I'm sure I won't find much disagreement here on/. for saying that computer viruses are a pain in the ass, cause economic damage, and waste otherwise productive hours of people's time to "disinfect" computers.
What is the point in writing these things in the first place? I might understand the virus writer having a self-esteem problem and writing virues boosts his/her ego. Other reasons escape me. Any takers?
If a "terrorist" uses genreic words in their e-mail to decribe weapons or tactics then to cover all possibilities do they just monitor all e-mails and conversations of certain persons? Sure an Osama Bin Laden is on the list but what about some person they only "suspect" of terrorism.
After watching what happened, I'm not surpised by the outcome.
The hosts asked John a question and then when he was making a point which contradicts CNN's opinion, interrupted him and basically spun the answer in a way to favor the network. They would also break to commericial.
This is what hurts political coverage because its the exact same thing that goes on in debates. The mediator, interviewer or reporter basically help the politician answer the question. Either by filling up the blanks through followup questions (helping the politician veer his answer) or simply cutting the question short when the politician has problems answering the question.
As a Canadian, this isn't exclusive to the American networks... it happens here too even on the CBC (publicly funded network).
On Apprentice last year, Trump warned Sam, that as a crazy marketing genius if he wasn't careful he could run a company - even one the size of IBM - down to the ground.
What you're saying about Ballmer is true and there are parallels to Trump's warning. I don't believe Ballmer is 100% behind MS and solving its problems. If these kind of press releases continue he could crash MS himself. He does, afterall, make the final descisions. Unless the shareholders oust him.
"aluminum tubes most likely meant for small artillery rockets were interpreted by the administration as parts for uranium centrifuges."
Funny that a few months later, its the administration who misinterpreted many pieces of intelligence information. Months ago, Bush & Cheney were saying information was falsified by the CIA.
I have my doubts that the CIA falsified the information. Its a shame that all this information is classified (or has since been shredded and burned) and will probably never be brought before the courts.
I think part of the problem is that Sony is not only a player in the Electronics industry but that its also has music and recording studios.
I love my Mini-disc player. The batteries last a long time. The discs hold over 2 hours of music and the sound quality with ATRAC is as good or better than MP3. The players are durable - I've dropped mine a few times from a few feet off the ground and still works great. The one thing missing is being able to transfer files to and from the recorder.
IMO, Sony is an innovator in the electronics industry. Their media recording division is keeping them from competing and making better products than Rio or Apple.
I'm concerned that Gates might use his influence on the CS department to use MS products. Not afraid. You highlight your concern of "huge corporate donations"... but I am afraid of the influence the pharmaceutical industry has on pharmacists, doctors and psychologists.
Similarly though, post-secondary education should not teach theories on company-centric models. What happens if said comapny ceases to exist... is the education then rendered non-marketable?
I read in my local newspaper (it was prob an AP story too), the Ottawa Citizen, last week that if it were revealed when Jennings lost (e.g. the audience knows ahead of time), there are clauses in the Jeopardy contract that states the winner will not collect the reward.
This begs the question, is his +- $2 million fortune in Jeopardy? And what are his after tax winnings?
Sorry. But the US appears to be muscling its way by economic means compared to other countries... which is hardly fair. Australia can hardly afford a trade embargo against the US.
OTOH, if the AU guy committed a cyber crime of a similar capacity towards any EU country, Japan, Mexico... whatever... he wouldn't be facing extradition.
On the flipside, it would be interesting to see Americans extradited to another country for crimes committed (e.g. sex tourists, stealing,...). My impression is that the DOJ will use every trick in the book to make sure Americans are not extradited. People of other countries committing crimes in the US aren't always so lucky.
I suggested to a friend to use Firefox a year ago. She's failry technically literate. She liked the browser enough that she's kept using it and ditched IE. I forgot to tell her about updates to the browser. I used her computer last week and she's been keeping up to date herself.
Not only that, but she tells me all many of her friends are also using it (there's at least 15 or 20 that I know of). So, after showing one person how much better it is, there's at least 20 new users now who use Firefox almost exclusively!
