They already have went with a more flexible DRM on the Zune.
For instance, Sony & Universal have chosen to disallow "squirting" (IE: Zune's wifi sharing feature) of some of their music collections. All of this and Universal even gets a cut of the Zune sales. Before music is even loaded on the device.
That bears repeating. A music company that did not have a hand in producing the hardware receives part of the sales of that piece of hardware, before any music even touches said hardware. Yet this same company will not allow some of its songs to be shared, even under an already restrictive DRM scheme (a "squirted" song lasts 3 days or 3 plays).
Additionally, this device 100% does not support the PlayForSure DRM scheme that Microsoft championed right up until the Zune launched.
If that isn't flexible DRM (in favour of very large, very ignorant companies), then I don't know what is.
I think it was either PA, or a Slashdot comment that stated something like, "eventually DRM will force hardware to a point where the major music player-companies put out a box with one button on it. When you press this button nothing will happen. Fortunately, the hacker community will get a hold of it and make it open garage doors or some such madness."
I'd love to see if this little clause can stand up in court. From a support standpoint, it makes sense why MS would say this...would you want to be an MS support monkey trying to tell clueless, but dangerous, Uncle Bob that his version of 64bit Vista isn't working due to some unforeseen issue that can be blamed on VM software? The only thing I could come up with off the top of my head is driver support (obviously), which would be a problem regardless of virtualization.
Furthermore, offering what basically amounts to the same product (but with even more frilly features!), without the VM clause makes it seem like a pretty weak argument, as there are plenty of "home" and "premium" uses for running Vista in a VM.
Ohwell. It just sounds like one of those EULA lines that was thrown in just for fluff, and just so tech support can say, "get off my line, you retarded monkey."
If they learned from their first two mistakes, they might make somthing worth having.. Just had to clear up the syntax. I was cringing while thinking, "We're going to sit idly and let them make a 3rd mistake, just so they can learn from it?"
The N-Gage, then the N-Gage QC were both relatively big mistakes for a company the size of Nokia.
No...it probably was unpleasant because if, like me, he has a GeForce 4 440go, the card isn't supported in the newest (9746) drivers. Dmesg gives some fanciful stuff about it being in the legacy drivers. I call discrimination! They have support for it in Windows...why...I'd almost consider upgrading to Vista for those bleeding-edge drivers!
Besides...what if some crazy hacker finds a way to exploit a flaw in the old drivers? I bet if I had that fancy 64 bit version of Vista with some signed Nvidia drivers, I'd be darn near untouchable!
I know I'm completely taking what you said out of its context, but I work at the top tier of customer tech support for a cable company. This particular division's cable company decided to use temps for the customer service department to meet the call volume.
I think i can speak for anyone that gets a call one of these temps* have touched by saying that we hope these temps are quickly moved on to smaller, and more stressful jobs.
Honestly...when tech support starts getting billing calls, we can only surmise that these people are saying, "Thank you for calling, how may I direct your call?", then mashing buttons on their phone to get it transfered.
*To be fair, not all of their transfers are stupid...just the majority of the time. And it's not like they receive any actual training, but that's another rant for another time.
(Preface: I dislike Vista.)
I agree that the article is blowing it up more than it should, but why couldn't the MS rep generate a new key? They did it for XP for a good amount of time. Additionally, I have to argue on the point that it's reasonable:
These people decided to purchase more Vista than I'll ever want to see in a lifetime, and they were offered a special lower price for doing so. MS hasn't upheld their end of being a merchant by obviously not supplying these people with a working product. The choice between Refund or Wait-it-Out may seem clear-cut, but...let's break it down.
Refund: They get their money back. Maybe they decide to buy Vista again, but not go with the family package for obvious reasons. The result? No discount. Hopefully at this point, they just decided to keep their already-working operating system of choice, as from the reviews I've read, you're basically screwed from a support standpoint if you haven't bought brand new equipment within the past 6 months, or if you're not an experienced user. Hopefully anyone willing to shell out for Vista Ultimate would consider themselves at least moderately experienced.....
Wait-it-Out: The "no expected time period" response is utter shit. Like any large company, we all hope that MS is on top of this, and will have a fix for this people in at least a few days. If these people used MS' inability to roll Vista out in a timely manner as any measure of when they'll get their keys, they probably have already opted for the Refund.
