I'm sure if you installed ME on a modern computer, it'd run respectably - though I won't call Windows ME ahead of its time:)
If there is any analogy that can be made comparing ME and Vista then perhaps the next version of Windows will be to Vista what XP is to ME.
And say what you will about Microsoft operating systems (really, please do), XP was a good piece of work - they just rested on their laurels for too long while milking it for everything it was worth (and then some).
Now to go off on a brief tangent;
Operating systems are a scary enterprise, they're so complex, so large, the development cycle so long, I feel a lot of sympathy for developers of all of them. In my mind, it has to be the hardest work in coding - I once wrote a loader that booted to a blinking cursor. It took me ages and I was so chuffed with myself. It also took a LOT of coding, and mind bending exercises in performing the most basic, simple tasks in ways I'd never been forced to think about before. I had no idea how much I took operating systems for granted.
You sure as hell couldn't play World of Warcraft on it:)
I can't stand Vista, but I concede that any institution that could craft such a marvel as an entire functional operating system is surely capable of something amazing - I just wish they'd deliver already.
The CSIRO (google them) will be able to tell you that Australia has the bulk of the worlds known Uranium deposits, however Canada is the worlds largest producer.
This is because the vast majority of Australia's Uranium is, as yet, untapped. This limit is not due to technology or environmental concerns preventing the rights holders from extracting the material from the ground. It's because they are waiting on the market prices to rise.
There is no shortage of Uranium, it's just that the raw materials are, mostly, in the hands of a very small number of companies who are colluding to exploit high demand while controlling supply.
You know, just like the Oil companies have done for decades, with great success.
At this point in time, Uranium demand hasn't even BEGUN to peak. Once everyone starts rushing towards nuclear power and away from fossil fuels, expect to see production ramp up.
Windows XP makes your setup-created logon user an administrator by default
the same way it leaves the administrators password blank by default
you're gonna blame users for that one?
there's user education, and then there's being educated enough to ask the question: "Why the hell should anyone HAVE to compensate for the inadequacy of the developer?"
Personally I suspect Roland CREATED this particular meme... He must be loving it every time the tag pops up on a story - It's now so easy to find everything he's ever submitted.
> See that 3 in the title? That's just a number. Ignore it. Look only to Deus Ex for inspiration. > There never was a Deus Ex 2 - that was all just a figment of the darkest parts of your imagination.
There's nothing constructive to derive from this post but pointless speculation. Let that take care of the concerns of the trolls and critics right off the bat, nothing to see here, move along.
Anyways, I've been doing a bit of thinking about this issue.
You often hear about 'white collar' criminals being given massive sentences. They could be organisers of international software piracy rings, super electronic fraudsters (like the one mentioned in the original parent article), whatever. The numbers of years they are sentenced to and dollars they are fined just seem to get bigger and bigger each time i hear a new story.
New laws are increasingly being passed to raise the penalties for electronic crimes. These harsher penalties don't seem to be acting as much of a deterrent, however.
The economic damage caused by internet and computer crime is staggering, the number of victims (as seen in the article) in the hundreds of thousands, potentially even millions. Could there come a time where these crimes could incur capital punishment?
disclaimer: i come from a country without the death penalty, and personally don't understand the necessity for it, so don't read this as my supporting the idea. This isn't about my personal philosophy.
Murder is already a capital crime in a number of US states. People are already being executed in many countries for crimes other than murder. Drug trafficking, serious sexual offences, could it be a relatively a small step for internet crimes to escalate into capital territory?
The internet being international as it is and the victims of these crimes often being selected so indiscriminately, could it be a matter of time before an american committing e-fraud is indicted in a country where his crimes are of a capital nature?
Extrapolating ludicrously, could a european citizen not subject to capital punishment be indicted by an america where their internet-based crime warrants the death penalty?
It's controversial enough when a citizen of a country that doesn't have the death penalty is sentenced to death in one that does. Imagine if the crime they committed was something we might look at as being comparatively trivial in nature.
Someone in the comments on the article mentions The Sentinel (1986) but I can't believe Hacker (1985) slipped by them - hell, that game was one of the things that inspired my love of technology in my youth, putting me where i am today (alongside William Gibsons Neuromancer).
Stealth in Games meant a different level of strategy and thinking than the running around and bludgeoning your way to victory method found nearly everywhere else - stealth and smarts were much more in line with my personality.
I've been wanting a re-imagining of the hacker with modern ideas to come out for years, actually - anyone seen anything worthy?
"I've read through the comments and most people seem to think I'm saying something I wasn't trying to say. That's my fault for writing sloppy." You're writing for the Wall Street Journal but excuse yourself with "don't mind me, I'm a lousy journalist"?
Sorry buddy, that pony ain't gonna fly. You don't get where you are with sloppy writing, you don't get the luxury of that excuse.
