And can you name a period when their government didn't suck?
I'm not a scholar on the subject by any stretch of the imagination, but how about during the Tang and Song dynasties (roughly 618-1279AD). It was during those dynasties that the government actively encouraged Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist and Taoist monastaries as cultural institutions to educate the masses.
A couple years ago I used a beta of it on my Samsung i730 that was running Windows Mobile. I remember it being better than the built in IE browser by leaps and bounds, so much so that I was sad when the beta expired. Yet I never purchased a copy of it, so I guess it wasn't that great.
Thanks, but the Curve does for me everything the iBrick could...with a real keyboard.
...and a subpar web browser. Don't get me wrong. I like the Curve a lot, and in the last couple years I've had a Blackberry 7290, 8700 and right now I have an 8800. But the Blackberry web browser doesn't even hold a candle to the iPhone browser. At least give Apple credit where it is due. They have the first decent mobile web browser. You're right about Blackberry's having real keyboards. The "smart" "adaptive" keyboard on the iPhone is a joke if you're used to the tactile feedback from real buttons.
It's obvious that I failed to properly communicate "extraneous". The discussion is taking place in the context of IT workers working insanely long hours and falling asleep because of it. The parent mentioned that the happiest time in his life is when he was working normal hours and coming home to a loving girl friend and a home cooked meal. The point I was trying to make is that if you are working hard for "extraneous" things (Xboxes, HDTVs, BMWs, etc.) there really isn't a need to do so. In fact by doing that you may be lowering your quality of life because you enslave yourself to a job simply so that you can afford things that you don't really need.
To a certain extent I'm sure that they are proud to just be Chinese and be members of one of the oldest civilizations on the planet. They can trace their roots back through numerous dynasties (Ming, Han, Chou, etc.) Their government may suck right now, but their culture is extremely deep and rich.
Western medicine is really bad at discovering the source of "problems" until they've progressed into serious diseases. I used to, and to some extent still do have the same problems. In my case it turned out that changing my diet (cutting out caffeine and refined sugars, eating lots of vegetables, grains and high quality meats) and exercising (tai chi and kung fu training) made a huge world of difference. You might consider checking out a book called Healing with Whole Foods as a good place to start on diet.
It's true mods, he hasn't done anything wrong. However, conversely, metamods need to pay attention to the positive mods as well, which he clearly doesn't deserve. Insightful? It takes no insight to wildly assume the worst about the government, as proven time and again on blogs and online forums.
Obviously you're just a government plant who has been sent here to discredit anyone who speaks ill of the regime.;)
I think that the underlying concern probably has to do with hacks and cheats. It's a lot easier to load third party binaries that interact with the game engine on a computer than it is on a console.
You're right on the money and should be modded up. I'm 29 and despite all the best intentions of my parents to school me on the subject of finances and economics, I had to go out and learn for myself because I'm stubborn. Next month I'm going to be moving out of my $1350 a month apartment and into a situation with room mates where I'm only paying $800 a month. I have about $20,000 in debt and because of some changes in the way I plan on living, I am going to be able to get rid of it in about two years. To do so I have to lower my cost of living and make some sacrifices, but in two years from now, my paycheck will actually be my paycheck. I will actually be holding onto my money, instead of paying it out to credit cards. In five years from now I should have enough for a down payment on a place to live so I can stop paying rent and get off of that treadmill.
It does come down to making some choices (others might call them sacrifices). I don't have cable. I drive a 1992 Volvo with 250,000 miles on it. I spend most of my food money on groceries instead of eating out. I can honestly say that I'm happy though. It feels great to live within your means.
You're right on the money with that. I did some biofeedback about a decade ago as a way of dealing with ADD. The place that I did it at (the Drake Institute) had many different programs, but in my case I was working with delta and theta waves. There is a "hyper concentrated" state that will bring the two waves close together, but it shows up as muscle tension. The polar opposite of that hyper concentrated state is focused relaxation.
I'd be more afraid of getting used to that feedback and not being able to relax without it...
In my case I developed a feeling for being focused and relaxed. It took about six months to get there. At the beginning I was doing the "treatment" four times a week. At the end of the program I was only going there once every other week for tune up sessions. The best analogy that I can come up with is that you develop what is akin to a mental muscle memory for it. It's the mental equivalent of learning how to ride a bike. Once you can do it, you can go years without doing it but still know how. The biofeedback is great because it becomes a self re-enforcing loop. The more you do it, the better you get at it.
