Thank you AC. My grandfather and great uncles fought in WWII, one getting radiated and eventually dying of cancer helping the Japs after Nagasaki and my grandfather helped to liberate one of the smaller camps before spending two years in a body cast thanks to an attack by a Werewulf squad that took out three of his men and dropped a wall on him.
And one thing I can say without fear of doubt is if they were here now they would be sickened and ashamed and the USA paying mercs that are selling little kids for fucktoys to get better deals. I mean how can you even answer that? I don't think there is any lower you can get here.
That is why I don't give a shit what anybody thinks Manning is a hero of the USA for showing the sickness and corruption hiding behind closed doors between the mercs and the MIC. My grandfather got out before Vietnam and even then he said "The MIC will keep us in wars until we are broke or there is nobody left to ship out" and he was 100% correct, only it is even worse as they'll just hire mercs that don't follow ANY rules of war when they need that contract signed or that wetwork done.
We USED to be the good guys, we used to actually care. Ever since the end of WWII when the MIC was born we have fallen further and further and we should all be ashamed at the rape, child trafficking, and outright genocide being committed in our names with our flag flying overhead. Is it any wonder they hate us?
If you are in the market and want cheap hotness head over to Tigerdirect as they have a refurb HD4850 for just $60! My GF just ordered one for me "to support my inner geek" as she put it and the reviews on the card is awesome. When that card came out it was $200 and it is still listed as an enthusiast card, with 800 stream processors and a 256 bit wide memory path. The only thing is you will either need a PSU with the PCIe connection, or have two molex free for an adapter. But for the price you really can't beat it!
Bullshit. in case you ain't heard pal we are in the middle of a jobless recession (or I would argue it is actually the start of a long hard depression, only being softened by the fed printing money like there is no tomorrow) which means most folks out there are in "hoard" mode,trying to keep a little put back in case something goes bad so they are not buying $50 games that much and the difference in price can make a HUGE difference in sales.
Lets look at my own recent games purchases as examples: Just Cause 2-on sale $30. Just Cause - on sale $6. Price of Persia Sands of Time pack (highly recommend and price is from Amazon) $6 for all three games in one box. Bioshock 2-on sale $2.99, Half Life 2, episode 2-on sale $2. Mercenaries 2-on sale $6, Evil Genius, Spellforce Platinum, Unreal 2 SE, GOG sale $5.99 each.
Now that is roughly all the purchases I've made in the last month or so, barring one or two I may have missed. Now by my calculations the games companies made $65 off of me, which compares to how much they would have gotten if the only choice I had was $50 games none at all.
Now why if I had $65 to spend on games would I not buy a single $50 if that was my only choice? It is simple, it is because we humans are curious creatures and perceived value matters and in all of the above cases my perceived value was higher than the cost whereas with that $50 game all I have to do is remember a couple of $50 stinkers I got burned with to have me backing away. For example if I would have bought Bioshock 2 for $50 I would have been burned, as I ended up having to play the hacked version because GFWL runs like shit on my machine and rarely picks up my net connection.
So just as in TFA it comes down to find the "sweet spot" where you will get the most people to part with their money. That is one area I think PC games are smarter than consoles, as they quickly come down from the $50 price point once the early adopters have bought. I would argue if the game is more than 6 months old the correct price is $20 or less, as after 6 months all that would have bought it at a higher price has already done so but there are still plenty of people like me that would buy at a reduced price.
With a GF and a couple of kids I just can't see myself paying $50 for a game anymore, same as I can't see myself sinking $200 into a GPU like when I was single. Lucky for me the consoles have slowed PC graphics enough that you don't need bleeding edge to play most games, and my GF has a new HD4850 waiting on me at her place as her way of "supporting my inner geek". If the companies making games want my $$ during this corpse of an economy they have to give me more value for my money either in the form of much lower prices or like in the MoH and PoP bundles offer me the older games with the new. Otherwise thanks to the gaming trinity of Steam, Good Old Games, and Amazon, I have more than enough choices to simply walk right past your $50 AAA bling fest. In six months I'm sure I'll find it at my price anyway, and it isn't like there are a shortage of games for me to play. if anything I'm about 6 months behind on my games as it is thanks to life cutting into my game time.
And she and women like her are the reason for this explosion in casual gaming, as millions of women find out there are games besides shooters and RPGs and are willing to part with their money for them.
And as for the other poster that screamed "sexist"? not unless you are a politically correct irritant it isn't. Women and men are biologically different, film at 11. my GF loves weepies like The Notebook, I find them as fun as a root canal and would rather watch something with good action like The Expendables. Does that make one right and the other wrong? Nope it just means most women prefer different things than men when it comes to entertainment and the game companies thanks to Farmville have tripped over how to make games for the female demographic, such as HOG like you mentioned (BTW get her a CSI game, it is classic HOG with a good story, she'll love it).
So I would argue all the money by and large flowing into casual gaming isn't some shift away from hardcore gaming but a whole new previously untapped demographic joining in for the first time. Whereas those like my GF would before not play at all or maybe play a single game they are now finding sites like Popcap that are designed for their style of gameplay and are spending money. I would argue this is a good thing, as my GF can't bitch about my Just Cause 2 city blowup sessions if she is sitting beside me playing CSI.
Exactly and I would argue the next big malware attacks most likely will simply ignore trying to get root as new features like ASLR and DEP make it harder to use the old tricks like buffer overflows.
And the simple fact is to do most of the stuff your average malware writers want to do (send spam, steal data, etc) it isn't even needed. See this example of how to write a Linux virus in 5 easy steps with no need for root, just good old social engineering like we see every day, and it will autorun, send spam, do anything the malware writer wants to do.
So I would argue the reason we saw so many viruses running as root before was because it was easy to obtain root and now that that is not the case malware in the future simply won't bother and will instead do its damage from userland.
Look, you want to see me blow through your famous Linux security like shit through a goose? Well here you go tada! Using the exact same tricks as they use on Windows and as simple as opening an email attachment (sound familiar?) I can royally fuck your Linux OS. Send spam, alter files, set myself up to autostart. Gee, doesn't this sound like Windows?
The ONLY reason you don't see malware writers using this trick (which BTW they have in the past, look up "KDE theme virus" to see for yourself) is because you have to have basic computer and problem solving skills because Linux is a PITA as a desktop so you have to know how to trawl forums for fixes, use CLI to install and fix driver issues, etc. The fact that you have to learn and understand at least a basic understanding of Linux (or have an admin with said knowledge) means the odds of getting enough infections to be worth the work is rather slim.
To use an old quote you rob banks because that is where the money is and if you want to build a 200,000 strong botnet you don't go to the OS that has less than the margin for error marketshare to start and with more geeks and CS grads than Sally Clueless users to boot. it is simple numbers my friend, or are you one of those that says the reason Macs with the vaunted BSD security fall first on pwn2own is that people would risk losing a 10,000 prize just to win a $2300 Macbook?
