CharlotteTheHarlot

Samsung turns in another record-setting quarter with $9.56 billion in profit ( TechSpot 2013-10-25 ) I thought that Microsoft report yesterday didn't sound as good as it was hyped up to be. Let's compare two of the top ten companies gross/net for Q3 ... Apple ........ $ 98.3 billion Google ....... $ 93.2 billion Coke ......... $ 79.2 billion IBM .......... $ 78.8 billion Microsoft .... $ 59.5 billion ... Q3: $18.53 / $5.24 billion GE ........... $ 46.9 billion McDonald's ... $ 41.9 billion Samsung ...... $ 39.6 billion ... Q3: $55.59 / $9.56 billion Intel ........ $ 37.2 billion Toyota ....... $ 35.3 billion Microsoft's $5 billion definitely looks out of place to me for company #5 in the top ten. I think we can see why Microsoft has wildly overpriced everything from Windows to Xbox to Surface ( not to mention the corporate licensing and service raping ). They seem to take 28% of gross in profit, Samsung about 17%. Drop prices at all and they are simply screwed with respect to the prestigious top ten most valuable companies list. NOTE: If anyone has seen Google or Apple or IBM earnings please let me know and I'll chart them. Windows 8.1 activation has been bypassed ( NeoWin 2013-10-26 ) ~yawn~ Who really cares! I sure couldn't care less. The commenters though are in quandary, some condemning it others indifferent. But this thing was released for $39 or even $19 I think at first. It's only real future is as a loss leader but I doubt Microsoft has the stones to do this. Ironically if it wasn't for pirating and monopolistic OEM preinstallation Windows would never have become entrenched in the first place. And today I suspect Microsoft only cares about piracy to the extent that they dream of monetizing it somehow.

For the record, a large part of the world does drink good coffee (of course NOT in ether Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks, but in real coffee shops/bars). Yeah that line was pure ridicule aimed at the Starbucks hipsters only. I assumed it was common the world over. Mostly we brew our own also but it's those times on-the-go when you grab a quick cup "to go" and you have a Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks to choose from that is the stark contrast I meant. No matter what city I am in I get consistency at DD, but mystery cups from the other one. I have never really managed to get a great cup of coffee from Starbucks ( it could be that I just don't know how to order it, next time I'll just say a coffee like DD please! ). Around here where the cities and towns are all technology industry rooted ( IBM mostly ) there is that classic white-collar blue-collar mix. The former are the employees at the IBM and vendor sites, doctor offices, etc, and the latter are the grunts that work to support the former. Dunkin Donuts is where the two meet every morning requiring the same kind of coffee, Starbucks is the watering hole for the remainder, people who would rather watch Friends instead of Cheers or Seinfeld. I should mention that we have a couple of school towns ( i.e., "uni" ) and the dynamic there is inverted 180 degrees though. Anyway, I understand there are massive differences everywhere else. That's just a glimpse into this one place. For most folks coffee is morning fuel here and if you mess it up you're gonna hear about it. But I've seen the differences elsewhere. For example people from the east coast sometimes get a surprise out west when they order a regular coffee and get a black cup. Regular to us means cream and sugar aka a typical normal coffee but elsewhere it's a crap shoot, like Las Vegas. I've seen this a lot out there with New Yorkers asking for regular, desperately needing that wake-me-up to cure a hangover saying "WTF is this! Now I gotta add milk and sugar to drink this!".

Hey check it out ... a new watermark ( I mean that "no hotlinking" placeholder ironically hotlinked backed to eightforums anyway! ) Even more joy.

