CharlotteTheHarlot

16 million email addresses and passwords in Germany exposed by malware attack ( NeoWin 2014-01-21 ) And the hit parade continues, and continues. Now how can you possibly make matter worse? Easy ... Nothing could possibly go wrong with setting up a single place for everyone to check their email address. Microsoft Office blog compromised by Syrian Electronic Army ( NeoWin 2014-01-20 ) Syrian Electronic Army hacks Microsoft's Office blog hours after redesign goes live ( TechSpot 2014-01-21 ) That's from Brad Sams, who says not to worry, it's not a hack. Note that this a newer and different case, at least the 3rd if you are counting. Also note that this is a Microsoft website, not Twitter. It is http://blogs.office.com/ and they allegedly phished employees ( presumably Microsoft ) to get the passwords or whatever details necessary to hijack the page. One might wonder how that NeoWin article and comments would look if SEA had phished Apple and hijacked one of their websites. What are the chances that Brad and the NeoKids would downplay it? Details of 20 million credit cards stolen and sold in South Korea; arrests made ( NeoWin 2014-01-20 ) Hmmmm, secured data files mere inches away from a USB port, employees with USB flashdrives, what could possibly go wrong? Apparently not even the most rudimentary steps of basic security remain in the public conciousness, even in the minds of network adminstrators. Cyber attack: 750,000 malicious emails traced back to hacked home appliances ( NeoWin 2014-01-20 ) This is NeoWin's coverage of the story from a few days back. They appear to be as wary as we are over connected home appliances, but that is of course for one simple reason ... none of these refrigerators or TV's have a label that says "Microsoft Inside", yet. Since Microsoft is adamant about fighting on every battlefield they will have no choice but to create a Microsoft Tiles edition for home appliances. At that point the NeoWin articles would shift the blame to the stoopid home appliance owner for irresponsibly resisting change and not getting the latest updates and apps from the Microsoft Store. Of course one thing that is hardly mentioned is exactly WHY this is hacking already occurring. It is happening because of the easily duped sheeple being promised and convinced that SMART things are better than anything else, and with that fancy LCD screen on the fridge or apps in that TV comes something called connectivity, usually defaulting to Wi-Fi being automatically on ( I checked our 60 inch Samsung and sure enough it was trying to latch onto Wi-Fi, unsuccessfully because I had both passphrases and MAC white-listing, however what percentage of sheeple do that? Almost none. ) So let's all use our shocked face and act surprised that the megacorps are just now shipping consumer electronics as preconfigured security exploits. Since the TV commercials are starting to trumpet that must-have feature of "controlling and monitoring xxx from your smartphone" where "xxx" is light bulbs, toasters, security cameras, refrigerators and ovens it doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict the immediate future. Maybe we shouldn't have allowed Orwell to be on the elementary school curriculum after all because it seems that the sheeple mistook those warnings for recipes. And we all know where recipes come from ... a cookbook. Sorry to sound so cynical but I can't imagine a way out of this mess. For every person out there with a brain or just with common sense, there appears to be 100 more that have nothing between their ears. Clearly they have us outnumbered, and even if they didn't there is the force multiplier of herds of enablers cheering everything except for common sense, tech media that for the most part couldn't recognize danger if it were shaped like anvil falling off a cliff onto Wile E Coyote's head, and of course the Big Data empires that will proceed down any path as long as there is the promise of cash along the way. I'm sure our government protectors will save us, NOT. These new avenues are welcome additions to their spook toolbox. What about the fed bureaucrats? Doubtful, the FTC will make a manufacturer put warning labels on hammers and cigarettes but would never anticipate danger from a remotely controlled oven or toaster. Face it, Humanity is Doomed.

