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| 1999/2/12-13 [Computer/HW/CPU] UID:15401 Activity:high |
2/11 Monday is Windows Refund Day in Foster City, for non-Windows users
who received Windows bundled with a computer and have _never_ used
it. (Not even once.) You must also have your original media,
manuals, and certificates of authenticity. Or come along to watch.
http://linuxmafia.com/refund
http://zork.net/refund -- schoen
\_ tuesday is firestone refund day. For everyone who ripped the
tires off their honda accord before they drove it off the lot,
we're going to go to a rubber tree plantation in cambodia to ask
for a refund.
\_ If your tires came with a Microsoft Windows EULA preventing
you from decompiling, disassembling, or reverse engineering
them, selling them separately from the car they came with, or
switching one of the tires to another car -- and allowing
your license to use the tires with that car to be terminated
by the tire manufacturer in the event of breach by you of this
license (in which case you must destroy the tires), and it
happened to say in this "tire license" that you could return
the tires for a refund if you disagreed, then, sure, why not
return the tires if you've already got better ones? -- schoen
\_ would you go to firestone, who made the product, or to the
car dealership where you paid for it?
\_ A good question. People have been asked to call their
OEMs in advance. With only two exceptions in the US,
the OEMs have disavowed all knowledge of the EULA. :-)
Thus, we will ask Microsoft what's up. -- schoen
\_ So what do you want to bet that the microsoft offices will be
observing Presidents day this year, and be closed? -ERic
\_ Good thinking, but they won't: http://linuxmafia.com/refund/faq
\_ How likely is it that you've never used it at least once if the PC
was initially installed to automatically boot into Windoze? Unless
you already knew a long time ago that there's going to be a refund
day.
\_ Because being a die hard linux geek, you inserted your linux
boot floppy the first time your powered it. After all what
use would a true linux geek have for window, pre installed or
not? If you booted windows, you're a loser and don't deserve
a refund. In fact, it wouldn't be a legal request.
\_ Also, apparently some of the newer bundled systems ask you to
click "I Accept" before they allow you to finish booting
Windows. So you can say "I Do Not Accept" and it reboots or
some such thing. We'll see how many people bothered to do
this... -- schoen
\_ Apparently, some companies are forgoing Windows all
together. People who buy low-end SGI's and high-end HP's
were complaining about being forced to use Windows so
now both manufacturers are offering RedHat prebundled.
\_ You're funny! - Intel employee
It makes sense with the multiproc SGI's since Windows
can't scale worth a damn.
\_ I heard a rumor that Compaq let you choose? Sounds
fishy. -John
\_ Because of their close ties with the Intel Merced
development, HP is also apparently working hard to
get Merced support for Linux which should be pretty
interesting. Anybody know the ship date of Merced?
\_ Merced is a piece of shit. By Intel's own accounts
it will "maybe" be faster than the 32 bit offerings
they have during it's lifetime. They're just releasing
it so people will start writing IA64 code until
McKinley (the next next chip) comes out.
\_ Merced does not suck, regardless of the speed of the
first implementation. RISC is reaching its limits,
just like CISC before it. -muchandr
\_ Uh, if CISC is dead and RISC is too where do you
prupose we go now?
\_ multithreading! -nick
\_ Things always take longer than you expect them to, even
if you take into account Hofstadter's Law
-- Hofstadter's Law
\_ Other people are working on Merced, too. Linus
talked about Intel <--> kernel developer contacts
at the Taos "Future of Linux" panel, and said he
expected Merced to be supported upon its release.
\_ Is the Merced backwards compatible with the i32
chips? It would be nice if Intel did what
Motorolla did with the PowerPC chip and ditch
the whole backwards compatibility idea. Intel
chips are too bloated and complicated. Any
architect who thinks that variable length CISC
instructions will last forever needs to get a new
job.
\_ PowerPC was backwards compatible with
the IBM POWER RISC instruction set.
Motorola didn't design PowerPC alone.
\_ Yes, but that unit is almost a separate CPU on
the same die. I think Intel will be able to throw
it away once there is enough Merced soft around,
-muchandr
\_ No one is going to buy Merced, esp. because
it won't be available at resonable prices.
In any case UltraSparc III will be well
established by then, offering greater
performance. And TRUE Linux geeks know that
even UltraSparc pales in comparision to
the ultimate processor that Linus is working
on at TransMeta.
\_ didn't pay much attention in the 90s, eh?
Alpha had greatest performance but everybody
bought intel anyway. there are many factors
besides technical merit or value in the
microprocessor market. SGI is expected to
use Merced in the followup to the Origin
series of supercomputers.
\_ Alphas are evil now that they've sold out
to Compaq, Microsoft's puppet corporation.
\_ Perhaps Compaq is good now that it's
making Alphas, instead? |
| 1999/2/12-14 [Recreation/Media] UID:15402 Activity:kinda low |
2/11 I've got tickets to an "advance screening" of a movie. Do people
usually dress up in these occasions? Is jeans okay?
\_ Depends. If it's one of those "Check local listings for a
sneak preview near you" things, then jeans is fine. If it's
an advance screeing for something like company insiders or
something (Like people at Pixar seeing say, Toy Story) early,
dressing up may be apropos. --sowings
\_ There should be someone you can call and ask if it's a Pixar
type thing.
\_ It's gonna be dark inside. Who cares?
\_ I worry if there may be a reception or something.
\_ It never hurts to dress nice. Dress nice.
\_ Wear a suit to a punk show. Show them you are
not a slave to conformity. |
| 1999/2/12-13 [Computer/SW/Languages/Java, Computer/HW/CPU] UID:15403 Activity:high |
2/12 Most people in the industry are content at the fact that they are
1)in a prestigious corporation 2)pays well 3) good benefits.