Re:US currency Legal Tender
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Make Money Fast
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· Score: 2, Informative
There's a problem with that too. Some bank machines give $50 bills when you widthdraw in $100 denominations.
The other day, for instance, I widthdrew $100. I needed to buy some clothes and food. The bank machine gave me two $50. All the banks were closed so I couldn't exhange for smaller currency then.
Plus, it was the last of my money until payday. I was lucky to find a retailer to accept them. I might have been screwed had they been fake. I know that possessing a fake is a criminal act, but had I had a "really" good fake from a bank machine that I didn't know about, legally I could have been in trouble too.
BTW -- Is a usually foolproof method of finding fakes to test to see if they have a raised surface in the assigned areas (from Intaglios)... or are most counterfitters able to reproduce that as well? It would seem this is the hardest and most costly to reproduce.
Ironic, that Microsoft asks that Apple customers complain of the lack of open standards for the iPod. The same company that will not share it WMA standard among many other things (Windows, IE...)
Further, to what end will end-user friendlness be compromised for security? Personally, if I were running a business from my computer, or had sensitive information, I would simply unplug the computer from any network and use another computer for web surfing. Still not 100% secure, but my tinfoil hat protects me too.
Microsoft, and in particular Bill Gates, have stated numerous times that Longhorn is the most expensive and time intensive project MS has embarked on and would be as complicated as the Apollo space program. With that in mind, WinFS was really the cornerstone and pride of the Longhorn project as MS would like to say it. With that in mind, this is akin to cutting the goals of the Apollo space program drastically... like not landing on the moon at all!
Granted a system like WinFS can be extremely complicated but it is not a "selling" point to me for Longhorn. I will compare it against other features it offers and decide to buy it or continue to use XP.
As part of a fair trial, wouldn't the RIAA have to supply a list of the songs it accuses you of downloading? If so, one could go to the store and buy the songs before the trial. Lose the receipts so there's no correlation between the trial date and the date you downloaded the song. Then in court, you prove to the RIAA you already owned copies of the songs.
Better yet, go to a used record store and save some money in the process!
I don't understand what fascniates people so much about Best Buy that they drop so much money there.
Sure the store layout is "neat" but they don't always have the best price (computer stores selling OEM parts have better prices), warranties at Best Buy suck, the Extended Service Plans are almost never honoured and the sales staff are too overconfident in their knowledge and abilities.
I never set foot in a Best Buy or Future Shop (they're now BB too) knowing this. I buy all my computer stuff at a local dealer(s) and my appliances with Sears who have great Consumers Report ratings.
Only when BB's stock takes a nose dive from the 45 or so its trading at right now will their business model change == when consumers get a clue! It seems the the "baby boomer" generation who are cash rich and relatively computer illiterate are responsible for boosting Best Buy's sales. In time, 10 to 15 years or so, if BB's practices continue, they will take a nosedive.
I would like to see Apple do a survey for prospective and current Apple customers on its website. While it might be a challenge to validate some of the responses, I think its a sign that they're willing to listen to people. There are links on the sight on "switching" and why Apple thinks "you" should switch. It doesn't leave much for the consumer to explain "why" and "how" they want to and will swtich. IMO, maybe they could get a better fell for the market and boost sales by doing so.
As a potential new Mac customer (I am looking at replacing my PC shortyly), I do not see much in the way of a computer which fits my needs and budgets with the way the new iMac system is rumored to look.
I don't mind spending aroud $1200 to $1500 (CAN) on a new computer but the G5's as it is are too expensive.
If the coverage area is getting wider, possibly several hundred feet in radius of the antenna, shouldn't the companies be providing better security too go with it as well?
I'm sure there's probably already a few people getting free Net access and not paying for it by using their neighbor's unsecured networks - without the neighbor even knowing.
Considering the only branded foods available on ground will be, namely, McDonalds and Coke I don't think how this will fare well for spectators. My stomach feels insecure after eating that garbage! I feel sorry for everybody else. All the special forces, police, etc won't be able to help there. Maybe they need more doctors on hand or perhaps some dieticians?
Not only is there obviously possible entrapment but what data exists that driving at the exact speed limit makes you a safer driver?