Microsoft Moving to Redefine Windows ( Thurrott 2013-10-24 ) Yep, he's back again. Paul "The Desktop Must Die!" Thurrott. Today he is a wannabe iTard hipster who is drooling over the possibilities of standing in line at Microsoft Stores for annual refreshes wearing ear buds while watching Blue Man Group on a hideous Playskool tablet. He doesn't know this, but he has been an iTard his whole life trapped in a PC user's body. But that taste of Microsoft Tiles opened the floodgates for all the emotions to come pouring out, and now uninhibited, he writes freely about the Brave New World we should all embrace. In reality his judgment is skewed because of one basic misunderstanding, exhibited here ... This commenter tries to help Paul out ... Tablets and Phones are all that MetroTards can see, ever. Of course the real world is different, and the history up to now is simple too understand. There were many people that never needed stationary hard-core PC's in the first place. People that only would be using email and light tasks. Playing easy games and listening to music. iPods and similar devices carved out the latter folks. Laptops came along and relieved some more of that pent-up frustration and now smaller devices are picking off the rest ... the rest THAT NEVER NEEDED A PC in the first place. This is too hard for Paul to process in that Tile soaked brain of his. Him and some others see this spreading out of the computing public from it's previous 100% concentration on stationary desktops ( completely due to no other choice ) to some other divided percentage ( perhaps 30% desktop and 70% on smaller ) as some kind of trend. It is not a trend you idjit. It is natural selection. Water will find its own level. It doesn't mean the desktop PC is dying unless you think those people should stay there even though there is a better fit for MetroTards and sheeple on smaller devices. And many will use multiple form factors, even Paul, although he is actively trying to shoehorn his entire life into tiny tablets and likely failing each time. There will always be trucks ( 18-wheelers ) doing the hard work with plenty of people to ready drive them, while sheeple and MetroTards poke along in their boxie little fuel-efficient clown cars. Just like there will always be folks who drink real coffee from Dunkin Donuts while MetroTards and sheeple sip their Starbucks decalf soy skinny vanilla latte with a spritz of whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles. The only way the PC will die is if it is murdered. Stop trying to murder it Paul and stop trying to convince readers to call for its murder. Microsoft UK Shows Off 383-inch Surface Tablet in London ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-24 ) Giant Surface 2 tablet in London took 13 days to make ( NeoWin 2013-10-24 ) Too easy. ( Original Photo Here )

Microsoft brings in $18.53b in revenue, $5.24b in net income ( NeoWin 2013-10-24 ) Microsoft's Windows OEM revenues dropped 7 percent, but that's good news ( NeoWin 2013-10-25 ) Good news? What? NeoWin spin machine. Now that sure is a lot of money, but I'm not sure $5 billion net per quarter is that big a number for a top ten company. In fact it is all kind of confusing because they give out different bits of info including this weird statement ... Now they're seemingly breaking down Pro and non-Pro with Windows? Since when? As one commenter put it, they are most likely corporates getting Pro licenses for downgrade rights. And furthermore, they'll give this insight yet they won't offer anything about specific Surface models and accessories? It's maddening really. The way I see it a statement without clear details means there is something to hide. I'll tell you what. They better hope they get an internal Softies as next CEO. A truly independent person who looks through their books is gonna be flabbergasted at the financial antics they use to make Microsoft look like a financial black box rather than separate divisions for Wall Street. IMHO naturally. Microsoft: Surface sales more than doubled in last quarter ( NeoWin 2013-10-24 ) First of all it is unclear if the billion dollar write down applied to that quarter or not and how it affects these Surfaces. If it didn't go on that quarter then I would guess they sold maybe one million tops ( the commenters keep dividing gross by the price of the Surfaces but they completely are forgetting the keyboard cover which is a separate sale in all circumstances ), if it did charge this quarter then that $400 million might just be red ink. There is no way that is over two million units as some commenters speculate and the fact that Microsoft keeps hiding the number is highly suspect. Recall that Q2 according to IDC was 300,000 Surface versus 14.6 million iPads. They are going to get murdered in the holiday quarter coming up and have zero chance of expecting much more than whatever it is they sold this quarter.

Samsung fined by Taiwan government for faked Internet comments ( NeoWin 2013-10-24 ) Samsung fined $340,000 for online smear campaign and fraudulent reviews ( TechSpot 2013-10-24 ) I think this is a great ruling, well as long as it does something to thwart the lies of corporate astroturfing ( nothing apparently can stop the personal religious fanboy freelance astroturfing though ). As the MicroZealots at NeoWin cheer this hit to their 3rd most hated enemy perhaps they should consider that it sets a precedent and may next be applied to their beloved Microsoft, whose astroturfers paid and unpaid have polluted the tech forums ever since they descended like locusts over a year ago. Ruling on GPS Tracking Could Protect Cellphone Privacy ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-24 ) What's this, some scrap of positive news on the privacy front? Maybe. That's one of our higher courts, a federal appeals court that could be the final word saying that Cops can't do this one, narrowly defined action, placing a GPS on a car. However, I would note the loaded wording of the ruling comes with facts that may be designed to influence the public and maybe the Supreme Court if it gets the case ... Hear that sheeple? Criminals were captured thanks to a GPS, cops told to let them go. <-- HEADLINE This small win for privacy may yet turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory once the law and order propagandists have time to bend the ear of the sheeple and the Congress. Google is experimenting with massive banner ads for brand searches ( TechSpot 2013-10-24 ) Google reverses promise made in 2005 not to use banner ads in searches ( NeoWin 2013-10-24 ) A big corporation may be about to break a promise? Say it ain't so! Cue up some other promises for consideration, like "We have no plans to use Kinect for advertising and spying ". Maybe we should be looking for quotes from Microsoft concerning the Desktop and other things they are guaranteed to go back on. They will all do it to us given enough time. Promises are made to be broken.

