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...because they can't even type in some 300 lines of plain old HTML 4 code without messing it up:

http://www.microsoft.com/australia/vistafacts/vista.aspx

This page is not Valid HTML 4.01 Transitional!
Result: Failed validation, 12 Errors

(validator.w3.org)

Oh. It's just a way to seed Silverlight. Nevermind.

And a bad one.
Here:
Black screen. Only. Okay, NoScript pops up. I *allow* Microsoft.com (pun)
Now the black screen is still black, with a tiny icon on top: Get Silverlight. I *click*.
A full screen pops up inviting me to download. "Install Microsoft Silverlight now for a
better Web experience". I click. "Download Silverlight.exe" 'OK'. ... and I'm still waiting ...

Yes, that's only bad. My browser identifies as "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS i86pc; en-US; rv:1.8.1.10) Gecko/20071230 Firefox/2.0.0.10". Any well-done site would inform me that I am not yet a convert, and point me to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/Search.aspx?displaylang=en for reference.

It's sold badly but compatibility is fine- blame Creative and ATI for being lazy and not making drivers on time.. Microsoft is definitely not at fault at all there, and anyway compatibility is fine now.

Try telling that to my parents, whose HP printer and scanner won't work with the copy of Vista that was preinstalled on the Dell they bought a few months ago. There's nothing wrong with the hardware, but because the Win2K/XP drivers for those devices won't work with Vista and HP hasn't gotten around to writing Vista drivers for them (and, in the case of their ScanJet 4p, probably never will), they're stuck with some POS Dell all-in-one that should work with Vista, but usually doesn't because of the craptastic drivers that came with it.

(If there's a silver lining in here, it's that they won't ever buy a Dell again. I tried talking them into buying a Mac, but they wouldn't listen to me. Dad was worried about not being able to open Office files; that there are plenty of apps for the Mac that open Office files (including...um...Office itself) didn't appear to register.)

it's not exactly like we haven't seen the source o windows 2000.
God i hope it's gotten a lot better since then.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/feb04/02-12windowssource.mspx

The Fact or Fiction site was put together by Microsoft Australia for "technology professionals" and aims to help Windows tech experts sell Vista to their customers. This is not oriented toward the general public, and frankly it doesn't look "desperate" to me.

Sure Vista has been a disappointment, but not everything Microsoft does is evidence of this.

Here's the quiz: http://www.microsoft.com/australia/vistafacts/fact.aspx

I filled it out and will be getting my free shirt sometime. I only filled it out because of curiosity and I want that grand prize. At any rate, a bum should enjoy the free shirt I'll give him.

I love how the silverlight download wants me to run silverlight.exe to install it... on my Linux box. Probably not going to work. How about some better user-agent checking with a message like: "For your own good, please go away. We are only planning to provide half-baked implementations and lip-service to non-Microsoft platforms".

for the chance to win a home theatre package worth $15K. Too bad it's only for Local OEM Partners. (Being Canadian doesn't help either, heh.)

And the actual meat and potatoes of all this would be here, Silverlight required of course!

Well put!

* Nowhere in the article does it say they are going to release these worms on the internet.
* Nor does it say it will spread via exploits.

"Worm" is probably a very bad definition for what they are doing.

There's a very lengthy explanation in this PDF: Sampling Strategies for Epidemic-Style Information Dissemination

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/eula.mspx According to section 2.3, you have opened the door and beckoned Microsoft in. They are not compromising anything. They are exercising a right that they have retained, that you acknowledge when you install the software.

A cable television system typically has 60 or more channels, and most of them are used for programming services like CNN, ESPN and HBO. These channels also can be used to offer high-speed Internet access. Each channel offers 27 mbps of downstream capacity and 10 mbps of upstream capacity, which is shared by a small cluster of homes. Because data traffic is bursty, several hundred cable modem users can surf at the same time without any loss of performance. If speeds begin to fall off due to heavy traffic, the cable operator can allocate more channel space to preserve high performance levels.

