"What ever you think of the guys software and business practices, it is hard to argue that he is an evil man in the face of his generosity."
He may be generous now, but how did he get to this point? Carnegie built a shit load of libraries across the country (I grew up in one), but he was not what you could call a "good person". He just got old, saw that he had ensured himself an express route to hell, and saw this as an attempt at redemption. Maybe Bill was the same way. He reached a certain point in his life, saw that maybe he had not been a very "good person" and is trying to make amends so when he kicks it he goes to that hi-tech mansion in the sky and not to "The Other Place".
I do not want famous artists either. That is what I loved most about Napster back in the day. I had some of the most obscure music I could ever have hoped to find. When I found something I really liked, I researched them and tracked down their CDs and I knew I had something that not everyone and their sister were listening to. Swedish Goth, Bangladeshi trance, African pop, Russian folk.
Now Magnatune and a very few others are out there, but no way to search huge inventories like the real Napster did. P2P has been castrated and the good obscure stuff is all hidden away again, waiting for the next Napster.
"Do you think that everyone else who runs Windows on Dell was bribed too?"
Whoops! Where did that come from? A massive multi-million dollar contract goes to a vendor whose reputation for substandard and unreliable software is world renown and I'm a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist for daring to suggest that there is foul play afoot? And what the hell does the average consumer running Windows on a Dell have to do with it? Go do a little research, then come back and debate this.
You seem to be labouring under the misconception that the top 5% pay their fair share in taxes and that the middle class gets a free ride.
Not a big secret that the top 5% have not carried their own weight in the US for quite some time. The lion's share of taxes have been borne by the middle class.
I guess I'd better run (not walk) and tell our tax advisor that I'm really at the poverty level and have been overpaying my taxes for quite some time.
Doesn't say much for Air Force Procurement. I wonder (silently to myself) how much money changed hands and who was promised what job at Microsoft when he/she retires from the Air Force.
I'm not saying the money should not go to education, health care, or any number of things. What I'm saying is that I'd rather it go to a space program than to Corporate Welfare or pork to help a Congress critter get re-elected.
My priorities (off the top of my head) Health care Education Programs to help elderly and children Science Everything else.
The more countries we have going to space the less chance there is of our own space program stagnating. Competition will keep our Congress people's attention. Even if they would rather put the resources into another payraise for themselves or Halliburton, they will have to think about the stigma of the US losing its place as the world leader in space on their watch.
Cool. I like being proven wrong every once in a while. Like so many other liberals, it is easy for me to put republicans in one neat little group. Easier to vilify.
If this is true, it makes sense. The country wasn't ready for the last electoral debacle and it caught many by surprise. In this case pre-emption may just be a good thing. Especially in states with E-Voting.
Question everything. Don't trust anyone. Damn, I'm beginning to sound like Fox Mulder.
It is very Appley. I think they want to try out closed architecture like someone else we know. If Microsquirts wants to simplify things, the easiest way to do so is to narrow their support to a preset list of machines, like Apple.
I think Apple pulled off the closed architecture only because of Steve Jobs, and Gates and Ballmer are no Steve Jobs.
I live in rural Minnesota and have done some calling for local politicians. Political parties can't even get their contact lists right, I can't imagine a polling entity being any more accurate.
Even within rural areas like this it is almost impossible to get a handle on who is for or against whom. In this divisive political environment people are not speaking their minds because they are afraid of being singled out and of hostility. This alone pretty much guarantees that polls will not be accurate.
" Secure products generally make money than insecure products."
Wrong answer, Hans. The products with the most cash put into marketing generally make more money. The most popular product is sometimes a secure or quality product. Rarely is the most popular product the best quality product available, whether talking security or any other metric.
I think quite a few people here have already shown that this "study" needs to provide some more specific statistics and raw data before we can come to any meaningful conclusions. It looks though like normal office use so I'm assuming the machine is turned on when they get in in the morning and off when they leave in the afternoon.
Something else I noticed is that they say the average daily use was 2 hours and 15 minutes, with 28% of that time on the internet and the rest spent on office / trade applications. These are not power users by any means.
I wonder if by "the average failure rate requiring a restarting of the system is measured around 8% per session" (taken from Babelfish) they mean that 8% of those average 2 hour and 15 minute seesions end in a reboot? That would be quite unacceptable to almost any business.
Another bit of information that could act as a measuring tool is the reboot rate for office Linux users.
All in all, I don't think this article really shed any light on the reliability of M$ products.
