The real-money losses are very sensationalised. A single player in null-sec space can easily farm 50-100million ISK per hour.
Hell, even a rookie like me (in my first battleship) solo'ing level 4 missions can generate 100m in half a day if I get on with it, and I only have 4 or 5 months of casual play under my belt, which isn't much by EVE standards.
With a PLEX (the method of converting real money into ISK) being worth around, say, 600ish million, the average ship on EVE doesn't need to be paid for in real money.
Likewise, titans and big stuff like that is often corp funded, they're not necessarily owned by the player flying the ship.
So I very much doubt that $25k actually flew out the door, or into CCP's coffers.
A: My point about a virus that's been in the wild for at least two or more weeks is still not covered stands. AV corps bang on about research and monitoring so much, why are they so slow to keep up, especially when a lot of modern viruses are relatively easy to remove?
B: AV loves to harp on about how well it's protecting you, yet you never see positive virus removals in the logs. By your suggestion, I should be seeing disinfections and removals in the AV logs on most computers. The only time I get a hit on AV is on a system that's already infected, and the AV is quite unable to remove it.
I run a local computer repair shop, and I can corroborate this story- modern AV does jack.
I haven't seen any really malicious malware in a while, but I see ransomware and scareware ones quite often, and every time the computer has up to date AV on it. What's more, a lot of the time I've seen the virus in question several times, meaning it's been around for at least a fortnight, and still the AV guys haven't picked up on it. I can appreciate that a social engineered drive-by exploit attack is difficult to defend from, when the customer asks me how to stop it happening again, it's a tough question to answer- but this doesn't change the fact that IMHO, all anti-virus is a waste of time and money at the moment. I install MSE on customer laptops because I have to put SOMETHING there, but I have little faith that it will protect them.
Now I'm not fear-mongering here, I'm just being matter-of-fact. Three years ago when I stopped re-selling AVG, my account manager said 'Oh sorry to hear that, can I ask why?' I said; 'Because it doesn't work. I am removing trojans and rootkits from computers every day, and many of them are running AVG, which has completely failed to save them.'
Make your anti-virus software work, and make it protect users from drive-by attacks on bad facebook links (without intrusive toolbars and link checkers please), and I will sell you hundreds of copies in my little shop alone.
Now obviously the sponsors were out to make money, but I think a lot of fans were expecting a convention, where you pay your money and then get an organic grass-roots experience with all the stars Wasn't the case here.
Nice to hear we now have a obscenely expensive version of the WW2 V-1 "Buzz Bomb"... or Rocket Bomb for the 1984 nerds out there... I'm amazed we even bother to deploy soldiers these days.
Absolutely. I purchased a utility to add this functionality to Mac OS, which is normally unprecedented for me.
The advent of split-screen has lessened the need for a second monitor to me- but another big alternative is virtual desktops.
I work mostly on a laptop, so second monitor can be a pain to keep hooked up, virtual desktops are a life saver in this instance, because you can group windows together, or generally simulate multi-screen set ups.
Not convinced about the practical use for this, your eyes are generally working one step ahead of your hands.
Let's say I'm playing Bejewled in timed mode, where you need to make moves as fast as possible- my eyes are already looking for the next move as my hand makes the move I've just found.
Same goes for browsing the internet or many other tasks, where my eyes are looking at something else while my hands move the cursor to a link or, say, Next Page button...
Ask any guitar/bass player, they're not looking at the note they're playing, they're looking at the next note their hand is going to move to.
Having the cursor track the eyes would significantly slow down a power user I think?
I don't tink the two are directly related, although it wouldn't surprise me if the 'sources' of both scams are links or even the same.
I've had scattered reports of these phone calls over here, I hear about it every now and then, but it's sporadic. Not sure how these calls are targeted.
I've spent the past month clearing up the fall out of this explosion of Fake AV... It's the most common issue I see on computer in my repair shop these days, and has been for a few years now, but this confirms why it's been so hectic the past couple of weeks!
I am amused that AVG are going on about it when, like the rest of the mainstream antivirus products, AVG itself cannot prevent or remove these Fake AVs- by the time the user brings their computer to me, AVG, or any other antivirus is broken and crying in the corner of C:\Program Files, or just gone completely.
Google is not meant for searching for pirated material.
IsoHunt is a website designed and intended for sharing pirated material.
Just because some people use a crowbar to break into a house doesn't make a crowbar inherently evil, but put the crowbar in a Burglar's Toolkit, and then you've got a kit intended for crime.
As with TPB, I hope the IsoHunt guys win, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking their argument is justified, and they're on a par with google- their argument is a pedantic technicality.
