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Microsoft faces a slide into irrelevance in the next four years unless it can make progress in the smartphone and tablet markets, because the PC market will continue shrinking, warns the research group Gartner. It says a huge and disruptive shift is underway, in which more and more people will use a tablet as their main computing device, researchers say. That will also see shipments of Android devices dwarf those of Windows PCs and phones by 2017. Microsoft-powered device shipments will almost be at parity with those of Apple iPhones and iPads - the latter a situation not seen since...

Conservative business users ditch Windows 8 Lenovo is continuing to ship Windows 7 on the majority of its enterprise shipments. Although Windows 8 has been out for months, the OS of choice for enterprises remains Win 7. Windows 8 is still shipped with the machines, in the form of a bundled disc. The Register reports Lenovo learned the trick after it got burned with Windows Vista downgrades, so this time around it is preinstalling a downgraded OS by default. Lenovo is still interested in Windows 8 touchscreen devices, such as its ThinkPad Helix convertible. However, the Helix is rather pricey...

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the wealthiest American, said on “some days” he wishes the U.S. political system were like England’s, so that President Barack Obama could have “slightly more power.” Gates was asked for his assessment of President Obama’s job performance during an interview at Politico’s “Playbook Cocktails” event. “Some days I wish we had a system like the U.K. where, you know, the party in power could do a lot and you know, you’d see how it went and then fine you could un-elect them,” said Gates on Wednesday. “Now, over time, our system has worked slightly better than...

Windows fans will whine, but Net Applications' desktop operating systems numbers don't lie. Windows 8's pathetic user adoption numbers can't even keep up with Vista's lousy numbers. Windows 8 usage can't even keep up with Vista/s poor numbers. (Data from Net Applications) The numbers speak for themselves. Vista, universally acknowledged as a failure, actually had significantly better adoption numbers than Windows 8. At similar points in their roll-outs, Vista had a desktop market share of 4.52% compared to Windows 8's share of 2.67%. Underlining just how poorly Windows 8's adoption has gone, Vista didn't even have the advantage of holiday...

In the history of mankind there are countless instances of cult figures who have lead their followers to ruin and disillusionment. Names like Jim Jones, David Koresh, The Pied Piper, Bernie Madoff, Adolph Hitler, Charles Manson, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and a whole host of TV evangelists have done their damage. It was easy for those outside and not sucked in by these hucksters to see the message they peddled defied logic, science and the laws of economics: Alchemy, master race, buy your way into heaven, getting something for nothing, all have that common thread. ... Gore was making hundreds of...

NPD research published some horrible news for Microsoft yesterday. * Despite releasing an entirely new operating system on October 22 of this year, Windows PC sales shrank 21% between 10/21 and 11/17 versus the same period last year. * Windows 8 tablet sales during that period were "almost nonexsistent" – just 1% of all Windows 8 sales. “It hasn’t made the market any worse, but it hasn’t stimulated things either,” Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD, told the New York Times. “It hasn’t provided the impetus to sales everybody hoped for.” No kidding. Yesterday, we reported other bad news: Asus...

Microsoft is largely irrelevant to computing of late, the only markets they still play in are evaporating with stunning rapidity. Their long history of circling the wagons tighter and tighter works decently as long as there is not a credible alternative, and that strategy has been the entirety of the Microsoft playbook for so long that there is nothing else now. It works, and as the walls grow higher, customer enmity builds while the value of an alternative grows. This cycle repeats as long as there is no alternative. If there is, everything unravels with frightening rapidity.A company that plays...

Politico is reporting that Microsoft accidentally delved into the world of partisan politics over the weekend after tweeting out a message insulting conservative author and syndicated columnist Ann Coulter. In response to liberal economist Robert Reich’s tweet that he would be visiting his granddaughter and sitting on a panel with Coulter over the weekend, the tech giant’s official Twitter feed reportedly responded: “@RBReich your granddaughter’s level of discourse and policy > those of Ann Coulter.” Here is a purported image of the tweet: (see link) The tweet was deleted immediately, according to Politico, and was accidentally written by one of...

On her MSNBC program this afternoon, NBC News' Andrea Mitchell said the network would not air the clip of then-State Senator Barack Obama endorsing redistribution in 1988 because the network could not "authenticate" the clip. "Let's explain this redistribution issue because we have not authenticated this 14-year-old tape from Loyola College when Barack Obama was a state senator. So because we have not independently at NBC news and MSNBC authenticated it, we're not airing it," Mitchell said. "But the basic issue is they're accusing President Obama, as John Sununu said to be yesterday, of class warfare. That is trying to...

