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HTML5 should be dropped, and just develop XHTML5. Imroper/lazy nesting and optionally closed tags are the crutch of "designers" who rely on overly helpful browsers and sloppy WYSIWYGS to do their jobs for them.

Do you trust a mechanic who, after working on your car, gives you your keys and a pile of "extra" parts that he found on your car that "weren't necessary"? Get back in there and put the rest of the head bolts back on, bub.

The fact that the HTML5 tagset is getting silly is a separate issue.

That should have been... "I remember when it was called SOFTRICITY!" Softricity created this product, MS bought it up. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jul0 6/07-17SoftricityPR.mspx

Softgrid's been around for at least a couple of years (as Softricity's Softgrid). M$FT acquired the company and is rolling the product into the "Desktop Optimization Pack".

We implemented Softgrid in our company a few years ago - works like a charm. It's wonderful for those awful apps that are extremely sensitive to .dll or OS version levels or cannot play nicely with other apps. It is also a great solution for a Citrix environment - apps are deployed quickly and they are not natively installed on the servers.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jul0 6/07-17SoftricityPR.mspx

There are competing products (Altiris SVS for example) but Softgrid was our preference.

BTW I have no financial or other connection with any of the companies I've mentioned.

From the article:

Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate
Glenda has been using my computer for months with Vista installed, and she likes it. Also, Vista is required for DirectX 10, which means she'll need it if she wants the games on her PC to look as good as the games on my PC. And if they didn't, I'd never hear the end of it. So Vista it is!

Fine, she likes Vista. But why Vista Ultimate? According to Microsoft's own comparison chart, ultimate just gives additional backup, encryption, remote desktop, and fax & scan capabilities... none of which are apparently needed from her list of needs.

Having seen this screen shot I had to ask, what is a Windows Experience Index? It seems this machine has a score of 5.6. Great, what's that out of Microsoft? 10? That's pretty crappy. Maybe it's out of six?

So I googled for a bit and eventually found this page. Which says "The base scores currently range from 1 to 5.9." WTF? So it's out of 4.9 and you just add 1 for fun, is that it? I wonder if it's a linear scale or what.. maybe it's logarithmic.

If this is how broken the business rules of their software are, I can only imagine how broken the implementation must be.

Microsoft, you're a disgrace.

Checked out the article, and on the page what is this I see... An big advertisement (read flash vid) for MS Server 2003 that links to MS "Get the Facts" site

Tommy"StaleDataUserTrollerBoyWithEmailofTroll@Trol lTalk"Hudson?

Go here, face up to it:

http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=261525&t hreshold=-1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=20138729

vs. your statement there, of this:

"Both linux and BSD eat Windows for lunch." - by tomhudson (43916) on Monday August 06, @11:41PM (#20138193)

AND, this post of yours? Same damn thing, each time lol!

(That is literally what?? The 3rd time you repeated that, using STALE data, dated later than my own???)

Repetitively posting the SAME things here, does NOT "prove your point" posting your stuff 3x-4x now, anymore than it did the first time!

(& YOU had to post your stale data (vs. my own, it is 8 months out of date mind you, vs. what I posted as proof of MS' presence @ NASDAQ, using the SAME DATA your stale url's show, & Tandem mainframes being displaced by Windows Server 2003 + SQLServer 2005, & running 99.999% uptime on the job there?))

Listen - Go to that URL above I posted, & per what you stated there? Take that challenge... & beat my score! PUT UP, or, SHUT UP! Have some balls boy, try it.

(I cannot WAIT to see you RUN forrest, run, like 21 others here have)

By the by: In that URL above I post at the top of this reply here?

WELL, You are now bookmarked here as #22, by the way, because I STRONGLY SUSPECT, based on history here of 21 other *NIX heads avoiding that multiplatform security test for online security ratings, by the CENTER FOR INTERNET SECURITY, all used b.s. spinmaster evasions to avoid taking it (OR, their fear of posting lesser scores on it than I have gained rather): YOU TOO, will run from it, or evade it with some spinmaster b.s.!

HOWEVER, admittedly & FUNNY?

You ARE the first to TRY & use "STALE DATA", lol, vs. my own more current data proofs of MS' presence @ NASDAQ, & running into the 99.999% uptime range of stability, using SQLServer 2005 (not a BUG or reported vulnerability in its history, mind you, check SECUNIA.COM for that in fact), + Windows Server 2003 on the MDDS app run @ NASDAQ!

