Hey, as long as I get my start menu, taskbar, and actual desktop back, MS can snort whatever coke they want.

Nutjobs.

*snerk*

This video pretty much sums up my feelings on the next Xbox.

I REALLY do hope all the "internet always on" rumors are false.

http://www.neowin.net/news/neobytes--my-name-is-francis-this-is-my-xbox-and-this-is-my-axe

Yeah, I still wouldn't mind being able to install linux on an RT device, not that I really want one, a real OS would make it far more compelling.

Mon Mar 25 2013 05:52:01 PM EDT from zooer @ Uncensored

Is the secure boot suppose to prevent you from installing a working operating system?

If by "working" you mean any OS other than Windows, then yes.

Mon Mar 25 2013 06:13:56 AM PDT from Freakdog @ Dog Pound BBS II

 

Sun Mar 24 2013 04:59:09 PM EDT from asdfg @ Uncensored

The Windows H8Tred just keeps on spreading.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adriankingsleyhughes/2013/03/14/why-windows-8-is-t he-first-windows-release-i-absolutely-hate/

I enjoyed this article because like this author, I didn't hate previous versions of windows. I didn't even hate vista. I disliked vista. I hate windows 8.
If rumors are at all to be believed, I will hate the new Xbox
as well.

Bought my wife a new laptop...came with Windows Mobile...er...Windows 8.

All I can say is "wow, what a steaming pile of..."

I especially love the "apps" that come preinstalled, and upon opening, tell you that there's an update available, which is required in order to proceed...but when you select to upgrade it, there's no upgraded version in the Windows "app store".

Whose idea was it to make this unsuccessful abortion the next wave?

I have been to several 'big box' electronics stores over the past few months and have found more than a couple of them marketing 'upgrades' to WINDOWS 7 for folks buying machines with WinBlows 8 preinstalled.

I really never paid much attention to what the machines have for operating systems. The first thing I do with a new machine is install my current favorite flavor of linux - makes the whole WinBlows issue rather irrelevent.

Sun Mar 24 2013 04:59:09 PM EDT from asdfg @ Uncensored

The Windows H8Tred just keeps on spreading.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adriankingsleyhughes/2013/03/14/why-windows-8-is-t he-first-windows-release-i-absolutely-hate/

I enjoyed this article because like this author, I didn't hate previous versions of windows. I didn't even hate vista. I disliked vista. I hate windows 8.
If rumors are at all to be believed, I will hate the new Xbox
as well.

Bought my wife a new laptop...came with Windows Mobile...er...Windows 8.

All I can say is "wow, what a steaming pile of..."

I especially love the "apps" that come preinstalled, and upon opening, tell you that there's an update available, which is required in order to proceed...but when you select to upgrade it, there's no upgraded version in the Windows "app store".

Whose idea was it to make this unsuccessful abortion the next wave?

Mon Mar 18 2013 07:32:22 PM EDT from fleeb @ Uncensored

The infinite is possible at ZomboCloud. The unattainable is unknown at ZomboCloud.

Welcome!

Son of a damn bitch, devaluing my precious unobtanium into that worthless crap.

Actually they want you to let your servers sit there, licensed and paid for but idle, while you subscribe to their hosted services and use that instead.

Because ... y'know ... it's in the cloud.

No network connectivity is tantimount to the security of Windows Servers anyway.

Microsoft already knows what you want to do with your servers.  This is why they hide everything the way they do.

The operating system works best if you install nothing on it, and never log in.  Which, in Microsoft's world, is precisely how their servers should be used.

Isn't it similar to what they use now?

"Wouldn't it be great if everything was as simple as you are?"

Fri Mar 15 2013 07:10:05 CET from dothebart @ Uncensored

but.. .Imagine you could operate your Servers as simple as a smartphone!

 

This is probably the best MS marketing slogan evar!

Truely the Mother Teresa of all Hitlers...

Thu Mar 14 2013 09:19:09 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Mixing parts of it in with an operating system supposedly intended for servers absolutely justifies the gruesome mass-extermination of every single designer and developer who was involved in its creation. It's THAT bad. 

It's good to know that there is Hitlers on both sides.

but.. .Imagine you could operate your Servers as simple as a smartphone!

I came across an xps once and I ignored it. Nobody sane seems to use it. And yes, the NIH seems to be the main purpose. They should offer a NIH reader for all plattforms and shove it down everyones throat, like adobe did in the 90s.

Seriously, is there any value of XPS at all?  It really seemed like Microsoft built it purely out of a sense of not-invented-here.

First time I hear about this issue, but I can believe it. Possibly we have now learned why MS does not feature a nice PDF creation button in their product: They would make themselves superflous when you only need a pdf reader on the recipient end.

Otoh I know that people on my department use word files with comments inside of them, which fails in OOo/LO.

I think it depends on your particular job and your industry. 

I still receive enough important files that look off in OO, particularly because there are issues with RtL support that it's worthwhile for me to have MS Office on my computer. 

(oh yeah, living in a country with RtL language makes a difference too)

Seems it was just rumours. Anyway, good to hear that they support reading ODF, but I send only PDFs nowadays. Because the pdf button is just so comfy in LibreOffice or because longer texts were written in Lyx. (I am just too lazy to convert my letter templates to LaTex.)

The latest rumors I heard is that MS is dropping backward compatibility to the old .doc and .xls files. I wonder if they offer some automagic conversion tool. And how much that one will actually really convert correctly....

The thing they are going to shoot their own foot nuke their own bodies with is this annual fee for an office product. As somebody here said, if you own Office 2003, he could still run it on Win7. And it works fine, installed it at a clients site without any noticable problem. I know that other clients had to drop their Office XP when they migrated to Win7 last year. Now, for home users, the fee of ~100€ for a triple license of Word/Powerpoint/Excel is not bad, but I agree that it is probably a waste since you could get a free complete Libre/openOffice Suite. And/Or the PPViewer for free.

The problem why people are not switching, at least in small businesses is: others are not switching either. So you get the odd .doc file which looks messed up in your free Office suite. Instead of saying "Sorry, could you please send us a PDF?" they whine about the bad free software. Another problem seem to be Excel files. Recently at a client site the new professional accounting lady called OpenOffice "Mickey Mouse Office" and she couldn't work with it because she is doing "complicated things with excel"....

My guess is she was just to lazy and too old to switch concepts. I bet I am doing more complicated things with LibreCalc when I really need to use it. Basic accounting like she does only needs basic excel funtioncs, she is not doing fluid physics or the likes. Anyway, I installed her the 2010 suite, so now all employes enjoy the ribbons.

Honestly, the transition from WinXP with Office 2003 to Win7 with Office 2007 is as smooth as installing KDE and Openoffice. My parents are probably not getting a Windows again and they probably won't even notice until my brother tells them. If that happens, they will know they got something inferior, I guess. The mom of my girlfriend could do completely without MS et al., but her husband would probably rant all over the place and so I will be given names. The world would be easier without all those "I need Photoshop in order to deal with my private pictures" people.

"microsoft technet toolbox" aka "private cloud" CD in the current german linux mag.

the new aol?

Tue Mar 05 2013 11:51:34 EST from Campagnolo @ Dog Pound BBS II

 

Mon Mar 04 2013 19:06:11 EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Actually the best Windows ever was Windows NT 3.51 -- it still followed Dave Cutler's design fairly tightly; the Redmondites hadn't larded it up with crap yet. But the best Microsoft operating system ever was Xenix.

Don't forget OS/2... You remember, the OS MS and IBM were working on together as a replacement for NT. Oh wait... never mind... back to your regularly scheduled MS bashing!

Not all correct.

MS + IBM were developing OS/2; and at some point in time they hired the VMS-Crew and ditched the os/2 to start out on Windows NT.

Mon Mar 04 2013 19:06:11 EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Actually the best Windows ever was Windows NT 3.51 -- it still followed Dave Cutler's design fairly tightly; the Redmondites hadn't larded it up with crap yet. But the best Microsoft operating system ever was Xenix.

