JorgeA

Microsoft's Expansion of Surface Lineup May Be Ill Timed --JorgeA

China Bans Windows 8 From Government PCs The official explanation doesn't quite hang together: If computer security because of XP's EOS is the issue, then it doesn't make sense to avoid switching to a current, supported OS. I suspect that the real reason has to do with a reluctance to shell out more money for new Windows licenses in the wake of EOS. Or maybe the relevant decision-makers in China just don't care for the Metro UI. --JorgeA

A lot of good points in that piece. The bottom line: One thing I do disagree with him on is the very last sentence (echoed throughout the article): ...which is elaborated on earlier in the piece: I concur with the "do your own computing" part, but I disagree with Stallman that I give up my freedom by using a proprietary application. I am free to buy or not buy, and then to use or not use, such a commercial program. Indeed, were I to refuse (as he suggests) to do a certain kind of computing if the only available applications for it were commercial, then in practical terms I would thereby be limiting my own freedom to get things accomplished more severely than whatever it is he's concerned about. At a more fundamental level, I see nothing wrong with trading value for value, my money for the program vendor's time and effort. If anything, eliminating the exchange system decreases my ability to influence the developer into including features that I want or excluding features that I dislike, as then it becomes purely a matter of what the developer feels like doing. And the bit about "open source" enabling you to know what's going on behind the scenes is almost completely impractical, applicable only to people who can read and understand computer code. We might argue that the rest of us "dummies" are theoretically somehow protected by "those who know," but in practice things work differently -- witness the Heartbleed bug that went undetected for years at heaven knows what cost to users. --JorgeA

Another fantastic analysis by SemiAccurate: Microsoft is now irrelevant to computing, and they want you to know it A lot of good stuff up and down that article. On the XBox One: --JorgeA

Huh, it does give me pause. While I still doubt that MSFT voluntarily gave access to the NSA, those guys are hardly worthy of lpraise for their interest in privacy. (Remember Kinect; their taking down a photographer's erotic artwork from his own SkyDrive account; and their cooperation with the NYPD to create a network of surveillance cameras.) --JorgeA

Rumor: Microsoft to offer a preview release of Windows 9 between Q2 and Q3 of 2015 Considering that the Windows 8 Developer Preview came out in September 2011, this would put Win9 on a slower track than the three-year cycle Microsoft has been keeping since Vista. By then, though, maybe the major issues stemming from Win8 will have been fixed in Windows 8.1 Update 1+1 (or whatever they decide to name this fall's expected pack). Or maybe it'll be too late and nobody will care anymore what MSFT does or doesn't do. --JorgeA

More fallout from Glenn Greenwald's new book on Snowden: Photos of an NSA “upgrade” factory show Cisco router getting implant --JorgeA

^ Epic comment. ^ Exactly my thoughts. And I'm just a humble tinkering user, not a pro. But it's so blatantly obvious that everyone with a tad of common sense should be able to spot it from a mile away. I concur with every word you wrote there, down to the "I'm just a humble tinkering user, not a pro" part. --JorgeA

On the one hand... Microsoft awarded with top honors for trying to protect customer data from the government ...on the other hand... Microsoft openly offered cloud data to the NSA I actually tend to put more credence in the first headline. Cooperation with the NSA on the front that the second article discusses is, I suspect, likely to have taken place under orders by authorities authorized to authorize official snooping authorization. "Nice little multibillion-dollar business you have there. It'd be a shame if it had to shut down..." --JorgeA

As often happens, unfortunately, the peep that wrote the title has not understood anything of the actual paper, which is essentially non-news. [...] Thanks jaclaz, that was a good and informative analysis. --JorgeA

Adobe Creative Cloud suffering extended outage Gotta wonder how many of these mass outages it's going to take before enough people decide it's actually more convenient (yes) to keep your files and programs on your own computer. That threshold number came a little more within reach thanks to this Adobe issue: A couple of the comments on Twitter: . --JorgeA

Still not getting notifications of new thread posts via e-mail. Wonder if Verizon ever got back to us. --JorgeA

DOJ asks for new authority to hack and search remote computers --JorgeA

Yeah, that was a fantastic analysis! Thanks for quoting it. As much as I dislike Microsoft for various things it does, I have to say that Windows has become incomparably more stable since the days of Windows 98. I have a fresh installation of Win98FE (very lightly used), and it bluescreens every single time I go to shut down the computer. I get more BSODs on it in a week than I have in 5+ years of running my Vista system crammed full of installed applications. --JorgeA

From the, "the sky is blue" news desk: The Internet of Things could encroach on personal privacy You don't say! A treasure trove of information for official snoops. Prohibit selling the data? It'll still be available via subpoena, or by hacking. As we go blithely marching into 1984 territory... @jaclaz may be right: humanity is doomed. --JorgeA

Soon police will be able to trace photographs back to the camera that took them ...as well as the identity of the scumbag who took that photo of the police officer beating up the homeless guy, or of the government minister taking an envelope from a drug kingpin at a fancy restaurant... --JorgeA

No problemo. Another great illustration! Here's a bit more about the joys of cloud computing: Warning: Dropbox and Box File Sharing Security Bug To those just coming across this thread -- still want to keep your stuff in the cloud? --JorgeA

In cyberprivacy news -- some good, some bad: What the Most Secure Email in the Universe Would Look Like Scientists develop first completely covert communication system with lasers Greenwald: NSA Plants ‘Backdoors’ in Foreign-Bound Routers This'll do wonders for the U.S. tech export trade. Any network equipment manufacturers based in, say, Switzerland? --JorgeA

