Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Google completes upgrading its SSL certificates to 2,048-bit RSA ( TechSpot 2013-11-21 )

One of the few bright spots of news in the wake of the spookmasters pwning of Microsoft, Yahoo and Google ( to name but a few ). I hope someone more knowledgeable about these issues explain how this is foolproof though? Do we actually know they haven't got a backdoor to RSA-2048? Can web browsers and other applications be trusted to encrypt/decrypt without leaving a backdoor or simply spitting out a clear copy somewhere? And it certainly cannot help if the spooks are also tapped into the unencrypted customer endpoints with ISP's brokering the Internet on/off ramps. There still is a lot of mystery to the whole world of electronic communication, and the spooks have unlimited funds and are present at every step of the journey. Let's hope this isn't only for Google's benefit, to restore their reputation.

For Limited Time, Adobe Offers Photoshop CC, Lightroom, and 20GB Storage to Everyone for $10/month ( Maximum PC 2013-11-21 )

"As before, the intention is not to get you in at $9.99/mo., then crank up the price after a year. $9.99 is the expected ongoing price," Adobe stated in a blog post. "The difference is that you now dont need to own a copy of Photoshop or Creative Suite CS3 or higher. Please do note that this is a limited-time deal, so youll want to jump in before December 2."

Here's the deal. You have to commit to a one-year membership, though you don't have to pay it all upfront. Adobe will collect payment each month at the time of purchase, plus applicable tax. If you decide it's not for you and cancel within the first 30 days, you'll get a full refund. Any time after 30 days, a cancellation will cost you 50 percent of your remaining contract obligation.

Speaking of reputation salvage, now it is Adobe's turn since they just allowed a mere 150 million passwords or so to be stolen. By all means, forgive and forget and go to Adobe and enter your credit card number to open a subscription to their formerly highly regarded applications. What could possibly go wrong, again.

What Is 4K TV? ( Tom's Hardware 2013-11-21 )

Nice overview of where display technology is headed. One thing is always missing though when they ask about the lack of 4k ( or whatever ) content to watch on a display ... why not simply allow 4 x 1080p feeds on the screen simultaneously? Does everything have to be single-tasking for MetroTards? The TV makers will need to work on multiplexing or multiple decoders to allow this but it sure seems like a simply obvious idea to me. I would love a 4k 40 inch computer screen right now, and the last thing I would worry about is whether YouTube supplies a 4k feed ( they sometimes do ). The real gain is extra real estate that our friendly neighborhood single-tasking MetroTards cannot possibly understand.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Liquid metal alloy could allow hobbyists to print electronics at home on any surface ( TechSpot 2013-11-21 )

Now we're talking!. That's a truly empowering use of home 3D printing - PCB electronics prototyping. It is a perfect antidote to the planned future of walled-garden hardware and software monopolies envisioned by MobileTards. And the possibilities here are truly endless.

Disarming Corruptor Disguises 3D Models As Unrecognizable Jumbles ( Tom's Hardware 2013-11-21 )

Nicely dovetailing to that story and directly related to citizen empowerment and privacy and 3D printing. Here is one answer to the inevitable question of what happens when the gatekeepers of knowledge and their lobbied lackeys ( i.e., the political powers-that-be ) clamp down on just what we can make and produce at home outside of their oversight. A way to disguise the source files from the censors of private knowledge!

Eurocom Builds First 12-Core, 24-Thread Laptop, Weighs 12 pounds ( Maximum PC 2013-11-21 )

Eurocom says the Panther 5SE is the world's first laptop to tote a 12-core processor with 24 threads. That is, if you opt to configure it with an Intel Xeon E5-2695 v2 or E5-2697 v2 processor. If that's too rich for your blood, you can go without something a bit more tame -- the system supports Intel's entire line of Xeon E5-2600 v2 CPUs.

The Panther 5SE can be as beastly as your budget allows. It supports up to 32GB of RAM and up to 6TB of storage with RAID 0/1/5/10 support, it has quad LAN ports, and can accommodate up to two Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M GPUs in SLI or two AMD Radeon 7970M GPUs in CrossFireX.

