The more of these comments I read, the more it starts sounding like newspapers are starting to take pages from **AA's playbook(s). Well established fact: Printed newspapers are rapidly going the way of the dinosaur in this age of the internet. Revenue is dropping sharply across the board for all newspapers. Some see the handwriting on the wall and are changing their business strategy accordingly. Others? They're trying to shove this outdated model down everyone's throats in a desperate attempt to hang on. MEMO TO PRINT MEDIA: Your days are numbered, you know it, we ALL know it, STOP WITH THE DENIAL ALREADY, come up with a new plan or DIE, KTHXBYE.
They'll vote for a bunch of police powers and be back.
The sad irony here is that all the "policy decisions" and "police powers" on the planet aren't going to stop something like this from happening. It's the very fact that we have a global interconnected network of general-purpose computers that facilitates this phenomenon, and trying to stay ahead of the bad guys is a perpetual, daunting, and impossible game; the only way to 100% ensure that any given computer is completely safe from infection is to completely disconnect it from everything else and never ever connect any mass storage devices or media that doesn't come from 100% trusted sources (which is almost nothing).
Dear Customer,
In order to maximize the web experience for all customers, effective immediately all websites with URLs in excess of 16 characters will be bandwidth throttled.
Are they going to charge me more to register my vehicle if it's already a dark color? This is utter stupidity. The state legislature needs to spends LESS time worrying about things like this and MORE time actually keeping the state government from becoming moribund, like it's spent too much time doing lately. NOT letting any of these yahoos stay in office, that's for sure!
I'd much rather that my Series 2 would support Netflix, since I already have an account with them. I can't see anything Blockbuster would have to offer being any less of a pain in the ass than Amazon's offering, which even when it works reliably is still annoying as hell since it takes HOURS for the movie to come down the pipe, and you can't start playing it until it's COMPLETELY done downloading.
There is NO WAY IN HELL I'd ever let anyone do this with me. Why? I don't even like things like OnStar or GPS on a phone that I can't completely disable, let alone someone being able to monitor my very flesh! I can just see it now: I'm out running intervals, or on my bike climbing a nice long steep hill, and police and paramedics show up, stop me, convinced that I'm about to expire because my heart rate is "too high" for their comfort. Or better yet, someone managed (inevitably!) to hack into the wireless connection, and starts spamming me for useless medical devices and bullshit supplements "based on my state of health" or somesuch. Thanks but no thanks! I'll monitor my own damned health thank-you-very-much. This would constitute the highest level of privacy-invasion I can possibly imagine.
..and before you all start shouting me down about how it's voluntary: with all the Nanny State bullshit I see going on in the world today, it's not far-fetched at ALL that between Nanny State governments, big insurance companies, and health insurance providers, they'd try to somehow make it mandatory. Screw them, screw that! If I wanted to anally-probed, I'd go live in Roswell and let the effing aliens take me for a ride.
These devices aren't even close to being in the mainstream yet. Personally I don't see any reason they could ever be made "secure" because by their very nature they need to be "accessible". These devices should NOT be allowed to become popular or mainstream. It's nobody's business but yours, the bill-payer, how much electricity you're using or what you're using it for, and nobody outside of your home should be allowed to control when your HVAC or clothes dryer is running. Create more energy-efficient devices? Yes. Continue to educate the public into being more energy conscious? Absolutely. Generate more power and manage the power grid more intelligently? Yes. Shut off an 80-year-old invalid's air conditioner in the middle of a July heatwave? Absolutely NOT. Shut off someone's clothes dryer so they're late to work because all their work clothes are still sopping wet? Absolutely NOT. Technology may be the answer, but not THIS technology.
I hate to tell ya sunshine, but it's much worse than you think it is. The "pastor" you mention won't show kids a picture of cavemen and dinosaurs together; he'll deny the existence of dinosaurs completely, claiming that "satan and his minions put fossils where people can find them to confuse them and test their faith". Furthermore, religion doesn't promote skepticism and testing of facts; they'll tell you "the earth was created in 6 days and is only 4000 years old", and when you ask them to prove it, they'll say "you have to have FAITH", essentially meaning "just shut up and believe what I'm telling you, because I'M TELLING YOU TO". Actually I think you're a creationist in disguise, or you're being sarcastic in your post, now that I think about it. No way to tell which it is though.
The headline led me to believe that he was manufacturing photovoltaic cells in his garage, which would have been interesting. I read TFA and come to find out that what he's done is something any 6th-grade kid could do as a science fair project. Not impressed.
However with the way they're MIShandling this, I wouldn't put it past them to have leaked a fake list themselves just to discredit sites like WikiLeaks. Oh, wait, I forgot: they aren't SMART enough to do something like that! Silly me..
