Putting around at lower than the posted limit just because you like to be a prick and hold other people up? What an ass. It's people like you that make me want to put some "Mad Max - Beyond Thunderdome" type apparatus on the front of my car so I can ram your ass off the road.
If you have that hard a time moving at speed with the rest of traffic, may I humbly suggest you either; A) Get a bicycle, or B) take the bus.
Either way, get off the road, you are a hazard to other drivers.
No, you can run an Nvidia card on FOSS drivers. You just won't get the full range of 3D capabilities that you would get with a proprietary driver. Of course, Ubuntu makes it easy to use the proprietaries, as it comes with them pre-loaded on the CD. So it's not a big deal to get them setup and loaded.
Of course, if you are one of those purists who wants only FOSS software on your machine, I doubt very much you will be buying a Dell laptop anyway, so your opinion holds no weight.
The rest of us just want our stuff to work, and Dell + Ubuntu = IJW (It Just Works)
Well, if the OS-Tan girls are any indication, the Microsoft robot girls would have HUGE breasts, and wear very shiny, yet skimpy clothing. Unfortunately, they would also have some potentially dangerous bugs, but hey, they would have huge breasts, so who's counting, right?
Do you have any tips on how you got your son interested in the computer?
I wish I did. As another commenter noted, very often it is the child themselves that will determine how much they are interested. For example, my daughter, who is also Autistic, has little interest in the computer, other than as a source of passive entertainment. IE: She likes to watch my son use it, and to listen to children's music from some of the sites. But she doesn't want to or doesn't understand how to use it on her own. I have tried to sit down with her and show her, but she has no patience for it.
My son, on the other hand, gets upset if you try to show him something. He wants to do it himself, and will work at it until he is comlpetely stuck, and THEN ask for help. It's very interesting to see the differences between the two of them.
The best advice I can give you is to simply sit down with your child in front of the computer. Start with some "passive" things, like online videos, and the "click through" stories that sites like playhousedisney.com, sesamestreet.com, Noggin.com, and bigideafun.com have available, and slowly work your way to having your child control some of the clicking. Just basically get them interested, show them how it works via example, and slowly give them control.
maybe if he wasn't in front of a computer since he was three he wouldn't be autistic?
My son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at 2 years old (the earliest age that children can be diagnosed accurately) so no, being at a computer had nothing to do with it.
But congratulations on being a complete asshat about it. Perhaps you'd like to mock my 7 year old Daughter who was ALSO diagnosed with Autism? What the hell, might as well throw in a few autistic jokes while you are at it. I mean, if you are going to be a complete asshole fuckwit jerk, ya might as well go whole-hog!
My son learned how to do most of that (not counting playing CS. Although he does play some Web-based games at Noggin.com) at about 3 - 3/12. Now before you go saying "Well your son is just a genius." Please be aware, my son has Autism. He's not "normal" in any sense of the word, other than being physically healthy.
His learning is definitely behind that of his peers, requiring him to need a special in-school tutor to help him along. He's 5 now, and struggling along in 1st grade. Still, we're impressed with his progress so far, and are now looking for ways we can use his affinity for computers to help educate him.
The truth is, if parents would take just 5-15 minutes to sit down with their child at a computer and begin to use it with them, they would find that most kids would very quickly latch onto it, and soon be doing things with it themselves. I suspect that this will begin to happen more and more and the generation that was born into a world with computers and the internet as a common thing have kids of their own. Heck, it's ALREADY happening, if my son is any indication.
Don't sell your kids short. Get them in front of a computer and learning today. Their peers have already started.
Both the Democrats and the Republicans are to blame for this bullshit.
And this is a codephrase used by American Liberals to deflect criticism of their oppressive social policies. Don't bother trying it again, Political Correctness is an invention of the LEFT, not the right.
I ask you, who controls PBS (the public entity that produces Sesame Street)? Christian right-wingers, or American Liberals? Yep, Liberals. The same people that take a Christian children's program, "Jay Jay the Jet Plane" and suck all the Christianity right out of it. To the point that when you tell people it was originally a Christian program, they are shocked.
