I would like to express my utter disgust at the current methods of virus protection. All an antivirus program on Windows would have to do is to see if a program attempts to write to system files, and carefully monitor changes made to startup configuration files, such as the registry.
Which would do jack shit good against any virus that did not rely on starting up on next boot.
But even more than that;
When it notices this acticivity, it could stop the program, and ask the user what to do. Of course, this method wouldn't make antivirus companies stinking rich from selling virus definitions.
Welcome to windows, the wonderful world of the registry being written to ten gazzilion times per day. Asking the user for permission each time? Hah. Heck even privlidged programs that are needed to run at boot, what happens if a virus infects their executable to run along side the program when it starts up legitimatly? (which a fair number of viruses have done in the past.)
Virus definitions are needed for a reason, not every virus uses such simple methods as you have described above.
(what about viruses that try and kill the virus scanner and THEN infect things? Lovely. . . . better catch those long before they try and play around with the registry!)
personally, i'm suspiciuos of both sides here, but if its a large corporation, and they are upholding legal battles about the ownership of INFORMATION IN ITSELF as a Good Thing : they deserve to be thrown on the rack, if anything.
Umm, actually SCO is suing IBM for allegedlystealing part of SCOs software and implementing it in another piece of software and calling it their (IBM's) own.
Personally, from a pure PR perspective, if I was SCO I would have stuck just with suing IBM, the going after Redhat et all seems a little bit ridicules and stretched. I can at least understand going after IBM and I believe that once explained to people that SCO was interested ONLY in deciding if IBM had actualy commited theft, that the majority of people would have adopted a "lets wait and see" attitude towards the issue.
Unforutnatly, for whatever bonehead reason, SCO has gone and started suing other companies.:-P
Of of course, back then in the French TV, Fist of the North Star (Ken le survivant). Now all the toons are sterile crap. That's why I have a pretty good collection of old toons.
Now, for those who don't know. Fist of the North Star is an Anime show in which when ANYBODY is hit by any punch kick or so forth, they have huge gaping holes appear in them and they start spouting out HUGE quantities of blood.
I mean it just starts shooting out, rivers of it. The blood doesn't really add to the story, (what there is of one), nor does it add to the "realism" of battle. In fact all the blood does is make it quite apparent that all the blood is there just so that the TV show can have, err, well, a lot of blood in it.
It actually gets to be quite humorous after awhile.:)
He's a dog, but Russell Crowe brings something different to every movie. "Gladiator" was a modest low point
Modest low point? The movie kicked ass.
Denzel Washington has brought different aspects to the movies he's been in. Lately, he's been taking too many of the "ubermench" roles, but his earlier work was decent. Just don't see "John Q".
Another couple of actors that belong on your pretty boy list: Tom Hanks and Robin Williams. They don't act, they emote the same character. (Excepting for Forrest, which was a definite stretch with decent dividends.)
Robin Williams, pretty boy? Huh?
Death To Smoochie was hilarious. Bicentenial man was quite good, though a fair departure from the novel. His parts in Aladdin where hilarious, and his Cable TV special was a laugh out loud event the entire way though.
Mrs. Doubtfire kicked ass.:)
Keanu Reeves doesn't lambast the audience with fervor(Jack Nicholson, Pacino)
Jack Nicholson has personality. He is a jackass, but it works.
Keanu Reeves doesn't HAVE any personality. Well besides irritating, but that normaly is an EFFECT of a personality, Keanu makes it his personality. ..
This is marketing, really, and has little to do with the actual production costs. With the huge increase in printer quality in the last 8 years or so it's actually cheaper (apparently, from what I've been told) to give them a shorter lifespan. Otherwise how would they sell the newer models with improved color (photo) printing, and bells and whistles (such as built in memcard readers)?
Err, but, uh, why would they WANT to sell new models?
They should be like TI calc, save a bundle by not bothering to make anything new. *G*
Yes, old HP printers are practically invincible workhorses, and new HP printers are proof that HP has become an ink company.
Now you figure that if HP is selling the printers at a LOSS that they would want to make them as INDESTRUCTABLE as possible.
Why?
So they would sell LESS of the physical units!!!