So guess what? At 6:00, when everyone turns their TV on to the nightly news at the same time? Same problem!! But you don't see your television signal heaving all over tuner... because Comcast knows they can't put more subscribers on a hub than will be simultaneously watching TV. ...See where I'm going with this? It's also very interesting that channel space is dynamic. If internet traffic is just another channel, can't it also be dynamic? A final bit of info, to give you perspective how much bandwidth coax really has: the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (members include Comcast, Cox, Verizon, and many others) looks to the capacities of existing and future technologies. They've done studies on HDTV and internet over coax, and results of these studies where presented at WinHEC 2007. http://mocalliance.org/en/index.asp From the site:

The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (known as MoCA(TM)) is an open, industry driven initiative promoting distribution of digital video and entertainment through existing coaxial cable in the home. MoCA's primary requirements are: * No new wires * No installation or truck roll * No interference with existing networks * If you have coax, it works. * Compliments [sic] any wireless network

At WinHEC 2007, MoCA presented the results of a field test performed using 250 homes. The PowerPoint presentation is available from Microsoft's download site: http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/f/d/afdfd50d-6eb9-425e-84e1-b4085a80e34e/CON-T477_WH07.pptx The goals of the field test were to use existing coax to provide simultaneous internet and stutter-free HDTV to multiple rooms of a house without impacting the other users on the network. This functionality has since been deployed to more than 200,000 homes. The results: * Speeds of >110Mbps net throughput in 97% of all outlets WITH NO CHANGES TO EXISTING SYSTEM! * Packet Error Rate less than 10-6 * Latency less than 5ms With "simple remediation", the results were 100% of homes achieved >95Mbps on *every* path in the home. Download the ppt, it's an

Try again:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WW1&osl=EN&catid=-1&impid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=INS_PNT_PM_1720&hidos=WLH&hidlang=en

XP drivers are available and the Vista license supports XP downgrade (see Microsoft licensing for specifics):

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1425295&SiteID=17

you can always use the slipstreaming feature of the xp patches or use nLite to create an updated XP cd.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828930
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/23/

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/64bit.mspx

That page strongly implies OEM customers are out of luck if their vendor didn't provide the 64-bit version, as it states that you can get the 64-bit media DVD if "you bought as a retail, packaged product".

Many retail and computer stores plan to make the Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD available free charge as a courtesy to their customers, and in the past, computer magazines have often distributed service pack CDs as an insert..

Share This CD with a Friend

After you have installed Service Pack 2, Microsoft encourages you to give this CD to a friend or family member using Windows XP.

Many retail and computer stores plan to make the Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD available free charge as a courtesy to their customers, and in the past, computer magazines have often distributed service pack CDs as an insert..

Share This CD with a Friend

After you have installed Service Pack 2, Microsoft encourages you to give this CD to a friend or family member using Windows XP.

Many retail and computer stores plan to make the Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD available free charge as a courtesy to their customers, and in the past, computer magazines have often distributed service pack CDs as an insert..

Share This CD with a Friend

After you have installed Service Pack 2, Microsoft encourages you to give this CD to a friend or family member using Windows XP.

Vista Enterprise support encryption as well. Add another flavor of Vista into your list.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/enterprise/default.mspx

microsoft already has a downloadable cd every month with all of its updates. all you would have to do is change a simple batch file, like i do at work to include the new ones. This "project" is nothing but a waste of time. for those of you who are not smart enough to type windows update iso in the search box on microsoft i will provide the direct link to the KB article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/913086

Rootkit Revealer (Windows). This was written by Mark Russinovich before he joined Microsoft.

• Home Basic - cannot join a domain and does not include Media Center; equivalent to XP Home Edition
  
• Home Premium - cannot join a domain but does include Media Center; equivalent to XP Media Center Edition
  
• Business - can join a domain but does not include Media Center; equivalent to XP Professional Edition
  
• Ultimate - can join a domain and includes Media Center; no XP equivalent exists
  

He still is.

