CharlotteTheHarlot

How to Recover Your Lavabit Emails ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-15 ) That deserves to be repeated. So one guy who the Feds want to nail uses a service and that somehow merits demanding the keys for everyone. Nothing makes it clearer that our "system" is broken beyond repair. This kind of precedent is most dangerous and is simple to scale up to include anything and everything. Meanwhile over at fanboys sites, they defend Microsoft to the death for collaborating with the spooks with Skype and Windows citing a variation of the Nuremberg defense, they were doing only what they were ordered to do by a national security letter. Now what will they say if Snowden used SpyDrive to store files? How would the MicroZealots feel if they demanded all the keys for everybody? Some D-Link Routers Have Backdoor Vulnerability ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-15 ) ( Mentioned above by Rick and Jaclaz ) I found that bold part to be wildly off the mark. All routers I see have uPnP ability, as does Windows since at least XP, and this is the actual way it is done in the real world. So that excuse does not hold water IMHO. Universal PnP effectively undermines LAN security as a matter standard operating procedure. This user agent string backdoor undermines it further, moving these routers from "somewhat secureable" to "completely insecureable". It has to be one of the dumbest ideas ever released into general circulation. EDIT: spacing

Buying an Xbox One Console Requires Waiving Right to Class Action Suits ( Maximum PC 2013-10-15 ) The Xbox saga continues. This one is certainly no surprise to anyone here ( it's been part of every EULA update this cycle starting with Windows itself ) but I'll bet it will get the attention of some lazy console kids. It's really doubtful that the RROD issue is behind this. They are just trying to set precedents en route to becoming a "services" company. At the end of the day when everything is subscription and all products resemble Apple toys they will not want to be bothered with petty things like consumer criticism and legal action. They will want to just receive your money as quickly and painless as possible with no backtalk, thank you very much. This is Microsoft devolving down to the lowest common denominator. Editorial: Please, give Apple a break ( NeoWin 2013-10-15 ) Well you can just imagine how this article is going over with the NeoKids. It's quite a 'TardFest. There's way too much comedic material to cover, but a couple of comments just for fun ... Hard to believe they still parrot this meaningless factoid, but believing this apparently is the only way they can sleep at night. The truth? Apple does not even sell their Mac OS to anybody, nor do they license it to OEMs, and they do not have a corporate edition sold to huge companies. So right there, all of the markets that Windows fully utilizes are not even touched by Apple. They were never competitors in the same market until Surface came along. Ironically that gives them an easy way to actually do a true apples-to-apples comparison! And that means comparing Microsoft tablets vs Apple tablets since the OS in each case is distributed identically. What was that number again? Oh yeah, 2013 Q2 saw 300,000 Surfaces versus 14.6 million iPads. So Apple's iOS is actually wiping the floor with Windows when compared properly. No wonder the fanboys keep making that bogus comparison, even though it's like counting Samsung's refrigerator or washing machine firmware marketshare ( which of course matches the number of units sold ). The last thing these fanboys would want to see is Mac OS released into the same channels as Windows, especially now. Yes, that was Dot MetroTard himself, the single most brainwashed fanboy on planet Earth, ironically talking about "hand-holding" and "reality distortion fields". No truer case of a MacTard-in-training can be found. The child is begging Microsoft to bend him over with every breath but still musters enough hypocrisy to project his cognitive dissonance against Apple. It's quite a feat of mental gymnastics. Completely beyond help. Rationalizations galore. For some reason I keep thinking of Sam in Supernatural who had a wall constructed in his brain to keep his damaged soul in check, and "Death" warned him not to scratch at it or else it might crack leading to a mental break. The only difference is Microsoft constructed his wall and it's holding back reality, logic and rational thought. I am watching for signs of the inevitable, though it seems to be holding up, even for now. But the next set of Surface versus iPad numbers might just do it. EDIT: typo

The Competition and Gaming ... DICE Talks About Steam Machines, Linux Gaming ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-14 ) More at the link, at the link. One commenter brings up a point about a Media Center, which I hadn't thought about. If Valve makes this a top priority it might go a long way to firing up interest since Microsoft took a giant dump on Windows Media Center ( and let's not forget the DVD codec issue ). A Media Center would be a potential killer app, especially since this thing ( SteamOS, SteamBox, Controller ) targets the big screen by design. Cross-platform play between PC and Xbox One makes a lot of sense, says Microsoft exec ( PC Gamer 2013-10-14 ) Bad title unfortunately . There is no real discussion of cross-platform "play" from the Softie. Just game "saves" really. Microsoft is as interested in cross-platform gameplay between Xbox and PS as they are in Xbox and the PC. Zero. Zilch. Nada. There is way too much risk that someone on a PS or a PC will blow away the Xbox player and the reputation for the Xbox as frag-bait console would grow rapidly. AMD's Mantle API not compatible with the Xbox One ( TechSpot 2013-10-14 ) Man, the hits just keep on coming. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for the old girl ( Microsoft ).

