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If Vista evangelism was your gig I'm going to have to mark this one a Fail. PC Shipments up 12%, Windows sales down 24%. Bleeding share... how's that feel?

It looks like just about everybody is ignoring the death of XP. Microsoft may "wake up smarter" but it may be too late.

Let's go back to CNET News's story on that historic day (December 20, 1996): Apple acquires Next, Jobs

• "In a stunning move, Apple Computer (AAPL) said tonight that it will purchase Next Software in a $400 million deal that will bring former Apple CEO Steve Jobs back to the company he cofounded."
  [snip]
  "The surprise merger also answers the long-awaited question of what Apple's next-generation operating system will hold. The company has been shopping for an operating system since abandoning its own Copland system earlier this year and had been negotiating with Be and other companies to fill that void.

  Apple hopes that Next's object-oriented, Java-enabled open development platform will significantly improve its Internet and intranet position because its technology is agile. It also hopes to capture strength with Next's enterprise position.

  Next's cross-platform development environments in the enterprise and Internet and intranet space allow developers to write once and deploy across a range of Internet and client-server platforms. Amelio said Apple expects to ship products with the Next operating system in 1997."

This is the relevant passage:

...FBI Director Robert Mueller continued that push on Wednesday, but he wouldn't go so far as to say those "private partners" would stop installing requested wiretaps unless certain legal protection is granted.

To some extent, Mueller is stating the obvious: Federal law requires telephone and Internet companies to comply with lawful wiretap court orders or lawful certifications from the attorney general, with stiff penalties for noncompliance. But Mueller said in various ways that he was concerned that lack of retroactive liability protection would harm the government's "relationships" with telephone companies -- which seems to leave in doubt whether all of the administration's requests were legal.

The seemingly reluctant admission came during pointed questioning by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Specter, the committee's ranking member, has proposed an amendment--which has so far been unsuccessful--to a controversial spy law update that would allow lawsuits alleging illegal spying by telephone companies to continue, except with government lawyers substituted in the companies' place.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said he disagreed with that approach, arguing it would provide a "disincentive" for communications companies to team up with federal terrorism investigations.

Then the following exchange ensued:

Specter: A disincentive, OK, but do you think they would stop?
Mueller: I think it is a disincentive...
Specter: But do you think they would stop?
Mueller: I think it would hamper our relationships, yes.... I do think it would hinder our relationships.
Specter: Disincentive, hamper, hinder, but I don't hear you say it would stop....
Mueller: I'm not going to say it's going to stop, but I do believe delay is detrimental to the safety of the country. Delay and lack of clarity, lack of simplicity guiding our relationships inhibits our ability to get the information we need on a daily basis.
...

• Eavesdropping.
• Remote activation of phones.
• Unlocked keypads or other accidental activation. Ever get a call from a phone that was in someone's pocket and hear him talking in the background because he didn't realize his phone had dialed someone? I'm not sure if some two-way radios could have similar issues with push-to-talk buttons accidentally being pressed, but accidental activation seems like it could have been a primary concern back in the day.

Uh, huh. A quick reality check over at dice shows number of jobs for java = 15831, number of jobs for python = 1396, number of jobs for ruby = 759. The same search over at Monster shows number of jobs for java > 5000, number of jobs for python = 1256, number of jobs for ruby = 663.

Did we forget about this?

that's simply another clear intention of IT giants to exploit open source community! they opensource it only because they are realizing java is dieing! Look at this: http://www.news.com/IT-giants-accused-of-exploiting-open-source/2100-7344_3-5726714.html

Speaking of discounts, students now pay full price for iPods. You used to be able to save $20-$30 on them.

I don't care if the discount on iPods were $100, I still wouldn't get one. I last got a portable player, a cd player, several years ago for Roller Blading.

One good thing Scully did was push the Newton, which was spun off into a (profitable) subsidiary before Jobs came back and killed it.

According to Wiki the Apple Newton wasn't successful. "Wired" magazine says "Early models were bulky, expensive and bug-ridden. Apple marketed the Newton poorly, and it was widely ridiculed; a memorable Doonesbury strip by Garry Trudeau effectively doomed the device." In "Apple scraps Newton" C|Net News says the Newton was not historically profitable (dated 27 February 1998).

