Nono, gfxguy, I agree with how this legislation creep is being abused. I'm just saying that rules regarding things that harm others can be more strict than regarding those things that harm only yourself.
I have no doubt in my mind that the weasels trying to pass this warning label silliness through have no clue what they're talking about and probably also believe that the earth is 6000 years old.
I also find it likely that this is a reaction to some stupid pressure group where noone is literate enough to read the psychological studies which all indicate that there is no established causal link suggesting that gaming makes you more violent (and yes, I can get real peer review articles on the matter, "Anonymous Coward" who posted above, I can also explain the long words).
There is also statistical evidence which shows that you (and I) are less likely to die by violence now than at any other point in human history(this is easy enough to find, have fun Mr."AC"). Which goes to show how wrong that legislative moron is.
Oh, and "Anonymous Coward" up above, here is a link for you to read. It has long and complicated words. If you have problems reading it onscreen you could print it out and shove it up your urethra http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/2/9/
That is just one of the interesting articles on this matter, what I stated in the earlier post was a really big simplification.
Sorry to offend anyone with foul language, (except of course Mr. AnonymousCoward, fucking sign in and comment under your login name or get shat upon) just need to vent, and what better venue than slashdot;)
Whining, bitching and moaning.
Another/. day...
I don't usually troll (or try not to) but what kind of numbnuts is surprised or offended by this. And the hypotheticals (what if I lost a HDD with only music, I'd be recognizable) are so moronic that I had to catch my breath before ranting.
What imbeciles.
We have the choice of buying non crippled music with our monogram on super conveniently, buy crippled music conveniently or buy (usually) non-crippled music inconveniently (CDs, mail order or brick and mortar store).
Buy the music in the form that suits you. I'll keep using iTMS because it's convenient and because it's relatively fair.
But then I have this funny feeling that the people bitching the most over this are probably not buying music that much. But may have large music libraries anyway.
Just fucking buy the stuff you really like, ok. Support the artists you feel truly excel.And not another goddamned whine about your purchase having your name printed on it.
Fucking whiners.
To begin: I am against banning things. At least banning people from doing something to themselves.
I don't smoke (except 2-3 good cigars per year) and I understand the risks of most things I do.
Your claim that the danger of second hand smoke have been exaggerated are however probably untrue. The latest research actually seems to suggest that the dangers are way underestimated. That's based on some pretty big datasets from places where smoking in public has been banned for some time now. Even better datasets will be available in 5 to 10 years.
It's especially the risk of heart problems that seem to have been underestimated.
I am seriously surprised and impressed by the quality of the answers given so far.
Slashdot coming of age?
I for one welcome our new slashdot overlords.
I'm just happy that they listened to cystomer feedback. We said $20 was a little steep for 4 episodes and they listened. Most said around $15 would be a fair price point and voila!
I enjoyed the first one and will buy this one.
As for the DRM, come on folks, the PC/Mac/Linux version gets installed pretty quickly. I can't even remember if I needed to input my license key except to download it. I can install it at home like I want and play. No worries. No activation through internet or other crap. No intrusive sending data to the base (Spore).
I think DRM is silly, but having some way of allowing paying customers to download the full version and letting non-paying customers download a demo version is acceptable so long as you don't try to push it further.
Again, thank for listening to feedback. Responding to it means that I will buy this one (in one or two weeks, when my exams are finished)
Dual monitor support may not be good enough on Ubuntu, but NO WAY is it good enough on XP either. I have used a few different dual screen combos (different screens, different cards, different drivers) using both ATI and Nvidia stuff and I can assure you that it does not work beautifully.
At least not all the time.
sometimes, yeah, but that really isn't good enough, especially when it comes to commercial software (the OS) and drivers (binaries from ATI/Nvidia)
It CAN'T work properly in XP because the OS doesn't support that kind of jiggery pokery. The drivers (or other management software on top of that) must make workarounds to get past XPs limitations.
that workaround is a beaut...
if you have one 1600x1200 and one 1024x768 monitors it makes a (virtual) really big 2624x1200 monitor. The driver then tries to do edge detection on the monitors, limiting the USABLE part of that virtual screen with, basically, a line in the sand.
Any problems you can imagine?
Well sometimes (but only sometimes) edge detection on the smaller monitor goes all funny. And if you have any kind of driver problem you can get REALLY funny issues, like the monitors getting reversed (screen 1 becoming screen 2 and vice versa) which is uncomfortable enough for navigating but this may flip icons and other stuff (like programs, especially their toolbar) of the edge of the screen.
But that can usually be remedied by a full driver uninstall/reinstall (repeat as often as neccessary).
There is only one commercial, kind of popular OS that handles multiple monitors with almost no fuss, that is OS X.
MacOS X, the least shitty OS out there.... (could still do with some improvement)
Ubuntu easily beats OS X on price though as well as a number of interesting features, none of which has the words "usability" or interface design in them. Although if they keep it up like they have that may change
And XP beats OS X on... well... if you do CAD stuff.... only thing I can think of. Not all bad though, just has had its day and is not being improved and developed any more.
