And that's still Ok, because Steam syncs the save games with their servers. I just rebuilt my machine from scratch last week, and once I got everything back on, it's as if nothing had happened.
I configured time machine to ignore that directory entirely. If you even run into a situation where you have to restore, you don't need Time Machine to do that for you. You can just pull everything back via Steam anyway.
Long have I reminisced the days of old, when an OS either worked perfectly or it kernel paniced at boot. Nothing in between. And don't forget the config.sys that was larger than some software's code bases!
This could be WAY bigger than just making iMac clones. Combine that with the new video hardware coming onto the market that permits greater than 1080p resolution displays, and that this new form factor could be made dirt cheap, this could usher in the era of interactive wallscreen devices.
I always figured it would be great to have some cheap tablets mounted into walls for various applications, for example, being able to quickly check the weather report before heading out the door. But something like this would be even cooler.
*giggle* Thanks, now I'm imagining a bunch of bearded, birkenstock-wearing nerds rolling around on their backs, high on catnip and batting at string...
I remember having that as the default desktop when I first got my account at university. One of the first things I did was replace it with something else because it was so frustrating.
At least now that it's open source, someone may find some small gem of code in the base that is genuinely useful and can be ported to another project.
While your facts are wrong, I get your point. In fact, I do just that for myself.
The problem is, most people are not technically competent enough (if at all...) to do that. That's why such services exist in the first place. Which means that this problem is pretty much inevitable.
This isn't an Apple exclusive problem. My guess is that it happens FAR more than we realize, with no real way to stop it unless either people stop using such services, or the government legislates greater security like 2 factor authentication or something.
I had something similar happen. My spouse's ex transferred my car insurance to another car. I only found out by accident because I just happened to make an inquiry a few days later and the phone person started talking about an entirely different car.
It's unfortunate, but companies in general are going to have to start using better security, and consumers are just going to have to suck that up. If your life can be ruined by one wayward phone call, then there is simply no choice in the matter. It must be done.
but if it can be disabled, why are Linux distros worried at all?
To be honest, I really don't know. The likelyhood that someone will go form Windows 8 to Linux, but both not know what to do nor know someone who does, seems to me to be vanishingly small.
The Microsoft Surface is interesting. The biggest problem in the Windows ecosystem, in my mind, has been mediocrity. You get a new machine that is debatably well engineered, and so full of crapware that the first thing you have to do before you can even use the damn thing is reinstall the OS from scratch. That's the biggest reason why I moved to OSX. I simply got tired of the bullshit. I wanted a machine that will reliably turn on and work.
The Surface is the Microsoft equivalent of that Apple machine. It's produced by Microsoft, with a reportedly exquisite attention to detail that you do not find in most other machines, and it's a clean OS install with no crap. To me this is extremely promising. Microsoft is taking a big risk, but I think it's a risk they MUST take. It's a shot across the bow of all their supposed partners that says, "See? This is what we think a Win8 tablet should be like. Do something as good as this."
AFAIK tablet devices WILL be locked down (at least the ARM base ones, maybe not the x86 ones), so I don't know if it will be possible to put a linux distro on them. But yes, the stuff happening right now is extremely interesting and I look forward to seeing how things progress.
I pretty much agree with you, but I have to point out one thing: There ARE NO "good" companies.
Every time a company did something that pissed me off, I vowed to personally boycott them. As the list grew I eventually realized that my position was untenable because I would reach a point where I couldn't buy anything at all. Furthermore, the average person isn't even remotely as conscientious, so my little personal victories became hollow because they didn't actually amount to anything.
So all I can do now is, when I want to buy a product, I look at the company's behaviour to see if they've actively screwed over their customers. Either by shoddy products, or some other form of dishonest behaviour. I refuse to buy from Sony because they've released rootkits on their CDs, rolled back features on their game consoles, etc. I refuse to buy from Amazon because they have a demonstrated history of take-backsies plus other things.
Apple, at least from the consumer standpoint, have done what they said on the tin. They provide good products, along with downright excellent service. I can buy an iphone now and KNOW that it will be supported 3 or 4 years from now. My Google Nexus One? Dropped like a hot potato less than a year after I bought it.
I used to despise Microsoft with a passion. Now... I just don't care anymore. They make products. I use them or not as I see fit.
I guess this was all a TL;DR version of, "Making an emotional investment, love OR hate, in something that will not reciprocate is pointless and will only hurt you the long run."
MS only forces secure UEFI on the tablets. Personal computers are supposed to have it switched on by default but can be disabled again. And I have heard nothing to indicate that Windows 8 will refuse to boot on a computer that does not have this enabled. The windows 8 release preview works perfectly well in the virtual machine I tried it on, for example. The only thing keeping Windows 8 from booting on apple hardware is the driver support.
Further, at no point did anyone ever say that UEFI was some kind of magical security silver bullet. It is just one tool among many. All I'm saying is that I'm not surprised that these tools are being put in place. I predict eventually people *won't* be able to install their free screensavers and comet cursors unless they do very specific things. For example on the Mac you have to explicitly and knowingly configure Gatekeeper to allow non-signed apps to run.