There are many other situations this will not cover: changing lanes without a turn signal, running lights, tail gaiting, driving *under* the speed limit (which can be just as unsafe), and drive-by shooting?
All of these could be more unsafe than going 10 MPH over the limit. Are they going to start monitoring that too? Will they forward high speeds to the police to fine you? What I would like to know is who will be monitoring the insurance agents' cars... or will their devices be rigged?
Even if this machine completely flops, Dell is going to have minimal losses since they keep the minimum of parts to build the systems and could surely use parts unsold in other systems. So really, there is no loss to them to even try this market.
I played the original Doom game on my Pentium computer when it first came out. Same with Wolfenstein. I think ID has been stuck with a culture which focuses a lot on the "wow" graphics factor to sell games. Quake I to III were fun but in retrospect they were nothing new.
FarCry while there is a lot of repetition in the gameplay, to some extent - hey it is an FPS - its the first FPS game which truly uses the outdoors to that extent. I don't remember ever seeing a game with a zoom that far on a sniper rifle. In most games you would be 200 m from your target tops. Splinter Cell really broke ground by having great graphics and an interesting edge on gameplay (it prob "borrowed" from Theif though I can't say cause I haven't played it).
My hope is that the success of Far Cry, Splinter Cell and HL2 (as over-hyped as it is) makes ID realize - hey - we need gameplay too! ID can produce wonderfully technical, complete games. Its the polishing of gameplay that is always missing.
I don't know if this is a direction I like seeing P2P networks go, in the sense that full articles would be available for download. With some tweaking of the idea, I think there could be an advantage.
Many universities are paying tons of money to privitized databases to store either full text articles (for some)or simply the abstacts so students can search and read articles to their hearts delight. They are, in my experience, unreliable as well. The systems crash, you get database errors or lose the connection.
With enough metadata I would hope someone could come up with a CCDB type system for universities which would at least have the abstract info (summary, author, journal name, date) etc to at least look up in the system. Decentralize it and share it on among all universities. Even if it just stays within 'academia' it would be great. Hopefully speed, reliability and accuracy would improve.
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I'm sure I won't find much disagreement here on /. for saying that computer viruses are a pain in the ass, cause economic damage, and waste otherwise productive hours of people's time to "disinfect" computers.
What is the point in writing these things in the first place? I might understand the virus writer having a self-esteem problem and writing virues boosts his/her ego. Other reasons escape me. Any takers?
This begs the question though ...
If a "terrorist" uses genreic words in their e-mail to decribe weapons or tactics then to cover all possibilities do they just monitor all e-mails and conversations of certain persons? Sure an Osama Bin Laden is on the list but what about some person they only "suspect" of terrorism.
After watching what happened, I'm not surpised by the outcome.
... it happens here too even on the CBC (publicly funded network).
The hosts asked John a question and then when he was making a point which contradicts CNN's opinion, interrupted him and basically spun the answer in a way to favor the network. They would also break to commericial.
This is what hurts political coverage because its the exact same thing that goes on in debates. The mediator, interviewer or reporter basically help the politician answer the question. Either by filling up the blanks through followup questions (helping the politician veer his answer) or simply cutting the question short when the politician has problems answering the question.
As a Canadian, this isn't exclusive to the American networks
On Apprentice last year, Trump warned Sam, that as a crazy marketing genius if he wasn't careful he could run a company - even one the size of IBM - down to the ground. What you're saying about Ballmer is true and there are parallels to Trump's warning. I don't believe Ballmer is 100% behind MS and solving its problems. If these kind of press releases continue he could crash MS himself. He does, afterall, make the final descisions. Unless the shareholders oust him.
"aluminum tubes most likely meant for small artillery rockets were interpreted by the administration as parts for uranium centrifuges."
Funny that a few months later, its the administration who misinterpreted many pieces of intelligence information. Months ago, Bush & Cheney were saying information was falsified by the CIA.
I have my doubts that the CIA falsified the information. Its a shame that all this information is classified (or has since been shredded and burned) and will probably never be brought before the courts.
Maybe they will do the next best thing to avoid a lawsuit: Buy Kodak!!!
I think part of the problem is that Sony is not only a player in the Electronics industry but that its also has music and recording studios.
