What if your browser has an unpatched vulnerability that allows program execution simply by loading malicious content on a compromised webpage you visit frequently? The Windows.wmf vulnerability from a couple years ago was like this.
Do you regularly rotate which browser you use based on which one has security problems? What about unknown vulnerabilities? Of course, no AV program can be sure to protect you in this situation, but it's still good insurance.
In abstract, I agree with the points you make. Practically speaking, AV software for the Windows platform is still a good idea.
"But most gutters (or at least mine) tend to have soggy, caked-up gunk in them"
I recall a home improvement show (This Old House?) testing the Looj. They placed a section of gutter on the ground and filled it with various debris, then ran the Looj through it. The Looj didn't deal with the heavy caked gunk very well, losing one of its tracks at one point. It did not come across as very impressive. I recall the host didn't recommend it. Can't find a video unfortunately
Rather, it was to be used as it was in the first days of the 1990 Gulf conflict during Bush I's tenure
According to Ben Rich's excellent "Skunk Works" about his time there (starting as an engineer on the U2, through his first project as director of the Skunk Works, the F-117), the F-117 was ready to be used in the bombing of Tripoli in 1986, but to preserve the secrecy of it's existence for a more valuable target in the future, F-111s were substituted at the last minute. There are many great U-2, SR-71, and F-117 stories in that book, highly recommended!
"Apart from the fact the Acer does not seem to convince on performance and sense, why in the name of god would Ferrari put its name on this ugly piece of junk?"
As always, follow the money. Acer is a major sponsor of the Ferrari F1 effort, which no doubt aided in negotiating the right to use the Ferrari brand on laptops. No idea why this particular machine got the nod, I doubt that Ferrari has any say in what machine gets the label.
Be careful shopping though;) http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/10/10 userfriendly.org also has a funny series about buying a missile silo, but the site isn't responding atm.
"* Reliable Tires (or that fail gradually) - Tires are still based on air-filled balloon technology, making them problematic." There appears to be a good solution for this one in the works: http://forums.streetfire.net/showthread.php?s=&t=251
Neal Stephenson wrote a great piece about undersea cables, and FLAG in particular, called "Mother Earth Motherboard" http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html Flag lands at Alexandria and runs across Egypt because the Suez canal is too shallow and is dredged too often for a cable to be safe. He talks about anchor snags too. One creepy thing about the article- he wrote it in 97, note the reference to the World Trade Center collapsing.
Vista can refuse to connect to a printer shared on an XP machine (though other XP machines can connect to the shared printer). I set up a fair number of workgroups, so I know of and have successfully used the workarounds on other networks- creating a printer with a local port, then changing to a UNC share port, etc. But occasionally nothing works. It is also annoying that you can only rarely use the "browse to printer host, double click printer to install on Vista machine" method.
How do you make fonts and icons universally larger for users with poor vision WITHOUT increasing screen resolution ala Windows' "Accesibility Wizard". I've asked Mac support, the local genius bar, Google, and the Mac experts I know, and none have had any options better than the per window font size adjustment or decreaseing resolution. It's a shame to have to run non native resolution on the beautiful 24" iMac....
In "Skunk Works" about Lockheed's black projects program- U2, SR-71, F-111, etc (a GREAT read btw) Ben Rich said they found scorched specks on some SR-71 canopies that turned out to be bugs that they figured were lofted to 100,000ft in nuclear tests.
The US pays the largest percentage of the peacekeeping budget at around 25%: http://www.state.gov/p/io/pkpg/ US personnel are active in 8 of the 17 peacekeeping operations, but actual US troop numbers were hard to find (or my search abilities were weak). This is further confused by the fact that the US is reluctant to place troops under direct UN control. Kosovo, for example, had US troops under NATO control, so though they were supporting the UN peacekeeping mission, they were not "UN peacekeeping troops" included in the UN's headcount
"Not all of your apps will run with WinVista, unless you use "compatibility mode" or do some extra steps."
"Since Vista automatically offers to re-run most programs in Compatibility Mode if they didn't work without it, and since MS provides step-by-step instructions and a helpful wizard for resolving compatibility issues, and since it literally takes 5 clicks of the mouse to set compatibility mode to XP SP2, and since the vast majority of apps will run fine on Vista without any Compatibility Mode at all, this really doesn't seem like a major issue to me."
How about Quickbooks? Can't use compatibility mode here, you MUST upgrade to version 2007 or newer if you have Vista ($500-++?? for multiuser versions). MANY other industry specific apps are the same in my experience.
Slashdot Mirror
Can't RTFA as it's /.'ed, but how is this worthy of the front page? Any number of PC hardware enthusiast websites regularly do this type of article.
Do you regularly rotate which browser you use based on which one has security problems? What about unknown vulnerabilities? Of course, no AV program can be sure to protect you in this situation, but it's still good insurance.
In abstract, I agree with the points you make. Practically speaking, AV software for the Windows platform is still a good idea.
