Posts by dssf

Firefox 4 for Android shuns ARMv6 phones

I deleted from my EVO 4g it this AM

It was good while it lasted. Yesterday, I installed FFOX 4, then the update. I installed Ad Block Plus and liked that ability. But, startup is atrociously slow. Thirty seconds to a MINUTE or longer to display the home page?

This morning, it got worse after I installed (maybe foolishly) URL fixer. It would just hang after rebooting ffox. Fortunately, my phone did not crash. Still, I'm starting to wonder whether URL Fixer had borked the ffox install. FFOX was hanging for longer than a minute, just showing the orange fox. My system RAM availability ballooned from 50MB or so to 120MB. Yet, when ffox ran correctly, the RAM consumed was over 40 mb, and eventually close to 60 MB, taking my system availability down to around 50 MB.

I'm tempted to reinstall it and re-update it and skip URL fixer, but I'm worried that it'll still take up to or more than 30 seconds to open up. The basic browser is MUCH faster to start up. Dolphin HD with 9 tabs open is zippier, although Dolphin doesn't yet (I have to see if this AM's update negates this sentence's comment) remember tabs on a proper close. A crash will trigger recovery of the tabs open at the point of crash.

I want to try it again, but I want ffox to use as little RAM as Dolphin does when it has 9 tabs open, and I want ffox to open FAST, not take 30 or so seconds to start.

When i look at most websites...

I just want text and static pictures. I pREFER that vids run non-proprietary and just WORK. Why is flash needed for all that shit? Yeh, i know games run flash, but I don't generally play games on my computers nor on my hand held.

Now, is there a plug-in for Better Privacy? I 'm going to look..

Messenger delivers first Mercury orbital snap

Remember the STTNG Episode

Data: There once was a woman from Venus, whose body was shaped like a—

Picard: DATA! Ahna-tha tyme, puhr-haps!

LaForge/Ryker/Crusher/Others on bridge watch laugh, knowingly... while Data fails to immediately realize the trouble or inappropriateness of his attempt at humour...

(STTNG: The Naked Now)

Apple limits Design Awards to App Store residents

Apple better watch out for viral predictions

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/29/technology/windows_phone_7_forecast/index.htm

"Windows Phone to eclipse iPhone sales by 2015 - forecast" by IDC and others. Hopefully, Apple stays ahead of ms. We need Apple to keep a fire under Android so Google doesn't get lax.

Here is a STUPID review guideline in the appstore

"11.3 Enemies" within the context of a game cannot solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity""

So, if someone wrote a game about the conflict in Vietnam, and the Western troops are attacking the Viet Cong, wouldn't that identify or target a specific race AND culture AND government?"

Substitute other countries and cultures, if you will

Is that guideline really enforced? Is apple playing revisionist historian? Or, are combat games banned in the istore/itunz stoore uummm App Store?

-----

See #11.14

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"2.19

Apps that require license keys or implement their own copy protection will be rejected"

Huh? I don't know how the app store works, but how does a developer ensure someone doesn't illicitly duplicate and share an app? Does apple provide that service?

----

"3.1

Apps with metadata that mentions the name of any other computer platform will be rejected"

What about in body of the app, or in any user guide/instructions/how-to? Can a developer say, "Our app also works on Linux running kernels 2.6.32.17 and Windows versin 7.xxx and SparcStation version X?"

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"3.6

Apps with app icons and screenshots that do not adhere to the 4+ age rating will be rejected"

I guess a developer is not allowed to put a ratings-and-password-for-adult-owners-of-device module in. As many kids as i see letting their toddlers play with the phone, apple is taking on the role of parent, I guess. IS apple "enchildening" its customers?

Mozilla debuts Firefox 4 for Android

AdBlock Plus

Yeh, I only noticed Adblock Plus after sitting down for lunch and following in the browser what CNN was saying on the inautible flat screen tv.

I was THRILLED to see that. I don't mind a FEW ads, but I am sick of being bomBARDED by too many. Mainly, I have a deep disdain for overly active, whirly, twirly adverts the drag one eye away from reading. The brain has to compensate when the left eye is fixated on reading text.

I'm downloading it... Flash?

One user complained that there is no Flash support in this. I haven't tested it yet. But, I hope there is a way to DISABLE flash at will or for specified sites. I just want the damned text and static pics or clickable pic, not whirlies, twirlies, and crap "art" that drains my battery.

Microsoft man riles update-hungry Windows Phone 7 users

Why thumbs-down this?

I have the Sprint HTC EVO 4G, still running on Android 2.2 I attempted to update JUST Saturday, and no updates are available. I've had the fsking phone (pretty nice, actually) since January, and it's been out since April or so of 2010. IN WANT THE FSCKING UPDATE NOW! Stop kvetching about AT&T/T-Mobile, Sprint!

Beyond $1bn: Why Red Hat is a one off

Peanuts?

It would be nice if this story compared the miniscule peanuts earned by Mandriva, and the relatively few commercial-acting Linux distros. Actually, nix that. Searching on Mandriva, I found out I'd been more than just a few months behind. More like 10 months behind:

http://www.answers.com/topic/mandriva

Looks like RH have virtually NO competition from other Linux other than possibly Canonical funding Ubuntu into or deeper into corporate space.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEC

Europe rules against general passenger data slurp

email or email contacts?

I realize they are looking for contact information, but the article is probably in need of clarification.

If they are after EMAIL, then they are rifling through every last known direct and peripheral contact or note card or addressee of a person of interest. If they are using commingled emails and hand phone contacts, then this is where Google's in-the-recent-past mandatory synching is truly evil. On-the-go addressees in the hand phone get or got synched with one's gmail or related account. Old cruft i never WANTED in my android hand phone got shoved onto me. If the law enforcement agencies want that data, though, they'll get it, sycnced or not.

