CharlotteTheHarlot

Security News ... read 'em and weep ... again Exposed: NSA's War on Encryption ( Maximum PC 2013-09-07 ) Truth is, we knew even before 9/11 that most of the encryption ciphers were already being attacked through multiple methods. It is simply irresistible for mathematicians to NOT try to solve any problem that stands before them. Add in the bottomless money pit of a federal government and like peanut butter and jelly an institution is born. These articles really are about the alternate means to the ends, back doors and other things. I have no doubt that they are all compromised, every cipher, every protocol. What I want to hear from Snowden but so far I haven't is what has NOT been compromised. For example, has WinRar been coerced to build a back door? WinZip, 7zip? NTFS encryption? Tor network vulnerable to NSA spying ( NeoWin 2013-09-07 ) Sure why not! Even if they can't do it from the outside we have seen from the other stories that they plant people on the inside. They've had 13 years to perfect their spy farm and get the agents inside. Even if they are found out the companies and non-agent employees would be banned from mentioning it. And since the government spends our money with impunity they could just buy their way in. The only thing that scares them is the potential now for new movement toward secure p2p comm and this is where the action is gonna be... someday. Yahoo Dishes Out First Transparency Report ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-07 ) Google Expedites Data Encryption ( Maximum PC 2013-09-07 ) I'm really beginning to think that there has been substantial erosion of customer base since the spy scandal has broke. Why else would all these companies be trying so hard to make it at least look like they are fighting for our privacy. It is definitely all window dressing though, and I'll bet the government(s) are okay with this show of alleged transparency and sometimes defiance. Research paper: Windows 8 picture passwords can be cracked ( NeoWin 2013-09-07 ) Color me shocked, again! This is my shocked face --> <--- again!

I think Who da'Punk (aka Mini) has given up hope. Just for the record, the idea is not entirely "new" (prank with displays): http://reboot.pro/topic/17676-elevator-prank/ jaclaz That was funny, but staged . Definitely funny and elaborate. It's a shame if all the people were acting though. I guess they just couldn't find anyone who believed it? Not a selling point for their TV! Check this out ... The Saga of King Ballmer ( The Motley Fool 2013-09-05 ) Someone at NeoWin linked to this extremely well written novelette about the outgoing chair-thrower-in-chief ... Two thumbs up! EDIT: typo

The only place where the writer goes astray is at the very beginning, where he talks about a fuss being raised when the Start Menu replaced Program Manager in Windows 95. I was active in cyberspace back then, and don't recall any controversy over that. In fact, personally ProgMan never made any sense to me, while I understood the Start Menu + Taskbar combo practically at once. But that small detour doesn't detract from the strength of the writer's analysis. --JorgeA Yeah he's just making that part up. It is now a big lie of Goebbels proportions. If you read through the comments you will see one very special 'Tard going by the name "Will". I would bet some money that it is Dot MetroTard himself because no two fanboys could be that stoopid. "Don't listen to the customers". Seriously, there should be Twilight Zone music playing when MetroTards post comments. EDIT: Twilight Zone I meant!

Security News ... read 'em and weep ... Why the Latest NSA Leak Is the Scariest of All ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-06 ) ... MUCH MORE AT LINK NSA Forced Tech Companies to Cooperate with Spying ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-06 ) Major Tech Companies Helped NSA Monitor the Internet ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-06 ) British Intelligence Placed Undercover Operatives in Tech Companies ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-06 ) SSL vs. TLS: The Future of Data Encryption ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-06 ) These are related to the stories that Jorge just mentioned. They come from the latest spy leaks and frankly it is getting very depressing indeed. One must wonder why they even bothered with the SOPA and other legislative 3-ring circuses since they are just doing whatever the he!! they want to anyway.

