Security through obscurity does work, not very effectively, but it does. Or at least, the obscure system is more secure than the same system that is open.
For example - let's say I keep a backup key to my house buried somewhere in the yard or in a flowerpot ( there are many flowerpots and I chose one at random). While this is not as secure as not having the backup key, it is more secure than placing a sign indicating where the key is.
Same thing here - while the system is not as as it would have been if the vulnerability did not exist, if the exploit was published, then everyone would know how to hack it, even those who would not be able to come up with the hack on their own.
My car is too old to have a computer in it, but I use an aftermarket security "system" - I have to push a button (the button is visible and usually has another function) before I try to start the engine or it would crank, but not start. Now this would not be a problem for a competent thief - he would figure out how to circumvent this, it's not that difficult. However, some drug addict or a drunk teenager may just conclude that the car is broken and steal some other car instead.
I now get 300mbps connection for the same price I paid for 4mbps DSL 4 years ago. Actually, there was a time when I paid a bit more for 80mnbps connection, but since then the ISP increased the bandwidth and reduced the price. I pay ~23EUR/month no data caps or anything.
This is Lithuania. We have many ISPs in the cities and the government is laying fiber to rural areas (the private companies will be able to lease it).
If we move to a GPS unit in our vehicles, we may as well make all roads tolled and eliminate the gas tax entirely. That way traffic could be dynamically rerouted by price, which would handle congestion far better than it is presently.
So, while you would not want the government putting a tracker on your car, you would be OK with a private company doing it? Don't forget that the private company would keep one set of backups in the NSA servers.
The criminals should be treated worse. If the prisons were more like they were in the USSR (lots of hard work, bad conditions etc), more people would not want to return there and would be really careful not to break the law once they get out.
Yea, this also was a problem for a short while after the government of my country decided that people should be able to take their cell phone number to another provider (to encourage competition). You could no longer tell whether the number you are calling belongs to "your" provider (cheaper) or not. This was solved - now when you call a number that does not belong to "your" provider, you hear two short beeps before the waiting signal.
DX 10 being limited to Vista and newer kept it from being used for a long time, I guess the same will happen to DX11.1 and 11.2. Game companies won't make games that don't run on an OS the majority of the players use (Windows 7).
Actually, Morse code uses 4 characters, not just two. Dot, dash (combination of which identify the letter), short space (separates letters from each other) and long space (separates words from each other). Without the spaces it would not be possible to distinguish between, say, "TAE", "TR", "NN" and "C" (dash dot dash dot).
If it was binary, then a space between letters (start/stop bits) and between words (0x20) would be encoded by some combination of dots and dashes.
If you have 100mbps uplink and many desktops that are part of Windows domain then each morning when everybody is logging in at the same time it will take a long time to do it.
Same can be said for my home network. While my internet connection is 300mbps, most of the traffic stays in the router (which is running torrents) and for the most part I could just use 100mbps for the rest of my network. However, once in a while I copy lots of large files from one computer to another and then I am really happy that I have gigabit.
Also,I use Firefox because (among other things) its interface is not like Chrome. I hate Chrome style interface. If FF forces me to use Chrome style interface I'll switch to Opera - last time I checked it was possible to configure it as I want.
People said the same thing when File Manager was removed.
File Manager (and IIRC Program Manager) was still available in Windows 95. I think it would even run on XP if I copied it from my old computer.
People said the same thing when the "gummy" themed buttons in Windows XP showed up (oh, its not professional!).
And you can set it to classic mode. Actually, that mode still exists on Win7, but not on 8 - no, we have to have the "pretty" new look where windows are flat (no distinct edges). And you can't even disable DWM on Win8 (though it is possible with some modifications).
They said the same thing when Vista added UAC.
UAC can be disabled - even on Windows 8.
And they're saying the same thing now.
They are saying - "give us a choice". Sure, the new feature may be good, but I also may have my reasons for not using it or for wanting the old feature back. Not everyone is the same, people have different needs and wishes. Just because I use Windows, does not mean that my setup is standard or that I use one application at a time, maximizing all windows (I only maximize video players and games). I have a 24" monitor so that many windows can fit on the screen (and many desktop icons), not to make everything bigger. If I wanted to make everything bigger, I could just use a lower resolution. At work I use Linux (Ubuntu), but with KDE, not the default Unity, because Unity is not as efficient when I have 6 (or more) overlapping terminal windows.
Turns out, for Microsoft, people "saying the same thing" works out very well financially.
