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Not just "Windows" but "_dows", remember the Lindows lawsuit? Although MS didn't actually win that completely. They lost in a US court but won in some European courts. Lindows eventually gave up fighting and changed their name to Linspire. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115668,0 0.asp

I don't work for Webroot, I just like Spysweeper. PC world rated them here.

A 1999 PC World story, Software Bugs Run Rampant, looked at consumer software bugginess, including Microsoft's.

No, No, and No.

Like I said, "It's worth a couple hundred more to get an decent machine, OS installed, with decent support." That goes for Linux, too. For most consumers, if they're confronted with buying:

        A) a shoddy machine with no OS for $200
        -or-
        B) a decent-quality computer from a major vendor, installed with Linux, and with good support, for $500

which do you think they'd choose? It doesn't take a marketing genius.

Around here Mom and Pop stores are offering Linux pre-installed on the naked PCs. Its free and it doesn't really cost anything to install it (If the motherboard devices are supported). Ninety percent of the Windows support costs are due to Virus/Malware, not hardware. You just dont incur those support costs (as of now) with Linux or Macs.

See URL here: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121858,0 0.asp

Gartner and IDC report slightly different figures due to the different ways in which the companies record "white-box" shipments, or PCs sold by local distributors or resellers without a well-recognized brand name. These white-box vendors account for a larger share of the market in Gartner's results.

People are buying the naked PCs, there just seems to be some confusion on what they are installing on them. The general purpose PC has been around for ten years now, I think most people wouldn't have a problem installing an O/S if it did most of the work for them. Bonus if the O/S came from the Mom & Pop shop for free :)

Enjoy,

Your post is misleading. Yes, Apple's units are flat from 2000. What you're not saying is that they're significantly up from 2001-2004, and that they're inches away from eclipsing their 2000 unit sales figure.

Also, Dell's growth has been abnormally high vs. the PC industry as a whole, they're the only one that grew through the downturn. Apple is not really in direct competition with Dell, they have completely different value propositions.

PC Industry unit growth (CY): 1999 = +23%, 2000 = 14.5% , 2001 = -7%, 2002 = -1%, 2003 = +9%, 2004 = +15%, 2005 = (predicted) +0.5%

Apple's unit growth (FY, ending September): 1999 = +25%, 2000 = +32%, 2001 = -32%, 2002 = 0%, 2003 = -3%, 2004 = +9%, 2005 = (predicted) +38%

Apple's unit sales in FY 2000: 4.6 million. FY2001-2004, around 3 million. Apple's unit sales in FY 2005: 4.53 million.

Dell's unit growth in 2005 (FY, end): (predicted) +17%. They grew 50% in 1999 and well over 20% each year through most of the downturn.

Sources: Gartner & IDC stats for 2000, Dell's 10-K filings from FY2001-2005 where they reported their share vs. industry share, Apple's 10-K filings from FY2000-2004, plus their 10-Q from Q3 2005 combined with the Q4 announced figures. and Gartner's 2005 prediction.

A couple of notes: Apple's growth figures tend to lag the industry because they count "last year's" holiday season. Notwithstanding that, Apple's 38% unit jump relative to a flat industry, and nearly double that of Dell for FY 2005, is significant. Does it mean Apple is killing Dell? No! Does it mean that more people are buying Macs? Probably. I find the argument that all those 32% that bought Macs in 2000 are en-masse upgrading this year somewhat implausible. This holiday's figures are going to be very interesting to compare vs. the rest of the industry.

As with many new technologies, the p0rn industry will probably be the first to deploy this 33,177,600 pixel technology. Boy, I feel a bit inadaquate as my halloween webcam (goes offline Saturday night) only has 337,920 pixels (704x480) - I guess size matters, eh? ;-)

This patent was overturned in March 2004

No, it wasn't. The Ars article is out of date and wrong besides. The March 2004 ruling was an appeals judge throwing out the original trial results and ordering a re-exam.

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122786,0 0.asp

Recently the USPTO reaffirmed the patent is valid.

