Rather than presuming that it's all pirated, start by presuming that everything as it stands is legitimate. Write a memo to whoever does the accounting and ask for copies of the invoices for all of the software purchased over the past five years "so that I know what licenses we currently possess and don't end up paying for software twice over when someone asks me to install something".
When/if the accounting person/dept comes back with nothing, then take it to the bosses and explain how surprised you were when accounting were unable to find any invoices. Stress the safety issues of illegitimate software (viruses, trojans etc.) and discuss the options. Make it look like you are a contentious employee doing your best for the company and avoid looking like a self-righteous jobsworth.
The value of the software can be 399. It's called a discount. Just like, it's cheaper to buy the pack that Apple sells with Leopard, iLife and iWork than to buy all three separately. If they made a version of OSX to install on non-Apple hardware they certainly would mark it up.
Well, what you do with a Mac is take advantage of the second-hand market. My Mac Mini that I bought a year ago cost GBP 699, and looking at a few 'completed items' listings on eBay will sell for about GBP 500 now. So if I want the latest spec, I sell on and get most of my money back, and as well as getting a better graphics card I'll also have a slightly faster processor, maybe faster RAM / FSB, maybe an OS upgrade as well.
Yup. The other thing is how much they maintain their value. In Dec 2006 I bought a fairly high-end Dell XPS laptop for GBP 1200. I decided to get a Mac Mini in Spring 2008, which was GBP 699. In Summer 2008 I sold the 18-month old laptop in order to get a MacBook, and got 350 for the laptop, so it lost 70% of its value in 18 months. I'm now looking to sell my Mini to upgrade to a 24" iMac, and looking at current prices I expect to get 500 for it on eBay, which means its only lost 30% of its value in a year. I fully expect that in a year's time if I have the money to buy a Mac Pro, I'll be able to sell my GBP 1200 iMac for 850. There's no way that a similarly specified Dell etc. would hold its value in the same way.
You're missing the point. Symantec have a 'free' (to people who already have a license for one of their Norton AV products) bootable CD-ROM ISO that can be downloaded from their website, which is specifically designed for cleaning an infected machine. The rep should have given the link to download this and pointers on how to change their BIOS settings to boot from the CD-ROM image, or at least 'contact your PC supplier and ask them how to boot from a CD-ROM'. Instead they offered the paid-for service (which incidentally would not have been able to clean the PC since you really do need to boot into a clean OS in order to properly sort out an infested PC, and whatever remote control software they're using would not have been able to change BIOS settings etc.).
So the story is: instead of pointing out that there is a solution which the user has already paid for as part of the package, they were instead offered a $100 remote session which would almost certainly have been ineffective.
You're misunderstanding. Autism is generally regarded as a spectrum of disorder, from those with mild behavioural difficulties all the way to those who cannot function independently in society. It's not something that can be an 'is or is not' like, e.g. Down's Syndrome.
At the mild end of the spectrum it can be really difficult, and quite subjective, to differentiate mild autism from simple naughty behaviour, and it is often when the child gets a bit older that the diagnosis is much clearer because their level of social functioning becomes much more apparent compared to those around them.
'Braver' doctors will overdiagnose and get the occasional complaint from parents saying "you labelled my child and now they're fine" because they had non-autistic spectrum behaviour problems that they grew out of. More conservative doctors will choose to watch and wait then get occasional complaints that they should have seen something subtle earlier - in fact, they probably did but decided to hold off.
Actually that button stopped working on my TX. I took it to bits, resoldered the dry joint and glued the switch to the PCB which is what Palm should have done in the first place rather than relying on the solder joint for a button that is pressed 20 times a day.
Plenty of people used Windows 3. Windows 3.11 was a widely accepted upgrade because it had much better networking support.
Earlier versions of Windows tended, in my experience, to be used mostly in run-time mode, packages like Aldus Pagemaker included a runtime Windows because the GUI library provided was ideal for DTP on PCs.
Australia also has awesome stackable plugs that allow piggy-backing, and the ability to change the cable exit point on the plug so that the wire goes in the right direction from the socket to the appliance.