Security and Miscellaneous News ... Google's new ad policy protest has folks swapping profile photos for Eric Schmidt's ( NeoWin 2013-10-13 ) That is a great idea! : But don't forget Page and Brin. Might as well throw in Zuckerberg. And Mayer, Gates and Ballmer too. Better yet, use photos of their children. And if anyone thinks that would be crossing some dangerous line, then make them answer a simple question: What are they afraid of? Google Adding Photos, Comments, Names of Users in Ads ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-14 ) Despite that story above from yesterday about a revolt of people using Schmidt's photo, they proceed anyway. And they have the nerve to tell us it's for our own good too! Yep, humanity is most definitely doomed. Canadian government wants to unbundle television channels, offer a la carte programming ( TechSpot 2013-10-14 ) As long as the cable companies don't turn this into a net gain for themselves it would be great. If they use this to jack up rates so that the sum total price of all the channels you get now added up individually do NOT exceed the current bill, then all would be peachy. Even a penny more in price for them added a la carte means they are milking this. This will never occur here in the States though. The problem is not really the cable companies at all, it is the god-forsaken network content-providers, the vampire mega-companies that own dozens of channels and bundle them for sale to cable and satellite operators ( at ransom sometimes, witness the recent CBS scam with Time-Warner ), with no way to break them up. They do this because they know their oddball channels and foreign language only channels, and home shopping channels would never be picked up and transmitted by the cable/satcos. This is a tough one for sure. On one hand we want channels to stand or fall on their own merit rather than be propped up by bundling. But on the other, we may now see deal-making between the networks and cable/satcos to pick up this-or-that channel for some nefarious deal. ~sigh~ The only answer I can think of is to limit every company to owning just one channel. Goodbye Viacom. Sell all but one network. :

Microsoft's Joe Belfiore: Lack of key apps still a problem for Windows Phone ( NeoWin 2013-10-14 ) Err no, sorry Joe, but it's much, much more than that. I wonder just how long this guy can keep repeating the exact same excuse to the Board before they start laughing at him ( BTW, I'm sure he is a nice guy, nothing personal meant at all, but I have this picture of him walking into a Board meeting every quarter for three or four years now and saying the same thing over and over again! ). Anywho, as incredible as it sounds, Android has somehow become the new Windows, at least with phones, so far. How did that happen? Android is the flexible OS. It is the ubiquitous OS with many apps. It is the customizable OS with the least limitations. It even most resembles the tried-and-true desktop which the world has used for two decades. Of the other two, iOS is most locked-down with lots of apps but the most, uh, consistent interface which has now been flattened into a 2D pastel teenage girl theme. The other one, WP, has, tiles. Squares and rectangles. Lots of them. Woohoo. If ten years ago we were asked which interface would be most flexible and user customizable in the future: Apple, Google or Microsoft? Everyone would have said Microsoft Windows, regardless of form factor or device. Sadly it was not to be. These jokers in WP ( and later Metro ) first cynically appropriated the "Windows" name hoping to capitalize on the hard-fought reputation and translating it into sales. Not content with just mis-using the name they also decided all that freedom of user customization was some weird mistake and set about killing it with a committee designed Playskool interface. However the customers saw right through this huge scam like Superman with X-Ray vision and have relegated NuMicrosoft to laughingstock status by every metric available. Lots of Windows Phone fans want a Back button for Windows Phone 8.1 ( NeoWin 2013-10-13 ) Another story from yesterday. Man, some people are just stubbornly resistant to change. ;-) Microsoft releases special Walking Dead TV commercial for Windows ( NeoWin 2013-10-14 ) Dead OS walking? I've said for a long time that this Windows 8.1 Blew thingie is just a do-over. A Mulligan. A cynical repeat of last year with a few little tweaks to stuff that no-one ever asked for while ignoring the huge issues that we pounded into their thick skulls for well over two years. So now they are also repeating the strategy from earlier this spring. It's now October, but six months ago was April when the Walking Dead TV series ran their earlier half of the season ( umm Redmond, this marketing didn't work the first time ). Doubly bad idea because the first episode this week kinda sucked anyway ( IMHO ). But since we're doing it all over again, here's a graphic I made in April ...

Microsoft Says Surface RT Branding Confused Customers ( Maximum PC 2013-10-14 ) More on that story from the other day, this time at MPC. I love the first two comments: "I wasn't confused by the branding personally. I saw it for what it was, the worst of both worlds between a tablet, and a full OS slate.". : And part of the other comment: "wait, you're telling me that MS realizes that people were confused over the fact that RT was different than non RT... so to solve the problem they're removing the "RT"? Does anyone else see the irony in this? There's going to be even more confusion now...". Spot on. IE11 and Bing team up to pre-render web pages in search results ( NeoWin 2013-10-14 ) : nah nah nah. You should have been honest and said: "Because half of people click on the first result on the search results page, pre-rendering that page will be useful one haf of the time. The other half? Oh well. Wasted processing. Wasted power. Wasted time." The only reason I even mention this is because of the rationalization for destroying Windows, particularly the aesthetics like Aero Glass, for alleged power savings ( even if you don't have a battery in your wall-plugged PC! ). This is the second time now we have seen Bing spending all that saved power and CPU cycles thanks to Windows 8. Wasting power is just fine whenever they say it is. MicroHypocrisy at its finest. And what about bandwidth. And local storage. Did they really just admit to 'background download to local storage'. That adds wasted bandwidth and wasted disk space to the hypocrisy. And one more thing ... Let's hope that first search result isn't something dangerous! What if you search for "FBI Ransom Virus". Sounds to me like the authors of poison webpages only need to jack up their Google/Bing rank to make result #1 and get a free ride to the local hard drive, no clicking necessary. Windows 8.1 Guide: Customizing the Start screen ( NeoWin 2013-10-14 ) Blah blah blah. They used to have this thing called Themes you know. Kind of a rolled-up collection of many different customizations of all manner of GUI elements. One click and multiple items are altered, another click and they are altered again, or reverted back to the original. But re-inventing the wheel is apparently in vogue these days, even when they re-invented nothing at all ... updated