Googling for Mathew Gilliat-Smith, First 4 Internet's CEO, reveals many articles:

http://news.com.com/New+CD+copy-lock+technology+ne ars+market/2100-1027_3-5492395.html
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121949,0 0.asp
http://www.it-enquirer.com/main/ite/more/digital_r ights_management/

They claim to the press that their software will not damage or criple computers. Oops. The PCWorld article pretty clearly explains the extent to which First 4 Internet's product controls the number of copies you make.

Meh, ,who needs a case when you can just use a pumpkin!

Gates threatened to pull Windows off the market in 2002: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,95904,00 .asp

there is a camera phone to your liking then :

http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,1230 92,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

Samsung's 7-Megapixel Camera Phone Hits Road

Cell phone will sell in China next, possibly other markets will follow.

Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

BEIJING -- Samsung Electronics plans to ship in a mobile phone with a built-in 7-megapixel camera in China later this year, according to a company spokesperson.

        Advertisement

This marks the first time that the company has made a version of its 7-megapixel camera phone available outside its home market of South Korea, said Erin Lee, a Samsung spokesperson. "China is the only market outside South Korea where we are offering our most advanced products," she said.

While the new camera, the SCH-M709, will only be available in China, Samsung could roll out the phone in other countries, depending on customer demand and the response from operators, Lee said.

Camera Phone Specs

Samsung is showing the SCH-M709 at its booth at the PT/Wireless & Networks Comm China 2005 exhibition (PT Expo) here this week.

The SCH-M709 is built for CDMA 2000-1X mobile networks and is designed to look like a phone on one side and a digital camera on the other. The camera phone has a 7-megapixel camera with a 3X optical zoom and a 5X digital zoom and can take digital still pictures and video. The SCH-M709 also has a built-in MP3 player and has TV output.

The phone has a 240-by-320-pixel LCD screen capable of showing 16 million colors and weighs in at 5.6 ounces. Its dimensions are 5 by 2 by 2.2 inches. The SCH-M709 will be available in China during December. Pricing has not been announced, but comparable models sell for around $900, Lee said.

There is an interesting article at pcworld ( http://pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122700,pg,3, 00.asp ). It states that both AMD and Intel have low cost 64 bit microprocessors out(AMD Sempron 2200+, Intel Celeron D.) The AMD Sempron cost only $60 so it is less than half the cheapest microprocessor reviewed here. I would like to see one of these reviewed using a 64 bit Linux operating system with only 64 bit programs.

Yup. I pulled it out of my ass. And thanks for supporting DRM.

Ubuntu isn't the most user-friendly Linux, because its still a work in progress. For years publications like PC Magazine and PC World have been giving that honor to Xandros (and Linspire at times). And I think they're right. It's also closely Debian-derrived and usable with the "Debian universe", and the Deluxe version lets you run a list of supported Windows apps via Crossover Office (a nice cushion-- I run DVD Shrink with it). You can get nice Linux-native stuff like Skype preconfigured with it. Hardware detection has always been its strength and I'd say today its definately in the top 3 in this respect. The Xandros File Manager is very Explorer-like and stable, with some bennies like CD-ripping and DVD burning.

Xandros Open Circulation edition is available via Bittorrent.

As powerful GUI environments go, Xandros was the first to autoconfigure USB devices, the first to logon to Windows Domains (and even create them!), the first with VPN and encrypted home folders, the first with anything approaching a usable printer setup, and many other boring-yet-crucial features that wouldn't give the average Slashdot Linux enthusiast much of a thrill.

If you want an almost more-Windows-than-Windows environment, get the new SUSE v10 and install it with KDE. The Control Center dialogs are less elegant than Xandros, and even Windows XP, in that they have GOBS of powerful options dialogs. But they are still dialogs and "friendly" to a non-Unixy power-user. IMO it is a little weak on hardware detection and there's no APT. Their target is Windows power users and admins, so the slickness doesn't mean they'll knock off the rough edges to the extent Xandros does.

Linspire itself is rather unorthodox: It defaults to root auto-logins (bad) and its package-naming will present more difficulties when you want to grab stuff from Debian. You also have to pay for access to much of the software repository, so its no coincidence that they've marginalized its compatability with Debian's.