...otherwise known as early adopters.

To be fair Vista introduced to an unsuspecting IT world the shocking concept that's been around in *nix that "You don't have root level access as a norm!" (Gasp!). This alone caused issues for the majority of Windows software, and is probably the cause of the majority UAC complaints too. Remember too that, this type of security really isn't appreciated by your average Joe, who honestly couldn't give two shits if someone has rooted his box. He'll care when he can't write documents, send emails and check the football results on-line (even if it does require closing various popups)...but a Windows SUDO was long overdue.

Also, Vista is the first iteration of Windows that's seriously supported 64 bit...XP does I know, but it's something of a stop-gap in my opinion, and very rare to see. The 64-bit shift was too, on it's own, bound to cause upgrade havoc, much like the "good old days" of Win95 not running legacy 16bit apps too well.

Finally, Vista does overhaul other areas of Windows that has been for the better in the long-run, but a world of hurts in the short-run. Check out the propaganda here - http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/vista/kernel-en.mspx

There's a tonne of reasons why Vista has been a painful upgrade, but these reasons above I feel are the most prominent, and not so much fault of Microsoft either in my opinion. Yeah, security should've "not sucked", the tech is still very new (many will say 'too' new), and the 64-bit switch-over is unavoidable at some point, but frankly Vista's getting better every day (for instance, just today this was released - http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B943899&x=14&y=11) but much of Vista's problems have been blown up bigger than they are by people that quite frankly, just want to see Microsoft fail, die, whatever...and are willing to "stretch the truth" if it helps that happen....

Hang on; I've just realised where I'm posting.

...otherwise known as early adopters.

To be fair Vista introduced to an unsuspecting IT world the shocking concept that's been around in *nix that "You don't have root level access as a norm!" (Gasp!). This alone caused issues for the majority of Windows software, and is probably the cause of the majority UAC complaints too. Remember too that, this type of security really isn't appreciated by your average Joe, who honestly couldn't give two shits if someone has rooted his box. He'll care when he can't write documents, send emails and check the football results on-line (even if it does require closing various popups)...but a Windows SUDO was long overdue.

Also, Vista is the first iteration of Windows that's seriously supported 64 bit...XP does I know, but it's something of a stop-gap in my opinion, and very rare to see. The 64-bit shift was too, on it's own, bound to cause upgrade havoc, much like the "good old days" of Win95 not running legacy 16bit apps too well.

Finally, Vista does overhaul other areas of Windows that has been for the better in the long-run, but a world of hurts in the short-run. Check out the propaganda here - http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/vista/kernel-en.mspx

There's a tonne of reasons why Vista has been a painful upgrade, but these reasons above I feel are the most prominent, and not so much fault of Microsoft either in my opinion. Yeah, security should've "not sucked", the tech is still very new (many will say 'too' new), and the 64-bit switch-over is unavoidable at some point, but frankly Vista's getting better every day (for instance, just today this was released - http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B943899&x=14&y=11) but much of Vista's problems have been blown up bigger than they are by people that quite frankly, just want to see Microsoft fail, die, whatever...and are willing to "stretch the truth" if it helps that happen....

Hang on; I've just realised where I'm posting.

Use Heise Security Offline-Update to patch any installation of Windows XP with the latest service packs and security updates.

Why? Heise Offline-Update handles everything. It comes from a reputable company that makes money selling other security services; they have a strong incentive to do it right. To make the CD or DVD, it downloads all the patches from Microsoft's servers, and makes an .ISO file which you burn to a CD or DVD. To use Heise Offline-Update, you insert the CD or DVD, start the program, and let it run.

Shortcomings of Heise Offline-Update? 1) It does only security updates. 2) The web site is mostly in German, although there is an older English explanation.

