Exactly. Even as a mac user I shudder when I hear the phrase, "more secure". How can you quantify security. I would consider it to be a binary measure, either you are secure or you aren't. And the answer is you are not.
Basically it all comes down to being smart when using your computer. First and foremost is never run anything in any sort of admin mode unless absolutely necessary. Most mac users create an admin account and use it for everything they do(and I hate to admit I am one of those), that is just asking to be attacked. Don't open random email attachments. Don't go to web sites that could be of questionable character. And, of course, always stay educated.
As an aside, I would also recommend using two different browsers. If you find out there is a security threat to Safari, switch to Firefox till the patch at least. And of course visa-versa. It also never hurts to have those different browsers on your system in case a web page you need to access isn't compatable with one but is with the other. I even had to use IE to access a site on my mac(yeah, I know I shouldn't have as a geek, but they had cheap health insurance and I was hard up for cash at the time)
"We have this great new device that will kill the iPod! Just take our word for it! iPod=dead, yeah, our device is awesome!"
They haven't shown that they can do anything the iPod can't do, so why would consumers switch?
I think a more interesting question is "why aren't more games being released?" Are the publishers worried that the 360 supply shortage has created a market that just isn't worth taking risks on? Are game creators having a difficult time creating bug free 360 games? Or is this launch just like the PS2 and DS etc. in that it wasn't until 6 months so till good games actually start coming out....
the only reason to keep that cash is to help you grow your business(not buy an aging and struggling Disney IMO), but Apple seems to keep an insane amount on hand. If you aren't going to do anything with it why not return it to the shareholders via dividends? Apple doesn't even pay dividends, and it's not like paying dividends is totally unknown in this business. Microsoft was dragged into doing it recently, and hell, even Nintendo does it(not a whole lot, but it's something!)
The 2d final fantasy games were great(some may argue greater than the 3d ones, but thats another topic) so why don't they create a NEW 2d final fantasy game? Instead, we get either a)a billion and one ports of the older 2d titles or b)some "Jetsons meet the Flintstones" type game(such as the one in question).
Come on Square-Enix, give the fans what they have been slobbering for, some new games in the old-school style!
Seriously, this is not good for Sony. They obviously cannot control the rumor mill and there are multiple sources each with their own "inside contacts" who are making predictions that are all over the map. This can only cause confusion with potential buyers who may well just spend their money on something else rather than even consider saving up for a playstation....
World of Warcraft(and by extension ALL MMORPGs). He compares them to games such as chess and street fighter(because we all know that Chun Li is a modern day Confucius, only hotter!) and saying that in those games you don't have any material advantages over your opponent so they make better games. What he neglects to take into consideration is that chess and Street Fighter have very clearly defined goals: checkmate in the former, and beating the crap out of your opponent in the latter. However, a lot of games such as MMORPGs don't have such clearly defined goals. Yeah, you can build your character up to level 60 and be the mightiest warrior of all time if you want, but you don't have to do that in order to enjoy the game. There are many other goals you can take on which don't require that you "beat" your nemesi so to speak.
Seriously, while I will eventually buy Twilight Princess, I really pine for a new Zelda game on the DS. Minish Cap was the best single player experience I have had in a long, long time!
That is some interesting research(only 5% of spam is porn?!), but where is spam headed long term? They have that little graph were you can see trends for 30 days, 100 days, or 12 months(though the 30 days and 12 months didn't work for me in Safari), but does anyone have reliable statistics that go back farther?
Is spam burning out, finding new markets, or are people just continuing to send spam even if they don't make a profit on it?
EXACTLY! Mod this man up as much as you can.
Younger Americans are really caught between a rock and a hard place now. Renting is one of the worst financial moves you can make(the others being credit cards and interest only adjustable rate mortgages). Even if your home doesn't increase in value you are still better off owning than renting, because every month instead of paying a landlord, you are paying a bit to a bank and the rest to yourself. And by the time you totally pay off your home, you don't have to pay a monthly fee to anyone(well, perhaps the government:P), saving you tons of money you can put to use in investments etc.
