I work for a college's tech services department. We require Windows users to run a CD that includes Symantec AV and Checkpoint VPN software to log into the network.
Right now, for Mac and Linux users (as well as people with networked XBoxes, Playstations, ect), they just give us their IP and MAC addreses and we unblock their MAC address.
Our network security guys are for the most part unix geeks. They work pretty closely with the Linux community here, speaking at LUG's, ect. I would think many other schools would be the same way
I initially thought that it didn't look so bad, but then it became painfully obvious it was just trying to be like Windows, down to the logoff/shutdown/restart screen.
I don't think having an interface that looks just like Windows XP is a bad thing considering the market they are going for. Wal-Mart is trying to appeal to normal computer users, not geeks. Normal computer users want to be able to click on programs and have them run, without having to get used to a new interface. Chances are that many of the people who buy these machines will have used or owned a Windows box at one time, and the interface lets them use Linux with a minimal amount of learning.
What kit cars do is take a cheap car (Fiero/VW Bug/ect) and make it look like something cool, for way less than it would cost to get the real thing.
What this guy did was took what some would argue is a superior machine, and made it into a less-functional PC with no DVD burner and no ability to run OSX.
It's especially painful for those of us who are still waiting for ours on backorder (mine from Amazon is slated to ship late march).
At some point in my junior year of college, my Giant card got switched with my Dutch foreign exchange roomate's card. I didn't realize this until years later, and I've never bothered to get a new card - so "Giant" thinks I'm someone who hasn't been in the US in four years.
This was unintentional, and I don't really stay awake at night worrying if Giant knows what I bought there, but I still get a kick out of getting receipts showing how much "Ronald" has saved so far this year.
Who provides web search results?
A9.com's Web Search Results are enhanced by Google. Data provided by A9.com and Alexa Internet is also used for search history and Site Info.
since it doesn't mention the images as from Alexa, and since I'm guessing the A9 stuff is Amazon's inside the book, it seems logical that the image search is from google.
I know there are more complicated phishing scams using IE holes and the like to make the address of the site show in the address bar, but all the phishing emails I seem to get send you to either a different domain name or an unresolved IP address. It doesn't take much to move your mouse over the address, see that it goes to 123.456.789.101 and not www.ebay.com to figure out it's a spoof.
Or you could just realize that ebay, paypal, and your bank will not send you emails asking for personal info, and never click on links on such emails but rather go to the site directly.
but why do that when you can download another toolbar?
You would think Microsoft wouldn't let people mirror their software - after all, they always tell people that you can't trust software on mirrors. Huge security risk, you know.
The previous Linux/Walmart boxes were never available at the walmart stores, only at walmart.com. While the CNET article doesn't say that it won't be sold in stores, it starts out with with "Walmart.com and Linspire revealed.." and ends with "the computer is available at walmart.com". No mention that it would be available at stores.
My guess is people who buy computers online are somewhat more savy than those who buy at Wal-Mart stores.
18] We next consider the issue of financial benefit. The plaintiff's allegations encompass many substantive benefits to Cherry Auction from the infringing sales. These include the payment of a daily rental fee by each of the infringing vendors; a direct payment to Cherry Auction by each customer in the form of an admission fee, and incidental payments for parking, food and other services by customers seeking to purchase infringing recordings.
So yes, the logic is that they gain both from renting to pirates as well as from admission.
I doubt that. You would probably still have a site - it would just have an impossibly long URL like http://someservername.yourisp.com/~yourusername/yo urdirectory
Having a domain name is convinient and makes it easier to refer people to your site, and makes your email address catchier, but it's not necessary to have a website.
Keep in mind the guy said he works for an isp and distributes this to customers. What do you think is easier, telling the average user to open a cd and double-click a file, or giving them instructions on how to launch regedit and navigate down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVIC ES\winsock - keeping in mind that the average user has no idea what regedit does.
Win2k? What the hell ever. Stop using pirated versions of NT5 as an upgrade path from 98.
Once again, the guy works for an ISP - he's not just going to tell all his users to upgrade their OS - and I'm not sure what your upgrade path point is, since lots of business-class machines shipped with Win2k before XP came out.
Don't you think it's a little extreme to say that you're dislike of you're commute is a fundamental flaw with America?
I live in central Baltimore. Nothing in my neigborhood is a few steps away, except crack dealers and a couple liquor stores with plexiglass windows. It is, however, a 10 minute drive to where I work (which is on the edge of the city, but within city limits). I'm not a big fan of city life, but I deal with it because I like having a short commute and cheap rent.
That may change in a year or two when I'm ready to buy a house - I may be willing to trade my commute for ease of parking, neigbors who don't want to rob me, and a nice patch of green in the back.
