I'm with you on this. Seems to me the PC is on it's way out. For the common consumer, seems like tablets and smartphones are giving the majority of people what they want, without the big bulky PC and all its trimmings. PC's are gunna be a business tool and enthusiast thing again. Fine by me, might get the big corps out of the PC business and let us nerds have our way with them again.
Don't peddle the goal post moving, Linux zealot BS. Windows is as relevant as ever. It's still the #1 PC operating system on the planet, with no signs of changing in our lifetime.
Unfortunately, this simply isn't true. THE PC ITSELF is becoming increasingly irrelevant as tablets and smartphones take over. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people are ditching their PC's for Android tablets and smartphones. They're getting that good folks. And if the PC becomes irrelevant, so does Windows.
I think the DRM industry just has some pretty good sales people who are fleecing the entertainment industry. Fear works wonders for sales! "We can stop people from stealing your stuff, really, it does work this time, promise!" Mmhmm. Sadly, the entertainment industry is still listening to these snakeoil peddlers.
Never underestimate the reaction from an industry who perceives itself as under threat. Producers and publishers definitely DO want this.
Yeah, except, their perception would have to be completely out of touch with reality. It's already shown people will happily pay for content if it's accessible. Proof of this is all over the place. People don't mind paying if there's a reasonably easy way to do so. Frankly in my case, I pay for any content I desire, unless I can't FIND A WAY to pay, then I have to resort to other means if the content I want is inaccessible by legitimate means.
Though I don't think 'out of touch with reality' is impossible, just seems.. improbable. Entertainment industry can't be that ignorant can they?
I'm really really starting to think the DRM industry is the ones pushing this crap forward. It just doesn't even make sense to anyone but the people peddling this junk. Consumers don't want it. Producers want to sell stuff, so they shouldn't want it either, because consumers don't.
The sword of internet censorship cuts both ways. If you don't want to be censored yourself, then you shouldn't be censoring others. Are your ideologies so weak they cannot stand on their own merits? Are you so afraid of opposing views, that governments feel the need to censor terrorist publications on the internet? I'm no fan of terrorism, or ISIS or any extreme views, but personally, I think they have just as much right to spew their hatred of us as we have to spew our hatred of them. Keep the net freely accessible to all, even those you don't like.
Could you imagine if the NSA actually was permitted to do this? The moment something like this came to be true, every tech company cooperating would simply go out of business. Who would buy anything with a backdoor built into it? I wouldn't.
Shut down the NSA, to even suggest this is economic armageddon. I don't even need to go anywhere near the freedom and privacy aspects of this, I can appeal the capitalists, this is just bad for business.
UAE? The United Arab Emirates? What does that have to do with anything?
I have no malware running here, you think just because I have UAC turned off that my machine is full of malware? Sorry bub, I'm not the idiot here. You are if you think a person cannot operate a computer with UAC turned off and avoid malware. I never said anything about it being impossible to happen to me, I just said it hasn't happen to me. Hell, the ONE TIME I got an ACTUAL virus, it was a file a friend sent to me over ICQ years upon years ago. You have to be a moron to get a virus or malware, or click stuff that is obviously stupid to click. Or open obviously viral emails or download something suspect. Or visit questionable websites. Sorry you seem to have trouble with that sort of thing, I haven't. Maybe I'm just lucky, or you're just an idiot. UAC is for idiots, just like my original topic said.
Most idiots just click OK when they come across UAC popping up anyway. So while it was a nice attempt by Microsoft to help users avoid being idiots, they're still idiots. I stopped using UAC because got tired of older stuff I have laying around malfunctioning because it was designed for Windows when it was a single user operating system (which if you asked me, it should still be.)
I'm not saying security exploits don't exist, I just don't seem to be very good at stumbling upon them and having them infect my computer. Maybe I'm not browsing the right websites? Good thing I guess. I think the fact my computer is squeaky clean with UAC off is about the best proof anyone can offer that I'm certainly not an idiot.
If I wanna browse anything even slightly questionable, I use a VM to do that. You really think I'm stupid enough to browse anything I'm not sure about like my usual fare of news sites, including/. with my normal desktop? Yes, it's true, there's is a CHANCE something nasty could sneak in through an ad network, but how often does that happen? And I have AdBlock Plus anyway, most of those things are blocked by default.
