JorgeA

Windows Weekly 312 features a spirited debate between Leo and Mary Jo (mostly) against guest Peter Bright, who defended Windows 8, the removal of the Start Button, and Metro apps. The fun starts quietly at 57:30 with a factual report by Mary Jo and then the fireworks begin about 58:35. And about a minute after that, Leo brings up the idea of an OS that can tell what kind of hardware it's on, and select Desktop or Metro accordingly. Peter states that bringing back the Start Button is a mistake "if" Metro apps are the future, as people need to start getting used to that interface. Whereupon Leo uncorks the best line of the whole discussion: --JorgeA

More on the cybersurveillance front: Foreign VPNs raise the bar against U.S. government spying Not entirely good news by any means, though worth reading anyway. But note what company's missing from the following list : --JorgeA

This product looks intriguing, but it appears to offer less than complete protection : [emphasis added] I am curious as to what makes this product different from a VPN, considering that they already have a product billing itself as a VPN. --JorgeA EDIT: Steganos swiftly replied to my inquiry about this. The two products (Anonym VPN and Online Shield 365) are indeed very similar, differing mainly in the license (Online Shield can only be activated at one PC but covers unlimited traffic, whereas Anonym VPN can be installed on multiple PCs but up to 100GB of traffic per month. The former uses servers in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Switzerland, while the latter uses servers based in Germany only.

Is it possible that the fad for small electronics has peaked? Two suggestive items in the news: Kindle fired: 75% want printed books, not ebooks Note that survey respondents expressed a preference for actual books over e-books in any format, including tablets. There has been talk recently of e-reader sales being cannibalized by tablets, but the survey as constructed accounts for both tablets and e-readers. Apple Could Post First Sales Drop In 10-Plus Years [emphasis added] The hope here is that the trend will continue, undermining Microsoft's motivation to push the tile interface and the Metro Store. Maybe Windows 9 will look more like Win7 than Win8 now does. B) --JorgeA

Over the last few days I've received two mailers from Dell (might be related to their buyout situation). PC's featuring Windows 7 vastly outnumber Windows 8 in the ads -- by 7-1 in one, and 27-9 in the other. In the shorter 7-1 ad, Win8 showed up as nothing more than a bonus tablet for purchasing a real computer. And these ain't merely old or closeout models, as the attachment illustrates (with my helpful arrows ): This should tell observers something about the relative strength of Win7 vs. Win8, and how another major PC seller views this market. Ten months into the introduction of the oh-so-exciting Windows 8, why would they be putting 7 front and center? --JorgeA

Is there a way to have hyperlinked text show up in blue in the final post, like before? (Without having to tweak it manually and every time, that is.) Or maybe some color that offers greater contrast to the default text color? Right now, it shows up on my screen in black, the same color as regular text (maybe a wee bit stronger, but hard to tell the difference without looking closely at it). Thus, without hovering over it it's hard to tell at a glance whether this or this is a link. --JorgeA

Wouldn't it be something if the scriptwriter for Sharknado actually knew of this rock opera (BTW what a strange concept for a musical work), and "borrowed" the idea for the movie? This is all very strange, and now they're even going to do a sequel! --JorgeA

That's a real bummer, sorry you're in that situation. As for your web design looking "old," what the heck is that supposed to mean? It either looks beautiful and/or is easy to use, or it doesn't. What does "old" or "new" have to do with anything?? If I were the "Lost in Space" robot, right now I'd be spitting out, irrelevant -- irrelevant -- irrelevant... --JorgeA

How about that (that you were thinking about this very company). The main thing I was hoping for was some indication that Steganos was a real and reputable company -- and you did provide that. Thanks! That's an interesting idea, dedicating one PC in a network to security. I know about using a computer to run a firewall for other computers, but how would that work for all the other security stuff? --JorgeA

In light of that, and of everything else we've been saying about online and e-mail privacy, I'm wondering if anybody here can comment (helpfully ) on this and this. Thanks. --JorgeA

Where'd you find the slides? I clicked on the Spiegel link and saw the text you quoted, but no illustrations other than a photo of the 23-letter sign at the BND headquarters. --JorgeA

I think it's safe to say that the party is over for the smartphone boom, actually the big clue was to just watch for when Microsoft makes their big entry, because it is usually right before the bottom falls out, unfortunately Microsoft has Nokia to take the fall for them. Smartphones should be saturated within a few more quarters, at most a year and then the race to the bottom begins. Let's just hope that the rigged subsidy system is taken down with it. It is the only reason that tiny $700 phones ever had a chance to be "purchased" by people who cannot even help from losing their pocketbooks, laptops and even children. Anybody who buys in to the top-end now is nuts, this industry is about to become one big buyer's market. Considering that the smartphone boom was one of the main factors in Microsoft's decision to destroy Windows, the end of that mobile craze wouldn't be coming a moment too soon. --JorgeA

