Didn't RTFA I take it? This isn't some "green subsidy" as you put it, this is the classic sleazy offshoring bullshit like the "double dutch" that lets so many fortune 500 companies enjoy our markets while not paying shit.
Frankly I say if you want to see the future of America, look at Egypt and the middle east right now. The top 1% will keep their "let them eat cake" attitude right up to the point when they get to re-enact the fall of Saigon thanks to the rioters in the streets. looking out my window all I see is abandoned stores and empty homes. Hell go to the business districts in any southern town, the places look like "Escape from New York" thanks to all the abandoned factories.
If it wasn't for accounting trickery by the fed the actual unemployment rate would be close to 30%, students are going straight from graduation to welfare or McJobs (what is it, Bachelors the new HS diploma?) while being crushed by debt they can't even get rid of with bankruptcy while being expected by these same pigs to compete with some guy brought off the boat from India that paid maybe 1/20th the amount for his education. Meanwhile every man, woman, and child owes something like $76k and climbing thanks in part to the USA playing the world's policeman and having to print money like it is going out of style simply to keep the poor from turning into a rioting mob.
But the presses can't run forever, sooner or later the world will stop accepting the funny paper and the bottom WILL fall out. Not in any way attempting to Godwin but I'd point out the crazy Austrian got elected by a landslide on a "bread and jobs" platform and frankly I know huge amounts of people that would happily elect our very own crazy Austrian if it meant a guaranteed good job and food on the table.
Shit is getting pretty bad for the working poor folks, and they outnumber the 1%ers by about a half a million to one and growing. What happens when uncle fed can't print them anymore checks? look to Egypt and see the future of America, and these greedy pigs will NEVER see it coming. Lenin had it right all those years ago when he said "a capitalist will gladly sell you the rope you hang him with" and by offshoring everything and handing the working poor and middle class the bill they are tying the noose as we speak. Don't think it can't happen here, because it can and it will. Just you watch.
Buy the three pack and split it with a couple of friends? that'll get you Win 7 HP for about $35 a piece. Otherwise they still sell OEM it is simply called "system builders" now since it is for guys like me that actually...uhhh...build systems. It is $100 for HP and $139 for Pro, same as it was for XP before it. Tigerdirect, Newegg, Amazon, pick your poison.
But your best bet if you don't need XP Mode which needs Pro (and frankly unless you need domain join most people are fine with Home, and you can cook up something similar to XP Mode with Virtualbox and an XP disc) then the best bet is the Win 7 HP family pack, which I've seen go for as low as $89 on Amazon or deals.woot.
But you really can't complain about the price of Windows (although I still think Ballmer was an idiot for getting rid of the $50 HP upgrade, as it was great for switching pirate XP users to legit Win 7) since the price of Windows has remained the same for nearly 25 years and how many other things can you say that have kept the same price that long? look up the Ballmer Windows 1.0 commercial, it was $99 back in 84, and Windows Home is...$99. XP Pro was $139 and Win 7 Pro over a decade later is...$139.
So while I find plenty of things to bitch about when it comes to MSFT (the upgrade screwup for starters) they have been pretty good about keeping the price consistent and the three pack is about as cheap as you can get, and it comes with both 32 and 64 bit so its ready to go no matter what you've got. Hell I'm sure you can find two friends or family members to kick in with you.
Which is why I have a question: WTF is up with the MS Shill brigade on/. lately? I've only noticed it for about the past three weeks or so, but damned the shit is getting thick. Look at the one that posted on the Nook hack, the very first post is "I Wish Microsoft would have released the Courier" complete with link for those that don't know what that bullshit vaporware was in the first place. I mean did they get a deal on that HB Gary software or what? And why are they so insecure? I mean sure WinPhone is dead last but Windows 7 is nice, and the X360 is doing well. So what is up with the rampant MSFT shilling? Do they fire your ass if you don't post X number of shill posts or something?
As for TFA, garbage in, garbage out. I don't care if you code in VB 6 or Brainfuck if you write sloppy code it WILL come back to bite you in the ass. But trying to blame this on the language, to use a/. car analogy, would be like trying to blame Ford because someone got drunk and hit a kid with their Mustang. A tool is only as good as the person using it, full stop. I've seen clean code and lousy shit in just about every language. It ain't the tool that's the problem it is PEBKAC. But they should get extra points for the sheer irony factor. I mean a site promoting SQL falling for the oldest trick in the book? Bobby Drop Tables anyone?
Actually sadly its not, as with the current rate of inflation the average worker will most likely end up with less than nothing when you figure in his current purchasing power with what that same amount will buy just ten years from now.
So I'd say sadly saving has gone the way of the 8-track and it is "win big or GTFO" all the way. you may as well gamble it on stocks and hope to pull off some big scores than to sock it in a CD anymore, as that dollar will be worth less than a cent 20 years from now and the rate of interest is a bad joke. Might as well do like the big boys and gamble that soon to be worthless money on the stocks, or the ponies or cards. It is all a gamble, play big or GTFO.
Why bother? All I have to do is say "I contest this" and suddenly it is dropped, just that easy. The point is how many DON'T question if it is for a small amount? I know there have been times when it was just a couple of bucks where frankly it would have taken more than 2 bucks worth of my time so I let it slide. Now multiple that times a huge base...wow that's a lot of money.
And frankly your plan won't work anyway since they won't accept your reading anymore than the electric company would take my word on what the meter says and THAT is the point as we are talking about going to a metered service where there aren't any meters and you are stuck with the "honor system" from the corporation. Does ANYBODY think that will EVER turn out well? The temptation is just too great, especially with the "damn everything but the quarterly reports!" attitude with have in the USA. I predict rampant overcharging if not outright fraud, which of course will cause them to eventually get a fine less than what they took in thus making it all profitable. Welcome to corporate Amerika my friend, please enjoy your stay.
Oh I didn't expect one (although I think its funny him or one of his buddies came along as an AC to insult me LOL) but I do think it is important to point out astroturfing wherever it shows its ugly head as i think it is a serious threat to freedom.
I mean it is bad enough you can get astroturf campaigns like the Tea Party, aka the Koch Brothers Express, but at least there they have to pay people to actually show up, pay press to report, etc so it leaves an easy to follow money trail, but online discussion is one of the few places where one can speak openly anymore thanks to all the government and corporate spying (which is why many want you to be tied to an online identity, so they can punish you when you don't toe the party line) but now even that is being threatened by obvious paid shills like the poster I was responding to.
For now it is easy to spot, as they can't quit kissing ass or speaking corporate buzzword bingo, like in the above where an article on a completely different device gets a plug for a vaporware product designed to kill iPad sales that frankly a good 98% of the average folks would have never even heard of. So NOW is the time to nip that shit in the bud, NOW is the time to make sure their corporate master know their money is being wasted as it turns off those that might otherwise buy by "poisoning the well" and building bad will.
So we really need to point these clowns out, before we get drowned out by HB Gary shillbots. It is pretty easy to spot a real person VS a shill. Look at me for an example, everyone who takes a look at my history knows I like Windows desktops, Linux embedded and Web Servers. I'm more than happy to point out shitty attributes of any and all products I use, hell if they were to lock me in a room with the Windows development team I'd spend the day pointing out things I think are shit .
But shills, especially the HB Gary shillbomb type, can ruin the whole thing by burying the good under the shit and frankly I LIKE/. and I LIKE having discussions on geek items that you actually have to think and which go deep. These shillbombs are about as deep as a kiddy pool, they are just "You should use Brand X, now with SmileX!" and frankly sour the whole discussion. And sorry about the length, but for the past few weeks it has been pretty obvious MSFT has targeted/. with a shill team and frankly it stinks. I can guarantee that while I may still need to sell Windows there will be NO WinPhones and NO X360s going through this shop or allowed in my home. I won't support shilling.
