Most people in the US don't know what a millimeter is either;-).
Try telling them that a cigarette is about 100 mm.
It gets complicated using penises as a standard. There's this thing called net-inches...
Stevie420: Are you sure I'd like it? I've never done anything like that before BillyG666: You'll love it. If I slapped it down on your keyboard it would go from A to Z BillyG666: Oh shit...
It's too hard to tell what's up when a guy has a little one. Last week I met this guy with one the size of a golf pencil. I couldn't tell if he was trying to make love or trying to erase me...
If one is going to make a fuss about user replaceability of components that degrade, how about addressing changing backlights in laptops and flat-panel televisions, and the individual battery cells within laptop battery packs? (Those are generally inside cases that are glued together) Yeah, I know... if the cells were accessible this same guy would eat one and then sue over no warning label after being poisoned.
Some products that are somewhat expensive have batteries that aren't replaceable at at. I was surprised to see Oral-B / Braun electric toothbrushes costing about $100 (US) not allowing battery replacement. On calling customer service, they tactfully manipulate language to call that thing with the motor, switch, battery, and magnetic-induction energized charging circuit a "handle". The replacement cost was lower than I expected (about $25), but it is still upsetting to produce so much e-waste over a failing battery. It's a safe bet that very few of those see any sort of recycling.
Don't worry, by the time those iPhone batteries fail people will be after the new model that reviews your user profile, scans others nearby for a match with the integrated camera and pheromone sensors, reads their wi-fi data profiles, automatically calls and sets up a date (generating your voice), plans and maps your evening, controls your car to get you there, and automatically makes profitable investments while you're having a pleasant time. Feeling some that things are best left to the user, Apple will omit the "squirt" function.
The little energy you might save (and from the WSJ article, the difference in energy use for LCD monitors was in the margin of error for the tool used to measure it)
This all reminds me of that game played with a group of people in a circle, repeating some phrase from one to the next... after a while things mutate, and there generally isn't anything useful/intelligent added along the way. That's what happened here with the various articles and blogs. It sounds as if even the WSJ was fairly clueless in getting much useful into this story. Following some links back,the whole story was clearly about reducing power consumption on remaining c.r.t. based displays before we finish the transition to L.C.D.s
Having spent years in the guts of things electronic, here are some added thoughts:
Most of the power used in a L.C.D. display is for the backlight. The actual panel uses practically zero power to switch the liquid crystal from alignment in one polarization to the other. IIRC, there is a plastic polarizing filter layer on the surface of the panel. Whether the panel acts as normally on or normally off with no voltage applied depends on which way the filter was oriented, so neither all on or all off inherently uses more power. Whether the driving electronics uses more power in the high or low state depends on the design of the electronics, it could go either way. The WSJ article showed only a very small difference between states. What clearly did make a difference was turning down the brightness. That actually reduces the power to the backlight. In c.r.t displays lower average brightness (by adjustment OR by nature of content) reduces power consumption because of lower c.r.t. anode current means less of a load on the high voltage power supply. In older monitors that I have examined, the driver electronics was essentially a class-A common-emitter amplifier feeding each c.r.t. cathode. Higher conduction of the driver transistor pulls the c.r.t cathode voltage less positive, increasing brightness (c.r.t beam current) and the current through the collector pullup resistor at the same time. So with that design both the c.r.t. power consumption and that of the driver electronics is highest with the most light output from the display display.
Just about anyone who has paid attention knows their laptops get shorter battery runtime when the backlight is set bright. Using the lowest acceptable setting also extends backlight life. Somewhat less obvious is the increased power consumption while browsing sites displaying Flash ads. I first noticed it when my older laptop had the cpu fan kicking in at odd times. Installing the OS X utility Menu Meters confirmed the increase in CPU activity on certain web pages. Using the Flackblock plugin for Firefox is an environmentally friendly move!
To maintain a given level of light output per unit area, large screen LCDs have higher-powered backlights. With the very large screens becoming common for HDTV use, combined with the tendency of many people to leave televisions on for extended periods, the energy use situation developing is a disturbing one. It reminds me of 60's era color televisions using vacuum tubes. Power consumption of 350 Watts was not uncommon. Hopefully displays will transition from CCFLs (cold-cathode florescent lamps) to L.E.D. back lighting to improve both efficiency and life. Perhaps some models could offer an auto sleep mode where viewers would need to take some action (any action at all) on a remote to keep a display from going into sleep.
Heavy amounts of advertising is certainly a major force in driving people away from traditional tv. I believe the tv rules were similar to radio. IIRC, years ago at license renenwal time stations would commit to a certain amount of public affairs programming and a maximum hourly number of minutes of advertising. The advertising cap didn't apply two weeks of the year. Typically stations would run more during the December holiday period, and in election years right before an election.
It didn't really occur to me until just now, but I think the dropping of those regulations is likely to be a major reason for the Christmas advertising season ramping up so early now (basically at Thanksgiving).
Besides too many regular ads being very disruptive of any kind of programming with complex content, I think those lengthy "infomercials", which were not allowed before, are also doing quite a bit to alienate viewers.
