The best use for IE is to download another browser after installing Windows.

What happened is pretty simple, really. You have an island that is prone to earthquakes. You have a very bright people who decided to do something that in hindsight was really stupid and put a fragile building that houses incredibly frail yet awesomely powerful technology on said island. Mix and stir and you have a deadly and devastating cocktail of doom.

Sad, but true.

They call it Java, but technically it's not Java... it doesn't run on a JVM, and uses a custom development kit (not the JDK).

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalvik_(software)

"Dalvik does not align to Java SE nor Java ME Class Library profiles[8][9] (e.g., Java ME classes, AWT or Swing are not supported). Instead it uses its own library[10] built on a subset of the Apache Harmony Java implementation."

Ok... so you can download Android, make changes to it and then compile it. Then what? Apparently actually using your compiled Android OS is not possible... so I guess "Open", when speaking about Android, falls just shy of "useful".

A friend of mine used to be a contractor to NASA and he used to tell me stories about how you could get into trouble if you queried the wrong column in a database table. His background check was so extensive that it went on for 3 months, while he just sat around and brought home paychecks for doing absolutely NOTHING.

He also said that if you pushed the wrong number on the elevator and got off on the wrong floor, you would be interrogated and possibly fired. If you did it more than once, you would definitely be fired.

Those gubment folks are pretty strict.

You have a good point, but that wasn't what I was referring to. I am simply referring to the capitalist idea of "competition being good for the consumer".

When Android innovates, Apple must respond, and vice versa. This benefits people with money looking to buy a phone - aka "consumers".

Consumers.

I saw an interview with Frank Zappa when I was younger, and I think he hit the nail on the head. He said (paraphrasing, it was a long time ago...) "They're only _words_! If you give them no weight, then their meaning is worthless to kids and they won't bother saying them!" What was so unbelievable was that the interviewer didn't "get it". I was maybe 20 at the time, and I most certainly did, and I think he was absolutely correct. If the parents tell the kid "Don't say the f-word, it's bad!", the kid will do it... because it's bad! Because the word has "weight". It's the human condition - kids long to be "bad", to do things that adults don't like.

Case in point: My coworker has a 2 year old daughter, who picked up "What the Fuck!" from someone. She saw the opportunity to shock mommy and daddy one day, so she drops the F bomb. Dad cautioned mom against saying anything to the daughter at all... just to ignore it. The daughter hasn't said it since. Had they made a big deal about it... you bet they would have heard it again... even the 2 year old knows what is "bad" and wants to say it.

It is the global imperative of every single being on this planet, from ants to elephants, with the odd exception of Panda bears, to perpetuate the species. It's the underlying driving force of evolution. We are born, we grow, we procreate, we die... rinse and repeat.

What Hawking is saying is simply that if we wish to fulfill our evolutionary destiny... for this driving force to continue... we will need to find another hospitable home to do it since we will eventually outgrow and probably make this one uninhabitable in the process.

Life is just a fantasy...

One patent to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them!

Mr. Perfect World meet Mr. Real Situation.

The dad and mom don't have the time nor inclination to maintain separate user accounts. They made her promise not to install any of that stuff and she agreed, and now that she knows the real world results of installing that software, I think she has learned her lesson.

I offered to set up separate accounts for them, but they opted out. I got a great dinner out of the deal, so I'm hoping it happens again... soon. I always look on the bright side of things ;-)

You are absolutely correct. UAC is enabled, as I received no fewer than 30 requests to authorize the system to perform tasks while I was removing said trojans.

The problem is that both Kaspersky and Windows Defender didn't prevent (or defend the computer from) the trojans from being installed. Even with admin privileges, any trojan or virus should have hit a brick wall when trying to do *anything* to the installed AV program's installation or runtime... and either Kaspersky or Windows Defender should have been able to completely remove the trojan or virus when it was initially installed.

As it turned out, I had to download a special program from Kaspersky's website in order to clean up the computer. At least they read their forums, where hundreds of other unfortunate Windows users were posting their terrible experiences.

... and I hope it remains "not worthwhile" for a long time to come. I enjoy using a computing environment that I don't have to worry about.