Switching supplies are already showing up in wall warts. My old cell phone (from about four years ago) had a switching supply... tiny little thing and it didn't even get warm when charging the phone. I've been seeing more and more of those lately. Probably means the manufacturers save money by using a dinky little high-frequency toroid instead of a heavier 60 Hz. transformer.
Innovation has nothing to do with it. This is merely a response to market pressure. That's the only pressure to which Microsoft ever responds. They don't need to be a technological leader... they only have to be the market leader, which means they can just satisfy the current top "n" complaints about Windows to keep selling millions of copies. Windows users look at features and capabilities this way: if it wasn't in Windows before, and it is now, then it's an innovative, new feature. Doesn't matter if every other major OS has had said feature for years... it's still innovative.
Well, then you should immediately turn around and sue the vendor for selling a laptop that is hot enough to cause serious burns. Granted, their defense will bring up the warning label saying "caution: laptop is hot" in court, but if you hire a good legal team you should be able to get around that. There's already a good precedent for this kind of thing you know.
No, he's calling them the American Taliban because they have an opinion contrary to his and are trying to force theirs down everyone else's throats whether they want it or not. Guns aren't required for that purpose: a much more efficient and long-lasting method is to influence the minds of children, which they are attempting to do (and generally losing, in both courts of law and the court of public opinion.) Furthermore, when those people have also happen to have ideas that are in direct opposition to orthodox science, are in direct contravention of (and exhibit a remarkable ignorance of) scientific method at every level, he has a right to be concerned. I know I am. Certainly "your" side (if in indeed it is yours, I don't mean to presume) has lowered itself far below name calling into outright lies and deceit. Too bad more people haven't figured that out: Creationism might lose a little more ground if they did.
What can they offer me that will make me pay for their services?
That's a good question... but it's also true that we've hardly reached the end of what the Internet is capable of doing for us. Probably someone will come up with something that will interest you, eventually. But if ISPs are allowed to start charging customers based upon packet type (or degrading service based upon the same criteria) odds are you'll never see it.
From the article: Maxwell simply created a program instructing his infected computers, or "bots," to download the adware. The bots then "phoned home" to the adware company, which credits the hacker's account, unaware that he hasn't gotten the computer owner's permission."
Yeah, right. "Unaware" my ass. They paid him to commit a crime, and it's not like adware outfits have a shining history of solid business ethic. I hope the Feds get his customer list.
It sounds like this guy only got nailed because his bots performed a DDOS attack that was entirely incidental to their primary function of installing adware. Had he played it a bit smarter and not allowed the thing to consume so much of his target's network capacity he might never have been caught. Good lesson for all you budding Botnet authors out there, I suppose... keep a low profile.
I think they have it backwards. The GAME is the task, one that requires the ability concentrate, to focus on a single task. Multitasking has nothing to do with it: most good multitaskers I know absolutely SUCK at video games. Extreme singletasking is what is going on here. Personally, I'm a terrible multitasker... as a software engineer I perfer to sit at my computer undisturbed for as long as necessary to solve whatever problem is at hand. Conversely, asking me to cook a complicated meal that requires keeping track of multiple processes absolutely pulls my cork. But I've been a gamer since the rise of coin-op in the late seventies and have been playing network games since MazeWars came out on the Mac twenty-odd years ago. When texture-mapped games were big, I played Duke Nukem, Blood, Shadow Warrior and Descent (and anything else network-aware that we could get our hands on) with a dozen friends on a LAN in my basement. I don't know where they get the idea that intense gaming requires multitasking skills. Gamers tend to be people that can shut out the world and keep one thing in their heads to the exclusion of all else. I've done that to the point of forgetting about food and drink and only leaving the game world when I notice a bladder overgauge alarm. One night we played until dawn, and still didn't notice the time until one guy's cell phone rang and it was his wife saying, "Dear, I don't know if you remember, but my car is in the shop and I have to be at work in an hour." Multitasking, my ass.
