I've never noticed anything that made media only play on windows media player. I'm more than happy to use winamp, along with some extra plugins and codecs that play all the media I want.
The issue is around WMP coming integrated with windows, which is dumb.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of MS and it's squash-you-like-a-bug marketing tactics... but when you're trying to build a "multimedia operating system" (and don't tell me XP is not) then integrating multimedia components isn't really so bad. Nothing stops the user from buying/downloading a product that's more convenient to use, it's just that WMP comes in the OS, and many media features are integrated.
Personally, I sometimes like the fact that integrated browsing in explorer gives me a preview of an AVI (in case the content of a recently downloaded file is objectionable to me) or allows me to preview audio. I'm sure that perhaps somebody else could do a better job in areas, and windows is still a bloated mess, but taking all this out would reduce the OS to a shell of its current self.
That 8-characters thing is something I've never thought of. I have 2 email accounts on a particular host... and more recently I've noticed that I'm being bulk-spammed by messages going to multiple users on the same host.
E.g. the emails coming in go to:
bob@hostname.com, john@hostname.com, myuser@hostname.com
However, only one of my accounts has ever gotten this spam... where the username is 6 characters long. The other is 9, no spam.
>8 character usernames sound like a good way to avoid at least common name-guess mass-mailing.
Or just to fool yourself. What if you mom calls while you're getting it on and you accidentally hit the "photo" button while reaching for the off switch.
That or if your girlfriend calls, and asks you to prove you're really at XX location by taking a picture.
My cellphone often serves as a tracking device, call display helps but it's still annoying. Cameras have a potential to be evil!
I can imagine the use of laser turrets as protection against missiles, but I really can't see the use of a laser mounted in a 747. MHO, it's way too slow compared to the missiles, and will not be able to scramble fast enough.
If the 747 were too slow to avoid missles, wouldn't a laser mounted on a rotating joint be useful in fending off incoming attack without requiring the plane to scramble? The whole point would be to pick them off before they can get close enough to do damage.
Of course, I doubt you'll see these on commercial 747's. How many pilots could you trust not to play with the laser.
Flight #343, please desist in using the laser for non-defensive measure, it is not intended for roasting flying fowl.
Actually, I was wondering about the dangers in standing between the direct transmitting beam of this thing and its intended target. I seem to remember reading that a little 3-4' dish transmitting high-speed internet (it was a/. article about an outdoor conference of sorts) can cause damage if one was to stand too close in front of the dish.
Would this this cause cancer, or perhaps just barbecue any little birdies that decide to land on it near the focal point?
The purpose of this camera seems to be taking pictures of large areas of sky, as opposed to getting superfine resolution on a particular area. Wouldn't an array of properly configured and aligned cameras serve much the same purpose? It seems that really all we're doing is compacting the components of many cameras and cramming them into one anyways?
Still, I don't see this camera's technology coming out for home use - there's just no point. Could you imagine emailing home photos to relatives (photoshopping would also take forever and huge amounts of RAM). Rather, cameras with better colours sensors (as mentioned in previous/. articles) should be the future for home users.
Now emailing dayatthebeach.jpg, estimated time 13d-4h-3m...
Yes, this is something I've didn't quite figure out. Disk space might not be an issue, but how do they determine which DLL's to load with windows? I suppose major system DLL's will load with the OS, grabbing the latest version.
A nice trick would be: Make all programs run as usual, loading whatever is the declared most recent/stable version of a DLL. If the program doesn't run right, allow the user to check a box in properties/whatever that says "run with native DLL versions" or whatever... something like the options to emulate win95/98/etc (did these ever actually help anyone).
In the end, the whole problem was from less than 20 people at @Home, who were notified by @Home to knock off the shit, and they did. So nothing happened.
The problem is that Telestra isn't doing much to get their users to stop being asses. If more action was done by Telestra in warning/stopping the spammers, there wouldn't be an issue.
How about those who have had their name forged in a header. It's one thing to have a fake header forged, but how about the large amount of just plain p*ssed-off emails one gets because a spammer forged your email address as a return.
