Doesn't anybody remember that minicomputers were built on 19" racks also? Digital Equipment Corportation (DEC), WANG, that I know of, probably others also.
Makes perfect sense to me! The system will track UNEMPLOYED people. Why would they hire people and thus REDUCE their service population? Off-shoring the work preserves and expands the base of UNEMPLOYED people the system serves. 'Nuff said. (Where's that icon for LMAO?)
We have identified who you are and where you live. The proctors will be at your door shortly to install an update to your visiplate. Those who understand how our detection grid works and how it tracks all human activity, even in the vast uncharted outdoors, are dangerous and must be monitored much more closely. When the revolution comes ... we'll detect it and snuff it out. Long live Big Brother!
Big Data ... with a small siphon of "little data" to the reelection campaign of a certain current administration.... Can you say, 1984? Big Brother wants your vote!
So Evolution (vs. Creationism) and Climate Warming are .... linked? Where's the connection?
Evolution states that everything in the biome is in constant change. And that, according the religion of Secular Evolution, is a Good Thing.
Climate Warming states that everything in the biome is getting warmer. Another way of putting it is, it's in constant change. And that, according to the religion of Climate Warming, is a Bad Thing.
I see inconsistency here. If change is both GOOD and BAD, then at least one belief system is wrong. Maybe both are. But it's impossible for both to be right. 'Nuff said.
Pass me my coat, please. Mine's the one with the tomato on the lapel.
History Repeats Itself - HP Stuffs Good Product Down The Loo - Can U Say IPaq?
History repeats itself. HP bought Compaq and then dithered with its iPaq line until they crap-engineered it into oblivion. I have some 2nd-hand iPaqs people gave me. I am frustrated they never fixed the simple problems like memory corrupting when loading a document more than about a half-Meg in size. Complaints were met with, "Is it under warranty? No? Well come back to us when it is." Applications fought each other. Hardware broke way too easily - the most easily broken was the recharge bracket! The poor-step-child attitude of product support destroyed the iPaq line.
Then the iPhone came out. It basically had just the same capabilities as the iPaq. But it was fully functioning and well-supported. And the rest is history.
So the history of the Palm purchase has gone down the same route. But HP is learning. It took them less than 2 years to bring WebOS down, a lot lot less time than it took to destroy the iPaq.
There's one and only one way to end SPAM as we know it - charge a penny an email. This will not completely eliminate 419 spam (I've gotten BS 419-style letters in the regular Post), but it will make criminals unable to afford to continue sending out spam. No more unscrupulous hosts ignoring spammers. I'm sure you're thinking, well, spammers will just spoof an email sender. If they do that, then the spammer becomes the target of whatever collection agency the email sender hires. After all, money talks. And I would love it if there was a money value for spam that a bounty hunter could collect on.
Until then .... going after spammers with the American legal systme is a waste of time and money. (And trying to keep spam out via filters is also a waste of effort, but that's a gripe for another time.)
This looks like the last gasp for the iPAQ line. HP is trying to jump on the bandwagon of Blackberry, iPhone, and so on. But 3 years ago and more, they had iPAQs that worked as a phone, camera, MP3 player, had Windows apps like Word and Excel, and could browse the Web and use Bluetooth headgear.
What's really the tragedy here is that even though the iPAQ had most of the iPhone features years ago, HP's technical R&D never corrected the incredibly serious bugs in the old 4000, 5000 and 6000 series models. Application memory was mysteriously crippled. OS corruption propagated onto backups. Users like my brother and I had to reset the units several times a day, with hard resets (lose all your contacts, appointments, and tasks) every month or so.
Gradually, customers got wise, and the office supply stores here in the States dropped the iPAQ line. Now that HP is trying to resurrect the iPAQ, I say, good luck -- it's their last chance, and it may be too late at this point.
