I hate to say it, but Microsoft's software isn't responsible for viruses as so many people seem to believe. The people who have nothing better to do with their lives than program viruses are the ones responsible. Come on, how pathetic does someone have to be to program a virus to spread across the internet. "I get my jollies off of screwing up computer systems that belong to people I don't even know!" I say, "Get a life," to those people. And to the rest of you, I suggest you place blame where it should be placed.
I see many people ranting about how if they have to use a.NET passport in order to play premium games, where they have to pay, suddenly their privacy is compromised and every site that uses.NET will know that information. That is hardly true. Before talking about what you don't know, try reading the.NET passport privacy policy, found at: http://www.passport.com/consumer/privacypolicy.asp For anyone who is worried, I highly recommend reading it, but for those who don't want to, I'll highlight a few points.
1. The normal.NET passport only stores the following:
Personally identifiable information, which is information that either personally identifies you or allows others to contact you. The personally identifiable information collected by.NET Passport includes your e-mail address, because your.NET Passport is based on your e-mail address..NET Passport may also collect your name and/or phone number depending on which.NET Passport Services you register for.
Non-personally identifiable or "demographic" information, which by itself does not identify you or allow others to contact you. The non-personally identifiable information that.NET Passport collects may include your country, state/region, ZIP/Postal Code, time zone, gender, birthday, and occupation.
2. Any information about credit card and address is stored in the.NET Wallet which is an optional part of the.NET. Only stores that actually use that information for purchasing purposes have access to the Wallet and they get access by having a privacy policy that matches the MS.NET Wallet privacy policy.
3. Other information (such as sizes if you buy clothes) are stored by the retailer, not by MS on your.NET account, the same goes for the zone, everything besides what is stated is stored by the.NET is stored by the zone, not.NET.
Anyone who was already playing premium games on the zone had already given MS their credit card info and their name, along with a valid e-mail address, so why should it matter if they can now go other places and not have to re-enter it? That information will now just be stored in the.NET wallet which in no way tells other zites that someone uses the zone for gaming.
While condiut is a good idea, don't use PVC, it's cheap, but dangerous. When PVC burns, it releases dangerous gasses. When inhaled, they turn into hydrochloric acid in your lungs (the C in PVC is chloride). While current fire codes do not prevent using PVC in walls in the US, they do in most of the rest of the developed world. PVC is completely illegal in Europe. My opinion is that it is great underground for your sprinkler system, but should never be in your walls if you can help it.
This entire thing is being caused because AT&T wants to buy out @Home. Even though @home is reporting a net loss, most of the loss comes from the purchasing of equipment. Once cable internet service stops growing so rapidly, @Home will be able to start paying of all their debt because they'll be making money and not paying for so much new equipment. @Home is valued at billions of dollars, yet AT&T (who bought 23% of @Home for over a billion dollars) now wants to buy out @Home for a measly $375 million. AT&T saw that since @Home is reporting a lose (in equipment, as was already stated) they could try to force @Home into bankruptcy court and then buy the entire company for less than 10% of it's value.
AT&T knows that the telephone infrastructure that they own is aging and needs to be upgraded. So, rather than upgrade what they own and pay billions of dollars, they see that @Home has already built a large part of the infrastructure and is reporting a net loss. If they can manage to buy it cheap, they don't have to spend as much money. If @Home fails, the only party that profits from it is AT&T. Do we really want Ma Bell in charge again? There was a reason the telephone industry was deregulated.
The article is really about people going from baseband back to broadband. For some reason everyone has this misconception that broadband = fast connection (cable or DSL). The truth of the matter is that broadband simply means an analog connection, nothing more. A dial-up modem is broadband technology. Meanwhile, baseband simply means a digital connection. So, cable modems and DSL with a digital connection to the internet is not broadband at all, rather it is baseband. When will the companies who advertise high speed internet access do their homework and research terms before they use them?
Where did you come from? I have used many different OSes in my day (DOS, Windows 3.x, Win95/98/NT/2000/XP, NT Server, 2000 Server, and several different releases of Linux, most notably Redhat 5, 6, 6.1, as well as various releases of SUSE and Debian). I am not a non-technical user. Using the car comparision, I not only would be the one to purchase the car without the engine and transmission installed, I purchase it in parts. I have built over 50 different computers.
