I agree to a point, for the home user, on a new (or 6mth old) pc, go for it.
For a business, hold off till SP1 or SP2.
One pc with interesting problems with a new OS can be sorted, if you have a few thousand PCs and you start getting interesting problems, your manager asks why you are spending money to make problems;)
Not sure about US consumer law, but here in Australia if you purchase either "as a business" or "business version" you are no longer protected as a consumer, you have no rights of warranty, no right to change your mind (and a whole lot of others too).
Basically unless the supplier states they still have a warranty, if you don't actually ask, you may not be getting one. (yeah I know dell do specifically state about their business warranties and about their service plans)
Not saying buying as a business is bad, it can get you some great bargains sometimes, but some retailers will take advantage of the fact if you start to become a problem customer.
Your not in business are you? Businesses have spent a fuck load of their time paying the absolute least for barely adequate products, and with the economy the way it is, don't go looking to them for "zomg free money for internetz!".
Still not cheap (due mainly to telstra chargeing for the connection and backhaul) but at least you get some quality extras (free usenet account, big OSS repository, etc).
Just like his original announcement about the amount of pirated copies of his game being in excess of 90% of all copies, saying that this game was worth just ONE CENT over 16,000 people payed for it, is fucking criminal.
A game that is not only fun and challenging but also gives you the mac, pc and linux version at the same time and what do most people want to pay for it, $2.03, of which they lost about 15% to paypal in fees for processing such small transactions.
A note, you had to enter a non-zero value, so the starting price, $0.01 also happened to be the most popular.
For the record, I paid $20 when it first came out on steam, and still consider it to be worth every cent.
So lets put a tax, oh about $2 should do, on any N class wireless device sold outside of Australia, the results would be more favorable to the CSIRO (an Australian tax-payer funded research group) I think.
Its likely more to be considered a "utillity" more than a right, so if you own/rent a house, its required to be able to be powered, have a telephone, water and now internet.
I already use my HP laptops pen input to play games like company of heroes, its great, the only downside with that is the need for right click (on the pen its a button)
VLC is a media player that doesn't use the built-in codecs in windows, so even if your codecs are a mess, it will work.
You have to have Java to use OOo, but most OOo install it auto-magically.
And yes, HP are one of the worst, first thing I did when I got a new laptop recently was removed the crappy 5400rpm HDD and dumped in a new seagate 7200 and put a fresh copy of windows on it, much much faster.
Consider treating the HP software like any other malware, grab hijackthis (usually from trendmicro) and remove its entries manually.
The request to impose sanctions reminds me too much of scooby-do:
"we would have won too if it wasn't for those meddling kids!"
Forget that it was evidence grounded in fact, that they themselves would have happily used a bias (were one to exist) and that they themselves have created such bias in the past with "expert" witnesses and creative information gathering (yeah, I read the full transcripts posted way-back-when of so called expert witnesses).
You don't have to, contact microsoft and tell them you require an original install disk for your windows that was pre-installed, and say the OEM wouldn't provide you with one:)
Or you can use ANY windows vista disk, there are only 2 kinds of disk, 32bit and 64bit, you can interchange them (so yes, you can put vista64 on a laptop that only came with 32bit, and use its OEM key, just need to do phone activation).
That said as an OEM who pre-loads software I will agree 99.99% of us are arseholes, we (and by we I mean I built the pre-installer and selected the software to load) load a small selection of extra software, firefox, OOo, mediaplayer classic, VLC, Java and nero OEM (we throw world of goo demo on too if its a "gaming pc"), the only piece of software that runs all the time from that selection (after our config runs) is the Java updater.
Its not the rating boards fault, they have to pigeon-hole each media into a slot, the biggest slot we have in Aus is MA16+, meaning anything not suitable for a 16yo to play is not suitable for Aussie audiences AT ALL.
The Attorneys General need to reach a 100% consensus to change the system to add an 18+ rating to the mix, so the board can mark games as "adult only".
/me waits for rob to come on and tell us all off for messing up his blog.
Wishing I had of made an account when I first started viewing the site, didn't see a point back then (2-3 digit UID) and by the time I wanted to make a contribution 6 digit UID:/
Oh well, guess a 3 digit UID will be posting here shortly, I won't hold you up.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree to a point, for the home user, on a new (or 6mth old) pc, go for it.
For a business, hold off till SP1 or SP2.
One pc with interesting problems with a new OS can be sorted, if you have a few thousand PCs and you start getting interesting problems, your manager asks why you are spending money to make problems ;)
Not sure about US consumer law, but here in Australia if you purchase either "as a business" or "business version" you are no longer protected as a consumer, you have no rights of warranty, no right to change your mind (and a whole lot of others too).
Basically unless the supplier states they still have a warranty, if you don't actually ask, you may not be getting one. (yeah I know dell do specifically state about their business warranties and about their service plans)
Not saying buying as a business is bad, it can get you some great bargains sometimes, but some retailers will take advantage of the fact if you start to become a problem customer.
Your not in business are you? Businesses have spent a fuck load of their time paying the absolute least for barely adequate products, and with the economy the way it is, don't go looking to them for "zomg free money for internetz!".
