While I generally don't agree with restrictions on the use of hardware I buy, this is a special case. The law is intended to reduce the amount of phone-thefts in the UK (the phones are then reprogrammed and re-sold). There is currently a huge problem with phone theft over here which is driven by the fact it's so simple to give a stolen phone a new identity, so I don't think this legislation is over the top...
I'm sorry, but what the f*** does this have to do with the government?! Isn't it their job to manage the country, not dictate the direction of consumer electronics (although Sntr Disney and his puppeteers would indicate otherwise)...
"IE is actually more stable for me for some reason"
Actually while I agree that IE6 is still the best browser to use under Windows*, it does have instabilities - mostly revolving around the cache. One widely reported problem is that suddenly the "View Source" and other options will just stop working. This is fixed by clearing the cache and history (why?!)
I've also noticed the browser go dead (after clicking a link, it stays on the page, as though it's loading, but never loads a new page until it's closed and then re-started). I'll admit I do abuse it a lot as I write a lot of DHTML scripts, but Mozilla doesn't fall over as easily (though I have crashed it on occasion).
* Due to it having a faster reflowing/DHTML engine and other capabilities not strictly related to normal web browsing. I repeat this is Windows only though, I'd advocate Mozilla on other platforms (on Mac OS-X both IE and Moz are slow and broken in various ways though, so it's a matter of taste).
I hate popup ads (when I'm not using Mozilla;-), but find pop-under's to be even more annoying. At least with a popup you can ALT+F4 or hit the destroy button as soon as it appears. With the pop-unders you normally have to minimise or move the main browser window, then close the ad-crap. Ok, so you don't HAVE to close it, but for some reason they just get to me - once I know there's an advert lurking under there, polluting my desktop I just HAVE to get rid of it... Maybe I need help...
I'm betting that the respondants to their poll actually meant both popup and popunder ads as one single annoyance, but it got lost somehow in the marketting dept...
THANK YOU! Someone else with the same problem! That f***ing Realplayer startcentre had me grepping the registry for any likely entries and deleting them, also searching the folders and whatever else I could think of. I did it in the end, but not sure how;-)
I'm still trying to find out how/why it keeps on deciding to associate.wav files with Realplayer instead of WinAMP (which starts up instantly instead of RealPlayer's screwing around on the network for 10 seconds before playing a clip!)
I often sort out problems with friends' Windows machines (I'm in no way a Windows expert, but not quite as clueless as my friends;-) I can't convert them to Linux though!) and it's astonishing, just watching all those totally useless icons filling the system tray of their 64MB machines. The things are often hitting swap before they finish booting!
IANAL, but if someone were to discover the first EULA used in a piece of commercial software (that still bore some relevance to current EULAs), bought it from the original owner and decided to defend its patent on the EULA, couldn't this company then claim royalties from all other software companies for using EULAs that were "substantially identical"?
Better still, don't demand royalties, just prohibit anyone from using anything substantially identical to piss them all off;-)
I suppose it would be very useful if a front-end app were built to parse "layman's questions" about a EULA. IE, "does EULA #49493 prohibit me from XXXX?". The web app could then work its magic and answer the question quickly and hopefully in understandable terms!
This is a great idea, much better to have a central resource than rely on heresay and FUD...
lots of ram and 1.2+ghz if you want to play newer games
And if you want to play the REALLY new games, you definately need 1.4ghz or higher. My Win XP machine with 1.4 Athlon and 768MB RAM *just* manages to play Metal Slug 3 at full frame rate most of the time. When there's a lot going on (as there frequently is with that game and its huge explosions) my machine really struggles...
Yeah ok the grammar may not be "Senator level", but the parent has made a good point! I'm glad I'm in the UK; the current patent, DMCA etc laws in the US completely stifle any possibility of anyone coming up with any new invention or marketable idea. Sure, you might be able to start a ball rolling, but as soon as it looks like your idea might make money you'll find [INSERT SOULLESS CORPORATION] unleashing their little pet lawyers at you to either (a) convince some half-witted jury they own the patent or (b) bankrupt you, then take the idea...
