Actually, according to this article, the order requiring M$ to be broken up (issued by Judge Jackson) was vacated. It now goes to a new judge, who, by the way, can issue the exact same 'sentence' or a partially or entirely different one. So, while Bill the Gates clearly has his head up his own ass on the monopoly thing, right now the breakup question is still just a question rather then a looming threat.
Okay, wait, I'm confused... I thought I understood this, and now I know I don't.
If I put up a web-site with the DeCSS code, what would I be violating? Patent law? DMCA? The speed limit as they haul me bodily across the country to California?
Okay, and if they try and enforce that bit about games, how likely is it that Sony will try and squish them like bugs? You only have to download a couple dozen patches to get Everquest to run.
And what about things like SETI@home or other shared processing programs? You have to download the program to get it to work... are they going to stand still for this? That "...or other tasks that are not specified herein" is too damn broad, IMAO, and it shouldn't have been patented. I think, however, we're used to the idiots in the Patent Office not understanding a thing.
Okay, enough baiting... odds are that this will fall away without much harm, if for no other reason then (unfortunately) MS won't stand for it.
As much as I loathe almost everything that MS has put out in the last few years, even I have to admit that there comes a point where there are too many applications, check that, too many poorly written applications that do the same thing.
I personally wouldn't mind seeing more software developed by anyone, including MS, if they would only develop it properly. For example, basic security measures, properly coded, properly interfaced with other applications, etc.
Hrm... that is an interesting idea... now, I know a lot of sites that have sponsor banner advertisements which pay some fraction of a cent per hit, and I would assume that they have some way around someone writing a script that 'clicks' the advertisement every N seconds. Perhaps something could be done along the same lines.
Or perhaps no one thought of reload for cash idea when they came up with the pricing scheme... if so, that's just a little scary.
Hrm... I know I listen to mp3s a lot when I'm at home on my computer, but oddly enough, it seems to help my productivity. Maybe because I need some sort of 'background noise'. Or maybe I just work faster/better when listening to music.
Well, faster definitely.... better... I know I spend a lot of time debugging stuff that I shouldn't have had to, but that might be more based on the fact that I tend to code stuff/work on web pages on little sleep. But then, what is caffeine for?
Funny, I got so much more done back in the days when I used a command line than with this BSOD showing up all the time.
IMAO, one of the biggest hits to productivity is/. itself. How many times a day do you check for new articles and post comments? I have no doubt that it helps as well, providing links to patches or warnings about the latest l337 h4xx0r virii, but it has to cause a hit to productivity at some point. (Unless you're a marketing weenie, of course, they're not productive to begin with.)
I agree. A lot of recent science-fiction treats AIs not as spontaneously arising from the Internet but as deliberate projects to create AI. (Usually, something goes horribly wrong, but that is one of the genres of sci-fi.) One of my personal favorites was the story that had an AI that had been 'killed' twice by the NSA, and they weren't even aware that they had done it, giving rise to the theory that it had been at such a non-robust stage that it was easy to 'kill'.
An Internet-wide AI.... hmm... lag would problem be analagous to senility or Alzheimer's, network outages would be memory loss or brain damage, crashes would be brain damage as well. However, given that a network will eventually come back up, and no crash lasts forever (although I'm certain MS is working on a 5 9's crash), it wouldn't be permanent brain damage. And theoretically, such an AI could become 'accustomed' to lag and work around it.
Okay, from the article I got that this is going on in Texas and California, and probably in most, if not all states in the Southwest. Is this happening anywhere else? U.S.-wide? Or is it just the southwest?
And yes, I did read the article... directly or indirectly SBC supplies 32% of the DSL connections in the U.S. But if you're in, say Maine, are you as likely to be affected by this?
Having seen a lot of Chan's movies, I have to agree. Even if it's only a split-second part of a fight scene, he'd prefer to have it done the best he can do rather then even have a small bit of it be bad. Does he always get his way? Well, it depends. If he's making the movie with HK producers, yes. They realize that he knows what he is doing. If it's with Hollywood, you can practically forget it. Look at "The Big Brawl" for the first example of Hollywood screwing up Chan.
I won't say he completely ignores the plot, but it does usually take a back seat to the butt-kicking scenes. But then, I don't go to a Chan movie to see plots worthy of Shakespeare. I go to see Jackie Chan use an entire prop-room's worth of stuff against his opponents.
