I'm actively avoiding donating any money to anything that helps make Windows 8 become relevant.
Apart from the fact that Windows 8 is a crap product to start with that also actively tramples on our privacy and forces unwanted ads on the user, Microsoft have insisted that profit-driven commercialism is the only good way to develop software. They have actively turned their back on the open source community (other than as strictly necessary to further their own agenda). Good. Let them live and die by their own philosophy.
I dont see why we now should now give charitable aid to even indirectly help them, a selfish and already rich megacorp keep their crap products making even more money that will just fund them staying alive longer and fighting opensource.
Wouldn't charitable contributing to their product also be in contradiction of Microsofts own chosen "survival of the fattest" mantra too?
>> Microsoft is aiming to design a single UI across all of it's platforms from Phone, to Desktops, to tablets, to TV. They want it to all be the same experience.
The usual way the actual value on a business is calculated for the purposes of selling it is to calculate the annual net profit and multiply that by 10, then add in the value of any assets and subtract the value of any debts.
From what I have managed to mangle out of Google, the US GDP is about 15 trillion, and the US total Debt is about 58 trillion and total assets are about 188 trillion, the budget deficit is about 1 trillion, so by my calcs I get that the US is worth about $120 trillion just on its assets. No right-minded person would pay that much for the entire USA because as a business USA inc. is running at a large loss so would be a big liability over time.
It's already been several generations since intel processors have had actual pins. They will still and always have to have some kind of externally accessible connectors (i.e. pads) even just to solder to. All it would take is a different socket that can work with the new design.
So the world governments do nothing to cut off spammers, scammers, child pornographers or anything that actually burns members of the public, but the moment some big corporations profits from monopolistic practices look like they are being challenged they spring into action and kill it dead in seconds.
Offloading stuff to the GPU isn't the panacea you think it is. They fill a niche by solving problems that are inherently massively parallel i.e. the next computation doesn't have a dependency on the results of the previous computation. By making their architecture very specific GPUs can eliminate inefficiencies that a general purpose unit such as a conventional CPU would face to do the same task. The cost is that they are a one trick pony, no good at doing anything else. GPUs are truly great at doing what they do, but the areas where that they can do better than a CPU all lie in that very limited problem space. Some more general examples of compute-intensive game-related tasks that offloading to the GPU fails badly would be NPC AI, level loading, etc
Why is it people like you worry about politics and economy even when doing nothing is literally destroying the planet. Do you not realise that without a stable environment we lose even the basics such as food and energy supply and therefore any kind of society so all your arguments are moot. This is not some political or economic issue its one of basic survival.
Stop putting words in my mouth, It wasnt me that said anything about lush green anything, or carbon taxes. Thats all you. I just want to try and stop the problems that are already beginning to manifest themselves.
>> Meaningful CO2 emission reductions simply aren't in the cards.
But It absolutely could be. Just look at the reductions that have already been achieved in Europe. US arent even slowing up let alone reducing. Unfortunately in the US big business has too much of a stranglehold on the government and media to let anything stand in the way of extracting the last 1% of short term profits, even the end of the world. I mean there's still a massive number of Americans that dont even believe global warming is happening. That alone shows you either how ignorant most Americans are or how much big businesses can control the media, schools, government etc in the US. Probably both.
Every version of Windows so far has either been directly copyable, had token copy protection that is trivially easy to circumvent or had a 'leaked' registration hack emerge within a few weeks of its release. For a method involving remote online validation, It really isn't hard at all to think of a scheme where validation hacks wouldn't be even possible. At some point, you have to conclude this weak security is intentional, as are the leaks too. Its just another way for Microsoft to keep their product on most peoples desktops. I'm actually surprised that MIcrosoft havent made Windows 7 and 8 available as a free download, at least for non-corporate use, just to get/keep more people on the Microsoft hook.
Sorry to break it to you but what we want doesn't mean shit.
If we carry on the way we are, everyones (including your) lifestyle WILL get changed, either proactively by the government, or the resultant environmental disasters because the proactive changes were too little too late.
