Vista piracy?

[unixronin]

"Microsoft says Vista's piracy rate is half that of XP."  Duh!  They had to let vendors keep offering XP on new computers because so many people didn't want Vista.  Who's gonna steal it?

Actually, it reminds me of a cartoon in the back of New Scientist some 30 years ago.  It concerned a fictional company that produced "NuFoods" with names like Chisp and Cheem, made from ... well, let's not go there.  The dialogue went something like this:

"Some vendors are actually displaying NuFoods at the front of the store in preference to their own brands."

"They're selling well, then?"

"... Actually, they're hoping people will shoplift them."

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

this is one reason I love my car: power seats with three-position memory. If someone else has been driving it, all I have to do is hit a button and the seats and mirrors return to where I left them. And I'm 5'7" and have *really* short legs, so the seat almost always ends up too far forward for most people.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yet another reason I want to trade in the Intrepid against an XC70 when budget permits. (Memory seats, tilt and telescope wheel, most comfortable 4+ door car I've driven, AWD, sane wheel size that doesn't force spending absurd amounts of money just to buy a set of tires, all the winter driving ability I need without having to buy a bloody SUV, large-cargo hauling ability, built-in booster seats, separate climate control for left and right front seats, 3-point belts in all rear-seat positions, hand-operated parking brake instead of a foot-pedal that I can't operate properly¹ — or reach without pain — with my screwed-up left foot ... the list just goes on.)


[1] Currently, I'm forced to use the following parking brake application technique: Hold main brake with right foot, reach down with left hand, depress parking brake pedal as far as I can with left hand, enabling me to get left foot on parking brake pedal, depress pedal as far as I can get it with left foot, transfer right foot from brake pedal to parking brake, push pedal home the rest of the way.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

I feel I really should point out that as of next July we won't need booster seats anymore.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

True. But the Volvo's built-in boosters would still let Pirate and Wen see out better.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I hate foot-pedal-operated parking brakes. Damned inconvenient, those. Especially with a manual transmission.

The 3-series I have comes with 17" rims. The latest evolution of the car comes with 18" rims standard with an option for 19". Ugh.

[tabbifli.livejournal.com]

We have an older Contour (our mechanic is frequently heard to comment that we have the best maintained Contour on the planet), which has power seats on the driver's side, but no memory. It's beginning to let us know it's old and getting cranky and would like to be retired soon, so we're probably going to start looking at new cars in the next year or so.

On thing we're both agreed on is, if at all possible, position memory in the seats. I really need to drive a little farther back so my hip and legs don't cramp up, and he'd like to be a little more sitting straight. The really funny thing in all of this is that his legs are a little bit longer than mine are (he's 6'0", I'm 5'10" and frequently wear heels), but I'm the stretchy one.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It's beginning to let us know it's old and getting cranky and would like to be retired soon,

Yeah, the Intrepid too. The front suspension is making groaning "I need lube" noises, but Dodge didn't see fit to provide grease fittings. One of the power window servos is all but dead, which requires tearing the door apart. All the door weatherseals have shrunk away from the frame, and the trunk weatherseal is in shreds across the trunk lip. And it's had a succession of niggling electrical problems almost since we got it (the current niggling electrical problem is that the fog lights work when they feel like it, and not otherwise). We won't buy another Chrysler-Dodge car, and in fact I think we're pretty much soured on all the US manufacturers at this point.