If you are really too fucking stupid (which is a possibility seeing how the quality has gone down here at/.) to tell the difference between a real post and a shill, let your old pal Hairyfeet point out the differences:
1.-The shill will bring up the product no matter whether the post has anything to do with it or not. Example: Look at the first post on the Nook hack, what does it say? "I wish Microsoft would have come out with the Courier" complete with link for those that don't know what the fuck that piece of bullshit vaporware was. Now did that have a God damned thing to do with Nooks? Nope but the guy is being paid by the post (and probably getting a bonus for first posts) so dammit he's getting his plug in. Now show me a single post in a non AMD/ATI story where I bring up either company? you can't because I speak about whatever topic is at hand, in this case it was AMD because that's the topic dipshit or can't you RTFS?
2.- first posts at any cost even when they make NO sense. See example #1. My post on the other hand was answering a guy who was spouting the old "ATI drivers suck!" meme, which is like saying "Windows BSODs all the time!" as they are both about the same age.
3.-NEVER say anything bad about the product EVER. See the post history of the Nook guy as an example, whereas I said "once AMD bought them out the drivers have been rock solid" implying quite clearly that before AMD bought them out their drivers sucked because you know what? They really did. They sucked massive amounts.
4.-Give NO reason why you have a preference, if required to give a preference use marketing speak and be sure to hit the bullet points. See the MSFT shills we've had the past week for a good example of "buzzword bingo". Personally all I need is Synergy to get a diagonal and maybe win the crockpot. Now compare to mine where I pointed out malfeasance on the part of the competitors in the rigging of compilers on the Intel side along with bribery, and on Nvidia's side we have trying to shaft customers who got burnt by their bad GPUs. As someone who has supported a fair and open free market this kind of dirty shit don't fly, just as I argued MSFT should have been broken up over bribing OEMs.
So in conclusion please use the above handy checklist for the stupid so that even total dipshits such as yourself can easily tell the difference between someone who is happy with a product and a paid shill. For the record I have gotten exactly ZERO in terms of cash, hardware, or even discounts, from either company, hell they haven't even offered me a T-Shirt. I sell AMD/ATI because they give prices any of my customers can afford (show me where I can get quad core Intel with a decent amount of RAM in a full kit for under $260 after MIR like this deal) while having damned good performance and being rock solid stable. Will Intel kill them in the top end? Hell yes, and 4-6 times the price! My customers are working folks, they need a good machine that will last at a price that won't break them, and AMD gives them that while giving them the ability to upgrade. The Intel socket bingo is frankly getting nuts. What are they up to now, something like FOUR sockets all active ATM?
So thanks AMD, I've been selling your desktops and laptops and have had NO complaints. They're cheap, may not be the fastest but are more than fast enough for a good 90% of those that walk through my door, and the new IGPs and discrete chips are awesome. And BTW if you have read my past posting you know I put my money where my mouth is...AMD 925 X4, 8 Gb of DDR 2 800MHz, dual 500Gb HDDs, and I just replaced my old workhorse HD4650 (which still works great and will be handed down to a nephew) for an HD4850 thanks to my GF deciding she wanted to "support my inner geek". Personally I think its bribery as the grandbaby will be here next month and I bet she's planning on us doing a lot of babysitting, but gift horses and mouths and all.
So let me ask you a question: Do you get paid to herd 100 or so shill accounts, AKA the HB Gary troll herder software, or do they pay you to set up accounts one at a time, ala the old slow way? How are the benefits? Do you get dental and vision? 401K? I'd really like to know as frankly I could do about 1000% better job than you shills without even trying, your so damned obvious it ain't even funny.
As for TFA, we and the posters must have different definitions of "cheap". Those $100 aPads are cheap, $250 for an E-reader? The hell with that. Hell at that price I can get a netbook, why would I wan t this thing rooted or not? hell the iPad I is selling now for $300, this thing is too high with a capital T.
The CEO is a dumbass. The question should be "why does MSFT crank out the 16oz burger?" and the answer is because 90% of the time that's what people want and if you have a developer of ANY experience or even basic problem solving skills he should be able to handle the other 10% no problem.
I'm sure Mr Dumbass would be banning anybody who had VB6 on his resume if this was the 90s, and he'd be just as full of shit then as now. Why did VB6 rule businesses for so long? Because custom GUIs for DBs was a BIG deal and VB6 made that easy. But again anybody with any experience or common sense and problem solving skills could handle to other 10%.
Frankly Mr Dumbass CEO and the HR drones tossing resumes without a fucking clue can go jump in the lake. Frankly the whole hiring process at most places has become so fucked up it is a wonder they find anybody to do anything! It is like how they'll pass up somebody with years of experience doing the job for someone with the right piece of paper or matching the buzzword bingo of the day, only to find out they got a paper tiger.
Sadly Dilbert is funny because its true, and MR Dumbass CEO is living proof of it.
Dude I just gotta ask: How much does MSFT pay you to shill? Is it an every two week kinda thing, or do you get paid quarterly? How are the benefits? Because from your post you are obviously getting paid because NOBODY kisses that much ass for free!
As for TFA, can we choose none of the above? I don't trust MSFT, and I sure as hell don't trust the government, what with their shredding the constitution practically on a daily basis, so it is kinda a rock and a hard place here. Can we hear from the EFF on this? Because frankly so far they seem to be the ONLY ones who give a shit about privacy anymore.
On Linux? Yes, although they have given out the full specs so it should be better soon. On Windows? you couldn't be more wrong as both the new IGPs and discrete have been kicking serious ass AND have been both stable and cheap!
After the Nvidia Bumpgate and Intel bribing OEMs and rigging compilers came out I've been selling AMD/ATI exclusively in my shop and the customers couldn't be happy. The triple and quad core CPUs are cheap and plentiful and take everything they throw at them and come back for more, and the IGPs and discrete chips seriously crank out the pretty while giving a hell of a bang for the buck.
The new hotness at the shop has been the dirt cheap HD48xx series which has gotten so low anybody that wants HD gaming or large screens can just have me drop one in for a little of nothing ($60 for the 4830 and $80 for the 4850) and the drivers are solid as a rock on both XP and 7 and the framerates are just nuts. I personally love my HD4850 and haven't had so much as a single driver error, but then again since AMD bought them out I haven't had a single problem with a single build.
So personally I'm all for AMD and I hope they keep it up. Their new business plan of making mainstream GPUs and then simply adding a second with HT connect when they need to ramp up is the smart way to do it, as they don't have to waste time finding ways to cripple cards for the midrange market, and the cards just keep getting faster and cheaper. Now thanks to AMD buying ATI anybody can enjoy games and hardware acceleration even on the low end IGPs, hell I was playing Bioshock I and II and L4D on my onboard while I waited for my card to arrive and they played fine.
So if any AMD employees are reading this, thanks. Your bang for the buck mantra has made it so even my low end customers can afford triples and quads, and made it easier than ever for everyone to have decent framerates without breaking their wallets. In these tough times that really helps out the working folks out here in middle America, so thanks, we appreciate it. And this is one builder that will shop with you first and foremost, your quality and low prices have earned my business. Thanks again.
If I'm coming off as STFU for the I apologize, I want them to spew the crazy as it will hopefully help to root it out! One of the sites I contribute to is "Linuxinsider' and you should really go there sometime, while there are many that are normal it quickly becomes apparent that the F/OSS movement is being taken over by the loonies.
I'm serious on the amount of religious crazy here, it is LONG past fanboi crap. I've had guys with a straight face write that Linux 6 month updates don't break drivers which ANYBODY that has actually used that OS knows that is bullshit, it is like saying you can run the XP updates without a reboot! And when you point out the miles of "update foo broke my driver" on the Ubuntu forums what do they say? Do they admit you may have a point, that things could be better? Nope they accuse those posts of being shills and you of being a shill for ever pointing it out!
