>People would flock to the ISPs that give them the best service rather than flocking to the monopoly that offers service in their area.
Newsflash - this isnt happening. Turns out no one wants to invest in another set of wires to your home, so ISPs tend to fall into basic duopolies or monopolies. When both Comcast and AT&T decide to slow down torrents or competing VOIP, which they have done, then there's really no one else to go to. Thus, the demand for legislation.
What the "free market over all" kiddies dont understand is that there are natural monopolies and duopolies. Not everything falls into the 'marketplace' model of having lots and lots of competitors fighting over your dollar.
They already have the right to block all torrents if they pleased. They are privat companies with very few regulations. Companies already block copyright materials via DMCA take down requests. These guidelines change nothing, except put in some sane rules regarding the payola tiered web companies like Comcast want to put in. Im sure your anti-government screed is very convincing to young republicans, I mean libertarians, but this all looks like a lot of fearmongering from the eff.
>I'll probably attract a zillion flames for saying this, but I think this is great. NASA does a great job on uncrewed probes, and that's a mission that can't be carried out by private enterprise.
Exactly. Bush's grandstanding for Moon and Mars missions was unfeasible and unneeded. NASA is the world leader in robotics and drone missions. Carrying around a meatbag to these places is expensive and unneeded.
>When McLaren or Maybach come out with new cars do you all complain that they're over priced and don't appeal to you? Why do you do it with computers?
I already own a macbook and an iphone, so I am part of the demographic they are targeting. I see the tablet as potentially like the Macbook Air. An expensive concept thats targets a niche. I dont see why pointing that out along with Apple's horrible app store policies is such an affront to you.
>I think everyone who has used their smart phone on their couch has gone "God I wish the screen was just a few more inches".
But Im not willing to pay $800-$1500 or whatever the tablet costs for the privilege of casual couch surfing. Especially when I can just park a laptop on a side table next to my couch and have a full fledged system for $500.
Not to mention, some of the apps Id like to run have been banned by Apple's censors. I dont know why Id spend all that money for a gimped machine.
>Of course, we got lucky, and the winds turned out to be strong enough (and at least occasionally dust-free) to clear off the solar panels.
This is a popular misconception. It was well understood that Mars winds would clean off a lot of the dust, which makes things like complex and heavy wipers a bad idea. It wasnt much of a gamble really. Mars is a pretty windy place. Things like these, and long red lights, etc just stink of "LOL DUMB ENGINEERS" and its just bothersome.
Read my post again. I wrote "OR" switch to linux or OSX. Arguably, both are easier for lazy/stupid people to keep secure. My point, which should have been obvious, is that there needs to be a financial incentive to keep people from doing stupid things with computers. Almost all malware is preventable with a little thinking.
Not to mention blocking people is a clear indication that they are infected. They may not know this and be thankful that their private information isnt being streamed out to China or Russia anymore. Toss in some free bootable CDs with a decent malware removal program and you're good to go.
This is not anything new. When I worked at a university years ago we did the same thing. The kids would clean the infection or reinstall windows. After a while even the dimmest bulbs learned how to use a computer safely.
>The majority of/.ers are now young republicans (sorry, libertarians)in their first year of college, studying debate/rhetoric 101 and javascript. They've also just discovered ayn raynynnd.
That explains a lot. The recent influx of "OMG RON PAUL CAN FIX EVERYTHING" and naive views now makes sense.
Cue crazy guy who thinks ever business proposal is a conspiracy by the government to "finally" get him. Err, if they wanted you, you'd be in a jail cell. No need for some business regulations about zombies to make it look legit(?)). Also, I think your tin foil hat is looking a bit crooked. Some alpha waves might be getting in!
Who cares? He owns it, its his responsibility to fix it. Pay someone if he cant figure it out and stop clicking on NAKED_PHOTOS.EXE or doesnt understand why he should be doing those Microsoft updates. Should we also coddle drivers with unsafe cars because they arent mechanics?
Its only when there's a financial incentive to keep a machine patched and thinking before clicking that people will begin doing so. Or switching to OSX or Linux. The status quo of not taking responsibility for your own computer isnt sustainable and isnt helping anyone.
>Further the notion that "the Apple brand is almost synonymous with free-thinking creativity" is about a decade out of date.
Whatever upper-class/creative shine Apple had was worn away when it was revealed that the most popular iphone app was a fart simulator. Welcome to the lowest common denominator, Mr Jobs.