Neither one of these options is ideal for the end-user, or for MS. Instead of a refund, MS should have done something to get these people Vista Home Premium at the price they were quoted...mail them out full copies if necessary. Just something to get the people what they paid for. Don't tell them what their keys are used for, and everything is safe. Or...maybe since they were highly inconvenienced...find out if the keys are for anything useful (like that shiny new Office Premium), and let them keep that as a bonus prize. On the other side of the fence, MS could have passed the info down to their phone support minions on when they are projecting to get this fixed. You know..something like, "It'll be done by the end of the week." or, "You might want to go peruse our other fine products. Are you sure you don't want to buy 2 additional copies of Vista Ultimate?"
Interesting anecdote - my girlfriend works at an ebgamestopcoland, and the stories she relates regarding the Wii and PS3 in the marketplace are something to behold.
One night I went to pick her up from work, and found (to my surprise) a relatively large hand-made sign in the window that stated "PS3 IN STOCK!"..they started the day with 6 total PS3s in stock...and ended it with the same number.
Additionally, they constantly get people asking, "Do you have the Wii in stock?" - to which they generally reply, "No, but we do have the PS3."...most people generally make odd faces, or politely decline at this point.
So those really hot triplets (how else can they all have the same picture?) that keep sending me the same message over, and over, and over on myspace are just bots?!?!
MY LIFE IS RUINED!!!!!
Steam is doing pretty damn well. It wasn't until later on in Steam's life that Valve decided to open up to other developers/games for content distribution. So, while spinning off Steam as a complete business sounds like a good idea, it doesn't factor in the issue of "What if Steam goes belly-up?", or "How would Valve replace the revenue stream from Steam?"
I suppose it's just Valve's decision on if they want to take the chance on having Steam tank, or if they can at least make the same amount of profit that they're making now.
I'm in agreement, here...the only time I've ever heard anyone argue against debit/credit cards is when they think it's not "polite" to use it for small transactions, or when they think that everyone is going to steal their card's number to run up a bill.
In response to the first issue, if a place is going to have a problem with small transactions, they usually post signs that state what their minimum required transaction is. If you don't feel like spending a minimum of $5 or $10 to shop at a location, either withdraw money from the ATM using your card, or shop somewhere else.
As for the second one...would you rather be a blind person with a credit card, and possibly some small bills to handle the above case? Or a blind person with $500 in cash in your wallet? Heck...even $100 in cash would be a juicy target for someone with low moral standing. If every crook in the US knew that we were making it easier for blind people to carry cash, wouldn't that be a Bad Thing?
(Yes, I am incredibly pessimistic when it comes to crimes. I'm sure it wouldn't change the crime rate against blind people at all, but if everyone stopped using cash, and started using something that required some form of security before it could be used, it would probably cut down on at least some crime - I suppose it'd be too much to ask the treasurey to come up with a biometric-secured card system to replace the current paper system.)
The only real problem I haven't heard spoken of would be, "What if the cashier overcharged the blind person?" Worst case scenerio on this is that they'd have to call their bank/credit card company, and say that they'd been taken advantage of. It'd probably show up as duplicate charges, or a cash-back charge, which would be rather obvious - the bank/credit card company refunds the appropriate amount of money, and does the appropriate thing to make sure the person that caused the overcharge doesn't get to do it again.
I hate to say it...but as soon as you turn something electronic, it's open to all sorts of attacks. Especially with how complicated they're making these machines.
The security should not only be "security through accountability", but "security through simplicity" - why does the voting machine need to be capable of running chess?! We need green-screens that are simply hard-coded to read a list of candidates from some kind of flash memory (without the ability to read anything else off that memory), match it up with the voting ticket (or whatever they use to verify each vote is unique to a single person), then be able to send the vote results off to a central database, and a central printing station to leave the paper trail.
I'm just blown away by how complicated they're making these things, and by how easy to access they are. It's not like 10 years from now these machines will be replaced by quad-core uber-beasts. They're made to supposedly do one thing, and do it damn well. Now...if that one thing is actually being extremely easy to hack with the goal of being able to rig voting results...I suppose the manufacturers (and any politicians that are way too excited about this form of voting..) have accomplished their goal.
it's impossible to find a way around Vista's security? Or that they will actually have to -gasp!- innovate to find a way to provide a second line of defense!