I recall a home improvement show (This Old House?) testing the Looj. They placed a section of gutter on the ground and filled it with various debris, then ran the Looj through it. The Looj didn't deal with the heavy caked gunk very well, losing one of its tracks at one point. It did not come across as very impressive. I recall the host didn't recommend it. Can't find a video unfortunately
(turns in Geek card...)
4. profit!
I recall some HP machines had serious problems (driver related?) with installing XP2 too.
According to Ben Rich's excellent "Skunk Works" about his time there (starting as an engineer on the U2, through his first project as director of the Skunk Works, the F-117), the F-117 was ready to be used in the bombing of Tripoli in 1986, but to preserve the secrecy of it's existence for a more valuable target in the future, F-111s were substituted at the last minute. There are many great U-2, SR-71, and F-117 stories in that book, highly recommended!
A research site in Florida fires rockets trailing a wire into thunderstorms to stimulate lightning strikes: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rocket_lightning_030130.html Video on this page: http://skydiary.com/gallery/chase2002/2002lightmovie.html
Quickbooks has a number of problems running on 64 bit Vista, an absolute deal breaker for the enormous small and medium business market.
Hopefully "they" also develop good image to speech technologies, or are they forgetting that there are many visually impaired Internet users?
"Apart from the fact the Acer does not seem to convince on performance and sense, why in the name of god would Ferrari put its name on this ugly piece of junk?" As always, follow the money. Acer is a major sponsor of the Ferrari F1 effort, which no doubt aided in negotiating the right to use the Ferrari brand on laptops. No idea why this particular machine got the nod, I doubt that Ferrari has any say in what machine gets the label.
Be careful shopping though ;) http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/10/10 userfriendly.org also has a funny series about buying a missile silo, but the site isn't responding atm.
"* Reliable Tires (or that fail gradually) - Tires are still based on air-filled balloon technology, making them problematic." There appears to be a good solution for this one in the works: http://forums.streetfire.net/showthread.php?s=&t=251
Ob. UserFriendly: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080131
Neal Stephenson wrote a great piece about undersea cables, and FLAG in particular, called "Mother Earth Motherboard" http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html Flag lands at Alexandria and runs across Egypt because the Suez canal is too shallow and is dredged too often for a cable to be safe. He talks about anchor snags too. One creepy thing about the article- he wrote it in 97, note the reference to the World Trade Center collapsing.
Vista can refuse to connect to a printer shared on an XP machine (though other XP machines can connect to the shared printer). I set up a fair number of workgroups, so I know of and have successfully used the workarounds on other networks- creating a printer with a local port, then changing to a UNC share port, etc. But occasionally nothing works. It is also annoying that you can only rarely use the "browse to printer host, double click printer to install on Vista machine" method.
I was just watching a show on http://revision3.com/ Many Tech TV alums have shows, I like Techzilla myself.
Thank you!
How do you make fonts and icons universally larger for users with poor vision WITHOUT increasing screen resolution ala Windows' "Accesibility Wizard". I've asked Mac support, the local genius bar, Google, and the Mac experts I know, and none have had any options better than the per window font size adjustment or decreaseing resolution. It's a shame to have to run non native resolution on the beautiful 24" iMac....
In "Skunk Works" about Lockheed's black projects program- U2, SR-71, F-111, etc (a GREAT read btw) Ben Rich said they found scorched specks on some SR-71 canopies that turned out to be bugs that they figured were lofted to 100,000ft in nuclear tests.
The US pays the largest percentage of the peacekeeping budget at around 25%: http://www.state.gov/p/io/pkpg/ US personnel are active in 8 of the 17 peacekeeping operations, but actual US troop numbers were hard to find (or my search abilities were weak). This is further confused by the fact that the US is reluctant to place troops under direct UN control. Kosovo, for example, had US troops under NATO control, so though they were supporting the UN peacekeeping mission, they were not "UN peacekeeping troops" included in the UN's headcount
Nice to meet you Peter, and all the other attendees! Blue Meanie was a great host. I'd bet that Denver won the "best beer selection" award.
How about Quickbooks? You must buy ver. 2007 if you want to run Quickbooks on Vista. That one affects a huge number of small businesses.
"Not all of your apps will run with WinVista, unless you use "compatibility mode" or do some extra steps." "Since Vista automatically offers to re-run most programs in Compatibility Mode if they didn't work without it, and since MS provides step-by-step instructions and a helpful wizard for resolving compatibility issues, and since it literally takes 5 clicks of the mouse to set compatibility mode to XP SP2, and since the vast majority of apps will run fine on Vista without any Compatibility Mode at all, this really doesn't seem like a major issue to me." How about Quickbooks? Can't use compatibility mode here, you MUST upgrade to version 2007 or newer if you have Vista ($500-++?? for multiuser versions). MANY other industry specific apps are the same in my experience.
Or the business can make the quick $10 for themselves by submitting and verifying their own info