Well, it wouldn't convert it into anything else, if that's what you mean - it doesn't ingest the radioactive materials, it just uses the energy of their natural decay.
The only remaining vulnerability is to search for "gmail", "yahoo" or "hotmail". I'm afraid I don't know a solution for that one, unless someone knows a way to mask domain names as well?...
One trick I've seen used from time to time is to describe the domain - e.g. hotmail becomes "the mail that's hot", gmail might become "google's email thing", and so on. I've no idea how effective it is, but with so many different possibilties coding something to parse them all isn't something I'd want to have to do.
No, the companies are the ones producing the filtering software. Their users include public libraries, etc. If their users have a duty to not block such sites, then they should either make local config changes (if possible), ask the company nicely to unblock the site(s), or use a competing product. (Or even, perhaps, stop using filtering software altogether).
The private companies producing the software, however, should be free to block whatever the hell they want.
What? If their site were dropped by an ISP, they might have a case
I was under the impression that the constitution placed restrictions on the government; ISPs are private companies, and so surely can drop whatever site they like.
I see no rights violation here.
Indeed; the only potentially iffy aspect is that public institutions use these filters. However, surely the complaint would be against those institutions, not the filtering companies. The institutions can attempt to persuade the companies to modify their filters, but ultimately it would be up to them to see that the measures they implement comply with the relevant laws, as they are the ones bound by them.
Why on earth would it do that? This is permanent data we're talking about, not transient; if the RAM is needed for something else, it will simply be dumped. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to write it to the page file.
It is paticularly stupid on the MS Windows platform where people typically only perform one application task at a time
Well, I'll grant you that the user is typically only interacting with one app at a time. However, I can't remember the last time I saw a PC with only a single app actually open at a time - I'm only sat here eating breakfast before going to work, and I have three application windows open (Firefox, Thunderbird and putty), plus a host of others that don't currently have a window open (Messenger, Spambayes, AVG, a firewall, etc). Even if you don't count the background tasks and services, I have a few more than one app running. At work, I have (at a guess) more than a dozen running all the time.
Heck, MS says XP is "more secure". More secure than what?
Than previous editions of Windows, of course, and they're right.
I just had to clean my wife's laptop that is SP2 and fully patched with MS Windows Defender, MS Windows firewall and AVG anti virus and the thing has spyware crap on it that was bringing it to its knees.
And are Defender and AVG kept up to date? Is she running as an admin and installing any old crap she comes across? Is the firewall actually running?
A single anecdote proves nothing; I can attest to three XP machines that I personally use that are perfectly clean and have been for serveral years. Before blaming the OS, I'd check with your wife about how she was actually using the machine.
Yes, I do think any one of those companies would back any technology if that technology would make them a profit.
I can see that from Samsung, but neither Intel nor MS are going to be producing or selling these things, nor any hardware or software that relies on them. They're not going to stand to make any money on them, but will take a knock to their reputations if they back them and they're crap. Perhaps MS won't care, but Intel has serious competition from AMD, and can't be quite that cavalier.
I can only rely on anecdotes here, as every laptop I've ever owned has included some form of scrolling functionality.
Fair enough; I've only actually "owned" one laptop (and that's actually my ex's, but I bought it for her), but the couple I've used at work a few times have definitely not had anything to scroll with. Neither did the ones owned by my two friends that I recently helped sort problems out for.
Drove me nuts...
Whoa! There are actually ads in your conversation windows?! That's lame.
Well, they're a single line of text (maybe a dozen or so words) along the bottom of the window, but yeah, it is pretty lame. Some of them are vaguely amusing at times though, like the ones that promise a free iPod with every loan (that's probably just my warped sense of humour though).
Like I said though, it's currently too useful to abandon; I've also not had good experiences with gaim, which I've tended to find crashes at the drop of a hat. At least Messenger is reasonably stable.
Since we're being picky, and this is a maths-related thread...
Time is a part of acceleration (meters/second^2).
True, but you can still meaningfully ask how long you're going to allow something to accelerate for. Equations are just that - statements of equality. As long as you have at least as many (related) equations as you have unknowns, you can solve for your unknowns.
It's the rate of velocity (meters/second).
