About a year ago, I saw an article in Toronto's Globe & Mail newspaper (sorry, no link) that said that the greenhouse gasses emitted in sourcing all the parts to make a Prius were huge--around 2x as much as that of a Chevy Tahoe, which is around ~1.5x the mass! So, pound-for-pound, a Prius requires ~3x the amount of greenhouse gases to produce than a Tahoe...
The problem is that Toyota sources the Prius' parts just like it would for any other car--cost + shipping wins. Throw in the fact that bits & pieces come from all over the world (I believe 13 countries), and I question why nobody looks into this. So, while it may be more environmentally friendly to make a specific part at the plant across the state, it's still cheaper to buy it from a plant halfway across the world that probably doesn't follow stringent environmental standards & has cheap labor, then ship the whole thing to reliably meet JIT (just-in-time) manufacturing requirements. There's no environmental concern here, just maximizing profit...
And therein lies the problem with hybrid cars, CFLs, etc. None of the arm-chair environmentalists really look at what it takes to manufacture a complex product that pollutes less in usage...
Generally speaking, you can pull data from media formats (medium) that are 25 years old. If your capsule was to be opened in 50 or 100 years then you'd have a problem, but most media formats that are 25 years old are still readable today. How much effort it would take varies...
If you had a 160/180/320/360KB 5 1/4" floppy disk from 1983, you could even read it by buying an old 5 1/4" drive off eBay, connect it to the same floppy connector that's still in use today, and read the disk directly in Vista. Now, if instead you were trying to read an MFM/RLL hard drive, 8" floppy, magnetic tape, punch card, etc. from that era, then you'd have more of a problem--but it would still be doable.
Also, many companies make specialty products to connect old equipment to new PCs. While I've never seen one, there's probably a company that makes a USB 5 1/4" floppy drive. If push comes-to-shove, you can always buy old equipment to bridge the gap... If I had an MFM/RLL hard drive from 1983, I could always buy an XT or AT from ~1983-1991 (that has an MFM/RLL interface), connect it to a new PC by way of a serial port (well, the new PC will probably have a USB-to-Serial converter) or Ethernet and transfer the data.
Pick a technology that's very well used today and you should be fine reading it 25 years from now. Sure, it'll take some effort & creativity, but it should work. But if you pick a technology that's old by today's standards and you'll have even more trouble reading it in the future...
That being said, I would worry more about the media--whether it will withstand 25 years of isolation, heat expansion/contraction, humidity, etc.
IE 7, by contrast, DOES still support Windows '9x.
What are you smoking? IE7 doesn't even support Windows 2000, and Microsoft has gotta be kicking themselves over that decision. (They still need to patch W2K-IE6 for security holes, support it for Windows Update, support it for Silverlight, etc.--for 2 more years!)
IE6 was the last version released for Win98/98SE/ME and Win2K. All security patches for IE6 on Win98/98SE/ME ended on July 11, 2006. Security patches for IE6 on Win2K continue through July 13, 2010.
Or better yet, run Windows 2000--which is still supported by M$, works with Firefox 3, and works reasonably well with 64MB RAM. My Toshiba Libretto 110CT runs W2K & FF3 reasonably even without nLite. I could kill a few more useless services for a little more speed...
Also, since I'm maxed-out on RAM and I can only overclock from 233MHz to 266MHz, I got a HUGE speed improvement when I upgraded from Toshiba's tiny, slow 4200rpm 4.3GB IDE/PATA drive to a brand new Hitachi 5400rpm 160GB drive. Even though the Libretto only supports PIO mode over an ISA (!) bus, the faster HD has given the little machine new life! (Wonder how much faster it would be with an SSD!)
Let me preface this by saying I'm not a drugrunner, sexual predator, money launderer, etc. However, does any company sell a GPS signal detector that could be used to determine if a signal is coming from your car? Some sort of little box that would light up or spike a needle if such a signal was found... Now, I know that there are a lot of vehicles emitting GPS signals, so it would have to look for a very localized signal.
