Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Intel Chairman Says Company Had Lost Its Way ( Tom's Hardware 2013-11-30 )

Yeah, at around 3.9 GHz. Hasn't anybody at Intel seen Spinal Tap?

( Image Source: here )

[jaclaz]

@JorgeA

Counterfeiting goods is not (software) piracy, and (software) piracy is not theft.

JFYI, a quick visual guide:

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

I'm okay with the guy giving away the Gucci knock-offs for free. I'm also okay with him charging money if they are not called Gucci or passed off as them ( this is NOT the same as copying a DVD and selling it ). Making a better mousetrap, or selling a clone of an existing mousetrap for a better price is an improvement upon the status quo and was once respected.

As you probably know, down in NYC they have declared war on things exactly like this ( knockoff Gucci, Rolex, etc ) and the reason is probably because of deep pocketed lobbying of the powers-that-be to protect their little empire. It's a microcosm ( or macrocosm? ) of the tech world IP battles. IMHO this all leads back to patents with their built-in arbitrary timeframe of an exclusive monopoly protected by law. Take that away, making it maybe one year tops, and many problems will fix themselves. IMHO naturally.

Yeah, it was exactly NYC that I was picturing in my head when I wrote that. What's the name of that street where all the vendors gather? I think it's near the Village. (Been a long time.)

Anyway, I agree with you on the Gucci knockoffs. If they slap Gucci logos on them then there is a case to make that it's fraud, selling them as something they're not. It gets murkier if the guy is giving them away: some people who took them would believe they were getting the real thing for free, but then one could argue that they really oughta know better and "you get what you pay for."

And yes (and this is for @jaclaz too -- loved that spoiler graphic!), it's not an exact analogy to software piracy, despite the IP (intellectual property) angle involving the logo.

Also, patents do go on for far too long, and the way patent law is working out (not) it seems to work mainly to muck things up and slow down advancement. How many billions have been spent (or imposed in fines or spent in settlements) as a result of litigation involving Apple, Samsung, and/or Microsoft? And let's not forget patent trolls, who do nothing constructive with the patents they buy but go around shaking people down for using them, often without knowing they've violated somebody's patent.

I must admit that I'm ambivalent about copyright, though. In principle my view is that so long as you're not pretending to have actually created the thing (book, song, software), then there's nothing to complain about since no fraud is being perpetrated, and in the case of a digital product it's in the nature of the beast that it's easily replicated. On the other hand, one of my customers is a small publishing house and it hurts when we discover that somebody scanned one of our titles and put it up somewhere for downloading. It's easy to picture publishing companies as being gigantic faceless Corporate Entities brimming with cash, but in reality this also happens to little two-man-show publishers. The factor that (so far) saves my position from breaking down is the belief that the sales lost to these scanners are small, comparable to books damaged during shipping to the warehouse. I'm not aware of any hard data on this one way or another (and I totally mistrust the claims of music and film industry spokesmen on this point).

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Intel Chairman Says Company Had Lost Its Way ( Tom's Hardware 2013-11-30 )

Yeah, at around 3.9 GHz. Hasn't anybody at Intel seen Spinal Tap?

( Image Source: here )

I have wondered the same thing. Here's a possible explanation (see posts 2, 3, and 8) that jibes with what I've read before. It sounds plausible, but then I'm no physicist.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

N.S.A. May Have Hit Internet Companies at a Weak Spot

People knowledgeable about Google and Yahoo’s infrastructure say they believe that government spies bypassed the big Internet companies and hit them at a weak spot — the fiber-optic cables that connect data centers around the world and are owned by companies like Verizon Communications, the BT Group, the Vodafone Group and Level 3 Communications. In particular, fingers have been pointed at Level 3, the world’s largest so-called Internet backbone provider, whose cables are used by Google and Yahoo.

The Internet companies’ data centers are locked down with full-time security and state-of-the-art surveillance, including heat sensors and iris scanners. But between the data centers — on Level 3’s fiber-optic cables that connected those massive computer farms — information was unencrypted and an easier target for government intercept efforts, according to three people with knowledge of Google’s and Yahoo’s systems who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

[...]

