You think the fat kids that aren't playing sports anyway are going to suddenly get all interested because there's new helmets and a new fucking bus for the football team? I think not. Take some of the money away from sports (NOT Physical Education, the original poster meant voluntary varsity sports) and use it for something that fosters education.
Make the fatasses go to gym, it's not like kickball and pushups require a shitload of money.
There are plenty of educational sites out there that I use even late into college. (they would also be of great use to high school kids were they so inclined)
Things like APA style writing guidelines, mathematical lessons (even lower grade algebra stuff), and scientific data. There are all useful for when I forget trivial things like wether the author's name comes before or after the title when citing a source, how to do algebraic long division, or what the half life of Carbon-14 is. There are also useful sites for the upper division classes I'm taking that reinforce the material I learn in class.
Of course, filtering out the crap from the useful info and actually getting a freshman in high school interested in learning is another story...but the information IS out there, and it's not just pr0n, jokes, and conspiracy theories.
I don't know what they'd use for energy to power a mining operation. Our solar power capabilities are nowhere near powerful enough to provide the energy needed for a mining operation (especially one on the moon where it hasn't exactly been perfected or even tried) let alone the refining that would be necessary. Barring solar, they're left with nuclear (won't happen...the risk of a shuttle disaster with nuclear materials on board would be too chancy) and fossil fuels. (cant burn in space)
So....what are they going to power drilling equipment and a refinery on? Unless they build a fusion reactor on the moon with the H-3 they mine, but I don't think we have that process down pat yet. (Do we? Not sure where things are on the fusion front)
Re:bad for them, goodish for us
on
Humans Make Ozone
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
For example the enzyme catalase converts hydrogen peroxide into water and hydrogen, while superoxide dismutase is a free radical scavenger.
Interesting....those are the two main results of exposure to ionizing radiation, (aside from damage to cellular structures directly) the cleavage of water molecules in cells to form hydrogen peroxide (toxic to cells) and formation free radicals (causes chemical changes in DNA molecules). Why aren't these two enzymes used in treatment of radiation exposure? Are they difficult to synthesize or unstable or something?
The NRA doesn't DARE say a word against the Bush administration because they know that the Republicans have always been gun-friendly. This is exactly why I cancelled my membership....the magazine every month was paying constant lip-service to Bush and his Nazi pals and badmouthing politicians whom, while I may not agree with their gun control laws, have much better public and foreign policy in general.
Think again. Your rights are slowly being eroded and the courts are so far upholding every single piece of erosion. This can and will stand up in a Federal Court until the the regime currently in power changes.
Kinda makes you wish you voted last election. (Not that it would have mattered *cough*)
For most of the people I know, raves in general are all about the drugs, even though they aren't the kandy types. They're about the rolling or tripping, the rave is just something fun to do while they're fucked up. Maybe since I know many of this type of person my opinion on raves is a little biased as to thinking that most of the people there are about the drug usage. (Not that there's anything wrong with it, imo...I don't go to raves just because crowds of people in buildings freak me out)
The sad part is, marijuana is going to be decriminalized before the DMCA or Patriot Act ever get repealed. No one is losing money on the decriminalization of pot except for drug dealers...and we all know how the goverment treats THEM. Once a few more of the crotchety old fucks in congress die and the crowd is younger and more enlightened, you'll see decriminalization...you bet on it. A very large portion of younger politicians are pretty open about their feelings on it now, as are many state governments.
IP and terrorists though are the kind of thing you can't even argue against without getting accusations of treason thrown at you. "You don't want terrorists killing your children do you? We need full access to your credit cards and phone records then. Thanks, citizen." And IP..well...IP has lobbyists...what more can you ask for. There's more and more money going into the marijuana lobby every year.
The only reason it hasn't been decriminalized yet is because the administration will then have to admit that all the money put into the War on Drugs was a big waste, and I don't think they're prepared to do that.
Hey, Gee Dubya....drop that $19.2 Billion you're dumping into the Drug War this year and apply it to public drug education/treatment, schools, transitional housing, tuition assistance programs, and other social services and watch national drug use drop to a fraction of its current level. Allow harmless recreational drugs to run their course...smoking pot isn't going to hurt anyone despite what the Drug Czar tells you. Provide treatment programs for those that develop a problem with harder drugs. You'll still spend less money. Prisons will have more room for the REAL criminals now. Come on, Prez, I know you blew coke back into the 70s...shit, you probably still do. You know what's up...be a man.
