Well two answers :
1) Linux is not offered as an option where I live (it was either that or Millenium, and Millenium is the worst piece of crap MS ever made)
2) I wanted one of those gorgeous new SXGA flat screens (and trust me, they are really the best screens I ever used), and only Dell offer them right know. Working in 1400x1050 on a screen that has no flicker at all, bright and nice colors and razor sharp pixels is a really neat thing:)
Well they can buy OEM licenses from wholesalers, you don't HAVE to buy them directly from MS (might be a tad cheaper though).
Also I think in most European countries it is illegal to refuse sale of a product or service based on subjective appreciation (you can refuse the sale if the buyer doesn't have a good credit rating and doesn't pay cash for example, but you can't refuse because you don't like him).
Well the CD itself is not a restauration CD but a gull Windows 2000 (with SP1) installation disc. Doesn't has any drivers specific to Dell hardware or doesn't carry any Dell branding. Doesn't sound exactly like a "restauration" CD (which should have OS, drivers and basic Dell apps all installed on a disc image)
Because my new Dell laptop came with a Windows 2000 CD. As I planned on using another OS on it I wanted to give it away to a friend.
Turned out :
- the CD won't run on a compter manufactered by someone else than Dell (I think it checks something in the BIOS)
- the licence number is a sticker... stuck on the underside of the laptop itself !
So I just paid for a legal Windows 2000 copy, yet I can't even use it on the computer I want. I wonder how Dell customers who buy desktop computers will like it when they change their motherboards (and therefor, the BIOS in it won't be Dell branded anymore). If this isn't a blatant attempt to rip off customers, then what is it ?
From the Casio Cassiopeia install instructions I've red :
- you don't boot in GUI but in console mode... pretty funny since you don't have a keyboard, you are forced to login thru some external mean
- you need a 64+ MB compactflash to put the whole filesystem
- you need a Linux box and a CompactFlash reader attached to it to fill the compactflash
in clear words : unless there's something I misunderstood here, this release is totally useless for real-world use. Just a few geeks will be able to install it and use it.
ARTICLE V:
You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
Why not ? Many of the most civilized countries, and even some not so advanced, have free health care. It works. Those against free health care are often (if not always) people with way enough money to afford some private health insurance, and not generous enough to consider giving part of their income to help people who could use a doctor (don't talk to me about charity, it's just a lame excuse to sooth your guilt, not to effectively help people)
ARTICLE VI:
You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
I think this is self contradicting. If you don't have the right to physically harm other people, how come you have the right to kill them on an electric chair ? Or is it "eyes for an eyes" ? I thought that was the justice of 2000 year old backward and primative barbarian...
i dont know what causes the high prison rates. but i would put my money on poor education and poor parenting.
I guess you found one of the reason, but how about "a very repressive justice" ? It seems to me that the judges are somewhat very "prison happy" in the USA.
It's no coincidence that the countries with the best day care, ie Sweden, France, are also the countries with the most spiritually malnourished people who have no innate sense of human worth. They're but a small stpe from state sponsored creches, where a child sees their birth parents twice a year.
Yeah, it's not like in the wonderful USA, where prisons are full and people are fried on the electric chair on a regular basis (mostly because they were found guilty of not having the same lawyers as OJ Simpson). A country where everyone is free to carry a gun so that he is ready to kill when the time does come (self defense, killing rage, "don't worry it's not loaded", etc.). A country where it's nice and popular to starve to death other poorer country because you like their politicians (Irak, Cuba), or simply bomb them when the president need a little popularity boost.
Now don't come back talking about sense of human worth. France and Sweden might be mostly atheist (which apparently is what you seem to think is equal to "spiritually malnourished"), but they certainly put more price on life than in the USA (the place were a bunch of judges get to pick the president and human rights are not even respected).
The US constitution is like the Bible : it is overly old, some parts are still meaningfull, but some parts are also meaningless to the point of stupidity. I mean, do we really need to stone to death people guilty of adultery ? The world change, and sometimes the laws that govern it need an overhaul every couple of centuries... (show me someone who still follows every one of the ten commandmants and I'll show you a weirdo religious nut).
America claims to be the "Land of the Free", but a greater percentage of its citizens are in prison than in any other democracy.
Not all of them are in prison, some are directly fried directly. America might not give a sh*t about human rights, but they sure know how to recycle the good old "games" of Rome. When will Bush Junior bring back the lions ? The electric chair is not as entertaining.
