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I assume the parent was referring to IE's use of pointer events instead of the touch events. While many may accuse Microsoft of trying to split the web, this move was most likely done for two reasons.

1. Apple has been working to patent touch events
2. The ability to simplify event handling with one type of event that is input method independent -- working for mouse, touch, and pen.

As a web developer I find the pointer event method to be technically superior to touch events. At present, patches to add pointer events to Blink-based browsers (the patch might have been added before the split from WebKit) and to Firefox exist, but I do not believe they have yet landed in other browsers. Sadly, with the lack of touch events it does bloat up code to support two different event models for touch browsers at this time.

The software vendors of the world pull this all of the time. Microsoft. CA. IBM.

Yes. There is no doubt that someone highly familiar with vendor software, including SharePoint, could install it on a single server. I have installed a CA stack on a single server and can vouch that such things are possible.

Should this ever be done in Production? No. Absolutely not. Perhaps as a Dev instance or possibly if budget is tight a Test instance but never in Production. This would count as 'asking for it'.

According to Microsoft. Have a closer look at their documentation. At a minimum you are looking at three servers. Web server, database, application.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485.aspx

Installation Scenario: Single server with a built-in database or single server that uses SQL Server
Deployment type and scale: Development or evaluation installation of SharePoint Server 2013 or SharePoint Foundation 2013

Installation Scenario: Web server or application server in a three-tier farm
Deployment type and scale: Pilot, user acceptance test, or production deployment of SharePoint Server 2013 or SharePoint Foundation 2013.

Next time link to the official source and copy/paste from their docs. Thanks.

VS2012 never required IE10 and can do Metro apps. But yea, they had to change the VS2013 setup right after RTM to turn the IE10 check into a warning and later release an update that has additional fixes

Just a fine point of detail, here: Windows 8 Pro has the downgrade option to Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate. Core edition has no downgrade rights. So, chances are, the machine you're purchasing will not be downgradable. That said, there are several systems (Lenovo in particular) which are downgraded out of the box. As you note, Windows 7 is also available for purchase as well, although this will probably be eliminated as Microsoft's SOP is to keep the last-gen OS around as long as it's only 1 generation behind. Once Windows 8.2 or 9 or whatever its name will be comes out, 7 will vanish from the regular channels.

"Windows XP Mode follows the same support lifecycle as Windows XP—extended support will end April 8, 2014."

However, because it is effectively a VM with XP in it, it's easier to isolate it from the network, and if it's compromised it doesn't affect the host.

Download and manually install Microsoft Security Bulletin MS13-097 - Critical, Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (2898785) for IE8 and turn updates back on

Fully patched and upgraded Vista is basically Win7.

It isn't terrible, but Vista SP2 still doesn't have the window snap feature from Windows 7. I like that feature a lot.

Install the original release version of Vista and see if that machine can run even a single year.

I don't understand. Do you mean keep using Vista, or keep running without rebooting?

On the first point, it's inadvisable, because Microsoft ended support for Vista without service packs back in 2012. Otherwise, people have put up with horrible computer systems for longer periods of time. Vista is no Windows ME.

On the second point, if my computer hasn't malfunctioned and forced a restart before, then it reboots every month for Patch Tuesday. It's a rare month when critical updates don't force a restart. This is the same for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.1. Otherwise, if you keep it isolated, on stable hardware with ECC, and interact with it very little, then I don't see why it couldn't run for a few years.

So far, I have not identified any benefits for me from using 7 compared to using XP.

Windows 7 is just a bunch of little improvements.

1. Finally got the vendors to update their drivers...
2. ...so 64-bit mode works, and it can use more than 3 GB of RAM.
3. Fewer reboots and crashes, because audio and video drivers are in userspace.
4. Working with multiple windows and multiple desktops is more convenient because of new keyboard shortcuts and window snapping.
5. It feels smoother to me, I suspect because of SuperFetch and a better-designed architecture.
6. It supports TRIM on modern SSDs.

Anyway, those are the reasons I switched to Windows 7.

So far, I have not identified any benefits for me from using 7 compared to using XP.

Windows 7 is just a bunch of little improvements.

