I bought KAV 2016 3-license pack and used it on Win 7 desktops. After many odd issues, I did some digging and found it secretly injected Javascript into web pages. Ah, this is what interfered with some of the sites I hit. Its other features raised heck with a couple on-line games on the SO's computer. It prompted me to log in to the Kaspersky site all the time on one computer, complained about licensing on another for a few minutes after booting. All of the tiny issues added up, having me uninstalling the last license/instance after four months into the experience in favor of another product. I would like to find just an antivirus package that works unobtrusively, isn't cloud connected, doesn't try to nanny me, or try to be a jack-of-all trades (firewall, home security, credit monitor, privacy guard, password manager, IM monitor, toaster, ophthalmologist, druid, sock-presser -- oh, and plays Netflix and Youtube videos)
Classify satellite TV as a cybersecurity threat also. I have to pay for a "package" in order to get certain channels. Other channels are then denied to me. Also when satellite providers can't reach an agreement with a network (FOX, ABC etc.) then I suddenly lose channels. I'm not getting my information. Before you throw any rocks this way: c'mon, it's the same as the title. It's some jacked-up idea that looks great on paper to a committee making theoretical decisions of how the world actually works outside of a carefully crafted bubble they live. So tack on articles such a DRM and dipshit patents before you send this one up, because they are holding up progress all the same by denying access to information.
Rothschild pronounced the DVR to be dying in the same way that Apple lies about technological directions, which is solely to stilt the public's thinking to focus on the supposed superiority of their own products. When the DTV/TIVO marriage tanked, DTV built their own DVR. TIVO lost a major teat to suck from. Inventing a new hardware paradigm for TIVO- a paper-logical one; it's TIVO's way of sprinkling some Apple white lies. Yes, it's logical to get rid of a separate set-top component box, but your TV-integrated-TIVO is a proprietary solution that only a fool would buy into. Either the TV or it's parasitical TIVO component dies? You shitcan the whole unit. TIVO is going to top the cost of the TV but $300-$500, and that premium will prevent it from competing. Also the TIVO component, unless able to couple closely with cable/satellite services, will function separately, not have that integrated feel of a sat/DVR or cable/DVR, and nobody wants a feeble solution.
Steam is still DRM, just spelled differently. If EA hadn't had the install count limitation on the original shipped product, there would be little difference to consumers- aside from having physical media, than buying the thing from Steam. It's news, but not really much to get excited about, except for recognition of complaints being heard by EA.
There is USA Mobility. We still use them, but are dropping them when our next statement is due (we pre-pay yearly to avoid piddly monthly statements).
Here's my beef: they cut off our service with zero warning. They claim to have sent us our yearly invoice in July, again in August, and a late statement in September. We received nothing in the mail. I learned all of this in September when our services were cut off and I called their customer service. The last statement I received was a credit notice in our favor in July. Well, I put through payment to them which took about two weeks to have the check cut and mailed (corporate machine), but still could not get our service turned on because we "now" owe them a lousy $25 reconnect fee because we didn't pay within 90 days. That 90 days put our account in a status where they "no longer trusted our credit". What irks me is that we've been a customer with them since the 90's, and we're one of the "Fortune 500"- meaning we don't slack on payments or crap like that.
No amount of logic would sink in to the customer service drone, or the supervisor I asked to talk to, and calmly explained the whole mess to. He simply stonewalled me. We drop a four-figure check in their lap, and due to an absurd circumstance that wasn't our fault, they won't reactivate our service for a lousy $25?
I've had many other problems with USA Mobility in the last year, changing frequencies with no warning and dropping pager from our account, then having to call them for "reprogramming".
Also as an IT manager, but just opposite of "weave", I'll gladly take a dongle first! I reject anything that requires ANY kind of activation bullshirt. I've had activation go awry twice now, and take down a production (manufacturing) system, costing us hundreds of times the price of the software in the 45 minutes it took to figure out the problem. Along the same lines, a license server is NOT tolerable. We've been though that- and had a formulation system go down. There's no Genuine Advantage to that anywhere, as M$ users are learning.
Yes, I'll push for software that's not copy protected first, or take a simple serial or key file. Then a dongle. But my DRP say that if it's anything we can't guarantee recovery from at 2AM from a Snapshot backup (or Ghost), then f--- it. That rules out any activation codes or disks.
