I loved your play dough analogy. It is surprisingly accurate. I resign myself to doing the same. Much the detritus isn't even Windows but just a function of the user over time piling up crap. I rarely upgrade an install. If I am going to do it, I will do it clean anyway.
Besides all the loaded questions and unquantifiable results the fact is much of the stuff being asked for is insured.
So sure they might pay 22$ to get at my stuff, but from my perspective if they steal money from my credit card it is insured against identity theft, so basically they are stealing from the bank, not me as the bank will reimburse me. I have had it happen to me before.
This is really just a stupid thing to sell their software, which really wouldn't help all that much anyway. Not being foolish is part of it.
The WORST case I have ever heard of was a couple went on vacation, and some asshole stole their identities, and actually sold their 400k home out from under them. Brutal eh? However is this their fault, or that of the stupid bank? In this case I would also think that it would be much like if someone stole your car and sold it. The person with the stolen car wouldn't be the loser, it would be the person that bought the car. In this case the bank controls the sale, as they hold the mortgage, so likely there is some responsibility there as well.
However Apple decided to only allow certain telcos to sell it. I get a great cell phone coverage plan though work, however it is through a competing telco, so screw 'em. Maybe I will buy the N900, maybe a Palm Pre. I am not switching plans for a stupid phone no matter how cool (which is really the whole point behind it I am sure). Iikely I will do like everyone else and buy a Blackberry.
Also RIM should send a Christmas card to Apple and say thanks for all the business!:) We really only have two communications companies up here in Canada, and RIM owns all the business clients in both, and now owns all the personal consumers in one because Apple doesn't want to compete I guess.
I work in regulating an industry (aggregate mining) that is pretty hated and ill regarded even though it is one of the most important building blocks (pardon the pun) of civilization.
I have come into contact with many many lobbyists. They are NOT all the same. The "tree hugging Luddites" as you put it, make up a VERY small percentage, and while vocal are not the norm. By far are pretenders that basically pretend to be "tree hugging Luddites" but in reality are only doing so to further their own agendas.
Primary to this is NIMBY. If you actually look at the BIG environmental lobby groups, they are typically coalitions of many many tiny lobby groups. Most of these can fall under the Cottage Association, or Residents Coalition, etc... Basically the big this here is that they are more worried about the location of some undesirable land use type popping up next to where they are located and driving their real estate prices now. Period. All the save the whales and other BS is mostly posturing. SOME actually believe in that, in the actual environmental impact, most however don't give a crap and are only interested in the short term fiscal real estate issues.
I always like to mention that it is short sighted as they don't look at big picture. So sure they will piss and moan and make a big fuss about pretty much ANYTHING coming into their area (queue save the whales and think about the children), however in a decade when Energy doubles in price they certainly won't like that too much or when aggregate goes from 3 bucks to 80 bucks a tonne and makes the house they wish to build cost about double, then they certainly will be unhappy.
One of my favorite examples, and it l made my jaw drop on how stupid it was, was the proposed development of wind turbines off shore of Toronto. This was on "The Nature of Things" which is actually an environmental show (which sort of surprised me that they even looked at this angle, or maybe it was just me that found it stupid). Anyway the current obstruction is a lobby group which for all intents and purposes is a cottager's association comprised of people that own million dollar cottages in and around Toronto waterfront. During the interview they basically admitted when pressed that there was zero environmental impact (however still use that as an official argument) but they were what they called heritage environmentalists or some such nonsense, in which they are concerned about the aesthetic health of the environment, and that the wind turbines were ugly, and not at one with nature and thus a form of pollution and contamination. I am not kidding. So you have an "Environmental" lobby group blocking the development of environmentally friendly energy sources because basically they think they are "ugly" and it will reduce the price of their multimillion dollar cottage (of which in the grade scheme only a few rich people have). It truly boggles the mind. To date, they are still not built, and development is still being blocked by a bunch of environmental posers. I can respect someone's environmental views even if I might not agree, however people just using those ideals for very un-idealistic ends.
I am guessing here, but dumping radioactive waste into the oceans might be political and PR death. Regardless of if it is actually harmful or not, which it likely is (but I don't know only guessing).
Unix yes. However no one outside of computer science would have a clue. We had a whole lot of Sun spark systems as well as several VMS and some mainframe (old) running unix and dummy terminals. Of course I graduated back in 2000 you whippersnappers! Heck I remember using Pine for email and Lynx for "browsing" (air quotes) when I first started. The coolest thing at the time was IRC, where you could enter "rooms" and "chat" with someone around the world by typing. Brought the world together via flamers.
I remember one educated conversation I had where were we having the discussion about who knew how to party harder. The US folks of course disagreed, stating in fact they were by far the hardest of partyers. I countered with no, we know how to party. Then the said that she was Cajun and thus were the biggest party people in the world. I then stated that I was from Nova Scotia, Canada and that we kicked their ass out of the province back in 1755 because they were not pulling their weigh in the party, which promptly ended the conversation. Good times that was, truly a golden age of thought.
