<reply>
xmlgodquery element not found. Your prayer is not properly formatted.
</reply>
<curse type="BurnInHell">Burn in hell, flat file format heretic !</curse>
</xmlgod>
Free as in "we know you don't want it because you are already using another provider for those; but because it is included in the package for 0$, if you ask politely (or if any antitrust law or whatever regulation ask for it) we will suppress your access and give you a reduction of 0$ on your monthly bill"
Some time ago when SOA where the very new buzword, I've had an interview where the manager of the team asked me why I didn't put XML in big bold character in my resume next to Java, C++,...
For him, XML was sort of a religion. The ultimate "technology" (we were not talking about all the technos that comes with XML like XSLT,..., just the plain XML) that allowed the world to see the light and embrace SOA/MDA design, the only god that can save our wicked developer soul. The whole interview was about my relationship with the XML and how its light shines upon me.
Talking about XML as a "tool" was a blasphemy. I "learned" that the savior XML: - Saved us from the interoperability problem by allowing us to transfer data from and to any system
transparently. Sure, you only have to transform the output of one application into the input of the second system. - Reduce coding problem ( using for example, the function "XML DoSomething(XML params)", so you can change the params without changing the interface and the doc (duh!) ) - Reduce database problem ( storing XML as blob in the DB - no need to call the DBA when you change the data format ) - Solve configuration problem ( now configuration file are in XML that means it is easy to understand )
I guess you can defend yourself as much as anybody can develop an application. Computers were also around before developers. In theory, documentation is readily available, free tools are all over the place. There is even a strong community. Still for somebody with no experience in development or computer in general, it is a lot of work only to get to the Hello World sample application. So it's not tomorrow that Joe User will stop bitching about Word and Windows and start coding...
The law is a similar beast with tons of procedures, know-how, years of jurisprudence in addition to a sheer number of laws. As for developers, Lawyers takes years of training ( formally at school and/or experience ) before being ready for the show and even then, they are only specialised is a small subset of the Law. Also a trial is a competition and you have only one shot. You don't have the opportunity to do a little Hello Word first. You have to perform against professionals in their very specialty and succeed the first time you do it.
So yes you can defend yourself. But it will takes you a huge amount of time and dedication to have a chance of success.
The other category of people that consider that it is a pain in the ass are people that start working on an already existing project containing thousand of webpages developed in a time when security was no concern or when the application was not supposed to be made available on internet or when the application was supposed to be your team little private quick and dirty monitoring tools done by the boss kid during his internship.
There is a lot of legacy code and lot of code that was never meant to see a production server, not every developer has the opportunity to work only on new applications. For any webdeveloper nowadays, it is trivial to make a *new* website safe from web injection, however securing an old crappy one is non-trivial.
I guess that in the parent idea, the bank will send the confirmation of payment or move the money only when you have approved, cancel the operation.
Anyway, if you want to trick shops like this, this is already possible with a good old Credit Card. Call the credit card company say that you do not recognise some operation or that the vendor didn't do his part of the contract and you will be refunded immediatly.
Disclaimer, don't try this at home, you could have some trouble with Justice after that.
A lot of young users ( by young I mean teens ) have stopped learning all the strangeness of Windows, or Computer in general. They take computers as granted, like the fridge, washing machine, car, tv. They try to get the minimal knowledge to handle the *tool* and expect never to have to learn anything about it again unless they plan to get into IT (or gaming).
There was also a time where buying a car came with the responsability of knowing how the engine was working and how to perform maintenance. Now people just learn to drive the car and perform the very minimal maintenance. So I think there is a beter possibility than is several year the OS question become a technical question among experts with end-users using Playstation-like devices as computer ( who cares about the OS of a playstation ? )
Finally that can be a good think too. When only expert decide, I suppose it will be easier for Linux to finally beats Windows( if there is still Linux and Windows )
In real life, if you associate yourself with a total jerk, you know that your reputation will suffer. If you had a good reputation before, that's normal people notice more the degradation.
So in the case Sony BMG, you expect nothing from BMG. But you would have expected that Sony would have maintained a certain level of dignity. Well that was not the case, and yes only Sony lost something since BMG had already nothing to lose and yes that affect the global perception of Sony as a whole.
