JorgeA

You can still become German : http://www.telekom.com/media/company/192834 https://www.e-mail-made-in-germany.de/ jaclaz Or at least Dutch: Ixquick is based in the Netherlands. It'll be interesting to see what the U.S. snoops do if and when the Ixquick folks get this service going. --JorgeA

I've learned, the hard way, not to download hardware drivers of any kind (storage, network, monitor, etc.). Every time I do, I regret it. Either they don't work and keep telling me to download the "update," or they break something badly. --JorgeA

I was always a bit skeptical of the conspiracy theory about Microsoft, but the more recent revelations certainly make one one rethink their position. I quit the treadmill with 2K, and never really cared for XP, but tolerated it. Personally, I think everything after 2K was downhill. The revelation of Acer certainly make one think that Microsoft's days may be numbered. They may be lucky to come out of all this as the 75 pound gorilla. I wonder if enterprise customers are seriously starting to look at other platforms for their OS? Or.. are they just considering staying with the OLD Windows platform and making do? It will be an interesting event to watch unfold. The proprietary file formats are no longer enough to keep your customers locked into your product. So... time will tell who survives and who doesn't. bpalone Yeah, I think that an argument could be made that Microsoft is merely (and reluctantly) complying with secret spying orders. But then we know that they're collaborating with the New York City police department to build a network of surveillance cameras. Surely nobody required them to do that, so the idea that they're victims like the rest of us goes out the window. BTW, loved your line about MSFT becoming the "75-pound gorilla." --JorgeA

More reasons not to put your stuff in the cloud: Gartner: SaaS contract language regarding security is lacking In this thread I've previously suggested the idea that, with the cloud and the notion of "software as a service," we are moving away from the individual-property model of license in perpetuity and heading toward a feudal-type system where the "lord of the manor" controls everything and users are mere renters paying regular tribute for the privilege of working on the lord's estate. How curious, then, to see the following paragraph at the bottom of the first page (see the portion I've highlighted): --JorgeA

I agree with everything you wrote in there! Hmm, maybe this "Modern" UI actually got its start during that Windows 2.0 era, but then was sidetracked as PC graphics became powerful enough to display 3D-type elements like buttons, such as what we started to see in Windows 3. Would be fascinating to know if those 1999 slides reflect ideas that were already being kicked around in, say, 1988. --JorgeA

Sure. For me, the main thing I'm deriving from Thurrott's presentation(s) is that the "Modern UI" concept isn't really all that new, we can see it in those old images. Evidently the idea's been around within Microsoft for (at least) some 14 years, and for whatever terrible reason it finally saw the light of day with Windows 8. Like some city-flattening monster that was penned up for centuries but managed to break out of its sealed cave and is now running rampant, destroying everything in its path. As to whether this mutant UI made it into Neptune is (for me) a secondary consideration. I'd be curious to find out whether these PowerPoint slides are actually screenshots from some (any) experimental Windows OS (Neptune or otherwise), or whether they're simply mockups that were created right on PowerPoint, but this is strictly a secondary issue for me. --JorgeA

Hmm... Check out this excerpt from the Thurott article that you linked to from the WayBack Machine: That makes it sound like there was more substance to the project than simply a "study." And besides, why do we trust what some MSFT manager said back then about it being just a study, any more than we trust today's MSFT managers? For more details on this "task-based UI," see this article: And see the screenshots that come with that article. (As we know, this "Activity Centers" concept ultimately didn't make it into the final release of Whistler/XP, at least not as the dominant paradigm.) Regardless of what we think about how serious the idea was back then, ihis is all very interesting history, showing that there's not all that much that's modern about today's "Modern" UI. It would be interesting if you, or someone else with the technical background and/or historical knowledge, were to post your issues in Paul's comments section: when he comes back from vacation, maybe we could get him to clarify the question of exactly how serious that proto-Metro project was, and whether the concepts represented by those PowePoint slides were actually implemented in any OS build back then. --JorgeA

Paul Thurrott has reissued a backgrounder on a version of Windows that was never released, called "Neptune." Check out the old screenshots. The similarity to Windows 8 Metro, in both look and concept, is uncanny. Bear in mind that this was like 14 years ago. It would appear that the Insanity Faction within Microsoft has been busy trying to ruin Windows since the turn of the millennium. They were successfully suppressed for more than a decade and then, for reasons that we might speculate on, finally overcame the level-headed opposition and imposed their Metro madness. Note (above) the amazing resemblance to Metro style, including the flat visual design and even the back and forward arrows in the top left. Not a Start Menu, but a "Start Page." Hmmmm... More explanation and graphics on the linked page. A fascinating historical recap. It shows how lucky we've been to dodge this idea for so long. Of course, there's the obligatory 'tard at the end of the comments section who wishes they'd gone this route long ago... --JorgeA P.S. Yes, I know that some of the shots say "Windows Millennium." Paul explains why in his post.

