CharlotteTheHarlot

Which means they admit to not listening to a d@mn thing for the year prior to that! Three long beta periods ( DP, CP, RP ) and apparently it was all for show? They are admitting that they release a product, and then listen for feedback. And what was the purpose for Sinofsky's Destroying Windows Blog anyway, you know, the one with lengthy comment sections? Hey Microsoft, you're doing it wrong. Somehow from these few cryptic "We're Listening" comments the meme has gotten out there, there must a hundred stories about it ... Microsoft: Windows 8's learning curve needs addressing ( NeoWin 2013-05-08 ) ... Which means "We could have made things clearer, but you're still doing it wrong". A few of the usual MetroTards checking in of course.

So how many Windows 8 licenses have been activated? ( NeoWin 2013-05-07 ) I swear this guy read my comment above ... Two Thumbs Up for noticing the same thing - no real data emanates from Microsoft, as usual. Anyway, the MetroTards won't accept this theory and come up with all kinds of things like the fact that there are so many more computers now so percentage doesn't count anymore! Yep, the same 'Tards that point to Windows XP slow start as seen in, wait for it, marketshare percentage. Jeez Louise. And one of the most shameless MicroZealots ( almost certainly a Softie ) spreads classic distractive propaganda by citing Mac and Android lower marketshare, even though those operating systems ARE NOT AVAILABLE as an option from any OEM or anyone else for that matter. This argument is approaching "Big Lie" status now. I suspect he is a Softie because they all appear to all brainwashed to have obsessive compulsive envy for these so-called "rivals" and to them this illogical argument makes perfect sense. Microsoft: Windows 8.1 will be available in June as a public preview ( NeoWin 2013-05-07 ) So there you have it. It's over for Microsoft. They have refused to extricate themselves from the mother of all f*ckups. Despite all the comments, criticism and turmoil for two years they are intent on backing up the Titanic and ramming that iceberg again and again. I am actually surprised by this. I knew they were tone-deaf and arrogant but I assumed adults were still in positions to affect change when huge errors arise. That assumption was apparently incorrect. Never in history has a company voluntarily destroyed its #1 signature brand in such a high-profile fashion. This is like the Charlie Sheen meltdown now. These people are incapable of rational thought. They are flushed with cash as always from their version of the Intel Tick-Tock cycle and because of this they believe they are invincible. They are like a drunk driver or heroin abuser that ignores everything people tell them. Truth be told, they are vulnerable now. One more economic catastrophe and most consumer wallets are gonna close tight. They might pick up the odd, inexpensive device but they won't be splurging for Microsoft garbage, no matter what cost, especially the outrageous $199 or more they want since the firesale ended. So congratulations MSFT! If you didn't hear us for the past two years as loud and irate as we were, you will never hear us. You have infused Windows XP, Vista and 7 with many extra years of longevity, perhaps even immortality. I said this way back in this very thread and now I believe it is fact - Steve Jobs did not die, he is haunting the halls of Microsoft possessing the bodies of Ballmer and Sinofsky, and now JLG. Simply astounding! Go Julie Go! ... Jumping The Shark, nobody does it better than Microsoft! EDIT: typo

Microsoft: All RIGHT, you can have your Start button back. We blew it but now we're gonna Blue it, says Redmond, ( UK Register 2013-05-07 ) Microsoft: Windows Blue will respond to feedback, more details in coming weeks ( NeoWin 2013-05-07 ) Microsoft confirms Windows Blue update is shipping later this year ( TechSpot 2013-05-07 ) Windows Blue: Microsoft promises changes based on feedback and a holiday release ( The Verge 2013-05-07 ) Microsoft Talks a Little More About Windows Blue. Still keeping mum on the details, though. ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-07 ) More on the story that GrofLuigi mentioned above. Awfully sketchy utterings from Tami Reller, one of Sinofsky's two replacements. Will they or won't they have a Start Menu? Will it point to Metro? Will Aero Glass and rounded corners and drop shadows and 3D elements return? Will they charge money for Windows 8 Blew? You know that if they do charge money for it that means they have established a de facto subscription model without ever admitting to it. Come on Ballmer, time to clear the air and make a statement. Windows 8 reaches 100 million licenses sold ( NeoWin 2013-05-07 ) A closer look at the Windows 8 sales numbers ( NeoWin 2013-05-07 ) Windows 8 passes 100 million license sales, Microsoft reflects on the six month stage ( The Verge 2013-05-07 ) Microsoft Has Sold 100 Million Windows 8 Licenses ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-07 ) ( Maximum PC 2013-05-07 ) Windows 8 Sales Reach 100 Million Licenses, Should Microsoft Reverse Course? Yeah sure. That's why it shows up as 4% marketshare. Even at a firesale price of $39 ( or less ) and with all its competition banned from the marketplace ( other Windows versions ) this dog still can't hunt. I would guess that 100 million means about 50 million users at most. The bulk of the number are licenses sitting in OEM and corporate VLK hands. As far as consumers go, many are from people that bought multiple licenses because of the bargain basement price. 50 million "users" may actually be too high. Developers are not going to like this news even though the usual suspects at NeoWin and The Verge are celebrating. One inarguable fact is that Microsoft does in fact know how many copies of Windows 8 are activated and in use. Another inarguable fact is that they continue to not report it. Don't worry Steve, in the absence of factual announcements we'll just have to fill in the blanks. EDIT: added more articles

