I've been trying unsuccessfully for years to get a group going. The problems have typically been things like a) the rest of the group has more time/money to spend on stuff and i just can't keep up, b) gamers apparently think that hygiene is... optional, c) once you get past college, the numbers are pretty thin.
All of these things are directly related to the fact that I (and people my age) have a family, a job, responsibilities, etc. There just doesn't seem to be a venue for the average, everyday, thirtysomething suburbanite.
On that note, it's been my personal opinion that average, everyday, thirtysomething suburbanites still think pen and paper RPG's are for kids, yet they latch on to the latest MMORPG. In fact, I would say it's the other way around.
1. Dvorak writes a sensationalist op-ed that reeks of... well, it just reeks. 2. It gets posted to Slashdot and wherever else. 3. Slashdot users (among others) bemoan the... stench. The smoke begins to billow. 4. Curious onlookers see the smoke, assume there's fire, and click the link. 5. Said users view the obligatory ads. 6. Dvorak's employer/publisher makes money. 7. Rinse and repeat.
Users got together and created a.coop? I won't pretend that I'm an expert in any of this, but if such an idea were at all feasible, wouldn't it make sense to form a Cooperative whose express purpose is that of an ISP?
In the short term, such an effort could provide a collective bargaining scheme for dealing with ISP's. In the long term, perhaps it would be able to route through its own hardware?
This is all wild speculation, but I leave it to the/. crowd to argue over the feasibility.
True (actually 44 right now, counting the apps I'm running), 2 more by themselves weren't that much, but I didn't see a need for them to be running. It's the old engineering joke...
An optimist says the glass is half full, a pessimist says it's half empty, and an engineer says the glass was made twice as large as it needed to be.
Also bear in mind that:
- I don't have an iPod. I installed iTunes because somebody at work had made something available via that service. - I didn't like the UI.
So, in general, it was a no-brainer for me to remove it after a week-long trial period. The two services eating up a few MB of memory were just icing on the cake.
I just uninstalled it when I found that two iTunes-related services were running even though I wasn't using it (and hadn't since my last reboot, btw). I'd prefer my apps to run only when they're actually being used, not all the time. And I don't remember the resources they were consuming, but it was large enough to irk me.
...the Legion of Doom, secure in their belief that they've jacked with our system of air travel enough, are moving on with their plans to scare the heebie-jeebies out of another segment of the western world's infrastructure.
I'm surprised ticket prices are as low as they are. Case in point: Jimmy Buffett's summer tour. The nanosecond they went on sale, I was using two phones and a computer, while my wife was using one phone and a computer to try to buy tickets. By the time one of us got through, lawn seats were gone and the pavilion was down to singles. The pavilion seat price? $125. And the whole concert was sold out in minutes. They could've probably doubled the price and still sold it out in minutes.
P2P has nothing to do with this - it's all about raising the price to meet demand and using P2P as a scapegoat to offset the bad press it brings.
Klein's duties included connecting new fiber-optic circuits to that room, which housed data-mining equipment built by a company called Narus, according to his statement.
Ok, so from Narus' site, the profile of a member of the Board of Directors:
William P. Crowell
William P. Crowell is an independent security consultant and holds several board positions with a variety of technology and technology-based security companies. Since 9/11 he has served on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Task Force on Terrorism and Deterrence, the National Research Council Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism and the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. Bill's past positions have included President and Chief Executive Officer of Cylink, a leading provider of e-business security solutions as well as a series of senior positions at the National Security Agency, including Deputy Director of Operations and Deputy Director of the Agency. He has also served as chairman of the President's Export Council (PEC) Subcommittee on Encryption, which worked with the Administration, Congress and private industry to substantially loosen restrictions on the export of encryption products and technology.
From TFA:
Klein's duties included connecting new fiber-optic circuits to that room, which housed data-mining equipment built by a company called Narus, according to his statement.
Ok, so from Narus' site, the profile of a member of the Board of Directors:
William P. Crowell
William P. Crowell is an independent security consultant and holds several board positions with a variety of technology and technology-based security companies. Since 9/11 he has served on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Task Force on Terrorism and Deterrence, the National Research Council Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism and the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. Bill's past positions have included President and Chief Executive Officer of Cylink, a leading provider of e-business security solutions as well as a series of senior positions at the National Security Agency, including Deputy Director of Operations and Deputy Director of the Agency. He has also served as chairman of the President's Export Council (PEC) Subcommittee on Encryption, which worked with the Administration, Congress and private industry to substantially loosen restrictions on the export of encryption products and technology.