Ridicule? In other words, the FTC is planning on embarrassing spyware vendors and their customers? Yeah... right. How about we forget "ridicule" and move on to "RICO". Now that might slow them down a little. At least, it might make U.S. vendors think twice about employing a spyware outfit. Won't do much good anywhere else though.
Well, I happen to be a white guy and for a few years had a girlfriend who was African. Probably the least bigoted person I've ever met. But, I remember when she asked me to call about an apartment for rent, and the African-American woman that answered the phone immediately demanded, "Are you white?" I said yes, and she said flatly, "Your girlfriend will have to call for herself. We don't talk to white people" and hung up on me.
Discrimination is not a unilateral phenomenon. It's perpetuated on all sides.
recognizing what's wrong with this whole world simply by listening to most popular chart hits:)
Well, since it's generally agreed that the music studios stopped listening to their customers decades ago, all that would tell you what is wrong with a bunch of their executives. And we already know what is wrong with them.
Yes, and "if you can't do it in Fortran, do it in assembler. If you can't do it in assembler, it isn't worth doing."
I read that article too, years and years ago. I think I kept a copy of it around here somewhere. "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal", I think it was called.
"Pascal is the Cuisinart of modern programming languages... great for making quiche."
"Cyber" this and "Cyber" that. I'm just about as sick and tired of that term as I am "rampant piracy". Somehow, I think certain portions of the United States Federal Government, specifically those involving national security, have been taken over by either small, odious children or full-grown chimpanzees. At this point I can't really tell which.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, in that case I guess Worldcom and Enron are prime examples of well-run modern corporations.
Yes, coming out this June, the Apple iScan. Converts all your sheet music directly into MP3s.
Switching supplies are already showing up in wall warts. My old cell phone (from about four years ago) had a switching supply ... tiny little thing and it didn't even get warm when charging the phone. I've been seeing more and more of those lately. Probably means the manufacturers save money by using a dinky little high-frequency toroid instead of a heavier 60 Hz. transformer.
Innovation has nothing to do with it. This is merely a response to market pressure. That's the only pressure to which Microsoft ever responds. They don't need to be a technological leader ... they only have to be the market leader, which means they can just satisfy the current top "n" complaints about Windows to keep selling millions of copies. Windows users look at features and capabilities this way: if it wasn't in Windows before, and it is now, then it's an innovative, new feature. Doesn't matter if every other major OS has had said feature for years ... it's still innovative.
DRM. Why would you pay for your own shackles?
Because then I get to pick the color.
I feel sorry for the guys parents and wonder what they did wrong.
They had sex. Next question.
Yes. Apparently you're the only one in the thread that got the joke.
Well, then you should immediately turn around and sue the vendor for selling a laptop that is hot enough to cause serious burns. Granted, their defense will bring up the warning label saying "caution: laptop is hot" in court, but if you hire a good legal team you should be able to get around that. There's already a good precedent for this kind of thing you know.
Orange you glad that Microsoft managed to get that B2 rating? I know I am.
No, he's calling them the American Taliban because they have an opinion contrary to his and are trying to force theirs down everyone else's throats whether they want it or not. Guns aren't required for that purpose: a much more efficient and long-lasting method is to influence the minds of children, which they are attempting to do (and generally losing, in both courts of law and the court of public opinion.) Furthermore, when those people have also happen to have ideas that are in direct opposition to orthodox science, are in direct contravention of (and exhibit a remarkable ignorance of) scientific method at every level, he has a right to be concerned. I know I am. Certainly "your" side (if in indeed it is yours, I don't mean to presume) has lowered itself far below name calling into outright lies and deceit. Too bad more people haven't figured that out: Creationism might lose a little more ground if they did.
What can they offer me that will make me pay for their services?
... but it's also true that we've hardly reached the end of what the Internet is capable of doing for us. Probably someone will come up with something that will interest you, eventually. But if ISPs are allowed to start charging customers based upon packet type (or degrading service based upon the same criteria) odds are you'll never see it.
