Ahhh, the "identical specs" refrain. The last bastion of a fanboy, used as his out if the webcam is only 1.2mp versus 1.3mp, or there's 3 USB slots, not 4. Or "touchpad doesn't support multitouch", or other such crap, even if other specs on the comparison model are far superior. I've even heard this extending to "But yours doesn't come with OS X and iLife" when the going gets desperate.
For example. 13" Macbook. 4GB memory. 320GB, 5400rpm HDD. $1774. 13" XPS M1330, 4GB memory (but slower), 500GB 7200rpm HDD, $1174. But guess what, I can upgrade to 4GB of DDR3 memory for $69. I'm still $530 cheaper than the MacBook.
So, please, have at it. Nothing too esoteric there.
The first link asserts that it has been "proven" that personal identification information (PII) is sent via WGA but doesn't actually show a source for this claim, so, still, "citation needed". It says later that the information returned is your IP address, date and time, "like all IP packets", much akin to the spamware that warns you "WARNING, YOUR COMPUTER IS BROADCASTING AN IP ADDRESS". Yawn. It also states that the computer manufacturer (A BIOS string), and language are reported (but goes on to say "But they COULD change it!"). It claims that "This is easily enough information to identify a person and their PC". Which is amusing if taken as read, because standard groupthink is, when it comes to the RIAA/MPAA, IP addresses identify nothing, but here they identify a person. There's nothing I love more than contextually convenient perception, don't you?
The second link is a lawsuit in China, of all places, within an article that contains such quote gems as "The First Intermediate People's Court of Beijing has accepted the case for review, but this is not a sign of its technical merits", and "According to scattered reports, some of which are contradictory, Lu Feng first installed WGA on his Windows XP computer before realizing what it was. Feng believes that Microsoft failed to provide him with proper notice of WGA's capabilities or how it would affect his use of his computer. Furthermore, Feng objects to the click-through software EULA, to which he had to agree before even installing the software.". Wait, so Feng installed a piece of software that he didn't understand, and he objected to having to agree to a license which stated what it did, but he then claims didn't actually tell him what it did. Somewhat unsurprisingly, there is no news of the lawsuit after that. I think that the merit of the case was questionable.
The third link is to a site that claims that WGA repeatedly contacts MS (yes), mentions NOTHING about PII or applications installed, and claims that it was "deceptively installed" (right, you clicked update Windows, it said, "You need to install WGA", you clicked "OK", and it was installed).
Wow. FUD. I'm still waiting for any reports that it identifies the user, or identifies what software is installed.
That's FUD right there. In amongst all that will be a dropdown, and you'll call MS. After a bit, you'll get through to a CSR, who, provided you can answer a couple of questions, will either get you a working activation, or give you a new working key.
If you're willing to finger Joe (and what loyalty should you have to someone who charged you for counterfeit goods? I'm sure Joe didn't say "oh, Windows, that's free!" - no, Joe said "$149 for Windows", took your computer out the back, and put on his 0 day VLK release copy of Windows on it), then MS will give you a free, genuine license.
Still doesn't help the customer per se. Although it does alleviate the concern that who knows what else Joe was willing to do, if he was willing to charge you fraudulently for something you didn't pay for. Malware? Break something else subtlely so you need to come back?
I am no fan of WGA, but most customers don't care, until something goes wrong. You might not care that the copy "isn't genuine", until you call MS and ask for support (and as much as we here laugh at such concepts, and such support is often of questionable value, for the masses, that's exactly the kind of thing they do), so...
It's funny you should say that, because from what I've read... Writing an App Store app is almost certainly not a road to 'raking in cash' except for a privileged few who either got in really early, or do something really novel. One in thousands. Everyone else is busy competing against apps that do what theirs do, for 10 cents, a dollar, 2 dollars less, until it becomes too low to be worthwhile.
That's not an apology, that's a joke, "Even though we did this and we did that and even though it did this and it did that, I want you to know I'm sorry I didn't ask even more".
I hate replying to myself, but one last point. Don't even begin to pretend you're not already paying for other people's healthcare as it is, want it or not. Your health insurance is subsidizing those people who are forced, for one reason or another, to use the ER for any and every possible ailment, or did you really think that the cost of you seeing your PCP suddenly went from $65 (if you paid cash) to over $200, because it's being "paid by insurance" (haha, who the fuck do you think gives the insurance carrier the money to pay this?)? As someone who works in healthcare finance, I can tell you, as inefficient as some claims processing is, it's not that bad. And then you have the hospital writing off the cost of that "Oh, I have a cold, I'll visit the ER" patient as charitable healthcare, you guessed it, a tax deduction.
