Fast food is going to be the first (or one of the first) to be hit by a new robotics/automation revolution.
Note that a robot prepared burger or sandwich or pizza or whatever can be low quality or can be high quality. There's no reason why robot prepared food can't be fresh / low-preservative / decent tasting food based on decent ingredients.
It is a bad time in the world now to be uneducated and/or low-skilled. (If you took some garbage major in college, you can be educated, but you have no usable skills. So this is an and/or.)
OK, read that wrong at first. But yes, distribution from the content producers will stick with satellite for now.
End users (Dish/DirectTV, plus cable from Comcast/etc.)? Those methods are facing eventual future extinction. Might take longer than 10 years. Might be 20. But they're going away in the end.
Germany, France, Britain (and California) have all made lofty environmentalist targets/goals in the past. And if the majority of these cases, the goals failed. Badly. They're politically posturing free from economic or scientific reality. And even if new vehicle sales are mandated to be electrics, people will keep and maintain their existing gas/diesel vehicles. Because most can't afford a new vehicle overnight, even with tax subsidies.
OK, Germany dumped all of it's nuclear power plants in the wake of Fukushima. And today, they probably would never do that again. The price of electricity rose tremendously, and they had to also go back to rely on dirty coal plants. It was a horrible deal, and actually much worse for the environment.
California would have electric cars everywhere. OK, we have a bunch here in the Bay Area. But we also are have LOTS of money. Not many electrics in the Central Valley, or the Sierras, or other places outside the wealthy areas. And electrics and even hybrids are still only a small minority of vehicles.
I'll believe in the death of the gas/diesel car when it actually happens.
Note that Volvo is a niche car maker for the highly affluent. At least these days. (And my family owned a 1968, 1972, and 1983 Volvo. I have a soft spot for them.) They're separating themselves from others by only making electric or hybrid cars. Outside Scandinavia, they're a tiny portion of the industry.
Fast food chain burger flipper -- replaced by a robot. There still will be employees at the stores, just a bunch less. Minimum wage laws have made their work too expensive.
More and more agricultural crop picking work will be automated. Especially if Trump continues to clamp down on illegal immigration. Growers either won't be able to find workers, or the workers that remain will want too much money.
And this will apply in a lot of other places as well. More and more low-end jobs across all sectors will be replaced by robotics and/or AI. (Except government. That will continue to be bloated, corrupt, and inefficient as ever.)
If wireless internet access becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous, at some point that becomes the end of AM/FM and satellite radio. (I love Sirius/XM, but if they survive, it will be through relatively cheap Internet streaming, not their expensive satellite systems.) Some content remains, but it's now all streamed/podcasted.
As both wireless and wired Internet access become cheaper and more ubiquitous, at some point that becomes the end of satellite/cable TV distribution. TV becomes distributed via the Internet instead (as already is the case several services).
Wired phone lines (POTS) become more or less dead as well. And the phone companies largely are happy about that. They don't want to have to maintain that infrastructure, and rather make money in wireless and Internet offerings.
Newspapers continue their demise. They aren't dead yet, but most (with a few exceptions) are doing terribly. Same with most magazines. 10 years from now, things will be even more bleak.
Bookstores, except for used ones, die out. Used ones remain as a niche, as their product is cheap, and include collectors items. And they can be largely a warehouse for their online operations as well, selling books via Amazon and eBay.
Despite environmentalist daydreams, gas and diesel engines will still be around and still be way most new vehicles are powered. But coal power plants will be dwindling, probably not all gone. Cheap natural gas and better solar will make dirty coal more and more unattractive. Cheap natural gas is already doing this right now.
The country of Venezuela will be gone, at least as we know it. But it's probably going to be gone in the next year or two, and maybe less, crashing from its own failures.
The other good comparison on healthcare is veterinary care. Prices there aren't regulated. There is (generally) healthy competition between providers. If a provider is too expensive, people switch. This keeps prices lower and customer service higher.
