The writeup may be a little misleading; Dell isn't the entity behind installing Linspire on these machines, it's Questar:
A PC dealer in Europe has begun selling Dell desktops equipped with Linux, but Dell emphasized that the systems were customized by the dealer and that this isn't the first time this has happened.
I'm trying to understand your hostility and cynicism, and what I think helps me most to achieve that is to recall a couple of my previous employers that treated me very much the way you describe.
It's easy for me to *shrug* off something as relatively trivial as paying for my own cell phone bill when my current employer treats me with respect, they pay me overtime (and I'm an exempt salaried employee), they pay for all my software, and they're paying me about 15% higher salary than the last place. Not to mention the work atmosphere is infinitely more pleasant. There are certain things in this world you can't (well, maybe some people can, but I don't) put a price tag on.
So if the biggest "complaint" - if you can even call it that - that I have about my present employer is that they don't pay for my cell phone, then as far as I'm concerned I don't really have it all that bad. You, on the other hand, I feel for.
Mind you, I'm not a tax accountant, but in a nutshell, yes you can.
It's just like any other expense you may have at home but use for work: you can deduct a portion of the expense. It's based on how much of the use is strictly for business and how much is strictly personal. You can't write off the entire expense if you use it for personal use as well.
My company doesn't expect me to pay for broadband at home, but my job doesn't really require me to have it. If I choose to do some after hours stuff from home, and I would rather do it via a broadband connection, then that's on my checkbook as far as they're concerned.
Curiously enough, I can remember when companies furnished cell phones to the appropriate personnel and actually picked up the tab. These days, we're expected to have a cell, but we have to pay for it on our own. Go figure. *shrug*
Seriously, regardless of what one thinks of Microsoft's greed, do you really think they're going to track down some villager in Uganda for receiving transfer of a Win 95 license?
I know that technically stealing is stealing regardless of whether the rightful owner decides to pursue damages - but come on, he's giving away a license he's no longer using. That's not piracy.
Re:Fingers crossed....
on
P2P Bits
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Even more frightening (and this may be slightly OT) is that if this bill passes and becomes law, it could (will?) open the door for similar legislation reaching to other types of technology as well.
Think about it - if they outlaw a certain piece of technology solely because it could be used to circumvent copyright (the iPod is a good example), then how long will it be before some capitol hill schmuck decides to author a law making other devices illegal? After all, a rifle could be used to shoot someone, a car could be used to race illegally, and a toaster could be used to electrocute someone in the bathtub.
I'm not necessarily saying that this would certainly happen; only that a bill like this would open the door for it. You just watch.
Re:That's a genuine problem
on
Linux Unwired
·
· Score: 1
It's not a Windows XP problem, it's a configuration problem.
I recently migrated from a 10/100 wired home network to a wi-fi network. For the first two weeks there was no problem whatsoever. I had read about the problem with XP seemingly dropping the wi-fi connection, but I had never experienced it.
Last night, I set up a couple of shared folders on each of two different computers on the network (using a wi-fi router connected to a cable modem), and this problem appeared. The wireless connection would drop for no apparent reason. Although it was easy to restart the connection, it was aggravating.
I found the solution in the way XP handles the network setup, and it's quite a bit different from other versions of Windows. I re-ran the network configuration utility in XP and set up the network with an access point, rather than a router. Apparently, XP equates "router" as a computer thru which all internet traffic flows, whereas I use a "router" as a separate hardware device.
Perhaps if instead of taking DNA samples from everyone arrested for a felony, if they only took samples from people convicted of a felony. After all, a convicted felon already forfeits certain rights upon conviction. But what about people wrongly arrested?
Could you please name just one player today that supports only WMA?
I can, my old RCA Lyra. In fact, WMA is the only format it supports on a straight file copy basis (unlike MP3, which you must use software to convert it into MPY format).
I'm not an Apple zealot at all, my iPod is the only Apple product I ever bought (I have an old Mac Color Classic which was a hand-me-down), but after trying out a handful of different players, I fell in love with the iPod.
Oh, and I don't miss ripping CD's to WMA format, either.
We're already there. Cell phones, PDA's, and handheld game consoles (Nokia N-Gage, anyone?) are already blurring the line between what is and isn't a computer.
What I think will be interesting to watch is how software also starts evolving from apps with a narrow focus (think along the lines of early 90's WordPerfect) to apps which try to do pretty much everything - perhaps a bad example, but MS Word already allows table and cell editing similar to Excel, graphics manipulation, and desktop publishing.