Backward compatibility is the key ... and has been ever since the IBM 360 back in the early 'Sixties. Nintendo finally learned their lesson. Also, continuing innovations with the controller, finally going beyond the brave experiments of the original NES. And one more thing Nintendo did right this time -- they didn't restrict really neat tech to Japan. It didn't help to create world-wide sales when the xenophobic Nipponese kept cool NES accessories like the disk drive for Japan only.
Very good review. I've used an S850 since the Spring, when I needed a quick replacement "throwaway" camera that used SD card storage and AA batteries. My experience has been that alkaline batteries last a bit longer than the review stated (perhaps the reviewer accidently bought counterfeit batteries), but I do own a large number of rechargeable LiMh AA's which I use regularly.
The reason that I call the S850 a "throwaway" is that it's just a transitional form. Features that will be upgraded in future models are, no sound while zooming; focus problems when partially zoomed in; default to flash mode when turning camera on every time [drives me nuts]; failure to hold the "S" priority settings if I turn the camera off while on that setting; lack of an optical viewfinder; and numerous other small things that irritate me. I won't own this camera forever. In a couple of years, I'll replace it with something better.
In the meantime, its best features are indeed its excellent anti-shake capability (a tripod is simply not needed any more) and phenomenal picture detail. The ASR is superb. Recording videos is weird when seeing a 1/2-second delay between what I'm recording & what's on the screen.
All in all, the S850 is an okay camera, as long as I think of it as a throwaway.... Thanks for the review.
... layoffs? You don't have to regurgitate the humbug that the spinmeisters slathered on to the press release to try to hide the fact that real live human beings are being affected. Just say it the way they play it -- they're laying off a s--t-load of people in order to raise the bottom line.
Reminds me of when a major international corporation bought the little company I was employed at. Their slogan was, "Creating value through people." Their actions said that they created value [profitability] through firing people. Yep, they got me in the fourth wave of "creating value".
It's such a hard thing, finding the lies that the Bush administration tries to feed us. Makes me long for the good-old-days, when Bill Clinton had a few whoppers in each and every speech. For just one, who can forget the Truth-Challenged One telling us that the USA would be out of Bosnia in one year? Twelve years later, the US military has reduced the number of troops to a few advisors -- not out of there yet!
...because it was explained 200 years ago by American President and all-around scientist Thomas Jefferson. His prediction was 1 degree (probably Fahrenheit) per century. Close enough to the actual measured data for the last 200 years.
Proof of the concept has been found on Mars, where recent events show a slow warming trend mimicking Earth's. No humans on Mars = no human-caused warming activities.
To blame human activity for global warming misses the point. Let's prepare for it instead of trying to 'stop the clock'.
There's nothing hare about reducing HP's carbon footprint by 20% in 3 years. Just stop working on R&D, stop fixing broken products, sell cr#p, and see sales drop. I'd be willing to bet they can hit 30%, maybe 40%, without even half trying. Stop focusing on core business -- works every time it's tried.
You're all wrong. Those are simply the normal discontinuities in time and space that we all encoun he train ticket for June was on sale so I bought it yesterday. Fine weather today but it rained last nigh ter from time to time.
Best Buy's bait-and-switch started with their name....
.... suddenly about 3 years ago everything changed. After going to Best Buy for a few years & marveling at their low prices, I noticed that the only best buy in the store was their name. Specifically, I couldn't find a digital camera in the store under $200. I walked out & went to another store to buy a decent camera for far less. I've been back to Best Buy since, but with the knowlege that their prices are no longer a "best" buy.
Best Buy is only following a respected US tradition, which in the long run is simply a legal bait-and-switch tactic. First, build up the store's reputation by good service and low prices. Then, when reputation is established, fire the good help & hire the dumbest cheapest labor possible, while jacking up prices all over the store. Oh, and we must forget, don't bother to stock the items that brought people into the store in the first place -- they don't bring in enough profit margin.
The end game is often a disaster, but never ever for the primary stockholders. They've bailed years earlier with huge profits, before the bankruptcy, the store closings, the ruined reputation, and eventual sale to another chain at fire-sale prices. I would hope that Best Buy isn't going down that all too predictable route.