The first time I installed windows on a brand new computer, I'll admit that I didn't know what I was doing, but I looked in the manual, put the boot disk and cd in, and before I knew it I had windows installed and running. The first time I tried to install Linux, first I had to go to the newsgroups to find what I was supposed to do to even get started and then it was still days later before linux was up and operating.
Right now, I am running WindowsXP and Windows2000 on my two computers, not because they came installed and I have no choice, but because after using linux, I decided that for now, I much prefer the ease of use of Windows. So, does that make me and everyone else like me NOBODY?
Get a clue, your opinion does not represent the opinion of the WHOLE WORLD. (nor does mine, but I never claimed it does)
As far as global warming being a fact, I don't think that can be argued. Over the past century the average temperature has increased. But, it is known that temperatures naturally fluctuate. I don't see where there is enough evidence to show that global warming is caused by pollution or CFC's specifically.
Many scientists think that the hole in the ozone over the south pole is a naturally occuring phonomenon that has been there since long before we could detect it or the idustrial revolution started. I also think the question begs to be asked, if the hole in the ozone is caused by pollution, why is it over the south pole where there is NO pollution? Shouldn't it be over New England? or LA?
If you take a basic college level chemisty class, you learn that Ozone (O3) is created in a chemical reaction between oxygen (02) and water (H20). The only reactant required is heat. The heat from the sun causes 02 + H20 = O3 + H2 . Someone please double check me on that, it's been awhile since college chem.
So, if pollution is causing a hole in the ozone which is causing global warming, then global warming will cause more ozone to be produced. That is why I am not convinced that the hole in the ozone is caused by pollution. Rather, my theory is that the hole in the ozone is a naturally occuring phenomenon that is centered over the coldest part of the earth for a reason, ie there isn't as much heat to create ozone.
Slashdot Mirror
I hate to say it, but Microsoft's software isn't responsible for viruses as so many people seem to believe. The people who have nothing better to do with their lives than program viruses are the ones responsible. Come on, how pathetic does someone have to be to program a virus to spread across the internet. "I get my jollies off of screwing up computer systems that belong to people I don't even know!" I say, "Get a life," to those people. And to the rest of you, I suggest you place blame where it should be placed.
I see many people ranting about how if they have to use a .NET passport in order to play premium games, where they have to pay, suddenly their privacy is compromised and every site that uses .NET will know that information. That is hardly true. Before talking about what you don't know, try reading the .NET passport privacy policy, found at:p
http://www.passport.com/consumer/privacypolicy.as
For anyone who is worried, I highly recommend reading it, but for those who don't want to, I'll highlight a few points.
1. The normal .NET passport only stores the following:
.NET Passport includes your e-mail address, because your .NET Passport is based on your e-mail address. .NET Passport may also collect your name and/or phone number depending on which .NET Passport Services you register for. .NET Passport collects may include your country, state/region, ZIP/Postal Code, time zone, gender, birthday, and occupation.
Personally identifiable information, which is information that either personally identifies you or allows others to contact you. The personally identifiable information collected by
Non-personally identifiable or "demographic" information, which by itself does not identify you or allow others to contact you. The non-personally identifiable information that
2. Any information about credit card and address is stored in the .NET Wallet which is an optional part of the .NET. Only stores that actually use that information for purchasing purposes have access to the Wallet and they get access by having a privacy policy that matches the MS .NET Wallet privacy policy.
3. Other information (such as sizes if you buy clothes) are stored by the retailer, not by MS on your .NET account, the same goes for the zone, everything besides what is stated is stored by the .NET is stored by the zone, not .NET.
Anyone who was already playing premium games on the zone had already given MS their credit card info and their name, along with a valid e-mail address, so why should it matter if they can now go other places and not have to re-enter it? That information will now just be stored in the .NET wallet which in no way tells other zites that someone uses the zone for gaming.