Google Glass owner wears it to AMC movie theater; claims federal agents came to remove him (Update) ( NeoWin 2014-01-21 ) Naturally being a Google product the article spawns comments from NeoKids who are very fast to support the action. Doesn't matter at all to them that the scope here includes federales and national security! One NeoKid even trolls the thread saying it's fake until the article got updated ... Uggh. This incident neatly pulls together not one, not two, but three pressing issues often discussed here now. They are Technology, Intellectual Property, National Security. Specifically this one shows the misuse of the National Security apparatus to protect a super-lobbying favorite son of the powers-that-be in DC ( the District of Criminals ), the Hollywood Mafia. Ironically, in one way it pits one lobby against the other ( Hollywood vs. Google ), but not really because Google is not well represented here, the federal wolves pounced upon a lone sheeple I mean citizen. To me the biggest danger is in allowing any government entity to become the security guard for any private industry, no matter how much they lobby. If your product is so ephemeral that it cannot be protected by ordinary means, tough luck. Meanwhile, enablers can still be counted on to pop up and lend verbal support for the fascist actions that are no longer rare and far-fetched. Nest CEO Tony Fadell pledges that all privacy changes will be announced, opt-in only ( NeoWin 2014-01-21 ) Recall that Google bought "Nest", opening up new avenues for them to exploit inside the home, and this rightly worries a lot of people ... Well that statement has openings so wide that you could drive a truck through. See the concurrent story about LogMeIn for a fine example. Chrome bug allows websites to continue listening to conversations after you close the tab ( TechSpot 2014-01-22 ) ~sigh~ I'll just echo the feelings of one of the commenters: "It's not a bug, it's a feature...NSA paid them to implement it. "

Another item I saw mentioned over at TechBroil : ... Microsoft Offers To Pay YouTubers To Positively Promote Xbox One ( Cinemablend 2014-01-18 ) Now if you go to YouTube and search for the string "XB1M13" you will find some videos posted already. For example: FIFA 14: Ultimate Team Roulette - Episode 3 (Great Pack Player) XB1M13. And some people are already trolling the poster, sometimes viciously ... Oh my. I don't know which is worse, Microsoft purchasing bad publicity, or the fools that stepped into this for $3. Even with all the other fails in the past several years I still can't believe Microsoft would do a dishonest stealth campaign ( dishonest because they did not insist on a "Sponsored By Microsoft" disclaimer ). What are the NeoKids gonna do after hammering others like EA for similar stunts and Samsung for benchmarks? Indeed, that $3 is going to be the hardest $3 these YouTubers ever earned. ... But hold on ... now the story is getting around ... Microsoft reportedly paying off popular YouTubers to promote Xbox One ( TechSpot 2014-01-21 ) Microsoft paying YouTubers to mention Xbox One in their videos ( NeoWin 2014-01-21 ) Note that the fanboys in the comments at NeoWin and elsewhere are having a very difficult time justifying this one. "Oh, it's just advertising" is not getting traction since it clearly has no "Sponsored by Microsoft" disclaimer. This is astroturfing, plain and simple. That new, additional detail about secrecy reported in the NeoWin article is incredibly dumb IMHO. The most amazing thing to me is that anyone could possibly believe that they could get away with a stealth campaign today. We should have a special category of punishment, call it a jack*ss law, that addresses But wait, there's even more now ... another twist to the story ... Microsoft: We didn't know details about Machinima-Xbox One YouTube contracts ( NeoWin 2014-01-22 ) So that's that. I imagine it is possible that they were in fact unaware of what this outfit was doing and the details of the contract, but that does not end their responsibility. Microsoft has deals with lots of "partners" and they ( and other companies like them ) would have us believe that they don't have a ton of legalese in those deals that outline what these companies can do? Not a chance. I guarantee they are full of morality clauses as company reputation is no laughing matter. Certainly there are those at Microsoft responsible for hiring these partners, monitoring them, and keeping them working within company approved parameters. Identify these employees and fire them. Not doing this means you are willing to have a built-in self-destruct mechanism that can detonate at anytime. They are like cancer cells. Astroturfing is a real issue because it is very dishonest, and possibly illegal in some places ... - Give Yourself 5 Stars? Online, It Might Cost You ( New York Times 2013-09-22 ) - New York Attorney General sets up sting operation to crackdown on fake online reviews ( TechSpot 2013-09-23 ) I personally do suspect that Microsoft intentionally funds or gives tacit approval to all the Astroturfing seen in the wake of Windows 8. In fact it appears to me to be an intentional strategy ever since Vista when I first became suspicious and aggravated by this phenomenon. When used against constructive criticism it has the terrible effect of enabling mistakes and errors. If the company sees criticism balanced out by fake compliments then they have absolutely no chance of making sound decisions. Needless to say it is not just Microsoft either, because I noticed a similar thing in the Opera forums where possibly paid fanboys derailed so many threads about their browser development ( bugs, wish-lists, removed features, etc ). Enablers are among the worst examples of human beings, just look at alcoholics and drug addicts and criminals that never hear the word "no", are never questioned, never exposed to common sense.

