In Australia I can tell you for a fact that the initial pay tv (Australia’s version of cable) were all 100% ad free for all included channels. I should know I was one of the first subscribers tin my area.

No pre rolls. No promoting their next big series. Just what was up next and the upcoming schedule of shows. Then it became pre roll ads before the next show. Then came the special premium channels which had HBO etc and the latest movies (leaving the regular packages with material older than 5 years) and couldn’t be included as part of a bundle but were always an add on to your base package. Then came ad supported pay tv but you could now get ad free premium bundles. Then the preroll ads came to the premium channels. Finally they are now ad supported premium channels just with ‘fewer ads’ which can mean anything the companies like as there was a court case over the meaning of ‘fewer ads’ and the consumer lost.

Sorry, the ACCC got here first. Please google the ACCC, Valve and Epic. The ACCC took Valve to court over not giving software refunds and won comprehensively at every turn and was forced to pay their legal fees, ACCC legal fees and post a humiliating message that Australian Consumer Law can't be overridden by any contract or licence, especially non-negotiable shrink-wrapp software licences. They also tapped Epic on the shoulder about not offering refunds and they folded like a wet paper bag rather than fight, so comprehnsive was the legal victory the ACCC set.

And here in Australia truth in advertising means truth in advertising. Its not about what weasel words or contortions of the English language are used to create a false impression, its about what a normal, common lay person would beleive was promised or induced by an advertisements. When Wargaming World of Tanks nerfed and modified Premium tanks that were purchased years ago the ACCC forced them to give refunds here in Australia, though they don't naturally make that publically known.

Cheers.

I have a friend who does professional video editing with his $$$ Macbook, and the SSD wore out after just 4 years with complete data loss on the drive. Fortunately he listened to me and had all his data backed up to an external drive.

I think that table is mostly correct. I remember creating my account sometime during the dregs of 1998 or the first couple of months of 1999 and I've got a reasonably low slashdot id.

Could I get an invite at cornwelj(atat)gmail.com ? Cheers

41 to 60 percent for me.

My first personal email account was through university which you could only check through the university network but then blessed be the online webmail phenomenon started.

I've had a Hotmail account - the SAME hotmail account - since Hotmail first opened its' doors in era before being purchased by Microsoft

Hotmail originally came with only a limited storage space which means that the oldest email in my online inbox only dates back to 2003.

I agree, having a tax break on repairing old PC's wont make one iota of difference when the labour incurred in performing even the standard virus removal/updates/windows repair totals about a quarter the cost of a new netbook or atom-based brand name PC.

In my experience I would say in 70% of cases if a major hardware component for a job >2years old - eg mainboard - then its' a total loss leaving the technical bay with a dead PC that will never be claimed (a nominal fee owing for inspecting the machine) but can't be recycled/resold as it still legally belongs to a customer.

Then you should go talk to the manufacturer which only guarantees' the laptop for 12 months. Since you've just forced the retailer to eat $200-$300 on what was most likely only a $800 laptop and the sale came with a net profit of something like $100. Retailer doesn't make the unit, only sells them. Manufacturer would have charged easily 200-300 for the board, and if PC World has an in-store technical bay, a good hours' labour probably went into swapping it over.

Referring to your earlier example of your iMac; Apple, the manufacturer, has huge markups on their hardware (because they have full control over the platform) and can afford to have warehouses full of spares sitting around collecting dust. I highly doubt your Windows based laptop made even a quarter of the profit that apple does on a basic mac book. Of course, if you're happy to pay the premium that is incorporated into every piece of Apple hardware made & sold (including the iPhone), then you get the extra level of service that goes with it.

Laptops' have highly specialized components and its' not like you can just buy a laptop main board off the shelf that will exactly fit that particular unit unless they are an authorised service agent for that particular laptop brand that you have purchased. If you ever purchase a laptop and don't intend to throw it out in 12 months time, purchase extended manufacturer warranty (not store warranty - its' a ripoff).

Heh, I had the exact same thought when I was reading the slashdot submission. 5 years too late.

This is something he was working towards for the last years of his life, the ability to regenerate nerve endings and methods of recovering from spinal injuries and campaigned hard against the ban of stem cell research (to no avail).

There are about 2-3 'stages' of Parkinson's medication, depending on just how much advanced the illness is at time of diagnosis. The first line of defence is the best and has good, manageable, results with relatively few side effects. The initial medication (typically L-Dopa tablets) regimen is effective for approximately the first 8-10 years, with the other stages of treatment decreasing rapidly in effectiveness plus worsening physical and mental side effects.

Remember that treating Parkinson's is essentially tampering with brain chemistry.

Be aware that this cure won't reverse degeneration that has already occured.

It will merely hault the progression of Parkinson's so that those in the future diganosed with this illness do not have to fear a slow, lingering decrease in their ability to function in society.

Sadly, this news is 20 years too late to help my father.

Only for the USA

In Australia the minimum 'broadband' connection speed is 512k down/128k up. The most typical ADSL speed is 1.5Mbps although wireless 3G broadband with its' insanely expensive plans can acheive 7.2Mbps.

Cable internet in Oz is almost unavailable outside of 3 major capital cities due various political shenanningans in our past and the NIMBY effect of having 'cables' with 'dangerous radiation' being laid in full public view.

But that is for another post.

I choose for the Type I socket for Australia also known as AS 3112

As an EVE player, I can tell you that the company, CCP, has invested large amounts of money in upgrading and maintaining server capacity. I suspect they merged with White Wolf to continue funding their capacity. Their efforts have recently paid off with large reductions in lag on the busiest trading hubs and the ability to successfully complete large fleet battles with 1000+ participants (used to crash the server thread and do wierd things to player vessels).

Sadly, the EVE Online server thread have a known flaw that poses a limit on performance - each solar system is a single threaded Python application that can only be run on a single CPU core. CCP Dev's have stated that this design flaw (which actually made sense when servers were single core, fast and hot) requires a large rewrite of most of the various subcomponents. The trend for CPU's to be slower clocked and multi-cored actually makes the new servers slower for CCP's purposes.

So yes, EVE can scale by adding more solar systems, but each individual solar system presently has a theoretical limit of about 1500 in the same system based on current hardware.

Heh. When its' a case of a patent troll winning royalties slashdot is full of condemnation and arguments.

This is a case of a company that genuinely did put the effort in and was not recompensed for their efforts and involving a non-US company. Barely a peep from Slashdot in comparison. CSIRO has invented many many technologies in its' time, the Cochlear ear being the most well-known example and a decent portion of its' funding now comes from licencing due to the steady erosion of govt funding.

I'd expect more support for a genuine research company from slashdot in the past. A sad reflection on what it has become.