Too many words in that last paragraph. It would read better as, "Microsoft-published technology ... was recognised as malformed and therefore potentially harbouring malicious code."
Considering the monthly crop of buffer overrun errors, and the fact that Microsoft has never admitted that it should fix C++ input, IMHO all of Microsoft's technology should be considered suspect. (Even though I have to use it daily.)
As a disgruntled owner of several HP iPAQ Pocket PC's, I'm of the opinion that HP has lost big-time. Sure, they don't have to pay a fine. But they already started paying the price when they had board meetings in which they were supposed to discuss iPAQs (one would hope that they would do something to get them to actually work). Instead, all they talked about was who was leaking to the press.
When a company as big as HP gets its eyes off the prize, the result is products that don't get fixed, then loss of market share, and then ... well, to put it this way: I can't go into any major chain store now and buy a new iPAQ. They aren't being sold.
So HP took the hit, starting right when the malfeasance started.
Way to go, HP!! Another product line bites the dust...
Even more alarming, according to my VERY OWN MEMORY, the daily average temperature in my part of North America has zoomed from an average of 32 F (0 C) to 45 F (7.2 C)! And that's in a time period of only SIX MONTHS!! By extrapolation, the daily average temperature will hover at 161 F (72 C) in only FIVE YEARS!!!
It's all over! Time to start stocking soy milk, rice, vitamins, and prepare for the inevitable social breakdown as the icecaps melt into the oceans, raising the sea level by over 200 feet (60 meters)!!!
(Those without a sense of humor need not reply.....)
Doesn't the saying go, Those who forget ... are doomed to repeat?
If Prof. Mayer-Schoenberger gets his way, and the Harvard computer forgot that I took his course, would I be doomed to repeat his course, again, and again, and again?
Or did the good Professor forget that some things need to be remembered for life?
Anyone ever notice that the anti-theft devices that are "inactivated" to let exit without triggering the alarm -- become "active" again in a few days? So what happens when your DVD is made playable ... and it goes back to black again?
Oh, yeah! Then you have to go back to the store again! What a boon for the video stores!!
Sad. The company that once promised employment for life now considers its employees "resources". I happen to attend church in New York with a number of them, and I can verify that they are actual human beings.
What is this article? Seems like I read this before: There was this lady who picked up a small dog on the street, only it was kinda strange and didn't eat right ...
Give it away before they figure out they don't need it...
... because "classic" zip archiving and security encryption have been available in Windows since XP came out.
Smart move by PKWare, since those people who pick up their free product wouldn't ever pay for it anyway. This way, the PWWare name gains some recognition.
[Full disclosure: After years of using WinZip 10 for free, I recently upgraded one of my PC's to WinZip 11 and actually paid for it. It provides non-Windows-supported compression and encryption.]
I'll make a daring and scandalously accurate prediction: Next month there will _another_ Microsoft Windows fix to patch a vulnerability caused by a, *! GASP !*, buffer overflow!
Aside:
This would have been fixed if, years ago, billg's C++ compiler simply limited input to the intended length and didn't let anything else in once the buffer was full. But that would be like building a house where all outside doors always come with locks, and we all know that nobody builds houses like that.
-> Well, they do, don't they?
-> What, I'm wrong?
-> Oh, billg is smarter than me, and he has more money.
--> So he must be right? Yeah sure! We'll see next month .....
"The Deepfish principle is simple. The web page downloads as a thumbnail, which is fairly impossible to view properly but acts as a navigation aid, and then the consumer is forced into the extra step of having to zoom in to the particular part of the web page that has the data or graphics that he or she wants to view."
The [free] Wii browser does the zoom thing also. Granted it's not on a phone, but it would be fun to see Microsoft try to patent it.
(Already in my house the kids are using any appliance that can browse the web, and the Wii turns out to be the best platform for watching YouTube videos.)
