My new car has a GPS and it speaks the directions to me: when a turn is coming up, how long until the next turn, etc. Sure, when a turn is coming up a zoomed-up maps shows me the turn, but I rarely look. To me, the voice is what counts.
I'm also prohibited from doing things while driving: entering addresses, selecting destinations (except for "Home", etc. AND, if I want to do what I can I have voice activation: "zoom in," "zoom out," etc.
If it didn't have the voice feature, then I could see it be a distraction. But now, I don't have to look too carefully at street signs trying to find the right turn which was a MAJOR distraction.
my ten year old nephew can destroy my car if I let him under the hood - it doesn't make him as talented as an automotive engineer.
I can see where you're coming from, but I think that's a poor analogy.
You nephew is more like a beta tester that can find bugs easily, as he can do something wrong or unexpected and "break" an application. Finding ways around security is something else; sometimes it's just exploiting a bug but sometimes there's a lot more to it (research, investigating, and some coding).
The I believe the poster's comments better relate wishing that hackers would act more like ex-criminals developing security systems. Ie, reformed bank robbers providing a service to make banks more secure; they obviously have the skills, they might as well use them for good.
Sure a lot (if not most) hackers are just scrip kiddies with too much time on their hands, exploiting a bug with a simple function call. But others are quite skilled and do more than just "break things."
3. You realize that after you buy both machines and even though you have a TV with HDMI, that it only has 1 HDMI port, and you have to switch the players back and forth every time you want to play a disc of a different format.
OR if you have HDTV through Digital Cable or Satellite.
That's the biggest sticking point with me. I watch a DVD per week (more if I'm on holiday) but I watch HD Television every day. This will be a pain to switch back-and-forth if I want High Def movies as well.
What's a beige box? I know what it is among the phreaking crowd (a linemans handset), but that's obviously not what your talking about.
Older term referring to homebrew or no-name-brand PC. Granted, such cases are rarely beige-and-boring anymore, but it's an old term I heard a lot back in "the day."
So I don't know if it's a regional thing or just an uncommon phrase.
And you think it's fair that they currently do that to MS but not to Apple?
It's not the same comparison. OS X isn't currently SUPPOSED to be used on non-Apple hardware. So complaining that a modified OS X is crashing on your beige box is like complaining that your rollerbades don't do well in an off-road setting; it's not meant/built to be used like that.
Windows, on the other hand, is made to work on most x86 hardware. So if it's crashing then you can blame MS, the writers of the drivers, the makers of the hardware, etc. Though this being slashdot, I'd guess you'd be complaining about MS.
If OS X were crashing a lot on your Apple rig (iMac, MacBook, etc) then by all means piss-and-moan about it. Personally, Windows does not crash on me (ever). Sure, an app has crashed here-or-there, but XP has been pretty stable for me. Likewise, OSX on my old PowerBook runs flawless.
Don't get me wrong. I'd LOVE to get OSX running on my PC. It would be an early birthday present.
But if the process is easy, Joe Sixpack will look at Apple like they do Microsoft: "it keeps crashing"
I doubt Apple has any drivers written for even the more common hardware out there. Chipsets, NICs, video cards, sound cards, etc. Sure, you might be able to get it running in a beige box, but too many will be outside of OSX's driver realm.
Of course, this will lead to normal users saying "Gollleee, now I can run OH ESS EKKS on my Walmart laptop by downloading it from the torrent thingeee." The next thing you know, they're cursing Apple's name as being a bunch of programmer hacks.
I didn't take his comment to read that Skype fill become like Napster due to their similarities. Because, as you say, one was a different (legal) animal than the other.
I take it to mean that, it will be an innovative business providing an interesting service that ultimately failed (or will fail) due to poor planning. That it was (is) a great service that could have built the foundation for something great, but hit a brick wall early in its life.
I love Skype; I have a SkypeIn account and the whole bit, but I can see it dying eventually. And when it dies it will be remembered as a one of the big time services that brought something great to popularity but ultimately died due to stupidity.
