Well, it won't be long before we travel and find the US-Customs trojaning our rigs with the USB-Bundestrojaner in our lap(tops). Even if you flash (drive) you di(s)ks, you will still be asked to unsheathe your (p)assword and boots and straps you log in.
Talk about the US government made of domestic and domesticated hingeladers (hind-loaders).
(Wow, I could not find in Google: Hingelader, hingelader hind loader, or German hind loader in a attempt to find the correct spelling of her hingelader)
Oh, make sure you disable all device ports in your kernel when you travel. Set a fake DES or wipe routine in motion. Make the bun-loaders think you are hiding something. Tell them its your home-made porn you copyrighted in an NDA with a foreign government that will take a dim view of its confidentiality being breached...)
would be what it takes to shift the world banking systems and major stock systems OUT of the US to Shanghai or Europe.
It would be an interesting thing to see bung-holed US foreign policy (and domestic policy) screw up the US power position. We won't have to worry about sub-prime lending market woes. Just enslave the US to the rest of the world by deepening investment but moving the movers and shakers to places like Switzerland, Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and so on.
"As I recall, under long-standing International treaty and law, a nation has the right to control anything and everything that passes its borders. In pre cybernetic days, this meant that all documents could be searched, reviewed, etc. Historically this has been an excellent intelligence gathering activity. Oh yes, and this includes mail, packages, as well as the baggage of persons crossing the borders."
But, what about "Diplomatic Seal" or "immunity from search" our Diplomatic Pouches? Those seemingly were off-limits. Not that there was not background neutron scan in the point of entry. But, I suppose that the former Soviets or any current government fills their attaches with scan-detector paper to test whether or not the US or other governments are bombarding their agents and diplomats with device detection or device neutralization energy.
Now, I wonder if these days the US will demand to inspect the laptops of foreign diplomats. If not, then what's sooo special about THEM. Let's see: they maintain nation-level contact, could object, and even hint at declaring intrusiveness as some grave matter or worthy of declaring an act of war.
Now, let a US resident/citizen/national try to declare an "act of war" against the US government when faced with the seizure and inspection of his/her laptop. Such a person would be tossed in the clink.
Oh, by the way: does anyone for one SECOND think the "inspected" laptops of the copied drives haven't been specially fitted with keystroke devices, beacons and other "nifty gadgets"? If you think you've been bugged, toss the machine or have a bug sweep run on it. Not that this will deter or distract them. But, it WILL be some proof you were illegally tapped. (Assuming you're not already a person of interest...).
I will have to remember that. Take my disks with me, but NOT ONLY WIPE them, deSTROY them. Keep my good data for use over the border, then wipe, destroy, and discard the disk. Or, mechanically smash it and dangle it in their fucking faces.
Just be sure to keep a live boot Linux disk for the time you'll be sitting in the terminals on the way back.
But, then I suppose they'll presume the live boot is custom with SOME of the data kept before the main hard drive was destroyed.
Time to learn Chinese or Japanese or Korean and move there, I suppose. As long as I'm not a criminal, a country is a country. I am a being, born into a place not of my choosing. Life is short. NO ONE OWES allegiance to SHIT unless they personally ascribe to it. People should be able to live and work where ever a government/country conceivably could accommodate as long as the applicant has a clean record, learns the local language, contributes, and a few other things. Too bad governments and wealthy stage this conflict to "shake out the cobwebs", which often translates into imperialism, use of citizens as fodder/troops of invasion, and other things.
Maybe it would be interesting if businesses having to leave their laptops at home on business to the US would find some way to punish the US for dicking with the citizenry. Smart criminals would just encrypt their data multiple times and import it over the web, or have it come in on a freight truck that is NOT going to be quarantined for weeks while various US agencies sift and pore over data in some goddamn easter egg hug.
Copying data at the border is just to reinforce that the slippery slope is slipper SLOP that we have been feed by IV, not by spoon. And will CONTINUE to be IV-fed, or we will be "disconnected from life support"...
Another possibility is to reduce the data to encrypted images (steg?, QRC codes? blobs?) and bind them as documents. Or, maybe we can just ask for diplomatic immunity by taking on freelance work or some other government for travel duration purposes...
