Tried it on my Mac running Snow Leopard. Using Preview, nothing happened. Same thing with the Firefox PDF Plugin. Using Adobe Reader, I got a warning that the pdf "...may contain programs, macros, or viruses that could potentially harm [my] computer." In the dialog was a list of files/programs (i.e. Calculator.app) that the pdf wanted to open. Clicking "open" launched Calculator.app, clicking "do not open" just opened the pdf without launching any external programs. In sum, yes this is a security problem, especially if someone clicks the "do not warn again" check box to disable warnings. But it isn't so critical that I'm rushing to remove Reader from my own computer. Now, for the average user that clicks OK blindly without reading the dialog box....
One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong, Can you tell which thing is not like the others By the time I finish my song?
One of these things is loved by otaku One of them used for Warhammer games Collect 'em, paint 'em, spend thousands of dollars It'll clinch your geekdom-hood fame.
Did you guess which thing was not like the others? Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong? If you guessed this one is not like the others, Then you're absolutely...right!
(goes back to bask in his Warhammer, D&D, and anime figure collection)
Definitely true. I've used Wikipedia many times to get a heads-up on the topic and learn what sources are good for further reading. I would never cite Wikipedia itself; it's a bit too unreliable and, more importantly, changeable to use directly as a source. But with the amount of citations good articles have I can easily track down whatever source the Wikipedian used, read the relevant chapters, and cite that.
Then again, that's how all encyclopedias are supposed to be used. That's why they're usually considered tertiary sources, as opposed to primary and secondary sources. Wikipedia is no different than Britannica or Encarta in that respect. Most of my college classmates have understood this, and the instructors have stressed the importance of a good bibliography.
Even if each individual datum is nearly worthless, the combined value is far from it. Do you think any of those companies would still be worth what they are if they're databases were irretrievably wiped?
For that matter, why the person's zip code? I can understand that geography may play a role in people's tastes (coasts vs central America, urban vs. rural), but the full zip code is overkill. Just give the decade of birth and state of residence, and if necessary the size of the town/city the user is from, bucketing them into groups like 100-1000, 1000-10000, etc). That should give enough data (approximate age, geography, urban vs. rural vs. suburban) to the researchers without being specific enough to identify any one person.
Yes, but server maintenance is a fixed cost, not a marginal cost, and bandwidth is cheap. How cheap? Will, according to some digging I've done, in San Francisco (near the center of many tech businesses in the US) bandwidth for large companies in 2008 was around $10-$14 per Mbps per month for a 1GigE connection. For a 10GigE connection, the price was around $4 per Mbps per month. Assuming they are always sending out at peak capacity, this comes out to a cost of about 3.7 cents per GB (with a 1 GigE) or 1.2 cents per GB (with a 10 GigE). Assuming Sony has a 10 GigE hookup, that's about 5 cents for a 4 GB file. Not zero, but pretty close.
That depends on a lot of factors, especially where you live. I've found that super saver shipping takes around 2-4 days on average. Of course, I live right outside a major city, and I get just about everything shipped in half the promised time.
If you really must have it right away, chances are that a rental model (eg through your cable provider or Redbox) would be quicker than PS3 download as well as cheaper. As far as my experience (with movies at least) goes, when I'm looking to buy I'm not generally in a hurry to watch; having a physical package and the quality/dependability of physical media is more important. When I'm in a hurry to watch its usually just to watch once with a group of friends/family; I don't care as much about perfect quality or whether the media will last for years.
The link provided tries to automatically print the article, which is kind of annoying. The original article is available and avoids that issue.
That said, it sounds like he may have been living beyond his means. Yes, Orange County is an expensive place to live, but it seems he was spending money willy-nilly. One of the first HDTVs released (when prices were above $5000)? A 375-bottle wine collection? A leased BMW? And all the spending he must have done to acquire these reward points? He may have been making six figures, but that's no excuse for poor financial planning. It sounds like even after he lost his job he continued spending like he expected to get right back on his feet, and now he's paying the price for it.
I guess it's like what happens to many lotto winners. When you have all this money, you feel like there's no end to it and keep spending. Until there's nothing left. Sad, really, but he can blame himself for not planning or making changes to his lifestyle until it was too late to save his home. Hopefully he can get back on his feet soon.
So, a company decided to take shortcuts in creating a mockup of a project still in early development, and is being blasted because of it? Seriously, this was nowhere near a final release or even a beta release. It was a mockup, designed solely to get across an idea of what the final product interface would look like. Tasking an art team to create all-new icons and artwork is generally counter to the idea of the quick-and-dirty nature of mockups.
Slashdot Mirror
Tried it on my Mac running Snow Leopard. Using Preview, nothing happened. Same thing with the Firefox PDF Plugin.
