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Comment Re:Of course he had a choice (Score 1) 1115

by GoofyBoy (#24907183) Attached to: Sarah Palin's Stance On Technology Issues

>Of course McCain had a choice. One he was urged repeatedly by the media to take just after selection, many citing the previous example of George McGovern and Eagleton. Instead he stuck by here even through criticism from his own party, never mind the media.

I was talking about supporting the daughter after it became a big story, not the VP pick (which I think you are talking about). Both McCain and Palin had to stand by the daughter.

>You are not serious, right?

I really am. I barely knew anything about the election, except for the race between Obama and Clinton, but the stories about Palin were just too much to ignore. And no, they weren't positive stories. It just seemed to me to be, as other commentators had named it, a "hail mary" choice.

>You don't think tens of millions in contributons the days after the announcement, and as great a viewership of the Republican convention speeches as Obama got to be an amazing achievement?

I'm actually more impressed by the $10 million raised by Obama after Palin's first speech. She only raised $1 million after the speech.
Media

Submission + - The Street: "Mac Owners Are Snobs"

Submitted by c1pher
c1pher writes: According to a recent The Street video, they say that Mac users are "snobs." The video, which is based on research by Mindset Media says that Mac owners are more likely:
to be perfectionists
to use notebooks
to use teeth whitening products
to drive station wagons
to pay for downloaded music
to go to Starbucks
care about "green" products and the environment
to own a hybrid car
and last but not least ... to buy 5 pairs of sneakers in a year
Media

Submission + - Saddam Hussein Execution

Submitted by
Quaoar
Quaoar writes: "This is just a plea to the Slashdot editors to post any submission related to Saddam's execution so there might be an intelligent discussion about the topic. I think neglecting to post this story shows a lack of backbone. PLEASE post it. Thanks."

An Inconvenient Truth 1033

Posted by jamie from the conveniently-packaged dept.

There's a movie teaser line that you may have seen recently, that goes like this: "What if you had to tell someone the most important thing in the world, but you knew they'd never believe you?" The answer is "I'd try." The teaser's actually for another movie, but that's the story that's told in the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth": it starts with a man who, after talking with scientists and senators, can't get anyone to listen to what he thinks is the most important thing in the world. It comes out on DVD today.

Rumsfeld Stepping Down 899

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the at-least-no-one-dropped-a-house-on-him dept.
macinrack writes to tell us that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, architect of the unpopular war in Iraq, intends to resign after six stormy years at the Pentagon. Officials said Robert Gates, former head of the CIA, would replace Rumsfeld.

Foundation Commissions $50 Million Online Study 70

Posted by kdawson from the participation-gap dept.
PreacherTom writes, "It's not a stretch to say that kids use the Internet to play World of Warcraft and to tweak their MySpace pages. Still, the MacArthur Foundation doesn't think that is quite specific enough. The private, grant-making institution is commissioning a $50 million, five-year study to investigate precisely how and why young people use the Net. $10 million in grants is going to to individuals and organizations to work on projects that stimulate research in digital media. Sign me up."

Network Computing's 7th Annual Reader Survey 22

Posted by Zonk from the crab-fest dept.
Thomas LaSusa writes "In this year's reader survey, Network Computing Magazine editors invited IT managers to vent about the tech challenges they face every day and how they wish vendors would address these problems. Read the unvarnished truth about what your peers are thinking." From the article: "This isn't the Top 10 worst vendor list, though. The largest tech companies tend to get the blame because they're the easy targets. Individual experiences with a particular company will vary widely; for every person who blasted Dell or Symantec for poor equipment or lousy service, someone else sang their praises. Instead, we find it more worthwhile to identify key areas where technology vendors as a whole aren't living up to their own boilerplate marketing. Some of the vendors contacted for their reactions to this story explained that today's enterprise networks are bewilderingly complex and run a vast number of OSs, applications and protocols. They all defined customer support as a top priority, but recognized that problems can't be solved by first-level support. Whether you consume or sell technology products, read on for an unvarnished look at what 755 IT decision-makers want — and don't want. You might just come away with new strategies for dealing with your vendors or serving your customers."

