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I give you Windows 8 Server.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/v8-default.aspx

I really hope it doesn't have that tablet interface. There were no desktop screenshots in the videos I saw. The last thing I need is to work in an office administered by an sysadmin that needs a touchscreen to do his job.

I give you Windows 8 Server.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/v8-default.aspx

What's the process ID of the nfssvr in this Windows Server 2008 log: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731909(v=ws.10).aspx [microsoft.com] Or this log: http://www.petri.co.il/images/ie7_on_ex2003_1.gif [petri.co.il]

Both of them are system logs, not application logs. Please tell me what advantage would you get from knowing what was the process id at the time of execution, since (usually) you can't have services with the same name running at the same time. And both of the error messages are quite clear on the problem and what went wrong (but sometimes you can really get some cryptic messages).

Here http://imgur.com/C2pFB you have an example of process id on the application log.

As for the "object reference" errors, in other systems/programming languages you get way more useful error messages like: (...)

You example is apples and oranges. The errors you mentioned are _parsing errors_, not runtime errors. Try with a compiled language.

In contrast I see my colleagues working till late at night wrestling with "Object reference not set to an instance of an object.", and it's not always their code they're having to fix. Maybe there's a way of turning on debugging symbols so that message is replaced with something a lot more useful, but so far they seem to get the same useless error message even with debugging on.

I don't know your colleagues nor their expertise in programming, but those kind of errors are language-dependant and not platform-dependant, and are usually easily by static analysis tools or avoided altogether with good programming practices (by the description, it reminds me of some common bugs of VB applications that were mostly solved by using "option explicit on").

FWIW I do write windows programs/services that log more informative "syslog style" error messages (with process AND thread ID- makes debugging multithreaded stuff easier), but Microsoft's own stuff doesn't do it.

Not all available software for linux/unix is that nice, also. It is true that you can tune up or down verbosity, but - as an example - postfix, samba and openvpn are god-awful to troubleshoot only by loggin in complex problems.

for example if there is a problem with an email message amongst a bunch of Microsoft Exchange servers, figuring out the path it took and where the message had problems, and why is so much more difficult than with postfix, qmail etc.

I'd say you never really had problems with qmail :D I have limited experience with Exchange (but a lot of experience with postfix), but I must say that what you describe is pretty much the experience my colleagues have reported me. From that limited experience, half of the problems arise from incompetent system administrators that don't understand the SMTP protocol. If you can access the message, you can easily examine the path taken. But hey, maybe your problems are more complex - I don't know.

Sometimes it seems to me that Microsoft's stuff was designed by some smart people, but the coding was outsourced to India or wherever. So the outsource coders will write in logging (and other features) as defined in the requirements in the easiest/cheapest way, which often turns out to be almost useless. But they don't care - they are not ever going to use what they write!

Maybe. But many applications have separate logging (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL) to help with that. I'm not saying Windows logging is perfect, but it is not the unusable pile of crap everyone that never tried to use it say it is. I've had issues with cryptic message logs in both unix and windows (eg. try to run openvpn with certificates from "the future" - different timezones - a

What's the process ID of the nfssvr in this Windows Server 2008 log: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731909(v=ws.10).aspx

Or this log: http://www.petri.co.il/images/ie7_on_ex2003_1.gif

In Windows XP, I do not see any process ID either:

(The following are all real errors in my event viewer)
Example error #1:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: (100)
Event ID: 1000
Date: 5/26/2012
Time: 2:35:31 AM
User: N/A
Computer: CORE
Description:
Faulting application , version 0.0.0.0, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 20 30 2e ure 0.
0018: 30 2e 30 2e 30 20 69 6e 0.0.0 in
0020: 20 75 6e 6b 6e 6f 77 6e unknown
0028: 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30 0.0.0.0
0030: 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 73 at offs
0038: 65 74 20 30 30 30 30 30 et 00000
0040: 30 30 30 000

Example #2
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 5/12/2012
Time: 5:32:00 PM
User: N/A
Computer: CORE
Description:
Hanging application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2900.5512, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data: (useless crap omitted to pass Slashdot lameness filter)

Example of Syslog style error:
Apr 28 23:02:02 mitchell postgres[3447]: [7-1] FATAL: the database system is in recovery mode
Apr 28 23:02:02 mitchell postgres[3448]: [6-1] LOG: connection received: host=mitchell.cs.wisc.edu port=37591
Apr 28 23:02:02 mitchell postgres[3448]: [7-1] FATAL: the database system is in recovery mode
Apr 28 23:02:23 mitchell postgres[461]: [6-1] LOG: startup process (PID 3446) was terminated by signal 7: Bus error
Apr 28 23:02:23 mitchell postgres[461]: [7-1] LOG: aborting startup due to startup process failure

Much better in comparison. So what if it's not in XML, it is a lot more useful than most of the crap that gets puked out in event viewer.