Lenovo implies better Intel chips eliminate the need for Windows RT ( NeoWin 2013-09-06 ) Man this is one confused comment thread. It pains them greatly because Lenovo is the darling of the fanboy community due to their seemingly steadfast support of Microsoft Tiles. That's just an illusion though. They are merely the least vocal OEM despising it. But here they are, Lenovo, adding a voice to the chorus of critics of Windows 8 ReTard Edition. Poor MetroTards. So they start beating up Intel instead, and everyone else spoiling their party. Power Cover keyboard accessory for Surface to include built-in battery ( TechSpot 2013-09-06 ) Surface Dock: The peripheral we have all been waiting for ( NeoWin 2013-09-06 ) Uh well duh! Plenty of kudos from fanboys waiting a year for such obvious necessities. Microsoft has really outdone itself by reinforcing the old adage that nothing from them labeled version 1.0 is anything except beta testing. Press image of Lumia 1520, first 6-inch Windows Phone, leaked ( NeoWin 2013-09-06 ) Industrial strength hypocrisy from our MicroTard friends. Just scroll back a thousand posts ago in this thread to see their reaction to uber-large Samsung and other Android phones! They were apoplectic but are suddenly impressed by MicroNokia.

Symantec Updates 4 Norton Products for Windows 8.1 ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-05 ) Ha! Just in case you were wondering how this so-called "operating system" could get any worse, here ya go! Just for fun you gotta check this out ... Found: LG pulls post-apocalyptic prank on unsuspecting interviewees using 84-inch UHDTV ( TechSpot 2013-09-05 ) Elaborate advertising for sure. If this actually shows real people then this ruse is Orson Welles caliber hoaxing!

Some days you wake up and feel like you are on another planet. Yesterday was one of them for me. It just suddenly dawned on me all the contortions that the tech companies are going through in order to shoehorn the Idiocracy interface down our throats ... HP Envy Recline All-in-One PC Invites You to Kick Back ( Maximum PC 2013-09-05 ) Lenovo Showcases New Yoga, Flex Multimode Devices ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-05 ) Asus Zenbook UX301: Haswell, Gorilla Glass 3 lid, high-res display ( TechSpot 2013-09-05 ) Decent hardware for sure. But I dare you to watch their admittedly slick video and visit their website and find the mention of Windows 8. Panasonic's 20 inch Toughpad 4K tablet with Windows 8.1 ships in November ( NeoWin 2013-09-05 ) Idiocracy, it's really here ... EDIT: typo, fixed spacing thanks to this idi0tic god-forsaken pathetic piece-of-sh!t Invision IPB editor

--JorgeA Another stunning example of the real life Matrix we had no idea we were really living in. The government paid lip service to all those criticisms for decades and then not only continued the path, but exceeded everyone's wildest fears. I can't think of a conspiracy theory from back in those days that hasn't been proved true and surpassed. The drug thing alone is bad enough ( I don't see a corresponding Amendment to the 18th, which itself was repealed, allowing the drug war in the first place ). Obviously, this far exceeds prohibition because it guts the first, fourth and fifth Amendments to the core. Their "out" has always used the FCC oversight of "public airwaves" as the linchpin for all these intrusions. A perfect example of how precedent layered upon precedent gets you from point-a to point-z in quick fashion. Now anything is fair game. The sheeple better wake up.

Microsoft Rumored to be Considering BlackBerrry Purchase ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-04 ) Interesting little tidbit ... That's quite illuminating really. You had WP landing a pitiful 3-4% marketshare and then several OEMs bailing or planning to bail. This is why I think there were some plans being made for a Nokia Android model ( would have been a huge hit for sure ) which got Microsoft fired up to land Nokia. It's all for naught though, they're going to stay right where they are in single digits. And we lose a competent handset builder in the process. Just great. The MicroDestroyers continue effin up the Tech world to placate their inferiority complex and envy of Apple and Google. HTC on Microsoft-Nokia deal: 'We are assessing the situation' ( NeoWin 2013-09-04 ) I'll bet they are. As above, I suspect they were planning an exit and now will finally do it. Great comment replying to a typical fanboy ... Yep, it REALLY did them good... yep, he looks perfectly suited to become a Microsoft hotshot, even CEO. He's even got the chair phone throwing thing down ...

