Slashdot Mirror

Lots of them here. All Windows Mobile devices come with a media player, Samsung makes one with a 4GB drive and generally they're pretty good - been around for about 5 years and are certainly more than a rumour. AFAIK, Microsoft doesn't loose cash on these, it just supplies the reference hardware and OS.

"What's the deal with you guys going nuts over system requirements of Aero? I haven't seen any new systems which are not capable of running Aero. All you need is a 128MB graphics card, which is something even basic gaming requires. And it is not just that. I installed Vista on a 4 year old laptop with 8MB video memory and the basic interface of Vista (without Aero) is still way more reponsive than XP. Microsoft has made huge performance improvements in the UI. It just keeps getting better."

It really baffles me why they haven't added virtual desktop support yet.

It's been around since NT-- a powertoy called Virtual Desktop Manager

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/power toys/xppowertoys.mspx

Micorsoft has a free virtual desktop manager which may help in what you want, its part of the powertoys and can be downloaded from http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/In stall/2/WXP/EN-US/DeskmanPowertoySetup.exe It works really well as long as you dont use the "Shared desktops" option.

Microsoft Robotics You're too late.

Actually, IE7 can check each site as you go, and Firefox 2 has two modes: one that checks against the blacklist, and one that checks each site as you go (look in Tools/Preferences/Security).

So yes, each browser will have a mode which will send nearly every URL you visit to a third party for checking against phishing sites.

"What would be neat is if you could swap out flash drives .. I'd be more interested in that than a permanently integrated flash drive",VitrosChemistryAnaly

Wouldn't it be neet to keep parts of your mind on an external USB device :)

"Vista supports a feature called ReadyBoost, which can use just about any flash memory device", Phroggy

"Adding system memory (RAM) is often the best way to improve your PC's performance .. upgrading memory is not always easy .. and open your computer .. can invalidate your support agreement"

More memory is the simplest solution. A Gegabyte is standard nowadays. Except you can't take the lid off.

"SuperFetch understands which applications you use most, and preloads these applications into memory"

Apart from the moniker I don't see the innovation. Back when Dos couldn't see extended memory, to speed up access, you allocated this memory to a ramdrive and loaded commonly used executables into it. Apart from the names what is new and innovative here. Has ReadyBoost been patented?

SuperFetch = keep apps loaded in memory.
Sticky bit = keep apps loaded in memory.
ReadyBoost = use an external cache.
ReadyDrive = hybernate to flashram.

was Re:Ship time (Score:5, Stating the obvious)

"What would be neat is if you could swap out flash drives .. I'd be more interested in that than a permanently integrated flash drive",VitrosChemistryAnaly

Wouldn't it be neet to keep parts of your mind on an external USB device :)

"Vista supports a feature called ReadyBoost, which can use just about any flash memory device", Phroggy

"Adding system memory (RAM) is often the best way to improve your PC's performance .. upgrading memory is not always easy .. and open your computer .. can invalidate your support agreement"

More memory is the simplest solution. A Gegabyte is standard nowadays. Except you can't take the lid off.

"SuperFetch understands which applications you use most, and preloads these applications into memory"

Apart from the moniker I don't see the innovation. Back when Dos couldn't see extended memory, to speed up access, you allocated this memory to a ramdrive and loaded commonly used executables into it. Apart from the names what is new and innovative here. Has ReadyBoost been patented?

SuperFetch = keep apps loaded in memory.
Sticky bit = keep apps loaded in memory.
ReadyBoost = use an external cache.
ReadyDrive = hybernate to flashram.

was Re:Ship time (Score:5, Stating the obvious)

What would be neat is if you could swap out flash drives in the event of a failure. Or upgrade the flash drive capacity. I'd be more interested in that than a permanently integrated flash drive. You're correct to be skeptical of its lifespan.

Well then, good news for you: Vista supports a feature called ReadyBoost, which can use just about any flash memory device (e.g. a cheap USB thumb drive) as a cache to improve performance.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/c/9/2c93e d64-b1a1-4c87-9e3b-6920ee387cda/DB_Role_Security.p df This paper should throw some light in that direction for ya. I am pretty sure if you take th final tally of the last year vulnerability count MySQL wont be lacking at all in the numbers. Besides most MySQL issues were ones that proprietary database vendors were dealing with two years ago. As is the case with Firefox when people started moving to it from IE, developers were able to find more vulnerabilities. The same scenario may play out as open source databases grow more popular.

