I'll never buy Longhorn

Subject: re: Microsoft pushes 512MB RAM, "modern CPU" for Longhorn
I'll just clear the air right now--I'll never buy Longhorn. And no, I won't pirate it, either. The line in the sand stops with XP, and even then I still favor 2000. I think both Apple and Microsoft are barking up the wrong tree by adding endless flittering thingies and shiny baubles to decorate the OS, wasting a lot of processor power which could very well be implemented for something actually useful. The difference is Apple has at least gotten the journaled searching and a few other things working already.
But more importantly, Microsoft doesn't seem to have learned it's lesson from Windows 95. People lined up to buy 95 because they saw a need for it. A 32 bit operating system with a new user interface and host of refinements got people's attention. The PC industry and corporate computing have migrated right along to XP, which is where I'm sure Microsoft is counting on a lot of it's sales.
But the average consumer doesn't care all that much anymore, I'll be surprised if anyone lines up for Longhorn. A lot of people are still using Windows 98, or 2000. People are tired of everything from spyware to driver problems, and yet Microsoft seems to have singled out consumers as the main group to put the squeeze on with Product Activation. Even better, everyone and their monkey's uncle knows the pirates are content selling and trading the activation free corporate edition, which is where the majority of the "lost sales" comes from.
The only reason most people think of upgrading anymore is to keep up with the hardware. The graphics features of Avalon look pretty, but transparent and 3D Excel spreadsheets may not really be all that necessary. And the same thing could be done with a 3D gaming engine mated to an office app, and probably with lower hardware requirements.
Microsoft would be better to make Longhorn entirely 64 bits and work on speed and lightness of the baggage. That would get more interest than pretty fluttering windows.
As it is I think Microsoft will advertise the hell out of Longhorn, get all the PC manufacturers and corporate types to sign up like the lemmings they are, and barely get more than a disinterested yawn from the general public.
Sincerely,
Scott Peterson

Subject: spelling
I read a letter to you complaining about spelling mistakes and wrong words in your articles. I find them quite endearing. News only needs to be two things: timely and true, and you beat all at both.
Regards,
Joe Dolan
(not the Irish singer)

Subject: Inquirer Letters to Editor
To all the dip shoits out there that are complaining about articles in the Inq this is for you -- Frock Off -- Go somewhere else! Stop wasting space....go read cnn and fox news......what ever.......just shut the Frollick Up! Who the hell cares if the articles aren't purrfect ;-) with grammar and spelling errors....who cares. I love the articles, the reads are usually ten fold better than what you can get from other sites. Damn whinier's! Just Shut the Frock Up!
Sir Onion
This letter has been sanitised a little - ED

Subject: Misspellings in Articles
I don't mind the misspellings. In all sincerity it often makes me think the writer is somewhat intoxicated at the time of writing. Might as well feel good while you work I always say. Have a good one.

Subject: AMD Turion notebook disappoints
I would like to nominate this article for the "written whilst brain dead, pissed or in a rush award"
The first paragraph starts: "The Acer Aspire AS5000 costs only $1099 direct and boosts a 64bit processor, 512MB DDR memeory" and the rest of the article is essentially an entire url pointing to apparently multiple random destinations.... I could read no further......
I make no apologies for any bad grandma or spilling as I am p*ssed and brain dead at the moment!
Justin

Subject: Tax the iPod
I like to point out that a 'stichting' in holland is an unofficial body which you can start from your basement by paying a small fee (below $100 AFAIK) to get a form, anybody can do that, so don't take the views of this organization too serious, although of course several 'stichtingen' do carry out the equivalent role of the RIAA (which in itself is just a private organisation hired by the musicbusiness and not a legal body) and are semi-recognised by some lawmakers.
Also the dutch version of the RIAA (stichting BREIN) is very disreputable, it has shady bookkeeping and most of its income go to pay the management, if you wish to be 'defended' by them you must pay them a fee which often leads to smaller artists to actually lose money, and on top of that the artist losses the rights to his own work, when the ISP XS4ALL did a benefit and got artists and their recordcompany to volunteer some work the stichting BREIN actually sued them saying the artist had signed away rights to their work by agreeing to be 'protected' by them, any similarity to the mafia is purely coincidental...
I suspect the stichting thuiskopie isn't much different, they aren't so much interested in fairness of legality as they are in enriching themselves by ridiculous proposals.
I do whish you would distinguish between some weird shady group and 'the dutch' in general though, not that it upsets me personally but I don't like the foreign politicians to pick up on this and come up with weird plans and claim they read 'the dutch do it', because it seems very popular for politicians in europe to use this 'they do it so we can too' logic, if you can call it logic, I don't think that if others do something it is an argument in itself, only their argumentation for doing it should be considered, and then from the local perspective.
W

Subject: Tax the iPod
Good article, but a small note: 'sichting' is the Dutch word for 'foundation'. "Stichting Thuiskopie" thus translates as "home copy foundation.
Canada has already had a levy on blank media and mp3 players for some time. I've already lost one friend (well, acquaintance) in the business arguing the same position you take in the article.

