@AC

Someone illegally used his telephone service to make calls. He may well have had poor security but that doesn't make it his fault or even ok to do something which amounts to stealing off him. If i leave my house unlocked , taking things from it is still stealing. I assume you wouln't complain if a locksmith open your house and took all your stuff, after all it's your fault for having lax security on your front door.

Saying he has to pay this bill is the same as saying if you get your creidt card skimmed your liable for the purchases made on it. Yes someone illegally used your card, but bad luck shouldn't have been lax enough to let someone steal your details.

Re: One-sided equations

Petrol is a bye-product of hydrocracking which people will still do because last time I checked people still loved plastic, perfume and jet fuel amongst other things.

Compared to these things petrol is not very profitable for the oil companies, i they could refine it any further and not produce petrol they would.

Including the CO2 cost of petrol production in equation is not correct on this basis as hydrogen fuel cells dont replace this process. On th other hand hydrogen production only serves to produce hydrogen.

Blaming Developers

"Scanning for SQL injection / XSS attacks should be the WebServers responsibility. I have never wanted to pass sql / script via a querystring or form field. If I do I should have to explicitly state this and provide my own validation / protection mechanism"

Basically because it's the developers fault. If one developer can write a website secured against such attacks then any developer can, they just need to be less lazy and complacent. Trying to shift the blame by saying the WebServer should somehow sanitise your variables for you is a nonsense. The variables you pass to your database should be controlled by you, no one else has responsability for that. Just because a lot of web developers are lazy doesn't eman we should provide them crutches so they can hobble on to the next bad practice thats causing problems for thier website.

comparison to Creative Zen

Hopefully the 2.0 will fix a load of the usability issues it has. They've pitched this at the same price point as the Creative Zen but not matched it well on features. iRiver usually get by on excellent design but in the budget market like this it seems odd to not at least match what seems like thier direct competitor.

Service Level

I used AllofMp3 when it was around and not because it was ludicriously cheap but rather because of the service they offer. I'm more than happy to pay for my music, I have no problem with that at all. But when you compare the AllofMP3 product to iTunes theres only one winner. If AllofMp3 cost the same as iTunes I would used it happily. I dont have time to trawl through torrents and mess about trying to find the correct version. As a consumer I want what AllofMp3 offered, any format, any bitrate, instant download.

I still dont understand why no comparable services have sprung up.

@Mark

You seem to be confused a little, they are quoting the figures of PCs shipped to illustrate the growth in the PC market in that country not directly linking them to Microsoft licence purchase.

It's perfectly possible to pirate a lot of software on open source operating systems as more and more companies are producing commercial software for them. That said it will only account for a tiny fraction of the counterfiet and pirated software products being used.

Andrew

Whoops

I noticed my hilarious mistake after posting. I'm sure theres dozens of people waiting to point it out in a similarly hilarious manner. Guess I was too busy leafing through the CV's of people who cannot use a computer to notice my mistake.

Andrew

Computer Literacy

Some people seem to be slightly confused here, this is not a plan to make more people highly qualified software engineers or anything. It is simply to improve general computer literacy. In general terms that means using Word, Excel and a web browser. Knowing things like ctrl+c copies something and ctrl+p will paste it etc. Just general computer skills.

Now in the job market increasing numbers of Jobs have requirements like ability to use Word or Excel. Right now the ability to use Microsoft products 'is' computer literacy in effect. I would wager it would be very hard to find a non-IT specific job which required knowledge of Open Office or Linux for instance. Even if they did both of them try to replicate the grammar of use of Microsoft products very closely so it makes no difference in the end.

Now I dont want this to come across as a Pro-microsoft rant, i'm sure people will respond is a suitable rabid manner which shames all Linux users anyway but that can't be helped, but people just have to face facts. What do people in business want, they want people who are computer literate by which they mean can use Word and Excel.

@JimC

I am using a web browser, and guess what it doesn't conform to all the standards laided down in all the web specifications. It conforms to most of them and renders every webpage as I would expect. Would a totally compliant browser be better?, possibly but the effect of not being totally compliant is negliable.

Andrew

@BitTwister

Why should Microsoft conform to other peoples standards? Why dont Apple and Creative have conform to a common interface for thier mp3 players? To lock people into thier format, thats why. Every company does it just some are more successful than others. Microsoft have become so successful at achieving lock-in that they're now a natural monoploy. Does this status mean they should be compelled to Standards other people set? Of course it doesn't they are a private company and they can do what ever they like within the law (or outside the law if the fines are small enough, see anti trust lawsuits)

Now i'm not a Microsoft apologist, I run a small business, we run Linux, develop on Java and make extensive use of open source frameworks. Even in doing this theres lock in being attempted by the projects we use. But in the end most IT systems are closed loops, so although standards are great they dont actually have much effect on most users. For IT systems the big watch words should always be Quality Control, you can get on Microsofts back about that but not standards which dont matter.

Andrew

Re: Is it any wonder?

"Stop thinking Microsoft is some bloke down the pub, I'm sick of the sympathy when their rap sheet reads worse than a brutal industry rampage murdering spree."

Do you truly think the Microsoft are worse than companies that commit corporate manslaughter? They're worse companies hard at work deforesting the globe? Surely you jest? I can't think of the last time Microsoft Office killed anyone, I mean at least World of Warcraft has some recorded deaths.

All these people who call Microsoft evil seem to have a really skewed idea of what is evil. I mean i'm sure theres plenty of people considering suicide because Microsoft don't conform to some Open standards but I think the world is probably better off without them. Then everyone who is left will perhaps gain some perspective about what is important in the world.

Andrew

Re: Public Records

As an employee of a pubilc records searching company yes you do have to pay for the information. Anyone can go to the Register and view public records all they want but if they want online access, searching etc then someone has to do that. We pay the registers for access and we charge the customer.

Public Records are free to access if you make an effort, or you can pay other people to make that effort for you.