>hippies thought they were original and free-thinking in the 60's--by acting, dressing, and thinking like every other hippie.
While Im not one to typically defend hippie culture, I think its important to realize that the counter-culture was just that - its own culture counter to the mainstream. Its philosophies and fashions werent from Madison Ave or the stodgy conservative Unviersity system of the 1950s.
So, yes, they all inherited from a common cause but they were still rebelling against the consumerism and conformity that typified post WWII American culture.
When youre talking about a nation of 300 million people all from different backgrounds, education levels, varying tax experience, etc then yes, it becomes a large problem. Not everyone runs their own business and understands things on the level you understand things. People go to classes or pay people to fill out a 1040EZ form. Pardon me if I dont have much faith in the lowest common denominator.
>who are the number 1 contributors to the Democratic Party btw
Dont be a partisan dweeb. Here's Intuit's top contribs. I see more R's than D's. This is not a partisan issue. This is an issue that goes beyond parties and thanks to the recent 5-4 SCOTUS ruling (which is a CONSERVATIVE court majority) its only getting worse. Considering the only party I see sticking up to big business (healthcare reform, wall street reform) is the Democrats then perhaps it is a partisan issue. Youre just blaming the wrong side. Perhaps getting your opinions from conservative owned media is really the problem?
Top Contributor to Member(18 results)
* Intuit Inc to Harry Reid (D) in 2010
* Intuit Inc to Anna G. Eshoo (D) in 2008
* Intuit Inc to Denny Rehberg (R) in 2008
* Intuit Inc to Ron Lewis (R) in 2008
* Intuit Inc to Todd Tiahrt (R) in 2008
* Intuit Inc to Zoe Lofgren (D) in 2008
* Intuit Inc to Darrell Issa (R) in 2004
* Intuit Inc to Ernest J. Istook (R) in 2004
* Intuit Inc to Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R) in 2004
* Intuit Inc to Charles B. Rangel (D) in 2002
* Intuit Inc to Jim Moran (D) in 2002
* Intuit Inc to John T. Doolittle (R) in 2002
* Intuit Inc to Mike Honda (D) in 2002
* Intuit Inc to Brian P. Bilbray (R) in 2000
* Intuit Inc to Jim Kolbe (R) in 2000
* Intuition Services Inc to Bill McCollum (R) in 2000
* Intuitive Research to Parker Griffith (D) in 2010
* Intuitive Surgical Inc to Anna Eshoo (D) in 2010
The alternative of handing someone a large tax bill on Dec 31st simply wont work. People arent that responsible and many will be ignorant on how to handle their money. Heck, when I or anyone I know works 1099 we immediately call the IRS and get on a payment plan because we know how hard it is to manage that money. You can ask your employer to move you to 1099 if possible.
Look, regardless of your politics, you are not getting out of paying taxes. Automatic removal from the paycheck is the easiest way to go.
Dear Police, when you see a smarmy guy driving an 1980s Mercedes, please note your EMP weapon wont work so you'll need a sniper from SWAT to shoot him in the face. Thanks in advance.
So what? Its open source. They cant dictate things like where it can be used. They cant apply their current corporate issues onto it. Its software outside their control. They are free to quit maintaining it if they like.
Im sure there are lots of weapon systems linux is running on. Im sure Linus isnt too fond of that, but none of that makes any difference.
Doesnt really make a difference. The great Firewall of China inspects packets for certain words and spoofs a RST packet to break the connection and blocks that IP for x amount of time. I doubt the Chinese can actually see those results. I wouldnt be surprised if the results were IP based (if china IP then censor).
>This seems like AutoIT but with image recognition (instead of having to input mouse coordinates).
Right, its AutoHotKey/AutoIT with a nicer OCR library. Perhaps this will light the fire under the butts of the AutoHotKey devs and add in some smarter screen reading and browser integration.
>And we all know FrontPge went on to become the defacto standard for web development....that had to be fixed by an real web developer later.
Do you want to democratize technology or just have it controlled by elites? Non-techies want to do things like scripting and web design without paying a professional, the same way they want to fix things around the house or fix the car. When it comes to small or easy jobs, a non-expert can do just fine. Why should we piss on the DIY'ers because they dont have a Master's degree in CS? Frankly, a lot of computer stuff is pretty easy and paying someone is ridiculous.
