Any IT department that fears its users are learning too much is a goddamn shitty IT department. Seriously.
I'm an IT guy.. at an engineering firm. Pretty much everyone here is a 'computer guru' by todays' standards. So, for about 100 employees, the three of us 'IT guys' get to spend most of our time doing real engineering, programming, HMI design, drafting, etc. Our job is made much easier since we can give users full administrative control over their own computers/laptops (necessary in engineering anyway). We just 'lay down the law' in terms of what users are allowed to install and uninstall and we never have to take away privileges from people that know what they're doing.
So, for years, the entire network and seven servers is managed as a 1-10hour/week job for one of our three 'IT guys.' We secure the network and the servers.. and we don't even bother to secure the servers per user - we just have them making tons and tons of backups so if a user does remove/move files that are important, we just replace them with backed up copies from whatever date we want.
Having a smart userbase allows a 'smarter' IT dept. to spend less time on IT unless the IT dept. is a bunch of bumbling idiots who find it hard to stay ahead of the curve. It's really nice not to have users that need help just because they cannot map a drive.. or because they cannot install a different version of Industrial Software X because it is incompatible with Industrial Software Y.
I don't have mod points.. but this is important!!! Please someone, for the love of God, MOD PARENT UP! Our lives depend on it - both our own offspring and the offspring of the alien Mother Womb!
If we don't do something soon, Necrosaro may awake!!! Run for your lives!
I am in the process of doing the same exact thing.. I've had linux boxes as secondary boxes.. but I always used Windows on my main.
But.. I bought a Macbook just to see if I can live with MacOS. I can't. So.. I'm putting OpenSuse 10.2 on it. I am also using Opensuse 10.2 more and more on my desktop. Also, OpenOffice.org was very easy to switch to.
Fvck Microsoft and their monopolistic behavior. Hopefully Vista will bite them in the ass. HARD.
I'd be interested to know more about the data handling methods they have in place for the LHC. I don't think they'll be using Excel.
It looks like you have begun collection ginormous amounts of data. Paperclip recommends you use Microsoft Access to handle large amounts of data. Would you like me to launch Microsoft Access now?
There's got to be WAYYY more than 11,000,000 downloads from allofmp3.com. At ~5 cents each, that's only $550,000 revenue.. That's ridiculous..
I'd say the site would have more like 100,000,000 downloads.. giving it $5million.. Eh, even that seems pretty low for such a popular website. Google farts and makes that much.
But anyway.. 100,000,000 * $150,000 per song.. $15,000,000,000,000. Maybe the RIAA plans to pay off the US National debt?
CRN should be reported to whoever that government agency was that was investigating viral marketing. The 'Top 10 IT products' seem to be little more than advertisements.
Anyone wanna do some research and post exactly how much Cingular, Sprint, Nextel... (damn.. I don't even know the carrier names after all the consolidation as of late) have donated to all the Congressional lawmakers?
We could probably assume that whatever carrier has paid the most to lawmakers had the worst reliability in the study.. since the carrier with best coverage, if they paid the most, would want the study released. (unless of course it makes all cell phone companies look highly unreliable - highly likely)
I don't think advertisers, with their own heads so far up their own smelly asses, even consider that the consumer has a choice whether or not to watch advertisements. Instead, they treat us like we're bound and gagged with our eyes propped open. Then, they feed us complete bullshit with zero entertainment value at a volume level that is three times that of whatever show we were watching. With HDTV, it's even worse than before! How the fuck do they not have the volume problem fixed by now?
Not only have I been skipping shows automatically (with my Replay TV 4500), or fast-forwarding them (with my HDTV PVR from the cable company), I've also been hitting the mute button and getting up to walk around for 5-7 minutes during commercials when I'm watching live sports or don't have a PVR on the tv I'm using.. I hate TV commercials. I hate them with a passion. If I could, I'd pay for the shows I wanted to watch.. and the sporting events.
If a person has the Internet, he or she knows 100% of EVERYTHING in TV commercials already. There is no point for any smart person to watch TV commercials anymore. Hell.. the 1% of entertaining commercials get played over and over on the Internet anyway.. by people that actually want to see them!
