Reminds me of this book by C.S. Friedman (great author BTW).
In the future, brain implants argment humans with with physical impairments to the point where their extended mental abilities far outreach their physical limitations. Of course, only the rich can afford the best technology, but hackers acquire black-market implants to keep up. Eventually a rogue virus threatens everyone, as simply seeing a trigger for the virus when your firmware is enabled can infect you...
I get that regularly with older monitors here. Somebody is having a problem with a monitor... I calmly walk over look at it a moment... and then smack the everyliving crap outta it.
Quite often this nicely fixes misbehaving monitors, and the reaction from the other staff members is rather amusing as well.
Semi-OT. I don't suppose it is a Pavillion ZD7000 series? I have one of those, and another nice defect is that if you do RAM-intensive operations when there is a DIMM in the secondary RAM slot, the laptop will shutdown or reboot...
Known defect by HP, but no fix yet and they haven't offered to compensate at all (I'd be happy to stop my 512MB and pay the cost of another 512MB to get 1GB RAM). Seems to me in general that manufacturers don't want to support their products, even in the case of obvious defects.
My laptop screen is 1440x900px. Of those pixels (1296000) in all, they're all healthy.
Similarly, even the cheaper laptops we get in tend to have fully functional screens to start with.
Sorry guys, but dead pixels are not as common as you might want us to believe. Maybe in a poorly designed portable wherein the manufacturer doesn't care so much about quality, yes... but lately other devices seem to have less pixel-problems.
Depending on what modifications you do, it's possible that posting a howto for them can still land you in legal hot water. Modifying for self use==ok, giving instructions seems to be less so nowadays.
I would have to add to this. I don't give my email address away to spammers. Rather than mailto links on my primary site I instead have a CGI script which sends me mail. Whenever I sign up for a new site, I use an alias.
But my primary account is still getting an increasing amount of spam now. Why? Because a 'friend' sent me a farking e-card or special 'offer'. Yeah, thanks for the cute card... no I don't feel better 'cause not only do I have my other issues, but I've been added to some spammer's email list.
Grandparent is a moron and a troll... in the world of SPAM everyone is a victim except the spammers and their associates.
Yeah, I've never figured out the ads. They play and endless loop of boring bullshit trivia etc before the movie start-time, and then jump into the ads. A lot of people arrive ahead of time... why not put the advertisements on *before* the times when the paid-for movie starts?
I'll take for example, my grandparents' computer. They needed a new CPU fan, so I sent them up to the local shop with a written description of the type of motherboard/CPU. Of course, the shop-monkey, instead of giving them a small heatsink+fan combo at $12.99 for their P233MMX, gives them a nice big one meant for a P3/P4. And of course, rather than waiting for me to install it like I told them to, they try themselves.
End result: "We tried to fix the computer and now it doesn't work."
It seems they removed the "flat grey thing" because the new heatsink wouldn't fit/w it on (flat grey thing being the CPU), and the oversized heatsink bent/scraped several caps near the CPU. Luckily none were destroyed completely, so I was able to repair the outer sheathing, get a proper heatsink/fan, and have the thing working again.
Yes, it's harder to put a cord in upside down, but I'd not underestimate the many ways somebody can screw up a computer. Remember, these same people can't even program their VCR's
Last time I checked though, WMP didn't play quicktime or realmedia files, meaning sites with that content would require the appropriate program.
In contrast though, I've seen a lot more sites lately with "Windows Media" support in addition to quicktime/real, or sometimes as the sole distribution method. That's the real danger, because when WMP becomes the de-facto standard then MS can start blocking other OS's out that can't use it by using DRM, etc
It's called "providing a service as a feature." Companies do this because *surprise* if there's a demand then they can either get customers over those that don't supply it. Mandating it as law is dumb.
There are, however, products that exist for this already. The internet isn't like cable TV... where the selection is fixed and easy to manage. With this, you'd have to possibly do a lot of changes including creating segregated customer groups for those that do/do-not want filtering. And I could almost guarantee that some sites may be blocked that aren't hardcore porn etc and that subscribing customers will be annoyed at the ISP because they blocked a site that wasn't desired.