So you have never noticed malware being installed without you noticing, uh-huh. That's the kind of circular reasoning I'd expect self-proclaimed "power users", running Windows no less, to engage in, indeed. Also, you don't understand seem to understand the pertinent attack vectors for shit.
Give me a site that does this, I want to see it. Nothing but hot air over there?
I think if nations are going to continue to engage in warfare to achieve their goals, it's time to get civilized about it. Let's just take a gander at the old original Star Trek episode for a nice glimpse of what civilized war will look like some day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...
You never heard of "drive-by installs"? And don't reply with "but I don't go to that type of website", because we have often seen that both ordinary websites and ad networks can be compromised to install malware.
I'd love it if you showed me one of these. I've never seen one. I have yet to see any webpage that installed a malicious program onto my PC with me noticing or doing something to initiate the install. Please, show me, I'd very much like to see that because I never have. I use Chrome, so feel free to point me to whatever. I am really interested to see how this process works.
So you don't like UAC, but you want there to be some things that a user can't change? But that's exactly what UAC is *for*. Preventing users from changing system settings. What, you want more than one kind of admin user?
No what I'm saying it the entire foundation of user/root separation in Windows is completely broken, has always been broken and I frankly don't ever see it ever being fixed to a level that linux has enjoyed since it's inception.
M$ and everyone using Windows has been trying to transform what started as a single user operating system into a multiuser operating system for how many years now? And I feel they still don't have it right and I doubt it will ever be right from the perspective of anyone who thinks *NIX has always had it right.
In a nutshell, I suppose I am trying to say, I am still using Windows as what it was originally designed to be: A SINGLE USER operating system.
And it kinda irritates me everytime Windows pretends to be something it's not. It's not a very good multi-user operating system. It's a FANTASTIC single user operating system.
Besides, why the heck do I want a multi-user operating system on a computer only I use? We've lost sight of making the right tool for the right job when it comes to Operating Systems, IMHO.
Yes, you are a "power user", but so are the developers that wrote this stuff in their mind even if they did seriously fuck up. IMHO no developer should have seamless admin/root access on the machine they are testing their software out on and for new developers preferably not on their "daily driver" either
I'm not much of a developer. I tinker a little as a hobby, but I generally don't do any development anymore.
That attitude in people who don't know better is part of the problem.
Already said I understand the point of it. Fortunately, I do think i know better, and I do think I do a reasonably good job of monitoring what my computer is doing with itself and what's on it. I've been around these things since the late 80's. Not trying to boast, just say I do think i have a pretty good idea what I'm doing.
I could leave it on, sure. Sure it's a huge red-flag of something amiss. But at the same time I feel confident enough by monitoring the firewall between my desktop PC and the internet, and keeping an eye on how my machine behaves (I've picked up malware before by accident, I tend to notice it, and reformat my PC promptly if it shows up, I don't mess with the anti-virus removal junk, it never does a good job. Nuke from orbit please!)
So while you may be fine, others that copy what you do without understanding the implications are not.
As I already pointed out, there was an article right here on/. just a week or so ago that pointed to a study that security popups are basically ineffective on people who don't understand. So what's the point? They bother me and the people they were intended for ignore them.
Lastly to the other posters saying I'm infected with malware, or I've been hacked, I doubt it. Maybe. I do believe I know what I'm doing, I've been around these goofy things pretty much since my age was in the single digits. No malware is gunna hide from the traffic monitoring I have setup on my firewall machine. That's linux and I don't run everything as root on Linux, because unlike Windows, linux does properly separate user space from root space and I can rely on it to do things correctly. Windows I cannot. I can guarantee you, if something in this house I didn't install and know about starts generating traffic over the internet I will see it on the monitoring and find it and eradicate it.
As what I'd consider a 'power user', one of the first things I do is turn that obnoxious thing off. I understand it's purpose for being there, it's to protect idiots. Though if you've been reading the studies related to 'security popups', they're pretty ineffective anyway.
A program that magically turns it off for you is definitely a bad thing. However, from a power user perspective, its like.. 'um i don't care, it was already off.'
