bpalone

Now, back to a bit of reality... Entire article can be read here: http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/03/04/f-secure-android-accounted-97-mobile-malware-2013-0-1-google-play/ The above doesn't sound to good to those that say that Linux can't or doesn't get viruses, since Android is based upon Linux. However, as we all know, any OS is vulnerable and as has been stated here and elsewhere the real weak link is the user. Most all attacks are delivered by social engineering and I don't see that changing any time in the future. The other thing is, Android owns the mobile platform market, so it would only make sense that it was the most abused or infected system. bpalone

To lighten things up a bit.... The entire article can be read here: http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-1-10-americans-html-std-study-finds-20140304,0,1188415.story#axzz2v1PZtzMZ I think I now understand how some people really think that Windows 8/8.1 is so great. But, to be fair, every industry has its inside acronyms that if you are not aware of them are nothing but Greek to you. Just thought everyone might enjoy a chuckle. bpalone

No truer words ever spoken! I really enjoyed the video, thanks TELVM. bpalone

The above is the entire notice found at: http://flexcoin.com/ Now, is this all the work of hackers? Or, is it the work of a Government or Governments, to keep control over currency and keep their citizens from putting anything out of the country or out of control of the respective government? Just a thought I had when I read the above. Most governments do not like barter or anything that they can not track and/or control. bpalone

From The Verge: Microsoft experimenting with free version of Windows 8.1I guess that if we can't convince you to buy it, maybe we can get you to take it for free. The entire article is here: http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/28/5456374/windows-8-1-with-bing-experiment To me, it almost sounds like desperation time. But, then I back off and try to be objective. At which point, I can almost start to see some reasons for them wanting to monetize the Cloud aspect of their current business. The ARM CPU is quietly taking over the processor position in a large number of devices. Almost all mobile devices such as telephones and tablets, and the OS war is already over there. It is starting to appear in the server room and I even think I have seen things about some moves to the desktop. So, could we be watching the move from one platform to another and Microsoft is trying really hard not to be left out? bpalone

Any time you add code, you are running the risk of introducing NEW bugs and/or opening up new possible exploits. The more more complex the software, the higher the odds are of inadvertently introducing an undesired effect. To many things dependent upon other things and changing one thing may fix one item and create 10 other items. So, yes it is possible, but Microsoft should do a reasonable shakedown on any patch to minimize the possibility of creating new issues. However, their engineers are also human, so things do happen. bpalone

You might try looking around in the Open Office or Libre Office (the fork of Open Office and probably a little more feature rich) forums for some advice on doing a large scale conversion. I just did a quick Google search and found this that might help or lead you on a path to a solution: http://shuvalov.com/convert-html-doc-rtf-etc-to-sxw-and-pdf-through-openoffice-in-command-line/ good luck. bpalone edit to fix ds typo

Yippee, she gets to ruin several more Microsoft user interfaces... --JorgeA EDIT: funny typo Took the words right out of my mouth. That was exactly the first thought that came to my mind when I started reading your post. bpalone

My first reaction was a maybe, then I went and read some about it. Short answer --- No. Looks to be geared more towards the smart phone crowd and by using that device alone, those that are watching probably know what they are going to send before they even type it. Secondly, you and your recipient's IP address is well known by anyone that cares to be watching. Besides, who knows who is footing the bill for this FREE service. For all we know it could be one of the alphabet agencies or a collaborative effort. bpalone fix typo