Think about it. If each time a user buys a replacement printer, HP loses money, then it is worth it to HP to spend the extra few dollars making their printers NOT break down! Sure they may lose a few extra dollars in the begining, but if the printer keeps on working for 10 or more years, then HP has saved themselves money on a fair number of replacement printers!
(not to mention help build brand loyalty ensuring that the NEXT time a user purchases a printer, it too will be an HP!)
Ooh ooh ooh ! Goodies I was hoping somebody would mention the DeskJet 500c.
Mine worked very well for 3 or 4 years, got me a fair number of grade A reports when color prints where still a novelty for students to turn in within the public school system.
Fun fun fun
Then it started getting sloooow. Like really slow. Sloooowwwwww.
Then it started squirting ink out at me.
I called it quits after that. Bleck! I am serious! Ink actually came shooting out of the printer (paper output tray) and covered me!!! New cartridge too!
Unfortunately every printer I have owned since has ALSO been an HP (don't even get me started on the DRIVER issues I had with the HP500c under Windows 3.1, though thankfully it worked great under DOS), though not by my choice (mainly because they keep on getting thrown in free with computers other members of my family insist on buying. *sigh* Guess that shows you there worth eh?)
Oddly enough my Deskjet 722c failed before the 712c purchased at a similar time. (the 722c was supposedly the higher end version of the 712c, a ppm or two faster I guess)
I am so getting a Canon next time. Though I guess I will kind of miss the HP drivers, heh, so used to them.:-D
On the flip side, HP's Laserjet series seems to be full of real work horses. I have seen some HP Laserjets that are awful crusty and old keep on printing.:) (though I also witness the Windows driver frequently freak out as well, heh)
Slashdot serves 50,000,000 pages per month according to the Slashdot FAQ [slashdot.org] 50,000,000 pages per month = 138,888 pages per hour (assuming peak hours get 1/12 of the the daily traffic.) This page got slashdotted in about 1 hour. If every/. page view during that hour clicked through, this site served 0.043Mb * 138,888 = 5972 Mb.
Not likely. . . . Not even a close approximation.
You are also assuming that everybody who saw the link clicked on it.
Only in a military dominated dictatorship does the minority make the rules.
Of course. But how do you KNOW the majorities opinions? What if it is a time critical matter that cannot WAIT until the next election period? Protesting is one assured way to make the full force of public opposition to something heard. 10,000 letters can be dismissed, but ten thousand people gathering in every major city in a country is a DARNED effective way to get a message across.
The United States is a Democratic Republic. We have a process in which to 'listen to the damn people.' It's called elections.
Which, as stated, is ONLY effective on a every so many year basis. Protests are a GREAT way to get the point across that this ONE PARTICULAR issue is one that is NOT going to be forgotten when the next election session rolls around.
That's different from shutting down a city or country until the government does what you want.
Going out in the streets for a day shouting out slogans is HARDLY the same thing.
Rallies and Protests have been used in the United States since almost the beginning of our nation, and who the hell are we to go about saying that just because they INCONVENIENCE us that they should not be allowed?
Medical Services should be rerouted around the problem. Now if some dick heads stand in the WAY of an ambulance, then yah, charge them, but as a terrorist? What the hell? MOTIVE here people MOTIVE. They may be a dumb ass, but they aren't spraying us with anthrax.
Hell the very fact that they are OUT THERE PROTESTING shows that they CARE about the nation. GOOD FREAKING IDEA, jail the LAST FEW CITIZENS WHO CARE ABOUT THIS NATION.
Briliant, really smart idea there. . ..
However, it does not have the right to cause mass violence or economic hardship.
Of course not, and there are ALREADY EXISTING laws against that.
Why the HELL should somebody get 25 to life for BLOCKING TRAFFIC when they can get less than that for MURDER or BRUTAL ASSAULT.
Is joe-freaking-shmoes commute time going to be given MORE importance than cases like this here?
We the people have already formed a government in which our voices can be heard in non-violent ways. Attempts to undermine this organization with ways other than voting, working through your representatives, or peaceful non-disruptive protest is an assault on democracy,
What about peaceful protests that then spill over into the streets? Under possible abuses of this Oregon law, I can easily imagine an overzealous police force arresting literally HUNDREDS of protestors.
Hell, I'll shout, swear, and heckle the protestors while they ARE protesting, but I ain't gonna lock them up.
