What bugs me is that they seem to be trying to imply causation. If the depression rates are as high as they say they are (8%, as of a 2004 study), they can find a correlation between depression and virtually any activity involving enough people. Which makes any study that fails to prove causation pretty pointless, I suspect.
Except maybe cheer-leading.
Just cause I was unclear, they said in the article "But it is not clear whether the internet causes depression or whether depressed people are drawn to it". In other words they learned nothing from the study, except that depressed people do stuff, including surf the internet.
Or depressed people spend more time on the internet. I hate it when they show an effect that could very well be the cause instead. Damn poor study, if you ask me.
Flight or fight mechanism comes to mind. It's not just about increasing blood flow in an emergency situation, but also about dumping massive amounts of adrenaline to other parts of the body. I would assume that there would be some dilation of the arteries to allow for the greater throughput.
But maybe the adrenaline does that. What the hell do I know.
"Twenty years ago.... they had to break into your house. Now they can just break into your ISP". They make it sound like that's easier, as though they're getting into your shed. I had someone break into my house last year, and trust me, these Mensa candidates wouldn't have 'just broken into my ISP' instead. They could barely put together a sentence.
If you've got an organization powerful enough after you that they can break into your ISP (which is for 99% of us a major corporation with serious security) the locks on your house weren't exactly a challenge anyway.
I'm surprised Schneier is comparing two such flagrantly uncomparable things.
Except that inasmuch that it used to help sell Windows, which I doubt has little value any more as a marketing tool as pretty much every consumer knows every machine can get on the net, what's the value in MS dumping lots of cash into a browser war when they have to give the browser away for free? The only advantage I can think of is the value of the default home page for advertising dollars, which has never been their primary market anyway.
Up here in northern Canada the roads can get mighty icy. Your car can brake for you all it wants, but that won't change the laws of physics as you're sliding on a sheet of ice towards a thousand pound moose.
It's a funny thing, obsession. Sure, I've had some delicious fantasies of siting down that scope after too much Battlefield 2. And frankly, I'm ok with that. This article really is indirectly talking about the obsessive nature of humans to do too much of what we like. There's been tons of articles floating around the net about 'internet addiction', and I'm sure everyone reading this article knows at least someone that does something way too much. Personally, I think this modern day tendency to associate the activity with the addiction is irritating. People don't have MSN Messenger addiction, or video game addiction. They've just got a problem with balancing their life. And perhaps they need therapy to make that happen, but don't label the symptom as the problem.
Exceptionally well put. Frustrates me to constantly see people suggesting that western nations should be pushing their values, morals and ethics on other countries because they see them as better. I certainly don't like China's laws, but it's their laws. Communism is a successful form of government, even though it's sucky, and it requires a higher degree of censorship to work. All governments have some form of censorship, and frankly, I really don't think some things should be allowed to be put out there on the web. (Child porn, racist or hate crime sites, etc). My list is different than China's, but that's why I live here and not there. China's population is very conformist, and dissent would have a much larger ripple effect in such a large and tightly packed population - they're much more likely to really suffer in a case of significant disagreement between their values and their government's.
The corporate edition of Symantec AV is nice and quiet. I stay away from any 'security packages' type of products because they generally include total crap that is just alarmist and irritating. I'd take a hot poker in the hand before I'd have Norton Internet Security on my system. McAfee's is just as bad (in fact, often worse, as some web browsing problems still exist even when the a/v and firewall are off).
I'm also a big fan of Kaspersky antivirus. It seems to only call your attention to something when it really needs it, and has intelligent things to say, rather than seeming to act like it's trying to justify being there. Stick to just A/V (that picks up spyware like Kaspersky does) and a little hardware firewall - it'll generally do the trick very nicely.
I play a ton of single player FPS - but after I whip it on hard, then I drop the game. Mostly, I stick to the multiplayer. However, I would probably quite enjoy doing the FPS thing as the hero against a ton of other people - my big worry is that it would be the 12 year old's playing the weak nerfed out opposition. I chew through them with all things being equal now - I can't imagine how easy it would be if they were nerfed. This is a cool concept - but I honestly don't think they'll get the balance right. Too hard to acheive. This is a game where if the hero is exceptionally good or except crappy, it's gonna suck. What if all the opposition are competent guys who want to have a good game, but the hero is some 12 year old that just turns in circles, stuck in the next room cause he can't figure out the controls? It'll feel pretty weak pretty quickly.
The idea of even firing someone into space was foreign to us only a century ago. Frankly, I would be stunned if, within the next several thousand years, humanity didn't figure out a way to fold space. There are tons of physicists that work on that type of math already (and higher dimensional math to boot). The geeks at IBM, amongst several other labs worldwide, have already figured out quantum teleportation. http://www.research.ibm.com/quantuminfo/teleportat ion/
Frankly, why would anyone ever even assume that someone would travel in a linear fashion, trundling along from star to star? Of course it's a waste of time and would take billions of years - and to assume that all foreign lifeforms would be restricted to a form of travel that we personally, within only half a century of space flight, could conceive of, is arrogant and shortsighted.
