Since most cracks and keygens are malware delivery systems, it actually is about security. But still, uninstall that crap and use something that will let you set exceptions. And of course, Linux runs great on netbooks, and there's this...
Right, they get paid a low hourly wage and get bonuses or other rewards when their sales are up. That's not technically "Paid on Commission" but it might as well be. It always makes me sick to hear them out and out lie to people who don't know any better. "Email and Internet? You'll need at least 6GB of RAM and a quad-core processor for that." "Digital photos are so big now, they won't fit on anything less than a 24" monitor. You want to be able to see the pictures of your grandchildren, right?"
Most ads aired during talk radio usually sound like that. It's what gets the attention of the target audience. Now if only we can get Glenn Beck to link proprietary software and the Nazi's and maybe cry a little about how much he loves penguins...
An iPhone app that updates Mom's Facebook and Twitter pages with posts of "My kid is soooo sick, lol!" (of course these would be fake pages set up under usernames like "Totally Kyle's Mom.")
Lawsuits happened. Kid A gets knocked down by Kid B. Kid A's parents sue Kid B's parents, Kid B's parents sue the school for "negligence". Ironically, both sets of parents pay higher taxes next year to cover legal expenses. Either we all collectively pull our heads out or permission slips turn into 50 page legal contracts that would make Microsoft's EULA writer weep. Sadly it looks like option 2 is where it's all headed.
Since most malware is spread by uneducated users making bad decisions, maybe require a short education class followed by an exam (randomly generated to prevent answer-lists) as a requirement for net access. First infection, you re-take the class and exam, second infection you take the class and exam again and are "quarantined" from the network for two weeks. Third infection you get no net access and no support.
Not to nit-pick, but I was able to get to the Internet explorer site by typing "microsoft.com/ie" and the office site by typing "microsoft.com/office". While the actual URL's may be different, it's all about what you have to type. Besides, most users looking for info on any of these products would most likely use the search engine on their home page anyway. Or at the very least, go to the main "microsoft.com" or "apple.com" page and look around. I do like the "spotlight-ified" search on apples site however. Unless I'm using an older PC (powermac g4) that chokes on the fancy drop-downs...
Not for the new book, but for new cover art. I know life in Randland is hard and all, but the main characters look like grisled 40-somethings by book three, and the women look more late twenties. And let's remove the "pronunciation help" from the glossary, not even Jordan followed them.
Until ISP's require a prohibitively expensive "Business Class" account to allow encrypted traffic. They may not be able to see whats in those packets, but the RI/MPAA seeders/leechers will still have your IP and records of what you've downloaded/uploaded. Once a high profile case involving bit-torrent is launched, there will be a full on push for "exposing criminals that try to hide what they're doing" and you'll see the aforementioned limit of encrypted traffic happen. People will bitch and moan about privacy and all that, but they'll continue to just take it. Remember, you may care about Net Neutrality, but the vast majority of people who actually vote (the "Obama's a racist and this country's turning into Russia" crowd) will be scared into submission by evil looking graphics and ominous music on Fox News.
Problem: Freshly caught non-recyclable garbage piling up on shore.
Solution: Put it on display and charge admission? (You'll need tickets, concessions, and useless trinkets to sell of course. And when these all reach the ocean two months later, pay them to catch it again, add it to the existing ball-o-crap and raise ticket prices.)
I am assuming this stuff is all not reusable, which is why it's out there in the first place. Of course if all else fails, launch it into Jupiter. (assuming the lines to launch trash into the sun will be too long by then)
Why do we need the conversion in the first place? Say I have a 4 gig file system, am I going to wonder how many 1024MB files can fit on it? No, I'm going to wonder how many 1GB files I can fit on it. In fact, the only time I have to do conversions is at the Windows command line. At least in *nix I can "ls -l -h"
I have never understood why we have 2 different "standards". I mean I get that in the beginning, when HDD makers needed to get to the 1 (meg,gig,etc.) barrier, they used whatever was available. Is there really any point to it now? Wouldn't it save OEM's more money by not fielding calls about deceptive marketing and what not than it would by squeezing that last little percentage point out?