It's perfectly normal. And not just EXE files, could be anything, CHM, DLL, etc. I see it mostly with Inno setups and it is a consequence of distributing multiple variations / versions of files with identical filenames in the same package. Sometimes ,1 is English and ,2 another language. Sometimes one is 32-bit, and another 64-bit. InnoUnp handles this very well IMHO. It successfully extracts the native portion of the ISS script so that you can easily read the target locations for each file and the logic behind it. In fact if you decompile the actual Inno distributions, you should see this with the two main EXE and DLL files. Unfortunately any Pascal scripting in the ISS does not presently get extracted. So, if there was some programming that processed files such as these from the Pascal section then we would be stuck trying to understand the reasoning. Fortunately I have never yet seen this with respect to the ,1 or ,2 ... suffixes.

P.S. is that "Lego" Store?

According to my rough calculations, on 3rd June 2014 anyone will be able to get US $100,00 in cash if they collect a Surface RT from a Microsoft Store... jaclaz Negative prices would rule! I always wanted to visit that opposite universe ... ( original photo from here )

OMG, I forgot to quote that same comment. He nailed it! Great image too. :

Microsoft: We are 'working with content owners' on Windows Phone WebApp concerns ( NeoWin 2013-10-23 ) Continuing the controversy from yesterday. Kind of a half-hearted admission of violating content-owners rights. Shouldn't the FBI now swoop in and take all the servers, have Akamai wipe them clean, apologize for any inconvenience for lost original data, and then start over? Microsoft's Frank Shaw: Apple is playing "catch up" with us ( NeoWin 2013-10-23 ) In today's atomic bomb NeoWin thread we get quotes from Frank Shaw throwing slabs of red meat to the MicroDogs to chew on. It's really only persisting the convenient myth that Apple is Microsoft's competitor which serves to tamp down the notion of Antitrust and gin up the vitriol of the fanboys. True, Microsoft is trying hard to become a competitor in a few markets, but seriously, 300,000 Surface vs 14.6 million iPads in Q2 2013 sure gives new meaning to Frank Shaw calling Apple "our competitors", and makes the NeoWin title: "Apple is playing "catch up" with us" look even more silly. DARPA Offers $2 Million for Self-Healing Software ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-23 ) ( original photo from here ) Yes Sir, we're completely in control sir, nothing could possibly go wrong ... ( NOTE: That's not the exact quote from the movie, I couldn't remember it actually so I didn't caption it )

Microsoft reduces Surface Pro prices by another $100 ( NeoWin 2013-10-23 ) And another price cut!. Somebody should try to chart the history of all the changes ( not me though, it would take all day ). Notice the incredibly stubborn resistance to the obvious idea of adding a free keyboard cover. Windows RT 8.1 Start screen no longer includes desktop tile by default ( NeoWin 2013-10-23 ) And the sheeple cheer ( really ). However, in the interest of truth in advertising, shouldn't Windows RT 8.1 no longer include the "Windows" name by default? Microsoft confirms some older AMD processors do not support Windows 8.1 ( NeoWin 2013-10-23 ) Well there goes that old talking point about working on all devices that Windows 7 works. Seriously though, how about that headline? ... processors do not support Windows 8.1. As if CPU's support the operating system. They're like a completely different company now to invert the actual relationship between Hardware <--> OS <--> Software. Not to mention the simple fact that one came first ( these CPUs ) and one came later ( Windows 8 ) making this a self-evident mistake. Aside from time travel and a retroactive CPU announcement I do not believe that there were data sheets from AMD ( or Intel for that matter ) ever announcing support for future operating systems. CPU's support an instruction set, x86 in this case, and those multimedia extensions, etc. The OS supports a CPU instruction set plus those extensions and other chipset goodies. so if an OS comes along and stops supporting any part of that instruction set it has failed in its one and only job. That means Microsoft broke it. NeoWin should have said 'Microsoft confirms Windows 8.1 Blew does not support some older AMD processors'. I know this sounds like nitpicking to some, but that title and the general thought process of those at NeoWin completely inverts the actual reality and does this cynically to protect their stillborn baby - Windows 8. EDIT: clarity

