This is where you misunderstand me... I was thanking MS for *one* particular event, not for their existence. When it comes to spam, and spam only, they may be very useful and helpful. I'm thanking them for that... and JUST that.
When it comes to things like Palladium... I quite agree! It's one of the worst ideas since the RIAA. And like the aforementioned people, those who invented it should be lined up and shot.
Don't think that just because I'm praising MS for one battle means that I'm praising them for the whole war.
No doubt it was really quite a common theory. I stand by what was said back there... Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express, whether or not the Slashdot or Linux community wish it, *are* for sure the most common email clients.
As one person on the thread quite rightly put it, it's normally the Microsoft users (granny, mom, joe sixpack et al) who are uninformed enough to respond to spam in the first place, making the business thrive. Helping them not to see it can only kill off the spam industry, surely. I hope so. Commonplace spam filtering "on every desktop" (as Gates would put it) can only be a good thing.
As such, I'd like to say a very rare "thanks Microsoft, good luck"
There was a similar concept for phones in the UK a good few years ago called the "Rabbit" phone - back when cellphones were very expensive items for top business people.
You'd hunt down a Rabbit station which was like an analogue WiFi signal, denoted by a sign that shops used to put up. If you were in radius, you could make a call.
Then when you got home you'd switch it to "home" mode and use it on your own base station.
I can't remember the exact details - I was about 10 at the time. I think you could only make calls (not recieve them) when roaming, but they were far cheaper than cellphone calls.
They went down like a lead balloon, and the personal cellphone boom started.
"Auto-correct" -- DIE! "Auto-suggest" -- DIE DIE DIE!
Probable feature list for Windows Walkabout 2004: New intuitive and friendly office assistant to assist you with your tasks and make helpful suggestions.
Don't worry about the "HTML laden" pun... I was only making a joke, not judging your English:) The fact that I quoted the "HMTL" only comes from me being a lazy git using copy+paste.
On filtering, perhaps you missed my point... I actually use POPFile myself. What I'm suggesting here is exploiting Microsoft's dominance. After all, almost everyone except hobbyists (meaning the usual Average "how do i get the internet" Joe) use Outlook/O.Express. Many I talk to don't even know that other email clients exist, let alone know about filtering. Those people are the majority. I know of a few of those who do fall for spam... it's usually me who has to educate them afterwards, and of course remove viruses on occasions.
But no, it doesn't help when it comes to downloading... as you said yourself, that's where broadband will (eventually!) help. I guess what I'm saying is that we need as many weapons as possible, and Microsoft is like a weapon of mass destruction.
Broadband (when BT finally get their arses into gear and install it) will lessen the effect of the issue, but it's still there. It may be trivial to download the spam, but you still have to wade through the stuff trying to find real mails.
I don't think laws can really help either? I doubt most of these spammers (at least the ones that seem to spam me) really care about the law!
Perhaps the best way to kill off spammers for good would be for Microsoft to build bayesian filtering (which seems *very* reliable) into Outlook Express 7 and slap one of their nice friendly wizards on it. It sounds dire I know, but perhaps MS could have their uses after all;)
At the risk of sounding off-topic... doesn't this seem very familiar?
-- Some idiot organisation who were successful once but are no longer relevant start worrying about their future. --
-- In a feeble but desparate attempt to boost finances and publicity, they start throwing lawsuits around. --
-- Getting more and more frustrated, they start screwing their own customers, who are now getting very pissed off. --
-- Most people agree that said organisation are a bunch of a-holes and vow never to buy from them again. --
Ring any bells? If you ask me, this SCO business is like a smaller and faster-moving example of the behaviour and imminent consequences of a certain irrelevant organisation known as the RIAA.
Here's the next part, which I hope will happen to SCO and set an example to the rather slower moving RIAA case.
-- Organisation becomes obsolete and goes down the pan where it belongs. There is much rejoicing. --
Perhaps I'm stating the obvious, but it seemed uncanny to me. Watch and learn, fools...
Somehow I suspect a LAN shared out this far would severely restrict bandwidth...
But if they could get a really good connection to the Internet like some sort of big leased line, maybe it could be a viable option for those of us who actually have to campaign to try and get stubborn telecom companies to provide the option of broadband Internet access in a town that would probably pay 3x the asking price if we only had the opportunity!
Other than that, town-wide LAN parties organised by some sort of central body would be a good enough reason;)
I've had a few SMSes not reaching their destination in the past.
Others *have* reached the destination, but much later than expected. I had one a few weeks ago that took a day to arrive! This is with a good signal on both sides (we ended up using voice, which is of course nice and predictable. Either it works or it doesn't.)