Security and Privacy ... Skype under investigation in Luxembourg over link to NSA ( UK Guardian 2013-10-11 ) Skype under investigation over NSA links ( NeoWin 2013-10-11 ) The EU is on the job now and Microsoft is no doubt tucking away a few pennies to cover their next fine. To Microsoft it's a business expense. To Brussels, it's operating income. To me, it reminds of local counties and towns over here that have ticket quotas that the cops set out to collect, and the elected bureaucrats ring the cash register accordingly. Nothing of substance will likely come out of this, but one can hope. In the comments there are very few Microsoft Skype defenders for once, I guess even NeoKids have a limit. One commenter asked: "Well.. I'm looking for the equivalent term of scroogled for MS...". Hey I got it ... Don't Get Skype'ld Facebook starts making profiles visible in search, removes option to opt-out ( NeoWin 2013-10-12 ) Ah, they're going ahead whole-hog regardless of the criticism. IMHO here's why ... I guarantee that Facebook is as up to its neck in spook collaboration as Microsoft. Just look for which companies seem the most stubborn in their paths, making the most daring and egregious moves to expand their kingdoms. Acting like nobody can touch them, like they've got nothing to lose. That's Microsoft and Facebook in a nutshell ( and perhaps Google next ). The reason IMHO is that they have tacit assurances from the government that they won't be impeded as long as they cooperate. Facebook seems to have a minimum base of about a billion sheeple despite all the privacy concerns and recent articles. They're okay with that as their bottom line, and will proceed without any fear of blowback against their business. To the Feds, a billion sheeple is essentially 1 out of every 7th person on Earth, the spooks can do the math and consequently will give a wink and nod to anything Facebook does going forward. Stay the hell out of Facebook is all I can say. Google can use your name and photo in ads under new Terms of Service if you let them ( NeoWin 2013-10-12 ) Another story mentioned yesterday, where Google has its own, just slightly less nefarious plans for your name and photo. I guess we are now officially in a race to the bottom with the social sites leapfrogging each other. Thank you sheeple. That's a good little sheep. You know you like it ... ( original photo from here ) EDIT: spacing, typo

Microsoft Dropped "RT" From Surface to Avoid Confusion ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-12 ) Microsoft: Surface RT branding caused "some confusion" ( NeoWin 2013-10-12 ) WTF did I just read? Does that make any sense to anyone here? They actually increased the confusion by an order of magnitude. By removing RT and just leaving "Windows" and "Surface" they increased the ambiguity! I had the most appropriate name ... Windows ReTard Edition ... or ... Surface ReTard Edition. Windows 8 users have two years to update to Windows 8.1 before support ends ( NeoWin 2013-10-12 ) So they are pushing this rapid development nonsense after all. Yeah, that'll fix Windows up real good. I wonder if the 'Tards and Microsoft herself realize that this means their latest operating system will likely never reach 10% user base at any point in time because by the time one gets to 8% the next one comes out. They will have many more different versions alive simultaneously than in the past and the lag for upgrades will increase. It's their bed, they made it, now they will have to sleep in it. EDIT: typo

I don't think that's the main reason MS wants to get done with XP. They don't want the burden to support it anymore, and thus save costs. Whether or not it contains spyware code doesn't matter to MS much. I highly doubt it that the NSA pays Microsoft "per Installation" of Vista/W7/W8. The OS itself is also a weak target for spying, since suspicious data can by analyzed going out and from a computer and they risk that hacker groups, students etc. could blow up the entire operation simply by analyzing traffic of a Windows PC. The main targets for the spooks are the cloud services, which can't be controlled by the users whatsoever once they send data in. One thing they inserted in Vista and later ( and is presumably still in place ) was a compromised RNG endorsed by spook agencies. I think we should assume that it gets some use in important scenarios like NTFS encryption and Bit Locker. It also may be utilized by 3rd party software using Windows API calls to do whatever it is they do. If that happens to be security then the hole is even bigger than the mere OS running on your system. So I think that the concept of an OS as a target from outside hacking is truly a red herring. What matters is when they physically grab your laptop or HDD's from your home boxes and set upon cracking the hidden, encrypted stuff. I would suggest that Microsoft stopped spending any real money on XP a while back. However, if they do have to spend any cash on the thing it is their own fault. They invented the incompatibilities between all their operating systems, were backward compatibility an iron-clad law inside Redmond, then there would be little or no costs as operating systems evolve. They broke the rule and now want to cite it to force us to upgrade. I also doubt they are getting paid to force updates or anything like that. Instead, it is a soft payment. They have been allowed to operate as a monopoly, even having the original judgement reduced from breakup to wrist-slap, and then had that dismissed right around the time of the PRISM ramp-up. In a nutshell, the feds are looking the other way as long as they play ball. And it's not just Microsoft, it's Yahoo, Facebook, Google, all the ISP's, etc. We are stuck in the middle of monopolistic fiefdoms who are tightening their grips around our necks. It is even worse than the 1960's to 1970's era with monopolized telcos and TV because their reach has penetrated right into your living room and bedroom. There is probably no way out of it now ( besides a Constitutional Convention and severe limiting of FedGov ), but we can at least go down fighting, bloody the hell out of them, and take a few of them down along the way.