It sure is ( that the lunacy is contagious ), and no, it really is on-topic because the same thing drives them and Microsoft. I believe that all companies are now looking for ways to amp up the sucking in of cash from consumers before the next economic crash. And they will use every menas at their disposal, monetizing every shred of IP they possess. I believe they fear a calamity ahead, with some good reason because the Stock Market is once again irrationally exuberant while all economic indicators are circling the drain. There are lots of bad scenarios, one bad one would be if North Korea wipes out Seoul, an indefensible location, and a key component of both the financial and stock market universe, and a huge player in technology. I remember what some floods did to Thailand and the chain reaction crippled the entire HDD industry and in turn affected the larger computer sector itself. Needless to say, there are many other things that can also happen besides another Korean conflict. So I think that all industries, particular the fickle and mostly mismanaged tech companies are going for the consumers' throats, whole hog and getting it while they can. Ultimately, this is the backdrop for all of Microsoft's craziness. As they are recently "unrestrained" from government oversight over past antitrust issues they are now turning their noses up, using the operating system exactly as they are not supposed to, in order to leverage every desktop that runs Windows into a gateway to the Microsoft walled-garden. Adobe has always been a semi-crap company itself, doing some great stuff, but with much garbage as well. Old-timers remember that Adobe was an early cut-throat in the digital age, Apple-fying the PDF format by locking it down as propietary as possible. Then they butchered Macromedia properties such as Flash and monetized them both to the hilt. If it wasn't for Photoshop and Premiere and a few later derivatives they would be among the most hated companies today. Well in many circles they already are hated because their tone -deafness and arrogance matches Microsoft note for note. So there are no surprises in this for me at all. Here is some more coverage ... Adobe Creative Suite becomes subscription-only, kills Fireworks ( TechSpot 2013-05-06 ) Adobe Says Goodbye to Creative Suite, Hello to Creative Cloud ( Maximum PC 2013-05-06 ) Adobe abandons Creative Suite in favour of cloud offerings ( NeoWin 2013-05-06 ) Adobe Creative Suite Gives Way to Creative Cloud ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-06 ) Adobe kills Creative Suite – all future features online only ( UK Register 2013-05-06 ) Now who does that sound like? Yep, customer metrics "say that ...", a parallel to Microsoft patented telemetry. What is interesting is that just like Microsoft, they cannot hide the fail for too long. I highly doubt that a majority of people are that math-challenged. What it comes down to is paying the entire cost several times over but in small amounts, like a cellphone, or a home mortgage. I think that over time this is the opposite of reality, and people are getting wise to the subscription approach. But time will tell. EDIT: added articles

Opinion: Here's One Reason Why Windows 8 Sales Are Slow ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-06 ) An example of the opposite type of article often seen at the NeoWin MicroZealot site where you can find anti-Windows 8 click-baitstories. Over at Tom's Hardware, a performance enthusiast hangout, they have done the opposite - letting a fanboy post an article pro-Windows 8. Hopefully the author brought a change of underwear. Internal Microsoft memo shoots down 'always online' Xbox concerns ( TechSpot 2013-05-06 ) Microsoft Email Hints to No Always-On for Next Xbox ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-06 ) Next Xbox won't require always on connection after all ( NeoWin 2013-05-06 ) Ironically this rumor is safe to believe according to the resident MicroZealots and MetroTards in various comments. It simply must be real! It is also amazing that the assumption is that this alleged memo means that they were never going to require always-online, rather than the more likely case that they are backtracking. No, they would never do that. Actually, they do that over and over again. It wasn't that long that I too was dismissive of comments like these. No longer though. These days I'm right with this guy. Anyway, this is a clear consequence of a lumbering behemoth of a company, weaving all over the road like a drunk driver. This is the direct result of not communicating with the public, even to this very moment! If the memo is real, what is the excuse for no public statements? This is a textbook siege mentality. EDIT: clarity in that first sentence

You know, this is a good angle you got here. Lots of us way back in this thread cited Apple-envy ( and Google also ) as the disease that Ballmer caught and has driven him clinically mad. But you are really illustrating this even better with the photos of crystal-clear perfect examples. You really got to keep this up, actually we all should, because you just know that illustrating this shameless cloning of Apple will cut them to the bone. It has to simultaneously be the truest observation ever and the absolute worst possible insult for Softies and their surrogates who openly despise the "Fruit Company".

