And it needs to create a mechanism to create a superuser account by default that users don't login and use by default ("Enter the name of your favorite superhero & a password for your super-user account.").
Security success! "my favorite superhero is '1234' and my password is 'password'," said 30 million Americans.
a gentle explanation of why some action is being prevented is more than enough.
the only way to learn is to learn by breaking things then cleaning them up. No manner of safety glass / training wheels / cushioned corners / walled gardens is a replacement for that.
If they need to be given a locked down account for their own good, then it sounds like they are not very adept with computers to begin with
Is it unimaginable to think that your mom could learn how to improve her computer skills, or maybe even enjoy trying new things? Or maybe she gets a kick out of silly web stuff that you find childish. Or maybe, like so many people here, she wants some agency over the devices she uses. Maybe she resents your assumption that somebody needs to hold her hand all the time. I'm sure there would still be malware and other problems, but isn't it better to learn through your mistakes than being scolded for breaking a box?
Sounds like you didn't put a lot of thought into your take of the situation, and are trying to push a biased, uninformed opinion.
I'm not trying to flame here or push a biased, uninformed opinion... this is what I really think, and please respond if you disagree. That said... [puts on flak jacket]
The permissions paradigm on stock android sucks. It's too coarse grained and does not give the user any information to make an informed decision. There may be an app that legitimately requires your location, say a mapping app. But it may also be using your location for nefarious purposes. No way to know!
The cyanogen mod proposal is better in that it gives an advanced user more control, but it still doesn't give any information on why an app needs a permission, so aside from obvious cases (why does a wallpaper app need to know my location) you can't make an informed decision. See the map example above. So while CM proposal is better, it doesn't solve the underlying problem.
[zips up flak jacket] Isn't a better approach for somebody who can examine the innards of an app to vet the app and make sure it doesn't do anything nefarious? It is not perfect, but they are making an informed decision that the user cannot make. Further, the app would have more restrictions on the system resources it can access, and the user can still turn off location access. This would require all apps to go through a single gatekeeper for vetting, and would not allow sideloading.
This sounds like a much better security model to me, for "casual" users and experienced users alike. Thoughts? [puts on helmet]
How could an app developer program around this fine-grained control? Even if he could make sure tha the program failed gracefully when certain permissions were changed, key functions in his app could no longer work. How could that not result in an awful user experience? His app would get awful reviews ("sh!t doesn't work!") and he would lose sales.
True, I assumed that you didn't use metric correctly, and I was pointing out your error by converting it into inches. Since in your comment you obv didn't understand metric i figured inches would be better FOR YOU.
I guess I just assumed stupidity from context, and tried to nudge you in the right direction. btw if your parody is indistinguishable from stupidity, then you're doing it wrong.
It is commonly portrayed to be a stereotype about Apple users that they are superficially concerned with a connection to nature and the mysticism of East Asia.
[citation needed]
More specifically, "crystal salt imported from Tibet" is a common snake-oil cure-all sold by fraudsters purporting to be connected to secrets of ancient Chinese and Indian religions.
[citation needed]
This also plays into the recent concern over Chinese involvement in Tibet, which was particularly popular with the Left in the United States, often regarded as the primary market of Apple products.
factually true I guess, but not sure how it's relevant. non-sequeter.
Let's see...
1) made up fact
2) made up fact
3) irrelevant statement
4)...
5) funny!
I still don't get it. By your link I see that you were referring to the iphone, but how were you making an iphone joke in your tibetan comment? Is there a connection?
you have the laws of flight working against you on this. I doubt the flow of air at 1 cm / min (3.7 10^-4 MPH) would create the lift needed to keep the plane in the sky. Perhaps if it were a solar powered blimp...
Why does nuclear have a bad rap? One possibility is it stems from fear [anengineerindc.com] since it all started with a few mushroom clouds, but whatever the reason, it seems awfully visceral.
this is right on the head, but you're too dismissive. nuclear power was preceded by nuclear war (or a nuclear cold war, which is the same thing), one of the most terrifying events in human history. you can talk about "beating swords into ploughshires" till you're blue in the face, but the fact remains that in the minds of many people nuclear power ~ nuclear war and nuclear plant accident ~ nuclear bomb.
