Dang right, I'm gonna instigate a Muttony! But seriously, folks, don't BUY anything from those sons of swine. If you're running Windows, download popup-stopper, and (so far for me, at least) you will have no popup/popunders. It just kills them, and it's free. But the most important way to get rid of these annoying things is to NEVER respond to them, and to warn all your newbee friends to never respond to them. Obviously, there are some dumbasses out there still buying their shit, or it wouldn't still be running.
Oh also, if you know of anyone who is creating or using this stuff, kill 'em. They're terrorists.
Get Pop-up Stopper, if you're running Windoze. I don't know if they've fixed this one yet, but I'll bet they will. For those of you smart enough NOT to be running Windoze, I have no suggestions (cause I guess I just ain't that smart, yet). Btw, Popup-Stopper is a free download, and it's wonderful!
"Thanks guys. Now I have a morally sound reason to download Britney's newest album!...)"
I gotta ask... if you're listening to Britney, what the hell have morals got to do with it?
If a small minority of consumers raises enough hell, and enrage enough other consumers, we can slam the door on this crap. It's OUR damn money... as the old saying goes, "Don't take no wooden nickels"... we don't have to take 'em.
Eric, there is an excellent anti-spyware (freeware) program called SpyBot Search & Destroy, but I don't know if it'll cover this. It's worth checking out... I use it, and recommend it to everybody I know. Only problem... it doesn't automatically STOP the spyware, just tells you if you've got some (when you run it). For the record, I'm running Windows 98 (and I'm so ashamed!... well, not really, but looking forward to playing with SuSE when time permits).
Zone alarm is good, and so is Tiny Personal Firewall. I use 'em both on two different machines and they work like a champ. I do NOT use Windows Media Player, for obvious reasons. I use WinAmp, and hope they haven't adopted the same intrusive habits of WMP. I do NOT use RealPlayer for the same reasons, pretty much. I prefer to ward off any invasions, and I have a gun. But man, these monitors are getting expensive to replace!
"Sure, you could turn your cell phone off..."
Hell, I don't even HAVE a cell phone. They wouldn't allow me to have one in my cell. What the hell good are they?
The Nature of the Universe is fun to play with. Expect no more, and you will be richly rewarded.
Re:solution for one of the problems..
on
The New IT Crisis
·
· Score: 1
"Why does the common secretary need a full-powered PC on hter desk anyway?"
That's so she can play Freecell. And if you call her "common" to her face, she'll slap the hell outta you.
In answer to "How do you replace vacuum tubes?"... very carefully, as they've gotten somewhat hard to find. But they're still out there! As any old gray-bearded guitarist can tell you, a guitar amp without tubes sounds like, well, a transistor radio. If you want THE SOUND, you gotta use tubes.
Once, when very, very drunk, I attempted to urinate in code. Folks, do yourselves a favor: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. Your wife (or husband, mom, dad, kids... whoever) will kill you.
Very interesting post, and I thank you for it. 30 years ago, I had a fine, laminated, bamboo slide rule (it cost, I think, $40 at the time). It was not as accurate as a good HP electronic engineering pocket calculator, but back then those pocket calculators were $400, and I was a TEC student. Also, we had to do the trig and other math functions on paper, and just CHECK them with the slide rule, so it was accurate enough.
I'm back in school now, after all these years, and they don't use trig anymore (as far as I can see). I haven't gotten into programming yet (that's next semester) so I don't know anything at all about it. But I wanted to point this out: the radios and televisions I used to work on all had electron tubes. By today's standards, they were extremely primitive. But the technology had to start somewhere. That 50-year-old monster you folks are talking about is sort of like the first airplane, or the first internal combustion engine: primitive, yeah... but it all has to start somewhere. Don't disrespect the past; that's where YOU came from.
You were making pretty good sense until you said, "the infrastructure to generate income via taxes is already in place and quite efficient."
NO! It is terribly inefficient. You sounded like a reasonable person, up to that point. Having read the first part of your post, that statement pretty well negated anything you had previously said. If you think that putting the government in charge of anything will make it better, you don't know a damn thing about government, and damned little about anything else.
"If the average teenybopper music buyer didn't have the intelligence equal to that of driveway asphalt maybe we'd have a better music industry"
Hehehehhhh... yeah, that's probably true. My Mom liked Al Jolsen and the Dorsey Brothers and Glen Miller and Fats Waller, and I think her Mom thought she was intellectually equivilent to driveway dirt (don't think they had asphalt back then). I got into the Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Beatles, The Byrds, The Moody Blues, The Beau Brummells, The Yardbirds, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, et al. And my parents considered me a fool.
