And starting to use IM more, perhaps? There's nothing two consenting parties can't communicate with IM that they could with email, and yet it's faster and more functional overall. Jabber requires a handshake, meaning spam as it currently exists is impossible.
I don't even get much spam, but I still want to move away from email because it feels like driving a rattling old car around.
1) If a virus has spread over every Mac on the Internet, then it's harmful.
RTFA: the contest is for two* particular Macs, not every Mac on the Internet. The contest was NOT about spreading-- only about infection. Where did you come up with this? If a contestant did that, it would obviously have repercussions that would outweigh his reward. Same on your point 5), as that's basically the same mistake repeated.
2) Many people would say that ANY virus is harmful, just by virtue of it being a virus (spreading, infecting.)
True and completely irrelevant to whether the contest is stupid.
3) I'm so sure it's worth $50,000 for Symantec to finally put that "Antivirus companies don't write viruses" myth to bed.
Actually, it's worth much more than that. Viruses have done millions of dollars in damages in the past.
4) We're going to use antivirus software to determine if we've been infected... which will only catch previously known viruses.
What the hell are you talking about? Did you even read the right article?
Personally I don't think it's a stupid contest. It's a chance to patch up holes before they're used to break bigger things.
I would* archive my phone conversations if it was as easy as AIM logging.
When people tell me something on IM, I never have to write it down. I can just search the logs if I ever need it later. I argue there's no reason NOT to. It's also nice to look back and remember past eras of my social life (don't laugh dammit).
Microsoft responded that the tests prove that any operating system is vulnerable when not patched.
No, the tests prove that SP1 computers die a maggot-ridden death when not patched.
As a counterexample, these tests certainly don't prove that UNIX systems being used successfully today since before M$ even existed are "vulnerable when not patched"... whatever that even means outside the world of M$.
In 5 billion years we're going to have to move to Mars anyway to live out the last 10 million years of the Sun's life (as a red giant), as we would otherwise be engulfed into it.
Computer: over 100 keys Mobile phone: about 20 buttons X-box: 23 buttons I think TV remote: easily 20 buttons DVD remote: maybe 12 buttons?
Indeed, they'd look at you in horror, because you'd be asking them to re-learn to type on a keyboard twice as big. They'd need to go buy a bigger desk.
People don't want lots and lots of single purpose devices. They do not want to have to learn how to set up something for photos, another thing for music, another thing for video.
I can relate. It was a real pain to learn how to set up my iPod. I mean, gosh, had to crawl behind my computer and plug in this little white cable!
But it was worth all that trouble. I sure am glad that this is not a single purpose device. I mean, my friends and I all use it to keep our contact info, calendars, and to keep entertained in class with its nifty little built-in pong game. I think that having all of these daily use features in a single device is my favorite part about it!
No, seriously though, I think the success of the iPod is evidence that Gates is totally wrong here.
Think of it like throwing a basketball into a hoop. As you release, no one has a clue whether you'll whiff it or what. Then people see it's in the general right direction. Then people see it's looking like a good shot. Then people start to think it will be very close. Then we see it smack into the rim and bounce away. Drat.
The probability of impact gradually goes up and up, and then suddenly drops to zero at some point if it is not going to hit. It won't go back up after that drop.
You need a dynamic web page that will allow everyone to post what they think is good software, and allow all visitors give an agree or disagree to whether any or all of the software on the list is good. It'd almost be a specialized WIKI. What you'll get is a high level of agreement on software that really is good, and it will have a much more objective meaning to visitors than the website as it is, which looks more like a compilation of your personal opinions.
In fact, if you don't do that, I think I will. I think this is a great idea.
Well, I'm glad that for the next 25 years, we will have good telescopes to use, like Hubble, which have allowed us to see details of OTHER GALAXIES. Certainly we could use such equipment to help pinpoint whether asteroids would hit us early enough to do something about it.
Oh, wait. We won't.
Hubble requires routine maintenance. It contains manipulable spinning gyros used to absorb its angular momentum so that it can point in one direction and get a good image. Without them, it would quickly become a tumbling piece of scrap metal. Since these parts move, they wear out. Hubble currently has just enough operational gyros to work for just a little bit longer, but a certain administration doesn't think it's worth maintaining anymore. I guess it's more important to fund homeland security than homeworld security.
I'll give Bush credit for not having blown up the world yet, and I suppose that in this light, our nuclear weapons could be used in a good way.
