Yeah...easily attainable, perhaps. Regular desktop amount...I'm thinking no. My gaming rig only has 4gb and that has been working pretty well for me...granted it is DDR2 and it's like 3 years old or so but still. 16gb is still a little ways away from being the norm.:)
Hit the nail on the head. I mean he seems pretty cool but most of the things he wants to get rid of he just wants to give the states the power to do. Well that certainly is wonderful isn't it? No, the government shouldn't ban abortion...the states should. Oh okay, that's better.
My shop (Atomic Comics) had all their 4 stores close up shop and that just brought me full on over to the world of ordering comic books online (DCBService.com if anyone is interested). I miss the people there, sure, but most of them got jobs somewhere else so the people I REALLY liked are gone now. I drove over 10 miles to go to the comic shop with all the people I liked rather than the one a block from my house because they were awesome. There are other stores but none of them seem to be as cool. I'm sad but at least I'm saving money now. No more driving 10 miles for comics and now I buy less.:p
Too expensive for the dock. I was somewhat interested in that tablet until I saw you had to buy the dock separately for $150 (really guys?). So their stand-out feature for the tablet is obnoxiously expensive and that pretty much makes me not interested. I'm not made of money. Quite frankly I hate Apple but if I was going to spend $500 or so, I'd probably just get a damn iPad.
Right now I'm looking at the Samsung Thrive. 16gb version is ~$400 and I can definitely get on board with that with a full sized USB and SDXC port. I'm really hoping they go on sale for Black Friday...that would make me very happy. Might even get me out of the house with all those crazy fucks...but I'm not sure. I don't think any deal is worth standing in line waiting for a store to open for like an hour or more.:p
I keep hearing that they're using our roads or whatever and like...um...they pay UPS/Fedex/Whoever to deliver the shit. That company pays taxes towards that shit...so what EXACTLY is the point of a tax on a business like Amazon? It would be double dipping...it's stupid. Most of the time it seems like the only people that want it are the government themselves and the businesses that can't compete with the pricing. Boo fucking hoo. You aren't going to win any favors from me by trying to make Amazon's shit cost more. If it happens I'm still buying stuff there. Sorry.
Is this Soulskill guy new or something? This is the second article in the row where the summary has completely missed the point. I don't normally complain much about that but then they aren't usually THAT far off base. o_O
Thanks for clarifying...this makes much more sense. I hadn't read the article yet (I'm reading it now) because I generally read a few comments first and it kind of makes me laugh I got this far down without someone else mentioning this.:p
The creators (or rather publishers) have far more rights than they ever should have to begin with. The systems in place have been abused to the point that we won't see half the things from our childhood enter the public domain in our lifetimes. DRM makes everything a pain in the ass and they know damn well they aren't stopping piracy but instead making it a hassle for normal people to use their devices the way they see fit. These practices need to be shot down now. To say that content owners are being granted NO rights is ridiculous. They're being regulated back to sane levels again where they can no longer be hostile assholes to their customers.
What would have been far more logical is to simply build the lines ourselves and then allow these companies to use them for just enough fees to cover maintenance. That would sure as hell have cleared up a LOT of issues we face today and we'd actually have a free market. Of course, I'm sure someone paid off someone even that long ago for this to happen and as you can see, we are currently fucked. Thanks guys.
Do you even understand anything anywhere in this article or about really...any piece of the issue at hand? The government is GIVING the companies money (we the people pay this tax...apparently that has escaped you) because otherwise they would not build out internet into more rural areas. The main idea being that it is good for us as a country for everyone to have access to the internet just like it was good for them to have phone lines and before that...electricity. Without the subsidies these people would simply never get service. It isn't profitable. This is not an issue the free market can decide. It done so yet and broadband has been around for quite some time.
I know it's popular to just throw out whatever first pops into your head, but give me a break. Is this just some knee jerk reaction to seeing the word "subsidy" without having actually read a single thing on the topic? You could not possibly be more ignorant. Of course I'm sure someone out there thinks that "fuck those people for living there" and all I can say to that is that you're a selfish bastard. As a few people have mentioned on here, many people built their houses out in the styx before the internet even existed and quite frankly, it's not like this costs you very much money. It doesn't take much when you have so many tax payers and this is something I'm actually okay with. The oil companies can go fuck themselves but at least this is accomplishing something good even if the broadband providers are still shit heads.
