I am GOBSMACKED, that Microsoft claimed that they've put a million user-hours into usability testing.
Well, maybe it took them a while to train the users, before they could be used for testing purposes:)
On topic, I think the video was 90% rant and 2% facts... If it's really that bad, maybe it would have been easier to present videos and demonstrations of this, rather than just stickman animations and graphics.
ARAB spring in a PERSIAN nation? I'll assume you're kidding because the alternative is you're ignorant.
That's quite possible, I don't claim to be a middle east expert.
And yes, you're probably right, calling hacks for terrorism might be more of a stretch than what is good:) (Sorry about that)
Nevertheless, I maintain that if you want to resolve conflicts by force, then at the very least you ought to have the decency and integrity to be honest about it.
I can't say this is a bad thing... Hopefully it eats their backups too.
Why isn't this bad?
What possible good can come from attacking innocent people?
While we have no way of knowing who is behind these attacks... With the increase in attacks, targeting and seriousness of the recent attacks we've seen, one could fear that this is state sponsored terrorism. In which case I supose it wouldn't be unreasonable to suspect that Israel and maybe the US could be involved.
Anyway, you put it, this isn't open declared and honest warfare, it's more like terrorism (with no regards for collateral damage).
Personally, I don't think it's suitable for democracies to conduct secret attacks on anybody. I'm confident my country doesn't do it, but well aware that our allies, such as the US, have a long reputation of such hostilities... And I suppose sometimes it can be justified, but is it really necessary these days, the cold war is over.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to the following question: What possible hope is there of peaceful development, democracy, arab spring and political improvement in Iran if they truly are under attack?
If anything, this will make Iranians more disconnected from independent media, less able to organize and help the authorities convince the people that everybody wants to harm Iran.
Think we can all agree that internet and information technology is the best catalyst for democracy.
Are they as stable as gmail?
I have dreamhost, but I don't use their email... At the end of the day, I'm pretty sure that even if bought a VPS and put my mind to it... I couldn't host my email as reliable as gmail.
If you doubt me, stop a cop, any cop, on the street and ask him if he can or will guarantee your safety against violent attack.
Sure, they have limited resources... And yes, we can't all walk around with a police escort, hopefully that's not necessary...
But the police is not only here to pick up the pieces... I.e- investigate, they're most certainly also here to actively stop crime in progress, though I'm sure that's harder...
If you pay people enough, that actually solves poverty:)
Seriously, poverty is one of the problems you surely can fix, by throwing more money at it. What people spend their money on, is harder to fix.
But making sure that people have a future, and a chance to start over whenever they feel like it, is a very good way to combat poverty and desperation.
And today, starting over isn't something you can do on your own. If you want to achieve success you need a complicated support system, school, place to live, money for food, etc. If you attempt to pursue happiness on your I fear you'll fail, at least if you measure success/happiness relative to others achieve.
I live in Denmark, I'm getting paid to study 1k $ per month, when I finish I can join unemployment insurance and start at 3k $ per month, for just being available for the job market. After two years unemployment insurance would expire and I would be able to start on government welfare approximately 2k $ per month (depending on number of children, etc.).
Personally, I'm not going to need these services.
But for all intents a purposes, people in my country are only poor if they have an expensive apartment, drink, smoke or do drugs. Ie don't administrate their money with care...
Granted 2k $ per month isn't much, but it's enough to give your kids a future in a country where university is free.
If I am to fight a guy with nothing to loose (SIC), I would most certainly want to be holding a gun.
Okay, maybe I didn't make the dilemma clear:)
The point is that rather that facing this guy, you would probably prefer to hide and avoid conflict... Meaning that you could have a gun at the school at it wouldn't change a thing... Because actually going out hunting for the lunatic is more dangerous than locking the door and/or fleeing out the window...
I can go into a store today and buy everything needed to blow a building to bits. Remember Oklahoma City?
But it requires planning, time, effort, dedication and hard work.
And people with those qualities are usually not predominant amongst suicidal lunatics.
Sure, it won't stop people from killing each other, but it won't happen as often and it'll be a lot hard.
Yes, it would be cheaper to eradicate poverty... But I doubt you can convince gun proponents that free education, proper welfare support, universal health care and higher taxes will do anything good...
It would have taken one normal individual to stop this idiot.
If you had a gun, would you want to fight a guy with nothing to loose?
And if so, don't you create a world where everybody must have gun training? (isn't that a waste of time)
And even if, you answer yes to above...
Seriously, who would bring a gun to school? Teachers? What could possibly go wrong?
(Even if they handle it safely, store it safely, etc.).
and it's not like gun control means fucking maniacs can't kill lots of kids (Norway comes to mind).
What happened in Norway had been planned for years in advance. Unless that's the case here let's not compare!
Sure, people can do bad things if they put their mind to it. But what happened in Norway took a lot of effort to pull of, and it is not something everybody can do.
The level of planning and execution involved there, would stopped most lunatics.
Also wouldn't arbitrary restrictions like this be enough to sue Nintendo? In Europe I think it's likely that customer protection comes before the EULA. I hope someone sues...