Games for Windows Live will soon be dead (hooray!), here's a list of devs removing it from their games ( PC Gamer 2014-01-19 ) Hardcore gamers despised GFWL even more than the console movement. It's easy to understand, PC's with fast advanced multi-core processors, ever increasing GPU graphics and capabilities, hugely expanded local storage, motherboards with more I/O bandwidth and connections than the space shuttle, and instead of exploring these new frontiers the industry turned inward with DRM, stores, lock-in, clouds, restrictions. They literally did the exact opposite given the technology, turning inward because they fancied themselves as the next Big Media conglomerates parceling out products bit by bit. Hence articles and comments such as this. Now these remaining holdouts ( Dead Rising, Resident Evil, GoW, etc ) will have to decide where to go from here. Advice: don't p*ss off the real gamers anymore. You have a chance to make things right now. Microsoft Xbox #Fail ( John Dvorak PC Magazine 2014-01-08 ) Article from well over a month ago. As you can imagine, it spawned quite a comment war with all three factions on the battlefield - Playstation, Xbox, and everyone else ( PC Gamers, other platforms, non-aligned ).

HP Cites "Popular Demand" for Bringing Windows 7 Back ( Maximum PC 2014-01-20 ) HP brings Windows 7 back 'by popular demand' ( TechSpot 2014-01-21 ) HP Bringing Back Windows 7 'By Popular Demand' ( Tom's Hardware 2014-01-21 ) Coverage of the HP and Windows 7 news from three more sites. Interesting that a couple of fanboy shills with similar arguments drop by each and every thread where this story appears. I saw this one mentioned over at TechBroil ... Dear HP: Running From the Future Doesn't Help Anyone ( Gizmodo 2014-01-19 ) Seeing how he hits all the common memes, this author should apply for a job at NeoWin ( if his self-photo is accurate he is about the right age for the NeoKids ). The replies are great as he gets skewered for his accidental or intentional shilling. One of his replies back is: "The issue isn't HP giving the people what they want; it's HP setting the whole thing up in a way that nudges undecideds toward the dying OS instead of the one that's going to survive, whether they've expressed any preference or not.". I find that funny because using the term "dying" is so misplaced. Maybe Windows 7 is on death-row slated for planned execution, in that case it would be a victim of murder. Normally that is "dying" but condemned. "Dying" is usually reserved for something about to die from inevitability, perhaps natural causes like old age, perhaps a self-inflicted wound like suicide. That word seems better applied to Windows 8 if you ask me. Or maybe a better description is stillborn. Regardless, Microsoft Tiles is now about 4 years old since conception during the introduction of the iPad, which ironically was the age of Windows 7 just last year when it finally became clear that Microsoft was obsolescing it prematurely ( no more sales, apparently no more service packs ). Therefore isn't time for change? Shouldn't MetroTards now step aside and embrace the future? Could Windows 9 Come This Year? ( Tom's Hardware 2014-01-20 ) Windows 9 could reach RTM as early as October ( NeoWin 2014-01-21 ) Rather than waiting another year to untangle the Windows 8 catastrophe this would be a very logical step toward redemption. Therefore I don't believe it. Bill Gates says he will never come back to Microsoft full time ( NeoWin 2014-01-21 ) Well if Ballmer is really going to exit the board ( as that story from yesterday has stated ) then billg could hardly function as CEO without someone on the board to rubber stamp him. We'll have to see how this all plays out but the signs point to a completely new NuMicrosoft in short order. One without its major shareholder anywhere to be found and the other just showing up to "help out part time". If you believe that Ballmer was the core of all the failures and that billg rubber stamped the mistakes then this must all be good news. However, we know from Softies that there is a terrible atmosphere among employees and a obese layer of middle management fat that sows discontent and stifles real innovation. This looks more like re-arranging the deck chairs.

