And because of that, Bush can't even get Judges approved, much less bills passed, since Dashell is set on being obstructionist. But hey, what do I know, I just pay attention...
But besides that, while HP's desktop boxes used to be somewhat keen, and I used to recommend them to family looking for a new PC, I've began to accuse them of having Compaqitis. Lots of useless crap silently installed into the OS out of the factory that has "gee whiz" value but only leads to lowered system performance and stability, hardware and case designs from hell, and a general feeling of "ewww yuck" surrounding their systems... The only benefit to the geek is that we'll have one less name on our long list of "Avoid these manufacturers..."
... Afraid of getting my hands dirty? I'm hurt. Mayhaps you would like to see the scars on my hands from prying components out of archaic old AT cases to try and recover data from a dead system? Or maybe you just need to see my 'hand rolled' dual XP 1800+ system?
Parts may be cheap, but they're not as cheap as free. The support contract is included in the cost of the PC and is alot more cost efficient than paying me to do those sort of things. Besides, it all comes down to time management. I work in a pretty understaffed IT department. Is my time better served by installing hardware we already paid someone else to install, or by working on problems a support contract doesn't cover, like software issues or hardware from other vendors etc. It's a no brainer for me.
Though I'll admit occassionally I do insist on installing the replacement hardware myself... some of the new Dell cases are pretty nifty.:)
Of course we've got spare machines. But plopping another workstation in its place usually isn't a very elegant solution given that it would still require reinstalling the application suites and reconfiguring the machine to get it back up and connected to our Domain and NetWare tree and such. Very often we DO give out a spare machine to a user who's in dire need, but generally it's simpler to have theirs repaired.
And of course mice/keyboards are consumable. We've got what seems to be a bottomless box ofspares we give out when they bust, but it doesn't hurt to be able to get free replacements so that the box of spares stays bottomless.
Speaking as someone who has to support about five hundred of Some Other Guy's Product(tm), the main issue I'd have with us rolling out so many of our own custom built systems is just that. Systems from some other guy (say, Dell) come with pretty comprehensive service plans that lets me make Dell deal with dead monitor/mouse/HD/power supply problems in 24 hours instead of me having to track down the manufacturer and get him to ship me a replacement within a couple weeks time. If you're already supporting the systems, though, as you make it seem... then this may not be an issue for you. Just find out about RMA policies of your vendor beforehand!:)
Yes, yes, I know. I wasn't making a blanket statement that all seemingly odd practices are not good ones, just saying that you can't infer that just because some alternative remedies were made mainstream that the majority of them will also follow the same path.
Hmm... Open Source is a proven alternative to proprietary software wherein it has been reviewed by many industry experts and found to prove equal if not superior performance to proprietary solutions. It is built by experts and common folk and goes through a strenuous process of validation and review. Alternative medicine is a way to buy things normally requiring a prescription (ie drugs) which have not gone through any strict review process other than proving it will not kill you immediately. Often the long term effects of using them is unknown as are their drug interactions. The only similarity between alternative medicine and open source and alternative medicine is that anyone can produce open source software or alternative medicine. However, the worst you can do w/ OSS is risk your computer by installing it. Alternative medicine, however, you put in your body. I find your blanket assumption that geeks don't pay attention to the medical industry upsetting. A full half of my family is in the medical field and I devour medical articles just about as quickly as I do PC ones; both are technology.
And some crackpot practices (ie trepanning, bleeding, etc) started out as mainstream medicine. Previous performance is not a guarantee of future returns. =P
Another thing to think about, the author seems to be a bit upset that google won't let him post whatever he wants associated with whatever keyword he wishes... Well there's a good reason for that. A good example would be my kid brother last year putting "Nintendo" into a search engine and getting back a few hundred hits for porn sites. While I won't argue that porn site shouldn't be on the Internet (Hail Free Speech!), allowing anyone to associate themselves w/ a keyword on a search engine that has absolutely nothing to do w/ their site is not in the interest of a private company that would like to avoid lawsuits.
Individually it's easy for a large corporate budget to force a consumer to settle, but instead if we ALL link banner ads to this issue and ALL spread the word online about what's going on, we'll ALL get named in the suit and eventually either the bullshit meter at the Court will hit the red or this idiot will run out of money. Will probably be much more effective than contributing to a legal defense fund in the long run.
I can't remember the exact number, but your average beer has something like 10-100 times the radiation than that of nuclear plant water. And yet people have no problem drinking beer...
Talk to a Nuclear Physicist sometime, we live bathed in radiation our entire lives. All joking aside, we all glow in the dark on some wavelength. =P
Of a liberal, that is. If you're anti-democrat, you're a racist/fascist/heartless pig. If you want to disagree with someone, do it on an intellectual level supporting your argument with facts, not by name calling.
I almost felt like trying to point out the flaws in your argument, but I feel my breath would be wasted on deaf ears and numb mind.
Has anyone tried running MSN's 'XHTML Compliant' pages through W3C's validation service? Every document I've tried has reported either plenty of random errors throughout, or fatal errors that prevent the page from being viewed. Hmm... And *Mozilla* doesn't adhere to standards?
Also, http://www.msn.com in the validator gets the same 'Browser Upgrade Required' page as a non-IE client does. It found errors on that page, too. =P
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I wish I had some mod points left, lol. Well said!
And because of that, Bush can't even get Judges approved, much less bills passed, since Dashell is set on being obstructionist. But hey, what do I know, I just pay attention...
