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How did this get modded up? I know that it... sounds like it makes sense, but it's the exact opposite of what actually goes on.

They're proving both quotes that 'real men build hardware" and that "real software lovers build hardware" from IBM and Apple.

Both IBM and Apple design Software and Hardware to complement each other. Compare an iSeries or iPad to the typical Oracle setup where they are at the mercy of Intel, AMD, Microsoft, IBM, etc to get their Database to work. Defining a basic Schema is full of so many tips and tricks compared to any other database

WTF? It's hard to define an Oracle schema because of a client's choice of instruction level compatible CPUs? Are you kidding me? I've never heard of anyone actually altering their database schema design to target it for either "Intel" or "AMD". That's insane.

. Sure, it's nice to choose the "optimum" setting for every single block of data... but wouldn't it be BETTER to simply format the hard drive the way you want it in the first place and to build the most critical functions directly into firmware?

First of all, it's quite possible to "format the disk" natively with Oracle's database files, bypassing the OS filesystem. Even Microsoft SQL Server can do that, it's just not advertised as a big feature. Yes, there are performance gains (I've heard up to 20% in some corner cases), but it's almost never worth it, because the downsides are enormous. Managing a LUN is much harder than managing a file. Either way, this can be done now. There's no reason for some sort of magic hardware support.

Second, somehow 'burning' Oracle in the firmware is neither going to make it faster, nor improve anything else. It'll just make it harder to patch and manage, and it'll mean that a future service pack may not fit into the limited flash space. I can't imagine too many deployments where the speed of the program storage is the limit. Even if it is, it's not like you can't boot-from-SAN or just buy an SSD for any old server now!

IBM stuff can do really neat things like split database writes in the disk controller and keep track of multiple copies at once on redundant systems.

Err.. you mean scatter-gather IO and synchronous mirroring? Ooo... fancy stuff, I bet nobody's ever managed to do that in software!

You just can't do that level of stuff with the tools Oracle or Microsoft has now.

Yes, you can. The differences between the major vendors at the "low level" have been tiny for years and years now. The real differences are at the high-level, pure-software layer. Features like RAC differentiate DB2, Oracle, and SQL Server from each other, not the RAID controllers.

Microsoft's sole existence is based on separation of hardware and software... so everybody squabbles between Intel/AMD, ATI/Nvidia, Oracle/MySQL, etc... and Microsoft gets rich playing "middleman" being the only party the others can legally talk to.

Are you kidding me? Since when is Intel some poor pauper holding out a begging bowl to Microsoft? Last time I looked, both Intel and Oracle had market capitalisations over USD 100 billion, and were 'legally allowed' to talk to each other.

There is already a company that makes a Sparc based blade for IBM BladeCenter chassis, drop it in an IBM Blade and share your SAN and have backplane-level network between the other hardware and OSes....this is what Oracle is after. Rather than keep playing games with other vendors, simply sell "Oracle" like IBM sells System i (iSeries). You would by an Oracle blade and simply connect that to your network. There's no point in loading multiple apps on hardware...
it's so cheap now versu

Alternatively, you can use a better task manager such as Process Explorer which will group all processes in a nice hierarchical view:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Ubuntu also offer an easy way to change back to the old behavior, something microsoft never offered when they changed the interface radically for windows 95..

Wow, I hate to support MS but the facts speak for themselves.
MS did provide a way to run Program Manager (win 3.1 ui) instead of Explorer. It wasn't mouse-click easy, but it wasn't terribly hard either. Much like you can still run XP (and I think Vista) with the old 'Win 2k' interface (I've heard rumors they're scrapping that for Win 7 though?).

It appears MS supported Program Manager in Win 95, 98 and ME

Its just a new engine MS have been clever in that since they have used DirectX which their competitors cant use with out annoying the Linux crowd who also they also support.

Their competitors can use DirectX too, check out this link.

