Not only do I need to fix my parent's spyware infested computer, I then need to get it as bullet proof as possible. My father is starting his own business, so I'm going to install a firewall, virus protection software, spyware software, and all the windows patches. I also need to come up with a rudimentary backup system.
But the main thing is I need to pound into his head that he needs to read and respond to any messages that pop up. Whenever norton pops up that box telling them to update virus definitions, they never do it. It clearly explains it needs to update itself and there is a connect button, but this is beyond what they understand. I'll try to explain, but I'm not too optimistic.
Re:Dremels? We don't need no stinking dremels!
on
Dremel Pumpkin Carver
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· Score: 1
What I don't get: what's the point of carving a pumpkin if you're just going to use a template?
Some people like me are such atrocious artists that we're lucky to be able to carve three triangles to make two eyes and a nose. Just because you use a template doesn't mean it isn't satisfying to create a really cool looking pumpkin. My pumpkin would look like crap otherwise, and then I've wasted an hour and made a mess to produce a crappy looking pumpkin.
I guess to finish my thought, the problem is are these all that desirable? Theres always some market for things like this, but I bet 90% of them would be sold for use as print servers, routers, etc. Even someone who can't afford much of a computer is going to get pissed off by the limitations of such a machine. No good for games, no good for photos, etc. Browser, email, thats what we usually want to do but the other 10% of the time is what would aggravate you the most.
Makes an interesting case for a computer that can perform this 90% of functions locally and then had some kind of thin-client mode for more intensive applications.
Really all you need is a motherboard, PSU, case, hard disk, and processor. Many motherboards these days have ethernet, sound, and video on board. If you use a mini-itx type system its probably possible. That assumes no software costs.
If you want a conventional PC the problem is probably that a CPU is going to be at minimum $35 which is a substantial portion of the cost. A 20GB hard drive on pricewatch is only $20, so thats not bad. That only leaves $45 for a motherboard, case, and PSU. Probably doable if you look real hard or make something specific for this purpose.
If you want to know the value of good actors, just look at the GTA series. They have outstanding voice acting, and it really makes the story very cool. Its the same reason big stars are so good in animated Disney films...they just bring the characters to life even if it is only their voice. I like to compare it to Metal Gear Solid 2, which in my opinion has the worst story and voice acting imaginable. Its almost baffling how bad it is. I think a good script and quality voice actors are really important.
I cleaned glue off a PCB once with flux cleaner. Not sure if this would help with odor...You would need a lot of it though. Maybe getting a whole bunch of those Fridge and Freezer baking soda boxes and put one in each system? Couldn't hurt.
On Law and Order the internet drug company just used shady doctors to write legit prescriptions. I'm guessing it goes like this:
Please enter your shipping and billing details: (typical order form here)
We can only provide viagra to people having trouble with their dick. Please fill out the following medical questionairre which will be carefully screened by our spiffy doctors: 1) Are you having trouble with your dick? (yes/no)
Sure I've heard of them. But these again involve a complex setup. Thats my point, these tools are not nearly as easy to use as they would need to be for most users. Windows update "just works."
I hear this all the time, but I have been running Windows and Outlook as my primary operating system and email client for many many years now. And I have never once had a virus. And now with Windows XP, patching is incredibly easy.
In fact, I'm sure it is easier than pathing a Linux machine...The automatic updates allow you to just click OK when there is a new update and then go about your business without another thought.
I use Sun/Linux machines for work and school and any kind of updates to software usually involves a long list of steps...and any one could fail because some app needs to be updated to a newer version or something. This is fine, it is a system for "expert" users...but the average person wouldn't have a chance of being able to install many patches.
I can think of a few reasons why some of these seem to be perpetually in beta. First, they make good platforms for research and development. Google news was the first time I can remember them compiling near real-time information from across the internet and displaying it for users. The technology, algorithms, knowledge, and more gained by Google is probably being applied to other areas of the business and they may want to modify whats there in the future to see how it works.
You can say something similar about A9. It extends Google, and adds in-book searching, search history features, the toolbar diary, etc. It is a good place for them to work on features before deploying to the actual Amazon site.
And a major reason why these might just be testbeds is that they generate no revenue. The technologies developed may be useful in their revenue-generating products. Having the public test your stuff is a great way to see how it really works.
The amazing thing about the communicators is how they somehow KNEW you were trying to use them. At one point the crew needed to tap their badge before contacting someone, but later on the communicator was slick enough to pick up on the speech and activate without ever confusing part of regular speech with a communicator command.
Furthermore, communicators are psycic. If there is an exchange "picard to riker," "riker here", this occurs without any delay. The communicator doesn't have to hear the intended recipient of the message before transmitting the message. You would think it would need to determine that picard wants to talk to riker, then transmit a recording of him saying that to riker before riker could respond. But somehow the communicator knows before Picards even says "picard..." what is going to happen.