Why not the others? 1) Autopatcher and others were much more amateurish. Autopatcher is now back with a scheme like Heise Offline-Update, but that is after months of experimentation. The volunteers at Autopatcher don't seem to have the resources necessary. See the Autopatcher downloads page which says "This page will be back very soon :)" (2008-02-12). Before, Autopatcher provided patches directly from their servers; Microsoft stopped that, due to security risks, it said. But Microsoft did not provide its own solution.

Problems with Slashdot: 1) Bad stories create bad discussions. Slashdot editors apparently don't know much about Microsoft Windows. Almost all Slashdot readers have to deal with Windows, even if only to help family and neighbors. Sloppy stories that have not been researched waste reader's time. 2) Lots of readers comment when they don't have much to say.

That said, Slashdot is by far the best web site I know for computer-oriented news.

Problems with Microsoft: What Microsoft offers is not complete, so volunteers try to help. In my opinion, Microsoft is often extremely adversarial toward its customers.

It has been more than 3 years since Microsoft issued a Service Pack for Windows XP; that has wasted the time of hundreds of thousands because Windows XP is so unstable and buggy and malware-prone that it often needs re-loading. Often malware replaces a system file, and the only way to recover is to re-load the operating system. Re-loading Windows XP preserves all the programs and settings; however, the latest Windows XP CD from Microsoft has only Windows XP Service Pack 2; there have been hundreds of megabytes of updates since then, making updating over a dial-up connection extremely slow.

Microsoft does have a system for updating, but the system requires the very expensive Windows Server 2003, which requires a network and at least one other computer. Obviously requiring all that creates problems in helping someone with his or her home computer, or with a cash register computer in a small store, for example.

More problems with Microsoft -- Windows Update often fails. Amazingly, Microsoft is unable to deliver an updating system that works reliably. I just worked on a friend's computer, for example, and running Windows Update gives a long numerical error message with no help for fixing the error.

There have been many, many different kinds of problems with Windows Update. See, for example, Microsoft's Windows Update Discussion Group.

I guess that millions of hours are lost every year because of Microsoft's sloppy programming. Bill Gates deserves his title, Chief of Grief, although soon the chair-throwing, bad-mouthing Steve Ballmer will be the Chief, apparently. (The

There have always been solutions you could use to solve this problem, though. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wsus/default.aspx

Toss it on a laptop, and away you go.

They used to ship these for free from MS HQ, even shipping was free. (I still have these "security updates" CDroms laying around. Got an invoice of 0 USD)

At the moment they seem to charge 8 (Offline SP2 CDrom). If you feel thats too much, download teh redistributable, burn it to cdrom or make a slipstreamed XP if you have to do alot of installations.

Do you trust a random guy "patching" your system? I don't.

CORRECT. I have been testing SP1 for Vista since Early January. It's right there. RIGHT THERE! It's just the Dev's who are upset (maybe?) that there is not a final version of SP1 for their purposes.

But then... is anything ever really "final" in the Windows world?

Incidentally, it took over TWO HOURS to download and then install the SP1 release client on a Core 2 Duo 2GB RAM laptop with a 6-Meg internet connection.

http://research.microsoft.com/research/projects/default.aspx Majority of those are not for everyday people use but they are advancing the CS field in vast strides which is what drives innovation...etc.

Microsoft is continually looking for companies to purchase. They've acquired more than 80 companies since 1994. So they've obviously discussed acquisitions with many times that number of companies. This looks like business as usual.

Apparently Microsoft are Linux zealots, then. http://www.microsoft.com/canada/midsizebusiness/businessvalue/local/desktopupgrade.mspx Please to stop nonsense generalising kthx.

Each MS product comes with a limited number of activations, and that activation ties the copy to a particular computer.

From MS's Vista Activation FAQ:

• How many different computers can I install Windows Vista on using the same product key?

  The number of computers on which you can install Windows Vista depends on the software license. For example:

  • If you acquire Windows Vista via retail purchase (boxed product), it may only be installed on one computer at a time. You may choose to uninstall Windows Vista from the initial computer and install it on another computer. You will then be required to re-activate that copy of Windows on the new computer.
  • If you acquire Windows Vista pre-installed on a computer, it may only be used on that computer.

