Posts by Innocent-Bystander*

Re: F-35 Su-35

Perhaps they should consider buying the Su-35 from Russia, it already works and apparently doesn't need a patch Tuesday each month.

And in case of a conflict, be dependent on your adversary for munition and parts supply?

Re: Odd belief

Ever tried to get a car moving after the break cables have frozen solid?

Ever tried to take an automatic out of Park when parked on an incline without applying the parking break first? It takes some serious muscle. I'm also convinced that letting the transmission hold the car on an incline when parked will kill your transmission in short order.

Here in Canada we have -20 to -35 in February as a matter of course. I have never had the parking break cables freeze on me.

Re: Dear Canada...

No but you can have the CRTC (Telecom regulator). Not sure how that will help your current situation though... :)

Re: Boot scoot

So you have Windows, and yet another update borks your machine.

Why do they always stall instead of coming clean?

Weird. On my end, I installed it once, updated it with the second major release, then swapped motherboard/CPU/GPU combo and it just kept on trucking, no problems. I've yet to do a clean install of W10 since it released.

Probably famous last words, you never know what tomorrow brings.

The free version of Windows 10 is locked to the PC. You probably won't mind if you have an OEM version of Windows 7 or 8 but you might if you have a retail version.

Not my experience.

I had an OEM Windows 7, later upgraded to 8 (carried the OEM License) then upgraded to 10 when the upgrade offer started.

I just swapped motherboard and CPU a few weeks ago. Rebooted off the same hard drive, the system found and installed the drivers for mobo et al. and activated via digital entitlement when I signed on to my Microsoft account. Still activated, running happily on a different motherboard.

Re: Why would they have bought a new PC?

handful of fanboi masochists who might even have bought the retail version of Windows 10 instead of buying a new computer.

Those of us who still build from components a retail license is important so we can transfer between motherboards without having to put money down for the OS each time.

Just saying.

Re: A classic case of Driving While Blonde

Would you prefer they use Yahoo?

Yahoo is powered by Bing.

Gotta hand it to them though: Bing is good for two things. Image search and their daily desktop backgrounds.

Re: The end of Mint is complete

Mint was the best distro for a decade because it removed the painful aspects of Linux setup. This was the original reason it was created.

Was it? Mint always had exactly the same installer as Ubuntu... OK, it was green highlights, not puke brown but regardless, setup was always identical.

I was under the impression it was created because the creators had a decade long WTF moment when they looked at Unity and Gnome 3.

Re: Slow checking for updates...

Windows 7 has always been slow checking for updates.

I remember waiting for hours for the list to show up back in the SP1 days. It was one of the catalysts to move to Mint. System install, customization, updates and extra installs were done before Windows 7 would generate an update list.

Windows 10 is far better in that regard. The update list comes up in less than a minute, applies in about 30 minutes and that's that.

Still would be nice to have some control over the update process but f*ck it. I'm too old to care.

Re: $&%#! Microsoft!

Not only will they charge for it after July, they'll charge anyone who got it for "free" if they have to change their motherboard for any reason.

That's only true for those who upgraded from an originally OEM license. Those who upgraded from Retail, get Retail Windows 10. All their upgrade licenses carry the rights of the originals.

Re: Ah, well

+1 for Dells. Just not the cheap ones.

I have an Inspiron 15 7000 series from 2013 and it still works very well. I lug it around for school, work and my 4 year old abuses it to no end. It's starting to show but it's still working well.

I have Latitude 6000 series laptops at work. You couldn't nuke them if you wanted to. Best laptop keyboards I've ever used too.

Re: Win-10-nic lowering new PC sales (as expected)

People don't give a toss about the OS that runs on their systems. They keep them because it works, when it doesn't they go out and buy something new with whatever Windows version it comes with. No fuss.

Perhaps HP should invest some MARKETING CAPITAL and R&D into making HIGH END LINUX MACHINES and selling THOSE for LOWER PRICES than their Windows equivalents... convince people that LINUX is BETTER, CHEAPER, and JUST AS EASY to use

Take your meds. They might as well invest some serious capital into tech support as well.. and training for tech support. And PR damage control when Jane Doe's computer doesn't open macro'd Excel files or screws up formatting in Word documents. The cost implications are horrendous.

The printer busines tanking is a no brainer. Who the hell prints anything out anymore instead of taking the entire Library of Congress along for a train ride on an iPad? Printing for home is dead.

Re: It's not me, it's everybody else

Anyone know why most people are addicted to paper?

Ain't nothing like the feel of a nice quality pen on heavy bright paper.

Reading on paper also has a more "substantial" feel to it. Like it triggers your brain that whatever you're reading is more important to commit to memory than everyday Internet claptrap.

Or maybe I'm just old and hold online content in complete contempt.

Re: Five technologies you shouldn't bother looking out for in 2016

I think you should have given them something more specific, like download link to the latest Mint. It looks and acts more or less like Windows and installs without a hitch in less than 20 minutes in most cases

I agree that most people would react in horror if they had to find a distribution first.

Re: SOP when buying new laptop (with Windows, obviously)

What we need is for Microsoft to make a clean copy of Windows available at no extra charge to anyone who buys a Windows computer.

You mean like the image you get with the Windows Media Creation Tool? It looked pretty legit and clean Windows to me.

I also requested physical media for my Dell Inspiron. The USB key they sent me also contained clean Windows 8 without any of the OEM crudware.

Re: what's it got to do with OEMs?

Assuming you are not trolling:

OEM's put their own skins / launchers on top of Android so they release updates after making sure it doesn't bork their customization.

There is delay #1.

#2 is the carriers, which also have their own turn at compatibility testing their supported devices before pushing them to their respective customer bases.

All quite legitimate concerns but it adds a lot of delays between google releasing the patch and said patch getting applied to your device.

PC's are a different animal all together. MS and Linux vendors update their own codebases without having to test to make sure patches don't kill entire networks.

If you work on a domain you'll notice that it's actually your IT guys who control patch releases, not Microsoft. The reasoning behind this is the same. They don't want rogue patches killing their networks.

Re: Only one reason...

I agree here.

I think Apple's team has had the importance of a flawless user experience beaten into them so hard they are willing to forego common sense and introduce something like this.

On the other hand, it also highlights the ridiculous data plans we have in North America. I may be one of the last to be grandfathered into a straight $10/GB flex plan.

?

Your bitching about cataloging your data / user tracking and your mention of your Android phone in the same comment is driving my common sense circuitry into an infinite loop...

Re: "Microsoft Linux" ?

Just port office over to Linux, that's enough for me.

Re: Just you wait...

""To register your <appliance of choice> guarantee it must be connected to the Internet."

Back to the store with that PoS.

Re: That Weird Sound You Hear

They didn't have to bribe anyone. You can laugh just the same while your competition self-detonates. Or at least slows itself down with a ridiculous duplication of effort.