Call the closest local branch to an ATM that ate your card and see how many DAYS it takes for them to respond?
Or report that it randomly dispenses $20 bills every two minutes and see how SECONDS it takes for a response.
How about phishers putting up a false 2' wall, bogus ATM, and card reader that said "temporarily out-of-service"
AFTER reading the magnetic strip and skimming/scamming your pin?
(and) prevent "the latest harmful and unwanted software from running on your computer"
Every week, Windows Defender repeats the above pledge. There are two problems here:
I am not sure that Microsoft's definition of unwanted software is the same of mine; I *am* sure that my definition of unwanted software includes things that Microsoft is doing that are not in my interests.
It seems hardly surprising that playing video games is better than simply allowing your brain to rot.
Specifically though, Brain Age is targeted at the millions of older adults who purchase things like the herbal "Focus Factor" supplements (the ones Larry King kept saying worked for him -- right up until the week that a well-publicized study about its main ingredient proved otherwise)
Brain Age has a bit of scientific research behind it that I have little reason to doubt. But it is a 2 trick pony based on that study, with the other half dozen training exercises being obvious add-ons and filler materical. The main product delivers, but those two main exercises are narrow and if it weren't for the bundled Sudoku game, I guarantee you'd feel cheated unless it was sold in the half price bin when it was released.
We're talking about the company that boasts of 15ppm printers that can't print so much as a single DOT on a different page every four seconds to reach those timings.
Hewlett Packard mastered the art of skillful fact manipulation before they ever mastered the art of PaintJets, DeskJets and DesignJets.
Since they introduced both the laser printer (LaserJet) and thermal inkjet (ThinkJet) in 1984, they cannot blame Canon or Apple or anybody else for their own lying about printer specifications.
Unless you're regularly buying 10,000 shares of Microsoft stock or 1,000 copies of Vista, you don't matter much. That quarter million dollars, either way, is the cost-of-entry for your opinions to possibly matter in Redmond.
Microsoft's level of quality in the Windows software offerings is similar to GM's level of quality in their car offerings -- good enough for most. Then they both put further efforts toward matching the competition's features and product line.
Finally, just talk a good game about quality to your sales people and the general public. New car buyers don't follow advice from professional drivers or mechanics, any more than consumers listen to IT pros or technicians about what OS to install.
With games past the $60 mark, maybe some enterprising company will bundle XP Home edition that can only be installed from OS X. Talk Microsoft into selling tens of thousands more copies without cannibalizing sales from customers who would otherwise have purchased XP.
Companies have always jumped at opportunities to target a specific customer-base at ten times their current penetration, and selling a 5 year old product at wholesale for half price isn't unreasonable. Unless they have too much pride to not receive "top billing" on a product bundle
Rootkit authors are some of the best programmers and reverse engineers in the world.
McAfee and Symantec should get mediocre programmers at the least. Try to run McAfee Stinger or the Googlepack NAV2005 on a Windows box with no C: drive.
McAfee won't always properly drill down from the root directory, and Norton products have had this well-documented bug in many products for years now.
Why would you trust even your bootsector to these "experts" from such notable companies, if they cannot even find a 'SystemDrive' or 'windir' variable?
I refuse to shop at a store that forces me to do their work
It is forcing customers, at the places with multiple under-20 item checkout lanes that offer ZERO traditional cashier choices. The old fashioned queues would have people lined up five people deep if offered as an alternative.
The alternative, of course is a professional who processes 40-45 rings per minute instead of the persons fumbling around ten times slower than that. So we've gotta stand in line at least five minutes longer than necessary? No thanks.
Of course Microsoft had their "Spynet Community" in Microsoft Antispyware Beta. And in a few days when that dies, it has been reincarnated in Windows Defender.
In Vista it says "Join the online community that helps identify and stop spyware"... followed by advanced membership or "Join with a Basic membership"
proving ground for kids who wanna grow up to be one of the million monkeys
This latest parlor trick will allow kids who can't write viruses to at least be able to collect them. Their very own petting zoo -- complete with some of the exotics -- and some new friends to play with!
CPU performance hasnt made any huge gains lately. GPU performance has been good but most PCs come with integrated graphics.
It's been in the financial interest of Dell (even Apple) that the notebook/desktop
performance gap get closer.
It became a lot easier to sell those high margin laptops when integrated-video
desktop machines were actually worse than most 2 year old whitebox clones.
And Intel was more than happy to oblige Dell with theat short-term mobile fantasy.
I can't help but get the impression the MacOS is abnormally sluggish.
I don't doubt a single statement of yours, but you gotta know that the built-in video is your culprit here.
My own Microsoft OS upgrade evaluations (for speed) have always been based on spending $250 on the best bang-for-the-buck combination of new drive and additional RAM for peoples' test machines. It is overkill, but as long as their old machine wasn't more than three years old, I haven't had a speed complaint yet when upgrading anybody.
Don't change out the box/monitor/keyboard/mouse... endusers have a very good memory when it comes to snappiness and how "their machine" has been running daily for the past few days before any upgrades or changes.
I doubt that Dell could be forced to service anything... Worse still is their telephone support.
That combination is a Field Service rep's nightmare. The last thing an outside contractor tech wants is having to service 6 to 8 machines a day where every single one is some major, extreme issue.
No matter how challenging and fun the complete nightmare issues might be, you need an occasional "gimmee" trip, to borrow time from one job to spend properly on another.
Slashdot Mirror
Before there was Internet addiction (IAD), there was Darpanet-Addiction (DAD) and electronic-Gopher-Addiction (eGAD)
Or report that it randomly dispenses $20 bills every two minutes and see how SECONDS it takes for a response.
How about phishers putting up a false 2' wall, bogus ATM, and card reader that said "temporarily out-of-service"
AFTER reading the magnetic strip and skimming/scamming your pin?
