In 1996 I was a care free student happily clutching my BTEC Diploma and ready to start Uni. I also had a 486SLC-33 which Quake utterly refused to run on (played DooM very well though!). I recall spending part of my student loan on a computer that could play it and then spending many hours doing LAN games over a 200-meter BNC cable the snaked around our entire student block.
They eventually told us to take it down as it was a "lightning hazard"!!
No, not a few, there's literally thousands of them. I support companies running NT every day. Big ones. It doesn't mean it shouldn't still be allowed to die quietly, though.
Yes, but if Duke Nukem forever has a problem then what, a few gamers will get upset?
If the shuttle has a problem at launch: You have several million tonnes of shuttle and associated boosters and fuel tanks, and all the nasty chemicals therin landing in and around the Atlantic Ocean. Not a good thing.
If the shuttle has a problem during re-entry: The mid-west has several thousand tonnes of shuttle and associated nasty stuff falling on it. Again. This time it may kill someone.
If it fails in orbit, well... 7 dead astronauts and god knows where it'll end up.
I think they're being very cautious here, after all if the shuttle fails this time it'll never fly again.
Very nice, I support that. Can we have proper multi-user support, faster performance and more robust databases as well please? No? OK well then I'll continue to ignore this product:) Lotus 7 is just a great big missed opportunity. Maybe Lotus 8 will be better, but I am not holding out much hope.
I won't buy movies online for the same reason I don't like iTunes, the DRM crap. When I buy a regular CD or DVD I basically have an ISO image that I can do whatever I please with, if I'm purchasing it online I want the same thing without having to go through the hassle of breaking their silly protection. No, this isn't about wanting to pirate movies it's about choice.
I tried one, they taste pretty nice so I bought a bunch of these them figuring I'd use them for the morning drive. After a failure rate of greater than 50% (either not heating properly or having a worrying chemical aftertaste) I just went back to Starbucks:)
When I was young and poor, my Mother made home made play-doh out of flour, salt and food colouring (and probably some other ingredients I've forgotten....), it actually worked better than the real play-doh as well. Unless you got it wet:)
Anyway, I spent 4 hours yesterday making play-doh animals with my own children. It doesn't go beep, it doesn't required batteries and they'll probably be doing the same thing when they have kids of there own just like me. I can't wait until they're both old enough for lego!
Drown the bloody thing at birth, it's a devils spawn. This will not work!!! Can we please, PLEASE bring back DS9?! I want to know what happened to Sisko, damnit, and it's the only Star Trek series I would seriously consider watching.
I get the same crap when asking for help with Linux, Windows, MacOS or any other OS you care to mention. It is NOT a problem relating only to Linux users. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who use their OS of choice as a [substitute your favourite reproductive organ here] extension, just remember the guy who told you to f--k off and RTFM in the free forum is probably someone whose ass you would be kicking in the real world:-)
In my experience, however if you have spent a good amount of time trying to resolve the issue yourself and at least have a good start you will suddenly find people being a lot more helpful. It is important to remember that many of these forums are free and they get asked the same questions over and over.
I'm sure I'll be forced to upgrade to Vista at some point (although XP serves me quite well right now), but I really couldn't give two shits if it has some wizz-bang new theme because I've been using the classic theme since Windows NT anyway. The "Theme" service is the first thing that's disabled when I install XP.
It just serves to remind me that I will always prefer the older games, because of their simplicity. I've always enjoyed games I can just dive into and have fun, rather than learning a bunch of commands. Maybe I'm just getting old and if I asked 12-year old Chris what he thought he'd probably tell me to shut up (actually, no he'd never say that to an adult... that kid was so polite it makes me sick, probably because I wanted to be a monk at 12. True story).
There are still some gems out there with modern games, all of the Quake series (and Doom before) it where a blast, I still play the original shareware version of Doom when I'm bored. MVP Baseball 2004 was great (they ruined it with 2005... not tried 2006), but then again baseball is a religion to me. I still play Centipede on my Atari as well, though. And Space Invanders. And Moon Patrol. And Star Raiders 2 on my Speccy. I really need to grow up...
Call the company, ask for a certified copy of your original contract with your signature on it. They have 30 days to provide it, if they cannot they have to fix your credit BY LAW. If they don't, well have fun suing them. You'll win.
Maybe it's just the homes I visit, but the vast majority of (American) homes I've been in in the last few years either have:
a) An older set that can do mono only, or at best stereo (and it's a CRT) b) A "big screen" TV that's set up incorrectly.
Of the big screen owners, PRACTICALLY ALL OF THEM are running the ancient coaxial cable from their cable/satellite receiver into the TV, tuning into channel 3 and watching a fuzzy picture with monural sound. In standard definition.
