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Botnet malware doesn't just pop in out of nowhere. It's gets in when the user does something careless.

Yes, "something careless" like receiving TCP/IP packets from the Internet.

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the Windows TCP/IP stack due to the processing of a continuous flow of specially crafted UDP packets. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.

That was in November last year. Hope you patched since then!

It's not just you. When I read the title, I assumed it was just another sloppy/ignorant editor exaggerating things, because to me, Windows 7 already feels fully hardware accelerated. I thought that was the whole point of Aero Glass. I didn't notice any UI sluggishness, not on my balls-out gaming rig, nor the wife's 3 year old AMD with integrated graphics. Really, since I started plopping SSDs in all my machines, that was the only variable I could feel anymore in general browser-heavy usage. Everything else seemed to have reached a plateau.

If Win8 is even faster, well great. Efficiency is always welcome, it will hopefully translate into longer battery life for laptops and tablets.

That confused me, too, but then I remembered that DirectWrite isn't mandatory for applications and was, in fact, one of the major selling points for IE9 (and the reason it wasn't released for WinXP).

anss123 is correct, there were some GDI functions that were hardware accelerated in XP, most notably BitBlt, but there were some others. Vista created a new model, but it required that GDI be rendered to both system and video memory (Where XP rendered directly to video memory or frame buffer) and even BitBlt was software rendered. Windows 7 when coupled with a WDDM 1.1 video driver no longer requires GDI to be rendered in 2 places, and re-enables hardware acceleration on many GDI functions.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff729480(v=vs.85).aspx

Be the Next Microsoft Employee: "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work at Microsoft? One of these contestants will have a shot at finding out. Who will be the next Microsoft employee?" IIRC, the video also indicated that this was a shot at, not a guarantee of, a job.

The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) or possibly Application Virtualization (App-V) should be able to handle the cases where you're required to deploy software that the developers refuse to write correctly. It also offers the benefit of buffering the rest of the system against the stupidity of what is almost certainly particularly badly written code. It only makes sense if you have to do it on a large scale (our POS system could do the ACT treatment, but it's not worth it for 20 machines) but it does work very well.

Beware, though, that the Marketdroids appear to have pre-empted the App-V name to include cloud-based services (because buzzwords, I guess) so you might have to dig a bit more to find the right information if you decide to go that route. Here's some links to get you started:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd562082(v=vs.85).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee461265(v=ws.10)

The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) or possibly Application Virtualization (App-V) should be able to handle the cases where you're required to deploy software that the developers refuse to write correctly. It also offers the benefit of buffering the rest of the system against the stupidity of what is almost certainly particularly badly written code. It only makes sense if you have to do it on a large scale (our POS system could do the ACT treatment, but it's not worth it for 20 machines) but it does work very well.

Beware, though, that the Marketdroids appear to have pre-empted the App-V name to include cloud-based services (because buzzwords, I guess) so you might have to dig a bit more to find the right information if you decide to go that route. Here's some links to get you started:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd562082(v=vs.85).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee461265(v=ws.10)

applications don't get direct access.. drivers do. if the drivers clobber things they shouldn't, they can crash the kernel..

Actually, Windows (since Vista) has a more fault-tolerant hybrid driver model for graphics drivers: A "core" part runs in kernel space and the bigger more complicated part runs in user space. If the part of the driver which runs in user mode causes memory corruption, only the user process is affected. This is the major reason why Vista and 7 systems seems more reliable than XP. Microsofts telemetry indicated that poor graphics drivers and overheating and misbehaving graphics cards were *the* major reason for instability of Windows systems.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb188739.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480220.aspx

Windows also can allow the graphics card to re-initialize if it determines that it has faulted or freezes. For a period I was really annoyed about Internet Explorer 9 when I tried it out. It seemed smooth, especially so when I were scrolling up and down (GPU accelerated). But every 5 seconds or so it would pause for just a fraction of a second. Not much, but definitively enough to being annoying. Little did I know that it was actually the nVidia driver that faulted and the Windows graphics system was actually resetting and re-initializing. When I realized that and updated to the latest nVidia driver the problem went away (I still use Chrome; there still is this "feel" to IE9 that isn't quite right - cannot put my finger on it, though).

they can crash the kernel.. just like the unix derivatives in service today.