( Look at all those cores. It's okay to drool Image Source: Maximum PC )

Since it's Christmas season again, here's something for the person who has everything. Starting at just $3000. I thought folks would get a kick out of looking at the configuration selector form, which is decidedly non-Dell. And yes, Windows 7 operating systems are available.

[Formfiller]

Gartner Sees an End to Big Declines in PC Shipments ( Maximum PC 2013-11-20 )

If the story is accurate ( and I'm not interested enough to read through Gartner ramblings anymore ) then the analysts have once again proven they know nothing by reversing all their earlier yammering hyperbolic babbling of the past couple of years. Big shock, NOT.

Yeah, who would have thought using mouse and keyboard is far more effective than using solely a 12 inch touchscreen? Oh wait, just about everyone who tried it out!

The "dead of the PC" scare is even somewhat harmless, considering how much more severe damage these bastards are causing in other areas with their senseless "analysis". You need a bazillion of diplomas to enter the ranks of these analyst-companies, yet they produce total crap. I wonder whether it's the over-education or the coke parties that's causing it.

[bphlpt]

Since it's Christmas season again, here's something for the person who has everything. Starting at just $3000. I thought folks would get a kick out of looking at the configuration selector form, which is decidedly non-Dell. And yes, Windows 7 operating systems are available.

And, just for fun, I found out if you choose almost every available option the price ends up over US$21,000!!! But it would make a heck of a desktop replacement system!

Cheers and Regards

[ricktendo]

Did you guys watch the last two ep of Sourt Park?

Bill Gates had Steve Ballmer terminated

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Did you guys watch the last two ep of Sourt Park?

Absolutely epic.

And I thought they could never top the Apple/Jobs/HUMANCENTiPAD ...

If the picture does not make sense then you had to be there!

[Formfiller]

"You're right Steve, some changes need to be made", and Ballmer gets killed? Were they referring to the failure of the metro interface? Haven't watched it.

[ricktendo]

"You're right Steve, some changes need to be made", and Ballmer gets killed? Were they referring to the failure of the metro interface? Haven't watched it.

No, its about Black Friday+XBox vs PS wars and its told like an episodode of Game Of Thrones

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Some quick first impressions of the Xbox One ( NeoWin 2013-11-22 )

After plugging in, I turned on the unit and my TV screen showed the Xbox One logo ... and it kept showing it, and showing it and showing it.

"Oh crap", I said out loud. Thoughts ran in my head like, "Is the console stuck in setup mode? Is the Xbox One that I paid over $530 (price + taxes) for not going to work out of the gate?" As it turned out, things were fine, After about three minutes, the screen finally changed, showing me that I needed to download install the "Day One" update of about 503 MB.

Downloading and installing the patch went without a hitch and after another extremely long period of seeing the Xbox One logo on screen again, I finally got to the proper set up page where I could get my Xbox Live account plugged in and my Kinect sensor working, among other things.

Lots of articles about the finally arrived Xbone launch day, including some hiccups. This article involves none of those, just quick impressions. Deeper Impressions should be visible in the coming days.

However it wasn't until today that I realized that Microsoft had one final mis-step with the Xbox to unveil ( credit to an anonymous commenter at TechBroil for noticing it first ) ... After all these years with all the possible days to have the unveiling, the incompetent boobs choose the ... 50th Anniversary of the JFK assassination! There is probably no worse idea ( except perhaps 9/11 ) and yet they managed to pull it off anyway! The History Channel and the news outlets have been consumed by this since I turned on the TV and I have noticed the Xbox commercials have gone missing, unlike the way it has been the past few weeks. So someone up there in Redmond managed to select the very day where documentaries are detailing snipers, headshots, autopsies and magic bullets in gory detail for the launch of their Shooting Game platform. It's a darn good thing that infamous JFK sniper software simulator isn't a release day game.

Some Xbox One consoles shipping with faulty disc drives, scratched covers ( NeoWin 2013-11-22 )

As you can see in these videos, whenever a user tries to use a disc, the drive makes a very disturbing sound, and then pops the disc right out.

[...]

Unfortunately thats not all. A few other users, including one of our own forum members, have received brand new consoles that already have marks and problems with the casing. Again, these seem to be isolated incidents so far, and we hope Microsoft will deal with them swiftly.

