The only time I was really interested in phishing was when I was a young teenager - more years ago than I sometimes care to remember. I used to love going to the end of Eastbourne pier but despite a lot of effort and determination, all I ever seemed to 'catch' were crabs and the occasional tiddler. These days I don't bother - older and the fact I'm not near the coast probably contribute to that. Oh well, c'est la vie.
In today's Metro, there's an interesting article on this same subject.
When we use emoticons such as;-), people on the other side of the world shrug their shoulders. That's because Westerners read faces differently to Eastern people experts claim.
It goes on later - Whereas we tend to use the mouth to express emotions such as:-) for happy and:-( for sad, Eastern emoticons use the eyes ^.^ for happy and;.; for sad. The findings could mean concepts of 'universal expression' of emotions are wrong - and do not take into account cultural boundaries, the experts said.
Interesting but again who are these so-called experts. According to the article, only 13 Europeans and 13 people from China, Japan and Korea were asked to put a series of faces into categories such as sad and surprised. Hardly a global representation I'd have thought but then again statistics, statistics and statistics, as the saying goes. I'm sure even Mr Spock would have thought this was 'fascinating'.:)
Is he any relation to Sugar by any chance?:)
Anyway I was going to say I like XP. It works and does what I want and need it to do on my non-networked system at home. If I later get myself another PC and want to network them, I'll update to XP Pro. I personally wouldn't use Vista if someone paid me to use it - some of the horror stories I've heard - although they may have since been fixed since it was released perhaps. And using the old computer adage if it ain't broke don't fix it, I think Win7 can wait... and wait and...
Probably because it doesn't affect or concern them personally - or at least they don't perceive that it does. It's usually when it's too late that maybe they discover that it does or it will!
Thank you SputnikPanic. Very interesting - actually I do smoke but I know it's a bad habit and would like to give up from a financial point of view and maybe health-wise too although having read of a man who lived to a ripe old age over 100 and smoked regularly throughout his life quite considerably, it makes you wonder.:)
You're certainly correct with what you say about more effective treatments and screening and so on but I really would like to emphasise and join you in what you said about your mother - I hope something comes to market in time for her too. May your God bless you both, whoever/whatever (s)he may be.:)
My grandmother died of alzheimer's related incident just after reaching her 100th birthday and just before Christmas. She, like myself, used to enjoy drinking tea - she used to have an occasional coffee with milk but usually tea. I drink tea by the pint mug full and have 2 or 3 whilst I'm at 'work' (part time/voluntary) in a normal mug and then sometimes 4, 5 or more big mugs of tea during the evening/night/morning. I am overweight (fighting hard to shed some lbs!) and have type 2 diabetes but surely tea still has caffeine in it? So should I stop drinking tea and take up coffee to avoid alzheimers in later life? I'm 'only' 55 now (18 in my head!:)) so maybe the sooner I start, the sooner I can 'protect' myself!
Then again look how many foodstuffs scientists and governments have told us over the years will kill or maim us or make us infertile or put us in a wheelchair for the rest of our life or some other horrorendous sounding scare tactic yet I'm the type who never listened and carried on regardless and thankfully I'm still here despite continuing to eat beef during the beef crisis or lamb ditto or... nah, won't bore everyone listing them. I'm sure we all remember only too well.:)
So I'll carry on drinking tea until I get fed up with... or maybe forget and start drinking coffee without realising it... then maybe I'll start to believe that caffeine doesn't halt Alzheimers catching up with me but then maybe thankfully I won't be aware of it any longer so I'm off to think about something FAR more interesting and thoughtful and constructive!:D
Yes I agree with you mfh and I understand that those advertising agencies or companies or even individuals perhaps can get away with it providing they can show (prove?) that whatever product or service they are sending you to can be genuinely shown or designed to be of interest to the particular indivual(s) being sent to.
What disturbs me more is this use of "allegedly". In a court or tribunal etc, nothing would happen punishment, fine or sanctions-wise unless or until proved spam or malicious intent etc etc. It's too easy sometimes to cast aspirtions or make allegations against someone but does that "make it so" as Captain Jean Luc Picard would say or make it true as most others would? Probably not so maybe the thin end of the wedge steamroller being used to crack the poor walnut?!