Yes, AV == Antivirus Try to find in the Bit Defender program interface the disable setting, it will complain and warn you about turning it off but you need to do that and any associated anti-phishing, anti-malware, system protection, also. We are trying to disable all "realtime" components of the AV. Usually this setting gives an option of turning it off for an hour, or until next reboot, or forever. Select forever and just remember to re-enable it when you are all done. With those disabled, you should reboot a couple of times and see if you notice any better performance in startup ( time it ). Also check out hibernate. And repeat the process of Chkdsk to see if it now works correctly. I would then move to Safe Mode without Networking ( and turn off the Wi-Fi ) and check all those things again. We're shaking the tree here to see what falls out. These are the low hanging fruit ( AV software and hangs from Wi-Fi ). All it sometimes takes is buggy NIC drivers ( Broadcomm or other Ethernet driver ) or almost any kind of AV software to interfere with normal Windows processes to cause lags and hangs. I don't use hibernate but it seems logical that it is related to a possible disk problem as it writes out the RAM contents to the disk, yet sleep would still function normally. But there are other things short of a bad disk that might interfere. For example there might be power saving settings that spin down the disk after a period of time, and maybe that was the case coincidentally just when you decided to hibernate? I always kill that setting and tell the power option to never do anything to the disk(s). You can check that setting and disable it. Another possibility is that a hot system might cause a laptop to idle the HDD or CPU and this could cause a long hibernate process. Rule this out by putting the laptop on a strong cooler.

You need to get through a successful Chkdsk, that's for sure. By the way, what does "I tried reinstalling chkdsk" mean? Is that supposed to be that you ran Chkdsk and set it to run on next boot? One sure way to check the disk ( pardon the pun ) is to have a 2nd computer around, with a 2.5" adapter for laptop drives, and run the HDD in there as a slaved drive. It can now be scanned with the other computer's Chkdsk and also malware tools. Most likely you have a ton of services and process loading at bootup which explains the late and slow loading of the touchpad software and also messing with restart/sleep/hib. I would bet you have a antivirus app loading before that Synaptics and it is messing with it as well as dragging down overall performance as well. In fact it might even be blocking you from setting Chkdsk ( some of them have been known to watch the AutoChk registry key and other well known startup areas for changes and revert them ). Other ideas ... You didn't mention what OS, and AV software, is it an administrator account, and did you try running with AV completely disabled? Can you disable Wi-Fi ( and/or Celluar ) to rule it out from startup/shutdown delays? You can try Safe Mode *without* networking also. Is this on battery or AC outlet? Heat can be a problem too. I like to rule that out by setting the laptop on a fan pad ( cooler ) on full blast during testing. Either way, you definitely have to get a successful full Chkdsk accomplished, for the simple reason that its a new HDD and could certainly be defective, and you will want to exchange it ( if bad ) during the warranty timeframe. After that is done I would audit everything that autostarts and remove everything that is not necessary.

No problem. Take your time!

How did you determine i865 ( or was it a typo ) ? i865 is not a Pentium III era chipset. Can you get photos of the motherboard? To identify this properly you should get a wide shot photo of the whole board, closeups of the text lettering, and one of the back I/O panel. Also a photo of one of the RAM sticks. How did you determine the CPU is Pentium III? Is the CPU a slot mount or normal socket mount? There are many Celerons ( and all kinds of early pre-2004 chips ) that do not read correctly in CpuZ and require the Intel DOS utility ( can't remember the name now ).