What the ...? ... Are they buying phones and the running a gauntlet giving high-fives? Any actual description of these photos? I mean staged is one thing, but this is community college theater. I take that back and I apologize to community colleges and theaters everywhere. It almost looks like the photographer had them yell "Metro" instead of saying "cheese". We were exactly right when we said MetroTards and MicroZealots have far surpassed all iTards and NixTards and FreeTards and DroidTards and ..." P.S. I wonder if there are any high-res images of this fiasco. I see lots of material to use. EDIT: fixed strange problem from database error ( random characters missing broke the quote tags )

Yeah but what if you find yourself strolling through the Canyon of the Crescent Moon and decide to get a drink of water ( ). In that case you'll need clarity with no ambiguity on the spelling of certain words using "I" and "J" ... I think that for the sake of archaeologists everywhere we should make our "J"s with a hook on the bottom. P.S. if you do some searching on that famous scene, it turns out that they now consider it a movie goof. In other words the hebrew version would have had an "I" as Sean Connery and Harrison Ford explained, but the versions that the Knights would have seen would still have had "J". So the walkway would presumably have not crumbled when he stepped on "J". Who knew!

Microsoft confirms exploit in Internet Explorer 8 ( NeoWin 2013-05-05 ) Internet Explorer 8 exploit blamed for attacks on several websites ( NeoWin 2013-05-06 ) Internet Explorer zero day exploit may have targeted nuclear workers ( TechSpot 2013-05-07 ) ( Not related to this topic but I know some people here are using MSIE ) Anyway ~yawn~ another day another MSIE exploit. This one is only version 8 so far. It's still kinda funny to me how MicroZealots in the comments use this as a reason to insist we dump Windows XP and Vista and 7 in order to be able upgrade MSIE to the latest and greatest and most secure ever. I mean, that's a reason? How about simply dumping MSIE for everyday use instead of turning your entire computer inside out to accommodate their planned obsolescence. That's a much better plan. UPDATE: apparently already exploited according to that 2nd story. Oh, and naturally there are utterings from mentally challenged NeoWhiners, this one implying that users of Windows XP deserve the exploit ... ComScore: US smartphone OS market share nearly flat in Q1 2013 ( NeoWin 2013-05-05 ) Ouch. I almost feel bad posting these stories now, and WP8 isn't the real villain anyway. But news is news, and this is more proof of the fool's errand Microsoft embarked on. Now if they had simply left Windows alone ( the server and "workstation" versions ) and spent that billion dollars advertising Windows Phone, maybe with a new name, they might have a bigger chunk of that market. Read the comments there and at the other few recent stories from NeoWin posted above. It's pretty much quiet as a funeral. For anyone that wants to examine these numbers in more depth, I have managed to save the last 15 consecutive charts for this. Maybe Jaclaz or others might want to do some statistical analysis. Click the Spoiler for the 14 previous charts prior to that most recent one above ... ( ... pheww, just made it. Apparently 15 is the picture limit in a post. I'll have to glue them together or something going forward. ) Note that their methodology is a 3-month rolling average and they compare two consecutive 3-month blocks so each chart update is covering 6 months total. So for example, that most recent chart above uses October, November, December 2012 versus January, February, March 2013. One thing that jumps right out is that in a year and a half, Microsoft has managed to lose about 2.2 % subscriber share. Yes, that is -2.2% trend since they let the previous phone stagnate and moved to Win8. Great job guys. EDIT: added article(s)

