There's important as in "everyone" uses them, and there's important as in "some random company/person MUST use some less common hardware" x million.
Take Microsoft Office. MS Powerpoint for an example- some people will never need to independently specify the colour of the outline and the "inside" of the font, but others MUST have them (otherwise it's hard to read text on a multicoloured background - strange that OpenOffice Impress can't do it). And that's when people say OpenOffice sucks and go back to Microsoft Office.
Even if it's time to buy, it might be time to buy something else.
I doubt there were really 1.6 million really unique malware in 2008 - many of those are probably just variants. If Symantec has to add sigs for so many variants it means their tech is not so good.
Anyway, I'm not bothering with AV for my WinXP PC. Looking at how much the popular AV software out there slow down PCs, the "cure" seems worse than disease.
IMO, McAfee and Symantec are nearly as bad as being infected by the less nasty trojans. Bloatware.
Kaspersky and Comodo updates take ages (Kaspersky updates are REALLY slow!), AVG realtime scan is slow (and their link scanning thing was stupid), Avira nags a lot (but if you can turn it off or ignore it, it's not so bad I guess).
I mainly mentioned ReactOS because some silly people might reply with "WindowsXP Compatible? Try ReactOS" and not actually bother to see the state ReactOS really is in.
That said, imagine if ReactOS actually successfully supports the Win32 driver model. That would be a big advantage because it makes it easy for hardware vendors to just continue supporting "Windows XP Compatible Operating Systems". All those video cards, 4-in-1 printers, and misc fringe hardware working better on ReactOS than on Vista...
Wine in comparison relies on vendors writing drivers for Linux, *BSD or whatever Wine will run on.
Haha. Neither in their current state would seriously be considered "Windows XP Compatible".
At the rate they are going, Microsoft will likely be safe with Windows 7.
There is a window of opportunity. But it appears nobody is in a position to take advantage of it.
Similarly, it's not a good sign if OpenOffice can't even take significant market share from Microsoft Office 2007. After all MSO2007 is such a huge change from the UI POV it's more different from Office 2003 than OpenOffice is.
Better sandboxing Ability to control audio levels on a per app basis DirectX 10 Force users to upgrade before a decent Windows XP Compatible appears, so that Microsoft does not end up as "Yet Another BIOS Vendor", nor lose significant market control.
Last one is the real reason for Vista from MS's POV;).
MS does not want to end up like IBM in the IBM PC BIOS compatible world. Harder to make high profit margins.
The way to really hurt Microsoft (and take market share) would be to build a Windows XP compatible O/S, not improve Desktop Linux.
And it's much faster to just switch from one user to another user, than to login as user A, start all desired apps, do stuff, save work, logout, login as user B, start all desired apps, etc.
FWIW I use XP in classic mode.
Anyway, wrt theoretical technical security features, it's likely that Vista is safer than Linux. The sandboxing in theory is better (but I heard MS is weakening it;) ). The AppArmor bunch still have a long way to go.
In practice, it's easier to fool an ignorant/gullible person, so the higher the numbers of ignorant/gullible using your O/S, the more likely you will have "security problems" which actually involve exploiting the user.
As long as they ultimately leave the decision on harsher sentences to the Courts it's not a problem (at least not an additional problem on top of convincing the Court you were innocent or not that evil).
If the harsher sentence is mandatory in law then it becomes a problem.
If the US Gov did it to China, China would have a nice chat with the US ambassador and use that as ammo in the next round of negotiations (trade/military) etc.
Same for the other way round.
And if it were really serious, it'll be more like "Stop that or else!".
So clearly it isn't anything serious.
Most of this "China Bogeyman" stuff is just some political posturing or "smoke and mirrors" for some USA entity's benefit.
Oh yes they are different. And when you are "remote controlling" stuff over the phone, these differences are huge.
The last I checked, the "start menu" is rather different. Even the shutdown menu option is different. XP shutdown is Click the button on the bottom left called "Start", select "Turn Off Computer...", click on "Turn Off/Restart" etc, vista is "click the four coloured button on bottom left, click on the "triangle pointing right" select "Shut Down" (or Restart). Apparently the "power icon" by default does not cause Vista to shutdown, instead it causes it to Sleep.
