A game like Grand Theft Auto and some of the "Break the Law" games are blatantly thumbing their nose to traditional morality which makes them VERY controversial and sadly generates a ton of free advertising. These games are designed that way from the beginning to generate revenue.
Kind of a ridiculous statement there. What a game isn't produced to generate revenue? I can think of many games with gratuitous violence that don't sell nearly as much...the Postal series for example. In the end, it's all about fun and good game mechanics. Those that have it will sell, those that don't, won't...no matter how many hookers you can pummel.
I do regular maintenance on my Windows XP machine, spyware removal (Which is minimal - anyone that is still accumulating spyware in this day and age is either clueless or lazy. There are plenty of preventative measures available for this problem, Mozilla and common sense for starters), limiting background programs, disk defragging, archiving, etc...I definitely like to keep things organized.
Even with this maintenance, after 75 or so application installs (this is on a 80GB drive, not even filling half of it), things tend to get sluggish. Why this happens is for many reasons, but it's clear, even with good maintenance habits, the OS will eventually slow to a crawl. As far I can remember (at least since 3.1) Windows has always been like this. Performance wise, there's a huge difference between a fresh system maintenance session and a fresh reinstall.
Eventually I got tired of reinstalling Windows every 6 months, so here's what I've been doing for past five years or so:
1) I found a good disk imaging software package (I like Power Quest's Drive Image) and perform a fresh install.
2) Apply all critical updates and service packs. Configure the (minimum) system services, system policies and so forth. Install any games, browsers or frequently used programs (I usually don't include this stuff. Updates happen so often, I usually end up upgrading or reinstalling the app anyway). Tweak it all out, do a disk defrag, clean up and defrag registry, then image it.
3) For speed and convenience, I use a second hard drive for imaging (note: A CDRW or second hard drive is needed for imaging. You can't write the image to your boot drive). With a CDRW, you might have to span disks if you want to include a lot of data on you image. With a DVDR/RW, you probably won't have to worry about spanning, but the imaging software must support DVD writing.
Using this method I can do a complete Windows reinstall and have all my main apps ready to go in about ten minutes. I use a second hard drive (80GB) for the image as well as for storing apps and backup data. Any critical data (as well as the OS image itself) is written to CDRW. I also installed a third hard drive on a separate IDE controller from the boot drive, and put the pagefile there. If you have a spare drive lying around, and you don't have a gig of ram installed, this is a nice speed tweak.
Yes, RAID could accomplish much of what I'm doing here, but still I prefer this method.
PS
Don't forget to visit MS and grab all the critical updates after you restore an image. If your image is more than a month or two old, there'll be a boatload of 'em.
Since businesses get many tax benefits that individuals don't get
That's if they pay any taxes at all. Some even get refunds.
Microsoft enjoyed more than $12 billion in total tax breaks over the past five years. In fact, Microsoft actually paid no tax at all in 1999, despite $12.3 billion in reported U.S. profits. Microsoft's tax rate for the past two years was only 1.8 percent on $21.9 billion in pretax U.S. profits.
General Electric, America's most profitable corporation, reported $50.8 billion in U.S. profits over the past five years, but paid only 11.5 percent of that in federal income taxes. That low tax rate reflected almost $12 billion in corporate tax welfare for GE.
Ford enjoyed $9.1 billion in corporate tax welfare over the past five years. It reported $18.6 billion in U.S. profits over the past two years, but paid a tax rate of only 5.7 percent.
Worldcom paid no taxes at all in two of the last three years, despite reported U.S. profits of $15.2 billion. Worldcom's total tax rate over the three years was only 1.6%. Corporate tax welfare slashed Worldcom's tax bill by $5.3 billion over the past five years.
IBM reported $5.7 billion in U.S. profits in 2000, but paid only 3.4 percent of that in federal income taxes. In 1997, IBM reported $3.1 billion in U.S. profits, and instead of paying taxes, got an outright tax rebate. Over the past five years, IBM enjoyed a total of $4.7 billion in corporate tax welfare.
