>>Sadly enough, i think that's more or less right.
Why are you sad? Sounds like you think Vista is a good thing. And BTW, nobody can make you upgrade your current computer to it, and probably for a year or more you'll still be able to buy XP systems from all the major vendors.
I followed all of this very carefully at the time. Microsoft was always careful to call Cairo a "set of technologies" and not necessarily a specific version that would be released at some specific point. Almost all of what they promised for Cairo did come true except for the "object-oriented file system."
>> NT stand for Nested Task, it's a register in the 286 that helps preepmtive multi-tasking which is the feature of both OS/2 and NT that distinguishes them from Window 3.x/9x that used co-operative multi-tasking.
As others have said, NT of course stands for "New Technology" and is a marketing term, not a reference to a bit flag in a register.
>>"The vast majority of PCs come with Windows pre-installed, and actually can't be sold without it..."
Actually they can't be bought without it, not sold. There's a difference. You have plenty of options for buying PCs without Windows. There's only one place you can go to buy a PC to run OS X.
You're right to a great degree. In practice these exploits are not on the sorts of sites that the average user is ever likely to visit. But there is some history, for instance with the WMF bug of almost a year ago, of the exploit being run through ad banner networks that work through 2nd-tier porn sites, wrestling sites, that sort of lowbrow stuff. It happens, but if you typically go to the New York Times and ESPN and the National Georgraphic and Nick.com these exploits will never affect you.
Two other things are also worth noting: If you run as a limited user the exploit will as well, and will probably fail for trying to do things it can't (like write itself to the Autorun keys in the registry). Also if you're running a mail program that's been updated since Clinton was President you can't be attacked through HTML e-mail since they all block scripting and ActiveX in mail by default.
Not only are you asked what search engine you want to use when you install IE7, but with Vista OEMs can make deals with whatever search engine they want (Google, Yahoo, Alexa, whatever) and set that as the default.
Google has too much money on their hands if they are paying lawyers to secure an order for Microsoft to do what they're already doing.
Lots of folks are objecting to a focus on marginal rates (I do think they're important, but whatever). From the same database, here's spreadsheet (Excel) that looks at "All-in average personal income tax rates at AW" (AW=average wage). And remember the US doesn't have a VAT.
Some data excerpted: "All-in less cash transfers: The combined central and sub-central government income tax plus employee social security contribution, less family benefits (in respect of dependent children) paid by general government as universal cash transfers, as a percentage of gross wage earnings. " These numbers are for a one-earner family with two children.
Turkey 30.4% Poland 30.3% Denmark 29.2% Sweden 23.7% Finland 23.6% Germany 22.3% Belgium 22.2% Greece 22.1% Netherlands 21.7% Norway 20.4% United Kingdom 19.4% Hungary 18.4% France 17.1% Austria 16.7% Japan 15.3% New Zealand 14.5% Italy 13.7% Spain 13.0% Canada 12.3% Australia 10.9% Switzerland 9.6% Portugal 9.1% Korea 8.6% Mexico 7.9% Iceland 5.9% United States 5.0% Slovak Republic 3.0% Czech Republic 1.5% Luxembourg 0.3% Ireland -1.8%
See the OECD Tax Database for lots of data (in Excel format) on comparative tax rates in various countries. The US is relatively low-tax.
This table shows top marginal tax rate, factoring in social security-type contributions if they are separate. The actual definition for the number is "The all-in (top marginal) tax rate, calculated as the additional central and sub-central government personal income tax, plus employee social security contribution, resulting from a unit increase in gross wage earnings. The all-in rate takes account of the same aspects as the combined rate, but does in addition include employee social security contributions and if they are deductible in central government taxes etc." This table is for 2005. Hungary 69.5% Denmark 63.0% Belgium 59.3% Sweden 56.6% Finland 56.5% Netherlands 52.0% Poland 51.8% Norway 51.3% Greece 49.6% France 48.6% Australia 48.5% Ireland 48.0% Luxembourg 47.9% Japan 47.9% Switzerland 47.9% Portugal 46.6% Canada 46.4% Spain 45.0% Germany 44.3% Italy 44.1% United States 42.7% Austria 42.7% Turkey 41.1% United Kingdom 41.0% Czech Republic 40.5% Iceland 40.2% New Zealand 39.0% Korea 38.2% Slovak Republic 29.9% Mexico 24.6%
China: total: 9,596,960 sq km land: 9,326,410 sq km water: 270,550 sq km
US of A: total: 9,631,420 sq km land: 9,161,923 sq km water: 469,497 sq km note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia
So we have more inland water than them, but they have more land. And a higher percentage of the US is arable land.