And treatments for your dog or cat can often be more or less identical to those used on humans.
In Canada, you might have to wait 3-6 months for a specialized treatment for yourself thanks to socialized medicine. For your dog or cat, that identical procedure can be arranged within a few days. The service on the human side might be "free", but the service can be terrible.
(Of course, it's not really free. It's paid for by higher taxes. And then rationed, leading often to poor service and outcomes.)
Wuala is owned by Lacie. Lacie was purchase by Seagate in 2014. Seagate has it's own online backup products. Maybe Seagate wants to eliminate a redudant or money-losing service? It happens...
Yes, the NSA is the bogeyman, and is a threat to secure encryption everywhere. But the invisible hand of capitalism can slap someone as well.
Microsoft Security Essentials / Windows Defender has been falling behind for years now. It used to be pretty good. But now, it unfortunately doesn't catch a lot newer malware. Microsoft dropped the ball and stopped putting the proper R&D into their product.
Fast, effective, and low impact. Bitdefender Free is not free for commercial use, however. And they don't have a free version that support Windows 10 yet. Bitdefender scores at or near the top in most AV comparison tests for malware detection.
Not quite as low-impact as Bitdefender, and not quite as effective, but it's OK. I've used Avast for years as well. (It used to be my standard free AV, and I still use it on some systems.) Their free business AV is basically their paid AV business product stripped down to just AV, not firewalls, and anti-spam, and other cruft. The Windows firewall is just fine these days, and is you have a decent mail server spam isn't a problem. (And there are other decent free anti-spam products, like Cloudmark Desktop One.) So a plain-old just-AV product is fine with me. Includes a cloud-based console system as well, so you can centrally keep track of your AV clients -- which is GREAT for a free product.
New Google Maps doesn't print well, making it undesirable for it's most important use -- taking a map with you.
Of all things, Bing Maps is looking good. I've been using it some already, and will probably fully switch unless Google makes its product properly usable again. Yes, Google is driving me to a Microsoft product. Pigs have grown wings and Hell is looking a bit frosty right now.
I think this is a case of the ignorant editors at IBT slapping a title on this. The text of the article doesn't claim the Roman *EMPIRE* fell because of concrete, it claims that the fall of the *REPUBLIC* was hastened by concrete.
Actually, the "right-wing fascists" on the court are often more interested in preserving the 4th Amendment. The left-wing pro-state, pro-government, anti-freedom justices are often less interested in the preserving the 4th Amendment.
(Also remember that although the recent expansion of the NSA started under Bush, the explosion of its use was under Obama.)
The issues here can create very strange politics and what you think might be left or right on the Supreme Court might not actually be the case.
No.... I like Ann Coulter, but she loves hyperbole. I'm going to apply Occam's razor here and go with the much more likely explanation: utter incompetence and managerial indifference. Yes, Obama and friends want to control a large swath of the US economy, but couldn't rip themselves out of a wet paper bag. (Although they're really, really good at running a campaign. Especially if the IRS can slap down opposing groups and prevent them from raising money...) Obama's utter lack of any management experience prior to the Presidency is completely telling.
Thank you, America for your well though out electoral choices!
The Obama administration hasn't cornered the market on arrogance and self-righteousness -- the Republicans have their fair share as well.
But the Obama his cronies can clam more here than any Presidency since...FDR? Nixon? And has almost nothing to show for it other than the ACA -- which appears to be collapsing from a combination of logistical impossibility and breathtaking incompetence.
There was ***NOTHING*** bipartisan about the Affordable Care Act. It was passed without a single Republican vote and lots of dirty parliamentary tricks.
The Democrats and the Obama administration own this.
It would take a miracle of computing programming and program management that no governmental program has ever accomplished to get this epic cluster f*ck fixed in 2-3 months.
