... Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at security firm F-Secure was told not to talk in detail about the Conficker gang...
Ok, what could possibly be the reason for this? I can only think of one, which is simply an effort to keep the malware alive (even though it's "dead") in order to scare users into buying their software for protection they don't need, and until someone provides another probable motive I'll discourage anybody to use F-Secure.
The same reason I'd mow the lawn of a vacant house next door or get its broken window fixed: To make it look lived-in. I don't want homeless squatters moving in, defecating all over, stealing from people in the neighborhood, and eventually burning the house down.
I can't decide between 3 and 5 for the least likely explanation.
3. "And in the contest between Y and Z, the winner is... The current office holder, X, by a landslide write-in vote!" I think people would notice that. Which makes me wonder, does Bart Simpson still get a good write-in following?
You seem to have forgotten the debt load (even with the "stimulus") this adds for the buyer
What debt load? I'm middle-class (less than $50k/yr), but I can afford to buy a new car with CASH. I don't try to live like I'm upper-middle class though, so my debt is almost nothing.
So some poor guy can't find a car. He didn't add much to the economy anyway.
You're joking, right? Poor does not equate to jobless. Unless minimum wage workers can get to their jobs (and public transportation doesn't exist beyond cities; sometimes not even within cities), they'll not just be poor, they'll be destitute. Added effect: drastic reduction in quality at their former workplace, reduction in local economy.
Baloney. The cars being traded in aren't long for this world anyway.
So, say I've got a truck that I could trade in for $4000. The dealer could sell it to someone for maybe $5000. Now, I'd rather get $4500, so I use the CARS program and the dealer doesn't get a $1000 profit, and the person who needed the inexpensive truck now has to buy a more expensive one, so they're out maybe $1000-$2000 too (and no, this isn't better for the dealer; the dealer could have had $2000-$3000 eventually by selling both cars).
There is a whole market for used trucks populated by people who can't afford better. This program will destroy those vehicles, creating a greater divide between poor and middle class folk ("the better to exploit you with, my dear").
Saying "it's 1984! 1984!" isn't useful.
Then why did we all read the book if not to use its name as a quick reminder of what should not ever be? It really is 1984 over there assuming that England's "National Enquirer" is being truthful. It's a bad result no matter what the reason is.
Then what I don't understand is that all of the car that are traded in, go straight to the car crusher.
To stimulate the streetsweeping and glassmaking markets, you have to go around breaking a lot of glass...
We're destroying perfectly usable vehicles (usually trucks or SUVs). This is destruction of wealth, not stimulus.
Can someone with some knowledge please explain to me why we can't build a machine with simple boot code that does not EVER need to be modified for the life of the hardware?
Some big shops love sending out bios settings changes to their computers (a la dell dccu type program). ie "on next boot only, pxe boot for a reimage"
read-only bios is easy, just like kiosk machines, but the money's in configurable multi-use systems.
The population pyramid scheme couldn't grow forever. And if we choose to stop before reaching carrying capacity (whatever our environment and technology at the time can support), then we can live in relative abundance rather than at the edge of starvation.
My genes scream through my hormones, telling me you're wrong. Breed breed breed breed. What value is relative abundance if I can't use it to secure my offspring's future?
From an evil hacker point of view, aren't PC botnets much more useful to control than mobile phones (which will have less power, less bandwidth, less memory and be connected to the net less often)?
Mobile phones with unlimited Edge or 3G data plans whose computing power surpasses that of average computers from 8-10 years ago? Sounds like a handy botnet to me. Zombies can regularly pull commands instead of having the commands pushed to them. Also, cell phones are rarely turned off, unlike people's home PCs.
As a side note, it's a bit of a pet-peeve of mine when people make fun of studies by saying "That conclusion is so obvious! What a waste of time!" Common sense, hunches, and gut feelings are often wrong,
Has there been any rigorous research to this effect?;)
I get pissed at the guy idling in the passing lane with his blinker on trying to wait for an opening in the traffic in the exit lane because he apparently forgot this was his exit. Take the next exit and backtrack! Now instead of him being 20 minutes late, he's 10 minutes late, and 100 other people are also 10 minutes late.
Every MS patch allows a/norestart option, but sometimes the software they patch is memory resident (especially IE based stuff), so rebooting afterward makes sense.
These people don't generate as much business as you might think. And they drive away business in fast food restaurants by taking up a whole table for hours.
we are Generation X, Now that the old fogeys are retiring it is our turn in charge, and we are going to create nostalgia for our youth era gone by.
#&*% Yeah! We #&*%ing killed Michael Jackson just to make the media storm that would dredge up loads of nostalgia. We will stop at nothing to relive our childhoods! You ^($*#%ers hear me? $&*(^%!!!
Thundercats is next. You hear that Lion-O? You're dead!
Slashdot Mirror
... Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at security firm F-Secure was told not to talk in detail about the Conficker gang...
Ok, what could possibly be the reason for this? I can only think of one, which is simply an effort to keep the malware alive (even though it's "dead") in order to scare users into buying their software for protection they don't need, and until someone provides another probable motive I'll discourage anybody to use F-Secure.
The same reason I'd mow the lawn of a vacant house next door or get its broken window fixed: To make it look lived-in. I don't want homeless squatters moving in, defecating all over, stealing from people in the neighborhood, and eventually burning the house down.