Also, MS extended their community promise (apparently legally binding) to not go after mono with patents:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/07/microsoft-issues-patent-promise-dispels-mono-concerns.ars

and directly from MS:
http://www.microsoft.com/interop/cp/default.mspx

... MS pulls the plug on this and leaves OSS developers hanging high and dry? Or worse, pulls some slight of hand with licensing, copyrights or patents and forces OSS dev's to stop in their tracks waiting for MS's next move?

It's in Microsoft's best interest to make sure that as many OSS packages as possible run well on Windows. Keep in mind that it's revenue from Windows licenses that brings in a huge chunk of cash, and if, say, someone doing PHP development can be convinced to host Apache on Windows Server rather than Linux, and maybe even MSSQL rather than MySQL, it's a huge win already. Pressing people into going for the entire bundle - i.e. either IIS+ASP.NET+MSSQL - or nothing at all, hurts the bottom line (unless you're Apple).

In fact, Microsoft specifically works on supporting certain popular FOSS software on Windows - for example, here is the project dedicated to supporting PHP.

You go find the clause that covers third parties and get back to me.

Here you go.

At least they figured out CSS3 selectors. IE8 can't even get all of those--"From the 43 selectors 22 have passed, 1 are buggy and 20 are unsupported (Passed 349 out of 578 tests)" on mine.

Instead of reducing the amount of computation we do in IE to make it faster, let's just look for more processing power instead!

Let them try to get this one fixed, we'll laugh when they hit a wall. If not, we'll find ways to compete and get this battle back on par to get a better experience.

I've seen some graphs comparing the rendering of a page using parallell processing and it's been a nice showoff, making the standoff between browsers a bit more spicy and tense again. Lets improve the webexperience, I need 20 tabs open with image galleries of high resolution, flashmovies and heavy AJAX websites which now sortof lock up frequently.

Check their tests at IE9 testdrive, I'm not certain if you can grab the preview from there, though.

He... It make sense, since "Hardware is cheap and programers are expensive".

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/12/hardware-is-cheap-programmers-are-expensive.html

My main problem with IE is not speed, is rather fast. The real problem with IE is how broken, unsafe and unstandard is. Making it faster, will just make it faster to infect computers, show poorly rendered pages, and ignoring standard CSS3 keys.

Look at this tables, the support for CSS3:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc351024(VS.85).aspx

When it comes down to it, nobody needs their clock cycles 24/7 at even load, even though that's what computers are designed to do.

Except for anyone with more work than resources batched up, like Pixar, oil & gas exploration, the NSA, etc.
You know, those organizations that set up compute grids before they were called "clouds."

It has come to my attention that the entire Linux community is a hotbed of so called 'alternative sexuality', which includes anything from hedonistic orgies to homosexuality to paedophilia.

What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:

• Linus Torvalds is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
• Richard M. Stallman, spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
• Alan Cox is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.

I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.

Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail, which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'

As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.

And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo slut!

Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children. To quote from the article linked:

'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'

Is this why you were touching your penis in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?

We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his homosexual lover blows firmly down the straw to inflate his scrotum. This is, of course, when he's not busy violating the dignity and co

It has come to my attention that the entire Linux community is a hotbed of so called 'alternative sexuality', which includes anything from hedonistic orgies to homosexuality to paedophilia.

What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:

• Linus Torvalds is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
• Richard M. Stallman, spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
• Alan Cox is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.

I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.

Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail, which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'

As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.

And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo slut!

Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children. To quote from the article linked:

'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'

Is this why you were touching your penis in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?

We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his homosexual lover blows firmly down the straw to inflate his scrotum. This is, of course, when he's not busy violating the dignity and co

It has come to my attention that the entire Linux community is a hotbed of so called 'alternative sexuality', which includes anything from hedonistic orgies to homosexuality to paedophilia.

What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:

• Linus Torvalds is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
• Richard M. Stallman, spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
• Alan Cox is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.

I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.

Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail, which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'

As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.

And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo slut!

Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children. To quote from the article linked:

'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'

Is this why you were touching your penis in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?