I've seen this suggestion several times in here and I wonder how many companies actually do that. Like...depending on the size of the company, I can almost guarantee no one that needs the authority has it to hire you as a consultant and no one that does have the authority to authorize it. Granted I'm not a programmer (I work inside a helpdesk..thankfully not ON the helpdesk) but I've never heard of any department anywhere inside this company hiring someone as a consultant. People leave and that's pretty much it. I wonder how common hiring a consultant even is, to be honest. Of course again...I'm not really in a related field. It just seems like a foreign thing to me.
This is incredibly important but definitely easier said than done. I got promoted to a new position and quite frankly, the people I left behind just don't give as much of a shit about the job to even do the things I was doing. I set them up as well as I could and still talk to them on a somewhat regular basis (same company just a different job). I left docs or tried to teach people (it's a help desk job...nothing THAT complicated) but some things they either don't give enough of a shit, apparently don't understand the instructions I wrote (?!), or they forgot what I told them. I was like the huge nerd/technowhiz of the group and ended up making a lot of things to make their jobs easier or gather metrics we did not gather before. Sometimes just getting them to use it was like pulling teeth...much less getting someone to maintain it. On the other hand, if they DID use it, they liked it, and if they were using it enough...they figured out how to maintain it relatively well after I left.
Fortunately, despite these annoyances, I still quite like the people over there and actually enjoy talking to them. That's a good thing for both of us.:p
Dude, in US dollars this guy is talking about somewhere in the ball park of $10,000. I don't know about you, but that makes things a little different. 10k dollar raise and a commute that is a fraction of the old one...I mean shit...that's hitting the jackpot. Quite frankly, I can learn to like my colleagues at the new place as long as there aren't warning signs of it being a hell hole. That's why you leave on good terms with the old employer. The act of leaving shouldn't burn any bridges if you aren't an asshole about it. If it was me, I'd offer to help them over the phone here and there after I left...possibly for free if I liked the people there enough. An hour on the phone here or there isn't a big idea and the whole "money is time" idea is bullshit anyway. I wouldn't be doing anything productive during that hour anyway so I can do something nice for people I like.
Couldn't agree more. I've been pirating since I was roughly 10 years old. My uncle would give me stuff and as I got older I figured out how to get it on my own. However, I still buy stuff all the time. I buy it with whatever extra money I can buy it with. I'm only 25 (a whippersnapper to some of you) and am generally considered part of that generation that pirates and doesn't give a shit, but that's not true at all. I've pirated movies and watched them enough times to the point that I felt guilty enough to buy it. If you like it enough for multiple viewings then that means the creator should be paid for it right? I buy programs when they are reasonably priced (fuck you Adobe) or try to find free open source alternatives when they are not.
I do what I can but sometimes...well...fuck them. I'm not paying 60 dollars for a box set of a TV show that aired for free with commercials. I'm not paying 1-3 dollars per episode either especially with all the DRM bullshit that comes with it. That's too damn expensive. What they think something is worth is ridiculously inflated AND they expect me to deal with their bullshit. Meanwhile, it takes about 5 minutes to download the latest episode of a TV show on Usenet and I have all kinds of neat programs and scripts to do it automatically, rename it, give it box art, and pop it into XBMC. Going on a road trip? Copy, paste, done. What's that process like the official way? Lol. It's a pain in the ass.
I tell you what I would pay for though...streaming that didn't suck shit. Streaming that literally had EVERYTHING from EVERYONE. If Netflix took their entire DVD/Bluray collection and converted them all for streaming I would be more than happy to pay 30 bucks a month for that. But no, instead I watch them going to renegotiate deals with these assholes and this time around they ask for literally 10 times what they did last time. They also still refuse to give them new movies and TV shows. Fuck it. If you're going to keep being such hostile dick heads, I'm going to do what I usually do. I just feel bad for Netflix because they WANT to do right by us and they're getting fucked by a cartel basically.
Good point. I normally enjoy the stuff that comes through but sometimes I really wonder what the hell the editors were thinking with some of the blogspam. Like seriously...do you guys even look at some of those links? Sometimes it's literally a copypasta job. Come on now.