Watching over-the air tv, I now record just a handful of things to watch when I want to, and the rest of the time I'm not tuned in. The days of having a tv on in the background, or sitting through a show I don't really care for to catch another later, are gone. I'll no-longer accept planning my time around a broadcast schedule. Using a PVR I may be ahead of the curve a bit, but it seems likely most are either headed the same directly, or have already left for pay services.
With digital tv ramping up, if broadcasters were smart, they'd be putting on some worthwhile content all the time treating time like valuable bandwidth. With the ability to handle multiple program channels over one transmitter and in one licensed channel they have the potential to bring people back to broadcast tv. Those making programming decisions seem like total idiots. Even the shows I like often don't have very many shows per season compared with many years ago.
With computers as PVRs (using something like Eye-TV on a Mac), one can edit out the commercials without tooo much effort. If the commercials are poorly done and there are too many, people will be more likely to take the time to remove them.
So far I'd say that using a PVR has actually increased my seeing commercials on shows I like. Between watching some ads live (often while recording), stopping and viewing - and even saving some - while editing, and catching some in episodes I otherwise would have missed, I think I'm seeing more of the ads that might interest me than in the past. I at least skim past all of them, some I would have certainly skipped by wandering out of the room previously.
If net based content can't be recorded automatically (or at least viewed on demand), is loaded with ads, and doesn't compete with SD and HD TV quality, it'd be even worse than regular tv. If I can't save it DRM-free, and remove ads if I want to, I doubt I'll be watching.
That'll work once but won't work the next time. Any market has its reputation system and if you're known to sell to both (an obvious thing since Microsoft will have patched it shortly), I'm sure people will bid less and less for your exploit.
If sellers with bad reputations on Ebay manage to come back with another identity and continue business as usual it seems plausible that those marketing hacks could do the same.
Plus, do you really want to screw over black market customers? They're not your typical customers. I'm sure they'll do a lot worse than not shopping from you again if you screw them over (think identity theft or worse).
If that's really the case and there's enough identity for the sellers out there to be stolen, perhaps selling worthless hacks using a sellers identity is a way to combat them?
...all the OS vendors to install backdoors so that it can come in and install whatever spyware it wants to be installed?
It seems very likely. Looking for alternative firmware for a popular wireless router I ran across info showing the vendors original firmware having a hidden log file that was active even when the one from the user-configuration page was turned off. It'd be trivial to have wireless routers connect somewhere (perhaps while appearing to access a time server?) to help reveal the location of every wireless access point.
Backdoors in commercial OSes seem very likely. Most think of the pre-OS X Mac OS as looking pretty much non-existent to the net when services are off. Yet there was once a release (9.0?) that crashed if a certain port was scanned. An incremental update (9.0.1?) fixed that issue, but I never heard anything explaining what the hell that port was doing active in the first place. I may have the version wrong, it might have been 8.6/8.6.1) I can't even find mention of it anymore. I don't recall the port number, but it was one not used by any of the standard services in Mac OS. That was before I ever heard of port-knocking, clearly anything done now would be far less obvious.
While it's all fine and good that the feds and others catch the true bad guys, I can't help but wonder if the net sum of all digital evils would be less if the goal were simply to make everything as absolutely secure as possible from everyone. While that would hamper some cases, the net good of having fewer people exploited elsewhere, and fewer criminals hiding through use of compromised machines, could more than offset that. Our very infrastructure is threatened by vulnerabilities.
It just doesn't feel right that every gadget we own be designed to allow us to be vulnerable or spied on. Hardware and software is being designed with functionality that should be prohibited without exception.
Governments seem to be able to do everything that we normally consider socially unacceptable of individuals including lying to people, locking people away, taking their money, and killing people. I guess exploiting vulnerabilities and even having them in place in advance of use is more to add to the list.
There are plenty of good people in government, and many trying to act in the public interest, but too much power in the hands of others seems dangerous.
An essential component of democracy is a free and open media. Regulatory changes and commercial motivations have led to a dangerous situation. Look at what's on tv and radio. There is so much that is underreported. The concept of broadcasters working as trustees of the public interest has largely been forgotten or buried. We're lucky we still have PBS.
People often speak of corruption in government and see a link to lobbying activity and campaign funding. But few, certainly almost none in the media, dare speak of changing where the money is going and altering the situation there. If we did away with all paid political advertising our leaders wouldn't have to sell their souls to pay for campaigns. The details of how media would provide free time to candidates and others would have to be worked out. If ownership were more diverse, broadcasters handling of that would also be more diverse...a good thing!
Broadcast deregulation was supposedly going to serve the public interest well through "marketplace forces". Now we've got largely redundant crap for news coverage, tons of infomercials, loss of most quality programming...
"So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE! I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!'" (from the movie Network)
I realize you weren't serious about giving up everything, but how about at least having some text-only POP and web email clients to avoid html vulnerabilities and web bugs (AKA Yahoo Web Beacons) when browsing mail? (names of OS X and Linux versions needed)
Perhaps Firefox ought to have a plain text mode for all but trusted sites?
