But why is there so much close-minded hatred among the common people? Are Egyptians just really mean? No, I would argue that it is a mindset which results from living in a police state which limits freedoms, restricts information, and perpetuates extremism.

Yes, but just like you said: things need to be slow. Otherwise the extremists will just play around with ours rules, using its weaknesses and loopholes to achieve a status of legitimacy to their actions.

That's how it works at Europe at the current moment: Muslims won't respect laws but will abuse them to get protection from the consequences of their actions. They are simply mocking our system.

If you think violence is never considered to be a solution, you're not paying much attention. Just because the front is a little farther from your home doesn't mean the war isn't going on.

You're correct: I don't pay much attention to the ghetto.

Congratulations. You've just made it comparable. Besides, any society that considers genocide as an option is not civilized by definition: "showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement; humane, ethical, and reasonable."

I wasn't mentioning any particular situation or advocating genocide to any current conflict.

Let's say that you're landlocked on a small piece of land and outside your borders there is a well organized group of 100 to 200 thousand people ready to invade and kill everyone inside your city/state/country/whatever. All intelligence efforts have only managed to conclude that unless you kill 150 thousand people in the next four days, you're all going to be dead in a week or so.

I consider that kind of solution, even if only at extreme cases, to be superior to spending an entire life preaching hate. That's my point. It's 100% hypothetical.

Placing the blame on any side doesn't solve the issue in question. What the hell are you going to do about it? Attack them back? Will that cause their hate against you to subside?

Their hate is not my problem. I don't need to bend over just so they can change their minds and stop acting like ignorant pricks. It's their job to achieve progress for their own people.

Give medical aid and food to people, and let them know that when you attack, it's only because the other side has forced your hand. Make the citizens see who is really to blame.

I'm going to repeat again: They can't be an independent nation and powerless victims at the same time. They either have an official army that attacked you, or they're just powerless victims that need someone to occupy their land and tell them what to do. You can't have it both ways.

And you're forgetting how they fought back. Killing whites and performing random acts of violence was counterproductive. What worked was non-violent civil disobedience. That meant that there were a lot of whites fighting on their side to help out (included elected politicians and judges), who would have otherwise been much less willing to help. If they had fought back violently, the anger would have escalated, and we wouldn't have made the strides we have made.

Yes, they fought it the smart but hard way. Too bad palestinians will never do that.

I don't disagree. I disagree that there is any solution that doesn't involve talking. It's either that or a continuation of hostilities and no peace. Trying to do anything else is futile.

The definition of a "solution" depends on what side are you analysing. If you consider the palestinian side, a solution will certainly consider educating a large mass of people and providing them the adequate means of living. Sure, some idiots will certainly call that "westernization", as if achieving proper education and respect for one another is something exclusively western, but it's a solution.

But if you're on the other side of the conflict, a solution might consider on just not being attacked anymore. The old and famous "being left alone".

If you're not directly related to the conflict but the fact that there is a conflict is something bad for you, a solution might just consist on getting both sides to shut the hell up.

The real catch is: helping any side of the conflict to achieve a better life is not, and never will be, an obligation. Even if you're a "save the planet" kind of yuppie, taking zero-result actions to turn a bloody conflict into a land full of puppies and brotherhood is still just part of your self-serving nature and not related to actually helping people.

Like I said, you are more alike than you care to admit. You have also pigeonholed an entire people into a characterization that, although applies to some (and perhaps even most, depending on the region), prevents you from even attempting a peaceful solution to a problem, because you believe a peaceful solution cannot exist.

You're still wrong. I still live on a society that preaches and practices respect on a daily basis. There is continous discussion about the problems of society, about tolerance, about minorities, about giving people equal opportunities. My side of the planet (not my country) just elected a black president and even crazy nutjobs such as Evo Morales or Hugo Chaves base their dictatorship attempts on common rules and solid institutions.

When I walk on the street, I interact with white people, black people, asian people, poor people, rich people. And everybody gets along. Violence is never considered to be a solution to any problem and we work hard to actually provide means for people to achieve a better life. Yes, we have issues, but we're trying.

There's no comparison between a western man giving cheap ideas from behind his keyboard to a sand monkey firing an AK-47 to a jewish family just because they're jewish, or a hate-filled idiot teaching kids that jews should be beheaded. Sure, strong military or even diplomatic solutions might sound "cruel" to the common self-serving feel-gooder type, but they're technical solutions based on official and lawful institutions. But even genocide, if discussed and decided by a civilizated society that sees no other solution to the conflict, is superior than living at stone age and teaching kids to hate people based on their ethnicity or religion.

