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User: DougReed

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  1. Buy a Mac if you want to tinker with Apple stuff. on Apple's Trend Away From Tinkering · · Score: 1

    Sheesh! This thing is a cross between a phone and a PDA. Who cares? it isn't a 'Computer' .. sure it has a computer in it, but so does my BMW and the GPS on my boat, but I don't feel any inescapable urge to hack into my GPS unit. I write software on my PC, my Mac, my Solaris box, and my Kubuntu box all the time, but I have no desire to hack on my Smartphone.

    Apple is trying to build a reliable consumer device, and keeping it pretty standard is the best way to do that, so teach your kid to program his computer and tell him not to mess with the ABS system in your Toyota.

  2. Verizon for map coverage on Truth Or Dare — What Is the Best US Cell Company? · · Score: 1

    Consumer reports has looked into this, and says Verizon has the most coverage. I am a Verizon guy, not because I like their technology, and certainly not because I like their phones. But I almost never ever don't have coverage. Others borrow my phone because I always have coverage with they don't. The 'there's a map for that' adds are true, I have had AT&T before, and their coverage is not dreadful, but certainly not trouble free.

  3. Re:I don't recall ever using it... on Does Your PC Really Need a SysRq Button Anymore? · · Score: 1

    Oh .. Another good idea! Let's replace what we can do with a single button with some program I can launch and find some menu option to do it. Indeed, lets get rid of the keyboard altogether, and we can select all of our letters from a keyboard program on the screen using a mouse.

    sigh...

  4. Re:Monopoly or not. on Psystar Not Closing Up Shop · · Score: 4, Informative

    All of this is completely irrelevant. The parent post is correct. Whether one likes Apple or not, they are within their rights to sell whatever they want with whatever restrictions on it they choose. The hardware does not have to be unique, it just has to be sold as a single package. A refrigerator if you will It only becomes anti-competitive when they tell me I can only use it to access the Apple Website. Even that they could do as long as they made it clear that was all it did. Whether the consumer buys what they choose to sell is consumer choice. The difference with Microsoft, and the reason they got into trouble, was because they did not own the PC. The PC was designed to run whatever system you wanted, and they took steps to block that capability. Microsoft could just as well sell a standard PC with a Microsoft logo on it and forbid you to boot anything but Windows on it. The problem is they then have to compete in a commodity market. A problem Apple does not have.

  5. Why can't we do something about advertising fraud? on Verizon Droid Tethering Comes At a Hefty Price · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Verizon sells 'Unlimited' data plans that cap out at 5 Gb. AT&T advertises the 'fastest 3g network' with 'more bars in more places' with the smallest 3g network of any carrier. And that's just the wireless carriers. There is so much blatant advertising fraud on American TV anymore, yet nobody seems to notice or care.
    I can see how AT&T can argue their lies aren't .. They have 'the fastest 3g network' even if it's only available at the stop sign in on main street in Barstow California, and nowhere does it say that the more bars are 3g bars. As long as there is a signal, they are covered, and they don't say more bars than who? But I cannot imagine how Verizon can argue can argue that a 5Gb limit is 'Unlimited'. It's all fraudulent by intent, but since there is no morality in advertising, I guess it can exist, but 5Gb 'Unlimited' access I would think is actionable. Maybe Pamela Jones can explain it all to us.

  6. Re:And ST is being picked on.... on Why Charles Stross Hates Star Trek · · Score: 1

    The rules didn't change under Roddenberry. He actually documented everything he did and wrote every treaty referred to. When Roddenberry died, so did the science. Rick Berman did not make science fiction, he made money and that was all.

  7. Re:Rodenberry vs. Berman on Why Charles Stross Hates Star Trek · · Score: 1

    Here Here!

  8. The Next Generation on Why Charles Stross Hates Star Trek · · Score: 1

    Gene Roddenberry made the mistake of calling Star Trek a 'Wagon Train' to the stars when trying to sell it to the idiots who made the decisions, and ended up stuck with a swashbuckling hero who was always improperly abandoning his ship to interfere with other life forms and screw their women. But it was still better than anything else at the time. When it took off in reruns, the suits wanted more, and Gene said not unless we do it my way. TNG was his way. The science was better, the interaction with other life forms was better, and the ship was managed better. When that went away, Rick Berman and the suits drove it all straight into the ground.

  9. Don't Shop There on Do Retailers Often Screen User Reviews? · · Score: 1

    It may not help much, but each vote counts. If I find a store that I KNOW does this. I simply won't buy their goods. They are clearly a dishonest retailer.