Also, commercials have ZERO entertainment value. In fact, they're repulsive. For 99% of commercials, there is no humor, there is no attempt at being realistic (cars flying.. I mean come on!), there is no concern over the viewer's well-being. Commercials tell us to buy cars we cannot afford - to get 30 fucking thousand dollar cars as gifts even! They tell us we're depressed and need pills for $100/month. They tell us we need help breathing, sleeping, and even having sex! They tell us fast-food is healthy. They tell us processed food is healthy and wonderful to give our kids. They tell us not to smoke and to use condoms - stuff that the dumbest of idiots have already heard. They tell us about politicians... in only a negative or untruthful manner. They tell us to 'panic like hell' until we can watch the cliffhanger of a news hour about something that ends up being lame and overplayed. They tell us to buy diamonds for every occassion. It's raining.. BUY DIAMONDS YOU IDIOT!!!
Commercials represent the worst of mankind. If a person had to learn about humans simply through watching commercials, he or she would hate everything about us.
The entire advertising industry has fucked everything up. They have the consumer hating them so much that many consumers make it a point NOT to buy products from companies with horrible ad campaigns.
Who makes money? Well.. the advertisers. They make money off companies too outdated to make a good product who require quick mass-marketing to idiots to sell a product. And, the companies that actually make good products..
Let's take an example.. the IPOD. Did it take off because of the commercials or did it take off BEFORE the commercials? The answer is BEFORE. Smart people bought them, used them, liked them, and told other people about them. Only after they sell tons and make $tons, marketing assholes at Apple say 'hey.. let's throw money at advertising' and they make a bunch of lame commercials.. Then it sells more because it was already selling. And the marketers take credit.
There's a reason many of the best-selling money-making products aren't even shown in commercials.. they're just good products.
Time is too valuable a commodity now in our insanely fast-paced world. The consumer no longer has time to be repulsed by 30 second ad spot after ad spot. The consumer can turn his or her eyes and ears off now. Seriously.. we can.
Sadly, though, in a way we ARE forced to deal with them. We cannot simply 'buy' most shows and play them on our living-room TV's.. at least not yet. So, we skip them, mute them, or get up and shit during them.
BTW, Internet advertising is ALSO not the solution. Don't even think about acting like it is. The advertising money will simply GO AWAY to companies that know how to make something value-added. Advertising has been a waste for years now.
My girlfriend and I started playing Wii together (she pretty much hates all video games and I'm a gamer dork) and we have pretty much decided that Wii Sports Boxing is an awesome workout..
A few 3-round fights and both of us are catching our breaths.. (We're not in bad shape either.. she's 21 and I'm 24). The one thing the Wii does is get my ass off the couch. Even when I'm playing games like Zelda or Red Steel, I find myself standing up intently and precisely swinging the Wiimote around.
Boxing, though, is a whole different kind of workout.. I've done real boxing - and there's nothing like it. But, with Wii boxing, you can actually beat up your girlfriend and feel good about it. I love how intuitive it is.. She hasn't played any video games except for Grand Theft Auto (and that she did rarely) and she beats me about as often as I beat her.
I will admit, the graphics for the Wii are HIGHLY dissappointing. They are seriously bad. I would've thought Nintendo would at LEAST improve them somewhat to look halfway-decent on a 720p HDTV. Oh well.. Maybe in the next round of console wars we'll get a Nintendo system that's a ton of fun to play AND has good graphics. I agree with Nintendo, though.. gameplay is definitely key. There's a reason I have a Gamecube and a Wii.. and no Xbox or PS2 (or the newer ones.)
1. The whole point of the mp3 player showing up as a drive letter is so you can copy the songs TO AND FROM the device without having to use Itunes or any other crappy software. 2. This one is a CHECK.. I agree.. But I included it since manufacturers, in their exellent idiocy, seem to screw up necessary old features to include gimicky new ones. 3. NO CHECK. I said support for ALL formats.. none of these 'I don't do Vorbis because X' excuses. I happen to like the way Vorbis sounds - especially in the treble range - so I use it. 4. If your Ipod is far tougher than your cell phone, you have a really wussy cell phone. My cell phone has been dropped 100's of times - and works great. Aside from the ipod shuffle, it seems a drop or two pretty much breaks or damages all other ipods. 5. Cell phones would NOT make bad MP3 players if manufacturer's spent a little more time adding mp3 functionality to their phones. Hell, my 2+ year-old MPX220 can play mp3s just fine.. I store them on a miniSD card. MiniSD is up to 2gb now with higher capacity on the way.. Cell phones would make better mp3 players if they were actually engineered by the electronics manufacturers and not by the cell phone service providers that would rather limit functionality in order to charge $1.50 more per song, ringtone, background..