The cable companies are partly to blame, they are simply not pushing HDTV enough and in my companies case, shoving the HDTV channels into some ridiculous 4 digit code that no ordinary user can remember whilst keeping the old SD channels in the usual place (seems backwards to me, and it's a running abttle with my own family to get them to tune into the "correct" channel so that weird geeky Brit doesn't complain about his "funky widescreen addiction").
Next we go to those who actually went out and bought a surround sound system. Most of those have all of the speakers clustered haphazardly on top of their entertainment center then wonder why they can't hear it in surround.
Maybe I just know a lot of really idiotic people?:-) Still, I get a lot of satisfaction when I do set them up correctly and they realise what they've been missing.
The first computer I ever used was a BBC Model "B". I spent the next few years lusting after one, but my parents could never afford it. The first computer I ever owned was a ZX Spectrum +2B (the black case without the scewed up sound), complete with weird Amstrad modifications. I hated Amstrad for years afterwards, especially since my first PC was an Amstrad 486SLC, with weird Amstrad crap hardware and no upgradeability.
Now, the first machine I every actually paid for myself was an AMD X5-133 the served me well for 4 years before the motherboard finally gave in.
I just fixed a friend's machine that had over 1200 pieces of spyware on it (about 60% where duplicates), the scary thing is that this is not at all uncommon. He had the typical symptoms of the machine getting slower and slower until it finally refused to respond. I had to boot the (XP) thing up in safe mode and manually remove 50 or so malware entries from the registry before it would boot.
His Anti-Virus software was still sitting sealed in the box from when he bought the machine! He assumed it was installed by his vendor (Compaq).
What's disturbing is that this is one of the milder cases of spyware infection I've seen. On average, I find 200-300 when testing machines. The record is well over 10,000 - and that was on an employees computer at my former job!! (yes, she was fired). Cutting out IE and replacing it with an alternative is a big help. Hopefully, IE7 will be more resilient towards spyware. The number one defense is to get an anti-virus program and keep it up to date.
The bugs, I can live with (after all it's a pre-release for a beta... so essentially it's an alpha release). The UI needs a lot of tweaking, however. Right now it is just plain ugly. The main complaint is the fact that there's no way to move the navigation buttons below the menu, an option for the "classic" look would be nice. Also, the fact that tabs are always visible is just annoying. I finally removed it because Windows Update locked my entire system up and Java just didn't work (essential for my job).
Still, it has potential at least. IE will never be my primary browser (you'll pull Firefox from my cold, dead hands) but it is essential for certain apps I use at work so, unfortunately, I can't ignore it.
If I where to stand up and look around my cube ("Aiee... bright light! bright light!") I'd be able to count about a dozen women. Unfortunately, none of them clamouring for my attention (although my wife would probably disagree with the unfortunate part). I work in a highly technical company and the male-female split is, I would estimate, about 60-40.
There are plenty of knowledgeable women out there in technology out there. At least, in my field.
I don't know about Steve Jobs, but Bill Gates has, in fact, donated quite a substantial sum of money to charity. The problem I continue to have (and this isn't against Bill Gates per se), is that so many super-rich people make bold statements about how much money they have given. At the end of the day, however, they are still super-rich. Bill Gates for example has enough money to last him several lifetimes.
Why do they need so much money? I respect the fact they worked bloody hard to get it, but you reach a point where having $1 Billion vs having $10 Billion really doesn't make that much off a difference! Now, imagine what that $9 Billion could do for humanity.
Most donations I see from celebrities and other wealthy individuals represent less than 1% of their net worth. This makes me sick.
Well, most big organisations will be using a network printer.
USB mouse and keyboard, well...:
* You can selectively disable which ports you want to disable, eg leaving the ones in the rear enabled but disabling the front panel. * Deleting the drives (one of my original suggestions) will deter all but the most determined users.
We had a client at one of my previous jobs who explicity banned USB jump drives from the workstations they would be using. So, after a few seconds of head scratching on how to do this I:
* Disconnected the USB ports and, * Disabled them in the OS and, * Removed the USB flash device.inf file that Windows provides and, * Padlocked the case shut.
It takes a few moments per machine and should be part of the standard build for any business that cares about their data.
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In 1996 I was a care free student happily clutching my BTEC Diploma and ready to start Uni. I also had a 486SLC-33 which Quake utterly refused to run on (played DooM very well though!). I recall spending part of my student loan on a computer that could play it and then spending many hours doing LAN games over a 200-meter BNC cable the snaked around our entire student block.
