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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNqPTOb31S8 "and the last thing Bernard saw was not the BLUE sea but the Bl..."

What is WGA Notifications? Genuine Microsoft Software Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications is a program that helps Microsoft fight software piracy and helps you validate that the copy of Microsoft Windows XP installed on your computer is genuine and properly licensed. By confirming that your copy of Windows XP is genuine, you can take advantage of all the capabilities, support, and continuous improvements—as well as the peace of mind—that come with using genuine Windows. If your copy is not genuine, WGA Notifications will provide periodic reminders to help you take the appropriate action. It's part of Microsoft's commitment to fight software...

Ouch. We're guessing this is one that the suits at Best Buy would like to have back. A leaked company memo detailing how the retailer will handle Windows 7 upgrades has accidentally given the world a tasty tidbit to opine upon. The note starts off as such:"Microsoft is launching Windows 7 in mid-October 2009. This new operating system isn't just a "Vista that works" program - it's a new operating system with improved productivity, functionality and creativity that uses less computer resources." Never mind the fact that we never knew an OS could posses "improved productivity" -- how about admitting...

OK - so - I do 90% of my work using my Macs - a 12" iBook (last generation) and a PowerMac Dual G5 desktop. The other 10% I spend with an HP Pavilion Laptop (Vista). So - Working with Powerpoint on both platforms - I have found that there is a huge difference in functionality - with the Mac version generally being for more tolerant of media files (both audio and video) With Powerpoint 2008 (Mac), I can throw pretty much any popular format audio file or video file and it just works. Take that same presentation (saved on...

Google's free mobile-phone operating system will begin running computers next quarter, entering a market dominated by Microsoft's Windows and deepening the rivalry between the two companies. Acer, the world's second-largest laptop maker, will release a low-cost notebook featuring Android in the third quarter, Jim Wong, head of information-technology products at the Taipei, Taiwan-based company, said Tuesday. Asustek Computer, pioneer of the sub-$500 laptops known as netbooks, also developed a model that runs on Google's software, Chairman Jonney Shih said. The development of Android netbooks indicates that the software is powerful enough to replace Windows, which runs about 90 percent of...

Back when the whole netbook thing started, Asus was king of the hill with a focus on netbooks with Linux pre-installed. Since they were kind of popular, it didn't take Microsoft long to start working together with Asus to 'port' Windows XP to the Asus line of netbooks, and with that, to other netbooks as well. The result was that Linux netbooks are now harder to find for many people. While Dell committed itself to Linux on netbooks, Asus has decided to just skip the first date and jump right into bed with Microsoft.

According to NetApplications, Windows XP is still the OS of choice for users out there in ComputerLand, with some two-thirds of users still making use of the aging OS. By comparison, Vista is struggling to capture a quarter of the market share. Vista’s “WOW!” failed to capture the attention of users, as many chose to stick with their older OS. If you are an XP user, has what you’ve seen of Windows 7 made you willing to ditch XP? The way I see it, Microsoft needs to be putting effort into marketing Windows 7 to those currently using XP. After...

"WASHINGTON (AP) - Law enforcement computers were struck by a Mystery computer virus Thursday, forcing the FBI and the U.S. Marshals to shut down part of their networks as a precaution. The U.S. Marshals confirmed it disconnected from the Justice Department's computers as a protective measure after being hit by the virus; an FBI official said only that that agency was experiencing similar issues and was working on the problem."

The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service were forced to shut down parts of their computer networks after a mystery virus struck the law-enforcement agencies Thursday, according to an Associated Press report. A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed that it had disconnected from Justice Department computers as a precaution after being hit with the virus, while an FBI spokesperson would only say that it was experiencing similar issues, according to the report. "We too are evaluating a network issue on our external, unclassified network that's affecting several government agencies," FBI spokesman Mike Kortan told the AP. The virus'...

Improving performance is one of Microsoft's design goals with Windows 7, and many early reviewers (including ours) have said that the new OS seems peppier than Vista. But tests of the Windows 7 Release Candidate in our PC World Test Center found that while Windows 7 was slightly faster on our WorldBench 6 suite, the differences may be barely noticeable to users. We loaded the Windows 7 Release Candidate on three systems (two desktops and a laptop) and then ran our WorldBench 6 suite. Afterward we compared the results with the WorldBench 6 numbers from the same three systems running...

