Stop spreading FUD. You can get a very nice laptop, with Vista Home Premium pre-installed, for $449. It will have a dual core CPU, 1GB of memory, 120GB or larger HD, and a 15" widescreen LCD, and a DVD dual layer burner. Your silly "Vista Basic itself costs $199" is deliberately misleading, and you know it. OEMs pay *significantly* less than that for Vista Home Premium. The so-called "Microsoft tax" is in reality well south of $50 (proof: see laptop price above).
However the PC will still be slower than dirt. I got one, while the hardware is decent, with VISTA running it is slower than my Windows XP VM machine running on my main Linux desktop (with only 786MB of RAM allocated to it.
Even after I doubled the RAM in the laptop it is still slower than dirt. Even after adding a 4GB memory stick for "extra" memory it is STILL slow.
So my "very nice" and decently horse-powered laptop is crappy. The only reason I haven't wiped and reinstalled it with Linux is the hardware ISN'T supported yet (and since the laptop is under warranty still, I don't want to muck that up either).
If the PC's purpose is for doing Web Surfing, Writing documents, how can this $ 200 be THAT bad ?
Only here, it will be needed for all school children. They'll have to have their DNA recorded before they're allowed to enter the public school system.
It will be touted as "This is to help protect children from being kidnapped by a non-custodial parent or, God forbid, to identify a child if they have been killed.
Then if every child grows up with this being the "norm" what happens ?
Fucking bunch of pricks need to fucking learn to read. There's no fucking "indecency" exception in Amendment fucking I.
Barring "indecent" speech is barring political speech - there's no way to adquately describe the shit-for-brains Bush administration or the limp-dick (what's the female equivalent? Limp-clitoris just doesn't ring right...cobwebbed-cunt, maybe?) cowards in Congress without "indecent" language.
Maybe the terms should be "Numb Nuts" and "Numb CLit" ? Either way, no sensation.
That said, I imagine there was a lot of pressure on the state legislatures at a federal level. They see it as a chance to decrease Middle Eastern dependence. The whole idea makes me furious.
Then stop allowing the US oil companies to sell their oil anywhere but the US. They are making their moneys (if my memory serves me correctly) by selling a huge chunk of oil to Japan, etc.
Since they can charge all sorts of costs for transportation to the other countires that they can't charge here.
Which of Nintendo's, Sony's, or Microsoft's video game consoles doesn't have terms like these attached to it? I was referring to music, not to video games, which are an entirely different thing. (Show me anything other than a Nintendo that can play a Nintendo game CD/DVD ?)
While the Victrola "EULA" described in TFA is a new one to me, damaging intellectual property disputes are definitely not something that's unique to our time. What's even worse, is the EULA on an actual victrola. Yes.. I do actually own an RCA victrola and the EULA on it says that you can only play RCA records on it. Now at least our current licenses aren't that bad ( Otherwise, you'd need a different CD player for each different record company ?).
I kinda want to cut the police some slack here. I don't like the idea of ON DUTY officers running lights for no good reason but there could be plenty of good reasons for them to run one even when not on any emergency call. Perhaps they just pulled up to an intersection and noticed something happening in a parking lot just past the intersection that may or may not be worth investigating. If they have a clear intersection they may want to go on through but if they have to worry about cameras they may just let it go rather than have to deal with the hassle of trying to remember what they ran it for.
The thing that irritates me more is when OFF DUTY officers speed with impunity because no police officer will give another one a speeding ticket.(I have a relative in law enforcement who gets pulled over for speeding once or twice a year and has never gotten a ticket)
If they are pulling over someone, aren't they calling it into the station, and having Dispatch make a note of it or to run the plates ? Seems pretty simple to me.
Officer, Why did you speed through this intersection at this time ? I was investigating XXXXXXX. When I pulled over the suspect, I ran the plates to check for warrents/etc. Here's the report showing I ran the plates at that time.
Seems pretty reasonable and verifyable to me.
If they just pull people over or investigate things at random and don't document it, I have NO problem with them getting ticketed. It only takes a moment to call dispatch so they know what you are doing.
These people basically pay no royalities at all to the muscians, and they give you a false feeling of buying legitimate stuff. I don't think this is nice at all, sure the the music industry is crooked, but these guys really are pirates for profit. They make money by selling stuff they have no right to sell.