Not everyone dislikes the suburbs, and many people prefer them. The fact that people who want to live in cities can, and people who want to live in suburbs can, is part of what I like, not dislike, about America.
So, why didn't you buy it there? Reward the retailer who was willing to discount without any prodding.
Probably because many stores (Staples, Best Buy, OfficeMax, Circuit City, ect) have 110% or 115% price match policies, where they refund 1xx5 of the difference - so it is cheaper to get it at that store than the original retailer.
Of course, most price match policies these days are so narrow - only applies to certain stores, no online stores, doesn't apply to rebates/coupons/freebies, ect - that they are hard to get anyway
The article also tells how the CAN-SPAM Act, which legalises spamming, is turning the US into the spam haven of the world.
I think CANSPAM is an awful law. It overrides much better and stricter state laws, and it doesn't really do anything to reduce SPAM.
However, it seems like a stretch to say that CANSPAM is turing the U.S. into a SPAM haven. I think most spam recieved in the U.S. is tied to U.S. businesses, even if it's sent or bounced through servers abroad. Just because spam from US servers have increased doesn't mean CANSPAM is the cause - you can use logic like that to "prove" that pr0n is good for kids.
I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason for the increase is that there are more virus-laden compromised computers in the U.S. to relay spam off of.
I wonder if the rebates Best Buy is getting sued over are actually Best Buy rebates. Best Buy offers two kinds of rebates, theirs and ones that go through the manufacturer. The Best Buy rebates themselves, which go through Calais, ME, are actually pretty good - they come quickly, and I've done many of them and never had a problem.
Best Buy will also frequently offer rebates through the manufactuerer. These either go to the manufacturer directly or through a major rebate house like Parago (miami, fl) or TCA (new rochelle, ny). The ones that go through rebate houses can be slow, but they usually come.
Many of the ones that go directly to the manufacturer never come, no matter what. Some of the worst offenders are IOMagic (aka hi-val or digital research) and Buslink
It's a tough call how responsible BB should be for these - they are offered by the manufacturer and the manufacturer is responsible for paying for them. On the other hand, Best Buy has to know by now from numerous complaints that these companies are trouble, but they still advertise their rebates.
In the US, poeple believe that SUVs are the safest, but the fatality record of SUVs is only about as good as that of a mid-sized car
Part of this may be that SUV's tend to roll over more, but part of it probably has to do with what kind of people drive what kind of cars. According to this article the safest vehicle in terms of crash data is the Buick LeSabre. Probably because most Buick buyers are as old as dirt, and few Buick LeSabres ever are driven above 50mph.
Contrast that with medium-sized SUV's popular with college kids whose parents have too much money. Part of the reason for the stat may well be the vehicles, but the other part is that certain people who drive in certain ways frequently buy certain cars.
Tivo may be pretty close in terms of 30 second skip with RePlay, but RePlay did for a while offer commerical advance, which would automatically skip commercials. The 50x0 series models have it, but because of lawsuit threats they pulled it on the 55x0 models (although it's rumored that if you image a 55x0 drive with a 50x0 image, it comes back).
RePlay was also the first to offer built-in ethernet networking - I know Tivo has it now, but they didn't always have it, and for a while they had it but it was an extra $100 for the home media option.
To be fair, RePlay does occasionally run ads when the machine is paused, but only for themselves
I know people love their Tivo's, but it's good to have competition in any segment of the market, including DVR's
Footnote 2: It also has come to our attention that P2P file-sharing technology is being used as a means of transmitting computer viruses and worms because conventional virus protection programs, such as those marketed by Novell, do not scan files exchanged via such technology. If such is the case, then it would be incumbent upon your companies to warn your users of this risk.
Since when did Novell sell anti-virus products? I don't see any on their website. They do make a firewall called BorderManager (which arguably could be used to block a number of P2P services) but it's not an antivirus program.
I could be wrong, but even if Novell does make some AV program nobody's heard of, it's not a very good example, since nobody uses it. More likely they meant Norton, but it's hard to keep straight all those software vendors who have names starting with N.
Between that and the comments on your computer sharing files when it's off, one wonders why they can't find one person with a high-school level of technology expertise who can act as a consultant for the AG's. Probably because they can't find someone who knows anything about technology and is willing to bash P2P.
Slashdot Mirror
I work for a college's tech services department. We require Windows users to run a CD that includes Symantec AV and Checkpoint VPN software to log into the network.
Right now, for Mac and Linux users (as well as people with networked XBoxes, Playstations, ect), they just give us their IP and MAC addreses and we unblock their MAC address.
Our network security guys are for the most part unix geeks. They work pretty closely with the Linux community here, speaking at LUG's, ect. I would think many other schools would be the same way
I initially thought that it didn't look so bad, but then it became painfully obvious it was just trying to be like Windows, down to the logoff/shutdown/restart screen.
