Incorrect, practically speaking. If you really want to use Office 2003, you can. Buy Office 2007, and exercise your downgrade rights to install Office 2003:
Which 2007 Microsoft Office system suites are eligible to downgrade to Office 2003 suites?
Customers who have licensed Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 are eligible to downgrade to Office Professional Enterprise 2003 and all previous versions as described above. Customers who have licensed Microsoft Office Standard 2007 are eligible to downgrade to Office Standard Edition 2003 and all previous versions of Office Standard Edition.
Regarding power savings - that is a good point; thanks for doing the math for us. Based on your calculations, it's not worth upgrading just for the power savings. However, the OP was saying that upgrading your processor results in you wasting more energy. Granted, energy is used in the production process, but if you're going to buy a new processor anyhow, it's not going to hurt your electric bill.
As for cheap processors... a brand-spankin' new Pentium Dual Core E5200 is $65, and is faster than an E4300 was, at 2.5 GHz vs 1.8 GHz. The bus speed is the same, and the E5200 is on the 45nm process vs the 65 for the E4300, so you'll see additional performance and power savings from that. Still doesn't make it worth upgrading for the power savings, but really it's not hard to find a fast, cheap processor.
Do realize that your P4 consumes a lot more power than a previous-generation (65nm) Core 2 Duo, and in some tests even more than a Core 2 Extreme. Modern 45nm chips use even less power. So really, you're dumping money down the power/heat drain by not using a newer processor. Even if you don't need the speed, it makes a difference in terms of the electric bills. Your point about electricity is completely and entirely invalid.
The heat issue goes both ways, too. Portland, OR recently started using LEDs in all of the street lamps, slowly fazing them in as the old incandescent bulbs fail and need to be replaced. Last winter during a huge snow and ice storm, they noticed that a lot of the LED street lamps couldn't be seen. The old warm incandescent bulbs would get so hot that they would melt all of the snow and ice off of the lamp cover. The new LEDs are so efficient that the snow doesn't melt, causing them to not be as visible when it snows. Fortunately it rarely snows much here, so it's not a huge concern, but it's funny how the inefficiency of the old lamps was actually a benefit nobody realized.
Exactly. If you eat an icecream cone above your Mac and it drips all over and melted ice cream gets inside the computer, that's not covered under warranty. If you never dust off your computer and it dies from overheating, I doubt that's covered either. Eating an ice cream cone is legal, as is neglecting to dust your computer. Nevertheless, they're both things which are neglectful and thus should not be covered.
Actually, no they don't. Not by a longshot. The school district I attend (with over 100 schools) uses ZenWorks, NDS, GroupWise, etc. Yes, ZenWorks is extremely powerful, and Novell has good integration. Yes, you can do a lot of cool stuff with it. Novell also happens to make incredibly slow software. Our district can't afford new computers on a standard 5-year cycle (or chooses to blow their money on computers twice as expensive as they need to be yet still with crap specs, but I digress), so many of our machines are 8 yearold Celerons and P4's with 256 or at best 512 MB of RAM. With the blank/minimal XP image on them, they run pretty decently. Not super fast, but quite usable. As soon as the Novell components get added onto the systems, boot times go up astronomically. It often takes more than 60 seconds for the login prompt to appear after the user presses Ctrl+Alt+Del, whereas it happens immediately with the standard windows login. The ZenWorks application launcher also takes a very long time to start up, and the systems are generally far slower once they've bee Novell'd. Novell may have superior designs, but at least with Active Directory the computer actually works.
I keep hoping to find a good Linux UI that has the look-and-feel of Windows XP Pro (running a Classic Windows theme), but without the BSOD et al.
Assuming you have a computer that's less than about 6 years old, I think what you're looking for is Windows XP Pro. It has the look and feel of Windows XP Pro, hasn't bluescreened on me anytime in recent history (and when it has, it's been due to crappy 3rd party drivers), and has the UI you're looking for. As an added bonus, you don't even need to use WINE to run windows apps - they run natively!
There's a lot of BS in that article, but a couple of things which particularly struck me as ridiculous:
Apple spent a lot of time and effort developing this distinct and innovative way to seamlessly deliver core functionality of the iPhone. For example, on an iPhone, the âoePhoneâ icon that is always shown at the bottom of the Home Screen launches Appleâ(TM)s mobile telephone application, providing access to Favorites, Recents, Contacts, a Keypad, and Visual Voicemail. The Google Voice application replaces Appleâ(TM)s Visual Voicemail by routing calls through a separate Google Voice telephone number that stores any voicemail, preventing voicemail from being stored on the iPhone, i.e., disabling Appleâ(TM)s Visual Voicemail.
disabling it??? GV wouldn't disable anything - Apple's Visual Voicemail would still be there, and if someone called the iPhone directly, it would still work just fine. Nothing's disabled at all!
