Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[JorgeA]

If you prefer, the Spanish Inquisition guys appear to have been more professional in their activities, and protected their correspondence/reports/meeting drafts/whatever with higher efficiency.

I'd be curious to watch a video of an, umm, interview between an inquisitor and, say, Steve Ballmer.

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

I'd be curious to watch a video of an, umm, interview between an inquisitor and, say, Steve Ballmer.

--JorgeA

That's exactly the point.

The Spanish Inquisition did not record videos, and this is among the reasons why no videos of similar "interviews" ever leaked .

They also did not make (lousy) Powerpoint slides to illustrate to the apprentices/newbies how to carry an interview or listing what they could do through the use of the tools they had available.

jaclaz

[TELVM]

The Spanish Inquisition did not record videos ...

Oh yes they did!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_1je7r7RYE

[jaclaz]

Oh yes they did!

Yep , and they came totally unexpected! (which was actually the general idea )

jaclaz

Edited October 1, 2013 by jaclaz

[JorgeA]

McAfee has added a few more details to this story from last week:

One of the computing industry's more colorful figures plots a comeback:

Exclusive: John McAfee vows to make Internet 'impossible to hack' in Silicon Valley return

"My new technology is going to provide a new type of Internet, a decentralized, floating and moving Internet that is impossible to hack, impossible to penetrate and vastly superior in terms of its facility and neutrality. It solves all of our security concerns," McAfee said in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News.

John McAfee proposes anti-surveillance 'D-Central' router to beat the NSA

Antivirus pioneer and onetime fugitive from the Belize police John McAfee has floated plans to beat NSA surveillance by launching a new type of personal peer-to-peer networking device called D-Central.

Judging from his comments on YouTube, D-Central (as in ‘decentralised’) will be a pocket-sized personal router that owners will be able to use to create small encrypted wireless networks on a scale of a few blocks in size.

Not connected to the Internet (hence the anti-surveillance tag), D-Central will be a building block for small networks that want to communicate with one another without the need to risk eavesdropping via Internet service providers. Users on each router will be able to communicate with one another in either public or private, anonymous modes.

“[With D-Central] everyone’s network is unique to themselves. It doesn’t ask who you are, it doesn’t even know who you are. There is no unique identifier for your device that is constant, every few minutes it changes.”

To allow for Internet communications, the system will appoint nodes to connect to it, creating an encrypted tunnel between nodes in other cities, McAfee explained. Users connecting to the device would need an app on their smartphone or computer.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Anybody care to speculate on the possible reasons for these changes in Microsoft's reporting practices?

Through a glass darkly: Microsoft's new financial reporting format

CIOs will have a harder time evaluating how well key Microsoft products are selling now that the company has restructured the way it breaks down its revenue streams, according to analysts.

The new reporting format, detailed last week, will make its debut next month when Microsoft issues its financial report for its first fiscal quarter, which ends today.

"If the Surface goes in there with Xboxes and mice and keyboards, will you be able to tell the [financial] health of Surface?" Cherry said.

The answer for the Surface and other individual products will vary from quarter to quarter and depend on how specific and granular Microsoft gets in its reports beyond the two main buckets and five subcategories, he added.

The analysts also don't like that the revenue streams of key products like Windows and Office have been bifurcated and mixed in with each other and other products. "There may be some math people will have to do to get the picture," Cherry said.

For instance, whereas before Microsoft had a Windows Division for the OS and a Business Division where Office sales were recorded, now in both cases the numbers will be more scattered.

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

Anybody care to speculate on the possible reasons for these changes in Microsoft's reporting practices?

No need to speculate, it's another form of Apple-envy

If Apple can have no idea of what it has sold (and thus provide not detailed information, and actually sort of get away with it):

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/155290-windows-8-deeper-impressions/?p=1050032

then so will do MS.

jaclaz

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Windows XP loses over 2% of OS share in September; Windows 8 makes slight gain ( NeoWin 2013-10-01 )

Windows 8 Continues to Make Gains as XP's Share Erodes ( Maximum PC 2013-10-01 )

The research firm's newest numbers show Windows XP in second place with 31.41 percent, well below August's numbers of 33.66 percent. In the past two months, Windows XP's share has dipped nearly six percent, which would be unthinkable earlier this year.

