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User: socrates32

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  1. Re:Potato Blight for computers on Conficker Downloads Payload · · Score: 1

    I think you missed the point. The barrier to entry is low because there is only one set of tools needed to write effective viruses that target 95% of PCs. Coding viruses to target the top 5 platforms costs more. Targeting only the top 50% returns less. Either way, it makes writing viruses less profitable.

  2. Re:really? on Vista Gets Official Release Dates · · Score: 1

    Actually, as of Wednesday Vista licensing is available to businesses. CDs won't ship any time soon, but ISOs will be available for download towards the middle of the month.

  3. Re:Yes, on Does Philosophy Have a Role in Computer Science? · · Score: 1

    Actually, "philosophy" means "love of wisdon", not "love of knowledge". While not claiming philosophical rigour about the definitions, "knowledge" is basically "acquired information", whereas "wisdom" is "applicable knowledge".

  4. Re:Why Hype 2.0 Doesn't Matter on Five Reasons Why Web 2.0 Matters · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't a "ballistic trajectory" mean it'll come crashing down shortly?

  5. Re:Sorry to be offtopic... on Firefly Movie Using Viral Marketing? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have never enjoyed Buffy or Angel. Though, to be fair, I've only seen (maybe) two episodes of each.

    Firefly, on the other hand, is perhaps the best all-around live-action sci-fi I've ever seen. Think a cross between original Trek and Blade Runner, with some Seven Samurai and A Fist Full of Dollars thrown into the mix. In my opinion, one of it's stronger qualities is a lack of alien-of-the-week syndrome, which usually simply serve as convenient plot devices, rather than characters. It is very well written with both humour and edge. It even has realistic (and caustic) swearing, albeit in Chinese.

    Definitely worth the cost of the DVD set.

  6. Re:600,000 Civilians Killed in Iraq Under Saddam on 100,000 Civilians Dead in Iraq · · Score: 1

    Ahem... Saddam's regime lasted several decades. W's little war "ended" a year and a half ago, with no real end in sight. How is this better? At this rate, Junior will catch up by the time Longhorn goes gold.

  7. Re:Here we go again... on Bush and Kerry Supporters Have Separate Realities · · Score: 1

    May I ask then, as an intelligent person voting for Bush, what reasoning led you to this position?

  8. Re:Maybe they know something we don't... on Government Asks Court to Keep ID Arguments Secret · · Score: 1

    I'll take a stab at what secret they're trying to protect:
    John Gilmore is obviously a terrorist... after all, he co-founded the EFF which speaks out against the DOJ's USA PATRIOT ACT and advocates individual privacy rights. How better to aid and abet those nefarious terrorists?

  9. Re:Why would MS conform to standards? on Universal3D vs. Real Open Standards · · Score: 1

    This is probably why Intel is splitting with X3D after having backed it right up to the ISO acceptance. Intel wants to sell high-end chips, which in turn depends on applications that are processor intensive. MS's offering (due in 2007) will, in all likelyhood, "embrace and extend", which, apart from the continuing their desktop monopoly, will introduce ever-increasing bloat to continue driving the hardware upgrade cycle.

  10. Re:Misleading Graph on SCO Says 'Linux Doesn't Exist' · · Score: 1

    All good things come to those that wait...

  11. Re:Care to define that? on Internet Meltdown Predicted for Tomorrow · · Score: 1

    If I had to call it something novel, it would probably be: "Conservation of a False Dichotomy".
    Unfortunately it already has a name: "Project for the New American Century"
    Pro: newamericancentury.org
    Con: www.pnac.info
    You might find this interesting. Of particular interest is the comment on page 51 that a new Pearl Harbor to catalyze support for their agenda. BTW, this was published in September of 2000.

  12. Re:Care to define that? on Internet Meltdown Predicted for Tomorrow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When Communism fell and left Capitalism triumphant (apart from China, North Korea, Cuba...) it left a bogeyman vacuum, which didn't matter much as long as everyone was ranting about felacio in the Oral^H^H^H^H Oval Office. But now we're marketing a new Bad Guy (TM) that's just like the rest of us, only doesn't like Authority... convenient.

  13. Re:They can't even win the battle, much less the w on Microsoft Leaves U.N. Standards Group · · Score: 1

    Just how much do you think that matters when the other side of the court has IBM, Sun, HP, Novell, Cisco, Oracle, Sybase,

    Don't be fooled... These companies, IBM especially, are just looking for a way out from under Redmond's boot. They are driven by the same market forces as MS, and if any of them were capable of creating such a monopoly, they would fight just as hard to protect it. The rest of their rhetoric about "open standards" is just marketing-speak designed to leverage their brand as the antipode of Microsoft's decreasing popularity.

  14. Re:If you can't go cisco... on Opinions on Alternatives to Cisco Routers? · · Score: 1

    Umm... I'm not sure you've thought this argument through. You run some Foundry equipment. The Foundry guys know this. How does this translate into Cisco being clairvoyant?