And it is THAT, that right there, that seriously pisses me off. Linux COULD be better, it COULD be right up there with OSX SL and Win 7 but for something to get better you have to identify problems and fix them not scream and throw rocks at those that dare point them out! A perfect example of the batshit is the Linux TM called "Voldemort". I swear to fricking God there are guys all over the place that refuse to even say the word MSFT like it is a God damned curse or something. Look up Pogson on LinuxInsider for an example, but we got plenty of those here too.
So after fighting with Linux from Ubuntu 6 through Ubuntu 10 trying my damnedest to make the thing work like the zealots claimed (and getting told the Linux TM "You should use DistroX" when I pointed out the broken shit) I've decided to make it my solemn duty to point out the loonies, be they users or developers in the hope I can make things better because shit never changes as long as you let the loonies rule, as the loonies think it is perfect no matter what! And it has worked in the past, look at Vista, everyone had a screaming fit about how shit it was so MSFT made a better OS in the form of Win 7.
It CAN be done, it CAN get better, but ONLY by holding developers like Linus to better standards and not kissing their asses (I mean for God's sake the man brags about having no plan and letting the kernel grow like a virus and NOBODY calls him on it?) and by getting rid of the loonies who worship them and tell them their shit don't stink. And I'd do the same to a WinLoonie, a MacLoonie, and a LinLoonie, the only reason I've singled out the LinLoonies is they are getting seriously thick around here and their crazy seems to be a level above the rest.
But thank you for your post, I was starting to think I was the only sane person in crazy town. Nice to know somebody else has seen the loonie toonie batshit nuts that seems to be spreading like the clap. I mean how can anyone take Linux seriously whe you come up with names like "The Gimp" and then on top of it have the brass balls to claim a half ass editor without even CMYK support is "superior" to PhotoShop? It is crazy like THAT that needs nipped in the bud if Linux is to ever get ahead!
Hey now there ain't a damned thing wrong with a chubby woman. Now not only do they know how to cook, but they ain't constantly bitching because the diet leaves them hungry and cranky, and most are happy just to cuddle up next to you and be treated right.
So give it up for Nimoy for not falling for the sickly look the gay fashion industry (you DO know that nearly all fashion images are made by gay men, right?) and showing that ALL women can be pretty. Frankly I've had skinny and chubby and I'll take the chubby ones ANY day of the week, twice on Sundays.
You make like getting ribbed by them damned bony elbows when you sleep, or being fed rabbit food because of whatever diet o' the week she is on, but I'd rather have a nice soft woman to snuggly up with that grills me some steaks while we sit out on the porch enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon, thank you VERY much!
I never understood that shit either. I'd love to ask him "What are you nuts?" Here is a guy that has created a character that will live on long past his expiration date, that is beloved by practically the whole damned planet, and he has the nerve to bitch about it? You know how many performers would KILL just for a tenth of the recognition he got for Spock? Whereas most performers if they are very very VERY lucky get the briefest of tastes he got to enjoy the ride for something like 40 years, and unlike those that just keep hitting the snooze button on their 15 minutes of fame he has just become MORE beloved as time went on.
So seriously Nimoy you got more than 95% of actors ever get. Enjoy your immortality and be happy on you birthday, because very few of us will truly be remembered outside of our close circles when we are gone, but "Live long and prosper' will be said centuries from now. Hell just look at your late friends Doohan and Kelley, who are no longer with us but damned near everyone on the planet hears their voice and pictures their face if you say "She can't take it much more Captain!" or "I'm a doctor Jim, not a ___". So be happy, so few ever get to enjoy that kind of recognition.
Uhhh...dude? the story is bullshit. if you read TFA (I know, but I got bored) it says plainly down about halfway past the "ZOMG!" headline, and I quote "Mr. Spitz's information, Mr. Blaze pointed out, was not based on those frequent updates, but on how often Mr. Spitz checked his e-mail". emphasis mine.
So in this case the answer is simple: The guy has a smartphone with some app that checks his email every five minutes (racking up some sweet charges too I bet) and THAT is what is being logged. Well duh, you know how much data plans charge? Ain't no way in hell they are tossing that in case you dispute the charges!
While I have NO doubt cell companies need more oversight (although whom to oversee them when I trust the government even less nowadays when it comes to privacy) using THIS case as a red flag is bullshit. Having your Crackberry phone home every five minutes sucking up your data plan WILL BE TRACKED for the simple reason that DATA CHARGES SUCK and people dispute them, duh.
Well good lord man, how do you talk nice to the batshit insane? I mean anything you say to them is gonna get you labeled by one of their "nasty" words like shill or astroturfer, hell the one that started this thread got labeled an astroturfer for saying WinPhone will bomb for everyone except WinDevelopers that already know how to code for it and will want to play with it. I mean seriously WTF?
These people have gone so damned loonie toonie if every post isn't "M$ SUX DONKEY NUTZ!" it is labeled a shill! I mean how fucking batshit do you have to be when even the most backhanded of complements is considered a compliment? How isolated must your world view be if everything that isn't "FLOSS Yay, MSFT Boo!" is considered heresy?
And I think the batshit naming is just a small symptom of the larger batshit disease that is spreading through FOSS. Hell look at a site like Linux TMs which was originally a bunch of Linux guys bitching about what is broken in Linux but has now been overrun by the true believers spam posting their "LOL Winblowz" leet speek bullshit. The sad part? Damned near every one of those Linux TMs is true because of the religious devotion of the totally batshit loonies that have adopted FLOSS as their lord and savior.
So I'm sorry, but if there is one thing I've learned over the years it is bending over backwards to coddle loonies NEVER helps, be they religious loonies or fanboi loonies or political loonies, a loony is a loony is a loony. We used to have some damned heated but INTELLIGENT discussions here about tech. They were really really good and would really make you think. Now it is like religious cults that come out of their shrines to ignore ANY fact that may burst their worldview while freakishly devoting spew after spew to such complete and total bullshit that only a zealot would take any of it seriously!
So from now on, and I urge my fellow/.ers to do this as well, is to point out the loonies whenever and wherever possible. Don't let the loonies grow and fester, stomp their loony asses into the ground. That goes for WinLoonies (Vista is low resource? yeah right!) MacLoonies (Steve Jobs isn't a control freak? Total bullshit!) and LinLoonies (Users will embrace the crazy names and trawling forums every 6 months to get their drivers to work? Horseshit!) because all that treat an OS as a religion is full of shit and the quicker everyone sees their eyes are brown the better.
Until then there is some 100% free software that may help if your ISP tries to bone you, it is 100% free, doesn't need an install if you don't want to, will show you hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and keep a nice little log of everything. I have it setting on the little SFF I use as a gateway that way if my ISP tries to claim I blew X I can show them the logs. Just the fact that I had logs to show them was enough to get my ISP to back down when they tried to charge me for 45Gb I didn't use.
Networx is the name of the software and works on all Windows from 2k to 2k8 and 7, 32 and 64 bit. It has some really nice features like network testing tools and you can even have it kill the net if you are about to exceed your quota. Enjoy, although personally I wish this metered bullshit would DIAF already. Oh BTW Linux guys, guess what? Windows updates don't count against the caps but Linux and Mac updates do. Enjoy!
Except they won't be sticking you for $200 old CPU dude, they'll be sticking you for $2 and you will pay which just gives them an incentive to stick you for $3 next month. think about how many customers AT&T has, now figure up what they'll make if they overcharge 40% by $2 and 60% by $3. Wow what nice profits!
