Because it's not advertised on the Tee Vee, and because MS can afford all of the FUD and astroturfing it needs to keep people in a state of confusion.
Also, because you may or may not be able to open that PowerPoint.pptx with cute cat pictures. I know compatibility exists, but it is in no way guaranteed to always work
After all, it's "not ready for the desktop", just like Linux.
And here I will have to burn some of my carma once again
With all due respect, Linux is not nearly as ready for the desktop as people on slashdot seem to think. Now, I understand that there is a bunch of people who will come forward and explain how their grandma used Ubuntu (or such) for 10 years now.
But what I know is when the wireless card on the desktop did not work, the common googled solution appears to involve recompiling the kernel with right modules. That's where I begin to tune out. It's not the specific problem, it's the fact that kernel re-compilation should never be an acceptable part of the configuration/setup that is done by the average user.
Because users actually prefer MS Office and are willing to pay for using it?
Users don't necessarily prefer MS Office as much as they are locked into it.
Compatibility is a crapshoot and I think there may be active work on MS side to decrease it further.
If they didn't comply by end of today, they would be held in contempt of court.
Mmmm, I wonder where is that contempt of court when TSA ignores the ruling they lost? Took court a year to reiterate that their ruling should be followed
And Twitter has until the end of day??
It's also messages they handed over...which were MEANT to be public in the first place. I don't think it's reasonable to expect that something will be held in confidence when you put it on Twitter, for christ's sake.
Lots of things are meant to be public, but I wouldn't expect them to be easily acquirable (post-factum). I think maybe it is reasonable for Twitter NOT TO STORE IT, which would then match MY privacy expectation. If someone monitored/stored it, they got it, but the data is not perpetually available to anyone who goes fishing at a later date.
The spokespeople of multinational crime syndicates tend not to be well-regarded by law enforcement. I know, it's confusing.
Ah, you are one of "those" people
As long as the person in question is likely/potentially an asshole, he deserves everything he gets, right? You don't even wonder if there had been a valid (i.e. legal) reason to arrest him.
Next step would be to arrest and harass any lawyer that will dare to represent that guy. I mean, the guy's got some bad connections, so anyone working for him is probably fair game too.
I just noticed in my EULA that I have renounced my citizenship and rights as a US citizen.
It's fortunate that at least some rights cannot be waived though. Whether EULAs are legal or not, any clauses demanding your soul or your firstborn are invalid
Someone should write and then try to enforce EULA that renounces user's citizenship. It would be helpful for something like that to go through the court system! (assuming it gets undone, that is...)
Indeed, my bad.
When browsing at a moderated threshold (>=2 or >=3), I do not see the parent posts, sometimes missing the context. That's why I always try to quote what I am responding to.
Still, my point stands to some degree, as your first solution was an RC controlled helicopter with explosive and a magnet, then an RC controlled helicopter that may attach something to block the camera screen.
Only then did you mention a laser, which I think is far easier to operate.
An automatic speed bump would work with an instant penalty be easier to setup, cheaper, and would not need you to go down to a courthouse to contest.
Automatic speedbumps have their own problems. Sometimes emergency vehicles have to go through (police or, even more importantly, an ambulance with a patient in it).
Plus I assume the speedlimits are higher at night or other times when school is not in session. Speed bumps just don't discriminate.
The solution is having three cameras in-line with the speed camera in the middle and the other two watching.
Armored cameras
Drone-mounted surveillance cameras that can cover an entire city
Tazers that can automatically take out a vandal (or anyone coming too close to the camera).
RC Helicopter. Just create a payload with a strong magnet. Fly by, stick it to the camera, and detonate. Small controlled explosion with no collateral damage.
Talk about a geek site solutions
Or, you know, you could just wear a mask or a baseball hat?
Bin Laden is dead, as are many of the top Al Queda leaders, the network has been dismantled, and spuriously we're safer from attack.
Ah, but there still are faceless "evil doers" who wish to "harm us". So there is clearly a need for more and more military and extra-judicial actions.
Plus, if we keep bombing random countries with drones (without even contemplating war declaration), new terrorist groups will eventually form. Or we can just name some organization in that country as "terrorist"
Personally, I'm glad for this extension. There are still evildoers, particularly Islamic terrorists that are bent on harming America. Just wittness the latest attack in Libya.