If they actually want it to work, it should be taken out behind the shed, shot in the head, hung, drawn, quartered, burned, and the ashes scattered to the four winds. And then everyone starts over. And then take 2 years (minimum) to recode it again with an almost entirely new team. But that's not going to happen. They're going to try and band-aid it, and it won't work.
So things are going to get interesting. It's unfixable in a politically acceptable way for the Democrats and the Obama administration.
Sorry, was looking at residential power prices. On commercial power prices, Washington falls to...3rd lowest behind #1 Idaho (more cheap hydro power), and #2 Oklahoma. Still not a bad place to be at all.
Also throw in all the other advantages versus hosting in California, New York, or even Washington State: Lower taxes with or without the tax incentives
How about government stop f*cking around with timezones? Studies have now shown that the energy savings from Daylight Savings was illusory. Any benefits of doing plus or minus an hour here and there seem to forget the support costs. And Java's problems here are a great example.
I was managing my company's Outlook/Exchange environment when the US govt last expanded Daylight Savings. What an incredible, and entirely unnecessary, pain in the ass. (Especially as way too many patches/routines were issued only just before the changeover, and were generally poorly documented.)
The world needs 24 timezones, and that's it. (Yes, Newfoundland -- quit trying to be stupid different with your 30 minute time differences.)
If governments want something to show and drum up support/campaign money, just keep passing your local equivalents of Elvis Day. Something harmless.
Well, you're not going to put datacenters in run-down sections of Detroit, or any other crime-ridden city. But how about all those semi-rural communities scattered across America with defunct (or underperforming) K-Mart stores? Especially if they're in regions with cheaper electrical power...
"The republicans are in a pickle. If they support 3D gun printing, they hurt gun manufacturers, which is what they really are supporting ($$$$)."
Not really. 3d guns (at least fully printed guns) aren't (at least for the near future, and probably longer) going to be nearly as reliable as commercially manufactured guns.
And you need a $1000-$5000 3d printer. And the knowledge of how to use it. And obtain the gun schematic files.
That restricts 3d printed guns to a bunch of libertarian or anarchist geeks who like firearms and who could almost certainly afford to buy the real things.
3d printing will make gun parts (and car parts and electronics parts, etc.) easily. And help drive prices down. Which is good for everyone.
(OK, the printers are also good for making 30-round magazines and getting around stupid and at least semi-unconstitutional laws restricting magazine sizes.)
But there won't be mass arsenals of 3d printed guns anytime soon. They're still at the expensive toy / proof of concept stage.
OK, you're stuck with XP after April 2014 because your specialized software only supports XP. And upgrades/replacements are unavailable or cost-prohibitive. What do you do?
* Make sure the system is patched completely. * Have an up-to-date and working anti-virus on the system. * Remove any and all extraneous software. Run only the software you absolutely need to run. Don't run other software, especially web browsers or mail clients on the system. Consider the computer now an appliance only for your specialized software. Remove Java, Flash, Acrobat, Air, Office, Shockwave, Silverlight, and any other likely attack vectors. * Remove any unneeded Windows components (games, Messenger, etc.) * Disable Internet Explorer (http://pcsupport.about.com/od/browsers/ht/disableiedef.htm) * It's not always an option, but see if you can run the the software in a non-administrator account. If needed, change the properties on the shortcut to the software so just it, and only it, run in admin mode. * Have an image backup of the system -- it's likely to break at some point. And since the software involved may not be supported anymore, getting it reinstalled may be difficult. (Even better, install an external hard drive and a copy of Acronis TrueImage or Macrium Reflect and schedule image backups once a week or so.) * Consider moving the XP system to a virtualized system. That way the system will likely be faster (newer hardware) and can still be used for both general computing (web browsing, emails, Word, etc.) in Windows 7 or 8, and then XP for only your specialized software. And if the XP system is virtualized, backing it up is dirt simple -- just make a copy of the virtual machine files. Windows 7 Pro/Enterprise/Ultimate's XP Mode is good, but note that VMWare Player and Virtual Box have better performance, are easier to administer, and have better access to external hardware. You'll probably be better off using Player or Virtualbox if you can. If the system is virtualized, it's also extremely simple to clone it and roll it out to multiple systems. (Caveat: virtualization generally won't work if your specialized software needs access to serial, parallel, or usb to reach an external device, copy protection dongle, etc.) * Firewall the system so only the the necessities can pass through. Probably file transfers out, but not in. Or only in from specific IPs (your servers). Lock out common ports (22, 23, 80, 443, etc.) -- you don't need them anymore. If needed, only allow the ports to connect to specific destinations, and not everywhere. * Allow the antivirus to update, but turn off Windows Update -- it's not going to get anything new anyway. * Disable any other unnecessary services. * Look towards any other ways to lock the system down.
