You mean you know noone who will admit to having bougth porn.... Not the same thing.
What's the difference? Are you suggesting that someone would admit to watching porn but NOT admit to having paid for it? Once you've admitted to watching, what's the incentive to lie and say you didn't pay for it?
You really don't understand the consumerist society, do you? People buy new stuff even when the old stuff works just fine. It's about social status and bragging rights. It's got nothing to do with if it works or not. Also, you'd be surprised by the number of people who think that getting a virus means they need to get a new system. There was even a newspaper article around here in my hometown that said something to the effect of "Be careful of viruses. They can delete your data or even destroy your computer so you have to buy a new one." I of course called BS in a letter to the editor but they didn't publish it. People are ignorant when it comes to technology. They don't understand it and don't want to. They just want it to work. And a lot of times, that means buying a new computer. If you think the market is saturated, check out the PC sales numbers. They're higher than ever before. As more people want to get on this "newfangled intarweb thingy" they all buy computers. Then they hook them up. Then they get pwn3d. Then they buy a new one. Rinse, repeat.
The thing is that people who likely own hardware capable of running Windows Vista don't need the constant babyish security reminders
How insightful, yes. I mean, there's absolutely NO chance that Joe Sixpack is going to spend $2K on a high-end gaming box just so he can have bragging rights. I mean, no one has EVER bought a more powerful machine than they needed! Who would do that? This even translates to cars too, if I may extend that tired old analogy into this arena. No one would ever buy a car with more than 200HP unless they're a racecar driver.
[/sarcasm]
Get real, man. Vista won't flop because it will be the DEFAULT INSTALL on any new computer. Do you think Joe Sixpack is going to care if it's Windows Vista or XP? No. He's gonna have a very simple checklist in his head when he goes shopping:
1) It's a computer
2) I can turn it on
3) It's got Microsoft (no kidding. many people actually don't distinguish Microsoft from Windows)
4) It's got Internet (many laypeople don't even understand the concept of an ISP)
5) I can browse pr0n
The only people that will be interested in upgrading their OS will be people who know what the hardware requirements are and are capable of getting their system up to spec. Otherwise, they'll just stick with whatever works like all the n00bs out there that I happen to know are still using Win98 First Edition.
The only way Vista will flop is if people stop buying computers. Like that's gonna happen.
This is why I keep virtual machines available on all my boxen. If I have a chunk of data (especially the executable variety) that appears to be sketchy, I load up my dummy OS and check it out. After viewing the content, whether or not it appears to have done any damage, I unmount the filesystem and revert the VM to its previous state. In the future, I'm pretty sure that very little software will run in the space that it does today. Most of the OS will be virtualized, BIOS will be replaced with EFI, and the OS kernel could quite possibly be stored in ROM. While malware will never go away entirely, in the not-so-distant future, its writers will need to spend a lot more time & effort to get the same results.
No, the ESRB rating system does not compare in parallel to the MPAA rating system. M != NC-17
Ao (Adults Only) is approximately equal to NC-17 in the way they judge it. M is more like R.
Hard pressed? You must not be looking very hard. I run an IT support business, and I can tell you that a surprisingly large number of my customers are still running Win98, some of them first edition! Firefox is my primary method of keeping their boxen from contracting malware. As long as they browse with Firefox and keep their AVG up to date, they don't get pwned.
Running Firefox has nothing to do with technical sense. My entire family uses it and most of them are not technologically savvy at all. All it takes is one person who is seen as an expert telling them to use Firefox, and they do it.
That said, I'd be fine with 2 forks of Firefox being made. It would certainly cut down on the DL time for my customers who have 2000/later, and for the legacy fork, maybe it could be optimized to run on older hardware.
Ummm... Hate to break it to you, but Lenovo is not IBM. IBM sold their Thinkpad division to Lenovo, which is a Chinese company. At this point in time, IBM has very little if anything at all to do with this.
The solution to all of this is a small group of vigilantes who go around with a specially tailored EMP device, discharging it at random, frying all RFID chips within a certain radius. Somehow the vigilante cell would have an announcement that would inform the public of their intention to continue until all forms of legislated human RFID chipping cease. Nearly any attempt to foil these efforts would be in vain; RF shielding would prevent the devices from functioning as designed. VeriChip / The US Gov't would most likely abandon the idea entirely.
FTFA: "... 3 video cameras, one of which is on continuous recording mode..."
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but the idea of being under constant surveillance would make me a little freaked out. I mean, imagine if one of these guys DOES have a girlfriend (remote chance, I know...) and he brings her back to the room for some alone time while his roomie is away. There is no privacy in that room. I would suggest having a "no surveillance" mode where all cameras and recording equipment get shut off.
Hello, mobile phone manufacturers! Wake up and smell the Mac OS X! Apple designed an operating system that is BOTH brain-dead-easy to use for newbies & non-techies AND powerful enough to suit the needs of nearly any geek or tinkerer out there. People keep trying to draw this line in the sand over "simple or complex" but that dichotomy does NOT exist. The real dichotomy is between good design and bad design. Mobile phone manufacturers: If you want to increase your sales, make a phone that is simple to use. Disable all the bells and whistles out of the box, but make them easy to find if someone wants to try them out. In the phone's menu, have a whole category devoted to the bells and whistles, with simple check boxes next to the features. When the check box is checked, the feature becomes available.