Your choice TommyBoy... that, or write a BETTER app than mine is, for the SAME purpose, shown below since you state I cannot code (you, the admitted "maintenance coder" lol)...

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/389/foowhatev ermakesgooglehappy.html

With one YOU did for the SAME purpose (since you said also I cannot code)... lol, IF you run from this test, ok?

APK

P.S.=> This out to be some fun, watching you "RUN, forrest, RUN!", from the challenge & test I noted above...AND, by the way, TommyBoy? GO to:

http://microsoft.com/bigdata

& TRY to disprove facts that show Microsoft Windows functioning @ ENTERPRISE CLASS LEVELS for all of the companies & projects running on SQLServer + Windows, while you're at it, lol! apk

Tommy"StaleDataUserTrollerBoyWithEmailofTroll@Trol lTalk"Hudson?

Go here, face up to it:

http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=261525&t hreshold=-1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=20138729

vs. your statement there, of this:

"Both linux and BSD eat Windows for lunch." - by tomhudson (43916) on Monday August 06, @11:41PM (#20138193)

AND, this post of yours? Same damn thing, each time lol!

(That is literally what?? The 3rd time you repeated that, using STALE data, dated later than my own???)

Repetitively posting the SAME things here, does NOT "prove your point" posting your stuff 3x-4x now, anymore than it did the first time!

(& YOU had to post your stale data (vs. my own, it is 8 months out of date mind you, vs. what I posted as proof of MS' presence @ NASDAQ, using the SAME DATA your stale url's show, & Tandem mainframes being displaced by Windows Server 2003 + SQLServer 2005, & running 99.999% uptime on the job there?))

Listen - Go to that URL above I posted, & per what you stated there? Take that challenge... & beat my score! PUT UP, or, SHUT UP! Have some balls boy, try it.

(I cannot WAIT to see you RUN forrest, run, like 21 others here have)

By the by: In that URL above I post at the top of this reply here?

WELL, You are now bookmarked here as #22, by the way, because I STRONGLY SUSPECT, based on history here of 21 other *NIX heads avoiding that multiplatform security test for online security ratings, by the CENTER FOR INTERNET SECURITY, all used b.s. spinmaster evasions to avoid taking it (OR, their fear of posting lesser scores on it than I have gained rather): YOU TOO, will run from it, or evade it with some spinmaster b.s.!

HOWEVER, admittedly & FUNNY?

You ARE the first to TRY & use "STALE DATA", lol, vs. my own more current data proofs of MS' presence @ NASDAQ, & running into the 99.999% uptime range of stability, using SQLServer 2005 (not a BUG or reported vulnerability in its history, mind you, check SECUNIA.COM for that in fact), + Windows Server 2003 on the MDDS app run @ NASDAQ!

Your choice TommyBoy... that, or write a BETTER app than mine is, for the SAME purpose, shown below since you state I cannot code (you, the admitted "maintenance coder" lol)...

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/389/foowhatev ermakesgooglehappy.html

With one YOU did for the SAME purpose (since you said also I cannot code)... lol, IF you run from this test, ok?

APK

P.S.=> This out to be some fun, watching you "RUN, forrest, RUN!", from the challenge & test I noted above...AND, by the way, TommyBoy? GO to:

http://microsoft.com/bigdata

& TRY to disprove facts that show Microsoft Windows functioning @ ENTERPRISE CLASS LEVELS for all of the companies & projects running on SQLServer + Windows, while you're at it, lol! apk

The widespread use of http only cookies is coming upon us

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms533046. aspx

http://www.petefreitag.com/item/644.cfm

of course, new rushed in features open nice juicy vectors :
http://ha.ckers.org/blog/20070719/firefox-implemen ts-httponly-and-is-vulnerable-to-xmlhttprequest/

So if you dont like using the GUI on IIS, why dont you use the underlying XML file that the GUI is managing?

If you have to copy config from one IIS machine to another, there are simple and straightforward tools to do this.

How can you come on this board and bitch about something that you clearly arent up to speed on the tools? Learn the system, then you gain the right to bitch about it. But dont bitch out of ignorance.

Yes, Vista was a complete failure -- it only sold 60 million copies so far this year. Microsoft will surely never recover, only having 34 billion dollars in cash.