True that brother.....the Internet and computer technology lost its magic around the time of the DMCA and the Amazon 1-click patent. Working in the IT field lost its charm the 3rd or 4th time I got laid off.
I used to be a network engineer. (7 years) I'm now a chemist (well, almost) and would not give it up for any other career...except perhaps porn star.
Geeks of the world, my advice to you is get back to real science, let the dumbasses of the world run the mega-corps' networks...they're all using Windows anyway. Any reasonably smart person can learn a real science and learn how to develop applications for it without a computer science degree. C++ aint rocket science...but I bet you many rocket scientists know C++.
I don't know that I could disconnect from the net entirely though....as much as I've lost interest in the technology for the sake of itself, I still save tons of money by buying my text books online, save time by taking care of shit like taxes and banking online (potential dangers aside, the reward is worth the risk) and would rather read slashdot than the newspaper. I can live without email though...all I ever get is spam and forwarded jokes anyway.
That's not what started the pacifier trend....it's because when you're rolling (high on Ecstasy) you get all cracked out (no better way to describe it) and grind your teeth. It's basically something to chew on that you can't swallow that appeases that weird mouth feeling.
I agree it looks stupid though...out of all the drug countercultures, the ravers are the biggest fucking retards fashion-wise. The first raver I ever met was wearing a big fuzzy jacket (like Chewbacca fuzzy) with blinking red lights, a propeller-beanie and a pacifier. Oh, and pink shoes. All I could think was "wow dude what the fuck is wrong with you." I mean, I'm all about fun with hallucinogens but some of these people dress like that all the time and it just makes them look stupid. I'd never tell em to stop, but I'll be first in line to tell em that they look like douchebags.
A couple more interesting pieces of paraphenlia at raves....filter masks (like the kind you wear working with drywall or something) and Vic's Vapor-Rub. (another rolling thing...never tried it but I guess the vapor gives you a nice head buzz while you're rolling)
People who lose mp3s and photos aren't generally the type to send their systems to a data recovery center. Do you have any idea what those places cost? No, there's a good reason for having a counselor type there....the kind of people that send their hard drives to them are the kind that are DESPERATE to recover their data for whatever reason...and they could probably use the help.
I personally made it about halfway through. He could have cut that obese fucker to about 1/4 its original length and still got his point across. Typical geek, just likes to hear himself talk (or see himself type)
The sad part is, this kind of research is only going to get funding of any sort when the military figures out they can use it to hurt or kill people. And ironically, this is the kind of technology that could move mankind past the ways of our current state of evolution, full of dogma and warmongering.
Also, as a society, we need to learn to control our behavior, including reproduction habits and industrial pollution before we start coding ourselves to be disease resistant and live forever, otherwise we'll only accelerate the destruction of the planet. (And ourselves!)
Sure it's a game but it's also a business....too many security breaches and players will stop feeling that their in-game "possessions" and character are not safe and then they will start to lose players. They have a lot to gain by having adequate security...no one will invest hundreds of hours (i.e. many months of game fees) into a character if they think they could lose it at any moment.
I know it's cool to be flip about people that play MMORPGs, I've been known to jump on that bandwagon myself on more than one occasion, but saying that they don't need secure passwords is just plain old ignorant/. silly talk.
You know, I had considered that happening and I'm not quite sure of a way around it yet....but I have a couple ideas:
1) They could do it right back to you making your efforts bite you in the ass
2) Since you're misrepresenting yourself and causing another to be punished for your actions, this is clearly illegal. The penalties for someone getting caught doing this should be quite stiff. It wouldn't be THAT hard to trace back where the spam originated and if it could be linked back to you, you'd be fucked. It's a risk not worth the reward. This is probably the best method of preventing this "business tactic"
Disallowing a corporation (a non-entity as far as most people are concerned) from harassing or annoying private citizens is hardly the same thing as preventing a private citizen from doing something that annoys or harms corporations.
The bill of rights protects individuals, not corporations...let Uncle Sam stick it to em all he wants. The laws on the books will not prevent telemarketers from calling you, as you is quite obvious. The do not call lists that are already in place in various states work great, harm no one , and make life better in general for everyone.
Almost every RTS since Dune 2 plays by the same formula...you name me one game prior to Dune 2 that has those same features and play style all in the same game and I will gladly concede my argument.