I can't decide between 3 and 5 for the least likely explanation.
3. "And in the contest between Y and Z, the winner is... The current office holder, X, by a landslide write-in vote!" I think people would notice that. Which makes me wonder, does Bart Simpson still get a good write-in following?
You seem to have forgotten the debt load (even with the "stimulus") this adds for the buyer
What debt load? I'm middle-class (less than $50k/yr), but I can afford to buy a new car with CASH. I don't try to live like I'm upper-middle class though, so my debt is almost nothing.
So some poor guy can't find a car. He didn't add much to the economy anyway.
You're joking, right? Poor does not equate to jobless. Unless minimum wage workers can get to their jobs (and public transportation doesn't exist beyond cities; sometimes not even within cities), they'll not just be poor, they'll be destitute. Added effect: drastic reduction in quality at their former workplace, reduction in local economy.
Nor would it need to be a disaster like Hollywood likes to project, just something AMAZING.
There's a bright spot on Venus.
Baloney. The cars being traded in aren't long for this world anyway.
So, say I've got a truck that I could trade in for $4000. The dealer could sell it to someone for maybe $5000. Now, I'd rather get $4500, so I use the CARS program and the dealer doesn't get a $1000 profit, and the person who needed the inexpensive truck now has to buy a more expensive one, so they're out maybe $1000-$2000 too (and no, this isn't better for the dealer; the dealer could have had $2000-$3000 eventually by selling both cars).
There is a whole market for used trucks populated by people who can't afford better. This program will destroy those vehicles, creating a greater divide between poor and middle class folk ("the better to exploit you with, my dear").
Saying "it's 1984! 1984!" isn't useful. Then why did we all read the book if not to use its name as a quick reminder of what should not ever be? It really is 1984 over there assuming that England's "National Enquirer" is being truthful. It's a bad result no matter what the reason is.
Then what I don't understand is that all of the car that are traded in, go straight to the car crusher.
To stimulate the streetsweeping and glassmaking markets, you have to go around breaking a lot of glass...
We're destroying perfectly usable vehicles (usually trucks or SUVs). This is destruction of wealth, not stimulus.
...all the way to Venus!
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/19/1920203/Noctilucent-Clouds-Spread-and-Mystify
Nice to see that Piston finally gets the recognition it desserves!
I see inanimate carbon rod has had its fifteen minutes of fame.
Sergeant Johnson.
Bonus diversity: he's gay for Elites.
Who moved my cheese?
Someone should do a car analogy for this...
If only there were a "Computrace lojack for laptops" for cars.
Can someone with some knowledge please explain to me why we can't build a machine with simple boot code that does not EVER need to be modified for the life of the hardware?
Some big shops love sending out bios settings changes to their computers (a la dell dccu type program). ie "on next boot only, pxe boot for a reimage" read-only bios is easy, just like kiosk machines, but the money's in configurable multi-use systems.
I can see it now: "Microsoft Hall of Justice"
I'd think D.C. Comics would want the naming rights on that one.
The population pyramid scheme couldn't grow forever. And if we choose to stop before reaching carrying capacity (whatever our environment and technology at the time can support), then we can live in relative abundance rather than at the edge of starvation.
My genes scream through my hormones, telling me you're wrong. Breed breed breed breed. What value is relative abundance if I can't use it to secure my offspring's future?
Get ready. Many HDTVs can already do stereoscopic, and the glasses are comfortable (unless you dislike the blink rate).
From an evil hacker point of view, aren't PC botnets much more useful to control than mobile phones (which will have less power, less bandwidth, less memory and be connected to the net less often)?
Mobile phones with unlimited Edge or 3G data plans whose computing power surpasses that of average computers from 8-10 years ago? Sounds like a handy botnet to me. Zombies can regularly pull commands instead of having the commands pushed to them. Also, cell phones are rarely turned off, unlike people's home PCs.
As a side note, it's a bit of a pet-peeve of mine when people make fun of studies by saying "That conclusion is so obvious! What a waste of time!" Common sense, hunches, and gut feelings are often wrong,
Has there been any rigorous research to this effect? ;)
I get pissed at the guy idling in the passing lane with his blinker on trying to wait for an opening in the traffic in the exit lane because he apparently forgot this was his exit. Take the next exit and backtrack! Now instead of him being 20 minutes late, he's 10 minutes late, and 100 other people are also 10 minutes late.
and hahahahahaha!
Maybe if people put their jailbroken phones in trebuchets and fire them at cell towers...
Every MS patch allows a /norestart option, but sometimes the software they patch is memory resident (especially IE based stuff), so rebooting afterward makes sense.
These people don't generate as much business as you might think. And they drive away business in fast food restaurants by taking up a whole table for hours.
we are Generation X, Now that the old fogeys are retiring it is our turn in charge, and we are going to create nostalgia for our youth era gone by.
#&*% Yeah! We #&*%ing killed Michael Jackson just to make the media storm that would dredge up loads of nostalgia. We will stop at nothing to relive our childhoods! You ^($*#%ers hear me? $&*(^%!!!
/humor ... or is it?
Thundercats is next. You hear that Lion-O? You're dead!
If water becomes scarce, it's gonna get expensive
Gonna? I saw a $4 bottled water at the movies.
I saw askslashdot in the tag line and thought it answered this question.