JorgeA

Good points all, and I agree largely. But... ...bear in mind that this is not actually like a situation where one country requests the cooperation of another country in a criminal investigation. It is one country demanding that property that's being held under the jurisdiction of another country, be turned over to it without consulting or asking permission of that other country. This principle could easily end up very, very badly, don't you think? --JorgeA

Windows XP usage is declining ever so slowly, despite all the FUD. The link in the above excerpt takes you to the wrong page, for browsers instead of OS's. Here's the right page. And here is a table showing how usage of various operating systems has fluctuated over the last year or so. As the WinBeta piece notes, Windows 7 share has also been increasing. This is all the more remarkable in light of the fact that, on the consumer side, it's gotten a lot harder to find Win7 systems to buy -- you have to realize they're still available, and then know where to look. I guess there's a lot of people out there who are motivated to see if they can buy a PC with anything other than Windows 8 on it. --JorgeA

More info about the "subscription Windows" model: Microsoft's Windows as a Service comes in to focus with new job posting --JorgeA

That's interesting. My understanding all along was that saving resources on cr*ppy mobile devices (never mind the billions of desktop PCs out there) was the whole purpose for removing Aero Glass, and that the bit about abandoning "skeuomorphism" was just an after-the-fact rationalization for public consumption. If not for saving resources on mobile devices, then what earthly reason could there be for removing Aero Glass? (Note: I'm not being argumentative, just asking sincerely, and above all trying to understand what Microsoft's rationale could possibly be.) --JorgeA EDIT: typo, clarification

On the other hand (after the post above re: tech companies resisting secrecy): Search warrants extend to emails stored overseas, US judge rules in Microsoft case If the long arm of the law can reach into other countries, then efforts by U.S. tech companies to grow their cloud services could be seriously impaired. (Hmm, maybe not such a bad thing...) --JorgeA

Well if you really think about that, we have been doing that since windows XP . The windows genuine update, makes us in a way "rent" windows from Remound. I'm not happy about Genuine Advantage, but I can understand their wish to make sure that I paid for their labor at SOME point. What would bug me would be a requirement to pay for using the OS over and over and over again. Over time, that would become a price increase for zero additional benefit, unless they priced the yearly subscription at like $10 a year, which ain't gonna happen. And, today, while our OS might go EOL, it won't quit working altogether, as (for example) Norton Internet Security does if you don't renew your subscription. I've gone this far without ever opening an actual Microsoft account. I'd like to keep it that way. --JorgeA

Good for them: Apple, Facebook, others defy authorities, notify users of secret data demands The one caveat about this is that... ...but it's something, at least. --JorgeA

TBH, I wouldn't care that private companies do this sort of thing, if it weren't possible for government agencies to use the same kind of information to hone in on individuals and see what they're up to. What's Google going to do -- offer to sell me something? Three-letter agencies are a different animal, though. They are already way too prone to acting on half-baked patterns. End-to-end encryption, that's the goal to shoot for. --JorgeA

Microsoft is the boy who cried wolf -- will issue IE update for Windows XP --JorgeA

Yeah, that part is fixed. (For now .) Thanks to @xper for the fix. We'll see what happens with the e-mail notifications. (Nothing new to report yet.) --JorgeA

Huh, how weird. The thing is, I'd never experienced those embedded ad links before (unless I was signed out). And, to make things even more curious, they haven't reappeared since I reported them that day. No changes to browser settings had been made at any time around when the issue cropped up. I didn't know that it was possible to selectively activate/deactivate ad blocking depending on the kind of page being viewed (as opposed to globally for a site/domain). If the problem recurs, I'll look into that, thanks! FWIW, the issue occurred in IE9 on Windows 7. --JorgeA P.S. Thanks for the info on the other post. I guess we (@xper and I) are both waiting to see what Verizon does.