Trust me, I'm stuck on Cox (nice name since they're dicks) that does the metered crap (35Gb a month? WTF?) and they go out of their way to keep you from finding out what you've used. No meters, no gauges, just their word for it. Oh you can complain and they're quick to drop it, but how many don't?
Metering on a service with no government regulation when it comes to meters is a BAD IDEA in capital letters. imagine if you just had to take each gas stations word for it that they gave you a gallon? How many do you think would be shortchanging you? It doesn't take much with a huge client base to clean up my friends, not much at all.
Uhhhh...WHY would you use the MSFT version of all those functions exactly? Hell this ain't Linux, everybody uses third party here son. As for licensing issues MSFT frankly doesn't care WHAT you do as long as you aren't running a business on it. If you are at risk of a BSAA audit then you need to care, otherwise not.
But hell it isn't like WinServer is expensive, you just don't buy the latest version. Here is WinServer 2K3 standard for $144 and that ought to do everything you want it to do, and there shouldn't be any indexing troubles. And if you want 2K8...got any friends that are students? They can get it cheap. Hell I still got my 2K3 server discs lying in a drawer somewhere from when I was a student, they practically give server away hoping you'll keep using it when you graduate.
All of your searches are sent home to Google, from what I understand pretty much everything you do is sent straight back to Google for data mining. If you type in "Google Chrome Privacy Issues" into any search you'll find more, but here is a link to get you started.
Now I've checked Comodo with both the software and hardware firewall and NOTHING is being sent to Comodo except for a single version number at launch, which Comodo uses to tell you if you are out of date. On top of that you can choose to use the extra security features offered free by Comodo, such as their secure DNS which will blackhole known malware drivebys and their faster updating certs which helps to catch bad certs before they can be used against you. They also stick with the stable branch of Chromium so while you aren't bleeding edge, at least you aren't...well bleeding edge with all the bugs that go with it.
So give it a try, like their other free products it is rock solid and runs great. Ever since tripping over their free AV I've made it a point to try any new freeware they release and they've not released a single clunker yet. They really put some thought and do a lot of work on their freeware. So give it a spin, but remember the Google updater with the phone home often won't be uninstalled when you uninstall Chrome and will thus have to be removed manually.
Thank you for showing why why FLOSSies STILL don't "get it". So fricking what if you are using the same 70s era term shit when you "hack" Ohh boy hacky hacky. Know what? A good 99.9996% of the world will NEVER touch that shit, not in a million damned years!
As for why I'm not nicer about it, I'm sick of dealing with crazy people. lets just get it out in the open, FLOSSies have done gone right past the bend in to "personhole covers" level of self denial batshit PC loonie toonie land. Hell look at your own post, the survival of an OS is based on whether or not some fat unshaved developer or not stick in some old Unix commands "just because thats how the other did it" or as a homage or something? Please tell me that is just your idea of a fucking joke, and you haven't gone that completely batshit crazy yet, because if it isn't a joke get so damned help man!
It is THIS, this right here, the turning of a simple little philosophy into Heaven's Gate style zombie religion that makes me can't stand you people. Yes I use Windows because it is currently the best tool for the job and before that OS/2 and before that Commodore, but you don't see me coming up with batshit conspiracy theories to explain how some ancient PEEK command means that "Commodore BASIC lives on!" and the fact that you in all seriousness even suggest this just shows why you people really need to get some fucking help. You've completely lost it, you KNOW this right?
Fun fact:You're wrong. The largest is Yahoo! Mail followed by Gmail with Hotmail third.
I personally think THIS is why Ballmer had such a hard on to buy out Yahoo! and why they were quick to jump on the search deal, as Yahoo Mail has a TON of users and funnily enough the Yahoo Web Portal is the #1 home page (Yeah I know its a cluttered mess, apparently people like cluttered messes) by a large margin. Hell that damned portal is so popular now the only time I notice anymore is when someone brings in a PC to be fixed and Yahoo Portal ISN'T the default, that is how damned popular that thing is.
As for TFA they ain't blocking HTTPS they had a bug that screwed up setting HTTPS as default. Surprise surprise new software rollout finds a bunch of bugs that need fixing. Until they chase down the bugs you can either use the FF plugin or just set it manually which isn't exactly a hardship. If this were anyone else it wouldn't even rate a mention but since it is MSFT the tinfoil hatters have to get in a few shots.
Hell only the old folks use Hotmail anymore anyway, mostly those like my dad that got a branded account with his DSL. I can't even remember the last time I saw a customer under 50 that had Hotmail bookmarked. Everyone else it is Yahoo Mail followed by Gmail for the under 30s.
Dude its a fricking bug. It isn't even a fricking bug that blocks HTTPS, it just doesn't set it as default. Big fricking whoop, you just have to go in and set it. And anybody who is in a repressive country and sending shit that may get them in trouble to their email account without even using Tor or some other obfuscation is seriously asking for it anyway.
Now if they had issued a press release that said "Countries A-K will NOT have HHTPS access" that would be one thing, and they'd deserve to get nailed for it. But it is a fricking bug associated with a new feature rollout. Hell why do you think Google is always in perpetual Beta? Because bugs happen, that's why. I'm sure by this time next week they'll have tracked down the uh oh and until then you can manually set it just like you did before since the whole point of this new feature was to set it automatic whereas before it was manual.
So get off the "ZOMG! UR killin peoplez ZOMG!" bullshit, it was manual before, it is manual now until they get the bug fixed, then it will be automatic. Or are you claiming people in third world countries are too stupid to look for the little lock symbol?
Oh please! It is elitist smug ass developer bullshit and you KNOW it! If it was "marketing gold" your ass wouldn't be lower than fricking Win2K on the usage scale, now would you? I mean when you fricking have to brag you got 1% (woo hoo, we're really cooking now!) you should SERIOUSLY be asking yourselves "What am I doing wrong that my competitors are doing right?"
But of course THAT will never happen, because then you'd have to get off your smug ass high horse and admit you have some serious problems here, the elitist bullshit just one problem among many. I mean when the head of your core development team, Mr Linus Torvalds himself, admits "Linux isn't designed, it grows like a virus" yeah its called the clap, I mean WTF? No wonder your damned drivers break every damned upgrade with this clown running the show! Can you imagine going to your boss on a lead project and telling him "We don't need a plan, it'll just grow like a virus LOL!"? Enjoy your firing.
Get rid of the ass clowns like Torvalds, hire some damned marketing people and STOP NAMING THINGS STUPID SHIT and maybe you'd have a shot. Because nobody is gonna take the FLOSS seriously with all these fucked up names,same as nobody will take FLOSS as a desktop seriously until the 6 month update death march stops breaking half the drivers every damned time!
I mean seriously fellas, it isn't 1987 you know, time to stop acting like fools and get your shit together. Hell even OS/2 has a stable driver ABI now, and the dumbass names just make you look Mickey Mouse, or should I say GNUMouse? You better get it together quick, as iOS is a fricking Juggernaut and Win 7 is kicking royally on the desktop. All that leaves is Android which Google is about to royally screw you out of by "TiVo tricking" it away, thanks to them making DAMNED SURE they don't touch any GPL V3, so all that leaves is cheap web hosts and HPCs, not exactly high growth markets.
But hey, if you enjoy being dead last that is your business, but don't say you weren't warned. You may think those fucked up names are cute but the rest of the world just thinks your weird and avoids you.
&^%&^%*&^%*&! Then fricking say FREEDOM already! Jesus tap dancing Christ on a stick WTF?! Is it not bad enough the FLOSSies gotta come up with the absolute WORST names for software in the history of the world, now you gotta start sticking in French too?
Is making things sound NICE or FRIENDLY against the bylaws or something? I mean Trisquel? Sounds like something you use to clear up a yeast infection. Good Lord man, is there not a single marketing guy in the entire damned organization?
