This country doesn't yet have a set of laws as oppressive as the Chinese, but we're heading there. Just give it another ten years.
Problem is, if you think of the US as a car, now matter what we do, our steering keeps pulling to the right. At the least the Justice Dept keeps trying to.
Time for a big fucking re-alignment. AND an oil change.
It's a Catch-22. You'll see that software when desktop linux becomes popular enough. But desktop linux won't become popular enough until you can run down to Staples (or your favorite retailer) and buy some software for it.
Same thing applies to almost universal availability of manufacturers' Linux drivers on the same CD with Windows drivers.
the actual land surface area is:
170,000,000,000,000 metres squared
I never specified 500 million m^2 as land surface, just total surface area, land and sea. Also, I realize that some land is not habitable. I suppose I was responding to the hypothetical (and satirical) "if we put somebody on every square meter of the earth's surface" proposition.
It's just that I couldn't resist examining the idea as a mathematical exercise which ignores geographical realities and biological necessities.
BTW, I actually do think we have a population problem, but I was too lazy to place <sarcasm> tags.
petition to fund an army of scientists which will be deployed at one-meter intervals to cover the entire earth!
I know you're joking, but consider this: the earth's surface area is approx. 500 million square kilometers, or over 500 trillion sq. meters. There are over 6 billion people.
Evenly spread at 1 person per sq. meter, we could only cover about 0.0012 percent of the surface area.
And I used to worry about the population explosion.
Next thing you know, you'll see SCO bumming for loose change in the subway. Ah, I'm going to miss these amusing SCO articles. But at least I'll have the rootkit stories to look forward to.
Reminds me of when somebody showed me what looked like a magic eye picture, but wasn't. I'm usually pretty good at getting my eyes focused just right to see the picture, but I was working on this one for 5 minutes before the joker started sniggering.
Damn. First mental image I got was of two men in long black boots, brown shirts, and high-peaked caps, saying thinks (I mean things) like "Ve have vays of making you talk", making references to "Der Fuhrer," and smoking those nasty little European cigarettes with a menacing squint.
If we don't take a stand now, we'll be living in a real Honest-to-God police state 10 years from now. (I know, some will say we already are.)
Hope they got a boot right up their right-wing ass, and a quick face-skid along the asphalt.
it's kinda like that movie where Freddie Kruger and Jason Voorhees fight each other
Or Aliens vs. Predators? Never saw it, but I'd have to pull for the Predators since they, at least, don't lay eggs in your belly. (Or leave rootkits on your HD.)
Hate to say it, but the Sony rootkit fiasco replaced SCO shenannigans as favorite topic on/.
Did you ever subscribe to the ZX-81's newsletter? I forget the name of it now, but it had program listings contributed by its readers. Spent long hours keying some of those programs, and saving them to tape, usually at 2am. (Mine was a ZX-81 with the 16K expansion. W00t!)
Although the company does not require the microchips be implanted to maintain employment, anyone without one will not be able to access the datacenter
And anyone who requires access to the datacenter to do their job, such as operators and sysadmins, cannot DO their job unless they get the implant. And if they cannot do the job, how are they expected to maintain employment?
I suppose the official reason for termination would be "uncooperative attitude." Certainly not "he refused to get chipped." Or maybe the company will concentrate on ways to make the employee so miserable, he just quits. Problem solved.
Considering how protective they are of their IP and their EULAs, it suprises the hell out of me they would violate other company's EULAs
I would like to think that all individuals are equally protective of the rights of others, as well as their own. However this is not always the case. Freedom of speech is sometimes the most viciously defended by those who would deny it to others.
What makes you think that corporations, which by design have the selfish instincts of a two-year-old, would even think to look out for the rights of other corp's, except as in it would directly affect their own?
Looks to me like the middle paragraph was copy-pasted whole from somewhere else, perhaps from here or here, judging by its immaculate grammar and spelling, as compared to the first and last lines.
Or maybe this is just a very suttle troll designed to inflame the grammar nazis.
it barely boots from the hundreds (sometimes thousands) of evil packages
When I first start to clean a PC, I don't even try to boot it. I just yank the HD, put it in an external USB case, then plug it into a malware cleaning workstation to run a whole slew of programs against it: AVG, Spybot, AdAware, Spysweeper, etc. By the time I replace it in the original box, what few evil programs that remain have been so crippled that finishing the job is a breeze.
I also get a printout of the list of evil programs and hand it to the customer. Helps the customer's sense of value of my services.
All the faculty knew how to do was teach from a book
Back in high school, I was in a comp sci class (years ago, we had Apple II's) where the assigned teacher had no real knowledge of computers or programmming. Her thing was math.
Every day, she would read word-for-word from the textbook. And glare at anybody who dared to demonstrate knowledge of anything she hadn't "taught" yet. She would say (not making this up), "You can't do that. You don't know that yet." Some of us were always three or four chapters ahead of her. (A couple others struggled with comprehending 10 PRINT "HELLO" 20 GOTO 10.) Ctrl-G was her bane.
Felt sorry for her. She was unprepared for the material, but she was the best the school could provide at that time. For the most part, the class was self-taught for the motivated, with the teacher being largely ignored.
...hours uninstalling it after it wouldn't listen to my yelling.
Voice recognition will be in the next version of the bloatware. Unfortunately, any obscenities or criticisms of the Status Quo will cause it to reboot in retaliation.
Seems big companies like to make big bloatware. HP for example. Their "HP Image Zone" software is over 260 Mb... compressed! And all it does is manage photos and run their scanners. It's a pig.