Any civilization sufficiently advanced enough to radiate signals is also going to be sufficiently advanced to encrypt their communications. We could be pulling in all sorts of alien communications right now. Since the best encryption makes its signal indistinguishable from noise, there's no way that we are going to know that it's there.
It's happening to our civilization already. For example, the Nintendo DS that my kids play with uses RSA encryption for PictoChat.
... and then they'll throw you in the virtual pokey
Of course you know what comes next: A virtual trial in the virtual world, and when convicted, your avatar will have to serve virtual time in a virtual jail. :-(
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38 posts • joined Thursday 5th April 2007 17:58 GMT
19" rack built minicomputers too
Doesn't anybody remember that minicomputers were built on 19" racks also? Digital Equipment Corportation (DEC), WANG, that I know of, probably others also.
I'll get me coat.
MAKES PERFECT SENSE to me!
Makes perfect sense to me! The system will track UNEMPLOYED people. Why would they hire people and thus REDUCE their service population? Off-shoring the work preserves and expands the base of UNEMPLOYED people the system serves. 'Nuff said. (Where's that icon for LMAO?)
We'll be seeing you shortly
We have identified who you are and where you live. The proctors will be at your door shortly to install an update to your visiplate. Those who understand how our detection grid works and how it tracks all human activity, even in the vast uncharted outdoors, are dangerous and must be monitored much more closely. When the revolution comes ... we'll detect it and snuff it out. Long live Big Brother!
Just in time for the 2012 election!
Big Data ... with a small siphon of "little data" to the reelection campaign of a certain current administration.... Can you say, 1984? Big Brother wants your vote!
Evolution and Climate Warming are .... linked?
So Evolution (vs. Creationism) and Climate Warming are .... linked? Where's the connection?
Evolution states that everything in the biome is in constant change. And that, according the religion of Secular Evolution, is a Good Thing.
Climate Warming states that everything in the biome is getting warmer. Another way of putting it is, it's in constant change. And that, according to the religion of Climate Warming, is a Bad Thing.
I see inconsistency here. If change is both GOOD and BAD, then at least one belief system is wrong. Maybe both are. But it's impossible for both to be right. 'Nuff said.
Pass me my coat, please. Mine's the one with the tomato on the lapel.
Re: Re: Balance?
> Other journalistic organs at least pretend to segregate news from opinion
Got a chuckle outta that one ... here in America, only Fox News still tries to do that. And so, of course, they are universally reviled.
History Repeats Itself - HP Stuffs Good Product Down The Loo - Can U Say IPaq?
History repeats itself. HP bought Compaq and then dithered with its iPaq line until they crap-engineered it into oblivion. I have some 2nd-hand iPaqs people gave me. I am frustrated they never fixed the simple problems like memory corrupting when loading a document more than about a half-Meg in size. Complaints were met with, "Is it under warranty? No? Well come back to us when it is." Applications fought each other. Hardware broke way too easily - the most easily broken was the recharge bracket! The poor-step-child attitude of product support destroyed the iPaq line.
Then the iPhone came out. It basically had just the same capabilities as the iPaq. But it was fully functioning and well-supported. And the rest is history.
So the history of the Palm purchase has gone down the same route. But HP is learning. It took them less than 2 years to bring WebOS down, a lot lot less time than it took to destroy the iPaq.
Charge a penny per email - and 419 SPAM will end
There's one and only one way to end SPAM as we know it - charge a penny an email. This will not completely eliminate 419 spam (I've gotten BS 419-style letters in the regular Post), but it will make criminals unable to afford to continue sending out spam. No more unscrupulous hosts ignoring spammers. I'm sure you're thinking, well, spammers will just spoof an email sender. If they do that, then the spammer becomes the target of whatever collection agency the email sender hires. After all, money talks. And I would love it if there was a money value for spam that a bounty hunter could collect on.
Until then .... going after spammers with the American legal systme is a waste of time and money. (And trying to keep spam out via filters is also a waste of effort, but that's a gripe for another time.)