There are also extremely big differences in lots of things that the normal users don't normally use but often need "tech support" for e.g. network configuration (maybe someone messed with their config over the weekend, so they call you and you have to fix it over the phone).
BTW WiFi network configuration is a mess too - Intel, Dell, Random Vendor, Windows, all have different ways of doing WiFi config... Very annoying.
Going to 98 to 2000 was a change, but you did get significant benefits from it (no longer have that "GDI resources" problem and other stupid flakiness - try pressing winkey on boot just as the windows 98 GUI is starting up ).
Would the current bunch of digital SLR cameras reliably survive the radiation in space? (not even talking about the other bad stuff in space or on the moon).
AFAIK, the smaller the transistors you have, the more sensitive to radiation (or cosmic particles) they are.
Another reason is training and support. Vista and Windows 7 are so much more different from Windows XP. If someone calls "Tech Support", tech support will have to have a completely different script/list for Windows 7.
In comparison Windows XP is more similar to Windows 2000 (and Windows XP in "classic mode" is vey similar).
Actually now would be a great time for a Windows XP compatible operating system.
If someone could come up with a decent Windows XP compatible O/S, Microsoft could lose significant market share. Might get even more interesting if it supports DirectX 10:).
Next, using viruses to spread and stash data in humans.
Imagine when the relevant technologies involved get affordable and some kid thinks it would be cool/neat to do that.
Many people think that scientific progress requires allowing everyone to research whatever they want. To me certain research paths shouldn't be done _yet_, and left till later till humans and human societies are more ready to cope with the long term consequences and potential effects.
We are getting a bit close to the time when creating "The Big Red Button (That Kills Everyone)" becomes cheap enough to be some grad student's project.
My bet is most of those smouldering wrecks are due to fires started by electrical faults in the car (the 12V car battery usually provides enough current when shorted to start an "electrical fire").
Secondly - the difference between laptop li-ion batteries and a car gas tank is the tank has a very very tough metal wall separating the reactants (gasoline and air), while the laptop battery only has thin films.
But yes the "automotive" li-ions are better. Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries seem to be a lot safer than a gas tank (at least the ones demoed by A123Systems).
> I'm afraid we'll be stuck using sonar for the foreseeable feature
Sure. But 203 decibels? I think the Navy needs better ears.
I doubt most of us are objecting to the use of sonar. It just seems rather primitive to have to blast such high volumes of sound.
The Navy should improve their equipment.
At least that'll be a better reason to get military $$$$ than those disingenuous reports of "China/Russia/etc" warring with the USA over cyberspace (if it were really such a big deal you'd call their ambassadors over and tell them to "stop that or else").
FWIW you can detect submarines if they get close to some areas because they will block the ambient sound (snapping shrimp etc), much like a sonic shadow. It's not so easy for a sub to hide by emitting fake ambient sound from just a few spots to mask its shadow, do it wrong and suddenly it becomes the way to find you;).
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> back when Britain was the world's number one naval power
Funny. Back then many British ships were pirate ships.
For the countries at that time, if the pirates were on your side, you called them privateers.
They got Letters of Marque, and some even got knighted for their efforts.
Yeah I know there are some legal differences, but I doubt it mattered much to those on the merchant ships that were attacked.
So what if someone starts a Ninja Bay? :)
Oh yeah? All they have to do is sneeze on it...
And voila, a virus laden PC ready to infect the unsuspecting.
Did you try the London Underground that time as well?
Their trains do not have air conditioning. Hot summer, lots of people stuck in a tube, no way out between stops...
p.s. Maybe your girl friend could have opted for breast reduction to go from "more than impressive" to "impressive"?
Nonono, for those, _you_ drink the beer and a lot of it.
There's important as in "everyone" uses them, and there's important as in "some random company/person MUST use some less common hardware" x million.
