Serious questions, rather than assumptions? Alright. I'll bite.
You missed my age, by a long shot. Look ^ @ my nick for my year of birth. I have been around for a few decades, made freinds on three different continents besides the one I live on. I have a lot of political opinions, some of which differ from what is "government approved". Today's political atmosphere, together with the Department of Homeland Defense makes it rather dangerous to have political views that are unapproved. How dangerous? Hell, I don't know, and neither do you. Am I paranoid? Maybe, maybe not - but my computer won't be used as evidence by some overzealous freak of a prosecuting attorney to convict me. If he needs evidence that badly, he can INVENT HIS OWN.
Look at the RIAA trials. I don't download very much off of the internet, and at least 80% of what I do download is LEGAL without question. That 20% could get me in trouble, so I erase tracks regularly. If RIAA comes after me, let them WORK TO BUILD A CASE, I refuse to supply them with the evidence.
Seriously I don't do porn. Gay porn, kiddy porn, animal porn, even more "normal" porn - I don't do it. I do, however, read freenet and I2P. If you've ever checked them out, you will already know that kiddy porn is pervasive. Stay on the darknet very long, your cache WILL fill with potentially incriminating evidence. (and in the meantime, you will probably be shocked at the depravity of these low lifes - one day the US will get around to making use of the darknet illegal)
Aside from possible government intervention - it's probably safe to say that EVERYONE has a few things that they would rather not be found by a boss, a spouse, a kid, a competitor - SOMEONE. Routinely erasing your tracks prevents more mundane embarrasment. Why not spend the several seconds each session to clean up those caches and crap?
Paranoid? Me? Not really. But, someone MIGHT BE out to get me.
Before you point out that encrypting the hard drive(s) might be a better solution, I'll point to the UK, where one MUST supply the keys to an encrypted drive of face prison. The US is going in the same direction. We can play a lot of games with "hidden" encrypted drives - but ultimately, if the govenment has your hard drive, they can and will find the volumes and coerce the keys from you.
No, I don't think I'm paranoid. But, the absence of paranoia doesn't imply "trust" of anyone.
Good point. I've found that, and other similar utilities in the past. I'm rather set in my ways though, and learned the value of safe mode before such utilities were easily found on the web.
Yes, I begin to see the point. It's like credit, right? Credit is worth whatever the customer will pay for it. But, wait - aren't we experiencing an economic crisis, largely due to credit abuses? Aren't the people in Washington re-discovering the concept of usury?
Err, no, actually, your point is invalid. The fact is, the value of Microsoft products is hyper-inflated by a damned good marketing strategy combined by clueless people who beleive in all the marketing thrown at them.
The real value of a fully functioning desktop operating system, minus any support, is $25US, tops. Support might have a steep price - as much as $1,000 annually, depending on a person's needs. The average person who bothered to LEARN from his mistakes shouldn't need even $100 dollars worth of support after the first year or so.
Stormfront? I had to look. I don't qualify for membership. "So in response to the question, "Who's White?" we answer: "Non-Jewish people of wholly European descent. No exceptions.""
I'm so grief stricken!!! Well, no, not really. Those white bastards wouldn't sell an acre of land to my grandfather when he was a young man, despite the fact that he was European. As for the REST of my (~great) grandparents - not all of them had European blood in their veins.
Man, you're reall off target with your assumptions.
I live in the USA. Keep guessing on all the rest. And, since I'm an American, I'll be damned if I'll shut up. No one on God's green earth has the authority to shut me up. You and President Ahminutjob can BOTH kiss my ass. If anything I say offends you, you are at liberty to hit the "off" button on your interwebz machinez.
I'm curious though - do you have anything INTELLIGENT to say? Like, maybe countering something I've said? Or, you just save up your bandwidth to post hateful but meaningless bullshit?
Not acting - car analogy time. GM doesn't sell me a castrated chevy, with the stipulation that I may (or may not) drive at certain speeds. There is no stipulation that I can't reverse engineer, add bolt-on parts, remove parts - in short customise it to MY TASTE.
MS attempts to sell an operating system, and to retain the right to tell people how they can use it. Hmmmm. Redhat GIVES AWAY operating systems, and doesn't try to tell you how you should use it. *scratches head* What is wrong with this picture?