Acer: Windows RT has "no value" ( NeoWin 2013-05-05 ) Acer Chooses To Pass on the Current Version Windows RT: Acer planned to release a Windows RT tablet in Q2, but will hold off for now. ( Maximum PC 2013-05-05 ) More peeing into the MetroTard cornflakes. Especially since just yesterday there was a different article called: Acer still believes Microsoft can compete in the mobile space. Umm, maybe this next one will cheer them up ... Qualcomm still 'excited' about Microsoft's Windows RT strategy ( NeoWin 2013-05-05 ) Nevermind. These guys make ARM chips. You would expect him to say that. Rumor: Blu-ray Licensing May Delay Next Xbox ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-05 ) Rumor: Blu-Ray license issues could delay next Xbox until 2014? ( NeoWin 2013-05-06 ) This rumor is not good news if true. That would be one enormous delay, absolutely huge. And if true. this will be yet another case of a horrendous management screwup, not getting a license in place, which pretty much mirrors several other massive screw-ups like the Metro naming fiasco and the EU browser ballot. This should be one interesting announcement coming up, especially if they decide not to say when it will actually be available for sale, because that will in turn feed the fire that they are being held back over the Blu-Ray thing. Instagram reveals new logo inspired by Coca-Cola ( NeoWin 2013-05-05 ) ( image source ) After reading this article and checking ot their handiwork, I think that headline should maybe read: inspired by Jack and Cokes, lots of them. The article describes the breathtaking design process, a straight clone of the Microsoft logo and reimagination fiascos, hiring hipster career underachievers who are completely unequipped to cope with anything outside their little bubble. I mean, check out the huge deal they make over little changes in the typeface. They are just full of themselves. By the way, I'm sorry, but the logo sucks That letter "I" is what you should have been working on, it is ambiguous and could easily be a sloppy "J". Sorry to nitpick but I had teachers that would have wrapped my hand with a ruler, and we weren't getting paid big bucks to scribble in the classroom. Humanity is doomed. EDIT: added article

Acer still believes Microsoft can compete in the mobile space ( NeoWin 2013-05-04 ) Now there is a vote of confidence. AdDuplex: Nokia holds 83% of the Windows Phone market outside the USA ( NeoWin 2013-05-04 ) So what's the punchline? In other breaking news it has been discovered that water is wet. Anyone else noticing how NeoWin runs these "reaching" and "stretching" stories. The Windows 8 Steam marketshare survey is another prime example. Uh oh! Lumia 928 billboard appears before its launch ( NeoWin 2013-05-04 ) Lots of discussion about this "leak" prior to any official announcement of this new model phone. But one of the commenters points out something incredible. Have a look at where they placed billboard ... ( image source ) You really can't make this stuff up! EDIT: updated image URL

[emphasis added]OK boys and girls, can anybody here tell us if Microsoft threw anything away when they came out with Windows 8? Good catch. So either he is one of those people that speak carelessly where the words don't necessarily match the thoughts and can even be inconsistent from sentence to sentence which results in lies accidental incongruities ... or ... he's a liar. Well at least he just admitted they are crazy.

ObjectDock 2.1 adds Windows 8 support; removes XP and Vista support ( NeoWin 2013-05-03 ) ( image source ) For those that aren't familiar with it, this gives you an Apple Mac style dock as a toolbar ( and lots of customization choices ), not a chance that NeoWhiners would ever have the slightest bit of interest in it. Therefore we should check the comments and kick over the rocks to see what crawls out ... Pretty good point. Chopping off two operating systems that each have larger marketshare than Windows 8 ( Vista by a hair and Windows XP dwarfing it ), does not make a whole lotta sense. I don't have time to run this story down to see if it is true. It sounds like click-bait for MetroTards and I doubt that Stardock invented something that works in Windows 6.1 but fails in Windows 6.0. It really doesn't make any logical sense there. Anyway, the MetroTard click-bait caught the usual fish, you know what I mean, when you pull the hook out and notice holes from the dumb fish being caught over and over again ( ). Attacking Windows XP and legacy operating system users again ... Yep, that's him, the infamous commenter ridiculed far and wide. He's sure got the astroturf propaganda down too ( only omitting the Fast and Fluid stuff). Besides being factually challenged ( umm how does someone using "legacy" software or OS affect you MetroTards? ) that continuous fallacy about legacy code bogging down the system cries out as a child demanding their own NEW legacy-free operating system called Microsoft Tiles. With every breath he proves all our long-running points about the Windows 8 and Metro debacle. They merely needed to design an iOS style toy operating system for the MetroTards and left the adults alone and we could all co-exist peacefully. Here's a comment from a self-identified Softie who is very good at sticking to the sanctioned robo-script prepared by the Redmond clown brigade. Makes me think this is official policy now .... So in his mind, ATMs, Kiosks and Movie Ticket dispensers are web-connected and showing up in browser marketshare data collection? He cannot understand this but what he has actually done here is demonstrate that there is a likely undercount for real-world XP usage The first part of the comment ( "12 year old operating system" ) is dripping with that patented Microsoft contempt for their customers stemming from their utter bewilderment that users aren't the patsies they expect and are not jumping into their crappy new walled garden. And oddly enough, this "12-year old" meme seems only to be trotted out when it suits these propagandists. So, just for these MicroZealots and MetroTards I present to them a crusty old photo of a 60-year old Corvette ... ( image source ) ... which looks pretty spunky for a car "released" in 1953, the RTM version. ( I'm no expert but maybe that is SP59 or version 20 in MicroYears or something like that? ). Anyway, another automobile fallacy? I don't think so. Windows XP SP3 files are mostly dated to 2008-04-14 which just turned five years old. People still running Vista RTM or SP1 are using older files! Windows 7 was released just over a year later. I guess I shouldn't bother pointing out that the Metro Charms and most GUI elements are starting to resemble consumer electronics firmware ( Devolution ) from a decade ago and the colored Playskool Tiles come straight out of Sesame Street or AOL Kids or any number of things from 20 to 50 years ago. EDIT: typo, clarity, updated image URLs