OK, I want to buy a laptop*. I can choose one from 50 options with Windows8 or one from 5 options with Linux. Even if I am planning to use Linux (or an older version of Windows on it) I will most likely buy the laptop with Windows 8 for the hardware, then will just install the software I want. Lots of people installed Windows XP after buying a PC with Vista and now lots of people install Windows after buying a PC with Windows 8. * it's easier for a desktop - I can just buy the parts, assemble it myself and install whatever OS I want.
Maybe the people of Lithuania don't seem to mind because their Tax Agency actually has a reputation for fairness, due process, and reasonable penalties for violators.
ROFL
Here's one thing I know about the Tax Agency. They provide explanations of certain tax laws, basically "the law says you have to do this, this and that", then, some time later, they change the explanation and fine anybody who was following the previous explanation essentially for not being able to see the future.
Also, many people who have to use Win8 (because their computer came with it) and hate it may not know about classic shell. Some even ask for a computer with Win8 and then regret it.
Microsoft Word shouldn't be full screen, but if I'm writing a book I may not want any distractions.
Or if I am writing something else (for example, translating some text or something that requires reference) I might want part of some other window poking out from underneath Word.
I don't want it up constantly - I just want to pull it up and then go back to what I was doing. It's a full mental context switch anyway, so it might as well take the full screen.
I don't like any full screen apps other than games or movies. The weather app should only take as much screen space as needed to show the information Besides, for me, looking at a weather app or flipping a tape (or playing a different file) is not a full mental context switch - it does not clear the cache. I want to be able to get back to my program without having to go trough a list - I just click the part of its window that is poking out.
Well, the way Metro UI is designed it looks like Microsoft does not want you to multitask on Windows too. Opening email app in full screen? No, thank you, I have a 24" monitor so many windows (and desktop icons) can fit and I do not need the email program to take the whole screen (only video players and games should do that).
It still looks awful to me (not to mention expects a good graphics card - find that in a VM). Copying explorer.exe from Win7 and killing dwm.exe at least switches to the Windows 7 look where windows have clearly defined borders, but may make the system unstable (without DWM it can't display certain things).
Also, since normally the dwm (compositing) cannot be turned off and defaults to using the GPU for rendering (which is good most of the time, assuming it does not make the GPU go to full power mode), I wonder how that would affect other software that use the GPU for calculations (bitcoin mining etc).
Or we make it an actual crime to tease someone, if that person ultimately does something to themselves.
The intent should be considered. Teasing somebody a couple of times should not be a crime, even if they kill themselves (because they were mentally unstable etc, which was unknown to the teaser). Driving somebody to suicide (be it by exploiting their mental instability in a short attack or gradually destroying their will to live over a prolonged attack) should definitely be a crime.
Unless you say that it is not possible to drive anybody to suicide, in which case I would disagree. Some people are mentally weak, a lot of others can be broken if the attacker knows how to do it.
While I never considered suicide because of bullying, I was not bullied a lot and if I snapped, I would have killed the bully first. However, I can understand how you can bully someone into committing suicide (though I still don't get why they don't at least try to take the bullies with them).
Yet what do you folks do? You target those you have labeled as "bullies", and you direct more wrath, hatred and animosity toward them than they could ever possibly direct at any of their so-called "victims".
Not only bullies, don't forget the poor murderers, thieves and robbers - everybody hates them.
A lot of the time these alleged "bullies" are merely pointing out factual attributes about the person in question. Yes, some people are nerds, and it is not incorrect to point this fact out. Yes, some people are obviously weak, and it is not incorrect to point this fact out. Yes, some people are stupid, and it is not incorrect to point this fact out.
Yea, assault, property damage is a great way to point out a fact. So, how about pointing out the fact that the person is a bully? Announce it in newspapers, every time you see him, punch him and damage his property. Any time he is in a public place, film him, especially if he is being beaten up, then post the videos online. After a few months, start calling him in the middle of the night, telling him to stop wasting oxygen and just kill himself.
But I like writing 20,000 feet instead of switching to something else. Do you spend kiloEuros?
In an informal writing (chat, email to a friend), yes. I hate writing lots of zeros, so I will usually write things like "That thing costs 5kEUR". When I am talking I will say "5 thousand Euros", but writing "5kEUR" is shorter/faster than "5 thousand EUR". I also try not to use "." or "," as thousands separators as they are confusing as hell (my country uses dot as thousands separator and comma as decimal separator - exactly reverse of what the US uses) if I really need to write a thousands separator (not in a formal document of course) I will use a space (20 000 feet) or ' (20'000 feet) - now it's not ambiguous.
