Yes, it really should have been marked as "overated", becuase that sums up Nietzsche pretty well. He seems very impressive when you are an angsty teenager, but he really isn't all that (and yes, I've read a fair bit of Nietzsche).
Now I don't agree with the very original post, there will always be more "worthy" goals that could use funds, but if we invest exclusively in them there would never be progress. However, the idea that you shouldn't seek to end suffering because that is where all human greatness comes from is, quite frankly, bollocks.
Why is it that so many Slashdotters piss and moan when any kind of system is released by commercial industry that isn't 100% flawless?
In the case of security, bad flaws (which this clearly has when you think about it for 5 minutes) make it worse than having none. Why? It makes people think they are secure, take less precautions, and get into worse trouble.
I'd rather children treat all unknown people on the net with suspicion, rather than assume they are safe because they have some USB key.
If you do assume it can be comprimised, the system is obviously worthless. You have to be just as supicious/careful becuase you can't trust any given person's key. If you assume it can't, you are more at risk.
It isn't getting knocked for being 100% flawless as much as 100% flawed.
For one, Outlook and Outlook Express are two separate, distinct applications. For another, Outlook itself has been pretty secure since service packs for Outlook 2000 (that's three versions ago, for those who are counting), which remove malicious attachments so you can't execute them.
Which is great, until someone sends you a file that you actually want of a type Outlook thinks is unsafe, and won't let the receiver open it even though they know it is safe.
I'm a developer, sometimes I want to exchange executables and scripts with people. Still, you can get around this brillaint defence by changing the file name or zipping it up.
The BBC had a number of display modes with different numbers of colours and resolutions.
One of these was Mode 7, which displayed just like Teletext. You could even get a Teletext adapter for your Beeb, plug in a TV cable and view Teletext on your monitor.
Law is man made and is arbitrarily complex. It could be simple, but for some reason, even though it is defined by man, it isn't.
There is often a good reason why things are more complex that it intuitively seems they need to be.
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple,
neat - and wrong" - HL Mencken
Now, not to say all laws are as simple as they could be, and there is no uneccessary complexity. However, law is not complex for some arbitary reason, but becuase people and their interations are complex and messy, and it has to work in the real wold.
Wouldn't simply ensuring you have adequate virus/spyware protection help? This falls under awareness since people download things that do things totally differently than what they wanted.
I know it is traditional not to read the article, but you could at least read the summary.
previous efforts to raise awareness of the problem failed to significantly diminish complaints
They tried rasing awareness. It didn't work. Many, many uses don't have adequate virus/spyware protection, and don't understand about it.
In extreme cases, you could remove the dialup modem and leave an Ethernet card for Internet access.
Unless you the dial up modem is what you use to connect to the internet. The Ethernet card is only going to be any use if you connect through a network, or to a cable/ADSL mode, that uses an Ethernet connection.
I used to use Shareaza, however after not using it for many months, I tried to use it again and it was useless. Despite following all the advice in the FAQs about getting new server lists, it couldn't find or connect to anything.
I'm using Xolox now, ugly as hell, and a few bugs, but does eDonkey, FastTrack, and both Gnutella networks.
The iRiver players use the USB mass storage standard, and work with any OS that recognises that. Just drag and drop with a file manager if you want.
WMP10 has special stuff for synching with remote devices, and transfering secure WMA files, which this also does. Presumably you couldn't just drag and drop the secure WMA files, there has to some sort of authorisation.
, no option to play groups such as -all songs by Artist- (The iRiver, although comes with a -rather bad- databasing application, organises songs internally through the filetree)
That is a bit sucky, I have an iHP140, and I can just go to the Artist option, choose the artist, then under the list of albums there is "Select All".
Shame they seem to be taking features out of the newer ones.
It's not copyright that we are talking about, it's distribution. Copyright tells me that I can't take your song, in it's exact form, in any part, and use it commercially.
(Standard IANAL disclaimer) Copyright tells you that you cannot make copies of copyrighted work, for commercial use or otherwise. In many countries (including the US), fair use lets you format shift and make backups.
"Unauthorized copying is a violation of copyright laws" because it really isn't. Copying is fine, it's the distribution that gets one in trouble.
It really is, however in the US only the copyright holder, or someone they authorise, can make copies that don't fall under fair use. The practical upshot is that if you don't ditribute, and that includes giving it away, putting on websites or p2p etc. then you won't be breaking copyright.
Distributers don't normally make the copies themselves, they buy copies from the manufacuters (who they usually have deals with) and resell them either directly to customers, or to shops. Distributers aren't normally making copies, so their selling isn't normally about copyright. Anyone who has bought a (legal) copy can sell it (right of first sale). An exclusive distribution agreement is just a contract that one company will only let one other distribute it's product, it doesn't effect legal resales by others.