1. Finally got the vendors to update their drivers...
2. ...so 64-bit mode works, and it can use more than 3 GB of RAM.
3. Fewer reboots and crashes, because audio and video drivers are in userspace.
4. Working with multiple windows and multiple desktops is more convenient because of new keyboard shortcuts and window snapping.
5. It feels smoother to me, I suspect because of SuperFetch and a better-designed architecture.
6. It supports TRIM on modern SSDs.

Anyway, those are the reasons I switched to Windows 7.

They'd replace him with one of the many other people working on it.

Exactly. The big issue here is that these projects have so very few major contributors. It starts out as a one man project, picks up a few contributors who do translations and submit perhaps two bug fixes. Next thing you know there are ten "developers" making demands on the direction of the project and saying that the code is too complex for them to contribute and that it must be refactored. I don't blame the lead developer(only real contributor) for throwing their hands in the air and saying; "Fuck it! I can't be bothered anymore." They can just pick up a copy of Windows 8 which includes a more powerful and easier to use video editing application out of the box. Not to mention several other free or inexpensive video edition applications.

Now, before anyone starts arguing with this opinion, consider that regardless of what happens to the lead developer, the code still exists and is free. It could easily be continued by the remaining developer body or forked by one or more contributors that could carry on the project. Even in the case of Kdenlive where apparently only one man knows how to make the partially refactored code work(?), the old full featured and working version still exists and could be continued on. But that's not happening because no such body of real contributors exists.

Continuation of development is not happening because there are no other major contributors to the project. There is the initial main developer and a bunch of wannabe hangers-on prattling on in the mailing list. The primary developer loses interest and the project is DEAD! Once again leaving the Linux desktop without a video editor that any normal person could use.

Well, maybe 2014 will be the year of the Linux desktop. But, frankly I fear that in 2014 Netcraft will confirm that the Linux desktop is dying

MSE used to be a pay-for service called Live OneCare from Microsoft, and as noted above used to be a separate product originally written by another company. So it's more of a good strategic acquisition rather than an inspired idea by the MS execs themselves. I don't know exactly why they went free, but you missed your chance to pay for it, unless you feel like getting Forefront licenses

All I want is a program that combines Autoruns with StartupMonitor. and steps in when any Dll or executable is about to be modified, hell, the OS should do that anyway.

Over 5 years I have enjoyed running my PC virus free. and without the annoyance of anti-virus software's constant nagging. VirusTotal for when I'm in doubt and a scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for when I get a tinge of paranoia.

No need, modern distros run just fine on ancient hardware.

Your beef with MS (at least as stated in this thread) is their short support period, so the existence of other OSes with longer support is paramount to your argument; that's why I asked for a reference.

No way that ancient clunker would run W8 (which I wouldn't use unless I was well paid to but W7 is OK).

And both are still supported and have nearly identical system requirements (1GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 16GB HDD [20GB for 64bit], and a DX9-capable video card). The only difference is that Win8 requires a CPU with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2; which Win7-capable CPU do you have that doesn't support those?

The kind soul who pointed you to the HOWTO for Audacity was me, BTW; and the software you're running that hasn't received updates in years is EAC (last update was over 2 years ago). I don't want to harp on that point too much, though, since it seems as though you may not have been aware.

I'm really interested to know how you've got IE7 running on Win7 when it ships with IE8 and Win7 doesn't support IE7, according to the 2nd post (from an MS employee) on that page. XP mode? IE7 mode in IE8 (more likely 9 or 10, since the upgrade to IE9 was a critical update)? I'm not saying it's not possible, but Microsoft is; if you've done it (or, rather, someone where you work has) I'd really genuinely be interested to learn how it was done.

For Windows, you could try blocking the addresses listed in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 818018.

Next up. Hell freezes over.

As I type this, it's 27 F (-3 C) in Hell. So yes, frozen.

Microsoft goes open source.

First, Microsoft Public License. Second, Microsoft's newly acquired mobile phone division is rumored to be building an Android device for those market segments that aren't quite ready for Windows Phone.

Want to check the EOL for Windows 8 before purchasing? Here it is http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

How odd. An EOL on an OS that was DOA.

1. Turn automatic updates off.
2. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/security/dn481339, download as needed

It will be more of a problem with 2003 since Microsoft extended support for another year and change.