I don't think that OS X has a similar model - but then again on OS X Apple can tightly control and regression test the limited number of cards and drivers. I have definitively had X crash on me and taking all the apps down with it on more than one occasion - not so much after running Linux mainly under VMWare and Hyper-V.

applications don't get direct access.. drivers do. if the drivers clobber things they shouldn't, they can crash the kernel..

Actually, Windows (since Vista) has a more fault-tolerant hybrid driver model for graphics drivers: A "core" part runs in kernel space and the bigger more complicated part runs in user space. If the part of the driver which runs in user mode causes memory corruption, only the user process is affected. This is the major reason why Vista and 7 systems seems more reliable than XP. Microsofts telemetry indicated that poor graphics drivers and overheating and misbehaving graphics cards were *the* major reason for instability of Windows systems.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb188739.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480220.aspx

Windows also can allow the graphics card to re-initialize if it determines that it has faulted or freezes. For a period I was really annoyed about Internet Explorer 9 when I tried it out. It seemed smooth, especially so when I were scrolling up and down (GPU accelerated). But every 5 seconds or so it would pause for just a fraction of a second. Not much, but definitively enough to being annoying. Little did I know that it was actually the nVidia driver that faulted and the Windows graphics system was actually resetting and re-initializing. When I realized that and updated to the latest nVidia driver the problem went away (I still use Chrome; there still is this "feel" to IE9 that isn't quite right - cannot put my finger on it, though).

they can crash the kernel.. just like the unix derivatives in service today.

I don't think that OS X has a similar model - but then again on OS X Apple can tightly control and regression test the limited number of cards and drivers. I have definitively had X crash on me and taking all the apps down with it on more than one occasion - not so much after running Linux mainly under VMWare and Hyper-V.

"Typographically rich" just means that the apps actually use the well-established typographic rules that are widely used in print media, and these days also on websites, for their UI. You know, things like the appropriate choice of fonts (serif vs sans serif etc), varying text sizes and styles to visually distinguish different pieces of data, general layout rules etc. As opposed to rendering everything in the same 8pt system font, and using chrome to highlight things.

Here are the actual design guidelines that explain it all in more detail.

If you want to precisely move windows, you might want to consider tiling window managers. Microsoft and Apple are both moving in this direction trying to figure out how to get the power of a Unix tiling window manager without all the complexity:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/arrange-windows-side-by-side-on-the-desktop-using-snap

I get your point though. The answer is precise movements aren't supported by touch but they are supported and supported better by a stylus. Your entire life your hand/fingers have been doing extremely precise operations with restricted viewing when you reach out and grab things. Inside your brain you have a dedicated subsystem to handle that. It is capable of making extremely precise 3D models, tying hundreds of muscle movements to those 3D models making continuous adjustments and all those calculations happen so quickly you aren't even consciously aware of the mental effort involved. But watch a newborn that hasn't learned to operate that system yet. You do not have, nor will you ever have a dedicated move a mouse subsystem. If you are designing software, why wouldn't you want to use your already existing precise movement subsystem which is going to inevitably than any possible mouse based system?

The problem with the mouse is because you lack the subsystem that it isn't terribly precise. If I told you to look at a screen and move your finger to any part of the screen you would hit inside of 30 milliseconds. If I had you do it with a mouse it could take you over a second and the act would be distracting from your conscious train of thought.

...is an avid reader of stackoverflow, reddit and many forums.

Frankly, Stackoverflow is probably the only good one and if he's doing C# and other MS tech, the MSDN Forums are another place he should hang.

As far as everything else is concerned - let him work and create the way he wants to. If he wants to do something stupid like code in emacs (I kid! I kid!) then let him.

I argue with him that while handcoding abilities are essential and great there is a value in knowing and using WYSIWYG editors.

Absolutely! 1. It'll help him with employment - a buzzword to add to his resume.

