The Ranting Room

...NOT Microsoft...NOT...does such a thing even exist?

I don't even use XP, I use 2000.

No problems at all for the software I use, except the computer is slowing down every day and I really do need a new machine.

I think I'll be able to dual boot XP and Vista, but the driver issues for XP could cause a few grey hairs to emerge... why can these things not be simple?

I am going to rant about Microsoft and in particular their ineptitude with their customer base.

I want to buy a new laptop... so what's the problem there then?

Well, I'm not ready completely for Microsoft Vista.  Many programmes don't work properly (Nero apparently doesn't and that's just one example) and so I ideally want XP.

Microsoft are stopping sales of XP on the 1st of July.  That means I won't be able to get an XP machine after that, except second hand.

If I do get a Vista machine, I thought it would be nice to dual boot it with XP and Vista... I've been looking this up and it is indeed possible, but there are other issues too.

Vista and modern machines are not backwardly compatible with XP or Windows 2000.  Especially in relation to Video and Sound drivers.  nVidia won't supply drivers for their mobile (i.e. laptop) video cards and it's the responsibility of the manufacturer to supply them.  Now if you're installing XP on a machine that has a modern video and sound card, you're likely to have issues.  Microsoft also are not apparently supplying support for Direct X 10 for XP, which is what modern cards use.  There are work throughs that can sort these issues out, but if the manufacturers of the hardware and Microsoft were not so aggravatingly inept, there would be far less issues.

Basically, they don't want you to go backwards, because their new products are the bells and whistles.... in their minds.

Be very careful buying new computers at the moment.  Vista may not work as intended and XP won't support modern machines very easily.  It's a silly situation.

So now I am completely unsure at what to do, as whatever option I go for, I'll likely have issues of some kind.

I'm sure someone will come on here and say Vista is brilliant and you don't need XP, but I'm not convinced.  It should be easy to dual boot to both, but it's not.

Microsoft therefore are bloody rubbish and so are nVidia as well!


Edited by James - April 23 2008 at 07:42

I'm not sure that she isn't related to Bush.  Yesterday I heard her say that she'd happily nuke Iran if they used a nuclear device on Israel.  Roll on World War Three then.

How does that work with Tony Blair though?  He always looks smug.

I'm quite lucky, none of the clipboard brigade in Swindon have caught me yet.  I always give them a wide berth.

Smuggness is okay as long as you're not the one being smugged, though I do like it when it slowly dawns on a smugger that perhaps the ground they are standing on is not as solid as they first thought and that smug smirk slowly turns into one of fear...

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-04-22-moore-obama-endorsement_N.htm?csp=34

Thank goodness I can vote for Obama now.

I think your indignation stands for any group of people trying to push their beliefs unwanted onto others.

I've got a little story that happened to me last week, but first I have to give a little background.

Apparently last Wednesday was Anti-Abortion Day at my college, and they had a bunch of signs and s**t on the lawn telling you that  ≈3700 babies are aborted every minute or so around the world and whatnot. To add to this, they had students asking for signatures to make it illegal.

Now, to give you the background: the Sunday before that Wednesday, my car battery died and I didn't get back to my dorm until 11:30. The next day, I was finishing up a project (that I couldn't work on the night before because of my battery dying), and I was working on it until 10:50, 10 minutes before the deadline to turn it in. When I went to email it to my teacher, my internet died and I didn't end up submitting it until 5 minutes after the deadline (I still don't know if he accepted it). I also three tests that week to get them out of the way before finals. So I was on edge. OK, back to the story:

I was coming back from a class and I walked on the opposite side of the walkway from the display because I didn't want to be bothered for signatures. Well, one of the guys actually crossed the 20 or 30 feet to hit me up. The conversation went as follows:

Guy: "Hey man, would you like to sign our petition to make abortion illegal?"
Me: "No thanks."
Not being rude, right? Well...

Guy: "Doesn't it bother you that innocent humans are being killed every day?"
Now, this is where I went wrong, but it he was bothering me:
Me: "Fetuses aren't humans."
Guy [goes from cheery to smug]: "Oh yes they are, and if you condone abortion that makes you no better than a murderer."

Big mistake.
Me: "F**K you, you self-righteous piece of s**t! Who the do you think you are? You seriously want to make people who don't want the child have it? Oh, great idea, let's not abort the congregate of cells, let's wait until it CAN FEEL  -ING PAIN before we let it die! Are you a  -ing sadist? So unwanted babies are being aborted as opposed to being born and neglected? GOOD. Do you know how many problems could be solved if we had a few less million people?

Guy [now horrified]: Well, I'm gonna pray for you.
Me: Great, does that mean I can hookers and perform abortions, but I'll still get into heaven. I'll just tell Peter you vouched for me!"


F**k people.

I think Jim was muttering about candy-pink nail varnish in another thread........ I'm sure he'll let you share Dean!