Giving up rich content for browsing is one thing, but most of the time there is no need for it in email. Text content with support for file attachments would be plenty.
There is also the issue of hot running hardware still being more likely to fail prematurely (but beyond even an extended warranty) due to the heat causing, among other things, increased thermal-cycling cracks in solder connections and deterioration of electrolytic capacitors over time.
Even an extended (3 year) warranty doesn't adequately address the problem since the hardware out there after 3 years will still have reduced value due to a shorter than normal lifetime. And those getting some relief by an extended warranty still aren't compensated for their wasted time and suffering. Users should ALL be given replacements with the defective (excessively hot) DESIGN fixed. It would seem the fixed units are those with 65 nm CPUs and improved optical drives.
I've read reports of newer units not having the excessive optical-drive noise present in the earlier units. Perhaps the noisy drives were the ones damaging the discs. Anyone with a noisy drive would probably be well advised to demand a replacement.
Beyond replacing the original defective hardware, users ought to get something for their suffering. It doesn't seem likely they'd get cash back, but perhaps a free game could work?
don't mind the grinding noise little boy, it's just the sound of power
Quite a bit of what's in RAM and some of what was previously in RAM may be found in the virtual memory swap space of on a drive. Perhaps that's what they really mean? I don't know what data is there on the server in question, but it likely goes beyond what one normally thinks of as written to disk. Consumer machines often have contents of pages surfed and email viewed lingering in the swap space. Browser use often does leave behind much data beyond the contents of their own (and JAVAs) cache files. Something similar on a server should be unsurprising.
Many reasonably well managed Windows machines still get hit. It is also possible to be infected with something not detected by standard antivirus programs, or by something that does not currently show any obvious side-effects. To lower risk as far as possible, avoid using any Windows machines for browsing or accessing any internet applications.
If you must access the internet from a machine on the same network as a Windows computer, consider doing so only from one running another OS. Use of browser plugins to restrict browser use of javascript, JAVA, and Flash to only essential sites that need them reduces the number of possible areas of exposure. A "fired if caught using Explorer" policy helps but isn't enough since all browsers will have some vulnerabilities on any platform. It is best to use a machine with as little data as possible on it. An old Pentium III with 256 MB or better RAM can run and browse fine from a Ubuntu CD (known as live mode). A fast optical drive matters more than CPU speed when it comes to the bootup time. No hard drive is needed. Many PCs now commonly sent to thrift stores and recyclers are adequate for this. Where I am such systems sell for about $5. U.S. A months' energy use could cost more than the hardware. A Pentium III system will generally use much less energy than most Pentium IV systems, so those are best avoided unless you really need the performance for something else. Use basic onboard video or video cards if possible. Gaming-class cards are energy hungry. With a live-cd booted system if something hostile does gets into memory, it'll be gone when you reboot. An infection present under a different OS is also less likely to spread to other machines also inside the firewall.
Of course you can dual boot or use live cd mode from a machine that is also occasionally used for Windows. If your firewall supports blocking specific machines from the net, it is best to lock out the Windows machines or at least restrict the ports with access. Depending on your application, Macs may also be a good option. If the hardware cost is slightly higher (which is not always the case), bear in mind it may still be offset by savings from not having to buy and maintain antivirus utilities, or do frequent rebuilds of contaminated systems.
I'd like to find good email clients that can be forced to run in text-only mode. That'd avoid any email exposure to browser-type vulnerabilities and privacy issues like web-bugs (or web beacons as Yahoo likes to call them).
Much of what remains involves user behavior. Most users should not have access to systems that allow installing anything without an admin password. Even Mac users would be wise to add/use accounts with reduced permissions.
Our carbon-dioxide buildup routine may eventually eliminate the problems brought by the current two-legged carbon-based life form infestation, but disinfecting the global environment is a slow process.
Actually most standard transistor radios, including some early ones, had six transistors. The Regency TR-1 had four, using only one transistor in the audio section. I just fixed an old 1958 vintage Sony TR-610 the other day. The schematic shows a converter transistor (oscillator that also performs mixing function), two I.F. (intermediate frequency) amplifiers, an audio preamp stage and a push-pull audio power amplifier. Although many later radios had the PNP variety of germanium transistors, early ones like the Regency and Sony used NPN. Some weird design variations were attempts to trim costs or weight. I recall some R.C.A. radios having a center-tapped voice coil on the speaker so the output stage could be push-pull without an output transformer.
It was probably close to 1970 when I noticed radios with an inflated transistor count. A pocket radio that listed 12 comes to mind. At least three functioned as diodes - one for the detector, and a couple for in the bias network for the output stage. I'm not sure if the others were even wired to do anything. The inflated count just made me laugh. How cheated can one really feel when spending $1.97 (K-Mart price) for a radio? It was able to pick up WLS Chicago at night (then a fun pop station, much like the old 93 KHJ Los Angeles). I was in California, so I was impressed to get that station so well. It was a good year for skip, and the band wasn't as cluttered then. Listening now is a sad experience. There's hardly anything worth listening to, and most of what one can get on a distant station is identical to a local broadcast.
