> Pundits would have us believe that 1.5 million COBOL programmers will suddenly disappear one day, leaving any company with legacy technology in dire straits
Sounds like the Rapture to me.
For Root himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the BOFH, and the trump of Root: and those
buried face-down, 9-edge first shall rise: Then we which are fat-fingered from typing, and remain shall be caught up together with them in the job queue, to meet the Scheduler in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Scheduler, 8" - 1 COBOLonians 4:16-17
I'm goin' to hell for that. But if you make me program in COBOL again, I'm taking you with me, rapture or not.
> Now that this Surveillance Devices Act allows police to obtain a warrant, does that mean that information obtained unlawfully won't stand in the court?
Information obtained unlawfully never stands in court. Because the Constitution is a living document that must be updated to take into account changing technologies, however, the definition of "unlawful" must change.
In brief, "Anything not nailed down is ours. Anything we can pry loose is not nailed down!"
Meantime, the US has had this since 2001, so it's not like Australia's move towards normalizing law enforcement techniques to modern standards is anything new.
> "They simply don't want to know - China Telecom doesn't care because they're government-owned and there is no pressure coming from the government.
550 - Thank you for your support of the steganographic communications payment protocol.
550 - Your continued support of Falun Dafa [Falun Gong] in the face of continued oppression from the butchers of Beijing is appreciated.
550 - The following token shall constitute both a receipt for your payment and a public key with which you may send your next message to your allies in the resistance.
550 - KEYBLOCK 6x5 F81IZ FOLG3 VOLSX CIOP3 F7JJ2 EYMNX
Now, is it my fault if my crontab edits the last line of that message to a different series of random characters every 30 seconds? Is it my fault if the owner of the spam-relaying machine is... dealt with... in the name of protecting his fellow citizens from mysticism and supersition?
Hmm, I suppose it is.
But hey, there's a critical shortage of corneal and kidney transplants. And a critical oversupply of server administrators who support spammers. I'm just the invisible hand of the market, smoothing out the discrepancies.
> Desperate prospectors from a poverty- and famine-stricken Earth travel to the Gateway asteroid (as it becomes known) to take a trip in a Heechee ship hoping to find something unusual, and perhaps earn themselves a share in the Gateway Corporation. Some never return; some return only after their food and oxygen has long run out; some are sent to destinations that kill the occupants of the craft; a lucky few return to enormous wealth.
...in the form of personal computers casemodded to resemble cows. Spending too much time at the Gateway Corporation can do that sort of thing to you.
> As more wind generation and grid transmission capacity is built, wind will eventually become more competitive than hydroelectric, but hydro and other sources will be required to balance grid demand in calm areas
Just because it's viable now, doesn't mean it'll be viable for the entire country. Nor does present-day viability imply that it'll scale up to the rest of the country's energy needs.
Wind energy isn't necessarily scalable: there's a finite amount of land onto which you can erect windmills, and the planet ain't makin' more of it until the Mid-Atlantic Ridge breaks the surface.
Similarly, hydroelectric power isn't renewable: there are only so many rivers that can be dammed, and a finite amount of rain falling into the water systems that feed them.
So - although wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal are nice stopgap measures that'll give us a few more years (10-20% of the energy supply) in which to solve the problem, they don't solve the problem.
Solving the problem means finding a high-energy-density portable power source (for cars), and/or an extremely high-density electrical generation source (which you then use to power everything but cars, and/or to synthesize hydrocarbons from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen).
Given the title of "Emperor", I would immediately institute a programme of building next-generation fission reactors (still a finite resource, but a much larger finite resource than current petrochemical supplies or feasible wind generation capacity) across the US as a stopgap for the 30-50 year timeframe, and a balls-out, Manhattan-project style effort towards fusion, including the use of the moon (and perhaps some asteroids) as a source from which He3 can be mined. (...if it turns out we need an He3-based solution. Who knows what we'll learn?)
This isn't about the "oil industry": Apart from a few barbarians running around in a certain desert, everyone from Apache to Exxon has realized that when push comes to shove, they're not in the oil business, they're in the energy business.
> IEEE Spectrum has an interesting article on how to fix the U.S. patent system. [... ] and suggests 3 specific fixes: 'create incentives and opportunities for parties to challenge the novelty and nonobviousness of an invention before the PTO grants a patent,' examine the important patents meticulously; don't waste effort on the unimportant ones that can be ousted early, and for examining prior art, use judges and special masters rather than uninformed juries."