Kierthos
Re:Its interesting that Internal...
on
Breaking Windows
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
There's a few things to look at here:
1) There are probably some contract terms that prohibit MS employees from working in the same field for N months/years. While these are occassionally, if not routinely struck down, it does cause some employees to not consider that option.
2) The "Anything you develop while working here is ours" clause. If J. Random Employee starts up some little software company and starts releasing programs, if MS doesn't like it, they definitely have more cash to throw at legal proceedings and can bog down things for the guy trying to prove that he developed whatever on his own time.
3) Dotcom crash. If you were an investor right now would you support a new startup? Especially one that's likely to have legal troubles? (Based on point #2)
Now, I'm not saying that no one has ever left MS and started up their own company. But given the current state of things, it would be a much riskier thing then in the past.
Same here. At one point I deleted IE 4 completely from my computer, hunting through every directory and deleting each little instance of the various hidden files, and so on. Went to using Netscape completely.
Three days later, I've got IE 5 wanting to download every time I visit half a dozen sites, half the files on my computer which should load fine under Netscape (and actually used to load fine until I nuked IE 4) have become 'broken' files, and my computer is GPF'ing every damn chance it gets because it can't find its little buddy IE.
Needless to say, it's on my computer right now, although I'm constantly trying to find ways not to use it, by continuely reminding it that it's not the damn default. (No matter how many times I do, it still is retarded and thinks it is. I'm obviously missing something important here, but the college NT admin couldn't help me either. But he has his hands full with people forcing disks in upside-down.)
The strange thing is, I wouldn't mind it nearly as much if it worked correctly and wasn't so damn bloated. Surely it's possible to build a bare-bones browser without all the damn bells and whistles. So why can't MS do it?
ObNote: Social Security Numbers were not originally intended to be used for identification purposes. If you find an old enough Social Security Card, it will even say that on it.
Now, personally, I don't want an 'internet' that makes me use Passport if I want to access certain sites. Sure, if I'm accessing various MS supported sites, I can understand it being there, but I still don't like it. What I can't stand is the MS attitude of making their products 'required' and shutting out everyone else. Sure, some people might just call it good business sense on the part of MS, but let's face it, with as much market share for OS's that they have, it's just another continuation of monopolistic practices.
No, he has been accused of breaking US law. He has not been found guilty yet.
Furthermore, when he developed the program that started all of this, it was in Russia. Russian law requires that all software must be able to be backed up. The Adobe e-books violate that law. He was just writing a program that allowed for backups to be made. This program was later marketed in the US. Did he market it personally? I don't believe so. But because he was the lead programmer for the program, he is the one getting hit.
All of a sudden I don't feel nearly as bad about still running Win95... sure, it's horribly out od dated, not supported any more so if I needed to get it patched I'd have a devil of a time doing it, but no one seems to be writing virii for it anymore...
That, and I don't use Outlook, IIS, or any of the other wonderfully insecure MS products. But then, I used to use AOL, so I guess I'd already earned enough bad karma...
How bad is it when people don't want to upgrade because it makes their systems that much less secure? Until Code Red (and now it's big brother) hit, I was actually considering upgrading my crappy OS... well, I still might, but now it'll be to SUSE...
You haven't been watching the news a lot lately, have you? Protestors are there to protest, yes, but along with the "peaceful" ones just holding the signs and chanting catchy slogans, you have rock throwers, vandals, violent protestors overturning cars, etc. Look at the recent G8 fiasco for one.
If anything, protests have been getting more violent lately, not less violent. And frankly, I would rather that the police have the option of non-lethal weaponry then firing live rounds into the crowd.
But here's the catch... if it's non-lethal, how are you going to keep it out of the hands of public? We currently allow any citizen with the cash to buy enough poisons in the forms of cleaning products to kill an entire banquet hall full of Shriners and it all fits in one shopping cart. And, AFAIK, there are no permits needed for mace or tasers.
You could make it really high priced, but then the cops can't afford it, and if the past is any indication, cheap knock-offs will show up anyway and be available to anyone who can afford them.
There is no solution to this without (unneeded) legislation restricting these items. And try getting the courts to agree to that. If we have the right to bear arms (well, in the U.S.A. at least) why shouldn't we be able to own something that won't kill someone?
BTW, no, I don't own a gun, but nothing stops me from walking into a Wal-Mart, buying a chainsaw and pretending I'm in a bad slasher movie. Restricting guns won't stop violence either. It'll just set some (not all) of us back to the blunt instrument and power tool stage of violence.