And how much profit does the BPI/RIAA actually give to the artists ? Out of a $ 0.99 download from Apple, what does the artist get ? And why should the BPI/RIAA get ANYTHING from the music download since there isn't any physical product being sold so there is 0 cost for supply, its a 100% pure profit.
Allofmp3 are money hungry low lifes.
Replace Allofmp3 with BPI/RIAA/All Middle Men and then you are right.
This accomplishes what? Unconstitutional laws are technically of no force or effect. Therefore no harm was done. So you would be outlawing a harmless activity, and that itself would be an unconstitutional law. Unconstitional laws only cause harm indirectly.. Because overzealous DA's tries to enforce them. If there needs to be any balancing of powers, it is that victims of failed prosecutions (i.e. the presumptively INNOCENT person accused of a crime who isn't convicted (either because the crime itself was unconstitional or for lack of evidence)) should be compensated by the Prosecutor for all damages incurred.
What about all the time and money lost getting the decision up to the supreme court and getting them to actually declare it unconstutional ? What about people prosecuted with this new law and declared guilty. Will they automatically have their decsions reversed and given complete pardons for the crime ?
You're right. Never say never. Let's just say the odds are against it because nobody is willing to try.
Wanna Bet ?
Dukakis was honest and lost ( Gee.. He's gonna raise taxes ? The other guy says he won't raise the taxes.. ) Then what happened ? Reagan won the election and then he raised taxes.. Big Surprise !
The rest of the specs are weird, too; as the WaPo points out, why use RS-MMC? Full-sized MMC fit in my 6230i phone, why could'nt they fit in a device 4 times bigger? It's like chewbacca: it does -NOT- make sense!
My Nokia phone has the RS-MMC in it . I'm betting your phone is older (i.e. 3 + years old) ?
I think their new phones/devices are all using the RS-MMC cards. Why ? I bet they have lower power consumption than full sized cards.
It's fair for the EU to ask for documentation, but every attempt by MS to give them anything has resulted in the EU throwing it away. At the moment, it looks like the EU have already decided to fine MS no matter what they do, which isn't fair even for a company with a bad history.
Microsoft is doing anything and everything to NOT obey the courts order. They are supplying half-assed documentation that the oversite expert ( suggsted by Microsoft ) says the document is useless. They haven't done the "unbundling" that they were ordered to do either.
um... she could, unless they had a warrent... in fact, if the police barge in without your permission and without a warrent even if they find a dead body with your hand on the knife there's not a whole lot they can do, it's inadmissable in court (unless they had probable cause, like a scream...)
Not quite. Seeing you with a dead body and a murder weapon, they have you on "Probable Cause". That trumps the need for a warrent.
Plus, given the author's scenario - let's flip it around: A Windows virus can bork your data and your OS. At least with UNIX, backups notwithstanding, the OS is still there and you'd have a much better chance at recovering your data than you would with Windows.
I fully agree with you. I just had one virus basically roach a friend's laptop. The virus attached itself to EVERY executable image on the hard drive. I had to wipe the programs ( Adaware, Spy Bot, or Avast could not remove the virus and all recomended deleting the files ). I had to re-install Windows inorder to get the system to start after virus find/repair/delete was done.
The system is fine now. Its running Avast and Zone Alarm and I'll be educating them in how to use Firefox and to run Adaware and Spybot.
The flip side to this is that if there is no patent protection, it is definitely not economically viable to develop cures. With patents, different story, as long as it's not an orphan drug (which means that there are too few cases to make it worthwhile even WITH patent protection).
You are telling me that no scientist would develop something because its the right thing to do if there isn't profit involved ? Most of the scientist that I have met would love to be able to develop what they want to develop instead of yet another treatment for a disease. They would love to devlop cures for disease, but the reality is that as was said above, the companies that fund the research want money. They can care less if the product helps lives, only that it is safe enough so they won't be sued and that they can charge big bucks for it.
Its the same argument about software. Why would someone write something that is given away ( preventing profit ). They fail to take into account that people do things because they like to, not always for a monitary inventinve.
The other problem is that while some concept might have been discovered in a small lab, it is rare that a modern drug was discovered in a small lab. (Most modern drugs are much more refined than older drugs ever were.) And, even to the extent that target validation and lead optimization can be done in a small lab, you could NEVER do a clinical trial in a small lab. You need thousands of volunteers (often compensated in some way), thousands of pills, etc. You also need to bribe LOTS of doctors to find those volunteers for you (this is probably the biggest expense in clinical trials).