Subject: Tax the iPod
Dear Wendy,
I think the copywright violation compensation scheme you proposed, that compensates the authors fairly, is somewhat flawed, and, above all, not sufficiently encompassing.
Indeed, it leaves untaxed (a supreme crime) a serious offense to the copyright - the fact that people sing in their baths. It is common knowledge that it is an usual practice, and, in most occasions, the song is copyrighted material.
Therefore, I propose that, your energy taxation idea should be complemented by a bath water consumption tax, to be given to the organisations representing the music industry... I mean the authors. To those who oppose saying that it can be quite difficult to isolate the bath water from other consumption, well, use your imagination... (separate water consumption measuring devices; taxing soap instead of water,...).
To those who don't sing in their baths, well, though luck - I also use DVDs to archive my information...
Subject: Latin for lawyers
Latin is not a necessity for practicing law in the U.S. Only about a dozen latin words or phrases are still in common use and can be carried to the courts in one's pocket on a crib sheet. And, if one forgets the crib sheet, a mumbled nonsense phrase suffices "E Turnum Rectum" your honor!
Greed has supplanted classical education as a necessity for the practice of law.
In this country, American English is considered the language of the world's educated elite. Mathemeticians, physicists and engineers leave Hindi and Mandarin behind to learn the language of the dollar. Kind of makes Latin sound so . . . so Italian and unimportant, doesn't it?
Ken Roberts

Subject: Re: Mozzerella
I say keep the name. If the people who make Firefox and the fans of it (which I am) can't take the joke, then they should shut up and quit whining. Everyone makes the M$ jokes and doesn't complain when MS is referred to as The Vole (which I personally like), so why the double-standard?

Subject: Intel is GM?
In the article regarding the Apple case you wrote:
Intel and the BSA's lawyers told the judge: "All technology oriented companies and ultimately all consumers share a strong interest in vigorous enforcement of the trade secret laws, including discovery to determine who may have violated those laws"
That sure sounds an awful lot like the thoroughly bogus, "What's good for General Motors is good for America."
It seems to me that a healthy dose of *unavoidable* risk for technology oriented companies is in the best interests of all consumers. A fat, happy and market-dominating company is only good for management and sometimes shareholders.

Subject: HP gets the nod to build massive EU snooping system
Here is wisdom
The end days are upon us. I quote "It will store photographs and fingerprints of individuals, with scope for more biometric information to be added in the future."
The biometric update will eventually turn ito the mark of the beast. Biochips implanted into the hand will be used to identify, control, track the people. It will also be your wallet and they will be able to track you every move.
Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Mr. Reynolds

Subject: Pres. Bush
"PRESIDENT BUSH of America scrawled an 'X' on a bill designed to send file-sharing pirates to prison."
Eff you for you insult of my president.
Jim

Subject: Airbus 380 for sale on Ebay
The inaugural flight of the A380 impresses most in that it will now possible to die a horrible death along with 500+ others (800+ in the Asian econo-tourist configurations) rather than just 300-500+ on a B747. That's progress.

Subject: Those 2 blokes shown on the front page
..are Joschka Fischer (German Green Party - Foreign Minister ) and Michael Schumacher ( Formula 1 ) with out any doubt !
;-)
..or not ?
Cheers
phil

Subject: Bananas
This is a rip-off of a wonderful hoax pulled by university students in New Zealand about 30 years ago.
Bananas were chosen, because Kiwis eat more bananas per head of population than any other country on earth (even the banana producing nations!) and by some considerable margin.
The original prank was a "capping" stunt, and was written on Health Department letterhead, except the moto in the crest said "Scholae deceptus est - "Scholars deceive you". EXCELLENT.
The letter requested that each recipient post a urine sample, in a clear glass jar not exceeding 100ml in volume, with their name and address clearly printed on the jar.
The jar was to be sent to a "Private bag" in Wellington: the address turned out to for the "Beehive", where Parlianment sits. It requires no postage stamp.
Many hundreds of people carefully followed the advice and were subsequently embarrassed to discover it was all a carefully orchestrated hoax.
More recently a similar hoax can be found at: http://www.snopes2.com/toxins/bananas.htm
Personally, I think the Kiwi students did a much better job.
Chris

Subject: sliced bread
In your recent writeup about dual cores, ( here), you say "He augured that dual-core processors will be the greatest advance in performance since the introduction of the 386 and sliced bread."
Spelling issues aside, sliced bread was not a great technological achievement nor a good step for the majority of the world's bakeries to take. By preslicing the bread, air is allowed to penetrate deep inside the bread, which makes it stale and unfit for eating much quicker. So larger bakers add preservitives and such to make it last longer. In the end we have bread that goes bad faster and is loaded with preservatives that clinical studies will probably be studying for the next ten years. Progress indeed. Please refrain from using the phrase "The greatest advance(ment)... since sliced bread" in the future unless you mean that dual-cores are a step in the wrong direction.
DJ

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