Rate *of change* of velocity (but I think you know that).
As for the scroll bar, everybody uses the mouse wheel now!
Including laptop users without a mouse? My ex's laptop even has an area on the mousepad that acts like the wheel, but she still mouses over to the scrollbar and does it "by hand", as she prefers doing it that way. (Drives me nuts to watch it, but that's another matter...)
You and I use the mouse wheel (or the keyboard), but not everyone does. Not that that changes the fact that they appear to have at least attempted to group controls close together on the screen.
I've not used IE7 much (and have no plans to switch to it now - I have *never* used IE as my primary browser, even when even I had to admit it was better than NS4), so the lack of a menu bar hasn't really affected me. I'm used to it from WMP and Messenger though, where I chose to hide the menu bar as I almost never used it. (It really should be a configurable option though, imho).
You like Windows Live Messenger with its banner ads and 20 sidebar buttons?
Well, you can switch the sidebar buttons off (and have been able to since I started using it), and I don't spend enough time on the contacts list to really care much about the banner ad on that, which is reasonably small and unobtrusive. The text link ads on the conversation windows irritated me a little at first, but so far the usefulness of the app outweighs the irritation factor.
Besides, neither of these things have changed since the previous version; I assumed you were referring to the things that have changed (eg the colour scheme, window layout, contacts management window, etc)
Either way, the selective nature of just what the MPAA will go after and what they won't is rather interesting. I read through the artcle which seemed to show pretty clearly that the MPAA can ignore copyright violation when it wants to. Anyone else have a better idea than I why that may be?
It's perfectly simple. With trademarks, if you do not defend it, you risk losing it. That does not apply to copyright (or patents); they're yours whether you go after infringers or not.
More to the point though, GUBA will have signed a licensing agreement with the MPAA - they're not going after them because they have permission from the rights holders! There is no infringement taking place, and thus nothing to go after.
Those powers would include the right to enter systems without permission
They can have that right, as long as I have the right to do everything in my power to secure the systems under my control. If not, and I have to leave a backdoor open for them, then I might as well just give up and switch them off, as they'll be wide open to anyone with knowledge of the backdoor.
MDMA? Was abuse of it ever that widespread, compared to say heroin, ecstasy and cocaine?
Ok, I have to ask - was that a joke? Given that MDMA is ecstacy...
Also, from my purely anecdotal experience E use was far more widespread than heroine and coke; I knew 1 person who used heroine, 1 person who used coke, and a dozen or more who took E.
Not widespread? There were songs written about it, for crying out loud! There were massive tabloid campaings about it - remember Leah Betts (warning: link contains picture of her in hospital, dying)?
You've not heard about it in years because scandle and righteous indignation about a certain subject only sells for so long, and so the tabloids moved on to the next big thing. People are still popping pills, getting loved-up and going clubbing, but the tabloids have moved on to the demon drink, and how late licensing is going to turn all our town centres into battle grounds. (Now, I don't doubt that some people get violent, and I've seen the police-eye-view TV shows, but in 15 years of going clubbing and drinking, I've seen maybe two fights) Unfortunately I can't find it online, but there was a short article in the Metro the other day about how violent crime has fallen since the introduction of late licensing...
I hadn't heard about that one, so thanks. I can't help but feel, though, that the blame rests squarely with the mother of the little shi^W^Wadorable little tike who lodged the complaint. Given that it is an accusation of assault on a minor, I suspect that the police are obliged to take it seriously and investigate fully. You'll be wanting to blame John Reid for that one (as that's where the buck currently stops).
I agree that it's ridiculous, and that on receiving the complaint the police should've arrested the lad and his mates for threatening behaviour, assault, unlawful gathering, loitering, and anything else they could make stick, and arrested the mother for making false allegations and wasting police time.
However, you, I and even the Daily Hate (sorry, Mail) know full well that the silver-haired old granny will have to never go to court, except perhaps as a prosecution witness. Doesn't make it any less shit, of course.
I do still refute the original allegation (or at least, implication) that the police routinely harrass innocent victims, no matter what the tabloids would have us believe.
Worse yet, they stupidly put it on the right side so you have to mouse further to get to it, as well as placing the stop and refresh buttons on the right side of the address bar.