2. Many times I use WYSIWYG editors to to do the grunt work for me and then I go back and tweak code where needed. I have to say that these days, those editors are pretty damn good. And I'd also like to add, one day - someday - this typing code will disappear. I think it's ludicrous that in this day and age of powerful computing and GUIs and touch screens that we're STILL typing?! NeXt had this awesome drag and drop application builder years ago and it seams that Jobs didn't take that with him to Apple. What was deal?

Application programing should be as easy as using a TV or your cable box.

Save the intense coding and whatnot to the systems, tools, and system and "programing" guys.

I suggest taking a look at Windows Server 2012 File Server role - W2K12 - deduplication is an in box feature
- SMB Multichannel - better performance uisng 4 TCP channels
- Storage Spaces - SAN like features with no special hardware (this is not dynamic volume)
- Thin provisioning - using Spaces, Windows can create TP LUNs
- NFS 4 server - in box role in W2K12
- Resilient File System (ReFS) - high degree of compatibility with the most common NTFS features, but has resiliency and scalability features that go beyond NTFS
- Windows Server Backup - now supports backup to the cloud (in box feature)
- Support for Hyper-V VMs - now Hyper-V supports running VMs using a file server and SMB 3.0
- Scale-out - with more than one server, File Server can be configured in a scale out mode for better scalability

Sources:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Overview-File-Server-Role-Windows-Server-8-Failover-Clustering.html
http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/windows-server/top-ten-windows-server-2012-storage-enhancements-143157
http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2012/03/28/microsoft-online-backup-service.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/bettertogether/archive/2012/07/21/windows-server-2012-part2-virtualization-enhancements-scalability-amp-flexibility.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/2012-editions.aspx

Full disclosure: I do work for Microsoft. I am a senior program manager on the Virtual Machine Manager team. I work on Storage Automation using SNIA SMI-S/ My blog is: http://blogs.technet.com/b/hectorl

Windows 7 also requires you to be a genius to actually find anything. Here is the guide to searching using complex queries: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb266512(VS.85).aspx Why the hell isn't a simple interface included? Windows generously suggests around six filters as standard and I imagine you're expected to guess the rest...

4 megs of RAM was the minimum for Win95. 8 megs was recommended and I believe some Office 95 programs required 8. Your point stands though.

Certification is not declaration of an absence of bugs. They're not going to regression test your entire app, or pull apart your entire source tree and make sure you didn't screw up - certainly not for just 5 figures.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21464

I agree - the underlying figures show that Microsofts core business is actually in pretty good shape. Its just that many people posting here don't seem to realize that Microsofts core business has moved on from Windows if you take a look at the summarised figures:

Windows + Windows live division: 13% loss in revenue
Server + Server tools: 13% increase in revenue
Online services division: 8% increase in revenue
Microsoft business division: 7% increase in revenue
Entertainment + devices division: 20% increase in revenue

I think you accidentally got to the real heart of the issue. Microsoft has to keep up appearances, as an established corporation. But this code was not written in the open source world, not for Linux, and not intended to be distributed at all. It was supposed to be hidden in the basement.

Microsoft was forced to release this code because they released binaries built with GPL components. Those binaries were to make Linux work well with Microsoft's hypervisor. Not to make Linux look good, but to make virtual Linux useable enough that they keep paying for a Windows host license (on the next server, or OS upgrade).

This magic number is a guest OS ID definition for Microsoft's Hyper-V. As far as anyone knows, this might be a magic value already in place in some of Microsoft's code, and they had to use the same value in the Linux implementation. If that's not the case, it's still internal code that they had no intention of releasing as source.

My guess is that someone who doesn't respect Linux intentionally violated the identity convention. In that case, it's not about sexism at all. Substituting a childish phrase for an operating system ID is about respect for the product, and little if anything to do with respect for women. If a woman wants to see it as offensive that is perfectly valid. But from what I can tell not the intent at all.

The "predictable debate over sexism in the technology world" is being driven by people who take things out of context for the increased page loads. It could very well be told as "Source code divulged after GPL violation reveals Microsoft employs at least one immature developer." But the focus on sexism almost makes the ads click themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel#Hyper-V_submission_by_Microsoft

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff542653(v=vs.85).aspx

From MS themselves: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?sort=PN&alpha=exchange+server&Filter=FilterNO

Exchange 2003 Extended Support ends 8th April 2014.

