And I wouldn't surprised if Longhorn had built-in virus protection. Not only would it make the OS less susceptible to viruses/worms/etc, but it would also be a nice revenue stream for Microsoft (like they'd give away the definitions for free, maybe bundle them with windows patches) And just for the record, the last virus I actually got was the Italien A virus (an old dos virus).
It's kind of funny, but I didn't have any problems with either of those viruses in any of my three WinXP machines. Maybe it was the common sense (Sobig) or the fact all my machines were updated (MS Blaster)or the common sense that 300 e-mails with the same attachment from people I don't know might, just might be a virus. This is not to mention of course the firewall, pestpatrol, and Norton Antivirus. Now, you might say, "well hey, my linux box had none of that, wasn't patched, no firewall, nothin!" but think for a few seconds. These viruses were programed for windows, not linux/any other os. Of course your non-windows computer was not infected, because the virus/worm was not made for it. So before you get on your high horse, remmember it can happen if someone bothers to write it.
It's perfectly possible to create a secure voting system thats still anonymous, just seperate the process of counting the votes, and choosing who to vote for. Think of the scenerio: You get into the voting booth, and you are greeted with a nice, graphical display of people to vote for. You select your canidate of choice, the machine asks you if you're sure, (etc and so on) and finally prints out a slip of paper. This slip of paper you then feed into a machine (vending machine style) which counts the votes. As an added security measure, each slip could have a serial number, and if you're really paranoid, each booth could deactivate after a vote is cast, with a person working the booth having to press a button (wherever they are sitting) to reset the booth. This would leave a paper trail, while still having a computer count the votes, and making it harder for people to claim they voted for the wrong person (as its still a nice easy interface)
Obviously (I think?) then we need a better way to monitor how well phone support works (as opposed to, "well this call took 1 minute, must have been good!") After each phone call, an automated system could ask the user to rate the help on a scale of 1 to 5, or something like that. I remmember once an online service that provided tech support would do that, after they helped you a box would come up asking you to rate their performance. Since tech support is for the customer, they should be the ones who rate it, not something arbitrary like time.
I've personally used mice like this -- that have no feedback. When I use a mouse without the feedback I usually think one thing, "cheap".
On another note, I am not sure exactly how good this system will be. While it sounds cool, it also seems to me that after a while, it would definitely start hurting your finger
nVidia's drivers come with a virual desktop tool, and although I don't use it, it worked reasonably well when I tested it out. Its pretty obvious why Microsoft did't add this feature to windows though, just think of the droves of confused people trying to figure out where all their windows went.
While I wouldn't say the average person doesn't understand the concept of an operating system, there defintely are a lot of people who think office and Windows are the same thing. If I have one more person asking me for "Windows XP Office Professional" I'm gonna flip. Another thing people often get confused with is that Windows is the computer. Where I have been helping people pick out memmory, I have been told many times (after asking what type of computer they had" "Oh I have the Windows 98, or maybe the 97. Yeah, Windows 97." Microsoft may be losing market share with people who with technological know-how, but to the people who just use their computer to shop online, surf the web, write e-mails, it is the computer.
U.S. currency has a distinctive feel because of this, and were you to slip an inkjet or color laser-printed bleached-single $20 bill into a stack of $20s you used to pay for something, the cashier would notice it didn't feel right before he/she noticed it didn't look right.
I honestly doubt that. Have you ever fealt a new bill? I mean a really, really new bill? They feel completely different. In my experience (as in, today) there are tons of times bills are iffy. 99% of the time the bills are fine, and because of this most cashiers will not check, unless the bill is very obviously fake (and thus they just need a good reason not to accept it). Counterfeiting is not common not because it is too hard (because chances are its not hard enough to make a copy thats "good enough") its because most people are: too scared/too lazy/too honest to do it. Furthermore, you hear people getting caught all the time because: their job was crappy/they got too greedy (someone hands you five 100 dollar bills, chances are that gets checked) or they're just plain stupid (think bringing tons of counterfeit bills into a bank to deposit it into their bank account).
so i could trial a musician for destroying my name by his incredibly dumb music? cool... you crappy-latino-singer watch out.
Michael: Yeah, well, at least your name isn't Michael Bolton. Samir: You know, there's nothing wrong with that name. Michael: There WAS nothing wrong with it. Until I was about 12 years old, and that no-talent ass clown became famous and started winning Grammys. Samir: Well, why don't you just go by Mike instead of Michael?. Michael: No way! Why should I change? He's the one who sucks!
