I don't know about the "insightful" mod for the linux-bashing comment, but to bash BSD in a BSD article is well... inciting a good flaming, and thus flamebait.
The could just continue allowing customers to amass calls, f*** them over for the bill, and collect.
Most people aren't willing to go to a collection agency over this, so I doubt Telus was being bent over the barrel and losing money (in many cases I've heard the user did pay, which they rightfully should being the one who downloaded idiotic sh*t).
By doing something, it shows that they're aware of the problem, and are willing to do something about it on their end (while not taking actual responsibility for the fact that their users download idiotic sh*t such as phonedialers).
I don't know about the US ($here=="Canada"), but generally we only have cig vending-machines in places where kids can't go anyways (bars, etc). You won't find them in your local grocery story.
I ran into an individual that paid out for this, several hundred dollars. The problem though, is that he is a dialup user. The other problem is that he only has a single phone-line.
When not in use for the net, the phone-line is disconnected from the modem... since the fax machine or something like that uses it also.
Telus charged him for such a call... but it seems to me that he couldn't have even made it:
-Phoneline likely disconnected
-When connected, phoneline was already dialed out (can't double-dial)
-If dialing out, phoneline would interfere with normal fax/calls
Glad to see Telus is doing something about this, but how many people could they have charged, claiming it was the computer's fault, when in fact there was no dialer infection.
Just so. Unless they're going with USB2.0 for all the peripherals, I'm guessing that such a setup doesn't really compare to the desktop PC. Heck, even (as mentioned VIA vs AMD vs Intel) many PC's don't compare overly well... so I'm sure that 450W could be a reasonable number for whatever they're running.
Besides, part of the power of a PC is the flexibility (it can be a calculator, gaming rig, media box, etc etc). With a specialized piece of hardware such as a satellite, I'm sure that having there are more rigid boundaries as far as what it needs to do, and thus power consumption.
Statistically, cigarettes are an addictive poison. Alternately, pornography is an example of human nature. While some younger children shouldn't been exposed, "child" by law is often defining ages in the mid-late teens.
Once I hit puberty, I learned plenty about such things without needing the internet. I think really the issue has a lot to do with leftover morals from a religious age, and parents being too nervous/unwilling to give a proper discussion about sex, love, morality on either, and at what point they are ready to fit into one's life (and the consequences of such).
Don't give our kids porn because... because... we don't want them to learn about sex. Good luck on that.
Now if you want to talk about the less natural variety of such things (groups, animals, etc)... yes there definately should be a stronger cap on such things.
Actually, I will admit to viewing porn on a very regular basis. Have since I first got connected (BBS's, 14.4, download times sucked but were OK if you left it on overnight).
Sometimes I like a little variety in what I watch, but that doesn't make its way to my bedroom. The experience of actually being intimate with somebody you care about is much different from porn of any variety+vasaline+tissues.
Now, if anything I may have become more desensitized to such things because of the people around me. Many of my friends are fairly... active. Being that I'm around a bunch of horny and not-too-manogamous individuals on a regular basis, I've adjusted to the point where I have to accept that it's quite often the way things are. Personally, neither of those affect how I interract with my own partner, however.
I searched through the various articles trying to find that number, but no go. Maybe they're missing a zero... or perhaps 450W is actually a lot on a system that is likely drawing continuous power off a solar panel/battery.
Considering the computer power needed to go to the moon, it's not likely that this thing needs an 3.2Ghz processor and GeForce:-)
My Epia-M is plugged in taking about less than 30W of power (including HDD and DVD-ROM)... so really the equivilent of an efficient 1Ghz processor wouldn't need anything near your desktop machine's draw.
If you want to compare it to having a phone, it's like moving from the southern US with a landline phone number of (233) 123-2321, and wanting to keep it in an area that is not serviced by 233.
Actually, moreso it's like moving to China, but still wanting to have your number be the exact same (country code and all).... after all, it too can be routed, nevermind that doing so for too many people will be incredibly slow/stupid/etc
This sounds just about the right way to do it. Allow local judges to try to make such legislation. There's nothing that says it has to be supported elsewhere. So then, when a given state has their internet completely f***ed up because some asshat(s) tried to retain an IP across providers, and the internet either doesn't function or slows to a deathly crawl, they know who to blame.
"Our internet isn't working, how come it works in Seattle fine but not in Atlanta."
Sure, the ISPs would be blamed to start with, but eventually when it comes to realization that the entire state is f***ed, one might be able to pin the blame properly on stupid judges and their even stupider plaintiffs. After all, one state (or even one country) does not the internet make, and if it's causing problems to the internet at large they could be segregated.
Nothing like a publicly visible/effectual phenomenon to make people finally get off their collective asses, see a broken system, and go for the tar and feathers.
