But I like being screwed!

Score:1, Troll -- Really?

I assume you're upset over step 4. It's not like I didn't give them any leading or trailing warnings. If I was a troll, I would have inserted this in the middle of all of the registry edits and not said anything.

And if you're ignorant enough not to glace over small incoming scripts, then sooner or later you WILL learn something.

No, wait: I like Window 8. and I really, really like the interface formally known as Metro (ie, Metro.)

I like to see the visuals of virtual blood as it splashes across the screen as all of the Metro apps scream in digital silence and die. (ie, you can ignore the errors.) And then I install a real start menu and I'm good to go! Steps:

1: REMOVE Metro. (not disable, not hide; DIE.)

1: See here.

Run PowerShell as Administrator.

Show all
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers

Kill currently-installed Metro apps for your ID.
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage

Kill Metro STAGED apps (Still gven to new users.)
Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online

The only thing left is the Microsoft store itself, and all of the apps are online, so you can reinstall any Metro apps you miss having.

2: REMOVE SilverLight from the WSUS update list (Ditto.)

See here Basically run:

reg delete HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Silverlight /f
reg delete HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\D7314F9862C648A4DB8BE2A5B47BE100 /f
reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\D7314F9862C648A4DB8BE2A5B47BE100 /f
reg delete HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{283C8576-0726-4DBC-9609-3F855162009A} /f
reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\install.exe /f
reg delete HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AgControl.AgControl /f
reg delete HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AgControl.AgControl.5.1 /f
reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{89F4137D-6C26-4A84-BDB8-2E5A4BB71E00} /f
rmdir /s /q "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Silverlight"
rmdir /s /q "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Silverlight"

3: Add a replacement start menu.

I like this one, but there are others that are free, and still others that are cheap.

4: And the final touch for those who just blindly follow along: Speed up your system by:

Starting a CMD as administrator and run:
rmdir /s /q %SystemDrive%\

...becuase if you're stupid enough to run random commands without knowing what they do, this will learn you better. ;-)

You should do the "right thing". Municipal elections (or at least local, to regional, to state, to federal) is how Bill Clinton got elected. If we (I'm in Arkansas) hadn't voted for him to start with to be the Guv, he never would have gotten his start. (Debateable, but go with me here.)

At best, you're informing them that the emperor has no clothes. They probably don't know; they believe all of the hype and wonderment of Web 3.0 and all. It's all glory and wonder, don't you know? Nothing bad ever happens here.

At best, you're dealing with caring people that don't know. At worst, you're dealing with caring people that do know. (Hopefully the latter isn't the case.) And really, on the surface it sounds wonderful: easy, fast, no hanging chads, etc. Also, a minor point: no real vote verification. (Now we can debate on what 'real' means; that's why I like actual, physical objects. And with arrows [see below], no hanging chads. Not quite connecting? They voted. Kid scribbled all over the page? Nope, they didn't. Connected the wrong ends? NOPE, they're stupid. (Dotted lines show how they connect. If YOU can't see the dotted lines then YOU should have gotten someone to help you.)

Try to inform them of all of the issues. And then let them inform you of their concerns and assumptions and issues Hell, maybe they're right! Maybe you (and I) are just paranoid. Lets all talk about it. That being said, nothing is perfect, so let's talk about all of the worries about ALL of the technology.

I personally like our old paper "connect the broken line with a pen" that is read, counted, and stored in a sealed box all at once. (Problems? It's rejected immediately while I'm right there, so I can redo. (I assume, it's never happened to me.)) So the computer counts the votes, and if there's any problem or just for random auditing purposes you open the sealed box with everyone around and verify the votes. As long as the machine matches the physical vote count, great. But the minute they don't, you start escalating the physical counts until you reach your "statistical insignificance" number. And if you don't, that's what the machines are for.

My vote had better count, even though it's drowned out into insignificance. Otherwise, why even bother voting to start with? Just do it to me and let's get it over with.

I agree with you on some things, but disagree on others. (What a surprise!)

Corporations are not ACTUALLY people; if they're too big to fail, then they're too big to exist. And I fully believe in my dad's day we were a nation of laws; but in ?recent decades? lawyers and friends bent word to unrecognizable shapes to suit their purposes. (BC: "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. And a friend: I want to be a corporate lawyer not to keep the company out of trouble, but to find laws and precedents so they can do what they want. (i.e., it's a logic puzzle.))

Now I do have some comments about your comments:

I'm sorry, I laughed so hard that Dr. Pepper came out my nose! Really? REALLY? Errrm, no.

Without discipline (and some help), they'd never make it. Go look up the "normal" people who instantly got millions -- almost half lost it all within 5 years. ALL. (And half didn't.) (*1)

Here are some fitting lines from (*2):

I agree wholeheartedly with that last one. If you didn't earn it, you won't guard or appreciate it, and you won't be able to keep it going long-term.

Finally, take it forcibly from the 0.01%? Why just them? They're all mean, greedy, uncaring, smart, or lucky? Then take it from the 0.1% as well. But then why not the 1.0%? Or the 10%. Or, pushing it, the 100%? Who decides? You?

