Of course no single thing is going to stop a determined person from accomplishing whatever they want to do. There is no perfect solution, people will always suck. As long as there is someone looking for a way to stop something, someone else will be working just as hard to unstop it.
As far as being a responsible parent, are you implying that kidnappings and molestation of children by strangers is due to a lack of parenting skills? When you put your kid on a school bus and you head of to work, where else would you (should you) expect your kid to go and then come home from? I'm not talking about highschoolers here, but elementary school kids. The average family works, their kids are in school hard to be in two places at once. When the kids are home, hell yes you keep an eye on them. I wasn't talking about using any kind of tracking as a substitute for being cognizant of where they are when I'm around and fully responsible to know.
I am a parent, pragmatically, there's only so much you can do. Just like everything else with kids, you have to do the best you can and hope it works.
from my original post: "Kidnappers and such aren't going to hunt for what they can already see, it's not like some asshole is going to sit in a van looking for GPS or RFID signals when he can look out his window (hey, big news break- kids can be found near schools)."
Hmm, that is interesting. I wouldn't be opposed to a chip on a tooth, or a bracelet that required a key (or code) only the school and parents had. THings can be made amazingly small, so it wouldn't be block and intrusive. But having a wife who is not all that hot on the whole idea or putting anything "in" one of our boys,, a dermal implant (like those on pets) would prolly be out of the question.
If your workplace requires you to swipe or wave a little card to allow you to enter or exit areas of the building, you are already being tracked. Those systems report your movement in real-time as you move through those swipe points. At my place of work, it is accompanied on a monitor at the reception and security desk by the picture of the employee (the same appearing on the card).
Shoppers will come before full-time, real-time employee tracking- more monetary value than employees and probably sooner than 2 years.
I would be surprised, however, if in 9 years students here are being tracked. I think America's parents are too paranoid to stand for this. I personally have no problem with it, schools in my kids' district are repsonsible (by law, no less) for their whereabouts to and from school. I'd actually find peace of mind in RFID tracking, more so in GPS. Kidnappers and such aren't going to hunt for what they can already see, it's not like some asshole is going to sit in a van looking for GPS or RFID signals when he can look out his window (hey, big news break- kids can be found near schools).
But a school, however, isn't lurking in a car somewhere watching your kids and they're the ones who SHOULD know where their students are, right? If a signal is reported outside of school during hours or worse, if it goes dead, they would know right away and could take immediate action in finding out why the child is not in school.
This is absolutely accurate. Average Windows users are not technically adept- they are average. For the most part, they can check their email (MSN or AOL typically, ironically Outlook is used more by people who understand computers a little better) and they can surf the Web. They use Office. They are not sure what all the other stuff is, and are afraid to find out or don't care. They often wonder why they get so much spam and why their machine is infected all the time. It's not always for lack of trying, you'd be amazed how many people use anti virus products but don't get updates and some even shut them off. I know people personally who open EVERY attachment because they believe it could be something important.
I think the average user won't switch because of the unknown. It's uncomfortable. If they could find out where to get Linux and install it- when faced with options about formatting and partitioning, losing all of their data, what the hell is a boot sector? and so on, that would be enough to stop them right there. Xandros (and probably others) helps with this immensely, granted, but there is also the issue of identity.
See, there's only one Windows OS, but there are how many dozens (hundreds?) of Linux OSs? How many of those claim to be THE Windows replacement?
Another problem is what the OS actually does, or at least is marketed to do. Seriously- go to your local Staples/Best Buy/etc, and read the features on the box for Windows XP Home or Pro. Then, go check out the packaging for Mandrake or SUSE or any other Linux and tell me which one means more to the average consumer. (Windows, derr.) Marketing matters.
And then there's the apps. I develop software, and my primary machine is an XP box. Even with CodeWeavers and WinE, my IDEs do not run on Linux. This is true with many (too many for the average user) Windows apps, and frankly it's not really enough of an incentive to switch systems, find new software to replace the stuff you were already familiar with, learn a new UI (it's different enough) just so you can avoid viruses. I'm all for Linux, I run Mandrake and Xandros machines as well, but you know- I've never had a virus or intrusion into my XP machine.
That's funny, I've been telling customers for years how to change their IE settings so the browser actually works like a Web browser instead of a snapshot viewer of some Web sites.