The ONLY reason Linux isn't an infected mess is social engineering like I pointed out above which works 100% on Linux needs clueless users to work and there are less of those to go around. I'd say wait until you get the numbers but with all the infighting and factionalism of the community I doubt you'll get past 4% anyway, sorry. But as Android gets popular and drags in the clueless you WILL see more infections, mark my words. If the target is juicy the malware writers WILL hit it and despite all the "Linux runs the web" BS the simple fact is you get better bandwidth for longer by pwning home connections since they don't monitor their connections like server admins do.
I think what is actually happening isn't that hardcore gamers are playing (or even give a shit) about casual game but instead large numbers of females who never played are suddenly discovering gaming thanks to FB and are finding out not all games involve giant explosions and huge battles (only the best ones like Just Cause 2 IMHO).
Take my GF for example. She would watch me play something like FEAR or Bioshock and go "Oh I don't see how you can stand that, it's too scary!" but since finding games like Farmville on FB she has seen there is plenty of games out there that don't require twitch reflexes or having the latest hardware. Now she thinks she is ready to move up a little so this weekend I'll be bringing her an old FX5200 out of the junk pile and the first CSI game. If she enjoys that and wants to go higher then I'll slowly build her her own gaming PC
So I don't think it is so much a revolution or any changing of the way we game, it is simply that there are tons of women out there that have never spent a dime on games suddenly finding out there are games that they can enjoy as much as we do shooters. Hell even my 68 year old mom is playing those little murder mystery games now, and she hadn't played (or bought) a single game since Age Of Empires I back in 96.
I think they have simply stumbled over the right formula to make "chick games" and like chick flicks they can make serious money. I doubt it'll change the shooters and RPGers any, although the price does need to come down. $50 in a recession? That is just nuts. Now I do nearly all my shopping on Steam and Amazon and rarely pay more than $20 for a game. $50 for a single game is just too damned high. hey maybe we need a "games are too damned high" party?
Yeah no shit, maybe if we worried about our own business and corruption, instead of playing "Hey lets fuck with everybody else!" maybe we wouldn't be in such bad shape.
Hell when you are covering up for private contractors selling 9 year old boys as fuck toys to get better deals on contracts? you have NO STANDING to be preaching to anyone else about freedom and rights, since child trafficking is about as low and sick as it gets.
And I don't care what anyone says Manning is a damned hero for showing what sick bastards we are actively supporting. The sick part is it wasn't even the first time we covered for these fuckers, they were selling 8 year old girls in Kosovo in the 90s. It is pretty much SOP for those bastards and we STILL kept hiring them and covering for them. Makes me ashamed to be an American. How much lower can we sink?
AC you ignorant slut (Sorry Ackroyd) because those of us that lived through it know NS 4 was absolute shit on a stick and deserved to die.
Here let me give you a nice example of what Nutscrape 4 was like "Oh look my dialup is humming and I'm ready to go! I'll just load up this webpage/Nutscrape crashes/ ohh...well that must have been a glitch. I'll just load up a different/nutscrape locks hard/...crap. Alright lets try this again.../Nutscrape locks hard and BSODs the machine/ %$&^%$&^%$!
And it is THAT, that right there, that killed NS and NOT MSFT. I knew plenty of people that happily bought NS after MSFT released IE, got tired of having their fricking desktop freeze or crash, and went to MSFT. Was MSFT wrong to bundle? I don't think so, it is their product and you didn't have to use IE then nor do you have to now. I use Dragon and FF personally. But that is why we have this little word called competition where if you don't like a product you should buy something else instead of bitching.
What MSFT SHOULD have been busted for was the checks cut to OEMs, same as I would argue that Intel deserves to be branded a monopoly and punished for doing the same shit, because THAT is using one's power to rig the market in your favor. But IE VS NS is a bad example because the best product won and I'm sure we're ALL very grateful, unless you like having to break out your CC just to have a browser? Because THAT was what we had before MSFT came along and made IE free.
NS pre 4 was a decent browser, although they had a ton of proprietary shit in it (remember the blink tag?) but NS 4 killed that company dead, not MSFT. you put out a POS release that crashes and takes out the OS more than it runs and you expect different? Happened all through tech history, just ask the guys at DBase.
Hi Cosm! Sadly I wish that it was, but as someone who has been in the repair biz since Win3.x it is all too true. hell I'll give you a perfect example of why social engineering works: I had a customer with me sitting right exactly there telling her specifically "Do NOT open that password protected zip and run it, it is a virus!" and got told "Oh you're just paranoid, see the name? My BFF Kim sent this to me! Kim wouldn't do that!" and so she ignored me AND the AV which was practically trying to hurl itself between her and the bug and did EXACTLY what I told her not to and promptly pwned her own machine.
So sadly my friend I can state with 100% certainty it is NOT a myth or old wives tale, it is all too real. Look up the top 10 list of malware by installation and then look to see how they infect and you'll find a good 8 out of 10 if not 10 out of 10 rely on the user to pwn themselves by ignoring best practices, ignoring the EULA, never reading anything, and just blindly clicking next to continue.
The latest nasty going around is the "Security tool" variant which is installed on MILLIONS of machines and which I see at least 3 times a week, all done using the "ZOMG! u got teh bugz! Install 'is_not-viruz.exe" to kill it ZOMG!" and that damned thing is installed on millions of PCs using that lame BS tactic. No shit. Sad but true my friend, sad but true. And Linux security wouldn't do a damned thing, in fact here is How to write a Linux virus in 5 easy steps using the same tricks and it WILL work because so many refuse to think.
I'd say it was the Bing that gave him away, but to be fair maybe he is a Twitter style fanboi. I mean the X360 and Windows 7? Most folks will admit those are damned good products, especially Windows 7 which I have to say is about the best damned OS I've ever used, and this is coming from someone who couldn't stand the Fisher Price GUI in XP and absolutely fricking hated Vista.
But Bing? The GUI is shit. It is friendly for the mom types maybe, everyone else will probably be driven up the wall. Personally I'll stick with Yahoo Search with its better GUI and less Google Spam. So if he is an astroturfer frankly they should fire his ass for being lame and going for the crap product.
As for TFA? Kinda sad but not unexpected. I've talked to a few people that own a Zune and they are quite happy with them, say they are rock solid and easy to use. But sadly the public has a one track mind when it comes to PMPs, and that track has iPod written on it.
When I'm out in the spring enjoying my Sandick M series (love being able to change out the battery with bog standard AAAs, as I never have any luck with L-ion batteries) it never fails I get "what kind of iPod is that?" and I say Sandisk and get "Is that a new iPod?". For the public PMP = iPod, Just as I've had to explain to customers that the search bar on the Yahoo portal they insist I set their homepage to can actually search for things and isn't just a way to get to Google, because sadly they've heard "Google it" for so long they think Google is a different thing or something because Google is a word now. Maybe it is that whole "choice equals badness for consumers" or something.
