CharlotteTheHarlot

Brutal, honest thoughts on this whole debacle ( Clifford Unchained 2013-06-20 ) Bleszinski: Microsoft Changed DRM Due to Sony, Not Fans ( Tom's Hardware 2013-06-21 ) Interesting speculation about the Microsoft capitulation. This author's thinking is all about common sense and 800 pound Gorillas and other logical approaches. Check out the 747 and Space Shuttle poster at the link for a great example. Microsoft: Xbox One family game share was never time limited ( NeoWin 2013-06-22 ) Article about Microsoft's supposed denial of the trialware aspect of the alleged Xbox One family sharing plan. Interesting point made by a commenter. To paraphrase: "If the alleged Xbox digital game family sharing was so wonderful and was such a benefit to consumers, how exactly can that help developers?" In other words, if the thing was as real and awesome as the fanboys are saying and crying about the loss of, just how could it do anything except reduce total game purchases and drive the costs up further? Pretty good point I think. This is exactly why the "trial" aspect of the proposed plan makes perfect sense now. Besides, what developers would really want to publish games for a platform that could cause 10 people ( besides the actual purchaser ) to not need to buy the game?

And Ballmer is the only captain that will hit the same iceberg over and over again, not to mention hitting every other iceberg along the way.

Xbox One DRM policy reversal appeases GameStop overlords ( NeoWin 2013-06-20 ) Like I said, they are not happy. There is so much vitriol aimed at GameStop that it is stunning. Witness this genius ... You have a company that buys used games and resells them. Counterfeiting is not even a consideration, just resale. Can you imagine if these 'Tards had their way? Think of that show "Pawn Stars". So much profit being ripped-off by middlemen. I can see the gun and toy and jewelry manufacturers lining up to get their slice of those 2nd and 3rd and 4th (...) sales from Rick and the gang. Rumor: Xbox One family sharing was limited to 60 minutes ( NeoWin 2013-06-20 ) Anyone reading these Zealot sites knows how angry they are. The thing they have latched onto is the Family Sharing plan that supposedly would be brought forth in the new Xbox. Well until the Xbox 180 that is. They are blaming gamers and GameStop for causing the about-face and the subsequent cancellation of the "Family" sharing. But then we see this story ( NB: it is currently only a rumor started by a PasteBin message ). Anyway, if the rumor is true, the Family plan was going to be more like a try-before-you-buy scheme, where your family member gets to play for a bit and then gets hit with a prompt to purchase. There are lots of angry fanboys venting now on those two threads. They talk of a vocal minority ( what! ) that caused them to lose their baby. They have no clue that they are the actual minority, a subset of gamers who are fanboys and zealots who actually desire removal of physical disc capability and insist on being burdened with DRM ( I kid you not ). Some commenters are smart enough to suggest that Microsoft could have designed Xbox with a dual-strategy of DRM when using downloads but normal discs in DRM-free mode. The NeoWhiners say that is too difficult for Microsoft to accomplish. However no-one suggest the obvious answer - sell two different models! God knows they have made countless different models of the previous generation. All they needed to do ( if a dual-purpose Xbox is too difficult ) is make Xbox Cloud and Xbox Legacy. The Cloud model could be discless and riddled with DRM and can phone home all day long to keep the fanboys happy. The legacy model would just keep gamers busy playing games. Simple. Of course everyone knows why this did not happen - the Xbox Cloud model would have been a sales disaster, so Microsoft willingly decided to destroy their one and only model. Remind you of something? Sure does, it identically mirrors the Windows 8 fiasco ( and the reason it's here in this thread ). This is the evil in Microsoft. Don't feel sorry for them now, they deserve no sympathy. The pressure must be kept on them and in fact increased. UPDATE: Microsoft apparently denies this. Help Microsoft find bugs in Windows 8.1 Preview and earn up to $100,000 ( TechSpot 2013-06-20 ) Found one! Aero is broke. Found another! The Start Menu button brings up a big mess of icky Playskool tiles. That's two gigantic bugs so make out two gigantic checks of $100,000 each. Make one out to Xper at MSFN.org and send the other to EFF.org. EDIT: photo credit, rumor update

Yeah, I wasn't really recommending an AIO, just mentioning an option. I also look at them as big laptops, they are certainly portable enough to move around a house on a whim, but definitely not anywhere else really. Thing is, they do bring one good thing to the table, a large screen ( without any need for using a separate one ) so cranked up font and icon sizes don't use up all the real estate. This is a big deal when you get older ( and for some young'ins I would imagine ). Additionally, if the couple decides they want Windows 8 and a touch screen, an AIO might be a good fit. In fact, it may be the only real good fit for that pOS. For anyone curious, a good article from today that shows the AIO innards and discusses the differences with desktops ... How to Build: All-in-One PC ( Maximum PC 2013-06-20 ) Overall I'd still recommend a good laptop, possibly a gamer model to get the best spec'd parts. If using Intel, i5 minimum, i7 preferably. Make sure it has as many communication options as possible like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC, and many video output connectors and then you can easily do what someone said above, just mirror the display to a large monitor or even a Smart TV. There really are so many ways to do these things nowadays.