You say that I have "pigeonholed an entire people into a characterization [...]" but you forgot to account the fact that hate and war is the result coming from their "side". The internal issues of their society that are causing the creation of this troubled interface with other societies is their problem, not ours. And we must be careful not to preach a double standard here: they can't be an independent society and fragile victims at the same time. We'll either leave them alone and let them pay for their own decisions or we'll step in and mess around with their internal issues. I haven't "pigeonholed an entire people", I am treating them as an independent society of adults. And listening to arguments and speeches is not what they're interested of doing at the current moment.

I'm saying that a leader needs to talk and try to convince their people to find a peaceful solution. Most will ignore this leader, some (especially from the younger generation) will listen. Given time and effort the peaceful population may outnumber the mostly older prejudiced and combative one.

Perfect! I really hope that such a nice and caring leader arises and lead them into the light.

Until then, whoever is being attacked by the result of the collective ignorance of the said people will continue to pursue violent actions to defend its own people. Or did you expected everyone else to just wait and sacrifice so these people can solve their own internal issues?

I can already see:
- They're trying to mass-murder us!
-- Hey! Leave them alone! Two hundred years from now they'll be nice people.
- But... they'll kill us!
-- Shhh!!! Let's wait for their next generation!

It took time in the US, but the KKK went from an organization that had quite a lot of admiration from the public (watch the movie Birth of a Nation...it's hilarious to see how they are glorified in that film), to a complete joke today. It's not because we have removed their rights to gather and talk--they still publicly march to this day. However, when they do it now, they are ridiculed. The population of non-racists simply overwhelm the population of racist individuals (at least violently racist). It wasn't an instant change, and the road was a pretty tough one, but we managed to get this far, and we're continuing to make strides.

You're forgetting the fact that black people actually stood up against racism. By your measure, they should just have waited for us whites to "naturally" elect or obtain the correct leaders.

You're confusing up the intended audience of a product. The ads show "This is vista" with Aero. OEMs say "Buy this, it runs that new Vista you've seen." At no point does anyone say, directly to the average consumer, "Some computers won't look like the Vista that was advertised." There's the problem, because the advertising led people to believe something that's not true.

You're preaching a double standard. Most product families are based on versions, all of them using the same name such as "Civic" or "Bravia", where the expensive ones are more capable than the cheaper ones. And the Ads will always show you the most expensive items when mentioning the entire product line.

You can also say that "At no point does anyone say, directly to the average consumer, 'Some versions of Honda Civic won't look like the sporty Honda Civic that was advertised'. There's the problem, because the advertising led people to believe something that's not true.". Do you know why people never complain about that? Because cheap and expensive versions of stuff is a basic fact of life. It's up to you to inform yourself when making a purchase.

The Crysis defining features you mention are largely just more detail, while the Aero interface is supposed to be an entirely new way of doing things.

Actually, Aero will only add transparency to windows. The "way of doing things" is still present at Vista Basic.

Remember the McDonald's hot coffee lady? [...] Since there is no commonly in use beverage temperature gauge other than your lips and tongue.

Yeah, expect that she actually gauged the temperature with her vagina. Nice of you bringing this case up: It strengthens my position on the stupidity of the Vista sticker lawsuit.

Hence, Microsoft came up with a deceptive campaign that took advantage of people's natural tendency to automatically fill ambiguous information gaps with whatever conclusion is subtly suggested to them. It was therefore intended by Microsoft that "Vista Capable" would be interpreted by the masses as meaning "able to run the advertised features of 'The Vista That Does Stuff.'"

What a crybaby. It's just like the sporty version of Honda Civic presented at the TV Ads: everybody knows that the basic version costs less and the most expensive one costs more. Not even top class retards expect to get the most expensive version, shown at the TV Ad, for the small price quoted at "starting from XYZ USD" at the Ad.

Only Microsoft Haters and class action lawyers believe that shit.

While Microsoft deserves every bit of the potential $8B settlement costs

Yes, they deserve. Because you hate them.

You're the typical open-source geek: You believe that your ideology will certainly save the universe because it's superior both on moral and technical grounds. Yet, to achieve the desired victory, anything is desired: from abusing the legal system to "make things even and get them what they deserve" to plain old group beatings.

Talk about being right and superior....

So I assume then that you would not mind if you bought a new car, then afterwards found out that you could not drive it on the freeway because it was not able to get past 40 and started falling appart if you tried?

You're comparing a defective product with the confusion between the capabilities of three editions of a product that weren't even mentioned at the said sticker. Vista Basic will not crash the user's computer and will not limit the usefulness of the user's machine. It's only Vista without a specific set of features that are exclusive to more expensive versions of the same product.

If you do give a shit about Vista when you're buying a new PC, it's up to you to know what the Vista thingy mentioned at the sticker is really about. If you don't really know about Vista, then it's not deception, it's just a misinformed purchase.