There are two things that aren't clear from the article:
Does this include ALL x86 chips (i.e., AMD chips) or just pure Intel chips?
If the SMM firmware is in the BIOS Flash ROM, does/can malware actually overwrite your BIOS, thus making itself more-or-less permanent (save for physically removing/replacing the BIOS ROM chip)?
BTW if #2 is true, then it really is a huge threat -- and we'd all be better off going back to EPROMs and ditching the ISP flash ROMs, or at least having some sort of hardware read-only switch or jumper on motherboards limiting access to overwriting flash ROMs.
Or they really DO believe, have been COMPLETE HYPOCRITES their entire lives, and are CONVINCED that they're going to burn in Hell for all eternity for their transgressions. Bet you $5.
Make everyone learn to ride a motorcycle for a couple years. Not only will they have an abiding respect for speed, the road, and the laws of physics, but they'll pay more attention to whether there are motorcycles on the road with them or not.
Rather than spending any time or money on highly flawed technological solutions, spend that time and energy on laying down realistic boundaries for her, and instilling her with a solid sense of right and wrong. Back that up with removing any internet access for infractions. Oh, and if you're entertaining any delusions that you're going to be able to completely shield her from outside influences and keep her completely pure and untainted? Give that idea up right now, unless you're planning on keeping her locked in the basement and totally homeschooling her until she's an adult, because it's impossible. The best you can do is to prepare her for the real world and what it's going to throw at her, and not be too devastated if she doesn't turn out like you hoped she would.
Listen: I actually believe that your comments are well-intentioned. But the fact of the matter is that I NEED something that's just entertainment that ALLOWS my higher brain functions to rest. I work in a high-tech company and have to provide customer support for our products all day. I train as a cyclist on my off-hours. I read. I see actual, living people who are my friends, and I do it in person. BUT, my brain needs some down-time that isn't sleep (I get plenty of sleep too, mind you). Television fills this niche. However I can't watch the mindless drivel that comprises most of TV. The SciFi channel at least had some interesting shows. NBC destroying it will be a LOSS.
NBC is going to be true to their Big Three Network heritage and completely destroy something that doesn't need any drastic changes. Of course I saw this coming the first time I discovered that they were running goddamned wrestling on it, but I'd hoped against hope that it wouldn't happen. I'm running out of reasons to keep paying for cable; wish Comcast wasn't the only choice I had for broadband. For entertainment, I guess there's always Netflix and bittorrent..
Slashdot Mirror
..effing funny. You guys should be on stage in Vegas or something.
The more of these comments I read, the more it starts sounding like newspapers are starting to take pages from **AA's playbook(s). Well established fact: Printed newspapers are rapidly going the way of the dinosaur in this age of the internet. Revenue is dropping sharply across the board for all newspapers. Some see the handwriting on the wall and are changing their business strategy accordingly. Others? They're trying to shove this outdated model down everyone's throats in a desperate attempt to hang on. MEMO TO PRINT MEDIA: Your days are numbered, you know it, we ALL know it, STOP WITH THE DENIAL ALREADY, come up with a new plan or DIE, KTHXBYE.
Please, don't show us a video of how this is done, nobody wants to see where you insert the CAT5 cable.
So if they're granted the patent, does that mean we can openly and vigorously blame IBM for all the jobs lost to outsourcing? I smell lawsuit!
They'll vote for a bunch of police powers and be back.
The sad irony here is that all the "policy decisions" and "police powers" on the planet aren't going to stop something like this from happening. It's the very fact that we have a global interconnected network of general-purpose computers that facilitates this phenomenon, and trying to stay ahead of the bad guys is a perpetual, daunting, and impossible game; the only way to 100% ensure that any given computer is completely safe from infection is to completely disconnect it from everything else and never ever connect any mass storage devices or media that doesn't come from 100% trusted sources (which is almost nothing).
The Dalai Lama has (or needs) an office? WTF?
In order to maximize the web experience for all customers, effective immediately all websites with URLs in excess of 16 characters will be bandwidth throttled.
Sincerely,
Comcast
..NVIDIA decided to fight fire with fire..
There, fixed that for you. :P
Are they going to charge me more to register my vehicle if it's already a dark color? This is utter stupidity. The state legislature needs to spends LESS time worrying about things like this and MORE time actually keeping the state government from becoming moribund, like it's spent too much time doing lately. NOT letting any of these yahoos stay in office, that's for sure!
Finally! I can have the best of both worlds: A black keyboard that clicks! :-D
I'd much rather that my Series 2 would support Netflix, since I already have an account with them. I can't see anything Blockbuster would have to offer being any less of a pain in the ass than Amazon's offering, which even when it works reliably is still annoying as hell since it takes HOURS for the movie to come down the pipe, and you can't start playing it until it's COMPLETELY done downloading.
