Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[jaclaz]

Post 5307 by jaclaz ... very well written, thought provoking post dealing with what all we store. Good one to save and read every so often ...

And you see , that was exactly the point .

Yet another item that someone else created, that will (in this case very marginally) occupy your hard disk space.

BTW, the author of that post is someone that still has *somewhere* the following hardware (and it's related software).

Sinclair ZX81 <- 1981

Sinclair Spectrum <- 1983

Sinclair QL <- 1985

Toshiba T3100e <-1987

Macintosh Powerbook 140 <- 1992

Acer Extensa 355 <- 1996

and *any* amount of partially or fully broken (and even some working) PC's dating back up to 1994 or so, to which you add an incredible amount of "burned" CD's containing software, and a correspondent if not bigger amount of data stored in old hard disk drives.

In other words, ponder on his words, but DO NOT take him as an example of "efficiency by throwing away things you don't need anymore" .

jaclaz

[TELVM]

This comment to the 'Six clicks: What we think we know about Windows 9' article above is profound:

"... either learn Linux now or get used to the diaper interface of 8, because MSFT forgot about the first rule of profitability, and they won't learn it in 20 years.

The first rule of profitability is SERVE YOUR CUSTOMERS. Which starts with, LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. So anyone owning stock in MSFT is as daft as the management running it.

This time in computing, historically, is exactly like the Reformation."

[Monroe]

Post 5307 by jaclaz (Part 2)

In other words, ponder on his words, but DO NOT take him as an example of "efficiency by throwing away things you don't need anymore".

Perhaps the term "getting rid of" is better ... that allows a person to "give things away" or "throw things away".

Just a few additional thoughts from my earlier post ... I currently have satellite TV which I am fast tiring of and may drop later this year. A few channels still hold my interest ... one being Turner Classic Movies (TCM). I have a fondness for old silent and early sound films. Many really good films that I would never have a chance to see or know about. Some great stars (at that time) that I would never know about if it weren't for TCM. Just two days ago (Mar 19th) TCM had a birthday salute to Betty Compson, who I had never heard of. They played some of her films for about 12 hours through the day, didn't get to see them all but I saw some very interesting early "talkie" films from 1928 that were really good ... put two of them on DVD. She was a silent star as a young girl and woman. She actually played the violin as a young girl and that helped her get into show business.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0173993/

"A mining engineer's daughter, blond, blue-eyed Betty Compson began in show business playing violin in a Salt Lake City vaudeville establishment for $15 a week. Following that, she went on tour, accompanied by her mother, with an act called 'the Vagabond Violinist'. Aged eighteen, she appeared on Alexander Pantages Theatre Circuit, again doing her violin solo vaudeville routine, and was spotted there by comedy producer Al Christie. Christie quickly changed her stage name from Eleanor to Betty. For the next few years, she turned out a steady stream of one-reel and two-reel slapstick comedies, frequently paired with Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle."

Betty Compson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Compson

Betty Compson (March 19, 1897 – April 18, 1974) was an American actress. Born Eleanor Luicime Compson in Beaver, Utah, she had an extensive film career. Her father died when she was young, and she was forced to drop out of school and earn a living for herself and her mother. She obtained employment as a violinist at a theater in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Anyway, in 1916 when she was 18 going on 19 ... she was in a total of 42 films ... they were called short films but she was a busy teenager ... I counted 42 and she was busy before in 1915 and after 1916.

I no longer find the films of today very interesting with all the phony digital effects, even films from the 70's and early 80's still had interesting special effects but today it's all computer generated for the most part and they just have no magic like earlier films.

If you want to see a real special effects film ... with no computer made up stuff, watch "The Rains Came" from 1939 with George Brent.

"It was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning in the category of "Special Effects and Sound Effects", for the earthquake and flood sequences. It became the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Special Effects, beating out The Wizard of Oz for the same Oscar."

Now those special effects are still amazing every time I watch that film.

Just two days ago I bought my last DVD (so I say), it's a special release (Jan 2014) of the film "It' a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" (1963). One of the funniest films ever made ... just about every comedian of the time is in that film. Criterion Collection has released a 5 DVD restored version on Blu-ray and DVD with an extended version and many extras. Some pretty good special effects in that film also.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

http://www.amazon.com/Its-World-Criterion-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B00GBT61YS/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1395404735&sr=1-1&keywords=It%27s+a+Mad+Mad+Mad+Mad+World

This has gotten longer than I planned but I will continue ... but I no longer feel that I like or need new films or satellite TV.

