1. The source code and any disks containing Windows 3.11 and Win32s. Puh-leeeez! Pretty Puh-leeeeze!
2. All the AOL CDs on the planet - though that would break the damned thing, wouldn't it?
3. Hillary Rosen. (Just an elevator ride, Hil! Really!)
4. The Microsoft Marketing Department. They've made the rest of the industry go to hell, so....
5. Larry Elliston's ego. Might make the Sun go nova, so we'll have to do some calculations first.
6. Ditto for BillG, SMcNealy and SJobs.
7. All e-mail SPAM. The Internet's equivelent of nuclear waste.
8. Jon Katz stories and Cowboy Neal polls.
True (easier to sature trunk lines), but consider this; during 'quiet hours' when traffic is lighter, now the lone porn surfers can have faster access. During congestion nothing helps (but bigger pipes), but off-peak hours faster last copper/coax mile eq does help end users. Of course burstiness of traffic increases as well, but that shouldn't be much of a problem.
Similarly, if traffic prioritizing is done decently, the fact that some clients have faster local connection shouldn't make situation worse for those with slower connection. So, faster cable modems shouldn't necessarily make it harder for others, provided capacity is fairly shared, not by end systems but by routers doing QoS queuing.
You've hit the problem a lot of the High Speed ISPs are facing - backend provisioning a high speed network.
Sympatico used to (and seems to still be) provisioning thier Central Offices with a single T1, so your 968K connection would get choked as soon as more than 20 people were connected to the same CO. I was just speaking to someone with thier DSL service and they explained that it gets slower during peak hours (so much for thier "Always fast!" advertising angle:-P). The only cause of this I can see is people sucking up more and more bandwidth on the frontend that the provider hasn't allowed for.
QoS is a possible solution, but it could get un-weildy very quickly, especially if it's not secured properly. (Dude, I hax0red the Cisco and now I reseverd myself the whole pipe! I am l337!) A better solution would be to make sure the backend can handle more than the capacity of all the frontend pipes aggregated in order to keep QoS exposure to a minimum.
No need to bother - it's likely been done already.
Anyone using Windows 2000 on thier laptop that's unpatched for Code Red will get infected right away. There will undoubtedly be some schmuck - who's laptop is already r00ted - that will be waltzing through the airport broadcasting away that particular snippet of malicious code. Bleah.
There should be some qualification system before you get on a public network like this, IMHO.
Warning: Too many connections in/data/html/gnuheter/mainfile.php on line 17
Unable to select database
Shouldn't that be
"Werniga: Esha tue amany conecctionsa in der/data/hacht-ema-el/gnuheter/mainafiler.peea-haich- a-pee on der lingna sevetoon. Der databesa ist "BORK BORK BORK".
As someone else said, the P4 is memory bandwidth hungry, but it wasn't really designed with the requirement for RDRAM in mind. It should be able to use any memory access method as well as or better than the Athlon. However, due to it's 20 stage instruction pipeline, it takes more of a performance hit when a program branch is mis-predicted. This is magnified more when you use slower memory - likely the cause of the Athlon being able to keep up with lower MHz.
Napster was a nifty piece of software that did revolutionize the way people looked at computers. However, there is a lot more to the (I assume he is speaking of pc companies' stocks) decline in sales than Napster. (Emphasis mine)
Napster was more than just a nifty piece of software, friend, you said that yourself. The current content providers control the river of content by blockage - copyright, lobbying for stronger content protection and litigation. Napster was a big crack in the content dam - it truly did start the public to think more about the communications device on thier desks, and what it could do for them.
In order to protect "thier" river, the RIAA and it's ilk had to seal that crack - for as we all know, a small crack in a dam can cause the whole thing to fail, and the river then flows as it wants, without control.
The current content "owners" showed that they can and will squash anything that may affect their control of "thier" river of content. Then, new possibilities for the Internet and the PC were suddenly curtailed in the eyes of the public, who instantly reverted back to a "same shit, different medium" instead of imagining future possibilities for thier PC and the Internet. The Internet boom was dependant on that optimistic attitude, and ergo -.com busted.