Vista, of course, beats no OS at anything (for the kids and others with a puerile sense of humour I may add "except suckage")
I would like to add that OS zealotry helps no one, I mostly use a Mac these days, some XP, some Ubuntu and I hope that Windows 7 will be good (let's just ignore Vista, not good enough, hopefully just a mistake). I hope all those products will continue improving greatly as that will benefit users and vendors alike.
Seriously, who has a 1GB xap these days? I come from a country in the middle of f$#*ing nowhere, in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, we have 3 fiber optic cables connecting us to the outside world. A 1GB cap would be something for our cellphone (perhaps). I mean,can't you pay like five bucks extra for unlimited?? Last time I had a cap it was (no, not a "cap in mah ass") 40GB, was up to 100GB when I quit that contract. Those caps were only on packets from outside the country, using those limited fiber optic cables. Domestic traffic was unlimited, no matter how cheap a connection you bought.
Anyways, If you're running windows install a proper firewall and learn how to use it. ZoneAlarm makes a free version of their firewall which allows you to specify rules for all programs. That lets you block programs from calling out unless you want them to. You will be getting annoying messages and will have to allow programs every time if you want to keep maximum control.
The built in firewalls on both windows and Mac are a bit lousy in that they are inbound only, that is, they block unauthorized access from outside parties. A proper firewall (many available, but for example, ZoneAlarmFree on Win and LittleSnitch on Mac) will be more customizable and block both incoming attacks and monitor what programs try to communicate OUT of your computer.
Use either Firefox or the Opera browser. I like Opera better as it is smaller, faster and more full featured. Opera however does not support plugins in the way Firefox does (well, it does actually, there just aren't as many useful ones). Opera has a built in ad-blocking device which works pretty well, very good pop-up blocker, you can easily switch between having images enabled or not, Switch JavaScript on/off, Java on/off, sound in webpages on/off, abimated images on/off etc. Most of those options are in the quick preferences.
Firefox is more spartan when it arrives, but has plugins to do quite a few things. Worth checking out. Firefox has fewer page rendering problem (Opera doesn't have many these days, though).
Both browsers are free as in beer, FireFox is also free as in speech. Both are available on all major operating systems. I use both browsers on WinXP, Mac, and Ubuntu.
So, recap: Firewall, learn it
Browser, Opera and Firefox, learn their blocking features.
DON'T use InternetExplorer (badbadbad) on win or Safari (not good enough) on Mac.
Didn't see your comment there, that sucks!
Hmmm, I see what you mean. If the battery runs out it should write the contents of RAM to disk (hibernate) so you shouldn't lose any work.
The XP problem has been unreliability on wakeup and complete loss of any documents that were open/unsaved. Depending on hardware configurations. Some configs work perfectly, another model from the same manufacturer may not work at all.
doesn't boot any faster than the others but the Sleep mode works properly there. Shut the lid when finished, open lid for doing stuffþ 5 seconds later (or less) you can start working.
Win has not been reliable in sleep mode (don't know if Vista has gotten its act together on that front) and as much as I love Ubuntu it does have some downsides on notebooks (being fixed as we speak but still a bit of work to do)
Pilots trying to get hired usually need to go through pretty interesting tests in the application process.
Theoretical skill tests, psych profiles and further on in the process also practical tests (in procedural simulator).
Most of those tests are mostly pointless and redundant. It's the mostly that changes a bit...
Most pilots get to try most of that stuff in flight school, including some psych profile tests but the tests may weed out some with large psychological problems (mostly just to weed out the complete nuts) and the theoretical tests force you to skim over some of that stuff before you go.
The most obviously useful tests are the practical and the interview. To make them effective you want to apply a filter beforehand. That's really what the other tests are for.
Works ok. Boring as hell, but...
As stated above, copyright law has nothing to do with whether someone is successful.
The fact is that Rowling had given them permission to have their verbatim copied lexicon as long as it was only free on the web.
As soon as they tried to change it into a published work the whole thing changed. She made them absolutely clear from the beginning that no permission was extended to copying her work directly and selling it.
So, this is one of very few of these cases where I would side with the super rich, mostly because that's fair in this case but also because it's the actual creator of the work who owns the copyright.
This is what copyright is for, protect the CREATOR of stuff from freeloaders so that original creators have an incentive to keep on creating.
It is usually abused by corporations who have half enslaved a bunch of creators (music business), but in this case the rights reside with the author.
And as the judge states, works like this lexicon are usually protected, except it just copies too much directly, therefore it is not protected.
Fair cop
Seriously, I second that.
We need a way (database) to give out random swedish government e-mails. So I could just cc to sweden@database.com and have that mail forwarded to 20 swedish officials.