Security experts say that regardless of whether Level 3’s participation is voluntary or not, recent N.S.A. disclosures make clear that even when Internet giants like Google and Yahoo do not hand over data, the N.S.A. and its intelligence partners can simply gather their data downstream.

That much was true last summer when United States authorities first began tracking Mr. Snowden’s movements after he left Hawaii for Hong Kong with thousands of classified documents. In May, authorities contacted Ladar Levison, who ran Lavabit, Mr. Snowden’s email provider, to install a tap on Mr. Snowden’s email account. When Mr. Levison did not move quickly enough to facilitate the tap on Lavabit’s network, the Federal Bureau of Investigation did so without him.

Mr. Levison said it was unclear how that tap was installed, whether through Level 3, which sold bandwidth to Lavabit, or at the Dallas facility where his servers and networking equipment are stored. When Mr. Levison asked the facility’s manager about the tap, he was told the manager could not speak with him. A spokesman for TierPoint, which owns the Dallas facility, did not return a call seeking a comment.

So, if you don't hand it over the safe after they ask nicely, they'll just go in and take it.

At least music and software pirates actually pay for their copy of the bits before replicating it...

--JorgeA

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Windows XP remains nearly flat; Windows 8/8.1 up slightly in November's OS data ( NeoWin 2013-12-01 )

Microsoft's goal of reducing the market share of Windows XP to just 13 percent worldwide by its support cut off date of April 8th is looking more and more like it will miss its target. Newly posted numbers from the research firm Net Applications shows that worldwide, Windows XP is still the second most popular operating system on PCs, claiming 31.22 percent of the market in November.

Those new numbers are nearly the same as what the firm showed for Windows XP in October, with 31.24 percent, and in September when it had 31.41 percent of the market. With just over four months to go, it would seem like the over 12-year old OS will be installed on a large percentage of PCs well after the April 8th cut off date.

Ya think?

And yes, another Windows XP FUDfest is under way: "Kill it with fire!" and "XP is friggin 13 years old." Hey NeoKid, how old is Skype? How old is Outlook? Yes it's a trick question. Our friendly neighborhood Dot MetroTard also makes an appearance and makes a fool out of himself again, as usual. Whatever.

Even though the article gives the NeoKids an important fact, they still manage to miss it ...

Windows 8.1 officially launched in October, and Net Applications showed that in November the free update to Windows 8 claimed 2.64 percent of the OS market, compared to 1.72 in October. Windows 8 saw its share decrease to 6.66 percent in November, down from 7.52 percent in October. Combined, Windows 8 and 8.1 claimed 9.3 percent of the OS market share worldwide last month, which is only up slightly compared to 9.25 percent in October.

Let's look closer, shall we? First, here is all their publicly available data ...

Let's zoom in to the painful part for the fanboys ...

The "classic" Windows versions actually gained more marketshare than the MetroTard versions.

What should scare them the most is the fact that this reporting period now includes the Windows 8.1 Blew official October re-launch with all those wonderful devices that were missing last year and blamed for the miserable original launch. This period also includes general availability of the Windows 8.1 Blew service pack that RTM'd a few months ago. October and November have come and gone, the Metro operating systems are NOT moving and unsurprisingly the NeoKids are reduced to rabid babbling about "killing XP with fire".

Billions have now been spent on advertising this dog and the people still hate it and even the easily fooled sheeple are avoiding it. One day the bean counters will total up the advertising budget and stick it into an Excel spreadsheet column next to another column called "revenues" and one called "profit" and then the sh!t will really hit the fan. Great job Ballmer! And Sinofsky. And Julie. And Panos. And Jensen Harris. And Sam Moreau. What a team! You guys are really good at this Windows thing.

ADDED: Almost forgot something. People should note that in those combined Windows 8.x numbers that I totalled there is definite overlap because some people updated during this timeframe, and that makes the actual number a bit lower. There is no way that Net Applications can remove a user from the Windows 8 column when they also appear in the Windows 8.1 column.

Also note the irony of Windows 8 now showing 6.66 percent. The Number Of The Beast!

Edited December 1, 2013 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Early data shows Xbox One leading PS4 in Black Friday U.S. sales ( NeoWin 2013-12-01 )

Yeah right. Bookmark that article for when the real numbers come in.