Windows simply wasn't built from the ground up to insulate the user space from the root space, and frankly I don't know if it ever can properly do that. The fact some program that can change the UAC settings is pretty huge example of why Windows has issues separating userspace from root space. It just simply can't do it right. Who's brilliant idea at Microsoft was it to provide any sort of API that can let any program (besides the control panel widget that lets you adjust UAC settings) adjust UAC settings? Some majorly FUD there. I think this is more Windows' fault than this stupid dual monitor program. No program should be permitted, regardless of it's permissions, to touch things like UAC settings.
When you have millions of people using the internet and setting up devices connected to the internet when they haven't the slightest clue how to properly configure, administer and maintain such devices... yeah...
When you hand unqualified people advanced technology, stupidity happens.
I just hope that in the name of safety for the millions of unqualified we don't get ISP's closing down running services of any kind from home. Probably will happen though, in the name of safety. Glad I migrated all my internet facing services to AWS years ago.
Personally, I think people should require a license to connect ANYTHING to the internet, sort of like how we have to have a license to operate motor vehicles, or HAM radios. There's just too much stupid out there messing things up for the qualified.
Just to add to this.. door checks of receipts also catch cashier error, most commonly cases of charging for the same item twice accidently.
I'm not overly fond of door checking of receipts but enh, there's much better things to worry about. If you don't like stores that have this policy, don't shop there.
Check out the Roccat Isku, a relatively decent low-priced gamer keyboard. I got one about a year ago and it's holding up extremely well, has a good feel. It's one of the few non-mechanical gamer keyboards that is pretty decent! Definitely recommend.
Wait what? "Minor DUI crime", what the hell is that? You're.. sort of drunk and sort of driving? Haha, this about made me fall out of my chair laughing. You betcha bro, drink and drive and the bail goes through the roof, and rightly so.
Slashdot Mirror
But aren't PC sales on the decline these days?
I'm with you on this. Seems to me the PC is on it's way out. For the common consumer, seems like tablets and smartphones are giving the majority of people what they want, without the big bulky PC and all its trimmings. PC's are gunna be a business tool and enthusiast thing again. Fine by me, might get the big corps out of the PC business and let us nerds have our way with them again.
Don't peddle the goal post moving, Linux zealot BS. Windows is as relevant as ever. It's still the #1 PC operating system on the planet, with no signs of changing in our lifetime.
Unfortunately, this simply isn't true. THE PC ITSELF is becoming increasingly irrelevant as tablets and smartphones take over. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people are ditching their PC's for Android tablets and smartphones. They're getting that good folks. And if the PC becomes irrelevant, so does Windows.
I think the DRM industry just has some pretty good sales people who are fleecing the entertainment industry. Fear works wonders for sales! "We can stop people from stealing your stuff, really, it does work this time, promise!" Mmhmm. Sadly, the entertainment industry is still listening to these snakeoil peddlers.
Never underestimate the reaction from an industry who perceives itself as under threat. Producers and publishers definitely DO want this.
Yeah, except, their perception would have to be completely out of touch with reality. It's already shown people will happily pay for content if it's accessible. Proof of this is all over the place. People don't mind paying if there's a reasonably easy way to do so. Frankly in my case, I pay for any content I desire, unless I can't FIND A WAY to pay, then I have to resort to other means if the content I want is inaccessible by legitimate means.
Though I don't think 'out of touch with reality' is impossible, just seems.. improbable. Entertainment industry can't be that ignorant can they?
I'm really really starting to think the DRM industry is the ones pushing this crap forward. It just doesn't even make sense to anyone but the people peddling this junk. Consumers don't want it. Producers want to sell stuff, so they shouldn't want it either, because consumers don't.
They might become necessary to do any real GP computing in the near future!
Here's hoping mine doesn't let the magic smoke out any time soon.
A comma between 'privacy' and 'bad' would have done wonders for clarifying the headline. It's kind of confusing.
The sword of internet censorship cuts both ways. If you don't want to be censored yourself, then you shouldn't be censoring others. Are your ideologies so weak they cannot stand on their own merits? Are you so afraid of opposing views, that governments feel the need to censor terrorist publications on the internet? I'm no fan of terrorism, or ISIS or any extreme views, but personally, I think they have just as much right to spew their hatred of us as we have to spew our hatred of them. Keep the net freely accessible to all, even those you don't like.
