The european commission should have a draw every week to pick the fiscal number of a lucky european who would be entitled to keep 1 day of Microsoft fines.
why not just buy Google and be done with it Because Google is just a Microsoft experiment. After the court rulings about anti-competitive behavior, MS managers wanted to figure out if playing nice would allow them to get decent results, so they came up with the Google project for benchmarking purposes.
I have one at home, it's called "computer with long VGA cable and bluetooth keyboard/mouse". cost some extra money and the only extra setup required was moving the furniture around a bit to hide the cables.
Question: what else can be improved in hard disks to make them faster, besides having an engine that spins faster? In a personal computing context, I'd suspect that there is a small part of the contents of the hard disk that are R/W quite frequently, and then there is a lot of the capacity of the disk that is taken by media files, which are read/written at different pace.
I don't know about the majority of users, but maybe it would make sense to have some faster storage for the OS and a few other apps and then a 2nd grade storage for everything else. Even the same might apply for portable PCs... one faster flash drive (or something like that) for the first 1GB, plus a normal disk for/home...
considering the price of RAM these days, I wonder if it wouldn't make sense to have more PCs set up like that, even with RAMdrives.
On this side of the ocean the 45 minutes you spent on the phone would be considered a waste:
notify credit card company (like you suggested)
write a letter to "company" requesting that the "service" is to be cancelled according to contract terms (specify them), setting the date for cancelation, which usually would be after the next invoice.
post cancelation letter with signed proof of sending and delivery (this is supplied by the post office) - Shoud things go so wrong that you need to go to court, by presenting this with a copy of your letter, you no longer need to answer the judge "did you send the cancelation letter?". The judge will skip that step and ask "company" "what did you do when you received the cancelation letter?" or "show evidence that you did not receive the letter", which is nearly impossible to do.
As for "cancelation numbers" and such, that's internal procedure of "company", clients don't have to know or care about that.
I heard some strange songs and drums being played at IBM just after Apple Computer decided to switch. People at Intel probably messed up the orders and this Dell got a CPU that was meant for a Macbook.
If I were in their shoes, I'd seriously consider turning DNF into a joke... forever. I mean, the "normal" people buying games are certainly not waiting for this release patiently, as if their gaming options have been frozen for the last few years, waiting for the sequel of Duke Nukem. The/. crowd and the people who are old enough to remeber Duke Nukem 3D all had their laughs already, and probably the parent poster is right about their reaction when DNF eventually comes out... Now, what to do about it? I'd think of releasing some crappy 2D remake of the original duke nukem, call it Duke Nukem Forever, release it with the next "collectors' edition" of Duke Nukem for PSP, mobile phones, whatever and just let it all go away. Then, when the time is right and the game is actually finished, well, just put together the *real* work the company has (?) produced and release it as a real game, under a different name in the Duke Nukem series.
People should in fact "retire" after leaving college, get married, have >2 children, raise them properly and then at 40-ish years old go to work. Assuming most people wouldn't commit suicide at their 40th birthday, this might help wth the aging population and broke social security issues:-/
With this new tool delivered just a few days after 06/06/06 Google has finally made it clear they turned *E*V*I*L*!!! Want more proof? this sync extension version number is (gasp) 1.0!!!! Back in the day they were not evil they would never do any product launch that wasn't alpha or beta!
While Lemmings, Need for Speed and others are being re-re-re-re-launched and sold at EUR50 a piece for the new PSP, Nintendo comes up with this. how clever.
You might want to search google for "LG P1 J555P" or for "laptops with numeric keypad" to see (at least) 2 LG models with 15,4" screen and a numeric keypad.
Great business proposition this one: The users pay a monthly fee to allow EMI to use their bandwith and other computer resources to distribute EMI products. In exchange for that, the users get music files in a proprietary format, which they cannot play without Microsoft DRM software. I can't wait to trash my ipod and sign up for this thing. I'll take some lube just in case they decide to rape me the old fashioned way.
One thing is granted, the writer knows what (s)he's talking about: That's why we advise savvy buyers to spend a few more dollars on their [type any component name here], and make sure they're getting quality components'
Now when it's time to make compromise and manage a budget, that's when the buyer shows 'savvyness' or not.