Uh-oh, it looks like the NSA has found a way to discover users of Tor: Attackers wield Firefox exploit to uncloak anonymous Tor users I wonder how they managed to place that piece of malicious JavaScript on the website. Update: Researchers say Tor-targeted malware phoned home to NSA --JorgeA

--JorgeA

I don't know how the legal environment in Italy compares, but in the U.S. this sad fact would be grounds for a lawsuit leading (at least) to a brochure or sticker on the device warning the buyer not to use it to eliminate bodily waste. In fact, they probably wouldn't even be allowed to say the word "toilet" in association with the device. "This is NOT a toilet." The danger of course is that, because of its shape and color, at least one person in a country of 310 million people will manage to think that it IS a toilet and try to actually use it for that purpose, leading to enormous psychological harm to the victim and million$ in punitive damages to teach the novelty company a lesson in idi0cy. :angrym: --JorgeA

Oh, and speaking of the "Internet of Everything": Luxury toilet users warned of hardware flaw This one operates via Bluetooth, so the attacker would have to be fairly close, but it illustrates the kind of dangers inherent in connecting everything to the Internet. Not to mention the possibilities that such ubiquitous connectivity opens up for official snoops. Now, let the jokes begin! --JorgeA

More on the official hacking front: FBI pressures Internet providers to install surveillance software Good to hear at least that some private companies are dragging their feet on helping to build the totalitarian state. --JorgeA

I totally agree! See this website that has adopted that flat, phone/tablet-oriented page design. Ugh! What a ridiculous amount of wasted space. Now compare it to the "alternative" view on the same website, making full use of a regular PC monitor's capabilities. The flat look is still there, but the use of space is so much more efficient. Less than half as much scrolling is needed to see all the article headlines on the page. --JorgeA

Here's an interesting critique of website design for tablets from a UX expert: [emphasis added] --JorgeA

Without taking sides in this discussion, I'm wondering what folks think of this report and how it might impact the discussion: Researchers demo new IPv6 attack against Windows 8 PCs --JorgeA

Wow, I had no idea that name came from a video game. Pretty creepy, too. "Thanks" for the YouTube link... --JorgeA

So you can see dencorso, that you MUST stay on MSFN 24/7, otherwise the website may go down... --JorgeA

Ahh, the joys of the Omnipresent Internet: Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet Imagine the kind of havoc that can be wrought (by both bad and "good" guys) thanks to individuals, private organizations, and government entities hooking everything up to the 'Net: --JorgeA

That's pretty cool! B) Hang on to that XP installation box, without a doubt it will eventually be worth much more than what you paid for it back then (even after accounting for inflation). --JorgeA

Crawlers. Right now, when I write this post, the following crawlers are parsing this thread: Google (6), Mediapartner (1), Google Mobile (9), ScoutJet (1) To my mind the question then would be -- why would there be 9 different "Google Mobile" crawlers in here at the same time? That they're labeled "mobile" users is what makes me wonder if they're visitors on mobile devices. --JorgeA

Yeah, I've been seeing those Bing, Yandex, etc. numbers too. At first I thought they might be Web crawlers for the search engine indexes, but if so then why would there be multiple ones. Best I can come up with is that maybe it's people visiting the Forum on their smartphones/tablets? --JorgeA

Well first of all remember this is a kludge, and a fantasy at that, so I don't want to get to wrapped up in it! [...] Thanks a bunch Charlotte, I have a much better handle on it now. And the great overall reporting continues as normal. --JorgeA

You beat me to it! --JorgeA

Every time we read about government surveillance, it gets worse: XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet' Maybe a good reason to start using HTTPS Everywhere, even though of course it doesn't cover every conceivable website. Might drive even me to Firefox. One silver lining in the NSA cloud: It's hardly necessary to point out the enormous potential for abuse or exploitation of these capabilities for political purposes by sufficiently unscrupulous officials. Trusting human beings not to make use of the vast troves of information thus collected is a rather thin reed on which to build our house. As Lord Acton insightfully wrote, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." --JorgeA