These same Liberals edit as much Christianity out of as many of the PBS-shown programs as possible. Don't believe me? Go out and buy a copy of the PBS distributed "Thomas the Tank Engine, Thomas' Christmas Wonderland." Other than the title, there isn't a mention of CHRISTMAS (A Christian Holiday) on the DVD. I get a big kick out of hearing Alec Baldwin (a huge huge huge American Liberal) narrate the story about "Thanksgiving" while all the characters tool around the screen in Santa hats and Wreathes.
To sum up, Political Correctness is an invention of leftists and communists used to silence conservative and religious opposition. The American political left has total control over PBS (and Sesame Street), and the evidence is right there for anyone not too politically blinded to see it.
PBS needs to be de-funded by the government and made to succeed or fail on it's own.
I never disliked Walmart. Although I am aware of the reasons many people do not like Walmart. (No, I don't need them reiterated here, thank you.)
One thing I've suspected for awhile, is that the "Linux Revolution" (Linux taking off as a desktop alternative) would NOT happen at businesses or with high-end users. It will happen much like the "Windows Revolution" happened back in the 90's. It will start with the "Walmart buyer". Ordinary people making ordinary FINANCIAL decisions to buy a cheap PC.
This is the regular, ordinary, joe-sixpack, "what's a right-click?" kind of person. The kind of people scorned by many of the elitists in the OS and PC fields. The people looked down upon by many many many here at Slashdot as backward, ignorant rubes living in "flyover country". The kind of people that voted for GW Bush, that fly American flags from their porches, that have communities with 4th of July parties that everyone in town attends. Small-town middle American traditional people.
THEY are the ones that will start the Linux revolution. Not because they "did the research" or "grok FOSS" or any of that elitist crap. But because it makes financial sense to buy a $200 US PC that can do everything they need it to do. They will get introduced to Linux for the first time, perhaps as their first PC EVER, and will love it. They will stick with this machine for at least 5 years, as it will be able to handle all the basic tasks they need it for, and when it dies or they need another, they will look for another LINUX PC to replace it with.
The Linux revolution begins... In Iowa, at Walmart.
Switzerland also has an overall economy smaller than some major American cities. So it's not really an accurate comparison. I'm happy for Switzerland, but the comparison with the US isn't really fair.
No, it works 100% on all makes and models of cellular phones. However, the Theaters you frequent apparently have not installed Copper mesh, thus your ability to rudely use a phone while in a theater.
AFAIK if you're trying to install a vanilla Windows XP on some of these laptops it's a pain - drivers etc. Heck installing XP from scratch is a bigger pain than installing Linux. Most people don't know that since Windows usually comes preinstalled.
Well, not that I want to help out any thieves, but it's not really THAT hard. Keep in mind that many of the large corporations (the kinds he was stealing from) use a standardized image whenever possible on their machines. Usually (if using XP) utilizing a corporate XP key. Since he has several PC's already, all he needs is:
1) A Pirated copy of a Corporate Version XPSP2 install CD. (easy to get) 2) A copy of Magic Jellybean Keyfinder on a USB stick to pull the corporate key off the laptop BEFORE hooking it to an Internet connection. (easy to get) 3) Drivers and software for various laptop types downloaded from the laptop company websites (easy to get) 4) An external laptop HD case, for pulling laptop HD's and FULLY wiping them (using a secure-erase utility on a lab-PC) (easy to get) 5) A little time and care.
Ultimately, the total cost for this setup is no more than the cost of a Lab PC, the external drive case and a set of small drivers for pulling the laptop drives. If you want to really go hog-wild, you could setup a Ghosting station too, but that's not really necessary.
Now, if the system uses one of the Hardware-based Lojack setups, you're pretty much screwed, just part out the laptop and junk what you can't sell. But for any software system, it's cheap and easy to bypass for anyone with even the tiniest bit of IT know-how.
However, I do agree, just going and getting a real job is a MUCH better way of going about making an income. Less of an adrenaline jolt, perhaps, but much more reliable.
Actually, it is indicated in the article, the second one linked.