Some pirated builds on file-sharing sites harbor attack code... Pirated copies of Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) on file-sharing sites contain malware, according to users who have downloaded the upgrade. Windows 7 RC, which Microsoft Corp. will officialy launch tomorrow, leaked two weeks ago, with copies first appearing on BitTorrent tracking sites on April 24. Some of the pirated builds include a Trojan horse, numerous users said in message forums and in comments on BitTorrent sites such as Mininova.org. "Just a warning for anyone downloading the new RC builds of windows 7. Quiet [sic] a lot of the downloads have...

  Windows 7 might be getting all the attention lately, but Windows XP is having a quiet little renaissance of its own -- not only have sales of the venerable OS been extended until 2010, Microsoft is selling an ultra-secure version to the Air Force. The custom build ships with over 600 settings bolted down, and a security patch turnaround of just 72 hours compared to the standard edition's 57 days -- all because Steve Ballmer personally stepped in and approved the project at the Air Force's request. The effort's to standardize and preconfigure the OS has paid off:...

New build hasn't been leaked to torrents -- yet Microsoft's Windows 7 is perhaps one of the most hotly anticipated tech products of the year. Its beta builds have thus far showcased both polish and Microsoft's willingness to improve and take constructive criticism. Microsoft has over 2,000 planned bug fixes for the Release Candidate phase, and recent builds have given users just a taste of the promising new OS's potential. Hot on the heels of the leak of RC build 7077 to the torrent world earlier this month, Microsoft has delivered a major milestone build to OEM partners and TAP...

New data shows that the vast majority of corporate IT departments won't touch Microsoft's next OS until at least 2011. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) may need to keep its Windows XP operating system around a little longer -- at least for its deep-pocketed corporate customers.... The survey, of more than 1,100 IT professionals, is one of the first extensive looks at Windows 7's early sales prospects. It found that a whopping 83% of enterprises plan to skip the OS in its first year. While the business market typically tends toward caution when it comes to new products, the figure is nonetheless...

Idaho town could ban drive-thru windows02:39 PM MDT on Monday, April 13, 2009 SANDPOINT -- Residents in this northern Idaho city might have to start waving bye bye to drive-through businesses. A proposal to prohibit drive-through services recently passed the city's planning and zoning commission and goes before the city council in May. If approved the ordinance would regulate drive-through restaurants, banks, coffee shops, pharmacies, dry cleaners and other businesses that cater to customers in cars. Existing drive-through businesses would be allowed to continue but not rebuild. "Conceivably, as these existing drive-throughs degrade if they're not maintained, this could lead...

After a flurry of blog activity over the weekend, leading into today, concerning the extended availability of Windows XP, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Betanews early this evening that general Windows 7 users will be given the option of downgrading right over Vista to Windows XP.

Everyone knows creative types love their Macs, but a new breed of Mac enthusiasts is emerging in the most unlikely place. — CIO — At Simply RFiD, a half-dozen software developers yearned for Macs at work. They liked the power and reliability of the Apple machines. Oddly, Simply RFiD made the switch to Mac Pros for its developers to write code for Windows computers. "We're small and don't want to deal with tech support issues, and that's what Windows has become," says Carl Brown, a software engineer and president of Simply RFiD, which helps companies use radio frequency identification technology....

Thought about dumping windows? Why not replace it with Cuba's Linux variant called "Nova." Check out this "Geeks on Caffeine" cartoon and see why "Nova" will be your next operating system! NOTE: The author of this comic requests that you please visit his web site and also please refrain from copying the cartoon within this thread. Thank you very much!

About two weeks ago, it seems after a windows update, my internet download speed slowed to a crawl. Speakeasy speed tests show me only in the 100-150 kbs download speed range although upload speeds are generally 2000-3000 kbs - high-speed cable connection. When I'm not on the web, just doing spreadsheet work or disk burning, for example, I'm fine but web browsing is like purgatory. I've tried everything I can think of including going back and forth between IE 6 and IE 7, reformating and reloading my hard drive, deleting and repeating windows updates, but nothing seems to work. My...

Walk by the netbook display at Best Buy and you're likely to hear cooing and exclamations of how cute the little laptops are. But take one home and you may realize your new baby just can't do the same things that a standard notebook can do. Netbooks are just about the only thing these days that are generating any excitement in the hardware space. The form factor is appealing to many, for sure. With about a 10-inch screen, these are much smaller than the standard-sized notebook, and certainly much lighter, and quite a bit less expensive, too. Some are as...

