> Their review of SP2 however, lacked a reasonable level of objectivity.
Agreed, I think OSS purists and other elitists are simply threatened by SP2. MS didn't drop the ball on this. Sadly, they did not get rid of activeX (probably because of monopolistic reasons). So the register goes into full Zell Miller mode. Disable DHCP and the DNS client? Shame really. Some of us work with MS machines all day, all our friends and family have them and they bug us for support all the time.
SP2 is a strong step in making Windows usable, and frankly MS's ass was on the line with this. If they failed to stop the virus/trojan/spyware triple-threat there would be a lot more Mac owners in the near future.
My inspiron is acting fine too. A little snappier too.
>So did Slashdotters call this one?
No. They really didn't. Of course SP2 was going to cause *some* problems, but poo-pooing everything MS in a knee-jerk fashion doesn't help anyone and probably is keeping people from installing it, which is a real shame because:
1. Firewall on by default. Power users can easily shut it off. How many Slashdot posts do we have that wish MS did this, but when they do suddenly MS is doing wrong. Yes an admin can shut it off even with an activeX control. Such is the life of running as admin.
2. Nag screens for anti-virus and updates. Much needed.
3. Better wireless interface. The old one wasn't so hot and this is a welcome upgrade.
4. "Drive by installs" are not going to be as common as IE requires an extra step to install/download stuff and blocks pop-ups natively and by default. Man, how many slashdoot posts did we have about "MS should do something about pop-ups and click installs!" Well, they did. Sure, they didnt remove activeX altogether, but no one was expecting that.
5. NX support for AMD 64. Wow.
> Finally, Microsoft warns that installing SP2 on a spyware-infested PC is a bad idea.
No shit. Installing ANYTHING on a spyware infested PC will cause all sorts of problems. Fighting spyware is what SP2 is trying to do. Give it time or at least introduce your friends and co-workers to a little thing called Ad Aware, especially if they'll never switch to FireFox. Face it, many people will never switch and will go to their deathbeds using bundled software.
>So did Slashdotters call this one?
Granted, if you take the negative approach to life 24/7 you will be right every so often or at least subjectively, but I feel these are much needed changes and will help technophobes better use their machines. MS can do things right. Yeah, break out the smelling salts...
I dont believe any project has the equipment to detect a typical TV broadcast off-planet. SETI is banking on another SETI-like program on an alien world which sends radio waves out seeking seekers, as they are not (to my knowledge) capable of detecting the kind of thing you're suggesting. Which makes it even more of a gamble and means no one is going to find anything through "stupidity."
Also, considering the "WOW" signal from a few decades ago it seems that perhaps the odds are against us. Maybe there was a SETI-like project, they sent the signal, and no one caught it properly and the next one won't be for a long time, if ever. Also, it may very well be that the WOW signal was of human origins anyway.
Not to mention an encrypted signal or laser light signal would go undetected.
I dont see the big advantage is just handing out download speeds. If you want true sharing be it running a server of some sort (web, game, etc), P2P, etc these companies really need to stop trying to placate us with higher download speeds and give up matching upload speeds.
Many broadband providers are handing out multi-megabit connections but with 128k or sometimes 256k up. When I hear about matching upload speeds available in other countries it just drives me crazy that I'm paying Comcast 60 dollars a month for 3 down and 256k up.
Face it: broadband users tend to do a lot more than just "consume online web ads." They use all sorts of P2P, be it eMule, bittorrent, kazaa. They want to be able to send friends and family large photos and media clips via email or ftp without waiting all day.
On top of it, a lot of these foreign countries get their infrastructure subsidized by tax dollars, while here in the states the baby bells sit on DSL roll outs until they can get long distance sales rights or whatever they need that month. The cable people are just plain expensive. I think the US market still needs to grow up a bit, address customer concerns, and stop playing the favor system and start selling product.
Radiohead, the band, not Apple, MS, Capitol, etc decided they dont want to be part of the a la carte online music sale business. They (and other artists) prefer you buy their whole albums.
Gee, this is wonderful. I'm thinking of all the people who I've helped out by disabling activeX downloads on their machine thus making them spyware free who will now blindly follow these directions.
