I used it on a brand new dual core 64-bit laptop w. nvidia graphics card and 2 gigs of ram - not exactly a slouch of a machine. I then parked the laptop for half a year - it just wasn't useable. Then I threw linux on it and it became an AWESOME machine - enough so that I upgraded to 4 gigs of ram.

If you think Vista is "good", you have a strange definition of "good." If you think it's "a modern OS", you're at least a decade behind the times. Windows is obsolete. Get a mac if you need the hand-holding.

You say people hate change. So what makes you think they will ditch Windows in general and use Linux? People just need something to bitch about.

Cheaper TCP. Less hassles. Better support.

Same reasons they switch to Apple - cheaper TCO. Less hassles. Better support.

Don't forget that those shills were given Acer Ferrari laptops with Vista and a wink-wink-nudge-nudge "Don't bother sending them back after you finish reviewing"

Hand-picked hardware - and not some el-cheapo base model netbook. Bought-and-paid-for reviews.

Labels could include:

1. "Remember - I lied to you the last time you voted for me."
2. "Warning: Politicians serve their biggest contributors first."
3. "Politicians - their #1 priority is sincerity - once they can fake that ..."
4. "#1 sign that a politician is lying - their lips are moving."
5. "Warning: If you think your choices suck, then it is YOUR responsibility to do something about it."
6. How does a religious leader say "Fuck you"? - "God bless you!" How does a politician say "Fuck you"? "My fellow Americans ..."

And for the bonus round:

Q: What do you call 1,000 politicians buried up to their necks in sand?
A: Not enough sand.

Sun is "running the clock" because the longer the clock runs, the more NetApp patents will be invalidated, and the fewer they'll have to deal with in court.

Keep in mind that NetApp doesn't mention that the last time they sued another country over IP, they also lost and had to pay. Quite a business model -

1. leave company to start new company,
2. sue former employer for IP infringement
3. lose.

If NetApp were sure their patents would hold up under review, they'd have no problem with letting the reviews all run their courses, since that would make winning much easier, as well as letting them claim more ongoing damages. It also doesn't help that they tried to license the patents that Sun is now countering with from the company that Sun bought.

The simple fact is that their market is in trouble - people are cutting back, shifting what they do have to buy to more commodity hardware/software solutions, etc. They won't be around in 5 years.

That's a very good answer, but any good answer would be one that didn't involve declaring an array of all the number between 0 and 100 and then iterating over the array. Yes, that's a typical solution.

I really REALLY hope you're joking, and that nobody actually proposed creating an array of numbers and adding up the array . . .

Just for fun, if / when anyone proposes that, why not give them the task of summing up the total number of different combinations of numbers to a 6/49 or other related lottery . . . how many arrays of arrays of arrays of ... gak! Talk about brain-dead "solutions."

The program he left worked wonderfully and was incredibly complicated until he wasn't there due to poor coding practice with documentation/comments to allow others to manage the tool.

It's called "coding for job security . . ."

It also comes with a companion use case "coding for future consultancy gigs . . ."

He "looks" like a michigan-hotdog+poutine-lover '

Huh?!? What do you people DO up there during the winters?

It's not the winters; everyone looks the same under 4 layers of coats and hats and gloves.

It's the summers. If you want to be polite, you address people in their mother tongue, which is usually either english or french, so you quickly learn the visual cues for determining, before they've said a word, what language group they're from, especially since, if you work wth the public, getting it wrong can sometimes lead to a certain nastiness from people who insist on being served in "their own language."

It gets trickier with other ethnic groups, so you again have to figure out, of the 2 official languages, which one are they going to be more comfortable in. Again, you learn to figure it out to the point where it's just instinctive.

Some people are better at it than others ...

The NetApp vs Sun lawsuit over ZFS isn't going the way NetApp would like it to ...

http://www.sun.com/lawsuit/zfs/index.jsp

To the contrary, NetApp may end up like SCO vs Novell, where the initial complainant ends up owing the respondent. Sun could very well end up both pwning AND owning NetApp.

As for the antivirus companies - I wish, but there will always be *some* "useful fools" around, and people whose financial self-interest aligns with enabling them to stay dumb and foolish.

They've convinced themselves they are above the rest of the world with their little societal rules. There is no disease or disorder, they're just stupid.

mod parent troll. the clue is the nasty deliberate mis-spelling there.

I've seen too many people, whether they're nerds or not, justify their social isolation by saying that they reject society's rules, or that people shouldn't be trusted, etc.

It's a universal trait, to self-justify a wrong decision, rather than go "man, did I fuck up!" and then have to "lose their investment" in their current behaviour/situation. Nothing to do with nerds or geeks specifically. Same with many social interactions - look how many women (and men) stay with abusive spouses after getting the sh*t beaten out of them over and over, or how many men (and women) stay with cheating spouses. "They'll change." "They really love me." "It's my fault."

What's needed is for parents to give their kids enough self-assurance that they instinctively won't take that sort of shit - the "nerd" problem would disappear, since the biggest problem nerds have is a lack of self-confidence and self-respect.

If they do make that much money they are by definition not nerds since money is the penultimate aphrodisiac.

What's the last one, then?

Ignoring the women and pretending you're sexually ambiguous or gay".

Wear the french-style beret, the artsy-fartsy turtleneck, always be polite and quiet ... and you won't be able to beat them off with a stick.

In other words, maybe the Mac Fanbois are on to something ...

Don't start conversations by shouting "first post" after someone mentions a subject.

I'm sure FROST PISS will go over SO much better :-)

Actually, it will if you're offering them a REALLY COLD beer. "'ave some frosty piss"

"Gaming companies by and large insist that they own everything within the game. Basically a player "owns" stuff the same way a monopoly player "owns" his cards, houses and money, i. e. only in the context of the game. If there is a transition to real world money (gold on ebay), that is already taxable."

Why are you giving them even more stupid ideas? This is Washington we're talking about. Politicians who've never met a stupid idea they didn't like ... like the bailouts.

Mind you, if they're going to start treating all game transactions as real-life, I'm going to play Risk, conquer the world, and tell the IRS their new job is to collect tribute for me.