..welcome our new, silicon-brain-on-a-chip overlords!
..and before you all start shouting me down about how it's voluntary: with all the Nanny State bullshit I see going on in the world today, it's not far-fetched at ALL that between Nanny State governments, big insurance companies, and health insurance providers, they'd try to somehow make it mandatory. Screw them, screw that! If I wanted to anally-probed, I'd go live in Roswell and let the effing aliens take me for a ride.
These devices aren't even close to being in the mainstream yet. Personally I don't see any reason they could ever be made "secure" because by their very nature they need to be "accessible". These devices should NOT be allowed to become popular or mainstream. It's nobody's business but yours, the bill-payer, how much electricity you're using or what you're using it for, and nobody outside of your home should be allowed to control when your HVAC or clothes dryer is running. Create more energy-efficient devices? Yes. Continue to educate the public into being more energy conscious? Absolutely. Generate more power and manage the power grid more intelligently? Yes. Shut off an 80-year-old invalid's air conditioner in the middle of a July heatwave? Absolutely NOT. Shut off someone's clothes dryer so they're late to work because all their work clothes are still sopping wet? Absolutely NOT.
Technology may be the answer, but not THIS technology.
I hate to tell ya sunshine, but it's much worse than you think it is. The "pastor" you mention won't show kids a picture of cavemen and dinosaurs together; he'll deny the existence of dinosaurs completely, claiming that "satan and his minions put fossils where people can find them to confuse them and test their faith". Furthermore, religion doesn't promote skepticism and testing of facts; they'll tell you "the earth was created in 6 days and is only 4000 years old", and when you ask them to prove it, they'll say "you have to have FAITH", essentially meaning "just shut up and believe what I'm telling you, because I'M TELLING YOU TO".
Actually I think you're a creationist in disguise, or you're being sarcastic in your post, now that I think about it. No way to tell which it is though.
The headline led me to believe that he was manufacturing photovoltaic cells in his garage, which would have been interesting. I read TFA and come to find out that what he's done is something any 6th-grade kid could do as a science fair project. Not impressed.
However with the way they're MIShandling this, I wouldn't put it past them to have leaked a fake list themselves just to discredit sites like WikiLeaks.
Oh, wait, I forgot: they aren't SMART enough to do something like that! Silly me..
BTW if #2 is true, then it really is a huge threat -- and we'd all be better off going back to EPROMs and ditching the ISP flash ROMs, or at least having some sort of hardware read-only switch or jumper on motherboards limiting access to overwriting flash ROMs.
Or they really DO believe, have been COMPLETE HYPOCRITES their entire lives, and are CONVINCED that they're going to burn in Hell for all eternity for their transgressions. Bet you $5.
Make everyone learn to ride a motorcycle for a couple years. Not only will they have an abiding respect for speed, the road, and the laws of physics, but they'll pay more attention to whether there are motorcycles on the road with them or not.
Rather than spending any time or money on highly flawed technological solutions, spend that time and energy on laying down realistic boundaries for her, and instilling her with a solid sense of right and wrong. Back that up with removing any internet access for infractions. Oh, and if you're entertaining any delusions that you're going to be able to completely shield her from outside influences and keep her completely pure and untainted? Give that idea up right now, unless you're planning on keeping her locked in the basement and totally homeschooling her until she's an adult, because it's impossible. The best you can do is to prepare her for the real world and what it's going to throw at her, and not be too devastated if she doesn't turn out like you hoped she would.
Listen: I actually believe that your comments are well-intentioned. But the fact of the matter is that I NEED something that's just entertainment that ALLOWS my higher brain functions to rest. I work in a high-tech company and have to provide customer support for our products all day. I train as a cyclist on my off-hours. I read. I see actual, living people who are my friends, and I do it in person. BUT, my brain needs some down-time that isn't sleep (I get plenty of sleep too, mind you). Television fills this niche. However I can't watch the mindless drivel that comprises most of TV. The SciFi channel at least had some interesting shows. NBC destroying it will be a LOSS.
NBC is going to be true to their Big Three Network heritage and completely destroy something that doesn't need any drastic changes. Of course I saw this coming the first time I discovered that they were running goddamned wrestling on it, but I'd hoped against hope that it wouldn't happen. I'm running out of reasons to keep paying for cable; wish Comcast wasn't the only choice I had for broadband. For entertainment, I guess there's always Netflix and bittorrent..
Um, stupid idea, I know, but: Why not just gather voluntary data from actual users, preferably thousands of them, and use that?