Don't forget OS/2... You remember, the OS MS and IBM were working on together as a replacement for NT. Oh wait... never mind... back to your regularly scheduled MS bashing!

http://www.zdnet.com/five-reasons-why-windows-8-has-failed-7000012104/

figures of 8 even worse than vista!

For which version?  'doze 95?  If I remember correctly that's the one that had "The Microsoft Sound" as the startup.

Mon Feb 18 2013 15:57:38 EST from fireball @ Uncensored

 

Sun Feb 17 2013 04:05:46 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

I think it's cute that there are still people who are so stuck in the 20th century that they use software whose licenses require that you pay for it.

I don't know what you're on about, there are certainly instances where commercial products are far better than free equivilants, and cases where open source doesn't push development forward much, nor does the userbase often properly fund development of the free/open source projects (open source/free indie games, for one, have only surpassed hobby by donation in a few cases).  

closed source has spawned sick products like ole or dde just to maintain that busines model and offer a limited interoperation model.

Meanwhile at least some bigger comunes like Munich have discovered the value of having the source for their infrastructure.

Be the cost of this somewhere inbetween the 18M Euro they told, or the 60 M Euro Microsoft made HP lie - I think its worth while not to put that money down the throats of Micro$oft and have the value in source available free to be shared with other cities - and - yes, with you in forms of patches to open/libre office.

Sun Feb 17 2013 04:05:46 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

I think it's cute that there are still people who are so stuck in the 20th century that they use software whose licenses require that you pay for it.

I don't know what you're on about, there are certainly instances where commercial products are far better than free equivilants, and cases where open source doesn't push development forward much, nor does the userbase often properly fund development of the free/open source projects (open source/free indie games, for one, have only surpassed hobby by donation in a few cases).   

I bloody hate computer locked licencing, and I have no clue why it's still around.  I have too many computers and make too many upgrades to tolerate it if I don't really have to (and I can't recall a case that I did).

Wouldn't worry about it too much, Zooer.  Half my company is still using 2003 as they won't allow us to upgrade.

... maybe they put encarta ad acta? ;-)

hm, so in the new surface tv comercial it actualy reads wikipedia in one of those tiles... so they finaly admit that encarta is dead?

Fri Feb 08 2013 05:55:27 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

That was my first thought, but I figured we'd keep the Hitler talk in Godwin's Lounge. You're not incorrect, though.

Q: How do you tell when SharePoint was the wrong choice for a project?

A: If SharePoint was chosen at all, you made the wrong choice.

Not if your other choice is the product named after a chinese flower that I can't actually name if I want to keep my job.....

Fri Feb 08 2013 11:16:52 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Every line of code in SharePoint was personally written by Satan.

Just sayin'.

Or Hitler.  Wait, wrong room.  I was looking for an argument (that is actually the Quotamations room these days).

Console rumors are crap, and hell, even many of the announcements turn out to be crap (Sony has a bad habit of claiming specs 2 years before release that they don't have on release day).  The specific rumor you're speaking of was also thrown around last (this?) generation, and it didn't happen then either.  Also, really, as next gen consoles aren't likely to change your current buying decisions much, just wait it out and see what happens.  

Just for some insight on what it takes to get your rumor published these days:

http://x-surface.tumblr.com/

http://www.h-online.com/news/item/Microsoft-study-Linux-migration-cost-Munich-EUR60-7-million-1789679.html

So, writing the macros for openoffice for local document processing is the biggest block if you want to run a city on opensource...

Wed Jan 23 2013 04:56:27 PM EST from fireball @ Uncensored

How many basic programs does it take before you just loath the ZX81 keyboard?  None, you'll be pissed by line 3.

Scissor switch (over membrane) keyboards tend to be... ok.  Membrane over membrane just looks terrible.  That said not all microsoft products are bad, their mice have served me quite well.  I also have a M$ branded backpack, which was cheap and happily holds my mac.

It was smooth sailing before that damn 16K ram pack.  Not even velcro stickers could save you from the fuzzy lines of death that ensued after trying to press the Shift-Function-AND keyword button and zap, a few hours worth of work gone as you did not want to save to tape for 5 - 7 minutes.  Those were the days.  Glad to see Microsoft is reviving the feeling minus the crashing (but I see IG has posed a nice BSOD with smiley face).

Anyone else notice that the message refers to the tablet as a "PC".

Tue Jan 22 2013 05:04:20 PM EST from ax25 @ Uncensored

Don't knock the ZX81 like that :-)

How many basic programs does it take before you just loath the ZX81 keyboard?  None, you'll be pissed by line 3.

Scissor switch (over membrane) keyboards tend to be... ok.  Membrane over membrane just looks terrible.  That said not all microsoft products are bad, their mice have served me quite well.  I also have a M$ branded backpack, which was cheap and happily holds my mac.

The version I tried was the membrane keyboard.  However I am going to assume that the other one is garbage too, simply because it is a Microsoft product.

Actual conversation, cf. 1994 or so...

Spell: "Eeeeww!  Accck!"

IG: "What?"

Spell: "I touched a Microsoft product!"

And of course, there are other WinRT/Win8 devices on display in stores, mainly because Micro$oft is paying megabucks to the stores to display them.  Take, for example, this fine little display unit I stumbled across over the weekend:

That's the way it was when I came across it.  I didn't do anything to crash it.  And it was stuck on that screen; the promised restart never occurred.  

For the $999 version, it should have just projected the keyboard :-)

Tue Jan 22 2013 03:10:51 PM EST from fireball @ Uncensored

I would actually likely be somewhat interested in the RT version of the surface if the OS didn't suck and it wasn't overpriced, the laptops version's battery life isn't good enough and it's in the wrong market.  The real issue I have with the surface is the default keyboard looks like it's terrible.  I've never touched one, but mentally it brings images of the keyboard on the ZX81, though I know there's no way it's nearly that bad.  I just don't expect it to be tollerable.

Don't knock the ZX81 like that :-)

I would actually likely be somewhat interested in the RT version of the surface if the OS didn't suck and it wasn't overpriced, the laptops version's battery life isn't good enough and it's in the wrong market.  The real issue I have with the surface is the default keyboard looks like it's terrible.  I've never touched one, but mentally it brings images of the keyboard on the ZX81, though I know there's no way it's nearly that bad.  I just don't expect it to be tollerable.

combining theese two articles:

http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Of-netbooks-tablets-and-Linux-s-revenge-1783069.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/18/7_reasons_windows_rt_was_doa/

undermines my opinion, that while hunting down the netbook market (which according to the second with the last two Asus & Acer exiting ceised to exist) microsoft missed the next big things...

and I like the analysis that windowsRT and the keyboard tablet they do sort of is their vision of a netbook...  and... its the double price.

well, at least these people nowadays won't buy pricy windows RT devices, so samsung killed their product at least for the US market while stating they can' t produce enough android 7" tablets to saturate the market.

Toshiba also killed their winRT "because of they wouldn't be ready at the first launch wave"

HP did so allso to wait for the new intel atoms for tablets to arive to run real windows 8, so their business customers can run real windows applications on it..

I guess first time in history microsoft faces that a market simply doesn't want their products.

While they managed to crush the netbook market, windows on ARM with anything else than phone is dead for a primary reason: it can't run legacy apps you used to run on your other wintendo, while everything "should" look the same for the consumer...

I guess one could compare windows RT with the HD-Ready labels on TV sets. Its a marketing lie, which only the dumb will swallow.

Mon Jan 14 2013 01:18:48 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Yeesh. Three whole days of migrating a company from its old Exchange world to a new one. With every release, Exchange gets more byzantine with lots of new ways it can break.

And it isn't just cheap talk when I say "I could write a better mail system in my spare time" -- because I actually have. :)

Yes, yes you have...

http://penguinpackets.com/~kelly/kblog/blog/01231866216

But then again, you did have a head start :-)

I personaly realy dislike the current office with those 'intuitive' icon bars.