Gaming ... PS4 Controller Confirmed to Work on PC ( Maximum PC 2013-10-07 ) PS4 Controllers Will Work with Windows Does It Matter? ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-07 ) Sony DualShock 4 Will be Compatible with Windows Gaming ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-07 ) Basic functions of PlayStation 4 controller will work by default on Windows ( PC Gamer 2013-10-07 ) And once again Sony has dinged Microsoft since the latter says they might allow the Xbone controller to work on PC's. However, since the Xbone and the previous Xbox 360 controllers are not compatible with each other's platform it makes this story doubly painful for the fanboys. More and more news about SteamOS and the Steam Controller ... Valve Talks More About Nvidia GPUs Inside Steam Machines ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-07 ) Valve Says Steam Machines Wont Be Exclusive to Nvidia ( Maximum PC 2013-10-09 ) Valve says commercial Steam Machines will support AMD, Intel, and Nvidia graphics hardware ( PC Gamer 2013-10-10 ) Valve: Steam Machines Won't Be Only Nvidia Hardware ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-10 ) Valve: Some Steam Machines will also have AMD and Intel graphics chips ( NeoWin 2013-10-10 ) Steam Machines to feature Nvidia, AMD and Intel GPUs ( TechSpot 2013-10-11 ) =================================================== Indie dev shares thoughts on Steam Controller after getting hands-on ( PC Gamer 2013-10-07 ) Steam Controller video demonstration shows Portal 2, Civilization V, CS:GO ( PC Gamer 2013-10-11 ) Have a Look at Valve's Steam Controller in Action ( Maximum PC 2013-10-11 ) Valve shows off Steam Controller playing games in new video ( NeoWin 2013-10-11 ) =================================================== Valve invites game devs to discuss and test Steam products ( PC Gamer 2013-10-11 ) Valve Announces Steam Developer Conference ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-11 ) I've noticed lots of hand-wringing from PS and Xbox console fanboys of course, but sadly there is even some from PC gamers who cannot see past the nose on their face. This is all about widening the market and offering alternatives, more choice, for free. It is a hybrid of both concepts, and it will add flexibility in choosing a solution. It is also about giving Linux itself a shot in the arm which apparently it was incapable of doing on its own.

The Competition ... Google changing Chrome's Metro appearance in Windows 8 to mimic its operating system ( NeoWin 2013-10-06 ) Next version of Chrome essentially runs Chrome OS inside Windows 8 ( TechSpot 2013-10-07 ) Oh man! The commenters are crazy over this even though it's not quite what they fear, well, yet anyway ... At some point though Google will figure out a way to get their apps to execute in there. That would be awesome for fanboy entertainment value. Of course they are already freaking out, and displaying massive ignorance of reality in the process ... Such arrogance. That should help to illustrate their true core values and why they are called MetroTards and MicroZealots in the first place. To these fanboys Microsoft is truly their God and Metro is his one true son. How dare any infidel create a false image of their prophet. ;-) The real problem though is that they actually believe these are Microsoft's computers. Yes, that computer you are reading this very thread on is owned by Microsoft and they should control what programs you can run, and what those programs are allowed to do. Other commenters try to reason with these fanboys, reminding them that blocking Google or anyone else for that matter will bring down the wrath of regulation, therefore they will not do this ( but we can certainly hope they listen to the fanboys and try ). But even that misses my own long argued point here that Microsoft is now blurring the lines between what they actually are - sometimes a 1st party, but most times a 3rd party. That latter case is the x86 world in a nutshell, where Microsoft supplies some software that merely makes the system sold by the 1st party manufacturer operate. They call this software an operating system. If the OS does not work, the system does not work, and we are approaching the concept of sabotage ( if by design, else we can say incompetence which covers most Microsoft use cases ). I think Google has a great idea here! If they or anyone can make some Metro app that kicks open the doors on the walled-garden it will really tick off the mothership and possibly bait them into legal territory. Make it so! Apple said to be cutting iPhone 5c production in half ( TechSpot 2013-10-10 ) Apple is reportedly cutting iPhone 5c production output in half after weak sales ( NeoWin 2013-10-10 ) As you might imagine there are commenters celebrating this factoid, even though they are missing the 800 pound gorilla ... ( Originals: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ) Looks to me like the common denominator is the cheap and childish appearance. Perhaps the Baskin Robbins selection ( and by extension the Microsoft Tiles ) really looks like Playskool to the masses and sells accordingly? Actually, there is a very logical reason for the iPhone 5c problems, it simply wasn't priced low enough, which reinforces that graphic even further since all of them are overpriced to begin with. Oh, and isn't just ironic that because of the Surface trendy colors and Microsoft Tiles Playskool GUI that they have actually managed to make the iPad look like the professional business device and their Surface looks like, well, you know, a toy. The proof as they say, is in the pudding as 2013 Q2 saw 300,00 Surface sales and 14.6 million iPad sales, in the same timeframe. Firefox OS Updated, Getting Wider Distribution ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-10 ) Who'd'a thunk it. Choices all over the place. Lenovo IdeaPad A10 is an Entry Level Android Laptop. Secret laptop confirmed. ( Maximum PC 2013-10-11 ) ( original photo from Maximum PC ) Looks okay for a tiny 10 inch laptop tab-pad-thingie, I guess. And since it's from the MetroTards favorite company it's really gonna leave a mark when the story gets picked up at NeoWin. The real point though is that thanks to Microsoft Tiles we just might get to see that year of Linux yet. Good job boys! EDIT: typo