Windows 8 continues to climb in market share and is now installed on just over 8 percent of desktops around the world, according to data by NetMarketShare. That's up from 7.41 percent a month ago and 5.4 percent in July. Granted, almost every new PC ships with Windows 8, so you would expect its market share to rise, though that doesn't necessarily explain why it made such a comparatively big jump from July to August.

That's exactly how misinformation gets around, all it takes is two bumbling ignorant fools that don't do their homework and just read the numbers given by a Microsoft shill. But one month ago it was revealed that NetMarketshare adjusted their methodology which removed some Windows XP computers from their tracking. It was a synthetic action which IMHO was clearly designed to benefit Microsoft's FUDfest to rid the world of Windows XP, the last popular pre-9/11 operating system. There is no way to honestly compare the numbers before and after July/August 2013 because they use different sampling, period. The fact that this is not prominently displayed by NetMarketshare ( like right on the graph ) reinforces my opinion that they are financial prostitutes, for sale to the highest bidder.

I have rounded up all of the publicly available historical results from NetMarketshare and dumped them into a spreadsheet ...

If anyone has any information of other methodology adjustments please let me know and I will update that spreadsheet and we will see if we can visualize anymore of their hanky panky..

NOTE: If you want all this data for yourself, here it is in CSV ...

,2011,2011,2011,2011,2012,2012,2012,2012,2012,2012,2012,2012,2012,2012,2012,2012,2013,2013,2013,2013,2013,2013,2013,,2013,2013

,Sep,Oct,Nov,Dec,Jan,Feb,Mar,Apr,May,Jun,Jul,Aug,Sep,Oct,Nov,Dec,Jan,Feb,Mar,Apr,May,Jun,Jul,,Aug,Sep

Windows 8.1,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,0.02,,0.24,0.87

Windows 8,---,---,0.03,0.05,0.02,0.03,0.11,0.12,0.13,0.18,0.20,0.23,0.30,0.41,1.09,1.72,2.26,2.67,3.17,3.82,4.27,5.10,5.40,,7.41,8.02

Windows 8 Touch,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,0.02,0.05,0.08,0.10,0.12,0.02,---,---,---,,---,---

Windows 8 RT Touch,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,0.00,0.01,0.02,0.02,0.02,0.00,---,---,---,,---,---

Windows 7,32.42,34.62,34.60,36.99,36.40,38.12,37.54,38.67,40.51,41.59,42.21,42.76,44.04,44.69,44.71,45.11,44.48,44.55,44.73,44.72,44.85,44.37,44.49,,45.63,46.43

Windows Vista,9.09,8.85,8.48,8.44,8.22,8.10,7.65,7.32,6.88,6.72,6.60,6.15,6.05,5.80,5.70,5.67,5.24,5.17,4.99,4.75,4.51,4.62,4.24,,4.11,3.98

Windows XP,50.50,48.03,48.89,46.52,47.19,45.39,46.86,46.08,44.85,43.61,42.86,42.52,41.23,40.66,39.82,39.08,39.51,38.99,38.73,38.31,37.74,37.17,37.19,,33.66,31.41

Windows 2000,0.17,0.19,0.14,0.13,0.13,0.15,0.16,0.14,0.09,0.08,0.08,0.07,0.07,0.06,0.06,0.04,0.06,0.06,0.05,0.05,0.07,0.04,0.04,,0.04,0.03

Windows NT,0.23,0.14,0.06,0.07,0.06,0.06,0.12,0.10,0.05,0.04,0.06,0.03,0.03,0.04,0.05,0.04,0.05,0.06,0.07,0.11,0.22,0.19,0.17,,0.09,0.09