"I'm an ignorant arsehole too lazy to actually write a proper piece for this rag"? Sure, I'd buy that.
In a remarkable set of coincidences, not everyone in the world has a computer, mp3 player, cd player, or buys cds and the parts of the world which are highly representative of the webs population also happen to be highly representative of the locations of Radioheads fanbase.
As of 1997, only 50% of the worlds population had actually made a phone call. The fact that the minority of the world uses the internet is representative of the fact that the minority can afford and have access to it.
It's easy for us cruisy first world types to forget this.
radiohead have for their previous efforts albums sold some 5 platinum and 2 gold albums world wide - thats 7 million copies sold, and online downloadable sales aren't counted in those figures.
last i heard, the web was world wide these days - if anything, 1.2 million seems like a pretty small figure to me, considering it comes in on average at less than half the price.
people always have such extreme overreactions to any microsoft articles or announcements.
the component oriented model seems like it could be a smart move - business users may not want fancy 3d or even sound functionality, a barebones os may be perfect for them, especially for terminal services clients.
this kind of model could also make them immune to their ongoing legal disputes regarding bundled software.
it could also address user complaints about OS bloat, and fears the next version of windows will come on 2 dvds;)
it could also reduce the confusion between the different versions of windows as seen with vista
as for the price, i expect each module is going to be a lot cheaper than a world of warcraft subscription:) microsoft make a lot of mistakes, but as far as making dollars goes, they seem to have a lot of smarts. i'm sure they'll figure something out which might even strike people as acceptable.
there's a lot of coulds in here, but hey, we still really don't have any useful information - and besides, microsoft could completely screw it up and make a shemozzle of the whole thing.
alternatively, they could set a new standard which is quickly adopted by their competitors, apple included.
maybe i'm new here, i'm not prepared to write off anything i don't know anything about out of knee jerk predjudice:)
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sure if you installed ME on a modern computer, it'd run respectably - though I won't call Windows ME ahead of its time :)
:)
If there is any analogy that can be made comparing ME and Vista then perhaps the next version of Windows will be to Vista what XP is to ME.
And say what you will about Microsoft operating systems (really, please do), XP was a good piece of work - they just rested on their laurels for too long while milking it for everything it was worth (and then some).
Now to go off on a brief tangent;
Operating systems are a scary enterprise, they're so complex, so large, the development cycle so long, I feel a lot of sympathy for developers of all of them. In my mind, it has to be the hardest work in coding - I once wrote a loader that booted to a blinking cursor. It took me ages and I was so chuffed with myself. It also took a LOT of coding, and mind bending exercises in performing the most basic, simple tasks in ways I'd never been forced to think about before. I had no idea how much I took operating systems for granted.
You sure as hell couldn't play World of Warcraft on it
I can't stand Vista, but I concede that any institution that could craft such a marvel as an entire functional operating system is surely capable of something amazing - I just wish they'd deliver already.
It's already started - EA don't need to fire the talent, they just need to make them Vice Presidents and give them a hefty payrise.
Which reminds me, I'll box that up and put it in the post today.
Will deal with this buyer again, AAAAA+
The problem with renewable resources is the people in power, by not being able to control nature, have no means to control production.
Our society will embrace socialism before it embraces renewable energy as a replacement for fossil/nuclear power.
This isn't renewable energy's problem - just our society.
The CSIRO (google them) will be able to tell you that Australia has the bulk of the worlds known Uranium deposits, however Canada is the worlds largest producer.
This is because the vast majority of Australia's Uranium is, as yet, untapped. This limit is not due to technology or environmental concerns preventing the rights holders from extracting the material from the ground. It's because they are waiting on the market prices to rise.
There is no shortage of Uranium, it's just that the raw materials are, mostly, in the hands of a very small number of companies who are colluding to exploit high demand while controlling supply.
You know, just like the Oil companies have done for decades, with great success.
At this point in time, Uranium demand hasn't even BEGUN to peak. Once everyone starts rushing towards nuclear power and away from fossil fuels, expect to see production ramp up.
Man, the average age of Slashdot has just been revealed.
Windows XP makes your setup-created logon user an administrator by default
the same way it leaves the administrators password blank by default
you're gonna blame users for that one?
there's user education, and then there's being educated enough to ask the question:
"Why the hell should anyone HAVE to compensate for the inadequacy of the developer?"
Personally I suspect Roland CREATED this particular meme... He must be loving it every time the tag pops up on a story - It's now so easy to find everything he's ever submitted.
Never feed the trolls!
> See that 3 in the title? That's just a number. Ignore it. Look only to Deus Ex for inspiration.
> There never was a Deus Ex 2 - that was all just a figment of the darkest parts of your imagination.
You mean, like Highlander and Highlander 2?
you must be new here :)
Having a sentence of death over your head in a foreign country does kinda remove it from your list of potential holiday destinations, however :)
Or connecting international flights...