So why do they do this? Whatever happened to lightweight and agile? Not sexy enough for the board room? Why not give the user the option to customize his install to fit his exact needs?
Slashdot Mirror
What if it turns out that the document is talking about something that the US finds it needs to classify? Too late then...
The road to Hell is paved with
(protect the)
children. Know shallow excuses for what they are.
You know, when in Rome...
This country doesn't yet have a set of laws as oppressive as the Chinese, but we're heading there. Just give it another ten years.
Problem is, if you think of the US as a car, now matter what we do, our steering keeps pulling to the right. At the least the Justice Dept keeps trying to.
Time for a big fucking re-alignment. AND an oil change.
Same thing applies to almost universal availability of manufacturers' Linux drivers on the same CD with Windows drivers.
Imagine Jack Valente with an MP3 player. That'd make him spin in his grave. Oops, he's not dead, I know, but a guy can hope.
The problem is that media companies often treat other people's private property as if it were their own. It's a real attitude problem.
I never specified 500 million m^2 as land surface, just total surface area, land and sea. Also, I realize that some land is not habitable. I suppose I was responding to the hypothetical (and satirical) "if we put somebody on every square meter of the earth's surface" proposition.
It's just that I couldn't resist examining the idea as a mathematical exercise which ignores geographical realities and biological necessities.
BTW, I actually do think we have a population problem, but I was too lazy to place <sarcasm> tags.
I know you're joking, but consider this: the earth's surface area is approx. 500 million square kilometers, or over 500 trillion sq. meters. There are over 6 billion people.
Evenly spread at 1 person per sq. meter, we could only cover about 0.0012 percent of the surface area.
And I used to worry about the population explosion.
Has anything like a Simpsons-themed Sim City ever been produced? That could be interesting...
Next thing you know, you'll see SCO bumming for loose change in the subway. Ah, I'm going to miss these amusing SCO articles. But at least I'll have the rootkit stories to look forward to.
Reminds me of when somebody showed me what looked like a magic eye picture, but wasn't. I'm usually pretty good at getting my eyes focused just right to see the picture, but I was working on this one for 5 minutes before the joker started sniggering.
Scary thing, I was just about seeing something!
I'd send them the box back, postage due... with a few pissed-off feral cats inside.
Grasp of reality... slipping. Sentsix, you really ought to keep taking your medication. ;)
If we don't take a stand now, we'll be living in a real Honest-to-God police state 10 years from now. (I know, some will say we already are.)
Hope they got a boot right up their right-wing ass, and a quick face-skid along the asphalt.
Or Aliens vs. Predators? Never saw it, but I'd have to pull for the Predators since they, at least, don't lay eggs in your belly. (Or leave rootkits on your HD.)
Hate to say it, but the Sony rootkit fiasco replaced SCO shenannigans as favorite topic on /.
But if I can recover your computer's SAM file, I can crack your password using something like SAMinside. Then I can log in and get your stuff.
However, this can be time-consuming. I recovered a password for a guy using brute force, and it took nearly 3 days of crunching to get it.
Did you ever subscribe to the ZX-81's newsletter? I forget the name of it now, but it had program listings contributed by its readers. Spent long hours keying some of those programs, and saving them to tape, usually at 2am. (Mine was a ZX-81 with the 16K expansion. W00t!)
And anyone who requires access to the datacenter to do their job, such as operators and sysadmins, cannot DO their job unless they get the implant. And if they cannot do the job, how are they expected to maintain employment?
I suppose the official reason for termination would be "uncooperative attitude." Certainly not "he refused to get chipped." Or maybe the company will concentrate on ways to make the employee so miserable, he just quits. Problem solved.
I would like to think that all individuals are equally protective of the rights of others, as well as their own. However this is not always the case. Freedom of speech is sometimes the most viciously defended by those who would deny it to others.
What makes you think that corporations, which by design have the selfish instincts of a two-year-old, would even think to look out for the rights of other corp's, except as in it would directly affect their own?
Besides, it was probably not intentional.
Or maybe this is just a very suttle troll designed to inflame the grammar nazis.
When I first start to clean a PC, I don't even try to boot it. I just yank the HD, put it in an external USB case, then plug it into a malware cleaning workstation to run a whole slew of programs against it: AVG, Spybot, AdAware, Spysweeper, etc. By the time I replace it in the original box, what few evil programs that remain have been so crippled that finishing the job is a breeze.
I also get a printout of the list of evil programs and hand it to the customer. Helps the customer's sense of value of my services.
Giant dishwasher? More like the monkey cage at the zoo. Perfect for us who like to fling... poo.
Back in high school, I was in a comp sci class (years ago, we had Apple II's) where the assigned teacher had no real knowledge of computers or programmming. Her thing was math.
Every day, she would read word-for-word from the textbook. And glare at anybody who dared to demonstrate knowledge of anything she hadn't "taught" yet. She would say (not making this up), "You can't do that. You don't know that yet." Some of us were always three or four chapters ahead of her. (A couple others struggled with comprehending 10 PRINT "HELLO" 20 GOTO 10.) Ctrl-G was her bane.
Felt sorry for her. She was unprepared for the material, but she was the best the school could provide at that time. For the most part, the class was self-taught for the motivated, with the teacher being largely ignored.
Voice recognition will be in the next version of the bloatware. Unfortunately, any obscenities or criticisms of the Status Quo will cause it to reboot in retaliation.
So why do they do this? Whatever happened to lightweight and agile? Not sexy enough for the board room? Why not give the user the option to customize his install to fit his exact needs?