Ah.. now the problem with this analogy is that in the past they were researching CURES. They were not researching ever changing treatments to prolong how long the person stays alive ( thus needing the treament ).
Why should the drug cartels.. I mean companies spend millions/billions on finding a cure for a disease/problem ? Hmm... Cure = 1 Time payment, Treatment = Lifetime of payments
I believe that they are also passing a law that makes it a felon to withhold encryption keys on your local hard drive after a warrant have been issued.
Wouldn't that fall under not incriminating ones self ? I mean, why should you be forced to turn evidence over to someone to use against you ?
This uses an Active/Standby setup with a heartbeat between the systems. If the Active is no longer responding, within X seconds (10 by default ) the Standby takes over all the processes that were running on the other system. And ( if needed ) STONITH's (Shot the other node in the head) the other server to ensure that it really IS dead.
We've been running webservers and Oracle database servers here with 0 downtime using heartbeat and drbd.
As much as they may have a case, I always find the "we don't want to, but they are forcing us" argument funny. Not because of the company itself, but because I can imagine some IP lawyers saying, "Yesss! They are being forccced to! Hisss!" as their forked tongues flick from their mouths and they rub thier greedy paws together with reptilian glint in their eyes.
Gosh, then how come my electric bill is $400 a month during the summer?
Because the generators are for profit, there are not enough generators in your area so that they need to have the jet turbines online ( that raise the cost by 100 % or more per Megawatt Hour ) or you have inefficient means for the distribution of energy ( only 1 high voltage line into your area ).
I realize it takes a lot more electricity to run A/C then heat, but it's a small house with two air conditioners. Billing people $400/mo to stay cool during the summer is ridiculous.
Are the ACs energy efficient ? Are you cooling the house to 60 degrees ? Do you have 20 computers or an ancient electric stove, refridgerator, etc ?
Electricity is way too expensive. If it's not the power itself, it's "line fees" and "transmission fees" and don't forget any other fees they want to charge us this month.
Then pressure your govt to get more generation or more high voltage lines. There are HUGE groups complaining that there isn't enough power then they fight tooth and nail to prevent the lines from being put in because they don't want it in THEIR back yard.
It might not be the power generators that are over charging; maybe it's the local companies (although Narraganset Electric is my only choice) but it doesn't matter. We get robbed.
Try to get your city to put up a municicpal power plant. My wife and I pay 1/2 of what her sister's family uses just one city over ( with a for profit company generating the power ).
I wish they'd put up more nuclear plants.. so much more efficient, so much better on the environment. Did you know that an averag coal plant generates more radioactivity then the largest nuclear plants?
Quite possibly. However, Do you or your neighbors want a nuclear plant put up in your neighborhood ? Therein lies the problems...
Like Y2K (Zzzzz) everyone is going to have enough time to figure out how to adjust. And do you honestly think the power company isn't going to be excited about the extra revenue? They'll be ready to rake in the extra cash. Don't doubt it for even a second.
There are many ISO ( Independant System Operators ) that manage the power grids in the US. They are not "power companies". CA ISO, Midwest ISO, ISO New England, PJM, and the Southwest Power Pool.
One of the larger ones, CAISO, manages the power grid for California.
There is ISO New England that manages the power for Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, MA, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. I know for a fact this company is a not-for profit. One of their mandates is to maintain the grid in a way that is cost effective to the end customers. They don't allow the power generators to rape the public. They monitor things VERY closely to ensure that no one is manipulating the market to make extra profit at the expense of the general consumers.
Specialized software like the power grid uses will be the issue. Most of this software will need large amounts of regression testing to ensure that the proper 23 and 25 hour days are handled.
Many of the packages are expecting the 1st Saturday/Sunday in April to have 23 hours and the last Saturday/Sunday in October to have 25 hours.
Do you really want the power grid to put into production a patch that hasn't been tested for many months ? ( Or do you want blackouts, or the cost to quadruple ? )
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However the PC will still be slower than dirt. I got one, while the hardware is decent, with VISTA running it is slower than my Windows XP VM machine running on my main Linux desktop (with only 786MB of RAM allocated to it.
Even after I doubled the RAM in the laptop it is still slower than dirt. Even after adding a 4GB memory stick for "extra" memory it is STILL slow.
So my "very nice" and decently horse-powered laptop is crappy. The only reason I haven't wiped and reinstalled it with Linux is the hardware ISN'T supported yet (and since the laptop is under warranty still, I don't want to muck that up either).