It's just like a Honda TV Ad showing a sporty 25k USD Honda Civic running on a nice road, telling that the product's price "start from 16k USD". Nobody expects to get the most expensive version for the least expensive price. Only lawyers can sell that idea to people because will make shitloads of money if the minimum quantity of people sign in for the lawsuit.

There were adds showing off 'Vista' primarily as aero, but then when it shipped, there was vista basic, which in no way resembled the 'Vista' people has got excited about, and bought computers claiming to support.

Yeah, and you really don't start smiling and cheering at pretty people when you go shopping at the Gap, and a shitty italian-named drink at Starbucks will not make you a smart and happy notebook-using NY resident. And my 15k USD Honda does not look as good at the sport edition that got me all excited about having a Honda.

That's life. Making a good purchase is your own responsability.

Microsoft never advertised Aero, though. They advertised Windows Vista, and showed how pretty it looked. The vast majority of consumers barely know there are different versions of Vista, much less the differences between them, and if something has a sticker saying it'll run Vista, then it should be able to run what is advertised as Vista.

Vista has three editions: Basic, Premium and Ultimate. If you know what "Vista" is when you're shopping for a new notebook, you should also know about the options related to the purchase of the said product. If you're a consumer that "barely knows the options of buying Vista" then you should not be using the Vista characteristic as a defining factor of your purchase option, as you're obviously misinformed about the subject. It's all about personal responsability.

Honda is advertising sporty-like Civics on TV all the time. Yet everybody knows that the base price listed at the ad will not allow you to purchase the exciting and pretty version that's being shown at that specific ad. It's a fact of life that products have cheap + simple and expensive + full-featured versions.

This lawsuit only exists because the lawyers mediating it are going to make shitloads of cash in the process. Not because people were hurt as consumers.

Going with your example, Crysis will run as a full game with all the features on any system with at least the minimum specs. You get to play every level, every enemy, nothing is left out. That is not what happened with Vista... you can't run all of the Vista content with a "Vista Capable" PC, even slowed down. It's just impossible. And that's the issue.

Crysis will not look as good as in the back of the game box when running on a PC that meets the recommended specs, let alone a PC comparable only to the minimum specs. This is not a problem because consumers are expected to know that PC games are prone to restrictions when their machine is not good enough.

Knowing that your PC must be really good to run a brand new game is part of being a well-informed consumer for that market. People should be responsible for their actions.

You are incorrect. I have an HP Entertainment laptop with WinXP Mediacenter edition. This was 3 months prior to Vista's release. This laptop has a sticker which states "Windows Vista Capable" it does not specify a certain version of Vista. I am sure that Vista Basic is not equal to XP Mediacenter. So this laptop cannot be upgraded to an equivalent Vista version without hardware upgrades.

It's your fault for reading "Capable of running a version of Vista comparable to XP Media Center" instead of "Capable of running Windows Vista".

You can't expect to get the sporty-like Honda Civic from the TV Ad for the basic price. It's your duty to act like an educated consumer and make informed decisions. If you really cared about the "Vista thingy" on that specific notebook, it means that you knew, in fact, what was this Vista thing all about. Is it a single product or has it different versions with different capabilities? It's up to you to check that out.

In addition, a friend purchased a similar HP laptop with Vista and some of the hardware simply did not work. It took about 6 months for HP to get him drivers that would operate the built in web cam.

There is no addition here. This is just an anecdote about a defective product line.

So yea I think the lawsuit is valid and people should be compensated.

You only say that because you hate Microsoft.

So you're condemning them for their lack of freedoms and for their tendency towards oppression while advocating further suppressing their freedoms as a solution?

I'm not advocating anything, actually. I was just pointing out that naive solutions based on "just talking to people" will not solve the problem at all. People need to be inclined to talking for this kind of solution to be an option in the first place.

That makes you more similar to them than you are willing to admit.

No, it doesn't. That's just a PETA-like simplification of the process. No armchair expert suggestion from a civilizated westerner will ever make the said person similar to a hate-filled and ignorant citizen from a stone age region.

You need to get all the arguments out in the open and have a leader who can address the concerns of the people logically and convince them not to fight.

Yes, because we're actually talking about the population of Zurich, Switzerland. They're all going to gather at public places like schools and universities, and discuss this very important matter, along with all the arguments and facts that you've brought to them. At the end, they'll apologize for all the violence and actually look for solutions to stop all that injustice that they were preaching for.

Oh no, wait... We're talking about a place where half of the population (women) is forbidden of participating in any kind of educational process and the other half only goes to school to learn religious aspects of life, with a disturbing share of time being dedicated to hate speech against whoever is their current enemy.