Do you think that Heinz could get away with selling catsup, but stipulate that it may not be used in certain manners which they disapprove of?
Bottom line - there should be NO RESTRICTIONS on any operating system. Period. Win7 is worth fifteen bucks, or MS wouldn't be selling it for fifteen bucks. If Win7 is only worth 15 bucks, they they are guilty of extorting all the additional money they've been getting for their 15 dollar item.
Go ahead, someone. Make a case that Win7 is worth a whole lot MORE than 15 bucks. Please. Do it.
And, I will point out that WalMart and other companies have been taken to court for selling products below cost for the purpose of eliminating competition. Price fixing is a pretty serious crime in the world of business. Price fixing by a confirmed monopoly is even MORE serious.
Meh. I haz clean warez, lol If all else failed, I could pull out the dusty old "The Devil's Own" and slipstream SP3 into it, be up and running in short order.
Yeah, you gotta know what you're dealing with. I was playing around with a "crack" just a couple months ago. Good-by virtual machine, lol. Luckily, I had a snapshot.:)
Quite simple: the entire operating system isn't WORTH more than fifteen bucks. I paid for it, they accepted my cash, I use whatever I want from it. Don't EVEN try to compare the "full" version and the cripplware with physical assets.
How many people are going to be limited by Microsoft's decisions? Obviously, the unintelligent and unimaginative. I don't even WANT a netbook - but if I did, and IF I wanted Windows, I would re-format, and install a pirated edition with no restrictions. MS has no right to decide which part of their operating system I am "permitted" to use, and which parts I am not "permitted".
Oh yeah, someone tell me how DISHONEST it is to pay MS 15 bucks for a castrated operating system, then reinstall the same system without limitations. I'll be quick to remind you how dishonest Microsoft is in all of it's dealings, including this underhanded attempt to cut competitors out of the netbook market. Most *nix distros will install full version, without restriction, provided you have minimum disk space and minimum memory to run a full fledged GUI.
Moron, huh? And, what is YOUR IQ? The morons are those who don't understand the "features" of their software. The morons are those who supply the police/gestapo with evidence to convict them. The guy in China whose computer preserves his online activity acts surprised when the police present evidence that he has been online, badmouthing the party? The guy in Iran who despises the President? The lady in Syria, who detests Islamic rule? How about the journalist in the UK, doing an expose on his MP? Your beloved features can get people KILLED. Which part of "dead" do you not understand?
As for your preferred version of porn, please keep it to yourself. Most people are offended by your graphic descriptions of your relations with pot bellied hairy men. Ahhh, there is the problem. The most serious use to which YOU put a computer is viewing middle aged gay porn - therefore, incriminating evidence created by your computer is a frivolous matter.
Just do what I do. Go out in the parking lot, find one of those extravagantly expensive cars or SUV's and piss on that. It's a lot more satisfying than doing target practice on one of those stupid mats, or cakes.
What, exactly, is ridiculous about that standard? "Stable" means, the system can run forever, without a hiccup. Ideally, a machine should run until a hardware component melts down. In real life, even *nix has to be rebooted when the kernel is updated, but that's about the only time.
MS cannot match *nix on uptime, so you ridicule the concept of uptime?
More bullshit. You have a minor point, in that mission critical and/or server systems should be redundant. But, bearing in mind that a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, just how much redundancy do we NEED? With *nix, maybe we need an extra 5 machines per hundred? Your acceptance of constant rebooting helps to ensure that you will need an extra 10 or more machines per hundred.
But, your response seems rather - out of character, shall we say? You cited one machine, originally, saying that despite rebooting, it is up 24/7, attempting to claim excellent "uptime". I offered a somewhat better definition of "uptime", and now you're making excuses for your machine's poor uptime. Something fishy here......... You don't work for MS FUD department, do you? Maybe not. This seems more like obfuscation, than it seems like FUD.
Nor is it really news. The wife bought a Compaq some years ago. I cleaned it of malware, then in a few days, she complained of more. Did a "restore" from the restore partition. Malware restored itself along with the Windows OS. Imagine that....... OEM's are PAID to install crapware, and they are only to happy to accept the money.
"You're whining and crying about your browser keeping a history of your browsing. That's been an accepted feature for over a decade."