These days, I'm quite impressed with my Powermac G4 case (my first mac ever, got it used on ebay). The day I decide to get rid of it, I just might keep the case for something else because it is really well thought and built:
the IDE cables are not hanging from the drives, they are inside "tunnels" from the drive to the motherboard;
the way the side panel opens is very convenient, no loose screws there;
the power supply seems standard enough to replace one of these days;
the hard drive bays can be stacked at the bottom of the case
it's attractive with a professional look, not some kid fantasy kind of attractive
yep, that's some great technology from the year 2000.
3) is that the band is struggling for some time now to be released from their contract with Sony. They realise that it's cheaper to bite the bullet and work with them till the contract is over, but in the meantime they experiment with other channels before they're 100% free to do what they want.
In the past they've been quite vocal about the price policies of both Sony and Ticketmaster, but really had no chance in or out of court. Will probably be a good thing if big bands start to work with alternative channels, but big enough to at least have people question "the way things are". Other people have thought about it before, it would be something in the line of Apple Computer getting in the business of Apple Records:)
I'm quite happy running Vmware on Ubuntu 5.10. My main goals were to get a certain Lexmark X125 printer/scanner to work properly and to access a remote network on a MS-only setup of VPN.
The printer driver hangs all the time under native windows XP, and watching the same happening inside the virtual machine was the last drop. It was cool to see that printer working (sort of) under linux after my failed attempts to get it to work using the normal drivers. All that Ubuntu needs to do is detect that there is something attached to the USB port, and then the windows drivers will do their work normally - sweet:)
The VPN affair is stranger, as PPTP is supposed to be supported by other OSs. In my case I just couldn't make the connection to my host, regardless of using OS X or Ubuntu.
In the end, setting up my SOHO has been a very interesting learning experience, and Vmware player on Ubuntu Linux were the key things. Now I'm adding more tasks for that small server, and I trust it more than I would trust a windows box to do some of them... I unloaded some tasks from the main workstation by setting up shares on that headless Ubuntu/TinyXP server, CD writing is made there as well, as will be using Skype, playing MP3s and setting up a VPN of my own.
I'd estimate that 80% of Playstation 2s are hooked up to a small TV in some teenageers bedroom. They're not going to go out and buy a High-Definition set
These high definition things you mention are also known as 17" CRT monitors, right?
I'm not kidding you, I really don't know if these things are/can be made compatible with normal computer screens. the fact is 1080 pixels doesn't look like a big number to me and most of the living rooms I know just could not fit a 30 or 40-inch tv screen... that's just too big for anyone with a normal home and a minimal sense of aesthetics.
You were oh so close of getting the point of all this. You see, there's millions of callcenters all over the world playing music before someone eventually picks up the phone and deals with the clients calling them. Among those millions of people that are put on hold and on queue, there are hordes of evil pirates using their evil MP3 playing and recording mobile phones to make illegal copies of those songs and dumping them in P2P networks. The RIAA teamed up with Microsoft to stop this before it kills the industry.
(on a more serious note, I've looked at price list items for Siemens PABX equipment and remember that for call-waiting music you could have one artificial tune being repeated ad aeternum as a basic feature of the device, but allowing to plug in a CD player cost a load of money)
'd have just one menu bar, which would contain at minimum the four essential applications that I mentioned. There would probably also be a couple of popup menus for less frequently used programs (less commonly used office apps, games). Programs would be sorted by function, and the guys writing installers would absolutely not get to create a new submenu [...] Most any program will require all the screen real-estate to be useful, so it makes sense to just let them have it.
I agree with most of what you just wrote, and it feels like "windows starter edition" might be a good example of how N00bs should find their workstation when they first plug it in.
In the last months I've been experimenting more and more with OS X and Ubuntu Linux and that has given me a better understanding of how I should set up my Windowx XP box, instead of the usual defaults and running everything as a superuser.
I've prepared my PC to be shared with my mother so she can use it for some of those basic things you mentioned. We're talking about someone who recently retired from work, from a specific job that existed before PCs were introduced, and which did not gain relevant efficiency after PCs were forced in the office.
the way I set it up, there's extra large fonts, extra large icons with all required apps on the desktop, aiming to have zero-use of the "start" menu. To have things work out smoothly, I moved the "my photos" and the mp3 collection to the "\all users\my documents" area, so I think that a limited user account can be just right for this kind of user and it's working so far. I understand that XP Home edition lacks "Access Control - restrict access to selected files, applications, and other resources.". I wonder if this would work if my PC didn't have the Professional edition.