Over on the right side - you mean just above the scrollbar, that a lot of users will be using to scroll with? Their mouse will already be on that side of the screen. In fact, with the lack of a menu bar, there's no reason to not be there, as there's little or nothing on the left of note.
have you seen Vista or Windows Live Messenger? Blech
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; I actually quite like them, although admittedly I've not spent a lot of time playing with Vista (couldn't get my wireless dongle working with Beta 2).
They cannot live their lives as they please without us pressuring them to be like us?
You do realise that that was said by Ramazan-ali Sedeghzadeh, chairman of the parliamentary telecommunications committee? You do realise that he's not only an MP (and so presumably representative of a fair number of people), but also Iranian?
I'm as against forcing Freedemocracy(tm) and The Western Way on people as the next guy, but fercrisake that was in the summary!
in the end, individuality is mostly lip service paid by those who are anything but individual
Indeed; think on that as you ponder why you were so quick to condemn, and so convinced that this was a case of "us" forcing our wishes on "them"...
Western's culture is dominant, because it is better
Is it dominant? It certainly dominates the English speaking world, but that's not what we're talking about here...
On contrast, the best-known writer of Iranian origin is Salman Rushdie -- an expatriate with a credible death threat against him from an Iranian mullah.
I would submit that the latter has a great bearing on the former; I'd certainly not have heard of him if it hadn't been for the fuss about The Satanic Verses. Which, of course, I'd almost certainly not have heard much about anyway if they weren't written in English.
In an attempt to suck up to the Slashdot editors, dptalia has submitted a biased, flamebait-filled summary of the article, apparently attempting to play off the old animosity between the MS fanboys and Linux zealots. Both of these sizable groups are known for their lack of logic, short tempers and propensity towards verbal violence. We'll bring you film of the ensuing flamewar right after these commercials...
I read stories online all the time about youths beating up or murdering people in Britain and the police harassing the 50 year old Brit who asked them to just be quiet.
Could you provide some links then please? I live in the UK, and can't think of any examples of that sort of thing in the press (other than the Tony Martin thing, but given that he shot and killed a fleeing burgular in the back, it doesn't really count...)
First, with broadband they limit our upload bandwidth
You're free to pay the extra for SDSL rather than ADSL. Believe it or not, bandwidth does cost money. I'll perhaps allow that it might be a conspiracy to earn more money, but it's certainly not a conspiracy to suppress freedom of speech.
You're kidding, right? The benefits of being part of the EU far outweigh having to fight the occasional insane piece of legislation - especially given that this is actually sensible compared to some of the crap Tony Bliar and his cohorts come out with.
That's a very interesting thought, and if true (IANAL, etc) would almost certainly render the law unenforcable due to the Human Rights Act violation it represents.
I suspect that even if it is passed, it could be successfully challenged and potentially repealed with an appeal to the HRA...
And, speaking as a UKian who has always thought of the UK as being part of Europe, really rather funny. There's also more than a grain of truth in it; England and France, for example, were at war with one another on and off for centuries. Pretty much every European country has invaded at least one of its neighbours at some point.
How does your IP address identify who you are? Last I heard, I think it'd still be more than a bit difficult for EA to try to subpoena your ISP to enhance their marketing data?
Yes, it would; but what if they simply offered a Big Wad O' Cash for it? Some ISPs would cough up if the price was right. Don't forget some of us are on static IPs; I've had the same one for about 5 years now.
Now, I doubt that EA would offer money for my details, and I doubt that my ISP would cough up, and I'm 95% convinced that the Data Protection Act (I'm in the UK) would prevent them from doing so even if they wanted to, but are you *sure* your ISP wouldn't?
Besides, the underlying point still holds - my IP address *does* identify who I am, if you can get the data that maps it to my name, address and bank details (and quite probably records of online activity for the last few years - thanks for that, New Labour)
Treating your customers like criminals just makes them act like criminals.
In what way are they treating them like criminals? If anything, they're treating them like products, to be sold to the highest advertising bidder. While I personally find what they're doing reprehensible, they're not actually attempting to restrict your freedom or rights.
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Well, it wouldn't convert it into anything else, if that's what you mean - it doesn't ingest the radioactive materials, it just uses the energy of their natural decay.