"Umm why Clinton had a draft notice in his hand and dodged it. In 1992 the left cried it was never an issue." Of course it was an issue. The wingnuts made sure of that. Now Jr. going AWOL is an issue. And of course Jr. isn't going to personally besmirch Kerry's record. That is what his 527s are for. Same with Kerry's 527s. Now these "Gentlemen" don't even have to get their hands dirty. They can let others throw the mud and they just stand back and see what sticks.
I am prior AF as well and I also understand what training is required (I was airborne, but not a pilot). I didn't say he never served a day. I do believe he skipped out of his service though, and I believe that if it is proven that he avoided service he should be made an example of (because he is the President and lied).
I also believe this is not even the worst thing he has done. The Bush/Cheney Crime Family has a laundry list of illegal activities, corrupt dealings, and just fucking stupid mistakes that go back further than just 2000.
Even if they are a forgery, which it seems at this time, this is still a good thing because it brings the discussion out again. The bulk of the evidence so far indicates that he was AWOL, but much of that information has not made it to the network news yet. I hope the networks will give this issue the time and merit it deserves.
For those of us who actually did serve, it would be a great disservice if this gets swept under the rug again.
Of course it was a "misspeak", I doubt that anyone would seriously think that the CEO of a company making voting machines would admit this anywhere except drunk off his ass in a bar or on the golf course.
However, it does imply duplicity. Also, it is probable that his (and his company's) politics do play a part in his business, and that political contacts facilitated the signing of contracts with many of his customers. Political donations have gone to both parties, but a majority has gone to the republican party (coincidence?). Their political actions will never truly be addressed though, so I believe the next best thing is to go after their business practices. Whether through ignorance or malice, they have sold substandard equipment to state and local governments and then refused to address issues and concerns. If these were ATM machines, Diebold's CEO would be on trial already and the media would be publishing pictures of him next to Osama.
The Dems have proven that they can be just as ruthless and undemocratic as the republicans. The republicans have turned gerrymandering into an electoral weapon of mass destruction. The democrats have unilaterally decided that if two parties are good enough for them then it's good enough for everyone. They have then proceded to alienate everyone who is not dead center on the political ruler.
If I am only allowed to vote against someone I hate more than I hate the other, rather than voting for someone, then this country is completely fucked.
Right now hardly any radio signals, or access points are secured, so saying you cannot use them is pathetic, ignorant crap, but still in some cases illegal. Just because we understand this technology better than a majority of people out there does not mean that our view of the issue will ever be understood or agreed to by the legal and justice system. And just because we can do something does not necessarily mean we should. The same type of arguments are going on in the biotech world. We do not see the danger in using unused bandwidth, but others see it as theft and invasion of privacy.
Sucks to be us.
This will not always be the case though. Eventually (and I stress that word, eventually), the law will catch up to our present technology, but by that time it won't make any difference because we will already have moved on to a new technology that will be completely misunderstood by our legal and justice system. And then we will be having this same conversation about mind control of household appliances.
I'm just surprised that the RIAA is still an issue. There are just too many independant labels and distributors out there who treat their artists and customers fairly. Hopefully, people will begin to see this soon. When people stop buying (and downloading) music from the Mafia, then the Mafia will have to go away.
That, my friend is the extremely dangerous thinking that got us in the incredible mess we are in right now. Corporations and companies are not living things. In 1898 there was an incredible mistake made that gave corporations the same status as a human and that legislation almost single-handedly turned this country into a haven for immoral sociopaths who found that they could hide behind a corporate name and do just about whatever the hell they wanted. This led to Shell hiring mercenaries to terrorize South American villages, dragging children out of their homes in the middle of the night and killing them because their parents would not agree to sell their land. It led to Union Carbide killing many thousands of people in Bhopal and getting away paying pennies on the dollar of the total cost of damages. It has led to mega corporations wielding perverse amounts of power in our country and making an absolute mockery of our electoral system and government.
No, companies and corporations are not living entities. Companies and corporations are inanimate objects, that are at this time being used as weapons against the majority of people in this country. Of course not all companies or corporations are this way. However, our current legal system does not restrict this behaviour and in fact perpetuates and rewards it.
Actually, that may not be a bad idea. US companies should not have access to anything as sensitive as our votes, and left wingers should not be the only people wringing their hands about voting integrity. The far Reich will not always have a stranglehold on our country and when the left does make a comeback they will have to be monitored as well. Power corrupts, it does not check your party affiliation.
Slashdot Mirror
"What ever you think of the guys software and business practices, it is hard to argue that he is an evil man in the face of his generosity."