These are for November. You need to download the December updates to fix the problem this month.

IE6: WindowsXP-KB2898785-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-ph/download/details.aspx?id=41458/

IE8: IE8-WindowsXP-KB2898785-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=41404/

Couldn't find the IE7 link. I've seen a lot of people apply the previous months cumulative update and complain that this hasn't fixed the problem. You have the apply the current months patch.

These are for November. You need to download the December updates to fix the problem this month.

IE6: WindowsXP-KB2898785-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-ph/download/details.aspx?id=41458/

IE8: IE8-WindowsXP-KB2898785-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=41404/

Couldn't find the IE7 link. I've seen a lot of people apply the previous months cumulative update and complain that this hasn't fixed the problem. You have the apply the current months patch.

Why? People paid good money for working supported product. Just because Microsoft wants to bait and switch doesn't make it right. I hope some deep pockets corporation sues the bejesus out of them to force this issue.

I don't see a bait and switch. People knew(or could find out if they wanted) the EOL dates before they purchased it with their "good money", and MS has been extending them since many many years even though they didn't have to. That sounds exactly like the opposite of a bait and switch.

Want to check the EOL for Windows 8 before purchasing? Here it is http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

I think this is a real game changer. Up to now, if you want document colaberation you have Sharepoint (Expensive) or the cloud. (Trust issues)

At this point in time, it's not really a viable SharePoint or SkyDrive replacement. While being able to work simultaneously on ODF documents is a great addition, it's not going to provide any real competition to SharePoint until you can have authors simultaneously editing MS Word documents -- in MS Word. For many small business (especially with remote workers), this is "must have" functionality.

On the flip-side, I presume simultaneous authoring in Word is going to be extremely difficult to reverse engineer; and MS ain't gonna give up those protocol specs anytime soon.

How about that update that never happened?

Some of you have probably had this happen. You run "Check for Updates" inside the security center. IE opens up to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com./ It check to see if you have the latest version of Windows Update. Awesome! You have it! Now are are presented with a choice, you can roll the dice and click "Express" and let Microsoft install everything Bing on your computer. Or, you can go pro and click "Custom" where you can select to install everything but the Bing crap. Ha! Jokes on you, no matter which one you click it will just sit on "Checking for updates" indefinitely. You search Google, you find the Mr. Fixit on the Microsoft Knowledge base and run it. It finds everything wrong, it fixes it, you are the champion, you reboot, you try again and the same thing. The green bar mocking you as it checks and checks and checks. You restart the Automatic Update Server, it doesn't help. You go pro again and hit Start -> Run and type "notepad.exe %windir%\WindowsUpdate.log" You are mocked! There are no errors, no warnings, nothing of value! You grab the tower, you give it a DDT, then you expel the foul beast from the office window into the parking lot 5 stories below. You return to your desk the victor, problem solved, life is good.

The winsxs folder grows exponentially, and since everything depends on everything else, deleting from that folder causes all kinds of problems.

Sort of no longer true (as of SP1): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2795190
On my primary Windows 7 computer, it is down to 10.5GB.

The problem is that the windows update service expects to find a patch that isn't there on a standard XP installation.

If you have installed from a vanilla XP SP3 CD you have IE6, if you have embedded patches you may have IE7 or IE8. Verify your IE version and download the appropriate patch. Install it immediately after completing the XP Setup and you are set.

IE6: WindowsXP-KB2879017-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40612

IE7: IE7-WindowsXP-KB2879017-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40519

IE8: IE8-WindowsXP-KB2879017-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40390

The problem is that the windows update service expects to find a patch that isn't there on a standard XP installation.

If you have installed from a vanilla XP SP3 CD you have IE6, if you have embedded patches you may have IE7 or IE8. Verify your IE version and download the appropriate patch. Install it immediately after completing the XP Setup and you are set.

IE6: WindowsXP-KB2879017-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40612

IE7: IE7-WindowsXP-KB2879017-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40519

IE8: IE8-WindowsXP-KB2879017-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40390

The problem is that the windows update service expects to find a patch that isn't there on a standard XP installation.

If you have installed from a vanilla XP SP3 CD you have IE6, if you have embedded patches you may have IE7 or IE8. Verify your IE version and download the appropriate patch. Install it immediately after completing the XP Setup and you are set.