(Our formulation system uses a USB key today. We have a spare key for immediate recovery. The most hostile thing I've held briefly was a SCADA package that had a dongle, a reg code, and required phone-in activation. It was never installed, but made a nice thud as it hit the bin.)
Ol' Jack-o wack-o is nuttier than squirrel poop. If he we'rn REALLY smart, he would have subpoena'd Miss South Carolina as a character witness. THAT would be a nifty.
I looked at a FreeBSD NAS project (don't remember the name though- I've slept since then. FreeNAS?) that looked really neat. Booted from USB key so only data was on the drives. I was impressed what with I ready until I hit the part in the docs where it didn't work with Silicon Image 311x SATA chipsets. The most common fudging chipsets out there. Linux has no problems with that chipset but the FreeBSD has major ones?
That totally harshed my buzz on the thought of the project and put FreeBSD on the "still not ready for prime time" list for me. I'm hoping they will someday get that compatibility working some year because the project looks very promising.
When one of our Verizon copper T1's went down recently due to a bad Smartjack card, we had to wait for one to be trucked in from downstate. The tech told me "They won't let us stock copper cards anymore. Anything copper. We have to keep sending for them. Everything we carry is fiber.".
Given the still-huge copper infrastructure, that makes no sense to this customer. We have a lot of copper in this area. No FIOS at all. I've been told by numerous people at Verizon in different informational layers that FIOS is not even planned. Yeah, FIOS and a T are completely different things. But the point was no fiber backbones are planned.
I was actually hoping Zune would be a viable competitor to the iPod, being so sick of the latter having saturated our culture (the vehicle with the integrated iPod dock was the straw). But Microsoft's DRM, the restricted media sharing, no Mac support... just crippled it horribly out of the gate. And now bowing/catering to the Monster Records when they should Stand Tall... is just pitiful.
I actually pity Microsoft in a small way, and recalling their other boners (such as BOB), I can't wait to see what they come up with to try and save face.
I no longer have respect for greedy Peter Jackson. So the LOTR films were successful. They're done. Over. Yesterday's news. So stop whining about them.
Stop asking for money-- because you are acting just like the overpaid, greedy 'professional' (pick one: baseball, football, hockey, basketball) players that get multimillion-dollar salaries, and DO NOT deserve them.
The LOTR films weren't successful just because of YOU. It was everybody else in the cast and crew that _made_ the film- you just ran around like a fat spoiled managerial type shouting orders. And we all know management, especially upper management is overpaid.
So stop whining. Oh, and King Kong sucked. You're losing the edge, dude.
I was a computer programming geek back when Tron was squirted out. Tron was lame back then, and still is lame today. The film concepts don't translate to computers, even with assistance from mind-altering drugs.
Besides, it starred Jeff Bridges. He is teh spooky anyway.
It's not even a patch, but an advisory! Furthermore, Microsoft's "advice" is to "keep your antivirus software up-to-date, and download Microsoft's AntiSpyware Beta"
Great. An <duh>obvious</duh> recommendation, and an invitation to load more junk (beta!) Microsoft ware.
The part that struck a nerve with me was the book description. "Jack, an outraged father and activist lawyer, is on a mission..." IMHO, 'activist' and 'lawyer' is a conflict of interests.
Jack needs to call a WAAAHmbulance and get some professional help.
The courts need to impose the same restriction on these so-called legal Spyware/logging apps that they do on voice recording: the app has to generate a "beep" every 60 seconds to let you know it is monitor and recording your actions.
Tombs with piped-in music. How classy! -- Garrret, Thief: The Dark Project
You can say the same about DirectX. You can never run DirectX on anything but Windows. (WINE doesn't count). This is common practice, it happens with proprietary formats, why wouldn't it happen with game consoles?
There is a big difference between API calls and writing code to run on a cell processor-based system. APIs can be thunked or emulated. Processor specific code, or processor feature specific code is a totally different matter. It may take gobs of assembly to implement cell processors which would be a major fsck to port.
Don't forget:
1. the right to make a backup of your disc.
2. install and play your game without having to reinstall bare Windows to do so (Starforce: hostile anti-user copy protection and Punkbuster, which currently hates GetRight of all things. Both quickly pronounce users as guilty of hacking without a trial)
3. install and play your game without needing ANY kind of internet connection whatsoever. Half Life 2 and the (currently vaporware) Prey will never touch my systems because of that.