It's helpful to have message delivery confirmation switched on, which is an option in the messaging settings of most phones. This will tell you if/when the message arrives.
Of course, I've also had (and managed to prove) late message delivery confirmations!!
Well, given the fact that there's only so long you can spend messing around with your gifts (a sonic toothbrush and a USB-IDE bridge) I've been setting up a Linux From Scratch (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org) on a corner of the hard drive. Good fun, very interesting and kinda educational:) Unusual way to spend most of xmas day, but it's great to have the time! The only drawback is that I'm now waiting (about 90 minutes and counting) for KDE to compile!
There's one very good reason I'd pay a nominal fee for songs from a pay site rather than getting it free from Kazaa:
"REMOTELY QUEUED"
Don't you just hate waiting 7 hours for a 5mb MP3 file:)
Anyone in the business has to realise this, and I think many of them (alas, not the RIAA) do: "it's illegal" isn't enough of a reason for many people to switch from Kazaa to a paid service. They can stamp their feet and shout "but.. but.. it's ILLEGAL dammit!" as much as they like - it won't change the human nature of getting as much as possible for as little in return. Especially when there's no visible "theft" of anything tangible, making the person feel far less guilty.
They have to make the effort of offering more than the competition, in this case Kazaa, for people to see it as a good enough reason. Fast, instant downloads with no queues is a good starting point. Offer enough and price it reasonably - and nobody will have a decent reason to pirate it.
I might get flamed for this:( But I'm a PocketPC and Windows user.
I use it all the time.
Synced with Outlook (which I don't use for email, I'm not *that* evil) it works beautifully. All my contacts are stored in Outlook and the PocketPC.. not only that but they also sync with my Nokia 7650 mobile.
Schedules are very useful. At the desktop, Outlook warns that I'm off for a driving lesson in 2 hours. Out shopping, the PPC reminds me and I grab a bus to where I agreed to meet.
Notes, brilliant. The handwriting recognition works like a charm (my handwriting is bad).
Web access, now this is where it really comes into its own. Enable bluetooth and it will dial out on my Nokia. Stick Nokia in pocket, open Pocket IE, look for whatever's required, or even visit Slashdot;) Okay graphical sites are bad, but in general it's a lot better than WAP. Email access using the same technique? No problem.
Currency conversions... mine syncs the latest exchange rates over the Internet every day.
Photos.... Just take the flash card out of the camera, pop it in the PPC and say hi to a decent screen for displaying photos to friends and colleagues.
Got some MP3 files? Pop them on flash, it turns into an MP3 (or WMA) player.
Read ebooks? A waste on its own, but combined with all the rest it does, the functionality rocks. I can read Harry Potter on the bus to work without an annoying swarm of kids (it doubles up as a school bus) that noticed the HP cover.
Then you have the recreational stuff of course... where would I be without Hexacto Lemonade to pass away the lunch hours;)
Use it? Hell yeah! Maybe you're just using it for the wrong purposes, or simply have a Palm?
But we have to make popup blocking more widespread.
Good way to put a nail in that disgustingly annoying technology once and for all. The nice sites survive, the ones who don't care about their users... don't.
Won't let any of us access your site? Fine! Let's see who rots first!
Might be a bit late to post this reply now, Slashdot articles move too quickly for me:)
Well I managed it. It's a little more complicated that is immediately obvious in that you have to hack bits out of your case. I found a Dremel came in very handy for that.
My worst enemy was actually being too careful I think... I took so long "being careful" that dust collected in there somewhere. The dust shows up as very bright spots on the screen.
Also whilst painstakingly trying to peel the protective film off the afterburner and other pieces of plastic that come with it I managed to get a fingerprint on one of the corners (despite being very careful not to) which also shows up rather brightly.
The one piece of good advice I've seen since then (and didn't follow at the time) was GET A CAN OF COMPRESSED AIR. Utilise it thoroughly. That way you can greatly minimise any dust that turns up, or blow it away if it does!
In short it can look pretty ugly if you get dust or fingerprints in there. But even with the minor defects I got in, it's still WAY better than without the Afterburner.
Oh, and some (including myself) report that colours are very washed-out with the AB installed. It's still worth it, but don't be surprised if you say goodbye to the vibrant colours you were used to on the rare occasion that you could see the screen!
Actually I have both a Windows box and a Linux box. However for the most part I use the Windows one.
It's really all about time. Just about anything can be done in Linux, but most of it seems to take more time. Granted the most common things such as transfering files over SMB are starting to get well integrated in most distros. But I keep finding extra little things that I want to do, and rarely can you "just do" them.
