If I was a member of a spy/security agency who wanted more than anything to wipe away the last, feeble laws protecting the privacy and freedom of my country's sheeple, this is precisely the kind of operation I'd set up. All it would take is a few words whispered in the right ear.
The most idiotic of the Muslim fanatics would jump on the idea with glad little cries, and the usual gang of fascists would gleefully portray the descent into a police state as the ultimate expression of First World freedom and security. And the sheeple would be lining up to flush away their rights.
Your problem is one of social engineering, not hardware or software. It's almost impossible to "idiot-proof" any kind of technology if the people using it absolutely refuse to learn. Sadly, this seems to be your problem.
Until your relatives can be persuaded that the device in their house can take their identities, their life savings and perhaps even their children, they'll just keep going merrily along, trusting other people to clean up after them.
Fair enough, that's a valid point. But I believe you're the first person I've encountered who seems to love, Love, LOVE Win 8. I know people who tolerate it. I know people who have stripped it off their system and replaced it with 7. I know nobody who feels about it the way you evidently do, though. That's why I thought your comment sounded a lot like a PR blurb from MSoft.
This strikes me as simply the next logical step in marketing. U2 is a major group, and it's hard to argue that giving customers their new album as a bonus is a bad thing. But the next step will be "free" albums Apple wants you to listen to, and the one after that will be extorting artists to pay them to have their albums released this way.
The final step, no doubt, will be an extra fee to have automatic installation of such stuff disabled.
This reminds me of a documentary I saw at least 20 years ago. It was about how Egypt was throwing out Western restoration experts and putting its own people in to work on some mummies that had been returned from various museums around the word.
One expert was being interviewed while she worked on a sarcophagus. In the middle of her comment about how she and her colleagues were every bit as competent as the "foreigners" who'd been sent packing, she managed to accidentally pry off a big chunk of it, which fell on the floor and broke. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
I've already mostly given up on Google for images, because as a resident of North America, I can't completely disable "Safe Search".
I don't spend a lot of time looking for pron, but neither do I want my search engine eliminating some results because there might be a stray breast in the background of images I'd want to see.
TFA indicates there's a lot of problems with what they're serving to people using older browsers...it's much more than just a reversion to the old Google search page (which I loved, by the way).
Looks like I'd better start looking for a new default search engine, because I have no intention of moving past Firefox 22, thanks to that insane new interface they're cramming down people's throat.
The Imams decided Gutenberg's printing press was off limits, because (you have to know how the press worked...stamping, essentially) printing the prophet's words on one would be equivalent of punching him in the face.
And ever since, Muslims have been spiraling downward into a pit of ignorance and fanaticism. There was a time when they were the flower of human civilization. That time has passed. Ours will, too, if we continue to allow superstitious morons to dictate our social and educational policiies.
Sorry, but the sensationalist definition serves the ends of the people in power, and therefore will continue to be used by their boot-licking servants in the news media.
The video should be published. James Foley knew the decisions he was making put him in danger. He walked in with his eyes open, having decided that his photographs could tell the story of average people caught up in the evil going on around them...and that they were worth the risk.
The only thing worse than the murderous pieces of excrement who killed him are the fascist bastards in bespoke suits who want to use his death as an excuse to turn our freedom-loving countries into the same kind of totalitarian state ISIS is trying to create.
Fuck them. They're as bad as the terrorists.
We need to decide: is our freedom worth the price of a few successful terrorist attacks, or should we simply open the door wide to Big Brother, and invite him in for a permanent visit.
Quit trying to change the subject. You attempted to use the CBC, which has a decent reputation for reporting tech intelligently and without bias, to lend spurious legitimacy to your own deceitful, misleading summary.
And quit repeating Levi's comment as though your original summary didn't misrepresent what he said.
I don't know what your issue is with Blackberry, and I couldn't care less. What I DO care about is that you're a liar who attempted to deceive Slashdot readers. I hope the people running the site ensure that any future posts by you are carefully audited for deceitful and misleading content.
Please stay with the subject. Due to some unusual circumstances, I personally heard and read everything CBC reported on Blackberry yesterday. Your summary of what THEY said was not just inaccurate, it was deceitfully inaccurate.