If that's not failure, I don't know what is.

Correct. It's called MSDN... and now that they've gotten the MSDN2 site fixed it seems to have everything for all three versions of VS.

It is possible to move the "Documents and Settings" folder on an existing install, but the page detailing the method is full of "You'll probably screw up your computer trying this" warnings. Basically it involves copying the folder, then editing the myriad registry keys referencing the original location to reflect the new location. Here's the link to the MS Knowlegebase article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/236621

Well, you can read a great deal about it at http://www.iis.net/

You can also download a free evaluation good until April 2008 of Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/beta/ lhs/default.mspx

At the risk of repeating what has already been written, please refer to this document which should explain all.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windo wsserver2003/technologies/webapp/iis/iis6perf.mspx

Again, that's not really the case. If you look at what is dealt with in kernel mode, it's extremely low-level. Anything more complex than handling & queuing HTTP requests or returning cache is handed off to isolated user-mode processes.

Have a look - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windo wsserver2003/technologies/webapp/iis/iis6perf.mspx

Thus, even basic file-handling is done by an isolated process running at the lowest level of security by default (Network Service in Win2k3).

Apparently, they don't know how to administer their Windows network. Code can be permitted or blocked using an MD5 or SHA1 hash. See this article. Also, to those that complain about stupid IT decisions, I say this: Yes there is a lot of stupid IT decisions, but given the right network, security can be a top priority. I work at a credit card processing company. Keeping control over what code can be run, then maintaining those programs with patches and forced settings helps tremendously in keeping the network safe. An ex girlfriend works at Lockheed Martin on special projects. She doesn't get an internet connection. She's not permitted to carry in a cell phone. Now a small shop that has absolutely zero hack factor doing these kinds of things is ridiculous. As long as they're protected from drive-by vuln scans, have an AV solution, and keep malware under control, that's almost always enough. Dreaded power users that find all sorts of fun ways to fuck their computer can be kept under control at a management level.

Hardware vendors have to write and test their own drivers, then pay MS to be certified.

Is this the possible result of Microsoft converting Godaddy's parked domains to Windows servers?

"Remember, the more skilled you are at programming, the more linux will suit you because you can modify it to suit your needs. Similarly, the entire working environment is far more easily customised." - by Bert64 (520050) on Sunday August 05, @07:05AM (#20119941)

What EXACTLY can't you customize, in Windows, if you can code (OR, see my next paragraph, even IF YOU CAN'T)?

Give us some specifics...

I can even point to filesystems (IFS = installable file system) can be layered into it if one wishes!

E.G.=> http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/IFSKit/defa ult.mspx

Also, as far as the second part of your statement?

Have you ever heard of a shell extension?

(You can extend the entire Explorer.exe GUI shell/desktop this way as well!)

You must not be a freeware/shareware (emphasis on the former especially) user...

I say this, because there are 100's-to-1,000's of these things out there online (most for FREE mind you) that you can use, to further customize your desktop alone (and, other programs as well)... & because I emphasized the former?

It costs NOTHING!

(And, they work, & are stable - @ least the few dozen I utilize here, & they've been tested for years since the Windows 2000 days!)

APK

P.S.=> If you'd be more specific, I'd like to know EXACTLY what you meant... I think you are leaning to messing about with the sourcecode itself, right? Give someone who knows how to use a tracedebugger (dissassembler really) some time, & they can alter THAT, too, during runtime & even alter it FOR GOOD, as necessary... apk

It also exhibits a pet peeve of mine, neglecting to check the return value, probably learned by using MS defective by design sample code. Checking the return code of "_stprintf" would show the buffer overflow coding error
"Return Value
The number of characters written, or -1 if an error occurred. If buffer or format is a null pointer, sprintf_s and swprintf_s return -1 and set errno to EINVAL."http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c e3zzk1k(VS.80).aspx
Of course this only lets you know something screwed up after the stack has been corrupted. Properly coded it should probably be using some variant of snprintf where the size of the target buffer is passed and the overrun avoided. I haven't written or audited a lick of code in more than five years, but the unsuitability of this code for production is pretty obvious. This should have never been allowed to be checked in, although if this is the quality of code produced one has to wonder if any kind of source code control is in place either.