MAYBE they'll fix it later, maybe they won't. There's not really an incentive to fix anything. IE ships with windows, in most OEM systems that is the only browser installed. You "need" it if you want your Windows updates to work and it's baked into the file system browser. It's a bit like "You have to use it (at least at some point) so you might as well get used to it."
IE has shipped with these problem settings for years and they haven't changed the defaults or even made it easy for a less experienced user to figure out HOW. IE is also a big pain in the ass for Web Developers, being that the last 3 versions of it all handle the DOM, CSS and DOCTYPEs differently (WTF?), coupled with that you get the worst default cache settings ever.
Simple, cool features like an easy to use Settings menu (thanks Mozilla and Firefox!), default popup/under blocking (Moz again), caching and default settings that make sense seem to all be things that elude, and will likely continue to elude, MS.
Should they ever catch up, though, I foresee them getting it not-quite-right: For example, popup blockers that block all popups by default except those from msn.com and other choice partners, security alerts against competitor sites for "Suspicious activity" and of course alert boxes that ask if you want to do something to better your experience but then tell you why you shouldn't.
Real crammed ads down their users' throats when they came out with their first incarnation of RealOne *sigh* a couple years back. They lost tons of users over it and just poured fuel on all the flames (and in fact handed out matches) about how bad it sucked, took over your system, popups/unders out the ass and so on.
To Real's credit, they've actually gone through great pains to get rid of all popup/under advertising in the player's "Guide" (think that doesn't cost them revenue?) as well as made more of the settings "opt in" (if you choose advanced on install) but I think the damage is done, as clearly illustrated by every single person who bitches about the ads and buffering (seriously- no other player does this? bullshit.) People tried it, hated it, never went back and so continue to post about stuff that's not even relevant anymore.
To their fault, however, they've not really taken any steps to let anybody know that there are no more ad attacks, that you can make choices about the player options or any of the other hundred things people complain about every time someone says "Real Player." I've used it for years, admittedly only because the My Library feature is hands down the best, but lately I've ventured into the Music section of their guide. There's some cool stuff there, but again- how knows about it?
Slashdot Mirror
Of course no single thing is going to stop a determined person from accomplishing whatever they want to do. There is no perfect solution, people will always suck. As long as there is someone looking for a way to stop something, someone else will be working just as hard to unstop it.
As far as being a responsible parent, are you implying that kidnappings and molestation of children by strangers is due to a lack of parenting skills? When you put your kid on a school bus and you head of to work, where else would you (should you) expect your kid to go and then come home from? I'm not talking about highschoolers here, but elementary school kids. The average family works, their kids are in school hard to be in two places at once. When the kids are home, hell yes you keep an eye on them. I wasn't talking about using any kind of tracking as a substitute for being cognizant of where they are when I'm around and fully responsible to know.
I am a parent, pragmatically, there's only so much you can do. Just like everything else with kids, you have to do the best you can and hope it works.
from my original post: "Kidnappers and such aren't going to hunt for what they can already see, it's not like some asshole is going to sit in a van looking for GPS or RFID signals when he can look out his window (hey, big news break- kids can be found near schools)."
Hmm, that is interesting. I wouldn't be opposed to a chip on a tooth, or a bracelet that required a key (or code) only the school and parents had. THings can be made amazingly small, so it wouldn't be block and intrusive. But having a wife who is not all that hot on the whole idea or putting anything "in" one of our boys,, a dermal implant (like those on pets) would prolly be out of the question.
If your workplace requires you to swipe or wave a little card to allow you to enter or exit areas of the building, you are already being tracked. Those systems report your movement in real-time as you move through those swipe points. At my place of work, it is accompanied on a monitor at the reception and security desk by the picture of the employee (the same appearing on the card).
Shoppers will come before full-time, real-time employee tracking- more monetary value than employees and probably sooner than 2 years.
I would be surprised, however, if in 9 years students here are being tracked. I think America's parents are too paranoid to stand for this. I personally have no problem with it, schools in my kids' district are repsonsible (by law, no less) for their whereabouts to and from school. I'd actually find peace of mind in RFID tracking, more so in GPS. Kidnappers and such aren't going to hunt for what they can already see, it's not like some asshole is going to sit in a van looking for GPS or RFID signals when he can look out his window (hey, big news break- kids can be found near schools).
But a school, however, isn't lurking in a car somewhere watching your kids and they're the ones who SHOULD know where their students are, right? If a signal is reported outside of school during hours or worse, if it goes dead, they would know right away and could take immediate action in finding out why the child is not in school.