So it's all doable. And you can make the system (mostly) secure. But plan on it failing anyway. It's going to be fragile and vulnerable. Reduce your vulnerabilities as much as possible. And don't plan on using the XP system for anything but what is absolutely necessary.
Brother, Samsung, Canon, Epson, etc. drivers usually install in a quarter (sometimes a tenth!) of the time. And usually take up a quarter to a tenth of the drive space.
Especially on the all-in-one models.
And functionality just isn't that different or better with the HP models. Just immensely more annoying to install.
Slashdot Mirror
Fast food is going to be the first (or one of the first) to be hit by a new robotics/automation revolution.
Note that a robot prepared burger or sandwich or pizza or whatever can be low quality or can be high quality. There's no reason why robot prepared food can't be fresh / low-preservative / decent tasting food based on decent ingredients.
It is a bad time in the world now to be uneducated and/or low-skilled. (If you took some garbage major in college, you can be educated, but you have no usable skills. So this is an and/or.)
OK, read that wrong at first. But yes, distribution from the content producers will stick with satellite for now.
End users (Dish/DirectTV, plus cable from Comcast/etc.)? Those methods are facing eventual future extinction. Might take longer than 10 years. Might be 20. But they're going away in the end.
Germany, France, Britain (and California) have all made lofty environmentalist targets/goals in the past. And if the majority of these cases, the goals failed. Badly. They're politically posturing free from economic or scientific reality. And even if new vehicle sales are mandated to be electrics, people will keep and maintain their existing gas/diesel vehicles. Because most can't afford a new vehicle overnight, even with tax subsidies.
OK, Germany dumped all of it's nuclear power plants in the wake of Fukushima. And today, they probably would never do that again. The price of electricity rose tremendously, and they had to also go back to rely on dirty coal plants. It was a horrible deal, and actually much worse for the environment.
California would have electric cars everywhere. OK, we have a bunch here in the Bay Area. But we also are have LOTS of money. Not many electrics in the Central Valley, or the Sierras, or other places outside the wealthy areas. And electrics and even hybrids are still only a small minority of vehicles.
I'll believe in the death of the gas/diesel car when it actually happens.
Note that Volvo is a niche car maker for the highly affluent. At least these days. (And my family owned a 1968, 1972, and 1983 Volvo. I have a soft spot for them.) They're separating themselves from others by only making electric or hybrid cars. Outside Scandinavia, they're a tiny portion of the industry.
Comments here are for the US (mostly...)
Fast food chain burger flipper -- replaced by a robot. There still will be employees at the stores, just a bunch less. Minimum wage laws have made their work too expensive.
More and more agricultural crop picking work will be automated. Especially if Trump continues to clamp down on illegal immigration. Growers either won't be able to find workers, or the workers that remain will want too much money.
And this will apply in a lot of other places as well. More and more low-end jobs across all sectors will be replaced by robotics and/or AI. (Except government. That will continue to be bloated, corrupt, and inefficient as ever.)
If wireless internet access becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous, at some point that becomes the end of AM/FM and satellite radio. (I love Sirius/XM, but if they survive, it will be through relatively cheap Internet streaming, not their expensive satellite systems.) Some content remains, but it's now all streamed/podcasted.
