All jocking aside, I beleive when grandparent says high moral road he's referring to is adware applications that don't hijack your computer, putting on excess bloat eventually rendering your computer useless on order to force their ads upon you.
Personally, I don't mind getting ads that are relevant and on my own terms. For some reason I quite enjoy looking at shopping catalogues and stuff even though 99% of the time I wouldn't buy anything from them. If there is something that I may be interested in then I don't mind being told about it.
For instance I've got my Amazon recommendations list as part of the Mozilla Browser home tab group. I don't always look at it but I do find something on it every now and then that I am interested in, and best of all it learns my preferences and offers more relevant results. Though it does tend do go off in unexpected directions and makes some less than relevant selected obviously based on keyword association.
Whats important for me is that the advertising is on my terms and not on the terms of someone else. I rarely watch any TV at the time is on and simply time shift it to where I can easily bypass the ads.
I've worked for a number of marketing departments now and every one of them has been focused on getting into the customers mindset anyway they can. None of them seemed concerned about annoying potential customers with advertising that they didn't want. They would run competitions so they could harvest contact details to advertise to consumers with and such and they got mightily offended when I compared their "directed marketing" to SPAM. Oh well...
It could make for a good movie plot, though.
In Richard Morgans Market Forces, those sentenced to a death penality wouldn't find themselves in a chamber but on the operating table donating their organs to more worthy causes then murder. Tho I'm pretty sure that in that book the organs would of probably been sold rather than donated.
I've been hunting around for a replacement to ZoneAlarm Pro recently after the complete balls up that made from upgrading from 4.5 to 5.x. (ZAPro's true vector service would crash stopping all network activity on my box. It would then take about 10-20 minutes to shut my PC down gracefully to recover).
Anyway I've been looking through suggestions in these comments to see what comes up most often and trying it out. I have used Kerio before but didn't really like it but I might give Sygate Personal Firewall a go. I don't give much of a crap about privacy features in firewalls anymore as Mozilla basically does most of what I require privacy wise.
I know your comment was meant to be funny, but that's EXACTLY what I think other countries should do.
Oh yes it was meant to be funny, but i also wanted to use it to illicit thought on just what the impact is to blocking countries because of SPAM. The US is a big problem when it comes to SPAM and suffering some of the consequences that somes of its ISPs have advicated for other countries might just put the real problem into the proper perspective.
I personally do use Azureus and am a Java programmer and I use Eclipse, the best use of SWT so far, but Azureus is a hog. It runs perfectly well on my system but I have never been a fan of using Java for GUI apps because I don't think that Java is a good language for GUI apps.
duck
Using Java for Azureus makes perfect sense as it does for Eclipse, but Java based GUIs do end up using more resources than what a native app would. However you do receive the advantages of cross platform deployment with a minimum of fuss.
What I think might help, but probably wouldn't take off is the fact that the keyboards on these types of devices are focused on replicating many keys on a standard keyboard when in practicality less keys than that are needed to perform the same job.
Phones have the entire alphabet and extra characters mapped to 10 buttons and I personally hate putting in SMS messages with them. But there is no arguing that once you are proficient at it you can put them in quite fast. Though nowhere near as proficiently as if that person had the same capability with a full sized keyboard.
What I think might help is if there was a standardized mini keyboard with multifunction keys that can represent a number of characters, similar to what a standard keyboard does but with a alot of thought put into efficient and fast typing with fewer keys. That way there are fewer keys required and they could be bigger for those big fingered folk. And since it would be a standardized layout there would be more chance of the design, catching on. Though the current situation of the patent world would proabably put the kibosh on that wishful thinking.
However I have no illusion on a fantasy like this happening anytime soon, or if its even practical.
...will probably turn into a huge flame war with comments.
Oh isn't flame wars with comments what slashdot is all about?:) What other use is there for the Anonymous Coward function than to launch cowardly insults without fear of reprisal?