Historically, the problem with encrypted e-mail has been the hassle factor and the difficulty of setting it up to work with others with whom you communicate. Until and unless someone, somehow, figures out a way to do e-mail encryption so that it works automatically (if that's what you want) and with everyone that you send to or receive from (while preventing them from reading e-mails to and from third parties, should they manage to get their hands on your inbox), I doubt that e-mail encryption will become as routine a function as launching Outlook. My ISP is starting to implement SSL for its e-mail service, but with the NSA looking over their shoulder I'm skeptical that it will be of any use against official snoopers; and in any case it seems to me that any e-mail directed at me would still have to arrive at my ISP's servers already encrypted at the sender's end for the encryption to be of much help. I'm willing to be enlightened on this subject and to be shown that these things are already doable. --JorgeA

Hmmm , this would probably need a new dedicated thread, where I will manage to get flamed by everyone: the "Windows" guysthe "Linux" guysthe "React-OS" guysBTW all good guys :, but quite touchy when you "comment" their beloved creature/preferred OS. See if these posts are enough: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/58899-open-sourcing-windows-9x/page-6#entry747389 http://reboot.pro/topic/4207-running-kde4-programs-under-windows/?p=46592 http://reboot.pro/topic/5512-mobileos-sorry-guys-im-a-little-confused-again/#entry43184 jaclaz Yes, those posts did the trick, thanks! --JorgeA

this is nothing new. We know this sicne we saw Windows Developer preview the first time --JorgeA

I saw a report on Sharknado on the evening news the other night. Sounds like what's happening (IMHO) is that the premise of the movie is so ridiculous that it's fun! --JorgeA

Interesting viewpoint on the Windows 8 debate in the comments section to this Win8.1 overview: Windows turning into a "boutique" OS -- ouch! --JorgeA

JFYI, there is much more reason to be sad about the ReactOS development, they IMHO completely missed a logical, prgmatical approach and spent an incredible amount of (otherwise exceptionally good) resources and talent without advancing a single bit in practice, but your blue screens have nothing to do with NTFS. NTFS is just a filesystem, a live CD without NTFS support won't be able to access a NTFS volume, that's all, no reason why it should Blue Screen because of it. jaclaz Thanks for the clarification. I was looking for a possible explanation of those blue screens, in light of the fact that my 1999-vintage tower was the only one to be able to finish booting ReactOS. What other "usual suspects" might there be? (If all else fails, I'll consult the ReactOS site, although the matter is not all that important. We're shooting the breeze here. ) More importantly -- in your view, what would have been a more pragmatic approach on the ReactOS team's part? --JorgeA

Sounds like something that the late Michael Crichton might have written: meteor carrying a new pathogen in its core falls to Earth at the ocean floor. Curious biologists pick up a sample and start studying it. A few of the alien viruses escape and proliferate unchecked (there being no antibodies), killing the researchers and then most everyone on the planet. Martial law is imposed and then becomes irrelevant as soldiers and private citizens alike suffer gruesome deaths. Finally, one reclusive virologist manages to develop a serum to save the few thousand people left cowering deep in the woods. Or maybe I've watched tooo many disaster movies... --JorgeA

It's high vacation season, but I'll keep providing updates so that y'all can catch up when you come back. A few posts upthread we mentioned the Windows substitution project, ReactOS. Turns out it was the June "Project of the Month" at SourceForge, and they interviewed the project coordinator who had a number of interesting things to say. Sadly, the worst one is that they're still on FAT. This may be the reason that my attempts to run the ReactOS live DVD failed with blue screens on every machine -- except on my Windows 98 box. But anyway, there's a good comment at the bottom of the page, and which ought to serve now as the main motivator for ReactOS to get traction as an operating system that's outside the Microsoft touch-obsessed orbit but which can run our Windows applications: --JorgeA

I just read the following on this website dedicated to covering Microsoft Office products, in a discussion of Outlook: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read that as a suggestion that cookies embedded in the e-mail that we get from vendors can enable those vendors to track where we go on the Web. Is that right, or is it FUD? I find it hard to believe, but am not sure that's it's wrong. Would this apply only to sites you visit that have their ads on them? I do know that downloading images to an e-mail circular is used to tell the vendor's servers that you've viewed their e-mail ad, but is it the case that it can also help them to follow you around the Web? Anybody have insight on these questions? Thanks. --JorgeA

It's even worse than we thought: NSA warned to rein in surveillance as agency reveals even greater scope How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages --JorgeA

Uh-oh: Microsoft Plummets On Q4 Miss, Surface Tablet Losses Microsoft is a big company with a lot of divisions and products. Here are reported figures for the most relevant division for our purposes: So, actual Windows sales are off 6% despite (or, as we might say, because of) the introduction of the new version of their flagship product. The final paragraph passes along speculation that PC makers might be holding off on buying new Windows licenses 'til Windows 8.1 comes out in the fall. This sounds plausible, until we remember (correct me if I'm wrong) that Windows 7 sales remained healthy at the same point in the cycle a year ago, even as Win8 was approaching. The bottom just happened to fall out with the launch of Win8, right? --JorgeA

In the June 2013 issue of MaximumPC magazine, Online Managing Editor Jimmy Thang writes: --JorgeA

That's pretty cool. B) But please remember, the Forum rules are that posts must be written in English... (Just kiddin'.) --JorgeA