I love my Mini-disc player. The batteries last a long time. The discs hold over 2 hours of music and the sound quality with ATRAC is as good or better than MP3. The players are durable - I've dropped mine a few times from a few feet off the ground and still works great. The one thing missing is being able to transfer files to and from the recorder.
IMO, Sony is an innovator in the electronics industry. Their media recording division is keeping them from competing and making better products than Rio or Apple.
I'm concerned that Gates might use his influence on the CS department to use MS products. Not afraid. You highlight your concern of "huge corporate donations"... but I am afraid of the influence the pharmaceutical industry has on pharmacists, doctors and psychologists.
... is the education then rendered non-marketable?
Similarly though, post-secondary education should not teach theories on company-centric models. What happens if said comapny ceases to exist
I read in my local newspaper (it was prob an AP story too), the Ottawa Citizen, last week that if it were revealed when Jennings lost (e.g. the audience knows ahead of time), there are clauses in the Jeopardy contract that states the winner will not collect the reward.
This begs the question, is his +- $2 million fortune in Jeopardy? And what are his after tax winnings?
Sorry. But the US appears to be muscling its way by economic means compared to other countries ... which is hardly fair. Australia can hardly afford a trade embargo against the US.
OTOH, if the AU guy committed a cyber crime of a similar capacity towards any EU country, Japan, Mexico ... whatever ... he wouldn't be facing extradition.
On the flipside, it would be interesting to see Americans extradited to another country for crimes committed (e.g. sex tourists, stealing, ...). My impression is that the DOJ will use every trick in the book to make sure Americans are not extradited. People of other countries committing crimes in the US aren't always so lucky.
I suggested to a friend to use Firefox a year ago. She's failry technically literate. She liked the browser enough that she's kept using it and ditched IE. I forgot to tell her about updates to the browser. I used her computer last week and she's been keeping up to date herself.
Not only that, but she tells me all many of her friends are also using it (there's at least 15 or 20 that I know of). So, after showing one person how much better it is, there's at least 20 new users now who use Firefox almost exclusively!
There's a problem with that too. Some bank machines give $50 bills when you widthdraw in $100 denominations.
The other day, for instance, I widthdrew $100. I needed to buy some clothes and food. The bank machine gave me two $50. All the banks were closed so I couldn't exhange for smaller currency then.
Plus, it was the last of my money until payday. I was lucky to find a retailer to accept them. I might have been screwed had they been fake. I know that possessing a fake is a criminal act, but had I had a "really" good fake from a bank machine that I didn't know about, legally I could have been in trouble too.
BTW -- Is a usually foolproof method of finding fakes to test to see if they have a raised surface in the assigned areas (from Intaglios)... or are most counterfitters able to reproduce that as well? It would seem this is the hardest and most costly to reproduce.
Ironic, that Microsoft asks that Apple customers complain of the lack of open standards for the iPod. The same company that will not share it WMA standard among many other things (Windows, IE...)
I have to agree with you.
Further, to what end will end-user friendlness be compromised for security? Personally, if I were running a business from my computer, or had sensitive information, I would simply unplug the computer from any network and use another computer for web surfing. Still not 100% secure, but my tinfoil hat protects me too.
Microsoft, and in particular Bill Gates, have stated numerous times that Longhorn is the most expensive and time intensive project MS has embarked on and would be as complicated as the Apollo space program. With that in mind, WinFS was really the cornerstone and pride of the Longhorn project as MS would like to say it. With that in mind, this is akin to cutting the goals of the Apollo space program drastically ... like not landing on the moon at all!
Granted a system like WinFS can be extremely complicated but it is not a "selling" point to me for Longhorn. I will compare it against other features it offers and decide to buy it or continue to use XP.
As part of a fair trial, wouldn't the RIAA have to supply a list of the songs it accuses you of downloading? If so, one could go to the store and buy the songs before the trial. Lose the receipts so there's no correlation between the trial date and the date you downloaded the song. Then in court, you prove to the RIAA you already owned copies of the songs.
Better yet, go to a used record store and save some money in the process!
I don't understand what fascniates people so much about Best Buy that they drop so much money there.