Because they realised that their Office product isn't that innovativ anymore and people can stick with OfficeXP for about 12 years....

Or they still use Office2003.

Personally, I find it a bit too expensive and I still think global economy will be boosted greatly if companies stop wasting money on Outllook maintenance...

The "Exchange or Compatible Service" that Microsoft has in Outlook 2013 is because they're pushing Office 365. Hard. My office is full of their kool-aid.

Hehe...

Well, I find Win8 too cutesy to be effective, anyway, so blending it would be fine with me!  :-)

will it blend?

Accoring to this guy, you can't kill a Surface even by running it over with a car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d5xkULjc50&feature=youtu.be

now just steve ballmer missing on that list ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=4cMVKW-fR1M

first time using windows 8 while drunk...

Yeah, mozilla products and tabs are on the same league with MS products.

Especially the tbird sucks in all directions, reaching into hyperbolic realms.

fucking intuitive ui's

my mom had her tbird... complaining that it would take > 5 mins to get it started.

guess what?

the fucking beast had 30 tabs open with all sorts of emails, and it would re-open them on each start.

thanks to the intuitive UI you hardly see that these are tabs on first sight; with that many tabs it even didn't make sense to me on first sight.

Don't forget the target audience!

The usual suspect: Your Mom! She needs a browser and something to open those "if you care for kittens, send this to 10 beloved friends.pps" files. Maybe type a letter once in a decade. She does not really care about the userinterface and clicks what she was told to click. So some tiles on a front screen are good, she does not have to search for the "this opens the internet" icon. She probably gets the Win8 when she buys a new computer. Because she does not know about alternatives and doesn't want to pay for an OS, she uses win8. Or her son installs a stolen Win7. Anyway, she bought the win8.

The office jerk: Will still use XP or Vista until his company decides to finish the Win7 evaluation in 3 years. So no trouble here. The company might buy new computers with win8 OEM, but the admin will install XP because it is company policy.

The power user: Will only need to start games. Installs some modded skin and totally fubars his. Doesn't care if he buys win8 OEM, because he will install a stolen Ubar-Ultimate-unstable-release-candidate version.

Lesson learned: MS will still sell enough win8 to claim they have lots of innovative power and marketshare.

This.

There is value in complete compatibility - if you know how to do something on your PC, you know how to do it on your tab. I like the idea. 

hm. vista fon 8 knows rooms?

Thu Oct 25 2012 14:58:39 EDT from zooer @ Uncensored

I wish I could still use Windows 2000 professional... and I only
started using that after I had to give up DOS 5.5.


On a related note, will Android become the major OS by 2016?
http://goo.gl/WJA0l

heh. especialy liked the conclusion:

The trouble is, these analyses always take into account current trends without factoring in unknowns (because how could they?).

...

What if-and this is totally out there, but hear me out-people actually like Windows 8?

well, we'll see, right?

At least point(er)less devices with touchscreens are going to emerge.

And, Peripherials are becomming more and more smart, so i.e. using a webinterface from your android (or an easy install app...) to operate a smart 'printer/scanner/tv..' via your android device might serve as replacement to having to plug it in somewhere and install a driver.

.oO(if the smart device isn't running some sort of android in first place)

Ah, there's a new Windows? I suppose I will have to buy it next time I replace my laptop.

I just love it that the mainstream news media agrees with me about windows 8 sucking.

I just saw this on FoxNews

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/10/19/early-look-at-windows-8-baffles-consumers/?intcmp=features

and

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/10/16/why-can-ignore-windows-8/

 I think just about the most damning thing I've read yet on windows 8 was the quote from the first link:

"It was very difficult to get used to," he said. "I have an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, and they never got used to it.

They were like, `We're just going to use Mom's computer."'
Hah, even the kids can't get used to it! 

Well, this is interesting.

This is the "Add Account" screen for Outlook 2013.  For those of you who can't see the screenshot: the choices are:

• Microsoft Exchange Server or compatible service
• ActiveSync
• POP/IMAP

The words "or compatible service" in the first choice, and the fact that the second choice exists in Outlook, seems to indicate that Microsoft has finally given up on their efforts to make Exchange the only server that has full functionality with Outlook.

Either they've realized that the compatible software is so good now that there's no point, or they're comfortable with Exchange's market share, or perhaps they think they can make more money on ActiveSync patent licenses.

In any case it's good news for Citadel because when we finish our Z-Push back end we'll have full compatibility with not only every major smartphone and tablet, but also Outlook 2013.  I was planning on building an OpenChange back end eventually, but now maybe there's no need.

How dare you insult AOL by comparing Windows 8 to them.

not exactly news, but yes, entertaining.

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17vjdq82vzwf9jpg/original.jpg

hm, using lync and some good headset connected to your wintendo isn't that bad after all for a telco.

microsoft managed to successfully embrace & extend here; its a wild mashup of video / voip, xmpp and your outlook inbox.

I think they currently only do big cooperate deployments.

When the siemens attemp to replace the POT with voip ended up with everyone using their mobile instead to stop the pc/phoneconnection from crashing, experiences with lync aren't remotely as bad. Its using the company phonebook, so you can search for collegues you want to phone/chat/conference/desktop share...

you can even send outlook invitation mails for meetings containing URLs spawning lync and making it join the conference. While its opening the internet exploiter inbetween, and its a shabby slow cludge its a working solution.

Hmm ... conference calls ... using Windoze ... dunno which is more unpleasant!

For those of us who don't use Windoze, please explain what the "recycle bin trick" does?

*laughs*  Probably true.  But it's better than falling asleep!

I just guffawed out loud in the middle of a conference call.

<laughs>  Knew it'd been too clean around here lately....  :-)

<looks around for Animal>

 http://wearefuntastic.net/imageserver/_nhlfu0802/img/456aolvswin338.jpg

When doing smart-host delivery with Exchange don't forget to check your GlitchRetrySeconds registry setting :-)

Kills me that they MS programmers thought that was a good reg key name for Exchange.  I suppose they do have a sense of humor.  I love how they dropped the ball on that brand new SMTP protocol and just "forgot" to deliver delayed mail until the SMTP server gets restarted (without that reg key).

thats the benefit of a stable API, you know?

Agreed, they also sell a lot of electronic devices and I do buy them there. But since MediaMarkt/Saturn/other big consumer markets killed the smaller electronics shops already, I do not see them as harming that wasteland any more.

But yes, I am a book guy, I study philosophy, psychology and computational science, so I often need specific literature you do not find online. Even when you find ebooks, I prefer ink on dead tree because it doesnt strain the I as much when you have to read a lot.

I mostly look online for used books or original versions of books that are OOP. For this I started using http://eurobuch.com which is an aggregation site for services like abebooks, ebay, amazon, zvab, booklooker and whatnot. If I really need to order fresh books online, I try to spread usage on other pages, like bol.de.

I also stopped using german equivalents of BarnesNobles, since my favourite bookstore here is even able to order books the big ones do not offer. They especially impressed me when they were able to order german translated prints of a Marquis de Sade book which I needed but couldn't find in any library either. The big stores in town were not able to order this book.

Hmm, interestingly, I don't think I ever considered them a "bookseller" either.  In fact, of all the things I've purchased from them over the years, I don't think more than a handful were actually books! 

When it comes right down to it, I still like "manhandling" my books before I buy.  :-)

But point taken.

Di Jun 26 2012 20:50:16 CEST von Ladyhawke @ Uncensored

What's Amazon done?

Killing your local small bookstore where the clerks could really tell you something about most books they sell?

Not looking for monsters...frankly, I'd rather they all just drank their "good boy juice".  That said, you're right about fb having a solid place on the list.

What's Amazon done?

Now try NOT to have a google or gmail account on a non-rooted android phone.  ;-)

I'm not saying they're not innovative or good competion for Apple or MS - hell, my next phone will prob be an android, if BB goes belly up. 