Yeah, I really don't understand why this even got posted on Slashdot. The best place I can possibly think to go is the beta testing forums. No wonder people have trouble finding things on the internet...they go about things in completely illogical ways...like typing a domain name into Google to get there. x_x
1. New Start Menu actually still shows quite a bit but does not become the big sprawling mess that the XP menu did. What difference is there scrolling down vs moving your mouse down, left and right, or even worse...in a lot of XP installs it had a damn scroll button on it when your menu was too big. Do you not have a scroll wheel on your mouse? Are you seriously complaining about having to SCROLL? o_O
2. I can't remember the last time I scrolled through because I hit start, type 3 or 4 letters, and I have what I want. Not to mention the few programs I use are usually on the quick launch anyway.
3. You can still navigate to things the same way (though they aren't in the same place) so I don't understand your argument about not being able to tell someone where to look.
4. The Control panel has a Classic option still. It's been there since XP. In fact your beloved XP with it's great Start Menu (apparently) was the one that started shuffling the Control Panel into those weird categories and stupid shit. Still, it's pretty easy to simply switch to classic mode if it bothers you. If you're helping someone on the phone? Have them switch to classic.:p
Look, I get that it is irritating when they change things. I curse with every new version of Windows when I have to figure out what the hell they named Add/Remove programs to this time, but most of the things you're complaining about seem like complaints of someone that hates anything that changes ever. Adapt. It seems like you're more concerned about whining about changes than actually learning anything new. You want to keep using the Windows 98 shell then by all means go ahead. They're trying to make improvements and I welcome most of the changes they've made thus far. Though I'm not so sure I like what I'm seeing in Windows 8...I'll at least give it a chance.
It's amazing how many people complain about new things on a technology enthusiast website. I swear you guys go into every change kicking and screaming. I used to think I was kind of a complainer but some of the people on here are just...well clearly I'm a rookie.
Have you even played it or are you just being facetious? I can't tell sometimes especially when this isn't modded funny. Some people on this site are just miserable bastards and nothing is ever good or fun for them. It annoys me...like you have to suck the joy out of every single thing that exists. Nothing personal it just annoys me to see people constantly shitting on everyone's parade.
Quite frankly is strikes me that laws like this will simply make things cost more rather than make people change their habits. We're still buying brand new SUVs and Ford F-350s to drive to work. Do you think that this kind of stuff is really going to help? I mean I get the idea but there has to be a better way than just taxing people. I've always been of the opinion that you catch more flies with honey. Punishing people for doing something doesn't work nearly as well as encouraging them to do something else. I think we see that is the case a lot. Hey, I could be wrong, but that's the way I do things. The whole taxing people to make them do what you want thing seems stupid to me. Just like trying to raise taxes on gas to make people buy new more gas efficient cars (wtf?). You raise taxes and people have less money to buy those nice new gas efficient cars. Great idea!
Thank you for being rational. While I know it's popular to say people are dumb (which they are), they are still smarter than the farmers that comprised most of the country when the constitution was drafted. I think people forget about the people that were NOT the founding fathers...the regular people. I'd say we're smarter although with that general increase of knowledge there does not seem to be an increase in critical thinking or common sense. As they say, common sense is not so common.
You think it's funny until you're working there and afraid that you could be fired for basically anything. Yeah some of them are probably dumb ass teenagers that can't follow the rules but even the ones that do are constantly afraid of losing their jobs. That is a shitty environment to work for and a GOOD employee will be nervous about that kind of shit too. So yeah, it sounds funny at first, but think about actually being one of those people.
No. Some people have dial up that is not DSL. Do you think the entire country has access to multiple broadband providers because you do? Do you think that even if they DO have access to the 2 providers (whoop dee doo) that they aren't both doing the same thing? Do you know why they are both doing the same thing? Because they can. That's a duopoly and that's what most places have. There is no competition because the companies know that if they do the same shit, people will pretty much even out between the both of them.