Larry Brass, the Tampa Police detective who arrested Eric Almly this spring, says he's not permitted to endorse a particular product. But he says if Outback's laptops were not outfitted with software called Computrace LoJack for Laptops, made by Absolute Software, there is "no question" Almly would be walking free today.
So it's just some software. Which shows how incredibly stupid a thief he was. He wasn't even willing (or able) to formate the laptop with a fresh OS install. Basically he was just doing a data cleanup and software update, and then selling them as-is. No wonder the dumbass got caught. Ugh.
Frankly, the only reason he got away with it for as long as he did is due to the complete lack of any physical security that corporate types exercise with their laptops. And I would imagine that the lack of security will continue, until a major theft happens that ends up in the exposing of critical corporate data which brings down a company. Corporations ONLY change policy when they have to due to law, or they are scared into it. This story isn't big enough, but I'm guessing that there will be another one, and soon.
Kyoto is nothing more than the "take money from the West in general and America in particular" plan. Which is why Bush wisely decided to have nothing to do with it. It's goals are intentionally impossible to meet for Western societies while the most populous nation on earth, China, is completely exempted from them!
The funny part is, THIS is the treaty that is supposed to save us from "manmade global warming", but we can't even come CLOSE to meeting it without murdering a massive amount of the population of the globe (in order to reduce consumption to levels low enough to meet the treaty) and returning to a bronze-age lifestyle (togas and rotten meat, anyone?). It's a stupid fantasy cooked up by enviro-communists designed to destroy the economies of democratic nations so that "big brother" can step in and make us all Comrades.
No thank you, I like my technology, my automobiles and my Freedom, thank you very much. The morons suing in these states should be taken out and shot, or at the very least disbarred and jailed for treason.
As a former Adelphia phone-support tech I can sympathise. The Current comcast sounds VERY much like the former Adelphia. While there were some very skilled and dedicated technicians and support people there, they were totally overpowered by the sheer incompetence of the upper management.
I worked in the Buffalo call center as a High Speed Internet level 2 phone support tech. We had quite a few very talented and really smart people working there. Unfortunately for us, we were totally hamstrung by the complete lack of proper communication and logistics functions between the various sections of Adelphia. And (particularly towards the end) we didn't really have the tools to repair (or fully diagnose) any serious network issues with any kind of adequate speed.
Basically we were reduced to troubleshooting minor issues with people's pc's, running automated diagnostics on modems, and if anything looked even remotely like a network problem, we referred that up to the overworked network support group, which customers could not call or talk with, basically leaving them out in the cold while they waited who-knows how long for the problem to be fixed.
After a while it just became easier to punt, and send out a cable tech if you were in any way uncertain, or were unable to satisfy the customer. I'm just glad I'm out of there, and that Time Warner got the Buffalo region. From what I hear from my buddies still at the call center, things are MUCH better, and they are able to do much more for the customers than we were ever able to do under Adelphia. So at least one cable company seems to be getting it right.
We spend multiple millions of years crawling out of the primordial ooze to walk on two legs, develop opposable thumbs and a brain large enough to create a civilization that dominates our planet, and now we're gonna start going BACKWARDS? What the hell were the last several million years of evolution for?
Actually, I know for a FACT that isn't true. Most ISP's (at least, US based ones) Are now using QOS and monitoring technology, and they regularly shut down virus-infected machines. I have contacts over at Time Warner's upper level tech support center, and they regularly get calls from people who have been shut down by TW's security division.
Back when I was at that call center (it was Adelphia owned back then) Adelphia had an internal group call the Internet Policy Enforcement Team (IPET). They would constantly be shutting down virus-infected and zombied machines. We would get calls all the time, sometimes as many as one or two a night that would have to be referred to IPET, as their accounts would also be flagged as shut down by IPET.
ISP's do try, but the problem is so massive that it simply outstrips their ability to deal with it. Most of this is due to easily infected Windows machines. Poor patching, unplugged security holes, outdated anti-virus and user ignorance (sometimes willful) combine to make it WAY too easy to create a zombie network and way too hard to shut it down.