Well that disc "for distribution with a new pc" describes an typical factory OEM distribution disc ( of various colors and *no* hologram ). It is labeled with the manufacturer of the PC it came with ( you haven't mentioned this OEM name yet, somewhere on the disc will be Hewlett Packard or Compaq or Dell etc ). The service pack of the disc is not that important if it is at least SP1 ( which you said it is ) because that one or newer will work on later HDD's ( except for SATA which is another different concern ). You also need to provide more details about this computer. Since you said "no idea" I am assuming it is NOT an OEM system at all ( they are prominently branded ), so it must be a home-built unit ( unless someone stuck a Dell or HP into a 3rd party case? ). To find out what you have you'll need to examine the motherboard, look for large lettering right on the board itself and takes some photos and maybe someone can identify it for you which should lead you to the proper drivers. Keep in mind that working from all these assumptions, I'm sorry to say that it does NOT look like you can use this disc for this computer in any way. As homebuilt computer will simply not contain the information in the BIOS that the OEM disc requires ( and any discussion of bypassing this is not allowed ). So you would need to get yourself either a legal Windows XP "full retail" or "System Builder" version ( it must include a hologram disc AND a sticker AND a code or else it is likely counterfeit so be careful ). Furthermore, there are several hardware issues you should be aware of. Pentium III processors ( except for the absolute last few over 1 GHz ) are going to be painful with Windows XP. In general Win9x and Win2k are a much much better fit ( even the first generation Pentium 4 Willamette sucked on Windows XP! ). Also, the BIOS and chipsets of this era were IMHO crappy. Although some disagree, I cannot recommend the i810 and i815 or any Via models. I use year approximately 2001 as the cutoff for systems I can tolerate, after the Y2k fixes were made and after the HDD UDMA transition was complete. We went through several HDD issues in the BIOS's pre-2000 and all *except* for the LBA issue were pretty much solved around Y2k. IMHO, at i845 the computers got more reliable because of all the fixes, the chipsets did much more onboard and the software drivers simply got better. The consequence of this is that the earlier the chipset, the lower the probability that a newer HDD would even be recognized or be used at its faster speed ( you don't want to be stuck in PIO mode on a UDMA HDD, it is like running a modern computer stuck in SAFE MODE or "Compatibility Mode" slow motion ). And there's more. The older the chipset the less RAM they could manage. The best case scenario is that the system you have uses plain old SDRAM ( DDR came later, I think 2003 ) and as if that's not bad enough, there were limits on RAM size per slot ( one computer could use up to 32 MB per stick, another 64 MB, another 256 MB ), mixing and matching was also a hit or miss possibility. The reason this is important is that most people will agree that Windows XP requires lots more RAM than originally specified to run well, I would say a minimum of 512 MB personally. Less than that means more disk swapping and combined with a possibly slow HDD means the whole experience will simply be horrible. So you just might wind up successfully locating a legal WinXP retail disc but not even be able to use it. Totally my opinion, but I would suggest you try to find nothing older than an i865 system with USB 2, socket 478 Northwood CPU or newer, and at least 80/120 GB HDD ( again, SATA adds a new but not impossible headache for Windows XP ). Such systems are typically thrown away here in the USA, even later ones, I'm sure there must be a way you can obtain something better if you want to play with Windows XP. Unless you have some more info we haven't seen to change these assumptions then it's probably best to keep that old board for Win9x or Win2k.

But you would be a good routers seller . The funny thing is, if all the sheeple that bring me infected ( mostly Windows 7 ) computers listened to this advice I would have nothing to do! I'd be my own worst enemy.

Don't take this the wrong way, but the discs need to be legal of course, preferably the distribution disc. The retail version ( and system builder ) will come with an activation code. The OEM discs that came with OEM computers do not have a code which leads to the question of what code would you even enter for that one? Normally you don't need a code ( on retailed purchased OEM system ) since the disc install routine installs with a generic key you never see and when you go to activate it picks up the OEM status and proceeds without prompting for a key ( the disc routine verifies that the proper string exists in the computer BIOS ). I guess there must be other variations but that's the most painless way possible. Maybe you are using the wrong disc for the computer? Actually you haven't said enough to make any real suggestions. Type of computer, real description of the discs, Windows XP sticker on the computer. A homebuilt computer requires a legal retail or system builder version of Windows XP ( comes with a hologram disc and sticker and code ). Any exception to that rule would and should never be discussed here. You *will* need to enter the long code during install unless you create a pre-activated disc using your own legal code ( and later service pack and whatever customizing, see Nlite ). A manufacturer computer has a sticker and came with a corresponding re-install distribution disc ( at least early on, but later that might not be true ). Many times I have had to locate the equivalent OEM disc ( sometimes this is easy as many Dells are interchangeable, sometimes not so easy ). In that case the first concern is Home or Pro ( see the sticker ) and secondarily the same date, or perhaps newer ( because they may have changed the generic key, and may have expanded their allowable list of BIOS coded systems that a later disc can install on legally ). This reminds me of all the warnings Microsoft received about going down this path in the first place with Office XP and then Windows XP. We knew they were going to mix up versions ( Home/Pro SKU hell ) and methods ( WPA hardware voting versus BIOS SLP ) and then you add in Service Packs and multinational concerns ( then finally 32/64 and Win2k3) and you have this kind of fun. Yay. Not content with the relatively small selection in XP they went hog wild in Vista+, but at least they squeezed all the SKU's onto single disc ( keeping 32/64 separate though ).