Mr Lessing's point is just that - the Old Economy stalled the New Economy, in order to be able to stay in control and direct it to thier own ends. Napster was the litmus test for the New Economy replacing the old, and it failed.
There may be certain legal repercussions. As well, are you campaigning for councillor or the city's IT Manager position?
Talk about taking all expendatures to task with the various Department heads. Then use Open Source Software as an example of how to save money long term - that would buy you more credibility. Stay away if you can from subjects that contain "Corporate Control" and "Legal Issues" - they tend to glaze the eyes of John Q. Public.
Great. So you're just willing to hand Microsoft control over a de facto standard? What if Word 2003 adds ROT13 to the default format, they claim it's "encrypted" and use the DCMA against anyone who tries to "reverse engineer" thier format?
This is what scares me about any company having thier Intellectual Propertey declared a de facto standard - they can hold my data hostage. I'm hoping that some one somewhere will fully reverse engineer the.doc format, so I can get at my data no matter what. I don't have the technical chops to do this myself and am therefore vulnerable to being (in this case) Microsoft's bitch.
It's not about proprietay vs. Open Source, it's about one being in control of one's own information.
For all we know, this e-mail was written up by Mark Jabroni from Nowhere, TX.
Or, given that the Microsoft PR department is very, very sharp, perhaps they leaked Brian Valentines "memo" in order to generate the sort of vitriol we normally see on/. Could be fodder for generating "See the paranoid, delusional people who help with Linux?" type arguments in the boardrooms of the world. Or, maybe they're trying to goad us into throwing the first punch, to see how hard they get hit before actually engageing.
In the end - big deal. Wait for the report. Then there will be a clear target to swing at.
Besides being an obvious troll, you sound like a Christian, so I'll take a chance on that assumption, friend.
The ACLU will fight to keep porn in and any concept of God out of any part of our society.
Being of a Christian bent myself, I shake my head in dis-belief every time something like this is said. Whose "God" are you referring to, here? If it's the Christian God, you are presumming that yours (that of a Christian view, puritanical, police state) is the only valid point of view. Forcing Christian morals down throats is a problem, not a solution. I suggest you approach the problem as Our Saviour would - dissuade those "sins" with kind words and deeds befitting the name "Christian".
Sure they will fight for free speech for all, except those who disagree with the liberal ideology in which case they are obviously racist right wing fundamentalist anti-choice homophobes!
No, they dissagree with those who wish to limit our choices to one view - such as yourself. Please don't confuse Liberty with religion - there is only problems and not solutions in doing so. As Voltaire said, "Liberty then is only and can be only the power to do what one will. That is what philosophy teaches us. But if one considers liberty in the theological sense, it is a matter so sublime that profane eyes dare not raise themselves to it."
Anyone know what Goodyear is running for their POS machines in the retail garages?
Good god, man - this is/., where trolls feed on the unwary. Choose your TLAs carefully - POS is a no-no, when you mean Point Of Sale, not Piece Of Shit.;O)
Papermaker? You make the substrates or the content? Big difference.
I work for a content publisher, and let me tell you that the people who manage my place of employment would love nothing better that to get a leg up on companies that make the paper we produce our content on. Our share price is tied to the price of a roll of paper. As such, cheap, easy to produce e-paper would provide an effective bargaining tool to keep the price of wood based paper cheap and our stock price up.
I'm not sure they would even consider the hacker angle of e-paper. You know - I get The Daily News, and use my hacked e-paper reciever to transmit that content to all my friends. That would do wonders for the stock price, eh?
The scariest part of e-paper is the fact that unless you had some control over it, the content provider could actually change the content on you without your knowlege. When it's printed in ink on real paper, you have to print a retraction or correction, not just edit the content already out there. Same thing as money - I'll use e-commerce as long as real paper money exists. The virtual world is too un-trustworthy to use as anything other than a convenience.
IOW, your assertion is correct - that paper and ink will be around for some time to come, but your reasons for that being the case are, IMHO, incorrect.