Amazing!!
I also always wondered how the universal translator knew not to translate words when someone wants to say a word in their native language. If Worf wants to say Kaplah the translator does not translate it...
I know one guy in which his business was bilked out of about $20,000. He simply had the misfortune of dealing with a person that used a stolen credit card number. When the fraud was exposed, the card issuer sued him to recover the money. I haven't talked to him lately, last I heard he said that he'd probably have to file for bankrupcy and lose his business.
Sounds like a good reason for businesses to carry insurance for such contingencies. Its certainely not Visa's responsibility to cover the fradulent charge...businesses need to verify the identity of people who buy from them. If there are large amounts involved like this, greater lengths need to be taken. Most businesses require a credit application to be filed with business and banking references even if you intend to pay by credit card.
The final failsafe is your business insurance. Pay a thousand dollar dedictible to get yourself off the hook in the unlikely event that you still are scammed.
Well I just looked at your website, and one of your services "cannabis.com" has a store which sells pipes, seeds, grinders, rolling papers, etc. Some of those links go to other domains, but it isn't at all clear what you sell and what you link to third party sellers. Even if you only personally accept payment for non-drug paraphernalia, how is PayPal to know that you wont change your product lineup next week? They probably aren't interested in monitoring businesses like yours.
Now personally, I have no problem with selling marijuana pipes and seeds and the like. But a business (especially a publicly traded one) has a lot of legal, insurance and PR issues to think about. If I were them I wouldn't want to have any business with a shady legal standing as a customer. Who knows what high-profile targets Herr Ashkroft will go after next.
RF energy loses power exponentially with distance. I've been working with some of these radios lately. You wouldn't want to position one a few inches from your balls, but if you back up a few feet you're probably fine.
Maybe I should get some of my swimmers frozen just in case I'm wrong?
Maybe the problem isn't their selection...maybe it was your spelling.
Well, I spelled it right when I searched! Anyway, Linkin Park isn't in the iTMS. They have a track on a tour CD from three years ago, but thats not what I'm looking for.
I haven't used iTunes much, based on my difficulty in finding the songs I wanted.
I intended to download some songs from Evanescence. But I don't see any of their songs showing up in my searches! Next I tried Linking Park, but no luck there either. I did find "Ordinary World" by Duran Duran, so that was good. But then "P Control" by Prince doesn't show up...iTunes seems to have every song imaginable by Prince, but my favorite club song is not there. Next I tried Led Zeppelin, and they don't seem to have any of their songs either! They do have lots of Cranberries stuff, including things I haven't seen before so I could try those. And they have Moby tracks (although not any from Animal Rights. Which is good since that CD sucked). Finally, I decided to try for "I am the Walrus" by the Beatles. No dice there either, although I discovered that there are 6 covers of this song, including one with explicit lyrics (that shockingly I actually enjoyed the preview for)!
So I liked iTMS overall, but they really need to get more songs in their catalog.
It is so rare to find a company who is reviled so much that slashdotters cheer Microsoft's attempts to crush it.
As the article says, its not clear whether microsoft of Real's own incompetence has hurt them, but either way I'm glad that I rarely see.ra files anymore. Goddamn real one player sucks.
Lucky you. I worked for a company once where they flew in all the top executives a half dozen times at about $50,000 per meeting to argue over where exactly the word "preeminent" should go. Christ what a waste of time and money.
And of course I was supposed to be doing all this stuff for various people in the meeting ASAP, but if I had a question that needed answering in order to do it they acted like I was interrupting some sort of crisis management or touchy negotiations.
I thought only the cops could performs raids! Thank god this is in australia....if Fritz Hollings has his way we will probably have special music industy SWAT teams roaming the country soon.
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But the main thing is I need to pound into his head that he needs to read and respond to any messages that pop up. Whenever norton pops up that box telling them to update virus definitions, they never do it. It clearly explains it needs to update itself and there is a connect button, but this is beyond what they understand. I'll try to explain, but I'm not too optimistic.
...guaranteed to be sex free, no doubt!
Some people like me are such atrocious artists that we're lucky to be able to carve three triangles to make two eyes and a nose. Just because you use a template doesn't mean it isn't satisfying to create a really cool looking pumpkin. My pumpkin would look like crap otherwise, and then I've wasted an hour and made a mess to produce a crappy looking pumpkin.
Makes an interesting case for a computer that can perform this 90% of functions locally and then had some kind of thin-client mode for more intensive applications.
If you want a conventional PC the problem is probably that a CPU is going to be at minimum $35 which is a substantial portion of the cost. A 20GB hard drive on pricewatch is only $20, so thats not bad. That only leaves $45 for a motherboard, case, and PSU. Probably doable if you look real hard or make something specific for this purpose.
That your technically inept parents are going to be weeping with frustration pretty soon.