IE6: WindowsXP-KB2879017-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40612

IE7: IE7-WindowsXP-KB2879017-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40519

IE8: IE8-WindowsXP-KB2879017-x86-ENU.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40390

I've also found that this resolves the problem. The key thing is to make sure it's the latest Cumulative Security Update for IE. For December this is MS13-097 (KB2898785).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2898785/

I've seen lots of people say this doesn't work but it's because they are trying the October or November update.

Microsoft Update Catalog is probably closest to what you need.

All you need. Click here.

He already said "I've done the usual [....] use a credible Internet Security package." At that point, the major danger is going to come from "zero days" and Internet Explorer browser attacks which will entirely bypass any form of AntiVirus etc. Changing which particular "credible Internet Security package" is used is going to make a very marginal difference. In fact the main OS difference will be in turning off useless services.

To make a step change up in security you want to talk about things like OS diversity; driving backups from the admin account and offsite backups. You may also want to consider switching her to cloud services of some kinds. Wait you say, he already said "I would love to switch her to Linux, but she struggles with change and wants to stay with Vista and MS Office." ... well sure; that's true. But it's a matter of interface. You can keep the Windows as the front end for now; probably for as long as she continues to be a desktop user; but use a different OS such as Linux for storing and copying her data.

When you set this up, consider very carefully the trust between systems. Obviously you don't want your Linux system to trust the Windows system (do the management from your own Linux system as well) but the opposite is true too. Due to Linux's design which encourages applications not to need aministrator access there is less malware for linux, but there are plenty of attackers and bad passwords can compromise your system. Ideally you want to have no dependence in either direction. Just have the administrator account on your Windows system backup files automatically to the Linux system. Have the Linux system automatically archive those backups so that the Windows system can't delete them and you will have a major recoverability improvement.

If you know them well you might want to consider using something like OpenBSD which may be easier to configure securely. Don't bother if you don't know them.

Offsite/Offline backups can be done by buying three huge slow disks which get copies off the NAS swap the last updated one for the one in the NAS each time you visit. If she has fast internet, just encrypt (GPG will do fine) and upload to a cloud service. Download a copy of those to your own offline backup for when your cloud provider makes a mess.

You haven't said what you mean by "security"; so far I've assumed the normal stuff; integrity, recoverability etc. If you also want to consider privacy you will want to think very carefully about gradually moving her to more private solutions. Microsoft has very much the same advertising and spying capabilities as Google but without the level of sophisticated systems Google uses to keep partners and employees away from the data. Just because you keep Office and Windows available to her, doesn't mean she can't start to diversify:

• Install LibreOffice but only to handle Open Document formats; this will avoid data corruption issues with Excel which have been a problem for a long time
• Move her to a more modern/secure browser such as Chromium or Opera
• Encourage her to use a different email system; yahoo; gmail; anything which will later make migration easier.
• Occasionally send her useful information in other formats
• Teach her to always convert and save MS Office documents as PDF for mailing and archive - show her that different versions of Office are not actually compatible with each other so sending office formats is never a good idea.

Long term, being dependent fully on Microsoft is something you can't be sure about. They may stay as they were; however the use of Active Tiles in their new operating systems really suggests a move to a much more advertising and

Greetings, As someone in the IT industry maybe I can give you some advice.

Since she is on Vista, you might want to look into Local Group Policies.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725970.aspx

You have much finer, granular control over many aspects of Windows through it. It can take some trial and error, but you can setup an environment where only specific applications run and nothing else. Or, you can do things like not allowing application to run from specific locations (E.G. C:\Users\\AppData or C:\Program Data). Doing this can greatly reduce the amount of Malware and Virus infections. You can also prevent changes to things like the Start Menu or task bar, etc. A lot can be done with Local GPOs that doesn't seem widely known to the standard Windows user, but they can really help lock a machine down.

Not as good as it used to be, we run Forefront which uses the same definitions and have had a number of things get through it as of late.

MSE used to be good, but MS seems to have really slipped up last couple of years. They have fallen to the bottom of all the tests, that they use to be in the top of, and even if you don't believe in tests, more and more real-world reports of things slipping through, like poster above here. It has gotten so bad that MS themselves now publicly recommend that their customers use additional 3rd party AV. That is pretty damning.