When I was a fulltime contractor at a different company, for the longest time I had a "cap" on my hours. In other words "you're bugeted to work x hours, don't go over unless you can back it up."
The reason was, as a fulltime contractor I was paid hourly. Over a certain amount required overtime (which I only received maybe twice).
I now work at a different place as a fulltime regular (salary). I love where I work; friendly coworkers and bosses.
monitoring sound light levels to determine if the owner is a movie theater
Phones ringing are bad. Yes. But you know what? That's because people are inconsiderate jerks.
I remember going to a couple of movies in a row. Each time, not only did a phone ring, but at least once a guy would answer the phone and start talking in his "cell phone voice." In other words, twice as loud as a person would normally talk. One movie, a guy's phone went off like 5 times. Each time he'd have a loud conversation. Unforunately, this guy was HUGE and mean looking so nobody wanted to be the guy to say "shut up a--hole!"
There's no way to get around people. Even if you have the phone set to vibrate automatically (light+sound, radio flag, or GPS), some jerk will still answer the flipping thing and disturb everyone.
A coworker lives off in a mountainy suburb area and she got Verizon's fiber solution in. While the next town over is a little urban, it's by no means hub of business.
Meanwhile, I live in a suburb that's home to a major IT laboratory and about half a mile away from a Verizon office. Yet Verizon's fiber isn't available here yet.
Well, those in the rural areas can always go with Satellite internet connections. I'm pretty sure the coverage is alright, you just have to live in an area with a view of the sky in the correct direction (which I do not).
The bandwith is decent, it's just the latency that sucks
The real question is, will it last long enough to see vista? Given that the average laptop dies a natural death in one to three years, it's anyone's guess...
I own 3 laptops: - Dell Inspiron (1998) - vpr Matrix (2002) - Apple PowerBook (2004)
The oldest (Inspiron) had to make a daily commute back-and-forth to my school in Newark, and even back-and-forth to work for a while. Sure, there's the occasional scratch or skuff mark but otherwise it's fine. The only problem is the battery on the Dell Inspiron is toast, so it currently acts as a lower power makeshift server in my house.
It depends on how you treat them and if you buy decent hardware.
And the chance of 1 (or several) large items hitting land is insanely smaller than the chance of the smaller bits falling down and hitting land.
But you have to ask, do you really want to take that chance? Even if we "bundled" them tightly, I can't see us controlleing the deorbit that carefully even if we tried.
Small peices, eh... maybe a couple get through, of which maybe a few hit land. Chances are the overall body count would be low if even several pieces hit land.
But an RV-sized chunk (after reentry) falling uncontrollably through the sky... not a warm and fuzzy scenario.
I wouldn't call any of their products monopolies here. They're just currently "hip".
Apple does not have a near-monopoly on the mp3 player market. There are tons of mp3 players out there that sell well. Unfortunately, no company has gone the extra mile to try to set up an online store that integrates so well. iRiver does pretty well and makes sweet mp3 players. There are a bunch of other major brands and a great many cheap mp3 players available. The iPod is just very successful.
iTunes isn't the only business in town, it's just apparently the most successful. This is partly due to its seemless integration with iPod and the iTunes. A killer combination.
I know a bunch of people with iPods, but I also know a bunch of people that have various other brands. Personally, I have a small flash-based player made by iRiver, and before that I had a Rio Karma.
If you're serious, then there's quite a flaw - when orbit eventually fails.
Think of ice. Take a 10-lb block of ice and leave it out on a Spring morning. Then take 10 pounds of ice cubes and shavings and leave them out on the same morning. Walk away.
Come back in a few hours. Chances are the 10-lb block of ice is still there and still big, while the pile of ice cubes and shavings have just about melted away. The large object can take a thermal pounding a lot easier than the same amount of material in smaller clumps can.