It's not about a PAIN threshold. It's about a PLEASURE threshold. The internet is pretty much a big porn shop nowadays. How much can YOU take before YOU collapse? I for one have a 120GB hard drive.
Apple initially took Xerox technology and made it all happen. They never quit improving from there. The designs you see all over Microsoft products are rudimentary and often sketchy copies of Apple's designs. Therefore you will find that a lot of it is very familiar... and if anything, it will seem improved.
I have a friend who facetiously considers Apple to essentially be Microsoft's "research and development group", as Apple has always been around 5 years ahead of Microsoft in terms of technical advancement, but never ends up keeping the best of its ideas to itself in the end. When Microsoft stepped in and took over, we all took a deep breath, bent over, and accepted the fate of being held back in technology in order to bring a massive corporation to power.
I think you and anyone who switches to Apple will find it to be an uplifting experience that will push you back into the future, and will help you realize what you've been missing all along.
Just get ready for it to hit your wallet, though. =P
It's true, everyone has something to complain about on their PDA. It's a computer! Particularly in an opensource fanatic/computer geek community, we all expect computers to be able to do EXACTLY what we want, and nothing more. Therein lies the problem. PDAs are shipped with the preset functionality that tries to fit everyone as a whole, and from that you get the Winblows phenomenon.
So then it seems obvious that the way to make the best PDA is to make it as configurable as possible, which means scale it back, open the source, get tons of feedback, and quit being proprietary about your design! That means give people the ability to write their own programs and plug in their own devices.
That sounds far-fetched, because it really is. How can a whole field of technlology stop being proprietary? I think non-proprietary computer software and hardware exists and excels because so many people out there have the ongoing need for affordable computers that just work in precisely the way they want. So if the PDA business is staying so proprietary, if no one is out there openly and freely developing parts and programs for these kinds of handheld systems, doesn't it seem clear that there IS no such ongoing need? That PDAs may be destined to be the same little toys that they have been since day one?
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Less than twelve parsecs.
http://69.93.50.122/desktopgirls/photos/Jessica_Al ba_Widescreen_720200553644PM39.jpg
And starting to use IM more, perhaps? There's nothing two consenting parties can't communicate with IM that they could with email, and yet it's faster and more functional overall. Jabber requires a handshake, meaning spam as it currently exists is impossible.
I don't even get much spam, but I still want to move away from email because it feels like driving a rattling old car around.
Are you drunk?
1) If a virus has spread over every Mac on the Internet, then it's harmful.
RTFA: the contest is for two* particular Macs, not every Mac on the Internet. The contest was NOT about spreading-- only about infection. Where did you come up with this? If a contestant did that, it would obviously have repercussions that would outweigh his reward. Same on your point 5), as that's basically the same mistake repeated.
2) Many people would say that ANY virus is harmful, just by virtue of it being a virus (spreading, infecting.)
True and completely irrelevant to whether the contest is stupid.
3) I'm so sure it's worth $50,000 for Symantec to finally put that "Antivirus companies don't write viruses" myth to bed.
Actually, it's worth much more than that. Viruses have done millions of dollars in damages in the past.
4) We're going to use antivirus software to determine if we've been infected... which will only catch previously known viruses.
What the hell are you talking about? Did you even read the right article?
Personally I don't think it's a stupid contest. It's a chance to patch up holes before they're used to break bigger things.
How do we know this actually happened? People concoct amazing stories all the time.
If you take poor filmmaking and try to imitate it, you get something even worse.
I love Star Wars for the story; not the screenplay that depicts it. By thinking that way I enjoy all the movies.
Oh, and as long as you keep John Williams' brilliant work in there, it can't be all bad.
I would* archive my phone conversations if it was as easy as AIM logging. When people tell me something on IM, I never have to write it down. I can just search the logs if I ever need it later. I argue there's no reason NOT to. It's also nice to look back and remember past eras of my social life (don't laugh dammit).
I archive my mail on /dev/null. Send it there daily.
Microsoft responded that the tests prove that any operating system is vulnerable when not patched.
No, the tests prove that SP1 computers die a maggot-ridden death when not patched.
As a counterexample, these tests certainly don't prove that UNIX systems being used successfully today since before M$ even existed are "vulnerable when not patched"... whatever that even means outside the world of M$.
In 5 billion years we're going to have to move to Mars anyway to live out the last 10 million years of the Sun's life (as a red giant), as we would otherwise be engulfed into it.