If the PC's purpose is for doing Web Surfing, Writing documents, how can this $ 200 be THAT bad ?
Only here, it will be needed for all school children. They'll have to have their DNA recorded before they're allowed to enter the public school system.
It will be touted as "This is to help protect children from being kidnapped by a non-custodial parent or, God forbid, to identify a child if they have been killed.
Then if every child grows up with this being the "norm" what happens ?
Then stop allowing the US oil companies to sell their oil anywhere but the US. They are making their moneys (if my memory serves me correctly) by selling a huge chunk of oil to Japan, etc.
Since they can charge all sorts of costs for transportation to the other countires that they can't charge here.
I kinda want to cut the police some slack here. I don't like the idea of ON DUTY officers running lights for no good reason but there could be plenty of good reasons for them to run one even when not on any emergency call. Perhaps they just pulled up to an intersection and noticed something happening in a parking lot just past the intersection that may or may not be worth investigating. If they have a clear intersection they may want to go on through but if they have to worry about cameras they may just let it go rather than have to deal with the hassle of trying to remember what they ran it for.
The thing that irritates me more is when OFF DUTY officers speed with impunity because no police officer will give another one a speeding ticket.(I have a relative in law enforcement who gets pulled over for speeding once or twice a year and has never gotten a ticket)
If they are pulling over someone, aren't they calling it into the station, and having Dispatch make a note of it or to run the plates ? Seems pretty simple to me.
Officer, Why did you speed through this intersection at this time ? I was investigating XXXXXXX. When I pulled over the suspect, I ran the plates to check for warrents/etc. Here's the report showing I ran the plates at that time.
Seems pretty reasonable and verifyable to me .
If they just pull people over or investigate things at random and don't document it, I have NO problem with them getting ticketed. It only takes a moment to call dispatch so they know what you are doing.
This accomplishes what? Unconstitutional laws are technically of no force or effect. Therefore no harm was done. So you would be outlawing a harmless activity, and that itself would be an unconstitutional law. Unconstitional laws only cause harm indirectly.. Because overzealous DA's tries to enforce them. If there needs to be any balancing of powers, it is that victims of failed prosecutions (i.e. the presumptively INNOCENT person accused of a crime who isn't convicted (either because the crime itself was unconstitional or for lack of evidence)) should be compensated by the Prosecutor for all damages incurred.
What about all the time and money lost getting the decision up to the supreme court and getting them to actually declare it unconstutional ? What about people prosecuted with this new law and declared guilty. Will they automatically have their decsions reversed and given complete pardons for the crime ?You're right. Never say never. Let's just say the odds are against it because nobody is willing to try.
Wanna Bet ? Dukakis was honest and lost ( Gee.. He's gonna raise taxes ? The other guy says he won't raise the taxes.. ) Then what happened ? Reagan won the election and then he raised taxes.. Big Surprise !The rest of the specs are weird, too; as the WaPo points out, why use RS-MMC? Full-sized MMC fit in my 6230i phone, why could'nt they fit in a device 4 times bigger? It's like chewbacca: it does -NOT- make sense!
My Nokia phone has the RS-MMC in it . I'm betting your phone is older (i.e. 3 + years old) ? I think their new phones/devices are all using the RS-MMC cards. Why ? I bet they have lower power consumption than full sized cards.Microsoft is doing anything and everything to NOT obey the courts order. They are supplying half-assed documentation that the oversite expert ( suggsted by Microsoft ) says the document is useless. They haven't done the "unbundling" that they were ordered to do either.
Not quite. Seeing you with a dead body and a murder weapon, they have you on "Probable Cause". That trumps the need for a warrent.
What if you were to just re-encode it or go from mp3->ogg->mp3 again ?
I would think that would scrub any watermarks from the mp3.
Plus, given the author's scenario - let's flip it around: A Windows virus can bork your data and your OS. At least with UNIX, backups notwithstanding, the OS is still there and you'd have a much better chance at recovering your data than you would with Windows. I fully agree with you. I just had one virus basically roach a friend's laptop. The virus attached itself to EVERY executable image on the hard drive. I had to wipe the programs ( Adaware, Spy Bot, or Avast could not remove the virus and all recomended deleting the files ). I had to re-install Windows inorder to get the system to start after virus find/repair/delete was done. The system is fine now. Its running Avast and Zone Alarm and I'll be educating them in how to use Firefox and to run Adaware and Spybot.