While Im certainly no fan of Frontpage, I feel that it wasnt much worse than Mozilla Composer or other WSIWYG html composers.
>In 10 or 20 years from now, people are going to look back aand laugh at use for spending the 70's through the 2030's spending so much time sitting in front of a computer terminal.
You could have made the exact same prediction ten years ago, but it hasnt happened. The web was supposed to break us away from the old desktop computing model. Cheap laptops and tablets were going to kill desktops. Applications would "run on the network" (whatever that means) and we would all be wearing eyeglasses with magical displays.
Turns out the futurists were wrong, as usual. The web hasnt migrated away from the "need big monitor in front of me" assumption, except for specialized mobile pages which people see a temporary compromise until they can get to their home laptop/desktop. Business doesnt see the need to get more expensive laptops when cheaper and easier to maintain desktops do the job just fine.
>It's already happening with email, IM, SMS, etc.
Every 100 wpm texting teen is also more comfortable with a laptop.
The real issue is that human interfaces are limited by the limitations of humans. Our hands are big and our eyes need x amount of space to absorb x amount of information. We need x amount of resolution and size to comfortably read. While desktops have been replaced by laptops, theyre still the same UI and the same concepts. I have yet to see a successful break from the windowing system we are familiar with and the latest paradigm killers like Sugar on XO have been huge failures.
I have an iphone and have to scroll through pages of flat icons aranged in order of install to get to an app. Err, thats the revolution? Thats like pointing to someone on Windows who dumps all their files to their desktop with no folders and calling it efficient.
Its only efficient when you have under 20 items. Anything more requires some kind of basic organizational system. The desktop/file cabinet metaphor works especially well.
Then again, this is an opinion piece from gizmodo. Seems like these guys spend all their ad money on sugar and red bull while navel-gazing instead of beating feet and reviewing real devices like at engadget.
Slashdot Mirror
>People would flock to the ISPs that give them the best service rather than flocking to the monopoly that offers service in their area.
Newsflash - this isnt happening. Turns out no one wants to invest in another set of wires to your home, so ISPs tend to fall into basic duopolies or monopolies. When both Comcast and AT&T decide to slow down torrents or competing VOIP, which they have done, then there's really no one else to go to. Thus, the demand for legislation.
What the "free market over all" kiddies dont understand is that there are natural monopolies and duopolies. Not everything falls into the 'marketplace' model of having lots and lots of competitors fighting over your dollar.
They already have the right to block all torrents if they pleased. They are privat companies with very few regulations. Companies already block copyright materials via DMCA take down requests. These guidelines change nothing, except put in some sane rules regarding the payola tiered web companies like Comcast want to put in. Im sure your anti-government screed is very convincing to young republicans, I mean libertarians, but this all looks like a lot of fearmongering from the eff.
>I'll probably attract a zillion flames for saying this, but I think this is great. NASA does a great job on uncrewed probes, and that's a mission that can't be carried out by private enterprise.
Exactly. Bush's grandstanding for Moon and Mars missions was unfeasible and unneeded. NASA is the world leader in robotics and drone missions. Carrying around a meatbag to these places is expensive and unneeded.
>When McLaren or Maybach come out with new cars do you all complain that they're over priced and don't appeal to you? Why do you do it with computers?
I already own a macbook and an iphone, so I am part of the demographic they are targeting. I see the tablet as potentially like the Macbook Air. An expensive concept thats targets a niche. I dont see why pointing that out along with Apple's horrible app store policies is such an affront to you.
>I think everyone who has used their smart phone on their couch has gone "God I wish the screen was just a few more inches".
But Im not willing to pay $800-$1500 or whatever the tablet costs for the privilege of casual couch surfing. Especially when I can just park a laptop on a side table next to my couch and have a full fledged system for $500.
Not to mention, some of the apps Id like to run have been banned by Apple's censors. I dont know why Id spend all that money for a gimped machine.
>Of course, we got lucky, and the winds turned out to be strong enough (and at least occasionally dust-free) to clear off the solar panels.
This is a popular misconception. It was well understood that Mars winds would clean off a lot of the dust, which makes things like complex and heavy wipers a bad idea. It wasnt much of a gamble really. Mars is a pretty windy place. Things like these, and long red lights, etc just stink of "LOL DUMB ENGINEERS" and its just bothersome.
