Posts by Sep

AT&T mistakes netbook for phone, sells with service plan

Perfect

This is perfectly natural. AT&T doesn't even need to lock the hardware, because they already lock you in with the long term contract. If you cancel the contract, they'll make you pay a "early termination fee" big enough to recoup the hardware cost. It works especially well for AT&T because they provide cellular, WiFi, and landline DSL connectivity services, and therefore can bundle them for one lower price.

BBC botnet investigation turns hacks into hackers

Sue all the lock makers!

I have yet to find a door lock that a competent criminal or a locksmith can't pick. Using the same twisted logic of some of the fine people here, we should be suing lock manufacturers. The truth to the matter is, as long as man made it, man can break it.

Forget about the burglars, let's sue lock, door, window, and window glass makers. Their products are obviously not strong enough to deter a determined thief.

Eric Schmidt reanimates el cheapo PC zombie

No

People have the wrong assumption that in the NEAR future everybody will only own 1 computer. In reality most people will have 2; a smartphone-netbook hybrid for the road and a desktop/server at home. The average person on the road rarely needs computing power beyond what's provided by a smartphone or a netbook, so as long as they have good connectivity they will settle for an inexpensive gadget. When you need to do some video editing, play graphic-intensive games, or archive important documents, you do it at your home machine.

Google is going after the portable machine market, which is why it has something to do with Android. If they can structure the deal smartly (like cellular providers in the US giving away subsidized phones if you sign a contract), it has a potential to take off.

World of Warcraft: 'The crack cocaine of the computer world'

You can turn it off

[You can try to cut off his access at home, but can you quit your job, go without sleep and stand guard 24/7? Can you follow him to friends' houses? Sit with him in school? You have to think about it as if the addiction really was to crack cocaine. Except computers are everywhere and they're not illegal. By Anonymous Coward Posted Friday 27th February 2009 20:38 GMT]

Uh, since WoW subscription is not free, you CAN actually cut it off by stop paying. If you care enough, you can even install parental control programs on all the computers that specifically blocks WoW, just in case the kid has other ways of keeping his account current. If you totally ban it at home, how much time can the kid spend at his friend's house playing WoW? His friends will get sick of him in no time if all he does there is play WoW on THEIR computer.

I dislike WoW, but I dislike ignorant and irresponsible parents a lot more.

Microsoft asks laid-off staff to refund overpaid redundo cash

UPDATE: Microsoft decided not to seek overpaid money

I'm not surprised they're calling it off, $4000-$5000 overpayment per employee is not worth the PR trouble. At least not for a company the size of Microsoft.

Now if it was $40,000-$50,000 per employee, things might fall differently.