I do my banking with a local bank here in Saudi Arabia which has recently upgraded all its ATM machines with biometrics. I need only to register my fingerprint with the bank and then swipe it at the ATM to do my banking. Years ahead of its time.
No virus should be truely that damaging. You should never have data on just one hard drive if you intend on keeping it for the long term.
You and I know that, but unfortunately 80% (yes, I'm just throwing that number out -- probably not too far off) of home users simply don't back anything up. This, despite the fact that digital cameras and digital music means that we have more and more assets on our PCs.
In fact, even here at work, despite my pleading, there are production servers that are not being backed up to a sufficient level.
Slammer and SoBIG and some of the other viruses have been costly and damaging, but nowhere NEAR as costly and damaging as a virus could be.
As soon as there is a virus/trojan/etc. that spreads
easily and is highly destructive (overwrites crucial hard drive sectors, for example) I think everyone will start seeing the punishment of virus writers in a whole new light.
ATI does look well poised to capture the majority of the desktop graphics card business. They have had excellent competitors since the 9700 and their newest generation gives superior performance to nVidia cards with less cooling and power requirements.
I graduated from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada in 2000.
Computer Science was actually under the Faculty of Mathematics. So while I was majoring in CS, I had to satisfy all the requirements for a 4 year math degree. I ended up with an Honours Bachelor of Mathematics in Computer Science.
I remember thinking what an odd situation this was in first year. But, as time went on, it made more and more sense. The math turned me into a great problem-solver and honed my analytical skills. When programming tasks were given to me, I didn't think about which lines of code to use, I thought about the problem itself and how best to describe it, simplify it, and abstract it.
As a consumer, it annoys me when I purchase a product and it does not satisfy my needs or wants due to the fact that I had incomplete information when I purchased. But, as a consumer, my recourse is to not purchase that product.
Recently, I was shopping for a car. One of the cars on my short list was not available for test drive. The salesman told me that it shouldn't matter because the car was very popular. I told him there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to buy a $40k car without test driving it. The car was quickly off my list.
The Internet has done wonders for problem. I can find reviews for pretty much any piece of software I could conceive of buying. I haven't purchased a crappy game in years. I have purchased a game that I didn't happen to enjoy, but that isn't the advertiser's fault.
So, I would say that copyright infringement is not a moral recourse in this case. Either get informed before you buy and if that isn't possible, object with your lack of purchase.
If the history of Real software is taken into account, Rob Glaser of RealNetworks probably would also like to see users have to wade through deceptive menus on the iPod or have some unlabeled button in iTunes that automatically bills the user for something they didn't want.
Sorry, I should have clarified. I did not personally create or submit this letter. A friend of mine was BCC'd on it.
Actual letter to Real Networks
on
Real's Reality
·
· Score: 5, Funny
I've posted this before, but it's a goodie...
TO: Real Networks SUBJECT: Fuck You All
I am holding myself back in the most intense way at the moment.
I don't care if this is the wrong address to send this to. Your website is a labyrinth of misdirection in which finding the simple thing you want is nigh-impossible. This, after about 20 clicks, was the first email address I came to. If you, as the person receiving this letter, have a shred of humanity left, you will submit this to the proper people. And now, on to my letter.
Where do you people get off?
My task: download Realplayer in order to view some streaming content. A simple project, one would say. Well, first you have to wade through the aforementioned sea of misdirection, all of it aimed at extracting your visa number to buy the completely useless realplayer plus. I realize you people need to make some money, but save it for the server business - it's bad enough that back in the day, you were inferior to several other streaming technologies, but somehow, like scum in water, you rose to the top. Leave the users who are stuck with your products out of your sick little power games.
All I want is Realplayer Basic, to play realmedia, and ONLY realmedia. I am not interested in realjukebox, realdownloadagent, or realbuttplug. I specified this when I was installing it. I also am not interested in having your inferior product play my mp3s, or any format other than your own. This was also specified when I installed. How difficult a concept is this? Anyone can grasp it. And I won't even get into the god-knows-how-many useless "subscribe to our spam service!" checkboxes I have to uncheck, including five which are HIDDEN AT THE BOTTOM OF A STACK OF UNCHECKED ONES. With each click, the bile rises higher in my throat. If I knew a satanist, I would have him summon demons to terrorize your offices.