You can mod your Apple if you want. No law prohibits it, yet
FTFY.
Could you imagine if the NSA actually was permitted to do this? The moment something like this came to be true, every tech company cooperating would simply go out of business. Who would buy anything with a backdoor built into it? I wouldn't.
Shut down the NSA, to even suggest this is economic armageddon. I don't even need to go anywhere near the freedom and privacy aspects of this, I can appeal the capitalists, this is just bad for business.
Since you have UAE disabled,
UAE? The United Arab Emirates? What does that have to do with anything?
I have no malware running here, you think just because I have UAC turned off that my machine is full of malware? Sorry bub, I'm not the idiot here. You are if you think a person cannot operate a computer with UAC turned off and avoid malware. I never said anything about it being impossible to happen to me, I just said it hasn't happen to me. Hell, the ONE TIME I got an ACTUAL virus, it was a file a friend sent to me over ICQ years upon years ago. You have to be a moron to get a virus or malware, or click stuff that is obviously stupid to click. Or open obviously viral emails or download something suspect. Or visit questionable websites. Sorry you seem to have trouble with that sort of thing, I haven't. Maybe I'm just lucky, or you're just an idiot. UAC is for idiots, just like my original topic said.
Most idiots just click OK when they come across UAC popping up anyway. So while it was a nice attempt by Microsoft to help users avoid being idiots, they're still idiots. I stopped using UAC because got tired of older stuff I have laying around malfunctioning because it was designed for Windows when it was a single user operating system (which if you asked me, it should still be.)
I'm not saying security exploits don't exist, I just don't seem to be very good at stumbling upon them and having them infect my computer. Maybe I'm not browsing the right websites? Good thing I guess. I think the fact my computer is squeaky clean with UAC off is about the best proof anyone can offer that I'm certainly not an idiot.
If I wanna browse anything even slightly questionable, I use a VM to do that. You really think I'm stupid enough to browse anything I'm not sure about like my usual fare of news sites, including /. with my normal desktop? Yes, it's true, there's is a CHANCE something nasty could sneak in through an ad network, but how often does that happen? And I have AdBlock Plus anyway, most of those things are blocked by default.
So you have never noticed malware being installed without you noticing, uh-huh. That's the kind of circular reasoning I'd expect self-proclaimed "power users", running Windows no less, to engage in, indeed.
Also, you don't understand seem to understand the pertinent attack vectors for shit.
Give me a site that does this, I want to see it. Nothing but hot air over there?
I think if nations are going to continue to engage in warfare to achieve their goals, it's time to get civilized about it. Let's just take a gander at the old original Star Trek episode for a nice glimpse of what civilized war will look like some day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...
erm correction needed, really need to proof my posts better: WITHOUT me noticing or doing something
You never heard of "drive-by installs"? And don't reply with "but I don't go to that type of website", because we have often seen that both ordinary websites and ad networks can be compromised to install malware.
I'd love it if you showed me one of these. I've never seen one. I have yet to see any webpage that installed a malicious program onto my PC with me noticing or doing something to initiate the install. Please, show me, I'd very much like to see that because I never have. I use Chrome, so feel free to point me to whatever. I am really interested to see how this process works.
I dont mind UAC. Its just like sudo warning you 'think before you type'. Its a clear sign you are initiating a system level action.
I turn that warning off too. Annoying thing. I don't need to be warned, I do believe I know what I'm doing.
So you don't like UAC, but you want there to be some things that a user can't change? But that's exactly what UAC is *for*. Preventing users from changing system settings. What, you want more than one kind of admin user?
No what I'm saying it the entire foundation of user/root separation in Windows is completely broken, has always been broken and I frankly don't ever see it ever being fixed to a level that linux has enjoyed since it's inception.
M$ and everyone using Windows has been trying to transform what started as a single user operating system into a multiuser operating system for how many years now? And I feel they still don't have it right and I doubt it will ever be right from the perspective of anyone who thinks *NIX has always had it right.
In a nutshell, I suppose I am trying to say, I am still using Windows as what it was originally designed to be: A SINGLE USER operating system.
And it kinda irritates me everytime Windows pretends to be something it's not. It's not a very good multi-user operating system. It's a FANTASTIC single user operating system.
