now if I was in Communist China...... then I'd worry.....

It doesn't have to be a "paranoid conspiracy", because it already happens.

They DO know what you do. Maybe they don't know what you smell But tracing your spending habbits may let them know what you think about. Sure nobody may be watching you personally, but don't think there isn't massive amounts of data being collected about everything people do, buy, watch, listen to, browse to, talk to, etc...
Given a reason, a detective, FBI, whatever, could dig up dirt on you from preschool days. lol. Right down to the day you visited the nurse because of a scrape on your knee.

It's more scary how careless companies are at protecting our personal data. Hense increase in identity theft and stolen credit card numbers. Not to mention the profit made from collecting data and then selling it around to the highest bidder.

Frankly I'm not so worried about big brother watching, because I'm not doing anything illegal. I'm more upset that these companies only treat us as sacks of money to fatten their already-fatted wallets. We are consumers, we are monitored, watched, recorded. They trace us to find out what we like, they put our actions en masse into software to crunch the numbers and create systems which make them the most money. In other words, I'm tired of being a living statistic.

Does anybody have that feeling sometimes? We get a pay check from the corps so we can turn around and give it back to them in order to live? All the while they analyze us to better our consumerness. Like mice in a glass tank, running our "rat race" for them to watch and record.

Granted, I'm not given to conspiracies, and I don't spend a minute out of my day thinking or worrying about this stuff. But I do believe it IS happening, to a degree. Billions of terrabytes of data isn't being collected about the public for no reason. It's being put to use in some way. And people are profiting off it.

After all, they say the greatest trick the devil ever played is convincing the world he doesn't exist.
Why would "they", the big corps and data miners, admit to foul play or abuse of our personal habits?
Why did suddenly most grocery stores require membership? Absolutely NO reason at all. What's wrong with a person grabing some goods, then pay for it? No, we now need club cards for extra "benefits". Meaning they raise prices and then lower them again for members only. Data mining anyone?

So anyways, I don't want to sound like a nutcase, like I said, I never think about such things, but I know they are happening. To a degree.

Bingo. My main worry about this as well. If not for me, rather, the large amount of users who wouldnt know if it was genuine MS or not. Think about all of the people who get trapped into phishing scams?

Not realy most computers that control satalites and nuclear wepions use verry utilitarian versions of UNIX (some dateing from the 1960's)and are on isolated grids specifically built for defense purposes and not connected in any way to comercial networks or the internet.

I am convinced, that the day, may one day come, when:

1. out sourced imports pc parts, :knock:
2. meglamaniac OS developers, :angel:
3. rediculous retailers, :grinthumb

will push the red button and everything everywhere will shut down & not reboot :dead:


p.s.: I can see them comming! They think,...... I think,......they're a figment of my imagination. But they aint foolin me, they're right there and they're wearing speedo's!

They will do the same with Vista. Maybe they should put more money into fixing existing problems on the OS than pouring money into stopping Piracy.

Hey, guys, I got an Idea! Why don't we all go out and get Windows XP Proffessional? It's only, like, 300$. I mean, we're all rich, like Bill Gates, right? And who cares if it fails WGA. Oh well! We can always afford to buy another "genuine copy". Drumroll please.......I DON'T THINK SO! Isn't Microsoft like a monopoly? I thought the government outlawed those a long time ago...

Nah microsoft isnt, cause MAC OS's and Linux (free) are big too. But I cant even think of any more to choose from, so i guess lack of variety leads to their success.