"But Microsoft said the Operating System would become unstable without all that stuff + kitchen sink."
RTFA. They were referring to seperating Excel, Word, and presumably Outlook. You're referring to IE, which has components that touch other areas of Windows.
I have a PocketPC I used for several months. It was great for taking down voice notes during my 10 minute walk home. Unfortunately, though, it became a burden to carry that thing around. Because of that, I never used it to store appointments or phone numbers etc. So eventually it just became the "Read AvantGo from the toilet" device.
However, I did have a nice turn around when I got my Ericsson T-68i Cell Phone. Granted, I'm not going to dictate notes with it, but it is great for storing appointments and phone #'s. Plus, I can synch it with Outlook and Bluetooth. Since I carry my phone with me all the time (it's very tiny, I forget it's in my pocket sometimes) it has truely become a 'Personal Digital Assistant'. It has completely replaced my alarm clock. I can even surf the web with it via my cellular service, something I still can't do today with my PocketPC.
What I've just said really isn't on-topic per se, but I thought you'd find it interesting that somembody in a similar position has found something to his liking.:)
"Migrating to a new system (any system) w/o somebody who has done it a thousand times is just silly. You didn't have a sysadmin, why would you change your platform? You had a sysadmin set up your last platform and that was stable. you were able to keep it up from that point. that is VERY different from putting together a platform yourself and expecting it to Just work like the other one."
"I just think your expectations were unrealistic."
Heh well I didn't really go into our expectations. The switch wasn't for the sake of looking cool on Slashdot. It happened because there was a phase where we thought we were going to double or even triple our workforce. Unfortunately, that never happened. I miss the dot-com days.:(
Well, some of it was Linux and some of it was the software we chose. Our mail package doesn't support some of the features that Exchange did. (or it requires more time than is available to put into it.) I don't remember which mail software it was, just that it's not PostFix or Sendmail. (We didn't exactly make a good choice there...)
I think we've also had some issues with Samba, but I can't be too specific because after the Apache migration I tried to stay out of it. Speaking of Apache, I didn't really have any problems with it, but it did get hit by a nasty worm. I wasn't experienced enough to lock that down. My bad.
Uhh other issues? Well the big one is that before we got the sysadmin we only had ONE person that really knew how to make those Linux computers sing. Unfortuantely, she was quite busy with othre stuff too. Not really Linux's fault, but my own attempts to learn what is needed to provide backup support turned painful.
I'm not sure how clear I was when I originally posted, but I wasn't poking at Linux, but rather making the point that I wasn't prepared for it. Since TCO was brought up, it was probably interesting to know that with Windows we didn't need to hire a full time admin. We're a small company so a single person's salary is rather significant.
"Did Newton owners choose wrong or were they simply ahead of the curve?"
Niether. Apple had a good machine there but there were prohibiting factors that prevented it from being a bigger success. (Too big for pockets, high price, etc...) I think Palm proved that the Newton was useful, it just needed a little tweaking.
I'm a little surprised that Apple didn't invent the Palm Pilot before Palm did. Now that PDAs are all over the place, where's Apple's entry?
"Not to insult you top end Windows admins, but lets face it. The ability of Windows admins has a larger varience then that of Unix admins. "
As a former Windows admin I am not offended by this comment. I think you're right. Windows does a lot of automatic stuff to get things running. As long as you play by MS's rules, you end up not having to worry about a lot of stuff.
There are pros and cons here. The obvious con is that when a real problem occurs, sometimes it's really difficult to find out why without the knowledge of how the underlying system works. The pro here, though, is that your employees don't have far to climb to fix their own problems. Windows exposes enough of the functionaltiy through the UI that you get hints on where to look. Most of the time I've been asked for help, my coworker's already taken some troubleshooting steps. That leaves you with a lot of free time on your hands!
I can honestly say that after working with Linux servers and in assisting the setup of a network that my Windows administration experience does not make me feel qualified to be a sysadmin. Fortunately, that's not my choice in profession.
"There was a/. article about this recently, pointing out that the average Unix sysadmin costs more than the average Windows guy, but he can also manage more. So two windows experts do the same work as one Unix guy, but the Unix one costs more."
My company of about 20 people has always been mainly a Windows shop. A couple of years ago, our sysadmin left. I absorbed his responsibilities, adding to my full-time job. Funny thing is, I've been able to keep up with it. I had to fix a server once in a while. But I really haven't had to spend a whole lot of time helping people with Windows/Office issues. We certainly were never interested in hiring a full-time sysadmin as a result of that.