Look it is actually very simple why Windows gets more bugs. Most bugs are made by criminals, and criminals like most predators are naturally lazy. they want to get as much as they can for as little work as they can. They target Windows because as someone who actually works on the things 6 days a week I can tell you that is where the stupid people are by a loooong shot.
Doesn't make Windows bad, I have machines that have been running nearly a decade with no bugs, just retired my Win2K after a decade bug free, etc. but for every person like me that follows best practices you probably have 100,000 that will blindly click on anything, never read a EULA, will happily click through any UAC or virus warning, as long as you offer them something they want, or spook them.
Most of the bugs I see, and I usually get to see them all, but a good 90% of the infections that cross my desk can be divided into TWO categories. The "ZOMG! U got teh viruz ZOMG! Run this "is_not_bugz.exe" to kill teh viruz ded! ZOMG!" or the "Want to watch this hot porn FOR FREE? Well you can! All you have to do is load our "is_not_bugz_iz_codec.exe" to see the hot action NOW!"
In both of those cases the vaunted Linux security would do exactly jack and squat since the user is actively helping the malware and as long as the user has the right to install then there is nothing you can do. Repos wouldn't help because they would ignore you for the malware writer, an AV can only do so much if the user is working against it. Frankly MSFT could develop the perfect security model tomorrow and as long as Sally Dipshit is allowed to install and Horny Hank Hugeass is willing to ignore all warnings to get a chance at free titties? You're still fucked.
So just be glad you're a niche Linux guys, because look at all the bugs coming out for Android. Where goes the masses goes the stupid and the bugs along with them. All you can do is give them "the look" and keep them off your PCs.
You wanna know what the sad part is? Most of the bugs today are caused by nothing but sheer mind numbing stupid. I mean when you actually watch some of these people, blinding pounding the next key like a monkey trying to get a banana, not even bothering to slow down even when there is check boxes, just next next next...and WHAM! They've got 40 toolbars and a bunch of spyware and who knows what else!
Now if someone gets hit in a driveby? That's different, zero days happen. But I'd say a good 90%+ of the infected machines that cross my desk is nothing that just the tiniest bit of common sense wouldn't stop dead.
You know something dude? "What must I do to get this chocolatey goodness out of you?!' and 'Don't you just wish you could discharge your entire rectum at once?' should never ever EVER be used in the same sentence, kay?
That reminds me, hey Linux and Mac guys, get ready to be pissed off! Because guess what? Windows updates do NOT count against the cap and Linux and Mac updates? oh yeah they so count!
Can't claim this one is a MSFT conspiracy though, as talking to a friend inside the local cableco it is because the local Windows admins know how to set up a WSUS server whereas Linux hasn't gotten together to come up with a "one size fits all" repo system yet.
But it doesn't matter as either way you are still getting boned. Just one more way our lovely backwards "screw everything but the quarterly earnings report!" corporatist ISPs give advantages to the incumbent. Oh and just you wait until your caps are 36Gb residential, 76Gb business! You see if they don't get enough customers for their "services" with the higher cap they just lower the bar until they get the profits they want! Fun huh? I bet all those that spoke against net neutrality are wishing they'd have SFTU.
What magic service is this? The vast majority of us have ONE source for broadband, if you're VERY lucky two. In my case it is Cox (very appropriate name BTW, as they so love to be dicks) or...AT&T. Yep, lot o' choice there baby!
BTW everyone seems to be missing a VERY important point: Their prices for going over are specifically designed to punish you so you keep their video services instead of their excuse of paying for bandwidth. For example last I checked a Gb of bandwidth on the backbone was something like 4c, how much does Cox charge if you go over your 36Gb! bandwidth cap? $1.50 per Gb. Hell dope dealers can't make that kind of profit!
That price is simply to punish you so you stay with their video offerings (hell like you have a choice, in my area they won't even sell you a connection without taking at least basic cable) and since NONE of their offerings come under the cap ALL of these ISPs need to be hit with antitrust NOW. Because if you think 150Gb is generous look at my 36Gb cap and know that if people don't stay with the ISPs video offerings that WILL be the cap in the future. Just enough to let you check your mail and watch a couple of vids before getting slammed with insane overage charges.
So let me get this straight: anyone who is not part of the clique is therefor a meatpuppet and thus suspect? If you are not with us you are against us ring any bells?
We have a word for that too, it is called "douchebaggery" and following the OMM story is obviously what is going on. The fat tied dyed loser gets mod status, uses it to delete as "not notable" anyone who cause him butthurt (as was shown in the case of OMM and those connected to it) and then when it is pointed out he has a conflict of interest which in any sane org would have got him banned from altering those pages with conflict instead gets cries of "meatpuppets!" as they circle the wagons.
Yep, I'd say douchebaggery sums it up pretty well, wouldn't you agree, or are you just a meatpuppet here to challenge my genius?
Oh please, do we REALLY need right wing bullshit like this? really? News Flash: Those generations paid into the fund huge sums of money, many of whom like my grandparents didn't even live long enough to collect a single penny. If BOTH sides wouldn't have used those funds like giant IOUs to pay off their Wall Street cronies and hand out "too big to fail" bailouts every time some money man wrote a check then there wouldn't be a problem.
But please, go back to listening to the same bunch that has been feeding you huge piles of unbelievable bullshit (how about them WMDs?) while helping their friends like Haliburton make huge sums of money while incorporating overseas so they don't have to pay taxes as I'm sure they really have your interests at heart! BTW I got a really nice bridge you might be interested in, I heard it goes to nowhere so it has really low mileage!
Then perhaps you shouldn't be trying to spread FUD, which frankly nobody can stand from ANYBODY which is why it is so hated?
Your EXACT words, and I quote "My last BSOD: Windows 7 Home Premium. October, 2011. And I had to reformat. It would not boot, even in safe mode. I installed Linux."
Which to anyone reading that would NOT sound like you installed onto a different machine, it would logically read as "Windows 7 failed on my machine and Linux magically worked" which now that you say it wasn't even the same machine that you installed Linux on therefor it had nothing to do with the OS in the first place clearly labels your previous post as FUD, since it was designed to show that Windows fails while Linux "just works" while leaving out the fact you are talking totally different machines that have nothing to do with each other that you conveniently leave out of the previous post.
One thing I hate more than anything in the world is FUD and trolls. I hate Nichols and his WinFUD, I hate Thurott and his LinFUD, and since your post had nothing to do with anything since you left out the relevant facts to make Windows look bad and Linux look good I will label you as spreading FUD as well. A spade is a spade, FUD is FUD. Don't like the label don't spread the bullshit.
