Slashdot Mirror

The way I read it when it first came out was, most of their feature requests were already in the product. So the ribbon was intended to (among other things) try to make it easier for people to find things.

You still have to know what you're looking for, and how Microsoft decided it should be classified. For example, to insert a new line of cells you don't look on the Insert ribbon - if you do, you'd see "Insert / Line" and be surprised when a graph pops up. It's not under Data, as in Insert a line of data. So I go to Home. There's an Insert option, but it's in the box labeled Cells. I don't want cells, I want a whole line. The "old way" was Insert -> Row, and the 2003 shortcut still works in 2007.

"Nine out of 10 feature requests we got for 2007 were already in the 2003 product," says Microsoft senior marketing manager Paul Coleman. "People just couldn't find them."

http://www.wired.com/software/softwarereviews/news/2007/01/72596

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/114467/is-microsofts-ribbon-ui-really-that-great-from-a-usability-perspective
http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/maryb/2009/07/13/dont-like-the-ribbon-you-will/
http://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/note/666e1143-e735-4d8e-a98a-931fda130235/pivic/Tech
http://www.betanews.com/article/Top-5-obvious-feature-enhancements-to-Microsoft-Office-2010/1247509742/2
http://www.factplace.com/microsoft_onenote_12.htm

This is only a fraction of their egregious behavior. I am sure you know how to use Google. Try it some time. You will find a lot more eye opening info on the ruthless, vicious, unethical mobsters that are Microsoft executives.

I used to defend them back when I was young and ignorant to their marketplace behavior. I have learned a lot over the years. These people are slime.

As far as i4i goes. I think all sofware patents are bad. What makes software so special that it needs the protections of copyright and the patent system? Should music be patented too? How about story concepts in books? The i4i patent on using a standard is ridiculous. Even though they have an actual product based on this patent. I hope i4i loses this suit because they are patenting sofware and methods of using a standard. It still does not take away from the fact that Microsoft reaps what they sow.

Microsoft's last two quarterly reports haven't been exactly encouraging, for Q4 2009 over Q4 2008, they saw -33% reductions in the Client (windows) division, -1% in Server and Tools, -16% in Business (Office), -51% in online services (bing), and 25% growth in entertainment (xbox). The kicker here is that the growth in the entertainment division is actually mitigating a loss: Both that division and the online services are losing them money, i.e. they're in the red and are not making a profit.

I suspect that their stock hasn't tanked because Wall Street has faith that their core businesses are such a huge cash cow that they will soon recover their former glory. I have my doubts though, I think the shine is gone and a lot more people have now come to see MS as a blunderer, like GM.

I think MS is playing nice with Apple to get back at Dell and HP for the netbook linux thing. If HP and Dell want to ship linux PC's, then MS is going to help Apple poach Dell's most profitable customers

How does doing that help Microsoft in any way? So they can laugh at Dell when they both end up like GM? Microsoft is seeing reductions in sales hand over fist in all divisions and is trying to increase their profit margin and maintain their monopoly any way they can. If that means licensing their stuff to Apple, so be it. As far as I know, Dell is MS' biggest customer, they want to help them sell more windows computers.

See this: i4i has been around for a while. They made custom XML document editing stuff for Word 97 and 2000, and when Microsoft added this functionality to 2003 and 2007 their business model went away.

No. i4i has been around for a while. They developed tools to edit custom XML documents for Word 97 and 2000, and our now suing because the XML editing in Word 2003 and 2007 has pretty much destroyed their business.

Because upgrading the upstream pipe from 14.4Kbps to 33.6Kbps would require the Yemenis ISP to take out a small loan at a 'very' high interest rape from the WTO...

But in reality, all ISP's would like to censor traffic as 'Less load + more consumers = Greater Profit'. If ISP's had their way we would all have the old netzero type ad bar on our screens while every mistyped web domain would take you to their sponsors web site all the while making sure you never exceed 1GB a month on your 100Mbit/100Mbit connection.

As far as the 'free market' 'you have a choice' idea goes... We know that just isn't true anymore... Large corporations collude with each other to insure your SOL and they rarely get caught. Even when they do it doesn't drive them out of business.. Flamebait? Damn Dirty Lies? Hey why not check out the quick 30 seconds of research below.