Even if this was a super evil virus tool, it's got the same problem that every other mac 'virus' has- How do you get it on the system?
The last so-called 'Mac Virus' required roughly the following steps:
1. Go to dodgy porn site 2. Attempt to watch shady video 3. Download dodgy video codec no one's every heard of in order to watch shady video 4. Mount DMG file of dodgy video codec no one's every heard of 5. Run installer for dodgy video codec no one's every heard of from DMG 6. Enter an administrator login for installer for dodgy video codec no one's every heard of
That wasn't a virus, it was a cleansing of the biggest idiots from the mac community.
Why will this be any different? There's a billion remote admin tools that can be used maliciously for OS X- but it's not a trojan unless you can install and configure it without the user knowing, or better yet without them doing it themselves.
I've done the whole Sit In Costa Writing My Book On My MacBook thing, not out of pretense, but just because I write well in that environment.
And then one sunday, I walked into the same costa, and every- EVERY single table had at least 3 laptops on it, with school kids on MyFace and trailing charger leads to wall sockets.
I turned around and walked out, not wanted to be part of that horrific sight.
I think it's okay to have one or two laptops in a coffee shop, but it really can get excessive, and then it makes the shop a place to avoid.
Personally though, so long as they're not making noises, I don't see the harm in portable devices (iPad, Kindle, etc...) -they're not nearly so invasive as laptops are.
I disliked this idea from the start. I'm no catholic, but I can see well enough what confession is for, and a big part of it is the symbolist action of going to a church...
I'm not so sure... The problem with Tablets and touchscreen phones is that while you have the freedom of having a custom input (virtual keyboard, handwriting recognition, virtual gamepad...), the input interface and your hands get in the way of what's on the screen.
Most smart phones loose the best part of half the display as soon as the virtual keyboard is visible.
The twin-touchscreens allow you to have the freedom of custom input that can change to be anything you want, but even if you cover the lower screen with a full size keyboard (which might be the first virtual keyboard not to suck), you still have a completely clear upper screen to look at.
My highly accurate sources (Wikipedia) tell me that in the book, Lastday was indeed 21, but in the film, which I'm more familiar with, the age limit was 30...
In American GTA, I can drive carefully down the pavement past a cop car so long as I don't kill any pedestrians.
In GTA V: London, the police would randomly start chasing me because one of the following reasons will have been met:
1. I look like a Geezaaaaah. 2. My MOT is out of date. 3. My Tax disc isn't on display because I sold it for the Hot Coffee scene. 4. I didn't pay the congestion charge.
Oh, and every street wider than 10ft in London is a car park of traffic...
I'm not an old man and thus only have about 10 years experience with computers, but in those ten years, components have become more and more complicated.
It used to be that the faster processors had the highest numeral (eg, Pentium 2 Pentium 3) and the highest clock speed tacked to the end of them.
But now we've reached the brick wall of that megahertz race and we're in a new efficiency race, where things are not so simple. The highest numeral isn't always the best, and neither is the highest clock speed- although it still helps.
This would be far less of a problem if the older components died out, like they used to, but even that's not the case anymore. For example, the Pentium brand is STILL alive, because when Intel get a load of duff C2D chips with bad caches, they dust them off and sell them as Pentiums. This is a lot more economical for them, but it means that the old generations of chips won't die to clean up the market for new ones.
Things would probably be a lot clearer if the older components could some how be killed off once and for all.
Slashdot Mirror
The real-money losses are very sensationalised. A single player in null-sec space can easily farm 50-100million ISK per hour.
Hell, even a rookie like me (in my first battleship) solo'ing level 4 missions can generate 100m in half a day if I get on with it, and I only have 4 or 5 months of casual play under my belt, which isn't much by EVE standards.
With a PLEX (the method of converting real money into ISK) being worth around, say, 600ish million, the average ship on EVE doesn't need to be paid for in real money.
Likewise, titans and big stuff like that is often corp funded, they're not necessarily owned by the player flying the ship.
So I very much doubt that $25k actually flew out the door, or into CCP's coffers.
That's true, but-
A: My point about a virus that's been in the wild for at least two or more weeks is still not covered stands. AV corps bang on about research and monitoring so much, why are they so slow to keep up, especially when a lot of modern viruses are relatively easy to remove?
B: AV loves to harp on about how well it's protecting you, yet you never see positive virus removals in the logs. By your suggestion, I should be seeing disinfections and removals in the AV logs on most computers. The only time I get a hit on AV is on a system that's already infected, and the AV is quite unable to remove it.