Intel Provides Fix for Windows 8.1 Secure Boot Issue ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-23 ) It's really like keystone cops at Microsoft these days. They seem to be acting like they didn't know exactly where that watermark originates ( from them ).

Windows RT-based Nokia Lumia 2520 to take on the Surface 2 ( TechSpot 2013-10-22 ) C'mon, this has got to be a gag. I can't believe Nokia had this in the pipeline and actually though that cloning a barely-selling device was a good idea. This doesn't really sound like them at all. It must be from pressure. I mean, do they believe there are people out there who looked at the Surface and waved it off but will look at this and suddenly say: "That's what I was waiting for". Nokia announces 6-inch Lumia 1520, Lumia 1320, and Instagram for Windows Phone ( TechSpot 2013-10-22 ) But then again, this is the same Nokia is still producing this insane white on yellow tile scheme as seen on their brand new 1520 ... ( original photo from here ) Note: that isn't just a static tile with an icon which would be far less important, it is a live tile for the calendar that shows appointments which you actually do need to read.

Apple announces new MacBook Pros and the new US-made Mac Pro ( NeoWin 2013-10-22 ) Apple announces 2nd generation iPad mini with Retina display ( NeoWin 2013-10-22 ) Apple reveals iPad Air, thinner and faster ( NeoWin 2013-10-22 ) OS X Mavericks will be free, available today ( NeoWin 2013-10-22 ) Apple Announces Haswell MacBook Pro Starting at $1299 ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-22 ) Mac Pro to Land this December Starting at $2,999 ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-22 ) Apple's New iPad Air and iPad Mini 2 Pack iPhone 5s' A7 Chip ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-22 ) So Apple has refreshed the entire line, top to bottom. Looks like typical pricing to me, a normal Apple tax making these things a few hundred dollars more expensive at each price point than a Windows machine. And many MetroTards are celebrating this and believe that this will be the "Year Of Windows 8" ( let's use that! ). But I really don't think so. They are forgetting a few things, big things. Apple has already destroyed the MicroTard hopes and dreams on the low end because their customers have already accepted the iPad prices and are buying them at a ratio of 50:1 over Surfaces ( 2013-Q2 300,000 Surfaces versus 14.6 million iPads ) and this announcement just jacks up the performance and specs further but does NOT take anything away. In the middle market the MacBooks appear the same to me including price so I doubt they will lose much if any sales to Windows since such customers would lose the App Store and be thrown into Metro madness by switching just to save a few bucks. Strangely, that top end might not really overpriced at all considering it has a current model Xeon quad and other top spec'd parts. In short, Apple buyers are fully prepared to pay the Apple tax. Most importantly Apple aficionados are not instantly repulsed by the operating system they get, which is the 800 pound gorilla in the room that Microsoft and her fanboys cannot see. They actually believe that Windows 8 is an advantage and a selling point, and this is at the root of all their mistakes and will continue to be so when they get clobbered again this holiday season and beyond. From reading the comments there attacking the Apple lineup, it almost seems that the MicroZealots actually believe all they had to do was whip up a mobile OS, jam it down the throats of the OEMs, make a Microsoft tablet, and the world would come running. They must think that is how Apple operates, but it is not. It is the whole package: turn-key product, predictability, support, guarantee, apps and reputation. Apple's Tim Cook claims competition (Microsoft) is "confused" about PCs ( NeoWin 2013-10-22 ) Naturally that leads to the 'TardFest Thread Of The Day. Whoo boy, a holy war between iTards and MetroTards, which ironically features MetroTards taking shots at the very thing they strive to become. If a rift in the space-time continuum opens up allowing demons and monsters to escape it will be because of the cognitive dissonance on display in this thread. Didn't anybody ever tell these guys: "Whatever you do, don't cross the streams!" Oh, check out our friendly neighborhood fanboy ... See what he did there? He accidentally accurately described Microsoft planned obsolescence ... and then blamed its detrimental ramifications on the desktop! That's a true fanboy right there. It's pretty close to the Menendez defense of killing your parents and then pleading for leniency because you are now orphans. And another glimpse into the mind of a fanboy ... They seriously are confused, that's for sure. Without all their retroactive lies about past opposition to actual improvement and strawman fiction like imagining people think that Metro is hard they would have nothing at all to talk about. I remember people trying everything under the sun to get just a workable GUI launcher, let alone a protected mode multitasking operating environment, working in lieu of DOS. And there were lots of ideas and some pretty close tries but nothing that perfectly preserved backward compatibility of allowing all DOS apps to work without crashing. Once it actually occurred people came running. Win3x was merely a step and it almost failed but when it came together in Win95 there was no ( or very little ) of this fictional resistance. It is disgusting to make up ex post facto history to rationalize your current conundrum of having people despise your product. People never resist progress when it is actually progress. They resist devolution. Stop blaming people for despising your ridiculous Playskool child interface and cynical walled-garden plans and start blaming yourselves. They also need to drop this nonsense of saying that complainers find Metro too hard to use! It's quite the opposite. It's insulting to say that because it is insulting to use it. Naturally these commenters find it "easy" as do the children they often cite, that's because they are all the target demographic that Microsoft is seeking out. Now bleat for me, you fine little sheep.