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Didn't RTFA I take it? This isn't some "green subsidy" as you put it, this is the classic sleazy offshoring bullshit like the "double dutch" that lets so many fortune 500 companies enjoy our markets while not paying shit.
Frankly I say if you want to see the future of America, look at Egypt and the middle east right now. The top 1% will keep their "let them eat cake" attitude right up to the point when they get to re-enact the fall of Saigon thanks to the rioters in the streets. looking out my window all I see is abandoned stores and empty homes. Hell go to the business districts in any southern town, the places look like "Escape from New York" thanks to all the abandoned factories.
If it wasn't for accounting trickery by the fed the actual unemployment rate would be close to 30%, students are going straight from graduation to welfare or McJobs (what is it, Bachelors the new HS diploma?) while being crushed by debt they can't even get rid of with bankruptcy while being expected by these same pigs to compete with some guy brought off the boat from India that paid maybe 1/20th the amount for his education. Meanwhile every man, woman, and child owes something like $76k and climbing thanks in part to the USA playing the world's policeman and having to print money like it is going out of style simply to keep the poor from turning into a rioting mob.
But the presses can't run forever, sooner or later the world will stop accepting the funny paper and the bottom WILL fall out. Not in any way attempting to Godwin but I'd point out the crazy Austrian got elected by a landslide on a "bread and jobs" platform and frankly I know huge amounts of people that would happily elect our very own crazy Austrian if it meant a guaranteed good job and food on the table.
Shit is getting pretty bad for the working poor folks, and they outnumber the 1%ers by about a half a million to one and growing. What happens when uncle fed can't print them anymore checks? look to Egypt and see the future of America, and these greedy pigs will NEVER see it coming. Lenin had it right all those years ago when he said "a capitalist will gladly sell you the rope you hang him with" and by offshoring everything and handing the working poor and middle class the bill they are tying the noose as we speak. Don't think it can't happen here, because it can and it will. Just you watch.
Buy the three pack and split it with a couple of friends? that'll get you Win 7 HP for about $35 a piece. Otherwise they still sell OEM it is simply called "system builders" now since it is for guys like me that actually...uhhh...build systems. It is $100 for HP and $139 for Pro, same as it was for XP before it. Tigerdirect, Newegg, Amazon, pick your poison.
But your best bet if you don't need XP Mode which needs Pro (and frankly unless you need domain join most people are fine with Home, and you can cook up something similar to XP Mode with Virtualbox and an XP disc) then the best bet is the Win 7 HP family pack, which I've seen go for as low as $89 on Amazon or deals.woot.
But you really can't complain about the price of Windows (although I still think Ballmer was an idiot for getting rid of the $50 HP upgrade, as it was great for switching pirate XP users to legit Win 7) since the price of Windows has remained the same for nearly 25 years and how many other things can you say that have kept the same price that long? look up the Ballmer Windows 1.0 commercial, it was $99 back in 84, and Windows Home is...$99. XP Pro was $139 and Win 7 Pro over a decade later is...$139.
So while I find plenty of things to bitch about when it comes to MSFT (the upgrade screwup for starters) they have been pretty good about keeping the price consistent and the three pack is about as cheap as you can get, and it comes with both 32 and 64 bit so its ready to go no matter what you've got. Hell I'm sure you can find two friends or family members to kick in with you.
Which is why I have a question: WTF is up with the MS Shill brigade on /. lately? I've only noticed it for about the past three weeks or so, but damned the shit is getting thick. Look at the one that posted on the Nook hack, the very first post is "I Wish Microsoft would have released the Courier" complete with link for those that don't know what that bullshit vaporware was in the first place. I mean did they get a deal on that HB Gary software or what? And why are they so insecure? I mean sure WinPhone is dead last but Windows 7 is nice, and the X360 is doing well. So what is up with the rampant MSFT shilling? Do they fire your ass if you don't post X number of shill posts or something?
As for TFA, garbage in, garbage out. I don't care if you code in VB 6 or Brainfuck if you write sloppy code it WILL come back to bite you in the ass. But trying to blame this on the language, to use a /. car analogy, would be like trying to blame Ford because someone got drunk and hit a kid with their Mustang. A tool is only as good as the person using it, full stop. I've seen clean code and lousy shit in just about every language. It ain't the tool that's the problem it is PEBKAC. But they should get extra points for the sheer irony factor. I mean a site promoting SQL falling for the oldest trick in the book? Bobby Drop Tables anyone?
Actually sadly its not, as with the current rate of inflation the average worker will most likely end up with less than nothing when you figure in his current purchasing power with what that same amount will buy just ten years from now.
So I'd say sadly saving has gone the way of the 8-track and it is "win big or GTFO" all the way. you may as well gamble it on stocks and hope to pull off some big scores than to sock it in a CD anymore, as that dollar will be worth less than a cent 20 years from now and the rate of interest is a bad joke. Might as well do like the big boys and gamble that soon to be worthless money on the stocks, or the ponies or cards. It is all a gamble, play big or GTFO.
Why bother? All I have to do is say "I contest this" and suddenly it is dropped, just that easy. The point is how many DON'T question if it is for a small amount? I know there have been times when it was just a couple of bucks where frankly it would have taken more than 2 bucks worth of my time so I let it slide. Now multiple that times a huge base...wow that's a lot of money.
And frankly your plan won't work anyway since they won't accept your reading anymore than the electric company would take my word on what the meter says and THAT is the point as we are talking about going to a metered service where there aren't any meters and you are stuck with the "honor system" from the corporation. Does ANYBODY think that will EVER turn out well? The temptation is just too great, especially with the "damn everything but the quarterly reports!" attitude with have in the USA. I predict rampant overcharging if not outright fraud, which of course will cause them to eventually get a fine less than what they took in thus making it all profitable. Welcome to corporate Amerika my friend, please enjoy your stay.
Oh I didn't expect one (although I think its funny him or one of his buddies came along as an AC to insult me LOL) but I do think it is important to point out astroturfing wherever it shows its ugly head as i think it is a serious threat to freedom.
I mean it is bad enough you can get astroturf campaigns like the Tea Party, aka the Koch Brothers Express, but at least there they have to pay people to actually show up, pay press to report, etc so it leaves an easy to follow money trail, but online discussion is one of the few places where one can speak openly anymore thanks to all the government and corporate spying (which is why many want you to be tied to an online identity, so they can punish you when you don't toe the party line) but now even that is being threatened by obvious paid shills like the poster I was responding to.
For now it is easy to spot, as they can't quit kissing ass or speaking corporate buzzword bingo, like in the above where an article on a completely different device gets a plug for a vaporware product designed to kill iPad sales that frankly a good 98% of the average folks would have never even heard of. So NOW is the time to nip that shit in the bud, NOW is the time to make sure their corporate master know their money is being wasted as it turns off those that might otherwise buy by "poisoning the well" and building bad will.
So we really need to point these clowns out, before we get drowned out by HB Gary shillbots. It is pretty easy to spot a real person VS a shill. Look at me for an example, everyone who takes a look at my history knows I like Windows desktops, Linux embedded and Web Servers. I'm more than happy to point out shitty attributes of any and all products I use, hell if they were to lock me in a room with the Windows development team I'd spend the day pointing out things I think are shit .
But shills, especially the HB Gary shillbomb type, can ruin the whole thing by burying the good under the shit and frankly I LIKE /. and I LIKE having discussions on geek items that you actually have to think and which go deep. These shillbombs are about as deep as a kiddy pool, they are just "You should use Brand X, now with SmileX!" and frankly sour the whole discussion. And sorry about the length, but for the past few weeks it has been pretty obvious MSFT has targeted /. with a shill team and frankly it stinks. I can guarantee that while I may still need to sell Windows there will be NO WinPhones and NO X360s going through this shop or allowed in my home. I won't support shilling.
