It seems to me that copyright is mostly ignored when it gets in the way - especially by the younger generations. The cries that 'copyright is stealing' do not stick to society as a whole in the US.. and the US is behind the rest of the world with copyright piracy.
The more ridiculous the laws, the more they get ignored.. The government and corporations can do nothing against the majority of the people if they decide to ignore the laws or copyright terms. Corporate lobbying has stacked the cards so far against the consumer that the average consumer can merely ignore them and still feel good about it.
Voice, cable TV or the idea of 'channels', video, program guides, on-demand, the Internet.. It's all just data. The future is paying for one Internet connection.. and then paying for whatever services you want from whatever company. For example, one person might decide to have 7 cable channels they like from 7 different providers for nominal monthly fees, Internet access to accomodate, and a voip phone also.. all delivered (except for the actual Internet link) from various states or even other countries. Mr. African-American can actually watch African channels in America! Another customer might feel better having a 'package' deal where everything is delivered by one company (exactly how things are done now). Another customer might prefer Internet access from one company and a package of select channels from another company..
So, imo, the easiest way to accomodate this is for 'cable' boxes to require Internet access. Hell.. with a decent Internet connection and a computer on every TV (getting less and less expensive or different in price than a cable box), I could just pay for cable channels I want if the damn media companies were willing to sell it directly to me.
And, as technology progresses, the argument that it is 'innefficient' becomes more and more moot because the bandwidth required becomes more and more nominal in relation to availability.
Of course, the entrenched entities such as Verizon and Comcast will fight against this.. because even in 'competition' they duopolistically screw the consumer.
I think a lot of people are just afraid that the 'law' is becoming too proactive. Our society (at least in the US) likes the idea of treating a house as a 'black box' where only the external features are noticed. If there is a problem inside the box, people come out and interact. Now, law enforcement can peer into that private box whenever they want..
Even though the technology has a lot of non-scary uses (rescue), it is easy to imagine it being used by every cop to peer right into the very center of our private lives while we are in our homes. So ya.. it is scary.
I started ordering E6400 and M4400 (almost identical in design) laptops for the employees at my company. Most of the laptops seem to work fine - albeit very slow compared to how they 'should' run. One of the laptops works perfectly stable but runs slow as all hell.. It can barely launch a single virtual machine. The poor guy that uses it is constantly frustrated.. Dell insists it is 'perfect' since it passes all the evaluation tests.
I would definitely say they barely perform better than the 2.0ghz D820's and 1.7ghz IBM T41p's that they replaced..
Guess I need to call up my Dell rep and complain... Sigh.. half my job.
The government reaction after 9/11 fits exactly along the lines of A. It increased spending, created new bureaucracy, curtailed civil liberties, and ignored the huge issues facing government at the time (ie.. $2.3trillion unaccounted for at the Pentagon on 9/10/01).
Further, the reaction of government to ignore any realistic discussion about the events of 9/11 looks damning.
As an AMD shareholder and an enthusiast who has followed this 'case' since 1999, I also think this settlement is low. I do not believe $1.25billion could bump AMD to a cash position of where it would have been if Intel had not competed unfairly. Yes, it is a $1.25billion injection of direct profits to AMD - but the cashflow through the company over the years from the marketplace to R and D would have put AMD in a much more competitive position.
I'd say that viewpoint, which seems to be the mainstream on Slashdot, is like taking a single snapshot of a baseball game and acting like you can lay out the stats.
This antitrust lawsuit is filed after a precidence of antitrust lawsuits from other countries against Intel. Right now, if we take a snapshot of how Intel is competing, Intel may be playing fair. However, in the past - especially during the relatively long time (in the IT world at least) that AMD had the clear technology lead - there are quite a few reasons why there should be an antitrust lawsuit.