You can thrash around all you want. The fact remains: you attempted to mislead members of this community. I have no idea why, and I couldn't care less. You are dishonest. Any further submissions by you should receive close scrutiny by Slashdot's editors.
Thanks for that. I'm not used to seeing Slashdot submitters who are outright liars.
The thing is, I happened to be home today, so I heard everything CBC had to say about this story, and I read what they put up on their site, too. Sock Puppet BarbaraHudson's summary simply did not match what was reported. It did, however, bear a close enough resemblance to make it obvious the deception was not accidental.
Thank you, my friend. As I noted in my original post, I'm no Blackberry fanboi. But I suspect a lot of the hatred coming from trolls on just about every tech site you can find has more to do with interested parties trying to drive down the company's value than from honest criticism.
The summary is inaccurate from the first sentence on. There's a difference between "shifting focus" and "abandoning the market", even in the euphemistic language of business PR types. And the transition Levy was talking about was to a focus on business applications and away from general public, except in certain markets.
I read TFA, and saw nothing about Blackberry supposedly trying to spin a screw-up as anything else. And I heard one of CBC's tech people discuss this move on CBC Radio 1 today. Again, there was nothing about Blackberry throwing in the towel, even on its handsets. In fact, the new one was reported to be garnering a fair bit of positive feedback. I have no idea whether that's true or not, but that is what was reported on CBC.
I'm not a Blackberry fanboi by any stretch of the imagination, in fact, my current and former phones are Samsung, but the summary offered above is dishonest...plain and simple.
Slashdot Mirror
I think it's pretty hard to deny that there's at least a modicum of truth in your statement. Frankly, I think there's more than that.
I wonder when people are going to wake up...or if.
If I was a member of a spy/security agency who wanted more than anything to wipe away the last, feeble laws protecting the privacy and freedom of my country's sheeple, this is precisely the kind of operation I'd set up. All it would take is a few words whispered in the right ear.
The most idiotic of the Muslim fanatics would jump on the idea with glad little cries, and the usual gang of fascists would gleefully portray the descent into a police state as the ultimate expression of First World freedom and security. And the sheeple would be lining up to flush away their rights.
Mission accomplished.
Your problem is one of social engineering, not hardware or software. It's almost impossible to "idiot-proof" any kind of technology if the people using it absolutely refuse to learn. Sadly, this seems to be your problem.
Until your relatives can be persuaded that the device in their house can take their identities, their life savings and perhaps even their children, they'll just keep going merrily along, trusting other people to clean up after them.
If they teach these things to screw geeks, Slashdot is doomed! DOOMED, I tell you!
I'd mod you up if I could.
Fair enough, that's a valid point. But I believe you're the first person I've encountered who seems to love, Love, LOVE Win 8. I know people who tolerate it. I know people who have stripped it off their system and replaced it with 7. I know nobody who feels about it the way you evidently do, though. That's why I thought your comment sounded a lot like a PR blurb from MSoft.
Great PR job, son! You've easily kissed enough ring to hang onto that job of yours for at least another couple of months.
Keep up the good work!
Yrs,
Satya Nadella
ROFL. Good one!
This strikes me as simply the next logical step in marketing. U2 is a major group, and it's hard to argue that giving customers their new album as a bonus is a bad thing. But the next step will be "free" albums Apple wants you to listen to, and the one after that will be extorting artists to pay them to have their albums released this way.
The final step, no doubt, will be an extra fee to have automatic installation of such stuff disabled.
This reminds me of a documentary I saw at least 20 years ago. It was about how Egypt was throwing out Western restoration experts and putting its own people in to work on some mummies that had been returned from various museums around the word.
One expert was being interviewed while she worked on a sarcophagus. In the middle of her comment about how she and her colleagues were every bit as competent as the "foreigners" who'd been sent packing, she managed to accidentally pry off a big chunk of it, which fell on the floor and broke. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
I see nothing's changed.
Thanks for that information. The last I heard, the Classic Theme Restorer wasn't working all that well. I think I can live without the Menu Bar.
Cheers!
Good point.