In other news, David Boies, acting on behalf of Darl McBride, has filed three suits against IEEE for infringement of patents #13,371,337 #3,133,731,337, and #8,013,580,135, "Method for fixing the US Patent System", "Method for Borking a Patent System", and "Method for Subtly Implying That Every Idea In The World Is Mine, All Mine", respectively.
> Why not cut out the middle man and just mail you CDs with music on them?
Because every CD in the known universe has already had a free AOL account burned into it.
Besides, who the hell's crazy enough to employ a business model based on distributing lossless copies of non-DRM-hobbled music files on 650-megabyte removable media?:)
>...When he sprouts ears, talks in backwards logic, and shrinks about 3 feet, then call me.
Youssa should bees more careful what youssa askey for. (What? Youssa want looky Yoda? Yousa no likey Gungans? Yoosa no likey goats? Yousafrady own dirty mind or somethink?)
(Credits: Itsa not my Photoshoppy. Wassa saving for makey funny about GNU story, but forcey of 503 issa stronga than me!)
> According to the article, the delays are largely because of the decision to go with 10,000 names rather than the original 2500. The amount of content means each change to the ad requires 15 minutes of rendering.
Hmm, so the ad runs at 11 users per second.
Solution obvious! We either overclock the New York Times, or we lobby the printer industry to break the Adobe monopoly by supporting Firescript (originally called Postzilla, and occasionally still referred to as Lexscape by some marketroids at A Certain Very Big And Very Evil Corporation), the new page description language interpreter that provides for enhanced security, usability, and performance on phototypesetting equipment of all types!
> However, their children probably would, especially if mom or dad was there to explain what "numinous" or "chthonic" meant.
Kid: Mommy, what does 'chthonic' mean?
Mommy: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wga'nagl f-*ahem*-why don't you just ask Dad about sex or something?
Kid: Mmmm... okay...
[ 30 seconds later ]
Kid: IA! IA! CTHULHU FHTAGN! HASTUR! HASTUR! HASTmfmmfph! *munchmunchmunch*
"Remember, parents. The only thing worse than explaining 'chthonic' to your kids is having them find out for themselves."
> China now dazzles visitors with luxury skyscrapers, five-star hotels and modern freeways. This boom is real and spectacular, but for China to be an advanced nation it needs not only spaceships, but also freedom. > >
Otherwise, all that dazzle is just a mirage. The Chinese leaders might recall an old peasant expression, "Lu fen dan'r, biaomian'r guang." It means, "On the outside, even donkey droppings gleam."
> This is still a country with a Communist government (modified, granted, but still not democratic) who has never recognized the independence of Taiwan, who
blocks its citizens from portions of the internet at the national level, and brutally rolled over demonstrators in Tienaman (sp) square. What do you think they would go?
This is a country with a modernizing government who has never recognized the breakaway rebellion in the Taiwanese province, who protects its citizens from superstition on the Internet at the national level, and who defended the people against an uprising in Tienanmen square.
It's all in how you look at it. Mao was only half-right. Political power not only flows from the barrel of a gun. Reality itself flows from the barrel of a gun.
> To those who say that economic capitalism leads to democracy, we'll just have to wait and see. I'm not holding my breath.
When the Russian socioeconomic system collapsed, Russia tried freedom - and descended into anarchy before reverting to "managed democracy".
When the Chinese socioeconomic system was on the verge of collapse, China adopted policies which placed them on firm ground as the world's first stable fascist state. As a result of this decision ("It is glorious to be rich!"), its leaders remained in power, the Chinese middle class continues to grow, and standards of living continue to rise.
As for America, slouching towards its own socioeconomic collapse (largely brought on by unsustainable entitlement spending and a colossal trade deficit), China is merely the beta test site, from which we can learn what works and what doesn't, as we modernize our political system.
And speaking as someone who lives in America, I'll take the Chinese solution over the Russian solution any day.
Well, as soon as someone writes the Firefox plugin.
Baranovich: "You must think... of Russians!"
Andropov: "Are you enjoyink your ride, Mister Gant? Do you like our new toy?"
Gant: "Boy, is this a machine!"
> What's the point? 950 regular employees were just laid off for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON WHATSOEVER. What's going to stop the next employer from doing the same thing?