I don't think having an interface that looks just like Windows XP is a bad thing considering the market they are going for. Wal-Mart is trying to appeal to normal computer users, not geeks. Normal computer users want to be able to click on programs and have them run, without having to get used to a new interface. Chances are that many of the people who buy these machines will have used or owned a Windows box at one time, and the interface lets them use Linux with a minimal amount of learning.
What kit cars do is take a cheap car (Fiero/VW Bug/ect) and make it look like something cool, for way less than it would cost to get the real thing.
What this guy did was took what some would argue is a superior machine, and made it into a less-functional PC with no DVD burner and no ability to run OSX.
It's especially painful for those of us who are still waiting for ours on backorder (mine from Amazon is slated to ship late march).
At some point in my junior year of college, my Giant card got switched with my Dutch foreign exchange roomate's card. I didn't realize this until years later, and I've never bothered to get a new card - so "Giant" thinks I'm someone who hasn't been in the US in four years.
This was unintentional, and I don't really stay awake at night worrying if Giant knows what I bought there, but I still get a kick out of getting receipts showing how much "Ronald" has saved so far this year.
I'm pretty sure that A9/Amazon is using google's image search in it's engine. The bottom of A9 says:
Search results enhanced by Google. Results also provided by a9.com and Alexa.
Also, from the faq
Who provides web search results? A9.com's Web Search Results are enhanced by Google. Data provided by A9.com and Alexa Internet is also used for search history and Site Info.
since it doesn't mention the images as from Alexa, and since I'm guessing the A9 stuff is Amazon's inside the book, it seems logical that the image search is from google.
Does this mean that if I buy a PSP at Best Buy, they will try to sell me a PSP for my PSP?
people with library cards
I know there are more complicated phishing scams using IE holes and the like to make the address of the site show in the address bar, but all the phishing emails I seem to get send you to either a different domain name or an unresolved IP address. It doesn't take much to move your mouse over the address, see that it goes to 123.456.789.101 and not www.ebay.com to figure out it's a spoof.
Or you could just realize that ebay, paypal, and your bank will not send you emails asking for personal info, and never click on links on such emails but rather go to the site directly.
but why do that when you can download another toolbar?
FreeDryerLint.info
I created this site to put in my sig on various sites after getting annoyed by all the freeipod referal links)
You would think Microsoft wouldn't let people mirror their software - after all, they always tell people that you can't trust software on mirrors. Huge security risk, you know.
The previous Linux/Walmart boxes were never available at the walmart stores, only at walmart.com. While the CNET article doesn't say that it won't be sold in stores, it starts out with with "Walmart.com and Linspire revealed.." and ends with "the computer is available at walmart.com". No mention that it would be available at stores.
My guess is people who buy computers online are somewhat more savy than those who buy at Wal-Mart stores.
1. Find worst product in catagory. Mention it.
2. Post a link to the "PC Mag guide" for that catagory with the tex "for better options in (name of catagory) see PC Mag's guide
3.Profit!
The excerpt can be found here
18] We next consider the issue of financial benefit. The plaintiff's allegations encompass many substantive benefits to Cherry Auction from the infringing sales. These include the payment of a daily rental fee by each of the infringing vendors; a direct payment to Cherry Auction by each customer in the form of an admission fee, and incidental payments for parking, food and other services by customers seeking to purchase infringing recordings.
So yes, the logic is that they gain both from renting to pirates as well as from admission.
I doubt that. You would probably still have a site - it would just have an impossibly long URL like http://someservername.yourisp.com/~yourusername/yo urdirectory
Having a domain name is convinient and makes it easier to refer people to your site, and makes your email address catchier, but it's not necessary to have a website.
It's in the long run we're all dead
doesn't seem like a big deal, but the humor value in the quote is that it refers to economists arguing about long-run and short-run equillibriums.
or something like that - my econ is a bit rusty.
. Provide us with copies of your utility bills at 101 Apple Ln
What? You didn't know that Apple's address is the rather ironic 1 Infinite Loop?
Winsock? delete winsock.dll. System fixes itself.
Keep in mind the guy said he works for an isp and distributes this to customers. What do you think is easier, telling the average user to open a cd and double-click a file, or giving them instructions on how to launch regedit and navigate down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVIC ES\winsock - keeping in mind that the average user has no idea what regedit does.
Win2k? What the hell ever. Stop using pirated versions of NT5 as an upgrade path from 98.
Once again, the guy works for an ISP - he's not just going to tell all his users to upgrade their OS - and I'm not sure what your upgrade path point is, since lots of business-class machines shipped with Win2k before XP came out.
This is what is wrong with america.
Don't you think it's a little extreme to say that you're dislike of you're commute is a fundamental flaw with America?
