I sort of agreed, it was really bad about a month or two ago, but has been getting better for most of the "commonly searched" terms. Some fairly obscure searches still turn up a bit of crap, but you can't do it for everyone. A "Don't show me any results from this subnet + domain from now on" feature would be nice, as would google banning some of the worst offenders (which it seems to have done).
Hmm, wtf did I do in calculating that? Sorry. 8 hours did sound short. I have mine as 36*30 minutes = 1080 + 19 minutes Which would put it at around 15 CDs. I bought the book, and I'm pretty sure that the versions are identical.
No doubt "Oh fuck, another phylum" made it into both editions;) There is an unabridged version on ebay for $25. I think there is a.torrent floating around too.
The forum on the random house website is pretty active too. 2750 posts since 2002.
Agreed. This audio book is very good. I ripped it to MP3. 500 minutes (a tad over 8 hours) Good for long trips, although there is a lot of information in it. Can't say that your eyes won't gloss over after an hour or two.
HUDs are actually base equipment on some of the higher end cars. The 05 Corvette has a HUD for speed and a couple other things. Some Cadillacs had the night vision mode that was projected through the HUD - that seems to have dissapeared, but stuff like song names / volume, blah, blah is displayed through the HUD on the Cadillac SLR.
http://www.chevrolet.com/pop/corvette/hud_en.jsp
I wonder how hard would it be to create a simple (5x6)? LED matrix and project the speed, etc onto the bottom of the window.
So in your view, we should just pretend experimentation, et al on "banned" subjects won't happen? I suppose we could if we thought every person out there will be ethical but the thing is, you see doctors do unethical (and illegal) stuff all the time. Just because it is a law / ethical guideline, it doesn't stop everyone.
And, again, I'm not trying to argue to throw ethics out the window, just saying that it is bloody naive to assume that someone won't violate them. By all means, set up standards, et al, just don't act shocked, grab your chest and collapse, when someone violates them.
Sure, you can deny federal money to people doing x, but this case clearly shows that people will do x, even if they don't get federal money, or have to do x on foreign soil.
And most of Mengele's records, 2 train car loads (I know you said extensive, but this takes it to another order of magnitude) were destroyed. Yes, a fair bit stuff came out at Nuremburg, but I'm sure we missed a couple things, Mengele had a lot of time.
And frankly, your referring to the murder of unborn babies as "throwing out embryos" disgusts me. How can you be so glib?
Because it happens on a fairly regular basis and there really isn't any way to sugar coat it. There isn't any use in denying that it happens, and while I could say "the genocide of thousands of children", I'm going to stick with medical convention and use "an embryo that was put in the biohazard bin". Sounds perhaps a bit too PC, but I prefer that to "murder of unborn babies". Less inflamatory.
It all really depends on what your definition of a human life is. If you want to define it as "egg meets sperm", fine, but if you define it as such, you must realize that most "pregnancies" don't complete. In fact, these "babies" die on a fairly regular basis and in numbers far greater than seen in labs. Whether this is due to them dying before implantation, or not implanting, or miscarriage in the more traditional sense, the fact is that most don't make it. If that weren't true, the argument would be vastly different, but if nature / God / what have you "murders" millions of "babies" every day, I find it difficult to turn around and say what we are doing is evil and unethical.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to make the argument that stem cell research is good or bad. I'm just stating that if progress (define it as you will, ultimately it is defined by those doing the experimentation) can be made, it will be made. Especially in medicine. It seems that rationalization of [insert controversial thing here] is really easy to do in medicine and there will be someone out there - twisted fuck or not - who will do it.
And really, let's not kid ourselves, if Mengele's records had survived, the medical community (or at least a portion of it) would end up using the results if they were of any actual scientific value (kind of an big assumption, I know.) I'm not saying it is right or wrong, but if Mengele's documents were found tommorow, and it was discovered that the cure for cancer was contained within, someone would use the material, no matter how many people were opposed to it.