The easiest way I supposed would be to have a proxy for those that want a filtered connection, but it's still a pain.
Want a filter, go out and subscribe to one. Why make it a mandated burden on the ISP to satisfy the needs of a particular customer base. The way business usually works, another ISP would offer it as a service.
Mandating such things as laws is what is wrong here...
I've had Maxtors go, recently lost an 80GB Western Digital. Some of the best advice I can give is if you have the space, try to keep your drives apart. Clustering them only increases heat and quickens death.
The windows explorer already has such functionality on the sidebar. If you're "exploring" it will show an image/video preview window on the bar for known formats.
Personally if we're going to monopolize resources for the GUI, I'd rather see a 3d interface and meshed icons. If you think that the bouncing/zooming icons are sweet how cool would a 3d rotating one be?:-)
As a Canadian, I'm be surprised and happy to see how long our stats are for being "botted." We have a *lot* of covereage with broadband service, even in small towns, so a large number of people are now online/w high-speed.
Given that though, I also know some of the main ISPs have no problem yoinking PC's (at least I've known them to do it for open/spam proxies)... so perhaps that helps a bit.
Slashdot Mirror
Reminds me of this book by C.S. Friedman (great author BTW).
In the future, brain implants argment humans with with physical impairments to the point where their extended mental abilities far outreach their physical limitations. Of course, only the rich can afford the best technology, but hackers acquire black-market implants to keep up. Eventually a rogue virus threatens everyone, as simply seeing a trigger for the virus when your firmware is enabled can infect you...
Ours was a bit more cruel. We added the following line to their login script:
logout
The profs caught on after awhile and fixed the bad login scripts though.
Last time I heard he had been shipped to a US department and forced to taste-test American beer. He may or may not have killed himself by now...
I get that regularly with older monitors here. Somebody is having a problem with a monitor... I calmly walk over look at it a moment... and then smack the everyliving crap outta it.
Quite often this nicely fixes misbehaving monitors, and the reaction from the other staff members is rather amusing as well.
Would dead subpixels be as visibly dead as a full pixel, or could they be dead but less easily noticed?
Not much experience with Gateway on laptops, but as far as PC's experience has told me not to touch 'em with a 10-foot-pole.
It's a common problem on cheaper products...
More money to the developers means (hopefully) a better investment in the product. In the end, we benefit through recieving an improved product.
Semi-OT. I don't suppose it is a Pavillion ZD7000 series? I have one of those, and another nice defect is that if you do RAM-intensive operations when there is a DIMM in the secondary RAM slot, the laptop will shutdown or reboot...
Known defect by HP, but no fix yet and they haven't offered to compensate at all (I'd be happy to stop my 512MB and pay the cost of another 512MB to get 1GB RAM). Seems to me in general that manufacturers don't want to support their products, even in the case of obvious defects.
My laptop screen is 1440x900px. Of those pixels (1296000) in all, they're all healthy.
Similarly, even the cheaper laptops we get in tend to have fully functional screens to start with.
Sorry guys, but dead pixels are not as common as you might want us to believe. Maybe in a poorly designed portable wherein the manufacturer doesn't care so much about quality, yes... but lately other devices seem to have less pixel-problems.
So you're saying that nobody has been sued for this? Maybe not sued successfully?
We live in an age of lawsuits... technology lawsuits for discompilation and hacking of hardware are part of this...
Depending on what modifications you do, it's possible that posting a howto for them can still land you in legal hot water. Modifying for self use==ok, giving instructions seems to be less so nowadays.
The preceding generations could often be marked about how they fought for their rights. Ours can likley be marked by how many we let slip away.
I would have to add to this. I don't give my email address away to spammers. Rather than mailto links on my primary site I instead have a CGI script which sends me mail. Whenever I sign up for a new site, I use an alias.