The problem for people who got to the game too late to get a house cheap is that it's almost impossible for us to own homes. First and foremost you have the cost: Home prices AND rents have been spiraling ever higher, but wages have not. So while we are making money, what little we can save after paying outrageous rents hardly makes a dent in the downpayment we would have to pony up just to get a mortgage at a reasonable rate.
The second of course is job security. Owning a house doesn't make any sense if you aren't going to be in the area more than 5 years, but how many of us here can say they have a job secured in their area for that long? If you sell it before is up, all the interest and fees would have made it hardly worthwhile....
I see the US becoming more and more like places such as Italy and Japan where kids live with their parents till they are married, and maybe even a bit after that. When I was working in Japan, my co-worker was a 30-something graduate of the University of Tokyo making good money, but he still lived with his parents? Why? Because he could actually afford a decent lifestyle that way(such as owning a car!) As much as people like to make fun of nerds living in their parent's basement, if I wasn't in Germany right now and could find a job close to my mom's house, I would live in her basement for a while. It's getting harder and harder not to....
I especially liked the quote: The American executives who are planning to send work abroad express concern about what they regard as an incipient erosion of scientific prowess in this country, pointing to the lagging math and science proficiency of American high school students and the reluctance of some college graduates to pursue careers in science and engineering.
Imagine that, EXECUTIVES who are overpaid and underworked are criticizing the scientists who they force to work long hours for pay that while not exactly meager, comes nowhere near theirs. And of course, when things go wrong, it's always the workers' fault, NEVER EVER the saintly executives who were only looking out for our well being, and well, can you blame them if they want a couple of million for leading a company into failure, after all a guy's gotta eat....
Too bad GM didn't take a line from Nissan and sack the top managers and replace them with someone from the outside. Would have taught a lesson to all the other CEOs who think they can just sack a company for all it's worth and jump ship with a golden parachute while pointing their fingers at the drowning workers and saying, "it's your fault!"
Or maybe I'm just cynical:P
own? My guess 0. Apple is making money, and not just off of iPods. Not to mention they have significant cash reserves. So why on earth would they change something that is working for them in a niche market to enter a cut-throat, overcrowded, and very low margin market with a high rate of failure? Apple isn't like Dell, they cannot beat Dell at their own game, so they will stick with playing a different game....
Actually the DS was released in the US a week before it was in Japan(to take advantage of "black Friday"). And the truth of the matter is, in terms of sales the Japanese video game market is in decline, and while the west isn't growing in leaps and bounds, it holds more and more interest to console manufacturers and game publishers.
Obviously this will not be a replacement for pdas for serious mobile internet users, but I wonder just how readable it will be. I have done a bit of web browsing on the psp, and while my eyes aren't perfect, I considered the psp's screen to be the "bare minimum" one really needs to be able to read web pages. The whole 2 screen thing to me would just seem jutting...I love the DS for games, but I don't see it being a great web browser.
Also, will the Opera cartridge contain a firmware update that will finally allow DS units to use WPA instead of the pitiful WEP? Would seem like a minimum for web browsing to me...
Minish Cap, hands down! Seriously it was by far the best 1 player game I have played in the past 10 years. Minimal story but that doesn't matter. There were plenty of extras, and above all the game was simple to master and actually fun!
It could also be that the PC market is saturating. There is no new "killer app" so to speak, on the horizon(with the possible exceptions of Vista and Duke Nukem Forever), so people who buy a new computer today should be able to do everything they want with it(email, web, and word processing) years from now.
Intel was buoyed for a while by laptops that are sanely priced and reasonably powerful, but even they are become saturated too(esp. in the Western world). So how can Intel sell more chips? Open up new markets. It's grow or die in this market...
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly. Even as a mac user I shudder when I hear the phrase, "more secure". How can you quantify security. I would consider it to be a binary measure, either you are secure or you aren't. And the answer is you are not.
Basically it all comes down to being smart when using your computer. First and foremost is never run anything in any sort of admin mode unless absolutely necessary. Most mac users create an admin account and use it for everything they do(and I hate to admit I am one of those), that is just asking to be attacked. Don't open random email attachments. Don't go to web sites that could be of questionable character. And, of course, always stay educated.