I guess, generally speaking, I'm expecting a bit too much from a computer game. I used to play paper RPG and the GM always found a way to stick any character in the game and have fun. I'm getting older, I sometimes want instant rewards...
Otherwise I agree with you, GW was not the best example and could even be a counter example. If you want to know, technically in GW, I just arrived in North Shiverpeak. They played several days more than me and are currently in the jungle, they are level 20 with Drognar armors, and I'm still level 13 with crappy Ascalon armor. It takes me several hours to get 1 level. ( Because I play with hench, I suppose. ) I will catch up: they ran me to the Peak and there I took another (free) run to drognar but with no money to pay for the armor:-( Eventually when we are all level 20 with drognar armor, it will matter much less.
I like the idea of handicapping system, it is a step in the right direction. However lots of MMORPGS are already plagued with farming and rare item market and that won't help with the handicap system ( because you don't have any hope of getting the uber object without the right handicap )
I have another idea slightly in the same line. I'm thinking why no using a automatic anti-grind system. Give quota for player. Let say for the first 2 hours you play you get 100% XP, after you only get 80%. After 2 more hours of game you get 60%,... up to 20% after 8 hours.
That seems harsh for the hardcore player, but hardcore player can still create multiple characters ( let's face it, a real hardcore player has already mutliple high level characters... ) That means that the difference between hardcore and casual will be in the number of characters: Hardcore player will have the opportunity of playing high level mage, monk and warrior, while the casual player only Mage for example.
Well ok, not perfect. And that doesn't solve another problem of casual player. As in real life, you don't see your friends every day and sometimes you are busy for a period and don't see them at all. After when you meet again, it is very difficult to do a game again with them since they basically are too advanced ( or they restarted a new character that is far behind ) I'm currently playing GuildWars with some friends. Unfortunatly I could not play as often for 2 weeks, and therefore the number of level between them and me is significant enough that we cannot play together anymore:-( So maybe there could be a catchup system ? Let's say you team with people too advanced and the system raise your level and equipment temporarily ??
Unfortunatly developers knows that very well. But features takes priority because they are the only reason why you get some budget to develop.
Some companies works with a sick "problem bringer"/"problem solver" mantra. Removing feature to allow you developping beter code invariably put you in the "problem bringer" section and that is bad. On the other hand, putting all the features = "(management) problem solver". When the application crashes in production and the situation looks very bad for the manager, if you come with any way of cleaning the mess you are again a "problem solver".
Every time you remove a feature or refactor the code preventively, from a management perspective you move 1 step in the dark side of the force, so you must handle that with political gloves, not common sense ( i.e. use fear factor, find tactical advantage for your manager not to include a feature, sneak "cleaning" code into features your manager think are worth extra-time to be able to cut budget later on a refactoring,...)
The point of the malware like trojan is that they come with a legitimate application.
People are not installing "Malware.exe" they are installing "SuperSmiley.exe", "NudeBritneySpearScreensaver" or "WindowsKernel_1337_Accelerator.exe" They will do whatever it takes to install them, including entering the appropriate credentials.
The real security problem is social. Even if a system becomes very safe ( call back Apple every time you need to install a program. Store your data on Apple site only, and no execution of any kind of not-approve tech including scripts ) There will still be people going on fishing websites and people giving their pin number to HornyHotChick on IM.
It takes litteraly years to teach simple concept to people. (condom, car belts,...) The problem is that IT it too complex... and if you could summarize it in 1 sentence, it would still take years of education to be accepted.
Not saying that it is not a good thing to move to OSX: OSX is much harder to 'break' and has a much lower user base, so less incentive, so you should be safe even if you don't know why and are pissed that only your friends have the funky smileys.
It is so much easier to develop a strong opinion when you don't know what you are talking about!
Anyway, what do you expect from somebody elected ? You cannot win any election without an inflated ego and strong opinion. Not saying that for trolling, but fighting to be elected is essentially a media fight. People elected are showmen and they need to believe in themself, they need to feel they know everything to look credible.
The job of the politician is to get elected. That's the job of their teams to understand the technical problems, and give their conclusions and let the politician do his show, whatever he says does not matter as long as he strongly believe in it and is ready to fight for it.
