some of whom are very smart and have an in-depth understanding of what they are using
While the security issues and sometimes instability of windows might lead you to think otherwise (other OS's have the same problem, and...) there are some pretty smart people who work at microsoft as well. The fact is, big corps with experienced IT people do get hacked, and backdoors do get found by hackers, etc. Yes, they're good, but on the other hand they don't always catch the elite hackers either.
And if you control the operating system, both on client and server, imagine what you could do. Windows does call home, be it for windows update, or other means. Ever notice that every now and then IE likes to go to the windows update pages rather than your start page? How about IIS, what if when IE hits a properly configured IIS server, it dumps a little extra info. Somehow I doubt that the security dudes can watch for any odd byte in a massive stream of traffic. Sure, you can see unauthorized or unexpected access to various sites, but how about if one were to sneak in a little extra here and there when accessing an authorized site?
I bought one of these to use my mp3 player (not an iPod) in my work vehicle, because it just has a tape-deck+radio which tends to get no reception on long drives out-of-town.
I was expecting static and/or a crappy signal (including shipping I think I paid $10CAD), but was pretty impressed with what I got for my money. My mp3 player doesn't play+charge by USB simultaneously, but if yours does you can also use the USB adaptor (or firewire on some models) to keep the thing powered up while you're on the road.
Not the best solution, but a pretty good value for the price.
For the record, one of the things I was dreading was having to shell out to Sony, or not player any more Final Fantasy. However, all the recent ads I've seen for FFXII (That's 12, not X-2) have indicated that it's being released for Playstation-2, not Playstation-3 (or at least, not only PS3). As the Japanese release is already out on that hardware, and the N. American release being slated for early November, I don't really see it being a problem.
For future Final Fantasy games... well they have released various items for other consoles, so one can hope that if PS-3 doesn't show the user base Square/Enix wants, they'll go with another console.
Most of the "nerds" I know might view an iPod as a cool and useful accessory (and better than the competitors in various ways at release-time). The PS3 on the other hand is not so cool, so chances are if you buy it looking for status you're just going to get laughed at instead.
It's not just a matter of how much energy there is stored in the gasoline, it's also about efficiency. I seem to remember reading that electric engines are somewhat more efficient than gas, and it would probably be easier to start/stop an electric engine for mixed traffic and lights (no warming up period for combustion reactions, etc).
There's also the consideration that you could do the normal electric car thing (pull power off the braking, etc) in addition to the regular charging schedule.
But I'm assuming that would just be for a fast-charge. You could do a slower top up say, over a few hours, and possibly pull that off with local current.
For the fast charge, special stations (just like gas stations) could have the appropriate wiring, and of course the fast-charge connections would probably have to be kept safe from any water and/or personal contact.
So if you're taking a trip over the limit (500 miles or whatever, likely varies with terrain) you'll have to stop at a station for a quick fill, and probably pay more for it. If you're parking the car overnight at home, you can probably just plug it into the your house power on a less-intensive charging scheme.
What I wonder about is the dissipation of power in the capacitor. They do lose power over time, so if you charge up on a Tuesday how much loss will you suffer if you don't drive until the weekend?
The problem is partly in quoting retail figures. Nobody knows what Sony is getting as a wholesale price, but given the overinflated rates that much of retail sells at, chances are it's a lot cheaper than you would get at Wal-Mart
So, if nobody buy a PS3, they might still produce say, 1-2 million. At the production costs of what, $600-800, that comes out to:
2,000,000x$600=1,200,000,000
That's over a billion dollars, and a rather painful sum for even Sony to swallow, I'd imagine.
What is the FCC limitation on the range of a transmitter? I'm fairly sure the transmitter itself isn't illegal, because there are plenty of off-the-shelf devices out there that you can plug into your car lighter socket + ipod/mp3-player/CD-player/cellphone/etc and broadcast at XX.X frequency to be received by your AM/FM radio. For some of them, the signal is likely strong enough to hit the car(s) next to you if they happen to be on the same station.