Some radios with more than 6 transistor were better. Those with a tuned radio-frequency amplifier stage added at the input often had better sensitivity and image-rejection. Image-rejection is the suppression of the signal 455 KHz above the oscillator frequency, normally the desired signal was 455 Khz below the oscillator frequency.
Of course I'm speaking of AM-only radios. Those with FM typically added a separate front end section, but managed to use the I.F. transistors for both frequencies (455 KHz and 10.7 MHz). The FM input section normally couldn't use just one transistor because with the oscillator and desired signal frequencies only about 10% apart there wasn't enough selectivity in the input tuning to prevent the oscillator signal from radiating excessively. Most F.M. receivers still leak some signal, which is why they were a problem on airplanes. With the oscillator running 10.7 MHz above the desired station it falls in the aircraft band if one is tuned on the top half of the F.M. broadcast band. Take an F.M. radio and tune it to a quiet spot in the top part of the band, then when you tune another FM radio nearby around 10.7 lower, you'll pick up the oscillator signal on the first radio. That can be useful. I once knew someone that ran a pirate F.M. station and went around tracking down listeners to say hi. Having various oscillator signals leak is one way those in countries requiring licenses for receivers can tell they are running.
There were a few radios with perhaps 2 transistors. They generally had poor sensitivity. I think the first transistor acted as a combo detector/audio stage, and the second as audio power amplifier. (That ran the amplifier in Class A mode, so battery life was poor even with only two transistors). These radios were not the real superhet type an "adult" would normally have, and were sometimes called Boys Radios.
A low transistor count is possible with a super-regenerative receiver. Basically a tuned R.F. amplifier has positive feedback which brings the gain up a great deal, and being at the point of os
Shooting whom? The members of the profession or the laymen? If you're going to call for someone's head, you should at least be a little more specific about whose head you want served to you on a silver platter.
Those who call lawyers useless aren't being very open minded. Lawyers may be a melamine-free source of protein, but I think my cat would prefer something a bit less bony than the head.
I wonder if the computer program has a way to rate them on flavor?
Is it censorship if the mass media ignores it, or does it show that their viewing public don't care?
It goes beyond censorship. There is also disinformation. I've seen multiple news stories about the dangers of WiFi. What's happening is similar to the misinformation spread for years to cast doubts about the validity of global warming.
Recent coverage I've seen showed WiFi as a culprit for identifty theft, stolen credit card info in particular.
A woman "victim" was shown.
There was NO indication that anyone locally had exploited her wireless in anyway.
There was NO mention of where here credit card number was used, or any sign of researching what actually happened.
There was NO mention that even on open wireless, normal browser handling of online transactions encrypts the traffic.
There was NO mention of the widespread problems from Malware and phishing scams, and those being a far more likely way of her information being compromised.
There was NO mention of the fairly common incidence of information being compromised while supposedly under the control of vendors (retailers and other institutions)
There was NO mention of the postive potential uses for open wireless, such as making phone calls essentially free by avoiding use of cellular networks. (There was No mention of the possibility of coming cell phones, such use the Apple iPhone, potentially offering VOIP over wireless as an alternative to cellular use, since the hardware needed to do that is all in the phone)
There was NO mention of the more likely abuses of open wireless abusing it for accessing things that can't be legally shared/downloaded. (obviously there was no help provided in detecting/dealing with that)
It's hard to tell why such misleading coverage was broadcast since there are multiple possibilities. Telcos and cable companies alike are not wanting to see essentially free VoIP access if it competes with something they offer. Where I am, the are also local ads for PC dealers that'll "fix" wireless installations.
It seems that many local broadcasters lack insight in their programming choices. At at time when they could be growing their direct local audience through multiple channels of programming broadcasting something desirable (suitable for PVR capture) at all hours, they continue to alienate viewers by running many hours of infomercials.
Coverage designed not to go against any revenue stream is self-censoring by design. One of the largest problems we face with corruption in our political system starts with politicians selling out in order to get money for campaign spending. While the corruption itself gets coverage, some key things are left out of the analysis. If broadcasters has to provide ONLY FREE political airtime, as trustees of the public interest should be doing, politicians would not have such a great need to get money from all the wrong places to get elected. I've only seen mention of this on PBS. Commercial TV won't touch it.
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Most people in the US don't know what a millimeter is either ;-).
Try telling them that a cigarette is about 100 mm.
It gets complicated using penises as a standard. There's this thing called net-inches...
Stevie420: Are you sure I'd like it? I've never done anything like that before
BillyG666: You'll love it. If I slapped it down on your keyboard it would go from A to Z
BillyG666: Oh shit...
It's too hard to tell what's up when a guy has a little one. Last week I met this guy with one the size of a golf pencil. I couldn't tell if he was trying to make love or trying to erase me...
If one is going to make a fuss about user replaceability of components that degrade, how about addressing changing backlights in laptops and flat-panel televisions, and the individual battery cells within laptop battery packs? (Those are generally inside cases that are glued together)
Yeah, I know... if the cells were accessible this same guy would eat one and then sue over no warning label after being poisoned.
