In comp.os.linux.advocacy, [H]omer
<spam@xxxxxxx>
wrote
on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:54:27 +0100
<j2oap4-lii.ln1@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>
>> MS cuts Xbox 360 prices Down Under
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Microsoft has today slashed the price of the Xbox 360 in Australia,
>> | bringing the basic Core model down to the same price as Nintendo's
>> | globally popular Wii console.
>> `----
>>
>> http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/08/15/ms_oz_xbox_price_cuts/
>
> Good grief! MS were already making a massive loss with this predatory
> and immorally under-priced "loss leader" *before* the price cut.
Anybody tried to install a good OS on it yet? :-)
>
> If they cut the price any further, they'll need to *pay* customers to
> take them. I wonder how much of a bribe it will take to "sell" these
> death machines? How much is the safety of one's family is worth these
> days anyway? What is the going rate for a human baby?
>
> Related: Microsoft kills baby, burns bereaved family's home to ashes,
> then demands money:
>
> http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201202289
>
This morning's Stephanie Miller broadcast had a whole
segment (unplanned, presumably!) on just how dangerous
some of those 60's and 70's era toys were -- click-clacks,
a pair of heavy plastic balls on strings that one swung
around and tried to pinch fingers -- erm, I mean, click
-- together? Lead soldier manufacturing kits, complete
with lead bars?? Metal Evel Kinevel (?) gyro-cycles?
(Pull zip-cord, let go, hope nobody's in the way!) Super
Elastic Bubble Plastic with inadvertant inhalants that
could make one nice and high? Creepy Crawlies, with real
petrochemical goop (and nice hot metal molds)? A ticking
plastic time bomb, which "explodes" (presumably the panels
just jut out a short distance; I'd have to look -- pinchy
pinchy!) while being tossed around? Stretch Armstrong,
which could probably be used in many interesting ways
-- among them, choking siblings?? (Oh yeah, it had
some goop inside, too, apparently.) Chemistry sets,
which could be used to make small explosive devices???
Suction cup bow and arrows??! (With removable cups!)
Metal-tipped lawn darts???
Even jacks -- small, blunt, not intentionally dangerous
calthrop-like devices that could stick in one's foot
(or one's eye!); one usually uses these while bouncing a
small rubber ball -- aren't all that safe, and a wooden
train set would probably make for a mildly interesting
throwable set of missiles if wielded properly, though the
range would be pretty bad.
And then there was the central wheel in a popular tilting
device (I would forget the name), which had two little
magnetic spikes (that hold it onto the wire frame that
the user held), but which could poke people as well (they
weren't that sharp but step on it wrong and ...), and
metal Slinkies with nice sharp edges. For fun, it's a
wonderful toy--until someone loses a body part.
A Hot Wheels(tm) device could be adapted to an interesting
missile contraption, presumably; the unit was electrically
powered with two spinning rubber wheels and was intended
to pinch/throw the cars -- die cast metal! -- around
an orange track. Fortunately, it wasn't quite powerful
enough to do any real bad damage, but no doubt someone
dumb enough to watch the cars from the wrong end of the
accelerator might have gotten injured.
And of course there's the usual culprits to stick up one's
nose: Light Brite(tm) pegs, Monopoly(tm) pieces, some of
the smaller Legos(tm), detachable doll bits and buttons,
maybe a magnet.
And then there's the "fire in the hole!" from a laptop
battery (I forget the make but it did lead to a recall --
no, it wasn't the XBox-360, though it might as well have
been :-) ), and a death from a thrown baseball that hit
in exactly the wrong area of one's temple.
Compared to all that, a little lead paint and a few
detachable magnets sound positively benign.
Makes me fairly sour on the whole "laissez-faire" thing,
doncha know; about the only "beneficial" thing it might
do is decrease the surplus population, and that's only
if one's not quite right in the brain...which could be
caused by stepping on, inhaling, pushing up one's nose,
eating, throwing, or otherwise just playing with one of the
aforementioned artifacts. Oh, we had such fun back then;
how exactly did we survive?
But I digress.
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx -- insert random chain rattling here
Windows Vista. Because a BSOD is just so 20th century; why not
try our new color changing variant?
--
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