>choose "enabled" or "prompt"
Yeah, enabled is the way to go. Why get bothered with an annoying prompt when shady companies want to install software on your machine!
Welcome to the world of Bonzai Buddies, mystery pauses and crashes, and no privacy! I hope you enjoy your new ever changing homepage too!
> on most residental points will take several weeks
Try months (and thats on old equipment with no firmware upgrade to filter out weak frames). Try not getting spotted sitting there with your laptop and running airsnort all day.
Do these WEP fatalists also refuse to lock their cars/house doors because anyone with some skill and one easily gotten tool can open their doors? Do these people also make their own padlocks in their basement because every manufacturer has a master key? Do these people also use blank passwords because cracking NTLM or most passwd files is very doable, etc.
That's a bit out there. Do you really want the ISP doing what they think is best for you (or them)? "Oh, so you're running a webserver." Block port 80. "Oh, so you aren't using Microsoft's Firewall?" It gets installed by a tech and they charge you 50 bucks for the trouble, even though you have a hardware firewall, etc. Trust me, you don't want to be punished by rules set for the lowest common denominator.
The problem here is the problem we see everywhere when it comes to computers: usability. WEP is counter-intuitive to implement. WPA is a step in the right direction with a single password (as people understand the concept of passwords). The new MS wireless manager in SP2 goes a lot way to simplifying wifi also.
Make no mistake about it, there are lot of people who tried to get WEP to work only to have it fail. I know I've had bizarre issues with WEP that could only be fixed with a hard reset on the device and falling back to default settings, a firmware downgrade, upgrading firmware on the card, generating new keys every so often because the thing just didn't like the old ones, playing around with advanced wireless settings, etc. I don't think that level of troubleshooting should be expected from a typical end user.
Its actually a lot better looking if you right-click>customize>use small icons. I thought I'd be busy downloading themes, but the ugly default theme is actually pretty handsome and useable when using "small icons."
I'd like to see more fancy stuff. A simple grammar checker would be very nice. The MS one overextends and is very stylistic to say the least. Catching simple grammar errors (hey proofreading on a computer screen sucks) would be a step in the right direction.
I'd also like to see the OO.org people (and others) and the abiword people decide on one text format. I dont know which one is superior, but Word's real advantage is the ubiquity of the.doc format.
Just tried it on a fresh SP2 install and it works. The kicker is even after I've closed IE I still can't delete the boom.exe file from startup because its being used by a different program. Oh well, might as well disarm it (yeah I know its a 0kb exe but what the hey) with msconfig.
The handful of sites that don't work well with Firefox/Moz is really a small price to pay for the added security especially in regards to drive-by spyware installs.
Do you think for one second Apple's agreement would ever allow them to go below Apple's price? HP CAN'T go cheaper. So they are probably banking on the assumption that iPods dont work with windows, bundling, and getting them out to their retailers.
Apple knows that this is a win-win for them. How many companies are working on, or sell, an 'iPod killer' at a lower price right now? With HP taking care of things on the windows side of things Apple is extending the life of it iPod brand.
> What does Star Wars have to do with science fiction?
What does Bladerunner have to do with science fiction? I really dislike these subjective "let me tell you what real insert_whatever is" type arguments. All sub-genres can be linked to higher genres.
Bladerunner is a detective story: with androids/clones.
Star Wars is an adventure story: with spaceships.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a political story: on a moon colony.
IE is actually usable for the first time since, err, ever. The extra nag dialogs and the pop-up blocker go a long way towards keeping spyware off your machine. Lets face facts, most people will never stop using IE. They will go to their deathbeds using bundled software. They will never switch to Firefox or Opera. This is the service pack for them.
The nag "Where if your anti-virus" box is a reminder that windows needs an AV program to run properly. I can't stress how important a built-in firewall is, even if it is "weak" its still going to introduce people to the concept of a firewall much more than the old version did. Personally, I dont think ports over 1025 should be blocked by default, but that's just me.
I've been running SP2 since MS released the final version and am pretty pleased with it. XP even feels snappier. It passes the "grandma" test fairly well and like you wrote is a good first step towards securing windows. If it only helps fight spyware installs its worth its bytes in grams of gold. Especially for us techies who get called, bothered, etc for stuff that is completely preventable.