Pro is better. But are they OEM or retail discs? Look for the Dell or Compaq or whatever printing on the distribution disc. Microsoft discs have hologram graphics. You see, if the computer is an OEM machine ( e.g., Dell ) then you really should use the version that came with it ( specified on the sticker ) so that you benefit from the pre-activated state ( usually ) and the lack of hardware change worries that the retail and system builder versions of Windows XP included. Naturally the WinXP discs might be RTM ( or SP1 or SP2 ) so there's something else to worry about, particularly if the computer has a recent large HDD which I believe cannot safely partition the drive. So there are some things besides version to consider.

From what I have read there is no local patching of Windows or MSIE or even the WU components in this fix. They appear to have just modified their checklist of allowable updates on their end. In short, the WU logic just skips past the problem ( and this could have been solved with a simple timeout but WU has never been shy about taking its time ). The MSIE update tree was apparently a real mess ( "IF msie == v6 AND they have MSKB-xxx OR MSKB-xxx" ) and since the thing spans MSIE 6 thru 8 and all the associated updates over 13 years you can imagine the code logic involved. As I said, this would be simple if they hadn't integrated MSIE so far into Windows with dependencies in both directions ( MSIE should be OS agnostic, AND Windows should never hardcode to using MSIE except maybe for WU itself ). That last part is funny, having MSIE as the only method to use WU means that they walk a tightrope of distributing updates for the very mechanism that is required to get the updates in the first place. If they are not careful this could very well set off a paradox that causes the universe to collapse. BTW I shouldn't have used fixed on "their Website", it is more accurate to say "fixed on their end" meaning on a server of theirs that the WU components query for allowable updates and prerequisites.

About "Error Reporting" ... this thread mentions Windows XP so it is absolutely un-necessary to have that feature enabled since nothing is ever going to come of any crash reports sent to Microsoft. Indeed they could use the reports as a clue as to how to kill Windows XP even quicker if they were so inclined. Moreover, there are reports now of Error Reports being potentially used by hackers to identify exploitable bugs. Truthfully I don't know if this has been completely fleshed out ( i.e., does disabling the feature in the GUI or killing the service actually stop Watson from actually writing the file or just transmitting it ). But I think killing "Error Reporting" is a step in the right direction on Windows XP, though you are probably right that it isn't a critical security checklist feature with what we know so far. About Routers ... they are not incoming only, perhaps such devices exist but I have never seen one. Even in the simplest firmware there are broad parental controls, but there is much more than that on most. You easily can manage your network per chassis ( via MAC ) or as a monolith blocking outbound comm via ports, protocols, services, or to specific sites by address or even using keywords found on a site *** ( good for parents, you can drive your know-it-all computer geek kids crazy ). The point is that the Router ( HUB/Firewall/Wi-Fi ) is truly a configurable I/O firewall these days, and is absolutely vital. And perhaps the most important reason of all is that all filtering/blocking/logging/everything is done off the computer, hence no computer CPU or I/O bandwidth or storage or anything is ever spent. Anything accomplished there is a "freebie" ( well after you spend the $50 ) that spares computer resources and performance. There is no software firewall or any kind of software that can do anything without using the computer resources and must by definition lower performance. Routers should be viewed are kind of a home super-PBX that deals with all incoming/outgoing comm traffic but with value-added features like wireless and details management, or, they can simply be seen as a super filter standing between the broadband modem and the computer/network. Truthfully I cannot imagine a single good reason to NOT have one considering what is going on these days. DISCLAIMER: I do NOT sell routers. *** that last example, "block site by keywords" obviously has an inbound component to it as well. Indeed it is almost splitting hairs talking about Inbound/Outbound since they actually overlap. A good router design should block the outgoing comm to a banned site so that the request never gets there ( better for the overall Internet too ) rather than sending the request to the banned site and then blocking the received pages. I think the only difference to the end-user will be what error page or feedback they receive. Kind of interesting subject though ( "What is the best way to do this kind of thing?" ).