Because we are ALL pirates up here in Canada dontcha know? The US media lobby said so, so it must be true! Also at least this way we know all those collected funds will go directly to those starving artists right?
If you don't have your sarcasm scanner on you need an upgrade.
Jason: The real point is not to get yourself into this position, that's what you have to realize. You gotta know all the tricks like, for example, if a woman's on top she can't get pregnant. It's just gravity. Jonah: Well that's true. Everyone knows that. Jason: What goes up must come down.
I have, though I haven't bothered to install it and try my key as I can't be bothered to yet.
Reading down in the article it sounds like some people have done just that. It will require a phone conversation with MS, but it does apparently work.
MS it seems just won't send you copy, which really inadvertently is promoting the dissemination of their product through shall we say "alternate" channels. Thought I guess this way they save a few pennies on bandwidth or media.
Anyway it seems this has worked in the past, I am not sure about the present or future should it continue. I will likely give it a try at some point.
You sir I think is the one that doesn't understand.
I am going to collage I need a computer. However I am a poor student. Conversely I have poor parents due to tuition.
I decide to buy a Netbook. The choices are: 1) 350$ Windows 2) 250$ Linux
I will also at least be able to play WOW on the Linux.
Purchase #2. The ripple effect is that more young people learn linux. Continuing along that line the more people that know how to use it makes it more viable for employers. The more employers that use it... well that's your argument.
When I took Comp Sci at university, you would be astounded at how much free crap and crazy discounts universities get from Companies like Microsoft, Sun, etc... Why? Because they know when students learn on their technologies, and eventually enter the work force, when new projects comes up, and they already know how to use technology X, odds are that is what is going to get used. The more that know it, the more true this becomes.
"a couple of hundred users"? Not even close. How about a couple hundred thousand. Also I am definatly NOT talking about people loading linux onto their machine. I AM talking about pre-loaded linux being sold on a machine you buy from like Dell or whatever brand you like.
This will certainly NOT effect work machines in the short term. It defiantly will IF it has a significant impact on market share over the long term. Which is why if it ever happened Microsoft would start cutting prices on pre-loaded editions, and likely leaning on manufactures in an anti-competition kind of way to prevent it.
As Blizzard mentioned, the current gamer user base of Linux is too small to really care about developing for.
Key to this (which is why I think Microsoft is giving huge discounts for licensing netbooks, to quote Simpson "Buy 'em out Boys"..."I didn't get rich signing a whole lot of checks!") is the explosion of popularity of Netbooks. When you boil it down the reason they are so popular is because they are so cheap. This was why originally many actually shipped with Linux to make them more competitive. Microsoft saw this and promptly lowered costs to push them out of market. However it is really hard to compete with pretty much "free".
If Netbooks were designed to at least handle WOW, which would not be hard to do in the next year or two, particularly with ION coming out, there is an opportunity to make some serious changes. Make a netbook that runs linux and wow, and is cheaper than the competing Microsoft Netbooks, well if you think they are popular and selling now, just wait... Also this is going to become a huge market segment, so with that linux starts becoming viable as a personal mainstream desktop OS... It would be interesting to see what Microsoft does... thought I might suggest it would be predictable.
A) They only came out in like the last month. B) The "Three" are 1) With Keyboard Black. 2) Without Keyboard, and 3) With Keyboard White. All other features are the same.
If you want an iPhone you MUST sign with Rogers.
Winmo is on Pre, and Pre isn't available yet.
The N95 and various blackbarries are available. I could care less about the N95, which leaves the blackbarry as Canada's choice... seeing it is made by RIM a Canadian company that's sort of a nice thing.
Anyway I still think they suck. The US is also bad, but not as bad as Canada. Look around the world, we are being left in the dust, and I am not simply talking about silly cell phone selection. However for the average consumer, that and the cost is what is most apparent.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm installing Windows. What do you think?
You forgot to chug you drink for each reboot.
Mmmmmm, "food mass"... Can't wait to see that on the menu.
I loved your play dough analogy. It is surprisingly accurate. I resign myself to doing the same. Much the detritus isn't even Windows but just a function of the user over time piling up crap. I rarely upgrade an install. If I am going to do it, I will do it clean anyway.
Translation: "No one gives a shit".
Just like a club is less lethal than a sword... but it still does 1d6.
Also "the electronic equivalent of a claymore mine, which hurls dozens of electrified needles": W.T.F.
What exactly is the intended non-lethal purpose of such a thing?
Heh,
Reminds me of one of my fav lolcats:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/06/02/im-in-ur-quantum-box/
Besides all the loaded questions and unquantifiable results the fact is much of the stuff being asked for is insured.