This is really the first step to securing windows for the everyman, if such a thing is truly possible. Soon enough current machines will be replaced with machines with processors which understand NX, thus making the feared buffer overflow much less fearsome.
Even though SP2 is going to cause all sorts of headaches with clients, friends, and family, I'm very optimistic about what it can do to help stop spyware and to a lesser extent worms and viruses. Its a real shame there isn't an equivalant SP for the HUGE win2k user base out there. Seems like the script kiddies will now be focusing on win2k machines from now on.
This seems to be an implementation of compulsory licensing (the 5 dollar fee) and probably the future of P2P, unless the whole "sue everyone" method actually works in the end.
The Register article is short on details, but the trojan does pull paypal and other info from the machine. If they get enough info on you your headshot would be a nice piece of data to have to forge an picture ID.
I know you're kidding, but considering more than half of internet users in the US are always on broadband users and the number of webcams sold/bundled with PCs and you've got yourself quite a number of people to spy on.
Parker and Trey both recieved public aid to goto college at the the University of Colorado.
Both are now multi-millonaires with very little in common with you and me. If they have a philosophy its contrarianism and vulger/shock humor. To hold them up to anything else is being a bit pretentious about their work, which is as anti-pretentious as it gets.
Like that piece of war porn The Jessica Lynch story?
Or how they pulled the Reagans?
Or how dissenting voices regarding the Iraq invasion were barely heard?
Or how a Hollywood star is now the governor of California and a Republican.
Or how media ownership is concentraed into the hands of a few vocal conservatives?
Or how F9/11 got dropped by Disney and was in "can't find a distributator" mode for a while?
Or how every "history" movie (especially WWII) is ahistoric and highly pro-American. With the exception of Vietnam movies.
Or how the Pentagon will lend Hollywood any equipment they want but they get to edit the script for right-wing pro-military ahistory "patriotic correctness?"
Or how TV was quick to digitally remove the twin towers from every skyline as not to upset anyone?
Or how shows that tackle history in an honest and non-partisan way only exist on PBS?
Or how Malkin can go on TV and say Kerry shot himself for his medals? Or how Anne Coulter can openly call Liberals treasonous and demand the deaths of muslims and coverting them to Xtianity. Both of whom are still on the pundit short list for other shows.
Or how only a satiric comedy show (the Daily Show) can actually break and frame issues in a manner which isn't corporate media ass-kissing?
Yeah, its pretty PC lefty out there! You many know some liberals in the industry, but it doesnt make a difference if their bosses (who dictate policy and bias and call the shots) are conservatives like Rupert Murdoch, Rev Moon, etc.
>Here in the UK or in the US the rickshaws would have cost 100s of thousands each and a small fortune to run.
Probably, but because richer economies have to produce more robust products to even be considered for funding. If these rickshaws hit the US market, people like you would be complaining how terrible they are, how the range sucks, how painfully heavy they are, how big of flop they will be, etc.
Also, look at these things, those are full sized PCs in there, not laptops. In an economy where people make ~16k per head per year, who is going to drag around a rickshaw PC? At the very least the more expensive project you decry would be a lighter more energy efficient laptop or even four or five of them for multiple use per rickshaw.
Its real easy just to say "westerners suck, they are so spoiled, fat, and lazy compared to everyone else" when really all people behave the same way given the same circumstances. People in rich economies tend to get fat. People in poor economies tend to be too thin. People in rich economies shift to service industries. People in poor economies work in manufacturing. Products in richer economies are disposable. Products in poorer economies tend to be servicable. And so on.
The US and UK has no shortage of amazing projects when they were at a poorer point in their history. Hell, look at the US's advances in telegraph, rail, and telephone systems back when. Or the power and opportunity the steam engine and the cotton gin produced.
I really get sick of the western bashing and the whole "we've lost out way, lets get back to nature" BS. Disposable laptops, wifi everywhere, etc are signs of progress. Maybe you'd rather be waiting 6 weeks for a replacement power supply on the family 286, but not me.
