The ad news is that this will not harm Microsoft in the least, even if EVERYBODY would do this. It will be the computercompanies who will need to caugh this one up. I'm not so sure about this, last May I wanted to buy a HP computer in The Netherlands but without the Microsoft (XP) operating system as I wanted something more robust.
I contacted HP through their website and their (in Dutch) reply was: Het is niet mogelijk om de HP Pavilion Slimline s7730.nl pc te ontvangen met Windows XP of zonder besturingssysteem.
Wij HP kunnen u hierover niet verder helpen, u heeft de mogelijkheid om via Microsoft te genieten van de terugbetalingsvoorwaarden.
Voor meer informatie hierover kunt u zich verder laten informeren door Microsoft zelf.
Translation:
It's not possible to receive this PC without XP or OS.
We of HP cannot help you any further, you have the possibility to enjoy the payback conditions via Microsoft.
I contacted MS by phone and they claimed I could get a payback in the order of 51 euros.
Because XP costs nearly 300 euros I decided not to take their offer and make this a dual boot computer.
In other words, at least here in The Netherlands it's Microsoft that sells the OS on a HP computer.
Well, perhaps. But also remember that it was the faceless, unelected, bureaucratic EU Commission Though I agree with the gist of you comment I have to point out the Commission is supposed to be bureaucratic precisely because they are unelected (at least not directly).
The commission members are appointed by the democratically elected governments of the individual EU member states and as such have to answer to the voters in their respective home countries.
Further I do not consider the commission member faceless, maybe because I actively follow European politics instead of only reading about it in nationalistic (British) trash publications.
It is well publicised this particular issue was dealt with between commissioner Neelie Kroes and a Mr. Balmer of Microsoft.
Just a pity some member states send guys like Charlie McCreevy and don't keep him in check.
On the other hand, Microsoft and other large IT companies have over the last ten or so years invested quite a bit in Ireland and were probably expecting a pay back.
Chance as proposed has a calculable quality, something neither faith nor tradition has.
But I'm very interested in your personal experience regarding the issue at hand of evolutionary theory vs. creationist longings.
It has been done before and I expect it'll happen again.
I find it totally acceptable providing an interesting enough subject comes along.
As happened here there'll usually be several people that can make further translations.
English might be the Lingua Franca of the post WWII world but it is certainly not the only.
A mail from malda@slashdot dated 16th. Feb. 1999 gives me my password.
Probably the day I registered.
I had been here for a while but don't quite remember why I actually registered, probably because I didn't want to be in the same basket as the more obnoxious AC's
I do remember how I got here the first time, I was getting fed up with Windows95 and heard about something called 'X' and using the search engines of the day found some good information on this site.
There are indeed very few accidents with passenger rail transport.
These things are measured in fatalities per X-thousand/million of passenger kilometer/miles and in Europe the train is by that measurement one of the safest way to cover a distance.
Rare catastrophes do not greatly change this fact.
But the original post was and is about terrorism and security issues around rail travel, it has nothing to do with industrial safety like the Enschede accident. In the light of this discussion the Madrid link was On Topic
Therefore I still consider my remarks and added link valid.
There have been several incidents in Germany where terrorists were picked up just in time to prevent them blowing up a train, here is one of them: Suit case bombs(Print version)
(Sorry when you didn't pay attention in your German classes)
You are restricting yourself to a small patch of earth.
Google shows all of The Netherlands and Denmark in hi res, Microsoft barely recognises these countries.
It sounds like a gamers dream, they are the driving force behind a lot of speed improvements and will pay about anything to have the latest HW.
On the other hand, do (present) games really benefit from this massive speed bump?
He who drops nearly $20,000 for such a unit will have investigated the drawbacks.
And decided they are outweighed by the advantages, no worries professor!
But this is just paper ballot voting. The only difference is the complexity of the used pencil. Insightful.
Yet the way I understand it is the electronic tallying will still be the prime result for the evening news.
Later, possibly only after a complaint will the paper ballots be counted.
I would find this satisfactory, even with a Closed Source machine there is a 100% check on the validity of the outcome.
Wrong, in The Netherlands there are 19 districts (kiesdistricten, http://www.sdnl.nl/kiesdistricten.htm), a candidate for the National Parliament needs a certain number of signatures in a district to get his name on the ballot and stand for election in that district.
Yet in the end it's the national number of votes that governs who gets into the parliament.
Just being the (most) popular candidate in your district is not enough to get into the national legislative counsel.
Never let a voter walk out with a proof of what his vote was.
In not so nice circumstances this could be used to blackmail the voter, "You better vote for my candidate or I'll find you're daughter".
A paper proof that the voter has to deposit in the (back up) ballot box is all what's needed.
The FUD machines are still running at full speed and spewing loads of irrelevant lies, damned lies, statistics, and general crap. It's done because it is rather effective on the uninformed masses of managers who have little depth of knowledge and simply want "safety". Yep, spread the word that Linux being Open Source uses the best Escrow service available.