The test you refer to (not tests) is a notoriously vendor-driven one, which really has no credence with the larger AV community. And there's a bit of misinterpretation; MSE is designed to be compatible with another AV solution, so that the two can coexist. This is made possible by the fact that MSE integrates with Windows as only a Microsoft product could. MS didn't say "don't use our solution all by itself, the MSE r h4x0red!"

Actually, I refer to tests. I guess you are probably referring to the beating they got in AV-Test, since MS publicly complained about that. But here is another one (look at bottom of graph page 9 or summary of results page 13 - zero stars to MSE). And here is another one, from the test lab used by PC Pro and others (see results page 7 and 8, not good).

Where did you get the notion that MSE is designed to co-exist with another AV-solution? Microsoft strongly recommends against this, it is the first line in their FAQ. If you have third party AV running when you install MSE it recommends to disable it. Which in almost all cases today would be a downgrade of your protection.

MS Surface. Pure awesome, despite what those click bait articles tell you.

All you need. Click here.

OK, let's back up a second and make sure that we are not kidding ourselves into thinking that any music played on a computer cannot somehow be recorded.

The record labels and movie studios have become comfortable with analog reconversion for private use that includes a DAC-speaker-microphone-ADC or DAC-display-camera-ADC in the path, just not digital reconversion that doesn't include this highly lossy step. Besides, a lot of video streams are considered rentals, and the provider wants to deter users from keeping the video past the rental period, which is a violation of terms of service.

I'm also not going to google for you how to maintain session state without cookies.

I just did, and I'm going to explain why I don't like the solutions that I found on the first couple pages of results.

• Associating a session with an IP address allows session hijacking if multiple users are behind one NAT or proxy.
• Including the session ID in all URLs and as a hidden input in all forms is fragile: someone using the back button would end up starting a new session. And as this page points out, it's more vulnerable to session hijacking when a user shares a link to product pages that happen to include old session IDs that may refer to private information.
• Storing a session ID in the modification date of an image is also fragile, as it causes session loss when a device's RAM fills up and the user's browser starts purging things from cache. I don't see how it would work anyway, as there's nothing to associate the HTML page load with the image load other than the IP address, which I mentioned above.
• window.name requires JavaScript and doesn't obey the same-origin or even same-domain policy.
• HTTP authentication requires users to register and log in before shopping, which users find prohibitively inconvenient.
• This page recommends making an order form that lets users copy and paste SKUs from another browser window and key in quantities, but it's almost as inconvenient as a phone order.

What keywords should I have used instead?

But as long as you make sure that the back buttons works, on all pages, all the time, even on your landing page

Cookies handle the back button better than the leading cookieless solution (session ID in URL) does.

you will be a much better developer.

I have tried to keep to this philosophy on an online store that I maintain on behalf of my employer, even though it does use a session cookie, does use the occasional (optional) animation, and does use the occasional (optional) script. We don't use anything like the Facebook/Twitter/Google+ social recommendation crap that too many sites use.

OK, let's back up a second and make sure that we are not kidding ourselves into thinking that any music played on a computer cannot somehow be recorded.

The record labels and movie studios have become comfortable with analog reconversion for private use that includes a DAC-speaker-microphone-ADC or DAC-display-camera-ADC in the path, just not digital reconversion that doesn't include this highly lossy step. Besides, a lot of video streams are considered rentals, and the provider wants to deter users from keeping the video past the rental period, which is a violation of terms of service.

I'm also not going to google for you how to maintain session state without cookies.

I just did, and I'm going to explain why I don't like the solutions that I found on the first couple pages of results.

• Associating a session with an IP address allows session hijacking if multiple users are behind one NAT or proxy.
• Including the session ID in all URLs and as a hidden input in all forms is fragile: someone using the back button would end up starting a new session. And as this page points out, it's more vulnerable to session hijacking when a user shares a link to product pages that happen to include old session IDs that may refer to private information.
• Storing a session ID in the modification date of an image is also fragile, as it causes session loss when a device's RAM fills up and the user's browser starts purging things from cache. I don't see how it would work anyway, as there's nothing to associate the HTML page load with the image load other than the IP address, which I mentioned above.
• window.name requires JavaScript and doesn't obey the same-origin or even same-domain policy.
• HTTP authentication requires users to register and log in before shopping, which users find prohibitively inconvenient.
• This page recommends making an order form that lets users copy and paste SKUs from another browser window and key in quantities, but it's almost as inconvenient as a phone order.