The only real catch is smart disposal as to not affect the environment. Even poor economies have to work on not letting excess fertilizer get in the ground water or let their farming habits encourage erosion.
Maybe not for you, but most people have no idea they can or should rename execuatables or screw around with the startup settings because Apple removed the GUI component just so these people CANT remove their little "helper."
Also, different versions of Real have different levels of end user hostility.
These are simply bad policies and for most users these things will run in the tray as little adverts/branding for as long as they own their computer.
I really hope DVDs/SVCDs of the laserdisc version get pushed on popular bittorrent and p2p networks the day this comes out. I'd love to read news articles and talking heads on the news trying to figure this out.
*two local tv anchors on location at a suncoast DVD retailer observing the long line*
"Well Jane, it seems this is one of the most pirated movies in history."
"Yes Tom, the online world has never been shy about co-opting releases."
"True, except they're pirating the version sold in the 80s from something called a 'laserdisc.'"
*confusion ensues as a pasty skined geek grabs Jane's mic*
Fan: "Greedo does NOT shoot first!!!"
*security hauls the fan away*
"What was that about?"
"No idea. What's a greedo? *pause* Don't worry folks he's getting the help he needs."
*back on Skywalker Ranch*
Fan has eyes clipped open while a projector plays the Greedo scene endlessly before him and a small crowd tied to their chairs in a small theater. A tear run downs his cheek as he quietly, in unison with the rest, whispers, "Greedo shoots first. Greedo shoots first. Greedo shoots first."
Slashdot Mirror
Dude, Moonchicken .4 is out!
.5 is out?
.6 is out already?
.7.
.8 keeps crapping all over my system.
.8b compatible? What about FordFalcon .7RC2?
Hey, did you hear Marsdove
Whoa, Son of MoonChicken
I really don't like the default theme in Helioavian
Crap, Venuspigeon
What do you mean your organization isn't Denny's SuperChicken
Finally SunFireBirdThing 1.0 is released!
> Their review of SP2 however, lacked a reasonable level of objectivity.
Agreed, I think OSS purists and other elitists are simply threatened by SP2. MS didn't drop the ball on this. Sadly, they did not get rid of activeX (probably because of monopolistic reasons). So the register goes into full Zell Miller mode. Disable DHCP and the DNS client? Shame really. Some of us work with MS machines all day, all our friends and family have them and they bug us for support all the time.
SP2 is a strong step in making Windows usable, and frankly MS's ass was on the line with this. If they failed to stop the virus/trojan/spyware triple-threat there would be a lot more Mac owners in the near future.
My inspiron is acting fine too. A little snappier too.
>So did Slashdotters call this one?
No. They really didn't. Of course SP2 was going to cause *some* problems, but poo-pooing everything MS in a knee-jerk fashion doesn't help anyone and probably is keeping people from installing it, which is a real shame because:
1. Firewall on by default. Power users can easily shut it off. How many Slashdot posts do we have that wish MS did this, but when they do suddenly MS is doing wrong. Yes an admin can shut it off even with an activeX control. Such is the life of running as admin.
2. Nag screens for anti-virus and updates. Much needed.
3. Better wireless interface. The old one wasn't so hot and this is a welcome upgrade.
4. "Drive by installs" are not going to be as common as IE requires an extra step to install/download stuff and blocks pop-ups natively and by default. Man, how many slashdoot posts did we have about "MS should do something about pop-ups and click installs!" Well, they did. Sure, they didnt remove activeX altogether, but no one was expecting that.
5. NX support for AMD 64. Wow.
> Finally, Microsoft warns that installing SP2 on a spyware-infested PC is a bad idea.
No shit. Installing ANYTHING on a spyware infested PC will cause all sorts of problems. Fighting spyware is what SP2 is trying to do. Give it time or at least introduce your friends and co-workers to a little thing called Ad Aware, especially if they'll never switch to FireFox. Face it, many people will never switch and will go to their deathbeds using bundled software.
>So did Slashdotters call this one?
Granted, if you take the negative approach to life 24/7 you will be right every so often or at least subjectively, but I feel these are much needed changes and will help technophobes better use their machines. MS can do things right. Yeah, break out the smelling salts...
