If I shot a person and hit air, would I be guilty of murder?
No. Don't be stupid. Putting aside the idea of "hitting air" what you seem to want to be describing is attempted murder - to be guilty of murder, someone has to - you know - actually die.
Pretty sure in many jurisdiction, simply wearing ear plugs is against the law while operating a motor vehicle on the public roads, and by logical extension, shoving ear buds in your ears reduces your ability to hear what is going on around you.
That the ear buds had a wire, that the wire was plugged into a phone and that the phone had no charge are nothing more than interesting facts. For example, ear plugs in both ears while driving a motor vehicle or riding a bicycle is against the law.
Adding a second screen would only prevent the message from appearing, instead leaving a blank screen, which would be a more alarming issue than seeing a computer boot loader (not windows) error message.
Would a blank bank of lights be "better" in any meaningful way?
Somewhere, in the bowels of that tower is a PC attached to a monitor or a KVM, and someone is likely responsible for monitoring that display - be it building maint., security, what have you. That person either failed to note, or failed to resolve the issue in a timely manner.
So your plan to reduce problems with the billboard computer is to reboot it, introducing infinitely more opportunities for a problem during startup?
Let sleeping dogs lie - as public as that tower is, do you really think the people responsible were unaware of the problem for any real length of time? I've seen similar errors in other public places, and the issues persist typically because the computer that needs to be rebooted is secured somewhere hard for an average worker to get to, requiring a key or tool in possession of someone with more important responsibilities than reboot the signage computer.
NO, it's a BIOS message, asking you to pick an Operating System:
Sadly for BT over the weekend it was showing what looks very like a Windows 7 error screen. "Choose operating system to start or press TAB to select a tool: (Use arrow keys to highlight your choice and then press ENTER)."
Operating systems don't normally ask you to pick an operating system - you've picked one already...
This "child" is accused of Armed Robbery - not calling in a fake hate crime - such people are typically considered a threat to society and are kept in jail until trial - they can offer up a big pile of money to guarantee they will return for their court date. While out on bail, they are subject to certain restrictions, and, if required by the court, an ankle monitor.
Would you prefer people accused of violent crimes be released on their own recognizance? No, of course not - we treat them as guilty until they are proven innocent.
Your parents went from Windows XP to Windows 7, and now (I infer) they are on the verge of a Windows 10 upgrade.
Windows XP was released in 2002, and was supported until 2014 (12 years).
Windows 7 goes off support in January, 2020 (next year)
A smart person with merely average Google-fu should be able to find the Microsoft corporate webpage that allows free upgrades from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
Your parents have been "forced" into exactly one upgrade since 2002, and they may be looking at a second one next year - that's two upgrades in about 18 years - a far cry from constant windows replacement costs"
For the vast majority of users windows works well enough. And their PC / Laptop came with windows.
Linux is a lot easier than that these days. TBH installing something like Linux Mint on a new machine is easier than installing Windows and much much quicker.
There is no known Linix Installer that is "easier" than pre-installed Windows.
Installing Windows 10 on a new PC is trivial, Linux is incrementally (but not excessively) harder - off the top of my head, Ubuntu asks about percentage of disk usage, permission to make changes to the HD and something about GRUB. In contrast, Windows asks you to pick a drive and then it's off to the races. For a technical user, the installs are about equivalent, for a non-technical user, Windows gets the edge in my opinion.
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If I shot a person and hit air , would I be guilty of murder?
No. Don't be stupid. Putting aside the idea of "hitting air" what you seem to want to be describing is attempted murder - to be guilty of murder, someone has to - you know - actually die.
That this clearly delusional ruling didn't come from an American judge, it came from one in Canada.
In America, less legal gymnastics would be required to convict the driver - for example, in California it is illegal to have ear buds in both ears while driving. Period. No need to dig up obscure precedents, infer anything, the law is crystal clear.
Apparently in Canada it is legal to wear earbuds in both ears while driving, good to know.
in a place with one of the worst reputations for crime and violence and drug overdoses in an entire country
Canada?
Genius - read the very first line of the fine summary - it's a Canadian court ruling based on Canadian laws and Canadian precedents.
Pretty sure in many jurisdiction, simply wearing ear plugs is against the law while operating a motor vehicle on the public roads, and by logical extension, shoving ear buds in your ears reduces your ability to hear what is going on around you.
That the ear buds had a wire, that the wire was plugged into a phone and that the phone had no charge are nothing more than interesting facts. For example, ear plugs in both ears while driving a motor vehicle or riding a bicycle is against the law.