I wonder how much these cost? I'm guessing they aren't that cheap to produce, but I don't see them being very re-usable as one thing worse than having some robot go happily up your ass and then slip-sliding through your intestinal-tract is having one that's already been up somebody else's ass.
I mean, while some people might find this more convenient than other methods if it were a one shot-deal... but I'm also wondering on how the disinfect these suckers afterwords.
Google can take your content and make pages containing ads. You can not take Google's content (RSS feeds, for instance) and make pages containing ads
If you let them.... there are plenty of standards (robots.txt) or other methods to prevent your content being scraped. There are also plenty of sites that aren't indexed or at least not fully indexed by google.
They want to be able to make a buck off of it too.
No, seriously, hope many free things are out there (google search indexing, GPL software, etc) that some jerk has to try and think of a way to break the system in order to get a free ride and make a profit? Seems like we're seeing more and more of that nowadays
WoW is a game that people can play all year. Though argueably things like Warcraft (non-WoW), starcraft, half-life, etc are also renewable experiences due to online play... there's a bit more flexibility to the WoW universe.
For the records, I'd probably be willing to pay a small fee ($5/month) for online play of some of my favorites anyhow, especially if it helped the game devs put new ways to filter out all the loudmouth jerks.
Actually, not everyone does. See, this is a "news for nerds" site... which happens to include science-nerds, politico-nerds, book-nerds, game-nerds, anime-nerds and others.
If you're a linux-nerd, you might know it (I happen to fall in that category as well as a few others), but it's actually helpful for many to know who Mr. Cox is, especially since the exploding laptop might be of interest to nerds of other genre's (say, hardware-nerds or politico-nerds for the lawsuit area of things).
Whomever modded the grandparent redundant is a jerk...
I won't agree with it, but politicians have been known to lie, cheat, and steal for a long time. Sure, this generat ion seems a bit worse than the prior ones, but the fact is that people (including those who run big companies) have personal responsibility and ethics of their own.
I live in BC, Canada. My premiere (governor) was caught drinking and driving. Does that incline me, or any others, to do so? I don't think so.
It's also there for people that want stuff they can't get elsewhere, or at the same hours. I'm not a huge fan of Wal-Mart either, but short of ordering on ebay (which can have its own evils, and there's shipping delays etc) sometimes there are just things I can't easily find in other places, especially not at later hours (WalMart here closes at 10pm, in many USA locations it 24-hour).
... to coming up with new "conditions", such as these bullshit addictions... ... to sensationalism, because as mentioned in this comment, there's a fine line between this and real addictions... ... to superiorism, because they seem to feel that being in their particular field enables them to randomly generate new conditions without a proper process nor criterium... ... to genericism, because by the criterium given, you could fit it to pretty much anything, but hardly compares to others (again see this comment)...... to cash, because as with so-called "video game addiction" the next step is to setup counselling centres and clinics to "treat" people. It's easier to make a buck in the cure (or better, 'treatment') if you made the disease... ... to themselves, because if this continues then self-belief is going to constitute about 99% of the intelligent communities faith in these quacks...
The internet is a growing phenomenoa. It is not a specific entity, but rather is composed of many entitities. It is a tool, much more advanced but in theory no more different from a loudspeaker, phone, radio, or other scientific advancements. It encases vast amounts of the human world, as websites dedicate themselves to business, pleasure, vice, and many others. It is a network, in many ways like a plant with roots and seeds that reach into many gardens of human society, merging with existing entities to create new ones.
In many ways it is a representation of human society, in others it is a shaper of it, for the network that is the internet has had an almost unprecedented influence in the way we communicate, learn, and advance. It allows disparate cultures to share knowledge and values that would otherwise be not only unavailable, but not even considered.
But in the end, the internet, the network, is made up of people. People who generate content, ideas, and all the components that make it work. Saying it is an addiction is in itself akin to saying one is addicted to communication, or to knowledge. Yes, using it may become habitual. Oftimes, using it is a necessity, or at the least the most convenient (and some might argue intelligent) method of information transfer.
