JorgeA

Yeah, really. They didn't even seem to skip a beat when the Party Line did a 180 from anti-Start Menu back to pro-Start Menu. This is a much more trivial example of what happened when Stalin signed a pact with Hitler. (They were to split Poland and the Baltic states between them.) The propaganda switched from calling the Nazis evil reactionaries to brother revolutionaries, and communists all over the world immediately fell into line. Pretty scary aspect of the human mind, if you ask me. --JorgeA

Don't give up just yet. Which brand of graphics card are you using? --JorgeA

That's pretty funny! --JorgeA

Thanks for the excerpt. I had no reason to question what xper reported. @xper: thank you for looking into all of these weird issues. --JorgeA Update: FWIW, the embedded ad links didn't show up this time. EDIT: clarification

Hate to be a pain reporting so many things, but now I'm getting embedded ad links in thread posts. This wasn't happening earlier this week. I think my MSFN subscription is current. At least, I'm still listed over in the left panel as a Forum Sponsor rather than a Member. See the attachment for examples: --JorgeA P.S. When I simply went to Preview this post, even before submitting it, the word "subscription" above showed up in blue with a double underline linking to Azure. Huh -- the second time I Previewed this post, the ad link was gone. And the third time, it was back.

Are you a Customer of Verizon (yes/no). If Yes, go here: http://my.verizon.com/micro/whitelist/ http://my.verizon.com/micro/whitelist/RequestForm.aspx?id=member and tell them that you are not receiving e-mails... jaclaz Thanks jaclaz, I may try that. (I am a Verizon customer.) What's confusing is that @xper reports that Verizon said In the current case I'm neither the sender of the e-mail nor the provider of the e-mail service, so it didn't sound like my input would be welcomed by Verizon. I already have my Verizon spam filter turned off completely (and relying on the Outlook and Symantec filters) because it was stopping wanted e-mail, but I'll be happy to try contacting them if it might help. --JorgeA

By now, most Windows 8 (8.1) users know that Microsoft intends to bring back the Start Menu in substantially (though not exactly) the same form as it existed in Windows 7. This could happen as early as this summer. If and when the official Start Menu with a proper Start Button comes back, this thread will lose its purpose -- mostly, but not entirely: if you look at the image in the linked article, it appears that the revived Menu may feature some sort of integration with Metro apps (unknown at this stage whether users will be able to banish them from the new Menu), so users who'd rather have nothing at all to do with Metro might still want to choose from our list. Assuming that it's possible to override the default Start Menu. --JorgeA

The Russian government is clamping down on the Internet: Russian 'anti-terrorism' laws will ban Skype, Facebook, Gmail if companies don't comply --JorgeA

The other day we commented on Microsoft's claim that they had a plan to take out the Start Menu in order to bring it back later. Here's what our favorite Windows observer, Paul Thurrott, had to say about this in Windows Weekly: --JorgeA

Can you translate what Verizon told you there, into a European language? Two questions: Will you have to contact Verizon? Is there anything I can do at my end to help with the process?--JorgeA

Governments 'responsible for 87pc of online spying' Verizon's definition of cyberespionage doesn't seem to leave room for the sort of stuff that the NSA does. In fact if you read the report itself, less than 1 percent of cyberespionage is said to originate from North America. If we were to factor in the, um, contributions of various three-letter agencies, that 87% of all cyberespionage that's being done by governments would no doubt shoot up far into the 90-percent range. Interesting discussion of a kind of attack I hadn't heard of before, "strategic web compromises." A related article: Retail attacks dropped last year; cyber-espionage grew Credit to Breitbart.com for calling attention to this analysis. Whether as a private individual or as a company -- still wanna keep all your stuff in the cloud? --JorgeA

Something I've thought for a while about the implications of pervasive surveillance: The Growing Perils of the Cashless Future --JorgeA

Or at least they're trying to "ease the way" into Metro/Win8. I wonder what actual problems, exactly, they might be addressing. You don't think they're doing something to handicap Windows 7? They wouldn't go THAT far. (Would they? ) Aside from that, it's curious that they don't specifically mention Windows 8/8.1 when talking about upgrading to "the latest version of Windows." If it was such a great product, you'd think they'd be splashing the name everywhere they could. I doubt they're being intentionally vague because somebody's too lazy to change a name on the web page (from 8.1 to Update 1 or whatever) as the name changes. --JorgeA

