That's a valid concern, however, you can still run Steam without internet access, it just runs in an offline mode. They don't FORCE you to connect to play the games. Also, since the HL1 stuff was pre steam, if you bought it back then, you can still install from CD. So, I think you are still OK if Valve shuts down, just run in Offline mode.
Oh, WOW!
You forgot:
5) We can accelerate the end of times.
Man, that is so close to Revelation that it is honestly scary! Christian or not, you have to see the similarities! Not trying to flame, honest. I hope that's what you were going for.
I remember being really pissed about this "feature" at first. Up until I realized that all I needed to reinstall the game, was a username and password and the Steam client. It would download everything for every game I had on my account. This included the Half Life 1 series which only required that I enter my valid serial number one time. Now, as far as copy protection goes, I would much rather have something check the internet once in a while than have me pull out the CD/DVD every time I want to play. Give it a try, you may find that you don't mind it as much as you would think. I have never noticed the Steam client doing anything out of the ordinary. Also, you can still play the game without it connecting, just either firewall Steam, or disconnect just before running Steam. It will try to connect, then go to offline mode and will not, that I know of, try to connect again later. I like this copy protection WAY better than the other forms and never thought that I would. I would think that you could sell it, but the next owner would need to have the username and password to your Steam account and all your games are lumped together, it's all or nothing. So, that would be a negative to you I would think. One more positive is that it will check for updates and get them for you, that's nice to me. My.2
Read: I am am democratic/liberal bluderbutt who believes EVERYTHING the drive by media feeds me. God you are PATHETIC! First and foremost, NO ONE is an un-American traitor (INCLUDING YOUR STUPID ASS) for believing this is EXACTLY what it is, partisan politics. The president can fire these judges if he so pleases, it's his prerogative. Case in point, your beloved Clinton did the SAME FUCKING THING! The ONLY difference is his political party. END OF FUCKING STORY! What I hate most about this shit is how you dems/libs will fucking crucify anyone that does not go along with everything you say and then turn tail and jump ship at the first opportunity if you think it will get you one more vote. STAND UP FOR SOMETHING AND THEN STICK TO IT! Stupid flip floppers. Hey, here is a suggest for your party, instead of taking advantage of an entire town who just had their entire lives blown away by an F5 tornado by purposely not requesting National Guard aid, (you just let these people, the VICTIMS suffer while you used it as an opportunity to bash Bush by saying you have no guard personnel or resources because they are all in Iraq) you can just do what you are supposed to do and should do and request the fucking aid so people don't suffer just so you can get your face on TV to spread FUD. God, every day I can't believe how pathetic dems/libs are. Flame on!
No dumbass, you don't carry a gun for self defense and then shoot someone for no reason. Strangely enough, the citizens that are licensed to carry a concealed weapon, typically train very well to be able to carry said weapon. Part of that training is not to just willie nillie shoot someone. Your comment, other than just plain flamebait, is the typical response we expect from liberals and democrats. Rule number one for libs and dems: Get publicity any way possible, despite facts, despite the long-term impact. Well done, now, go vote for Hillary, good boy.
I don't care how often they patch. I JUST WANT THEM TO STOP FRACKING WITH MY DEFAULT BROWSER!!! This is the second month in a row that I have rebooted to be asked by Firefox if I want it to be my default browser. WTF, over?!?!?! It's MY FRACKING COMPUTER!!!!!!!! I know I know, switch to Linux, the point still remains. WTF is with this crap though?
Analog to digital != SDTV to HDTV. Apples and PCs here. A digital TV signal can (and probably will be for a while) a standard definition signal. It's just digital instead of analog so the RIAA/MPAA can DRM it to death easier. None the less, most people will be like you and not know the difference and Best Buy/Circuit City will NOT be explaining this to Ray and his wife. They will simply be like, "Yes Ray, you will need this 60" 1080p TV to watch your basketball/baseball/hockey/football/nascar show, otherwise, you won't see anything at all. And you will need this $1000 BR-DVD player to watch any movies, and this HD satellite with a service plan, and these cables, and this stand, and..." well you get the point. Ain't retail great? Thing is, all you need is a digital antenna and tuner. Flame on.
20. Never forget that your weapon is made by the lowest bidder.
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35. The more a weapon costs, the farther you will have to send it away to be repaired.