That's what following distance and fast reflexes are for. 90 is perfectly reasonable on most highways, it's jackasses like you who slow everyone else down.
Someone once said "if all the cars were lined up back to back and all going the same speed, someone would eventually try to pass them" As one of those "jackasses" who follow the speed limit, I sincerely hope you get pulled and enjoy your well deserved insurance bill (unless you don't have insurance, cause you know, its for pansies)
No, I'm saying downloading an MP3 and breaking into someone's house and taking something are not similiar crimes. (For one, downloading an MP3 can potentially get you into a lot more trouble:D ) I don't download MP3s often, but I do occasionally, mostly because I don't want to spend money on the full CD, and more recently because I really didn't want any money going to the RIAA. If there was a way for me to download music on a one song basis, and preferably pay directly to the artist, that is something I would defintely be interested in (long shot though). I'm probably going to get iTunes though, when it comes out for windows, hopefully the selection will be good.
No, in that case, if I at some later time decided I wanted to use the object, it would be gone. In the MP3 case, even though you have downloaded an MP3 you can still buy the CD (beleive me or not, I have gone on to buy the CDs based on some of the MP3s I have downloaded, although I refuse to buy anymore now that they've resorted to stealing people's life savings, I just can't pay those people)
Why is this modded funny? There really is a monster brand of battery.
Re:it seems silly not to include a hard drive
on
Lindows Webstation
·
· Score: 1
FoolProof isn't. (Foolproof, that is). In my school, the password has always been discovered via social engineering (read: stupid teachers). Course, the students were stupider (one kid was openly selling a floppy full of usernames and passwords.
" But those error reports often come from application crashes that don't take down the system. And most of the one's I've seen are from non-MS applications. It's kind of like how Konqueror or some other KDE app will crash and pop the segmentation fault box."
well thats microsofts fault for allowing so many userland hooks into the damn kernel. i have been using Linux, *BSD, and even Solaris for years and at no point have i ever had an application crash a system. i once had an nvidia driver lockup (well X and the v-terms stopped working) a Linux system. but its a device driver,(shitty one at that) not an application.
Notice how he said "don't take down the system" Most crashes are caused by programs, that do/not/ take the computer down, just the program. Also, all of the "serious error" problems where Windows reboots have been caused (for me, anyway) by faulty hardware (or more often, crappy drivers) but thats no different than any other operating system (I too got screwed by those damned linux nvidia drivers)
I definitely agree, Google's advertisements are probably the only advertisements that I still click on from to time (only because they are things I actually am interested in and they are unobtrussive.) Eventually the internet advertising industry will run out of ignorant people and will have to switch over to a more meaningful advertising method, and chances are its going to be something similiar to what good has now. Either that or all websites will start switching over to a subscription model.
The quality of a site is not neccessarily the advertising on it. They guy obviously did a lot of work and research, his only crime is using a free webhosting company that uses pop-ups.
Is there anything wrong with Verizon? I have Verizon DSL and I haven't had any problem with them (reliable, fast) and not only that, but they fought (and lost) against the RIAA, and even told the users who were going to shortly be under attack (so they coudl burn their hard drives, of course). Seems to me that Verizon would be a copmany you would want to pay.
I personally prefer MUSHes (less focus on PKing), although I have not actually tried any MMORPG yet. Although there have been a few suggested to me by friends, such as Eve online and of course Galaxies, I think the problem I am having is that you can't try one (I don't know about you, but I visit many MU*s, some of them I like, some of them I don't) To try one of these games, you've got to buy it ($50+ right there) and then have to play the monthly fee. It would be nice if these companies offered demo's (the one I really want to try is Eve online, even though I have heard it sucked)
I'm waiting for the windows version of iTunes myself, although I'm a bit dissapointed that the RHCP decided they would not allow their music on the service.
Re:How many times has MS given something away????
on
Don't Be a Sharecropper
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I think this is one of the smartest posts I've seen on slashdot for a while. When you think about it, the OSS Community acts a lot like Microsoft, IE giving stuff away for free. Both also try their best to have as much marketshare as possible (although for different reasons).