Actually, Verdana has nothing to do with Geneva. Here's some additional info. about Verdana (and Tahoma, in that Tahoma was once named "Verdana Narrow"): http://www.microsoft.com/typography/css/gallery/sp ec1.htm Microsoft's new Verdana typeface family consists of four TrueType fonts created specifically to address the challenges of on-screen display. Designed by world renowned type designer Matthew Carter, and hand-hinted by leading hinting expert, Monotype's Tom Rickner, these sans serif fonts are unique examples of type design for the computer screen. The Design of Verdana In its proportions and stroke weight, the Verdana family resembles sans serifs such as Frutiger, and Johnston's typeface for the London Underground. But to label Verdana a humanist face is to ignore the successful fusion of form and function Carter has achieved. This isn't merely a revival of classical elegance and savoir faire; this is type designed for the medium of screen. The Verdana fonts are stripped of features redundant when applied to the screen. They exhibit new characteristics, derived from the pixel rather than the pen, the brush or the chisel. The balance between straight, curve and diagonal has been meticulously tuned to ensure that the pixel patterns at small sizes are pleasing, clear and legible. Commonly confused characters, such as the lowercase i j l, the upercase I J L and the number 1, have been carefully drawn for maximum individuality - an important characteristic of fonts designed for on-screen use. And the various weights have been designed to create sufficient contrast from one another ensuring, for example, that the bold font is heavy enough even at sizes as small as 8 ppem. Another reason for the legibility of these fonts on the screen is their generous width and spacing. At low resolutions, because of the limited number of pixels, letters cannot differ very much. But often the smallest differences can often change the whole look of a page, or a screenful of type

Microsoft has done this with their products before.

Outlook was plagued by viruses and Microsoft responded by releasing a patch that simply refused to allow the user to open certain types of attachments. There was no override in the original version of the patch.

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/esecup.htm

When Exchange 5.5 was targeted by reverse-NDR spam attacks Microsoft shipped a patch that allowed the user to simply turn off non-delivery reports. Unfortunately the patch didn't work as described on many systems. A more correct fix would have allowed the administrator to simply suppress delivering the complete text of the failed message which makes the system much less likely to be used for reverse-NDR spam.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb; en-us;837794

When the Windows messenger service was targeted by messenger spam. Microsoft elected to simply turn it off. Kudos to Microsoft - this was the correct choice on this one.

http://www.theregister.com/2003/10/29/microsoft_sh oots_the_windows_messenger/

What's confounding to me is that, by default, Word cannot open a Works word processing document unless the Works Converter is also installed (according to the KB article above). The Works Converter is installed when Works is installed (Who installs Works and Office on the same PC?) or must be downloaded seperately. I'd expect an advanced word processor like Word to include "open/read" support of simple Works documents by default, but for some reason Word requires an additional add-on or download.

There's an excellent article here on the Arial/MS font bastardization issue.

Agreed .. I would much rather see the licensing and control flow back to the foundries like linotype who have a much better feel for layout and design than microsoft. If you're ever in NY, there's an excellent exhibit at the MoMA on Helvetica that has a 5 minute loop from Michael Price's excellent film.

I'm going to risk inserting some signal into a Slashdot discussion. Please don't hate me. ;)

The fonts are freely available and distributable within the limits that they are not altered or charged for.

Here's the EULA
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/eula. htm
Here's the FAQ
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/faq/faq8.htm
Here's the fonts
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group _id=34153
Here's the Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_fonts_for_the_We b

You may now return to bitching about how Verdana or CSS or Microsoft raped your childhood.

I'm going to risk inserting some signal into a Slashdot discussion. Please don't hate me. ;)

The fonts are freely available and distributable within the limits that they are not altered or charged for.

Here's the EULA
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/eula. htm
Here's the FAQ
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/faq/faq8.htm
Here's the fonts
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group _id=34153
Here's the Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_fonts_for_the_We b

You may now return to bitching about how Verdana or CSS or Microsoft raped your childhood.

The beast shall slay itself.

Or alternatively, we could do a little research and find the sample code that MS have released for writing a codec. Admittedly, the licence on the example code precludes including exactly that code in a GPL'd project, but a reimplementation looks to be clear... hardly "jealously guarded".

Honestly, MS are behaving oddly with this one. It's technically a good standard, they've backed down from a restrictive licence scheme they were going to use, and they've showed everybody how to use it. I can't help wondering what they're up to...