Nope sorry, in forums it is sockpuppet, but the Wikitards have their own version and definition which is "Meatpuppet: Anyone who hears about deletionist BS and actually tries to show why something shouldn't be deleted. They are a meatpuppet because they are not part of the Wiki community and are only there to show why the deletionist is wrong"
Go ahead, feel free to look it up. It is a word that Wikitards use a hell of a lot for anyone not in their little "group" and it is this little mod cabal that has people coming up with words like Wikitards and deletionists. pretty much if you don't spend every waking minute breathing the Wiki you are not allowed to speak because you are a meatpuppet and therefor worthless. look it up, sad but true how far it has sunk.
The problem is the one pushing for deletion, which had also deleted other articles about anyone connected to OMM, was a big fat tie dyed loser that OMM had seriously ragged that was using his mod status as a way to "get even".
He is a perfect example of why many refuse to have anything to do with Wikipedia, because it lets big fat douches that brag about being giant pricks (look up his Twitter feed, it is pretty much "I'm better than all of you so suck it down bitches") do whatever they want and the other (most likely big fat pricks) admins will circle the wagons and call anyone who points out the douchey behavior a "meatpuppet" and refuse to listen to anyone that "isn't in the club".
I'd say the fact that they have their own terms like meatpuppets and the fact this big fat tie dyed douche is still a mod after all his asshattery (which was pointed out in his own words from his tweets and blogs) just shows what a broken fucked up mess Wikipedia has become. While the original idea was a good one, they have made sure actual experts and anyone else who has something to do other than jerk off to Wikipedia all day will have to run a gauntlet of skanky losers who have claimed the Wiki as "their domain".
Where Wikipedia once worked on crowdsourcing and allowing experts in a field a chance to help fill in the gaps now it is just a haven for trolls and losers with no life outside Wikipedia. Hell look at the deletionist troll's own article history you'll find he's writing articles about places like the Memphis Mall which haven't existed in years and frankly nobody cared about in the first place while saying anyone who caused him butthurt isn't notable. If he isn't a classic assburgers troll on a powertrip I don't know who is.
Well that just shows you don't know what the fuck you're doing or you were using the "razor1911 Ultimate LOL Edition" since you can boot from the Windows 7 install disc and it has all kinds of free tools to correct errors, like a memory checker and the option to repair install.
Nope I have to vote bullshit or clueless, because if you would have simply left in the disc than by fricking default it would have come up with the repair option in big letters right in front of you.
Now you know MSFT has done a damned good job when I leave a new quad core and a copy of Windows 7 HP with a "I'll come out to install this weekend" note on it and my 67 year old dad, who don't know jack shit about IT or computers, installs it himself rather than wait and everything is perfect and I DO mean everything, as in it downloaded and installed the drivers, the hardest question it asked him was "Are you at home or at work?" and even pointed out on first install he didn't have an AV and took him to a page with free and pay ones so he didn't even need Google.
I'll admit when I heard and went out there I thought I was gonna see a big mess but nope, no problems at all. Everything "just worked", it detected and installed his printer and auto setup his USB HDD for weekly backups. The ONLY thing I had to do was show him where to get Firefox from.
So if you installed Linux and it isn't bitching about whatever caused your Windows to fail maybe you better check it pronto. I've found that often failing hardware doesn't really get a heads up in Linux it just "kinda goes" unless you spend your evenings checking wherever it stores log files at. Meanwhile one of my customers had a stick go bad and Windows popped up and said 'I think you may have bad memory, do you want me to check it for you?' and went the test failed it popped up 'You have a bad memory error, please have a professional check this" which took me all of 10 minutes to fix.
So if you actually threw a BSOD and yet Linux didn't say a single word about hardware? Yeah, wouldn't want to be trusting that machine buddy.
Now they just have it pushed by every piece of freeware from CCleaner on with the default opt in so now I'm seeing Chrome installs all over the place from people who don't know what it is or where it came from like I saw with Safari and iTunes.
And crashes 70% of the time? you really need to let go of Windows 98 or find a better dumpster to dive in for PCs friend, because frankly I can't even remember the last time I saw a BSOD. If you are gonna use the old Windows is crash prone meme you might as well be talking about how Apple computers don't support multitasking, since both memes are about the same age.
And finally Chrome saved Windows? BWA HA HA HA HA...oh wait, you were serious? Allow me to laugh harder..BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Riight because it isn't the bazillion programs need for work and play that are Windows only it is a fricking Google browser that keeps them on Windows! So what's next, you gonna claim those 400 million XP sales were just a fluke, because they didn't have Google to save them?
You know to write a successful troll one really needs to make their bullshit halfway believable, yours is so bad the only people posting will be the ones laughing at you...well like me.
Yes but it may simply be that their "time" is up, excuse the pun. For example talk to any nurse that works critical care and they'll say 'its always darkest before the dawn' because you are much more likely to die right before dawn than at any other time. my mom used to work ICU and said they'd make sure to have all the crash carts nicely set up and restocked by 2AM because between 3AM and 5AM you were much more likely to code.
Sadly we are still in our infancy in understanding how the complex changes to our environment effect all the chemicals and processes in our bodies, so maybe there is something here we just haven't figured out yet. Humans are such complicated creatures biochemically it really doesn't surprise me that a simple one hour change to our biological clocks could play havoc on those with existing conditions whether diagnosed or not.
Bullshit AC, total and complete bullshit. Is Apple providing support for System 9? Is FOSS still providing new code and enhancements if you are still on Ubuntu 6, which isn't even half the age of XP? Of course not. The fact that MSFT still provides security fixes after a decade and supported Win2K for over a decade (released late 99, last patch June 2010) just shows they give a hell of a lot more time to switch than ANYONE in the business.
But whether you admit it or not there are several flaws in XP that simply can NOT be fixed the worst of which is the fact that the ENTIRE OS was designed to be run as admin and is a royal PITA to run any other way. While this is fine for your average geek that follows best security practices, that is a teeny tiny niche compared to how many XP users are out there. Now you can't even complain about the cost anymore since you can buy Win 7 HP in triple packs for as low as $100 if you shop around, which is just $33 a piece and if you don't have but one PC go in with a couple of family members or neighbors and voila! Cheap Windows 7!
The simple fact is Windows 7 security is light years ahead of XP, the entire OS is better designed to intelligently use the resources available with smart caching even based on what time of day you normally runs apps, and it has everything from speech recognition to memory testing built in to make your life easier. Sticking with a decade old OS two versions behind is frankly stupid and just asking for trouble, but if that is what you want MSFT still gives you patches for another THREE years to give you more than enough time to migrate.
This circa 2004 Sempron machine I use as a nettop is the last XP machine in my possession and as soon as I come across a copy of Windows 7 Starter (since I've found its stripped down design works best on really weak hardware like nettops) I'll be saying goodbye to XP once and for all. If you want to cling to an outdated more risky OS that is your business, but expecting MSFT to go through the not inconsiderable expense of backporting new features to an OS they don't even sell anymore which is two versions behind is just ludicrous, when there is NOBODY that supports OSes that old besides them. Nobody.