(by those features I mean the traditional "RTS" combo of resource gathering, base construction, unit production and upgrading from a topdown or isometric viewpoint in realtime....i.e. Dune2, C&C, warcraft, starcraft, and the oodles of knockoffs)
My girlfriend started getting a ton of bounced emails and not being a techie type person, asked me what the hell was going on...turns out the same thing happened to her as happened to the writer of that article: A spammer was mass mailing, in this case, penis enlargement pills, and setting her address as the reply-to.
Instead of writing a witty retort on a website though, I took care of it the way everyone else should from now on: (READ THIS) I looked up the registration info on the website that was being advertised in the spam....luckily it was a US registrant.
I then immediately called the technical contact listed for that company. After a few tries, I managed to get him to answer the phone. I told him politely but firmly that whomever he had hired to advertise his website/product was using questionably legal and certainly unethical tactics to do so and was making a lot more enemies than customers. He seemed genuinely upset that this was going on and gladly gave up the name, address, email address, and telephone number of the spam-mercenary he had hired. I called the spammer and left a voice mail telling him I hope he didn't really enjoy his email address or phone number a whole lot and proceeded to sign up for any and every mass marketing, porn, magazine subscription, and telemarketing form I could find.
Sometimes the operator of the website is the one doing the spamming, and if this were the case I would have chewed him a new one when I talked to him. Either way, you'll get a pretty good idea of where the spam is coming from if you just call the webmaster for the advertised site. I've been saying for years that this is how they need to enforce spam legislation....bring charges against the website operator rather than trying to track down the spammer. No customers to spam for, the spammers will dry up and blow away. Legally, it makes sense...if you hire someone to kill a person for you, you're legally culpable...so hiring someone to spam for you should get you into trouble as well. Make the first offense a "warning" in case they hired a marketing company and didn't know they were spammers. A slap on the wrist and warnings of heavy fines for future infractions will most certainly make them choose more wisely when picking a marketing company.
The game formula for Dune II (which Westwood created) is basically what most people think of when they think RTS game. You have a base, different buildings in the base allow you to create different units with varying effects, different units are controlled and used to attack the enemy base/units, all from a top-down perspective. This is the formula that even Blizzard followed when creating the Warcraft games and Starcraft, as well as other "big" games like Age of Empires/Mythology.
There may be other strategy games that are played in real time that don't follow this game design, but when you say RTS, most people will take you to mean this type of gameplay style. They most certainly invented that genre.
Unfortunately, there's probably not much you can do. I was in a similar situation working for Global Crossing....I was a desktop support guy making mid 30's and transferred to a new position within the company as a network engineer. (who's standard salary was) in the 60's. The said it was company policy to not allow a raise of more than 15% so they now had a network engineer making mid 40's who SHOULD have been paid 20k more than that. I was there another year and a half and only saw one more 5% raise after my boss and HIS boss promised I'd be up to salary within 6 months.
Of course, this IS Global Crossing we're talking about...maybe your company will be more on the up and up.
If you share large amounts of data with people outside your organization, though, it shows its usefulness more. Maybe you don't want your vendors or partners having access to your corporate LAN, but the data changes so often that putting it on the web is not an option. Maybe you have really really dumb users or vendors who don't know how to use FTP.
You can still centralize the documents (as well your should) but now that file server has a secure, encrypted way to share them with people both within and outside of the organization. (of course this qould require putting the server in arm's reach of the internet with open ports, so you're hoping they did proper testing and debugging of Locutus so yer ass dont get hax0red.)
Blockbuster does this now with newer more popular movies...rent a movie and if you like it, pay them another $10 and you get a brand new copy of the movie. I imagine they could eventually do this for all their movies if you don't mind waiting for it to be mailed to you when you purchase it. I sure like the idea though. You get to avoid paying full price for a stinker of a movie while being able to apply any rental money towards the price of buying it outright if you like it. Everyone wins. You don't see too many "deals" that are mutually beneficial to both consumer and seller anymore.
They get about $35 on every computer that Dell, Gateway, and all the rest sell, windows or not.
They also get many licenses from corporations as they tend to pay for their software. Quite a few corporations buy excess licenses to avoid BSA terrorism.
That includes not only the OS license, but also licenses for MS Office and server licenses, both of which are hideously expensive, especially at corporate rates. Oh, and they don't do blanket site licenses anymore. Have fun with the logistical nightmare of matching your licenses with your companies growth/shrinkage. They're not transferrable either....buy 1000 too many licenses? Tough noogies!
I hope these douchebags pay through the nose for their draconian licensure tactics over the last decade.