Dear hard drive manufacturers,
Instead of adding more and more capacity to hard drives, I'd like to have a reeeeeeeally fast drive with about 5GB. All else can remain the same: cables, plugs, size, electricity bill, etc.. Those 5GB will be more than enough for my operating system and most used applications and the *useful* things I do with my computer will get done faster!!! I don't mind keeping the MP3s and pr0n on a "normal" drive or in a server away from my desktop.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's just think of it as one step closer to being able to Google for your lost keys.
The european commission should have a draw every week to pick the fiscal number of a lucky european who would be entitled to keep 1 day of Microsoft fines.
why not just buy Google and be done with it
Because Google is just a Microsoft experiment. After the court rulings about anti-competitive behavior, MS managers wanted to figure out if playing nice would allow them to get decent results, so they came up with the Google project for benchmarking purposes.
I have one at home, it's called "computer with long VGA cable and bluetooth keyboard/mouse". cost some extra money and the only extra setup required was moving the furniture around a bit to hide the cables.
In a personal computing context, I'd suspect that there is a small part of the contents of the hard disk that are R/W quite frequently, and then there is a lot of the capacity of the disk that is taken by media files, which are read/written at different pace.
I don't know about the majority of users, but maybe it would make sense to have some faster storage for the OS and a few other apps and then a 2nd grade storage for everything else. Even the same might apply for portable PCs... one faster flash drive (or something like that) for the first 1GB, plus a normal disk for /home...
considering the price of RAM these days, I wonder if it wouldn't make sense to have more PCs set up like that, even with RAMdrives.
- notify credit card company (like you suggested)
- write a letter to "company" requesting that the "service" is to be cancelled according to contract terms (specify them), setting the date for cancelation, which usually would be after the next invoice.
- post cancelation letter with signed proof of sending and delivery (this is supplied by the post office) - Shoud things go so wrong that you need to go to court, by presenting this with a copy of your letter, you no longer need to answer the judge "did you send the cancelation letter?". The judge will skip that step and ask "company" "what did you do when you received the cancelation letter?" or "show evidence that you did not receive the letter", which is nearly impossible to do.
As for "cancelation numbers" and such, that's internal procedure of "company", clients don't have to know or care about that.I heard some strange songs and drums being played at IBM just after Apple Computer decided to switch. People at Intel probably messed up the orders and this Dell got a CPU that was meant for a Macbook.
Maybe its not parallels fault that XP is doing stuff when its supposed to be idle?
virtualized pwnage!!!
exactly. as usual the root of the problem lies between the keyboard and the multi-ton metal press.
The
Now, what to do about it? I'd think of releasing some crappy 2D remake of the original duke nukem, call it Duke Nukem Forever, release it with the next "collectors' edition" of Duke Nukem for PSP, mobile phones, whatever and just let it all go away. Then, when the time is right and the game is actually finished, well, just put together the *real* work the company has (?) produced and release it as a real game, under a different name in the Duke Nukem series.
People should in fact "retire" after leaving college, get married, have >2 children, raise them properly and then at 40-ish years old go to work. Assuming most people wouldn't commit suicide at their 40th birthday, this might help wth the aging population and broke social security issues :-/
this sync extension version number is (gasp) 1.0!!!! Back in the day they were not evil they would never do any product launch that wasn't alpha or beta!
EVIL, I tell you!
(damn, how do I wrap my browser in tinfoil?)
While Lemmings, Need for Speed and others are being re-re-re-re-launched and sold at EUR50 a piece for the new PSP, Nintendo comes up with this. how clever.
You might want to search google for "LG P1 J555P" or for "laptops with numeric keypad" to see (at least) 2 LG models with 15,4" screen and a numeric keypad.
Great business proposition this one: The users pay a monthly fee to allow EMI to use their bandwith and other computer resources to distribute EMI products. In exchange for that, the users get music files in a proprietary format, which they cannot play without Microsoft DRM software. I can't wait to trash my ipod and sign up for this thing. I'll take some lube just in case they decide to rape me the old fashioned way.
Do you think that's air you're breathing now?