Upon reentry, most of the smaller stuff will burn away to nothing, with some of it becoming a baseball or golf ball sized object when it hits the earth. A satellite isn't THAT big, and by the time it passes through the atmosphere it's a lot smaller. Dangerous? Yes. But small enough that the damage is localized to a car window or house roof.
Now, imagine of all of the space chunk were collected into 1 or several large "balls." When they'd deorbit you'd have something the size of a house or an RV hitting the ground. That could take out a large building or perhaps a city block.
I doubt Apple will ever make much of a dent into business as Windows and PCs are already too ingrained into the workplace; they'll never leave.
However in personal or home use, It all comes down to tastes. Car A may be cheaper than Car B, have cheaper maintenance, and be an over-all good/reliable buy. But Car B may offer a much more comfortable experience and historically need A LOT less maintenance than Car A all-the-while having a much sleeker style. The question is, which is more important to you: upfront price or comfort.
I'm still primarily a Windows user. I write software for my company on my Dell, use a Thinkpad to check my mail and take on business trips, etc. When I'm at home and need to do some coding I power up my homebrew workstation and fire up Visual Studio or Intellij IDEA. And the occassional game? Forget it, windows all the way.
But general usage, I find myself using my Powerbook more and more. It's much less of a pain in the butt. Practically no viruses to speak or, no ad-ware, nothing that requires me to constantly check to make sure I didn't pick something up by accident. Combine that with OSX and your general usage really becomes a lot more pleasant. At first I thought the whole idea was stupid, now I find that I use the Powerbook for general usage and light coding, and the Window PC only when I really need to. I've even slowly started doing some of my Java development on the Powerbook, but it's a lot slower than the desktop so I only do simple things on it.
In closing, not everyone bases their decision on money, no should they.
Again, I can't blame anyone for getting a bargain-bin Wintel laptop. For a reasonable price you wind up getting a portable with decent performance. I bought myself a Vpr Matrix for 1,000 USD a few years ago with some pretty decent specs for the time and used it for Weblogic and Oracle development for around a year.
The P4 CPU in the mentioned Gateway comes with isn't the Centrino either. My friend has the 3GHz CPU w/ HT on a laptop and it drains batteries more than he'd like. Then again, this is anecdotal evidence and not true fact so I could be wrong. While I don't know about the MacBook Pro, PowerBook's have usually been pretty decent on battery life; Apple tries to make that the norm with their's. So I'd hope that would be the case here too.
Also, keep in mind this is the MacBook Pro, the replacement for the PowerBook. The iBook is the competitor for bargain-bin laptops and those specs haven't been released yet (I'm assuming it will simply be called the MacBook or it will keep the old iBook name). Though I'll concede the iBook won't be as fast as the listed Gateway, it will probably be close to the same price.
The MacBook Pro looks like a sweet machine. If I hadn't just purchased a car I'd probably consider getting it when it starts shipping. But for now I'm out of the PC/laptop/etc market.
Well, I doubt you'll be looking at the new Macs, then. I got one of these for about a grand
...
I'm hard-pressed to think what you might want that isn't covered here
Bluetooth? Nope
Dual Core? Nope
Ability to run OS X? Nope
Something better than Intel Extreme video? Nope
Anything else? Probably
To most people, these 3 things don't mean anything. To some, these things are essential, and they don't want to give them up. Sure, you can add bluetooth with a PCMCIA adapter, but some hate that option.
I love OS X, but if I was on a tight bugdet and needed a laptop, I'd probably go with a cheap Wintel laptop. I do Weblogic Portal dev work as well as straight Jave and light Oracle dev work. But the ability to run OS X (and potentially XP) with some of the specs is appealing. I've truly fallen in love with OS X's elegance, but sigh that I can't do all of my dev as easily (Weblogic is possible, but slow).
Then again, different strokes for different folks.
I can see the appeal in that, particularly if you've grown to learn some Japenese (if it's not already native to you). And A LOT of anime has really bad dubbing: horrid voice choices and bad sync.