As for the actual good/bad aspect, I'm sure we are already on our kid's "evil" lists for a couple thousand things already. We don't give half a shit when it comes to abortions (well, some of us do), or, for that matter, chemical leaks that kill thousands, ignorance of famine or even genocide (no, not the WW2 kind, the more modern African kind). Frozen embryos that will just remain on ice and probably thrown out in a couple of years if nothing is done with them...
From my experience, the vast majority of shortage was people just breaking shit for breaking shit's sake. I had a summer job at this office supply store. Morale was worse than what I saw during my work in call centers. I saw people crush $2000 laser printers in the trash compactor, bring safes up to the top row of shelves and push them off onto "expensive, breakable stuff" and drive fork lifts through pretty much anything in a big box for kicks.
Sure, employees (virtually everyone, managers would "go shopping" with carts and all after hours every week or so) stole shit left and right too, but hourly games (we had it scheduled, and someone appropriated a whiteboard to make a tournament style chart) of "clock frisbee", "logitech baseball" (keyboard, meet mouse, HOME RUN!!!), "toner cartridge field goal" (makes a mess, don't try it), "digital camera fastball" (into a concrete wall, and someone actually brought in a chrony:) or "kung fu master" (punching and kicking holes through fiberboard office furniture) had to add up to be more than theft did. Needless to say, it was an interesting summer job, in a "wow, this sucks so much but I can't stop laughing" kind of way I think our store had something like 12.7% loss in a month. I'm assuming that is by dollar amount. District manager was based out of our store, I'm guessing he must of have been stealing a crapload of stuff too, he didn't actually do anything about the loss. just... wow...
Playing devils's advocate here, but if people tried to box your car in, or if they punched you as you tried to exit the store, how would you react?
My point was that in such a situation (actually in any situation), perception of the situation can sometimes become more important than the reality of the situation. While that sounds wordy, and to a degree, stupid - how would you react if someone cut you off, got out of their car and started walking towards you. This sort of thing happens every day on freeways around the country, and sometimes weapons are drawn. People do get shot for stupid shit like this on a regular basis.
Clearly, we define that sort of thing as an act with hostile intentions, and whether it happens on a parking lot or on the side of the freeway.
The context is different, sure, but if someone interprets the BB's employees actions as hostile, and is armed, sooner or later, a shitty situation (for everyone except the lawyers) is going to happen. Who knows, an employee out of uniform with a hero complex might approach the guy with a CCW and a.40.
That is why it is policy in virtually every other major retail chain to have their employees NOT chase the customer out of the store unless they are trained rentacops - even then, stuff like using a vehicle to give chase is usually not permitted.
In the end, the retail chains realize that it is just stuff (Worth what? Less than $3,000 based on the sticker price?), and that the police should take over once a situation has escalated to a certain point. People aren't rational all the time, and often don't think things through and end up doing stupid shit. Hopefully one of the parties is smart enough to excercise some restraint and not only think things through, but also think about how the other party perceives the situation.
I do agree with you on the "talking shit on an internet forum" bit to a certain degree. If you'd ask me about shooting someone who is stealing my stuff a year ago, I would of have told you "fuck yeah, shoot him in the fucking knees! bleed! bitch bleed!". Since then, I've actually been faced with such a situation, where a drunk frat boy type decided that it was a good idea to rob me while I was moving. Could of have fired some 9mm HydraShok JHP, but didn't. No point to. I don't think many people are actually faced with that choice, and it wisens you up and changes your outlook pretty quick...
"The importance of this work, of course, is that by eliminating contact with animal and human cells, you minimize the risk of contamination with pathogens that could be transmitted to patients and the population at large,"
Well, isn't that nice.
Seriously though, if this shows anything, it shows that progress will continue on this subject, regardless of federal funding regulations, or indeed, any legal restrictions in a single country. If something can be used in the name of medical progress, it will be used, ethical arguments and regulations be damned. You can't stop progress...
