And Microsoft is giving them a free game. I don't know what Arcade game they're planning to give out, but with a quick look at wikipedia, it seems that Arcade games tend to be either 400 or 800 MSP. That translates to something like $5 or $10, unless I'm mistaken. Considering that the cost for a year of Live Gold is $60, that $5 or $10 translates to the value of 1 or 2 months of service. Seems like pretty fair compensation to me.
Not to mention that since Microsoft doesn't guarantee uptime, the users aren't entitled to anything, legally speaking. It's good business on Microsoft's part that they're doing this (for once), but they don't have to.
That just means that it's a bad idea to have all your games tied into one service, period (which I agree with, not that it's a bad idea to have all your games tied into an MS service (which is only part of the larger truth).
Singling out Intel for bad behavior they have actually committed is fine, I have no objections to that. I'm saying it's kind of pointless and dumb to single out Intel for hypothetical bad behavior (i.e., "Intel would be as bad as MS if it weren't for AMD").
No shit, life has risks. That doesn't mean we shouldn't consider what the risks are, if they're worth taking, and if they can be worked around, as you seem to be suggesting.
Excuse me, aren't we an ass this morning. First: I said that the really badly-off people would be uninterested in a laptop, because they have bigger and better priorities, not that they're unable to learn. Second: I do not deny the possibility of change and betterment, merely claim that this is a poor way to bring it about. Third: I'm not depressed, and that has nothing to do with the topic at hand, so what the hell's your point? Ah, I get it. You probably don't have one, and are just being snarky. Well, that's your loss.
I'm not suggesting that at all. I'm suggesting that we shouldn't single out individuals (or corporations) in a hypothetical scenario. Actual behavior should be frowned upon (or smiled upon), not "They would act this way if..." scenarios.
An ineffective means to an end, however noble, imo. To offer a counterpoint to what you said: I really hate it when people defend the OLPC project like it's actually going to make a difference. It's not going to, and it's the biggest waste of money I've ever seen (well, the biggest one not run by the US government...). People who are in dire need are far more likely to sell their OLPC laptops to others in order to pay for necessities than to actually use them, and I don't blame them either. It's what I'd do if I was in a situation that bad.
But meh, OLPC is never going to see a cent from me (unless, 20 years from now, they have magically improved things, then I might start donating), and others are of course free to waste their money as they see fit.
It's kind of a dumb point anyway. Intel would certainly be like MS if it weren't for AMD, but that's true of pretty much any company. Apple would be just like MS if they had MS' market share, Madden has been declining in quality ever since EA got that exclusive license from the NFL, and so forth. Any company who has a monopoly is going to act like MS, so why single out Intel?
I took the advice of your SIG. Thank you. I sincerely mean that.
I don't disagree that stupidity has harmful effects, my issue is with saying "stupid people deserve what they get". I think that saying things like that is promoting an attitude of smugness and I'm-better-than-you. Going by that logic, I really shouldn't try to educate stupid people, because they deserve the consequences of their stupid actions. Should we shield people from dumb mistakes? Of course not, we don't want to live in that kind of nanny-society. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a marginal amount of sympathy for those people, or try to help and educate them.
Blockbuster doesn't rent HD-DVDs any more, remember? At any rate, there aren't just as many studios which are exclusively HD-DVD. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HighDefShare_2008-06-01.svg . The HD-DVD only camp is pretty small compared to the Blu-Ray camp at this point. If Paramount and Universal go Blu-Ray, HD-DVD is going to die overnight. It may still exist, but it'll be a highly niche product.
Terrible analogy. The iPod isn't a format, it's a player. Moreover, the iPod's success doesn't depend on that of AAC, because it can play other things. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray's success, because they are formats, depend entirely on which one the movie studios are willing to release to. HD-DVD players, unless they're dual format (do those exist yet? I don't believe so), do depend on the success of HD-DVD, because that's all they play (well, and regular DVDs, but a standard DVD player can be had for far cheaper, so that doesn't matter).