I can't tell if you are being serious or not here (modded Funny + Interesting + Troll). Go figure
But might I note that any power that is needed while there "are still evildoers" will be available infinitely and with no checks, because we are not scheduled to reach nirvana and absolute enlightenment any time soon.
Yep, seeing as how Obama will happily sign it as well.
Even if Obama WANTED to veto it (which, granted, he probably doesn't), what would be the point of doing that? The bill has enough majority to override the veto.
So I would mostly blame the representatives here.
Does the constitutional prohibition of ex post facto laws prevent the legalization of illegal activity as a means to annul the culpability of preexisting perpetrators?
I think ex post facto laws refer to making what was formerly a legal activity to suddenly become illegal. Not sure if it covers the reverse (i.e. retroactively legalizing and excusing law-breaking)
If it did, then, presidential pardon would be trickier than it is.
Flip a coin!
a) If you agree, great.
b) If you want to flip again, go for 2/3 or otherwise reconsider the rules, then you wanted the other decision.
Really, while the question is not short, there is still much data missing (how far is "further away", how fun is "fun", etc, etc.). There is no exact formula that can help.
Apple's iOS blocks people from changing default browser off Safari, But MS gets sued and Fined for Even Including IE? How da hell does that work?
When Apple is a monopoly, they may have to be more careful. It may seem like they are everywhere, but they do not control more than 1/2 of any market (about 33% on smartphones, around 8% on desktops)
Plus they don't block anyone from installing another competing browser, which I thought this complaint is about.
and the only two places where it shows ads is the lock screen and the book selection screen. It never shows ads when you actually read the book.
And it would never, ever, ever occur to Amazon to start showing ads IN the book once you get used to having ads on the device!
Just like the paid cable television started as ad-free (but paid) medium. Then they showed 3 minutes of ads per half hour. Now you are lucky to get 23 minutes of content per half hour (advertisement length more than doubled in the 30 years since the 70s).
So what would happen if someone in Alaska would purchase an item and than give that item to someone in a state that did have a sales tax? With automobiles it is easy since that automobile must be registered in the state of residency the sales tax is collected when registering that automobile.
There are efforts to monitor state border of New Hampshire (no sales tax) for anyone trying to buy anything major (cars, electronics, etc.) and take it across the border -- not sure how exactly.
Most stores at the border have limits to how many packs of cigarets you can buy in one go.
And I'll be buying from someone other than amazon from now on, unless amazon lowers their prices by 9% to suit.
I suspect you'll just buy from whoever has the lower total price, just like 99.99% of customers. In some cases Amazon would still win even at +9% because of their aggressive discounting.
Fortunately, our political system provides a wide range of candidates to choose from, because 2 choices wouldn't be nearly enough for a large country with many millions of people.
The education experiment in the United States has consistently shown that the more resources we throw at it, the worse the results are.
Haha, now I see why teachers are underpaid in US. Are you saying that increasing teacher salaries (or # of teachers?) resulted in worse education?
I wonder if anyone tried cutting teacher salaries to zero to see if the reverse is also true. More resources make results worse, so fewer resources must mean better results?
Before we cut the summer vacation maybe we should focus on enhancing education that's received in a 10 month window and make that better instead of adding another 2 weeks of subpar education.
It might make sense to rebalance the vacation (as some schools have)
Cut down the summer vacation by 2-4 weeks and reintroduce those weeks for springbreak/winter vacation. A single long break per year is not necessarily the best way to allocate free time. At least not before kids start getting jobs...
Walter White didn't invent anything! He just packaged up his meth in blue crystals instead of boring white ones
You are rated insightful more than funny, so even though this is meant as a joke:
Walter White had challenged the general attitude of "they are stupid junkies, they'll smoke whatever we give them" by insisting that a higher-purity product will sell better. It is actually not the worst analogy to, say, Microsoft (you'll get our new OS with your new desktop and like it) vs. Apple (let's make our OS so that users like it).
This is completely orthogonal to discussion of which may be better. It is simply a fact that achieving monopoly status leads to complacency towards customers.
Slashdot Mirror
Because it's not advertised on the Tee Vee, and because MS can afford all of the FUD and astroturfing it needs to keep people in a state of confusion.
