In the past year the American public has demonstrated a remarkable propensity to be lead by the nose. I'm afraid the failure of our educational system over the past 30 years has left us with the inability to see beyond the dashboard of our collective SUVs.
Walt Mossberg reviewed a product this week in the WSJ called ChoiceMail from Digiportal.
From the article: "Here's how the program works. ChoiceMail examines every e-mail that comes in before it shows up in the inbox of your e-mail program. If the sender is on an approved list, easily created when you install the program, the e-mail immediately passes through. If the sender is on a rejected list, the e-mail is blocked and deleted.
If the sender is on neither list, ChoiceMail automatically sends an e-mail explaining that you are using a "permission-based" system. The e-mail asks the sender to go to a Web page and fill out a permission form. The request is then sent to you for approval. If you accept it, the e-mail is delivered to you. If not, the e-mail is killed."
The program can import your Eudora or OE address book and add the contents to the non-blocked list. Doesn't work with Mac or *nix, so I've no idea whether it's good or bad. The concept is interesting though...
Re:A step in the right direction
on
Microsoft Freon
·
· Score: 1
To dredge up an old sig-line: Where do you want to go, toady?
Re:Spiderman hasn't even been released yet!
on
The Empire Stumbles
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· Score: 1
So maybe "Once were Warriors" will finally see the light of day on DVD? Jake (and the Maori) made Mel Gibson/Road Warrior look like a Disney after-school special.
"though most will definitely say that Star Wars was not as good a movie as Empire"
Interesting that you should say that. IIRC, Empire was criticized as being too dark...no upbeat ending. Along comes Return of the Jedi, with those silly teddy bears (aka Ewoks) and everyone's complaining about that.
The series has it's faults, but I get the feeling that no matter what Lucas comes up with, it'll be trashed. Small wonder that he decided to stop at six episodes of the 9 originally planned.
Fewer screens showing a longer movie. Somebody with more time on their hands will have to do the math.
Personally, I went into SW with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. Outstanding CGI...in most cases, the generated characters were more interesting than the live actors. Also, I was surprised at the number of teenage girls attending...must have something to do with that annoying Hayden Christensen.
The frightening thing is, I've perceived the same "slant" on NPR. Might be the "support" from the B&M Gates Foundation, or the local MS consulting firms. More likely, just ignorance. With 90+% penetration, most people don't see anything but MS when it comes to an OS. And they don't care.
MS is viewed as AT&T was prior to the breakup. Most of us had never experienced anything else (or perhaps knew the horror that was European telephony) and couldn't see what all the fuss was about.
Until the kid decides to tell his schoolmates how l33t he is. Which makes into the computer club newsletter. Is picked up by the local press as a human interest story. Spun by the national media (MSNBC) into an "APPLE EXPLOITS CHILDREN" headline.
Re:LOTR won Best Film & Best Director...
on
LoTR Takes 4 Oscars
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· Score: 1
Oh I don't know...I seem to recall a number of vertically challenged types doing some pretty extraordinary stuff.
In 200 years it won't matter one way or the other.
Or do you think future generations are going to give any more of a shit about us and what we did than we do about our great grandparents and what they did? Get some perspective.
Remember the sixties? Probably not. It was 40 years ago. All the tree huggers from that generation are driving around in SUVs. I don't think the current generation will be any more diligent when it comes to dealing with problems that require more than a 10 minute attention span.
Some random dude posts that his "sister's" iMac was stolen and the next thing you know the mac skript kidd33z are falling all over themselves trying to come up with the ultimate death script.
And I thought VB lusers were lame.
Oh, my sister forgot her lunch money at the bank, and they locked the door. Could you help me get in so I can get it back?
Did you see the trailer previewed before LotR? Gag! Even Miss P looked bad! As many pointed out in the Nsyck/SW thread--this movie's target audience looks to be 13yo girls.
Didn't see J-J B, but from the looks of the trailer, he'd be welcome relief. God it looked awful.
Dave has an interesting history. Wrote a scripting extention/system for the Mac. Apple eventually relized this was a good thing and came out with AppleScript--less powerful, but easier to use. Dave was pissed and jumped in bed with Gates. Now we get this rant. Well Duh!?