Hey, I've heard that they've started mining coal by clearing off the tops of mountains. It's safer and cheaper. Let the Chinese do this and then fill the mountains back in with our garbage. Everyone wins!
This stupid idea gets predicted every few years. Check this one out from early 2000, and I remember earlier ones. It makes sense to Linux-Heads, but from Microsoft's standpoint it's a 100% loser, and it would require a great deal of effort for probably trivial revenues.
This is one of the holes in the Agnitum Whine Paper - they ignore the fact that the code they say could easily hack past the patching would have to be signed, which presents serious problems for a hacker.
All of these flaws deal with documents and the answer is obvious: you need to have anti-virus anyway, and it's easier for AV to cover these flaws quickly than for Microsoft to patch them quickly. So for any responsible organization it's not a problem for very long.
>>There are established standards and NEUTRALITY laws that regulate roads so that you or nobody else gets discriminated.
This isn't true. There are lots of roads where, for example, trucks are not permitted, or their operation is limited, or there are weight limitations. There are bridges and tunnels where certain types of vehicles and cargoes are banned. There are toll roads where different types of vehicles pay different fees. And, of course, the operation of vehicles on the roads is heavily (if unevenly) regulated to combat abuse.
Real highways aren't a good analogy for net neutrality proponents, don't go there.
People who buy service from an ISP aren't just buying raw connectivity, they're buying e-mail service, proxies, some security facilities, tech support and a lot more. Maybe it's a bad deal, but Cringely's $17.42 figure is not an accurate one.
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>>Sadly enough, i think that's more or less right.
Why are you sad? Sounds like you think Vista is a good thing. And BTW, nobody can make you upgrade your current computer to it, and probably for a year or more you'll still be able to buy XP systems from all the major vendors.
I followed all of this very carefully at the time. Microsoft was always careful to call Cairo a "set of technologies" and not necessarily a specific version that would be released at some specific point. Almost all of what they promised for Cairo did come true except for the "object-oriented file system."
>> NT stand for Nested Task, it's a register in the 286 that helps preepmtive multi-tasking which is the feature of both OS/2 and NT that distinguishes them from Window 3.x/9x that used co-operative multi-tasking.
As others have said, NT of course stands for "New Technology" and is a marketing term, not a reference to a bit flag in a register.
And Windows 9x preemtively multitasks.
You can't just loop through it like that. Every failure crashes the app. It will be obvious that something is wrong.
It's everyone in government's job to interpret the constitution, not just those who have the final say.
I'm covered by my wife's plan. I highly recommend it.
>>With the gap between OO and MS Office widening...
Well this is an interesting statement full of subjective possibility. I could probably argue a half dozen different interpretations.
>>"The vast majority of PCs come with Windows pre-installed, and actually can't be sold without it..."
Actually they can't be bought without it, not sold. There's a difference. You have plenty of options for buying PCs without Windows. There's only one place you can go to buy a PC to run OS X.
You're right to a great degree. In practice these exploits are not on the sorts of sites that the average user is ever likely to visit. But there is some history, for instance with the WMF bug of almost a year ago, of the exploit being run through ad banner networks that work through 2nd-tier porn sites, wrestling sites, that sort of lowbrow stuff. It happens, but if you typically go to the New York Times and ESPN and the National Georgraphic and Nick.com these exploits will never affect you.
Two other things are also worth noting: If you run as a limited user the exploit will as well, and will probably fail for trying to do things it can't (like write itself to the Autorun keys in the registry). Also if you're running a mail program that's been updated since Clinton was President you can't be attacked through HTML e-mail since they all block scripting and ActiveX in mail by default.
Mod parent up.
Not only are you asked what search engine you want to use when you install IE7, but with Vista OEMs can make deals with whatever search engine they want (Google, Yahoo, Alexa, whatever) and set that as the default.
Google has too much money on their hands if they are paying lawyers to secure an order for Microsoft to do what they're already doing.
Lots of folks are objecting to a focus on marginal rates (I do think they're important, but whatever). From the same database, here's spreadsheet (Excel) that looks at "All-in average personal income tax rates at AW" (AW=average wage). And remember the US doesn't have a VAT.
Some data excerpted: "All-in less cash transfers: The combined central and sub-central government income tax plus employee social security contribution, less family benefits (in respect of dependent children) paid by general government as universal cash transfers, as a percentage of gross wage earnings. " These numbers are for a one-earner family with two children.