But none of that means that they don't have their own ways of "forcing" usage, collecting information they shouldn't, or manipulating consumers in ways that a non-evil, "benevolant lord" wouldn't.

<laughs>  You mean like forcing you to sign into all Google services if you use an Android phone?  Oh wait, that's what M$ does....

So basically, we now have 3 evil overloards instead of one....  

I still miss using my old Newton MessagePad (the 2100 was great - the hardware finally caught up to the software) - there were things it could do that current tablets can't. It's pretty much eclipsed now, but it was still great stuff.

Of course, since it doesn't have Angry Birds, it doesn't matter any more. Wait - someone's writing a clone of it for the Newton.

hm, big question Y the openbsd guys not rather had chosen openwatcom instead of pcc...

want a free compiler? write managed code.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/hh852363.aspx

want native code & non-metro capable ide? pay.

Sounds like the gcc windows port could gain more traction, since there is no free in beer alternative anymore.

hrhr...

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120518PD204.html

...now you know why they're trying to get a tax from android; Windows tablets are going to be to expensive to get a pitch inbetween android and apple.

while billiboys pet project the "tabletcomputer" never took of, with a locked boot loader there realy is no reason to buy a windows tablet, since its going to be even more expensive than compareable android tablets; and most probably going to overprice the much nicer Isomething tables also.

I guess while doing the firestomping on the netbook market to stop linux from entering the desktop market they totaly overslept the apple development.

fancy.

Today, I used some fushitsu tablet running windows7. First, I thought it was a joke and somebody had an x86 emulator running under android, booting up the win7. But then I realized it was for real and only some stuff was amazingly sluggish, like... booting. Or actually starting any program. But then, when it was booted and programs finished starting, it was quite a desktop experience. Only that the interface itself was not quiet precisely usable, everything was like using a touchscreen on a small mobile phone while you ride a rollercoaster.

So, if you are not too fond of the crashes, prepare to be amazed by windows8 on the tablets. 

Wed May 09 2012 17:29:25 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Microsoft always takes the credit for things they steal from others. They call it Innovation(tm).

WAIT! they did invent having a throbber in the center of the screen when the system is busy if the system doesn't have a visible mousepointer. At least they have a patent on that.

In germany, they have huge advertisment posters with cute kittens and an extra domain praising the benefits. Will take a photo next time i see one.

This lack of any working copy&paste in google docs is among the biggest showstoppers. The overall crappyness of userexperience and the fact that it  comes from google forcing you to use their SSO login on any google affiliated service is what makes me only use it in porn/privacymode of firefox.

well, yes, MS is not remotely as bad as they used to be.

same accounts for ibm.

and yes, the apple monarchy is pretty bad. though it has to prove whether the new king is going to keep it up like that, or whether their kingdom fails soon.

In my work, we use Google docs for anything collaborative, but the spell check/grammar check in MS-Word is still far superior. 

I used OO for a long time, but when I start this job, it just didn't quite cut it - I had issues with the track changes, for example.

And I think MS isn't nearly as evil as Apple. 

heh, that guy too:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/121015-windows-8-may-drive-me-to-linux

astonishingly he seems to like the unity dekstop;

Microsoft 365, not 366!

Har, har, har.....

Gotta love the leap years.

Portal 2 on linux? Seems to be no problem. See:

http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=23278

To avoid beating the long-dead horse... any way you can pop some extra RAM in there? I ran win7 with 2gb ram and when I was only running 4-5 tabs at a time on Chrome, life was livable. Now I'm at 4GB RAM and sadly, I manage to use all of it. 

WTF?  [ If you can't see the image, go to http://i42.tinypic.com/fnrzu8.gif ]

101 is my collection of "LAMP" type web sites (including www.citadel.org).  102 is Uncensored, with lots of people logged in and doing their thing.  104 is my development box.

103 is an idle Windows 7 desktop.  It is doing nothing right now.  There aren't even any applications installed.  It's sitting there idle and it's consuming more memory than any of the other VM's, and eating CPU.

Windows 7: their best ever! 

Tue Dec 13 2011 10:09:48 ESTfrom skpacman @ Uncensored

I had it partitioned as: d0-p0 (System Reserve), d0-p1 (OS - 250GB), d0-p2 (DATA - ~650GB)

The bad thing is, it got them switched somehow. It installed Windows on the bigger partition after I specifically told it to install on the smaller one.

I fucking hate windows... it ruined a perfect build.

At least I am not alone! A while ago, I upgraded the laptop of my gf. I already had set up the previous version of winxp, so I had a seperate partition of OS and one for data already. I moved everything important to the data parition, inserted the win7 installer and pointed it  to the previous system partition, believing to fill that partition with the shiny new win7. Now, there is something truly bizarre about the win7 installers and I am not sure if I already have understood it completely. (No way I am going to RTFM here...)

If you advice it to install on a complete blank hd, it will create some small partition and a big one for the OS. The small one seems to be like a linux' grub partition, bootloader and rescue stuff.

If you create a partition and choose this one as install target, it sometimes omits the bootloader partition.

Now, if you choose an already existing partition for installation, and it tells you this partition will become the "System" partition you better step on the brakes. It will use this partition for the bootloader and the next one behind this one as the real windows partition. Thats what happened to the GFs computer and her data partition... Of course it nuked the partition table, wrote over some data and left me with a 50gb big boot partition filled with only 200mb of shyte....

Thanks to Zero Assumption Recovery (yes, this is product placement, I even bought that tool for 25$ on a weekend special offer) being one of the few really good recovery tools, I found all her relevant data and was able to get the system going again until sunrise.

I did some resizing of partitions and reinstalled and now all is good, but I wasted 3gb on this "System" partition, since the stupid win7 partition tool can't shrink it any further.

Mon Dec 26 2011 05:22:00 EST from triLcat @ Uncensored

Now, whenever I use Track Changes in Word <barf>, the changes come through as Poofy.

Apparently, the only way to change that is to create a new user for Windows <blergh!>

I had something similar today, I set up a new win7 machine for our secretary and the thing forces you to create a user on first install, so I created the_mgt. I deleted it after activating the administrator account (sudo activate administrator....).

Today I saw that the adobe software and also office had "the_mgt" as user/owner showing up, even when I used the secretarys account for checking if MS EasyTransfer had really transferred outlook correctly. (Which it did, to my surprise).

Only solution was to comb the registry for the string "the_mgt" and replace it with the secretary's name. And it was all over the place.

To parahrase the Lily Tomlin character "Ernestine" we are the Microsoft company, we don't have to care.

lol. though I must admit mode switching isn't always fine in linux.

my amd 450 with the integrated evergreen chipset still won't switch back to console, and will even mess up the screen when switching back to X11.

but in a situation where you control the QA of the hardware manufacturers, why not make them do it? ....

M$ Office has a slightly different track-changes system from OO.

Their auto-correct and dictionary are also a little better, though they don't have the nifty auto-type that continues the word for you once you start it...

I miss the autotype. Typing 'AppsGeyser' is annoying.

Ok. I was able to fix it. It was completely unclear how to do it since Office no longer acts like an application...

Unfortunately, I'd already edited half the doc as Poofy...

My boss has paid for some things I needed. I was actually able to get Office for $7 or something similarly ridiculous because my husband's work has a deal for home computers and my computer is the only working computer in the house that doesn't belong to his company. 

Again, on my windows box I am using Office 2003 (and Win 2K), in the word processor goto Tools-> Options-> User Information.

If that doesn't work, the properties of each document should offer something.

and if that doesn't work look at settings-> Control Panel-> Users and Passwords and play around with those settings.

I feel so dirty for booting Windows.

I don't remember but itsn't thee something in the options of Microsoft office that you can change?  The default user information.  I know Open Office has the option and I am sure Microsoft does also.

I have a version of Office 2003, I will check that, and then I will check my mother's basic office (word and excel) and see if I can find it in the options.

When husband was setting up <groan> Windows on my computer, he decided to be cute and give me the username Poofy.

When I got a real job <groan!>, boss said I should get Microsoft Office <super-groan>.

