Having served in the USAF and met a number of people who had been stationed there, I can say with some authority that NORAD troops are (as a rule) entirely devoid of a sense of humor.
Thank God for that, otherwise some assclown would be faking alerts and wreaking havoc internationally,
Aside from the "Stargate Command" sign on a broom closet, I presume? Obviously they have some semblance of humor on the base? Or, is the show Stargate SG1 actually a coverup of the real thing? (Wormhole Xtreme = best Stargate episode ever.:D)
Despite the fact that it's designed to withstand an accidental drop, I still would not go out of my way to intentionally knock the thing around. Have you any idea just how tight the tolerances are in modern hard drives? Sure they're machined better than hard drives of the past, but with the tighter tolerances I'd avoid intentionally jostling the things while they're running.
I don't know about you, but I would not go out of my way to subject a laptop to sudden motion intentionally while the hard drive is running, no matter how well the hard drives are built. If I spend $2,000 on a laptop, I'd want the thing to last.
For what it's worth, it really isn't one of Engineerings' biggest mistakes, it is one of Politics' biggest infrastructure mistakes.
The central artery was originally supposed to be I-95, not I-93, and there was supposed to be a bypass around the city - much like you find around many other large cities. Instead, what they did was merge I-95 and 128 together around the whole Greater Boston area (e.g., Boston + outlying suburbs) and renamed the central artery I-93. The big dig should have created a bypass, replacing the original short tunnel with a longer tunnel under the whole city, exiting north of the city, without any exits in the city, and the elevated highway could have remained and provided not only easy ingress and egress traffic, but a bypass underground, This would have resolved the daily traffice jams once and for all, as well as provided an economic boost to the area (not that it's needed, it'd have been a nice plus). The originally-intended bypass could have been achieved, and with not having to tunnel all the on and off ramps, the integrity of the tunnel could have increased while at the same time decreasing the costs.
Now what you have is a very dangerous highway with significant cross-traffic (with people zipping over at the last possible instant to catch their exits) stuck underground and difficult for emergency crews to get to, built very poorly due to political influences and budget constraints (e.g., execs not willing to accept a slimmer profit margin). It did not really resolve any traffic issues that were promised would be eliminated, and resulted in major disruptions in commerce and the daily lives of city dwellers throughout the construction, not to mention rendered every map useless because so many streets were affected and re-routed as a result of the project. It made merging onto the highway more difficult due in part to visibility issues and do in large part to the lack of courtesy on the part of drivers, most of whose driving tests consisted of a 1-mile drive around a city or suburban block "driving test" during low-traffic hours, drivers who REFUSE to adjust their driving habits to the dangerous confined situation which exists with scores of people merging onto and off of the tunnel at any given moment, each person jockeying for position without the slightest care or regard for anyone else's safety or convenience.
It's also worth pointing out that based on writings (letters, journals, etc.) leading up to and following authoring the Constitution, the "well regulated" clause was in reference to/meant "well-trained", not "run by the government" because the whole point of the second amendment was a final check and balance against tyranny within/from the government.
For closed isolated systems you can have very effective shielding against EMP, but do you think that they spent what it takes to shield every component on that AFB from EMP? I'd hope it's a yes, but I'm doubtful.
There are always better ways to solve a problem, but when doing the job right will thin profit margins to a moderate-yet-respectful level rather than a disgustingly profitable margin, do you think the execs will sacrifice their bonuses by taking longer and spending more of their contract money to provide the best solution, or go with the solution to meet their mandated-by-law-come-hell-or-high-water deadline? That's right, they're going to do the barest minimum to meet their contractual obligations to the letter to get that final check written and the lien against the escrow accounts released.
Yes, some of the firms involved never, ever got a contract again.
That is largely a non-issue, because for large projects, construction companies sometimes do what the movie industry does: incorporate a new company solely for the purpose of bidding on and executing a project, then once the job is done dissolve the corporation. This avoid liability, keeps their insurance rates low, and ensures that they will have pleny of work in the future even when they screw up in a big way.
Do you remember the propoganda billboard reading "Rome wasn't built in a day" when traffic was still largely above-ground and backed up from Boston to Braintree almost around the clock? I wish I had taken a photo of that sign. I've searched Google for it but haven't found it.:(
1. Illegal aliens is politically incorrect. They are now "illegal immigrants." Thank you for participating in today's brainwashing/reprogramming session.