Windows ME,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,---,---,---,0.00,0.00,0.00,---,,---,---

Windows 98,0.03,0.02,0.02,0.02,0.02,0.05,0.04,0.04,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.00,0.01,0.01,0.00,0.00,0.01,0.00,0.00,,0.00,0.00

Windows 95,---,---,---,0.00,0.00,0.02,0.01,0.01,0.00,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,,---,---

Win64,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,0.00,0.01,0.01,0.00,,0.00,---

Mac OS X 10.9,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,0.02,0.04,,0.05,0.06

Mac OS X 10.8,---,---,---,---,---,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.02,0.03,0.28,1.41,1.60,1.85,2.14,2.27,2.44,2.61,2.65,2.82,2.97,3.14,3.28,,3.42,3.69

Mac OS X 10.7,1.41,1.83,1.86,2.02,2.18,2.69,2.59,2.71,2.82,3.12,3.27,2.45,2.34,2.24,2.18,2.00,1.96,1.93,1.81,1.82,1.76,1.73,1.69,,1.65,1.66

Mac OS X 10.6,3.53,3.62,3.22,3.05,2.95,3.00,2.79,2.71,2.59,2.57,2.48,2.38,2.34,2.25,2.19,2.07,2.00,1.97,1.87,1.78,1.77,1.76,1.68,,1.65,1.68

Mac OS X 10.5,1.15,1.14,1.06,1.00,0.97,0.95,0.89,0.85,0.79,0.78,0.73,0.70,0.69,0.64,0.61,0.56,0.52,0.51,0.47,0.45,0.43,0.43,0.41,,0.39,0.35

Mac OS X 10.4,0.30,0.29,0.27,0.25,0.24,0.23,0.22,0.20,0.19,0.18,0.17,0.17,0.16,0.15,0.15,0.14,0.13,0.13,0.12,0.11,0.11,0.10,0.09,,0.09,0.09

Mac OS X Mach-O,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.01,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,,---,---

Mac OS X (no version),0.04,0.05,0.03,0.03,0.03,0.04,0.04,0.04,0.03,0.02,0.02,0.02,0.02,0.02,0.03,0.02,0.02,0.02,0.01,0.01,0.02,0.02,0.01,,0.01,0.01

Linux,1.11,1.19,1.31,1.41,1.56,1.16,0.98,0.98,1.03,1.05,1.02,1.10,1.11,1.17,1.25,1.19,1.21,1.21,1.17,1.21,1.26,1.28,1.25,,1.52,1.64

SunOS,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,---,---,0.00,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,,---,---

FreeBSD,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,,---,0.00

,"NOTE: Net Applications made an ""adjustment"" to their methodology after July 2013 targeting Windows XP which renders accurate comparisons before and after

useless and brings into question their impartiality. It is likely they are merely a shill organization paid by the monopolistic Microsoft to further their agenda.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

EDIT: added CSV

Edited October 2, 2013 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Apple, Google, Microsoft among 10 most valuable brands ( NeoWin 2013-09-30 )

If anyone is really wondering where Apple-envy and Google-envy comes from, this is it. It really has nothing to do with iPhones or Chrome or Android, it is simply that ancient example of one of the seven deadly sins - jealousy. As it stands now ...

Apple ........ $ 98.3 billion

Google ....... $ 93.2 billion

Coke ......... $ 79.2 billion

IBM .......... $ 78.8 billion

Microsoft .... $ 59.5 billion

GE ........... $ 46.9 billion

McDonald's ... $ 41.9 billion

Samsung ...... $ 39.6 billion

Intel ........ $ 37.2 billion

Toyota ....... $ 35.3 billion

Feel pity for the green-hearted souls in Redmond because it will only get worse. First Apple, then Google will break through the $ 100 billion dollar barrier to great fanfare on "the Street". Then Samsung will inevitably rise past Microsoft. These future events ought to be good for a spike in sales of Rolaids and Tums in the greater Seattle vicinity.