Did you read the title of http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Fa milyID=4516A6F7-5D44-482B-9DBD-869B4A90159C&displa ylang=en ? The part about "Toolkit to Disable Automatic Delivery of Internet Explorer 7" . What part of "Automatic Delivery" did you not understand? Just to be sure, I'll reprint the second bullet point: "The Blocker Toolkit will not prevent users from manually installing Internet Explorer 7 as a Recommended update from the Windows Update or Microsoft Update sites, from the Microsoft Download Center, or from external media." Although you are right about one thing - the registry key doesn't do jack yet, because automatic downloads won't start for two weeks.

Moron.

The menu bar can be temporarily revealed by holding down the Alt key, or permanently enabled by selecting it via Tools/MenuBar.

Another useful trick is enabling a different search provider - right click the dropdown next to the search magnifying glass, and select Find More Providers.

I hate to say it, but I've been running Firefox 2.0 RC versions for a while, but under Vista at least I prefer IE7. I much preferred Firefox to IE6 under XP though.

I agree. However, I was a little horrified when I found this:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsautomotive/default .mspx

Hopefully it doesn't have anything to do with the car itself, only GPS things and the like.

Avast AV doesn't like the IE7 download site:

File name: http://rad.microsoft.com/ADSAdClient31.dll?GetAd=& PG=CMSIE3&SC=F3&AP=1164
Maleware name: VBS:Zulu
Maleware type: Virus/Worm
VPS version: 0642-3, 19/10/2006

MS has neglected several areas, one being the whole JavaScript area where IE still leaks memory like a sieve.

This has been a problem in Internet Explorer for a while (IE 6 and prior versions). Most people turn off Active Scripting because of the vulnerabilities. You can disable it and have "trusted" sites for those sites which you want to enable active scripting like http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com./

It was bound to happen eventually: my computer became smarter than me....

FYI:
The link in the header
http://www.microsoft.com/ie says that home page has moved:
The Internet Explorer home page has moved to www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm. Please update your Favorites. ...default.htm:
meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=/windows/ie/default.asp" ...default.asp:
meta http-equiv=refresh content="0;URL=/windows/ie/default.mspx" ... So the direct link will be

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/defa ult.mspx

if you have SP2. Pedant, moi?

FYI:
The link in the header
http://www.microsoft.com/ie says that home page has moved:
The Internet Explorer home page has moved to www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm. Please update your Favorites. ...default.htm:
meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=/windows/ie/default.asp" ...default.asp:
meta http-equiv=refresh content="0;URL=/windows/ie/default.mspx" ... So the direct link will be

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/defa ult.mspx

if you have SP2. Pedant, moi?

10. NOT FOR RESALE SOFTWARE. Software identified as "Not For Resale" or "NFR," may not be sold or otherwise transferred for value, or used for any purpose other than demonstration, test or evaluation.

Microsoft uses atdmt webbugs to keep track of the number and location of downloads. atdmt will simply redirect you.

Ah. Courtesy of elinks, on the server, which bypassess the rubbish-zapping proxy:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/8/8/38889 DC1-848C-4BF2-8335-86C573AD86D9/IE7-WindowsXP-x86- enu.exe

Download to your heart's content, knowing that you won't affect Microsoft's browser count one bit!

Unless you download IE7BlockerToolkit.EXE

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Fa milyId=4516A6F7-5D44-482B-9DBD-869B4A90159C&displa ylang=en

Who looked at the Clean, sleek, and streamlined interface and thought "What a mess!"?

It's messier than both my Firefox and (customized) Opera browser setups.

You'll be glad to know it's possible to block the automatic update to IE7.

And best of all, Microsoft has realized they have to keep going:

Dave Massy (Moderator):
Q: Now that IE7 is nearing completion, can you give any information on how regularly you plan to release future versions of IE?
A: We definitely plan to release on a regular basis. Exactly when the next release will be is difficult to predict adn we still have plenty of planning and work to do. You can be assured that it will not be 5 years until the next release of IE though :) we are plannign the next two versions now.

If Microsoft were doing this for altruistic reasons, it would be a first.

The VHD specs mentioned in the article are available here.

Microsoft has been giving away Virtual PC for some time now.

Wake up, Slashdot.

(-1, Retarded)

The only thing that might work as an unbreakable copy-protection scheme is to have the decryption performed within the brain of the viewer

Thank you for your suggestion, your input has been added to our ideabase. Proceed to homepage.

Not only does VMware already give away VMware Server, but Microsoft Virtual Server is also already free. That's not the news.

This is a news story from an uninformed reporter who seems to be confusing software and standards. The announcement appears to be that Microsoft is "relinquishing all license claims on its Virtual Hard Disk Image Format." This, to me, sounds like less of an altruistic move than a competitive one -- because, of course, VMware's image format is already free.