As for the "object reference" errors, in other systems/programming languages you get way more useful error messages like:

(Python example)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "testerror.py", line 12, in [module]
test(myvar)
File "testerror.py", line 5, in test
print 2 + var
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'NoneType'

var is clearly the problem here.

In contrast I see my colleagues working till late at night wrestling with "Object reference not set to an instance of an object.", and it's not always their code they're having to fix. Maybe there's a way of turning on debugging symbols so that message is replaced with something a lot more useful, but so far they seem to get the same useless error message even with debugging on.

FWIW I do write windows programs/services that log more informative "syslog style" error messages (with process AND thread ID- makes debugging multithreaded stuff easier), but Microsoft's own stuff doesn't do it. Stuff that would be simple to do in a unix/linux system would be hard on Windows - for example if there is a problem with an email message amongst a bunch of Microsoft Exchange servers, figuring out the path it took and where the message had problems, and why is so much more difficult than with postfix, qmai

What's the process ID of the nfssvr in this Windows Server 2008 log: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731909(v=ws.10).aspx

Or this log: http://www.petri.co.il/images/ie7_on_ex2003_1.gif

In Windows XP, I do not see any process ID either:

(The following are all real errors in my event viewer)
Example error #1:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: (100)
Event ID: 1000
Date: 5/26/2012
Time: 2:35:31 AM
User: N/A
Computer: CORE
Description:
Faulting application , version 0.0.0.0, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 20 30 2e ure 0.
0018: 30 2e 30 2e 30 20 69 6e 0.0.0 in
0020: 20 75 6e 6b 6e 6f 77 6e unknown
0028: 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30 0.0.0.0
0030: 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 73 at offs
0038: 65 74 20 30 30 30 30 30 et 00000
0040: 30 30 30 000

Example #2
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 5/12/2012
Time: 5:32:00 PM
User: N/A
Computer: CORE
Description:
Hanging application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2900.5512, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data: (useless crap omitted to pass Slashdot lameness filter)

Example of Syslog style error:
Apr 28 23:02:02 mitchell postgres[3447]: [7-1] FATAL: the database system is in recovery mode
Apr 28 23:02:02 mitchell postgres[3448]: [6-1] LOG: connection received: host=mitchell.cs.wisc.edu port=37591
Apr 28 23:02:02 mitchell postgres[3448]: [7-1] FATAL: the database system is in recovery mode
Apr 28 23:02:23 mitchell postgres[461]: [6-1] LOG: startup process (PID 3446) was terminated by signal 7: Bus error
Apr 28 23:02:23 mitchell postgres[461]: [7-1] LOG: aborting startup due to startup process failure

Much better in comparison. So what if it's not in XML, it is a lot more useful than most of the crap that gets puked out in event viewer.

As for the "object reference" errors, in other systems/programming languages you get way more useful error messages like:

(Python example)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "testerror.py", line 12, in [module]
test(myvar)
File "testerror.py", line 5, in test
print 2 + var
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'NoneType'

var is clearly the problem here.

In contrast I see my colleagues working till late at night wrestling with "Object reference not set to an instance of an object.", and it's not always their code they're having to fix. Maybe there's a way of turning on debugging symbols so that message is replaced with something a lot more useful, but so far they seem to get the same useless error message even with debugging on.

FWIW I do write windows programs/services that log more informative "syslog style" error messages (with process AND thread ID- makes debugging multithreaded stuff easier), but Microsoft's own stuff doesn't do it. Stuff that would be simple to do in a unix/linux system would be hard on Windows - for example if there is a problem with an email message amongst a bunch of Microsoft Exchange servers, figuring out the path it took and where the message had problems, and why is so much more difficult than with postfix, qmai

What's the process ID of the nfssvr in this Windows Server 2008 log: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731909(v=ws.10).aspx

Or this log: http://www.petri.co.il/images/ie7_on_ex2003_1.gif

In Windows XP, I do not see any process ID either:

(The following are all real errors in my event viewer)
Example error #1:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: (100)
Event ID: 1000
Date: 5/26/2012
Time: 2:35:31 AM
User: N/A
Computer: CORE
Description:
Faulting application , version 0.0.0.0, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 20 30 2e ure 0.
0018: 30 2e 30 2e 30 20 69 6e 0.0.0 in
0020: 20 75 6e 6b 6e 6f 77 6e unknown
0028: 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30 0.0.0.0
0030: 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 73 at offs
0038: 65 74 20 30 30 30 30 30 et 00000
0040: 30 30 30 000