Some products that are somewhat expensive have batteries that aren't replaceable at at. I was surprised to see Oral-B / Braun electric toothbrushes costing about $100 (US) not allowing battery replacement. On calling customer service, they tactfully manipulate language to call that thing with the motor, switch, battery, and magnetic-induction energized charging circuit a "handle". The replacement cost was lower than I expected (about $25), but it is still upsetting to produce so much e-waste over a failing battery. It's a safe bet that very few of those see any sort of recycling.
Don't worry, by the time those iPhone batteries fail people will be after the new model that reviews your user profile, scans others nearby for a match with the integrated camera and pheromone sensors, reads their wi-fi data profiles, automatically calls and sets up a date (generating your voice), plans and maps your evening, controls your car to get you there, and automatically makes profitable investments while you're having a pleasant time.
Feeling some that things are best left to the user, Apple will omit the "squirt" function.
The little energy you might save (and from the WSJ article, the difference in energy use for LCD monitors was in the margin of error for the tool used to measure it)
This all reminds me of that game played with a group of people in a circle, repeating some phrase from one to the next... after a while things mutate, and there generally isn't anything useful/intelligent added along the way. That's what happened here with the various articles and blogs. It sounds as if even the WSJ was fairly clueless in getting much useful into this story. Following some links back,the whole story was clearly about reducing power consumption on remaining c.r.t. based displays before we finish the transition to L.C.D.s
Having spent years in the guts of things electronic, here are some added thoughts:
Most of the power used in a L.C.D. display is for the backlight. The actual panel uses practically zero power to switch the liquid crystal from alignment in one polarization to the other. IIRC, there is a plastic polarizing filter layer on the surface of the panel. Whether the panel acts as normally on or normally off with no voltage applied depends on which way the filter was oriented, so neither all on or all off inherently uses more power. Whether the driving electronics uses more power in the high or low state depends on the design of the electronics, it could go either way. The WSJ article showed only a very small difference between states. What clearly did make a difference was turning down the brightness. That actually reduces the power to the backlight. In c.r.t displays lower average brightness (by adjustment OR by nature of content) reduces power consumption because of lower c.r.t. anode current means less of a load on the high voltage power supply. In older monitors that I have examined, the driver electronics was essentially a class-A common-emitter amplifier feeding each c.r.t. cathode. Higher conduction of the driver transistor pulls the c.r.t cathode voltage less positive, increasing brightness (c.r.t beam current) and the current through the collector pullup resistor at the same time. So with that design both the c.r.t. power consumption and that of the driver electronics is highest with the most light output from the display display.
Just about anyone who has paid attention knows their laptops get shorter battery runtime when the backlight is set bright. Using the lowest acceptable setting also extends backlight life. Somewhat less obvious is the increased power consumption while browsing sites displaying Flash ads. I first noticed it when my older laptop had the cpu fan kicking in at odd times. Installing the OS X utility Menu Meters confirmed the increase in CPU activity on certain web pages. Using the Flackblock plugin for Firefox is an environmentally friendly move!
To maintain a given level of light output per unit area, large screen LCDs have higher-powered backlights.
With the very large screens becoming common for HDTV use, combined with the tendency of many people to leave televisions on for extended periods, the energy use situation developing is a disturbing one. It reminds me of 60's era color televisions using vacuum tubes. Power consumption of 350 Watts was not uncommon.
Hopefully displays will transition from CCFLs (cold-cathode florescent lamps) to L.E.D. back lighting to improve both efficiency and life. Perhaps some models could offer an auto sleep mode where viewers would need to take some action (any action at all) on a remote to keep a display from going into sleep.
Quick list for those who don't care to click through one per page for 19 pages:
Those wanting to save a lot of pain might also prefer the single-page print version of the article
But will it run Li- Oh. Right. Never mind.
That question is answered, but a few may also wonder if they can get OS X (patched) to run on it.
Details of the chipset might help predict success or problems.
Death to malware authors and spammers affecting any platform sounds great, but let's not waste the bodies.
Announcing today our new melamine-free pet food: Soylent Bluescreen
Heavy amounts of advertising is certainly a major force in driving people away from traditional tv.
I believe the tv rules were similar to radio. IIRC, years ago at license renenwal time stations would commit to a certain amount of public affairs programming and a maximum hourly number of minutes of advertising.
The advertising cap didn't apply two weeks of the year. Typically stations would run more during the December holiday period, and in election years right before an election.
It didn't really occur to me until just now, but I think the dropping of those regulations is likely to be a major reason for the Christmas advertising season ramping up so early now (basically at Thanksgiving).
Besides too many regular ads being very disruptive of any kind of programming with complex content, I think those lengthy "infomercials", which were not allowed before, are also doing quite a bit to alienate viewers.
Watching over-the air tv, I now record just a handful of things to watch when I want to, and the rest of the time I'm not tuned in. The days of having a tv on in the background, or sitting through a show I don't really care for to catch another later, are gone. I'll no-longer accept planning my time around a broadcast schedule. Using a PVR I may be ahead of the curve a bit, but it seems likely most are either headed the same directly, or have already left for pay services.