Now, whenever I use Track Changes in Word <barf>, the changes come through as Poofy.

Apparently, the only way to change that is to create a new user for Windows <blergh!>

So tempted to RTOOS, but my boss insists on everything being in MS-Word, and OpenOffice doesn't cut it (I tried).

Requesting sympathy b/c of the crazy boss. 

And I'm thinking of buying one of these. http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Can't wait 'til they're available... 

yea, and projects like limux (equipping the city of munichs computers with opensource & linux) still have to fight an uphill battle.

though limux now has an installation base on 9.000 computers of the city, and is going to grow to 12.000 in the next years.

but you realy need people willing to fight and fight clever to achieve s.th. like that so you can stand ms office for a longer view.

yea. the only force you get by google is to create a gmail account if you want to install apps on your android.

its real hard to utilize the full power of an android phone without.

Also the force to have a g+ account is way below to create a F*k one. If somebody invites you to f*k or mentions you or posts a link to your blog, you'll get teaser mails.

Posting on g+ offers you a way to send your post to email recipients too.

realy. while google has grown powerfull over the last decade, its using open standards, working on open standards, even working on creating a free unpatented video format for the advantage of all webusers.

plus, most of the privacy concerns raised about google in the past were astroturfing campaigns founded by microsoft.

If you assume that google has a monopoly on things, its not using it to put pressure on others below the point that its hard to be better than them, since their brainshare rises by all their new  employees and aquisitions.

If you have a look at all those monopolies which have been there, they were used to kill innovation, threatn users, threaten other companies.

As we can just see at microsoft, they failed after a while.

We'll see how the google "don't be evil" - tactic ends out.

Dunno, Freak....  Google doesn't force you, but they don't always tell you either.

Fri Dec 16 2011 06:47:22 PM EST from zooer @ Uncensored

 

Sun Dec 11 2011 01:46:15 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

I saw it written this way today, and it seems to make sense:

* Microsoft is the new IBM.
* Apple is the new Microsoft.
* Google is the new Apple.

hmm...

 

I consider G¤¤g£€ the new Micro$oft.  People used to complain that microsoft wanted to control the office products, the web browser and the dominate with the OS.  Now Google wants to control the office products, the web browser and the OS.  Oddly enough the people that hated microsoft for doing that embrace google for doing it.

At least Google's doing it with established and approved standards, and it's not forcing you to use anything, or tying it to any OS (unless you bought an Android phone).

Sun Dec 11 2011 01:46:15 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

I saw it written this way today, and it seems to make sense:

* Microsoft is the new IBM.
* Apple is the new Microsoft.
* Google is the new Apple.

hmm...

I consider G¤¤g£€ the new Micro$oft.  People used to complain that microsoft wanted to control the office products, the web browser and the dominate with the OS.  Now Google wants to control the office products, the web browser and the OS.  Oddly enough the people that hated microsoft for doing that embrace google for doing it.

Wed Dec 14 2011 11:06:08 EST from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

They also had to reluctantly support HTML5 video, since it's in their best interest for Flash to die; we should all be very happy that Silverlight never caught on.

well, except for some indian portal.

but yes. fuck mono. fuck silver, moon and whateverlight. fuck flash.

Eh, I still sometimes screw up the connectors or mis-set the BIOS.  You're right though...white boxes have really gotten a lot more plug/play the last few years.

Wasn't entirely sure where to post this, but the moral of the story is "Microsoft Sucks", so I guess this room is fine.

Last night, I embarked on a 4 hour journey into building my 5th from-scratch computer.

The 4 preceeding computers to this one had hardware problems from the get-go. Someone ordering the wrong part, something not fitting in the case, power supply problems, you know, the usual. This 5th one was no exception, but it went much better than the last 4.

Anyways, I take my time building this monster of a computer (DDR3, Intel i7, 1tb hdd, evga 1.5gb gfx, pro case, etc..) because there was about $2K worth of parts sitting on my floor, building this thing.

So, 3.5 hrs into the build, I get all of the parts in, double check the wiring, drink some coffee, go for a smoke, tripple check the wiring, zip-tie everything into it's right place, double check all of the hardware positions and connections, ... you know, the usual obsessive-complsive computer builder stuff.

Now, in my experience, the first time you boot up a brand-new built monster, it has problems. Something in the BIOS isn't set up completely right, some switches or jumpers were missed, missed a USB connection somewhere, or a network card is in wrong... little stuff. This time, I plugged it in, flipped the power switch on the PSU, and pressed the button and waited for the memory POST beep. waiting... watching the indicator lights on the motherboard... wating... (it felt like I was waiting for 5 minutes, when in reality I only waited 7 seconds).

BEEP

(then silence)

I realized at that moment, there were no problems with the build. Nothing went wrong at first start for the first time ever in my experience of building computers.

I hooked up a kb, mouse, and cheap monitor to it just to check the BIOS settings and make sure it's recognizing everything. It all checks out OK (except for the CPU temperature guage thermocouple, but that's easy to fix... connection problem [not my fault])

I asked my customer what OS they had in mind.

*facepalm* he pulls out a Windows 7 Home Premium x64 package from his bag.

Great, this beast of a machine that has 3x the computing power and capacity than my custom build, and he's going to ruin it with windows.

*deep breath*

I get the setup loaded, go through partitioning the hdd, get it installed and running, then it boots into windows. I look at the drives.

I had it partitioned as: d0-p0 (System Reserve), d0-p1 (OS - 250GB), d0-p2 (DATA - ~650GB)

The above partitioning is what I always do for a windows machine. I put Windows on the 250GB partition and instruct my customer to only save files, media, and documents on the bigger partition, and only ever use the smaller partition for the OS and programs. It's a safe-guard. If windows crashes, they don't lose all of their work, only the programs, which can be replaced, and their files are still sitting safely on the other partition, unharmed.

The bad thing is, it got them switched somehow. It installed Windows on the bigger partition after I specifically told it to install on the smaller one.

I fucking hate windows... it ruined a perfect build.

Sun Dec 11 2011 13:46:15 ESTfrom IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

* Apple is the new Microsoft.

I didn't want to copy a whole table, I want the content of certain fields spread across a series of "letters" I want to print out. Every pupil gets a sheet handed out with his name, the group he was in and some info about the various subcategories he scored in:

Name: John Doe

Group: 1

Dancing on hot coals: 12 points

Juggling with chainsaws: 20 points

Drawing a straight line: 2 points

And the infos came from the excel sheet. I'll post screenshots when I am done. 

doesn't word load an embedded excel if you just cut'n'paste a table?

So Nov 20 2011 19:03:34 CET von the_mgt @ Uncensored

According to the internet, something like { MERGEFIELD SomeField \# #.##0,00 } could rectify the problem, but it doesn't do it in this case.

Ok, this does work if you use the the implemented Edit Field -> Fieldfunction dialogue. Or whatever it is called in the original english version. It does not work if you press alt+F9 and edit the line directly, although it looks identical...

Fellow haters!

Today I came across the weirdest thing in MS Office ever. My girlfriend needs to grade the exams of her pupils, this involves lots of calculation. So I thought abusing the serial letter funtion of Word, combined with an Excel sheet would be a good idea. So I calculate and round the grades in Excel, two digits behind the dot are fine. This looks good in Excel, but totally foul in Word:

Excel=1,35 [with this formula used  =ROUND((B28/100*$B29);2)]

Word=1,3500000000000001

It even miscalculated 5% of 13 to 0,650000000000001.

According to the internet, something like { MERGEFIELD SomeField \# #.##0,00 } could rectify the problem, but it doesn't do it in this case.

So this was a project which started to save time and ended up to be a complete waste of time. Ok, I could have guessed that from the beginning...

Has anyone of you ever seen this? 

Here in germany, the city of Munich tried to move to Linux completely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux

There are a few other towns of which I have forgotten the name.