Of course, such a device in the hands of a criminal would easily tip them off if/when they are being tracked by the police. That person could then take the appropriate counter-measures to throw off the investigation...
This is the 2nd time Bill Gates was in close proximity to Windows BSOD'ing in public... I'm shocked nobody mentioned that when Bill Gates was presenting Windows 98 at Comdex-Chicago in 1998, a big BSOD appeared in front of all the attendees when a USB device was plugged-in--with laughter & cheers. But that was a beta version of Win98--this was running on SP2 or SP3 of XP--a product that has been around for ~7 years!
arrested for trying to sell Nazi memorabilia
Since when was Germany the whole of Europe?
I know France also forbids it (remember the whole eBay debacle?). The Netherlands does as well. IIRC, most of Europe does...
being video recorded on every street we walk/drive
I'll give you this one; we have more CCTV. However if you think it's every street you are much mistaken.
No, it pretty much is everywhere in places like London. Traffic cameras, Congestion Charge cameras, the Tube, and private store cameras supposedly being linked to the Met CCTV operation.
having 66% of our income taken to pay for socialized medical care
Plain wrong. You just pulled that figure straight out of your arse. Oh and would you rather we left poor people to die?
66% is pulled out of his arse, but some countries are in the 50-60% range (IIRC, Sweden).
giving our unemployed people "paid vacation" time
I actually agree that the welfare state here is too generous, but in the US it's so ungenerous you see people literally starving and that's what leads to a massively higher homicide rate.
WRONG! There are SO MANY social programs available to the poor in the US. From church groups to United Way to state-funded programs, nobody goes hungry unless they 1) choose to, 2) kick themselves in the ass where they are no longer welcome in places like soup kitchens. I've seen some of the poor in European cities--they are far more downtrodden, have more mental diseases, and are truly ignored by society. Americans have been found to be the most generous individuals worldwide when it comes to charitable contributions. But Europeans prefer to ignore facts like that...
arrested for speaking out politically
Can you show me where people have been arrested for peaceful protests?
Europe does not have "freedom of speech"--Europeans have "freedom of protected speech". There's a huge difference. Go to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam--they question why Americans allow all forms of speech, including hate. Neo-Nazis are illegal in most (all?) of Europe not by actions, but by beliefs. Their beliefs and speech are considered illegal, even if they don't do any illegal actions. With "freedom of protected speech", a country could that gay protests are not protected, then anyone participating in such a protest can be arrested. Some American famously said "I may not like what you say, but I'll fight to the death for your right to say it"--a principle that many Americans hold dear.
Now, how long until scan of the username/password document shows up on the court's website as a form of public disclosure??? It wouldn't surprise me if the moronic DA forgot to ask for the exhibit to be sealed...
McMahon said he does not recall intervening on the leather color change, but said he was sure it was unrelated to the Air Force's color. He said that it was probably because blue would not show dirt as much as tan or brown would.
Blue leather shows tan or brown-colored dirt less than tan or brown-colored leather??? Seriously, what imbeciles are running our military? No wonder they can't find Osama and manage to forget to remove nuclear warheads from planes...
...(a.k.a. Wisconsin), a bunch of beer-swilling drunks will be tailgating--eating Johnsonville brats and wearing foam cheese hats, watching "dem flyin' things" and bitching about Favre and Illinois toll roads.
Microsoft were so confident that users would enjoy it they even included the ability to roll back to Windows 3.1
Here's something shocking... Windows 3.11 (both Windows and Windows for Workgroups) outsold Windows 95 in both 1995 and 1996 calendar years. The reverse didn't happen until 1997. In fact, so many PCs were sold with Win3.1x after the introduction of Win95, catching software vendors by surprise, that several 32-bit apps initially released as Win95-only got back-ported to Windows 3.1x & Win32s in a subsequent interim release. (Case-in-point: Corel Print House from 1995/1996).