This is from the same guy (Hugo Lueders) who defended Microsoft during its "European" troubles. Surprised? can't say I am. Someone may want to do a check on who his other "employer" is.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/usbfa q.mspx seems to disagree with you.

--- QUOTE ---
Q: What must I do to trigger Autorun on my USB storage device?
The Autorun capabilities are restricted to CD-ROM drives and fixed disk drives. If you need to make a USB storage device perform Autorun, the device must not be marked as a removable media device and the device must contain an Autorun.inf file and a startup application.

The removable media device setting is a flag contained within the SCSI Inquiry Data response to the SCSI Inquiry command. Bit 7 of byte 1 (indexed from 0) is the Removable Media Bit (RMB). A RMB set to zero indicates that the device is not a removable media device. A RMB of one indicates that the device is a removable media device. Drivers obtain this information by using the StorageDeviceProperty request."
--- END QUOTE ---

The content of a number of hits on http://www.google.com/search?q=autorun+usb also imply that USB does not Autorun.

Never mind. I dug around and found the converter here. So I've sicced wget on download.microsoft.com and hopefully the big 27M package will eventually arrive.

Looks like I can even use it on my W2K box which sports the 'net install' Windows 2000 SP4 and the 'update rollup for W2K SP4' (net install version.) Maybe I won't have to connect to the 'mother ship' at all.

Thanks for your patience in straigtening me out. Hope it works (and also that the non-'beta' version of the converter is as easy and freely distributed)

As always you are making stuff up or accusing them of doing things you think they might do. In reality 2 minutes of research shows that what you are saying is not the case.

You claim that Microsoft will break compatibility with older versions on purpose by putting out a new file format. Microsoft has addressed the issue of older versions of office being able to open the new formats with a free update. People who are using it now will not be forced to upgrade to read/write the new formats. Here is a source:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/itpro/file overview.mspx

You say MS is only claiming "Open" and is going to produce a "uncrackable obfuscated wrench"? Here is the entire schema as submitted to a standards body:

http://www.ecma-international.org/news/TC45_curren t_work/TC45-2006-50_final_draft.htm

If you want a good unbiased source of information on this topic I suggest wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_Open _XML

Stop making up wild accusations in an attempt to defend your poorly chosen position. Your accusations are only based on things that Microsoft could do when a quick stop at google will show that they have not done these things and cannot do them at this point. In the future I recommend that you at least look at the wikipedia entry for the topic you are going to flame someone on.

Inexcusable? Hardly. It would certainly be inexcusable if they didn't take action here, but for a simple mistake? I think everyone is overstating how big a problem this is.

And before people start saying, "Well if it was Microsoft, we'd be jumping down their throats about this!" consider that Apple isn't exactly a company with a long history of security flaws.

I do think that the statement "As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses" is absurd. If there /were/ widespread viruses for Apple, they'd likely be just as problematic. The only thing that 'hardens' Apple against viruses, other than obscurity, is the fact that users don't run as Admin by default, so they have to type in their password for the virus to do any significant damage. Since we're training users to do this, it seems likely that a virus would still be able to wreak havoc on a Mac. We'd just call it a trojan, first.

I guess Autorun on by default is another flaw in Windows, but I wasn't aware that USB devices would autorun by default. Are iPods presenting themselves as CDRoms now?

Seriously. People look at a company like Apple and they imagine that there's some middle-aged guy in a turtleneck personally checking every iPod and somehow he slipped up and missed this. Nope. It's some grunt in a factory somewhere trying to meet a quota, and of course they're going to cut corners. Apple hasn't screwed up yet--we'll have to see how they handle this situation to find out whether their actions are "inexcusable."

XPS will not be the standard file format of Office.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406049. aspx

Note particularly this section:

"Note Do not confuse the Office XML Formats with the Microsoft Windows XML Paper Specification format. Office XML Formats use the Open Packaging Conventions, also used by the XML Paper Specification (XPS). However, the formats are different in several important ways. The XPS is a paginated, fixed document format introduced for the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. Office XML Formats are fully editable file formats for Office Word 2007, Office Excel 2007, and Office PowerPoint 2007. Although they share similarities in their use of XML and ZIP compression, they are different in file format design and intended use."

Why is there a new version?

Um, perhaps because no Office XML file format EXISTED before.

Why is somebody like you trying to 'excuse' problems with the 'old version' by bringing up that there's a new version?

The old formats were all binary formats. The new Office will support open XML formats, which is cool. The poster was just wondering what "debacle" surrounded the new formats. (Which I don't get either. In the context of "open standards" and "dirty tricks", the Office XML license terms seem reasonable.)