That was until a couple of weeks ago. We recently migrated the servers over to Linux. Since then we've had all kinds of issues that have needed attention. Unfortunately I'm a newb to the Linux world so I haven't been able to handle that. So now we have a full-time admin. (Just as a note: Part of the reason we hired him was for a future project he'll be able to help us with, but right now he's running around cleaning up this mess.)
Is this post about saying Windows is great and Linux isn't? No, not at all. If you're to take away any meaning from my post here it's that you should use the right tool for the job. Just about everybody who's worked here has a computer at home that they use a lot. You can probably guess, they use Windows at home. That was coupled with a policy at work along the lines of "Treat the computer as if it's your own", meaning that there were no policies about what you can/can't install etc. The result? Not only were people familiar with their tools, but they also didn't have a crippling fear that they were going to commit some great offense that'd incur the wrath of the sysadmin.
So, for us, the Windows NT line has been wonderful. (Note: 9X and ME were HORRIBLE, I'm not defending those OS's under any condition.) The switch to Linux just for the servers has been painful, and I do not look forward to the day that we switch over to Linux. (If that ever happens.) My main concern, though, isn't that Linux isn't ready for us. It's that we're so used to Windows that Linux will be that much harder.
I'm not really worried about it though. Windows 2k and even XP is doing wonderful over here. Nobody's itching to change, and frankly a "Unix Evangelist" isn't going to change our minds when we've got experience backing us up.
"Cannabis News released this article about how the DEA is seeking to redirect indicted businesses that sell glass bongs and pipes to the DEA's website."
At first, I thought this was sarcastic. Doesn't sound like it is. Is it illegal to have a bong? Can they really do that?
This comment really bothered me:
"In effect, the defunct Web sites become electronic flypaper for those looking for illegal drug paraphernalia, reporters covering the story, and people who have trouble spelling in Google."
There's absolutely no way that they know anybody's intentions when they go to a site like that. The internet is a source of INFORMATION. At some point, information's going to be accessed. It's not like you can call me a pirate just for visiting a site about piracy. Heck, you can't even call me a pirate if I download an ISO. How do they know I'm not replacing a scratched disk?
Blah blah blah I know, it's all been said before by lots of people. The difference for me today is that I now understand why privacy nuts are so fanatical about it. Out of context, data can be used in horrible ways.
"Sorry, but your skills in spelling the word "competent" won't get you very far in this market. There just isn't as much of a demand for a professional "competent" speller as there used to be."
Ah, you must be a Mac user. I can't think of any other type of person who'd judge my worth based on something so superficial.
(well at least a Fox Trot fan might laugh at that comment...)
"But couldn't one just boot off a CD-Linux distro and run regedit under wine? (does regedit work under wine?) Or is there perhaps a console version of regedit that would run under the win2k console?"
No, I don't think so. I had the registry in Windows 2000 go corrupt once because I had a power failure while it was in the process of shutting down. Basically, the Registry was being edited and I guess the file didn't finish writing. I installed another instance of 2k in order to try to recover what I could, but I couldn't get Regedit to do anything but work on that installation's own Registry. What you're suggesting might work if somebody wrote their own Registry editing app.
"Unless the registry is actually encrypted, I don't see any real advantage to having it in a non-human-readable format."
It's in binary format, not in 'non-human readable' format. To be honest, I'm not sure why MS does it either. I would guess that there's an advantage of using a binary format over text format. Space maybe? If the registry is big, Windows is slow. Wish I could figure out how to compress the registry.
Anyhoo, this is all besides the point. If you have physical access to my computer, all you need to do is install another instance of Windows 2k or Xp and you have all you need to mess around with the files on it. You might even be able to recover passwords etc that way, not sure. It *would* be detectable though, unlike a CD boot.
In any case, this doesn't seeem like a huge security hole to me.
"This "problem" is not caused by the existence of the Registry, but by dumb admins who allow booting of alternate media. That's not to say the Registry is wonderful, of course.."
The point of the article, that is if you read it, was that you have to be booted into Windows before you can actually mess with the sensitive bits.
"... who still thinks the Registry is a bad thing?"
Hmm. Whoever modded this comment as "Troll" probably didn't read the article.