Let's say all the customers in Phoenix have a choice between Century Link DSL and Cox Cable (because that is in fact the case). Now if you leave Cox, where do you go? Century Link. If you leave Century Link where do you go? Cox. If they're both throttling, limiting bandwidth, blocking Hulu to make you buy cable from them, etc...what exactly do you do? Can a smaller competitor come swoop in and funnel away all their customers? Nope. Monopoly on the phone and cable lines. Is this scenario common? Yup. We aren't talking hypotheticals really...all the cable and DSL companies do the exact same things to varying degrees (it is even worse in Canada). Some (like Cox) are generally more benevolent (they don't really enforce their bandwidth caps...which is great)...but for now. Realistically, they have absolutely no reason whatsoever to continue doing this and in fact in other areas, Cox Cable are actually a bunch of bastards. We're just lucky that in the Phoenix Metro area, they're nice guys. Century Link (formerly Qwest)...no they're bastards. Or at least they have been before.
Now remove the cable or DSL provider from the scenario. You're looking at a fairly large portion of the country. What do these people do? They can't even leave one company to go to another because there isn't one. Yeah, maybe they have Comcast available but guess what? They're too far away from the phone company for DSL. Yeah sure they can get dial up internet but they can't get DSL. Great. What happens when Comcast (or say...Time Warner) institutes a 50gb bandwidth cap per month. Oh I'm sorry, did you want to watch Netflix and download games on Steam? Sorry you're going to need to pay overage charges on that. What are you going to do about it? Is that a free market? Is either of these scenarios really a free market? Is this not really just the illusion of a choice? Just because you get to pick which company is screwing you doesn't mean you actually have good choices and that's why this isn't a free market. The companies are large, embedded, and have been given monopolies on their lines. No one can compete with them BY LAW. If you are REALLY lucky you get to choose between DSL and Cable but there is nothing stopping them from doing the same thing. You start introducing 3 or even 4 companies and doing the same thing gets a lot harder.
Same with the cell phone market. Why do you think AT&T wants to buy T-Mobile? Because they're getting flak for being assholes while T-Mobile is generally just a good company. They don't try and hide things from their customers or try to screw them. What they're doing is right out in the open and they try to be as fair as possible. Do they limit bandwidth? Yes but instead of charging you overages, they knock your speed down to give you a chance to still use the service and not get raped with fees. That seems legitimately like they're trying to keep you from raping their networks rather than trying to make extra money on overages. They lower your monthly bill if you buy your cell phone outright or if you live out your contract terms and continue service with them after the contract has expired. What was AT&T planning to do after they bought T-Mobile? Raise rates. Fuck people. Look up the memo that got leaked from AT&T. This is what happens when you eliminate competition. The less players you have, the more the players left can abuse you. If the only big games in town are Verizon or AT&T, guess what's going to happen? Fuck you, that's what.
I hope they find out what they're doing and make sure they aren't breaking the law. If what they're doing is nasty but not breaking the law, I hope they share it so to shame them into doing something about it. Of course, I'm not sure that will matter but I'm fine with that. I barely post anything on Facebook anyway for this reason.
I don't actually like that method. I update my Chrome manually (I have the PortableApp version) and I update my Firefox manually (PortableApp version). I don't really mind the updates except when it ACTUALLY breaks my extensions. The only thing I've had a problem with this entire rapid release cycle is with Greasemonkey and my Reddit Enhancement Suite. Of course, when Firefox 6 came out, they actually had a fix up on their little subreddit so that seems to have taken care of the annoyance and I'm happy again. Other than that, to my great surprise, I haven't actually had any issues. I do hear people complain constantly about broken extensions or whatever on Slashdot, but I'd be curious to see if they're whining about potentially broken extensions or actual broken extensions because I've seen no evidence of the latter thus far and I use a decent number of extensions.
Honestly? Firefox seems to finally be getting to a point where a really big article on Slashdot with lots of comments doesn't freeze the browser. This is a good thing. I shouldn't need to wait for 20 seconds to use the rest of my browser because of Slashdot's ridiculously intensive Javascript/AJAX/Whatever crap. Yeah it is partly their fault too but Firefox could certainly handle things better than it does. I'm just hoping they DO actually do what they say and separate the actual stuff inside the tabs from the browser interface itself. I want that running in a thread of its own so the browser doesn't freeze while other stuff is going on. That would make Firefox perfect for me.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah...easily attainable, perhaps. Regular desktop amount...I'm thinking no. My gaming rig only has 4gb and that has been working pretty well for me...granted it is DDR2 and it's like 3 years old or so but still. 16gb is still a little ways away from being the norm. :)
Hit the nail on the head. I mean he seems pretty cool but most of the things he wants to get rid of he just wants to give the states the power to do. Well that certainly is wonderful isn't it? No, the government shouldn't ban abortion...the states should. Oh okay, that's better.