Well, I totally agree with the premise that it must be delivered first, but I was more surprised that 2 monitors in under 3 or so minutes just got smashed and everyone just went about what they were doing as if nothing had happened. I guess getting an employee to drag x package off to the "broken stuff" pile would be more trouble than it is worth.
Agreed. I'm surprised that their "forced illegal door search" policy hasn't resulted in a shooting, or at least a firearm being drawn.
Someone could technically make a citizen's arrest for false imprisonment, assault, battery and possibly kidnapping against store employees.
I believe there was a case not too long ago where Best Buy employees used several vehicles to box in a suspected (and, of course, innocent) customer's vehicle who was attempting to leave the lot. Police were called, charges were filed against the employees.
Fucking moronic, if you ask me, to use your personal vehicle in such a manner, or even considering using force to stop someone stealing from your store if you're not in loss prevention, but hey, if you're working there, you're not the brightest bulb in the tree (or you're desperate for money and are stealing shit left and right)
Citizen's arrest laws violate from state to state (I believe in KY you are permitted to kill fleeing felons, while in some states you can't sue private parties for false arrest) What I'm trying to say is, that if a shooting should happen, it shouldn't exactly been unexpected. Best Buy has had a history of illegal searches / false imprisonment, and the courts are aware of this. How they don't get bitchslapped by a judge with a nice juicy judgement, I have no idea. At least the dead employee's family should get a couple bucks after a lawyer buys a new yacht with the legal fees.
Although, to be fair, a bunch of these companies have recurring issues. Paypal, with its "we can suspend your account and you can't do fuckal about it, hooray, we get to keep your money". Allstate, with it's "musical chair claims adjusters". Don't even get me started about UAL. It isn't like people don't know about the shady shit these companies do, it happens pretty often, and if the company is a bunch of shits, contacting the BBB won't get you anywhere. State attorney generals haven't stepped in either in the cases of most of these companies. I interviewed at UPS and we did a tour, a monitor fell off a conveyor belt. Everyone heard the tube pop, and the crash of glass, but one of the employees just tossed it back as if nothing had happened. As we were walking away, we heard another one drop and the sound of smashing glass. Un-fucking-believable.
Not really, packeteer boxes on the market can slow / stop your torrent downloads, so a bulk data bit isn't really necessary. Besides, you don't really need anything that intelligent (and expensive) equipment to choke speeds from a certain ip once they start using massive amounts of bandwidth (i.e. if someone tries to defeat detection using a tunnel). A bunch of colleges and universities do this.
Of course, the solution can be worse than the problem. I get periods of 500+ms ping on the campus (and keep in mind dual this is on dual oc3 lines) since they installed the packeteer boxes, which make VOIP, gaming et al unusable. In the wonderful tradition of govt run IT departments, getting something done about it takes months.
Sometimes I wonder what exactly some folks are thinking, "Gee, lets make a feel good law that will look like we are actually doing something useful instead of fucking off all day and playing golf" (perhaps surfing in Australia? I'm ignorant)
It is incredible to see some of these people say, with a straight face, that such and such a law won't hinder free speech when it is kinda obvious. Let's take a quick look at this. 1. I am able to post x online without being fined. 2. If I post x online, I get fined. Fucking absurd - just like this gem. "In Australia it is illegal to commit, or attempt to commit suicide." Because, you know, people who want to kill themselves are concerned with jail (which, by the way, aren't exactly murder-free, especially if you are Aboriginal, the guards might decide to beat you to death on a whim, I'm not trying to troll or make shit up, (google "australia "death in custody""). Most fucking retarded law ever (and I know not only Australia has it). Or, I know, put someone, who is already suicidal $100,000 in debt, yeah, that will work.