In addition, the iPhone userâ(TM)s entire Contacts database is transferred to Googleâ(TM)s servers, and we have yet to obtain any assurances from Google that this data will only be used in appropriate ways.
Hmmm... Google Voice does have a privacy policy, as I recall....
Information sharing and onward transfer We do not sell, rent or otherwise share your personal information with any third parties except in the limited circumstances described in the Google Privacy Policy, such as when we believe we are required to do so by law.
I think that's pretty clear about how the data will be used.
Actually, facebook modified their terms recently, such that their rights to materials you upload expire if you choose to terminate your facebook account. I agree that it's still not good to grant them that right at all, even if it's not forever though.
What I tend to do is this: photos of people I know and which people will likely want to be tagged in and discuss I upload to facebook. Photos of scenery, vacation photos (without people), wildlife photography, etc, I post to Flickr. Facebook has an option on your wall settings to post a blurb to your profile when you upload photos to Flickr. People still see the link and get to see the photos, but facebook doesn't get rights they don't deserve, and you can apply a CC license.
Admittedly, Apple does not have an illegal monopoly. However, they do have a monopoly on the mp3 player market, and they bundle their own media player and music management software (iTunes) with iPods. That's fine. However, they also try to install a video player and try to automatically "update" you to a whole new web browser unless you specifically uncheck that box. How is that not anticompetitive? It's worse than having a browser installed by default on an OS - it's adding a browser shadily to a system that didn't ask for that browser. Now as web developer I find it somewhat handy actually, since then more people are using a standards compliant, since the most likely victims of the "iTunes updates installing firefox" ploy are IE users, but still, it's not any better.
While I'd agree that humor in games is decreasing, it's definitely not dead entirely. Take, for instance, Portal. The only narration in the game is from GLaDOS (other than the turrets, but they're funny too: "hey! hey! put me down!" they yell in their funny voices). Every-other line is a wisecrack or snarky comment, and the whole thing is simultaneously hilarious and darkly sinister. I'd say humor in games is quite alive over at Valve, where there is certainly no lack of graphics and exciting physics... "in the layman's terms, speedy thing go in, speedy thing come out."
would be a lot easier if I could run two separate instances of Firefox simultaneously.
Send Firefox developers a polite nasty-gram, telling them that you want the ability to open a second, third, or even fourth instance of FF in seperate memory space.
In the US, there are laws that require cell phone networks to allow people to make 911 calls from their phones even if their accounts are expired, or even if the phone has no SIM card at all. Perhaps there needs to be a similar, inverse law requiring that emergency responders be able to track someone's phone in an emergency regardless of the state of their contract/account. Of course, there are some foreseeable privacy implications, and I'm not sure I would want the cops to be able to know where I am any time they want, but laws could be written such that a family member must give consent, etc.
You say that like it's a bad thing. If you know what you're doing, there's loads of useless crap in the Windows directory.
This is modded funny, but it's no joke. The windows directory has a ton of stuff which hardly anybody ever uses. Nlite can help a lot with this issue — basically, it lets you customize your windows installation CD, remove all of the components which you don't need, and while you're at it, slipstream the latest service pack, updates, and any settings you want preconfigured. Pretty nifty.
How many of these systems do they sell, though? I have yet to see a Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled in the wild. Not once. I've seen people who have bought regular dells, then installed ubuntu, but they're the nerd types.
I noticed that as well, but chose to leave ads enabled, since I, erm, use ad-block. Any idea if this option is tied to karma or any other factors? At any rate, that's nice of/.
If you don't need the laptop, and the screen is relatively easy and inexpensive to replace, and the laptop has decent specs, why not fix the screen and sell it to someone who needs a laptop for just the cost of the screen replacement? You don't need it, they do, it's a (presumably) decent laptop. Everybody wins, and they might bake you a pie or something someday in return.
Actually, by default on Windows XP and later, if a removable device such as a flash drive has an autorun file, the prompt will still come up, and ask you which action to take. The action specified by autorun.inf will be highlighted by default, but you can click "cancel" or some other action. The problem is that many viruses call themselves "Open in Windows Explorer" or something to that effect, so people click it anyhow.