My shop (Atomic Comics) had all their 4 stores close up shop and that just brought me full on over to the world of ordering comic books online (DCBService.com if anyone is interested). I miss the people there, sure, but most of them got jobs somewhere else so the people I REALLY liked are gone now. I drove over 10 miles to go to the comic shop with all the people I liked rather than the one a block from my house because they were awesome. There are other stores but none of them seem to be as cool. I'm sad but at least I'm saving money now. No more driving 10 miles for comics and now I buy less. :p
Too expensive for the dock. I was somewhat interested in that tablet until I saw you had to buy the dock separately for $150 (really guys?). So their stand-out feature for the tablet is obnoxiously expensive and that pretty much makes me not interested. I'm not made of money. Quite frankly I hate Apple but if I was going to spend $500 or so, I'd probably just get a damn iPad. Right now I'm looking at the Samsung Thrive. 16gb version is ~$400 and I can definitely get on board with that with a full sized USB and SDXC port. I'm really hoping they go on sale for Black Friday...that would make me very happy. Might even get me out of the house with all those crazy fucks...but I'm not sure. I don't think any deal is worth standing in line waiting for a store to open for like an hour or more. :p
I keep hearing that they're using our roads or whatever and like...um...they pay UPS/Fedex/Whoever to deliver the shit. That company pays taxes towards that shit...so what EXACTLY is the point of a tax on a business like Amazon? It would be double dipping...it's stupid. Most of the time it seems like the only people that want it are the government themselves and the businesses that can't compete with the pricing. Boo fucking hoo. You aren't going to win any favors from me by trying to make Amazon's shit cost more. If it happens I'm still buying stuff there. Sorry.
Is this Soulskill guy new or something? This is the second article in the row where the summary has completely missed the point. I don't normally complain much about that but then they aren't usually THAT far off base. o_O
:p
Thanks for clarifying...this makes much more sense. I hadn't read the article yet (I'm reading it now) because I generally read a few comments first and it kind of makes me laugh I got this far down without someone else mentioning this.
The creators (or rather publishers) have far more rights than they ever should have to begin with. The systems in place have been abused to the point that we won't see half the things from our childhood enter the public domain in our lifetimes. DRM makes everything a pain in the ass and they know damn well they aren't stopping piracy but instead making it a hassle for normal people to use their devices the way they see fit. These practices need to be shot down now. To say that content owners are being granted NO rights is ridiculous. They're being regulated back to sane levels again where they can no longer be hostile assholes to their customers.
What would have been far more logical is to simply build the lines ourselves and then allow these companies to use them for just enough fees to cover maintenance. That would sure as hell have cleared up a LOT of issues we face today and we'd actually have a free market. Of course, I'm sure someone paid off someone even that long ago for this to happen and as you can see, we are currently fucked. Thanks guys.
Do you even understand anything anywhere in this article or about really...any piece of the issue at hand? The government is GIVING the companies money (we the people pay this tax...apparently that has escaped you) because otherwise they would not build out internet into more rural areas. The main idea being that it is good for us as a country for everyone to have access to the internet just like it was good for them to have phone lines and before that...electricity. Without the subsidies these people would simply never get service. It isn't profitable. This is not an issue the free market can decide. It done so yet and broadband has been around for quite some time.
I know it's popular to just throw out whatever first pops into your head, but give me a break. Is this just some knee jerk reaction to seeing the word "subsidy" without having actually read a single thing on the topic? You could not possibly be more ignorant. Of course I'm sure someone out there thinks that "fuck those people for living there" and all I can say to that is that you're a selfish bastard. As a few people have mentioned on here, many people built their houses out in the styx before the internet even existed and quite frankly, it's not like this costs you very much money. It doesn't take much when you have so many tax payers and this is something I'm actually okay with. The oil companies can go fuck themselves but at least this is accomplishing something good even if the broadband providers are still shit heads.