The odd thing is that the USA is the country where people trust their gov. the less (to the point of total paranoïa), yet they trust it enough to accept its decision of killing someone. I personnaly trust my gov. to use the tax efficiently enough, but wouldn't let it decide who should live and who shoudn't...
Actually, I think taxing gas is the best, most efficient and democratic way. So anyone can still drive an SUV, but you'd rather have a real need for it or load of cash to use one on a daily basis. As for people who need a pickup twice a year, they can always rent one (much more efficient than buying one and using it 363 days/year to commute). Gas tax is about equal to pollution tax : you pollute => you pay for the damages you cause to everyone.
Problem is, in the US gas tax is very low, which in turn let people waste gas for silly things (showing off with your new F150, leaving the engine on for 30 minutes, moving stuff in trucks instead of electric railways, etc.).
Re:Military Implications?
on
Space Diving
·
· Score: 1
You just remind me of the (excellent) game Alpha Centauri, where you can do space insertion anywhere on the planet if you have already built the Space Elevator... pretty cool to drop some army next to an enemy city right in the middle of his territory:)
Well, seeing as there are only a few Concordes in the WORLD and they don't fly all that often compared to other commercial jets
Well, it has been flying for over 25 years since its conception. The Concorde is even safer than other planes because only the best and most experienced pilots get promoted to fly it, and the maintenance crews are also very controled and well trained. The only accident that happened, happened because of the defect of another plane and not because of some internal failure. Beside, with just one accident so far you can't even compute some "mean time between crash", so this mean time is between "every 25 years" and infinite.
maybe the most widely used widebody jet on the market
Since this is the ONLY big jet on the market it wasn't difficult to become the "most widely used". That's why the A3XX is coming - despite Boing claims that there's no more market for big planes, I think it will be a huge success (and more troubles for Boing who was using the 747 lack of competition to make big margins).
as a result of non-natural causes is less than firmly established
It is very well established, and the only one who contest this are oil companies studies and a few oil dependant countries (especially the USA, where every citizen has a constitutionnal right to drive a huge inefficient SUV). As always, there will be lunatics claiming the earth is flat, or that Darwin was totally wrong, etc... and it is especially true when huge lobbies are at work like with global warming.
if several billion peoples' lives are made better, I don't mind if a few hundred thousands lose their homes
The point is balance. Your life can be as good if you drive a 5 liter/100 km Peugeot 206 HDI or a Ford Explorer that use 3 or 4 time as much gas (and no, I won't use 17th century units). We can also replace oil/gas plants with nuclear plants, etc... there are millions of way to drasticly decrease CO2 generation without giving much in return, if only some little efforts.
As for me, I'm not willing to give up my house because some idiot fat SUV driver wanted to keep up with the Johnes and boost his ego. I like my house where it is and no insurance money will ever replace it. And don't forget that the insurance will cost you more if floodings are more frequent, hence you'll end up paying, indirectly, for gas damages... even if you don't own a car. Is this really free-market ?
I was just responding to the troll above... I know there are fine planes coming from the USA, although I wouldn't put either any of the DC10 or the 747 into this category (they are both issued from several decades old design).
The Concorde crash has really shown one thing : American make planes that are so loosy that the bits they loose on the ground can damage other planes... don't forget the Concorde crashed because some lame DC10 lost some parts on the landing track. In 25 years of service, Concorde has had only 1 crash... no other commercial plane can claim that good track record.
747... isn't that some kind of tiny Airbus A3XX ???
I was speaking about the environment cost of global warming, where islands disappear under the sea, climate change and becomes more violent. The price for all this - and it is huge - isn't paid by anyone.
Basically all oil company/coal company/gas users are making money out of something that is given free (non-polluted air), but which has a price. When/if your house get taken over by flooding caused by global warming, will you be able to turn the people who make money out of gas for damages ? I doubt it...
Indeed - you are dead right. Although I'm in strong favor of preserving the environment I think greens all around the world are wrong in fighting nuclear power, as this is about the only efficient way to stop CO2 generation. Solar panels are very inefficient and unrealiable, and wind turbine... well they are ugly and as soon as many are installed the ecologist will go whining again !
the relative prices of different means of heating accurately reflects their costs
No it doesn't... it reflects the cost of production/extraction, not the cost to mankind as a whole when the environment is destroyed. That's were regulation and the governement come into play, as only them can fix the price of environement degradation (but it seems it doesn't do so in many country unfortunately).
