If you want crummy search results, you should at least support a charity at the same time. Try GoodSearch, which lets you select a charity, then donates a penny to them every time you search. Unfortunately their search database is powered by Yahoo. It's better than Cuil is right now, but surprisingly worse than Google.
Seriously. I looked for a nonprofit organization I work with, EngenderHealth, and Cuil said there were zero results. Google returns something like 74,000+ results. Even Yahoo -- whose search I find remarkably useless -- returns nearly 10,000 results. Ditto for other company names I tried. Either Cuil is experiencing database issues, or their claim of "more pages than Google" is utter bunk.
I think "blindness" can easily refer to people who like shouting "fire" when they smell the tiniest whiff of smoke. But let's see...
"Paying... to be locked out." Right, because if Apple turnes off the iTunes servers, my music... keeps playing. And I can convert it to MP3 in a second, without burning it to CD first. Or I can burn it to CD as often as I like. (I'll have to change the burn playlists every once in awhile, oooooh.)
"What happens if a better gadget hits the market?" Then I convert over to MP3 and go on with life.
"You are being locked down from head to toe... [you won't] realize how much it is affecting [you] until it is too late to do anything about it." Locked down from head to toe? Are you serious? This isn't Gitmo, a Chinese prison, or a Nazi concentration camp. We're talking about one audio format (AAC) which has easily-circumnavigated DRM restrictions on it. It affects a small portion of the music I listen to. If Apple disappears tomorrow, all of this will still work. It's not like Yahoo or MSN, where the music stops working when the server goes down. And it sure as hell has zero impact on me personally, not when compared to real injustices in the world.
"You are dancing to Apple's tune and have no say about it." Somehow, I am under the impression that easily-converted formats and essentially unlimited burn-to-CD options means my dancing is actually to my music instead of to Apple's. It may be in an Apple-sponsored format today, but it doesn't have to be tomorrow.
"Jeez, don't you see what lock down is doing to MS costumers? [sic]" Yes. Don't you see the differences between Apple's lockdown and Microsoft's lockdown? I can actually swallow Apple's without choking. Maybe you cannot, and that's fine, but nobody is forcing you into it. Buy the physical CD and stop griping.
And ThePlanet.com is located in Texas (which is still part of the United States, despite past attempts to secede). Note that the domain name is registered through Godaddy, and their Facebook app is hosted in the U.S.
I would suggest that you have adapted your music listening to accomodate Apple's DRM
We may be arguing semantics about listening habits: if Apple's model happens to fit my habits, do you still think I am adapting to them?
because for less money, I can have a tangible disk, sleeve notes to read, at excellent quality that I can then rip myself at whatever bit rate I see fit.
Hey, that's fine for you. I live in a rather rural location, albums on iTunes are cheaper than physical media at nearby locations, and generally speaking, I just don't have time to browse the aisles at a music store to learn that they don't have a copy of the specific album I want. Liner notes are cool, sure, but not important enough to me.
I buy several albums from iTunes a year (probably 20+ albums). Since I have a Mac, and an iPod, and I burn the music to CD to play in the car during my lengthy commute -- Apple's DRM doesn't really bother me. When possible, I buy their DRM-less albums, and I have occasionally used the "convert to MP3" feature so I could make an MP3 CD... but so far, Apple's DRM has not interfered with my music listening.
Maybe if I wanted/needed a different music player, or I cared about saving a few pennies and buying music from Wal-Mart, then I'd start caring about this. But for now I don't.
We used wget
to recursively download the financial institution websites during
November and December of 2006. We chose to download the sites
so that we had uninterrupted access and had a consistent, static
view of each website. The websites may have fixed the design flaws
mentioned in this paper after our initial download.
Once we downloaded each website, we uses scripts to recursively
traverse and analyze the HTML pages for certain patterns
and identify the security design flaws. ... 4.3 Contact Information/Security Advice on Insecure
Pages:
We searched each web page for the string "contact", "information",
or "FAQ". If those strings where found, we checked whether
the page was protected with SSL. If not, then we considered it to
contain the design flaw.
By this logic, even this page would cause Chase's site to fail. Also:
We searched each web page for the string "login". If the string
was found, we searched the same page for the strings "username"
or "user id" or "password". If the string "login" and "username"
or "user id" or "password" were found on the same page, we then
verified whether the page was displayed using the http protocol. If
this was the case, we assumed this site contained the design flaw.
But my bank (which is not Chase) uses the phrase "sign in" instead of "login". Does this mean it is more secure?