It's inevitable that virus writers are going to find a way in to the core of Vista - why can't the AV companies figure out how to further prevent access to Vista's core, and the user's personal files?
For instance..maybe they could make a smart AV program! Something that doesn't delete itself, critical system files, or refuses to actually delete viruses.
So...what you're saying is...this man is a professional open-door finder?! Sweet Giant Jesus! I could do that! Just think of all the official-looking doors you can find in say...a mall!;D
All joking aside, aren't professionals more...eh...professional about offering their services? I know that there are tons of analogies stacking up and getting people all pissed off...so here's one more!
Say, for instance, this man was wielding a gun (yeah, it's an overkill analogy already. bear with me.) - this man runs up to you, sticks the gun to your head, and shouts, "HAH! I BET YOU THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO SHOOT YOU, RIGHT?!!"
After much conversing with a gun to your head, you find out that this man simply wished to point out that he could point a gun to your head. For this jarring revelation, he wants $50 (of course, after retracting the gun from your head - asking for cash with the gun to your head would just be armed robbery!).
Now...we all know there is no such thing as a secure system, unless you've got it disconnected from every network, and locked in a basement somewhere. Granted, some systems could definitely use some help...but pointing out flaws, then asking for cash is not a good solicitation method. It might be easier to submit a resume saying, "I read your e-mails", or something to that effect.
Running with the idea that we should invest elsewhere...why not tinker with the idea of repair robots? That way, whenever the Hubble breaks (which it seems prone to doing), we don't need to send a shuttle up. We either make the robots autonomous (which may be hard since I'm not sure about the diagnostic info Hubble can report), or make it so we can control them from one of our wonderful little command centers. They could either be solar powered, or the crew that installs them could probably fit some sort of docking/charge station on to the telescope without interfering with anything...if there is a docking station involved, it could probably also store small spare parts that the robots could use.
I know I'm simplifying the solution to a complicated problem, but hell. It's not like it couldn't be done. Just look at DARPA and their autonomous vehicle challenge.
Agreed. Last time I had to manually install software was when I decided that the stock Orinoco drivers in the kernel weren't a good choice since I needed monitor mode. I compiled the new drivers, set the modules to load, and had monitor mode at my next reboot. Since I'm using Gentoo, I do have to recompile my kernel whenever I compulsively emerge a new kernel update, but other distros handle these updates in packages...automatically configuring everything for the end user.
Granted, not all of your hardware is going to be loved by Linux, and you may have to hassle with it to get it to work, but honestly...is the ignoramus that buys a $300 eMachine and can't install Winamp on a Windows box going to care if his nVidia card (without having the Linux binaries installed) can't get 3,000 fps out of glxgears?
Now for a slight tangent..
The biggest concern with that person would be browsing websites, creating documents, burning cds, downloading music, and being social online. The first major concern (browsing websites) is hampered by not all websites supporting browsers other than IE (not really the fault of Linux), and also by there being no version of Flash 8 for Linux (still not really the fault of Linux...but it seems worse than a website just not being compatible). The second concern is downloading music - I'm just overly paranoid about this, but I don't think the average Joe would be too comfortable with most of the Linux p2p offerings...and, for the legit people, I'm also not sure about the status of DRM'd services in Linux. The final concern is being social - I love and use gaim, but damnit all. Why can't I transfer files as easily as I can in the Windows version of AIM? Why can't I have easy webcam chats?
I know it's redundant to say, but this article makes me very excited about the Wii.
However, for a slice of reality, it's not $200 like we all wish it would have been. We'll probably have to spend well over $100 on accessories at launch (almost $60 for an additional Wiimote+nunchuck, $20 for each classic remote, and however much you want to splurge on additional flash memory). And depending on how the Wii system is set up, it may/may not be easy to find your friends and take over the world.
But Sweet Jesus. 1 million at launch is good for us AND Nintendo.
In addition to it being voluntary...isn't there a special invention called a -gasp!- power button?
All smarminess aside, if you don't want it using your electricity, you can do what tons of elderly people do; hook it up to a surge protector. Upon deciding that you need to power down your system, flip the On/Off switch on the surge protector.
