I think the term about those kids that felt that they were doing the "right thing" that is most apt is "shoot the messenger." Some young kids uncover security holes that could lead into millions of fraud if not patched, and then tell the authorities, let's arrest the kids. Makes it less likely that some good samaritin will do the same in the future, leaving security holes open for those less ethical to actually steal the money!
This is a bit different than just finding security holes and reporting them. They actually gained access to the credit card numbers and (persumably) account information for many accounts. They didn't just find and report the holes, they exploited them, THEN reported them. This would be akin to you noticing your neighbor left the keys in his car and you decided to take it for a ride before telling him about it.
How stupid can you be? In the article, it says he stole the credit card numbers to prove how insecure things were. If that wasn't enough, he emailed the info to NBCi. Why do these people think that they're the "good guys" when they do this?
Not to defend them or to just MS-bash at random, but perhaps they were influenced by the behaivor they see Microsoft exhibiting. After all MS continues to abuse its Windows monopoly all the while claiming that all their choices for us are what the "public wants". Businesses can be a roll model too, and MS makes a very bad one. MS certainly hides behind the claim that all they do is for the public good and that they're good guys, all the while doing things that'd get the rest of us arrested for just contemplating.
If you start adding extra features that break compatibility people will just move to a better quality CODEC with the same features (and possibly more).
But the article makes it clear that the new Mp3s will play just fine in current software/hardware, they just won't be able to take advantage of the surround sound information. This isn't breaking compatability at all, in fact it's preserving it while adding new features.
CrapUSA never have a good enough selection of products. (They might only sell PNY Nvidia cards, when you really want the Hercules.)
They also have a tendency to way overprice some items. I was needing an ATX power supply a while back and didn't want to wait for delivery so I checked them. They wanted $40 for a generic CompUSA branded one. I can get one online for $11 including shipping! In fact I can get a name brand one for no more than $20. For $40 I'd be expecting a super-quiet one myself.
On the other hand you can get some good deals with the rebates. Since the power supply was for my firewall/proxy router comp I looked at their home/small office routers to see if I could go that route cheaper. I got a Netgear one (wired, not wireless, but I didn't want wireless) for $50 with $30 in mail-in rebates. It only cost $10 more than the power supply and after the rebates it'll cost $20 less.
One last note, on that same router the paper and the sign on the shelf advertised "Regularly $59.99 - $10 instant rebate - $20 mail-in rebate - $10 mail-in rebate = $19.99". Fair enough so far, but the shelf label plainly said $49.99 for the normal price. There was no $10 instant rebate, that was just a crock. I didn't feel good or I'd have asked to see a manager since that isn't exactly legal. At least they don't ask me for my freaking street address anymore. Last time they did I refused (I was paying cash so they couldn't require it) and they didn't know what to do. They had to get a manager to show them how to bypass it.:)
sadly, this guy does what everyone else does, takes advantage of stupid people to make money.
it's basically the best way to make money, next to taking advantage of lonely guys (pornsites, strippers) and taking advantage of lazy people (remote control, clapper)
Taking advantage of stupid people to make money seems to underlie all of commerce nowadays, it's quite a bit different that what Michael appears to be doing. (I'm going to stay non-committal just to play it safe, hut I will say I wouldn't buy a computer from him.)
In this case it appears Michael is possibly:
Taking people's money and never sending them the computers they were purchasing with that money. This would be called fraud and theft.
Taking people's money for a computer and sending them something that does not have the same specs/hardware/etc. as what his website claims. This is also fraud, but would likely fall more into breach of contract.
All the stuff you mention may take advantage of people (lonliness, laziness, couch potato-ness) but the key difference is they actually provide the service or item they advertise and it's the same as what they advertise. Especially from a legal standpoint that's a huge difference, you can't sue someone (OK in the US you probably can, but winning is another store) just because they convinced you buy a clapper because you didn't want to get up to turn your lava lamp on and off. Now if they sent you a extension cord that did nothing when you clapped instead you'd have a strong case.
Michael must have come from the future, with his Windows XP 2004 and currently non-existant hardware! I bet you could haggle with him and get next year's Super Bowl winner, too.
Hey wait, this was a Star Trek Voyager episode, but wasn't Michael supposed to have started the whole PC business with his stolen time ship? Ooops, guess he didn't get the final draft of the script...
Sociopaths are dangerous people. Tracking them down is fine, but be careful if you decide to tangle with one. Some will dedicate their life to revenge.
