JorgeA

And speaking of Windows 9: Microsoft envisions a not-so-distant future where apps are 'Bingified' Meanwhile sending copies of your travel plans over to the NSA and tech-savvy burglars... Given the recent flap over the feature to opt out of reporting your viewing habits in LG smart TVs that didn't actually stop anything, the only safe approach is not to have this feature on your PC at all in the first place. --JorgeA

Wow, another fantastic analysis! Given the way Windows 8/8.1 is (not) going, there are now reports (rumors?) of a Windows 8.2 coming out as early as next month: Microsoft could launch Windows 8.2 in January Windows 8.2 Changes Anticipated; New Release Could Arrive in January Windows 8.2. New Changes Are Coming Can anybody confirm that right-clicking on the Windows 8.1 pseudo-Start Button actually brings up the real Start Menu? (Without installing StartIsBack, Classic Shell, or any other non-Microsoft Start Menu replacement.) If true, all this sounds encouraging. Maybe the powers-that-be at MSFT finally heard the screams of their customers? Any thoughts? Oh, but wait -- --JorgeA

N.S.A. May Have Hit Internet Companies at a Weak Spot So, if you don't hand it over the safe after they ask nicely, they'll just go in and take it. At least music and software pirates actually pay for their copy of the bits before replicating it... --JorgeA

I have wondered the same thing. Here's a possible explanation (see posts 2, 3, and 8) that jibes with what I've read before. It sounds plausible, but then I'm no physicist. --JorgeA

Yeah, it was exactly NYC that I was picturing in my head when I wrote that. What's the name of that street where all the vendors gather? I think it's near the Village. (Been a long time.) Anyway, I agree with you on the Gucci knockoffs. If they slap Gucci logos on them then there is a case to make that it's fraud, selling them as something they're not. It gets murkier if the guy is giving them away: some people who took them would believe they were getting the real thing for free, but then one could argue that they really oughta know better and "you get what you pay for." And yes (and this is for @jaclaz too -- loved that spoiler graphic!), it's not an exact analogy to software piracy, despite the IP (intellectual property) angle involving the logo. Also, patents do go on for far too long, and the way patent law is working out (not) it seems to work mainly to muck things up and slow down advancement. How many billions have been spent (or imposed in fines or spent in settlements) as a result of litigation involving Apple, Samsung, and/or Microsoft? And let's not forget patent trolls, who do nothing constructive with the patents they buy but go around shaking people down for using them, often without knowing they've violated somebody's patent. I must admit that I'm ambivalent about copyright, though. In principle my view is that so long as you're not pretending to have actually created the thing (book, song, software), then there's nothing to complain about since no fraud is being perpetrated, and in the case of a digital product it's in the nature of the beast that it's easily replicated. On the other hand, one of my customers is a small publishing house and it hurts when we discover that somebody scanned one of our titles and put it up somewhere for downloading. It's easy to picture publishing companies as being gigantic faceless Corporate Entities brimming with cash, but in reality this also happens to little two-man-show publishers. The factor that (so far) saves my position from breaking down is the belief that the sales lost to these scanners are small, comparable to books damaged during shipping to the warehouse. I'm not aware of any hard data on this one way or another (and I totally mistrust the claims of music and film industry spokesmen on this point). --JorgeA

It's like NuMicrosoft, PC vendors and some "analysts" are living in some weird Tim Burton/Terry Gilliam fantasy movie: Just simply trying it out would cure them immediately of trying to force these painful input methods on the PC/laptop. But no, billions of dollars need to be wasted first to find out what is obvious within ten seconds of using. Weird is the right word! I guess that to their way of thinking, "data" trumps both logic and experience. Call it Rube Goldberg-style thinking. --JorgeA

Well, decisions violating the First Amendment (or similar Freedom of press or speech) are IMHO a tadbit tough to apply to people not making money (integrally or partially) through merely re-distributing pre-made content (by others). Here's an interesting question (interesting to me, anyway ): suppose that the police find a guy on the streets of New York City (or any other big city) who is GIVING AWAY knockoffs of Gucci handbags. Ergo, he's not making any money off his activities. (Let's say that he became an Internet billionaire and this is his pastime.) Is he less guilty for giving the stuff away than if he were selling the knockoffs? I don't have a pre-set answer, it's something to ponder... What if the pages are 50/50? And when they are 20/80? Great questions. My first reaction would be that (for better or worse) these are matters of judgment and no iron-clad rule can be set, rather you'd have to judge on the particulars of each case. --JorgeA