Didn't see a reason why in the summary or article, but managed to find this with the following:

"every time there is an OS upgrade, the DRM equation gets complex very quickly," said Bennett, general manager of entertainment, video, and sports for MSN. "Every time, you saw support issues. People would call in because they couldn't download licenses. We had to write new code, new configurations each time...We really believe that, going forward, the best thing to do is focus exclusively on Zune."

Paraphrasing, then: We are f**king you, the valued customer, because we can't write an OS that doesn't implode our own DRM. You should buy something else from us instead!

There actually was some hullaballoo about this a while ago. Whatever became of it, I don't know, but the GP isn't exactly making baseless remarks, or rather, their baseless remarks are at least based on other baseless remarks from a while ago:

Network World

C|Net

From what I can find, it seems like it was mostly just unsubstantiated paranoia. I'm no expert, but I did see a Holiday Inn Express commercial once.

The next logical question is, if you password-protect and encrypt your hard drive to thwart precisely this kind of unwarranted and unjustifiable privacy invasion, can Customs force you to divulge your passwords?

not YET...

No. It isn't. The particular article linked in the summary doesn't make that clear, but it's calculated over again every boot time. This article has at least a bit more info.

Don't leave it in standby mode...

I had this same question, but no. It figures the key at boot time.

Hopefully there's some way to keep the thing from figuring the key once it's stolen, as most people will try to, you know, use the PC as a whole before they resort to stripping the drives out of it.

The news.com story says the hard drive doesn't store the key at all. It's figured during the POST process within the hard drive's BIOS config and isn't known to the drive itself when the power is down.

What it sounds like is that if you keep the computer from booting, like a pre-boot password, the drive is utterly useless to a thief. If they can get it to boot instead of staring blankly at the password prompt, the thing will recalculate the key and go merrily on its way.

Hopefully it figures the key on stored CMOS config values so that if you reset the CMOS to get rid of the boot password it'll still not generate the right key.

can be found here at http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9924689-57.html?tag=nefd.lede

TFA also says the subscription bundles OneCare, which seperately costs $50 per year for up to 3 PCs. The typical Slashdot reader would probably find little or no value in OneCare, but novices might like it (especially the included phone/chat/email support).

So for most of us, we're comparing a small recurring subscription to a larger $120 purchase that doesn't expire (but newer versions cost another $120).

Cnet has this article which goes into a little more detail. From what I've gathered it seems they "just moved" to the new building, and got the address wrong the first time (this sort of explains why they put up 3 addresses in 2 days if you buy it). It seems they had to switch payment processing companies from Powerpay to PayPal, because of the rights infringement stuff. But I doubt PayPal's policy is going to be different. Whats next? Cashiers checks to Nigeria?

This is nonsense.

The OEM Windows OS is - for all practical purposes - a one-time purchase for the life of the system.

-- roughly equivalent to the price of two PC games, a pair of replacement ink jet cartridges, or a month of broadband cable service.

For which the buyer gets 100% compatibility with the hardware and software the home user wants to run. 'The Sims' franchise hits 100 million units sold

According to this article (which also contains more detail on building and shipping the Engine), the machine will be on display for 6 months, then it will be moved to Myhrvold's home. So if you want to see it, don't wait too long.

(I found another article which claims the Engine will be at the museum for a year. The CHM website doesn't have definitive data.)

I saw the one at the Science Museum a few years ago, and it's awesome. Well worth a trip.

Last year CNET reported on at least one county in North Carolina already using a UAV to "monitor gatherings of motorcycle riders at the Gaston County fairgrounds from just a few hundred feet in the air -- close enough to identify faces".

Discovery Channel's Future Weapons has provided insight into numerous UAVs, including the Fire Scout, Global Hawk, Predator 2, and the Dominator, their coverage of the Predator 2 particularly demonstrating surveillance and tracking capabilities of these units.

According to DefenseNews the US Air Force just announced the purchase of 28 Predators as part of a contract awarded to General Atomics. The US Air Force has just begun running ads on cable TV as part of their "Above All" campaign that feature the UAVs (sorry, no online video yet).

Initially, it appears that the administration plans to leverage conventional satellites for domestic surveillance purposes.

Mod parent down: Ignorant. From here:

David Cross, a product unit manager at Microsoft, was the group program manager in charge of designing User Account Control (UAC).

There. Credentials established. He was in charge of designing it.

"The reason we put UAC into the (Vista) platform was to annoy users--I'm serious".

There. Intent established.