Now when it's time to make compromise and manage a budget, that's when the buyer shows 'savvyness' or not.
These days, I'm quite impressed with my Powermac G4 case (my first mac ever, got it used on ebay). The day I decide to get rid of it, I just might keep the case for something else because it is really well thought and built:
- the IDE cables are not hanging from the drives, they are inside "tunnels" from the drive to the motherboard;
- the way the side panel opens is very convenient, no loose screws there;
- the power supply seems standard enough to replace one of these days;
- the hard drive bays can be stacked at the bottom of the case
- it's attractive with a professional look, not some kid fantasy kind of attractive
yep, that's some great technology from the year 2000.In the past they've been quite vocal about the price policies of both Sony and Ticketmaster, but really had no chance in or out of court. Will probably be a good thing if big bands start to work with alternative channels, but big enough to at least have people question "the way things are". Other people have thought about it before, it would be something in the line of Apple Computer getting in the business of Apple Records :)
I'm quite happy running Vmware on Ubuntu 5.10. My main goals were to get a certain Lexmark X125 printer/scanner to work properly and to access a remote network on a MS-only setup of VPN.
The printer driver hangs all the time under native windows XP, and watching the same happening inside the virtual machine was the last drop. It was cool to see that printer working (sort of) under linux after my failed attempts to get it to work using the normal drivers. All that Ubuntu needs to do is detect that there is something attached to the USB port, and then the windows drivers will do their work normally - sweet :)
The VPN affair is stranger, as PPTP is supposed to be supported by other OSs. In my case I just couldn't make the connection to my host, regardless of using OS X or Ubuntu.
In the end, setting up my SOHO has been a very interesting learning experience, and Vmware player on Ubuntu Linux were the key things. Now I'm adding more tasks for that small server, and I trust it more than I would trust a windows box to do some of them... I unloaded some tasks from the main workstation by setting up shares on that headless Ubuntu/TinyXP server, CD writing is made there as well, as will be using Skype, playing MP3s and setting up a VPN of my own.
These high definition things you mention are also known as 17" CRT monitors, right?
I'm not kidding you, I really don't know if these things are/can be made compatible with normal computer screens. the fact is 1080 pixels doesn't look like a big number to me and most of the living rooms I know just could not fit a 30 or 40-inch tv screen... that's just too big for anyone with a normal home and a minimal sense of aesthetics.
I bet it will turn out to be a big "42"
(on a more serious note, I've looked at price list items for Siemens PABX equipment and remember that for call-waiting music you could have one artificial tune being repeated ad aeternum as a basic feature of the device, but allowing to plug in a CD player cost a load of money)
'd have just one menu bar, which would contain at minimum the four essential applications that I mentioned. There would probably also be a couple of popup menus for less frequently used programs (less commonly used office apps, games). Programs would be sorted by function, and the guys writing installers would absolutely not get to create a new submenu [...] Most any program will require all the screen real-estate to be useful, so it makes sense to just let them have it.
I agree with most of what you just wrote, and it feels like "windows starter edition" might be a good example of how N00bs should find their workstation when they first plug it in.
In the last months I've been experimenting more and more with OS X and Ubuntu Linux and that has given me a better understanding of how I should set up my Windowx XP box, instead of the usual defaults and running everything as a superuser.
I've prepared my PC to be shared with my mother so she can use it for some of those basic things you mentioned. We're talking about someone who recently retired from work, from a specific job that existed before PCs were introduced, and which did not gain relevant efficiency after PCs were forced in the office.
the way I set it up, there's extra large fonts, extra large icons with all required apps on the desktop, aiming to have zero-use of the "start" menu. To have things work out smoothly, I moved the "my photos" and the mp3 collection to the "\all users\my documents" area, so I think that a limited user account can be just right for this kind of user and it's working so far. I understand that XP Home edition lacks "Access Control - restrict access to selected files, applications, and other resources.". I wonder if this would work if my PC didn't have the Professional edition.
Instead of adding more and more capacity to hard drives, I'd like to have a reeeeeeeally fast drive with about 5GB. All else can remain the same: cables, plugs, size, electricity bill, etc.. Those 5GB will be more than enough for my operating system and most used applications and the *useful* things I do with my computer will get done faster!!! I don't mind keeping the MP3s and pr0n on a "normal" drive or in a server away from my desktop.
thank you