07-14-2009: EU issues charges in global LCD price fixing crackdown
06-16-2009: AT&T and Verizon deny price-fixing accusations
03-10-2009: Hitachi pleads guilty to LCD price fixing
11-12-2008: LG, Sharp, Chunghwa admit to LCD price fixing
03-03-2004: EU probes memory price-fixing charge
09-30-2002: States settle CD price-fixing case

This is why 'fanboys & girls' really need to be 're-educated' and not by their TV's, iPhones or PS3s... ;-|

Apple recorded its best nonholiday quarter ever when other electronics makers were hurting because of a downturn in consumer spending.

They saw increasing revenue and profit in every single division of the company. Compare this to Microsoft, who last quarter saw:

On Thursday, the world's largest software company reported its worst fiscal year since it initially sold stock to the public in 1986. Year-over-year revenue and full-year sales of Microsoft's flagship Windows software dropped for the first time.

Microsoft saw billion dollar reductions in revenue in both the windows (Client) and office (Business) divisions, and it's xbox (entertainment) and search (on-line) divisions were actually in the red and are losing the company money.

Apple is not a "ship going down", this statement is demonstrably false, people are even calling it recession proof. You could say that about Microsoft however and not be contradicted by facts.

. which is why the music industry still has its head high in its asses by cutting the stores & outlets from where they can peddle their wares, and owned by RIAA completely
EMI, Sony and others should sit down and asses how much of their income went to lawyers and the RoR on their investment in RIAA.
Once they learn the true picture, they will abandon RIAA and consider creating music rather than creating lawsuits...
But then EMI is a leader in restricting and refusing to serve customers...so its a matter of time..

Somewhere out there in the ether is a blog post or a transcript by someone at Microsoft mentioning that Windows 2008 would be the last 32 bit OS. They would then push 64-bit everywhere.

It didn't happen. Windows 7 is coming out (I don't care if it's Vista Redux, it's another OS) and it's still available in 32-bit. Not want. As for your question, to be completely vague - I'm using Windows 2008 x64 as a primary OS. It sucks that 32-bit will continue to exist, and judging by the reviews already, it's going to be around for a long time. There go any hopes for decent support for x64 on Windows.

Look at the exceptions to your "rule." Sins of a Solar Empire is a wonderful 4X RTS on the PC that has been on shelves for at least a year and brought in a hell of a lot of money for Stardock. It didn't cost that much to make, but had fun and inventive gameplay. It sold. It sold a lot. The publisher got a very good reward. A game that makes more money than it cost to make it? What on earth is that?!

Now, look at Prince of Persia. Ubisoft didn't put DRM on it. They set it up so they could gloat about how piracy ruined their profits; they almost did before the game was released. But they didn't utter a peep, in the end. The game didn't sell (or get pirated) any more or less than the DRM'ed Assassin's Creed because both games weren't all that great. PoP was a shadow of the last-gen precursor The Sands of Time, and all of Ubisoft's games on the PC have been terrible quality ports.

They've gone through the same thing with each version of Windows that's been released. In 2003, less than 10% of corporate PCs were carrying XP. In 2005, it had only gone up to 38%. That's an OS that'd been out for more than three years, and was up against the incumbent Win2000. If Win7 can hit about 40% within a year against an incumbent XP, then that's actually incredible progress.

What's wrong with that? You already have IE installed. IE8 is much faster and actually secure at all. Leaving anyone on the planet using IE7 would be a sin and killing it with fire is one of the most honorable things Microsoft has ever done.

AMD = Value.

SLI = Not Value.

AMD has consistently shown that they want to put a computer at every set of hands on the planet. Geode, PIC, OLPC. Now it would be nice if those computers had fast 3D graphics or GPU parralel processing, but that really seems like an easy way to waste the real power of computers.

I have loved many Nvidia products in the past, but stepping away from AMD seems like a poor choice on Nvidia's part.

Here's a note about a man who claimed that he was being "paid" by Microsoft to edit Wikipedia articles. He also claimed to be a contributor for OOXML on Wikipedia. His contributions following this article were being dismissed as biased.

There are two parts to this issue. They are (1) "Should Wikipedia offer to pay those who edit articles?" and (2) "Should any Wikipedia contributor get paid for contributing articles?" On (1), Wikipedia's stance is clear, they are not willing to pay anyone to edit articles. They would like to continue with their open model with little or no moderation. On (2) they are merely talking about the quality of the resultant article. They seriously do not have a mechanism to stop a 3rd party Wikimedia contributor from contributing for money or for the sake of love of the subject or for personal bias.