Microsoft Reportedly Prepping a Smaller, Cheaper Surface Tablet ( Maximum PC 2013-05-03 ) Future Surface may have 7.5" display, for less than $399 ( NeoWin 2013-05-03 ) This story is really making the rounds. They are apparently looking at the smaller sizes finally, but what took so long? One year ago they announced those Surface units and 6 months ago it was released ( the ReTard version, the Pro was about 3 months ago ). So they are well over one year late, perhaps two, in considering the obvious that so many commenters wrote here a long time ago. You cannot penetrate the mobile market by pretending to be Apple and try to sell way overpriced Netbooks. So we were right. Furthermore, because of the Redmond management Idiocracy, the super mis-timing has cost them any chance on the lower end of mobile. While Microsoft was busy snoozing and dreaming of counting apples, the lower end of the market was overtaken by countless devices that they will never be able to compete with unless Microsoft maybe gives them away for free. They are so screwed now. Finally, just how will they put a keyboard cover on that thing? How do you lop 3 inches off that already barely useable cover. Knowing Microsoft they will leave it off and still set the price as if it is included. Gigabyte teases customizable, high-res UEFI for Haswell motherboards ( TechSpot 2013-05-03 ) And needless to say it is decidedly non-Metro Here is a 1920 pixel image ( as long as their link lasts ). Note from the text excerpt that the interface is user customizable. Can you imagine Microsoft or her fanboys designing this? Let's all pray that Gigabyte and Asus never collaborate with Microsoft. EDIT: updated image URL

http://nooface.net/3dui.shtml http://sourceforge.net/projects/fileexplorer3d/ http://www.cubixproject.com/ Thanks for the links. I am aware of the first one which links to many others. I have a pile of these to hopefully test soon. Here are some links right back at ya ... Google Images Innolab 3D File Manager ( also SourceForge ) BumpTop ( Cnet Article ) Yod'm 3D ( Portable Freeware ) Gonna have to do a specific thread about this eventually. With the Windows 8 and Metro fiasco upon us it seems certain that Microsoft will never use any imagination. It is a shame because they are sitting on the patents and really all the documentation for NTFS and even FAT and are the natural people to trust for something related to file and disk management. But I suppose we'll be forced to look 3rd party for developers that somehow manage to successfully design a nice GUI despite the handicap that Microsoft has foisted upon them.

Is Microsoft running out of ads inside Windows 8 apps? ( NeoWin 2013-05-02 ) Seeing this posted a lot from app developers in all different forums. Microsoft better watch out, they could easily now anger the few developers they sucked into Windows 8. Heck, why not? They've alienated everyone else. IDC analyst slams the Surface Pro: "it's just not there yet" ( NeoWin 2013-05-02 ) Now I know that Steven lets these articles get posted because they are click-bait, and he is busy miking his resident MicroZealots and MetroTards for all their worth I've also noticed he or his moderators have been letting a lot more "haterz" post lately. Probably a part of the plan. Here's one mocking all the excuses flowing in the comments: "It's a worldwide conspiracy. Everyone is against Microsoft, and lackluster sales are a grand conspiracy by EVERYONE! I get it now, we're all holding it wrong." Windows 8 Wikipedia page vandalized, 'review' inserted ( NeoWin 2013-05-02 ) HeHe. I swear it wasn't me. It really shows the unprecedented worldwide level of controversy now, surpassing Vista for sure. One MetroTard has a final solution though: "It's things like this, comment trolls, keyboard warriors, extremists and online bullying that make me with wish the web was not open to everyone. People abuse it like crazy and waste so much of their lives on it for the wrong reasons, when really it could have been a wonderful thing. If the web wasn't anonymous where people could hide behind fake usernames or whatnot, then I'm sure this kind of stuff would be drastically reduced." Some unexciting Windows 8.1 build 9388 screenshots leak ( NeoWin 2013-05-02 ) ~yawn~ Another day another leak. But as usual we can find gems of ignorance: "I really do hope Microsoft removes all legacy code to get rid of the Start menu completely. Just make the button a visible link to the start screen, and be done with it.". Sorry 'tard, you're making our point crystal clear. What you describe is a new operating system, it's what you get when you add in new stuff and remove the old. They should have designed a Playskool Microsoft Tiles just for you from the ground up. You're making our point all around because they would not design a separate 'tard OS just for you because it would have died at birth. So they went the sneaky route, the very one you deny, and that is that they are killing Windows on purpose to suck us into the new OS and you don't like the fact that we are onto the plan. Your advice is definitely not Microsoft sanctioned because the last thing they want is the truth to be known. And that truth is that Microsoft is attempting to leverage their monopoly OS and convert it to an iOS walled garden and sneakily drag along their monopoly victims whether they like it or not. Microsoft should be busted up with the OS div carved out and operating as a neutral company. The criminals that hatched this plan up in Redmond should be removed and indicted. They are intentionally flaunting the recently relaxed government action and are going further than they ever have because they believe no-one is looking.

