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User: calmofthestorm

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Comments · 1,355

  1. So you know they're there on Tearing Apart a Hard-Sell Anti-Virus Ad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Friend of mine has the most annoying product ever. Whenever it updates itself, it plays a recording of a voice saying "virus database updated". So we'll just be sitting there and hear that. Since a well-functioning anti-virus just does its thing without bugging the user for the most part, the ones that are for profit have to make themselves loudly obvious and play up the threat level (not to imply there isn't one of course).

    I'm not convinced anti-viruses are any better than snake oil, really. Some like Norton are basically viri themselves, slowing your system to a crawl, and all they can do is look for fingerprints of known viri. Sure they can occasionally be bandaids on a sucking chest wound, but the main key to windows security is to not expect it, stay updated, avoid IE, and not run random programs strangers email you. Sure there might be a 0 day in your browser or mail client that causes something like a picture to execute code, but those aren't the main uses.

    *gets off rantbox*

  2. Re:Blame technology on Pentagon Seeking Out Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange · · Score: 1

    Well I don't claim he'd be violating the US contract if he were a citizen, I simply avoid arguing the issue because he is not. OP's comment would be a more valid argument if he were a US citizen. I believe in a well-run democracy the government tries to keep some secrets and the press tries to expose the embaressing ones and everything is in equilibrium.

  3. Re:As they should be. on Pentagon Seeking Out Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Good thing he's not a United States citizen then, or else he might be violating his social contract.

  4. I bet it's mandatory... on College Offers Course in Wearing High Heels · · Score: 2, Funny

    For the M.R.S. degree. Seriously this is just degrading.

  5. Re:Yeah, sure... on Australian Gov't Seeks To Record Citizens' Web Histories · · Score: 1

    And undocumented opcodes. I wonder why they want an opcode to sum all the 1's in a register...hmmm...

  6. Re:HTTPS -- default on Australian Gov't Seeks To Record Citizens' Web Histories · · Score: 1

    Really there should be a "I DON'T CARE OF OSAMA BIN LADEN READS THIS WEBSITE" button you can click combiend with opportunistic encryption. You're still vulnerable to MitM but it takes care of a great deal of snooping and requires zero user competence.

  7. Re:Yeah, sure... on Australian Gov't Seeks To Record Citizens' Web Histories · · Score: 1

    Hate to be selfish, but since not enough people use it, they don't ban it, and I'm allowed to use it. Though I'd be surprised if the NSA didn't have a pragmatic way to break things like PGP, it's enough to prevent the small fry for messing with you.

  8. Re:And thus there was Android on Google Slams Apple Over iPhone Ad Ban · · Score: 1

    Seems like the market ought to build in reversion capability to clamp down on this. I come from the FOSS world so I take things like easy access to reversion for granted.

  9. Re:And thus there was Android on Google Slams Apple Over iPhone Ad Ban · · Score: 1

    Funny, I had a iPhone for awhile before I upgraded to a Nexus One (that was a good decision, so much more polished and featureful), and all my apps were manual update.

  10. Re:And those that mistakenly do? on Google Slams Apple Over iPhone Ad Ban · · Score: 1

    Actually I hate apple and think it makes products that aren't especially good and are super expensive. I also really like android. Regardless, one is not required to update one's apps.

    Think before you stereotype, mmmkay?

  11. Re:And thus there was Android on Google Slams Apple Over iPhone Ad Ban · · Score: 1

    Then you don't have to update to the new version of the paid app.

  12. Re:Cult of Math on Six More Tech Cults · · Score: 1

    Palm and Ubuntu not not Apple? Seriously? I'm supposed to take this list seriously?

  13. Re:step #1, ignore the phone when it rings on Hooked On Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price · · Score: 1

    This is why I pass all calls through to voicemail unless the call is by appointment. People abuse the phone to ask me simple questions where an email would have done it in a fraction of the time. If you want to call and chat for an hour that's still doable, but my phone no longer generates interrupts.

