Formfiller Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 BALLMER RETIRES!!!!!!!!!!!http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/aug13/08-23AnnouncementPR.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 BALLMER RETIRES!!!!!!!!!!!http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/aug13/08-23AnnouncementPR.aspxToo much successes do wear prematurely their makers. jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlotteTheHarlot Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 In case you didn't know, Berlin is the hipster capital of Europe: http://store.hipstery.com/products/the-berlin-hipster-kitBerlin Hipsters understand that the larger their vintage spectacles are, the higher their Hipster social ranking will be. Wow, awesome report FF! So how many Surface and WP units do they need to sell before that Berlin location will turn a profit? The interior design looks expensive, rent must be astronomical, the electricity there is not cheap, they are spending tons on marketing, if I had to guess this is the ultimate loss leader ever imagined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlotteTheHarlot Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 I wonder how Lenovo plans to get away with it. It isn't allowed for a program like that to be pre-installed on a PC sold into the retail channel. It can only be used with Embedded or Enterprise SKUs.What Microsoft believes is truly irrelevant now. They used to be able to strong-arm when there was lots of competition between OEMs, but that is over in the retail channel. Lenovo is the only big box maker routinely operating in the black ink and that is largely because it is China with slave labor and a huge barely tapped market nearby. If Microsoft wants to threaten them they will suffer huge consequences. I encourage them to try.Most importantly, their secret agreements saying what is "allowed" are not worth the paper they are written on. Never were. A lot of the fanboys in those threads about Pokki are confusing Microsoft with Apple. These machines are not Microsoft computers, they did not build them. Microsoft is the vendor, the 3rd party OS provider. They have no say in what the actual 1st party OEM builder installs. They have no more right to tell them not to install Pokki than telling them to not allow dual-booting Linux or anything else. If they think they can dictate what is installed then I encourage them to once again try some more of their patented back-room shenanigans as in the past, which would bring down the wrath of the Chinese government and other governments in any country that Lenovo ships to.The fact that there are so many MicroZealots and MetroTards in those comments saying "Microsoft should not allow ..." speaks volumes about the brainwashing that they have perpetrated on the public. They actually believe the world revolves around Microsoft. I got news for them. Even if Microsoft chose to exercise the only power they do possess by canceling the contract and NOT supplying Windows, they would only succeed in accelerating the move away towards Linux or Android or something else entirely.Microsoft has to thread a needle now because their leverage is vanishing. This is why they are switching to the nebulous cloud and services thing in the first place.Lenovo to preload Start menu replacement on Windows 8 machines ( TechSpot 2013-08-22 )SweetLabs to have its Pokki Windows 8 Start menu installed on all Lenovo PCs ( NeoWin 2013-08-22 ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlotteTheHarlot Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 (edited) BALLMER RETIRES!!!!!!!!!!!http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/aug13/08-23AnnouncementPR.aspxWell that came from nowhere.He was supposed to hang on for several years IIRC.While I was watching NASDAQ yesterday go offline and suspend trading I kept wondering if Microsoft was involved somehow ( in the buggy software behind the scenes ). We'll see how this factors in today.EDIT: both stories: Ballmer and the NASDAQ errors are being discussed on CNBC. Edited August 23, 2013 by CharlotteTheHarlot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Formfiller Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 (edited) Metrotards are as crazy as ever:http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer-to-retire"Ballmer leaves because he just wants some free time. Nothing to do with bad decisions or Windows 8!"Ballmer said a few years ago, he would retire in 2018, remember? So his retirement now is not "business as usual", dumbf*..The tards are still on their LSD. Edited August 23, 2013 by Formfiller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Formfiller Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 More metrotard madness:http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1172679-ballmer-to-retire/page-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted August 23, 2013 Author Share Posted August 23, 2013 (edited) BALLMER RETIRES!!!!!!!!!!!http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/aug13/08-23AnnouncementPR.aspxExcellent, that now makes it two out of the three in the Windows-wrecking triumvirate who will be gone. (The other two, of course, are SS and JLG.)I did this when SS left last year, and with today's good news it's in order once again:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usfiAsWR4qU(Hmmm, I couldn't find any way in the new forum software to embed the video. The "My Media" button takes me only to images that I've previously uploaded.)One to go.Oh, and did anybody notice that MSFT stock is up today? --JorgeA Edited August 23, 2013 by JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted August 23, 2013 Author Share Posted August 23, 2013 On the "Security" front ...[...] New Details Show Broader NSA Surveillance Reach ( Wall Street Journal 2013-08-20 )...For those who can't access the contents of the full WSJ article, here are two critical passages:{NSA} briefly copies the traffic and decides which communications to keep based on what it calls "strong selectors" -- say, an email address, or a large block of computer addresses that correspond to an organization it is interested in. In making these decisions, the NSA can look at content of communications as well as information about who is sending the data.[emphasis added]Paul Kouroupas, a former executive at Global Crossing Ltd. and other telecom companies responsible for security and government affairs, says the checks and balances in the NSA programs depend on telecommunications companies and the government policing the system themselves. "There's technically and physically nothing preventing a much broader surveillance," he says.