Oh yes the human race did have the faster-than-light Alderson Drive which they used to get around the galaxy with, it did have limitations in that there was very limited points in space (called Alderson points [I think]) where the drive could be used to move from one solar system to the next.
The Moties probe was the solar sail craft as they were not able to get out of their system because their Alderson point jump destination (out of their solar system) was the outer layer of a red giant star, and since they didn't have the humans shield technology their Alderson drive crafts got vaporized when they tried to leave and hence the moties thought that the Alderson [Crazy-Eddie] drive didn't actually work. So they sent a probe out instead that traversed the distance between stars instead.
What I find most disturbing in changes to law to increase surveillance/intrusion powers of government agencies is the lack of accountability that is also added. Agencies are increasingly given power to do anything required in the national interest while the people that targeted get no legal recourse to recover any damages done to them over poor or shoddy work by an agency, or a clear abuse of the power given to an agency.
I think it gives agencies a reason to do poor and shoddy work because there is no consequence to "collateral damage" done because what they do is considered to be in the national interest. I would think that it would be in the national interest that there be proper consequences to the abuse of these powers so that they only act when they are sure that they are doing the right thing for our safety. Or in circumstances when they just target the wrong person out of pure incompetence.
However in the back of my mind I can't help but think that there are circumstances that could occur where waiting for the ability to perform the security task without "collateral damage" would not be in the public interest and lead to a greater danger.
So many shades of grey. I wonder if I'm making any sense at all on this...
Also the The Mote in God's Eye is a good read that has a solar sail powered craft, however a huge assortment of lasers were used to propel it up to speed, far beyond what solar energy would of provided. And its also not the focus of the book. But hey read it and find out!
There is also a sequel but I will leave that up to you as a project to find out what it is.
For someone to make a dent I think it might be better if there were some transitional technologies to move people gently along in the right direction rather than just doing a full rework and have people reject it outright because it looks like a tooth:)
Say, we first rework the PC-104-type keyboard into something that is more efficient to use. I don't mean something like this Microsoft Elite Keyboard but a keyboard that re-aranges the keys into a layout that is physically quicker to type with and makes more sense. Not the QWERTY combination that was designed for typewriters to slow the typist down. And then move on to less traditional devices that may gain more acceptance once the QWERTY stranglehold has been broken.
Re:Is this religious literature?
on
Broken Angels
·
· Score: 1
Given what the political officers where there to police the thoughts and actions of the soldiers to ensure that they conformed correctly to the goals of the then ruling party and would betray them at a moments notice, I can honestly relate to how they treated him. Given the context of the many and varied ways you could be tortured and then killed (witness the device I shall not mention for those that havn't read the book) and the fact that you can be brought back from the dead to be tortured again and again, both physically and virtually, I would certainly be interested in covering my ass as well.
Besides he was assigned to the Wedge a place where disloyalty to your pack would meet with an end that would not be worth considering. It was a matter of him or them, and quite frankly if I was them I would choose him.
Now I can't remember what I originally intended to say... oh well...
Re:Good books but more to come?
on
Broken Angels
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Yes I read both of them together and Broken Angels does paint one large and obvious way to a sequel and a few other not so large and obvious ways. And quite frankly I hope we get a sequel.
Despite the type of character Takeshi Kovacs is, I can help but like him, but really thats what anti-hereos are about, we relate to them because they get to do the things that we would like to do in similar situations. Takeshi is certainly not forgiving when he is wronged, but we feel sympathy towards him because of the hardships he has had to endure, even those he has brought onto himself.
Re:Sounds Like...
on
Broken Angels
·
· Score: 4, Funny
There is a religion (can't remember the name - I read the books over a year ago) that believes that the process of downloading to a cortical stack leaves the soul behind and it is therefore something to be avoided.
Oh don't worry I think I remember!
Ok, flame retardent suit? check. Comments taken out of context nullifer? check. Atheist mode still activated? check.
In Altered Carbon the obscure religion opposed to the cortical stacks was: The Catholic church, or what actually remained of it at the time.