This would be a major reason for schools on tight budgets to turn to Linux for computer programming classes! Why pay for the Microsoft tools (and tax) when this is available? Seems the LTSP folks should look into this...
I suppose it does work in a way. I have a script that generates an.hta from the link to the "unsubscribe" form on the spammer (or their customer's) site (an HTA for those not aware, is a Hypertext Application - a javascript/dHTML application that runs with no security restrictions, allowing file access etc).
The HTA it generates, when launched will keep posting useless email address and other information into the form in a loop, as quickly as possible. I often launch a bunch of these and leave them running in the task-bar while I work on other things. It's quite easy to post over 500,000 requests in a few hours on a DSL line;-)
I'm trying to get a list of known spammer email addresses together so I can just post them to the "unsubscribe" pages, and publish them in articles on usenet etc. If anyone knows a good source/method for doing this, let me know!
I tried BT's service, but switched to demon (no I don't work for them) as they have a pretty open policy, plus you get a fixed IP (which is a double edged sword I guess).
Before I signed up I asked about their policy for customers running services on their machines and bandwith limits. I was told I could do anything I liked so long as I didn't cause problems for anyone else.
Service has been great for me, I could never go back to a modem now;-)
Well, ok, maybe they said they wanted to buy space on graves, but let's face it, it wouldn't happen (unless Eminem's mum died I guess). It's just good publicity - hey they've just pulled in a few thousand nerds if nothing else!!
Yep, seriously - do it! As the guy above says, you bought the damned film, so why should you have to watch 5 minutes of adverts for other products EVERY single time you want to use it? What other product does this? Could you image buying a CD and having to listen to ads before the first track would play, or using a laptop that played videos advertising other products by the same PC maker before booting?
I simply return it stating the DVD prevents me from using my DVD player properly when it's inserted in the machine. The software is effectively causing it to behave abnormally, playing content I do not wish to see and preventing me from operating the device according to the instruction manual.
The last one I remember was "Series 7, the Contenders" (I think), which had a whole bunch of adverts at the start. I rented this, and took it back to the store (after watching it of course) demanding a refund. There was only one guy serving and a few people behind me. First off he claimed there was nothing wrong with it, so I asked him to try it himself so he stuck it into the player in the shop. After 3 or 4 minutes of pressing the menu button and having the "Access denied" icon display while the queue grew (angrier) behind me he admitted he couldn't play the film and I got a free rental for the night!
While some films benefit to an extent (Aliens being one), on the whole most of the "extra" material was usually cut because it adds nothing to the film anyway. If I like a film I'll buy the DVD regardless of the extra footage. I think behind-the-scenes material is often more important, although it's usually something you'll only watch once anyway.
Any DVDs that force me to watch adverts are taken straight back for a refund as "broken" by the way - hopefully other people do this as well...
Here in the UK (not sure about anywhere else) MTV have "Ad break tennis" where you can play pong super-imposed over the adverts until they end and save your game to continue during the next set of adverts;-) I guess they think the ads will still get the message across submliminally or something.
One thing I hate already with Sky is that the channels tend to switch to adverts all at the same time, so as you surf all you can find are more ads! Glad we have the BBC with no adverts. I mean why do the satelight/cable companies NEED 20 minutes of ads every hour (5 minutes after every 15) when I already pay 30 quid a month for the channels?? I only pay 100 odd quid a year for the BBC which has a lot of channels and no ads!
I think removing links to images on user tracking sites might be a good idea too, BTW. I filter most spam, but every so often I inadvertantly open one with one of these "unique tracking ID" type images and Whoops! I've just confirmed my email address works!
I've seen too many newbies laughed at in the IRC #security channels or the newsgroups.
I totally agree! I used to hang out in the linux* IRC channels to help people quite a lot, but became sick of all the bitching and script kiddies kicking anyone who didn't run their preferred version of Linux (anyone mentioning they ran RH was usually banned for some reason), or trying to start arguments by giving obtuse or antagonistic replies to questions. That sort of bullying is not anything I want a part of, and does Linux no good what-so-ever.
I don't know if Windows has any sort of community, but I can't imagine it would have such a high percentage of irritating know-it-alls driving people away.