May the conspiracy theories commence!
In my last two jobs, field engineers, project managers, etc, were expected to operate fairly autonomously. I spent about a third of my time at the office, another third at home, and another third on the road. The software development was a limited part of the overall picture (it was more of an EE environment), and when it came along, it was much smaller applications that could be done by one or two people.
If you had people with the discipline to do it (and not just those who *think* they have the discipline), then this scenario worked out (at least from the business perspective). The only non-telecommuter at the most successful partner of my last employer was the office secretary.
I thought I enjoyed the telecommuting part of it, but one aspect overruled everything else. It became harder and harder (especially as a PM) to separate work and home.
Now I'm a 100% developer (or what TFA calls software engineer). Telecommuting is definitely frowned upon, and I certainly see the benefits of having everyone here at generally the same time of day within close proximity of each other. I like it better, I'm sure my bosses like it better, and (most importantly) my wife likes it better.
I'll admit, though, that the only thing I don't like about my job is my 30-60 minute commute (and, yes, the standard deviation is >= 15 minutes).
What's the selling point for this when it comes to Joe User? How does Microsoft or China or whoever justify to the consumer that forcing OEM's to bundle an OS with each product is a good thing? Btw, I'm throwing out any anti-piracy argument because I think that sells to corporations, not users.
I'm asking because I don't think there is one. And if there's not one, then this plan of attack is succeeding for other reasons. My guesses are:
1) Joe User doesn't know/care what's going on 10) China isn't a democracy (to put it plainly) 11) Microsoft can bully OEM's
Am I right? Are any of these ever going to change?
I don't think I've ever bought a game at WalMart, except maybe, just maybe, an old 8-bit NES cartridge or two waaaay back in the day. And with that exception, I don't even know anyone who's bought a game there. And from what I've seen so far on this thread, no one here's admitted to buying one from them either. Um, who's buying all their games?
Anyway, it *is* their buying power. I've been told there's a whole cottage industry in Bentonville of 1-2 person offices for most major manufacturers that supply WalMart. They're there basically so that WalMart has a real human being to kick around when they need one. That's buying power.
Actually, I've experienced CD lifetimes of less than a year. I have a 6-disc changer in the trunk of my car. Of course, there's frequently a mix of purchased and burned CD's in it. When I've left a burned CD in too long, though, it begins to deteriorate, generally beginning with the first track.
I would assume this is related to the environment it's in. It's a trunk of a car parked outside in Indiana, where local averages run from 17F lows in January to 85F highs in July. Tack on variable humidity and such, and it's obviously a very bad place for a CD.
I would also assume that it's not the player, since purchased CD's never have this problem. Rather, the composition of the CD-R's must be more susceptible to the environmental conditions.
In any case, I can detect wear on a CD-R after probably 1-2 months of being in the trunk.
Anyway, in the tightass's defense, a $100 knock-off may be appropriate. After all, most of us think of our nice pullover when you mention Patagonia, not our last business trip.
I personally used the freebie bags from a couple of Microsoft TechEd's for a while (sit down, somebody else paid for me to go). They worked well enough for me and were the right price. My wife still uses one off-and-on for her laptop. Of course, I probably wouldn't have taken either of them to the African plains.
a) you would then have to drive over or around the crater b) a missile consumes more space and allows for fewer shots than a machine gun c) machine guns and their ammo are more easily available d) the limited damage caused by the machine gun (as compared to a missile) would enable the driver (if it's still alive) to divert the vehicle from the roadway e) at the typical range of use (10-20'), the collateral damage of the missile may include your own vehicle f) the emissions of the missile at launch would need to be accounted for g) the unmistakable sound of a machine gun on full auto would have a much more helpful effect on other drivers than the relatively more surprising sound of an incoming missile - in other words, if we both were to miss our targets, i'd stand the better chance of still accomplishing my goal, while you'd probably get a higher percentage of rubber-neckers
in summary, the purpose is to get the offender out of my way. while both armaments perform the function, i believe the machine gun is the much better choice
Not to stray too far off topic, but didn't all this 'boot camp' crap start when cable channels like Discovery began airing stuff like this and 30yo adolescents far and wide thought that one Hell Week of any sort and they could be Authorized Bad-Ass Certified Hacker Ninjas?
"Yeah (sniff), I coulda been a F-16 pilot, but I couldn't pass the vision screening, so I became an MCSE instead."