I understand that for many of us, a mobile phone is as fundamental as a land line phone at home. For many others, a mobile phone is the only phone they have.
However, I'm sure I'm not the only one who views a mobile phone as follows: The phone is for ME to call PEOPLE, not the other way around. The only people I want to receive mobile calls from (indeed, this applies to home line calls as well) are the people to whom I GIVE the number. That's why my home number is unlisted.
I can count on both hands the number of people who have my mobile number, and I like it that way. I would much rather see this directory be opt-in only.
I agree, we're still along way off from completely replacing printed media. I buy a newspaper most days of the week to read during lunch. In the 45 or so minutes I have to read the paper, I cover the opinion columns, comics, advice columnists, and more...
except for the "news" stories. It's very disheartening to look through a newspaper at headline after headline of stuff you read about yesterday on the 'net.
So for me, I don't look for "news" anywhere but on the 'net...but there's still plenty out there to read that you won't necessarily (or easily) find online.
I mean, can you really take a Wi-Fi equipped laptop and download mp3's to your heart's content without being tracked down to your IP? Or launch a DDoS attack anonymously?
Again, I guess you hafta take the good with the bad. I can imagine it won't be long before these wireless providers start paying attention to security on these networks.
IANAL either, but maybe they have a legitimate (hehehe) beef under some kind of "pending lawsuit" clause.
Either way, it seems pretty clear to me that Microsoft's aim is to keep the list of claimants as small as possible, and if they can dismantle this website they can possibly eliminate quite a few possible claimants from the suit.
Fairly simple but time-consuming: if you play the CD in a standard (audio only) CD player and patch the output from said player directly into the computer's sound card (digital audio would be even better), you can simply record the music digitally. Granted, this takes longer than simply ripping from the CD, but without any particular "hacking" of your system or the disk.
Remember, only one person needs to do this - from there it can propagate across Kazaa, iMesh, etc.
From Article II: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
Are we now supposed to "take up arms" against the SPAMmers ourselves?
The judge did dismiss the suit against the Mac user, but would not dismiss it with prejudice (which would have prevented further litigation against her).
The attorneys for the RIAA still plan to investigate her: "Please note, however, that we will continue our review of the issues you raised and we reserve the right to refile the complaint against Mrs. Ward if and when circumstances warrant"
A user with a Mac, who can't even use Kazaa, and who has never shared music. Now that's obstinance for you.
Words can be typed by pressing the raised keys, and numbers by pressing the four keys that surround a particular number.
If they ARE mistaken and mean "press ONE OF the four keys..." then you don't know which "number" corresponds to with letter, since one letter can be in the midst of up to four numbers. Unless you press the letter button more than once...which leads you back to Square One.
I haven't used text on my phone enough for the text entry method (typing each number up to four times) to be a hassle.
What I DO use my phone for, however, is dialing numbers. And if I have to have to press FOUR buttons to enter ONE number, then this keyboard would create more problems than it would solve for me.
...can you be more SPACIFIC? Exactly *how* is the MSN search flaky?...few people here would require you back it up with (gasp) facts
Fine.
To be more "SPACIFIC" (sic), my search results from MSN tend to include dozens (if not more) of "search" sites - pages set up with hundreds of keywords or squatted domain names designed to get hits and redirect you to some type of SPAM site. Yahoo! is starting to get this way as well, although the problem is not as prevalent as it is with MSN.com. I rarely see this happen in a Google-found site.
There ya go. Facts.
It's easy to just rattle off the standard anti-M$ line (and get "insightful")...
Just for good measure, my comments were about the MSN portal; I have no problem using other Microsoft products.
And to everyone who was more congenial about my "sputtering," my sincere apologies.
If you've ever visited the MSN portal more than a handful of times in a two-week period, you'd know that:
(1) The search capabilities are horrible; Google is much better.
(2) The "news" story titles are misleading and the stories are frequently repeated over the course of a week; Yahoo! is much better.
Once upon a time, businesses recognized their core competencies and did what they do best, and let other companies handle the things that those companies are good at. Once again, Microsoft chooses not to apply this conventional wisdom to their MSN portal
If you create something isn't it your right to decide what you do with it?
Here's a more interesting question; if you buy something, is it your right to decide what you do with it, or is that the right of the person from whom you bought it?
Slashdot Mirror
The writeup may be a little misleading; Dell isn't the entity behind installing Linspire on these machines, it's Questar:
A PC dealer in Europe has begun selling Dell desktops equipped with Linux, but Dell emphasized that the systems were customized by the dealer and that this isn't the first time this has happened.
That article can be read here at Cnet.
