Comment Re:Never underestimate the power of liquids (Score 1) 533
You'd think so, eh? Look into the "Network Configuration Operators" group. Case closed.
Let this myth die please. You can run XP easily as a Limited User, I've been doing it for years. Any comptent IT person should be able to set up a Limited User Account so that the user can do his/her tasks. I actually find the implementation of XP better than in Vista/7 because you get "access denied" and that's it. Under Vista/7 you get a username/password prompt which hints to the user he could do something (which she/he can't, but the dialog suggests it). With "access denied", they'll call you and you can either tell them they're doing stuff they shouldn't or go over and fix the problem. In all these years, of setting up XP/Limited, the latter rarely happened because I try to foresee all use-cases for the user.
Do we change our coding habits to use any of this new-found capability?
No. We insist on scrunching our code in the left-hand column.
We shrink tabs from 8 to 4 or even 2 spaces.
We use carriage returns like crazy.
I did none of those things during my coding days. I always got lauded for the readability of my code and I credit the fact that I actually ignored inane coding guidelines like 80 chars per line, etc...
It's coding guidelines that often impose this crap and those annoy the shit out of me.
You journal was unreadable, by the way, but I guess that was on purpose. So I stopped reading until the quoted text.
Judging by the number of people still running on antiquated WinXP machines,
WinXP is not antiquated, it's mature.
Forget my comment... Within the context of the parent poster (which I didn't see), your comment makes sense and says the same I said.
My excuses.
Seriously, when was the last time your CPU died? Last time for me was years ago, when one of my Athlon MPs fans got stuck and it overheated. That's because Athlon XP/MP had no thermal protection. All modern AMD CPUs do, and Intels have had it since the Pentium Pro days (if not earlier, but I had our PPro overheat because of a defective fan, and after replacing the fan it worked fine again.
As for the fileserver/Media PC example, I wonder why you'd ever want to shell out $300 for such a thing. The Atom offerings are more than enough for doing that (For a mere fileserver, it's overkill: I use a Soekris net5501-70 for that.) Take an Atom 330 with an ION chipset or go for an Atom D5xx (You'll have to look, not all come with DVI/HDMI) and you're set for $150 given your requirements. If it breaks, and it won't unless you have a lemon, replacing it won't be expensive at all.
Oh, and in your scenario, you could just as well buy an older CPU for very cheap. CPUs for older sockets are still being sold. You want a 775-socket CPU? No problem! It's been out since July 2006 and you can still buy CPUs and they're cheap. So for just repairing the situation, shell out the minimum and be happy again for the next 3 years... until the CPU burns out again (unlikely). In that time, yet aside $10 per month for a future replacement, and you'll have a grand total of $360 to spend on new gear...
The problem with your scenario is that you want to use the "broken PC" situation as an excuse to upgrade. However, from the scenario, what is important is that you get the machine back up and running, ASAP so that the incoming visit can watch movies with you. Get your priorities right, and the scenario has only one valid solution: replace CPU with cheap replacement and get on with business.
I admit, it isn't one of their most exotic boards, but it suited my needs perfectly.
Yes, it does... Because the stereotype is that we don't pay any taxes. I can assure you that's not true: we provide safe haven for tax dodgers (and even that's waning), but citizens pay taxes. The initial income tax isn't high, but they come at the end of the year and when you earn enough you pay through the nose. As a matter of fact, combined income of me and my wife results in us paying my net salary every three months in "advances"... Knowing them, I'm pretty sure that at the end of the year they'll still be hungry for more. Do note that it makes extremely hard to budget things, if you don't really know what you earn per month, as you can't really foresee the "surprise" at the end of the year. I'd rather be taxed more heavily initially on my income.
Luxembourgish taxes: Good for foreigners and people with a mortgage and lots of kids...
I'm well aware the stereotype exists... If I'd get 1€ for every time someone told me I don't pay taxes, I'd.... well... pay even more taxes, I guess
For the record: I was born Belgian and have a lot of friends and family over there. I took the Luxembourgish nationality around ten years ago. I know of first hand experience that the Belgian national sport is tax dodging, and "black money" is way too common. Belgians admit that openly, though... Well unless he's talking to a tax inspector of course
Here in Luxembourg, some gas stations have queues every damned weekend from non locals filling up. While I have a gas guzzler (~9l/100km to 7.5l/100km... it's a 11 year old car by now, which I bought new back in the day. It suits my needs and I see no reason replacing it with something new, even if it would be more economical... Breaking even would take years), I would applaud if they matched gas prices in neighbouring countries.
As a matter of fact, this is one of the places where the EU should step in and harmonize the prices and taxation over the whole EU.
BLISS is ignorance.
