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Huh?

Are you kidding?

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xfhwa508.aspx

And that's just me randomly hitting a particular class. Most of them have examples.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1k20k614.aspx

I googled for ".net convert string to int" and that came up. The official documentation on Microsoft's site. Anyone who knows anything about developing on .NET knows to check MSDN for stuff. They have TOO much in the way of examples: one for every target .NET language! So you can have a C#, VB.NET, Managed C++, JScript.NET, J#, and XAML examples on some of this stuff.

You really can't be serious here.

Yes, it IS a Microsoft bash, BECAUSE IT IS A LIE. Or, at best, people wanting something to be true and then seeing it that way.

Vista runs perfectly effing fine on 1GB (which, by the way, is the official "recommended" amount of ram for any reasonable version of vista: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/systemrequirements.mspx). I didn't notice any particular performance increase when I switched back to Linux a week ago. Hell, I'm even using Gentoo. Performance is actually WORSE if I use compiz for shiny effects like window fade-ins and transparent decorations (although it's possible/probable I misconfigured something on that part).

Yeah, it's better if you have two gigs. No shit. It would be better if you had dual quad-core processors, too.

Boggles my mind that you can't do this in C#, but you can in JavaScript!

You're crazy. I've been running it for a month already. It is great. There is a list of major incompatibilities: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935796

char chew_up_some_ram[10000000];

char chew_up_some_ram[10000000];

As I have understood, the release today was for the complete "system administrator installation package" that is available on the Microsoft Download Center. SP1 will be pushed to Windows Update next month. On Windows Update, the download will be smaller since it's custom-tailored for the computer in question.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d-5ebb-413b-89c9-cb3d06d12674&DisplayLang=en http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=874a414b-32b2-41cc-bd8b-d71eda5ec07c&DisplayLang=en

As I have understood, the release today was for the complete "system administrator installation package" that is available on the Microsoft Download Center. SP1 will be pushed to Windows Update next month. On Windows Update, the download will be smaller since it's custom-tailored for the computer in question.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d-5ebb-413b-89c9-cb3d06d12674&DisplayLang=en http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=874a414b-32b2-41cc-bd8b-d71eda5ec07c&DisplayLang=en

I tried Gnash recently, and the video that I tried to view simply didn't play.

In addition, Adobe does not allow the documentation for Flash to be used for making or improving a free software viewer.

Regarding Silverlight: yes, the docs appear to be not restricted in such a way, however that is not good enough. Who knows whether the documentation is complete? In addition, without formal standardization, nothing stops Microsoft from extending the format whenever they like and forcing free software implementations to play catch-up-if-you-can.

Furthermore, there is always the potential issue with patents, which means that it is never clear that something which looks like free software really is free software as long as whoever has developed the underlying design hasn't made a a clear patent non-assertion promise. This is particularly problematic with regard to Novell and the Mono project in general, and especially so with regard to Moonlight: It appears that Novell is depending on this non-free patent license from Microsoft in a way from which I can only conclude that Moonlight is not free software.

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=3221 states that End of Life (extended support retirement) for Windows XP is (in) 2014.

Flash and Silverlight are fully documented, and there exists free implemenetations: Gnash and Moonlight, respectively.

"Microsoft probably won't offer XP forever."

Windows XP Professional 'Direct OEM and Retail License Availability' ends June 30, 2008. And 'System Builder License Availability' ends January 31, 2009.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx

So, Microsoft isn't going to offer Windows XP in a few months. As far as an OEM license goes.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948343#method5

Those system DLLs are shared by multiple programs (at least in theory) and thus have their memory usage accounted for separate from the programs that use them. In fact, the memory counts against the operating system. Microsoft uses this fact to hide much of IE's memory in DLLs that have been installed as part of the OS.

So unless you have tools to pick apart where your OS's memory is going, you're going to get bad results for IE.

Try using something like Process Explorer instead. It will give you a much better view into what memory is being used and where.

if you are feeling adventurous you could always try the release candidate of XP sp3 ( http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=114F3599-12AF-42B2-AAB1-B969A62C68A7&displaylang=en )

I would guess they will put out XP SP3 quietly after all the hooha about vista SP1 has died down.

It's not luck.