And at the end of the day, if you understand the problem, you vote for the politician that vote in the direction you want, whatever his explanation on the subject.
Yeah well actually movie with tons of movement doesn't get much better. You need a slow pace/static images to see the details. News ( they can ever cram more readable text on the screen ), Discovery Channel,... that's where you see the improvement but I suspect those type of emission are not very high in the list of reasons to buy a 5000$ home cinema
That's true that people are buying high quality tv right but they are essentially buying Big Flat Screen, not HDTV. Fortunatly a lot of them support HD TV, but that's by no mean the rule. ( not even talking about HDCP... )
And in most shops around here, they are selling HDTV with normal SDTV as demo... unless your read the spec, all TV look exactly the same, displaying the same crappy degraded signal. So that doesn't help to make the user realise how great is the resolution. Off course if you request it, those shops can show you how beautiful a DVD (!) is on those screens or talk endlessly about the wonderful upscaling algorithm scam that transforms your 480p/SDTV into cristal clear 1080p with brand new details extracted from... well yes don't ask where the new details come from.
Finally it is no so obvious to see the difference, even with true HDTV content. The only content that impressed me was the output of a HDTV video camera. You see the difference mostly in static images, otherwise in a typical hollywood movie, you don't have the time to realise how detailled is the image.
Yes well, I'm sure he aggrees that global warming exists.
Now, he just need to say that nothing proves that human is the origin of it. This is indeed true, nothing proves it, but yet why shouldn't that be good politic to take no risk ?
Well, on the other hand he can claim that the next ice age is already due and he is figthing it...
- Even if Linux users like the change, they already have plenty of desktop managers to play with. Also Destkop Manager choice in Linux seems to have become a religious question those days.
- Linux users are no used to pay ( yeah nobody "likes" to pay, but at least Windows user are "familiar" with the idea ) A business looks at the market size it can catch but also looks at what price the market buy something. If it needs to sell 2 times cheaper to linux users, they need a 2 times bigger market.
Only if PS3 owners buy BluRay... And everybody will even be more attentive at the figures, after Sony screwed up the UMD with the PSP. Yes sure every PSP owner had a UMD player, yet only a few bought regularly some UMD disks after the novelty passed !
It is all about user base quality. And I don't thing the gaming market and HD-Ready market have really something in common. The entry price in the HD-World is maybe 2000$ ( TV+Player+SoundSystem ), generally gamers don't do that kind of entry investment. People buying an HD-DVD on the other hand are most likely to be well-equiped and ready to buy disks for it. After all that's the only purpose of a HD-DVD player...
In the long run however, when prices of equipment starts to drop Sony can have a decisive advantage with the PS3 user bases if they don't screw up the playing software and Sony has not a very good track record on that either. Just look at the PS2 DVD player which was awful. Or look at the PSP, after more than 1 year and a firmware at version 2.7, you still have a crippled multimedia device.
I see a valid point though. Other sciences are also progressing. The space-elevator project look sexy against current generation of space tech. Who knows what other tech we will have when we can actually built it. Also by the time we can produce enough of the 'required material' you not only need to take into account the raw cost of building it, but the space elevator will be in concurrence against other uses of the material. Like, hey why to stop global production of nano-tube for several years when we can keep it to build smaller stuffs but that brings a lot of $$ quick. So even when the material exists several years will pass before the required fraction of production could be transfered to the SpaceElevator project.
"simply be a matter of dedication of resources"
That's the heart of the problem. Currently we are still waiting the 1 km-higth tower, the spain-morocco bridge, there are still people starving on earth, there is still no settlement on the moon nearly 40 years after a man landed first landed on it. All of those points are also only a matter of dedication and resources.
We are not in a StarTrek-like society working for glory. So, yes when there is a 1 mile bridge made of nanotubes, we could start thinking that maybe there is hope for the space elevator.
For some unknown reason I had several issues with WMP using a non-admin account every time you tried to play something from the network. ( webradio,... even without DRM )
However, after a fresh install (still non-admin), it was working fine.