If they've got that much ability, why is it that my Hotmail account mostly shows me ads for online dating?
This question is rhetorical, and here's why - I'm married, my Hotmail profile even says I'm married. As a matter of fact, I've never had a problem sharing that info (and I've been married for 8 years) so *every* online profile that asks that question should know that I'm married.
So, let's see... online dating targeting married people... hmm... so now thanks to technology, Fortune 500 companies are deliberately trying to sabotage the institution of marriage for the sake of profits.
This is how things work, though. As the observers dissect each piece of news more exhaustively, the newsmakers try to fine-tune the news they make. For example, once upon a time, the Fed would get together and shift the prime by a point. Now it's a quarter point and they have to put out a dozen press releases prior to actually doing it so as not to startle the financial pundits. Imagine if the Fed made no announcements prior to their next meeting, then raised the interest rate a full point without warning. Twenty or thirty years ago, this probably would have been insignificant. Today, it'd be a sign of the Second Coming.
In this case, whatever government officials are getting their kickbacks from Microsoft got together and figured out how to nudge the EU in the direction they want it to go as much as they can to make Microsoft happy without looking too much like they're getting those kickbacks from Microsoft and following a protectionist foreign policy agenda. In this case, the nudge was an "anonymous" press release.
Then, the standard procedure would be to see how far that nudge flies, who it pisses off, etc. If they can go back to Microsoft and say, "Well, we tried, and, oh, by they way, can we have another donation?" and that works, then this is the last you'll hear of it.
If Microsoft pushes harder, though (which they probably will), then you'll see maybe another such news item from an "anonymous" government official. Depending on how the EU reacts, we may even see something official, like from the ambassador to Liechtenstein or something.
One day, a year or so down the road, Condi Rice may slip it into her interview with one of those Sunday morning news shows that normal people don't watch, but in which most American policy is set.
Then maybe, just maybe, if Microsoft keeps pushing (taking bets now at 4:1 in favor), Bush will claim the EU is being protectionist and American firms are suffering, and American jobs are suffering, and Mom and Apple Pie are suffering...
We have that domain already - it's called setting your firewall to "deny by default". Flip the switch, add in a couple dozen initial DNS names, and off you go.
"heart of IT"? Heck, I still run Win2k at home. Why? Because...
- Didn't feel like paying for an XP license. - Not as much DRM crap as what's found in XP (that whole 'activation' bs). - Runs *my* preferred games, unlike Linux, BSD, etc. (sorry, guys). - The whole NT/2K/XP line is orders of magnitude better than 95/98/ME. - NT's just too archaic.
And all those reasons leave me with Win2K. It's definitely not a good choice, but it's the best choice, for me anyway (which is really rather unfortunate).
Downside? For all of its negatives, it's sure nice having Windows Media Player 10 on my work box. It can play just about anything I want it to, it rips nicely (as long as you remember to switch from the default DRM'd file type to mp3), and the library/ratings/playlist features are fairly well done (but not great yet). Everything else I've found either has just as much (or more) DRM (iTunes), a sucky UI (*all* OEM players), doen't play something obvious like DVD's (WinAMP), or doesn't have all the pretty whiz-bang features I just mentioned (Media Player Classic).
Keep in mind that I'm talking about source/destination blocking, not port blocking. Sure, ports are blocked by default, and most people leave it that way. I'm talking about blocking by IP or DNS mask. How many home users realistically deny by default when it comes to addresses? Personally, I think that ought to be the approach to a lot of communications - email, web, IM, phones, even cable channels! Deny by default, then let in what you want.
You're misunderstanding me. It's not the firewall, it's the loose screw behind the keyboard that's using it. Firewalls, just like any other electronic appliance, are generally capable of doing their job AS LONG AS THEY'RE CONFIGURED PROPERLY. Of the homes and businesses with which I've been familiar enough in the past 5 years or so, I'd say 5% of homes, 10% of small businesses, and 20% of large businesses are setting their firewalls to "deny by default". And yes, I'm pulling those figures out of my anal orifice - it's just personal observation over the years.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been trying unsuccessfully for years to get a group going. The problems have typically been things like a) the rest of the group has more time/money to spend on stuff and i just can't keep up, b) gamers apparently think that hygiene is... optional, c) once you get past college, the numbers are pretty thin.
All of these things are directly related to the fact that I (and people my age) have a family, a job, responsibilities, etc. There just doesn't seem to be a venue for the average, everyday, thirtysomething suburbanite.