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37. Interchangeable parts aren't.
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43. The complexity of a weapon is inversely proportional to the IQ of the weapon's operator.
My own: Any unneeded component of a weapon will be quickly removed and thrown in the nearest ditch.
This is true. I had a friend that was cut during that. Never understood the logic. He was the best seller in the district in his department. "Hi Jason, look you are doing great, just look at your check and see. We really are making a lot of money due to your sales work. Oh, by the way, we are changing to no commission, and well, since you are doing so well, here's a severance check and we will see you around. Bubie now."
Another person replied to this correctly. The company I work for resells Dell systems and for the next year (from the date of Vista's release) we can still get XP, but only on "SOHO" systems, which is all we sell anyway since they have a 3 year warranty. You will pay a little more, but then again, no Vista. Honestly, why can't they just sell a non-OSed system? Then, for the shits and giggles of it, you can select your FREE Linux distro of choice from several flavors, no support included naturally (as if you could understand them anyway). Best support for Linux comes from forums anyway if you ask me (no I don't have proof, flame me).
I have nothing to back this up, but I would put money on a large percentage of companies that were/are running SCO software were also running Linux somewhere. My bet is that when this started happening and the writing on the wall showed that SCO would be suing companies for running Linux if they could, they dumped any and all SCO software as fast as possible so that they would not pull some sort of "we are suing you for using Linux, and if you don't pay up instead of go to court, we are going to drop all support for any SCO software we are supporting." The smart thing in this case for any company using SCO software would be to run away from any SCO product and run FAST! When I worked at AutoZone's SSC, I remember seeing large numbers of Linux and Sun servers, but not a trace of SCO and if I remember correctly, in talking to some admins about the situation, they dumped any and all SCO products like a VERY hot potato not long after the suit started as their relationship with IBM seemed just rosy. flameaway
Enlighten yourself to the context please. That was a reply to the post about someone that was pissed about returning something. Also, I don't work there anymore. Additionally, what does your stupidity and inability to comprehend what I was talking about have to do with the thousands of great people that you know absolutely nothing about but pre-judge because the happen to work very hard at a store that you don't like? I can read, you can't, clearly. I guess this means that you and everyone else that works where you do are not worth their salary, huh? But, since that would be sinking to your level, no. You just simply misunderstood my context and you are probably underpaid like the rest of us and are a cool person. Flame extinguished. Peace out.
Having worked at BB and CC, I can tell you that one thing odd (to me) about BB was that the right hand does not seem to know what the left is up to. I was never aware of a "secret" internal site that had different prices. I do know that each box has an intranet that usually sucked balls because it was so slow and always seemed to have "issues". Strange things like not being able to find products or just plain to able to get to anything including the time clock or the training site screwing up royally. But, as far as being trained to deceive customers by using the intranet site as opposed to the internet site, no. And BB will match their own prices without much trouble as will CC. (the post about the return policy is crap, did you bother to actually READ the big sign on the wall by any chance?, oh wait, this is/. Some products have a restocking fee, digital cameras are one, this is not unique to BB and if you are nice enough, they will wave it most times; if you are an ass, they will allow you to kiss theirs.) If there is some secret site to intentionally deceive customers, it will be a shock to me and to all of my friends that still work at BB. Flame away.
Just like DVD, most people's first DVD player was a PS2. I was not one of them, I had a standalone DVD player a long time before the PS2 came out and found myself quite disappointed with the DVD playback of the PS2 in terms of quality and usability/controllability. I will not be buying a PS3 anytime soon and do not have a HDTV to see the difference even if I did get one so I would not be buying BlueRay movies. I think that more than anything, this is curiosity since they have the console and have the capability, the games are not so new now, they need to try something new with this $600 piece of hardware to give it some worth. I for one would like to know the sales numbers for standalone next-gen DVD players and/or the stats on people buying BlueRay movies who do not have a PS3. In terms of the format war, BlueRay has still not won but probably will as the combo players hit production given the momentum that this is putting behind it. I personally still feel that BOTH formats are losers and am not interested in either. When and IF I am ever able to afford a HDTV, I will not be able to afford a $500-$1000 DVD player to go along with it. Besides, I will be so excited to have a larger and wide-format screen that the wow will be there for a long time after. Perhaps by the time the upgrade wow has worn off, the combo players will be affordable, but I highly doubt that will happen for about another 3-5 years (the afford ability that is). Just like always, my.02.