I know a lot of people are probably going to say "but he's not a sociopath, just some guy running a scam" or something like that about your Sociopath remark (even though you provided a quite informative link) because in so many people's minds sociopath = homicidal maniac. However I believe you may have hit the nail very firmly on the head in this case. I can't imagine anyone that wasn't a true sociopath being able to so calmly answer this unprompted interview, do so on video (without advance notice as well) and not even break a sweat. Heck, a lot of "normal people" can't pass a lie detector test even if they're telling the truth. (A dirty little secret about them is that concern about what led to the polygraph (such as being accused of murder, etc) is enough to trigger a noticeable reaction to any questions relating to that subject -- irregardless of the answer. Basically you can answer yes or no and it register as a lie either way.)
I think the Tom's Hardware guys realized what you're saying as well, they had enough evidence to just really lay into this guy but if you read carefully you'll see an almost pained effort to stay unoffensive to Michael. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if interviewing the guy wasn't terrifying for them. That said, I hope that if everything is as bogus as it seems that someone can get him stopped.
There are some really strange things here though, Paypal is very sensitive to fraud, and even if they refused to allow chargebacks (they have been reported to just take the money out of your bank account if they get a chargeback), they more than likely would shut down a count that generated quite a few of them. However from the article and the screenshot it would appear his Paypal account is still quite valid. While his busines license isn't valid, it only expired in Januray IIRC, and it would be quite easy to overlook this, especially after having had a divorce and having to move (the notice might have missed him). I'm by no means defending Michael, from the info laid out I'd never buy a computer from the guy myself, but things like this always bug me. Perhaps I just have an inner preference to have things more black & white.:)
RIAA hamsters cost $17 each and you're not allowed to let them out of their cages.
The RIAA announced today that they had served lawsuits on over 1000 pet stores allegedly selling RIAA hamsters as regular hamsters. Shortly thereafter it was reported that of those initially sued, one was a mortuary, another a bank, and a third a hospital. When asked about this, the RIAA just shrugged and said "We can afford to sue them, they can't afford to fight it, so they'll pay anyway. And that's all the matters in the end."
What's next? Are they going to round up all the adult males within a two mile radius of a sexual assault and force them to give DNA samples? If they attempted this there would be outcry -- yet they do the same thing with DWI laws on a daily basis and nobody says anything.
Oh but they want to! I know a few states have tried to pass laws allowing this, I don't think any have succeeded -- yet. Give them time, they'll get it passed somewhere. What will happen then? There will be public outcry, but the proponents of the law will just accuse those complaining of supporting rape and sexual assault. Hard to win the battle, let alone the war, when you're been branded like that.
And that's the problem. We have to face it, we're no longer ruled by a democracy, it's whoever can shout the loudest and make the opponent look the worst that wins. Whether or not their stand has merit from any standpoint, they'll still win.
As we're all well too aware, the spammers will find a way to counter this. Keeping in mind they don't care one whit about how many messages they send they'll probably just starting sending out their spam more -- once to use every address they're sending to as a from address. Sure this filter will only let that one through, but the amount of spam E-mail will jump exponentially.
Which has nothing to do with the accusations the scientists are making. I wonder what sort of mindset the administration has when its science advisor can't even read the letter he's responding to.
Oh, I think he read it, he's just delusional or in his own little world (created by Bush no doubt, he sounds like quite the flunky).
What scared me was how much he reminded me of the Iraqi Information Minister from the war. You know, the guy claiming they were winning as tanks rolled in to Baghdad?
One other lovely quote from him was:
I think there are reasonable
explanations for nearly all the things in the report, and rather than look for what those explanations might be, I think the (researchers were) somewhat biased in favor of a sweeping opinion of what this administration is all about, and I just don't think that's justified."
Notice how he didn't say ALL, but only nearly all. I think he just justified their report himself. From what I read in the report, even one item not having a reasonable explanation is very bad.
Once again.. If we do change these "offending" code blocks, we would be admitting to our "guilt".
The kernel hackers should not even think about changi anything until these lawsuits are resolved..
Why give your enemy more ammunition? He'll just come back and attack you again...
Changing or removing the alleged infringing core wouldn't be an admission of guilt at all. Especially since the linux coders have been saying for about a year now to let them know what's infringing and it'll be removed ASAP. In fact, not removing it would give SCO even more ammunition.
"You see Judge, we told you those Linux hackers don't care about anyone's IP or Copyrights. They said they'd remove the infriging code ASAP after we identified it and now they've changed their minds and won't do so."
Overlooking the fact that not removing it isn't admitting guilt either, this would do nothing to endear us to the judge, making the legal battle harder than it has to be.
One final thought, I'm sure that SCO would absolutely LOVE for the kernel hackers to wait until the lawsuits are resolved to fix the alleged infringing code. Why that'd have the kernel in limbo until the lawsuits were resolved, and that could be 2010 as slow as the justice system can be added to the fact that SCO has already shown it wants to drag this out as long as possible.