Example #2
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Hang
Event Category: (101)
Event ID: 1002
Date: 5/12/2012
Time: 5:32:00 PM
User: N/A
Computer: CORE
Description:
Hanging application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2900.5512, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data: (useless crap omitted to pass Slashdot lameness filter)

Example of Syslog style error:
Apr 28 23:02:02 mitchell postgres[3447]: [7-1] FATAL: the database system is in recovery mode
Apr 28 23:02:02 mitchell postgres[3448]: [6-1] LOG: connection received: host=mitchell.cs.wisc.edu port=37591
Apr 28 23:02:02 mitchell postgres[3448]: [7-1] FATAL: the database system is in recovery mode
Apr 28 23:02:23 mitchell postgres[461]: [6-1] LOG: startup process (PID 3446) was terminated by signal 7: Bus error
Apr 28 23:02:23 mitchell postgres[461]: [7-1] LOG: aborting startup due to startup process failure

Much better in comparison. So what if it's not in XML, it is a lot more useful than most of the crap that gets puked out in event viewer.

As for the "object reference" errors, in other systems/programming languages you get way more useful error messages like:

(Python example)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "testerror.py", line 12, in [module]
test(myvar)
File "testerror.py", line 5, in test
print 2 + var
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'NoneType'

var is clearly the problem here.

In contrast I see my colleagues working till late at night wrestling with "Object reference not set to an instance of an object.", and it's not always their code they're having to fix. Maybe there's a way of turning on debugging symbols so that message is replaced with something a lot more useful, but so far they seem to get the same useless error message even with debugging on.

FWIW I do write windows programs/services that log more informative "syslog style" error messages (with process AND thread ID- makes debugging multithreaded stuff easier), but Microsoft's own stuff doesn't do it. Stuff that would be simple to do in a unix/linux system would be hard on Windows - for example if there is a problem with an email message amongst a bunch of Microsoft Exchange servers, figuring out the path it took and where the message had problems, and why is so much more difficult than with postfix, qmai

Yes, Qt is certainly the best C++ desktop framework on the market today, so I can understand that take.

As a side note, the things that you've described can also be done just as easily in Metro with C++ and WinRT, with XAML instead of QML. And VS, of course, has fully integrated support for that kind of thing - visual designers and so on. But it's not cross-platform at all (unless and until someone creates some kind of Mono for WinRT, which apparently Miguel and co are working on).

XCode is miserable. I've been subjected to it recently, and I give it the "Worse Than Codewarrior" award.

Visual Studio is honestly really good. It has the best Win32 debugger that I've used. But as for as editing goes, I honestly have to say that I give the nod to Eclipse. In order to have the same power with Visual Studio, you need to have VisualAssist. Intellisense is slow and crashy (less so in 2010, but it's still terrible). There's no easy way of switching between source and header. There's no built in way of quickly switching to an arbitrary source file (this is similar. Probably my most desired feature (intelligent scrollbar), is solved through an extension also.

Visual Studio CAN do everything Eclipse does. Oftentimes even better. But I feel way more comfortable using an OSS stack.

Just download the MS SDK. It's been free for years and includes the compiler et al. It's only the pretty IDEs that are a problem.

Not anymore:

"The Windows SDK no longer ships with a complete command-line build environment. The Windows SDK now requires a compiler and build environment to be installed separately."

If you're genuinely interested.

Computers nowadays don't come with a Windows CD. So if a virus messes up my computer, what am I to do?

1. All major manufacturers provide a way to burn "recovery disks".
2. If you don't create recovery disks, you call the OEM and they'll ship you the appropriate disks. More details here.
3. P.S. - you should've installed MSE/not clicked on that unknown attachment, then, shouldn't you (snark off).

I have always downloaded a Windows ISO off the Pirate Bay, which I do with an entirely clean conscience, since I own a valid Windows Key, which Microsoft also checks when I actually install windows.

4. You can call Microsoft direct if you have a key. On their web site, they provide this contact information:

• United States: (800) 360-7561, Monday through Friday, 5:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Pacific Time.
• Canada: (800) 933-4750, Monday through Friday, 5:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Pacific Time.

...you're welcome.

If you're genuinely interested.

Computers nowadays don't come with a Windows CD. So if a virus messes up my computer, what am I to do?

1. All major manufacturers provide a way to burn "recovery disks".
2. If you don't create recovery disks, you call the OEM and they'll ship you the appropriate disks. More details here.
3. P.S. - you should've installed MSE/not clicked on that unknown attachment, then, shouldn't you (snark off).

I have always downloaded a Windows ISO off the Pirate Bay, which I do with an entirely clean conscience, since I own a valid Windows Key, which Microsoft also checks when I actually install windows.