Honestly, this problem isn't going to go away until security becomes the first design goal of operating systems instead of ease of use. Linux and Mac generally have this down, but they don't have the larger share of the end-user OS market. Microsoft does. At Microsoft, they only give lip-service to security, while making pretty 3D GUI's and adding toys seems to be the focus. Thusly, the problem of zombienets will continue to drain BILLIONS from the global economy while ruining the lives of otherwise innocent people, the victims of phishing attacks.
(btw just fuck you, I wish [not for me] that everyone was paid at least 25$ an hour which is the minimum salary you acknowledge).
(do you even know that not everyone earns 50$/hour)
Wow. You're an ass.
The $49.00 figure was from the OP, NOT ME. He actually had 49 bucks an hour on his post. I bumped it up to 1 to 2 hours since I made about 20 bucks an hour at my last job. Of course, I'm currently making much less than that due to being on unemployment after being downsized out of a job. So yeah, I know ALL ABOUT not making much money. Jerk.
Buy: Money Cost = $49.00 Time Cost = ~ 1-2 hours of working time Misc Cost = Loss of ability to spend or invest that $49.00 in something else Benefit = DVD box set or other "digital" item.
Steal: Money Cost = $0.00 Time Cost = 0 as torrents are automated and can be downloaded while sleeping or at work earning $49.00. Misc Cost = none Benefit = DVD box set or other "digital" item, $49.00 saved, no productive time wasted, able to invest or spend that $49.00 on something else.
I want it and I can get it for free easily as long as I am willing to break with my otherwise sterling principles to get it. I know perfectly well I'm "infringing" and I don't care. I want it, I don't want to pay for it, and I can get it. So I do. End of story.
Strangely, I would NEVER consider physically stealing something from the company I work for or anyone else. When I left my last job I even returned the PENS because they weren't mine. Hell, I WROTE their corporate security policy, with an emphasis on corporate IP. So I'm not a thief or a dishonest person by nature. But when it comes to TV, Movie and Music torrents I'm a complete Pirate. Go figure.
Slashdot Mirror
Soo basically you drive like an old man?
Putting around at lower than the posted limit just because you like to be a prick and hold other people up? What an ass. It's people like you that make me want to put some "Mad Max - Beyond Thunderdome" type apparatus on the front of my car so I can ram your ass off the road.
If you have that hard a time moving at speed with the rest of traffic, may I humbly suggest you either;
A) Get a bicycle, or
B) take the bus.
Either way, get off the road, you are a hazard to other drivers.
Thank you.
No, you can run an Nvidia card on FOSS drivers. You just won't get the full range of 3D capabilities that you would get with a proprietary driver. Of course, Ubuntu makes it easy to use the proprietaries, as it comes with them pre-loaded on the CD. So it's not a big deal to get them setup and loaded.
Of course, if you are one of those purists who wants only FOSS software on your machine, I doubt very much you will be buying a Dell laptop anyway, so your opinion holds no weight.
The rest of us just want our stuff to work, and Dell + Ubuntu = IJW (It Just Works)
Well, if the OS-Tan girls are any indication, the Microsoft robot girls would have HUGE breasts, and wear very shiny, yet skimpy clothing. Unfortunately, they would also have some potentially dangerous bugs, but hey, they would have huge breasts, so who's counting, right?
I wish I did. As another commenter noted, very often it is the child themselves that will determine how much they are interested. For example, my daughter, who is also Autistic, has little interest in the computer, other than as a source of passive entertainment. IE: She likes to watch my son use it, and to listen to children's music from some of the sites. But she doesn't want to or doesn't understand how to use it on her own. I have tried to sit down with her and show her, but she has no patience for it.
My son, on the other hand, gets upset if you try to show him something. He wants to do it himself, and will work at it until he is comlpetely stuck, and THEN ask for help. It's very interesting to see the differences between the two of them.
The best advice I can give you is to simply sit down with your child in front of the computer. Start with some "passive" things, like online videos, and the "click through" stories that sites like playhousedisney.com, sesamestreet.com, Noggin.com, and bigideafun.com have available, and slowly work your way to having your child control some of the clicking. Just basically get them interested, show them how it works via example, and slowly give them control.
Good luck!
My son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at 2 years old (the earliest age that children can be diagnosed accurately) so no, being at a computer had nothing to do with it.