Peer pressure is truly a strange beast. This poor NeoWin author is the one that the rabid fanboys love to slam, accusing him ( and NeoWin! ) daily of hating Microsoft! So he comes back with articles like this from time to time to counter that pressure. He will never learn.

The Future of Gaming is Android, Says Nvidia ( Tom's Hardware 2013-12-01 )

Nvidia Calls PC "Far Superior" to Video Game Consoles ( Maximum PC 2013-11-30 )

Anyone else getting the distinct impression that nVidia is really unhappy about losing the latest console generation to AMD? Well if they want to get even, then concentrate on PC's in a big way. Get the price for top-tier GPU's down, cut them in half and they will fly off the shelves. Also, keep making drivers for older PC operating systems, DO NOT drop Windows XP as Microsoft would like to see. They also might consider another nForce PC chipset that handles all the latest motherboard developments AND produce drivers for all Windows operating systems. Finally, stay onboard Linux, Android and SteamOS. The competition is necessary. There is a lot they can do. Talk is cheap though.

[JorgeA]

[...]

The "classic" Windows versions actually gained more marketshare than the MetroTard versions.

What should scare them the most is the fact that this reporting period now includes the Windows 8.1 Blew official October re-launch with all those wonderful devices that were missing last year and blamed for the miserable original launch. This period also includes general availability of the Windows 8.1 Blew service pack that RTM'd a few months ago. October and November have come and gone, the Metro operating systems are NOT moving and unsurprisingly the NeoKids are reduced to rabid babbling about "killing XP with fire".

Billions have now been spent on advertising this dog and the people still hate it and even the easily fooled sheeple are avoiding it. One day the bean counters will total up the advertising budget and stick it into an Excel spreadsheet column next to another column called "revenues" and one called "profit" and then the sh!t will really hit the fan. Great job Ballmer! And Sinofsky. And Julie. And Panos. And Jensen Harris. And Sam Moreau. What a team! You guys are really good at this Windows thing.

Wow, another fantastic analysis!

Given the way Windows 8/8.1 is (not) going, there are now reports (rumors?) of a Windows 8.2 coming out as early as next month:

Microsoft could launch Windows 8.2 in January

According to multiple sources, these are the highlights of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8.2 update:

• Start menu - as mentioned above, the Start button will be linked to the Start menu, the same way as it was since Windows 95
• Internet Explorer - while version 11 of the browser did not bring any noticeable changes, the next version should feature obvious visual and functional changes
• App store unification - one app store for Windows-powered tablets, phones and computers would be a logical move and it is possible to see it happening soon
• File Explorer Libraries - this feature was introduced in Windows 7, still present in Windows 8, but vanished in Windows 8.1 and it will make its comeback in Windows 8.2

Windows 8.2 Changes Anticipated; New Release Could Arrive in January

We’ll get some changes related to the Start Menu, as usual. Windows 8.1 theoretically brought it back, but not with the functionality we used to know. Microsoft did include it in the experience, but pressing the left mouse button now takes the user to the Metro screen, while pressing the right click opens the familiar menu. Well, Win 8.2 is supposed to give us back the left click action.

Windows 8.2. New Changes Are Coming

...pressing the left button now takes the user to the start Metro screen. And to open the familiar “Start” menu you have to make a right click on it . It is expected that the new Windows 8.2 will habe what we want to see it – the “Start” menu opening by pressing the left mouse button and the menu having a familiar look.

Can anybody confirm that right-clicking on the Windows 8.1 pseudo-Start Button actually brings up the real Start Menu? (Without installing StartIsBack, Classic Shell, or any other non-Microsoft Start Menu replacement.)

If true, all this sounds encouraging. Maybe the powers-that-be at MSFT finally heard the screams of their customers?

Any thoughts?

Oh, but wait --

Looking past fix 8.2, Windows 9 is said to utilize and involve more cloud integration by using some of the same processing cleverness that Microsoft recently debuted in their Xbox One this week.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

And speaking of Windows 9:

Microsoft envisions a not-so-distant future where apps are 'Bingified'

Whittaker wasn't referring to Microsoft's integration of Bing "smart search" into Windows 8.1. He was talking about the next step beyond that: The Bingification of apps.