If you are really too fucking stupid (which is a possibility seeing how the quality has gone down here at /.) to tell the difference between a real post and a shill, let your old pal Hairyfeet point out the differences:
1.-The shill will bring up the product no matter whether the post has anything to do with it or not. Example: Look at the first post on the Nook hack, what does it say? "I wish Microsoft would have come out with the Courier" complete with link for those that don't know what the fuck that piece of bullshit vaporware was. Now did that have a God damned thing to do with Nooks? Nope but the guy is being paid by the post (and probably getting a bonus for first posts) so dammit he's getting his plug in. Now show me a single post in a non AMD/ATI story where I bring up either company? you can't because I speak about whatever topic is at hand, in this case it was AMD because that's the topic dipshit or can't you RTFS?
2.- first posts at any cost even when they make NO sense. See example #1. My post on the other hand was answering a guy who was spouting the old "ATI drivers suck!" meme, which is like saying "Windows BSODs all the time!" as they are both about the same age.
3.-NEVER say anything bad about the product EVER. See the post history of the Nook guy as an example, whereas I said "once AMD bought them out the drivers have been rock solid" implying quite clearly that before AMD bought them out their drivers sucked because you know what? They really did. They sucked massive amounts.
4.-Give NO reason why you have a preference, if required to give a preference use marketing speak and be sure to hit the bullet points. See the MSFT shills we've had the past week for a good example of "buzzword bingo". Personally all I need is Synergy to get a diagonal and maybe win the crockpot. Now compare to mine where I pointed out malfeasance on the part of the competitors in the rigging of compilers on the Intel side along with bribery, and on Nvidia's side we have trying to shaft customers who got burnt by their bad GPUs. As someone who has supported a fair and open free market this kind of dirty shit don't fly, just as I argued MSFT should have been broken up over bribing OEMs.
So in conclusion please use the above handy checklist for the stupid so that even total dipshits such as yourself can easily tell the difference between someone who is happy with a product and a paid shill. For the record I have gotten exactly ZERO in terms of cash, hardware, or even discounts, from either company, hell they haven't even offered me a T-Shirt. I sell AMD/ATI because they give prices any of my customers can afford (show me where I can get quad core Intel with a decent amount of RAM in a full kit for under $260 after MIR like this deal) while having damned good performance and being rock solid stable. Will Intel kill them in the top end? Hell yes, and 4-6 times the price! My customers are working folks, they need a good machine that will last at a price that won't break them, and AMD gives them that while giving them the ability to upgrade. The Intel socket bingo is frankly getting nuts. What are they up to now, something like FOUR sockets all active ATM?
So thanks AMD, I've been selling your desktops and laptops and have had NO complaints. They're cheap, may not be the fastest but are more than fast enough for a good 90% of those that walk through my door, and the new IGPs and discrete chips are awesome. And BTW if you have read my past posting you know I put my money where my mouth is...AMD 925 X4, 8 Gb of DDR 2 800MHz, dual 500Gb HDDs, and I just replaced my old workhorse HD4650 (which still works great and will be handed down to a nephew) for an HD4850 thanks to my GF deciding she wanted to "support my inner geek". Personally I think its bribery as the grandbaby will be here next month and I bet she's planning on us doing a lot of babysitting, but gift horses and mouths and all.
So let me ask you a question: Do you get paid to herd 100 or so shill accounts, AKA the HB Gary troll herder software, or do they pay you to set up accounts one at a time, ala the old slow way? How are the benefits? Do you get dental and vision? 401K? I'd really like to know as frankly I could do about 1000% better job than you shills without even trying, your so damned obvious it ain't even funny.
As for TFA, we and the posters must have different definitions of "cheap". Those $100 aPads are cheap, $250 for an E-reader? The hell with that. Hell at that price I can get a netbook, why would I wan t this thing rooted or not? hell the iPad I is selling now for $300, this thing is too high with a capital T.
The CEO is a dumbass. The question should be "why does MSFT crank out the 16oz burger?" and the answer is because 90% of the time that's what people want and if you have a developer of ANY experience or even basic problem solving skills he should be able to handle the other 10% no problem.
I'm sure Mr Dumbass would be banning anybody who had VB6 on his resume if this was the 90s, and he'd be just as full of shit then as now. Why did VB6 rule businesses for so long? Because custom GUIs for DBs was a BIG deal and VB6 made that easy. But again anybody with any experience or common sense and problem solving skills could handle to other 10%.
Frankly Mr Dumbass CEO and the HR drones tossing resumes without a fucking clue can go jump in the lake. Frankly the whole hiring process at most places has become so fucked up it is a wonder they find anybody to do anything! It is like how they'll pass up somebody with years of experience doing the job for someone with the right piece of paper or matching the buzzword bingo of the day, only to find out they got a paper tiger.
Sadly Dilbert is funny because its true, and MR Dumbass CEO is living proof of it.
Dude I just gotta ask: How much does MSFT pay you to shill? Is it an every two week kinda thing, or do you get paid quarterly? How are the benefits? Because from your post you are obviously getting paid because NOBODY kisses that much ass for free!
As for TFA, can we choose none of the above? I don't trust MSFT, and I sure as hell don't trust the government, what with their shredding the constitution practically on a daily basis, so it is kinda a rock and a hard place here. Can we hear from the EFF on this? Because frankly so far they seem to be the ONLY ones who give a shit about privacy anymore.
On Linux? Yes, although they have given out the full specs so it should be better soon. On Windows? you couldn't be more wrong as both the new IGPs and discrete have been kicking serious ass AND have been both stable and cheap!
After the Nvidia Bumpgate and Intel bribing OEMs and rigging compilers came out I've been selling AMD/ATI exclusively in my shop and the customers couldn't be happy. The triple and quad core CPUs are cheap and plentiful and take everything they throw at them and come back for more, and the IGPs and discrete chips seriously crank out the pretty while giving a hell of a bang for the buck.
The new hotness at the shop has been the dirt cheap HD48xx series which has gotten so low anybody that wants HD gaming or large screens can just have me drop one in for a little of nothing ($60 for the 4830 and $80 for the 4850) and the drivers are solid as a rock on both XP and 7 and the framerates are just nuts. I personally love my HD4850 and haven't had so much as a single driver error, but then again since AMD bought them out I haven't had a single problem with a single build.
So personally I'm all for AMD and I hope they keep it up. Their new business plan of making mainstream GPUs and then simply adding a second with HT connect when they need to ramp up is the smart way to do it, as they don't have to waste time finding ways to cripple cards for the midrange market, and the cards just keep getting faster and cheaper. Now thanks to AMD buying ATI anybody can enjoy games and hardware acceleration even on the low end IGPs, hell I was playing Bioshock I and II and L4D on my onboard while I waited for my card to arrive and they played fine.
So if any AMD employees are reading this, thanks. Your bang for the buck mantra has made it so even my low end customers can afford triples and quads, and made it easier than ever for everyone to have decent framerates without breaking their wallets. In these tough times that really helps out the working folks out here in middle America, so thanks, we appreciate it. And this is one builder that will shop with you first and foremost, your quality and low prices have earned my business. Thanks again.
If I'm coming off as STFU for the I apologize, I want them to spew the crazy as it will hopefully help to root it out! One of the sites I contribute to is "Linuxinsider' and you should really go there sometime, while there are many that are normal it quickly becomes apparent that the F/OSS movement is being taken over by the loonies.
I'm serious on the amount of religious crazy here, it is LONG past fanboi crap. I've had guys with a straight face write that Linux 6 month updates don't break drivers which ANYBODY that has actually used that OS knows that is bullshit, it is like saying you can run the XP updates without a reboot! And when you point out the miles of "update foo broke my driver" on the Ubuntu forums what do they say? Do they admit you may have a point, that things could be better? Nope they accuse those posts of being shills and you of being a shill for ever pointing it out!