Personally, I wasn't even aware there was now a new 'Office 2007' out with new 'better, improved, the-problems-are-all-gone' file formats.

Then why the hell did you post your ignorant message, fool? You should shut up if you have no idea what you're talking about. Much less post with your ill-deserved karma.

If you don't get what I am saying, you're beyond hope.

No, we don't get what you're saying because it makes no goddamn sense.

The computer newbie has no trouble finding the reader but finding a GOOD and FREE pdf printer involves too much trial and error, not to mention getting one will probably not even cross their minds. I would gladly use XPS if it means I don't have to start installing extra software to read and write to the format, like I do with ASCII text documents.

XPS is a part of .NET Framework 3.0, which also comes with an XPS Document Writer printer. You can use that to print documents from any application to XPS files for free. As for reading/writing the format, just download the XPS specification. Note that the specification itself is an XPS document; viewers are available here. Also try renaming the spec from .xps to .zip, and poking around in the XML files it contains.

The computer newbie has no trouble finding the reader but finding a GOOD and FREE pdf printer involves too much trial and error, not to mention getting one will probably not even cross their minds. I would gladly use XPS if it means I don't have to start installing extra software to read and write to the format, like I do with ASCII text documents.

XPS is a part of .NET Framework 3.0, which also comes with an XPS Document Writer printer. You can use that to print documents from any application to XPS files for free. As for reading/writing the format, just download the XPS specification. Note that the specification itself is an XPS document; viewers are available here. Also try renaming the spec from .xps to .zip, and poking around in the XML files it contains.

I see a lot of posts in this discussion that say XPS is better than PDF, because it's XML and human readable and you can manipulate it with XSLT, it's going to be submitted as a standard, etc. That just makes me think: what about SVG? It's already a standard, it's XML, human readable, XSLT, etc.

Those are the same comments people have made regarding Windows Presentation Foundation (AKA "Avalon") and XAML. Guess what? The pages in an XPS document are XAML files represented in a strict subset of WPF. In fact, the XPS viewer provided as part of .NET 3.0 is powered by WPF.

As for what differentiates it from SVG, WPF provides a higher level of elements that do not exist in SVG, namely UI controls such as DockPanel, InkCanvas, TextBox, and even 3D content via Viewport3D. The New York Times Reader is built purely using WPF. You can't do that with SVG without writing the controls from scratch (but please enlighten me if I'm wrong). Therefore, while XPS itself isn't much different from SVG, the architecture in which XPS resides reaches far beyond SVG.

There's still another argument against XPS/XAML/WPF: Why didn't Microsoft simply extend SVG? IMO it would break one point of elegance regarding WPF, which is that the XML elements correspond directly to the .NET WPF objects and follow .NET naming conventions. For example, XPS has a Path element with a Fill attribute; the .NET analog is a Path class with a Fill property of type Brush. There are other arguments as well, but I'm not too familiar with them.

I see a lot of posts in this discussion that say XPS is better than PDF, because it's XML and human readable and you can manipulate it with XSLT, it's going to be submitted as a standard, etc. That just makes me think: what about SVG? It's already a standard, it's XML, human readable, XSLT, etc.

Those are the same comments people have made regarding Windows Presentation Foundation (AKA "Avalon") and XAML. Guess what? The pages in an XPS document are XAML files represented in a strict subset of WPF. In fact, the XPS viewer provided as part of .NET 3.0 is powered by WPF.

As for what differentiates it from SVG, WPF provides a higher level of elements that do not exist in SVG, namely UI controls such as DockPanel, InkCanvas, TextBox, and even 3D content via Viewport3D. The New York Times Reader is built purely using WPF. You can't do that with SVG without writing the controls from scratch (but please enlighten me if I'm wrong). Therefore, while XPS itself isn't much different from SVG, the architecture in which XPS resides reaches far beyond SVG.

There's still another argument against XPS/XAML/WPF: Why didn't Microsoft simply extend SVG? IMO it would break one point of elegance regarding WPF, which is that the XML elements correspond directly to the .NET WPF objects and follow .NET naming conventions. For example, XPS has a Path element with a Fill attribute; the .NET analog is a Path class with a Fill property of type Brush. There are other arguments as well, but I'm not too familiar with them.

If you have more then one partitions and install windows to the second partition, wich is typicle if you already have linux installed, windows can/will reformat your first partition.

This is telling windows to install and format hda2 and it reformats hda1 in the process. Now, I know usualy people will install to a second hardrive but in the situation were a person builds a new system with only one drive, Partitions it acordingly with the knowledge of installing windows down the road when funds are availible for a retail copy, you could have a problem. And i don't think that scenario is too far off from what might happen in real life. Actualy, it fits in real nice with the discusion at hand.