• My product key is in use on another computer.

  You cannot use Windows on more computers than the Microsoft Software License Terms allow. Usually the license terms allow one copy of Windows to be used on each computer. To use the same copy of Windows on another computer, install it on the second computer. You will need to activate Windows again on the second computer. During installation, enter the product key that came with your copy of Windows. If automatic activation fails, follow the screens that walk you through activating Windows by phone. You will have 30 days to activate your copy of Windows.

  Note If you install the same copy of Windows on a second computer and use the same product key that you used to activate Windows on the first computer, you can no longer use this copy of Windows on the first computer. To continue using Windows on both computers, you must buy a new product key to activate the second installation.

What happened in your life that causes you to make up bullshit about Microsoft?

Each MS product comes with a limited number of activations, and that activation ties the copy to a particular computer.

From MS's Vista Activation FAQ:

• How many different computers can I install Windows Vista on using the same product key?

  The number of computers on which you can install Windows Vista depends on the software license. For example:

  • If you acquire Windows Vista via retail purchase (boxed product), it may only be installed on one computer at a time. You may choose to uninstall Windows Vista from the initial computer and install it on another computer. You will then be required to re-activate that copy of Windows on the new computer.
  • If you acquire Windows Vista pre-installed on a computer, it may only be used on that computer.

• My product key is in use on another computer.

  You cannot use Windows on more computers than the Microsoft Software License Terms allow. Usually the license terms allow one copy of Windows to be used on each computer. To use the same copy of Windows on another computer, install it on the second computer. You will need to activate Windows again on the second computer. During installation, enter the product key that came with your copy of Windows. If automatic activation fails, follow the screens that walk you through activating Windows by phone. You will have 30 days to activate your copy of Windows.

  Note If you install the same copy of Windows on a second computer and use the same product key that you used to activate Windows on the first computer, you can no longer use this copy of Windows on the first computer. To continue using Windows on both computers, you must buy a new product key to activate the second installation.

What happened in your life that causes you to make up bullshit about Microsoft?

Oh and one other thing...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en

Microsoft have supplied support for OpenXML back to Office 2000. So OpenXML clearly is compatible with earlier versions of MS Office.

And one other thing whilst I'm educating you, its OpenXML, not OOXML. You don't even seem to know the name of it.

It is Here

Not per box sold, but they make(income, revenues are higher) about $11 billion a year on operating systems, and about $10 billion on 'business products':

http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/ar07/staticversion/10k_fr_dis.html

The margins are higher in the operating systems business, and 80% of that business is OEM sales, so I don't think they are subsidizing the OEM channel. It probably has to do with the big chunks of retail sales that are in store mark up and wholesale mark up(these can easily represent more than 50% of the price you pay), and the fact that they let OEMs do all the work, so OEM revenue is essentially free(incrementally anyway).

There is - see System.Security.Cryptography.RNGCryptoServiceProvider. People like GP really give .NET devs a bad name.

On Microsoft.com, Sandi Hardmeier, MVP, concludes her adware definition, "Ads are not bad by themselves but they become a problem when they are unauthorized. Unfortunately, many adware programs do not give users enough notice or control." In Office, where is the "notice or control"?

I think the big hurdle is partitioning off a part of each hard drive so that the user can't access it, so what they don't know about they can't be angry about losing.

If flawed, predictable PRNG code is so 'irrelevant in the real world' why does even Microsoft seek to improve upon it?

"Strengthens the cryptography platform with a redesigned random number generator, which leverages the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), when present, for entropy and complies with the latest standards. The redesigned RNG uses the AES-based pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) from NIST Special Publication 800-90 by default. The Dual Elliptical Curve (Dual EC) PRNG from SP 800-90 is also available for customers who prefer to use it."

