Note that part of the reason the price for Windows is lower on a machine from HP (et al) is because they get paid to load the machine with shovelware. All that 'free' software crap that is preinstalled helps reduce the price of the computer.

He did a horrible job. HTC made Windows phones too, but they were smart enough to also make Androids. Same thing with Samsung. Only Nokia was braindead enough to only make Windows Phones. Big mistake.

As much as I don't want to talk about it anymore, I feel like the more of the stuff like this that gets posted, the more it gets accepted as "truth" that women are somehow under attack by "the boys club".

I hope it isn't. I see the conversations on-line today, and they appear to be two completely polarized extremes hurling bilious invective at each other and threatening (and even acting against) each other in ways that are totally unacceptable in discourse. I am a guy, and in my shop, there happen to be three men and three women working together. As far as I have ever seen, nobody has ever been harassed, sexually or otherwise. If anyone ever is, I'd like to think that all the stuff we hear from HR means something, and the problem could be resolved through those channels. I support people's rights to not be harassed at work.

In fact, in my time here, the only person I've ever had any friction with is another guy, and he was a moron, and he doesn't work here anymore. And he had the same friction with other men and with women. But it wasn't harassment. And it never descended to the level of what I've seen on the Internet. These two sides have just descended into the deepest muckhole they can find and are unswervingly dedicated to hurling as much filth at each other as they can.

So I don't think people should harass others at work, but I also think that some people sometimes need to grow a little thicker skin. I've had interactions with people in professional settings in which I've felt personally insulted by something they said or did. But when that happens, I don't fly off the handle and try to get the other person fired. Not every slight needs to be elevated to the level of existential crisis. Sometimes, you just have to grit your teeth and get the job done, even when the person you're working with is distasteful.

i said it before and i'll say it again.

there are very few reasons to keep flash installed/enabled. if you must have it, use flashblock but chances are you can just disable/remove it completely. if some site still uses flash to play video, leave a complaint in the comments. those that haven't switched to html5 yet will do so soon enough.

if you still have java plugin installed, you better have a good reason because no (sane) sites use that shit.

I think the hope is that if we keep bashing Flash that eventually it will go away forever. We're almost there but some lazy/cheap websites still cannot be bothered to update and ban flash entirely. Frankly if Adobe were a responsible company they would simply abandon flash altogether and that might finally move things along but that's almost certainly a pipe dream.

When I have ad blocking on, the battery in my computer lasts five times longer than when I have it turned off. It's kind of insane.

How does a Christian determine what is right or wrong? Most have moral qualms about things in the Bible, like throwing one's virgin daughters to a mob to be gang-raped. Heck, the Bible doesn't offer one consistent moral code, so any code based on the Bible is cherry-picked. Trying to determine what God approves of and what God disapproves of is no more certain than trying to suss out good and evil from any other perspective. You seem to be claiming that your idea of what God approves of is somehow supposed to be recognized as correct.

Where do we get our consciences? Duh, from our upbringing. There's no need to hypothesize a God as a cause of a conscience.

And, given the traditional problem of pain, you completely duck it. You assume there is a God, attribute various traits to God (such as the ability to specify good and evil), and then when the least intellectual difficulty comes up you abandon all reason and go with blind faith. Way to go; at least it shows us the shallowness of your thinking.

Fork English, it's ilojical and suks!

Anyone who tries to accomplish something worthwhile in this world will be insulted and have people try to tear them down.
Anyone who stands out will be mocked.
Anyone who posts on the internet will eventually get a death threat.

It's the way of life. You can't do anything without someone hating you for it.

The Tolkien universe was created by a Catholic who included God in it, although not quite how he believed God worked in our world.

I was only in Istanbul once, and only long enough to have dinner, fall asleep and run to the airport. But my Serbian monther-in-law has some very strong opinions about Turks. She's usually such a sweet little old lady, but don't get her started on the Turks. I mean, the Ottoman Empire was gone before she was born, but damn, she's still mad about something.

You're not saying ISIS is a good Muslim organization, you're saying that it goes along with certain teachings that are linked with Islam. In other words, you're confusing a religion with a culture that is a large chunk of that religion.

There's a quote about Ada that I always think about:

Then there is this quote from the same page:

Of course, the Ariane 5 shows that no language can save you from bad programming. Ultimately it is the people using the language that matters, not the language itself.

You're claiming that Marx's premises are false because they don't fully apply nowadays. In fact, some ideas Marx shared got woven into capitalism.

Economically, it was state socialism rather than some form of capitalism. It started out paying much more than lip service to Communism, with ideology held as far more important than mere people.