Until you require people pass a test to have a PC, then you can not expect the user to have any knowledge about it.
And that, my friend, is a REALLY GOOD IDEA.
It's the same reason we have all these bloody open mail relays all over the place.
And for the love of God, fine the shit out of Microsoft for shipping an OS that's so easily exploited!
You know, I wouldn't look down on users so much if they would just heed basic precautions. But it's IMPOSSIBLE for Joe Citizen to miss the mainstream news discussion of viruses/spyware/etc., because IT'S ON THE MAINSTREAM NEWS.
You know the problem is there. You know something has to be done about it. Yet you do nothing.
Oh, no. The actions were not "forced upon them" by anyone.
They *chose* to buy a computer, *knowing* the risks of viruses, spyware, etc.
They *chose* to put that computer on a broadband connection.
They *chose* not to keep their virus protection software up-to-date.
They *chose* not to place the computer behind a firewall.
They *chose* to leave the computer out there like a sitting duck, just waiting for an infection to come along and pWn the box.
It doesn't make it any less low that there are scum who would take advantage of this situation, but...
If someone without proper education is caught operating a motor vehicle, that person is subject to severe penalty.
People with your attitude are the problem with society. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE JUST TAKE SOME FUCKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS? If you fuck up out of ignorance, well, tough shit. Learn. And then don't fuck up next time.
The solution which has worked to not only put a small dent in the daily dose of spam but also enrich the general public has been to take the spammers to court and eventually to jail when necessary.
Uh.
Define "worked."
My inbox is seeing *more* spam, not less, compared with three years ago.
If we're going to be jailing people, we need to be jailing more than one token high-profile spammer every year. Just like a legitimate business, don't you think these douchebags have vice-presidents who run their ops when they're in the clink? Of course they do...
Jailing them -- at least on this scale -- isn't going to help. We need asset seizure, BIG TIME.
The first grandma who gets her computer seized because it's a zombie box sending spam is going to be massively bad PR for the spammers (dirty little thieves, they are, targeting grandmas like that) and Microsoft (worthless insecure OS...).
Seriously, give it a try. But for the love of all things holy, DON'T JUST PUT THREE TOP DOGS IN JAIL IN THE COURSE OF TWO YEARS. THAT ISN'T WORKING!
When did a Gamecube enter into this? Gamecube != Gameboy Advance != NES.
What about obscure games that *nobody has* any more, or that someplace like Gamestop doesn't find profitable to sell?
This is exactly the point. Nintendo isn't going to be bringing back Tecmo Bowl or ExciteBike any time soon, but why should I have to go to endless trouble to find a copy to play on my NES?
Getting back to the original point, what about software? Why should I get into trouble for copying, say, Shufflepuck or Lode Runner, despite the fact tht Broderbund (if they even exist any more) has NO INTENTIONS of selling me a copy for my Mac Plus?
He was using 1337 in a manner other than poking fun at the skr1p7 k1dd13 concept. As in, he gave the impression that he and his friends actually think '1337sp33k' is "cool."
You just answered your own question: it isn't the same game.
It might play exactly the same, but it isn't the same game, because it's not capable of being played on the same equipment.
If I want to play the game on my NES, I can't do that legally if I don't own a copy already. Because no one will sell it to me. I have to buy a new piece of hardware, at great expense, and a new copy of the game -- which, it should be noted, will NOT play on my old hardware -- in order to play the game on a shitty portable device. What if I wanted to play on my TV? Oh, can't do that. What if I wanted the experience of playing on an original NES, rather than an overpriced handheld? Oh, can't do that, either.
That is one reason -- and IMO one of the most important reasons -- why current copyright laws are useless and unconstitutional.
Uh, I think you and I both know that's a horrible example.
What has happened in the vast majority of "abandonware" cases is the company has gone under, has been dead for some time, and NO ONE has made any attempt to make the software available for purchase.
And let's face it, if your software was relevant five years ago, it won't be now. At least not in its five-year-old form. Heck, a lot of software written five years ago doesn't even RUN on the newest operating systems, or if it does, it doesn't run well.
Edit menu: Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste Plain Text, Delete, and Get Info all greyed out. Let's look at why.
Redo: I haven't undone anything. Duh. Cut: Nothing selected. Duh. Copy: See above. Duh. Paste Plain Text: Wild-ass guess -- the text on the clipboard is ALREADY plain text, or is a format (like an image) that can't be converted logically to plain text. Delete: What the hell does this command do, anyway? Has anyone EVER used it? Get Info: Nothing to get info on, obviously. Duh.
Moving on...
View menu: Stop Loading Page is greyed out. Gee, might that possibly be due to the fact that I'm not currently loading a page in this tab?
Go menu: Forward is greyed out. Yeah. Because I've never hit "Back," so I don't have anything to go Forward to. Duh.