Oh, sure. They will actually listen to a lot of arguments, think about them and then all unite and assemble to make peace and live a wonderful and rich life. Keep dreaming.

Not at all, all the activists want is the ability to get rid of the government, like we do. And the activists in the far east wouldn't be so violent if they didn't keep geting bombed with US made phosphorus bombs.

They were not being bombed with anything at all since 2000. But they kept sending rockets and acting violent. What's the excuse, then?

There is no such thing as "they're violent only because (put punctual reason here)". They actually have an agenda that includes the extermination of their neighbour. They're not just as bunch of nice and educated folks looking for justice. Once you get them what they want now, they'll just find a new reason to keep doing what they're doing.

You give them land, they'll want more land. You give more land, they'll want you to leave the region. You leave, they'll want you dead. You die, they'll look for another enemy.

Left-wing people like you tend to politically sponsor terrorist organizations as a way to "get back to the man". It's some kind of sick and twisted way of getting things even at those who sponsor the state of Israel: the government and rich people from all around the globe.

But what you people don't get is that antisemitism is the most profitable business at places like Palestine, Lebanon and even Iran. Having an enemy to blame for all the people's problems so you can use public money and support to build powerful and rich institutions is a really good strategy. Arafat was a very rich man by the time he died, because he kept a substantial part of the salary of millions of palestinians. You know, to "fight the big enemy".

Most terrorist leaders are living at the richest parts of middle east. They have big and nice houses with gold-plated stuff all over the place. These organizations need a scapegoat to allow them to keep the people united against a virtual threat that allows their leaders to keep them as slaves. At Palestine, the system is simple: a large part of Palestinians work at job positions inside Israel. When they come home with their salary, part of it belongs to the ones "helping" the people by "fighting the enemy". The next is step is obvious:
4. Profit!!!!!

The best way of stealing from the people is making them believe that you're actually helping them. An atmosphere of hate and injustice is a good way of doing this.

The only complaint of this frivolous lawsuit is the fact that Vista Basic does not contain "the actual features considered as Vista-defining such as Aero and other features". This is just about a bunch of lawyers trying to get shitloads of money from a class action suit.

There is no deception here. The computers labeled as "Vista Capable" were, in fact, able of running Vista Basic. They were not labeled "Aero Capable" or anything like that.

I used to own a "Designed for Microsoft Windows 2000" workstation. Should I sue Microsoft for not being able to run Windows 2000 Advanced Server at full clustering capabilities? Anyone buying any piece of hardware is responsible of knowing that they might not be able to run the most advanced version any product family. What's next? Suing EA or Valve for not being able to run Crysis at full settings using the minimum system specs? I mean, 1900x1200 with 4xAA and advanced shading is what I consider "the Crysis defining features".

Even if the computers were labeled as "Aero compatible" and Microsoft called the new Windowing theme as "Aero" (with or without the transparency), there would be no reason for a lawsuit. But they didn't. They called these computers "Vista Capable" and they were, in fact, capable of running a version of Windows Vista.

I'm sorry but even though sometimes Microsoft gives me the creeps, lawyers can be even worse. And class action suit lawyers are the worst ones of all, they're just looking for a jackpot suit so they can retire and buy a boat.

It's great that you have a bunch of proprietary tools to allow you access the proprietary binary file after using a set of proprietary recovery disks you can't make yourself.

Yes, we get it. Windows is closed-source. So what? Only commies care about that.

With previous versions of windows, and with current versions of linux, it's easy for a saavy computer user to make changes, and implement fixes to a broken system from outside the system via bootdisk. It's effectively impossible to implement such fixes to a broken Windows system because of the inherently broken nature of having configuration values stored in a proprietary binary file.

No, it's not impossible. There are several tools that allow reading and writinh the registry of a disk installation. In fact, any Windows PE disk can do that with three or four small command line tools and the old ERD Commander (now Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset) has graphical tools to achieve the same task.

Windows and the underlying OS have been moving progressively from a system where you pretty much needed to understand the underlying architecture to effectively set up your machine, to a system where you cannot understand the underlying architecture because it goes out of it's way to stop you from figuring it out.

It is still entirely possible to understand the underlying architecture of Windows. The problem is you: you gave up on Windows and you're now happier at your new OS religion. For the rest of us, MSDN is still there and OSes are still just tools.

Slashdot has an irrational hatred of the Registry. They'll promote this as the solution to everything from security holes, to bowel cancer. Just ignore it, there's no point trying to argue.

You are correct. And they only do that because they heard of it somewhere else and just keep repeating the same argument over and over again.

I don't see how editing 300 different sintaxes at /etc is much better than having a standard repository of folders and values.