As both wireless and wired Internet access become cheaper and more ubiquitous, at some point that becomes the end of satellite/cable TV distribution. TV becomes distributed via the Internet instead (as already is the case several services).
Wired phone lines (POTS) become more or less dead as well. And the phone companies largely are happy about that. They don't want to have to maintain that infrastructure, and rather make money in wireless and Internet offerings.
Newspapers continue their demise. They aren't dead yet, but most (with a few exceptions) are doing terribly. Same with most magazines. 10 years from now, things will be even more bleak.
Bookstores, except for used ones, die out. Used ones remain as a niche, as their product is cheap, and include collectors items. And they can be largely a warehouse for their online operations as well, selling books via Amazon and eBay.
Despite environmentalist daydreams, gas and diesel engines will still be around and still be way most new vehicles are powered. But coal power plants will be dwindling, probably not all gone. Cheap natural gas and better solar will make dirty coal more and more unattractive. Cheap natural gas is already doing this right now.
The country of Venezuela will be gone, at least as we know it. But it's probably going to be gone in the next year or two, and maybe less, crashing from its own failures.
The other good comparison on healthcare is veterinary care. Prices there aren't regulated. There is (generally) healthy competition between providers. If a provider is too expensive, people switch. This keeps prices lower and customer service higher.
And treatments for your dog or cat can often be more or less identical to those used on humans.
In Canada, you might have to wait 3-6 months for a specialized treatment for yourself thanks to socialized medicine. For your dog or cat, that identical procedure can be arranged within a few days. The service on the human side might be "free", but the service can be terrible.
(Of course, it's not really free. It's paid for by higher taxes. And then rationed, leading often to poor service and outcomes.)
Wuala is owned by Lacie. Lacie was purchase by Seagate in 2014. Seagate has it's own online backup products. Maybe Seagate wants to eliminate a redudant or money-losing service? It happens...
Yes, the NSA is the bogeyman, and is a threat to secure encryption everywhere. But the invisible hand of capitalism can slap someone as well.
Microsoft Security Essentials / Windows Defender has been falling behind for years now. It used to be pretty good. But now, it unfortunately doesn't catch a lot newer malware. Microsoft dropped the ball and stopped putting the proper R&D into their product.
Bitdefender Free is my new favorite these days:
http://www.bitdefender.com/sol...
Fast, effective, and low impact. Bitdefender Free is not free for commercial use, however. And they don't have a free version that support Windows 10 yet. Bitdefender scores at or near the top in most AV comparison tests for malware detection.
Best free commercial AV is Avast for Business:
https://www.avast.com/avast-fo...
Not quite as low-impact as Bitdefender, and not quite as effective, but it's OK. I've used Avast for years as well. (It used to be my standard free AV, and I still use it on some systems.) Their free business AV is basically their paid AV business product stripped down to just AV, not firewalls, and anti-spam, and other cruft. The Windows firewall is just fine these days, and is you have a decent mail server spam isn't a problem. (And there are other decent free anti-spam products, like Cloudmark Desktop One.) So a plain-old just-AV product is fine with me. Includes a cloud-based console system as well, so you can centrally keep track of your AV clients -- which is GREAT for a free product.
Good luck!
New Google Maps doesn't print well, making it undesirable for it's most important use -- taking a map with you.
Of all things, Bing Maps is looking good. I've been using it some already, and will probably fully switch unless Google makes its product properly usable again. Yes, Google is driving me to a Microsoft product. Pigs have grown wings and Hell is looking a bit frosty right now.
I think this is a case of the ignorant editors at IBT slapping a title on this. The text of the article doesn't claim the Roman *EMPIRE* fell because of concrete, it claims that the fall of the *REPUBLIC* was hastened by concrete.
BIG difference.
Actually, the "right-wing fascists" on the court are often more interested in preserving the 4th Amendment. The left-wing pro-state, pro-government, anti-freedom justices are often less interested in the preserving the 4th Amendment.