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Thank you AC. My grandfather and great uncles fought in WWII, one getting radiated and eventually dying of cancer helping the Japs after Nagasaki and my grandfather helped to liberate one of the smaller camps before spending two years in a body cast thanks to an attack by a Werewulf squad that took out three of his men and dropped a wall on him.
And one thing I can say without fear of doubt is if they were here now they would be sickened and ashamed and the USA paying mercs that are selling little kids for fucktoys to get better deals. I mean how can you even answer that? I don't think there is any lower you can get here.
That is why I don't give a shit what anybody thinks Manning is a hero of the USA for showing the sickness and corruption hiding behind closed doors between the mercs and the MIC. My grandfather got out before Vietnam and even then he said "The MIC will keep us in wars until we are broke or there is nobody left to ship out" and he was 100% correct, only it is even worse as they'll just hire mercs that don't follow ANY rules of war when they need that contract signed or that wetwork done.
We USED to be the good guys, we used to actually care. Ever since the end of WWII when the MIC was born we have fallen further and further and we should all be ashamed at the rape, child trafficking, and outright genocide being committed in our names with our flag flying overhead. Is it any wonder they hate us?
If you are in the market and want cheap hotness head over to Tigerdirect as they have a refurb HD4850 for just $60! My GF just ordered one for me "to support my inner geek" as she put it and the reviews on the card is awesome. When that card came out it was $200 and it is still listed as an enthusiast card, with 800 stream processors and a 256 bit wide memory path. The only thing is you will either need a PSU with the PCIe connection, or have two molex free for an adapter. But for the price you really can't beat it!
Bullshit. in case you ain't heard pal we are in the middle of a jobless recession (or I would argue it is actually the start of a long hard depression, only being softened by the fed printing money like there is no tomorrow) which means most folks out there are in "hoard" mode,trying to keep a little put back in case something goes bad so they are not buying $50 games that much and the difference in price can make a HUGE difference in sales.
Lets look at my own recent games purchases as examples: Just Cause 2-on sale $30. Just Cause - on sale $6. Price of Persia Sands of Time pack (highly recommend and price is from Amazon) $6 for all three games in one box. Bioshock 2-on sale $2.99, Half Life 2, episode 2-on sale $2. Mercenaries 2-on sale $6, Evil Genius, Spellforce Platinum, Unreal 2 SE, GOG sale $5.99 each.
Now that is roughly all the purchases I've made in the last month or so, barring one or two I may have missed. Now by my calculations the games companies made $65 off of me, which compares to how much they would have gotten if the only choice I had was $50 games none at all.
Now why if I had $65 to spend on games would I not buy a single $50 if that was my only choice? It is simple, it is because we humans are curious creatures and perceived value matters and in all of the above cases my perceived value was higher than the cost whereas with that $50 game all I have to do is remember a couple of $50 stinkers I got burned with to have me backing away. For example if I would have bought Bioshock 2 for $50 I would have been burned, as I ended up having to play the hacked version because GFWL runs like shit on my machine and rarely picks up my net connection.
So just as in TFA it comes down to find the "sweet spot" where you will get the most people to part with their money. That is one area I think PC games are smarter than consoles, as they quickly come down from the $50 price point once the early adopters have bought. I would argue if the game is more than 6 months old the correct price is $20 or less, as after 6 months all that would have bought it at a higher price has already done so but there are still plenty of people like me that would buy at a reduced price.
With a GF and a couple of kids I just can't see myself paying $50 for a game anymore, same as I can't see myself sinking $200 into a GPU like when I was single. Lucky for me the consoles have slowed PC graphics enough that you don't need bleeding edge to play most games, and my GF has a new HD4850 waiting on me at her place as her way of "supporting my inner geek". If the companies making games want my $$ during this corpse of an economy they have to give me more value for my money either in the form of much lower prices or like in the MoH and PoP bundles offer me the older games with the new. Otherwise thanks to the gaming trinity of Steam, Good Old Games, and Amazon, I have more than enough choices to simply walk right past your $50 AAA bling fest. In six months I'm sure I'll find it at my price anyway, and it isn't like there are a shortage of games for me to play. if anything I'm about 6 months behind on my games as it is thanks to life cutting into my game time.
And she and women like her are the reason for this explosion in casual gaming, as millions of women find out there are games besides shooters and RPGs and are willing to part with their money for them.
And as for the other poster that screamed "sexist"? not unless you are a politically correct irritant it isn't. Women and men are biologically different, film at 11. my GF loves weepies like The Notebook, I find them as fun as a root canal and would rather watch something with good action like The Expendables. Does that make one right and the other wrong? Nope it just means most women prefer different things than men when it comes to entertainment and the game companies thanks to Farmville have tripped over how to make games for the female demographic, such as HOG like you mentioned (BTW get her a CSI game, it is classic HOG with a good story, she'll love it).
So I would argue all the money by and large flowing into casual gaming isn't some shift away from hardcore gaming but a whole new previously untapped demographic joining in for the first time. Whereas those like my GF would before not play at all or maybe play a single game they are now finding sites like Popcap that are designed for their style of gameplay and are spending money. I would argue this is a good thing, as my GF can't bitch about my Just Cause 2 city blowup sessions if she is sitting beside me playing CSI.
Exactly and I would argue the next big malware attacks most likely will simply ignore trying to get root as new features like ASLR and DEP make it harder to use the old tricks like buffer overflows.
And the simple fact is to do most of the stuff your average malware writers want to do (send spam, steal data, etc) it isn't even needed. See this example of how to write a Linux virus in 5 easy steps with no need for root, just good old social engineering like we see every day, and it will autorun, send spam, do anything the malware writer wants to do.
So I would argue the reason we saw so many viruses running as root before was because it was easy to obtain root and now that that is not the case malware in the future simply won't bother and will instead do its damage from userland.
Look, you want to see me blow through your famous Linux security like shit through a goose? Well here you go tada! Using the exact same tricks as they use on Windows and as simple as opening an email attachment (sound familiar?) I can royally fuck your Linux OS. Send spam, alter files, set myself up to autostart. Gee, doesn't this sound like Windows?
The ONLY reason you don't see malware writers using this trick (which BTW they have in the past, look up "KDE theme virus" to see for yourself) is because you have to have basic computer and problem solving skills because Linux is a PITA as a desktop so you have to know how to trawl forums for fixes, use CLI to install and fix driver issues, etc. The fact that you have to learn and understand at least a basic understanding of Linux (or have an admin with said knowledge) means the odds of getting enough infections to be worth the work is rather slim.
To use an old quote you rob banks because that is where the money is and if you want to build a 200,000 strong botnet you don't go to the OS that has less than the margin for error marketshare to start and with more geeks and CS grads than Sally Clueless users to boot. it is simple numbers my friend, or are you one of those that says the reason Macs with the vaunted BSD security fall first on pwn2own is that people would risk losing a 10,000 prize just to win a $2300 Macbook?