People should be taught how to read headers... but realistically, why don't all email clients simply parse the header and display the header email in addition to the "real" one.
Why not make the internet like phone service. You don't pay extra for accepting a long distance call (unless collect), you do pay for making them. The big problem is in consideration of large-volume MP3/movie downloaders, but the ISP should be able to differentiate between traffic on the kazaa et all ports and whatever flavor-of-the-day virus is currently out banging on random servers.
My favorite post is still the one stating that their ISP ignores the peak 10% bandwidth times... which should get around short burts of heavy traffic due to virii, slashdotting, etc.
Let's hope they didn't poke at the newgroup servers then. I'm still not sure how it works, but even the local ISP has had some newgroups with names that are to say the least "questionable" - though I'm not sure about the content. That includes both the above and warez, etc sites.
Notifying the client is important of course... but what about when you have clients whose eyes glaze over the minute you mention something technical. That's always a problem. Usually, explaining it as a "hole that lets me get in to fix things" doesn't cut it... then it sounds like something is broken. The "saving money on service calls" button can work a little better though.
Some of the apps I make have the option to "allow" a backdoor by setting a flag (default on). The client can turn it off if he/she really doesn't trust me, but in most cases they find it useful in case I ever have to bugfix the systems and/or they lose their own passwords.
Jail doesn't seem like a really appropriate solution to fit the "crime." I think in the olden days they used to put criminals in stocks to allow the townspeople to throw eggs, rotten cabbage, etc at them.
They could charge admission... I wouldn't pay $30 for a "male enlarger" but I might to throw some rotten eggs at a spammer.
Yet the gas companies seem to get away with it. It's not as simple as "look out the window see what the guy next door is doing." Sometimes in the case of price ways it might be... but I remember hearding of a "gas guy" who used to ask various companies what the price should be, and passing the info on so they could all hit the same highs.
WTF: used in slashdot sucks Ontario??? Checking if the mods read your comments?
My primary concern with this would be latency. Of course, disconnects are worse, but latency or perhaps a bad packet could result in some big problems during delicate procedures
How about if ISP's had some way of tracking those that respond to SPAM-sent offers, and had a clause making those customers liable. After all, it's the 1 in 1000 users who respond to spam that make it profitable.
That's actually a really good idea. Perhaps each ISP could have a "tolerance meter" for various user accounts. In addition, each email send out collects a $0.10 charge.
Now, the ISP would have a site area where people can forward spam messages - to be processed by a filter to make sure that it's not faked headers etc (however, I'm not sure how many programs send a copy of the original header). If 10+ (or whatever number you want) people send in SPAM complains, then the $0.10 charge applies per email. If not, the emails all go happily along.
The trick is still, however, tracking the evil spammers to their source ISP (many just use hacked accounts elsewhere, no good there) and getting people used to the idea of antispam forwarding.
Another trick might be to monitor mass outgoing mailings, and occasionally send a follow-up email from the server itself to various recipients. The recipient could respond to the follow-up saying "yes, this was unsolicited spam, please count my vote against this user".
If it becomes simple to factor the product of prime numbers, current digital encryption software will be worthless.
How does this make encryption software worthless? Being able to unfactor the primes wouldn't seem to me like it would automagically be the solution to cracking an encryption key, etc. Even a program could unencrypt a document by guessing various keys etc through prime factorization (I'm assuming that is what this is about), how would it know which solution is right?
If I buy the CD in the end, it might still be illegal but definately not immoral. More PC software should be available as shareware nowadays before having to buy full versions.
Yes, but in that case if it's not sale of a controlled substance, it's fraud or something else. The files aren't for sale, they're simple on a server with visible filenames.
Slashdot Mirror
Wrong on both analogies...
I've never noticed anything that made media only play on windows media player. I'm more than happy to use winamp, along with some extra plugins and codecs that play all the media I want.