Looks like I was right in my comments from yesterday--but I never figured they would fall apart so quickly! Build a product that might infringe but would definitely piss someone off, make & deliver a bunch of orders, pay bonuses, declare bankruptcy (how long until Psystar does this???), and disappear... Take the money & run. The funny thing is that if they fulfilled their orders, they might be in the clear from criminal prosecution and their customers are the ones that got exactly what they paid for (sans warranty once they file for bankruptcy)... Excluding the execs, who might be sitting on a beach somewhere, everybody loses--including Apple.
And just because Apple is suing these guys, and is probably willing to spend more money bankrupting them than Psystar's owners have ever seen in their lives, does not necessarily mean that Psystar is in the wrong, or that any of what they have been doing is deceptive, unethical, or illegal.
I never said that Psystar was in the wrong. Think of it this way... If I wanted to make a quick buck off of someone else's namesake, I'd do what I outlined in my OP--found a company, make a product that pisses off a bigger company (but in a way that I can only face civil and not criminal prosecution), rake in some profits, get sued, pay out dividends/bonuses--blowing out all our cash, and go under using corporate/investor & bankruptcy laws to shield my now-plentiful personal assets from my "sound investment". In such a scenario, every asset the company still had would be riddled with debt leaving creditors fighting with the suing party for the scraps...
In the mean time, my shareholders/high-ranking employees and I made a cool couple-hundred-grand in "dividends", "salary", and "bonuses"; my customers got their products (no threat of criminal prosecution for not delivering, warranty claims can't happen due to bankruptcy, etc.); and multiple parties are fighting over the scraps--the 20 PCs, 5 laser printers, 15 phones, the cubicle walls, and some pens & Post-It notes.
Anyone who bought a Psystar should have known that Psystar wouldn't necessarily support (or be able to support) them either. Them's the risks when you buy a hacked product.
And those risks are minimized if the product never needs updating. But now that many items (PCs, cell phones, game consoles) need to phone home to get security fixes, buying a hacked item, be it a Psystar or a hacked iPhone, just doesn't make sense...
1. Create a line of Mac clones. 2. Sell them to an unwitting public. 3. Have Apple file suit. 4. Pay bonuses to all the execs. 5. Declare bankruptcy. 6. Shut down all operations.
Guess what... Everyone who bought a Psystar is left totally unsupported (which includes the all-important security hole fixes) and the execs made a bundle... Now, could Apple go after the execs personally for copyright infringement or (the soon-to-be-defunct) Psystar? Ironically, there was no consumer fraud here--businesses go under all the time and anyone who bought a Psystar would have had to know that Apple wouldn't support them...
Even if 0.1% of all PC's/servers where affected, that would have a huge impact. The problem with most of these errata is that they can't be patched by the OS.
I disagree. There's malware out there that takes advantage of security holes in Windows that are only known to the malware authors (and never reported to Microsoft). That dwarfs my earlier 10% number by potentially increasing it to 90+% of the PCs out there.
To add, CPU errata can be worked around by the BIOS and software. For example, if the specific model of CPU is affected by someone dividing 1.2348237811 / 2.2387234508 in Javascript, then it would be up to the JS compiler either look for that CPU or hard-code the response without passing the caluclation to the CPU. Sure, the OS may not watch for every calculation, but the responsibility would fall on the software to deal with the problem... Replacing the hardware isn't always a viable solution.
Think of it this way... If the programmers of Adobe Illustrator found that specific CPUs were unable to properly calculate/draw a circle correctly due to CPU errata, the responsibility would fall on those programmers to come up with a workaround.
...unless there is CPU errata that Intel hasn't fixed for years. We've got the chicken-little "the sky is falling" reaction going on here but (unless I'm seriously misguided) Intel fixes their errata.