I'm not sure if they did some of this based on security concerns or if it was to eliminate the FUD of "See, even Microsoft uses Open Source," but they've rewritten their entire TCP/IP stack. I believe they also made significant changes to the Windows Server codebase that was used to build Windows Vista.
That's good to know. Ever since I stopped consulting and became responsible for a single network, I haven't seen a compromised Windows box in over a year. For the most part, if you follow best practices and use some sort of web filter that prevents your users from accessing the really bad parts of the internet, it's pretty easy to run a clean Microsoft network. I haven't seen a compromised SERVER in years. The only server I've seen compromised in the last five years was an NT 4.0 box, and that only got compromised because the client went ahead and installed a WAP against my recommendation, and then failed to secure it properly.
I'm not dumb enough to espouse any sort of "Microsoft products are secure by default." nonsense, but on the other hand, I've been using the stuff since DOS 3.3 and will be the first to say that they have gotten way better than they used to be.
Oh noes... I shot down the anti-Microsoft FUD. I'm obviously flaming the original poster for his FREAKING IDIOCY and complete lack of comprehension of the subject he's talking about.
Note to mods, this completely unnecessary post is -1 Flamebait, -1 Troll, or -1 Off-Topic. The original post of mine was just pointing out a factual error. It's a good thing I've got some karma to burn.
Hahahahaaa!! I point out how someone is obviously spewing FUD, then back it up with factual information and that makes me a troll? Whoa! I wonder what alternate reality the guy with mod points is living in where sharing factual information makes someone a troll.
Just to further emphasize the point with a quote straight from the horse's mouth...
By default, Remote Desktop for Administration is installed when Windows Server 2003 is installed. However, Remote Desktop for Administration is DISABLED for security reasons.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814590
Now tell me, where did you get the idea that it is enabled by default? Certainly not from first hand experience... unless that experience is installing images that someone else created for you?
From reading the above article it's clear that remote desktop isn't enabled by default and if you ship out a server to a remote location without enabling remote desktop, you have to do some registry tweaking to enable it.
It's far far better to simply avoid doing really boneheaded things to begin with.
I agree. I think a famous person once said something along the lines of, "Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I will show you a person who has never done anything."
I think Microsoft is kind of like Iran at this point. No matter how much they comply and how much they change, they are still going to get bombed. Yet like another poster pointed out in this discussion, if you put an unpatched Linux install from 1997 on the net, it is going to get owned just as fast an unpatched Win2000 machine. Software evolves. The real question here is whether or not Microsoft is serious about making their products as secure as possible going forward. Given the strides they've made in the last two years, I think it can be argued that they are starting to get it. Now, do they get it to the point that they are going to completely rewrite entire portions of their architecture... probably not, doing so would be almost unrealistic from a business point of view. Odds are that they are just going to add more spaghetti code to patch and augment the current mess of spaghetti code.
With security, you CANNOT rely upon the end user to keep current on patches. Your system HAS to be able to defend itself WITHOUT those patches.
You bring up two things there. One, you can't rely on the end user to stay current with their patches. Microsoft went ahead and setup Automatic Updates. Therefore the end user doesn't really have to think about it. The box will reboot itself automatically once a month to install the latest patches.
Your second point about a box being able to defend itself without patches is unrealistic. Software is constantly evolving. Nobody ever gets it right the first time. To make a car analogy here, you're pretty much saying that if Microsoft were an automotive company, they should sell cars that automatically change their own oil, but even if they don't automatically change the oil, the oil should never need to be changed in the first place. A properly designed machine should never need any maintenance, right?
Parent is spewing FUD. I just did a net view on three different DCs and the only two shares advertised by default are NETLOGON and SYSVOL. Both of those are necessary shares for a DC to provide DC functionality to the clients they are supposed to serve.
Remote Desktop is not enabled by default on a Win2K3 box. You need to explicitly turn it on. In fact even after you turn it on in default configuration, the Domain Admins group isn't even given rights to log on and needs to be explicitly granted those rights.
I'm not quite sure what advertising the parent is talking about. The whole purpose of file servers and domain controllers is to serve up resources to network clients. The clients need to find those resources some how. Therefore the servers broadcast their status. Following the assumed train of logic, NBC has a huge problem. They're advertising these wacky TV programs that anybody can access... and they don't even authenticate who accesses them. Newflash... Microsoft more security than major television broadcasters!!
Like so many technologies that come out, this one is obviously aimed at the enterprise. A whitelist would just be a headache for a home user who wants to tinker with their box. On the other hand, the secretary in HR doesn't need to be running any program that isn't on the approved list of programs. She doesn't need to be visiting any websites that are running constantly changing code bases. She doesn't need to be downloading crap off of Sourceforge and checking it out. In that kind of environment, a white list is a great idea.
the RIAA is using intellectual property laws to shape the market so its members are the only way to distribute music.