I didn't dislike Deadly Shadows but it sure felt like "Thief in a Cheap Suit"
Aye, that's a much better way to term it than "sucked", which I agree was too harshly put.
"The Cradle" mission was scary as all get-up, but the rest of it felt sophmore-ish. There wasn't much emphasis put on looting as in the other Thief games, but more as a necessity to find goods in order to trade and get supplies. The constant tension of the growing plot detracted from the feel of 'Thief', which in the other games progressed more slowly. And I didn't care for politics between factions- it doesn't seem in Garrett's nature to kiss any faction's ass in order to pass freely through territories. Maybe the purist "sneaks" enjoyed the challenge of trying to make it through levels without getting immediately spotted and trod upon, but with the narrow alleys and minimal hiding spots, it was more of a race to get by. I was highly disappointed in DS.
Shadowman has underrated audio that will cause you a nightmare or two- gruesome sounds, especially the dentist drills in the nursery. The plot is surreal, deep, and very unique. Graphics are good, and the scenery alien and disturbing in a bizarre way- such that typical gameplay elements (keys, doors, mechanisms etc) don't feel rehashed.
Acclaim promised a Shadowman 2 that didn't see light on the PC, and I've been waiting to enjoy that nightmare for years.
I'll second the Thief series. And I'll argue until blue in the face that Deadly Shadows sucked. Of all the games I own, Thief I and II, System Shock and Shadowman (Acclaim) are the only ones getting replays.
Looking Glass Studios were true artists. I'd like to see them recognized and reborn some day.
While I really like Max PC, they've dumbed themselves down greatly over the past two years. There seems to be more pimping of Microsoft than they have in the past. They no longer point out Windows problems, but have become silent and follow the crowds that look to Longhorn (for what? DRM?). The hardware focus has changed from components (mobos, graphics) to shiny toys: nifty water cooling, cameras (huh?), projectors (huh?), MP3 players (beat), scanners (dime a dozen), PDAs (why?). Finally, case mods are all the rage. Have you noticed they review more cases than anything else lately? How disappointing.
They started a promising article on power supplies a few issues ago. Then M-PC seemed to lose their nerve at some point, and ended up not comparing any units, or making any recommendations. What happened?
I miss the days when M-PC used to have all the lastest mobos reviewed, or pit video cards against each other. Now you're lucky to see a mobo once a quarter. Their latest issue review CPU coolers: probably the first article of that kind in over a yest. They've left a huge gap for readers who want to build a cost-effective kick-ass system.
That's why I feel M-PC has jumped the shark on us a bit.
It's a useful reference for people who have graphics cards that are a year or two or more old and need a comparison guide for a new purchase. I'm pleased to see it includes Direct-X levels for each card. That is the most often overlooked attribute in reviews. The only other similar ref I have seen is an issue of Maximum sellout^h^h^h^h^h^h PC that is over a year old, listing DX levels by chipset. Before HL2 and Doom3 came out, plenty of people were wondering what DX version their cards were, and if they would be usable.
There is no 'article text' because this appears to be a set of comparison charts, not a card discussion, and there is no explanation of 'what is what' because it is assumed that if you are comparing stats, you already know your subject. Finally, there is indeed an article navigation control at the bottom of the page. At least there is in Firefox, and also no Google ads for me, thanks to the same.
Our users tape their passwords to the bottom of the keyboards. Everybody wouldn't think of looking there.
New corporate policy requires minimum of six characters, at least one number, no consecutive order letters or digits, no repeating letters or digits. No reuse of passwords in 12 months. And they wonder why people write things down...
IBM did this with their PS/2 model PCs. The proprietary Microchannel bus needed to be licensed for manufacturers wanting to make expansion cards. Needless to say it didn't catch on.
Microsoft should remember this. It was right around the dawn of OS/2, which Microsoft also had a hand in ruining.
