Claim it must be a problem with an OSX patch, work for a bit to "try and resolve the issue" and recommend the owner's son download the files to his own machine to work on them like everyone else is. Hopefully the "problem" will be forgotten about, but you can always say later if asked that you figured out Apple patched OSX to limit the damage of a mac virus, and you can't really revert it without leaving your machines vulnerable.
Or just disable the UPDATERS. No reason why that stuff needs to slow down startup, the app vendors should just do it like Firefox and check when you run it and download silently in the background for you.
With Windows I have to keep feeds in Google Reader for apps that don't automatically update so I can go to their individual sites, download the newest installers, run them, change the install paths since they were poorly coded and forgot it, do the same with the start menu shortcuts path, uncheck the options to install spyware, toolbars, and change my search page, and finally I can let it do its thing, but I have to go back to close it later. Then for installers that don't let me change the start menu path I have to go in and clean up after them.
Thankfully more apps have automatic update now, so the process is automated, but even some of those leave messes in my start menu. Bad!
Addendum: ASCII artwork appears to be shots of glados and an apparently ruined Aperture Lab (after Portal 1?). Also some shots that resemble the art style of the Portal trailer. A couple images have been 100% matched up.
Another shot is of a turret seen in Portal, another seems to be of two "millitary androids" as mentioned in Portal holding hands, one clearly has a portal gun. The figures being androids is less certain than the previous observations though, but they are definitely not human.
There are also very faint voices in the static sound file used for the in-game radios. The voices bear a remarkable resemblance to Kleiner, Alyx, and Barney, but the clip I heard was too staticy to make anything out. Supposedly there is a cleaned up clip that is clearer but I have yet to hear it (at work ATM).
The theory of communism is ok, everyone working together toward a brighter future *cue musical theme*. It's just in practice people tend to be greedy and abuse it, ruining it for everyone.
You can't remove the IE engine for compatibility reasons, since some third-party apps embed it.
You can remove the iexplore.exe browser though, so it can't be used as a main web browsers with out iexplore.exe or one of the aforementioned third-party apps, but you can't remove it completely because third party apps treat it like a core Windows component that will always be available.
Thankfully my favorite example, Steam, has switched to Webkit with the latest beta.
Sweet, as long as we're getting rid of errors lets get rid of bugs too! Problem solved!
Seriously, there are those of us where a little error message can go a long way to help us figure out a problem without needing to call up Tech Support. Not to mention if you just close a program every time there's a fatal error it's just going to look even worse than if you pop up an error message to notify the user there is a problem.
Getting rid of non-fatal error messages that don't stop an operation from completing--sure, though I wouldn't kill them completely, tuck them out of the way somewhere so a user like me who still cares can see them (example: IE/Chrome/Firefox info bars). But anything that forces the action the user is trying to do to abort or kills the program needs to let the user know what's going on at least, even if it's "The operation could not be completed, call Tech Support for help." and more technical users know there's a log file they can check to try to fix it themselves.
Steam works, at least for me. It adds value to the games most closely integrated with it. Integrated out-of-game and in-game server browsing, community features, store, automatic installation and patching.
This doesn't seem like any more of a problem than someone jacking in to an empty ethernet port on your network, except that a) they can do it from outside the building wirelessly and b) any special software used by the 7 user to access the network could potentially helpfully forward packets from others, but that would probably be a fault of the software not checking the origin IP on packets...
Anyways the fix is simple. Require authentication for all network resources. Windows enterprise solutions are set up like this by default and do it transparently using Windows login credentials. An intruder on your network would be unable to access anything. There is the LITTLE issue of exploits, so you can either batten down the hatches as much as you can and continually scan for suspicious network traffic, or you can try an alternate solution which may work better (a combination of both would be best):
For complete security, IT could notify all employees that use of this feature is not permitted. On corporate machines it could be disabled or removed or steps taken to block access, but you must assume users are clever enough to get it working (not to mention booting from a LiveCD bypasses every protection known, except complete Windows software compatibility. Someone did mention Linux software that did this though, and my brother's WiFi card supposedly does it too with a special included application.). IT could also compromise and allow users to use it if it is properly configured, with clear steps outlining how to check if this is the case. However either way, severe penalties (starting with being kicked off the network until you have resolved the problem) would be issued for having an open access point. IT would have to periodically stage their own "attacks" to look for such hotspots and attempt to connect, and then lock the user out of the network if they are able to access the user's machine anonymously (ie folder shares with company files) or the network.