My personal view is that such malware may only be able to take over a very small percentage of systems out there. The scope may be limited to something as (relatively) rare as an Intel Core 2 CPU within a specific FSB range and specific stepping. Throwing all those factors together, I doubt any such errata would encompass more than 10% of the PCs out there. Considering how many different variations of CPUs are out there--Intel/AMD/Via, Pentium-D/Core 2/Xeon/Pentium-M/Pentium 4, FSB differences, stepping, etc.; such malware might be extremely dangerous for a very small subset of Internet-connected PCs.
Now, if a malware author knows of a CPU bug that Intel/AMD does not know about, then this could be extremely serious, encompassing multiple generations of CPUs...
Sure, WfW 3.11 is ancient, but unless Microsoft is losing money on the act of selling these licenses, there's no advantage in discontinuing the program for WfW 3.11 or for any version of Windows or DOS. Let's see... Media costs-$0, advertising-$0, support-$0, R&D-$0, bugfixes/code changes-$0. It's a pure cash cow product. If I were a manufacturer and wanted to license Windows 3.0 to use Real Mode, Windows/286 2.1, or even DOS 6.22/6.25/7.0 (yes, there was a DOS 6.25) for use in a closed, embedded system, why shouldn't Microsoft be willing to take my money???
This is just another example of Microsoft flexing its muscles pointlessly...
One question that the article doesn't explain is HOW they are showing targeted ads on sites... Sure, I understand if I were a Charter Communications ISP customer going to a Charter site, then there would be some ad-targeting... But I seriously doubt most customers are frequenting sites that are affiliated with their ISP. Of course, this knocks out Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Slashdot, ESPN, most newspapers, Hotmail, TinyURL, etc. as they really aren't affiliated with a specific ISP that could provide data for ad-shaping. (Yes, I know Ameritech/SBC/AT&T has an affiliation with Yahoo, and Hotmail is "related" to MSN, but those relationship are not all-encompassing...)
So, this leads me to one conclusion--they're replacing ads on popular sites with their own. This is the only logical conclusion, and one that (will hopefully) land them as defendants in numerous lawsuits...
Oh, don't worry about that. Games will just be more interesting. For example, that 3D monster you're trying to hack to death with a chainsaw will now suddenly shift to a different part of the screen... Or maybe you'll get a cool color-cycling effect from some incorrectly calculated values...
However, comparing browser & OS stats between sites is pointless. PCPro's stats are based on more technically-savvy users, which (if it were shown) would lead to higher % for Windows 2000 than Hitslink's stats, which are far more indicative of the public at-large. Remember that few W2K machines were sold to home users--Win98 and (gasp!) WinME were preferred by many home users until XP-SP1.
Michael Mazerov, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C., says that because "Amazon is benefitting from police and fire protection, and other services in the states where it has facilities, it ought to be collecting sales tax just like any other local business."
First off, that sales tax would be for all Amazon sales within the state of the facility. So you can figure that only some (I'm guessing between 1/5 and 1/20) of the sales would be taxed in that facility's state. Second, that subsidiary is paying for the services mentioned above by way of corporate / property / employment taxes, etc. True, not as much as the local hardware store down the street that charges sales tax as well, but they are paying the lion's share. Third, going after Amazon could cause them to be dicks to all of these states by threatening to let go of all the employees in the respective facilities and move out of the state--leaving the state with none of the taxes mentioned above and an empty warehouse that, if it's not worth much, the subsidiary might just abandon & let foreclose. (After all, if there's sufficient legal distance between Amazon & that subsidiary, it might not harm Amazon's bottom-line or credit rating).
All it would take is 6-12 months to buy & build warehouses in states with no sales tax (i.e. NH), or a state with few Amazon customers they would be forced to charge sales taxes to (MT, NM, WY come to mind), and presto! Problem solved.
who wants to use ms office anyway... you have to pay for it, just use OpenOffice, its free!
Aaaaaah yes. The never-ending "why don't you use [xyz open-source product]?" drumbeat... First off, OpenOffice, while a nice app, is NOT a replacement for MS-Office. Second, show me any open-source app that's a serious contender to replace Access & Outlook, let alone one that could be a drop-in replacement...