Let's say one morning before work I read about some nifty software and want to try it out. Anything... as a completely random example from the top of my head, let's say a weather forecaster that grabs data from an Internet site and creates a weather map.
Linux binary: Attempt to install program Locate whichever libraries are missing Work out why one of the libraries refuses to install Locate the next set of libraries that first set of libraries depends on Install that set of libraries Install the first set of libraries Install program at last Read HOWTO or README Edit.rc files Resolve permission problems Cross your fingers and hope it works.
Linux source: As above, but install the required dev RPMs, resolve configure or compilation issues, wait 10 minutes for it to compile etc etc.
Windows: Run setup.exe Tell it where to install Run program
Another example is that I have a Bluetooth phone and like to syncrhonise contacts with my PIM. Linux has preliminary bluetooth support, but then you have to compile it into the kernel... then configure it... then find the right commands to bring it online... then the right commands to talk to the phone... then the right commands to download the contacts... then some way to merge them with whichever PIM.
In Windows I'd just install the Bluetooth Manager software. Use the explorer interface to pair with the phone and press the Sync button. The contacts in Outlook are updated. Job done. (Before anyone gets smart... no I don't use Outlook for email;) But as a PIM it works great for me)
Those are just examples, and given time there are probably ways around them. But you get the idea.
A busy person needs their computer to "just work":)
"Just install Flash" is a fair enough comment... it's just a case of tracking where the main plugin directory is for each particular combination of distro and Mozilla.
Honestly, the directory structure within certain distros rearranges more often than our kitchen when you give my mum a week's holiday:(
Slashdot Mirror
Ferenghi Rule of Aquisition #84803:
Never loop a GOTO before reaching profit!
Slashdot article on Commodore C-One here
Powered by Microsoft Information Minister 2003
This is where you misunderstand me... I was thanking MS for *one* particular event, not for their existence. When it comes to spam, and spam only, they may be very useful and helpful. I'm thanking them for that... and JUST that.
When it comes to things like Palladium... I quite agree! It's one of the worst ideas since the RIAA. And like the aforementioned people, those who invented it should be lined up and shot.
Don't think that just because I'm praising MS for one battle means that I'm praising them for the whole war.
Perhaps they saw my comment conveying the idea on the UK to hold public enquiry on spam story a few days ago ;)
No doubt it was really quite a common theory. I stand by what was said back there... Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express, whether or not the Slashdot or Linux community wish it, *are* for sure the most common email clients.
As one person on the thread quite rightly put it, it's normally the Microsoft users (granny, mom, joe sixpack et al) who are uninformed enough to respond to spam in the first place, making the business thrive. Helping them not to see it can only kill off the spam industry, surely. I hope so. Commonplace spam filtering "on every desktop" (as Gates would put it) can only be a good thing.
As such, I'd like to say a very rare "thanks Microsoft, good luck"
There was a similar concept for phones in the UK a good few years ago called the "Rabbit" phone - back when cellphones were very expensive items for top business people.
You'd hunt down a Rabbit station which was like an analogue WiFi signal, denoted by a sign that shops used to put up. If you were in radius, you could make a call.
Then when you got home you'd switch it to "home" mode and use it on your own base station.
I can't remember the exact details - I was about 10 at the time. I think you could only make calls (not recieve them) when roaming, but they were far cheaper than cellphone calls.
They went down like a lead balloon, and the personal cellphone boom started.
"Auto-correct" -- DIE!
"Auto-suggest" -- DIE DIE DIE!
Probable feature list for Windows Walkabout 2004:
New intuitive and friendly office assistant to assist you with your tasks and make helpful suggestions.
Don't worry about the "HTML laden" pun... I was only making a joke, not judging your English :)
The fact that I quoted the "HMTL" only comes from me being a lazy git using copy+paste.
On filtering, perhaps you missed my point... I actually use POPFile myself. What I'm suggesting here is exploiting Microsoft's dominance. After all, almost everyone except hobbyists (meaning the usual Average "how do i get the internet" Joe) use Outlook/O.Express. Many I talk to don't even know that other email clients exist, let alone know about filtering. Those people are the majority. I know of a few of those who do fall for spam... it's usually me who has to educate them afterwards, and of course remove viruses on occasions.
But no, it doesn't help when it comes to downloading... as you said yourself, that's where broadband will (eventually!) help. I guess what I'm saying is that we need as many weapons as possible, and Microsoft is like a weapon of mass destruction.
A fair point... guess I'm being way too optimistic / naive at the thought, but there must be someone out there! It would bring a grin to my face too ;)
"HMTL laden" - Osama's techie brother? ;)
;)
Broadband (when BT finally get their arses into gear and install it) will lessen the effect of the issue, but it's still there. It may be trivial to download the spam, but you still have to wade through the stuff trying to find real mails.
