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according to this http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=196 Sun themselves say that ODF is significantly slower than Microsoft's XML format.

I can't think of one thing Google's done to piss me off.

The censoring of search results in China doesn't piss you off? The bundling of the Google Toolbar in popular applications doesn't piss you off? The spying on users by uploading their documents to Google doesn't piss you off?

Wow. What does it take to piss you off? Video ads?

From a more recent blog entry: Update 30-June 2:15PM PDT: Microsoft says they have no intention of answering any questions about WGA. According to the same Waggener Edstrom spokesperson who sent me the statement reprinted above, "We are not granting interviews on this, as all of the information we have to share about WGA Notifications is contained in the response I provided below and the PressPass article that I sent you a link for."

Notice how, as I predicted, that the PR agency would hide behind the excuse of "that's all the info we have to share with you"?

Maybe you should read this then..

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=89

It gets better. Later this year they're likely making WGA MANDATORY and may implement a kill switch on the OS. So if WGA decides you're a pirate your OS will give a 30 day warning and then lock you out ENTIRELY.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=84

What happens when some script kiddie writes a virus/worm that changes your installation key? Because that's all it will take to launch a most massive DOS attack on all windows boxes.

Except... "WGA will kill" is speculation which originated from advice given by a low-level tech in the company. The journalist followed up with requests for clarification from Microsoft, and that company and its pr firm would neither confirm nor deny at the time. The most recent chapter in the saga is that an official statement, quoted in the above abstract, perhaps clarifies Microsoft's intentions. Nonetheless, Microsoft's agent has gone on to say that they they will not entertain any requests for interviews on the subject. I quote:

Update 30-June 2:15PM PDT: Microsoft says they have no intention of answering any questions about WGA. According to the same Waggener Edstrom spokesperson who sent me the statement reprinted above, "We are not granting interviews on this, as all of the information we have to share about WGA Notifications is contained in the response I provided below and the PressPass article that I sent you a link for."

Perhaps these statements are a consequence of the way WGA was rolled out, and the way, allegedly, some people have had WGA nags when they have legitimate licenses. My guess is that the Microsoft lawyers were smelling lawsuits (there's one already) and that's what put the company into clam mode.

SCO's financial reports show no such income.

Umm, yeah, except for that $16,000,000 cheque that MS wrote them for something MS had already paid for, and the $50,000,000 "gift" from the PIPE fairy, which was brokered by MS.

<sarcasm>
No, no such income at all.
</sarcasm>

SCO's financial reports show no such income.

Umm, yeah, except for that $16,000,000 cheque that MS wrote them for something MS had already paid for, and the $50,000,000 "gift" from the PIPE fairy, which was brokered by MS.

<sarcasm>
No, no such income at all.
</sarcasm>

While MicroSoft may be the greatest evil unleashed upon computing, they say they won't kill your PC. Now, whether you trust them or not, turning off computers en masse would not be in their best interests.

As we have mentioned previously, as the WGA Notifications program expands in the future, customers may be required to participate. [emphasis added] Microsoft is gathering feedback in select markets to learn how it can best meet its customers' needs and will keep customers informed of any changes to the program.

As others have noted in this thread, the mainstream media continues to repeat the falsehood that Microsoft is responsible for the accessibility of MS-Office (which is to say, the extent to which Windows assistive technology vendors have special-cased and reverse-engineering MS-Office). David Berlind's interview with Curtis Chong of the National Federation of the Blind make this very clear (see his blog at: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2163

Just thought that you guys might wanna know that Microsoft has came up with an article on removing WGA.

Just thought that you guys might wanna know that Microsoft has came up with an article on removing WGA.

Too bad for Intel that AMD is going to start producing 45nm chips 18 months after they ship 65nm chips, which is only months away now. AMD will claim the price/performance crown back when they go to 65nm. Then they will catch up with Intel on smaller processes when they move to 45nm. Even worse for Intel are the advances in HT and Direct Connect that will come through at about the same time, making AMD's chips even more attractive.

AMD sets a course for 2008

I am impressed with Intel's technology of late but at this point I still think AMD's future looks brighter. Intel was just too late to the party at a crucial moment in history. Netburst and Itanium was a turning point. Intel invested too much money on technology that ended up having no future.