( this article was also first noticed by a TechBroil commenter ) It's not like a hit piece on their revered game platform, just mildly reported cases of problems, but it certainly is more than enough to get a couple fanboys up in arms seeing conspiracy theories of NeoWin hating Microsoft.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

LG Says It's Investigating Smart TV Spying Claim ( Tom's Hardware 2013-11-21 )

LG says firmware update will halt data collection on Smart TV's ( NeoWin 2013-11-22 )

"Customer privacy is a top priority at LG Electronics and as such, we take this issue very seriously," said an LG spokesperson in speaking with the BBC News. "We are looking into reports that certain viewing information on LG Smart TVs was shared without consent."

[...]

According to the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, LG could be breaking the law. "We have recently been made aware of a possible data breach which may involve LG Smart TVs," said a spokesman in speaking with BBC News. "We will be making enquiries into the circumstances of the alleged breach of the Data Protection Act before deciding what action, if any, needs to be taken."

The company told CNET that the data collection feature was to "better serve ads and recommendations on the television" - similar to what happens on the Internet, and added in a statement:

"LG regrets any concerns these reports may have caused and will continue to strive to meet the expectations of all our customers and the public,"

The Korean company is now working on a firmware update that will disable the transmission of the data should users elect to turn it off, but downplayed the issue as one of not "personal information" but "viewable information" that allowed the company to better serve ads and a "better viewing experience" via the TV. It also stressed that no personal data was collected or even stored on its servers.

Wow! What a difference a day makes. Yesterday they were clearly blaming the retailers ( WTF! ) and today have backtracked to planning on disabling it. Unfortunately, anything that a firmware fix can disable, it can always (re)enable. LG and Samsung and others will quietly sit in the corner now while the sheeple make up their mind whether they like this or not. Later, after enough precedents have come and gone, it will be back in all its glory. Hurray.

Microsoft Wants to Sell You Anti-Google Mugs and T-shirts ( Tom's Hardware 2013-11-21 )

Google gets sassy in firing back to Microsoft's 'Scroogled' merchandise ( NeoWin 2013-11-22 )

More on that latest sleazy Microsoft campaign no doubt directed by that politician they hired to further sully their reputation. Google has responded in a very high-brow ( not sleazy ) fashion which will make them look much better than Microsoft when compared head-to-head ...

"Microsofts latest venture comes as no surprise; competition in the wearables space really is heating up," Google said in a formal response.

The red-meat fanboys cannot understand it, but it will be proved a well-calculated response especially among Wall Street analysts. As usual the NeoWin article mentions a bogus story also at NeoWin ...

Like it or not though, Microsoft's Scroogled campaign actually seems to be working.

... but I see no evidence of that ...

According to research by (GfK Roper) Answers Research, once people visit scroogled.com, Google's favorability gap over Bing shrinks to just 5 percent compared to 45 percent before visiting the website. While Google does still have the slight edge here, there's definitely noticeable gains in Microsoft's favor. After watching the Scroogled video, the likelihood of someone recommending Google drops by 10 percent, while the likelihood of someone recommending Bing rises by 7 percent, as discovered by Microsoft's own data.

... numbers not to brag about even if you believe them. They supplement it with a spokesmouth ...

"The 'Scroogled' campaign is having a huge impact as consumers learn the stark difference between what Google says and what Google does," said a Microsoft spokesman.

... which is where that line they always insert into these articles apparently comes from. Anecdotally, I see very very few people happy about the Scroogle smear campaign at all in the forums. Most appear to be aghast at this kind of public campaign. The Wall Street analysts on CNBC and in the print media will definitely take Google's side in this.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Microsoft DNS servers down; Hotmail, Microsoft.com, others down [update: Microsoft Response] ( NeoWin 2013-11-21 )

This is a big story from yesterday which somehow flew under the radar ...

Microsoft's DNS server servers are apparently failing to respond to requests, returning "no record" errors. This means that you can't access sites like Hotmail.com, MSN.com, and Live.com. It's unknown how widespread this outage is at this time. Currently msn.com, live.com, hotmail.com, and outlook.com, azure.com, and microsoft.com are all known to be impacted. It's very probable that all Microsoft domains are currently unavailable.