He mentions KB944533. Plugging KB944533 into Google returns, oddly enough, this page about KB944533 as the first hit. On this page, is the following:

Known issues
        You may receive an error message that resembles the following when you try to visit a Web page in Windows Internet Explorer 7:
Webpage cannot be displayed

It then links to another article describing the nature of this problem, which it turns out is caused by firewall/antivirus/antispyware/other deeply-infiltrated shit, which in turn blocks the freshly-updated IE from functioning.

It has little at all by Windows itself.

So, again: Luck is not a factor here. He's done this to himself, and hasn't even taken the most rudimentary steps toward actually solving it, other than trying to apply random patches in the vague hope that one of them might somehow fix a problem with his antivirus software.

I feel no pity.

It's not luck.

He mentions KB944533. Plugging KB944533 into Google returns, oddly enough, this page about KB944533 as the first hit. On this page, is the following:

Known issues
        You may receive an error message that resembles the following when you try to visit a Web page in Windows Internet Explorer 7:
Webpage cannot be displayed

It then links to another article describing the nature of this problem, which it turns out is caused by firewall/antivirus/antispyware/other deeply-infiltrated shit, which in turn blocks the freshly-updated IE from functioning.

It has little at all by Windows itself.

So, again: Luck is not a factor here. He's done this to himself, and hasn't even taken the most rudimentary steps toward actually solving it, other than trying to apply random patches in the vague hope that one of them might somehow fix a problem with his antivirus software.

I feel no pity.

Um, did you read the content of that link? It says exactly what I said, but with the addition of a poorly worded headline.

To quote the article (with some of my own emphasis added):

And, to quote my previous post (with similar emphasis):

Ignore the headline. Read the article. Start with the first paragraph. It explains that, despite what the headline says, SP1 was not recalled. What was removed from automatic update, but still otherwise available, was KB937287. SP1 itself wasn't actually publicly available yet, although it was available to MSDN subscribers, most of whom had no problem at all with either KB937287 or SP1.

Everything. People run as administrator because they have to.

Not to run, usually just to install.

It's different in that a user does not have to run as root in Linux to get useful work done.

A user doesn't have to run as admin in windows, just ask anyone who works in IT.

Ever tried to debug as an unprivileged user on W2K? Ever tried to install software? Just what is the Windows equivalent of sudo that ships standard with Windows XP?

Yes. Yes. RunAs.

Let me correct that for you: Windows won't let you do anything of substance once you're running as non-administrator. That is the problem.

Wrong. It will. It just won't let you install programs into certain areas. Us IT guys like it that way. It lets us prevent users from messing up the systems.

Disclaimer: this situation has changed somewhat in recent years. However, considering the number of Windows user still running W2K or Windows XP (and for good reason), it's still concerning.

And yet you still know nothing about them. Come back when you've actually got a case to make against running as a user in windows.

pstools is the friend of the mid-sized 'doze admin:

psexec @machinename_list.txt -u administrator reg.exe foo

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896649.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx

pstools is the friend of the mid-sized 'doze admin:

psexec @machinename_list.txt -u administrator reg.exe foo

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896649.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx

Of course you can, you just need a cable with the proper connection on both sides. Note that most USB cables have an "A" plug on one side an a "B" plug on the other, so you'll either have to go through a hub or get a proper cable like this one. If you try to hack your own cable and put two USB hosts direct together, you could fry one or both. That's windows, or mac, or anything, BTW.

But you're not saying you can do that with two Macs with a normal USB cable. I think you're talking about a firewire network, which windows does easily as well.

Somehow I think we've lost sight of your original point, which I never quite understood to begin with.

I use linux because the software I use: emacs, LaTeX, gcc, is unavailable on Windows, at least without hacking or using some emulator that never quite works right

• "GNU Emacs for Win32."
• "MiKTeX is an up-to-date TeX implementation for the Windows operating system."
• "MinGW: A collection of freely available and freely distributable Windows specific header files and import libraries combined with GNU toolsets that allow one to produce native Windows programs that do not rely on any 3rd-party C runtime DLLs."

also, wow, file management is a pain in the arse using a mouse

how do people manage without grep, sed and awk?

Anything else you wanted?