I can assure you that you'll be singing the "Wish I Had An American Tax Bracket Blues" if you moved there - the rate hits 41% at an income of only 36.4k Euros a year.
Really? Unless you have any sort of health problem whatsoever, including dental. Or if you actually want something more reliable for your retirement than our coming up on bankruptcy Social Security. Or if you like roads off of the Interstate that don't resemble a Baja rally. Contrary to some people's belief here, governments with higher taxation aren't all hoarding it under the bed/spending on something "/I/ would/never/ use! Pft!"/any other myriad excuses.
People talk about the issues of socialized medicine here, but I know this. In Australia, under $40,000 a year, Medicare was an additional ONE PER CENT taxation. Above, 1.5. The rest was a regular part of your tax (in my case, 35% in one of the highest brackets). I was admitted to hospital a few years ago, via the ER. Between that time and discharge nine days later, I had daily visits with a consultant rheumatologist, 2 MRIs, several X-rays, several batteries of lab work, physical therapy, daily IV analgesia, anti-inflammatories, steroids, before being sent home with a month's supply of painkillers, NSAIDs, and steroids. I was presented with a bill. $37. $18 of that was for TV rental.
Here (Seattle), I am in an equivalent tax bracket (well, relative to income, etc). I pay approximately 29% tax. That six per cent accounts for roughly $4,000. I now pay over $500 a month for health insurance with deductibles, a whole laundry list of exclusions, a whole laundry list of co-pays, and don't even start me on the horrid fucking abomination that is called 'dental insurance' in this country....
But you may point to my example above as something that you shouldn't have to pay for. Because lord knows it'll never happen to you, right? The fact that my medical care for the previous decade amounted to less than $500, actually in so many ways makes Australia's system much more true to the idealism of 'insurance', than the US. Here's a hint. Say you have condition 'X', that arises while you have insurance here. You change to another carrier's policy whose coverage is materially similar or identical. But yet, you can be excluded, or subject to waiting periods. Why? Your probability, your risk of having condition 'X' didn't change, no "insurance variables" changed. Insurance here is a farce that has strayed so far from the concept of insuring against risk, to essentially "amortization of health care costs".
And don't even start me on "America, love it or leave it". I love it here. But that doesn't mean that I don't get to observe that there are some things seriously fucking broken in many realms here (and indeed in any country you may reside in). And it also means I'm gonna call bullshit when you sob at the idea of higher taxes, presuming that there is no benefit to be had, because your viewpoint is so seriously askew, even before you put on those rose-tinted glasses.
The government (all levels) in 2008 accounted for about 5 1/2 Trillion out a total gross domestic product (that included that government spending as output) of 14 trillion and change.
Wow. It's almost like you believe that the deficit didn't increase 1 cent, and every dollar of that 5.5T came straight out of that year's taxation revenue.
Only whisky attracts idiots to put silly values on bottles of the stuff they are never going to drink.
Because no-one ever heard of people doing that with antique wines, right? It's not like Christie's or Sotheby's thinks that selling wine at silly values is much of a market...
I was going to say "I think most of us were capable of interpolating that without your assistance", but your current Insightful mod might indicate otherwise. Kinda sad, really...
They're not just giving you thousands of dollars for SPARC systems. They're giving you $8,000 worth of consulting services for every IBM server you purchase to replace a SPARC box. Not quite as exciting.
You'd like to believe it was your Jesusphone being that intelligent, but in reality, the SMS standard has supported message concatenation for at least the last ten years, if not since its inception. My Nokia 2110e could turn it on and off, and you'd see the little counter for "remaining characters" go from 160 to 470 or so.
Uhh, it IS wasteful spending of the FCS money, because what the military should actually be doing is streamlining the procurement process or implementing a fast-track procurement process for combat operations.
Sure it will. But the reality is less clear cut. You can get an appropriate Bachelor's degree in 2 years if you work your ass off, 2.5 years with some diligence and gritting teeth. Most DipEd courses can be done in under a year, and most states will actually count "Accredited Teacher Preparation Courses" as the graduate component, which can be 6 months, or less, based on some states.
That's comfortably under 4 years. Within 3 years is entirely feasible. Show me the school that is accredited and will get you out with a M.Eng in 3 years and we can talk portgrad comparability. You'll typically be lucky to have a M.Eng after 6 years full-time in school.
Incredibly low? TFA quoted the median salary for a teacher in their mid 30s as $74,000 a year. I'm sure many people would be happy to trade their "incredibly low" salary for that incredibly low salary.