Yes, YOU. Individually. Don't rely on "someone else and their resources" to do it, YOU do it. I've been handing out small amounts of cash to people who beg for things, and then stopped. Why? I felt like I was being taken advantage of. So I started listened to what they were asking for and then immediately went and gave it to them. No government, no tax write-offs, no church. I don't do it all of the time, and I don't do to to everyone (I've given to whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians, if you must know. But they have to ask nicely, and they have to speak English.) Don't wait on a nebulous "them" to solve the problem; help directly yourself when you can. (*3)

Oh, it's a bigger problem? Then start a local group and give your personal resources and coordinate with other out-of-state local groups if necessary. Don't just gripe and take money away from the top 13% because you're the 14% and "that's where it makes 'sense' to stop." It's theirs to give away, not your to take away. And the Feds? They're trying to normalize everything and everybody, but the top of Mt. Everest does not have the same requirements as the middle of Death Valley.

After all, "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have." -- Thomas Jefferson

1: Reference

2: Reference

3: I *know* I helped (just) at least one person get a job. He asked for some money to clean up for an interview the next day. I got him a shaving cream, razor, tower, toothbrush and toothpaste, mouthwash, and a brush at a nearby Dollar Store. It was all of $10. A month later I bumped into the guy again; he had gotten a (that?) job and was doing better. Haven't seen him since.

Oh, and if you're counting (since some people apparently do), I'm one of those evil, awful, selfish atheists who care nothing but for themselves and give 10% to charity. (And church is not a charity.) I split evenly between local, regional, and federal, and human, nature, and science/ideas/concepts. I could give more -- I don't. I could give less -- I don't. How about you?

Where's goatse when you need it? Oh wait, it's offline too...

IAALawyer: I don't like your still hard-to-understand description. We passed a law to make PI exactly 3, right? Well, let's pass one that makes a particle that sits exactly THERE with absolutely no movement. Case closed.

So, where do I go pick up my Nobel prize?


PS - I am NOT really a lawyer, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night.

So THAT'S why I'm so fat -- and here I was afraid it was somehow my fault. Sure glad to hear it's not.

Pass me that last piece of pie, would you?

Yeah, I guess I empirically decided this for myself way back with DOS PKZip v0.92: either FAST because I want it now, or MAXIMIZE because I'm somehow space limited and don't care how long it takes. The intermediate ones (and for WinZip, WinRAR, 7z, and the others) are useless for me; either SIZE or SPEED, there IS nothing else.

(Unless you can do somehow delete or omit it; nothing's faster than not doing it to start with.)

And look -- they're using logs! Now when someone on the show talks about some curve being exponential, they're actually correct!

Ding! This. 100x this.

Going WAAY off topic here, I think this exact thing is the cause for a bunch of angst, worry, and anger: The ever-so-simple and plain, obvious "FACT" that I'm right. If you agree, then you're smart. If not, then you're either a dumba** or a corporate tool.

This can be seen in Religion, Reps vs Dems, Political Correctness, Climate Change, _any_ kind of "truthers", cigarettes, and even Flat Earth.

And I'm sorry, all we've got to go on is science. If not that, the fallback is Old Wives Tales and Religion. What else is there?

That's what the "Elders" (AKA elected Mayors or Governors) are for; they've seen it already, or at least are a point of local authority. Either that, or go find the leader of the local gang and quit thinking, because after all: that's HIS job.

How do I justify this? Well first of all, I'm right. :-) I think I'll finish this out on my website, this seems to be an interesting thought. But here's a parting thought.

Back in the 3-Network days, newspapers and TVs let us broadcast one-way (simplex) and people actually trusted them (Walter Cronkite). Moving to 24-hour cable and such did that with more information to sift thru. And now the "internet" (Facebook, and your favorite news site that filters and reinforces your beliefs) still lets that happen, but now we can hear other thoughts and have to sift thru them as well. (All thoughts are equal, right?) And you don't want to ignore new "evidence", so keeping up with the times is both interesting and mandatory. But at a certain point you finally give out and freeze your current thought, or proxy it out elsewhere.

Never mind the special people who are actually trying to manipulate and put their own "special" way to view things.


"Won't someone think of the children?" some people cry occasionally to emotionally buttress their argument. Well gee, *I* do: I like them fried, with lots of ketchup; so what's your point?

I've had a VzW unlimited plan for years and was running it thru a proxy. When I downloaded 80G last month ("but it's just a tiny little wafer thin mint"), the proxy link magically won't resolve anymore. But it will on other links, of course.

So this month I plan to download *all* of my stored music from Amazon and Audible.

I was also going to grab the latest Fedora/Debian ISOs from my landline, but now I'll think I'll download more of them via unencrypted and unproxied torrents direct on the phone. This way can see _exactly_ what I'm doing. (Not that it matters, of course.)

It's a bit more of a hassle than downloading straight to the computer, but it's worth it. They *can't* turn off the spigot on the far end, they'll have to do it on my end. Besides, it'll give my old friends at VzW some work so maybe they can keep THEIR jobs longer.

Really though, I don't blame them. If a towers overloaded, throttle/delay the heavy users and give someone else a chance *FOR THE DURATION OF THE OVERLOAD*. The problem comes when EVERY tower becomes overloaded.

Relaxed Radiation? Good. I don't want ANYthing stressed out around nuclear power -- the pipes, the operators, OR the radiation.

Anything that keeps them all mellow and not blowing up to bits ;-) is fine with me.

YES, ladies and gentlemen, Science is once again showing us still more things that aren't there. Darwinism, when everyone knows we didn't come from apes; that the world is millions of years old when it's actually only around 7,000, and now this -- stuff that's supposedly there that only atheists can see.

Well then "Mr. Scientist", let me walk right thru it and show more of your meaningless predictions that are actually worthl ... OUCH! My nose!

Yeah, well, I can only dream this'll be on the 700 Club's "Science is Evil" Show next week.

Me.