Yesterday, or in the last 12-20 hours or so the board was slow as can be. At this writing it is fast as ever. Some kind of maintenance or maybe something done at Invision?

Microsoft finally fixes Windows XP SVCHOST bug ( NeoWin 2014-01-18 ) Really sloppy journalism from NeoWin and a downright deceptive excuse from the Softie. This is NOT a "a bug in Windows XP" and it is some kinda twisted logic to say that it "caused SVCHOST to push the CPU of a PC up to 100 percent usage". What's worse is that the Softie beats all around the bush until he finally says: "reducing the time Windows Update requires to check ...". In a nutshell, it is the Windows Update components and the Microsoft WU site at fault since they fail to communicate efficiently because of no sanity checking ( a simple timeout would do ). The mere fact that the fix was made to their WU website, pulling MSIE updating from their checklist completely exonerates Windows XP from being the culprit! Ultimately the problem is twofold, the wildly erratic and painfully slow Windows Update architecture, and the ridiculous design of MSIE itself being buried in Windows like a parasitic tick instead of being a compartmentalized unit that can be updated in mere seconds like Opera. Windows Phone growth continues with December 2013 reaching new heights ( NeoWin 2014-01-19 ) Embarrassingly amateur attempt even by NeoWin standards at inventing news from Brad Sams again, and you have to see it to believe it. His thesis is that ... But instead of showing this proof he pastes in three graphs of "Interest Over Time" sourced from Google Trends ... Got that? Trends of searches. So what about that proof of growth? ... Ummm, that's not how your article started Brad, and the assertion made at the top remains unproven. You guys are really reaching for anything that can be twisted into good news! EDIT: mixed up quote tags

NeoWin saw it ... HP promotes Windows 7 PCs sales; says they are "back by popular demand" ( NeoWin 2014-01-19 ) The author of this article credits someone in their forums here who apparently posted the HP advertisemnt yesterday evening, so I guess he had it first. Pretty tame thread so far with but a couple of lectures from NeoKids on how their toys are better than ours. Report: Ballmer likely to resign from Microsoft board when new CEO announced ( NeoWin 2014-01-19 ) That's what some would call a bloodbath. However it is very hard to believe this will ever happen. In a year or two Ballmer will be the largest MSFT shareholder on the planet, more than even Bill Gates, and if he wants a seat he gets a seat. Something is fishy here, it must just be posturing to assure the next CEO that he won't be hamstrung by the board.

I'm guessing they will see it by other means already, but if anyone wants to stir it up ( ) they should feel free to use that linked image courtesy of Jorge now mirrored at IMGUR. Of course NeoWin is not a site that allows images in comments but the link can be dropped. Or someone can use it in a Tweet and then paste the Tweet there ( roundabout method ). Jorge, definitely open an IMGUR account ( you can even have more than one which is necessary for me because of only a couple hundred images limit in each one last I checked ). It's pretty good. Their web based interface for upload/sideload images into your space is the best of all the sites I use. The only other limitation I found so far is that you cannot replace an existing image ( you upload a new one that gets a new URL ) this means that if I need to go correct a mistake in one that I posted I will have to edit that post and use the new URL. However they do have in place editing using their own imaging tools, but that is very limited. If you need help just PM me or start a thread and we can flesh out the details. It's never perfectly intuitive for people new to it, but in a nutshell you create subfolders ( even this is optional, you can just pile everything into the root folder called "All Images" if you want ) then you select that folder, then you either click "Computer" ( upload from the PC ) or "Web" ( sideload from the net ), paste the path or URL, click "Save". The image appears in a slot, click right on it to get into the links box, then you click on the URL underneath BBCode and copy it for use in forums like this. EDIT: forgot to mention, it is totally free, but you can buy more space and other stuff, I use free accounts myself

