Why is it that truth in advertising doesn't seem to matter in computer hardware and software?
Companies seem to be allowed to say whatever they want and don't seem to be taken to task very often by the Federal Trade Commission. It seems that regulation of corporate activities is a thing of the past.
I think we should stop telling companies about security vulnerabilities. This is only partly tongue in cheek; I think they've abused our trust in the last four years, selling tech jobs overseas et cetera, and I think perhaps it's time they realized what side their bread is buttered on.
Not only that but having two things running on the same infrastructure can't be good. Right now, broadband's mainly for entertainment, but who knows what it's going to turn into.
(*I* would like BB over powerlines, I think it's a maximally cool idea, but cool does not always mean intelligent. Oftentimes it means the reverse.)
it's interesting how the computer industry has always been driven in large part by games and game companies. Atari started out as a game company. I often wonder what is going to happen with PCs, whether the market for them is going to deteriorate as consoles become more prevalent. Are there going to be "consoles for the office," ie boxes specifically designed for doing a few things and incapable of anything else?
This is what happens to most tyrants, sooner or later. Or time gets them, and that's inevitable.
The video game Black Tiger said it best (the only thing it will be remembered for):
"4.5 billion years have passed since earth's creation. Many dominators have ruled in all their glory, but time was their greatest enemy and it defeated their reign. And now, a new dominator's reign begins..."
You know, I share the concerns about RFID and pervasive cameras. But these are symptoms of the true problem, which is a spiralling police state in the US (as well as elsewhere) which is arrogating more and more authority to itself and behaving more belligerently.
It's also starting to intimidate dissidents.
If we could trust the government and corporations (yeah right) RFID would be no problem at all.
Since we can't, attacking RFID and other intrusive surveillance technologies is only applying a bandage to a gangrenous wound.
It's great that Microsoft is so in touch with the needs of the Internet community. Who would have thought they'd understand us so thoroughly as to anticipate our needs to camouflage goatse and tubgirl?
I don't understand how this is "flamebait." I hate AOL with the whitehot fury of a thousand suns and I'm not afraid to say so. This computer deal also strikes me as a BAD deal. This is how computer vendors (and dialup vendors) unload outdated service and rope in unclued customers into years of support contracts.
It borders on sharp business practices. Or maybe I'm just not seeing it.
This is crap
on
AOL's $299 PC
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
This is a crappy deal just like everything else AOL has ever been or done.
New Dell PCs of roughly twice the power are less than twice the price, even if you don't take into account the fact of the intolerably fecal dialup service that AOL offers.
This is a loss-leader trying to recoup their market share.
It's a good thing that Time Warner is a media monopoly; otherwise they'd be losing customers to competing broadband companies. As it is, they don't have to worry about that. Yes, I know I exaggerate, but not by much. I'm so sick of media conglomerates that I could scream.
Nanotech assemblers already exist. There are billions of them inside your body. They're called cells.
It may well be that we will use tailored DNA to bootstrap nanotechnology. Cells are already very efficient organisms; perhaps it would be possible to grow them in an artificial matrix, with their DNA programmed so that they would express out nanomachines of arbitrary construction. Or perhaps just parts.
Which is more difficult-- understanding of DNA to the level where that would be possible, or doing it from scratch? My guess would be the former.
Even if there were no way to manufacture chips smaller/faster than the ones we have today, there are always going to be refinements in the manufacturing process, making chips cheaper and cheaper. There are always supercomputers. Perhaps, also, we could find a way to really minimize waste heat, allowing many CPUs per board.
It's also possible that DNA computation and other kinds of biocomputing are going to come along. These have the advantage of being gigantically parallel; they would possibly be good for tasks that are not latency sensitive but require immense brute force.
I'm satisfied that we have enough axes of advance to keep progress moving forward. Remember, computers have only been around for a very short while; I refuse to believe that we hit on the fitness maximum on the first try; there have to be technologies out there that are far faster/cooler/smaller.
Fantasy Flight is one of the most unpleasant work environments I've ever been in. I doubt I would work there if I were paid 3 times what I was.
Fantasy Flight: You need to hire a couple of your warehouse people instead of keeping them on as temps. You need to pay for insurance. You should probably pay them a living wage. The fact that "everybody does it this way" is insufficient justification. What's humourous is people there complained that you couldn't keep workers.