Computer: over 100 keys
Mobile phone: about 20 buttons
X-box: 23 buttons I think
TV remote: easily 20 buttons
DVD remote: maybe 12 buttons?
Indeed, they'd look at you in horror, because you'd be asking them to re-learn to type on a keyboard twice as big. They'd need to go buy a bigger desk.
People don't want lots and lots of single purpose devices. They do not want to have to learn how to set up something for photos, another thing for music, another thing for video.
I can relate. It was a real pain to learn how to set up my iPod. I mean, gosh, had to crawl behind my computer and plug in this little white cable!
But it was worth all that trouble. I sure am glad that this is not a single purpose device. I mean, my friends and I all use it to keep our contact info, calendars, and to keep entertained in class with its nifty little built-in pong game. I think that having all of these daily use features in a single device is my favorite part about it!
No, seriously though, I think the success of the iPod is evidence that Gates is totally wrong here.
Think of it like throwing a basketball into a hoop. As you release, no one has a clue whether you'll whiff it or what. Then people see it's in the general right direction. Then people see it's looking like a good shot. Then people start to think it will be very close. Then we see it smack into the rim and bounce away. Drat.
The probability of impact gradually goes up and up, and then suddenly drops to zero at some point if it is not going to hit. It won't go back up after that drop.
You need a dynamic web page that will allow everyone to post what they think is good software, and allow all visitors give an agree or disagree to whether any or all of the software on the list is good. It'd almost be a specialized WIKI. What you'll get is a high level of agreement on software that really is good, and it will have a much more objective meaning to visitors than the website as it is, which looks more like a compilation of your personal opinions.
In fact, if you don't do that, I think I will. I think this is a great idea.
Well, I'm glad that for the next 25 years, we will have good telescopes to use, like Hubble, which have allowed us to see details of OTHER GALAXIES. Certainly we could use such equipment to help pinpoint whether asteroids would hit us early enough to do something about it.
Oh, wait. We won't.
Hubble requires routine maintenance. It contains manipulable spinning gyros used to absorb its angular momentum so that it can point in one direction and get a good image. Without them, it would quickly become a tumbling piece of scrap metal. Since these parts move, they wear out. Hubble currently has just enough operational gyros to work for just a little bit longer, but a certain administration doesn't think it's worth maintaining anymore. I guess it's more important to fund homeland security than homeworld security.
I'll give Bush credit for not having blown up the world yet, and I suppose that in this light, our nuclear weapons could be used in a good way.
Can you say "Gentoo"? I almost don't even care what a dependency is anymore.
It's not about a PAIN threshold. It's about a PLEASURE threshold. The internet is pretty much a big porn shop nowadays. How much can YOU take before YOU collapse? I for one have a 120GB hard drive.
Apple initially took Xerox technology and made it all happen. They never quit improving from there. The designs you see all over Microsoft products are rudimentary and often sketchy copies of Apple's designs. Therefore you will find that a lot of it is very familiar... and if anything, it will seem improved.
I have a friend who facetiously considers Apple to essentially be Microsoft's "research and development group", as Apple has always been around 5 years ahead of Microsoft in terms of technical advancement, but never ends up keeping the best of its ideas to itself in the end. When Microsoft stepped in and took over, we all took a deep breath, bent over, and accepted the fate of being held back in technology in order to bring a massive corporation to power.
I think you and anyone who switches to Apple will find it to be an uplifting experience that will push you back into the future, and will help you realize what you've been missing all along.
Just get ready for it to hit your wallet, though. =P
It's true, everyone has something to complain about on their PDA. It's a computer! Particularly in an opensource fanatic/computer geek community, we all expect computers to be able to do EXACTLY what we want, and nothing more. Therein lies the problem. PDAs are shipped with the preset functionality that tries to fit everyone as a whole, and from that you get the Winblows phenomenon.
So then it seems obvious that the way to make the best PDA is to make it as configurable as possible, which means scale it back, open the source, get tons of feedback, and quit being proprietary about your design! That means give people the ability to write their own programs and plug in their own devices.
That sounds far-fetched, because it really is. How can a whole field of technlology stop being proprietary? I think non-proprietary computer software and hardware exists and excels because so many people out there have the ongoing need for affordable computers that just work in precisely the way they want. So if the PDA business is staying so proprietary, if no one is out there openly and freely developing parts and programs for these kinds of handheld systems, doesn't it seem clear that there IS no such ongoing need? That PDAs may be destined to be the same little toys that they have been since day one?