Windows Phone OEMs still important as Microsoft targets 15% market share ( TechSpot 2013-09-03 ) Microsoft's OS leader: Buying Lumia "will help" other Windows Phone OEMs ( NeoWin 2013-09-03 ) Man, that is some industrial strength marketbabble that unfortunately says nothing about how this deal will "help" the existing and potential WP OEMs. It's more like "tough noogies". Really now, why would Samsung or HTC release another WP now? The deal just makes no sense really. According to the buzz on CNBC today, Microsoft takes $10 on every WP phone sold, and they will be able to now take $40 if the deal goes through. I don't feel like doing the math, but that is one huge buttload of phones they will need to ship to be able to clear that $7 billion ticket just to own the Nokia brand. How the he!! are they going to make this thing profitable? They still need to employ these 30 thousand new employees! This is a loser for Microsoft and I have a suspicion it is only to do one thing - save face because the OEM's were abandoning WP and I'd bet Nokia was considering an Android backup. Here's one of the many skeptical comments about this deal ... Can't argue with that IMHO. Could Stephen Elop Be the Next CEO of Microsoft? ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-03 ) What will be left of Nokia after Microsoft's deal closes? ( NeoWin 2013-09-03 ) Nokia stock up 35 percent today; Microsoft stock down 5 percent ( NeoWin 2013-09-03 ) Two years? Elop was barely ever a Softie. And barely a Nokia CEO for that matter. That qualifies as experience? He was a suit, plain and simple. I'm having a real hard time believing that real Softies would accept this guy as President of a division let alone future CEO. I would promote Raymond Chen instead. Yeah he's got a bit of an attitude but at least he's a bonafide programmer. Even Julie has more credentials. Suddenly Sinofsky doesn't look so bad. In one of the online polls the majority of voters are supporting Gabe Newell as next CEO. There are even funnier entries too. More skepticism ... It's hard to argue with this IMHO. I'll bet that the EU will be all over this business arrangement. It just smells bad. What will Microsoft call its upcoming in-house Windows Phones? ( NeoWin 2013-09-03 ) Best idea I've seen seen so far ... Lusitania

Microsoft buys Nokia's Devices and Services unit for 5.4 billion Euros ( TechSpot 2013-09-02 ) Microsoft to Buy Nokia's Device Business for Over $7 Billion ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-02 ) Microsoft to buy Nokia's Devices & Services business ( NeoWin 2013-09-02 ) Stephen Elop returning to Microsoft as part of Nokia deal ( NeoWin 2013-09-02 ) What Microsoft's deal to acquire Nokia will (and could) mean to everyone ( NeoWin 2013-09-02 ) Ballmer going out with a bang. Blowing another $7 billion , flushed down the toilet to go along with the previous large amounts blown on Skype and aQuantive. Why is this bad? Well for starters, Nokia is dead and gone now and they were a very good independent phone maker. What is worse is that they will never be able to re-create their reputation of quality as a Microsoft division. It's all downhill from here baby. As an independent, Nokia could barely muster 4% marketshare with the Microsoft Tiles interface on a "Nokia" handset. Change that label to "Microsoft" and you have a miniature Surface fiasco in the making. They cannot be trusted to do anything right so Nokia just discarded their legacy. It is stunning that Microsoft actually believes they can buy a reputation! Have they learned nothing? And what about Nokia? Abandoning their business and customers to cash out? Disgusting. ADDED: so what other company would even consider signing up to use Windows Phone now? They pretty much just guaranteed that only Microsoft will make those handsets going forward. And then you have all those new employees! 32,000! You Softies out there better get your résumés up to date because you know that layoffs are on the horizon. Here is the graphic I made a while back that now fits even more perfectly ... EDIT: added quote, also some more thoughts