2. "illegal immigrants"(sic) are protected in the Greater Boston area (especially Cambridge and Boston, which is where the big dig project was/is), with politicians blocking enforcement of immigration laws at every turn, and yet, Boston is home of the successful hijackings on September 11, 2001.
3, "Illegal immigrants"(sic) have minority status here and thusly receive preferential treatment. Being unable to communicate with your bosses and coworkers is not a reason to discriminate, and as of recently, neither is the lack of citizenship, green card, or even a work visa. However, if you are a citizen, you are not entitled to work, sorry, we have affirmative action here.
Call me cynical. I find the whole situation disgusting. One of my business partners is from Nigeria and he worked hard to get his citizenship so he could work here and he's extremely patriotic (he won't do business with fellow Nigerians, as an aside). Why is it that people who attempt to come in legitimately get treated like shit, and yet the people who break every conceivable law to get here get a free ride? Even though I know social engineering and manipulation of voter precinct demographics is a factor, I still cannot comprehend how these politicians can be so fucking transparent and still get away with this bullshit.
Yep. I know folks who worked on that project, in middle management, who flatly refuse to drive through the tunnels due to the nonsense that went on in upper management, and the engineers having been told to pretty much STFU when they pointed out severe flaws. Hence, the hundreds of leaks (700 or so gushing leaks so far?) and then the collapse. I've driven through the tunnels only twice - when I need to go to the south shore I go right up 95/128 all the way around the whole mess. I'm a bit of a risk taker (I've driven insanely fast and have been a passenger in cars traveling even faster, I've gone rock and mountain climbing with no gear, I bike trails with my helmet left at home (I've worn the helmet only once while riding, I shouldn't have even bothered buying it), I've dived into quarries from the topmost points) but I find those tunnels truly frightning. I'll take calculated risks, but driving through the big dig is one I prefer to avoid because I have absolutely zero control over that situation, so it's an unknown/uncalculated risk, left purely up to chance.
You gave them the information on scam artists selling full-price copies of their software (and thus taking away their sales profits), and yet they somehow owe you nothing? You have to have returned to Quicken(-sic), a reasonable amount of business.
Intuit (Intuit is the name of the company, not Quicken) owed me nothing for the counterfeit Quickbooks Pro. Intuit is not the company which ripped me off, the counterfeiter was. And that is the kind of copyright infringement which SHOULD be cracked down on, by the way (BSA, RIAA, and MPAA take notice) - they produced professional, real-looking packaging, silkscreened CDs, and everything to make the product look 100% legitimate, unless someone were already intimately familiar with that specific release of that specific product. It's a much different thing than casual copying for home to learn how to use a product (which leads to further future sales) or to telecommute (which again, is long-term viral marketing when that employee moves on, because she or he already knows your product, that user will ask their new boss to invest in the same for that other company).
It depends. Did you get that OEM Windows from a big-box vendor like Dell, Compaq/HP, etc. or did you get the whitebox OEM? The whitebox OEM is very similar to retail, with the major difference being a slightly different key algoritm and it comes with the system builder components to put Windows into audit mode for customizing the desktop prior to shipment. The big-box vendors OEMs can sometimes be totally different and include items such as spyware preinstalled for your "convenience" (why do you think Dells are so inexpensive?), custom media players, and "value added" trinkets to suck up your system resources.
I noticed that right away. Someone report this to Microsoft's anti-piracy hotline and drop a line to a big media company while you're at it. It'd be fun if it lands in court and then Microsoft, in retailiation, ends up more closely scruitinized for its business practices to ensure that they are abiding by their antitrust agreements.:D
The key changer will work if you had been sold an illegitimate retail version and bought a new retail version to replace it, PROVIDING it is the same SR level, however if you were sold an illegitimate OEM version and purchase a retail version, even if the same SR level, the key will likely not be accepted.
Do a repair installation - IF the retail boxed version you purchased is at least as new as what is installed on the machine. If it came with an OEM SR2, and the retail box is the original release or SR1, you stand a good chance of fudging everything up.
Best solution? Buy the new box, call Microsoft if it refuses the key, ask to speak to a supervisor and demand a working key for the OEM release since you now have the license to back up the use of it (aside from the fact that you OWN it, not license it, being a commodity good, but it'll cost more money than you and I to take Microsoft to court over that whole fiasco).
I doubt that the system will lack redundancy. They'd be TOTAL fools to rely on a single AFB, even with hundreds or thousands of antiaircraft missiles and anti-missile missiles readily available. All it takes is a single nuke to go off within a few miles for the EMP burst to render all communications and data infrustructure useless.