Besides, what is the difference between euthanasia and suicide? A link to a angst filled livejournal page? I'm only half kidding - both involve methods of killing yourself. And be-fucking-sides, the mass suicide guy did all his stuff through IRC. Then again, it doesn't fucking matter, the dumbshit who wrote the bill doesn't know the fucking difference, and doesn't care (neither, for that matter do most of the people who he represents). ./I see stupid people. Everywhere.
Exactly, the only time MS needs to "innovate" is when someone else releases something. Otherwise, sitting back and getting rich off XP sales works well for them.
Longhorn won't come out until 2010 or so, and Microsoft will be able to charge for "Windows 98^K^KXP Special Edition". Not a bad idea. If you have the ability to put off the release of another OS for years, you can save loads of money on development, but still have a steady income stream from copies bundled with computers (every dell, etc from 2001 to 2006, and those of us who had beta copies of windows 97 all know how the 2006 date will work) and the occasional consumer retail purchase. Look, I'm not saying that MS isn't innovating anything, but compared to everyone else, they move at a glacial pace. Since there really isn't any competition (and I use this word as "an OS that could hurt significantly MS financially", so please, no flames), they can sit back and release stuff whenever they feel like, but still have a pretty much guaranteed income stream.
You really can't imagine the level of hostility between the employees and her / upper management.
Perhaps something like "press ganged sailors that have been on half rations for a month on a British sailing ship that is sinking because her drunk captain thought it a better idea to have a sailor whipped for stealing food instead of ordering to crew to fire at the enemy" would be appropriate. I'm sure the Germans have a word for that...
"Parties in the aisles" is not hyperbole - pizza, cake, booze, music - all that was missing was the sound of canon balls rolling down the deck.
Slashdot Mirror
I sort of agreed, it was really bad about a month or two ago, but has been getting better for most of the "commonly searched" terms. Some fairly obscure searches still turn up a bit of crap, but you can't do it for everyone.
A "Don't show me any results from this subnet + domain from now on" feature would be nice, as would google banning some of the worst offenders (which it seems to have done).
Hmm, wtf did I do in calculating that?
;) .torrent floating around too.
Sorry.
8 hours did sound short.
I have mine as 36*30 minutes = 1080 + 19 minutes
Which would put it at around 15 CDs.
I bought the book, and I'm pretty sure that the versions are identical.
No doubt "Oh fuck, another phylum" made it into both editions
There is an unabridged version on ebay for $25. I think there is a
The forum on the random house website is pretty active too. 2750 posts since 2002.
That must of have gotten you a couple strange looks, imagine trying to play cs_747 while sitting at the terminal...
Agreed. This audio book is very good.
I ripped it to MP3. 500 minutes (a tad over 8 hours)
Good for long trips, although there is a lot of information in it. Can't say that your eyes won't gloss over after an hour or two.
You forgot to use "Eichmann" in there ;)
72 Virgils, "You've got a purty mouth"
HUDs are actually base equipment on some of the higher end cars.
p
The 05 Corvette has a HUD for speed and a couple other things. Some Cadillacs had the night vision mode that was projected through the HUD - that seems to have dissapeared, but stuff like song names / volume, blah, blah is displayed through the HUD on the Cadillac SLR.
http://www.chevrolet.com/pop/corvette/hud_en.js
I wonder how hard would it be to create a simple (5x6)? LED matrix and project the speed, etc onto the bottom of the window.
And that's my 2000 old Zloty's.
Mmkay. Tell me. Is ignorance really bliss?
So in your view, we should just pretend experimentation, et al on "banned" subjects won't happen? I suppose we could if we thought every person out there will be ethical but the thing is, you see doctors do unethical (and illegal) stuff all the time. Just because it is a law / ethical guideline, it doesn't stop everyone.
And, again, I'm not trying to argue to throw ethics out the window, just saying that it is bloody naive to assume that someone won't violate them. By all means, set up standards, et al, just don't act shocked, grab your chest and collapse, when someone violates them.