Rumor: Windows RT, Windows Phone to Eventually Merge ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-02 ) This dog is almost dead now even though the fanboys still insist Windows 8 ReTard Edition is the greatest idea evah! Paul Thurrott was one of them saying it is the future blah blah blah. Who was right Paul? Yep, we were. Windows 8 market share surpasses all versions of OS X combined ( TechSpot 2013-09-02 ) Proverbial short bus thinking going on here. For that headline to be true, either Microsoft would have had to release Windows 8 for Apple branded Macs, or, Apple to have released the Mac OS X for non-Apple computers. Neither of those things are true, sorry. This kind of "thinking" is one of the biggest cases of Idiocracy I have ever seen, and it goes back many, many years. The Mac OS is Microsoft's favorite phantom competitor since they get to make believe they are not a monopoly by pointing a finger at Apple. Now consider the truth of the matter ... A multi-billion dollar push for Microsoft Tiles, a monopolized OEM distribution channel where they yanked the only real competitor ( Windows 7 ) off the playing field, and the fact that Mac OS X is NOT FOR SALE, anywhere, at any price. That puts it into proper perspective and makes headlines such as this a lie of epic proportions. The count of Mac OS X usage is a count of Apple computers sold. The count of Windows 8 usage is a count of computers shipped from the monopolized OEM channels with Windows forced onto them. Lies, lies, and more lies. Rumor: Microsoft's new CEO to be named "sooner than later" ( NeoWin 2013-09-02 ) Ha! Time for the fanboys to get a taste of FUD! The thread is littered with speculation of what Microsoft products will be terminated or spun off. The shoe's on the other foot now. They're getting rattled and it shows. Study: Windows Phone rises to 8.2 percent market share in five European markets ( NeoWin 2013-09-02 ) Sad and pathetic display of desperate optimism. They're bragging about the WP success in a handful of European markets where they have double marketshare compared to everywhere else. They really must hate math because even in their best case scenario WP makes up 1 out of every 12 smartphones. I guess that explains their celebration because everywhere else it is 1 out of every 25 smartphones or less. It is hard to imagine a worse result for the grand Microsoft Tiles experiment sacrificing their hard-fought Windows reputation in the process of gaining nothing.

Security news ... Government Releasing Surveillance Doc Figures Annually ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-02 ) Ah, they really think we're stupid don't they? This is that tiny walkback I anticipated designed to distract us and appease Congress. But it's nothing but a show. I recall that decades ago the communists were known for methodical long-term strategies sometimes called "two steps forward, one step back". What our wonderful government spooks have done is to far surpass them using something that we can safely call: "ten steps forward, one step back". News from the competition ... Acer Turns to Android for Latest All-in-One Desktop Solution ( Maximum PC 2013-09-02 ) We're seeing more and more of these announcements. Not chromebooks ( which are selling pretty well for a cloudy OS experiment ), but native Android on the "desktop". I'd have to say that unless some radical events take place, like Microsoft growing a brain, the Windows replacement is already here and is really just awaiting a big push from Google. This is Microsoft's biggest nightmaare because losing the Operating System war, which never even needed to be fought in the first place, will be the biggest event in PC history since IBM fumbled the ball and was taken out of the game by ... wait for it ... Microsoft. Of course this will suck for everybody in the PC universe, which explains why we are so ticked off at these dumb*sses. Acer unveils Liquid S2 as first 4K video recording smartphone ( TechSpot 2013-09-02 ) Here we see a high-end Android phone with huge photo and video capabilities aimed squarely at Nokia's flagship 1020. Speaking of that particular Nokia phone, has anyone noticed something interesting about the TV commercials they are running? Here's one, and here's another. What is obvious is that the Windows Phone aspect is being hugely downplayed, only appearing briefly at the end for a split second, if at all. Microsoft Tiles is becoming a liability and Nokia knows it better than anybody. I would expect them to build an Android phone soon and that 1020 would be a perfect starting point. Xbox ... Xbox One likely won't support external storage at launch ( NeoWin 2013-09-02 ) The Xbox hit parade continues. Microsoft and her sycophants all said "Don't worry about not being able to change the HDD, or having to install everything to the disk. You can add drives via USB!". Whoops, sorry about that! Maybe later.

Following up the above post from SIW2 ... New stats show Windows 8 usage up sharply as XP usage plummets ( Ed Bott ZDNet 2013-09-01 ) It seems that sudden change was in fact due to something extraordinary, a methodology change by Net Applications ( tcha tcha tcha ~wags finger~ ). Ed Bott has turned up some information ... That note appears to have been added to the site in July, although it's not clear from the note when the new methodology took effect Don't they realize that adjusting data is suicide to a business that deals in data? That alleged phantom page count should have been left in as a "consistent error" ( if in fact it is an error at all ) to allow month to month comparisons to remain valid, or, that sudden change should have been explained in detail in clear terms requiring no super-sleuthing to locate it. No wonder nobody trusts these guys! Microsoft to stop Masters level certification exams on Oct. 1 ( NeoWin 2013-09-01 ) I guess there were a few categories of people left to be insulted and infuriated by NuMicrosoft. We have found them, IT Support professionals! Ha, ya'll thought they forgot about you, eh? Welcome to the party pal! EDIT: spacing