What keywords should I have used instead?

But as long as you make sure that the back buttons works, on all pages, all the time, even on your landing page

Cookies handle the back button better than the leading cookieless solution (session ID in URL) does.

you will be a much better developer.

I have tried to keep to this philosophy on an online store that I maintain on behalf of my employer, even though it does use a session cookie, does use the occasional (optional) animation, and does use the occasional (optional) script. We don't use anything like the Facebook/Twitter/Google+ social recommendation crap that too many sites use.

The only way to truly prevent bitrot is by maintaining at least three complete copies of the data, and regularly compare between them

Disagree. I've had an idea for a while that I'm surprised backup vendors don't do: two copies with a check sum and automatic restore*. The two copies and a check sum are a variation of the three-copy idea, but without the third copy. (I'd write a backup program myself with this idea except it would take too long to implement all of the ideas I have that I think every home backup program should have. The backup programs on the market are getting better, but they could still stand a few more improvements like this idea.)

My idea: On the first backup, the original copy on the hard drive gets backed up to the USB backup drive along with a check sum. (Despite your concerns about USB, I believe the original poster is talking about home use and can't really avoid this without significant costs.) When the backup is run a second time (like a day or week later), the original on the hard drive is compared to what is on the backup. Check sums are also performed. If something doesn't match, then you know you have bit rot. The check sum will determine whether the backup or the original is invalid and the program will then take appropriate action all without asking the user.

*Of course, Microsoft had to monkey up the works with using this idea. When you merely open an Excel file, it will modify the contents of the file. Very little can be found on this phenomenon, but here is something about it from Microsoft. Through personal experience, I have found it does not change the modified date and time after the file is closed, but it does modify contents. (I discovered this while playing with a prototype of my idea.) This fits with what they say in the link I provide, but it's not exactly the thing that jumps out at you after the first or second read. When only a single user uses the file, this phenomenon is not seen, although I suspect that Microsoft writes to the file then as well -- an idea which I absolutely hate. Truecrypt is also guilty of this, but at least it does it on purpose, it is documented, and you can turn it off. For security reasons, there is a setting that allows changes to a truecrypt container without changing the modified date and time marks of the truecrypt container file.

It is a product. A service actually, so you can fiddle without download or install, at espressologic.com. Earlier generations were Wang Pace and Versata. We'd love to hear your reaction. On the client side, EL is a very close approximation, and Microsoft has done some work: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/gg577611.aspx

Really? Apples IAD network is driven by data culled from users of Itunes, Iradio etc. Iad is sold as "targeted by exclusive consumption data exclusive to Apple." Buy you joining their network, you are buying this data, ergo Apple is selling it. You might want to read up on it. http://advertising.apple.com/ Microsoft also has their own ad network, where the data they sell is gleaned from their own sources. http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/sign-up?mkt=en-us

Are there any examples of real-world reactive databases in production or development?

yes: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh750618(v=sql.10).aspx

Rx isn't really the same as callbacks, otherwise you wouldn't need this. And if you object to the terminology, blame Microsoft.

> More likely Win7 and Win8 are much harder to pirate,

So is that why even Microsoft tells you where to download Win7 !?!?!
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/windows-7-reinstall-download-needed-after-hard/d47f2375-4501-439c-9455-51b1d240635c?msgId=c27e4378-0f7b-413b-bfd8-f653b0f253d6

e.g. Don't let the "msvista" directory name fool you; it is the real McCoy, er, Win7.
* Win7 Home Premium x86: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65732/X15-65732.iso
* Win7 Home Premium x64: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso
* Win7 Professional x86: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65804/X15-65804.iso
* Win7 Professional x64: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65805/X15-65805.iso

Agreed that Win7 is easy to pirate. Just google: "win7 iso" and lots of places to download the ISO.

