"If the software spies or spams you without telling you honestly that it's doing so, you have a remedy in the form of existing laws against fraud or the like -- or possibly new laws that more narrowly target deceptive software."
Oh really? Have you read about anyone successfully pursuing this? These cases don't even make it to court. The laws on fraud, for some strange reason, don't apply here. Try telling a lawyer that you want to sue a company because they installed software on your computer without your consent, and they are going to laugh at you.
Now, don't get me wrong. What you said is valid in theory. However, the execution of these laws is very, very poor.
He may be a moron because he claimed that it wouldn't work with Linux, but don't call him a moron because he doesn't have any experience with Linux. I know some highly skilled technicians that have no Linux experience (myself being one of them).
Ooooh, you don't have experience with (insert program/OS here), so you must be an idiot!!!
Cut out the infantile attitude. That attitude is half the reason more people don't switch over, jackass. Mod me down if you like, this asshole had it coming.
The bad thing about using a search engine to try and look for helpful guides is that most of the guides on the internet for linux installs/usage are complete technical rubbish. Plus, the information is so scatterred and contradictory that it makes it virtually impossible to do a google on "linux guide" and come up with anything that makes sense to the average person.
Having a centralized, easy to use guide for Linux is fucking priceless. I have tried to install Linux more than once, and have run into contradictory information within the first couple of pages of their own manuals! It's quite absurd. "Little" things like partitions and file system choices can make or break an OS install.. and they've always broken mine.
Why do people overclock their PCs? The money you have to spend for extra cooling could also be spent for a faster CPU.
Because once you get the initial cooling setup, you can carry it (for the most part) from system to system, upgrade to upgrade. I've heard that argument many times before. It's not valid. Sorry.
Also, the 1333mhz Athlon Thunderbirds were the last of that core ever made. They ran hotter than hell stock, and I bet if you tried, you wouldn't be able to budge the clock speeds on it. That's pretty much the top end of that core. However, if you're concerned with power consumption, you may want to consider an Athlon XP mobile processor instead. They run on a lower core voltage and produce much less heat (they're cool enough to use passive cooling if that tells you anything).
It seems as if our biggest hurdle that we have to jump at this point is a new propulsion technology. Rockets are very limiting, in more than one way.
1. The amount of heat that they generate. 2. Fuel consumption. A significant amount of the overall weight and mass on space shuttles have been devoted to carrying fuel. 3. They tend to blow up. 4. They are relatively slow. If we ever plan to leave our solar system, we are going to need much faster propulsion systems.
We need something that requires little fuel, is not unnecessarily dangerous to launch, and will propel us much faster than todays systems. We just don't have the technology for a propulsion system such as this yet. Maybe we should worry about obtaining technology such as this before we send our astronauts to their doom.
I read an article about this in Popular Science. This is not a "pipe dream", but a proven technology that will be ready for delivery to the U.S. military in 2005.
Tin foil hats may actually be a prudent idea now.;)
I work for a cable ISP. Most cases of slow speeds are, in fact, your computer, not our lines/service. Overloaded nodes, for the most part, are a thing of the past. Even our most packed node runs at only about 75% capacity at any given time.
Try cleaning the spyware off of your computer and quit going to flaky porn sites all the time. Maybe the ID 10 T errors will stop.
Have you ever actually USED Mozilla? It is much easier to use. Tabbed windows, being able to bookmark a group of tabs (a WONDERFUL feature), searching with Google from the address bar, a REAL password manager (IE's password manager is just completely horrible), the ability to block images from certain sites, a REAL download manager, built in HTML editor (which I've found to be better than a lot of commercial solutions), auto fill on forms, pop up blocking. The list just goes on. IE is a piss poor, mediocre, run of the mill vanilla browser. Only idiots and children should use it.
Not quite. Even todays movies that are being distributed are not raw DVD rips, but re-encoded files that are much smaller. You can rip a DVD at ~ 1000kbps and still have very good quality. That makes the average movie, 1 hr 30 min, about 1GB (granted that you re-encode the audio as well as a VBR mp3 file at ~192kbps, at this bitrate you don't really notice too much of a difference and the audio file goes from ~1GB down to 130-150MB). That is much more connection friendly.
