InfoWorld’s “Save XP” Petition
May 5, 2008
“…Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don’t see a need to change to Vista. It’s like having a comfortable apartment that you’ve enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice. The thought of moving to a new place — even with the stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and maple cabinets (or is cherry in this year?) — just doesn’t sit right. Maybe it’ll be more modern, but it will also cost more and likely not be as good a fit. And you don’t have any other reason to move.
That’s exactly the conclusion people have come to with Vista. For most of us, there’s really no reason to move to it — yet we don’t have a choice. When that strong desire to stick with XP became obvious in spring 2007, major computer makers such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard quietly reintroduced new XP-based systems (but just to business customers, so as not to offend Microsoft). Come June 30, however, even that option goes away.” Read the full story and sign the petition at InfoWorld.Com
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Posted by vistasucks
Microsoft’s Windows juggernaut is collapsing as it tries to support 20 years of applications and becomes more complicated by the minute. Meanwhile, Windows has outgrown hardware and customers are pondering skipping Vista to wait for Windows 7. If Windows is going to remain relevant it will need radical changes.
Over the months since Vista’s release, there has been no doubt about the reduced level of network performance experienced compared to Windows XP. However, some users over at the 2CPU forums have discovered an unexplained connection with audio playback resulting in a cap at approximately 5%-10% of total network throughput. Whenever any audio is being sent to a sound card (even, several users report, while paused), network performance is instantly reduced. As soon as the audio is stopped, the throughput begins to climb to its expected speed. It’s a tough one for users - what do you pick, sound or speed? So much for multi-tasking.” 
Content protection features in Windows Vista are preventing customers from playing high-quality video and audio and harming system performance, even as Microsoft neglects security programs that could protect users, computer researcher Peter Gutmann argued at the USENIX Security Symposium in Boston Wednesday. “If there was any threat modeling at all, it was really badly done,” 
I bring you news of a cool tutorial on streaming media from your Mac to a PS3. This method is basically built around the MediaTomb open-source UPnP media server. The tricky part is installing MediaTomb on your Mac with fink and setting it up for the PS3 from the command-line. But once you do, you should be able to stream audio, video, and pictures from your Mac over the network. 
Do you flinch when your inbox dings? The people manning secure@microsoft .com receive approximately 100,000 dings a year, each one a message that something in the Microsoft empire may have gone terribly wrong. Teams of Microsoft Security Response Center employees toil 365 days a year to fix the kinks in Windows, Internet Explorer, Office and all the behemoth’s other products. 
I believe that Microsoft’s domination of the PC software market has dulled and altered our expectations of the ‘fit for purpose’ and ‘use from the box’ aspect of all - not just computer software - products we now shell out our hard earned for. 
…the link supplied by Microsoft goes to a website which is available only to computer makers who are prepared to sign up to a non-disclosure agreement. Without knowing what’s included in the fact-rich program, it’s difficult to know why people should proceed with confidence. 
In response to the recent Mercury News interview, a man who has had 8 consoles fail so far explains what he believes the issue with the hardware is.
Because Microsoft won’t comment officially on “Fiji,” the expected, standalone update to Windows Media Center, it’s tough to confirm a date slip. But Chris Lanier, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in the digital media arena, is predicting that Fiji won’t debut in 2007, as Microsoft and other interested parties had been predicting. Instead, Lanier’s betting Fiji is now a second half of 2008 update. 
In the press released for YouTube videos for Apple TV, Apple also reveals that they will be introducing a 160GB Apple TV for $399.
Ars Technica reports that Apple TVs have begun to show up at Target and Costco stores in limited quantities. 
SwitchingToMac.Com has an excallent article on using your Wii with your Intel Mac. 
Diagrams suggest that a ‘modular controller’, most likely their new TV squirting device, would sit at the middle allowing you to hook up anything from branded hi-def DVD players, a PVR, a Mac Mini or even their own freeview box.
Let me preface by saying that Microsoft is not about to stop making gobs of money. It’s just that there is virtually nothing interesting or exciting happening (with the lone exception of the X-Box360) with anything the company is doing. To make matters worse none of the upcoming upgrades to the operating system or Microsoft Office appear to have any ‘must-have” qualities needed to boost sales in a meaningful way. Compare what is going on at Microsoft to Apple. Apple is piling on with new TV commercials ridiculing all the viruses and security issues you buy when you buy a Windows-based PC. Microsoft advertising ironically highlights dinosaurs. 
Windows Vista Refunds!