4. You can call Microsoft direct if you have a key. On their web site, they provide this contact information:

• United States: (800) 360-7561, Monday through Friday, 5:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Pacific Time.
• Canada: (800) 933-4750, Monday through Friday, 5:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. Pacific Time.

...you're welcome.

The answer to your question is CSS3 Media Queries, which allows you to determine the viewport size and use CSS specifically designed for that viewport size.

I know this will twist your iPhone into knots, but here's a good walkthru (including iPhones and Androids) on Microsoft's site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh882445.aspx

I wasn't aware I was being intolerant.

And that is why you have no friends...

Apparently stating my opinion is considered intolerant, but yours somehow isn't?

Yes. My opinion was that people should not feel guilty receiving compensation for work. This is a very inclusive opinion which leaves room for dialog. Your "opinion" is that anyone who does not share your religious belief system is a brainwash idiot.

Curious?

Nobody's buying into it, so quit trying.

Sorry you feel so victimized all the time.

The straw man accepts your apologies.

It must be difficult when so much of the western world follows your same fantasy.

This makes no sense. If you assert your attack on the straw man to be true then the majority of his peers would agree with him and therefore the straw man would not be a victim.

This lack of critical thinking skills is surprising for an engineer. I'm guessing it's because you're so religiously emotional about your belief system, that your brain has shut off. I see it happen a lot with nominal Christians too. Their brains shut off when defending a faith system they know little about; but otherwise they're brilliant. Do keep in mind that I'm not attacking your religious belief in an everlasting universe, multiverse, whatever; but rather attacking your ability to function in society without getting super emotional when people disagree with you. You'll go farther in your career if you learn to practice tolerance.

Now in case you were trying to be funny through sarcasm, it didn't work for me. Here's a knowledge base article that may help: http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/Training/Competencies/Pages/humor.aspx

Also, I'm curious to know which headaches you're running into with Windows 7, because I can't think of any offhand. XP? sure. Vista? Of course. 7? nothing comes to mind.

OK, I have one, but for me, it's a doozy. Searching for contents of a file doesn't work the way I want by default. Mainly because if you're searching in a non-indexed directory, there's no option to search the contents of a file. Even if you're in an indexed directory, only files with known AND selected types are searched. And if you want to search PDFs, you have to install one of two 3rd party iFilters (1 of which costs $600 if you want to search PDFs on your Win Server). WTF? No PDF search in Win 7? Even Vista allowed you to search ANY file. Changing the settings doesn't make it work even as well as Vista. Some people have VMs running Vista just so they can do better searches. I use a 3rd party app to search for contents of a file in Win 7, which is beyond irritating.

And MS hasn't addressed or fixed the search UI since people started complaining about it in 2009:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/ecbecc00-f3e7-429f-87cd-8900fc313add/

Other than that, I actually like Win 7.

Microsoft is actually known for being a black hole of research. Researchers go in and almost nothing comes out. They hire people just so their competitors can't hire them.

Citation?

As for nothing coming out, you're apparently not including published papers (lots published by respectable bodies like IEEE, ACM, Oxford Publishing, etc.), or downloads such as Excel plug-ins to simplify working with genomic sequences, Differentially Private Network-Trace-Analysis Tools, an e-mail loss detection add-in, etc., etc.

Sure, not as sexy as self-driving cars. But serious, hard research usually isn't that sexy or appealing to the general public. I thought this was a geek web site...?

Microsoft is actually known for being a black hole of research. Researchers go in and almost nothing comes out. They hire people just so their competitors can't hire them.

Citation?

As for nothing coming out, you're apparently not including published papers (lots published by respectable bodies like IEEE, ACM, Oxford Publishing, etc.), or downloads such as Excel plug-ins to simplify working with genomic sequences, Differentially Private Network-Trace-Analysis Tools, an e-mail loss detection add-in, etc., etc.

Sure, not as sexy as self-driving cars. But serious, hard research usually isn't that sexy or appealing to the general public. I thought this was a geek web site...?

Microsoft is actually known for being a black hole of research. Researchers go in and almost nothing comes out. They hire people just so their competitors can't hire them.

Citation?

As for nothing coming out, you're apparently not including published papers (lots published by respectable bodies like IEEE, ACM, Oxford Publishing, etc.), or downloads such as Excel plug-ins to simplify working with genomic sequences, Differentially Private Network-Trace-Analysis Tools, an e-mail loss detection add-in, etc., etc.

Sure, not as sexy as self-driving cars. But serious, hard research usually isn't that sexy or appealing to the general public. I thought this was a geek web site...?

Microsoft is actually known for being a black hole of research. Researchers go in and almost nothing comes out. They hire people just so their competitors can't hire them.

Citation?