This could be a nice way to PUNISH microsoft. I'd like see Baidu or Sina (through some hefty government financial backing), anybody -- other than microsoft-- make a bid (collectively) to thwart mshaft.
They are such a large, lumbering, angst-ridden, bully of a company and now that Google is into some aspect of cell phone technology, the never-innovating, always-cloning/embracing-extending-extinguishing company has to show how much of a looser it is by playing catch-up.
Worse, how will microsoft separate itself from all the allegations of AT&T being in bed with the government. Sure, Google, Yahoo! and other search/hosting/ISP entities all are required to be SOMEWHAT tied to the government domestic and overseas intelligence apparatus, but should we all now be just a *little bit* more concerned? Or, just shrug it off? Now, we'll see microsoft asking for immunity from prosecution for all those CIA-mandated back doors installed in windoze. (Not saying there aren't in an Linux-based apps that get submitted but not thoroughly vetted, or that Linux vetters/QA bodies are not in-place agents of government).
This is just msoft admitting it has lost its way, a bully that can't innovate, and has to buy or bribe its way into appeasing analysts, investors, and others.
Of course, US regulators would play the protectionist card as it did when China wanted part of Conoco(?).
But, how many Yahoo! employees really (other than for the money) WANT to be had by microsoft. Sure, msoft says it wants to keep the Yahoo! talent. Hell, it's more like they NEED to keep the talent, otherwise the acquisition would be hollow and in vain. Since ms is not stupid (well, not exactly, or not totally), they will likely build into the retention package some series of clauses that spell out no money will be up-front, and that it will all be based on the acquired employee sticking around for X number of years, reaching some arbitrary productivity level, and made to acquire professional skills which probably will grind down the employee and vaporize the money because it might be spend on courses from which the employee MIGHT benefit in the long term, but will be psychologically ruined by culture clashes.
But, what pangs/pains me is that they get away with foisting all these ridiculous system minimum requirements. Like, WHY should Aero require at least 2GB of video RAM to do what it does? Does Apple require that much? I know Compiz/Beryl didn't seem to do to badly in 128 MB on the right card (but, I didn't NEED such graphics, and I returned the card for that and for cost reasons), and yet KDE and Gnome seem to blaze ahead. Linux GUIs seem to offer an insane number of options that only a weirdo perfectionist might want. I may be wrong, but does Compiz or does Beryl *require* 2 GB to provide an experience comparable to a WEI of 4, or of 6?
If Open Source FANS can provide for whiz-bang graphics in a market where *most* of the available graphics cards are deliberately with intentional exclusion (redundant?) of Linux users, in vastly or at least 1/2 of what Aero/Vista require, then what is microsoft's problem?
This seems like what ms is always after: obfuscating the path for competitors, and looking like savior. It's too bad there is no universal karma maul & mallet to knock down idiots.
for msoft to have played into the hands of economists and hardware manufacturers. The ms upgrade treadmill of ever-increased resources expectation just facilitates the
-- shoveling of sloppy, space-consuming code -- increase of landfill volume additions -- spin about "greener" computers when some are not necessarily greener
Individuals AND businesses want --generally-- to contain costs. Buy human psychology of "keeping up with the *x's" makes it all to easy for s/w writers and h/w maker/contractors to push the newest, shiniest thing available. If needed hardware dies, yes, replace it if you can afford to.
My housemate cannibalized my old year 2001 Sony Vaio PCG-FX-215 for parts: MOBO, floppy, battery, and they fit nicely to his year-earlier model, and all I had to do was scalpel off a bit of drive cage cushioning. He spent HOURS gutting those two laptops, and added his LCD, keyboard, and my old DVD RW (which I cannibalized from an old TOSHIBA, by removing laptop plastic from around the drive itself...) and now he can continue to study English in some old 1993 Chinese program that won't run even in compatibility mode in or outside of VirtualBoxings of vista.
Still, he before that plunked down money for a desktop, but that rig may soon have PCLinuxOS2007 on it. I think is eyes lit up when he saw all that stuff (3GB or more) that he can use to learn English, play games, and surf in his native language from time to time.
Now that it seems legal to buy wrapper software (Mandriva for one is including) to watch encrypted DVDs, I hope the rest of the stage curtain begins to tear and either expose windows as not all it's cracked up to be, or that Linux is not nearly as bad or irrelevant as pundits and spin doctors claim it to be.