BTW, I believe you *could* accomplish IP portablilty with some fancy NAT from "oldIP" to "newIP", but it's still eternally stupid.
DOSBox seems aimed more at games than general applications, which seems to explain why some of the nicer points of freeDOS (such as printing/netprint support) don't seem to work as well/easily in dosbox. Easier to setup though, and good for some of the stuff that dosEMU doesn't handle as well yet.
Actually, quite often it's the same thing that kills off stuntsters, etc that causes criminals (even smart ones) to be caught:
a) Bad luck. Like if you're robbing a bank and it just happens that a few cops are in to grab some coffee-cash
b) Brazeness: A form of stupidity, it's when successful crime leads to more successful crime, and eventually increased risks, until one is caught for said crime.
Really, the biggest application for this kinda power that I can forsee would be game developers who want to see how well their games scale for next-gen video hardware...
Except that the next-gen hardware might be more than just a faster speed for pumping out polygons at greater resolution, but can include a newer/better shader or some other technology that makes the visual experience more realistic.
I would agree when it's some idiot adding a tag somewhere, or defacing a window, vehicle, or otherwise decent premesis. When it's a mural on a dilapitated building with stained ugly walls and nothing remotely appealing in appearance... many forms of graffiti are an improvement, it's the original wall that said "slum."
Not all graffiti is a message, well other than the fact that the message is in the artwork, and it's not always political or controversial.
I was notified that - because I had entered a complaint to HP about a printer with paper feeding issues - I was included in a class action which was subsequently pursued against HP for a defect causing said feed issues.
I recently got my settlement... $25 off a new printer, if the printer is worth a certain amount.
So yes, I'd agree that class action suits are often BS... except when against individuals or entities without a physical product. You don't see doctors offering "free surgery" coupons when hit with a class action for malpractice or something similar...
Since the baby is like that from birth, I'd imagine that his body will adapt to such a situation much better than somebody who was "altered."
With steroids etc, altering your body too fast is overstressing it in various ways. Being born as a superkid though, with enough food he'll probably grow up to suit his enhanced body just fine.
Here where I work, it's not so much an issue with hardware becoming cheaper as it is that upgrading our OS would indefinately require a hardware upgrade as well (and with the amount of machines we have, those upgrades would be steep in the $$$ range). We can get all the apps we want to run going on a P200MMX, 64MX (albeit slowly), and they run quite dandy on a 400Mhz machine, 128MB+ RAM
With IceWM as the GUI and some other neat tricks, one can almost make linux look windows-ish to ease the pain of transition for those more stubborn users.
Linux applications can have GUI wizards too. Most don't bother as they assume you have some proficiency in installing from a CLI interface, package, or whatever.
Some I can think of off the top of my head:
IceWMCP (IceWM Control Panel)
OpenOffice (nice GUI installer)
And if you wanted a GUI front-end for package managers, apt-get has a Synaptic, and I'm sure there are many others for RPM etc.
Ah, but it's also not unheard of for Intel to *underclock* a chip for sale.
Let's say that Intel is currently selling a lot of P4-3.5Ghz CPU. In a month or two they develop a P4-4.0Ghz CPU. There's still a demand for the 3.5 at a lower price, but it's a pain to have production for both chips. So what do they do? Sell the 4.0 as a 3.5, and stick underclock protection on it.
Yes, indeed, because after a point it is actually cheaper for them to release the higher-speed CPU in greater volume. However, seeing as though the extra 0.5Ghz might be another $100, they don't want you knowing about it.
So they hide the fact, market the 4.0 as a 3.5 (still at lesser price because people are buying), and stick "overclock" protection in it to prevent people who actually would by the more expensive 4.0 from buying the cheaper (but the same) CPU and just setting the clock to that of the more expensive.
It's been done before, with some Celerons and perhaps other CPUs.
I actually know quite a few girls who have bought new cellphones because the old one is, well, older, and not as cute as the new design. No, the reception isn't better, and they don't use any of the bazillion extra features, but they wanted a cuter phone.
Cellphones are part of a fashion trend... I know the parent was a joke but it wouldn't be unheard of for people to buy newer phones that are "in fashion"
If people must contact you (and don't already know your email address), have a CGI form which may be filled out to send you contact email. Add a little security such as checking the referer record (that it matches your site and isn't a bot) etc.
or would be compelled to make deals with actual organized crime.
I remember reading somewhere that various mob-type groups in Europe/Asia were basically selling off huge lists of compromised machines as well as ways to make use of them.
Some spammers were buying these lists to use the zombie machines as spambases. So really, they're already involved with organized crime.
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I don't know about the "insightful" mod for the linux-bashing comment, but to bash BSD in a BSD article is well... inciting a good flaming, and thus flamebait.
You can still call them, you just have to have the operator help you make the call (or use a phonecard, which is probably cheaper anyhow).