The concept of UserRights made its way very slowly in Windows development expecially for cross-platform applications designed to run on WinMe and Win2000. And the Windows API didn't made thinks easy, with some duplicated functions or parameters ignored on Win9x,... Even if the security design of WinNT was ok Microsoft could have done something to ease the pain of cross-platform ( Win9x-WinNT ) development ! Like I don't know, patch Win9x to reproduce the same folder hierarchy like document and setting even if with only one user in it - flag in Visual Studio dangerous with API like the system hooks that were extremly used even for silly tasks -...
Only since WinXP, it seems it is getting beter and even small OpenSource software/shareware are non-admin account ready those days.
Since Windows 2000, it is relatively easy to run Windows in Limited User. ( well ok, there are some application that are a real pain. But I've run WinXP in Limited User mode for 2 years now, and most shitty applications where stuff like MSI Core Center,... the kind of application you install at the PC setup. )
And how many big companies are still selling their PC with a default Administrator user ? Dell, HP, Asus,... all of them configure WinXP with a default Admin User. Why ? Not to bother the user with useless management.
The positive result is that people running a Limited User are safe against 99% of malware ( even if finally as other reader pointed out, well designed malware could theorically do whatever I (=LimitedUser) can do: meaning sending mail, changing my wallpaper, chatting, put a shortcut in my startup folder,... )
Re:UMD writers and Reader
on
Everyone Hates UMD
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Yeah and also a reader.
Even if I can purchase a new movie in UMD, what's the point since I can't watch it on anything else than the PSP. Note that I'm not asking specifically for an external player, but you cannot even plug the PSP on the TV !
So, what does that leave me with ? I can by on UMD the movies I can only watch alone which are the one I generally rent... and where can I rent them ?
I takes years to create a new format. Years for the public to become aware of it, years for movies to come out on it, years before blockbuster stock them... unfortunatly in a few year there will probably a PSP2 that will requires yet another format ( I guess UMD will be to small ) and this year is the year of HighDefinition which another format war and really UMD is no match.
Slashdot Mirror
<reply> xmlgodquery element not found. Your prayer is not properly formatted. </reply>
<curse type="BurnInHell">Burn in hell, flat file format heretic !</curse>
</xmlgod>
Free as in "we know you don't want it because you are already using another provider for those; but because it is included in the package for 0$, if you ask politely (or if any antitrust law or whatever regulation ask for it) we will suppress your access and give you a reduction of 0$ on your monthly bill"
Some time ago when SOA where the very new buzword, I've had an interview where the manager of the team asked me why I didn't put XML in big bold character in my resume next to Java, C++, ...
..., just the plain XML) that allowed the world to see the light and embrace SOA/MDA design, the only god that can save our wicked developer soul. The whole interview was about my relationship with the XML and how its light shines upon me.
For him, XML was sort of a religion. The ultimate "technology" (we were not talking about all the technos that comes with XML like XSLT,
Talking about XML as a "tool" was a blasphemy. I "learned" that the savior XML:
- Saved us from the interoperability problem by allowing us to transfer data from and to any system
transparently. Sure, you only have to transform the output of one application into the input of the second system.
- Reduce coding problem ( using for example, the function "XML DoSomething(XML params)", so you can change the params without changing the interface and the doc (duh!) )
- Reduce database problem ( storing XML as blob in the DB - no need to call the DBA when you change the data format )
- Solve configuration problem ( now configuration file are in XML that means it is easy to understand )
Thanks XML.
I guess you can defend yourself as much as anybody can develop an application. Computers were also around before developers. In theory, documentation is readily available, free tools are all over the place. There is even a strong community. Still for somebody with no experience in development or computer in general, it is a lot of work only to get to the Hello World sample application. So it's not tomorrow that Joe User will stop bitching about Word and Windows and start coding...
The law is a similar beast with tons of procedures, know-how, years of jurisprudence in addition to a sheer number of laws. As for developers, Lawyers takes years of training ( formally at school and/or experience ) before being ready for the show and even then, they are only specialised is a small subset of the Law.
Also a trial is a competition and you have only one shot. You don't have the opportunity to do a little Hello Word first. You have to perform against professionals in their very specialty and succeed the first time you do it.
So yes you can defend yourself. But it will takes you a huge amount of time and dedication to have a chance of success.