What need have we of NORAD now that governments have surveillance cameras throughout certain cities in the US, and wiretap pretty much everyone now? The populace is being monitored closely, and it's only a very tiny step to control. So what threat is there, really? It's more important that potential terrorist activities can take place to keep a majority of the people who do bother to vote to vote "correctly" out of fear of an inconsequential attack. Major threats such as an economic depression is less of a worry, because it may actually beneficial to powermongers' goals because then pretty much everyone will become dependent upon the political elite just to survive, and will at that point hand over ALL constitutionally-protected freedoms in exchange for a little bread.
Yeah, I know, it's a conspiracy theory, but after all that's gone on since September 11, 2001, it does not seems so far-fetched any more. I used to read stuff like William Cooper for a lark, but now having re-read Behold a Pale Horse, MaJestyTwelve, Gary H. Kah's work, and some other books on those subjects, 1984 looks tame in comparison to how reality is seeming to parallel those "whacko conspiracy theories."
dont know about all of you, but it makes me wonder why their is such a "necessity" to spend billions upon a "missle defence" program, when the two countries who would pose the most serious threat of such an attack (I mean from a technological/monetary standpoint. Sure other countries would gladly launch ICBM's etc, into the US, but -can- they?)
One of them ter'rists could git their hands on one of them ICBMs you know!!;)
Seriously though, it's a tiny part of "what if" the commies in China and Russia do try to attack is, and a very large part of making sure that military contractors who provide vital campaign contributions to politicians keep busy earning their keep.
Better than a house, why doesnsold't Google buy it for their primary data center and lab were it to be auctioned off?
(Yeah, I know, the base is not actually being docomissioned and sold, but it'd be the perfect data center were that the case)
Can you imagine the attraction of such a center? Totally impervious to war, as resistant to acts of God as one can get, plenty of shielding from RFI, climate controlled, etc. etc. plus I'm sure they have massively redundant power and data connections (it'd kinda suck if NORAD relied on a single electrical service and data demarc for their needs). There probably isn't a better data center building design anywhere. The missile silos would probably come in at a very distant second. If a hosting company or search engine/hosting company gets their hands on that complex, you can pretty much guarantee they'd capture the enterprise hosting, remote backup, and ASP market, and would gladly pay a premium for guaranteeable-ZERO downtime. The company could also get into storage of valuable, irreplaceable items such as ancient artifacts, art, gems, etc. because who the heck could break into that complex? I'd be surprised if even a bunker-buster could make its way into Cheyenne.
If I were in control of one of those huge IT companies (MSN, Yahoo, Google, etc.) I'd have made sure that the company bought one or more of the decomissioned missile silos and were Cheyenne to be auctioned off the company would bid on it. An infrastructure like that has a ton of potential. One can dream though.
If some company would sell me invalid copy (pirated) ofo software on purpose I would post EVERY DETAIL on that company that I have.
I've been down that road. I went to one of those computer shows a few years ago to look for some now-esoteric equipment like SCSI cases, various SCSI connectors, and so forth. I checked out the software deals, bought a bunch of Norton Antivirus licenses (legit) and Quickbooks Pro. Turned out the Quickbooks CD was counterfeit and wouldn't register/activate. I called Intuit and learned it was a counterfeit. Everything appeared legit to me, but I haven't studied their typefaces or anything. Turns out the "Quickbooks Pro" silkscreening was slightly flawed, and the serial number/install key sticker was a totally different style from what was supposed to be there. The manual and packaging seemed real enough though. Anyway, Quicken met me halfway and gave me a great deal on new legit licenses - three seats (which basically came to three seats for the price of two), when they could have been real jackasses and not give me any discount at all. What I did for them was give them the name, number, and (claimed) address of the dealer from whom I purchased Quickbooks, and checked various show schedules to find the next few they'd be attending so that Quicken could send reps to to bust then. If they fucked me out of $179 with very real-looking packaging, chances are I am not the only one they're ripping off. All in all Intuit was damned courteous when they owed me NOTHING for my inconvenience.
The fact that their software is badly architected and requires admin privileges though, is not so forgiveable.:(
Windows XP comes with documentation? In which parallel dimension?
Windows 2003 comes with a joke of a manual, but XP? If you buy OEM, there IS none. Online help is your manual, you get a holographic disc, a COA sticker with a holographic strip, and that's about it.
(and I wouldn't be surprised if there was an accompanying list of people to put through a BSA audit should they not subsequently purchase an upgrade).