Just as an example, imagine that the "private" company knows about your income, knows about your politicla preferences and culinary tastes, can identify you online and filters your search results "pushing to the top" what you "should" like according to them. Are you really-really going to (say) page 38 of google results to find the first non-pushed article/site/resource/whatever? (and this provided that they just don't remove altogether what according to them might not suit you) I use a search engine that doesn't (AFAIK) filter or sort search results according to anything I've done before. You might know the answer to this: can Google prioritize your search results according to what it thinks you like, if you do not have a Google account or if you're not signed into Google? Regarding my political affilliation, for better or worse that's a matter of public record. And, come to think of it, if I were searching for restaurants in a given area I do think it would save me time to be spared results for cuisines that I can't stand. Not that they'll be able to know what I like, anyway, for the reasons already stated. Again, though, all this goes out the window if and when this type of information becomes accessible to government agencies. To repeat, it's for that reason that I do object to private companies collecting it. Well, again, normally the GI are the "good guys", and directly or indirectly they are (or should be) controlled by *someone* (the people you contributed to elect to the Government), at least in theory. A "private company" has normally three points in it's agenda: money more money yet more moneywith "ethics" between 12th and 38th place . Having access to your habits, tastes, etc. is not a good thing, you personally may be technologically evolved enough to be able to deal with the traps that they may lay before you, bit the vast majority of people may be not. That's where I definitely have a different perspective than you. I don't view guvvies as necessarily the good guys; in fact, from a global perspective, historically they are the single largest agents of death and looting. And even states with established traditions of constitutionalism or general orderliness can turn violent and tyrannical in the space of a few years, and have. From a practical standpoint, government is much more difficult to control than private businesses. Using Albert O. Hirschman's "voice and exit" model of acting on dissatisfaction with a given system, in a market setting the individual can both use his "voice" (contacting the company, calling reporters, organizing consumer protests) and then, if all that fails, "exit" the system (stop doing business with the company altogether). In a state setting, the individual can (sometimes) use his "voice," but then the "exit" option is typically much more difficult to apply: it's a lot easier to stop buying from Microsoft than it is to move to a different country where the language and culture might be vastly different and you don't know anybody. Hence it's easier to get a private company to do the right thing than it is to get a government to do the right thing. Elections are blunt instruments where a multitude of different factors go into making a single decision (whom to vote for, once every several years), whereas in the market you are making daily micro-decisions based on much narrower criteria (do I like that browser's UI? do I like how this car accelerates, its gas consumption? do I like the way the salesman treated me?). You can customize your life much more closely to your own preferences by dealing with the vendors who offer more of what you value, and avoiding those who offer less of it. And don't get me started on the "ethics" of governments or the actual motivations of government officials... Just remember that it's a heck of a lot harder to remove them (or to get away from them) than it is to fire your grocer or electrician. You are I believe confusing the technology with the "principles", the British intercepted (and opened with some steam from a teapot ) or simply kept letters sent by the US representatives all the time, it is called "spying" or "intelligence", nothing has changed much. Here is an example of a letter that President Washington might not have wanted to fall in the hands of the enemy : https://web.archive.org/web/20071111224808/http://www.clements.umich.edu/Spies/letter-1781may29.html (of no particular relevance from a military standpoint, though) Nice find. Agreed that spying is as old as the hills. Technology, though, is making a whale of a difference today to the espionage arts: it's becoming feasible for a government to intercept the vast majority of communications by its subjects citizens, as well as their movements, and to correlate all of these in near-real time. --JorgeA EDIT: wording improvement

LOVE those images!! Do you create them yourself? Here's some more about the pleasures and perils of cloud computing: 'Everything as a service': A key piece of Microsoft's push to get IT to the cloud Judging from the comments at the bottom, they have their work cut out for them: And an interesting point-counterpoint on cloud computing: Are Consumers Better Off Putting Everything in the Cloud? --JorgeA

And speaking of government spying on private individuals, here's more good news on that front: Second House committee approves bill to end NSA bulk collection --JorgeA

Well, a lot of people is unhappy with the fact that the NSA (or other three or more letter Government agencies) are capable of snooping on your private life and communications. Some are even upset by the fact that with a Court Warrant this is actually legal. BUT, after all, these are the "good guys", and - mainly - they are in good faith. Imagine that the one snooping on your habits is Microsoft or the company you work for (or just the geekish IT guy in it). No, it's not going to end well. jaclaz Good catch, about the implications of the next version of Windows. Let's just say that it will make the NSA's job a lot easier... It doesn't bother me that private companies might want to collect information about me -- what are they going to do with it, try to sell me something? Incomparably more serious is what could happen if the information ends up in the hands of government agents: if a person is "interesting" enough, they could arrest him or send a drone his way. The possibility of government using the information is the reason I don't like private business knowing a whole lot about me. Had the technology been available back then, I have no doubt that the British monarch's men would have aimed drones at the Continental Congress, or read the e-mails of the Committees of Correspondence to know what they were up to. --JorgeA

And a peek ahead at Windows 9: Microsoft’s head of research opens up about Google X, Windows 9, and the future --JorgeA

It's becoming common wisdom now, and not just the opinions of a few cranks and haterz: The scale of Windows 8.x’s failure is staggering [boldfacing added] The bottom line: --JorgeA

What, no one? Nothing? --JorgeA