I get FAR more problem with spam being sent via my email and those at work compared to what I receive on my mobile. If only something could be done about that! and so say all of us do I hear you say?!:)
"A 1998 study showed that the Internet causes declines in social relationships and isolation, similarly to how television causes social disengagement and bad moods."
Whilst I'm often 'accused' of living a solitary and isolated life, spending much of my time at home watching TV or chatting/surfing on the Internet or playing online games, I certainly don't feel that it has isolated me OR caused me to suffer from disengagement or bad moods. Quite the contrary infact. I've made many online 'friends' and when I was 'suffering' from mild depressive periods last year, it had nothing to do with with using the Internet and, infact, that combined with me taking up a voluntary position with a local timber recycling community project, helped me 'snap out of it.' Watching comedies on television makes me laugh and cheers me up; documentaries enlighten, educate and informs me; soaps are great entertainment and escapism (yeah I know many folk will disagree but that's me.:)) and so on.
"... while the internet is heavily used for communication, it makes people lonelier."
Certainly not in my case. Infact it helped a lot having people to interact/chat with and talking to people I would not, without the Internet, have 'met' or got to know.
"However, a more recent study shows that now the internet has a positive effect on social and psychological well-being."
Now THIS I agree with totally. It most certainly has.
"Interestingly, frequent Internet use is associated with a decline in local knowledge and interest in living in the local area."
I wonder how many people were 'surveyed' for these conclusions and results? I've been a frequent user of the Internet for many years, as I'm sure have many of 'you', and in the last year or two I've 'joined' the local resident's association, got involved in helping my local LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) councillors with mail drops in the local area as well as joining the local Community Guardian scheme. I love living in my local area which over recent years has become much more pleasant-a-place to live. Two or three years ago we had winos, prostitutes, drug users/sellers and so on frequenting the place and hassling the local people yet the police have done a wonderful job and now I wouldn't want to live anywhere else!
I like the idea, too, of people being able to contribute and expand a 'database' with any interesting and/or informative information on a particular subject that they may be knowledgeable about but of course an 'open' policy will bring its problems at times, perhaps, from those who post with the best of intentions but topically inaccurate information or those who are simply trying to be destructive in some way.
Perhaps an alternative using the best of both worlds [a matter of opinion of course] is to maybe use something along the lines which the Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/ does and allow users to add their input but instead of going 'live' right away, would be looked at/approved/whatever buy the admin/moderators or whoever who then post it to the database or, perhaps, refer it back to the author for them to either forget it or re-research it or ammend it etc when they could then re-submit it again if they wished.
It's a tricky one admittedly and I guess when push comes to shove, it's up to Wikapedia to do what they feel is right but as long as articles/submissions etc aren't being rejected, as someone else rightly said, based on their own predjudices, beliefs etc, maybe that's a fair alternative?
Sounds like a good idea when you first read it but then, as many have already said, it has its drawbacks. How about Internet cafes or libraries etc which might have many, many computers which a user can hire. Will those places keep logs of who uses which computer and for how long and on which day and time? People can simply be 'mischievous' and accuse whoever they want but how could they be traced? Think of the time and cost involved?
Another concern is the "Cry wolf"... if so many teens (or others) are clicking willy-nilly to play 'jokes' on their friends or to make wild accusations against someone who may simply be older but who has no ulterior motive(s) for chatting to them, even if they themselves inititate such chats. The consequences of this are simply horrific and don't bear contemplation!
Sheesh whatever will these technos dream up next?... Maybe a device built into this that kindly shakes 'hands' with the user after they have finished their 'business' before it gets its blow-dry... or maybe for the home or discerning user, some kind of speed control based, perhaps, on the volume and/or tone(s) of the sittee?
I suppose one way of putting is could be loo-dicrous... but then again, if you can afford it and have money to burn, then sobeit.:D
I was reading about this yesterday morning on the bus in the Metro newspaper and was a bit surprised, too. I would have thought that they would welcome the trade name becoming more commonly used - good publicity, isn't it? I can see why they would want to protect the "good name" of Google but surely using the word in every day use isn't necessarily going to degrade it? Mind you, they're a huge company now so maybe that's why?:)
As the article said, in part, "Although the word google is in the Oxford English Dictionary, the company is worried its brand will be diminished if it becomes jargon."
[snipped]
"Statistics show about 60 per cent of all Internet searches are done through Google. Struan Robertson, editor of legal website OUT-LAW.COM said the company was right to protect its name. "It's a problem for a lot of brands that don't want their brand to become a verb," he added. "What can happen is they loose the value of their name. For example, Escalator, Aspirin and Linoleum are all brand names that have passed into common useage. I think Google is doing the right thing."