As an aside, I would also recommend using two different browsers. If you find out there is a security threat to Safari, switch to Firefox till the patch at least. And of course visa-versa. It also never hurts to have those different browsers on your system in case a web page you need to access isn't compatable with one but is with the other. I even had to use IE to access a site on my mac(yeah, I know I shouldn't have as a geek, but they had cheap health insurance and I was hard up for cash at the time)
but throw in a Korean woman and I will change my music player in a heartbeat!
"We have this great new device that will kill the iPod! Just take our word for it! iPod=dead, yeah, our device is awesome!"
They haven't shown that they can do anything the iPod can't do, so why would consumers switch?
I think a more interesting question is "why aren't more games being released?" Are the publishers worried that the 360 supply shortage has created a market that just isn't worth taking risks on? Are game creators having a difficult time creating bug free 360 games? Or is this launch just like the PS2 and DS etc. in that it wasn't until 6 months so till good games actually start coming out....
the only reason to keep that cash is to help you grow your business(not buy an aging and struggling Disney IMO), but Apple seems to keep an insane amount on hand. If you aren't going to do anything with it why not return it to the shareholders via dividends? Apple doesn't even pay dividends, and it's not like paying dividends is totally unknown in this business. Microsoft was dragged into doing it recently, and hell, even Nintendo does it(not a whole lot, but it's something!)
The 2d final fantasy games were great(some may argue greater than the 3d ones, but thats another topic) so why don't they create a NEW 2d final fantasy game? Instead, we get either a)a billion and one ports of the older 2d titles or b)some "Jetsons meet the Flintstones" type game(such as the one in question).
Come on Square-Enix, give the fans what they have been slobbering for, some new games in the old-school style!
I say "bring on the confusion"
Seriously, this is not good for Sony. They obviously cannot control the rumor mill and there are multiple sources each with their own "inside contacts" who are making predictions that are all over the map. This can only cause confusion with potential buyers who may well just spend their money on something else rather than even consider saving up for a playstation....
Or maybe it's the ear we live in.
Oh man, your's is filled with technology? All I have to work with is wax, and a giant Q-Tip that keeps poking me while I sleep....
World of Warcraft(and by extension ALL MMORPGs). He compares them to games such as chess and street fighter(because we all know that Chun Li is a modern day Confucius, only hotter!) and saying that in those games you don't have any material advantages over your opponent so they make better games. What he neglects to take into consideration is that chess and Street Fighter have very clearly defined goals: checkmate in the former, and beating the crap out of your opponent in the latter. However, a lot of games such as MMORPGs don't have such clearly defined goals. Yeah, you can build your character up to level 60 and be the mightiest warrior of all time if you want, but you don't have to do that in order to enjoy the game. There are many other goals you can take on which don't require that you "beat" your nemesi so to speak.
Me thinks this guy doth protest too much...
if the studios promise me a Korean woman in return.
Seriously, while I will eventually buy Twilight Princess, I really pine for a new Zelda game on the DS. Minish Cap was the best single player experience I have had in a long, long time!
That is some interesting research(only 5% of spam is porn?!), but where is spam headed long term? They have that little graph were you can see trends for 30 days, 100 days, or 12 months(though the 30 days and 12 months didn't work for me in Safari), but does anyone have reliable statistics that go back farther?
Is spam burning out, finding new markets, or are people just continuing to send spam even if they don't make a profit on it?
It could also be called, "10 reasons for buying Mac OS X Tiger"....
EXACTLY! Mod this man up as much as you can. :P), saving you tons of money you can put to use in investments etc.