IMHO, Wikipedia must avoid policing any and all editors unless they are on their own Payroll. Their open model has served as a simple mechanism to collect relevant information on a topic which may or may not necessarily be accurate. There have been enough debates that have concluded that Wikipedia cannot be quoted as a citation for serious scientific study due to lack of moderation and verification of sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software Because Windows only has one installer.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/41531554-d5ef-4f2c-8fb9-149bdc5c8a701033.mspx because Windows has only one binary.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Top-10-Windows-7-Features-3-XP-Mode/1243378978 because different versions of Windows all work the same way.

These are all chosen for you by whoever makes the software. Or you can compile it yourself on Windows. http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/BuildingWinPidgin

Look, if you go with a distribution that is modern, you'll have none of those issues unless you go out of your way to the point that you'd have the same problems on Windows. Ubuntu is going to have you use one package manager that will make you not even have to think about binary formats or package formats.

Where exactly are you seeing software that isn't niche that requires any extra work on Linux? I've had to shoe horn software badly made at work into working on Linux. Through Wine and various other methods since I prefer a Linux Desktop. I found it easier than the headache that most people there go through with Windows. Am I just crazy? I consider what I had to do out of my way and annoying as a Linux desktop goes.

Er, no?

While Moonlight is a Novell product based on Mono, GPL'ed and all that, it also gets support from Microsoft in providing unit tests and that kind of thing.

And there's this agreement explicitly waiving the right to sue users of Moonlight getting it from Novell:
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/msnovellcollab/moonlight.mspx

I think of Silverlight as having three pillars: .NET runtime, XAML, and media.

C# and the .NET CLI are both ECMA specs:
http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm
http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-334.htm

The specification for XAML has been published under the Open Specification Promise:
http://www.betanews.com/article/XAML-specification-published-added-to-Microsofts-open-promise/1206482161

And for media formats, Silverlight 3 supports:
WMV (VC-1 is a SMPTE standard, other components under RAND licensing)
MPEG-4 with H.264 and AAC-LC (ISO spec)
MP3 (ISO spec)
Generic extensibility via Raw AV MediaStreamSource

There's even a royalty-paid codec pack for Moonlight provided by Microsoft.

If you've got practical suggestions for how we could be more open than this, I'd love to hear them, but I think there has already been a lot of traction in that direction. It certainly goes well beyond what Adobe does for Gnash, and Moonlight is already capable of handling many more high-profile Silverlight sites than any non-Adobe Flash player is. Even:

http://www.smoothhd.com/

Oh really? If that's so, someone should ask "Lenovo's Worldwide Competitive Analyst" why they're gutting support for Windows on the Thinkpad line. For years, one of the biggest competitive advantages for the Thinkpad line has been the Thinkvantage software that checks the hardware and downloads+installs the latest drivers and updates. This is a tremendous boon for mid-size enterprises and soho market.

About a month ago, and with less than 24 hrs notice, Lenovo announced the discontinuation the whole Windows update system and archive, instead recommending that Windows users should look up their systems using the PN/FRU, check the date and release of each update and driver against the product matricies (about 30-40 distinct drivers and updates per machine) and download what they need and manually install it. (I feel bad for those with custom-built Thinkpads which have different configs using the same PN/FRU.) Sounds like Lenovo is hell-bent on trying to make the Windows experience like Linux 10 years ago.

This is a far cry from "[Windows] just makes more sense: you just take it out of the box and it's ready to go. No. Really, not. Not even close.

But this may be academic in the near term, with Windows 7 spitting on customers with things like an auto-shutdown feature on one side, and reviews on the other saying that the Linux experience is trumping even OS X at this point. (CNet says Ubuntu 9.04 as slick as Windows 7, Mac OS X .) Lenovo's right hand not knowing that its left is chopping down support for Windows to the bare minimums is... curious.

Umm, it's not exactly hard to find news on this.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATTs-5GB-Wireless-Broadband-Mystery-Cap-92746
http://www.phonenews.com/verizon-wireless-limits-its-unlimited-broadband-access-data-plans-2840/
http://www.betanews.com/article/Sprint-says-5-GB-per-month-should-be-enough-for-most/1211916952

That's because the corporations don't have the power to (a) steal money directly from my wallet or (b) send me to jail if I refuse to pay or (c) use an involuntary military draft to make me die in some shithole in Vietnam or Iraq.