The media aren't exploiting it. They are reporting it. When the company with world's dominant desktop OS and dominant desktop productivity suite puts a group program manager on stage at a public event with press in attendance, and he specifically reveals that the reason for particular piece of so-called security software is to "annoy users" ... THIS ... IS ... NEWSWORTHY.

The Gump quote is the only piece of your post I agree with. Speaking of which, his comments included the following stats:
- 80% of the warnings were generated by 10 apps
- Some undisclosed number of those 10 apps were from ( ... wait for it, wait for it ... ) Microsoft. How the hell are they going to encourage 3rd party developers to clean up their act when they can't even build good code in house?

More:
- 66% of sessions now run without prompts. (means chance of annoying prompt = 34%)
- 88% of users have not turned off UAC. (means 12% are so fed up they switch it off)
- 7% of UAC permission dialog boxes get a "No" click. (means that 93% of sheeple^h^h^h^h^h users automagically click "Yes". Alternate explanation: Those 7% are too afraid of "Yes", and click "No" by default.)

Maybe sans guns, camera, telemetry...

Photo hosted at Gizmodo, eh.

Maybe they were in Iraq with a clicker for continued laughs. There are some dicks at Gizmodo.

(btw this new javascript enhanced slashdot sucks sweaty moose balls.)

Intel always seemed to have bounced in and out of the graphics chip market. They jumped in just when the first graphics chips that fully supported OpenGL came out. Couldn't keep up, so jumped out, then jumped back in again once the market has consolidated. It should be easier for them now that there are only a handful of players, but then again the remaining players are much larger.

People already do.

Here I go again. Every time I point out real shortcomings of an Apple product, I get modded to oblivion - "There are none so blind as those who will not see." Posted from my MacBook, BTW.

'Tis no mere canard or straw man. Simple economies of scale keep the Macs out of the botnets - not Cupertino prowess.

Microsoft is Swiss Cheese, that's wrapped in foil.

Apple is Swiss Cheese labeled as "Ementhaler" - believing that the luxury branding will ward off serious scrutiny, but leaving those holes exposed.

Lo! http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9905095-37.html

It's like this every year. Apple leaves vulnerabilities wide enough to drive a truck through, and I've lost count of the number of these things given away as prizes to the cracking teams.

Apple patch the OS like Microsoft used to, before Slammer. The ususal culprits? QuickTime and Safari.

The guys who cracked the MacBook Air need only have coupled this with the DNS flaw in AT&T customer TwoWire routers, and a very bad situation would exist in the wild. Not trivial - but not too difficult. The hard part was finding the flaw - now it's an exercise for the Kid33z. If there were an economically feasible number of Macs to do this, you can bet it would be crime syndicates and not kids - and you'd have a happy, Apple botnet.

Here I go again. Every time I point out real shortcomings of an Apple product, I get modded to oblivion - "There are none so blind as those who will not see." Posted from my MacBook, BTW.

'Tis no mere canard or straw man. Simple economies of scale keep the Macs out of the botnets - not Cupertino prowess.

Microsoft is Swiss Cheese, that's wrapped in foil.

Apple is Swiss Cheese labeled as "Ementhaler" - believing that the luxury branding will ward off serious scrutiny, but leaving those holes exposed.

Lo! http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9905095-37.html

It's like this every year. Apple leaves vulnerabilities wide enough to drive a truck through, and I've lost count of the number of these things given away as prizes to the cracking teams.

Apple patch the OS like Microsoft used to, before Slammer. The ususal culprits? QuickTime and Safari.

The guys who cracked the MacBook Air need only have coupled this with the DNS flaw in AT&T customer TwoWire routers, and a very bad situation would exist in the wild. Not trivial - but not too difficult. The hard part was finding the flaw - now it's an exercise for the Kid33z. If there were an economically feasible number of Macs to do this, you can bet it would be crime syndicates and not kids - and you'd have a happy, Apple botnet.

Yang has his head up his a** and he is so darn proud that "oh no this company cannot get taken over by Microsoft."

Except some of Yahoo!'s largest shareholders want Microsoft to raise it's bid: "Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante". "Legg Mason Offers Yahoo Some Support".

Personally I would be, "ok you want to pay me a few billion? Hey sure and then I will start a new company again."

I hadn't thought of that and I wonder if the shareholders above thought of it too. Depending on how much they paid for their shares they may come out ahead by selling to MS then taking the money and starting a new business like Yahoo! with ads, search, and communities. The problem though would be in recruiting enough surfers.

