Well, I have thrown a few chairs in my lifetime. I admit it. Sadly, Ballmer is too far away for me to hit with one.
Isn't "The software maker will compete 'the good old-fashioned way, with innovation" line a dead giveaway? MS does not have a good track record for innovation; history has shown them to be the company that comes up with software that does what already-existing software does. IE 7's tabbed browsing, for example. They're really, really late to jump on that bandwagon.
What makes the scams so tempting for the targets is that they promise a tantalizing escape from the mundane disappointments of life.
What they offer for the very poor in the US is a way out. Desperation colors your judgment. Not everyone in America has an SUV, a cell phone, a laptop, a satellite dish, a nice house/apartment and plenty of cash to spare. There are some very poor people on this continent too, and in some cases, these Nigerian scammers are better off than their targets. You just don't see too much of that on tv, where almost everyone is good-looking and well-to-do (part of the reason I stopped watching tv a couple of years ago). And they may think "well, I barely have a job, and these Americans have better jobs", but an awful lot of America's poor have jobs and work their assess off, but it's tough to get a better-paying job when you didn't get that lucky break the successful take for granted in the first place.
I'll meta-mod in just a minute. As if the link at the top of every page and after every coment I post weren't enough. We definitely need more meta-mods on/.
Other debates aside, what do they need Windows for? Windows comes with practically nothing. 'Course, if they have an internet connection they can download free and open source software - and run into all the pitfalls of spyware and viruses like every other Windows-user in the world has. And many, if not most, would not even have an itnernet connection at all.
Even the most minimalist Linux distro like Damn Small has more software bundled with it than any included with Windows. Consider one of the newbie-friendly distros like Xandros, Mandriva, etc. What all do you get with that? Office software, multimedia, games, system tools and more. Without thrid-party software on Windows, you can.... play solitaire. Not much else.
'Course, these distros are better with an internet connection than without; you can download updates and add-ons. But it really only requires one person to ahve an itnernet connection (even if temporarily) and cd-burning supplies.
Yes, I happen to like Linux. But I'm not trying to push Linux here because I like it. I was poor (still am) when I got my first computer, which came with Windows. I quickly concluded that it was worthless without other software to run on it. Now imagine that situration witout an internet connection.
In conclusion, the poor anywhere in the world, let alone Africa, don't need Windows. They need free and freely distributable software. And, not being computer experts, they need for it to be relatively easy to learn. Right now, unless I'm mistaken, certain distros of Linux fit the bill best.
I think everybody on slashdot is aware that there have been some security problems with FF (I don't have time to hunt for the links, just do a search here). I personally love FF, have since it's infancy, but I can't help but foresee similar problems in the future.
I think the source of the problem is that Mozilla is spreading out too fast. And it's hurting their products. For example, I just had to uninstall and reinstall FF; I'm browsing my fave extensions to reinstall as I write this. A month ago I had to uninstall and reinstall SeaMonkey (the classic Mozilla, which my husband prefers to FF). In both cases, it seems some of the app's files became corrupted.
How many programmers are regularly working with Mozilla? How many on each project? I don't know personally, but I'm betting that most of them are working on multiple projects. And how many Mozilla projects are there? SeaMonkey, Firefox, Thunderbird (best email client I've ever seen, btw), Camino, Sunbird.... am I forgetting any? Probably.
I like the new free opera, but I don't use it much. Opera doesn't have two things that makes the Mozilla browsers invaluable to me - you can turn off software installation and you can get extensions. You have to turn on software installation to install extensions, but otherwise you can turn it off and leave it off, and this helps secure your PC (if you know this, you're probably thinking "duh!", but you'd be surprised how many people using FF don't know).
What's my point? Don't count your chickens before the eggs hatch. Firefox is gaining popularity, and it should, but I'm going to wait until 1.5 is in final release before I begin celebrating. I'm just holding out for hope that these recent spate of problems won't become a long-lasting trend. Only time will tell.
