Vampyre_Dark - Slashdot User

Dell Refunds Vista/Works With Two Emails 277

Posted by kdawson on Sunday March 25, 2007 @04:59PM from the try-this-at-home dept.

look@thealternative.ch writes "Although many people have asked for pre-installed Linux, and Dell seems to have listened, some still think that buying a naked PC won't be easy. But what about stripping it naked after you buy it? I managed to get Windows Vista (and a bit more) refunded from Dell Germany last week. The process was surprisingly simple: 1) After delivery, ask Dell Support for refund by email. 2) ??? 3) Refund!!! Read the full email conversation in the original German or my English translation. For the impatient reader: The refund is €77.54 for Windows Vista Home Basic plus Works 8.0 (that is 15% of the total amount I paid). The whole process took 2 emails, 2 more to say thank you, and less than 48 hours. The money is already in my account. Kudos to Dell Customer Care (esp. 'Veronika') for being efficient and customer-oriented!"

Submission + - The End of the Ocarina of Time 2D Project.

Submitted by

Rowan187

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @04:34PM

Rowan187 writes: "It's been over a year since the announcement of Dampe's project to recreate the entire hit, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, in a 2D RPG. However, the lead developer Dampe' was unfortunately killed in a fatal car accident. This so ends the Ocarina of Time 2D project.

The website has been taken down and there is a forum post to discuss the death of Dampe'

This ends a great project for Zelda geeks everywhere. R.I.P. Dampe'"

Submission + - How do you keep confusing DB data straight

Submitted by

zappepcs

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @04:12PM

zappepcs writes: "The Washington Post is running a story about the U.S. Terrorist database and how there are so many errors from its use. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2007/03/24/AR2007032400944.html

" Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years
U.S. Watch Lists Are Drawn From Massive Clearinghouse

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page A01

Each day, thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around the world — field reports, captured documents, news from foreign allies and sometimes idle gossip — arrive in a computer-filled office in McLean, where analysts feed them into the nation's central list of terrorists and terrorism suspects.

Called TIDE, for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the list is a storehouse for data about individuals that the intelligence community believes might harm the United States. It is the wellspring for watch lists distributed to airlines, law enforcement, border posts and U.S. consulates, created to close one of the key intelligence gaps revealed after Sept. 11, 2001: the failure of federal agencies to share what they knew about al-Qaeda operatives. "

The question is 'How do slashdot users keep such data straight. If its a database and somewhere in it is two records; both for people named John D. Elvinhaus, who both lived in or near Denver at the same time, one who works at 7-11, one works at a security company.

What are the correct ways to keep these records straight, unconfused, not marked as duplicates, or in this case, confusing both as terrorists when only one of them has some unbelievably small link to some terrorist activity? What can the government do to avoid this issue?"

Submission + - Online Gamers Can Now Pay With Their Blood

Submitted by

Weather Storm

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @12:56PM

Weather Storm writes: "According to weirdasiannews.com, a game company called Moliyo, which runs multiple online games in China, has given roughly 120,000 hackers banned from one of its games, Cabal Online, the chance to play once again. The price? A pint of blood. Any banned player that shows up to a blood drive in Nanjing and donates a pint of blood will have their accounts unlock. In a response to a shortage of donors, Chinese hospitals and Moliyo developed an ingenious method of enticing gamers to give the gift that truly keeps on giving. About a hundred of the guilty have stepped forward."

Submission + - The mystery of vitamin B12 finally solved

Submitted by

Roland Piquepaille

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @12:40PM

Roland Piquepaille writes: "You probably think that scientists know everything about the common and essential vitamin B12, the only vitamin synthesized by soil microbes. In fact, one part of this biosynthesis has puzzled researchers for at least 50 years. But now, MIT and Harvard biologists have solved this vitamin puzzle by discovering that a single enzyme known as BluB synthesizes the vitamin. So what is the next challenge for the researchers? It's to discover why the soil microorganisms synthesize the vitamin B12 at all, because neither them — nor the plants they're attached to — need it to live. Read more for additional references and a picture of BluB."

Submission + - OGRE 1.4.0 Released!

Submitted by Game_Ender on Sunday March 25, 2007 @12:08PM

Game_Ender writes: The OGRE Team is proud to announce the release of OGRE 1.4.0, codenamed 'Eihort'. OGRE is an open-source, cross-platform real-time 3D rendering engine including all the latest features you would expect, and this version introduces such things as SSE/SIMD support, more advanced lighting and shadowing techniques, threaded loading and much more. Full details can be obtained from the official announcement and change log.

Submission + - How Google Could Lose $2.1 Billion From Ads

Submitted by

Weather Storm

on Sunday March 25, 2007 @11:57AM

Weather Storm writes: "An interesting article from informationweek.com explains how online advertisers using Google can spend 30% less and still get the same results if they worked with a capable search engine marketing (SEM) firm, says the head of a search engine marketing firm. "Google's advertisers mostly don't know what they're doing and, if they did, Google could lose as much as $2.1 billion in revenue, according to Jon Morris, founder of SEM Company Internet Marketing Initiative. By Morris' estimate, only about 30% of Internet advertisers understand the intricacies of adverting analytics or are working with an SEM company. That leaves 70% wasting money. Morris says one of his company's clients, America Direct, a life insurance provider owned by Fidelity Life Association, has reduced its cost per lead from $150 dollars to less than $20 per lead since a year ago. Typically, he says, clients can reduce their cost per lead from 30% to 50%.""

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