The impression I get is that the big name linux desktops (kde and gnome) are just as bloated if not more so than XP.
Except nobody's forced to use a "big name linux desktop", and in this case they're not, so that doesn't really matter.
Using Windows on a device like that just doesn't make sense. Linux can be trimmed down *way* more than Windows when you know exactly what kind of machine it'll be running on.
How that works is spelled out in detail in the Berne Convention and the text of the WIPO treaty. The US signed the treaties, so I have a hard time seeing the problem here.
Think of it as a poorly-implemented waste of money.
This may come as a shock, but not everyone agrees with you. I know it sounds crazy, but so many people disagree with you that GM has actually been able to successfully sell OnStar for over a decade now.
If you don't like it, don't buy it. But why waste everyone's time complaining about it.
Or maybe there's a GM exec reading/., and he's going to read your post and say "Wow! This guy is 100% right. I know we're making millions on this, but it really is just ridiculous. After the holidays we're just going to stop selling it."
Honest question: Have you tried running Linux on it?
In my experience the "Windows has better driver support" argument breaks down completely once you go to 64-bits. If there's a 32-bit Linux driver, odds are somebody has compiled it for 64-bit systems. Since hardware manufacturers make the Windows drivers, there's no motivation for them to produce new 64-bit drivers. Not when they can sell you a new piece of 64-bit compatible hardware.
No idea if using Linux would be practical for you, but if your driver situation is really bothering you, it might be worth a try.
The whole idea of the browser selecting when to enforce the standards makes it not very supportive of the standards. Opera lets you play with settings that make ti disobey the standard, but that's the user's control, which is different.
All the popular browsers do that. If the author of the web page goes through the trouble of specifying a correct doctype, the browser will follow the standards. If the doctype is missing or incorrect the browser gives up and tries its best. By default Opera uses the doctype to choose quirks or standards mode just like all the rest, but it is the only one I know of that lets the user force standards or quirks mode.
See here for how Opera does it. Here for Firefox. Here for some old info on Konqueror. And here for more general info.
I used to have a script that would download an unofficial nightly build of Firefox every morning when I logged in. A lot of the "unofficial" nightly builds will use up and coming features like newer Gecko engines, and have some non-standard optimizations turned on.
Look around here, and you should be able to find a frequently updated nightly build that uses Gecko 1.9. If you update frequently you'll definitely want to keep a backup of the last "good" install.
One of my hobbies is writing 3D graphics software. If you can put the ram in a computer, I can probably think of a good way to make use of it all.
Also, a while back I setup a RAM drive for doing fast compiles. Right now I usually make it a gig, but some larger stuff (kernel compiles and what not) could use more if I had it.
Apparently not everybody uses their computer the way you do.
Sweet. It's so cheap you won't mind buying it for me, right? Oh, and I'll need a new mobo, cause mine is currently maxed out. So do you want to send a check? Or can I leave my email address and you can contact me about it? If not, see the previous post about kissing my ass.
I don't use KDE, but I use fluxbox so I can use my gigs of ram for actual applications. Until memory is literally free, all you "but memory is so cheap" people can kiss my ass.
Don't get me wrong. I don't really care how you make purchasing decisions. I was just pointing out that they're not "sticking it to customers", because most customers don't feel entitled like that. I probably didn't need to be so condescending about it, but too late now.
You should be asking yourself "Is the information they provide worth $xx a month to me?" If it is, sign up. If it's not, go with someone else. The only reason they charge what they do is because it's worth it for so many people. They don't have an obligation to "pass the savings on". Especially not when enough people are willing to pay the current price.
That's not Consumer Reports "sticking it to the customer", that's just the way businesses do things.
I'm not sure how useful it would be, though. Consumer Reports doesn't use advertising because they need to be impartial. Subscribers have to pay, but they get the guarantee that Consumer Reports isn't selling out. But most online newspapers would still be selling out to advertisers, they just wouldn't be showing the ads to subscribers.
Given that, I'd rather get the news for free and use ad-block.
If they scan the sponge on the way in, they'll know the RFID chip is working. If it's working at that point, it's highly unlikely it will stop working during the surgery.
Cost isn't really an issue either. In large quantities RFID chips can cost as little as a $0.10. Even if a surgery uses 200 sponges, that's only $20 extra. I don't know what that translates to in medical pricing, but I'd pay an extra $20 to not have stuff left inside me.
I'm also pretty sure "having hard bits" isn't much of a problem either. As long as it soaks up what it needs to soak up, who cares? An RFID chip isn't very large, and it'd probably be embedded in the middle of the sponge anyway.
That cat's already out of the bag. You can't criticize big businesses for trading in China, and then drive to your local chain store and buy a bunch of cheap crap made in China. Or maybe I have it wrong, and your the one guy who manages to completely avoid anything made in China.
China's government is terrible, but that's really not our problem.
Going on the assumption that most ballots aren't tampered with, it's probably not worth doing a complete recount because while the numbers will change, the results won't. It'd waste time and money and only confirm what everyone knew to be true in the first place.
But if it's close, a small amount of tampering may change the results, so those are the ones that get recounted.
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If wouldn't be very useful if it focused on stuff you couldn't buy.
Except nobody's forced to use a "big name linux desktop", and in this case they're not, so that doesn't really matter.
Using Windows on a device like that just doesn't make sense. Linux can be trimmed down *way* more than Windows when you know exactly what kind of machine it'll be running on.
How that works is spelled out in detail in the Berne Convention and the text of the WIPO treaty. The US signed the treaties, so I have a hard time seeing the problem here.