I didn't expect the first two-word post that I saw to sum up an article so perfectly!! Best use of mod points ever...
I could imagine a letter-writing campaign where millions of us nerds/IT professionals/gamer dorks/pc builders/enthusiasts/Myspace freaks/youtube nuts/farkers//.'ers/etc start writing to Microsoft on postcards that just say 'FUCK THAT' on the front. Man.. that would really get the point across.
Hopefully, the good PC builders will offer an option to 'downgrade' to Windows XP or even better - linux.
I play games to win.. to crush others and gain respect. Single player games can be beaten.. MMORPGs cannot be 'won' and they have no ending.
I got hooked on Shadowbane more than once in my college career. It's an mmorpg like wow where you just go around killing everyone pretty much (and you can knock down their cities too). It took a long time.. but eventually I had all the best gear for my character. Then I made a new character and got into the politics for the game. So eventually I ran a city.. then I ran a guild.. then I ran a whole entire alliance of guilds that comprised of half the server. Then I got burned out.. I must've played 14 hours a day at that point. I would go without food for hours until I was certain my alliance could function for 30 seconds without me.
So you'd think after all that I'd learn my lesson? No.
I went back into Shadowbane.. because it gave me a sense of accomplishment. Every day, I could find something new, kill someone new, find a new unique viable character build, etc. There is ALWAYS something new to do in an mmorpg. No matter what, you have NOT seen everything. I must've made over 40 max-level characters with the best possible gear. Granted, it only took about 20 hours of game play to get a character to max level once you were good at it - but still it was WAYY too much of a commitment. I began to think of 4-hour game-play blocks as expendable time. Now that I have an 8-5 job, I realize how ridiculous it is to just say "hey.. I can blow the next 4 hours helping a friend get XXX potion to make YYY item."
I'm glad I learned my lesson with just one mmorpg. I think I put multiple college degrees worth of effort into that game.
That game was seriously crack for me. When I was 'addicted' to it, I couldn't imagine my life without it. It depressed me to think of quitting that game.
So ya.. MMORPGs, imo, are more than just a game. WoW just happens to be about the gayest of mmorpgs one can get addicted to - but it still has all the addictive qualities of any mmorpg. If you can't beat it, DON'T PLAY IT (otherwise, you join it.)
If Nintendo actually did put the Wii guts into a Gamecube case, wtf is wrong with that? The Gamecube is so perfectly compact and it spits out very little heat compared to an Xbox or a PS2.. I'd love it.
When I was in high school, working at a computer store, I though maybe an A+ certification could help me get paid more and maybe look 'more experienced' to potential clients.
Then I looked at the requirements.. It's a joke. To be certified in A+, you're basically acting like the sole set of computing solutions is the Windows platform. The example tests had questions that seem to attempt to lock you into the idea that only Microsoft products exist and all computer hardware is used to run Microsoft software. So, I decided not to waste my money to get certified.
It looks to me that if someone is willing to waste their time to get A+, the lowliest of certifications, that they probably are not worth much for their time. I think about 80% of the average Slashdot readers could pass the A+ exam no problem just by taking the exam. So, imo, the certification doesn't say much other than you waste your time.
I mean.. if someone put 'passed driver's license test' on his resume, wouldn't that maybe make you think he was 'special?' A+ is the 'special' persons' computer certification. It says, 'even though Bob doesn't look like he can function like a normal Internet user, he actually can because he's A+ certified.'
Slashdot Mirror
I was going to mod you up.. but then I realized it is my civic duty to demand that you follow RULE #1 about Usenet...
DO NOT TALK ABOUT USENET.
Iran cured AIDS, but the evil US is preventing the world from getting the cure.
Iran also cured cancer, saved the world's starving population, and their nuclear agenda is for peace.
It takes more than Iranian media for me to believe anything they say.
Any IT department that fears its users are learning too much is a goddamn shitty IT department. Seriously.
I'm an IT guy.. at an engineering firm. Pretty much everyone here is a 'computer guru' by todays' standards. So, for about 100 employees, the three of us 'IT guys' get to spend most of our time doing real engineering, programming, HMI design, drafting, etc. Our job is made much easier since we can give users full administrative control over their own computers/laptops (necessary in engineering anyway). We just 'lay down the law' in terms of what users are allowed to install and uninstall and we never have to take away privileges from people that know what they're doing.