Windows XP loses over 3% of OS market share in August; Windows 8 gains 2% ( NeoWin 2013-09-01 ) Well it seems that the incessant FUD spread by Microsoft and her loyal sycophants has paid off, at least for this month. Windows XP statistics fell from 37.19% to 33.66%. At least some of that lost 3.53% was redirected to Windows 8.0 which gained a whole 2.01%. However, let's look at the entire history which begins in September 2011 ( as far back as Net Applications provides ). ... NOTE: the '---' stands for no data reported for that month, the OS was NOT listed at all. It is NOT the same as zero, which itself appears as '0.00' on their charts. If you want the dataset yourself but do not feel like going through their website pages, click the spoiler for all of the values in CSV format that can be dropped in a spreadsheet or if necessary, convert each comma to a TAB character ... It is a suspicious jump IMHO and I would not be surprised if there is a problem in these numbers. The biggest delta I can find in there previously has been about 2 percent, which occurred two years ago for Windows XP. The only explanation I can think of currently is that they might now be counting Windows Phone or tablet hits on webpages which must also show up as some form of Windows 8. This chart does specify "Desktop" as its source but I have yet to find a clear explanation of how they separate desktops and laptops from smaller devices. The biggest change overall is obviously in Windows XP. Last month if you added up all Windows 8 and Vista you got 9.66% combined total which Windows XP surpassed by 4 times over. Now it is lower, 11.76% combined total which Windows XP still dwarfs but only by 3 times over. Linux shows a small 1/3 percentage point gain this month as do the last two Mac OS X versions, add that to the 1.14% pickup for Windows 7 and it would seem to be that some Windows XP users are fleeing to non Microsoft Tiles based computers. One huge thing that is going to really anger the fanboys in the coming months ... They are now counting Windows 8.1 Blew as a separate statistic! This is going to cause Windows 8.0 to flatline when the service pack goes to general availability in the fall. Since Net Applications has been breaking out the point releases of Mac OS X all along they really have no choice now do they? Interesting fact: The total of all Mac versions is currently holding at 7.26%, while all Windows 8 versions is at 7.65% despite the massive push and marketing blitz and endless FUD. One year into the Microsoft Tiles era it has just nudged past Apple's private Mac operating system which is not even available on any computer without an Apple logo! One mysterious thing is that they stopped notating the "Touch" versions of Windows 8 for some reason about four months ago. This is also unexplained and does not immediately make sense to me. Also, there is now a category called "Win64" which is mysterious. The only thing I can think of is that it means some form of Itanium rooted OS, but even that is nonsensical because it wasn't released in April 2013 when the charts begins showing it. Does anyone understand this?

