As somebody else already pointed out, some GPS units could do this years ago. The only thing AJAX adds in this situation is making the embedded 486 in a decade old GPS unit look blazing fast. Hurray for webapps! Dumbass.
I would agree with you if it was the bank's security that was failing.
But 99.9999% of the time, the bad guys get the info they need from the end users. They don't DOS the bank, they don't break the website encryption, and they don't hack the bank's servers/website/whatever. They install malware on the bank customer's Windows box or send a phishing email to the bank customer. And after the bank customer blissfully installs the newest key logger and sends out their banking info, the bank ends up having to bail them out.
I don't like the approach the banks are taking, but I agree with them that it's not their fault and they shouldn't be held liable.
Fines based on income are silly, as most rich folks don't ``make'' much money. Their taxable income is surprisingly low---in fact, I'd imagine many billionare CEOs would qualify for welfare.
Stock dividends, capital gains and interest count as income.
Piped through a concert hall system, the difference between MP3 and CD audio is fairly obvious.
Yeah, I bet. And the day I have a concert hall sound system in my fucking house, I'll be sure to give a shit. But until then, I just can't tell the difference on any of the equipment in my price range.
Don't get me wrong, I'd never pay to download music, but it's because of the sleazy sales tactics and asinine licensing agreements. All my music these days comes from legally purchased used CDs, and gets ripped to OGG.
I agree that forced implantation of RFID chips should be illegal, but you're a little confused.
. There are other dangers involved. Suppose you're being stalked by someone at work who does not yet know where you live. He acquires the RFID info and a scanner capable of working at a distance, then just drives around the city until he gets a match. Your life is endangered by RFID in this instance. Is your employment contract going to state "I acknowledge that by accepting this RFID I am increasing my risk of bodily harm at the hand of third parties."? I doubt it.
That's not technically possible. These implanted chips would almost certainly use low power transmitters, so they could only be read from a few inches away. Even if it were possible, it's not relevant. Many employers already require some kind of RFID badge to get into the building. The stalker could just as easily drive around the city looking for the badge's signal.
. From a political standpoint, RFID's taking of anonymity can lead to an undisclosed, and therefore involuntary, risk of bodily harm. The example above is a weak argument, but some time spent considering other possible abuses will surely find many. Just because it's a company's RFID does not mean that it can't be accessed by the government or criminals. The only certain way to prevent this abuse is to prohibit its use on any person who objects for any reason, rational or not.
Again, you're confusing the issue. RFID is a really neat technology. Implanting RFID chips not so much.
I think it's telling that he was originally gunshy about Linux because of his previous exerience with Fedora and Red Hat. The constant problem (as far as mass adoption goes) with Linux is that there are too many versions running around. It's time to thin the herd.
I completely disagree. There are a lot of problems with Linux, but too many "versions" isn't one of them.
Bah, Opera fans are getting almost as bad as Firefox's.
First of all, even if plugins were turned on, taking 5 seconds to switch tabs would still be broken.
Second, until very recently I had been using Opera as my only browser for over 6 years. Going on 6 years of data, I'm pretty comfortable saying the tab switching in the 9.0 release for Linux changed for the worse. Even the opera.com article points out that tab switching on Unix is being fixed for 9.5.
It's wonderful that you haven't experienced the problem, but that doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist.
I know that, but I don't want gestures, I want shortcuts. So when I click a button, Konqueror does something.
For a better explanation, go to "Configure Shortcuts" in the "Settings" menu in Konqueror. I want to use the mouse for those shortcuts. So, for example, button press 7 will go back. I spent a few hours trying to set it up, but in the end couldn't get it working, so I have to use xbindkeys and xvkbd. Like I said, it works well, but seems like a hack.
Newegg says 7 buttons, which is technically true, but it's a little more complicated setting it up in X. The main scroll wheel goes forward, backward, left, right, and can be clicked, so that counts as 5 as far as X is concerned. The wheel on the right thumb goes forward, backward, and can also be clicked, so that's 3. To make it more confusing, the little button on top, behind the scroll wheel gets sent as a key press.