If environmental cost was reflected into petrol prices, we would all use hydrogen/air presure/whatever-energy cars instead of relying on gas to go around. And all power plant would run on nuclear too (because let's face it, it's much easier to dispose of a few radioactive waste than of billions of tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere)
Well supply and demand work... but for people who have total control of the supply. I quite agree with you, as soon as electricity turns to a full capitalist system, then it is in electricity best interest to lower supply in order to make money.
Fortunately for the republicans, someday the USA will be so much deregulated that they won't have to do politics anymore as the country will be run by AOL-Time-Warner-Coca-Procter-Microsoft-Texaco (aka "World Company"). In what will be a capitalist paradise that Reagan and Bush would be proud of, laws will be made at the board meetings, the companies will have their own armies, police and schools. Citizens will have rights equal to their stock portofolio, and those who can afford will even have access to full medical services and police protection. The justice will be privatized, and in a perfect example of efficient free-market, the opposing sides will be able, during the trial, to bid on the judge to win the case.
Not to mention the fact that with all their air-cond, huge fridge, big lighting, etc... the average american use twice as much energy as the average west-european, whose level of comfort is not so much different.
Oh I forgot, everyone pointing those facts is an anti-american green comie propagating false rumors. Everyone NEEDS a big SUV.
As a citizen of a "so called" backward stupid european socialist country (France), were the governement is made in part of comie & green ministers, all I can say is :
my energy is cheap and I never had any outage for the past 7 years
For all those who free-market lunatics, my advice is : invest in the candle industry. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the benefits of governement subsidise nuclear plants:-)
First there'll be a crack as soon as the serial # checking system is integrated in a beta version...
As for those who don't want/don't know cracks, well, they'll just switch to Linux.
I think MS is doing a big mistake, as piracy is actually what makes them so successful : people use warezed MS copies at home, and when they get to work ask their company the same software they already know, and the company buys it instead of forcing its own (cheaper) solution. If MS want to kill it's massive long-term market force just for the sake of selling a few 1000s in 2001, then let it be !
In fact Yahoo's TOC have been forbidding racial hate items for years. It's only now they decide to enforce the TOC... probably related to the French court decision, but nonetheless this was an inconsistency to ban racial hate items yet allow Nazi and the KKK to sell their propaganda stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
Well two answers : :)
1) Linux is not offered as an option where I live (it was either that or Millenium, and Millenium is the worst piece of crap MS ever made)
2) I wanted one of those gorgeous new SXGA flat screens (and trust me, they are really the best screens I ever used), and only Dell offer them right know. Working in 1400x1050 on a screen that has no flicker at all, bright and nice colors and razor sharp pixels is a really neat thing
Well they can buy OEM licenses from wholesalers, you don't HAVE to buy them directly from MS (might be a tad cheaper though).
Also I think in most European countries it is illegal to refuse sale of a product or service based on subjective appreciation (you can refuse the sale if the buyer doesn't have a good credit rating and doesn't pay cash for example, but you can't refuse because you don't like him).
Well the CD itself is not a restauration CD but a gull Windows 2000 (with SP1) installation disc. Doesn't has any drivers specific to Dell hardware or doesn't carry any Dell branding. Doesn't sound exactly like a "restauration" CD (which should have OS, drivers and basic Dell apps all installed on a disc image)
Because my new Dell laptop came with a Windows 2000 CD. As I planned on using another OS on it I wanted to give it away to a friend.
Turned out :
- the CD won't run on a compter manufactered by someone else than Dell (I think it checks something in the BIOS)
- the licence number is a sticker... stuck on the underside of the laptop itself !
So I just paid for a legal Windows 2000 copy, yet I can't even use it on the computer I want. I wonder how Dell customers who buy desktop computers will like it when they change their motherboards (and therefor, the BIOS in it won't be Dell branded anymore). If this isn't a blatant attempt to rip off customers, then what is it ?
From the Casio Cassiopeia install instructions I've red :
- you don't boot in GUI but in console mode... pretty funny since you don't have a keyboard, you are forced to login thru some external mean
- you need a 64+ MB compactflash to put the whole filesystem
- you need a Linux box and a CompactFlash reader attached to it to fill the compactflash
in clear words : unless there's something I misunderstood here, this release is totally useless for real-world use. Just a few geeks will be able to install it and use it.