Is Google Checkout available on any country but the US? I live in Portugal, and Google Checkout seems to insist that any valid address I type is set to "United States" (a fixed field which is impossible to change). Also, at the first step of the registration, valid US business IDs are necessary. The terms of service also seem to preclude anything but an US-registered company.

FYI this blog seems to have reached the same conclusion: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=244

With 70% of Internet commerce being outside the US, is this move by Google so clever? I would assume that most people living far away from PayPal's HQ in the US, who never receive a reply from their customer support just because they're not US customers, would flood the gates to get a valid Google Checkout account...

- Gwyn

Here is a case from 2005. This is not necessarily IM logging, but it does point to a similar issue. The case I am trying to remember is from earlier then this since I was only a Sophomore or Junior in college at the time, so sometime in 2002-2003 (I think).

There is a case where a keystroke logger did not fall under the law, but the argument used there was that it only intercepted the communications between the keyboard and PC...Just as I am wrapping this up, here is one more example, though I hate it even more. This is still not the one I am looking for...but it give you an idea.

There are virtually no restrictions on the use of cryptography or encryption technology in Canada. Famously, this is the reason that the OpenBSD project is based in Canada and not the US - the extensive use of encryption in OpenSBD would mean that, amongst other things, if it were US-based its development and distribution would be severely curtailed. People distributing the software may technically even be arrested, depending on how stringently their laws were interpreted.

This proposed "warrantless" internet surveillance bill will encounter a great deal of resistance in Canada, and with a minority government it's passage is by no means guaranteed. In the event that it does become law, at least people can encrypt anything & everything they send over the internet. A law such as this, however, would be challenged in the courts almost immediately here.

Actually, one can argue that the only reason why DX is successful is because of its submissions, or should I say acquisitions. Microsoft joined OpenGL ARB and all they did was stall the OpenGL with threats of patent infringement. That's all that was needed for them to take the lead. Any graphics developer will tell you what a fine API DirectX is.

Bezos doesn't have $90 billion. Amazon's total market cap is $15.24 billion ( http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AMZN ). Bezos is not the sole owner of Amazon. I could believe $9 billion, but he would be completely broke afterward.

Of course, Paul Allen is one of Bezos' partners in Blue Origin, and Allen's a bit richer. Still, I think that Blue Origin's business model only works if they can get the initial launch off for quite a bit less than the $30 billion that other initial launches cost (subsequent launches would be cheaper for a reusable vehicle and "spaceport").

Googling found http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-803274.html which indicates that Bezos' net worth is in the low billions.

Remember Adrian Lamo? AKA The "Homeless Hacker"..http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-507707 8.html

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=1150

Who are these asshole regulators that can put on a tax with no debate ?

They are more worried about F-ING Wyoming.

The USF tax needs to fricking DIE.

I currently have the issue where the machine simply turns off when the battery has reached around 30-40%, according to the operating system's battery meter.

Then, there is the issue of some batteries swelling, slightly to severely. If this is shown to be heat related, it may be also related to the issue of too much thermal paste being applied during manufacturing, thereby not allowing heat to be dissipated properly via the heatpipe and associated fans in a controlled fashion, but rather causing it to be dissipated in an uncontrolled way. Like, discharged into the interior of the case, affecting things like the battery.

The battery has definitely not suffered an "internal explosion", as the submitter speculates. This appears to occur over time to the batteries that do exhibit this issue, and it is by no means representative of the majority of MacBook Pro batteries. We've got plenty of MacBook Pros here, and we have yet to see one that exhibits this issue in a noticeable way.

These issues have not yet been acknowledged by Apple. While Apple is actually, from a statistical and reporting standpoint according to consumer organizations like Consumer Reports, the best at responding to these types of problems, it generally does not respond to or acknowledge any problems unless it already has a solution (or there is a defined safety risk that meets the muster of an immediate recall (which this is not (no, really, it's not))).