Nobody is cut off. Slightly inconvenienced perhaps, but Telus is even waiving the fees for the operator-assisted call to those countries.
Got a better idea?
The could just continue allowing customers to amass calls, f*** them over for the bill, and collect.
Most people aren't willing to go to a collection agency over this, so I doubt Telus was being bent over the barrel and losing money (in many cases I've heard the user did pay, which they rightfully should being the one who downloaded idiotic sh*t).
By doing something, it shows that they're aware of the problem, and are willing to do something about it on their end (while not taking actual responsibility for the fact that their users download idiotic sh*t such as phonedialers).
I don't know about the US ($here=="Canada"), but generally we only have cig vending-machines in places where kids can't go anyways (bars, etc). You won't find them in your local grocery story.
I ran into an individual that paid out for this, several hundred dollars. The problem though, is that he is a dialup user. The other problem is that he only has a single phone-line.
When not in use for the net, the phone-line is disconnected from the modem... since the fax machine or something like that uses it also.
Telus charged him for such a call... but it seems to me that he couldn't have even made it:
-Phoneline likely disconnected
-When connected, phoneline was already dialed out (can't double-dial) -If dialing out, phoneline would interfere with normal fax/calls
Glad to see Telus is doing something about this, but how many people could they have charged, claiming it was the computer's fault, when in fact there was no dialer infection.
Just so. Unless they're going with USB2.0 for all the peripherals, I'm guessing that such a setup doesn't really compare to the desktop PC. Heck, even (as mentioned VIA vs AMD vs Intel) many PC's don't compare overly well... so I'm sure that 450W could be a reasonable number for whatever they're running.
Besides, part of the power of a PC is the flexibility (it can be a calculator, gaming rig, media box, etc etc). With a specialized piece of hardware such as a satellite, I'm sure that having there are more rigid boundaries as far as what it needs to do, and thus power consumption.
Statistically, cigarettes are an addictive poison. Alternately, pornography is an example of human nature. While some younger children shouldn't been exposed, "child" by law is often defining ages in the mid-late teens.
Once I hit puberty, I learned plenty about such things without needing the internet. I think really the issue has a lot to do with leftover morals from a religious age, and parents being too nervous/unwilling to give a proper discussion about sex, love, morality on either, and at what point they are ready to fit into one's life (and the consequences of such).
Don't give our kids porn because... because... we don't want them to learn about sex. Good luck on that.
Now if you want to talk about the less natural variety of such things (groups, animals, etc)... yes there definately should be a stronger cap on such things.
Actually, I will admit to viewing porn on a very regular basis. Have since I first got connected (BBS's, 14.4, download times sucked but were OK if you left it on overnight).
Sometimes I like a little variety in what I watch, but that doesn't make its way to my bedroom. The experience of actually being intimate with somebody you care about is much different from porn of any variety+vasaline+tissues.
Now, if anything I may have become more desensitized to such things because of the people around me. Many of my friends are fairly... active. Being that I'm around a bunch of horny and not-too-manogamous individuals on a regular basis, I've adjusted to the point where I have to accept that it's quite often the way things are. Personally, neither of those affect how I interract with my own partner, however.
I searched through the various articles trying to find that number, but no go. Maybe they're missing a zero... or perhaps 450W is actually a lot on a system that is likely drawing continuous power off a solar panel/battery.
:-)
Considering the computer power needed to go to the moon, it's not likely that this thing needs an 3.2Ghz processor and GeForce
My Epia-M is plugged in taking about less than 30W of power (including HDD and DVD-ROM)... so really the equivilent of an efficient 1Ghz processor wouldn't need anything near your desktop machine's draw.
If you want to compare it to having a phone, it's like moving from the southern US with a landline phone number of (233) 123-2321, and wanting to keep it in an area that is not serviced by 233.
Actually, moreso it's like moving to China, but still wanting to have your number be the exact same (country code and all).... after all, it too can be routed, nevermind that doing so for too many people will be incredibly slow/stupid/etc
This sounds just about the right way to do it. Allow local judges to try to make such legislation. There's nothing that says it has to be supported elsewhere. So then, when a given state has their internet completely f***ed up because some asshat(s) tried to retain an IP across providers, and the internet either doesn't function or slows to a deathly crawl, they know who to blame.
"Our internet isn't working, how come it works in Seattle fine but not in Atlanta."
Sure, the ISPs would be blamed to start with, but eventually when it comes to realization that the entire state is f***ed, one might be able to pin the blame properly on stupid judges and their even stupider plaintiffs. After all, one state (or even one country) does not the internet make, and if it's causing problems to the internet at large they could be segregated.
Nothing like a publicly visible/effectual phenomenon to make people finally get off their collective asses, see a broken system, and go for the tar and feathers.
BTW, I believe you *could* accomplish IP portablilty with some fancy NAT from "oldIP" to "newIP", but it's still eternally stupid.