I must be getting clairvoyant! One day later both subjects are right back in the news ... Google challenges U.S. gag order, citing First Amendment ( TechSpot 2013-06-19 ) I think they have a good case because this court has not ever been tested for constitutionality. The old saying is that "The Constitution is not a suicide pact", however, if it keeps being interpreted to eliminate the First Amendment then we have already committed suicide. I just thought of something. Considering all the revelations lately about data gathering ( spying ) and the responses from Congress and the White House stubbornly sticking by certain agencies doing anything and everything against USA citizens and even calling it "legal", well, how about this for the biggest display of hypocrisy ever, These stories are just one month old! They occurred before the spying became widespread news. Members of Congress displaying legendary levels of audacity ... Members of Congress Ask Google to Respond to a List of Glass Privacy Concerns ( ABC News 2013-05-17 ) Congress Demands Answers About Google Glass ( eWeek 2013-05-19 ) Congress Questions Larry Page Over Google Glass ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-19 ) Congress asks Google if and how it's protecting privacy with Glass ( Naked Security 2013-05-20 ) ... just to name a few! Doesn't that just tick you off? These clowns worried about citizen privacy? Maybe this is one reason that Google is stepping up now to challenge the status quo of bending over and submitting to the government masters. LeaseWeb deletes MegaUpload data from 690 servers without warning ( TechSpot 2013-06-19 ) All Data Wiped from MegaUpload Servers ( Tom's Hardware 2013-06-19 ) Kim Dotcom victim of 'largest data MASSACRE in history'. Megaupload servers wiped – were Feds to blame? ( UK Register 2013-06-19 ) Now this is a tough one, not because of his so-called "questionable" character, but because of the combined circumstances. Our USA government got the NZ government to fly in with helicopters and raid the guy's mansion, froze his assets and somehow got the cloud server hosts to just give them all the data. Kim and these server companies have been in limbo for a year which has cost them some big money so this particular cloud company decided to retask the drives for paying customers, a logical business decision but a horrific one from the standpoint of customer data and company reputation. Not to mention the fact that an enormous amount of evidence just went into the bit bucket ( naturally the government will have copies they will say proves DotCom hosted warez or nuclear secrets or whatever ). It's even more complicated than that but the description at least covers a good part of it. The real point IMHO is this case should point out just how fragile that stupid cloud is. Your data may exist on reliable hardware, but the weak links make up the entire chain from you to them and back. Your data is subject to the whims of human beings at every juncture. And they all cannot be trusted. Not only is it being snooped, it is also vulnerable to being confiscated at the whim of fickle judges and courts and agencies, and finally is at risk of being wiped off the face of the Earth whenever it is deemed necessary. There is no telling how many family photos and personal documents are now disintegrated. I have always believed that data must be respected because all the other stuff ( CPU's motherboards, etc ) are expendable and replaceable, but the data is the only thing that really matters. Now that's fine for me and my customers, but it won't matter a whit if no-one else acts that way. This is why the cloud must be fought and those that push it as the only future must be ridiculed. It can certainly work in certain circumstances, AFTER carefully planning a multi-prong strategy with perhaps two cloud hosts or mirroring or some other similar redundancy. But we cannot leave this in the hands of the powers-that-be because none of them can be trusted, be it the feds or the cloud server companies or Microsoft itself. EDIT: typos

Breaking News mentioned above by Formfiller ... First some fanboy sites ... Microsoft changes stance on used game policy and Internet connection requirements for Xbox One ( NeoWin 2013-06-19 ) Back to reality: Microsoft's new Xbox One policies retreat from the future. Careful what you wish for ( The Verge 2013-06-19 ) Xbox One DRM roll-back kills family game share, digital disc library ( NeoWin 2013-06-19 ) Microsoft Reverses Course on Xbox One Policies. The Xbox team dials back the crazy ( Thurrott 2013-06-19 ) They are not happy. Here are some non-Zealot sites ... Microsoft Backs Down on Controversial Xbox One Online Requirements, Used Game Disc Trading ( Tom's Hardware 2013-06-19 ) Microsoft backtracks: Drops daily check-ins, used games restrictions on Xbox One ( TechSpot 2013-06-19 ) Microsoft caves on Xbox One DRM and used-game controls. Consumer power might still mean something ( UK Register 2013-06-19 ) Microsoft Abandons Planned Xbox One DRM, Used Games Policies; Won't Budge on Price ( Maximum PC 2013-06-20 ) I guess this may be the first time in a while that Microsoft has done something right. It must mean that pre-sales orders are right in the toilet, not to mention the polls like that one from Amazon. The good thing about it is that there will be some real competition now because Sony will have to really step up their game. Best comments seen so far have renamed it to ... Xbox 180 Love it! Microsoft launches revamp of its MSDN forums ( NeoWin 2013-06-19 ) This must be a move to further censor the criticism over Windows 8 and Xbox and other fiascos. Reputation management.I bet. Can't wait for first hand reports from Formfiller who already mentioned disappearing threads and other tricks in the "Answers" forum. Microsoft accused of extortion in new lawsuit ( NeoWin 2013-06-19 ) Sorry, I have no benefit of the doubt left for Microsoft, especially given the very recent data mining news, therefore I have to believe this at face value. Guilty until proven innocent. Put me on the jury please. EDIT: added article

This is quite a juxtaposition. Imagine going to the Microsoft app store and finding a download for an alternate theme for Windows Phone that looks like Android! Can you picture it? Well here in fact is Google's app store showing exactly the inverse and setting a perfect example of how it should be done. A drop-in launcher that simulates the Windows Phone interface. This is real ... Launcher 8. ( QiHang Dev Team ) ( Google Play 2013-06-20 ) ( Go to the link to see screenshots. ) Needless to say, Microsoft has locked down their interface to prevent any kind of useful improvements from users of their pOS, let alone a complete makeover of the GUI itself. NeoWin covered this app as a story ... Windows Phone envy? Android Metro-style launcher hits 1m downloads ( NeoWin 2013-06-19 ) The headline is bad enough, now check out the typical MetroTard logic ... ( no, there is no smiley there, dude is serious ) Get that wishful thinking? He sees it as a kind of trial and those users installing it as people that might be thinking of leaving Android for WP. That's his takeaway from the app, NOT the obvious fact that Android is a hugely customizable platform that allows such creativity in the first place. My head is spinning from the role reversal here with Microsoft creating and pushing their so-called "Windows" phone operating system that locks it down cold, while Google is the one that serves up a very open phone OS. What are the chances that the author will ever realize the reason that WP sits at 3% while Android trounces it at 75% is because Android is the new Windows-style open architecture while WP is the Apple-style locked-down GUI. I agree, no chance he or his fellow MetroTards will ever understand it.