Well, windoze is MUCH more expensive (relatively speaking) and it makes time for many worth much less, if not much more worthless. Sure, it all depends on what they're trying to DO with an OS, but if I could part with Lotus SmartSuite (I can't) I wouldn't need windows for it. If CAD interfaces for Unix/Linux looked as polished as those in windows (most don't), again, I'd need windows less.
But, for e-mail, surfing and other things which I don't need to run in a VirtualBoxed vista, Linux wins hands down. Even tho my wireless, bluetooth and multimedia keys are still dead. But, I have redundancy: CAT5, and GUI buttons. So, in that regard, windows still wouldn't beat Linux--for me, at least.
Even ms was spun. And THEY think of THEMSELVES as masters of spin. Dead or Alive, he spun them round like a record, baby...
So, ms' next windows roadmap will look more like a NASA orbital plot we would see in the background of Mission Control. But, ms will add some wormholes/jumpgates....
It IS gratifying, isn't it, though? I'm going to be converting my housemate to PCLOS2007, installing it in Chinese on HIS rig, while side by side in English on mine in VirtualBox.
Then, he can surf in his native language. Be nice if I could find him an actual Chinese keyboard to spare him of the overlays, but at least he won't be paying for (nor pirating) any vista Chinese. Even if vista premium HAS Chinese add-on packs for free, he is sensitive to any need for a/v s/w and malware issues.
"A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. QR Codes are common in Japan where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional code.
Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context spanning both commercial tracking applications as well as convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users. QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or just about any object that a user might need information about. A user having a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone's browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL."
But, in the good 'ol US of A, many stores would KICK OUT patrons who openly comparison shop. In Japan, it's the norm, otherwise QR would have flopped, I think. Even on the street, I was handed adverts having QR codes on them. Makes life a HELLUVA lot nicer to not have to type in or use a search engine when a QR will do either, and quickly.
But, even USPS & UPS and such entities use them, too, seemingly to replace get around damaged bar codes. IIRC, QR Codes are multiply (plee) redundant, so damaging part of it still does not prevent extraction of information.
So, does vista have WARTS, or SCABIES? Or, SCATES, or WARBIES. It seems a lot of people are having problems.
I use vista ONLY because it came with my laptop and I didn't want to pirate (nor pay for) any copies of XP. At first, before I realized VirtualBox was stable, and not only usable, but vastly less intimidating than Win4Lin and much cheaper than VMWare, and imminently simpler than futzing around with WINE/Cedega/et al, I was REALLY tempted to seek out a crack to just make vista (paid for on my laptop) not time out.
After shrinking the drive, I think vista must have had some recovery-disk-burned-in realization that my 160 GB disk was shrunk to 10 GB windoze and 29 GB home. It now is annoying me to activate it.
Anyway, I have a windows experience rating of 1.0 for graphics. Disk and memory are above 4.5, with disk being 5.9, believe it or not (I read that 6 is the arbitrary/current max on the scale), while other areas are like 3.8. Of course, since the disk is virtualized, vista cannot help but report something blazingly fast.
At first, I was seething and ragingly irate that microsoft would DARE to specify in the EULA that running vista home and basic in virtual environments was not permitted. To those clauses, I lifted my middle finger to ms. I won't steal any product IDs from store laptops or others' machines, but I'll be DAMNED if (as long as there was no limiting code BUILT-IN into vista) I am going to be deprived of corralling the beast and if I'm going to be deprived of giving to Linux as much of machine as I can. But, that point was recently made moot: microsoft (in the various things I read) removed the limitation. As well they SHOULD have, and should have NEVER included such an onerous, heinous, specious limitation into the EULA. For home or business. It's not as if everyone using vista is actually making money off of it in some virtual world or hosting service setup.
Now, my laptop is a Gateway P-6301 weighing in at some 8.4 or 8.6 pounds, with a 17' screen, 2 GB of RAM and two hard drives (one is 160 GB and the other is 80 GB) and has a lowly 384 MB max Intel chip. Yet, in Linux (KDE, PCLOS2007) I get no Compiz or Beryl exploitation. They install, but the screen turns white, and becomes unresponsive. I don't fault the software: I just have a crappy, bottom-of-the-bucket graphics card specced by Gateway/Acer/whomever Gateway's new owner is.