Slashdot Mirror
please please please PLEASE do not reference wired if you wish to garner any kind of respect.
ok
And I wouldn't surprised if Longhorn had built-in virus protection. Not only would it make the OS less susceptible to viruses/worms/etc, but it would also be a nice revenue stream for Microsoft (like they'd give away the definitions for free, maybe bundle them with windows patches) And just for the record, the last virus I actually got was the Italien A virus (an old dos virus).
MS is at fault, the root of it, to be sure.
It's kind of funny, but I didn't have any problems with either of those viruses in any of my three WinXP machines. Maybe it was the common sense (Sobig) or the fact all my machines were updated (MS Blaster)or the common sense that 300 e-mails with the same attachment from people I don't know might, just might be a virus. This is not to mention of course the firewall, pestpatrol, and Norton Antivirus. Now, you might say, "well hey, my linux box had none of that, wasn't patched, no firewall, nothin!" but think for a few seconds. These viruses were programed for windows, not linux/any other os. Of course your non-windows computer was not infected, because the virus/worm was not made for it. So before you get on your high horse, remmember it can happen if someone bothers to write it.
You are absolutely correct. If the people running the polls are currupt, well then we're screwed :/
I beleive it was Stalin who said, "It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." "
It's perfectly possible to create a secure voting system thats still anonymous, just seperate the process of counting the votes, and choosing who to vote for. Think of the scenerio:
You get into the voting booth, and you are greeted with a nice, graphical display of people to vote for. You select your canidate of choice, the machine asks you if you're sure, (etc and so on) and finally prints out a slip of paper. This slip of paper you then feed into a machine (vending machine style) which counts the votes. As an added security measure, each slip could have a serial number, and if you're really paranoid, each booth could deactivate after a vote is cast, with a person working the booth having to press a button (wherever they are sitting) to reset the booth. This would leave a paper trail, while still having a computer count the votes, and making it harder for people to claim they voted for the wrong person (as its still a nice easy interface)
Obviously (I think?) then we need a better way to monitor how well phone support works (as opposed to, "well this call took 1 minute, must have been good!") After each phone call, an automated system could ask the user to rate the help on a scale of 1 to 5, or something like that. I remmember once an online service that provided tech support would do that, after they helped you a box would come up asking you to rate their performance. Since tech support is for the customer, they should be the ones who rate it, not something arbitrary like time.
I've personally used mice like this -- that have no feedback. When I use a mouse without the feedback I usually think one thing, "cheap".
On another note, I am not sure exactly how good this system will be. While it sounds cool, it also seems to me that after a while, it would definitely start hurting your finger
Yikes, I wonder what happened...
nVidia's drivers come with a virual desktop tool, and although I don't use it, it worked reasonably well when I tested it out. Its pretty obvious why Microsoft did't add this feature to windows though, just think of the droves of confused people trying to figure out where all their windows went.
While I wouldn't say the average person doesn't understand the concept of an operating system, there defintely are a lot of people who think office and Windows are the same thing. If I have one more person asking me for "Windows XP Office Professional" I'm gonna flip. Another thing people often get confused with is that Windows is the computer. Where I have been helping people pick out memmory, I have been told many times (after asking what type of computer they had" "Oh I have the Windows 98, or maybe the 97. Yeah, Windows 97." Microsoft may be losing market share with people who with technological know-how, but to the people who just use their computer to shop online, surf the web, write e-mails, it is the computer.
U.S. currency has a distinctive feel because of this, and were you to slip an inkjet or color laser-printed bleached-single $20 bill into a stack of $20s you used to pay for something, the cashier would notice it didn't feel right before he/she noticed it didn't look right.
I honestly doubt that. Have you ever fealt a new bill? I mean a really, really new bill? They feel completely different. In my experience (as in, today) there are tons of times bills are iffy. 99% of the time the bills are fine, and because of this most cashiers will not check, unless the bill is very obviously fake (and thus they just need a good reason not to accept it). Counterfeiting is not common not because it is too hard (because chances are its not hard enough to make a copy thats "good enough") its because most people are: too scared/too lazy/too honest to do it. Furthermore, you hear people getting caught all the time because: their job was crappy/they got too greedy (someone hands you five 100 dollar bills, chances are that gets checked) or they're just plain stupid (think bringing tons of counterfeit bills into a bank to deposit it into their bank account).
so i could trial a musician for destroying my name by his incredibly dumb music? cool... you crappy-latino-singer watch out.
Michael: Yeah, well, at least your name isn't Michael Bolton.