Sorry to post a vanity but I got the parite virus that somehow got on my laptop. I rarely use it for too much and rarely surf the web with this laptop. I lost my desktop icons and was stumped. I have AV programs I have bought for my other machines like Spybot and PC Tools and Iolo System Mechanic to name a few. I was just lazy on this machine because it came with Norton. The machine is about 2 years old so my mistake.

Remember when Vista was announced, and Microsoft decided to release six different versions of the operating system, much to the confusion, disappointment, and ridicule of potential buyers? Well guess what? Microsoft is back with the Windows 7 strategy. What has it learned in the last three years? Pretty much nothing. While Microsoft is touting the "two primary editions" of Windows 7 -- a Home Premium edition and a Professional (intended for business) edition -- the fact is it's sticking with the same six different versions (or SKUs, stock-keeping units) that it had for Vista. The real difference is that Windows...

I give up. Windows is proof that people are too stupid to use computers. And too stupid or dishonest to report Microsoft Windows as the defective disaster that it is. If it were any other type of product it would have banned from every country in the world long ago. The BBC reports the latest Windows Conficker worm outbreak in typical "oh no big deal" fashion, does not identify this as a Windows worm until several paragraphs into the article, quotes industry security vendors as though they were actually worth listening to and not useless weasels, and then blames...

Microsoft Corp. said it hired a former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive to help the company open its own retail stores, a strategy shift that borrows from the playbook of rival Apple Inc. The Redmond, Wash., company said it hired David Porter, most recently the head of world-wide product distribution at DreamWorks Animation SKG, as corporate vice president of retail stores for Microsoft. In a statement, Microsoft said the first priority of Mr. Porter, who is also a 25-year veteran of Wal-Mart, will be to define where to place the Microsoft stores and when to open them. A Microsoft spokesman said...

Steven Sinofsky this week reaffirmed that Windows 7 would only have a single public beta release—build 7000, still available for download for a few more days. The current expectation is that there will be a single Release Candidate in April, with RTM around July, and Windows 7 hitting stores a few months later. This plan marks a significant departure from Microsoft's historic Windows release strategy. Previous editions have had at least two betas and two Release Candidates; even Windows XP, a minor update to Windows 2000, received this treatment. Windows Vista went even further during its extended development period. In...

It looks like President Obama hasn't gotten acquainted to his White House surroundings. On the way back to the Oval Office Tuesday, the President approached a paned window, instead of the actual door -- located a few feet to his right. Doors didn't open automatically for Obama’s predecessor either. While making a hasty exit from a 2005 press conference in Beijing, former President George W. Bush tugged on the handles of a door, only to find it locked.

I tried, I really did, to like KDE 4.2 I really didn't like the early versions of KDE 4. I then tried KDE 4.1. I hated it. I kept getting told by people that I just didn't get it. OK, I thought. Maybe I didn't get it. So, I gave the last KDE 4.2 beta and release candidate another try for a month on one of my openSUSE 11.1 desktops. Historically, SUSE and KDE developers work closely with each other, so openSUSE is a great distribution for any version of KDE. Well, they may work well together, but openSUSE with...

...the Santa Clara, Calif., company is hoping for another coup like the one it staged at Apple, where Nvidia bumped Intel silicon out of the Apple MacBook because of underperforming graphics. The goal this time is to replace the Intel silicon that supports the Atom processor. Currently, Netbooks from companies such as Acer, Asus, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell use the Atom and accompanying Intel silicon called a chipset. Nvidia has always stayed well ahead of Intel on the graphics performance curve... said Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research, a firm that tracks the graphics chip market. "First, because Nvidia is in...

Security watchers are bracing themselves to respond to the activitation of the huge botnet created by the Conficker superworm. The malware has created a network of infected PCs under its control estimated at 9m or even more, according to the latest estimates — dwarfing the zombie army created by the infamous Storm worm, which reached a comparatively paltry 1m at its peak in September 2007. Variants of Conficker (aka Downadup), which began circulating in late November, exploit the MS08-067 vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows server service addressed by Redmond with an out-of-sequence patch last October. The malware also infects removable...

Due to Microsoft's Vista Capable marketing program, the company could stand to lose as much as $8.5 billion in efforts to settle accounts with those customers affected by the campaign. However, this figure is a drop in the bucket compared to the potentially $100 billion Microsoft has taken in revenue thus far for Vista.Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman released figures from the class-action lawsuit that claims Microsoft mislead its customers in the months before the January 2007 release of their Vista operating system. Microsoft has said that the estimate is inflated, and that if damages were granted it...