Now once they DO start breaking stuff, I do believe there are CURRENT laws to deal with that sort of thing. Should some of those laws be strengthened? Maybe a wider range of sentences for the judge to choose from, but 25 to life is essentially equivalent with murder 1. Unless it can be SHOWN that PEOPLE DIED and that the defendant KNEW IN ADVANCE for SURE that SOMEBODY would DIE, such as say erecting barricades around a hospital ambulance entrance,
then this crime is NOT equivalent of murder 1 and either way it is NOT terrorism under 99.99% of the circumstances. (I could imagine some terrorist group using blockade tactics but that is a completely separate issue from a loyal American citizen holding a protest)
Well, how does a law to jail war protesters who are interfering with public services have anything to do with "Your Rights Online" or "News for Nerds"?
News for Nerds. Our rights being fucked in the ass.
China is a super power. more importantly they have won.
Based just on birthrate, within 100 years, "chinese" will be spoken in every city on the planet.
How does birthrate correlate to population dispersion?
Oh wait, it doesn't. . . . Unlike the French of the past, the Chinese are NOT making a concentrated effort towards expanding their culture globally.
Since chinas government is steeply based in there culture,
If I where of Chinese origin, I would consider that an insult.:-P
"Yes yes, you all have overly complicated and HORRIBLY corrupt buercracies that slaughter anybody you disagree with."
I should sure hope not!!! I know too many nice Chinese Americans for that to be true!
where ever a population of "chinese" settle, there government become defacto within there group.
Ummm. . ..
*looks towards China Town*
No.
China is communistic the way a kitten is a lion.
China is communistic the way that a lion acts after being BEATEN IN THE HEAD REPEATEDLY BY ITS TRAINER UNTIL IT OBEYS.
The US pretty much has FORCED China to turn to SOME form of capitalism.
But it is by NO MEANS a pure form. Indeed most capitalistic tendencies throughout China ONLY occur because hefty bribes are paid towards key local government officials.
It is like paying off a judge to make him give the 'correct' verdict. That does NOT make for a "just and morally sound" society, it just makes for one where the big guy with all the bucks gets everything.
At least in the United States a person doesn't need to outright BRIBE city officials to get anything done. Fill out an butt load of paperwork, yes, but it is possible to open a relatively unfettered business in the US with just a few simple and rather affordable licenses.
(the main exception being Environmental regulations that indeed big rich companies HAVE shown to be able to pay off officials to have those officials "ignore" the requirements for. Yes it sucks, but the level of corruption in the United States, while quite crappy, is NO WHERES near as bad as it is in China)
Look at there trade, in a lot of respects, the free market is more widespread in china then it is in the US.
If you have money, you can pay off the right people to be allowed "free" trade. If not, you are branded a killer and shot (well, more likely "detained" or "fined").
For the "chinese" race to take over onlty take time.
I care to disagree, I would say that a RACE taking over is not going to happen, a CULTURE taking over, maybe. But the Chinese culture is to, err, culturally specific. More generic cultures such as the "United States'" culture have a far better chance of becoming dominant, because they can mesh into anywheres without too many over major changes happening to a person's daily life. So few rules exist within American Culture that more can be placed on top of it as needed to adapt to an environment.
In a couple hundred years when the globe as intermixed so much,
Dude, at the rate things are going, in another 100 years it is going to be 60% Chinese, 40% "every other race having mixed together and created some freaky thang".
Except the Chinese will at BEST be dispersed over the rest of the globe, AKA always out numbered, or at WORST be all grouped together, surrounded on all sides.
No
One
Race
will EVER become dominant.
After the Roman, French, English, Ottomans, and the Germans, how many more freaking times does this have to be learned?
Come on, people. He's a member of a terrorist sleeper cell.
Up until the Patriot Act, saying that would have first involved something called the burden of proof.
What good is America if what makes America free is destroyed in the process of making America safe?
By committing these sorts of actions, we show disrespect towards the lives of all those who have died to keep this country free. Are we not as well willing to sacrifice out lives for this great nation? Or are we such pitiful weaklings that the nary is the threat of 'terrorist actions' waved against us that we all surrender our rights, our liberties, and our very heritage, for a sleep free of worries of death?
This was actually posted on/. about a year or so back.