Specs, licence and example code are here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/thankyou.aspx?f amilyId=285eeffd-d86c-48c3-ab93-3abd5ee7f1ce&displ ayLang=en

Taking a quick glance at Microsoft's HDPhoto standard it looks like it is not really suitable for capturing raw image data for cameras.

In a digital camera, a pixel is red, green, blue and sometimes additional colors laid out in a pattern that can differ from camera to camera. A pixel is not RGB (unless it's a Fovon sensor), so standard lossless formats like PNG or TIFF won't work. HDPhoto supports N color channels and more than 8 bits per color, but I do not see support for the raw CCD data, which is usually not RGB, but R, G, or B (sometimes with additional colors).

I like to preserve my pictures in RAW format since as time goes by, the algorithms to convert the image to a RGB image suitable for displaying keep improving. Also, when editing my photos, some of the processing is done on the raw data before converting it to RGB. Raw data helps for things like noise filtering, for example, since the noise filtering software can be aware of the camera's CCD properties (Noise Ninja, for example, has profiles for my camera at different ISO settings).

The only problem with current raw photos is that each manufacturer seems to have their own format which is incompatible with other manufacturers, or even incompatible between different cameras. It would be nice if they could standardize on something like OpenRAW.

Now, as much as I dislike Microsoft, I think this could be good for regular photos since the compression is about as good as Jpeg2000 (assuming Microsoft isn't spreading FUD) but with a much faster encoding/decoding speed. This could also be a good format for most people taking pictures (who are happy with JPEG).

-Aaron

The specification is available at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/wmphoto.mspx to look at.

Here's the text of what you need to agree to in order to download the specification. It doesn't seem particularly bad except the patent bit. It remains to be seen if the JPEG changes actually clear that up.

Microsoft Corporation Technical Documentation License Agreement for the specification "HD Photo"

READ THIS! THIS IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN MICROSOFT CORPORATION ("MICROSOFT") AND THE RECIPIENT OF THE ABOVE REFERENCED MATERIALS, WHETHER AN INDIVIDUAL OR AN ENTITY ("YOU"). IF YOU HAVE ACCESSED THIS AGREEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF DOWNLOADING THESE MATERIALS ("MATERIALS") FROM A MICROSOFT WEB SITE, BY CLICKING "I ACCEPT", DOWNLOADING, USING OR PROVIDING FEEDBACK ON THE MATERIALS, YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS. IF THIS AGREEMENT IS ATTACHED TO MATERIALS, BY ACCESSING, USING OR PROVIDING FEEDBACK ON THE ATTACHED MATERIALS, YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO ACCESS, DOWNLOAD, USE OR REVIEW THE MATERIALS.

For good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which are acknowledged, You and Microsoft agree as follows:

1. You may review these Materials only (a) as a reference to assist You in planning and designing Your product, service or technology ("Product") to interface with a Microsoft product, specification, service or technology ("Microsoft Product") as described in these Materials; and (b) to provide feedback on these Materials to Microsoft. All other rights are retained by Microsoft; this Agreement does not give You rights under any Microsoft patents. You may not (i) duplicate any part of these Materials, (ii) remove this Agreement or any notices from these Materials, or (iii) give any part of these Materials, or assign or otherwise provide Your rights under this Agreement, to anyone else.

2. These Materials may contain preliminary information or inaccuracies, and may not correctly represent any associated Microsoft Product as commercially released. All Materials are provided entirely "AS IS." To the extent permitted by law, MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, DISCLAIMS ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED AND STATUTORY WARRANTIES, AND ASSUMES NO LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY TYPE IN CONNECTION WITH THESE MATERIALS OR ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN THEM.

3. If You are an entity and (a) merge into another entity or (b) a controlling ownership interest in You changes, Your right to use these Materials automatically terminates and You must destroy them.