Every week, Windows Defender repeats the above pledge. There are two problems here:
I am not sure that Microsoft's definition of unwanted software is the same of mine; I *am* sure that my definition of unwanted software includes things that Microsoft is doing that are not in my interests.
Specifically though, Brain Age is targeted at the millions of older adults who purchase things like the herbal "Focus Factor" supplements (the ones Larry King kept saying worked for him -- right up until the week that a well-publicized study about its main ingredient proved otherwise)
Brain Age has a bit of scientific research behind it that I have little reason to doubt. But it is a 2 trick pony based on that study, with the other half dozen training exercises being obvious add-ons and filler materical. The main product delivers, but those two main exercises are narrow and if it weren't for the bundled Sudoku game, I guarantee you'd feel cheated unless it was sold in the half price bin when it was released.
Pretty graphs -- I don't think so.
A fuzzy and completely unusable 21KB GIF for "Half Life 2" is the biggest graph on the last page before the conclusion.
Hewlett Packard mastered the art of skillful fact manipulation before they ever mastered the art of PaintJets, DeskJets and DesignJets.
Since they introduced both the laser printer (LaserJet) and thermal inkjet (ThinkJet) in 1984, they cannot blame Canon or Apple or anybody else for their own lying about printer specifications.
Microsoft's level of quality in the Windows software offerings is similar to GM's level of quality in their car offerings -- good enough for most. Then they both put further efforts toward matching the competition's features and product line.
Finally, just talk a good game about quality to your sales people and the general public. New car buyers don't follow advice from professional drivers or mechanics, any more than consumers listen to IT pros or technicians about what OS to install.
Don't like ebook hardware? Then build your own. In a week you'll want something with a BETTER feel than an actual book like the
RCA Rocket Reader.
Size doesn't matter (capacity). These days it need only be wireless and web-based. Point it to your own non-DRM server collection.
Ten seconds loading time if your home-built ebook reader stores one full title; instantaneous if it only grabs a chapter in realtime.
$199 Basic Home computer
$239 Premium Home computer
$299 Business computer
$399 Ultimate computer
The fine print would mention the 100% Microsoft tax that accompanies the hardware for the respective new version of Windows.
1) Won't run unless you uninstall the current antispyware.
2) Forces removal of a popular 3rd party firewall program.
Hint - they don't do it for compatibility reasons.
That's what the Dell phone rep told me about their laptop. First time in years it turns out that a salesman wasn't lying about a product.
Companies have always jumped at opportunities to target a specific customer-base at ten times their current penetration, and selling a 5 year old product at wholesale for half price isn't unreasonable. Unless they have too much pride to not receive "top billing" on a product bundle
McAfee and Symantec should get mediocre programmers at the least. Try to run McAfee Stinger or the Googlepack NAV2005 on a Windows box with no C: drive.
McAfee won't always properly drill down from the root directory, and Norton products have had this well-documented bug in many products for years now.
Why would you trust even your bootsector to these "experts" from such notable companies, if they cannot even find a 'SystemDrive' or 'windir' variable?
At a press conference introducing the "radical" Microsoft curved mouse, Bill Gates talked about how 7 million dollars was spent just on ergonomics.
Then a reporter asked about the availability of a left-handed version. After a two second pause, the audience was told that it works either way.
It is forcing customers, at the places with multiple under-20 item checkout lanes that offer ZERO traditional cashier choices. The old fashioned queues would have people lined up five people deep if offered as an alternative.
The alternative, of course is a professional who processes 40-45 rings per minute instead of the persons fumbling around ten times slower than that. So we've gotta stand in line at least five minutes longer than necessary? No thanks.
In Vista it says "Join the online community that helps identify and stop spyware" ... followed by advanced membership or "Join with a Basic membership"
I must not be a joiner type of guy.
This latest parlor trick will allow kids who can't write viruses to at least be able to collect them. Their very own petting zoo -- complete with some of the exotics -- and some new friends to play with!
It's been in the financial interest of Dell (even Apple) that the notebook/desktop
performance gap get closer.
It became a lot easier to sell those high margin laptops when integrated-video
desktop machines were actually worse than most 2 year old whitebox clones.
And Intel was more than happy to oblige Dell with theat short-term mobile fantasy.
God Bless AUSTRALIA
God Bless AFRICA
God Bless AMERICA,N
God Bless AMERICA,S
God Bless ASIA
God Bless ANTARCTICA
I did run into penguin-haters on my last trip to Europe.
I don't doubt a single statement of yours, but you gotta know that the built-in video is your culprit here.
My own Microsoft OS upgrade evaluations (for speed) have always been based on spending $250 on the best bang-for-the-buck combination of new drive and additional RAM for peoples' test machines. It is overkill, but as long as their old machine wasn't more than three years old, I haven't had a speed complaint yet when upgrading anybody.
Don't change out the box/monitor/keyboard/mouse ... endusers have a very good memory when it comes to snappiness and how "their machine" has been running daily for the past few days before any upgrades or changes.
That combination is a Field Service rep's nightmare. The last thing an outside contractor tech wants is having to service 6 to 8 machines a day where every single one is some major, extreme issue.
No matter how challenging and fun the complete nightmare issues might be, you need an occasional "gimmee" trip, to borrow time from one job to spend properly on another.
Churchill was right ... the whole world is just swirling around, ready to go into the shitcan.
'users may install a helper program, the Windows Genuine
Advantage plug-in, to enhance their download experience'
--
Microsoft staff never sees this
if they eat their own dog food.
There are locations in Houston with the ability to reach well over 1.5 million free numbers, yet are toll calls to reach paying Skype customers.
Even tracfones from Wal-Mart fare better with the NANP than this.