Why not just avoid the whole BSA fiasco by rolling out the OOo suite, and F/OSS whenever possible? Then, if the BSA comes knocking, you can tell them "GPL/BSD/MPL here, biatch. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out."
Slashdot Mirror
Thank God for that, otherwise some assclown would be faking alerts and wreaking havoc internationally,
Aside from the "Stargate Command" sign on a broom closet, I presume? Obviously they have some semblance of humor on the base? Or, is the show Stargate SG1 actually a coverup of the real thing? (Wormhole Xtreme = best Stargate episode ever.
Despite the fact that it's designed to withstand an accidental drop, I still would not go out of my way to intentionally knock the thing around. Have you any idea just how tight the tolerances are in modern hard drives? Sure they're machined better than hard drives of the past, but with the tighter tolerances I'd avoid intentionally jostling the things while they're running.
I don't know about you, but I would not go out of my way to subject a laptop to sudden motion intentionally while the hard drive is running, no matter how well the hard drives are built. If I spend $2,000 on a laptop, I'd want the thing to last.
For what it's worth, it really isn't one of Engineerings' biggest mistakes, it is one of Politics' biggest infrastructure mistakes.
The central artery was originally supposed to be I-95, not I-93, and there was supposed to be a bypass around the city - much like you find around many other large cities. Instead, what they did was merge I-95 and 128 together around the whole Greater Boston area (e.g., Boston + outlying suburbs) and renamed the central artery I-93. The big dig should have created a bypass, replacing the original short tunnel with a longer tunnel under the whole city, exiting north of the city, without any exits in the city, and the elevated highway could have remained and provided not only easy ingress and egress traffic, but a bypass underground, This would have resolved the daily traffice jams once and for all, as well as provided an economic boost to the area (not that it's needed, it'd have been a nice plus). The originally-intended bypass could have been achieved, and with not having to tunnel all the on and off ramps, the integrity of the tunnel could have increased while at the same time decreasing the costs.
Now what you have is a very dangerous highway with significant cross-traffic (with people zipping over at the last possible instant to catch their exits) stuck underground and difficult for emergency crews to get to, built very poorly due to political influences and budget constraints (e.g., execs not willing to accept a slimmer profit margin). It did not really resolve any traffic issues that were promised would be eliminated, and resulted in major disruptions in commerce and the daily lives of city dwellers throughout the construction, not to mention rendered every map useless because so many streets were affected and re-routed as a result of the project. It made merging onto the highway more difficult due in part to visibility issues and do in large part to the lack of courtesy on the part of drivers, most of whose driving tests consisted of a 1-mile drive around a city or suburban block "driving test" during low-traffic hours, drivers who REFUSE to adjust their driving habits to the dangerous confined situation which exists with scores of people merging onto and off of the tunnel at any given moment, each person jockeying for position without the slightest care or regard for anyone else's safety or convenience.
It's also worth pointing out that based on writings (letters, journals, etc.) leading up to and following authoring the Constitution, the "well regulated" clause was in reference to/meant "well-trained", not "run by the government" because the whole point of the second amendment was a final check and balance against tyranny within/from the government.
For closed isolated systems you can have very effective shielding against EMP, but do you think that they spent what it takes to shield every component on that AFB from EMP? I'd hope it's a yes, but I'm doubtful.
There are always better ways to solve a problem, but when doing the job right will thin profit margins to a moderate-yet-respectful level rather than a disgustingly profitable margin, do you think the execs will sacrifice their bonuses by taking longer and spending more of their contract money to provide the best solution, or go with the solution to meet their mandated-by-law-come-hell-or-high-water deadline? That's right, they're going to do the barest minimum to meet their contractual obligations to the letter to get that final check written and the lien against the escrow accounts released.
That is largely a non-issue, because for large projects, construction companies sometimes do what the movie industry does: incorporate a new company solely for the purpose of bidding on and executing a project, then once the job is done dissolve the corporation. This avoid liability, keeps their insurance rates low, and ensures that they will have pleny of work in the future even when they screw up in a big way.
The law doesn't help when engineers are disregarded in the name of attaining a political victory by rushing a project.
Do you remember the propoganda billboard reading "Rome wasn't built in a day" when traffic was still largely above-ground and backed up from Boston to Braintree almost around the clock? I wish I had taken a photo of that sign. I've searched Google for it but haven't found it. :(
A few things:
1. Illegal aliens is politically incorrect. They are now "illegal immigrants." Thank you for participating in today's brainwashing/reprogramming session.
