For some reason, a lot of PC manufacturers don't give the consumer an option for a pre-loaded OS. For example, Dell Canada doesn't offer XP for their Inspiron line (although Dell USA does offer XP, for some reason, Canadians get screwed), and almost all Asus laptops come pre-loaded with Vista. I think it's the same BS for consumer line HP laptops too. I ended up buying a business line laptop, which came pre-loaded with Vista, but came with Vista and XP discs.
It seems to me that Microsoft is strong-arming PC manufacturers to offer Vista only, so I'm surprised that number isn't higher.
The markup on USB cables at BestBuy are ridiculous. They charge $20, but they only pay $1 for them, or something like that. Now don't get me started on monster cables...
It'd be nice to have stats on how many people chose to upgrade to Vista, rather than having it forced upon them with their new PC. I was looking for a laptop a month ago, and most had Vista pre-installed where an upgrade to XP wasn't an option. I'm using Vista x64 right now because it was pre-installed, and so far, it's usable. The only thing stopping me from upgrading to XP is my laziness.
I agree 100%. The public transportation system must be improved. The problem is that Toronto only has 2 subway lines (there's actually 3, but the 3rd one doesn't really count, there's only 3 stations). The subway lines runs North/South and East/West. It's fine and dandy if you're close to a subway station, but if you're not, you're going to have to take a bus. Unfortunately, the bus isn't immune to traffic jams like the subway is, and it's slow. If Toronto doesn't do anything about significantly improving the public transportation system, people are going to just spend all day in traffic. It's almost like that now in fact.
After being in Germany for 6 months, I've realized they've got it right. In the city center, the subways are put underground. As you leave the city center, the subway goes above ground (it's a lot cheaper to build it that way). There's trams that zip through the cities as well. A lot of the time, these trams are on dedicated lines, so they're not affected by car traffic.
This highlights a major deficiency in our highway system. It takes ONLY 1 idiot person to cause a major traffic jam. Considering that in a large North American city, millions drive on the freeways every day, it's a friggin miracle that the system still keeps working (but not very well). I'm from Toronto, which has the busiest freeway (the 401) in North America, and some parts of the 401 are ALWAYS jammed up, even at midnight. At some parts, the freeway is about 12 lanes wide, on each side!
Talk about calling the kettle black. China is probably the largest source of piracy. They really should handle the problem of people selling pirate CDs and DVDs before going after Yahoo for indexing some warez site.
So I'm a cave-dweller for not knowing this? So I guess 99% of the population are of the cave-dweller variety. Congrats on being the 1% of the people who are surface-dwellers.
I hope they don't waste it on their Turbo Memory technology. That's something that looked good on paper, but really didn't work as expected. But I can't wait until we get solid state hard drives of a decent size. Maybe in a few years, we'll have 100GB flash hard drives, which will make laptops last longer on its battery...
Well, of course I don't hate all wireless. I don't like using my cell phone and my wireless home phone. The sound just isn't as clear. My hatred of wireless really stems from the first wireless mouse I ever got. First of all, I had to change the batteries every month. The batteries would always go out at the worst times too. Like while I'm playing Counter Strike, and I'm about to pop a foe with my glock, then the battery runs out, and the foe knifes me in the back. Very annoying. Second of all, the mouse had significant lag, and it'd often lose connection. I know the technology is better now, but my $10 wired mouse works great. No batteries required.
This is why I hate everything that's wireless. Devices interfere with each other, they have to be recharged all the time, and it's slow! I propose a revolution, a revolution where devices don't interfere with each other, they don't need to be recharged, and is fast! I propose the use of thin threads of copper for signal transmission and power supply. In fact, I am inventing the next BlackBerry killer. Imagine a phone which never drops a signal, never requires charging, and can transfer data at 1gbps. That's right, a phone that's wired! Now, I just need to make sure NTP doesn't sue the crap out of me for wired e-mail.
