Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Did you ever think you'd see anything like this:

HPWin7.jpg

(click on the image to enlarge)

Just got the advertising circular this morning from H-P. Makes me wish I were in the market for a new PC so that I could reward them for listening.

That picture alone will cause a meltdown at NeoWin and The Verge Tribe. Buy Lithium futures.

We have to get that thing posted over there! Do you have any external links to it? ( looks like you uploaded it here ).

Public Service Announcement for friends in need ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_of_depression

[JorgeA]

I just checked. The e-mail circular does contain a "webview" link at the top which goes to a Web page showing the same image. But, like the e-mail, the page shows private information (my e-mail address) toward the end:

This mailing was sent to xxx@xxx.xxx because you signed up to receive email from Hewlett-Packard.

I'm not sure if that Web page exists outside of e-mails or dedicated pages for H-P customers. There's a long string of characters in the second half of the URL, which undoubtedly are used to identify the recipient; changing them leads to an error when trying to reload the page.

The image I uploaded is from a screenshot that I took of the e-mail, then cropped to show the important stuff (and to leave out the private info).

--JorgeA

Edited January 19, 2014 by JorgeA

[Formfiller]

Not only the neotards, MS itself must be pissed about this too.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

I just checked. The e-mail circular does contain a "webview" link at the top which goes to a Web page showing the same image. But, like the e-mail, the page shows private information (my e-mail address) toward the end:

This mailing was sent to xxx@xxx.xxx because you signed up to receive email from Hewlett-Packard.

I'm not sure if that Web page exists outside of e-mails or dedicated pages for H-P customers. There's a long string of characters in the second half of the URL, which undoubtedly are used to identify the recipient; changing them leads to an error when trying to reload the page.

The image I uploaded is from a screenshot that I took of the e-mail, then cropped to show the important stuff (and to leave out the private info).

--JorgeA

Okay I mirrored it for you here ... http://i.imgur.com/ddwPKJl.jpg

Some NeoWin writers will notice this soon and you will see an article eventually, complete with a "We contacted Microsoft for comment ...". It is inevitable considering most of the non-news that gets mentioned over there. Then stand back and Let the bloodletting begin.

[JorgeA]

Cool -- very nice! Maybe I should look into registering/subscribing to that Web service.

Anything else we need to do to get them to see it, or do we just need to let nature take its course?

--JorgeA

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Cool -- very nice! Maybe I should look into registering/subscribing to that Web service.

Anything else we need to do to get them to see it, or do we just need to let nature take its course?

--JorgeA

I'm guessing they will see it by other means already, but if anyone wants to stir it up ( ) they should feel free to use that linked image courtesy of Jorge now mirrored at IMGUR. Of course NeoWin is not a site that allows images in comments but the link can be dropped. Or someone can use it in a Tweet and then paste the Tweet there ( roundabout method ).

Jorge, definitely open an IMGUR account ( you can even have more than one which is necessary for me because of only a couple hundred images limit in each one last I checked ). It's pretty good. Their web based interface for upload/sideload images into your space is the best of all the sites I use. The only other limitation I found so far is that you cannot replace an existing image ( you upload a new one that gets a new URL ) this means that if I need to go correct a mistake in one that I posted I will have to edit that post and use the new URL. However they do have in place editing using their own imaging tools, but that is very limited.

If you need help just PM me or start a thread and we can flesh out the details. It's never perfectly intuitive for people new to it, but in a nutshell you create subfolders ( even this is optional, you can just pile everything into the root folder called "All Images" if you want ) then you select that folder, then you either click "Computer" ( upload from the PC ) or "Web" ( sideload from the net ), paste the path or URL, click "Save". The image appears in a slot, click right on it to get into the links box, then you click on the URL underneath BBCode and copy it for use in forums like this.

EDIT: forgot to mention, it is totally free, but you can buy more space and other stuff, I use free accounts myself

Edited January 20, 2014 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

NeoWin saw it ...

HP promotes Windows 7 PCs sales; says they are "back by popular demand" ( NeoWin 2014-01-19 )

The fact that HP's website is now openly selling Windows 7 PCs to regular consumers, well over a year after the launch of Windows 8, may hint that the company thinks offering the older OS on some of its systems might be a better selection than Microsoft's newest software.