(Also remember that although the recent expansion of the NSA started under Bush, the explosion of its use was under Obama.)
The issues here can create very strange politics and what you think might be left or right on the Supreme Court might not actually be the case.
No.... I like Ann Coulter, but she loves hyperbole. I'm going to apply Occam's razor here and go with the much more likely explanation: utter incompetence and managerial indifference. Yes, Obama and friends want to control a large swath of the US economy, but couldn't rip themselves out of a wet paper bag. (Although they're really, really good at running a campaign. Especially if the IRS can slap down opposing groups and prevent them from raising money...) Obama's utter lack of any management experience prior to the Presidency is completely telling.
Thank you, America for your well though out electoral choices!
The Obama administration hasn't cornered the market on arrogance and self-righteousness -- the Republicans have their fair share as well.
But the Obama his cronies can clam more here than any Presidency since...FDR? Nixon? And has almost nothing to show for it other than the ACA -- which appears to be collapsing from a combination of logistical impossibility and breathtaking incompetence.
There was ***NOTHING*** bipartisan about the Affordable Care Act. It was passed without a single Republican vote and lots of dirty parliamentary tricks.
The Democrats and the Obama administration own this.
There are more lines of code in Healthcare.gov (500m!) than Google Chrome, the Linux kernel, XP, Facebook, Mac OS, and the Debian 5 packages combined:
http://www.alexmarchant.com/blog/2013/10/22/healthcare-dot-gov-lines-of-code-comparison.html
Windows 8 supposed has 80m lines of code:
http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/23/technology/obamacare-website-fix/
It would take a miracle of computing programming and program management that no governmental program has ever accomplished to get this epic cluster f*ck fixed in 2-3 months.
If they actually want it to work, it should be taken out behind the shed, shot in the head, hung, drawn, quartered, burned, and the ashes scattered to the four winds. And then everyone starts over. And then take 2 years (minimum) to recode it again with an almost entirely new team. But that's not going to happen. They're going to try and band-aid it, and it won't work.
So things are going to get interesting. It's unfixable in a politically acceptable way for the Democrats and the Obama administration.
Sorry, was looking at residential power prices.
On commercial power prices, Washington falls to...3rd lowest behind #1 Idaho (more cheap hydro power), and #2 Oklahoma.
Still not a bad place to be at all.
Don't try running a datacenter in Hawaii. OUCH!
Also throw in all the other advantages versus hosting in California, New York, or even Washington State:
Lower taxes with or without the tax incentives
More relaxed regulatory markets (this is HUGE)
Relatively cheap electrical power (although abundant hydro power makes Washington State cheapest in the nation: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_5_6_a -- all that rain is definitely good for something)
Relatively cheap local labor
How about government stop f*cking around with timezones? Studies have now shown that the energy savings from Daylight Savings was illusory. Any benefits of doing plus or minus an hour here and there seem to forget the support costs. And Java's problems here are a great example.
I was managing my company's Outlook/Exchange environment when the US govt last expanded Daylight Savings. What an incredible, and entirely unnecessary, pain in the ass. (Especially as way too many patches/routines were issued only just before the changeover, and were generally poorly documented.)
The world needs 24 timezones, and that's it. (Yes, Newfoundland -- quit trying to be stupid different with your 30 minute time differences.)
If governments want something to show and drum up support/campaign money, just keep passing your local equivalents of Elvis Day. Something harmless.
Best episode of the entire series!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ijLulwUTY
PETA basically comes off as a semi-terrorist organization. Which it is...
Well, you're not going to put datacenters in run-down sections of Detroit, or any other crime-ridden city. But how about all those semi-rural communities scattered across America with defunct (or underperforming) K-Mart stores? Especially if they're in regions with cheaper electrical power...
Sounds rational to me.
Nah... but Hot Dog on a Stick can!