Errr... you seem to have hit upon an interesting conumdrum - is this like limiting freedom of the press or limiting free speech? I'm not sure if the two are actually separate or inexorably linked, but there is a difference.
When you publish a web page, should you be able to say that you are a member of the "Press" and afforded the same privileges, or do you get just plain old free speech rights (such as they are)?
Probrably not an earth shaking issue, but it may make any legal arguments interesting...
This is the exact reason the XBOX was conceived and released - to counter all of those CPU cycles being "wasted" in game consoles on a non-Wintel platform. I'd bet Microsoft has been terrified for many years that every kid who has a game console actually has a computer, and someone somewhere would make the consoles behave like real computers. XBOX is supposed to beat them to the punch.
It's classic Microsoft strategy.
if { Game_Console == Computer and Game_Console == Pervasive_penetration_into_homes and Game Console != Requires_Windows}
then
{ Game_Console == Threat_to_Monopoly_Windows_Position};
else
{Threat_to_Monopoly_Windows_Position==0};
End if;
do
{ Attack_Compeditors_base_market (undercut_price, add_proprietary_tech);
Delflect_Competition_from_Windows(FUD_FUD_FUD, De-comodotize);
}
until {Threat_to_Monopoly_Windows_Position==0};
The PS/2 is no C64 - and Microsoft knows it. This has been brewing for some time - you could tell Microsoft felt threatened by all those game consoles that didn't need them (Except Sega, IIRC, and we know what happened to them). So, Microsoft attacked Sony's bread and butter with the XBOX. This is the shot Sony is firing back. This is going to be fun to watch. Heh - I know whose side I'm on - the consumers.
BTW - those of you with Sony VAIOs running Windows should keep tabs on your machine's stability for a while *grin*.
I'm on Cogeco, and was switched over 3 weeks ago to an @cogeco.ca address. I have been well taken care of, except for the fact that I'm forced to admin my families e-mail accounts with IE now (had a nasty spell of bad passwords until a knowlegeable tech told me that Moz will not work period) and they seem to have black holed all lower ports (no http and ssh to my home based linux machine anymore *snif*). Solid internet service, good tech support (they actually talk to me aa a peer when they realise I'm a geek too) and really, really good bandwidth. (linux-2.4.16-pre1.tar.gz in under 20 minutes - that's smokin')
Otherwise, thier service is very solid, and I no longer give a flying fuck about @Home. I just pity the poor people who get stuck with Rogers. They don't seem to know you need a working DHCP server in order to provide a service people will pay for, amongst other issues.
No, it's not hard for the coders - but it would make life difficult for the support people. How many of them would get the inevitable "Ah installed yer ESS-Queuu-Elll thingy, and now it's buggin' me fer a paisswerd. What's wit thet?" from thier targeted users? The Marketing Department at Microsoft would be up in arms, saying "Why did you make this hard for people to install?!!? FIX IT NOW!!!
MS has always played to the LCD in computerdom - there are relatively few who have the wherewithall and curiosity to know exactly what they're doing with the tools Microsoft gives them. It's been the job of Marketing to educate the users the product has been sold to. When they can't handle it properly, it's then dumped on to the Support people. No wonder Microsoft foists it's support on it's vendors - saves them a bundle.
Example: Joe CFO wants the website up and running now, and gives the job to New Intern who doesn't have a clue. If New Intern can't get it running now, he blames his tools - namely MS, who hear about it from Joe CFO. So, figuring this out beforehand, Microsoft make it as easy as possible to get a SQL server running now - security be damned. New Intern has no authority to spend US$ 100 per call (or whatever it is) in order to contact someone who actually knows the scoop, and just blithely continues on. Microsoft make a sale, trap another customer, and get $ from supporting thier insecure product - as well as upgrades in order to get more security.
Critisize them as you want - but Microsoft has a good business model in getting everyone and thier puppy into what should be advanced products. Then they try to educate thier users as to why security is important. Backwards as it is, it seems to be working for them, too.