K/Ubuntu is very nice. What it can do, it does well after a couple iterations. And system configuration is at least elegant and approachable. But even by their own admission it needs about another year.

Thats okay. The United States is the global leader in sending spam anyways.

http://www.techweb.com/wire/26804974/
http://news.com.com/U.S.+cooks+up+most+spam/2100-1 024_3-5322803.html/
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,117336,0 0.asp/

What good is a leak. If nobody wants it?

This is a gross misconception and an attitude that is causing OSS to fall further and further behind commercial offerings from Apple and Microsoft. The fact is that millions or people want it! There are countless fan sites like Flexbeta, BetaNews, NeoWin, WinSupersite, PCWorld, ZDNet, and thousands more that are all breathless with anticipation of Vista. They and theirmillions of readers eagerly await Vista's release and the countless "innovations" that it will bring.

Meanwhile, back in the OSS camp, people are saying insightful stuff like Gaim is more than adequate and RTFM. Microsoft IE sucks, yet it is still the dominant browser and I guarantee that at least 50% of today's Firefox users will switch back to IE upon the release of Vista. That is very telling but, people don't seem to be interested in the message.

People, like you, need to get a better attitude. They need to look at what Microsoft is doing and meet or exceed its capabilities. It is not enough to rest on your laurels while being pretencious and self important. Microsoft is charging ahead and is positioning itself to unleash ten years of its concentrated effort, en mass. Right now, OSS is rapidly slipping behind while people pound their chests saying; "but, we're more secure!". This is not enough to prevent you from being marginalized into obscurity by Microsoft, as if OSS wasn't obscure enough already.

How many of your relatives know what Linux is? How many of them know what Windows is?

I think I've found some neat hidden messages in Apple's announcement, if you rearrange the letters you get the following cryptic clues:

Then geronimo
Meeting honor
hint
thin
heroine
remote
nitrogen home
ignore hot men
riot
in no other gem

So I'm expecting a diamond studded, highly addictive PVR, with air-con all in a package no bigger than 7 inches cubed.
Maybe its the new iMac.

(Thanks to http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/000966.h tml and http://www.anagramgenius.com/server.html)

Isn't it a bit soon to be trying to replace DVD? I mean VHS lasted for something like 20 years, DVD has managed about 6.

I remember pointing this out a long time ago, when DVDs first came out. HDTV was already well on its way when DVDs first arrived on the scene, but no support for HD was put into the DVD spec. If there was any forethought put into the DVD spec, then there would have been support for the higher resolution HDTVs. The problem, of course, was technology. A 12-cm disk at the time couldn't store the data for an HD video. This was before MPEG4 though, and theoretically, the creators could have assumed that some time in the future a better compression algorithm would make it possible to store an HD signal into a DVD size, and made it an option for the future.

What I think will happen though, is that studios will create hybrid-DVDs that will play in both current DVD players as a standard DVD, and have a separate layer that will only be visible to the High Definition player. This is already done in Blu-Ray which may be what is making it more appetizing to studios. They sell one movie, and it's compatible with standard and high definition players. It makes the new disks more like an extension to DVD.

fingerprint biometric companies are working hard at creating methods of inhibiting entry with anything but live human skin:

IS that why an average Joe was able to fool one fingerprint scanner (out of two he tried) with Gummi Bears??

http://yahoo.pcworld.com/yahoo/article/0,aid,11657 3,pg,5,00.asp

Gummi bears (Brach's Wild N' Fruity variety) were next. I melted them ... carefully spooned liquid gummi (avoiding air bubbles) into my ceramic molds to produce yet another batch of fake fingertips.

The Defcon Authenticator's capacitive sensor, clearly recognizing that the object was a former Ursus gummius, failed to log in my fake print. The on-screen image of a fingertip did register a portion of the print, faintly--but that was as far as I got. I moved on to the U.are.U reader. Bingo! After I enrolled my thumb, the optical reader accepted the gummi bear imitation as my Windows log-in. It didn't get every gummi fingerprint; and the ones it did read, it didn't see clearly every time. But the gummi print worked, over and over again. I also managed to enroll a lime-green gummi as a user, and then used my thumb to log on. Gummi and thumb were interchangeable for log-on purposes, though my thumb wasn't nearly as delicious.

