This reminds me of when Microsoft wanted to crush MP3, and came out with a highly proprietary format that nobody wanted to use for many reasons, one of which being the ability for the software to curb the usage of copyrighted media. I'm not advocating piracy, but if you're already using a tool that does what you want, and is free, and is... (did I mention it was free?) why switch?
Why should users be expected to dump their already-in-place tools and formats for a probably-proprietary version made by microsoft? Its no secret that MS wants to make money, so if you have a choice of a relatively stable and free version, or a new version by microsoft, which would you pick?
For every dollar spent into the space program we have reaped hundreds of dollars in benefits
How exactly?
The space program is one of the few acceptable things we can do to reverse this trend.
What is your reasoning for this? Why does space exploration make us different from the Romans? The fact that its not military-oriented? What does that matter?
I doubt you want to support a military expansionist empire.
Spending more to help hunger doesn't necessarily require buying more food. There is enough food wasted in this country to feed all of the hungry twice over, so obviously cutting down on the waste (which would almost certainly take money) and making sure that food gets to who needs it should be the number one priority.
I whole-heartedly agree with your comment about the education system. I think reform is definitely in order, but I also think we can do better than spending billions of dollars to put a base on a giant rock in space. Someone made a comment about reaping monetary benefits from this, but I'd like to see how we're going to make tons of money by exploring the moon. By selling moon rocks to wannabe tourists?
I'm all for space exploration (of course this really isn't space, and its not really exploration, but anyway) but I think we should set our goals a little closer to home. According to Wikipedia Russia has a 98% literacy rating for people over 15 years old, and I'm sure ours is nowhere close to that. I won't even mention all of the people who are starving. There's a whole soapbox that can be unleashed in this topic of conversation, but I'll keep it, for now, at the literacy part. Personally I'm of the opinion that an education should be one of the top priorities. Now I'm talking about past the basic needs... children can't learn if they die from starvation, obviously, but if you educate the children, you give them an opportunity (not a promise, mind you) to achieve something better in life. Not being able to read or write won't get you very far in this capitalistic society.
I think its interesting how computer crimes (even ones that technically do no physical damage, like destroying of files/property, etc) can warrant these huge jail times, yet a confessed convicted rapist, child molester, or other misc. violent criminal can sometimes get as few as 5 years in prison.
What does that tell us? We care more about our files than our children. While I don't think that breaking into a computer system just to prove you can is a smart idea (not saying that was the case in this situation, but rather in general), but I would consider a child molestation as a much more heinous crime, that should always warrant a longer sentence.
How many people would be checking their email five times a day if we had something (in our house for example) that notified us (by, oh, say a ringing sound) when we had a new message? Or maybe a blinking light? Sound familiar?
People only check their email that often because they don't have any other way of knowing whether or not they've got new mail. Tie email notification in with a distinct telephone ring sound, and you'll see the # of times people check their email drop considerably. Crack down on spammers and then the number of emails an individual gets will drop, also reducing "false" notifications.
Or we could just use this time and money on research that's actually useful. As http://www.fark.com/ sometimes says 'Still no cure for cancer.'
You can do this now with trunk-stored CD changers. Most of the units I've seen don't have direct wires from the changer to the radio unit, but rather broadcast on an FM frequency. The one's I've seen used 89.1 since it (presumably) wasn't already registered as being in use. While driving around in heavy traffic one day, I switched to 89.1, and started picking up a plethora of music from the people around me. The range isn't that great, and I couldn't be more than about 10 feet from them, but nonetheless, when stuck in a dead-stop traffic jam, the guy in front of me, I was happy to realize, had very similar tastes in music.
What I'd like to know is, what percentage of those 60% have "been abducted" and of those people, what percentage of them have less than 20 teeth and live in a trailer park.
Way back when I used to work at a grocery store, I couldn't count on two hands the number of times per week the beer truck would pull into our dock with a ton of broken bottles (sometimes multiple shipments per day), and it was my job to not only unload the stuff, yet clean it up afterward. While I didn't mind the work necessarily, I did end up smelling of beer six ways from Sunday, and (believe it or not) I don't drink. I wonder if Mr. SmartCar would let me drive home, even after scrubbing up several times. Somehow I think not.