Jo Steele, who wrote the article, says "Google is not the only company getting litigious, however. Xerox and Jacuzzi are both quick to police their name in dictionaries and the media."
And as for 'Portakabin' - don't spell it 'Portacabin' and don't describe any old shed as a Portakabin if they've not made it.
Slashdot Mirror
The only time I was really interested in phishing was when I was a young teenager - more years ago than I sometimes care to remember. I used to love going to the end of Eastbourne pier but despite a lot of effort and determination, all I ever seemed to 'catch' were crabs and the occasional tiddler. These days I don't bother - older and the fact I'm not near the coast probably contribute to that. Oh well, c'est la vie.
In today's Metro, there's an interesting article on this same subject. When we use emoticons such as ;-), people on the other side of the world shrug their shoulders. That's because Westerners read faces differently to Eastern people experts claim.
It goes on later - Whereas we tend to use the mouth to express emotions such as :-) for happy and :-( for sad, Eastern emoticons use the eyes ^.^ for happy and ;.; for sad. The findings could mean concepts of 'universal expression' of emotions are wrong - and do not take into account cultural boundaries, the experts said.
Interesting but again who are these so-called experts. According to the article, only 13 Europeans and 13 people from China, Japan and Korea were asked to put a series of faces into categories such as sad and surprised. Hardly a global representation I'd have thought but then again statistics, statistics and statistics, as the saying goes. I'm sure even Mr Spock would have thought this was 'fascinating'. :)
Is he any relation to Sugar by any chance? :)
Anyway I was going to say I like XP. It works and does what I want and need it to do on my non-networked system at home. If I later get myself another PC and want to network them, I'll update to XP Pro. I personally wouldn't use Vista if someone paid me to use it - some of the horror stories I've heard - although they may have since been fixed since it was released perhaps. And using the old computer adage if it ain't broke don't fix it, I think Win7 can wait ... and wait and ...
Heinz baked beans are good for the heart. The more you eat, the more you ... further comment would be superfluous. :)
Probably because it doesn't affect or concern them personally - or at least they don't perceive that it does. It's usually when it's too late that maybe they discover that it does or it will!
You're certainly correct with what you say about more effective treatments and screening and so on but I really would like to emphasise and join you in what you said about your mother - I hope something comes to market in time for her too. May your God bless you both, whoever/whatever (s)he may be. :)
My grandmother died of alzheimer's related incident just after reaching her 100th birthday and just before Christmas. She, like myself, used to enjoy drinking tea - she used to have an occasional coffee with milk but usually tea. I drink tea by the pint mug full and have 2 or 3 whilst I'm at 'work' (part time/voluntary) in a normal mug and then sometimes 4, 5 or more big mugs of tea during the evening/night/morning. I am overweight (fighting hard to shed some lbs!) and have type 2 diabetes but surely tea still has caffeine in it? So should I stop drinking tea and take up coffee to avoid alzheimers in later life? I'm 'only' 55 now (18 in my head! :)) so maybe the sooner I start, the sooner I can 'protect' myself!
Then again look how many foodstuffs scientists and governments have told us over the years will kill or maim us or make us infertile or put us in a wheelchair for the rest of our life or some other horrorendous sounding scare tactic yet I'm the type who never listened and carried on regardless and thankfully I'm still here despite continuing to eat beef during the beef crisis or lamb ditto or ... nah, won't bore everyone listing them. I'm sure we all remember only too well. :)
So I'll carry on drinking tea until I get fed up with ... or maybe forget and start drinking coffee without realising it ... then maybe I'll start to believe that caffeine doesn't halt Alzheimers catching up with me but then maybe thankfully I won't be aware of it any longer so I'm off to think about something FAR more interesting and thoughtful and constructive! :D
What disturbs me more is this use of "allegedly". In a court or tribunal etc, nothing would happen punishment, fine or sanctions-wise unless or until proved spam or malicious intent etc etc. It's too easy sometimes to cast aspirtions or make allegations against someone but does that "make it so" as Captain Jean Luc Picard would say or make it true as most others would? Probably not so maybe the thin end of the wedge steamroller being used to crack the poor walnut?!