I dont believe any project has the equipment to detect a typical TV broadcast off-planet. SETI is banking on another SETI-like program on an alien world which sends radio waves out seeking seekers, as they are not (to my knowledge) capable of detecting the kind of thing you're suggesting. Which makes it even more of a gamble and means no one is going to find anything through "stupidity."
Also, considering the "WOW" signal from a few decades ago it seems that perhaps the odds are against us. Maybe there was a SETI-like project, they sent the signal, and no one caught it properly and the next one won't be for a long time, if ever. Also, it may very well be that the WOW signal was of human origins anyway.
Not to mention an encrypted signal or laser light signal would go undetected.
I dont see the big advantage is just handing out download speeds. If you want true sharing be it running a server of some sort (web, game, etc), P2P, etc these companies really need to stop trying to placate us with higher download speeds and give up matching upload speeds.
Many broadband providers are handing out multi-megabit connections but with 128k or sometimes 256k up. When I hear about matching upload speeds available in other countries it just drives me crazy that I'm paying Comcast 60 dollars a month for 3 down and 256k up.
Face it: broadband users tend to do a lot more than just "consume online web ads." They use all sorts of P2P, be it eMule, bittorrent, kazaa. They want to be able to send friends and family large photos and media clips via email or ftp without waiting all day.
On top of it, a lot of these foreign countries get their infrastructure subsidized by tax dollars, while here in the states the baby bells sit on DSL roll outs until they can get long distance sales rights or whatever they need that month. The cable people are just plain expensive. I think the US market still needs to grow up a bit, address customer concerns, and stop playing the favor system and start selling product.
Radiohead, the band, not Apple, MS, Capitol, etc decided they dont want to be part of the a la carte online music sale business. They (and other artists) prefer you buy their whole albums.
Gee, this is wonderful. I'm thinking of all the people who I've helped out by disabling activeX downloads on their machine thus making them spyware free who will now blindly follow these directions.
>choose "enabled" or "prompt"
Yeah, enabled is the way to go. Why get bothered with an annoying prompt when shady companies want to install software on your machine!
Welcome to the world of Bonzai Buddies, mystery pauses and crashes, and no privacy! I hope you enjoy your new ever changing homepage too!
Its like it would kill MS to divest from activeX.
> on most residental points will take several weeks
Try months (and thats on old equipment with no firmware upgrade to filter out weak frames). Try not getting spotted sitting there with your laptop and running airsnort all day.
Do these WEP fatalists also refuse to lock their cars/house doors because anyone with some skill and one easily gotten tool can open their doors? Do these people also make their own padlocks in their basement because every manufacturer has a master key? Do these people also use blank passwords because cracking NTLM or most passwd files is very doable, etc.
>Unless companys start requiring it
That's a bit out there. Do you really want the ISP doing what they think is best for you (or them)? "Oh, so you're running a webserver." Block port 80. "Oh, so you aren't using Microsoft's Firewall?" It gets installed by a tech and they charge you 50 bucks for the trouble, even though you have a hardware firewall, etc. Trust me, you don't want to be punished by rules set for the lowest common denominator.
The problem here is the problem we see everywhere when it comes to computers: usability. WEP is counter-intuitive to implement. WPA is a step in the right direction with a single password (as people understand the concept of passwords). The new MS wireless manager in SP2 goes a lot way to simplifying wifi also.
Make no mistake about it, there are lot of people who tried to get WEP to work only to have it fail. I know I've had bizarre issues with WEP that could only be fixed with a hard reset on the device and falling back to default settings, a firmware downgrade, upgrading firmware on the card, generating new keys every so often because the thing just didn't like the old ones, playing around with advanced wireless settings, etc. I don't think that level of troubleshooting should be expected from a typical end user.
Actually the screenshot is the default theme.
Its actually a lot better looking if you right-click>customize>use small icons. I thought I'd be busy downloading themes, but the ugly default theme is actually pretty handsome and useable when using "small icons."
I'd like to see more fancy stuff. A simple grammar checker would be very nice. The MS one overextends and is very stylistic to say the least. Catching simple grammar errors (hey proofreading on a computer screen sucks) would be a step in the right direction.
