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User: RatBastard

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Comments · 1,803

  1. Re:I don't buy it on Flat Screen Monitors Sales to Reign This Year · · Score: 2
    Most computer people are not artists or high-end gamers. Most people want something that they can do wordprocessing on, surf the web with, etc... that won't take over their desk. For most users today's LCD displays are fine.

  2. DVD-R on Could CDRW Disks Replace Videotapes? · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I got a Pioneer DVD-RW drive and just put stuff to DVD. Sure, DVD-Rs cost a bit, but I only put things I want to actually keep on them. If I'm not going to hold onto the video for a while I jkust leave it on the hard drive.

    I didn't go with (S)VCDs because my DVD player (XBox, actually) doesn't play them.

    The cost of entry is higher, but the quality is far superior than VHS (unless you're trying to record off of the local Fox station, but that's their fault).

  3. You don't understand. on Financial Institutions Balk at MS Licensing · · Score: 5, Insightful
    We're not talking programs like The Gimp or even Mozilla. We're talking professional grade applications that often have to follow Federal guidelines in their implementation. You can't just yank these programs and replace them with some home-grown FSF/GNU/OS replacement.

    I haven't worked in the medical industry, but I have worked in the banking industry. They are in a very similar situation regarding software. There is no window shopping. You don't get to decide what platform these programs run on. You get what your vendor makes.

    These programs must often follow stringent federal guidelines and the vendors often offer 24/7 live support (and I've called my vendor at 11:30pm on Christmas Eve and there was a knowledgable tech there to help me out).

    Idealsim is a fine thing, but don't let it get in the way of getting your actual work done.

  4. Re:One big problem (literally) with CRT's on LCD Round-up · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Short Neck" CRTs are pretty costly to produce. They need stronger magnets, get knocked out of alighment more easily and suffer higher incidents of misconvergance, IIRC. While they are a nice technology, they tend to be fairly costly in a pretty cut-thorat market segment.

  5. Re:Variable speed. on Building a Dead Silent PC · · Score: 2

    While my noisiest system is my gaming rig, my server is second. My server is an old Pentium 233MMX with a Promise IDE controlloer pushing a a pair of mirrored 120GB drives, and a 4GB boot drive (biggest the motherboard chipset will drive). This system is on 24/7. It has three fans, the CPU fan, the PSU fan and a case fan at the rear to keep the drives cool.

    I'm seriously considering a VIA C3 system with all passive cooling for this system.

  6. Not A Question but... on Ask 'Junkyard Wars Diva' Cathy Rogers · · Score: 5, Funny

    If Cathy and John Carmack ever got together, their children would rule the world like gods!

  7. Not off topic! on Ask 'Junkyard Wars Diva' Cathy Rogers · · Score: 1

    That was his question!

    Damned clueless mods.

  8. Re:How so? on Star Wars Producer Says Box Office is Doomed · · Score: 2

    When you buy the DVD rather than go to the theatre, you are not supporting the theatre (you filthy pirate!). Thatre's make their money on ticket sales (which they share with the studio) and snack sales (which they don't share with anyone). While that $20.00 Episode One DVD might have put a few extra bucks into George Lucas' fat, swollen, wallet, it put nothing into the wallet of the guy running the local movie house.

  9. Re:Bullshit on Star Wars Producer Says Box Office is Doomed · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Personally, it wouldn't bother me a bit if the Big Studios all died. What the hell have they given us in the last few years? "Charlies Angels", "Scooby Doo", "The Tuxedo", "The Fast and The Furious", "The Quick And The Dead", "Jaws 3D", "Godzilla", etc... Who's going to miss that drek?

    The basic fact of the matter is that these companies have fossilized. It's time for new blood.

  10. Gosh! on Fuel Cell Laptop announced by Toshiba · · Score: 2

    Gosh! You mean that they are incompitent boobs? I'm sure that they are testing them and are working on technologies to deal with the various power/heat issues that fuel cells represent. They don;t want to sell you computers that kill themselves (inside the warranty period, at least).

    I think EVRYONE learned the Great Powerbook Lesson.

  11. Re:Fuel cells? on Fuel Cell Laptop announced by Toshiba · · Score: 3, Troll

    1: Fuel cells have already been aproved for airline use
    2: If you can rig a fuel cell to explode, you can probably turn a chocolate bar, three staples and a piece of tape into a 40 megatonne nuclear warehead
    3: Your friend is an idiot. I'm surprised they didn't though his ass in jail.