Eighth grader Charlie Sobcov wants to stop birds from dying in collisions with windows, but he doesn't want to ruin anybody's view. For his latest school science fair project he has invented painted, plastic decals that can be placed — discreetly — right in the middle of a window pane. "This paint is a colour that birds can see but humans can't," he said Wednesday on CBC Radio's All in a Day. "It's like putting a big stop sign in the middle of the window." The colour is ultraviolet, beyond the range of colours visible to humans. That means the...

SAN FRANCISCO – A nasty worm has wriggled into millions of computers and continues to spread, leaving security experts wondering whether the attack is a harbinger of evil deeds to come. US software protection firm F-Secure says a computer worm known as "Conficker" or "Downadup" had infected more than nine million computers by Tuesday and was spreading at a rate of one million machines daily. The malicious software had yet to do any noticeable damage, prompting debate as to whether it is impotent, waiting to detonate, or a test run by cybercriminals intent on profiting from the weakness in the...

I have an old PC with a Pentium 1 it is ok for email etc.. I thought it might run faster with LINUX

The Conficker virus has opened a new can of worms for security experts. Drives such as USB sticks infected with the virus trick users into installing the worm, according to researchers. The "Autoplay" function in Vista and early versions of Windows 7 automatically searches for programs on removable drives.

Microsoft servers got quite a workout on Friday from potential testers as the company opened public beta testing of Windows 7 to a broad audience– so much so, in fact, that the company decided to delay the beta's opening until it can bring more servers online. "Due to very heavy traffic we’re seeing as a result of interest in the Windows 7 Beta, we are adding some additional infrastructure support to the Microsoft.com properties before we post the public beta," said a posting on The Windows Blog at around 3 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday afternoon. It included a promise...

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday with an impassioned endorsement of PCs and a sneak peek at the company's future Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says Windows 7 will make PCs easier to use. As expected, Ballmer announced that Microsoft is releasing a beta version of Windows 7, which will be available for download beginning Friday. The news suggests the world's largest software maker may be giving up efforts to rehabilitate its often-maligned Vista operating system, which was released worldwide in January 2007. "We...

Microsoft Corp.'s next version of the Windows operating system is almost ready for prime time. That's one message Chief Executive Steve Ballmer delivered on the eve of the official opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show. The world's largest software maker also disclosed deals to make its Live Search programs the default search engines on more personal computers and mobile phones. And it announced a new version of its Ford Sync in-car technology that folds in the voice-operated directory service TellMe, which Microsoft bought in 2007. For years, the opening keynote at CES belonged to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, whose...

Taking baby steps to become more familiar with a new operating system can be as simple as revamping the OS already in use on your computer. It begins with unlearning Windows-born behavior to free up your mind for a new way of doing things. Here are some tips on utilizing different open source resources to make the goal of a full time switch over to Linux a lasting one: Relearning software installation with Win-Get For Windows users, software installation is nearly always accomplished from some sort of simple GUI installer. The idea is basically to keep pounding away on the...

nandemoari writes "It seems not even Microsoft is impervious to the effects of this increasingly painful recession. According to reports, the Redmond-based company is preparing to lay off about 17 per cent of its entire workforce in the coming months. Despite its portfolio diversity — including operating systems, antivirus software, and video game consoles — Microsoft is clearly feeling the pressure applied by a tightening global economy. In fact, there seems to be a sense of emergency to the massive cuts (about 15,000 workers out of 90,000), which rumors suggest should be made official by January 15."

SHANGHAI — A court in southern China convicted 11 people on Wednesday of violating national copyright laws and participating in a sophisticated counterfeiting ring that for years manufactured and distributed pirated Microsoft software throughout the world. The men were sentenced by a court in the city of Shenzhen to terms of 18 months to six and a half years in prison, according to court papers released late Wednesday. Microsoft applauded the sentence in a statement released late Wednesday Beijing time, saying they were the stiffest sentences ever handed down in this type of Chinese copyright infringement case. Microsoft has called...

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is extending the deadline for making its supposedly retired Windows XP operating system available to custom PC builders. Under the plan, system builders will be allowed to take delivery of XP licenses and media through May 30. Previously, Microsoft had announced a Jan. 31 XP cutoff date for system builders, which are typically smaller, build-to-order vendors. The news was first reported Friday by InformationWeek.com sister site ChannelWeb.