When Apple does acknowledge and address the issue, if it is indeed determined to be widespread (and anecdotal blog evidence aside, there is no reason to believe it is), Apple does make it very easy to get a replacement. See the examples for the previous PowerBook and iBook battery exchanges here. Just type in the serial number, Apple sends you a new battery. In this instance, Apple is most definitely replacing batteries that have failed or swollen; so, the end result is that affected customers still get a new battery. And, in the event that there is any larger problem that hasn't been addressed by the battery OEM, if that battery were to fail, it has its own warranty under which it will be replaced as well.

In any event, further awareness of the problem may adjust Apple's priorities in addressing the heat and battery issues on the MacBook Pro. For the record, with regard to thermal paste, Apple applies this much thermal paste on the new MacBook as well, and in the service manual, they specifically state that it is the correct, intended, and verified amount of thermal paste to be applying (even though that's a ridiculous assertion). So there's obviously more going on there, and anyone who has ever worked in a massive manufacturing operation knows how long a simple procedural change like this can take, and everything else that's involved.

As an aside, from the level of coverage all of these "issues" receive with Apple products, I can't help but wonder if some people get the impression that Apple just turns out one shoddy product after another, when the reality is that Apple is generally and consistently considered to be the best in the entire industry for quality, need for repairs, technical support, and so on, above all other manufacturers.

As for new computers, yes the Big Boys preload, but not all PC sales have Win preloaded. From http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-5561113.html

Last quarter, for example, Microsoft saw revenue in the Windows client unit grow by 5 percent, but PC shipments grew more than twice that fast.

The study found that 35 percent of software worldwide is pirated. In North America alone, the piracy rate for software is 22 percent.

Anyways, just think how much of an impact Linux has had on computers with only a sub-5% market share, and then just imagine how much more influential it will become as the numbers grow up to and over 10%...

Microsoft has a long history of donating to charity and then taking a large tax deduction for the full retail price of the product. Since the physical manufacturing costs are so low for software after the initial investment of developing it, free software for education is both a PR win for Microsoft as well as well as a great tax shelter. But more importantly the schools that accept their software will now be future customers. And, the kids that use them will grow up to be consumers. They have been doing this for some time. They even give themselves the full retail sales price deduction for the software which is not customary among corporate donators (or at least it was not in the past).

And don't forget about the anti-trust settlement which allowed them to print money in the form of free software on CDs. Now, that's a sweet deal any company would jump at. Apple's opposed the deal since it hurt them.

The problems seem to come and go...now loading fine as well. However lots of complaints (I just linked to two) being raised by folks about their core business.

And lest we forget, Adwords is under attack by click-fraud and everyday sees the emergence of increasingly viable competitors in search and other business activities that currently account for material amounts of Google's revenue.

Googles own Annual Report to shareholders details a wide area of risks it faces.

No, I think they are neglecting core business as they deploy resources to capture new markets, and in doing so increasinly open themselves up attack.

In a related announcement, Microsoft announced that Raynard D. Fox will be their new Executive Vice-President for Henhouse Security.

Don't trust anything Mundie says about F/OSS any farther than you can spit. Just a short time ago, Mundie was Microsoft's anti-open-source poster child. Now he's pulling an olive branch out of his ass. Either he's lying through his teeth, or he's talking out of both sides of his mouth.

Microsoft's sins are legion. They have a hell of a lot of work to do before they should expect anyone with a brain larger than a peanut to trust them.

Some bills have had language that sort this out very well (see the Markey amendment that was shot down on Thursday night), while some haven't really covered it. Others still have completely taken the wrong stance, and completely misinterpreted the point of Net Neutrality, in an effort to shun out any talk of it. (see Gonzalez's amendment - a poison pill that shows a clear misunderstanding of the issues.)

There has been some talk about wording, but it all gets dicey. Right now, the COPE bill gives the FCC the necessary mouth to adjudicate hearings about Neutrality violations, but it doesn't give the FCC any teeth to enforce punishment!

It's ridiculous. But there has been some talk.

Microsoft has already stated that they will give legit copies to people who help shut down retailers who are handing out bogus copies.

It's in their best interests. One free copy of windows is a decent incentive to shut down hundreds or thousands of pirates copies.