SETI was the first to really harness this concept in a useful way, and it was very useful to prove the viability for distributed computing. However, I think the computing power would be better used for medical research, such as Rosetta and World Community Grid. Don't get me wrong, I think the SETI project is valuable, but I think crunching numbers for medical research is more important. I urge all of you crunching numbers for SETI, to also share that crunching power for medical research as well.
I find it hilarious that word Spam is used to describe junk e-mail. It's unfortunate for SPAM, the shitty meat product. It reminds me of the diet product called AYDS, before AIDS became a well-known disease. Those AYDS commercials are now comedy classics! Google it.
Bell raised their "system access fee" from something like $3 to $7. This fee is not quoted as part of the monthly cost!!! So it's completely hidden until you get the bill. WTF! By that time, you're stuck in a contract, and they get to F^&* you for 2 years (or however long the contract is). Rogers has a monopoly on GSM. Which means that they get to @$$ rape companies that need phones to work in Europe. These companies are swimming in profits, and they are achieving this by lowering service and increasing prices. If I were Bell, I would be against this too, because making money is so easy when your customers have no choice. It's no coincidence that Canada has the lowest cell phone market penetration of all the developed countries. F Bell, Rogers, and Telus. If I were an investor, I would sell my stock of these 3. Their profits are no longer going to be handed to them.
I second that. You're really just giving yourself and the other developer aggravation for no benefit. It's like if you burn a $20 bill. Everyone loses.
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For some reason, a lot of PC manufacturers don't give the consumer an option for a pre-loaded OS. For example, Dell Canada doesn't offer XP for their Inspiron line (although Dell USA does offer XP, for some reason, Canadians get screwed), and almost all Asus laptops come pre-loaded with Vista. I think it's the same BS for consumer line HP laptops too. I ended up buying a business line laptop, which came pre-loaded with Vista, but came with Vista and XP discs.
It seems to me that Microsoft is strong-arming PC manufacturers to offer Vista only, so I'm surprised that number isn't higher.
The markup on USB cables at BestBuy are ridiculous. They charge $20, but they only pay $1 for them, or something like that. Now don't get me started on monster cables...
It'd be nice to have stats on how many people chose to upgrade to Vista, rather than having it forced upon them with their new PC. I was looking for a laptop a month ago, and most had Vista pre-installed where an upgrade to XP wasn't an option. I'm using Vista x64 right now because it was pre-installed, and so far, it's usable. The only thing stopping me from upgrading to XP is my laziness.
I agree 100%. The public transportation system must be improved. The problem is that Toronto only has 2 subway lines (there's actually 3, but the 3rd one doesn't really count, there's only 3 stations). The subway lines runs North/South and East/West. It's fine and dandy if you're close to a subway station, but if you're not, you're going to have to take a bus. Unfortunately, the bus isn't immune to traffic jams like the subway is, and it's slow. If Toronto doesn't do anything about significantly improving the public transportation system, people are going to just spend all day in traffic. It's almost like that now in fact.
After being in Germany for 6 months, I've realized they've got it right. In the city center, the subways are put underground. As you leave the city center, the subway goes above ground (it's a lot cheaper to build it that way). There's trams that zip through the cities as well. A lot of the time, these trams are on dedicated lines, so they're not affected by car traffic.
I think that small tunnel people go through freaks people out or something. The DVP around the 401 used to be really brutal before they improved it.
Okay, so I exaggerated a bit, I counted 10 lanes. Here's the satellite image.
This highlights a major deficiency in our highway system. It takes ONLY 1 idiot person to cause a major traffic jam. Considering that in a large North American city, millions drive on the freeways every day, it's a friggin miracle that the system still keeps working (but not very well). I'm from Toronto, which has the busiest freeway (the 401) in North America, and some parts of the 401 are ALWAYS jammed up, even at midnight. At some parts, the freeway is about 12 lanes wide, on each side!