Yeesh. "Compact Dick" posts that he "lost 2 centimeters", and you just couldn't resist, could you? That was - in the immortal words of Dogbert - "like sandblasting a soda cracker", wasn't it?;-)
Weight != mass, dude. 1 tonne of mass takes just as much energy to move 1 kilometer across the earths surface, whether it exerts 1 "tonne of force" or 0.9 "tonnes of force" due to gravity. Basic physics. UPS hasn't ripped you off (not like they did to this guy, anyway). It's only when you go vertical that you have to counter gravity - and that's when weight becomes significant.
Oh, and the SI unit of force is a Newton (N), which is a kilogram-meter per second squared (k-m/s²). One tonne (1000 kilograms) of mass would exert 9.8 KN (KiloNewtons) of force at mean gravity on the earth. Weight apprears to be the same mass since we use gravity to comapre masses, but they are not the same. As well, in the US and Imperial systems, 1 lb of mass exerts 1 lb of force - just to be confusing.
That concludes tonight's lecture. (My Physics teacher would be so proud. *snif*)
Slashdot Mirror
Why stop at nuclear waste?
On the way to the sun first should be:
1. The source code and any disks containing Windows 3.11 and Win32s. Puh-leeeez! Pretty Puh-leeeeze!
2. All the AOL CDs on the planet - though that would break the damned thing, wouldn't it?
3. Hillary Rosen. (Just an elevator ride, Hil! Really!)
4. The Microsoft Marketing Department. They've made the rest of the industry go to hell, so....
5. Larry Elliston's ego. Might make the Sun go nova, so we'll have to do some calculations first.
6. Ditto for BillG, SMcNealy and SJobs.
7. All e-mail SPAM. The Internet's equivelent of nuclear waste.
8. Jon Katz stories and Cowboy Neal polls.
Did I forget everything, er, anything?
Soko
True (easier to sature trunk lines), but consider this; during 'quiet hours' when traffic is lighter, now the lone porn surfers can have faster access. During congestion nothing helps (but bigger pipes), but off-peak hours faster last copper/coax mile eq does help end users. Of course burstiness of traffic increases as well, but that shouldn't be much of a problem.
:-P). The only cause of this I can see is people sucking up more and more bandwidth on the frontend that the provider hasn't allowed for.
Similarly, if traffic prioritizing is done decently, the fact that some clients have faster local connection shouldn't make situation worse for those with slower connection. So, faster cable modems shouldn't necessarily make it harder for others, provided capacity is fairly shared, not by end systems but by routers doing QoS queuing.
You've hit the problem a lot of the High Speed ISPs are facing - backend provisioning a high speed network.
Sympatico used to (and seems to still be) provisioning thier Central Offices with a single T1, so your 968K connection would get choked as soon as more than 20 people were connected to the same CO. I was just speaking to someone with thier DSL service and they explained that it gets slower during peak hours (so much for thier "Always fast!" advertising angle
QoS is a possible solution, but it could get un-weildy very quickly, especially if it's not secured properly. (Dude, I hax0red the Cisco and now I reseverd myself the whole pipe! I am l337!) A better solution would be to make sure the backend can handle more than the capacity of all the frontend pipes aggregated in order to keep QoS exposure to a minimum.
Soko
Ahem.
Should explain a lot of why they're trying a distro known to appeal to newbies and desktop users everywhere.
Bruce seems to be applying his business sense as well as his sense of ethics. Good for him.
Soko
No need to bother - it's likely been done already.
Anyone using Windows 2000 on thier laptop that's unpatched for Code Red will get infected right away. There will undoubtedly be some schmuck - who's laptop is already r00ted - that will be waltzing through the airport broadcasting away that particular snippet of malicious code. Bleah.
There should be some qualification system before you get on a public network like this, IMHO.
Soko
From the site now:
/data/html/gnuheter/mainfile.php on line 17
/data/hacht-ema-el/gnuheter/mainafiler.peea-haich- a-pee on der lingna sevetoon. Der databesa ist "BORK BORK BORK".