You don't have to edit the registry in Office 2007. You only have to create a trusted files folder, which can done from within Office 2007 itself. Create, remove or change a trusted location for your files

The Process Explorer tool helps a lot with this...

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

Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 come with IPv6 turned on. If you have such an OS (with a webserver) you can see this by going to [::1] (may need to put http:/ in front of it).

So I presume the real switch will have nothing to do with Microsoft. It will happen when DNS servers start giving people IPv6 addresses (along with v4 addresses, and it will use the preferred one). Then the full switchover happens when DNS servers stop giving out IPv4 addresses or all the IPv4 capabilities are turned of in routers/switches.

You were partially right though: IPv6 is not turned on by default in XP and Server 2003, but can be turned on for geeks: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/ipv6/ipv6faq.mspx

Microsoft has actually released a library which I would imagine is related to this work. PLINQ lets you very easily and declaratively multithread tasks. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163329.aspx

Microsoft has offered a freely downloadable virtual desktop as part of their "PowerToys" for years.

It's all moot anyways. Compared with modern features like Expose in MacOS and Flip3D in Windows, along with ZUI developments, virtual desktops are next to worthless.

the problem with the "let's break up Microsoft into its various components" argument is that the Windows and Office divisions make so much money that they prop up the other divisions. It was aaaaages before the Hardware division made money, but now I wouldn't give up my MS keyboard and mouse if you paid me to. The XBox and XBox360 are proven money sinks too, for the time being. This is not to mention really cool shit like Live Labs and Microsoft Research...

Ever heard of enhanced write filtering? When you make lots of frequent writes to flash, I would assume that companies that distribute or manufacture flash memory would definitely want to try REALLY hard disprove any negatives with the media. You don't have many problems with Linux in regards to this...but if you're running XP Embedded, you can trash flash memory as it constantly writes data out to the registry and the like.

Read. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838638.aspx

Windows Mobile/WindowsCE is a reasonably unlocked (SDK isn't a free download but is fairly easy to obtain) platform

Actually, the irony of the present situation is that, of the big players on the smartphone/handheld market, Windows Mobile is the most open platform. Hopefully that'll change with Android.

Microsoft Online Services was announced last week by Bill Gates at the Microsoft Office SharePoint Conference. This service will provide hosted Exchange, SharePoint, and LiveMeeting in its initial offering. More info is available at mosbeta.com.

Microsoft Online Services was announced last week by Bill Gates at the Microsoft Office SharePoint Conference. This service will provide hosted Exchange, SharePoint, and LiveMeeting in its initial offering. More info is available at mosbeta.com.

Prior to Microsoft, Turner worked nearly 20 years at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., where he started as a cashier while going to college. Upon graduating from college he held various leadership positions within Wal-Mart including most recently as president and chief executive officer of SAM'S CLUB, with over 46 million members and over $37.1 billion in annual sales. Before this role, Turner worked 13 years in the IT department where achieved the level of executive vice president and chief information officer for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in which he oversaw all information systems and IT operations for the company worldwide.

Microsoft did some research in this area a few years back. See C Omega

So just how DO you get a bash prompt to appear on a Windows box?

So just how DO you get a bash prompt to appear on a Windows box?

No way to verify it passes Acid2?

Why has there been no discussion on Slashdot of IE 8 beta 1?

Available here without any WGA crap.

(It gets 10/100, btw, and can't do Acid2 completely.)

I may not know as much as I think I know but this definitely exists, combined with auditing on ports you know you don't use and you can have a bunch of real-time information about your Windows box. A Deep packet inspection firewall will by no means protect you from everything but SSH over the Internet is certainly blocked for the corporate network I'm responsible for along with inbound and outbound SMTP to anything but my authorized email servers.

There are ways around every system of course, security is always a learning process. Securing Windows once I'll agree isn't a simple task, but securing en masse once you've figured out the one is pretty darned simple especially for me with SMS and MOM deployed. I'm limited only by the number of alerts I want to be interrupted by.

I might add the sysinternals is now owned by Microsoft and their products are still offered for free. There are dozens of tools right there.

OK, lecture over ;)

OK, lecture over ;)

Last time I checked, Microsoft opened up many of their Office formats to be implemented by third parties free of charge, including Word 97-2007. What's the issue?