In another "survey" I wrote on the toilet today, statistics suggest honeypot servers running Linux are significantly more likely to be attacked than IIS servers!
Sorry, but this report is so lacking in facts or sources that it might as well have been a conversation overheard in a pub. In my server logs here, the number of IIS exploit attempts is absolutely overwhelming! In other server's I've administered this is also the case. Sorry, I smell FUD...
While working on a B2B application (little terminals in florist shops - a bit like inter-flora). The terminals had an email client and order system. If you went into the email client and entered "Game 1" or "Game 2" as the recipient address you could play a game! Only myself, the other developers and a couple of the software testers knew about it, which was just as well as the machines would crash as soon as you closed the game!
If Apple are giving their grassroots supporters a hard time, effectively banishing them from the expo, shouldn't all the big news sites show some solidarity and not publish any news about Apple or rumours about the show?
Apple always bite the hand that feeds which is why most people run Windows now.
Excuse me, but how the f*ck was the parent modded up as funny? I bet any post about Americans blowing up civilians across Europe and being the planet's worst polluter and being the only country to use nuclear weapons on human beings etc wouldn't have earned a "Funny" rating... Just as I guess this will be modded down now... Sheesh...
I know quite a few people who can't program their VCRs, and seem proud of their ignorance. These are not (all) stupid people, but it seems that anything even slightly technical is beyond the interest of most of the population. (I'm laughing here thinking of the episode of the Osbornes where Ozzy is trying to use his state-of-the-art entertainment centre: "Why is it you need f*ckin' compuer skills to turn on the f*ckin' telly!?")
When something as simple as setting a start and end time plus a channel is beyond a large proportion of the population, it's going to be impossible to design an interface for TIVO that *anyone* can use. At some point you have to give up...
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While I generally don't agree with restrictions on the use of hardware I buy, this is a special case. The law is intended to reduce the amount of phone-thefts in the UK (the phones are then reprogrammed and re-sold). There is currently a huge problem with phone theft over here which is driven by the fact it's so simple to give a stolen phone a new identity, so I don't think this legislation is over the top...
I'm sorry, but what the f*** does this have to do with the government?! Isn't it their job to manage the country, not dictate the direction of consumer electronics (although Sntr Disney and his puppeteers would indicate otherwise)...
"IE is actually more stable for me for some reason"
Actually while I agree that IE6 is still the best browser to use under Windows*, it does have instabilities - mostly revolving around the cache. One widely reported problem is that suddenly the "View Source" and other options will just stop working. This is fixed by clearing the cache and history (why?!)
I've also noticed the browser go dead (after clicking a link, it stays on the page, as though it's loading, but never loads a new page until it's closed and then re-started). I'll admit I do abuse it a lot as I write a lot of DHTML scripts, but Mozilla doesn't fall over as easily (though I have crashed it on occasion).
* Due to it having a faster reflowing/DHTML engine and other capabilities not strictly related to normal web browsing. I repeat this is Windows only though, I'd advocate Mozilla on other platforms (on Mac OS-X both IE and Moz are slow and broken in various ways though, so it's a matter of taste).
I hate popup ads (when I'm not using Mozilla ;-), but find pop-under's to be even more annoying. At least with a popup you can ALT+F4 or hit the destroy button as soon as it appears. With the pop-unders you normally have to minimise or move the main browser window, then close the ad-crap. Ok, so you don't HAVE to close it, but for some reason they just get to me - once I know there's an advert lurking under there, polluting my desktop I just HAVE to get rid of it... Maybe I need help...
I'm betting that the respondants to their poll actually meant both popup and popunder ads as one single annoyance, but it got lost somehow in the marketting dept...
THANK YOU! Someone else with the same problem! That f***ing Realplayer startcentre had me grepping the registry for any likely entries and deleting them, also searching the folders and whatever else I could think of. I did it in the end, but not sure how ;-)
.wav files with Realplayer instead of WinAMP (which starts up instantly instead of RealPlayer's screwing around on the network for 10 seconds before playing a clip!)