Online sellers are a bit different, they are making the copy right there and then. You can't buy electronic tracks wholesale and resell them, instead you buy the right to sell them from the copyright holder.
Of course it often gets more complex, right are sometimes sold or given away in part, and different countries have different rules about compsenting song writers that are usually seperate from copyright.
The changes just between versions of IE 4, 5, and 6 are fairly large from a design point of view.
He did say modern browsers. You can't really considerer IE 4 moderen, or really 5. I've persuaded people at work to drop anything below 5.5 for IE support on our last project.
That means you can use mostly standard DOM stuff like getElementByID that work on other browsers. You need a little custom code, but coding and supporting for 5.5 plus and Gecko is pretty easy. Nothing like the nightmare IE4 and Netscape 4 was.
One reason Pixar seems to be so succesful is adults really enjoy their movies too, they tell good stories and make good movies. Just about everyone in my IT department here at work is a Pixar fan.
It really is minimal effort. Windows update and AV update can all happen automatically, or ask you when they want to run and what they want to download. As the thread topic says, AVs now cover spyware.
I really don't see autmated tasks running in the background much effort, or bowling over users who don't actually have to do anything. As for firewalls, computers coming with XP SP2 will have them on, and most are friendly enough, saying something like "This program X has tried to access the internet, do you want to allow it?"
As for IE as a central feature, no. Browsing the web, definately, but once you install Opera or Mozilla or something it is just as easy, just a different program pops up.
It is the setting up that requires a little knowldege, once done If PCs came configured with this stuff most users would never notice. It's the first step that is hard.
Maybe machines without AV and firewalls should have big red warning stickers, something like "WARNING THIS MACHINE IS NOT INTERNET SAFE. TALK TO YOUR VENDOR" or have Windows bug you if you try to connnect to interet.
Not that MS doesn't have loads to do in improving their software security, but people do seem to get carried away with how hard it is to keep secure.
Considering there is zero spyware for Macs or Linux... you're damn right I'm going to blame Microsoft.
Damit, this thread is turning me into an MS apologist. How, exactly, are MS responsible for the spyware? There isn't a single thing about Macs or Linux that prevents someone writing spyware for it, or bundling it with other programs.
It really is just a matter of them not being worth targeting. Probably part market share, and part Mac and Linux users often being more savy and careful what they put on their box.
Now, if you want to blame MS for some dodgy browser code that lets sites slip spyware onto the machine without them knowing, that is fair. But blaming MS for the mere existance of spyware on Windows is just silly.
I dont blame them on microsoft. I never said that. But spyware and virus problem is there, you cant deny that..
Only if you don't know what you are doing. I've been running XP for two years, and not one virus, or spyware, and pretty minimal effort on my part.
Keep windows up to date with auto update
Use something other than IE and Outlook/OE
Use a firewall
Use anti virus and have it auto update
Run scans with some anti-spyware software now and then (although I've never caught anything I wanted removed). It looks like this will soon get absorbed by AV software.
Don't run dodgy executables, office documents and the like
The problem is there, no denying, but the solution is way. What is more, it isn't windows specific anyway. Keeping your machine in order and secure is something you should be doing on any OS.
If you read the artical they are actually quite upfront about it taking ideas from other browsers. Nothing wrong with that, and the users only benefit.
You don't even need the Google search bar for those. Just use the normal search box, and click on "Add Engines". In the page it takes you too, type Google, and the list includeds Froogle, Images, Groups and all sorts of other Google Goodness. Click on the one you want to add it to the search box.
I also use the Advanced Highlighter Button extention, as it does the search term highlighting I really liked from the Google toolbar, but now with any Search Engine. In fact, with these I've actually removed the Googlebar, as it was just taking up space.
Still the latest Googlebar I had did Images, You click on the menu by the 'G' and choose "Goggle Images". Froogle will probably turn up soon.
works perfectly in IE and needs 2-3 refreshes to even manage to render poorly in Firefox. Black on black text and margin errors and blank screens, oh my.
That sounds like something of an exageration to me. I browse/. in Firefox all the time, it sometimes needs one refresh to be fine. I've seen a few others complain about the margin errors, but never the other stuff.
I beleive in later books its also mentioned the Imperial Authorites pretty quickly round up and execute the people celbrating on Coruscant, and they hold the capital for a long while after.
I only read the ocastional SW book though, so I could be wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, it really should have been marked as "overated", becuase that sums up Nietzsche pretty well. He seems very impressive when you are an angsty teenager, but he really isn't all that (and yes, I've read a fair bit of Nietzsche).
