* Posts by Scott

14 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Dec 2007

Facebook value plummets $5bn

Scott
Unhappy

Love it, hate it, leave it

I really can't see how Facebook can continue for more than a few years anyways. Allegedly there's a gold mine to be had from marketing data as people put all their thoughts, ideas, and whatever online. But all I see anymore are meaningless quizzes, the zero-activity fan pages are falling away, and all that's going is the chatter that never stops.

Some people will never tire of this, they're the ones with all the cellphones in the movie theaters and restaurants. But I'm honestly bored out my mind anymore, and I stopped wondering why people you hadn't seen in 20+ years would add you as a friend and then just say "hi" and that's all.

Where once there seemed a lot of promise in the various apps Facebook was putting out it's all fallen through with endless "what sort of (insert here) are you" quizzes.

Site schools world+dog in browsing history pilfering

Scott
Stop

Easily defeated?

Hmmmmm, I'm not exactly a genius but it didn't pull up anything for me. I got a messge saying Ready now? and then Correct? with nothing else showing?

I have, however, run Firefox with the following configuration:

AdBlocker

0 day history

No saved passwords

No third party cookies

Cookies kept only until I close Firefox

Deleting all personal data when I close Firefox

This behavior mystifies my 20 something co-worker who can't understand why I don't have all the social networking website plugged into my browser with automatic login. Aside from I refuse to Twitter I got tired of explaining that even if you can keep someone else from using your computer that if that nugget is ever hacked you're SOL. As for this website I think the lack of anything in the cache was what caught it. Then again maybe I got it on a bad day.

However I'm sure the let's-download-every-little-bauble crowd will have lots of interesting stuff show on their scans.....

YouTube a 'half billion dollar failbucket'

Scott

So?

I've never had any interest in video blogs or inane stupid things people do. So 80% of Youtube to me is a waste. I mainly use it of as a free radio station and occasional movie clips. Hulu seems to be doing pretty well with inline ads, and people viewing music videos and live performances could easily lead to greater traffic at other websites. However, if Google wants to keep up banner ads for someone's home made clip on snowboarding stunts, that's their problem.

Microsoft cries netbook victory against Linux

Scott

Netbook? Dead--perish the thought!

I'm not too sure where that one poster is coming from, my Dell Mini 9 has XP on it, with a 16GB SSD drive, and about the only thing smaller is one of the early Asus 700-whatevers. I love the little thing to death, performance isn't fantastic but it'll play Hulu videos and run Quake III pretty well, although the little screen and keyboard makes playing a bit awkward.

That said I'm agnostic about my OS, it's the apps I care about, eventually XP will be dead one way or another. Which means eventually my Mini will have Ubuntu on it. However, I'm curious what Microsoft will do to try and keep the Netbook market when Windows 7 ships. I see three scenarios:

1. They try to "evolve" the Netbooks into something the poster above mentions so they will run 7.

2. There's a secret uber-slim Windows 7 install just for Netbooks, which is unlikely.

3. Microsoft slaps a new face on XP, changes a few things around, and markets it as a "new" minimal OS.

Iowa: How the vote was won

Scott
Thumb Down

Yeah........right

It's always the same thing, evil Republicans are purging the rolls of Democratic voters, but there could never be such a thing as voter fraud, all those phony registrations don't matter. Those of us living in the US have been hearing these stories for years, and not buying very much of it.

Palin demands $15m to search her own emails

Scott
Alert

Oh Goodness

The state of Alaska is charging those prices after being flooded by requests from news organizations--no surprise there, and the cost of $15 million would be for searching all 16,000 state employee accounts. The state is also wanting to hand over the e-mails to the press on November 17th, I don't see any quotes in the AP article from Palin herself.

The news organizations are requesting any e-mails from state employees to Todd Palin--most likely as part of Troopergate. Somehow I doubt all 16,000 employees have e-mailed Todd, and wonder how many may end up being legitimate.

You'd think with all the news organizations digging up any dirt they can on Palin that more would have come up. (But it is odd how little is being made about the son-of-a-Democrat hacking her account.)

But what really bothers me is attitudes like this:

<i>We tend to forget that in the sixties they were very really crazy times in the US and the worst crime that Bill Ayers and his associates unconvicted felons of any crime other than wanton vandalism by blowing up a statue and nobody was killed either points they always forget to mention .</i>

They were investigated for the death of a police offer and the maiming of another in 1970, and killed three of their own when one of their own bombs exploded prematurely. The only reason Ayers is not sitting in a jail cell today was because the charges were dropped due to prosecutorial conduct. Being unconvicted is by no means innocent.

So what's the moral balance on this? Is Palin Al Capone because of an ethics violation and bad judgment on using a Yahoo account, or is it better Obama is buddies with an unrepentant terrorist and people like Rezko?

I see small fish and big problems, and as usual will vote for the lesser of two evils. But I have to ask the Dems and others here, if Palin was connected in the same way to Ayers, would you really be railing on so much on how this is all old news and so what, just look the other way?

Obama spews ads onto Xbox Live

Scott
Unhappy

Hmmm.....

The Obama phenomenon began in the presidential race with a "fan" video that took off on the Apple 1984 Superbowl Ad, just Obama was supposed to be the voice of freedom and enlightenment, etc.