The other category of people that consider that it is a pain in the ass are people that start working on an already existing project containing thousand of webpages developed in a time when security was no concern or when the application was not supposed to be made available on internet or when the application was supposed to be your team little private quick and dirty monitoring tools done by the boss kid during his internship.
There is a lot of legacy code and lot of code that was never meant to see a production server, not every developer has the opportunity to work only on new applications. For any webdeveloper nowadays, it is trivial to make a *new* website safe from web injection, however securing an old crappy one is non-trivial.
I guess that in the parent idea, the bank will send the confirmation of payment or move the money only when you have approved, cancel the operation.
Anyway, if you want to trick shops like this, this is already possible with a good old Credit Card. Call the credit card company say that you do not recognise some operation or that the vendor didn't do his part of the contract and you will be refunded immediatly.
Disclaimer, don't try this at home, you could have some trouble with Justice after that.
A lot of young users ( by young I mean teens ) have stopped learning all the strangeness of Windows, or Computer in general. They take computers as granted, like the fridge, washing machine, car, tv. They try to get the minimal knowledge to handle the *tool* and expect never to have to learn anything about it again unless they plan to get into IT (or gaming).
There was also a time where buying a car came with the responsability of knowing how the engine was working and how to perform maintenance. Now people just learn to drive the car and perform the very minimal maintenance. So I think there is a beter possibility than is several year the OS question become a technical question among experts with end-users using Playstation-like devices as computer ( who cares about the OS of a playstation ? )
Finally that can be a good think too. When only expert decide, I suppose it will be easier for Linux to finally beats Windows( if there is still Linux and Windows )
In real life, if you associate yourself with a total jerk, you know that your reputation will suffer.
If you had a good reputation before, that's normal people notice more the degradation.
So in the case Sony BMG, you expect nothing from BMG. But you would have expected that Sony would have maintained a certain level of dignity. Well that was not the case, and yes only Sony lost something since BMG had already nothing to lose and yes that affect the global perception of Sony as a whole.
I guess, generally speaking, I'm expecting a bit too much from a computer game. I used to play paper RPG and the GM always found a way to stick any character in the game and have fun. I'm getting older, I sometimes want instant rewards ...
:-( Eventually when we are all level 20 with drognar armor, it will matter much less.
Otherwise I agree with you, GW was not the best example and could even be a counter example.
If you want to know, technically in GW, I just arrived in North Shiverpeak.
They played several days more than me and are currently in the jungle, they are level 20 with Drognar armors, and I'm still level 13 with crappy Ascalon armor. It takes me several hours to get 1 level. ( Because I play with hench, I suppose. )
I will catch up: they ran me to the Peak and there I took another (free) run to drognar but with no money to pay for the armor
I like the idea of handicapping system, it is a step in the right direction. However lots of MMORPGS are already plagued with farming and rare item market and that won't help with the handicap system ( because you don't have any hope of getting the uber object without the right handicap )
... up to 20% after 8 hours.
... ) That means that the difference between hardcore and casual will be in the number of characters: Hardcore player will have the opportunity of playing high level mage, monk and warrior, while the casual player only Mage for example.
:-( So maybe there could be a catchup system ? Let's say you team with people too advanced and the system raise your level and equipment temporarily ??
I have another idea slightly in the same line. I'm thinking why no using a automatic anti-grind system. Give quota for player. Let say for the first 2 hours you play you get 100% XP, after you only get 80%. After 2 more hours of game you get 60%,
That seems harsh for the hardcore player, but hardcore player can still create multiple characters ( let's face it, a real hardcore player has already mutliple high level characters
Well ok, not perfect. And that doesn't solve another problem of casual player. As in real life, you don't see your friends every day and sometimes you are busy for a period and don't see them at all. After when you meet again, it is very difficult to do a game again with them since they basically are too advanced ( or they restarted a new character that is far behind )
I'm currently playing GuildWars with some friends. Unfortunatly I could not play as often for 2 weeks, and therefore the number of level between them and me is significant enough that we cannot play together anymore
Unfortunatly developers knows that very well. But features takes priority because they are the only reason why you get some budget to develop.
...)
Some companies works with a sick "problem bringer"/"problem solver" mantra. Removing feature to allow you developping beter code invariably put you in the "problem bringer" section and that is bad.
On the other hand, putting all the features = "(management) problem solver".
