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Comment Autoupdaters suck, all of them! (Score 1) 402

One exception: maybe the Chrome one is decent.
But most of them start updating - making your system/app unusable - exactly when you need the system/app the most (because nobody keeps the computer running at 3am).

So people set it on manual. Additionally, a thousand vendors make a gazillion background auto updater services that run all the time, wasting memory, CPU and IO. Then we find ways to take down those pesky background services too.

And then we forget(or low prioritize) to update. And we are vulnerable.

Lets stop pointing fingers and fix the update system - find ways to make autoupdate smooth, viable and with ZERO disruption to the running system. And make it not optional anymore. Then everyone will be forever up to date.

Comment Social advertising != astroturfing (Score 2) 391

You are exaggerating. Astroturfing is a WAY more serious manifestation.

It looks to me that in this case they are just begging you to support the product you are working on. There is no way for them to verify you actually did, but maybe (big maybe) the company doing better will reflect on you as well, so it may be in your own interest to show a bit of support. People do this ALL the time, its both legally and morally correct, and its still just a choice for you, they are not forcing you to do this.

People are doing some really crazy fucked up shiat out there, this is nothing. Nothing. Do whatever you want, and create less drama.

Comment Omg its the end of the world! (Score 3, Interesting) 646

Someone, please, just think of the poor children running SCADA systems!
Oh wait, its only Windows XP
Oh wait, its actually in 2 years
Oh wait, its just support

Seriously, do we need a "Windows XP is gone and the world is already burning" scare-article posted every month on Slashdot? For the entire period of 7 years of pre-announced end of support for an ancient OS? This shouldn't even be on idle. Is this a tech site or little Suzie's shopping ground for pink dresses?

Comment Number 1 cooling method: environment (Score 1) 56

After spending thousands of euros on many various cooling systems across the years, I can tell you which one is the most effective:
The good old home air conditioning.

Perhaps reducing the power consumption may beat the environment as the number 1 factor. We don't need more and more sophisticated cooling systems, we need less power consumption and good environment.

Comment Re:When they're not protecting your computer... (Score 1) 196

Visual Studio 2010 install initial start-up time:
- without McAfee: 15 seconds
- with McAfee running: 4 minutes
Those are real numbers measured yesterday. I had to disable the bloody thing(6 services bloatware!) or I would spend 3 days installing Visual Studio.

So let me fix that for you:
When they are not killing your computer, they're figuring out how to kill people. :)

Comment Re:it isn just't games (Score 1) 418

Indeed. And its not only games, the applications follow already. Operating systems are next.

The reason is simple: online requirement is just a too effective anti-piracy measure to not do it. Those 5% unlucky bastards without Internet can go screw themselves.

Let me give you an example:
Do you think Blizzard's initial success was because of their high quality blablabla? They make compromises just like every other company out there. There was plenty of good video games creators at that time, but most of them didn't bothered to implement a good online service protection. Their success was based on the fact that to play on the Battle.net 1.0 you needed to buy the original game, there was no way to bypass that protection - if you shared your unique CDKEY they disabled it. Sure, after a few years, pirated servers started to appear, but even now, the main original servers is where the real action is about. Pirated servers are slow/unstable/shortlived and only a few people are online there.

In a world where any software protection gets hacked in a matter of days, this online requirement protection survived for even 15 years! One would be a fool not to do it.

Comment Old tinfoil hat story (Score 1) 320

First of all, this TV was presented in January, so this is 2 months old.

Secondly, the camera is for gesture and facial recognition, used to interact with the UI of anything that runs on the TV platform, of course including any 3rd party application(app store, hello?). Its the exact same thing as Kinect. So this is just pure tinfoilhattism.

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