Checked out internode lately?
They can run telstra ADSL2+ :)
Still not cheap (due mainly to telstra chargeing for the connection and backhaul) but at least you get some quality extras (free usenet account, big OSS repository, etc).
Just like his original announcement about the amount of pirated copies of his game being in excess of 90% of all copies, saying that this game was worth just ONE CENT over 16,000 people payed for it, is fucking criminal.
For a good read on this, check out 2dboys recent "pay what you want" sale on World of Goo.
A game that is not only fun and challenging but also gives you the mac, pc and linux version at the same time and what do most people want to pay for it, $2.03, of which they lost about 15% to paypal in fees for processing such small transactions.
A note, you had to enter a non-zero value, so the starting price, $0.01 also happened to be the most popular.
For the record, I paid $20 when it first came out on steam, and still consider it to be worth every cent.
Which brings me to my next one, have one part of the cinema that is "no children" :)
And whilst there are thing other than food that will stick to seats, the majority of what I have seen in cinemas is food related.
Got my vote too.
No phones and no crappy food (and thus no sticky seats) would make the cinema experience much better imho.
Nice find. /me sits down to spend the next few hours reading about a good chunk of the stuff this nation has pioneered
Ok then, this should be fun :)
So lets put a tax, oh about $2 should do, on any N class wireless device sold outside of Australia, the results would be more favorable to the CSIRO (an Australian tax-payer funded research group) I think.
Its likely more to be considered a "utillity" more than a right, so if you own/rent a house, its required to be able to be powered, have a telephone, water and now internet.
I already use my HP laptops pen input to play games like company of heroes, its great, the only downside with that is the need for right click (on the pen its a button)
VLC is a media player that doesn't use the built-in codecs in windows, so even if your codecs are a mess, it will work.
You have to have Java to use OOo, but most OOo install it auto-magically.
And yes, HP are one of the worst, first thing I did when I got a new laptop recently was removed the crappy 5400rpm HDD and dumped in a new seagate 7200 and put a fresh copy of windows on it, much much faster.
Consider treating the HP software like any other malware, grab hijackthis (usually from trendmicro) and remove its entries manually.
Yeah, Aussie here.
The sig gives me away somewhat.
The request to impose sanctions reminds me too much of scooby-do:
"we would have won too if it wasn't for those meddling kids!"
Forget that it was evidence grounded in fact, that they themselves would have happily used a bias (were one to exist) and that they themselves have created such bias in the past with "expert" witnesses and creative information gathering (yeah, I read the full transcripts posted way-back-when of so called expert witnesses).
Good luck with future cases.
You don't have to, contact microsoft and tell them you require an original install disk for your windows that was pre-installed, and say the OEM wouldn't provide you with one :)
Or you can use ANY windows vista disk, there are only 2 kinds of disk, 32bit and 64bit, you can interchange them (so yes, you can put vista64 on a laptop that only came with 32bit, and use its OEM key, just need to do phone activation).
That said as an OEM who pre-loads software I will agree 99.99% of us are arseholes, we (and by we I mean I built the pre-installer and selected the software to load) load a small selection of extra software, firefox, OOo, mediaplayer classic, VLC, Java and nero OEM (we throw world of goo demo on too if its a "gaming pc"), the only piece of software that runs all the time from that selection (after our config runs) is the Java updater.
Actually, I think it was some kind of inverse-rule34, the porn came out first, then they thought "hey, we could make a sub-culture around this".
And if the AC was referring to the Simpsons, trust me, its been done (and in my country people have even been convicted for it).
Its how I have gotten banned games into Aus in the past, it goes off the purchasers location.
Most steam games trigger by where the purchaser lives.
So the result is I will get a friend from the USA to buy the game and "gift" it via steam to me :)
Its not the rating boards fault, they have to pigeon-hole each media into a slot, the biggest slot we have in Aus is MA16+, meaning anything not suitable for a 16yo to play is not suitable for Aussie audiences AT ALL.
The Attorneys General need to reach a 100% consensus to change the system to add an 18+ rating to the mix, so the board can mark games as "adult only".
Considering the average age of gamers in Aus is 30 its a bit fucked up if you ask me. (before you yell "Citation needed" http://www.igea.net/2009/03/australias-computer-games/ )
Wait, so like normal pressure sensitive keyboards would have a pressure rating of 0-10, your proposing one that... Goes to 11?
When other players are running as fast as they can, you could just kick it up another gear, take it to 11!
Actually yes.
Watch the vid at the bottom of the linked page, they "keys" are the same as every normal keyboard, its the control circuit thats different.
Not only did you "woosh" but you also "d'oh"
Cardboard box?
LUXURY!
We used to live in a rolled up newspaper in a septic tank!
/me waits for rob to come on and tell us all off for messing up his blog.
Wishing I had of made an account when I first started viewing the site, didn't see a point back then (2-3 digit UID) and by the time I wanted to make a contribution 6 digit UID :/
Oh well, guess a 3 digit UID will be posting here shortly, I won't hold you up.
Git offa mah lawn!