First the Headline: And then some quotes from within the article: Entire article can be read here: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2014/022014-microsoft-lync-nsa-278925.html?hpg1=bn I would think that they are having enough of a trust problem after the preceding year or so of leaked spook information. Then, they have to come out beating their chest telling everyone just how wonderful their product(s) are at spying on the very people they expect to buy their products. Doesn't make a lot of sense. As for the underlying issue of collecting data. I don't know that it is so much just Microsoft, but more of an overall technology thing/issue. It is more of a moral issue, as there are many valid reasons to have the data available to review, such as making sure that you or your employer/client are not getting hosed by whomever. The moral and ethical issue is, just what do you do with that data? Not so many years ago, no one would had any trouble properly answering that question. But, today, society in general has lost its moral compass and the question has become much harder for the people in charge to answer correctly. In this era of LARGE DATA, we have to expect some minor abuses, but we should not have to accept the gross abuses we have seen lately. I also doubt that it has just been going on for the last few years. Those who run and thrive in the spook shops are by nature a bit paranoid, they have to be. However, there needs to be some adult supervision in order to keep them in bounds. We as the people sheeple, can do things to keep most of our data mostly private and should do so. We also have to accept that a certain amount of information is going to be lying around and that it can certainly be abused. Just try your best to not let it be to incriminating. bpalone edit for clarity

Full article here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-22/microsoft-said-to-cut-windows-price-70-to-counter-rivals.html I truly wonder what it is like in the halls at the Redmond headquarters. They would probably like a do-over. My guess is that the new management is truly hoping that they can get a more tolerable version out the door before everyone defects. Let's see, you can buy 7 and 8 inch Android tablets all day long for $100 or less. Then if they want to compete there, they expect the vendor to spend 15%, or greater, of the sale price (retail) just to offer a Microsoft OS. I don't see it happening, but it may appear a bit in the higher end tablets going for the $200 area, but still have doubts. bpalone P.S. to Jaclaz, I loved the picture of my yard.

You cheesy dated hater living in the past, get on with The Program!! --JorgeA I guess that did forget to put in there - - "Get Off My Lawn!!" bpalone

Well everybody, it is not just Microsoft... Ubuntu headed off down this path before Microsoft did and if you use Distro Watch as a barometer, you will see the result. They used to be the undisputed number one distro, but not today. The fine folks at Gnome made the same mistake and they too have fallen from grace. Here is a headline that just appeared, that maybe is an indication that maybe, just maybe, the world is regaining some modicum of USER INTERFACE INTELLIGENCE. The whole article can be read here: http://www.muktware.com/2014/02/ubuntu-14-04-brings-back-menus-application-windows/21472 It isn't just the OS providers either. I had to get the wife a computer with Windows 7 on it for some program she needed. It came with a newish version of Firefox on it and it took me at least 5 minutes to figure out how to get to the settings menu, because there was no OBVIOUS way to get there from a MENU bar. The children and the non-productive have taken over the user interface design teams. Most of us, that value our time, set up a browser to go to the place we most usually head to when we launch it. We don't waste time at the DEFAULT screen it is delivered with (which is where I had to be to be able get a settings menu). Disclaimer: I don't like any version of Windows beyond 2K. XP is tolerable, but not liked and anything after that is totally useless. Now, that is my opinion and I know there are many who don't share it. But, I also wanted to let everyone know that I might be just a bit biased. bpalone edit for typo

Now, it just may be me, but it seems like the PC makers (and the consumers) wanted Windows 7. Or, was it just a coincidence that these items/quotes appeared at about the same time? bpalone

From JeorgeA above: I would add, and allow the user to set a default and not have to choose every time they boot up. Do something like grub does, give you a few seconds to choose another option, then go into the default if no choice is made. In other words, give the poor user some control over their system. After all, they have chosen to use your OS and by doing so have acknowledged that the OS maker and various alphabet groups are going to be reviewing the content of the system. So, at least make the user feel like they have at least a tiny bit of control. bpalone

By "making" do you mean extracting from the distribution disc? In that case, yes for Windows 2000 which is pretty much the same as XP in disc layout and file formats, but definitely not for Win98SE or Win98 whose *.xx_ drivers were using one of the COMPRESS variations, and you used EXPAND. On Win95 and OSR the driver files were not compressed IIRC, just sitting there as normal. I can't remember WinME, or if it even had the full set of drivers like Win98, I think not, actually. Naturally we're talking only about the driver files and not the Windows files which were always included in CAB containers for every version of Win9x. They were all in MSZIP format and mercifully can be opened by just about anything out there. By making I was thinking more along the lines of going in reverse, from say XP to 98SE. Using the files for a starting base. But, what do I know? Except the alphabet groups are watching. bpalone