Nothing.
> What is the point of trying to build a career that can be stolen arbitrarily?
The point is to build enough savings that you can start investing those savings and make some money.
Once you've got enough cash in the bank, you look forward to being laid off. It's called "retiring, and they give you a couple more weeks' pay as a going-away present".
> > No, it is not.
>
>Personally, I like being in the middle.
> > >
> > > If people could just learn to write their replies BELOW what they're quoting. Top posting is just wrong.
And don't even get me started on lameness filters!
> Yeah, well, bite me.
> > > can't be bothered to figure out who wrote what first anyways.
> > ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo s really hard to follow the thread of conversation.
> > oo And then there are folks oo hy do you hate top-posting so much?
> > oo who use our own standards o sting is an abomination, even in corporate email.
> > oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo , you mean even in corporate email?
> > > > > > > Top-posting and the people who do it drive me nuts.
> Like a bowling ball with your name engraved upon it, these make great gifts for your significant other. Any other suggestions for good adult boardgames?
Twister.
But for the love of God, put away the engraved bowling ball before you start. (Trust me on this.)
> Bill Clinton on Monday helped launch a new Internet search company backed by the Chinese government which says its technology uses artificial intelligence to produce better results than Google Inc.
I'm sorry, I just wanted to re-read that sentence in all its glory. And to pound my head on the desk every fourth or fifth word. I've discovered that the mental imagery starts to look more coherent if you soak the brain in at least three beers' worth of alcohol before applying the blunt force trauma.
On the bright side, if Fark ever holds a "Photoshop this Salvador Dali Masterpiece" contest, that sentence is gonna make me a surefire winner.
> How can a company that makes a front-end for Snort be worth $100 million!
> >Anyways, there you have it folks. Free engineering from a large community. Thats what the buisnesspeople want out of open source. And the profit comes from making the interface.
Great developers seldom make great user interface designers. The skillsets are wildly different.
Great developers solve problems and scratch itches. They're not so great on making it usable, because they don't need usability to scratch that itch.
How many times have people whined about, say, how hard it is to set up video capture on Linux, only to be shot down with an arrogant or condescending "Hey, luser, I didn't write this for you, if you don't like it, code your own!"
"Well, fine, but I can't!", screams the UI dude. Because great UI designers aren't only "not great developers", many "aren't developers at all!". Some UI folks work on a project from genesis to release without ever seeing a line of code; they just talk to humans, mock up UI designs on storyboards in Photoshop (sorry GIMP fans:), take prototypes to humans, watch the humans use the prototypes, talk to the humans some more, and then come back with long lists of changes for the developers to make.
Does that sound like "fun" for anybody here? Let's face it - UI design, prototyping, and testing is a time-consuming job, and there are very few "fun" things about it (when compared to, say, coding on a problem you think is really interesting).
Corollary 1: Due to the nature of the work, most UI designers tend to want to get paid for it.
Corollary 2:...and therefore, spend most of their time in commercial shops, where they don't have much contact with OSS developers, even if OSS developers wanted their contributions in the first place (which, as a browse of any Linux-PVR thread will reveal, they don't:)
> But... is it possible for Interface design profit to sustain code design in the long run? Once open source interfaces catch up, will this niche remain?
Bottom line: You cannot assume that open source interfaces will ever "catch up" with their commercial equivalents, because the gap between UI designer and "open source coder" is cultural, not merely technical.
OSS is a magnet for developers. The community holds no similar attraction for UI designers.
But for the Grace of Gabe... there go ye?
on
Given Up to Spyware?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
> What's even more ironic is that they claim it's a necessary evil for free software, when things like the Google Toolbar virtually replace Gator, and there are many spyware-free P2P programs available."
"I had a good idea what the Marketscore software does, though I didn't read the entire user agreement"
"I can't surf the web and I can't trade files if I uninstall the spyware."
"I can't afford a subscription to keep my antivirus software updated. Marketscore doesn't charge any fees."
"They said they'd opted to install it on their computers because they wanted the eWallet application that stores passwords and credit card numbers, entering them into web forms with one click. The users said you have to get the adware if you want the eWallet."
"In Hungary, many people who grew up under communist rule came to accept government interference in every aspect of their lives as inescapable. They were too tired to fight anymore, so they convinced themselves that communism was OK and even a benefit."