Screw whether they're really infringing or not, lets get that code out of the kernel and replaced with new code that cannot have SCO (or another company/individual like SCO) raising a stink over it infringing their IP or copyright. SCO can play in the courts until their money runs out, and Linux will move on and likely become much stronger for it. Who knows, this might help the kernel hackers to think of new, innovative ways to code the same things that are actually faster/more secure/more stable/etc!
It's nice to see that Intel's not just sitting back on past glories and thinking that'll solve everything for them. With AMD and Intel getting so competitive, and comparable products from both coming out so close together, it can only benefit the consumers.
I don't think anyone was terribly surprised that the registry was upheld. There was a lot of public support and this is, after all, a big election year.
I think there were a lot of people concerned that the court wouldn't respond this way. The telemarketing industry has deep pockets to spend on lobbying and/or buying out congressmen/women's votes. (Granted, they aren't the only industry that does this, just the only ones that matter in the particular case.) Congress has shown time and again they could care less what their constituents really want, just as long as their industry masters are happy. Yes, even in election years. Besides, what do they really have to worry about? Most average joe citizens don't even pay attention to the local news, they're not to likely to hear about how their congressperson shoved a last-minute addon to some bill, with the addon being totally anti-consumer.
Because Sun (behind openoffice) and IBM don't like each other. Also because Microsoft and IBM are huge commercial partners and also because PHB trully believe they need Microsoft Office.
Frankly I'm surprised that they can't see that partnering to develop Open Office into a true competitor with MS Office would only benefit them both. Of course I realize that business aren't always terribly bright about these things. Look at Disney letting Pixar get away for exhibit A.:D
On virtually any other point about Microsoft I would likely agree with you, but on this one, you're wrong.
At this location on Microsoft's web site you can download the Word 97/2000 Viewer. It runs on 95, NT, 2000, and XP. You can also search "viewer" on Microsoft's web site and come up with viewers for their other applications, including a version of Word Viewer that works on Windows 3.1. I've tested the viewer and it works fine. Many government sites actually offer a download or link to get the Word Viewer.
There's at least one popular OS not listed there -- Linux. You also have to wonder exactly how well it'll work on documents that the user's decided to turn on a bunch of useless bells and whistles. It lists the publishing date as 1999. It does say version 2000, so perhaps they updated it a year later.
In any case, just having a document viewer doesn't solve the problem with Government picking an office suite that's propritary and not free. How about the occasion (which is definitely not rare, I've run across it nearly everytime I needed something from a government agency) where you download the document and have to fill it in with your information, then save and send it back? In that case if you only have the viewer, you're SOL. Well maybe not totally SOL, but best case you have to print out the blank document, fill in the information by hand, then mail it and wait for several days for it to arrive and get processed.
And then you still have that annoying little problem of no viewer available for Linux, Solaris, BeOS (ok, yeah I'm nitpicking with that one), etc.
I have not come across anything that MS Office can do that another office programme, such as StarOffice or OpenOffice can't do.
That's not the problem, the problem is all the other people using MS Office. Even if your whole organization uses OpenOffice or StarOffice, you'll run into problems with people you do business with only using MS Office. Sometimes the documents won't look/work exactly right in anything but Office so you end up having to use it anyway, no matter how hard you try.
One of the problems is MS's ever-changing document formats, while WordPerfect's not changed their document format for years, MS's seems to change with ever release. I'm not sure, but I suspect the format will even change ever-so-slightly with some of the service packs. Nothing that'll affect MS Office versions, but enough to make the document a mess in anything else. Personally I dont't think this is just a coincedence, MS seems to be trying to make sure Office is the only thing companies can use without massive headaches. That's why I doubt we'll ever see it ported to Linux unless a court ordered them to, and then they'd probably find a way to hobble it enough that you still needed a Windows box to run it on for it to not cause grief.
If you're in a company that's not mandated another product, you can pretty much forget using anything buy Office happily. Last place I worked even though pretty much all the staff in my dept. preferred Word Perfect and had it on our machines, we still had to do the majority of stuff in Office because we had to deal with people outside the dept. It's insanely frustrating let me tell you. I ended up doing most of my work in Office just to save the hassle. The one thing I always used WordPerfect for was labels though, Office royally sucks for creating labels. It also sends unnecessarilly large files to the printer when it comes time to print the labels. I remember trying to print some VCR labels on an old Apple Laserwriter. Each one was a single graphic the size of the label. Couldn't get them to print, after looking at the queue size it turned out the document in the printer queue had a size of over 5MB! (The printer only had 2MB memory onboard.) What's scary is the actual.doc file was quite a bit smaller than 5MB. That's when I got a copy of WP for my work computer, when I checked its print queue size (for the same set of labels, all graphics) it was around 700k.
All slashdotters, espeically people that were seriously affected by sitefinder, please complain NOW. Let them know how controversial it is!