So, for years, the entire network and seven servers is managed as a 1-10hour/week job for one of our three 'IT guys.' We secure the network and the servers.. and we don't even bother to secure the servers per user - we just have them making tons and tons of backups so if a user does remove/move files that are important, we just replace them with backed up copies from whatever date we want.
Having a smart userbase allows a 'smarter' IT dept. to spend less time on IT unless the IT dept. is a bunch of bumbling idiots who find it hard to stay ahead of the curve. It's really nice not to have users that need help just because they cannot map a drive.. or because they cannot install a different version of Industrial Software X because it is incompatible with Industrial Software Y.
Hey kids!!! Eat your cookies!
I don't have mod points.. but this is important!!! Please someone, for the love of God, MOD PARENT UP! Our lives depend on it - both our own offspring and the offspring of the alien Mother Womb!
If we don't do something soon, Necrosaro may awake!!! Run for your lives!
I am in the process of doing the same exact thing.. I've had linux boxes as secondary boxes.. but I always used Windows on my main.
But.. I bought a Macbook just to see if I can live with MacOS. I can't. So.. I'm putting OpenSuse 10.2 on it. I am also using Opensuse 10.2 more and more on my desktop. Also, OpenOffice.org was very easy to switch to.
Fvck Microsoft and their monopolistic behavior. Hopefully Vista will bite them in the ass. HARD.
I'd be interested to know more about the data handling methods they have in place for the LHC. I don't think they'll be using Excel.
It looks like you have begun collection ginormous amounts of data. Paperclip recommends you use Microsoft Access to handle large amounts of data. Would you like me to launch Microsoft Access now?
There's got to be WAYYY more than 11,000,000 downloads from allofmp3.com. At ~5 cents each, that's only $550,000 revenue.. That's ridiculous..
I'd say the site would have more like 100,000,000 downloads.. giving it $5million.. Eh, even that seems pretty low for such a popular website. Google farts and makes that much.
But anyway.. 100,000,000 * $150,000 per song.. $15,000,000,000,000. Maybe the RIAA plans to pay off the US National debt?
You got it exactly right..
CRN should be reported to whoever that government agency was that was investigating viral marketing. The 'Top 10 IT products' seem to be little more than advertisements.
Anyone wanna do some research and post exactly how much Cingular, Sprint, Nextel... (damn.. I don't even know the carrier names after all the consolidation as of late) have donated to all the Congressional lawmakers?
We could probably assume that whatever carrier has paid the most to lawmakers had the worst reliability in the study.. since the carrier with best coverage, if they paid the most, would want the study released. (unless of course it makes all cell phone companies look highly unreliable - highly likely)
Dammit! Can you please freakin' simplify? How the hell is a normal slashdotter supposed to understand your crazy scientific terms?
Please explain 'filler text', the capitalization of the word 'really', and wtf is the ?-looking thingEND OF INTEROGATIVE SENTENCE
Hire them to find Bin Laden!!
I don't think advertisers, with their own heads so far up their own smelly asses, even consider that the consumer has a choice whether or not to watch advertisements. Instead, they treat us like we're bound and gagged with our eyes propped open. Then, they feed us complete bullshit with zero entertainment value at a volume level that is three times that of whatever show we were watching. With HDTV, it's even worse than before! How the fuck do they not have the volume problem fixed by now?
Not only have I been skipping shows automatically (with my Replay TV 4500), or fast-forwarding them (with my HDTV PVR from the cable company), I've also been hitting the mute button and getting up to walk around for 5-7 minutes during commercials when I'm watching live sports or don't have a PVR on the tv I'm using.. I hate TV commercials. I hate them with a passion. If I could, I'd pay for the shows I wanted to watch.. and the sporting events.
If a person has the Internet, he or she knows 100% of EVERYTHING in TV commercials already. There is no point for any smart person to watch TV commercials anymore. Hell.. the 1% of entertaining commercials get played over and over on the Internet anyway.. by people that actually want to see them!
Also, commercials have ZERO entertainment value. In fact, they're repulsive. For 99% of commercials, there is no humor, there is no attempt at being realistic (cars flying.. I mean come on!), there is no concern over the viewer's well-being. Commercials tell us to buy cars we cannot afford - to get 30 fucking thousand dollar cars as gifts even! They tell us we're depressed and need pills for $100/month. They tell us we need help breathing, sleeping, and even having sex! They tell us fast-food is healthy. They tell us processed food is healthy and wonderful to give our kids. They tell us not to smoke and to use condoms - stuff that the dumbest of idiots have already heard. They tell us about politicians... in only a negative or untruthful manner. They tell us to 'panic like hell' until we can watch the cliffhanger of a news hour about something that ends up being lame and overplayed. They tell us to buy diamonds for every occassion. It's raining.. BUY DIAMONDS YOU IDIOT!!!