~sigh~ Save us from academics! Wrong you knucklehead, bad analogy because that is NOT what happened historically with clay tablets and stylus instruments. Gutenberg happened, and the printing press, and mass produced literature with efficient, consistent reproduction. If anything, the manual stylus has all but gone away in favor of efficiency and standardization. And about your touchscreens and Windows 8? They will be the blip on the radar, reproducing the old way of finger painting or stylus etching into clay, a solution in search of a problem. Besides, pen input and stylus entry has been with us all throughout the computer age, used in places where it simply made good sense, it didn't just arrive in some new paradigm that you eggheads have discovered. Mark down these two clowns as people to never take seriously. Good comment thread underway though. Even the fanboys question these two geniuses! Charlotte, you have it wrong . The keyboard is an INPUT method, not an OUTPUT one. Gutemberg and printing is a reproducing method (in several copies) of something that has been INPUT. Pen and stylus input have always been around and perfectly suits specific purposes. I said that . And I totally agree with respect to I/O and a computer interface. But there is a bit of "you say tomato" here because they dragged the prehistoric clay tablet into this ( not me! ). If we must ascribe modern I/O definitions to historical events then it is all relative. For example some ancient cave drawing was definitely the product of some particular caveman's artistic OUTPUT, but it was also the INPUT to a wall of images which was their descendants' knowledge base of how to kill or cook a mammoth or tribal history. When he said, and I quote: "When you think about a pen or something like a pen, going back to a stylus writing in clay that's been around for a really long time. Thats because it works very well in certain situations. My personal feeling is that keyboards will be like that," he has blurred input and output right there speaking of a classic historical OUTPUT scenario while musing over modern INPUT devices ( he also has it backwards IMHO because the pen will most certainly remain the "certain situation" device ). Anyway, what I was getting at is that the printing press eliminated the entire previous human history of using a stylus or quill or bloody rock to create each "copy", the movable type becoming the INPUT device ( rather than your hand ) in the printing press process but also the OUTPUT from the point of view of the typesetter who instead of writing is manually re-arranging ink stamps on a block. He is incorrectly ascribing to legacy status a current device though. In fact he is the one going backwards in technological advancement. Maybe I didn't make it clear enough, but I mean that manually handcrafting characters and glyphs was improved upon by the perfectly reproducible design of chars on a printing press ( keyboard today ). Their illogical idea now is to revert back to manual input ( handwriting ) in lieu of a keyboard even though it removes the very thing it improved upon - accuracy, efficiency and reproducibility. Yes, the computer processing and logic may be able to step in and correct the errors in which case their particular idea of pen and stylus input would have made a very nice interim step prior to the Gutenberg era. It would have added portability to the caveman artistic experience, but not much more. So I think these academics are blurring the definitions, not me. Almost all uses of touchscreen that they advertise is about fingerpainting and creativity OUTPUT. I disregard all those swipes and presses on Microsoft Tiles because they are redundant to keyboard pressing, mouse clicking and pen jabbing. In fact there really isn't a single new thing in this new paradigm except for the deliberate fingerprints on a screen which was almost exclusively an OUTPUT device but now does both. I think we can distill this whole thing down to a single point of truth ... MetroTards really see a computer as an OUTPUT device but geeks and developers see it as BOTH. I should have just said that in the first place!

PSA: Microsoft will not accept new or renewed TechNet subscriptions after today ( NeoWin 2013-08-31 ) Out with a whimper. This is one of the surest signs that Microsoft is morphing from a company of programmers with a few suits to a company of suits with a few programmers. Yep, he's got it right. Microsoft researcher claims keyboard will soon be a thing of the past ( NeoWin 2013-08-31 ) Well that part's obvious I think. Always has been. Many people who bought entire home computers never really needed them. When a more appropriate system for email and web browsing came along, like tablets and phones, they went there as expected. The problem here is from these alleged futurists who cannot resist the opportunity to embarrass themselves making these grand pronouncements and theories about the future based on misunderstood observations. The problem is also inside the fickle tech industry when they listen to such baseless theories and then proceed to cripple that workstation environment accordingly. When people moved to small fuel efficient deathtrap automobiles ( "it's good enough to bring the kid's to school and run to the store" ) it did NOT mean that trucks, buses and limos were going away. They just no longer sold exclusively. People that did not need a large car no longer had to buy one. ~sigh~ Save us from academics! Wrong you knucklehead, bad analogy because that is NOT what happened historically with clay tablets and stylus instruments. Gutenberg happened, and the printing press, and mass produced literature with efficient, consistent reproduction. If anything, the manual stylus has all but gone away in favor of efficiency and standardization. And about your touchscreens and Windows 8? They will be the blip on the radar, reproducing the old way of finger painting or stylus etching into clay, a solution in search of a problem. Besides, pen input and stylus entry has been with us all throughout the computer age, used in places where it simply made good sense, it didn't just arrive in some new paradigm that you eggheads have discovered. Mark down these two clowns as people to never take seriously. Good comment thread underway though. Even the fanboys question these two geniuses!