In the comments box at the bottom of the update info page, I told them that I would not be DOWNgrading to Win8, so no thanks. --JorgeA

Microsoft is pushing an "important" new Windows Update (KB2952664) for Win7 systems for the purpose of preparing users' PCs for "up"grading to Windows 8.1: Sounds like it proposes to make a lot of changes to Windows files for something I will never do. Unless there's some other benefit to it, I'm hiding that update. --JorgeA

Yes, my settings are to receive immediate notifications via e-mail. That hasn't changed. The only difference is that the e-mail notifications are no longer arriving, for whatever reason. I logged out of MSFN and cleared my browser cookies yesterday. Still no notifications today (and posts have been made in threads that I subscribe to). Any ideas/suggestions? --JorgeA

Hide the flaw instead of fixing it. Lovely, just great. In a bit of a rush right now, but I wonder if anybody has compiled a list of the affected models. --JorgeA UPDATE: Ah, the list was linked to at the end of the Ars piece. Thanks, ricktendo.

More joys of living in the cloud where Windows 8's creators would like to steer us: Even the most secure cloud storage may not be so secure, study finds Verizon: Web apps are the security punching bag of the Internet --JorgeA

Well, this is - personally - one of the things that makes me sleep rather well , see: http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=9811/ http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=10154/ Though of course NO certainties : http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/p=6564426/#6564426 particularly if you have lousy B&W 11 Kb bmp's of Alfred Einstein written all over the CD, n times : http://www.thic.org/pdf/Jun04/UniversityOfArizona.Milster-2-%20Data%20Recovery%20from%20CD-R%20Fragments%20rev%20a.pdf jaclaz Interesting discussions there. A forensics forum? I see that you really get around! Maybe scratching multiple deep, irregularly shaped grooves into the CD's surface before cutting it up would make the task of reconstructing the data that much harder. (Sorry if this was already mentioned in the linked threads and I missed it.) --JorgeA

Wzor is back with some good news and some bad news: The Start Menu will reportedly return to Windows this fall Rumor sheds light on Windows 8.2, Windows 9, and Chrome OS-style Windows Cloud First, the good news: . And now for the (potentially) bad news: [emphasis in original] D*mned if they're going to turn my PC into a mere terminal. They can bring back the Start Button, Start Menu, and Aero Glass -- if I'm required to keep my PC tethered to the Internet for it to work, these features don't mean a thing. --JorgeA

And if you think we are paranoid in this thread, check out what some of the commenters are saying in response to this blog post by Bruce Schneier. As one commenter says, if you'e going to go this far, you'll be limiting the PC's functionality so much that you may as well go back to using a typewriter. --JorgeA

We've mentioned the operating system Tails a couple of times here. Here's a not-too-technical writeup on it: Out in the Open: Inside the Operating System Edward Snowden Used to Evade the NSA Lending credence to claims that the NSA has obtained backdoors into other OS's is the following report: And, for those who may be so cynical that they end up failing to make use of the available means of protection , there's this: Of course, nothing's perfect in this world: --JorgeA

IIRC this is what usually happens. It does take a while for Windows to reconfigure itself when you remove components. Enjoy your brand-new Vista system! --JorgeA

I am once again not receiving e-mail notifications of new posts in threads I'm subscribed to. The most recent notification I received was on Wednesday this week, and I've seen newer posts in at least one of my subscribed threads, but only by accident (which is why I prefer to get the notifications). There have been no changes to my account, at least none made by me. Could this have to do with any internal measures taken by MSFN to protect against the Harttbleed bug? I have since then changed my password. --JorgeA P.S. Just to make sure there's no confusion: I changed my password AFTER realizing that the notifications had stopped.

I agree with Flasche. You will have a ton of Windows Updates and a Service Pack or two (depending on how old your installation disk is), but you shouldn't experience any compatibility issues. Vista will be supported by Microsoft for three more years, so nobody else is likely to jump ship before then. Welcome! --JorgeA