First of all, Intel only has the technology lead right now because Intel has more funds to dump into research and development. However, in the past, AMD leveraged themselves to put enormous amounts of funding into the Athlon and they came out with a clear technology lead. The market share barely followed. AMD had trouble selling their superior processors. The largest computer maker, Dell, was an Intel-only company. It's easy to be ignorant and blame bad execution on AMD's part - and maybe there was. But, there is some damning evidence that Intel was not playing fair. For example, AMD tried to give away 1 million processors to HP - and these were faster processors than Intel's at the time - but HP declined. Intel's pricing model was structured in a way to make it so that using any competitor in any small percentage would be more expensive than being 100% Intel only. They did this by using 'marketing rebates' that would directly correlate with the percentage of Intel processors sold.
Face it.. the P4 sucked. It did nothing but suck for years. It was an awful processor. Yet, somehow, Intel kept its exclusive agreements long enough to keep AMD from gaining significant market share - which would have in turn allowed AMD to keep spending on R and D which would have allowed AMD to remain competitive. It takes YEARS to develop the next best processor. Intel is only sitting where it is because it successfully choked AMD years ago.
For a few quarters, AMD was kicking Intel's ass - but it should have been kicking way more ass than it was. Also, AMD's financial situation is a result of leveraging themselves in order to compete with Intel and then not receiving the market benefits that normally come in a competitive industry with a technology lead.
Further, it is hard to dismiss threats as evidenced in emails from Intel against business with competitors. Or, you can shove your head in the sand and call this entire complicated situation as all sorts of 'red herrings.'
I think the T41p is that last Thinkpad that is 'truly' IBM's design. I bought mine used 3 years ago.. used it for 2 1/2.. and sold it still working perfectly to a friend. It looked brand new after I cleaned it too..
After the T41p, the build quality and battery life went down because the P4's were power hogs that needed to dissipate a lot of heat.
And, it is the last laptop as far as I know that doesn't have the goddamn Windows keys.
You can still buy them for $300-500 off Ebay or liquidation sites.. They were $4000 laptops back in the day.
Ya.. well I thought of the idea of 'putting chips on a multilayer card-like substrate.' If I never would've thought of this, imagine where we'd be!! We wouldn't have computers or anything!
IBM Thinkpad was by far the best laptop line.. Now, it's basically just another piece of crap laptop. Moffat deserves jail time just for this.. "Crimes against quality."
I switched my company from CA to Kaspersky. I consider it a mistake. We will not be renewing our Kaspersky licenses - partly because of what the CEO said, partly because Kaspersky antivirus likes to screw with your network protocols even if you turn off those 'features.'
The reason I could never take MAC seriously for any sort of business is lack of docking ports..
My old machine (loved it).. IBM T41p.. still one of the best laptops ever made - though out-dated
My current developer machine.. Dell Precision M4400.. 2.53ghz quad-core.. not huge, durable, RGB LED 1920x1200 screen, docking port, display port (can present using display port to dvi adapter), XP 64bit.. great for virtualization
It drives me nuts to see how often MAC gets recommended as a laptop.. Sure.. it's the nicest one you see at Best Buy.. But no corporation should ever consider using laptops that don't have docking ports.
I would like to start calling this "Walmart Island." Walmart is slowly turning everything we buy into higher and higher percentage of plastic.. Things that used to last forever - like a chair, a table, a drill - are being turned into 'disposable' items that just end up in our landfills. A normal table lasts years and years.. a Walmart table breaks after 2 months to a year of moderate use..
No one seems to be saying that part of the answer to combatting these buildups of plastic is to build things of higher quality that last. Walmart is the anti-quality. Therefore, we should call this plastic island "Walmart Island."
Why should we consider it? It is a laughable. He is suggesting we change the laws in ways that severely limit individual freedom in a way that is completely impossible to enforce unless we completely change some core fundamental aspects of participation on the Internet. This man could be God for all I care.. If he says something stupid, it is stupid no matter what. We should consider his stupid opinion because he's a great man? That's an error in reasoning. (false authority fallacy)
Think about this.. He is trying to preserve an industry that is changing because of technology. Just because news as we know it is going through 'evolution pains' does not mean we should stick our stupid laws all over it. Leave our laws be. First Amendment is a pretty damn important law in this country..