The would probably win a proxy fight because those investors who have shares in Yahoo have more shares in MSFT.

Except some of Yahoo!'s largest shareholders want Microsoft to raise it's offer before they will approve it: "Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante". "Legg Mason Offers Yahoo Some Support".

2. Yahoo predictably resists the offer, to the point where it's arguably *not* acting in the best interests of it's shareholders.

Except some of Yahoo!'s largest shareholders want Microsoft to raise it's bid: "Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante". Legg Mason Offers Yahoo Some Support.

his merger is going to happen, regardless of what the current Yahoo board may say. If they don't approve it, they will be replaced by the angry shareholders, who are being robbed of the best offer they'll ever see for their shares.

"Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante".

If I were a stockholder I would of been mad if the board had accepted MS's offer. Those who have been to a bazaar and have offered to buy something, an those merchants who sell in bazaars, know the first offer a buyer makes is low.

If Microsoft is going to do a hostile take over by buying their shares on the open market, they'll probably get Yahoo for less than their current offer.

No they wouldn't, as more stocks are bought it drives up the price of the remaining stocks.

Same thing happened with Cablevision a few months ago. When the Dolan family offered a buy-out for $36, some 'major' shareholders rejected the offer, pompously saying that Cablevision is worth more. Well guess what, the market didn't think so. The second the buyout was rejected, the stock plummeted below $30 and is now at $23!

Guess what? "Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante". And today the price closed higher than before MS made the offer.

Don't forget that Ruiz is the highest-paid CEO in the semiconductor industry.

You're right. I wouldn't be surprised if the shareholders file a class action against the board on this one. That's a huge premium to walk away from.

"Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante".

Why would Yahoo refuse to accept an offer that is clearly more than they'd get from anyone else?

"Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante".

They can simply buy up enough stock. Provided there aren't majority holder(s) that simply don't sell stock, and I don't think there are for Yahoo

"Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante".

I'd go with incredibly stuck-up and stupid, to be honest. Coy would be if the offer legitimately undervalued the company, which it does not.

Do you know more than Yahoo!'s largest stockholders? "Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante".

The only reason a stockholder would not accept an offer at twice the stock's value was if said individual thought he or she could somehow gain more utility from holding on to the stock. This letter is simply Yahoo! covering its ass.

"Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante".

Yahoo can only make demands if their shareholders back the current board, but they do not.

"Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante".

"Finally, I do believe that Yahoo! is worth more than that ammount," If that was true, Yahoo would already be valued at that much. While it may be true at some point in the future that may be the case, but if I was a Yahoo investor considering the economy is entering a recession and Google is starting to slow down I would take the money and find a better investment. The Yahoo board doesn't have its shareholders best interest in mind here. Whether it is good for the internet, computers, world peace, global warming or the war in Iraq it doesn't matter. The CEOs have a duty to the shareholders that they seem to be neglecting here.

Back when Microsoft made the offer one of Yahoo!'s largest shareholders said MS had to raise the offer: "Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante"..

Why haven't this been an issue for all the other states that tax iTunes downloads then?

http://www.news.com/2009-1022_3-6059914.html?part=deitel&tag=6059914&subj=news

It was the first one to go down and it only took 2 minutes.

http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-9905095-37.html

I bet my bottom dollar, (well bottom uro), that you office had a bunch of Optiplex GX270/GX280's. These are prone to the dreaded bulging capacitor problem http://www.news.com/PCs-plagued-by-bad-capacitors/2100-1041_3-5942647.html. We had a bunch of them pop over the last year or so. It's unfortunate, but Dell have been pretty good to us since.

Longer than Vista I hope.

Actually, such technology exists. Here's C|Net's shorter-nicer writeup. LG doesn't have any info on their US pages yet, but it's coming.

Although I'm all for throwing out the old and starting new, the sheer fact that Windows has to support not just legacy software (which can be easy to emulate, sort of) but legacy hardware as well, probably means more people will have issues with this than not.

Unfortunately for Microsoft when people are ready to throw out the old and start new, they get a cool new Mac. It doesn't run legacy Windows malware.
Instead of the flood of malware, Mac users are faced with news headlines like this.

http://www.news.com/Mac-malware-door-creaks-open/2100-7349_3-5700982.html
  "Mac malware door creaks open"