The father filed the patent to teach his son about how the US patent system works, figuring something so ridiculous and obvious would never get patented.
Two years later, he got back the news, patent approved.
Oddly enough, it does not appear to have been overturned, or would I have to look someplace else to find that out?
Slashdot Mirror
Which would do jack shit good against any virus that did not rely on starting up on next boot.
But even more than that;
Welcome to windows, the wonderful world of the registry being written to ten gazzilion times per day. Asking the user for permission each time? Hah. Heck even privlidged programs that are needed to run at boot, what happens if a virus infects their executable to run along side the program when it starts up legitimatly? (which a fair number of viruses have done in the past.)
Virus definitions are needed for a reason, not every virus uses such simple methods as you have described above.
(what about viruses that try and kill the virus scanner and THEN infect things? Lovely. . . . better catch those long before they try and play around with the registry!)
Umm, actually SCO is suing IBM for allegedly stealing part of SCOs software and implementing it in another piece of software and calling it their (IBM's) own.
Personally, from a pure PR perspective, if I was SCO I would have stuck just with suing IBM, the going after Redhat et all seems a little bit ridicules and stretched. I can at least understand going after IBM and I believe that once explained to people that SCO was interested ONLY in deciding if IBM had actualy commited theft, that the majority of people would have adopted a "lets wait and see" attitude towards the issue.
Unforutnatly, for whatever bonehead reason, SCO has gone and started suing other companies.
Now, for those who don't know. Fist of the North Star is an Anime show in which when ANYBODY is hit by any punch kick or so forth, they have huge gaping holes appear in them and they start spouting out HUGE quantities of blood.
I mean it just starts shooting out, rivers of it. The blood doesn't really add to the story, (what there is of one), nor does it add to the "realism" of battle. In fact all the blood does is make it quite apparent that all the blood is there just so that the TV show can have, err, well, a lot of blood in it.
It actually gets to be quite humorous after awhile.
Ortho kills weeds dead.
And your children.
And any pets.
And your neighbor's children.
And your neighbor's pets.
But darnit, the weeds sure are dead!
Roundup, same shit, just more blatant "will kill all" warnings.
Also works to kill ants, roaches, small hives of alien invaders, large hives of alien invaders, and anybody who you just don't like.
I love my bottle of roundup.
Robotic my ass, I got weeds growing through my freaking CONCRETE. Let me restate that
THE WEEDS HAVE PUNCHED HOLES THROUGH THE DAMNED CONCRETE
Now unless this robot has a JACKHAMMER on board, I think it is pretty safe to say the it has ZERO chance of getting to the weeds.
Well that freaking kills your efficency.
Power supplies blow off hot air, don't want that going into your computer.
Put a filter over the fans blowing in and call it a day.
Reading this on my Windows 2000 machine in Acrobat reader takes up 100% of my CPU.
(ok ok a 'mere' 700mhz, but that should be more than enough to read a freaking document!!!)
True eRPGsers have the NES cart.
I feel rather nifty, as I know at least a few of the people whose websites where linked too. :)
;)
But yah, they are right, it is NOT an AOL keyword. We all know that AOL censors free speech too much to let any revolutions happen on it.
Batman.
As Good As It Gets.
Mars Attacks.
Modest low point? The movie kicked ass.
Another couple of actors that belong on your pretty boy list: Tom Hanks and Robin Williams. They don't act, they emote the same character. (Excepting for Forrest, which was a definite stretch with decent dividends.)
Robin Williams, pretty boy? Huh?
Death To Smoochie was hilarious. Bicentenial man was quite good, though a fair departure from the novel. His parts in Aladdin where hilarious, and his Cable TV special was a laugh out loud event the entire way though.
Mrs. Doubtfire kicked ass.
Jack Nicholson has personality. He is a jackass, but it works.
Keanu Reeves doesn't HAVE any personality. Well besides irritating, but that normaly is an EFFECT of a personality, Keanu makes it his personality. .
Err, but, uh, why would they WANT to sell new models?
They should be like TI calc, save a bundle by not bothering to make anything new. *G*
Now you figure that if HP is selling the printers at a LOSS that they would want to make them as INDESTRUCTABLE as possible.
Why?
So they would sell LESS of the physical units!!!