How are they doing that? My understanding is that the RIAA is prosecuting people who are illegally distributing copies of the works that the companies they represent hold the copyright for. When I read what you wrote, it leads me to believe that the RIAA is going after unsigned bands and telling them that they aren't allowed to distribute their music on the Internet.
Replace RIAA with Open Source and replace "music pirate" with Microsoft. Is it okay for Microsoft to help themselves to Open Source code? I mean after all, those silly developers released their code under the GPL, but what if Microsoft doesn't feel like following the GPL? Obviously those stupid developers shouldn't have put their code out there in a such a way Microsoft could help themselves to it. Right? To follow your own logic, the original copy of the code remains intact and still has plenty of uses. Therefore Microsoft isn't exactly stealing it. Right? Right?
Slashdot Mirror
I can imagine the headlines coming out of Redmond already... Anyone who uses Linux is obviously a mentally ill drug addict.
I'm not a scholar on the subject by any stretch of the imagination, but how about during the Tang and Song dynasties (roughly 618-1279AD). It was during those dynasties that the government actively encouraged Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist and Taoist monastaries as cultural institutions to educate the masses.
A couple years ago I used a beta of it on my Samsung i730 that was running Windows Mobile. I remember it being better than the built in IE browser by leaps and bounds, so much so that I was sad when the beta expired. Yet I never purchased a copy of it, so I guess it wasn't that great.
Hahahahaaa. Even though it isn't completely accurate, it's funny.
...and a subpar web browser. Don't get me wrong. I like the Curve a lot, and in the last couple years I've had a Blackberry 7290, 8700 and right now I have an 8800. But the Blackberry web browser doesn't even hold a candle to the iPhone browser. At least give Apple credit where it is due. They have the first decent mobile web browser. You're right about Blackberry's having real keyboards. The "smart" "adaptive" keyboard on the iPhone is a joke if you're used to the tactile feedback from real buttons.
It's obvious that I failed to properly communicate "extraneous". The discussion is taking place in the context of IT workers working insanely long hours and falling asleep because of it. The parent mentioned that the happiest time in his life is when he was working normal hours and coming home to a loving girl friend and a home cooked meal. The point I was trying to make is that if you are working hard for "extraneous" things (Xboxes, HDTVs, BMWs, etc.) there really isn't a need to do so. In fact by doing that you may be lowering your quality of life because you enslave yourself to a job simply so that you can afford things that you don't really need.
To a certain extent I'm sure that they are proud to just be Chinese and be members of one of the oldest civilizations on the planet. They can trace their roots back through numerous dynasties (Ming, Han, Chou, etc.) Their government may suck right now, but their culture is extremely deep and rich.
Western medicine is really bad at discovering the source of "problems" until they've progressed into serious diseases. I used to, and to some extent still do have the same problems. In my case it turned out that changing my diet (cutting out caffeine and refined sugars, eating lots of vegetables, grains and high quality meats) and exercising (tai chi and kung fu training) made a huge world of difference. You might consider checking out a book called Healing with Whole Foods as a good place to start on diet.
Once you have shelter, food, water and love... everything else is just extraneous.
Obviously you're just a government plant who has been sent here to discredit anyone who speaks ill of the regime. ;)
I think that the underlying concern probably has to do with hacks and cheats. It's a lot easier to load third party binaries that interact with the game engine on a computer than it is on a console.
It does come down to making some choices (others might call them sacrifices). I don't have cable. I drive a 1992 Volvo with 250,000 miles on it. I spend most of my food money on groceries instead of eating out. I can honestly say that I'm happy though. It feels great to live within your means.
I'd be more afraid of getting used to that feedback and not being able to relax without it...
In my case I developed a feeling for being focused and relaxed. It took about six months to get there. At the beginning I was doing the "treatment" four times a week. At the end of the program I was only going there once every other week for tune up sessions. The best analogy that I can come up with is that you develop what is akin to a mental muscle memory for it. It's the mental equivalent of learning how to ride a bike. Once you can do it, you can go years without doing it but still know how. The biofeedback is great because it becomes a self re-enforcing loop. The more you do it, the better you get at it.
That's good to know. Ever since I stopped consulting and became responsible for a single network, I haven't seen a compromised Windows box in over a year. For the most part, if you follow best practices and use some sort of web filter that prevents your users from accessing the really bad parts of the internet, it's pretty easy to run a clean Microsoft network. I haven't seen a compromised SERVER in years. The only server I've seen compromised in the last five years was an NT 4.0 box, and that only got compromised because the client went ahead and installed a WAP against my recommendation, and then failed to secure it properly.