ARTICLE V:
You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
Why not ? Many of the most civilized countries, and even some not so advanced, have free health care. It works. Those against free health care are often (if not always) people with way enough money to afford some private health insurance, and not generous enough to consider giving part of their income to help people who could use a doctor (don't talk to me about charity, it's just a lame excuse to sooth your guilt, not to effectively help people)
ARTICLE VI:
You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
I think this is self contradicting. If you don't have the right to physically harm other people, how come you have the right to kill them on an electric chair ? Or is it "eyes for an eyes" ? I thought that was the justice of 2000 year old backward and primative barbarian...
i dont know what causes the high prison rates. but i would put my money on poor education and poor parenting.
I guess you found one of the reason, but how about "a very repressive justice" ? It seems to me that the judges are somewhat very "prison happy" in the USA.
It's no coincidence that the countries with the best day care, ie Sweden, France, are also the countries with the most spiritually malnourished people who have no innate sense of human worth. They're but a small stpe from state sponsored creches, where a child sees their birth parents twice a year.
Yeah, it's not like in the wonderful USA, where prisons are full and people are fried on the electric chair on a regular basis (mostly because they were found guilty of not having the same lawyers as OJ Simpson). A country where everyone is free to carry a gun so that he is ready to kill when the time does come (self defense, killing rage, "don't worry it's not loaded", etc.). A country where it's nice and popular to starve to death other poorer country because you like their politicians (Irak, Cuba), or simply bomb them when the president need a little popularity boost.
Now don't come back talking about sense of human worth. France and Sweden might be mostly atheist (which apparently is what you seem to think is equal to "spiritually malnourished"), but they certainly put more price on life than in the USA (the place were a bunch of judges get to pick the president and human rights are not even respected).
The US constitution is like the Bible : it is overly old, some parts are still meaningfull, but some parts are also meaningless to the point of stupidity. I mean, do we really need to stone to death people guilty of adultery ? The world change, and sometimes the laws that govern it need an overhaul every couple of centuries... (show me someone who still follows every one of the ten commandmants and I'll show you a weirdo religious nut).
America claims to be the "Land of the Free", but a greater percentage of its citizens are in prison than in any other democracy.
Not all of them are in prison, some are directly fried directly. America might not give a sh*t about human rights, but they sure know how to recycle the good old "games" of Rome. When will Bush Junior bring back the lions ? The electric chair is not as entertaining.
The odd thing is that the USA is the country where people trust their gov. the less (to the point of total paranoïa), yet they trust it enough to accept its decision of killing someone. I personnaly trust my gov. to use the tax efficiently enough, but wouldn't let it decide who should live and who shoudn't...
Actually, I think taxing gas is the best, most efficient and democratic way. So anyone can still drive an SUV, but you'd rather have a real need for it or load of cash to use one on a daily basis. As for people who need a pickup twice a year, they can always rent one (much more efficient than buying one and using it 363 days/year to commute). Gas tax is about equal to pollution tax : you pollute => you pay for the damages you cause to everyone.
Problem is, in the US gas tax is very low, which in turn let people waste gas for silly things (showing off with your new F150, leaving the engine on for 30 minutes, moving stuff in trucks instead of electric railways, etc.).
You just remind me of the (excellent) game Alpha Centauri, where you can do space insertion anywhere on the planet if you have already built the Space Elevator... pretty cool to drop some army next to an enemy city right in the middle of his territory :)
Well, seeing as there are only a few Concordes in the WORLD and they don't fly all that often compared to other commercial jets
Well, it has been flying for over 25 years since its conception. The Concorde is even safer than other planes because only the best and most experienced pilots get promoted to fly it, and the maintenance crews are also very controled and well trained. The only accident that happened, happened because of the defect of another plane and not because of some internal failure. Beside, with just one accident so far you can't even compute some "mean time between crash", so this mean time is between "every 25 years" and infinite.
maybe the most widely used widebody jet on the market
Since this is the ONLY big jet on the market it wasn't difficult to become the "most widely used". That's why the A3XX is coming - despite Boing claims that there's no more market for big planes, I think it will be a huge success (and more troubles for Boing who was using the 747 lack of competition to make big margins).
as a result of non-natural causes is less than firmly established
It is very well established, and the only one who contest this are oil companies studies and a few oil dependant countries (especially the USA, where every citizen has a constitutionnal right to drive a huge inefficient SUV). As always, there will be lunatics claiming the earth is flat, or that Darwin was totally wrong, etc... and it is especially true when huge lobbies are at work like with global warming.
if several billion peoples' lives are made better, I don't mind if a few hundred thousands lose their homes
The point is balance. Your life can be as good if you drive a 5 liter/100 km Peugeot 206 HDI or a Ford Explorer that use 3 or 4 time as much gas (and no, I won't use 17th century units). We can also replace oil/gas plants with nuclear plants, etc... there are millions of way to drasticly decrease CO2 generation without giving much in return, if only some little efforts.