Tell me what the motivation is for someone who likes to drink (socially or otherwise) to buy this, or a car that has this? The only other option would be for it to be required by law for everyone (or perhaps convicted drunk-drivers?) then they better make damn well sure it works correctly with no false positives.
Instead of Microsoft telling us how many units they are going to sell. (GOING to sell, not MAY sell), why not give some reasons why they think that? No wonder so many people can't stand Microsoft, they seem to arrogant with their projections. To them, they're not projections, they're fact, or whatever.
Now I'm not trying to bash them or anything, but maybe not as many people would loathe them if they just started managing their PR a little better.
Its like some vacuum salesman (a younger guy) started off trying to sell me a $1799 vacuum cleaner by telling me about his opportunity to go to Mexico for a week if he sells enough units. I don't know about the general public, but telling me what YOU will get out of me buying something isn't anywhere as important as telling me what I'm going to get. (On a side note, the first time I said no, he cut the price in half, if that tells you anything about those high priced vacuums.)
And yet when someone treats a computer simply as the tool it should be, they are branded 'fearful of change' and 'unthinking'?
I've been involved in the computer industry in various fields for about 20 years now, and I have seen first hand how people interact with computers. Back when mainframes were still mainstream, their operators knew what they were doing. Nowadays all you need is $400 and a credit card to get a home computer, so naturally the skill level of computer users, on average has dropped considerably. That is natural and happens in many different fields when a "specialty" item is released into the general public. You can't swing a dead cat nowadays without hitting someone with a cell phone, but 10 years ago it was almost unheard of to expect someone to have one.
The point is, you have many many people with little or no computer usage skills using computers. These people are (to use the car analogy) the people who don't get their oil changed, don't have the tires rotated, don't check fluids, accelerate too fast just start starting the engine, etc. These are the people who consider the cars to be 'black boxes'. They don't care how they work, just that they work. When they break, they take them to a "certified technician" to fix them. Even though they are SUPPOSED to do routine maintenance, they don't. Who knows why. Maybe they're ignorant about the requirements. (Has a car salesman ever told you explicitly that you need to change the oil? How many of you read the car manual cover to cover?) Maybe they're lazy. Maybe they forget. Maybe they're too busy. With computers its no different. Even though Mr. Average Windows User might know how to click on "Windows Update" on the start menu, if you changed that to a command-line interface, where they would have to type ANYTHING, I guarantee there would be people who don't do it.
More than half (probably close to 3/4s) of the people I've worked with in the past only have up-to-date systems because their computers were set up to automatically patch at a certain time every day (like lunchtime). A small percentage of people make it a routine (like checking email in the morning) of making sure they are up to date. The rest of them are just out of date, waiting for an attack of some variety.
Note that I didn't say that users have no idea how to use a computer. I said that users have no idea how to REALLY use a computer. Extrapolate from that what you like, but what it means is that the average user doesn't know how to adequately take steps to make sure they are current (OS patches, virus updates, etc)
Long story short (yeah I know, too late) if you make something that people are used to just a bit more complex, you won't change everyone's habits. There are always those people who get left behind for various reasons (usually due to their attitude.) For those people, I would recommend this book. Adapting to change is critical to the survival of many species, and humans are no exception. While using Windows over Linux, or vice-versa isn't a life-threatening choice, its the attitude of people not willing to accept change that will leave them in the dust.
It might be easier if you have no idea how to really use a computer, and are not willing to learn. Those people will never leave the "comfort" of a familiar thing. They fear change, especially when it forces them to actually think for themselves.
Have you tried google maps? Its a hit with me, and everyone I know who has seen it. Mapquest might give you driving directions, but you don't get to zoom in on your region of a satellite photo.
Lots of people in the scientific community (of which I've been a member for a long time now) use scholar as well. Perhaps you need to keep an open mind and realize there are other people in the world who maybe, just maybe, use tools that you don't.