75 per cent were recruited locally ... Yep. From the local Chinese.
That's _innocent_ if they drown
That's _innocent_ if they drown. Get it right!
(I am a former Connecticut resident - where many witches were executed, although several passed the water test.)
Yikes! Too close for comfort...
... because I work only a few blocks away from that building in the picture! "Shut her down, Clancy, she's pumping mud!"
Soon you'll be charged just for LISTENING
What a crock. If the RIAA has its way, soon you'll be charged just for LISTENING. Walk into a mall, pay your pence for the musak ...
It might actually work ...
... if they put Dr. Who episodes out on the Web.
And I want to be able to watch it on my Wii.
The Last Gasp for the iPAQ line?
This looks like the last gasp for the iPAQ line. HP is trying to jump on the bandwagon of Blackberry, iPhone, and so on. But 3 years ago and more, they had iPAQs that worked as a phone, camera, MP3 player, had Windows apps like Word and Excel, and could browse the Web and use Bluetooth headgear.
What's really the tragedy here is that even though the iPAQ had most of the iPhone features years ago, HP's technical R&D never corrected the incredibly serious bugs in the old 4000, 5000 and 6000 series models. Application memory was mysteriously crippled. OS corruption propagated onto backups. Users like my brother and I had to reset the units several times a day, with hard resets (lose all your contacts, appointments, and tasks) every month or so.
Gradually, customers got wise, and the office supply stores here in the States dropped the iPAQ line. Now that HP is trying to resurrect the iPAQ, I say, good luck -- it's their last chance, and it may be too late at this point.
Backward compatibility is key
Backward compatibility is the key ... and has been ever since the IBM 360 back in the early 'Sixties. Nintendo finally learned their lesson. Also, continuing innovations with the controller, finally going beyond the brave experiments of the original NES. And one more thing Nintendo did right this time -- they didn't restrict really neat tech to Japan. It didn't help to create world-wide sales when the xenophobic Nipponese kept cool NES accessories like the disk drive for Japan only.
Bravo for Nintendo -- Mario rules!! ;)
Sounds sinister to me!
... as in "sinistre" (I believe it's spelled), Latin for left-handed ...
Good review - Throwaway cameras
Very good review. I've used an S850 since the Spring, when I needed a quick replacement "throwaway" camera that used SD card storage and AA batteries. My experience has been that alkaline batteries last a bit longer than the review stated (perhaps the reviewer accidently bought counterfeit batteries), but I do own a large number of rechargeable LiMh AA's which I use regularly.
The reason that I call the S850 a "throwaway" is that it's just a transitional form. Features that will be upgraded in future models are, no sound while zooming; focus problems when partially zoomed in; default to flash mode when turning camera on every time [drives me nuts]; failure to hold the "S" priority settings if I turn the camera off while on that setting; lack of an optical viewfinder; and numerous other small things that irritate me. I won't own this camera forever. In a couple of years, I'll replace it with something better.
In the meantime, its best features are indeed its excellent anti-shake capability (a tripod is simply not needed any more) and phenomenal picture detail. The ASR is superb. Recording videos is weird when seeing a 1/2-second delay between what I'm recording & what's on the screen.
All in all, the S850 is an okay camera, as long as I think of it as a throwaway.... Thanks for the review.
Rationalization? Don't you mean...
... layoffs? You don't have to regurgitate the humbug that the spinmeisters slathered on to the press release to try to hide the fact that real live human beings are being affected. Just say it the way they play it -- they're laying off a s--t-load of people in order to raise the bottom line.
Reminds me of when a major international corporation bought the little company I was employed at. Their slogan was, "Creating value through people." Their actions said that they created value [profitability] through firing people. Yep, they got me in the fourth wave of "creating value".