Sounds to me like functionoids based on the Segway would be much more useful for keeping down domestic unrest, in clean and uncluttered US cities, than they would in war zones rife with craters, gravel, and corpses.
Geeks need to consider the ramifications of the technology they help to create; otherwise you're selling your own freedoms.
Would this get a notice if it were a PC? I think not. Are we going to have articles on every peripheral and console that gets thrown in a plastic box with some neon? Is there some significance I'm missing here?
Perhaps this was some sort of DMCA test case. No pun intended. If Microsoft comes down on this guy, they'll look like the tyrants they are. If they don't, perhaps other types of mod will have an easier time of it.
And I'm not talking about the ones where they take a dremel and make something look like the sistine chapel...
There should be some sort of credo that when a system can't be fixed, it should be used/abused equally by everybody.
Surely there are enough correct-thinking corporations that we could begin to use the DMCA to begin to put pressure on certain groups. Then perhaps the government will begin to realize how asinine it is (the DMCA, not the... never mind.)
This is kinda like the putative holes in Diebold machines. If nothing can be done about them, surely they can be abused by everyone:)
It might be good for gamers to throw benefit LAN bashes and tournaments... these might be a little easier to get on the news than normal "pro gamer" wankfests, they would provide money to charity, and they might show the world that we're not a bunch of ravening columbines waiting to happen.
I guess we'll shortly be finding out if all those rumors were true about concentration camps being built on military bases. You know, the rumors the fringe right have been worried about for years.
Remember kids, the time to fight is BEFORE you're in the cattlecars, because then it's too late.
I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either.
Slashdot Mirror
Why is it that truth in advertising doesn't seem to matter in computer hardware and software?
Companies seem to be allowed to say whatever they want and don't seem to be taken to task very often by the Federal Trade Commission. It seems that regulation of corporate activities is a thing of the past.
I think we should stop telling companies about security vulnerabilities. This is only partly tongue in cheek; I think they've abused our trust in the last four years, selling tech jobs overseas et cetera, and I think perhaps it's time they realized what side their bread is buttered on.
a thousand LOLs to you.
Not only that but having two things running on the same infrastructure can't be good. Right now, broadband's mainly for entertainment, but who knows what it's going to turn into.
(*I* would like BB over powerlines, I think it's a maximally cool idea, but cool does not always mean intelligent. Oftentimes it means the reverse.)
it's interesting how the computer industry has always been driven in large part by games and game companies. Atari started out as a game company. I often wonder what is going to happen with PCs, whether the market for them is going to deteriorate as consoles become more prevalent. Are there going to be "consoles for the office," ie boxes specifically designed for doing a few things and incapable of anything else?
Big changes ahead.
Perhaps you missed all the videogames that DO have gore etc etc.
We meet again, Mr. Prock, but this time it is I who have the advangage.
This is what happens to most tyrants, sooner or later. Or time gets them, and that's inevitable.
The video game Black Tiger said it best (the only thing it will be remembered for):
"4.5 billion years have passed since earth's creation. Many dominators have ruled in all their glory, but time was their greatest enemy and it defeated their reign. And now, a new dominator's reign begins..."
You know, I share the concerns about RFID and pervasive cameras. But these are symptoms of the true problem, which is a spiralling police state in the US (as well as elsewhere) which is arrogating more and more authority to itself and behaving more belligerently.
It's also starting to intimidate dissidents.
If we could trust the government and corporations (yeah right) RFID would be no problem at all.
Since we can't, attacking RFID and other intrusive surveillance technologies is only applying a bandage to a gangrenous wound.
Oftentimes in american culture there's this strange phenomenon where any amount of killing, gore, and disemboweling is perfectly fine.
But you show one breast and soon the censors come jumping in. Pretty strange.
On the other hand, we don't want atrocities like the fighting game "Battle Raper" from Japan (Where else?)
It's great that Microsoft is so in touch with the needs of the Internet community. Who would have thought they'd understand us so thoroughly as to anticipate our needs to camouflage goatse and tubgirl?
I don't understand how this is "flamebait." I hate AOL with the whitehot fury of a thousand suns and I'm not afraid to say so. This computer deal also strikes me as a BAD deal. This is how computer vendors (and dialup vendors) unload outdated service and rope in unclued customers into years of support contracts.
It borders on sharp business practices. Or maybe I'm just not seeing it.