At the Ignition confab, Whittaker showed off a version of enterprise Outlook which included add-ins developed by himself and a few MIT interns that would allow users to see entity information right inside their e-mail. The same way that Microsoft Office apps currently alert users with a squiggly line to a potentitally misspelled word, a Bing-enriched mail app could show users information about entities embedded in their e-mail messages -- things like bands, venues, nearby restaurants and more.

Entity cards aren't a new concept. Microsoft has been serving them up as part of Bing Web search since 2009. But the new twist here is having apps, not a browser or search engine, be the locale for this embedded entity information. In Whittaker's example, information on frequently searched-for terms would pop up inside an e-mail message (assuming prior user approval, so as to avoid any possible accusations of Microsoft Scroogling its customers).

Whittaker took it a step further. What if apps were "super-apps" where they could potentially discern user intent? Why not allow an app to surface a "spot market" -- a kind of temporary, user-specific auction where buyers and sellers could negotiate?

"I need a vacation" -- however that is conveyed to a particular device -- could trigger a number of related activities in this kind of Bing-enhanced world. A user's calendar could serve as the "super-app," which would search for open weeks, find flights, import flight data into calendars and allow users to purchase flights with a single click. All of this could happen without users having to juggle multiple apps and/or use dedicated search engines.

Meanwhile sending copies of your travel plans over to the NSA and tech-savvy burglars...

Given the recent flap over the feature to opt out of reporting your viewing habits in LG smart TVs that didn't actually stop anything, the only safe approach is not to have this feature on your PC at all in the first place.

--JorgeA

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Can anybody confirm that right-clicking on the Windows 8.1 pseudo-Start Button actually brings up the real Start Menu? (Without installing StartIsBack, Classic Shell, or any other non-Microsoft Start Menu replacement.)

If true, all this sounds encouraging. Maybe the powers-that-be at MSFT finally heard the screams of their customers?

Any thoughts?

Nah, Microsoft wasn't listening. That right-click menu is just another kick in the teeth to Windows veterans. MetroTards often point to it as a solution, but it is a hodgepodge of links crammed together to shut everybody up ...

( Image Source: here )

It actually resembles the earliest Win95 menu in appearance.

Picture from here ... Windows 8.1 Start Button Menu Fails Again

P.S. Nice scoop there. I haven't read those links yet that you just mentioned, but if the rumors are true then there possibly is a paradigm shift underway, as there should be considering those marketshare numbers. They're gonna need medication over at NeoWin and The Verge!

[TELVM]

Google joke about a potential Tiles 8.2 start screen :

[Formfiller]

I am skeptical about the Windows 8.2 rumors. The source of all this seems to be this article:

http://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/windows-8-2-new-changes-coming-0685920

Which doesn't cite any sources whatsoever. I also couldn't find much information about the author of that piece. And even if true, a January release is far too soon for this, mid-2014 would have been more realistic.

[Formfiller]

Google joke about a potential Tiles 8.2 start screen :

It's easier on the eyes for sure.

[JorgeA]

MSFN seems to have had another hiccup. I couldn't get on at all on Monday (afternoon EST onwards).

Did we lose any posts? I think that Formfiller's reply on Google's joke Start Screen by TELVM was the last post before this one, so I don't think we did.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Well, at least the French are brazenly open about it:

French lawmakers propose warrantless access to live user data from ISPs and hosting sites

A wide variety of government officials could gain access to live data concerning users of ISPs and online services including content-hosting sites, without the approval of a judge, under a draft law approved by members of the French National Assembly on Friday.

The measure, a rider on the 2014-2019 defense appropriation bill, would require ISPs and content hosting companies to provide government officials with access to details of their users' activity without judicial oversight. Law enforcement officials can already ask a judge for an order to access such data.

At first I thought this was another cannonball against filesharing, but --

The defense appropriation bill was introduced by the French Senate in August, and amended by the National Assembly in a series of votes on Friday. Its purpose is to define how the government guarantees the protection of French territory and citizens from threats including state aggression, terrorist attacks, cyberattacks, threats to the country's scientific or technical power, organized crime, and natural disasters, and to budget for that.

"State aggression." Hmm... So, who protects Frenchmen from this newest aggression by the French state? Maybe they're too busy faisant l'amour to care about being numbered and tracked.

The zoo society keeps marching Forward.

--JorgeA