At least it's not as bad as Windows Genuine Advantage. The only thing genuine about it is it's a genuine pain in the rear, and the only advantage belongs to MS. I wouldn't mind Ubuntu counting my installs. As long as all they are doing is sending a ping everyday I think that's fine. According to the article this is only something for OEMs so it's not even something most people have to worry about. If they really wanted to get a good picture of how many people are using their system they should track unique connections pulling down updates. Less invasive and far more accurate I would think.

Yeah, you're a troll, but it's still funny.

I'm not sure you have a valid argument there. Most motivated by profit put out work designed to make them a profit. Those who put out work for the love of the art create things that money could never buy. Look at 99% of the music released by the majors and you'll see what I mean. It's all crap.

So when your HD fails what do you do? Go buy a retail copy of Windows?

So now when the network dies tomorrow it really will be solar flares. So much for my running joke.

Careful... if you say anything bad about the anointed one you are likely to get marked as a troll. Oops. Too late. No bias on this site. Not at all.

I guess they better tell all of the false scientists who deny it. Have some perspective... http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html

How do you know it's already happening? If you look at actual historical data (google is your friend) you will see that there have been many periods of time in the history of the world where it has gotten warmer, and then subsequently cooler. gw totally ignores that data, and instead relies on computer generated models that use cherry picked data in the 1950s as a starting point to come to their own predetermined conclusion. That my friend is not science. 60 years of data based off actual historical data isn't even enough to establish a baseline.

Ok, I'll suppose global warming is real even though instead of using actual climate data that's available they use data that's been computer generated, and even though they shout down and blackball any scientist that disagrees with their flimsy (and logically flawed IMO) conclusions. Yes I'll set all of that aside and consider your statement. Even if it is real, what are you going to do about it? Stop driving? Turn off your electricity and get rid of anything that requires it? What are you doing on Slashdot? Stop talking (if we could get the politicians to do that it might help)? How could you hope to impact it if you don't even definitively know the cause? Do we just keep trying stuff until we find something that works? If it's mankind that is causing it then the obvious solution is to get rid of mankind. You go first off the cliff I'll follow a little later.

I don't think we are at a point where we can say it's undeniable. I don't care how many people you get together to say the same thing if one of them or all of them are full of crap it's still crap. If it were such an undeniable issue then why the need to manipulate data, why the need to blackball dissenting scientists, why the need to garner credibility? Those things alone tell me that this is far from open and shut.

Oh come on... everyone knows dirty hackers only use open source software.

I don't know if that should be classified as flamebait. It is plausible based on past experience. As much as I hate Obama's policies I'll point out that he wasn't the first one to think bail outs were a good idea.

Well done, man!! See, some folks just don't know what tough love is, and the positive impact it can have. You wanna run for office in 2012? We could use someone like you after the current round of buffoons!

Funny how in the US we could care less what the pansy Europeans think. The countries you mention aren't a major superpower that is primarily Christian. Of course the terrorists don't attack over there. They don't care about them. They think that when they've won the west it'll be real easy to get those guys to worship mohammed. They're probably right. Now go style your hair.

So if you're asking if we were the anthrax attacks, and not terrorist acts then I would have to say WTF are you smoking. And maybe no. If you're asking were the anthrax attacks not terrorist acts then I would have to say that I think they were, but others might disagree. Hope that clears things up for everyone.

Did you have to work hard at becoming a moron, or did it just sort of come naturally for you?