Nope. I live 5mi from downtown Olympia, WA. My options are: No DSL, too far from exchange (and I've checked multiple providers), Comcast for TV/Internet (I use Comcast Business Internet at home, work from home. I get a fairly good 22mbps/5mbps, with low noise and little contention). Actually, not strictly true, I do qualify for iDSL at 64kbps, which I could get bonded to 128kbps (no thanks). No Verizon FiOS or AT&T U-Verse as of today (was hopeful for at least one - I get a 3.5G HSDPA signal from AT&T on my cell).
A lot of it comes down to the type of neighborhood, planned, organic, newer, older.
That's fine. That's your choice. Here's a question: As long as it does not do so nefariously or maliciously, do you believe the site owner has a right to do whatever they can to prevent you viewing the site if you block ads? (Note, I'm not asking about the feasibility, and by malicious, I'm referring to temporarily or permanently damaging solutions, I'm talking about their 'right' to do so.)
Oh, so you're saying this was marketing and PR? Why on earth would someone who is "Senior Director of Corporate Development" think that this was even a remotely good idea, or it was anywhere within his remit to document for people, including Oracle's benefits, the reasons behind Sun's performance (in his own opinion, of course)?
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For example. 13" Macbook. 4GB memory. 320GB, 5400rpm HDD. $1774. 13" XPS M1330, 4GB memory (but slower), 500GB 7200rpm HDD, $1174. But guess what, I can upgrade to 4GB of DDR3 memory for $69. I'm still $530 cheaper than the MacBook.
So, please, have at it. Nothing too esoteric there.
Wow. Just wow. "I went to a college for three years and the first thing I can think of to say about it is 'hot girls go here omg'."
The first link asserts that it has been "proven" that personal identification information (PII) is sent via WGA but doesn't actually show a source for this claim, so, still, "citation needed". It says later that the information returned is your IP address, date and time, "like all IP packets", much akin to the spamware that warns you "WARNING, YOUR COMPUTER IS BROADCASTING AN IP ADDRESS". Yawn. It also states that the computer manufacturer (A BIOS string), and language are reported (but goes on to say "But they COULD change it!"). It claims that "This is easily enough information to identify a person and their PC". Which is amusing if taken as read, because standard groupthink is, when it comes to the RIAA/MPAA, IP addresses identify nothing, but here they identify a person. There's nothing I love more than contextually convenient perception, don't you?
The second link is a lawsuit in China, of all places, within an article that contains such quote gems as "The First Intermediate People's Court of Beijing has accepted the case for review, but this is not a sign of its technical merits", and "According to scattered reports, some of which are contradictory, Lu Feng first installed WGA on his Windows XP computer before realizing what it was. Feng believes that Microsoft failed to provide him with proper notice of WGA's capabilities or how it would affect his use of his computer. Furthermore, Feng objects to the click-through software EULA, to which he had to agree before even installing the software.". Wait, so Feng installed a piece of software that he didn't understand, and he objected to having to agree to a license which stated what it did, but he then claims didn't actually tell him what it did. Somewhat unsurprisingly, there is no news of the lawsuit after that. I think that the merit of the case was questionable.
The third link is to a site that claims that WGA repeatedly contacts MS (yes), mentions NOTHING about PII or applications installed, and claims that it was "deceptively installed" (right, you clicked update Windows, it said, "You need to install WGA", you clicked "OK", and it was installed).
Wow. FUD. I'm still waiting for any reports that it identifies the user, or identifies what software is installed.
Go on... please.
That's FUD right there. In amongst all that will be a dropdown, and you'll call MS. After a bit, you'll get through to a CSR, who, provided you can answer a couple of questions, will either get you a working activation, or give you a new working key.
Still doesn't help the customer per se. Although it does alleviate the concern that who knows what else Joe was willing to do, if he was willing to charge you fraudulently for something you didn't pay for. Malware? Break something else subtlely so you need to come back?
I am no fan of WGA, but most customers don't care, until something goes wrong. You might not care that the copy "isn't genuine", until you call MS and ask for support (and as much as we here laugh at such concepts, and such support is often of questionable value, for the masses, that's exactly the kind of thing they do), so...
It's funny you should say that, because from what I've read... Writing an App Store app is almost certainly not a road to 'raking in cash' except for a privileged few who either got in really early, or do something really novel. One in thousands. Everyone else is busy competing against apps that do what theirs do, for 10 cents, a dollar, 2 dollars less, until it becomes too low to be worthwhile.
That's not an apology, that's a joke, "Even though we did this and we did that and even though it did this and it did that, I want you to know I'm sorry I didn't ask even more".
Tis time to open your eyes.
Really? Unless you have any sort of health problem whatsoever, including dental. Or if you actually want something more reliable for your retirement than our coming up on bankruptcy Social Security. Or if you like roads off of the Interstate that don't resemble a Baja rally. Contrary to some people's belief here, governments with higher taxation aren't all hoarding it under the bed/spending on something "/I/ would /never/ use! Pft!"/any other myriad excuses.
