I've been saying this for a long time: Microsoft is responsible for making the unwashed masses think this is as good as it gets. The only people who know things can, and should, be a lot better are a few oldies like me.
This is a comment to this article about why people seem to accept reduced reliability from our computers.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9879798-7.html
more reasons to like the Eee I suppose... :-)
Update -- one of the comments said:
"Please don't let the average joe realise we've got a great scam going selling them expensive hardware that they don't actually need to check their e-mails and write word docs"
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/17/america/gates.php
"The chief of the malaria program at the World Health Organization has complained that the growing dominance of malaria research by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation risks stifling a diversity of views among scientists and wiping out the health agency's policy-making function."
I've heard rumblings before... see http://sitaramc.blogspot.com/2005/01/truly-sickening.html . But this is probably worse.
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=464890&cid=22539016
This is a nice, very brief, exposition of why IT is not the answer to all of life's problems, and why, as long as you have a decent number of smaller enterprises (really small ones), IT penetration will never get anywhere close to 100%.
And -- even though it's my industry -- this may be a good thing in the long run.
the lengths to which these guys will go to try and get back customers!
Buy I guess it's the right thing to do if you're trying to escape
reality anyway!
Even though the title says "laptop", the article explicitly mentions that this applies to any electronic device (cell phone, USB stick, camera, etc). This is especially important in light of point #3 below.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9062299
Please read the article for more details, some of which are quite chilling if you were naive enough to expect anything better. Oh and this applies to US citizens also. And it applies even when you are leaving the US :-)
Best quote:
If it's information you don't want to share, don't carry it. That includes data such as personal banking information, photos, correspondence, health and password information. If the device is a company-owned computer, don't carry proprietary business information or personnel records on it, the ACTE advised.
Some other quotes:
"But we think people should know that they basically are leaving their right to privacy at the door when they cross the U.S. border. There is no assumption of privacy," at a port of entry, she said. Here are five factors Gurley says travelers should know about:
1. No evidence needed to take your laptop
2. Anything can be searched
3. Your PC might not be returned right away
4. Don't take anything you don't want to share
5. Be cooperative
"Our primary concern is to alert travelers that their laptops and other electronic devices can be seized at a border without explanation, provocation or even likely cause," she said
Journalists walk into mortal danger on our behalf, so we don't have to
-- God bless them!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/08/symbiotic_ephemeralization/
Normally I'd have felt tempted, even perhaps compelled, to read the
linked PDF. But thanks to Reg hack Lester Haines, I can have a good
laugh without all the puking that he no doubt went through.
A few weeks ago when I went to Amaravati restaurant, the service was
very slow. So of course I gave them hell.
Yesterday we went again. Things have changed quite a bit...
Service is so fast now, they tried to take my plate away before I'd
finished eating!
I have had occasion, in the past, to talk about El Reg, the IT mag that does not pull any punches. Irreverential to the core, funny as hell, excellent insights, and lots of in jokes. As wikipedia says: "It does not aim to be popular with the powerful corporations -- its tag line is: Biting the hand that feeds IT."
If you aren't a regular reader of El Reg, and if you have a decent RSS reader, you really ought to subscribe to a feed. Meanwhile, here's the most absolutely laugh-out-loud funny item I have seen in ... oh ... at least a few months!
Oh and by the way: NSFW means "Not Safe For Work". If you're looking at this at your workplace, don't click here!
Be sure to read some of the comments also, although none of them are as funny as the article itself!