OK so it's a long winded solution but basically: The problem isn't new, lock down systems with authentication best you can, routinely scan for hotspots and penalize users that put them up.
Disclaimer: I am not a security expert but I like to think I've picked up a few things.
I think you have this backwards. The article is talking about high def streaming over component not being allowed by the devices that will stream the content to your TV. You're talking about the Wii's low-def streaming over component to the TV... the Wii would have to purposefully downgrade it's quality to be affected by this but it's already at SD so it wouldn't be.
One could argue for eBay that sniping is cheating, or at least close to it. You can't snipe at a traditional auction AFAIK.... well you could but there would be more of an opportunity for someone else to bid..
The idea is similar to how an avalanche starts, IMO. You don't lay the blame for a huge avalanche on an unstable ridge of snow if it's halfway down the mountain when the avalanche started at the top.
You can't even really say the avalanche would have been any less destructive if that ridge was a gentle slope instead.
I used to have my main e-mail account be catch-all but quickly discovered spammers like guessing random addresses at any registered domain so I turned it off.
Slashdot Mirror
Guess it's a good thing I opted for a better GFX card instead and went with an i5...
Phone audio quality is generally much poorer than online videos, in my experience.
Claim it must be a problem with an OSX patch, work for a bit to "try and resolve the issue" and recommend the owner's son download the files to his own machine to work on them like everyone else is. Hopefully the "problem" will be forgotten about, but you can always say later if asked that you figured out Apple patched OSX to limit the damage of a mac virus, and you can't really revert it without leaving your machines vulnerable.
I mean, if you're OK with lying to your employer.
Until the owner's son edits files directly on the svn server, screwing up the repository.
Or just disable the UPDATERS. No reason why that stuff needs to slow down startup, the app vendors should just do it like Firefox and check when you run it and download silently in the background for you.
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
Done!
With Windows I have to keep feeds in Google Reader for apps that don't automatically update so I can go to their individual sites, download the newest installers, run them, change the install paths since they were poorly coded and forgot it, do the same with the start menu shortcuts path, uncheck the options to install spyware, toolbars, and change my search page, and finally I can let it do its thing, but I have to go back to close it later. Then for installers that don't let me change the start menu path I have to go in and clean up after them.
Thankfully more apps have automatic update now, so the process is automated, but even some of those leave messes in my start menu. Bad!
Could this be used to identify plagiarism?
Addendum: ASCII artwork appears to be shots of glados and an apparently ruined Aperture Lab (after Portal 1?). Also some shots that resemble the art style of the Portal trailer. A couple images have been 100% matched up.
Another shot is of a turret seen in Portal, another seems to be of two "millitary androids" as mentioned in Portal holding hands, one clearly has a portal gun. The figures being androids is less certain than the previous observations though, but they are definitely not human.
There are also very faint voices in the static sound file used for the in-game radios. The voices bear a remarkable resemblance to Kleiner, Alyx, and Barney, but the clip I heard was too staticy to make anything out. Supposedly there is a cleaned up clip that is clearer but I have yet to hear it (at work ATM).
Perhaps this information should, oh I dunno, be on the driving test, then?
The theory of communism is ok, everyone working together toward a brighter future *cue musical theme*. It's just in practice people tend to be greedy and abuse it, ruining it for everyone.
You can't remove the IE engine for compatibility reasons, since some third-party apps embed it.
You can remove the iexplore.exe browser though, so it can't be used as a main web browsers with out iexplore.exe or one of the aforementioned third-party apps, but you can't remove it completely because third party apps treat it like a core Windows component that will always be available.
Thankfully my favorite example, Steam, has switched to Webkit with the latest beta.