Our study was
conducted during November and December of 2006...
Well, that's nice, but have things improved in the last 20 months? I know my bank has made some major changes to its online interface that appear to improve security (and are also, sometimes, a royal pain in the butt).
If someone is essential for a project, replace him as soon as you can.
Replace them? No. Distribute their responsibilities and knowledge? Yes. You still want the brainchild around to give input and support; it's just that you need backup in case they get hit by a bus (or paralyzing delusions of grandeur).
"For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death"... That's just one little line that plays a role against today's society, especially in the USA.
No kidding. Modern American Christians have no qualms about letting other people work on Sundays. Put gas in the car before church on Sunday (gas station attendant is working), go to a big lunch afterwards (wait staff and kitchen staff), stop at Wal-Mart on the way home to pick up sundries (clerks, managers, salespeople), order a pizza for dinner (kitchen staff, delivery boy), and watch TV in the evening (TV crews). Holy cow, we just sentenced dozens of people to death! But at least we could eat pizza and watch TV. Mmmm, pizza.
Of course, most modern American Christians tend to believe that the grace and mercy of God (see New Testament) have taken the place of the law and judgement of God (see Old Testament). That's me, anyway.
Uh... dude, did you READ my post? I said absolutely nothing about cost. I was talking strictly about customer perception. "Cost" didn't even appear in the post.
I'll also add that upfront equipment costs are only a small part of the equation. For many reasons, I am 2x to 3x more productive on a Mac than other design and video systems. Part of it is years of practice, of course, but still: even if I pay triple what you pay, I'm recovering it pretty darn fast, and overall the Mac becomes a bargain.
No, I don't have links for that. I used to work for a strategic marketing agency that GM hired for market research, and this bit appeared in one of our reports. It always stuck with me.
But, without links, it's just some guy on Slashdot saying it. Take it or leave it.
I dunno. I recently installed reCaptcha on a site that received dozens of spam messages through its online forms, and they all instantly stopped. None of them have returned. It's a low-traffic site, but still... made me think reCaptcha was doing a decent job.
If it's all marketing then why does Apple have the highest consumer satisfaction rates in the entire industry?
Here's an interesting factoid from the 1990s for you. Of all the auto brands in the General Motors family, Pontiac had the highest standards of production quality, while Cadillac had the lowest. And yet Pontiac had the lowest satisfaction ratings, while Cadillac had the highest.
My point is that "highest satisfaction" may have nothing to do with actual production quality, but with consumer perception of the product. And I say this as someone who prefers Macs to other systems (the same way I prefer New Balance sneakers to other shoes: because it fits me better).
And today a judge said they really don't have to -- "the online retailer does not bear a legal responsibility to prevent its users from selling counterfeit items on its marketplace."
The best example is the omnipresent claim that Inuit have dozens of words for snow. Or Ferengi having a few for rain, but none for "crunchy".
I don't know which is funnier -- that you bring up the old myth about words for snow, or that you mention Ferengi (a made up Star Trek language) with the same breath as Inuit (a real millenia-old language).
"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.
There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
You know, people keep telling me this, but I haven't seen any actual proof that an SSH client would be prevented. But I may well have missed it in the SDK license. Can you point me to where Apple legally prohibits this?
why not even a ssh/telnet client of any kind. WTF apple?
Well, barring anything in the SDK that might prevent an SSH/telnet client from being developed, I suspect it's because none of the the currently-ready iPhone developers thought the market needed it badly enough to develop it now. Don't like it? Write one yourself.
This was not an easy call for me. I know that the FISA bill that passed the House is far from perfect. I wouldn't have drafted the legislation like this, and it does not resolve all of the concerns that we have about President Bush's abuse of executive power. It grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that may have violated the law by cooperating with the Bush Administration's program of warrantless wiretapping. This potentially weakens the deterrent effect of the law and removes an important tool for the American people to demand accountability for past abuses. That's why I support striking Title II from the bill, and will work with Chris Dodd, Jeff Bingaman and others in an effort to remove this provision in the Senate.
But I also believe that the compromise bill is far better than the Protect America Act that I voted against last year. The exclusivity provision makes it clear to any President or telecommunications company that no law supersedes the authority of the FISA court. In a dangerous world, government must have the authority to collect the intelligence we need to protect the American people. But in a free society, that authority cannot be unlimited. As I've said many times, an independent monitor must watch the watchers to prevent abuses and to protect the civil liberties of the American people. This compromise law assures that the FISA court has that responsibility
The Inspectors General report also provides a real mechanism for accountability and should not be discounted. It will allow a close look at past misconduct without hurdles that would exist in federal court because of classification issues. The (PDF)recent investigation uncovering the illegal politicization of Justice Department hiring sets a strong example of the accountability that can come from a tough and thorough IG report.
