This may be a stupid question, but I'm honestly curious about something. I'm also no security expert.
Does it matter that the Speedpass isn't totally secure, if it's more secure then the other ways of paying? I mean sure, you can put some sort of reader on top of a pump and intercept Speedpass codes and break the system and steal some gas. But if you want to steal some gas, why not just fill up and drive off? Or pass a hot check? Or make a counterfeit credit card that'll pass through the card reader? Or steal someones identity and use that to get a real Speedpass for your gas charges. The Speedpass may not be totally secure, but isn't it "good enough"?
But if a search misses a document, someone should go back and figure out why the document was skipped, and if that's a situation that needs to be addressed. People "miss" documents because they're human. Computers don't miss documents, they fail to select them because there's a hole in their search parameters.
In this case, the document requestor provided several relevant and unique pieces of information in his document request. The FBI failed to produce all the documents pertaining to that request, and the requestor only learned about the documents because they surfaced in another case. The FBI can't explain why they didn't produce the documents intially, but they still maintains that it performed a proper search and it's not their fault that the documents were missed.
Well yeah sure, the new blank disks might be more expensive. But since they'll be stop the darn pirates dead in their tracks, the companies that provide content will be making lots more money. And I'm sure that'll result in much lower prices for the consumer!
Your bitter cynicism troubles me. Must you be so negative?
I was underwhelmed even more then you. I was expecting a *little* more, possibly because my wife and mother-in-law were both terrified and were positive that the world was coming to an end. I laid in a few emergency supplies, cannded goods and a radio and candles and a first-aid kit and some water. Nothing extravagant, really nothing more then any family should have on hand in case of a flood or tornado or earthquake or martian invasion.
My biggest Y2K worry wasn't the machines, it was the people. I was worried that the public would panic in the weeks leading up to Y2K and start hoarding food and withdrawing all their money from the bank and buying guns and whatever else. When it became apparent that 98% of the public was going to ignore Y2K unless something broke, I stopped worrying.
The clear one might make a good protective coat if you've got a fancy paint job. If you had a 70's van with one of those funky rainbow-unicorn paint jobs on the side, you could paint the clear over it. Some kid comes along and spraypaints your van, you just peel off the protective coat.
As for the colored ones... dunno. I seriously doubt they have the same shine and luster as a "regular" paint job, so you can't really use them to switch car colors like it was a mood ring.
Or you could just not buy the product. I realize in that case you'd have to actually make a sacrifice and deprive yourself of something, but at least you'd have a clean conscience.
The people who produce music and movies and whatever do have competition. They're all in the "entertainment industry". Most people have a certain portion of their income which the allot to entertainment. If people feel that one form of entertainment is too expensive, they'll start spending their money elsewhere. Movies, concerts, sporting events, travel, hobbies.... entertainment is a wide field. If the pirate networks were shut down tomorrow, we wouldn't see CD prices move a dime. There's still too much competition for the entertainment dollar.
I'm not saying I never grabbed an MP3 or copied a floppy, but I never tried to justify it with some half-assed argument about fighting an evil tyrannical government conspiracy. I just stole it because I didn't want to pay for it.
Does this explain Wal-Marts big hurry to get RFID on all their products? These people got caught because they got greedy, and involved someone not quite as clever as themselves. Not quite as clever person got caught and squealed. I assume that there are quite a few clever, not so greedy people who have homes very nicely furnished and extremely low prices from Wal-Mart.
And where the hell did that 1.5 million come from? Did the crooks still have 1.5 million worth of stolen stuff in their home? Did the have a nice detailed spreadsheet of everything they'd ripped off since day one? Or did somebody at Wal-Mart just pull a number out of the air?
They're getting money from AOL and the credit card companies and whoever else they have deals with. If those companies are really paying the $30 or $40 per signup that the article mentions I'm not sure, but I don't see how it can go on much longer. AOL will realize that 95% of the referrals they're getting from Gratis are cancelling as soon as they can, and they'll figure out that there are better ways for them to spend that $30.00.
Upon which Gratis will regretfully announce that since AOL is no longer fulfilling their part of the deal, they can no longer send out any more free iPods. Thanks for giving us your Email address, though. Oh, and thanks for getting all your friends and family to sign up. Hope they don't blame you for all this.
It's early, and I looked at the pictures, and the only thing I wondered was "Did the guy have to vacuum a little section of his carpet before he took those pictures?"
Once I have more coffee, I should be able to appreciate the incredible geekness of it all.
1) Have every website to require registration. 2) Give the websites a list of the people who have been banned. 3) If a banned person signs up for a website, shoot them!
I wonder what Hormel is going to put in those cans? Sure, they could just put in some processed meat, but they don't really have to. In todays "collectors edition Ebay oooh that's gonna be worth a lot of money someday" society, none of those cans is ever going to be opened.
