Slashdot has just enough of the old Slashdot in it for me to stick around, it's still the definitive tech site. I have to say however the latest sale/purchase has really disappointed me. Any and all stories of a controversial nature are not by default slanted to a pro-globalist narrative wording. It was incredibly obvious with gamer gate, the repeated beating it into my head I should feel guilty that more women don't even want my job, and now pro TPP (which basically includes SOPA and PIPA in the text) and related treaties disguised as trade agreements.

I'm all for less taxes in nearly every instance, but these treaties are incredibly dangerous.

Microsoft has had some really bad track records with patches as of late. They've trashed Outlook 2010 no less than four times this year, it's gotten so bad we've had to disable updates company wide. I actually had one use request a downgrade to Office 2007 since Microsoft didn't seem to break that one. After the third mass break this year it's gotten to the point that I outright ban any patch labeled Outlook when I update a system with 2010 on it.

Come on Microsoft, I didn't have a huge amount of trust in you to begin with. Publicly address this chain of fail and promise you'll cut it out to restore some faith.

Now you've got me wondering if I can get mine up over the theoretical 2GB max. 4 or 8 would really put mine on a modern footing - I've only got one RAM slot to play with. That Atom N570 at 2x1.66 Ghz with 1MB cache isn't too shabby for Windows 8, it's not far off from a Surface 3 (not pro). I'm really looking forward to this.

since the Starter Edition OA ISO is hard to find.

The confirmation email they sent me when I setup my account emailed my password back to me in plain text. Acer good-feelings: Gone.

I was upset when Microsoft decided they didn't want Netbooks to exist anymore and used their clout to force the reputable companies out of making them. I laughed my butt off when they came back in the name of Chromebooks - the first Acer Chromebooks as far as I could tell were basically a repurposed Aspire One anyways. These are actually seeing some real adoption, schools in particular in this area require kids to have a Chromebook, that they will issue, or something that will do the same things as a Chromebook if a parent will provide (my buddy sent his daughter with a first gen Surface tablet with Chrome).

I see the entire Chromebook phenomenon as a fuck you to Microsoft for the bullying they pulled forcing manufacturers out of that market anyways. The fact ChromeOS is Linux they pushed them right back where I thought they should be (mostly) anyways.

On that note - Chrome does horrible full-screen, which is almost a requirement on a netbook. I went back to Firefox over it on my netbook, and went back to it everywhere as a result. Glad I did, I'm not happy with the current state of Chrome.

With (upgraded) 2GB of RAM and Linux/KDE using the Netbook desktop and an SSD for what it's worth mine does Youtube just fine, since it's WebM, I don't go to CNN but it manages with other Flash based video that needs to die. The fact is as far as Windows is concerned I hit the power button when I bought it to make sure it could boot, upgraded the RAM, did it again, then I plowed it and put Linux on it so I've never really seen how well it works with Windows. The fact that Windows 7 Starter qualifies for the 10 upgrade and this is my only computer with a Windows license, legit or not, makes it my candidate for learning and experimenting. Especially since I now have a work laptop (Lenovo W540) that's taken over as my mobile, mostly because I have to carry it anyways making my Acer redundant on the daily end of things. I still throw it in my bike MTX bag for a coffee shop trip or what have you, but those trips are a bit rare these days.

I think mine is a little newer than the one in the article, mine is a D255E-1853. I liked mine so much that when a year or so later I bought my daughter a bit newer model, both of ours came with Windows 7 Starter, but both have been running Linux for quite a while. Mine still has Kubuntu despite the fact I quit installing that in favor of Netrunner a couple of years ago and hers has Elementary OS on it.

I have about the same netbook, and I've never used the Windows 7 that came with it, but want to put it back specifically so I can put Windows 10 on it to play with it. I lost the Clonezilla image I made of it years ago and am on the verge of ordering the backup media from the Acer website - I've come up empty on a WIndows 7 Starter ISO. I've loved my little Acer, I've had three bike wrecks with it, one of which my entire body weight went up and down the thing twice as I rolled over my backpack, not a scratch. I double the RAM from 1 to 2 GB the day I bought it and put an SSD in later. The SSD was incredible when it came to increasing the battery life and performance. I've told people it's the laptop Fischer-Price made, and I say it in a bragging manner, I still love my little netbook.

I'll stick with the cartel viewpoint thank you very much. It's up to the market to decide there's too many cabs, not arbitrary opinions - unfair competition is competition at the point of a gun - which is exactly what happens with government involvement.

Working a law into competition being a violation does not make a good business or government.

If there's a "regulation free monopoly" being that there's no regulations I'll upstart as the little guy and advertise not only are my cabs cleaner, we take safety seriously too. Not only that we're proud to say we are not part of big consolidated mega-butt-stench overlord corp and proud of it. I would be the designer cab company while everything else would be the department store cab company.

I've been trumpeting the treaty and it's problems (they're calling it "not a treaty") but all you get is "You're just an Alex Jones listening, tinfoil hate wearing conspiracy theorist!" around here. Then the accuser turns around, turns on the TV and watches a reality TV show, cheers about a rainbow flag replacing the confederate, and drools all over the Jenner story.

If they all have a bad reputation I start the good one, advertise myself as the less-fleas brand and cash in on that market.

So the state cleaning it up is the solution instead of establishing a brand with a good reputation?

If I have to call a taxi I'm going to call the one I'm less likely to get out of with a case of fleas.

Sadly there is something worse than the protection rackets that already exist. Too bad most of these people will just yell "tinfoil hat!".

Why?

Compensate them because their government backed monopoly in which they prevented hundreds if not thousands of others from profiting because they worked the system in such a way that guaranteed the laws of supply and demand didn't affect their business? They're lucky there isn't a lynch mob coming after them for the affront to the natural market, losing a protected monopoly is no reason to reward them.