This seems like a ripe target for Apple. They reach a deal with WD or Seagate to make special Apple Brand terabyte drives that are actually 1024 (point whatever) Gigabytes. Then run ads to the effect, "With a PC, you don't get what you pay for" and so on.
No, they don't care if the data is true. They just want protection from criticism while they continue to do things the dirty, cheap way.
I say we have some town halls where some old white people lose their shit chanting, "I just don't want this country to turn into China!" If we can only convince Glenn Beck to say on the air that burning fossil fuels is what Hitler would do...
For those too ignorant and fearful to get on the internet. Or those who need something even more shrill and annoying to drown out the sound of a 56K handshake...
If it's really the infrastructure that's so expensive, why does coverage suck just as bad as it did 5 years ago? I would be more inclined to believe it's the same as any other industry in the US. They charge what they can, because they can. There's no magic bullet, not spreadsheets involved. American consumers will buy anything they see on TV at any price. Just tell them how amazingly affordable it is and they'll fall for it. Terrorists and socialism aren't destroying this country, monthly payments are.
I agree and this is definitely how it would have gone down 15-20 years ago, but these days the parents are more likely to blame the school and scream at them for "bothering" them with such triviality (their child's education and development as a human being). I remember the mid nineties when teachers were starting to be accused by parents of stealing when they took stuff away from kids; I can only imagine what it's like now...
You're implying poverty is a deterrent. Most of these kids already live in so-called poverty and know nothing else. Live off the state and drift from low paying job to low paying job while spawning several offspring? That's all they've ever known and they'll continue the pattern anyway. I do think the GED requirements should be tougher, one test that can easily be passed in less than an hour is not enough.
Only if you "purchase" (license) DRM'd content and delivery mechanisms. Of course soon it will be illegal to have digital content that is not DRM'd, and illegal to make devices that don't conform to DRM standards. Only filthy pirates would have content that can't be verified as legal...
They need to go to the mainstream media where average Joe sees it. Have 60 minutes do a piece on DRM. Maybe a whole EULA themed show about how people are "unknowingly" agreeing to legally binding contracts to "License" media and software.
Because people don't want internet devices (even though that's all they need), they want portable, full-feature, cheap computers. Emphasis on the cheap.
"I mean, I know that windows can be stupidly convoluted sometimes compared to UNIX, but it seems like the "fresh install of windows solves everything" crowd tends to be people who just don't understand what's going on under the hood enough to actually solve the problem they've run into."
Agree 100%. Re-Installing may be the answer in some extreme cases, but it is not a troubleshooting method. Unfortunately Most "IT" people I deal with have three steps:
1. Reboot
2. Re-install
3. Throw hardware at it
I really wish MS would come out with an official sanctioned version of ccleaner, though. It's kind of hard to make a business case for something you got from "FileHippo" (yes, I got that thing they sent me)... But then I guess they'd have to admit the registry sucks.
About a decade ago I worked at a large credit card company in the HR dept. One day we were discussing budgets and someone mentioned how much of the departments budget was going to be used by paying rent on the office space. I didn't understand as the building was owned by The Company. It was explained to me (as if it was the most logical thing in the world) That Division X "owned" the building, and the HR division (not a revenue generating division) had to use the money received from The Company for total budget (salary, supplies and what not) to pay Division X (a revenue generating division) for the use of "their" office space...
The worst part about it was that I was the only one who saw a problem with this strategy.
You don't even have to put anything on them. The users will take them home and plug them and copy all those hilarious email forwards they got from other users so they can take them to work and show their coworkers. They'd just fw: fw: from the home pc, but it stopped working right recently...
Mostly I see security issues occur because the local desktop support gave each user full admin access to their pc's and almost limitless net access. It's either that or they get an even bigger deluge of "the thingy doesn't work" tickets called in. but since we dutifully run and update the whole mcafee schmear, it's all good, right?
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Since most cracks and keygens are malware delivery systems, it actually is about security. But still, uninstall that crap and use something that will let you set exceptions. And of course, Linux runs great on netbooks, and there's this...