There's nothing constructive to derive from this post but pointless speculation. Let that take care of the concerns of the trolls and critics right off the bat, nothing to see here, move along.
Anyways, I've been doing a bit of thinking about this issue.
You often hear about 'white collar' criminals being given massive sentences. They could be organisers of international software piracy rings, super electronic fraudsters (like the one mentioned in the original parent article), whatever. The numbers of years they are sentenced to and dollars they are fined just seem to get bigger and bigger each time i hear a new story.
New laws are increasingly being passed to raise the penalties for electronic crimes. These harsher penalties don't seem to be acting as much of a deterrent, however.
The economic damage caused by internet and computer crime is staggering, the number of victims (as seen in the article) in the hundreds of thousands, potentially even millions. Could there come a time where these crimes could incur capital punishment?
disclaimer: i come from a country without the death penalty, and personally don't understand the necessity for it, so don't read this as my supporting the idea. This isn't about my personal philosophy.
Murder is already a capital crime in a number of US states. People are already being executed in many countries for crimes other than murder. Drug trafficking, serious sexual offences, could it be a relatively a small step for internet crimes to escalate into capital territory?
The internet being international as it is and the victims of these crimes often being selected so indiscriminately, could it be a matter of time before an american committing e-fraud is indicted in a country where his crimes are of a capital nature?
Extrapolating ludicrously, could a european citizen not subject to capital punishment be indicted by an america where their internet-based crime warrants the death penalty?
It's controversial enough when a citizen of a country that doesn't have the death penalty is sentenced to death in one that does. Imagine if the crime they committed was something we might look at as being comparatively trivial in nature.
hey, i'm just saying :)
Now I think of it, a remake of Hacker II would be what I'm looking for :) There wasn't much to Hacker
Someone in the comments on the article mentions The Sentinel (1986) but I can't believe Hacker (1985) slipped by them - hell, that game was one of the things that inspired my love of technology in my youth, putting me where i am today (alongside William Gibsons Neuromancer).
Stealth in Games meant a different level of strategy and thinking than the running around and bludgeoning your way to victory method found nearly everywhere else - stealth and smarts were much more in line with my personality.
I've been wanting a re-imagining of the hacker with modern ideas to come out for years, actually - anyone seen anything worthy?
you know how absent minded those black mesa scientists were... they forgot to put a mic/speaker on the environment suit.
"I've read through the comments and most people seem to think I'm saying something I wasn't trying to say. That's my fault for writing sloppy." You're writing for the Wall Street Journal but excuse yourself with "don't mind me, I'm a lousy journalist"?
Sorry buddy, that pony ain't gonna fly. You don't get where you are with sloppy writing, you don't get the luxury of that excuse.
"I'm an ignorant arsehole too lazy to actually write a proper piece for this rag"? Sure, I'd buy that.
If they were black holes 9 billion years ago, it's entirely possible they're no longer there now
Glad to see one interesting modded comment on this story, I haven't seen this many trolls since the battle of the Pelennor Fields!
In a remarkable set of coincidences, not everyone in the world has a computer, mp3 player, cd player, or buys cds and the parts of the world which are highly representative of the webs population also happen to be highly representative of the locations of Radioheads fanbase.
As of 1997, only 50% of the worlds population had actually made a phone call. The fact that the minority of the world uses the internet is representative of the fact that the minority can afford and have access to it.
It's easy for us cruisy first world types to forget this.
radiohead have for their previous efforts albums sold some 5 platinum and 2 gold albums world wide - thats 7 million copies sold, and online downloadable sales aren't counted in those figures.
last i heard, the web was world wide these days - if anything, 1.2 million seems like a pretty small figure to me, considering it comes in on average at less than half the price.
people always have such extreme overreactions to any microsoft articles or announcements.
;)
:) microsoft make a lot of mistakes, but as far as making dollars goes, they seem to have a lot of smarts. i'm sure they'll figure something out which might even strike people as acceptable.
:)
the component oriented model seems like it could be a smart move - business users may not want fancy 3d or even sound functionality, a barebones os may be perfect for them, especially for terminal services clients.
this kind of model could also make them immune to their ongoing legal disputes regarding bundled software.
it could also address user complaints about OS bloat, and fears the next version of windows will come on 2 dvds
it could also reduce the confusion between the different versions of windows as seen with vista
as for the price, i expect each module is going to be a lot cheaper than a world of warcraft subscription
there's a lot of coulds in here, but hey, we still really don't have any useful information - and besides, microsoft could completely screw it up and make a shemozzle of the whole thing.
alternatively, they could set a new standard which is quickly adopted by their competitors, apple included.
maybe i'm new here, i'm not prepared to write off anything i don't know anything about out of knee jerk predjudice
I was thinking "Made in the USA"... *dons flameproof vest*
Not everyone who tips does it out of fear of embarassment.
What we're going to see here is the difference between people who tip, and people who don't