I certainly will, as well as many others, but the underlying problems is that Verisign doesn't care what we have to say, how we feel about sitefinder, or how it'll cause problems. They have repeatedly denied that sitefinder caused problems (even in the face of proof). Even if every person on/. complained, Verisign would probably still insist that everyone just loved sitefinder.
Better yet, use a service like Spam Gourmet for anything you sign up for online. I do this and use a unique disposable address for each site. I like to enter contests so this is quite handy. A nice side-benefit is I can tell you which sites I signed up with are spammers because they're the ones with 100+ E-mails trashed and not forwarded. Hell, I even signed up for Spamcop through Spam Gourmet. I made the spamcop reporting address (the one they send from) a trusted sender, now if some spammer manages to somehow get the address I used to sign up at spamcop, they'll get to send a grand total of 2 E-mails before they're all eaten automatically. No bounces to warn the spammer the address is bad either, they just get quietly deleted without anyone ever looking at them.
Home game consoles have never really be backward compatible. PS2 is the first real back-ward compatible that I know of (though someone will end up telling me differently).
I couldn't play my Nintendo games on a Nintendo 64 out-of-the-box, and I surely can't play them on a GameCube. There is no precident for backwards compatibility in the gaming market, IMO, so it shouldn't be a concern for Microsoft.
Besides, most gamers I know have more than one game system, so it is no big deal if they have yet another one.
AFAIK, the PS2 was the first backwards compatible console, but it has been a boon to Sony. When the PS2 was released, it didn't have to rely on just the PS2 release titles to convince undecided buyers. You could point to the case full of shiny PS1 games and tell them that the PS2 would play all of them too. This helped push a lot of consumers into spending more to get the PS2 instead of a PS1. It still does in fact, even though the quantity of PS2 titles you can find in a store are much greater than PS1 titles.
And a quick note on the Gamecube. The Gamecube's lack of ability to do anything buy play Gamecube games has hurt it. When you can play Audio CDs on even the PS1, and DVDs on the PS2 and Xbox (even if you do have to pay an extra $30 to do so on the Xbox), many people didn't see the point in getting a Gamecube. It's not a surprise that sales on the cube only really picked up when the price went down to $99. At that price, the lack of additional abilities was offset by the savings.
The really sad thing is Microsoft should know this. They screwed the pooch on the Xbox release by forcing users to buy the remote playback kit ($30) to play DVDs on the Xbox. The PS2 was already out there and didn't require you to buy anything to watch DVDs on it. I know a lot of people were swayed to get a PS2 instead of a Xbox because of this. Unless someone has a devotion to a particular Xbox-only title, why get a system you have to spend $30 extra on to get the same functionality? Not to mention the PS2 still has that PS1 backwards compatibility as a bonus.
Since Sony has already announced that the PS3 will play both PS2 and PS1 games, Microsoft is playing a very dangerous game. Even if they get the Xbox 2 out a year before the PS3. The PS3 will have a larger library of playable games when it's released simply because of the backwards compatability. Once the PS3 enters the market, that'll push undecided consumers to Sony, and Microsoft will be left in Sony's dust -- again.
I guess this just goes to show that MS doesn't have a clue how to compete in a market in which they don't have a monopoly, or can't leverage their monopoly.
This guy is finally getting at least some of what he deserves, which is a trial potentially followed by punishment under the law. If you can contribute evidence to support the charges against him, or bring new charges, then go for it. Otherwise, leave it be.
Sounds like they won't need too much more to nail him. Those 9000 E-mails sent to spamtraps that never could have opted in to anything are a serious smoking gun. Snotty's blustering about countersuing Spitzer and how Spitzer's not produced any actual NY residents who didn't opt-in are just that -- blustering. I suspect the judge will laugh hysterically at the countersuit before dismissing it, and Snotty will find out that his previous felony conviction was a walk in the park. Doubt he'll get just probation this time.
I think you people need a reality check. You don't have it that bad. Try unemployment for a while, and then working in a factory! If you think this will not happen to you, then be prepared because it will!
Trade working in a factory for working at Wal-mart. At least the printed paper had more brains and tact than the average Wal-mart customer seems to.
But yeah, in this economy I'm thankful to have even the Wal-mart job, although it is demoralizing to have a BS in Computer Science and being stuck running a cash register to pay the bills.
Same here, everything's of the definitely ilegal type of spam. (Since we all know there is no magic pill to make you have greater sex, etc. And if they mention Viagra, 99 to 1 they're not legally selling it.) I've just started fowarding them all to the ftc's collection address, epecially since I get about one Nigerian scam letter a month as well.