There will ALWAYS be demand for news - and there will always be a demand for truth. By adding new laws that limit the ability to satisfy that demand better, we are actually regressing. Just because the news will change does not mean it will not be better. In fact, I would like to argue that most of our news is completely useless anyway. Let it be free. Let honest people report what they see.. and a group of similar opinions will allow people reading it to distinguish the truth. Right now, if Fox News wants to put their own screwed up twist, they can legally do that.. and they do it all the time! Screw them..
The newspapers screw the news also.. IMO, right now, there seems to be no good way to get the truth unless you read the news and the bloggers and the comments, and form an opinion of what really happened. So, if you cannot link to an article, how do you comment about it? How do you tell people what you're talking about? Maybe there should not be money in the news.. Let the market figure out how to handle the news.
And, further, fuck copyright. The laws make the copyright holders so card-stacked against the individual that people care less and less about it and the laws governing it.
The future of cable TV is 'a la carte' over the Internet..
As long as I have a fast Internet connection, and a box for every TV (kind of like my fucking cable company now), I could have every service the cable company delivers now.. except then I would have more options from decentralized cable providers all over the world.
I am a frustrated user. I am frustrated because you are continuously making it difficult for me to use your software. You are making it even more difficult for me to buy your software.
I called Microsoft yesterday.. I wanted a clear answer on exactly how many licenses I need of Windows XP in order to develop software that will run on a Windows environment. The first guy I talked to told me I need one license per virtual machine. I asked him if I needed a license every time I copied the virtual machine to start a separate project. He said that I do..
Then I asked how do I get VLK licenses like the big corporations do.. He told me I need to talk to that department and.. okay.. long story.. I'll fork my rant here.. Send me message if you want me to continue my licensing rant in detail.
Next rant: Windows Vista.. Stop telling me it is better than Windows XP. But, also stop telling me Windows 7 is better than Windows XP. Out of all the Windows desktop operating systems I've used, Windows XP 64bit seems to be the most stable and the most user-friendly (and software developer friendly).. So why are you making it so goddamn hard for anyone to buy Windows XP 64bit? Anyone that understands anything about software knows that Windows Vista was a miserable attempt to wrestle control away from the user..
Next rant: Why are you forcing Vista on everyone that buys a computer in the store?! There have been multiple times I would've purchased a store computer for convenience (for home or workplace) if it just had an option for XP.
Next rant: DRM. Fucking stop it. Start enabling people - not disabling them. Stop listening to media companies that are trying to force you to handicap your operating system. People pay for stuff that's convenient. Make it convenient as possible. Stop installing WGA spyware on everyones' computers.
Next rant: Stop changing interfaces for the hell of changing interfaces. Give me a 'compatibility mode' interface. For example.. Leave an option for toolbars to look like Excel 2003 in Excel 2007.. Or.. leave an option for Windows Vista to behave like XP.. And, if you don't put 'classic startmenu' back into Windows 7, I swear to God I'll never buy it.. I will use XP. (I'm using Windows 7 now.. I want my fucking classic startmenu. How dare you try to guess what program I feel like using.)
Next rant: Stop adding more steps in the process to get anything done!!! In Windows 95, Startmenu > Programs displayed everything.. Then.. Windows 98/ME/XP started scrolling and hiding shit by default.. How the fuck is that more convenient? It's just one extra click.. How about changing an IP address? It is easier and quicker in XP than Vista.. How about changing resolution? so much easier in XP than Vista.. or Windows 7..
Next rant: Stop choosing the dumbass options for everyone by default.. give a 'poweruser' setting during setup so Windows explorer doesn't try to hide exensions, hide details, hide operating system files..
Next rant: No puppy dogs.
Next rant: Build disk-imaging into the OS. Let me install a drive, go to disk manager, and copy my old drive.. It's easy as hell to program.. And it's easy as hell to do in linux.. make it easy to do in Windows.
Next rant: Be stricter with developers.. Make the OS so it has to explicitly ask the user to 'run on startup' or 'run a popup daemon' that will annoy us to upgrade all the time..
