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Comment True Story (Score 2, Funny) 257

A friend of mine had his atm card in a Bank of America machine to withdraw money when the power went out. When it came back on a few seconds later, he was greeted with the Windows XP Embedded splash screen before the atm interface came up. The machine didn't realize it still had his card, so he couldn't get it back. (This is especially funny since he is a MS fanboy.)

Comment Re:Online glitches (Score 1) 282

I could be wrong, but I think Halo 2/3 games are actually hosted on the console (I believe it tries to chose the one with the best connection). The reason it occurs less in Halo 3 is that Bungie is strict about banning people who cheat or use glitches. After you're banned, you have to pay for a new account if you want back in (or a new box if you were modding). Cost is a very good deterrent for cheating.

Comment Re:You could register the copyright (Score 1) 380

I've also heard that some people will mail a copy of the work to themselves in a sealed envelope so that it has an official post office date stamped on it. They keep it in a safe place and if they ever need to prove ownership they can give it to the proper authority to open up and see that they had possession of the work on the stamped date.

Comment Re:Cat & Mouse. (Score 1) 281

What this suggests to me is that if Hulu/Boxee could provide the same shows with less ads for free on demand... What exactly am I paying the cable company for? Why is it so expensive for them to provide a less valuable service? Seems like if they can't handle the competition then they shouldn't be in business anymore.

Comment Re:Why so difficult? (Score 1) 113

Actually, guided munitions like this do have moving parts (for fin deployment/actuation). The chassis could be made out of aluminum without being too heavy, though I'll agree that optical drives and LCD are probably the big limiting factors for the computer. (And I'm guessing that economic feasibility is another big issue). FWIW, I have worked as an engineer on similar projectile projects, but have not been involved in laptop design, so I must admit that the Dell engineers probably know more about it than I do.

Comment The way I understand it (Score 1, Interesting) 373

The thing that most people don't seem to get is that it isn't a problem with bundling the software with the OS, it's the fact that the software they're bundling uses proprietary deviation from standards to create a lock in. Windows has majority market share -> IE has majority market share -> web devs tailor sites to IE quirks -> alternate web browsers that are standards compliant have difficulty competing. This is why IE is picked out rather than WMP or Notepad. If .wmv files became rampant due to software monopoly & bundling, and could not be played with any other media player, then WMP would be included in the issue. Even if OSX or Ubuntu had a monopoly, there wouldn't be a problem with bundling Firefox or Safari assuming that they adhere to standards and don't abuse the monopoly by making their own rules to keep competing browsers out.

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