Since everyone has a stack in this future scenario, those that were Catholic opposed themselves being placed into another sleeve (aka body) for what was effectivly being brought back to life, if their stack wasn't destroyed aka real death (RD). As apposed to those with sleeve insurance policies, who didn't mind getting another chance.
Re:Sounds Like...
on
Broken Angels
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Having read all the other Richard Morgan books, may I recommend that if you intend reading "Broken Angels" that you first pick up "Altered Carbon" (another Takeshi Kovacs novel set about 30 years [I think] before Broken Angels) and read that first.
While its not an absolute necessity to enjoy Broken Angels, I think that it will add just that little bit extra to enjoying it. There are some small references in BA to events in Altered Carbon and you will more quickly understand why things are they way they are in BA.
That said Altered Carbon and Broken Angels are some of the best reads I've had recently and I have no trouble recommending both of them without hesitation. Richard Morgans third novel, just released, Market Forces was quite a bit of a turn from what he wrote before (in some senses that is) but I enjoyed it. Not as much as as AC and BA but still a good read. I won't say much more because I don't want to spoil it.
Earlier on I was installing over the top, but I was ending up with a bunch of redundant files, most noticebly multiple instances of the Gecko engine. After looking in the mozilla.org directory again, things seemed to of changed a bit since the earlier days so now its mostly habit I suppose.
When I did clear out all the old files and put in a fresh install of Mozilla I did notice that Mozilla did seem to run faster, but perhaps that was because it was a version upgrade. I wouldn't rely on my anecdotal evidence on that. I think it was around 1.5 I did my first fresh install.
Basically I don't want to have any redundant files being left behind during version changes which is why I uninstall before installing a new version, and to give Mozilla the greatest chance of working per upgrade that I do.
These mumblings on what I do is for the Windows version of Mozilla only, and I don't have many themes or plugins installed. There is no warranty on the information I give and I recommend backing up both your Mozilla profile and Mozilla program directory before doing what I do. This is what I do myself so that I can restore anything that may get damaged.
I use Mozilla NOT Firefox but what I do for upgrades is this (and I do not loose my installed plugins, Orbit theme and settings). My memory is a little vague on the exact details, but if you can install Mozilla then you can handle the fine details yourself.:)
I do choose to uninstall Mozilla first using its uninstall option from the Windows Add Remove Programs. When prompted to delete everything from the mozilla.org directory I decline to do so, this leaves behind the components you have installed yourself.
I then install the new version of Mozilla, and it picks up all of my settings, installed plugins and the like using my profile, which is the default one.
I've been doing this since about Mozilla 1.3 or 1.4 and I have not had any problems following the process, but perhaps I'm just lucky:)
I, for one, wouldnt be too thrilled if one day when you go to register your vehicle (an annual event) or get your car inspected/smogged, they download the data and see how many times you've exceeded "safe speeds" and then issue citations and tickets. I'm sure there are good uses (such as determining fault in an accident), but the potential for abuse could be disturbing.
This basically sums up my views on the situation as well. I think it would be a good idea that such data be used to help determine fault in an accident. Perhaps it could even act as a deterrent to reckless unsafe driving. However such technology doesn't offer the descretion that say a police officer or judge has in determining the guilt in say exceeding the speed limit. What if you are speeding because you are trying to get a dying relative to a hospital or something? The law says that you are speeding, a police officer can determine that perhaps you actually need some help not be punished with a fine.
I can easily see however that transport departments would be eager to be able to query the data to apply tickets, especially to bolster the money made from fines and help the fill the government coffers.
Well Activision does have to pay for the EB Doom 3 pre-order freebies (including a metal Pinky statue, poster, PC box simulcrum and sticker) and the Flying Skull statue that comes in the Doom 3 game box (for a limited time folks). Well these freebies were had in Australia at least.
The problem is I can't tell if i'm being funny or serious. Anyway, I pre-ordered, I paid the full price, and I'm a happy customer. To me at least thats what counts.