Next rant: Follow your own fucking standards. If I disable all icons on the desktop for my users in group policy, I should not have a 'Windows media player' and 'Help and support' link on the desktop. Also, likewise with Printers link and Outlook express.
Next rant: Spend some effort on file organization. Windows 7 shortens the paths to 'documents and settings'.. but it is no more organized! Stop making 'My Music' folders on computers that have no music and never will!
Next rant: Stop wasting GUI space.. How is a thicker window border any more convenient? How about I get to control the size of t
I am NOT a big fan of Colbert. I think he's funny - but also an idiot. But, NASA should think twice about a generation that grew up watching Daily Show and Colbert - and gained a cynical attitude of everything the Government does.
NASA needs to offer something. Hell.. why not name it after Colbert? They could offer to go ahead and name it after Colbert - if he maybe does a few segments about NASA in a positive light.
There are some of us younger (well I think younger at 27) people that think NASA is the last place government should cut funding..
From the last few US presidential elections where statistics where typically very different for electronic voting (Diebold) and paper ballots, a common conclusion was that either:
1. Diebold fixed the elections (a) or 2. Diebold is completely incompetent (b)
But then.. People would argue that #2 is invalid because Diebold has atms all over the world that count money.. and they never have problems - so something as simple as voting should be easy.
Maybe Diebold is just trying to prove that they can be incompetent too? Which would give us a new set of alternatives:
3. Diebold is fabricating their own incompetence (c) or 4. Diebold is really incompetent (d)
Slashdot Mirror
It seems to me that copyright is mostly ignored when it gets in the way - especially by the younger generations. The cries that 'copyright is stealing' do not stick to society as a whole in the US.. and the US is behind the rest of the world with copyright piracy.
The more ridiculous the laws, the more they get ignored.. The government and corporations can do nothing against the majority of the people if they decide to ignore the laws or copyright terms. Corporate lobbying has stacked the cards so far against the consumer that the average consumer can merely ignore them and still feel good about it.
The future is:
ONE DATA PIPE!
Voice, cable TV or the idea of 'channels', video, program guides, on-demand, the Internet.. It's all just data. The future is paying for one Internet connection.. and then paying for whatever services you want from whatever company. For example, one person might decide to have 7 cable channels they like from 7 different providers for nominal monthly fees, Internet access to accomodate, and a voip phone also.. all delivered (except for the actual Internet link) from various states or even other countries. Mr. African-American can actually watch African channels in America! Another customer might feel better having a 'package' deal where everything is delivered by one company (exactly how things are done now). Another customer might prefer Internet access from one company and a package of select channels from another company..
So, imo, the easiest way to accomodate this is for 'cable' boxes to require Internet access. Hell.. with a decent Internet connection and a computer on every TV (getting less and less expensive or different in price than a cable box), I could just pay for cable channels I want if the damn media companies were willing to sell it directly to me.
And, as technology progresses, the argument that it is 'innefficient' becomes more and more moot because the bandwidth required becomes more and more nominal in relation to availability.
Of course, the entrenched entities such as Verizon and Comcast will fight against this.. because even in 'competition' they duopolistically screw the consumer.
I am usually not one to ever stick up for Microsoft.. But you HAVE to admit this is a cheap shot..
Besides free OS's, is there one more open? Mac?
Windows is infinitely more open than all the major consoles across all spectrums.. even legally. Too bad Xbox just doesn't run regular Windows..
I think a lot of people are just afraid that the 'law' is becoming too proactive. Our society (at least in the US) likes the idea of treating a house as a 'black box' where only the external features are noticed. If there is a problem inside the box, people come out and interact. Now, law enforcement can peer into that private box whenever they want..
Even though the technology has a lot of non-scary uses (rescue), it is easy to imagine it being used by every cop to peer right into the very center of our private lives while we are in our homes. So ya.. it is scary.
I started ordering E6400 and M4400 (almost identical in design) laptops for the employees at my company. Most of the laptops seem to work fine - albeit very slow compared to how they 'should' run. One of the laptops works perfectly stable but runs slow as all hell.. It can barely launch a single virtual machine. The poor guy that uses it is constantly frustrated.. Dell insists it is 'perfect' since it passes all the evaluation tests.