The article basically says that the vast majority of Windows config stuff is in the Registry. The Registry cannot be read from the console. I think it's because it's binary, I've tried to do it before and no luck. So you really can't do a whole lot but dump files to a floppy or something with this console.
If the dude with the mod points had read the article, he probably would have found the comment rightfully amusing and not 'trolling'.
I'm an artist, and as such I'm not expected to know a lot of math. So I obviously have nothing to suggest to this guy.
But I would like to share my own method for solving some problems, mainly geometry problems. I work in 3D, Lightwave to be specific, and I've helped engineering solve some mathematical problems with it. For example, there was a question about how to build a sphere with each face being in the shape of a pentagon. They needed to know what the angles of some of the vertices were. While the engineers were busy pushing numbers around on paper, I built the model in Lightwave and used its tools to get the right measurements. Actually got it done before they got their equations done. That was kind of cool.
As I said, that doesn't really help that guy. I just thought solving a math problem like that using a 3D app was kind of interesting. New? No. Just interesting. Math is not my favorite subject but at least I've got tools today that prevent that from being a huge disadvantage to me.
"Significantly expanded? So what does one more game equal? A 25% increase?"
Oh, I dunno if I'd say that. But it did up the number of genres available for Linux gaming to 4!
Here's the current list:
1.) FPS ports from the most popular Windows releases. 2.) Penguin Racing 3.) M.A.M.E. 4.) All new! Strategy game set in space provided you have Wine up and running.
Yep, Linux now has 4 incredibly broad genres of games to play!
(I hope the Linux mods have a sense of humor today.)
"All my gaming is done in Linux. UT, UT2003, all the id titles, Tribes 2, all have native Linux support."
That pretty much defines all the gaming done under Linux.
So, out of curiosity, how long after the Windows release of those games did you have to wait? I'm asking seriously, not necessarily trying to counter-point you here. I honestly don't know the answer to that question. But if your answer is "well it took them a few months to port it", then my pain point is still very much in tact.
It's one thing if you're mildly entertained with what is available for Linux. But if you're a gamer, then don't kid yourself. Dual boot with Windows. Even better, have a second gaming machine around. They'z not that expensive anymore.
"t's statements like this that validates everything that the RIAA claims."
It might validate them in their eyes, but as far as it being a good argument, that's questionable. He does bring up a good point about the pricing.
My math was a little different. You get 10 tracks a month, but you pay $18 a month. So you're buying an album for $18, that's a little spendy.
The flip side is that you get streaming options (presumably from the actual content...) and your CD is nothing but music you want. That's not all bad.
But there's still the sticker shock deal like the guy mentioned. Yeah, he sounds bad for saying Kazaa is "fucking free", but when you think about what he's really saying here, Kazaa is just plain a better service. I imagine lotsa people'd be happy to pay $20 to use Kazaa, just for the right to use it legally. (Note: that's completely different than paying $20/mo to use Kazaa because the company demands it.)
The RIAA hasn't figured out yet that the price tag isn't the major issue here (Lots of people are buying $50 games when the tools the pirate them are there and waiting to be used), it's a matter of the service. The RIAA still has a wonderful opportunity here that they're arrogantly overlooking. They should set up their own music download service. All the songs they can muster, they guarantee the quality, and they provide a server that can handle quick downloads. That's it. Don't make it more complicated than that.
I mean seriously, every single music service I've seen has pricing policies that resemble cell phone plans!
" I doubt this has anything to do with security updates (they don't mail these anyway - they try to hush it up)."
I read a story within the last two weeks (after slammer) that MS was gearing up to set up a service where they could notify people via email when there were new important updates to download.
That's what I was referring to. Am I the only one that caught it?
Slashdot Mirror
"But Microsoft said the Operating System would become unstable without all that stuff + kitchen sink."
RTFA. They were referring to seperating Excel, Word, and presumably Outlook. You're referring to IE, which has components that touch other areas of Windows.
"Personally, I have limited use for a PDA."
:)
I have a PocketPC I used for several months. It was great for taking down voice notes during my 10 minute walk home. Unfortunately, though, it became a burden to carry that thing around. Because of that, I never used it to store appointments or phone numbers etc. So eventually it just became the "Read AvantGo from the toilet" device.