This is a real fear (and valid to a certain extent), so as long as the nuke industry is dismissive of this rather than tackling it head on, nuke power will always be controversial. Nobody cares about "defense in depth"
TMI is a horrible example for that purpose given how it pretty much proves the opposite.
sorry man, you're wrong on this one. TMI was a really bad accident that very luckily did not become a disaster. IIRC the corium stayed in the containment vessel as an unintended result of the geometric design, not due to any design decisions, safety planning, or emergency actions. So if anything, TMI proves that sometimes serendipity stops a disaster.
a good corellary would be that NYC plane that got hit by birds on takeoff, and cap sully sullenburger landed it in the hudson. Nobody died thank goodness. but the accident was still serious, and still proved that bird strikes can take out planes.
I see what you're saying. I'm really satisfied with osX myself. Agree on the lack of configurability, but it rarely feels like a constraint for me.
I don't have a problem with the updates - $130 every 18 months - 2 years, and you get a significantly better experience with each upgrade. I had a macbook that went through upgrades from panther -> tiger -> leopard, and each upgrade made my computer faster. Not so with windows! There it's like they want to make you buy a new computer in order to run new software.
Not sure what you mean about system requirements - I had very few problems with my 5yo laptop, unless it choked on a big thing like photoshop.
I guess it really depends on what your options are. If you're choosing between osX and XP, then the winner is clear. I trust your judgment about osX vs linux. this is outside my baliwick. osX vs win7? I'd probably choose the former, but having used win7 a bit i'm really impressed by it.
I can't think of any renewable source of energy that would be more efficient
hmm, let me help you think.
* Distributed, periodic electricity sources are much better suited for making H2 than for pumping back into the grid. small scale PV, wind, etc are great for powering an electolizer. Good luck load balancing your grid when you're trying to feed that power back to the grid.
* landfill gas, hello? Run LFG through a SMR and get your hydrogen. better than burning the NG in a turbine.
Slashdot Mirror
Then why would you gloat if all your computers became susceptible to viruses? You truly are evil, Aaron M.
you're just a jeliz h8er
Or a box of tissues...
And it needs to create a mechanism to create a superuser account by default that users don't login and use by default ("Enter the name of your favorite superhero & a password for your super-user account.").
Security success! "my favorite superhero is '1234' and my password is 'password'," said 30 million Americans.
Why would you gloat? I've been very satisfied by security onn my Mac. If that changed and I got a virus, you would get pleasure from that?
Good thing they suck at execution these days (Wave, etc)
Considering quantum theory is a twisted figment of somebody's imagination, I dare say that conciousness causes quantum mechanics.
ftfy
how is the electron supposed to tell where a certain constant on its level curve is relative to its own frame of reference?
Oooh electron, you got burrrned!
a gentle explanation of why some action is being prevented is more than enough.
the only way to learn is to learn by breaking things then cleaning them up. No manner of safety glass / training wheels / cushioned corners / walled gardens is a replacement for that.
If they need to be given a locked down account for their own good, then it sounds like they are not very adept with computers to begin with
Is it unimaginable to think that your mom could learn how to improve her computer skills, or maybe even enjoy trying new things? Or maybe she gets a kick out of silly web stuff that you find childish. Or maybe, like so many people here, she wants some agency over the devices she uses. Maybe she resents your assumption that somebody needs to hold her hand all the time. I'm sure there would still be malware and other problems, but isn't it better to learn through your mistakes than being scolded for breaking a box?
how does your mom feel about how you treat her like a child?
Sounds like you didn't put a lot of thought into your take of the situation, and are trying to push a biased, uninformed opinion.
I'm not trying to flame here or push a biased, uninformed opinion... this is what I really think, and please respond if you disagree. That said... [puts on flak jacket]
The permissions paradigm on stock android sucks. It's too coarse grained and does not give the user any information to make an informed decision. There may be an app that legitimately requires your location, say a mapping app. But it may also be using your location for nefarious purposes. No way to know!
The cyanogen mod proposal is better in that it gives an advanced user more control, but it still doesn't give any information on why an app needs a permission, so aside from obvious cases (why does a wallpaper app need to know my location) you can't make an informed decision. See the map example above. So while CM proposal is better, it doesn't solve the underlying problem.
[zips up flak jacket] Isn't a better approach for somebody who can examine the innards of an app to vet the app and make sure it doesn't do anything nefarious? It is not perfect, but they are making an informed decision that the user cannot make. Further, the app would have more restrictions on the system resources it can access, and the user can still turn off location access. This would require all apps to go through a single gatekeeper for vetting, and would not allow sideloading.