And anti-trust regulators arn't going to do squat because Microsoft isn't restricting anything. They arn't preventing you from installing another OS on the machine. Either choose an OS that has signed keys like Fedora or Ubuntu, or go into the BIOS settings and shut off SUEFI. The only possible issue would be with tablets, and Microsoft (as of now) has virtually 0 market share in that. Not to mention that almost all tablet manufacturers have locked down their tablets similarly.
I can tell you exactly why, and it's two reasons: 1. There's been a steady appliance-ification of computers for years now. 2. Consumers just don't care enough to take proper care of their own computers.
Both MacOS and Windows are getting more locked down, to reduce the possible attack surface. Recent examples are Gatekeeper on OSX and now the this secure boot mechanism on Windows 8. This will just continue for one simple reason: It must.
As much as I hate this sort of thing, I just can't see an alternative. At this point it's unquestionably clear that average joe computer user cannot/will not practise safe hex, so the only other option is to take control away from them.
I am personally very tired of seeing million strong botnets surfacing every few months, filling my inbox with spam and doing other unscrupulous things. All because people can't be bothered to use that modicum of critical thinking skills necessary to avoid trouble.
As long as it's possible to manually disable the locks they put in, for those of us who know what we're doing, I support this endeavour. If that option ever goes away... I'll reconsider my position then. (And for the nitpickers, I'm not counting tablets in this. They are appliances that happen to have computer-like qualities.)
My own parents barely know how to press the power button on their computers, but I've at least taught them to be paranoid, and if they see something they consider suspicious, they call me.
Slashdot Mirror
How in the world could it cost you that much money? Is your primary internet connection via tethered cell phone using a Canadian cell provider?
I have no mod point so I'll just comment and say I agree wholeheartedly.
And that's still Ok, because Steam syncs the save games with their servers. I just rebuilt my machine from scratch last week, and once I got everything back on, it's as if nothing had happened.
Oooooooh no. Last time someone did that, some twerp came around, shouted "I know this! It's UNIX!", and undid months of important secret work!
I configured time machine to ignore that directory entirely. If you even run into a situation where you have to restore, you don't need Time Machine to do that for you. You can just pull everything back via Steam anyway.
I dunno about other areas, but I've read that Europe is also suffering from a very intense heat wave.
Keep in mind that this doesn't mean that the entire planet will heat up uniformly. Some areas may even become unusually cooler.
The biggest concern is actually an increase in natural disasters like hurricanes.
Oh OS/2.... How I miss thee.
Long have I reminisced the days of old, when an OS either worked perfectly or it kernel paniced at boot. Nothing in between.
And don't forget the config.sys that was larger than some software's code bases!
In fact it sounds identical to what CORBA promised. In fact, CORBA will take the world by storm! It will... um...
*headscratch* Hmm....
This could be WAY bigger than just making iMac clones. Combine that with the new video hardware coming onto the market that permits greater than 1080p resolution displays, and that this new form factor could be made dirt cheap, this could usher in the era of interactive wallscreen devices.
I always figured it would be great to have some cheap tablets mounted into walls for various applications, for example, being able to quickly check the weather report before heading out the door. But something like this would be even cooler.
Sounds like you may have had a faulty device then. Either that, or your environment was generally too hot for the work you were doing on it.
I got one for my mom, and we have several in the office. Not once has anyone ever reported such an issue.
I never said you were. That's just the image that popped into my head. :)
Who needs drugs when your mind comes up with so many odd notions that any hallucinations would seem normal. ;)
*giggle* Thanks, now I'm imagining a bunch of bearded, birkenstock-wearing nerds rolling around on their backs, high on catnip and batting at string...
Yup, thats a slashdotting alright. ;)
I remember having that as the default desktop when I first got my account at university. One of the first things I did was replace it with something else because it was so frustrating.
At least now that it's open source, someone may find some small gem of code in the base that is genuinely useful and can be ported to another project.
While your facts are wrong, I get your point. In fact, I do just that for myself.
The problem is, most people are not technically competent enough (if at all...) to do that. That's why such services exist in the first place. Which means that this problem is pretty much inevitable.
This isn't an Apple exclusive problem. My guess is that it happens FAR more than we realize, with no real way to stop it unless either people stop using such services, or the government legislates greater security like 2 factor authentication or something.
You cannot stop a successful social engineering attack. Technology cannot solve a problem like this. Only a change in policy can.
I had something similar happen. My spouse's ex transferred my car insurance to another car. I only found out by accident because I just happened to make an inquiry a few days later and the phone person started talking about an entirely different car.
It's unfortunate, but companies in general are going to have to start using better security, and consumers are just going to have to suck that up. If your life can be ruined by one wayward phone call, then there is simply no choice in the matter. It must be done.
Because if you RTFA, Apple confirmed that this occurred. Probably via the notes in the call log.