If this is the case, why the hell am I being charged for the service and then they are selling my watching habits? I smell MythTV, anyone else smell that? I really despise companies double dipping, WOW for instance, pay for the game AND pay to play it, WTF? You get one or the other, not both! TiVo will probably be getting fired from my household here pretty soon. The only way to get these companies to notice is to hit them in the only place they notice, the pocketbooks. How about they first ASK nicely to sell my watching habits, and then give me a fracking discount on my bill for helping them out?
DINGDINGDINGDING
Bingo! You are exactly correct. Unfortunately, George Lucas is NOT listening one bit. Until today, I never realized that any CGI was in either WAG:COTWR or Spirited Away, both two of my favorites. I enjoy when effects like that are nearly impossible to notice, not shoved in your face like JarJar.
Well, if this is anything like the previous upgrades, it will only get more and more difficult. I started with WFW3.11 and DOS 6.22, the upgrade was seamless and the install after crash was just using the new disks. Now, I never purchased 95, 98 or Me as I feel they were in beta during the entire life of the product and don't feel one bit guilty for it. The upgrade there was to either have the previous OS installed or have a disk. Windows 2000, I don't know, I never used it much, but I do know that the hack to the INF file makes it a cinch to upgrade or install. XP asks for the previous OS to be installed or the disk, no big deal. My big deal comes when you need to reinstall XP and don't have the exact, perfect, precise fracking CD. Oh, call the manufacturer to add to your repair bill please. UGH. It's only going to get worse with Vista. You will probably need to your credit card that you used to purchase the upgrade when you install! And, pay a $50 fee to reinstall, oh, I should not have given them the idea. Things will do nothing but get worse as far as Windows goes and do nothing but get better as far as Linux goes. Once upon a time, Windows freed you on your computer, now it is nothing but a curse and a trap. The DRM, the excessive overhead (a visit to Best Buy and checking several laptops showed Vista consuming 350 to 600 MB at IDLE), the licensing crap, etc will hopefully drive Windows to the end. Linux will, with all hope, take over PC's. When all my games (yes I am sad) and the more important programs that I use will run on Linux without my monetary input, then Windows will be gone forever from my systems. The only things that keep me on Windows are the programs that won't run on Linux and that I must support it at my employment. Just my 2 cents and rants.
My foot it's not that much quicker. I would have to say you didn't really use it much. RPM is by FAR faster than infix. It's SO much more intuitive once you learn to think that way. The learning curve is about, oh, 0.00. Start at the basics: 2 + 2 = 4 vs. 2 enter 2 +. When things start getting more complicated with nesting parens, that's when RPN shines. No entering the damn parens, just the operand and the values, the more complex the equation, the more simple RPN makes it to enter and the faster it gets. Oh, and after I learned how to use my Dad's slide rule, it was years before I understood the benefit of a calculator (they were bigger, the buttons didn't work sometimes, ran out of batteries, etc. This was 20 years ago.) Personally, I don't think I will ever adjust to the requirement for a graphing calculator in school. I learned to do this stuff by hand and it was a benefit, I think kids should learn by hand first, then use a calculator.
I have been trying to find a good replacement for my PC based IPCop system. Did you use IPCop or another OS? Where did you find the case? How many zones? Red, Green, Orange, Blue for instance. Have you used any mods with it? Thanks for that post, they have some nice NICs that I have been looking for, the 2 and 4 port PCI NIC's, especially the 2 port low profile model. Thanks.
I agree. Let's not forget all of the false hits. My favorite thing is when you have to reinstall an OEM (Dell, HP, Compaq, etc) and you don't have the exact fracking CD to use and naturally the completely LEGAL key won't work or if it does if fails to validate, drives me up the fracking wall! What fracking difference does it make if the CD is not the exact one? NONE! It's still fracking legal! God I hate M$'s bull$h|t! All I am doing is LEGALLY installing a LEGAL copy of Windows using a LEGAL key! The last time, I was told by the recording to contact the manufacturer of the system, no option whatsoever to talk to someone in India. What fracking good is that going to do other than delay me and my customer further and cost my customer more by being forced to order a restore CD that refuses to allow me to do a repair install. Gee, thanks for the help. At least with linux, you can just keep the home folder and save all of your info and settings. That's a big no-go with anything from M$ because clearly they know that when you buy a system from a vendor and it comes with Windows, you can't possibly have the need to do a repair install, the ONLY thing you will EVER need to do is format and start over. Ugh.