The become a tech billionaire thing is exactly like pro sports. Occasionally someone makes it big but the vast majority of people who try are going to end up disappointed, 30, and with nothing to fall back on.
I agree... Further more I think we're obsessed with the stories about drop-outs who creates successful tech companies. There are quite a few stories, but look at the vast majority of companies, they weren't started by people dropping out. And those that were typically had things going before they dropped out.
It's just the media blowing up these stories... And we eat it up, because it's a great story.
Also as you say, low-skill tech is maturing. Facebook isn't exactly high-tech stuff. Scaling to where it's today, sure. But initially it was a pretty simple thing.
I'm not that scared... Yes, point-to-point encryption isn't enough, as you can get direct access to the facilities... But that usual requires a warrant, if facebook start giving out information without warrant, they'll be liable to privacy suits. Probably regardless of what their EULA says, as court will probably find you can't waive your privacy.
Furthermore, we also have the EU working for data centers in EU, and working to ensure that there's some sort limit to what the US can do. Frankly, I have a lot of trust in the EU. I'm not saying that there isn't work to be done with regards to privacy online, but the picture isn't so dark...
With all the resources HTC has diverted to the patent wars, they can't really compete anymore...
Whilst I'm sure lawyers aren't cheap, engineers aren't cheap either... And for a company with resources as HTC, I really doubt a few legal battles are a significant expenditure...
HTC aren't nowhere near as big as Apple, but with a revenue around 9 Billion USD, I doubt a few millions for lawyers is a game changer.
Tech workers, engineers, etc. usually negotiate salary on a one-on-one basis. Based on skills, commitments, etc.
Traditional unions (the ones with red flags) would crack down hard on performance based bonus systems.
However, I'm a student member of a union in Denmark, for engineers, etc. They are not like traditional unions but are mostly here to help, if you need guidance, or want to sue your employer for wrongful conduct, discrimination or whatever...
Futhermore, they also offer a fairly good unemployment insurance:)
But mostly, it's benefits, job training, networking, etc. and not so much salary negotiations, although they can help with that.
Slashdot Mirror
I am GOBSMACKED, that Microsoft claimed that they've put a million user-hours into usability testing.
Well, maybe it took them a while to train the users, before they could be used for testing purposes :)
On topic, I think the video was 90% rant and 2% facts... If it's really that bad, maybe it would have been easier to present videos and demonstrations of this, rather than just stickman animations and graphics.
What did you expect it to do? Magic?
Well, you never know what santa is up to :)
Make the iranian government constantly crack down restrict and otherwise piss off its people, that way they have a reason to fight.
But who will they fight? I believe history have shown that when you attack a country it only brings them closer together.
Keep up the good work state sponsored cyber warfare!!
I wonder how skynet started...
ARAB spring in a PERSIAN nation? I'll assume you're kidding because the alternative is you're ignorant.
That's quite possible, I don't claim to be a middle east expert. :)
And yes, you're probably right, calling hacks for terrorism might be more of a stretch than what is good
(Sorry about that)
Nevertheless, I maintain that if you want to resolve conflicts by force, then at the very least you ought to have the decency and integrity to be honest about it.
or better, feed the apps an address book from the Spamhaus Zen list...
We should make an App for that :)
I can't say this is a bad thing... Hopefully it eats their backups too.
Why isn't this bad?
What possible good can come from attacking innocent people?
While we have no way of knowing who is behind these attacks... With the increase in attacks, targeting and seriousness of the recent attacks we've seen, one could fear that this is state sponsored terrorism. In which case I supose it wouldn't be unreasonable to suspect that Israel and maybe the US could be involved.
Anyway, you put it, this isn't open declared and honest warfare, it's more like terrorism (with no regards for collateral damage).
Personally, I don't think it's suitable for democracies to conduct secret attacks on anybody. I'm confident my country doesn't do it, but well aware that our allies, such as the US, have a long reputation of such hostilities... And I suppose sometimes it can be justified, but is it really necessary these days, the cold war is over.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to the following question:
What possible hope is there of peaceful development, democracy, arab spring and political improvement in Iran if they truly are under attack?
If anything, this will make Iranians more disconnected from independent media, less able to organize and help the authorities convince the people that everybody wants to harm Iran.
Think we can all agree that internet and information technology is the best catalyst for democracy.
Interesting, thanks... :)
I think GP used GPS permission as an example... Why can't I feed apps incorrect GPS data or an empty address book?
I prefer to use rackspace. For $3 a month...
Are they as stable as gmail?
I have dreamhost, but I don't use their email... At the end of the day, I'm pretty sure that even if bought a VPS and put my mind to it... I couldn't host my email as reliable as gmail.
If you doubt me, stop a cop, any cop, on the street and ask him if he can or will guarantee your safety against violent attack.
Sure, they have limited resources... And yes, we can't all walk around with a police escort, hopefully that's not necessary...
But the police is not only here to pick up the pieces... I.e- investigate, they're most certainly also here to actively stop crime in progress, though I'm sure that's harder...
You really think that would eliminate poverty?