  10. HP OfficeJet 7310 All-InOne has served me well on Choosing a Personal Printer For the Long Haul · · Score: 1

    The LaserJet printers are nice, but I don't care for the photo print quality. I have a pair of HP 7310s I have had for years, and they have never had a single problem. I use them for Scanning, Faxing, and Printing both Black&White and Color.. Even Photos. The only issue I have is with the price of the cartridges, and the generic ones screw up the print quality. I have them hooked to Linux, OSX and Windows and all functions work perfectly on each. I don't use Wireless, I have it networked connected over hardwired Gigabit LAN. I also have a Solaris 10 box, and it does not support the fancy stuff, but it prints OK.

    The closest thing I have had to a problem is the one in my office is ancient, and the FAX feeder pulls in double pages occasionally because it is just so old. So I pretty much send multipage faxes out of the one upstairs because it never misfeeds. Otherwise, it just works.

  11. Re:Resigned to it on XP Users Are Willing To Give Windows 7 a Chance · · Score: 1

    .. Which is why people bring their Vista PCs to me to fix after it deinstalls its own drivers and blue screens when their Wireless cards go out of range of their wireless networks? Vista is better than it was, but it is still broken. I have no friends with XP that have the same kinds of problems. I have a laptop that came with Vista... It would hang on shutdown... I wiped it and put XP on it.

  12. Re:In defense of Winows... on Bill Gates Remembers 1979 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Defend Windows all you wish, but it still a stolen operating system written with stolen computer time using the universal escape character as the directory separator with a terminal shell that is still inadequate even today. If Bill Gates had gone to jail for the criminal things that he did, as he should have, and Commodore had allowed Toys 'R' Us to sell their computers, then we would have had Quadraphonic Sound, Real Time Animation, Preemptive Multitasking, and thousands of colors on our screens by 1985. Basically we would have had 80% of the computer capabilities of XP in 1985. Instead, Micro$oft legitimized criminal behavior in corporations under the label of 'marketing'. What Microsoft should be famous for is killing the concept of corporate honor.

    There is nothing to defend, and Bill Gates can go to hell.

  13. Re:'People' don't understand computers on Security Certificate Warnings Don't Work · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Fixing people that read at a 7th grade education? Give me a break! I live in Florida, with a ton of other very intelligent people from all over the world who just want a boat dock behind their house and a pool out their back door. . But there are also TONS of morons who think George W. Bush is an intellectual and the banking crisis was caused by Obama running for office. And it's not just here either I used to live in LA, and my next door neighbor there was so stupid he thought that Obama was proof that Bin Ladin had infiltrated the Senate. How are you gonna teach these bozos anything. They will just want to fight you. Youcalimestupid boy?

  14. yawn... I'm sticking with Radio Paradise. on Microsoft Readies a Rival To Spotify · · Score: 1

    30 minutes of Vista ads followed by 'Against The Wind', then 'Free Bird', and back to Windows ads. No thanque.

  15. Files and Folders ... on Shuttleworth's Take On GNOME 3.0, Coordination with Debian · · Score: 1

    Much of the problem is that the whole thing is BS. Microsoft, and Apple, and everyone except Commodore Amiga messed it up. On an Amiga, your desktop was the root of your file system. If you created a directory it showed up on your 'desktop'. If you opened a file browser the file was exactly where you put it! People are confused because their desktop makes no sense. If the analogy worked, people would not be confused. If a user opened a file browser and found the file right where they put it, there would be no confusion. Sadly ... and as an old school guy, this makes me cringe .. most of the world would have all kinds of garbage in their 'root' , but at least the analogy would work and would not be complete nonsense.

    My father is pretty good with computers, but can never find anything because his desktop is in lost a bunch of directories south of 'C:\Documents and Settings'. As a technical guy, I would NEVER think to look for my desktop in a place called 'Documents and Settings'! So naturally my father has problems wrapping his brain around a concept that is completely arbitrary.

  16. If you have money ... Voyence on How Do You Create Config Files Automatically? · · Score: 1

    At the risk of sounding like some sort of an advertisement for EMC, If you are working for a company with money... Voyence is a WAY cool product. It will do just about anything you could possibly want to network devices. It will even tell you if you screw up something.

  17. Two Reasons... on We Rent Movies, So Why Not Textbooks? · · Score: 1

    Two reasons.

    One: Because movies are (slightly more) profitable. The vendor buys it, and rents it out over and over again for a few days at a time with very little risk of damage. A textbook would be 'out' for a whole semester, and may be substantially worn when returned. Where is the benefit? The textbook may, or may not be part of the next years curriculum, so I pretty much need to get the full cost of the book plus the profit margin from the first renter. No benefit to either party.

    Two: Captive audience. If I charge too much for a movie, or require you to buy it, many people will watch a different movie. I cannot say... That textbook was unavailable for a reasonable price, so I will use this one instead.

  18. Re:Hurray! on FTC Targets Massive Car Warranty Robocall Scheme · · Score: 1

    What exactly makes the job immoral and unethical?