Konica Minolta and Fuji Xerox

Fuji Xerox presents Windows(R) Vista Compatible Prototype at PDC 2005

Note If you deleted and created a new System partition, but you are installing Windows XP on a different partition, you will be prompted to select a file system for both the System and startup partitions.

* Format the partition by using the NTFS file system (Quick)
* Format the partition by using the FAT file system (Quick)
* Format the partition by using the NTFS file system
* Format the partition by using the FAT file system
* Leave the current file system intact (no changes)

According to the Microsoft USB FAQ, it is possible to create a USB device which Windows will Autorun. Since Microsoft doesn't include anchors within the document to allow me to link directly to the question, it is:

Q: What must I do to trigger Autorun on my USB storage device?
The Autorun capabilities are restricted to CD-ROM drives and fixed disk drives. If you need to make a USB storage device perform Autorun, the device must not be marked as a removable media device and the device must contain an Autorun.inf file and a startup application.

So, yes, it is possible to make a USB storage device trigger Autorun and run a trojan. I don't know if it's possible in this case, but it is theoretically possible to do with a USB device.

They don't really have a choice considering MS is allowing development with full HW access on the Xbox later this year through its XNA program. Having homebrew done on their terms means even less legitimacy for such things as mod chips, and control over things like copyright protection. 3rd party homebrew systems won't get much support because, hey, they already give it to you right out of the box. I don't see this as an issue though - this is a good thing, and hopefully both programs will be succesful enough that console development will open up even further in the future. Listen up Nintendo!

"You have the right to install an unlimited number of times on an unlimited number of computers"

With regards to the right to continuously reinstall some products, you are correct, however that must be done on the SAME PC. You get 10 activations to use.

Please see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/faq/

"MSDN Subscription product keys can be used to activate up to 10 PCs."

Microsoft may choose to issue you with a new product key (especially if your subscription is ongoing) but this is not a rule.

Maybe you should start a technology blog of your own.

And because Microsoft hates software patents that much, they didn't lobby for their introduction in the EU through organisations such as EICTA

http://wiki.ffii.org/EictaSme050425En

"Campaign for Creativity"

http://wiki.ffii.org/CampaignForCreativityEn

and of course BSA

http://swpat.ffii.org/papers/eubsa-swpat0202/index .en.html

Also, Microsoft didn't file any swpat applications at the EPO

http://swpat.ffii.org/gasnu/microsoft/index.en.htm l

or well, at least they were filed for "defencive" (sic) purposes, not for threatening users of FOSS

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/18/ballmer_li nux_lawsuits/

Indeed, we Europeans just have too much fantasy and dreamed all of that up. It never really happened because Microsoft hates software patents.

Seriously, software patents are a powerful anti-competitive weapon, and Microsoft only hates them if they happen to be on the wrong side of the barrel. They really don't like to swallow their own bitter medicine. That's why they are currently lobbying for changes to US patent law that will make it easier for big companies to defend against patent infringement claims from small companies or individuals.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2005/m ar05/03-10patentreform.mspx

And organisations representing small inventors (some of which may even profit from software patents, but of course only if they don't write any code themselves) are up in arms over the reform proposals.

http://www.piausa.org/patent_reform/congressional_ testimony/

If there is anything Microsoft or Steve Ballmer hate, it's Linux and Google. I don't think they really hate Apple, though, or at least that would be a love-hate relationship. They need Apple to continue to innovate so they can imitate (typically poorly). A simple case of give and take where Apple gives and MS takes.

As an XP user, I'd be sorely tempted to use a simple option if available that suppressed ALL of these popups.

That's a good point. Unfortunately, memorability and low syllable counts are mortal enemies of accuracy.

Here's an unofficial contest entry form. Try your hand at injecting colorful, catchy words into the popular culture to differentiate the following cases from "pirates":

Someone who downloads copyrighted files: improve on "downloader" or "p2p user"
Someone who shares copyrighted files: improve on "filesharer" or "uploader"
Someone who violates the DMCA for legitimate, otherwise legal purposes,
      e.g. to play a DVD on Windows Media Center* or Linux, or to move PlaysForSure
      or FairPlay protected items onto incompatible devices: improve on __________?
(And I suppose I should add the obligatory "....Profit!")

--
* Windows Media Center does not support commercial DVD playback, even with a licensed CSS decoder installed, except in the rare case when (a) there is no TV Out device enabled on the system and (b) the monitor resolution is at 640 x 480 or less.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894323/en-us