[emphasis added]--JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 You apparently not aware that the squirrel is in all their marketing materials:Well they are apparently not aware that the English language words have a meaning:http://support.pokki.com/customer/portal/articles/517824-what-is-pokki- What is Pokki?Last Updated: Jan 30, 2013Pokki is an awesome way to use apps right from your desktop!Pokki is compromised of two components: the Pokki Menu and the App Store.The Pokki menu adds start menu functionality (especially useful for Windows 8!) to your desktop and enables easy navigation to your favorite applications.And this confirms that at least a large parts of their customers either cannot or won't READ (which is typical of pre-school age) .The above is the FIRST page any sentient being would READ on their site.jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripredacus Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 Someone wrote a poem about Windows 8 (some language)http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?47616-I-Hate-Windows-8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Formfiller Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 (edited) You apparently not aware that the squirrel is in all their marketing materials:Well they are apparently not aware that the English language words have a meaning:http://support.pokki.com/customer/portal/articles/517824-what-is-pokki- What is Pokki?Last Updated: Jan 30, 2013Pokki is an awesome way to use apps right from your desktop!Pokki is compromised of two components: the Pokki Menu and the App Store.The Pokki menu adds start menu functionality (especially useful for Windows 8!) to your desktop and enables easy navigation to your favorite applications.And this confirms that at least a large parts of their customers either cannot or won't READ (which is typical of pre-school age) .The above is the FIRST page any sentient being would READ on their site.jaclazSo what?You're completely missing the wider picture here.The biggest OEM (the only one having good sales!), and poster child of Windows 8, bypassing the whole metro effort on all of its computers. That's a pretty huge thing.Who knows, maybe that was the last straw that the MS board needed to get rid of Ballmer? I think there's indeed the possibility that Lenovo's decision at least played some part in this (together with all the other recent MS f*** ups of course). Edited August 23, 2013 by Formfiller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aero7x64 Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 (edited) Bill finally might have realised this clown is destroying his company. Of course Ballmer and Gates were long time friends but lettings Ballmer to destroy everything he build for and ignore customers feedback is not right way. Good that Ballmer will "retire" (might have been forced out because of Windows 8). now I wait for Windows 9. Edited August 23, 2013 by Aero7x64 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted August 25, 2013 Author Share Posted August 25, 2013 Glad to see that MSFN is back up (again), as there is this bit of potentially critical news:Is Windows 8 a Trojan horse for the NSA? The German Government thinks soThe German Government is now deeply suspicious that the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) technology built into a growing number of Windows 8 PCs and tablets is creating a gigantic back door for NSA surveillance, leaked documents have suggested.Documents from the German Ministry of Economic Affairs obtained by German title Zeit Online uncover the alleged unease of officials at the direction of version 2.0 of the standard being developed under the auspices of the multi-vendor Trusted Computing Group (TCG).TPM has been marketed as a security technology since its appearance in 2006, but version 2.0 would embed a chip on every PC that has complete control over which programs can and can’t run, a setting that can’t be over-ridden under Windows 8. The chip is also where the cryptographic data is stored for Windows BitLocker and it enables remote administration. ...During TCG meetings, German officials appear to have expressed concern about the potential for abuse but were “rebuffed,” Zeit claims. The documents also refer to the NSA having representation at the meetings and the statement “the NSA agrees” in the context of leaving the technology in its current (presumably unreformed) state.Comments?--JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JorgeA Posted August 25, 2013 Author Share Posted August 25, 2013 Surface Pro -- is Windows 8 the biggest failing of this expensive tablet?Since Windows 8 was first released, I had the feeling that it was a poor hybrid. As far as I’m concerned, there is little wrong with Windows 8’s traditional desktop mode. But used on a regular desktop machine, it has always felt to me that the 'modern' side of things was tacked on almost as an afterthought.Maybe that’s not quite it. Perhaps what I’m trying to say is that the 'modern' aspects of Windows 8 felt to me like a half-finished mobile operating system. It was clearly designed with touchscreen devices in mind but it was bolted onto standard Windows regardless....But the modern/Metro/mobile side of things -- even though I had only previously looked at it from a desktop point of view -- seemed underpowered. It lacked the finesse of iOS. It lacked the punk rock attitude of Android. It was fluffy, cutesy, clumsy and… big. It felt as though Microsoft did not have enough faith in this side of the operating system to release it as a product in its own right, be that because of an underlying reliance on standard Windows architecture or due to the mobile aspect being under-developed.For me, it basically made Windows 8 feel slightly directionless. It couldn’t quite decide what to be, so it tried to be everything...Maybe (fingers crossed) the new MSFT leadership will have the sense to decouple the mobile OS from the desktop OS and let the former sink or swim on its own, while no longer dragging the latter down with it. Put back a proper Start Button that leads to a real Start Menu, bring back Aero Glass capability, give users the choice to install (or not) Metro on their real PCs, and then we'd have what could arguably be considered an actual (if perhaps modest) improvement over Win7.That is, unless there is real substance to the subject of my previous post...--JorgeA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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