I can still run my FORTRAN programs (written before Linus Torvoldsbought his 80386 computer) from college on MVS, so what?
Yeah, they only supported WinXP for 17 years - compare that to something like Ubuntu LTS with its 5 years of support...oh, wait?
When was the last time Apple released an os update for your10 year old laptop?
That the hardware still boots is a testament to the hardware, not the OS.
Shockingly I can go to the local goodwill computer store, pick up a 10 yr old windows laptop running XP and it will still boot -what does that prove?
MS supported XP for 17 years, how long does Apple support an OS X release?
Adding a second screen would only prevent the message from appearing, instead leaving a blank screen, which would be a more alarming issue than seeing a computer boot loader (not windows) error message.
Would a blank bank of lights be "better" in any meaningful way?
Somewhere, in the bowels of that tower is a PC attached to a monitor or a KVM, and someone is likely responsible for monitoring that display - be it building maint., security, what have you. That person either failed to note, or failed to resolve the issue in a timely manner.
It's Windows fault the BIOS couldn't find a bootable OS...
It's a BIOS message, typically indicated by a hardware problem - the inability of the BIOS to find a bootable OS is not a windows issue.
Yes, this is a BIOS message, not a WIndows 7 message
So your plan to reduce problems with the billboard computer is to reboot it, introducing infinitely more opportunities for a problem during startup?
Let sleeping dogs lie - as public as that tower is, do you really think the people responsible were unaware of the problem for any real length of time? I've seen similar errors in other public places, and the issues persist typically because the computer that needs to be rebooted is secured somewhere hard for an average worker to get to, requiring a key or tool in possession of someone with more important responsibilities than reboot the signage computer.
NO, it's a BIOS message, asking you to pick an Operating System:
Sadly for BT over the weekend it was showing what looks very like a Windows 7 error screen. "Choose operating system to start or press TAB to select a tool: (Use arrow keys to highlight your choice and then press ENTER)."
Operating systems don't normally ask you to pick an operating system - you've picked one already...
So you're OK with guilty until proven innocent?
Yes, and so are you - in certain cases.
This "child" is accused of Armed Robbery - not calling in a fake hate crime - such people are typically considered a threat to society and are kept in jail until trial - they can offer up a big pile of money to guarantee they will return for their court date. While out on bail, they are subject to certain restrictions, and, if required by the court, an ankle monitor.
Would you prefer people accused of violent crimes be released on their own recognizance? No, of course not - we treat them as guilty until they are proven innocent.
Let's not forget that the most outrageous case of electoral fraud in the 2018 midterms was perpetrated by the GOP, not the Democrats,
When they did what, exactly?
Been there, done that - it was called "netbooks" and it killed the idea of Linux going mainstream/consumer for the foreseeable future.
If everything gets wiped while you're on the road, that's $10 per GB of cellular data to restore everything from the cloud.
Or just go to McDonald's, Starbucks, etc. and use their free WiFi...
If you already had Win 7 around they gave 10 away for a few years.
With a little "googling" you can find the Microsoft webpage that offers free downloads/upgrades to Windows 10 for free.
constant Windows replacement costs
Your parents went from Windows XP to Windows 7, and now (I infer) they are on the verge of a Windows 10 upgrade.
Windows XP was released in 2002, and was supported until 2014 (12 years).
Windows 7 goes off support in January, 2020 (next year)
A smart person with merely average Google-fu should be able to find the Microsoft corporate webpage that allows free upgrades from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
Your parents have been "forced" into exactly one upgrade since 2002, and they may be looking at a second one next year - that's two upgrades in about 18 years - a far cry from constant windows replacement costs"
For the vast majority of users windows works well enough. And their PC / Laptop came with windows.
Linux is a lot easier than that these days. TBH installing something like Linux Mint on a new machine is easier than installing Windows and much much quicker.
There is no known Linix Installer that is "easier" than pre-installed Windows.
Installing Windows 10 on a new PC is trivial, Linux is incrementally (but not excessively) harder - off the top of my head, Ubuntu asks about percentage of disk usage, permission to make changes to the HD and something about GRUB. In contrast, Windows asks you to pick a drive and then it's off to the races. For a technical user, the installs are about equivalent, for a non-technical user, Windows gets the edge in my opinion.
2.1 million Americans still enjoy dial-up internet.
2.1 million Americans still have AOL Dial-up internet service.
Is this a problem now, "given the shitty state of IT security these days"? No.