I don't think laws can really help either? I doubt most of these spammers (at least the ones that seem to spam me) really care about the law!
Perhaps the best way to kill off spammers for good would be for Microsoft to build bayesian filtering (which seems *very* reliable) into Outlook Express 7 and slap one of their nice friendly wizards on it. It sounds dire I know, but perhaps MS could have their uses after all
At the risk of sounding off-topic... doesn't this seem very familiar?
-- Some idiot organisation who were successful once but are no longer relevant start worrying about their future. --
-- In a feeble but desparate attempt to boost finances and publicity, they start throwing lawsuits around. --
-- Getting more and more frustrated, they start screwing their own customers, who are now getting very pissed off. --
-- Most people agree that said organisation are a bunch of a-holes and vow never to buy from them again. --
Ring any bells? If you ask me, this SCO business is like a smaller and faster-moving example of the behaviour and imminent consequences of a certain irrelevant organisation known as the RIAA.
Here's the next part, which I hope will happen to SCO and set an example to the rather slower moving RIAA case.
-- Organisation becomes obsolete and goes down the pan where it belongs. There is much rejoicing. --
Perhaps I'm stating the obvious, but it seemed uncanny to me. Watch and learn, fools...
Somehow I suspect a LAN shared out this far would severely restrict bandwidth...
But if they could get a really good connection to the Internet like some sort of big leased line, maybe it could be a viable option for those of us who actually have to campaign to try and get stubborn telecom companies to provide the option of broadband Internet access in a town that would probably pay 3x the asking price if we only had the opportunity!
Other than that, town-wide LAN parties organised by some sort of central body would be a good enough reason ;)
Better than a PokéPC anyway ;)
I've had a few SMSes not reaching their destination in the past.
Others *have* reached the destination, but much later than expected. I had one a few weeks ago that took a day to arrive! This is with a good signal on both sides (we ended up using voice, which is of course nice and predictable. Either it works or it doesn't.)
It's helpful to have message delivery confirmation switched on, which is an option in the messaging settings of most phones. This will tell you if/when the message arrives.
Of course, I've also had (and managed to prove) late message delivery confirmations!!
"A robotic kitchen assistant could help take the stress out of the preparations."
Hmm...
"(Roboto-chan! Make the turkey for me, I'll be back in a few hours!)"
(Comes back to find the robot in bed with his microwave)
He who drinks Australian thinks Australian!
Well, given the fact that there's only so long you can spend messing around with your gifts (a sonic toothbrush and a USB-IDE bridge) I've been setting up a Linux From Scratch (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org) on a corner of the hard drive. Good fun, very interesting and kinda educational :) Unusual way to spend most of xmas day, but it's great to have the time! The only drawback is that I'm now waiting (about 90 minutes and counting) for KDE to compile!
There's one very good reason I'd pay a nominal fee for songs from a pay site rather than getting it free from Kazaa:
:)
"REMOTELY QUEUED"
Don't you just hate waiting 7 hours for a 5mb MP3 file
Anyone in the business has to realise this, and I think many of them (alas, not the RIAA) do: "it's illegal" isn't enough of a reason for many people to switch from Kazaa to a paid service. They can stamp their feet and shout "but.. but.. it's ILLEGAL dammit!" as much as they like - it won't change the human nature of getting as much as possible for as little in return. Especially when there's no visible "theft" of anything tangible, making the person feel far less guilty.
They have to make the effort of offering more than the competition, in this case Kazaa, for people to see it as a good enough reason. Fast, instant downloads with no queues is a good starting point. Offer enough and price it reasonably - and nobody will have a decent reason to pirate it.
Chibi-zilla
Mozilla Lite
Netscape 8
SINTH (Sinth Is Not Too Huge)
SINTHUM (Sinthum Is Not Too Huge Unlike Mozilla)
ASM (A Small Mozilla)
Of using Mozilla to browse all those pr0n sites without ads for viagra "leaping up" in your face :(
I might get flamed for this :( But I'm a PocketPC and Windows user.
;) Okay graphical sites are bad, but in general it's a lot better than WAP.
;)
I use it all the time.
Synced with Outlook (which I don't use for email, I'm not *that* evil) it works beautifully. All my contacts are stored in Outlook and the PocketPC.. not only that but they also sync with my Nokia 7650 mobile.
Schedules are very useful. At the desktop, Outlook warns that I'm off for a driving lesson in 2 hours. Out shopping, the PPC reminds me and I grab a bus to where I agreed to meet.