But I have to admit, Ghost in the Shell has superb voice acting (or at least much better than the norm). Plus, I find that if I try to read the subtitles it breaks the immergence. If I just watch all the way through, I absorb everything and really get into the story and scenes. If I read the subtitles, my eyes bouncing back-and-forth kind of stop that from happening.
That scene was pretty lame. But in its defence, the question was actually (I think) the FIRST version of DOS. I can't imagine it being THAT long. I have to say though that it killed the entire scene. Asking him all of these mundane questions was pretty cool. The DOS thing though, eck.
It was an "alright" show, better than some of the other crap on the air.
You know if this was Sony or Microsoft there would be howls of anger and the pitchforks and torches would already be out. Apple does it and; "hey, they're swell guys but I don't know how comfortable I am about this".
Actually, no. As much as I "don't like" Microsoft and such, if they did this I wouldn't care.
It's saying "Hmm, you seem to like a lot of girlie music. We think you might like this song by the Backstreet Boys. Check it out of you want."
In my opinion, that's not malware. Malware would be installing a rootkit, or installing a driver/DLL that prevents you from listening to non DRM'ed songs on your PC alltogether. This is just implementing what just about every big online site does: based on your habits while using our service, might we recommend product X
It's just over-reactionary. Now, if this thing reports to Apple that "Person x has a suspicious number of mp3's with common hashcodes. Notify the RIAA ASAP!" then I would definately start Apple bashing. But it isn't, so who cares.
Not necessarily 'captured'. We were given several MiG's and Sukoi's in 1990/91 by the German AF, after they merged with the former East German AF.
While I've heard we were given some MiGs in the past, I also heard this rumor once.
That at once point (probably a while ago) we did "capture" a MiG or whatever. I think it went along the lines that he had to land for mechanical failure or we forced him to land or something.
In any case, what makes the story stand out is that we eventaully sent the MiG back in several boxes (ie, after we'd taken it apart to see what it had).
I have a unit from Comcast. At first I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Then it started crashing left and right. Not cool. It was in a well-ventilated area, wasn't getting any power surges, it would just crash. I'm on my second one, while my aunt in California is on her 3rd or 4th.
I've bee nwaiting for this for a while. I don't mind an initial heavy cost of a new unit and a lifetime membership, so long as I don't have to worry about it crashing.
Slashdot Mirror
It depends on your system.
My new car has a GPS and it speaks the directions to me: when a turn is coming up, how long until the next turn, etc. Sure, when a turn is coming up a zoomed-up maps shows me the turn, but I rarely look. To me, the voice is what counts.
I'm also prohibited from doing things while driving: entering addresses, selecting destinations (except for "Home", etc. AND, if I want to do what I can I have voice activation: "zoom in," "zoom out," etc.
If it didn't have the voice feature, then I could see it be a distraction. But now, I don't have to look too carefully at street signs trying to find the right turn which was a MAJOR distraction.
I can see where you're coming from, but I think that's a poor analogy.
You nephew is more like a beta tester that can find bugs easily, as he can do something wrong or unexpected and "break" an application. Finding ways around security is something else; sometimes it's just exploiting a bug but sometimes there's a lot more to it (research, investigating, and some coding).
The I believe the poster's comments better relate wishing that hackers would act more like ex-criminals developing security systems. Ie, reformed bank robbers providing a service to make banks more secure; they obviously have the skills, they might as well use them for good.
Sure a lot (if not most) hackers are just scrip kiddies with too much time on their hands, exploiting a bug with a simple function call. But others are quite skilled and do more than just "break things."
OR if you have HDTV through Digital Cable or Satellite.
That's the biggest sticking point with me. I watch a DVD per week (more if I'm on holiday) but I watch HD Television every day. This will be a pain to switch back-and-forth if I want High Def movies as well.