Huawei: We Don't Have Any Plans to Buy Nokia ( Tom's Hardware 2013-06-19 ) Report: Microsoft in recent talks to buy Nokia device business ( NeoWin 2013-06-19 ) Wake up, Uncle Fester! Huawei’s nattering about BUYING Nokia. Yes, we mean you, Ballmer ( UK Register 2013-06-20 ) That Microsoft-Nokia merger you've been predicting? It's no go. Redmond has reportedly left the table ( UK Register 2013-06-20 ) This is definitely going to get interesting. Huawei isn't really a possibility I think, but Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Samsung all really could swoop in and get Nokia. Microsoft supposedly was looking at this but for some reason took a pass ( a commenter says it had to do with offshore money and taxes ). Something else, just how can we be sure that anyone up in Finland besides Elop are actually MicroZealots anyway? There was this article that said ... Ya think? But that quote is awful condescending, isn't it? So I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is beginning to get under their skin. Anyway, Nokia really couldn't be more vulnerable than they are right now ... Nokia stock down 15% following Windows Phone announcements ( NeoWin 2012-09-05 ) Nokia apologizes for misleading Lumia PureView video ( NeoWin 2012-09-06 ) Nokia CEO: "No indications" Microsoft is making its own phone ( NeoWin 2012-10-02 ) Nokia confirms sell off Finland HQ buildings [update] ( NeoWin 2012-10-03 ) Major bank downgrades Nokia again, recommends break-up and sell-off ( NeoWin 2012-10-04 ) Nokia's VP of Product Marketing departs, investors dissapointed with 920 announcement ( NeoWin 2012-10-07 ) AT&T Lumias get reduced battery life estimates ( NeoWin 2012-10-07 ) Nokia reveals Euro pricing for Lumia 920 / 820 and accessories ( NeoWin 2012-10-12 ) Nokia to raise cash by selling its headquarters ( NeoWin 2012-12-04 ) Lawsuit that claimed Nokia lied about Lumia sales resolved ( NeoWin 2012-12-13 ) Nokia may pull out of CES to focus on MWC ( NeoWin 2012-12-18 ) Nokia will be at CES but has "scaled back" for the 2013 show ( NeoWin 2012-12-18 ) Nokia is committed to Windows Phone, full stop ( NeoWin 2013-01-07 ) Nokia accused of $545m tax evasion in India; offices raided in investigation ( NeoWin 2013-01-08 ) Nokia's Asha range outselling Lumias 2:1 ( NeoWin 2013-01-13 ) Nokia slashes another 1000 jobs in Finland ( NeoWin 2013-01-17 ) Nokia sells Oulu campus for $40.8 million ( NeoWin 2013-02-12 ) Nokia Mistakenly Reveals Lumia Windows RT Tablet ( Tom's Hardware 2013-02-14 ) Nokia may drop Samsung as parts supplier ( NeoWin 2013-02-14 ) Nokia supports Apple in Samsung product sales ban effort ( TechSpot 2013-03-07 ) Nokia and Apple team up against Samsung ( NeoWin 2013-03-07 ) Nokia will end up owing $650 million to Microsoft ( NeoWin 2013-03-07 ) HTC wins in German Android patent fight with Nokia ( NeoWin 2013-03-08 ) Nokia admits risk of Microsoft potentially developing its own Windows Phone device ( NeoWin 2013-03-08 ) Nokia's Twitter feed mocks Samsung's Galaxy S4 ( NeoWin 2013-03-15 ) New Windows Phone TV ad pits Nokia against Samsung ( NeoWin 2013-03-19 ) Stephen Elop throws an iPhone, ignores the Lumia 928 ( NeoWin 2013-03-22 ) Elop throws an iPhone on Finnish TV, refuses to answer Lumia 928 questions ( The Verge 2013-03-22 ) Microsoft: No need to make a phone because we have "some say" in Nokia's Lumia ( NeoWin 2013-03-22 ) Microsoft reveals it has 'some say' and influence over Nokia's Lumia designs ( The Verge 2013-03-22 ) Nokia's $196 million loss overshadowed by otherwise promising results ( TechSpot 2013-04-18 ) Nokia Q1 2013 results: 5.6m Lumias sold, 150m euro loss but good overall results ( NeoWin 2013-04-18 ) Samsung outsells Nokia in Finland, opens research centre on Nokia's doorstep ( NeoWin 2013-05-29 ) Huawei chairman hints at Nokia acquisition, ditching Windows Phone [update] ( NeoWin 2013-06-18 ) Huawei: We Don't Have Any Plans to Buy Nokia ( Tom's Hardware 2013-06-19 ) Report: Microsoft in recent talks to buy Nokia device business ( NeoWin 2013-06-19 ) Wake up, Uncle Fester! Huawei’s nattering about BUYING Nokia. Yes, we mean you, Ballmer ( UK Register 2013-06-20 ) That Microsoft-Nokia merger you've been predicting? It's no go. Redmond has reportedly left the table ( UK Register 2013-06-20 ) EDIT: added articles

Ah, InterLnk and InterSvr on a null modified cable ( aka "LapLink" ). The first step out of the stone age for DOS. They worked on either interface but Parallel was definitely the way to go. I think in Win95 Plus they officially called it "Direct Cable Connection". I can remember a few other 3rd party Solutions too ... Briggs LinkMaven Rainy City FastPCLinker Laplink ( obviously ) Depending on LPT ports you can get from a few hundred KB/s to 1 or 2 MB/s ( using the last EPP motherboards ) which pretty much blew away all other methods. That high rate was dependent on error checking in the software used to control the connection, but astonishingly it was often faster than some broadband over here even today ( 15 Mb down is pretty common and that is only 1.8 MB/s ). In fact, for many MANY years this was even faster than Ethernet was ( the 10 Mb flavor that lasted for what seemed like forever! ). Of course, the storage was severely limited in the DOS days so that speed meant you could copy or fill an entire HDD ( sub 100 MB was typical ) in a minute! EDIT: typos