Sure the store layout is "neat" but they don't always have the best price (computer stores selling OEM parts have better prices), warranties at Best Buy suck, the Extended Service Plans are almost never honoured and the sales staff are too overconfident in their knowledge and abilities.
I never set foot in a Best Buy or Future Shop (they're now BB too) knowing this. I buy all my computer stuff at a local dealer(s) and my appliances with Sears who have great Consumers Report ratings.
Only when BB's stock takes a nose dive from the 45 or so its trading at right now will their business model change == when consumers get a clue! It seems the the "baby boomer" generation who are cash rich and relatively computer illiterate are responsible for boosting Best Buy's sales. In time, 10 to 15 years or so, if BB's practices continue, they will take a nosedive.
I would like to see Apple do a survey for prospective and current Apple customers on its website. While it might be a challenge to validate some of the responses, I think its a sign that they're willing to listen to people. There are links on the sight on "switching" and why Apple thinks "you" should switch. It doesn't leave much for the consumer to explain "why" and "how" they want to and will swtich. IMO, maybe they could get a better fell for the market and boost sales by doing so.
As a potential new Mac customer (I am looking at replacing my PC shortyly), I do not see much in the way of a computer which fits my needs and budgets with the way the new iMac system is rumored to look.
I don't mind spending aroud $1200 to $1500 (CAN) on a new computer but the G5's as it is are too expensive.
If the coverage area is getting wider, possibly several hundred feet in radius of the antenna, shouldn't the companies be providing better security too go with it as well? I'm sure there's probably already a few people getting free Net access and not paying for it by using their neighbor's unsecured networks - without the neighbor even knowing.
Security?
Considering the only branded foods available on ground will be, namely, McDonalds and Coke I don't think how this will fare well for spectators. My stomach feels insecure after eating that garbage! I feel sorry for everybody else. All the special forces, police, etc won't be able to help there. Maybe they need more doctors on hand or perhaps some dieticians?
What are they thinking?
... or will their devices be rigged?
Not only is there obviously possible entrapment but what data exists that driving at the exact speed limit makes you a safer driver?
There are many other situations this will not cover: changing lanes without a turn signal, running lights, tail gaiting, driving *under* the speed limit (which can be just as unsafe), and drive-by shooting?
All of these could be more unsafe than going 10 MPH over the limit. Are they going to start monitoring that too? Will they forward high speeds to the police to fine you? What I would like to know is who will be monitoring the insurance agents' cars
Even if this machine completely flops, Dell is going to have minimal losses since they keep the minimum of parts to build the systems and could surely use parts unsold in other systems. So really, there is no loss to them to even try this market.
I played the original Doom game on my Pentium computer when it first came out. Same with Wolfenstein. I think ID has been stuck with a culture which focuses a lot on the "wow" graphics factor to sell games. Quake I to III were fun but in retrospect they were nothing new.
FarCry while there is a lot of repetition in the gameplay, to some extent - hey it is an FPS - its the first FPS game which truly uses the outdoors to that extent. I don't remember ever seeing a game with a zoom that far on a sniper rifle. In most games you would be 200 m from your target tops. Splinter Cell really broke ground by having great graphics and an interesting edge on gameplay (it prob "borrowed" from Theif though I can't say cause I haven't played it).
My hope is that the success of Far Cry, Splinter Cell and HL2 (as over-hyped as it is) makes ID realize - hey - we need gameplay too! ID can produce wonderfully technical, complete games. Its the polishing of gameplay that is always missing.
I don't know if this is a direction I like seeing P2P networks go, in the sense that full articles would be available for download. With some tweaking of the idea, I think there could be an advantage.
Many universities are paying tons of money to privitized databases to store either full text articles (for some)or simply the abstacts so students can search and read articles to their hearts delight. They are, in my experience, unreliable as well. The systems crash, you get database errors or lose the connection.
With enough metadata I would hope someone could come up with a CCDB type system for universities which would at least have the abstract info (summary, author, journal name, date) etc to at least look up in the system. Decentralize it and share it on among all universities. Even if it just stays within 'academia' it would be great. Hopefully speed, reliability and accuracy would improve.