"The republicans are in a pickle. If they support 3D gun printing, they hurt gun manufacturers, which is what they really are supporting ($$$$)."
Not really. 3d guns (at least fully printed guns) aren't (at least for the near future, and probably longer) going to be nearly as reliable as commercially manufactured guns.
And you need a $1000-$5000 3d printer. And the knowledge of how to use it. And obtain the gun schematic files.
That restricts 3d printed guns to a bunch of libertarian or anarchist geeks who like firearms and who could almost certainly afford to buy the real things.
3d printing will make gun parts (and car parts and electronics parts, etc.) easily. And help drive prices down. Which is good for everyone.
(OK, the printers are also good for making 30-round magazines and getting around stupid and at least semi-unconstitutional laws restricting magazine sizes.)
But there won't be mass arsenals of 3d printed guns anytime soon. They're still at the expensive toy / proof of concept stage.
OK, you're stuck with XP after April 2014 because your specialized software only supports XP. And upgrades/replacements are unavailable or cost-prohibitive. What do you do?
* Make sure the system is patched completely.
* Have an up-to-date and working anti-virus on the system.
* Remove any and all extraneous software. Run only the software you absolutely need to run. Don't run other software, especially web browsers or mail clients on the system. Consider the computer now an appliance only for your specialized software. Remove Java, Flash, Acrobat, Air, Office, Shockwave, Silverlight, and any other likely attack vectors.
* Remove any unneeded Windows components (games, Messenger, etc.)
* Disable Internet Explorer (http://pcsupport.about.com/od/browsers/ht/disableiedef.htm)
* It's not always an option, but see if you can run the the software in a non-administrator account. If needed, change the properties on the shortcut to the software so just it, and only it, run in admin mode.
* Have an image backup of the system -- it's likely to break at some point. And since the software involved may not be supported anymore, getting it reinstalled may be difficult. (Even better, install an external hard drive and a copy of Acronis TrueImage or Macrium Reflect and schedule image backups once a week or so.)
* Consider moving the XP system to a virtualized system. That way the system will likely be faster (newer hardware) and can still be used for both general computing (web browsing, emails, Word, etc.) in Windows 7 or 8, and then XP for only your specialized software. And if the XP system is virtualized, backing it up is dirt simple -- just make a copy of the virtual machine files. Windows 7 Pro/Enterprise/Ultimate's XP Mode is good, but note that VMWare Player and Virtual Box have better performance, are easier to administer, and have better access to external hardware. You'll probably be better off using Player or Virtualbox if you can. If the system is virtualized, it's also extremely simple to clone it and roll it out to multiple systems. (Caveat: virtualization generally won't work if your specialized software needs access to serial, parallel, or usb to reach an external device, copy protection dongle, etc.)
* Firewall the system so only the the necessities can pass through. Probably file transfers out, but not in. Or only in from specific IPs (your servers). Lock out common ports (22, 23, 80, 443, etc.) -- you don't need them anymore. If needed, only allow the ports to connect to specific destinations, and not everywhere.
* Allow the antivirus to update, but turn off Windows Update -- it's not going to get anything new anyway.
* Disable any other unnecessary services.
* Look towards any other ways to lock the system down.
So it's all doable. And you can make the system (mostly) secure. But plan on it failing anyway. It's going to be fragile and vulnerable. Reduce your vulnerabilities as much as possible. And don't plan on using the XP system for anything but what is absolutely necessary.
Good luck...
Amen!!!
Brother, Samsung, Canon, Epson, etc. drivers usually install in a quarter (sometimes a tenth!) of the time. And usually take up a quarter to a tenth of the drive space.
Especially on the all-in-one models.
And functionality just isn't that different or better with the HP models. Just immensely more annoying to install.
HP's printer software is a disaster.
This isn't exactly new. Theft of waste oil has been happening for years...
My thought, too...
Hey, might as well let the system do something else during off hours.
Mining Bitcoins would help pay for (at least part of) the whole setup.