Were Xbox One E3 Demos Powered by Windows 7 and Nvidia Graphics? ( Maximum PC 2013-06-17 ) Not sure I'm buying this. The picture they supply sure looks like more than one PC under those cabinets. Surely they must have pictures of actual in-use Xbox systems to prove their point? Analyst: 'The entire future of the Xbox business is in question' ( NeoWin 2013-06-18 ) ( This was probably mentioned earlier, but I just wanted to get the title of the article on the record. ) Not going over well with the fanboys I still wonder why they even bothered getting into consoles at all. It is never going to be a huge money maker, and it led to destruction of Microsoft PC games like Flight Simulator, a true signature title for them. The worst part is that it is in direct conflict to a huge segment of PC users. If Windows had been broken off into a firewalled company operating with full autonomy and with no concern for other Microsoft products ( creating a truly level playing field for all software, like an operating system is supposed to ) then all these side projects wouldn't ring alarm bells. The judge who tried to break up Microsoft in 2000 passes away ( NeoWin 2013-06-18 ) Boy, in hindsight this Judge seems to have gotten it exactly right. Pity he didn't critique Ballmer too.

Huawei chairman hints at Nokia acquisition, ditching Windows Phone [update] ( NeoWin 2013-06-18 ) The commenters are surprisingly calm about this story. Or maybe they are petrified. Whatever. But it certainly is a very strange thing for a company honcho to be blabbing about. It did send the stock price of Nokia up, and that alone would cause a stir from the SEC if they had some jurisdiction over this Chinese company. Imagine if he ( Huawei chairman ) or his friends held a big block of Nokia shares! This would fall under "Pump and Dump" market manipulation. Anyway, the commenters feel assured that Microsoft would fly in to save the day and buy Nokia first. They certainly have enough cash, but so do others like Google. And Apple at last count has at least twice as much cash on hand. This should be an interesting year for Nokia. I'd guess they have a 50-50 chance of existing into 2014. I imagine the next two to three reporting periods will tell the tale. Skype video messaging exits preview, still not on Windows Phone ( NeoWin 2013-06-18 ) Skype launches video-messaging service on Android, Blackberry and iOS devices ( TechSpot 2013-06-18 ) Am I the only one thinking someone at Microsoft really is trying to kill Windows Phone. Always-on voice controlled smartphones to appear in 2014 ( TechSpot 2013-06-18 ) Obviously this is about phones but here is the part that matters and needs to be stuffed down the throats of MicroZealots and MetroTards promoting the wonders of Xbox and Kinect ... So, the MicroZealots and MetroTards are very conveniently willing to overlook wasted power on optional luxuries in the case of Xbox and Kinect, but are quick to disparage Aero and other frills that normal people enjoy on their personal computers that have no battery in the first place ( and that includes laptops which are often plugged in ). Has even one MicroZealot or MetroTard criticized Microsoft for this Xbox Kinect audio polling? It is a frill that merely lets the gamer sit on their butt without having to get up and press a button! FWIW: I'm absolutely not against such a feature as long as the user wants it. But the hypocrisy is maddening to me. They use power savings as the excuse to kill desirable visual effects on desktop Windows but ignore wasted power on their game system. And not a peep from their enablers. Windows Azure now used by over 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies ( NeoWin 2013-06-18 ) And the federal government thanks you for your business! EDIT: clarity

[emphasis added]That would be quite a revelation, that early on Microsoft was promising that you could install Windows 8 without Metro. Breaking that promise can only have contributed to the anger and disappointment that has met the version of Windows 8 that eventually got released. Agreed. It sounds like the OEMs were led down a primrose path and believed the next Windows would not cause upheaval, but quite the contrary, be the proverbial shot in the arm. I'm not sure what conference he is talking about, it might be a workshop at //build/ 2011 which is also around the first time I remember hearing about this disaster, it was summer 2011 ... Live from Microsoft's Windows 8 preview event at Computex 2011! ( EnGadget 2011-06-01 ) Previewing “Windows 8” ( Microsoft 2011-06-01 ) 10:28AM The tiles that you see on the Start screen are live. "They represent your apps, your people, your contacts, the things that you care most about." ( Source: EnGadget ) For the record, there were earlier mentions we all heard about that previous January, but as far as I can remember the crazy interface and the destruction of Windows wasn't made public until that summer //build/ event. These articles are 5 months earlier ... Microsoft confirms ARM support is coming in Windows, will play nice with SoCs too ( EnGadget 2011-01-05 ) Microsoft Announces Support of System on a Chip Architectures From Intel, AMD, and ARM for Next Version of Windows ( Microsoft 2011-01-05 ) CES: Windows to run on ARM chips, says Microsoft ( ZDNet 2011-01-06 ) ( Source: EnGadget ) That last picture is from CES ( Consumer Electronics Show ) and if you look closely it is a Windows 8 build 6.2.something. It is obviously the desktop and the sharp corners are already there. EDIT: typo

New Dvorak column just out. Seems to have done a 180 from the last one here ... ... I wonder if he is reading this thread? Anyway, here is the latest ... The NSA's Surveillance Will Devastate Commerce ( John C. Dvorak PC Magazine 2013-06-17 ) ... and this one makes a brilliant point in light of all the recent breaking news ... I gotta admit this hadn't even occurred to me yet. Maybe it is the sheer volume of news about data gathering and all the conflicting reporting, all the denials and rationalizations. But this has to be a serious consideration now, I mean really, given an actual choice, who would select a USA based cloud service, be it Microsoft Office 364 or any of the countless backup providers? I'd expect to see some smart people overseas capitalizing on this eventually, marketing their services as spy-proof. It might even help to explain as clever posturing the stories mentioned upthread where Google and Twiiter are suggesting they are challenging the spying paradigm. This whole fiasco will likely be a huge boost to Kim DotCom and his new Mega. In fact, we can probably make sense of that story now when they shutdown Megaupload and confiscated all the storage. What are the odds they were just looking for warez and music? His lawyers are probably celebrating this spying news because of all the new angles it gives them for the eventual court case, if it ever even happens. If I owned an American based company that operated storage or communications services I think I would be drinking heavily right about now.

