The fall of the Inquirer explained

Subject: Subject: fraud and babystickers

Excuse me but creditcard transfers can be blocked and even retracted, also fraudulent companies can be reported to creditcard companies after which they are blacklisted and will find it a bit cumbersome to continue that kinds of abuse, and that and the legal consequences following it is what motivates people to not cheat that way too quickly.

To simply lament about how dangerous internet can be seems one-sided and not too perfect a fix. Still, a warning once in a while seems appropriate enough.

W

Subject: apple stole from vista

WTF!? Have you and Ms Foley never seen Apple's current OSX:Tiger? Just about everything you BOTH talk about as being stolen from vista, vista STOLE FROM TIGER and it's simply being carried over to the new version of the OS! Also, you'll notice that that article has a NEGATIVE "Worthwhile?" rating. Why, then, do you believe this is a trustworthy article?! Now don't get me wrong, I hate MacOS and am not a fan of OSX, but credit where credit is due and do NOT make public accusation when clearly the opposite is true!

Ryu Tenchi

Subject: Who could fab the designs?

Intel, IBM ... correct! ding ding ding, thats exactly where their designs come from. Copy copy copy ...

Kzhao

Subject: Google Linux??

Google Linux? You have got to be joking right? A Linux distro that can monitor EVERYTHING I do, then report back to Google so that they record it all and then analyse it all to the nth degree?

Try a quick search using only 3 words to see how much world-wide concern there is at how much data they are already collecting, what they are using it for, and how long they plan on keeping it.

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?Gw=google+users+data+

Not painting a pretty picture is it? You are actually happy to push for this type of Big Brother environment?? Wake up to yourself, you Stupid Google Fanboy.

Smithy.

Subject: Intel rises as AMD falls

To quote: "But AMD has a very high skilled set of engineers and designers in Dresden. "

That may be part of their problem. A high set of workers here in Kentucky has contributed to its low ranking among the 50 states. KPHs (Kentucky potheads) are alive and doing well, tyvm.

Charles Greene

Subject: 64-bit

In fact Leopard only includes support for developing 64-bit at all, and includes no 64-bit applications at all.

"No, the Finder in Leopard is a 32-bit app. The only Leopard app I'm aware of that ships as a 64-bit app is Xcode." - Eric Schlegel

http://lists.apple.com/archives/Carbon-dev/2007/Jun/msg00482.html

Developers can create 64-bit applications for it, but all its applications are 32-bit.

Xcode isn't part of the default install by the way.

Eric Sc

Subject: Intel rises as The Inquirer falls

badhardware.blogspot.com/

"It is unbelievable what a number of lies launch The Inquirer, formerly distinquished hardware online journal. The latest is on that Intel will manufacturing AMD's chips. AMD has its own fab in Dresden for top designs, and Chartered second source for the lower ones. AMD has ready 45nm production for the "H2008.Thus, why should anyone manufacture AMD's designs?. Well, AMD somethings shares, The Inquirer reports. So what , it shared its advanced virtualization to the others and that doesn't mean it will leave virtualization, as The Inquirer would stuff lie. Goldams Sachs protege Intel, and they knowas the best? Well, some analysts during the worst Intel's fall gave recomendation buy Intel, so we stupid have to listen? Oh come on, please. Those people are the same who bought The Inquirer, during the business visit of Magee to Israel. That explains The Inquirer fall."

Badinhardware

Subject: Google Linux

Hi Paul, you made the following point: "It seems one problem Linuxers have is that there are over 350 different flavours of the OS." I beg to differ. If there were only a couple of Linux distributions, Microsoft would have eaten them up and spat them out already. Exactly because it is such a fuzzy target makes it difficult to take a shot at. So, it depends how you look at it. Having all this choice is actually a good thing, much better than the Windows 'one fits all' approach.

As for Google, I'd prefer they concentrate on excellent quality, cross-platform tools. In the end, it is the applications that will make the difference, not the OS. Cross-platform is the way to go for the future, then automatically the OS becomes inconcequential.

Chris Anckaert

Subject: how well will a windows XP system preform under vista recommened config?

hey!

i dont know whether i am asking the rite person @ Inquirer .. but since i knew your email i thought it might be worth giving a shot.

My question is if Windows XP is installed on a system which has all the perks like 1 or 2 GB ram ... a great graphics card blah blah blah ... i.e recommended vista configuration How well will it perform? maybe even after installing the eye candy software which might give it Vista like boring look.

Sorry if my question sounded a bit lame. But it might just prove how lame attempts of Vole really are.

Regards,
Nakul Dhotre

Subject: Quacks to proclaim video game addiction as illness

Well obviously. Haven't you noticed any time there is some kind of new activity or behavior in society, some organization just cannot restrain themselves and declare this new activity or behavior in some way harmfull to life, universe and everything?

Which I must note, if you are familiar with Douglas Adams, admitted later in his life the number he used to tidy up that answer was pulled from his ass. Which is rather appropriate here since that is the usual repository for the gray matter of the AMA members.

How are these organizations ever to sustain themselves unless they can claim some new "disease" that of course must be treated by the flow of money from individuals to them?

Never mind these buffoons cannot keep their stories or research straight. I can recall in the late 70s and early 80s the confusion resulting in their declaration with great certainty the most definite link between cholesterol levels and the consumption of eggs. Oh, wait. AISTR, that story only changed three times (at least), from just looking at an egg would give you a heart attack to well no it won't and a number of iterations in between.