Right, they get paid a low hourly wage and get bonuses or other rewards when their sales are up. That's not technically "Paid on Commission" but it might as well be. It always makes me sick to hear them out and out lie to people who don't know any better. "Email and Internet? You'll need at least 6GB of RAM and a quad-core processor for that." "Digital photos are so big now, they won't fit on anything less than a 24" monitor. You want to be able to see the pictures of your grandchildren, right?"
Most ads aired during talk radio usually sound like that. It's what gets the attention of the target audience. Now if only we can get Glenn Beck to link proprietary software and the Nazi's and maybe cry a little about how much he loves penguins...
An iPhone app that updates Mom's Facebook and Twitter pages with posts of "My kid is soooo sick, lol!" (of course these would be fake pages set up under usernames like "Totally Kyle's Mom.")
Lawsuits happened. Kid A gets knocked down by Kid B. Kid A's parents sue Kid B's parents, Kid B's parents sue the school for "negligence". Ironically, both sets of parents pay higher taxes next year to cover legal expenses. Either we all collectively pull our heads out or permission slips turn into 50 page legal contracts that would make Microsoft's EULA writer weep. Sadly it looks like option 2 is where it's all headed.
Since most malware is spread by uneducated users making bad decisions, maybe require a short education class followed by an exam (randomly generated to prevent answer-lists) as a requirement for net access. First infection, you re-take the class and exam, second infection you take the class and exam again and are "quarantined" from the network for two weeks. Third infection you get no net access and no support.
Not to nit-pick, but I was able to get to the Internet explorer site by typing "microsoft.com/ie" and the office site by typing "microsoft.com/office". While the actual URL's may be different, it's all about what you have to type. Besides, most users looking for info on any of these products would most likely use the search engine on their home page anyway. Or at the very least, go to the main "microsoft.com" or "apple.com" page and look around. I do like the "spotlight-ified" search on apples site however. Unless I'm using an older PC (powermac g4) that chokes on the fancy drop-downs...
Not for the new book, but for new cover art. I know life in Randland is hard and all, but the main characters look like grisled 40-somethings by book three, and the women look more late twenties. And let's remove the "pronunciation help" from the glossary, not even Jordan followed them.
Well he is in Texas after all, obviously his mailbox is just bigger. Give it some time.
Until ISP's require a prohibitively expensive "Business Class" account to allow encrypted traffic. They may not be able to see whats in those packets, but the RI/MPAA seeders/leechers will still have your IP and records of what you've downloaded/uploaded. Once a high profile case involving bit-torrent is launched, there will be a full on push for "exposing criminals that try to hide what they're doing" and you'll see the aforementioned limit of encrypted traffic happen. People will bitch and moan about privacy and all that, but they'll continue to just take it. Remember, you may care about Net Neutrality, but the vast majority of people who actually vote (the "Obama's a racist and this country's turning into Russia" crowd) will be scared into submission by evil looking graphics and ominous music on Fox News.
Which leads to:
Problem: Freshly caught non-recyclable garbage piling up on shore. Solution: Put it on display and charge admission? (You'll need tickets, concessions, and useless trinkets to sell of course. And when these all reach the ocean two months later, pay them to catch it again, add it to the existing ball-o-crap and raise ticket prices.)
I am assuming this stuff is all not reusable, which is why it's out there in the first place. Of course if all else fails, launch it into Jupiter. (assuming the lines to launch trash into the sun will be too long by then)
Why do we need the conversion in the first place? Say I have a 4 gig file system, am I going to wonder how many 1024MB files can fit on it? No, I'm going to wonder how many 1GB files I can fit on it. In fact, the only time I have to do conversions is at the Windows command line. At least in *nix I can "ls -l -h"
I have never understood why we have 2 different "standards". I mean I get that in the beginning, when HDD makers needed to get to the 1 (meg,gig,etc.) barrier, they used whatever was available. Is there really any point to it now? Wouldn't it save OEM's more money by not fielding calls about deceptive marketing and what not than it would by squeezing that last little percentage point out?