However, I did have a nice turn around when I got my Ericsson T-68i Cell Phone. Granted, I'm not going to dictate notes with it, but it is great for storing appointments and phone #'s. Plus, I can synch it with Outlook and Bluetooth. Since I carry my phone with me all the time (it's very tiny, I forget it's in my pocket sometimes) it has truely become a 'Personal Digital Assistant'. It has completely replaced my alarm clock. I can even surf the web with it via my cellular service, something I still can't do today with my PocketPC.
What I've just said really isn't on-topic per se, but I thought you'd find it interesting that somembody in a similar position has found something to his liking.
"Migrating to a new system (any system) w/o somebody who has done it a thousand times is just silly. You didn't have a sysadmin, why would you change your platform? You had a sysadmin set up your last platform and that was stable. you were able to keep it up from that point. that is VERY different from putting together a platform yourself and expecting it to Just work like the other one."
:(
"I just think your expectations were unrealistic."
Heh well I didn't really go into our expectations. The switch wasn't for the sake of looking cool on Slashdot. It happened because there was a phase where we thought we were going to double or even triple our workforce. Unfortunately, that never happened. I miss the dot-com days.
"What issues with Linux have you had?"
Well, some of it was Linux and some of it was the software we chose. Our mail package doesn't support some of the features that Exchange did. (or it requires more time than is available to put into it.) I don't remember which mail software it was, just that it's not PostFix or Sendmail. (We didn't exactly make a good choice there...)
I think we've also had some issues with Samba, but I can't be too specific because after the Apache migration I tried to stay out of it. Speaking of Apache, I didn't really have any problems with it, but it did get hit by a nasty worm. I wasn't experienced enough to lock that down. My bad.
Uhh other issues? Well the big one is that before we got the sysadmin we only had ONE person that really knew how to make those Linux computers sing. Unfortuantely, she was quite busy with othre stuff too. Not really Linux's fault, but my own attempts to learn what is needed to provide backup support turned painful.
I'm not sure how clear I was when I originally posted, but I wasn't poking at Linux, but rather making the point that I wasn't prepared for it. Since TCO was brought up, it was probably interesting to know that with Windows we didn't need to hire a full time admin. We're a small company so a single person's salary is rather significant.
"Did Newton owners choose wrong or were they simply ahead of the curve?"
Niether. Apple had a good machine there but there were prohibiting factors that prevented it from being a bigger success. (Too big for pockets, high price, etc...) I think Palm proved that the Newton was useful, it just needed a little tweaking.
I'm a little surprised that Apple didn't invent the Palm Pilot before Palm did. Now that PDAs are all over the place, where's Apple's entry?
"Not to insult you top end Windows admins, but lets face it. The ability of Windows admins has a larger varience then that of Unix admins. "
As a former Windows admin I am not offended by this comment. I think you're right. Windows does a lot of automatic stuff to get things running. As long as you play by MS's rules, you end up not having to worry about a lot of stuff.
There are pros and cons here. The obvious con is that when a real problem occurs, sometimes it's really difficult to find out why without the knowledge of how the underlying system works. The pro here, though, is that your employees don't have far to climb to fix their own problems. Windows exposes enough of the functionaltiy through the UI that you get hints on where to look. Most of the time I've been asked for help, my coworker's already taken some troubleshooting steps. That leaves you with a lot of free time on your hands!
I can honestly say that after working with Linux servers and in assisting the setup of a network that my Windows administration experience does not make me feel qualified to be a sysadmin. Fortunately, that's not my choice in profession.
"There was a /. article about this recently, pointing out that the average Unix sysadmin costs more than the average Windows guy, but he can also manage more. So two windows experts do the same work as one Unix guy, but the Unix one costs more."
My company of about 20 people has always been mainly a Windows shop. A couple of years ago, our sysadmin left. I absorbed his responsibilities, adding to my full-time job. Funny thing is, I've been able to keep up with it. I had to fix a server once in a while. But I really haven't had to spend a whole lot of time helping people with Windows/Office issues. We certainly were never interested in hiring a full-time sysadmin as a result of that.
That was until a couple of weeks ago. We recently migrated the servers over to Linux. Since then we've had all kinds of issues that have needed attention. Unfortunately I'm a newb to the Linux world so I haven't been able to handle that. So now we have a full-time admin. (Just as a note: Part of the reason we hired him was for a future project he'll be able to help us with, but right now he's running around cleaning up this mess.)