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What's the difference? Are you suggesting that someone would admit to watching porn but NOT admit to having paid for it? Once you've admitted to watching, what's the incentive to lie and say you didn't pay for it?
I was just thinking about moving there. Seriously. Well, I guess it's time to learn how to speak Svenska and move to Sweden instead...
Along this same vein is the Rosetta@Home project. Both are worthy causes and I would definitely recommend both of them.
You really don't understand the consumerist society, do you? People buy new stuff even when the old stuff works just fine. It's about social status and bragging rights. It's got nothing to do with if it works or not. Also, you'd be surprised by the number of people who think that getting a virus means they need to get a new system. There was even a newspaper article around here in my hometown that said something to the effect of "Be careful of viruses. They can delete your data or even destroy your computer so you have to buy a new one." I of course called BS in a letter to the editor but they didn't publish it. People are ignorant when it comes to technology. They don't understand it and don't want to. They just want it to work. And a lot of times, that means buying a new computer. If you think the market is saturated, check out the PC sales numbers. They're higher than ever before. As more people want to get on this "newfangled intarweb thingy" they all buy computers. Then they hook them up. Then they get pwn3d. Then they buy a new one. Rinse, repeat.
[/sarcasm]
Get real, man. Vista won't flop because it will be the DEFAULT INSTALL on any new computer. Do you think Joe Sixpack is going to care if it's Windows Vista or XP? No. He's gonna have a very simple checklist in his head when he goes shopping:
1) It's a computer
2) I can turn it on
3) It's got Microsoft (no kidding. many people actually don't distinguish Microsoft from Windows)
4) It's got Internet (many laypeople don't even understand the concept of an ISP)
5) I can browse pr0n
The only people that will be interested in upgrading their OS will be people who know what the hardware requirements are and are capable of getting their system up to spec. Otherwise, they'll just stick with whatever works like all the n00bs out there that I happen to know are still using Win98 First Edition.
The only way Vista will flop is if people stop buying computers. Like that's gonna happen.
This is why I keep virtual machines available on all my boxen. If I have a chunk of data (especially the executable variety) that appears to be sketchy, I load up my dummy OS and check it out. After viewing the content, whether or not it appears to have done any damage, I unmount the filesystem and revert the VM to its previous state. In the future, I'm pretty sure that very little software will run in the space that it does today. Most of the OS will be virtualized, BIOS will be replaced with EFI, and the OS kernel could quite possibly be stored in ROM. While malware will never go away entirely, in the not-so-distant future, its writers will need to spend a lot more time & effort to get the same results.
No, the ESRB rating system does not compare in parallel to the MPAA rating system. M != NC-17 Ao (Adults Only) is approximately equal to NC-17 in the way they judge it. M is more like R.
Hard pressed? You must not be looking very hard. I run an IT support business, and I can tell you that a surprisingly large number of my customers are still running Win98, some of them first edition! Firefox is my primary method of keeping their boxen from contracting malware. As long as they browse with Firefox and keep their AVG up to date, they don't get pwned. Running Firefox has nothing to do with technical sense. My entire family uses it and most of them are not technologically savvy at all. All it takes is one person who is seen as an expert telling them to use Firefox, and they do it. That said, I'd be fine with 2 forks of Firefox being made. It would certainly cut down on the DL time for my customers who have 2000/later, and for the legacy fork, maybe it could be optimized to run on older hardware.
Ummm... Hate to break it to you, but Lenovo is not IBM. IBM sold their Thinkpad division to Lenovo, which is a Chinese company. At this point in time, IBM has very little if anything at all to do with this.
The solution to all of this is a small group of vigilantes who go around with a specially tailored EMP device, discharging it at random, frying all RFID chips within a certain radius. Somehow the vigilante cell would have an announcement that would inform the public of their intention to continue until all forms of legislated human RFID chipping cease. Nearly any attempt to foil these efforts would be in vain; RF shielding would prevent the devices from functioning as designed. VeriChip / The US Gov't would most likely abandon the idea entirely.
FTFA: "... 3 video cameras, one of which is on continuous recording mode..." I don't know about the rest of you guys, but the idea of being under constant surveillance would make me a little freaked out. I mean, imagine if one of these guys DOES have a girlfriend (remote chance, I know...) and he brings her back to the room for some alone time while his roomie is away. There is no privacy in that room. I would suggest having a "no surveillance" mode where all cameras and recording equipment get shut off.
Hello, mobile phone manufacturers! Wake up and smell the Mac OS X! Apple designed an operating system that is BOTH brain-dead-easy to use for newbies & non-techies AND powerful enough to suit the needs of nearly any geek or tinkerer out there. People keep trying to draw this line in the sand over "simple or complex" but that dichotomy does NOT exist. The real dichotomy is between good design and bad design. Mobile phone manufacturers: If you want to increase your sales, make a phone that is simple to use. Disable all the bells and whistles out of the box, but make them easy to find if someone wants to try them out. In the phone's menu, have a whole category devoted to the bells and whistles, with simple check boxes next to the features. When the check box is checked, the feature becomes available.