I would definitely say they barely perform better than the 2.0ghz D820's and 1.7ghz IBM T41p's that they replaced..
Guess I need to call up my Dell rep and complain... Sigh.. half my job.
The government reaction after 9/11 fits exactly along the lines of A. It increased spending, created new bureaucracy, curtailed civil liberties, and ignored the huge issues facing government at the time (ie.. $2.3trillion unaccounted for at the Pentagon on 9/10/01).
Further, the reaction of government to ignore any realistic discussion about the events of 9/11 looks damning.
I don't see why they don't put data chips in the original Heinz ketchup bottles.. Nothing ever comes out of those.
As an AMD shareholder and an enthusiast who has followed this 'case' since 1999, I also think this settlement is low. I do not believe $1.25billion could bump AMD to a cash position of where it would have been if Intel had not competed unfairly. Yes, it is a $1.25billion injection of direct profits to AMD - but the cashflow through the company over the years from the marketplace to R and D would have put AMD in a much more competitive position.
I'd say that viewpoint, which seems to be the mainstream on Slashdot, is like taking a single snapshot of a baseball game and acting like you can lay out the stats.
This antitrust lawsuit is filed after a precidence of antitrust lawsuits from other countries against Intel. Right now, if we take a snapshot of how Intel is competing, Intel may be playing fair. However, in the past - especially during the relatively long time (in the IT world at least) that AMD had the clear technology lead - there are quite a few reasons why there should be an antitrust lawsuit.
First of all, Intel only has the technology lead right now because Intel has more funds to dump into research and development. However, in the past, AMD leveraged themselves to put enormous amounts of funding into the Athlon and they came out with a clear technology lead. The market share barely followed. AMD had trouble selling their superior processors. The largest computer maker, Dell, was an Intel-only company. It's easy to be ignorant and blame bad execution on AMD's part - and maybe there was. But, there is some damning evidence that Intel was not playing fair. For example, AMD tried to give away 1 million processors to HP - and these were faster processors than Intel's at the time - but HP declined. Intel's pricing model was structured in a way to make it so that using any competitor in any small percentage would be more expensive than being 100% Intel only. They did this by using 'marketing rebates' that would directly correlate with the percentage of Intel processors sold.
Face it.. the P4 sucked. It did nothing but suck for years. It was an awful processor. Yet, somehow, Intel kept its exclusive agreements long enough to keep AMD from gaining significant market share - which would have in turn allowed AMD to keep spending on R and D which would have allowed AMD to remain competitive. It takes YEARS to develop the next best processor. Intel is only sitting where it is because it successfully choked AMD years ago.
For a few quarters, AMD was kicking Intel's ass - but it should have been kicking way more ass than it was. Also, AMD's financial situation is a result of leveraging themselves in order to compete with Intel and then not receiving the market benefits that normally come in a competitive industry with a technology lead.
Further, it is hard to dismiss threats as evidenced in emails from Intel against business with competitors. Or, you can shove your head in the sand and call this entire complicated situation as all sorts of 'red herrings.'
I think the T41p is that last Thinkpad that is 'truly' IBM's design. I bought mine used 3 years ago.. used it for 2 1/2.. and sold it still working perfectly to a friend. It looked brand new after I cleaned it too..
After the T41p, the build quality and battery life went down because the P4's were power hogs that needed to dissipate a lot of heat.
And, it is the last laptop as far as I know that doesn't have the goddamn Windows keys.
You can still buy them for $300-500 off Ebay or liquidation sites.. They were $4000 laptops back in the day.
Who is going to be the first to just grab the .txt from the article with the pictures and supply it in a common format for all these sites?
What was the topic again? I have ADD and got distracted somewhere.
Ya.. well I thought of the idea of 'putting chips on a multilayer card-like substrate.' If I never would've thought of this, imagine where we'd be!! We wouldn't have computers or anything!
