> Let's take some time out for a reality check, shall we? Absolutely!
> "Bill's making $US299 a copy of XP" - well, damn me - isn't "making a > buck" supposed to be the "American way"?; Making a buck is one thing. But if I'm gonna shell out $300 for the latest and greatest version of Windows (or, as you point out below, $750 to $1500 for a copy of the latest and greatest MapInfo), I have the right to expect that the damn thing works. Windows (and MapInfo, I'd imagine) has been plagued with problems every time they've released something new. So basically, he's "making a buck" by selling us defective software. Don't people who do this in hardware (say, with cars) usually get sued? > "Why do people think they have to have the latest" - probably for the > same reason they think they have to have the latest of MI - support > dries up; Well, to be honest (and totally in my own personal opinion), this is a lemming factor. "Ooh, that new version looks cool, where's my credit card, I need it too!". It's good to see people pushing back on upgrading "just because this is Version 6.0 and I have Version 5.99.9.5.6.9". > "I don't like the security issues" - well there are cheap & > simple ways > around that - do your surfing, emailing etc from a secure > partition, get > yourself a decent firewall (try ZoneAlarm Pro); I shouldn't have to do that. Just like we shouldn't have to have secure "partitions" for the US President. Unfortunately, there are many wackos out there. Some wield firearms, some wield computers. As a side note, I come from a network and systems engineering background and, having designed and built a few extremely high-performance high-traffic environments, I am a firm believer that software firewalls are garbage, and a waste of money. Your firewall should be a separate machine, not some software package running on your workstation. I've had zero intrusions over 7 years of experience (quite a few of them in high-visibility situations), probably because I'm a network policy fascist. -- --Jonathan Disher --Geodata Consultants, Inc. --http://www.geodataconsult.com --[e] [EMAIL PROTECTED] | [v] (800) 838-6661 x11 --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