Even with a new high-def standard such as this, you can still rip and encode at 1000kbps and get the exact same file size.
Piracy is not going away for a LONG time.
Video encoding. Real time manipulation of video data is still impossible with even the fastest of desktop machines. "image manipulation"- I take it you're talking about Photoshop. That depends almost entirely on the amount of physical RAM in your system. It is not very processor dependant at all.
There are also things like rendering animation (which can take weeks on even high end PCs), large math calculations, voice recognition, etc.
There are LOTS of things that would take advantage of faster processors.
Sorry, I don't mean this to be flaimbait, but I'll probably be modded down anyways.
You are very naive if you think that 4.1 surround is enough. The difference between 2, 3.1, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 channel surround systems is VERY noticeable. If you don't believe me, then you've never heard a 7.1 channel surround system. If you have heard it and couldn't tell the difference, then you must be deaf. The thing is, it's hard to find media (games, movies, etc.) that take full advantage of encoding schemes that utilize 7.1 channel audio. If you can find some that does, it will take your breath away. With 2 front, 2 side, 2 rear, a center and a sub, you become truly immersed. Panning and fading effects are just PHENOMINAL. Imagine watching a movie about the Grand Canyon- the echo would sound much more realistic- we're talking sound waves bouncing off of objects at every angle imaginable and having it represented realistically. The more speakers you add, the more realistic this experience is going to be. Even the best surround sound emulation in the world cannot beat the real deal.
I have an idea. Put a sign outside the movie theater stating that you are not responsible for any damage that may come to electronics that are brought in to the theater. All electronics, including cell phones, pagers, etc., must be left in the car.
Then, at all the movie premiers, emit a low level EMP every 5-10 minutes to disable any electronics equipment. Granted, this would kill anyone with a pacemaker, but old people scare me anyways. You'd also have to shield the camera room.
Hey, it could happen, cap'n.
I love Stargate. The thing I love about it the most is the fact that a lot of what happens is very plausible. Cheyenne Mountain is a real military base. The theory that the Egyptian pyramids were built by aliens is a realy theory being tossed around by archeologists (and the only one that actually makes sense- there is no way that the egyptians could have built the pyramids on their own- read The Stargate Conspiracy).
No, I'm not a nutty conspiracy theorist. My interest in all of this started with Stargate SG-1 as nothing more than a fan. Then, I started researching ancient egypt and things just started to add up. No, I don't wear a tinfoil hat, no, I'm not a nut, I'm just a guy who noticed a pattern. A very exciting, but scary one.
Touche.
However, with the upcoming advances in bus speeds (read: PCI Express) and the available bandwidth to the PCI bus, we won't have to worry about latency when using a coprocessor type piece of hardware. There is room to grow with this new bus to almost outlandish amounts of bandwidth. Not a problem we'll run into any time soon.
Monster Fusion 3D? Not trolling, but this is a very bad example. If you didn't upgrade your vid card from that point until Black&White, then that is your fault. You must've had that card for 4+ years. That's like expecting your console to last 10 years and being dissapointed when something better comes out in 5.
"Many can be uninstalled just by using the Add/Remove Programs tool. If so many people want to take it off, how come I find so many computers where it could be removed with a few clicks, and isn't?"
This just is not true. The majority of spyware can't even be found in Add/Remove programs.
"I can monitor what data a program on my computer accesses. It's not real easy to sift through all that information, but it's available if I want to use it. My firewall blocks outgoing transmissions unless I authorize them. I honestly don't care if there are a million programs on my PC spying on me, because the information doesn't leave my computer."
You may be able to stop it from going out, but what about the resources that this data mining and pop up ad serving are stealing from you? And don't just say "well, I have enough to spare". That might do for the average user, but what about the people that actually USE their machines, and care if they have this crap installed?