Document-centric is the natural way for humans to work
I'm not so sure about that. People that use computers for their profession usually understand that they have a toolbox of tools, aligned in a workflow, to produce an end result. Graphic designers and photographers know that they can do a degree of image cleaning or editing in Aperture or similar, but they will need Photoshop for more complex tasks, and will choose the appropriate tool for the job, just like a carpenter would choose between a small hand saw and a power tool. Trying to hide the applications and focus on a 'document' would be the opposite of what most graphics and audio professionals would want.
OSX stores the application used in the file metadata - if I download a jpeg from a web page and double-click the icon, it will open in Preview. If I edit the file in Photoshop and save it as a jpeg, when I double-click it will open in Photoshop. Not always what I want, but and interesting difference to the Windows 'file association' system.
I think the idea of a generic 'document' for files that actually are a document in the real-world sense (i.e. they will ultimately be printed onto paper or converted into a PDF/PS file) is a good one, and I guess that was the original idea of Windows OLE, that you had a container document and then different applications transparently handled different objects within that container. The problem with it is that it doesn't work very well, and better results are usually obtained by creating objects in their relevant application then exporting a jpeg.
That's a little bit silly: it's not "infinite fidelity" but "high fidelity" so it's possible to lose a finite amount of fidelity and it still be "high". One could argue by the same reasoning that the 20kHz low-pass filter used with CDs has lost some fidelity therefore CDs aren't "hi-fi".
The best is when you work with someone else on the same computer and they have the wired mouse and you have the wireless. If you can mirror their mouse movements the pointer stays perfectly still whatever they do.
Uh... well, I'm guessing he's meaning that newer processors will come out with features not supported by the current motherboard, so he would want to upgrade.
Wow, some truly insightful "analysis" there, mostly one-line quotes which state that they 'had to' get rid of Firewire to fit the motherboard in a certain way. If Apple wanted Firewire, they could have fitted it in easily (like, for instance, by only having one USB2 port). Every 'pro' user of the MacBook that I know (musicians, photographers, graphic designers) makes extensive use of Firewire peripherals, in fact the MacBook has pretty much been the only reason why companies such as Lacie have continued to make Firewire hard disks. Apple knows this, and their design 'rationale' has come from marketing who want to drive sales to the MacBook Pro.
Sorry, are you really claiming here that Apple left the firewire port out for the sake of aesthetics and/or to protect us from the tyranny of a four-pin port?! It was left out as a profit-maximising measure because they know that the MacBook is incredibly popular with musicians and they want to force people who rely on FireWire (i.e. anyone who wants to get multi-channel audio into a laptop at a decent sample/bitrate) into buying the MacBook Pro. Simple as that.
Actually Catherine Tate is a rather talented character actress who has her own comedy show. I don't think she is especially like her character in Doctor Who, at least not in the interviews that I've seen.
Fair play, if I wanted a gaming rig then I'd probably have a PC running XP or Vista. No, scratch that, I'd actually quite like a PS3, well worth the cash just for the BlueRay / media centre aspects;-).
Don't ever dare compare the OS X operating system to windows or even Linux with WINE in terms of gaming ever again.
You do realise that WINE is available for OSX? It's working pretty well so actually OSX has parity with Linux plus the advantage of quite a few native titles being available.
So are you volunteering your child to take part in the double-blind study? See, that's the problem, it's actually really difficult to do research in this area - in fact it's difficult to do any double-blind research in pharmaceuticals for children because no-one would volunteer for the study. What can be done are observational studies and collection of statistics, and so far the MMR is deemed to be safe.
Our parents/grandparents' generation had no problem accepting vaccinations when they were first introduced because they saw the effects of the infections themselves firsthand (e.g. measles encephalopathy). Our generation hasn't experienced this so we focus on the vaccination itself and worry about the tiny percentage who get the side effects.
Usually when that's happening it's just a loose hard drive connector, particularly with the 4th Gen (i.e. pre-Video) models. There's loads of tutorials on how to open and reseat the cable, just google.