Fahrenheit is way better for weather. You'll never convince me there. 0 is painfully cold and 100 is painfully hot.
But if it's below 32 you'll need o go earlier to scrape the ice from your car. Other than that, you could be right, I just am so used to Celsius that for me it's OK that -10C outside is really cold without a jacket, +24C (inside) is time for a fan, +28C is time for AC.
For distance, my country uses metric and the car fuel consumption is specified in L/100km, so I can calculate how long will it take me to go there and how much I will pay for the fuel. Milimeters are good for small things (like wire thickness), centimeters are good for bigger things (like human height, though you could use 193cm or 1.93m - whichever looks better). The good thing about the metri system is that converting to bigger/smaller units is not a PITA.
Anyway, as someone who lives in a country with only metric system, I think that the imperial system is weird. Different units with the same name (IIRC there are at least 3 kinds of "ounces", 2 kinds of "miles" etc). Difficult to switch scales, that's why you end up writing things with lots of zeros like "altitude: 20000ft" instead of converting to the next higher unit (20kft or however many miles it is). No reason why the wood cannot be "50x100". If it's below 0C outside, prepare for some ice/snow and most likely scraping your car window. A meter is approximately the length between the tips of your left hand fingers and your right shoulder. Gallon is approximately 5L, it weighs (for stuff that's about the same density as water) about 5kg.
Now fixing my car? Measuring out the baby's medicine? Sending a probe to Mars? Hells yes, use metric, are you kidding? But for day to day stuff, mine's a pint.
So, you have to use two different measuring systems, while I can use one since it is more suited for day to day stuff than imperial is for scientific/etc stuff.
Make the trigger read the fingerprint or whatever. If your finger is on the trigger of my gun, I most likely would not want the gun to fire. If your hand is on the barrel of my gun, but my finger is on the trigger then it will fire.
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Security through obscurity does work, not very effectively, but it does. Or at least, the obscure system is more secure than the same system that is open.
For example - let's say I keep a backup key to my house buried somewhere in the yard or in a flowerpot ( there are many flowerpots and I chose one at random). While this is not as secure as not having the backup key, it is more secure than placing a sign indicating where the key is.
Same thing here - while the system is not as as it would have been if the vulnerability did not exist, if the exploit was published, then everyone would know how to hack it, even those who would not be able to come up with the hack on their own.
My car is too old to have a computer in it, but I use an aftermarket security "system" - I have to push a button (the button is visible and usually has another function) before I try to start the engine or it would crank, but not start. Now this would not be a problem for a competent thief - he would figure out how to circumvent this, it's not that difficult. However, some drug addict or a drunk teenager may just conclude that the car is broken and steal some other car instead.
I now get 300mbps connection for the same price I paid for 4mbps DSL 4 years ago.
Actually, there was a time when I paid a bit more for 80mnbps connection, but since then the ISP increased the bandwidth and reduced the price. I pay ~23EUR/month no data caps or anything.
This is Lithuania. We have many ISPs in the cities and the government is laying fiber to rural areas (the private companies will be able to lease it).
If we move to a GPS unit in our vehicles, we may as well make all roads tolled and eliminate the gas tax entirely. That way traffic could be dynamically rerouted by price, which would handle congestion far better than it is presently.
So, while you would not want the government putting a tracker on your car, you would be OK with a private company doing it? Don't forget that the private company would keep one set of backups in the NSA servers.
The criminals should be treated worse. If the prisons were more like they were in the USSR (lots of hard work, bad conditions etc), more people would not want to return there and would be really careful not to break the law once they get out.
Yea, this also was a problem for a short while after the government of my country decided that people should be able to take their cell phone number to another provider (to encourage competition). You could no longer tell whether the number you are calling belongs to "your" provider (cheaper) or not. This was solved - now when you call a number that does not belong to "your" provider, you hear two short beeps before the waiting signal.
The ship itself may cost a bit to weld back together...
until the recent few years where most computer purchases are tablets.
Yes, because everybody has a laptop now and it is probably still good enough. People want to try out these new "tablets" as well.
DX 10 being limited to Vista and newer kept it from being used for a long time, I guess the same will happen to DX11.1 and 11.2. Game companies won't make games that don't run on an OS the majority of the players use (Windows 7).