But my primary account is still getting an increasing amount of spam now. Why? Because a 'friend' sent me a farking e-card or special 'offer'. Yeah, thanks for the cute card... no I don't feel better 'cause not only do I have my other issues, but I've been added to some spammer's email list.
Grandparent is a moron and a troll... in the world of SPAM everyone is a victim except the spammers and their associates.
Yeah, I've never figured out the ads. They play and endless loop of boring bullshit trivia etc before the movie start-time, and then jump into the ads. A lot of people arrive ahead of time... why not put the advertisements on *before* the times when the paid-for movie starts?
I'll take for example, my grandparents' computer. They needed a new CPU fan, so I sent them up to the local shop with a written description of the type of motherboard/CPU. Of course, the shop-monkey, instead of giving them a small heatsink+fan combo at $12.99 for their P233MMX, gives them a nice big one meant for a P3/P4. And of course, rather than waiting for me to install it like I told them to, they try themselves.
/w it on (flat grey thing being the CPU), and the oversized heatsink bent/scraped several caps near the CPU. Luckily none were destroyed completely, so I was able to repair the outer sheathing, get a proper heatsink/fan, and have the thing working again.
End result: "We tried to fix the computer and now it doesn't work."
It seems they removed the "flat grey thing" because the new heatsink wouldn't fit
Yes, it's harder to put a cord in upside down, but I'd not underestimate the many ways somebody can screw up a computer. Remember, these same people can't even program their VCR's
Yeah, so how long after the first T-Rex's are cloned that somebody sneaks in with an elephant gun and poaches one?
Wonder how much T-Rex teeth would go for.
Last time I checked though, WMP didn't play quicktime or realmedia files, meaning sites with that content would require the appropriate program.
In contrast though, I've seen a lot more sites lately with "Windows Media" support in addition to quicktime/real, or sometimes as the sole distribution method. That's the real danger, because when WMP becomes the de-facto standard then MS can start blocking other OS's out that can't use it by using DRM, etc
I can just hear all the 9-1-1 operators bitching later today. WTF is slashdot, and why is everyone from there calling to "test" their service?
It's an old troll, yes. I've seen it on many related slashdot posts before.
It's called "providing a service as a feature." Companies do this because *surprise* if there's a demand then they can either get customers over those that don't supply it. Mandating it as law is dumb.
There are, however, products that exist for this already. The internet isn't like cable TV... where the selection is fixed and easy to manage. With this, you'd have to possibly do a lot of changes including creating segregated customer groups for those that do/do-not want filtering. And I could almost guarantee that some sites may be blocked that aren't hardcore porn etc and that subscribing customers will be annoyed at the ISP because they blocked a site that wasn't desired.
The easiest way I supposed would be to have a proxy for those that want a filtered connection, but it's still a pain.
Want a filter, go out and subscribe to one. Why make it a mandated burden on the ISP to satisfy the needs of a particular customer base. The way business usually works, another ISP would offer it as a service.
Mandating such things as laws is what is wrong here...
I've had Maxtors go, recently lost an 80GB Western Digital. Some of the best advice I can give is if you have the space, try to keep your drives apart. Clustering them only increases heat and quickens death.
The windows explorer already has such functionality on the sidebar. If you're "exploring" it will show an image/video preview window on the bar for known formats.
:-)
Personally if we're going to monopolize resources for the GUI, I'd rather see a 3d interface and meshed icons. If you think that the bouncing/zooming icons are sweet how cool would a 3d rotating one be?
As a Canadian, I'm be surprised and happy to see how long our stats are for being "botted." We have a *lot* of covereage with broadband service, even in small towns, so a large number of people are now online /w high-speed.
Given that though, I also know some of the main ISPs have no problem yoinking PC's (at least I've known them to do it for open/spam proxies)... so perhaps that helps a bit.
My co-worker told me that they've got better support for OSX lately - and they shouldn't be vulnerable to the exploits.
You could also use AbiWord for word docs, I suppose