No, I don't believe one can truely be addicted to the internet, because the internet itself is too broad a topic to define as thus. Perhaps you have some personal compulsion, some addiction, to various facets of the internet. But the internet as a whole is so vast that it is pretty much impossible to be addicted to it in its entirety.
For the record, I work in schools. One thing I can say is that the words "Columbine" are still quite in the head of administrators and teachers, etc, as well as the parents that would remember it.
The actual incident happened near my last years of high school. I remember that before I heard about Columbine itself, people who would usually have gone out of their way to break my balls were being unusually nice. I also found out later that most people somehow expected me to follow suite and copycat the shootings. It seemed strange to me, because though I had a lot of people with whom I had personal issues, and I was somewhat a fan of shooter games, etc, I just didn't have any compulsion to come to school and shoot people... both the innocent and the aggressors.
However, the impact of that day left a mark that did have people worried about pushing their targets "over that line." Furthermore, to this day I see that administration seems to take a much stronger notice of consistent bullying, and tends to educate against it more strongly as well. I don't know if that's an offshoot of Columbine or just happenstance, but I do believe that it was in many ways an eye opener for many people.
And to emphasize, I'm not the violent type, and I would neither commit such actions myself nor promote them from others, but I'm not overly surprised it happened. Though there is nothing that justifies the harming of innocents in the manner that this occured, I think what saddens me the most is the overspilling hatred in these individuals into racism and pure bile which brings about their willingness to harm true innocents (as in, not those who have done them harm) and to in the end make them something worse than those whom they railed against.
For entering a pre-existing market with well known and defined competitors, yeah it's not all that bad actually when you get second place. It's like a rich preppy kid who decided to sink his cash in on a personal gym and then managed to get second in a weight-lifting competition.
Doesn't anyone remember cool spot. Heck, I know people who actually liked the game.
It wouldn't be hard to put a little low-level advertising in the games: posters on the walls, drinking Pepsi to regain life, or some other things of the like that wouldn't distract much from actual gameplay.
Whether or not your waiter is more likely to rip off your card than someone on the internet, it's a hell of a lot easier for somebody to use it online. No checking ID, no checking a signature, it's just easier.
My grandmother recently had her Mastercard number ripped off. Somebody was using it to buy diet items and a few other things at online stores. With a little hackery to hide one's IP, and a fake dropbox for delivery, it's pretty hard to trace. In a lot of cases I doubt even that much is needed depending on how well the merchant logs transactions. However, in the case of her number being stolen, it would have had to be at a store (or more likely the one time she ordered videos from a support-this-channel promo offer from cable TV) as she doesn't even have an internet connection, much less shop on one.
Also, the statement that "the internet is safer" tended to focus more on the single transaction (possibilities of somebody sniffing) that the more current reality of card databases being infiltrated or stolen en-masse online.
Still, I have heard that in order to protect their reputations, the card companies do go after fraudsters. I wonder how big a fraud it has to be before they consider it worthwhile.
Indeed, the only thing that annoys me more than cheaters are the whiners. If you play with any skill, then in their mind you *must* automatically be a cheater. I tend to play a lot of FPS's like Warcraft III etc, and the namecalling, whining types seem to be there en-masse.
The last game I played one player whined for the latter part of the game about map hacks. I'd assumed he was accusing the other players but at the end apparently it was I that he believed was hacking. The reason... every time he left his base I'd saunter in and wreck it a bit, then get out before he could come back and tune me. It's easy enough when you use scouting units (invisible) etc, but even after explaining that he still found it easier to believe I was cheating... and I didn't even win the game (it was FFA, another player tuned us both, and I'm fairly sure the he did so without cheating).
Slashdot Mirror
some of whom are very smart and have an in-depth understanding of what they are using
While the security issues and sometimes instability of windows might lead you to think otherwise (other OS's have the same problem, and...) there are some pretty smart people who work at microsoft as well. The fact is, big corps with experienced IT people do get hacked, and backdoors do get found by hackers, etc. Yes, they're good, but on the other hand they don't always catch the elite hackers either.