On that note, it's been my personal opinion that average, everyday, thirtysomething suburbanites still think pen and paper RPG's are for kids, yet they latch on to the latest MMORPG. In fact, I would say it's the other way around.
1. Dvorak writes a sensationalist op-ed that reeks of... well, it just reeks.
2. It gets posted to Slashdot and wherever else.
3. Slashdot users (among others) bemoan the... stench. The smoke begins to billow.
4. Curious onlookers see the smoke, assume there's fire, and click the link.
5. Said users view the obligatory ads.
6. Dvorak's employer/publisher makes money.
7. Rinse and repeat.
What's so confusing about this?
Users got together and created a .coop? I won't pretend that I'm an expert in any of this, but if such an idea were at all feasible, wouldn't it make sense to form a Cooperative whose express purpose is that of an ISP?
In the short term, such an effort could provide a collective bargaining scheme for dealing with ISP's. In the long term, perhaps it would be able to route through its own hardware?
This is all wild speculation, but I leave it to the /. crowd to argue over the feasibility.
True (actually 44 right now, counting the apps I'm running), 2 more by themselves weren't that much, but I didn't see a need for them to be running. It's the old engineering joke...
An optimist says the glass is half full, a pessimist says it's half empty, and an engineer says the glass was made twice as large as it needed to be.
Also bear in mind that:
- I don't have an iPod. I installed iTunes because somebody at work had made something available via that service.
- I didn't like the UI.
So, in general, it was a no-brainer for me to remove it after a week-long trial period. The two services eating up a few MB of memory were just icing on the cake.
I just uninstalled it when I found that two iTunes-related services were running even though I wasn't using it (and hadn't since my last reboot, btw). I'd prefer my apps to run only when they're actually being used, not all the time. And I don't remember the resources they were consuming, but it was large enough to irk me.
...why so many of us are still running Win2k.
...the Legion of Doom, secure in their belief that they've jacked with our system of air travel enough, are moving on with their plans to scare the heebie-jeebies out of another segment of the western world's infrastructure.
Anyone else see this coming?
I'm surprised ticket prices are as low as they are. Case in point: Jimmy Buffett's summer tour. The nanosecond they went on sale, I was using two phones and a computer, while my wife was using one phone and a computer to try to buy tickets. By the time one of us got through, lawn seats were gone and the pavilion was down to singles. The pavilion seat price? $125. And the whole concert was sold out in minutes. They could've probably doubled the price and still sold it out in minutes.
P2P has nothing to do with this - it's all about raising the price to meet demand and using P2P as a scapegoat to offset the bad press it brings.
Curse you, HTML Formatting, curse you!
Let's try that again...
From TFA:
Klein's duties included connecting new fiber-optic circuits to that room, which housed data-mining equipment built by a company called Narus, according to his statement.
Ok, so from Narus' site, the profile of a member of the Board of Directors:
William P. Crowell
William P. Crowell is an independent security consultant and holds several board positions with a variety of technology and technology-based security companies. Since 9/11 he has served on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Task Force on Terrorism and Deterrence, the National Research Council Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism and the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. Bill's past positions have included President and Chief Executive Officer of Cylink, a leading provider of e-business security solutions as well as a series of senior positions at the National Security Agency, including Deputy Director of Operations and Deputy Director of the Agency. He has also served as chairman of the President's Export Council (PEC) Subcommittee on Encryption, which worked with the Administration, Congress and private industry to substantially loosen restrictions on the export of encryption products and technology.
May the conspiracy theories commence!
From TFA: Klein's duties included connecting new fiber-optic circuits to that room, which housed data-mining equipment built by a company called Narus, according to his statement. Ok, so from Narus' site, the profile of a member of the Board of Directors: William P. Crowell William P. Crowell is an independent security consultant and holds several board positions with a variety of technology and technology-based security companies. Since 9/11 he has served on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Task Force on Terrorism and Deterrence, the National Research Council Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism and the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. Bill's past positions have included President and Chief Executive Officer of Cylink, a leading provider of e-business security solutions as well as a series of senior positions at the National Security Agency, including Deputy Director of Operations and Deputy Director of the Agency. He has also served as chairman of the President's Export Council (PEC) Subcommittee on Encryption, which worked with the Administration, Congress and private industry to substantially loosen restrictions on the export of encryption products and technology. May the conspiracy theories commence!