LK

Well, I don't know what to do about the 17 pages, but you can get rid of the adverts easily enough.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/wp-mobile.php?page_id=3 170

The "wp-mobile.php" page gives you the PDA version, which means no ads.

eBay partnered with Kaboodle, a start-up e-commerce oriented Web 2.0 bookmarking service for "MyCollectibles," billed as a social sharing destination for collectable enthusiasts, but now a new marketing platform for eBay sellers in a variety of categories: http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=107

The difference is that I didn't go around saying that I am better than others beforehand. If Google had a motto that said "Don't Be Poor" there would be no issue with their China policy. So Google should drop that whole patronizing shtick now that they are The Man and adopt a new motto like "Don't Be A Sucka" or "Don't Hate The Playas" or "Don't Block Our Ads", or "Don't Mind Us, We're Just Trying To Make A Buck".

That whole 'Don't Be Evil' thing was so pre-IPO. As a public company, Google will get more and more like every other large international corporation very rapidly. In five years they will operate no differently than any of their peers. I mean, they have Denny Hastert's son as a paid lobbyist in DC. Just waiting for the big RNC contribution (and slightly smaller DNC) campaign contribution in the fall congressional race.

http://government.zdnet.com/?p=2129

P.S. The dixie chicks thing didn't make any damn sense.

It's an issue I'm sure that a lot of Nokia phone owners aren't aware of. I didn't realize that my phone's Bluetooth settings were set that way until I read the blurb and checked. I turned it off and changed it to hidden (just in case I ever want to reactivate it later).

I don't exactly have anything important in my phone, but given the existance of Bluetooth exploits, I'd rather not leave the ports open as it were.

ZDNet reports: "Sony expects to post a 100 billion yen ($884 million) operating loss at its game division in the current fiscal year due to costs related to the PS3 launch." ... "PlayStation 3, which is scheduled to hit the U.S. market on Nov. 17, will be priced at as much as $599, while Xbox 360's premium version that is already in stores costs $399." More information here

See this article: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6080208.html

quote:

Theirs is a very secure implementation because the code is on the chip," said Billy Edwards, senior vice president and chief innovation officer at AMD. "Over time we will put it into our chips."


stop speculating and get your story right. oh wait, this is /.

I imagine there exists some sort of prior art from the 80s, but I can't think of any at the moment...

I do remember using "Freetel" in 1995 (my freshman year) for internet telephony. It really wasn't much different from what skype is today, except for the reliability factor. They also did not have any equivalents for "SkypeIn" and "SkypeOut".

I don't know what ever happened to Freetel. Dialpad quickly overtook them.

I also remember some collabrative whiteboard program that could be used with strangers over the internet. It was a cute fascination at the time. Nowdays, microsoft changes big money for people to do the samething in netmeeting.

Of course, microsoft was sued, and ended up losing the court case:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5133588.html

History just repeats itself.

a dedicated browser (Google will provide one soon)

Probably not, actually. They're already in a good partnership with Mozilla in Firefox (considering the default start page includes a Google search field) so I don't see why they'd need to.

he must be working overtime
as the previous article by "hdtv" domain (PLASMA-HDTV-PRICES.COM) is registered to Alex Moskalyuk aka prostoalex, along with the blog submitted on ZDnet is also Alex

so he registers a load of domains and then pretends to be different unrelated submitters in order to hawk his scam of the week, i guess ZDnet doesnt pay that well

The customers who bought stock prior to the opening bell on the first day did so at a guaranteed price. They purchased the stock not from Vonage but from the underwriters who financed the IPO deal and brought the Vonage stock to the open NASDAQ market. These underwriters are owed the money for the stock purchased. Vonage is indemnifying the underwriters and paying for all the Vonage stock that customers are refusing to send their money for. The underwriters are the ones that are out money - not Vonage. They are the ones harmed by customers refusing to pay for the IPO they ordered. Vonage has a huge public relations problem on their hands. Don't expect any other companies to do this in the future.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=1106

I think it's amusing that apple takes processors, OSes, audio&video codecs, network protocols and lots of standards (CD, DVD, USB for example) from PCs and then claim the PC aera was over, because the apple aera is here...

if this is the apple aera (haha) then it is still the PC aera, because apples are so much like PCs now... except that they are more expensive, have an extremely closed system and make the user incapacitated... Thats why I'll never buy apple products!