Therefore, there are valid reasons why someone HAS to use MS-Office. One of them, which Microsoft is the master of, is lock-in. (Yes, lock-in's a bitch, but a valid reason nonetheless).
Will WINE or Codeweavers make a commitment to fully support a recent vintage of MS-Office (2007, 2003, XP) as a platinum app? By "fully", I mean everything in the suite--including Access, Outlook, Publisher, the little helper apps, VBA, clipart, etc. When I look at WINE's appdb, I see no consistency to the ratings people give to recent versions of MS-Office, which means users are having varying degrees of problems. Unfortunately, for many people (myself included), MS-Office doesn't work with WINE... Why not assign a group of coders & testers the task of getting 100% of the functionality of this one extremely popular app working???
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About a year ago, I saw an article in Toronto's Globe & Mail newspaper (sorry, no link) that said that the greenhouse gasses emitted in sourcing all the parts to make a Prius were huge--around 2x as much as that of a Chevy Tahoe, which is around ~1.5x the mass! So, pound-for-pound, a Prius requires ~3x the amount of greenhouse gases to produce than a Tahoe...
The problem is that Toyota sources the Prius' parts just like it would for any other car--cost + shipping wins. Throw in the fact that bits & pieces come from all over the world (I believe 13 countries), and I question why nobody looks into this. So, while it may be more environmentally friendly to make a specific part at the plant across the state, it's still cheaper to buy it from a plant halfway across the world that probably doesn't follow stringent environmental standards & has cheap labor, then ship the whole thing to reliably meet JIT (just-in-time) manufacturing requirements. There's no environmental concern here, just maximizing profit...
And therein lies the problem with hybrid cars, CFLs, etc. None of the arm-chair environmentalists really look at what it takes to manufacture a complex product that pollutes less in usage...
Generally speaking, you can pull data from media formats (medium) that are 25 years old. If your capsule was to be opened in 50 or 100 years then you'd have a problem, but most media formats that are 25 years old are still readable today. How much effort it would take varies...
If you had a 160/180/320/360KB 5 1/4" floppy disk from 1983, you could even read it by buying an old 5 1/4" drive off eBay, connect it to the same floppy connector that's still in use today, and read the disk directly in Vista. Now, if instead you were trying to read an MFM/RLL hard drive, 8" floppy, magnetic tape, punch card, etc. from that era, then you'd have more of a problem--but it would still be doable.
Also, many companies make specialty products to connect old equipment to new PCs. While I've never seen one, there's probably a company that makes a USB 5 1/4" floppy drive. If push comes-to-shove, you can always buy old equipment to bridge the gap... If I had an MFM/RLL hard drive from 1983, I could always buy an XT or AT from ~1983-1991 (that has an MFM/RLL interface), connect it to a new PC by way of a serial port (well, the new PC will probably have a USB-to-Serial converter) or Ethernet and transfer the data.
Pick a technology that's very well used today and you should be fine reading it 25 years from now. Sure, it'll take some effort & creativity, but it should work. But if you pick a technology that's old by today's standards and you'll have even more trouble reading it in the future...
That being said, I would worry more about the media--whether it will withstand 25 years of isolation, heat expansion/contraction, humidity, etc.
What are you smoking? IE7 doesn't even support Windows 2000, and Microsoft has gotta be kicking themselves over that decision. (They still need to patch W2K-IE6 for security holes, support it for Windows Update, support it for Silverlight, etc.--for 2 more years!)
IE6 was the last version released for Win98/98SE/ME and Win2K. All security patches for IE6 on Win98/98SE/ME ended on July 11, 2006. Security patches for IE6 on Win2K continue through July 13, 2010.
Or better yet, run Windows 2000--which is still supported by M$, works with Firefox 3, and works reasonably well with 64MB RAM. My Toshiba Libretto 110CT runs W2K & FF3 reasonably even without nLite. I could kill a few more useless services for a little more speed...