As for nothing coming out, you're apparently not including published papers (lots published by respectable bodies like IEEE, ACM, Oxford Publishing, etc.), or downloads such as Excel plug-ins to simplify working with genomic sequences, Differentially Private Network-Trace-Analysis Tools, an e-mail loss detection add-in, etc., etc.

Sure, not as sexy as self-driving cars. But serious, hard research usually isn't that sexy or appealing to the general public. I thought this was a geek web site...?

Most research never leaves Microsoft. Only the developers of the project leave. (with their research they cannot use anymore)

You know... except the 10k+ peer reviewed publications available to the CS community, nothing ever comes out of MS R&D.

Citations needed.

Here you go. About 14,000 peer reviewed publications for the computer science community, about 10,000 of which were published completely in house by Microsoft Research, and about 4,000 of which were done in collaboration with Universities.

if he's really a small startup, there's no reason why he shouldn't get the stuff for free from MS, so he should join bizspark. a free sub for two years(and you'll get to keep the sw now too after the two years, at least that's what they told us), possibly even free swag(they were giving away windows phones last winter for example..). there's some free azure time thrown in now too..

http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/SoftwareAndTools/

According to Wikipedia, 16TB, but that is for NTFS on XP, not sure what the modern one is, but I thought it was PBs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS#Limitations

According to Microsoft, as of 2011, the size limit is 256TB-64KB

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773268(v=ws.10).aspx

This program is designed for small business/startups. Check it out, gives you internal use of almost the entire Microsoft lineup. http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/community/mpn/pages/microsoft_action_pack.aspx

If you meet the requirements, why don't you do BizSpark?

Pretty sure Google Apps for Business also meets your requirements, but it's around $50 per year per user.

Yes, EAs shit is worse, but it's a long way from the evilness of everything you're describing, and not truly worth the enormous amount of attention it garnered.

Fair enough. But EA's shit is -worse- so it does deserve more pushback. Backing it up to steams level owuld be an improvement... but that's a level where I still have a mountain of complaints... (what do you mean my son isn't allowed to play my copy of Magicka... and it goes on from there...)

but Windows Update maintained a hardware fingerprint, and a list of all installed applications and their usage frequency as reported in appwiz.cpl, running applications, and a freakin' GUID; all of which was transferred to MS every time the update service checked for new updates.

http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/vistaprivacy.aspx?ln=en-us

Nowhere do they assert they can collect and send everything that is on your computer to microsoft, and they don't do this.

Yes, they do send a hardware fingerprint... windows udpate provides hardware driver updates.

But, and this is the important part, you don't have to use windows update. And that doesn't even leave you with an out of date system. You can update your computer manually by downloading all drivers, servicepacks, and hotfixes yourself if you really want to.

Its truly hard to be angry about them sending hardware information when they distribute driver updates for that hardware, and even harder to be angry when its entirely optional

As for the other internet-based services; again I see the claim that they can share the information they collect, but I see it in context of what they collect, which in most cases is minimal.

3. You seem to be confusing the issue I'm raising here. You're saying MS/et al. Require X to use service, but ask for Y to use other things, so if you only provide X you only get access to the features that X buys. Origin is requiring X to use service, and has no other things to offer. So, you don't want to give them X, you don't get to use the services that X buys.

Whoah, not at all.

Microsoft legitimately needs to know what edition of windows I'm running to know what updates it needs. Given that they distribute drivers via windows update its legitimate to say they need to know what hardware I have. And again... i don't have to use windows udpate to update my PC. I can turn it off, and I lose nothing.

Origin says that to play gameX I have to give them application usage and inventory information for my PC. Those are not even remotely conencted. You cannot possibly make a case that EA needs to know whether I use Microsoft Office or Open Office in order for Syndicate to run.

Microsoft Research does some pretty cool stuff...

I said RECORD. As in RECORD. As in not SCRIPT OR PROGRAM OR DEVELOP. As in RECORD.

And as I told you in my post you CAN DO THIS IN VISUAL STUDIO SINCE THE ABSOLUTE BEGINNING. For example, this is the instructions from Visual Studio 6 since that's the earliest version that can be pulled up on MSDN.

(though, of course, such a macro cannot be produced by recording your actions - it has to be written manually

This is of course very much wrong.

Recording Macros
The following procedure steps through creating an example of a simple macro.

The keyboard shortcuts used in this example assume the default Visual Studio shortcut key configuration.

To record a macro

Create a new text file by choosing File on the New submenu on the File menu.

Choose Text File in the General category.

In the new text file, type the following:

one two three four

Press HOME to place the cursor at the beginning of the text.

Press CTRL+SHIFT+R or choose Record Temporary Macro on the Macros submenu on the Tools menu to initiate the environment's macro recording mode. The Recording Toolbar appears and a small spinning cassette tape icon in the status bar indicates that you are currently recording.