Sure, you can deny federal money to people doing x, but this case clearly shows that people will do x, even if they don't get federal money, or have to do x on foreign soil.
And most of Mengele's records, 2 train car loads (I know you said extensive, but this takes it to another order of magnitude) were destroyed. Yes, a fair bit stuff came out at Nuremburg, but I'm sure we missed a couple things, Mengele had a lot of time.
And frankly, your referring to the murder of unborn babies as "throwing out embryos" disgusts me. How can you be so glib?
Because it happens on a fairly regular basis and there really isn't any way to sugar coat it.
There isn't any use in denying that it happens, and while I could say "the genocide of thousands of children", I'm going to stick with medical convention and use "an embryo that was put in the biohazard bin".
Sounds perhaps a bit too PC, but I prefer that to "murder of unborn babies". Less inflamatory.
It all really depends on what your definition of a human life is. If you want to define it as "egg meets sperm", fine, but if you define it as such, you must realize that most "pregnancies" don't complete. In fact, these "babies" die on a fairly regular basis and in numbers far greater than seen in labs. Whether this is due to them dying before implantation, or not implanting, or miscarriage in the more traditional sense, the fact is that most don't make it.
If that weren't true, the argument would be vastly different, but if nature / God / what have you "murders" millions of "babies" every day, I find it difficult to turn around and say what we are doing is evil and unethical.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to make the argument that stem cell research is good or bad.
I'm just stating that if progress (define it as you will, ultimately it is defined by those doing the experimentation) can be made, it will be made. Especially in medicine. It seems that rationalization of [insert controversial thing here] is really easy to do in medicine and there will be someone out there - twisted fuck or not - who will do it.
And really, let's not kid ourselves, if Mengele's records had survived, the medical community (or at least a portion of it) would end up using the results if they were of any actual scientific value (kind of an big assumption, I know.)
I'm not saying it is right or wrong, but if Mengele's documents were found tommorow, and it was discovered that the cure for cancer was contained within, someone would use the material, no matter how many people were opposed to it.
As for the actual good/bad aspect, I'm sure we are already on our kid's "evil" lists for a couple thousand things already. We don't give half a shit when it comes to abortions (well, some of us do), or, for that matter, chemical leaks that kill thousands, ignorance of famine or even genocide (no, not the WW2 kind, the more modern African kind). Frozen embryos that will just remain on ice and probably thrown out in a couple of years if nothing is done with them...
From my experience, the vast majority of shortage was people just breaking shit for breaking shit's sake.
:) or "kung fu master" (punching and kicking holes through fiberboard office furniture) had to add up to be more than theft did.
I had a summer job at this office supply store. Morale was worse than what I saw during my work in call centers.
I saw people crush $2000 laser printers in the trash compactor, bring safes up to the top row of shelves and push them off onto "expensive, breakable stuff" and drive fork lifts through pretty much anything in a big box for kicks.
Sure, employees (virtually everyone, managers would "go shopping" with carts and all after hours every week or so) stole shit left and right too, but hourly games (we had it scheduled, and someone appropriated a whiteboard to make a tournament style chart) of "clock frisbee", "logitech baseball" (keyboard, meet mouse, HOME RUN!!!), "toner cartridge field goal" (makes a mess, don't try it), "digital camera fastball" (into a concrete wall, and someone actually brought in a chrony
Needless to say, it was an interesting summer job, in a "wow, this sucks so much but I can't stop laughing" kind of way
I think our store had something like 12.7% loss in a month. I'm assuming that is by dollar amount. District manager was based out of our store, I'm guessing he must of have been stealing a crapload of stuff too, he didn't actually do anything about the loss.
just... wow...
Playing devils's advocate here, but if people tried to box your car in, or if they punched you as you tried to exit the store, how would you react?
.40.
My point was that in such a situation (actually in any situation), perception of the situation can sometimes become more important than the reality of the situation. While that sounds wordy, and to a degree, stupid - how would you react if someone cut you off, got out of their car and started walking towards you. This sort of thing happens every day on freeways around the country, and sometimes weapons are drawn. People do get shot for stupid shit like this on a regular basis.