  15. Re:What Star Trek needs on Babylon 5 Creator Pitches Trek · · Score: 1

    Let the characters have flaws, let them make mistakes. Put irony and humor into it in difficult situations. Make the leaders make difficult choices.

    There is such a show. It's called Firefly.

    Unfortunately, it's been cancelled, but a movie is in production.

  16. Re: The weight of water on Our Friend, The Meter · · Score: 1

    The point isn't to actually convert between mass, volume and length on a day-to-day basis. But that, given the need to, one could figure out all the other measures with only one fixed measure available... without the need for any conversion charts or anything but the simplest of math, and with reasonable accuracy.

    This logic carries into measures of temperature, energy, current, etc. Thus you could calibrate an entire laboratory based on only one known measure.

    The fact that there IS logic to conversions within the system is what makes the Metric system so powerful.

  17. Re:Yay! on Germany Muzzles SCO · · Score: 2, Informative

    My only question is if this settlement favours Univention or SCO?

    By definition a settlement favours both sides, otherwise they wouldn't agree, right? In a relative sense at least, as the alternative would have to be worse.
    In this case, SCO had to back down so that they could keep up the rhetoric for as long as possible back in the USA. The alternative would be, presumably, to have their claims discredited in Germany, thus weakening the position their claiming in the US.

  18. Re:Good to see... on Germany Muzzles SCO · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ummm... That's not quite the point.
    They have been barred (as a result of an out-of-court SETTLEMENT) from making unsubstantiated claims that are intended to harm their competitor's business.
    Where is the First Amendment violation?
    newSCO had an opportunity to back up their claims in court, but instead AGREED to back down, so they could keep up the rhetoric back home.

  19. Re:foresight on Sun's Simon Phipps Answers ESR On Java · · Score: 5, Informative

    Try: here

  20. Re:I intended a Zen on Does IT Matter? · · Score: 1

    All IT students should be forced to work in retail for a year, manufacturing for a year, and in business administration positions for a year before touching a keyboard.

    I agree completely, but by the same token, I think everyone in retail, manufacturing and business administration should be getting A+ certified, so no one ever has to ask "Are you sure it's plugged in?" again. But that's not my point.

    My point is that people are, by and large, incompetent, stupid and/or lazy. Don't take my word for it, look around the next time you're in the {cafeteria, parking lot, line for a flu shot}, and judge for yourself. The scary part is that these are the people left after all the "efficiencies" of the past 20-some years of businesses adopting bigger, faster, shinier mousetraps.

    I think part of the reason for this is that an awful lot of smart people grew up watching Star Trek/Wars, and decided these computers are pretty nifty things after all and if I could just sample a little more Majel Barrett, I'd be all set. This has had the (dubiously) unfortunate effect of dilluting the brain-trust of the rank and file employees of any given company, which, of course, has then spread up into the middle ranks of management. Upper management is still made up primarily of the ruthless and corrupt, who are naturally most interested in whatever will gain them the most prestige, and generally couldn't care less how things work. This doesn't leave very many people to mind the store.

    Somewhere in there, you find the people that make my job so easy. I work for a large IT supplier as one of the main sales resources for a certain Monopolistic Software company. It really is easy, since everybody buys it, and everybody buys it because everybody else uses it.

    The smartest thing they've done recently is avoid double-digit version numbers. "You'd think they'd get it right after X versions" becomes alot harder when software is versioned like car models. At least 95% of what an average office worker uses their computer for, they could do 10 years ago. Why is it then that they are probably planning their 4th upgrade in that same decade? When will diminishing returns come with diminished price tags?

    The main problem with trying to rationalize the IT industry is that there are few ways to profit from telling people that the emperor has no clothes. To those few brave souls who dare to battle the Goliath, take heart that the problems I mentioned above are just as prevalent on the supply side of IT as the demand.

  21. Re:Kubrick promised us the Monolith... on Mystery Tiles From Around the World · · Score: 1

    The appearance of the Monoliths coincided with important step in human development. We just haven't found our "Cool 21st Century" Monolith yet.

  22. Re:Not such a bad idea on Microsoft wants Automatic Update for Windows · · Score: 2, Informative

    If the automatically downloaded and installed patch doesn't require (or even allow) user intervention, then the user cannot be held to any "changes" to the EULA that came along with it.

    That's why there's an "I Agree" button in the first place. If you don't know a change happened, you can't have agreed to it. If you don't have the option to disagree, then you haven't agreed to it either.

  23. Re:Service Pack? on Windows XP SP2 Delayed Until Late 2004 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What?? You mean there are problems with XP?

  24. Re:Patents. on Nutch: An Open Source Search Engine · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "most of the good search and indexing schemes have already been patented" Not at all... just the easy ones.
    If this is to be cheap to run, it will probably have to be distributed, and thus a very different architecture than most of what we've seen up to now.

  25. Re:Kinda says it all, doesn't it. on SCO Execs Dumping Stock · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "SCO spokesman Blake Stowell declined to comment on the share sales. The company will comment on the sales when it announces fiscal third-quarter results Thursday, he said."

    Keep this date in mind. Then we can hear what their excuses are.