Overview of Windows Vista Service Pack 1

Though this question obviously will depend on how MS's previous PRNG implementation stacks up against OpenBSD's.

Slow downward spiral? Might I suggest you learn how to read an income statement: http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY08/earn_rel_q2_08.mspx#income. Microsoft revenue grew 30% in the last quarter. Operating income grew 87%. Earnings/share grew 92%. On top of that, they raised their estimates for the rest of the year. It's worth noting for the mathematically challenged that all of those growth numbers were on top of very large bases. Thier net income was $4 billion and change on $15 billion in revenue. Let's compare that to another company on a downward spiral: General Electric. In GE's most recent quarter had net income of $6.8 billion on revenue of $48 billion. Revenue grew at 18% and earnings grew at 16%. Man, talk about two HOSED companies.

You just make shit up.

Here is their balance sheet:

http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/ar07/staticversion/10k_fr_bal.html

It shows that $17 billion in short term investments you are talking about. Here is the breakdown of their investments:

http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/ar07/staticversion/10k_fr_not_02.html

It shows about $7 billion of common stock and equivalents, none of which is categorized as short term, and about $19 billion in various bonds and similar instruments, of which there is about $17 billion that is categorized as short term. None of that $19 billion is Microsoft stock.

None of this mentions the $10 billion in unrecognized revenue that they have lying around. This is money that they have promised to pay themselves later on in the year.

Microsoft enjoys an excellent cash position, and has large amounts of continuing operating income.

You just make shit up.

Here is their balance sheet:

http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/ar07/staticversion/10k_fr_bal.html

It shows that $17 billion in short term investments you are talking about. Here is the breakdown of their investments:

http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/ar07/staticversion/10k_fr_not_02.html

It shows about $7 billion of common stock and equivalents, none of which is categorized as short term, and about $19 billion in various bonds and similar instruments, of which there is about $17 billion that is categorized as short term. None of that $19 billion is Microsoft stock.

None of this mentions the $10 billion in unrecognized revenue that they have lying around. This is money that they have promised to pay themselves later on in the year.

Microsoft enjoys an excellent cash position, and has large amounts of continuing operating income.

From their 2007 Annual Report. Total assets, $63.2B. Total liquid cash: $23.4B. Over twenty three billion in cash isn't chump change by anyone's measure.

A lot of recent Microsoft XML specs have a URN instead of a URL as a URI -- they don't resemble a URL at all. (they have things like urn:microsoft-xml-spec - missing out the // really means it's not a valid URL and a download attempt cannot possibly succeed. It, thus, sidestepps this entire issue.)

An example is the second line below:

<mybook:BOOK xmlns:mybook="http://www.contoso.com/books.dtd">
<bb:BOOK xmlns:bb="urn:blueyonderairlines">

(from http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-nz/library/a9a1451a(en-us).aspx )

Also, this demonstrates how a C# program might validate against a schema identified only by a URN - by passing a list of URN to URL or filename mappings to the XML Reader.

A lot of recent Microsoft XML specs have a URN instead of a URL as a URI -- they don't resemble a URL at all. (they have things like urn:microsoft-xml-spec - missing out the // really means it's not a valid URL and a download attempt cannot possibly succeed. It, thus, sidestepps this entire issue.)

An example is the second line below:

<mybook:BOOK xmlns:mybook="http://www.contoso.com/books.dtd">
<bb:BOOK xmlns:bb="urn:blueyonderairlines">

(from http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-nz/library/a9a1451a(en-us).aspx )

Also, this demonstrates how a C# program might validate against a schema identified only by a URN - by passing a list of URN to URL or filename mappings to the XML Reader.

Not a replication DFS, but a namespace DFS.

Create a "stand alone root", NOT a domain root, on a server.
Then add links to it, where they point to shares on workstations.

This acts more like a bunch of symbolic links to the various boxes, with one entry point the the share. Not the same data everywhere, like a domain root would be.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/storage/dfs/default.mspx