But of course they do. Where do your tax dollars end up? The military-industrial complex, or the prison-industrial complex. Why did we go to war in Vietnam and Iraq? Because war is good for the military-industrial complex, communism must be contained (because it tends to make workers uppity), and American industry needs cheap oil and cheap tungsten and tin.

Don't think corporations can send you to jail? Take another look at the headlines about the RIAA.

Corporations are government entities. They are created by government fiat ("charters"), and when they grow large enough, they exert disturbing levels of control on their environment, including governments.

Big business is big government. "Anarcho-capitalism" is a self-contradiction.

I am not worried about Google controlling all these ebooks since they seem to be giving them away - at least the out-of-copyright ones. See these articles for examples. I'm not sure how they will deal with spreading around IN-copyright books. Google gives away half a million books to Sony eBook Storeâ¦. challenge to Amazon?? Academic libraries pave a new path away from Google

I almost wish you were right so the RIAA could start cutting idiots like you off of the internet.

Your logic is astounding. You wish I was right because then I wouldn't be right?

The only idiot here is you.

Seriously, do you have even the tiniest shred of evidence supporting your claim?

You mean like this or this?

If it's in their best interest, then why are they suing innocent people, and why when shown that their victims couldn't possibly be the ones they're after do they drag the suits out?

It has been tough week all around.

You could preface every Slashdot story with this line and only the cast of characters would change: Novell lays off openSUSE Linux developers

mmm 8.7% market share of only the US market

Research before turfing please. The best numbers for the Zune I could find were here. 10.2% of 30GB hard-disk based players. That's like saying, "I got the best score on the math test for someone under 4ft and weighing over 200lbs with an IQ of 102!"

See here: http://www.betanews.com/article/House_votes_to_delay_DTV_transition_President_likely_to_sign/1233764370

http://www.rabbitears.info/dtr.php and http://www.rabbitears.info/termlist.php for analog termination and digital switch.

And I need to get a new antenna since KABC did its test this morning after 2 AM PST for 15 minutes. I could not get KABC's digital 7 with two rescan attempts. I was told my DB2 bowtie antenna cannot do low channels at all. :(

Funnily enough Microsoft planned to implement PDF support in Office. Unfortunately Adobe threatened a lawsuit until they agreed to drop the feature -

http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_to_Drop_PDF_Support_in_Office/1149284222

Amid threats of a lawsuit from Adobe, Microsoft acknowledged Friday that it would remove support for saving files in PDF from Office 2007, as well as dropping its own rival format XPS from the productivity suite and Windows Vista.

The changes follow a breakdown of talks between the two technology giants after Microsoft announced last year it would include native PDF publishing with the release of Office 2007. The feature has long been a top request from customers, the company said at the time, and other office suites have the capability.

But Adobe was unhappy with the move and a dispute has been brewing for four months, Microsoft's lead counsel Brad Smith said Friday. Although PDF claims to be an open format and is integrated into OpenOffice and Apple's Mac OS X operating system, Adobe apparently sees Office 2007 as a real threat to its business.

Adobe wants Microsoft to charge for the feature, which the Redmond company has refused to do. Smith said Adobe threatened to file an antitrust suit in Europe, and his company was preparing for that eventuality. Now, however, Microsoft says it will make the feature available through a downloadable add-on.

So much for open standards I guess.

Sacrificing security for usability: UAC security flaw in Windows 7 beta (with proof of concept code) (Jan 30)
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090130/uac-security-flaw-windows-7-beta-proof/

and:

Malware can turn off UAC in Windows 7; "By design" says Microsoft (Jan 30)
http://www.withinwindows.com/

Leaks indicate Microsoft is un-rethinking the Win7 taskbar (Dec8)
http://www.betanews.com/article/Leaks_indicate_Microsoft_is_unrethinking_the_Win7_taskbar/1228780333

Apple didn't "bet that farm on HD-DVD." They have a seat on the Board of Directors for the Blu-Ray Disc Association. Jobs made an earlier statement saying that licensing costs are the reason they haven't adopted Blu-Ray. Spending money licensing Blu-Ray for Final Cut (right now) would be a waste. Adding a Blu-Ray drive to Apple computers will drive the price up.

I wouldn't say that Apple has "ignored their professionals" regarding Blu-Ray. They are waiting for a bleeding edge format/technology to mature.