Or at least have a DB of government addresses and have each person select a few "extra special government friends" at random and send copies of their mail to those "friends"
All Asus products I have used have been greatusually cheaper than the competion and beating them seriously on price, they seem to be on a roll (or on a bun)
Yeah the Mac is the most desirable and should therefore get the most attention. That said it probably does not surprise anyone that it was accessed through a Safari vulnerability, Safari just isn't good enough.
It's good to see that Vista isn't all bad (just like seeing the statistic that Nvidia drivers caused 28% of all Vista crashes). Personally I prefer the other two OSs anyway (and don't use Safari). MacOS is nice and Ubuntu is reliable, if a little rough around the edges.
Ah, yes. The cards themselves were standard, but you had to flash the ROM because the mac used big-endian byte order, while the x86 family of processors used little-endian byte order.
Still a big enough difference that graphics cards were sold as Mac or PC versions. Flashing the ROM may not have been very complicated, but it's not "the Mac way". It also isn't something the average consumer is likely to know (or should be likely to know)
To finish off, the cards were the same, the firmware wasn't.
Agreed That survey is about security vulnerabilities (even though the header says "Flaws" which may be misleading) and Vista seems not so bad on that account. MS really seem to have tried their best in making the system secure.
Most of the comments focus on other issues. Usability, stability and other technical issues, as well as the obligatory jabs at MS.
Some of the criticisms seem valid though. He details his methodology but does not give access to the raw data making proper comparison impossible. Continuing on that point, we cannot see which Linux/Mac issues he includes, some may be minor bug fixes others may be major security fixes. Even if he did list his data, the comparison is pretty much worthless because different companies (and the Open source movement) have different reporting strategies. Just by a different grading of of threats we get severely skewed statistics. I use Apple stuff and will state that their bug/vuln. reporting is completely worthless. As is Microsofts. The Linux worlds is slightly less worthless but still to easily skewed.
Having worked in computer retail I can assure you that most computer buyers, although the TALK about buying something upgradable, will never upgrade anything beyond RAM (and possibly HDD) in their machines. And of those few that do decide to upgrade their machines usually end up having to buy all new internals because of compatibility issues with the newest hardware, ending up with a mostly new computer with a horrible old case and a soon to fail PSU which may or may not fry all those new internals (ppl get REALLY anal about buying a new PSU, not understanding that having sufficient, clean power to all components is crucial and PSU failures can produce really interesting problems, especially if only a partial failure like having ne 5v bus producing unstable voltage, or dropping seriouslu in voltage under load) The/. crowd is a bit different in that most of us are geeks who are comfortable with ripping their machines apart and changing stuff. The general population is not willing to spend a few days building a scrapyard box and installing linux, even though that is sufficient for most users needs.
Apple knows this and markets accordingly. Seems to be working for them.
errr, you're a little behind the times there... Macs have used regular video cards since the intel shift. Now it's just the question of drivers. And as you know, each OS needs its specific drivers. Of course for that to matter in the first place you need to buy a Mac Pro as the other machines dont have PCI slots.
Comparing the UI with the Gimp/Photoshop issue. I really want to love Gimp, but it's just lacking in some areas (mostly pro features though) and the UI isn't good. That is, the graphical part and layout of the UI is rather poor. Other stuff like script-fu isn't all bad IMO. It's mainly the inconsistencies that detract from Gimp. The learning curve isn't any worse than on Photoshop, but learning a broken UI feels silly. If Gimp is to become a viable option they'll have to clean up the UI quite a bit and start following SOME UI guidelines, which they apparently didn't do. Buttons and menus seem strewn about the place almost at random. Features are badly documented and explained. You are expected to spend as much time on the forums as using the programs, otherwise you are just one of the unwashed masses who "don't get it". Reminds me of underground artists who despise anyone successful and sneer at anyone who doesn't understand their latest piece made from dead dogs and poo.
What segment is the Gimp made for these days anyways? Not professional graphic artists (Photoshop is, sadly, king). Not regular minor photo tinkering (even Picasa, iPhoto and Pixelmator are better at those things, heck, the Canon printing utility I had for win was better at small fixes). It may be for us little guys to create webgraphics, banners and logos. (and of course to add script-fu coffee stains to all images). But for those tasks the UI is WAY overcomplicated. The UNIX way is "application specific utilities" and Gimp is trying to be everything to everyone and failing because of that, IMO.
To illustrate what the Gimp developers (and macports guys) think of UI design, try going to gimp.org website and figuring out how to install TheGimp on Mac (you can do this excersise without owning a mac, it's just for demonstrational purposes) Just to install it (according to their reccomendations, there are other ways) you have to be willing to learn a different process to anything you've ever known. I mean, it's simpler to COMPILE the bloody thing from source code on most linux systems than to get it INTO my Mac. Doesn't make any sense. If you follow the directions to use MacPorts as a simple way of installing many programs you go to the macports website where another puzzle awaits. Download takes you to the main download page where a lonely, solitary link awaits you. To take you to the Downloads page where the actual downloads await you. Not with newest at the top or bottom, no. The newest is second from top... I mean, WTF?