It was in my lifetime you could still buy a bare-bones computer and then decide what OS you wanted with it
The popular choices were DOS, Win3.11, OS2 and later Win95.
All the manufacturers and retailers had to do was to comply with the IBM PC standards to make it work.
Presently the big brands will include hardware that needs drivers so special and undocumented that only a version for Windows is made and (especially) supported.
I want the choice of a bare-bones computer and then pick my favourite OS without having to pay an OS licence I won't use and without having to hunt for hardware drivers for it.
This should apply to all consumer-grade computers, not just one obscure model among hundreds.
The bias though which the community spins EU's actions is hilarious, but I see this is consistent to what they did with Microsoft, charging them nearly a billion because they shipped a video player in their OS. Look who spins!
Microsoft is still being investigated because they continue to spoil the playing field for others.
In Europe, just like the USofA, a company in a near-monopoly situation has greater obligations than a start up, Microsoft continues to challenge that notion.
Of course the EU commission could have picked better examples, like opening the specs to allow access to NTFS and supporting Samba.
I've a question: who'll protect us from the monopoly of the EU? Did anyone ask YOU if you want them protecting your rights in THIS particular fashion? I feel very happy we have an active EU commission.
The problem is they see these things as a legal challenge while I would like more technical issues like interoperability being discussed.
Did someone ask you when EU slapped VAT and sales tax on online purchases? Do I have a choice, short of moving to a different continent. I would find it weird, even unacceptable, when internet companies would have a tax advantage over a regular one.
So charging the local/national VAT at the place of destination sounds, as far as any sales tax goes, really fair for all.
What is getting out of hand?
The EU has never stated they have a problem with this purchase, they are only investigating as is their duty to keep business in it's jurisdiction fair.
Monopolies and similar have always hurt people.
In this particular case (the result of Google+Double Click) it's maybe not directly disadvantageous for the regular consumer but it's potentially a problem for companies depending on internet advertising.
And due to their sheer size they might make competition al but impossible.
I don't know where you're from but here in NW Europe we are quite happy to watch your American Court Dramas on TV.
And equally happy to be subject to a legal system largely run by professionals, not bloody amateurs.
Our courts can weigh all aspects of a case against the Letter and the Spirit of the laws, people don't need to be rich and hire a Hollywood or Broadway trained lawyer to impress the gullible jury.
The concept of corruption is not part of our system.
Slashdot Mirror
Bundling is generally illegal, that's largely what the Microsoft case was about.
I'm not so sure about this, last May I wanted to buy a HP computer in The Netherlands but without the Microsoft (XP) operating system as I wanted something more robust.
I contacted HP through their website and their (in Dutch) reply was:
Het is niet mogelijk om de HP Pavilion Slimline s7730.nl pc te ontvangen met Windows XP of zonder besturingssysteem.
Wij HP kunnen u hierover niet verder helpen, u heeft de mogelijkheid om via Microsoft te genieten van de terugbetalingsvoorwaarden.
Voor meer informatie hierover kunt u zich verder laten informeren door Microsoft zelf.
Translation:
It's not possible to receive this PC without XP or OS.
We of HP cannot help you any further, you have the possibility to enjoy the payback conditions via Microsoft.
I contacted MS by phone and they claimed I could get a payback in the order of 51 euros.
Because XP costs nearly 300 euros I decided not to take their offer and make this a dual boot computer.
In other words, at least here in The Netherlands it's Microsoft that sells the OS on a HP computer.
The commission members are appointed by the democratically elected governments of the individual EU member states and as such have to answer to the voters in their respective home countries.
Further I do not consider the commission member faceless, maybe because I actively follow European politics instead of only reading about it in nationalistic (British) trash publications.
It is well publicised this particular issue was dealt with between commissioner Neelie Kroes and a Mr. Balmer of Microsoft.
Just a pity some member states send guys like Charlie McCreevy and don't keep him in check.
On the other hand, Microsoft and other large IT companies have over the last ten or so years invested quite a bit in Ireland and were probably expecting a pay back.
Chance as proposed has a calculable quality, something neither faith nor tradition has.
But I'm very interested in your personal experience regarding the issue at hand of evolutionary theory vs. creationist longings.
This type of survey has been used in the oil industry since the 1980's...
"noise log" leak detection
But I have to admit this is 3D against 2D.
It has been done before and I expect it'll happen again.
I find it totally acceptable providing an interesting enough subject comes along.
As happened here there'll usually be several people that can make further translations.
English might be the Lingua Franca of the post WWII world but it is certainly not the only.
A mail from malda@slashdot dated 16th. Feb. 1999 gives me my password.
Probably the day I registered.