We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his homosexual lover blows firmly down the straw to inflate his scrotum. This is, of course, when he's not busy violating the dignity and co

Getting a fully-functioning IDE with the OS is really nice. [...]
Who else does that?

Microsoft. Sure, it doesn't come installed with the OS (monopoly issues), but you can download it for free for Windows.

http://www.microsoft.com/express/

For instance, MacOS ships with development tools.

Microsoft doesn't include them in a default installation, but they do give development tools away for free. Even for their game console.

How does the thread know how much to reserve at startup time? Unless you know exactly how much you'll need, you'll run into the problems I mentioned. The specific problem being solved involves a program that makes heavy use of memory allocation, so you probably can't count on knowing how much you need and you'll have to go back and get more. More specifically, this is intended for single-threaded application running on multi-core processors.

Atomic instructions are basically system-wide critical sections, and heavy allocation will make this a bottleneck for the application (not necessarily the system). For most normal programs with occasional allocation it's not going to matter how you implement it.

Windows already does exactly this, reserving 1MB by default and this is controllable within the executable or when creating threads, so if you do know what you need you can certainly do this at thread level. So yes, it would be trivial to write a lockless malloc where the thread controls its own allocations and free list. There just isn't a benefit to doing that, and that's not the problem being solved here.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms686774(VS.85).aspx

Can you get developer tools from Microsoft for free like you can with Apple?

Since you asked, here you go.

*Stands out of Chair*

YOU'VE INSPIRED ME.
I've got it. Imagine like... an environment... a virtual environment... thats integrated into the language you are developing in. Just the concept of it is groundbreaking. You could customize it however you want! Now, imagine this... right... the integrated development environment was capable of performing everything you just said!

Why, I don't think anyone has ever thought of this before. Not Microsoft, not even the open source community!

Seriously John, lets jump on this.

Microsoft has prior art on the big ass table computing concept.

Oh, I don't know if your sig is humorous or uninformed.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/system-requirements

1-2GB for Win 7.

Yep, that was announced back around 2006: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/bulletins/longhorn/itanium_faq.mspx

Windows does - SetThreadIdealProcessor().

What are you smoking? Windows kernel itself hasn't really been vulnerable to anything, it's the third party software like Flash, Adobe PDF Reader, internet browsers, and previously some services.

So here's what Google has to say on the subject:

• Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel
• Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (977165)
• Vulnerability in Windows Kernel Privilege Escalation
• GDT and LDT in Windows kernel vulnerability exploitation
• Vulnerability in Windows Kernel Could Allow Elevation of Privilege
• And many more...

For the lazy reader, almost every article here has the phrase "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode." For the even lazier, allow me to summarize: "That's a Bad Thing"

Indeed, like any long-lasting public multi-version kernel, the Windows kernel has had a hefty share of vulnerabilities. What you said is just plain false. However, to the OP:

So this means your hypervisor can get infected? Is it really such a great idea to use the largest individual security risk in computers as a hypervisor?

You may want to think a little harder about what you mean by kernel. Every hypervisor is a type of kernel. Some things that perform hypervisor-like roles are full-fledged kernels. However, if you actually click the link in the article that you're quoting, you'd see that they're not talking even remotely about what you think they are. The article details how Microsoft is investigating changing some fundamental (read: legacy, UNIXy, etc.) kernel models and roles to take a shot at getting more successful multicore performance and a better user experience. It's less about "zomg Windows is a hypervisor" and more about "what traditional Kernel roles can we modify?"

If you understood even fundamental systems architecture concepts, you'd realize that Windows as a hypervisor is a lot less scary than Windows as a standalone OS, as the latter is not only handed full system control, but is also responsible for arbitrating userspace execution.

What are you smoking? Windows kernel itself hasn't really been vulnerable to anything, it's the third party software like Flash, Adobe PDF Reader, internet browsers, and previously some services.

So here's what Google has to say on the subject:

• Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel
• Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (977165)
• Vulnerability in Windows Kernel Privilege Escalation
• GDT and LDT in Windows kernel vulnerability exploitation
• Vulnerability in Windows Kernel Could Allow Elevation of Privilege
• And many more...