They eventually told us to take it down as it was a "lightning hazard"!!
You're talking about a backward group of people who believed in witches and dragons here, this is mediaeval times. It's really not that far fetched.
No, not a few, there's literally thousands of them. I support companies running NT every day. Big ones. It doesn't mean it shouldn't still be allowed to die quietly, though.
Yes, but if Duke Nukem forever has a problem then what, a few gamers will get upset?
If the shuttle has a problem at launch: You have several million tonnes of shuttle and associated boosters and fuel tanks, and all the nasty chemicals therin landing in and around the Atlantic Ocean. Not a good thing.
If the shuttle has a problem during re-entry: The mid-west has several thousand tonnes of shuttle and associated nasty stuff falling on it. Again. This time it may kill someone.
If it fails in orbit, well... 7 dead astronauts and god knows where it'll end up.
I think they're being very cautious here, after all if the shuttle fails this time it'll never fly again.
Very nice, I support that. Can we have proper multi-user support, faster performance and more robust databases as well please? No? OK well then I'll continue to ignore this product :) Lotus 7 is just a great big missed opportunity. Maybe Lotus 8 will be better, but I am not holding out much hope.
I won't buy movies online for the same reason I don't like iTunes, the DRM crap. When I buy a regular CD or DVD I basically have an ISO image that I can do whatever I please with, if I'm purchasing it online I want the same thing without having to go through the hassle of breaking their silly protection. No, this isn't about wanting to pirate movies it's about choice.
Nope, I'm standing by it. They tasted pretty nice, not gourmet coffee or anything but definitely not bad.
I tried one, they taste pretty nice so I bought a bunch of these them figuring I'd use them for the morning drive. After a failure rate of greater than 50% (either not heating properly or having a worrying chemical aftertaste) I just went back to Starbucks :)
When I was young and poor, my Mother made home made play-doh out of flour, salt and food colouring (and probably some other ingredients I've forgotten....), it actually worked better than the real play-doh as well. Unless you got it wet :)
Anyway, I spent 4 hours yesterday making play-doh animals with my own children. It doesn't go beep, it doesn't required batteries and they'll probably be doing the same thing when they have kids of there own just like me. I can't wait until they're both old enough for lego!
Drown the bloody thing at birth, it's a devils spawn. This will not work!!! Can we please, PLEASE bring back DS9?! I want to know what happened to Sisko, damnit, and it's the only Star Trek series I would seriously consider watching.
I get the same crap when asking for help with Linux, Windows, MacOS or any other OS you care to mention. It is NOT a problem relating only to Linux users. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who use their OS of choice as a [substitute your favourite reproductive organ here] extension, just remember the guy who told you to f--k off and RTFM in the free forum is probably someone whose ass you would be kicking in the real world :-)
In my experience, however if you have spent a good amount of time trying to resolve the issue yourself and at least have a good start you will suddenly find people being a lot more helpful. It is important to remember that many of these forums are free and they get asked the same questions over and over.
I'm sure I'll be forced to upgrade to Vista at some point (although XP serves me quite well right now), but I really couldn't give two shits if it has some wizz-bang new theme because I've been using the classic theme since Windows NT anyway. The "Theme" service is the first thing that's disabled when I install XP.
It just serves to remind me that I will always prefer the older games, because of their simplicity. I've always enjoyed games I can just dive into and have fun, rather than learning a bunch of commands. Maybe I'm just getting old and if I asked 12-year old Chris what he thought he'd probably tell me to shut up (actually, no he'd never say that to an adult... that kid was so polite it makes me sick, probably because I wanted to be a monk at 12. True story).
There are still some gems out there with modern games, all of the Quake series (and Doom before) it where a blast, I still play the original shareware version of Doom when I'm bored. MVP Baseball 2004 was great (they ruined it with 2005... not tried 2006), but then again baseball is a religion to me. I still play Centipede on my Atari as well, though. And Space Invanders. And Moon Patrol. And Star Raiders 2 on my Speccy. I really need to grow up...
Call the company, ask for a certified copy of your original contract with your signature on it. They have 30 days to provide it, if they cannot they have to fix your credit BY LAW. If they don't, well have fun suing them. You'll win.
Maybe it's just the homes I visit, but the vast majority of (American) homes I've been in in the last few years either have:
:-) Still, I get a lot of satisfaction when I do set them up correctly and they realise what they've been missing.
a) An older set that can do mono only, or at best stereo (and it's a CRT)
b) A "big screen" TV that's set up incorrectly.
Of the big screen owners, PRACTICALLY ALL OF THEM are running the ancient coaxial cable from their cable/satellite receiver into the TV, tuning into channel 3 and watching a fuzzy picture with monural sound. In standard definition.