Then you download the disk image and mount it (simple and standard) where a installer awaits (also standard) and installs the program quite normally. Now the puzzle extends its claws! The program is owhere to be found. Not even a manager for it or anything. "Ahhh, but OBVIOUSLY macports is a COMMAND LINE INTERFACE", you say, "and to get a GUI for it you must get PortAuthority (a GUI program)" Very obvious indeed. There is no mention of MacPorts being a CLI on either the GIMP page OR the MacPorts page. By not on the MacPorts page I mean Nowhere To Be Found (tm) (on the mainpage, download page, about page.... you get the picture). Not in the installer either. Mention of this minor fact, and first mention of how to make it work are found in Macports/Wiki/UsingMacportsQuickstart.
You didn't just install the program did you? Ohhh, you SHOULD have gone to Macports/Wiki/InstallingMacports first. There you are instructed (how) to install Xcode tools, then X11, then finally setting up the Shell environment, which is critical for MacPorts to function. Then verify the Shell environment. NOW you are ready to install MacPorts.
Then install PortAuthority, which is SO good that the author of MacOSX Tiger for Unix geeks thinks he might find himself using it over time.
Alright, ready to try installing the GIMP.....
As gimp.org said, an easy way to install Gimp on MacOS, if you have an hour to spare and are completely computer literate. BTW most graphical designers tha
Ahhh, the phones are good enough for their intended purpose, but!
The super cheap computers are gaining in power, and OSs like Linux will run faster and nicer especially on that low level hardware. Faster than Vista(obviously) and faster than Xp and faster than MacOS(on comparable hardware). I run Xp, MacOS and Ubuntu and they're all decent and usable. Ubuntu needed some geekery to set up, XP needs some geekery to maintain it running, MacOS needs almost no geekery but is more expensive for well specced machines (it's not really more expensive on the cheaper machines spec for spec, but enry level starts at around U$1000, so no super cheap entry level machines, well there is the mac mini...)
Linux may start having a larger niche market as it is getting pretty good, but without a major advertising push it will remain niche. As has been pointed out, Linux needs to come preinstalled with all major features (MP3, DVD, working with the most popular websites etc.) enabled before the user even touches the machine. Technically simple but costs licensing fees. A computer with Linux will NOT cost the same as a machine with Win minus the cost of Win. There is cost associated with creating, installing and supporting Linux setups.
Back to the marketshare thing. Even flawed operating systems which are pushed out long before they are ready for mass market (think Vista, XP, ME and.... wait for it... MacOS X) sell decently with a massive marketing campaign behind them.
Linux is now as simple to use on a daily basis as most other OSs, but setup is more of a hassle. Ubuntu installation is dead simple, setting up all features is also relatively simple but you have to be aware of all the separate simple steps to take, they're just too many. That said most users can't set an OS like XP up either, and they shouldn't have to! For most people a computer is a tool to get certain jobs done, whether they be spreadsheets or extravagant shootfests. They don't care about the operating system and don't want to have to worry about it. If it fulfills their needs they'll never complain. If Linux let's them buy cheaper hardware that still performs with no problems, then... YAY!
I may still pay for Mac stuff because I like their stuff and like how key applications that I use work on their hardware/operating system combo. Others will pay for MS products if it suits them and fills their needs. That's fine. Operating system religions seem silly and counterproductive.
I know how to use a circular aviation slide rule (both e6b style and completely circular jeppesen) Way better in real world applications than electronic doodads. I'm not even an old fogey, but still prefer the slide rule. No batteries and doesn't crap out in extreme cold or humidity.
As has already been shown, Piratebay is a legal service (in Sweden) hosting no copyrighted material. Swedish law does not condemn faciltating copyright infringement. Swedish law does however not really like sabotage, vandalism, unautorized access and other sauch malarkey.
That said, I didn't see that one coming, laughed out loud. It's about bloody time that someone took big media and smacked them a little for all these strongarm tactics. Hopefully the media coverage on this will highlight some of the issues, like HOW the media companies think business should be run. If small businesses tried this they would immediately be taken down (in almost any country) for much more serious crimes than copyright infringement.
And please try not to call it "pirating". That's a term coined by the mpaa (if I remember correctly) to try to make it sound really bad. If we, the geeks, are careful to call it what it is, copyright infringement or illegal copying, we can perhaps change public perception of the issues a little. The ONLY thing that bugs me about thepiratebay is the name. Yes it IS cool but also makes us all look a bit like rebelling teenagers, even those of us who have thought deeply about copyright issues and realised that the system needs fixing to work in the modern world.
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Nono, gfxguy, I agree with how this legislation creep is being abused. I'm just saying that rules regarding things that harm others can be more strict than regarding those things that harm only yourself.