You make a very valid point about being scared and the comfort zone, but a lot depends on how cheap the management is and how little they listen to the IT staff. For example, I am working with an IT company that is providing support for a business of about 200 users. The infrastructure has been mostly ignored for years, Exchange 5 on NT 4 for instance, and now things are starting to fail much to the surprise of the management who refused to listen to the last IT person. So, they need new computers, we tell them what to get, give them a quote for new Dell workstations, complete with MSO and 3 year warranties. The fool manager goes to the local computer shop and gets POS Durons with half the RAM they were ordered with, no warranty to speak of, speakers that literally melt, OOo, Outlook not installed as per the order, etc etc. They get OOo because the convincing owner of the computer shop tells them that it's just as good (as I am sure he said about the POS computers). He's never had to work with a building full of people that use a computer each day and constantly say "I am computer illiterate" (with a drawl, no less). So, after we bring up the point that they need Outlook to connect to the Exchange server, that there is half the RAM, and that they need Access to run their most important software, they order Access, have the computer shop undo the "accidental" lack of RAM and Outlook and then we still have to spend about an hour per machine installing updates, removing crap software, getting rid of the autologin from TweakUI, remove the trial antivirus, replace the speakers that nearly cause a fire, then we have to train the people on how to use OOo. It takes twice as long to update Outlook and Access because of how they installed Outlook. SP2 from MS Updates won't run, only the full file. What they did I don't know, but I am convinced that it's not quite legal. What fun! Yet they still believe they got a "good deal" despite the fact that for the price of Access alone, we could have gotten them MSO OEM. Now we can start on the cheap hardware which will fail MUCH sooner one from a more quality system manufacturer.
So, my point is, if the people in charge of what gets purchased are incredibly short sighted, don't listen to the IT staff and are incredibly cheap, then OOo will get installed (which is not all bad once the learning curve is over). We all know it's way too much to ask that the lusers actually try to figure things out on their own, so we get to "teach" them how to use OOo as they constantly whine about why they have to use OOo. Some actually want to know if they can bring their copy of MSO from home to use.
Don't get me wrong, I use OOo every day, I love it. For me, it has all the functionality that I need, the price is really nice, and it runs ok and can be made portable. But the lusers who can't be bothered to actually learn to use something they actually need to know how to use on a daily basis make things like this really hard. I can't wait to see how hard MSO 2007 will be to use. Heck, I have trouble with IE7 and 99% of the people that I talk to hate it. Which is good, because I simply show them Mozilla and all is well again. Oh, let's mention Vista, what fun that will be for the lusers.
I honestly hope that instead of moving to MSO 2007, that more places do use OOo in a way, I just don't want to have to teach them how to use it if I don't have to. The learning curve is likely to be much steeper from MSO 97/2000/XP/2003 to MSO 2007 as it will be from MSO 97/2000/XP/2003 to OOo and may actually push more adoption of OOo. Who knows?
Much to my pleasure, smoking was baned in my city without any help from the ACLU (in my town, it was primarily one person who got the ban passed). I don't smoke and am for one really sick and being forced to breath a toxic carcinogen because someone is so addicted that they cannot wait until they leave an enclosed restaurant to light up and walk through the non-smoking section spewing this noxious and nauseating nuisance around while I eat. If smokers like this would bother to have the slightest consideration for non-smokers, then possibly the ban would not have been passed. The smokers whine and complain endlessly that they can't get their fix at the bar, I just take a deep breath and say, "quit smoking." Now, not to be a troll to the smokers, not all smokers are inconsiderate, but regardless, smoke carries throughout a building and you will be inhaling it no matter what. That's not directly the smokers' fault, but it's also not my fault that you choose to smoke. What about MY choice to breath clean, smoke-free air? I never got a say in these matters, it was up to the smokers to decide if I could breath clean air or the exhaust they spew. Now, someone finally decided that the health of those that choose NOT to smoke is finally more important than the rights of a smoker to poison his/her body and force that poison into mine.