Slashdot Mirror
5. collect your redundancy notice
Rather than presuming that it's all pirated, start by presuming that everything as it stands is legitimate. Write a memo to whoever does the accounting and ask for copies of the invoices for all of the software purchased over the past five years "so that I know what licenses we currently possess and don't end up paying for software twice over when someone asks me to install something".
When/if the accounting person/dept comes back with nothing, then take it to the bosses and explain how surprised you were when accounting were unable to find any invoices. Stress the safety issues of illegitimate software (viruses, trojans etc.) and discuss the options. Make it look like you are a contentious employee doing your best for the company and avoid looking like a self-righteous jobsworth.
The value of the software can be 399. It's called a discount. Just like, it's cheaper to buy the pack that Apple sells with Leopard, iLife and iWork than to buy all three separately. If they made a version of OSX to install on non-Apple hardware they certainly would mark it up.
Well, what you do with a Mac is take advantage of the second-hand market. My Mac Mini that I bought a year ago cost GBP 699, and looking at a few 'completed items' listings on eBay will sell for about GBP 500 now. So if I want the latest spec, I sell on and get most of my money back, and as well as getting a better graphics card I'll also have a slightly faster processor, maybe faster RAM / FSB, maybe an OS upgrade as well.
Yup. The other thing is how much they maintain their value. In Dec 2006 I bought a fairly high-end Dell XPS laptop for GBP 1200. I decided to get a Mac Mini in Spring 2008, which was GBP 699. In Summer 2008 I sold the 18-month old laptop in order to get a MacBook, and got 350 for the laptop, so it lost 70% of its value in 18 months. I'm now looking to sell my Mini to upgrade to a 24" iMac, and looking at current prices I expect to get 500 for it on eBay, which means its only lost 30% of its value in a year. I fully expect that in a year's time if I have the money to buy a Mac Pro, I'll be able to sell my GBP 1200 iMac for 850. There's no way that a similarly specified Dell etc. would hold its value in the same way.
Most grandmas surf /. and porn?
You're missing the point. Symantec have a 'free' (to people who already have a license for one of their Norton AV products) bootable CD-ROM ISO that can be downloaded from their website, which is specifically designed for cleaning an infected machine. The rep should have given the link to download this and pointers on how to change their BIOS settings to boot from the CD-ROM image, or at least 'contact your PC supplier and ask them how to boot from a CD-ROM'. Instead they offered the paid-for service (which incidentally would not have been able to clean the PC since you really do need to boot into a clean OS in order to properly sort out an infested PC, and whatever remote control software they're using would not have been able to change BIOS settings etc.).
So the story is: instead of pointing out that there is a solution which the user has already paid for as part of the package, they were instead offered a $100 remote session which would almost certainly have been ineffective.
indeed, for instance the headphone socket on a MacBook
You're misunderstanding. Autism is generally regarded as a spectrum of disorder, from those with mild behavioural difficulties all the way to those who cannot function independently in society. It's not something that can be an 'is or is not' like, e.g. Down's Syndrome.
At the mild end of the spectrum it can be really difficult, and quite subjective, to differentiate mild autism from simple naughty behaviour, and it is often when the child gets a bit older that the diagnosis is much clearer because their level of social functioning becomes much more apparent compared to those around them.
'Braver' doctors will overdiagnose and get the occasional complaint from parents saying "you labelled my child and now they're fine" because they had non-autistic spectrum behaviour problems that they grew out of. More conservative doctors will choose to watch and wait then get occasional complaints that they should have seen something subtle earlier - in fact, they probably did but decided to hold off.
Actually that button stopped working on my TX. I took it to bits, resoldered the dry joint and glued the switch to the PCB which is what Palm should have done in the first place rather than relying on the solder joint for a button that is pressed 20 times a day.
Plenty of people used Windows 3. Windows 3.11 was a widely accepted upgrade because it had much better networking support.
Earlier versions of Windows tended, in my experience, to be used mostly in run-time mode, packages like Aldus Pagemaker included a runtime Windows because the GUI library provided was ideal for DTP on PCs.
Australia also has awesome stackable plugs that allow piggy-backing, and the ability to change the cable exit point on the plug so that the wire goes in the right direction from the socket to the appliance.