Microsoft Touts Windows 8.1s SkyDrive Smart Files Feature, OCR Search ( Maximum PC 2013-09-30 )

Windows 8.1 to let Bing search for text inside photos on SkyDrive ( NeoWin 2013-09-30 )

This is that SpyDrive feature that OCR 's any text seen on images. Kinda begs a question I think ... what if very few people use this feature? Then all those photos were scanned for nothing and tons of processing power was wasted I guess which proves whatever power they saved by removing Aero and other stuff will be spent somewhere else :yes

Of course it is described as a great thing for users and they use this ridiculous far-fetched scenario ...

For example, you might have taken a photo 6 months ago of the menu of your favorite restaurant, but can't remember where it's buried in your Camera Roll and want to remember the dish you had. You can simply type in the restaurant name on your desktop and Bing Smart Search will search text of your Camera Roll photos and pull up the picture of the menu with the restaurant name printed on it, Microsoft wrote in a blog post Monday.

Oh yeah! Now there is something the world was waiting for someone to invent! Hypocrites. I swear I am gonna fill a folder full of these meme images and then test to see how well SpyDrive presents all the "Metro Sucks" and "Windows 8 Blows" text.

Windows 8.1 TV Ad Highlights Return of Start Button ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-30 )

Another story from yesterday highlighted at TH, and again with a completely different reaction in the comments than at NeoWin.

It is still hard to believe that they pulled this cynical stunt, practically a hoax, of "returning" the Start Button. The thing they returned only appeared in the Windows 8 betas and launches Metro. So right there is a blatant lie with respect to real customers that never saw a beta and only know the real Start Button. It's an astounding deception for those customers. But to those people actually familiar with the betas who tried like mad to communicate this disaster to Sinofsky and his team of destroyers, it is nothing short of a kick in the nuts.

Microsoft: Kinect on Xbox One can listen to two people at once ( NeoWin 2013-09-30 )

In a session during the Eurogamer Expo this weekend, Polygon reports that, according to Microsoft Xbox technology developer Nick Burton, the sensor can also see if a human's mouth is moving in a dark room. The Kinect hardware can map faces up to to 1,400 points and detect the movements of 25 joints between six different people in a room.

Wanna impress me? Let's see it close caption text a person talking in realtime onto the screen. Let's see it realtime convert a person using sign language to text or voice output on the screen, and vice versa. The reason it can't do that is because they taught it far more important things like "Xbox On" and "Play Halo".

EDIT: fixed icon, fixed spacing from ridiculously buggy IPB editor

Edited October 2, 2013 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

The Competition ...

Tripwire: SteamOS, Steam Machines, and Steam Controller will be the best thing to happen to PC gaming since digital distribution ( PC Gamer 2013-09-30 )

More coverage from PC Gamer. Note that the site is largely made up of hardcore gamers favoring the PC so consoles do not necessarily get a great reception there, which explains the mild level of skepticism over the Steam announcements. I think it's good feedback nonetheless.

Game devs go hands on with Steam Controller, here's what they think ( TechSpot 2013-09-30 )

A collection of various opinions of the Steam announcements, particularly their new controller which a few have been able to test.

Consumers Prefer PS4 Over Xbox One for Holidays, Poll Finds ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-30 )

More about that story from yesterday, this time at TH where the commenters have a decidedly different reaction than the children at NeoWin.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Security news ...

Your Privacy Is Not Our Responsibility, Says Verizon Exec ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-30 )

Following on the heels of self-serving remarks by the Verizon CEO a few days ago now we get treated to some more in-your-face bragging from a subordinate employee, Marcus Sachs, Verizon's vice president of "national security policy" ...

Verizon's job, according to Sachs, is to provide reliable, accessible communications between its customers.

"People are more interested in [are my calls going through] than 'Are you a spy for the NSA?'" he said.