With digital tv ramping up, if broadcasters were smart, they'd be putting on some worthwhile content all the time treating time like valuable bandwidth. With the ability to handle multiple program channels over one transmitter and in one licensed channel they have the potential to bring people back to broadcast tv.
Those making programming decisions seem like total idiots. Even the shows I like often don't have very many shows per season compared with many years ago.
With computers as PVRs (using something like Eye-TV on a Mac), one can edit out the commercials without tooo much effort. If the commercials are poorly done and there are too many, people will be more likely to take the time to remove them.
So far I'd say that using a PVR has actually increased my seeing commercials on shows I like. Between watching some ads live (often while recording), stopping and viewing - and even saving some - while editing, and catching some in episodes I otherwise would have missed, I think I'm seeing more of the ads that might interest me than in the past. I at least skim past all of them, some I would have certainly skipped by wandering out of the room previously.
If net based content can't be recorded automatically (or at least viewed on demand), is loaded with ads, and doesn't compete with SD and HD TV quality, it'd be even worse than regular tv. If I can't save it DRM-free, and remove ads if I want to, I doubt I'll be watching.
That'll work once but won't work the next time. Any market has its reputation system and if you're known to sell to both (an obvious thing since Microsoft will have patched it shortly), I'm sure people will bid less and less for your exploit.
If sellers with bad reputations on Ebay manage to come back with another identity and continue business as usual it seems plausible that those marketing hacks could do the same.
Plus, do you really want to screw over black market customers? They're not your typical customers. I'm sure they'll do a lot worse than not shopping from you again if you screw them over (think identity theft or worse).
If that's really the case and there's enough identity for the sellers out there to be stolen, perhaps selling worthless hacks using a sellers identity is a way to combat them?
...all the OS vendors to install backdoors so that it can come in and install whatever spyware it wants to be installed?
It seems very likely. Looking for alternative firmware for a popular wireless router I ran across info showing the vendors original firmware having a hidden log file that was active even when the one from the user-configuration page was turned off. It'd be trivial to have wireless routers connect somewhere (perhaps while appearing to access a time server?) to help reveal the location of every wireless access point.
Backdoors in commercial OSes seem very likely. Most think of the pre-OS X Mac OS as looking pretty much non-existent to the net when services are off. Yet there was once a release (9.0?) that crashed if a certain port was scanned. An incremental update (9.0.1?) fixed that issue, but I never heard anything explaining what the hell that port was doing active in the first place. I may have the version wrong, it might have been 8.6/8.6.1) I can't even find mention of it anymore. I don't recall the port number, but it was one not used by any of the standard services in Mac OS.
That was before I ever heard of port-knocking, clearly anything done now would be far less obvious.
While it's all fine and good that the feds and others catch the true bad guys, I can't help but wonder if the net sum of all digital evils would be less if the goal were simply to make everything as absolutely secure as possible from everyone. While that would hamper some cases, the net good of having fewer people exploited elsewhere, and fewer criminals hiding through use of compromised machines, could more than offset that. Our very infrastructure is threatened by vulnerabilities.
It just doesn't feel right that every gadget we own be designed to allow us to be vulnerable or spied on.
Hardware and software is being designed with functionality that should be prohibited without exception.
Governments seem to be able to do everything that we normally consider socially unacceptable of individuals including lying to people, locking people away, taking their money, and killing people. I guess exploiting vulnerabilities and even having them in place in advance of use is more to add to the list.
There are plenty of good people in government, and many trying to act in the public interest, but too much power in the hands of others seems dangerous.
An essential component of democracy is a free and open media. Regulatory changes and commercial motivations have led to a dangerous situation. Look at what's on tv and radio. There is so much that is underreported. The concept of broadcasters working as trustees of the public interest has largely been forgotten or buried.
We're lucky we still have PBS.
People often speak of corruption in government and see a link to lobbying activity and campaign funding. But few, certainly almost none in the media, dare speak of changing where the money is going and altering the situation there. If we did away with all paid political advertising our leaders wouldn't have to sell their souls to pay for campaigns. The details of how media would provide free time to candidates and others would have to be worked out. If ownership were more diverse, broadcasters handling of that would also be more diverse...a good thing!
Broadcast deregulation was supposedly going to serve the public interest well through "marketplace forces". Now we've got largely redundant crap for news coverage, tons of infomercials, loss of most quality programming...
"So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE! I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!'" (from the movie Network)
They are getting so many returns that there is a long list. May be a bad indication, depending on how the web site works concerning open box offers.
Perhaps some people hoping to run (patched) OS X on it have had poor luck.
I realize you weren't serious about giving up everything, but how about at least having some text-only POP and web email clients to avoid html vulnerabilities and web bugs (AKA Yahoo Web Beacons) when browsing mail? (names of OS X and Linux versions needed)
Perhaps Firefox ought to have a plain text mode for all but trusted sites?
Giving up rich content for browsing is one thing, but most of the time there is no need for it in email.