It also appears that the PS3 has a power switch on the back of the unit, much like what the PS2 had. Granted, it isn't as easy to position as a power strip, but it lessens the chance of turning off other devices unintentionally.
Agreed. The part that has me worried is the role this "younger person" would play - would the ISP rather a teenage grandson/daughter came in..someone that has had NO experience with reading contracts or agreements where the subscriber can potentially be burned by a horrible deal? The only dealings I had with contracts in my youth were EULAs....and as much as I hate to admit it, the extent of reading those went about as far as finding the "Next" button as fast as possible. I'm not saying all of the people that help co-sign would be naive about a contract, but asking for a "younger person" to sign is asking for complications.
Besides...there's something called "Power of Attorney" for situations (at least in the U.S. - just noticed it was an article from the U.K.) where an elderly person (or incapacitated person, for that matter..) can't make the proper decisions on their own, so a person is legally appointed to do so for them. The woman obviously wasn't off her rocker, so I don't see a good reason as to why she was turned down.
I'm going out on a limb here, but I bet they include a window applique with the NIC. The bonus of this total package? 50 EXTRA HORSEPOWER!!!11!
Ok...I'm exaggerating, but it IS a bleeding waste. I could almost see paying $100 for this card, but $280? It should do a hell of a lot more than give me a 1 or 2ms bonus to my ping times, and free my computer from that horribly arduious task of communicating a few more bytes of data to my network card...maybe they'll have some useful devices to plug in to that USB port, -winkwinknudgenudge- know what I mean?
And to offer constructive criticism, maybe they could team up with Ageia? That would probably give them a good reason to move to PCI Express (where it seems everything else is moving to), and would definitely add more value to the board.
Ok. I'm being melodramatic...but look at the PSP. Notice any kind of lock-down going on? Remember all the hype right before it launched about how Sony would release homebrew tools to be used to allow people to develop homebrew games? And where are we now - continuous firmware "upgrades" that introduce little functionality, and effectively halt any kind of easy-to-use homebrew. No official tools. Barely any official downloadable executables. Not to mention the lackluster games and load times...ever try to play that Darkstalkers game?
Even if it isn't the full-fledged "You can't play anything other than games you purchased" lock-down that was patented, I can imagine Sony has something up their sleeves to completely screw up the PS3 gaming experience. I've completely lost confidence in Sony to produce anything more than over-hyped, absolutely beautiful hardware that ends up being nothing more than an over-glorified (and over-priced) media center.
But who takes up the job to recycle the old system?
I know anyone can go out and buy a $299 (e-machine/compaq/*), but those old computers have to go somewhere if the companies do what you propose. Sure, it'd be great to have those excess computers in schools, or just dump the components back in to making more bottom-feeder computers, but the whole system would probably just collapse on itself.
The price required by a computer technician to repair a computer reminds me of a few comment threads I've seen on other IT/computer service-related questions here; Up your asking rate until the consumer wises up. Obviously, there's always going to be a market for the completely inept users...companies like Best Buy just haven't found the limit to what the majority of inept users will pay before they just decide to get a new computer. And honestly...if they aren't smart enough to use a recovery disk, what makes you think they'd be smart enough to buy a new computer instead of shelling out $150 to fix the old one?;P
But the, "First off, we've got the whole switchable DPI thing, something RAPTOR GAMING and Logitech have been doing for a while with Razer following along too...." line irked me.
Yes. I own a Boomslang 2000, and have since around 2000 or 2001 (I'm going senile already)..and at that point in time, the mice were already a year or more old. Saying that Razer is "following along" is tantamount to saying, "Yaknow. Rio totally road Apple's coattails on the whole MP3 player thing." I'd even say that if it wasn't for Razer, the gaming mouse market wouldn't be what it is today. That's just me being nostalgic about ball mice, though.
Being an ex-resident of Canton, I do have some personal insight in to the area. Fortunately, I never went to Lake HS.;D
Generally, it's like that all the time there. Ignorant law enforcement with nothing better to do. Granted, the kid said he wanted to take down the server, but how much damage can a bunch of "1337 k1dd135" from IRC do when their idea of a DDoS is mashing F5? And for that matter, what kind of hardware is the school running to let an F5 rampage slow their site down?
Also...a nice little tidbit for how much "crime" canton has to deal with... this story has Canton listed as #30 on a list of the "Most Dangerous Cities"
Slashdot Mirror
Because it's too easy!