The only remaining vulnerability is to search for "gmail", "yahoo" or "hotmail". I'm afraid I don't know a solution for that one, unless someone knows a way to mask domain names as well? ...
One trick I've seen used from time to time is to describe the domain - e.g. hotmail becomes "the mail that's hot", gmail might become "google's email thing", and so on. I've no idea how effective it is, but with so many different possibilties coding something to parse them all isn't something I'd want to have to do.
No, the companies are the ones producing the filtering software. Their users include public libraries, etc. If their users have a duty to not block such sites, then they should either make local config changes (if possible), ask the company nicely to unblock the site(s), or use a competing product. (Or even, perhaps, stop using filtering software altogether).
The private companies producing the software, however, should be free to block whatever the hell they want.
What? If their site were dropped by an ISP, they might have a case
I was under the impression that the constitution placed restrictions on the government; ISPs are private companies, and so surely can drop whatever site they like.
I see no rights violation here.
Indeed; the only potentially iffy aspect is that public institutions use these filters. However, surely the complaint would be against those institutions, not the filtering companies. The institutions can attempt to persuade the companies to modify their filters, but ultimately it would be up to them to see that the measures they implement comply with the relevant laws, as they are the ones bound by them.
it will probably swap it out to disk
Why on earth would it do that? This is permanent data we're talking about, not transient; if the RAM is needed for something else, it will simply be dumped. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to write it to the page file.
It is paticularly stupid on the MS Windows platform where people typically only perform one application task at a time
Well, I'll grant you that the user is typically only interacting with one app at a time. However, I can't remember the last time I saw a PC with only a single app actually open at a time - I'm only sat here eating breakfast before going to work, and I have three application windows open (Firefox, Thunderbird and putty), plus a host of others that don't currently have a window open (Messenger, Spambayes, AVG, a firewall, etc). Even if you don't count the background tasks and services, I have a few more than one app running. At work, I have (at a guess) more than a dozen running all the time.
Heck, MS says XP is "more secure". More secure than what?
Than previous editions of Windows, of course, and they're right.
I just had to clean my wife's laptop that is SP2 and fully patched with MS Windows Defender, MS Windows firewall and AVG anti virus and the thing has spyware crap on it that was bringing it to its knees.
And are Defender and AVG kept up to date? Is she running as an admin and installing any old crap she comes across? Is the firewall actually running?
A single anecdote proves nothing; I can attest to three XP machines that I personally use that are perfectly clean and have been for serveral years. Before blaming the OS, I'd check with your wife about how she was actually using the machine.
Yes, I do think any one of those companies would back any technology if that technology would make them a profit.
I can see that from Samsung, but neither Intel nor MS are going to be producing or selling these things, nor any hardware or software that relies on them. They're not going to stand to make any money on them, but will take a knock to their reputations if they back them and they're crap. Perhaps MS won't care, but Intel has serious competition from AMD, and can't be quite that cavalier.
I can only rely on anecdotes here, as every laptop I've ever owned has included some form of scrolling functionality.
Fair enough; I've only actually "owned" one laptop (and that's actually my ex's, but I bought it for her), but the couple I've used at work a few times have definitely not had anything to scroll with. Neither did the ones owned by my two friends that I recently helped sort problems out for.
Drove me nuts...
Whoa! There are actually ads in your conversation windows?! That's lame.
Well, they're a single line of text (maybe a dozen or so words) along the bottom of the window, but yeah, it is pretty lame. Some of them are vaguely amusing at times though, like the ones that promise a free iPod with every loan (that's probably just my warped sense of humour though).
Like I said though, it's currently too useful to abandon; I've also not had good experiences with gaim, which I've tended to find crashes at the drop of a hat. At least Messenger is reasonably stable.
What if it's not evenly distributed like a bell curve.
IQ distribution follows a Gaussian. (So yes, it's a bell curve)
Since we're being picky, and this is a maths-related thread...
Time is a part of acceleration (meters/second^2).
True, but you can still meaningfully ask how long you're going to allow something to accelerate for. Equations are just that - statements of equality. As long as you have at least as many (related) equations as you have unknowns, you can solve for your unknowns.