For those of you on the "Steam Rules" side of the debate: "Any of that sound familiar?"
THIS is the reason those of us on the "Steam Sucks" side of the HL2 debate have taken the stand we've chosen to take. We're not warez d00dz. And we recognize that Vivendi are a bunch of middlemen who aren't worthy to fellate a goat. And we acknowledge that Valve has gone to the dark side (as Kazaa and the other P2P apps did) of spywaredom - at least not yet.
But we see Valve's solution as a cure that's worse than the disease of piracy. And we see the main arguments of Steam's proponents as eerily reminiscent of the examples of clueless luserdom shown in the Wired article. And we ask: can your system's integrity be that easily sold?
Every time a Steam defender speaks, he or she should take a very close look at his or her argument... and the arguments presented by the spyware defenders in the Wired article, and ask yourself: but for the grace of Gabe, there go ye?
> eleven of the latest anti-spam products including solutions from BitDefender, Clearswift, CA eTrust, GFI, IronPort, MailGuard, McAfee, MessageLabs, NetIQ, Network Box and Symantec Brightmail.
How can this list be considered even remotely complete? What about the personalized Louisville Slugger, the noble
etherkiller and (for your Tier 1 types who work in volume) the 1200-bung-per-hour-rated
Jarvis Sow Bung Dropper?
Oh, wait, this is a review of anti-spam products, not anti-spammer products. Never mind.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds like the Rapture to me.
I'm goin' to hell for that. But if you make me program in COBOL again, I'm taking you with me, rapture or not.
Information obtained unlawfully never stands in court. Because the Constitution is a living document that must be updated to take into account changing technologies, however, the definition of "unlawful" must change.
In brief, "Anything not nailed down is ours. Anything we can pry loose is not nailed down!"
Meantime, the US has had this since 2001, so it's not like Australia's move towards normalizing law enforcement techniques to modern standards is anything new.
550 - Thank you for your support of the steganographic communications payment protocol.
550 - Your continued support of Falun Dafa [Falun Gong] in the face of continued oppression from the butchers of Beijing is appreciated.
550 - The following token shall constitute both a receipt for your payment and a public key with which you may send your next message to your allies in the resistance.
550 - KEYBLOCK 6x5 F81IZ FOLG3 VOLSX CIOP3 F7JJ2 EYMNX
Now, is it my fault if my crontab edits the last line of that message to a different series of random characters every 30 seconds? Is it my fault if the owner of the spam-relaying machine is... dealt with... in the name of protecting his fellow citizens from mysticism and supersition?
Hmm, I suppose it is.
But hey, there's a critical shortage of corneal and kidney transplants. And a critical oversupply of server administrators who support spammers. I'm just the invisible hand of the market, smoothing out the discrepancies.
When pressed, he defined "easy" as "sorta like dipping your balls in sweet cream and squatting in a kitchen full of feral cats."
And you don't wanna know what "transparent" looked like.
You're new here, aren't you? :)
Just because it's viable now, doesn't mean it'll be viable for the entire country. Nor does present-day viability imply that it'll scale up to the rest of the country's energy needs.
Wind energy isn't necessarily scalable: there's a finite amount of land onto which you can erect windmills, and the planet ain't makin' more of it until the Mid-Atlantic Ridge breaks the surface.
Similarly, hydroelectric power isn't renewable: there are only so many rivers that can be dammed, and a finite amount of rain falling into the water systems that feed them.
So - although wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal are nice stopgap measures that'll give us a few more years (10-20% of the energy supply) in which to solve the problem, they don't solve the problem.
Solving the problem means finding a high-energy-density portable power source (for cars), and/or an extremely high-density electrical generation source (which you then use to power everything but cars, and/or to synthesize hydrocarbons from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen).
Given the title of "Emperor", I would immediately institute a programme of building next-generation fission reactors (still a finite resource, but a much larger finite resource than current petrochemical supplies or feasible wind generation capacity) across the US as a stopgap for the 30-50 year timeframe, and a balls-out, Manhattan-project style effort towards fusion, including the use of the moon (and perhaps some asteroids) as a source from which He3 can be mined. (...if it turns out we need an He3-based solution. Who knows what we'll learn?)
This isn't about the "oil industry": Apart from a few barbarians running around in a certain desert, everyone from Apache to Exxon has realized that when push comes to shove, they're not in the oil business, they're in the energy business.