The graphics are unbelievably good! Those fantasy scenes look like they were filmed in real life. Look at the shine on the floor in the indoor hall. Wow. Those are the real visual pioneers, and they laugh at Playskool Metro Tiles By 1998 these 3D game engines were perfected, on both Direct-X and OpenGL. They had progressed rapidly from the initial Wolf3D in 1992 to Quake 3 and Unreal that everything else looked like it was standing still. I have often said ( a little in here ) that either Microsoft should have incorporated game engine style graphics in to Windows, or they should have just given up and let Carmack or Epic write operating systems. Transparency and every other effect was in place in these games by the time Win98se even came out, yet Microsoft still needed ten more years to add a little taste of it to the GUI, and then crazily yanked it away while calling it dated and cheesy. We should by now be able to fly through 3D file managers taking advantage of all that real horsepower we have that was nowhere to be found when Quake and Unreal conquered the game industry. The fact that we need this extra layer of work to do this ( HTML+JS rendered by a browser ) really shows how little Microsoft has advanced Windows in the GUI department and how much they are lacking in the imagination department. Here is the NeoWin article about it ... Epic Citadel HTML5 demo launched; IE browsers are left out ( NeoWin 2013-05-02 ) You can try the actual page itself right here ... The Epic Citadel HTML5 webpage ... it doesn't accept Opera ( v11 ) currently, or older versions of FF.

I can see how this could be great for people with physical handicaps. OTOH, maybe my imagination is running wild tonight, or maybe I'm just in a crabby mood, but the next thing that comes to mind is the user chaos that this would cause while surfing the Web. We'd have to watch and control our facial expressions and our reactions to funny or shocking stuff, lest we end up with unwanted effects onscreen. Not sure I'd be happy having to develop a "poker face" just to be online. Nor do I think I'd want to run Skype or operate a webcam while using this FaceMouse application. Hmmm, eye blinks controlling Left-Click which in normal operation can be double-clicked to serve as Open or Run. Can't imagine what could possibly go wrong with that. Could easily defeat all the extra effort people make to avoid accidental double-clicks by making sure the delay is long enough. And also by always using F2 to edit a a filename rather than two slow single left clicks. Here is NeoWin's article on that Kinect thingie ... A mouse or a face? New Kinect project presents FaceMouse ( NeoWin 2013-05-02 ) Just imagine when something gets in your eye and you get a mad blinking fit. Comedy gold.

Net Applications: Windows 8 up slightly in April to 3.84 percent ( NeoWin 2013-05-01 ) Ya think? And this is with the advantage of the holiday season wind at their back and most importantly, killing off all their competition, other Windows versions. Here are all the snapshots I have located around the net so far. I think you need an account at netmarketshare to obtain them officially ( if at all possible ). 2013-01-21 ... 2013-01-28 ... 2013-02-01 ... 2013-03-01 ... 2013-04-01 ... 2013-05-01 ... As usual the comments can be mined for all sorts of examples of 'tardism. Naturally we get treated to the nonsense about Apple and Android competition. Sorry Charlie. Windows does not compete with them. Neither consumers or OEMs have the choice to install Mac OS. In fact, no-one does except Apple themselves or owners of Apple computers. Windows sales are a consequence of a monopoly and are not impacted by the existence of Apple or Google whatsoever. If Apple or Google had the same monopoly in the OEM channel installing their operating systems instead of Windows then they would have similar marketshare. As it stands, Android is not x86 and although hackers can install Mac OS on OEM x86 computers, Apple have not ever allowed this. And you MicroZealots should be thanking them. If they ever allow Mac OS into the wild, well let's just say that Microsoft will be in really big trouble. Truth be told, I believe there really is a non-aggression pact in place from Jobs and Gates but never announced. As a result Microsoft and her zealots get to continually use Apple as a foil, a phantom competitor to distract everyone from Microsoft only competing with itself. The phantom competitor helps thwart government action against this obvious monopoly. Oh yeah, here is a classic 'tard trying to slam Windows XP ... Say what? No security? What does that even mean? It has the same ACL's that all NT versions have when using NTFS. Install AV software, what, you mean the same MSE that you need to install in Windows 7? Makes no sense at all. Well at least he's got one thing right, he needs to install AV software, it was designed for people like him. Clueless. And booting a two year old XP installation takes forever? No kidding? This is the comparison he envisions, a fresh new Windows versus a several year old user profile. The level of ignorance and lack of intelligence is just astounding. It's why I had to get out of there. At NeoWin, Steven is running a sandbox now for adolescents and arguing with children is just plain creepy. EDIT: typo, updated image URLs