;-) I can't convert them to Linux though!) and it's astonishing, just watching all those totally useless icons filling the system tray of their 64MB machines. The things are often hitting swap before they finish booting!
I'm still trying to find out how/why it keeps on deciding to associate
I often sort out problems with friends' Windows machines (I'm in no way a Windows expert, but not quite as clueless as my friends
IANAL, but if someone were to discover the first EULA used in a piece of commercial software (that still bore some relevance to current EULAs), bought it from the original owner and decided to defend its patent on the EULA, couldn't this company then claim royalties from all other software companies for using EULAs that were "substantially identical"?
;-)
Better still, don't demand royalties, just prohibit anyone from using anything substantially identical to piss them all off
I suppose it would be very useful if a front-end app were built to parse "layman's questions" about a EULA. IE, "does EULA #49493 prohibit me from XXXX?". The web app could then work its magic and answer the question quickly and hopefully in understandable terms!
This is a great idea, much better to have a central resource than rely on heresay and FUD...
lots of ram and 1.2+ghz if you want to play newer games
And if you want to play the REALLY new games, you definately need 1.4ghz or higher. My Win XP machine with 1.4 Athlon and 768MB RAM *just* manages to play Metal Slug 3 at full frame rate most of the time. When there's a lot going on (as there frequently is with that game and its huge explosions) my machine really struggles...
Yeah ok the grammar may not be "Senator level", but the parent has made a good point! I'm glad I'm in the UK; the current patent, DMCA etc laws in the US completely stifle any possibility of anyone coming up with any new invention or marketable idea. Sure, you might be able to start a ball rolling, but as soon as it looks like your idea might make money you'll find [INSERT SOULLESS CORPORATION] unleashing their little pet lawyers at you to either (a) convince some half-witted jury they own the patent or (b) bankrupt you, then take the idea...
I'm almost glad I live in the UK...
This would be a major reason for schools on tight budgets to turn to Linux for computer programming classes! Why pay for the Microsoft tools (and tax) when this is available? Seems the LTSP folks should look into this...
I suppose it does work in a way. I have a script that generates an .hta from the link to the "unsubscribe" form on the spammer (or their customer's) site (an HTA for those not aware, is a Hypertext Application - a javascript/dHTML application that runs with no security restrictions, allowing file access etc).
;-)
The HTA it generates, when launched will keep posting useless email address and other information into the form in a loop, as quickly as possible. I often launch a bunch of these and leave them running in the task-bar while I work on other things. It's quite easy to post over 500,000 requests in a few hours on a DSL line
I'm trying to get a list of known spammer email addresses together so I can just post them to the "unsubscribe" pages, and publish them in articles on usenet etc. If anyone knows a good source/method for doing this, let me know!
I tried BT's service, but switched to demon (no I don't work for them) as they have a pretty open policy, plus you get a fixed IP (which is a double edged sword I guess).
;-)
Before I signed up I asked about their policy for customers running services on their machines and bandwith limits. I was told I could do anything I liked so long as I didn't cause problems for anyone else.
Service has been great for me, I could never go back to a modem now
I know, it'll never happen... but if it could be bought in this way it'd save a lot of projects a lot of time ;-)
Well, ok, maybe they said they wanted to buy space on graves, but let's face it, it wouldn't happen (unless Eminem's mum died I guess). It's just good publicity - hey they've just pulled in a few thousand nerds if nothing else!!
Yep, seriously - do it! As the guy above says, you bought the damned film, so why should you have to watch 5 minutes of adverts for other products EVERY single time you want to use it? What other product does this? Could you image buying a CD and having to listen to ads before the first track would play, or using a laptop that played videos advertising other products by the same PC maker before booting?
I simply return it stating the DVD prevents me from using my DVD player properly when it's inserted in the machine. The software is effectively causing it to behave abnormally, playing content I do not wish to see and preventing me from operating the device according to the instruction manual.