Dvorak Rants on CSS 522

Posted by CmdrTaco from the internets-most-successful-troll dept.
John Dvorak writes on CSS after working on redesigning his weblog, the article ended up being extremely funny. From the write-up:
As we move into the age of Vista, multimedia's domination on the desktop, and Web sites controlled by cascading style sheets running under improved browsers, when will someone wake up and figure out that none of this stuff works at all?!

Walmart Tries to Emulate MySpace 345

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the trying-way-to-hard dept.
mattsucks writes to tell us that according to AdAge, retail behemoth WalMart is trying desperately to target the MySpace demographic with a new, and highly sanitized, site designed to appeal to teens. From the article: "It's a quasi-social-networking site for teens designed to allow them to 'express their individuality,' yet it screens all content, tells parents their kids have joined and forbids users to e-mail one another. Oh, and it calls users 'hubsters' -- a twist on hipsters that proves just how painfully uncool it is to try to be cool."

Congress May Add Record Requirements to MySpace 343

Posted by Zonk from the remembering-that-embarassing-photo dept.
An anonymous reader writes "CNet is reporting that Congress may be working to extend the record retention requirements they're already working on for ISPs to social networking sites. Sites such as MySpace or FaceBook would be required to hold onto content access records for an unspecified length of time." From the article: "In those meetings, Justice Department representatives went beyond the argument that data retention was necessary to protect children--and claimed it would aid in terrorism investigations as well. During Wednesday's hearing, politicians also claimed that social-networking sites were not doing enough to verify that their users who claimed to be a certain age were telling the truth. (Recent news reports have said that sex predators are using MySpace and similar sites to meet up with teens.)"

Microsoft's Mundie to Continue OSS Outreach 244

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the so-much-excitement-for-one-guy dept.
Techie writes "In an interview with eWeek Craig Mundie, Microsoft's new co-head-honcho and chief research and strategy officer, says he plans to continue to push the Redmond software titan forward with its goal of greater interoperability with software licensed under the GPL." From the article: "Even in Bill's own public remarks, he pointed out that he thought his iconic status and the way that was reported tended to overemphasize his role in the company's innovation and execution. This is really a transition that has been in the works for a couple of years, with a couple to go before, and we will see the emergence of a lot of great talent that has today been portrayed as all Bill. This is a company with, in many cases, the best people in the world. "

Extortion Virus Code Cracked 371

Posted by Zonk from the unlock-your-stuff dept.
Billosaur writes "BBC News is reporting that the password to the dreaded Archiveus virus has been discovered and is now available to anyone who needs it. Archiveus is a 'ransomware' virus, which combines files from the My Documents folder on Windows machines and exchanges them for a single, password-protected file, which it will not unlock unless a password is given. The user would normally be required to pay the extortionist money in order to receive the password, but apparently the virus writer made one small, critical error in coding: placing the password in the code. BTW, the 30-digit password locking the files is mf2lro8sw03ufvnsq034jfowr18f3cszc20vmw."

20 Things You Won't Like About Vista 771

Posted by Zonk from the keep-counting dept.
feminazi writes "Computerworld's Scot Finnie details 20 things you won't like in Windows Vista, with a visual tour to prove it. He says that MS has favored security over end-user productivity, making the user feel like a rat caught in a maze with all the protect-you-from-yourself password-entry and 'Continue' boxes required by the User Account Controls feature." From the article: "In its supreme state of being, Microsoft knows precisely what's best for you. It knows that because its well-implemented new Sleep mode uses very little electricity and also takes only two or three seconds to either shut down or restart, you want to use this mode to 'turn off' your computer, whether you realize it or not. It wants to teach you about what's best. It wants to make it harder for you to make a mistake."

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