"I don't think it gets any simpler than that. That's the sort of laws that we're looking at. Either they're going to have loopholes so the intended software can get around them, or they'll be so broad as to outlaw all data transmission over the internet."
Not necessarily true. What they need to do is to leave it up to someone who actually knows what spyware is and how it functions to come up with the basics, and have that person work in conjunction with a lawyer to iron out any loopholes.
Dear lord, thank you, someone that knows what they are talking about.
I would much rather PAY for content than have to deal with this annoying infestation. I'm a gamer, and I also do video/audio encoding and sound production. I need every last little CPU cycle that I can get, and when something infringes upon that, I get PISSED.
You have no idea how ignorant this is. This "password safe"- do you REALLY think it's secure? Not by a longshot. One of the pieces of spyware that comes with your wonderful little program reports those passwords back to the company, and your wonderful little program- guess what? One of the easiest to hack that there is.
Keep thinking you're safe. See what happens.
Also, you sound like a damn ad for spyware. Knock it off, troll.
I despise spyware, pure and simple. I work for an ISP, and the MAJORITY of people who can't get on the internet are infected with spyware. To me, spyware is the trojan horse (pun intended) of software. It is much more dangerous than a virus, because most people know what a virus is and can act accordingly. However, if you tell the average user that they are infected with spyware, they are going to be clueless
A.)About what spyware is.
B.)How to remove the spyware.
C.)What program to use to remove it, which is EXTREMELY dangerous because there are so many spyware removal programs out there that contain spyware themselves.
D.)That they actually have to do maintenance on their machine and clean it off at least once a month. I tell the user this and they go "why? is there any way to just stop it from coming in?"
A lot of them say "shouldn't this be illegal?" I say yes, it should be, but it isn't.
Spyware is a huge burden upon consumers and corporations alike. I say burn the creators houses down and string them up by their balls.
Slashdot Mirror
"If the software spies or spams you without telling you honestly that it's doing so, you have a remedy in the form of existing laws against fraud or the like -- or possibly new laws that more narrowly target deceptive software."
Oh really? Have you read about anyone successfully pursuing this? These cases don't even make it to court. The laws on fraud, for some strange reason, don't apply here. Try telling a lawyer that you want to sue a company because they installed software on your computer without your consent, and they are going to laugh at you.
Now, don't get me wrong. What you said is valid in theory. However, the execution of these laws is very, very poor.
He may be a moron because he claimed that it wouldn't work with Linux, but don't call him a moron because he doesn't have any experience with Linux. I know some highly skilled technicians that have no Linux experience (myself being one of them).
Ooooh, you don't have experience with (insert program/OS here), so you must be an idiot!!!
Cut out the infantile attitude. That attitude is half the reason more people don't switch over, jackass. Mod me down if you like, this asshole had it coming.
The bad thing about using a search engine to try and look for helpful guides is that most of the guides on the internet for linux installs/usage are complete technical rubbish. Plus, the information is so scatterred and contradictory that it makes it virtually impossible to do a google on "linux guide" and come up with anything that makes sense to the average person.
Having a centralized, easy to use guide for Linux is fucking priceless. I have tried to install Linux more than once, and have run into contradictory information within the first couple of pages of their own manuals! It's quite absurd. "Little" things like partitions and file system choices can make or break an OS install.. and they've always broken mine.
Why do people overclock their PCs? The money you have to spend for extra cooling could also be spent for a faster CPU.
Because once you get the initial cooling setup, you can carry it (for the most part) from system to system, upgrade to upgrade. I've heard that argument many times before. It's not valid. Sorry.
Also, the 1333mhz Athlon Thunderbirds were the last of that core ever made. They ran hotter than hell stock, and I bet if you tried, you wouldn't be able to budge the clock speeds on it. That's pretty much the top end of that core. However, if you're concerned with power consumption, you may want to consider an Athlon XP mobile processor instead. They run on a lower core voltage and produce much less heat (they're cool enough to use passive cooling if that tells you anything).
It seems as if our biggest hurdle that we have to jump at this point is a new propulsion technology. Rockets are very limiting, in more than one way.