It will be two years next month (April) that I started the switch from Windows 98SE to Windows XP. I really don't miss 98SE and will probably never fool with it again. There was a time that I thought I'd be with 98SE forever, hunted down all the software I could find but I decided two years ago to give XP another try and this time I "liked it" ... never looked back or had second thoughts. I still have all the software put away and will keep it, exactly why I don't know. Someone will find those old CDs and DVDs labeled "Windows 98SE Software", laugh and throw them out.

I talked about this film already ... "Cherry 2000" (1988) ... it's 2017 and modern tech has crumbled and "old" is back in style ... including toaster ovens.

Cherry 2000

http://www.amazon.com/Cherry-2000-Melanie-Griffith/dp/B0000542CA/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1395405879&sr=1-2&keywords=Cherry+2000

Well we all will make the decision one day, what's important to "get rid off" or to keep "just a little longer".

...

[bpalone]

Post 5307 by jaclaz ... very well written, thought provoking post dealing with what all we store. Good one to save and read every so often ...

And you see , that was exactly the point .

Yet another item that someone else created, that will (in this case very marginally) occupy your hard disk space.

BTW, the author of that post is someone that still has *somewhere* the following hardware (and it's related software).

Sinclair ZX81 <- 1981

Sinclair Spectrum <- 1983

Sinclair QL <- 1985

Toshiba T3100e <-1987

Macintosh Powerbook 140 <- 1992

Acer Extensa 355 <- 1996

and *any* amount of partially or fully broken (and even some working) PC's dating back up to 1994 or so, to which you add an incredible amount of "burned" CD's containing software, and a correspondent if not bigger amount of data stored in old hard disk drives.

In other words, ponder on his words, but DO NOT take him as an example of "efficiency by throwing away things you don't need anymore" .

jaclaz

Ah, Yes, I agree with what you said in response my post, that the above quote starts from. We all collect large amounts of stuff, some valuable and a great deal not so. Now, on to why I started this reply.

I have often looked at those of us that hang around here and wondered if maybe we are not the digital version of the car guys. Is that old 386 equal to the 1950 Studabaker? (sp?) Or the old Pentium One equals the 1957 Chevy? Or.. the old Z-80 equals the AMC Pacer?

After all, we all enjoy messing around with computers or we wouldn't be here. But, we also recognize that newer is not always better.

Pass me that DOS floppy will you?

bpalone

p.s. I fondly remember when I got my first 6 gb hard drive and loudly proclaimed that I will never fill that up.

[bpalone]

Strangely enough, Utah residents are seemingly among the most thirsty people around, with a per-capita use of water above anyone else (except possibly Nevada and Idaho - data is strangely contrasting in different sources):

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13750549

http://le.utah.gov/interim/2012/pdf/00002706.pdf

around 200-250 or maybe even 308 gallons (that is up to over 1,000 liters ).

http://humanistsofutah.org/wordpress/sample-page/2012-2/april-2012/water-waste-in-utah/

As a reference, currently used international norms when designing a water supply are usually between 150 and 250 liters/person/day, whilst US are AFAIK more oriented towards the 100 gallons or 400 liters (these are norms used to dimension pipes/pumps/etc. not the actual consumption).

Point at hand being that water price in Utah is strongly subsidized by property taxes (depending on exact location), so knowing how much water the NSA uses and how much it pays it may be of public interest, at least for the local residents.

On another installment the NSA will use WASTE water (which makes matter quite a bit different):

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/01/07/wastewater-will-cool-new-nsa-computing-center/

jaclaz

If they are using waste water, then that takes some of the bite out of it. But still, it doesn't generate any tangible product so on a purely capitalistic viewpoint it makes zero sense. The real big issue, is that what it is there for, is that the data can and will probably be miss used.

Back to the waste water. I guess that would make a job there pretty sheety in a sheety work environment.

I just couldn't resist it.

bpalone

[jaclaz]

p.s. I fondly remember when I got my first 6 gb hard drive and loudly proclaimed that I will never fill that up.

Why in my day I managed to put together a floppy interface for the Spectrum (which got rid of the cassette tape player) and I actually liked it.

http://tinyapps.org/blog/misc/200702250700_why_in_my_day.html

...kids today.

If they are using waste water, then that takes some of the bite out of it. But still, it doesn't generate any tangible product so on a purely capitalistic viewpoint it makes zero sense. The real big issue, is that what it is there for, is that the data can and will probably be miss used.