So then, I go to launch an mp3 out of Agent, and not only does your software launch even though I SPECIFICALLY TOLD IT NOT TO DO THAT, but it's not even Realplayer - it's Realjukebox which I also SPECIFICALLY TOLD IT NOT TO INSTALL.
And here's the real point: if you're going to go ahead and do a fascist coup of my system's preferences and resources (getting your filthy little icons out of my system tray gets more difficult with each new version), why bother pretending that you are giving me a choice? Just go ahead and take it, save me the trouble of unchecking all those boxes and saying No 20 times. Just go ahead, play your little game, and let me get on with removing your annoying system resource wastes from my pristine desktop.
In closing, I would just like to say that I view your company as the most evil force operating on the internet today, and while I would end this with "may God have mercy on your souls" for anyone else (including Bill Gates), for you, I only pray that the people behind your software's design are raped by syphilitic camels at some point.
Burn in hell.
Fine for the rich but...
on
Gates on Spam
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
The most explosive growth for Internet usage (including the almighty email, of course) is coming from third world nations. A penny here or there may not affect someone from the first world, but it sure would make a difference in poorer parts of the globe.
"I'd say the advantages (lazy evaluation, advanced pattern matching functions, less code, recursion, etc.) outweigh the disadvantages (hard to debug) by a mile!"
Just out of interest, have you ever tried to solve any problems that were not inherently recursive (e.g. traversing a tree) using a functional language? Maybe I was just young and inexperienced but I really did find it to be a serious bitch!
Slashdot Mirror
There is also a user-chosen password that must conform to certain length and content rules.
I do my banking with a local bank here in Saudi Arabia which has recently upgraded all its ATM machines with biometrics. I need only to register my fingerprint with the bank and then swipe it at the ATM to do my banking. Years ahead of its time.
With DRM in the bios and computers becoming essentially free appliances will I still be able to tinker in the future?
Pirates will begin modifying their video equipment to look like these devices, thus foiling the ability of pirate scouts to spot actual pirates.
Then, one day, a movie theatre employee will kick out a blind man, suspecting him of pirating the movie.
All matter of hell and lawsuits will spew forth and in the end, only the blind people will suffer.
So, ban movie theatre pirate scouts before it's too late!
I merely said that attitudes would change towards punishing virus writers if a more serious virus were to make the rounds.
Read before you post.
You and I know that, but unfortunately 80% (yes, I'm just throwing that number out -- probably not too far off) of home users simply don't back anything up. This, despite the fact that digital cameras and digital music means that we have more and more assets on our PCs.
In fact, even here at work, despite my pleading, there are production servers that are not being backed up to a sufficient level.
As soon as there is a virus/trojan/etc. that spreads easily and is highly destructive (overwrites crucial hard drive sectors, for example) I think everyone will start seeing the punishment of virus writers in a whole new light.
ATI does look well poised to capture the majority of the desktop graphics card business. They have had excellent competitors since the 9700 and their newest generation gives superior performance to nVidia cards with less cooling and power requirements.
Computer Science was actually under the Faculty of Mathematics. So while I was majoring in CS, I had to satisfy all the requirements for a 4 year math degree. I ended up with an Honours Bachelor of Mathematics in Computer Science.
I remember thinking what an odd situation this was in first year. But, as time went on, it made more and more sense. The math turned me into a great problem-solver and honed my analytical skills. When programming tasks were given to me, I didn't think about which lines of code to use, I thought about the problem itself and how best to describe it, simplify it, and abstract it.
How can we know when you are done?