Oh yeah, right, like the radio, the AND gate, alternating current and the induction motor, flourescent lights, vacuum tubes, microwaves, hydroelectric generators, etc. He was granted over 40 patents by 1892 on these and many other devices. (My personal favorite invention is the earthquake machine.)
No practical use to those, now is there. Face it, the 21st century as we know it would not exist if it weren't for Tesla.
What happens if someone steals your car and causes a fatal accident with it?
They are charged with theft and aggravated assault. Unless you gave them the gun, you are not technically liable. Let's face it, your hypothetical person committed a felony by stealing the gun. How is this your fault? (Well, unless you live in a country with fierce gun laws.)
What happens if a child finds the gun you left in your dresser and shoots himself?
You are liable, as case law has shown. The proper place for a gun in any household that has children is not in the house. Failing that, use a gun safe.
What happens if someone breaks into your house, trips over something and breaks a leg?
They committed a crime by breaking in, and therefore should not benefit in any suit brought by actions during the commission of a crime. Well, generally speaking, but I think some idiot judge in Minnesota (or Michigan, can't recall which) gave the judgement to the crook when he got shot while breaking into a house.
However, with this virus, you didn't break into anyone else's computer and take their docs. Depending on the jurisdiction, you may be legally bound to report what happened to the owner of the document, you may not. But in most places, you are not allowed to diseminate the document in any way, shape, or form. And blackmail is a no-no in most countries too.
They don't sell 'Rum and Coca-Cola' or any other mixed drinks in your country?
Not at any of the grocery stores I've been to. Of course, I don't drink a lot, so I tend to gloss over those parts of the groceries. Although they don't pour Rum in the two-liter bottles of Coke and continue to market it as plain, ordinary Coke. If I'm buying a Rum and Coke at a bar, I know what I'm supposed to be getting (unlike ordering a Black and Tan anywhere in Five Points...). I'm not expecting straight Rum, nor straight Coke. Likewise, when I buy Coke at the store, I expect it to be Coke, and if there's any Rum, I complain to the store that food tampering has been done. (Having heard several food tampering stories, the thought scares the hell out of me...)
But by adding an AOL or an MSN icon to the desktop, the OS is not intrinsically altered. They are easily removed as well. Just try removing the Rum from the Coke once you mix them. (Although that could be accomplished by freezing... the Coke would freeze first, and it's simplistic.)
Now, do I like what MS has done? No. Is it legally enforceable? IANAL, and the one person I could ask about contract law is in New Jersey for the next couple of weeks. I think that it would have to be agreed to by both sides under normal contract circumstances, but it's much more likely one of those TOS-type contracts that allow MS to change the conditions at will. Usually businesses don't abuse those things too badly because clients will tend to seek other alternatives. Unfortunately, with MS's market share in OS's, it's not like Compaq has much of a choice. (Well, I'd like them to switch to Redhat, but I don't see it happening....)
1) The grocery store does not own Coca-cola. If they change what is inside, even if they notify the customer, it is food-tampering. If they want their own Coke-ripoff product, they can market their own brands, which several chain stores already do. Likewise, no company should be allowed to legally alter someone else's product and put the same package on it.
2) Ooo, look, AOL and MSN icons. Move to delete bin. Repeat as needed. If computer companies insist on making deals to have stuff start on the desktop, they had better be prepared to deal with people who don't want it there and take steps to remove it. Once I buy the computer from Dell/Compaq/whoever, it's mine, and I'll damn well erase anything I want to. Actually, I'm much more likely to request a formatted drive to begin with and do my own software installs, but if they don't have that option or insist that they don't, all it takes is "format c:"
How is this a major issue to anyone with a working keyboard and mouse?
Slashdot Mirror
You killed Netscape's API plug-ins! You bastards!
Kierthos
Actually, according to this article, the order requiring M$ to be broken up (issued by Judge Jackson) was vacated. It now goes to a new judge, who, by the way, can issue the exact same 'sentence' or a partially or entirely different one. So, while Bill the Gates clearly has his head up his own ass on the monopoly thing, right now the breakup question is still just a question rather then a looming threat.
Kierthos
Yeah, I know if it had been me, I would probably have said Hong Kong, because most of the movies I've watched in the last year have been made there.
Hardware? Beats me... maybe Sillycon Valley.
Software? Unfortunately, Redmond, Washington.
I wonder how the persecuter and judge would have reacted with answers like those.