I wish I had mod points left to soothe this poor guy's karma.
B-3 Spirits are mouy more expensive than F-117 Nighthawks...
But besides that, while HP's desktop boxes used to be somewhat keen, and I used to recommend them to family looking for a new PC, I've began to accuse them of having Compaqitis. Lots of useless crap silently installed into the OS out of the factory that has "gee whiz" value but only leads to lowered system performance and stability, hardware and case designs from hell, and a general feeling of "ewww yuck" surrounding their systems...
The only benefit to the geek is that we'll have one less name on our long list of "Avoid these manufacturers..."
... Afraid of getting my hands dirty? I'm hurt. Mayhaps you would like to see the scars on my hands from prying components out of archaic old AT cases to try and recover data from a dead system? Or maybe you just need to see my 'hand rolled' dual XP 1800+ system?
:)
Parts may be cheap, but they're not as cheap as free. The support contract is included in the cost of the PC and is alot more cost efficient than paying me to do those sort of things.
Besides, it all comes down to time management. I work in a pretty understaffed IT department. Is my time better served by installing hardware we already paid someone else to install, or by working on problems a support contract doesn't cover, like software issues or hardware from other vendors etc. It's a no brainer for me.
Though I'll admit occassionally I do insist on installing the replacement hardware myself... some of the new Dell cases are pretty nifty.
Such hostility in you...
Of course we've got spare machines. But plopping another workstation in its place usually isn't a very elegant solution given that it would still require reinstalling the application suites and reconfiguring the machine to get it back up and connected to our Domain and NetWare tree and such. Very often we DO give out a spare machine to a user who's in dire need, but generally it's simpler to have theirs repaired.
And of course mice/keyboards are consumable. We've got what seems to be a bottomless box ofspares we give out when they bust, but it doesn't hurt to be able to get free replacements so that the box of spares stays bottomless.
Speaking as someone who has to support about five hundred of Some Other Guy's Product(tm), the main issue I'd have with us rolling out so many of our own custom built systems is just that. Systems from some other guy (say, Dell) come with pretty comprehensive service plans that lets me make Dell deal with dead monitor/mouse/HD/power supply problems in 24 hours instead of me having to track down the manufacturer and get him to ship me a replacement within a couple weeks time. :)
If you're already supporting the systems, though, as you make it seem... then this may not be an issue for you. Just find out about RMA policies of your vendor beforehand!
Yes, yes, I know. I wasn't making a blanket statement that all seemingly odd practices are not good ones, just saying that you can't infer that just because some alternative remedies were made mainstream that the majority of them will also follow the same path.
Hmm... Open Source is a proven alternative to proprietary software wherein it has been reviewed by many industry experts and found to prove equal if not superior performance to proprietary solutions. It is built by experts and common folk and goes through a strenuous process of validation and review.
Alternative medicine is a way to buy things normally requiring a prescription (ie drugs) which have not gone through any strict review process other than proving it will not kill you immediately. Often the long term effects of using them is unknown as are their drug interactions. The only similarity between alternative medicine and open source and alternative medicine is that anyone can produce open source software or alternative medicine.
However, the worst you can do w/ OSS is risk your computer by installing it. Alternative medicine, however, you put in your body.
I find your blanket assumption that geeks don't pay attention to the medical industry upsetting. A full half of my family is in the medical field and I devour medical articles just about as quickly as I do PC ones; both are technology.
And some crackpot practices (ie trepanning, bleeding, etc) started out as mainstream medicine. Previous performance is not a guarantee of future returns. =P
Another thing to think about, the author seems to be a bit upset that google won't let him post whatever he wants associated with whatever keyword he wishes... Well there's a good reason for that. A good example would be my kid brother last year putting "Nintendo" into a search engine and getting back a few hundred hits for porn sites. While I won't argue that porn site shouldn't be on the Internet (Hail Free Speech!), allowing anyone to associate themselves w/ a keyword on a search engine that has absolutely nothing to do w/ their site is not in the interest of a private company that would like to avoid lawsuits.
Just my 2cp
Individually it's easy for a large corporate budget to force a consumer to settle, but instead if we ALL link banner ads to this issue and ALL spread the word online about what's going on, we'll ALL get named in the suit and eventually either the bullshit meter at the Court will hit the red or this idiot will run out of money.
Will probably be much more effective than contributing to a legal defense fund in the long run.
I can't remember the exact number, but your average beer has something like 10-100 times the radiation than that of nuclear plant water. And yet people have no problem drinking beer...
Talk to a Nuclear Physicist sometime, we live bathed in radiation our entire lives. All joking aside, we all glow in the dark on some wavelength. =P
Tell me friend, what harm has President Bush done our country?
Of a liberal, that is. If you're anti-democrat, you're a racist/fascist/heartless pig. If you want to disagree with someone, do it on an intellectual level supporting your argument with facts, not by name calling.
I almost felt like trying to point out the flaws in your argument, but I feel my breath would be wasted on deaf ears and numb mind.
Definately R'lyeh. Ai! Ai! Cthulhu fthaghen! Cthulhu fthaghen!
Has anyone tried running MSN's 'XHTML Compliant' pages through W3C's validation service? Every document I've tried has reported either plenty of random errors throughout, or fatal errors that prevent the page from being viewed. Hmm... And *Mozilla* doesn't adhere to standards?
Also, http://www.msn.com in the validator gets the same 'Browser Upgrade Required' page as a non-IE client does. It found errors on that page, too. =P