Malware and anti-virus software are non-starters because the game is already lost by the time crap like this has an avenue to be allowed to execute on your computer.
True. Most of these exploits become a problem because they have been allowed to hop over a human stupidity barrier. It would be futile for any politician to legislate on this issue, since most politicians are as thick as shit.
I couldn't tell you the last time I actually went to a brick-and-mortar store and bought an antivirus product.
I could. The answer is "never". But then, most of the non-mainframe computers I have owned or operated (apart from those DOS boxes, which don't really count) have worked on some form of Unix, so viruses are essentially a non-issue and firewalling is easily enough handled by iptables and/or a comprehensive hosts file.
...and I'm sure useless suggestions in the report will be ignored as is usual.
Our experience shows that the government prefers to ignore useful suggestions.
Useless things like attempting to micromanage what internet users see on their computer screens are fair game for our illustrious leaders, and will be pursued with all the diligence they never deserved.
If you put 100g of yeast in a 1kg loaf of bread simply because it's a nice round number in your power-of-10 system, you're going to end up with something you don't want to eat.
At first I thought it said "Skype" and thought "Really? Great. Who cares?"
Well, Skype can be worth having on your mobile if your overseas or long-distance calls are expensive and your data traffic limits aren't too restrictive. I would probably use it a lot if it weren't for the fact that I spend too much time using older networks that don't have the bandwidth to make it work.
The notion of killing everybody and letting God sort 'em doesn't do much good when you have to apply it to your own people.
And (BTW) although Latin was a universally compulsory subject when I went through high school in the '70s, my sympathies are entirely with the anglophones who consider such usage to be otiose.
...all this will do is make people more paranoid, furthering the "state of fear" that they already foster...
True - but this is a symptom of the hole we've dug ourselves into. Trouble with saying "we don't negotiate with terrorists" is that that cuts out all your options. All that's left is to kill everybody.
Re:Does it have a monitor and full-size keyboard?
on
Flight of the Desktops
·
· Score: 1
Wow, all that power, and you're still just using it to wank all over slashdot. good job.
Until recently, I had something similar because I was doing a lot of molecular modelling that made the "grunt" worth having. Since my work has taken a sideways shift, I've been able to get rid of the second screen (and Xinerama) and just work with a single 1920x1080 LCD display when I need it. But the display actually spends most of its time switched off while the rest of the machine sits there quietly acting as a server for everything else.
It's just nice to be able to ssh -X to the box from the comfort of my sofa when I need it.
I don't see any reason to connect a stationary system to a wireless network...
Indeed. I have more ethernet cable running under the floorboards of my house than I am entirely happy with, but it does make for much faster and more reliable backups or any other data transfers over my LAN than are possible via any 802.11 connection. I wouldn't want the wire trailing around when I am flobbing out on the sofa, but for a machine parked out of sight under a desk, CAT-5 is just fine.
The desktop will die one year before the year of linux on the desktop.
Hmmm? You mean it died in 1994? I've had Linux exclusively on all my desktop machines since 1995. I have a second-hand (free) MacBook for portable use, and I'm perfectly comfortable with that, but when it breaks I'll be replacing it with a Linux-based laptop.
I take your point, but I gather there are areas where neither of those networks have any coverage.
We have a similar situation in rural Australia (particularly Tasmania): only Telstra has coverage that can be (sort of) relied on, so many of us don't have a whole lot of choice about our providers.
I never take any notice of what handsets are on offer, though. I usually find it more convenient to buy unlocked devices outright off FleaBay, since I don't need to have the latest and greatest gadget.
my friends (and spammers) like to send me text messages without my authorization. That costs me $0.20 every time...
Those of us living in Australia are well used to parasitic telcos, notorious for bait-and-switch tactics, outright lies and poor service. But you remind me that there are US residents much worse off. We complain at having to pay AU$0.25 for an SMS, but at least we don't have to pay to receive them (unless we are travelling overseas).
Yes he does. His seat is in the Senate. I know lots of people people are lazy, but it is possible to vote him out. The point to which I was alluding is that senators are elected for fixed terms of six years (as opposed to three in the lower house), and I wasn't sure when he was last voted into office.