And that's just some Schmoe with a handful of candy. Imagine someone who actually puts a few hundred dollars of preparation into it. Thin latex molds so his natural body heat 'shows' thru. Special compounds that react electrically like skin, etc.

""Neowin reports, that a new web mail service launched today is promising to bring users an email inbox of 30gb."

Will 30gb be enough to knock gmail from PC World's spot as the #2 best product of 2005? Of course, they might have to shovel some cash PC World's way to do it, as that's the only conceivable way I can see gmail even placing in the top 20, let alone number two.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA NCQ Internal Hard Drive http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,11949 7,00.asp

Why does PC World rate Dantz Retrospect number 1 when the reviewer didn't think the upgrade was worth the money?

I agree with the reviewer. The user interface is screwy. The product CERTAINLY does not rate a number 1. There is no explanation of the other backup products, and how truly bad Retrospect is in comparison.

Look at PC World's review of Roxio Easy Media Creator: "While version 7.5 remains a bit ponderous to navigate and threatens to overwhelm users with choices, this solid update pulls EMC even with Nero 6.6 Ultra Edition."

Why is Easy Media Creator first choice if it is "even"? Also, did the reviewer take into account Roxio's history of releasing buggy software?

The review of one of the most expensive APC backup power supplies reads like an ad to get customers to pay more for power they don't really need. Also, the reviewer did very little testing.

The reviewer says "Power surges and outages can impair productivity and damage expensive equipment." I've never known a power outage to damage computer equipment. (With the Windows 98 FAT file system, it is necessary to run Scandisk after a sudden power outage.) The statement seems like a sales message. Computers need backup power supplies, but a much smaller one would be fine for most users. That fact isn't mentioned.

Just look at iTunes, the article was written back in 2003 and is grossly outdated

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,11048 2,00.asp

Did Citrix buy GoToMyPC? Were they going to?

While I am on the subject, whatever happened to Expertcity? I was offering service via their service for a bit and making some $. I took a month or so break and it was gone. Very odd. No notice of any kind.

In the new PC World ranking of the best 100 products of 2005:

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,12076 3,pg,12,00.asp

Dude, try the other way around. MSTV (MSFT IPTV platform) has been here for some time now (at least 2 years), and they were all over the Press for IBC...

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122466,0 0.asp

Google has a lot of catchup to do if they are trying to do the same thing. But maybe they aren't. MSFT is about the platform, GOOG might be about the content...

I don't know of any time the update servers ever hosted a virus to users. There has been at least one instance of them shipping a virus on a product CD though, if that helps. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,101930,0 0.asp

Maybe they will ship wrapped in a small, foldable faraday cage like they are doing with the US pasports. That way you just have to say :

"'Scuse me while I whip this out!"

So unless you are complaining that 266mhz PII and 128mb of RAM are too high system requirements, then you really don't know what you are talking about.

Don't blame me, I'm just going by what I've been told by the official press releases. A PC World review said here:

[Microsoft] advises getting 512MB of RAM and a "modern" CPU--more than Windows XP needs

Past experience with prior releases from this vendor has shown that if they say 512M, you will probably really need more than that. As far as the video requirements, don't blame me, this is what a WinHEC reviewer had to say about it in this article:

for those with an older video card, Longhorn will look a lot like Windows 2000

So, if you had been hoping to get a sample of all that wonderful eye candy technology that we're supposed to be all hyped up about, the sad fact is that you didn't really get to see it. Aw... You have posted here to rave about the look and feel of a new Windows 2000 theme. Congratulations.

The same article mentions:

The top-of-the-line interface... will demand a high-end video card with at least 64MB of video memory

Note how it says "at least." So, I'm left to wonder whether the 128M you were talking about wasn't what you had in your video card instead of the motherboard.

So, then, I went to Tom's hardware, and found this:

Windows Vista's new display driver model may compel users to upgrade to a PC with 2 GByte of DDR3 SDRAM and a graphics card with at least 256 MByte memory [...] As for system RAM, Page reportedly said, 512 MByte is "heaps" for a 32-bit system. For a 64-bit system, however, "you're going to want 2 gigs of DDR3 RAM."