Information security specialists, Sachs explained, think of their job as having three parts: confidentiality, integrity and availability (often reduced to the acronym CIA).

What a knucklehead. Imagine if someone at Microsoft said those exact words! The fact there is even a position called "vice president of national security policy" is all you need to know to confirm that these regional monopolies are first and foremost in place to run the infrastructure that our benevolent government uses to monitor it's lucky citizens. Their second job is to collect duties from us to finance this infrastructure. The third is to make sure the mail gets delivered on time. Somewhere way down the list is the concept of privacy. Or maybe not.

NSA-Free Cloud Storage Promised by Finnish Company ( Tom's Hardware 2013-09-30 )

This company is the highly regarded F-Secure who used to distribute a decent antivirus called F-Protect. Interesting or meh, you decide.

But this gives me an idea! There is a huge opportunity for someone to step in and offer offshore services for data exiles. My nomination would be for Switzerland and I'd be surprised if they haven't thought of this yet. The government of the land of clocks and cheese and private bank accounts should add cloud services to their portfolio. They should pass a law making an ironclad contract for private data farms off-limits to all government agencies foreign and domestic, and become the world's favorite hosting option. Naturally we still would need a leap of faith that it wouldn't just be a front for security agencies, but if the Swiss cannot accomplish it, then nobody can.

John McAfee is developing a $100 device to block the NSA ( TechSpot 2013-09-30 )

McAfee's device could disallow the NSA from accessing your phone ( NeoWin 2013-10-01 )

More coverage of that story mentioned by Jorge. McAfee the man, not the Intel owned company, is developing a local encrypted wireless networking device with a range of "about three blocks" which means less than a mile in most towns and cities. Kind of like advanced walkie-talkies.

BitTorrent announces decentralized, secure messaging service ( TechSpot 2013-10-01 )

And another one, this time from BitTorrent. Like I said, p2p communication will be the next growth industry, well, let's hope so..

Ex-Microsoft privacy adviser: I don't trust company after NSA revelations ( UK Guardian 2013-09-30 )

An ex-privacy advisor for Microsoft claims he no longer trusts the company ( NeoWin 2013-10-01 )

This week, the Guardian website reports that Caspar Bowden, was in charge of Microsoft's privacy policy in 40 countries, claims that he was not aware of the PRISM program while he worked at the company from 2002 to 2011. Bowden did not serve as a privacy adviser for Microsoft in the U.S.

Now that he has left the company, Bowden believes that the NSA PRISM program undermines democracy. In a speech during a privacy conference in Lausanne, Switzerland a few days ago, he said:

The public now has to think about the fact that anybody in public life, or person in a position of influence in government, business or bureaucracy, now is thinking about what the NSA knows about them. So how can we trust that the decisions that they make are objective and that they aren't changing the decisions that they make to protect their career? That strikes at any system of representative government.

This guy's opinion should carry some weight IMHO. The way I read it is that he is likely a bit offended at being kept in the dark while effectively being used to lie to customers about privacy assurances from Microsoft. I suspect he knows enough to make some waves for the government spooks primary partner.

[TELVM]

Microsoft: Kinect on Xbox One can listen to two people at once ( NeoWin 2013-09-30 )

In a session during the Eurogamer Expo this weekend, Polygon reports that, according to Microsoft Xbox technology developer Nick Burton, the sensor can also see if a human's mouth is moving in a dark room ...

"Open the pod bay doors Xbone ... ... Xbone? ... "

... But this gives me an idea! There is a huge opportunity for someone to step in and offer offshore services for data exiles. My nomination would be for Switzerland ...

My vote goes to the Principality of Sealand.

Edited October 2, 2013 by TELVM

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Rumor: Three top Microsoft investors want Bill Gates to resign as chairman ( NeoWin 2013-10-01 )

According to Reuters, the three investors hold a combined five percent of the company's stock. The story, which cites unnamed sources, claims that the unidentified trio feel Gates could block any new ideas and strategies that could be suggested by Microsoft's next chief executive officer. Microsoft is currently searching for a new CEO, as its current leader Steve Ballmer announced plans more than a month ago to retire from the company within a year.