4. You have no obligation to give Microsoft any suggestions, comments or other feedback ("Feedback") relating to these Materials. However, any Feedback you voluntarily provide may be used in Microsoft Products and related specifications or other documentation (collectively, "Microsoft Offerings") which in turn may be relied upon by other third parties to develop their own products, services or technology ("Third Party Products"). Accordingly, if You do give Microsoft Feedback on any version of these Materials or the Microsoft Offerings to which they apply, You agree: (a) Microsoft may freely use, reproduce, license, distribute, and otherwise commercialize Your Feedback in any Microsoft Offering; (b) You also grant third parties, without charge, only those patent rights necessary to enable Third Party Products to use, implement or interface with any specific parts of a Microsoft Product that incorporate Your Feedback; and (c) You will not give Microsoft any Feedback (i) that You have reason to believe is subject to any patent, copyright or other intellectual property claim or right of any third party; or (ii) subject to license terms which seek to require any Microsoft Offering incorporating or derived from such Feedback, or other Microsoft intellectual property, to be licensed to or otherwise shared with any third party.

5. Microsoft has no obligation to maintain the confidentiality of any Microsoft

They've made what appears to be a legally binding promise they aren't going to dick people over this one using their Open Specification Promise. Whereas the OOXML vs. ODF debate has good grounding in one specification being lower quality than the other, HDPhoto really is an improvement over current formats, especially for handling raw images.

Share & edit Works Word Processor and Spreadsheet files with Microsoft® Office Word and Microsoft® Office Excel and vice versa. *MS Office versions 97-2007 Microsoft Works 9

There is absolutely no good reason to continue using this crap, even if it's free.

There can be a reason if you are unfamiliar with - or uncomfortable with - what passes for home user support in open source.

When you are Microsoft you can afford to put up a bright, colorful, Works home page, post a quarterly newsletter, create unique, customized, tutorials, templates, clip art, fonts, etc.

There will no geek-speak, not the faintest whiff of the patronizing attitude that pisses off the "luser."

In open source, the public face of your project tends to look more like this or this.

It has nothing (or very little) to do with APIs. It has everything to do with how your software operates in the environment, deals with limited users, stores preferences, temp files, etc etc.

Here are the links, you'll see what I mean:

Certified for Windows Vista Requirements

Certified for Windows Vista Test Cases

There has been a set of these docs for as far back as I can remember, though the program name has changed a few times.

Mind you this is for user-space apps, business apps, and the like. There are different programs and best-practice-guides for different markets, like hardware/drivers, games, etc.

It has nothing (or very little) to do with APIs. It has everything to do with how your software operates in the environment, deals with limited users, stores preferences, temp files, etc etc.

Here are the links, you'll see what I mean:

Certified for Windows Vista Requirements

Certified for Windows Vista Test Cases

There has been a set of these docs for as far back as I can remember, though the program name has changed a few times.

Mind you this is for user-space apps, business apps, and the like. There are different programs and best-practice-guides for different markets, like hardware/drivers, games, etc.

I won't say I know everything on the subject, I'm not aware if Microsoft goes around claiming UNIX certification anywhere, but they do support it. For 2000, XP Pro, and 2003, by adding Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX 3.5 (freely available at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Fa milyID=896c9688-601b-44f1-81a4-02878ff11778&Displa yLang=en).

Apparently Windows Vista Ultimate, and Enterprise Edition's have SFU built-in, renamed as Subsystem for UNIX-based applications.

Here's a few more links on the subject just to get acquainted with SFU:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/interopmigratio n/bb380242.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows_Ser vices_for_UNIX

I installed 3.5 on XP MCE 2005 and was able to compile and run several programs from it, including a few of my favorite IRC programs that I usually run in my FreeBSD shell (a few bots, and IRCds). I liked it a lot, but didn't really mess with it outside of trying that. From what I can tell is that it can be set up to sync and share usernames and passwords with the existing Win32/Windows system if you want, and run it inside native shells provide with the package.

Hope this information is educational to people, as I know not many know about it.

I won't say I know everything on the subject, I'm not aware if Microsoft goes around claiming UNIX certification anywhere, but they do support it. For 2000, XP Pro, and 2003, by adding Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX 3.5 (freely available at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Fa milyID=896c9688-601b-44f1-81a4-02878ff11778&Displa yLang=en).

Apparently Windows Vista Ultimate, and Enterprise Edition's have SFU built-in, renamed as Subsystem for UNIX-based applications.

Here's a few more links on the subject just to get acquainted with SFU:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/interopmigratio n/bb380242.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows_Ser vices_for_UNIX

I installed 3.5 on XP MCE 2005 and was able to compile and run several programs from it, including a few of my favorite IRC programs that I usually run in my FreeBSD shell (a few bots, and IRCds). I liked it a lot, but didn't really mess with it outside of trying that. From what I can tell is that it can be set up to sync and share usernames and passwords with the existing Win32/Windows system if you want, and run it inside native shells provide with the package.