Now I don't agree with the very original post, there will always be more "worthy" goals that could use funds, but if we invest exclusively in them there would never be progress. However, the idea that you shouldn't seek to end suffering because that is where all human greatness comes from is, quite frankly, bollocks.
Why is it that so many Slashdotters piss and moan when any kind of system is released by commercial industry that isn't 100% flawless?
In the case of security, bad flaws (which this clearly has when you think about it for 5 minutes) make it worse than having none. Why? It makes people think they are secure, take less precautions, and get into worse trouble.
I'd rather children treat all unknown people on the net with suspicion, rather than assume they are safe because they have some USB key.
If you do assume it can be comprimised, the system is obviously worthless. You have to be just as supicious/careful becuase you can't trust any given person's key. If you assume it can't, you are more at risk.
It isn't getting knocked for being 100% flawless as much as 100% flawed.
For one, Outlook and Outlook Express are two separate, distinct applications. For another, Outlook itself has been pretty secure since service packs for Outlook 2000 (that's three versions ago, for those who are counting), which remove malicious attachments so you can't execute them.
Which is great, until someone sends you a file that you actually want of a type Outlook thinks is unsafe, and won't let the receiver open it even though they know it is safe.
I'm a developer, sometimes I want to exchange executables and scripts with people. Still, you can get around this brillaint defence by changing the file name or zipping it up.
It is very useful if you are in front of the telly and what to find out something like sports results, or what is on now and next.
Even waiting between pages is quicker than going to another room, starting the computer up, and looking it up on the web.
The BBC had a number of display modes with different numbers of colours and resolutions.
One of these was Mode 7, which displayed just like Teletext. You could even get a Teletext adapter for your Beeb, plug in a TV cable and view Teletext on your monitor.
Law is man made and is arbitrarily complex. It could be simple, but for some reason, even though it is defined by man, it isn't.
There is often a good reason why things are more complex that it intuitively seems they need to be.
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat - and wrong" - HL MenckenNow, not to say all laws are as simple as they could be, and there is no uneccessary complexity. However, law is not complex for some arbitary reason, but becuase people and their interations are complex and messy, and it has to work in the real wold.
Wouldn't simply ensuring you have adequate virus/spyware protection help? This falls under awareness since people download things that do things totally differently than what they wanted.
I know it is traditional not to read the article, but you could at least read the summary.
previous efforts to raise awareness of the problem failed to significantly diminish complaints
They tried rasing awareness. It didn't work. Many, many uses don't have adequate virus/spyware protection, and don't understand about it.
In extreme cases, you could remove the dialup modem and leave an Ethernet card for Internet access.
Unless you the dial up modem is what you use to connect to the internet. The Ethernet card is only going to be any use if you connect through a network, or to a cable/ADSL mode, that uses an Ethernet connection.
I used to use Shareaza, however after not using it for many months, I tried to use it again and it was useless. Despite following all the advice in the FAQs about getting new server lists, it couldn't find or connect to anything.
I'm using Xolox now, ugly as hell, and a few bugs, but does eDonkey, FastTrack, and both Gnutella networks.
The iRiver players use the USB mass storage standard, and work with any OS that recognises that. Just drag and drop with a file manager if you want.
WMP10 has special stuff for synching with remote devices, and transfering secure WMA files, which this also does. Presumably you couldn't just drag and drop the secure WMA files, there has to some sort of authorisation.
, no option to play groups such as -all songs by Artist- (The iRiver, although comes with a -rather bad- databasing application, organises songs internally through the filetree)
That is a bit sucky, I have an iHP140, and I can just go to the Artist option, choose the artist, then under the list of albums there is "Select All".
Shame they seem to be taking features out of the newer ones.
It's not copyright that we are talking about, it's distribution. Copyright tells me that I can't take your song, in it's exact form, in any part, and use it commercially.
(Standard IANAL disclaimer) Copyright tells you that you cannot make copies of copyrighted work, for commercial use or otherwise. In many countries (including the US), fair use lets you format shift and make backups.
"Unauthorized copying is a violation of copyright laws" because it really isn't. Copying is fine, it's the distribution that gets one in trouble.
It really is, however in the US only the copyright holder, or someone they authorise, can make copies that don't fall under fair use. The practical upshot is that if you don't ditribute, and that includes giving it away, putting on websites or p2p etc. then you won't be breaking copyright.
Distributers don't normally make the copies themselves, they buy copies from the manufacuters (who they usually have deals with) and resell them either directly to customers, or to shops. Distributers aren't normally making copies, so their selling isn't normally about copyright. Anyone who has bought a (legal) copy can sell it (right of first sale). An exclusive distribution agreement is just a contract that one company will only let one other distribute it's product, it doesn't effect legal resales by others.