There's no way Microsoft would play along. I'm sure he's hoping to get free labour from Microsoft's considerable legal clout to help him - but one of the main features of Vista (from the gaming side) is the ability for parents to lock out children of games that are inappropriate on a game by game, and kid by kid basis. For Microsoft to fight a legal battle like this would imply that their built in solution to Vista isn't a good one. And, obviously, it'll never be as good for preventing access by minors as just having the game banned, but Microsoft's goal isn't to try and police people, it's to sell products. The more software there is for the Windows platform the more copies of Windows they will sell. Their involvement with something like this would not just be pointless, but counterproductive. Frankly, I think he'd be lucky to get even a letter from Microsoft telling him to get bent.
They are starting to put product placement in books. In a really bizarre way, Proctor and Gamble are trying to sell tampons to girls by marketing to early teens. They do this by referencing Clinique lipstick (one of their divisions) in the book, and making references to web sites that eventually can redirect them over to their site to push tampons. Talk about obscure.
I think this is very insightful. Unlike one of the trolls that replied to you - gamers drive change. They're usually running the latest computers and the latest software, and they're the ones getting hit up around the water cooler for advice. Even by the boss. I used to be an I.T. guy for years, maintaining a large multicity WAN, and I probably would've used more linux in that network setup had I been more comfortable with it. But - all my education was MS based. Would I have pushed to get put on Linux courses if Linux had been a hard core gaming system? Damn straight. Would I have pushed it to my friends? Absolutely. But those two main factors you mentioned always stopped me.
Another guy sent my girlfriend a dozen long stemmed red roses yesterday. Frankly, there are times when we should allow someone to beat the bejeezus out of someone else. Last thing we need is cameras thwarting justice in action.
I'm a self employed consultant up in Alberta and have set up tons of telus customers. If you use their install CD you do see a legal agreement, but you certainly do NOT need to use it to get it working. You just login to a web site (no agreement there), register your mac address and you're up and running. Also, Telus has tons of different contracts - you can easily get DSL with no contract from them, so they wouldn't be able to use a canned agreement mentioning a term (not that they do anyway).
In short, the poster is in good shape to win this one. There is no contract expressed or implied by anything in writing. Likely there was something verbal over the phone when they signed up, but unless they got it on tape...
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What bugs me is that they seem to be trying to imply causation. If the depression rates are as high as they say they are (8%, as of a 2004 study), they can find a correlation between depression and virtually any activity involving enough people. Which makes any study that fails to prove causation pretty pointless, I suspect. Except maybe cheer-leading.
Just cause I was unclear, they said in the article "But it is not clear whether the internet causes depression or whether depressed people are drawn to it". In other words they learned nothing from the study, except that depressed people do stuff, including surf the internet.
Or depressed people spend more time on the internet. I hate it when they show an effect that could very well be the cause instead. Damn poor study, if you ask me.
By that logic, isn't he more dangerous, and therefore should get a longer sentence? (Until a gene therapy solution comes out, anyway).
Flight or fight mechanism comes to mind. It's not just about increasing blood flow in an emergency situation, but also about dumping massive amounts of adrenaline to other parts of the body. I would assume that there would be some dilation of the arteries to allow for the greater throughput. But maybe the adrenaline does that. What the hell do I know.
"Twenty years ago.... they had to break into your house. Now they can just break into your ISP". They make it sound like that's easier, as though they're getting into your shed. I had someone break into my house last year, and trust me, these Mensa candidates wouldn't have 'just broken into my ISP' instead. They could barely put together a sentence. If you've got an organization powerful enough after you that they can break into your ISP (which is for 99% of us a major corporation with serious security) the locks on your house weren't exactly a challenge anyway. I'm surprised Schneier is comparing two such flagrantly uncomparable things.
Except that inasmuch that it used to help sell Windows, which I doubt has little value any more as a marketing tool as pretty much every consumer knows every machine can get on the net, what's the value in MS dumping lots of cash into a browser war when they have to give the browser away for free? The only advantage I can think of is the value of the default home page for advertising dollars, which has never been their primary market anyway.
Up here in northern Canada the roads can get mighty icy. Your car can brake for you all it wants, but that won't change the laws of physics as you're sliding on a sheet of ice towards a thousand pound moose.
That really does take the cake for a poorly written title. Seriously - how long does it take to write a dozen thoughtful words, then check it??
You are all missing the obvious reason for the shutdown. Microsoft has finally fixed all the bugs! Celebrate!
It's a funny thing, obsession. Sure, I've had some delicious fantasies of siting down that scope after too much Battlefield 2. And frankly, I'm ok with that. This article really is indirectly talking about the obsessive nature of humans to do too much of what we like. There's been tons of articles floating around the net about 'internet addiction', and I'm sure everyone reading this article knows at least someone that does something way too much. Personally, I think this modern day tendency to associate the activity with the addiction is irritating. People don't have MSN Messenger addiction, or video game addiction. They've just got a problem with balancing their life. And perhaps they need therapy to make that happen, but don't label the symptom as the problem.