For the lazy reader, almost every article here has the phrase "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode." For the even lazier, allow me to summarize: "That's a Bad Thing"

Indeed, like any long-lasting public multi-version kernel, the Windows kernel has had a hefty share of vulnerabilities. What you said is just plain false. However, to the OP:

So this means your hypervisor can get infected? Is it really such a great idea to use the largest individual security risk in computers as a hypervisor?

You may want to think a little harder about what you mean by kernel. Every hypervisor is a type of kernel. Some things that perform hypervisor-like roles are full-fledged kernels. However, if you actually click the link in the article that you're quoting, you'd see that they're not talking even remotely about what you think they are. The article details how Microsoft is investigating changing some fundamental (read: legacy, UNIXy, etc.) kernel models and roles to take a shot at getting more successful multicore performance and a better user experience. It's less about "zomg Windows is a hypervisor" and more about "what traditional Kernel roles can we modify?"

If you understood even fundamental systems architecture concepts, you'd realize that Windows as a hypervisor is a lot less scary than Windows as a standalone OS, as the latter is not only handed full system control, but is also responsible for arbitrating userspace execution.

is MICROSOFT.

Yours In Ulyanovsk,
Kilgore Trout

In contrast I can still use my old Win98 laptop and run the latest browsers.

The lastest version of Firefox does not run on '98
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/system-requirements.html

The latest version of IE does not run on '98
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/support/system-requirements.aspx

The latest version of Opera does not run on '98
http://www.opera.com/support/kb/view/386/

with step 5's two question marks, parent post was trying to say "if step 5 is null, then replace it with something"

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173224.aspx

fixed that for you

Here, if you qualify to download it.

Awesome! Where do I go to download the Windows 7 kernel source?

Actually, Microsoft does allow certain groups access to the Windows (client, mobile, embedded, server) source code. If you're elegible (and willing to sign a pretty significant NDA) give them a call.

It's obviously not open source, but you can get access.

This is the Shared Source release for MechCommander 2. This release contains all of the source code and source assets required to build MechCommander 2. This release can be used with the Microsoft XNA Build March 2006 Community Technology Preview (CTP).

They've given this away for free (with source code), so why not give away Mech Warrior 4 for free, too? It's not like the games are extremely new or anything

However, I wish the game could have been re-skinned to be more modern.l On the video I see on MekTek it still looks like something out of the 90's

In order to accomplish that the engine would need substantial updating. Essentially, the source code would have to be released, as it was for Allegiance. Only, I had never even heard of Allegiance until Microsoft released the source; Mechwarrior IV is one of the more popular PC games out there. And I, for one, will play the living heck out of it if it will run on WINE, and see if I can get back to the top of the Attrition and Team Attrition rankings :) My gigabyte mainboard produces black screens when trying to install XP, which I tried from several CDs and with multiple video cards, as well as two BIOS revisions. "It works here"... FU gigabyte.

Well, actually, some of them, yes, are free.

http://www.microsoft.com/express/Windows/

The point I was making though is that if I want support, I want the option whether to pay for it or not. It's just a shameless moneyspinner.

WebGL isn't a library, it's a binding. It does bind to native OpenGL (if the browser supports that)...it is in line with the HTML5 goals

Yes, and if the browser doesn't support it, it is a plugin. Again if Microsoft 'embeds' Silverlight into IE then because it is no longer a plugin and 'it is in line with HTML5 goals'? And according to your definition, Silverlight is also crossplatform, as it runs on...

Windows, Linux, and OS X, at the very least, and likely on the iPhone

as well. (Yes iPhone is a stretch as technically it is just being used to re-encode video at the server side for now.)

And for what it's worth, it is useful that it ends up on a Canvas. Unless I'm mistaken, that means it is composited with the rest of the document, meaning you could (for example) draw your HUD using standard HTML and only use the GL for the 3D. Please explain why this is a bad thing.