Think about it. If each time a user buys a replacement printer, HP loses money, then it is worth it to HP to spend the extra few dollars making their printers NOT break down! Sure they may lose a few extra dollars in the begining, but if the printer keeps on working for 10 or more years, then HP has saved themselves money on a fair number of replacement printers!
(not to mention help build brand loyalty ensuring that the NEXT time a user purchases a printer, it too will be an HP!)
Ooh ooh ooh ! Goodies I was hoping somebody would mention the DeskJet 500c.
Mine worked very well for 3 or 4 years, got me a fair number of grade A reports when color prints where still a novelty for students to turn in within the public school system.
Fun fun fun
Then it started getting sloooow. Like really slow. Sloooowwwwww.
Then it started squirting ink out at me.
I called it quits after that. Bleck! I am serious! Ink actually came shooting out of the printer (paper output tray) and covered me!!! New cartridge too!
Unfortunately every printer I have owned since has ALSO been an HP (don't even get me started on the DRIVER issues I had with the HP500c under Windows 3.1, though thankfully it worked great under DOS), though not by my choice (mainly because they keep on getting thrown in free with computers other members of my family insist on buying. *sigh* Guess that shows you there worth eh?)
Oddly enough my Deskjet 722c failed before the 712c purchased at a similar time. (the 722c was supposedly the higher end version of the 712c, a ppm or two faster I guess)
I am so getting a Canon next time. Though I guess I will kind of miss the HP drivers, heh, so used to them.
On the flip side, HP's Laserjet series seems to be full of real work horses. I have seen some HP Laserjets that are awful crusty and old keep on printing.
Umm. . . . I thought patenting shit was cheap?
That is bullshit. Patent MAINTENCE fee? What the fuck? The average person cannot afford that, I thought it used to be a flat rate of $75??
Slashdot serves 50,000,000 pages per month according to the Slashdot FAQ [slashdot.org]
50,000,000 pages per month = 138,888 pages per hour (assuming peak hours get 1/12 of the the daily traffic.)
This page got slashdotted in about 1 hour.
If every
Not likely. . . . Not even a close approximation.
You are also assuming that everybody who saw the link clicked on it.
Of course. But how do you KNOW the majorities opinions? What if it is a time critical matter that cannot WAIT until the next election period? Protesting is one assured way to make the full force of public opposition to something heard. 10,000 letters can be dismissed, but ten thousand people gathering in every major city in a country is a DARNED effective way to get a message across.
Which, as stated, is ONLY effective on a every so many year basis. Protests are a GREAT way to get the point across that this ONE PARTICULAR issue is one that is NOT going to be forgotten when the next election session rolls around.
Going out in the streets for a day shouting out slogans is HARDLY the same thing.
Rallies and Protests have been used in the United States since almost the beginning of our nation, and who the hell are we to go about saying that just because they INCONVENIENCE us that they should not be allowed?
Medical Services should be rerouted around the problem. Now if some dick heads stand in the WAY of an ambulance, then yah, charge them, but as a terrorist? What the hell? MOTIVE here people MOTIVE. They may be a dumb ass, but they aren't spraying us with anthrax.
Hell the very fact that they are OUT THERE PROTESTING shows that they CARE about the nation. GOOD FREAKING IDEA, jail the LAST FEW CITIZENS WHO CARE ABOUT THIS NATION.
Briliant, really smart idea there. . .
Of course not, and there are ALREADY EXISTING laws against that.
Why the HELL should somebody get 25 to life for BLOCKING TRAFFIC when they can get less than that for MURDER or BRUTAL ASSAULT.
Is joe-freaking-shmoes commute time going to be given MORE importance than cases like this here?
What about peaceful protests that then spill over into the streets? Under possible abuses of this Oregon law, I can easily imagine an overzealous police force arresting literally HUNDREDS of protestors.
Hell, I'll shout, swear, and heckle the protestors while they ARE protesting, but I ain't gonna lock them up.
