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User: Doctor_Jest

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  1. Re:doesn't work anymore on YouTube Hit By HTML Injection Vulnerability · · Score: 1

    Thanks for the update! I was scratching my head until I realized there was a "redesign" on the part of Youtube. :)

  2. Re:Even then you don't know on The Ignominious Fall of Dell · · Score: 1

    Uh, yes I do, and with far more computers and systems than you can muster in a year, and lots of those custom solutions and devices you've never heard of before. But with machines that are front facing your company would NOT knowingly (and the court case has SHOWN THAT DELL KNEW THIS) sell defective parts and take even 2 days to fix them. See, the key here (that you still seem to be missing) is that Dell KNEW the mobos were DEFECTIVE. They KNEW BEFORE THEY LEFT DELL'S PLANT and landed on your copmany's doorstep. That is the problem. Not your wonderfully anecdotal "Dell did alright by me" nonsense.

    You can believe I work for Wal Mart or I am a bum on the street with a netbook. I could tell you I worked for NASA and you have no reason to believe me, but I can tell you this... Dell is wrong and should pay for this in spades. I don't care what anecdotal evidence you come up with. It doesn't change the COURT ruling. I am glad you got satisfactory service for your Optiplexes. That doesn't change the fact that Dell is guilty. They could've saved your grandma from a burning house and it still wouldn't matter.

    And even though YOU thought Dell responded in an acceptable fashion (and it sounds like they did), the court system did NOT think so. I am not lambasting your story about Dell and their support, and I can safely say that if we didn't have the mountain of evidence to the contrary, your story would be the exception to the rule and treated very differently. But since Dell's been convicted of knowingly selling defective units already, the facts do speak for themselves. Just read the original article that this piece was linked to and you'll have a different perspective on "Dell did right by me."

  3. Re:Even then you don't know on The Ignominious Fall of Dell · · Score: 1

    2 Months is unacceptable, especially since these machines are not just playing solitaire and looking at photos of grandchildren. Dell should be spanked hard for this. And if their reputation doesn't recover, oh well. They should've thought of that before making their corporate customers angry.

  4. Re:Even then you don't know on The Ignominious Fall of Dell · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The court documents disagree with your last statement regarding Dell. The problem here isn't that there were defective computers, it was the Dell sold them knowing they were defective, then cycling around to blaming the customer when they did break. And this isn't about Mini10's or anything like that.. this is about Optiplexes... which is a staple of small to medium-sized businesses. I am not angry that Dell sold defective computers (that is the capacitor maker's fault really.) I am angry at Dell because they lied about it and blamed users. That is dirty pool in anyone's book. This is about the capacitors failing, but that is just the half of it.

    From the article linked to this one:

    The documents were connected to a lawsuit filed by Web hosting service provider Advanced Internet Technologies (AIT) against Dell in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina on Nov. 1, 2007. AIT sought $75,000 and punitive damages from Dell for breach of contract, fraud and deceptive business practices.

    So they WERE found guilty of fraud and deceptive business practices on a small scale with AIT. And so it balloons into a shitstorm even Michael Dell can't sweep under the rug. This is about far more than lemons....

  5. Who'd have thought? on Microsoft Kills the Kin · · Score: 1

    Microsoft has ADHD? I mean, the Kin's fairly new... and Microsoft killing it (effectively) this soon seems uncharacteristic of such a monolithic giant of bureaucracy... it's not a nimble corporation anymore.

  6. Re:Jack up the price? on Amazon Opposes Plan To End Saturday Mail Delivery · · Score: 1

    Quoth the interwebs:

    "Article I, section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution grants U.S. Congress the power to establish post offices and post roads. The Federal Government has interpreted this clause as granting a de facto Congressional monopoly over the delivery of mail. According to the government, no other system for delivering mail - public or private - can be established absent Congress's consent. Congress has delegated to the Postal Service the power to decide whether others may compete with it, and the Postal Service has carved out an exception to its monopoly for extremely urgent letters."

    So yeah, they are a monopoly.

  7. Re:Old technology more lasting on 80-Year-Old Edison Recording Resurrected · · Score: 1

    I think it's the context of the recording. Edison's pretty old in that recording, and since it's been lost for 80 years, it's like finding a photo of your grandad in his New Year's hat that was long since thought lost.

    The recording content is of little value, but like the first words uttered through the telephone, it's the context that matters. (And just between you and me, I think AGB said "Purple Monkey Dishwasher" after the initial message.)

  8. Re:Controller on Sega To Bring Dreamcast Titles to PSN, Xbox Live · · Score: 1

    I suppose it's not the amount of buttons, but the placement of them that is the problem with the N64 controller. I never could get used to it. And the GC controller was different enough that it made playing sporadically a disadvantage. (Of course my XBox had the stupid Kong controller... and it was unwieldy...) For some reason, the PS controllers always felt the most comfortable in my hands. After hours upon hours of gaming from the PS1 to PS3, I've never had much to complain about in terms of "feel" from a PS controller. I even like to use them with MAME... (I got a powerjoy a while back for my Ps2 controller to work with retro arcade stuff... pretty snazzy.)