Another idea I was toying with was to substitute traffic signs: ie. stop, yield, caution, etc.. but I found that people are used to ignoring those.
This explains some driving I see on the roads...
Hah, even I don't read those anymore. I just curse nVidia and reboot.
Sweet, as long as we're getting rid of errors lets get rid of bugs too! Problem solved!
Seriously, there are those of us where a little error message can go a long way to help us figure out a problem without needing to call up Tech Support. Not to mention if you just close a program every time there's a fatal error it's just going to look even worse than if you pop up an error message to notify the user there is a problem.
Getting rid of non-fatal error messages that don't stop an operation from completing--sure, though I wouldn't kill them completely, tuck them out of the way somewhere so a user like me who still cares can see them (example: IE/Chrome/Firefox info bars). But anything that forces the action the user is trying to do to abort or kills the program needs to let the user know what's going on at least, even if it's "The operation could not be completed, call Tech Support for help." and more technical users know there's a log file they can check to try to fix it themselves.
User complaints would force you to remove this pretty quickly, I'd think. Nice idea though.
Steam works, at least for me. It adds value to the games most closely integrated with it. Integrated out-of-game and in-game server browsing, community features, store, automatic installation and patching.
Don't forget labor costs. Someone has to port that old old old code nobody understands anymore.
This doesn't seem like any more of a problem than someone jacking in to an empty ethernet port on your network, except that a) they can do it from outside the building wirelessly and b) any special software used by the 7 user to access the network could potentially helpfully forward packets from others, but that would probably be a fault of the software not checking the origin IP on packets...
Anyways the fix is simple. Require authentication for all network resources. Windows enterprise solutions are set up like this by default and do it transparently using Windows login credentials. An intruder on your network would be unable to access anything. There is the LITTLE issue of exploits, so you can either batten down the hatches as much as you can and continually scan for suspicious network traffic, or you can try an alternate solution which may work better (a combination of both would be best):
For complete security, IT could notify all employees that use of this feature is not permitted. On corporate machines it could be disabled or removed or steps taken to block access, but you must assume users are clever enough to get it working (not to mention booting from a LiveCD bypasses every protection known, except complete Windows software compatibility. Someone did mention Linux software that did this though, and my brother's WiFi card supposedly does it too with a special included application.). IT could also compromise and allow users to use it if it is properly configured, with clear steps outlining how to check if this is the case. However either way, severe penalties (starting with being kicked off the network until you have resolved the problem) would be issued for having an open access point. IT would have to periodically stage their own "attacks" to look for such hotspots and attempt to connect, and then lock the user out of the network if they are able to access the user's machine anonymously (ie folder shares with company files) or the network.
OK so it's a long winded solution but basically: The problem isn't new, lock down systems with authentication best you can, routinely scan for hotspots and penalize users that put them up.
Disclaimer: I am not a security expert but I like to think I've picked up a few things.
I think you have this backwards. The article is talking about high def streaming over component not being allowed by the devices that will stream the content to your TV. You're talking about the Wii's low-def streaming over component to the TV... the Wii would have to purposefully downgrade it's quality to be affected by this but it's already at SD so it wouldn't be.
One could argue for eBay that sniping is cheating, or at least close to it. You can't snipe at a traditional auction AFAIK.... well you could but there would be more of an opportunity for someone else to bid..
On the flip side, how many of these "bugs" are due to cheaters trying to weasel their way back into VAC servers?
There's sadly no way to know for sure, really, except for maybe people you know IRL.
When their crosshair "locks on" to the closest enemy in view all the time with perfect accuracy... yeah.
I think I saw a cheater in TF2 once.
But largely my experience has been cheat-free. Play on VAC servers and you should have a similar experience I would think.
The idea is similar to how an avalanche starts, IMO. You don't lay the blame for a huge avalanche on an unstable ridge of snow if it's halfway down the mountain when the avalanche started at the top.
You can't even really say the avalanche would have been any less destructive if that ridge was a gentle slope instead.
I used to have my main e-mail account be catch-all but quickly discovered spammers like guessing random addresses at any registered domain so I turned it off.