Slashdot Mirror
You think the fat kids that aren't playing sports anyway are going to suddenly get all interested because there's new helmets and a new fucking bus for the football team? I think not. Take some of the money away from sports (NOT Physical Education, the original poster meant voluntary varsity sports) and use it for something that fosters education.
Make the fatasses go to gym, it's not like kickball and pushups require a shitload of money.
There are plenty of educational sites out there that I use even late into college. (they would also be of great use to high school kids were they so inclined)
Things like APA style writing guidelines, mathematical lessons (even lower grade algebra stuff), and scientific data. There are all useful for when I forget trivial things like wether the author's name comes before or after the title when citing a source, how to do algebraic long division, or what the half life of Carbon-14 is. There are also useful sites for the upper division classes I'm taking that reinforce the material I learn in class.
Of course, filtering out the crap from the useful info and actually getting a freshman in high school interested in learning is another story...but the information IS out there, and it's not just pr0n, jokes, and conspiracy theories.
I don't know what they'd use for energy to power a mining operation. Our solar power capabilities are nowhere near powerful enough to provide the energy needed for a mining operation (especially one on the moon where it hasn't exactly been perfected or even tried) let alone the refining that would be necessary. Barring solar, they're left with nuclear (won't happen...the risk of a shuttle disaster with nuclear materials on board would be too chancy) and fossil fuels. (cant burn in space)
So....what are they going to power drilling equipment and a refinery on? Unless they build a fusion reactor on the moon with the H-3 they mine, but I don't think we have that process down pat yet. (Do we? Not sure where things are on the fusion front)
Cats perform transplants on YOU!
For example the enzyme catalase converts hydrogen peroxide into water and hydrogen, while superoxide dismutase is a free radical scavenger.
Interesting....those are the two main results of exposure to ionizing radiation, (aside from damage to cellular structures directly) the cleavage of water molecules in cells to form hydrogen peroxide (toxic to cells) and formation free radicals (causes chemical changes in DNA molecules). Why aren't these two enzymes used in treatment of radiation exposure? Are they difficult to synthesize or unstable or something?
The NRA doesn't DARE say a word against the Bush administration because they know that the Republicans have always been gun-friendly. This is exactly why I cancelled my membership....the magazine every month was paying constant lip-service to Bush and his Nazi pals and badmouthing politicians whom, while I may not agree with their gun control laws, have much better public and foreign policy in general.
imho no way legally enforcable
Think again. Your rights are slowly being eroded and the courts are so far upholding every single piece of erosion. This can and will stand up in a Federal Court until the the regime currently in power changes.
Kinda makes you wish you voted last election. (Not that it would have mattered *cough*)
kandy is about drugs
For most of the people I know, raves in general are all about the drugs, even though they aren't the kandy types. They're about the rolling or tripping, the rave is just something fun to do while they're fucked up. Maybe since I know many of this type of person my opinion on raves is a little biased as to thinking that most of the people there are about the drug usage. (Not that there's anything wrong with it, imo...I don't go to raves just because crowds of people in buildings freak me out)
The sad part is, marijuana is going to be decriminalized before the DMCA or Patriot Act ever get repealed. No one is losing money on the decriminalization of pot except for drug dealers...and we all know how the goverment treats THEM. Once a few more of the crotchety old fucks in congress die and the crowd is younger and more enlightened, you'll see decriminalization...you bet on it. A very large portion of younger politicians are pretty open about their feelings on it now, as are many state governments.
IP and terrorists though are the kind of thing you can't even argue against without getting accusations of treason thrown at you. "You don't want terrorists killing your children do you? We need full access to your credit cards and phone records then. Thanks, citizen." And IP..well...IP has lobbyists...what more can you ask for. There's more and more money going into the marijuana lobby every year.
The only reason it hasn't been decriminalized yet is because the administration will then have to admit that all the money put into the War on Drugs was a big waste, and I don't think they're prepared to do that.
Hey, Gee Dubya....drop that $19.2 Billion you're dumping into the Drug War this year and apply it to public drug education/treatment, schools, transitional housing, tuition assistance programs, and other social services and watch national drug use drop to a fraction of its current level. Allow harmless recreational drugs to run their course...smoking pot isn't going to hurt anyone despite what the Drug Czar tells you. Provide treatment programs for those that develop a problem with harder drugs. You'll still spend less money. Prisons will have more room for the REAL criminals now. Come on, Prez, I know you blew coke back into the 70s...shit, you probably still do. You know what's up...be a man.