While industry is still polluting the way it does, and the system forces everyone to continue living the way we currently do, the actual savings from your energy efficient home and your reduction in driving is less than insignificant. Thats why it really is the rich corps and the government they own that are the problem.
My money is on some disaster rather than the government being the agent of change as the politicians on both sides are clearly still happily taking bribes and direction from big biz to stick their head in the sand and just kick the can down the road.
wow really? as opposed to say, having the east coast repeatedly wiped out by mega-storms and western states becoming uninhabitable due to heat + the lack of water? Thats not even considering the effects on agriculture and the problems the rest of the world will face.
Not that I condone the TSA's overly heavy-handed approach in any way, but you have to ask yourself what was the guy actually thinking?
It seems to me he must have been one of either: 1) A total moron for not being able to guess the obvious trouble that would happen when attempting to go through airport security wearing a watch that looks like a bomb
2) actually trying to incite trouble (starving artist seeking publicity etc)
So in short he's either a moron or a trouble maker.
Driving distracted is going to result in a greatly increased risk of accidents no amount of training can fix that.
Here in Phoenix I see cops using their dash- mounted laptops while driving all the time. They're ususally not giving enough attention to driving. I've even seen them miss some criminal activity going on right infront of them, because they're focussed on looking at their screens.
Sounds like you might get in trouble if stopped. It wouldn't be hard for the cop to (imagine) he saw you using it as a PC. In that you'd have to _prove_ you werent typing or whatever. Your word against a traffic cop always loses.
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I'm actively avoiding donating any money to anything that helps make Windows 8 become relevant.
Apart from the fact that Windows 8 is a crap product to start with that also actively tramples on our privacy and forces unwanted ads on the user, Microsoft have insisted that profit-driven commercialism is the only good way to develop software. They have actively turned their back on the open source community (other than as strictly necessary to further their own agenda). Good. Let them live and die by their own philosophy.
I dont see why we now should now give charitable aid to even indirectly help them, a selfish and already rich megacorp keep their crap products making even more money that will just fund them staying alive longer and fighting opensource.
Wouldn't charitable contributing to their product also be in contradiction of Microsofts own chosen "survival of the fattest" mantra too?
>> Microsoft is aiming to design a single UI across all of it's platforms from Phone, to Desktops, to tablets, to TV. They want it to all be the same experience.
Yeah. Its called "Compromised".
They should just hang a bullet proof plexiglass disc or half-sphere beneath it.
$50 more?
Meh. Wake me up when you can order a Dell laptop without any OS installed at all....
The usual way the actual value on a business is calculated for the purposes of selling it is to calculate the annual net profit and multiply that by 10, then add in the value of any assets and subtract the value of any debts.
From what I have managed to mangle out of Google, the US GDP is about 15 trillion, and the US total Debt is about 58 trillion and total assets are about 188 trillion, the budget deficit is about 1 trillion, so by my calcs I get that the US is worth about $120 trillion just on its assets. No right-minded person would pay that much for the entire USA because as a business USA inc. is running at a large loss so would be a big liability over time.
>> there is nothing mightier than the almighty dollar
Sure there is. The almighty å...f (Chinese Yuan). On paper, China owns most of the US debt, therefore most of the US.
Nope they'd much rather charge you a shit load more for a whole new motherboard, just because one part of it broke. That way they get a larger profit.
It's already been several generations since intel processors have had actual pins. They will still and always have to have some kind of externally accessible connectors (i.e. pads) even just to solder to. All it would take is a different socket that can work with the new design.
So the world governments do nothing to cut off spammers, scammers, child pornographers or anything that actually burns members of the public, but the moment some big corporations profits from monopolistic practices look like they are being challenged they spring into action and kill it dead in seconds.
Offloading stuff to the GPU isn't the panacea you think it is. They fill a niche by solving problems that are inherently massively parallel i.e. the next computation doesn't have a dependency on the results of the previous computation. By making their architecture very specific GPUs can eliminate inefficiencies that a general purpose unit such as a conventional CPU would face to do the same task. The cost is that they are a one trick pony, no good at doing anything else.