I don't see how they can be called a one-hit wonder. They have their search engine, then google maps, froogle, picasa photo sharing, labs, scholar (for research papers and such), google answers, language translation, newsgroups, local business information, and much much more. (see more at http://www.google.com/options/)
Its obvious that google is doing much to expand their capabilities. I wonder how often Mr. Ballmer uses google himself. That's a stat I'd like to see.
Find the part where I said you've been compromised. 'That you know of' doesnt imply certainty.
My point is that just because you have a firewall and zone alarm, it does not mean that you are perfectly secure. Every program has its flaws, and the one who understands that is usually better off. Not counting all the ones that spread via user action (like opening virus emails as you mentioned) there are lots of ways to get around protection. Some protection is better than others, but just like in sex, the only 100% secure way is abstinence (or in this class unplugging).
Not trying to be a smart arse, but one shouldn't be lulled into a feeling of security because they've "taken precautions". Precautions are by all means a great thing to do, but none of them are fullproof. That's my point. =)
And MS has agreed with this since NT4. Remove your user account from the Administrator group
Perhaps they should DEFAULT it that way instead of relying on the average user (who, I might add with a touch of sarcasm, is a highly skilled computer operator) to take action and turn it off.
It doesn't take rocket science to figure this stuff out.
Slashdot Mirror
This reminds me of when Microsoft wanted to crush MP3, and came out with a highly proprietary format that nobody wanted to use for many reasons, one of which being the ability for the software to curb the usage of copyrighted media. I'm not advocating piracy, but if you're already using a tool that does what you want, and is free, and is... (did I mention it was free?) why switch?
Why should users be expected to dump their already-in-place tools and formats for a probably-proprietary version made by microsoft? Its no secret that MS wants to make money, so if you have a choice of a relatively stable and free version, or a new version by microsoft, which would you pick?
For every dollar spent into the space program we have reaped hundreds of dollars in benefits
How exactly?
The space program is one of the few acceptable things we can do to reverse this trend.
What is your reasoning for this? Why does space exploration make us different from the Romans? The fact that its not military-oriented? What does that matter?
I doubt you want to support a military expansionist empire.
No, we already have that in Iraq.
Spending more to help hunger doesn't necessarily require buying more food. There is enough food wasted in this country to feed all of the hungry twice over, so obviously cutting down on the waste (which would almost certainly take money) and making sure that food gets to who needs it should be the number one priority.
I whole-heartedly agree with your comment about the education system. I think reform is definitely in order, but I also think we can do better than spending billions of dollars to put a base on a giant rock in space. Someone made a comment about reaping monetary benefits from this, but I'd like to see how we're going to make tons of money by exploring the moon. By selling moon rocks to wannabe tourists?
A /.'er and you can't even use google. Quote from an article I pulled up in 15 seconds. http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/usa/ "Literacy rate over the age 15 is 100%"
/.'er who doesn't check their sources before spouting off. Literacy in Russia is 100% for MALES over the age of 15, and 97% for females over 15.
A
Troll away, I don't give a $&^@.
I'm all for space exploration (of course this really isn't space, and its not really exploration, but anyway) but I think we should set our goals a little closer to home. According to Wikipedia Russia has a 98% literacy rating for people over 15 years old, and I'm sure ours is nowhere close to that. I won't even mention all of the people who are starving. There's a whole soapbox that can be unleashed in this topic of conversation, but I'll keep it, for now, at the literacy part. Personally I'm of the opinion that an education should be one of the top priorities. Now I'm talking about past the basic needs... children can't learn if they die from starvation, obviously, but if you educate the children, you give them an opportunity (not a promise, mind you) to achieve something better in life. Not being able to read or write won't get you very far in this capitalistic society.
So the US can put a giant "Laser" on the moon. This "laser" could then be used to hold the earth for random for....
One Beeeeellion dollars!
I think we should call it the "Death Star"
I think its interesting how computer crimes (even ones that technically do no physical damage, like destroying of files/property, etc) can warrant these huge jail times, yet a confessed convicted rapist, child molester, or other misc. violent criminal can sometimes get as few as 5 years in prison.