.doc format.
I'd also like to see the OO.org people (and others) and the abiword people decide on one text format. I dont know which one is superior, but Word's real advantage is the ubiquity of the
Just tried it on a fresh SP2 install and it works. The kicker is even after I've closed IE I still can't delete the boom.exe file from startup because its being used by a different program. Oh well, might as well disarm it (yeah I know its a 0kb exe but what the hey) with msconfig.
The handful of sites that don't work well with Firefox/Moz is really a small price to pay for the added security especially in regards to drive-by spyware installs.
> If the price is the same... they're screwed.
Do you think for one second Apple's agreement would ever allow them to go below Apple's price? HP CAN'T go cheaper. So they are probably banking on the assumption that iPods dont work with windows, bundling, and getting them out to their retailers.
Apple knows that this is a win-win for them. How many companies are working on, or sell, an 'iPod killer' at a lower price right now? With HP taking care of things on the windows side of things Apple is extending the life of it iPod brand.
> What does Star Wars have to do with science fiction?
What does Bladerunner have to do with science fiction? I really dislike these subjective "let me tell you what real insert_whatever is" type arguments. All sub-genres can be linked to higher genres.
Bladerunner is a detective story: with androids/clones.
Star Wars is an adventure story: with spaceships.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a political story: on a moon colony.
and so on.
IE is actually usable for the first time since, err, ever. The extra nag dialogs and the pop-up blocker go a long way towards keeping spyware off your machine. Lets face facts, most people will never stop using IE. They will go to their deathbeds using bundled software. They will never switch to Firefox or Opera. This is the service pack for them.
The nag "Where if your anti-virus" box is a reminder that windows needs an AV program to run properly. I can't stress how important a built-in firewall is, even if it is "weak" its still going to introduce people to the concept of a firewall much more than the old version did. Personally, I dont think ports over 1025 should be blocked by default, but that's just me.
I've been running SP2 since MS released the final version and am pretty pleased with it. XP even feels snappier. It passes the "grandma" test fairly well and like you wrote is a good first step towards securing windows. If it only helps fight spyware installs its worth its bytes in grams of gold. Especially for us techies who get called, bothered, etc for stuff that is completely preventable.
This is really the first step to securing windows for the everyman, if such a thing is truly possible. Soon enough current machines will be replaced with machines with processors which understand NX, thus making the feared buffer overflow much less fearsome.
Even though SP2 is going to cause all sorts of headaches with clients, friends, and family, I'm very optimistic about what it can do to help stop spyware and to a lesser extent worms and viruses. Its a real shame there isn't an equivalant SP for the HUGE win2k user base out there. Seems like the script kiddies will now be focusing on win2k machines from now on.
> SO when you ABSOLUTELY HAVE to get on line what do you do?
What you always do when your connection is down: use your neighbor's wireless access point.
This seems to be an implementation of compulsory licensing (the 5 dollar fee) and probably the future of P2P, unless the whole "sue everyone" method actually works in the end.
>On the otherside its all just rumors until the cameras start rolling....
Cameras? They use cameras in Star Wars movies?
More like just rumors until the SGI machine boots up.
The Register article is short on details, but the trojan does pull paypal and other info from the machine. If they get enough info on you your headshot would be a nice piece of data to have to forge an picture ID.
I know you're kidding, but considering more than half of internet users in the US are always on broadband users and the number of webcams sold/bundled with PCs and you've got yourself quite a number of people to spy on.
Or they might just send wacky pop-ups to solicit expressions like the one this guy is sporting.
Parker and Trey both recieved public aid to goto college at the the University of Colorado.
Both are now multi-millonaires with very little in common with you and me. If they have a philosophy its contrarianism and vulger/shock humor. To hold them up to anything else is being a bit pretentious about their work, which is as anti-pretentious as it gets.
>vurrrrry correct about everything
Like that piece of war porn The Jessica Lynch story?
Or how they pulled the Reagans?
Or how dissenting voices regarding the Iraq invasion were barely heard?
Or how a Hollywood star is now the governor of California and a Republican.