Clearly, we define that sort of thing as an act with hostile intentions, and whether it happens on a parking lot or on the side of the freeway.
The context is different, sure, but if someone interprets the BB's employees actions as hostile, and is armed, sooner or later, a shitty situation (for everyone except the lawyers) is going to happen. Who knows, an employee out of uniform with a hero complex might approach the guy with a CCW and a
That is why it is policy in virtually every other major retail chain to have their employees NOT
chase the customer out of the store unless they are trained rentacops - even then, stuff like using a vehicle to give chase is usually not permitted.
In the end, the retail chains realize that it is just stuff (Worth what? Less than $3,000 based on the sticker price?), and that the police should take over once a situation has escalated to a certain point.
People aren't rational all the time, and often don't think things through and end up doing stupid shit. Hopefully one of the parties is smart enough to excercise some restraint and not only think things through, but also think about how the other party perceives the situation.
I do agree with you on the "talking shit on an internet forum" bit to a certain degree. If you'd ask me about shooting someone who is stealing my stuff a year ago, I would of have told you "fuck yeah, shoot him in the fucking knees! bleed! bitch bleed!".
Since then, I've actually been faced with such a situation, where a drunk frat boy type decided that it was a good idea to rob me while I was moving. Could of have fired some 9mm HydraShok JHP, but didn't. No point to. I don't think many people are actually faced with that choice, and it wisens you up and changes your outlook pretty quick...
"The importance of this work, of course, is that by eliminating contact with animal and human cells, you minimize the risk of contamination with pathogens that could be transmitted to patients and the population at large,"
Well, isn't that nice.
Seriously though, if this shows anything, it shows that progress will continue on this subject, regardless of federal funding regulations, or indeed, any legal restrictions in a single country.
If something can be used in the name of medical progress, it will be used, ethical arguments and regulations be damned.
You can't stop progress...
Checkpoint kicked my mother in the box and shoved her.
Checkpoint also ran over my dog.
Fuckers.
Well, I totally agree with the premise that it must be delivered first, but I was more surprised that 2 monitors in under 3 or so minutes just got smashed and everyone just went about what they were doing as if nothing had happened.
I guess getting an employee to drag x package off to the "broken stuff" pile would be more trouble than it is worth.
Agreed. I'm surprised that their "forced illegal door search" policy hasn't resulted in a shooting, or at least a firearm being drawn.
Someone could technically make a citizen's arrest for false imprisonment, assault, battery and possibly kidnapping against store employees.
I believe there was a case not too long ago where Best Buy employees used several vehicles to box in a suspected (and, of course, innocent) customer's vehicle who was attempting to leave the lot. Police were called, charges were filed against the employees.
Fucking moronic, if you ask me, to use your personal vehicle in such a manner, or even considering using force to stop someone stealing from your store if you're not in loss prevention, but hey, if you're working there, you're not the brightest bulb in the tree (or you're desperate for money and are stealing shit left and right)
Citizen's arrest laws violate from state to state (I believe in KY you are permitted to kill fleeing felons, while in some states you can't sue private parties for false arrest)
What I'm trying to say is, that if a shooting should happen, it shouldn't exactly been unexpected. Best Buy has had a history of illegal searches / false imprisonment, and the courts are aware of this. How they don't get bitchslapped by a judge with a nice juicy judgement, I have no idea.
At least the dead employee's family should get a couple bucks after a lawyer buys a new yacht with the legal fees.
Although, to be fair, a bunch of these companies have recurring issues.
Paypal, with its "we can suspend your account and you can't do fuckal about it, hooray, we get to keep your money". Allstate, with it's "musical chair claims adjusters".
Don't even get me started about UAL.