If you want to be pissed about something, be pissed about congressmen adding stupid shit to unrelated bills at the very last minute.
What is that myminicity crap?
In any case, you're the troll who pushed me over the edge to block the entire domain.
This may come as a shock, but not everyone agrees with you. I know it sounds crazy, but so many people disagree with you that GM has actually been able to successfully sell OnStar for over a decade now.
If you don't like it, don't buy it. But why waste everyone's time complaining about it.
Or maybe there's a GM exec reading /., and he's going to read your post and say "Wow! This guy is 100% right. I know we're making millions on this, but it really is just ridiculous. After the holidays we're just going to stop selling it."
Honest question: Have you tried running Linux on it?
In my experience the "Windows has better driver support" argument breaks down completely once you go to 64-bits. If there's a 32-bit Linux driver, odds are somebody has compiled it for 64-bit systems. Since hardware manufacturers make the Windows drivers, there's no motivation for them to produce new 64-bit drivers. Not when they can sell you a new piece of 64-bit compatible hardware.
No idea if using Linux would be practical for you, but if your driver situation is really bothering you, it might be worth a try.
That's not relevant.
All the popular browsers do that. If the author of the web page goes through the trouble of specifying a correct doctype, the browser will follow the standards. If the doctype is missing or incorrect the browser gives up and tries its best. By default Opera uses the doctype to choose quirks or standards mode just like all the rest, but it is the only one I know of that lets the user force standards or quirks mode.
See here for how Opera does it. Here for Firefox. Here for some old info on Konqueror. And here for more general info.
I used to have a script that would download an unofficial nightly build of Firefox every morning when I logged in. A lot of the "unofficial" nightly builds will use up and coming features like newer Gecko engines, and have some non-standard optimizations turned on.
Look around here, and you should be able to find a frequently updated nightly build that uses Gecko 1.9. If you update frequently you'll definitely want to keep a backup of the last "good" install.
That being said: Konqueror! FTW!
I think the editors are just fucking with us. Now they've actually made a note in the summary to point out it's a dupe from yesterday.
One of my hobbies is writing 3D graphics software. If you can put the ram in a computer, I can probably think of a good way to make use of it all.
Also, a while back I setup a RAM drive for doing fast compiles. Right now I usually make it a gig, but some larger stuff (kernel compiles and what not) could use more if I had it.
Apparently not everybody uses their computer the way you do.
Sweet. It's so cheap you won't mind buying it for me, right? Oh, and I'll need a new mobo, cause mine is currently maxed out. So do you want to send a check? Or can I leave my email address and you can contact me about it? If not, see the previous post about kissing my ass.
I don't use KDE, but I use fluxbox so I can use my gigs of ram for actual applications. Until memory is literally free, all you "but memory is so cheap" people can kiss my ass.
That's all most customers want. Which is the problem. Delivering exactly what customers want is no way to stay in business these days.
So it seems, anyway.
That's the hardest I've laughed all day. You have no idea what XML is, do you?
Don't get me wrong. I don't really care how you make purchasing decisions. I was just pointing out that they're not "sticking it to customers", because most customers don't feel entitled like that. I probably didn't need to be so condescending about it, but too late now.
I think you're going about it all wrong.
You should be asking yourself "Is the information they provide worth $xx a month to me?" If it is, sign up. If it's not, go with someone else. The only reason they charge what they do is because it's worth it for so many people. They don't have an obligation to "pass the savings on". Especially not when enough people are willing to pay the current price.
That's not Consumer Reports "sticking it to the customer", that's just the way businesses do things.
I'm not sure how useful it would be, though. Consumer Reports doesn't use advertising because they need to be impartial. Subscribers have to pay, but they get the guarantee that Consumer Reports isn't selling out. But most online newspapers would still be selling out to advertisers, they just wouldn't be showing the ads to subscribers.
Given that, I'd rather get the news for free and use ad-block.
I don't think your concerns are valid.
If they scan the sponge on the way in, they'll know the RFID chip is working. If it's working at that point, it's highly unlikely it will stop working during the surgery.
Cost isn't really an issue either. In large quantities RFID chips can cost as little as a $0.10. Even if a surgery uses 200 sponges, that's only $20 extra. I don't know what that translates to in medical pricing, but I'd pay an extra $20 to not have stuff left inside me.
I'm also pretty sure "having hard bits" isn't much of a problem either. As long as it soaks up what it needs to soak up, who cares? An RFID chip isn't very large, and it'd probably be embedded in the middle of the sponge anyway.
That cat's already out of the bag. You can't criticize big businesses for trading in China, and then drive to your local chain store and buy a bunch of cheap crap made in China. Or maybe I have it wrong, and your the one guy who manages to completely avoid anything made in China.
China's government is terrible, but that's really not our problem.
Going on the assumption that most ballots aren't tampered with, it's probably not worth doing a complete recount because while the numbers will change, the results won't. It'd waste time and money and only confirm what everyone knew to be true in the first place.
But if it's close, a small amount of tampering may change the results, so those are the ones that get recounted.
That's my understanding, anyway.
I lol'd.
But their change isn't under the GPL. If they were distributing a patched kernel, they'd have problems. But distributing the patch itself is okay.
Qt 4 has been out for a long time now, and it is quite a bit faster than Qt 3. In fact, they're already to Qt 4.3
Assuming you mean their GUI toolkit, QT's "non-GPL product" is identical to their "GPL product". The only difference is the license.