Time to check in two days later on June 16, 2013 ... Sony winning previously with 94.547%, now winning with 94.745%. You think Microsoft is going to notice this? You wanna bet they are in panic mode right about now? Will they do the right thing? I went back to check today and it appears to be gone now! Over at the TechSpot linked page above there is this tidbit ... Note that the numbers cited by the TechSpot author mirror the ones from my screencap. If anyone has anything newer or information on why they pulled the poll please post it!

All excellent points. I didn't feel I needed to go into it because I felt that the condition of these used items was another strawman that the Thurrott lackeys throw out to muddy up the waters. I think they use it as a self-distraction tool to avoid facing the real question of who the he!! do they think they are to set their sights on someone else's private property and what price they sell for. Your point about losing value over time is also a good one, the "window of opportunity" for interest to ( most ) gamers is short. Most importantly, you mention quality of games. Ruling out counterfeiting, just why are so many games being sold back? It's because in the opinions of these first sale purchasers, they suck! That really is the point they are missing, isn't it? Talk about scapegoating. But when GameStop sells a physical work later for some price less than full retail, just where does anyone get off concerning themselves with this? This is the closest thing to a free market to be found in the synthetic economy of software in the Microsoft sector of the PC and console universe. I neglected to mention something important ( which you and everyone here certainly knows already ) ... None of this is about Steam ... It currently is about GameStop physical media. Don't worry though, they will certainly combine the two different cases into one muddled thought to further confuse the issue. Steam is in itself a product of the current environment. It is a solution solving the problems created by Microsoft and EA and all the many others along the way, and that is precisely why it exists and precisely why they hate it. Without consoles, and DRM, and high priced games, and especially the restrictions on using discs, typing in keys, answering questions, getting placed on SPAM lists, for all these reasons Steam can thrive. It is a drop-in turn-key solution, a virtual console that allows moderate gamers to not have to fiddle with hardware and software settings too much, in short, it lets them play their games. The fact that Microsoft and her fanboys have now developed "Steam-envy" ( credit ) speaks volumes. It's like home builders getting angry at modular homes. It's really kind of ironic and sick at the same time. The industry created the problem of user confusion, apathy and disrespect in the first place, not trusting their customers, hitting them with DRM and hoops to jump through, then mega-merging of small game studios, killing many off, resulting in a Big Government Big Hollywood Big Entertainment cabal. Microsoft is deep in this too by butchering the Windows platform over time, screwing around with Direct-X compatibility, making the PC a moving target for developers. In fact I think they caused the biggest upheaval by even getting into consoles into the first place, through a conflict of interest by having both PC and Xbox under the same roof, and unsurprisingly one huge part ( PC ) gets stepped on by the other smaller money-losing part ( Xbox ). So, in the aftermath along comes Gabe with a pretty good fix for many gamers. Naturally, MicroZealots are green with envy.

But bits are also licensed, NOT sold. What about revamping this not-so-old idea (that thank goodness never took hold)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexplay They could make non copyable DVD's that only last - say - a week/2 weeks/1 month/3 months/6 months/1 year and a "gold edition" (for which you have to be a member of the "Premium XboX1 Club", you need to be introduced by at least two pre-existing members, make a solemn oath about never using an iPad and pay a nominal fee of 360 US$ /year) lasting 2 years. For the most affectionate and smartest one, there is also the "Excellence Restricted Circle" which offers exactly the same as the above, but costs 720 US$/year, minimum 10 years and you have remote assistance - at most two hours/year - and provides you with a T-shirt and a badge representing a very tiny "O" with an even tinier "x" in the middle, symbolizing at the same time how exclusive the circle is and the actual vote in roman numerals the MS guys give to the console in a scale from 0 to 10). jaclaz I remember something about that. Among other things I have been involved with bands and recording studios and labels. From time to time the "Mission Impossible" theory rears its ugly head and some ( not many ) artists I know think its the greatest thing since sliced bread bottled beer. Transporting this concept from the DVD or video arena ( where Hollywood really wants to make it happen ) to the music industry ( where only the bureaucrats really are interested ) never gets any traction because the actual artists understand that their customers are fickle and even vengeful. Witness the wicked backlash that wiped out Metallica after Lars set upon his fans that shared music. There was a civil war over Napster with some artists taking sides and others taking cover. The artists I know don't want to antagonize their fans and are truly interested in getting that first sale. The concept of used sales rarely comes up because truthfully, they themselves also are buying up used music, DVD's, vinyl albums, and yes, CD's at flea markets and from Amazon. NOTE: none of this is about counterfeit goods at all, even though the Thurrott lackeys keep hinting at it through strawmen arguments. Anyway, what it's all about with this "flexplay" and similar notions is to make that final jump from private property you own to virtual intellectual property you don't own, and ideally this will itself later evolve into 100% pure Pay-Per-View. That is the Holy Grail to all media companies. They will trot out the arguments of starving artists, even though they are usually starving because of their ( record label ) own actions, but their goal is to continually enrich themselves with a never-ending stream of income. The evolution of the Internet finally into a useful distribution tool has brought this issue to the front again. The problem I think we all have is that even though people who question this paradigm are far more numerous than those fat cats sitting at the top, they have the lawyers and lobbyists and even as we speak they are constructing themselves a digital boomtown. That first big step was the DMCA and its descendants, but now they are eyeballing the brass gold ring. And judging by recent history it sure looks like the Congress and White House and Supreme Court over here are sufficiently bought and paid for to make this happen. All we can do is keep fighting anyway and get the word out.

Thanks for the links Andre. Just out of curiosity, could someone else using Opera please test that guys website download pages ... www.joshcellsoftwares.com Using Opera v11 I noticed that the download pages there cause a hard lock up on Opera on WinXP. Tried it four times, and each time Opera needed to be killed with ProcExp. Firefox showed no problems. Just wondering if it is not something local to me. Could be some elaborate javascripts affecting others or maybe he is pulling in some ads that I blocked.

