PC sales Suffer Biggest Slump in years

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

It worked. I had been running Office 97 for years, then I had to get a new pc in 2010, It totally rejected 97, and since I was going back to school I had to get Office 2010 for home. But they wisely only made the price I think $50.00 for it. It had the two most important programs that I needed Word & Excel so I was happy.

Well...If you ever want to go back to WORD 97...Install VirtualBox and then XP, and then WORD 97. Back it up and you can forget step 2 and 3 thereafter...

I got fed up feeding the Microsoft machine with Vista. So now I run my old but functional software for free. (I bought it and have it installed on one machine, per license. It's their problem that the machine is virtual...

If I need something current, I'll use open source...

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Then the only correct information you can post is that it is currently unknown which titles will or will not be able to be resold, but that there is the built-in ability to prevent reselling, and to limit reselling to specific retailers.
It is simply not true to say that you can absolutely resell games.



... yet.

well that's that in any case http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/19/x...ames-reversal/

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

well that's that in any case http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/19/x...ames-reversal/

Excellent news. I did not expect MS to reverse course this quickly. Everything the Xbox execs had said indicated that they were firmly committed. I wonder if the push came from higher up in MS.

There is still the Kinect problem. I'm disabled, so I have no interest in motion controls for gaming. I'm poor, so the extra cost is a problem. That's in addition to privacy concerns.

Originally Posted by Fluribus

There is still the Kinect problem. I'm disabled, so I have no interest in motion controls for gaming. I'm poor, so the extra cost is a problem. That's in addition to privacy concerns.

Yeah, I saw a demo of it and can understand the privacy concerns. Does the console actually need it to operate? If not, I'm sure that there would be plenty of enthusiastic buyers since the current generation technology has been rabidly repurposed by electronics/computer hobbyists.

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Yeah, I saw a demo of it and can understand the privacy concerns. Does the console actually need it to operate? If not, I'm sure that there would be plenty of enthusiastic buyers since the current generation technology has been rabidly repurposed by electronics/computer hobbyists.

The demo I saw had a portion with the lights off to show off the infrared capabilities.

Yes, the Kinect must be connected for the console to work. All of the features are supposed to be able to be toggled off, which makes the requirement seem weird. Hackers. PRISM. Changeable privacy policies. I'd feel safer without it.

I unplug my microphone from the PC when it's not in use and people think I'm paranoid. I disagree. I will admit to running off the rails on a crazy train. Oh well. No more tears.

Originally Posted by Fluribus

The demo I saw had a portion with the lights off to show off the infrared capabilities.

Plus identify registered users, track users even when they are changing position, registering facial expressions, inferring the level of physical activity (including forces and heart activity, some of which I think they said was due to observations outside of the visible spectrum).

All of the features are supposed to be able to be toggled off, which makes the requirement seem weird.

Agreed.

Hackers.

Give it to the hackers. Granted, I'm referring to the other type of hackers: the type who will figure the contraption out and come up with innovative uses for it. Pervert it to the good, rather than the seriously misguided or malicious.

PRISM. Changeable privacy policies. I'd feel safer without it.

I agree with the feel safer bit, but I very much doubt that it will be used for government spying. At least not in the sense of PRISM. (It probably isn't practical for indiscriminant spying. Targeted spying, maybe.) However, I can see businesses being interested in the data acquired from this. Everyone from media creators to advertisers could find value in the data even if it were "anonymized".

I unplug my microphone from the PC when it's not in use and people think I'm paranoid. I disagree. I will admit to running off the rails on a crazy train. Oh well. No more tears.

I've seen people who would never be labelled as paranoid placing tape over the camera of their phone or computer. You don't have to be paranoid to see this stuff as creepy.

[pl001]

Originally Posted by Fluribus

I unplug my microphone from the PC when it's not in use and people think I'm paranoid. I disagree. I will admit to running off the rails on a crazy train. Oh well. No more tears.

Yeah, nicely stated, it's not like that's the ultimate sin.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Well...If you ever want to go back to WORD 97...Install VirtualBox and then XP, and then WORD 97. Back it up and you can forget step 2 and 3 thereafter...

Anybody who says that always assumes everybody has a spare retail Windows version lying around, which is often not the case.

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Anybody who says that always assumes everybody has a spare retail Windows version lying around, which is often not the case.

You used to be able to find Windows 95 and 98 in thrift stores. Not the best, but it would run Office 97. Then again, the only operating systems I've been seeing in thrift stores lately are OS/2 and Linux.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

You used to be able to find Windows 95 and 98 in thrift stores. Not the best, but it would run Office 97. Then again, the only operating systems I've been seeing in thrift stores lately are OS/2 and Linux.

Try Ebay. Actually you can also get those OSs on very cheap old computers, about $50 or less even.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Anybody who says that always assumes everybody has a spare retail Windows version lying around, which is often not the case.

Sorry, I'm a pack rat. In the good old days, you got an actual copy of the OS on a CD. (or even floppy - I still have the standard load for windows 3.1 on a bunch of official floppies. I bought an ebay copy of he commercial XP Pro. I'm still using it...)

I just popped over to ebay and see one for $29.95 USD.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Sorry, I'm a pack rat. In the good old days, you got an actual copy of the OS on a CD. (or even floppy - I still have the standard load for windows 3.1 on a bunch of official floppies. I bought an ebay copy of he commercial XP Pro. I'm still using it...)

I just popped over to ebay and see one for $29.95 USD.

What no OS2? or CPM

Luck;
Ken

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

What no OS2? or CPM

Luck;
Ken

I still miss MS-DOS. There was so many things that I could do with it that takes much more work with Windows.

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

What no OS2? or CPM

Luck;
Ken

I've got OS2 Warp around somewhere.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

I still miss MS-DOS. There was so many things that I could do with it that takes much more work with Windows.

What could you do with it that you can't do with the command prompt in Windows?