Comment Re:Switch off; turn on! (Score 1) 228
This might be the first time I've thought we need a "+1, Offtopic" moderation option.
This might be the first time I've thought we need a "+1, Offtopic" moderation option.
That sounds more like a generation conflict between the fad-riding hipster son and his blue collar dad who often cuts corners.
FTFY.
This is called Win-Win. Its how the free market works.
Ah, Slashdot. Where the grits are hot, Natalie Portman is petrified, and price gouging is considered Win-Win.
A "fair price" and "the highest possible price the majority of people are willing to pay" are not synonyms.
When consumers don't feel like every corporation they do business with is a leech trying to gorge itself on as much of their blood as possible, they'll probably be willing to do more business in general. When it comes to cable TV, people are cutting the cord not just because they feel it's overpriced, but because they're sick and tired of feeling like they're being fleeced with a dull razor every month when they get their bill.
ads posing as real software, e.g. when you Google X and the first couple links are sketchy versions of Y pretending to be X, or when you get to the actual download page but the big green "Download" link is actually an ad which downloads some BS executable
Oh, god, you have no idea how much this pisses me off. I've had a few family members get bitten by this when I've suggested they get VLC or Firefox. The bastards at Google allow people to purchase ads for these high-profile FOSS software project names and then they serve up malware.
I thought they'd stopped doing it, but checking now I see searching for both Firefox and VLC still show these links. And some morons still don't understand why people block ads.
Jamie goes to replace the battery in a Dodge Stratus they purchased and has to take one of the wheels off in order to access it
Not quite that bad, but I have an older Chevy Lumina and in order to replace the battery you have to
- remove a front-end crossbar, the bolts of which have about a 50% chance of being welded to the chassis with rust
- remove the windshield washer reservoir, which involves removing the pump that's attached at the bottom of the container (without spilling too much fluid on the battery)
- remove a bracket from overtop the batter which is connected to the chassis under the air filter housing, requiring at least a 10-inch wrench extender (12" is better)
- remove another bracket that holds the battery in place, also fixed with a bolt located 10 inches down a tiny hole.
- wrestle the battery out past the main fuse/distribution box, which it barely fits past without breaking it
- repeat the process in reverse with new battery
Here's a picture. It's a nightmare.
It's so bad I found several sites online describing the process and mocking the designers of the vehicle. I understand that space is at a premium under the hood, but FFS, this is just bad.
The most common attack vector for this particular malware and many like it is email attachments.
That was true 4-6 years ago, but not today. Now we're seeing most of this stuff getting installed via zero-day exploits in browsers and plugins like Java and Flash, and distributed via third-party advertising networks. It's a lot harder to blame someone for getting compromised via a browser plugin they didn't even know they had.
The best protection these days is still to block all advertising, run with limited permissions, and have automated external backups with versioning. If the user is capable, blocking all third-party scripting is also incredibly effective.
It's 2015 anyone in the world can still send an email with file attachments to anyone using whatever FROM address they'd like without any prior trust relationship, vetting or authorization by receiver.
You just listed some of the best features of email.
It is *our* fault for installing AV software and going back to picking our noses
Now this is true. Antivirus software has been a joke for a decade.
I somehow lost the last line of my reply.
[...] that doesn't mean everyone agrees that it's a good idea, or that there's not something more practically beneficial to spend it on.
Indeed. I'm sure you give all your excess money to charity rather than buy yourself a TV, DVDs, go to a restaurant or on vacation.
Interesting false equivalence. Ignoring the fact that I said nothing about how much money he should give to charity, do you really equate a $400 television and a few $12 DVDs to a $70,000,000 house?
Look at the billions and billions and billions that have been sunk into Africa... still for the most part, a crappy sinkhole of money and poverty that isn't getting better. It will get better when they pull themselves up and actually start improving their own lives.
Ah, the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" myth. Who knows -- perhaps once the majority of Africans have overthrown brutal despots, eradicated malaria and other diseases, and found reliable clean water they'll be able to start working on that.
A crazy amount of money is given to charity every year, and yet the problem doesn't go away.
How much time, money, and effort did it take to build a prospering American country and society -- from a largely empty land brimming with natural resources? Oh, and, how much of that came from Europe? "Self-made", indeed.
New York... when civilization falls apart, remember, we were way ahead of you. - David Letterman