Windows 8.1 build 9385 has leaked ( NeoWin 2013-05-01 ) ~yawn~ Interesting comments though. Some of the remaining adults at NeoWin are having a go at the MicroZealot MetroTard-in-Chief. 11.65 percent of Steam owners used Windows 8 in April ( NeoWin 2013-05-01 ) File this one under "Stuck-on-Stupid". As explained before, this is a voluntary survey, a self-selecting sample no less. This isn't website statistics or Steam system reporting. I can't believe how far they will go to fake a story. Not to mention the fact pointed out in the comments is that Steam is desktop software, defeating the entire purpose of Metro and "apps". Stunning cognitive dissonance. Microsoft shipped 900,000 Surfaces in Q1 2013, according to IDC ( NeoWin 2013-05-01 ) Ruh Roh. That's three hugely different sets of numbers now. And all because no company these days will tell the truth about anything. They are like pathological liars, or at least avoiders. Keep in mind that first story ( Post #2658 ) ... Astonishingly, the MetroTards are rejoicing. No, I am not kidding. Here are the hard facts in the story, Q1 2013 tablets ... Apple ..... 19.5 million ... 48.2% Android ... 17.6 million ... 43.4% Windows .... 3.0 million .... 7.5% ... is what prompted all the talk about "marketshare", especially that astonishing whopper from from Thurrott: Windows 8 Secures 7.5 Percent of Tablet Market ( ). He actually took that Q1 2013 sales estimate as absolute marketshare against products that have been out for much longer. Well let's update what we know now ... Apple ..... 19.5 million ... 48.2% Android ... 17.6 million ... 43.4% Windows .... 3.0 million .... 7.5% <-- Strategy Analytics ( all "Windows" ) Windows .... 1.5 million .... ?.?% <-- Bloomberg ( only "Surface" models ) Windows .... 0.9 million .... ?.?% <-- IDC ( only "Surface" models ) In theory, the Bloomberg and IDC estimates might just change the proportion of "Windows" tablets from Microsoft to 3rd party OEMs, but I doubt it. I suspect that IDC number is closest to reality, 900,000 in Q1, or approximately 1,000 per day. Some of the detailed posts I have seen are describing this number as "filling the pipeline", and definitely not true sales at all. We shall see. Microsoft cannot dodge this for much longer.

Apple iOS 7 May Sport 'Very Flat' Look Like Windows Phone ( Tom's Hardware 2013-05-01 ) This has to be disinformation. Nothing good for Apple could possibly result from this. The last thing they need is people turning on them and jumping ship due to a strategic mistake. People using iPhones actually like the interface. A move like this would be a huge gift to Samsung, Google and Blackberry. Maybe MicroApple really is inevitable? Microsoft looking to expand its SaaS offerings with Windows Desktop ( NeoWin 2013-05-01 ) Yep. Don't listen to the propaganda saying "Don't worry". Microsoft has plans to monetize every single shred of their so-called Intellectual Property. Given half a chance going forward, most companies will piece out everything they have for sale. They want subscriptions, they don't want customers. Fear for the future. The wild world of x86 systems and indie software have been sentenced to death. Clouds and walled gardens are all that lies on their horizon. Don't contribute to this garbage by obsoleting your hardware and software. Don't play their game. Businesses want Windows 8 hybrids, not Windows RT, says Lenovo ( PC World 2013-04-30 ) Lenovo: Businesses don't want Windows RT tablet ( NeoWin 2013-05-01 ) Ruh Roh. This is gonna sting the MetroTards because Lenovo is their sweetheart these days. Twitter to Media companies: Brace yourselves, more hacks are coming! ( TechSpot 2013-04-30 ) Twitter receives top marks for protecting users' data - MySpace and Verizon, not so much ( TechSpot 2013-05-01 ) Interesting juxtaposition eh? The first story is telling us to get ready for more possible false breaking news on Twitter, like the last one concerning an attack on the White House sending the stock market tumbling. Meanwhile the 2nd story just hours later awards Twitter with high marks for user data security. Welcome to the Matrix where nothing is real.