What's the line: "fooled me once shame on you, fooled me twice shame on me."
Come on, You could see this shite coming months, if not years, ago.
Didn't one of the European governments dump MS software after it was revealed that MS had installed backdoors for the NSA. China signs a deal with MS after pushing its own "secure" version of Linux--what features were included in that deal?
"He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past controls the future." - George Orwell
MS is working damn hard at controlling the present.
" This is the same thing that bothers me too. The fact that hundreds of Americans were taken hostage by guys with utility knives. Only on ONE of FOUR planes was there (potentially) some resistance. The rest marched right along with the hijackers to their frightful doom."
And this bothers you because? Can you name another instance of hijackers flying planes into buildings? When you have no past experience to base your actions on, you are not surprised when something unexpected happens?
The resistance by passengers on the 4th plane occurred after they had learned through cell-phone contacts that they were, in fact, part of a suicide mission.
"Consider this. The terrorists will continue to know where the security is. They'll avoid places where the government has put guys in cammo. There's still nothing to stop them from running into a shopping mall with a few AK-47's and mowing down a few hundred people. But if they know that there's a good chance that 50 average Joes will bust out their weapons and supress the attack, they'll think twice."
And fear of death seemed to be a deterant for the 9/11 hijackers?
Slashdot Mirror
Mohammed Reza Pahlav: the shah of Iran. Made us lots of friends.
Is that you Ollie?
"The downturn in the economy happened way before Bush took office."
Just about the time it became obvious to everyone that W was about to steal the election.
In the past year the American public has demonstrated a remarkable propensity to be lead by the nose. I'm afraid the failure of our educational system over the past 30 years has left us with the inability to see beyond the dashboard of our collective SUVs.
I hope I'm wrong.
Sorry, but 5 years from now your "trusted" computing platform won't be able to download insecure operating systems.
And your home rolled box with that insecure operating system installed from those flea market CDs won't be allowed to connect to the net.
I was curious about Bush's vehement opposition to the International Criminal Court. Then I read about the cargo containers.
Makes a lot more sense now.
Walt Mossberg reviewed a product this week in the WSJ called ChoiceMail from Digiportal.
From the article: "Here's how the program works. ChoiceMail examines every e-mail that comes in before it shows up in the inbox of your e-mail program. If the sender is on an approved list, easily created when you install the program, the e-mail immediately passes through. If the sender is on a rejected list, the e-mail is blocked and deleted.
If the sender is on neither list, ChoiceMail automatically sends an e-mail explaining that you are using a "permission-based" system. The e-mail asks the sender to go to a Web page and fill out a permission form. The request is then sent to you for approval. If you accept it, the e-mail is delivered to you. If not, the e-mail is killed."
The program can import your Eudora or OE address book and add the contents to the non-blocked list. Doesn't work with Mac or *nix, so I've no idea whether it's good or bad. The concept is interesting though...
And here's another step:
9 99 92483
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns
To dredge up an old sig-line: Where do you want to go, toady?
So maybe "Once were Warriors" will finally see the light of day on DVD? Jake (and the Maori) made Mel Gibson/Road Warrior look like a Disney after-school special.
"though most will definitely say that Star Wars was not as good a movie as Empire"
Interesting that you should say that. IIRC, Empire was criticized as being too dark...no upbeat ending. Along comes Return of the Jedi, with those silly teddy bears (aka Ewoks) and everyone's complaining about that.
The series has it's faults, but I get the feeling that no matter what Lucas comes up with, it'll be trashed. Small wonder that he decided to stop at six episodes of the 9 originally planned.
As per IMDB.com:
Spiderman: 3615 screens
StarWars: 3161 screens
Runtimes:
Spiderman: 121 min.
StarWars: 142 min.
Fewer screens showing a longer movie. Somebody with more time on their hands will have to do the math.
Personally, I went into SW with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. Outstanding CGI...in most cases, the generated characters were more interesting than the live actors. Also, I was surprised at the number of teenage girls attending...must have something to do with that annoying Hayden Christensen.