True that brother.....the Internet and computer technology lost its magic around the time of the DMCA and the Amazon 1-click patent. Working in the IT field lost its charm the 3rd or 4th time I got laid off.
I used to be a network engineer. (7 years) I'm now a chemist (well, almost) and would not give it up for any other career...except perhaps porn star.
Geeks of the world, my advice to you is get back to real science, let the dumbasses of the world run the mega-corps' networks...they're all using Windows anyway. Any reasonably smart person can learn a real science and learn how to develop applications for it without a computer science degree. C++ aint rocket science...but I bet you many rocket scientists know C++.
I don't know that I could disconnect from the net entirely though....as much as I've lost interest in the technology for the sake of itself, I still save tons of money by buying my text books online, save time by taking care of shit like taxes and banking online (potential dangers aside, the reward is worth the risk) and would rather read slashdot than the newspaper. I can live without email though...all I ever get is spam and forwarded jokes anyway.
That's not what started the pacifier trend....it's because when you're rolling (high on Ecstasy) you get all cracked out (no better way to describe it) and grind your teeth. It's basically something to chew on that you can't swallow that appeases that weird mouth feeling.
I agree it looks stupid though...out of all the drug countercultures, the ravers are the biggest fucking retards fashion-wise. The first raver I ever met was wearing a big fuzzy jacket (like Chewbacca fuzzy) with blinking red lights, a propeller-beanie and a pacifier. Oh, and pink shoes. All I could think was "wow dude what the fuck is wrong with you." I mean, I'm all about fun with hallucinogens but some of these people dress like that all the time and it just makes them look stupid. I'd never tell em to stop, but I'll be first in line to tell em that they look like douchebags.
A couple more interesting pieces of paraphenlia at raves....filter masks (like the kind you wear working with drywall or something) and Vic's Vapor-Rub. (another rolling thing...never tried it but I guess the vapor gives you a nice head buzz while you're rolling)
People who lose mp3s and photos aren't generally the type to send their systems to a data recovery center. Do you have any idea what those places cost? No, there's a good reason for having a counselor type there....the kind of people that send their hard drives to them are the kind that are DESPERATE to recover their data for whatever reason...and they could probably use the help.
Denver -- Denverites
Boulder -- Boulderites
These are what the people on the news call them so I assume them to be "official"
I personally made it about halfway through. He could have cut that obese fucker to about 1/4 its original length and still got his point across. Typical geek, just likes to hear himself talk (or see himself type)
The sad part is, this kind of research is only going to get funding of any sort when the military figures out they can use it to hurt or kill people. And ironically, this is the kind of technology that could move mankind past the ways of our current state of evolution, full of dogma and warmongering.
Also, as a society, we need to learn to control our behavior, including reproduction habits and industrial pollution before we start coding ourselves to be disease resistant and live forever, otherwise we'll only accelerate the destruction of the planet. (And ourselves!)
Sure it's a game but it's also a business....too many security breaches and players will stop feeling that their in-game "possessions" and character are not safe and then they will start to lose players. They have a lot to gain by having adequate security...no one will invest hundreds of hours (i.e. many months of game fees) into a character if they think they could lose it at any moment.
/. silly talk.
I know it's cool to be flip about people that play MMORPGs, I've been known to jump on that bandwagon myself on more than one occasion, but saying that they don't need secure passwords is just plain old ignorant
You know, I had considered that happening and I'm not quite sure of a way around it yet....but I have a couple ideas:
1) They could do it right back to you making your efforts bite you in the ass
2) Since you're misrepresenting yourself and causing another to be punished for your actions, this is clearly illegal. The penalties for someone getting caught doing this should be quite stiff. It wouldn't be THAT hard to trace back where the spam originated and if it could be linked back to you, you'd be fucked. It's a risk not worth the reward. This is probably the best method of preventing this "business tactic"
Disallowing a corporation (a non-entity as far as most people are concerned) from harassing or annoying private citizens is hardly the same thing as preventing a private citizen from doing something that annoys or harms corporations.
The bill of rights protects individuals, not corporations...let Uncle Sam stick it to em all he wants. The laws on the books will not prevent telemarketers from calling you, as you is quite obvious. The do not call lists that are already in place in various states work great, harm no one , and make life better in general for everyone.
Almost every RTS since Dune 2 plays by the same formula...you name me one game prior to Dune 2 that has those same features and play style all in the same game and I will gladly concede my argument.