Accepted by whom, exactly? The uninformed masses? The government? Microsoft? Certainly NOT by ME. A browser is supposed to show me a page, and to run whatever media that I might wish to run on that page. A browser is NOT supposed to document ANYTHING, ANYWHERE.
I challenge anyone to sit at my computer, and reconstruct my browsing habits. It will take one very sharp SOB, because I've disabled everything that might have made it easy for him.
Am I the only one who changes the temp directories immediately after installation? C:\tmp for both user and windows temporary folder. I clear it frequently. Sometimes, stuff just doesn't WANT to delete, so I start in safe mode, and delete it anyway. No computer has the right to store data that I consider "sensitive". Anime porn, government subversion, or funding for the most outstanding charity in the world, it is MY business, and no one else's. People should learn what the environment variables are for, and use them intelligently - whether they use Mac, Windows, or *nix
No story has ever been written, or read, by man that can honestly explore what ANY other intelligent species may or may not do. None. We have never MET another intelligent species, or if we have, we have never learned to COMMUNICATE with it (possibly dolphins), and we have certainly not learned to UNDERSTAND it.
We are only capable of attributing human motivations to non-human characters in stories. The idea of self preservation may or may not drive a sentient computer. The computer may simply wish to serve. There is just no way of knowing, unless and until a sentient computer is discovered.
My government recognizes that your government is a repressive regime, straight out of the worst pages of history. We further recognize that you are trapped somewhere between the bronze and the iron ages. Because of this, we feel it necessary to restrict your freedom of expression, along with your freedom to find and use information that might help you to overthrow your repressive regime. For this purpose, we are denying your ability to communicate with family and freinds outside of your repressive regime.
We truly hope that you understand that this is only for the good of all citizens of earth.
Please don't attempt to respond to this message, or we shall be forced to block whatever form of communication you find that is still working.
"Do you really care that the billing department in your doctor's office is using Word and Excel?"
Actually, yes, I do. Just like I care that a doctor is located in an ultra-modern building in an ostentatious neighborhood. I don't want to pay for the doctor's choice in decor, landscaping, and surroundings, any more than I want to pay for the doctor's poor choice in computer systems. I ONLY want to pay him to diagnose and treat my ailment. And, quite seriously, my doctor happens to be a Vietnamese man, who runs Linux on his machines, and he is located in a rather old building in an industrial area of a small town. I get what I pay for, instead of paying for his mansion, his mistress, his weekend holidays in Bangkok, etc etc.
"almost never have to reboot" and "Uptime is 24/7"
Obviously, we have a failure to communicate.
"Uptime is a measure of the time a computer system has been "up" and running. It came into use to describe the opposite of downtime, times when a system was not operational. The uptime and reliability of computer and communications facilities is sometimes measured in nines (similar to the unit of metallic purity). "Five nines" means 99.999% availability, which translates to a total downtime of approximately five minutes and fifteen seconds per year." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uptime
Obviously, if your computer is unavailable for more than ten minutes PER YEAR, you don't enjoy bragging rights for uptime. Rebooting for an update, rebooting because it slows down, rebooting just because you like to see the BIOS screen flash by, whatever - rebooting means your system is unstable. Instability and downtime are roughly analogous.
Uptime is a critical criteria for MISSION CRITICAL systems. This should be self explanatory. Starcraft? You are comparing a silly gaming system to a Department of Defense mission critical computing system?
Reality check, dude. You know nothing of which you speak, and you are polluting the airwaves with drivel.
I have an idea for you. Push the "OFF" button on the back of your computer. Start measuring your downtime. Let's see if it can stay down for a year, and remain stable. No one gives a damn about uptime, after all. Downtime is a much more important measurement of your frivolous non-producing system.
Since when is the Air Force in charge of the Navy's nuclear weapons? Get a clue, huh? The Air Force has squat to say about when, where, why, or how the Navy manages any of it's nuclear assets. Squat. I never did an inventory, but I would be willing to make a small wager that the Navy has MORE nukes than the Air Force has. If you bother to do the research, and I lose, I owe you a cup of coffee. If I'm right, you owe me a cup of coffee. Go for it.
Slashdot Mirror
Serious questions, rather than assumptions? Alright. I'll bite.