He may be generous now, but how did he get to this point? Carnegie built a shit load of libraries across the country (I grew up in one), but he was not what you could call a "good person". He just got old, saw that he had ensured himself an express route to hell, and saw this as an attempt at redemption. Maybe Bill was the same way. He reached a certain point in his life, saw that maybe he had not been a very "good person" and is trying to make amends so when he kicks it he goes to that hi-tech mansion in the sky and not to "The Other Place".
I do not want famous artists either. That is what I loved most about Napster back in the day. I had some of the most obscure music I could ever have hoped to find. When I found something I really liked, I researched them and tracked down their CDs and I knew I had something that not everyone and their sister were listening to. Swedish Goth, Bangladeshi trance, African pop, Russian folk.
Now Magnatune and a very few others are out there, but no way to search huge inventories like the real Napster did. P2P has been castrated and the good obscure stuff is all hidden away again, waiting for the next Napster.
"Do you think that everyone else who runs Windows on Dell was bribed too?"
Whoops! Where did that come from? A massive multi-million dollar contract goes to a vendor whose reputation for substandard and unreliable software is world renown and I'm a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist for daring to suggest that there is foul play afoot? And what the hell does the average consumer running Windows on a Dell have to do with it? Go do a little research, then come back and debate this.
You seem to be labouring under the misconception that the top 5% pay their fair share in taxes and that the middle class gets a free ride.
Not a big secret that the top 5% have not carried their own weight in the US for quite some time. The lion's share of taxes have been borne by the middle class.
I guess I'd better run (not walk) and tell our tax advisor that I'm really at the poverty level and have been overpaying my taxes for quite some time.
Doesn't say much for Air Force Procurement. I wonder (silently to myself) how much money changed hands and who was promised what job at Microsoft when he/she retires from the Air Force.
I'm not saying the money should not go to education, health care, or any number of things. What I'm saying is that I'd rather it go to a space program than to Corporate Welfare or pork to help a Congress critter get re-elected.
My priorities (off the top of my head)
Health care
Education
Programs to help elderly and children
Science
Everything else.
The more countries we have going to space the less chance there is of our own space program stagnating. Competition will keep our Congress people's attention. Even if they would rather put the resources into another payraise for themselves or Halliburton, they will have to think about the stigma of the US losing its place as the world leader in space on their watch.
"I'm a republican, btw."
Cool. I like being proven wrong every once in a while. Like so many other liberals, it is easy for me to put republicans in one neat little group. Easier to vilify.
If this is true, it makes sense. The country wasn't ready for the last electoral debacle and it caught many by surprise. In this case pre-emption may just be a good thing. Especially in states with E-Voting.
Question everything. Don't trust anyone. Damn, I'm beginning to sound like Fox Mulder.
It is very Appley. I think they want to try out closed architecture like someone else we know. If Microsquirts wants to simplify things, the easiest way to do so is to narrow their support to a preset list of machines, like Apple.
I think Apple pulled off the closed architecture only because of Steve Jobs, and Gates and Ballmer are no Steve Jobs.
I don't think Microsoft can make it work.
I live in rural Minnesota and have done some calling for local politicians. Political parties can't even get their contact lists right, I can't imagine a polling entity being any more accurate.
Even within rural areas like this it is almost impossible to get a handle on who is for or against whom. In this divisive political environment people are not speaking their minds because they are afraid of being singled out and of hostility. This alone pretty much guarantees that polls will not be accurate.
" Secure products generally make money than insecure products."
Wrong answer, Hans. The products with the most cash put into marketing generally make more money. The most popular product is sometimes a secure or quality product. Rarely is the most popular product the best quality product available, whether talking security or any other metric.
I think quite a few people here have already shown that this "study" needs to provide some more specific statistics and raw data before we can come to any meaningful conclusions. It looks though like normal office use so I'm assuming the machine is turned on when they get in in the morning and off when they leave in the afternoon.
Something else I noticed is that they say the average daily use was 2 hours and 15 minutes, with 28% of that time on the internet and the rest spent on office / trade applications. These are not power users by any means.
I wonder if by "the average failure rate requiring a restarting of the system is measured around 8% per session" (taken from Babelfish) they mean that 8% of those average 2 hour and 15 minute seesions end in a reboot? That would be quite unacceptable to almost any business.
Another bit of information that could act as a measuring tool is the reboot rate for office Linux users.
All in all, I don't think this article really shed any light on the reliability of M$ products.
This is what I think of the SBVs- who-ma ke-shit-up.html
http://www.yoder.ru/2004/08/swift-boat-vets
"Umm why Clinton had a draft notice in his hand and dodged it. In 1992 the left cried it was never an issue."