It's the rate of velocity (meters/second).
Rate *of change* of velocity (but I think you know that).
As for the scroll bar, everybody uses the mouse wheel now!
Including laptop users without a mouse? My ex's laptop even has an area on the mousepad that acts like the wheel, but she still mouses over to the scrollbar and does it "by hand", as she prefers doing it that way. (Drives me nuts to watch it, but that's another matter...)
You and I use the mouse wheel (or the keyboard), but not everyone does. Not that that changes the fact that they appear to have at least attempted to group controls close together on the screen.
I've not used IE7 much (and have no plans to switch to it now - I have *never* used IE as my primary browser, even when even I had to admit it was better than NS4), so the lack of a menu bar hasn't really affected me. I'm used to it from WMP and Messenger though, where I chose to hide the menu bar as I almost never used it. (It really should be a configurable option though, imho).
You like Windows Live Messenger with its banner ads and 20 sidebar buttons?
Well, you can switch the sidebar buttons off (and have been able to since I started using it), and I don't spend enough time on the contacts list to really care much about the banner ad on that, which is reasonably small and unobtrusive. The text link ads on the conversation windows irritated me a little at first, but so far the usefulness of the app outweighs the irritation factor.
Besides, neither of these things have changed since the previous version; I assumed you were referring to the things that have changed (eg the colour scheme, window layout, contacts management window, etc)
Either way, the selective nature of just what the MPAA will go after and what they won't is rather interesting. I read through the artcle which seemed to show pretty clearly that the MPAA can ignore copyright violation when it wants to. Anyone else have a better idea than I why that may be?
It's perfectly simple. With trademarks, if you do not defend it, you risk losing it. That does not apply to copyright (or patents); they're yours whether you go after infringers or not.
More to the point though, GUBA will have signed a licensing agreement with the MPAA - they're not going after them because they have permission from the rights holders! There is no infringement taking place, and thus nothing to go after.
Those powers would include the right to enter systems without permission
They can have that right, as long as I have the right to do everything in my power to secure the systems under my control. If not, and I have to leave a backdoor open for them, then I might as well just give up and switch them off, as they'll be wide open to anyone with knowledge of the backdoor.
MDMA? Was abuse of it ever that widespread, compared to say heroin, ecstasy and cocaine?
Ok, I have to ask - was that a joke? Given that MDMA is ecstacy...
Also, from my purely anecdotal experience E use was far more widespread than heroine and coke; I knew 1 person who used heroine, 1 person who used coke, and a dozen or more who took E.
Not widespread? There were songs written about it, for crying out loud! There were massive tabloid campaings about it - remember Leah Betts (warning: link contains picture of her in hospital, dying)?
You've not heard about it in years because scandle and righteous indignation about a certain subject only sells for so long, and so the tabloids moved on to the next big thing. People are still popping pills, getting loved-up and going clubbing, but the tabloids have moved on to the demon drink, and how late licensing is going to turn all our town centres into battle grounds. (Now, I don't doubt that some people get violent, and I've seen the police-eye-view TV shows, but in 15 years of going clubbing and drinking, I've seen maybe two fights) Unfortunately I can't find it online, but there was a short article in the Metro the other day about how violent crime has fallen since the introduction of late licensing...
I hadn't heard about that one, so thanks. I can't help but feel, though, that the blame rests squarely with the mother of the little shi^W^Wadorable little tike who lodged the complaint. Given that it is an accusation of assault on a minor, I suspect that the police are obliged to take it seriously and investigate fully. You'll be wanting to blame John Reid for that one (as that's where the buck currently stops).
I agree that it's ridiculous, and that on receiving the complaint the police should've arrested the lad and his mates for threatening behaviour, assault, unlawful gathering, loitering, and anything else they could make stick, and arrested the mother for making false allegations and wasting police time.
However, you, I and even the Daily Hate (sorry, Mail) know full well that the silver-haired old granny will have to never go to court, except perhaps as a prosecution witness. Doesn't make it any less shit, of course.
I do still refute the original allegation (or at least, implication) that the police routinely harrass innocent victims, no matter what the tabloids would have us believe.
Worse yet, they stupidly put it on the right side so you have to mouse further to get to it, as well as placing the stop and refresh buttons on the right side of the address bar.