Ah. Well, forgive me for being redundant for stating what other posters have, but if it's the legislature's job to define what can and can't be patented, then the whole system really has gone to Hell in a handbasket. I can easily imagine every 2-bit company trying to patent something they copied off of another developer. It'll be like a shark feeding frenzy.
You remove your head from your ass first. Why should anyone care what other people prefer to be called? It's called consideration. It's also called politeness. Concepts which are clearly beyond the scope of your intelligence. Or maybe it's just your nature to be an insulting little prick whenever you get the chance, but not everyone is like that.
I gave you no reason whatsoever to troll me, and if you talked to me like that in person you'd have less teeth, plus I'd break some other body part to drive the point home. I didn't say a single impoilte word in my post, let alone a damn thing to you personally. Maybe you've been hacked? Here's a clue: stop being such an insulting little shit to people for no reason and that might not happen so often. Even the internet's anonymity can only protect you from so much of your own stupidity - because it's not really anonymous at all. And even the nicest hackers who are attacked by a petty little troll like you might be prone to thinking you need a lesson.
And no, I'm neither a hacker nor a cracker, so I'm not a threat to you. But no worry; you're obviously capable of pissing off the wrong people all on your own.
Besides all his problems with Microsoft seem to stem from either hatred, or the fact that people who use Windows are stupid. (claiming never to get a virus on a mac isn't a small miracle, I never get virii on PCs... Why? Because I do the same shit he does. I have a anti virus program that has been completely dorment since installation, except when I actually test it, and it performs perfectly then)
As I've mentioned before, I work on people's PCs. Every single time someone brings me their PC and says "it can't be a virus, I'm very careful/I have AV software and keep it updated/etc" I find at least 2 trojans on their computer they weren't aware of. In a few of these cases, I have found other viruses they didn't know about either.
As I've also mentioned elsewhere, Windows accepts changes from outside the operating system without the user's consent. It was designed that way. This is why no AV, anti-spyware or firewall will ever be adequate; a cracker can send you a virus over the internet and unless your firewall or AV stops it, you'd never even know. So what if your firewall or AV doesn't stop it because this particular virus's signature isn't in it's database yet? Your PC becomes infected. Windows is, so far as I know, the only OS that allows anothers's control of it to override the user's control - even Macs, the (reputedly, I wouldn't know) extremely-easy-to-use OS gives the user more control over the OS than Windows. And everyone is familiar with the stability problems Windows has; Windows XP works great for some people, for others it seems to be as bad as Windows 95. But cosndering Windows XP Pro costs nealry $300 it should be a lot better than that. That's far too much to pay for an OS with so many security problems and some variable amount of instability. Still, if it weren't for product activation I might actually consider using it, but I refuse to jump through hoops to earn the right to use software I've paid for.
Again, I'm repeating myself, but I also believe that Apple would be Microsoft if it weren't for Microsoft, so don't think I'm an Apple fangirl here. I use Linux and I'm planning to try out Haiku OS as soon as it is released. Windows has serious flaws that virtually all other OSes lack, and as long as they're still making money, these flaws will never be fixed. The only thing they care about fixing is marketing problems - they've proven this over and over again.
Does this make me an open source fanatic? I'm really not sure. For example, I don't think the Gimp is better than Photoshop, although the Gimp is a great graphics program. But I don't like the way Apple attempted to monopolize both hardware and software before Microsoft came along, so I simply don't trust them much either. The only good alternatives to both that I know of are open source. And I can share my copies with anyone I like without having to check a licensing agreement, nor am I limited to using the OS with only one computer. Since I'm not a programmer, I don't have to worry about the GNU Public license at all.
Because these are hackers. The type who run exploits and get into other people's computers without permission are called crackers. Real hackers get pissed off when they're confused with crackers - you don't want to make that mistake if you're conversing with one.
Ok, so the Linux version is too buggy for now. We can wait. But will it run with Wine? And if so, do you need to tweak it to get it to run right? It seems info on that is skimpy at best. Anyone know?
For every right given, there must be a duty to society fulfilled by the recipient. If not, it's not a right but a privilege.