Since I am a programmer myself I see it as a moral duty to pay for the software that I use and not cheat the developers out of their money, even though I'm sure a large amount of that goes to the publishers rather than the developers.
My video card isn't exactly good by todays standards, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128Mb [Catalyst Drivers 4.7], but even with the default settings chosen for me, the game looks spectacular, and plays very well.
Kudos need to go to id for milking everything out of a video card to give a great presentation. I do plan on upgrading my video card when ATIs latest and greatest becomes ubiquitos in Australia but there isn't a need for me to go running out right now to do it.
What I see happening, with these arguments and many other arguments (while not necessary the same but have the same basic fundamentals) is that small parts of the overall problem and solution are examined and discussed but the broader social and economic issues surrounding it get ignored or considered irrelevant.
I'm trying to liken this (though not in anyway compare, so no flames please!) to like social policies implemented by governments and such. They usually attack a small limited problem without taking the broader social issues into account causing them to ultimately fail because other related problems are not being addressed. So what in itself is a good solution just falls by the wayside because its deemed a failure because related problems don't get fixed as well.
Hmmm now i'm just wondering if I make any sense whatsoever... *yawn* sleep time...
Well from what I recall living in Australia, its perfectly legal to record a show to watch later as long as you don't go around distributing the copy.
Now getting rid of those ads, would be a nice feature most of the time but sometimes there are ads that I wan't to watch that tell me if a show has moved or something, or perhaps a new show I am interested in.
However I don't watch enough television to warrent such a service so I think I might skip it for now. I do have a digital television receiver (because good ones have been coming out at cheap prices) so that I can have DVD picture and sound quality but thats about as far as it goes. Free to air digital television isn't actually doing anything particularly constructive in Australia at the moment. I get an basic episode guide (when the stations can be bothered filling it in), time, and lots of stations which all show the same thing because each free to air station is only maintaining a single broadcast channel (except for ABC and SBS which have radio channels that they broadcast). There isn't anything else thats really worth noting.
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Personally, I don't mind getting ads that are relevant and on my own terms. For some reason I quite enjoy looking at shopping catalogues and stuff even though 99% of the time I wouldn't buy anything from them. If there is something that I may be interested in then I don't mind being told about it.
For instance I've got my Amazon recommendations list as part of the Mozilla Browser home tab group. I don't always look at it but I do find something on it every now and then that I am interested in, and best of all it learns my preferences and offers more relevant results. Though it does tend do go off in unexpected directions and makes some less than relevant selected obviously based on keyword association.
Whats important for me is that the advertising is on my terms and not on the terms of someone else. I rarely watch any TV at the time is on and simply time shift it to where I can easily bypass the ads.
I've worked for a number of marketing departments now and every one of them has been focused on getting into the customers mindset anyway they can. None of them seemed concerned about annoying potential customers with advertising that they didn't want. They would run competitions so they could harvest contact details to advertise to consumers with and such and they got mightily offended when I compared their "directed marketing" to SPAM. Oh well...
It could make for a good movie plot, though. In Richard Morgans Market Forces, those sentenced to a death penality wouldn't find themselves in a chamber but on the operating table donating their organs to more worthy causes then murder. Tho I'm pretty sure that in that book the organs would of probably been sold rather than donated.
Anyway I've been looking through suggestions in these comments to see what comes up most often and trying it out. I have used Kerio before but didn't really like it but I might give Sygate Personal Firewall a go. I don't give much of a crap about privacy features in firewalls anymore as Mozilla basically does most of what I require privacy wise.
Oh yes it was meant to be funny, but i also wanted to use it to illicit thought on just what the impact is to blocking countries because of SPAM. The US is a big problem when it comes to SPAM and suffering some of the consequences that somes of its ISPs have advicated for other countries might just put the real problem into the proper perspective.
Its not like other countries havn't been blockaded...