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I bought KAV 2016 3-license pack and used it on Win 7 desktops. After many odd issues, I did some digging and found it secretly injected Javascript into web pages. Ah, this is what interfered with some of the sites I hit. Its other features raised heck with a couple on-line games on the SO's computer. It prompted me to log in to the Kaspersky site all the time on one computer, complained about licensing on another for a few minutes after booting. All of the tiny issues added up, having me uninstalling the last license/instance after four months into the experience in favor of another product. I would like to find just an antivirus package that works unobtrusively, isn't cloud connected, doesn't try to nanny me, or try to be a jack-of-all trades (firewall, home security, credit monitor, privacy guard, password manager, IM monitor, toaster, ophthalmologist, druid, sock-presser -- oh, and plays Netflix and Youtube videos)
Classify satellite TV as a cybersecurity threat also. I have to pay for a "package" in order to get certain channels. Other channels are then denied to me. Also when satellite providers can't reach an agreement with a network (FOX, ABC etc.) then I suddenly lose channels. I'm not getting my information. Before you throw any rocks this way: c'mon, it's the same as the title. It's some jacked-up idea that looks great on paper to a committee making theoretical decisions of how the world actually works outside of a carefully crafted bubble they live. So tack on articles such a DRM and dipshit patents before you send this one up, because they are holding up progress all the same by denying access to information.
Rothschild pronounced the DVR to be dying in the same way that Apple lies about technological directions, which is solely to stilt the public's thinking to focus on the supposed superiority of their own products. When the DTV/TIVO marriage tanked, DTV built their own DVR. TIVO lost a major teat to suck from. Inventing a new hardware paradigm for TIVO- a paper-logical one; it's TIVO's way of sprinkling some Apple white lies. Yes, it's logical to get rid of a separate set-top component box, but your TV-integrated-TIVO is a proprietary solution that only a fool would buy into. Either the TV or it's parasitical TIVO component dies? You shitcan the whole unit. TIVO is going to top the cost of the TV but $300-$500, and that premium will prevent it from competing. Also the TIVO component, unless able to couple closely with cable/satellite services, will function separately, not have that integrated feel of a sat/DVR or cable/DVR, and nobody wants a feeble solution.
He's an unregistered animagus who has escaped from, er, you know.
Steam is still DRM, just spelled differently. If EA hadn't had the install count limitation on the original shipped product, there would be little difference to consumers- aside from having physical media, than buying the thing from Steam. It's news, but not really much to get excited about, except for recognition of complaints being heard by EA.
There is USA Mobility. We still use them, but are dropping them when our next statement is due (we pre-pay yearly to avoid piddly monthly statements).
Here's my beef: they cut off our service with zero warning. They claim to have sent us our yearly invoice in July, again in August, and a late statement in September. We received nothing in the mail. I learned all of this in September when our services were cut off and I called their customer service. The last statement I received was a credit notice in our favor in July. Well, I put through payment to them which took about two weeks to have the check cut and mailed (corporate machine), but still could not get our service turned on because we "now" owe them a lousy $25 reconnect fee because we didn't pay within 90 days. That 90 days put our account in a status where they "no longer trusted our credit". What irks me is that we've been a customer with them since the 90's, and we're one of the "Fortune 500"- meaning we don't slack on payments or crap like that.
No amount of logic would sink in to the customer service drone, or the supervisor I asked to talk to, and calmly explained the whole mess to. He simply stonewalled me. We drop a four-figure check in their lap, and due to an absurd circumstance that wasn't our fault, they won't reactivate our service for a lousy $25?
I've had many other problems with USA Mobility in the last year, changing frequencies with no warning and dropping pager from our account, then having to call them for "reprogramming".
I'm taking our business elsewhere.
Also as an IT manager, but just opposite of "weave", I'll gladly take a dongle first! I reject anything that requires ANY kind of activation bullshirt. I've had activation go awry twice now, and take down a production (manufacturing) system, costing us hundreds of times the price of the software in the 45 minutes it took to figure out the problem. Along the same lines, a license server is NOT tolerable. We've been though that- and had a formulation system go down. There's no Genuine Advantage to that anywhere, as M$ users are learning.
Yes, I'll push for software that's not copy protected first, or take a simple serial or key file. Then a dongle. But my DRP say that if it's anything we can't guarantee recovery from at 2AM from a Snapshot backup (or Ghost), then f--- it. That rules out any activation codes or disks.
(Our formulation system uses a USB key today. We have a spare key for immediate recovery. The most hostile thing I've held briefly was a SCADA package that had a dongle, a reg code, and required phone-in activation. It was never installed, but made a nice thud as it hit the bin.)