Office 2010 is compatible with XP. I have it installed. XP is mentioned here. Maybe they're talking about certain features? And as for 2013, will it fail to install on an older OS?

ARM PCs running Windows have to include the locked BIOS, with no facility to turn it off.

Correct. But, frankly, I wouldn't call an ARM Windows device a PC. It doesn't run anything a PC can run, not even in emulation (with reasonable speeds).

x86 PCs running Windows MAY OPTIONALLY including a setting in the BIOS to disable the secure locked-down boot. But they don't have to.

Wrong:

"Mandatory. On non-ARM systems, the platform MUST implement the ability for a physically present user to select between two Secure Boot modes in firmware setup: "Custom" and "Standard". Custom Mode allows for more flexibility as specified in the following:

It shall be possible for a physically present user to use the Custom Mode firmware setup option to modify the contents of the Secure Boot signature databases and the PK. This may be implemented by simply providing the option to clear all Secure Boot databases (PK, KEK, db, dbx), which puts the system into setup mode.

If the user ends up deleting the PK then, upon exiting the Custom Mode firmware setup, the system is operating in Setup Mode with SecureBoot turned off."

Incorrect, you can read the specifications here. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/jj128256 Why would you say something with such conviction without even googling it first?

You better read up about the MS requirements for secure boot with a pre-installed Win8...

Indeed, you better read up:

"Mandatory. Enable/Disable Secure Boot. On non-ARM systems, it is required to implement the ability to disable Secure Boot via firmware setup. A physically present user must be allowed to disable Secure Boot via firmware setup without possession of PKpriv."

What else you think Canonical and RH are doing spending money, time and effort to make their OS'es install in dual boot mode with Win8?

They're trying to save their users the hassle of having to disable Secure Boot, or manually adding their keys, on every Win8 PC they install RedHat or Ubuntu to. In other words, it's a question of convenience, not necessity.

Your use of the term "advanced" is ambiguous. It does do bibliographies. [libreoffice.org] But without knowing what you mean by "advanced integrated", I have no way to really address your objection.

Here is a link http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/apa-mla-chicago-automatically-format-bibliographies-HA102435469.aspx

Word will extract any reference citations in a document into a digital form which allows for import / export into bibliography managers. The purpose of this is that many people have a bibliographic library you want an application (extension) to manage that library allowing for attachments... The Word processing application needs to maintain that data though at the document level so that bibliography information stays sinced between different managers.
In addition in terms of styles there are 4300 commonly used bibliographic databases each that has slightly different formatting and information. That's 4300 import scripts that need to be written (custom styles). If you cite from non-Latin based sources the number is slightly over 5000. The Word community has done that leg work, the OO community hasn't.

Related content management i.e. tying multiple documents together on different axis

No that's not a pivot table, I agree OO/LO got those. What I'm talking about is what Office calls tagging documents by "Content Types" (note this is not how OO/LO use this term, they use it to mean essentially MIME type). Its a CRM concept that a document carry metadata automatically as it gets passed around and versioned. So for example if you include an image of a graph you can also include the data that built the graph inside the metadata for the image. For CRMs certain information about a document can be maintained, and forced (see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/introduction-to-content-types-HA010149551.aspx). The majority of the user interaction for the CRM stuff would be at the CRM level and OO doesn't have an equivalent of SharePoint, but the real problem is that OO lacks this sort of CRM support at the document level. This allows me to search for "all documents generated by project 2013478" or "all documents generated originally (i.e. first version) out of the California division prior to 4/23/2011"

In terms of lines and colors, you are right that is in Libre office. That story of how it didn't get into OO is nuts.

Anyway good refutation on most of these which shows the degree of progress in the last few years. It seems like LO/OO is progressing at a fast clip even without Sun which is wonderful to see. I have the rMBP and Office looks terrible. If its going to be a year before Microsoft releases a version that supports retina, Libre Office supported retina out of the box and Neo is working on a partial solution with the intention of waiting until OO does the work of switching hundreds of icons to vector so it might be a chance for me to take a look at Libre Office.