Also, since I'm maxed-out on RAM and I can only overclock from 233MHz to 266MHz, I got a HUGE speed improvement when I upgraded from Toshiba's tiny, slow 4200rpm 4.3GB IDE/PATA drive to a brand new Hitachi 5400rpm 160GB drive. Even though the Libretto only supports PIO mode over an ISA (!) bus, the faster HD has given the little machine new life! (Wonder how much faster it would be with an SSD!)
Let me preface this by saying I'm not a drugrunner, sexual predator, money launderer, etc. However, does any company sell a GPS signal detector that could be used to determine if a signal is coming from your car? Some sort of little box that would light up or spike a needle if such a signal was found... Now, I know that there are a lot of vehicles emitting GPS signals, so it would have to look for a very localized signal.
Of course, such a device in the hands of a criminal would easily tip them off if/when they are being tracked by the police. That person could then take the appropriate counter-measures to throw off the investigation...
This is the 2nd time Bill Gates was in close proximity to Windows BSOD'ing in public... I'm shocked nobody mentioned that when Bill Gates was presenting Windows 98 at Comdex-Chicago in 1998, a big BSOD appeared in front of all the attendees when a USB device was plugged-in--with laughter & cheers. But that was a beta version of Win98--this was running on SP2 or SP3 of XP--a product that has been around for ~7 years!
I know France also forbids it (remember the whole eBay debacle?). The Netherlands does as well. IIRC, most of Europe does...
No, it pretty much is everywhere in places like London. Traffic cameras, Congestion Charge cameras, the Tube, and private store cameras supposedly being linked to the Met CCTV operation.
66% is pulled out of his arse, but some countries are in the 50-60% range (IIRC, Sweden).
WRONG! There are SO MANY social programs available to the poor in the US. From church groups to United Way to state-funded programs, nobody goes hungry unless they 1) choose to, 2) kick themselves in the ass where they are no longer welcome in places like soup kitchens. I've seen some of the poor in European cities--they are far more downtrodden, have more mental diseases, and are truly ignored by society. Americans have been found to be the most generous individuals worldwide when it comes to charitable contributions. But Europeans prefer to ignore facts like that...
Europe does not have "freedom of speech"--Europeans have "freedom of protected speech". There's a huge difference. Go to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam--they question why Americans allow all forms of speech, including hate. Neo-Nazis are illegal in most (all?) of Europe not by actions, but by beliefs. Their beliefs and speech are considered illegal, even if they don't do any illegal actions. With "freedom of protected speech", a country could that gay protests are not protected, then anyone participating in such a protest can be arrested. Some American famously said "I may not like what you say, but I'll fight to the death for your right to say it"--a principle that many Americans hold dear.
Now, how long until scan of the username/password document shows up on the court's website as a form of public disclosure??? It wouldn't surprise me if the moronic DA forgot to ask for the exhibit to be sealed...
Blue leather shows tan or brown-colored dirt less than tan or brown-colored leather??? Seriously, what imbeciles are running our military? No wonder they can't find Osama and manage to forget to remove nuclear warheads from planes...
...(a.k.a. Wisconsin), a bunch of beer-swilling drunks will be tailgating--eating Johnsonville brats and wearing foam cheese hats, watching "dem flyin' things" and bitching about Favre and Illinois toll roads.
Here's something shocking... Windows 3.11 (both Windows and Windows for Workgroups) outsold Windows 95 in both 1995 and 1996 calendar years. The reverse didn't happen until 1997. In fact, so many PCs were sold with Win3.1x after the introduction of Win95, catching software vendors by surprise, that several 32-bit apps initially released as Win95-only got back-ported to Windows 3.1x & Win32s in a subsequent interim release. (Case-in-point: Corel Print House from 1995/1996).
Your useless trivia for the day...