The flip side to this is that if there is no patent protection, it is definitely not economically viable to develop cures. With patents, different story, as long as it's not an orphan drug (which means that there are too few cases to make it worthwhile even WITH patent protection).
You are telling me that no scientist would develop something because its the right thing to do if there isn't profit involved ? Most of the scientist that I have met would love to be able to develop what they want to develop instead of yet another treatment for a disease. They would love to devlop cures for disease, but the reality is that as was said above, the companies that fund the research want money. They can care less if the product helps lives, only that it is safe enough so they won't be sued and that they can charge big bucks for it.
Its the same argument about software. Why would someone write something that is given away ( preventing profit ). They fail to take into account that people do things because they like to, not always for a monitary inventinve.
The other problem is that while some concept might have been discovered in a small lab, it is rare that a modern drug was discovered in a small lab. (Most modern drugs are much more refined than older drugs ever were.) And, even to the extent that target validation and lead optimization can be done in a small lab, you could NEVER do a clinical trial in a small lab. You need thousands of volunteers (often compensated in some way), thousands of pills, etc. You also need to bribe LOTS of doctors to find those volunteers for you (this is probably the biggest expense in clinical trials).
Ah.. now the problem with this analogy is that in the past they were researching CURES. They were not researching ever changing treatments to prolong how long the person stays alive ( thus needing the treament ).
Why should the drug cartels.. I mean companies spend millions/billions on finding a cure for a disease/problem ? Hmm... Cure = 1 Time payment, Treatment = Lifetime of payments
And what "criminal" law are they breaking ? This is a CIVIL law, not criminal law
Wouldn't that fall under not incriminating ones self ? I mean, why should you be forced to turn evidence over to someone to use against you ?
There is Linux HA. This is High Availability Clustering software (via a heartbeat). This along with DRBD ( Disk Replicated Block Device ) you have a very robust cluster.
This uses an Active/Standby setup with a heartbeat between the systems. If the Active is no longer responding, within X seconds (10 by default ) the Standby takes over all the processes that were running on the other system. And ( if needed ) STONITH's (Shot the other node in the head) the other server to ensure that it really IS dead .
We've been running webservers and Oracle database servers here with 0 downtime using heartbeat and drbd.
Since when do reptiles have paws ?
Because the generators are for profit, there are not enough generators in your area so that they need to have the jet turbines online ( that raise the cost by 100 % or more per Megawatt Hour ) or you have inefficient means for the distribution of energy ( only 1 high voltage line into your area ).
I realize it takes a lot more electricity to run A/C then heat, but it's a small house with two air conditioners. Billing people $400/mo to stay cool during the summer is ridiculous.
Are the ACs energy efficient ? Are you cooling the house to 60 degrees ? Do you have 20 computers or an ancient electric stove, refridgerator, etc ?
Electricity is way too expensive. If it's not the power itself, it's "line fees" and "transmission fees" and don't forget any other fees they want to charge us this month.
Then pressure your govt to get more generation or more high voltage lines. There are HUGE groups complaining that there isn't enough power then they fight tooth and nail to prevent the lines from being put in because they don't want it in THEIR back yard.
It might not be the power generators that are over charging; maybe it's the local companies (although Narraganset Electric is my only choice) but it doesn't matter. We get robbed.
Try to get your city to put up a municicpal power plant. My wife and I pay 1/2 of what her sister's family uses just one city over ( with a for profit company generating the power ).
I wish they'd put up more nuclear plants.. so much more efficient, so much better on the environment. Did you know that an averag coal plant generates more radioactivity then the largest nuclear plants?
Quite possibly. However, Do you or your neighbors want a nuclear plant put up in your neighborhood ? Therein lies the problems...
There are many ISO ( Independant System Operators ) that manage the power grids in the US. They are not "power companies". CA ISO, Midwest ISO, ISO New England, PJM, and the Southwest Power Pool. One of the larger ones, CAISO, manages the power grid for California.
There is ISO New England that manages the power for Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, MA, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. I know for a fact this company is a not-for profit. One of their mandates is to maintain the grid in a way that is cost effective to the end customers. They don't allow the power generators to rape the public. They monitor things VERY closely to ensure that no one is manipulating the market to make extra profit at the expense of the general consumers.
Many of the packages are expecting the 1st Saturday/Sunday in April to have 23 hours and the last Saturday/Sunday in October to have 25 hours.
Do you really want the power grid to put into production a patch that hasn't been tested for many months ? ( Or do you want blackouts, or the cost to quadruple ? )