Virtualization is a great thing. I use it work all the time and love it. The public doesn't quite "get it" yet.
As I said in the article summary, it does not appear that this technology is directed at consumers, and as a matter of fact, isn't even going to be included in home editions of windows 7:
...this feature will only be available as a (free) addon for Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7. Also, a processor supporting hardware virtualization will be required, indicating that this is perhaps aimed more at power users and corporate users, rather than consumers.
Furthermore, it's not even installed by default, so Joe user is highly unlikely to ever come across it, let alone install and use it.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, google's already supporting it... 1 hellameter in kilometers
AutoHotKey or AutoIt are better and they are free unlike Visual Basic.
Incorrect, good sir! Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition is free!
(From Microsoft Downgrade Rights Chart.)
No, piracy is not like breaking into a car. It's worse. It's like stealing a baby, and you're a horrible person for endorsing it!
Regarding power savings - that is a good point; thanks for doing the math for us. Based on your calculations, it's not worth upgrading just for the power savings. However, the OP was saying that upgrading your processor results in you wasting more energy. Granted, energy is used in the production process, but if you're going to buy a new processor anyhow, it's not going to hurt your electric bill. As for cheap processors... a brand-spankin' new Pentium Dual Core E5200 is $65, and is faster than an E4300 was, at 2.5 GHz vs 1.8 GHz. The bus speed is the same, and the E5200 is on the 45nm process vs the 65 for the E4300, so you'll see additional performance and power savings from that. Still doesn't make it worth upgrading for the power savings, but really it's not hard to find a fast, cheap processor.
Do realize that your P4 consumes a lot more power than a previous-generation (65nm) Core 2 Duo, and in some tests even more than a Core 2 Extreme. Modern 45nm chips use even less power. So really, you're dumping money down the power/heat drain by not using a newer processor. Even if you don't need the speed, it makes a difference in terms of the electric bills. Your point about electricity is completely and entirely invalid.
The heat issue goes both ways, too. Portland, OR recently started using LEDs in all of the street lamps, slowly fazing them in as the old incandescent bulbs fail and need to be replaced. Last winter during a huge snow and ice storm, they noticed that a lot of the LED street lamps couldn't be seen. The old warm incandescent bulbs would get so hot that they would melt all of the snow and ice off of the lamp cover. The new LEDs are so efficient that the snow doesn't melt, causing them to not be as visible when it snows. Fortunately it rarely snows much here, so it's not a huge concern, but it's funny how the inefficiency of the old lamps was actually a benefit nobody realized.
Exactly. If you eat an icecream cone above your Mac and it drips all over and melted ice cream gets inside the computer, that's not covered under warranty. If you never dust off your computer and it dies from overheating, I doubt that's covered either. Eating an ice cream cone is legal, as is neglecting to dust your computer. Nevertheless, they're both things which are neglectful and thus should not be covered.
Novell solutions pwn Microsoft, sorry to say.
Actually, no they don't. Not by a longshot. The school district I attend (with over 100 schools) uses ZenWorks, NDS, GroupWise, etc. Yes, ZenWorks is extremely powerful, and Novell has good integration. Yes, you can do a lot of cool stuff with it. Novell also happens to make incredibly slow software. Our district can't afford new computers on a standard 5-year cycle (or chooses to blow their money on computers twice as expensive as they need to be yet still with crap specs, but I digress), so many of our machines are 8 yearold Celerons and P4's with 256 or at best 512 MB of RAM. With the blank/minimal XP image on them, they run pretty decently. Not super fast, but quite usable. As soon as the Novell components get added onto the systems, boot times go up astronomically. It often takes more than 60 seconds for the login prompt to appear after the user presses Ctrl+Alt+Del, whereas it happens immediately with the standard windows login. The ZenWorks application launcher also takes a very long time to start up, and the systems are generally far slower once they've bee Novell'd. Novell may have superior designs, but at least with Active Directory the computer actually works.
Assuming you have a computer that's less than about 6 years old, I think what you're looking for is Windows XP Pro. It has the look and feel of Windows XP Pro, hasn't bluescreened on me anytime in recent history (and when it has, it's been due to crappy 3rd party drivers), and has the UI you're looking for. As an added bonus, you don't even need to use WINE to run windows apps - they run natively!
Thanks for the great link!
There's a lot of BS in that article, but a couple of things which particularly struck me as ridiculous:
disabling it??? GV wouldn't disable anything - Apple's Visual Voicemail would still be there, and if someone called the iPhone directly, it would still work just fine. Nothing's disabled at all!