While condiut is a good idea, don't use PVC, it's cheap, but dangerous. When PVC burns, it releases dangerous gasses. When inhaled, they turn into hydrochloric acid in your lungs (the C in PVC is chloride). While current fire codes do not prevent using PVC in walls in the US, they do in most of the rest of the developed world. PVC is completely illegal in Europe. My opinion is that it is great underground for your sprinkler system, but should never be in your walls if you can help it.
It could make a difference. Once they can reconnect an optic nerve, eye transplants start becoming possible.
This entire thing is being caused because AT&T wants to buy out @Home. Even though @home is reporting a net loss, most of the loss comes from the purchasing of equipment. Once cable internet service stops growing so rapidly, @Home will be able to start paying of all their debt because they'll be making money and not paying for so much new equipment. @Home is valued at billions of dollars, yet AT&T (who bought 23% of @Home for over a billion dollars) now wants to buy out @Home for a measly $375 million. AT&T saw that since @Home is reporting a lose (in equipment, as was already stated) they could try to force @Home into bankruptcy court and then buy the entire company for less than 10% of it's value. AT&T knows that the telephone infrastructure that they own is aging and needs to be upgraded. So, rather than upgrade what they own and pay billions of dollars, they see that @Home has already built a large part of the infrastructure and is reporting a net loss. If they can manage to buy it cheap, they don't have to spend as much money. If @Home fails, the only party that profits from it is AT&T. Do we really want Ma Bell in charge again? There was a reason the telephone industry was deregulated.
The article is really about people going from baseband back to broadband. For some reason everyone has this misconception that broadband = fast connection (cable or DSL). The truth of the matter is that broadband simply means an analog connection, nothing more. A dial-up modem is broadband technology. Meanwhile, baseband simply means a digital connection. So, cable modems and DSL with a digital connection to the internet is not broadband at all, rather it is baseband. When will the companies who advertise high speed internet access do their homework and research terms before they use them?
Where did you come from? I have used many different OSes in my day (DOS, Windows 3.x, Win95/98/NT/2000/XP, NT Server, 2000 Server, and several different releases of Linux, most notably Redhat 5, 6, 6.1, as well as various releases of SUSE and Debian). I am not a non-technical user. Using the car comparision, I not only would be the one to purchase the car without the engine and transmission installed, I purchase it in parts. I have built over 50 different computers. The first time I installed windows on a brand new computer, I'll admit that I didn't know what I was doing, but I looked in the manual, put the boot disk and cd in, and before I knew it I had windows installed and running. The first time I tried to install Linux, first I had to go to the newsgroups to find what I was supposed to do to even get started and then it was still days later before linux was up and operating. Right now, I am running WindowsXP and Windows2000 on my two computers, not because they came installed and I have no choice, but because after using linux, I decided that for now, I much prefer the ease of use of Windows. So, does that make me and everyone else like me NOBODY? Get a clue, your opinion does not represent the opinion of the WHOLE WORLD. (nor does mine, but I never claimed it does)
As far as global warming being a fact, I don't think that can be argued. Over the past century the average temperature has increased. But, it is known that temperatures naturally fluctuate. I don't see where there is enough evidence to show that global warming is caused by pollution or CFC's specifically.
Many scientists think that the hole in the ozone over the south pole is a naturally occuring phonomenon that has been there since long before we could detect it or the idustrial revolution started. I also think the question begs to be asked, if the hole in the ozone is caused by pollution, why is it over the south pole where there is NO pollution? Shouldn't it be over New England? or LA?
If you take a basic college level chemisty class, you learn that Ozone (O3) is created in a chemical reaction between oxygen (02) and water (H20). The only reactant required is heat. The heat from the sun causes 02 + H20 = O3 + H2 . Someone please double check me on that, it's been awhile since college chem.
So, if pollution is causing a hole in the ozone which is causing global warming, then global warming will cause more ozone to be produced. That is why I am not convinced that the hole in the ozone is caused by pollution. Rather, my theory is that the hole in the ozone is a naturally occuring phenomenon that is centered over the coldest part of the earth for a reason, ie there isn't as much heat to create ozone.