Warning: Too many connections in
Unable to select database
Shouldn't that be
"Werniga: Esha tue amany conecctionsa in der
As someone else said, the P4 is memory bandwidth hungry, but it wasn't really designed with the requirement for RDRAM in mind. It should be able to use any memory access method as well as or better than the Athlon. However, due to it's 20 stage instruction pipeline, it takes more of a performance hit when a program branch is mis-predicted. This is magnified more when you use slower memory - likely the cause of the Athlon being able to keep up with lower MHz.
Soko
Napster was a nifty piece of software that did revolutionize the way people looked at computers. However, there is a lot more to the (I assume he is speaking of pc companies' stocks) decline in sales than Napster. (Emphasis mine)
.com busted.
Napster was more than just a nifty piece of software, friend, you said that yourself. The current content providers control the river of content by blockage - copyright, lobbying for stronger content protection and litigation. Napster was a big crack in the content dam - it truly did start the public to think more about the communications device on thier desks, and what it could do for them.
In order to protect "thier" river, the RIAA and it's ilk had to seal that crack - for as we all know, a small crack in a dam can cause the whole thing to fail, and the river then flows as it wants, without control.
The current content "owners" showed that they can and will squash anything that may affect their control of "thier" river of content. Then, new possibilities for the Internet and the PC were suddenly curtailed in the eyes of the public, who instantly reverted back to a "same shit, different medium" instead of imagining future possibilities for thier PC and the Internet. The Internet boom was dependant on that optimistic attitude, and ergo -
Mr Lessing's point is just that - the Old Economy stalled the New Economy, in order to be able to stay in control and direct it to thier own ends. Napster was the litmus test for the New Economy replacing the old, and it failed.
Back to the grind, people.
Soko
Don't know - Slashdot effect in effect. ;)
Seriously, I'd be careful, if I were you.
There may be certain legal repercussions. As well, are you campaigning for councillor or the city's IT Manager position?
Talk about taking all expendatures to task with the various Department heads. Then use Open Source Software as an example of how to save money long term - that would buy you more credibility. Stay away if you can from subjects that contain "Corporate Control" and "Legal Issues" - they tend to glaze the eyes of John Q. Public.
Remember, this isn't a Slashdot poll.
Soko
I'm not sure, but isn't X-Windows trademarked?
Big precedent there. Maybe Lindows should "compel" the kettle to see whom it's calling black...
Soko
Great. So you're just willing to hand Microsoft control over a de facto standard? What if Word 2003 adds ROT13 to the default format, they claim it's "encrypted" and use the DCMA against anyone who tries to "reverse engineer" thier format?
.doc format, so I can get at my data no matter what. I don't have the technical chops to do this myself and am therefore vulnerable to being (in this case) Microsoft's bitch.
This is what scares me about any company having thier Intellectual Propertey declared a de facto standard - they can hold my data hostage. I'm hoping that some one somewhere will fully reverse engineer the
It's not about proprietay vs. Open Source, it's about one being in control of one's own information.
Soko
It's obvious - Taco actually has one of these "HomeStations" and he's watching re-runs.
:P
Ergo...so do we.
Soko
For all we know, this e-mail was written up by Mark Jabroni from Nowhere, TX.
/. Could be fodder for generating "See the paranoid, delusional people who help with Linux?" type arguments in the boardrooms of the world. Or, maybe they're trying to goad us into throwing the first punch, to see how hard they get hit before actually engageing.
Or, given that the Microsoft PR department is very, very sharp, perhaps they leaked Brian Valentines "memo" in order to generate the sort of vitriol we normally see on
In the end - big deal. Wait for the report. Then there will be a clear target to swing at.
Soko
Besides being an obvious troll, you sound like a Christian, so I'll take a chance on that assumption, friend.
The ACLU will fight to keep porn in and any concept of God out of any part of our society.