2. "illegal immigrants"(sic) are protected in the Greater Boston area (especially Cambridge and Boston, which is where the big dig project was/is), with politicians blocking enforcement of immigration laws at every turn, and yet, Boston is home of the successful hijackings on September 11, 2001.
3, "Illegal immigrants"(sic) have minority status here and thusly receive preferential treatment. Being unable to communicate with your bosses and coworkers is not a reason to discriminate, and as of recently, neither is the lack of citizenship, green card, or even a work visa. However, if you are a citizen, you are not entitled to work, sorry, we have affirmative action here.
Call me cynical. I find the whole situation disgusting. One of my business partners is from Nigeria and he worked hard to get his citizenship so he could work here and he's extremely patriotic (he won't do business with fellow Nigerians, as an aside). Why is it that people who attempt to come in legitimately get treated like shit, and yet the people who break every conceivable law to get here get a free ride? Even though I know social engineering and manipulation of voter precinct demographics is a factor, I still cannot comprehend how these politicians can be so fucking transparent and still get away with this bullshit.
Yep. I know folks who worked on that project, in middle management, who flatly refuse to drive through the tunnels due to the nonsense that went on in upper management, and the engineers having been told to pretty much STFU when they pointed out severe flaws. Hence, the hundreds of leaks (700 or so gushing leaks so far?) and then the collapse. I've driven through the tunnels only twice - when I need to go to the south shore I go right up 95/128 all the way around the whole mess. I'm a bit of a risk taker (I've driven insanely fast and have been a passenger in cars traveling even faster, I've gone rock and mountain climbing with no gear, I bike trails with my helmet left at home (I've worn the helmet only once while riding, I shouldn't have even bothered buying it), I've dived into quarries from the topmost points) but I find those tunnels truly frightning. I'll take calculated risks, but driving through the big dig is one I prefer to avoid because I have absolutely zero control over that situation, so it's an unknown/uncalculated risk, left purely up to chance.
Intuit (Intuit is the name of the company, not Quicken) owed me nothing for the counterfeit Quickbooks Pro. Intuit is not the company which ripped me off, the counterfeiter was. And that is the kind of copyright infringement which SHOULD be cracked down on, by the way (BSA, RIAA, and MPAA take notice) - they produced professional, real-looking packaging, silkscreened CDs, and everything to make the product look 100% legitimate, unless someone were already intimately familiar with that specific release of that specific product. It's a much different thing than casual copying for home to learn how to use a product (which leads to further future sales) or to telecommute (which again, is long-term viral marketing when that employee moves on, because she or he already knows your product, that user will ask their new boss to invest in the same for that other company).
It depends. Did you get that OEM Windows from a big-box vendor like Dell, Compaq/HP, etc. or did you get the whitebox OEM? The whitebox OEM is very similar to retail, with the major difference being a slightly different key algoritm and it comes with the system builder components to put Windows into audit mode for customizing the desktop prior to shipment. The big-box vendors OEMs can sometimes be totally different and include items such as spyware preinstalled for your "convenience" (why do you think Dells are so inexpensive?), custom media players, and "value added" trinkets to suck up your system resources.
I noticed that right away. Someone report this to Microsoft's anti-piracy hotline and drop a line to a big media company while you're at it. It'd be fun if it lands in court and then Microsoft, in retailiation, ends up more closely scruitinized for its business practices to ensure that they are abiding by their antitrust agreements. :D
The key changer will work if you had been sold an illegitimate retail version and bought a new retail version to replace it, PROVIDING it is the same SR level, however if you were sold an illegitimate OEM version and purchase a retail version, even if the same SR level, the key will likely not be accepted.
Do a repair installation - IF the retail boxed version you purchased is at least as new as what is installed on the machine. If it came with an OEM SR2, and the retail box is the original release or SR1, you stand a good chance of fudging everything up.
Best solution? Buy the new box, call Microsoft if it refuses the key, ask to speak to a supervisor and demand a working key for the OEM release since you now have the license to back up the use of it (aside from the fact that you OWN it, not license it, being a commodity good, but it'll cost more money than you and I to take Microsoft to court over that whole fiasco).
I doubt that the system will lack redundancy. They'd be TOTAL fools to rely on a single AFB, even with hundreds or thousands of antiaircraft missiles and anti-missile missiles readily available. All it takes is a single nuke to go off within a few miles for the EMP burst to render all communications and data infrustructure useless.