Slashdot Mirror
-
I think the term about those kids that felt that they were doing the "right thing" that is most apt is "shoot the messenger." Some young kids uncover security holes that could lead into millions of fraud if not patched, and then tell the authorities, let's arrest the kids. Makes it less likely that some good samaritin will do the same in the future, leaving security holes open for those less ethical to actually steal the money!
This is a bit different than just finding security holes and reporting them. They actually gained access to the credit card numbers and (persumably) account information for many accounts. They didn't just find and report the holes, they exploited them, THEN reported them. This would be akin to you noticing your neighbor left the keys in his car and you decided to take it for a ride before telling him about it.-
How stupid can you be? In the article, it says he stole the credit card numbers to prove how insecure things were. If that wasn't enough, he emailed the info to NBCi. Why do these people think that they're the "good guys" when they do this?
Not to defend them or to just MS-bash at random, but perhaps they were influenced by the behaivor they see Microsoft exhibiting. After all MS continues to abuse its Windows monopoly all the while claiming that all their choices for us are what the "public wants". Businesses can be a roll model too, and MS makes a very bad one. MS certainly hides behind the claim that all they do is for the public good and that they're good guys, all the while doing things that'd get the rest of us arrested for just contemplating.-
There's MIT, Stanford... anywhere else that Billy has seen fit to leave his mark?
The DOJ in Washington, DC?-
If you start adding extra features that break compatibility people will just move to a better quality CODEC with the same features (and possibly more).
But the article makes it clear that the new Mp3s will play just fine in current software/hardware, they just won't be able to take advantage of the surround sound information. This isn't breaking compatability at all, in fact it's preserving it while adding new features.-
CrapUSA never have a good enough selection of products. (They might only sell PNY Nvidia cards, when you really want the Hercules.)
They also have a tendency to way overprice some items. I was needing an ATX power supply a while back and didn't want to wait for delivery so I checked them. They wanted $40 for a generic CompUSA branded one. I can get one online for $11 including shipping! In fact I can get a name brand one for no more than $20. For $40 I'd be expecting a super-quiet one myself.On the other hand you can get some good deals with the rebates. Since the power supply was for my firewall/proxy router comp I looked at their home/small office routers to see if I could go that route cheaper. I got a Netgear one (wired, not wireless, but I didn't want wireless) for $50 with $30 in mail-in rebates. It only cost $10 more than the power supply and after the rebates it'll cost $20 less.
One last note, on that same router the paper and the sign on the shelf advertised "Regularly $59.99 - $10 instant rebate - $20 mail-in rebate - $10 mail-in rebate = $19.99". Fair enough so far, but the shelf label plainly said $49.99 for the normal price. There was no $10 instant rebate, that was just a crock. I didn't feel good or I'd have asked to see a manager since that isn't exactly legal. At least they don't ask me for my freaking street address anymore. Last time they did I refused (I was paying cash so they couldn't require it) and they didn't know what to do. They had to get a manager to show them how to bypass it. :)
-
sadly, this guy does what everyone else does, takes advantage of stupid people to make money.
Taking advantage of stupid people to make money seems to underlie all of commerce nowadays, it's quite a bit different that what Michael appears to be doing. (I'm going to stay non-committal just to play it safe, hut I will say I wouldn't buy a computer from him.)it's basically the best way to make money, next to taking advantage of lonely guys (pornsites, strippers) and taking advantage of lazy people (remote control, clapper)
In this case it appears Michael is possibly:
- Taking people's money and never sending them the computers they were purchasing with that money. This would be called fraud and theft.
- Taking people's money for a computer and sending them something that does not have the same specs/hardware/etc. as what his website claims. This is also fraud, but would likely fall more into breach of contract.
All the stuff you mention may take advantage of people (lonliness, laziness, couch potato-ness) but the key difference is they actually provide the service or item they advertise and it's the same as what they advertise. Especially from a legal standpoint that's a huge difference, you can't sue someone (OK in the US you probably can, but winning is another store) just because they convinced you buy a clapper because you didn't want to get up to turn your lava lamp on and off. Now if they sent you a extension cord that did nothing when you clapped instead you'd have a strong case.-
Michael must have come from the future, with his Windows XP 2004 and currently non-existant hardware! I bet you could haggle with him and get next year's Super Bowl winner, too.
Hey wait, this was a Star Trek Voyager episode, but wasn't Michael supposed to have started the whole PC business with his stolen time ship? Ooops, guess he didn't get the final draft of the script...-
However she did admit that she never exceeded 15db when with him, so that part was correct.
Actually the specs on the desktop were-
Sociopaths are dangerous people. Tracking them down is fine, but be careful if you decide to tangle with one. Some will dedicate their life to revenge.