The last one I remember was "Series 7, the Contenders" (I think), which had a whole bunch of adverts at the start. I rented this, and took it back to the store (after watching it of course) demanding a refund. There was only one guy serving and a few people behind me. First off he claimed there was nothing wrong with it, so I asked him to try it himself so he stuck it into the player in the shop. After 3 or 4 minutes of pressing the menu button and having the "Access denied" icon display while the queue grew (angrier) behind me he admitted he couldn't play the film and I got a free rental for the night!
While some films benefit to an extent (Aliens being one), on the whole most of the "extra" material was usually cut because it adds nothing to the film anyway. If I like a film I'll buy the DVD regardless of the extra footage. I think behind-the-scenes material is often more important, although it's usually something you'll only watch once anyway.
Any DVDs that force me to watch adverts are taken straight back for a refund as "broken" by the way - hopefully other people do this as well...
Here in the UK (not sure about anywhere else) MTV have "Ad break tennis" where you can play pong super-imposed over the adverts until they end and save your game to continue during the next set of adverts ;-) I guess they think the ads will still get the message across submliminally or something.
One thing I hate already with Sky is that the channels tend to switch to adverts all at the same time, so as you surf all you can find are more ads! Glad we have the BBC with no adverts. I mean why do the satelight/cable companies NEED 20 minutes of ads every hour (5 minutes after every 15) when I already pay 30 quid a month for the channels?? I only pay 100 odd quid a year for the BBC which has a lot of channels and no ads!
Hardly:
/>
<a href="Javascript:eLiTeSkRip7()">
<span onclick="someOtherCode()"></span>
<img src="blah.gih" onload="someScript()"
etc etc etc...
I think removing links to images on user tracking sites might be a good idea too, BTW. I filter most spam, but every so often I inadvertantly open one with one of these "unique tracking ID" type images and Whoops! I've just confirmed my email address works!
You can buy coloured drives you know, or you always have the option of modding a new drive yourself...
I've seen too many newbies laughed at in the IRC #security channels or the newsgroups.
I totally agree! I used to hang out in the linux* IRC channels to help people quite a lot, but became sick of all the bitching and script kiddies kicking anyone who didn't run their preferred version of Linux (anyone mentioning they ran RH was usually banned for some reason), or trying to start arguments by giving obtuse or antagonistic replies to questions. That sort of bullying is not anything I want a part of, and does Linux no good what-so-ever.
I don't know if Windows has any sort of community, but I can't imagine it would have such a high percentage of irritating know-it-alls driving people away.
Rant over
In another "survey" I wrote on the toilet today, statistics suggest honeypot servers running Linux are significantly more likely to be attacked than IIS servers!
Sorry, but this report is so lacking in facts or sources that it might as well have been a conversation overheard in a pub. In my server logs here, the number of IIS exploit attempts is absolutely overwhelming! In other server's I've administered this is also the case. Sorry, I smell FUD...
While working on a B2B application (little terminals in florist shops - a bit like inter-flora). The terminals had an email client and order system. If you went into the email client and entered "Game 1" or "Game 2" as the recipient address you could play a game! Only myself, the other developers and a couple of the software testers knew about it, which was just as well as the machines would crash as soon as you closed the game!
If Apple are giving their grassroots supporters a hard time, effectively banishing them from the expo, shouldn't all the big news sites show some solidarity and not publish any news about Apple or rumours about the show?
Apple always bite the hand that feeds which is why most people run Windows now.
(I own an Apple, BTW - this isn't a troll)
Excuse me, but how the f*ck was the parent modded up as funny? I bet any post about Americans blowing up civilians across Europe and being the planet's worst polluter and being the only country to use nuclear weapons on human beings etc wouldn't have earned a "Funny" rating... Just as I guess this will be modded down now... Sheesh...
I know quite a few people who can't program their VCRs, and seem proud of their ignorance. These are not (all) stupid people, but it seems that anything even slightly technical is beyond the interest of most of the population. (I'm laughing here thinking of the episode of the Osbornes where Ozzy is trying to use his state-of-the-art entertainment centre: "Why is it you need f*ckin' compuer skills to turn on the f*ckin' telly!?")
When something as simple as setting a start and end time plus a channel is beyond a large proportion of the population, it's going to be impossible to design an interface for TIVO that *anyone* can use. At some point you have to give up...