When the application crashes in production and the situation looks very bad for the manager, if you come with any way of cleaning the mess you are again a "problem solver".
Every time you remove a feature or refactor the code preventively, from a management perspective you move 1 step in the dark side of the force, so you must handle that with political gloves, not common sense ( i.e. use fear factor, find tactical advantage for your manager not to include a feature, sneak "cleaning" code into features your manager think are worth extra-time to be able to cut budget later on a refactoring,
The point of the malware like trojan is that they come with a legitimate application.
...) The problem is that IT it too complex ... and if you could summarize it in 1 sentence, it would still take years of education to be accepted.
People are not installing "Malware.exe" they are installing "SuperSmiley.exe", "NudeBritneySpearScreensaver" or "WindowsKernel_1337_Accelerator.exe" They will do whatever it takes to install them, including entering the appropriate credentials.
The real security problem is social.
Even if a system becomes very safe ( call back Apple every time you need to install a program. Store your data on Apple site only, and no execution of any kind of not-approve tech including scripts ) There will still be people going on fishing websites and people giving their pin number to HornyHotChick on IM.
It takes litteraly years to teach simple concept to people. (condom, car belts,
Not saying that it is not a good thing to move to OSX: OSX is much harder to 'break' and has a much lower user base, so less incentive, so you should be safe even if you don't know why and are pissed that only your friends have the funky smileys.
It is so much easier to develop a strong opinion when you don't know what you are talking about!
Anyway, what do you expect from somebody elected ? You cannot win any election without an inflated ego and strong opinion.
Not saying that for trolling, but fighting to be elected is essentially a media fight. People elected are showmen and they need to believe in themself, they need to feel they know everything to look credible.
The job of the politician is to get elected. That's the job of their teams to understand the technical problems, and give their conclusions and let the politician do his show, whatever he says does not matter as long as he strongly believe in it and is ready to fight for it.
And at the end of the day, if you understand the problem, you vote for the politician that vote in the direction you want, whatever his explanation on the subject.
Your hunting pistol needs a permanent internet connection. For free shooting, stay within 100 meters of a participating McDonald or Starbuck coffee.
Yeah well actually movie with tons of movement doesn't get much better. You need a slow pace/static images to see the details. ... that's where you see the improvement but I suspect those type of emission are not very high in the list of reasons to buy a 5000$ home cinema
News ( they can ever cram more readable text on the screen ), Discovery Channel,
That's true that people are buying high quality tv right but they are essentially buying Big Flat Screen, not HDTV. Fortunatly a lot of them support HD TV, but that's by no mean the rule. ( not even talking about HDCP ... )
... unless your read the spec, all TV look exactly the same, displaying the same crappy degraded signal. So that doesn't help to make the user realise how great is the resolution. ... well yes don't ask where the new details come from.
And in most shops around here, they are selling HDTV with normal SDTV as demo
Off course if you request it, those shops can show you how beautiful a DVD (!) is on those screens or talk endlessly about the wonderful upscaling algorithm scam that transforms your 480p/SDTV into cristal clear 1080p with brand new details extracted from
Finally it is no so obvious to see the difference, even with true HDTV content. The only content that impressed me was the output of a HDTV video camera.
You see the difference mostly in static images, otherwise in a typical hollywood movie, you don't have the time to realise how detailled is the image.
"Besides, Word Viewer is, and always has been, free. "
It is not once you factor Windows price.
Yes well, I'm sure he aggrees that global warming exists.
...
Now, he just need to say that nothing proves that human is the origin of it.
This is indeed true, nothing proves it, but yet why shouldn't that be good politic to take no risk ?
Well, on the other hand he can claim that the next ice age is already due and he is figthing it
Completely aggree and in addition:
- Even if Linux users like the change, they already have plenty of desktop managers to play with. Also Destkop Manager choice in Linux seems to have become a religious question those days.
- Linux users are no used to pay ( yeah nobody "likes" to pay, but at least Windows user are "familiar" with the idea ) A business looks at the market size it can catch but also looks at what price the market buy something. If it needs to sell 2 times cheaper to linux users, they need a 2 times bigger market.