Kierthos
Okay, wait, I'm confused... I thought I understood this, and now I know I don't.
If I put up a web-site with the DeCSS code, what would I be violating? Patent law? DMCA? The speed limit as they haul me bodily across the country to California?
Kierthos
Okay, and if they try and enforce that bit about games, how likely is it that Sony will try and squish them like bugs? You only have to download a couple dozen patches to get Everquest to run.
And what about things like SETI@home or other shared processing programs? You have to download the program to get it to work... are they going to stand still for this? That "...or other tasks that are not specified herein" is too damn broad, IMAO, and it shouldn't have been patented. I think, however, we're used to the idiots in the Patent Office not understanding a thing.
Okay, enough baiting... odds are that this will fall away without much harm, if for no other reason then (unfortunately) MS won't stand for it.
Kierthos
As much as I loathe almost everything that MS has put out in the last few years, even I have to admit that there comes a point where there are too many applications, check that, too many poorly written applications that do the same thing.
I personally wouldn't mind seeing more software developed by anyone, including MS, if they would only develop it properly. For example, basic security measures, properly coded, properly interfaced with other applications, etc.
Kierthos
Hrm... that is an interesting idea... now, I know a lot of sites that have sponsor banner advertisements which pay some fraction of a cent per hit, and I would assume that they have some way around someone writing a script that 'clicks' the advertisement every N seconds. Perhaps something could be done along the same lines.
Or perhaps no one thought of reload for cash idea when they came up with the pricing scheme... if so, that's just a little scary.
Kierthos
Hrm... I know I listen to mp3s a lot when I'm at home on my computer, but oddly enough, it seems to help my productivity. Maybe because I need some sort of 'background noise'. Or maybe I just work faster/better when listening to music.
Well, faster definitely.... better... I know I spend a lot of time debugging stuff that I shouldn't have had to, but that might be more based on the fact that I tend to code stuff/work on web pages on little sleep. But then, what is caffeine for?
Kierthos
Funny, I got so much more done back in the days when I used a command line than with this BSOD showing up all the time.
/. itself. How many times a day do you check for new articles and post comments? I have no doubt that it helps as well, providing links to patches or warnings about the latest l337 h4xx0r virii, but it has to cause a hit to productivity at some point. (Unless you're a marketing weenie, of course, they're not productive to begin with.)
IMAO, one of the biggest hits to productivity is
Kierthos
I agree. A lot of recent science-fiction treats AIs not as spontaneously arising from the Internet but as deliberate projects to create AI. (Usually, something goes horribly wrong, but that is one of the genres of sci-fi.) One of my personal favorites was the story that had an AI that had been 'killed' twice by the NSA, and they weren't even aware that they had done it, giving rise to the theory that it had been at such a non-robust stage that it was easy to 'kill'.
An Internet-wide AI.... hmm... lag would problem be analagous to senility or Alzheimer's, network outages would be memory loss or brain damage, crashes would be brain damage as well. However, given that a network will eventually come back up, and no crash lasts forever (although I'm certain MS is working on a 5 9's crash), it wouldn't be permanent brain damage. And theoretically, such an AI could become 'accustomed' to lag and work around it.
But it's all still speculation...
Kierthos
Okay, from the article I got that this is going on in Texas and California, and probably in most, if not all states in the Southwest. Is this happening anywhere else? U.S.-wide? Or is it just the southwest?
And yes, I did read the article... directly or indirectly SBC supplies 32% of the DSL connections in the U.S. But if you're in, say Maine, are you as likely to be affected by this?
Kierthos
Having seen a lot of Chan's movies, I have to agree. Even if it's only a split-second part of a fight scene, he'd prefer to have it done the best he can do rather then even have a small bit of it be bad. Does he always get his way? Well, it depends. If he's making the movie with HK producers, yes. They realize that he knows what he is doing. If it's with Hollywood, you can practically forget it. Look at "The Big Brawl" for the first example of Hollywood screwing up Chan.
I won't say he completely ignores the plot, but it does usually take a back seat to the butt-kicking scenes. But then, I don't go to a Chan movie to see plots worthy of Shakespeare. I go to see Jackie Chan use an entire prop-room's worth of stuff against his opponents.
Kierthos
There's a few things to look at here:
1) There are probably some contract terms that prohibit MS employees from working in the same field for N months/years. While these are occassionally, if not routinely struck down, it does cause some employees to not consider that option.