Hope this information is educational to people, as I know not many know about it.

I had a monster sized serial trackball I got with my 286. I kept it a long, long time (up to Windows 2000) because I enjoyed using it so much. I decided to switch over to a Microsoft Trackball Explorer. I have two of them and over the six years I've been using them, I've only had to replace one for a short in the cable (my fault, I suppose).

I find it easier to use than thumb balls because it uses my pointer and middle finger for navigation of the ball itself. I find I have much greater control and dexterity with these fingers, which my wife will attest to (GIGGITY GIGGITY).

It also has a lifetime warranty, so I just had to call Microsoft and give them the Product ID and they cross shipped me a new one at no cost.

Anyways, if you're looking for something OTHER than a thumb ball, I suggest taking a look into the Microsoft Trackball Explorer.

the "Highly Reliable Times" won't be covering this one.

What the Mac community doesn't realize, is that Windows NT, XP, and Vista are POSIX certified Unix compliant via the http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb49650 6.aspx Services for Unix. They needed this as a "check box" item for Gub'ment sales.

So being "officially" Unix doesn't mean much.

Of course the Macintosh user community has nothing to do with the Truth; it's simply about advancing the homosexual agenda, and worshiping Steve Jobs.

royaltyoemreferencesheet

Q. What about product activation? When a previously licensed version of Windows XP Professional is used for the downgrade, won't activation fail on the new PC?
A. When an end user is using their downgrade rights offered under the License Terms in Windows Vista Business and Ultimate versions and they use both Windows XP media and a product key that was previously activated, they will be unable to activate on-line over the Internet, due to the hardware configuration change when installing on the Vista system. In these cases the end user will be prompted to call the Activation Support Line and explain their circumstances to the Customer Service Representative. Once it is determined that the end user has a valid Vista Business or Ultimate license, the Customer Service Representative will help them activate their software.

Actually one should expect that most business users will not need any help for activation, because they will be using pre-activated windows installations that are bound to some bios signature ("SLP") found on all the systems from the large suppliers (Dell, HP, ...). Works for me.

royaltyoemreferencesheet

Q. What about product activation? When a previously licensed version of Windows XP Professional is used for the downgrade, won't activation fail on the new PC?
A. When an end user is using their downgrade rights offered under the License Terms in Windows Vista Business and Ultimate versions and they use both Windows XP media and a product key that was previously activated, they will be unable to activate on-line over the Internet, due to the hardware configuration change when installing on the Vista system. In these cases the end user will be prompted to call the Activation Support Line and explain their circumstances to the Customer Service Representative. Once it is determined that the end user has a valid Vista Business or Ultimate license, the Customer Service Representative will help them activate their software.

Actually one should expect that most business users will not need any help for activation, because they will be using pre-activated windows installations that are bound to some bios signature ("SLP") found on all the systems from the large suppliers (Dell, HP, ...). Works for me.

About the Window Manager Theme.

I also tested Vista and decided to stick to XP for a while (as usually games and apps work stable and faster on XP on my Dimension 9200).

The only thing I kept thinking of was the Vista Windows Manager and the nice theme (am bored of the blue-ish XP).

Guess what: download the official Microsoft Zune Desktop Theme for XP.

It will make it so Vista like you won't be missing Vista anymore (it doesn'T change dll or system files like other 3rd party themes).


http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75078

I own an XP SP2 and one Ubuntu 7.04 machine

Open != Proprietary. Just because it suits you to claim that it is proprietary, does not change the fact that it has an available specification for it, and if that doesn't float your boat they will even hand you the spec for the binary formats for free (not that you'd ever be able to actually read that - it'd probably be pretty ugly)

Open != Proprietary. Just because it suits you to claim that it is proprietary, does not change the fact that it has an available specification for it, and if that doesn't float your boat they will even hand you the spec for the binary formats for free (not that you'd ever be able to actually read that - it'd probably be pretty ugly)

When "X" program is 90MB and hosted on a website that's slower than frozen molasses, that excuse doesn't fly. It's bad enough when they give you DOCX files and you have to download a 30MB program to open them.