The ONLY reason Linux isn't an infected mess is social engineering like I pointed out above which works 100% on Linux needs clueless users to work and there are less of those to go around. I'd say wait until you get the numbers but with all the infighting and factionalism of the community I doubt you'll get past 4% anyway, sorry. But as Android gets popular and drags in the clueless you WILL see more infections, mark my words. If the target is juicy the malware writers WILL hit it and despite all the "Linux runs the web" BS the simple fact is you get better bandwidth for longer by pwning home connections since they don't monitor their connections like server admins do.
I think what is actually happening isn't that hardcore gamers are playing (or even give a shit) about casual game but instead large numbers of females who never played are suddenly discovering gaming thanks to FB and are finding out not all games involve giant explosions and huge battles (only the best ones like Just Cause 2 IMHO).
Take my GF for example. She would watch me play something like FEAR or Bioshock and go "Oh I don't see how you can stand that, it's too scary!" but since finding games like Farmville on FB she has seen there is plenty of games out there that don't require twitch reflexes or having the latest hardware. Now she thinks she is ready to move up a little so this weekend I'll be bringing her an old FX5200 out of the junk pile and the first CSI game. If she enjoys that and wants to go higher then I'll slowly build her her own gaming PC
So I don't think it is so much a revolution or any changing of the way we game, it is simply that there are tons of women out there that have never spent a dime on games suddenly finding out there are games that they can enjoy as much as we do shooters. Hell even my 68 year old mom is playing those little murder mystery games now, and she hadn't played (or bought) a single game since Age Of Empires I back in 96.
I think they have simply stumbled over the right formula to make "chick games" and like chick flicks they can make serious money. I doubt it'll change the shooters and RPGers any, although the price does need to come down. $50 in a recession? That is just nuts. Now I do nearly all my shopping on Steam and Amazon and rarely pay more than $20 for a game. $50 for a single game is just too damned high. hey maybe we need a "games are too damned high" party?
Yeah no shit, maybe if we worried about our own business and corruption, instead of playing "Hey lets fuck with everybody else!" maybe we wouldn't be in such bad shape.
Hell when you are covering up for private contractors selling 9 year old boys as fuck toys to get better deals on contracts? you have NO STANDING to be preaching to anyone else about freedom and rights, since child trafficking is about as low and sick as it gets.
And I don't care what anyone says Manning is a damned hero for showing what sick bastards we are actively supporting. The sick part is it wasn't even the first time we covered for these fuckers, they were selling 8 year old girls in Kosovo in the 90s. It is pretty much SOP for those bastards and we STILL kept hiring them and covering for them. Makes me ashamed to be an American. How much lower can we sink?
AC you ignorant slut (Sorry Ackroyd) because those of us that lived through it know NS 4 was absolute shit on a stick and deserved to die.
Here let me give you a nice example of what Nutscrape 4 was like "Oh look my dialup is humming and I'm ready to go! I'll just load up this webpage /Nutscrape crashes/ ohh...well that must have been a glitch. I'll just load up a different /nutscrape locks hard/...crap. Alright lets try this again.../Nutscrape locks hard and BSODs the machine/ %$&^%$&^%$!
And it is THAT, that right there, that killed NS and NOT MSFT. I knew plenty of people that happily bought NS after MSFT released IE, got tired of having their fricking desktop freeze or crash, and went to MSFT. Was MSFT wrong to bundle? I don't think so, it is their product and you didn't have to use IE then nor do you have to now. I use Dragon and FF personally. But that is why we have this little word called competition where if you don't like a product you should buy something else instead of bitching.
What MSFT SHOULD have been busted for was the checks cut to OEMs, same as I would argue that Intel deserves to be branded a monopoly and punished for doing the same shit, because THAT is using one's power to rig the market in your favor. But IE VS NS is a bad example because the best product won and I'm sure we're ALL very grateful, unless you like having to break out your CC just to have a browser? Because THAT was what we had before MSFT came along and made IE free.
NS pre 4 was a decent browser, although they had a ton of proprietary shit in it (remember the blink tag?) but NS 4 killed that company dead, not MSFT. you put out a POS release that crashes and takes out the OS more than it runs and you expect different? Happened all through tech history, just ask the guys at DBase.
Hi Cosm! Sadly I wish that it was, but as someone who has been in the repair biz since Win3.x it is all too true. hell I'll give you a perfect example of why social engineering works: I had a customer with me sitting right exactly there telling her specifically "Do NOT open that password protected zip and run it, it is a virus!" and got told "Oh you're just paranoid, see the name? My BFF Kim sent this to me! Kim wouldn't do that!" and so she ignored me AND the AV which was practically trying to hurl itself between her and the bug and did EXACTLY what I told her not to and promptly pwned her own machine.
So sadly my friend I can state with 100% certainty it is NOT a myth or old wives tale, it is all too real. Look up the top 10 list of malware by installation and then look to see how they infect and you'll find a good 8 out of 10 if not 10 out of 10 rely on the user to pwn themselves by ignoring best practices, ignoring the EULA, never reading anything, and just blindly clicking next to continue.
The latest nasty going around is the "Security tool" variant which is installed on MILLIONS of machines and which I see at least 3 times a week, all done using the "ZOMG! u got teh bugz! Install 'is_not-viruz.exe" to kill it ZOMG!" and that damned thing is installed on millions of PCs using that lame BS tactic. No shit. Sad but true my friend, sad but true. And Linux security wouldn't do a damned thing, in fact here is How to write a Linux virus in 5 easy steps using the same tricks and it WILL work because so many refuse to think.
I'd say it was the Bing that gave him away, but to be fair maybe he is a Twitter style fanboi. I mean the X360 and Windows 7? Most folks will admit those are damned good products, especially Windows 7 which I have to say is about the best damned OS I've ever used, and this is coming from someone who couldn't stand the Fisher Price GUI in XP and absolutely fricking hated Vista.
But Bing? The GUI is shit. It is friendly for the mom types maybe, everyone else will probably be driven up the wall. Personally I'll stick with Yahoo Search with its better GUI and less Google Spam. So if he is an astroturfer frankly they should fire his ass for being lame and going for the crap product.
As for TFA? Kinda sad but not unexpected. I've talked to a few people that own a Zune and they are quite happy with them, say they are rock solid and easy to use. But sadly the public has a one track mind when it comes to PMPs, and that track has iPod written on it.
When I'm out in the spring enjoying my Sandick M series (love being able to change out the battery with bog standard AAAs, as I never have any luck with L-ion batteries) it never fails I get "what kind of iPod is that?" and I say Sandisk and get "Is that a new iPod?". For the public PMP = iPod, Just as I've had to explain to customers that the search bar on the Yahoo portal they insist I set their homepage to can actually search for things and isn't just a way to get to Google, because sadly they've heard "Google it" for so long they think Google is a different thing or something because Google is a word now. Maybe it is that whole "choice equals badness for consumers" or something.