The ability to monitor and track individuals who want to attack the United States is a vital counter-terrorism tool, and I'm persuaded that it is necessary to keep the American people safe -- particularly since certain electronic surveillance orders will begin to expire later this summer. Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, I've chosen to support the current compromise. I do so with the firm intention -- once I'm sworn in as President -- to have my Attorney General conduct a comprehensive review of all our surveillance programs, and to make further recommendations on any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future.
...
When citizens join their voices together, they can hold their leaders accountable. I'm not exempt from that. I'm certainly not perfect, and expect to be held accountable too. I cannot promise to agree with you on every issue.... Democracy cannot exist without strong differences. And going forward, some of you may decide that my FISA position is a deal breaker. That's ok. But I think it is worth pointing out that our agreement on the vast majority of issues that matter outweighs the differences we may have.
Maybe it's not what you want to hear, but it sounds like he felt the compromise was acceptable.
Is there anything to stop him from making the exact same amount of noise, but just hiring other lawyers to do the legal mumbo jumbo?
Chances are he will hit the talk show circuit, particularly among conservatives, to give speeches about video games and the decline of civilization (or law) as we know it. I half expect him to show up at a local church and be proclaimed a prophet.
Slashdot Mirror
If you want crummy search results, you should at least support a charity at the same time. Try GoodSearch, which lets you select a charity, then donates a penny to them every time you search. Unfortunately their search database is powered by Yahoo. It's better than Cuil is right now, but surprisingly worse than Google.
Seriously. I looked for a nonprofit organization I work with, EngenderHealth, and Cuil said there were zero results. Google returns something like 74,000+ results. Even Yahoo -- whose search I find remarkably useless -- returns nearly 10,000 results. Ditto for other company names I tried. Either Cuil is experiencing database issues, or their claim of "more pages than Google" is utter bunk.
I think "blindness" can easily refer to people who like shouting "fire" when they smell the tiniest whiff of smoke. But let's see...
"Paying... to be locked out." Right, because if Apple turnes off the iTunes servers, my music... keeps playing. And I can convert it to MP3 in a second, without burning it to CD first. Or I can burn it to CD as often as I like. (I'll have to change the burn playlists every once in awhile, oooooh.)
"What happens if a better gadget hits the market?" Then I convert over to MP3 and go on with life.
"You are being locked down from head to toe... [you won't] realize how much it is affecting [you] until it is too late to do anything about it." Locked down from head to toe? Are you serious? This isn't Gitmo, a Chinese prison, or a Nazi concentration camp. We're talking about one audio format (AAC) which has easily-circumnavigated DRM restrictions on it. It affects a small portion of the music I listen to. If Apple disappears tomorrow, all of this will still work. It's not like Yahoo or MSN, where the music stops working when the server goes down. And it sure as hell has zero impact on me personally, not when compared to real injustices in the world.
"You are dancing to Apple's tune and have no say about it." Somehow, I am under the impression that easily-converted formats and essentially unlimited burn-to-CD options means my dancing is actually to my music instead of to Apple's. It may be in an Apple-sponsored format today, but it doesn't have to be tomorrow.
"Jeez, don't you see what lock down is doing to MS costumers? [sic]" Yes. Don't you see the differences between Apple's lockdown and Microsoft's lockdown? I can actually swallow Apple's without choking. Maybe you cannot, and that's fine, but nobody is forcing you into it. Buy the physical CD and stop griping.
Dekortage:~ $ ping scrabulous.com
...
...
PING scrabulous.com (209.62.127.41): 56 data bytes
Dekortage:~ $ nslookup 209.62.127.41
Non-authoritative answer:
41.127.62.209.in-addr.arpa name = ev1s-209-62-127-41.theplanet.com.
And ThePlanet.com is located in Texas (which is still part of the United States, despite past attempts to secede). Note that the domain name is registered through Godaddy, and their Facebook app is hosted in the U.S.
We may be arguing semantics about listening habits: if Apple's model happens to fit my habits, do you still think I am adapting to them?
Hey, that's fine for you. I live in a rather rural location, albums on iTunes are cheaper than physical media at nearby locations, and generally speaking, I just don't have time to browse the aisles at a music store to learn that they don't have a copy of the specific album I want. Liner notes are cool, sure, but not important enough to me.