It isn't like people don't know about the shady shit these companies do, it happens pretty often, and if the company is a bunch of shits, contacting the BBB won't get you anywhere. State attorney generals haven't stepped in either in the cases of most of these companies.
I interviewed at UPS and we did a tour, a monitor fell off a conveyor belt. Everyone heard the tube pop, and the crash of glass, but one of the employees just tossed it back as if nothing had happened. As we were walking away, we heard another one drop and the sound of smashing glass.
Un-fucking-believable.
Not really, packeteer boxes on the market can slow / stop your torrent downloads, so a bulk data bit isn't really necessary.
Besides, you don't really need anything that intelligent (and expensive) equipment to choke speeds from a certain ip once they start using massive amounts of bandwidth (i.e. if someone tries to defeat detection using a tunnel).
A bunch of colleges and universities do this.
Of course, the solution can be worse than the problem. I get periods of 500+ms ping on the campus (and keep in mind dual this is on dual oc3 lines) since they installed the packeteer boxes, which make VOIP, gaming et al unusable.
In the wonderful tradition of govt run IT departments, getting something done about it takes months.
It was fixed this morning. Just dark.
Wish they had a better camera with a nice lens and ability to take a 60 second exposure or something.
Sometimes I wonder what exactly some folks are thinking, "Gee, lets make a feel good law that will look like we are actually doing something useful instead of fucking off all day and playing golf" (perhaps surfing in Australia? I'm ignorant)
/I see stupid people. Everywhere.
It is incredible to see some of these people say, with a straight face, that such and such a law won't hinder free speech when it is kinda obvious. Let's take a quick look at this.
1. I am able to post x online without being fined.
2. If I post x online, I get fined.
Fucking absurd - just like this gem.
"In Australia it is illegal to commit, or attempt to commit suicide." Because, you know, people who want to kill themselves are concerned with jail (which, by the way, aren't exactly murder-free, especially if you are Aboriginal, the guards might decide to beat you to death on a whim, I'm not trying to troll or make shit up, (google "australia "death in custody"").
Most fucking retarded law ever (and I know not only Australia has it). Or, I know, put someone, who is already suicidal $100,000 in debt, yeah, that will work.
Besides, what is the difference between euthanasia and suicide? A link to a angst filled livejournal page? I'm only half kidding - both involve methods of killing yourself.
And be-fucking-sides, the mass suicide guy did all his stuff through IRC. Then again, it doesn't fucking matter, the dumbshit who wrote the bill doesn't know the fucking difference, and doesn't care (neither, for that matter do most of the people who he represents).
.
Exactly, the only time MS needs to "innovate" is when someone else releases something. Otherwise, sitting back and getting rich off XP sales works well for them.
You'll find out in 2010.
Longhorn won't come out until 2010 or so, and Microsoft will be able to charge for "Windows 98^K^KXP Special Edition".
Not a bad idea.
If you have the ability to put off the release of another OS for years, you can save loads of money on development, but still have a steady income stream from copies bundled with computers (every dell, etc from 2001 to 2006, and those of us who had beta copies of windows 97 all know how the 2006 date will work) and the occasional consumer retail purchase.
Look, I'm not saying that MS isn't innovating anything, but compared to everyone else, they move at a glacial pace.
Since there really isn't any competition (and I use this word as "an OS that could hurt significantly MS financially", so please, no flames), they can sit back and release stuff whenever they feel like, but still have a pretty much guaranteed income stream.
with floppies, lost data ensued no matter if you punched holes in them or not...
You really can't imagine the level of hostility between the employees and her / upper management.
Perhaps something like "press ganged sailors that have been on half rations for a month on a British sailing ship that is sinking because her drunk captain thought it a better idea to have a sailor whipped for stealing food instead of ordering to crew to fire at the enemy" would be appropriate. I'm sure the Germans have a word for that...
"Parties in the aisles" is not hyperbole - pizza, cake, booze, music - all that was missing was the sound of canon balls rolling down the deck.