And if you control the operating system, both on client and server, imagine what you could do. Windows does call home, be it for windows update, or other means. Ever notice that every now and then IE likes to go to the windows update pages rather than your start page? How about IIS, what if when IE hits a properly configured IIS server, it dumps a little extra info. Somehow I doubt that the security dudes can watch for any odd byte in a massive stream of traffic. Sure, you can see unauthorized or unexpected access to various sites, but how about if one were to sneak in a little extra here and there when accessing an authorized site?
I bought one of these to use my mp3 player (not an iPod) in my work vehicle, because it just has a tape-deck+radio which tends to get no reception on long drives out-of-town.
I was expecting static and/or a crappy signal (including shipping I think I paid $10CAD), but was pretty impressed with what I got for my money. My mp3 player doesn't play+charge by USB simultaneously, but if yours does you can also use the USB adaptor (or firewire on some models) to keep the thing powered up while you're on the road.
Not the best solution, but a pretty good value for the price.
For the record, one of the things I was dreading was having to shell out to Sony, or not player any more Final Fantasy. However, all the recent ads I've seen for FFXII (That's 12, not X-2) have indicated that it's being released for Playstation-2, not Playstation-3 (or at least, not only PS3). As the Japanese release is already out on that hardware, and the N. American release being slated for early November, I don't really see it being a problem.
For future Final Fantasy games... well they have released various items for other consoles, so one can hope that if PS-3 doesn't show the user base Square/Enix wants, they'll go with another console.
Most of the "nerds" I know might view an iPod as a cool and useful accessory (and better than the competitors in various ways at release-time). The PS3 on the other hand is not so cool, so chances are if you buy it looking for status you're just going to get laughed at instead.
It's not just a matter of how much energy there is stored in the gasoline, it's also about efficiency. I seem to remember reading that electric engines are somewhat more efficient than gas, and it would probably be easier to start/stop an electric engine for mixed traffic and lights (no warming up period for combustion reactions, etc).
There's also the consideration that you could do the normal electric car thing (pull power off the braking, etc) in addition to the regular charging schedule.
But I'm assuming that would just be for a fast-charge. You could do a slower top up say, over a few hours, and possibly pull that off with local current.
For the fast charge, special stations (just like gas stations) could have the appropriate wiring, and of course the fast-charge connections would probably have to be kept safe from any water and/or personal contact.
So if you're taking a trip over the limit (500 miles or whatever, likely varies with terrain) you'll have to stop at a station for a quick fill, and probably pay more for it. If you're parking the car overnight at home, you can probably just plug it into the your house power on a less-intensive charging scheme.
What I wonder about is the dissipation of power in the capacitor. They do lose power over time, so if you charge up on a Tuesday how much loss will you suffer if you don't drive until the weekend?
The problem is partly in quoting retail figures. Nobody knows what Sony is getting as a wholesale price, but given the overinflated rates that much of retail sells at, chances are it's a lot cheaper than you would get at Wal-Mart
So, if nobody buy a PS3, they might still produce say, 1-2 million. At the production costs of what, $600-800, that comes out to:
2,000,000x$600=1,200,000,000
That's over a billion dollars, and a rather painful sum for even Sony to swallow, I'd imagine.
What is the FCC limitation on the range of a transmitter? I'm fairly sure the transmitter itself isn't illegal, because there are plenty of off-the-shelf devices out there that you can plug into your car lighter socket + ipod/mp3-player/CD-player/cellphone/etc and broadcast at XX.X frequency to be received by your AM/FM radio. For some of them, the signal is likely strong enough to hit the car(s) next to you if they happen to be on the same station.
I see people confuse these two all the time. In fact, I've seen a number of teachers write "loose" when they mean to say "lose".
Pretty sad, if you ask me.