Animal "rights" activists don't seem to dig that. The same applies for "children rights" by the way. You can't expect responsibility from animals and children, hence they can't be entitled to rights. And I see no reason why they should be the new aristocrats.
Translation: No one should have any rights unless they do what I say.
Wow. Hey, guys, I haven't been on slashdot all that long. Is this our first third-world dictator?
... about the drugs they give cattle and other animals raised for food. I've done searches for web sites to tell me what these drugs are and found very little information. It would sure be nice if someone were to try to track all that and tell us what these drugs are, what they're supposed to do, and how much research has been done to see how traces of them might affect humans.
I don't mean to flame those who are saying a grammar checker bloats AbiWord or anything, but I downloaded the Windows version last night. It's 5.03 mb. So how much can the grammar checker be bloating it?
Your average, run-of-the-mill Joe who killed a couple of people should be restored all of his rights as a citizen after serving his time, yeah. But what about someone who killed fifty people? 100? More? That's the kind of scale I mean. Selling software that is designed for censorship is like selling deadly weapons to murderous dictators - you know good and well what they're going to be used for. Saying software is just an enabler is the same as saying chemical weapons are an enabler. The seller is helping them, whether he profits from it personally or not.
Reading the other comments, I get the impression this guy is not necessarily a trustworthy source. So does anyone know for sure? If so, please let us know.
Exactly. If Wine can make a fake registry why can't they do the same thing with Windows? Seems like they should be able to do so even better, doesn't it?
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I have thrown a few chairs in my lifetime. I admit it. Sadly, Ballmer is too far away for me to hit with one.
Isn't "The software maker will compete 'the good old-fashioned way, with innovation" line a dead giveaway? MS does not have a good track record for innovation; history has shown them to be the company that comes up with software that does what already-existing software does. IE 7's tabbed browsing, for example. They're really, really late to jump on that bandwagon.
I think the official announcement should be that it died of abuse.
What makes the scams so tempting for the targets is that they promise a tantalizing escape from the mundane disappointments of life.
What they offer for the very poor in the US is a way out. Desperation colors your judgment. Not everyone in America has an SUV, a cell phone, a laptop, a satellite dish, a nice house/apartment and plenty of cash to spare. There are some very poor people on this continent too, and in some cases, these Nigerian scammers are better off than their targets. You just don't see too much of that on tv, where almost everyone is good-looking and well-to-do (part of the reason I stopped watching tv a couple of years ago). And they may think "well, I barely have a job, and these Americans have better jobs", but an awful lot of America's poor have jobs and work their assess off, but it's tough to get a better-paying job when you didn't get that lucky break the successful take for granted in the first place.
I'll meta-mod in just a minute. As if the link at the top of every page and after every coment I post weren't enough. We definitely need more meta-mods on /.
Other debates aside, what do they need Windows for? Windows comes with practically nothing. 'Course, if they have an internet connection they can download free and open source software - and run into all the pitfalls of spyware and viruses like every other Windows-user in the world has. And many, if not most, would not even have an itnernet connection at all.
Even the most minimalist Linux distro like Damn Small has more software bundled with it than any included with Windows. Consider one of the newbie-friendly distros like Xandros, Mandriva, etc. What all do you get with that? Office software, multimedia, games, system tools and more. Without thrid-party software on Windows, you can.... play solitaire. Not much else.
'Course, these distros are better with an internet connection than without; you can download updates and add-ons. But it really only requires one person to ahve an itnernet connection (even if temporarily) and cd-burning supplies.
Yes, I happen to like Linux. But I'm not trying to push Linux here because I like it. I was poor (still am) when I got my first computer, which came with Windows. I quickly concluded that it was worthless without other software to run on it. Now imagine that situration witout an internet connection.
In conclusion, the poor anywhere in the world, let alone Africa, don't need Windows. They need free and freely distributable software. And, not being computer experts, they need for it to be relatively easy to learn. Right now, unless I'm mistaken, certain distros of Linux fit the bill best.