What does that tell us? We care more about our files than our children. While I don't think that breaking into a computer system just to prove you can is a smart idea (not saying that was the case in this situation, but rather in general), but I would consider a child molestation as a much more heinous crime, that should always warrant a longer sentence.
How many people would be checking their email five times a day if we had something (in our house for example) that notified us (by, oh, say a ringing sound) when we had a new message? Or maybe a blinking light? Sound familiar?
People only check their email that often because they don't have any other way of knowing whether or not they've got new mail. Tie email notification in with a distinct telephone ring sound, and you'll see the # of times people check their email drop considerably. Crack down on spammers and then the number of emails an individual gets will drop, also reducing "false" notifications.
Or we could just use this time and money on research that's actually useful. As http://www.fark.com/ sometimes says 'Still no cure for cancer.'
You can do this now with trunk-stored CD changers. Most of the units I've seen don't have direct wires from the changer to the radio unit, but rather broadcast on an FM frequency. The one's I've seen used 89.1 since it (presumably) wasn't already registered as being in use. While driving around in heavy traffic one day, I switched to 89.1, and started picking up a plethora of music from the people around me. The range isn't that great, and I couldn't be more than about 10 feet from them, but nonetheless, when stuck in a dead-stop traffic jam, the guy in front of me, I was happy to realize, had very similar tastes in music.
What I'd like to know is, what percentage of those 60% have "been abducted" and of those people, what percentage of them have less than 20 teeth and live in a trailer park.
Way back when I used to work at a grocery store, I couldn't count on two hands the number of times per week the beer truck would pull into our dock with a ton of broken bottles (sometimes multiple shipments per day), and it was my job to not only unload the stuff, yet clean it up afterward. While I didn't mind the work necessarily, I did end up smelling of beer six ways from Sunday, and (believe it or not) I don't drink. I wonder if Mr. SmartCar would let me drive home, even after scrubbing up several times. Somehow I think not.
Tell me what the motivation is for someone who likes to drink (socially or otherwise) to buy this, or a car that has this? The only other option would be for it to be required by law for everyone (or perhaps convicted drunk-drivers?) then they better make damn well sure it works correctly with no false positives.
He's right.. Warlocks ARE a support class!
Ah... the good 'ole days of trying incessantly to uncurl that mouse cord in the right direction... those were the days.
Instead of Microsoft telling us how many units they are going to sell. (GOING to sell, not MAY sell), why not give some reasons why they think that? No wonder so many people can't stand Microsoft, they seem to arrogant with their projections. To them, they're not projections, they're fact, or whatever.
Now I'm not trying to bash them or anything, but maybe not as many people would loathe them if they just started managing their PR a little better.
Its like some vacuum salesman (a younger guy) started off trying to sell me a $1799 vacuum cleaner by telling me about his opportunity to go to Mexico for a week if he sells enough units. I don't know about the general public, but telling me what YOU will get out of me buying something isn't anywhere as important as telling me what I'm going to get. (On a side note, the first time I said no, he cut the price in half, if that tells you anything about those high priced vacuums.)
And yet when someone treats a computer simply as the tool it should be, they are branded 'fearful of change' and 'unthinking'?
I've been involved in the computer industry in various fields for about 20 years now, and I have seen first hand how people interact with computers. Back when mainframes were still mainstream, their operators knew what they were doing. Nowadays all you need is $400 and a credit card to get a home computer, so naturally the skill level of computer users, on average has dropped considerably. That is natural and happens in many different fields when a "specialty" item is released into the general public. You can't swing a dead cat nowadays without hitting someone with a cell phone, but 10 years ago it was almost unheard of to expect someone to have one.