Being of a Christian bent myself, I shake my head in dis-belief every time something like this is said. Whose "God" are you referring to, here? If it's the Christian God, you are presumming that yours (that of a Christian view, puritanical, police state) is the only valid point of view. Forcing Christian morals down throats is a problem, not a solution. I suggest you approach the problem as Our Saviour would - dissuade those "sins" with kind words and deeds befitting the name "Christian".
Sure they will fight for free speech for all, except those who disagree with the liberal ideology in which case they are obviously racist right wing fundamentalist anti-choice homophobes!
No, they dissagree with those who wish to limit our choices to one view - such as yourself. Please don't confuse Liberty with religion - there is only problems and not solutions in doing so. As Voltaire said, "Liberty then is only and can be only the power to do what one will. That is what philosophy teaches us. But if one considers liberty in the theological sense, it is a matter so sublime that profane eyes dare not raise themselves to it."
Soko
The chip modifies its own logic randomly.
This sounds suspiciously like my lovely wife.
The scary part: Thompson cannot explain exactly how the chip works!
I knew it. Male engineer, female chips. Easy explanation.
Soko
(Posting from the basement so said lovely wife doesn't tear of my baaa-aa-allsssss.... YOWWWUUCH!!!!)
Anyone know what Goodyear is running for their POS machines in the retail garages?
/., where trolls feed on the unwary. Choose your TLAs carefully - POS is a no-no, when you mean Point Of Sale, not Piece Of Shit. ;O)
Good god, man - this is
Soko
found out through a friend that Santa doesn't actually exist.
/. editors, and Santa as well.
Actually, Santa is Canadian, so he only "doesn't exist" in the good ol' US of A. Shame on you for not believing in the
"If it's in the New York Sun, It's true."
Cool!
Ummmm...I thought that's the general idea, dude.
Soko
I seem to remember a Webring of Webrings?
"One ring to connect to then all, and in the Ethernet bind them..."
*wince* [Ducks myriad of popcorn and Glossettes from the back of the back of the theatre...
Yeesh. Sorry 'bout that...
Soko
Papermaker? You make the substrates or the content? Big difference.
I work for a content publisher, and let me tell you that the people who manage my place of employment would love nothing better that to get a leg up on companies that make the paper we produce our content on. Our share price is tied to the price of a roll of paper. As such, cheap, easy to produce e-paper would provide an effective bargaining tool to keep the price of wood based paper cheap and our stock price up.
I'm not sure they would even consider the hacker angle of e-paper. You know - I get The Daily News, and use my hacked e-paper reciever to transmit that content to all my friends. That would do wonders for the stock price, eh?
The scariest part of e-paper is the fact that unless you had some control over it, the content provider could actually change the content on you without your knowlege. When it's printed in ink on real paper, you have to print a retraction or correction, not just edit the content already out there. Same thing as money - I'll use e-commerce as long as real paper money exists. The virtual world is too un-trustworthy to use as anything other than a convenience.
IOW, your assertion is correct - that paper and ink will be around for some time to come, but your reasons for that being the case are, IMHO, incorrect.
Soko
Errr... you seem to have hit upon an interesting conumdrum - is this like limiting freedom of the press or limiting free speech? I'm not sure if the two are actually separate or inexorably linked, but there is a difference.
When you publish a web page, should you be able to say that you are a member of the "Press" and afforded the same privileges, or do you get just plain old free speech rights (such as they are)?
Probrably not an earth shaking issue, but it may make any legal arguments interesting...
Soko
Oh boy. Here we go.
This is the exact reason the XBOX was conceived and released - to counter all of those CPU cycles being "wasted" in game consoles on a non-Wintel platform. I'd bet Microsoft has been terrified for many years that every kid who has a game console actually has a computer, and someone somewhere would make the consoles behave like real computers. XBOX is supposed to beat them to the punch.