I know a lot of people are probably going to say "but he's not a sociopath, just some guy running a scam" or something like that about your Sociopath remark (even though you provided a quite informative link) because in so many people's minds sociopath = homicidal maniac. However I believe you may have hit the nail very firmly on the head in this case. I can't imagine anyone that wasn't a true sociopath being able to so calmly answer this unprompted interview, do so on video (without advance notice as well) and not even break a sweat. Heck, a lot of "normal people" can't pass a lie detector test even if they're telling the truth. (A dirty little secret about them is that concern about what led to the polygraph (such as being accused of murder, etc) is enough to trigger a noticeable reaction to any questions relating to that subject -- irregardless of the answer. Basically you can answer yes or no and it register as a lie either way.)I think the Tom's Hardware guys realized what you're saying as well, they had enough evidence to just really lay into this guy but if you read carefully you'll see an almost pained effort to stay unoffensive to Michael. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if interviewing the guy wasn't terrifying for them. That said, I hope that if everything is as bogus as it seems that someone can get him stopped.
There are some really strange things here though, Paypal is very sensitive to fraud, and even if they refused to allow chargebacks (they have been reported to just take the money out of your bank account if they get a chargeback), they more than likely would shut down a count that generated quite a few of them. However from the article and the screenshot it would appear his Paypal account is still quite valid. While his busines license isn't valid, it only expired in Januray IIRC, and it would be quite easy to overlook this, especially after having had a divorce and having to move (the notice might have missed him). I'm by no means defending Michael, from the info laid out I'd never buy a computer from the guy myself, but things like this always bug me. Perhaps I just have an inner preference to have things more black & white. :)
-
RIAA hamsters cost $17 each and you're not allowed to let them out of their cages.
The RIAA announced today that they had served lawsuits on over 1000 pet stores allegedly selling RIAA hamsters as regular hamsters. Shortly thereafter it was reported that of those initially sued, one was a mortuary, another a bank, and a third a hospital. When asked about this, the RIAA just shrugged and said "We can afford to sue them, they can't afford to fight it, so they'll pay anyway. And that's all the matters in the end."-
What's next? Are they going to round up all the adult males within a two mile radius of a sexual assault and force them to give DNA samples? If they attempted this there would be outcry -- yet they do the same thing with DWI laws on a daily basis and nobody says anything.
Oh but they want to! I know a few states have tried to pass laws allowing this, I don't think any have succeeded -- yet. Give them time, they'll get it passed somewhere. What will happen then? There will be public outcry, but the proponents of the law will just accuse those complaining of supporting rape and sexual assault. Hard to win the battle, let alone the war, when you're been branded like that.And that's the problem. We have to face it, we're no longer ruled by a democracy, it's whoever can shout the loudest and make the opponent look the worst that wins. Whether or not their stand has merit from any standpoint, they'll still win.
As we're all well too aware, the spammers will find a way to counter this. Keeping in mind they don't care one whit about how many messages they send they'll probably just starting sending out their spam more -- once to use every address they're sending to as a from address. Sure this filter will only let that one through, but the amount of spam E-mail will jump exponentially.
-
Which has nothing to do with the accusations the scientists are making. I wonder what sort of mindset the administration has when its science advisor can't even read the letter he's responding to.
Oh, I think he read it, he's just delusional or in his own little world (created by Bush no doubt, he sounds like quite the flunky).What scared me was how much he reminded me of the Iraqi Information Minister from the war. You know, the guy claiming they were winning as tanks rolled in to Baghdad?
One other lovely quote from him was:
- I think there are reasonable
explanations for nearly all the things in the report, and rather than look for what those explanations might be, I think the (researchers were) somewhat biased in favor of a sweeping opinion of what this administration is all about, and I just don't think that's justified."
Notice how he didn't say ALL, but only nearly all. I think he just justified their report himself. From what I read in the report, even one item not having a reasonable explanation is very bad.-
Once again.. If we do change these "offending" code blocks, we would be admitting to our "guilt".
The kernel hackers should not even think about changi anything until these lawsuits are resolved..
Why give your enemy more ammunition? He'll just come back and attack you again...
Changing or removing the alleged infringing core wouldn't be an admission of guilt at all. Especially since the linux coders have been saying for about a year now to let them know what's infringing and it'll be removed ASAP. In fact, not removing it would give SCO even more ammunition.- "You see Judge, we told you those Linux hackers don't care about anyone's IP or Copyrights. They said they'd remove the infriging code ASAP after we identified it and now they've changed their minds and won't do so."
Overlooking the fact that not removing it isn't admitting guilt either, this would do nothing to endear us to the judge, making the legal battle harder than it has to be.One final thought, I'm sure that SCO would absolutely LOVE for the kernel hackers to wait until the lawsuits are resolved to fix the alleged infringing code. Why that'd have the kernel in limbo until the lawsuits were resolved, and that could be 2010 as slow as the justice system can be added to the fact that SCO has already shown it wants to drag this out as long as possible.