Also, because you may or may not be able to open that PowerPoint.pptx with cute cat pictures. I know compatibility exists, but it is in no way guaranteed to always work
After all, it's "not ready for the desktop", just like Linux.
And here I will have to burn some of my carma once again
With all due respect, Linux is not nearly as ready for the desktop as people on slashdot seem to think. Now, I understand that there is a bunch of people who will come forward and explain how their grandma used Ubuntu (or such) for 10 years now.
But what I know is when the wireless card on the desktop did not work, the common googled solution appears to involve recompiling the kernel with right modules. That's where I begin to tune out. It's not the specific problem, it's the fact that kernel re-compilation should never be an acceptable part of the configuration/setup that is done by the average user.
Because users actually prefer MS Office and are willing to pay for using it?
Users don't necessarily prefer MS Office as much as they are locked into it.
Compatibility is a crapshoot and I think there may be active work on MS side to decrease it further.
If they didn't comply by end of today, they would be held in contempt of court.
Mmmm, I wonder where is that contempt of court when TSA ignores the ruling they lost? Took court a year to reiterate that their ruling should be followed
And Twitter has until the end of day??
It's also messages they handed over...which were MEANT to be public in the first place. I don't think it's reasonable to expect that something will be held in confidence when you put it on Twitter, for christ's sake.
Lots of things are meant to be public, but I wouldn't expect them to be easily acquirable (post-factum). I think maybe it is reasonable for Twitter NOT TO STORE IT, which would then match MY privacy expectation. If someone monitored/stored it, they got it, but the data is not perpetually available to anyone who goes fishing at a later date.
The spokespeople of multinational crime syndicates tend not to be well-regarded by law enforcement. I know, it's confusing.
Ah, you are one of "those" people
As long as the person in question is likely/potentially an asshole, he deserves everything he gets, right? You don't even wonder if there had been a valid (i.e. legal) reason to arrest him.
Next step would be to arrest and harass any lawyer that will dare to represent that guy. I mean, the guy's got some bad connections, so anyone working for him is probably fair game too.
I just noticed in my EULA that I have renounced my citizenship and rights as a US citizen.
It's fortunate that at least some rights cannot be waived though. Whether EULAs are legal or not, any clauses demanding your soul or your firstborn are invalid
Someone should write and then try to enforce EULA that renounces user's citizenship. It would be helpful for something like that to go through the court system! (assuming it gets undone, that is...)
If you read the post I was responding to...
Indeed, my bad.
When browsing at a moderated threshold (>=2 or >=3), I do not see the parent posts, sometimes missing the context. That's why I always try to quote what I am responding to.
Still, my point stands to some degree, as your first solution was an RC controlled helicopter with explosive and a magnet, then an RC controlled helicopter that may attach something to block the camera screen.
Only then did you mention a laser, which I think is far easier to operate.
An automatic speed bump would work with an instant penalty be easier to setup, cheaper, and would not need you to go down to a courthouse to contest.
Automatic speedbumps have their own problems. Sometimes emergency vehicles have to go through (police or, even more importantly, an ambulance with a patient in it).
Plus I assume the speedlimits are higher at night or other times when school is not in session. Speed bumps just don't discriminate.
The solution is having three cameras in-line with the speed camera in the middle and the other two watching.
Armored cameras
Drone-mounted surveillance cameras that can cover an entire city
Tazers that can automatically take out a vandal (or anyone coming too close to the camera).
The opportunities are almost endless.
RC Helicopter. Just create a payload with a strong magnet. Fly by, stick it to the camera, and detonate. Small controlled explosion with no collateral damage.
Talk about a geek site solutions
Or, you know, you could just wear a mask or a baseball hat?
Bin Laden is dead, as are many of the top Al Queda leaders, the network has been dismantled, and spuriously we're safer from attack.
Ah, but there still are faceless "evil doers" who wish to "harm us". So there is clearly a need for more and more military and extra-judicial actions.
Plus, if we keep bombing random countries with drones (without even contemplating war declaration), new terrorist groups will eventually form. Or we can just name some organization in that country as "terrorist"
So it's really a win-win all around
Personally, I'm glad for this extension. There are still evildoers, particularly Islamic terrorists that are bent on harming America. Just wittness the latest attack in Libya.