  14. Re:what has the university to do with it? on University Networks Block Student Project · · Score: 1

    In America the corporate state takes away your rights. Europe has the government for that. Either way you lose.

  15. Re:I wish they would like money less on Time For Universal Data Plans? · · Score: 1

    > Last I checked, it doesn't work. You either end up with an utterly failed system of production as in the USSR, or a totalitarian regime that oppresses its people, most of whom end up living in abject poverty.

    That wasn't communism. The Soviet Union was an authoritarian police state state that cloaked its policies in veils of communist propaganda. Furthermore, Marx made it very clear that Communist revolutions in pre-industrialized countries would fail, as the infrastructure wasn't even there.

    I don't happen to support Communism but I do get sick of these simplistic statements like "X doesn't work because that one time it was tried and 'failed'".

  16. Nice to see a government reducing it's own privacy on UK Gov't Spending Details Now Online · · Score: 0, Redundant

    rather than mine.

  17. Re:How is it bait & switch on Man Emails AT&T's CEO, Gets Threatened With C&D Order · · Score: 1

    And this is why I don't mess with carriers or phones that think they have any right to tell me what software I may run on my computer or device.

  18. Re:How is it bait & switch on Man Emails AT&T's CEO, Gets Threatened With C&D Order · · Score: 1

    Personally I like the t-mobile plan. It's advertised not as "unlimited" but as "no overage". You get up to 5 GB and then they reserve the right to throttle.

    Of course, throttling ranges from reasonable QoS stuff to Comcast's "throttling" torrents to less than 1 kbps, but even so I like the guarantee that I won't get slapped with extra fees.

    My main complaint isn't the caps, but the misleading advertising surrounding them. Having unlimited access isn't the world's best idea for obvious reasons from game theory. Of course, I do worry about how much the lack of net neutrality and static bandwidth caps are going to hold back innovation in the coming decade.

  19. Re:Yeah OK on EU To Monitor All Internet Searches · · Score: 1

    To think that when I first set up that sig I thought it would become a self-unfulfilling prophecy. How young and naive I was back then. I even read TFAs before discussing.

  20. IE has 100% compatability... on Clashing Scores In the HTML5 Compatibility Test Wars · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...with MS HTML# 5.0

  21. Re:How is it bait & switch on Man Emails AT&T's CEO, Gets Threatened With C&D Order · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Current customers are grandfathered in and can continue to receive what they signed up for. For now.

    I agree that changing things after a month or two is pretty crappy, but I guess on some level no-contract is a two-way street.

  22. If the cops object to being recorded on Police Officers Seek Right Not To Be Recorded · · Score: 1

    The best solution is to take recordings themselves. Camera dashes are great for traffic stops, but you want to take it further. Then, when someone posts to YouTube the footage of a beatdown by police, you post the 5 minutes before that where the guy attacks you. Or replace YouTube with a court of law as need be. Problem neatly solved. Biased recording is an issue but so is police brutality, more and more (how many videos do we see of police attacking protesters with no provocation at all? It's kind of scary how bad things are getting in my short lifetime)

    I'm normally against surveillance, but have no objection to police recording what they see, especially if it's deleted on a rolling basis.

  23. Re:Obvious abuse of power on Police Officers Seek Right Not To Be Recorded · · Score: 1

    Or on an epi-pen. An old lady on one of those can take down a few police officers, if her heart can survive it. There's a reason epi-pens are so difficult to obtain.

    That said, to subdue someone on PCP, beating them won't do shit because they don't feel pain at all. You want to taze him [bro] or just try to hold him down.

  24. Re:Yeah OK on EU To Monitor All Internet Searches · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, they'll immediately revert to being moral, responsible citizens.

  25. They're not [just] stupid... on EU To Monitor All Internet Searches · · Score: 5, Insightful

    CP is just an excuse, not the real thing they want to look for.