So given their waffling over that and keep in mind its a whole lot easier to measure ones cholesterol than it is to peer into a persons "mental wellness", just how the hell did they arrive at the grand sum of 2 hours? I suspect it came from the same place as Mr. Adams answer to life, universe and everything

Dennis Veatch

Subject: vista vs leopard

Dear Sir,

just a quick note about your article about one of your reporters visiting WWDC and comparing WWDC to Leopard. here's an interesting quote:

"Leopard's core animation reminded Foley of Microsoft Max photo-sharing application."

This single quote tells me thet the reporter does not have a single clue on what she is talking about. There is much more to be said about this article but I like to keep it short and this was probably the most misinformed comment of them all.

Best Regards
Anders Bjarby

Subject: AMD's Stock price

Mikey - My Personal Pocket Pimp -

I know you NEVER - EVER !! - discuss stock prices in your pimp rag - except of course when our AMD stock is zooming up and Intel's is tanking - Winky Winky Pimpy - Dancing in the aisles and all that stuff - ha ha !

So, I want to thank you for not mentioning that our competitor - the monopolist - is seeing a near $1 jump in their stock price today - while, sadly, my AMD stock is sinking a dime or two.

But being the fair and balanced journalist of integrity that you are, I know you will not print these immaterial facts - since of course it would make me and AMD look bad.

Which you never want to do, right MPP ?

Suing and Puking-From-My-Gut And Gestapo Raids At Dawn,
Hector

Subject: This pure HD DVD propaganda

Look at the total sales of disks and you'll see Blu-Ray disks are currently out selling HD DVD disks at nearly 3 to 1.

Look at the expected 2007 player sales:

HD DVD: 1,400,000 Toshiba + unknown (probably small) Onkyio, Merdian (available late 2007)

Blu-Ray: 8,000,000 PS3 + 600,000 Sony + unknown (probably larger than Sony) Samsung + unknown (probably small) Panasonic + unknow (probably small) LG + unknow (probably very small) Sharp

Well????

Mwso

Subject: Rupert.

I was a sys admin at the **** **** until January, where I moved to a different and more predictable company. Every install was required to have IE or Firefox due to incompatabilities with safari. Not only that, but it was found as unreliable because of support calls. Thus, the reason for installing other options for users when the boxes are deployed.

As for the 4.7% or whatever number he through out... I really don't give 2 shits. If 4.7% of browsers are safari, I guess that shows the percentage of Mac's in the world. Though the rest of the percentage is firefox or IE, it doesn't mean there aren't any problems with them.

I'm not trying to fuel the fire, or post nonsense about the browser itself. Variety is good. I'm just stating what I know, as a fact, from working with hundreds of Macs.

If you use this, take out the sysadmin part or the washington post if needed. I don't care if you do use it, I just didn't want anyone to have the idea that I was posting garbage because of some hate for safari.

Mataroo

Subject: Google linux

Good artilce.. I like when the articles are about positive elements.. Paul hales, your have wrote the best article this year

Pudgie

Subject: Google blocking

Just as a side note, this is something that also happened to me a couple of months back. I don't remember what my search term was, but I continued to dig through page after page of results, well past the number of pages first provided, and came up with that warning and was unable to continue any further.

I was surprised to say the least, and it's only the fact that the search I was doing was only a time-killer that prevented me from getting particularly upset.

Turbofool

Subject: PC call centres labelled the worst of the lot

The fact of the matter is that tech support has always been hit or miss. Nothing's worse than getting someone who's supporting you through the fine expertise that can be gained from reading a branching script. However, this is probably how the "hang up on foreign support" habit started.

The problem comes from the fact that when it STARTED, companies in India (let's just cut the bullshit, it's always India, I've yet to come across tech support personell with a cantonese, or spanish accent; the latter of which I wouldn't mind, 'cause then I could actually talk to them clearly) were hiring employees at astrominimal rates. However, at least when that happens in the states, you just get the scripted junk, and you can very quickly move on to their supervisor, who you can quickly explain to that your problem isn't common enough to be handled by said script.

Getting to that point alone with Indian call centers, at least when it started, was nearly goddamned impossible. Accent nothing, every other person to pick up the phone was still *learning english*. It once took me well over 5 minutes to pass along my HOME PHONE NUMBER. (I've never had to make that many corrections for something that should take about 5-8 seconds to pass along)

Assuming others have had similar experiences, that's the kind of shit that spreads like wildfire through word-of-mouth. Once you get a REPUTATION for having shitty service, that stuff sticks for years. Go ahead, ask Ford if they've made their way past the 70-80's in public perception of quality.

It's not that they were foreign. It's that 9 times out of 10, the service was horrendously shitty. If the companies had started out slower, if they'd made absolute sure that over two thirds (and really, it should be over nintey percent) of their customer service agents had a VERY solid grasp of not only the English language, but of the technical information they had to deal with on a daily basis, things might have been different (heck, with the latter, it might have even left them with a better reputation than domestic tech support). As such, they've pretty much ruined themselves for the American market.

Also note that knowing basic english is by no stretch enough for the American market. The range of accents available in this country is obscene, and without an EXCELLENT understanding of at least the 3-4 major distinctions, you easily leave yourself open for a major fock-up in a tech support conversation. I have a midwestern/northern accent. I'd have trouble talking to someone over the phone with a heavy Louisianian accent, but I could manage. However, I've been speaking english for well over 20 years. Someone who's been doing it for 8 months would be borked trying to understand. And that'd lead the the kind of conversation that'd permanently turn someone off to the IDEA of tech support coming from abroad.

Just my two bits. ^_^

Muki