Security and Privacy continued ... Microsoft: No, Xbox One's Kinect won't be used to gather user data for ads ( NeoWin 2013-10-07 ) Microsoft Sends Mixed Messages on Xbox One Kinect Privacy ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-08 ) More on that story pooh poohing the big brother or HAL aspect of Kinect. This time NeoWin has received an answer from Microsoft supposedly clarifying the earlier somewhat ambiguous statement by a Microsoft employee ... So right there in the bold part they literally state that they DO have plans to target you IF YOU ALLOW IT. How is that not a lie? If you stop and think about this entire Kinect thing you really have to wonder why they ever went this route. For instance, did they just wake up and decide the world needs a new way of controlling video games? Or is it that they had full intention of exploiting the other use of a camera in the living room all along. That creepy patent tends to confirm the latter if you ask me. Facebook Kills Privacy Option to Hide Your Profile from Strangers ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-11 ) Facebook Changes Privacy Policy, Makes Nearly Everyone Searchable ( Maximum PC 2013-10-11 ) Facebook removing the option to hide your profile in searches ( TechSpot 2013-10-11 ) Oh heck, why not. The spooks already have global search access in secret, they can just call this feature parity for all customers. Stop resisting change you Luddites. ;-) How New York Comic-Con Hijacked My Twitter Account ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-11 ) Okay, check this one out ... People went to the Comic Convention in NYC, they opened accounts for badges using their Twitter addresses. Then they noticed something ... See the link for screencaps of these cookie cutter Tweets, posted from themselves, to themselves. Incredible. They had their identities temporarily hijacked. And they didn't even get adequate apologies ... Perceived? That's another kick in the teeth. What arrogance! One user comments this: "Wonder how long we'll have to wait to find out that the home or apartment of one of the attendees was broken into because the conference let the world know that their residents was empty.". Sure, count on it. Yep. It's a Brave New World. And the sheeple are leading the way. Don't blame the wolf, they are just doing what comes natural when a herd of sheep strolls blissfully into their den. How to Opt Out of Google's Personal Endorsement Ads ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-11 ) Well, even though this is a bit less intrusive than that Facebook crap, these companies are all pushing the boundaries, laying precedents, knocking them down, pushing further, repeat ad nauseum. And there appears to not be an impeding force anywhere to be found because the government has them over a barrel for "security" stuff and allows this crap just to shut them up, and the sheeple, well, they're just sheeple. Fear for your kids and grandkids, and just imagine their own kids and grandkids. EDIT: clarity, typo

Security and Privacy ... Skype adding message sync and more as it augments P2P with the cloud ( The Verge 2013-10-04 ) Now this is funny. It is a controversy over at The Verge where all the uber-fanboys had strokes over this article "attacking" their one true God - Microsoft! ... Hold your mouse over that article link and you will see the original name of the piece which is still in the URL ... Skype Attempts To Whitewash Wiretap Concerns. ... Apparently that cause the children to soil their underwear leading to the editors altering the title of the article and adding an ominous disclaimer ... "Update: We regret that the post, as it originally appeared, was not in compliance with our editorial standards. It has been changed.". Naturally the author is berated by butt-hurt fanboys in the comments, which ironically is more than he did to Microsoft with his article! Most MicroSheep don't like The Verge very much at all. It's because they feel the articles are unfair to Microsoft ( which is simply ridiculous ). However, the absolute greatest collection of fanboys, even more than NeoWin, is found at The Verge in their so-called Microsoft Tribe forum. Nothing comes close! I can tell that they are mostly children, probably 12-year old adolescents, who are consumers but NOT customers since they are spending their parent's money. This skews the customer demographics for the entire industry. It is children like this that hype up so many sheeple toys and then see them fall flat once they hit the shelves. Arguing with them is utterly ridiculous because you have to imagine trying to reason with these dumb kids in real life, a losing battle when the opponent has no responsibility, logic skills or any experience whatsoever. When they hit their mid-20's and actually have to pay rent and feed a family they will suddenly wonder how all the kids of that era can cheer for $600 phones and $200 Playskool operating system. Google, Microsoft and others join the Alliance for Affordable Internet ( TechSpot 2013-10-07 ) Google, Microsoft and others team up to make Internet access cheaper ( NeoWin 2013-10-07 ) This is no act of benevolence, they're merely casting nets for more "customers"! It also just happens to widen the data vacuum for the spooks, enlarges the dragnet so to speak. And our wonderful governments will naturally support this since they already have these companies in their hip pockets ( strange, didn't we used to think those roles were reversed due to lobbying? ). Most secure Android smartphone Quasar IV to begin production ( NeoWin 2013-10-10 ) Like I said, we're looking at a bona fide growth industry. But how on Earth can we really be sure we can trust them? BitTorrent Behind Baffling, Bleak Bicoastal Billboards ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-09 ) Bittorrent has some interesting billboards ... ( original photo from here ) What a great idea, but I just hope regular people understand them. Not everyone is familiar with They Live! by John Carpenter ... ( original photo from thewolfmancometh ) EDIT: clarity, typo