So sure they might pay 22$ to get at my stuff, but from my perspective if they steal money from my credit card it is insured against identity theft, so basically they are stealing from the bank, not me as the bank will reimburse me. I have had it happen to me before.
This is really just a stupid thing to sell their software, which really wouldn't help all that much anyway. Not being foolish is part of it.
The WORST case I have ever heard of was a couple went on vacation, and some asshole stole their identities, and actually sold their 400k home out from under them. Brutal eh? However is this their fault, or that of the stupid bank? In this case I would also think that it would be much like if someone stole your car and sold it. The person with the stolen car wouldn't be the loser, it would be the person that bought the car. In this case the bank controls the sale, as they hold the mortgage, so likely there is some responsibility there as well.
However Apple decided to only allow certain telcos to sell it. I get a great cell phone coverage plan though work, however it is through a competing telco, so screw 'em. Maybe I will buy the N900, maybe a Palm Pre. I am not switching plans for a stupid phone no matter how cool (which is really the whole point behind it I am sure). Iikely I will do like everyone else and buy a Blackberry.
Also RIM should send a Christmas card to Apple and say thanks for all the business! :) We really only have two communications companies up here in Canada, and RIM owns all the business clients in both, and now owns all the personal consumers in one because Apple doesn't want to compete I guess.
I work in regulating an industry (aggregate mining) that is pretty hated and ill regarded even though it is one of the most important building blocks (pardon the pun) of civilization.
I have come into contact with many many lobbyists. They are NOT all the same. The "tree hugging Luddites" as you put it, make up a VERY small percentage, and while vocal are not the norm. By far are pretenders that basically pretend to be "tree hugging Luddites" but in reality are only doing so to further their own agendas.
Primary to this is NIMBY. If you actually look at the BIG environmental lobby groups, they are typically coalitions of many many tiny lobby groups. Most of these can fall under the Cottage Association, or Residents Coalition, etc... Basically the big this here is that they are more worried about the location of some undesirable land use type popping up next to where they are located and driving their real estate prices now. Period. All the save the whales and other BS is mostly posturing. SOME actually believe in that, in the actual environmental impact, most however don't give a crap and are only interested in the short term fiscal real estate issues.
I always like to mention that it is short sighted as they don't look at big picture. So sure they will piss and moan and make a big fuss about pretty much ANYTHING coming into their area (queue save the whales and think about the children), however in a decade when Energy doubles in price they certainly won't like that too much or when aggregate goes from 3 bucks to 80 bucks a tonne and makes the house they wish to build cost about double, then they certainly will be unhappy.
One of my favorite examples, and it l made my jaw drop on how stupid it was, was the proposed development of wind turbines off shore of Toronto. This was on "The Nature of Things" which is actually an environmental show (which sort of surprised me that they even looked at this angle, or maybe it was just me that found it stupid). Anyway the current obstruction is a lobby group which for all intents and purposes is a cottager's association comprised of people that own million dollar cottages in and around Toronto waterfront. During the interview they basically admitted when pressed that there was zero environmental impact (however still use that as an official argument) but they were what they called heritage environmentalists or some such nonsense, in which they are concerned about the aesthetic health of the environment, and that the wind turbines were ugly, and not at one with nature and thus a form of pollution and contamination. I am not kidding. So you have an "Environmental" lobby group blocking the development of environmentally friendly energy sources because basically they think they are "ugly" and it will reduce the price of their multimillion dollar cottage (of which in the grade scheme only a few rich people have). It truly boggles the mind. To date, they are still not built, and development is still being blocked by a bunch of environmental posers. I can respect someone's environmental views even if I might not agree, however people just using those ideals for very un-idealistic ends.
I am guessing here, but dumping radioactive waste into the oceans might be political and PR death. Regardless of if it is actually harmful or not, which it likely is (but I don't know only guessing).
Unix yes. However no one outside of computer science would have a clue. We had a whole lot of Sun spark systems as well as several VMS and some mainframe (old) running unix and dummy terminals. Of course I graduated back in 2000 you whippersnappers! Heck I remember using Pine for email and Lynx for "browsing" (air quotes) when I first started. The coolest thing at the time was IRC, where you could enter "rooms" and "chat" with someone around the world by typing. Brought the world together via flamers.
I remember one educated conversation I had where were we having the discussion about who knew how to party harder. The US folks of course disagreed, stating in fact they were by far the hardest of partyers. I countered with no, we know how to party. Then the said that she was Cajun and thus were the biggest party people in the world. I then stated that I was from Nova Scotia, Canada and that we kicked their ass out of the province back in 1755 because they were not pulling their weigh in the party, which promptly ended the conversation. Good times that was, truly a golden age of thought.
Because we are ALL pirates up here in Canada dontcha know? The US media lobby said so, so it must be true! Also at least this way we know all those collected funds will go directly to those starving artists right?