But congratulations on being a complete asshat about it. Perhaps you'd like to mock my 7 year old Daughter who was ALSO diagnosed with Autism? What the hell, might as well throw in a few autistic jokes while you are at it. I mean, if you are going to be a complete asshole fuckwit jerk, ya might as well go whole-hog!
Idiot.
Not really.
My son learned how to do most of that (not counting playing CS. Although he does play some Web-based games at Noggin.com) at about 3 - 3/12. Now before you go saying "Well your son is just a genius." Please be aware, my son has Autism. He's not "normal" in any sense of the word, other than being physically healthy.
His learning is definitely behind that of his peers, requiring him to need a special in-school tutor to help him along. He's 5 now, and struggling along in 1st grade. Still, we're impressed with his progress so far, and are now looking for ways we can use his affinity for computers to help educate him.
The truth is, if parents would take just 5-15 minutes to sit down with their child at a computer and begin to use it with them, they would find that most kids would very quickly latch onto it, and soon be doing things with it themselves. I suspect that this will begin to happen more and more and the generation that was born into a world with computers and the internet as a common thing have kids of their own. Heck, it's ALREADY happening, if my son is any indication.
Don't sell your kids short. Get them in front of a computer and learning today. Their peers have already started.
And this is a codephrase used by American Liberals to deflect criticism of their oppressive social policies. Don't bother trying it again, Political Correctness is an invention of the LEFT, not the right.
I ask you, who controls PBS (the public entity that produces Sesame Street)? Christian right-wingers, or American Liberals? Yep, Liberals. The same people that take a Christian children's program, "Jay Jay the Jet Plane" and suck all the Christianity right out of it. To the point that when you tell people it was originally a Christian program, they are shocked.
These same Liberals edit as much Christianity out of as many of the PBS-shown programs as possible. Don't believe me? Go out and buy a copy of the PBS distributed "Thomas the Tank Engine, Thomas' Christmas Wonderland." Other than the title, there isn't a mention of CHRISTMAS (A Christian Holiday) on the DVD. I get a big kick out of hearing Alec Baldwin (a huge huge huge American Liberal) narrate the story about "Thanksgiving" while all the characters tool around the screen in Santa hats and Wreathes.
To sum up, Political Correctness is an invention of leftists and communists used to silence conservative and religious opposition. The American political left has total control over PBS (and Sesame Street), and the evidence is right there for anyone not too politically blinded to see it.
PBS needs to be de-funded by the government and made to succeed or fail on it's own.
I never disliked Walmart. Although I am aware of the reasons many people do not like Walmart. (No, I don't need them reiterated here, thank you.)
One thing I've suspected for awhile, is that the "Linux Revolution" (Linux taking off as a desktop alternative) would NOT happen at businesses or with high-end users. It will happen much like the "Windows Revolution" happened back in the 90's. It will start with the "Walmart buyer". Ordinary people making ordinary FINANCIAL decisions to buy a cheap PC.
This is the regular, ordinary, joe-sixpack, "what's a right-click?" kind of person. The kind of people scorned by many of the elitists in the OS and PC fields. The people looked down upon by many many many here at Slashdot as backward, ignorant rubes living in "flyover country". The kind of people that voted for GW Bush, that fly American flags from their porches, that have communities with 4th of July parties that everyone in town attends. Small-town middle American traditional people.
THEY are the ones that will start the Linux revolution. Not because they "did the research" or "grok FOSS" or any of that elitist crap. But because it makes financial sense to buy a $200 US PC that can do everything they need it to do. They will get introduced to Linux for the first time, perhaps as their first PC EVER, and will love it. They will stick with this machine for at least 5 years, as it will be able to handle all the basic tasks they need it for, and when it dies or they need another, they will look for another LINUX PC to replace it with.
The Linux revolution begins... In Iowa, at Walmart.
I agree.
And for your fine post, I will now mod you up.
Oh, wait...
Switzerland also has an overall economy smaller than some major American cities. So it's not really an accurate comparison. I'm happy for Switzerland, but the comparison with the US isn't really fair.