I get FAR more problem with spam being sent via my email and those at work compared to what I receive on my mobile. If only something could be done about that! and so say all of us do I hear you say?! :)
Whilst I'm often 'accused' of living a solitary and isolated life, spending much of my time at home watching TV or chatting/surfing on the Internet or playing online games, I certainly don't feel that it has isolated me OR caused me to suffer from disengagement or bad moods. Quite the contrary infact. I've made many online 'friends' and when I was 'suffering' from mild depressive periods last year, it had nothing to do with with using the Internet and, infact, that combined with me taking up a voluntary position with a local timber recycling community project, helped me 'snap out of it.' Watching comedies on television makes me laugh and cheers me up; documentaries enlighten, educate and informs me; soaps are great entertainment and escapism (yeah I know many folk will disagree but that's me. :)) and so on.
"... while the internet is heavily used for communication, it makes people lonelier."
Certainly not in my case. Infact it helped a lot having people to interact/chat with and talking to people I would not, without the Internet, have 'met' or got to know.
"However, a more recent study shows that now the internet has a positive effect on social and psychological well-being."
Now THIS I agree with totally. It most certainly has.
"Interestingly, frequent Internet use is associated with a decline in local knowledge and interest in living in the local area."
I wonder how many people were 'surveyed' for these conclusions and results? I've been a frequent user of the Internet for many years, as I'm sure have many of 'you', and in the last year or two I've 'joined' the local resident's association, got involved in helping my local LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) councillors with mail drops in the local area as well as joining the local Community Guardian scheme. I love living in my local area which over recent years has become much more pleasant-a-place to live. Two or three years ago we had winos, prostitutes, drug users/sellers and so on frequenting the place and hassling the local people yet the police have done a wonderful job and now I wouldn't want to live anywhere else!
Surely I'm not the only one, am I?!
Then again, I can just imagine it now ... My dongle's bigger than your dongle!! :)
Perhaps an alternative using the best of both worlds [a matter of opinion of course] is to maybe use something along the lines which the Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/ does and allow users to add their input but instead of going 'live' right away, would be looked at/approved/whatever buy the admin/moderators or whoever who then post it to the database or, perhaps, refer it back to the author for them to either forget it or re-research it or ammend it etc when they could then re-submit it again if they wished.
It's a tricky one admittedly and I guess when push comes to shove, it's up to Wikapedia to do what they feel is right but as long as articles/submissions etc aren't being rejected, as someone else rightly said, based on their own predjudices, beliefs etc, maybe that's a fair alternative?
Sounds like a good idea when you first read it but then, as many have already said, it has its drawbacks. How about Internet cafes or libraries etc which might have many, many computers which a user can hire. Will those places keep logs of who uses which computer and for how long and on which day and time? People can simply be 'mischievous' and accuse whoever they want but how could they be traced? Think of the time and cost involved? Another concern is the "Cry wolf" ... if so many teens (or others) are clicking willy-nilly to play 'jokes' on their friends or to make wild accusations against someone who may simply be older but who has no ulterior motive(s) for chatting to them, even if they themselves inititate such chats. The consequences of this are simply horrific and don't bear contemplation!
Sheesh whatever will these technos dream up next? ... Maybe a device built into this that kindly shakes 'hands' with the user after they have finished their 'business' before it gets its blow-dry ... or maybe for the home or discerning user, some kind of speed control based, perhaps, on the volume and/or tone(s) of the sittee?
I suppose one way of putting is could be loo-dicrous ... but then again, if you can afford it and have money to burn, then sobeit. :D
As the article said, in part, "Although the word google is in the Oxford English Dictionary, the company is worried its brand will be diminished if it becomes jargon."
[snipped]
"Statistics show about 60 per cent of all Internet searches are done through Google. Struan Robertson, editor of legal website OUT-LAW.COM said the company was right to protect its name. "It's a problem for a lot of brands that don't want their brand to become a verb," he added. "What can happen is they loose the value of their name. For example, Escalator, Aspirin and Linoleum are all brand names that have passed into common useage. I think Google is doing the right thing."
Jo Steele, who wrote the article, says "Google is not the only company getting litigious, however. Xerox and Jacuzzi are both quick to police their name in dictionaries and the media."
And as for 'Portakabin' - don't spell it 'Portacabin' and don't describe any old shed as a Portakabin if they've not made it.
I wonder if PC is really going mad? :)