Older term referring to homebrew or no-name-brand PC. Granted, such cases are rarely beige-and-boring anymore, but it's an old term I heard a lot back in "the day."
So I don't know if it's a regional thing or just an uncommon phrase.
It's not the same comparison. OS X isn't currently SUPPOSED to be used on non-Apple hardware. So complaining that a modified OS X is crashing on your beige box is like complaining that your rollerbades don't do well in an off-road setting; it's not meant/built to be used like that.
Windows, on the other hand, is made to work on most x86 hardware. So if it's crashing then you can blame MS, the writers of the drivers, the makers of the hardware, etc. Though this being slashdot, I'd guess you'd be complaining about MS.
If OS X were crashing a lot on your Apple rig (iMac, MacBook, etc) then by all means piss-and-moan about it. Personally, Windows does not crash on me (ever). Sure, an app has crashed here-or-there, but XP has been pretty stable for me. Likewise, OSX on my old PowerBook runs flawless.
Don't get me wrong. I'd LOVE to get OSX running on my PC. It would be an early birthday present.
But if the process is easy, Joe Sixpack will look at Apple like they do Microsoft: "it keeps crashing"
I doubt Apple has any drivers written for even the more common hardware out there. Chipsets, NICs, video cards, sound cards, etc. Sure, you might be able to get it running in a beige box, but too many will be outside of OSX's driver realm.
Of course, this will lead to normal users saying "Gollleee, now I can run OH ESS EKKS on my Walmart laptop by downloading it from the torrent thingeee." The next thing you know, they're cursing Apple's name as being a bunch of programmer hacks.
I didn't take his comment to read that Skype fill become like Napster due to their similarities. Because, as you say, one was a different (legal) animal than the other.
I take it to mean that, it will be an innovative business providing an interesting service that ultimately failed (or will fail) due to poor planning. That it was (is) a great service that could have built the foundation for something great, but hit a brick wall early in its life.
I love Skype; I have a SkypeIn account and the whole bit, but I can see it dying eventually. And when it dies it will be remembered as a one of the big time services that brought something great to popularity but ultimately died due to stupidity.
When I was a fulltime contractor at a different company, for the longest time I had a "cap" on my hours. In other words "you're bugeted to work x hours, don't go over unless you can back it up."
The reason was, as a fulltime contractor I was paid hourly. Over a certain amount required overtime (which I only received maybe twice).
I now work at a different place as a fulltime regular (salary). I love where I work; friendly coworkers and bosses.
Phones ringing are bad. Yes. But you know what? That's because people are inconsiderate jerks.
I remember going to a couple of movies in a row. Each time, not only did a phone ring, but at least once a guy would answer the phone and start talking in his "cell phone voice." In other words, twice as loud as a person would normally talk. One movie, a guy's phone went off like 5 times. Each time he'd have a loud conversation. Unforunately, this guy was HUGE and mean looking so nobody wanted to be the guy to say "shut up a--hole!"
There's no way to get around people. Even if you have the phone set to vibrate automatically (light+sound, radio flag, or GPS), some jerk will still answer the flipping thing and disturb everyone.
Agreed.
A coworker lives off in a mountainy suburb area and she got Verizon's fiber solution in. While the next town over is a little urban, it's by no means hub of business.
Meanwhile, I live in a suburb that's home to a major IT laboratory and about half a mile away from a Verizon office. Yet Verizon's fiber isn't available here yet.
I REALLY want that to come in.
Well, those in the rural areas can always go with Satellite internet connections. I'm pretty sure the coverage is alright, you just have to live in an area with a view of the sky in the correct direction (which I do not).
The bandwith is decent, it's just the latency that sucks
My $300 7800GT came with 2 DVI (and no Analog). I didn't even notice it had 2 until it came in.
I was smiling.