"I want my FCP Suite 3 that fixes the problems with the current one and give me native suite bluray menu authoring."

Calm down. Take a deep breath. Go to your cave. Find your power animal. Slide.

If you really want to see what WGA is sending to Microsoft, just capture the packets on their way to the internet and see what's being sent. Has anyone done that and found anything of real interest?

Yes, it has been done. MS has been sued over the amount of personal information being sent back to MS.
MS claimed that even releasing details on WGA in court would allow hackers to take over all of their customers windows computers.

So, we have MS admitting that they (and everyone else who looks) can have full control over windows systems, and they cant have the world knowing what data is being sent back due to security claims (What the govt would call national security, no doubt)

References:
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Sued_Over_WGA_Program/1151615015
https://www.hackinthebox.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=28694
http://news.cnet.com/Microsoft-faces-second-WGA-lawsuit/2100-1014_3-6090651.html

Oh, and that info about what exactly is sent back to MS that the court ruled can not be released to the public due to 'hackers' being able to take full control over windows?
No, it is not of much interest. And nothing more identifiable than a GUID.

This link contains the full undecoded XML sent from WGA to MS:
http://blogs.msdn.com/wga/archive/2007/03/07/wga-notifications-and-download-and-install-telemetry.aspx

if you read the article they are talking about is the disparity that is growing between CPU speed and access to memory. The stacked memory they are talking about is shoving the physical CPU dies and RAM chips closer together(in the same package) so that you can have a LOT more interconnects(less wire to screw things up). Build up a huge stack of these and you have supercomputer cluster WITH fast access to all memory in the stack. For infomatic applications you need random access to any bit of memory in the entire array and this might do it for them. The biggest problem is heat dissipation...

The other options I see are creating some kind of super giant shared buffered RAM pool that has high latency but great throughput and then sticking as many cores as they can on a single motherboard(1000+), or for a wizard to find some caching algorithm that will let them stay on commodity hardware(a.k.a. use those extra cores to figure out what you are going to need and optimize for it).

I'd put my money on them finding a wizard.

A good point. I used the "free market" buzzword though the term itself is an oxymoron. :)

All markets are regulated. When it's truly free, there is no market, only the strong ruling the weak, caveman style. :) The buzzword is typically used (badly) to indicate one wants less central control; _fewer_ rules. It usually implies stupid and/or crooked rulemaking.

I would look at this like the long gone and well missed public electric utilities. When regulated well (as they usually were), the books are open, and the profits are a well-regulated single-digit percentage, after appropriate investments are maintained to serve all customers, plan for the future, etc.

In a well regulated internet "market," the key issue should not be "how well I can filter your traffic" but "how much are you charging for my traffic?"

If the telecom bureaucrats are well regulated, they will not be able to advertise falsely, enter into fraudulent contracts, and then arbitrarily filter traffic. It should be very, very difficult for them to filter while staying within the law, and they should expect fines and prison if they do the elementary and thousands year old scam ("HEY UNLIMITED USE 4GB/sec PIPE ONLY $9.99 - fine print only use 1Mb per hour or we silently cap your traffic"). In such an environment, they are forced to honestly negotiate with consumers, speak clearly about what they are selling, and there is a transparent process where they charge enough for it that they make a good profit for themselves and their investors.

And by "good profit" I mean not using their natural monopoly to price gouge - a nostalgic ideal that I sometimes wonder if anyone even remembers. We certainly know exactly what they do if not regulated properly. This is from the people that brought you the tale of the 5 cent, no 10 cent, no 20 cent text messages...

He's talking about this http://www.betanews.com/article/Adobe_CS4_will_be_64bit_but_only_on_Windows/1207258861

SelfImage 1.2.1.92
SelfImage is a disk imaging program for Windows. It's capable of making an image file of any hard disk or partition on your system. It can even make images of partitions that Windows doesn't recognize or assign a drive letter to (ie: Linux partitions). Perfect for the dual-boot system.
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/SelfImage/1134441375/1

DiskTools ImageMaker 1.1
DiskTools ImageMaker is a lightweight disk backup software. It enables you to make exact images of your entire hard drive, or separate partitions on a hard drive, to disk files. The images then may be restored to the initial or any other hard drive or volume, regardless of a file system it is formatted in.
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/DiskTools_ImageMaker/1055944044/1