Dell gets on the 'Ditch Windows XP' bandwagon with new video ( NeoWin 2013-10-07 ) Blah Blah. FUD and self-serving nonsense. Funny thing though, one eagle-eyed commenter spotted this at 0:53 in the video. So I captured it ... ... And it is still there even now. 9 days later and 3,969 views and counting. That's Karma baby. They want to capitalize on Microsoft's Jihad on their still popular pre-9/11 pre-PRISM operating system, but in the process demonstrate that they cannot even {1} spell-check their advertisement; and {2} proof-read the finished product. Yep, let's trust our enterprise to this company. SVCHOST bug still spikes CPU at 100% 6 months before Windows XP support cut-off ( NeoWin 2013-10-07 ) Big dust-up in the comments with one commenter after another offering theories about something that their tiny little sheeple minds can never understand ... {1} This particular issue has to do with Windows Update, specifically the local service hanging because of inadequate response from remote Microsoft servers. Guess what that is? Yep, a cloud problem. A classic Microsoft cloud problem. Ooops. {2} This is also a Windows architectural problem, and it is Exhibit-A of what happens when you hide stuff, leaving only the barest of clues "SVCHOST" to the user. Now if that user was using ProcExp and had "Command Line" selected as one of the displayed columns he could just scroll through or mouse over each SVCHOST to see which service it is. Note that this is a typical Microsoft clusterf*ck, because after this one in XP it still carried forward into later versions anyway. {3} Finally it is also one of many examples of how bad Windows Update really is. The biggest failing of all is that it always finds the slowest possible way to work, taking hours instead of minutes on fast bandwidth, giving no easy way to just download all the files without executing them, ridiculously inaccurate progress bars and more. Another painful bug occurs when you have a bunch of downloads executing but one of them has a prompt window to agree to a EULA hidden in the background. I cannot believe this still happens today. Internet Explorer itself is not to blame in this case but it does offer a great example of crap programming that I like to point out ... That incredibly dumb page that MSIE serves up when the Internet connection is severed that says click to "Diagnose". Simply unplug your Ethernet cable to see it in action. Yeah, let's possibly scramble our network settings because the cable is unplugged, or the router or modem is off, or the ISP had a hiccup. What's incredible is the fact that even that little network icon in the SysTray is smart enough to realize that the cable was unplugged, and tells you that, but for some reason MSIE doesn't get the memo! That's Microsoft for ya, driving users crazy for an eternity. HPs Meg Whitman Calls Microsoft/Intel Its Competitors Not Partners ( Maximum PC 2013-10-10 ) HP CEO Meg Whitman says Microsoft is becoming an outright competitor ( TechSpot 2013-10-10 ) HP CEO: Microsoft is becoming our 'outright competitor' ( NeoWin 2013-10-10 ) Ya think? What is amazing to me is that almost all the commenters in all those threads of slamming HP and defending Microsoft. ~sigh~ Can they even spell m-o-n-o-p-o-l-y? Imagine if John Rockefeller ( Standard Oil ) who monopolized petroleum production to the tune of 90+% in this country decided to start selling cars and furnaces. The oil monopoly alone was bad enough to get the company scrutinized, any move into oil using devices would never have been tolerated because on a mere whim he could have changed the formula of the refined fuels to only work in his cars rendering all competitors out of luck. He could also just not sell oil to certain competitors. Try to wrap your minds around that fanboys, and think of "Windows" as the oil product. Imagine if Microsoft refused to license Windows to HP ( for whatever reason, it could be that they don't like their tablets, or some add-on Start Menu ... ). This hypothetical is to show how fast a monopoly situation can degenerate into a bloodbath. It's time for Microsoft to release Windows ( x86 family ) into the public domain ... or ... time for regulators to take Windows out of Microsoft. Supplying the operating system and selling complete systems using that operating system is way too close for comfort. It's as if generational memory no longer exists on this planet. Microsoft reveals IE11 features to assist blind and visually impaired users ( NeoWin 2013-10-11 ) Well since this is quite possibly the only demographic that has no complaints about the Windows 8 and Metro GUI, they better try to keep them happy. ;-) EDIT: clarity

Microsoft reportedly killing the back button in Windows Phone 8.1 ( NeoWin 2013-10-09 ) Rumor: Windows Phone 8.1 will kill hardware back button ( TechSpot 2013-10-10 ) I sure hope all the WP fanboys weren't to attached to that button. Don't be afraid of change and progress you Luddites! Bend over and take it like a man sheep. Microsoft Reportedly Urging Samsung, Huawei to Put Windows on Android Devices ( Tom's Hardware 2013-10-09 ) More on that story about Microsoft allegedly promoting dual-booting with Android. I previously said that Microsoft in no way, shape or form wants to go up against Android, if they did they could simply release the Lumia 1020 with a choice of operating systems and see which one people actually buy. But one thing I hadn't really thought about was touched upon by the author of this article ... Eureka, that might just be it. They are thinking they can boost market share in the most cynical fashion ever imagined! They could actually pull this off too if they wave the Android tax that they collect at gunpoint from all the manufacturers. This is a perfect example of how a monopolistic parasite can skew a market completely. I seriously doubt that Google would stand back and watch it happen. Hey Microsoft, I've got an idea that has no doubt been considered by regulators in the past. Why not ask all PC manufacturers to install dual-booting Windows and Linux at the factory. That would do wonders for their market share, eh? ;-) PSA: Neowin.com secured with the help of Stardock ( NeoWin 2013-10-07 ) Long story short: NeoWin.net is now also available from NeoWin.com after many years of trying. The owner, NeoBond, makes the mistake of calling the previous owner a cybersquatter and gets called out for it in the comments, quite correctly IMHO. Umm, hey Steven, they had it first. The funny thing is that Stardock ( who owns a piece of NeoWin ) accomplished this as a free gift to NeoWin, and now a few commenters even criticize that! Naturally if Microsoft owned a piece of them their lips would be sealed which goes to show who the NeoSheep are truly loyal to. Microsoft reveals planned updates to its Fresh Paint apps ( NeoWin 2013-10-10 ) ( original photo from theappchamp ) Somebody help me out here, isn't that GUI the literal definition of skeuomorphism? Strangely enough that word doesn't appear in the comments anywhere. I wonder why. Juvenile hypocritical children.