I have now checked, and found out that was in 2004, so if you happen to be in his electorate (I'm not), you could attempt to help vote him out.
'From Verizon's perspective, the last thing you want is for another generation of consumers to be conditioned to the idea that data is always going to be uncapped.'"
I don't know what generation they're talking about, since 300 baud was considered a fairly good linespeed when I was in my 20s, and the amount of data you could transmit was limited by the size of the trolley we used to carry all those mag tapes around.
The world has been stupid for longer than any of us (even me) have been alive. But if necessary, we can all just use offshore VPNs and make it hard for "them" to spy on us.
Perhaps not, but I don't think Google should be faulted for obtaining what is essentially information being made public.
Why not?
If my front door is shut, but not locked, does that entitle anyone to come in and rip off my stuff or go through my desk and copy down my banking details?
How do you account for such low rape and murder numbers in middle east countries...
It's perfectly OK to murder hundreds of people if you happen to be blowing yourself to bits at the same time, or if you don't think someone's beard is the regulation length. And rape is a crime there, but women won't report it because they are the ones who will be assumed to be guilty.
No, they'll answer you, they'll tell you what you want to hear.
Then...they'll do whatever the hell they want. What? You elected them!
No they won't. I live in the Perth electoral constituency, so Stephen Smith is my Federal MP. I'll tell you what he (or his office) did say when I contacted him to express my concerns and ask him to personally pass them on to Conroy, since Smith is my elected representative:
Nothing.
"I have forwarded your message to the Minister for Communications..."
Meanwhile, the Minister's office sent me (by way of a response to an independent message) a fluff piece in PDF format about how jolly the filter is and how the Minister is such a caring, sharing guy.
Not one of these cunts is listening, since they obviously feel secure enough in their jobs that they don't need to.
Slashdot Mirror
Malware and anti-virus software are non-starters because the game is already lost by the time crap like this has an avenue to be allowed to execute on your computer.
True. Most of these exploits become a problem because they have been allowed to hop over a human stupidity barrier. It would be futile for any politician to legislate on this issue, since most politicians are as thick as shit.
Trouble is, that won't stop them trying.
I couldn't tell you the last time I actually went to a brick-and-mortar store and bought an antivirus product.
I could. The answer is "never". But then, most of the non-mainframe computers I have owned or operated (apart from those DOS boxes, which don't really count) have worked on some form of Unix, so viruses are essentially a non-issue and firewalling is easily enough handled by iptables and/or a comprehensive hosts file.
...and I'm sure useless suggestions in the report will be ignored as is usual.
Our experience shows that the government prefers to ignore useful suggestions.
Useless things like attempting to micromanage what internet users see on their computer screens are fair game for our illustrious leaders, and will be pursued with all the diligence they never deserved.
If you put 100g of yeast in a 1kg loaf of bread simply because it's a nice round number in your power-of-10 system, you're going to end up with something you don't want to eat.
Engineers have plenty of friends
I would until now have agreed with you. But if 85% of engineers don't use twitter, that leaves 15% that do. Enough said.
Google wave might be just out of beta, but was it worth pursuing in the first place?
Maybe you needed a different school. My education started in the '60s, and we learned to cope with both.
At first I thought it said "Skype" and thought "Really? Great. Who cares?"
Well, Skype can be worth having on your mobile if your overseas or long-distance calls are expensive and your data traffic limits aren't too restrictive. I would probably use it a lot if it weren't for the fact that I spend too much time using older networks that don't have the bandwidth to make it work.
Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.
The notion of killing everybody and letting God sort 'em doesn't do much good when you have to apply it to your own people.
And (BTW) although Latin was a universally compulsory subject when I went through high school in the '70s, my sympathies are entirely with the anglophones who consider such usage to be otiose.
...all this will do is make people more paranoid, furthering the "state of fear" that they already foster...
True - but this is a symptom of the hole we've dug ourselves into. Trouble with saying "we don't negotiate with terrorists" is that that cuts out all your options. All that's left is to kill everybody.
Wow, all that power, and you're still just using it to wank all over slashdot. good job.
Until recently, I had something similar because I was doing a lot of molecular modelling that made the "grunt" worth having. Since my work has taken a sideways shift, I've been able to get rid of the second screen (and Xinerama) and just work with a single 1920x1080 LCD display when I need it. But the display actually spends most of its time switched off while the rest of the machine sits there quietly acting as a server for everything else.