DriveImage XML 2.01
# Backup logical drives and partitions to image files
# Browse these images, view and extract files
# Restore these images to the same or a different drive
# Copy directly from drive to drive
# Schedule automatic backups with your Task Scheduler
Image creation uses Microsoft's Volume Shadow Services (VSS), allowing you to create safe "hot images" even from drives currently in use.
Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools.
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm\

ODIN 0.11 Beta
ODIN is a utility for easy backup of hard drive volumes or complete hard drives under Windows. A disk image can be created or restored. Only used clusters can be backuped, compression on the fly is possible.
http://odin-win.sourceforge.net/

SelfImage 1.2.1.92
SelfImage is a disk imaging program for Windows. It's capable of making an image file of any hard disk or partition on your system. It can even make images of partitions that Windows doesn't recognize or assign a drive letter to (ie: Linux partitions). Perfect for the dual-boot system.
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/SelfImage/1134441375/1

DiskTools ImageMaker 1.1
DiskTools ImageMaker is a lightweight disk backup software. It enables you to make exact images of your entire hard drive, or separate partitions on a hard drive, to disk files. The images then may be restored to the initial or any other hard drive or volume, regardless of a file system it is formatted in.
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/DiskTools_ImageMaker/1055944044/1

DriveImage XML 2.01
# Backup logical drives and partitions to image files
# Browse these images, view and extract files
# Restore these images to the same or a different drive
# Copy directly from drive to drive
# Schedule automatic backups with your Task Scheduler
Image creation uses Microsoft's Volume Shadow Services (VSS), allowing you to create safe "hot images" even from drives currently in use.
Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools.
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm\

ODIN 0.11 Beta
ODIN is a utility for easy backup of hard drive volumes or complete hard drives under Windows. A disk image can be created or restored. Only used clusters can be backuped, compression on the fly is possible.
http://odin-win.sourceforge.net/

Vista is a failure by most standards and Microsoft's OS monopoly is gradually being eroded. This recession is helping.

I'm sorry, but an OS that racks up that number of orders, pre-installed or otherwise, is not a failure on any level. Something many anti-vista people forget when they knee-jerk the response "sales != installs" is that yes! You're right! There's a tonne more people that have pirated it too, and thus swing the figure the other way.

In my honest opinion, there's two things that Vista did badly; 1, released too early (for reasons that constitute their own debate), and 2, not enough work done on trimming fat so it runs on older/cheaper machines. We're seeing inroads being made by Linux (and XP) because of this.

Point 1 is now fixed, point 2 is in progress a.k.a Windows 7 (Title is 'Windows 7 will be lean, faster, and even embedded')

And don't for a minute think twitter does the FOSS movement any favours at all. I actually wonder if he too is on the M$ payroll, he does that good a job of giving level-headed objectivity on the pros/cons of OSS vs MS.

Winfuture XP ISO Builder for the win. So simple my nephews could do it. Takes about 20 minutes to integrate service packs(including SP3),hotfixes,drivers,software,integrate XPize(under add hotfixes) setup a full unattended with the user accounts,etc. So much better to just use it for an unattended 2K/2K3/XP that doing the MSFT reinstall dance IMHO.

Beta News reporting this. EA is going downhill with all thee problems. :(

because Adobe saw it as a threat to their business.

this article breaks it down..

could use the new law as a means of seizing computers of individuals suspected of merely trading illicit files over P2P networks. Though it's still conceivable that an administration may still attempt that approach, using the new law as cover, the PRO-IP law as passed actually does not make such an attempt more feasible than it already was.

The new law will create the office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), a sort of IP czar who reports directly to the President. However, despite the "E" in its title, the office will be explicitly separated from responsibility for or direction of any law enforcement agency that carries out IP law, according to the law's final language.
"The IPEC may not control or direct any law enforcement agency, including the Department of Justice, in the exercise of its investigative or prosecutorial authority," the law now reads. That distinction may please the US Justice Dept., which reportedly raised private concerns that the IPEC would interfere with its established law enforcement operations.
So what is it that the IPEC will actually do? The PRO-IP law will have this Presidential appointee chair a committee, made up of other leading officials such as the Register of Copyrights and the head of the Patent and Trademark Office, as well as representatives from the State Dept. and the Dept. of Homeland Security. That committee will create a joint policy for refining anti-counterfeiting policies and coordinating with other countries for anti-piracy and anti-IP infringement operations.