General Motors paid no taxes at all in three of the last five years, despite $12.5 billion in reported U.S. profits. GM's tax rate for the past three years was negative 1.3 percent. Its corporate tax welfare totaled $3.6 billion over the past five years.
Enron paid no income taxes at all in four of the past five years, despite $1.8 billion in reported U.S. profits. Enron's total taxes over the five years were a negative $381 million. Its corporate tax welfare totaled $1.0 billion.
El Paso Energy reported $1.6 billion in U.S. profits over the past five years, but paid less than nothing in federal income taxes, getting tax rebates of $254 million. El Paso's tax rate over the five years was negative 15.5 percent. Its corporate welfare totaled $827 million.
Colgate-Palmolive paid no taxes at all in three of the past five years, despite $1.6 billion in reported U.S. profits. Colgate's total tax rate over the five years was negative 1.3 percent, due to $595 million in corporate tax welfare.
Navistar, on $1.4 billion in U.S. profits over the past five years, paid only $28 million in federal income taxes, a tax rate of only 2 percent. Navistar's corporate tax welfare totaled $451 million.
Precisely. The Administration has this all backwards. It's not Joe Sixpack that needs to be under surveillance. It's the White House, CIA, FBI, NSA, etc... these are the people that need to be watched.
These are the people that all but had the 9/11 plot handed to them on a silver platter. What happened?
Not one person of significance in any of these alphabet agencies has lost their job because of their total and utter failure. In fact, soon after the attacks, Bush praised them. For what I might ask? For their Incompetence? For their obstruction of justice? For their lies?
All the talking heads on TeeVee keep trying to tell me how lucky I am for having Bush at the helm in these trying times. Funny, I don't feel so lucky.
Slashdot Mirror
same goes for the governor of CT, my home state, john rowland. he gave himself a raise while the state's economy is in shambles.
That's not (cue the violins) the worst of it, he's also a crook.
He'll likely be impeached.
Do you have any pics??!
A game like Grand Theft Auto and some of the "Break the Law" games are blatantly thumbing their nose to traditional morality which makes them VERY controversial and sadly generates a ton of free advertising. These games are designed that way from the beginning to generate revenue.
Kind of a ridiculous statement there. What a game isn't produced to generate revenue? I can think of many games with gratuitous violence that don't sell nearly as much...the Postal series for example. In the end, it's all about fun and good game mechanics. Those that have it will sell, those that don't, won't...no matter how many hookers you can pummel.
"A CDRW or second hard drive is needed for imaging." Mistakenly omitted - usually a second partition on the boot drive can be used as well.
I do regular maintenance on my Windows XP machine, spyware removal (Which is minimal - anyone that is still accumulating spyware in this day and age is either clueless or lazy. There are plenty of preventative measures available for this problem, Mozilla and common sense for starters), limiting background programs, disk defragging, archiving, etc...I definitely like to keep things organized.
Even with this maintenance, after 75 or so application installs (this is on a 80GB drive, not even filling half of it), things tend to get sluggish. Why this happens is for many reasons, but it's clear, even with good maintenance habits, the OS will eventually slow to a crawl. As far I can remember (at least since 3.1) Windows has always been like this. Performance wise, there's a huge difference between a fresh system maintenance session and a fresh reinstall.
Eventually I got tired of reinstalling Windows every 6 months, so here's what I've been doing for past five years or so:
1) I found a good disk imaging software package (I like Power Quest's Drive Image) and perform a fresh install.
2) Apply all critical updates and service packs. Configure the (minimum) system services, system policies and so forth. Install any games, browsers or frequently used programs (I usually don't include this stuff. Updates happen so often, I usually end up upgrading or reinstalling the app anyway). Tweak it all out, do a disk defrag, clean up and defrag registry, then image it.
3) For speed and convenience, I use a second hard drive for imaging (note: A CDRW or second hard drive is needed for imaging. You can't write the image to your boot drive). With a CDRW, you might have to span disks if you want to include a lot of data on you image. With a DVDR/RW, you probably won't have to worry about spanning, but the imaging software must support DVD writing.