Only if PS3 owners buy BluRay... And everybody will even be more attentive at the figures, after Sony screwed up the UMD with the PSP. Yes sure every PSP owner had a UMD player, yet only a few bought regularly some UMD disks after the novelty passed !
...
It is all about user base quality. And I don't thing the gaming market and HD-Ready market have really something in common. The entry price in the HD-World is maybe 2000$ ( TV+Player+SoundSystem ), generally gamers don't do that kind of entry investment.
People buying an HD-DVD on the other hand are most likely to be well-equiped and ready to buy disks for it. After all that's the only purpose of a HD-DVD player
In the long run however, when prices of equipment starts to drop Sony can have a decisive advantage with the PS3 user bases if they don't screw up the playing software and Sony has not a very good track record on that either. Just look at the PS2 DVD player which was awful. Or look at the PSP, after more than 1 year and a firmware at version 2.7, you still have a crippled multimedia device.
I see a valid point though. Other sciences are also progressing. The space-elevator project look sexy against current generation of space tech. Who knows what other tech we will have when we can actually built it.
Also by the time we can produce enough of the 'required material' you not only need to take into account the raw cost of building it, but the space elevator will be in concurrence against other uses of the material. Like, hey why to stop global production of nano-tube for several years when we can keep it to build smaller stuffs but that brings a lot of $$ quick. So even when the material exists several years will pass before the required fraction of production could be transfered to the SpaceElevator project.
"simply be a matter of dedication of resources"
That's the heart of the problem. Currently we are still waiting the 1 km-higth tower, the spain-morocco bridge, there are still people starving on earth, there is still no settlement on the moon nearly 40 years after a man landed first landed on it. All of those points are also only a matter of dedication and resources.
We are not in a StarTrek-like society working for glory. So, yes when there is a 1 mile bridge made of nanotubes, we could start thinking that maybe there is hope for the space elevator.
For some unknown reason I had several issues with WMP using a non-admin account every time you tried to play something from the network. ( webradio, ... even without DRM )
... Even if the security design of WinNT was ok Microsoft could have done something to ease the pain of cross-platform ( Win9x-WinNT ) development ! Like I don't know, patch Win9x to reproduce the same folder hierarchy like document and setting even if with only one user in it - flag in Visual Studio dangerous with API like the system hooks that were extremly used even for silly tasks - ...
However, after a fresh install (still non-admin), it was working fine.
The concept of UserRights made its way very slowly in Windows development expecially for cross-platform applications designed to run on WinMe and Win2000.
And the Windows API didn't made thinks easy, with some duplicated functions or parameters ignored on Win9x,
Only since WinXP, it seems it is getting beter and even small OpenSource software/shareware are non-admin account ready those days.
How true ...
My father had a spyware on his machine that would display a 'Purchase Helper' panel that eats 33% of his screen on his company PC while browsing.
He just thought, 'hey, must be the admin that remote accessed my machine to install that' and never worried.
Don't forget PC vendors ...
... the kind of application you install at the PC setup. )
... all of them configure WinXP with a default Admin User. Why ? Not to bother the user with useless management.
... )
Since Windows 2000, it is relatively easy to run Windows in Limited User. ( well ok, there are some application that are a real pain. But I've run WinXP in Limited User mode for 2 years now, and most shitty applications where stuff like MSI Core Center,
And how many big companies are still selling their PC with a default Administrator user ? Dell, HP, Asus,
The positive result is that people running a Limited User are safe against 99% of malware ( even if finally as other reader pointed out, well designed malware could theorically do whatever I (=LimitedUser) can do: meaning sending mail, changing my wallpaper, chatting, put a shortcut in my startup folder,
Yeah and also a reader.
... and where can I rent them ?
... unfortunatly in a few year there will probably a PSP2 that will requires yet another format ( I guess UMD will be to small ) and this year is the year of HighDefinition which another format war and really UMD is no match.
Even if I can purchase a new movie in UMD, what's the point since I can't watch it on anything else than the PSP.
Note that I'm not asking specifically for an external player, but you cannot even plug the PSP on the TV !
So, what does that leave me with ? I can by on UMD the movies I can only watch alone which are the one I generally rent
I takes years to create a new format. Years for the public to become aware of it, years for movies to come out on it, years before blockbuster stock them