A pair of articles from Thurrott concerning the Xbox saga. As usual he endeavors to save Microsoft with a bullet list of non-solutions. Actually I wanted to point out how the topic of private property is at the core of this controversy even if they don't yet realize it. Leave it to the Thurrott commenters to whip up some false analogies in order to support Microsoft ... Xbox One Launch Missteps Could Cost Microsoft. Don Mattrick opens mouth, inserts foot ( Thurrott 2013-06-13 ) "It's a shame, but ..." Don't you just love enablers! GameStop is evil? Because someone that actually paid for something is trying to sell it to someone else? Notice the busy body approach in that they are concerning themselves with how much the seller gets for his resale. First of all it isn't even his business what someone gets for what they sell, yet he makes it his business anyway. Secondly, he flat-out wants some development to occur that will stop this private selling in its tracks. Truly we have seen an entire strain of totalitarians grow up in our "free" world. Instead of advancing the human race, the Internet has dragged many of us down to the lowest common denominator - Idiocracy. How Microsoft Can Fix Xbox One. It's so close ( Thurrott 2013-06-14 ) Note that these next three commenters are all addressing the same person. Ah, trying to hammer out that private property exception for digital goods. First of all, the condition of the used car has nothing to do with the subject of private property and resale from one customer to another. That is the logical fallacy of a strawman. Likewise, the fact that a digital game or any other software is binary identical is a further expansion of the same strawman. Whether a person's "used" car is for sale beaten up or factory new has nothing to do with this. Perhaps he thinks he is arguing about counterfeit software where someone duplicates the bits and sells them? Who knows, but he is only distracting us and confusing his own brain. That last bit is the problem. When he says the dev should get the money from the second sale, another bite of the apple. In short, this crazy idea is that developers get to take a slice ( or even the whole thing ) every time their so-called product changes hands, and the justification is because it is digital! No kidding. The bits don't degrade. Nice strawman once again. Distracting and not relevant. He is also throwing in the kitchen sink with DLC and DVD to muddy the waters but is essentially echoing the previous comment. They are both advocating a quasi-Communist approach of complete management of the chain from developer to all users in perpetuity. In fact that isn't a bad comparison because black markets thrive in Communist systems and they are asking for it here bigtime. Catch that? They can't make enough money selling their product. Hence they are eyeballing secondary sales as their rightful property. Needless to say this person would not only destroy the concept of private property of the customers, but while he is at it is willing to destroy the concept of supply and demand. If they cannot sell their "product" they are either charging too much money or shouldn't be making a product no-one will buy. Coveting other people's money to take in order to cover up your own mis-management is evil. There is a lot of this Neo-Fascist thinking going on these days in forums like Thurrott's and anywhere this subject comes up. The Fascist part comes from the inevitable final solution - government regulation through courts and such that establish these arbitrary rules that upend the concept of a free market and create an artificial world that suits whoever bought the most lawyers. Later on, more recognizable Fascism is established in the enforcement mechanisms that are necessary to police this artificial economy - outfits like the BSA and RIAA and MPAA, and their subsequent use of spying ISP's and real police to kick down the doors and drag people into kangaroo courts. Maybe George Orwell underestimated the potential damage that a world full of sheeple will endure and enable? All of this is the natural evolution of something I mentioned upthread - the dangerous consequences of the illogical and completely arbitrary and self-serving paradigm of carving out an exception for software as non-private virtual property. There is a reason that I cannot claim ownership of a new sandwich recipe, it is illogical because enforcement would require ridiculous laws and dangerous entities like the ISP ( International Sandwich Police ) to kick down doors and make sure you are not copying my sandwich style without paying royalties. "I'm sorry, even though you are using your own ingredients the idea is already claimed and you cannot use it for free.". That is how many of the early arguments went, and there are many better ones, but it still serves to explain the concept of a recipe. One wonders if these Fascist pro-Intellectual Property zealots ever wonder who invented their ham sandwich or steak dinner or scrambled eggs or any other number of things that they use on a day-to-day basis without paying royalties for. Pretty much every single thing they do in a 24-hour day was "invented" by someone. The normal way to sell and market an idea that is not easily protect-able ( sandwich recipe ) was to sell value-added product to make the sale sensible. For example, a nicely bound book of recipes will still sell even today even though the recipes themselves are easily transmitted from grandma to grandma on the telephone if they choose to do so. An important logical market control lies in the fact that if your brilliant idea has no feasible way to be sold without being copied or otherwise protected, you simply cannot sell it or you give it away. We're pretty much getting into a radically selfish area these days with the obvious push to monetize every single possible sliver of intellectual property, what with companies existing almost solely for the purpose of filing and purchasing patents. Everyone wants to sit on their assets and get paid by someone else. It would be nice if a few more Benjamin Franklins were born into this world. Can you imagine if Microsoft, or her MicroZealots or any number of these companies held a patent on the lightning rod? An invention that he considered so important he gave it to the world for free. We can also imagine that it might have been a difficult patent to enforce, like a recipe, because anyone can stick a tall metal pole into the ground. ~sigh~ What a difference a few centuries make.