The frightening thing is, I've perceived the same "slant" on NPR. Might be the "support" from the B&M Gates Foundation, or the local MS consulting firms. More likely, just ignorance. With 90+% penetration, most people don't see anything but MS when it comes to an OS. And they don't care.
MS is viewed as AT&T was prior to the breakup. Most of us had never experienced anything else (or perhaps knew the horror that was European telephony) and couldn't see what all the fuss was about.
Get them used to monitoring early. While their minds are still supple. Associate it with "fun" activities.
They won't raise those silly privacy objections when they get older. Like the current generation.
And lets not get into the marketing angle. "Our scanners indicate little Jimmy is passing a MickyD's..."
Until the kid decides to tell his schoolmates how l33t he is. Which makes into the computer club newsletter. Is picked up by the local press as a human interest story. Spun by the national media (MSNBC) into an "APPLE EXPLOITS CHILDREN" headline.
Oh I don't know...I seem to recall a number of vertically challenged types doing some pretty extraordinary stuff.
Politically naive? Or too arrogant to think they could be stopped by something as archaic as government?
As Newsweek put it, The Axis of Re-election.
Who rained on your parade? Lighten up.
Hint:
In 200 years it won't matter one way or the other.
Or do you think future generations are going to give any more of a shit about us and what we did than we do about our great grandparents and what they did? Get some perspective.
Remember the sixties? Probably not. It was 40 years ago. All the tree huggers from that generation are driving around in SUVs. I don't think the current generation will be any more diligent when it comes to dealing with problems that require more than a 10 minute attention span.
Failed?
It's February. It's 60 degrees in NY. I'd say global warming has been a great success.
Some random dude posts that his "sister's" iMac was stolen and the next thing you know the mac skript kidd33z are falling all over themselves trying to come up with the ultimate death script.
And I thought VB lusers were lame.
Oh, my sister forgot her lunch money at the bank, and they locked the door. Could you help me get in so I can get it back?
It had an intermission (as does the DVD set). House lights came up, the theme music played and everyone ran to the john.
Did you see the trailer previewed before LotR? Gag! Even Miss P looked bad! As many pointed out in the Nsyck/SW thread--this movie's target audience looks to be 13yo girls.
Didn't see J-J B, but from the looks of the trailer, he'd be welcome relief. God it looked awful.
Dave has an interesting history. Wrote a scripting extention/system for the Mac. Apple eventually relized this was a good thing and came out with AppleScript--less powerful, but easier to use. Dave was pissed and jumped in bed with Gates. Now we get this rant. Well Duh!?
What's the line: "fooled me once shame on you, fooled me twice shame on me."
Come on, You could see this shite coming months, if not years, ago.
Didn't one of the European governments dump MS software after it was revealed that MS had installed backdoors for the NSA. China signs a deal with MS after pushing its own "secure" version of Linux--what features were included in that deal?
"He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past controls the future." - George Orwell
MS is working damn hard at controlling the present.
/whatever
So we're going to shoot them before they act? No thanks.
Israel, the most heavily armed country in the *free* world sees suicide attacks on a near daily basis.
You're not going to win this *war*[1] by passing out gun permits.
/mp
[1] This is no more a *war* than the *war* on poverty or drugs was/is. It's a feint.
" This is the same thing that bothers me too. The fact that hundreds of Americans were taken hostage by guys with utility knives. Only on ONE of FOUR planes was there (potentially) some resistance. The rest marched right along with the hijackers to their frightful doom."
And this bothers you because? Can you name another instance of hijackers flying planes into buildings? When you have no past experience to base your actions on, you are not surprised when something unexpected happens?
The resistance by passengers on the 4th plane occurred after they had learned through cell-phone contacts that they were, in fact, part of a suicide mission.
"Consider this. The terrorists will continue to know where the security is. They'll avoid places where the government has put guys in cammo. There's still nothing to stop them from running into a shopping mall with a few AK-47's and mowing down a few hundred people. But if they know that there's a good chance that 50 average Joes will bust out their weapons and supress the attack, they'll think twice."
And fear of death seemed to be a deterant for the 9/11 hijackers?
/mp
Flag? Are you a gas station? Or a car dealer?
/mp