These are my personal observations over the last ten years or so: 

In general, I know only people who try linux for their private desktop computers and most of them are geeks, nerds and the like. Even at the university, most students use windows (brilliant move of MS, the MSDN-AA system, you get your win7 for free and need to pay "only" for the Office suite...). Only CI students use linux more often, but the profs use windows mostly. If a CI student who uses linux meets a non-CI student using linux, (s)he is surprised. Some computer pool rooms here at the university have linux installed, but the ones with windows machines are always under heavier usage.

Yesterday I handed out some papers in the cafeterias of the university and lots of students have iphones (second might be android), also lots of the students own some kind of tablet pc. Macs are common too, since they are hip (and apple sells them slightly cheaper to students). 

Servers on the other hand are often linux based in university networks, but they are fire&forget systems in the smaller departments. Once installed, seldomly maintained/upgraded. The same goes for small businesses. But the more specialized they are, the more bound to windows they are, often in need of a mssql server. Architects with their CAD software and other planning tools, dentists with their special needs for protocolling peoples mouths, psychologists with their need for SPSS and other mathematical and special equipment. Specialized software in general is expensive, odd and quite crappy when it comes to usability and migration. People in city planning departments suffer from the same problem. (I work or have worked for all of the above, only half of them run linux server and only 1/6 of them have people with extended knowledge of windows/linux systems working for them).

The only thing I know for sure is, that almost nobody here uses windows os on mobile phones. And if he does, he hates it and/or is laughed at by others.

So the only place were linux is really widely used is in network operating centers, webpage hosting/housing centers, etc. I think I don't know anybody running a windows server with IIS on it.

And mostly only people working in hardcore IT business use any flavour of linux.

I'm just waiting for the day when the USA realizes there are better, more secure, and more flexible, options for operating systems waiting out there if they just look and keep an open mind about it.

I've changed my entire home to nothing but Linux boxes (either Ubuntu, Debian, Slax, or Android). The only thing in my house that isn't linux-based, is my wife's phone (it's BREW based... damn cheap-o verizion phone).

It's the closed-minded-ness of corporations and businesses that puts them in the M$ license loop. They invest so much into software that they barely have money left over for decent hardware or other expenses. I'm pushing a movement at my place of work to get completely away from the grip of M$ and move into "cloud" computing and non-platform-specific workflow.

A lot of what we do now is in a browser to a web server on-site. our email is gmail based (though i pushed for them to use Citadel, but meh). the only thing that's holding us back is our ERP system and our design software.

I have heard that also.  A lot of foreign governments are turning to Linux to avoid license fees and save money.  Corporate America can't break free of Microsoft's grip yet.

Thu Sep 29 2011 09:44:48 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

So ... is everyone following the "UEFI secure boot" drama? Will Microsoft succeed in coercing OEM's to build computers that can only boot Windows? .....

Well, the way things are proceeding it could be prognosticated that Microsoft will probably get this implemented

 but with the outside-the-american-borders growth in linux it will only be economically-suicidal or niche market

 manufacturers that would actually implement this without leaving a hardware jumper backdoor or whatever.

The growth in linux usage is huge outside the american borders,

not that any media will ever admit to that.

Added to that is the old 'necessity is the mother of invention' meme

 - someone will probably crack that problem anyway, if not for spite then maybe just for fun.

-- 
TheOneLaw

Not so sure Mono would consider that a fair trade!

otoh, I like the Idea of mono getting swapped away by a c-carpet qt binding...

Didnt they do something similiar with some version of Symbian earlier? Then they closed it down and you could get the open source code via CD copy and had to sent patches alongside Permit A38 (only with the blue form!!!) as well as a copy of your blood type sent to the transilvanian embassy?

As much as I like my Symbian^3 (Anna) phone,  I find their politics confusing.

But weren't people thinking that the world was going to end, all privacy abolished, all content DRM'ed, etc back when TPM was introduced? And nothing like that happened.

I understand that they could lock out anything else with Secure Boot, but major companies like Dell, etc. are those companies that sell laptops without preinstalled Windows right now and I think they know why. They could easily say No to some OEM deal forcing Secure Boot. MS might be desperate and they might have some more raving lunatics like this Elop guy on board of their burning oil rig, but I really doubt they will be able to force this to the mass market.

In their subnotebook/netbook OEM spec they defined that 12" display and 1gb ram is the maximum in order to get their cheap winxp (home) licenses. So manufacturers shipped with 1gb ram, but also with an additional slot to put on 2gb more ram. Problem solved, they will do something similiar with Sec. Boot: make the board "Secure Boot Ready" but they won't activate it. 

To me, this sounds like the TPM jadda jadda from some years ago. Seems that nobody uses it, only a few manufacturers even built them into their boards and only some linux geeks (at least I know only about those) are using the functions.

Personally, I like that Secure Boot feature, but since it is my system under my administration, I want to control the whole key/cert stuff. If they come up with some homebrew stuff, it will be cracked like the bootloaders of the Wii, the PS3, mobile phones and what not. Also I think someone will leak/hack/whatever the master key.

Also, though I don't know any real windows fanboys, I believe that people are not really crazy about getting/installing a new windows. Maybe they can trick in a few gamers with some DirectX 3000 bundled only with win8, but the rest is fed up enough with their win7/vista stuff. So, conclusion: Long before MS will be able to dictate it, Apple will seal their beautiful machines with it, in order to not soil their machines with inferior OSs. 

They will not be using Flash for their "Metro" version of Windows 8.   (LINK)

I took a look at the Windows 8 "developer preview" yesterday.  Not surprisingly, I found it quite cumbersome and annoying.  Once again, Microsoft has built something that is more suited to their marketplace goals than to the needs of the end user.   Having failed for years to sell anyone a phone that looks like the Windows desktop, Microsoft will now make the Windows desktop look like their phone.  It's backwards but that's Microsoft for you.

By now you have probably heard Microsoft say that everything is now going to be a "Metro style" app (in other words, a Windows Phone app) and that the "classic" desktop is still there if you need it.  Upon trying out Windows 8, one quickly realizes that this is somewhat disingenuous.  The desktop is still there, and it still works exactly the way it did before.  What they've actually done is replaced the Start menu with a Windows Phone ("Metro") environment.  When you first boot up, you will see Windows Phone.

If you select a "regular" Windows application, it switches you over to the desktop, which behaves exactly the way it did in Windows 7.  But once inside the desktop, if you click the Start menu, instead of seeing the Start menu appear, it switches the whole screen back to the Windows Phone interface.

Most of the "tiles" in the developer preview are mockups.  They don't do anything on-screen, and they don't do anything when you click them.  However, it makes Microsoft's intentions clear: they are going to force Windows Phone down the throats of Windows PC users everywhere, similar to the way they enslaved Windows 98 users to Internet Explorer with the "Active Desktop" design that everyone hated (especially Netscape users).  And of course, the fact that most of these "tiles" lead to Bing destinations, demonstrates that Microsoft's first priority with Windows 8 is to "kill Google" and "kill Android."  The entire user interface is designed around the concept of putting as many clicks as possible between the user and a Google destination, while providing as many Bing-based detours as possible along the way.

You may have also heard Microsoft talk about how Windows 8 will run on both Intel-86 and ARM processors.  This is true, but only if you write "Metro style" apps.  In other words, if you write only to the new API's (yes, Microsoft has once again provided you with The API To End All API's, And This Time We Really Mean It) then your program will run on Windows 8 Intel and Windows 8 ARM (and perhaps on Windows Phone, who knows), but not on Windows 7 or Windows Vista or Windows XP, etc.  Microsoft will be fighting against the very legacy that has kept its desktop monopoly in place all these years.  Are developers going to write Metro apps, or are they going to write software that runs on all versions of Windows?  Are consumers going to buy ARM devices that won't run their existing Intel-86 Windows software?