Something tells me this password manager now holds more than 8 characters:
http://www.failcomputer.com/?p=114
Or some Swede technician finally got off his butt and rebooted the Amiga:
http://www.failcomputer.com/?p=90 /selfless self-linking
Read my post again. I wrote "OR" switch to linux or OSX. Arguably, both are easier for lazy/stupid people to keep secure. My point, which should have been obvious, is that there needs to be a financial incentive to keep people from doing stupid things with computers. Almost all malware is preventable with a little thinking.
Not to mention blocking people is a clear indication that they are infected. They may not know this and be thankful that their private information isnt being streamed out to China or Russia anymore. Toss in some free bootable CDs with a decent malware removal program and you're good to go.
This is not anything new. When I worked at a university years ago we did the same thing. The kids would clean the infection or reinstall windows. After a while even the dimmest bulbs learned how to use a computer safely.
>The majority of /.ers are now young republicans (sorry, libertarians)in their first year of college, studying debate/rhetoric 101 and javascript. They've also just discovered ayn raynynnd.
That explains a lot. The recent influx of "OMG RON PAUL CAN FIX EVERYTHING" and naive views now makes sense.
Cue crazy guy who thinks ever business proposal is a conspiracy by the government to "finally" get him. Err, if they wanted you, you'd be in a jail cell. No need for some business regulations about zombies to make it look legit(?)). Also, I think your tin foil hat is looking a bit crooked. Some alpha waves might be getting in!
Who cares? He owns it, its his responsibility to fix it. Pay someone if he cant figure it out and stop clicking on NAKED_PHOTOS.EXE or doesnt understand why he should be doing those Microsoft updates. Should we also coddle drivers with unsafe cars because they arent mechanics?
Its only when there's a financial incentive to keep a machine patched and thinking before clicking that people will begin doing so. Or switching to OSX or Linux. The status quo of not taking responsibility for your own computer isnt sustainable and isnt helping anyone.
>Further the notion that "the Apple brand is almost synonymous with free-thinking creativity" is about a decade out of date.
Whatever upper-class/creative shine Apple had was worn away when it was revealed that the most popular iphone app was a fart simulator. Welcome to the lowest common denominator, Mr Jobs.
>hippies thought they were original and free-thinking in the 60's--by acting, dressing, and thinking like every other hippie.
While Im not one to typically defend hippie culture, I think its important to realize that the counter-culture was just that - its own culture counter to the mainstream. Its philosophies and fashions werent from Madison Ave or the stodgy conservative Unviersity system of the 1950s.
So, yes, they all inherited from a common cause but they were still rebelling against the consumerism and conformity that typified post WWII American culture.
When youre talking about a nation of 300 million people all from different backgrounds, education levels, varying tax experience, etc then yes, it becomes a large problem. Not everyone runs their own business and understands things on the level you understand things. People go to classes or pay people to fill out a 1040EZ form. Pardon me if I dont have much faith in the lowest common denominator.
>who are the number 1 contributors to the Democratic Party btw
Dont be a partisan dweeb. Here's Intuit's top contribs. I see more R's than D's. This is not a partisan issue. This is an issue that goes beyond parties and thanks to the recent 5-4 SCOTUS ruling (which is a CONSERVATIVE court majority) its only getting worse. Considering the only party I see sticking up to big business (healthcare reform, wall street reform) is the Democrats then perhaps it is a partisan issue. Youre just blaming the wrong side. Perhaps getting your opinions from conservative owned media is really the problem?
Top Contributor to Member(18 results)
* Intuit Inc to Harry Reid (D) in 2010
* Intuit Inc to Anna G. Eshoo (D) in 2008
* Intuit Inc to Denny Rehberg (R) in 2008
* Intuit Inc to Ron Lewis (R) in 2008
* Intuit Inc to Todd Tiahrt (R) in 2008
* Intuit Inc to Zoe Lofgren (D) in 2008
* Intuit Inc to Darrell Issa (R) in 2004
* Intuit Inc to Ernest J. Istook (R) in 2004
* Intuit Inc to Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R) in 2004
* Intuit Inc to Charles B. Rangel (D) in 2002
* Intuit Inc to Jim Moran (D) in 2002
* Intuit Inc to John T. Doolittle (R) in 2002
* Intuit Inc to Mike Honda (D) in 2002
* Intuit Inc to Brian P. Bilbray (R) in 2000
* Intuit Inc to Jim Kolbe (R) in 2000
* Intuition Services Inc to Bill McCollum (R) in 2000
* Intuitive Research to Parker Griffith (D) in 2010
* Intuitive Surgical Inc to Anna Eshoo (D) in 2010
The alternative of handing someone a large tax bill on Dec 31st simply wont work. People arent that responsible and many will be ignorant on how to handle their money. Heck, when I or anyone I know works 1099 we immediately call the IRS and get on a payment plan because we know how hard it is to manage that money. You can ask your employer to move you to 1099 if possible.