Take Microsoft Office. MS Powerpoint for an example- some people will never need to independently specify the colour of the outline and the "inside" of the font, but others MUST have them (otherwise it's hard to read text on a multicoloured background - strange that OpenOffice Impress can't do it). And that's when people say OpenOffice sucks and go back to Microsoft Office.
Even if it's time to buy, it might be time to buy something else.
I doubt there were really 1.6 million really unique malware in 2008 - many of those are probably just variants. If Symantec has to add sigs for so many variants it means their tech is not so good.
Anyway, I'm not bothering with AV for my WinXP PC. Looking at how much the popular AV software out there slow down PCs, the "cure" seems worse than disease.
IMO, McAfee and Symantec are nearly as bad as being infected by the less nasty trojans. Bloatware.
Kaspersky and Comodo updates take ages (Kaspersky updates are REALLY slow!), AVG realtime scan is slow (and their link scanning thing was stupid), Avira nags a lot (but if you can turn it off or ignore it, it's not so bad I guess).
One day I guess I should test Avast.
I mainly mentioned ReactOS because some silly people might reply with "WindowsXP Compatible? Try ReactOS" and not actually bother to see the state ReactOS really is in.
That said, imagine if ReactOS actually successfully supports the Win32 driver model. That would be a big advantage because it makes it easy for hardware vendors to just continue supporting "Windows XP Compatible Operating Systems". All those video cards, 4-in-1 printers, and misc fringe hardware working better on ReactOS than on Vista...
Wine in comparison relies on vendors writing drivers for Linux, *BSD or whatever Wine will run on.
Haha. Neither in their current state would seriously be considered "Windows XP Compatible".
At the rate they are going, Microsoft will likely be safe with Windows 7.
There is a window of opportunity. But it appears nobody is in a position to take advantage of it.
Similarly, it's not a good sign if OpenOffice can't even take significant market share from Microsoft Office 2007. After all MSO2007 is such a huge change from the UI POV it's more different from Office 2003 than OpenOffice is.
Better sandboxing
;).
Ability to control audio levels on a per app basis
DirectX 10
Force users to upgrade before a decent Windows XP Compatible appears, so that Microsoft does not end up as "Yet Another BIOS Vendor", nor lose significant market control.
Last one is the real reason for Vista from MS's POV
MS does not want to end up like IBM in the IBM PC BIOS compatible world. Harder to make high profit margins.
The way to really hurt Microsoft (and take market share) would be to build a Windows XP compatible O/S, not improve Desktop Linux.
ReactOS is alpha, so Microsoft is still safe.
XP boots up faster than 2K.
;) ). The AppArmor bunch still have a long way to go.
And it's much faster to just switch from one user to another user, than to login as user A, start all desired apps, do stuff, save work, logout, login as user B, start all desired apps, etc.
FWIW I use XP in classic mode.
Anyway, wrt theoretical technical security features, it's likely that Vista is safer than Linux. The sandboxing in theory is better (but I heard MS is weakening it
In practice, it's easier to fool an ignorant/gullible person, so the higher the numbers of ignorant/gullible using your O/S, the more likely you will have "security problems" which actually involve exploiting the user.
As long as they ultimately leave the decision on harsher sentences to the Courts it's not a problem (at least not an additional problem on top of convincing the Court you were innocent or not that evil).
If the harsher sentence is mandatory in law then it becomes a problem.
You could also use a trapdoor floor with spikes at the bottom. Of course the side effect is the pirates might not regain consciousness.
Still a rather expensive way to get rid of pirates - after all it means you need $$$$$$$$ for a huge ship, that may or may not attract pirates.
If the US Gov did it to China, China would have a nice chat with the US ambassador and use that as ammo in the next round of negotiations (trade/military) etc.
Same for the other way round.
And if it were really serious, it'll be more like "Stop that or else!".
So clearly it isn't anything serious.
Most of this "China Bogeyman" stuff is just some political posturing or "smoke and mirrors" for some USA entity's benefit.
Just some distraction from the real issues.
Oh yes they are different. And when you are "remote controlling" stuff over the phone, these differences are huge.