Yep, but, accordingly to what I have read the difference is that in Maryland they will use waste water, whilst in Utah they will be using "good" water, of which 1/3 only will seemingly be re-used by the municipality:

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=25978926&nid=148

But still, it doesn't generate any tangible product so on a purely capitalistic viewpoint it makes zero sense.

Are you really 100% sure that anything gathered through the massive surveillance program cannot and will not "leak" to a few selected US based multi-nationals?

Information is a product, and usually a very valuable one.

jaclaz

[bpalone]

ATM operators eye Linux as alternative to Windows XP

End support for XP is prompting them to seek out Windows alternatives

Now, I question if the article was well researched, as it sticks to my feeble mind that something has been said around here about the embedded being supported for a few more years. That being said here is another quote:

"It makes sense to move to a bespoke, but open, platform like Linux -- even from a data security sense," Taylor said. "Microsoft's Achilles heel is data security."

The entire article can be read here: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9247096/ATM_operators_eye_Linux_as_alternative_to_Windows_XP

Most distros upgrade on a far more active cycle than Microsoft. However, if you have the source code and your staff has the chops, there is no reason you couldn't run a very old version of Linux on an embedded system. Although, the instance the article is talking about, involves the machine to be connected to some form of network. So, that would complicate the issue some, but not totally unsolvable. That is, of course, if there isn't some retarded government or industry regulation that would keep you from getting there, because said regulation specified some particular product that had to be used.

Just found it interesting and thought I would point it out.

bpalone

Edited March 21, 2014 by bpalone

[JorgeA]

A follow-up on the story about the Windows leaker who got busted after Microsoft went through his Hotmail:

Microsoft caught up in fresh privacy storm

Microsoft on Thursday scrambled to head off a privacy storm after it was revealed that the software company had searched through the private email of a blogger it suspected of having received stolen software code.

[...]

On Thursday, the software company first sought to play down the outcry over its email search in a statement defending the move, before following up only hours later with a promise of new and stronger procedures to reassure users that their privacy would be protected in such cases.

Microsoft’s examination of a user’s Hotmail account took place after it was tipped off that the account holder, a blogger, had been handed some stolen lines of code from the Windows 8 operating system. It used the information to identify and fire an employee accused of taking the code.

[...]

The company’s privacy policy gives it the right to look at private information to “protect the rights or property of Microsoft or our customers”.

Soon after, however, it released a second statement outlining new steps to reassure users it would not spy on their private communications.

My reaction: to the blogger, that's what can happen when you keep your e-mail files in the cloud.

Anybody who might have any interest in reading the whole article, I suggest you do it soon as FT articles seem to go behind a paywall fairly quickly.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

ATM operators eye Linux as alternative to Windows XP

End support for XP is prompting them to seek out Windows alternatives

Now, I question if the article was well researched, as it sticks to my feeble mind that something has been said around here about the embedded being supported for a few more years. That being said here is another quote:

Just found it interesting and thought I would point it out.

Could this be what you're thinking of?

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Word is there could be three primary SKUs: A "modern" consumer SKU; a traditional/PC SKU; and a traditional enterprise SKU.

The modern SKU would be focused on delivering WinRT apps. This SKU may be available for both ARM- and Intel-based devices, but wouldn't be optimized to run Desktop/Win32 apps. A more traditional consumer SKU would include the Desktop and be updated through the Windows Store, like Windows 8 is now. A traditional Enterprise SKU would support Win 32 apps and have all the usual bells and whistles. It may be for volume licensees only.

Again my emphasis. Almost sounds like JorgeA is going to be practicing his Penguin waddle. [...]

You may be right. About that second alternative, I would definitely not be happy about being able to keep the Desktop but having to receive Windows Updates only through the Windows Store.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Nice Xbone & NSA rant:

Link.

Excellent. If I may quote it here:

Another hooray for the Xbone!

http://www.neowin.net/news/gchq-considered-using-microsofts-kinect-for-surveillance-snowden-leaks

Reply:

That's the reason why MS was so adamant about never decoupling Kinect from the Xbone and the always online requirement.

Especially odd was the Kinect-requirement: It was befuddling how furious they were about it.

MS is saying they had no idea the spy agencies had such plans with the Kinect - yeah right! How would they harvest the information if they would have no access to Microsoft's servers? Hacking it? Nice try - we know that MS was the first company to sign up for PRISM (and why so adamant about the the bone being always-online?)