This is absolutely accurate. Average Windows users are not technically adept- they are average. For the most part, they can check their email (MSN or AOL typically, ironically Outlook is used more by people who understand computers a little better) and they can surf the Web. They use Office. They are not sure what all the other stuff is, and are afraid to find out or don't care. They often wonder why they get so much spam and why their machine is infected all the time. It's not always for lack of trying, you'd be amazed how many people use anti virus products but don't get updates and some even shut them off. I know people personally who open EVERY attachment because they believe it could be something important.
I think the average user won't switch because of the unknown. It's uncomfortable. If they could find out where to get Linux and install it- when faced with options about formatting and partitioning, losing all of their data, what the hell is a boot sector? and so on, that would be enough to stop them right there. Xandros (and probably others) helps with this immensely, granted, but there is also the issue of identity.
See, there's only one Windows OS, but there are how many dozens (hundreds?) of Linux OSs? How many of those claim to be THE Windows replacement?
Another problem is what the OS actually does, or at least is marketed to do. Seriously- go to your local Staples/Best Buy/etc, and read the features on the box for Windows XP Home or Pro. Then, go check out the packaging for Mandrake or SUSE or any other Linux and tell me which one means more to the average consumer. (Windows, derr.) Marketing matters.
And then there's the apps. I develop software, and my primary machine is an XP box. Even with CodeWeavers and WinE, my IDEs do not run on Linux. This is true with many (too many for the average user) Windows apps, and frankly it's not really enough of an incentive to switch systems, find new software to replace the stuff you were already familiar with, learn a new UI (it's different enough) just so you can avoid viruses. I'm all for Linux, I run Mandrake and Xandros machines as well, but you know- I've never had a virus or intrusion into my XP machine.
But then, I'm not an average user, either.
What good anarchist doesn't enjoy a good whore?
That's funny, I've been telling customers for years how to change their IE settings so the browser actually works like a Web browser instead of a snapshot viewer of some Web sites. MAYBE they'll fix it later, maybe they won't. There's not really an incentive to fix anything. IE ships with windows, in most OEM systems that is the only browser installed. You "need" it if you want your Windows updates to work and it's baked into the file system browser. It's a bit like "You have to use it (at least at some point) so you might as well get used to it." IE has shipped with these problem settings for years and they haven't changed the defaults or even made it easy for a less experienced user to figure out HOW. IE is also a big pain in the ass for Web Developers, being that the last 3 versions of it all handle the DOM, CSS and DOCTYPEs differently (WTF?), coupled with that you get the worst default cache settings ever. Simple, cool features like an easy to use Settings menu (thanks Mozilla and Firefox!), default popup/under blocking (Moz again), caching and default settings that make sense seem to all be things that elude, and will likely continue to elude, MS. Should they ever catch up, though, I foresee them getting it not-quite-right: For example, popup blockers that block all popups by default except those from msn.com and other choice partners, security alerts against competitor sites for "Suspicious activity" and of course alert boxes that ask if you want to do something to better your experience but then tell you why you shouldn't.
Real crammed ads down their users' throats when they came out with their first incarnation of RealOne *sigh* a couple years back. They lost tons of users over it and just poured fuel on all the flames (and in fact handed out matches) about how bad it sucked, took over your system, popups/unders out the ass and so on.
To Real's credit, they've actually gone through great pains to get rid of all popup/under advertising in the player's "Guide" (think that doesn't cost them revenue?) as well as made more of the settings "opt in" (if you choose advanced on install) but I think the damage is done, as clearly illustrated by every single person who bitches about the ads and buffering (seriously- no other player does this? bullshit.) People tried it, hated it, never went back and so continue to post about stuff that's not even relevant anymore.
To their fault, however, they've not really taken any steps to let anybody know that there are no more ad attacks, that you can make choices about the player options or any of the other hundred things people complain about every time someone says "Real Player." I've used it for years, admittedly only because the My Library feature is hands down the best, but lately I've ventured into the Music section of their guide. There's some cool stuff there, but again- how knows about it?
ICE - internal combustion engine. In the Merlin's case, it's a big ass Harley V-Twin.
The Merlin Roadster is also a three wheel drive, but not as ugly and has an ICE. A mini review is here.
This appeared first in Wired a couple years ago (or maybe it was last year?) without all the animals and branding.