The story suggests the board will not cave into the demands of the three investors, so this move may be more symbolic than anything else.

Just a rumor and the thread just opened but already a bunch of comments, wait for tomorrow. This is the kind of story that really frightens the fanboys because it's in that zone that they have no control over, the zone called reality. In their world Microsoft is king and nothing but sunshine and unicorns can ever occur, well, unless that reality thing gets in the way. You know that each day they wake up and check NeoWin for the shoe to drop: who's the next CEO? Did they cancel Metro, or backtrack further? Did they sell Xbox? It just has to suck to be them.

New York City Mayor announces new free public Wi-Fi networks across all five boroughs ( TechSpot 2013-10-01 )

Ordinarily I would approach this from a fiscal point-of-view, as in why am I paying for this in some form ( those of us upstate pour lots of money into the NYC black-hole particularly for mass transit, we even supply their water ). "We gotta stay competitive in the world economy ..." says the idi0t mayor. Yeah sure.

However, and I hope others are wondering the same, why the sudden benevolence, especially from this mayor who is such a nanny-stater that he tries to ban large sodas, cigarettes and texting while walking? Hotspots necessarily draw crowds even up to the street itself which is actually dangerous unlike super-sized Pepsi.

Well my theory is that this entire network is aimed at being the largest funnel into the information vacuum that the spooks are busy building. This will obviously be very convenient for that terrorist without an ISP so they would naturally take advantage of the city hotspot network. What people don't realize is just how much info is left in even the most basic routers used in Wi-Fi hotspots. It far exceeds the metadata gleaned from roaming past cell towers. Routers scoop up everything now including cellphones with Wi-Fi enabled in addition to the usual cache of laptops and tablets. And you better believe that these industrial grade routers that can handle so many simultaneous devices have much more NVRAM, maybe even flash or HDD storage to keep a monstrous record of every ping. It's a trap. Doh!

It's amazing to remember 10 years ago watching Alias and 24 which at the time I thought it was a bit far-fetched for the spooks and crooks to be yanking out their SIM cards and smashing them, pulling out the batteries, and seeing the bad guy who forgot to do get quickly nailed. Now I have to believe that every single plot device in those shows were not only accurate but massively understated.

( Original Photo Here )

IE exploit publicly released; could lead to more attacks ( NeoWin 2013-10-01 )

Another day, another ... no, cancel that.. It's still the previously identified exploit known as CVE-2013-3893 that for some reason has yet to be distributed. Very strange. For anyone concerned, there is a manual page for obtaining the fix here supplied by one of the commenters.

Symantec grapples with one of the largest botnets in history ( TechSpot 2013-10-01 )

Symantec takes down 1/4 of a botnet, a half million supposedly compromised PC's. meh.

Seems like I read these every week, Norton took this down, Microsoft took that down, yada yada yada. It would be much more interesting if they charted the configurations of those alleged infected computers, specifically three things: {1} Operating System, {2} Antivirus or lack of, {3} NAT Router and Firewall or lack of. That's all I ask. In the meantime we're just supposed to take their word for this accomplishment. Okay. You can bet that there are a majority that are Windows 7 ( not XP ) using MSSE or Symantec.

[JorgeA]

New York City Mayor announces new free public Wi-Fi networks across all five boroughs ( TechSpot 2013-10-01 )

Ordinarily I would approach this from a fiscal point-of-view, as in why am I paying for this in some form ( those of us upstate pour lots of money into the NYC black-hole particularly for mass transit, we even supply their water ). "We gotta stay competitive in the world economy ..." says the idi0t mayor. Yeah sure.