Microsoft drops 'RT' from name of original Surface tablet ( NeoWin 2013-10-22 ) Okay, got that? Microsoft is now retroactively changing the name of the Surface ReTard Edition released last year. I think that's a first. And once again there's another little clarifying quote from a Softie saying that the name was confusing the two different devices so they are making it less confusing by not using the different names. Southwest Airlines tells Microsoft to remove its Windows Phone 'WebApp' ( NeoWin 2013-10-22 ) Microsoft's Cars.com 'WebApp' now also removed from the Windows Phone Store ( NeoWin 2013-10-22 ) They really can't catch a break huh? In their zeal to get more apps in the store they are populating it with quickie mobile apps that they never bothered to clear with the 1st parties. It seems a bit like the YouTube app controversy. They are disregarding the 1st parties involved, or at least just trying to see what they can get away with, but getting bit on the butt more often then they are used to. There is some Karma to this though. Microsoft has never taken kindly to 3rd party access to their servers. They would have a stroke if someone developed an app that supercedes the Windows Update process ( even if it did perfect authentication and WGA ). Or how about an app that accessed MSKB articles or indexed Microsoft Update ( the FTP and old Softlib ) which would be pretty darned useful. We know they despise hotfix and update aggregators and really anything that dodges their official dodgy access methods. Karma. My name is Earl. Judge says "No" to Yahoo's request to slow its Microsoft-Bing partnership rollout ( NeoWin 2013-10-22 ) Well that's pretty frickin' amazing. Yahoo is actually trying to end the "Powered By Bing" thing and a court blocks it. This is a pretty twisted turn of events. Can't wait to see how this one pans out. EDIT: spacing

Finally watched Final Destination 5 on a big screen last night. Pretty good. Think the first two films were best, but this I thought was pretty close to them. Major kudos for the ( no spoiler ) ending collage right before the credits using death scenes from all the previous movies with the most perfect song for soundtrack ... AC/DC If You Want Blood, You've Got It ! I really was ROTFLMAO during that part and my better half is now convinced I'm on a Highway To Hell.

And I expect we ain't seen nothing yet.

Near as I can tell from the reports the RT OS looks for some kind of existing recovery information ( ESD file maybe? ) and BSODs without it. Or, I have no idea what I am talking about. Note that Thurrott today says that the crisis is over ... Windows RT 8.1 Update Returns. What's three days between friends? ( Thurrott 2013-10-22 ) ... with more than a few more quoted Microsoft disclaimers about "only" affecting 1:1000 guinea pigs customers. Back in the late-70's we had a crisis here in the USA, but I'm pretty sure that Tylenol didn't use that logic of "only a limited amount of customers were affected". Yeah I know, BSOD != cyanide. I just find that incessant excuse making tedious, self-serving and unnecessary.