1. The amount of heat that they generate.
2. Fuel consumption. A significant amount of the overall weight and mass on space shuttles have been devoted to carrying fuel.
3. They tend to blow up.
4. They are relatively slow. If we ever plan to leave our solar system, we are going to need much faster propulsion systems.
We need something that requires little fuel, is not unnecessarily dangerous to launch, and will propel us much faster than todays systems. We just don't have the technology for a propulsion system such as this yet. Maybe we should worry about obtaining technology such as this before we send our astronauts to their doom.
I read an article about this in Popular Science. This is not a "pipe dream", but a proven technology that will be ready for delivery to the U.S. military in 2005.
;)
Tin foil hats may actually be a prudent idea now.
Ahem..
I work for a cable ISP. Most cases of slow speeds are, in fact, your computer, not our lines/service. Overloaded nodes, for the most part, are a thing of the past. Even our most packed node runs at only about 75% capacity at any given time.
Try cleaning the spyware off of your computer and quit going to flaky porn sites all the time. Maybe the ID 10 T errors will stop.
Have you ever actually USED Mozilla? It is much easier to use. Tabbed windows, being able to bookmark a group of tabs (a WONDERFUL feature), searching with Google from the address bar, a REAL password manager (IE's password manager is just completely horrible), the ability to block images from certain sites, a REAL download manager, built in HTML editor (which I've found to be better than a lot of commercial solutions), auto fill on forms, pop up blocking. The list just goes on. IE is a piss poor, mediocre, run of the mill vanilla browser. Only idiots and children should use it.
Not quite. Even todays movies that are being distributed are not raw DVD rips, but re-encoded files that are much smaller. You can rip a DVD at ~ 1000kbps and still have very good quality. That makes the average movie, 1 hr 30 min, about 1GB (granted that you re-encode the audio as well as a VBR mp3 file at ~192kbps, at this bitrate you don't really notice too much of a difference and the audio file goes from ~1GB down to 130-150MB). That is much more connection friendly. Even with a new high-def standard such as this, you can still rip and encode at 1000kbps and get the exact same file size. Piracy is not going away for a LONG time.
Video encoding. Real time manipulation of video data is still impossible with even the fastest of desktop machines. "image manipulation"- I take it you're talking about Photoshop. That depends almost entirely on the amount of physical RAM in your system. It is not very processor dependant at all. There are also things like rendering animation (which can take weeks on even high end PCs), large math calculations, voice recognition, etc. There are LOTS of things that would take advantage of faster processors.
Sorry, I don't mean this to be flaimbait, but I'll probably be modded down anyways. You are very naive if you think that 4.1 surround is enough. The difference between 2, 3.1, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 channel surround systems is VERY noticeable. If you don't believe me, then you've never heard a 7.1 channel surround system. If you have heard it and couldn't tell the difference, then you must be deaf. The thing is, it's hard to find media (games, movies, etc.) that take full advantage of encoding schemes that utilize 7.1 channel audio. If you can find some that does, it will take your breath away. With 2 front, 2 side, 2 rear, a center and a sub, you become truly immersed. Panning and fading effects are just PHENOMINAL. Imagine watching a movie about the Grand Canyon- the echo would sound much more realistic- we're talking sound waves bouncing off of objects at every angle imaginable and having it represented realistically. The more speakers you add, the more realistic this experience is going to be. Even the best surround sound emulation in the world cannot beat the real deal.
I have an idea. Put a sign outside the movie theater stating that you are not responsible for any damage that may come to electronics that are brought in to the theater. All electronics, including cell phones, pagers, etc., must be left in the car. Then, at all the movie premiers, emit a low level EMP every 5-10 minutes to disable any electronics equipment. Granted, this would kill anyone with a pacemaker, but old people scare me anyways. You'd also have to shield the camera room. Hey, it could happen, cap'n.
Oh... well then... I'm a retard. Thank you for pointing that out to me.
I'm rather curious to see how long it would take to render a full divx movie in a pure 64 bit environment. Drool..