Is this post about saying Windows is great and Linux isn't? No, not at all. If you're to take away any meaning from my post here it's that you should use the right tool for the job. Just about everybody who's worked here has a computer at home that they use a lot. You can probably guess, they use Windows at home. That was coupled with a policy at work along the lines of "Treat the computer as if it's your own", meaning that there were no policies about what you can/can't install etc. The result? Not only were people familiar with their tools, but they also didn't have a crippling fear that they were going to commit some great offense that'd incur the wrath of the sysadmin.
So, for us, the Windows NT line has been wonderful. (Note: 9X and ME were HORRIBLE, I'm not defending those OS's under any condition.) The switch to Linux just for the servers has been painful, and I do not look forward to the day that we switch over to Linux. (If that ever happens.) My main concern, though, isn't that Linux isn't ready for us. It's that we're so used to Windows that Linux will be that much harder.
I'm not really worried about it though. Windows 2k and even XP is doing wonderful over here. Nobody's itching to change, and frankly a "Unix Evangelist" isn't going to change our minds when we've got experience backing us up.
"Cannabis News released this article about how the DEA is seeking to redirect indicted businesses that sell glass bongs and pipes to the DEA's website."
At first, I thought this was sarcastic. Doesn't sound like it is. Is it illegal to have a bong? Can they really do that?
This comment really bothered me:
"In effect, the defunct Web sites become electronic flypaper for those looking for illegal drug paraphernalia, reporters covering the story, and people who have trouble spelling in Google."
There's absolutely no way that they know anybody's intentions when they go to a site like that. The internet is a source of INFORMATION. At some point, information's going to be accessed. It's not like you can call me a pirate just for visiting a site about piracy. Heck, you can't even call me a pirate if I download an ISO. How do they know I'm not replacing a scratched disk?
Blah blah blah I know, it's all been said before by lots of people. The difference for me today is that I now understand why privacy nuts are so fanatical about it. Out of context, data can be used in horrible ways.
"actually I was making sarcastic fun of the pedantic ass who pointed out your spelling error.."
;)
Doh! I see that now. I'm sorry man, I should have read it more carefully.
Look on the bright side though, at least you've got a nice little quip to use against ppl who pull that kinda bs on you.
Thanks!
(set at no Karma Bonus because that's all I had to say)
"Sorry, but your skills in spelling the word "competent" won't get you very far in this market. There just isn't as much of a demand for a professional "competent" speller as there used to be."
Ah, you must be a Mac user. I can't think of any other type of person who'd judge my worth based on something so superficial.
(well at least a Fox Trot fan might laugh at that comment...)
"But couldn't one just boot off a CD-Linux distro and run regedit under wine? (does regedit work under wine?) Or is there perhaps a console version of regedit that would run under the win2k console?"
No, I don't think so. I had the registry in Windows 2000 go corrupt once because I had a power failure while it was in the process of shutting down. Basically, the Registry was being edited and I guess the file didn't finish writing. I installed another instance of 2k in order to try to recover what I could, but I couldn't get Regedit to do anything but work on that installation's own Registry. What you're suggesting might work if somebody wrote their own Registry editing app.
"Unless the registry is actually encrypted, I don't see any real advantage to having it in a non-human-readable format."
It's in binary format, not in 'non-human readable' format. To be honest, I'm not sure why MS does it either. I would guess that there's an advantage of using a binary format over text format. Space maybe? If the registry is big, Windows is slow. Wish I could figure out how to compress the registry.
Anyhoo, this is all besides the point. If you have physical access to my computer, all you need to do is install another instance of Windows 2k or Xp and you have all you need to mess around with the files on it. You might even be able to recover passwords etc that way, not sure. It *would* be detectable though, unlike a CD boot.
In any case, this doesn't seeem like a huge security hole to me.
"This "problem" is not caused by the existence of the Registry, but by dumb admins who allow booting of alternate media. That's not to say the Registry is wonderful, of course.."
The point of the article, that is if you read it, was that you have to be booted into Windows before you can actually mess with the sensitive bits.
I think parent poster was just being funny.
Re:Holy shit! (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26, @04:41PM (#5389964)
"Can anyone who can't spell competent be regarded as an authority on the subject?"
Can anybody who isn't capable of registering with Slashdot be regarded as an authority on competency?
"... who still thinks the Registry is a bad thing?"
Hmm. Whoever modded this comment as "Troll" probably didn't read the article.