If you pay people enough, that actually solves poverty :)
Seriously, poverty is one of the problems you surely can fix, by throwing more money at it. What people spend their money on, is harder to fix.
But making sure that people have a future, and a chance to start over whenever they feel like it, is a very good way to combat poverty and desperation.
And today, starting over isn't something you can do on your own. If you want to achieve success you need a complicated support system, school, place to live, money for food, etc.
If you attempt to pursue happiness on your I fear you'll fail, at least if you measure success/happiness relative to others achieve.
I live in Denmark, I'm getting paid to study 1k $ per month, when I finish I can join unemployment insurance and start at 3k $ per month, for just being available for the job market. After two years unemployment insurance would expire and I would be able to start on government welfare approximately 2k $ per month (depending on number of children, etc.).
Personally, I'm not going to need these services.
But for all intents a purposes, people in my country are only poor if they have an expensive apartment, drink, smoke or do drugs. Ie don't administrate their money with care...
Granted 2k $ per month isn't much, but it's enough to give your kids a future in a country where university is free.
If I am to fight a guy with nothing to loose (SIC), I would most certainly want to be holding a gun.
Okay, maybe I didn't make the dilemma clear :)
The point is that rather that facing this guy, you would probably prefer to hide and avoid conflict... Meaning that you could have a gun at the school at it wouldn't change a thing... Because actually going out hunting for the lunatic is more dangerous than locking the door and/or fleeing out the window...
Guns have no purpose other than *killing*. So maybe we should ask ourselves, who has a legitimate need to kill
Now that is a good question :)
Again, the point of guns is to level the playing field when it comes to defending one's self.
Isn't it the police's job to defend you?
I can go into a store today and buy everything needed to blow a building to bits. Remember Oklahoma City?
But it requires planning, time, effort, dedication and hard work.
And people with those qualities are usually not predominant amongst suicidal lunatics.
Sure, it won't stop people from killing each other, but it won't happen as often and it'll be a lot hard.
Yes, it would be cheaper to eradicate poverty... But I doubt you can convince gun proponents that free education, proper welfare support, universal health care and higher taxes will do anything good...
It would have taken one normal individual to stop this idiot.
If you had a gun, would you want to fight a guy with nothing to loose?
And if so, don't you create a world where everybody must have gun training? (isn't that a waste of time)
And even if, you answer yes to above...
Seriously, who would bring a gun to school? Teachers? What could possibly go wrong?
(Even if they handle it safely, store it safely, etc.).
and it's not like gun control means fucking maniacs can't kill lots of kids (Norway comes to mind).
What happened in Norway had been planned for years in advance. Unless that's the case here let's not compare!
Sure, people can do bad things if they put their mind to it. But what happened in Norway took a lot of effort to pull of, and it is not something everybody can do.
The level of planning and execution involved there, would stopped most lunatics.
If only they had filed a DMCA take-down notice :)
Also wouldn't arbitrary restrictions like this be enough to sue Nintendo? In Europe I think it's likely that customer protection comes before the EULA. I hope someone sues...
The become a tech billionaire thing is exactly like pro sports. Occasionally someone makes it big but the vast majority of people who try are going to end up disappointed, 30, and with nothing to fall back on.
I agree... Further more I think we're obsessed with the stories about drop-outs who creates successful tech companies.
There are quite a few stories, but look at the vast majority of companies, they weren't started by people dropping out. And those that were typically had things going before they dropped out.
It's just the media blowing up these stories... And we eat it up, because it's a great story.
Also as you say, low-skill tech is maturing. Facebook isn't exactly high-tech stuff. Scaling to where it's today, sure. But initially it was a pretty simple thing.
I'm not that scared... Yes, point-to-point encryption isn't enough, as you can get direct access to the facilities... But that usual requires a warrant, if facebook start giving out information without warrant, they'll be liable to privacy suits. Probably regardless of what their EULA says, as court will probably find you can't waive your privacy.
Furthermore, we also have the EU working for data centers in EU, and working to ensure that there's some sort limit to what the US can do. Frankly, I have a lot of trust in the EU. I'm not saying that there isn't work to be done with regards to privacy online, but the picture isn't so dark...
You do realize Chrome has the same release cycle?
With all the resources HTC has diverted to the patent wars, they can't really compete anymore...
Whilst I'm sure lawyers aren't cheap, engineers aren't cheap either... And for a company with resources as HTC, I really doubt a few legal battles are a significant expenditure...
HTC aren't nowhere near as big as Apple, but with a revenue around 9 Billion USD, I doubt a few millions for lawyers is a game changer.
Since when is higher pay simply "not important"?
Tech workers, engineers, etc. usually negotiate salary on a one-on-one basis. Based on skills, commitments, etc.
:)
Traditional unions (the ones with red flags) would crack down hard on performance based bonus systems.
However, I'm a student member of a union in Denmark, for engineers, etc. They are not like traditional unions but are mostly here to help, if you need guidance, or want to sue your employer for wrongful conduct, discrimination or whatever...
Futhermore, they also offer a fairly good unemployment insurance
But mostly, it's benefits, job training, networking, etc. and not so much salary negotiations, although they can help with that.