Heck even Microsoft tells you where to download it !?!?!
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/windows-7-reinstall-download-needed-after-hard/d47f2375-4501-439c-9455-51b1d240635c?msgId=c27e4378-0f7b-413b-bfd8-f653b0f253d6

e.g. Don't let the "msvista" directory name fool you.
* Home Premium x86: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65732/X15-65732.iso
* Home Premium x64: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso
* Professional x86: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65804/X15-65804.iso
* Professional x64: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65805/X15-65805.iso

> windows 7 has a huge OEM hole that makes it effortless to crack
Uh you don't even need to "crack" Win 7. Resetting the WPA garbage is trivial too; every ~30 days reboot to reset your system back to a clean un-activated copy :-)

Reboot
press F8 at startup
Repair Computer
System Recovery Options: Keyboard: US
Username/Password
(you will see: Windows found on Drive ?:)
Command Prompt
D:
reg load HKLM\MY_SYSTEM "D:\Windows\System32\config\system"
reg delete HKLM\MY_SYSTEM\WPA /f
reg unload HKLM\MY_SYSTEM
exit
Reboot

to display

slmgr /dli
slmgr /dlv

WinXP is not that hard to find. There are MicroXP and TinyXP versions around.

Concur 100% that cracking XP is more of a PITA to find the various boot-loaders.

127 characters is low?

It used to be 16 characters, but that was back in the days of Windows 98, and NT 4.0 service pack 6a, well before AD forests and trees were in common use.

I think GP is referring to this: Why can't my Microsoft account password have more than 16 characters?

I think it has changed in Windows 8, at least regarding English language pack. The Language pack download page says you can get the English pack on any language/edition of Win8. In Win7 it is restricted to Ultimate and Enterprise editions.

You bought a Chinese computer with a Chinese version of Windows in China and you were upset because there was no easy/free way to change it to English?

Were you also mad at Samsung for not including an English keyboard?

And your heading is 100% incorrect - you say "If you can read Chinese you pay twice in China" - how so? By your own example you only "pay twice" if you can't read Chinese and instead require another language on your Chinese computer bought in China with a Chinese edition of Windows. If you COULD read Chinese, why would you need the English version of Windows?

Windows 7 had the option of changing the install language via language interface packs for free, if you had the Ultimate or Enterprise versions - low-end, "Home" editions didn't have this ability.

I'm sorry, why do you write it "MicroSoft"? Their company name is clearly "Microsoft". Is it your like subtle way to say you hate them, like people who write M$ or Micro$oft?

It seems childish and naive, especially since I'm pretty sure you know better.

You can install The Windows 8.1 Enterprise Evaluation version for 90 days:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh699156.aspx

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year or more, they HAVE decided what they're doing with it. On April 8, 2014, the update and activation servers are going dark. That's it. Game over. The End. They're NOT releasing a patch to disable activation and they're NOT releasing another service pack or update pack. You won't be able to do a fresh install without cracking the activation and you won't be able to get the 150 or so updates since SP3 without using a third party update pack. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200.

I doubt we'll go through the same thing with people hanging on to Vista for dear life on April 11, 2017 but I can already hear the same whining for Win 7 on January 14, 2020.

I have heard nothing indicating that they are planning on shutting down activation servers. This (recent) article agrees http://www.windowsobserver.com/2013/09/17/will-microsoft-turn-off-the-windows-xp-activations-servers-after-official-support-ends-in-april-2014/

After XP End Of Support, Windows XP will remain on MSDN and TechNet for customers who still need to activate and re-activate XP (there aren’t new retail copies). We don’t have a date to share around when activation will be shut off, but it will be on for the foreseeable future.

As a precedent, Microsoft released a "sunset" version of Money Plus when they shut down activation servers for it. Adobe did similar for CS2.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=20738

When usage rates drop below 1-5% they'd probably consider sunsetting activation. Right now XP has between 10-25%.

You will be able to get all updates to date, but they won't release new ones. As a precedent, last time I tried you could update Windows 98 to July 2006 state (when support for Windows 98 was stopped).

I wasn't aware Microsoft manufactured laptops, or that installing linux changed the physical characteristics.

Well, if you want to be daft like that, Microsoft lists the Surface and variants under laptops. There's only been a million Slashdot discussions on it. Where have you been?