I personally do use Azureus and am a Java programmer and I use Eclipse, the best use of SWT so far, but Azureus is a hog. It runs perfectly well on my system but I have never been a fan of using Java for GUI apps because I don't think that Java is a good language for GUI apps.
duck
Using Java for Azureus makes perfect sense as it does for Eclipse, but Java based GUIs do end up using more resources than what a native app would. However you do receive the advantages of cross platform deployment with a minimum of fuss.
Phones have the entire alphabet and extra characters mapped to 10 buttons and I personally hate putting in SMS messages with them. But there is no arguing that once you are proficient at it you can put them in quite fast. Though nowhere near as proficiently as if that person had the same capability with a full sized keyboard.
What I think might help is if there was a standardized mini keyboard with multifunction keys that can represent a number of characters, similar to what a standard keyboard does but with a alot of thought put into efficient and fast typing with fewer keys. That way there are fewer keys required and they could be bigger for those big fingered folk. And since it would be a standardized layout there would be more chance of the design, catching on. Though the current situation of the patent world would proabably put the kibosh on that wishful thinking.
However I have no illusion on a fantasy like this happening anytime soon, or if its even practical.
Oh isn't flame wars with comments what slashdot is all about? :) What other use is there for the Anonymous Coward function than to launch cowardly insults without fear of reprisal?
Oh yes the human race did have the faster-than-light Alderson Drive which they used to get around the galaxy with, it did have limitations in that there was very limited points in space (called Alderson points [I think]) where the drive could be used to move from one solar system to the next.
The Moties probe was the solar sail craft as they were not able to get out of their system because their Alderson point jump destination (out of their solar system) was the outer layer of a red giant star, and since they didn't have the humans shield technology their Alderson drive crafts got vaporized when they tried to leave and hence the moties thought that the Alderson [Crazy-Eddie] drive didn't actually work. So they sent a probe out instead that traversed the distance between stars instead.
I think it gives agencies a reason to do poor and shoddy work because there is no consequence to "collateral damage" done because what they do is considered to be in the national interest. I would think that it would be in the national interest that there be proper consequences to the abuse of these powers so that they only act when they are sure that they are doing the right thing for our safety. Or in circumstances when they just target the wrong person out of pure incompetence.
However in the back of my mind I can't help but think that there are circumstances that could occur where waiting for the ability to perform the security task without "collateral damage" would not be in the public interest and lead to a greater danger.
So many shades of grey. I wonder if I'm making any sense at all on this...
There is also a sequel but I will leave that up to you as a project to find out what it is.
Say, we first rework the PC-104-type keyboard into something that is more efficient to use. I don't mean something like this Microsoft Elite Keyboard but a keyboard that re-aranges the keys into a layout that is physically quicker to type with and makes more sense. Not the QWERTY combination that was designed for typewriters to slow the typist down. And then move on to less traditional devices that may gain more acceptance once the QWERTY stranglehold has been broken.
Besides he was assigned to the Wedge a place where disloyalty to your pack would meet with an end that would not be worth considering. It was a matter of him or them, and quite frankly if I was them I would choose him.
Now I can't remember what I originally intended to say... oh well...
Despite the type of character Takeshi Kovacs is, I can help but like him, but really thats what anti-hereos are about, we relate to them because they get to do the things that we would like to do in similar situations. Takeshi is certainly not forgiving when he is wronged, but we feel sympathy towards him because of the hardships he has had to endure, even those he has brought onto himself.
Oh don't worry I think I remember!
Ok, flame retardent suit? check. Comments taken out of context nullifer? check. Atheist mode still activated? check.
In Altered Carbon the obscure religion opposed to the cortical stacks was: The Catholic church, or what actually remained of it at the time.
Since everyone has a stack in this future scenario, those that were Catholic opposed themselves being placed into another sleeve (aka body) for what was effectivly being brought back to life, if their stack wasn't destroyed aka real death (RD). As apposed to those with sleeve insurance policies, who didn't mind getting another chance.