The canvas isn't bad, the point is that it ends up being an external rendering to a square space.

HTML5 is trying to break from square box controls and external standards. If of an SVG circle or triangle and text flowing around it, this is the direction not square canvases that use masking tricks to fit on the page in anything but a 'box'.

You also have the object access level, and WebGL is wrapped in code, you can't reach out and set the transparecy of an 'internal' object being rendered in the scene outside via CSS. Again this is opposite of the HTML5 goals, where SVG and Video and everything that are objects should be accessible to CSS and other objects on the page.

Final note...

I don't dislike WebGL, although I would rather put more effort into getting GPU accelerated browsers rather than adding in WebGL to basically embed 3D accelerated objects into a page. Having SVG and other good things of HTML5 and dynamic rendering running on the GPU already then there really isn't a need for WebGL.

What bothers me about this article and news story is that Google and users are acting like Chrome is rendering Quake in HTML5, which it is not doing, it is only doing the final paint to an HTML5 canvas. This is not a demonstration of HTML5 or Chrome being good at HTML5.

In fact if you look at HTML5 concept pages, even the ones from MS's IE9 work, Chrome can barely render them at 1fps on a high end system, where a browser that is inherently GPU assisted (like IE9) can run the demos easily on a Netbook with 30fps without even breathing hard.

Seriously check out:
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Default.html

Yes these are Microsoft based tests, but they bring up important points that Google and Firefox and everyone needs to be thinking about, because without taking all of the rendering to the GPU HTML5 will be crappy and/or make IE9 the king of the web, which really will suck.

than the most unreliable
operating system in the world.

Yours In Perm,
Kilgore T.

MicroSLOP is the most destructive botnet unleased on the Intertubes.

Yours In Ulyanovsk,
Kilgore T.

No one's forcing you to run IE, even if you don't have root privileges.

But you may need Administrators-group privileges to add a browser to the operating system's binary whitelist, or in some more locked-down organizations, even to mount USB mass storage devices.

Dancing around like a monkey, signing "Need a new one?" on a MacBook, gift matching charity donations and other over-$1M relief effort payments, a history of amusing self-deprecating videos by executives... oh yeah, and that little $33.5 billion Foundation which is essentially Gates' MS money ploughed into a vaccination on every desktop.

Yup, corporations comprise humourless bastards - except Google!

Dancing around like a monkey, signing "Need a new one?" on a MacBook, gift matching charity donations and other over-$1M relief effort payments, a history of amusing self-deprecating videos by executives... oh yeah, and that little $33.5 billion Foundation which is essentially Gates' MS money ploughed into a vaccination on every desktop.

Yup, corporations comprise humourless bastards - except Google!

SmartScreen Filter is designed to help warn you about unsafe websites that are impersonating trusted websites (phishing) or contain threats to your computer. If you opt in to SmartScreen Filter, it first checks the address of the website you are visiting against a list of high traffic website addresses stored on your computer that are believed by Microsoft to be legitimate. Addresses that are not on the local list and the addresses of files you are downloading will be sent to Microsoft and checked against a frequently updated list of websites and downloads that have been reported to Microsoft as unsafe or suspicious. You may also choose to use SmartScreen Filter manually to verify individual sites with Microsoft. When you use SmartScreen Filter to check websites automatically or manually, the address of the website you are visiting will be sent to Microsoft, together with standard computer information and the SmartScreen Filter version number. To help protect your privacy, the information sent to Microsoft is encrypted.

Emphasis mine.
Source here

Not really.

username:password@www.whatever.net is something you might type into the url bar that would pose a very real security threat when shared. Google search terms are automatically published and your login information would be accessible to anyone.

Considering that Internet explorer stopped supporting that method of sending credentials in 2004, I don't think its an issue.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834489.

Ms link here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS10-018.mspx

No real sweat for IE8 on Win7...

