Lenovo uses Microsoft Windows Platform Binary Table to install bloatware, which gets around any kind of clean install/reset.

Clean install for Windows means nothing when you have shady vendors utilizing this mechanism.

I would change that last part to say "means nothing when you have shady OS makers building this mechanism."

I mean, come on, Microsoft, what were you thinking? Vendors gonna vend, so you had to know how this "feature" was going to be used.

Microsoft created the feature so you'd actually have driver support when doing the reset. I'm sure we all love resetting a touch screen only machine to find out it has no touch support for the install.

Perhaps this would encourage vendors to actually follow standards for their input devices so they didn't require custom drivers. Win-win!

They could have just put the drivers on the CD like every linux distro ever.

You mean the CD recovery image disk which would ostensibly have all the same bloat/spyware as the PC itself?

No, I mean the official Windows CD (technically two DVD set now). New Windows versions are shipping frequently enough now that it would actually be possible.

Microsoft could maintain specific install mediums for each device, including the drivers necessary, but without allowing vendors to load crapware

What about installing an intermediate linux system?

Like

  1. start with window pre-installed
  2. install any linux distro, fully overwriting the OEM
  3. re-install windows, from microsoft 

I'd say just stop at step 2 ;) but I can understand that not everybody can do this (eg: work computer) but want a clean OS.

will this method work to remove such bloatware?

This won't work because the firmware will write a file to your hard drive with the bloatware. It's scary that firmware will modify my filesystem - lots of damage could happen here.

Also, instead of step 2, it would make more sense to boot linux on a usb stick and use dd to erase the hard drive -- this is more complete than installing another OS... but still useless if the firmware is working against you.

In this case Windows will write to your filesystem, not the firmware. Of course there is nothing stopping a firmware from writing to the disk before it loads any OS, but that is true with any OS not just Windows.

It won't work unless you manage to flash the UEFI firmware.

The function lock is actually "smart" even though they don't document it properly, it is actually a toggle and hotkey in one.

Whenever you hold the function key and hit another key while holding function, then release function it will stay in the mode you started in.

I discovered the 'toggle' property recently and that's a real improvement to it, which is why I find it less problematic than every other implementation of Fn keys. Still would rather have a full set of keys, though.

Blizzard makes the game on their dime, and then charges us to actually play it. CIG is not making the game unless you pay for it, so it really is a fair comparison.

Blizzard doesn't make the game that YOU want to play. You play on their terms, you have no power over the development of the game. Once you bought and played the game and you think it is crap, you cannot get a refund.

Your input is truly valuable in the development of Star Citizen since they are creating the game YOU want. They listen and change features once they get feedback (e.g flight model 2.0). If you don't think it is what you want you WILL get a refund.

CIG is not making the game YOU want, they are doing exactly what Blizzard does. Making the game THEY THINK YOU WANT. Sure there was a list of stretch goals and what not up on the kickstarter site, but they are not obligated to check all the boxes. I haven't been following closely, but I'm sure there are some boxes that have already been written off (at least internally).

Flash is a plugin.

"... Two clerks were in the store, not just one. Lima-Marin and Clifton brought them both into a back room, forcing one onto the floor and the other to open the safe. “They put a gun to the back of my head and said, ‘This is where you’re going to die,’” one of the employees, Shane Ashurst, later recalled."

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/04/07/unfreed

A bit more than simply asking them to move to another room.

The "mov[ing] from one part of a store to another" was how the article characterized the kidnapping charge. I would imagine that forcing someone to the floor and threatening them with a gun would be part of the aggravated assault charge. Otherwise, what's the difference?

If he's partnered, he could get around $2 CPM, so around $800 if the videos at 400,000 views.

Interesting. And looking at his previous video (the one that went viral) it got 40m views. So he could potentially have made $80,000 from that?

Just open an incognito window.

He changed his MAC address, which is impersonating another device, so in this case it is exactly like the use of 'another employee's credentials'.

even the 3gs runs ios6 and it's from 2009!