Yet, I can run PCLOS2007 AND vista simultaneously. Vista itself runs more than fast enough (well, actually, I'm only saying this because I may yet come to regret not buying a 15.4 inch lappy with a dedicated nVidia or ATI graphics card for 3D purposes), and I'll find out how well TurboCAD and Punch ViaCAD will serve me in 3D and various rendering and modeling modes. If I were not using those apps (yep, I paid for them, $99 each), I would have to use CAD Schroer (which is an interesting package but has a paradigm I have to digest) or VariCAD, which would cost me some $600, but which I think still lacks things I would miss (I think viewports might be one of the things, and a crosshair that doesn't span the screen vertically and horizontally, which is what TurboCAD is doing and I can't figure out how to alter), or something else.
Now, even in the limited RAM, in the hardware, and even with the limited VirtualBox RAM (128 MB) for vista, I can STILL run vista at 1440x900, and still run PCLOS2007 nicely. It only slows down when I get tempted to fire up a 2nd VM and run PCLOS.93 or Mandriva in a VM.
Despite the hardware limitations, I STILL in PCLOS2007 get much nicer graphics in KDE than I could get out of a vanilla, un-tweaked (no registry hacks for me...there should be NO reason an errant registry change should trash the machine) vista setup. If KDE can deliver fading, translucency/opacity fun, 16 virtual desktops, screen shows in the desktop of each VD, and provide Kasbar (which is REALLY nice in that it floats over VB/vista, even when VB/vista are in full-screen mode, so I can preview to what KDE desktop I'll switch fr
-- how to eat -- how to dump -- how to wipe -- how to bathe -- how to relax -- how to drive -- how to ride a bike -- etc...
What is there to remember?
Maybe it's not mere repetition, but intensity of act of repetition (not (bad) counting sex, or hemorrhoids, and other unpleasant things...) that helps us remember?
But, is there any proof that Alzheimer's victims forgot how to have sex? Swear, etc? (Not talking about those with stroke-like side-effects such as total motor or vocal or sensory failure...)
And, they need to stop discriminating against Linux-based or other Open Source-based browsers as regards "initial sign-on".
So, I say HOORAY to Europeans and others who are helping put a SERING and serious dent into ms' ie on that side of the pond. I am quite irritated that AT&T and others code for the unfairly dominant browser and not for one that follows W3C standards. I can't help but imagine that deliberately programming the Java to permit Konqueror, Flock, Firefox, et al can only be trivial.
IBM executives have concerns microsoft of leading the campaign against their initiative against microsoft's initiative to have Office Open XML approved by the International Organization for Standardization.
But, Nicos Tsilas, senior director of interoperability and IP policy at Microsoft, said that IBM and the likes of the Free Software Foundation have been lobbying governments to mandate the rival OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard to the exclusion of any other format.
IBM responded with, "They have made this a religious and highly political debate, worse than we did" "Yes, we ARE are doing this because it is advancing our business model. But, over 50 percent of microsoft's revenues come from abusing and INsulting services against their customers needing a way out."
Slashdot Mirror
Well, it won't be long before we travel and find the US-Customs trojaning our rigs with the USB-Bundestrojaner in our lap(tops). Even if you flash (drive) you di(s)ks, you will still be asked to unsheathe your (p)assword and boots and straps you log in.
Talk about the US government made of domestic and domesticated hingeladers (hind-loaders).
(Wow, I could not find in Google: Hingelader, hingelader hind loader, or German hind loader in a attempt to find the correct spelling of her hingelader)
Oh, make sure you disable all device ports in your kernel when you travel. Set a fake DES or wipe routine in motion. Make the bun-loaders think you are hiding something. Tell them its your home-made porn you copyrighted in an NDA with a foreign government that will take a dim view of its confidentiality being breached...)
would be what it takes to shift the world banking systems and major stock systems OUT of the US to Shanghai or Europe.
It would be an interesting thing to see bung-holed US foreign policy (and domestic policy) screw up the US power position. We won't have to worry about sub-prime lending market woes. Just enslave the US to the rest of the world by deepening investment but moving the movers and shakers to places like Switzerland, Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and so on.
