Thursday, September 10, 2009

Microsoft Teaches Best Buy How To Diss Linux, Macs [I'm A Penguin]

 
 

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via Consumerist by Marc Perton on 9/10/09

A recent flurry of reports on the internets claim that Microsoft has been training Best Buy employees to push customers away from Linux and Mac systems to those running Windows. While some posts claim that the Gatesians are teaching Best Buy workers to become "Linux assassins," most of what's going on looks like typical retail marketing: a deep-pocketed supplier working with a chain to hawk its products more aggressively. However, Linux pros are up in arms about "inaccuracies" in the Microsoft program that walks customers through the advantages of Windows vs. Linux.

Most of Microsoft's anti-Linux pitch focuses on familiarity, reliability, and ease-of-use, and the inaccuracies are on the order of statements like, "Linux is a self-help solution. There are no step-by-step tutorials provided, and help documentation is limited." True? Only if you ignore the hundreds of online tutorials, not to mention the wizards that make installing distros like Ubuntu at least as easy as working with Vista.

Still, we sort of agree with PC World's Tony Bradley, who points out that "Linux is getting easier and more mainstream as time goes on, but we're talking about Best Buy customers. ... they tend to buy a computer system like they buy a microwave or a dishwasher. They just want a computing 'appliance' to set on the desk and connect to the Internet." If that's the case,though, how to do Microsoft's "assassins" go after the Mac? Oh, right, it's expensive. Guess they had a hard time using that argument against Linux, given its price point of, oh, free.

Microsoft trains Best Buy Linux assassins [ZDNet]
Microsoft and Best Buy Gang Up On Linux [PC World]
Microsoft helps Best Buy employees troll Mac users, too [Ars Technica]


 
 

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Orange Tabby Takes One to the Head… Travels 13 Miles to its Home

Click on the link and check out that video

 
 

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via Dvorak Uncensored by McCullough on 9/5/09

Orange Tabby Gets One to the Head..Travels 13 Miles to it's Home

 
 

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Al Franken conducts the first health care DEBATE

 
 

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via Dvorak Uncensored by Guilherme Cherman on 9/5/09

Something I'm starting to notice, and I'm wondering what are you guys' opinion on this, that politicians that had a job before becoming politicians are much honest and actually trying to solve problems.



 
 

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History Buff Fires Replica Cannon… Hits Neighbor’s House

 
 

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via Dvorak Uncensored by McCullough on 9/8/09

History Buff Fires Replica Cannon...Blows Up Neighbor's House

 
 

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Nutjob High School Football Coach Baptizes Player Without Mom’s Permission!

 
 

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via Dvorak Uncensored by SN on 9/9/09

Raw Story – September 8, 2009:

The mother of a Kentucky high school football player is furious over the Christian baptism of her son during what he said was supposed to be a school outing to eat a steak dinner and see a "motivational speaker."

Instead, Breckinridge County High School football coach Scott Mooney took 20 of his players on a trip to a Baptist revival, where eight or nine of the students underwent the Christian ritual of baptism, according to published reports.

Michelle Ammons, mother of 16-year-old Robert Coffee, said she's upset that nobody ever asked her consent to take her son to the August 26 religious ceremony. She added that she's even more upset with the school district superintendent Janet Meeks, who was at the revival and did not object to the coach including his students.



 
 

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openSUSE 11.1 KDE4 Reloaded with Online Updates and KDE 4.3.1

 
 

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via openSUSE News by Beineri on 9/10/09

Although openSUSE 11.2 is still two months away updated openSUSE 11.1 KDE4 Reloaded images previewing some changes are available now. They are respins of openSUSE 11.1 including KDE 4.3.1, Firefox 3.5 and all the online updates which have been released for openSUSE 11.1.

These installable Live-CDs are useful for people who want to test out KDE 4.3 and users who are doing new installs and want the most recent openSUSE updates straight out of the box, saving a lot of installation time. New in this version is that the images can be also dumped to a USB stick and booted from there.

See the KDE 4.3 announcement for more information on the improvements and new features in KDE 4.3.

Compared to openSUSE 11.1 KDE4 desktop, the images include the latest KDE4 version of applications like Amarok, Digikam, KNetworkManager and the new Qt4-based YaST Control Center. Some additional applications like Choqok, Kompare, Marble and Okteta could be added thanks to a more efficient compression algorithm.

A Note of Caution

Please note that this is not an "official" openSUSE release, and has not undergone the same kind of testing that stable releases receive.


 
 

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I don't have a clue

I'm so very tired. It's almost all the time now.