It's classic Microsoft strategy.
if { Game_Console == Computer and Game_Console == Pervasive_penetration_into_homes and Game Console != Requires_Windows}
then
{ Game_Console == Threat_to_Monopoly_Windows_Position};
else
{Threat_to_Monopoly_Windows_Position==0};
End if;
do
{ Attack_Compeditors_base_market (undercut_price, add_proprietary_tech);
Delflect_Competition_from_Windows(FUD_FUD_FUD, De-comodotize);
}
until {Threat_to_Monopoly_Windows_Position==0};
The PS/2 is no C64 - and Microsoft knows it. This has been brewing for some time - you could tell Microsoft felt threatened by all those game consoles that didn't need them (Except Sega, IIRC, and we know what happened to them). So, Microsoft attacked Sony's bread and butter with the XBOX. This is the shot Sony is firing back. This is going to be fun to watch. Heh - I know whose side I'm on - the consumers.
BTW - those of you with Sony VAIOs running Windows should keep tabs on your machine's stability for a while *grin*.
Yup.
I'm on Cogeco, and was switched over 3 weeks ago to an @cogeco.ca address. I have been well taken care of, except for the fact that I'm forced to admin my families e-mail accounts with IE now (had a nasty spell of bad passwords until a knowlegeable tech told me that Moz will not work period) and they seem to have black holed all lower ports (no http and ssh to my home based linux machine anymore *snif*). Solid internet service, good tech support (they actually talk to me aa a peer when they realise I'm a geek too) and really, really good bandwidth. (linux-2.4.16-pre1.tar.gz in under 20 minutes - that's smokin')
Otherwise, thier service is very solid, and I no longer give a flying fuck about @Home. I just pity the poor people who get stuck with Rogers. They don't seem to know you need a working DHCP server in order to provide a service people will pay for, amongst other issues.
Soko
No, it's not hard for the coders - but it would make life difficult for the support people. How many of them would get the inevitable "Ah installed yer ESS-Queuu-Elll thingy, and now it's buggin' me fer a paisswerd. What's wit thet?" from thier targeted users? The Marketing Department at Microsoft would be up in arms, saying "Why did you make this hard for people to install?!!? FIX IT NOW!!!
MS has always played to the LCD in computerdom - there are relatively few who have the wherewithall and curiosity to know exactly what they're doing with the tools Microsoft gives them. It's been the job of Marketing to educate the users the product has been sold to. When they can't handle it properly, it's then dumped on to the Support people. No wonder Microsoft foists it's support on it's vendors - saves them a bundle.
Example: Joe CFO wants the website up and running now, and gives the job to New Intern who doesn't have a clue. If New Intern can't get it running now, he blames his tools - namely MS, who hear about it from Joe CFO. So, figuring this out beforehand, Microsoft make it as easy as possible to get a SQL server running now - security be damned. New Intern has no authority to spend US$ 100 per call (or whatever it is) in order to contact someone who actually knows the scoop, and just blithely continues on. Microsoft make a sale, trap another customer, and get $ from supporting thier insecure product - as well as upgrades in order to get more security.
Critisize them as you want - but Microsoft has a good business model in getting everyone and thier puppy into what should be advanced products. Then they try to educate thier users as to why security is important. Backwards as it is, it seems to be working for them, too.
Yeesh. "Compact Dick" posts that he "lost 2 centimeters", and you just couldn't resist, could you? That was - in the immortal words of Dogbert - "like sandblasting a soda cracker", wasn't it? ;-)
Soko
Weight != mass, dude. 1 tonne of mass takes just as much energy to move 1 kilometer across the earths surface, whether it exerts 1 "tonne of force" or 0.9 "tonnes of force" due to gravity. Basic physics. UPS hasn't ripped you off (not like they did to this guy, anyway). It's only when you go vertical that you have to counter gravity - and that's when weight becomes significant.
Oh, and the SI unit of force is a Newton (N), which is a kilogram-meter per second squared (k-m/s²). One tonne (1000 kilograms) of mass would exert 9.8 KN (KiloNewtons) of force at mean gravity on the earth. Weight apprears to be the same mass since we use gravity to comapre masses, but they are not the same. As well, in the US and Imperial systems, 1 lb of mass exerts 1 lb of force - just to be confusing.
That concludes tonight's lecture. (My Physics teacher would be so proud. *snif*)
Soko