It seems of recent :
Prince Andrew rebukes America over Iraq - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/05/nandrew105.xml
I wonder if the UK has any royals or officials who can warn the US about over-spying on domestics.
(I no longer submit to the slash firehose....)
"As I recall, under long-standing International treaty and law, a nation has the right to control anything and everything that passes its borders. In pre cybernetic days, this meant that all documents could be searched, reviewed, etc. Historically this has been an excellent intelligence gathering activity. Oh yes, and this includes mail, packages, as well as the baggage of persons crossing the borders."
But, what about "Diplomatic Seal" or "immunity from search" our Diplomatic Pouches? Those seemingly were off-limits. Not that there was not background neutron scan in the point of entry. But, I suppose that the former Soviets or any current government fills their attaches with scan-detector paper to test whether or not the US or other governments are bombarding their agents and diplomats with device detection or device neutralization energy.
Now, I wonder if these days the US will demand to inspect the laptops of foreign diplomats. If not, then what's sooo special about THEM. Let's see: they maintain nation-level contact, could object, and even hint at declaring intrusiveness as some grave matter or worthy of declaring an act of war.
Now, let a US resident/citizen/national try to declare an "act of war" against the US government when faced with the seizure and inspection of his/her laptop. Such a person would be tossed in the clink.
Oh, by the way: does anyone for one SECOND think the "inspected" laptops of the copied drives haven't been specially fitted with keystroke devices, beacons and other "nifty gadgets"? If you think you've been bugged, toss the machine or have a bug sweep run on it. Not that this will deter or distract them. But, it WILL be some proof you were illegally tapped. (Assuming you're not already a person of interest...).
suffice? (other than to rhyme?)
Slowing wracking the brain in reverse in a vice until the skull pops is just as effective (and faster) than boiling a frog... in hot water.
We could boil it in syrup, and make it a sweet departure...
I will have to remember that. Take my disks with me, but NOT ONLY WIPE them, deSTROY them. Keep my good data for use over the border, then wipe, destroy, and discard the disk. Or, mechanically smash it and dangle it in their fucking faces.
Just be sure to keep a live boot Linux disk for the time you'll be sitting in the terminals on the way back.
But, then I suppose they'll presume the live boot is custom with SOME of the data kept before the main hard drive was destroyed.
Time to learn Chinese or Japanese or Korean and move there, I suppose. As long as I'm not a criminal, a country is a country. I am a being, born into a place not of my choosing. Life is short. NO ONE OWES allegiance to SHIT unless they personally ascribe to it. People should be able to live and work where ever a government/country conceivably could accommodate as long as the applicant has a clean record, learns the local language, contributes, and a few other things. Too bad governments and wealthy stage this conflict to "shake out the cobwebs", which often translates into imperialism, use of citizens as fodder/troops of invasion, and other things.
Maybe it would be interesting if businesses having to leave their laptops at home on business to the US would find some way to punish the US for dicking with the citizenry. Smart criminals would just encrypt their data multiple times and import it over the web, or have it come in on a freight truck that is NOT going to be quarantined for weeks while various US agencies sift and pore over data in some goddamn easter egg hug.
Copying data at the border is just to reinforce that the slippery slope is slipper SLOP that we have been feed by IV, not by spoon. And will CONTINUE to be IV-fed, or we will be "disconnected from life support"...
Another possibility is to reduce the data to encrypted images (steg?, QRC codes? blobs?) and bind them as documents. Or, maybe we can just ask for diplomatic immunity by taking on freelance work or some other government for travel duration purposes...
This could be a nice way to PUNISH microsoft. I'd like see Baidu or Sina (through some hefty government financial backing), anybody -- other than microsoft-- make a bid (collectively) to thwart mshaft.
They are such a large, lumbering, angst-ridden, bully of a company and now that Google is into some aspect of cell phone technology, the never-innovating, always-cloning/embracing-extending-extinguishing company has to show how much of a looser it is by playing catch-up.