I'm trying to understand your hostility and cynicism, and what I think helps me most to achieve that is to recall a couple of my previous employers that treated me very much the way you describe.
It's easy for me to *shrug* off something as relatively trivial as paying for my own cell phone bill when my current employer treats me with respect, they pay me overtime (and I'm an exempt salaried employee), they pay for all my software, and they're paying me about 15% higher salary than the last place. Not to mention the work atmosphere is infinitely more pleasant. There are certain things in this world you can't (well, maybe some people can, but I don't) put a price tag on.
So if the biggest "complaint" - if you can even call it that - that I have about my present employer is that they don't pay for my cell phone, then as far as I'm concerned I don't really have it all that bad. You, on the other hand, I feel for.
Mind you, I'm not a tax accountant, but in a nutshell, yes you can.
It's just like any other expense you may have at home but use for work: you can deduct a portion of the expense. It's based on how much of the use is strictly for business and how much is strictly personal. You can't write off the entire expense if you use it for personal use as well.
My company doesn't expect me to pay for broadband at home, but my job doesn't really require me to have it. If I choose to do some after hours stuff from home, and I would rather do it via a broadband connection, then that's on my checkbook as far as they're concerned.
Curiously enough, I can remember when companies furnished cell phones to the appropriate personnel and actually picked up the tab. These days, we're expected to have a cell, but we have to pay for it on our own. Go figure. *shrug*
I admire your charitable efforts, and I sincerely believe your heart is in the right place, but...
...most of these children have never been more than ten miles out of their own villages...
With all due respect, I'm not sure that an old computer is the ideal gift for such a person.
Maybe you could send them an old pair of roller blades? Or perhaps a bus pass?
Seriously, regardless of what one thinks of Microsoft's greed, do you really think they're going to track down some villager in Uganda for receiving transfer of a Win 95 license?
I know that technically stealing is stealing regardless of whether the rightful owner decides to pursue damages - but come on, he's giving away a license he's no longer using. That's not piracy.
Even more frightening (and this may be slightly OT) is that if this bill passes and becomes law, it could (will?) open the door for similar legislation reaching to other types of technology as well.
Think about it - if they outlaw a certain piece of technology solely because it could be used to circumvent copyright (the iPod is a good example), then how long will it be before some capitol hill schmuck decides to author a law making other devices illegal? After all, a rifle could be used to shoot someone, a car could be used to race illegally, and a toaster could be used to electrocute someone in the bathtub.
I'm not necessarily saying that this would certainly happen; only that a bill like this would open the door for it. You just watch.
It's not a Windows XP problem, it's a configuration problem.
I recently migrated from a 10/100 wired home network to a wi-fi network. For the first two weeks there was no problem whatsoever. I had read about the problem with XP seemingly dropping the wi-fi connection, but I had never experienced it.
Last night, I set up a couple of shared folders on each of two different computers on the network (using a wi-fi router connected to a cable modem), and this problem appeared. The wireless connection would drop for no apparent reason. Although it was easy to restart the connection, it was aggravating.
I found the solution in the way XP handles the network setup, and it's quite a bit different from other versions of Windows. I re-ran the network configuration utility in XP and set up the network with an access point, rather than a router. Apparently, XP equates "router" as a computer thru which all internet traffic flows, whereas I use a "router" as a separate hardware device.
This setup cured the problem.
Perhaps if instead of taking DNA samples from everyone arrested for a felony, if they only took samples from people convicted of a felony. After all, a convicted felon already forfeits certain rights upon conviction. But what about people wrongly arrested?
Could you please name just one player today that supports only WMA?
I can, my old RCA Lyra. In fact, WMA is the only format it supports on a straight file copy basis (unlike MP3, which you must use software to convert it into MPY format).
I'm not an Apple zealot at all, my iPod is the only Apple product I ever bought (I have an old Mac Color Classic which was a hand-me-down), but after trying out a handful of different players, I fell in love with the iPod.
Oh, and I don't miss ripping CD's to WMA format, either.
We're already there. Cell phones, PDA's, and handheld game consoles (Nokia N-Gage, anyone?) are already blurring the line between what is and isn't a computer.
What I think will be interesting to watch is how software also starts evolving from apps with a narrow focus (think along the lines of early 90's WordPerfect) to apps which try to do pretty much everything - perhaps a bad example, but MS Word already allows table and cell editing similar to Excel, graphics manipulation, and desktop publishing.
I understand that for many of us, a mobile phone is as fundamental as a land line phone at home. For many others, a mobile phone is the only phone they have.