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That's a valid concern, however, you can still run Steam without internet access, it just runs in an offline mode. They don't FORCE you to connect to play the games. Also, since the HL1 stuff was pre steam, if you bought it back then, you can still install from CD. So, I think you are still OK if Valve shuts down, just run in Offline mode.
Oh, WOW! You forgot: 5) We can accelerate the end of times. Man, that is so close to Revelation that it is honestly scary! Christian or not, you have to see the similarities! Not trying to flame, honest. I hope that's what you were going for.
I remember being really pissed about this "feature" at first. Up until I realized that all I needed to reinstall the game, was a username and password and the Steam client. It would download everything for every game I had on my account. This included the Half Life 1 series which only required that I enter my valid serial number one time. Now, as far as copy protection goes, I would much rather have something check the internet once in a while than have me pull out the CD/DVD every time I want to play. Give it a try, you may find that you don't mind it as much as you would think. I have never noticed the Steam client doing anything out of the ordinary. Also, you can still play the game without it connecting, just either firewall Steam, or disconnect just before running Steam. It will try to connect, then go to offline mode and will not, that I know of, try to connect again later. I like this copy protection WAY better than the other forms and never thought that I would. I would think that you could sell it, but the next owner would need to have the username and password to your Steam account and all your games are lumped together, it's all or nothing. So, that would be a negative to you I would think. One more positive is that it will check for updates and get them for you, that's nice to me. My .2
Read: I am am democratic/liberal bluderbutt who believes EVERYTHING the drive by media feeds me. God you are PATHETIC! First and foremost, NO ONE is an un-American traitor (INCLUDING YOUR STUPID ASS) for believing this is EXACTLY what it is, partisan politics. The president can fire these judges if he so pleases, it's his prerogative. Case in point, your beloved Clinton did the SAME FUCKING THING! The ONLY difference is his political party. END OF FUCKING STORY! What I hate most about this shit is how you dems/libs will fucking crucify anyone that does not go along with everything you say and then turn tail and jump ship at the first opportunity if you think it will get you one more vote. STAND UP FOR SOMETHING AND THEN STICK TO IT! Stupid flip floppers. Hey, here is a suggest for your party, instead of taking advantage of an entire town who just had their entire lives blown away by an F5 tornado by purposely not requesting National Guard aid, (you just let these people, the VICTIMS suffer while you used it as an opportunity to bash Bush by saying you have no guard personnel or resources because they are all in Iraq) you can just do what you are supposed to do and should do and request the fucking aid so people don't suffer just so you can get your face on TV to spread FUD. God, every day I can't believe how pathetic dems/libs are. Flame on!
No dumbass, you don't carry a gun for self defense and then shoot someone for no reason. Strangely enough, the citizens that are licensed to carry a concealed weapon, typically train very well to be able to carry said weapon. Part of that training is not to just willie nillie shoot someone. Your comment, other than just plain flamebait, is the typical response we expect from liberals and democrats. Rule number one for libs and dems: Get publicity any way possible, despite facts, despite the long-term impact. Well done, now, go vote for Hillary, good boy.
Well, shit on me. Didn't know that, thought it was the evil Micro$oft. Dern, now I must apologize. NAH!!!!! Thanks for the info.
I don't care how often they patch. I JUST WANT THEM TO STOP FRACKING WITH MY DEFAULT BROWSER!!! This is the second month in a row that I have rebooted to be asked by Firefox if I want it to be my default browser. WTF, over?!?!?! It's MY FRACKING COMPUTER!!!!!!!! I know I know, switch to Linux, the point still remains. WTF is with this crap though?
Analog to digital != SDTV to HDTV. Apples and PCs here. A digital TV signal can (and probably will be for a while) a standard definition signal. It's just digital instead of analog so the RIAA/MPAA can DRM it to death easier. None the less, most people will be like you and not know the difference and Best Buy/Circuit City will NOT be explaining this to Ray and his wife. They will simply be like, "Yes Ray, you will need this 60" 1080p TV to watch your basketball/baseball/hockey/football/nascar show, otherwise, you won't see anything at all. And you will need this $1000 BR-DVD player to watch any movies, and this HD satellite with a service plan, and these cables, and this stand, and..." well you get the point. Ain't retail great? Thing is, all you need is a digital antenna and tuner. Flame on.
20. Never forget that your weapon is made by the lowest bidder.
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35. The more a weapon costs, the farther you will have to send it away to be repaired.