In my last two jobs, field engineers, project managers, etc, were expected to operate fairly autonomously. I spent about a third of my time at the office, another third at home, and another third on the road. The software development was a limited part of the overall picture (it was more of an EE environment), and when it came along, it was much smaller applications that could be done by one or two people.
If you had people with the discipline to do it (and not just those who *think* they have the discipline), then this scenario worked out (at least from the business perspective). The only non-telecommuter at the most successful partner of my last employer was the office secretary.
I thought I enjoyed the telecommuting part of it, but one aspect overruled everything else. It became harder and harder (especially as a PM) to separate work and home.
Now I'm a 100% developer (or what TFA calls software engineer). Telecommuting is definitely frowned upon, and I certainly see the benefits of having everyone here at generally the same time of day within close proximity of each other. I like it better, I'm sure my bosses like it better, and (most importantly) my wife likes it better.
I'll admit, though, that the only thing I don't like about my job is my 30-60 minute commute (and, yes, the standard deviation is >= 15 minutes).
What's the selling point for this when it comes to Joe User? How does Microsoft or China or whoever justify to the consumer that forcing OEM's to bundle an OS with each product is a good thing? Btw, I'm throwing out any anti-piracy argument because I think that sells to corporations, not users.
I'm asking because I don't think there is one. And if there's not one, then this plan of attack is succeeding for other reasons. My guesses are:
1) Joe User doesn't know/care what's going on
10) China isn't a democracy (to put it plainly)
11) Microsoft can bully OEM's
Am I right? Are any of these ever going to change?
I don't think I've ever bought a game at WalMart, except maybe, just maybe, an old 8-bit NES cartridge or two waaaay back in the day. And with that exception, I don't even know anyone who's bought a game there. And from what I've seen so far on this thread, no one here's admitted to buying one from them either. Um, who's buying all their games?
Anyway, it *is* their buying power. I've been told there's a whole cottage industry in Bentonville of 1-2 person offices for most major manufacturers that supply WalMart. They're there basically so that WalMart has a real human being to kick around when they need one. That's buying power.
Actually, I've experienced CD lifetimes of less than a year. I have a 6-disc changer in the trunk of my car. Of course, there's frequently a mix of purchased and burned CD's in it. When I've left a burned CD in too long, though, it begins to deteriorate, generally beginning with the first track. I would assume this is related to the environment it's in. It's a trunk of a car parked outside in Indiana, where local averages run from 17F lows in January to 85F highs in July. Tack on variable humidity and such, and it's obviously a very bad place for a CD. I would also assume that it's not the player, since purchased CD's never have this problem. Rather, the composition of the CD-R's must be more susceptible to the environmental conditions. In any case, I can detect wear on a CD-R after probably 1-2 months of being in the trunk.
First of all, that was pretty impressive.
Anyway, in the tightass's defense, a $100 knock-off may be appropriate. After all, most of us think of our nice pullover when you mention Patagonia, not our last business trip.
I personally used the freebie bags from a couple of Microsoft TechEd's for a while (sit down, somebody else paid for me to go). They worked well enough for me and were the right price. My wife still uses one off-and-on for her laptop. Of course, I probably wouldn't have taken either of them to the African plains.
Nice slam, though.
my absurd idea is better than yours because...
a) you would then have to drive over or around the crater
b) a missile consumes more space and allows for fewer shots than a machine gun
c) machine guns and their ammo are more easily available
d) the limited damage caused by the machine gun (as compared to a missile) would enable the driver (if it's still alive) to divert the vehicle from the roadway
e) at the typical range of use (10-20'), the collateral damage of the missile may include your own vehicle
f) the emissions of the missile at launch would need to be accounted for
g) the unmistakable sound of a machine gun on full auto would have a much more helpful effect on other drivers than the relatively more surprising sound of an incoming missile - in other words, if we both were to miss our targets, i'd stand the better chance of still accomplishing my goal, while you'd probably get a higher percentage of rubber-neckers
in summary, the purpose is to get the offender out of my way. while both armaments perform the function, i believe the machine gun is the much better choice
This got modded as Insightful? No wonder there's so many stoopid drivers out there. Good thing Amazon shows my hood-mounted machine gun has shipped...
Not to stray too far off topic, but didn't all this 'boot camp' crap start when cable channels like Discovery began airing stuff like this and 30yo adolescents far and wide thought that one Hell Week of any sort and they could be Authorized Bad-Ass Certified Hacker Ninjas?