In addition, for whatever reason, there are a few numbers skipped, so xev reports some of the buttons as being 15, 16, 17 and 18.
Other than the price and the weird button numbers, the mouse is awesome.
Looks like they're fixing the tab issue and releasing a 64-bit Linux version. As a bonus, they're releasing a version using Qt4! Maybe I'll get lucky and supporting mouse buttons above Button9 will be one of the UI tweaks they mentioned.
I used Opera exclusively on Windows, Linux, and BSD for several years, but recently switched to Konqueror. I finally got fed up with a few things in Opera.
My first complaint is their lack of 64-bit support. I'm running the AMD64 version of Debian, and Opera is (was) the only 32-bit program I had to run, making it a pain to keep a bunch of 32-bit compatibility libraries around for one program. I think 64-bit is popular enough now that it'd be worth the time to compile for it. Given the large number of platforms Opera runs on, it should be pretty easy to port.
The second big complaint was that it doesn't support more than 9 mouse buttons. I spent $100 on a fancy mouse, hoping I could control most of my GUI programs with only the mouse. Much to my surprise, any shortcuts after Button9 simply don't work. This was quite disappointing, because Konqueror (and KDE in general) doesn't support mouse shortcuts, so I had to go with xbindkeys. It works well, but seems like a hack.
Also, since at least the 9.0 release tabs have been broken. I had to stop using it after 9.0 because switching between tabs was incredibly laggy. With more than a couple tabs open, there would be a very noticeable pause switching between them. I'd say it was up to 5 seconds or more on some occasions.
I really hope Opera can fix those issues, because I was really sad to switch. IMHO, Opera is the only browser to do tabs correctly, with a full MDI. Yeah, yeah, Firefox has a plug-in, I'm sure. But when it works, it works 10x better in Opera, right out of the box.
That's the lamest excuse for incompetence. I'd *almost* buy that if we were talking about some retired grandmother or something.
But saying "the guy's 63", like he's completely incapable of learning is just ridiculous. I've worked with people older than that, and none of them had any problem using email. In this day and age, I think just about anybody with a "white collar" type of job can send and receive email.
"I don't do email" was avoiding the question. He gives orders that affect hundreds of billions of dollars worth of high tech military equipment, and controls hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but he's baffled by email? I just don't buy it.
Which isn't to say I don't think he's incompetent. He's just not incompetent in this particular way;-)
Since Linux can be re-distributed by anybody who wants to, couldn't I grab Debian/Red Hat/SuSe, re-brand it, throw up a website, and write an email to MS claiming they should send me boatloads of cash for a cross licensing agreement?
If I recall correctly, the MS deals are based on userbase, so I wouldn't have to pay MS very much money, but since their userbase is huge, they'd have to pay me quite a bit.
Would this work? I don't think MS has a leg to stand on, but if they want to pay me millions of dollars, I can pretend.
A company is a distinct entity in the US system, and has plenty of the same rights as a person. So why can't it have lobbyists looking out for it's interests? Shut the fuck up and stop bitching until you do something as valuable or more then what Google has done.
Except a company isn't a person. There's a long list of things that individuals can do that companies can't. In my opinion, influencing our elected officials should be one of those things.
In a free market, the government's purpose should be to provide public goods and protect the interests of the people living under it by promoting fair competition and looking out for the public's best interest. I don't see how Google having access to law-makers helps either of those things.
If Google's executives want to talk to senators, great. But they should have to do it as regular citizens, not as paid representatives of Google.
I think the GP *was* complaining about the system "the man" is playing in.
And if he's not, I am.
I understand that Congressmen and Senators are busy people, but if Sergey Brin wants to talk to one of them, he can shut the fuck up and make an appointment like everybody else. The fact that he founded a company and has a lot of money shouldn't be relevant in this situation, and it's disappointing that our representatives think it is.