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37. Interchangeable parts aren't.
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43. The complexity of a weapon is inversely proportional to the IQ of the weapon's operator.
My own: Any unneeded component of a weapon will be quickly removed and thrown in the nearest ditch.
Good point, definitely a possibility.
This is true. I had a friend that was cut during that. Never understood the logic. He was the best seller in the district in his department. "Hi Jason, look you are doing great, just look at your check and see. We really are making a lot of money due to your sales work. Oh, by the way, we are changing to no commission, and well, since you are doing so well, here's a severance check and we will see you around. Bubie now."
Welcome our space debris wielding overlords. Obligatory.
Another person replied to this correctly. The company I work for resells Dell systems and for the next year (from the date of Vista's release) we can still get XP, but only on "SOHO" systems, which is all we sell anyway since they have a 3 year warranty. You will pay a little more, but then again, no Vista. Honestly, why can't they just sell a non-OSed system? Then, for the shits and giggles of it, you can select your FREE Linux distro of choice from several flavors, no support included naturally (as if you could understand them anyway). Best support for Linux comes from forums anyway if you ask me (no I don't have proof, flame me).
I have nothing to back this up, but I would put money on a large percentage of companies that were/are running SCO software were also running Linux somewhere. My bet is that when this started happening and the writing on the wall showed that SCO would be suing companies for running Linux if they could, they dumped any and all SCO software as fast as possible so that they would not pull some sort of "we are suing you for using Linux, and if you don't pay up instead of go to court, we are going to drop all support for any SCO software we are supporting." The smart thing in this case for any company using SCO software would be to run away from any SCO product and run FAST! When I worked at AutoZone's SSC, I remember seeing large numbers of Linux and Sun servers, but not a trace of SCO and if I remember correctly, in talking to some admins about the situation, they dumped any and all SCO products like a VERY hot potato not long after the suit started as their relationship with IBM seemed just rosy. flameaway
Enlighten yourself to the context please. That was a reply to the post about someone that was pissed about returning something. Also, I don't work there anymore. Additionally, what does your stupidity and inability to comprehend what I was talking about have to do with the thousands of great people that you know absolutely nothing about but pre-judge because the happen to work very hard at a store that you don't like? I can read, you can't, clearly. I guess this means that you and everyone else that works where you do are not worth their salary, huh? But, since that would be sinking to your level, no. You just simply misunderstood my context and you are probably underpaid like the rest of us and are a cool person. Flame extinguished. Peace out.
Having worked at BB and CC, I can tell you that one thing odd (to me) about BB was that the right hand does not seem to know what the left is up to. I was never aware of a "secret" internal site that had different prices. I do know that each box has an intranet that usually sucked balls because it was so slow and always seemed to have "issues". Strange things like not being able to find products or just plain to able to get to anything including the time clock or the training site screwing up royally. But, as far as being trained to deceive customers by using the intranet site as opposed to the internet site, no. And BB will match their own prices without much trouble as will CC. (the post about the return policy is crap, did you bother to actually READ the big sign on the wall by any chance?, oh wait, this is /. Some products have a restocking fee, digital cameras are one, this is not unique to BB and if you are nice enough, they will wave it most times; if you are an ass, they will allow you to kiss theirs.) If there is some secret site to intentionally deceive customers, it will be a shock to me and to all of my friends that still work at BB. Flame away.
Just like DVD, most people's first DVD player was a PS2. I was not one of them, I had a standalone DVD player a long time before the PS2 came out and found myself quite disappointed with the DVD playback of the PS2 in terms of quality and usability/controllability. I will not be buying a PS3 anytime soon and do not have a HDTV to see the difference even if I did get one so I would not be buying BlueRay movies. I think that more than anything, this is curiosity since they have the console and have the capability, the games are not so new now, they need to try something new with this $600 piece of hardware to give it some worth. I for one would like to know the sales numbers for standalone next-gen DVD players and/or the stats on people buying BlueRay movies who do not have a PS3. In terms of the format war, BlueRay has still not won but probably will as the combo players hit production given the momentum that this is putting behind it. I personally still feel that BOTH formats are losers and am not interested in either. When and IF I am ever able to afford a HDTV, I will not be able to afford a $500-$1000 DVD player to go along with it. Besides, I will be so excited to have a larger and wide-format screen that the wow will be there for a long time after. Perhaps by the time the upgrade wow has worn off, the combo players will be affordable, but I highly doubt that will happen for about another 3-5 years (the afford ability that is). Just like always, my .02.