Samir: You know, there's nothing wrong with that name.
Michael: There WAS nothing wrong with it. Until I was about 12 years old, and that no-talent ass clown became famous and started winning Grammys.
Samir: Well, why don't you just go by Mike instead of Michael?.
Michael: No way! Why should I change? He's the one who sucks!
That's what following distance and fast reflexes are for. 90 is perfectly reasonable on most highways, it's jackasses like you who slow everyone else down.
Someone once said "if all the cars were lined up back to back and all going the same speed, someone would eventually try to pass them" As one of those "jackasses" who follow the speed limit, I sincerely hope you get pulled and enjoy your well deserved insurance bill (unless you don't have insurance, cause you know, its for pansies)
No, I'm saying downloading an MP3 and breaking into someone's house and taking something are not similiar crimes. (For one, downloading an MP3 can potentially get you into a lot more trouble :D ) I don't download MP3s often, but I do occasionally, mostly because I don't want to spend money on the full CD, and more recently because I really didn't want any money going to the RIAA. If there was a way for me to download music on a one song basis, and preferably pay directly to the artist, that is something I would defintely be interested in (long shot though). I'm probably going to get iTunes though, when it comes out for windows, hopefully the selection will be good.
No, in that case, if I at some later time decided I wanted to use the object, it would be gone. In the MP3 case, even though you have downloaded an MP3 you can still buy the CD (beleive me or not, I have gone on to buy the CDs based on some of the MP3s I have downloaded, although I refuse to buy anymore now that they've resorted to stealing people's life savings, I just can't pay those people)
Why is this modded funny? There really is a monster brand of battery.
FoolProof isn't. (Foolproof, that is). In my school, the password has always been discovered via social engineering (read: stupid teachers). Course, the students were stupider (one kid was openly selling a floppy full of usernames and passwords.
He was complaining about the code, not the website. There are tons of things I use, but I hate the code for.
" But those error reports often come from application crashes that don't take down the system. And most of the one's I've seen are from non-MS applications. It's kind of like how Konqueror or some other KDE app will crash and pop the segmentation fault box."
/not/ take the computer down, just the program. Also, all of the "serious error" problems where Windows reboots have been caused (for me, anyway) by faulty hardware (or more often, crappy drivers) but thats no different than any other operating system (I too got screwed by those damned linux nvidia drivers)
well thats microsofts fault for allowing so many userland hooks into the damn kernel. i have been using Linux, *BSD, and even Solaris for years and at no point have i ever had an application crash a system. i once had an nvidia driver lockup (well X and the v-terms stopped working) a Linux system. but its a device driver,(shitty one at that) not an application.
Notice how he said "don't take down the system" Most crashes are caused by programs, that do
I definitely agree, Google's advertisements are probably the only advertisements that I still click on from to time (only because they are things I actually am interested in and they are unobtrussive.) Eventually the internet advertising industry will run out of ignorant people and will have to switch over to a more meaningful advertising method, and chances are its going to be something similiar to what good has now. Either that or all websites will start switching over to a subscription model.
The quality of a site is not neccessarily the advertising on it. They guy obviously did a lot of work and research, his only crime is using a free webhosting company that uses pop-ups.
It is the start of an attack. Quick, get to shelter before it deflates on you!
Is there anything wrong with Verizon? I have Verizon DSL and I haven't had any problem with them (reliable, fast) and not only that, but they fought (and lost) against the RIAA, and even told the users who were going to shortly be under attack (so they coudl burn their hard drives, of course). Seems to me that Verizon would be a copmany you would want to pay.
I personally prefer MUSHes (less focus on PKing), although I have not actually tried any MMORPG yet. Although there have been a few suggested to me by friends, such as Eve online and of course Galaxies, I think the problem I am having is that you can't try one (I don't know about you, but I visit many MU*s, some of them I like, some of them I don't) To try one of these games, you've got to buy it ($50+ right there) and then have to play the monthly fee. It would be nice if these companies offered demo's (the one I really want to try is Eve online, even though I have heard it sucked)
I'm waiting for the windows version of iTunes myself, although I'm a bit dissapointed that the RHCP decided they would not allow their music on the service.
I think this is one of the smartest posts I've seen on slashdot for a while. When you think about it, the OSS Community acts a lot like Microsoft, IE giving stuff away for free. Both also try their best to have as much marketshare as possible (although for different reasons).