Worse, how will microsoft separate itself from all the allegations of AT&T being in bed with the government. Sure, Google, Yahoo! and other search/hosting/ISP entities all are required to be SOMEWHAT tied to the government domestic and overseas intelligence apparatus, but should we all now be just a *little bit* more concerned? Or, just shrug it off? Now, we'll see microsoft asking for immunity from prosecution for all those CIA-mandated back doors installed in windoze. (Not saying there aren't in an Linux-based apps that get submitted but not thoroughly vetted, or that Linux vetters/QA bodies are not in-place agents of government).
This is just msoft admitting it has lost its way, a bully that can't innovate, and has to buy or bribe its way into appeasing analysts, investors, and others.
Of course, US regulators would play the protectionist card as it did when China wanted part of Conoco(?).
But, how many Yahoo! employees really (other than for the money) WANT to be had by microsoft. Sure, msoft says it wants to keep the Yahoo! talent. Hell, it's more like they NEED to keep the talent, otherwise the acquisition would be hollow and in vain. Since ms is not stupid (well, not exactly, or not totally), they will likely build into the retention package some series of clauses that spell out no money will be up-front, and that it will all be based on the acquired employee sticking around for X number of years, reaching some arbitrary productivity level, and made to acquire professional skills which probably will grind down the employee and vaporize the money because it might be spend on courses from which the employee MIGHT benefit in the long term, but will be psychologically ruined by culture clashes.
Does that mean "I got an aching for head"???
But, what pangs/pains me is that they get away with foisting all these ridiculous system minimum requirements. Like, WHY should Aero require at least 2GB of video RAM to do what it does? Does Apple require that much? I know Compiz/Beryl didn't seem to do to badly in 128 MB on the right card (but, I didn't NEED such graphics, and I returned the card for that and for cost reasons), and yet KDE and Gnome seem to blaze ahead. Linux GUIs seem to offer an insane number of options that only a weirdo perfectionist might want. I may be wrong, but does Compiz or does Beryl *require* 2 GB to provide an experience comparable to a WEI of 4, or of 6?
If Open Source FANS can provide for whiz-bang graphics in a market where *most* of the available graphics cards are deliberately with intentional exclusion (redundant?) of Linux users, in vastly or at least 1/2 of what Aero/Vista require, then what is microsoft's problem?
Troll?
I think 140Mandak262Jamuna was SPOT-ON!
This seems like what ms is always after: obfuscating the path for competitors, and looking like savior. It's too bad there is no universal karma maul & mallet to knock down idiots.
Some businesses might consider it:
- exploitation
- insult
- coercion
- outright theft of resources
for msoft to have played into the hands of economists and hardware manufacturers. The ms upgrade treadmill of ever-increased resources expectation just facilitates the
-- shoveling of sloppy, space-consuming code
-- increase of landfill volume additions
-- spin about "greener" computers when some are not necessarily greener
Individuals AND businesses want --generally-- to contain costs. Buy human psychology of "keeping up with the *x's" makes it all to easy for s/w writers and h/w maker/contractors to push the newest, shiniest thing available. If needed hardware dies, yes, replace it if you can afford to.
My housemate cannibalized my old year 2001 Sony Vaio PCG-FX-215 for parts: MOBO, floppy, battery, and they fit nicely to his year-earlier model, and all I had to do was scalpel off a bit of drive cage cushioning. He spent HOURS gutting those two laptops, and added his LCD, keyboard, and my old DVD RW (which I cannibalized from an old TOSHIBA, by removing laptop plastic from around the drive itself...) and now he can continue to study English in some old 1993 Chinese program that won't run even in compatibility mode in or outside of VirtualBoxings of vista.
Still, he before that plunked down money for a desktop, but that rig may soon have PCLinuxOS2007 on it. I think is eyes lit up when he saw all that stuff (3GB or more) that he can use to learn English, play games, and surf in his native language from time to time.
Now that it seems legal to buy wrapper software (Mandriva for one is including) to watch encrypted DVDs, I hope the rest of the stage curtain begins to tear and either expose windows as not all it's cracked up to be, or that Linux is not nearly as bad or irrelevant as pundits and spin doctors claim it to be.
Corporeal... To BE, or NOT to be...
Well, windoze is MUCH more expensive (relatively speaking) and it makes time for many worth much less, if not much more worthless. Sure, it all depends on what they're trying to DO with an OS, but if I could part with Lotus SmartSuite (I can't) I wouldn't need windows for it. If CAD interfaces for Unix/Linux looked as polished as those in windows (most don't), again, I'd need windows less.