Or how media ownership is concentraed into the hands of a few vocal conservatives?
Or how F9/11 got dropped by Disney and was in "can't find a distributator" mode for a while?
Or how every "history" movie (especially WWII) is ahistoric and highly pro-American. With the exception of Vietnam movies.
Or how the Pentagon will lend Hollywood any equipment they want but they get to edit the script for right-wing pro-military ahistory "patriotic correctness?"
Or how TV was quick to digitally remove the twin towers from every skyline as not to upset anyone?
Or how shows that tackle history in an honest and non-partisan way only exist on PBS?
Or how Malkin can go on TV and say Kerry shot himself for his medals? Or how Anne Coulter can openly call Liberals treasonous and demand the deaths of muslims and coverting them to Xtianity. Both of whom are still on the pundit short list for other shows.
Or how only a satiric comedy show (the Daily Show) can actually break and frame issues in a manner which isn't corporate media ass-kissing?
Yeah, its pretty PC lefty out there! You many know some liberals in the industry, but it doesnt make a difference if their bosses (who dictate policy and bias and call the shots) are conservatives like Rupert Murdoch, Rev Moon, etc.
First: unclench.
Good.
Second: Prepare yourself for future-shock and read up on this crazy new-fangled thing called "remote access."
>Here in the UK or in the US the rickshaws would have cost 100s of thousands each and a small fortune to run.
Probably, but because richer economies have to produce more robust products to even be considered for funding. If these rickshaws hit the US market, people like you would be complaining how terrible they are, how the range sucks, how painfully heavy they are, how big of flop they will be, etc.
Also, look at these things, those are full sized PCs in there, not laptops. In an economy where people make ~16k per head per year, who is going to drag around a rickshaw PC? At the very least the more expensive project you decry would be a lighter more energy efficient laptop or even four or five of them for multiple use per rickshaw.
Its real easy just to say "westerners suck, they are so spoiled, fat, and lazy compared to everyone else" when really all people behave the same way given the same circumstances. People in rich economies tend to get fat. People in poor economies tend to be too thin. People in rich economies shift to service industries. People in poor economies work in manufacturing. Products in richer economies are disposable. Products in poorer economies tend to be servicable. And so on.
The US and UK has no shortage of amazing projects when they were at a poorer point in their history. Hell, look at the US's advances in telegraph, rail, and telephone systems back when. Or the power and opportunity the steam engine and the cotton gin produced.
I really get sick of the western bashing and the whole "we've lost out way, lets get back to nature" BS. Disposable laptops, wifi everywhere, etc are signs of progress. Maybe you'd rather be waiting 6 weeks for a replacement power supply on the family 286, but not me.
The only real catch is smart disposal as to not affect the environment. Even poor economies have to work on not letting excess fertilizer get in the ground water or let their farming habits encourage erosion.
>Hardly "digging".
Maybe not for you, but most people have no idea they can or should rename execuatables or screw around with the startup settings because Apple removed the GUI component just so these people CANT remove their little "helper."
Also, different versions of Real have different levels of end user hostility.
These are simply bad policies and for most users these things will run in the tray as little adverts/branding for as long as they own their computer.
I really hope DVDs/SVCDs of the laserdisc version get pushed on popular bittorrent and p2p networks the day this comes out. I'd love to read news articles and talking heads on the news trying to figure this out.
*two local tv anchors on location at a suncoast DVD retailer observing the long line*
"Well Jane, it seems this is one of the most pirated movies in history."
"Yes Tom, the online world has never been shy about co-opting releases."
"True, except they're pirating the version sold in the 80s from something called a 'laserdisc.'"
*confusion ensues as a pasty skined geek grabs Jane's mic*
Fan: "Greedo does NOT shoot first!!!"
*security hauls the fan away*
"What was that about?"
"No idea. What's a greedo? *pause* Don't worry folks he's getting the help he needs."
*back on Skywalker Ranch*
Fan has eyes clipped open while a projector plays the Greedo scene endlessly before him and a small crowd tied to their chairs in a small theater. A tear run downs his cheek as he quietly, in unison with the rest, whispers, "Greedo shoots first. Greedo shoots first. Greedo shoots first."