I think everybody on slashdot is aware that there have been some security problems with FF (I don't have time to hunt for the links, just do a search here). I personally love FF, have since it's infancy, but I can't help but foresee similar problems in the future.
I think the source of the problem is that Mozilla is spreading out too fast. And it's hurting their products. For example, I just had to uninstall and reinstall FF; I'm browsing my fave extensions to reinstall as I write this. A month ago I had to uninstall and reinstall SeaMonkey (the classic Mozilla, which my husband prefers to FF). In both cases, it seems some of the app's files became corrupted.
How many programmers are regularly working with Mozilla? How many on each project? I don't know personally, but I'm betting that most of them are working on multiple projects. And how many Mozilla projects are there? SeaMonkey, Firefox, Thunderbird (best email client I've ever seen, btw), Camino, Sunbird.... am I forgetting any? Probably.
I like the new free opera, but I don't use it much. Opera doesn't have two things that makes the Mozilla browsers invaluable to me - you can turn off software installation and you can get extensions. You have to turn on software installation to install extensions, but otherwise you can turn it off and leave it off, and this helps secure your PC (if you know this, you're probably thinking "duh!", but you'd be surprised how many people using FF don't know).
What's my point? Don't count your chickens before the eggs hatch. Firefox is gaining popularity, and it should, but I'm going to wait until 1.5 is in final release before I begin celebrating. I'm just holding out for hope that these recent spate of problems won't become a long-lasting trend. Only time will tell.
Ah. Well, forgive me for being redundant for stating what other posters have, but if it's the legislature's job to define what can and can't be patented, then the whole system really has gone to Hell in a handbasket. I can easily imagine every 2-bit company trying to patent something they copied off of another developer. It'll be like a shark feeding frenzy.
Funny. As the Patent Board itself, I'd have thought that was part of their job. Maybe not.
You remove your head from your ass first. Why should anyone care what other people prefer to be called? It's called consideration. It's also called politeness. Concepts which are clearly beyond the scope of your intelligence. Or maybe it's just your nature to be an insulting little prick whenever you get the chance, but not everyone is like that.
I gave you no reason whatsoever to troll me, and if you talked to me like that in person you'd have less teeth, plus I'd break some other body part to drive the point home. I didn't say a single impoilte word in my post, let alone a damn thing to you personally. Maybe you've been hacked? Here's a clue: stop being such an insulting little shit to people for no reason and that might not happen so often. Even the internet's anonymity can only protect you from so much of your own stupidity - because it's not really anonymous at all. And even the nicest hackers who are attacked by a petty little troll like you might be prone to thinking you need a lesson.
And no, I'm neither a hacker nor a cracker, so I'm not a threat to you. But no worry; you're obviously capable of pissing off the wrong people all on your own.
Besides all his problems with Microsoft seem to stem from either hatred, or the fact that people who use Windows are stupid. (claiming never to get a virus on a mac isn't a small miracle, I never get virii on PCs... Why? Because I do the same shit he does. I have a anti virus program that has been completely dorment since installation, except when I actually test it, and it performs perfectly then)
As I've mentioned before, I work on people's PCs. Every single time someone brings me their PC and says "it can't be a virus, I'm very careful/I have AV software and keep it updated/etc" I find at least 2 trojans on their computer they weren't aware of. In a few of these cases, I have found other viruses they didn't know about either.
As I've also mentioned elsewhere, Windows accepts changes from outside the operating system without the user's consent. It was designed that way. This is why no AV, anti-spyware or firewall will ever be adequate; a cracker can send you a virus over the internet and unless your firewall or AV stops it, you'd never even know. So what if your firewall or AV doesn't stop it because this particular virus's signature isn't in it's database yet? Your PC becomes infected. Windows is, so far as I know, the only OS that allows anothers's control of it to override the user's control - even Macs, the (reputedly, I wouldn't know) extremely-easy-to-use OS gives the user more control over the OS than Windows. And everyone is familiar with the stability problems Windows has; Windows XP works great for some people, for others it seems to be as bad as Windows 95. But cosndering Windows XP Pro costs nealry $300 it should be a lot better than that. That's far too much to pay for an OS with so many security problems and some variable amount of instability. Still, if it weren't for product activation I might actually consider using it, but I refuse to jump through hoops to earn the right to use software I've paid for.
