Dell is Proudly American

Paul Watson

I was ordering a laptop through the dell.co.uk site and came across probably the most insane set of questions I have ever come across in a checkout procedure. A screenshot [^] And if you don't believe me, then go to dell.co.uk, select a product and enter the first step of the checkout. It is right there. How utterly insane! p.s. Iraq, Iran and North Korea were not available in the list of countries to select. I thought Saudia Arabia was the next best choice.

Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa

Macbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er DavidW wrote: You are totally mad. Nice.

Lost User

They have been asking the WMD question for years - I bought my first Dell laptop from their site back in 2000 and they were asking this question then!

When I am king, you will be first against the wall.

HENDRIK R

Oops .. you selected "YES" in the most critical WMD question, deciding about dead or life ... do you already hear the sound of that little cute Hellfire missile heading for your house?? :~

We are men. We are different. We have only one word for soap. We do not own candles. We have never seen anything of any value in a craft shop. We do not own magazines full of photographs of celebrities with their clothes on. - Steve

Brad Jennings

OMG, that's dumb! I wonder what they were smoking when they put that there? Brad Jennings "if the golden arches shut shop, where else are the VB people going to get work." - Colin Davies

Paul Watson

Brad Jennings wrote: OMG, that's dumb! I wonder what they were smoking when they put that there? The scary thing is that they probably had to put those questions in by law. i.e. the US government has made it law that any electronic equipment bear statements from the purchaser that the equipment won't be used for WMD research/control, terrorism etc. If I was Osama buying from Dell I am not going to say "Oh yes" to all those questions. And if they catch me, being Osama, those silly little textboxes, drop downs and checkboxes are hardly going to hold up in a court of law or anything. Quite mad and I don't see how it helps.

Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa

Macbeth muttered: I am in blood / Stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er DavidW wrote: You are totally mad. Nice.

Felix Gartsman

Paul Watson wrote: If I was Osama buying from Dell I am not going to say "Oh yes" to all those questions. And if they catch me, being Osama, those silly little textboxes, drop downs and checkboxes are hardly going to hold up in a court of law or anything. Quite mad and I don't see how it helps. Because you're not a lawyer. Lying in application forms is a crime. Easy to prove and leads to jail. Proving terror planning requires deep infrastructure of evidence, sometimes you need to expose hidden sources, etc... So, technical crimes are the key to catch terrorists/criminals.

Lost User

That's almost as funny as the card you get to fill in when you fly from the UK to the US - yes, there actually is a section where they ask if you are a nazi war criminal.... X| The tigress is here :-D

Nic Rowan

Hardly, They can't prove that you entered that information and those forms don't usually record IP addresses or anything like that. If all you can nail a terrorist for is providing false information then obviously something is wrong with your legal system. But maybe I'm wrong - it has been kown to happen before ;)_

------------------------------------------ I beat the internet - the end guy is hard.

_

Kant

Dell headquarters is at Round Rock, Texas (suburb of Austin) Dubya worked earlier at Austin as Governor of Texas Dubya Texas Whitehouse is at Crawford Ranch, Texas Dubya is after WMD. :zzz: Follow live World Cup Cricket scores here[^]

Lost User

Kinda like the dumb questions they've been asking in airports ever since the Lockerbie incident. Do you have any bombs in your luggage? Has anybody given you anything to put in your luggage? Has your luggage been in your possesion? ...as if...????? Mike Mullikin :beer:

Women: You can't live with them, and you can't get them to dress up in a skimpy Nazi costume and beat you with a warm squash. - Emo Phillips

Anna Jayne Metcalfe

Are you sure it's not April 1st? :laugh: Anna :rose: www.annasplace.me.uk

"Be yourself - not what others think you should be"
- Marcia Graesch

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Anna Jayne Metcalfe

Sounds like stupidity is catching in that area then ;) Anna :rose: www.annasplace.me.uk

"Be yourself - not what others think you should be"
- Marcia Graesch

Trouble with resource IDs? Try the Resource ID Organiser Add-In for Visual C++

Rob Graham

Nic Rowan wrote: those forms don't usually record IP addresses usually is the important word here. Nic Rowan wrote: If all you can nail a terrorist for is providing false information then obviously something is wrong with your legal system. But maybe I'm wrong - it has been kown to happen before After years of effort, what sent Al Capone to jail was tax evasion... These days with RICO laws the false application can be the nail in the coffin in a complex racketeering case. Maybe the same applies to terrorism. The real reason for the qquestions though is to protect Dell, who needs to prove to the US Govt (by law) that they have made "every good faith effort" to avoid export to proscribed countries. ;) Some ideas are so stupid that only an intellectual could have thought of them - George Orwell

Rob Graham

First prize (so far) for the lamest conspiracy theory involving GWB i've seen to date. Dell does that because US law has required they prove that they have made "all good faith efforts" to avoid shipping computing equipment to proscribed countries. This has been on the books since the Cold war era. Dell does this to help insure they don't lose their export license when Kim-il orders a laptop. Kim-il must lie to them, or Dell won't ship, since if they do, they lose their right to export at all. :) Some ideas are so stupid that only an intellectual could have thought of them - George Orwell

Kant

Rob Graham wrote: First prize (so far) for the lamest conspiracy theory involving GWB i've seen to date. I was just kidding. ;P The only reason for my post b'cos I worked in Austin and I enjoyed it a lot. Follow live World Cup Cricket scores here[^]

Rob Graham

:rose: Some ideas are so stupid that only an intellectual could have thought of them - George Orwell