The crashing on Base on OO was infuriating. Base is one of the primary reasons I use Neo/OO since there is no Access for Mac. I used write the most, since I use it all the time with people who don't own Office. But If I want to do something I would do in Access on a PC I use that, so for me at least its the primary application in the suite. I've never really regretted being on Neo, even when they lagged behind OO (which was the reason I was trying OO in the first place).

I have no idea what you are talking about. They "float" just fine for me, and dock when they are supposed to dock. Dockable windows is a per-program interface decision, and is not unique to either Windows or OS X.

In windows floating toolbars are supposed to act like document windows. In OSX floating toolbars a

Your use of the term "advanced" is ambiguous. It does do bibliographies. [libreoffice.org] But without knowing what you mean by "advanced integrated", I have no way to really address your objection.

Here is a link http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/apa-mla-chicago-automatically-format-bibliographies-HA102435469.aspx

Word will extract any reference citations in a document into a digital form which allows for import / export into bibliography managers. The purpose of this is that many people have a bibliographic library you want an application (extension) to manage that library allowing for attachments... The Word processing application needs to maintain that data though at the document level so that bibliography information stays sinced between different managers.
In addition in terms of styles there are 4300 commonly used bibliographic databases each that has slightly different formatting and information. That's 4300 import scripts that need to be written (custom styles). If you cite from non-Latin based sources the number is slightly over 5000. The Word community has done that leg work, the OO community hasn't.

Related content management i.e. tying multiple documents together on different axis

No that's not a pivot table, I agree OO/LO got those. What I'm talking about is what Office calls tagging documents by "Content Types" (note this is not how OO/LO use this term, they use it to mean essentially MIME type). Its a CRM concept that a document carry metadata automatically as it gets passed around and versioned. So for example if you include an image of a graph you can also include the data that built the graph inside the metadata for the image. For CRMs certain information about a document can be maintained, and forced (see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/introduction-to-content-types-HA010149551.aspx). The majority of the user interaction for the CRM stuff would be at the CRM level and OO doesn't have an equivalent of SharePoint, but the real problem is that OO lacks this sort of CRM support at the document level. This allows me to search for "all documents generated by project 2013478" or "all documents generated originally (i.e. first version) out of the California division prior to 4/23/2011"

In terms of lines and colors, you are right that is in Libre office. That story of how it didn't get into OO is nuts.

Anyway good refutation on most of these which shows the degree of progress in the last few years. It seems like LO/OO is progressing at a fast clip even without Sun which is wonderful to see. I have the rMBP and Office looks terrible. If its going to be a year before Microsoft releases a version that supports retina, Libre Office supported retina out of the box and Neo is working on a partial solution with the intention of waiting until OO does the work of switching hundreds of icons to vector so it might be a chance for me to take a look at Libre Office.

The crashing on Base on OO was infuriating. Base is one of the primary reasons I use Neo/OO since there is no Access for Mac. I used write the most, since I use it all the time with people who don't own Office. But If I want to do something I would do in Access on a PC I use that, so for me at least its the primary application in the suite. I've never really regretted being on Neo, even when they lagged behind OO (which was the reason I was trying OO in the first place).

I have no idea what you are talking about. They "float" just fine for me, and dock when they are supposed to dock. Dockable windows is a per-program interface decision, and is not unique to either Windows or OS X.

In windows floating toolbars are supposed to act like document windows. In OSX floating toolbars a

Uhhh...missed the memo? Here you go friend, help thyself and try it, you'll hate it just as much as we do! BTW just FYI but they've been releasing public betas since Vista and IIRC its good until early next year so more than enough time if you want to use it to port apps.

But please, don't think those of us who dismiss Win 8 as crap are haters, just do as we did and try it yourself. I've got it set up on an Athlon X2 at the shop and after trying to use it for nearly a month I just gave up, it feels like the thing is fighting me every step of the way and if you aren't a tweeting twit or need FB updates every second it just feels...kinda pointless actually. Again don't take my word, please do try it yourself. There are instructions on how to use VBox or VMWare with Win 8, so it isn't like you have to have a spare box free to give it a go. try it, you'll see why so many of us do not like it.