Talk about calling the kettle black. China is probably the largest source of piracy. They really should handle the problem of people selling pirate CDs and DVDs before going after Yahoo for indexing some warez site.
The RIAA must not have any feet left, because I thought they shot off both of their feet when they started suing their customers.
But you need the power to make sure that you're running a legit copy of Windows.
Well, I guess it's expected on slashdot to get insulted for not knowing something. At least I learned something new. That's why I read the comments.
So I'm a cave-dweller for not knowing this? So I guess 99% of the population are of the cave-dweller variety. Congrats on being the 1% of the people who are surface-dwellers.
I hope they don't waste it on their Turbo Memory technology. That's something that looked good on paper, but really didn't work as expected. But I can't wait until we get solid state hard drives of a decent size. Maybe in a few years, we'll have 100GB flash hard drives, which will make laptops last longer on its battery...
I'm clearly being sarcastic. What is wrong with you Slashdot people?
Well, of course I don't hate all wireless. I don't like using my cell phone and my wireless home phone. The sound just isn't as clear. My hatred of wireless really stems from the first wireless mouse I ever got. First of all, I had to change the batteries every month. The batteries would always go out at the worst times too. Like while I'm playing Counter Strike, and I'm about to pop a foe with my glock, then the battery runs out, and the foe knifes me in the back. Very annoying. Second of all, the mouse had significant lag, and it'd often lose connection. I know the technology is better now, but my $10 wired mouse works great. No batteries required.
This is why I hate everything that's wireless. Devices interfere with each other, they have to be recharged all the time, and it's slow! I propose a revolution, a revolution where devices don't interfere with each other, they don't need to be recharged, and is fast! I propose the use of thin threads of copper for signal transmission and power supply. In fact, I am inventing the next BlackBerry killer. Imagine a phone which never drops a signal, never requires charging, and can transfer data at 1gbps. That's right, a phone that's wired! Now, I just need to make sure NTP doesn't sue the crap out of me for wired e-mail.
SETI was the first to really harness this concept in a useful way, and it was very useful to prove the viability for distributed computing. However, I think the computing power would be better used for medical research, such as Rosetta and World Community Grid. Don't get me wrong, I think the SETI project is valuable, but I think crunching numbers for medical research is more important. I urge all of you crunching numbers for SETI, to also share that crunching power for medical research as well.
It'll be fun to watch capitalism at work. I'm not sure what WD is thinking, but I'm sure this will be a hands on Economics 101 lesson for them.
It's saying Steve Jobs is trying to make customers pay more for the right to do something that's already a right.
I find it hilarious that word Spam is used to describe junk e-mail. It's unfortunate for SPAM, the shitty meat product. It reminds me of the diet product called AYDS, before AIDS became a well-known disease. Those AYDS commercials are now comedy classics! Google it.
Do you realize how expensive it is to hire an army of lawyers? They really need to increase the price of song downloads to $2.
As funny as that statement is, how scary is it that now the norm is for the White House to break laws with impunity?
What happens when they do ignore the court order? Nothing? Does someone go to jail and then gets pardoned?
Bell raised their "system access fee" from something like $3 to $7. This fee is not quoted as part of the monthly cost!!! So it's completely hidden until you get the bill. WTF! By that time, you're stuck in a contract, and they get to F^&* you for 2 years (or however long the contract is). Rogers has a monopoly on GSM. Which means that they get to @$$ rape companies that need phones to work in Europe. These companies are swimming in profits, and they are achieving this by lowering service and increasing prices. If I were Bell, I would be against this too, because making money is so easy when your customers have no choice. It's no coincidence that Canada has the lowest cell phone market penetration of all the developed countries. F Bell, Rogers, and Telus. If I were an investor, I would sell my stock of these 3. Their profits are no longer going to be handed to them.
I second that. You're really just giving yourself and the other developer aggravation for no benefit. It's like if you burn a $20 bill. Everyone loses.