Xbox business spinoff? Could be possible with Ballmer out of the picture ( NeoWin 2013-08-31 ) Kind of an editorial just to whip the fanboys into a panic. It's kinda working too. Most are harping on the fact that Xbox is now finally profitable after like a dozen years of trying. I'm not so sure that is the case if you open the books and look at it in total. My guess is the thing is still swimming in red ink which explains all the backtracking recently. They would only be doing that if they were sitting on the razor's edge where a misstep could tip the thing over into fail territory. Doesn't really matter though. If new blood comes in and takes a cold hard look, projects that are wishful thinking will be terminated with extreme prejudice. No amount of fanboy wishful thinking will change that. Nokia introduces HERE Auto, connecting cars to the cloud ( NeoWin 2013-08-31 ) EDIT: typo

Exactly! They are pulling a fast one. They are literally using webpages as the future! Personally I am revolted by software that looks like a webpage. HTML and CSS was there NOT to build applications but to facilitate communication as best as possible in a low bandwidth environment. Now, when webpages started mimicking the workstation environment as best as they could under the constraints of HTML it wasn't so bad. it was creative really. But for the opposite case, the workstation environment to mimic the web? That's just crazy. It is a consequence of mobile tunnel vision. It is appealing to the lowest common denominator. It is as if every car company were to decide to only produce high mileage low safety tiny little sh!tmobiles with no Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Corvettes or trucks or limos or ... etc. It is the worst kind of group-think. And Microsoft has it apparently etched into its DNA. They have been pulling this crap ever since Windows 98. I can forgive them for the CHM help system ( although it looked chintzy and amateurish it had some good points too ). But they got this "Active Desktop" and "Channels" thing into their mind and have not been able to break free ever since. Microsoft is a company that made its reputation and great wealth doing the very difficult task of being a 3rd party operating system to an infinite variety of computer configurations all over the world while keeping them flexible and independent of the hive mentality of the earlier client-server era. Now it seems they are changing into a great pretender of that company willing only to do the minimum necessary to satisfy the least intelligent among us - the sheeple. They are the McDonald's of restaurants, self-downgrading themselves from 5 stars to 1. I have theorized that they are simply getting out of the OS business and entering the universe of cheap walled-garden fiefdoms. This way they can do as little work as necessary to keep the lights on and the stock afloat. So just release the Windows source code and be done with it already!

Former Windows leader Steven Sinofsky joins Box as advisor ( NeoWin 2013-08-30 ) So here's a guy ( Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie ) who's both clueless and a glutton for punishment! That's what I call real inside-the-box thinking. Thank you for the clear self-description of yourself as an enemy of the personal computer. I'll be sure to avoid your crappy "box" at all costs and spread the word as far and wide as possible. Microsoft 'will move forward with litigation' against U.S. government ( NeoWin 2013-08-30 ) I love the smell of desperation in the morning. Microsoft intentionally associating itself with Google here (!), and distancing itself from the spying partnership. Makes you think that there are severe consequences for the government's first and primary partner that we do not yet know about, eh? This one is just breaking ... Microsoft cedes board seat to activist investor Ballmer bowing out as ValueAct storms in ( UK Register 2013-08-31 ) Probably doesn't mean much. It is likely a 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer' kind of deal. They bring them in and they suddenly wind up less activist than they were before. But I might be wrong. EDIT: spacing, new article, changed 'Guardian' to 'Register' ( sorry El Reg )

Windows 9 and Windows 10 Rumors Already Making the Rounds ( Maximum PC 2013-08-30 ) The story that Jorge mentioned earlier covered by Maximum PC. Most of the opinions there are decidedly non-sycophantic. And they're right. Microsoft is transitioning from a company of programmers with a handful of suits to a company of suits with a handful of programmers. That is the definition of bureaucracy. And they will suffer the consequences. IDC cuts its 2013 PC shipment predictions again; Windows 8.1 won't help this year ( NeoWin 2013-08-30 ) Hey that's some really accurate analyzing the IDC folks have been producing, eh? Now they are doubling down and promoting stupid ... Uh huh. Sure they will. EDIT: spacing