I've seen this suggestion several times in here and I wonder how many companies actually do that. Like...depending on the size of the company, I can almost guarantee no one that needs the authority has it to hire you as a consultant and no one that does have the authority to authorize it. Granted I'm not a programmer (I work inside a helpdesk..thankfully not ON the helpdesk) but I've never heard of any department anywhere inside this company hiring someone as a consultant. People leave and that's pretty much it. I wonder how common hiring a consultant even is, to be honest. Of course again...I'm not really in a related field. It just seems like a foreign thing to me.
This is incredibly important but definitely easier said than done. I got promoted to a new position and quite frankly, the people I left behind just don't give as much of a shit about the job to even do the things I was doing. I set them up as well as I could and still talk to them on a somewhat regular basis (same company just a different job). I left docs or tried to teach people (it's a help desk job...nothing THAT complicated) but some things they either don't give enough of a shit, apparently don't understand the instructions I wrote (?!), or they forgot what I told them. I was like the huge nerd/technowhiz of the group and ended up making a lot of things to make their jobs easier or gather metrics we did not gather before. Sometimes just getting them to use it was like pulling teeth...much less getting someone to maintain it. On the other hand, if they DID use it, they liked it, and if they were using it enough...they figured out how to maintain it relatively well after I left.
:p
Fortunately, despite these annoyances, I still quite like the people over there and actually enjoy talking to them. That's a good thing for both of us.
Dude, in US dollars this guy is talking about somewhere in the ball park of $10,000. I don't know about you, but that makes things a little different. 10k dollar raise and a commute that is a fraction of the old one...I mean shit...that's hitting the jackpot. Quite frankly, I can learn to like my colleagues at the new place as long as there aren't warning signs of it being a hell hole. That's why you leave on good terms with the old employer. The act of leaving shouldn't burn any bridges if you aren't an asshole about it. If it was me, I'd offer to help them over the phone here and there after I left...possibly for free if I liked the people there enough. An hour on the phone here or there isn't a big idea and the whole "money is time" idea is bullshit anyway. I wouldn't be doing anything productive during that hour anyway so I can do something nice for people I like.
Couldn't agree more. I've been pirating since I was roughly 10 years old. My uncle would give me stuff and as I got older I figured out how to get it on my own. However, I still buy stuff all the time. I buy it with whatever extra money I can buy it with. I'm only 25 (a whippersnapper to some of you) and am generally considered part of that generation that pirates and doesn't give a shit, but that's not true at all. I've pirated movies and watched them enough times to the point that I felt guilty enough to buy it. If you like it enough for multiple viewings then that means the creator should be paid for it right? I buy programs when they are reasonably priced (fuck you Adobe) or try to find free open source alternatives when they are not.
I do what I can but sometimes...well...fuck them. I'm not paying 60 dollars for a box set of a TV show that aired for free with commercials. I'm not paying 1-3 dollars per episode either especially with all the DRM bullshit that comes with it. That's too damn expensive. What they think something is worth is ridiculously inflated AND they expect me to deal with their bullshit. Meanwhile, it takes about 5 minutes to download the latest episode of a TV show on Usenet and I have all kinds of neat programs and scripts to do it automatically, rename it, give it box art, and pop it into XBMC. Going on a road trip? Copy, paste, done. What's that process like the official way? Lol. It's a pain in the ass.
I tell you what I would pay for though...streaming that didn't suck shit. Streaming that literally had EVERYTHING from EVERYONE. If Netflix took their entire DVD/Bluray collection and converted them all for streaming I would be more than happy to pay 30 bucks a month for that. But no, instead I watch them going to renegotiate deals with these assholes and this time around they ask for literally 10 times what they did last time. They also still refuse to give them new movies and TV shows. Fuck it. If you're going to keep being such hostile dick heads, I'm going to do what I usually do. I just feel bad for Netflix because they WANT to do right by us and they're getting fucked by a cartel basically.
Good point. I normally enjoy the stuff that comes through but sometimes I really wonder what the hell the editors were thinking with some of the blogspam. Like seriously...do you guys even look at some of those links? Sometimes it's literally a copypasta job. Come on now.