;)
I have no doubt in my mind that the weasels trying to pass this warning label silliness through have no clue what they're talking about and probably also believe that the earth is 6000 years old.
I also find it likely that this is a reaction to some stupid pressure group where noone is literate enough to read the psychological studies which all indicate that there is no established causal link suggesting that gaming makes you more violent (and yes, I can get real peer review articles on the matter, "Anonymous Coward" who posted above, I can also explain the long words).
There is also statistical evidence which shows that you (and I) are less likely to die by violence now than at any other point in human history(this is easy enough to find, have fun Mr."AC"). Which goes to show how wrong that legislative moron is.
Oh, and "Anonymous Coward" up above, here is a link for you to read. It has long and complicated words. If you have problems reading it onscreen you could print it out and shove it up your urethra
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/2/9/
That is just one of the interesting articles on this matter, what I stated in the earlier post was a really big simplification.
Sorry to offend anyone with foul language, (except of course Mr. AnonymousCoward, fucking sign in and comment under your login name or get shat upon) just need to vent, and what better venue than slashdot
Whining, bitching and moaning. Another /. day...
I don't usually troll (or try not to) but what kind of numbnuts is surprised or offended by this. And the hypotheticals (what if I lost a HDD with only music, I'd be recognizable) are so moronic that I had to catch my breath before ranting.
What imbeciles.
We have the choice of buying non crippled music with our monogram on super conveniently, buy crippled music conveniently or buy (usually) non-crippled music inconveniently (CDs, mail order or brick and mortar store).
Buy the music in the form that suits you. I'll keep using iTMS because it's convenient and because it's relatively fair.
But then I have this funny feeling that the people bitching the most over this are probably not buying music that much. But may have large music libraries anyway.
Just fucking buy the stuff you really like, ok. Support the artists you feel truly excel.And not another goddamned whine about your purchase having your name printed on it.
Fucking whiners.
To begin: I am against banning things. At least banning people from doing something to themselves. I don't smoke (except 2-3 good cigars per year) and I understand the risks of most things I do. Your claim that the danger of second hand smoke have been exaggerated are however probably untrue. The latest research actually seems to suggest that the dangers are way underestimated. That's based on some pretty big datasets from places where smoking in public has been banned for some time now. Even better datasets will be available in 5 to 10 years. It's especially the risk of heart problems that seem to have been underestimated.
I am seriously surprised and impressed by the quality of the answers given so far. Slashdot coming of age? I for one welcome our new slashdot overlords.
I'm just happy that they listened to cystomer feedback. We said $20 was a little steep for 4 episodes and they listened. Most said around $15 would be a fair price point and voila!
I enjoyed the first one and will buy this one.
As for the DRM, come on folks, the PC/Mac/Linux version gets installed pretty quickly. I can't even remember if I needed to input my license key except to download it. I can install it at home like I want and play. No worries. No activation through internet or other crap. No intrusive sending data to the base (Spore).
I think DRM is silly, but having some way of allowing paying customers to download the full version and letting non-paying customers download a demo version is acceptable so long as you don't try to push it further.
Again, thank for listening to feedback. Responding to it means that I will buy this one (in one or two weeks, when my exams are finished)
Dual monitor support may not be good enough on Ubuntu, but NO WAY is it good enough on XP either. I have used a few different dual screen combos (different screens, different cards, different drivers) using both ATI and Nvidia stuff and I can assure you that it does not work beautifully.
At least not all the time.
sometimes, yeah, but that really isn't good enough, especially when it comes to commercial software (the OS) and drivers (binaries from ATI/Nvidia)
It CAN'T work properly in XP because the OS doesn't support that kind of jiggery pokery. The drivers (or other management software on top of that) must make workarounds to get past XPs limitations.
that workaround is a beaut...
if you have one 1600x1200 and one 1024x768 monitors it makes a (virtual) really big 2624x1200 monitor. The driver then tries to do edge detection on the monitors, limiting the USABLE part of that virtual screen with, basically, a line in the sand.
Any problems you can imagine?
Well sometimes (but only sometimes) edge detection on the smaller monitor goes all funny. And if you have any kind of driver problem you can get REALLY funny issues, like the monitors getting reversed (screen 1 becoming screen 2 and vice versa) which is uncomfortable enough for navigating but this may flip icons and other stuff (like programs, especially their toolbar) of the edge of the screen.
But that can usually be remedied by a full driver uninstall/reinstall (repeat as often as neccessary).
There is only one commercial, kind of popular OS that handles multiple monitors with almost no fuss, that is OS X.
MacOS X, the least shitty OS out there.... (could still do with some improvement)
Ubuntu easily beats OS X on price though as well as a number of interesting features, none of which has the words "usability" or interface design in them. Although if they keep it up like they have that may change
And XP beats OS X on... well... if you do CAD stuff.... only thing I can think of. Not all bad though, just has had its day and is not being improved and developed any more.