I'm not dumb enough to espouse any sort of "Microsoft products are secure by default." nonsense, but on the other hand, I've been using the stuff since DOS 3.3 and will be the first to say that they have gotten way better than they used to be.
Note to mods, this completely unnecessary post is -1 Flamebait, -1 Troll, or -1 Off-Topic. The original post of mine was just pointing out a factual error. It's a good thing I've got some karma to burn.
Hahahahaaa!! I point out how someone is obviously spewing FUD, then back it up with factual information and that makes me a troll? Whoa! I wonder what alternate reality the guy with mod points is living in where sharing factual information makes someone a troll.
By default, Remote Desktop for Administration is installed when Windows Server 2003 is installed. However, Remote Desktop for Administration is DISABLED for security reasons.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814590
Now tell me, where did you get the idea that it is enabled by default? Certainly not from first hand experience... unless that experience is installing images that someone else created for you?
It's a good thing that you're not totally sure, because then you'd be TOTALLY wrong instead of just PRETTY wrong.
http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/05/04/serverhacks_remote.html
From reading the above article it's clear that remote desktop isn't enabled by default and if you ship out a server to a remote location without enabling remote desktop, you have to do some registry tweaking to enable it.
I agree. I think a famous person once said something along the lines of, "Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I will show you a person who has never done anything."
I think Microsoft is kind of like Iran at this point. No matter how much they comply and how much they change, they are still going to get bombed. Yet like another poster pointed out in this discussion, if you put an unpatched Linux install from 1997 on the net, it is going to get owned just as fast an unpatched Win2000 machine. Software evolves. The real question here is whether or not Microsoft is serious about making their products as secure as possible going forward. Given the strides they've made in the last two years, I think it can be argued that they are starting to get it. Now, do they get it to the point that they are going to completely rewrite entire portions of their architecture... probably not, doing so would be almost unrealistic from a business point of view. Odds are that they are just going to add more spaghetti code to patch and augment the current mess of spaghetti code.
You bring up two things there. One, you can't rely on the end user to stay current with their patches. Microsoft went ahead and setup Automatic Updates. Therefore the end user doesn't really have to think about it. The box will reboot itself automatically once a month to install the latest patches.
Your second point about a box being able to defend itself without patches is unrealistic. Software is constantly evolving. Nobody ever gets it right the first time. To make a car analogy here, you're pretty much saying that if Microsoft were an automotive company, they should sell cars that automatically change their own oil, but even if they don't automatically change the oil, the oil should never need to be changed in the first place. A properly designed machine should never need any maintenance, right?
Remote Desktop is not enabled by default on a Win2K3 box. You need to explicitly turn it on. In fact even after you turn it on in default configuration, the Domain Admins group isn't even given rights to log on and needs to be explicitly granted those rights.
I'm not quite sure what advertising the parent is talking about. The whole purpose of file servers and domain controllers is to serve up resources to network clients. The clients need to find those resources some how. Therefore the servers broadcast their status. Following the assumed train of logic, NBC has a huge problem. They're advertising these wacky TV programs that anybody can access... and they don't even authenticate who accesses them. Newflash... Microsoft more security than major television broadcasters!!
Like so many technologies that come out, this one is obviously aimed at the enterprise. A whitelist would just be a headache for a home user who wants to tinker with their box. On the other hand, the secretary in HR doesn't need to be running any program that isn't on the approved list of programs. She doesn't need to be visiting any websites that are running constantly changing code bases. She doesn't need to be downloading crap off of Sourceforge and checking it out. In that kind of environment, a white list is a great idea.
Didn't Warcraft come out AFTER C&C?
How are they doing that? My understanding is that the RIAA is prosecuting people who are illegally distributing copies of the works that the companies they represent hold the copyright for. When I read what you wrote, it leads me to believe that the RIAA is going after unsigned bands and telling them that they aren't allowed to distribute their music on the Internet.
Replace RIAA with Open Source and replace "music pirate" with Microsoft. Is it okay for Microsoft to help themselves to Open Source code? I mean after all, those silly developers released their code under the GPL, but what if Microsoft doesn't feel like following the GPL? Obviously those stupid developers shouldn't have put their code out there in a such a way Microsoft could help themselves to it. Right? To follow your own logic, the original copy of the code remains intact and still has plenty of uses. Therefore Microsoft isn't exactly stealing it. Right? Right?