Misdirection as opposed to outright lies
It's such a hard thing, finding the lies that the Bush administration tries to feed us. Makes me long for the good-old-days, when Bill Clinton had a few whoppers in each and every speech. For just one, who can forget the Truth-Challenged One telling us that the USA would be out of Bosnia in one year? Twelve years later, the US military has reduced the number of troops to a few advisors -- not out of there yet!
Weep not, my soul, for Hillary cometh!
Global warming is not a myth...
...because it was explained 200 years ago by American President and all-around scientist Thomas Jefferson. His prediction was 1 degree (probably Fahrenheit) per century. Close enough to the actual measured data for the last 200 years.
Proof of the concept has been found on Mars, where recent events show a slow warming trend mimicking Earth's. No humans on Mars = no human-caused warming activities.
To blame human activity for global warming misses the point. Let's prepare for it instead of trying to 'stop the clock'.
20% drop? Easy, just sell cr#p and see sales drop
There's nothing hare about reducing HP's carbon footprint by 20% in 3 years. Just stop working on R&D, stop fixing broken products, sell cr#p, and see sales drop. I'd be willing to bet they can hit 30%, maybe 40%, without even half trying. Stop focusing on core business -- works every time it's tried.
Discontinuities spotted
You're all wrong. Those are simply the normal discontinuities in time and space that we all encoun he train ticket for June was on sale so I bought it yesterday. Fine weather today but it rained last nigh ter from time to time.
Best Buy's bait-and-switch started with their name....
.... suddenly about 3 years ago everything changed. After going to Best Buy for a few years & marveling at their low prices, I noticed that the only best buy in the store was their name. Specifically, I couldn't find a digital camera in the store under $200. I walked out & went to another store to buy a decent camera for far less. I've been back to Best Buy since, but with the knowlege that their prices are no longer a "best" buy.
Best Buy is only following a respected US tradition, which in the long run is simply a legal bait-and-switch tactic. First, build up the store's reputation by good service and low prices. Then, when reputation is established, fire the good help & hire the dumbest cheapest labor possible, while jacking up prices all over the store. Oh, and we must forget, don't bother to stock the items that brought people into the store in the first place -- they don't bring in enough profit margin.
The end game is often a disaster, but never ever for the primary stockholders. They've bailed years earlier with huge profits, before the bankruptcy, the store closings, the ruined reputation, and eventual sale to another chain at fire-sale prices. I would hope that Best Buy isn't going down that all too predictable route.
Microsoft ... malformed
John:
Too many words in that last paragraph. It would read better as, "Microsoft-published technology ... was recognised as malformed and therefore potentially harbouring malicious code."
Considering the monthly crop of buffer overrun errors, and the fact that Microsoft has never admitted that it should fix C++ input, IMHO all of Microsoft's technology should be considered suspect. (Even though I have to use it daily.)
HP still loses ... market share & sales
As a disgruntled owner of several HP iPAQ Pocket PC's, I'm of the opinion that HP has lost big-time. Sure, they don't have to pay a fine. But they already started paying the price when they had board meetings in which they were supposed to discuss iPAQs (one would hope that they would do something to get them to actually work). Instead, all they talked about was who was leaking to the press.
When a company as big as HP gets its eyes off the prize, the result is products that don't get fixed, then loss of market share, and then ... well, to put it this way: I can't go into any major chain store now and buy a new iPAQ. They aren't being sold.
So HP took the hit, starting right when the malfeasance started.
Way to go, HP!! Another product line bites the dust...
True Evidence of Global Warming
Wow! That is clear evidence of Global Warming!
Even more alarming, according to my VERY OWN MEMORY, the daily average temperature in my part of North America has zoomed from an average of 32 F (0 C) to 45 F (7.2 C)! And that's in a time period of only SIX MONTHS!! By extrapolation, the daily average temperature will hover at 161 F (72 C) in only FIVE YEARS!!!
It's all over! Time to start stocking soy milk, rice, vitamins, and prepare for the inevitable social breakdown as the icecaps melt into the oceans, raising the sea level by over 200 feet (60 meters)!!!