Actually, Morse code uses 4 characters, not just two. Dot, dash (combination of which identify the letter), short space (separates letters from each other) and long space (separates words from each other). Without the spaces it would not be possible to distinguish between, say, "TAE", "TR", "NN" and "C" (dash dot dash dot).
If it was binary, then a space between letters (start/stop bits) and between words (0x20) would be encoded by some combination of dots and dashes.
Is the usage average or peak?
If you have 100mbps uplink and many desktops that are part of Windows domain then each morning when everybody is logging in at the same time it will take a long time to do it.
Same can be said for my home network. While my internet connection is 300mbps, most of the traffic stays in the router (which is running torrents) and for the most part I could just use 100mbps for the rest of my network. However, once in a while I copy lots of large files from one computer to another and then I am really happy that I have gigabit.
Also,I use Firefox because (among other things) its interface is not like Chrome. I hate Chrome style interface. If FF forces me to use Chrome style interface I'll switch to Opera - last time I checked it was possible to configure it as I want.
Steam itself sure. But do all the games for sale on Steam work on Linux?
People said the same thing when File Manager was removed.
File Manager (and IIRC Program Manager) was still available in Windows 95. I think it would even run on XP if I copied it from my old computer.
People said the same thing when the "gummy" themed buttons in Windows XP showed up (oh, its not professional!).
And you can set it to classic mode. Actually, that mode still exists on Win7, but not on 8 - no, we have to have the "pretty" new look where windows are flat (no distinct edges). And you can't even disable DWM on Win8 (though it is possible with some modifications).
They said the same thing when Vista added UAC.
UAC can be disabled - even on Windows 8.
And they're saying the same thing now.
They are saying - "give us a choice". Sure, the new feature may be good, but I also may have my reasons for not using it or for wanting the old feature back. Not everyone is the same, people have different needs and wishes. Just because I use Windows, does not mean that my setup is standard or that I use one application at a time, maximizing all windows (I only maximize video players and games). I have a 24" monitor so that many windows can fit on the screen (and many desktop icons), not to make everything bigger. If I wanted to make everything bigger, I could just use a lower resolution. At work I use Linux (Ubuntu), but with KDE, not the default Unity, because Unity is not as efficient when I have 6 (or more) overlapping terminal windows.
Turns out, for Microsoft, people "saying the same thing" works out very well financially.
OK, I want to buy a laptop*. I can choose one from 50 options with Windows8 or one from 5 options with Linux. Even if I am planning to use Linux (or an older version of Windows on it) I will most likely buy the laptop with Windows 8 for the hardware, then will just install the software I want. Lots of people installed Windows XP after buying a PC with Vista and now lots of people install Windows after buying a PC with Windows 8.
* it's easier for a desktop - I can just buy the parts, assemble it myself and install whatever OS I want.
Maybe the people of Lithuania don't seem to mind because their Tax Agency actually has a reputation for fairness, due process, and reasonable penalties for violators.
ROFL
Here's one thing I know about the Tax Agency. They provide explanations of certain tax laws, basically "the law says you have to do this, this and that", then, some time later, they change the explanation and fine anybody who was following the previous explanation essentially for not being able to see the future.
Also, many people who have to use Win8 (because their computer came with it) and hate it may not know about classic shell. Some even ask for a computer with Win8 and then regret it.
Microsoft Word shouldn't be full screen, but if I'm writing a book I may not want any distractions.
Or if I am writing something else (for example, translating some text or something that requires reference) I might want part of some other window poking out from underneath Word.
I don't want it up constantly - I just want to pull it up and then go back to what I was doing. It's a full mental context switch anyway, so it might as well take the full screen.
I don't like any full screen apps other than games or movies. The weather app should only take as much screen space as needed to show the information Besides, for me, looking at a weather app or flipping a tape (or playing a different file) is not a full mental context switch - it does not clear the cache. I want to be able to get back to my program without having to go trough a list - I just click the part of its window that is poking out.
Well, the way Metro UI is designed it looks like Microsoft does not want you to multitask on Windows too. Opening email app in full screen? No, thank you, I have a 24" monitor so many windows (and desktop icons) can fit and I do not need the email program to take the whole screen (only video players and games should do that).
It still looks awful to me (not to mention expects a good graphics card - find that in a VM). Copying explorer.exe from Win7 and killing dwm.exe at least switches to the Windows 7 look where windows have clearly defined borders, but may make the system unstable (without DWM it can't display certain things).
Also, since normally the dwm (compositing) cannot be turned off and defaults to using the GPU for rendering (which is good most of the time, assuming it does not make the GPU go to full power mode), I wonder how that would affect other software that use the GPU for calculations (bitcoin mining etc).