Looks like I was right in my comments from yesterday--but I never figured they would fall apart so quickly! Build a product that might infringe but would definitely piss someone off, make & deliver a bunch of orders, pay bonuses, declare bankruptcy (how long until Psystar does this???), and disappear... Take the money & run. The funny thing is that if they fulfilled their orders, they might be in the clear from criminal prosecution and their customers are the ones that got exactly what they paid for (sans warranty once they file for bankruptcy)... Excluding the execs, who might be sitting on a beach somewhere, everybody loses--including Apple.
I never said that Psystar was in the wrong. Think of it this way... If I wanted to make a quick buck off of someone else's namesake, I'd do what I outlined in my OP--found a company, make a product that pisses off a bigger company (but in a way that I can only face civil and not criminal prosecution), rake in some profits, get sued, pay out dividends/bonuses--blowing out all our cash, and go under using corporate/investor & bankruptcy laws to shield my now-plentiful personal assets from my "sound investment". In such a scenario, every asset the company still had would be riddled with debt leaving creditors fighting with the suing party for the scraps...
In the mean time, my shareholders/high-ranking employees and I made a cool couple-hundred-grand in "dividends", "salary", and "bonuses"; my customers got their products (no threat of criminal prosecution for not delivering, warranty claims can't happen due to bankruptcy, etc.); and multiple parties are fighting over the scraps--the 20 PCs, 5 laser printers, 15 phones, the cubicle walls, and some pens & Post-It notes.
And those risks are minimized if the product never needs updating. But now that many items (PCs, cell phones, game consoles) need to phone home to get security fixes, buying a hacked item, be it a Psystar or a hacked iPhone, just doesn't make sense...
1. Create a line of Mac clones.
2. Sell them to an unwitting public.
3. Have Apple file suit.
4. Pay bonuses to all the execs.
5. Declare bankruptcy.
6. Shut down all operations.
Guess what... Everyone who bought a Psystar is left totally unsupported (which includes the all-important security hole fixes) and the execs made a bundle... Now, could Apple go after the execs personally for copyright infringement or (the soon-to-be-defunct) Psystar? Ironically, there was no consumer fraud here--businesses go under all the time and anyone who bought a Psystar would have had to know that Apple wouldn't support them...
I disagree. There's malware out there that takes advantage of security holes in Windows that are only known to the malware authors (and never reported to Microsoft). That dwarfs my earlier 10% number by potentially increasing it to 90+% of the PCs out there.
To add, CPU errata can be worked around by the BIOS and software. For example, if the specific model of CPU is affected by someone dividing 1.2348237811 / 2.2387234508 in Javascript, then it would be up to the JS compiler either look for that CPU or hard-code the response without passing the caluclation to the CPU. Sure, the OS may not watch for every calculation, but the responsibility would fall on the software to deal with the problem... Replacing the hardware isn't always a viable solution.
Think of it this way... If the programmers of Adobe Illustrator found that specific CPUs were unable to properly calculate/draw a circle correctly due to CPU errata, the responsibility would fall on those programmers to come up with a workaround.
...unless there is CPU errata that Intel hasn't fixed for years. We've got the chicken-little "the sky is falling" reaction going on here but (unless I'm seriously misguided) Intel fixes their errata.
My personal view is that such malware may only be able to take over a very small percentage of systems out there. The scope may be limited to something as (relatively) rare as an Intel Core 2 CPU within a specific FSB range and specific stepping. Throwing all those factors together, I doubt any such errata would encompass more than 10% of the PCs out there. Considering how many different variations of CPUs are out there--Intel/AMD/Via, Pentium-D/Core 2/Xeon/Pentium-M/Pentium 4, FSB differences, stepping, etc.; such malware might be extremely dangerous for a very small subset of Internet-connected PCs.
Now, if a malware author knows of a CPU bug that Intel/AMD does not know about, then this could be extremely serious, encompassing multiple generations of CPUs...
