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Paperghost Postbag: Your Questions Answered
Let's get this train wreck moving! Labels: Postbag
"Is it worth buying Vista now or wait a while for things to settle?" Alex, UK
Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Predictably, all I'm seeing are a whole bunch of people on forums complaining because settings haven't backed up correctly, files have gone missing, this is broke, that's stuffed and the thing in the corner is on fire. If you buy it anyway and it works then great, but I personally probably won't even bother buying it...I'll likely keep a spare XP machine knocking around, but finish migrating the other machines over to Linux. Ultimately, I can't be bothered having to deal with yet more Windows problems on a day to day basis. Sure, I'll have a copy for infection testing or whatever, but all bets are off as to whether I'll upgrade myself.
"With Vista launching in 2007, do you think the security risks will get bigger on the new OS, or do you think they'll actually shrink?" Mike1901
...oh God, more Vista. Okay - the pure code exploits may well go down a bit, but a hardened Kernel is NOT the be all and end all of better security. Social Engineering is still the best and easiest way to nail someone, and they need to do a LOT more to tackle this than a slightly screwy anti-phish toolbar and a zillion popups that keep asking you if you REALLY want to install something. All I know is, I had a brief play with some of the new security features with regards this aspect, and my eyes rolled around in my head for a few hours afterwards.
They were rolling with pain, not pleasure.
"Were you nervous facing such a big crowd at rsa? I'd have wet my pants." Stevo
I've previously done a crowd (ooer) of about five thousand or so, but then that was on a stage with my back to them so it's not quite the same thing. It was pretty exciting actually, because we finished with quite a bit of time to spare and so were able to have a really good Q&A sessio at the end. I'd prefer it if things like this did away with powerpoints altogether and just did a big load of questions instead. There was also some unintentional humour - like when you look up and there's a guy at the back holding up a big sign with 20 MINUTES LEFT on it, which made me lol. Also, the chair that they put on the stage. Why? Because when you're walking around, they stick that on there so if you get too near the edge, the chair falls off and you don't. Supposedly. I can imagine a fair few people got tangled up in it and went along for the ride too.
"Who is your favourite musician?" LlamaLam
...er, probably Gustav Mahler. The guy was a God, and if I could work out how to dig up his corpse, put it in a sack, smuggle it back into the UK and prop him up on a chair in the corner with a nice cup of tea in his bony old hand I'd do it, baby.
My finest moment doing anything musical was when I had to go around all these inner city school things and (while trying not to get shot or stabbed or whatever) take a bunch of kids between 6 and 9 years of age, teach them some music basics and get them on stage to play in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
They wanted us to do incy wincy spider and baa baa black sheep.
I taught them an extract from MAHLERS THIRD SYMPHONY.
That's a big old heap of Johnny Kickass, right there.
As far as Mahler himself goes, he was a gigantic force of influence on everyone around him and not just limited to the field of music. He was a major influence on Walter Gropius and the eventual founding of the Bauhaus, The Secessionists (Gustav Klimt, anyone?), novelists such as Thomas Mann (Death in Venice), some major theatre designers from the time (though I can't remember their names, doh) - Hell, his musical influence alone revolutionised the way conductors would work, orchestras would play, the numerous musical movements that followed (Webern going small, because Mahler had already gone too far in the other direction)....the list is huge and surprisingly diverse.
You've probably heard whole chunks of music - er - "inspired" by Mahler without even realising it. You'll never view John Williams' Star Wars scores in the same light after hearing Mahler's Second, and as for the famous opening theme of the original Star Trek TV show? Try replacing that with the opening bars of Mahler's First.
In summary, Gustav Mahler rox my sox. You should consider letting him rock yours, too.
"Are you thinking of getting into podcasting? That would be cool. If not, I'd be glad to do your podcast for you :)""Who were those dolly birds each side of you in the pictures?" Dad
Er, no idea. Plus, they forced me to get in those photos. It was terrible. Oh God, there were nightmares, cold sweats, the whole package.
Never again.
Do you believe that we will see a Raise in independant Internet Zones like Sealand and will they be considered a threat by the Governments of Western Countries" Milligansghost
I think Sealand is a bit of a one off, to be honest - plus, governments of western countries see everyone as a threat ;)