I live in central Baltimore. Nothing in my neigborhood is a few steps away, except crack dealers and a couple liquor stores with plexiglass windows. It is, however, a 10 minute drive to where I work (which is on the edge of the city, but within city limits). I'm not a big fan of city life, but I deal with it because I like having a short commute and cheap rent.
That may change in a year or two when I'm ready to buy a house - I may be willing to trade my commute for ease of parking, neigbors who don't want to rob me, and a nice patch of green in the back.
Not everyone dislikes the suburbs, and many people prefer them. The fact that people who want to live in cities can, and people who want to live in suburbs can, is part of what I like, not dislike, about America.
So, why didn't you buy it there? Reward the retailer who was willing to discount without any prodding.
Probably because many stores (Staples, Best Buy, OfficeMax, Circuit City, ect) have 110% or 115% price match policies, where they refund 1xx5 of the difference - so it is cheaper to get it at that store than the original retailer.
Of course, most price match policies these days are so narrow - only applies to certain stores, no online stores, doesn't apply to rebates/coupons/freebies, ect - that they are hard to get anyway
were put in a giant cage under a railroad trestle.
The article also tells how the CAN-SPAM Act, which legalises spamming, is turning the US into the spam haven of the world.
I think CANSPAM is an awful law. It overrides much better and stricter state laws, and it doesn't really do anything to reduce SPAM.
However, it seems like a stretch to say that CANSPAM is turing the U.S. into a SPAM haven. I think most spam recieved in the U.S. is tied to U.S. businesses, even if it's sent or bounced through servers abroad. Just because spam from US servers have increased doesn't mean CANSPAM is the cause - you can use logic like that to "prove" that pr0n is good for kids.
I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason for the increase is that there are more virus-laden compromised computers in the U.S. to relay spam off of.
I wonder if the rebates Best Buy is getting sued over are actually Best Buy rebates. Best Buy offers two kinds of rebates, theirs and ones that go through the manufacturer. The Best Buy rebates themselves, which go through Calais, ME, are actually pretty good - they come quickly, and I've done many of them and never had a problem.
Best Buy will also frequently offer rebates through the manufactuerer. These either go to the manufacturer directly or through a major rebate house like Parago (miami, fl) or TCA (new rochelle, ny). The ones that go through rebate houses can be slow, but they usually come.
Many of the ones that go directly to the manufacturer never come, no matter what. Some of the worst offenders are IOMagic (aka hi-val or digital research) and Buslink
It's a tough call how responsible BB should be for these - they are offered by the manufacturer and the manufacturer is responsible for paying for them. On the other hand, Best Buy has to know by now from numerous complaints that these companies are trouble, but they still advertise their rebates.
In the US, poeple believe that SUVs are the safest, but the fatality record of SUVs is only about as good as that of a mid-sized car
Part of this may be that SUV's tend to roll over more, but part of it probably has to do with what kind of people drive what kind of cars. According to this article the safest vehicle in terms of crash data is the Buick LeSabre. Probably because most Buick buyers are as old as dirt, and few Buick LeSabres ever are driven above 50mph.
Contrast that with medium-sized SUV's popular with college kids whose parents have too much money. Part of the reason for the stat may well be the vehicles, but the other part is that certain people who drive in certain ways frequently buy certain cars.
Tivo may be pretty close in terms of 30 second skip with RePlay, but RePlay did for a while offer commerical advance, which would automatically skip commercials. The 50x0 series models have it, but because of lawsuit threats they pulled it on the 55x0 models (although it's rumored that if you image a 55x0 drive with a 50x0 image, it comes back).
RePlay was also the first to offer built-in ethernet networking - I know Tivo has it now, but they didn't always have it, and for a while they had it but it was an extra $100 for the home media option.
To be fair, RePlay does occasionally run ads when the machine is paused, but only for themselves
I know people love their Tivo's, but it's good to have competition in any segment of the market, including DVR's
One really odd thing I noticed in the footnotes:
Footnote 2: It also has come to our attention that P2P file-sharing technology is being used as a means of transmitting computer viruses and worms because conventional virus protection programs, such as those marketed by Novell, do not scan files exchanged via such technology. If such is the case, then it would be incumbent upon your companies to warn your users of this risk.
Since when did Novell sell anti-virus products? I don't see any on their website. They do make a firewall called BorderManager (which arguably could be used to block a number of P2P services) but it's not an antivirus program.
I could be wrong, but even if Novell does make some AV program nobody's heard of, it's not a very good example, since nobody uses it. More likely they meant Norton, but it's hard to keep straight all those software vendors who have names starting with N.
Between that and the comments on your computer sharing files when it's off, one wonders why they can't find one person with a high-school level of technology expertise who can act as a consultant for the AG's. Probably because they can't find someone who knows anything about technology and is willing to bash P2P.