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has waded into the same-sex marriage debate in Washington State with a $100,000 contribution to help defeat a referendum that would ban same-sex marriage. Gates, along with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, both made the same six-figure contribution said Zach Silk, campaign manager for Washington United for Marriage, the group leading the charge for gay activists. "It's going to make a tremendous difference," Silk told The Associated Press. "It's very important for us to have the broad support from business leaders and companies themselves." In addition to Microsoft, other noted Washington State based companies such as Starbucks...

Is is just me that's experiencing the problem, or are others being blocked by Websense? I can't use Yahoo e-mail, or Hotmail. A message appears saying that, "Content blocked by your organization" "This Websense category is filtered: General Email" I haven't changed anything on my computers or my email settings. However, this problem occurs on my XP box and not on my Windows 7 machine.

I finally watched Hannity’s show from last night on the liberal bias of the MSM and thought it was actually very good – better than I thought it would be. I’ve since been scouring the net for all the pieces and I’ve finally found them all. Hope you enjoy!

In a week, Americans go to the polls. But it might as well be happening today. For -- barring major news events or extraordinarily damaging revelations about individual candidates that cause probable voters to rethink their choices in unprecedented fashion -- the 2010 cake is baked, it's out of the oven and it's cooling in an undisclosed location. You wouldn't know this from the hyperactive political press, which now screams minute by minute at readers and viewers from multiple outlets, from traditional perches to Facebook to Twitter. Any spin, no matter how ludicrous, can get 10 or 15 seconds' attention...

(Instapundit) — DISTRACTION: So, yesterday reader John Mark Williams suggested that the Colbert testimony was intended to distract from coverage of Christopher Coates’ testimony about the Justice Department’s racism scandals. If so, it’s worked. Front page of Daily Caller: Colbert. Drudge led with Colbert until the news of the Klein & Zucker firings came out. Limbaugh led off today talking about Colbert. NRO has covered Colbert at The Corner, but not Coates. Washington Examiner headline: Colbert. Looking around other sites, I see more about Colbert than Coates. Hot Air and Power Line did better.But let me quote the Power...

Governor McDonnell Announces Microsoft to Locate Major Data Center in Mecklenburg County Will be Largest Investment Project in History of Southern Virginia ~Company to Invest up to $499 million and Create 50 New Jobs~ Virginia Beats out North Carolina and Texas for Company’s Most Advanced Data Center RICHMOND - Governor Bob McDonnell announced today that Microsoft Corp. will invest up to $499 million to locate their latest generation data center (Gen4) in Mecklenburg County, in what will be the largest economic investment in Southern Virginia history. Using modular technology and advanced cooling mechanics, the center will be Microsoft’s most advanced...

In the interview, conducted by a White House staffer who produces videos for the administration, Kagan discusses her childhood, parents and professional career.

Just watched Randy Shandobil reporting for KCTU News (Channel 2 San Francisco Bay Area). The sneering report elevated Dem candidate Jerry Brown for using Dem party funds and smirked/sneered about the fact that the two republican candidates are spending their own money EVEN THOUGH THEY 'CLAIM' TO BE FISCAL CONSERVATIVES! The reporter emphasized this but I really don't get his point - using your own money means you aren't fiscally conservative?? That was the direction of the reporter's coverage - 'look at these hypocritical republicans!'. Here's an annoying excerpt (the channels' webpage has a transcript): "Political reporter Randy Shandobil pointed...

If giving away a multibillion-dollar fortune is hard work, Bill Gates has been slaving away since he relinquished active management of Microsoft Corporation in 2008. Perhaps the most loathed technology executive of the P.C. era, he now bottle-feeds African babies and champions touchy-feely models of capitalism as he yearns to become the world's most beloved philanthropist. But adoration from liberals comes with a high price, especially if you've been one of the most ruthless and successful businessmen in American history. You must not only lavish support on the right causes, but you must also hold the right opinions, whether they...

LONG BEACH, California (AFP) – Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has broken from philanthropic work fighting poverty and disease to take on another threat to the world's poor -- climate change. "Energy and climate are extremely important to these people," Gates told Friday a TED Conference audience packed with influential figures including the founders of Google and climate champion Al Gore. "The climate getting worse means many years that crops won't grow from too much rain or not enough, leading to starvation and certainly unrest." Gates said he is backing development of "terrapower" reactors that could be fueled by nuclear waste...

Im getting tired of the errors and such on my IE browser. I hear Firefox is good... Any comments would be appreciated.