It's just nice to be able to ssh -X to the box from the comfort of my sofa when I need it.
I don't see any reason to connect a stationary system to a wireless network...
Indeed. I have more ethernet cable running under the floorboards of my house than I am entirely happy with, but it does make for much faster and more reliable backups or any other data transfers over my LAN than are possible via any 802.11 connection. I wouldn't want the wire trailing around when I am flobbing out on the sofa, but for a machine parked out of sight under a desk, CAT-5 is just fine.
The desktop will die one year before the year of linux on the desktop.
Hmmm? You mean it died in 1994? I've had Linux exclusively on all my desktop machines since 1995. I have a second-hand (free) MacBook for portable use, and I'm perfectly comfortable with that, but when it breaks I'll be replacing it with a Linux-based laptop.
They can have this one free, gratis and for nothing:
Phrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrblt!
sigh, sorry my stupid little brother saw i was still logged in and decided to insult people using my account
:-D
OK - I was just about to call you an arrogant, presumptuous cunt.
I take your point, but I gather there are areas where neither of those networks have any coverage.
We have a similar situation in rural Australia (particularly Tasmania): only Telstra has coverage that can be (sort of) relied on, so many of us don't have a whole lot of choice about our providers.
I never take any notice of what handsets are on offer, though. I usually find it more convenient to buy unlocked devices outright off FleaBay, since I don't need to have the latest and greatest gadget.
my friends (and spammers) like to send me text messages without my authorization. That costs me $0.20 every time...
Those of us living in Australia are well used to parasitic telcos, notorious for bait-and-switch tactics, outright lies and poor service. But you remind me that there are US residents much worse off. We complain at having to pay AU$0.25 for an SMS, but at least we don't have to pay to receive them (unless we are travelling overseas).
Sorry to nitpick but Conroy doesn't hold a seat
Yes he does. His seat is in the Senate. I know lots of people people are lazy, but it is possible to vote him out. The point to which I was alluding is that senators are elected for fixed terms of six years (as opposed to three in the lower house), and I wasn't sure when he was last voted into office.
I have now checked, and found out that was in 2004, so if you happen to be in his electorate (I'm not), you could attempt to help vote him out.
'From Verizon's perspective, the last thing you want is for another generation of consumers to be conditioned to the idea that data is always going to be uncapped.'"
I don't know what generation they're talking about, since 300 baud was considered a fairly good linespeed when I was in my 20s, and the amount of data you could transmit was limited by the size of the trolley we used to carry all those mag tapes around.
This world is stupid, I'm moving to mars.
The world has been stupid for longer than any of us (even me) have been alive. But if necessary, we can all just use offshore VPNs and make it hard for "them" to spy on us.
Perhaps not, but I don't think Google should be faulted for obtaining what is essentially information being made public.
Why not?
If my front door is shut, but not locked, does that entitle anyone to come in and rip off my stuff or go through my desk and copy down my banking details?
Fuck Mohammed and the camel he rode in on!
It's a bit late for either. But apparently it's easier for a rich man to enter a camel if he stands on a box.
How do you account for such low rape and murder numbers in middle east countries...
It's perfectly OK to murder hundreds of people if you happen to be blowing yourself to bits at the same time, or if you don't think someone's beard is the regulation length. And rape is a crime there, but women won't report it because they are the ones who will be assumed to be guilty.
Really? Obama: U.S. to withdraw most Iraq troops by August 2010.
No, they'll answer you, they'll tell you what you want to hear. Then...they'll do whatever the hell they want. What? You elected them!
No they won't. I live in the Perth electoral constituency, so Stephen Smith is my Federal MP. I'll tell you what he (or his office) did say when I contacted him to express my concerns and ask him to personally pass them on to Conroy, since Smith is my elected representative:
Nothing.
"I have forwarded your message to the Minister for Communications..."
Meanwhile, the Minister's office sent me (by way of a response to an independent message) a fluff piece in PDF format about how jolly the filter is and how the Minister is such a caring, sharing guy.
Not one of these cunts is listening, since they obviously feel secure enough in their jobs that they don't need to.