    I never liked the R3/L3 because if you moved with the sticks too, chances are pushing down on the analog stick would move you slightly... thankfully I can't remember a game (platformer etc.) that really hit you in the nuts for that....

    I really hated the Saitek GC controllers... they not only felt cheap, they seemed to be "sticky" with buttons clamping down as if the process to cut the holes out of the plastic was off by JUST enough... Meh. I have a Pelican Retro controller for my GC/Wii that is the only 3rd party one I actually like using.

  9. Re:Convert on Sega To Bring Dreamcast Titles to PSN, Xbox Live · · Score: 1

    My 20GB has 4 ports.

    I never got around to getting the Memory card transfer kit, so I just finished my PS2 games on my PS2, and sometimes just kept going with the backlog... I'm sure if I gave it a shot the upscaled would look nice, but I have a 20" tube television that I hook my PS2 into so it's not all that dodgy. :) Of course when that dinosaur dies on me, I'll have to go upscaling :)

  10. Re:Controller on Sega To Bring Dreamcast Titles to PSN, Xbox Live · · Score: 1

    I *LOVE* the Playstation controller.. :) The one that I think is crap is the N64's abominable trident looking pile of owl snot. I even got used to the Dreamcast controller after marathon games of Soul Calibur... I just can't abide Nintendo's asinine designed controllers (what do they all get high and play with Visio to make those fucking things?) The controllers were small in the beginning on the NES... and they had CORNERS for god's sake. The SNES just got rid of the corners and added a few buttons. :) The Gamecube removed the third leg from the controller, but it certainly put more buttons on it than a Chinese radio...

    The only thing I'd improve on the Playstation 3 controller is the texture. After a few bazillion hours of play, the grip tends to become smooth and slippery. (Not so much that it flies out of your hand when playing a Sixaxis game or anything... just doesn't feel "gripped" when you're playing.) :)

  11. Re:Convert on Sega To Bring Dreamcast Titles to PSN, Xbox Live · · Score: 1

    Yeah, the 60's were supposed to be a little dodgy (not NEARLY as dodgy as the 360, of course)... but I "sacrificed" the media card reader, built in wifi, and that snazzy chrome trim for a 20GB. Pop a 500GB drive in there and it's killer! Funny thing is, I use my PS2 when I want to play most of my PS2 games (aside from the Pinball collections, and perhaps a fighter or two)... I mostly use my PS3 as a PS3 or a PS1.

    I bought a couple of Dreamcasts back when they went the way of the scrapheap, so I've got a pristine backup that will only suffer from a bad internal battery (Why did Sega not do the Saturn-style battery?)

  12. Re:No MacBook mini on iPhone SDK Agreement Shuts Out HyperCard Clone · · Score: 1

    Easy. Xcode comes with the OS, and if you're interested in building apps on ubuntu, you can specify that you want the developer's stuff during the install. Both of those approaches are simple. The Microsoft approach doesn't offer to download it for you, advertise it, or mention it during the install. Even a custom one. There's also the ubiquitous scripting languages (and you can code with Automator on OS X, for simple things.) Unless you count batch files, I can't think of anything on Windows that comes close.

    I see it as a pretty textbook example of "out of the box." I don't see why you don't.

  13. Re:No MacBook mini on iPhone SDK Agreement Shuts Out HyperCard Clone · · Score: 1

    Yes, but the point was you have to "go pick it up"... the tools are already there for both Linux and OS X.

    And the "Express Edition" of Visual Studio pales in comparison to the features of the development environments that come with the other OSes (It's subjective, of course, but Microsoft doesn't include any other development tool on the OS DVD.) It's not about "most development you need to do", it's about the availability 'out of the box'... Something Windows doesn't have (and certainly "Starter Editon" has even less of.) It's more of the perception of what matters to the OS divisions. Micrsoft doesn't restrict languages you can install and so forth, but they don't make them readily available to you either. Sure industrious people will go get them, but the crux of the original discussion was about a 10" Mac netbook and the development that can go on in OS X v. other systems. It's just more work if you want to in Windows...

  14. Re:Windows 7 switched their roles on iPhone SDK Agreement Shuts Out HyperCard Clone · · Score: 1

    Win 7 Starter edition still has the app cap. It doesn't have a "windows cap", though. So if you want 30 windows from VLC, have at it. But more than 3 apps? Still limited. It's nice they don't count their own windows (IE, etc.), nor do they count gadgets.. :)

    But a crippled edition of windows it still is... whether it be 7 or Vista....