If you don't have your sarcasm scanner on you need an upgrade.
Let me get this straight... Are you telling me I have to modulate my shield frequency?
KHANNNNNNNN!
Jason: The real point is not to get yourself into this position, that's what you have to realize. You gotta know all the tricks like, for example, if a woman's on top she can't get pregnant. It's just gravity.
Jonah: Well that's true. Everyone knows that.
Jason: What goes up must come down.
Insert Microsoft for EA and this still is true. Seems to have worked for them.
People mentioned Big Pharma, again no surprise.
Actually take any retail branded item, and Marketing is probably bigger than product costs by a fair margin.
"carry more cargo"
You sir have obviously never seen a woman pack...
With periods of Hot and Bright.
Gimmie half of that.
I have, though I haven't bothered to install it and try my key as I can't be bothered to yet.
Reading down in the article it sounds like some people have done just that. It will require a phone conversation with MS, but it does apparently work.
MS it seems just won't send you copy, which really inadvertently is promoting the dissemination of their product through shall we say "alternate" channels. Thought I guess this way they save a few pennies on bandwidth or media.
Anyway it seems this has worked in the past, I am not sure about the present or future should it continue. I will likely give it a try at some point.
Technically incorrect.
If you buy the RETAIL version, then yes. If you buy the OEM version, then no.
I tried this, they basically told me to take a hike.
Just don't have any women on board, particularly Canadian women, otherwise the the Russians will kill each other trying to kiss her.
Mars Epic Fail (Didn't last even one month):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6955149/page/3/
Mars Epic Win:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/07/15/after-three-months-in-a-tin-can-six-men-end-simulated-mars-mission/
You sir I think is the one that doesn't understand.
I am going to collage I need a computer. However I am a poor student. Conversely I have poor parents due to tuition.
I decide to buy a Netbook. The choices are:
1) 350$ Windows
2) 250$ Linux
I will also at least be able to play WOW on the Linux.
Purchase #2. The ripple effect is that more young people learn linux. Continuing along that line the more people that know how to use it makes it more viable for employers. The more employers that use it... well that's your argument.
When I took Comp Sci at university, you would be astounded at how much free crap and crazy discounts universities get from Companies like Microsoft, Sun, etc... Why? Because they know when students learn on their technologies, and eventually enter the work force, when new projects comes up, and they already know how to use technology X, odds are that is what is going to get used. The more that know it, the more true this becomes.
"a couple of hundred users"? Not even close. How about a couple hundred thousand. Also I am definatly NOT talking about people loading linux onto their machine. I AM talking about pre-loaded linux being sold on a machine you buy from like Dell or whatever brand you like.
This will certainly NOT effect work machines in the short term. It defiantly will IF it has a significant impact on market share over the long term. Which is why if it ever happened Microsoft would start cutting prices on pre-loaded editions, and likely leaning on manufactures in an anti-competition kind of way to prevent it.
As Blizzard mentioned, the current gamer user base of Linux is too small to really care about developing for.
Key to this (which is why I think Microsoft is giving huge discounts for licensing netbooks, to quote Simpson "Buy 'em out Boys"..."I didn't get rich signing a whole lot of checks!") is the explosion of popularity of Netbooks. When you boil it down the reason they are so popular is because they are so cheap. This was why originally many actually shipped with Linux to make them more competitive. Microsoft saw this and promptly lowered costs to push them out of market. However it is really hard to compete with pretty much "free".
If Netbooks were designed to at least handle WOW, which would not be hard to do in the next year or two, particularly with ION coming out, there is an opportunity to make some serious changes. Make a netbook that runs linux and wow, and is cheaper than the competing Microsoft Netbooks, well if you think they are popular and selling now, just wait... Also this is going to become a huge market segment, so with that linux starts becoming viable as a personal mainstream desktop OS... It would be interesting to see what Microsoft does... thought I might suggest it would be predictable.
OK to respond.
Rogers carries 3 HTC Android phones.
A) They only came out in like the last month.
B) The "Three" are 1) With Keyboard Black. 2) Without Keyboard, and 3) With Keyboard White. All other features are the same.
If you want an iPhone you MUST sign with Rogers.
Winmo is on Pre, and Pre isn't available yet.
The N95 and various blackbarries are available. I could care less about the N95, which leaves the blackbarry as Canada's choice... seeing it is made by RIM a Canadian company that's sort of a nice thing.
Anyway I still think they suck. The US is also bad, but not as bad as Canada. Look around the world, we are being left in the dust, and I am not simply talking about silly cell phone selection. However for the average consumer, that and the cost is what is most apparent.
Is Starcraft 2 going to support dial up modems?
Because I know that is how I used to play in college all the time. I mean if they don't allow that I think I will boycott them forevar!