We predicted this a long time ago: Finger-friendly laptops aren't touching a chord with notebook buyers They never will. We in this thread observed long ago how awkward it is to reach out and touch a laptop screen, let alone to keep doing it repeatedly. That's not going to change even if touch-screen laptops manage to match the price of non-touch screen laptops -- but in that case the manufacturers would be eating the added expense, which cannot be good for future choice and competition. --JorgeA

The entertainment mafia triumphs in one more country: Google, Yahoo Must Scrub 16 Video Streamers: Reuters As a content creator, I understand the desire to stop piracy, but this cure is worse than the disease. Once any website can be [Orwell reference] sent down the memory hole, [/Orwell reference] then every website is subject to the whim of the authorities and remains at the mercy of the political winds. --JorgeA

Governments. They don't spend their own $$$, they spend yours. --JorgeA

Wow, this sure sounds like it's worth looking into. With any kind of halfway adequate financing, this could beat the pants off Skype. Probably, though, they should set up house in the Netherlands or Switzerland or some other place with stronger protection against snoops with badges than does the U.S. or U.K. To address your question -- I doubt that we'll ever see hard figures, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that these shenanigans will end up costing Facebook and other social networks millions of members. EDIT: Here are a couple of links with more information on Wickr: Wickr: Can the Snapchat for Grown-Ups Save You From Spies? However, the service is controversial because the encryption algorithm is closed-source: The company website. --JorgeA EDIT 2: typo in the word "EDIT"

Good to know that customers still have a say in the "features" of the products that manufacturers sell them. Thanks for keeping us up to date on this story. --JorgeA

Very funny!! --JorgeA

Check out the last post in this thread: The bit about "criminals" usually comes up in the context of someone opposing outsider intrusion on their private business, and being pointedly asked if they're up to no good. "I have nothing to hide," and all that cr*p. So, does the .NET Framework present privacy issues? Anybody know? --JorgeA

Remember the ideal of the "paperless office"? Your example suggests that the move to put every possible bit of government data online suggests that anarchist hacktivists may not need to do anything, themselves, to accomplish their goals. They can just stand aside and let the unassisted suicide proceed on its own. --JorgeA

Here's a brief review of Windows 8.1 that covers some issues with the OS that I don't remember being mentioned in this thread: --JorgeA

The December 2013 issue of Computer Power User carries an article on the Windows 8.1 "up"grade. The section describing the installation process (p.68) provides this little tidbit: [emphasis added!] So Microsoft is now Scroogling its customers, banking on the fact that many if not most people will be too tired, too trusting, or too ignorant to worry about or even watch out for these traps as they rush to finish the already long and tedious Win8.1 installation process. --JorgeA

Man, this is so right on target I can't possibly agree more strongly! --JorgeA

Yeah, that makes sense as to how it might work. At least these companies are promoting this positively by offering a discount -- although I shudder to think (and to use another famous phrase) how many folks will sell their birthright for a mess of pottage, 20% on their car insurance. Wonder how long before some genius lawmaker gets it in his head that this is something that ought to be forced on everybody, "for the sake of the children" or whatever the excuse du jour will be at the time. --JorgeA

The infospy tentacles keep spreading and pervading ever more aspects of our lives. One more thing to be aware of to decline. As they say, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. --JorgeA

No problem. This whole issue has been very weird and puzzling, and anything's possible, so it can't hurt to ask and verify. Notifications still working over here. --JorgeA

But then your "smart" TV would start bitching that a connection is de rigueur to display its superior smartness and yada yada yada. To correctly address this problem a return to the classics is needed : 1000lbs of pure bigassed CRT dumbness! (Taken from here, have a laugh) I love it!! Brings back some memories (all right, not for ALL of those machines...). Our last CRT TV was a c.2006 high-definition Sony that weighed 192 pounds. And I still have a bulky Betamax in storage waiting to get fixed. --JorgeA

The FBI joins the NSA party (or has been in on it all along): Meet the Spies Doing the NSA's Dirty Work --JorgeA

Ditto on the thanks to @buyerninety for all the behind-the-scenes help he's given, too. Today I got notifications for the Windows 8 Deeper Impressions thread and one other thread, so things keep looking better and better! --JorgeA

When I made the switch from Windows 98 to Vista five years ago, with a single exception none of the files I copied over (Word, spreadsheets, ZIP files, MP3's, etc.) had any problem being read on the new machine. Hopefully, ROTS can give us more details as to what kind of files they were in his case, and what happened. The only trouble I had was with a program, rather than data files as such: CompuServe, where I had all my e-mail. Took a while to finally get it to work in compatibility mode; until that happened, I couldn't access my e-mail archives because they are stored in a proprietary CServe format. --JorgeA