The point is, you have many many people with little or no computer usage skills using computers. These people are (to use the car analogy) the people who don't get their oil changed, don't have the tires rotated, don't check fluids, accelerate too fast just start starting the engine, etc. These are the people who consider the cars to be 'black boxes'. They don't care how they work, just that they work. When they break, they take them to a "certified technician" to fix them. Even though they are SUPPOSED to do routine maintenance, they don't. Who knows why. Maybe they're ignorant about the requirements. (Has a car salesman ever told you explicitly that you need to change the oil? How many of you read the car manual cover to cover?) Maybe they're lazy. Maybe they forget. Maybe they're too busy. With computers its no different. Even though Mr. Average Windows User might know how to click on "Windows Update" on the start menu, if you changed that to a command-line interface, where they would have to type ANYTHING, I guarantee there would be people who don't do it.
More than half (probably close to 3/4s) of the people I've worked with in the past only have up-to-date systems because their computers were set up to automatically patch at a certain time every day (like lunchtime). A small percentage of people make it a routine (like checking email in the morning) of making sure they are up to date. The rest of them are just out of date, waiting for an attack of some variety.
Note that I didn't say that users have no idea how to use a computer. I said that users have no idea how to REALLY use a computer. Extrapolate from that what you like, but what it means is that the average user doesn't know how to adequately take steps to make sure they are current (OS patches, virus updates, etc)
Long story short (yeah I know, too late) if you make something that people are used to just a bit more complex, you won't change everyone's habits. There are always those people who get left behind for various reasons (usually due to their attitude.) For those people, I would recommend this book. Adapting to change is critical to the survival of many species, and humans are no exception. While using Windows over Linux, or vice-versa isn't a life-threatening choice, its the attitude of people not willing to accept change that will leave them in the dust.
It might be easier if you have no idea how to really use a computer, and are not willing to learn. Those people will never leave the "comfort" of a familiar thing. They fear change, especially when it forces them to actually think for themselves.
And how many of those are hits?
One.
Have you tried google maps? Its a hit with me, and everyone I know who has seen it. Mapquest might give you driving directions, but you don't get to zoom in on your region of a satellite photo.
Lots of people in the scientific community (of which I've been a member for a long time now) use scholar as well. Perhaps you need to keep an open mind and realize there are other people in the world who maybe, just maybe, use tools that you don't.
I also remember hearing about Bill Gates saying that there would never be a need for more than 640KB of ram.
I don't know how many hours I futzed around with XMS and EMS trying to get games to work on my old DOS system. UMB be damned!
Maybe someday Steve will realize that its just a bald head, not a crystal ball, and stop trying to predict the future.
I don't see how they can be called a one-hit wonder. They have their search engine, then google maps, froogle, picasa photo sharing, labs, scholar (for research papers and such), google answers, language translation, newsgroups, local business information, and much much more. (see more at http://www.google.com/options/)
Its obvious that google is doing much to expand their capabilities. I wonder how often Mr. Ballmer uses google himself. That's a stat I'd like to see.
Find the part where I said you've been compromised. 'That you know of' doesnt imply certainty.
My point is that just because you have a firewall and zone alarm, it does not mean that you are perfectly secure. Every program has its flaws, and the one who understands that is usually better off. Not counting all the ones that spread via user action (like opening virus emails as you mentioned) there are lots of ways to get around protection. Some protection is better than others, but just like in sex, the only 100% secure way is abstinence (or in this class unplugging).
Not trying to be a smart arse, but one shouldn't be lulled into a feeling of security because they've "taken precautions". Precautions are by all means a great thing to do, but none of them are fullproof. That's my point. =)
Oh, I forgot that firewalls are inpenetrable and zone alarm has absolutely no flaws whatsoever. Perfectly engineered software.
I sit corrected.
All that computing power, and it still can't find my car keys. They were on the desktop, after all.
I've figured this whole mess out!
O'Gara = Jones!
This was just a scam to escalate O'Gara/Jones to a media frenzy!
Don't forget, Einhorn WAS Finkle! Finkle WAS Einhorn! Einhorn was a man!
Never had a successful penetration or attack
That you KNOW of.
That's the key point that many people miss.
And MS has agreed with this since NT4. Remove your user account from the Administrator group
Perhaps they should DEFAULT it that way instead of relying on the average user (who, I might add with a touch of sarcasm, is a highly skilled computer operator) to take action and turn it off.
It doesn't take rocket science to figure this stuff out.