Times like this call for a case mod!
They already have went with a more flexible DRM on the Zune.
For instance, Sony & Universal have chosen to disallow "squirting" (IE: Zune's wifi sharing feature) of some of their music collections. All of this and Universal even gets a cut of the Zune sales. Before music is even loaded on the device.
That bears repeating. A music company that did not have a hand in producing the hardware receives part of the sales of that piece of hardware, before any music even touches said hardware. Yet this same company will not allow some of its songs to be shared, even under an already restrictive DRM scheme (a "squirted" song lasts 3 days or 3 plays).
Additionally, this device 100% does not support the PlayForSure DRM scheme that Microsoft championed right up until the Zune launched.
If that isn't flexible DRM (in favour of very large, very ignorant companies), then I don't know what is.
I think it was either PA, or a Slashdot comment that stated something like, "eventually DRM will force hardware to a point where the major music player-companies put out a box with one button on it. When you press this button nothing will happen. Fortunately, the hacker community will get a hold of it and make it open garage doors or some such madness."
I'd love to see if this little clause can stand up in court. From a support standpoint, it makes sense why MS would say this...would you want to be an MS support monkey trying to tell clueless, but dangerous, Uncle Bob that his version of 64bit Vista isn't working due to some unforeseen issue that can be blamed on VM software? The only thing I could come up with off the top of my head is driver support (obviously), which would be a problem regardless of virtualization.
Furthermore, offering what basically amounts to the same product (but with even more frilly features!), without the VM clause makes it seem like a pretty weak argument, as there are plenty of "home" and "premium" uses for running Vista in a VM.
Ohwell. It just sounds like one of those EULA lines that was thrown in just for fluff, and just so tech support can say, "get off my line, you retarded monkey."
The N-Gage, then the N-Gage QC were both relatively big mistakes for a company the size of Nokia.
No...it probably was unpleasant because if, like me, he has a GeForce 4 440go, the card isn't supported in the newest (9746) drivers. Dmesg gives some fanciful stuff about it being in the legacy drivers. I call discrimination! They have support for it in Windows...why...I'd almost consider upgrading to Vista for those bleeding-edge drivers!
Besides...what if some crazy hacker finds a way to exploit a flaw in the old drivers? I bet if I had that fancy 64 bit version of Vista with some signed Nvidia drivers, I'd be darn near untouchable!
oooh! snap!
I know I'm completely taking what you said out of its context, but I work at the top tier of customer tech support for a cable company. This particular division's cable company decided to use temps for the customer service department to meet the call volume.
I think i can speak for anyone that gets a call one of these temps* have touched by saying that we hope these temps are quickly moved on to smaller, and more stressful jobs.
Honestly...when tech support starts getting billing calls, we can only surmise that these people are saying, "Thank you for calling, how may I direct your call?", then mashing buttons on their phone to get it transfered.
*To be fair, not all of their transfers are stupid...just the majority of the time. And it's not like they receive any actual training, but that's another rant for another time.
(Preface: I dislike Vista.)
I agree that the article is blowing it up more than it should, but why couldn't the MS rep generate a new key? They did it for XP for a good amount of time. Additionally, I have to argue on the point that it's reasonable:
These people decided to purchase more Vista than I'll ever want to see in a lifetime, and they were offered a special lower price for doing so. MS hasn't upheld their end of being a merchant by obviously not supplying these people with a working product. The choice between Refund or Wait-it-Out may seem clear-cut, but...let's break it down.
Refund: They get their money back. Maybe they decide to buy Vista again, but not go with the family package for obvious reasons. The result? No discount. Hopefully at this point, they just decided to keep their already-working operating system of choice, as from the reviews I've read, you're basically screwed from a support standpoint if you haven't bought brand new equipment within the past 6 months, or if you're not an experienced user. Hopefully anyone willing to shell out for Vista Ultimate would consider themselves at least moderately experienced.....
Wait-it-Out: The "no expected time period" response is utter shit. Like any large company, we all hope that MS is on top of this, and will have a fix for this people in at least a few days. If these people used MS' inability to roll Vista out in a timely manner as any measure of when they'll get their keys, they probably have already opted for the Refund.