Silly question, and a bit OT, but not badly. Could a similar approach be used for making a driver for say 98SE or 2K? Not that I need one, now anyway, but someone else might be facing an issue with a newer printer or something else. The thought came to mind when I first read this thread. Thanks, bpalone

Satya Nadella Named Microsoft CEO A quote from the article: The emphasized portion above leads me to think that Windows as we have known it is going to be a thing of the past. Yes they are back tracking at the moment, but if my memory serves me correctly, they have back tracked in the past, only to baby step us to where they wanted us to begin with. His comments about "cloud-first world" is the clincher for me. The entire article can be read here: http://slashdot.org/topic/cloud/satya-nadella-named-microsoft-ceo/ Just noticed that the PR folks must of had a go at the email before he sent it out. The wording of portions just sound to good to be true. bpalone

You might want to consider some other FREE alternatives. Mozilla's Thunderbird is a decent free email client that I have used for years on both Windows and Linux. I am not sure, but I think that it can import your setting and mail from Outlook. Maybe someone can chime in with a definitive answer to that. There are other free email clients available, so don't just consider the one I use. Do a Google for email clients and you will have plenty to look at. bpalone

That is the correct answer. I was assuming you were not going to be changing anything other than just repairing/reinstalling XP. Speaking of that, be careful with using Vendors installation media. I don't know if they did during the XP era, but I had an instance with a Windows 7 reinstallation that it took the ENTIRE disk without even asking. I had pre-partitioned it to have a Linux partition and a NTFS Windows partition. No data loss, just some time, but I was not a happy camper. So to repeat myself: 1.) Make backups. 2.) See Rule Number 1. bpalone

First rule to follow is number 1, which is Make Backups. Rule Number 2. See Rule Number 1. It is much less stressful, to have a good quality backup setting on a drive, disks or whatever. Using a tool designed to help save data and installations as a front line defense item would make me quite nervous. I don't know if you have ever experienced a hard drive failure or not. But, I have and it was a complete failure. I had to to redo an entire years worth book keeping, because I didn't have a backup. Needless to say, I came upon a whole new religion about the use of and necessity of backups. Probably wouldn't hurt have the tool available, as you can't have to many tools. bpalone

Yes, XP will leave you with a XP only boot option. Jaclaz has a good suggestion. Here is another option or maybe better said, a thought. Use a live CD of most any flavor of Linux and use "dd" to copy the MBR to a safe place. Then after the repair/reinstall, just reverse the process. The Linux Journal had an article about this three or so years ago, so you could probably find how to use dd to this there. I mentioned this on another thread here some time ago, maybe I'll go see if I can find it and post back. Found the post and the link still works, so here it is: http://www.linuxjournal.com/magazine/hack-and-when-disaster-strikes-restoring-master-boot-record edit to place link to article. bpalone

Microsoft the US-based technology titan reported net income of $6.56 billion on revenue that hit a record high of $24.52 billion in the quarter that ended December 31. Some quotes from the above article: Entire article can read here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jPeCC0PbxNxsInN5ChWP6Zf-0TMg?docId=5f584c3d-3a05-47db-9105-a24813f0cb84&hl=en Now, is just me or do I smell something cooking? Or, did the Android device market make huge gains and thereby upped Microsoft's income from their Patent Extortion? I just seem to have flashbacks of Enron. bpalone

Translation: Your data will be reviewed, cataloged and marked as to whether you are a threat (now) or not. But, this will all be done in Europe, so your data never left Europe, just like we said. Isn't this brave new world a great place? bpalone

On the Microsoft Front: Just got a flyer in my inbox from a well known etailer, offering OEM 64bit Home Premium Windows 7 for $79.99 (U.S.). With this and HP's move, plus the low level of reaction on the FAN sites, could this be an indication that Microsoft has admitted defeat quietly? Just speculation on my part, but the timing seems a bit odd. bpalone