Using Adobe Reader, I got a warning that the pdf "...may contain programs, macros, or viruses that could potentially harm [my] computer." In the dialog was a list of files/programs (i.e. Calculator.app) that the pdf wanted to open. Clicking "open" launched Calculator.app, clicking "do not open" just opened the pdf without launching any external programs.
In sum, yes this is a security problem, especially if someone clicks the "do not warn again" check box to disable warnings. But it isn't so critical that I'm rushing to remove Reader from my own computer. Now, for the average user that clicks OK blindly without reading the dialog box....
Sports, soap operas, miniature figurines, gun collections.
One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?
One of these things is loved by otaku
One of them used for Warhammer games
Collect 'em, paint 'em, spend thousands of dollars
It'll clinch your geekdom-hood fame.
Did you guess which thing was not like the others?
Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong?
If you guessed this one is not like the others,
Then you're absolutely...right!
(goes back to bask in his Warhammer, D&D, and anime figure collection)
Definitely true. I've used Wikipedia many times to get a heads-up on the topic and learn what sources are good for further reading. I would never cite Wikipedia itself; it's a bit too unreliable and, more importantly, changeable to use directly as a source. But with the amount of citations good articles have I can easily track down whatever source the Wikipedian used, read the relevant chapters, and cite that.
Then again, that's how all encyclopedias are supposed to be used. That's why they're usually considered tertiary sources, as opposed to primary and secondary sources. Wikipedia is no different than Britannica or Encarta in that respect. Most of my college classmates have understood this, and the instructors have stressed the importance of a good bibliography.
According to various internet sources (so take with a grain of salt):
Mark Zuckerberg's net worth: $2 billion. Made entirely from Facebook.
Twitter's net worth: $589 million.
Digg's net worth: $24.34 million.
Even if each individual datum is nearly worthless, the combined value is far from it. Do you think any of those companies would still be worth what they are if they're databases were irretrievably wiped?
For that matter, why the person's zip code? I can understand that geography may play a role in people's tastes (coasts vs central America, urban vs. rural), but the full zip code is overkill. Just give the decade of birth and state of residence, and if necessary the size of the town/city the user is from, bucketing them into groups like 100-1000, 1000-10000, etc). That should give enough data (approximate age, geography, urban vs. rural vs. suburban) to the researchers without being specific enough to identify any one person.
Yes, but server maintenance is a fixed cost, not a marginal cost, and bandwidth is cheap. How cheap? Will, according to some digging I've done, in San Francisco (near the center of many tech businesses in the US) bandwidth for large companies in 2008 was around $10-$14 per Mbps per month for a 1GigE connection. For a 10GigE connection, the price was around $4 per Mbps per month. Assuming they are always sending out at peak capacity, this comes out to a cost of about 3.7 cents per GB (with a 1 GigE) or 1.2 cents per GB (with a 10 GigE). Assuming Sony has a 10 GigE hookup, that's about 5 cents for a 4 GB file. Not zero, but pretty close.
That depends on a lot of factors, especially where you live. I've found that super saver shipping takes around 2-4 days on average. Of course, I live right outside a major city, and I get just about everything shipped in half the promised time.
If you really must have it right away, chances are that a rental model (eg through your cable provider or Redbox) would be quicker than PS3 download as well as cheaper. As far as my experience (with movies at least) goes, when I'm looking to buy I'm not generally in a hurry to watch; having a physical package and the quality/dependability of physical media is more important. When I'm in a hurry to watch its usually just to watch once with a group of friends/family; I don't care as much about perfect quality or whether the media will last for years.
The link provided tries to automatically print the article, which is kind of annoying. The original article is available and avoids that issue.
That said, it sounds like he may have been living beyond his means. Yes, Orange County is an expensive place to live, but it seems he was spending money willy-nilly. One of the first HDTVs released (when prices were above $5000)? A 375-bottle wine collection? A leased BMW? And all the spending he must have done to acquire these reward points? He may have been making six figures, but that's no excuse for poor financial planning. It sounds like even after he lost his job he continued spending like he expected to get right back on his feet, and now he's paying the price for it.
I guess it's like what happens to many lotto winners. When you have all this money, you feel like there's no end to it and keep spending. Until there's nothing left. Sad, really, but he can blame himself for not planning or making changes to his lifestyle until it was too late to save his home. Hopefully he can get back on his feet soon.
So, a company decided to take shortcuts in creating a mockup of a project still in early development, and is being blasted because of it? Seriously, this was nowhere near a final release or even a beta release. It was a mockup, designed solely to get across an idea of what the final product interface would look like. Tasking an art team to create all-new icons and artwork is generally counter to the idea of the quick-and-dirty nature of mockups.