Bookmarks, Window, and Help menus: nothing greyed out.
OK, maybe Camino is just a stellar example, but remind me WHY this is a problem again...?
Man, I really wish Tog would just realise he's irrelevant and shut up about it.
Because even rechargeable batteries have a finite life.
The bottom line is this: you're going to have to replace the BIOS battery eventually. Increasing its cost by an order of magnitude or so by making it rechargeable isn't going to make up for the savings you'd realise by not replacing BIOS batteries. How often have you ever had to replace one, anyway? Every five years? Longer than the useful life of a typical Windows computer now...
And the guys who dressed up as Indians and destroyed a few hundred thousand dollars' worth of tea in Boston Harbour?
I don't think that was "military" tea...
There was plenty of that on both sides, too. Tories were run out by anti-British colonists, and supporters of the Revolution were run out by Tories with the help of the British.
I submit that the iPod will be the latter, and without having RTFA, suspect this is the direction the authors were going.
Why, you ask?
The iPod could be the device that eventually breaks Microsoft's stranglehold on the computer industry. The important point here isn't that the iPod has been fantastically profitable to Apple. It has, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that the iPod has done more for Apple's "mind-share" than anything since the famous "1984" advertisement. The results of the recent study indicating that some 13% of iPod customers are already (or are planning to become) Macintosh owners are nothing less than spectacular. If Apple can play this advantage into greater Macintosh market share -- even as little as 10-15 percent, compared to less than five percent right now -- several things will happen:
1) You can get away with excluding two or three percent of your user base. You cannot get away with excluding ten percent of it. This will force companies to design Web sites that work on ALL computers, not just the latest Windows box.
2) Two to three percent of people can be dismissed as the lunatic fringe. It's a lot harder to dismiss ten percent as the lunatic fringe. Thus, the Macintosh becomes more of a mainstream platform, and PHBs start realising that there's an alternative to Windows for the corporate world.
3) In conjunction with #1, software developers now have a much larger potential market, encouraging them to bring quality products to the Macintosh where none previously existed. The lack of specialty software is the ONLY thing keeping a large number of my friends from switching to a Macintosh.
Should this come to pass, it's unlikely that history will remember the iPod as the catalyst, mostly because the Macintosh and Apple I were directly significant to the computer industry, whereas the iPod itself isn't a particularly revolutionary device. Of course, history hasn't remembered a lot of things as they should have been.
Sounds to me like both of them needed hardware that standard models didn't ship with.
You want the capability, you buy an upgrade. Whether this is an expansion card or comes built into the motherboard is mostly irrelevant. The latter simply requires a bit more pre-planning.
That's because the Slashdot crowd seems to be fairly pragmatic.
Most technological advances that make the news here are in-development technologies that may or may not bear fruit in five to ten years. And if anything, the experience of the last 50 years should have taught us that no matter how many times flying cars and nuclear fusion are predicted to be 10 years off, they seem to be perpetually 10 years off.
I think the/. crowd mostly thinks in terms of "what can you do for me NOW," and as a result, you get a lot of people saying "Gee, [innovation] won't lead to anything useful with the next year or two, so it's not important to me." The sad part is, they're right most of the time. Don't believe me? Go grab an issue of Popular Science or Popular Mechanics from the mid-1980s.
Bought 50 @ $20.25. I'm lovin' it too. I'm also wishing I had had another grand or two to spare at the time...
AAPL might be the Coca-Cola of the 21st century. In another 40 years* I might be able to retire on those 50 shares.;)
* Yeah, yeah, everyone "needs" sugar water, but the computer industry changes constantly. Well, everyone needs computers a lot more than they need sugar water now, and Apple has managed to survive longer than most of its competition. I'm sticking by my prediction.
Slashdot Mirror
And that's OS X's fault how, exactly?
Looks more like a vulnerability in Slashcode to me...
p
...how many of these holes had exploits in the wild?
0 / 16.
Every last one of them was -- and still is -- theoretical.
Do what you have to do in the name of "balanced reporting," though, eWeek.
p
You didn't visit the link, did you?
Didn't think so.
Printing the entire thing out and sending it in to the companies has been the plan all along.
p
Ah yes.
Hi, Exception. I'm Rule.
You're not exactly relevant.
p
And if they *chose* to leave the house unlocked, they deserve everything they get.
Because THAT'S BLOODY STUPID!
p
Until you require people pass a test to have a PC, then you can not expect the user to have any knowledge about it.
And that, my friend, is a REALLY GOOD IDEA.
It's the same reason we have all these bloody open mail relays all over the place.
And for the love of God, fine the shit out of Microsoft for shipping an OS that's so easily exploited!
You know, I wouldn't look down on users so much if they would just heed basic precautions. But it's IMPOSSIBLE for Joe Citizen to miss the mainstream news discussion of viruses/spyware/etc., because IT'S ON THE MAINSTREAM NEWS.