As a consumer, it annoys me when I purchase a product and it does not satisfy my needs or wants due to the fact that I had incomplete information when I purchased. But, as a consumer, my recourse is to not purchase that product. Recently, I was shopping for a car. One of the cars on my short list was not available for test drive. The salesman told me that it shouldn't matter because the car was very popular. I told him there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to buy a $40k car without test driving it. The car was quickly off my list. The Internet has done wonders for problem. I can find reviews for pretty much any piece of software I could conceive of buying. I haven't purchased a crappy game in years. I have purchased a game that I didn't happen to enjoy, but that isn't the advertiser's fault. So, I would say that copyright infringement is not a moral recourse in this case. Either get informed before you buy and if that isn't possible, object with your lack of purchase.
You mean I can no longer spend 5 days downloading a poorly cracked game that I can't play online? That's a real shame.
They need to do something. My penis is getting so long I can hardly walk.
More throughput but more pesky interference with phones and whatnot.
If I were an investor, I would be asking why Robert didn't take a week and educate himself before bowing to SCO.
You are bitter about Slashdot.
Yes, I'm bitter about Real.
I find Guiness World Records for computer parts strange. Everyone knows that all parts are in a constant upgrade cycle. 0.85 today, 0.80 tomorrow.
I will now go educate myself (which I probably should have done before my quick draw post, but anyway).
Besides anti-MS statements and rhetoric about DRM, can someone actually tell me how this will affect what I can do with my computer?
Note: I did not post this anonymously so I MUST NOT be a troll.
Sorry, I should have clarified. I did not personally create or submit this letter. A friend of mine was BCC'd on it.
I've posted this before, but it's a goodie...
TO: Real Networks
SUBJECT: Fuck You All
I am holding myself back in the most intense way at the moment.
I don't care if this is the wrong address to send this to. Your website is a labyrinth of misdirection in which finding the simple thing you want is nigh-impossible. This, after about 20 clicks, was the first email address I came to. If you, as the person receiving this letter, have a shred of humanity left, you will submit this to the proper people. And now, on to my letter.
Where do you people get off?
My task: download Realplayer in order to view some streaming content. A simple project, one would say. Well, first you have to wade through the aforementioned sea of misdirection, all of it aimed at extracting your visa number to buy the completely useless realplayer plus. I realize you people need to make some money, but save it for the server business - it's bad enough that back in the day, you were inferior to several other streaming technologies, but somehow, like scum in water, you rose to the top. Leave the users who are stuck with your products out of your sick little power games.
All I want is Realplayer Basic, to play realmedia, and ONLY realmedia. I am not interested in realjukebox, realdownloadagent, or realbuttplug. I specified this when I was installing it. I also am not interested in having your inferior product play my mp3s, or any format other than your own. This was also specified when I installed. How difficult a concept is this? Anyone can grasp it. And I won't even get into the god-knows-how-many useless "subscribe to our spam service!" checkboxes I have to uncheck, including five which are HIDDEN AT THE BOTTOM OF A STACK OF UNCHECKED ONES. With each click, the bile rises higher in my throat. If I knew a satanist, I would have him summon demons to terrorize your offices.
So then, I go to launch an mp3 out of Agent, and not only does your software launch even though I SPECIFICALLY TOLD IT NOT TO DO THAT, but it's not even Realplayer - it's Realjukebox which I also SPECIFICALLY TOLD IT NOT TO INSTALL.
And here's the real point: if you're going to go ahead and do a fascist coup of my system's preferences and resources (getting your filthy little icons out of my system tray gets more difficult with each new version), why bother pretending that you are giving me a choice? Just go ahead and take it, save me the trouble of unchecking all those boxes and saying No 20 times. Just go ahead, play your little game, and let me get on with removing your annoying system resource wastes from my pristine desktop.
In closing, I would just like to say that I view your company as the most evil force operating on the internet today, and while I would end this with "may God have mercy on your souls" for anyone else (including Bill Gates), for you, I only pray that the people behind your software's design are raped by syphilitic camels at some point.
Burn in hell.
The most explosive growth for Internet usage (including the almighty email, of course) is coming from third world nations. A penny here or there may not affect someone from the first world, but it sure would make a difference in poorer parts of the globe.
Just out of interest, have you ever tried to solve any problems that were not inherently recursive (e.g. traversing a tree) using a functional language? Maybe I was just young and inexperienced but I really did find it to be a serious bitch!