Really? What risk? I have the same situation. They are custom cash registers which would require hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace. to you it's a computer to my client it's a fancy cash register. He tried to replace the business logic by off the shelf software but none would meet the requirements. So his choice is to spend hundreds of thousands on redeveloping his cash register, buy off the shelf software and hire additional staff to meet the requirements, or go to discount stores and pickup the stuff that is been thrown away?

Yeah Win95, Win98, NT are still going strong today and they will for at least the next 10 years. Maybe by that time the off the shelf software will catch up to his business logic. It's not for you fine, but I know for a fact that if he would have followed MS current he would have spent over a million just keeping up with the times. The code is completely debugged in the last 20 years of operation and a solution that none of his competitors can match.

to the package that is sitting on my shelf... nice.

Can we please stop this foolishness. Now I'm off to reddit where I can enjoy my free time.

Once more in plain English Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.

Personally I don't care what OS I use as long as I can accomplish the task at hand. I find all OS's missing some functionality. Some do it deliberately and others are missing the developers and/or resources. Android is my preferred mobile platform and OSX is my referred desktop platform. As it stands now both will lose from this choice since I may go for the Air instead of a combo.

If the first link is an ad and it's what I'm looking for does it matter?

How ads are identified doesn't matter when it is evident it is an ad. What matters is that I find what I'm looking for on the first page with the least amount of clicks. As a customer of Google I do not want people who are not looking to buy to come to my site. If someone is looking to learn about diamonds they most likely are not looking to buy. So a generic search of diamonds may lead to a page of jewelers a user would not click on any ad links but would refine the search. If all users are stupid and click on links identified as ads for jewelers then jewelers sales will not improve and advertising costs increase or be less effective, therefore they may stop advertising with Google.

In order for Google to continue being relevant they need to be relevant to people who search otherwise Google's product dries up. If ads are relevant then I don't care

No need they don't need your PIN

You need to read this You are not covered and they don't need your PIN. Possibly from a DB hack you may be safe. All I have to say it's not as secure as you make it sound.

Lucky that chip-and-pin cards don't have RFID on them then ;). They must be inserted into the reader for the chip to be used, and even then, the chip is not (and can not be) read, instead, it's used to encrypt, and sign your PIN, so that the bank can verify that it's really you (or someone who knows your PIN, and has your card – whee, two fold security, something you know, and something you have) there.

Sorry to disappoint you but all my chip & pin cards have RFID as well.

Some light reading on PIN. It does not always get verified by the bank and may well be bypassed with 0000.

Read this.

Introducing an additional "special" tax on one industry but not another does not equate to everyone paying their fare share. This is not about preventing suffering. This is just a pain money grab. The French do not have a special tax on the restaurant industry, nor the cheese industry, or the wine industry. This is a plain money grab. The funds go into the general revenue of the government and may or may not be directed to "culture". Culture is something that a group of people believe in, create and participate in. It is not something that is owned by an individual it is something that is shared. It does not mean that it is of no cost.

Government is about control and the perception about them vs us. If this was not about that then a French YouTube and Facebook would exist that would promote French culture and this would not compete with the US YouTube and Facebook because each would promote a different culture and not be about money.

You can change/flash the IEMI.

On that note maybe the artist can license the public air waves or just distribute the songs door to door.

I can show even more micromanager failures than the three successful which were listed. A few successful ones does not proof make. Sorry.

The part I just can't see is what do I need "computed" on a server which will take longer to calculate locally? My biggest problem with the Internet is that it is the slowest part of all my computing needs. I don't buy this 3X faster crap! They can't even put 1X as fast per user equipment currently why does anybody expect that in the "FUTURE" that it will be any different?

This is just a bunch of marketing crap so they can get free press. When it comes out it will be as lame as the Wii U is today. Microsoft hasn't even explained how this will even hook up to my TV and offer better TV even though they spent hours boasting about its TV features. Does it connect to cable? HD? Satellite? Cablecard?

SPAM is very clear any and all email that I did not subscribe to which is soliciting me. Now I subscribe to lists and once in a while marketing comes through some lists which I therefore unsubscribe. If it continues coming it is SPAM. Very clear to me.

It may be my math but I gave 2 examples. I can list more but I don't feel I need to because they make my point. Sony has shown no reason why we should trust their statement.

It's not a theory when it is fact. Sony made the above mentioned statements and they reneged(fact) so it is your "malevolent theory" that this time they will keep their word.

I am willing to place a wager on this one, odds are on my side unfortunately we will have to wait till the PS5 to see who wins.