You know the problem is there.
You know something has to be done about it.
Yet you do nothing.
How, exactly, are you innocent again?
p
Oh, no. The actions were not "forced upon them" by anyone.
They *chose* to buy a computer, *knowing* the risks of viruses, spyware, etc.
They *chose* to put that computer on a broadband connection.
They *chose* not to keep their virus protection software up-to-date.
They *chose* not to place the computer behind a firewall.
They *chose* to leave the computer out there like a sitting duck, just waiting for an infection to come along and pWn the box.
It doesn't make it any less low that there are scum who would take advantage of this situation, but...
If someone without proper education is caught operating a motor vehicle, that person is subject to severe penalty.
People with your attitude are the problem with society. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE JUST TAKE SOME FUCKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS? If you fuck up out of ignorance, well, tough shit. Learn. And then don't fuck up next time.
p
not to mention the PCs of innocents which have been compromised as spam-proxies
To paraphrase another thinker-type, John Selden:
"Ignorance of the machine excuses no user."
Just because they didn't *intend* to get their box compromised doesn't mean they're entirely innocent, either.
p
The solution which has worked to not only put a small dent in the daily dose of spam but also enrich the general public has been to take the spammers to court and eventually to jail when necessary.
Uh.
Define "worked."
My inbox is seeing *more* spam, not less, compared with three years ago.
If we're going to be jailing people, we need to be jailing more than one token high-profile spammer every year. Just like a legitimate business, don't you think these douchebags have vice-presidents who run their ops when they're in the clink? Of course they do...
Jailing them -- at least on this scale -- isn't going to help. We need asset seizure, BIG TIME.
The first grandma who gets her computer seized because it's a zombie box sending spam is going to be massively bad PR for the spammers (dirty little thieves, they are, targeting grandmas like that) and Microsoft (worthless insecure OS...).
Seriously, give it a try. But for the love of all things holy, DON'T JUST PUT THREE TOP DOGS IN JAIL IN THE COURSE OF TWO YEARS. THAT ISN'T WORKING!
p
...if you're remotely surprised that this happened.
...
...
...
Yeah, didn't think so.
If something like this is ever going to work, it's going to have to be a lot more underground, just like the spammers.
p
When did a Gamecube enter into this? Gamecube != Gameboy Advance != NES.
What about obscure games that *nobody has* any more, or that someplace like Gamestop doesn't find profitable to sell?
This is exactly the point. Nintendo isn't going to be bringing back Tecmo Bowl or ExciteBike any time soon, but why should I have to go to endless trouble to find a copy to play on my NES?
Getting back to the original point, what about software? Why should I get into trouble for copying, say, Shufflepuck or Lode Runner, despite the fact tht Broderbund (if they even exist any more) has NO INTENTIONS of selling me a copy for my Mac Plus?
p
OK, lemme explain this a different way.
;)
He was using 1337 in a manner other than poking fun at the skr1p7 k1dd13 concept. As in, he gave the impression that he and his friends actually think '1337sp33k' is "cool."
THAT is why the guy isn't a nerd hero.
p
Hero?
Did you actually *watch* that one? He actually *explained* the whole "1337" thing, and *he was serious*.
That guy is the biggest dork I've seen on that show in five years.
And that's saying a LOT.
p
You just answered your own question: it isn't the same game.
It might play exactly the same, but it isn't the same game, because it's not capable of being played on the same equipment.
If I want to play the game on my NES, I can't do that legally if I don't own a copy already. Because no one will sell it to me. I have to buy a new piece of hardware, at great expense, and a new copy of the game -- which, it should be noted, will NOT play on my old hardware -- in order to play the game on a shitty portable device. What if I wanted to play on my TV? Oh, can't do that. What if I wanted the experience of playing on an original NES, rather than an overpriced handheld? Oh, can't do that, either.
That is one reason -- and IMO one of the most important reasons -- why current copyright laws are useless and unconstitutional.
p
...to mention the Abandonware Petition.
It pretty well sums up what I believe about this sort of thing, and there have been several thousand people who pretty much agree with me.
And I'll take the opportunity once more to thank Teresa for putting it together and hosting it.
p
Uh, I think you and I both know that's a horrible example.
What has happened in the vast majority of "abandonware" cases is the company has gone under, has been dead for some time, and NO ONE has made any attempt to make the software available for purchase.
And let's face it, if your software was relevant five years ago, it won't be now. At least not in its five-year-old form. Heck, a lot of software written five years ago doesn't even RUN on the newest operating systems, or if it does, it doesn't run well.
p
Especially the part where Tog starts bitching about greyed-out menu items.
Looking through Camino's menus right now...
Apple menu: nothing greyed out.
Camino menu: nothing greyed out.