    Well, for starters virtually none of these telemarketing calls is selling a legitimate product. Every one of them is some sort of scam trying to suck money out of the unsuspecting consumer.

    Immoral and unethical sounds like the perfect words to me.

  19. Re:-1 Troll on Microsoft Not Ditching Vista Until At Least 2011 · · Score: 1

    It is not that Vista is 'That Bad'. If it came on your computer, and it works swell for you. Don't mess with it. Out of everyone I know there are a few people like you, but with Vista it is like winning the lottery. I know one who's sound card uninstalls itself weekly, and one who every few weeks turns it on to the 'Welcome to Vista' initial setup screen. All settings gone. I have (had) one than hung on shutdown 90% of the time... I upgraded it to XP. Now it's faster and more stable. When the general public is actually considering upgrading ... It's pretty much a disaster.

  20. Linux just doesn't cut it as a desktop on Linux On Netbooks — a Complicated Story · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am a software developer, and the guy all my friends bring their PCs to. I LOVE the UNIX environment, and HATE the Windoze environment, and I have an 8 port KVM on my desk with Linux, Mac, Solaris, and Windows at my fingertips.

    I always use Linux or Solaris for server stuff if possible. To me putting a database application or a WEB server on a Windows box is just silly.

    But I am typing on a Windoze XP machine. (Vista does not exist in my world) I seldom use the Linux machine because I always need to switch to the Windows machine for something the Linux one cannot do, and there is nothing the Windows one can't do, so I just end up on the Windows machine. The MAC is nice, and I use it occasionally, but it too just cannot do everything I need, or is more frustrating to get it done. When I first got the MAC, I thought it was so cool and used the hell out of it for a while, but simple things can be quite hard to do sometimes because it tries to be so "easy" that it can become hard to do anything the MAC guys did not think of an easy way to handle. So back to the Windows machine... again because I need to do something the MAC has difficulty with. As a desktop, Solaris is useless for most stuff.

    It is like a trap in a way. Once I go to the Windows machine for one application I cannot do easily or at all on whatever other machine I was on, I just start doing stuff on that machine, and soon forget about the others. Cygwin and PuTTY do not help either because with that working, grep, find, and ssh is there, and I'm just done. (The Cygterm hack is my console, cmd.exe is dreadful.)

    I really wish this were not true, but ...

  21. But with Vista, it is just an aluminum brick on Dell's Adamo Goes After MacBook Air · · Score: 1

    The Apple is, after all, a good piece of hardware with good software. They should ship this with a real operating system. I simply will not purchase ANYTHING running Vista period. They might just as well put MS-DOS on it.

  22. Vista IS that bad on Windows 7's Media Hype Having the Opposite Effect As Vista's · · Score: 1

    I am a "computer guy" and friends always bring their computer problems to me. I get a few "what does this mean?" questions, but several friends have Vista problems ... Real problems .. Crash loops, Sound/Video drivers "disappearing". Win Me kind of stupid stuff. I bought a laptop with Vista, and figured I could hack my way through it. After a month of this, I Installed XP on top of it. Sure I could make it work, but it kept "fixing itself" and then I had to go fix it again. Vista STINKS. Period. I don't care if a bunch of users claim "Gee I have never had problems!" To many of my un-geeky friends started having problems after buying a new PC with Vista, friends that only had "silly question" problems before suddenly had genuine.. "Better let me look at it" kind of stuff with Vista. Vista has too much artificial stupidity built in, and I won't put up with it... Some of my friends have actually "downgraded" to XP on their own .. super scary stuff for them, but they did not want to ask me, and couldn't put up with it any more.

  23. Re:File format!!! on GDocs vs. ThinkFree vs. Zoho vs. MS Office · · Score: 1

    That is not an accident. That is by design .. Microsoft wants to sell everyone the new version... By making it break every year, yours eventually gets so lame you upgrade it because it can't open anything anymore.

    Standard Mafia style tactic, for a normal criminal organization... But that's OK, because Bill Gates gives to the poor.

  24. Re:Nooo! on Dial-Up Users "Don't Want Broadband" · · Score: 1

    My father is like 80 years old and said the same thing until he came to my house and checked his e-mail on my computer.... He ordered broadband as soon as he got home, and now says he can't live without it.

    It is not that he is some computer whiz either. My father sometimes even has issues searching with Google, but he uses e-mail, and YouTube he trades pictures and multimedia content with his friends ... mostly as links or mail attachments.

    My point is simply that anybody that doesn't want Broadband either has no interest in computers at all, or has never had it.

  25. Re:Bill was handed a monopoly ... and he learned. on Bill Gates Reveals Secret of Microsoft's Success · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wait a minute guys, We are missing a key point here! What kind of a pervert gets his kicks calling Portugal while standing in his underwear in the woods? It all sounds a bit dodgy to me!