Screw whether they're really infringing or not, lets get that code out of the kernel and replaced with new code that cannot have SCO (or another company/individual like SCO) raising a stink over it infringing their IP or copyright. SCO can play in the courts until their money runs out, and Linux will move on and likely become much stronger for it. Who knows, this might help the kernel hackers to think of new, innovative ways to code the same things that are actually faster/more secure/more stable/etc!
It's nice to see that Intel's not just sitting back on past glories and thinking that'll solve everything for them. With AMD and Intel getting so competitive, and comparable products from both coming out so close together, it can only benefit the consumers.
-
I don't think anyone was terribly surprised that the registry was upheld. There was a lot of public support and this is, after all, a big election year.
I think there were a lot of people concerned that the court wouldn't respond this way. The telemarketing industry has deep pockets to spend on lobbying and/or buying out congressmen/women's votes. (Granted, they aren't the only industry that does this, just the only ones that matter in the particular case.) Congress has shown time and again they could care less what their constituents really want, just as long as their industry masters are happy. Yes, even in election years. Besides, what do they really have to worry about? Most average joe citizens don't even pay attention to the local news, they're not to likely to hear about how their congressperson shoved a last-minute addon to some bill, with the addon being totally anti-consumer.-
Because Sun (behind openoffice) and IBM don't like each other. Also because Microsoft and IBM are huge commercial partners and also because PHB trully believe they need Microsoft Office.
Frankly I'm surprised that they can't see that partnering to develop Open Office into a true competitor with MS Office would only benefit them both. Of course I realize that business aren't always terribly bright about these things. Look at Disney letting Pixar get away for exhibit A.-
On virtually any other point about Microsoft I would likely agree with you, but on this one, you're wrong.
There's at least one popular OS not listed there -- Linux. You also have to wonder exactly how well it'll work on documents that the user's decided to turn on a bunch of useless bells and whistles. It lists the publishing date as 1999. It does say version 2000, so perhaps they updated it a year later.At this location on Microsoft's web site you can download the Word 97/2000 Viewer. It runs on 95, NT, 2000, and XP. You can also search "viewer" on Microsoft's web site and come up with viewers for their other applications, including a version of Word Viewer that works on Windows 3.1. I've tested the viewer and it works fine. Many government sites actually offer a download or link to get the Word Viewer.
In any case, just having a document viewer doesn't solve the problem with Government picking an office suite that's propritary and not free. How about the occasion (which is definitely not rare, I've run across it nearly everytime I needed something from a government agency) where you download the document and have to fill it in with your information, then save and send it back? In that case if you only have the viewer, you're SOL. Well maybe not totally SOL, but best case you have to print out the blank document, fill in the information by hand, then mail it and wait for several days for it to arrive and get processed.
And then you still have that annoying little problem of no viewer available for Linux, Solaris, BeOS (ok, yeah I'm nitpicking with that one), etc.
-
I have not come across anything that MS Office can do that another office programme, such as StarOffice or OpenOffice can't do.
That's not the problem, the problem is all the other people using MS Office. Even if your whole organization uses OpenOffice or StarOffice, you'll run into problems with people you do business with only using MS Office. Sometimes the documents won't look/work exactly right in anything but Office so you end up having to use it anyway, no matter how hard you try.One of the problems is MS's ever-changing document formats, while WordPerfect's not changed their document format for years, MS's seems to change with ever release. I'm not sure, but I suspect the format will even change ever-so-slightly with some of the service packs. Nothing that'll affect MS Office versions, but enough to make the document a mess in anything else. Personally I dont't think this is just a coincedence, MS seems to be trying to make sure Office is the only thing companies can use without massive headaches. That's why I doubt we'll ever see it ported to Linux unless a court ordered them to, and then they'd probably find a way to hobble it enough that you still needed a Windows box to run it on for it to not cause grief.
If you're in a company that's not mandated another product, you can pretty much forget using anything buy Office happily. Last place I worked even though pretty much all the staff in my dept. preferred Word Perfect and had it on our machines, we still had to do the majority of stuff in Office because we had to deal with people outside the dept. It's insanely frustrating let me tell you. I ended up doing most of my work in Office just to save the hassle. The one thing I always used WordPerfect for was labels though, Office royally sucks for creating labels. It also sends unnecessarilly large files to the printer when it comes time to print the labels. I remember trying to print some VCR labels on an old Apple Laserwriter. Each one was a single graphic the size of the label. Couldn't get them to print, after looking at the queue size it turned out the document in the printer queue had a size of over 5MB! (The printer only had 2MB memory onboard.) What's scary is the actual .doc file was quite a bit smaller than 5MB. That's when I got a copy of WP for my work computer, when I checked its print queue size (for the same set of labels, all graphics) it was around 700k.