Conclusion: Windows 8 as it currently stands is half-baked, misdirected, and annoying.  Of course, this could also be said for most of Microsoft's existing products.

http://charlie.amigaspirit.hu/temp/windows-1-vs-8.jpeg

We will simply release Citadel 3000 and blow them all out of the market!!!1111

Fri Aug 19 2011 17:02:35 EDT from Ford II @ Uncensored

Microsoft "the year is the version number" thing.

If I remember correctly Windows 95 was suppose to be Windows 94 but they couldn't get all the bugs out so they delayed the release a year.

I don't understand this rapid release model.  I used to wait but from what I understand once the new number is out, the old number is no longer supported.

http://fossforce.com/2011/08/top-10-things-linux-users-dont-understand/

*lol*

I'd go with the pirated version myself.

yeah... i resorted to doing that for now... Setup Factory is the easiest option out there, but for an _actual_ license is like $380USD... so i found a cracked version and scanned it...

Does anyone know of a good (free, open source preferred) .exe installation creator?

I've been using Setup Factory 9 Personal but I need something that has a bit less confusion and more get-it-done.

I suppose I could find the professional version of Setup Factory since it has what I'm looking for, but don't want to pay for it, nor do I want a cracked version, or "trial" version.

I want something that is _free_ and isn't just a dumbed-down version of the "pro" release.

Ideas?

-- 
Stephen D King
skpacman8629@gmail.com

No, this is just some leftover desktop with some pentium dual cpu. And they are planning on using it only for calendaring or whatever the boss came up with. The Installer itself is btw one of the crappiest pieces of software evar. Instead of activating all needed roles and install whatever servicepack or update it takes to finally get Exchange installed, it just keeps on failing each time I changed something, rebooted the machine and rerun the installer until all requirements are met. Hurray for automation!

I have the mission to install an Exchange Server 2010 here and I almost failed when I was asked to enter the organisation name. Until I realised that I can't use umlauts... I want to cry right now

nope, none of these fits my needs.

I don´t need the keys labeled, but I need quality keys, which i´ve got with my g80 - 5000

I had a similar like that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDW5zyjhCbc

but with its own metal dome under it. it realy worked great without any sort of feedback. though it took several hours to get used to it.

once apple manufactures these again (most probably with bluetooth or USB) i'll buy my next keyboard.

i'm pretty shure neither das keyboard nor the other ones can hold up against my cherry, and If, a clicky ibm would be my second best alternative.

There are some nice solutions by an artsy design oriented company which sells totally overprized:

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/ has screens in each button, but they prize is ridiculous. I once had a Optimus Three in my hands and it was so horribly sluggish that my impression is, they sell style over substance.

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-tactus/ Might be what dothebart is looking for, but I expect it to sell for 10k $ comapring to their prizes.

Seriously, this is nothing a half decent shenzen ripoff couldnt offer you for 100$, I guess. And there would be a huge market, if they announced on proper geeks n' gadgets sites. I am astonished that not even Deal Extreme offers something like that.

I also wonder since a long time, why noone offers a keyboard with vga resolution tft integrated, for when you need to administer your headless system after a failed boot ot something. Only gamers get fancy displays in their keyboards.

On the other comments: Keys need to give proper feedback when pressed, I don't mind the form or how they are printed much and I prefer uk/us layout for coding with altgr+vocal for umlaut generation. Had that layout on a Dell with Uk layout, was really superior for most things. Touch keyboards should vibrate for feedback, though.

I don't care which way the letters on the keyboard look, they could even be not there. Since there are no dvorak keyboards around anyways, letters and whats pressed isn't acurate anyways.

I prefer german layout over american layout keyboards, because its got one more key. I also hate the small enter key some US keyboards have.

I realy dislike the upprinted 10 finger marks, I love the cherry ones where the keys are just a little deeper curved.

anyways, the cherry G80 of the good old times have keys in which the letters are embedded by different coloured plastic, not printed or lasered on top, so they never look "worn off" or shabby regardless the wear of the keys.

and, I realy miss my fingerworks keyboard.

since apple already sells a gesture pad and the magic mouse again, my hopes are that they're going to sell touch keyboards again any time soon...

I'm kind of old-skool.  I think everything ought to look like this:

[ http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajmexico/3281139507/ ]

I sure do miss my Z-19, even decades after it stopped working.  If I had known then how nostalgic I'd eventually become of it, I would have saved it for later repair.

Look at those chunky keys, that non-detachable keyboard, that lovely green screen...

Fr Jul 29 2011 16:49:06 EDT von IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

no tactile response is not a winning situation.

There is only the IBM Model M keyboard. All else is dross. If your keyboard does not clack (not click, *clack*) on both the down and up strokes, you need a real keyboard.

Cherry g80-5000

rather noisy, but no click.

yes, these IBM ones are nice. if you're alone in the dark ;-)

Fr Jul 29 2011 05:43:44 EDT von Ford II @ Uncensored

something like a lazer projected keyboard to write on the empty desk
would probably be the best thing to have.

no tactile response is not a winning situation.

I used to own a fingerworks keyboard, no tactile feedback either. worked like a charm.

though was a bit bigger, and had 4 spots at the places where the home row is.

fingerworks was ackquiered by apple, and now does all their touch products.

Fr Jul 29 2011 11:43:44 CEST von Ford II @ Uncensored

something like a lazer projected keyboard to write on the empty desk
would probably be the best thing to have.

no tactile response is not a winning situation.

You could get burned by the laser, would that be enough feedback?

I am on Symbian^3 here and I am not planning to give away my soul to saatan/google. At least some decent deal would be the minimum.

Seems there is a workaround for swype on symbian too, will give it a shot.

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/07/08/htc_cha_cha_smartphone/

maybe thats the better option, a durable smartphone with android and keyboard ;-)

last similar HTC device I used at $work was the HTC XCalibur (which wasn't received good by the market, because of it was  running with the "phone" version of windows ce, not the smartphone/touch one.

but it was clearly pointing at the older blackberries too.

lmgt4u:

http://www.google.com/search?q=android+swype+german+dictionary&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:unofficial&client=iceweasel-a

I had swype installed, but it didn't have a german language module. Do I have to download that somewhere?

My onscreen keyboard has some feedback when not on energy saving mode, uses the phone vibration, works well for me. Originally I wanted a slideout keyboard too, but the prizes were too high and after testing the onscreen one I decided I don't need it. Also, the same fault-tolerance reasons you mentioned above spoke against a physical one.

I've never had that problem, but, then again, I'm not really rough with phones and I keep them as clean as I can. The last phone I had with a slide-out keyboard lasted over 3 years before the connection between the keyboard and main body started to degrade. I've had friends with the same style phone only have theirs last 6 months, but they had children that destroyed the phone for them. It all depends on the person using it. I'm a huge fan of a physical or projected keyboard. virtual on-screen keyboards are my downfall... i fumble with them or hit the wrong key, my typing speed decreases to around 10wpm with an on-screen keyboard because of how un-trained my thumbs are to it.

-- 
Stephen D King
skpacman8629@gmail.com

but next to being expensive, physical keyboards tend to be the weak spot of mobiles.

my htc wizzard died due to me carying it while cycling, and the connection between keyboard unit and display unit  breaking.

just having one brick with as less joints and inroads for sweat, sand, .... is the basic requirement for a durable mobile.

The snapout-keyboards or clamshells are nice, but they prove as archilles heel all the time.

something like a lazer projected keyboard to write on the empty desk would probably be the best thing to have.

Wed Jul 20 2011 08:01:30 AM EDT from dothebart @ Uncensored

the_mgt, you realy should try swype. one gets pretty quick with that on those virtual keyboards, since most of these touch interfaces don't act good on tapping, but pretty well on dragging your finger across the screen.

thus why i have a Droid 2 Global. physical slide-out keyboard. swype never hit well with me, kept fumbling my fingers or stopping at the wrong time. swype takes a large amount of practice and the learning curve sucks. 'portrait' style virtual keyboard sucks ass, the landscape touch keyboard is decent, but not great.

I still prefer a physical keyboard for my heavy-demand typing, even if im only using my thumbs. I can type 40+ wpm with my thumbs alone on this phone, 80-90 wpm on a full desktop keyboard.