  15. Re:No MacBook mini on iPhone SDK Agreement Shuts Out HyperCard Clone · · Score: 1

    You've probably got the same thing I've got on my HP Mini 1000. :)

    It's a bit more difficult, I'd say for those folks to "get into" development, when Microsoft charges for their development tools (to be fair, their IDEs...) I was developing something useful on a C64, that still doesn't change the original part of this thread about Apple "missing" a 10" netbook. :) It's not missing it, it just says "Dell".... And all the things you need to develop OS X apps are at your fingertips when you install the OS (provided you do a custom install.) That is not the case with Windows 7 (any edition.) Which was my entire point. Or does Windows 7 come with a compiler, python, perl, etc like OS X?

  16. Re:No MacBook mini on iPhone SDK Agreement Shuts Out HyperCard Clone · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I can find one on Dell's site. :) Their Mini10 is a marriage made in heaven for OS X. Or at least it used to be. (Yes, it violates the EULA... big deal.)

    Try developing anything useful on "Windows 7 Starter Edition" (on most netbooks that aren't running Linux.) I'm sure it's ill-suited for the task, as it's a crippled copy of Windows 7.

  17. Re:UMG v. MP3.com on LimeWire Likely To Shut Down Soon · · Score: 1

    It took since the 1500s for it to get this stupid. Make no mistake, copyright was never meant to be a property right until recently. I find the concept of copyright as a property right far more asinine than the "pedigree" of something. It defies logic.

  18. Re:UMG v. MP3.com on LimeWire Likely To Shut Down Soon · · Score: 1

    Yep. As they often do. Usually the most money makes these things go around. Remember the sham that was DeCSS?

  19. Re:And nothing of value was lost on LimeWire Likely To Shut Down Soon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sometimes its just nice to save a step between the LP you still have and your MP3 player. Now I know the studios want you to "buy it again", but I prefer either recording it myself via a USB turntable, or if I've no time for that, the disc is available via torrent.

    I don't feel it's infringing on copyright, since I own the album. (And that is also true for out-of-print CDs and LPs as well.) I mean, I could track them down used, but that doesn't "give money to the artist".... So their argument is moot. That said, I'm not a "collector" of music in that I get discogs of every band and scour the web for bootlegs. I like the album enough to buy it, and I like the album enough to want it on my iPod... shouldn't be too difficult. (I know we're treading on "legal gray areas", but sometimes we just have to use a little common sense...Something the RIAA hasn't had, well, ever.)

  20. Re:Yeeeeeehaw! on Texas Tells Cape Wind "You're Not First Yet" · · Score: 1

    Okay, that was damn funny.... I have to admit, the idea of poo-flinging monkeys in trees makes me think of Congress.

    But, like the old saying goes... "That government is best which governs least." - Thoreau

    Wait, I think I just saw Thomas Jefferson flip you off. How rude!

  21. Re:US Citizens too on Arizona "Papers, Please" Law May Hit Tech Workers · · Score: 1

    That's the DHS's new regulations in play (not sure why it's not getting more press.) You might as well not head to Mexico on a weekend whim anymore, based on all the new "rules" that are in effect. While this particular DHS shit is silly, I don't equate it with Arizona's new law.

  22. Re:Huh? on Sony Can Update PS3 Firmware Without Permission · · Score: 1

    While it's true that Sony (as a conglomerate) is asinine about their policies, SCEA wasn't involved in the rootkit fiasco. Before this last stint of firmware updates, they were pretty good about keeping the console as open as possible (WAY more open than microsoft's console...which isn't saying much I know.)

    I'm a bit underwhelmed by some of the actions of SCEA, but they make a fairly reliable console... comparing it to my 4 Xbox 360 Elites... it's a tank. (Launch PS3/20GB, upgraded to 500GB.) I am with you however on their TVs, their movies, their music, and their other consumer electronics divisions. They can all go sit and spin.

    I guess the old adage is true... a bunch of rotten apples spoils the one good one. :) heh.

  23. Re:A luxury? on Crytek Thinks Free Game Demos Will Soon Be Extinct · · Score: 1

    So when someone says "this won't attract a ton of people" do you point out that it might? :) You're thinking too hard. :P heh.

  24. A luxury? on Crytek Thinks Free Game Demos Will Soon Be Extinct · · Score: 1

    I suppose if they want to go all digital and insist on paid demos, I can find another hobby. Granted, the games I currently own are enough to tide me over until the Thursday after Armageddon, but pulling the "luxury" card (at the same time he pulls the "piracy" card) has me at about -100 sympathy for the idiots. "Ooh look! Our game has user-destructible ferns! No content, but ferns!"

    I'm sure there are a metric ton of people who will line up for this stupidity, but I won't be one of them. I mean, demos a luxury? What, like a decent game manual? (Oh that's right, I've not seen one of those in decades...)

  25. Re:Judge what is right. on Wikileaks Releases Video of Journalist Killings · · Score: 1

    grow up you twit.