So far, it appears that HP is the only OEM that is actively promoting the sale of new Windows 7 PCs. Other companies like Dell, Lenovo and Acer also have options to purchase PCs with Windows 7 pre-installed but they are well hidden on their sites and are usually targeting the business customer, while HP's promotion is for home and home office consumers.

The author of this article credits someone in their forums here who apparently posted the HP advertisemnt yesterday evening, so I guess he had it first.

Pretty tame thread so far with but a couple of lectures from NeoKids on how their toys are better than ours.

Report: Ballmer likely to resign from Microsoft board when new CEO announced ( NeoWin 2014-01-19 )

Swisher states that "people familiar with the situation also expect Ballmer to step down as a director when the new CEO is named." That news comes in the face of previous reports that Ford CEO Alan Mulally dropped out of the race partly because of Ballmer's influence on the board.

Additionally, Swisher claims "it goes without saying" that "those closest to Ballmer" will also be gone when a new CEO is announced. Board members commonly leave companies or are forced out following organizational upheaval, especially when top executives also serve on the board. It's likely a new chief executive would attempt to put board members in place more amiable to his or her view of the company.

That's what some would call a bloodbath. However it is very hard to believe this will ever happen. In a year or two Ballmer will be the largest MSFT shareholder on the planet, more than even Bill Gates, and if he wants a seat he gets a seat. Something is fishy here, it must just be posturing to assure the next CEO that he won't be hamstrung by the board.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Microsoft finally fixes Windows XP SVCHOST bug ( NeoWin 2014-01-18 )

For the past several months, we have been checking on a bug in Windows XP that has caused SVCHOST to push the CPU of a PC up to 100 percent usage for some users. Microsoft tried in November to fix the issue but was unsuccessful. However, the company pledged to continue to work on fixing the bug, which it stated was due to "Windows Update Agent processing long lists of superseded updates."

[...]

Dustin Childs, group manager in the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, sent the website a statement that said:

On Tuesday, Microsoft depreciated legacy security updates for Internet Explorer that had been replaced by more recent ones. We did this to improve customer experience, reducing the time Windows Update requires to check existing updates before installing new ones. This action was purely to improve update performance and does not affect customer security.

Really sloppy journalism from NeoWin and a downright deceptive excuse from the Softie. This is NOT a "a bug in Windows XP" and it is some kinda twisted logic to say that it "caused SVCHOST to push the CPU of a PC up to 100 percent usage". What's worse is that the Softie beats all around the bush until he finally says: "reducing the time Windows Update requires to check ...". In a nutshell, it is the Windows Update components and the Microsoft WU site at fault since they fail to communicate efficiently because of no sanity checking ( a simple timeout would do ). The mere fact that the fix was made to their WU website, pulling MSIE updating from their checklist completely exonerates Windows XP from being the culprit! Ultimately the problem is twofold, the wildly erratic and painfully slow Windows Update architecture, and the ridiculous design of MSIE itself being buried in Windows like a parasitic tick instead of being a compartmentalized unit that can be updated in mere seconds like Opera.

Windows Phone growth continues with December 2013 reaching new heights ( NeoWin 2014-01-19 )

Embarrassingly amateur attempt even by NeoWin standards at inventing news from Brad Sams again, and you have to see it to believe it. His thesis is that ...

Its no secret that Microsofts Windows Phone platform got off to a much slower start than many had hoped. But with a couple years now behind the platform, there is solid proof that Windows Phone is growing and that Microsoft's marketing efforts are paying off.

But instead of showing this proof he pastes in three graphs of "Interest Over Time" sourced from Google Trends ...

If you wonder why Google Trends is an important indicator of market acknowledgement of a platform, its because Google has a commanding lead of all Internet based searches. Because Google is able to gather such a wide base of search queries, it can be used as a representative sample of the market, and when we start to look into Windows Phone, the data paints a positive picture.

Got that? Trends of searches. So what about that proof of growth? ...

So what does all of this mean? It means that Windows Phone is gaining consumer acknowledgement, its becoming part of their vocabulary when they discuss smartphone platforms, and that is a huge win for Microsoft. We still continue to hear about poor sales experience from around the US about smartphone sales folks steering consumers away from Windows Phone, but when the consumer starts asking for a Microsoft platform in a market that they were lagging for many years, its a win by any measure.

Ummm, that's not how your article started Brad, and the assertion made at the top remains unproven. You guys are really reaching for anything that can be twisted into good news!