I own 3 laptops:
- Dell Inspiron (1998)
- vpr Matrix (2002)
- Apple PowerBook (2004)
The oldest (Inspiron) had to make a daily commute back-and-forth to my school in Newark, and even back-and-forth to work for a while. Sure, there's the occasional scratch or skuff mark but otherwise it's fine. The only problem is the battery on the Dell Inspiron is toast, so it currently acts as a lower power makeshift server in my house.
It depends on how you treat them and if you buy decent hardware.
I totally agree.
And the chance of 1 (or several) large items hitting land is insanely smaller than the chance of the smaller bits falling down and hitting land.
But you have to ask, do you really want to take that chance? Even if we "bundled" them tightly, I can't see us controlleing the deorbit that carefully even if we tried.
Small peices, eh... maybe a couple get through, of which maybe a few hit land. Chances are the overall body count would be low if even several pieces hit land.
But an RV-sized chunk (after reentry) falling uncontrollably through the sky... not a warm and fuzzy scenario.
I wouldn't call any of their products monopolies here. They're just currently "hip".
Apple does not have a near-monopoly on the mp3 player market. There are tons of mp3 players out there that sell well. Unfortunately, no company has gone the extra mile to try to set up an online store that integrates so well. iRiver does pretty well and makes sweet mp3 players. There are a bunch of other major brands and a great many cheap mp3 players available. The iPod is just very successful.
iTunes isn't the only business in town, it's just apparently the most successful. This is partly due to its seemless integration with iPod and the iTunes. A killer combination.
I know a bunch of people with iPods, but I also know a bunch of people that have various other brands. Personally, I have a small flash-based player made by iRiver, and before that I had a Rio Karma.
If you're serious, then there's quite a flaw - when orbit eventually fails.
Think of ice. Take a 10-lb block of ice and leave it out on a Spring morning. Then take 10 pounds of ice cubes and shavings and leave them out on the same morning. Walk away.
Come back in a few hours. Chances are the 10-lb block of ice is still there and still big, while the pile of ice cubes and shavings have just about melted away. The large object can take a thermal pounding a lot easier than the same amount of material in smaller clumps can.
Upon reentry, most of the smaller stuff will burn away to nothing, with some of it becoming a baseball or golf ball sized object when it hits the earth. A satellite isn't THAT big, and by the time it passes through the atmosphere it's a lot smaller. Dangerous? Yes. But small enough that the damage is localized to a car window or house roof.
Now, imagine of all of the space chunk were collected into 1 or several large "balls." When they'd deorbit you'd have something the size of a house or an RV hitting the ground. That could take out a large building or perhaps a city block.
I doubt Apple will ever make much of a dent into business as Windows and PCs are already too ingrained into the workplace; they'll never leave.
However in personal or home use, It all comes down to tastes. Car A may be cheaper than Car B, have cheaper maintenance, and be an over-all good/reliable buy. But Car B may offer a much more comfortable experience and historically need A LOT less maintenance than Car A all-the-while having a much sleeker style. The question is, which is more important to you: upfront price or comfort.
I'm still primarily a Windows user. I write software for my company on my Dell, use a Thinkpad to check my mail and take on business trips, etc. When I'm at home and need to do some coding I power up my homebrew workstation and fire up Visual Studio or Intellij IDEA. And the occassional game? Forget it, windows all the way.
But general usage, I find myself using my Powerbook more and more. It's much less of a pain in the butt. Practically no viruses to speak or, no ad-ware, nothing that requires me to constantly check to make sure I didn't pick something up by accident. Combine that with OSX and your general usage really becomes a lot more pleasant. At first I thought the whole idea was stupid, now I find that I use the Powerbook for general usage and light coding, and the Window PC only when I really need to. I've even slowly started doing some of my Java development on the Powerbook, but it's a lot slower than the desktop so I only do simple things on it.
In closing, not everyone bases their decision on money, no should they.
Again, I can't blame anyone for getting a bargain-bin Wintel laptop. For a reasonable price you wind up getting a portable with decent performance. I bought myself a Vpr Matrix for 1,000 USD a few years ago with some pretty decent specs for the time and used it for Weblogic and Oracle development for around a year.