I'm sure AMD would love you to take care of Intel's shareholders. Not sure what you mean. Anyway I was just inverting the prevailing logic to expose the hypocrisy, because we always hear how it is expensive to develop drivers for an old Operating System and other such bullcrap. From a pure demographic point of view, Vista and Windows 8 should be avoided at all costs by all hardware makers and software developers ... Vista 4.24% + Win8 5.4% = 9.64% x 4 = 38.56%. Windows XP usage is four times greater than Vista and Win8 combined! That's for July ( August 2013 report ), in a mere 24 hours we should have August numbers ( September 1 report ) and naturally it will look much the same. It is certain that if the numbers were reversed, ( i.e., WinXP at 4-5% ) both Microsoft and all her sycophants would be trumpeting this as reason number one to stop developing for it. Therefore it makes sense that with the current numbers they should be making an effort to "support" WinXP, anything else would be detrimental to the company according to every sane business strategy. But you bring up a great point about AMD that I hadn't thought of. Letters wriiten to AMD should suggest they continue to release chipset drivers for Windows XP since Intel has abandoned 1/3 of the market. Play them against each other AMD is nothing if not open to a surefire win in their endless battle with Intel. Letters to Intel should mention this dropping of XP as a clear opening for AMD and they should continue "supporting" Windows XP at the chipset level or else AMD will step in. Recall how the news of potential future soldered CPU's got the "enthusiasts" in an uproar and AMD quickly responded by remaining committed to socketed processors. A day or two later Intel did the same, probably out of peer pressure. I like this strategy. All we need to do is get one of the chipset producers onboard and the other will follow. Thanks Ponch for the great idea. EDIT: spacing, typos

Jorge, you can add one more way to get the Start Menu to the list ... get a Mac ! I really can't believe I just said that.

News from the Competition ... HTC Developing Own Smartphone Operating System ( Tom's Hardware 2013-08-29 ) Yet another non-WP player is entering the game. No matter how any MicroZealot fanboy spins it, this and other Mobile OS developments ( iOS, Android, WebOS, Firefox, Ubuntu, Sailfish, etc ) means that Microsoft has utterly failed in the big picture of penetrating, let alone driving the mobile space. And this fight is what they chose to sacrifice Windows and its reputation and customer loyalty for. While it's true that there are, and will be many more little walled-garden fiefdoms out there, perhaps even one for every company, this just indicates that Microsoft has lost its gravitas and resembles the 90 pound weakling on the beach getting sand kicked in his face. Companies no longer think twice about distancing itself from Microsoft and going it alone. What is currently playing out in the small form factor mobile space is percolating up into the midrange and headed for the laptop and desktop market as well. This underscores the insanity of destroying Windows as it sabotaged their one true undisputed strength. Gold, Graphite iPhone 5S shells shown on video, structure compared to iPhone 5 ( 9to5mac 2013-08-29 ) iPhone 5S Could Also Come in Silver/Gray ( Tom's Hardware 2013-08-28 ) So we have seen a likely gold and white iPhone (example), and now comes a silver and black version (example). Now I know nothing is certain yet but I just gotta ask - do they not realize that the best combination is gold and black! In fact it's been done already by third parties many times over. See this example ... ( source ) I really can't wait for the official announcement to see if Apple and their resident hipster Jony Ive have, like Microsoft, also lost their minds with respect to visuals, especially the iPhone color scheme and also the iOS GUI appearance. Gold just cries out for black trim. White and gold is simply ridiculous! EDIT: typo

Microsoft celebrates Skype's 10th birthday with free WiFi; 3D video calls in the works ( NeoWin 2013-08-29 ) Hmmm ... I got a question ... Basic aritmetic tells me that Skype is only two years younger than Windows XP! Are they sure they want to be promoting a decade old decrepid software like Skype Spyke. Isn't it time to get with the times? Are Microsoft and her fanboys afraid of change? Hypocrites! Here's two unrelated stories that seem to fit together ... Microsoft's Surface Pro $100 price cuts to end today (Update: Price cut is now permanent) ( NeoWin 2013-08-29 ) Phhheeew! It is really getting difficult to sort out all these Surface announcements. In this story, NeoWin first announced the expiration of the $100 reduction on Surface Pro units but then updated it because of sudden unexpected word from Microsoft that they were now going to be permanent. ~sigh~ You would think that the Surface and the Type/Touch covers come from two different companies or something! One must ask whether there is any clearer sign of an undisciplined bureaucracy than what we have seen from Microsoft with their Surface products. They managed to bollocks up the most simple of tasks - a clear pricing scheme. Holy cow, what a mess. Carry on Microsoft. Samsung Creating a Galaxy Tab 3 for Kids ( Tom's Hardware 2013-08-28 ) Samsung is gonna steamroll yet another new market - tablets designed especially for kids. One must ask how is it possible that Microsoft completely missed this opportunity? It never occurred to them? This calls for a new graphic ... EDIT: typo