Press CTRL+SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW to select the word "one" and the space after it, then press DELETE.

Press CTRL+SHIFT+R or click the Stop Recording button in the Recorder Toolbar to stop recording the macro. Notice that the spinning cassette icon in the status bar disappears when macro recording ceases.

At this time, if you open Macro Explorer and expand the MyMacros node, you should see a new entry called "TemporaryMacro" under the RecordingModule node. This is the default name given to newly-recorded macros.

Windows hard links do not span volumes, you are probably thinking of junctions. See:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365006(v=vs.85).aspx

All of the discussion going on about teaching programming in schools is a great new/old trend. Like many posters here, I learned basic programming skills years ago in middle / high school. But then that all changed somewhere along the line.

School technology courses began to focus on turning students into secretaries - students learn Microsoft Office. If you're lucky, they'll teach design skills (PhotoShop, etc.) The other trend these days is about using Web 2.0 to enable collaboration, which is not bad in and of itself, but misses the mark. That's where programming comes (back) in.

There are a lot of great free resources out there. I have taught programming using Scratch to third graders, Microsoft SmallBasic to fifth graders, and JavaScript to ninth graders. There is also GameMaker, which has a free lite version that allows for drag-n-drop game programming. Microsoft also has Kodu, which let's kids make 3D games with a drag-n-drop interface.

A few months ago I gave a TEDxTokyo presentation on the subject (excuse the shameless plug), which you may find interesting, possibly even entertaining...

MSDN is free to access.

MSDN is far more than msdn.microsoft.com. A book is also free to read in a library. But if you want more then you have to part with some big bucks.

One of companies that I worked for had a subscription, and MS sent to us tons of CDs with everything under the Sun. Don't you want to test your software, at least once, on a Hungarian or Korean build of Windows 7 Ultimate? Especially without going to Korea to buy their localized copy? MSDN subscription gives you all that. Do you need a checked build of Windows Server $whatever to work on a driver? MSDN subscription has that. Where else would you get a checked build of any MS product?

From here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/1996/Nov96/wincepr.aspx, so November 1996 for CE, three months before Palm Pilot.

And yes, I know about Apple Newton and I even know about Psion Series 3, which was two years before Newton. Should have been obvious if you'd read my post carefully.

The validity of this patent was not the question anyway - I personally don't consider software patentable at all, which is sort of a common viewpoint in Europe. I just wanted to explain that Microsoft is longer around in the handheld area than people think. Looks like even you didn't knew.

Google has a long history of trying to weasel out of agreements and payments just because they're 'Google'. In turn, Microsoft spends billions an year towards their R&D (Microsoft Research). They also work with the pioneer in the industry, Nokia, which has developed pretty much all the technology we base mobile phones today on. They deserve to be paid.

Not only do I see victory for justice, but a long term crackdown on Google's illicit business practices. It is time to step up and show Google the door. If you cannot do business honestly, don't do it at all.

Justifiably, you were marked for the troll that you are. Microsoft is a convicted monopolist (US vs Microsoft), a stealer of IP and code (Stacker, i4i), a saboteur of companies (Wordperfect/Novell) and a financial backer to SCO. They're also anti-open standards as evidenced by the people they tried to pay off to try and ratify their failed document format standard. As for their R&D - all I see from their labs are useless kinect experiments that have no practical or commercial value.

Google has a long history of trying to weasel out of agreements and payments just because they're 'Google'. In turn, Microsoft spends billions an year towards their R&D (Microsoft Research). They also work with the pioneer in the industry, Nokia, which has developed pretty much all the technology we base mobile phones today on. They deserve to be paid. Not only do I see victory for justice, but a long term crackdown on Google's illicit business practices. It is time to step up and show Google the door. If you cannot do business honestly, don't do it at all.

Troll, do you have even the slightest idea what you are talking about?

No?

Well, okay then.

Google has a long history of trying to weasel out of agreements and payments just because they're 'Google'. In turn, Microsoft spends billions an year towards their R&D (Microsoft Research). They also work with the pioneer in the industry, Nokia, which has developed pretty much all the technology we base mobile phones today on. They deserve to be paid.

Not only do I see victory for justice, but a long term crackdown on Google's illicit business practices. It is time to step up and show Google the door. If you cannot do business honestly, don't do it at all.

But how does it index the data in the XML or JSON fields? How does it, say, tell an element containing a number from an element containing text?

I have no idea about JSON support in SQL Server, but for XML, it doesn't actually store it simply as plain text. Instead, it internally decomposes it to something that is more or less relational. Similarly, when you do a query over an XML field - which, in MSSQL, involves XQuery expressions - it converts that XQuery into the equivalent relational query over the internal representation.

With respect to types, obviously, in untyped XML everything is a string. However, it also permits you to specify an XML Schema for the field, in which case individual nodes become strongly typed according to what's in the schema.