Turkey 30.4%
Poland 30.3%
Denmark 29.2%
Sweden 23.7%
Finland 23.6%
Germany 22.3%
Belgium 22.2%
Greece 22.1%
Netherlands 21.7%
Norway 20.4%
United Kingdom 19.4%
Hungary 18.4%
France 17.1%
Austria 16.7%
Japan 15.3%
New Zealand 14.5%
Italy 13.7%
Spain 13.0%
Canada 12.3%
Australia 10.9%
Switzerland 9.6%
Portugal 9.1%
Korea 8.6%
Mexico 7.9%
Iceland 5.9%
United States 5.0%
Slovak Republic 3.0%
Czech Republic 1.5%
Luxembourg 0.3%
Ireland -1.8%
The US doesn't have a VAT, which explains most of the difference between them and European countries that seem to be reasonable by comparison.
See the OECD Tax Database for lots of data (in Excel format) on comparative tax rates in various countries. The US is relatively low-tax.
This table shows top marginal tax rate, factoring in social security-type contributions if they are separate. The actual definition for the number is "The all-in (top marginal) tax rate, calculated as the additional central and sub-central government personal income tax, plus employee social security contribution, resulting from a unit increase in gross wage earnings. The all-in rate takes account of the same aspects as the combined rate, but does in addition include employee social security contributions and if they are deductible in central government taxes etc." This table is for 2005.
Hungary 69.5%
Denmark 63.0%
Belgium 59.3%
Sweden 56.6%
Finland 56.5%
Netherlands 52.0%
Poland 51.8%
Norway 51.3%
Greece 49.6%
France 48.6%
Australia 48.5%
Ireland 48.0%
Luxembourg 47.9%
Japan 47.9%
Switzerland 47.9%
Portugal 46.6%
Canada 46.4%
Spain 45.0%
Germany 44.3%
Italy 44.1%
United States 42.7%
Austria 42.7%
Turkey 41.1%
United Kingdom 41.0%
Czech Republic 40.5%
Iceland 40.2%
New Zealand 39.0%
Korea 38.2%
Slovak Republic 29.9%
Mexico 24.6%
snot
Trend is fine with it too. They have a trial Vista version and have said that their new 2007 version will work with Vista when it ships
According to the CIA:
China:
total: 9,596,960 sq km
land: 9,326,410 sq km
water: 270,550 sq km
US of A:
total: 9,631,420 sq km
land: 9,161,923 sq km
water: 469,497 sq km
note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia
So we have more inland water than them, but they have more land. And a higher percentage of the US is arable land.
Hey, I've heard that they've started mining coal by clearing off the tops of mountains. It's safer and cheaper. Let the Chinese do this and then fill the mountains back in with our garbage. Everyone wins!
China is physically larger than the US, including Alaska. There's a lot of unused land there and their standards for such things are lower.
OTOH, in 100 years they'll have a vaulable advantage in the platics mining business.
This stupid idea gets predicted every few years. Check this one out from early 2000, and I remember earlier ones. It makes sense to Linux-Heads, but from Microsoft's standpoint it's a 100% loser, and it would require a great deal of effort for probably trivial revenues.
Would these be the same media companies whose content Google is stealing on Google News?
Unspecified "VERIFIED sources" from an AC?
Your story is a pack of lies.
In fact in Win64 from Vista on up, unsigned kernel-level code cannot be installed. You need to use a not-cheap signature from a trusted authority.
This is one of the holes in the Agnitum Whine Paper - they ignore the fact that the code they say could easily hack past the patching would have to be signed, which presents serious problems for a hacker.
All of these flaws deal with documents and the answer is obvious: you need to have anti-virus anyway, and it's easier for AV to cover these flaws quickly than for Microsoft to patch them quickly. So for any responsible organization it's not a problem for very long.
Does it run on the Commodore 64?
>>There are established standards and NEUTRALITY laws that regulate roads so that you or nobody else gets discriminated.
This isn't true. There are lots of roads where, for example, trucks are not permitted, or their operation is limited, or there are weight limitations. There are bridges and tunnels where certain types of vehicles and cargoes are banned. There are toll roads where different types of vehicles pay different fees. And, of course, the operation of vehicles on the roads is heavily (if unevenly) regulated to combat abuse.
Real highways aren't a good analogy for net neutrality proponents, don't go there.
People who buy service from an ISP aren't just buying raw connectivity, they're buying e-mail service, proxies, some security facilities, tech support and a lot more. Maybe it's a bad deal, but Cringely's $17.42 figure is not an accurate one.