I had been here for a while but don't quite remember why I actually registered, probably because I didn't want to be in the same basket as the more obnoxious AC's
I do remember how I got here the first time, I was getting fed up with Windows95 and heard about something called 'X' and using the search engines of the day found some good information on this site.
Now 'X' just works but I still can't leave...
And me :)
My congratulations to the Slashdot crew, a unique place that I continue to read with great pleasure.
I have a mail from malda@slashdot from the 16th. of Feb. 1999 with my password.
I assume this was the date of registration.
There are indeed very few accidents with passenger rail transport.
These things are measured in fatalities per X-thousand/million of passenger kilometer/miles and in Europe the train is by that measurement one of the safest way to cover a distance.
Rare catastrophes do not greatly change this fact.
But the original post was and is about terrorism and security issues around rail travel, it has nothing to do with industrial safety like the Enschede accident.
In the light of this discussion the Madrid link was On Topic
Therefore I still consider my remarks and added link valid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster
I fail to see what bad maintenance practice has to do with terrorism.
There have been several incidents in Germany where terrorists were picked up just in time to prevent them blowing up a train, here is one of them:
Suit case bombs(Print version)
(Sorry when you didn't pay attention in your German classes)
I think I heard a whoosh
b.t.w, who were you replying to?
You are restricting yourself to a small patch of earth.
Google shows all of The Netherlands and Denmark in hi res, Microsoft barely recognises these countries.
You forget the power consumption and space factors.
It sounds like a gamers dream, they are the driving force behind a lot of speed improvements and will pay about anything to have the latest HW.
On the other hand, do (present) games really benefit from this massive speed bump?
He who drops nearly $20,000 for such a unit will have investigated the drawbacks.
And decided they are outweighed by the advantages, no worries professor!
Yet the way I understand it is the electronic tallying will still be the prime result for the evening news.
Later, possibly only after a complaint will the paper ballots be counted.
I would find this satisfactory, even with a Closed Source machine there is a 100% check on the validity of the outcome.
Wrong, in The Netherlands there are 19 districts (kiesdistricten, http://www.sdnl.nl/kiesdistricten.htm), a candidate for the National Parliament needs a certain number of signatures in a district to get his name on the ballot and stand for election in that district.
Yet in the end it's the national number of votes that governs who gets into the parliament.
Just being the (most) popular candidate in your district is not enough to get into the national legislative counsel.
Never let a voter walk out with a proof of what his vote was.
In not so nice circumstances this could be used to blackmail the voter, "You better vote for my candidate or I'll find you're daughter".
A paper proof that the voter has to deposit in the (back up) ballot box is all what's needed.
Your reasoning is not very strong.
It was in my lifetime you could still buy a bare-bones computer and then decide what OS you wanted with it
The popular choices were DOS, Win3.11, OS2 and later Win95.
All the manufacturers and retailers had to do was to comply with the IBM PC standards to make it work.
Presently the big brands will include hardware that needs drivers so special and undocumented that only a version for Windows is made and (especially) supported.
I want the choice of a bare-bones computer and then pick my favourite OS without having to pay an OS licence I won't use and without having to hunt for hardware drivers for it.
This should apply to all consumer-grade computers, not just one obscure model among hundreds.
As I've never had much of a problem watching WMV in FF and Linux I went to the site, it's caved in... :)
Maybe it's hard on the servers too
Look who spins!
Microsoft is still being investigated because they continue to spoil the playing field for others.
In Europe, just like the USofA, a company in a near-monopoly situation has greater obligations than a start up, Microsoft continues to challenge that notion.
Of course the EU commission could have picked better examples, like opening the specs to allow access to NTFS and supporting Samba. I've a question: who'll protect us from the monopoly of the EU? Did anyone ask YOU if you want them protecting your rights in THIS particular fashion? I feel very happy we have an active EU commission.
The problem is they see these things as a legal challenge while I would like more technical issues like interoperability being discussed. Did someone ask you when EU slapped VAT and sales tax on online purchases? Do I have a choice, short of moving to a different continent. I would find it weird, even unacceptable, when internet companies would have a tax advantage over a regular one.
So charging the local/national VAT at the place of destination sounds, as far as any sales tax goes, really fair for all.
What is getting out of hand?
The EU has never stated they have a problem with this purchase, they are only investigating as is their duty to keep business in it's jurisdiction fair.
Monopolies and similar have always hurt people.
In this particular case (the result of Google+Double Click) it's maybe not directly disadvantageous for the regular consumer but it's potentially a problem for companies depending on internet advertising.
And due to their sheer size they might make competition al but impossible.
I don't know where you're from but here in NW Europe we are quite happy to watch your American Court Dramas on TV.
And equally happy to be subject to a legal system largely run by professionals, not bloody amateurs.
Our courts can weigh all aspects of a case against the Letter and the Spirit of the laws, people don't need to be rich and hire a Hollywood or Broadway trained lawyer to impress the gullible jury.
The concept of corruption is not part of our system.