Again, I'm repeating myself, but I also believe that Apple would be Microsoft if it weren't for Microsoft, so don't think I'm an Apple fangirl here. I use Linux and I'm planning to try out Haiku OS as soon as it is released. Windows has serious flaws that virtually all other OSes lack, and as long as they're still making money, these flaws will never be fixed. The only thing they care about fixing is marketing problems - they've proven this over and over again.
Does this make me an open source fanatic? I'm really not sure. For example, I don't think the Gimp is better than Photoshop, although the Gimp is a great graphics program. But I don't like the way Apple attempted to monopolize both hardware and software before Microsoft came along, so I simply don't trust them much either. The only good alternatives to both that I know of are open source. And I can share my copies with anyone I like without having to check a licensing agreement, nor am I limited to using the OS with only one computer. Since I'm not a programmer, I don't have to worry about the GNU Public license at all.
A good hosts file can fix that, no matter what browser or OS you're running.
(I'm in the mood to be helpful today instead of giving my usual serving of sarcastic remarks. God knows why.)
Because these are hackers. The type who run exploits and get into other people's computers without permission are called crackers. Real hackers get pissed off when they're confused with crackers - you don't want to make that mistake if you're conversing with one.
Ok, so the Linux version is too buggy for now. We can wait. But will it run with Wine? And if so, do you need to tweak it to get it to run right? It seems info on that is skimpy at best. Anyone know?
Why bother? It would only be stolen.
Yeah, there are still plenty more like him, unfortunately. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go check my spam for emails.
For every right given, there must be a duty to society fulfilled by the recipient. If not, it's not a right but a privilege. Animal "rights" activists don't seem to dig that. The same applies for "children rights" by the way. You can't expect responsibility from animals and children, hence they can't be entitled to rights. And I see no reason why they should be the new aristocrats.
Translation: No one should have any rights unless they do what I say.
Wow. Hey, guys, I haven't been on slashdot all that long. Is this our first third-world dictator?
Better still, if crash your car into one of their trees, can you sue Toyota? Sounds stupid, but with the lawsuits that have been won in the US....
... about the drugs they give cattle and other animals raised for food. I've done searches for web sites to tell me what these drugs are and found very little information. It would sure be nice if someone were to try to track all that and tell us what these drugs are, what they're supposed to do, and how much research has been done to see how traces of them might affect humans.
I don't mean to flame those who are saying a grammar checker bloats AbiWord or anything, but I downloaded the Windows version last night. It's 5.03 mb. So how much can the grammar checker be bloating it?
Your average, run-of-the-mill Joe who killed a couple of people should be restored all of his rights as a citizen after serving his time, yeah. But what about someone who killed fifty people? 100? More? That's the kind of scale I mean. Selling software that is designed for censorship is like selling deadly weapons to murderous dictators - you know good and well what they're going to be used for. Saying software is just an enabler is the same as saying chemical weapons are an enabler. The seller is helping them, whether he profits from it personally or not.
I hereby patent houses! Okay, guys, I only want $20 from each and every person who lives in a house. It's just a small one-time fee. Pay up!
I'm also going to patent feet. Remember "I'll tax your feet"? Well, good news, it's only a $1 a year from everyone who has feet.
And while I'm at it, maybe I'll patent eyes, and ears, and sex, and....
Reading the other comments, I get the impression this guy is not necessarily a trustworthy source. So does anyone know for sure? If so, please let us know.
Thanks.
Exactly. If Wine can make a fake registry why can't they do the same thing with Windows? Seems like they should be able to do so even better, doesn't it?
Scroll down to Strange but true
And just for fun, there's a screenshot in the middle of this page.
And another article about Microsoft using Macs at the Register.