Look it is actually very simple why Windows gets more bugs. Most bugs are made by criminals, and criminals like most predators are naturally lazy. they want to get as much as they can for as little work as they can. They target Windows because as someone who actually works on the things 6 days a week I can tell you that is where the stupid people are by a loooong shot.
Doesn't make Windows bad, I have machines that have been running nearly a decade with no bugs, just retired my Win2K after a decade bug free, etc. but for every person like me that follows best practices you probably have 100,000 that will blindly click on anything, never read a EULA, will happily click through any UAC or virus warning, as long as you offer them something they want, or spook them.
Most of the bugs I see, and I usually get to see them all, but a good 90% of the infections that cross my desk can be divided into TWO categories. The "ZOMG! U got teh viruz ZOMG! Run this "is_not_bugz.exe" to kill teh viruz ded! ZOMG!" or the "Want to watch this hot porn FOR FREE? Well you can! All you have to do is load our "is_not_bugz_iz_codec.exe" to see the hot action NOW!"
In both of those cases the vaunted Linux security would do exactly jack and squat since the user is actively helping the malware and as long as the user has the right to install then there is nothing you can do. Repos wouldn't help because they would ignore you for the malware writer, an AV can only do so much if the user is working against it. Frankly MSFT could develop the perfect security model tomorrow and as long as Sally Dipshit is allowed to install and Horny Hank Hugeass is willing to ignore all warnings to get a chance at free titties? You're still fucked.
So just be glad you're a niche Linux guys, because look at all the bugs coming out for Android. Where goes the masses goes the stupid and the bugs along with them. All you can do is give them "the look" and keep them off your PCs.
You wanna know what the sad part is? Most of the bugs today are caused by nothing but sheer mind numbing stupid. I mean when you actually watch some of these people, blinding pounding the next key like a monkey trying to get a banana, not even bothering to slow down even when there is check boxes, just next next next...and WHAM! They've got 40 toolbars and a bunch of spyware and who knows what else!
Now if someone gets hit in a driveby? That's different, zero days happen. But I'd say a good 90%+ of the infected machines that cross my desk is nothing that just the tiniest bit of common sense wouldn't stop dead.
You know something dude? "What must I do to get this chocolatey goodness out of you?!' and 'Don't you just wish you could discharge your entire rectum at once?' should never ever EVER be used in the same sentence, kay?
That reminds me, hey Linux and Mac guys, get ready to be pissed off! Because guess what? Windows updates do NOT count against the cap and Linux and Mac updates? oh yeah they so count!
Can't claim this one is a MSFT conspiracy though, as talking to a friend inside the local cableco it is because the local Windows admins know how to set up a WSUS server whereas Linux hasn't gotten together to come up with a "one size fits all" repo system yet.
But it doesn't matter as either way you are still getting boned. Just one more way our lovely backwards "screw everything but the quarterly earnings report!" corporatist ISPs give advantages to the incumbent. Oh and just you wait until your caps are 36Gb residential, 76Gb business! You see if they don't get enough customers for their "services" with the higher cap they just lower the bar until they get the profits they want! Fun huh? I bet all those that spoke against net neutrality are wishing they'd have SFTU.
What magic service is this? The vast majority of us have ONE source for broadband, if you're VERY lucky two. In my case it is Cox (very appropriate name BTW, as they so love to be dicks) or...AT&T. Yep, lot o' choice there baby!
BTW everyone seems to be missing a VERY important point: Their prices for going over are specifically designed to punish you so you keep their video services instead of their excuse of paying for bandwidth. For example last I checked a Gb of bandwidth on the backbone was something like 4c, how much does Cox charge if you go over your 36Gb! bandwidth cap? $1.50 per Gb. Hell dope dealers can't make that kind of profit!
That price is simply to punish you so you stay with their video offerings (hell like you have a choice, in my area they won't even sell you a connection without taking at least basic cable) and since NONE of their offerings come under the cap ALL of these ISPs need to be hit with antitrust NOW. Because if you think 150Gb is generous look at my 36Gb cap and know that if people don't stay with the ISPs video offerings that WILL be the cap in the future. Just enough to let you check your mail and watch a couple of vids before getting slammed with insane overage charges.
So let me get this straight: anyone who is not part of the clique is therefor a meatpuppet and thus suspect? If you are not with us you are against us ring any bells?
We have a word for that too, it is called "douchebaggery" and following the OMM story is obviously what is going on. The fat tied dyed loser gets mod status, uses it to delete as "not notable" anyone who cause him butthurt (as was shown in the case of OMM and those connected to it) and then when it is pointed out he has a conflict of interest which in any sane org would have got him banned from altering those pages with conflict instead gets cries of "meatpuppets!" as they circle the wagons.
Yep, I'd say douchebaggery sums it up pretty well, wouldn't you agree, or are you just a meatpuppet here to challenge my genius?
Oh please, do we REALLY need right wing bullshit like this? really? News Flash: Those generations paid into the fund huge sums of money, many of whom like my grandparents didn't even live long enough to collect a single penny. If BOTH sides wouldn't have used those funds like giant IOUs to pay off their Wall Street cronies and hand out "too big to fail" bailouts every time some money man wrote a check then there wouldn't be a problem.
But please, go back to listening to the same bunch that has been feeding you huge piles of unbelievable bullshit (how about them WMDs?) while helping their friends like Haliburton make huge sums of money while incorporating overseas so they don't have to pay taxes as I'm sure they really have your interests at heart! BTW I got a really nice bridge you might be interested in, I heard it goes to nowhere so it has really low mileage!
Then perhaps you shouldn't be trying to spread FUD, which frankly nobody can stand from ANYBODY which is why it is so hated?
Your EXACT words, and I quote "My last BSOD: Windows 7 Home Premium. October, 2011. And I had to reformat. It would not boot, even in safe mode. I installed Linux."
Which to anyone reading that would NOT sound like you installed onto a different machine, it would logically read as "Windows 7 failed on my machine and Linux magically worked" which now that you say it wasn't even the same machine that you installed Linux on therefor it had nothing to do with the OS in the first place clearly labels your previous post as FUD, since it was designed to show that Windows fails while Linux "just works" while leaving out the fact you are talking totally different machines that have nothing to do with each other that you conveniently leave out of the previous post.
One thing I hate more than anything in the world is FUD and trolls. I hate Nichols and his WinFUD, I hate Thurott and his LinFUD, and since your post had nothing to do with anything since you left out the relevant facts to make Windows look bad and Linux look good I will label you as spreading FUD as well. A spade is a spade, FUD is FUD. Don't like the label don't spread the bullshit.