This seems like a ripe target for Apple. They reach a deal with WD or Seagate to make special Apple Brand terabyte drives that are actually 1024 (point whatever) Gigabytes. Then run ads to the effect, "With a PC, you don't get what you pay for" and so on.
You gotta stop the bits from getting loaded onto those tube-driving dump trucks somehow...
No, they don't care if the data is true. They just want protection from criticism while they continue to do things the dirty, cheap way.
I say we have some town halls where some old white people lose their shit chanting, "I just don't want this country to turn into China!" If we can only convince Glenn Beck to say on the air that burning fossil fuels is what Hitler would do...
Don't forget:
3. Fox News
For those too ignorant and fearful to get on the internet. Or those who need something even more shrill and annoying to drown out the sound of a 56K handshake...
If it's really the infrastructure that's so expensive, why does coverage suck just as bad as it did 5 years ago? I would be more inclined to believe it's the same as any other industry in the US. They charge what they can, because they can. There's no magic bullet, not spreadsheets involved. American consumers will buy anything they see on TV at any price. Just tell them how amazingly affordable it is and they'll fall for it. Terrorists and socialism aren't destroying this country, monthly payments are.
But we do need peace-keepers in Iraq and Afghanistan...
I agree and this is definitely how it would have gone down 15-20 years ago, but these days the parents are more likely to blame the school and scream at them for "bothering" them with such triviality (their child's education and development as a human being). I remember the mid nineties when teachers were starting to be accused by parents of stealing when they took stuff away from kids; I can only imagine what it's like now...
You're implying poverty is a deterrent. Most of these kids already live in so-called poverty and know nothing else. Live off the state and drift from low paying job to low paying job while spawning several offspring? That's all they've ever known and they'll continue the pattern anyway. I do think the GED requirements should be tougher, one test that can easily be passed in less than an hour is not enough.
"A very, very bad precedent all around."
Only if you "purchase" (license) DRM'd content and delivery mechanisms. Of course soon it will be illegal to have digital content that is not DRM'd, and illegal to make devices that don't conform to DRM standards. Only filthy pirates would have content that can't be verified as legal...
They need to go to the mainstream media where average Joe sees it. Have 60 minutes do a piece on DRM. Maybe a whole EULA themed show about how people are "unknowingly" agreeing to legally binding contracts to "License" media and software.
Because people don't want internet devices (even though that's all they need), they want portable, full-feature, cheap computers. Emphasis on the cheap.
"I mean, I know that windows can be stupidly convoluted sometimes compared to UNIX, but it seems like the "fresh install of windows solves everything" crowd tends to be people who just don't understand what's going on under the hood enough to actually solve the problem they've run into."
Agree 100%. Re-Installing may be the answer in some extreme cases, but it is not a troubleshooting method. Unfortunately Most "IT" people I deal with have three steps:
1. Reboot
2. Re-install
3. Throw hardware at it
I really wish MS would come out with an official sanctioned version of ccleaner, though. It's kind of hard to make a business case for something you got from "FileHippo" (yes, I got that thing they sent me)... But then I guess they'd have to admit the registry sucks.
It's not just them.
About a decade ago I worked at a large credit card company in the HR dept. One day we were discussing budgets and someone mentioned how much of the departments budget was going to be used by paying rent on the office space. I didn't understand as the building was owned by The Company. It was explained to me (as if it was the most logical thing in the world) That Division X "owned" the building, and the HR division (not a revenue generating division) had to use the money received from The Company for total budget (salary, supplies and what not) to pay Division X (a revenue generating division) for the use of "their" office space...
The worst part about it was that I was the only one who saw a problem with this strategy.
You don't even have to put anything on them. The users will take them home and plug them and copy all those hilarious email forwards they got from other users so they can take them to work and show their coworkers. They'd just fw: fw: from the home pc, but it stopped working right recently...
Mostly I see security issues occur because the local desktop support gave each user full admin access to their pc's and almost limitless net access. It's either that or they get an even bigger deluge of "the thingy doesn't work" tickets called in. but since we dutifully run and update the whole mcafee schmear, it's all good, right?
Security software doesn't actually secure anything, educated and motivated admins do.