I run a local computer repair shop, and I can corroborate this story- modern AV does jack.
I haven't seen any really malicious malware in a while, but I see ransomware and scareware ones quite often, and every time the computer has up to date AV on it.
What's more, a lot of the time I've seen the virus in question several times, meaning it's been around for at least a fortnight, and still the AV guys haven't picked up on it.
I can appreciate that a social engineered drive-by exploit attack is difficult to defend from, when the customer asks me how to stop it happening again, it's a tough question to answer- but this doesn't change the fact that IMHO, all anti-virus is a waste of time and money at the moment.
I install MSE on customer laptops because I have to put SOMETHING there, but I have little faith that it will protect them.
Now I'm not fear-mongering here, I'm just being matter-of-fact. Three years ago when I stopped re-selling AVG, my account manager said 'Oh sorry to hear that, can I ask why?'
I said; 'Because it doesn't work. I am removing trojans and rootkits from computers every day, and many of them are running AVG, which has completely failed to save them.'
Make your anti-virus software work, and make it protect users from drive-by attacks on bad facebook links (without intrusive toolbars and link checkers please), and I will sell you hundreds of copies in my little shop alone.
"...but exceeded them by a good light-year."
Not for everyone. My mate was there, and he (along with a lot of other attendees) found it to be a shameless money making event.
He paid a high price to get in, only to find that EVERYTHING costs money.
Want a photo with a star? You have to pay for that.
Want to shake their hand? Pay.
Want an autograph? Pay.
Want to take photos of the event to share? My mate overheard staff telling a fan to put his camera away or they'd hit him over the head with it.
There's a facebook group ( http://www.facebook.com/groups/379887832087126/?fref=ts ) of disgruntled fans.
Now obviously the sponsors were out to make money, but I think a lot of fans were expecting a convention, where you pay your money and then get an organic grass-roots experience with all the stars Wasn't the case here.
Nice to hear we now have a obscenely expensive version of the WW2 V-1 "Buzz Bomb"... or Rocket Bomb for the 1984 nerds out there... I'm amazed we even bother to deploy soldiers these days.
Absolutely. I purchased a utility to add this functionality to Mac OS, which is normally unprecedented for me.
The advent of split-screen has lessened the need for a second monitor to me- but another big alternative is virtual desktops.
I work mostly on a laptop, so second monitor can be a pain to keep hooked up, virtual desktops are a life saver in this instance, because you can group windows together, or generally simulate multi-screen set ups.
You can have your movie back guys- it was rubbish anyway...
Zoom! Enhance!
Not convinced about the practical use for this, your eyes are generally working one step ahead of your hands.
Let's say I'm playing Bejewled in timed mode, where you need to make moves as fast as possible- my eyes are already looking for the next move as my hand makes the move I've just found.
Same goes for browsing the internet or many other tasks, where my eyes are looking at something else while my hands move the cursor to a link or, say, Next Page button...
Ask any guitar/bass player, they're not looking at the note they're playing, they're looking at the next note their hand is going to move to.
Having the cursor track the eyes would significantly slow down a power user I think?
This is why I use TrueCrypt instead of Fire Vault...
Most of my home directory isn't sensitive, I don't want to slow-down and hassle that comes with encryption on it.
So all my stuff is unencrypted, and then I have a few TrueCrypt volumes with stuff that I DO want encrypted.
I don't tink the two are directly related, although it wouldn't surprise me if the 'sources' of both scams are links or even the same.
I've had scattered reports of these phone calls over here, I hear about it every now and then, but it's sporadic. Not sure how these calls are targeted.
I've spent the past month clearing up the fall out of this explosion of Fake AV... It's the most common issue I see on computer in my repair shop these days, and has been for a few years now, but this confirms why it's been so hectic the past couple of weeks!
I am amused that AVG are going on about it when, like the rest of the mainstream antivirus products, AVG itself cannot prevent or remove these Fake AVs- by the time the user brings their computer to me, AVG, or any other antivirus is broken and crying in the corner of C:\Program Files, or just gone completely.
As with TPB case, this is about Intent.
Google is not meant for searching for pirated material.
IsoHunt is a website designed and intended for sharing pirated material.
Just because some people use a crowbar to break into a house doesn't make a crowbar inherently evil, but put the crowbar in a Burglar's Toolkit, and then you've got a kit intended for crime.
As with TPB, I hope the IsoHunt guys win, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking their argument is justified, and they're on a par with google- their argument is a pedantic technicality.
If it's semi-conductive, does it need to be earthed over a long run?