Over on the right side - you mean just above the scrollbar, that a lot of users will be using to scroll with? Their mouse will already be on that side of the screen. In fact, with the lack of a menu bar, there's no reason to not be there, as there's little or nothing on the left of note.
have you seen Vista or Windows Live Messenger? Blech
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; I actually quite like them, although admittedly I've not spent a lot of time playing with Vista (couldn't get my wireless dongle working with Beta 2).
They cannot live their lives as they please without us pressuring them to be like us?
You do realise that that was said by Ramazan-ali Sedeghzadeh, chairman of the parliamentary telecommunications committee? You do realise that he's not only an MP (and so presumably representative of a fair number of people), but also Iranian?
I'm as against forcing Freedemocracy(tm) and The Western Way on people as the next guy, but fercrisake that was in the summary!
in the end, individuality is mostly lip service paid by those who are anything but individual
Indeed; think on that as you ponder why you were so quick to condemn, and so convinced that this was a case of "us" forcing our wishes on "them"...
Western's culture is dominant, because it is better
Is it dominant? It certainly dominates the English speaking world, but that's not what we're talking about here...
On contrast, the best-known writer of Iranian origin is Salman Rushdie -- an expatriate with a credible death threat against him from an Iranian mullah.
I would submit that the latter has a great bearing on the former; I'd certainly not have heard of him if it hadn't been for the fuss about The Satanic Verses. Which, of course, I'd almost certainly not have heard much about anyway if they weren't written in English.
In an attempt to suck up to the Slashdot editors, dptalia has submitted a biased, flamebait-filled summary of the article, apparently attempting to play off the old animosity between the MS fanboys and Linux zealots. Both of these sizable groups are known for their lack of logic, short tempers and propensity towards verbal violence. We'll bring you film of the ensuing flamewar right after these commercials...
I read stories online all the time about youths beating up or murdering people in Britain and the police harassing the 50 year old Brit who asked them to just be quiet.
Could you provide some links then please? I live in the UK, and can't think of any examples of that sort of thing in the press (other than the Tony Martin thing, but given that he shot and killed a fleeing burgular in the back, it doesn't really count...)
First, with broadband they limit our upload bandwidth
You're free to pay the extra for SDSL rather than ADSL. Believe it or not, bandwidth does cost money. I'll perhaps allow that it might be a conspiracy to earn more money, but it's certainly not a conspiracy to suppress freedom of speech.
You're kidding, right? The benefits of being part of the EU far outweigh having to fight the occasional insane piece of legislation - especially given that this is actually sensible compared to some of the crap Tony Bliar and his cohorts come out with.
That's a very interesting thought, and if true (IANAL, etc) would almost certainly render the law unenforcable due to the Human Rights Act violation it represents.
I suspect that even if it is passed, it could be successfully challenged and potentially repealed with an appeal to the HRA...
It is bigoted, xenophobic, possibly nationalistic
And, speaking as a UKian who has always thought of the UK as being part of Europe, really rather funny. There's also more than a grain of truth in it; England and France, for example, were at war with one another on and off for centuries. Pretty much every European country has invaded at least one of its neighbours at some point.
How does your IP address identify who you are? Last I heard, I think it'd still be more than a bit difficult for EA to try to subpoena your ISP to enhance their marketing data?
Yes, it would; but what if they simply offered a Big Wad O' Cash for it? Some ISPs would cough up if the price was right. Don't forget some of us are on static IPs; I've had the same one for about 5 years now.
Now, I doubt that EA would offer money for my details, and I doubt that my ISP would cough up, and I'm 95% convinced that the Data Protection Act (I'm in the UK) would prevent them from doing so even if they wanted to, but are you *sure* your ISP wouldn't?
Besides, the underlying point still holds - my IP address *does* identify who I am, if you can get the data that maps it to my name, address and bank details (and quite probably records of online activity for the last few years - thanks for that, New Labour)
Treating your customers like criminals just makes them act like criminals.
In what way are they treating them like criminals? If anything, they're treating them like products, to be sold to the highest advertising bidder. While I personally find what they're doing reprehensible, they're not actually attempting to restrict your freedom or rights.