MS's leadership was questioned in MS's forums some time ago:

Does MS need new leadership to fix problems w/Win7---Oct 1, 2011 (
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/does-ms-need-new-leadership-to-fix-problems-wwin7/0b7c745b-da66-4b76-a83b-f74a6c22fefd)
.

We may have all hated Bill Gates, but he had a vision (not that everyone liked it). Currently they have no visionary leadership. Ballmer's expertise was executive/corporate operations, but he didn't have the Bill Gates' "style" (however one might perceive that, Borg, nerd, or whatever -- he had a distinctive style/personality, just like Jobs had a distinctive style/personality). I just don't see Ballmer as being inspirational to people. That doesn't mean he's not good at doing what he does -- he's just not a charismatic figure[head]...

I don't see him as being a leader, but an executor (someone often vital to a leader to get things done, but not meant to take the place of the leader).

I have a similar setup (128GB SSD). You make it sound easy. I tried several ways to move everything over to a hard drive so that nothing user-related was stored on the system/boot SSD. I tried hard links, fiddling with the registry, changing environment variables, but in the end I gave up and kept the stub of my user directory on C: where Windows seemed to want it, and moved all the individual directories (Documents, Music, Pictures, etc.) using the "right-click and use Location tab" approach. Microsoft does NOT make it easy to do this elegantly for all users. Everything I tried either didn't work in the end (e.g., trying to do it via a hard link for the whole Users directory), or was a horrible kludge that left dribbles of user profile stuff on C:, or it didn't recognize things had moved when you try to create new users, or similar "close but not quite" breakage. Either I'm dumb, or you found a magical way to do it easily and effectively. Do share.

It is actually fairly easy to configure Windows to put user profiles for all users on a different drive than the boot (system) drive, however it must be done when first installing Windows.

As far as I am aware Microsoft does not officially support moving user profiles after the OS is installed. There are ways to do it, but as you found they all have their problems. By doing it during the OS install pretty much all of the problems are avoided.

The option to change the location for user profiles is not exposed through the graphical installer for Windows but it can be configured by using an Unattend.xml file by setting the FolderLocations key to point to the drive you want the data to reside on. You can either create the file manually or use the free Windows AIK to do it.

You can use the FolderLocations key to move several key folders and one of which is the User profile folder.

If you have never installed Windows using the unattended setup before you may want to experiment using a VM before doing it on real hardware just to make sure you have your Unattend.xml file doing what you want it to.

The only problem with this is some of the junctions created on the system drive will continue to point to the wrong location. You can find more information on this in MS KB929831. An easy way to fix this is to create a junction at c:\Users pointing to the new user profile location. (For instance on one of my systems I have a junction at C:\Users pointing to F:\Users). This neatly fixes this issue and as a bonus fixes any applications that have hard-coded paths for user profiles.

I have been running my home system like this for the past 2 years and have not encountered any problems.

SQL Server really does have good online documentation. Just search for "SQL Server [feature]" and pick the MSDN link. In this case, I searched for XML INDEX. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb934097.aspx

Oracle supports XML Types with XPath style queries. I don't remember any XML Indexes, but you can always use a function based index against the XPath.

Stop claiming that you 'buy' a software product - you don't.

I'll stop "claiming" that I buy copies of software when the vendors stop telling me that I do. Google for "buy windows 7" and see that the first links are to "Buy Windows 7 or upgrade to another edition", "Buying Windows 7: top questions", "Find great prices & selection on Microsoft Windows software; shop & buy Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, & more." with a banner ad reading "Buy Windows® 7 Now - Fast, Easy Download. Official Site.". You're awfully certain of your specious hypothesis given that Microsoft themselves contradict you.

Try the same experiment with "buy autocad", "buy photoshop", and... wait for it... "buy os x". None of those companies say "buy a limited, EULA-bound license to use $foo as we see fit!"

Stop claiming that you 'buy' a software product - you don't.

I'll stop "claiming" that I buy copies of software when the vendors stop telling me that I do. Google for "buy windows 7" and see that the first links are to "Buy Windows 7 or upgrade to another edition", "Buying Windows 7: top questions", "Find great prices & selection on Microsoft Windows software; shop & buy Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, & more." with a banner ad reading "Buy Windows® 7 Now - Fast, Easy Download. Official Site.". You're awfully certain of your specious hypothesis given that Microsoft themselves contradict you.

Try the same experiment with "buy autocad", "buy photoshop", and... wait for it... "buy os x". None of those companies say "buy a limited, EULA-bound license to use $foo as we see fit!"