Now once they DO start breaking stuff, I do believe there are CURRENT laws to deal with that sort of thing. Should some of those laws be strengthened? Maybe a wider range of sentences for the judge to choose from, but 25 to life is essentially equivalent with murder 1. Unless it can be SHOWN that PEOPLE DIED and that the defendant KNEW IN ADVANCE for SURE that SOMEBODY would DIE, such as say erecting barricades around a hospital ambulance entrance,
then this crime is NOT equivalent of murder 1 and either way it is NOT terrorism under 99.99% of the circumstances. (I could imagine some terrorist group using blockade tactics but that is a completely separate issue from a loyal American citizen holding a protest)
The idea is to let the GOVERNMENT know your position. Sitting in front of town hall: Good. Sitting in front of your lawn: Stupid.
News for Nerds. Our rights being fucked in the ass.
I like being aware.
Yes, because assembling in the middle of a SIDE STREET where NOBODY CAN SEE YOU just SOOO effectively gets the message across.
Tool: LISTEN TO THE DAMN PEOPLE YOU FUCKTARD.
Based just on birthrate, within 100 years, "chinese" will be spoken in every city on the planet.
How does birthrate correlate to population dispersion?
Oh wait, it doesn't. . . . Unlike the French of the past, the Chinese are NOT making a concentrated effort towards expanding their culture globally.
If I where of Chinese origin, I would consider that an insult.
"Yes yes, you all have overly complicated and HORRIBLY corrupt buercracies that slaughter anybody you disagree with."
I should sure hope not!!! I know too many nice Chinese Americans for that to be true!
Ummm. . .
*looks towards China Town*
No.
China is communistic the way that a lion acts after being BEATEN IN THE HEAD REPEATEDLY BY ITS TRAINER UNTIL IT OBEYS.
The US pretty much has FORCED China to turn to SOME form of capitalism.
But it is by NO MEANS a pure form. Indeed most capitalistic tendencies throughout China ONLY occur because hefty bribes are paid towards key local government officials.
It is like paying off a judge to make him give the 'correct' verdict. That does NOT make for a "just and morally sound" society, it just makes for one where the big guy with all the bucks gets everything.
At least in the United States a person doesn't need to outright BRIBE city officials to get anything done. Fill out an butt load of paperwork, yes, but it is possible to open a relatively unfettered business in the US with just a few simple and rather affordable licenses.
(the main exception being Environmental regulations that indeed big rich companies HAVE shown to be able to pay off officials to have those officials "ignore" the requirements for. Yes it sucks, but the level of corruption in the United States, while quite crappy, is NO WHERES near as bad as it is in China)
If you have money, you can pay off the right people to be allowed "free" trade. If not, you are branded a killer and shot (well, more likely "detained" or "fined").
I care to disagree, I would say that a RACE taking over is not going to happen, a CULTURE taking over, maybe. But the Chinese culture is to, err, culturally specific. More generic cultures such as the "United States'" culture have a far better chance of becoming dominant, because they can mesh into anywheres without too many over major changes happening to a person's daily life. So few rules exist within American Culture that more can be placed on top of it as needed to adapt to an environment.
Dude, at the rate things are going, in another 100 years it is going to be 60% Chinese, 40% "every other race having mixed together and created some freaky thang".
Except the Chinese will at BEST be dispersed over the rest of the globe, AKA always out numbered, or at WORST be all grouped together, surrounded on all sides.
No
One
Race
will
EVER become dominant.
After the Roman, French, English, Ottomans, and the Germans, how many more freaking times does this have to be learned?
You are ASSUMING it is just child pornography that is being blocked.
How do you know? What if some site showing the current Governor of Pennsylvania's wife in a "compromising" position is also blocked?
No, of course not! Because Little Timmy should see big hootered hairy woman just like a Real Man(tm).
Can't start to early in exposing children to those stereotypes!
Up until the Patriot Act, saying that would have first involved something called the burden of proof.
What good is America if what makes America free is destroyed in the process of making America safe?
By committing these sorts of actions, we show disrespect towards the lives of all those who have died to keep this country free. Are we not as well willing to sacrifice out lives for this great nation? Or are we such pitiful weaklings that the nary is the threat of 'terrorist actions' waved against us that we all surrender our rights, our liberties, and our very heritage, for a sleep free of worries of death?
Sorry, it is not a joke.
/. about a year or so back.
more information here
This was actually posted on
The father filed the patent to teach his son about how the US patent system works, figuring something so ridiculous and obvious would never get patented.
Two years later, he got back the news, patent approved.
Oddly enough, it does not appear to have been overturned, or would I have to look someplace else to find that out?