(Those without a sense of humor need not reply.....)
Those who forget ... are doomed to repeat
Doesn't the saying go, Those who forget ... are doomed to repeat?
If Prof. Mayer-Schoenberger gets his way, and the Harvard computer forgot that I took his course, would I be doomed to repeat his course, again, and again, and again?
Or did the good Professor forget that some things need to be remembered for life?
One can go on ... this is rich!
When it fails and goes black again...
... and you can't play your DVD ....
Anyone ever notice that the anti-theft devices that are "inactivated" to let exit without triggering the alarm -- become "active" again in a few days? So what happens when your DVD is made playable ... and it goes back to black again?
Oh, yeah! Then you have to go back to the store again! What a boon for the video stores!!
Can you say, DIVX?
Those aren't "resources" those are human beings
Sad. The company that once promised employment for life now considers its employees "resources". I happen to attend church in New York with a number of them, and I can verify that they are actual human beings.
What is this, El Reg or Snopes?
What is this article? Seems like I read this before: There was this lady who picked up a small dog on the street, only it was kinda strange and didn't eat right ...
Oh, that wasn't a sheep, it was rat. Right.
Urban legend? Or reality??
One step closer to a Light Saber
If the laser tunneling can be confined to a distance of, say, 1 meter, we're one step closer to a functional Light Saber.
(Never say that the money's been wasted. Methinks the researchers have ulterior motives. May the Force be with them!)
It might be the black squirrels...
... but nuts, the black squirrels live at the _other_ end of Iowa.
Give it away before they figure out they don't need it...
... because "classic" zip archiving and security encryption have been available in Windows since XP came out.
Smart move by PKWare, since those people who pick up their free product wouldn't ever pay for it anyway. This way, the PWWare name gains some recognition.
[Full disclosure: After years of using WinZip 10 for free, I recently upgraded one of my PC's to WinZip 11 and actually paid for it. It provides non-Windows-supported compression and encryption.]
Re-classify them as football fans...
... and they'll all be arrested and forced to pay damages.
On the other hand, if football fans were reclassified as badgers, they could get away with murder and be protected as well ...
Buffer overflows forever! Long live C++ !!
Buffer overflows forever! Long live C++ !!
I'll make a daring and scandalously accurate prediction: Next month there will _another_ Microsoft Windows fix to patch a vulnerability caused by a, *! GASP !*, buffer overflow!
Aside:
This would have been fixed if, years ago, billg's C++ compiler simply limited input to the intended length and didn't let anything else in once the buffer was full. But that would be like building a house where all outside doors always come with locks, and we all know that nobody builds houses like that.
-> Well, they do, don't they?
-> What, I'm wrong?
-> Oh, billg is smarter than me, and he has more money.
--> So he must be right? Yeah sure! We'll see next month .....
Thumbnail, zoom ... been there, done that
"The Deepfish principle is simple. The web page downloads as a thumbnail, which is fairly impossible to view properly but acts as a navigation aid, and then the consumer is forced into the extra step of having to zoom in to the particular part of the web page that has the data or graphics that he or she wants to view."
The [free] Wii browser does the zoom thing also. Granted it's not on a phone, but it would be fun to see Microsoft try to patent it.
(Already in my house the kids are using any appliance that can browse the web, and the Wii turns out to be the best platform for watching YouTube videos.)
And they'll find ... Alien noise (encryption)
Any civilization sufficiently advanced enough to radiate signals is also going to be sufficiently advanced to encrypt their communications. We could be pulling in all sorts of alien communications right now. Since the best encryption makes its signal indistinguishable from noise, there's no way that we are going to know that it's there.
It's happening to our civilization already. For example, the Nintendo DS that my kids play with uses RSA encryption for PictoChat.
... and then they'll throw you in the virtual pokey
Of course you know what comes next: A virtual trial in the virtual world, and when convicted, your avatar will have to serve virtual time in a virtual jail. :-(