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User: The+MAZZTer

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Comments · 2,451

  1. Re:But not to give them a chance to correct it fir on Google Security Expert Finds, Publicly Discloses Windows Kernel Bug · · Score: 1

    A more apt analogy would be someone taking classified military information and making it public (which IS a serious crime and is NOT covered under freedom of speech).

  2. Re:Years old on Researchers Infect iOS Devices With Malware Via Malicious Charger · · Score: 1

    Windows doesn't let this happen anymore. USB devices can't do autorun now.

  3. Re:I was just 10 years old on How Did You Learn How To Program? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    QBASIC here, at 8. My dad actually made some brilliant MS-DOS batch file scripts so we could store games in ZIPs on our 80MB drive and only extract them when we played them. Later iterations even scanned the game directory for changes after the game exited and zipped up only changed files into a separate archive. So if you wanted to reset a game just remove the second archive.

  4. Re:Set up VLANs on Ask Slashdot: Safe Learning Environment For VMs? · · Score: 1

    Only if the switch lets them.

  5. Re:I Tried It, But It Was Still Ridiculously Slow on Google Chrome 27 Is Out: 5% Faster Page Loads · · Score: 1

    Grab the ScriptSafe extension. It's the Chrome equivalent to Firefox's NoScript. Every JS script starts out blocked and you can whitelist domains as you go, avoiding those that have the suspicious names that don't actually add content to the page.

  6. Re:I Tried It, But It Was Still Ridiculously Slow on Google Chrome 27 Is Out: 5% Faster Page Loads · · Score: 1

    Chrome has optimizations for that, so it's likely whoever built the site either used some weird TheDailyWTF worthy method of rendering their page with JavaScript, or otherwise did not properly test their page with Chrome to ensure this Chrome feature could properly handle their page.

  7. Re:So... on Google Chrome 27 Is Out: 5% Faster Page Loads · · Score: 1

    Umm ALL browsers allow ads and tracking cookies by default.

    Well, IE10 asks nicely for servers to not track you, but we have yet to see how well that will work in the long run.

  8. Re:Steam for comparison on Xbox One: No Always-Online Requirement, But Needs To Phone Home · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Steam still needs to be online to activate new purchases, even if you buy them in a brick and mortar store AFAIK.

    Of course there's nothing saying Valve can't change this if they want to make Steambox more attractive to the internet-less.

  9. Re:Or on Uptick In Whooping Cough Linked To Subpar Vaccines · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If neither vaccine was effective, there would have been no change. However, there was an observed uptick, indicating that the previous vaccine was definitely having an effect.

  10. "there is no native PDF plug-in" on Ubuntu Developers Revisit Replacing Firefox With Chromium · · Score: 1

    Well Chrome has one if you want to use it, just doesn't come with Chromium. I am sure they want Chromium instead of Chrome for the whole "pure open-source" thing it has going for it, though.

  11. Re:Why not copy MS and have 2 ver numbers on To Avoid Confusion: Oracle's Confusing New Java Numbering Scheme · · Score: 1

    Windows 7 is 6.1 for compatibility reasons. When Vista went to 6.0 it broke a lot of applications that were incorrectly checking the Windows version, like so:

    if (MajorVersion >= 5 && MinorVersion >= 1) {

    Back when the latest version of Windows was XP, this code worked fine 100% of the time. Of course it fails to pass this check on Vista, where MinorVersion is 0. Windows 7 and Windows 8 are 6.1 and 6.2 respectively since they will pass this check. At least, that's what I've heard.

  12. Re:Whats the purpose of this on Vulnerability Found In Skyrim, Fallout, Other Bethesda Games · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Steam only asks for admin when performing installation steps, as installers often require admin privileges. And this is stuff like DirectX, C++ runtimes, etc so it's understandable since that stuff goes into system32.

    The game itself is not run as admin.

  13. Windows XP Mode on UK Benefits Claimants Must Use Windows XP, IE6 · · Score: 1

    Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 purposefully comes with IE6 so you can use it for situations just like this if you need to. You can of course upgrade it to IE7/8 if you want to.

    Also, All IEs after 6 can switch to 6's rendering engine using the IIE Dev Tools (IE7 requires them to be installed, IE8 and up bundles them) which may be sufficient to use the site.

  14. Re:Firefox only? on Epic and Mozilla Bring HTML5 OpenGL Demo To the Browser · · Score: 1

    Well you can try it in Chrome, but right now Chrome crashes when you do.

    They also don't prevent you from trying it in any browser (AFAIK) except pre-23 versions of Firefox.