While its not an absolute necessity to enjoy Broken Angels, I think that it will add just that little bit extra to enjoying it. There are some small references in BA to events in Altered Carbon and you will more quickly understand why things are they way they are in BA.
That said Altered Carbon and Broken Angels are some of the best reads I've had recently and I have no trouble recommending both of them without hesitation. Richard Morgans third novel, just released, Market Forces was quite a bit of a turn from what he wrote before (in some senses that is) but I enjoyed it. Not as much as as AC and BA but still a good read. I won't say much more because I don't want to spoil it.
When I did clear out all the old files and put in a fresh install of Mozilla I did notice that Mozilla did seem to run faster, but perhaps that was because it was a version upgrade. I wouldn't rely on my anecdotal evidence on that. I think it was around 1.5 I did my first fresh install.
Basically I don't want to have any redundant files being left behind during version changes which is why I uninstall before installing a new version, and to give Mozilla the greatest chance of working per upgrade that I do.
I use Mozilla NOT Firefox but what I do for upgrades is this (and I do not loose my installed plugins, Orbit theme and settings). My memory is a little vague on the exact details, but if you can install Mozilla then you can handle the fine details yourself. :)
I do choose to uninstall Mozilla first using its uninstall option from the Windows Add Remove Programs. When prompted to delete everything from the mozilla.org directory I decline to do so, this leaves behind the components you have installed yourself.
I then install the new version of Mozilla, and it picks up all of my settings, installed plugins and the like using my profile, which is the default one.
I've been doing this since about Mozilla 1.3 or 1.4 and I have not had any problems following the process, but perhaps I'm just lucky :)
Perhaps I should of used the busty blond model example instead... :)
This basically sums up my views on the situation as well. I think it would be a good idea that such data be used to help determine fault in an accident. Perhaps it could even act as a deterrent to reckless unsafe driving. However such technology doesn't offer the descretion that say a police officer or judge has in determining the guilt in say exceeding the speed limit. What if you are speeding because you are trying to get a dying relative to a hospital or something? The law says that you are speeding, a police officer can determine that perhaps you actually need some help not be punished with a fine.
I can easily see however that transport departments would be eager to be able to query the data to apply tickets, especially to bolster the money made from fines and help the fill the government coffers.
The problem is I can't tell if i'm being funny or serious. Anyway, I pre-ordered, I paid the full price, and I'm a happy customer. To me at least thats what counts.
Since I am a programmer myself I see it as a moral duty to pay for the software that I use and not cheat the developers out of their money, even though I'm sure a large amount of that goes to the publishers rather than the developers.
Heh, my card is a year and a half old! Its not worth the circuit board its printed on now... :)
Kudos need to go to id for milking everything out of a video card to give a great presentation. I do plan on upgrading my video card when ATIs latest and greatest becomes ubiquitos in Australia but there isn't a need for me to go running out right now to do it.
I'm trying to liken this (though not in anyway compare, so no flames please!) to like social policies implemented by governments and such. They usually attack a small limited problem without taking the broader social issues into account causing them to ultimately fail because other related problems are not being addressed. So what in itself is a good solution just falls by the wayside because its deemed a failure because related problems don't get fixed as well.
Hmmm now i'm just wondering if I make any sense whatsoever... *yawn* sleep time...
Now getting rid of those ads, would be a nice feature most of the time but sometimes there are ads that I wan't to watch that tell me if a show has moved or something, or perhaps a new show I am interested in.
However I don't watch enough television to warrent such a service so I think I might skip it for now. I do have a digital television receiver (because good ones have been coming out at cheap prices) so that I can have DVD picture and sound quality but thats about as far as it goes. Free to air digital television isn't actually doing anything particularly constructive in Australia at the moment. I get an basic episode guide (when the stations can be bothered filling it in), time, and lots of stations which all show the same thing because each free to air station is only maintaining a single broadcast channel (except for ABC and SBS which have radio channels that they broadcast). There isn't anything else thats really worth noting.