Text content with support for file attachments would be plenty.
When the class gets paid in vouchers, the lawyers should be paid in vouchers.
There is also the issue of hot running hardware still being more likely to fail prematurely (but beyond even an extended warranty) due to the heat causing, among other things, increased thermal-cycling cracks in solder connections and deterioration of electrolytic capacitors over time.
Even an extended (3 year) warranty doesn't adequately address the problem since the hardware out there after 3 years will still have reduced value due to a shorter than normal lifetime. And those getting some relief by an extended warranty still aren't compensated for their wasted time and suffering.
Users should ALL be given replacements with the defective (excessively hot) DESIGN fixed.
It would seem the fixed units are those with 65 nm CPUs and improved optical drives.
I've read reports of newer units not having the excessive optical-drive noise present in the earlier units.
Perhaps the noisy drives were the ones damaging the discs. Anyone with a noisy drive would probably be well advised to demand a replacement.
Beyond replacing the original defective hardware, users ought to get something for their suffering.
It doesn't seem likely they'd get cash back, but perhaps a free game could work?
don't mind the grinding noise little boy, it's just the sound of power
We'll get bone-eating bacteria?
They've come in under radar... from Mexico
Quite a bit of what's in RAM and some of what was previously in RAM may be found in the virtual memory swap space of on a drive. Perhaps that's what they really mean? I don't know what data is there on the server in question, but it likely goes beyond what one normally thinks of as written to disk. Consumer machines often have contents of pages surfed and email viewed lingering in the swap space. Browser use often does leave behind much data beyond the contents of their own (and JAVAs) cache files. Something similar on a server should be unsurprising.
Many reasonably well managed Windows machines still get hit. It is also possible to be infected with something not detected by standard antivirus programs, or by something that does not currently show any obvious side-effects. To lower risk as far as possible, avoid using any Windows machines for browsing or accessing any internet applications.
If you must access the internet from a machine on the same network as a Windows computer, consider doing so only from one running another OS. Use of browser plugins to restrict browser use of javascript, JAVA, and Flash to only essential sites that need them reduces the number of possible areas of exposure. A "fired if caught using Explorer" policy helps but isn't enough since all browsers will have some vulnerabilities on any platform. It is best to use a machine with as little data as possible on it.
An old Pentium III with 256 MB or better RAM can run and browse fine from a Ubuntu CD (known as live mode). A fast optical drive matters more than CPU speed when it comes to the bootup time. No hard drive is needed. Many PCs now commonly sent to thrift stores and recyclers are adequate for this. Where I am such systems sell for about $5. U.S. A months' energy use could cost more than the hardware. A Pentium III system will generally use much less energy than most Pentium IV systems, so those are best avoided unless you really need the performance for something else. Use basic onboard video or video cards if possible. Gaming-class cards are energy hungry.
With a live-cd booted system if something hostile does gets into memory, it'll be gone when you reboot. An infection present under a different OS is also less likely to spread to other machines also inside the firewall.
Of course you can dual boot or use live cd mode from a machine that is also occasionally used for Windows.
If your firewall supports blocking specific machines from the net, it is best to lock out the Windows machines or at least restrict the ports with access. Depending on your application, Macs may also be a good option. If the hardware cost is slightly higher (which is not always the case), bear in mind it may still be offset by savings from not having to buy and maintain antivirus utilities, or do frequent rebuilds of contaminated systems.
I'd like to find good email clients that can be forced to run in text-only mode. That'd avoid any email exposure to browser-type vulnerabilities and privacy issues like web-bugs (or web beacons as Yahoo likes to call them).
Much of what remains involves user behavior. Most users should not have access to systems that allow installing anything without an admin password. Even Mac users would be wise to add/use accounts with reduced permissions.
Our carbon-dioxide buildup routine may eventually eliminate the problems brought by the current two-legged carbon-based life form infestation, but disinfecting the global environment is a slow process.
Hey, Mac users are the ones who insited (sic) the other category of home computer was a PC, and they were Macs.
Actually I think it more likely from IBM naming a computer the IBM PC, and others that followed making "PC compatible" machines.
...a giant shade to reduce global warming
Actually most standard transistor radios, including some early ones, had six transistors.
The Regency TR-1 had four, using only one transistor in the audio section.
I just fixed an old 1958 vintage Sony TR-610 the other day. The schematic shows a converter transistor (oscillator that also performs mixing function), two I.F. (intermediate frequency) amplifiers, an audio preamp stage and a push-pull audio power amplifier. Although many later radios had the PNP variety of germanium transistors, early ones like the Regency and Sony used NPN. Some weird design variations were attempts to trim costs or weight. I recall some R.C.A. radios having a center-tapped voice coil on the speaker so the output stage could be push-pull without an output transformer.
It was probably close to 1970 when I noticed radios with an inflated transistor count. A pocket radio that listed 12 comes to mind. At least three functioned as diodes - one for the detector, and a couple for in the bias network for the output stage. I'm not sure if the others were even wired to do anything.