BTW Server 2003 ends support on July 14, 2015, slightly more than a year after XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?alpha=Windows+Server+2003

This is a far better way since anything non-IE pretending to be IE will just ignore these. Web designers have been using these for years to load special CSS workarounds for all the bugs in IE.

Within a year, most end-users (in the US) will have access to IPv6 from their ISP. Within two years, most end-users will have replaced their non-IPv6 CPEs with ones which support IPv6.

So in other words, IPv6 from the backbone to a home PC's 802.11g radio will be deployed around the time the last mainstream non-SNI PC operating system is scheduled to die anyway.

Me, I'd probably drop support for XP, and let the end-user click through a cert warning if that's what they're inclined to do.

So how would you explain to the users that a blog, forum, or wiki is supposed to raise a serious certificate error after the user is logged in, and that HTTPS with such a serious error is safer for the user than an HTTP connection that can be Firesheeped?

How much more per month are we talking about for a dedicated IP, anyway?

The difference between $5 per month name-based shared hosting, which may put a thousand or more domains on one IPv4 address, and a VPS. You mention a $5 to $7 per month VPS plan; which provider do you recommend?

Seems cheap to me, especially compared to what joe already spent to get a valid SSL cert.

Personal use SSL certificates have been free of charge from StartCom for some time now.

As far as Android...a number of websites are pushing their users to use simple apps instead of the Android browser.

This is true of major web sites like Facebook, eBay, Amazon, and the like, where only one company hosts a particular web application code base. But a lot of smaller web sites run open source web applications, customized with plug-in modules, on top of interchangeable LAMP servers. Is there a standard WordPress app, a standard phpBB 3 app, or a standard MediaWiki app? (I'd Google it, but I'm composing this post offline.) Or must each web site operator duplicate effort in developing an Android app from scratch in parallel with the web site and then walking the users through turning on Unknown sources?

The alternative is sticking with jQuery 1.9 until April 8, 2014, and then flipping to jQuery 2.0.

Reading the current requirements, it does not require touch for all types of PCs - only for tablets and "tablet convertibles" (see System.Client.Tablet.TabletPCRequiredComponents).

The official story with Metro so far is that "it works great with mouse and keyboard". I personally disagree with that, dealing with Win8 on my desktop every day, but it is what it is. Though, admittedly, it should work pretty well with trackpads when those gestured described in the article I've linked to earlier are made available - the main problem with mouse in Metro is the need to hunt for corners and edges to invoke charms, task switcher etc, and also the fact that you can only scroll in one direction with the wheel, and there's no easy zoom (you can do Ctrl + wheel, but that needs two hands). If the trackpad supports panning, pinch to zoom, and swipes from the sides to access the common UI elements, it should be pretty much as good as touch - I actually see myself using that over touchscreen when working on a convertible with keyboard attached.

"One thing that's long worried me is that the bulk of spammers and malware writers may hire copywriters with a better grasp of English than most of the ones I see now"

At least in the '419-style' scams, research from Microsoft implies that the bad English is, at least in part, deliberate. It's obvious enough to 'smart' people that they won't bother responding (and therefore tying up the spammer's time trying to extricate their funds/credentials/whatever). However, less-savvy people might not realize it's a scam and therefore follow the links. As a result the hit rate of people who do respond is likely to be higher, resulting in a better yield for the scammer.

I won't be applying this patch, however I can't help but wonder if MS is sneakily trying to kill off gadgets partly to promote the Windows 8 tiles and start screen.

Judging from the message they've posted on the closed Gadgets Gallery page, it certainly looks that way"

"Because we want to focus on the exciting possibilities of the newest version of Windows, the Windows website no longer hosts the gadget gallery."

Translation: nothing to see here, Windows 7 is yesterday's news, throw away your real PCs and embrace the tabletness of Windows 8!