No, it works 100% on all makes and models of cellular phones. However, the Theaters you frequent apparently have not installed Copper mesh, thus your ability to rudely use a phone while in a theater.
France?
Well, not that I want to help out any thieves, but it's not really THAT hard. Keep in mind that many of the large corporations (the kinds he was stealing from) use a standardized image whenever possible on their machines. Usually (if using XP) utilizing a corporate XP key. Since he has several PC's already, all he needs is:
1) A Pirated copy of a Corporate Version XPSP2 install CD. (easy to get)
2) A copy of Magic Jellybean Keyfinder on a USB stick to pull the corporate key off the laptop BEFORE hooking it to an Internet connection. (easy to get)
3) Drivers and software for various laptop types downloaded from the laptop company websites (easy to get)
4) An external laptop HD case, for pulling laptop HD's and FULLY wiping them (using a secure-erase utility on a lab-PC) (easy to get)
5) A little time and care.
Ultimately, the total cost for this setup is no more than the cost of a Lab PC, the external drive case and a set of small drivers for pulling the laptop drives. If you want to really go hog-wild, you could setup a Ghosting station too, but that's not really necessary.
Now, if the system uses one of the Hardware-based Lojack setups, you're pretty much screwed, just part out the laptop and junk what you can't sell. But for any software system, it's cheap and easy to bypass for anyone with even the tiniest bit of IT know-how.
However, I do agree, just going and getting a real job is a MUCH better way of going about making an income. Less of an adrenaline jolt, perhaps, but much more reliable.
So it's just some software. Which shows how incredibly stupid a thief he was. He wasn't even willing (or able) to formate the laptop with a fresh OS install. Basically he was just doing a data cleanup and software update, and then selling them as-is. No wonder the dumbass got caught. Ugh.
Frankly, the only reason he got away with it for as long as he did is due to the complete lack of any physical security that corporate types exercise with their laptops. And I would imagine that the lack of security will continue, until a major theft happens that ends up in the exposing of critical corporate data which brings down a company. Corporations ONLY change policy when they have to due to law, or they are scared into it. This story isn't big enough, but I'm guessing that there will be another one, and soon.
THIS man is someone who gets it.
Kyoto is nothing more than the "take money from the West in general and America in particular" plan. Which is why Bush wisely decided to have nothing to do with it. It's goals are intentionally impossible to meet for Western societies while the most populous nation on earth, China, is completely exempted from them!
The funny part is, THIS is the treaty that is supposed to save us from "manmade global warming", but we can't even come CLOSE to meeting it without murdering a massive amount of the population of the globe (in order to reduce consumption to levels low enough to meet the treaty) and returning to a bronze-age lifestyle (togas and rotten meat, anyone?). It's a stupid fantasy cooked up by enviro-communists designed to destroy the economies of democratic nations so that "big brother" can step in and make us all Comrades.
No thank you, I like my technology, my automobiles and my Freedom, thank you very much. The morons suing in these states should be taken out and shot, or at the very least disbarred and jailed for treason.
Aaaaand you missed the point.
Try googling "Galileo, laws of falling objects"
As a former Adelphia phone-support tech I can sympathise. The Current comcast sounds VERY much like the former Adelphia. While there were some very skilled and dedicated technicians and support people there, they were totally overpowered by the sheer incompetence of the upper management.
I worked in the Buffalo call center as a High Speed Internet level 2 phone support tech. We had quite a few very talented and really smart people working there. Unfortunately for us, we were totally hamstrung by the complete lack of proper communication and logistics functions between the various sections of Adelphia. And (particularly towards the end) we didn't really have the tools to repair (or fully diagnose) any serious network issues with any kind of adequate speed.
Basically we were reduced to troubleshooting minor issues with people's pc's, running automated diagnostics on modems, and if anything looked even remotely like a network problem, we referred that up to the overworked network support group, which customers could not call or talk with, basically leaving them out in the cold while they waited who-knows how long for the problem to be fixed.
After a while it just became easier to punt, and send out a cable tech if you were in any way uncertain, or were unable to satisfy the customer. I'm just glad I'm out of there, and that Time Warner got the Buffalo region. From what I hear from my buddies still at the call center, things are MUCH better, and they are able to do much more for the customers than we were ever able to do under Adelphia. So at least one cable company seems to be getting it right.