If you want to promote what you believe to be the one-and-only platform, you better start taking diplomacy lessons... mocking others will only alienate yourself and the platform you think you are "helping".
Eh, it was mostly just a joke/troll. Honestly, I don't care what other people use as long as they don't force it on me.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
As somebody else already pointed out, some GPS units could do this years ago. The only thing AJAX adds in this situation is making the embedded 486 in a decade old GPS unit look blazing fast. Hurray for webapps! Dumbass.
I would agree with you if it was the bank's security that was failing.
But 99.9999% of the time, the bad guys get the info they need from the end users. They don't DOS the bank, they don't break the website encryption, and they don't hack the bank's servers/website/whatever. They install malware on the bank customer's Windows box or send a phishing email to the bank customer. And after the bank customer blissfully installs the newest key logger and sends out their banking info, the bank ends up having to bail them out.
I don't like the approach the banks are taking, but I agree with them that it's not their fault and they shouldn't be held liable.
Stock dividends, capital gains and interest count as income.
Because there's a whole bunch of money to be made selling "good enough" to the average users.
You can get ultra-high quality if you want it. But the average user just wants "good enough", so that's usually a lot more profittable.
Yeah, I bet. And the day I have a concert hall sound system in my fucking house, I'll be sure to give a shit. But until then, I just can't tell the difference on any of the equipment in my price range.
Don't get me wrong, I'd never pay to download music, but it's because of the sleazy sales tactics and asinine licensing agreements. All my music these days comes from legally purchased used CDs, and gets ripped to OGG.
I agree that forced implantation of RFID chips should be illegal, but you're a little confused.
That's not technically possible. These implanted chips would almost certainly use low power transmitters, so they could only be read from a few inches away. Even if it were possible, it's not relevant. Many employers already require some kind of RFID badge to get into the building. The stalker could just as easily drive around the city looking for the badge's signal.
Again, you're confusing the issue. RFID is a really neat technology. Implanting RFID chips not so much.
This?
I only remember the book because of that first review.
I completely disagree. There are a lot of problems with Linux, but too many "versions" isn't one of them.
Did you miss the part where I specifically stated that I'm using Debian? I have no idea if the problem shows up in Windows, and I don't really care.
Awesome.
Bah, Opera fans are getting almost as bad as Firefox's.
First of all, even if plugins were turned on, taking 5 seconds to switch tabs would still be broken.
Second, until very recently I had been using Opera as my only browser for over 6 years. Going on 6 years of data, I'm pretty comfortable saying the tab switching in the 9.0 release for Linux changed for the worse. Even the opera.com article points out that tab switching on Unix is being fixed for 9.5.
It's wonderful that you haven't experienced the problem, but that doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist.
I know that, but I don't want gestures, I want shortcuts. So when I click a button, Konqueror does something.
For a better explanation, go to "Configure Shortcuts" in the "Settings" menu in Konqueror. I want to use the mouse for those shortcuts. So, for example, button press 7 will go back. I spent a few hours trying to set it up, but in the end couldn't get it working, so I have to use xbindkeys and xvkbd. Like I said, it works well, but seems like a hack.
No, not a joke. It's one of these.
Newegg says 7 buttons, which is technically true, but it's a little more complicated setting it up in X. The main scroll wheel goes forward, backward, left, right, and can be clicked, so that counts as 5 as far as X is concerned. The wheel on the right thumb goes forward, backward, and can also be clicked, so that's 3. To make it more confusing, the little button on top, behind the scroll wheel gets sent as a key press.
In addition, for whatever reason, there are a few numbers skipped, so xev reports some of the buttons as being 15, 16, 17 and 18.
Other than the price and the weird button numbers, the mouse is awesome.