Exceptionally well put. Frustrates me to constantly see people suggesting that western nations should be pushing their values, morals and ethics on other countries because they see them as better. I certainly don't like China's laws, but it's their laws. Communism is a successful form of government, even though it's sucky, and it requires a higher degree of censorship to work. All governments have some form of censorship, and frankly, I really don't think some things should be allowed to be put out there on the web. (Child porn, racist or hate crime sites, etc). My list is different than China's, but that's why I live here and not there. China's population is very conformist, and dissent would have a much larger ripple effect in such a large and tightly packed population - they're much more likely to really suffer in a case of significant disagreement between their values and their government's.
3 hours is almost 25% of your waking time? You spend less than 12 hours a day awake? That would indeed be a cause for concern!
I'm also a big fan of Kaspersky antivirus. It seems to only call your attention to something when it really needs it, and has intelligent things to say, rather than seeming to act like it's trying to justify being there. Stick to just A/V (that picks up spyware like Kaspersky does) and a little hardware firewall - it'll generally do the trick very nicely.
Too bad there's no flamebait moderation option for the twits who apply pointless tags.
I play a ton of single player FPS - but after I whip it on hard, then I drop the game. Mostly, I stick to the multiplayer. However, I would probably quite enjoy doing the FPS thing as the hero against a ton of other people - my big worry is that it would be the 12 year old's playing the weak nerfed out opposition. I chew through them with all things being equal now - I can't imagine how easy it would be if they were nerfed. This is a cool concept - but I honestly don't think they'll get the balance right. Too hard to acheive. This is a game where if the hero is exceptionally good or except crappy, it's gonna suck. What if all the opposition are competent guys who want to have a good game, but the hero is some 12 year old that just turns in circles, stuck in the next room cause he can't figure out the controls? It'll feel pretty weak pretty quickly.
The idea of even firing someone into space was foreign to us only a century ago. Frankly, I would be stunned if, within the next several thousand years, humanity didn't figure out a way to fold space. There are tons of physicists that work on that type of math already (and higher dimensional math to boot). The geeks at IBM, amongst several other labs worldwide, have already figured out quantum teleportation. http://www.research.ibm.com/quantuminfo/teleportat ion/
Frankly, why would anyone ever even assume that someone would travel in a linear fashion, trundling along from star to star? Of course it's a waste of time and would take billions of years - and to assume that all foreign lifeforms would be restricted to a form of travel that we personally, within only half a century of space flight, could conceive of, is arrogant and shortsighted.
And it's so damn cold i'm wearing gloves when i'm driving home pissed!
There's no way Microsoft would play along. I'm sure he's hoping to get free labour from Microsoft's considerable legal clout to help him - but one of the main features of Vista (from the gaming side) is the ability for parents to lock out children of games that are inappropriate on a game by game, and kid by kid basis. For Microsoft to fight a legal battle like this would imply that their built in solution to Vista isn't a good one. And, obviously, it'll never be as good for preventing access by minors as just having the game banned, but Microsoft's goal isn't to try and police people, it's to sell products. The more software there is for the Windows platform the more copies of Windows they will sell. Their involvement with something like this would not just be pointless, but counterproductive. Frankly, I think he'd be lucky to get even a letter from Microsoft telling him to get bent.
Here's the link to the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/business/media/1 2book.html?ex=1307764800en=89d58b622aa65b7dei=5088 partner=rssnytemc=rss
I think this is very insightful. Unlike one of the trolls that replied to you - gamers drive change. They're usually running the latest computers and the latest software, and they're the ones getting hit up around the water cooler for advice. Even by the boss. I used to be an I.T. guy for years, maintaining a large multicity WAN, and I probably would've used more linux in that network setup had I been more comfortable with it. But - all my education was MS based. Would I have pushed to get put on Linux courses if Linux had been a hard core gaming system? Damn straight. Would I have pushed it to my friends? Absolutely. But those two main factors you mentioned always stopped me.
Another guy sent my girlfriend a dozen long stemmed red roses yesterday. Frankly, there are times when we should allow someone to beat the bejeezus out of someone else. Last thing we need is cameras thwarting justice in action.
Now my fear of flying is going to get me a cavity search. Life is just coming up roses for me...
I'm a self employed consultant up in Alberta and have set up tons of telus customers. If you use their install CD you do see a legal agreement, but you certainly do NOT need to use it to get it working. You just login to a web site (no agreement there), register your mac address and you're up and running. Also, Telus has tons of different contracts - you can easily get DSL with no contract from them, so they wouldn't be able to use a canned agreement mentioning a term (not that they do anyway). In short, the poster is in good shape to win this one. There is no contract expressed or implied by anything in writing. Likely there was something verbal over the phone when they signed up, but unless they got it on tape...
You know Fido is owned by Telus, right?? They got bought out a few years back.