However, I'm sure I'm not the only one who views a mobile phone as follows: The phone is for ME to call PEOPLE, not the other way around. The only people I want to receive mobile calls from (indeed, this applies to home line calls as well) are the people to whom I GIVE the number. That's why my home number is unlisted.
I can count on both hands the number of people who have my mobile number, and I like it that way. I would much rather see this directory be opt-in only.
I agree, we're still along way off from completely replacing printed media. I buy a newspaper most days of the week to read during lunch. In the 45 or so minutes I have to read the paper, I cover the opinion columns, comics, advice columnists, and more...
except for the "news" stories. It's very disheartening to look through a newspaper at headline after headline of stuff you read about yesterday on the 'net.
So for me, I don't look for "news" anywhere but on the 'net...but there's still plenty out there to read that you won't necessarily (or easily) find online.
William
I mean, can you really take a Wi-Fi equipped laptop and download mp3's to your heart's content without being tracked down to your IP? Or launch a DDoS attack anonymously?
Again, I guess you hafta take the good with the bad. I can imagine it won't be long before these wireless providers start paying attention to security on these networks.
William
IANAL either, but maybe they have a legitimate (hehehe) beef under some kind of "pending lawsuit" clause.
Either way, it seems pretty clear to me that Microsoft's aim is to keep the list of claimants as small as possible, and if they can dismantle this website they can possibly eliminate quite a few possible claimants from the suit.
William
Fairly simple but time-consuming: if you play the CD in a standard (audio only) CD player and patch the output from said player directly into the computer's sound card (digital audio would be even better), you can simply record the music digitally. Granted, this takes longer than simply ripping from the CD, but without any particular "hacking" of your system or the disk.
Remember, only one person needs to do this - from there it can propagate across Kazaa, iMesh, etc.
William
I mean, if SPAM is okay in your email, then why not through your telephone? How else do you expect to be bombarded with senseless crap you don't want?
Oh wait - spam ISN'T okay in my email...scratch that...
William
From Article II: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
Are we now supposed to "take up arms" against the SPAMmers ourselves?
William
The judge did dismiss the suit against the Mac user, but would not dismiss it with prejudice (which would have prevented further litigation against her).
The attorneys for the RIAA still plan to investigate her: "Please note, however, that we will continue our review of the issues you raised and we reserve the right to refile the complaint against Mrs. Ward if and when circumstances warrant"
A user with a Mac, who can't even use Kazaa, and who has never shared music. Now that's obstinance for you.
William
From the article:
Words can be typed by pressing the raised keys, and numbers by pressing the four keys that surround a particular number.
If they ARE mistaken and mean "press ONE OF the four keys..." then you don't know which "number" corresponds to with letter, since one letter can be in the midst of up to four numbers. Unless you press the letter button more than once...which leads you back to Square One.
William
I haven't used text on my phone enough for the text entry method (typing each number up to four times) to be a hassle.
What I DO use my phone for, however, is dialing numbers. And if I have to have to press FOUR buttons to enter ONE number, then this keyboard would create more problems than it would solve for me.
Just my two pence.
William
...can you be more SPACIFIC? Exactly *how* is the MSN search flaky?...few people here would require you back it up with (gasp) facts
Fine.
To be more "SPACIFIC" (sic), my search results from MSN tend to include dozens (if not more) of "search" sites - pages set up with hundreds of keywords or squatted domain names designed to get hits and redirect you to some type of SPAM site. Yahoo! is starting to get this way as well, although the problem is not as prevalent as it is with MSN.com. I rarely see this happen in a Google-found site.
There ya go. Facts.
It's easy to just rattle off the standard anti-M$ line (and get "insightful")...
Just for good measure, my comments were about the MSN portal; I have no problem using other Microsoft products.
And to everyone who was more congenial about my "sputtering," my sincere apologies.
William
If you've ever visited the MSN portal more than a handful of times in a two-week period, you'd know that:
(1) The search capabilities are horrible; Google is much better.
(2) The "news" story titles are misleading and the stories are frequently repeated over the course of a week; Yahoo! is much better.
Once upon a time, businesses recognized their core competencies and did what they do best, and let other companies handle the things that those companies are good at. Once again, Microsoft chooses not to apply this conventional wisdom to their MSN portal
Remember Microsoft Bob?
William
If you create something isn't it your right to decide what you do with it?
Here's a more interesting question; if you buy something, is it your right to decide what you do with it, or is that the right of the person from whom you bought it?
William
Avast, ye scurvy RIAA bilge rats! P2P files a-sharin' be better than a hearty jug o' rum. Arrrr!!