I wonder how much these cost? I'm guessing they aren't that cheap to produce, but I don't see them being very re-usable as one thing worse than having some robot go happily up your ass and then slip-sliding through your intestinal-tract is having one that's already been up somebody else's ass.
I mean, while some people might find this more convenient than other methods if it were a one shot-deal... but I'm also wondering on how the disinfect these suckers afterwords.
Cool tech, but... yuck!
Google can take your content and make pages containing ads. You can not take Google's content (RSS feeds, for instance) and make pages containing ads
If you let them.... there are plenty of standards (robots.txt) or other methods to prevent your content being scraped. There are also plenty of sites that aren't indexed or at least not fully indexed by google.
They want to be able to make a buck off of it too.
No, seriously, hope many free things are out there (google search indexing, GPL software, etc) that some jerk has to try and think of a way to break the system in order to get a free ride and make a profit? Seems like we're seeing more and more of that nowadays
WoW is a game that people can play all year. Though argueably things like Warcraft (non-WoW), starcraft, half-life, etc are also renewable experiences due to online play... there's a bit more flexibility to the WoW universe.
For the records, I'd probably be willing to pay a small fee ($5/month) for online play of some of my favorites anyhow, especially if it helped the game devs put new ways to filter out all the loudmouth jerks.
Actually, not everyone does. See, this is a "news for nerds" site... which happens to include science-nerds, politico-nerds, book-nerds, game-nerds, anime-nerds and others.
If you're a linux-nerd, you might know it (I happen to fall in that category as well as a few others), but it's actually helpful for many to know who Mr. Cox is, especially since the exploding laptop might be of interest to nerds of other genre's (say, hardware-nerds or politico-nerds for the lawsuit area of things).
Whomever modded the grandparent redundant is a jerk...
I won't agree with it, but politicians have been known to lie, cheat, and steal for a long time. Sure, this generat ion seems a bit worse than the prior ones, but the fact is that people (including those who run big companies) have personal responsibility and ethics of their own.
I live in BC, Canada. My premiere (governor) was caught drinking and driving. Does that incline me, or any others, to do so? I don't think so.
It's also there for people that want stuff they can't get elsewhere, or at the same hours. I'm not a huge fan of Wal-Mart either, but short of ordering on ebay (which can have its own evils, and there's shipping delays etc) sometimes there are just things I can't easily find in other places, especially not at later hours (WalMart here closes at 10pm, in many USA locations it 24-hour).
... to coming up with new "conditions", such as these bullshit addictions...
... to sensationalism, because as mentioned in this comment, there's a fine line between this and real addictions ...
... to superiorism, because they seem to feel that being in their particular field enables them to randomly generate new conditions without a proper process nor criterium ...
... to genericism, because by the criterium given, you could fit it to pretty much anything, but hardly compares to others (again see this comment) ... ... to cash, because as with so-called "video game addiction" the next step is to setup counselling centres and clinics to "treat" people. It's easier to make a buck in the cure (or better, 'treatment') if you made the disease ...
... to themselves, because if this continues then self-belief is going to constitute about 99% of the intelligent communities faith in these quacks ...
The internet is a growing phenomenoa. It is not a specific entity, but rather is composed of many entitities. It is a tool, much more advanced but in theory no more different from a loudspeaker, phone, radio, or other scientific advancements. It encases vast amounts of the human world, as websites dedicate themselves to business, pleasure, vice, and many others. It is a network, in many ways like a plant with roots and seeds that reach into many gardens of human society, merging with existing entities to create new ones.
In many ways it is a representation of human society, in others it is a shaper of it, for the network that is the internet has had an almost unprecedented influence in the way we communicate, learn, and advance. It allows disparate cultures to share knowledge and values that would otherwise be not only unavailable, but not even considered.
But in the end, the internet, the network, is made up of people. People who generate content, ideas, and all the components that make it work. Saying it is an addiction is in itself akin to saying one is addicted to communication, or to knowledge. Yes, using it may become habitual. Oftimes, using it is a necessity, or at the least the most convenient (and some might argue intelligent) method of information transfer.