I love Stargate. The thing I love about it the most is the fact that a lot of what happens is very plausible. Cheyenne Mountain is a real military base. The theory that the Egyptian pyramids were built by aliens is a realy theory being tossed around by archeologists (and the only one that actually makes sense- there is no way that the egyptians could have built the pyramids on their own- read The Stargate Conspiracy). No, I'm not a nutty conspiracy theorist. My interest in all of this started with Stargate SG-1 as nothing more than a fan. Then, I started researching ancient egypt and things just started to add up. No, I don't wear a tinfoil hat, no, I'm not a nut, I'm just a guy who noticed a pattern. A very exciting, but scary one.
Can't we just kill the RIAA in their sleep?
Touche. However, with the upcoming advances in bus speeds (read: PCI Express) and the available bandwidth to the PCI bus, we won't have to worry about latency when using a coprocessor type piece of hardware. There is room to grow with this new bus to almost outlandish amounts of bandwidth. Not a problem we'll run into any time soon.
Monster Fusion 3D? Not trolling, but this is a very bad example. If you didn't upgrade your vid card from that point until Black&White, then that is your fault. You must've had that card for 4+ years. That's like expecting your console to last 10 years and being dissapointed when something better comes out in 5.
"Many can be uninstalled just by using the Add/Remove Programs tool. If so many people want to take it off, how come I find so many computers where it could be removed with a few clicks, and isn't?" This just is not true. The majority of spyware can't even be found in Add/Remove programs. "I can monitor what data a program on my computer accesses. It's not real easy to sift through all that information, but it's available if I want to use it. My firewall blocks outgoing transmissions unless I authorize them. I honestly don't care if there are a million programs on my PC spying on me, because the information doesn't leave my computer." You may be able to stop it from going out, but what about the resources that this data mining and pop up ad serving are stealing from you? And don't just say "well, I have enough to spare". That might do for the average user, but what about the people that actually USE their machines, and care if they have this crap installed? "I don't think it gets any simpler than that. That's the sort of laws that we're looking at. Either they're going to have loopholes so the intended software can get around them, or they'll be so broad as to outlaw all data transmission over the internet." Not necessarily true. What they need to do is to leave it up to someone who actually knows what spyware is and how it functions to come up with the basics, and have that person work in conjunction with a lawyer to iron out any loopholes.
Dear lord, thank you, someone that knows what they are talking about. I would much rather PAY for content than have to deal with this annoying infestation. I'm a gamer, and I also do video/audio encoding and sound production. I need every last little CPU cycle that I can get, and when something infringes upon that, I get PISSED.
You have no idea how ignorant this is. This "password safe"- do you REALLY think it's secure? Not by a longshot. One of the pieces of spyware that comes with your wonderful little program reports those passwords back to the company, and your wonderful little program- guess what? One of the easiest to hack that there is. Keep thinking you're safe. See what happens. Also, you sound like a damn ad for spyware. Knock it off, troll.
I despise spyware, pure and simple. I work for an ISP, and the MAJORITY of people who can't get on the internet are infected with spyware. To me, spyware is the trojan horse (pun intended) of software. It is much more dangerous than a virus, because most people know what a virus is and can act accordingly. However, if you tell the average user that they are infected with spyware, they are going to be clueless A.)About what spyware is. B.)How to remove the spyware. C.)What program to use to remove it, which is EXTREMELY dangerous because there are so many spyware removal programs out there that contain spyware themselves. D.)That they actually have to do maintenance on their machine and clean it off at least once a month. I tell the user this and they go "why? is there any way to just stop it from coming in?" A lot of them say "shouldn't this be illegal?" I say yes, it should be, but it isn't. Spyware is a huge burden upon consumers and corporations alike. I say burn the creators houses down and string them up by their balls.
That "expensive-ass" Geforce FX 5200 has never retailed above 150 dollars US. Hell, now it can be had for well under 100. You're getting greedy.
I'm all set. I have an Antec TrueControl 550 Watt PSU.
Actually, it's over twice as big.