Sure, WfW 3.11 is ancient, but unless Microsoft is losing money on the act of selling these licenses, there's no advantage in discontinuing the program for WfW 3.11 or for any version of Windows or DOS. Let's see... Media costs-$0, advertising-$0, support-$0, R&D-$0, bugfixes/code changes-$0. It's a pure cash cow product. If I were a manufacturer and wanted to license Windows 3.0 to use Real Mode, Windows/286 2.1, or even DOS 6.22/6.25/7.0 (yes, there was a DOS 6.25) for use in a closed, embedded system, why shouldn't Microsoft be willing to take my money???
This is just another example of Microsoft flexing its muscles pointlessly...
One question that the article doesn't explain is HOW they are showing targeted ads on sites... Sure, I understand if I were a Charter Communications ISP customer going to a Charter site, then there would be some ad-targeting... But I seriously doubt most customers are frequenting sites that are affiliated with their ISP. Of course, this knocks out Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Slashdot, ESPN, most newspapers, Hotmail, TinyURL, etc. as they really aren't affiliated with a specific ISP that could provide data for ad-shaping. (Yes, I know Ameritech/SBC/AT&T has an affiliation with Yahoo, and Hotmail is "related" to MSN, but those relationship are not all-encompassing...)
So, this leads me to one conclusion--they're replacing ads on popular sites with their own. This is the only logical conclusion, and one that (will hopefully) land them as defendants in numerous lawsuits...
Oh, don't worry about that. Games will just be more interesting. For example, that 3D monster you're trying to hack to death with a chainsaw will now suddenly shift to a different part of the screen... Or maybe you'll get a cool color-cycling effect from some incorrectly calculated values...
"Intel Graphics Inside--it's all in good fun!"
Oh great... Now the ADA & blind rights folks are going to sue Apple since a blind person can't perform such an upgrade.
However, comparing browser & OS stats between sites is pointless. PCPro's stats are based on more technically-savvy users, which (if it were shown) would lead to higher % for Windows 2000 than Hitslink's stats, which are far more indicative of the public at-large. Remember that few W2K machines were sold to home users--Win98 and (gasp!) WinME were preferred by many home users until XP-SP1.
First off, that sales tax would be for all Amazon sales within the state of the facility. So you can figure that only some (I'm guessing between 1/5 and 1/20) of the sales would be taxed in that facility's state. Second, that subsidiary is paying for the services mentioned above by way of corporate / property / employment taxes, etc. True, not as much as the local hardware store down the street that charges sales tax as well, but they are paying the lion's share. Third, going after Amazon could cause them to be dicks to all of these states by threatening to let go of all the employees in the respective facilities and move out of the state--leaving the state with none of the taxes mentioned above and an empty warehouse that, if it's not worth much, the subsidiary might just abandon & let foreclose. (After all, if there's sufficient legal distance between Amazon & that subsidiary, it might not harm Amazon's bottom-line or credit rating).
All it would take is 6-12 months to buy & build warehouses in states with no sales tax (i.e. NH), or a state with few Amazon customers they would be forced to charge sales taxes to (MT, NM, WY come to mind), and presto! Problem solved.
Aaaaaah yes. The never-ending "why don't you use [xyz open-source product]?" drumbeat... First off, OpenOffice, while a nice app, is NOT a replacement for MS-Office. Second, show me any open-source app that's a serious contender to replace Access & Outlook, let alone one that could be a drop-in replacement...
Therefore, there are valid reasons why someone HAS to use MS-Office. One of them, which Microsoft is the master of, is lock-in. (Yes, lock-in's a bitch, but a valid reason nonetheless).
Will WINE or Codeweavers make a commitment to fully support a recent vintage of MS-Office (2007, 2003, XP) as a platinum app? By "fully", I mean everything in the suite--including Access, Outlook, Publisher, the little helper apps, VBA, clipart, etc. When I look at WINE's appdb, I see no consistency to the ratings people give to recent versions of MS-Office, which means users are having varying degrees of problems. Unfortunately, for many people (myself included), MS-Office doesn't work with WINE... Why not assign a group of coders & testers the task of getting 100% of the functionality of this one extremely popular app working???