Notes, brilliant. The handwriting recognition works like a charm (my handwriting is bad).
Web access, now this is where it really comes into its own. Enable bluetooth and it will dial out on my Nokia. Stick Nokia in pocket, open Pocket IE, look for whatever's required, or even visit Slashdot
Email access using the same technique? No problem.
Currency conversions... mine syncs the latest exchange rates over the Internet every day.
Photos.... Just take the flash card out of the camera, pop it in the PPC and say hi to a decent screen for displaying photos to friends and colleagues.
Got some MP3 files? Pop them on flash, it turns into an MP3 (or WMA) player.
Read ebooks? A waste on its own, but combined with all the rest it does, the functionality rocks. I can read Harry Potter on the bus to work without an annoying swarm of kids (it doubles up as a school bus) that noticed the HP cover.
Then you have the recreational stuff of course... where would I be without Hexacto Lemonade to pass away the lunch hours
Use it? Hell yeah!
Maybe you're just using it for the wrong purposes, or simply have a Palm?
But we have to make popup blocking more widespread.
Good way to put a nail in that disgustingly annoying technology once and for all. The nice sites survive, the ones who don't care about their users... don't.
Won't let any of us access your site? Fine! Let's see who rots first!
Might be a bit late to post this reply now, Slashdot articles move too quickly for me :)
Well I managed it. It's a little more complicated that is immediately obvious in that you have to hack bits out of your case. I found a Dremel came in very handy for that.
My worst enemy was actually being too careful I think... I took so long "being careful" that dust collected in there somewhere. The dust shows up as very bright spots on the screen.
Also whilst painstakingly trying to peel the protective film off the afterburner and other pieces of plastic that come with it I managed to get a fingerprint on one of the corners (despite being very careful not to) which also shows up rather brightly.
The one piece of good advice I've seen since then (and didn't follow at the time) was GET A CAN OF COMPRESSED AIR. Utilise it thoroughly. That way you can greatly minimise any dust that turns up, or blow it away if it does!
In short it can look pretty ugly if you get dust or fingerprints in there. But even with the minor defects I got in, it's still WAY better than without the Afterburner.
Oh, and some (including myself) report that colours are very washed-out with the AB installed. It's still worth it, but don't be surprised if you say goodbye to the vibrant colours you were used to on the rare occasion that you could see the screen!
For one thing I have a PocketPC device ;)
.rc files
;) But as a PIM it works great for me)
:)
Actually I have both a Windows box and a Linux box. However for the most part I use the Windows one.
It's really all about time. Just about anything can be done in Linux, but most of it seems to take more time. Granted the most common things such as transfering files over SMB are starting to get well integrated in most distros. But I keep finding extra little things that I want to do, and rarely can you "just do" them.
Let's say one morning before work I read about some nifty software and want to try it out. Anything... as a completely random example from the top of my head, let's say a weather forecaster that grabs data from an Internet site and creates a weather map.
Linux binary:
Attempt to install program
Locate whichever libraries are missing
Work out why one of the libraries refuses to install
Locate the next set of libraries that first set of libraries depends on
Install that set of libraries
Install the first set of libraries
Install program at last
Read HOWTO or README
Edit
Resolve permission problems
Cross your fingers and hope it works.
Linux source:
As above, but install the required dev RPMs, resolve configure or compilation issues, wait 10 minutes for it to compile etc etc.
Windows:
Run setup.exe
Tell it where to install
Run program
Another example is that I have a Bluetooth phone and like to syncrhonise contacts with my PIM. Linux has preliminary bluetooth support, but then you have to compile it into the kernel... then configure it... then find the right commands to bring it online... then the right commands to talk to the phone... then the right commands to download the contacts... then some way to merge them with whichever PIM.
In Windows I'd just install the Bluetooth Manager software. Use the explorer interface to pair with the phone and press the Sync button. The contacts in Outlook are updated. Job done.
(Before anyone gets smart... no I don't use Outlook for email
Those are just examples, and given time there are probably ways around them. But you get the idea.
A busy person needs their computer to "just work"
(Finally, what would I do with all those games?)
Quote: browsers like Mozilla/Netscape & Internet Explorer are committed to giving support for P3P
? id=128639
Mozilla, commited to P3P?
I refer you to this bugzilla thread:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi
which has been going since March. Several people supported P3P, but the people in charge weren't having any of it.
"Just install Flash" is a fair enough comment... it's just a case of tracking where the main plugin directory is for each particular combination of distro and Mozilla.
:(
Honestly, the directory structure within certain distros rearranges more often than our kitchen when you give my mum a week's holiday