However, and I hope others are wondering the same, why the sudden benevolence, especially from this mayor who is such a nanny-stater that he tries to ban large sodas, cigarettes and texting while walking? Hotspots necessarily draw crowds even up to the street itself which is actually dangerous unlike super-sized Pepsi.

Well my theory is that this entire network is aimed at being the largest funnel into the information vacuum that the spooks are busy building. This will obviously be very convenient for that terrorist without an ISP so they would naturally take advantage of the city hotspot network. What people don't realize is just how much info is left in even the most basic routers used in Wi-Fi hotspots. It far exceeds the metadata gleaned from roaming past cell towers. Routers scoop up everything now including cellphones with Wi-Fi enabled in addition to the usual cache of laptops and tablets. And you better believe that these industrial grade routers that can handle so many simultaneous devices have much more NVRAM, maybe even flash or HDD storage to keep a monstrous record of every ping. It's a trap. Doh!

It's amazing to remember 10 years ago watching Alias and 24 which at the time I thought it was a bit far-fetched for the spooks and crooks to be yanking out their SIM cards and smashing them, pulling out the batteries, and seeing the bad guy who forgot to do get quickly nailed. Now I have to believe that every single plot device in those shows were not only accurate but massively understated.

( Original Photo Here )

I'm with you on everything there. (Love the caption in the graphic!) I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn that the data they collect from these Wi-Fi hotspots will be integrated with the network of video cameras that Microsoft is helping to build for the NYPD.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Another tech company hell-bent on self-destruction?

Intel proves once and for all that PCs are not coming back

I went to IDF this year hoping to find a reason that PCs weren’t doomed and came away knowing all key players are actively making things worse. The PC isn’t just in trouble, it is actively being destroyed because no one involved is interested in changing.

Lets face it, the modern Windows 8 PC is a miserable experience, it is not a step forward from its predecessors in any measurable way but the steps backward are as numerous as they are obvious. The forthcoming Windows 8.1 is at best window dressing attempting to placate the critics without actually fixing any of their complaints. In short it sucks and it isn’t going to get better because Microsoft feels no need to change their ways. Look to Windows Phone 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, and 8 for the previous failing of this “lets not actually fix anything” strategy, specifically the press releases and paid shills proclaiming that this release was the real game changer again and again and again.

If you have followed PCs for any length of time you will know Intel is desperately trying to figure out what to do to combat the phones and tablets that are eating them alive from the ankles up. It is pretty obvious that the company both doesn’t understand what the problem is and is actively shutting out all voices that explain it to them. How can I be sure of this? Intel is both doubling down on a known losing strategy while publicly disparaging things that would help. Behind the scenes it is however much worse.

Sound familiar?

To recap a bit, people despise Windows 8 and the market is cratering because Microsoft shut down the ability to buy a PC without it. They are making absolutely none of the changes asked for with 8.1 and publicly don’t see a problem. Ultrabooks have failed because they are slower, feature free, saddled with things users don’t want, and shatteringly expensive. Any questions why we said PCs suck?

What do users want and ask for vocally? Screens that aren’t garbage quality, resolutions that are not worse than mainstream laptops from 2007, SSD instead of error prone and driver dependent ‘hybrid’ garbage, an OS that isn’t grating to the user, decent Wi-Fi, good build quality, and a decent price. None of this is rocket science, it is just a request to undo the regression of the past 4-5 years of PC ‘advancements’.

In response to these painfully obvious problems, what does Intel do? They actually mandated Windows 8/8.1 to get kickbacks, mandated touch screens, mandated a paid anti-virus for said insecure OS, and jacked the prices way up with Haswell. What do users get in return? Slightly better performance, slightly better battery life, and a step up in graphics performance. Notice how many of the solutions Intel mandates are listed as problems by users? Notice how many of the things users didn’t want were in fact moved to the mandatory column from optional? See any problems?

More expensive things people don’t want are not usually a retail hit but Intel seems to think otherwise...

Lots more goot insights in that article, well worth reading (and it's not very long).

--JorgeA