But, for e-mail, surfing and other things which I don't need to run in a VirtualBoxed vista, Linux wins hands down. Even tho my wireless, bluetooth and multimedia keys are still dead. But, I have redundancy: CAT5, and GUI buttons. So, in that regard, windows still wouldn't beat Linux--for me, at least.
"quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur"
I SAW: squid squid, latrine, dick, shit, alto sonata.
I SEE Alien, They Came From Within, Squirm, alien reproduction, and lots of screaming... out the ass!
Even ms was spun. And THEY think of THEMSELVES as masters of spin. Dead or Alive, he spun them round like a record, baby...
So, ms' next windows roadmap will look more like a NASA orbital plot we would see in the background of Mission Control. But, ms will add some wormholes/jumpgates....
SINGED hair day. Singed pubic hair? Nappy, knotty hair?
It IS gratifying, isn't it, though? I'm going to be converting my housemate to PCLOS2007, installing it in Chinese on HIS rig, while side by side in English on mine in VirtualBox.
Then, he can surf in his native language. Be nice if I could find him an actual Chinese keyboard to spare him of the overlays, but at least he won't be paying for (nor pirating) any vista Chinese. Even if vista premium HAS Chinese add-on packs for free, he is sensitive to any need for a/v s/w and malware issues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code
"A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. QR Codes are common in Japan where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional code.
Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context spanning both commercial tracking applications as well as convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users. QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or just about any object that a user might need information about. A user having a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone's browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL."
But, in the good 'ol US of A, many stores would KICK OUT patrons who openly comparison shop. In Japan, it's the norm, otherwise QR would have flopped, I think. Even on the street, I was handed adverts having QR codes on them. Makes life a HELLUVA lot nicer to not have to type in or use a search engine when a QR will do either, and quickly.
More URLs:
QR-Code Generator:
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED
http://www.denso-wave.com/qrcode/index-e.html
But, even USPS & UPS and such entities use them, too, seemingly to replace get around damaged bar codes. IIRC, QR Codes are multiply (plee) redundant, so damaging part of it still does not prevent extraction of information.
Maybe it's just a terrafloppy? BUTT, if it's a thing to brag, how many terrorflops can it wreak?
Ken Starling must be doing WELL! I guess he slipped from Janeway's view...
The are SOOO toothless.
If they had any brains in those courts, they'd surely know that people (not just myself) endure the crap I am talking about in:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=435574&cid=22242114
and in my journal:
Wednesday January 30, @02:30PM
But, I guess they are bought off, and all the other stuff we see and hear is just posturing and smoke and mirrors.
So, does vista have WARTS, or SCABIES? Or, SCATES, or WARBIES. It seems a lot of people are having problems.
I use vista ONLY because it came with my laptop and I didn't want to pirate (nor pay for) any copies of XP. At first, before I realized VirtualBox was stable, and not only usable, but vastly less intimidating than Win4Lin and much cheaper than VMWare, and imminently simpler than futzing around with WINE/Cedega/et al, I was REALLY tempted to seek out a crack to just make vista (paid for on my laptop) not time out.
After shrinking the drive, I think vista must have had some recovery-disk-burned-in realization that my 160 GB disk was shrunk to 10 GB windoze and 29 GB home. It now is annoying me to activate it.
Anyway, I have a windows experience rating of 1.0 for graphics. Disk and memory are above 4.5, with disk being 5.9, believe it or not (I read that 6 is the arbitrary/current max on the scale), while other areas are like 3.8. Of course, since the disk is virtualized, vista cannot help but report something blazingly fast.
At first, I was seething and ragingly irate that microsoft would DARE to specify in the EULA that running vista home and basic in virtual environments was not permitted. To those clauses, I lifted my middle finger to ms. I won't steal any product IDs from store laptops or others' machines, but I'll be DAMNED if (as long as there was no limiting code BUILT-IN into vista) I am going to be deprived of corralling the beast and if I'm going to be deprived of giving to Linux as much of machine as I can. But, that point was recently made moot: microsoft (in the various things I read) removed the limitation. As well they SHOULD have, and should have NEVER included such an onerous, heinous, specious limitation into the EULA. For home or business. It's not as if everyone using vista is actually making money off of it in some virtual world or hosting service setup.