I don't see how Adobe is related to the topic. PDF is not an "Adobe's format" anymore. PDF can be implemented by anyone without requiring any deals or license from Adobe. There are hundreds of feature-rich open-source implementations. PDF has nothing to do with Adobe.

Yes, everybody thought so. Then Adobe got pissy at Microsoft for implementing it. This news was widely covered everywhere, including Slashdot.

Whom did they sue? Can you give us some references?

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39273094,00.htm
http://software.silicon.com/applications/0,39024653,39159285,00.htm
http://www.techweb.com/wire/software/188701275
http://www.pdfzone.com/c/a/Authoring/Adobe-to-Sue-Microsoft-Over-PDF-Support-in-Office-2007/
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/4509/53/
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1012_3-6079320.html
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_to_Drop_PDF_Support_in_Office/1149284222

I have to correct myself, though: They didn't actually sue, because Microsoft settled first (by relegating the PDF support to a optional install.)

What Adobe wants is irrelevant. Nobody needs Adobe's permission to implement PDF support. Anyways, can you give us some reference to Adobe's behaviour?

Yes, everybody thought that. Then they got pissy at Microsoft for implementing it. Wow, this conversation is kind of repetitive.

ms didn't "back-down". It truly hates the idea of providing proper pdf support.

Actually, they did. Is your memory seriously this short? It only happened, what, 2 years ago? It was covered in all the trade press, extensively, it got probably 1000+ comments on Slashdot stories. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

Even speaking as an atheist, I have no problem with teaching *about* creationism, different religions, etc. because it never hurts to have knowledge of other methods of thinking. (Frex, in my junior high anthro class, we learned about ancient Egyptian gods. What's wrong with knowing about that??)

However, I would have a problem with any of them being taught as Correct Thought.

As to stances on technology, I found this more disturbing than Palin's lack of same:

http://www.betanews.com/article/Where_does_Joe_Biden_stand_on_technology_issues/1219872202
"Biden's pro-business stance is evident in his efforts to expand copyright legislation, often siding with the entertainment industry. His pen has produced significant pro-copyright legislation, and most notably in 2002, he asked the Justice Department to take a tougher stance on those who commit copyright infringement."

OTOH, this is noteworthy (from TFA of today):

"[Palin] used the Internet to make Alaska government more transparent. Sen. Barack Obama has made government transparency part of his platform. Gov. Palin has indeed taken that a step further by actually taking action in Alaska government. Currently, any check written by the state government over $1,000 is posted to the Division of Finance Web site."

I see shining a bright light on how gov't spend our tax dollars as a GOOD thing.

Does that mean that their relationship with Mozilla will be ending?

Google recently renewed their monetary agreement with Mozilla for 3 more years.

So, no, it seems their relationship remains strong. Google Chrome sounds like a very cool project, but I'm thinking that it'll be more of an experiment than an actual product, just like most things Google make.

Also, I doubt Mozilla would have a hard time finding funding even if Google pulls the plug on them.

What does this mean for Mozilla, which currently gets most of its financial support from Google? If Google has their own browser which competes against Firefox, will they be inclined to reduce their support of Firefox?

No idea, but this seems to indicate that even if chrome is for real, they have made a commitment to the mozilla foundation.

It won't in the medium-term, because Google just extended its investment in Mozilla through 2011.

I can't vouch for the following piece of software (it could be utter s**t), but when I when I read the description it reminded me of your post. http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Internet_Explorer_Collection/1217189605/1

This program, while shareware, has done wonders for me when converting from DRM-ridden music to MP3s with no restrictions. For those who lack decent recording capabilities, this program will do it for you. It has a shareware limitation of 14 days, and you also have to be at the computer to keep clicking the "OK" button (it's nagware too). I can't speak for quality differences either, not being an audiophile, but I know I've not heard any loss of sound quality.

Our campus signed up with Ruckus, a music site where we can download songs for free, but they're full of DRM (have to phone home once a month to stay active.) Using PMC allowed me to not have to worry about that anymore. Give it a shot.

You are joking, right?

Meanwhile I can always send users a picture by email with confidence that picture is not anywhere on the web.

That's pretty funny.

There are actually, regular privilege escalations for Vista reported both discovered and in use in the wild. When I worked at a security firm last year, I saw about one a week in our weekly security bulletin. Here's one from the other day.