I buy several albums from iTunes a year (probably 20+ albums). Since I have a Mac, and an iPod, and I burn the music to CD to play in the car during my lengthy commute -- Apple's DRM doesn't really bother me. When possible, I buy their DRM-less albums, and I have occasionally used the "convert to MP3" feature so I could make an MP3 CD... but so far, Apple's DRM has not interfered with my music listening.
Maybe if I wanted/needed a different music player, or I cared about saving a few pennies and buying music from Wal-Mart, then I'd start caring about this. But for now I don't.
From the research paper:
By this logic, even this page would cause Chase's site to fail. Also:
But my bank (which is not Chase) uses the phrase "sign in" instead of "login". Does this mean it is more secure?
From the actual research:
Well, that's nice, but have things improved in the last 20 months? I know my bank has made some major changes to its online interface that appear to improve security (and are also, sometimes, a royal pain in the butt).
Replace them? No. Distribute their responsibilities and knowledge? Yes. You still want the brainchild around to give input and support; it's just that you need backup in case they get hit by a bus (or paralyzing delusions of grandeur).
No kidding. Modern American Christians have no qualms about letting other people work on Sundays. Put gas in the car before church on Sunday (gas station attendant is working), go to a big lunch afterwards (wait staff and kitchen staff), stop at Wal-Mart on the way home to pick up sundries (clerks, managers, salespeople), order a pizza for dinner (kitchen staff, delivery boy), and watch TV in the evening (TV crews). Holy cow, we just sentenced dozens of people to death! But at least we could eat pizza and watch TV. Mmmm, pizza.
Of course, most modern American Christians tend to believe that the grace and mercy of God (see New Testament) have taken the place of the law and judgement of God (see Old Testament). That's me, anyway.
I've tried dialing the number and just get a fast-busy signal.
Mod parent up.
I've done this with Verizon too, though more for the reasons that Slydial aims for.
And wouldn't you know it -- http://127.0.0.1/drupal-5.7/admin/users/roles is down too!
Uh... dude, did you READ my post? I said absolutely nothing about cost. I was talking strictly about customer perception. "Cost" didn't even appear in the post.
I'll also add that upfront equipment costs are only a small part of the equation. For many reasons, I am 2x to 3x more productive on a Mac than other design and video systems. Part of it is years of practice, of course, but still: even if I pay triple what you pay, I'm recovering it pretty darn fast, and overall the Mac becomes a bargain.
No, I don't have links for that. I used to work for a strategic marketing agency that GM hired for market research, and this bit appeared in one of our reports. It always stuck with me.
But, without links, it's just some guy on Slashdot saying it. Take it or leave it.
I dunno. I recently installed reCaptcha on a site that received dozens of spam messages through its online forms, and they all instantly stopped. None of them have returned. It's a low-traffic site, but still... made me think reCaptcha was doing a decent job.
Here's an interesting factoid from the 1990s for you. Of all the auto brands in the General Motors family, Pontiac had the highest standards of production quality, while Cadillac had the lowest. And yet Pontiac had the lowest satisfaction ratings, while Cadillac had the highest.
My point is that "highest satisfaction" may have nothing to do with actual production quality, but with consumer perception of the product. And I say this as someone who prefers Macs to other systems (the same way I prefer New Balance sneakers to other shoes: because it fits me better).
It's a great reminder, once again, that Google actually HAS your username and video watching habits, and can use the info however it wants.
And today a judge said they really don't have to -- "the online retailer does not bear a legal responsibility to prevent its users from selling counterfeit items on its marketplace."
I don't know which is funnier -- that you bring up the old myth about words for snow, or that you mention Ferengi (a made up Star Trek language) with the same breath as Inuit (a real millenia-old language).
To quote John Swinton:
You know, people keep telling me this, but I haven't seen any actual proof that an SSH client would be prevented. But I may well have missed it in the SDK license. Can you point me to where Apple legally prohibits this?
Well, barring anything in the SDK that might prevent an SSH/telnet client from being developed, I suspect it's because none of the the currently-ready iPhone developers thought the market needed it badly enough to develop it now. Don't like it? Write one yourself.
Well, Obama did offer an explanation:
Maybe it's not what you want to hear, but it sounds like he felt the compromise was acceptable.
Chances are he will hit the talk show circuit, particularly among conservatives, to give speeches about video games and the decline of civilization (or law) as we know it. I half expect him to show up at a local church and be proclaimed a prophet.
And he'll write a book.