, as I have, where the next person who says, "If you aren't doing something wrong, what are you afraid of" is liable to get a quick kick in the arse in lieu of an extended lesson in civics, freedom, rights and responsibilities?
Normally these ridiculous EULA's are attached to software you really need, so you don't have much choice but to hope a court will see things your way if there's ever a problem. But even if Chrome was a really amazing browser, which it's not, I don't have a compelling need for it. So they can take their ridiculous "We own everything you bring within a hundred yards of our software" statement and shove it right, straight up their ass.
Better hope that one of the silly things doesn't catch sight of a couple of dogs having at it when it's in "learning mode". That could lead to some very interesting flying stunts indeed.
Thanks for my laugh of the day. Caught me totally off-guard and left me chuckling even though I'm working in a windowless basement cell on a beautiful sunny day.
Blame those nasty, evil languagistas at the grand old OED. A definition stated clearly (and stated early in the entry) in Oxford can scarcely be considered metaphor or idiom. It is, if I may descend to synecdoche, the very soul of the word.
Slashdot Mirror
All that effort solving the math problems on time, just to type "You're a dick" and stagger off to bed.
It's Virginia, for godsake! They only took "Family Reunion" off the official, Virginia Is For Lovers, list of "Best Places To Meet Hot Babes" last week.
Why didn't they publish a detailed description of their exploit? If they don't supply enough information to let any script kiddie with "toolz" create havoc and end Western Civilization, they must be just blowing smoke and sowing FUD, right?
The thing people who try to impose crap like this never seem to realize is that it's easy to track honest people as they go about their daily business. People with bad intent can usually defeat systems like this with about five minutes' thought. Meanwhile, the information being collected infallibly winds up being spread around to friends of the collectors. Canadian Social Insurance Numbers were assigned exclusively for tax purposes. Now, you get video store clerks asking for your SIN when you apply for a damned movie card.
Bottom line: the only criminals who get caught by these systems are the dummies. So the end result is just a little Darwinian natural selection for your crooks while all the rest of us lose freedom and privacy.
I doubt whether it was originally intended as such, but I'm betting that the utter failure of Vista is going to mean Windows 7 will be rushed into production long before it's ready, and in a completely different form that what was originally conceived.
In short, I suspect Windows 7 will wind up being The Pig That Is Vista with lipstick...probably eye-liner and blush, too.
If you like car analogies (they have a lousy reputation in these parts), you might want to compare the bus with four of those over-sized vans. Seating for 40 or more, and cheaper than the bus.
I guess there must be some kind of law in the United States that says you'd have to build one big plant instead of maybe 5 smaller ones, thus reducing the scale-up proportionally?
"New York Country Lawyer" Ray Beckerman has probably done more to publicize the RIAA's thuggish, bullying tactics in clear, concise, non-legalese language than just about anybody else in the United States. And he's certainly done more than his share against them in court, if I understand correctly. It's no surprise they're targeting him.
I hope the Slashdot community is ready to help the guy out if necessary, because he's helped keep the RIAA and similar scumbags off all of our necks.
The only way something like this makes sense is if a candidate has to respond on the record in real time. Otherwise, they just farm it out to an underling, who will provide a nice, safe, reasonably accurate series of answers.
I want to know if the candidate himself could pass a grade school science exam before he gets to make calls on science policy. Even somebody who gets spoon-fed their information has to have enough basic awareness of the subject to know when he's hearing a line of crap from his advisers.
I got yer pocket projector right here, buddy!
What really irritates me is that just sending or receiving an e-mail from a particular address, or even general location, could be enough to get you well and truly screwed. Time for some kind of TwInternet...one that includes a whole bunch of off-shore infrastructure that scrubs stuff thoroughly on its way from A to B. One without a bunch of fascists in the driver's seat.
Give me a year to study and I'll be able to pass that test, and more. On the other hand, one of my best friends is an amazing IT guy. I love him like a brother, but I wouldn't trust him to manage a lemonade stand. Nor would 20 years of training make him any better.
Is there any legal way to call the Telcom spokes-creep a "lying sack of shit" without being tied up in court for the next 30 years?
Simply a case of competition driving another cycle of improvement. Those people who like to claim there's no reason for open source developers to improve and innovate often forget that your basic human being is a competitive critter at heart.
"...are we talking 24 hours of word processing, or 24 hours of actually using your computer?"
Are we talking about doing actual work or downloading pr0n while you doze in your chair at a conference?
I've seen more people try to weasel out of commitments because there was no recording secretary taking minutes at a meeting than I've ever seen weeping and gnashing their teeth because the 25th PowerPoint presentation of the day died along with a laptop battery.
"In a dutch dialect dot-net translates into 'doesn't work'".
Oh, it works, alright. But its agenda isn't your agenda. Please feel free to insert any Microsoft/Skynet/Terminator meme you like.
I always knew I was brighter than everybody else. Now my love of between-meal snacks is explained, as well. Truly, this is a banner day in Canadian research!
If only they could somehow tie in above-average masculine endowment (if you get my drift), good looks and, of course, modest demeanor, my presence on Earth would finally be explained.
I await the expected shower of acclaim with my usual blend of aplomb and unpretentious good grace. And appropriate willingness to seek cover from a shower of more tangible (and less agreeable) expressions of esteem.
Honda should pick up Toyota's all-electric "dropped ball" and run with it. If memory serves, Toyota used to have a 100% electric car and stopped making it. Since ALL of my weekday driving is well within about 50 kilometres of home, I'd kill for one.
Have you reached the point yet, as I have, where the next person who says, "If you aren't doing something wrong, what are you afraid of" is liable to get a quick kick in the arse in lieu of an extended lesson in civics, freedom, rights and responsibilities?
Normally these ridiculous EULA's are attached to software you really need, so you don't have much choice but to hope a court will see things your way if there's ever a problem. But even if Chrome was a really amazing browser, which it's not, I don't have a compelling need for it. So they can take their ridiculous "We own everything you bring within a hundred yards of our software" statement and shove it right, straight up their ass.
Better hope that one of the silly things doesn't catch sight of a couple of dogs having at it when it's in "learning mode". That could lead to some very interesting flying stunts indeed.
Thanks for my laugh of the day. Caught me totally off-guard and left me chuckling even though I'm working in a windowless basement cell on a beautiful sunny day.
Blame those nasty, evil languagistas at the grand old OED. A definition stated clearly (and stated early in the entry) in Oxford can scarcely be considered metaphor or idiom. It is, if I may descend to synecdoche, the very soul of the word.