People talk about the issues of socialized medicine here, but I know this. In Australia, under $40,000 a year, Medicare was an additional ONE PER CENT taxation. Above, 1.5. The rest was a regular part of your tax (in my case, 35% in one of the highest brackets). I was admitted to hospital a few years ago, via the ER. Between that time and discharge nine days later, I had daily visits with a consultant rheumatologist, 2 MRIs, several X-rays, several batteries of lab work, physical therapy, daily IV analgesia, anti-inflammatories, steroids, before being sent home with a month's supply of painkillers, NSAIDs, and steroids. I was presented with a bill. $37. $18 of that was for TV rental.
Here (Seattle), I am in an equivalent tax bracket (well, relative to income, etc). I pay approximately 29% tax. That six per cent accounts for roughly $4,000. I now pay over $500 a month for health insurance with deductibles, a whole laundry list of exclusions, a whole laundry list of co-pays, and don't even start me on the horrid fucking abomination that is called 'dental insurance' in this country....
But you may point to my example above as something that you shouldn't have to pay for. Because lord knows it'll never happen to you, right? The fact that my medical care for the previous decade amounted to less than $500, actually in so many ways makes Australia's system much more true to the idealism of 'insurance', than the US. Here's a hint. Say you have condition 'X', that arises while you have insurance here. You change to another carrier's policy whose coverage is materially similar or identical. But yet, you can be excluded, or subject to waiting periods. Why? Your probability, your risk of having condition 'X' didn't change, no "insurance variables" changed. Insurance here is a farce that has strayed so far from the concept of insuring against risk, to essentially "amortization of health care costs".
And don't even start me on "America, love it or leave it". I love it here. But that doesn't mean that I don't get to observe that there are some things seriously fucking broken in many realms here (and indeed in any country you may reside in). And it also means I'm gonna call bullshit when you sob at the idea of higher taxes, presuming that there is no benefit to be had, because your viewpoint is so seriously askew, even before you put on those rose-tinted glasses.
Wow. It's almost like you believe that the deficit didn't increase 1 cent, and every dollar of that 5.5T came straight out of that year's taxation revenue.
Who were you calling the loon, again?
Because no-one ever heard of people doing that with antique wines, right? It's not like Christie's or Sotheby's thinks that selling wine at silly values is much of a market ...
A friend of mine at high school/college's response to "What's your drink?" was always "Anything that has '% alc/vol' on the label."
I was going to say "I think most of us were capable of interpolating that without your assistance", but your current Insightful mod might indicate otherwise. Kinda sad, really ...
They're not just giving you thousands of dollars for SPARC systems. They're giving you $8,000 worth of consulting services for every IBM server you purchase to replace a SPARC box. Not quite as exciting.
You'd like to believe it was your Jesusphone being that intelligent, but in reality, the SMS standard has supported message concatenation for at least the last ten years, if not since its inception. My Nokia 2110e could turn it on and off, and you'd see the little counter for "remaining characters" go from 160 to 470 or so.
Uhh, it IS wasteful spending of the FCS money, because what the military should actually be doing is streamlining the procurement process or implementing a fast-track procurement process for combat operations.
It is /exceptionally/ easy to tell if you are running in a virtualized machine environment, be it Xen, VMware, Parallels, VirtualBox.
That's comfortably under 4 years. Within 3 years is entirely feasible. Show me the school that is accredited and will get you out with a M.Eng in 3 years and we can talk portgrad comparability. You'll typically be lucky to have a M.Eng after 6 years full-time in school.
Apparently, none of those 5 were mathematics teachers, I'm guessing.
Nor were they English teachers, it'd seem ...
Incredibly low? TFA quoted the median salary for a teacher in their mid 30s as $74,000 a year. I'm sure many people would be happy to trade their "incredibly low" salary for that incredibly low salary.
A lot of it comes down to the type of neighborhood, planned, organic, newer, older.
Oh, wait...
That's fine. That's your choice. Here's a question: As long as it does not do so nefariously or maliciously, do you believe the site owner has a right to do whatever they can to prevent you viewing the site if you block ads? (Note, I'm not asking about the feasibility, and by malicious, I'm referring to temporarily or permanently damaging solutions, I'm talking about their 'right' to do so.)
Oh, so you're saying this was marketing and PR? Why on earth would someone who is "Senior Director of Corporate Development" think that this was even a remotely good idea, or it was anywhere within his remit to document for people, including Oracle's benefits, the reasons behind Sun's performance (in his own opinion, of course)?