Commercials represent the worst of mankind. If a person had to learn about humans simply through watching commercials, he or she would hate everything about us.
The entire advertising industry has fucked everything up. They have the consumer hating them so much that many consumers make it a point NOT to buy products from companies with horrible ad campaigns.
Who makes money? Well.. the advertisers. They make money off companies too outdated to make a good product who require quick mass-marketing to idiots to sell a product. And, the companies that actually make good products..
Let's take an example.. the IPOD. Did it take off because of the commercials or did it take off BEFORE the commercials? The answer is BEFORE. Smart people bought them, used them, liked them, and told other people about them. Only after they sell tons and make $tons, marketing assholes at Apple say 'hey.. let's throw money at advertising' and they make a bunch of lame commercials.. Then it sells more because it was already selling. And the marketers take credit.
There's a reason many of the best-selling money-making products aren't even shown in commercials.. they're just good products.
Time is too valuable a commodity now in our insanely fast-paced world. The consumer no longer has time to be repulsed by 30 second ad spot after ad spot. The consumer can turn his or her eyes and ears off now. Seriously.. we can.
Sadly, though, in a way we ARE forced to deal with them. We cannot simply 'buy' most shows and play them on our living-room TV's.. at least not yet. So, we skip them, mute them, or get up and shit during them.
BTW, Internet advertising is ALSO not the solution. Don't even think about acting like it is. The advertising money will simply GO AWAY to companies that know how to make something value-added. Advertising has been a waste for years now.
PWNT!!!
My girlfriend and I started playing Wii together (she pretty much hates all video games and I'm a gamer dork) and we have pretty much decided that Wii Sports Boxing is an awesome workout..
A few 3-round fights and both of us are catching our breaths.. (We're not in bad shape either.. she's 21 and I'm 24). The one thing the Wii does is get my ass off the couch. Even when I'm playing games like Zelda or Red Steel, I find myself standing up intently and precisely swinging the Wiimote around.
Boxing, though, is a whole different kind of workout.. I've done real boxing - and there's nothing like it. But, with Wii boxing, you can actually beat up your girlfriend and feel good about it. I love how intuitive it is.. She hasn't played any video games except for Grand Theft Auto (and that she did rarely) and she beats me about as often as I beat her.
I will admit, the graphics for the Wii are HIGHLY dissappointing. They are seriously bad. I would've thought Nintendo would at LEAST improve them somewhat to look halfway-decent on a 720p HDTV. Oh well.. Maybe in the next round of console wars we'll get a Nintendo system that's a ton of fun to play AND has good graphics. I agree with Nintendo, though.. gameplay is definitely key. There's a reason I have a Gamecube and a Wii.. and no Xbox or PS2 (or the newer ones.)
Holy fucking shit that sounds awesome! I wanna hear more about this in a sci-fi novel.
Dear Google,
Please keep those Borg fed well. Feed them servers daily! I prefer not to be ASSimilated.
The iPod fits pretty much NONE of my criteria.
1. The whole point of the mp3 player showing up as a drive letter is so you can copy the songs TO AND FROM the device without having to use Itunes or any other crappy software.
2. This one is a CHECK.. I agree.. But I included it since manufacturers, in their exellent idiocy, seem to screw up necessary old features to include gimicky new ones.
3. NO CHECK. I said support for ALL formats.. none of these 'I don't do Vorbis because X' excuses. I happen to like the way Vorbis sounds - especially in the treble range - so I use it.
4. If your Ipod is far tougher than your cell phone, you have a really wussy cell phone. My cell phone has been dropped 100's of times - and works great. Aside from the ipod shuffle, it seems a drop or two pretty much breaks or damages all other ipods.
5. Cell phones would NOT make bad MP3 players if manufacturer's spent a little more time adding mp3 functionality to their phones. Hell, my 2+ year-old MPX220 can play mp3s just fine.. I store them on a miniSD card. MiniSD is up to 2gb now with higher capacity on the way.. Cell phones would make better mp3 players if they were actually engineered by the electronics manufacturers and not by the cell phone service providers that would rather limit functionality in order to charge $1.50 more per song, ringtone, background..