I dunno about freeDOS, but DOSBox can run 3.1 with some tweaking
DOSBox seems aimed more at games than general applications, which seems to explain why some of the nicer points of freeDOS (such as printing/netprint support) don't seem to work as well/easily in dosbox. Easier to setup though, and good for some of the stuff that dosEMU doesn't handle as well yet.
Actually, quite often it's the same thing that kills off stuntsters, etc that causes criminals (even smart ones) to be caught:
a) Bad luck. Like if you're robbing a bank and it just happens that a few cops are in to grab some coffee-cash
b) Brazeness: A form of stupidity, it's when successful crime leads to more successful crime, and eventually increased risks, until one is caught for said crime.
Really, the biggest application for this kinda power that I can forsee would be game developers who want to see how well their games scale for next-gen video hardware...
Except that the next-gen hardware might be more than just a faster speed for pumping out polygons at greater resolution, but can include a newer/better shader or some other technology that makes the visual experience more realistic.
I would agree when it's some idiot adding a tag somewhere, or defacing a window, vehicle, or otherwise decent premesis. When it's a mural on a dilapitated building with stained ugly walls and nothing remotely appealing in appearance... many forms of graffiti are an improvement, it's the original wall that said "slum."
Not all graffiti is a message, well other than the fact that the message is in the artwork, and it's not always political or controversial.
I was notified that - because I had entered a complaint to HP about a printer with paper feeding issues - I was included in a class action which was subsequently pursued against HP for a defect causing said feed issues.
I recently got my settlement... $25 off a new printer, if the printer is worth a certain amount.
So yes, I'd agree that class action suits are often BS... except when against individuals or entities without a physical product. You don't see doctors offering "free surgery" coupons when hit with a class action for malpractice or something similar...
Since the baby is like that from birth, I'd imagine that his body will adapt to such a situation much better than somebody who was "altered."
With steroids etc, altering your body too fast is overstressing it in various ways. Being born as a superkid though, with enough food he'll probably grow up to suit his enhanced body just fine.
With hardware becoming surprisingly cheaper
Here where I work, it's not so much an issue with hardware becoming cheaper as it is that upgrading our OS would indefinately require a hardware upgrade as well (and with the amount of machines we have, those upgrades would be steep in the $$$ range). We can get all the apps we want to run going on a P200MMX, 64MX (albeit slowly), and they run quite dandy on a 400Mhz machine, 128MB+ RAM
With IceWM as the GUI and some other neat tricks, one can almost make linux look windows-ish to ease the pain of transition for those more stubborn users.
Linux applications can have GUI wizards too. Most don't bother as they assume you have some proficiency in installing from a CLI interface, package, or whatever.
Some I can think of off the top of my head:
IceWMCP (IceWM Control Panel)
OpenOffice (nice GUI installer)
And if you wanted a GUI front-end for package managers, apt-get has a Synaptic,
and I'm sure there are many others for RPM etc.
Ah, but it's also not unheard of for Intel to *underclock* a chip for sale.
Let's say that Intel is currently selling a lot of P4-3.5Ghz CPU. In a month or two they develop a P4-4.0Ghz CPU. There's still a demand for the 3.5 at a lower price, but it's a pain to have production for both chips. So what do they do? Sell the 4.0 as a 3.5, and stick underclock protection on it.
Yes, indeed, because after a point it is actually cheaper for them to release the higher-speed CPU in greater volume. However, seeing as though the extra 0.5Ghz might be another $100, they don't want you knowing about it.
So they hide the fact, market the 4.0 as a 3.5 (still at lesser price because people are buying), and stick "overclock" protection in it to prevent people who actually would by the more expensive 4.0 from buying the cheaper (but the same) CPU and just setting the clock to that of the more expensive.
It's been done before, with some Celerons and perhaps other CPUs.
I actually know quite a few girls who have bought new cellphones because the old one is, well, older, and not as cute as the new design. No, the reception isn't better, and they don't use any of the bazillion extra features, but they wanted a cuter phone.
Cellphones are part of a fashion trend... I know the parent was a joke but it wouldn't be unheard of for people to buy newer phones that are "in fashion"
If people must contact you (and don't already know your email address), have a CGI form which may be filled out to send you contact email. Add a little security such as checking the referer record (that it matches your site and isn't a bot) etc.
Did this with my site and it does seem to help.
The phone could have vibrate mode, which would replace at least one of the heavier items from said purse.
So maybe we couldn't eliminate the purse entirely, but at least size it down a bit.
or would be compelled to make deals with actual organized crime.
I remember reading somewhere that various mob-type groups in Europe/Asia were basically selling off huge lists of compromised machines as well as ways to make use of them.
Some spammers were buying these lists to use the zombie machines as spambases. So really, they're already involved with organized crime.