I can only conclude from this that you know more about this than Tom's Hardware and PC World and News.com. 128M indeed!

Oh, and we were running some of the 2D and 3D WPF applications on it, and they even worked.

Great to hear that your beta software actually runs. That's some high standards there.

As it stands now, the technologies Microsoft are starting to disclose to its partners and Developer are bombshells of technology

I'm so excited for their partners. Those lucky partners must really be on the floor hyperventilating in an epic fashion. And I thought it was just an overmarketed eyecandy-riddled program launcher disguising a rat's nest of hidden vendor lock-in schemes. But it launches bombshells too? Now that's exciting... There wouldn't be any pterosaurs flying around nearby would there? (Never mind that.)

especailly if people in here are trying to even remotely keep up with the R&D that has been producing this stuff in some hidden closet for the past 5 years.

Stuff classified as R&D expenses qualify for tax breaks don't they? So you're saying that we're actually paying twice for this thing, even if we choose not to use the convicted monopolist's lock-in product? We're almost as lucky as their beta testers, er I mean partners.

other parts of Linux and BSD that are only scrambling to catch up to Windows

Really? Tell us more about this modern technology you would like to see in Linux and BSD. No doubt I can read more about it in your newsletter.

Essentially this is just a word of caution, Toshiba has in the past had faulty designs on overpriced hardware and screwed over the people who buy their products. I'm not just pulling this out of my ass, Toshiba claimed guilt on both of their laptop design class action law suits.

• releasing a patch after the report of said vulnerability
• buying an antivirus company
• buying an anti-spyware company

Made it to that list too, maily due to their security focus. http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,12049 8,00.asp Granted, Moz is #1 on that list, but it has one big bonus over opera, that is its FREE. However I find this mostly true: Firefox: The best all-around alternative to IE. Great for power users who want to add functionality to the browser, and appropriate for newbies just getting started. Internet Explorer: Best for corporate users in controlled environments and those who spend most of their time on Microsoft-branded or IE-specific Web sites. Netscape: Best for AOL subscribers (with AOL Instant Messenger integration) and those who are willing to put up with some rough edges to use other goodies, including an HTML editor and e-mail program. Opera: Best for power users who keep many pages open at once and perform frequent downloads. There's an e-mail program included, but banner ads on the free version of the browser are annoying.

It's a nice thought, but as happy as Intel apparently is to have Apple as a customer, Apple's got a lot of catching up to do before their clout is greater than Dell's.

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115586,0 0.asp

old news :(

We all know this but I can't believe that PC World are actually saying it. They are one of the hardest sellers of extended warranties that I know.

FYI, PC World, the American magazine, and PC World, the UK Superstore, are completely unrelated establishments. The magazine does share a common ownership with the UK Mag "PC Advisor."

Fair enough.

And a note to GP: that aside, they are in fact talking about Windows Messenger as in the IM client...

RTFA? ;)

What PC World doesn't want you to know, is that you can read articles how Tim intended by going straight for the printable version. I give you gold here.

click here for the single ("printer friendly") page so you don't need to click on the next page link after 3 paragraphs.

http://pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,ai d,122094,00.asp

I have heard about PayPal doing some shady things in the past, but should we be so quick to judge in light of scammers like those described here?

Unfortunately, when disasters strike, some people are eager to take advantage. You saw it in New Orleans with looters and other horrible violence, and you see it online with scammers everywhere.

The site in question is probably legitimate, but maybe PayPal had a legitimate reason to want to cover itself believe that it may not be?

Just a thought.

"as stated elsewhere most BT users won't break your knees, crush your nuts in a vise or bust a cap in your ass if you go after them."

And neither will the warez groups and the Chinese DVD factory owners and the guys with the contacts at the studio who get the screeners. There's a HUGE reading comprehension issue here, folks -- you're reading "organized crime" and I guess you're thinking of the Italian-American mafia or something. You're smarter than that. You should understand that "organized crime" means just that: more than one person working in cooperation. RTFA if you'd like to learn more. I can't believe this post was modded "insightful."