I don't think you'll find many public connections between F# and Haskell.NET/Mondrian. The teams involved were both part of Project 7 (porting 7 different languages to .NET to prove its suitability for various kinds of languages), but the people involved were different - in particular, Mondrian was headed primarily by Eric Meijer. It was more of a spiritual connection - Don Syme picked up the tab of getting an academic functional language on .NET after Haskell guys wrapped it down, and of course it's not the same code at all. Here is an interview with Don where they ask this exact question and he explains the connection. The relevant quote:

Q: I've heard that there was a project where Microsoft started to integrate Haskell on .NET and then it was replaced with the F# project. Is that true? If it's true, why?

A: ... I took what I learned from .NET Generics and saw that there was a chance to do a ML like language fitted very closely with .NET. During this time we [Project 7] had a go doing Haskell for .NET, we actually got a long way in doing that, but in the end there is quite a lot of dissonance between Haskell and .NET. The purity is one aspect of that so you are writing monadic code whenever you use the .NET libraries, which would be perhaps unusual, would lead you to writing more monadic code than you would like. Also, Haskell didn't have any tradition of adding object oriented extensions to Haskell. ...

Yes, they're taking a proactive approach to push upgrades from XP.

Yeah, if only they would provide a download link for Windows XP and Server 2003 in a knowledge base article so that we could find it if we bothered to look for it!

Yes, they're taking a proactive approach to push upgrades from XP.

Yeah, if only they would provide a download link for Windows XP and Server 2003 in a knowledge base article so that we could find it if we bothered to look for it!

So, to protect users from potentially trusting a fake Windows Update server, Microsoft is releasing this update through a Windows Update server, which potentially could be fake? I suppose that if your computer already trusts a fake server, it is too late

This is not a fix for machines already pwned. It is a precautionary step to foil copycats (or the original attacker returning with a new kit). If a machine gets this update it will be immunized to attacks using these certs. You are correct that if a machine is already pwned or on a net with a fake WU server, that WU server could block this update to remain in the loop. This was never billed as a solution for that problem, however. If you suspect that your machine is pwned though a sophisticated attack like the Flame you really need to nuke it from orbit.

However, I wish Microsoft would go back to providing downloadable updates that didn't depend on Windows Update.

Ahem. Microsoft releases all updates as separately downloadable packages. Windows Update / Microsoft Update is merely a delivery mechanism. The knowledge base article (with download links) for this particular one is found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2728973

Well a good example I know specifically was the X# (later F#). http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/cambridge/projects/fsharp/

Microsoft for almost a decade has had a really spectacular (arguably the best) implementation of OCaml and a great functional language tied to .NET. Ballmer's feeling at the time was the wrong sorts of people loved it. In his mind people don't buy Microsoft for cutting edge or exciting they buy Microsoft for the ability to maintain a low TCO. Ballmer never wanted the project to go forward because it would create a situation where some programmers were using techniques which required base learning to understand.

Something like

  let rec fibs = Seq.cache <| seq { yield! [1; 1]
    for x, y in Seq.zip fibs <| Seq.skip 1 fibs -> x + y }

is simply not understandable to someone who's never seen functional syntax.

In the last year though Ballmer has shifted. Because since he sat on F# that niche got absorbed by Scala and runs on the JVM.

They've been innovating and not creating products. Microsoft has been very conservative. Go to http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/ and you'll be shocked how many cool ideas aren't seeing the light of day because they've been strategically focused and conservative. If Microsoft is willing to start taking risks again, and Windows 8 so far surely qualifies, I think it might get fun in tech again.

Now, maybe Vista really was that bad, pre-SP1. I can't comment on it, because I never used pre-SP1 Vista. But the Vista I used was nowhere near as bad as the ME I used. And I have to question whether all the Vista hate is from people who actually used it regularly, or if it's hearsay from the nontechnischken who were confused by anything that wasn't XP.

I used pre-SP1 Vista, and it really was that bad. Performance was terrible, even file copy operations were significantly degraded. I think KB938979 was where Vista started to become usable for me on a day to day basis, there was another critical update prior to SP1 that also made a big difference but I can't seem to find it right now.

XP will receive security updates until April 8, 2014. Windows 7 until January 14, 2020.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/lifecycle

Why use XP? Think about the Enterprise, with hundreds or thousands of machines in different departments. Applications that have not been updated to work with later tech, such as JInitiator (requires Jedi hacking to work on x64), websites that may only work with IE 6 or 7, in-house batch files / scripts, compatibility with older servers, and so on.