Go back to your Machole.
I'd change that around a bit..
1. Does not require Itunes or any other proprietary software; should show up as a drive letter in Windows XP and you can move songs that way.
2. Menu scrolls FAST, allows for browsing other songs while current one is playing..
3. Supports all song formats and allows for flash upgrade to support more.. ie.. Ogg Vorbis
4. It should be at least as tough as a cell phone.
5. Wait.. why the fvck isn't my mp3 player built in to my cell phone? How about we just do it that way. Cell phones are now mp3 and video players.
I didn't expect the first two-word post that I saw to sum up an article so perfectly!! Best use of mod points ever...
I could imagine a letter-writing campaign where millions of us nerds/IT professionals/gamer dorks/pc builders/enthusiasts/Myspace freaks/youtube nuts/farkers//.'ers/etc start writing to Microsoft on postcards that just say 'FUCK THAT' on the front. Man.. that would really get the point across.
Hopefully, the good PC builders will offer an option to 'downgrade' to Windows XP or even better - linux.
I play games to win.. to crush others and gain respect. Single player games can be beaten.. MMORPGs cannot be 'won' and they have no ending.
I got hooked on Shadowbane more than once in my college career. It's an mmorpg like wow where you just go around killing everyone pretty much (and you can knock down their cities too). It took a long time.. but eventually I had all the best gear for my character. Then I made a new character and got into the politics for the game. So eventually I ran a city.. then I ran a guild.. then I ran a whole entire alliance of guilds that comprised of half the server. Then I got burned out.. I must've played 14 hours a day at that point. I would go without food for hours until I was certain my alliance could function for 30 seconds without me.
So you'd think after all that I'd learn my lesson? No.
I went back into Shadowbane.. because it gave me a sense of accomplishment. Every day, I could find something new, kill someone new, find a new unique viable character build, etc. There is ALWAYS something new to do in an mmorpg. No matter what, you have NOT seen everything. I must've made over 40 max-level characters with the best possible gear. Granted, it only took about 20 hours of game play to get a character to max level once you were good at it - but still it was WAYY too much of a commitment. I began to think of 4-hour game-play blocks as expendable time. Now that I have an 8-5 job, I realize how ridiculous it is to just say "hey.. I can blow the next 4 hours helping a friend get XXX potion to make YYY item."
I'm glad I learned my lesson with just one mmorpg. I think I put multiple college degrees worth of effort into that game.
That game was seriously crack for me. When I was 'addicted' to it, I couldn't imagine my life without it. It depressed me to think of quitting that game.
So ya.. MMORPGs, imo, are more than just a game. WoW just happens to be about the gayest of mmorpgs one can get addicted to - but it still has all the addictive qualities of any mmorpg. If you can't beat it, DON'T PLAY IT (otherwise, you join it.)
I bet Windows Vista Pirated Edition.. and hell.. maybe Windows Vista Ultimate Pirated Edition will have features to disable the startup sound...
If Nintendo actually did put the Wii guts into a Gamecube case, wtf is wrong with that? The Gamecube is so perfectly compact and it spits out very little heat compared to an Xbox or a PS2.. I'd love it.
BTW Dell is very close to anonymous in Romania where IBM, HP, Fujitsu & DIY servers rule almost 100% of the market.
At least we have Poland!
Whoever marked parent as flamebait is an idiot, imo. OP's being satrical and making a good point - kind of like the way Stephen Colbert became famous.
Oh ya.. feel free to mark THIS post as flamebait.
When I was in high school, working at a computer store, I though maybe an A+ certification could help me get paid more and maybe look 'more experienced' to potential clients.
Then I looked at the requirements.. It's a joke. To be certified in A+, you're basically acting like the sole set of computing solutions is the Windows platform. The example tests had questions that seem to attempt to lock you into the idea that only Microsoft products exist and all computer hardware is used to run Microsoft software. So, I decided not to waste my money to get certified.
It looks to me that if someone is willing to waste their time to get A+, the lowliest of certifications, that they probably are not worth much for their time. I think about 80% of the average Slashdot readers could pass the A+ exam no problem just by taking the exam. So, imo, the certification doesn't say much other than you waste your time.
I mean.. if someone put 'passed driver's license test' on his resume, wouldn't that maybe make you think he was 'special?' A+ is the 'special' persons' computer certification. It says, 'even though Bob doesn't look like he can function like a normal Internet user, he actually can because he's A+ certified.'