We spend multiple millions of years crawling out of the primordial ooze to walk on two legs, develop opposable thumbs and a brain large enough to create a civilization that dominates our planet, and now we're gonna start going BACKWARDS? What the hell were the last several million years of evolution for?
Actually, I know for a FACT that isn't true. Most ISP's (at least, US based ones) Are now using QOS and monitoring technology, and they regularly shut down virus-infected machines. I have contacts over at Time Warner's upper level tech support center, and they regularly get calls from people who have been shut down by TW's security division.
Back when I was at that call center (it was Adelphia owned back then) Adelphia had an internal group call the Internet Policy Enforcement Team (IPET). They would constantly be shutting down virus-infected and zombied machines. We would get calls all the time, sometimes as many as one or two a night that would have to be referred to IPET, as their accounts would also be flagged as shut down by IPET.
ISP's do try, but the problem is so massive that it simply outstrips their ability to deal with it. Most of this is due to easily infected Windows machines. Poor patching, unplugged security holes, outdated anti-virus and user ignorance (sometimes willful) combine to make it WAY too easy to create a zombie network and way too hard to shut it down.
Honestly, this problem isn't going to go away until security becomes the first design goal of operating systems instead of ease of use. Linux and Mac generally have this down, but they don't have the larger share of the end-user OS market. Microsoft does. At Microsoft, they only give lip-service to security, while making pretty 3D GUI's and adding toys seems to be the focus. Thusly, the problem of zombienets will continue to drain BILLIONS from the global economy while ruining the lives of otherwise innocent people, the victims of phishing attacks.
NAZIS! NAZIS! NAZIS!
Ok, now that we can all move on with a more in-depth discussion.
Step 1. Accept that you can only control the machines in your own home.
Step 2. Make sure all computers are in "public" areas of the house, where you can easily see what anyone is doing on them.
Step 3. Set up a Smoothwall router with the squid transparent proxy turned on and the Net filtering setup enabled.
Step 4. Do not allow your child to log on with anything other than a locked-down unprivileged account that cannot alter any system settings
Step 5. Do not let them have admin access to the computer, EVER.
Step 6. Deal with the inevitable conflicts and headaches that this will cause.
Alternate route:
Step 1. Accept that your child WILL access pornography no matter what you do.
Step 2. Raise your child with a solid moral and ethical background.
Step 3. Just be the best parent you can be.
Wow. You're an ass.
The $49.00 figure was from the OP, NOT ME. He actually had 49 bucks an hour on his post. I bumped it up to 1 to 2 hours since I made about 20 bucks an hour at my last job. Of course, I'm currently making much less than that due to being on unemployment after being downsized out of a job. So yeah, I know ALL ABOUT not making much money. Jerk.
Let me just correct your math there:
Buy:
Money Cost = $49.00
Time Cost = ~ 1-2 hours of working time
Misc Cost = Loss of ability to spend or invest that $49.00 in something else
Benefit = DVD box set or other "digital" item.
Steal:
Money Cost = $0.00
Time Cost = 0 as torrents are automated and can be downloaded while sleeping or at work earning $49.00.
Misc Cost = none
Benefit = DVD box set or other "digital" item, $49.00 saved, no productive time wasted, able to invest or spend that $49.00 on something else.
Result:
Buy Cost > Steal Cost
Sorry, Piracy wins again. YARR!
Oddly, as a Pirate, that's the way I look at it.
I want it and I can get it for free easily as long as I am willing to break with my otherwise sterling principles to get it. I know perfectly well I'm "infringing" and I don't care. I want it, I don't want to pay for it, and I can get it. So I do. End of story.
Strangely, I would NEVER consider physically stealing something from the company I work for or anyone else. When I left my last job I even returned the PENS because they weren't mine. Hell, I WROTE their corporate security policy, with an emphasis on corporate IP. So I'm not a thief or a dishonest person by nature. But when it comes to TV, Movie and Music torrents I'm a complete Pirate. Go figure.
Linux?
Hey, this IS