Besides, why the heck do I want a multi-user operating system on a computer only I use? We've lost sight of making the right tool for the right job when it comes to Operating Systems, IMHO.
Yes, you are a "power user", but so are the developers that wrote this stuff in their mind even if they did seriously fuck up. IMHO no developer should have seamless admin/root access on the machine they are testing their software out on and for new developers preferably not on their "daily driver" either
I'm not much of a developer. I tinker a little as a hobby, but I generally don't do any development anymore.
That attitude in people who don't know better is part of the problem.
Already said I understand the point of it. Fortunately, I do think i know better, and I do think I do a reasonably good job of monitoring what my computer is doing with itself and what's on it. I've been around these things since the late 80's. Not trying to boast, just say I do think i have a pretty good idea what I'm doing.
I could leave it on, sure. Sure it's a huge red-flag of something amiss. But at the same time I feel confident enough by monitoring the firewall between my desktop PC and the internet, and keeping an eye on how my machine behaves (I've picked up malware before by accident, I tend to notice it, and reformat my PC promptly if it shows up, I don't mess with the anti-virus removal junk, it never does a good job. Nuke from orbit please!)
So while you may be fine, others that copy what you do without understanding the implications are not.
As I already pointed out, there was an article right here on /. just a week or so ago that pointed to a study that security popups are basically ineffective on people who don't understand. So what's the point? They bother me and the people they were intended for ignore them.
Lastly to the other posters saying I'm infected with malware, or I've been hacked, I doubt it. Maybe. I do believe I know what I'm doing, I've been around these goofy things pretty much since my age was in the single digits. No malware is gunna hide from the traffic monitoring I have setup on my firewall machine. That's linux and I don't run everything as root on Linux, because unlike Windows, linux does properly separate user space from root space and I can rely on it to do things correctly. Windows I cannot. I can guarantee you, if something in this house I didn't install and know about starts generating traffic over the internet I will see it on the monitoring and find it and eradicate it.
As what I'd consider a 'power user', one of the first things I do is turn that obnoxious thing off. I understand it's purpose for being there, it's to protect idiots. Though if you've been reading the studies related to 'security popups', they're pretty ineffective anyway.
A program that magically turns it off for you is definitely a bad thing. However, from a power user perspective, its like.. 'um i don't care, it was already off.'
Windows simply wasn't built from the ground up to insulate the user space from the root space, and frankly I don't know if it ever can properly do that. The fact some program that can change the UAC settings is pretty huge example of why Windows has issues separating userspace from root space. It just simply can't do it right. Who's brilliant idea at Microsoft was it to provide any sort of API that can let any program (besides the control panel widget that lets you adjust UAC settings) adjust UAC settings? Some majorly FUD there. I think this is more Windows' fault than this stupid dual monitor program. No program should be permitted, regardless of it's permissions, to touch things like UAC settings.
When you have millions of people using the internet and setting up devices connected to the internet when they haven't the slightest clue how to properly configure, administer and maintain such devices... yeah...
When you hand unqualified people advanced technology, stupidity happens.
I just hope that in the name of safety for the millions of unqualified we don't get ISP's closing down running services of any kind from home. Probably will happen though, in the name of safety. Glad I migrated all my internet facing services to AWS years ago.
Personally, I think people should require a license to connect ANYTHING to the internet, sort of like how we have to have a license to operate motor vehicles, or HAM radios. There's just too much stupid out there messing things up for the qualified.
I prefer (yourareacode) 555-1212
Or any random four numbers after 555. 555 is a faux prefix used for television shows, they never ever route to anyone.
Just to add to this.. door checks of receipts also catch cashier error, most commonly cases of charging for the same item twice accidently.
I'm not overly fond of door checking of receipts but enh, there's much better things to worry about. If you don't like stores that have this policy, don't shop there.
Check out the Roccat Isku, a relatively decent low-priced gamer keyboard. I got one about a year ago and it's holding up extremely well, has a good feel. It's one of the few non-mechanical gamer keyboards that is pretty decent! Definitely recommend.
People with minor DUI crimes ...
Wait what? "Minor DUI crime", what the hell is that? You're.. sort of drunk and sort of driving? Haha, this about made me fall out of my chair laughing. You betcha bro, drink and drive and the bail goes through the roof, and rightly so.