No, I don't believe one can truely be addicted to the internet, because the internet itself is too broad a topic to define as thus. Perhaps you have some personal compulsion, some addiction, to various facets of the internet. But the internet as a whole is so vast that it is pretty much impossible to be addicted to it in its entirety.
For the record, I work in schools. One thing I can say is that the words "Columbine" are still quite in the head of administrators and teachers, etc, as well as the parents that would remember it.
The actual incident happened near my last years of high school. I remember that before I heard about Columbine itself, people who would usually have gone out of their way to break my balls were being unusually nice. I also found out later that most people somehow expected me to follow suite and copycat the shootings. It seemed strange to me, because though I had a lot of people with whom I had personal issues, and I was somewhat a fan of shooter games, etc, I just didn't have any compulsion to come to school and shoot people... both the innocent and the aggressors.
However, the impact of that day left a mark that did have people worried about pushing their targets "over that line." Furthermore, to this day I see that administration seems to take a much stronger notice of consistent bullying, and tends to educate against it more strongly as well. I don't know if that's an offshoot of Columbine or just happenstance, but I do believe that it was in many ways an eye opener for many people.
And to emphasize, I'm not the violent type, and I would neither commit such actions myself nor promote them from others, but I'm not overly surprised it happened. Though there is nothing that justifies the harming of innocents in the manner that this occured, I think what saddens me the most is the overspilling hatred in these individuals into racism and pure bile which brings about their willingness to harm true innocents (as in, not those who have done them harm) and to in the end make them something worse than those whom they railed against.
Nah, it's just that if he hides it in a tape, even if it was discovered nobody would know WTF it was nor how to play it :-)
For entering a pre-existing market with well known and defined competitors, yeah it's not all that bad actually when you get second place. It's like a rich preppy kid who decided to sink his cash in on a personal gym and then managed to get second in a weight-lifting competition.
Most untrained ppl actually DO NOT shoot at each other in the battle-field
But some do, because that's the way they are wired.
I've got news for you... most people who play video games aren't all that likely to go and blow somebody away either.
Doesn't anyone remember cool spot. Heck, I know people who actually liked the game.
It wouldn't be hard to put a little low-level advertising in the games: posters on the walls, drinking Pepsi to regain life, or some other things of the like that wouldn't distract much from actual gameplay.
Whether or not your waiter is more likely to rip off your card than someone on the internet, it's a hell of a lot easier for somebody to use it online. No checking ID, no checking a signature, it's just easier.
My grandmother recently had her Mastercard number ripped off. Somebody was using it to buy diet items and a few other things at online stores. With a little hackery to hide one's IP, and a fake dropbox for delivery, it's pretty hard to trace. In a lot of cases I doubt even that much is needed depending on how well the merchant logs transactions. However, in the case of her number being stolen, it would have had to be at a store (or more likely the one time she ordered videos from a support-this-channel promo offer from cable TV) as she doesn't even have an internet connection, much less shop on one.
Also, the statement that "the internet is safer" tended to focus more on the single transaction (possibilities of somebody sniffing) that the more current reality of card databases being infiltrated or stolen en-masse online.
Still, I have heard that in order to protect their reputations, the card companies do go after fraudsters. I wonder how big a fraud it has to be before they consider it worthwhile.
Indeed, the only thing that annoys me more than cheaters are the whiners. If you play with any skill, then in their mind you *must* automatically be a cheater. I tend to play a lot of FPS's like Warcraft III etc, and the namecalling, whining types seem to be there en-masse.
The last game I played one player whined for the latter part of the game about map hacks. I'd assumed he was accusing the other players but at the end apparently it was I that he believed was hacking. The reason... every time he left his base I'd saunter in and wreck it a bit, then get out before he could come back and tune me. It's easy enough when you use scouting units (invisible) etc, but even after explaining that he still found it easier to believe I was cheating... and I didn't even win the game (it was FFA, another player tuned us both, and I'm fairly sure the he did so without cheating).