Oops, should have RTFA :-)
Looks like they're fixing the tab issue and releasing a 64-bit Linux version. As a bonus, they're releasing a version using Qt4! Maybe I'll get lucky and supporting mouse buttons above Button9 will be one of the UI tweaks they mentioned.
I used Opera exclusively on Windows, Linux, and BSD for several years, but recently switched to Konqueror. I finally got fed up with a few things in Opera.
My first complaint is their lack of 64-bit support. I'm running the AMD64 version of Debian, and Opera is (was) the only 32-bit program I had to run, making it a pain to keep a bunch of 32-bit compatibility libraries around for one program. I think 64-bit is popular enough now that it'd be worth the time to compile for it. Given the large number of platforms Opera runs on, it should be pretty easy to port.
The second big complaint was that it doesn't support more than 9 mouse buttons. I spent $100 on a fancy mouse, hoping I could control most of my GUI programs with only the mouse. Much to my surprise, any shortcuts after Button9 simply don't work. This was quite disappointing, because Konqueror (and KDE in general) doesn't support mouse shortcuts, so I had to go with xbindkeys. It works well, but seems like a hack.
Also, since at least the 9.0 release tabs have been broken. I had to stop using it after 9.0 because switching between tabs was incredibly laggy. With more than a couple tabs open, there would be a very noticeable pause switching between them. I'd say it was up to 5 seconds or more on some occasions.
I really hope Opera can fix those issues, because I was really sad to switch. IMHO, Opera is the only browser to do tabs correctly, with a full MDI. Yeah, yeah, Firefox has a plug-in, I'm sure. But when it works, it works 10x better in Opera, right out of the box.
Um, yeah... maybe you didn't get the memo, but Opera's been free of charge and advertisements for like 2 years now.
That's the lamest excuse for incompetence. I'd *almost* buy that if we were talking about some retired grandmother or something.
But saying "the guy's 63", like he's completely incapable of learning is just ridiculous. I've worked with people older than that, and none of them had any problem using email. In this day and age, I think just about anybody with a "white collar" type of job can send and receive email.
"I don't do email" was avoiding the question. He gives orders that affect hundreds of billions of dollars worth of high tech military equipment, and controls hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but he's baffled by email? I just don't buy it.
Which isn't to say I don't think he's incompetent. He's just not incompetent in this particular way ;-)
Since Linux can be re-distributed by anybody who wants to, couldn't I grab Debian/Red Hat/SuSe, re-brand it, throw up a website, and write an email to MS claiming they should send me boatloads of cash for a cross licensing agreement?
If I recall correctly, the MS deals are based on userbase, so I wouldn't have to pay MS very much money, but since their userbase is huge, they'd have to pay me quite a bit.
Would this work? I don't think MS has a leg to stand on, but if they want to pay me millions of dollars, I can pretend.
Except a company isn't a person. There's a long list of things that individuals can do that companies can't. In my opinion, influencing our elected officials should be one of those things.
In a free market, the government's purpose should be to provide public goods and protect the interests of the people living under it by promoting fair competition and looking out for the public's best interest. I don't see how Google having access to law-makers helps either of those things.
If Google's executives want to talk to senators, great. But they should have to do it as regular citizens, not as paid representatives of Google.
I think the GP *was* complaining about the system "the man" is playing in.
And if he's not, I am.
I understand that Congressmen and Senators are busy people, but if Sergey Brin wants to talk to one of them, he can shut the fuck up and make an appointment like everybody else. The fact that he founded a company and has a lot of money shouldn't be relevant in this situation, and it's disappointing that our representatives think it is.
Slashdot has banner ads?
Or, you could take a somewhat more optimistic view, and say that even though the RIAA are IP trolls, even they don't think Linux infringes anything.
More like 100% of zombie machines run Windows. As far as I can tell, it's a Windows only problem.
Eh, it was mostly just a joke/troll. Honestly, I don't care what other people use as long as they don't force it on me. :-)
You lose. People with "technical insight" don't run Windows. You must be talking about somebody else.