Training isn't much where I'm at - people can barely report what OS they work on ("Do you see the word 'Start' at the lower-left, or a circle?") and most just clickity-click on whatever app they need to run. Outlook, Office, and IE are more like an OS to them.

Sometimes it is just as simple as plopping the new OS on, USMT, map the drives, and done. But in a varied environment it gets somewhat hairier, with infinite support calls. Better to wait either until the 3rd parties catch up or until you can implement workarounds and research fixes and alternatives.

You are correct. Guess I don't know much about Enterprise. But there are legacy apps and web pages that only run on certain OS's or flavors of IE. So about the time we get to Windows 9 they might change to 7??? J/K. Understand now the difficulties. And did not know MS supported XP until 2014.

XP will receive security updates until April 8, 2014.
Windows 7 until January 14, 2020.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/lifecycle

Why use XP? Think about the Enterprise, with hundreds or thousands of machines in different departments. Applications that have not been updated to work with later tech, such as JInitiator (requires Jedi hacking to work on x64), websites that may only work with IE 6 or 7, in-house batch files / scripts, compatibility with older servers, and so on.

Training isn't much where I'm at - people can barely report what OS they work on ("Do you see the word 'Start' at the lower-left, or a circle?") and most just clickity-click on whatever app they need to run. Outlook, Office, and IE are more like an OS to them.

Sometimes it is just as simple as plopping the new OS on, USMT, map the drives, and done. But in a varied environment it gets somewhat hairier, with infinite support calls. Better to wait either until the 3rd parties catch up or until you can implement workarounds and research fixes and alternatives.

Microsoft was offering same-sex benefits when GOOG was still a gleam in Sergey and Larry's eyes.

http://www.microsoft.com/about/diversity/en/us/programs/ergen/gleam.aspx

Making a road-show of it can be a double-edged sword and though I thinks it's great GOOG is having this experiment it can sometimes backfire. There's the whole problem with imposting 'western' values on the rest of the world and how that can erode positive inroads. Prime directive and all that.

Visio

I haven't seen a "feature" this idiotic since Microsoft removed normal file name search and replaced it with a poor man's Google. Now I can't search for a file by the name I want, but it searches through all files on the whole god damned computer.

If you are talking about Windows Explorer and its search field, then you can still make it search in names only - much like Google (heh), it has various keywords, indicated by a trailing semicolon, that modify the search. In this case, you want "name: *.txt". All of these also work (despite the article saying it's "deprecated after XP").

It's true that you need to download and install them yourself... But they are offered by Microsoft for free in their poweruser tools, are very lightweight and work well. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb545027

Microsoft only documented the protocols they were specifically ordered to. That leaves many more besides SMB/SMB2.

Have you actually looked at what's documented? It goes far beyond SMB. It's also AD, Exchange, MSSQL, SharePoint... heck, even DirectPlay is there. In fact, I can't think of anything that is not on that list.

Now tell me this: do you *really* think that Asus voluntarily stopped shipping Linux on netbooks?

Yes, of course. Linux/X11 wasn't a viable commercial offer on netbooks anymore so than it was (and remains) on desktops. It was originally shoved there so that they could trim margins on hardware to arrive at a certain price. Once they had proven the viability of the niche, hardware manufacturers started targeting it specifically, and MS offered a special licensing agreement for XP on netbooks such that the cost of the OS wasn't more than half of the hardware, it was obvious that Linux was going to lose.

Just to give a random example, this paper backed the implementation of generic variance in C# 4.0.

  Why is this so hard to comprehend?

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/blog/2012/jan/12/microsoft-confirms-UEFI-fears-locks-down-ARM/

http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/D/F/ADF5BEDE-C0FB-4CC0-A3E1-B38093F50BA1/windows8-hardware-cert-requirements-system.pdf System.Fundamentals.Firmware.UEFISecureBoot items 17.c, 18 and 19

Not the only Microsoft Games Open(-ish) Source release: Mech Commander 2 also got that treatment.

Here you go: papers