Vista, of course, beats no OS at anything (for the kids and others with a puerile sense of humour I may add "except suckage")
I would like to add that OS zealotry helps no one, I mostly use a Mac these days, some XP, some Ubuntu and I hope that Windows 7 will be good (let's just ignore Vista, not good enough, hopefully just a mistake). I hope all those products will continue improving greatly as that will benefit users and vendors alike.
Seriously, who has a 1GB xap these days? I come from a country in the middle of f$#*ing nowhere, in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, we have 3 fiber optic cables connecting us to the outside world. A 1GB cap would be something for our cellphone (perhaps). I mean,can't you pay like five bucks extra for unlimited?? Last time I had a cap it was (no, not a "cap in mah ass") 40GB, was up to 100GB when I quit that contract. Those caps were only on packets from outside the country, using those limited fiber optic cables. Domestic traffic was unlimited, no matter how cheap a connection you bought. Anyways, If you're running windows install a proper firewall and learn how to use it. ZoneAlarm makes a free version of their firewall which allows you to specify rules for all programs. That lets you block programs from calling out unless you want them to. You will be getting annoying messages and will have to allow programs every time if you want to keep maximum control. The built in firewalls on both windows and Mac are a bit lousy in that they are inbound only, that is, they block unauthorized access from outside parties. A proper firewall (many available, but for example, ZoneAlarmFree on Win and LittleSnitch on Mac) will be more customizable and block both incoming attacks and monitor what programs try to communicate OUT of your computer. Use either Firefox or the Opera browser. I like Opera better as it is smaller, faster and more full featured. Opera however does not support plugins in the way Firefox does (well, it does actually, there just aren't as many useful ones). Opera has a built in ad-blocking device which works pretty well, very good pop-up blocker, you can easily switch between having images enabled or not, Switch JavaScript on/off, Java on/off, sound in webpages on/off, abimated images on/off etc. Most of those options are in the quick preferences. Firefox is more spartan when it arrives, but has plugins to do quite a few things. Worth checking out. Firefox has fewer page rendering problem (Opera doesn't have many these days, though). Both browsers are free as in beer, FireFox is also free as in speech. Both are available on all major operating systems. I use both browsers on WinXP, Mac, and Ubuntu. So, recap: Firewall, learn it Browser, Opera and Firefox, learn their blocking features. DON'T use InternetExplorer (badbadbad) on win or Safari (not good enough) on Mac.
Didn't see your comment there, that sucks! Hmmm, I see what you mean. If the battery runs out it should write the contents of RAM to disk (hibernate) so you shouldn't lose any work. The XP problem has been unreliability on wakeup and complete loss of any documents that were open/unsaved. Depending on hardware configurations. Some configs work perfectly, another model from the same manufacturer may not work at all.
Of course, if you're innocent you have NOTHING to fear. FNORD they'll just detain you and send you to Gitmo
That scary place where you have to protect your identity so the secret police don't get you in the middle of the night, isn't that called U.S.A. ?
doesn't boot any faster than the others but the Sleep mode works properly there. Shut the lid when finished, open lid for doing stuffþ 5 seconds later (or less) you can start working. Win has not been reliable in sleep mode (don't know if Vista has gotten its act together on that front) and as much as I love Ubuntu it does have some downsides on notebooks (being fixed as we speak but still a bit of work to do)
Pilots trying to get hired usually need to go through pretty interesting tests in the application process. Theoretical skill tests, psych profiles and further on in the process also practical tests (in procedural simulator). Most of those tests are mostly pointless and redundant. It's the mostly that changes a bit... Most pilots get to try most of that stuff in flight school, including some psych profile tests but the tests may weed out some with large psychological problems (mostly just to weed out the complete nuts) and the theoretical tests force you to skim over some of that stuff before you go. The most obviously useful tests are the practical and the interview. To make them effective you want to apply a filter beforehand. That's really what the other tests are for. Works ok. Boring as hell, but...
As stated above, copyright law has nothing to do with whether someone is successful. The fact is that Rowling had given them permission to have their verbatim copied lexicon as long as it was only free on the web. As soon as they tried to change it into a published work the whole thing changed. She made them absolutely clear from the beginning that no permission was extended to copying her work directly and selling it. So, this is one of very few of these cases where I would side with the super rich, mostly because that's fair in this case but also because it's the actual creator of the work who owns the copyright. This is what copyright is for, protect the CREATOR of stuff from freeloaders so that original creators have an incentive to keep on creating. It is usually abused by corporations who have half enslaved a bunch of creators (music business), but in this case the rights reside with the author. And as the judge states, works like this lexicon are usually protected, except it just copies too much directly, therefore it is not protected. Fair cop
Seriously, I second that. We need a way (database) to give out random swedish government e-mails. So I could just cc to sweden@database.com and have that mail forwarded to 20 swedish officials. Or at least have a DB of government addresses and have each person select a few "extra special government friends" at random and send copies of their mail to those "friends"
All Asus products I have used have been greatusually cheaper than the competion and beating them seriously on price, they seem to be on a roll (or on a bun)
Yeah the Mac is the most desirable and should therefore get the most attention. That said it probably does not surprise anyone that it was accessed through a Safari vulnerability, Safari just isn't good enough.