Online sellers are a bit different, they are making the copy right there and then. You can't buy electronic tracks wholesale and resell them, instead you buy the right to sell them from the copyright holder.
Of course it often gets more complex, right are sometimes sold or given away in part, and different countries have different rules about compsenting song writers that are usually seperate from copyright.
Whoops, that's ads, not as.
For an IE user migrating, the trade off of pop-ups for another banner is a good one.
Except even IE blocks pop ups these days. So Opera actually gives you more as.
The changes just between versions of IE 4, 5, and 6 are fairly large from a design point of view.
He did say modern browsers. You can't really considerer IE 4 moderen, or really 5. I've persuaded people at work to drop anything below 5.5 for IE support on our last project.
That means you can use mostly standard DOM stuff like getElementByID that work on other browsers. You need a little custom code, but coding and supporting for 5.5 plus and Gecko is pretty easy. Nothing like the nightmare IE4 and Netscape 4 was.
well, if you're a 9yo child, I suppose it does.
One reason Pixar seems to be so succesful is adults really enjoy their movies too, they tell good stories and make good movies. Just about everyone in my IT department here at work is a Pixar fan.
I think it is a "find pages like this one" plugin, that also phones home about where you surf.
I also think the parent is getting carried away, becuase I always keep IE up to date, and I've never had Alexa on my machine.
It really is minimal effort. Windows update and AV update can all happen automatically, or ask you when they want to run and what they want to download. As the thread topic says, AVs now cover spyware.
I really don't see autmated tasks running in the background much effort, or bowling over users who don't actually have to do anything. As for firewalls, computers coming with XP SP2 will have them on, and most are friendly enough, saying something like "This program X has tried to access the internet, do you want to allow it?"
As for IE as a central feature, no. Browsing the web, definately, but once you install Opera or Mozilla or something it is just as easy, just a different program pops up.
It is the setting up that requires a little knowldege, once done If PCs came configured with this stuff most users would never notice. It's the first step that is hard.
Maybe machines without AV and firewalls should have big red warning stickers, something like "WARNING THIS MACHINE IS NOT INTERNET SAFE. TALK TO YOUR VENDOR" or have Windows bug you if you try to connnect to interet.
Not that MS doesn't have loads to do in improving their software security, but people do seem to get carried away with how hard it is to keep secure.
Considering there is zero spyware for Macs or Linux... you're damn right I'm going to blame Microsoft.
Damit, this thread is turning me into an MS apologist. How, exactly, are MS responsible for the spyware? There isn't a single thing about Macs or Linux that prevents someone writing spyware for it, or bundling it with other programs.
It really is just a matter of them not being worth targeting. Probably part market share, and part Mac and Linux users often being more savy and careful what they put on their box.
Now, if you want to blame MS for some dodgy browser code that lets sites slip spyware onto the machine without them knowing, that is fair. But blaming MS for the mere existance of spyware on Windows is just silly.
Yeah. But its still just working around the problem.
That isn't a workaround, that is basic security that you would use on any multi-user OS.
I dont blame them on microsoft. I never said that. But spyware and virus problem is there, you cant deny that..
Only if you don't know what you are doing. I've been running XP for two years, and not one virus, or spyware, and pretty minimal effort on my part.
The problem is there, no denying, but the solution is way. What is more, it isn't windows specific anyway. Keeping your machine in order and secure is something you should be doing on any OS.
Because JOE-USER, secretary, grandma does not need any of these features
Of course nobody needs tabbed browsing, or type ahead find, or pop-up blocking. They are all easy to use and make life easier though.
If you read the artical they are actually quite upfront about it taking ideas from other browsers. Nothing wrong with that, and the users only benefit.
You don't even need the Google search bar for those. Just use the normal search box, and click on "Add Engines". In the page it takes you too, type Google, and the list includeds Froogle, Images, Groups and all sorts of other Google Goodness. Click on the one you want to add it to the search box.
I also use the Advanced Highlighter Button extention, as it does the search term highlighting I really liked from the Google toolbar, but now with any Search Engine. In fact, with these I've actually removed the Googlebar, as it was just taking up space.
Still the latest Googlebar I had did Images, You click on the menu by the 'G' and choose "Goggle Images". Froogle will probably turn up soon.
works perfectly in IE and needs 2-3 refreshes to even manage to render poorly in Firefox. Black on black text and margin errors and blank screens, oh my.
That sounds like something of an exageration to me. I browse /. in Firefox all the time, it sometimes needs one refresh to be fine. I've seen a few others complain about the margin errors, but never the other stuff.
I beleive in later books its also mentioned the Imperial Authorites pretty quickly round up and execute the people celbrating on Coruscant, and they hold the capital for a long while after.
I only read the ocastional SW book though, so I could be wrong.