How PATHETIC.
\_ pathetic attempt @@ flame bait (though I guess that means I
fell for it)
\_ beats working for a lowly company that pays terribly with no
benefits.
\_ You're right. We should strike for daily blow jobs.
\_ If they hire outside people, yes. I wouldn't want a blowjob
from anyone that works at my company.
\_ I'll join the bait eaters: Uhm, gee, I think you just posted 3 of
the 4 reasons for working anywhere. You had some other reason one
might work in industry that you think isn't pathetic? Or you'd
only have respect if _everyone_ went on to get PhDs? Then CS would
be a purely academic field and no one would own anything with a
chip in it because chips wouldn't exist outside a lab. And who
pays all these super geniuses to do pure research forever? Sigh...
Feeling bad that your cop-out friends all drive expensive cars and
can afford to eat better than rice every other night while you're
kissing your Prof's fat pot sticker filled ass everyday? Bitter
yet? And how about those of us in industry making those big bucks
who never even took a CS class? hehe...
\_ True, but people who usually go into a high tech job for the
big bucks usually ends up producing worthless junk, copying
other people's ideas, suing other people because they can't
come up with their own ideas, making faulty products, or
going along with the fad whatever it may be that day. People
who don't take academic seriously are usually the uncreative
types. Plus, if it weren't for the PhDs like Dave Patterson,
Ken Thompson, John Hennessy, and so forth we wouldn't have
things like RISC chips, chips that pipeline, superscalar and
vector processors, time shared multithreaded multiprocessing
operating systems, and so on. So if you think the academic
world is so bad why don't you just skip college, go straight
into your 'computer programming' company and tell your
employer how much you hate PhDs and universities that do
research in electrical engineering and computer science. |
| 1999/2/12-13 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton] UID:15404 Activity:nil |
2/12 The trial is finally over. Clinton acquitted 55-45 for perjury, |
| 1999/2/12-13 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton, Politics/Domestic/President/Reagan] UID:15405 Activity:high |
50-50 for obstruction of justice.
\_ Now its time for endless debate on censure motions.
\_ Not. Thankfully this CYA bullshit is dead.
\_ I thought it was supposed to be > 50. Oh well.
\_ No, after the house impeaches him in a majority, the
Senate must convict on a 2/3 majority in order to remove
the president.
\_ Seriously, did anyone think that it could possibly
be anything better than 56-44 to get him out of
office? what a waste of time. Good job GOP, you
just about guaranteed that you won't be in the
White House for a few more terms.
\_ Not. You haven't been in this country long enough
to understand that no one but a few crackpots is
going to vote against a Rep. candidate because of
the impeachment. Don't be silly. The so called
analysts and newspapers never manage to understand
or guess correctly what the American people are
thinking or going to do each election.
\_ You base this on what? POLLS!? Hahahhaha, they
don't poll the 'voters'. They poll the 'people'.
Keep in mind that statistically the people they're
polling are more left than the average voter. Voters
are more conservative than "The People".
\_ Not the way polls are going against Al Gore right
now for 2000.
\_ When Clinton originally ran people didn't think
he had a chance even against his own party
adversaries (Paul Tsongas) and look what happened.
I think we should pull another Jessie the Body
Ventura/Ronald Reagan and vote Bill Bradley into
office.
\_ Al is a stiff board nobody. Put him on
stage in a debate against anyone with half
a personality and then see if the voters
choose a person or a 2 dimensional image. |
| 1999/2/12-14 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:15406 Activity:nil |
2/12 Aside from sounding really dumb, is a DOS/Windoze 3.11 machine
patchable to become Y2K-compliant?
\_ Thre are programs out there that can test if your OS is Y2K
compliant. Test it first before you try finding a patch that
doesn't exist. Knowing Microsoft, I'm sure they f-ed up Windows
in one way or another so you never know.
\_ you use the FreeBSD install floppy patch.
\_ Who cares? Before clock cards came out my computer always thought
it was 1980 when I turned it on. And? So? Don't succumb to all
the media generate Y2K hysteria. It's silly. |
| 1999/2/12-14 [Consumer/Audio] UID:15407 Activity:nil |
2/12 Is there some kind of WindowMaker dockable MP3 player (one of those
56x56 resolution programs that looks like wmcdplay? thx. |
| 1999/2/12-14 [Computer/HW/CPU, Computer/Networking] UID:15408 Activity:kinda low |
2/12 I want to run a comercial web server. After being bounced from
ISP to ISP because we are using too much CPU time, we are
thinking about getting our own server. Can you comment on
server colocation vs. DSL? (no money for frame relay now) Thanks.
\_ If you colocate, you don't have to worry about the network
connection--someone else maintains it for you. It probably will
also be a faster connection (usually 100 megabit out to at least
a 45 megabit shared connection, vs 384 kilobit for cheap DSL).
Plus the network will likely have fast response, 24-hour support;
if your DSL goes down at 6PM on Friday, how quick will Pac Bell
deal with it? The tradeoff is that you don't have easy physical
access to the box if something goes wrong with it, and colocating
is probably more expensive. You also get an outgoing fast net
connection with DSL; you have to pay for one if you're
colocating. -tom
\_ colocation costs about 30% more than DSL, but you raised
good points about the service of phone companies we
all learn to live with. Thanks!
\_ must be a porn site.
\_ Of course, since we all know how much CPU a porn site must
burn. As opposed to bandwidth. Sigh.
\_ What, network/hard drive I/O doesn't take CPU?
\_ cgi porn?
\_ MP3 live broadcast of acts. |