GPUs are truly great at doing what they do, but the areas where that they can do better than a CPU all lie in that very limited problem space. Some more general examples of compute-intensive game-related tasks that offloading to the GPU fails badly would be NPC AI, level loading, etc
Only when the last tree has been cut down,
the last river poisoned,
and the last fish been caught,
will people realise that they can't eat money.
18th century Cree Indian proverb.
Good for you. Thats exactly the kind of thinking that casinos count on.
Why is it people like you worry about politics and economy even when doing nothing is literally destroying the planet. Do you not realise that without a stable environment we lose even the basics such as food and energy supply and therefore any kind of society so all your arguments are moot. This is not some political or economic issue its one of basic survival.
Sorry but you're clueless.
Watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gE6zipFWmo
Stop putting words in my mouth, It wasnt me that said anything about lush green anything, or carbon taxes. Thats all you. I just want to try and stop the problems that are already beginning to manifest themselves.
>> Meaningful CO2 emission reductions simply aren't in the cards.
But It absolutely could be. Just look at the reductions that have already been achieved in Europe. US arent even slowing up let alone reducing. Unfortunately in the US big business has too much of a stranglehold on the government and media to let anything stand in the way of extracting the last 1% of short term profits, even the end of the world. I mean there's still a massive number of Americans that dont even believe global warming is happening. That alone shows you either how ignorant most Americans are or how much big businesses can control the media, schools, government etc in the US. Probably both.
Every version of Windows so far has either been directly copyable, had token copy protection that is trivially easy to circumvent or had a 'leaked' registration hack emerge within a few weeks of its release.
For a method involving remote online validation, It really isn't hard at all to think of a scheme where validation hacks wouldn't be even possible.
At some point, you have to conclude this weak security is intentional, as are the leaks too. Its just another way for Microsoft to keep their product on most peoples desktops.
I'm actually surprised that MIcrosoft havent made Windows 7 and 8 available as a free download, at least for non-corporate use, just to get/keep more people on the Microsoft hook.
>> I find them a tax on the poor.
I think you're confusing cause and effect. Actually they are a tax on those too stupid to understand probability.
>> I don't want to change the way I live.
Sorry to break it to you but what we want doesn't mean shit.
If we carry on the way we are, everyones (including your) lifestyle WILL get changed, either proactively by the government, or the resultant environmental disasters because the proactive changes were too little too late.
While industry is still polluting the way it does, and the system forces everyone to continue living the way we currently do, the actual savings from your energy efficient home and your reduction in driving is less than insignificant. Thats why it really is the rich corps and the government they own that are the problem.
My money is on some disaster rather than the government being the agent of change as the politicians on both sides are clearly still happily taking bribes and direction from big biz to stick their head in the sand and just kick the can down the road.
>> (because such policies do more harm than good)
wow really? as opposed to say, having the east coast repeatedly wiped out by mega-storms and western states becoming uninhabitable due to heat + the lack of water? Thats not even considering the effects on agriculture and the problems the rest of the world will face.
That means they know exactly where it was launched from too.
Accurate automated retaliation next perhaps?
Not that I condone the TSA's overly heavy-handed approach in any way, but you have to ask yourself what was the guy actually thinking?
It seems to me he must have been one of either:
1) A total moron for not being able to guess the obvious trouble that would happen when attempting to go through airport security wearing a watch that looks like a bomb
2) actually trying to incite trouble (starving artist seeking publicity etc)
So in short he's either a moron or a trouble maker.
Driving distracted is going to result in a greatly increased risk of accidents no amount of training can fix that.
Here in Phoenix I see cops using their dash- mounted laptops while driving all the time. They're ususally not giving enough attention to driving. I've even seen them miss some criminal activity going on right infront of them, because they're focussed on looking at their screens.
Sounds like you might get in trouble if stopped.
It wouldn't be hard for the cop to (imagine) he saw you using it as a PC. In that you'd have to _prove_ you werent typing or whatever. Your word against a traffic cop always loses.
>> The service as quoted to the customer is pretty much that they will deliver the Internet on a best-effort basis
OK so when they willfully cut off the connection just to piss people off, that's best effort? I think not.
It sounds like you think AT&T charging for a service (even an old one) then not meeting the terms of the agreement is somehow justifiable.