Ol' Jack-o wack-o is nuttier than squirrel poop. If he we'rn REALLY smart, he would have subpoena'd Miss South Carolina as a character witness. THAT would be a nifty.
I looked at a FreeBSD NAS project (don't remember the name though- I've slept since then. FreeNAS?) that looked really neat. Booted from USB key so only data was on the drives. I was impressed what with I ready until I hit the part in the docs where it didn't work with Silicon Image 311x SATA chipsets. The most common fudging chipsets out there. Linux has no problems with that chipset but the FreeBSD has major ones?
That totally harshed my buzz on the thought of the project and put FreeBSD on the "still not ready for prime time" list for me. I'm hoping they will someday get that compatibility working some year because the project looks very promising.
When one of our Verizon copper T1's went down recently due to a bad Smartjack card, we had to wait for one to be trucked in from downstate. The tech told me "They won't let us stock copper cards anymore. Anything copper. We have to keep sending for them. Everything we carry is fiber.".
Given the still-huge copper infrastructure, that makes no sense to this customer. We have a lot of copper in this area. No FIOS at all. I've been told by numerous people at Verizon in different informational layers that FIOS is not even planned. Yeah, FIOS and a T are completely different things. But the point was no fiber backbones are planned.
I was actually hoping Zune would be a viable competitor to the iPod, being so sick of the latter having saturated our culture (the vehicle with the integrated iPod dock was the straw). But Microsoft's DRM, the restricted media sharing, no Mac support... just crippled it horribly out of the gate. And now bowing/catering to the Monster Records when they should Stand Tall... is just pitiful.
I actually pity Microsoft in a small way, and recalling their other boners (such as BOB), I can't wait to see what they come up with to try and save face.
I no longer have respect for greedy Peter Jackson. So the LOTR films were successful. They're done. Over. Yesterday's news. So stop whining about them.
Stop asking for money-- because you are acting just like the overpaid, greedy 'professional' (pick one: baseball, football, hockey, basketball) players that get multimillion-dollar salaries, and DO NOT deserve them.
The LOTR films weren't successful just because of YOU. It was everybody else in the cast and crew that _made_ the film- you just ran around like a fat spoiled managerial type shouting orders. And we all know management, especially upper management is overpaid.
So stop whining. Oh, and King Kong sucked. You're losing the edge, dude.
I was a computer programming geek back when Tron was squirted out. Tron was lame back then, and still is lame today. The film concepts don't translate to computers, even with assistance from mind-altering drugs.
Besides, it starred Jeff Bridges. He is teh spooky anyway.
It's not even a patch, but an advisory! Furthermore, Microsoft's "advice" is to "keep your antivirus software up-to-date, and download Microsoft's AntiSpyware Beta"
Great. An <duh>obvious</duh> recommendation, and an invitation to load more junk (beta!) Microsoft ware.
I prefer to stick with bamboo, coconuts and grass. It worked for the Professor on Gilligan's Island.
The Amazon tags cracked me up.
Customers tagged this item with:
First tag: lies
Last tag: Propaganda
Lies (7),Propaganda (5),Childish Name Calling (4),Unfounded assertions (4),Slander
(4),Unscientific (4),Defamation (3),Self-promoting with fake reviews (3),Biased
(3),lies (3),Racist (2),Scaremonger (2),toilet-paper (2),Money grabbing lawyer
(2),Ambulance Chaser (2)
The part that struck a nerve with me was the book description. "Jack, an outraged father and activist lawyer, is on a mission..." IMHO, 'activist' and 'lawyer' is a conflict of interests.
Jack needs to call a WAAAHmbulance and get some professional help.
The courts need to impose the same restriction on these so-called legal Spyware/logging apps that they do on voice recording: the app has to generate a "beep" every 60 seconds to let you know it is monitor and recording your actions.
Tombs with piped-in music. How classy! -- Garrret, Thief: The Dark Project
You can say the same about DirectX. You can never run DirectX on anything but Windows. (WINE doesn't count). This is common practice, it happens with proprietary formats, why wouldn't it happen with game consoles?
There is a big difference between API calls and writing code to run on a cell processor-based system. APIs can be thunked or emulated. Processor specific code, or processor feature specific code is a totally different matter. It may take gobs of assembly to implement cell processors which would be a major fsck to port.