You missed my age, by a long shot. Look ^ @ my nick for my year of birth. I have been around for a few decades, made freinds on three different continents besides the one I live on. I have a lot of political opinions, some of which differ from what is "government approved". Today's political atmosphere, together with the Department of Homeland Defense makes it rather dangerous to have political views that are unapproved. How dangerous? Hell, I don't know, and neither do you. Am I paranoid? Maybe, maybe not - but my computer won't be used as evidence by some overzealous freak of a prosecuting attorney to convict me. If he needs evidence that badly, he can INVENT HIS OWN.
Look at the RIAA trials. I don't download very much off of the internet, and at least 80% of what I do download is LEGAL without question. That 20% could get me in trouble, so I erase tracks regularly. If RIAA comes after me, let them WORK TO BUILD A CASE, I refuse to supply them with the evidence.
Seriously I don't do porn. Gay porn, kiddy porn, animal porn, even more "normal" porn - I don't do it. I do, however, read freenet and I2P. If you've ever checked them out, you will already know that kiddy porn is pervasive. Stay on the darknet very long, your cache WILL fill with potentially incriminating evidence. (and in the meantime, you will probably be shocked at the depravity of these low lifes - one day the US will get around to making use of the darknet illegal)
Aside from possible government intervention - it's probably safe to say that EVERYONE has a few things that they would rather not be found by a boss, a spouse, a kid, a competitor - SOMEONE. Routinely erasing your tracks prevents more mundane embarrasment. Why not spend the several seconds each session to clean up those caches and crap?
Paranoid? Me? Not really. But, someone MIGHT BE out to get me.
Before you point out that encrypting the hard drive(s) might be a better solution, I'll point to the UK, where one MUST supply the keys to an encrypted drive of face prison. The US is going in the same direction. We can play a lot of games with "hidden" encrypted drives - but ultimately, if the govenment has your hard drive, they can and will find the volumes and coerce the keys from you.
No, I don't think I'm paranoid. But, the absence of paranoia doesn't imply "trust" of anyone.
Good point. I've found that, and other similar utilities in the past. I'm rather set in my ways though, and learned the value of safe mode before such utilities were easily found on the web.
True enough. Perhaps I should have specified that I don't share windows machines with other people. ;)
Yes, I begin to see the point. It's like credit, right? Credit is worth whatever the customer will pay for it. But, wait - aren't we experiencing an economic crisis, largely due to credit abuses? Aren't the people in Washington re-discovering the concept of usury?
Err, no, actually, your point is invalid. The fact is, the value of Microsoft products is hyper-inflated by a damned good marketing strategy combined by clueless people who beleive in all the marketing thrown at them.
The real value of a fully functioning desktop operating system, minus any support, is $25US, tops. Support might have a steep price - as much as $1,000 annually, depending on a person's needs. The average person who bothered to LEARN from his mistakes shouldn't need even $100 dollars worth of support after the first year or so.
Stormfront? I had to look. I don't qualify for membership. "So in response to the question, "Who's White?" we answer: "Non-Jewish people of wholly European descent. No exceptions.""
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=579652
I'm so grief stricken!!! Well, no, not really. Those white bastards wouldn't sell an acre of land to my grandfather when he was a young man, despite the fact that he was European. As for the REST of my (~great) grandparents - not all of them had European blood in their veins.
Man, you're reall off target with your assumptions.
I live in the USA. Keep guessing on all the rest. And, since I'm an American, I'll be damned if I'll shut up. No one on God's green earth has the authority to shut me up. You and President Ahminutjob can BOTH kiss my ass. If anything I say offends you, you are at liberty to hit the "off" button on your interwebz machinez.
I'm curious though - do you have anything INTELLIGENT to say? Like, maybe countering something I've said? Or, you just save up your bandwidth to post hateful but meaningless bullshit?
Not acting - car analogy time. GM doesn't sell me a castrated chevy, with the stipulation that I may (or may not) drive at certain speeds. There is no stipulation that I can't reverse engineer, add bolt-on parts, remove parts - in short customise it to MY TASTE.
MS attempts to sell an operating system, and to retain the right to tell people how they can use it. Hmmmm. Redhat GIVES AWAY operating systems, and doesn't try to tell you how you should use it. *scratches head* What is wrong with this picture?
Do you think that Heinz could get away with selling catsup, but stipulate that it may not be used in certain manners which they disapprove of?