Google stung by Canada’s privacy commissioner for ads linked to personal health history --JorgeA

Anger Management. The Pale Moon guy has this to say on the subject, whatever its worth: http://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3205#p18210 Thanks, TELVM. Maybe I'll rent the movie... They make many good points on that Pale Moon forum thread. However, it's getting harder and harder to use AV that's not bloated. They were complaining about AVG (in addition to Norton); I myself have just uninstalled Avast 9 Free from another PC because the latest program update broke IE -- clicking on the red X at top right no longer closed the window, while opening a new tab caused the program to crash. And I refuse to use AVG because their EULA gives them the right to enter my home to inspect my usage of their product. Scr*w that. --JorgeA

I am pretty sure that if you ask (nicely) some of the resident programmers could put together a small plug-in (or whatever) that creates a little box which at random becomes a little green "OK" one. On average you will have the same (false ) sense of security that Norton Safe Web gives. but without any slowing down. Flippism is the solution. jaclaz LOL I do like it that Norton will tell me if a website is known to serve up malware, so that I can make a more informed decision. But -- so long as the protection modules themselves work properly to stop actual attacks, I suppose that it's not critical to have a little box telling me the site is OK. IIRC correctly, Symantec claims that Vulnerability Protection works on Pale Moon, it's just the "Safe Web" add-on that doesn't. Anybody else out there run their browser without a "safe web" type of add-on? --JorgeA

Love it!!! What movie is that clip from? I've tried Pale Moon and kinda like it. The only drawback for me is that the Norton Safe Web add-on doesn't work on it -- it only works on IE, FF, Chrome, and (I think) Opera. Over the years I've gotten used to seeing the little green "OK" boxes in search engine results and at the top of Web pages warning me that the site has security problems, or reporting it as safe. But I may have to get over that. --JorgeA

I had thought something similar, that this would make users totally dependent on Microsoft to keep their computers operable. Needless to say (so why am I saying it? ), I wouldn't go in for a subscription OS either. With all the official and unofficial fixes, I might accept Windows 8 just to put off the inevitable switch, but that's it. +1 on your other post. --JorgeA

An apt comparison IMO. Thanks for the link to the other thread. BTW, you mentioned over there that this wonderful law to prop up government broadcasting has been in place since 1938. Umm, who was in charge in Italy in 1938? --JorgeA

Glad to know that it's working for you. Now you can enjoy Vista to the full. --JorgeA

ExtremeTalk: What would you pay for a Windows 8 or 9 subscription? What do you think? Would you accept a subscription OS model where your Windows system would get crippled or deactivated entirely if you stopped paying tribute at each specified period? I know, I know, I've loaded the question... --JorgeA

As we observed some weeks ago, Firefox has now officially joined the idiocracy fad, dumbing down its UI: Firefox sports major facelift, improved Sync tool Firefox, Chromified. The outrage is overflowing in the comments section: . . And so on. Fortunately, there are some things FF users can do to regain most of the former UI. --JorgeA

Xbox news. As was said about Windows 8, it looks like MSFT might be playing semantic games again with what it counts as "sales ": Microsoft attempts to hide anemic Xbox One sales amid lackluster quarterly earnings --JorgeA

Before uninstalling Vista, check out this tutorial on the AMD forum for tweaking new drivers to work on Vista. Hopefully it'll work for you. Let us know. --JorgeA

An incisive analysis of Microsoft's tribulations: Say Goodbye To Microsoft And here's an apt illustration for what ails the company: Also a good read is the companion piece, which elaborates on MSFT's strategy shift: Say Hello To Microsoft 2.0 . --JorgeA

Paul Thurrott is really coming around. Check out what he said about Microsoft's excuse that Windows 8 failed because OEMs weren't supporting it with enough touch-enabled devices (a notion long ago refuted and debunked on these pages). The exchange starts at 45:12: Also well worth listening to is the preceding discussion about how Microsoft should forego the consumer space and focus on its strength in business -- something else that we've been saying here for a couple of years. --JorgeA

--JorgeA Not going to happen. Russia has to much pressure on them already. (Like it would do anything but still) Besides those companies have a nice deal with the NSA already and probably dont want to lose it. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. Google and Yahoo caved in to the Chinese government some years ago when it wanted more control over what Chinese users of the Internet could see (although IIRC Google later moved its China servers to Hong Kong). --JorgeA