It's good to see that Vista isn't all bad (just like seeing the statistic that Nvidia drivers caused 28% of all Vista crashes).
Personally I prefer the other two OSs anyway (and don't use Safari). MacOS is nice and Ubuntu is reliable, if a little rough around the edges.
Ah, yes. The cards themselves were standard, but you had to flash the ROM because the mac used big-endian byte order, while the x86 family of processors used little-endian byte order.
Still a big enough difference that graphics cards were sold as Mac or PC versions.
Flashing the ROM may not have been very complicated, but it's not "the Mac way". It also isn't something the average consumer is likely to know (or should be likely to know)
To finish off, the cards were the same, the firmware wasn't.
Agreed
That survey is about security vulnerabilities (even though the header says "Flaws" which may be misleading) and Vista seems not so bad on that account. MS really seem to have tried their best in making the system secure.
Most of the comments focus on other issues. Usability, stability and other technical issues, as well as the obligatory jabs at MS.
Some of the criticisms seem valid though. He details his methodology but does not give access to the raw data making proper comparison impossible. Continuing on that point, we cannot see which Linux/Mac issues he includes, some may be minor bug fixes others may be major security fixes.
Even if he did list his data, the comparison is pretty much worthless because different companies (and the Open source movement) have different reporting strategies. Just by a different grading of of threats we get severely skewed statistics.
I use Apple stuff and will state that their bug/vuln. reporting is completely worthless. As is Microsofts. The Linux worlds is slightly less worthless but still to easily skewed.
"Lies.
Damn lies.
And statistics!"
Having worked in computer retail I can assure you that most computer buyers, although the TALK about buying something upgradable, will never upgrade anything beyond RAM (and possibly HDD) in their machines. /. crowd is a bit different in that most of us are geeks who are comfortable with ripping their machines apart and changing stuff. The general population is not willing to spend a few days building a scrapyard box and installing linux, even though that is sufficient for most users needs.
And of those few that do decide to upgrade their machines usually end up having to buy all new internals because of compatibility issues with the newest hardware, ending up with a mostly new computer with a horrible old case and a soon to fail PSU which may or may not fry all those new internals (ppl get REALLY anal about buying a new PSU, not understanding that having sufficient, clean power to all components is crucial and PSU failures can produce really interesting problems, especially if only a partial failure like having ne 5v bus producing unstable voltage, or dropping seriouslu in voltage under load)
The
Apple knows this and markets accordingly.
Seems to be working for them.
errr, you're a little behind the times there...
Macs have used regular video cards since the intel shift. Now it's just the question of drivers. And as you know, each OS needs its specific drivers.
Of course for that to matter in the first place you need to buy a Mac Pro as the other machines dont have PCI slots.
I have it on good authority that 84,63% of all statistics are made up!
Comparing the UI with the Gimp/Photoshop issue.
I really want to love Gimp, but it's just lacking in some areas (mostly pro features though) and the UI isn't good. That is, the graphical part and layout of the UI is rather poor. Other stuff like script-fu isn't all bad IMO.
It's mainly the inconsistencies that detract from Gimp. The learning curve isn't any worse than on Photoshop, but learning a broken UI feels silly. If Gimp is to become a viable option they'll have to clean up the UI quite a bit and start following SOME UI guidelines, which they apparently didn't do. Buttons and menus seem strewn about the place almost at random. Features are badly documented and explained. You are expected to spend as much time on the forums as using the programs, otherwise you are just one of the unwashed masses who "don't get it". Reminds me of underground artists who despise anyone successful and sneer at anyone who doesn't understand their latest piece made from dead dogs and poo.
What segment is the Gimp made for these days anyways? Not professional graphic artists (Photoshop is, sadly, king). Not regular minor photo tinkering (even Picasa, iPhoto and Pixelmator are better at those things, heck, the Canon printing utility I had for win was better at small fixes).
It may be for us little guys to create webgraphics, banners and logos. (and of course to add script-fu coffee stains to all images). But for those tasks the UI is WAY overcomplicated.
The UNIX way is "application specific utilities" and Gimp is trying to be everything to everyone and failing because of that, IMO.
To illustrate what the Gimp developers (and macports guys) think of UI design, try going to gimp.org website and figuring out how to install TheGimp on Mac (you can do this excersise without owning a mac, it's just for demonstrational purposes)
Just to install it (according to their reccomendations, there are other ways) you have to be willing to learn a different process to anything you've ever known. I mean, it's simpler to COMPILE the bloody thing from source code on most linux systems than to get it INTO my Mac. Doesn't make any sense. If you follow the directions to use MacPorts as a simple way of installing many programs you go to the macports website where another puzzle awaits. Download takes you to the main download page where a lonely, solitary link awaits you. To take you to the Downloads page where the actual downloads await you. Not with newest at the top or bottom, no. The newest is second from top... I mean, WTF?