I wish I still had mod points. xD
Yeah, I really don't understand why this even got posted on Slashdot. The best place I can possibly think to go is the beta testing forums. No wonder people have trouble finding things on the internet...they go about things in completely illogical ways...like typing a domain name into Google to get there. x_x
1. New Start Menu actually still shows quite a bit but does not become the big sprawling mess that the XP menu did. What difference is there scrolling down vs moving your mouse down, left and right, or even worse...in a lot of XP installs it had a damn scroll button on it when your menu was too big. Do you not have a scroll wheel on your mouse? Are you seriously complaining about having to SCROLL? o_O :p
2. I can't remember the last time I scrolled through because I hit start, type 3 or 4 letters, and I have what I want. Not to mention the few programs I use are usually on the quick launch anyway.
3. You can still navigate to things the same way (though they aren't in the same place) so I don't understand your argument about not being able to tell someone where to look.
4. The Control panel has a Classic option still. It's been there since XP. In fact your beloved XP with it's great Start Menu (apparently) was the one that started shuffling the Control Panel into those weird categories and stupid shit. Still, it's pretty easy to simply switch to classic mode if it bothers you. If you're helping someone on the phone? Have them switch to classic.
Look, I get that it is irritating when they change things. I curse with every new version of Windows when I have to figure out what the hell they named Add/Remove programs to this time, but most of the things you're complaining about seem like complaints of someone that hates anything that changes ever. Adapt. It seems like you're more concerned about whining about changes than actually learning anything new. You want to keep using the Windows 98 shell then by all means go ahead. They're trying to make improvements and I welcome most of the changes they've made thus far. Though I'm not so sure I like what I'm seeing in Windows 8...I'll at least give it a chance.
It's amazing how many people complain about new things on a technology enthusiast website. I swear you guys go into every change kicking and screaming. I used to think I was kind of a complainer but some of the people on here are just...well clearly I'm a rookie.
Have you even played it or are you just being facetious? I can't tell sometimes especially when this isn't modded funny. Some people on this site are just miserable bastards and nothing is ever good or fun for them. It annoys me...like you have to suck the joy out of every single thing that exists. Nothing personal it just annoys me to see people constantly shitting on everyone's parade.
Quite frankly is strikes me that laws like this will simply make things cost more rather than make people change their habits. We're still buying brand new SUVs and Ford F-350s to drive to work. Do you think that this kind of stuff is really going to help? I mean I get the idea but there has to be a better way than just taxing people. I've always been of the opinion that you catch more flies with honey. Punishing people for doing something doesn't work nearly as well as encouraging them to do something else. I think we see that is the case a lot. Hey, I could be wrong, but that's the way I do things. The whole taxing people to make them do what you want thing seems stupid to me. Just like trying to raise taxes on gas to make people buy new more gas efficient cars (wtf?). You raise taxes and people have less money to buy those nice new gas efficient cars. Great idea!
Thank you for being rational. While I know it's popular to say people are dumb (which they are), they are still smarter than the farmers that comprised most of the country when the constitution was drafted. I think people forget about the people that were NOT the founding fathers...the regular people. I'd say we're smarter although with that general increase of knowledge there does not seem to be an increase in critical thinking or common sense. As they say, common sense is not so common.
You think it's funny until you're working there and afraid that you could be fired for basically anything. Yeah some of them are probably dumb ass teenagers that can't follow the rules but even the ones that do are constantly afraid of losing their jobs. That is a shitty environment to work for and a GOOD employee will be nervous about that kind of shit too. So yeah, it sounds funny at first, but think about actually being one of those people.
No. Some people have dial up that is not DSL. Do you think the entire country has access to multiple broadband providers because you do? Do you think that even if they DO have access to the 2 providers (whoop dee doo) that they aren't both doing the same thing? Do you know why they are both doing the same thing? Because they can. That's a duopoly and that's what most places have. There is no competition because the companies know that if they do the same shit, people will pretty much even out between the both of them.