2) The "Anything you develop while working here is ours" clause. If J. Random Employee starts up some little software company and starts releasing programs, if MS doesn't like it, they definitely have more cash to throw at legal proceedings and can bog down things for the guy trying to prove that he developed whatever on his own time.
3) Dotcom crash. If you were an investor right now would you support a new startup? Especially one that's likely to have legal troubles? (Based on point #2)
Now, I'm not saying that no one has ever left MS and started up their own company. But given the current state of things, it would be a much riskier thing then in the past.
Kierthos
Same here. At one point I deleted IE 4 completely from my computer, hunting through every directory and deleting each little instance of the various hidden files, and so on. Went to using Netscape completely.
Three days later, I've got IE 5 wanting to download every time I visit half a dozen sites, half the files on my computer which should load fine under Netscape (and actually used to load fine until I nuked IE 4) have become 'broken' files, and my computer is GPF'ing every damn chance it gets because it can't find its little buddy IE.
Needless to say, it's on my computer right now, although I'm constantly trying to find ways not to use it, by continuely reminding it that it's not the damn default. (No matter how many times I do, it still is retarded and thinks it is. I'm obviously missing something important here, but the college NT admin couldn't help me either. But he has his hands full with people forcing disks in upside-down.)
The strange thing is, I wouldn't mind it nearly as much if it worked correctly and wasn't so damn bloated. Surely it's possible to build a bare-bones browser without all the damn bells and whistles. So why can't MS do it?
Kierthos
ObNote: Social Security Numbers were not originally intended to be used for identification purposes. If you find an old enough Social Security Card, it will even say that on it.
Now, personally, I don't want an 'internet' that makes me use Passport if I want to access certain sites. Sure, if I'm accessing various MS supported sites, I can understand it being there, but I still don't like it. What I can't stand is the MS attitude of making their products 'required' and shutting out everyone else. Sure, some people might just call it good business sense on the part of MS, but let's face it, with as much market share for OS's that they have, it's just another continuation of monopolistic practices.
"Where shall we let you go today?"
Kierthos
No, he has been accused of breaking US law. He has not been found guilty yet.
Furthermore, when he developed the program that started all of this, it was in Russia. Russian law requires that all software must be able to be backed up. The Adobe e-books violate that law. He was just writing a program that allowed for backups to be made. This program was later marketed in the US. Did he market it personally? I don't believe so. But because he was the lead programmer for the program, he is the one getting hit.
Kierthos
All of a sudden I don't feel nearly as bad about still running Win95... sure, it's horribly out od dated, not supported any more so if I needed to get it patched I'd have a devil of a time doing it, but no one seems to be writing virii for it anymore...
That, and I don't use Outlook, IIS, or any of the other wonderfully insecure MS products. But then, I used to use AOL, so I guess I'd already earned enough bad karma...
How bad is it when people don't want to upgrade because it makes their systems that much less secure? Until Code Red (and now it's big brother) hit, I was actually considering upgrading my crappy OS... well, I still might, but now it'll be to SUSE...
Kierthos
(We are upgradink to SUSE or nothink!)
You haven't been watching the news a lot lately, have you? Protestors are there to protest, yes, but along with the "peaceful" ones just holding the signs and chanting catchy slogans, you have rock throwers, vandals, violent protestors overturning cars, etc. Look at the recent G8 fiasco for one.
If anything, protests have been getting more violent lately, not less violent. And frankly, I would rather that the police have the option of non-lethal weaponry then firing live rounds into the crowd.
But here's the catch... if it's non-lethal, how are you going to keep it out of the hands of public? We currently allow any citizen with the cash to buy enough poisons in the forms of cleaning products to kill an entire banquet hall full of Shriners and it all fits in one shopping cart. And, AFAIK, there are no permits needed for mace or tasers.
You could make it really high priced, but then the cops can't afford it, and if the past is any indication, cheap knock-offs will show up anyway and be available to anyone who can afford them.
There is no solution to this without (unneeded) legislation restricting these items. And try getting the courts to agree to that. If we have the right to bear arms (well, in the U.S.A. at least) why shouldn't we be able to own something that won't kill someone?
BTW, no, I don't own a gun, but nothing stops me from walking into a Wal-Mart, buying a chainsaw and pretending I'm in a bad slasher movie. Restricting guns won't stop violence either. It'll just set some (not all) of us back to the blunt instrument and power tool stage of violence.