Subsequently, I reserve judgement about what my daughter chooses to hear. I'm probably not as smart as I think I am.
I find this amusing, because when I was just a lad (say, 40 years ago) I and my friends only bought 45 RPM records. As we matured, we were able to tell the difference between "artists" and those "one-hit wonders", and didn't mind buying the albums of the really good artists. There is still a difference, and I still don't mind buying albums (now CDs), even though their prices have become outlandish, of true artists. If a musician or group can create an entire album of rich material, that's a piece of work worth the investment. If they're only good for one song, they're not worth my time. (Where are the Beau Brummells when we really need them?)
I guess what amazes me the most is that slashdotters and folks working on a PhD are spending their time watching the telly. Other than South Park, there's nothing on the tube that I miss at all. Come on, folks! There really IS more to life than watching that box. Get a computer with a DSL connection and you'll have more entertainment than you can stand, without chemical assistance.
A lawyer is a paid advocate... nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't matter in the least if he believes in your cause... his job is to dig up legal reasons which apply to your cause in your favor. If he's a good lawyer, he will not define the merits of your cause, beyond the point to which he must defend it. His job (for which you are paying him quite well) is to state your case in such a manner that he can convince the judge and/or jury that his client is right. If a lawyer allows morals to interfere with his work, he's not much of a lawyer. Just my 2 cents.
Oh, and I don't mean that a lawyer shouldn't refuse a case because of his moral convictions; only that a case, once taken, negates moral convictions, and the goal is only to WIN.
Put another way: If I'm right, I want a damn good lawyer. If I'm WRONG, I STILL want a damn good lawyer. Blaming this sort of situation on the lawyers is sort of like blaming the smell of shit on the folks who have to shovel it... they're just doing their jobs.
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting question, and an interesting post. I have no idea what Jesus Christ would do, but I'm pretty damn sure he wouldn't do it on a keyboard.
Any friend of Hunter S. Thompson is a friend of mine. -WDL
Dang right, I'm gonna instigate a Muttony! But seriously, folks, don't BUY anything from those sons of swine. If you're running Windows, download popup-stopper, and (so far for me, at least) you will have no popup/popunders. It just kills them, and it's free. But the most important way to get rid of these annoying things is to NEVER respond to them, and to warn all your newbee friends to never respond to them. Obviously, there are some dumbasses out there still buying their shit, or it wouldn't still be running. Oh also, if you know of anyone who is creating or using this stuff, kill 'em. They're terrorists.
Get Pop-up Stopper, if you're running Windoze. I don't know if they've fixed this one yet, but I'll bet they will. For those of you smart enough NOT to be running Windoze, I have no suggestions (cause I guess I just ain't that smart, yet). Btw, Popup-Stopper is a free download, and it's wonderful!
"Thanks guys. Now I have a morally sound reason to download Britney's newest album!...)" I gotta ask... if you're listening to Britney, what the hell have morals got to do with it?
If a small minority of consumers raises enough hell, and enrage enough other consumers, we can slam the door on this crap. It's OUR damn money... as the old saying goes, "Don't take no wooden nickels"... we don't have to take 'em.
Eric, there is an excellent anti-spyware (freeware) program called SpyBot Search & Destroy, but I don't know if it'll cover this. It's worth checking out... I use it, and recommend it to everybody I know. Only problem... it doesn't automatically STOP the spyware, just tells you if you've got some (when you run it). For the record, I'm running Windows 98 (and I'm so ashamed!... well, not really, but looking forward to playing with SuSE when time permits).
Zone alarm is good, and so is Tiny Personal Firewall. I use 'em both on two different machines and they work like a champ. I do NOT use Windows Media Player, for obvious reasons. I use WinAmp, and hope they haven't adopted the same intrusive habits of WMP. I do NOT use RealPlayer for the same reasons, pretty much. I prefer to ward off any invasions, and I have a gun. But man, these monitors are getting expensive to replace!
Damn, that IS scary! I'm still listening to old Cat Stevens stuff, and everybody knows where he wound up.
"Sure, you could turn your cell phone off..." Hell, I don't even HAVE a cell phone. They wouldn't allow me to have one in my cell. What the hell good are they?
Hitzroth, you don't drive, do you? I know damn well you don't ride a motorcycle.
