The earliest sign I know of is the well-known McDonald hot coffee case. AFAIK, this is the case that made suing everyone else for one's own stupidity and total lack of common sense into common practice.
In the McDonalds case, McD was really negligent and at fault. As has been reiterated many many times here on Slashdot and elsewhere, they did keep their coffee way too hot (and I'm sure most people would agree that hot enough to cause third degree burns is indeed too hot), despite numerous complaints and warnings.
I for one welcome our new cancerous, patented rodent overlords.
This could very well prompt the leaders of Magrathea to declare war on Earth. Or at the very least, they will pull the plug on the planet and leave us to the Vogons.
Every day, fewer and fewer customers enter my store to buy fewer and fewer CDs. Why is no one buying CDs? Are people not interested in music? Do people prefer to watch TV, see films, read books? I don't know. But there is one, inescapable truth - Internet piracy is mostly to blame.
Or perhaps it's because our economy has been in the crapper for the past couple years, and people don't have the discretionary income to spend on little luxuries like CDs. Or alternatively, they prefer to buy them used at yard sales, pawn shops and thrift stores, for considerably less than what they would pay for a new one.
The people on Flight 93 on 9/11 were willing to fight the terrorists, which they did. They may have saved thousands of lives by doing so, but it cost them their own lives and those of the rest of the passengers on the plane.
And had they not fought back, it would have still cost them their lives, plus the lives of more people on the ground, most likely at the Pentagon, since according to an unclassified OPSEC briefing we had a couple years back (D.I.C.E. 2002, if I recall correctly), that was the most probable destination for that flight.
Wasn't there an America's Dumbest Criminals where two cops plugged metal collander into photocopier with the words LIAR and everytime they thought the guy was lying they just hit the copy button? Or did I just dream that?
I don't know about America's Dumbest Criminals, but that was used in one episode of Homicide: Life on the Street.
I won't be surprised when in a few days there will be an announcement how Sony's rootkit causes world hunger, rapes dogs, and hides one sock out of every pair every once and awhile.
And that would get them in deep shit with the SEC, since that means they've been manipulating the New York Sock Exchange.
Certainly not this slashdotter. I haven't bought a new CD in more than four years
Last CD I got new was I, Robot from The Alan Parson's Project. And I didn't buy it myself. That was a birthday present from a couple years ago.
Now, I buy my music used from thrift stores, which helps the various charities they support. I also download individual songs from albums that I already own in whatever format, saving me the hassle of hooking up a turntable or 8-track player, or cassette player to my computer and digitizing them myself.
Exactly. With microsoft usually charging per processor, the cost of building a super computer could go through the roof. Not to mention that they will probably build in limitations like maximum 4 processors, and to use more, you'll have to buy the enterprise edition, and spend 3 times as much per processor.
And I can see them press it even further by requiring a seperate license for each machine in the cluster to connect to each other, sort of like a CAL (if I'm understanding CALs correctly).
As a side note I wonder if there is a "Quickest computer crash" Guiness World Record?
That honor would go to my old TI-99/4a. Crashing as soon as the power switch was turned on because the Parsec game cartridge wasn't quite inserted all the way.:D
Actually most of us select the driver (or app) we want to install from a list of packages available for download from the OS vendor.. Then we click install and it downloads and installs...
Yeah. Linux is pretty easy to use nowadays. I've been using Debian (Sid) for the past couple years, and about the only bit of hardware I have that I can't get to work is an old Parallel port scanner. So, I have that attached to the Windows ME box that I have set up for this and for testing various bits of software I pick up to resell.
Also, I have never had to compile my own kernel. I suspect that usually is only required if one is trying to get some obscure bit of hardware to work (hardware that most likely doesn't work under the latest incarnations of Windows at all.
And to twist the GP Poster's claims around...
Any closed-minded Windows moron who bashes modern Linux distributions clearly hasn't used it in a while (if ever).
*** This post brought to you courtesy of Mariner of Holland Lager and Grocery Outlet. Now to go have one more before calling it a night. ***
Here's the things I'm going to patent. So don't touch them. They're mineminemine!
The Alludium Q36 Explosive Space Modulator
A C-Factor enhancement device to increase the speed of light, thereby making it possible to travel at or above what the current speed of light is without gaining infinite mass or moving backwards in time.
The Feline and Buttered Toast Turbine, the most effective way to have a perpetual motion machine.
And finally, I am going to patent the process of causing the expulsion of intestinal gasses by pulling the gasser's extended index finger. I should be able to collect a buttload of royalties from dads, grandpas, and crazy uncles worldwide.
This is why every patent application should have to be accompanied by a functional prototype demonstrating the efficacy of the idea being patented.
Rumor is that he did have a functioning prototype. However, he made the mistake of opening the package before entering the USPTO Building, and the damn thing just up and floated off into infinity, never to be seen again.
I would never even consider inflicting 95 on anyone. 98SE (or especially 98SE-Lite, which is 98SE with IE removed), Firefox, and OpenOffice is my recommendation, _if_ Windows is a must. Otherwise, I will gladly build them a Debian box.