Then you download the disk image and mount it (simple and standard) where a installer awaits (also standard) and installs the program quite normally.
Now the puzzle extends its claws!
The program is owhere to be found. Not even a manager for it or anything.
"Ahhh, but OBVIOUSLY macports is a COMMAND LINE INTERFACE", you say, "and to get a GUI for it you must get PortAuthority (a GUI program)"
Very obvious indeed. There is no mention of MacPorts being a CLI on either the GIMP page OR the MacPorts page. By not on the MacPorts page I mean Nowhere To Be Found (tm) (on the mainpage, download page, about page.... you get the picture). Not in the installer either.
Mention of this minor fact, and first mention of how to make it work are found in Macports/Wiki/UsingMacportsQuickstart.
You didn't just install the program did you?
Ohhh, you SHOULD have gone to Macports/Wiki/InstallingMacports first. There you are instructed (how) to install Xcode tools, then X11, then finally setting up the Shell environment, which is critical for MacPorts to function. Then verify the Shell environment.
NOW you are ready to install MacPorts.
Then install PortAuthority, which is SO good that the author of MacOSX Tiger for Unix geeks thinks he might find himself using it over time.
Alright, ready to try installing the GIMP.....
As gimp.org said, an easy way to install Gimp on MacOS, if you have an hour to spare and are completely computer literate.
BTW most graphical designers tha
Ahhh, the phones are good enough for their intended purpose, but!
The super cheap computers are gaining in power, and OSs like Linux will run faster and nicer especially on that low level hardware. Faster than Vista(obviously) and faster than Xp and faster than MacOS(on comparable hardware).
I run Xp, MacOS and Ubuntu and they're all decent and usable. Ubuntu needed some geekery to set up, XP needs some geekery to maintain it running, MacOS needs almost no geekery but is more expensive for well specced machines (it's not really more expensive on the cheaper machines spec for spec, but enry level starts at around U$1000, so no super cheap entry level machines, well there is the mac mini...)
Linux may start having a larger niche market as it is getting pretty good, but without a major advertising push it will remain niche.
As has been pointed out, Linux needs to come preinstalled with all major features (MP3, DVD, working with the most popular websites etc.) enabled before the user even touches the machine. Technically simple but costs licensing fees.
A computer with Linux will NOT cost the same as a machine with Win minus the cost of Win. There is cost associated with creating, installing and supporting Linux setups.
Back to the marketshare thing.
Even flawed operating systems which are pushed out long before they are ready for mass market (think Vista, XP, ME and.... wait for it... MacOS X) sell decently with a massive marketing campaign behind them.
Linux is now as simple to use on a daily basis as most other OSs, but setup is more of a hassle. Ubuntu installation is dead simple, setting up all features is also relatively simple but you have to be aware of all the separate simple steps to take, they're just too many.
That said most users can't set an OS like XP up either, and they shouldn't have to!
For most people a computer is a tool to get certain jobs done, whether they be spreadsheets or extravagant shootfests.
They don't care about the operating system and don't want to have to worry about it. If it fulfills their needs they'll never complain.
If Linux let's them buy cheaper hardware that still performs with no problems, then... YAY!
I may still pay for Mac stuff because I like their stuff and like how key applications that I use work on their hardware/operating system combo. Others will pay for MS products if it suits them and fills their needs. That's fine. Operating system religions seem silly and counterproductive.
I know how to use a circular aviation slide rule (both e6b style and completely circular jeppesen)
Way better in real world applications than electronic doodads. I'm not even an old fogey, but still prefer the slide rule. No batteries and doesn't crap out in extreme cold or humidity.
As has already been shown, Piratebay is a legal service (in Sweden) hosting no copyrighted material. Swedish law does not condemn faciltating copyright infringement.
Swedish law does however not really like sabotage, vandalism, unautorized access and other sauch malarkey.
That said, I didn't see that one coming, laughed out loud.
It's about bloody time that someone took big media and smacked them a little for all these strongarm tactics.
Hopefully the media coverage on this will highlight some of the issues, like HOW the media companies think business should be run. If small businesses tried this they would immediately be taken down (in almost any country) for much more serious crimes than copyright infringement.
And please try not to call it "pirating". That's a term coined by the mpaa (if I remember correctly) to try to make it sound really bad. If we, the geeks, are careful to call it what it is, copyright infringement or illegal copying, we can perhaps change public perception of the issues a little.
The ONLY thing that bugs me about thepiratebay is the name. Yes it IS cool but also makes us all look a bit like rebelling teenagers, even those of us who have thought deeply about copyright issues and realised that the system needs fixing to work in the modern world.