The last I checked, the "start menu" is rather different. Even the shutdown menu option is different. XP shutdown is Click the button on the bottom left called "Start", select "Turn Off Computer...", click on "Turn Off/Restart" etc, vista is "click the four coloured button on bottom left, click on the "triangle pointing right" select "Shut Down" (or Restart). Apparently the "power icon" by default does not cause Vista to shutdown, instead it causes it to Sleep.
There are also extremely big differences in lots of things that the normal users don't normally use but often need "tech support" for e.g. network configuration (maybe someone messed with their config over the weekend, so they call you and you have to fix it over the phone).
BTW WiFi network configuration is a mess too - Intel, Dell, Random Vendor, Windows, all have different ways of doing WiFi config... Very annoying.
Going to 98 to 2000 was a change, but you did get significant benefits from it (no longer have that "GDI resources" problem and other stupid flakiness - try pressing winkey on boot just as the windows 98 GUI is starting up ).
Would the current bunch of digital SLR cameras reliably survive the radiation in space? (not even talking about the other bad stuff in space or on the moon).
AFAIK, the smaller the transistors you have, the more sensitive to radiation (or cosmic particles) they are.
Very often, there's lots of data loss but the records of data loss are also lost. :)
"Take for example Compact Flash or SD cards, they would last a long time"
Citation please. I'm not sure that the charge on a flash cell is going to last that many decades.
AFAIK, the typical data retention spec is only 10 years (some might even be only 5 years!).
Note: this is not the same as the "write/erase" lifespan.
Another reason is training and support. Vista and Windows 7 are so much more different from Windows XP. If someone calls "Tech Support", tech support will have to have a completely different script/list for Windows 7.
:).
In comparison Windows XP is more similar to Windows 2000 (and Windows XP in "classic mode" is vey similar).
Actually now would be a great time for a Windows XP compatible operating system.
If someone could come up with a decent Windows XP compatible O/S, Microsoft could lose significant market share. Might get even more interesting if it supports DirectX 10
Next, using viruses to spread and stash data in humans.
Imagine when the relevant technologies involved get affordable and some kid thinks it would be cool/neat to do that.
Many people think that scientific progress requires allowing everyone to research whatever they want. To me certain research paths shouldn't be done _yet_, and left till later till humans and human societies are more ready to cope with the long term consequences and potential effects.
We are getting a bit close to the time when creating "The Big Red Button (That Kills Everyone)" becomes cheap enough to be some grad student's project.
My bet is most of those smouldering wrecks are due to fires started by electrical faults in the car (the 12V car battery usually provides enough current when shorted to start an "electrical fire").
Secondly - the difference between laptop li-ion batteries and a car gas tank is the tank has a very very tough metal wall separating the reactants (gasoline and air), while the laptop battery only has thin films.
But yes the "automotive" li-ions are better. Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries seem to be a lot safer than a gas tank (at least the ones demoed by A123Systems).
Well, in the USA how much of the income is left after the average US resident pays for taxes and medical insurance?
It might be lower than 53%, but I think what the US people get for their money is inferior in many ways.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States
Do the current synthetic "gecko feet" self-clean like the real geckos?
Mars is probably quite a dusty place.
> I'm afraid we'll be stuck using sonar for the foreseeable feature
;).
Sure. But 203 decibels? I think the Navy needs better ears.
I doubt most of us are objecting to the use of sonar. It just seems rather primitive to have to blast such high volumes of sound.
The Navy should improve their equipment.
At least that'll be a better reason to get military $$$$ than those disingenuous reports of "China/Russia/etc" warring with the USA over cyberspace (if it were really such a big deal you'd call their ambassadors over and tell them to "stop that or else").
FWIW you can detect submarines if they get close to some areas because they will block the ambient sound (snapping shrimp etc), much like a sonic shadow. It's not so easy for a sub to hide by emitting fake ambient sound from just a few spots to mask its shadow, do it wrong and suddenly it becomes the way to find you
Wow. I think if you expose me to a 203 decibel sonar, it's not just my ears that would go poof.