BSoD could also be the kernel's fault. Linux has the kernel panic, but you very rarely experienced it. For BSoD to be so widespread and for it to take so long before they worked it out it is definitely a sore spot for Windows. Of course, Vista was also well known for its BSoDs. So even though they did mostly work the kinks out of XP by the end, Vista and 8 pretty much brought it back again... So evidently it's not something that Microsoft has figured out yet. 10 is basically 8.2 so it's no wonder it was much more stable. Let's just see what the next major iteration does.

You'd think with Windows being the primary market for graphics cards and probably most other PC hardware that their vendors would want to ship quality drivers. And similarly, since the BSOD epidemic makes Windows look bad, you'd think Microsoft would be willing to work with vendors to fix their drivers ASAP. I suppose back in the day when the drivers were really unreliable the software development tools/practices were just poorer though. So it might have just been difficult to figure out the cause..

Drivers are software and the only "quality" software that gets shipped is from businesses who actually demand it internally. The world runs on insecure software. Every bank. Every credit card. Every school. Everything. I've seen public, ADMIN credentials, hosted on a PUBLIC URL for a school so Norton Ghost can download the partition for a new computer over the network. Bugs are just like security (and almost identical!).

Businesses don't get money for quality software, they get money for shipping software. The only time I've ever written good code professionally is when I demanded it from myself--and often it got me in trouble because the project always STARTED being developed after the first due date so I've got e-mails and phone calls hounding me when the next release will be... even before I've finished looked at old code or their database layout.

If you're making a piece of crap thing like, a mouse, an SD card reader, or something (and this was before Windows and USB had generic versions of 99% of common hardware), that crap was just a checkmark. It just had to be done. It didn't matter if it was seamless, or fast. It just had to be done to get it out the door.

Even day, you see the exact same thing happening with Internet of Things. Except here, "security" isn't even a checkbox! Default admin/password credentials! Open ports! Telnet server running! All that matters is the thing gets shipped. All that matters is "sales today".

And it'll keep being that way until Congress of USA, EU, Canada, etc, all start making real financial penalties for data breaches. The reason ANYONE takes health information seriously is solely because of the financial penalties that show up as "risk" to the bottom line. Nobody cares about your data until the dollar signs show up.

The same thing applies to buggy software, and security exploits in general.

The only people who can actually afford to care are people like Microsoft because they're not building a single product, but a platform, so it's important for people to never want to switch platforms away. And, AFAIK, everything Microsoft has done API after API, is trust 3rd parties less.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-Mode_Driver_Framework

Vista onward (and backported to XP), drivers can (and should) use a userland driver which can't destroy the kernel.

Chris, I generally agree with you that it's how it is, but it's only like that because of a lack of competition and awareness. Obviously, if one mouse ships that doesn't work well because of bad drivers, and another mouse ships that works seemlessly, the seemless mouse will sell better if only people are made aware of it. Which admittedly back in the 90s and early 00s drivers were a mystical concept that few people understand, and yet it will still often a sort of manual process to get them installed. They didn't magically get installed by the OS or by plug-and-play. And people were even more illiterate than they are today. So yeah, the environment was there for vendors to not care. But certainly the Internet helps to spread the quality issues: if something doesn't just work and a competing product does then sales will definitely suffer in the last 10-15 years. That still didn't help Vista or 8 much.

Aaron, congrats and good luck! That sounds like a really awesome opportunity.

A new GoFundMe has started to get the American people to fund the wall if congress won't. In the first day it went up to over 1/4 million dollars. It is currently at over $7million in just 3 days.

https://www.gofundme.com/TheTrumpWall

It'd be interesting to see if it's ruled that the government will be allowed to accept private donations for defense/immigration spending. The Republicans seem to be too politically cowardly to make this wall a hard line issue, even after promising billions to other countries for THEIR border security.

Americans don't actually think the wall is a good thing, do they? It's going to be very amusing when America turns to shit and there's a big expensive strong wall keeping them in!

Except they'll probably only build one on the Mexican border so that would make them our problem.

Fuck it, you guys need 2 walls! We let Mexicans in freely so if you want to truly keep them out you need a wall here too!

I consider these kinds of ideas trolling. Trump is a master troll. Alas, there's nobody to call mainstream media a noob and tell them not to feed the trolls so the trolls just keep getting stronger...

These are man's laws, not "God's" laws (not as though I respect either, but you probably do). They are not divine. They are not perfect. And it's not even like the US has public health care or public funding for most things. Their taxes are dirt cheap and most states don't provide much assistance (and illegals wouldn't qualify anyway!).

In general, I don't think that things are "critical" where a wall is actually necessary. People fleeing from Mexico into the USA have basically no options. It can be argued that they take jobs from Americans, and that's probably something worth fighting. But it's really the employers in those circumstances that are cheating, not the Mexicans who are just trying to find a better life. Shouldn't the government target the employers instead of the desperate people?

Building a wall is only going to limit desperate people to abuses and violence (which I'm sure the US government has done its share to spark). And desperate people with nothing to live for are a lot more dangerous than hopeful people with a gamble of a chance. I don't think the wall is going to solve any problems. I think it's going to exacerbate things. And for a short time it might well cut down on illegal immigration, but it might also lead to much worse things down the line.

It's a stupid solution to a big problem. The real problem is that we draw lines in the map and refuse to work together. The world is changing. We're more connected than ever. We need these corrupt rich people structures to go fuck themselves and for all of us to work together to take care of us. A neighbour is a neighbour whether they're next to your house or next to your country. And if a neighbour needs help then you should help them. You never know when it'll be you, your children, or your grandchildren that need their neighbour's help instead.

Careful. If you're responding to me, you're actually reacting to your emotions and not my actual content.

Also, you're misgendering the issue. A wall along a country's border is NOT THE SAME as cutting a country of the SAME PEOPLE in half and subjecting half of them to communist torture. They had land mines along the Berlin Wall.

So to imply that a country merely wanting to regulate illegal immigration, to the Berlin Wall, might as well be the communist version of Godwin's Law.

Only in 2018, would people be so insane as to think a country doesn't have a right to regulate immigration. And I'd dare you to try sneaking into another country and seeing how well they treat you.

https://www.axios.com/canada-warns-illegal-immigrants-from-us-you-will-be-apprehended-ae00fed7-d78b-41aa-aad7-41bc27945983.html

"OMG, NAZI CANADA!"

p.s. Note I never actually said I support a wall.

Matthew... protecting your nation from illegal immigrants is racist... how? LEGAL immigrants are welcome. You're a fucking idiot!

If you believe the hate is directed towards illegal immigrants and not Latinos you're fooling yourself.

Once Trump starts whining about building a wall on the northern border, then I might change my opinion that he is racist to simply a nationalistic hypocrite who imports his own wives and workers illegally but doesn't want anybody else to be able to afford to do so.

Similar to what Edgar is saying ... they are only illegal because we say they are. They are only unskilled because we do not train them. The problem is not the lack of a wall; the problem is a lack of planning for a compassionate, humane way to handle an influx of people who are fleeing bad situations.

My depot thread will soon become one with the locked threads.

Anyways here's Wonderwall.