What need have we of NORAD now that governments have surveillance cameras throughout certain cities in the US, and wiretap pretty much everyone now? The populace is being monitored closely, and it's only a very tiny step to control. So what threat is there, really? It's more important that potential terrorist activities can take place to keep a majority of the people who do bother to vote to vote "correctly" out of fear of an inconsequential attack. Major threats such as an economic depression is less of a worry, because it may actually beneficial to powermongers' goals because then pretty much everyone will become dependent upon the political elite just to survive, and will at that point hand over ALL constitutionally-protected freedoms in exchange for a little bread.
Yeah, I know, it's a conspiracy theory, but after all that's gone on since September 11, 2001, it does not seems so far-fetched any more. I used to read stuff like William Cooper for a lark, but now having re-read Behold a Pale Horse, MaJestyTwelve, Gary H. Kah's work, and some other books on those subjects, 1984 looks tame in comparison to how reality is seeming to parallel those "whacko conspiracy theories."
One of them ter'rists could git their hands on one of them ICBMs you know!!
Seriously though, it's a tiny part of "what if" the commies in China and Russia do try to attack is, and a very large part of making sure that military contractors who provide vital campaign contributions to politicians keep busy earning their keep.
Better than a house, why doesnsold't Google buy it for their primary data center and lab were it to be auctioned off?
(Yeah, I know, the base is not actually being docomissioned and sold, but it'd be the perfect data center were that the case)
Can you imagine the attraction of such a center? Totally impervious to war, as resistant to acts of God as one can get, plenty of shielding from RFI, climate controlled, etc. etc. plus I'm sure they have massively redundant power and data connections (it'd kinda suck if NORAD relied on a single electrical service and data demarc for their needs). There probably isn't a better data center building design anywhere. The missile silos would probably come in at a very distant second. If a hosting company or search engine/hosting company gets their hands on that complex, you can pretty much guarantee they'd capture the enterprise hosting, remote backup, and ASP market, and would gladly pay a premium for guaranteeable-ZERO downtime. The company could also get into storage of valuable, irreplaceable items such as ancient artifacts, art, gems, etc. because who the heck could break into that complex? I'd be surprised if even a bunker-buster could make its way into Cheyenne.
If I were in control of one of those huge IT companies (MSN, Yahoo, Google, etc.) I'd have made sure that the company bought one or more of the decomissioned missile silos and were Cheyenne to be auctioned off the company would bid on it. An infrastructure like that has a ton of potential. One can dream though.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=cheyenne%20mountain& ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla :en-US:official&sa=N&tab=wl
Not a whole lot to see.
(Please don't waste mod points modding this up informative, all I did was post a URL to google maps.)
Maybe so, but the people who work at Cheyenne are not 12.
I've been down that road. I went to one of those computer shows a few years ago to look for some now-esoteric equipment like SCSI cases, various SCSI connectors, and so forth. I checked out the software deals, bought a bunch of Norton Antivirus licenses (legit) and Quickbooks Pro. Turned out the Quickbooks CD was counterfeit and wouldn't register/activate. I called Intuit and learned it was a counterfeit. Everything appeared legit to me, but I haven't studied their typefaces or anything. Turns out the "Quickbooks Pro" silkscreening was slightly flawed, and the serial number/install key sticker was a totally different style from what was supposed to be there. The manual and packaging seemed real enough though. Anyway, Quicken met me halfway and gave me a great deal on new legit licenses - three seats (which basically came to three seats for the price of two), when they could have been real jackasses and not give me any discount at all. What I did for them was give them the name, number, and (claimed) address of the dealer from whom I purchased Quickbooks, and checked various show schedules to find the next few they'd be attending so that Quicken could send reps to to bust then. If they fucked me out of $179 with very real-looking packaging, chances are I am not the only one they're ripping off. All in all Intuit was damned courteous when they owed me NOTHING for my inconvenience.
The fact that their software is badly architected and requires admin privileges though, is not so forgiveable.
Windows XP comes with documentation? In which parallel dimension?
Windows 2003 comes with a joke of a manual, but XP? If you buy OEM, there IS none. Online help is your manual, you get a holographic disc, a COA sticker with a holographic strip, and that's about it.
(and I wouldn't be surprised if there was an accompanying list of people to put through a BSA audit should they not subsequently purchase an upgrade).
Why not just avoid the whole BSA fiasco by rolling out the OOo suite, and F/OSS whenever possible? Then, if the BSA comes knocking, you can tell them "GPL/BSD/MPL here, biatch. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out."