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Comment Consumers are cheap (Score 2) 415

Consumers are cheap - this is evidenced by the number of consumers who never install a new version of Windows on their computers. How will Microsoft get people to subscribe when they buy a new computer?

Buy this new laptop for only $499!*
*Plus recurring $10/moy payments for the remainder of the computer's life

Yeah, that will sell like hotcakes....

Comment Have they fixed the following "bugs" yet? (Score 1) 305

I'm still on 10.6 or 10.7, but have they fixed the following bugs yet?

  1. UID 1000 is invisible/hidden at boot-up log-in selection. UID 500 and 1001 are visible, but for whatever idiotic decision, UID1000 requires typing in the username instead of clicking on it. Definitely hampers the WAF in my household.
  2. reintegrate MIT-Kerberos. Setting this up was an unnecessary PIA

Comment Re:Is there an counter to this? (Score 1) 251

This is way too much effort, unless you happen to enjoy yanking some chains over the phone.

Here's how you quit Comcast:

(1) Disconnect every piece of Comcast equipment in your home.
(2) Load it in a box, and put the box in your car.
(3) Drive to the nearest Comcast customer center.
(4) Dump the box on the counter and tell the rep: "I wish to terminate my service immediately."

No one will argue with you. You have completely bypassed Comcast's customer retention process by doing this. Pay the amount due on your bill, get a receipt with a complete list of the equipment you've turned in, then go home.

The process Comcast has for this involves:
1) Finding a customer center that's open when you're available
2) Returning the equipment to the counter
3) Take a ticket
4) Wait 1+hrs while other people complain about their bills
5) Get confirmation from the customer service rep that your account is in good standing and now closed

Comment Re:It's not a kernel problem (Score 2) 727

The problem is the GUI. People don't like X, and Linux people have no desire to give us anything else.

I seriously doubt the premise that the common user cares about X enough to not like it. The operating system is a platform for people to run the programs they need to accomplish certain tasks. Windows will continue to be the heavyweight champion because there is so much legacy crap out there which nobody cares to port over to other platforms. It's not a matter of saying that Linux has application A which is fully compatible with application B on Windows; it's a matter of saying that a user can accomplish everything s/he needs to within a single platform. For many of the people who make the decisions in the enterprise environment, that means people can accomplish everything they do in:
Excel
PowerPoint
Outlook
and *maybe* Word

Comment Re:Someone with no brain is running NASA (Score 1) 162

Pic of the wheel ...

http://www.garrettbelmont.com/...

The first time when I saw the wheels I was wondering why the hell they spend so much money to send up a robot to Mars and then equip that thing with such flimsy wheels

And I did post question here on /, and there were people (NASA fanbois, perhaps) defending those flimsy wheels

I wish the wheels on my daily driver would last as many years without servicing as Curiosity's have.

Comment Re:put it in bridge mode (Score 1) 224

If you call Comcast's customer service, they can put their new routers into bridge mode. This turns off its WiFi and other unnecessary features and makes it act like their old routers.

The fact that you have to call Comcast's customer support to change between router & bridge mode is a serious PIA. I got called in to provide tech support for some people we volunteer with and was stuck waiting for over an hour to make a simple configuration change. This is after previous calls getting dropped because the call center reps couldn't manage to transfer me to the appropriate (or even wrong) departments.

Comment Re:We're only talkin' two Red Line subway stops (Score 1) 205

Not to discredit, but to clarify TFA:

While students at MIT and Harvard do cross-register, the logistics of travel from one campus to another limit the extent to which this is practical. Online makes it possible for students to take classes from across universities more conveniently.”

We're talking two subway stops. Or they can rent a bike, which are all over the place and very well maintained: http://www.thehubway.com/stati...

Or, shorter than walking from one end of campus to the other end of several large universities....

Comment Sure, but... (Score 1) 502

In order for solar+battery tech to become a viable solution, there needs to be ways to move the electricity generated by the solar panels to batteries you want to use. I.e. co-locate the two (e.g. panels & cars at home; panels & cars at work) or network them together (e.g. panels at home, cars at work.) The first scenario isn't very likely considering the sun generally shines when people are at work and the concentration of vehicles at work will overshadow the electricity generated by panels at an office building. The second scenario begs the question "who maintains the grid." In the US, this is the power companies, who could presumably adjust their business models and charge network access fees instead of production fees.

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