Now, my laptop is a Gateway P-6301 weighing in at some 8.4 or 8.6 pounds, with a 17' screen, 2 GB of RAM and two hard drives (one is 160 GB and the other is 80 GB) and has a lowly 384 MB max Intel chip. Yet, in Linux (KDE, PCLOS2007) I get no Compiz or Beryl exploitation. They install, but the screen turns white, and becomes unresponsive. I don't fault the software: I just have a crappy, bottom-of-the-bucket graphics card specced by Gateway/Acer/whomever Gateway's new owner is.
Yet, I can run PCLOS2007 AND vista simultaneously. Vista itself runs more than fast enough (well, actually, I'm only saying this because I may yet come to regret not buying a 15.4 inch lappy with a dedicated nVidia or ATI graphics card for 3D purposes), and I'll find out how well TurboCAD and Punch ViaCAD will serve me in 3D and various rendering and modeling modes. If I were not using those apps (yep, I paid for them, $99 each), I would have to use CAD Schroer (which is an interesting package but has a paradigm I have to digest) or VariCAD, which would cost me some $600, but which I think still lacks things I would miss (I think viewports might be one of the things, and a crosshair that doesn't span the screen vertically and horizontally, which is what TurboCAD is doing and I can't figure out how to alter), or something else.
Now, even in the limited RAM, in the hardware, and even with the limited VirtualBox RAM (128 MB) for vista, I can STILL run vista at 1440x900, and still run PCLOS2007 nicely. It only slows down when I get tempted to fire up a 2nd VM and run PCLOS.93 or Mandriva in a VM.
Despite the hardware limitations, I STILL in PCLOS2007 get much nicer graphics in KDE than I could get out of a vanilla, un-tweaked (no registry hacks for me...there should be NO reason an errant registry change should trash the machine) vista setup. If KDE can deliver fading, translucency/opacity fun, 16 virtual desktops, screen shows in the desktop of each VD, and provide Kasbar (which is REALLY nice in that it floats over VB/vista, even when VB/vista are in full-screen mode, so I can preview to what KDE desktop I'll switch fr
-- how to eat
-- how to dump
-- how to wipe
-- how to bathe
-- how to relax
-- how to drive
-- how to ride a bike
-- etc...
What is there to remember?
Maybe it's not mere repetition, but intensity of act of repetition (not (bad) counting sex, or hemorrhoids, and other unpleasant things...) that helps us remember?
But, is there any proof that Alzheimer's victims forgot how to have sex? Swear, etc? (Not talking about those with stroke-like side-effects such as total motor or vocal or sensory failure...)
And, they need to stop discriminating against Linux-based or other Open Source-based browsers as regards "initial sign-on".
So, I say HOORAY to Europeans and others who are helping put a SERING and serious dent into ms' ie on that side of the pond. I am quite irritated that AT&T and others code for the unfairly dominant browser and not for one that follows W3C standards. I can't help but imagine that deliberately programming the Java to permit Konqueror, Flock, Firefox, et al can only be trivial.
My tidbits are in my journal.
IBM executives have concerns microsoft of leading the campaign against their initiative against microsoft's initiative to have Office Open XML approved by the International Organization for Standardization.
But, Nicos Tsilas, senior director of interoperability and IP policy at Microsoft, said that IBM and the likes of the Free Software Foundation have been lobbying governments to mandate the rival OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard to the exclusion of any other format.
IBM responded with, "They have made this a religious and highly political debate, worse than we did" "Yes, we ARE are doing this because it is advancing our business model. But, over 50 percent of microsoft's revenues come from abusing and INsulting services against their customers needing a way out."
Maybe it's to create a "new body of laws" or "body of facts".
Or, maybe they take Landru and McCoy too seeriously... "You are NOT of the BODY! Heretics! Blasphemes... SINNERS! LANDRU! SAVE me LANDRU!"
Under-the-tongue (flu) immunization or over-the-tongue immunity (phallic)?
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/28/america/NA-MED-US-Flu-Vaccine.php
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/01/29/flu-drops.html?ref=rss
Will it be better to just provide Viapren strips to evil-doers? (LOL)