Younger Americans are really caught between a rock and a hard place now. Renting is one of the worst financial moves you can make(the others being credit cards and interest only adjustable rate mortgages). Even if your home doesn't increase in value you are still better off owning than renting, because every month instead of paying a landlord, you are paying a bit to a bank and the rest to yourself. And by the time you totally pay off your home, you don't have to pay a monthly fee to anyone(well, perhaps the government
The problem for people who got to the game too late to get a house cheap is that it's almost impossible for us to own homes. First and foremost you have the cost: Home prices AND rents have been spiraling ever higher, but wages have not. So while we are making money, what little we can save after paying outrageous rents hardly makes a dent in the downpayment we would have to pony up just to get a mortgage at a reasonable rate.
The second of course is job security. Owning a house doesn't make any sense if you aren't going to be in the area more than 5 years, but how many of us here can say they have a job secured in their area for that long? If you sell it before is up, all the interest and fees would have made it hardly worthwhile....
I see the US becoming more and more like places such as Italy and Japan where kids live with their parents till they are married, and maybe even a bit after that. When I was working in Japan, my co-worker was a 30-something graduate of the University of Tokyo making good money, but he still lived with his parents? Why? Because he could actually afford a decent lifestyle that way(such as owning a car!) As much as people like to make fun of nerds living in their parent's basement, if I wasn't in Germany right now and could find a job close to my mom's house, I would live in her basement for a while. It's getting harder and harder not to....
I especially liked the quote: :P
The American executives who are planning to send work abroad express concern about what they regard as an incipient erosion of scientific prowess in this country, pointing to the lagging math and science proficiency of American high school students and the reluctance of some college graduates to pursue careers in science and engineering.
Imagine that, EXECUTIVES who are overpaid and underworked are criticizing the scientists who they force to work long hours for pay that while not exactly meager, comes nowhere near theirs. And of course, when things go wrong, it's always the workers' fault, NEVER EVER the saintly executives who were only looking out for our well being, and well, can you blame them if they want a couple of million for leading a company into failure, after all a guy's gotta eat....
Too bad GM didn't take a line from Nissan and sack the top managers and replace them with someone from the outside. Would have taught a lesson to all the other CEOs who think they can just sack a company for all it's worth and jump ship with a golden parachute while pointing their fingers at the drowning workers and saying, "it's your fault!"
Or maybe I'm just cynical
Obviously you have never put vodka in your Cheerios.
own? My guess 0. Apple is making money, and not just off of iPods. Not to mention they have significant cash reserves. So why on earth would they change something that is working for them in a niche market to enter a cut-throat, overcrowded, and very low margin market with a high rate of failure? Apple isn't like Dell, they cannot beat Dell at their own game, so they will stick with playing a different game....
Actually the DS was released in the US a week before it was in Japan(to take advantage of "black Friday"). And the truth of the matter is, in terms of sales the Japanese video game market is in decline, and while the west isn't growing in leaps and bounds, it holds more and more interest to console manufacturers and game publishers.
Obviously this will not be a replacement for pdas for serious mobile internet users, but I wonder just how readable it will be. I have done a bit of web browsing on the psp, and while my eyes aren't perfect, I considered the psp's screen to be the "bare minimum" one really needs to be able to read web pages. The whole 2 screen thing to me would just seem jutting...I love the DS for games, but I don't see it being a great web browser.
Also, will the Opera cartridge contain a firmware update that will finally allow DS units to use WPA instead of the pitiful WEP? Would seem like a minimum for web browsing to me...
Korean women?
Do I win a prize?
I love eating them like cake!
Minish Cap, hands down! Seriously it was by far the best 1 player game I have played in the past 10 years. Minimal story but that doesn't matter. There were plenty of extras, and above all the game was simple to master and actually fun!
I do! I do!
Do I get a prize?
Could be worse, could have wrote a paper entitled: "Using clipping planes to increase the graphical performance of showing 3d goatse men in real time"
It could also be that the PC market is saturating. There is no new "killer app" so to speak, on the horizon(with the possible exceptions of Vista and Duke Nukem Forever), so people who buy a new computer today should be able to do everything they want with it(email, web, and word processing) years from now.
Intel was buoyed for a while by laptops that are sanely priced and reasonably powerful, but even they are become saturated too(esp. in the Western world). So how can Intel sell more chips? Open up new markets. It's grow or die in this market...