I can't tell if you are being serious or not here (modded Funny + Interesting + Troll). Go figure
But might I note that any power that is needed while there "are still evildoers" will be available infinitely and with no checks, because we are not scheduled to reach nirvana and absolute enlightenment any time soon.
Yep, seeing as how Obama will happily sign it as well.
Even if Obama WANTED to veto it (which, granted, he probably doesn't), what would be the point of doing that? The bill has enough majority to override the veto.
So I would mostly blame the representatives here.
Does the constitutional prohibition of ex post facto laws prevent the legalization of illegal activity as a means to annul the culpability of preexisting perpetrators?
I think ex post facto laws refer to making what was formerly a legal activity to suddenly become illegal. Not sure if it covers the reverse (i.e. retroactively legalizing and excusing law-breaking)
If it did, then, presidential pardon would be trickier than it is.
Flip a coin!
You haven't finished explaining the algorithm
Flip a coin!
a) If you agree, great.
b) If you want to flip again, go for 2/3 or otherwise reconsider the rules, then you wanted the other decision.
Really, while the question is not short, there is still much data missing (how far is "further away", how fun is "fun", etc, etc.). There is no exact formula that can help.
Apple's iOS blocks people from changing default browser off Safari, But MS gets sued and Fined for Even Including IE? How da hell does that work?
When Apple is a monopoly, they may have to be more careful. It may seem like they are everywhere, but they do not control more than 1/2 of any market (about 33% on smartphones, around 8% on desktops)
Plus they don't block anyone from installing another competing browser, which I thought this complaint is about.
and the only two places where it shows ads is the lock screen and the book selection screen. It never shows ads when you actually read the book.
And it would never, ever, ever occur to Amazon to start showing ads IN the book once you get used to having ads on the device!
Just like the paid cable television started as ad-free (but paid) medium. Then they showed 3 minutes of ads per half hour. Now you are lucky to get 23 minutes of content per half hour (advertisement length more than doubled in the 30 years since the 70s).
So what would happen if someone in Alaska would purchase an item and than give that item to someone in a state that did have a sales tax? With automobiles it is easy since that automobile must be registered in the state of residency the sales tax is collected when registering that automobile.
There are efforts to monitor state border of New Hampshire (no sales tax) for anyone trying to buy anything major (cars, electronics, etc.) and take it across the border -- not sure how exactly.
Most stores at the border have limits to how many packs of cigarets you can buy in one go.
And I'll be buying from someone other than amazon from now on, unless amazon lowers their prices by 9% to suit.
I suspect you'll just buy from whoever has the lower total price, just like 99.99% of customers. In some cases Amazon would still win even at +9% because of their aggressive discounting.
And then there is also corporations established by the social robots. I wonder how soon these would get special rights too...
I am sure Supreme Court will welcome the opportunity to establish that social robots are people
... I don't want either one of them.
Fortunately, our political system provides a wide range of candidates to choose from, because 2 choices wouldn't be nearly enough for a large country with many millions of people.
The education experiment in the United States has consistently shown that the more resources we throw at it, the worse the results are.
Haha, now I see why teachers are underpaid in US. Are you saying that increasing teacher salaries (or # of teachers?) resulted in worse education?
I wonder if anyone tried cutting teacher salaries to zero to see if the reverse is also true. More resources make results worse, so fewer resources must mean better results?
Before we cut the summer vacation maybe we should focus on enhancing education that's received in a 10 month window and make that better instead of adding another 2 weeks of subpar education.
It might make sense to rebalance the vacation (as some schools have)
Cut down the summer vacation by 2-4 weeks and reintroduce those weeks for springbreak/winter vacation. A single long break per year is not necessarily the best way to allocate free time. At least not before kids start getting jobs...
Walter White didn't invent anything! He just packaged up his meth in blue crystals instead of boring white ones
You are rated insightful more than funny, so even though this is meant as a joke:
Walter White had challenged the general attitude of "they are stupid junkies, they'll smoke whatever we give them" by insisting that a higher-purity product will sell better. It is actually not the worst analogy to, say, Microsoft (you'll get our new OS with your new desktop and like it) vs. Apple (let's make our OS so that users like it).
This is completely orthogonal to discussion of which may be better. It is simply a fact that achieving monopoly status leads to complacency towards customers.