Let's say all the customers in Phoenix have a choice between Century Link DSL and Cox Cable (because that is in fact the case). Now if you leave Cox, where do you go? Century Link. If you leave Century Link where do you go? Cox. If they're both throttling, limiting bandwidth, blocking Hulu to make you buy cable from them, etc...what exactly do you do? Can a smaller competitor come swoop in and funnel away all their customers? Nope. Monopoly on the phone and cable lines. Is this scenario common? Yup. We aren't talking hypotheticals really...all the cable and DSL companies do the exact same things to varying degrees (it is even worse in Canada). Some (like Cox) are generally more benevolent (they don't really enforce their bandwidth caps...which is great)...but for now. Realistically, they have absolutely no reason whatsoever to continue doing this and in fact in other areas, Cox Cable are actually a bunch of bastards. We're just lucky that in the Phoenix Metro area, they're nice guys. Century Link (formerly Qwest)...no they're bastards. Or at least they have been before.
Now remove the cable or DSL provider from the scenario. You're looking at a fairly large portion of the country. What do these people do? They can't even leave one company to go to another because there isn't one. Yeah, maybe they have Comcast available but guess what? They're too far away from the phone company for DSL. Yeah sure they can get dial up internet but they can't get DSL. Great. What happens when Comcast (or say...Time Warner) institutes a 50gb bandwidth cap per month. Oh I'm sorry, did you want to watch Netflix and download games on Steam? Sorry you're going to need to pay overage charges on that. What are you going to do about it? Is that a free market? Is either of these scenarios really a free market? Is this not really just the illusion of a choice? Just because you get to pick which company is screwing you doesn't mean you actually have good choices and that's why this isn't a free market. The companies are large, embedded, and have been given monopolies on their lines. No one can compete with them BY LAW. If you are REALLY lucky you get to choose between DSL and Cable but there is nothing stopping them from doing the same thing. You start introducing 3 or even 4 companies and doing the same thing gets a lot harder.
Same with the cell phone market. Why do you think AT&T wants to buy T-Mobile? Because they're getting flak for being assholes while T-Mobile is generally just a good company. They don't try and hide things from their customers or try to screw them. What they're doing is right out in the open and they try to be as fair as possible. Do they limit bandwidth? Yes but instead of charging you overages, they knock your speed down to give you a chance to still use the service and not get raped with fees. That seems legitimately like they're trying to keep you from raping their networks rather than trying to make extra money on overages. They lower your monthly bill if you buy your cell phone outright or if you live out your contract terms and continue service with them after the contract has expired. What was AT&T planning to do after they bought T-Mobile? Raise rates. Fuck people. Look up the memo that got leaked from AT&T. This is what happens when you eliminate competition. The less players you have, the more the players left can abuse you. If the only big games in town are Verizon or AT&T, guess what's going to happen? Fuck you, that's what.
I hope they find out what they're doing and make sure they aren't breaking the law. If what they're doing is nasty but not breaking the law, I hope they share it so to shame them into doing something about it. Of course, I'm not sure that will matter but I'm fine with that. I barely post anything on Facebook anyway for this reason.
I don't actually like that method. I update my Chrome manually (I have the PortableApp version) and I update my Firefox manually (PortableApp version). I don't really mind the updates except when it ACTUALLY breaks my extensions. The only thing I've had a problem with this entire rapid release cycle is with Greasemonkey and my Reddit Enhancement Suite. Of course, when Firefox 6 came out, they actually had a fix up on their little subreddit so that seems to have taken care of the annoyance and I'm happy again. Other than that, to my great surprise, I haven't actually had any issues. I do hear people complain constantly about broken extensions or whatever on Slashdot, but I'd be curious to see if they're whining about potentially broken extensions or actual broken extensions because I've seen no evidence of the latter thus far and I use a decent number of extensions.
Honestly? Firefox seems to finally be getting to a point where a really big article on Slashdot with lots of comments doesn't freeze the browser. This is a good thing. I shouldn't need to wait for 20 seconds to use the rest of my browser because of Slashdot's ridiculously intensive Javascript/AJAX/Whatever crap. Yeah it is partly their fault too but Firefox could certainly handle things better than it does. I'm just hoping they DO actually do what they say and separate the actual stuff inside the tabs from the browser interface itself. I want that running in a thread of its own so the browser doesn't freeze while other stuff is going on. That would make Firefox perfect for me.