I plan on buying a new computer pretty soon. Does this mean after I install Linux, I can sell the Windows shit^H^H^H^Humm^H^H^Hsh*t and recoup about 1/5 of the price of the computer?
Well, I'm no lawyer (and I don't play one on TV either), but I figure that if the vendor won't give you a discount on the computer for the fair market value of the software that you don't want, or give you a refund for the software after you purchase the system, then (and pardon my gratuitous use of the "fuck" word here"...) fuck the bastards! Go ahead and part out the software bundle, including the OS that you don't need. After all, they got their money for it. What reason would they have to bitch about you selling off the stuff that's useless to you? Just do it. It's not like they're going to come after you or anything like that. They have bigger fish to fry, I'm sure. Make your refund happen, and to hell with what the vendor or Microsoft might have to say about it. You never accepted the EULA, so you are not bound by its terms.
Yeh.. Who wants a Windows XP machine when they can have a Windows 95 machine!
If the machine still works for what the user needs it for (like creating documents, listening to music, getting online, etc), why throw it out or put on a more bloated OS that's going to slow down your system's performance considerably?
Greenbox systems are typically more than sufficient for many users. Anything more is just a waste of money and landfill space.
Slashdot Mirror
Not actual size. too bad
In the McDonalds case, McD was really negligent and at fault. As has been reiterated many many times here on Slashdot and elsewhere, they did keep their coffee way too hot (and I'm sure most people would agree that hot enough to cause third degree burns is indeed too hot), despite numerous complaints and warnings.
http://lawandhelp.com/q298-2.htm More info on the case.
That honor would go to my old TI-99/4a. Crashing as soon as the power switch was turned on because the Parsec game cartridge wasn't quite inserted all the way.
Yeah. Linux is pretty easy to use nowadays. I've been using Debian (Sid) for the past couple years, and about the only bit of hardware I have that I can't get to work is an old Parallel port scanner. So, I have that attached to the Windows ME box that I have set up for this and for testing various bits of software I pick up to resell.
Also, I have never had to compile my own kernel. I suspect that usually is only required if one is trying to get some obscure bit of hardware to work (hardware that most likely doesn't work under the latest incarnations of Windows at all.
And to twist the GP Poster's claims around...
Any closed-minded Windows moron who bashes modern Linux distributions clearly hasn't used it in a while (if ever).
*** This post brought to you courtesy of Mariner of Holland Lager and Grocery Outlet. Now to go have one more before calling it a night. ***
And those Damn Dirty Apes too.
And for years, I was under the impression that this... http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/u
It ends at around the time the citizens are forced to finally tap that fourth and final box essential to upholding liberty... The ammo box.
So Marvin's Martian accent makes him a little difficult to understand. Now where's the kaboom?
Here's the things I'm going to patent. So don't touch them. They're mineminemine!
The Alludium Q36 Explosive Space Modulator
A C-Factor enhancement device to increase the speed of light, thereby making it possible to travel at or above what the current speed of light is without gaining infinite mass or moving backwards in time.
The Feline and Buttered Toast Turbine, the most effective way to have a perpetual motion machine.
And finally, I am going to patent the process of causing the expulsion of intestinal gasses by pulling the gasser's extended index finger. I should be able to collect a buttload of royalties from dads, grandpas, and crazy uncles worldwide.
Rumor is that he did have a functioning prototype. However, he made the mistake of opening the package before entering the USPTO Building, and the damn thing just up and floated off into infinity, never to be seen again.
Feel free to try. My I.P. Address is 127.0.0.1
Knock yerself out.
Well, I didn't laugh per-se at your joke; but it did make me smile. Does that count?
So I was a little drunk when I posted last night. Still, even a humorous post can hold some useful info.
I would never even consider inflicting 95 on anyone. 98SE (or especially 98SE-Lite, which is 98SE with IE removed), Firefox, and OpenOffice is my recommendation, _if_ Windows is a must. Otherwise, I will gladly build them a Debian box.
Well, I'm no lawyer (and I don't play one on TV either), but I figure that if the vendor won't give you a discount on the computer for the fair market value of the software that you don't want, or give you a refund for the software after you purchase the system, then (and pardon my gratuitous use of the "fuck" word here"...) fuck the bastards! Go ahead and part out the software bundle, including the OS that you don't need. After all, they got their money for it. What reason would they have to bitch about you selling off the stuff that's useless to you? Just do it. It's not like they're going to come after you or anything like that. They have bigger fish to fry, I'm sure. Make your refund happen, and to hell with what the vendor or Microsoft might have to say about it. You never accepted the EULA, so you are not bound by its terms.
If the machine still works for what the user needs it for (like creating documents, listening to music, getting online, etc), why throw it out or put on a more bloated OS that's going to slow down your system's performance considerably?
Greenbox systems are typically more than sufficient for many users. Anything more is just a waste of money and landfill space.