Regardless of this, the feds bust warez groups, bootleg DVD operations and other organized piracy schemes

Here's an example, and another one, and another one, and another one.

It took me all of like two minutes with Google to find these.

Actually, the proposed alternative to full suspension of their services --which is not what the FCC is calling for-- is being called a "soft disconnect". This means that while VOIP customers that do not personally acknowledge the dangers of using VOIP to dial 911 will have their services disconnected, they will still be able to call 911. For your ref (yes, it's from PCWorld, but it's still informative):

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122322,0 0.asp

UMDs are actually the same resolution as DVDs, however the psp scales them down for it smaller screen.

"SCEI has yet to announce UMD support in products beyond the PSP, but it has talked about the possibility of making it a common format for a family of gadgets. Should this happen, the UMD movies may benefit from future players with larger screens. The movies are stored on the discs at a resolution of 720 pixels by 480 pixels, says Chatani. That's the same resolution as DVD." http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,1201 13,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp (SCEI = Sony Computer Entertainment... Chatani = Masa Chatani, corporate executive and chief technology officer of SCEI)

Sony intended from the get go on standalone players and recorded the movies accordingly. Some question the size or the quality of a 1.8GB UMD disc compared to the average 7 GB DVD. Most UMDs don't feature the same amount of extra footage, although most contain at least some... Most of the extra storage is gained through the use of Mpeg4 compression, as opposed to the much older and less efficient Mpeg2 that DVDs use.

They are costly, but so is any new format. They are currently selling like hotcakes, and prices should drop to 12-15$ within the next year for the average movie.

OK if you want REAL numbers, 14.3 Million for Yahoo, 28,million for AOL, 20.7 for MSN... Not too shabby eh?

OK this was for the US and from 2001. (haven't time for a more thorough search, but Google could help you if you want more recent numbers)

(Quoting from pcworld.com)

START QUOTE
Yahoo Messenger appears to be holding firm as the third most popular instant messaging client. Market researchers say Yahoo Messenger's U.S. customer base is growing faster than that of America Online.

During September, 28 million customers used America Online's AOL Instant Messaging client in the United States, according to Jupiter Media Metrix. Microsoft's MSN Messenger service had 20.7 million unique users, and Yahoo Messenger weighed in with 14.3 million.

END QUOTE

FTA - "The posters detected 87,000 Bluetooth phones over a two week period, of which about 17% were willing to download the clip, says Scott."

First 17% is more like 14,790. I couldn't find a reference to the 17,000 number. (Perhaps its somewhere on the corporate web site link.) But even ignoring this point I'd still question the "willing" statement. Does that mean people intentionlly enabled access to their cell phones. Or is it more like 17% of blue tooth cell phonesare left unsecured by their owners?

Sort of like claiming 40% of PCs are "willing" to be zombies for spam.

I thought Microsoft endorsed their embraced and extended and renamed RSS. Seems like it's now not Atom vs RSS, but "Web Feeds" vs RSS.

"the progenitor was a simple integrated circuit with two transistors in 1958 ... [w]e are probably at the same stage with Y-junctions"

Intel debuted the 4004, the first commodity microprocessor chip, in 1971 with 2300 transistors. That's 13 years, during which we had a space race (and Minuteman missile program) to stimulate investment. Today we have $trillions in returns on chip investment as stimulus, as well as an existing investment/manufacturing/marketing infrastructure. As well as highly useful micron-scale chips and software for design. So perhaps we're looking at a breakthrough "nanoprocessor" sometime earlier than 2028.

..."Among computer and Internet companies, Microsoft, through its PAC and employees, is the largest contributor during the 2004 election cycle. The software giant's employees and PAC have donated nearly $1.9 million to federal candidates or political groups. Microsoft's donations more than triple those of any other tech company, according to Opensecrets.org.
Microsoft's PAC and employees combine to be the 19th largest single donator to the Bush campaign during the 2004 election cycle, contributing nearly $185,000 as of early July..."

• Oh wait, they did remove sources from Google News because newspapers complained....
• Oh wait, they did remove search results because of DMCA takedown notices....