Neither one of these options is ideal for the end-user, or for MS. Instead of a refund, MS should have done something to get these people Vista Home Premium at the price they were quoted...mail them out full copies if necessary. Just something to get the people what they paid for. Don't tell them what their keys are used for, and everything is safe. Or...maybe since they were highly inconvenienced...find out if the keys are for anything useful (like that shiny new Office Premium), and let them keep that as a bonus prize. On the other side of the fence, MS could have passed the info down to their phone support minions on when they are projecting to get this fixed. You know..something like, "It'll be done by the end of the week." or, "You might want to go peruse our other fine products. Are you sure you don't want to buy 2 additional copies of Vista Ultimate?"
Interesting anecdote - my girlfriend works at an ebgamestopcoland, and the stories she relates regarding the Wii and PS3 in the marketplace are something to behold.
One night I went to pick her up from work, and found (to my surprise) a relatively large hand-made sign in the window that stated "PS3 IN STOCK!"..they started the day with 6 total PS3s in stock...and ended it with the same number.
Additionally, they constantly get people asking, "Do you have the Wii in stock?" - to which they generally reply, "No, but we do have the PS3."...most people generally make odd faces, or politely decline at this point.
....
:(
But I though that Vlad actually was a communist! All this history just doesn't make a lick of sense.
So those really hot triplets (how else can they all have the same picture?) that keep sending me the same message over, and over, and over on myspace are just bots?!?!
MY LIFE IS RUINED!!!!!
Steam is doing pretty damn well. It wasn't until later on in Steam's life that Valve decided to open up to other developers/games for content distribution. So, while spinning off Steam as a complete business sounds like a good idea, it doesn't factor in the issue of "What if Steam goes belly-up?", or "How would Valve replace the revenue stream from Steam?"
I suppose it's just Valve's decision on if they want to take the chance on having Steam tank, or if they can at least make the same amount of profit that they're making now.
I'm in agreement, here...the only time I've ever heard anyone argue against debit/credit cards is when they think it's not "polite" to use it for small transactions, or when they think that everyone is going to steal their card's number to run up a bill.
In response to the first issue, if a place is going to have a problem with small transactions, they usually post signs that state what their minimum required transaction is. If you don't feel like spending a minimum of $5 or $10 to shop at a location, either withdraw money from the ATM using your card, or shop somewhere else.
As for the second one...would you rather be a blind person with a credit card, and possibly some small bills to handle the above case? Or a blind person with $500 in cash in your wallet? Heck...even $100 in cash would be a juicy target for someone with low moral standing. If every crook in the US knew that we were making it easier for blind people to carry cash, wouldn't that be a Bad Thing?
(Yes, I am incredibly pessimistic when it comes to crimes. I'm sure it wouldn't change the crime rate against blind people at all, but if everyone stopped using cash, and started using something that required some form of security before it could be used, it would probably cut down on at least some crime - I suppose it'd be too much to ask the treasurey to come up with a biometric-secured card system to replace the current paper system.)
The only real problem I haven't heard spoken of would be, "What if the cashier overcharged the blind person?" Worst case scenerio on this is that they'd have to call their bank/credit card company, and say that they'd been taken advantage of. It'd probably show up as duplicate charges, or a cash-back charge, which would be rather obvious - the bank/credit card company refunds the appropriate amount of money, and does the appropriate thing to make sure the person that caused the overcharge doesn't get to do it again.
I hate to say it...but as soon as you turn something electronic, it's open to all sorts of attacks. Especially with how complicated they're making these machines.
The security should not only be "security through accountability", but "security through simplicity" - why does the voting machine need to be capable of running chess?! We need green-screens that are simply hard-coded to read a list of candidates from some kind of flash memory (without the ability to read anything else off that memory), match it up with the voting ticket (or whatever they use to verify each vote is unique to a single person), then be able to send the vote results off to a central database, and a central printing station to leave the paper trail.
I'm just blown away by how complicated they're making these things, and by how easy to access they are. It's not like 10 years from now these machines will be replaced by quad-core uber-beasts. They're made to supposedly do one thing, and do it damn well. Now...if that one thing is actually being extremely easy to hack with the goal of being able to rig voting results...I suppose the manufacturers (and any politicians that are way too excited about this form of voting..) have accomplished their goal.
it's impossible to find a way around Vista's security? Or that they will actually have to -gasp!- innovate to find a way to provide a second line of defense!