Roundup of some updates to the breaking news from just over one week ago ... Tech Companies Concede to Surveillance Program ( New York Times 2013-06-07 ) How the U.S. Uses Technology to Mine More Data More Quickly ( New York Times 2013-06-08 ) PRISM declassified by NSA to mitigate misimpressions and inaccuracies ( TechSpot 2013-06-10 ) Wait, what? Read the last two again. Someone is lying. American public deems NSA's phone spying acceptable, says Pew study ( TechSpot 2013-06-11 ) Yeah sure. The expected propaganda effort to tamp down the outrage. Pew polls for the government are like Forrester studies for Microsoft. Secret court makes refusing government data requests tricky for companies ( TechSpot 2013-06-14 ) We're from the government, we're here to help. Oh, and don't worry, we're over-seeing ourselves. Trust us! NSA spying flap extends to contents of U.S. phone calls ( CNet 2013-06-15 ) So the lying liars lied when they said it is only recorded metadata! UPDATE: see this ZDNet story that claims to contradict these allegations. The powers-that-be appear to be working overtime. Google and Twitter Take a Pass on new FISA Disclosure Deal Adopted by Facebook and Microsoft ( Maximum PC 2013-06-16 ) Perhaps something similar to the recent Sony kneecapping of Microsoft in the console wars will be taking place here as well? Google and Twitter noticing the outcry deciding to capitalize on it and gain back some of their customer trust and loyalty. Well, we can certainly hope so. The problem is we have no way to tell what is real anymore. This the Matrix. Microsoft offers more info on its US national security requests ( NeoWin 2013-06-16 ) So much for that "our hands are tied because of FISA" excuse. Lying liars lying again. State and Local has nothing to do with issues of FISA and national security. And this is only Microsoft, imagine the total of non-Federal mandated information being given up by Google and the rest. You see, this is why government has never tried to discourage monopolies except for the rarest cases. They allowed creation of a handful of ISP's available to any individual or family to gain access to the Internet. They allowed us to have one cable or Fiber or phone company in any given area. They allowed huge merging of many companies ( e.g., HDD, Routers, Chips, Software ) to singular giants. By allowing these things they have many less points of access to gain control of. It also means less possibility of loose lips sinking their ship. EDIT: typo(s), clarity, another article

Just wondering if there is another upgrade in the future here, as there currently is next door ... Neowin Forums offline for upgrade to IPB 3.4.5 ( NeoWin 2013-06-16 ) There's that SQL thingie again. One has to wonder if they are doing something upstream causing all the grief here. I notice even today when editing posts that sometimes the preview suddenly shows a different font, and sometimes bold formatting vanishes. Weird.

Proof that all the assorted Microsoft controversies are evolving into a general public IQ Test ... Who cares if the Xbox One is spying on you? ( NeoWin 2013-06-15 ) Huh? First thing to notice is the instinctual habit of quickly pointing fingers at other things as some kind of comparative justification for the question at hand. Most famously and for probably the longest period that has been the "But Apple does this ..." kind of reply, even though Apple has not ever been a competitor to Microsoft in the same space, ever. Apple used as a foil has sapped the intelligence from a sizeable portion of Microsoft's user base. Naturally these days we can easily see "But Android does this ..." and now "But Sony does this ...". They even use it against earlier products like "But Windows XP did this ..." and "But Windows 7 does that ...". This is commonplace at NeoWin and The Verge and each time their comparison is clearly bogus because they fail on the facts and also on the spirit of the issue. In this instance, the clueless fanboy uses cellphones and PC Webcams and even Smart TV's as a foil to rationalize Kinect. A cellphone that is in a skin or pouch or pocketbook. Webcams that are perhaps the crappiest form of camera still perpetrated on the consumer. Smart TV's which even if they include a camera have no tracking abilities, just like PC webcams. Kinect works in low light and no light, ever tried low light with a webcam? Kinect uses a microphone, to this very day the mic used in PC and laptop situations roughly sucks as bad as a child toy and its software ( and associated Windows components ) are among the worst ever developed. Contrary to what the AI community like IBM would have you believe, voice recognition is almost non-existent in the PC space except for those that buy the right hardware, and software, and invest time ironing out numerous bugs. Successful cases are found primarily in cases of handicap persons, disabled veterans, etc. The video component using webcams is even less mature and reliable, and we are still chasing the elusive case of seamless video calls, except in those specialized cases where people buy the right combination of hardware, and now lately some success with Skype and similar concepts. But you see what I did there? I still managed to stupidly chase this author down one of his rabbit holes anyway. The comparison is bogus because of the difference between dedicated active surveillance and passive ad hoc sometimes-working arrangements of A/V components. He is comparing slingshots with sniper rifles. Most importantly, in order to be able to listen for and interpret someone saying: "Xbox On", Kinect is constantly polling. Naturally Microsoft will overlook the obvious best-practices answer in this case - clear delineation of operating modes - LED indicators that say OFF or Private or NO Surveillance so there is no ambiguity whatsoever. There should be a LED indicating that Kinect is Polling Audio and Polling Video. But I assure you these things are not even crossing their minds and the reason is partially due to idi0tic fanboys that are acting as enablers for everything they do. ADDED: there is a huge slice of cognitive dissonance here as well. If they need to switch to flat GUIs on everything, sacrificing familairity and enduring consumer rants and criticism just to save power, well how does it make sense to build a device that polls constantly just to hear the magic words "Xbox On" ? Not to mention the fact that this feature is by definition redundant as it mirrors the simple pressing of a button, making it a completely optional luxury, with an associated cost in power usage. All this work just to have the convenience of powering on without getting up and pressing a button? Hypocrites in action! Save the rain forest, ban Kinect! So instead of clear, unambiguous LED indicators Microsoft has released propaganda saying stuff like "will guide you through settings ..." or "easy to configure options ...". Trust me, they mean no such thing when they say this. There will be duhfaults. And these duhfaults will mirror or even exceed the much decried privacy options set by Google, but with far greater downside to privacy than ad-tracking identifiers. Microsoft has no intention of protecting privacy whatsoever. This is yet another precedent they will establish laying a foundation for further expansion later. If you ask me, this is a very good place for people to take a principled stand. If you don't think so and accept them now, let me ask a very simple question. What kind of precedents will be seen in the future by your kids and your grandkids, and their kids and their grandkids? What would you say if they could ask you why you did nothing back in the early days? Once again, George Orwell's 1984 was a warning, not an instruction manual! As a kid I used to be told "Two wrongs don't make a right" when trying logical fallacies. Yet today it is common to hear "Google does it too!". So I really have to wonder just what is wrong with the parents of MicroZealot members of Generation Xbox. One thing a good parent does is teach their kids that they do NOT get to point a finger at someone else in order to get away with what they have done. "But Dad, the kid next door can ride his bike after dark" or "The neighbor has a BB gun, why can't I" or "They were throwing snowballs too so why are you punishing me?". Learn this lesson as a kid and you won't make the mistake later in life of "But officer, all the cars were going faster than the speed limit". Since we know that some of the members of the NeoWin peanut gallery are actually adults, you have to wonder what they do when their own kids cross this line at home. Will they notice their own hypocrisy when they tell them "Just because Billy jumps off a bridge doesn't mean you should also jump". Almost forgot, John Dvorak inexplicably expressed similar crazy thoughts a few days ago ... The NSA Is Mining Our Data. So What? ( John C. Dvorak PC Magazine 2013-06-12 ) ... which astonishingly places him drinking from the same Kool-aid fountain as Ed MicroBott! The real story in the NSA scandal is the collapse of journalism ( Ed Bott ZDNet 2013-06-08 ) How did mainstream media get the NSA PRISM story so hopelessly wrong? ( Ed Bott ZDNet 2013-06-15 ) EDIT: typo(s), clarity, added article(s), added comment