As for me, I'm not willing to give up my house because some idiot fat SUV driver wanted to keep up with the Johnes and boost his ego. I like my house where it is and no insurance money will ever replace it. And don't forget that the insurance will cost you more if floodings are more frequent, hence you'll end up paying, indirectly, for gas damages... even if you don't own a car. Is this really free-market ?
I was just responding to the troll above... I know there are fine planes coming from the USA, although I wouldn't put either any of the DC10 or the 747 into this category (they are both issued from several decades old design).
The Concorde crash has really shown one thing : American make planes that are so loosy that the bits they loose on the ground can damage other planes... don't forget the Concorde crashed because some lame DC10 lost some parts on the landing track. In 25 years of service, Concorde has had only 1 crash... no other commercial plane can claim that good track record.
747... isn't that some kind of tiny Airbus A3XX ???
I was speaking about the environment cost of global warming, where islands disappear under the sea, climate change and becomes more violent. The price for all this - and it is huge - isn't paid by anyone.
Basically all oil company/coal company/gas users are making money out of something that is given free (non-polluted air), but which has a price. When/if your house get taken over by flooding caused by global warming, will you be able to turn the people who make money out of gas for damages ? I doubt it...
Indeed - you are dead right. Although I'm in strong favor of preserving the environment I think greens all around the world are wrong in fighting nuclear power, as this is about the only efficient way to stop CO2 generation. Solar panels are very inefficient and unrealiable, and wind turbine... well they are ugly and as soon as many are installed the ecologist will go whining again !
the relative prices of different means of heating accurately reflects their costs
No it doesn't... it reflects the cost of production/extraction, not the cost to mankind as a whole when the environment is destroyed. That's were regulation and the governement come into play, as only them can fix the price of environement degradation (but it seems it doesn't do so in many country unfortunately).
If environmental cost was reflected into petrol prices, we would all use hydrogen/air presure/whatever-energy cars instead of relying on gas to go around. And all power plant would run on nuclear too (because let's face it, it's much easier to dispose of a few radioactive waste than of billions of tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere)
Well supply and demand work... but for people who have total control of the supply. I quite agree with you, as soon as electricity turns to a full capitalist system, then it is in electricity best interest to lower supply in order to make money.
Fortunately for the republicans, someday the USA will be so much deregulated that they won't have to do politics anymore as the country will be run by AOL-Time-Warner-Coca-Procter-Microsoft-Texaco (aka "World Company"). In what will be a capitalist paradise that Reagan and Bush would be proud of, laws will be made at the board meetings, the companies will have their own armies, police and schools. Citizens will have rights equal to their stock portofolio, and those who can afford will even have access to full medical services and police protection. The justice will be privatized, and in a perfect example of efficient free-market, the opposing sides will be able, during the trial, to bid on the judge to win the case.
Not to mention the fact that with all their air-cond, huge fridge, big lighting, etc... the average american use twice as much energy as the average west-european, whose level of comfort is not so much different.
Oh I forgot, everyone pointing those facts is an anti-american green comie propagating false rumors. Everyone NEEDS a big SUV.
political parties ran misleading advertisements is another issue entirely
Well, if at least 2 parties ran advertisement saying 2 opposite things, then at least one of them is misleading...
Repairmen 2nd moto : if it ain't broke, don't fix it...
As a citizen of a "so called" backward stupid european socialist country (France), were the governement is made in part of comie & green ministers, all I can say is :
:-)
my energy is cheap and I never had any outage for the past 7 years
For all those who free-market lunatics, my advice is : invest in the candle industry. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the benefits of governement subsidise nuclear plants
First there'll be a crack as soon as the serial # checking system is integrated in a beta version...
As for those who don't want/don't know cracks, well, they'll just switch to Linux.
I think MS is doing a big mistake, as piracy is actually what makes them so successful : people use warezed MS copies at home, and when they get to work ask their company the same software they already know, and the company buys it instead of forcing its own (cheaper) solution. If MS want to kill it's massive long-term market force just for the sake of selling a few 1000s in 2001, then let it be !
In fact Yahoo's TOC have been forbidding racial hate items for years. It's only now they decide to enforce the TOC... probably related to the French court decision, but nonetheless this was an inconsistency to ban racial hate items yet allow Nazi and the KKK to sell their propaganda stuff.