Nice story about MS Bob. Run a search on Bing for "History taking up space." Here is the direct link:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.07.windowsconfidential.aspx

Article not quite right. The intent was not to fill the CD but actually to make sure the difference between retail, OEM, and volume versions of XP was more than just the few bits it otherwise would have been. At the time, before p2p networks, this made the delta too big for usenet and ungainly to host on your own FTP or web site.

Includes more detail about the algo
- Developed with researches at Princeton
- Demo'd at SIGGRAPH in Aug. 2009
- Old spot-healing tool tried to find one match for the hole; new tool copies multiple patches from the surrounding BG to fit into the hole, as well as finding & copying surrounding patterns

How is is different from the Patchworks project from MS Research (published 2003, implemented in MS Digital Image Suite)?

Is there any chance of having something like that as a Paint.NET plug-in?

The fact that MapReduce is fairly obvious to someone who understands functional programming is Joel's very point. It is interesting that you bring up MSR's work on functional programming, because what that really seems to indicate is a disconnect between what their research arm is doing and what the product software developers get to use.

Research divisions, by definition, are on the bleeding edge - they work on stuff that is not readily usable by product developers, turning it into something that is (or rather, into something that can be picked by product teams and turned into a product). There's quite a bit of that coming out of MSR, to lesser or greater extent, on Microsoft development platforms.

To give a few specific examples. Implementation of generics in .NET was originally an MSR project by Don Syme, with work going on already as .NET 1.0 was being released. It was integrated into mainline as of .NET 2.0.

Another example would be the chain of research languages - most notably X# - that became LINQ in 3.5. LINQ actually had some Haskell influences as well.

Yet another example is static code analysis and theorem solver for design-by-contract. The research language for that is Spec#, and is still ongoing. In .NET 4, this work was integrated on library level in form of System.Diagnostics.Contracts, but the interesting part of it is that IL rewriter (which inserts actual code that does pre/post/invariant checks), and static analyzer tool, do not ship in .NET or VS yet, and must be downloaded separately from what is effectively another MSR front.

Since you've mentioned functional programming specifically, the obvious thing to remember would be F# - a pet project of that very same Don Syme (MSR Cambridge), for a long time a research language (in fact, the last in a long chain; they've tried to do Haskell for .NET first, but then realized that type system mismatch would be too great for any reasonable interop, which is the whole point of doing it for .NET), and now shipped in a box in VS2010, due in two weeks from now. Bing guys have mentioned that they use it internally, too.

The fact that MapReduce is fairly obvious to someone who understands functional programming is Joel's very point. It is interesting that you bring up MSR's work on functional programming, because what that really seems to indicate is a disconnect between what their research arm is doing and what the product software developers get to use.

Research divisions, by definition, are on the bleeding edge - they work on stuff that is not readily usable by product developers, turning it into something that is (or rather, into something that can be picked by product teams and turned into a product). There's quite a bit of that coming out of MSR, to lesser or greater extent, on Microsoft development platforms.

To give a few specific examples. Implementation of generics in .NET was originally an MSR project by Don Syme, with work going on already as .NET 1.0 was being released. It was integrated into mainline as of .NET 2.0.

Another example would be the chain of research languages - most notably X# - that became LINQ in 3.5. LINQ actually had some Haskell influences as well.

Yet another example is static code analysis and theorem solver for design-by-contract. The research language for that is Spec#, and is still ongoing. In .NET 4, this work was integrated on library level in form of System.Diagnostics.Contracts, but the interesting part of it is that IL rewriter (which inserts actual code that does pre/post/invariant checks), and static analyzer tool, do not ship in .NET or VS yet, and must be downloaded separately from what is effectively another MSR front.

Since you've mentioned functional programming specifically, the obvious thing to remember would be F# - a pet project of that very same Don Syme (MSR Cambridge), for a long time a research language (in fact, the last in a long chain; they've tried to do Haskell for .NET first, but then realized that type system mismatch would be too great for any reasonable interop, which is the whole point of doing it for .NET), and now shipped in a box in VS2010, due in two weeks from now. Bing guys have mentioned that they use it internally, too.