File menu: nothing greyed out.
Edit menu: Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste Plain Text, Delete, and Get Info all greyed out. Let's look at why.
Redo: I haven't undone anything. Duh.
Cut: Nothing selected. Duh.
Copy: See above. Duh.
Paste Plain Text: Wild-ass guess -- the text on the clipboard is ALREADY plain text, or is a format (like an image) that can't be converted logically to plain text.
Delete: What the hell does this command do, anyway? Has anyone EVER used it?
Get Info: Nothing to get info on, obviously. Duh.
Moving on...
View menu: Stop Loading Page is greyed out. Gee, might that possibly be due to the fact that I'm not currently loading a page in this tab?
Go menu: Forward is greyed out. Yeah. Because I've never hit "Back," so I don't have anything to go Forward to. Duh.
Bookmarks, Window, and Help menus: nothing greyed out.
OK, maybe Camino is just a stellar example, but remind me WHY this is a problem again...?
Man, I really wish Tog would just realise he's irrelevant and shut up about it.
p
Because even rechargeable batteries have a finite life.
The bottom line is this: you're going to have to replace the BIOS battery eventually. Increasing its cost by an order of magnitude or so by making it rechargeable isn't going to make up for the savings you'd realise by not replacing BIOS batteries. How often have you ever had to replace one, anyway? Every five years? Longer than the useful life of a typical Windows computer now...
Quit yer whinging.
p
And the guys who dressed up as Indians and destroyed a few hundred thousand dollars' worth of tea in Boston Harbour?
I don't think that was "military" tea...
There was plenty of that on both sides, too. Tories were run out by anti-British colonists, and supporters of the Revolution were run out by Tories with the help of the British.
p
"Prima donna," eh?
I do not think that phrase means what you think it means.
Methinks you meant "prima facie."
p
Important to Apple, or important to the world?
I submit that the iPod will be the latter, and without having RTFA, suspect this is the direction the authors were going.
Why, you ask?
The iPod could be the device that eventually breaks Microsoft's stranglehold on the computer industry. The important point here isn't that the iPod has been fantastically profitable to Apple. It has, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that the iPod has done more for Apple's "mind-share" than anything since the famous "1984" advertisement. The results of the recent study indicating that some 13% of iPod customers are already (or are planning to become) Macintosh owners are nothing less than spectacular. If Apple can play this advantage into greater Macintosh market share -- even as little as 10-15 percent, compared to less than five percent right now -- several things will happen:
1) You can get away with excluding two or three percent of your user base. You cannot get away with excluding ten percent of it. This will force companies to design Web sites that work on ALL computers, not just the latest Windows box.
2) Two to three percent of people can be dismissed as the lunatic fringe. It's a lot harder to dismiss ten percent as the lunatic fringe. Thus, the Macintosh becomes more of a mainstream platform, and PHBs start realising that there's an alternative to Windows for the corporate world.
3) In conjunction with #1, software developers now have a much larger potential market, encouraging them to bring quality products to the Macintosh where none previously existed. The lack of specialty software is the ONLY thing keeping a large number of my friends from switching to a Macintosh.
Should this come to pass, it's unlikely that history will remember the iPod as the catalyst, mostly because the Macintosh and Apple I were directly significant to the computer industry, whereas the iPod itself isn't a particularly revolutionary device. Of course, history hasn't remembered a lot of things as they should have been.
p
Your point being?
Sounds to me like both of them needed hardware that standard models didn't ship with.
You want the capability, you buy an upgrade. Whether this is an expansion card or comes built into the motherboard is mostly irrelevant. The latter simply requires a bit more pre-planning.
p
That's because the Slashdot crowd seems to be fairly pragmatic.
/. crowd mostly thinks in terms of "what can you do for me NOW," and as a result, you get a lot of people saying "Gee, [innovation] won't lead to anything useful with the next year or two, so it's not important to me." The sad part is, they're right most of the time. Don't believe me? Go grab an issue of Popular Science or Popular Mechanics from the mid-1980s.
Most technological advances that make the news here are in-development technologies that may or may not bear fruit in five to ten years. And if anything, the experience of the last 50 years should have taught us that no matter how many times flying cars and nuclear fusion are predicted to be 10 years off, they seem to be perpetually 10 years off.
I think the
p
Bought 50 @ $20.25. I'm lovin' it too. I'm also wishing I had had another grand or two to spare at the time...
;)
AAPL might be the Coca-Cola of the 21st century. In another 40 years* I might be able to retire on those 50 shares.
* Yeah, yeah, everyone "needs" sugar water, but the computer industry changes constantly. Well, everyone needs computers a lot more than they need sugar water now, and Apple has managed to survive longer than most of its competition. I'm sticking by my prediction.
p
Never. Because Bungie is owned by M$. You knew that, and were just trolling, weren't you?
p