It's inevitable that virus writers are going to find a way in to the core of Vista - why can't the AV companies figure out how to further prevent access to Vista's core, and the user's personal files?
For instance..maybe they could make a smart AV program! Something that doesn't delete itself, critical system files, or refuses to actually delete viruses.
So...what you're saying is...this man is a professional open-door finder?! Sweet Giant Jesus! I could do that! Just think of all the official-looking doors you can find in say...a mall! ;D
All joking aside, aren't professionals more...eh...professional about offering their services? I know that there are tons of analogies stacking up and getting people all pissed off...so here's one more!
Say, for instance, this man was wielding a gun (yeah, it's an overkill analogy already. bear with me.) - this man runs up to you, sticks the gun to your head, and shouts, "HAH! I BET YOU THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO SHOOT YOU, RIGHT?!!"
After much conversing with a gun to your head, you find out that this man simply wished to point out that he could point a gun to your head. For this jarring revelation, he wants $50 (of course, after retracting the gun from your head - asking for cash with the gun to your head would just be armed robbery!).
Now...we all know there is no such thing as a secure system, unless you've got it disconnected from every network, and locked in a basement somewhere. Granted, some systems could definitely use some help...but pointing out flaws, then asking for cash is not a good solicitation method. It might be easier to submit a resume saying, "I read your e-mails", or something to that effect.
Running with the idea that we should invest elsewhere...why not tinker with the idea of repair robots? That way, whenever the Hubble breaks (which it seems prone to doing), we don't need to send a shuttle up. We either make the robots autonomous (which may be hard since I'm not sure about the diagnostic info Hubble can report), or make it so we can control them from one of our wonderful little command centers. They could either be solar powered, or the crew that installs them could probably fit some sort of docking/charge station on to the telescope without interfering with anything...if there is a docking station involved, it could probably also store small spare parts that the robots could use.
I know I'm simplifying the solution to a complicated problem, but hell. It's not like it couldn't be done. Just look at DARPA and their autonomous vehicle challenge.
Agreed. Last time I had to manually install software was when I decided that the stock Orinoco drivers in the kernel weren't a good choice since I needed monitor mode. I compiled the new drivers, set the modules to load, and had monitor mode at my next reboot. Since I'm using Gentoo, I do have to recompile my kernel whenever I compulsively emerge a new kernel update, but other distros handle these updates in packages...automatically configuring everything for the end user.
Granted, not all of your hardware is going to be loved by Linux, and you may have to hassle with it to get it to work, but honestly...is the ignoramus that buys a $300 eMachine and can't install Winamp on a Windows box going to care if his nVidia card (without having the Linux binaries installed) can't get 3,000 fps out of glxgears?
Now for a slight tangent..
The biggest concern with that person would be browsing websites, creating documents, burning cds, downloading music, and being social online. The first major concern (browsing websites) is hampered by not all websites supporting browsers other than IE (not really the fault of Linux), and also by there being no version of Flash 8 for Linux (still not really the fault of Linux...but it seems worse than a website just not being compatible). The second concern is downloading music - I'm just overly paranoid about this, but I don't think the average Joe would be too comfortable with most of the Linux p2p offerings...and, for the legit people, I'm also not sure about the status of DRM'd services in Linux. The final concern is being social - I love and use gaim, but damnit all. Why can't I transfer files as easily as I can in the Windows version of AIM? Why can't I have easy webcam chats?
-drool-
I know it's redundant to say, but this article makes me very excited about the Wii.
However, for a slice of reality, it's not $200 like we all wish it would have been. We'll probably have to spend well over $100 on accessories at launch (almost $60 for an additional Wiimote+nunchuck, $20 for each classic remote, and however much you want to splurge on additional flash memory). And depending on how the Wii system is set up, it may/may not be easy to find your friends and take over the world.
But Sweet Jesus. 1 million at launch is good for us AND Nintendo.
In addition to it being voluntary...isn't there a special invention called a -gasp!- power button?
All smarminess aside, if you don't want it using your electricity, you can do what tons of elderly people do; hook it up to a surge protector. Upon deciding that you need to power down your system, flip the On/Off switch on the surge protector.