Here on/. this is what you get and that's the way it is. It shouldn't be, and the reason it pisses me off is because nothing else but Vista-related topics sees this kind of idiocy. I read topics about Macs, Linux, you name it, and everyone is generally civil and having a productive discussion. When it's a Vista-related topic (even other Microsoft topics don't have it this bad), everyone goes from normal mode, to "hate on Vista regardless of whether that's appropriate to the discussion" mode. Vista is the only topic that provokes that kind of behavior, and it irritates me, because there's no good reason for it.
All of those but the second-last one are very simply dealt with. If they really want to give the pilots access to the Internet, fine, they just give them a terminal separate from all the navigation and controls which is on a different physical network. The reasons you listed for having an Internet connection available are good, but they don't require connecting the navigation and control network to the Internet.
Not at all. It's my idea of a rant. I've gotten sick and tired of hearing the idiots who feel the need to bash Vista at every opportunity, and karma be damned, it felt good to vent steam.
No, it doesn't. We may not be able to prevent the consequences of stupidity (nor should we try to baby-sit people in that fashion), but we certainly shouldn't say that stupid people deserve what they get, feeling all smug. We should try to educate them, not finger-point and laugh.
If this is intelligent discussion, then so is goatse. Bashing Vista isn't intelligent discussion, it's trolling, when it occurs in the context of a story about SP1. Intelligent discussion would be the merits/demerits of SP1, not saying "lolz people need an upgrade to Ubuntu button".
Vista is actually pretty good, contrary to popular opinion. I was foolish enough to install SP1 RC1 on my home computer (risky, I know), but it's worked out well for me. The only issue I did have with Vista, a really weird one where DNS would randomly stop working until I restarted, has gone away now. Much better than the last Windows service pack I installed, XP SP2 right when it came out, which broke literally half my games for some reason. In fact, Vista SP1 actually made KOTOR run somehow, which I couldn't manage before.
Look, here's what the intelligent people want from you, and the others who are posting to rip on Vista. Shut the fuck up. We know you don't like Vista, and you've had an entire fucking year to make that plain to everyone. Now, when a Vista story comes along, just shut up so that we can have some sort of sensible, intelligent discussion about the topic.
First of all, stupidity doesn't mean you deserve what you get. Second of all, using Windows has nothing to do with it. All the smart Windows users are blissfully uninfected, the problem is stupidity, not OS choice.
Uh... Blu-Ray is winning at the moment, so I don't know what your point is. Not to mention the PS3 isn't washed up, it's picking up steam and could (though kind of doubtful) yet go somewhere.
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Not to mention that since Microsoft doesn't guarantee uptime, the users aren't entitled to anything, legally speaking. It's good business on Microsoft's part that they're doing this (for once), but they don't have to.
That just means that it's a bad idea to have all your games tied into one service, period (which I agree with, not that it's a bad idea to have all your games tied into an MS service (which is only part of the larger truth).
Singling out Intel for bad behavior they have actually committed is fine, I have no objections to that. I'm saying it's kind of pointless and dumb to single out Intel for hypothetical bad behavior (i.e., "Intel would be as bad as MS if it weren't for AMD").
No shit, life has risks. That doesn't mean we shouldn't consider what the risks are, if they're worth taking, and if they can be worked around, as you seem to be suggesting.
Excuse me, aren't we an ass this morning. First: I said that the really badly-off people would be uninterested in a laptop, because they have bigger and better priorities, not that they're unable to learn. Second: I do not deny the possibility of change and betterment, merely claim that this is a poor way to bring it about. Third: I'm not depressed, and that has nothing to do with the topic at hand, so what the hell's your point? Ah, I get it. You probably don't have one, and are just being snarky. Well, that's your loss.
I'm not suggesting that at all. I'm suggesting that we shouldn't single out individuals (or corporations) in a hypothetical scenario. Actual behavior should be frowned upon (or smiled upon), not "They would act this way if..." scenarios.
But meh, OLPC is never going to see a cent from me (unless, 20 years from now, they have magically improved things, then I might start donating), and others are of course free to waste their money as they see fit.