That's a good question
That's because they didn't buy a computer that was capable of transforming into a real Web server.
From the article: Maxwell simply created a program instructing his infected computers, or "bots," to download the adware. The bots then "phoned home" to the adware company, which credits the hacker's account, unaware that he hasn't gotten the computer owner's permission."
... keep a low profile.
Yeah, right. "Unaware" my ass. They paid him to commit a crime, and it's not like adware outfits have a shining history of solid business ethic. I hope the Feds get his customer list.
It sounds like this guy only got nailed because his bots performed a DDOS attack that was entirely incidental to their primary function of installing adware. Had he played it a bit smarter and not allowed the thing to consume so much of his target's network capacity he might never have been caught. Good lesson for all you budding Botnet authors out there, I suppose
I think they have it backwards. The GAME is the task, one that requires the ability concentrate, to focus on a single task. Multitasking has nothing to do with it: most good multitaskers I know absolutely SUCK at video games. Extreme singletasking is what is going on here. Personally, I'm a terrible multitasker ... as a software engineer I perfer to sit at my computer undisturbed for as long as necessary to solve whatever problem is at hand. Conversely, asking me to cook a complicated meal that requires keeping track of multiple processes absolutely pulls my cork. But I've been a gamer since the rise of coin-op in the late seventies and have been playing network games since MazeWars came out on the Mac twenty-odd years ago. When texture-mapped games were big, I played Duke Nukem, Blood, Shadow Warrior and Descent (and anything else network-aware that we could get our hands on) with a dozen friends on a LAN in my basement. I don't know where they get the idea that intense gaming requires multitasking skills. Gamers tend to be people that can shut out the world and keep one thing in their heads to the exclusion of all else. I've done that to the point of forgetting about food and drink and only leaving the game world when I notice a bladder overgauge alarm. One night we played until dawn, and still didn't notice the time until one guy's cell phone rang and it was his wife saying, "Dear, I don't know if you remember, but my car is in the shop and I have to be at work in an hour." Multitasking, my ass.
Mind Control Parasites in Half of All Humans
Are they our better half?
"Undocumented API"
Of course, AOL has been known to advertise more free hours per month there actually are hours in a month.
currently I am the Master of my own domain, and I'd much prefer to keep it that way.
Ridicule? In other words, the FTC is planning on embarrassing spyware vendors and their customers? Yeah ... right. How about we forget "ridicule" and move on to "RICO". Now that might slow them down a little. At least, it might make U.S. vendors think twice about employing a spyware outfit. Won't do much good anywhere else though.
Well, I happen to be a white guy and for a few years had a girlfriend who was African. Probably the least bigoted person I've ever met. But, I remember when she asked me to call about an apartment for rent, and the African-American woman that answered the phone immediately demanded, "Are you white?" I said yes, and she said flatly, "Your girlfriend will have to call for herself. We don't talk to white people" and hung up on me.
Discrimination is not a unilateral phenomenon. It's perpetuated on all sides.
recognizing what's wrong with this whole world simply by listening to most popular chart hits :)
Well, since it's generally agreed that the music studios stopped listening to their customers decades ago, all that would tell you what is wrong with a bunch of their executives. And we already know what is wrong with them.
Yes, and "if you can't do it in Fortran, do it in assembler. If you can't do it in assembler, it isn't worth doing."
... great for making quiche."
I read that article too, years and years ago. I think I kept a copy of it around here somewhere. "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal", I think it was called.
"Pascal is the Cuisinart of modern programming languages
Use the right tool for the job.
Yes, but you're assuming that size matters.
"Cyber" this and "Cyber" that. I'm just about as sick and tired of that term as I am "rampant piracy". Somehow, I think certain portions of the United States Federal Government, specifically those involving national security, have been taken over by either small, odious children or full-grown chimpanzees. At this point I can't really tell which.