The Nature of the Universe is fun to play with. Expect no more, and you will be richly rewarded.
"Why does the common secretary need a full-powered PC on hter desk anyway?" That's so she can play Freecell. And if you call her "common" to her face, she'll slap the hell outta you.
In answer to "How do you replace vacuum tubes?"... very carefully, as they've gotten somewhat hard to find. But they're still out there! As any old gray-bearded guitarist can tell you, a guitar amp without tubes sounds like, well, a transistor radio. If you want THE SOUND, you gotta use tubes.
Once, when very, very drunk, I attempted to urinate in code. Folks, do yourselves a favor: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. Your wife (or husband, mom, dad, kids... whoever) will kill you.
Very interesting post, and I thank you for it. 30 years ago, I had a fine, laminated, bamboo slide rule (it cost, I think, $40 at the time). It was not as accurate as a good HP electronic engineering pocket calculator, but back then those pocket calculators were $400, and I was a TEC student. Also, we had to do the trig and other math functions on paper, and just CHECK them with the slide rule, so it was accurate enough. I'm back in school now, after all these years, and they don't use trig anymore (as far as I can see). I haven't gotten into programming yet (that's next semester) so I don't know anything at all about it. But I wanted to point this out: the radios and televisions I used to work on all had electron tubes. By today's standards, they were extremely primitive. But the technology had to start somewhere. That 50-year-old monster you folks are talking about is sort of like the first airplane, or the first internal combustion engine: primitive, yeah... but it all has to start somewhere. Don't disrespect the past; that's where YOU came from.
You were making pretty good sense until you said, "the infrastructure to generate income via taxes is already in place and quite efficient." NO! It is terribly inefficient. You sounded like a reasonable person, up to that point. Having read the first part of your post, that statement pretty well negated anything you had previously said. If you think that putting the government in charge of anything will make it better, you don't know a damn thing about government, and damned little about anything else.
"If the average teenybopper music buyer didn't have the intelligence equal to that of driveway asphalt maybe we'd have a better music industry" Hehehehhhh... yeah, that's probably true. My Mom liked Al Jolsen and the Dorsey Brothers and Glen Miller and Fats Waller, and I think her Mom thought she was intellectually equivilent to driveway dirt (don't think they had asphalt back then). I got into the Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Beatles, The Byrds, The Moody Blues, The Beau Brummells, The Yardbirds, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, et al. And my parents considered me a fool. Subsequently, I reserve judgement about what my daughter chooses to hear. I'm probably not as smart as I think I am.
May the New Zealanders never lose their old zeal.
Yup... go to Google, and look up "boomerang".
Thanks, Mike! That's the spirit, and best of luck to you. (This post from an old guitar picker).
I find this amusing, because when I was just a lad (say, 40 years ago) I and my friends only bought 45 RPM records. As we matured, we were able to tell the difference between "artists" and those "one-hit wonders", and didn't mind buying the albums of the really good artists. There is still a difference, and I still don't mind buying albums (now CDs), even though their prices have become outlandish, of true artists. If a musician or group can create an entire album of rich material, that's a piece of work worth the investment. If they're only good for one song, they're not worth my time. (Where are the Beau Brummells when we really need them?)
"This is not humour." Hmpfh, the hell it's not! But I'm on my first cup of coffee... I'll laugh at *anything*.
I guess what amazes me the most is that slashdotters and folks working on a PhD are spending their time watching the telly. Other than South Park, there's nothing on the tube that I miss at all. Come on, folks! There really IS more to life than watching that box. Get a computer with a DSL connection and you'll have more entertainment than you can stand, without chemical assistance.
A lawyer is a paid advocate... nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't matter in the least if he believes in your cause... his job is to dig up legal reasons which apply to your cause in your favor. If he's a good lawyer, he will not define the merits of your cause, beyond the point to which he must defend it. His job (for which you are paying him quite well) is to state your case in such a manner that he can convince the judge and/or jury that his client is right. If a lawyer allows morals to interfere with his work, he's not much of a lawyer. Just my 2 cents. Oh, and I don't mean that a lawyer shouldn't refuse a case because of his moral convictions; only that a case, once taken, negates moral convictions, and the goal is only to WIN. Put another way: If I'm right, I want a damn good lawyer. If I'm WRONG, I STILL want a damn good lawyer. Blaming this sort of situation on the lawyers is sort of like blaming the smell of shit on the folks who have to shovel it... they're just doing their jobs.