>
> You're forgetting the crazy psychedelic scenes toward the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
So watch both sequels at the same time:
Oompa Loompa, doopity doo,
All these world are belong to you!
Ooompa Loompa, doobie-doo-dopa,
Keepa you space probe offa Europa!
Only in Soviet Russia.
Everywhere else, NetBSD 2.0 confirms it... Netcraft is dead!
In other news, David Boies, acting on behalf of Darl McBride, has filed three suits against IEEE for infringement of patents #13,371,337 #3,133,731,337, and #8,013,580,135, "Method for fixing the US Patent System", "Method for Borking a Patent System", and "Method for Subtly Implying That Every Idea In The World Is Mine, All Mine", respectively.
Because every CD in the known universe has already had a free AOL account burned into it.
Besides, who the hell's crazy enough to employ a business model based on distributing lossless copies of non-DRM-hobbled music files on 650-megabyte removable media? :)
Youssa should bees more careful what youssa askey for. (What? Youssa want looky Yoda? Yousa no likey Gungans? Yoosa no likey goats? Yousafrady own dirty mind or somethink?)
(Credits: Itsa not my Photoshoppy. Wassa saving for makey funny about GNU story, but forcey of 503 issa stronga than me!)
Hmm, so the ad runs at 11 users per second.
Solution obvious! We either overclock the New York Times, or we lobby the printer industry to break the Adobe monopoly by supporting Firescript (originally called Postzilla, and occasionally still referred to as Lexscape by some marketroids at A Certain Very Big And Very Evil Corporation), the new page description language interpreter that provides for enhanced security, usability, and performance on phototypesetting equipment of all types!
Kid: Mommy, what does 'chthonic' mean?
Mommy: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wga'nagl f-*ahem*-why don't you just ask Dad about sex or something?
Kid: Mmmm... okay...
[ 30 seconds later ] Kid: IA! IA! CTHULHU FHTAGN! HASTUR! HASTUR! HASTmfmmfph!
*munchmunchmunch*
"Remember, parents. The only thing worse than explaining 'chthonic' to your kids is having them find out for themselves."
>
> Otherwise, all that dazzle is just a mirage. The Chinese leaders might recall an old peasant expression, "Lu fen dan'r, biaomian'r guang." It means, "On the outside, even donkey droppings gleam."
So, um, you really can polish a turd?
This is a country with a modernizing government who has never recognized the breakaway rebellion in the Taiwanese province, who protects its citizens from superstition on the Internet at the national level, and who defended the people against an uprising in Tienanmen square.
It's all in how you look at it. Mao was only half-right. Political power not only flows from the barrel of a gun. Reality itself flows from the barrel of a gun.
> To those who say that economic capitalism leads to democracy, we'll just have to wait and see. I'm not holding my breath.
When the Russian socioeconomic system collapsed, Russia tried freedom - and descended into anarchy before reverting to "managed democracy".
When the Chinese socioeconomic system was on the verge of collapse, China adopted policies which placed them on firm ground as the world's first stable fascist state. As a result of this decision ("It is glorious to be rich!"), its leaders remained in power, the Chinese middle class continues to grow, and standards of living continue to rise.
As for America, slouching towards its own socioeconomic collapse (largely brought on by unsustainable entitlement spending and a colossal trade deficit), China is merely the beta test site, from which we can learn what works and what doesn't, as we modernize our political system.
And speaking as someone who lives in America, I'll take the Chinese solution over the Russian solution any day.
Well, as soon as someone writes the Firefox plugin.
Baranovich: "You must think... of Russians!"
Andropov: "Are you enjoyink your ride, Mister Gant? Do you like our new toy?" Gant: "Boy, is this a machine!"
Nothing.
> What is the point of trying to build a career that can be stolen arbitrarily?
The point is to build enough savings that you can start investing those savings and make some money.
Once you've got enough cash in the bank, you look forward to being laid off. It's called "retiring, and they give you a couple more weeks' pay as a going-away present".
Don't hate the idle rich. Become the idle rich.
>
>Personally, I like being in the middle.
> > >
> > > If people could just learn to write their replies BELOW what they're quoting. Top posting is just wrong.
And don't even get me started on lameness filters!
> Yeah, well, bite me.
> > > can't be bothered to figure out who wrote what first anyways.
> > ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo s really hard to follow the thread of conversation.