  12. Re:Good idea, except... on Fuel Cell Laptop announced by Toshiba · · Score: 2

    Except that you don't have to leave the laptop plugged in to charge all those extra batteries. All you do is pour more fuel into the fuel cell and you are good to go.

    I'm hoping that Dell (or some third party) comes out with some fuel cells for existing laptops. I'd like more than the 2.5 hours my battery gives me.

  13. House Cleaning. on New RedHat Kernel Patch Illegal to Explain to U.S. Users · · Score: 2

    Then we vote against every one of those scum suckers. Let the next group know that we're won't put up with this crap anymore.

  14. It's a joke, folks. on The End Of Minix? · · Score: 2

    I think he's trying to make a funny.

  15. It rurns out that... on Mac OS X to Get Journaling FS · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It turns out that what people really want is a non-MS desktop that actually works. Most people over the age of 14 don't give a rat's ass about the ideological aspects at all.

  16. Make that Extra Crispy. on Lik-Sang Back Online, Minus Modchips · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I don't know why anyone would be surprised. Sony is very much behind DRM technology and is a supporter of the DMCA. I guess people think that because Sony decided to sell a Linux kit for the PS2 that they aren't the Japanese Microsoft.

  17. Not enough to hurt them at all. on Taking Aim At The Mod Squads · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There aren't enough Linux users out there to hurt MS at all with this action. With a comany with assets in the tens of billions of US Dollars, how many units would have to be sold at a $50.00 (US) loss in order for them to even feel it? Even if one million Linux geeks went for it, that would only be 50-million dollars. Bill Gates spends that in a week on lunch!

    You'd have better luck trying to kill a blue whale with a nerf bat.

  18. Re:hahaha! on Microsoft Tries a "Switch" Campaign · · Score: 2

    And I've had Windows installs that were done as soon as SETUP.EXE rebooted for the last time. So what? Very few Windows installs are problematic and we shouldn't be claiming otherwise if we want people to take us seriously.

  19. Re:hahaha! on Microsoft Tries a "Switch" Campaign · · Score: 2

    Now, I think these ads are as dumb as the next guy does, however, with one exception (damned HP piece of crap) it's never taken me longer than two hours to get a Windows install running, be it Windows 3.x, 9x, or 2000/XP. (The HP in question was being downgraded from XP to 98SE and the drivers did not exist in 98SE and HP wouldn't tell me what was in the damned computer.)

    Calling MS on the carpet for copying Apple's ads is fine and dandy, but let's not make shit up just to make our position seem stronger.

  20. Wait one damned minute! on Microsoft Tries a "Switch" Campaign · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey! She's not funny looking! Can't those twits at MicroSoft do anything right?

  21. Need? on Apple Is Buyer of New 64-Bit IBM Chips · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Critics -- notably Intel -- argue that most desktop users have no need for 64-bit processing

    And IBM said no one needed the power of the 80386. Then Compaq released their 386 monster and IBM stopped mattering in the PC world.

  22. Joe Sixpack on RMS Weighs In On BitKeeper · · Score: 2
    If they don't want to code and they don't want to pay, they're irrelevant and should shut up and be grateful for having any software in the first place.

    And that's why Joe Sixpack doesn't give two wet shits about Linux, and never will. If Linux wants to ever have a snowball's chance in Hell of unseating MS Windows its developers need to start focusing on the user end of things.

  23. Not even spyware on New SecuROM Ties Protection to Physical Structure · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They don't even need to install spyware (a la Gator), all they need to do is put in "cracked" codes that tell the program to call home and rat you out, or send you to "special" servers, or cripple your ping.

  24. Sony, Linux and The PS2 on More on Microsoft vs. Lik Sang · · Score: 2

    Remember that Sony sells the Linux kit for the PS2, and it's not exactly cheap. That does not make Sony any more reasonable in this regard as they have always been pretty agressive at trying to get mod chip manufacturers shut down.

  25. Re:Note to Santa: Cancel my XBOX order on More on Microsoft vs. Lik Sang · · Score: 2

    And I'm sure Bill Gates is crying himself to sleep because of you.

    Get over yourself. MS doesn't give a rat's festering rectum about people buying XBoxen to mod them. They care about people who buy them to play (and therefore buy) XBox games.