I've already mostly given up on Google for images, because as a resident of North America, I can't completely disable "Safe Search".
I don't spend a lot of time looking for pron, but neither do I want my search engine eliminating some results because there might be a stray breast in the background of images I'd want to see.
TFA indicates there's a lot of problems with what they're serving to people using older browsers...it's much more than just a reversion to the old Google search page (which I loved, by the way).
Looks like I'd better start looking for a new default search engine, because I have no intention of moving past Firefox 22, thanks to that insane new interface they're cramming down people's throat.
The Imams decided Gutenberg's printing press was off limits, because (you have to know how the press worked...stamping, essentially) printing the prophet's words on one would be equivalent of punching him in the face.
And ever since, Muslims have been spiraling downward into a pit of ignorance and fanaticism. There was a time when they were the flower of human civilization. That time has passed. Ours will, too, if we continue to allow superstitious morons to dictate our social and educational policiies.
I'm not going to be impressed until I hear somebody play Jerusalem on it...with reverb.
Sorry, but the sensationalist definition serves the ends of the people in power, and therefore will continue to be used by their boot-licking servants in the news media.
So do you actually work for the police, or do you just suck them off for free?
"These organisms survive by converting methane into energy, enabling them to survive where there is no wind or sunlight..."
I convert methane into something...worse.
The video should be published. James Foley knew the decisions he was making put him in danger. He walked in with his eyes open, having decided that his photographs could tell the story of average people caught up in the evil going on around them...and that they were worth the risk.
The only thing worse than the murderous pieces of excrement who killed him are the fascist bastards in bespoke suits who want to use his death as an excuse to turn our freedom-loving countries into the same kind of totalitarian state ISIS is trying to create.
Fuck them. They're as bad as the terrorists.
We need to decide: is our freedom worth the price of a few successful terrorist attacks, or should we simply open the door wide to Big Brother, and invite him in for a permanent visit.
Quit trying to change the subject. You attempted to use the CBC, which has a decent reputation for reporting tech intelligently and without bias, to lend spurious legitimacy to your own deceitful, misleading summary.
And quit repeating Levi's comment as though your original summary didn't misrepresent what he said.
I don't know what your issue is with Blackberry, and I couldn't care less. What I DO care about is that you're a liar who attempted to deceive Slashdot readers. I hope the people running the site ensure that any future posts by you are carefully audited for deceitful and misleading content.
Now quit wasting my time.
Please stay with the subject. Due to some unusual circumstances, I personally heard and read everything CBC reported on Blackberry yesterday. Your summary of what THEY said was not just inaccurate, it was deceitfully inaccurate.
You can thrash around all you want. The fact remains: you attempted to mislead members of this community. I have no idea why, and I couldn't care less. You are dishonest. Any further submissions by you should receive close scrutiny by Slashdot's editors.
Thanks for that. I'm not used to seeing Slashdot submitters who are outright liars.
The thing is, I happened to be home today, so I heard everything CBC had to say about this story, and I read what they put up on their site, too. Sock Puppet BarbaraHudson's summary simply did not match what was reported. It did, however, bear a close enough resemblance to make it obvious the deception was not accidental.
Thank you, my friend. As I noted in my original post, I'm no Blackberry fanboi. But I suspect a lot of the hatred coming from trolls on just about every tech site you can find has more to do with interested parties trying to drive down the company's value than from honest criticism.
The summary is inaccurate from the first sentence on. There's a difference between "shifting focus" and "abandoning the market", even in the euphemistic language of business PR types. And the transition Levy was talking about was to a focus on business applications and away from general public, except in certain markets.
I read TFA, and saw nothing about Blackberry supposedly trying to spin a screw-up as anything else. And I heard one of CBC's tech people discuss this move on CBC Radio 1 today. Again, there was nothing about Blackberry throwing in the towel, even on its handsets. In fact, the new one was reported to be garnering a fair bit of positive feedback. I have no idea whether that's true or not, but that is what was reported on CBC.
I'm not a Blackberry fanboi by any stretch of the imagination, in fact, my current and former phones are Samsung, but the summary offered above is dishonest...plain and simple.