Don't forget:
1. the right to make a backup of your disc.
2. install and play your game without having to reinstall bare Windows to do so (Starforce: hostile anti-user copy protection and Punkbuster, which currently hates GetRight of all things. Both quickly pronounce users as guilty of hacking without a trial)
3. install and play your game without needing ANY kind of internet connection whatsoever. Half Life 2 and the (currently vaporware) Prey will never touch my systems because of that.
I didn't dislike Deadly Shadows but it sure felt like "Thief in a Cheap Suit"
Aye, that's a much better way to term it than "sucked", which I agree was too harshly put.
"The Cradle" mission was scary as all get-up, but the rest of it felt sophmore-ish. There wasn't much emphasis put on looting as in the other Thief games, but more as a necessity to find goods in order to trade and get supplies. The constant tension of the growing plot detracted from the feel of 'Thief', which in the other games progressed more slowly. And I didn't care for politics between factions- it doesn't seem in Garrett's nature to kiss any faction's ass in order to pass freely through territories. Maybe the purist "sneaks" enjoyed the challenge of trying to make it through levels without getting immediately spotted and trod upon, but with the narrow alleys and minimal hiding spots, it was more of a race to get by. I was highly disappointed in DS.
Shadowman has underrated audio that will cause you a nightmare or two- gruesome sounds, especially the dentist drills in the nursery. The plot is surreal, deep, and very unique. Graphics are good, and the scenery alien and disturbing in a bizarre way- such that typical gameplay elements (keys, doors, mechanisms etc) don't feel rehashed.
Acclaim promised a Shadowman 2 that didn't see light on the PC, and I've been waiting to enjoy that nightmare for years.
I'll second the Thief series. And I'll argue until blue in the face that Deadly Shadows sucked. Of all the games I own, Thief I and II, System Shock and Shadowman (Acclaim) are the only ones getting replays.
Looking Glass Studios were true artists. I'd like to see them recognized and reborn some day.
While I really like Max PC, they've dumbed themselves down greatly over the past two years. There seems to be more pimping of Microsoft than they have in the past. They no longer point out Windows problems, but have become silent and follow the crowds that look to Longhorn (for what? DRM?). The hardware focus has changed from components (mobos, graphics) to shiny toys: nifty water cooling, cameras (huh?), projectors (huh?), MP3 players (beat), scanners (dime a dozen), PDAs (why?). Finally, case mods are all the rage. Have you noticed they review more cases than anything else lately? How disappointing.
They started a promising article on power supplies a few issues ago. Then M-PC seemed to lose their nerve at some point, and ended up not comparing any units, or making any recommendations. What happened?
I miss the days when M-PC used to have all the lastest mobos reviewed, or pit video cards against each other. Now you're lucky to see a mobo once a quarter. Their latest issue review CPU coolers: probably the first article of that kind in over a yest. They've left a huge gap for readers who want to build a cost-effective kick-ass system.
That's why I feel M-PC has jumped the shark on us a bit.
It's a useful reference for people who have graphics cards that are a year or two or more old and need a comparison guide for a new purchase. I'm pleased to see it includes Direct-X levels for each card. That is the most often overlooked attribute in reviews. The only other similar ref I have seen is an issue of Maximum sellout^h^h^h^h^h^h PC that is over a year old, listing DX levels by chipset. Before HL2 and Doom3 came out, plenty of people were wondering what DX version their cards were, and if they would be usable.
There is no 'article text' because this appears to be a set of comparison charts, not a card discussion, and there is no explanation of 'what is what' because it is assumed that if you are comparing stats, you already know your subject. Finally, there is indeed an article navigation control at the bottom of the page. At least there is in Firefox, and also no Google ads for me, thanks to the same.
Our users tape their passwords to the bottom of the keyboards. Everybody wouldn't think of looking there.
New corporate policy requires minimum of six characters, at least one number, no consecutive order letters or digits, no repeating letters or digits. No reuse of passwords in 12 months. And they wonder why people write things down...
IBM did this with their PS/2 model PCs. The proprietary Microchannel bus needed to be licensed for manufacturers wanting to make expansion cards. Needless to say it didn't catch on.
Microsoft should remember this. It was right around the dawn of OS/2, which Microsoft also had a hand in ruining.