IBM Thinkpad was by far the best laptop line.. Now, it's basically just another piece of crap laptop. Moffat deserves jail time just for this.. "Crimes against quality."
I switched my company from CA to Kaspersky. I consider it a mistake. We will not be renewing our Kaspersky licenses - partly because of what the CEO said, partly because Kaspersky antivirus likes to screw with your network protocols even if you turn off those 'features.'
Then it would only make sense to reverse the polarity and launch a probe.
The reason I could never take MAC seriously for any sort of business is lack of docking ports..
My old machine (loved it).. IBM T41p.. still one of the best laptops ever made - though out-dated
My current developer machine.. Dell Precision M4400.. 2.53ghz quad-core.. not huge, durable, RGB LED 1920x1200 screen, docking port, display port (can present using display port to dvi adapter), XP 64bit.. great for virtualization
It drives me nuts to see how often MAC gets recommended as a laptop.. Sure.. it's the nicest one you see at Best Buy.. But no corporation should ever consider using laptops that don't have docking ports.
I would like to start calling this "Walmart Island." Walmart is slowly turning everything we buy into higher and higher percentage of plastic.. Things that used to last forever - like a chair, a table, a drill - are being turned into 'disposable' items that just end up in our landfills. A normal table lasts years and years.. a Walmart table breaks after 2 months to a year of moderate use..
No one seems to be saying that part of the answer to combatting these buildups of plastic is to build things of higher quality that last. Walmart is the anti-quality. Therefore, we should call this plastic island "Walmart Island."
Why should we consider it? It is a laughable. He is suggesting we change the laws in ways that severely limit individual freedom in a way that is completely impossible to enforce unless we completely change some core fundamental aspects of participation on the Internet. This man could be God for all I care.. If he says something stupid, it is stupid no matter what. We should consider his stupid opinion because he's a great man? That's an error in reasoning. (false authority fallacy)
Think about this.. He is trying to preserve an industry that is changing because of technology. Just because news as we know it is going through 'evolution pains' does not mean we should stick our stupid laws all over it. Leave our laws be. First Amendment is a pretty damn important law in this country..
There will ALWAYS be demand for news - and there will always be a demand for truth. By adding new laws that limit the ability to satisfy that demand better, we are actually regressing. Just because the news will change does not mean it will not be better. In fact, I would like to argue that most of our news is completely useless anyway. Let it be free. Let honest people report what they see.. and a group of similar opinions will allow people reading it to distinguish the truth. Right now, if Fox News wants to put their own screwed up twist, they can legally do that.. and they do it all the time! Screw them..
The newspapers screw the news also.. IMO, right now, there seems to be no good way to get the truth unless you read the news and the bloggers and the comments, and form an opinion of what really happened. So, if you cannot link to an article, how do you comment about it? How do you tell people what you're talking about? Maybe there should not be money in the news.. Let the market figure out how to handle the news.
And, further, fuck copyright. The laws make the copyright holders so card-stacked against the individual that people care less and less about it and the laws governing it.
The original public release (I believe 7000) stated it would work until August 1, 2009. This hasn't changed, right?
I would say that most of our generation has...
70 years? that's a lifetime..
The future of cable TV is 'a la carte' over the Internet..
As long as I have a fast Internet connection, and a box for every TV (kind of like my fucking cable company now), I could have every service the cable company delivers now.. except then I would have more options from decentralized cable providers all over the world.
Dear Microsoft,
I am a frustrated user. I am frustrated because you are continuously making it difficult for me to use your software. You are making it even more difficult for me to buy your software.
I called Microsoft yesterday.. I wanted a clear answer on exactly how many licenses I need of Windows XP in order to develop software that will run on a Windows environment. The first guy I talked to told me I need one license per virtual machine. I asked him if I needed a license every time I copied the virtual machine to start a separate project. He said that I do..
Then I asked how do I get VLK licenses like the big corporations do.. He told me I need to talk to that department and.. okay.. long story.. I'll fork my rant here.. Send me message if you want me to continue my licensing rant in detail.