The inflated count just made me laugh. How cheated can one really feel when spending $1.97 (K-Mart price) for a radio? It was able to pick up WLS Chicago at night (then a fun pop station, much like the old 93 KHJ Los Angeles). I was in California, so I was impressed to get that station so well. It was a good year for skip, and the band wasn't as cluttered then. Listening now is a sad experience. There's hardly anything worth listening to, and most of what one can get on a distant station is identical to a local broadcast.
Some radios with more than 6 transistor were better. Those with a tuned radio-frequency amplifier stage added at the input often had better sensitivity and image-rejection. Image-rejection is the suppression of the signal 455 KHz above the oscillator frequency, normally the desired signal was 455 Khz below the oscillator frequency.
Of course I'm speaking of AM-only radios. Those with FM typically added a separate front end section, but managed to use the I.F. transistors for both frequencies (455 KHz and 10.7 MHz). The FM input section normally couldn't use just one transistor because with the oscillator and desired signal frequencies only about 10% apart there wasn't enough selectivity in the input tuning to prevent the oscillator signal from radiating excessively. Most F.M. receivers still leak some signal, which is why they were a problem on airplanes. With the oscillator running 10.7 MHz above the desired station it falls in the aircraft band if one is tuned on the top half of the F.M. broadcast band. Take an F.M. radio and tune it to a quiet spot in the top part of the band, then when you tune another FM radio nearby around 10.7 lower, you'll pick up the oscillator signal on the first radio. That can be useful. I once knew someone that ran a pirate F.M. station and went around tracking down listeners to say hi. Having various oscillator signals leak is one way those in countries requiring licenses for receivers can tell they are running.
There were a few radios with perhaps 2 transistors. They generally had poor sensitivity. I think the first transistor acted as a combo detector/audio stage, and the second as audio power amplifier. (That ran the amplifier in Class A mode, so battery life was poor even with only two transistors).
These radios were not the real superhet type an "adult" would normally have, and were sometimes called Boys Radios.
A low transistor count is possible with a super-regenerative receiver. Basically a tuned R.F. amplifier
has positive feedback which brings the gain up a great deal, and being at the point of os
Shooting whom? The members of the profession or the laymen? If you're going to call for someone's head, you should at least be a little more specific about whose head you want served to you on a silver platter.
Those who call lawyers useless aren't being very open minded. Lawyers may be a melamine-free source of protein, but I think my cat would prefer something a bit less bony than the head.
I wonder if the computer program has a way to rate them on flavor?
I'm not sure if any of current products from the same vendor support QAM, but the eyetv 500 tuner from a couple of years ago works great with a Mac.
Now, at long last, a Watermelon Zune! It's as hip as a watermelon, and twice as easy to use!
If you spit out the seeds will you grow more Zunes?
That's more clever than viral marketing....
Is it censorship if the mass media ignores it, or does it show that their viewing public don't care?
It goes beyond censorship. There is also disinformation.
I've seen multiple news stories about the dangers of WiFi. What's happening is similar to the misinformation spread for years to cast doubts about the validity of global warming.
Recent coverage I've seen showed WiFi as a culprit for identifty theft, stolen credit card info in particular.
A woman "victim" was shown.
There was NO indication that anyone locally had exploited her wireless in anyway.
There was NO mention of where here credit card number was used, or any sign of researching what actually happened.
There was NO mention that even on open wireless, normal browser handling of online transactions encrypts the traffic.
There was NO mention of the widespread problems from Malware and phishing scams, and those being a far more likely way of her information being compromised.
There was NO mention of the fairly common incidence of information being compromised while supposedly under the control of vendors (retailers and other institutions)
There was NO mention of the postive potential uses for open wireless, such as making phone calls essentially free by avoiding use of cellular networks. (There was No mention of the possibility of coming cell phones, such use the Apple iPhone, potentially offering VOIP over wireless as an alternative to cellular use, since the hardware needed to do that is all in the phone)
There was NO mention of the more likely abuses of open wireless abusing it for accessing things that can't be legally shared/downloaded. (obviously there was no help provided in detecting/dealing with that)
It's hard to tell why such misleading coverage was broadcast since there are multiple possibilities. Telcos and cable companies alike are not wanting to see essentially free VoIP access if it competes with something they offer. Where I am, the are also local ads for PC dealers that'll "fix" wireless installations.
It seems that many local broadcasters lack insight in their programming choices. At at time when they could be growing their direct local audience through multiple channels of programming broadcasting something desirable (suitable for PVR capture) at all hours, they continue to alienate viewers by running many hours of infomercials.
Coverage designed not to go against any revenue stream is self-censoring by design.
One of the largest problems we face with corruption in our political system starts with politicians selling out in order to get money for campaign spending. While the corruption itself gets coverage, some key things are left out of the analysis. If broadcasters has to provide ONLY FREE political airtime, as trustees of the public interest should be doing, politicians would not have such a great need to get money from all the wrong places to get elected. I've only seen mention of this on PBS. Commercial TV won't touch it.
How would you make sure that every student has his tag on him at all times?
Say welcome to mandatory flu shots...