The Competition ... Man vexed by iOS 7; accuses Apple of corporate thuggery', sues CEO ( NeoWin 2013-10-21 ) I love this story. Once again there are so many soft parallels to the Windows universe, probably because Microsoft is so busy copying Apple. The funny thing is that a lot of MicroZealots are agreeing with him even though they haven't sufficient cognitive dissonance to realize they are describing their own toys as well. iOS 7 User-Experience Appraisal ( NNGroup 2013-10-12 ) Nielsen Norman Group critique of Jony Ive's butchering of the iOS GUI usability. Enormously thorough article with lots of detailed points. I'm glad to see they noticed the detrimental effect of flattening icons to 2D and simultaneously blurring the background which is just caustic to visibility ... Yep. It's a form of sadism really. The simple solution would have been a selectable theme using the old way or the new way ( plus 3rd party ways ). But no, not with Jony Ive, a hipster who thinks he knows better than everyone else. And that video mentioned by Jaclaz ... How to recreate the iOS 7 home screen and iPhone hardware in Microsoft Word ( TechSpot 2013-10-21 ) 'Was iOS 7 created in Microsoft Word?' ( NeoWin 2013-10-21 ) What this is is a video by someone who re-creates an image of an iPhone with iOS 7 in vector objects ... using Microsoft Word, most likely from that god-forsaken 2013 version. He records all the object creation and then speeds up the video. Kind of a fun thing even though he is auditioning for something because using these tools makes little sense. Notable to me is the fact that the MicroZealots get a kick out of it because they seem to think it means iOS is crappy eneough to be drawn in Microsoft Word. But ... they cannot even fathom that it would take one tenth the time to reproduce Windows 8 Also very interesting to me is that this type of illustrating has been part of Microsoft Word since I believe Windows 3.1. Remember all the "MsApps" OLE components of the Office programs, particularly MsDraw. Watching that video tells me that the vector susbsystem of Word has changed very little really, and because of that horrific 2013 interface with the ribbon and the whitewashed GUI and flat visuals, it looks like a throwback to Windows 3.1 once again. EDIT: typos, clarity

The Weather forecast is still cloudy with a good chance of downtime ... Facebook Posting Errors Force People to Communicate Face to Face ( Maximum PC 2013-10-21 ) Facebook status updates, other interactions temporarily broken (Update) ( NeoWin 2013-10-21 ) Do the world a favor and just stay down. At least 10 million 'innocent' files destroyed in MegaUpload shutdown ( TechSpot 2013-10-21 ) Doesn't this really beg the question of why Microsoft's SpyDrive which is nominally on USA soil doesn't get shutdown and wiped for "infringing content" when MegaUpload which wasn't on USA soil did? This reinforces the protected status of Big Corporate Data, the favored sons of the powers-that-be, from their incessant lobbying and support of candidates, and of course from their previously unknown massive collaboration with spooks. Verizon website glitch potentially exposed texting data of any phone number ( TechSpot 2013-10-21 ) Sorry, but that's NOT a hack! That is a publicly available URL. The private texting data is sitting on public facing servers obtainable by merely requesting the URL and Verizon's servers dutifully oblige with no authentication. This is the level of security that Corporate Big Data thinks is appropriate for their paying customers. I guarantee one thing you won't find on the public facing servers are private data for the staff and board of Verizon, or their text messages, or their addresses and credit cards. Yep, the cloud is here, aren't you glad?