Bottom line - there should be NO RESTRICTIONS on any operating system. Period. Win7 is worth fifteen bucks, or MS wouldn't be selling it for fifteen bucks. If Win7 is only worth 15 bucks, they they are guilty of extorting all the additional money they've been getting for their 15 dollar item.
Go ahead, someone. Make a case that Win7 is worth a whole lot MORE than 15 bucks. Please. Do it.
And, I will point out that WalMart and other companies have been taken to court for selling products below cost for the purpose of eliminating competition. Price fixing is a pretty serious crime in the world of business. Price fixing by a confirmed monopoly is even MORE serious.
MS has stepped into a deep pile of dung here.
Meh. I haz clean warez, lol If all else failed, I could pull out the dusty old "The Devil's Own" and slipstream SP3 into it, be up and running in short order.
Yeah, you gotta know what you're dealing with. I was playing around with a "crack" just a couple months ago. Good-by virtual machine, lol. Luckily, I had a snapshot. :)
Quite simple: the entire operating system isn't WORTH more than fifteen bucks. I paid for it, they accepted my cash, I use whatever I want from it. Don't EVEN try to compare the "full" version and the cripplware with physical assets.
How many people are going to be limited by Microsoft's decisions? Obviously, the unintelligent and unimaginative. I don't even WANT a netbook - but if I did, and IF I wanted Windows, I would re-format, and install a pirated edition with no restrictions. MS has no right to decide which part of their operating system I am "permitted" to use, and which parts I am not "permitted".
Oh yeah, someone tell me how DISHONEST it is to pay MS 15 bucks for a castrated operating system, then reinstall the same system without limitations. I'll be quick to remind you how dishonest Microsoft is in all of it's dealings, including this underhanded attempt to cut competitors out of the netbook market. Most *nix distros will install full version, without restriction, provided you have minimum disk space and minimum memory to run a full fledged GUI.
Moron, huh? And, what is YOUR IQ? The morons are those who don't understand the "features" of their software. The morons are those who supply the police/gestapo with evidence to convict them. The guy in China whose computer preserves his online activity acts surprised when the police present evidence that he has been online, badmouthing the party? The guy in Iran who despises the President? The lady in Syria, who detests Islamic rule? How about the journalist in the UK, doing an expose on his MP? Your beloved features can get people KILLED. Which part of "dead" do you not understand?
As for your preferred version of porn, please keep it to yourself. Most people are offended by your graphic descriptions of your relations with pot bellied hairy men. Ahhh, there is the problem. The most serious use to which YOU put a computer is viewing middle aged gay porn - therefore, incriminating evidence created by your computer is a frivolous matter.
Just do what I do. Go out in the parking lot, find one of those extravagantly expensive cars or SUV's and piss on that. It's a lot more satisfying than doing target practice on one of those stupid mats, or cakes.
What, exactly, is ridiculous about that standard? "Stable" means, the system can run forever, without a hiccup. Ideally, a machine should run until a hardware component melts down. In real life, even *nix has to be rebooted when the kernel is updated, but that's about the only time.
MS cannot match *nix on uptime, so you ridicule the concept of uptime?
FUD
More bullshit. You have a minor point, in that mission critical and/or server systems should be redundant. But, bearing in mind that a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, just how much redundancy do we NEED? With *nix, maybe we need an extra 5 machines per hundred? Your acceptance of constant rebooting helps to ensure that you will need an extra 10 or more machines per hundred.
But, your response seems rather - out of character, shall we say? You cited one machine, originally, saying that despite rebooting, it is up 24/7, attempting to claim excellent "uptime". I offered a somewhat better definition of "uptime", and now you're making excuses for your machine's poor uptime. Something fishy here......... You don't work for MS FUD department, do you? Maybe not. This seems more like obfuscation, than it seems like FUD.
Nor is it really news. The wife bought a Compaq some years ago. I cleaned it of malware, then in a few days, she complained of more. Did a "restore" from the restore partition. Malware restored itself along with the Windows OS. Imagine that....... OEM's are PAID to install crapware, and they are only to happy to accept the money.
"You're whining and crying about your browser keeping a history of your browsing. That's been an accepted feature for over a decade."