What... the hell... are you drunk? That sentence is fairly incomprehensible to me. o.O
It's kind of a dumb point anyway. Intel would certainly be like MS if it weren't for AMD, but that's true of pretty much any company. Apple would be just like MS if they had MS' market share, Madden has been declining in quality ever since EA got that exclusive license from the NFL, and so forth. Any company who has a monopoly is going to act like MS, so why single out Intel?
If you had problems with XP, it was probably something wrong with your system. XP is rock-solid.
I don't disagree that stupidity has harmful effects, my issue is with saying "stupid people deserve what they get". I think that saying things like that is promoting an attitude of smugness and I'm-better-than-you. Going by that logic, I really shouldn't try to educate stupid people, because they deserve the consequences of their stupid actions. Should we shield people from dumb mistakes? Of course not, we don't want to live in that kind of nanny-society. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a marginal amount of sympathy for those people, or try to help and educate them.
I hadn't paid attention to this at the time, but they're apparently still selling them online: http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/17/blockbuster-chooses-blu-ray-is-the-war-over/
Blockbuster doesn't rent HD-DVDs any more, remember? At any rate, there aren't just as many studios which are exclusively HD-DVD. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HighDefShare_2008-06-01.svg . The HD-DVD only camp is pretty small compared to the Blu-Ray camp at this point. If Paramount and Universal go Blu-Ray, HD-DVD is going to die overnight. It may still exist, but it'll be a highly niche product.
Terrible analogy. The iPod isn't a format, it's a player. Moreover, the iPod's success doesn't depend on that of AAC, because it can play other things. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray's success, because they are formats, depend entirely on which one the movie studios are willing to release to. HD-DVD players, unless they're dual format (do those exist yet? I don't believe so), do depend on the success of HD-DVD, because that's all they play (well, and regular DVDs, but a standard DVD player can be had for far cheaper, so that doesn't matter).
It doesn't matter how many players are sold, if the studios are moving toward another direction.
All of those but the second-last one are very simply dealt with. If they really want to give the pilots access to the Internet, fine, they just give them a terminal separate from all the navigation and controls which is on a different physical network. The reasons you listed for having an Internet connection available are good, but they don't require connecting the navigation and control network to the Internet.
Not at all. It's my idea of a rant. I've gotten sick and tired of hearing the idiots who feel the need to bash Vista at every opportunity, and karma be damned, it felt good to vent steam.
No, it doesn't. We may not be able to prevent the consequences of stupidity (nor should we try to baby-sit people in that fashion), but we certainly shouldn't say that stupid people deserve what they get, feeling all smug. We should try to educate them, not finger-point and laugh.
If this is intelligent discussion, then so is goatse. Bashing Vista isn't intelligent discussion, it's trolling, when it occurs in the context of a story about SP1. Intelligent discussion would be the merits/demerits of SP1, not saying "lolz people need an upgrade to Ubuntu button".
Where the FUCK are you buying Windows, that it costs $400?
Vista is actually pretty good, contrary to popular opinion. I was foolish enough to install SP1 RC1 on my home computer (risky, I know), but it's worked out well for me. The only issue I did have with Vista, a really weird one where DNS would randomly stop working until I restarted, has gone away now. Much better than the last Windows service pack I installed, XP SP2 right when it came out, which broke literally half my games for some reason. In fact, Vista SP1 actually made KOTOR run somehow, which I couldn't manage before.
Look, here's what the intelligent people want from you, and the others who are posting to rip on Vista. Shut the fuck up. We know you don't like Vista, and you've had an entire fucking year to make that plain to everyone. Now, when a Vista story comes along, just shut up so that we can have some sort of sensible, intelligent discussion about the topic.
First of all, stupidity doesn't mean you deserve what you get. Second of all, using Windows has nothing to do with it. All the smart Windows users are blissfully uninfected, the problem is stupidity, not OS choice.
Uh... Blu-Ray is winning at the moment, so I don't know what your point is. Not to mention the PS3 isn't washed up, it's picking up steam and could (though kind of doubtful) yet go somewhere.