however - the success of iPods (like the current success of apple) is just a matter of "hey, see how cool this looks!" - the first generation of iPods (which was a great success already) was technically pathetic and extremely user-unfriendly (in many ways the newer generations are no better), they just looked cool, thats all they had to offer...

read this:
http://news.zdnet.com/html/z/wb/6035707.html

Thier not hoodlums genius, i live like 20 minutes away from them. thier both straight a students with alot of computer expertise but were using thier skills in the wrong way and tried to make some illegal money off of myspace. Some people need to drop the "everyone from new york is a gangster" stereotype just like they tell us to drop the "anyone not from ny is a redneck" stereotype." Posted by: gtapro91

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2000/jan0 0/donationpr.mspx
http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories /2003/08/18/daily27.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060505/sff021.html
http://news.zdnet.com/5208-1040-0.html?forumID=1&t hreadID=13766&messageID=275522&start=-1
http://www.indonesia-relief.org/mod.php?mod=publis her&op=viewarticle&cid=25&artid=1558
http://www.itjungle.com/two/two030106-story08.html

Wow, you're really stupid aren't you.

I can't wait to see how you spin that. But you will. A world of black and white is the only way your intellect can operate. Real world scenarios are just too much for people like you to process and understand, so you resort to dumbing everything down in a futile effort to pretend you're not overwhelmed.

I love pointing out when you idiots are wrong.

> What difference does a few milliseconds here or there make?

Look at the study being referred to:

Excel could open a file in 2 seconds while Calc would take almost 3 minutes

It's not "a few milliseconds" - it's a factor of a hundred that turns a nearly-instant operation into a go-get-coffee one.

Now, don't get me wrong - I realize that the study compares OO/MSW and not ODF/MSXML, and I know that there are definite benefits to having an open document format being adapted (especially for public data), but this is not a small difference. Your post makes pro-open-format people look like shrill, clueless zealots who can be safely ignored, and that is potentially as damaging as the sheer lack of performance shown in the study.

So, please, RTFA. Or at least STFU if you can't be bothered - you're generating your own damn FUD.

I seem to remember a rather depressing benchmark with respect to how fast OOo was able to save and re-open a large spreadsheet- and how much memory was required to do so. The results were not pretty, and would have definitely qualified as something that goes into the "must improve asap" category. I use primarily open source apps, but I have to admit that this performance benchmark was a little disappointing. Here's a to a related ZDNet article: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=119

There is something true in that study, indeed.
Personally I already have seen this kind of numbers, even though I've never minded to measure them.
Why? Simply put, because it matters very little.
Compared to Windows 3.11, Windows XP needs 100 times more disk space, 10 times more RAM and 10 times more time to boot.
Compared MS to Word 5.5, MS Word 2003 if slower and bigger.
Today I wouldn't revert back to Windows 3.11 and would not choose Word 5.5. What'd be the most important features expected in a document file format? In my opinion:
1. compactness
2. openness
3. flexibility
No "access performances", though.
Because the time needed to load a document, when you do real office work, weighs by far less than the time you spend on it while working.
And when someone sends you a file written with a different version of the software or even with a different software, how much time do you spend to make that file readable and printable?

Have you all forgotten Bangalore.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?page_id=65&page=23

See the email titled "Has Vista a code injection pro.."

hrrm.. problem? program? pro-rate? I bet the former, and I bet the answer was "It's not a problem, that's a feature!"

Modded: Too late to be funny

"In XP, when you send a report of a crash or Stop error, you rarely hear back. Vista tries to close the loop, with a Control Panel window that should - someday - offer patches, updated drivers, and other solutions to problems you report."

He says it's running smoothly, but the screenshot of the stability monitor says otherwise...
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?page_id=65&page=19

From the link: "Note: This screen is from build 5381, although the application looks identical in Beta 2.)" Since the article and uptime comments were about Beta 2... I don't think you have a valid point. Good (almost) catch, though.

To be fair to Microsoft in the screenshot it has 8 preset colours but also a transparency bar and a colour mixer to select your own settings, so it is dynamic, it just comes with some pre-picked ones to make it easier. See here