And it is THAT, that right there, that seriously pisses me off. Linux COULD be better, it COULD be right up there with OSX SL and Win 7 but for something to get better you have to identify problems and fix them not scream and throw rocks at those that dare point them out! A perfect example of the batshit is the Linux TM called "Voldemort". I swear to fricking God there are guys all over the place that refuse to even say the word MSFT like it is a God damned curse or something. Look up Pogson on LinuxInsider for an example, but we got plenty of those here too.
So after fighting with Linux from Ubuntu 6 through Ubuntu 10 trying my damnedest to make the thing work like the zealots claimed (and getting told the Linux TM "You should use DistroX" when I pointed out the broken shit) I've decided to make it my solemn duty to point out the loonies, be they users or developers in the hope I can make things better because shit never changes as long as you let the loonies rule, as the loonies think it is perfect no matter what! And it has worked in the past, look at Vista, everyone had a screaming fit about how shit it was so MSFT made a better OS in the form of Win 7.
It CAN be done, it CAN get better, but ONLY by holding developers like Linus to better standards and not kissing their asses (I mean for God's sake the man brags about having no plan and letting the kernel grow like a virus and NOBODY calls him on it?) and by getting rid of the loonies who worship them and tell them their shit don't stink. And I'd do the same to a WinLoonie, a MacLoonie, and a LinLoonie, the only reason I've singled out the LinLoonies is they are getting seriously thick around here and their crazy seems to be a level above the rest.
But thank you for your post, I was starting to think I was the only sane person in crazy town. Nice to know somebody else has seen the loonie toonie batshit nuts that seems to be spreading like the clap. I mean how can anyone take Linux seriously whe you come up with names like "The Gimp" and then on top of it have the brass balls to claim a half ass editor without even CMYK support is "superior" to PhotoShop? It is crazy like THAT that needs nipped in the bud if Linux is to ever get ahead!
Hey now there ain't a damned thing wrong with a chubby woman. Now not only do they know how to cook, but they ain't constantly bitching because the diet leaves them hungry and cranky, and most are happy just to cuddle up next to you and be treated right.
So give it up for Nimoy for not falling for the sickly look the gay fashion industry (you DO know that nearly all fashion images are made by gay men, right?) and showing that ALL women can be pretty. Frankly I've had skinny and chubby and I'll take the chubby ones ANY day of the week, twice on Sundays.
You make like getting ribbed by them damned bony elbows when you sleep, or being fed rabbit food because of whatever diet o' the week she is on, but I'd rather have a nice soft woman to snuggly up with that grills me some steaks while we sit out on the porch enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon, thank you VERY much!
I never understood that shit either. I'd love to ask him "What are you nuts?" Here is a guy that has created a character that will live on long past his expiration date, that is beloved by practically the whole damned planet, and he has the nerve to bitch about it? You know how many performers would KILL just for a tenth of the recognition he got for Spock? Whereas most performers if they are very very VERY lucky get the briefest of tastes he got to enjoy the ride for something like 40 years, and unlike those that just keep hitting the snooze button on their 15 minutes of fame he has just become MORE beloved as time went on.
So seriously Nimoy you got more than 95% of actors ever get. Enjoy your immortality and be happy on you birthday, because very few of us will truly be remembered outside of our close circles when we are gone, but "Live long and prosper' will be said centuries from now. Hell just look at your late friends Doohan and Kelley, who are no longer with us but damned near everyone on the planet hears their voice and pictures their face if you say "She can't take it much more Captain!" or "I'm a doctor Jim, not a ___". So be happy, so few ever get to enjoy that kind of recognition.
Uhhh...dude? the story is bullshit. if you read TFA (I know, but I got bored) it says plainly down about halfway past the "ZOMG!" headline, and I quote "Mr. Spitz's information, Mr. Blaze pointed out, was not based on those frequent updates, but on how often Mr. Spitz checked his e-mail". emphasis mine.
So in this case the answer is simple: The guy has a smartphone with some app that checks his email every five minutes (racking up some sweet charges too I bet) and THAT is what is being logged. Well duh, you know how much data plans charge? Ain't no way in hell they are tossing that in case you dispute the charges!
While I have NO doubt cell companies need more oversight (although whom to oversee them when I trust the government even less nowadays when it comes to privacy) using THIS case as a red flag is bullshit. Having your Crackberry phone home every five minutes sucking up your data plan WILL BE TRACKED for the simple reason that DATA CHARGES SUCK and people dispute them, duh.
Well good lord man, how do you talk nice to the batshit insane? I mean anything you say to them is gonna get you labeled by one of their "nasty" words like shill or astroturfer, hell the one that started this thread got labeled an astroturfer for saying WinPhone will bomb for everyone except WinDevelopers that already know how to code for it and will want to play with it. I mean seriously WTF?
These people have gone so damned loonie toonie if every post isn't "M$ SUX DONKEY NUTZ!" it is labeled a shill! I mean how fucking batshit do you have to be when even the most backhanded of complements is considered a compliment? How isolated must your world view be if everything that isn't "FLOSS Yay, MSFT Boo!" is considered heresy?
And I think the batshit naming is just a small symptom of the larger batshit disease that is spreading through FOSS. Hell look at a site like Linux TMs which was originally a bunch of Linux guys bitching about what is broken in Linux but has now been overrun by the true believers spam posting their "LOL Winblowz" leet speek bullshit. The sad part? Damned near every one of those Linux TMs is true because of the religious devotion of the totally batshit loonies that have adopted FLOSS as their lord and savior.
So I'm sorry, but if there is one thing I've learned over the years it is bending over backwards to coddle loonies NEVER helps, be they religious loonies or fanboi loonies or political loonies, a loony is a loony is a loony. We used to have some damned heated but INTELLIGENT discussions here about tech. They were really really good and would really make you think. Now it is like religious cults that come out of their shrines to ignore ANY fact that may burst their worldview while freakishly devoting spew after spew to such complete and total bullshit that only a zealot would take any of it seriously!
So from now on, and I urge my fellow /.ers to do this as well, is to point out the loonies whenever and wherever possible. Don't let the loonies grow and fester, stomp their loony asses into the ground. That goes for WinLoonies (Vista is low resource? yeah right!) MacLoonies (Steve Jobs isn't a control freak? Total bullshit!) and LinLoonies (Users will embrace the crazy names and trawling forums every 6 months to get their drivers to work? Horseshit!) because all that treat an OS as a religion is full of shit and the quicker everyone sees their eyes are brown the better.
Until then there is some 100% free software that may help if your ISP tries to bone you, it is 100% free, doesn't need an install if you don't want to, will show you hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and keep a nice little log of everything. I have it setting on the little SFF I use as a gateway that way if my ISP tries to claim I blew X I can show them the logs. Just the fact that I had logs to show them was enough to get my ISP to back down when they tried to charge me for 45Gb I didn't use.
Networx is the name of the software and works on all Windows from 2k to 2k8 and 7, 32 and 64 bit. It has some really nice features like network testing tools and you can even have it kill the net if you are about to exceed your quota. Enjoy, although personally I wish this metered bullshit would DIAF already. Oh BTW Linux guys, guess what? Windows updates don't count against the caps but Linux and Mac updates do. Enjoy!
Except they won't be sticking you for $200 old CPU dude, they'll be sticking you for $2 and you will pay which just gives them an incentive to stick you for $3 next month. think about how many customers AT&T has, now figure up what they'll make if they overcharge 40% by $2 and 60% by $3. Wow what nice profits!