-
All slashdotters, espeically people that were seriously affected by sitefinder, please complain NOW. Let them know how controversial it is!
I certainly will, as well as many others, but the underlying problems is that Verisign doesn't care what we have to say, how we feel about sitefinder, or how it'll cause problems. They have repeatedly denied that sitefinder caused problems (even in the face of proof). Even if every person onBetter yet, use a service like Spam Gourmet for anything you sign up for online. I do this and use a unique disposable address for each site. I like to enter contests so this is quite handy. A nice side-benefit is I can tell you which sites I signed up with are spammers because they're the ones with 100+ E-mails trashed and not forwarded. Hell, I even signed up for Spamcop through Spam Gourmet. I made the spamcop reporting address (the one they send from) a trusted sender, now if some spammer manages to somehow get the address I used to sign up at spamcop, they'll get to send a grand total of 2 E-mails before they're all eaten automatically. No bounces to warn the spammer the address is bad either, they just get quietly deleted without anyone ever looking at them.
-
Home game consoles have never really be backward compatible. PS2 is the first real back-ward compatible that I know of (though someone will end up telling me differently).
AFAIK, the PS2 was the first backwards compatible console, but it has been a boon to Sony. When the PS2 was released, it didn't have to rely on just the PS2 release titles to convince undecided buyers. You could point to the case full of shiny PS1 games and tell them that the PS2 would play all of them too. This helped push a lot of consumers into spending more to get the PS2 instead of a PS1. It still does in fact, even though the quantity of PS2 titles you can find in a store are much greater than PS1 titles.I couldn't play my Nintendo games on a Nintendo 64 out-of-the-box, and I surely can't play them on a GameCube. There is no precident for backwards compatibility in the gaming market, IMO, so it shouldn't be a concern for Microsoft.
Besides, most gamers I know have more than one game system, so it is no big deal if they have yet another one.
And a quick note on the Gamecube. The Gamecube's lack of ability to do anything buy play Gamecube games has hurt it. When you can play Audio CDs on even the PS1, and DVDs on the PS2 and Xbox (even if you do have to pay an extra $30 to do so on the Xbox), many people didn't see the point in getting a Gamecube. It's not a surprise that sales on the cube only really picked up when the price went down to $99. At that price, the lack of additional abilities was offset by the savings.
The really sad thing is Microsoft should know this. They screwed the pooch on the Xbox release by forcing users to buy the remote playback kit ($30) to play DVDs on the Xbox. The PS2 was already out there and didn't require you to buy anything to watch DVDs on it. I know a lot of people were swayed to get a PS2 instead of a Xbox because of this. Unless someone has a devotion to a particular Xbox-only title, why get a system you have to spend $30 extra on to get the same functionality? Not to mention the PS2 still has that PS1 backwards compatibility as a bonus.
Since Sony has already announced that the PS3 will play both PS2 and PS1 games, Microsoft is playing a very dangerous game. Even if they get the Xbox 2 out a year before the PS3. The PS3 will have a larger library of playable games when it's released simply because of the backwards compatability. Once the PS3 enters the market, that'll push undecided consumers to Sony, and Microsoft will be left in Sony's dust -- again.
I guess this just goes to show that MS doesn't have a clue how to compete in a market in which they don't have a monopoly, or can't leverage their monopoly.
-
This guy is finally getting at least some of what he deserves, which is a trial potentially followed by punishment under the law. If you can contribute evidence to support the charges against him, or bring new charges, then go for it. Otherwise, leave it be.
Sounds like they won't need too much more to nail him. Those 9000 E-mails sent to spamtraps that never could have opted in to anything are a serious smoking gun. Snotty's blustering about countersuing Spitzer and how Spitzer's not produced any actual NY residents who didn't opt-in are just that -- blustering. I suspect the judge will laugh hysterically at the countersuit before dismissing it, and Snotty will find out that his previous felony conviction was a walk in the park. Doubt he'll get just probation this time.-
I think you people need a reality check. You don't have it that bad. Try unemployment for a while, and then working in a factory! If you think this will not happen to you, then be prepared because it will!
Trade working in a factory for working at Wal-mart. At least the printed paper had more brains and tact than the average Wal-mart customer seems to.But yeah, in this economy I'm thankful to have even the Wal-mart job, although it is demoralizing to have a BS in Computer Science and being stuck running a cash register to pay the bills.
Same here, everything's of the definitely ilegal type of spam. (Since we all know there is no magic pill to make you have greater sex, etc. And if they mention Viagra, 99 to 1 they're not legally selling it.) I've just started fowarding them all to the ftc's collection address, epecially since I get about one Nigerian scam letter a month as well.