-- 
Stephen D King
skpacman8629@gmail.com

the_mgt, you realy should try swype. one gets pretty quick with that on those virtual keyboards, since most of these touch interfaces don't act good on tapping, but pretty well on dragging your finger across the screen.

I agree to all of the above. Touch interfaces look hip and cool if you flash out your iphone and show off some images. But they are awkward for everything else. I once saw a prof at the university showing off with his touch enabled notebook by underlining stuff in his script. This is so unfluent, unnatural looking and slow, I can't find words for it. It still looks like you did a read line on a photographed text using MSPaint and a mouse.

Touch panels which are ruggadized enough to withstand everyday usage are so unresponsive and crappy, I want to touch them with an axe. My bank uses them for some machines. Also the Deutsche Post uses them on parcel boxes and I managed to freeze one of them today. And it is far to geeky for the regular person, like your parents.

Of course there are exceptions and I heard of some 80 year old guy enjoying an Ipad, but thats not your regular user. My mom still has a hard time getting along with keyboard and mouse. Also if you gave her a touch tft, she'd want to clean it every ten minutes, thats not green it.

I also think that the whole iphone and android (read: touch interface) hype is mainly driven by people not needing to type relevant things: Designers, Marketing Whores, Blogger, etc. They either have a Net/MacBook for writing "long" texts (not scientifically-or-done-by-real-textproducers long!) or have some secretary typing their texts. Virtual keyboards are ok to tweet or write sms, but they suck for constant use. But these people are among the most verbose on the internet and since the old media needs to lap up everything the internet vomits in order to not become extinct, they hype it as well. So instead of going blackberry and give serious users a serious mobile device MS now jumps the wrong train again and will lose their business clients while at the same time not gaining any of the abovementioned hipsters, because they either can afford an iphone or use android (because they can't afford an iphone ;).

multi touch for your everyday work is an ergonomic nightmare as long as you put screen and touch surface together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NesSYWODmM (Microsoft Surface v2 [tm])

-- 
Stephen D King
skpacman8629@gmail.com

On the other hand, maybe they are learning....

http://www.businessinsider.com/is-microsoft-about-to-drop-windows-2011-7

Their sideshows are an impressive insight on how they earn far too much money to fool around with these things. I mean, honestly, their mobile phone os, zune, xboxes all this crap they are pushing on the markets costs lots of money and doesnt pay (at least that is my uneducated guess). Techincally, this means that they could concentrate all this manpower into improving their main sellers (their os and office suite) to the point where it becomes bugfree, useful and a joy to work with. All this without charging a penny more than they already do. Hell, they might even beat apple in stylishness if they tried.

Ford, I think in-browser js stuff stucks if overdone, I already wrote about my hatred for googledocs in Google Overlords.

But concerning Win7, I really do like the gui. I am all for eyecandy, if it is the right amount. In WinXP, it just looked odd and they didnt improve much of the usability from Win2k. Win7 is far better usable for the not-so-geeky users (your average Joe at work or the usual Mom) than XP was, at least it is doing some basic things right.  The new networking stuff is annoying me and they are still miles away from a real easy to understand and useable interface. Microsoft Bob was probably out on the market too early, but I think it is kind of the right direction for people who never ever used a computer before.

Btw, does anybody remember those fancy iconsets and windows themeing stuff, with the farming-style theme, the mansion background (with occasional thunder, iirc) and that swirly hippie screensafer? Was that still 3.1 or 95 already?

there is the __vsnprintf, whith the tiny difference that it won't terminate your string if you exceed the limit. suckers.

Here it is for Win32:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms679351(v=vs.85).aspx

From the example they give, you can sorta see how they get around the calling convention such that they do not require __cdecl.

In Win32, the closest thing I can think of is a kind of 'format message' api, but it doesn't require that '...' style argument passing, so it doesn't need to be a __cdecl.

I don't know enough about Windows 3.11 to know what their analogous function might have been.

Di Jun 28 2011 23:22:26 EDT von IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Eventually someone will come up with a way to run it on your own server, which won't take much away from Microsoft or Google, but with a portion of the world running it that way, it'll keep things reasonably open. Heck, any decent hacker could probably build a front end to OpenOffice that renders through an HTML5 canvas in a week or so. (Yeah, I've thought about it, and it's out of scope for now.)

thats what oracle tried before letting them go into the apache software foundation; so I guess its a little more work.

http://bit.ly/iN1bmZ

[Microsoft Office 365 Goes Live]

Sorry M$..... Google beat you to it.

I've never been a fan of Exchange (I use Citadel) and SharePoint is PointLess (at least for my uses)... so I think I'll just stick with Google Docs and Citadel... thanks...

Video user meetings!

IG, isn't Google migrating only non-windows-based gtalk to Jingle?

lol -> http://bit.ly/mHnjDt

(Skype axes senior execs before microsoft deal closes)

Mo Jun 06 2011 23:19:17 EDT von IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Or perhaps they expect future desktop and laptop computers to resemble a larger version of the Nintendo DS: an upright display in front of you, and a touch-sensitive display where the keyboard used to be -- no more full-motion keys.

I realy liked my fingerworks keyboard. (may it rest in piece) and I still hope apple is going to release a grown up version of it again any time soon; you  can already buy a gesture pad again, and the 'magic mouse' which I use with my netbook, great stuff.

while it didn't have discrete keys, it had marks where to put the fingers at (which is exactly what i'm missing at the magicmouse)

being able to mouse / move text cursor by whiping over it with two keys was a real joy!

Windows 8, embedded.

*snicker*

hm, i'm using a tiling WM, and i'd say they at least are using parts of that...

but yes, its more looking like the x-box or some phone than a workstation OS.

so the name Wintendo gets a whole new meaning ;-)

Fr Jun 03 2011 16:48:13 EDT von skpacman @ Uncensored

Will there be a way to completely disable this new UI so people-like-me can work in a familiar environment instead of something terribly confusing?

install linux/kde ;-P

Fri Jun 03 2011 16:51:13 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar @ Uncensored

Microsoft's UI peaked with Windows 95. Everything since then has been annoying.

Oh goodness no.  I'd step to Win2000, but not 95.  Win95 was vile, but Win2000 had some class (for a Microsot product).

I did not like the candy-like UI they created in XP, and since then it's only gone sillier.

Heh... 'Microsot'.  I'm leaving that misspelling in.

granted, since '95 they've added a *few* useful features to the main task bar like grouping programs, combining tasks, choosing what notifications go into the 'drawer' permanently and what stays visible permanently, etc. but there are some features (particularly with Win7) that I don't like, like how they changed the networking interfaces, control panels, and some of the other advanced features.

the new UI with Win8 seems like they're trying to put even more distance between the 'average user' and any advanced settings/features that might be available through the standard (old) UI.

The new UI is a bunch of eye-candy with a huge learning curve.... not "intuitive" at all and seems a bit on the "trying to make everyone happy" theme.

I'm all for changing UI's to match the current trends, which is nice and good, but why completely change absolutely every single way you interact with your computer?

Will there be a way to completely disable this new UI so people-like-me can work in a familiar environment instead of something terribly confusing?

Instead of consulting a team of designers, they should be researching how the users feel about these subjects. I think they've long-sense lost sight of the customer and they're trying to make themselves happy with this UI (and other) redesign.

That's an amusing comparison, given the personalities involved.

The Triumphant Return Of Steve Jobs:

Glamour, glitter, a nice runway with super-models flashing the very latest apparil, raucous music from all the latest artists, etc.

The Triumphant Return Of Bill Gates:

Drab tile floors with beige walls, 8-bit mono music (and only one note at a time) from a cheap Casio calculator, with ugly, disgusting guys standing around trying to outdo each other intellectually, etc.

Haven't been impressed with the Linux Skype client, anyhow...it was always lagging in features and functionality behind the Windows and Mac versions, and crashed more often than not.