Gates is still the Chairman.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/exec/billg/

Why would you remove him? In the past 10 years he has increased revenue 3x to 73b and net income 3.3x to 25b. A year after he become ceo the xbox was launched, and it now has 49% marketshare.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=msft
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2001/jul01/07-19Q014ER.aspx

If I only care about the stock price, then ballmer has been terrible. But if I care about the actual health of the company? Then ballmer has been pretty great. I think anyone who seriously thinks he should be replaced really only cares about their own profits from the stock.. we really don't need more companies that only care about this quarter's profits and CEOs who only value their own stock options.

produce the next product that would end up in every home - but Microsoft, under Ballmer's guidance, didn't.

BS. Ballmer took over in 2000.. the XBox was released in 2001.

No 1 console worldwide.. 49% marketshare

If that doesn't count, then what would?

Microsoft's stock price - while fairly high - has remained constant for ten years, while many of its competitors have seen enormous growth

Stock price is a terrible metric. For example, it will value a company that has increased its revenue from 25 billion to 73 billion, and increased its net income from 7.35 billion to 23.34 billion in 10 years exactly the same.

Now to me, 25 billion is less than 73 billion, and 7.35 billion is less than 23.34 billion... so I would think if a company did that, their share price would be higher, right?

Yet, that's exactly the position Microsoft finds itself in. Is this Microsoft's fault, or the investors who don't know basic math?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=msft
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2001/jul01/07-19Q014ER.aspx

Noah Snavely is credited in both places, and this article cites "continuing research" into an "emerging field". The 2008 "Photo Tourism" project was turned into PhotoSynth, but the other stuff seems new.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/phototours/

who makes up the board?

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/exec/bod.aspx

After I have re-read the article, you appear to be right. Then how is testing of applications on a device done?

Same as existing platforms with a walled garden - developer license permits you to sideload apps on your device for debugging/testing. See here for details. To the best of my knowledge, it's less restricted than either iOS or WP, in that you don't need to pay for that license (you pay for publishing to the Store, but that's separate), nor is there a limit on the number of apps that can be installed that way.

There's no supported way to install third-party desktop apps on WinRT, though, for testing or otherwise. Nor is there a public SDK for desktop ARM apps.

http://technet.microsoft.com/fi-fi/sysinternals/cc817881

The other sysinternals are also worth checking out http://technet.microsoft.com/fi-fi/sysinternals/bb842062

http://technet.microsoft.com/fi-fi/sysinternals/cc817881

The other sysinternals are also worth checking out http://technet.microsoft.com/fi-fi/sysinternals/bb842062

I have to agree, after running both the dev and consumer previews, as well as setting up a machine with consumer preview in the shop to let common folks try it there is one thing we could all agree on and that is "Metro UI sucks on desktops".

Maybe it'll be nice for tablets and smart phones, who knows, but considering that MSFT owns less than 5% of the smartphone and tablet market and 90% of the desktop taking a big old dump on the desktop for a shot at smartphones is a DUMB fucking idea. I ran it for nearly a month on my home desktop before I wiped it, Metro UI just seemed to be fighting me every step of the way. And I agree with you on the suckage of resources as well, all the updates of those stupid always on metro "apps" slammed my network constantly and the thing was blowing through more than 2.2Gb of memory. Compare this to win 7 with all the bling, aero, AND more than a half a dozen tray apps and it would top out at a little over 1.3Gb.

So please, everyone who doesn't believe, try it for yourself here and you'll see what all the hate is about. Some have pointed out I hated the QL on win 7 but TBH after seeing what a slow uptake there was on Vista i didn't think companies would jump to support the new QL like they did. Without practically every application supporting jumplists the Win 7 tasklist would have been IMHO a serious step back over the XP QL but I'll be the first to admit now that its widely supported the Win 7 way is nice.

There is just NO way that I can see that one can take a cell phone touch based UI like win 8 and make it a nice experience for your average laptop or desktop user, the differences between designs is just too steep. Watch the MSFT videos talking about win 8 for yourself and count how many times they say "touchscreen". last one i saw i quit counting at 30. Now does ANYBODY think with the x86 PC business being so damned cutthroat they are just gonna eat the $100+ cost per unit to include touchscreens?

I'm sorry but win 8 is a BAD design and I'm just glad I've gotten the majority of my customers as well as my family onto Win 7 so we can all just skip win 8 completely. Touch UI is fine and dandy for a tablet, much better than the pen approach, but I have NO desire to poke my netbook or desktop all damned day. As for TFA frankly I don't see much there that can't be had for free with third party products such as process explorer for Task manager. BTW check out #4, even for the "old kit" they used for Win 8 was a touchscreen laptop! Seriously how many current laptops and desktops are touchscreen? 2%? 3%? Kinda sad when even the ones plugging the OS aren't putting it on non touch devices...hmmm...wonder why?