  15. Re:Mining support instead of ad or other on Ask Slashdot: Would You Accept 'Bitcoin-Ware' Apps? · · Score: 1

    Exactly. Perhaps even it could be used by F2P model games ("Enable our bitcoin miner tool and we will credit you for in-game purchases periodically!") as an alternative to paying in cash.

  16. "Exactly like" on Alaskan Middle Schoolers Phish Their Teachers · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Teachers were presented with a display that looked "exactly like" it does when prompted for a software update, but instead it was a request for administrative access, according to district technology supervisor Jurgen Johannsen.

    Reading in between the lines I suspect it could have looked wildly different, but the teachers were trained to look for some specific text string which the students got to appear in the elevation dialog.

    The UAC dialog is designed to look different if a executable is digitally signed to prevent just this sort of phishing attack. Either the school IT screwed up by not using signed tools, or the teachers were not trained on the differences between the dialogs for signed and unsigned elevations.

  17. Re:So basically on Cracked Game Released To Get Back At Pirates · · Score: 1

    Well I don't think the simulation of piracy is supposed to be 100% accurate. Obviously if that was how it worked in the real world nobody would make games. And I assume that's the lesson they wanted to teach: we're afraid one day this will happen to us, now you see why, maybe you should sympathise a bit and buy our game.

    There are flaws with your actual argument too, but I will just say that there's nothing preventing me from seeing a game I like, say, Bioshock Infinite, downloading it, playing it, and then never buying it. Without the pirated copy I could not download it, and I would be forced to buy it (incidentally I haven't done any of that and plan to buy it on Steam when they put it on sale). So I can definitely say it is possible for piracy to do financial harm.

    Let's say the majority of pirates would never buy the game anyway, as you claim. If I was a dev, I would not care about this group since if I implement DRM nothing changes. So I am going to ignore them. Whether they really exist or not or how many of them are doesn't matter, it's a moot point.

    So now we have one more group: pirates that might help sales. IIRC I read a bit about music pirates actually being good for music sales as they tended to buy more music than other customers. So let's say DRM makes these guys more wary about purchasing music and they prefer to "try before they buy". Devs have to weight how much money they'd gain from those guys based on how much they'd lose from the first group (the group that would buy if there was no pirated version) to determine whether or not they try to implement some form of DRM to delay the release of a cracked copy as long as possible.

  18. Re:So basically on Cracked Game Released To Get Back At Pirates · · Score: 5, Informative

    You skipped the second half of TFS.

    The game is a game about game development, right? In the pirated copy, the games you develop will have a chance of getting pirated (!) which goes up as time goes on, eventually causing you to lose as you are then unable to make enough money to continue. It's delicious irony.

  19. Re:How is this news? on Thousands of SCADA, ICS Devices Exposed Through Serial Ports · · Score: 2

    There is hardware called "Remote Access Servers" that allow you to forward serial connections over a network connection via SSH or whatever.

  20. Re:Animal Cruelty on Protesting Animal Testing, Intruders Vandalize Italian Lab · · Score: 1

    I was thinking the scientists should publically protest the group's treatment of animals, but your idea is better.

  21. Re:Lame summery on Former Diplomat Slams Facebook For Inaction On Fake Pages · · Score: 1

    That's not really fair. If someone impersonated YOU on Facebook, you would certainly want their account suspended. The only reason "special" comes into play is it makes it more likely someone will impersonate/parody you if you're "special".

  22. Re:Seriously, are MS devs really using Win8? on Windows 8.1 May Restore Boot-To-Desktop, Start Button · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I actually think MS greatly improved the start menu with the new start screen. The problem lies mostly that people hate the Metro that came with it, but everything else is great.

    For starters, nested folders are gone. In All Apps, shortcuts are grouped based on a single folder, and everything is in one view. The stupid Company Name > Program Name > Program hierarchy is gone.

    MS has been telling companies to stop adding Uninstall links and other garbage (link to your website? Put it in your app, not in the start menu) to the start menu for a while but no one listens of course. MS has solved this problem by allowing you to remove shortcuts from the start screen, but still leaving them available in All Apps.

  23. Re:Seriously? on Six Retailers Announce Recall of Buckyballs and Buckycubes · · Score: 1

    This is a case where laws were crafted in such a way to encourage businesses to do the right thing, even if for the wrong reason.

  24. Re:Correlation is not causation on Browser Choice May Affect Your Job Prospects · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ah, but in this case, correlation is what the employer cares about.

  25. Re:Well the ultimate value of Bitcoin is on BitCoin Value Collapses, Possibly Due To DDoS · · Score: 3, Insightful

    US money also technically has a real value of 1/20 of a cent per bill, that doesn't stop us.

    If people will trade real goods and services for currency, that is what it is worth.