PlayStation 4 is destroying the Xbox One in Amazon customer poll ( TechSpot 2013-06-15 ) Previous results from the Amazon Ps4 vs Xboner poll on June 14, 2013 ... Time to check in two days later on June 16, 2013 ... Sony winning previously with 94.547%, now winning with 94.745%. You think Microsoft is going to notice this? You wanna bet they are in panic mode right about now? Will they do the right thing? So what do NeoWhiners have to say now? Let's see ... Poll: If Microsoft twist, will you stick? [update] ( NeoWin 2013-06-15 ) They have their own poll once again, using mind-bending vernacular rather than simple understandable language ... If Microsoft was to admit it made a mistake with its policies and restrictions around the Xbox One, regardless of cost, would you stick or twist? ... Xbox all the way! - 61.7% PS4 for the rest of my days! - 38.3% I guess the point of this exercise is to measure the amount of people thinking of jumping ship like rats scurrying off the deck of a doomed boat. And the answer would seem to indicate there are a few because well over a third of the NeoWin crowd says they are going with Sony's PlayStation. From this crowd, I think that is saying something since the price difference is only $50 to $100 depending on your point of view. NB: that phrase: "stick or twist" is apparently some kind of variation on the much more common "hit or stay" or "hit or stand" used in "21" aka "BlackJack". Actually, In real life it is customary to only use hand signals, especially in a loud Casino, but n00b tourists often say "Hit me" or "I'll Stay" anyway. In many decades of visiting Casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City I can safely say I have never heard that "stick or twist" phrase before, ever. You try that with a BlackJack dealer at a table full of players and you will be emasculated and humiliated and quite possibly taken out back and beaten.

Wow. Amazingly weird! Especially when we keep in mind that Apple is a hardware company, the OS that it creates ( or buys ) is primarily to make their hardware function. They do NOT distribute the Mac OS or iOS to non-Apple hardware. Unless that is about to change there is no logical reason to copy Microsoft ( and Android ) unless they think that people are buying non-Apple hardware because they like the non-Apple operating system more than theirs! That makes no sense to me. They are in effect blurring or erasing their own identity to fit in with a crowd of others. And no, I don't like what I see so far in iOS 7, readability and instant recognition of what a given icon does has been reduced. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but the path they are on now is suicide. They are making a similar calculation that Microsoft has made by altering the familiarity that longtime users expect - hoping they will gain more in new purchasers than they will lose in old. Even completely disregarding the hatred and bad publicity this garners, they fail to realize that very few people buy Apple because of the interface or operating system. They are buying the complete one-stop solution, the whole package warranty and reputation and everything else. At a time when they could lose a huge amount of customers ( for phones anytime the contract expires ) to a much more inexpensive Android, you do NOT give them a reason to leave. Microsoft and Apple have never been competitors on any actual playing field. They are in fact a duopoly and I have always believed that Gates and Jobs have had some agreements hammered out on a golf course or something. Stunningly, they both have managed to employ the same types of underlings ... EDIT: typo(s)

Indeed ... Some Xbox One demos at E3 2013 ran on Windows 7 NVIDIA PCs ( NeoWin 2013-06-15 ) ... And it begs two questions IMHO ... Why use a PC instead of an Xbox sample? Why use Windows 7 instead of Windows 8? None of the answers I see parroted by the NeoWin fanboys makes a whole lot of sense to me at all. They are maybe 4 months from shipment, no way can anyone convince me they have no working samples of Xbone yet. That is unfathomable. Well, unless it is undergoing another redesign in light of the Sony knee-capping of their original plans. The NeoWhiners keep saying that "well they had to rush over to E3 so grabbed whatever they could to get through the presentation". But this presentation included hands-on experience with actual games. How does it make sense to have tech writers and blog authors using non-Xbox hardware knowing full well they will write about it? PR disaster to say the least. It reeks of complete mismanagement, again. Now about using Windows 7. We hear even lamer excuses like the allegation that the SDK was available before Windows 8 came out, and it was designed for Windows 7 ( and other variations on this excuse ). Bullcrap. This is where the rubber meets the road fanboys. You cannot keep spouting the "Windows 8 is just like Windows 7, only better" nonsense, or "Windows 8 is Windows 7 plus Metro", or most importantly "Windows 8 does everything Windows 7 does and has the same desktop you love". Either this pOS is a backward compatible operating system, or it is not. I think this is very telling in fact. It goes totally against all the alleged dogfooding, doesn't it? The point is that there is definitely even more problems in Windows 8 yet to be discovered in the area of gaming compatibility, and I suspect it will be DRM related because those components will have only been reinforced, not relaxed, in this so-called operating system "upgrade". EDIT: typo(s)

Naah, the electron is licensed, NOT sold. D'oh! Right you are!