Sorry, I'm not an MS apologist, but this is unfair. Sure, Windows has a *terrible* history (I've been a user since before v3.1), and MS is a pretty horrible company, but your comment simply is not true any more.
Windows 2000 is very solid, and the system for installing drivers is quick and painless. "Computer Management" through MMC and auto-detection of new hardware are both impressive bits of coding, IMO.
"and you get no information about what is really going on to troubleshoot!"
Now this I totally agree with. I want to know what's going on too, but 99% of computer users don't want, and shouldn't need, to know.
An example. A new graphics adaptor is a piece of consumer electronics these days, with a nice shiny box and everything. Would I prefer to perhaps recompile my f**cking OS kernel to get it working, or pop in a CD and wait? Hmmm... (And both methods require rebooting and nervous anticipation, BTW, Windows does not have the monopoly on that).
that it justifies this:
"To use threedegrees, prospective testers must be running Windows XP with Service Pack 1, the new peer-to-peer update and MSN Messenger 5 installed on their computer."
No thanks.
In the UK, it's possible to appoint an accountant, and have your business registered at their office.
That way you can "work from home" without "change of use" problems etc.
Maybe you can do the same in the US...
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jc
Whether you agree with the article or not, there are some great references at the bottom. If Friday is a slow-code day for you, read 'em!
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jc
"Yep that will affect your ability to upgrade"
Very true, but almost every time I've done a CPU upgrade I've ended up buying a new motherboard anyway.
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jc
Nah, but have your ever tried searching for a few common filenames on a P2P network?
"credit card.txt"; "visa.txt" etc....
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jc
"money, data that will affect stock prices, Star Trek episodes, government secrets, etc"
This made me laugh; good to see the guy has a sense of humour. Then I realised that you can probably get all this stuff on Kazaa, anyway.
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jc
Well, the article says:
"The company says the system is perfectly safe and will not even wipe credit cards if you accidentally put one on the pad."
But I wonder how long this thing would take to charge a battery?
It does seem like a very cool idea, though. Hope it works - especially at the quored sub-$50 price point.
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jc
Computers are useless at interpreting natural language queries
Oh. Is that why when I ask it for:
"Tea -- Earl Grey -- Hot"
nothing happens? And I do have an English accent...
Sorry, I'm not an MS apologist, but this is unfair. Sure, Windows has a *terrible* history (I've been a user since before v3.1), and MS is a pretty horrible company, but your comment simply is not true any more. Windows 2000 is very solid, and the system for installing drivers is quick and painless. "Computer Management" through MMC and auto-detection of new hardware are both impressive bits of coding, IMO.
"and you get no information about what is really going on to troubleshoot!"
Now this I totally agree with. I want to know what's going on too, but 99% of computer users don't want, and shouldn't need, to know.
An example. A new graphics adaptor is a piece of consumer electronics these days, with a nice shiny box and everything. Would I prefer to perhaps recompile my f**cking OS kernel to get it working, or pop in a CD and wait? Hmmm... (And both methods require rebooting and nervous anticipation, BTW, Windows does not have the monopoly on that).
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I like Linux AND Windows. Shoot me.
that it justifies this: "To use threedegrees, prospective testers must be running Windows XP with Service Pack 1, the new peer-to-peer update and MSN Messenger 5 installed on their computer."
No thanks.