If this is the case, why the hell am I being charged for the service and then they are selling my watching habits? I smell MythTV, anyone else smell that? I really despise companies double dipping, WOW for instance, pay for the game AND pay to play it, WTF? You get one or the other, not both! TiVo will probably be getting fired from my household here pretty soon. The only way to get these companies to notice is to hit them in the only place they notice, the pocketbooks. How about they first ASK nicely to sell my watching habits, and then give me a fracking discount on my bill for helping them out?
DINGDINGDINGDING Bingo! You are exactly correct. Unfortunately, George Lucas is NOT listening one bit. Until today, I never realized that any CGI was in either WAG:COTWR or Spirited Away, both two of my favorites. I enjoy when effects like that are nearly impossible to notice, not shoved in your face like JarJar.
Well, if this is anything like the previous upgrades, it will only get more and more difficult. I started with WFW3.11 and DOS 6.22, the upgrade was seamless and the install after crash was just using the new disks. Now, I never purchased 95, 98 or Me as I feel they were in beta during the entire life of the product and don't feel one bit guilty for it. The upgrade there was to either have the previous OS installed or have a disk. Windows 2000, I don't know, I never used it much, but I do know that the hack to the INF file makes it a cinch to upgrade or install. XP asks for the previous OS to be installed or the disk, no big deal. My big deal comes when you need to reinstall XP and don't have the exact, perfect, precise fracking CD. Oh, call the manufacturer to add to your repair bill please. UGH. It's only going to get worse with Vista. You will probably need to your credit card that you used to purchase the upgrade when you install! And, pay a $50 fee to reinstall, oh, I should not have given them the idea. Things will do nothing but get worse as far as Windows goes and do nothing but get better as far as Linux goes. Once upon a time, Windows freed you on your computer, now it is nothing but a curse and a trap. The DRM, the excessive overhead (a visit to Best Buy and checking several laptops showed Vista consuming 350 to 600 MB at IDLE), the licensing crap, etc will hopefully drive Windows to the end. Linux will, with all hope, take over PC's. When all my games (yes I am sad) and the more important programs that I use will run on Linux without my monetary input, then Windows will be gone forever from my systems. The only things that keep me on Windows are the programs that won't run on Linux and that I must support it at my employment. Just my 2 cents and rants.
My foot it's not that much quicker. I would have to say you didn't really use it much. RPM is by FAR faster than infix. It's SO much more intuitive once you learn to think that way. The learning curve is about, oh, 0.00. Start at the basics: 2 + 2 = 4 vs. 2 enter 2 +. When things start getting more complicated with nesting parens, that's when RPN shines. No entering the damn parens, just the operand and the values, the more complex the equation, the more simple RPN makes it to enter and the faster it gets. Oh, and after I learned how to use my Dad's slide rule, it was years before I understood the benefit of a calculator (they were bigger, the buttons didn't work sometimes, ran out of batteries, etc. This was 20 years ago.) Personally, I don't think I will ever adjust to the requirement for a graphing calculator in school. I learned to do this stuff by hand and it was a benefit, I think kids should learn by hand first, then use a calculator.
I have been trying to find a good replacement for my PC based IPCop system. Did you use IPCop or another OS? Where did you find the case? How many zones? Red, Green, Orange, Blue for instance. Have you used any mods with it? Thanks for that post, they have some nice NICs that I have been looking for, the 2 and 4 port PCI NIC's, especially the 2 port low profile model. Thanks.
I agree. Let's not forget all of the false hits. My favorite thing is when you have to reinstall an OEM (Dell, HP, Compaq, etc) and you don't have the exact fracking CD to use and naturally the completely LEGAL key won't work or if it does if fails to validate, drives me up the fracking wall! What fracking difference does it make if the CD is not the exact one? NONE! It's still fracking legal! God I hate M$'s bull$h|t! All I am doing is LEGALLY installing a LEGAL copy of Windows using a LEGAL key! The last time, I was told by the recording to contact the manufacturer of the system, no option whatsoever to talk to someone in India. What fracking good is that going to do other than delay me and my customer further and cost my customer more by being forced to order a restore CD that refuses to allow me to do a repair install. Gee, thanks for the help. At least with linux, you can just keep the home folder and save all of your info and settings. That's a big no-go with anything from M$ because clearly they know that when you buy a system from a vendor and it comes with Windows, you can't possibly have the need to do a repair install, the ONLY thing you will EVER need to do is format and start over. Ugh.