The article basically says that the vast majority of Windows config stuff is in the Registry. The Registry cannot be read from the console. I think it's because it's binary, I've tried to do it before and no luck. So you really can't do a whole lot but dump files to a floppy or something with this console.
If the dude with the mod points had read the article, he probably would have found the comment rightfully amusing and not 'trolling'.
Anybody else stunned that Slashdot posted an article about MS that didn't involve an explanation as to how they're incompetant?
"Reminds me of the time my 7th grade teacher told me you can't trisect an angle."
e .jpg
Why did your teacher think it was impossible? Did she have a reason for it?
Out of curiosity, is this the answer?
http://www.jedi-knight2.de/prefabs/bilder/triforc
I'm an artist, and as such I'm not expected to know a lot of math. So I obviously have nothing to suggest to this guy.
But I would like to share my own method for solving some problems, mainly geometry problems. I work in 3D, Lightwave to be specific, and I've helped engineering solve some mathematical problems with it. For example, there was a question about how to build a sphere with each face being in the shape of a pentagon. They needed to know what the angles of some of the vertices were. While the engineers were busy pushing numbers around on paper, I built the model in Lightwave and used its tools to get the right measurements. Actually got it done before they got their equations done. That was kind of cool.
As I said, that doesn't really help that guy. I just thought solving a math problem like that using a 3D app was kind of interesting. New? No. Just interesting. Math is not my favorite subject but at least I've got tools today that prevent that from being a huge disadvantage to me.
"Significantly expanded? So what does one more game equal? A 25% increase?"
Oh, I dunno if I'd say that. But it did up the number of genres available for Linux gaming to 4!
Here's the current list:
1.) FPS ports from the most popular Windows releases.
2.) Penguin Racing
3.) M.A.M.E.
4.) All new! Strategy game set in space provided you have Wine up and running.
Yep, Linux now has 4 incredibly broad genres of games to play!
(I hope the Linux mods have a sense of humor today.)
"All my gaming is done in Linux. UT, UT2003, all the id titles, Tribes 2, all have native Linux support."
That pretty much defines all the gaming done under Linux.
So, out of curiosity, how long after the Windows release of those games did you have to wait? I'm asking seriously, not necessarily trying to counter-point you here. I honestly don't know the answer to that question. But if your answer is "well it took them a few months to port it", then my pain point is still very much in tact.
It's one thing if you're mildly entertained with what is available for Linux. But if you're a gamer, then don't kid yourself. Dual boot with Windows. Even better, have a second gaming machine around. They'z not that expensive anymore.
"Either A) We do not want to buy a License for MS or
B) Why bother dual booting when everything else is done in Linux."
Obviously your gaming's not done in Linux. So why cause yourself the pain?
"That statement is rather misleading -- there is no native binary version available."
That's a bummer. That would have significantly expanded Linux's game library!
"t's statements like this that validates everything that the RIAA claims."
It might validate them in their eyes, but as far as it being a good argument, that's questionable. He does bring up a good point about the pricing.
My math was a little different. You get 10 tracks a month, but you pay $18 a month. So you're buying an album for $18, that's a little spendy.
The flip side is that you get streaming options (presumably from the actual content...) and your CD is nothing but music you want. That's not all bad.
But there's still the sticker shock deal like the guy mentioned. Yeah, he sounds bad for saying Kazaa is "fucking free", but when you think about what he's really saying here, Kazaa is just plain a better service. I imagine lotsa people'd be happy to pay $20 to use Kazaa, just for the right to use it legally. (Note: that's completely different than paying $20/mo to use Kazaa because the company demands it.)
The RIAA hasn't figured out yet that the price tag isn't the major issue here (Lots of people are buying $50 games when the tools the pirate them are there and waiting to be used), it's a matter of the service. The RIAA still has a wonderful opportunity here that they're arrogantly overlooking. They should set up their own music download service. All the songs they can muster, they guarantee the quality, and they provide a server that can handle quick downloads. That's it. Don't make it more complicated than that.
I mean seriously, every single music service I've seen has pricing policies that resemble cell phone plans!
"Doesn't "flat" refer to the curvature of a surface?"
No, duh. It refers to the LACK of a curvature to a surface.
" I doubt this has anything to do with security updates (they don't mail these anyway - they try to hush it up)."
I read a story within the last two weeks (after slammer) that MS was gearing up to set up a service where they could notify people via email when there were new important updates to download.
That's what I was referring to. Am I the only one that caught it?