EDIT: mixed up quote tags

Edited January 20, 2014 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[jaclaz]

P0rn is also a growing search trend, particularly in Papua New Guinea:

http://www.google.it/trends/explore#q=porn

jaclaz

[Aero7x64]

Good for HP bringing Windows 7 back to regular non-corporate customers and actually bring it as main OS to advertise in their main site instead of Win8. I have custom build PC already with Win7 but this will be good to those regular users that buy big manufacturers PC's. This is good move. It is just surprise that HP that supported Windows 8 so much beginning and told customers not to downgrade to Win7 that they actually did reasonable thing for once. But better to realise mistakes rather later than never.

[JorgeA]

Jorge, definitely open an IMGUR account ( you can even have more than one which is necessary for me because of only a couple hundred images limit in each one last I checked ). It's pretty good. Their web based interface for upload/sideload images into your space is the best of all the sites I use. The only other limitation I found so far is that you cannot replace an existing image ( you upload a new one that gets a new URL ) this means that if I need to go correct a mistake in one that I posted I will have to edit that post and use the new URL. However they do have in place editing using their own imaging tools, but that is very limited.

If you need help just PM me or start a thread and we can flesh out the details. It's never perfectly intuitive for people new to it, but in a nutshell you create subfolders ( even this is optional, you can just pile everything into the root folder called "All Images" if you want ) then you select that folder, then you either click "Computer" ( upload from the PC ) or "Web" ( sideload from the net ), paste the path or URL, click "Save". The image appears in a slot, click right on it to get into the links box, then you click on the URL underneath BBCode and copy it for use in forums like this.

EDIT: forgot to mention, it is totally free, but you can buy more space and other stuff, I use free accounts myself

Thanks a bunch for the info! I managed to open an account. We'll see how easy/hard it is to use next time I have an image to upload...

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

NeoWin saw it ...

HP promotes Windows 7 PCs sales; says they are "back by popular demand" ( NeoWin 2014-01-19 )

The fact that HP's website is now openly selling Windows 7 PCs to regular consumers, well over a year after the launch of Windows 8, may hint that the company thinks offering the older OS on some of its systems might be a better selection than Microsoft's newest software.

So far, it appears that HP is the only OEM that is actively promoting the sale of new Windows 7 PCs. Other companies like Dell, Lenovo and Acer also have options to purchase PCs with Windows 7 pre-installed but they are well hidden on their sites and are usually targeting the business customer, while HP's promotion is for home and home office consumers.

The author of this article credits someone in their forums here who apparently posted the HP advertisemnt yesterday evening, so I guess he had it first.

Pretty tame thread so far with but a couple of lectures from NeoKids on how their toys are better than ours.

The news about H-P made it to CNN Money, where there is (was) a link to this story:

HP Leads the Charge Back to Windows 7

In turn, that brief item links to The Verge, which has become aware of this development (and they show pretty much our same image):

HP brings back Windows 7 'by popular demand'

In fact, if you browse to HP’s home section and navigate to desktop PCs then you’ll only be presented with Windows 7 machines by default as no Windows 8 PCs are listed until you start customizing the section using optional filters. The laptop section does include Windows 8 machines, but it also prominently advertises a Windows 7 laptop. Even HP’s all-in-one section promotes the company’s 21-inch Android-powered PC over Windows 8 alternatives.

[emphasis added]

Surprisingly, the discussion there has been relatively sedate. Maybe the Win8 fans are in shock.

--JorgeA

Edited January 20, 2014 by JorgeA

[JorgeA]

For those who think they "haven't done anything wrong" and so they have nothing to worry about when it comes to official surveillance:

You May Think You Have Nothing to Hide … But You Are Still Breaking Laws Which Government Spying Could Discover and Use Against You

NSA snooping DOES concern you.

--JorgeA

[Monroe]

JorgeA ... interesting reading "You May Think You Have Nothing To Hide" ... the part "why it is never a good idea to talk to the police" makes me think of the old show "Hogan's Heroes" and Sgt Schultz and him always saying:

"I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!"

[Formfiller]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thorium/thorium-core-cloud-desktop

ReactOS (the Windows clone project) wants to go big and they started a kickstart project for that (which is cool). Problem is, they market is as a "cloud OS" solution (which is dumb).

Genius move, dickheads. Instead coming up with a true Windows alternative (given NuMicrosoft and W8, a noble goal), you're converting it into yet another cloud thing?!