This is a crappy deal just like everything else AOL has ever been or done.
New Dell PCs of roughly twice the power are less than twice the price, even if you don't take into account the fact of the intolerably fecal dialup service that AOL offers.
This is a loss-leader trying to recoup their market share.
It's a good thing that Time Warner is a media monopoly; otherwise they'd be losing customers to competing broadband companies. As it is, they don't have to worry about that. Yes, I know I exaggerate, but not by much. I'm so sick of media conglomerates that I could scream.
Nanotech assemblers already exist. There are billions of them inside your body. They're called cells.
It may well be that we will use tailored DNA to bootstrap nanotechnology. Cells are already very efficient organisms; perhaps it would be possible to grow them in an artificial matrix, with their DNA programmed so that they would express out nanomachines of arbitrary construction. Or perhaps just parts.
Which is more difficult-- understanding of DNA to the level where that would be possible, or doing it from scratch? My guess would be the former.
cuz they sure can't make any bulletproof software.
Even if there were no way to manufacture chips smaller/faster than the ones we have today, there are always going to be refinements in the manufacturing process, making chips cheaper and cheaper. There are always supercomputers. Perhaps, also, we could find a way to really minimize waste heat, allowing many CPUs per board.
It's also possible that DNA computation and other kinds of biocomputing are going to come along. These have the advantage of being gigantically parallel; they would possibly be good for tasks that are not latency sensitive but require immense brute force.
I'm satisfied that we have enough axes of advance to keep progress moving forward. Remember, computers have only been around for a very short while; I refuse to believe that we hit on the fitness maximum on the first try; there have to be technologies out there that are far faster/cooler/smaller.
Fantasy Flight is one of the most unpleasant work environments I've ever been in. I doubt I would work there if I were paid 3 times what I was.
Fantasy Flight: You need to hire a couple of your warehouse people instead of keeping them on as temps. You need to pay for insurance. You should probably pay them a living wage. The fact that "everybody does it this way" is insufficient justification. What's humourous is people there complained that you couldn't keep workers.
Sounds to me like functionoids based on the Segway would be much more useful for keeping down domestic unrest, in clean and uncluttered US cities, than they would in war zones rife with craters, gravel, and corpses.
Geeks need to consider the ramifications of the technology they help to create; otherwise you're selling your own freedoms.
Boring, Lame, Unimpressive.
Would this get a notice if it were a PC? I think not. Are we going to have articles on every peripheral and console that gets thrown in a plastic box with some neon? Is there some significance I'm missing here?
Perhaps this was some sort of DMCA test case. No pun intended. If Microsoft comes down on this guy, they'll look like the tyrants they are. If they don't, perhaps other types of mod will have an easier time of it.
And I'm not talking about the ones where they take a dremel and make something look like the sistine chapel...
There should be some sort of credo that when a system can't be fixed, it should be used/abused equally by everybody.
:)
Surely there are enough correct-thinking corporations that we could begin to use the DMCA to begin to put pressure on certain groups. Then perhaps the government will begin to realize how asinine it is (the DMCA, not the... never mind.)
This is kinda like the putative holes in Diebold machines. If nothing can be done about them, surely they can be abused by everyone
It might be good for gamers to throw benefit LAN bashes and tournaments... these might be a little easier to get on the news than normal "pro gamer" wankfests, they would provide money to charity, and they might show the world that we're not a bunch of ravening columbines waiting to happen.
It's ironic that since Diebold is controlled by the repubicans, they will be unable to run an open-source OS because that would be communism.
Unfortunately for them, Microsoft operating systems, as we all know, are swiss cheese. It may be that Bill Gates is the last defender of democracy!
I guess we'll shortly be finding out if all those rumors were true about concentration camps being built on military bases. You know, the rumors the fringe right have been worried about for years.
Remember kids, the time to fight is BEFORE you're in the cattlecars, because then it's too late.
I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either.
-Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Sounds like they caught this guy redhanded.
1) absolutely not true. They spam for XXX-passwords all day long. I probably have about 10,000 of them in a spamfarm account, at the very least.
2) Are you sure they don't? The porn industry has surprisingly deep pockets and if you think they don't lobby, you need to take another look...
Well of course they'll be put in jail, Beaver. The US government aggressively roots out and ruthlessly persecutes evil-doers of all kinds.
Especially the corporate kind.