The P4 CPU in the mentioned Gateway comes with isn't the Centrino either. My friend has the 3GHz CPU w/ HT on a laptop and it drains batteries more than he'd like. Then again, this is anecdotal evidence and not true fact so I could be wrong. While I don't know about the MacBook Pro, PowerBook's have usually been pretty decent on battery life; Apple tries to make that the norm with their's. So I'd hope that would be the case here too.
Also, keep in mind this is the MacBook Pro, the replacement for the PowerBook. The iBook is the competitor for bargain-bin laptops and those specs haven't been released yet (I'm assuming it will simply be called the MacBook or it will keep the old iBook name). Though I'll concede the iBook won't be as fast as the listed Gateway, it will probably be close to the same price.
The MacBook Pro looks like a sweet machine. If I hadn't just purchased a car I'd probably consider getting it when it starts shipping. But for now I'm out of the PC/laptop/etc market.
To most people, these 3 things don't mean anything. To some, these things are essential, and they don't want to give them up. Sure, you can add bluetooth with a PCMCIA adapter, but some hate that option.
I love OS X, but if I was on a tight bugdet and needed a laptop, I'd probably go with a cheap Wintel laptop. I do Weblogic Portal dev work as well as straight Jave and light Oracle dev work. But the ability to run OS X (and potentially XP) with some of the specs is appealing. I've truly fallen in love with OS X's elegance, but sigh that I can't do all of my dev as easily (Weblogic is possible, but slow).
Then again, different strokes for different folks.
I can see the appeal in that, particularly if you've grown to learn some Japenese (if it's not already native to you). And A LOT of anime has really bad dubbing: horrid voice choices and bad sync.
But I have to admit, Ghost in the Shell has superb voice acting (or at least much better than the norm). Plus, I find that if I try to read the subtitles it breaks the immergence. If I just watch all the way through, I absorb everything and really get into the story and scenes. If I read the subtitles, my eyes bouncing back-and-forth kind of stop that from happening.
That scene was pretty lame. But in its defence, the question was actually (I think) the FIRST version of DOS. I can't imagine it being THAT long. I have to say though that it killed the entire scene. Asking him all of these mundane questions was pretty cool. The DOS thing though, eck. It was an "alright" show, better than some of the other crap on the air.
Actually, no. As much as I "don't like" Microsoft and such, if they did this I wouldn't care.
It's saying "Hmm, you seem to like a lot of girlie music. We think you might like this song by the Backstreet Boys. Check it out of you want."
In my opinion, that's not malware. Malware would be installing a rootkit, or installing a driver/DLL that prevents you from listening to non DRM'ed songs on your PC alltogether. This is just implementing what just about every big online site does: based on your habits while using our service, might we recommend product X
It's just over-reactionary. Now, if this thing reports to Apple that "Person x has a suspicious number of mp3's with common hashcodes. Notify the RIAA ASAP!" then I would definately start Apple bashing. But it isn't, so who cares.
While I've heard we were given some MiGs in the past, I also heard this rumor once.
That at once point (probably a while ago) we did "capture" a MiG or whatever. I think it went along the lines that he had to land for mechanical failure or we forced him to land or something.
In any case, what makes the story stand out is that we eventaully sent the MiG back in several boxes (ie, after we'd taken it apart to see what it had).
Any idea if this is true?
Or maybe an engineer uses it to make a perfect flawless lense that can see passed the curve of space and time, thus letting him see the future.
I have a unit from Comcast. At first I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Then it started crashing left and right. Not cool. It was in a well-ventilated area, wasn't getting any power surges, it would just crash. I'm on my second one, while my aunt in California is on her 3rd or 4th.
I've bee nwaiting for this for a while. I don't mind an initial heavy cost of a new unit and a lifetime membership, so long as I don't have to worry about it crashing.
Sign me up baby!