> > oo And then there are folks oo hy do you hate top-posting so much?
> > oo who use our own standards o sting is an abomination, even in corporate email.
> > oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo , you mean even in corporate email?
> > > > > > > Top-posting and the people who do it drive me nuts.
Two files with the same MD5 hash at once. Aaw yeah.
Twister.
But for the love of God, put away the engraved bowling ball before you start. (Trust me on this.)
I'm sorry, I just wanted to re-read that sentence in all its glory. And to pound my head on the desk every fourth or fifth word. I've discovered that the mental imagery starts to look more coherent if you soak the brain in at least three beers' worth of alcohol before applying the blunt force trauma.
On the bright side, if Fark ever holds a "Photoshop this Salvador Dali Masterpiece" contest, that sentence is gonna make me a surefire winner.
>
>Anyways, there you have it folks. Free engineering from a large community. Thats what the buisnesspeople want out of open source. And the profit comes from making the interface.
Great developers seldom make great user interface designers. The skillsets are wildly different.
Great developers solve problems and scratch itches. They're not so great on making it usable, because they don't need usability to scratch that itch.
How many times have people whined about, say, how hard it is to set up video capture on Linux, only to be shot down with an arrogant or condescending "Hey, luser, I didn't write this for you, if you don't like it, code your own!"
"Well, fine, but I can't!", screams the UI dude. Because great UI designers aren't only "not great developers", many "aren't developers at all!". Some UI folks work on a project from genesis to release without ever seeing a line of code; they just talk to humans, mock up UI designs on storyboards in Photoshop (sorry GIMP fans :), take prototypes to humans, watch the humans use the prototypes, talk to the humans some more, and then come back with long lists of changes for the developers to make.
Does that sound like "fun" for anybody here? Let's face it - UI design, prototyping, and testing is a time-consuming job, and there are very few "fun" things about it (when compared to, say, coding on a problem you think is really interesting).
Corollary 1: Due to the nature of the work, most UI designers tend to want to get paid for it. ...and therefore, spend most of their time in commercial shops, where they don't have much contact with OSS developers, even if OSS developers wanted their contributions in the first place (which, as a browse of any Linux-PVR thread will reveal, they don't :)
Corollary 2:
> But... is it possible for Interface design profit to sustain code design in the long run? Once open source interfaces catch up, will this niche remain?
Bottom line: You cannot assume that open source interfaces will ever "catch up" with their commercial equivalents, because the gap between UI designer and "open source coder" is cultural, not merely technical.
OSS is a magnet for developers. The community holds no similar attraction for UI designers.
To quote a few users from the article :
"I had a good idea what the Marketscore software does, though I didn't read the entire user agreement"
"I can't surf the web and I can't trade files if I uninstall the spyware."
"I can't afford a subscription to keep my antivirus software updated. Marketscore doesn't charge any fees."
"They said they'd opted to install it on their computers because they wanted the eWallet application that stores passwords and credit card numbers, entering them into web forms with one click. The users said you have to get the adware if you want the eWallet."
"In Hungary, many people who grew up under communist rule came to accept government interference in every aspect of their lives as inescapable. They were too tired to fight anymore, so they convinced themselves that communism was OK and even a benefit."
For those of you on the "Steam Rules" side of the debate: "Any of that sound familiar?"
THIS is the reason those of us on the "Steam Sucks" side of the HL2 debate have taken the stand we've chosen to take. We're not warez d00dz. And we recognize that Vivendi are a bunch of middlemen who aren't worthy to fellate a goat. And we acknowledge that Valve has gone to the dark side (as Kazaa and the other P2P apps did) of spywaredom - at least not yet.
But we see Valve's solution as a cure that's worse than the disease of piracy. And we see the main arguments of Steam's proponents as eerily reminiscent of the examples of clueless luserdom shown in the Wired article. And we ask: can your system's integrity be that easily sold?
Every time a Steam defender speaks, he or she should take a very close look at his or her argument... and the arguments presented by the spyware defenders in the Wired article, and ask yourself: but for the grace of Gabe, there go ye?
How can this list be considered even remotely complete? What about the personalized Louisville Slugger, the noble etherkiller and (for your Tier 1 types who work in volume) the 1200-bung-per-hour-rated Jarvis Sow Bung Dropper?
Oh, wait, this is a review of anti-spam products, not anti-spammer products. Never mind.