Kierthos
How about: (largely based on Pitr from User Friendly.
Q: Do you have or can you fake a Slavic Accent?
A: Da.
Q: What is the difference between being root and being God?
A: Root, God, no difference at all.
Q: What is your most used manual?
A: Evil Geniuses for Dummies. Or O'Reilly books. It varies. Dependink on current evil plan.
Q: Have you ever been a sysadmin for an NT system.
A: No, but havink crushed them with mallet.
Kierthos
Nikola Tesla's research
Which is mostly bollocks, of course.
Oh yeah, right, like the radio, the AND gate, alternating current and the induction motor, flourescent lights, vacuum tubes, microwaves, hydroelectric generators, etc. He was granted over 40 patents by 1892 on these and many other devices. (My personal favorite invention is the earthquake machine.)
No practical use to those, now is there. Face it, the 21st century as we know it would not exist if it weren't for Tesla.
Kierthos
Some legal things to consider:
What happens if someone steals your car and causes a fatal accident with it?
They are charged with theft and aggravated assault. Unless you gave them the gun, you are not technically liable. Let's face it, your hypothetical person committed a felony by stealing the gun. How is this your fault? (Well, unless you live in a country with fierce gun laws.)
What happens if a child finds the gun you left in your dresser and shoots himself?
You are liable, as case law has shown. The proper place for a gun in any household that has children is not in the house. Failing that, use a gun safe.
What happens if someone breaks into your house, trips over something and breaks a leg?
They committed a crime by breaking in, and therefore should not benefit in any suit brought by actions during the commission of a crime. Well, generally speaking, but I think some idiot judge in Minnesota (or Michigan, can't recall which) gave the judgement to the crook when he got shot while breaking into a house.
However, with this virus, you didn't break into anyone else's computer and take their docs. Depending on the jurisdiction, you may be legally bound to report what happened to the owner of the document, you may not. But in most places, you are not allowed to diseminate the document in any way, shape, or form. And blackmail is a no-no in most countries too.
As always, IANAL.
Kierthos
They don't sell 'Rum and Coca-Cola' or any other mixed drinks in your country?
Not at any of the grocery stores I've been to. Of course, I don't drink a lot, so I tend to gloss over those parts of the groceries. Although they don't pour Rum in the two-liter bottles of Coke and continue to market it as plain, ordinary Coke. If I'm buying a Rum and Coke at a bar, I know what I'm supposed to be getting (unlike ordering a Black and Tan anywhere in Five Points...). I'm not expecting straight Rum, nor straight Coke. Likewise, when I buy Coke at the store, I expect it to be Coke, and if there's any Rum, I complain to the store that food tampering has been done. (Having heard several food tampering stories, the thought scares the hell out of me...)
But by adding an AOL or an MSN icon to the desktop, the OS is not intrinsically altered. They are easily removed as well. Just try removing the Rum from the Coke once you mix them. (Although that could be accomplished by freezing... the Coke would freeze first, and it's simplistic.)
Now, do I like what MS has done? No. Is it legally enforceable? IANAL, and the one person I could ask about contract law is in New Jersey for the next couple of weeks. I think that it would have to be agreed to by both sides under normal contract circumstances, but it's much more likely one of those TOS-type contracts that allow MS to change the conditions at will. Usually businesses don't abuse those things too badly because clients will tend to seek other alternatives. Unfortunately, with MS's market share in OS's, it's not like Compaq has much of a choice. (Well, I'd like them to switch to Redhat, but I don't see it happening....)
Kierthos
It's not like it's always helped or worked in the past, but oh, say, prior art? Macs had desktop icons for years before M$.
Kierthos
1) The grocery store does not own Coca-cola. If they change what is inside, even if they notify the customer, it is food-tampering. If they want their own Coke-ripoff product, they can market their own brands, which several chain stores already do. Likewise, no company should be allowed to legally alter someone else's product and put the same package on it.
2) Ooo, look, AOL and MSN icons. Move to delete bin. Repeat as needed. If computer companies insist on making deals to have stuff start on the desktop, they had better be prepared to deal with people who don't want it there and take steps to remove it. Once I buy the computer from Dell/Compaq/whoever, it's mine, and I'll damn well erase anything I want to. Actually, I'm much more likely to request a formatted drive to begin with and do my own software installs, but if they don't have that option or insist that they don't, all it takes is "format c:"
How is this a major issue to anyone with a working keyboard and mouse?
Kierthos