Using this method I can do a complete Windows reinstall and have all my main apps ready to go in about ten minutes. I use a second hard drive (80GB) for the image as well as for storing apps and backup data. Any critical data (as well as the OS image itself) is written to CDRW. I also installed a third hard drive on a separate IDE controller from the boot drive, and put the pagefile there. If you have a spare drive lying around, and you don't have a gig of ram installed, this is a nice speed tweak.
Yes, RAID could accomplish much of what I'm doing here, but still I prefer this method.
PS
Don't forget to visit MS and grab all the critical updates after you restore an image. If your image is more than a month or two old, there'll be a boatload of 'em.
Since businesses get many tax benefits that individuals don't get
That's if they pay any taxes at all. Some even get refunds.
Microsoft enjoyed more than $12 billion in total tax breaks over the past five years. In fact, Microsoft actually paid no tax at all in 1999, despite $12.3 billion in reported U.S. profits. Microsoft's tax rate for the past two years was only 1.8 percent on $21.9 billion in pretax U.S. profits.
General Electric, America's most profitable corporation, reported $50.8 billion in U.S. profits over the past five years, but paid only 11.5 percent of that in federal income taxes. That low tax rate reflected almost $12 billion in corporate tax welfare for GE.
Ford enjoyed $9.1 billion in corporate tax welfare over the past five years. It reported $18.6 billion in U.S. profits over the past two years, but paid a tax rate of only 5.7 percent.
Worldcom paid no taxes at all in two of the last three years, despite reported U.S. profits of $15.2 billion. Worldcom's total tax rate over the three years was only 1.6%. Corporate tax welfare slashed Worldcom's tax bill by $5.3 billion over the past five years.
IBM reported $5.7 billion in U.S. profits in 2000, but paid only 3.4 percent of that in federal income taxes. In 1997, IBM reported $3.1 billion in U.S. profits, and instead of paying taxes, got an outright tax rebate. Over the past five years, IBM enjoyed a total of $4.7 billion in corporate tax welfare.
General Motors paid no taxes at all in three of the last five years, despite $12.5 billion in reported U.S. profits. GM's tax rate for the past three years was negative 1.3 percent. Its corporate tax welfare totaled $3.6 billion over the past five years.
Enron paid no income taxes at all in four of the past five years, despite $1.8 billion in reported U.S. profits. Enron's total taxes over the five years were a negative $381 million. Its corporate tax welfare totaled $1.0 billion.
El Paso Energy reported $1.6 billion in U.S. profits over the past five years, but paid less than nothing in federal income taxes, getting tax rebates of $254 million. El Paso's tax rate over the five years was negative 15.5 percent. Its corporate welfare totaled $827 million.
Colgate-Palmolive paid no taxes at all in three of the past five years, despite $1.6 billion in reported U.S. profits. Colgate's total tax rate over the five years was negative 1.3 percent, due to $595 million in corporate tax welfare.
Navistar, on $1.4 billion in U.S. profits over the past five years, paid only $28 million in federal income taxes, a tax rate of only 2 percent. Navistar's corporate tax welfare totaled $451 million.
Source: Corporate annual reports and forms 10-K.
Citizens for Tax Justice
These are the people that all but had the 9/11 plot handed to them on a silver platter. What happened?
Senate Panel: FBI Missed 9/11 Warnings
Report cites warnings before 9/11
White House defends reaction to pre-9/11 warnings
September 11 warnings: Who knew what, and when?
Known Foreign Intelligence warnings of 9/11
Bush Opposes 9/11 Query Panel
And on and on...
Not one person of significance in any of these alphabet agencies has lost their job because of their total and utter failure. In fact, soon after the attacks, Bush praised them. For what I might ask? For their Incompetence? For their obstruction of justice? For their lies?
All the talking heads on TeeVee keep trying to tell me how lucky I am for having Bush at the helm in these trying times. Funny, I don't feel so lucky.