Windows users have a real problem when it comes to updates. Sure they have Microsoft Update and certainly many applications include their own update mechanisms. Yet despite that, there seems to be a problem with Windows users actually updating. So allow me to make a suggestion. Microsoft (or a really smart ISV) should build a full application manager for Windows, similar to what most Linux distributions do today. For the non-Linux users out there - what Linux distros typically do is have a package management utility of some sort that pulls updates from a package repository (or repositories). Those updates...

Posted in The Bleeding Obvious, The Iron Coccyx of the Law | No Comments » Windows 7 Beta Invitations Sent Out, RSVP by Text Message, Instant Message, Email, YouTube, Twitter, or Cell Posted by Anthony Sacramone on December 17, 2008 010So the great “Vista Do Over” of 2009 is upon us. Will it increase speed, compatability, manageability, security, and connectability? Or will it be a hulking overstuffed lumbering piece of digital doggie doo? And how many versions will there be? One-Step-Above-DOS Useless, Basic, Home, Business, Premium, Ultimate, Triple No-Backsies Ultimate, Oh My Heavenly Lord This Thing Weighs a Ton Drop-Dead...

SAN FRANCISCO — Internet security is broken, and nobody seems to know quite how to fix it. Despite the efforts of the computer security industry and a half-decade struggle by Microsoft to protect its Windows operating system, malicious software is spreading faster than ever. The so-called malware surreptitiously takes over a PC and then uses that computer to spread more malware to other machines exponentially. Computer scientists and security researchers acknowledge they cannot get ahead of the onslaught.

Bill Gates: I'd Work in Obama Administration Microsoft founder Bill Gates has met with Vice President-elect Joe Biden and said he's open to a role aiding the incoming Barack Obama administration. Gates is in Washington this week to promote the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's education and global health agenda. "Certainly my full-time job is being chairman of the foundation," he told The Washington Post. But he added: "If there was some committee or pretty focused task where I could contribute, I'd be glad to consider that, and I hope that the things we've learned about education, including the mistakes...

Apple has replaced advice that people install anti-virus software on Macintosh computers with assurances that the machines are safe "out of the box." The move prompted online speculation as to whether Apple was merely polishing the Macintosh image or that the increasingly popular computers are as impervious to hackers as the California company maintains. Apple routinely touts how rarely Macintosh computers are afflicted with malicious software as compared to machines based on Microsoft Windows operating systems, which run more than 90 percent of the computers in the world. On Tuesday Apple removed a 2007 Knowledge Base posting telling people to...

OK... I will make this as brief as I can: My Step-Father is a Real Estate agent just outside of Houston, TX (Tomball and the Woodlands area). He uses Windows XP, and has a history of computer troubles, mostly related to scripts and worms that for some reason every Anti-Virus he has ever used just won't seem to keep out. I have jokingly told him to buy a Macintosh next time around... but he has held to his Realtor-related business requires Windows. Fine... Well, about every two weeks, his Internet Explorer (latest version) will not work at all - it...

Los Angeles: Barack Obama has promised to increase taxes if he becomes president of the United States. But the really rich want change and many of them have said they are voting for the senator from Illinois. Despite the tradition that says the country's wealthy tend to favour the Republican Party, there has been an unexpected swing ahead of Tuesday's election that favours the black Democratic candidate. For starters, the country's two richest men, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, have already said they will vote for Obama. According to Forbes magazine, Gates - worth an estimated $55.5 billion - contributed...

This is a bit lengthy, so please bear with me. Damn, but I did something stupid and downloaded something I shouldnt have (no, not porn. get your mind out of the gutter :-)). When I downloaded this virus, the cmd screen came up and showed the following: crack.exe, serial.exe, number.exe, keygen.exe AND readme.bat I panicked, deleted those things, but it hasnt fixed my problem. It seems to have hijacked my internet explorer browser. When I clicked on the IE icon, it brought up the IE browser for all of a second or two before closing. (So, I used Firefox to...

My initial evaluation of Windows 7 shows that it's really just Vista with a fresh coat of paint I have seen the future, and it is bleak. Windows 7, the next big version, the one that was supposed to fix everything that was wrong with Vista, is here (at least in pre-beta form), and I can now say -- with some confidence -- that Microsoft has once again dropped the ball. Based on what I saw in today's keynote speech, and on what I discovered while testing the Windows 7 M3 build during some down time this afternoon, Windows 7...