You make a very valid point about being scared and the comfort zone, but a lot depends on how cheap the management is and how little they listen to the IT staff. For example, I am working with an IT company that is providing support for a business of about 200 users. The infrastructure has been mostly ignored for years, Exchange 5 on NT 4 for instance, and now things are starting to fail much to the surprise of the management who refused to listen to the last IT person. So, they need new computers, we tell them what to get, give them a quote for new Dell workstations, complete with MSO and 3 year warranties. The fool manager goes to the local computer shop and gets POS Durons with half the RAM they were ordered with, no warranty to speak of, speakers that literally melt, OOo, Outlook not installed as per the order, etc etc. They get OOo because the convincing owner of the computer shop tells them that it's just as good (as I am sure he said about the POS computers). He's never had to work with a building full of people that use a computer each day and constantly say "I am computer illiterate" (with a drawl, no less). So, after we bring up the point that they need Outlook to connect to the Exchange server, that there is half the RAM, and that they need Access to run their most important software, they order Access, have the computer shop undo the "accidental" lack of RAM and Outlook and then we still have to spend about an hour per machine installing updates, removing crap software, getting rid of the autologin from TweakUI, remove the trial antivirus, replace the speakers that nearly cause a fire, then we have to train the people on how to use OOo. It takes twice as long to update Outlook and Access because of how they installed Outlook. SP2 from MS Updates won't run, only the full file. What they did I don't know, but I am convinced that it's not quite legal. What fun! Yet they still believe they got a "good deal" despite the fact that for the price of Access alone, we could have gotten them MSO OEM. Now we can start on the cheap hardware which will fail MUCH sooner one from a more quality system manufacturer.
So, my point is, if the people in charge of what gets purchased are incredibly short sighted, don't listen to the IT staff and are incredibly cheap, then OOo will get installed (which is not all bad once the learning curve is over). We all know it's way too much to ask that the lusers actually try to figure things out on their own, so we get to "teach" them how to use OOo as they constantly whine about why they have to use OOo. Some actually want to know if they can bring their copy of MSO from home to use.
Don't get me wrong, I use OOo every day, I love it. For me, it has all the functionality that I need, the price is really nice, and it runs ok and can be made portable. But the lusers who can't be bothered to actually learn to use something they actually need to know how to use on a daily basis make things like this really hard. I can't wait to see how hard MSO 2007 will be to use. Heck, I have trouble with IE7 and 99% of the people that I talk to hate it. Which is good, because I simply show them Mozilla and all is well again. Oh, let's mention Vista, what fun that will be for the lusers.
I honestly hope that instead of moving to MSO 2007, that more places do use OOo in a way, I just don't want to have to teach them how to use it if I don't have to. The learning curve is likely to be much steeper from MSO 97/2000/XP/2003 to MSO 2007 as it will be from MSO 97/2000/XP/2003 to OOo and may actually push more adoption of OOo. Who knows?
Much to my pleasure, smoking was baned in my city without any help from the ACLU (in my town, it was primarily one person who got the ban passed). I don't smoke and am for one really sick and being forced to breath a toxic carcinogen because someone is so addicted that they cannot wait until they leave an enclosed restaurant to light up and walk through the non-smoking section spewing this noxious and nauseating nuisance around while I eat. If smokers like this would bother to have the slightest consideration for non-smokers, then possibly the ban would not have been passed. The smokers whine and complain endlessly that they can't get their fix at the bar, I just take a deep breath and say, "quit smoking." Now, not to be a troll to the smokers, not all smokers are inconsiderate, but regardless, smoke carries throughout a building and you will be inhaling it no matter what. That's not directly the smokers' fault, but it's also not my fault that you choose to smoke. What about MY choice to breath clean, smoke-free air? I never got a say in these matters, it was up to the smokers to decide if I could breath clean air or the exhaust they spew. Now, someone finally decided that the health of those that choose NOT to smoke is finally more important than the rights of a smoker to poison his/her body and force that poison into mine.