Hmmm... Google Voice does have a privacy policy, as I recall....
I think that's pretty clear about how the data will be used.
Actually, facebook modified their terms recently, such that their rights to materials you upload expire if you choose to terminate your facebook account. I agree that it's still not good to grant them that right at all, even if it's not forever though.
What I tend to do is this: photos of people I know and which people will likely want to be tagged in and discuss I upload to facebook. Photos of scenery, vacation photos (without people), wildlife photography, etc, I post to Flickr. Facebook has an option on your wall settings to post a blurb to your profile when you upload photos to Flickr. People still see the link and get to see the photos, but facebook doesn't get rights they don't deserve, and you can apply a CC license.
Admittedly, Apple does not have an illegal monopoly. However, they do have a monopoly on the mp3 player market, and they bundle their own media player and music management software (iTunes) with iPods. That's fine. However, they also try to install a video player and try to automatically "update" you to a whole new web browser unless you specifically uncheck that box. How is that not anticompetitive? It's worse than having a browser installed by default on an OS - it's adding a browser shadily to a system that didn't ask for that browser. Now as web developer I find it somewhat handy actually, since then more people are using a standards compliant, since the most likely victims of the "iTunes updates installing firefox" ploy are IE users, but still, it's not any better.
While I'd agree that humor in games is decreasing, it's definitely not dead entirely. Take, for instance, Portal. The only narration in the game is from GLaDOS (other than the turrets, but they're funny too: "hey! hey! put me down!" they yell in their funny voices). Every-other line is a wisecrack or snarky comment, and the whole thing is simultaneously hilarious and darkly sinister. I'd say humor in games is quite alive over at Valve, where there is certainly no lack of graphics and exciting physics... "in the layman's terms, speedy thing go in, speedy thing come out."
would be a lot easier if I could run two separate instances of Firefox simultaneously.
Send Firefox developers a polite nasty-gram, telling them that you want the ability to open a second, third, or even fourth instance of FF in seperate memory space.
This functionality already exists.
"%programfiles%\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P "profile to use" -no-remote
From google trends searching for Sex:
Yeah I'd say google has absolutely no problem with people in India searching for "sex".
In the US, there are laws that require cell phone networks to allow people to make 911 calls from their phones even if their accounts are expired, or even if the phone has no SIM card at all. Perhaps there needs to be a similar, inverse law requiring that emergency responders be able to track someone's phone in an emergency regardless of the state of their contract/account. Of course, there are some foreseeable privacy implications, and I'm not sure I would want the cops to be able to know where I am any time they want, but laws could be written such that a family member must give consent, etc.
You say that like it's a bad thing. If you know what you're doing, there's loads of useless crap in the Windows directory.
This is modded funny, but it's no joke. The windows directory has a ton of stuff which hardly anybody ever uses. Nlite can help a lot with this issue — basically, it lets you customize your windows installation CD, remove all of the components which you don't need, and while you're at it, slipstream the latest service pack, updates, and any settings you want preconfigured. Pretty nifty.
How many of these systems do they sell, though? I have yet to see a Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled in the wild. Not once. I've seen people who have bought regular dells, then installed ubuntu, but they're the nerd types.
I noticed that as well, but chose to leave ads enabled, since I, erm, use ad-block. Any idea if this option is tied to karma or any other factors? At any rate, that's nice of /.
If you don't need the laptop, and the screen is relatively easy and inexpensive to replace, and the laptop has decent specs, why not fix the screen and sell it to someone who needs a laptop for just the cost of the screen replacement? You don't need it, they do, it's a (presumably) decent laptop. Everybody wins, and they might bake you a pie or something someday in return.
Actually, by default on Windows XP and later, if a removable device such as a flash drive has an autorun file, the prompt will still come up, and ask you which action to take. The action specified by autorun.inf will be highlighted by default, but you can click "cancel" or some other action. The problem is that many viruses call themselves "Open in Windows Explorer" or something to that effect, so people click it anyhow.
Virtualization is a great thing. I use it work all the time and love it. The public doesn't quite "get it" yet.
As I said in the article summary, it does not appear that this technology is directed at consumers, and as a matter of fact, isn't even going to be included in home editions of windows 7:
Furthermore, it's not even installed by default, so Joe user is highly unlikely to ever come across it, let alone install and use it.
I think this might be exactly what you're looking for: Tom's Hardware does a monthly comparison of GPU's in various price ranges, among them $60-$100.
Ads? What ads?
Oh... right, not everybody uses adblock.