Toshiba claims Windows 7 PCs make up 99 percent of its business sales ( NeoWin 2013-10-11 ) That's a novel use of English. "vast majority" or "practically unanimous"? Whatever. If they want to do something useful they should flex their muscles and demand Windows 7 licenses for the consumer lines. Tell Microsoft to send them along or pound sand. Redmond could not afford to have a couple of big box manufacturers grab headlines in this manner and would cave in quickly. And whoever did this first would get a huge jump on pent-up Windows 7 sales. Microsoft releases Windows 7 patch made to help delete old Windows Updates ( NeoWin 2013-10-10 ) From what I've read this utility does almost nothing and the comments even at NeoWin seems to confirm it. What they really need is a full-blown WinSxS Auditor-Editor-Manager, and while they're at it they should make it or another one that does the same for all Windows Updates and all the other system folders like "Downloaded Programs" and more. The \Windows structure has been a gravitational black-hole swallowing up everything and giving up nothing. Enough of these dumb wizard tools that do nothing. One more thing, about those bolded parts ... has this ever actually been confirmed? Has anyone actually seen Microsoft state there will be no SP2 for Win7? Have they admitted what we long ago suspected? That would be news to me. Resellers hint at weak U.K. sales of Microsoft's Surface ( NeoWin 2013-10-10 ) This follows recent rumors of Surface inventory "selling out" which I knew was supply-chain shenanigans. Of course the commenters have an answer, they think that customers are merely holding back for Surface 2 I wonder how many quarters and years it's gonna take before it really sinks into their heads. Microsoft: 5.5 million downloads of Visual Studio 2012 since launch ( NeoWin 2013-10-09 ) ( original photo from NeoWin ) Now isn't that a sight for that causes sore eyes. That GUI is easily the worse thing I could imagine having to work in. It's like an alternate universe now. It's like they gave the source code to the high school geek club and they produced this in between smoking pot and keg parties. Evey single thing about the earlier Visual Studio versions has been ruined, and every possible bad idea has been sprinkled on top. The only useful purpose for that ridiculous GUI would be use as a flashlight app on a cellphone. Anywho, are they seriously bragging about 5.5 million downloads in one-year? That is positively anemic.

Looks very promising. Never heard of it before. Thanks for wiping out my next few hours of spare time

Syntax Coloring. It lets the Key names show up in one color, the value names as another, value data as yet another. It gets real fun when trying to make strings a certain color because of the way REG exports tend to have (") quote marks that are not perfectly paired ( most syntax recognition relies on an 'open' and 'close' delimit character to identify things ). Paired quotes are always used for string values, but unfortunately quotes are also used elsewhere unpaired ( escaped command lines which themselves are within quotes ). Tricky. Proper programming languages will never have this problem because of iron-clad syntax, and when you see a syntax coloring problem you know there is a mistake in your code or comments. But not with REG files. You'll have a giant REG file opened and then for big chunks of it the coloring is okay, and then suddenly NOT okay, and then fine, then ... So standard programmer editor syntax recognition often breaks on REG files. Consequently a really elaborate algorithm would be better, and it would need to self-close broken quotes after a number of CRLF's have occurred. Even that is a problem because of multi-line strings with proper quote pairing. It would be quite a chore. Alternatively you can just remove (") quote marks from syntax recognition. EDIT: typo

same, so many years of waiting where they wasted time for Fast'n Furious (stupid) sequels to get this dissapointing crap ... its sad Yep. I think Vin Diesel keeps blowing it. For example I thought XXX was pretty slick, an updated modern Bond and would have made a great trilogy of action flicks, but he inexplicably bailed on the sequel which turned out ridiculous. I guess that babysitter comedy thing was more important to him. The 1st and 2nd Fast & Furious were okay but after that they got tedious IMHO. They must be big in Japan to keep churning them out. The worse part about the final Riddick is that I saw him talking about it specifically as a gift to the fans who were asking for it. That sets high expectations indeed.

I've never seen one that I would truly consider a must-have tool, which is understandable because so few really care about REG exports in the first place and even if someone developed one, they would likely leave out something important, or insert some silly annoyance anyway. But I'm always open to new ideas, so maybe someone will pop in here with something else to try. I stopped looking and just set upon using a normal editor, UltraEdit, as my REG viewer/editor. This one is good because of the user customizable Syntax Color definitions ( plain ASCII file defining the pairs of syntax chars, delimiters and keywords ) that are responsible for how a given filetype appears in the GUI when opened. I find this approach "close enough for hacking work". As noted above, INI files are very close ( but still different ) to REG files, so any INI file editor/viewer does a decent job. In fact my REG def for UltraEdit is very close to the INI def, which are both kept in the Wordfile.uew file used by UltraEdit ( I never did look to see if other users developed a better one, I'll have to check that out ). If you use a bunch of different editors, you can experiment by just temporarily renaming a file's extension ( e.g., REG to INI ) to see how it appears in these different editors. There are lots of types to try ( REG INI BAT C CPP ASM ISS AUT AU3 PAS CMD HTM CSS XML PHP JS ... ). This approach let's you first determine the capability of an editor with respect to syntax recognition, and once you find one that you like, you can then go and duplicate that syntax, then tweak it up and use it specifically for registry exports.