If you want to know the value of good actors, just look at the GTA series. They have outstanding voice acting, and it really makes the story very cool. Its the same reason big stars are so good in animated Disney films...they just bring the characters to life even if it is only their voice. I like to compare it to Metal Gear Solid 2, which in my opinion has the worst story and voice acting imaginable. Its almost baffling how bad it is. I think a good script and quality voice actors are really important.
I cleaned glue off a PCB once with flux cleaner. Not sure if this would help with odor...You would need a lot of it though. Maybe getting a whole bunch of those Fridge and Freezer baking soda boxes and put one in each system? Couldn't hurt.
Jesus, it was a fucking joke...chill.
I hate that goddamn rule.
Please enter your shipping and billing details:
(typical order form here)
We can only provide viagra to people having trouble with their dick. Please fill out the following medical questionairre which will be carefully screened by our spiffy doctors:
1) Are you having trouble with your dick? (yes/no)
(submit button)
1% is a great return for legitimate direct mail through the US postal service...for SPAM, I would be shocked if even .1% is ever attained.
Sure I've heard of them. But these again involve a complex setup. Thats my point, these tools are not nearly as easy to use as they would need to be for most users. Windows update "just works."
In fact, I'm sure it is easier than pathing a Linux machine...The automatic updates allow you to just click OK when there is a new update and then go about your business without another thought.
I use Sun/Linux machines for work and school and any kind of updates to software usually involves a long list of steps...and any one could fail because some app needs to be updated to a newer version or something. This is fine, it is a system for "expert" users...but the average person wouldn't have a chance of being able to install many patches.
You can say something similar about A9. It extends Google, and adds in-book searching, search history features, the toolbar diary, etc. It is a good place for them to work on features before deploying to the actual Amazon site.
And a major reason why these might just be testbeds is that they generate no revenue. The technologies developed may be useful in their revenue-generating products. Having the public test your stuff is a great way to see how it really works.
Furthermore, communicators are psycic. If there is an exchange "picard to riker," "riker here", this occurs without any delay. The communicator doesn't have to hear the intended recipient of the message before transmitting the message. You would think it would need to determine that picard wants to talk to riker, then transmit a recording of him saying that to riker before riker could respond. But somehow the communicator knows before Picards even says "picard..." what is going to happen.
Amazing!!
I also always wondered how the universal translator knew not to translate words when someone wants to say a word in their native language. If Worf wants to say Kaplah the translator does not translate it...
Sounds like a good reason for businesses to carry insurance for such contingencies. Its certainely not Visa's responsibility to cover the fradulent charge...businesses need to verify the identity of people who buy from them. If there are large amounts involved like this, greater lengths need to be taken. Most businesses require a credit application to be filed with business and banking references even if you intend to pay by credit card.
The final failsafe is your business insurance. Pay a thousand dollar dedictible to get yourself off the hook in the unlikely event that you still are scammed.
Now personally, I have no problem with selling marijuana pipes and seeds and the like. But a business (especially a publicly traded one) has a lot of legal, insurance and PR issues to think about. If I were them I wouldn't want to have any business with a shady legal standing as a customer. Who knows what high-profile targets Herr Ashkroft will go after next.
Maybe I should get some of my swimmers frozen just in case I'm wrong?
I could care less about that. I just want the music. And anyway, doesn't Michael Jackson own the rights to a lot of the beatles songs?
Well, I spelled it right when I searched! Anyway, Linkin Park isn't in the iTMS. They have a track on a tour CD from three years ago, but thats not what I'm looking for.
I intended to download some songs from Evanescence. But I don't see any of their songs showing up in my searches! Next I tried Linking Park, but no luck there either. I did find "Ordinary World" by Duran Duran, so that was good. But then "P Control" by Prince doesn't show up...iTunes seems to have every song imaginable by Prince, but my favorite club song is not there. Next I tried Led Zeppelin, and they don't seem to have any of their songs either! They do have lots of Cranberries stuff, including things I haven't seen before so I could try those. And they have Moby tracks (although not any from Animal Rights. Which is good since that CD sucked). Finally, I decided to try for "I am the Walrus" by the Beatles. No dice there either, although I discovered that there are 6 covers of this song, including one with explicit lyrics (that shockingly I actually enjoyed the preview for)!
So I liked iTMS overall, but they really need to get more songs in their catalog.
As the article says, its not clear whether microsoft of Real's own incompetence has hurt them, but either way I'm glad that I rarely see
And of course I was supposed to be doing all this stuff for various people in the meeting ASAP, but if I had a question that needed answering in order to do it they acted like I was interrupting some sort of crisis management or touchy negotiations.
Bastards.
I thought only the cops could performs raids! Thank god this is in australia....if Fritz Hollings has his way we will probably have special music industy SWAT teams roaming the country soon.