Or we make it an actual crime to tease someone, if that person ultimately does something to themselves.
The intent should be considered. Teasing somebody a couple of times should not be a crime, even if they kill themselves (because they were mentally unstable etc, which was unknown to the teaser). Driving somebody to suicide (be it by exploiting their mental instability in a short attack or gradually destroying their will to live over a prolonged attack) should definitely be a crime.
Unless you say that it is not possible to drive anybody to suicide, in which case I would disagree. Some people are mentally weak, a lot of others can be broken if the attacker knows how to do it.
While I never considered suicide because of bullying, I was not bullied a lot and if I snapped, I would have killed the bully first. However, I can understand how you can bully someone into committing suicide (though I still don't get why they don't at least try to take the bullies with them).
Yet what do you folks do? You target those you have labeled as "bullies", and you direct more wrath, hatred and animosity toward them than they could ever possibly direct at any of their so-called "victims".
Not only bullies, don't forget the poor murderers, thieves and robbers - everybody hates them.
A lot of the time these alleged "bullies" are merely pointing out factual attributes about the person in question. Yes, some people are nerds, and it is not incorrect to point this fact out. Yes, some people are obviously weak, and it is not incorrect to point this fact out. Yes, some people are stupid, and it is not incorrect to point this fact out.
Yea, assault, property damage is a great way to point out a fact. So, how about pointing out the fact that the person is a bully? Announce it in newspapers, every time you see him, punch him and damage his property. Any time he is in a public place, film him, especially if he is being beaten up, then post the videos online. After a few months, start calling him in the middle of the night, telling him to stop wasting oxygen and just kill himself.
But I like writing 20,000 feet instead of switching to something else. Do you spend kiloEuros?
In an informal writing (chat, email to a friend), yes. I hate writing lots of zeros, so I will usually write things like "That thing costs 5kEUR". When I am talking I will say "5 thousand Euros", but writing "5kEUR" is shorter/faster than "5 thousand EUR". I also try not to use "." or "," as thousands separators as they are confusing as hell (my country uses dot as thousands separator and comma as decimal separator - exactly reverse of what the US uses) if I really need to write a thousands separator (not in a formal document of course) I will use a space (20 000 feet) or ' (20'000 feet) - now it's not ambiguous.
Fahrenheit is way better for weather. You'll never convince me there. 0 is painfully cold and 100 is painfully hot.
But if it's below 32 you'll need o go earlier to scrape the ice from your car. Other than that, you could be right, I just am so used to Celsius that for me it's OK that -10C outside is really cold without a jacket, +24C (inside) is time for a fan, +28C is time for AC.
For distance, my country uses metric and the car fuel consumption is specified in L/100km, so I can calculate how long will it take me to go there and how much I will pay for the fuel.
Milimeters are good for small things (like wire thickness), centimeters are good for bigger things (like human height, though you could use 193cm or 1.93m - whichever looks better). The good thing about the metri system is that converting to bigger/smaller units is not a PITA.
I may be prejudiced by my upbringing,
Probably everyone is.
Anyway, as someone who lives in a country with only metric system, I think that the imperial system is weird.
Different units with the same name (IIRC there are at least 3 kinds of "ounces", 2 kinds of "miles" etc).
Difficult to switch scales, that's why you end up writing things with lots of zeros like "altitude: 20000ft" instead of converting to the next higher unit (20kft or however many miles it is).
No reason why the wood cannot be "50x100".
If it's below 0C outside, prepare for some ice/snow and most likely scraping your car window.
A meter is approximately the length between the tips of your left hand fingers and your right shoulder.
Gallon is approximately 5L, it weighs (for stuff that's about the same density as water) about 5kg.
Now fixing my car? Measuring out the baby's medicine? Sending a probe to Mars? Hells yes, use metric, are you kidding? But for day to day stuff, mine's a pint.
So, you have to use two different measuring systems, while I can use one since it is more suited for day to day stuff than imperial is for scientific/etc stuff.
9-10L/100km for gasoline and 13-14L/100km for LPG (which in my country is about half the price of gasoline).
It most likely won't fire for the owner's kid. Which, as I understand it, is the main reason behind this law.
Or you grab my gun and shoot me with it.
Make the trigger read the fingerprint or whatever. If your finger is on the trigger of my gun, I most likely would not want the gun to fire. If your hand is on the barrel of my gun, but my finger is on the trigger then it will fire.