Houses aren't like tin cans or newspapers. People don't use them once and then toss them away. The cardboard house has an expected lifespan of 20 years. I'd say virtually all conventional houses that were built 20 years ago are still in use, and most will probably still be in use 20 years from now.
If you want to be environmentally friendly, why not build a wood house and keep it for 50 years?
Not that I like spam, but this is a bad way to combat it.
Are the spammers breaking the law? The arrest them and haul them into court.
If not... well, people are just DDOSing them because they don't like them, or what they do. If that's fine, then whats to stop the Right from putting out a screensaver that'll DDOS Michael Moores website? Or the Sierra club from putting out one that slams Exxon? Or Barnes & Noble paying people to run a screensaver that attacks Amazon? Heck, B&N could let you earn credits towards your next purchase by letting your computer slam the Amazon website.
That's why you set your mouse sensitivity to max, then edit the.cfg file to set it even higher, so that even when you're just resting your hand on your mouse, your pulse your gun twitch around like you're having a siezure.
" If a program requires 'activation' I either don't use it or get a cracked/warez copy. I'll be happy to go back to buying their software when they drop the stupid activation schemes."
No, actually you'll be happy to find another excuse to pirate the software instead of paying for it. Possibly the classic "They charge too much for this." or the "I'm just trying it to see if I like it".
I'm not terribly happy about Valve and their Steam activation scheme either, but I accept it as something they almost have to do in todays gaming climate. Personally, I find it easier to have Steam call home every time I start up HL2 then tracking down the game CD and popping it in the drive. On the plus side, if Steam works the way it should, I might finally be able to play an online multiplayer game without having everyone else running aimbots and wallhacks.
Sorry you had all those problems getting the game installed and running. My personal experience was that the game loaded and ran absolutely flawlessly. No delays, no lag, no problems, no nothing. Maybe you're just a problem-prone person.
As for the "load" delays.. yeah, they can be annoying. I assume they happen so often because there's a ton of stuff happening every level. The game really does feel like you've been dropped into the middle of some real-life situation. If you get the chance to stop and look around, there's a ton of detail just sitting there, waiting to be appreciated.
My opionion? Best... Game... Ever... Hurts me to say it, because I love iD and the whole Doom thing, but HL2 blows them out of the water.
However, individuals and companies can avoid the hassle and stress this can cause by backing up data on a regular basis.
Well damn, how come nobody ever told me this before? It could have saved me all KINDS of grief!
I think most computer users are at least faintly aware that they need to backup their data. The problem is, they don't exactly where their "data" is, nor do they know how to "back it up". The only thing my Dad backs up on a regular basis is his Quicken file, and that's because Quicken makes it real easy to back the data up and nags you until you actually do it. Nothing else gets backed up until I go over and spend some time burning a few CDs.
I'd love to have Dad do his own backups, but I haven't seen a backup program that comes anywhere near to being simple enough and foolproof enough for me to unleash Dad on them. Would it be that hard to write a program that would be able to tell actual user data from program files or OS cruft, and keep track of how much new data there is, and prompt the user to stick a blank CD or DVD in the burner every week or so?
There was an Erector Set, lots of girders and nuts and bolts and stuff. Even an engine.
My Chemistry set. I still remember what color you get when you mix Ferric Ammonium Sulfate and Tannic Acid! I remember starting to play with it Christmas afternoon, and my Mom insisted that my Dad sit in the room with me, I assume to make sure I didn't blow anything up. He sat there reading the whole time, only looking up when I said "Hey Dad! Look! I can pour this into this and it turns blue!"
My first Microscope. I forget the name of the set, it was a set of cardboard tubes, and lenses you could plug into either end. It worked great, and I remember Dad giving up a drop of blood so that we could take a look at it.
Kids today.. yeah, Gamecubes are cool, but they don't know what they're missing.
The popup blocker is a fairly significant immediate benefit. As soon as someone spends 10 minutes surfing the web and doesn't have to deal with a single annoying intrusive popup ad, they're pretty much sold on Firefox.
Tabbed browsing takes a little getting used to (not that I could live without it now), but being able to start your web browser and not have 14 ads pop up warning you that YOUR COMPUTER MAY BE INFECTED WITH SPYWARE (gee, ya think?) gets them every time.
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One notes that Doom, The Board Game, costs $54.95. At this point, Doom, The Video Game, is cheaper.
This may be a stupid question, but I'm honestly curious about something. I'm also no security expert.