Of course it was an issue. The wingnuts made sure of that. Now Jr. going AWOL is an issue.
And of course Jr. isn't going to personally besmirch Kerry's record. That is what his 527s are for. Same with Kerry's 527s. Now these "Gentlemen" don't even have to get their hands dirty. They can let others throw the mud and they just stand back and see what sticks.
I am prior AF as well and I also understand what training is required (I was airborne, but not a pilot). I didn't say he never served a day. I do believe he skipped out of his service though, and I believe that if it is proven that he avoided service he should be made an example of (because he is the President and lied).
I also believe this is not even the worst thing he has done. The Bush/Cheney Crime Family has a laundry list of illegal activities, corrupt dealings, and just fucking stupid mistakes that go back further than just 2000.
Even if they are a forgery, which it seems at this time, this is still a good thing because it brings the discussion out again. The bulk of the evidence so far indicates that he was AWOL, but much of that information has not made it to the network news yet. I hope the networks will give this issue the time and merit it deserves.
For those of us who actually did serve, it would be a great disservice if this gets swept under the rug again.
Of course it was a "misspeak", I doubt that anyone would seriously think that the CEO of a company making voting machines would admit this anywhere except drunk off his ass in a bar or on the golf course.
However, it does imply duplicity. Also, it is probable that his (and his company's) politics do play a part in his business, and that political contacts facilitated the signing of contracts with many of his customers. Political donations have gone to both parties, but a majority has gone to the republican party (coincidence?). Their political actions will never truly be addressed though, so I believe the next best thing is to go after their business practices. Whether through ignorance or malice, they have sold substandard equipment to state and local governments and then refused to address issues and concerns. If these were ATM machines, Diebold's CEO would be on trial already and the media would be publishing pictures of him next to Osama.
This site is multinational. The politics on this site is multinational. Let's do a different color scheme.
The Dems have proven that they can be just as ruthless and undemocratic as the republicans. The republicans have turned gerrymandering into an electoral weapon of mass destruction. The democrats have unilaterally decided that if two parties are good enough for them then it's good enough for everyone. They have then proceded to alienate everyone who is not dead center on the political ruler.
If I am only allowed to vote against someone I hate more than I hate the other, rather than voting for someone, then this country is completely fucked.
I'm not ready to give up yet.
Right now hardly any radio signals, or access points are secured, so saying you cannot use them is pathetic, ignorant crap, but still in some cases illegal. Just because we understand this technology better than a majority of people out there does not mean that our view of the issue will ever be understood or agreed to by the legal and justice system. And just because we can do something does not necessarily mean we should. The same type of arguments are going on in the biotech world. We do not see the danger in using unused bandwidth, but others see it as theft and invasion of privacy.
Sucks to be us.
This will not always be the case though. Eventually (and I stress that word, eventually), the law will catch up to our present technology, but by that time it won't make any difference because we will already have moved on to a new technology that will be completely misunderstood by our legal and justice system. And then we will be having this same conversation about mind control of household appliances.
I actually have to say that this style doesn't do anything for me. It's too boxy. I like the G4 style better.
I'm just surprised that the RIAA is still an issue. There are just too many independant labels and distributors out there who treat their artists and customers fairly. Hopefully, people will begin to see this soon. When people stop buying (and downloading) music from the Mafia, then the Mafia will have to go away.
"A business is a living being run by people."
That, my friend is the extremely dangerous thinking that got us in the incredible mess we are in right now. Corporations and companies are not living things. In 1898 there was an incredible mistake made that gave corporations the same status as a human and that legislation almost single-handedly turned this country into a haven for immoral sociopaths who found that they could hide behind a corporate name and do just about whatever the hell they wanted. This led to Shell hiring mercenaries to terrorize South American villages, dragging children out of their homes in the middle of the night and killing them because their parents would not agree to sell their land. It led to Union Carbide killing many thousands of people in Bhopal and getting away paying pennies on the dollar of the total cost of damages. It has led to mega corporations wielding perverse amounts of power in our country and making an absolute mockery of our electoral system and government.
No, companies and corporations are not living entities. Companies and corporations are inanimate objects, that are at this time being used as weapons against the majority of people in this country. Of course not all companies or corporations are this way. However, our current legal system does not restrict this behaviour and in fact perpetuates and rewards it.
Actually, that may not be a bad idea. US companies should not have access to anything as sensitive as our votes, and left wingers should not be the only people wringing their hands about voting integrity. The far Reich will not always have a stranglehold on our country and when the left does make a comeback they will have to be monitored as well. Power corrupts, it does not check your party affiliation.