It also appears that the PS3 has a power switch on the back of the unit, much like what the PS2 had. Granted, it isn't as easy to position as a power strip, but it lessens the chance of turning off other devices unintentionally.
Agreed. The part that has me worried is the role this "younger person" would play - would the ISP rather a teenage grandson/daughter came in..someone that has had NO experience with reading contracts or agreements where the subscriber can potentially be burned by a horrible deal? The only dealings I had with contracts in my youth were EULAs....and as much as I hate to admit it, the extent of reading those went about as far as finding the "Next" button as fast as possible. I'm not saying all of the people that help co-sign would be naive about a contract, but asking for a "younger person" to sign is asking for complications.
Besides...there's something called "Power of Attorney" for situations (at least in the U.S. - just noticed it was an article from the U.K.) where an elderly person (or incapacitated person, for that matter..) can't make the proper decisions on their own, so a person is legally appointed to do so for them. The woman obviously wasn't off her rocker, so I don't see a good reason as to why she was turned down.
I'm going out on a limb here, but I bet they include a window applique with the NIC. The bonus of this total package? 50 EXTRA HORSEPOWER!!!11!
Ok...I'm exaggerating, but it IS a bleeding waste. I could almost see paying $100 for this card, but $280? It should do a hell of a lot more than give me a 1 or 2ms bonus to my ping times, and free my computer from that horribly arduious task of communicating a few more bytes of data to my network card...maybe they'll have some useful devices to plug in to that USB port, -winkwinknudgenudge- know what I mean?
And to offer constructive criticism, maybe they could team up with Ageia? That would probably give them a good reason to move to PCI Express (where it seems everything else is moving to), and would definitely add more value to the board.
Ok. I'm being melodramatic...but look at the PSP. Notice any kind of lock-down going on? Remember all the hype right before it launched about how Sony would release homebrew tools to be used to allow people to develop homebrew games? And where are we now - continuous firmware "upgrades" that introduce little functionality, and effectively halt any kind of easy-to-use homebrew. No official tools. Barely any official downloadable executables. Not to mention the lackluster games and load times...ever try to play that Darkstalkers game?
Even if it isn't the full-fledged "You can't play anything other than games you purchased" lock-down that was patented, I can imagine Sony has something up their sleeves to completely screw up the PS3 gaming experience. I've completely lost confidence in Sony to produce anything more than over-hyped, absolutely beautiful hardware that ends up being nothing more than an over-glorified (and over-priced) media center.
But who takes up the job to recycle the old system?
;P
I know anyone can go out and buy a $299 (e-machine/compaq/*), but those old computers have to go somewhere if the companies do what you propose. Sure, it'd be great to have those excess computers in schools, or just dump the components back in to making more bottom-feeder computers, but the whole system would probably just collapse on itself.
The price required by a computer technician to repair a computer reminds me of a few comment threads I've seen on other IT/computer service-related questions here; Up your asking rate until the consumer wises up. Obviously, there's always going to be a market for the completely inept users...companies like Best Buy just haven't found the limit to what the majority of inept users will pay before they just decide to get a new computer. And honestly...if they aren't smart enough to use a recovery disk, what makes you think they'd be smart enough to buy a new computer instead of shelling out $150 to fix the old one?
But the, "First off, we've got the whole switchable DPI thing, something RAPTOR GAMING and Logitech have been doing for a while with Razer following along too...." line irked me.
Yes. I own a Boomslang 2000, and have since around 2000 or 2001 (I'm going senile already)..and at that point in time, the mice were already a year or more old. Saying that Razer is "following along" is tantamount to saying, "Yaknow. Rio totally road Apple's coattails on the whole MP3 player thing." I'd even say that if it wasn't for Razer, the gaming mouse market wouldn't be what it is today. That's just me being nostalgic about ball mice, though.
Being an ex-resident of Canton, I do have some personal insight in to the area. Fortunately, I never went to Lake HS. ;D
Generally, it's like that all the time there. Ignorant law enforcement with nothing better to do. Granted, the kid said he wanted to take down the server, but how much damage can a bunch of "1337 k1dd135" from IRC do when their idea of a DDoS is mashing F5? And for that matter, what kind of hardware is the school running to let an F5 rampage slow their site down?
Also...a nice little tidbit for how much "crime" canton has to deal with... this story has Canton listed as #30 on a list of the "Most Dangerous Cities"