The fact that MapReduce is fairly obvious to someone who understands functional programming is Joel's very point. It is interesting that you bring up MSR's work on functional programming, because what that really seems to indicate is a disconnect between what their research arm is doing and what the product software developers get to use.

Research divisions, by definition, are on the bleeding edge - they work on stuff that is not readily usable by product developers, turning it into something that is (or rather, into something that can be picked by product teams and turned into a product). There's quite a bit of that coming out of MSR, to lesser or greater extent, on Microsoft development platforms.

To give a few specific examples. Implementation of generics in .NET was originally an MSR project by Don Syme, with work going on already as .NET 1.0 was being released. It was integrated into mainline as of .NET 2.0.

Another example would be the chain of research languages - most notably X# - that became LINQ in 3.5. LINQ actually had some Haskell influences as well.

Yet another example is static code analysis and theorem solver for design-by-contract. The research language for that is Spec#, and is still ongoing. In .NET 4, this work was integrated on library level in form of System.Diagnostics.Contracts, but the interesting part of it is that IL rewriter (which inserts actual code that does pre/post/invariant checks), and static analyzer tool, do not ship in .NET or VS yet, and must be downloaded separately from what is effectively another MSR front.

Since you've mentioned functional programming specifically, the obvious thing to remember would be F# - a pet project of that very same Don Syme (MSR Cambridge), for a long time a research language (in fact, the last in a long chain; they've tried to do Haskell for .NET first, but then realized that type system mismatch would be too great for any reasonable interop, which is the whole point of doing it for .NET), and now shipped in a box in VS2010, due in two weeks from now. Bing guys have mentioned that they use it internally, too.

The fact that MapReduce is fairly obvious to someone who understands functional programming is Joel's very point. It is interesting that you bring up MSR's work on functional programming, because what that really seems to indicate is a disconnect between what their research arm is doing and what the product software developers get to use.

Research divisions, by definition, are on the bleeding edge - they work on stuff that is not readily usable by product developers, turning it into something that is (or rather, into something that can be picked by product teams and turned into a product). There's quite a bit of that coming out of MSR, to lesser or greater extent, on Microsoft development platforms.

To give a few specific examples. Implementation of generics in .NET was originally an MSR project by Don Syme, with work going on already as .NET 1.0 was being released. It was integrated into mainline as of .NET 2.0.

Another example would be the chain of research languages - most notably X# - that became LINQ in 3.5. LINQ actually had some Haskell influences as well.

Yet another example is static code analysis and theorem solver for design-by-contract. The research language for that is Spec#, and is still ongoing. In .NET 4, this work was integrated on library level in form of System.Diagnostics.Contracts, but the interesting part of it is that IL rewriter (which inserts actual code that does pre/post/invariant checks), and static analyzer tool, do not ship in .NET or VS yet, and must be downloaded separately from what is effectively another MSR front.

Since you've mentioned functional programming specifically, the obvious thing to remember would be F# - a pet project of that very same Don Syme (MSR Cambridge), for a long time a research language (in fact, the last in a long chain; they've tried to do Haskell for .NET first, but then realized that type system mismatch would be too great for any reasonable interop, which is the whole point of doing it for .NET), and now shipped in a box in VS2010, due in two weeks from now. Bing guys have mentioned that they use it internally, too.

Nice story about MS Bob. Run a search on Bing for "History taking up space." Here is the direct link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.07.windowsconfidential.aspx

It has come to my attention that the entire Linux community is a hotbed of so called 'alternative sexuality', which includes anything from hedonistic orgies to homosexuality to paedophilia.

What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:

• Linus Torvalds is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
• Richard M. Stallman, spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
• Alan Cox is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.

I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.

Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail, which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'

As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.

And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo slut!

Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children. To quote from the article linked:

'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'

Is this why you were touching your penis in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?

We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his homosexual lover blows firmly down the straw to inflate his scrotum. This is, of course, when he's not busy violating the dignity and co