Look, regardless of your politics, you are not getting out of paying taxes. Automatic removal from the paycheck is the easiest way to go.
Without overworked half-asleep developers how will we have amusing errors like this:
http://www.failcomputer.com/?p=5
or ever see stuff like this again???
http://www.failcomputer.com/?p=66
Dear Police, when you see a smarmy guy driving an 1980s Mercedes, please note your EMP weapon wont work so you'll need a sniper from SWAT to shoot him in the face. Thanks in advance.
Sincerely,
The Internet
So what? Its open source. They cant dictate things like where it can be used. They cant apply their current corporate issues onto it. Its software outside their control. They are free to quit maintaining it if they like.
Im sure there are lots of weapon systems linux is running on. Im sure Linus isnt too fond of that, but none of that makes any difference.
Doesnt really make a difference. The great Firewall of China inspects packets for certain words and spoofs a RST packet to break the connection and blocks that IP for x amount of time. I doubt the Chinese can actually see those results. I wouldnt be surprised if the results were IP based (if china IP then censor).
>Wow, I just figured out a new feature on Slashdot! You can type in, "U:username and P:password," and it will replace your password with stars.
They must have implemented a time machine because that joke is older than I am.
>This seems like AutoIT but with image recognition (instead of having to input mouse coordinates).
Right, its AutoHotKey/AutoIT with a nicer OCR library. Perhaps this will light the fire under the butts of the AutoHotKey devs and add in some smarter screen reading and browser integration.
>And we all know FrontPge went on to become the defacto standard for web development....that had to be fixed by an real web developer later.
Do you want to democratize technology or just have it controlled by elites? Non-techies want to do things like scripting and web design without paying a professional, the same way they want to fix things around the house or fix the car. When it comes to small or easy jobs, a non-expert can do just fine. Why should we piss on the DIY'ers because they dont have a Master's degree in CS? Frankly, a lot of computer stuff is pretty easy and paying someone is ridiculous.
While Im certainly no fan of Frontpage, I feel that it wasnt much worse than Mozilla Composer or other WSIWYG html composers.
>In 10 or 20 years from now, people are going to look back aand laugh at use for spending the 70's through the 2030's spending so much time sitting in front of a computer terminal.
You could have made the exact same prediction ten years ago, but it hasnt happened. The web was supposed to break us away from the old desktop computing model. Cheap laptops and tablets were going to kill desktops. Applications would "run on the network" (whatever that means) and we would all be wearing eyeglasses with magical displays.
Turns out the futurists were wrong, as usual. The web hasnt migrated away from the "need big monitor in front of me" assumption, except for specialized mobile pages which people see a temporary compromise until they can get to their home laptop/desktop. Business doesnt see the need to get more expensive laptops when cheaper and easier to maintain desktops do the job just fine.
>It's already happening with email, IM, SMS, etc.
Every 100 wpm texting teen is also more comfortable with a laptop.
The real issue is that human interfaces are limited by the limitations of humans. Our hands are big and our eyes need x amount of space to absorb x amount of information. We need x amount of resolution and size to comfortably read. While desktops have been replaced by laptops, theyre still the same UI and the same concepts. I have yet to see a successful break from the windowing system we are familiar with and the latest paradigm killers like Sugar on XO have been huge failures.
I have an iphone and have to scroll through pages of flat icons aranged in order of install to get to an app. Err, thats the revolution? Thats like pointing to someone on Windows who dumps all their files to their desktop with no folders and calling it efficient.
Its only efficient when you have under 20 items. Anything more requires some kind of basic organizational system. The desktop/file cabinet metaphor works especially well.
Then again, this is an opinion piece from gizmodo. Seems like these guys spend all their ad money on sugar and red bull while navel-gazing instead of beating feet and reviewing real devices like at engadget.