Next rant: Windows Vista.. Stop telling me it is better than Windows XP. But, also stop telling me Windows 7 is better than Windows XP. Out of all the Windows desktop operating systems I've used, Windows XP 64bit seems to be the most stable and the most user-friendly (and software developer friendly).. So why are you making it so goddamn hard for anyone to buy Windows XP 64bit? Anyone that understands anything about software knows that Windows Vista was a miserable attempt to wrestle control away from the user..
Next rant: Why are you forcing Vista on everyone that buys a computer in the store?! There have been multiple times I would've purchased a store computer for convenience (for home or workplace) if it just had an option for XP.
Next rant: DRM. Fucking stop it. Start enabling people - not disabling them. Stop listening to media companies that are trying to force you to handicap your operating system. People pay for stuff that's convenient. Make it convenient as possible. Stop installing WGA spyware on everyones' computers.
Next rant: Stop changing interfaces for the hell of changing interfaces. Give me a 'compatibility mode' interface. For example.. Leave an option for toolbars to look like Excel 2003 in Excel 2007.. Or.. leave an option for Windows Vista to behave like XP.. And, if you don't put 'classic startmenu' back into Windows 7, I swear to God I'll never buy it.. I will use XP. (I'm using Windows 7 now.. I want my fucking classic startmenu. How dare you try to guess what program I feel like using.)
Next rant: Stop adding more steps in the process to get anything done!!! In Windows 95, Startmenu > Programs displayed everything.. Then.. Windows 98/ME/XP started scrolling and hiding shit by default.. How the fuck is that more convenient? It's just one extra click.. How about changing an IP address? It is easier and quicker in XP than Vista.. How about changing resolution? so much easier in XP than Vista.. or Windows 7..
Next rant: Stop choosing the dumbass options for everyone by default.. give a 'poweruser' setting during setup so Windows explorer doesn't try to hide exensions, hide details, hide operating system files..
Next rant: No puppy dogs.
Next rant: Build disk-imaging into the OS. Let me install a drive, go to disk manager, and copy my old drive.. It's easy as hell to program.. And it's easy as hell to do in linux.. make it easy to do in Windows.
Next rant: Be stricter with developers.. Make the OS so it has to explicitly ask the user to 'run on startup' or 'run a popup daemon' that will annoy us to upgrade all the time..
Next rant: Follow your own fucking standards. If I disable all icons on the desktop for my users in group policy, I should not have a 'Windows media player' and 'Help and support' link on the desktop. Also, likewise with Printers link and Outlook express.
Next rant: Spend some effort on file organization. Windows 7 shortens the paths to 'documents and settings'.. but it is no more organized! Stop making 'My Music' folders on computers that have no music and never will!
Next rant: Stop wasting GUI space.. How is a thicker window border any more convenient? How about I get to control the size of t
I am NOT a big fan of Colbert. I think he's funny - but also an idiot. But, NASA should think twice about a generation that grew up watching Daily Show and Colbert - and gained a cynical attitude of everything the Government does.
NASA needs to offer something. Hell.. why not name it after Colbert? They could offer to go ahead and name it after Colbert - if he maybe does a few segments about NASA in a positive light.
There are some of us younger (well I think younger at 27) people that think NASA is the last place government should cut funding..
From the last few US presidential elections where statistics where typically very different for electronic voting (Diebold) and paper ballots, a common conclusion was that either:
1. Diebold fixed the elections (a)
or
2. Diebold is completely incompetent (b)
But then.. People would argue that #2 is invalid because Diebold has atms all over the world that count money.. and they never have problems - so something as simple as voting should be easy.
Maybe Diebold is just trying to prove that they can be incompetent too? Which would give us a new set of alternatives:
3. Diebold is fabricating their own incompetence (c)
or
4. Diebold is really incompetent (d)
(d) = (b)
so..
((a) or (b)) and ((c) or (d))
so..
((a) or (b)) and ((c) or (b))
so..
((a) and (c)) or (b)
which translates to:
Why the fuck do we trust Diebold with anything?
I bet California has already declared it to be cancer-causing..