It's basically just an extra set of mod points with no accountability now.

Not so. If you metamod up or down, the comment's score does not change. The meta-moderation score is still used to detect bad moderators, whether they are doing it intentionally or not.

Of course they do, because many open source alternatives are not up to par to commercial software. Gimp vs Adobe? OpenOffice vs. MS Office? Ardour vs. Cubase/FL Studio/Protools?

An illegal copy of MS Word, instead of Abiword or OpenOffice? You're kidding, right? It's a normal word processor, it doesn't julienne fries. They're all the same. As for the rest, they get more and more obscure. Gimp does not offer everything that Photoshop does, but how many people require what Gimp doesn't have? Maybe they think they do, but the idea that hordes of people require Windows to do their professional photography and autocad'ing is overstating things, to say the least.

The answer itself is the joke. You are simply participating in it, but without people like you, us #2s and #3s couldn't feel special. Thanks.

BTW, Geddy Lee taught me long ago not to pick that answer. ;-)

This is the guy who said he found a way to hack a MacBook's wireless card in under a minute. He canceled his demo at Toorcon and never did disclose enough information at the 2007 Black Hat to verify the sensational claim. He left his job after the incident and started what I assume is a two-man operation. (1 CEO and 1 CTO)

Here's David's Pwnie Award: http://pwnie-awards.org/2007/winners.html#overhypedbug

I'm sure there's a lot more to the story, but let's not assume we're dealing with someone who would normally know better. As a security consultant, his best skill is being an alarmist. So this story was right up his ally, and another chance to be in the news.

So, Doctor Strange, but not Doctor Doom??

As long as they bring more than a simple - and often overrated - PhD, the distinction is not important.

I've opened a couple of Minis, but I always use this method: http://headwedge.com/wordpress/2006/11/01/mac-hack001-opening-mac-mini-wire-method/

It's slower, but leaves no trace, and it's always been easier to find a discarded ethernet cable than a putty knife.

It's called lock-in, bitch. The parent explained it poorly as no good alternative. He should've said no allowed alternative or no alternative period, in most cases.

I don't find that fair. I have always loathed the "search from toolbar" hijack they built into IE. Then I found I had to turn off Domain Guessing AND Internet Keywords in Firefox, and the options weren't even visible in the UI. This bullshit has gone on too long. If the computer illiterate need this feature, at least give it a checkbox:
http://www.mozilla.org/docs/end-user/domain-guessing.html
http://www.mozilla.org/docs/end-user/internet-keywords.html

Now if you really are in favor of a free-for-all in this area, Verisign should go back to returning their own pages as a DNS result. I think they would have the inside track on sending a user where they did not intend to go.

All your computers need are electricity. If nothing changes, they'll keep working. XP security support will continue until 2014, so that's not an issue yet either. The Russians knew how long XP was going to be supported when they bought it. That EOL date has been pushed out since then, so they already got more than they bargained for. What excuse do they have for not maintaining their computing infrastructure? If they don't want to buy Vista, they don't have to, but they shouldn't expect the alternatives to be free.

Not again! It seems like this is a popular answer lately to tell people to not ask Slashdot, as if Ask Slashdot feedback isn't useful. Why read this section then? Personally I would value intelligent advice over a lawyer's advice if it wasn't intelligent. Neither source is flawless - no, a law degree does not mean you always know what to do. In fact, in this case, it's not primarily a legal question, but a question of business strategy. Will you now tell him to get off Slashdot and hire a business consultant??

It almost goes without saying that you can always pay a professional to get answers to your questions. Hearing the experiences of others for free is still a great value - and clever and unorthodox tactics from from a group like Slashdot is priceless.

Dell's Linux offering includes DVD playback. You seem to be unaware of the customization and additional quality control that OEMs already do for their Windows PCs. You simply do the same thing for a Linux PC, and everything works out-of-the-box. Yes, the professional Photoshop or AutoCAD user wouldn't be served, but presumably those users are aware that they need Windows.

I'd agree, except that does not apply in this case. Since it already happened to his child, it would be logical to assume that the odds of losing his child is greater than 1/7,000,000,000. Keep in mind that it's not only to avoid a headline-grabbing abduction, but any prolonged loss of contact. They may say his child was never in danger, but that is small comfort when you have to spend hours searching for your child after the school calls and asks why your he/she is absent.

I can also sympathize with the submitter not seeking a solution that depends on the school. Although that might seem a reasonable thing to do, after talking with them, he probably got the impression that they don't think they did anything wrong and would need to see multiple repetitions of this error before taking any corrective action. Parents are a school administrator's #1 enemy - expect to be treated as such, unless they're trying to get money or volunteer work out of you.

I tried to allow ads on slashdot. They are in my whitelist for AdblockPlus, but the ads still don't come up, because NoScript is blocking scripts from doubleclick.net.

I was open to ads on this site, but I will not be unblocking doubleclick.

Currently, it's actually much cheaper to get a Windows XPS laptop, since they have an "up to 25% discount" offer, which is only available for the Windows versions. Does it make any sense that it costs more to discount one or the other?

Some other observations:
1) The Windows versions have better CPUs. The Ubuntu version's CPU cannot be upgraded. WTF?
2) No 11n option on Linux. That's understandable.
3) 1 yr warranty for Linux. 2 yrs for Windows.

I'd buy the Ubuntu version with no savings, but I can't even get an equivalent deal. I'll just have to wait to get an M1330.

Dell can demand driver fixes directly from the manufacturers as part of the cost of selling to them. Can you do that too?

On the other hand, I don't know how good their QA is. Maybe their customers find the bugs before they do. Then you might have to wait for driver updates to make things right.