Does it matter that the Speedpass isn't totally secure, if it's more secure then the other ways of paying? I mean sure, you can put some sort of reader on top of a pump and intercept Speedpass codes and break the system and steal some gas. But if you want to steal some gas, why not just fill up and drive off? Or pass a hot check? Or make a counterfeit credit card that'll pass through the card reader? Or steal someones identity and use that to get a real Speedpass for your gas charges. The Speedpass may not be totally secure, but isn't it "good enough"?
But if a search misses a document, someone should go back and figure out why the document was skipped, and if that's a situation that needs to be addressed. People "miss" documents because they're human. Computers don't miss documents, they fail to select them because there's a hole in their search parameters.
In this case, the document requestor provided several relevant and unique pieces of information in his document request. The FBI failed to produce all the documents pertaining to that request, and the requestor only learned about the documents because they surfaced in another case. The FBI can't explain why they didn't produce the documents intially, but they still maintains that it performed a proper search and it's not their fault that the documents were missed.
Sorry, that does not compute.
So what happens if this software finds a song that's a sure hit, but the artist is plain, boring-looking fat middle-aged white guy with zero charisma?
I need to know, because I've got this really great song I wrote last week...
Sounds like a gay porno movie.
That, or one of Theodore Geisels lesser known works.
Well yeah sure, the new blank disks might be more expensive. But since they'll be stop the darn pirates dead in their tracks, the companies that provide content will be making lots more money. And I'm sure that'll result in much lower prices for the consumer!
Your bitter cynicism troubles me. Must you be so negative?
I was underwhelmed even more then you. I was expecting a *little* more, possibly because my wife and mother-in-law were both terrified and were positive that the world was coming to an end. I laid in a few emergency supplies, cannded goods and a radio and candles and a first-aid kit and some water. Nothing extravagant, really nothing more then any family should have on hand in case of a flood or tornado or earthquake or martian invasion.
My biggest Y2K worry wasn't the machines, it was the people. I was worried that the public would panic in the weeks leading up to Y2K and start hoarding food and withdrawing all their money from the bank and buying guns and whatever else. When it became apparent that 98% of the public was going to ignore Y2K unless something broke, I stopped worrying.
The clear one might make a good protective coat if you've got a fancy paint job. If you had a 70's van with one of those funky rainbow-unicorn paint jobs on the side, you could paint the clear over it. Some kid comes along and spraypaints your van, you just peel off the protective coat.
As for the colored ones... dunno. I seriously doubt they have the same shine and luster as a "regular" paint job, so you can't really use them to switch car colors like it was a mood ring.
Or you could just not buy the product. I realize in that case you'd have to actually make a sacrifice and deprive yourself of something, but at least you'd have a clean conscience.
The people who produce music and movies and whatever do have competition. They're all in the "entertainment industry". Most people have a certain portion of their income which the allot to entertainment. If people feel that one form of entertainment is too expensive, they'll start spending their money elsewhere. Movies, concerts, sporting events, travel, hobbies.... entertainment is a wide field. If the pirate networks were shut down tomorrow, we wouldn't see CD prices move a dime. There's still too much competition for the entertainment dollar.
I'm not saying I never grabbed an MP3 or copied a floppy, but I never tried to justify it with some half-assed argument about fighting an evil tyrannical government conspiracy. I just stole it because I didn't want to pay for it.
Does this explain Wal-Marts big hurry to get RFID on all their products? These people got caught because they got greedy, and involved someone not quite as clever as themselves. Not quite as clever person got caught and squealed. I assume that there are quite a few clever, not so greedy people who have homes very nicely furnished and extremely low prices from Wal-Mart.
And where the hell did that 1.5 million come from? Did the crooks still have 1.5 million worth of stolen stuff in their home? Did the have a nice detailed spreadsheet of everything they'd ripped off since day one? Or did somebody at Wal-Mart just pull a number out of the air?
They're getting money from AOL and the credit card companies and whoever else they have deals with. If those companies are really paying the $30 or $40 per signup that the article mentions I'm not sure, but I don't see how it can go on much longer. AOL will realize that 95% of the referrals they're getting from Gratis are cancelling as soon as they can, and they'll figure out that there are better ways for them to spend that $30.00.
Upon which Gratis will regretfully announce that since AOL is no longer fulfilling their part of the deal, they can no longer send out any more free iPods. Thanks for giving us your Email address, though. Oh, and thanks for getting all your friends and family to sign up. Hope they don't blame you for all this.
It's early, and I looked at the pictures, and the only thing I wondered was "Did the guy have to vacuum a little section of his carpet before he took those pictures?"
Once I have more coffee, I should be able to appreciate the incredible geekness of it all.
I'm sorry, but English is my first language.
1) Have every website to require registration.
2) Give the websites a list of the people who have been banned.
3) If a banned person signs up for a website, shoot them!
I'll be solving world hunger next week.