Yet in that picture he looks just like a political ad from the movie "1984".....hmmm....I personally think we're watching a live action version of the movie Wag The Dog where liberal funding is being used to prop up an almost fictional candidate. If he's so able to "change" the world, what's he been doing until now?

I think the Obama presidency is a done deal, but I can't wait to see the fireworks afterward as the man who would change the world has to live up to the hype....................

'I can see dinosaurs from my back porch'

Scott
Alert

Egads, more of the same.........

I was raised in the South (Which for those of you from Europe is the old Confederacy), where espousing views about evolution was at least going to get you into endless heated confrontations, and at worst make you ostracized from your so called "friends." So I learned to keep quiet, and talk with only the ones I trusted.

I believe in evolution, but also realize we don't know everything and probably never will. Creation Science attempts to make all the findings and theory of evolution fit a pre-conceived idea.

Evolutionary theory can be modified and changed. and new discoveries are happening all the time. The difference is the evidence haws to be proven and repeatable, and can be challenged. If you want to change conventional thinking, prove how it's wrong. In Creation Science the core concepts can never be questioned, and therefore all theories and evidence have to fit the model.

Science gives us all kinds of facts, but not answers. It doesn't tell us why we're here, what's the meaning of all of this. what are we supposed to do with ourselves. This is where religion and philosophy come into play, and it would be great if there was a religion that accompanied science but I haven't seen that yet. Instead we have people now doing the opposite of Creation Science, trying to make the religious model fit modern science. (Such as reinterpreting the seven "days" of creation as seven historical periods or epochs.) In the end it's two different ways of understanding things, which are not compatible.

So now down to the vice-president nominee. Wait, what did I say, vice president? Yes, the one most people never pay attention to, the Mondales and Gores of the world. I'm not really surprised at the controversy over Palin, in the eyes of many of the liberal/leftist elite she is a commoner, someone who shouldn't be near the reigns of power. No siree, she should have been shuttled off for an Ivy League business education and taken a few trips around the world before she could even be considered as a candidate. Never mind all that being a mayor and governor, which has actually given her more executive experience than Obama. Never mind also that he's the presidential nominee, and busily showing his religious convictions also.

So in the end it's usually down to who you think will do you and your ideals the least harm, as opposed to the most good. That I think is really the sad thing about American politics.

Net shoppers bullied into being Verified by Visa

Scott
Thumb Down

Glad I'm not the only who doesn't like it.....

I first ran into this "SecureCode" at two computer websites I buy from. At first I would just click or close the window and still buy my stuff, now it's mandatory and worse it's showing up everywhere.

I couldn't enter a code I'd never signed up for, and when I asked my bank what was going on, it was the little scrolling marquee at the bottom of the website that was supposed to tell me about it. No e-mail, no letter, that's it.

So I sign up for this "SecureCode," which apparently is easy enough to do and to change, which makes me question the whole point to it. If someone steals my identity or swipes my card number, it's easier to change the SecureCode than to know the three letter CID number, as the CID requires actually having the card in hand.

So to buy online now I need a minimum of my card number, expiration date, CID number, and now this SecureCode. If they're real uptight I'll need my phone number and address, and if they're real snots or governmental my mother's maiden name and the last four digits of my social security number.

Anyone remember the good old days of cash?

Mobile fingerprinting heads to another 10 police forces

Scott

Even if you fall off your couch from laughing too hard....

...you're likely to get arrested in England. And fingerprinted. And run though God knows what. Worse thing is, that's where the US will be in twenty years.

Microsoft cuts Vista price

Scott
Thumb Down

Already bought it, but.........

I decided to upgrade last Christmas when the 8800GT came out. To make a long story short I found it simpler just to replace the video card in my circa 2005 Athlon. I bought Home Premium Vista, but it's just sitting in the shrink wrap. I just can't make myself go through the trauma of software that doesn't work or requires an upgrade, not to mention 4GB of Ram just to run smoothly. I've thought of selling it on Ebay, but doubt there'd be any takers. Woe is me........

Polaroid to close instant film plants

Scott

Definitely times have changed

I remember the old David Bowie movie "The Man Who Fell To Earth." Aside from being hopelessly weird in an early seventies sense, I remember one of the advanced alien technologies Bowie was bringing to Earth was color film that developed itself in the film spool.

Essentially Polaroid did that with the instant film, but it shows how completely unexpected the digital camera era was. There's still some die hards out there with their 35mm cameras griping about how much better film is supposed to be, but in the end the party's over and it's a digital world.

Appraisals are dishonest, waste of time

Scott

Good for nothing

At one place I worked at I got my "annual review" when I had been there six weeks, simply because everyone was supposed to get their review on that date. I was still well in my learning phase, and was ranked inadequate by my supervisor, which I did not then or now think was a fair assessment, in particularly for a "yearly" performance. I quit the organization within 8 months.

At another job in the mid nineties my review was simply an excuse for a manager with a grudge to force me to leave. At still another job we wrote our own reviews and the whole thing was rubber stamped.

Reviews have so little connection to your actual performance that it only really matters whether they like you or not.

Remembering the CDC 6600

Scott

Who was fastest?

Interesting article, although Columbia University in New Yawrk claims to have had the fastest computer in 1969 with the IBM 360/91:

http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/

However, I'll let the experts duke it out, I'm just glad to see old iron that for once is older than me, if just by a few years.