I'm due for an upgrade and I would prefer Nokia's hardware, specifically the camera. But it is really app selection that stops me from moving away from Android. If Nokia had an Android product available, then I would certainly consider it. I have no problem with Windows phones in the least, but I have grown to use specific apps whose developers only made them available for Android. I hear that. The Lumia 1020 ( 40 MP ) would absolutely kill with an Android OS. In fact, go back a few pages to the Microsoft buyout announcement and I had that story that said Nokia were planning an Android fallback which probably spurred the decision to buy them.

Well I finally saw Dark Shadows a couple of days ago. Probably give it a C or C+ at most. The sets, filming and effects were pretty good, and Alice Cooper was a nice surprise. But plot and casting were highly forgettable ( Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth! ) even though Burton and Depp were as tight as ever. Having seen the originals as they aired I'll admit it's tough to meet my own expectations, and I would think that Burton is also an original fan judging by all his work. You would think the guy behind Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow would get it right since they were practically prototypes or practice runs for this one. But I guess the script was just not fixable behind the camera. Oh well. Sorry to hear that Riddick was bad. I had high hopes for a sequel because I thought the second one ( Chronicles of ... ) was a surprisingly good piece of science fiction. It was solid and highly original and filmed pretty well. A definite B+ or A-. Awaiting the next Resident Evil. Actually I haven't seen the 5th one yet from last year, and I hear they are already making the 6th.

Microsoft Recycling Outlook, Live, and Hotmail Accounts ( Maximum PC 2013-10-05 ) Microsoft recycling Outlook email accounts; not mentioned in service agreement ( NeoWin 2013-10-05 ) Oh what could possibly go wrong? Oh waitaminit, from just a week ago ... Who didn't foresee this? Well apparently Yahoo didn't. It's like we are living in CrazyLand now. It's like people actually need to stick their hands into the stove to see if it burns. When something is so obvious and is right in front of your face and yet we still need to go through the motions to see it through, well, humanity is doomed. Why don't we all drink some cyanide next? I guess Microsoft missed that recent news item. And yes, NeoWin already has a whole cabal of enablers already cheering them on in the comments.

The Competition ... Uber Entertainment has used the Steam Controller and likes it ( PC Gamer 2013-10-04 ) Valve seems to have really hit that one out of the park judging by all the early reviews. Now if they can just keep the price low enough. Prototype Steam Machine hardware revealed ( TechSpot 2013-10-04 ) Steam Machine prototype specs revealed ( PC Gamer 2013-10-04 ) Steam Box Prototypes Detailed ( Maximum PC 2013-10-04 ) Valve Finally Reveals Steam Machine Prototype Specs ( Toms Hardware 2013-10-04 ) Valve reveals general hardware specs for its prototype Steam Machine ( NeoWin 2013-10-04 ) A lot of naysayers already! The important thing to realize is that this is a prototype. As of what we now know there will be two ways to do this ... {1} Get a pre-made SteamOS system from OEMs {2} Download SteamOS and use it on your own build. ... which should be seen as a completely new paradigm because there is no real comparison to the current locked-in game console arena ... {1} You CANNOT get PS or Xbox systems from OEMs, just Microsoft and Sony. {2} You CANNOT download PS or Xbox "software" to use on your own build. The difference is like night and day. So the real important thing here is that bit about "being able to upgrade parts later" as they get more powerful and/or inexpensive which defeats the current hardware lock-in on many levels. This new concept is very good for the home-built PC world in general, unlike the mobile craze with crappy expendable tablets and Windows 8 which jacked up all prices across the board. Exploring Valves masterplan: on SteamOS, Steam Machines and the future of the PC ( PC Gamer 2013-10-05 ) Nice long article exploring all the recent announcements and the big picture.

Security ... NSA Has Trouble with Tor, Snowden Documents Show ( Toms Hardware 2013-10-04 ) NSA has had little success in cracking Tor network, documents reveal ( TechSpot 2013-10-05 ) Well frankly I don't know what to believe now. I have lots of respect for Schneier especially these days but how do we know this part about TOR in the leaked files is not disinformation. I have to believe that going forwards we will need completely new methods, new p2p software, new anonymizers, and frankly, and a new Internet. Miscellaneous ... DRAM Prices Skyrocketing After Hynix Fabrication Plant Fire ( Toms Hardware 2013-10-05 ) Déjà vu anyone? Thai floods boost PC hard drive prices ... And HDD prices have still not recovered, almost exactly two years later now. Can't wait for the earthquakes that allegedly affect CPU and Chipset production. I'm surprised they didn't use the tsunami to jack up prices too. This Android smartphone charger also acts as an anti-virus scanner ( NeoWin 2013-10-05 ) Now that is what I call a great idea! : If done thoughtfully. It kind of correlates to a self-contained antivirus boot disc, or what I prefer, dropping the infected system HDD into another computer with software tools at the ready. I have to admit I hadn't really thought much of how to deal with tablets and phones that might get infested with malware. You can't really disassemble the thing or easily boot to a known safe alternate OS. But if this is done correctly, with a firmware based OS and scanner onboard a hardware device that is safely update-able to new A/V signatures, this could be a great solution. I mean, you have to charge the thing anyway.