Actually, it's entirely possible she could, because Apple's iCloud makes it that easy.
but if it can be disabled, why are Linux distros worried at all?
To be honest, I really don't know. The likelyhood that someone will go form Windows 8 to Linux, but both not know what to do nor know someone who does, seems to me to be vanishingly small.
The Microsoft Surface is interesting. The biggest problem in the Windows ecosystem, in my mind, has been mediocrity. You get a new machine that is debatably well engineered, and so full of crapware that the first thing you have to do before you can even use the damn thing is reinstall the OS from scratch. That's the biggest reason why I moved to OSX. I simply got tired of the bullshit. I wanted a machine that will reliably turn on and work.
The Surface is the Microsoft equivalent of that Apple machine. It's produced by Microsoft, with a reportedly exquisite attention to detail that you do not find in most other machines, and it's a clean OS install with no crap. To me this is extremely promising. Microsoft is taking a big risk, but I think it's a risk they MUST take. It's a shot across the bow of all their supposed partners that says, "See? This is what we think a Win8 tablet should be like. Do something as good as this."
AFAIK tablet devices WILL be locked down (at least the ARM base ones, maybe not the x86 ones), so I don't know if it will be possible to put a linux distro on them. But yes, the stuff happening right now is extremely interesting and I look forward to seeing how things progress.
I pretty much agree with you, but I have to point out one thing: There ARE NO "good" companies.
Every time a company did something that pissed me off, I vowed to personally boycott them. As the list grew I eventually realized that my position was untenable because I would reach a point where I couldn't buy anything at all. Furthermore, the average person isn't even remotely as conscientious, so my little personal victories became hollow because they didn't actually amount to anything.
So all I can do now is, when I want to buy a product, I look at the company's behaviour to see if they've actively screwed over their customers. Either by shoddy products, or some other form of dishonest behaviour. I refuse to buy from Sony because they've released rootkits on their CDs, rolled back features on their game consoles, etc. I refuse to buy from Amazon because they have a demonstrated history of take-backsies plus other things.
Apple, at least from the consumer standpoint, have done what they said on the tin. They provide good products, along with downright excellent service. I can buy an iphone now and KNOW that it will be supported 3 or 4 years from now. My Google Nexus One? Dropped like a hot potato less than a year after I bought it.
I used to despise Microsoft with a passion. Now... I just don't care anymore. They make products. I use them or not as I see fit.
I guess this was all a TL;DR version of, "Making an emotional investment, love OR hate, in something that will not reciprocate is pointless and will only hurt you the long run."
I'm not sure I'm getting your point.
MS only forces secure UEFI on the tablets. Personal computers are supposed to have it switched on by default but can be disabled again. And I have heard nothing to indicate that Windows 8 will refuse to boot on a computer that does not have this enabled. The windows 8 release preview works perfectly well in the virtual machine I tried it on, for example. The only thing keeping Windows 8 from booting on apple hardware is the driver support.
Further, at no point did anyone ever say that UEFI was some kind of magical security silver bullet. It is just one tool among many. All I'm saying is that I'm not surprised that these tools are being put in place. I predict eventually people *won't* be able to install their free screensavers and comet cursors unless they do very specific things. For example on the Mac you have to explicitly and knowingly configure Gatekeeper to allow non-signed apps to run.
And anti-trust regulators arn't going to do squat because Microsoft isn't restricting anything. They arn't preventing you from installing another OS on the machine. Either choose an OS that has signed keys like Fedora or Ubuntu, or go into the BIOS settings and shut off SUEFI. The only possible issue would be with tablets, and Microsoft (as of now) has virtually 0 market share in that. Not to mention that almost all tablet manufacturers have locked down their tablets similarly.
I can tell you exactly why, and it's two reasons:
1. There's been a steady appliance-ification of computers for years now.
2. Consumers just don't care enough to take proper care of their own computers.
Both MacOS and Windows are getting more locked down, to reduce the possible attack surface. Recent examples are Gatekeeper on OSX and now the this secure boot mechanism on Windows 8. This will just continue for one simple reason: It must.
As much as I hate this sort of thing, I just can't see an alternative. At this point it's unquestionably clear that average joe computer user cannot/will not practise safe hex, so the only other option is to take control away from them.
I am personally very tired of seeing million strong botnets surfacing every few months, filling my inbox with spam and doing other unscrupulous things. All because people can't be bothered to use that modicum of critical thinking skills necessary to avoid trouble.
As long as it's possible to manually disable the locks they put in, for those of us who know what we're doing, I support this endeavour. If that option ever goes away... I'll reconsider my position then. (And for the nitpickers, I'm not counting tablets in this. They are appliances that happen to have computer-like qualities.)
My own parents barely know how to press the power button on their computers, but I've at least taught them to be paranoid, and if they see something they consider suspicious, they call me.
Unlike some other counties, they know how to use the metric system. ;)
(j/k)
For those who found the above too long/hard to read, you can watch it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Gf0VKXk5Q&feature=related
I'll just be over here soaking up the irony.