The issue is around WMP coming integrated with windows, which is dumb.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of MS and it's squash-you-like-a-bug marketing tactics... but when you're trying to build a "multimedia operating system" (and don't tell me XP is not) then integrating multimedia components isn't really so bad. Nothing stops the user from buying/downloading a product that's more convenient to use, it's just that WMP comes in the OS, and many media features are integrated.
Personally, I sometimes like the fact that integrated browsing in explorer gives me a preview of an AVI (in case the content of a recently downloaded file is objectionable to me) or allows me to preview audio. I'm sure that perhaps somebody else could do a better job in areas, and windows is still a bloated mess, but taking all this out would reduce the OS to a shell of its current self.
That 8-characters thing is something I've never thought of. I have 2 email accounts on a particular host... and more recently I've noticed that I'm being bulk-spammed by messages going to multiple users on the same host. E.g. the emails coming in go to: bob@hostname.com, john@hostname.com, myuser@hostname.com
However, only one of my accounts has ever gotten this spam... where the username is 6 characters long. The other is 9, no spam.
>8 character usernames sound like a good way to avoid at least common name-guess mass-mailing.
If you're often foolish enough to click the goatse link on /. - it just looks bad.
Of course, if the first one doesn't clue you in enough that you're careful about what links you click, then perhaps you deserve to be shunned.
Or just to fool yourself. What if you mom calls while you're getting it on and you accidentally hit the "photo" button while reaching for the off switch.
That or if your girlfriend calls, and asks you to prove you're really at XX location by taking a picture.
My cellphone often serves as a tracking device, call display helps but it's still annoying. Cameras have a potential to be evil!
I can imagine the use of laser turrets as protection against missiles, but I really can't see the use of a laser mounted in a 747. MHO, it's way too slow compared to the missiles, and will not be able to scramble fast enough.
If the 747 were too slow to avoid missles, wouldn't a laser mounted on a rotating joint be useful in fending off incoming attack without requiring the plane to scramble? The whole point would be to pick them off before they can get close enough to do damage.
Of course, I doubt you'll see these on commercial 747's. How many pilots could you trust not to play with the laser.
Flight #343, please desist in using the laser for non-defensive measure, it is not intended for roasting flying fowl.
Actually, I was wondering about the dangers in standing between the direct transmitting beam of this thing and its intended target. I seem to remember reading that a little 3-4' dish transmitting high-speed internet (it was a /. article about an outdoor conference of sorts) can cause damage if one was to stand too close in front of the dish.
Would this this cause cancer, or perhaps just barbecue any little birdies that decide to land on it near the focal point?
The purpose of this camera seems to be taking pictures of large areas of sky, as opposed to getting superfine resolution on a particular area. Wouldn't an array of properly configured and aligned cameras serve much the same purpose? It seems that really all we're doing is compacting the components of many cameras and cramming them into one anyways?
/. articles) should be the future for home users.
Still, I don't see this camera's technology coming out for home use - there's just no point. Could you imagine emailing home photos to relatives (photoshopping would also take forever and huge amounts of RAM). Rather, cameras with better colours sensors (as mentioned in previous
Now emailing dayatthebeach.jpg, estimated time 13d-4h-3m...
Yes, this is something I've didn't quite figure out. Disk space might not be an issue, but how do they determine which DLL's to load with windows? I suppose major system DLL's will load with the OS, grabbing the latest version.
A nice trick would be: Make all programs run as usual, loading whatever is the declared most recent/stable version of a DLL. If the program doesn't run right, allow the user to check a box in properties/whatever that says "run with native DLL versions" or whatever... something like the options to emulate win95/98/etc (did these ever actually help anyone).
In the end, the whole problem was from less than 20 people at @Home, who were notified by @Home to knock off the shit, and they did. So nothing happened.
The problem is that Telestra isn't doing much to get their users to stop being asses. If more action was done by Telestra in warning/stopping the spammers, there wouldn't be an issue.
How about those who have had their name forged in a header. It's one thing to have a fake header forged, but how about the large amount of just plain p*ssed-off emails one gets because a spammer forged your email address as a return.
People should be taught how to read headers... but realistically, why don't all email clients simply parse the header and display the header email in addition to the "real" one.