One advantage of fibre is the electrical isolation, no interference, and no potential difference between buildings.
Does having a semicondictive core erase that?
Even if this was a super evil virus tool, it's got the same problem that every other mac 'virus' has- How do you get it on the system?
The last so-called 'Mac Virus' required roughly the following steps:
1. Go to dodgy porn site
2. Attempt to watch shady video
3. Download dodgy video codec no one's every heard of in order to watch shady video
4. Mount DMG file of dodgy video codec no one's every heard of
5. Run installer for dodgy video codec no one's every heard of from DMG
6. Enter an administrator login for installer for dodgy video codec no one's every heard of
That wasn't a virus, it was a cleansing of the biggest idiots from the mac community.
Why will this be any different? There's a billion remote admin tools that can be used maliciously for OS X- but it's not a trojan unless you can install and configure it without the user knowing, or better yet without them doing it themselves.
I've done the whole Sit In Costa Writing My Book On My MacBook thing, not out of pretense, but just because I write well in that environment.
And then one sunday, I walked into the same costa, and every- EVERY single table had at least 3 laptops on it, with school kids on MyFace and trailing charger leads to wall sockets.
I turned around and walked out, not wanted to be part of that horrific sight.
I think it's okay to have one or two laptops in a coffee shop, but it really can get excessive, and then it makes the shop a place to avoid.
Personally though, so long as they're not making noises, I don't see the harm in portable devices (iPad, Kindle, etc...) -they're not nearly so invasive as laptops are.
I disliked this idea from the start. I'm no catholic, but I can see well enough what confession is for, and a big part of it is the symbolist action of going to a church...
No, I am Alex Tapanaris. ...and maybe Spartacus.
I'm not so sure... The problem with Tablets and touchscreen phones is that while you have the freedom of having a custom input (virtual keyboard, handwriting recognition, virtual gamepad...), the input interface and your hands get in the way of what's on the screen.
Most smart phones loose the best part of half the display as soon as the virtual keyboard is visible.
The twin-touchscreens allow you to have the freedom of custom input that can change to be anything you want, but even if you cover the lower screen with a full size keyboard (which might be the first virtual keyboard not to suck), you still have a completely clear upper screen to look at.
Why does this stuff keep making the news?
There are at least five mobile phone manufacturers out there using Android, where as iOS and BlackBerry are used by one manufacturer each.
It's not a straight comparison. Android vs. Windows Mobile is a comparison, because they're both operating systems being used by several OEMs.
But everyone seems to be crowing in triumph that five or more OEMs have collectively sold more phones than one. That's not news.
I have the equation for a qubit on the inside of my right wrist.
It's discrete enough for me not to look like a thug, and it can easily be covered with long sleeves.
Although quantum computing will change dramatically over time, this statement of the qubit will always be true, because it's a logical expression.
The only problem is when a girl sees it and asks what it means- I then have to give a vague answer, or risk boring her with geekdom.
I dream of a girl who will say 'No no, I really want to hear the long version! Maybe you could explain it to me at your place?'
My highly accurate sources (Wikipedia) tell me that in the book, Lastday was indeed 21, but in the film, which I'm more familiar with, the age limit was 30...
So it depends on how tragically geek you are ;)
Look at the bright side, if this was Logan's Run, they'd have been dead for ten years already...
It would be too difficult.
In American GTA, I can drive carefully down the pavement past a cop car so long as I don't kill any pedestrians.
In GTA V: London, the police would randomly start chasing me because one of the following reasons will have been met:
1. I look like a Geezaaaaah.
2. My MOT is out of date.
3. My Tax disc isn't on display because I sold it for the Hot Coffee scene.
4. I didn't pay the congestion charge.
Oh, and every street wider than 10ft in London is a car park of traffic...
I'm not an old man and thus only have about 10 years experience with computers, but in those ten years, components have become more and more complicated.
It used to be that the faster processors had the highest numeral (eg, Pentium 2 Pentium 3) and the highest clock speed tacked to the end of them.
But now we've reached the brick wall of that megahertz race and we're in a new efficiency race, where things are not so simple. The highest numeral isn't always the best, and neither is the highest clock speed- although it still helps.
This would be far less of a problem if the older components died out, like they used to, but even that's not the case anymore.
For example, the Pentium brand is STILL alive, because when Intel get a load of duff C2D chips with bad caches, they dust them off and sell them as Pentiums. This is a lot more economical for them, but it means that the old generations of chips won't die to clean up the market for new ones.
Things would probably be a lot clearer if the older components could some how be killed off once and for all.