Nope sorry, in forums it is sockpuppet, but the Wikitards have their own version and definition which is "Meatpuppet: Anyone who hears about deletionist BS and actually tries to show why something shouldn't be deleted. They are a meatpuppet because they are not part of the Wiki community and are only there to show why the deletionist is wrong"
Go ahead, feel free to look it up. It is a word that Wikitards use a hell of a lot for anyone not in their little "group" and it is this little mod cabal that has people coming up with words like Wikitards and deletionists. pretty much if you don't spend every waking minute breathing the Wiki you are not allowed to speak because you are a meatpuppet and therefor worthless. look it up, sad but true how far it has sunk.
The problem is the one pushing for deletion, which had also deleted other articles about anyone connected to OMM, was a big fat tie dyed loser that OMM had seriously ragged that was using his mod status as a way to "get even".
He is a perfect example of why many refuse to have anything to do with Wikipedia, because it lets big fat douches that brag about being giant pricks (look up his Twitter feed, it is pretty much "I'm better than all of you so suck it down bitches") do whatever they want and the other (most likely big fat pricks) admins will circle the wagons and call anyone who points out the douchey behavior a "meatpuppet" and refuse to listen to anyone that "isn't in the club".
I'd say the fact that they have their own terms like meatpuppets and the fact this big fat tie dyed douche is still a mod after all his asshattery (which was pointed out in his own words from his tweets and blogs) just shows what a broken fucked up mess Wikipedia has become. While the original idea was a good one, they have made sure actual experts and anyone else who has something to do other than jerk off to Wikipedia all day will have to run a gauntlet of skanky losers who have claimed the Wiki as "their domain".
Where Wikipedia once worked on crowdsourcing and allowing experts in a field a chance to help fill in the gaps now it is just a haven for trolls and losers with no life outside Wikipedia. Hell look at the deletionist troll's own article history you'll find he's writing articles about places like the Memphis Mall which haven't existed in years and frankly nobody cared about in the first place while saying anyone who caused him butthurt isn't notable. If he isn't a classic assburgers troll on a powertrip I don't know who is.
Well that just shows you don't know what the fuck you're doing or you were using the "razor1911 Ultimate LOL Edition" since you can boot from the Windows 7 install disc and it has all kinds of free tools to correct errors, like a memory checker and the option to repair install.
Nope I have to vote bullshit or clueless, because if you would have simply left in the disc than by fricking default it would have come up with the repair option in big letters right in front of you.
Now you know MSFT has done a damned good job when I leave a new quad core and a copy of Windows 7 HP with a "I'll come out to install this weekend" note on it and my 67 year old dad, who don't know jack shit about IT or computers, installs it himself rather than wait and everything is perfect and I DO mean everything, as in it downloaded and installed the drivers, the hardest question it asked him was "Are you at home or at work?" and even pointed out on first install he didn't have an AV and took him to a page with free and pay ones so he didn't even need Google.
I'll admit when I heard and went out there I thought I was gonna see a big mess but nope, no problems at all. Everything "just worked", it detected and installed his printer and auto setup his USB HDD for weekly backups. The ONLY thing I had to do was show him where to get Firefox from.
So if you installed Linux and it isn't bitching about whatever caused your Windows to fail maybe you better check it pronto. I've found that often failing hardware doesn't really get a heads up in Linux it just "kinda goes" unless you spend your evenings checking wherever it stores log files at. Meanwhile one of my customers had a stick go bad and Windows popped up and said 'I think you may have bad memory, do you want me to check it for you?' and went the test failed it popped up 'You have a bad memory error, please have a professional check this" which took me all of 10 minutes to fix.
So if you actually threw a BSOD and yet Linux didn't say a single word about hardware? Yeah, wouldn't want to be trusting that machine buddy.
Now they just have it pushed by every piece of freeware from CCleaner on with the default opt in so now I'm seeing Chrome installs all over the place from people who don't know what it is or where it came from like I saw with Safari and iTunes.
And crashes 70% of the time? you really need to let go of Windows 98 or find a better dumpster to dive in for PCs friend, because frankly I can't even remember the last time I saw a BSOD. If you are gonna use the old Windows is crash prone meme you might as well be talking about how Apple computers don't support multitasking, since both memes are about the same age.
And finally Chrome saved Windows? BWA HA HA HA HA...oh wait, you were serious? Allow me to laugh harder..BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Riight because it isn't the bazillion programs need for work and play that are Windows only it is a fricking Google browser that keeps them on Windows! So what's next, you gonna claim those 400 million XP sales were just a fluke, because they didn't have Google to save them?
You know to write a successful troll one really needs to make their bullshit halfway believable, yours is so bad the only people posting will be the ones laughing at you...well like me.
Yes but it may simply be that their "time" is up, excuse the pun. For example talk to any nurse that works critical care and they'll say 'its always darkest before the dawn' because you are much more likely to die right before dawn than at any other time. my mom used to work ICU and said they'd make sure to have all the crash carts nicely set up and restocked by 2AM because between 3AM and 5AM you were much more likely to code.
Sadly we are still in our infancy in understanding how the complex changes to our environment effect all the chemicals and processes in our bodies, so maybe there is something here we just haven't figured out yet. Humans are such complicated creatures biochemically it really doesn't surprise me that a simple one hour change to our biological clocks could play havoc on those with existing conditions whether diagnosed or not.
Bullshit AC, total and complete bullshit. Is Apple providing support for System 9? Is FOSS still providing new code and enhancements if you are still on Ubuntu 6, which isn't even half the age of XP? Of course not. The fact that MSFT still provides security fixes after a decade and supported Win2K for over a decade (released late 99, last patch June 2010) just shows they give a hell of a lot more time to switch than ANYONE in the business.
But whether you admit it or not there are several flaws in XP that simply can NOT be fixed the worst of which is the fact that the ENTIRE OS was designed to be run as admin and is a royal PITA to run any other way. While this is fine for your average geek that follows best security practices, that is a teeny tiny niche compared to how many XP users are out there. Now you can't even complain about the cost anymore since you can buy Win 7 HP in triple packs for as low as $100 if you shop around, which is just $33 a piece and if you don't have but one PC go in with a couple of family members or neighbors and voila! Cheap Windows 7!
The simple fact is Windows 7 security is light years ahead of XP, the entire OS is better designed to intelligently use the resources available with smart caching even based on what time of day you normally runs apps, and it has everything from speech recognition to memory testing built in to make your life easier. Sticking with a decade old OS two versions behind is frankly stupid and just asking for trouble, but if that is what you want MSFT still gives you patches for another THREE years to give you more than enough time to migrate.
This circa 2004 Sempron machine I use as a nettop is the last XP machine in my possession and as soon as I come across a copy of Windows 7 Starter (since I've found its stripped down design works best on really weak hardware like nettops) I'll be saying goodbye to XP once and for all. If you want to cling to an outdated more risky OS that is your business, but expecting MSFT to go through the not inconsiderable expense of backporting new features to an OS they don't even sell anymore which is two versions behind is just ludicrous, when there is NOBODY that supports OSes that old besides them. Nobody.