Why not make the internet like phone service. You don't pay extra for accepting a long distance call (unless collect), you do pay for making them. The big problem is in consideration of large-volume MP3/movie downloaders, but the ISP should be able to differentiate between traffic on the kazaa et all ports and whatever flavor-of-the-day virus is currently out banging on random servers.
My favorite post is still the one stating that their ISP ignores the peak 10% bandwidth times... which should get around short burts of heavy traffic due to virii, slashdotting, etc.
amuse yourself - phorm
Let's hope they didn't poke at the newgroup servers then. I'm still not sure how it works, but even the local ISP has had some newgroups with names that are to say the least "questionable" - though I'm not sure about the content. That includes both the above and warez, etc sites.
Notifying the client is important of course... but what about when you have clients whose eyes glaze over the minute you mention something technical. That's always a problem. Usually, explaining it as a "hole that lets me get in to fix things" doesn't cut it... then it sounds like something is broken. The "saving money on service calls" button can work a little better though.
Some of the apps I make have the option to "allow" a backdoor by setting a flag (default on). The client can turn it off if he/she really doesn't trust me, but in most cases they find it useful in case I ever have to bugfix the systems and/or they lose their own passwords.
Jail doesn't seem like a really appropriate solution to fit the "crime." I think in the olden days they used to put criminals in stocks to allow the townspeople to throw eggs, rotten cabbage, etc at them.
They could charge admission... I wouldn't pay $30 for a "male enlarger" but I might to throw some rotten eggs at a spammer.
Yet the gas companies seem to get away with it. It's not as simple as "look out the window see what the guy next door is doing." Sometimes in the case of price ways it might be... but I remember hearding of a "gas guy" who used to ask various companies what the price should be, and passing the info on so they could all hit the same highs.
Yes, but doesn't it sound like an imminent lawsuit by Microsoft and others once they find out that users of their browser are having to pay more?
WTF: used in slashdot sucks Ontario??? Checking if the mods read your comments?
My primary concern with this would be latency. Of course, disconnects are worse, but latency or perhaps a bad packet could result in some big problems during delicate procedures
The "start menu" is actually fairly MS-specific though, at least in image. Others have taskbar with Gnome-bar. Taskbar with RedHat bar...
How about if ISP's had some way of tracking those that respond to SPAM-sent offers, and had a clause making those customers liable. After all, it's the 1 in 1000 users who respond to spam that make it profitable.
That's actually a really good idea. Perhaps each ISP could have a "tolerance meter" for various user accounts. In addition, each email send out collects a $0.10 charge.
Now, the ISP would have a site area where people can forward spam messages - to be processed by a filter to make sure that it's not faked headers etc (however, I'm not sure how many programs send a copy of the original header). If 10+ (or whatever number you want) people send in SPAM complains, then the $0.10 charge applies per email. If not, the emails all go happily along.
The trick is still, however, tracking the evil spammers to their source ISP (many just use hacked accounts elsewhere, no good there) and getting people used to the idea of antispam forwarding.
Another trick might be to monitor mass outgoing mailings, and occasionally send a follow-up email from the server itself to various recipients. The recipient could respond to the follow-up saying "yes, this was unsolicited spam, please count my vote against this user".
If it becomes simple to factor the product of prime numbers, current digital encryption software will be worthless.
How does this make encryption software worthless? Being able to unfactor the primes wouldn't seem to me like it would automagically be the solution to cracking an encryption key, etc. Even a program could unencrypt a document by guessing various keys etc through prime factorization (I'm assuming that is what this is about), how would it know which solution is right?
If I buy the CD in the end, it might still be illegal but definately not immoral. More PC software should be available as shareware nowadays before having to buy full versions.
I read it like this too, but the only gas clouds I could think of in Europe are caused by the afteraffects some some of the spicier European foods.
This isn't a really big thing though, it's not like a lot of people believed in Europan life in the first place.
Yes, but in that case if it's not sale of a controlled substance, it's fraud or something else. The files aren't for sale, they're simple on a server with visible filenames.