This sounds like a much better security model to me, for "casual" users and experienced users alike. Thoughts? [puts on helmet]
How could an app developer program around this fine-grained control? Even if he could make sure tha the program failed gracefully when certain permissions were changed, key functions in his app could no longer work. How could that not result in an awful user experience? His app would get awful reviews ("sh!t doesn't work!") and he would lose sales.
I guess I just assumed stupidity from context, and tried to nudge you in the right direction. btw if your parody is indistinguishable from stupidity, then you're doing it wrong.
It is commonly portrayed to be a stereotype about Apple users that they are superficially concerned with a connection to nature and the mysticism of East Asia.
[citation needed]
More specifically, "crystal salt imported from Tibet" is a common snake-oil cure-all sold by fraudsters purporting to be connected to secrets of ancient Chinese and Indian religions.
[citation needed]
This also plays into the recent concern over Chinese involvement in Tibet, which was particularly popular with the Left in the United States, often regarded as the primary market of Apple products.
factually true I guess, but not sure how it's relevant. non-sequeter.
Let's see...
1) made up fact
2) made up fact
3) irrelevant statement
4)...
5) funny!
I don't get this one either. I apparently missed an iphone reference, but my unit conversion is correct. harsh much?
I still don't get it. By your link I see that you were referring to the iphone, but how were you making an iphone joke in your tibetan comment? Is there a connection?
Actually, it's finely-ground silica glass, imported from Tibet, verified to contain no particles thicker than 9.3 mm.
umm... 9.3mm is like 3/8th of an inch. if you have chunks like this in your "finely-ground glass", then you should return it for a refund.
you have the laws of flight working against you on this. I doubt the flow of air at 1 cm / min (3.7 10^-4 MPH) would create the lift needed to keep the plane in the sky. Perhaps if it were a solar powered blimp...
Did anybody else read the subject, "Alderaan robots..."? Good luck, robots. You may want to outsource production really soon.
Why does nuclear have a bad rap? One possibility is it stems from fear [anengineerindc.com] since it all started with a few mushroom clouds, but whatever the reason, it seems awfully visceral.
this is right on the head, but you're too dismissive. nuclear power was preceded by nuclear war (or a nuclear cold war, which is the same thing), one of the most terrifying events in human history. you can talk about "beating swords into ploughshires" till you're blue in the face, but the fact remains that in the minds of many people nuclear power ~ nuclear war and nuclear plant accident ~ nuclear bomb.
This is a real fear (and valid to a certain extent), so as long as the nuke industry is dismissive of this rather than tackling it head on, nuke power will always be controversial. Nobody cares about "defense in depth"
TMI is a horrible example for that purpose given how it pretty much proves the opposite.
sorry man, you're wrong on this one. TMI was a really bad accident that very luckily did not become a disaster. IIRC the corium stayed in the containment vessel as an unintended result of the geometric design, not due to any design decisions, safety planning, or emergency actions. So if anything, TMI proves that sometimes serendipity stops a disaster.
a good corellary would be that NYC plane that got hit by birds on takeoff, and cap sully sullenburger landed it in the hudson. Nobody died thank goodness. but the accident was still serious, and still proved that bird strikes can take out planes.
I don't have a problem with the updates - $130 every 18 months - 2 years, and you get a significantly better experience with each upgrade. I had a macbook that went through upgrades from panther -> tiger -> leopard, and each upgrade made my computer faster. Not so with windows! There it's like they want to make you buy a new computer in order to run new software.
Not sure what you mean about system requirements - I had very few problems with my 5yo laptop, unless it choked on a big thing like photoshop.
I guess it really depends on what your options are. If you're choosing between osX and XP, then the winner is clear. I trust your judgment about osX vs linux. this is outside my baliwick. osX vs win7? I'd probably choose the former, but having used win7 a bit i'm really impressed by it.
I can't think of any renewable source of energy that would be more efficient
hmm, let me help you think.
* Distributed, periodic electricity sources are much better suited for making H2 than for pumping back into the grid. small scale PV, wind, etc are great for powering an electolizer. Good luck load balancing your grid when you're trying to feed that power back to the grid.
* landfill gas, hello? Run LFG through a SMR and get your hydrogen. better than burning the NG in a turbine.
* I'm sure there are others too.