Trust me, I'm stuck on Cox (nice name since they're dicks) that does the metered crap (35Gb a month? WTF?) and they go out of their way to keep you from finding out what you've used. No meters, no gauges, just their word for it. Oh you can complain and they're quick to drop it, but how many don't?
Metering on a service with no government regulation when it comes to meters is a BAD IDEA in capital letters. imagine if you just had to take each gas stations word for it that they gave you a gallon? How many do you think would be shortchanging you? It doesn't take much with a huge client base to clean up my friends, not much at all.
Uhhhh...WHY would you use the MSFT version of all those functions exactly? Hell this ain't Linux, everybody uses third party here son. As for licensing issues MSFT frankly doesn't care WHAT you do as long as you aren't running a business on it. If you are at risk of a BSAA audit then you need to care, otherwise not.
But hell it isn't like WinServer is expensive, you just don't buy the latest version. Here is WinServer 2K3 standard for $144 and that ought to do everything you want it to do, and there shouldn't be any indexing troubles. And if you want 2K8...got any friends that are students? They can get it cheap. Hell I still got my 2K3 server discs lying in a drawer somewhere from when I was a student, they practically give server away hoping you'll keep using it when you graduate.
All of your searches are sent home to Google, from what I understand pretty much everything you do is sent straight back to Google for data mining. If you type in "Google Chrome Privacy Issues" into any search you'll find more, but here is a link to get you started.
Now I've checked Comodo with both the software and hardware firewall and NOTHING is being sent to Comodo except for a single version number at launch, which Comodo uses to tell you if you are out of date. On top of that you can choose to use the extra security features offered free by Comodo, such as their secure DNS which will blackhole known malware drivebys and their faster updating certs which helps to catch bad certs before they can be used against you. They also stick with the stable branch of Chromium so while you aren't bleeding edge, at least you aren't...well bleeding edge with all the bugs that go with it.
So give it a try, like their other free products it is rock solid and runs great. Ever since tripping over their free AV I've made it a point to try any new freeware they release and they've not released a single clunker yet. They really put some thought and do a lot of work on their freeware. So give it a spin, but remember the Google updater with the phone home often won't be uninstalled when you uninstall Chrome and will thus have to be removed manually.
Thank you for showing why why FLOSSies STILL don't "get it". So fricking what if you are using the same 70s era term shit when you "hack" Ohh boy hacky hacky. Know what? A good 99.9996% of the world will NEVER touch that shit, not in a million damned years!
As for why I'm not nicer about it, I'm sick of dealing with crazy people. lets just get it out in the open, FLOSSies have done gone right past the bend in to "personhole covers" level of self denial batshit PC loonie toonie land. Hell look at your own post, the survival of an OS is based on whether or not some fat unshaved developer or not stick in some old Unix commands "just because thats how the other did it" or as a homage or something? Please tell me that is just your idea of a fucking joke, and you haven't gone that completely batshit crazy yet, because if it isn't a joke get so damned help man!
It is THIS, this right here, the turning of a simple little philosophy into Heaven's Gate style zombie religion that makes me can't stand you people. Yes I use Windows because it is currently the best tool for the job and before that OS/2 and before that Commodore, but you don't see me coming up with batshit conspiracy theories to explain how some ancient PEEK command means that "Commodore BASIC lives on!" and the fact that you in all seriousness even suggest this just shows why you people really need to get some fucking help. You've completely lost it, you KNOW this right?
Fun fact:You're wrong. The largest is Yahoo! Mail followed by Gmail with Hotmail third.
I personally think THIS is why Ballmer had such a hard on to buy out Yahoo! and why they were quick to jump on the search deal, as Yahoo Mail has a TON of users and funnily enough the Yahoo Web Portal is the #1 home page (Yeah I know its a cluttered mess, apparently people like cluttered messes) by a large margin. Hell that damned portal is so popular now the only time I notice anymore is when someone brings in a PC to be fixed and Yahoo Portal ISN'T the default, that is how damned popular that thing is.
As for TFA they ain't blocking HTTPS they had a bug that screwed up setting HTTPS as default. Surprise surprise new software rollout finds a bunch of bugs that need fixing. Until they chase down the bugs you can either use the FF plugin or just set it manually which isn't exactly a hardship. If this were anyone else it wouldn't even rate a mention but since it is MSFT the tinfoil hatters have to get in a few shots.
Hell only the old folks use Hotmail anymore anyway, mostly those like my dad that got a branded account with his DSL. I can't even remember the last time I saw a customer under 50 that had Hotmail bookmarked. Everyone else it is Yahoo Mail followed by Gmail for the under 30s.
Dude its a fricking bug. It isn't even a fricking bug that blocks HTTPS, it just doesn't set it as default. Big fricking whoop, you just have to go in and set it. And anybody who is in a repressive country and sending shit that may get them in trouble to their email account without even using Tor or some other obfuscation is seriously asking for it anyway.
Now if they had issued a press release that said "Countries A-K will NOT have HHTPS access" that would be one thing, and they'd deserve to get nailed for it. But it is a fricking bug associated with a new feature rollout. Hell why do you think Google is always in perpetual Beta? Because bugs happen, that's why. I'm sure by this time next week they'll have tracked down the uh oh and until then you can manually set it just like you did before since the whole point of this new feature was to set it automatic whereas before it was manual.
So get off the "ZOMG! UR killin peoplez ZOMG!" bullshit, it was manual before, it is manual now until they get the bug fixed, then it will be automatic. Or are you claiming people in third world countries are too stupid to look for the little lock symbol?
Oh please! It is elitist smug ass developer bullshit and you KNOW it! If it was "marketing gold" your ass wouldn't be lower than fricking Win2K on the usage scale, now would you? I mean when you fricking have to brag you got 1% (woo hoo, we're really cooking now!) you should SERIOUSLY be asking yourselves "What am I doing wrong that my competitors are doing right?"
But of course THAT will never happen, because then you'd have to get off your smug ass high horse and admit you have some serious problems here, the elitist bullshit just one problem among many. I mean when the head of your core development team, Mr Linus Torvalds himself, admits "Linux isn't designed, it grows like a virus" yeah its called the clap, I mean WTF? No wonder your damned drivers break every damned upgrade with this clown running the show! Can you imagine going to your boss on a lead project and telling him "We don't need a plan, it'll just grow like a virus LOL!"? Enjoy your firing.
Get rid of the ass clowns like Torvalds, hire some damned marketing people and STOP NAMING THINGS STUPID SHIT and maybe you'd have a shot. Because nobody is gonna take the FLOSS seriously with all these fucked up names,same as nobody will take FLOSS as a desktop seriously until the 6 month update death march stops breaking half the drivers every damned time!
I mean seriously fellas, it isn't 1987 you know, time to stop acting like fools and get your shit together. Hell even OS/2 has a stable driver ABI now, and the dumbass names just make you look Mickey Mouse, or should I say GNUMouse? You better get it together quick, as iOS is a fricking Juggernaut and Win 7 is kicking royally on the desktop. All that leaves is Android which Google is about to royally screw you out of by "TiVo tricking" it away, thanks to them making DAMNED SURE they don't touch any GPL V3, so all that leaves is cheap web hosts and HPCs, not exactly high growth markets.
But hey, if you enjoy being dead last that is your business, but don't say you weren't warned. You may think those fucked up names are cute but the rest of the world just thinks your weird and avoids you.
&^%&^%*&^%*&! Then fricking say FREEDOM already! Jesus tap dancing Christ on a stick WTF?! Is it not bad enough the FLOSSies gotta come up with the absolute WORST names for software in the history of the world, now you gotta start sticking in French too?
Is making things sound NICE or FRIENDLY against the bylaws or something? I mean Trisquel? Sounds like something you use to clear up a yeast infection. Good Lord man, is there not a single marketing guy in the entire damned organization?