'Jurassic Park' Proves That The PC Won't Die ( ZDNet 2013-04-30 ) Article by J.P. Gownder for Forrester Research. Unfortunately the headline and summary is a bit misleading, it is not a strike against the "PC is Dead" mantra. He seems to imply that the survival of this PC Dinosaur will take a different form, like the alleged Dinosaur to Bird transition, with the PC replaced by whatever form factors survive this Darwinism ... In reality he says nothing here at all. Which is pretty much the stock and trade of analysts these days. Say as little as possible in as many words as possible. We don't need these people to tell us what we already know anyway. The fact of the matter is that there simply are many folks that got PC's because that was the only way to accomplish whatever digital task they had in mind. If there had been smaller form factors all along they would never have used a full PC at home. Game consoles peeled off a lot of people also. Simply put, there are many people who never needed a full PC, it's no mystery. The fact that the smaller form factors are attractive to them is not news, it's only natural. The human failing is when these analysts see an opening to write something they incorrectly believe they understand - and that is that "Oh look, the PC is dead!". What fools. The arrival of Datsun and Toyota did not and could not kill off larger cars and trucks. They were bought by people who never should have had anything bigger all along ( yeah, and some that simply follow trends of course ). The only way the PC will die is if it is killed off, it will not die from lack of interest. That's the real danger of the overpaid underachievers, these so-called analysts. God forbid if people ever listen to them and take them seriously. Because Technological Darwinism would be short-circuited and they would be writing self-fulfilling prophecies. Well at least the article gives me a perfect opportunity to use this graphic I made a while ago ...

Gotta admit that I never knew that "ESC" worked like that, in Firefox, or in Opera I just looked at some pages in Firefox v11 and it definitely does stop page loading dead in its tracks. Removing that feature is asking for trouble from die-hards. Sounds exactly like something Microsoft would do, and the fanboys would cheer them on Anyway, it's nice to see that Opera does also ( tested 11.64 ). Up until now I always just used the red "STOP" button which takes the place of the "RELOAD" button while a page is loading ... ( Top shows a page that is still loading, the bottom shows it complete ) I'm still not sure what that other "STOP" button is for though.

Agreed. McAfee v6 still working on Win9x using current DAT files. See here.

( Sorry, I forgot to post this from about three weeks ago ) UPDATE: Success using DATs v6883 and v7040 with McAfee v6 on Win9x. See above Post #40 for the first time I tried this using DATs v6346 ( has detailed instructions ). See above Post #57 when I tried it again using DATs v6511. See above Post #65 when I tried it again using DATs v6845. Strangely, just three days after I downloaded the 6883 DATs, they updated the FTP servers with 7040, ( only 6883 downloads are shown here ). Note that the time/dates shown for these files reflects the download and extraction. The three downloads that I found ... - 2013-04-06 ... 14:40 ... 110,494,296 ... 6883xdat.exe - 2013-04-06 ... 14:42 ... 108,612,096 ... Avvdat-6883.tar - 2013-04-06 ... 14:43 ... 116,296,064 ... Sdat6883.exe As has been the case, all three packages contain the same three DAT definition files. This was 6883 ... - 2012-11-01 ... 01:40 ....... 727,193 ... Avvclean.dat - 2012-11-01 ... 01:40 ....... 489,337 ... Avvnames.dat - 2012-11-01 ... 01:40 ... 107,382,892 ... Avvscan.dat And here is 7040 ... - 2013-04-09 ... 06:40 ....... 749,177 ... Avvclean.dat - 2013-04-09 ... 06:40 ....... 534,921 ... Avvnames.dat - 2013-04-09 ... 06:40 ... 103,458,908 ... Avvscan.dat As described previously, just strip the "AVV" prefix from the default filenames and replace CLEAN.DAT, NAMES.DAT and SCAN.DAT. Note that the SCAN.DAT actually got smaller between the last two versions. The McAfee scan engines contained in the SDAT package still hasn't been changed ... - 2009-07-31 ... 06:40 ..... 3,182,712 ... Mcscan32.dll - 2009-07-31 ... 06:40 ..... 4,706,936 ... Mscan64a.dll ... so I updated no other files beyond the three DATs. As before, it took a long time for McAfee to initialize and load the DATs, approximately 3 minutes at 2.6 GHz ( likewise when I changed directories to test scan some known infected files ). But all went well and McAfee scanned files and folders successfully once again. See in the screenshot that the main executable McAfee file is VSMAIN.EXE v6.01.2000.1 is dated: 2001-11-16. Over 11 years old. P.S. Maybe the OP should change the title to: Windows 9x/Me Security Thread for 2011 ... 2012 ... 2013 ( or just leave off the date! )