(by those features I mean the traditional "RTS" combo of resource gathering, base construction, unit production and upgrading from a topdown or isometric viewpoint in realtime....i.e. Dune2, C&C, warcraft, starcraft, and the oodles of knockoffs)
My girlfriend started getting a ton of bounced emails and not being a techie type person, asked me what the hell was going on...turns out the same thing happened to her as happened to the writer of that article: A spammer was mass mailing, in this case, penis enlargement pills, and setting her address as the reply-to.
Instead of writing a witty retort on a website though, I took care of it the way everyone else should from now on: (READ THIS) I looked up the registration info on the website that was being advertised in the spam....luckily it was a US registrant.
I then immediately called the technical contact listed for that company. After a few tries, I managed to get him to answer the phone. I told him politely but firmly that whomever he had hired to advertise his website/product was using questionably legal and certainly unethical tactics to do so and was making a lot more enemies than customers. He seemed genuinely upset that this was going on and gladly gave up the name, address, email address, and telephone number of the spam-mercenary he had hired. I called the spammer and left a voice mail telling him I hope he didn't really enjoy his email address or phone number a whole lot and proceeded to sign up for any and every mass marketing, porn, magazine subscription, and telemarketing form I could find.
Sometimes the operator of the website is the one doing the spamming, and if this were the case I would have chewed him a new one when I talked to him. Either way, you'll get a pretty good idea of where the spam is coming from if you just call the webmaster for the advertised site. I've been saying for years that this is how they need to enforce spam legislation....bring charges against the website operator rather than trying to track down the spammer. No customers to spam for, the spammers will dry up and blow away. Legally, it makes sense...if you hire someone to kill a person for you, you're legally culpable...so hiring someone to spam for you should get you into trouble as well. Make the first offense a "warning" in case they hired a marketing company and didn't know they were spammers. A slap on the wrist and warnings of heavy fines for future infractions will most certainly make them choose more wisely when picking a marketing company.
The game formula for Dune II (which Westwood created) is basically what most people think of when they think RTS game. You have a base, different buildings in the base allow you to create different units with varying effects, different units are controlled and used to attack the enemy base/units, all from a top-down perspective. This is the formula that even Blizzard followed when creating the Warcraft games and Starcraft, as well as other "big" games like Age of Empires/Mythology.
There may be other strategy games that are played in real time that don't follow this game design, but when you say RTS, most people will take you to mean this type of gameplay style. They most certainly invented that genre.
Unfortunately, there's probably not much you can do. I was in a similar situation working for Global Crossing....I was a desktop support guy making mid 30's and transferred to a new position within the company as a network engineer. (who's standard salary was) in the 60's. The said it was company policy to not allow a raise of more than 15% so they now had a network engineer making mid 40's who SHOULD have been paid 20k more than that. I was there another year and a half and only saw one more 5% raise after my boss and HIS boss promised I'd be up to salary within 6 months.
Of course, this IS Global Crossing we're talking about...maybe your company will be more on the up and up.
If you share large amounts of data with people outside your organization, though, it shows its usefulness more. Maybe you don't want your vendors or partners having access to your corporate LAN, but the data changes so often that putting it on the web is not an option. Maybe you have really really dumb users or vendors who don't know how to use FTP.
You can still centralize the documents (as well your should) but now that file server has a secure, encrypted way to share them with people both within and outside of the organization. (of course this qould require putting the server in arm's reach of the internet with open ports, so you're hoping they did proper testing and debugging of Locutus so yer ass dont get hax0red.)
Blockbuster does this now with newer more popular movies...rent a movie and if you like it, pay them another $10 and you get a brand new copy of the movie. I imagine they could eventually do this for all their movies if you don't mind waiting for it to be mailed to you when you purchase it. I sure like the idea though. You get to avoid paying full price for a stinker of a movie while being able to apply any rental money towards the price of buying it outright if you like it. Everyone wins. You don't see too many "deals" that are mutually beneficial to both consumer and seller anymore.
They get about $35 on every computer that Dell, Gateway, and all the rest sell, windows or not.
They also get many licenses from corporations as they tend to pay for their software. Quite a few corporations buy excess licenses to avoid BSA terrorism.
That includes not only the OS license, but also licenses for MS Office and server licenses, both of which are hideously expensive, especially at corporate rates. Oh, and they don't do blanket site licenses anymore. Have fun with the logistical nightmare of matching your licenses with your companies growth/shrinkage. They're not transferrable either....buy 1000 too many licenses? Tough noogies!
I hope these douchebags pay through the nose for their draconian licensure tactics over the last decade.