It doesn't have to be uber rare. All it has to do is look a little different and be labeled "Collectors Edition".
I wonder what Hormel is going to put in those cans? Sure, they could just put in some processed meat, but they don't really have to. In todays "collectors edition Ebay oooh that's gonna be worth a lot of money someday" society, none of those cans is ever going to be opened.
Houses aren't like tin cans or newspapers. People don't use them once and then toss them away. The cardboard house has an expected lifespan of 20 years. I'd say virtually all conventional houses that were built 20 years ago are still in use, and most will probably still be in use 20 years from now.
If you want to be environmentally friendly, why not build a wood house and keep it for 50 years?
Not that I like spam, but this is a bad way to combat it.
Are the spammers breaking the law? The arrest them and haul them into court.
If not... well, people are just DDOSing them because they don't like them, or what they do. If that's fine, then whats to stop the Right from putting out a screensaver that'll DDOS Michael Moores website? Or the Sierra club from putting out one that slams Exxon? Or Barnes & Noble paying people to run a screensaver that attacks Amazon? Heck, B&N could let you earn credits towards your next purchase by letting your computer slam the Amazon website.
Or a show wasn't rerun, and rererun, and rerererun... oftentimes in the same week.
The only shows that don't get rerun into the ground are the live ones, and they tend to run at odd times anyway.
That's why you set your mouse sensitivity to max, then edit the .cfg file to set it even higher, so that even when you're just resting your hand on your mouse, your pulse your gun twitch around like you're having a siezure.
" If a program requires 'activation' I either don't use it or get a cracked/warez copy. I'll be happy to go back to buying their software when they drop the stupid activation schemes."
No, actually you'll be happy to find another excuse to pirate the software instead of paying for it. Possibly the classic "They charge too much for this." or the "I'm just trying it to see if I like it".
I'm not terribly happy about Valve and their Steam activation scheme either, but I accept it as something they almost have to do in todays gaming climate. Personally, I find it easier to have Steam call home every time I start up HL2 then tracking down the game CD and popping it in the drive. On the plus side, if Steam works the way it should, I might finally be able to play an online multiplayer game without having everyone else running aimbots and wallhacks.
Well, sir!
Sorry you had all those problems getting the game installed and running. My personal experience was that the game loaded and ran absolutely flawlessly. No delays, no lag, no problems, no nothing. Maybe you're just a problem-prone person.
As for the "load" delays.. yeah, they can be annoying. I assume they happen so often because there's a ton of stuff happening every level. The game really does feel like you've been dropped into the middle of some real-life situation. If you get the chance to stop and look around, there's a ton of detail just sitting there, waiting to be appreciated.
My opionion? Best... Game... Ever... Hurts me to say it, because I love iD and the whole Doom thing, but HL2 blows them out of the water.
However, individuals and companies can avoid the hassle and stress this can cause by backing up data on a regular basis.
Well damn, how come nobody ever told me this before? It could have saved me all KINDS of grief!
I think most computer users are at least faintly aware that they need to backup their data. The problem is, they don't exactly where their "data" is, nor do they know how to "back it up". The only thing my Dad backs up on a regular basis is his Quicken file, and that's because Quicken makes it real easy to back the data up and nags you until you actually do it. Nothing else gets backed up until I go over and spend some time burning a few CDs.
I'd love to have Dad do his own backups, but I haven't seen a backup program that comes anywhere near to being simple enough and foolproof enough for me to unleash Dad on them. Would it be that hard to write a program that would be able to tell actual user data from program files or OS cruft, and keep track of how much new data there is, and prompt the user to stick a blank CD or DVD in the burner every week or so?
There was an Erector Set, lots of girders and nuts and bolts and stuff. Even an engine.
My Chemistry set. I still remember what color you get when you mix Ferric Ammonium Sulfate and Tannic Acid! I remember starting to play with it Christmas afternoon, and my Mom insisted that my Dad sit in the room with me, I assume to make sure I didn't blow anything up. He sat there reading the whole time, only looking up when I said "Hey Dad! Look! I can pour this into this and it turns blue!"
My first Microscope. I forget the name of the set, it was a set of cardboard tubes, and lenses you could plug into either end. It worked great, and I remember Dad giving up a drop of blood so that we could take a look at it.
Kids today.. yeah, Gamecubes are cool, but they don't know what they're missing.
The popup blocker is a fairly significant immediate benefit. As soon as someone spends 10 minutes surfing the web and doesn't have to deal with a single annoying intrusive popup ad, they're pretty much sold on Firefox.
Tabbed browsing takes a little getting used to (not that I could live without it now), but being able to start your web browser and not have 14 ads pop up warning you that YOUR COMPUTER MAY BE INFECTED WITH SPYWARE (gee, ya think?) gets them every time.