Document-centric is the natural way for humans to work
I'm not so sure about that. People that use computers for their profession usually understand that they have a toolbox of tools, aligned in a workflow, to produce an end result. Graphic designers and photographers know that they can do a degree of image cleaning or editing in Aperture or similar, but they will need Photoshop for more complex tasks, and will choose the appropriate tool for the job, just like a carpenter would choose between a small hand saw and a power tool. Trying to hide the applications and focus on a 'document' would be the opposite of what most graphics and audio professionals would want.
OSX stores the application used in the file metadata - if I download a jpeg from a web page and double-click the icon, it will open in Preview. If I edit the file in Photoshop and save it as a jpeg, when I double-click it will open in Photoshop. Not always what I want, but and interesting difference to the Windows 'file association' system.
I think the idea of a generic 'document' for files that actually are a document in the real-world sense (i.e. they will ultimately be printed onto paper or converted into a PDF/PS file) is a good one, and I guess that was the original idea of Windows OLE, that you had a container document and then different applications transparently handled different objects within that container. The problem with it is that it doesn't work very well, and better results are usually obtained by creating objects in their relevant application then exporting a jpeg.
That's a little bit silly: it's not "infinite fidelity" but "high fidelity" so it's possible to lose a finite amount of fidelity and it still be "high". One could argue by the same reasoning that the 20kHz low-pass filter used with CDs has lost some fidelity therefore CDs aren't "hi-fi".
Well, run AmigaDOS/Workbench natively, I should think.
The best is when you work with someone else on the same computer and they have the wired mouse and you have the wireless. If you can mirror their mouse movements the pointer stays perfectly still whatever they do.
If it works, why do you need to replace it?
Uh... well, I'm guessing he's meaning that newer processors will come out with features not supported by the current motherboard, so he would want to upgrade.
Wow, some truly insightful "analysis" there, mostly one-line quotes which state that they 'had to' get rid of Firewire to fit the motherboard in a certain way. If Apple wanted Firewire, they could have fitted it in easily (like, for instance, by only having one USB2 port). Every 'pro' user of the MacBook that I know (musicians, photographers, graphic designers) makes extensive use of Firewire peripherals, in fact the MacBook has pretty much been the only reason why companies such as Lacie have continued to make Firewire hard disks. Apple knows this, and their design 'rationale' has come from marketing who want to drive sales to the MacBook Pro.
Sorry, are you really claiming here that Apple left the firewire port out for the sake of aesthetics and/or to protect us from the tyranny of a four-pin port?! It was left out as a profit-maximising measure because they know that the MacBook is incredibly popular with musicians and they want to force people who rely on FireWire (i.e. anyone who wants to get multi-channel audio into a laptop at a decent sample/bitrate) into buying the MacBook Pro. Simple as that.
Actually Catherine Tate is a rather talented character actress who has her own comedy show. I don't think she is especially like her character in Doctor Who, at least not in the interviews that I've seen.
Fair play, if I wanted a gaming rig then I'd probably have a PC running XP or Vista. No, scratch that, I'd actually quite like a PS3, well worth the cash just for the BlueRay / media centre aspects ;-).
Don't ever dare compare the OS X operating system to windows or even Linux with WINE in terms of gaming ever again.
You do realise that WINE is available for OSX? It's working pretty well so actually OSX has parity with Linux plus the advantage of quite a few native titles being available.
So are you volunteering your child to take part in the double-blind study? See, that's the problem, it's actually really difficult to do research in this area - in fact it's difficult to do any double-blind research in pharmaceuticals for children because no-one would volunteer for the study. What can be done are observational studies and collection of statistics, and so far the MMR is deemed to be safe.
Our parents/grandparents' generation had no problem accepting vaccinations when they were first introduced because they saw the effects of the infections themselves firsthand (e.g. measles encephalopathy). Our generation hasn't experienced this so we focus on the vaccination itself and worry about the tiny percentage who get the side effects.
"My Chemical Romance"
Usually when that's happening it's just a loose hard drive connector, particularly with the 4th Gen (i.e. pre-Video) models. There's loads of tutorials on how to open and reseat the cable, just google.