"Yeah (sniff), I coulda been a F-16 pilot, but I couldn't pass the vision screening, so I became an MCSE instead."
time to get started on that FOSS PVR/DVD player i was putting off..
If they've got that much ability, why is it that my Hotmail account mostly shows me ads for online dating?
This question is rhetorical, and here's why - I'm married, my Hotmail profile even says I'm married. As a matter of fact, I've never had a problem sharing that info (and I've been married for 8 years) so *every* online profile that asks that question should know that I'm married.
So, let's see... online dating targeting married people... hmm... so now thanks to technology, Fortune 500 companies are deliberately trying to sabotage the institution of marriage for the sake of profits.
Chew on that one.
Oh yeah, one more thing...
http://www.divorcereform.org/teenmoms.html
J
This is how things work, though. As the observers dissect each piece of news more exhaustively, the newsmakers try to fine-tune the news they make. For example, once upon a time, the Fed would get together and shift the prime by a point. Now it's a quarter point and they have to put out a dozen press releases prior to actually doing it so as not to startle the financial pundits. Imagine if the Fed made no announcements prior to their next meeting, then raised the interest rate a full point without warning. Twenty or thirty years ago, this probably would have been insignificant. Today, it'd be a sign of the Second Coming.
In this case, whatever government officials are getting their kickbacks from Microsoft got together and figured out how to nudge the EU in the direction they want it to go as much as they can to make Microsoft happy without looking too much like they're getting those kickbacks from Microsoft and following a protectionist foreign policy agenda. In this case, the nudge was an "anonymous" press release.
Then, the standard procedure would be to see how far that nudge flies, who it pisses off, etc. If they can go back to Microsoft and say, "Well, we tried, and, oh, by they way, can we have another donation?" and that works, then this is the last you'll hear of it.
If Microsoft pushes harder, though (which they probably will), then you'll see maybe another such news item from an "anonymous" government official. Depending on how the EU reacts, we may even see something official, like from the ambassador to Liechtenstein or something.
One day, a year or so down the road, Condi Rice may slip it into her interview with one of those Sunday morning news shows that normal people don't watch, but in which most American policy is set.
Then maybe, just maybe, if Microsoft keeps pushing (taking bets now at 4:1 in favor), Bush will claim the EU is being protectionist and American firms are suffering, and American jobs are suffering, and Mom and Apple Pie are suffering...
And that's the way it is...
It's a sad, sad game they play.
We have that domain already - it's called setting your firewall to "deny by default". Flip the switch, add in a couple dozen initial DNS names, and off you go.
"heart of IT"? Heck, I still run Win2k at home. Why? Because...
- Didn't feel like paying for an XP license.
- Not as much DRM crap as what's found in XP (that whole 'activation' bs).
- Runs *my* preferred games, unlike Linux, BSD, etc. (sorry, guys).
- The whole NT/2K/XP line is orders of magnitude better than 95/98/ME.
- NT's just too archaic.
And all those reasons leave me with Win2K. It's definitely not a good choice, but it's the best choice, for me anyway (which is really rather unfortunate).
Downside? For all of its negatives, it's sure nice having Windows Media Player 10 on my work box. It can play just about anything I want it to, it rips nicely (as long as you remember to switch from the default DRM'd file type to mp3), and the library/ratings/playlist features are fairly well done (but not great yet). Everything else I've found either has just as much (or more) DRM (iTunes), a sucky UI (*all* OEM players), doen't play something obvious like DVD's (WinAMP), or doesn't have all the pretty whiz-bang features I just mentioned (Media Player Classic).
J
Keep in mind that I'm talking about source/destination blocking, not port blocking. Sure, ports are blocked by default, and most people leave it that way. I'm talking about blocking by IP or DNS mask. How many home users realistically deny by default when it comes to addresses? Personally, I think that ought to be the approach to a lot of communications - email, web, IM, phones, even cable channels! Deny by default, then let in what you want.
J
You're misunderstanding me. It's not the firewall, it's the loose screw behind the keyboard that's using it. Firewalls, just like any other electronic appliance, are generally capable of doing their job AS LONG AS THEY'RE CONFIGURED PROPERLY. Of the homes and businesses with which I've been familiar enough in the past 5 years or so, I'd say 5% of homes, 10% of small businesses, and 20% of large businesses are setting their firewalls to "deny by default". And yes, I'm pulling those figures out of my anal orifice - it's just personal observation over the years.