[...]

UPDATE 1: Microsoft responded to us and gave us the following statement:

Microsoft can confirm that all online services have been restored. We are investigating the root cause of the disruption and will continue to keep customers updated as information becomes available.

Commenters clearly state that Xbox.com is also down, so that pretty much covers everything. So they had themselves quite an outage and it could definitely be related to the Xbox launch. I'll bet they re-tasked resources to handle the expected influx of gamers, but since it could only be a couple of million max, what does this really say about their capacity management? Just imagine if hundreds of millions of sheeple actually went to cloud versions of Office and other things they would be dead in the water I think.

Winamp Petition Emerges as Microsoft Considers Purchase ( Tom's Hardware 2013-11-22 )

Following up on that story from yesterday, two new developments ... Microsoft is in talks to buy WinAmp ( and Shoutcast ) ... and separately there is a petition to AOL to release WinAmp as open source. Fat chance of the latter ever happening. And considering that Microsoft did lots of damage to WMP along the way ( including planned obsolescence versioning ) who would really want them to lay a finger on it. They even started and then effectively killed the media center as well. It would take a miracle for WinAmp to become useful again because as many commenters point out, there are viable replacements ( VLC, GOM, Foobar ) already and Microsoft's own WMP and MCE can become useful after running K-Lite codec packs and neutering some of the defaults.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Nokia to say näkemiin to their Espoo HQ building ( NeoWin 2013-11-21 )

Not a big deal I guess, but NeoWin ninja-edited the title to this article since yesterday when it originally looked like this ...

Nokia to say farvel to their Espoo HQ building ( NeoWin 2013-11-21 )

... but without any update mention in the body of the article ( very bad journalism Steven NeoBond ). One comment was apparently the reason for the alteration ...

Err... not sure if I'm missing the joke, but farvel is goodbye in Danish, not Finnish.

Yep, that pretty much explains it.

Motorola to Use 3D Printing for Customizable Cellphones ( Tom's Hardware 2013-11-22 )

3D Systems announced today (Nov. 22) that it's partnering with Motorola to provide the 3D printing platform to make the cellphone casing and modules for Project Ara. The goal of Ara is to create an open-source hardware suite where the user can build a cellphone with the chips and features they want, such as including an accelerometer or not, a bigger or smaller screen, etc. Third parties will also be creating Ara modules that can be integrated into the customized phones.

Another follow-up from yesterday. 3D printing does have a certain appeal when considering user empowerment ( not printing stupid little plastic dashboard toys ) with respect to cutting out the big government-approved monopolies from designing, building, selling ( and ruining ) all manner of consumer electronics. There will come a point when citizen manufacturing becomes the favored source of home equipment, as long we can resist all attempts by the monopolies and their government lackeys to step in and regulate it away.

[JorgeA]

Can the graphics arts experts here substitute an NSA shield for the Chrome logo?

--JorgeA

You asked

Fabulous!! Great job!!!

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

We here at MSFN aren't the only ones who see things a certain way with regard to Metrofication and the NSA:

I rebooted my computer for the first time in a few days and also have the "new" look for N360 (version 21.1.0.18). While it's hardly the end of the world, the look reminds me of what Apple did with iOS 7 and what it does on its web site. Lots of white space with light grey hard to read fonts on the Norton tool bar. Is this some kind of new fad? I personally don't like it. When the new version started up, I was also prompted to store something in the cloud instead of locally.

Dual cameras! Just what we need so the nsa can get more angles.

For better context, read the page linked, there are only four posts on it (last time I checked).

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Even more positive fallout from the NSA's shenanigans:

Google’s Schmidt Sees Encryption Killing Censorship

Protecting Internet traffic with hard-to-crack code may prevent governments from censoring their populations’ communications within a decade, Google Inc. (GOOG) Chairman Eric Schmidt said.

Schmidt described the coming of a “network age” in which Internet users communicate and organize socially through private channels shielded by encryption, which scrambles data with a mathematical formula that can be decoded only with a special digital key.

“We can end government censorship in a decade,” Schmidt said during a speech in Washington. “The solution to government surveillance is to encrypt everything.”

--JorgeA