I bet they had proftiable contracts with the agencies ready and Xbones would serve as literal Telescreens. It only failed because of the Snowden reveleations (which happened right at the Xbone reveal) and the following sh*tstorm against the xbone.

F***ing scary what would have been otherwise. Nice job Microsoft - they are literally proving pretty much all off-the-bat spying allegations against them back in the days on Slashdot etc. true.

WTF.

And the terror excuses are right out of the window - come on! What terrorists would talk about plans in front of an always connected xbone? Terror prevention my a**, something like this can only be about mass surveillance.

Oh and the tards on TMR screaming about tinfoil hats and all: Not even the US government denies that the leaks are true. It's far more insane to still belief all this stuff is false despite overwhelming massive evidence, which isn't even denied by the powers that be.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Another reason to block tracking in one's browser:

A Close Look at the NSA’s Most Powerful Internet Attack Tool

Finally, there is the big guide of possible selectors an analyst can use for targeting. There has been much back and forth about private companies also doing NSA-like data collection. Yet this single slide shows just how serious this symbiosis has become, with both private companies and the NSA using and exploiting the same information. Most of the data is involved in some form of user tracking.

Both the content networks like Google and Facebook as well as numerous ad networks have built a global network of user monitoring, so it’s natural that the NSA not only piggybacks off this monitoring but uses it to guide attacks. Behind the scenes, the NSA also performs user-linking, which allows them to fully deanonymize the supposedly “anonymous” advertisement cookies.

Useful background material on this topic:

Our Government Has Weaponized the Internet. Here’s How They Did It

User cookies, those inserted by both advertising networks and services, also serve as great identifiers for NSA targeting. Yet a web browser only reveals these cookies when communicating with such sites. A solution lies in the NSA’s QUANTUMCOOKIE attack, which they’ve utilized to de-anonymize Tor users.

A packet injector can reveal these cookies by replying to an unnoticed web fetch (such as a small image) with a HTTP 302 redirect pointing to the target site (such as Hotmail). The browser now thinks “hey, should really go visit Hotmail and ask it for this image”. In connecting to Hotmail, it reveals all non-secure cookies to the wiretap. This both identifies the user to the wiretap, and also allows the wiretap to use these cookies.

So for any webmail service that doesn’t require HTTPS encryption, QUANTUMCOOKIE also allows the wiretap to log in as the target and read the target’s mail. QUANTUMCOOKIE could also tag users, as the same redirection that extracts a cookie could also set or modify a cookie, enabling the NSA to actively track users of interest as they move across the network — although there is no indication yet that the NSA utilizes this technique.

What can be done about it?

The only self defense from all of the above is universal encryption. Universal encryption is difficult and expensive, but unfortunately necessary.

Encryption doesn’t just keep our traffic safe from eavesdroppers, it protects us from attack. DNSSEC validation protects DNS from tampering, while SSL armors both email and web traffic.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

More about Microsoft's attempts to control what you may put on your computer, and to make you install (Win8) programs through their Windows Store --

From Windows Weekly #347:

There's been a lot of controversy in Microsoftland about side-loading of Windows 8 apps. Microsoft has allowed it, but it's required quite a bit of money, you basically have to have been a fairly large ISV or developer with deep pockets and somebody who is willing to navigate some very complex licensing to do Windows 8 app side-loading by publishing through the Windows store, but not having everyone in the world see your app. If it's an app you want to just kind of publish out to your employees, this is what side-loading is. So, there have been a lot of complaints by developers about how complex and expensive this is and Microsoft hasn't really said if they have any kind of resolution to this in the works.

Mary Jo says that a project to deal with this problem had been taken down, but it seems to be (back?) up at https://bootybay.codeplex.com/.

--JorgeA

[bpalone]

ATM operators eye Linux as alternative to Windows XP

End support for XP is prompting them to seek out Windows alternatives

Now, I question if the article was well researched, as it sticks to my feeble mind that something has been said around here about the embedded being supported for a few more years. That being said here is another quote:

Just found it interesting and thought I would point it out.

Could this be what you're thinking of?

--JorgeA

That could very well be what I was thinking of.

bpalone

[Flasche]

ATM operators eye Linux as alternative to Windows XP

End support for XP is prompting them to seek out Windows alternatives

Now, I question if the article was well researched, as it sticks to my feeble mind that something has been said around here about the embedded being supported for a few more years. That being said here is another quote:

Just found it interesting and thought I would point it out.

Could this be what you're thinking of?

--JorgeA

That could very well be what I was thinking of.

bpalone

It probably is. This one was talked about a lot here, and I own one.