Windows RT Recovery Image Here for 8.1 Upgrade Issues ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-21 ) Microsoft offers Surface RT Recovery Image download for Windows RT 8.1 issues ( NeoWin 2013-10-21 ) I think this is only a partial solution for the problems seen the past few days. Near as I can tell this "recovery image" is only for devices that bricked with a BSOD. I see no evidence that Microsoft came to its senses and offer a downloadable ISO of Windows 8.1 Blew or at least an offline service pack installer. But that would make sense, therefore it is not being considered. Some commenters asked a darn good question ... since this thing RTM'd back in August and only hit GA just now. How is it possible that they did not find this error already? Their testers should have been updating from Wi-Fi routers on typical broadband providers reproducing what users would have in the real world, rather than sitting in their cushy offices using broadband service no-one else has. Want to see something funny? Check out these instructions from the Tom's Hardware article to fix startup error 0xc000000d. While you're reading it, remember that the demographic is mostly MetroTards using Windows ReTard Edition who are so skilled that the Start Menu looks complicated. They are using an OS that is mostly desktop-less by design, and using the command line is comparable to rocket science ... Oh yeah, that's gonna end well Report: Windows 8.1 causing heavy mouse lag in some PC games ( NeoWin 2013-10-21 ) And the hits just keep on coming. No word back from the mothership yet, I imagine they have their hands full these past few days. Interview: Stardock's CEO tells us about their new Windows 8.1 program, Launch8 ( NeoWin 2013-10-21 ) Attention Jorge, 3rd interview in a row ( 1st was Tihiy and StartIsBack, 2nd was Classic Shell, and now Stardock ). Pretty much the same fare, and once again no links to the actual product ( just to other NeoWin pages ). Microsoft can now sell Office 365 to U.S. Department of Defense ( NeoWin 2013-10-21 ) Umm, considering that the spooks at No Such Agency work for DoD there isn't any surprise here. This was a fait accompli, as is selling all Microsoft products to the spook department. Their secret collaboration with them since Vista can be seen now as just another more elaborate form of lobbying ( because of the fact that they of all companies were the first to sign on, even before Google, remains a very interesting fact that has received little comment ).

Considering that they lost that lawsuit and must strike the name "SkyDrive" from the world, images like that means they have their work cut out for them. It looks like they already impregnated many BMPs into install files and I almost feel sorry for them now. Of course they could just switch that one letter to make the job easier ... SkyDrive ---> SpyDrive.

Of course, States being what they are, they are all different. I believe that technically, no electronics are allowed to be picked up with garbage, even on large items pickup. I mean, that is the law on the books. The garbage men do not look into what is in your garbage can before they put it in the compactor, and I bet most of them couldn't care less what you had in there. The only thing that is a real no-no is any television or monitor. I've yet to see people toss out an LCD, but many try to put out CRT and Projection sets. The garbage company will not even touch those items, and they can sit there for weeks before they disappear by whatever means. And since the garbage company are not police and have no police escort, it really comes down to it being an unenforced crime. The only type of enforcement of electronics dumping comes to other companies being caught doing it, with inspections or whatever. There are certainly recycling centers sprinkled about that accept certain things and even some that would pay you for it if you brought in enough stuff. The tough part seems to be that it is difficult to find a place to recycle CRTs or otherwise dispose of them. Either a recycler will say they do not accept them, or that you need to pay them to take it. As such I have yet to find a place to recycle CRTs and I have 4 sitting in my basement awaiting some fate. 3 were monitors that went underwater, and the other is a television that failed a rejuvenation. Where I am in NY all electronics go to the bi-weekly spring to fall drop-off. They are stacked on pallets now rather than tossed in a big green compactor with other semi-electronic things like lamps, appliances, etc. Note that most of these other things also have PCBs ( printed circuit boards ). So if they were being pure about it they would isolate them all. But the latter mentioned catch-all semi-electronic stuff is crushed and most likely gets buried or sent to the ocean. I suppose it's possible that they just store it somewhere and then sell it to some other state's recycle plant, but I guess I'll never really know. The TV's and displays that are palleted I am pretty sure get recycled somewhere, but they no longer are attempting their grandiose recycle plan here because it proved untenable. I also got a few TV's sitting around, in fact I just haven't had the time to fix one nice flat 30-something inch CRT that I like a lot better than our 60" LED. That bad one ( machine gun power circuit ) probably just needs the power board cold solder joints reflowed so I will most likely get to it. Also have a lot of CRT computer displays and haven't decided how many to keep. I've determined to not discard any flat Trinitrons because I have yet to see a consumer LED that looks as good, but the small size does suck. Transitions like this are painful because once you haul them off, they're gone forever. I've already had people look at computer CRTs and ask what they are ( folks only using tablets and laptops their whole life ) and noticing how bright and smooth and pleasant they are. It has made me think about keeping them all instead.

Even better! I thought it was a mockup because of the Intel logo. I guess they are sponsoring F1 racing in real life, yet somehow the concept of speed is completely lost upon them. That's rather ironic.