Accepted by whom, exactly? The uninformed masses? The government? Microsoft? Certainly NOT by ME. A browser is supposed to show me a page, and to run whatever media that I might wish to run on that page. A browser is NOT supposed to document ANYTHING, ANYWHERE.
I challenge anyone to sit at my computer, and reconstruct my browsing habits. It will take one very sharp SOB, because I've disabled everything that might have made it easy for him.
Now - HOW ON EARTH did Mrs. FudRucker get in there? But, WOW, she looks great in that purple mesh...
Am I the only one who changes the temp directories immediately after installation? C:\tmp for both user and windows temporary folder. I clear it frequently. Sometimes, stuff just doesn't WANT to delete, so I start in safe mode, and delete it anyway. No computer has the right to store data that I consider "sensitive". Anime porn, government subversion, or funding for the most outstanding charity in the world, it is MY business, and no one else's. People should learn what the environment variables are for, and use them intelligently - whether they use Mac, Windows, or *nix
No story has ever been written, or read, by man that can honestly explore what ANY other intelligent species may or may not do. None. We have never MET another intelligent species, or if we have, we have never learned to COMMUNICATE with it (possibly dolphins), and we have certainly not learned to UNDERSTAND it.
We are only capable of attributing human motivations to non-human characters in stories. The idea of self preservation may or may not drive a sentient computer. The computer may simply wish to serve. There is just no way of knowing, unless and until a sentient computer is discovered.
Dear Sir/Madame
My government recognizes that your government is a repressive regime, straight out of the worst pages of history. We further recognize that you are trapped somewhere between the bronze and the iron ages. Because of this, we feel it necessary to restrict your freedom of expression, along with your freedom to find and use information that might help you to overthrow your repressive regime. For this purpose, we are denying your ability to communicate with family and freinds outside of your repressive regime.
We truly hope that you understand that this is only for the good of all citizens of earth.
Please don't attempt to respond to this message, or we shall be forced to block whatever form of communication you find that is still working.
"Do you really care that the billing department in your doctor's office is using Word and Excel?"
Actually, yes, I do. Just like I care that a doctor is located in an ultra-modern building in an ostentatious neighborhood. I don't want to pay for the doctor's choice in decor, landscaping, and surroundings, any more than I want to pay for the doctor's poor choice in computer systems. I ONLY want to pay him to diagnose and treat my ailment. And, quite seriously, my doctor happens to be a Vietnamese man, who runs Linux on his machines, and he is located in a rather old building in an industrial area of a small town. I get what I pay for, instead of paying for his mansion, his mistress, his weekend holidays in Bangkok, etc etc.
What? You would deny Steve one of his executive perks? You're not a company man, are you?
"almost never have to reboot" and "Uptime is 24/7"
Obviously, we have a failure to communicate.
"Uptime is a measure of the time a computer system has been "up" and running. It came into use to describe the opposite of downtime, times when a system was not operational. The uptime and reliability of computer and communications facilities is sometimes measured in nines (similar to the unit of metallic purity). "Five nines" means 99.999% availability, which translates to a total downtime of approximately five minutes and fifteen seconds per year." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uptime
Obviously, if your computer is unavailable for more than ten minutes PER YEAR, you don't enjoy bragging rights for uptime. Rebooting for an update, rebooting because it slows down, rebooting just because you like to see the BIOS screen flash by, whatever - rebooting means your system is unstable. Instability and downtime are roughly analogous.
Uptime is a critical criteria for MISSION CRITICAL systems. This should be self explanatory. Starcraft? You are comparing a silly gaming system to a Department of Defense mission critical computing system?
Reality check, dude. You know nothing of which you speak, and you are polluting the airwaves with drivel.
I have an idea for you. Push the "OFF" button on the back of your computer. Start measuring your downtime. Let's see if it can stay down for a year, and remain stable. No one gives a damn about uptime, after all. Downtime is a much more important measurement of your frivolous non-producing system.
Since when is the Air Force in charge of the Navy's nuclear weapons? Get a clue, huh? The Air Force has squat to say about when, where, why, or how the Navy manages any of it's nuclear assets. Squat. I never did an inventory, but I would be willing to make a small wager that the Navy has MORE nukes than the Air Force has. If you bother to do the research, and I lose, I owe you a cup of coffee. If I'm right, you owe me a cup of coffee. Go for it.