The cable companies are partly to blame, they are simply not pushing HDTV enough and in my companies case, shoving the HDTV channels into some ridiculous 4 digit code that no ordinary user can remember whilst keeping the old SD channels in the usual place (seems backwards to me, and it's a running abttle with my own family to get them to tune into the "correct" channel so that weird geeky Brit doesn't complain about his "funky widescreen addiction").
Next we go to those who actually went out and bought a surround sound system. Most of those have all of the speakers clustered haphazardly on top of their entertainment center then wonder why they can't hear it in surround.
Maybe I just know a lot of really idiotic people?
Just prior the explosion was heard:
"Hey, Billy-Joe! Watch THIS!"
I'm sorry, why don't they just scuttle the whole fleet, deorbit that useless space station and do the following:
Give all of the money they would have spent to private enterprise, give them 5 years to land on the moon with a permanent base.
In 5 years, I guarantee we'll have a moon base.
The first computer I ever used was a BBC Model "B". I spent the next few years lusting after one, but my parents could never afford it. The first computer I ever owned was a ZX Spectrum +2B (the black case without the scewed up sound), complete with weird Amstrad modifications. I hated Amstrad for years afterwards, especially since my first PC was an Amstrad 486SLC, with weird Amstrad crap hardware and no upgradeability.
Now, the first machine I every actually paid for myself was an AMD X5-133 the served me well for 4 years before the motherboard finally gave in.
I just fixed a friend's machine that had over 1200 pieces of spyware on it (about 60% where duplicates), the scary thing is that this is not at all uncommon. He had the typical symptoms of the machine getting slower and slower until it finally refused to respond. I had to boot the (XP) thing up in safe mode and manually remove 50 or so malware entries from the registry before it would boot.
His Anti-Virus software was still sitting sealed in the box from when he bought the machine! He assumed it was installed by his vendor (Compaq).
What's disturbing is that this is one of the milder cases of spyware infection I've seen. On average, I find 200-300 when testing machines. The record is well over 10,000 - and that was on an employees computer at my former job!! (yes, she was fired). Cutting out IE and replacing it with an alternative is a big help. Hopefully, IE7 will be more resilient towards spyware. The number one defense is to get an anti-virus program and keep it up to date.
Actually, more women than men in my experience. Particularly if it's another woman driving. Women can be *mean*.
The bugs, I can live with (after all it's a pre-release for a beta... so essentially it's an alpha release). The UI needs a lot of tweaking, however. Right now it is just plain ugly. The main complaint is the fact that there's no way to move the navigation buttons below the menu, an option for the "classic" look would be nice. Also, the fact that tabs are always visible is just annoying. I finally removed it because Windows Update locked my entire system up and Java just didn't work (essential for my job).
Still, it has potential at least. IE will never be my primary browser (you'll pull Firefox from my cold, dead hands) but it is essential for certain apps I use at work so, unfortunately, I can't ignore it.
If I where to stand up and look around my cube ("Aiee... bright light! bright light!") I'd be able to count about a dozen women. Unfortunately, none of them clamouring for my attention (although my wife would probably disagree with the unfortunate part). I work in a highly technical company and the male-female split is, I would estimate, about 60-40.
There are plenty of knowledgeable women out there in technology out there. At least, in my field.
I don't know about Steve Jobs, but Bill Gates has, in fact, donated quite a substantial sum of money to charity. The problem I continue to have (and this isn't against Bill Gates per se), is that so many super-rich people make bold statements about how much money they have given. At the end of the day, however, they are still super-rich. Bill Gates for example has enough money to last him several lifetimes.
Why do they need so much money? I respect the fact they worked bloody hard to get it, but you reach a point where having $1 Billion vs having $10 Billion really doesn't make that much off a difference! Now, imagine what that $9 Billion could do for humanity.
Most donations I see from celebrities and other wealthy individuals represent less than 1% of their net worth. This makes me sick.
Well, most big organisations will be using a network printer.
USB mouse and keyboard, well...:
* You can selectively disable which ports you want to disable, eg leaving the ones in the rear enabled but disabling the front panel.
* Deleting the drives (one of my original suggestions) will deter all but the most determined users.
We had a client at one of my previous jobs who explicity banned USB jump drives from the workstations they would be using. So, after a few seconds of head scratching on how to do this I:
.inf file that Windows provides and,
* Disconnected the USB ports and,
* Disabled them in the OS and,
* Removed the USB flash device
* Padlocked the case shut.
It takes a few moments per machine and should be part of the standard build for any business that cares about their data.