I'm not sure if that Web page exists outside of e-mails or dedicated pages for H-P customers. There's a long string of characters in the second half of the URL, which undoubtedly are used to identify the recipient; changing them leads to an error when trying to reload the page. The image I uploaded is from a screenshot that I took of the e-mail, then cropped to show the important stuff (and to leave out the private info). --JorgeA Okay I mirrored it for you here ... http://i.imgur.com/ddwPKJl.jpg Some NeoWin writers will notice this soon and you will see an article eventually, complete with a "We contacted Microsoft for comment ...". It is inevitable considering most of the non-news that gets mentioned over there. Then stand back and Let the bloodletting begin.

That picture alone will cause a meltdown at NeoWin and The Verge Tribe. Buy Lithium futures. We have to get that thing posted over there! Do you have any external links to it? ( looks like you uploaded it here ). Public Service Announcement for friends in need ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_of_depression

Well we got a another 6 inches from that highly publicized storm, but what happened was that the weather forecast was completely wrong as usual, in fact it was backwards. They said a foot of snow followed by subzero freezing hell. Actually we got the frigid blast before the snow, getting down to -3 degrees F and then the snow came ( which I think helped to limit the total somewhat ). Then it went to -10 F for the following night/day and staying in the zero range for most of three days in a row but only with light fluffy mountain skiing type snow to shovel and plow. 8 inches in total. However, everything was so fragile that you could break a window or a tree branch or vinyl or plastic just by brushing against it. No blackouts thankfully, but a lot of dead cars including one of ours ( electricity loves cold but liquid chemicals in a battery do not ) which got in the way of a medical issue of someone close to us. Friends and neighbors helped as usual thankfully. No matter how advanced everything gets with fancy phones and tablets, we are always going to find ourselves out in the cold with jumper cables starting a car, or teaming up to push them off the road, throwing rock salt all over the place, checking on shut-in neighbors, digging out snow-plow walls, etc. Been doing this exact same thing for over 50 years with no difference whatsoever from then to now. It's an amazing constant in the universe. I seriously envy my friends in Las Vegas, Florida, California and Hawaii right now. Naturally they would have a gag order so no-one would ever know! However I wouldn't follow it, so they can shove it right on up their arse while I plead the First Amendment. Should they throw me in jail I'll plead the Eighth Amendment. Ironically if these Constitutional matters ever really get tested in court, all the perps will end up pleading the Fifth Amendment. Then the people will have no choice but to rise up and plead the Second Amendment. Wait a minute, someone's at the door ...

Yeah, I should have said it like this ... - Put the computer behind a Broadband Router ( Network Hub + Hardware Firewall with NAT + Wi-Fi ) Security wise it is important because many packets will never even get to the computer in the first place as the hardware firewall tosses them away, which should actually increase overall performance since the computer CPU and Windows no longer has to handle them. Let the crappy Windows or 3rd party software firewall deal with whatever remains. It's also nice to have logs to look at and also to have the ability to manually jump into the router firmware to do things that are normally a pain in Windows ( parental lock, site blocking, port forwarding, whatever ). Goodbye Facebook. Since pretty much all routers combine a hardware firewall, a network hub, and Wi-Fi all in one, it is simply crazy to not plunk down the $50 or $100 and get one ASAP. They have become even more useful as time has passed. For example I still come across people who are sitting in their house blabbing on their cellphones using cellular rather than Wi-Fi even though their phone can easily do it. A router is a vital device in the home today.

More ... - Turn off Remote Assistance - Turn off Error Reporting - Turn off uPnP ... and most important of all ... - Put the computer behind a Router

Just finally read through it ( I wonder if Paul gets dizzy from all the ping-ponging back and forth on this issue ). Two favorite comments ... Unfortunately the vast majority of them are unlike those two, and could easily be posting at NeoWin given their shock that the rest of the world doesn't want to play along with them in their sandbox. Lots of suggestions of doing this and that, but almost none suggest the simple concept of choice. Meanwhile the Microsoft behemoth slogs along at an IBM glacial pace and in 2015 will finally after nearly 4 years of warnings and criticism have the product we told them about from the very beginning of this saga! Actually, they'll still get it wrong somehow.