Think of this application: Visual Analytics and JMP:

http://www.jmp.com/

http://www.visualanalytics.com/

http://www.visualanalytics.com/default.cfm?Tier=3&MenuItemName=CombatTerrorismSolutions&URL=%2Fsolutions%2FcombatingTerrorism%2Ecfm

This software I first noticed around year 2000. While it is deeply invasive in the authorized hands, it can be DEEEEEPLY invasive give its full power.

http://www.visualanalytics.com/solutions/images/intelligenceB.gif

http://www.visualanalytics.com/default.cfm?Tier=2&MenuItemName=InvestigationSolutions&URL=%2Fsolutions%2FcriminalInvestigation%2Ecfm

Money Laundering analysis is a particularly interesting area of this app.

Think you can hide behind proixies, anonymizers, and 250 routers, brouters, bridges and virtual networks? Think again.

emails or email addresses?

I realize they are looking for contact information, but the article is probably in need of clarification.

If they are after EMAIL, then they are rifling through every last known direct and peripheral contact or note card or addressee of a person of interest. If they are using commingled emails and hand phone contacts, then this is where Google's in-the-recent-past mandatory synching is truly evil. On-the-go addressees in the hand phone get or got synched with one's gmail or related account. Old cruft i never WANTED in my android hand phone got shoved onto me. If the law enforcement agencies want that data, though, they'll get it, sycnced or not.

Think of this application: Visual Analytics and JMP:

http://www.jmp.com/

http://www.visualanalytics.com/

http://www.visualanalytics.com/default.cfm?Tier=3&MenuItemName=CombatTerrorismSolutions&URL=%2Fsolutions%2FcombatingTerrorism%2Ecfm

This software I first noticed around year 2000. While it is deeply invasive in the authorized hands, it can be DEEEEEPLY invasive give its full power.

http://www.visualanalytics.com/solutions/images/intelligenceB.gif

http://www.visualanalytics.com/default.cfm?Tier=2&MenuItemName=InvestigationSolutions&URL=%2Fsolutions%2FcriminalInvestigation%2Ecfm

Money Laundering analysis is a particularly interesting area of this app.

Think you can hide behind proixies, anonymizers, and 250 routers, brouters, bridges and virtual networks? Think again.

Surprise! Sprint denounces AT&T-Mobile deal

Griping about control? Stop CONTROLLING US, Sprint!

I have the Sprint HTC EVO 4G, still running on Android 2.2 I attempted to update JUST Saturday (26 March, or maybe Sunday the 27th), and no updates are available. I've had the fsking phone (pretty nice, actually) since January, and it's been out since April or so of 2010. IN WANT THE FSCKING UPDATE NOW! Stop kvetching about AT&T/T-Mobile, Sprint!

Improve the battery life, let me USB tether! Allow us to remove crap and rom-coded branding such as nascar, blockbuster, nova, and football. Jeez! Give us a firewall or packet logger to block market apps that google allows to read our files! There's no need to for you to waste money battling ATTTM when you can spend that money enriching our user experience. Don't leave it ALL up to google. And, stop offsetting your subsidy of the phone by coerced landing/branding irons in our faces.

Wanna kvetch, Sprint?

Go ahead. Maybe people will defect from sprint just over your blocking of USB tethering...

Controlling the desktop through user scenarios

Is this an ms whitepaper or ms advert?

Don't similar needs arise for Apple and Linux users? Citrix (and similar tools) enable this kind of flexibility. Clients written for Linux enable real estate agents and contractors using Linux to not need to install windows at ALL. Yet, for the minimal incursion of a a head office pushing Citrix to the machine, the worker still has control over his or her own computer.

Fire-quenching electric forcefield backpack invented

Speaking of DeForest, and spacecraft

McCoy: Dear Lord... what if... this thing were use where live already exISTED?

Spock: If would preCLUDE such life in favor of its new MATRIX.

McCoy: Its "new MATRIX"? Do you realize what you're saying?

Spoc: I was not attempting to ascertain the MORAL implications... Really Doctor..

McCoy: You GREEN BLOODED, INHUMAN...

Savvik: Admiral!

REAL Dead man's handles

Then, in that case, the dead man has to be animated (or, electrically REanimated) to keep jabbing that button...

Don't cross the beams

Don't cross or sweep the BUILDINGS either... might pass some badddd current up and down...

iPad 2 tougher than iPad 1. True

Is that good for dropping on the face, or flexing in overstuffed bags?

It isn't as if it will flex unduly in a back pocket. But, in a backpack or other over-stuffed bag, this might be good news for the screen. But, the back and internals may be in question. Wouldn't the mounts flex and snap if somehow the screen were flexed that much?

No consolation for the iPhone users. I've observed several with shattered glass in the corners on which the dropped phone hit. I've seen spiderwebbed cracks on one that was walked on by a 200# lady before my friend could grab it and before she could avoid stepping on his phone.

Apple bashes 'gay cure' app

Hehehehe... Indiscriminate

"indiscriminate age and sex,", or "indeterminate age and sex,"

Nebulous Definition

That "Nebulous Definition" is a cheesy, dubious weasel clause. Probably cooked up by their legal counsel on the spot. The LC team probably threw die in the corner while downing jello shot scrounging around for a legal phrase, laughing all the while.

Really, Apple, get off the weasel clauses and just have a category of: "proferring, purloining, or positing medical or psychological or psychiatric "help" in a manner, mode, or method that would not be supported by practicing psychological or psychiatric professionals"

Unethical, immoral, medically dangerous app

I'd read somewhere that a leading psychologist or somesuch said that no trained, certified, or accredited medical professional could or would are use this so-called cure app to even HELP a confused individual. If the medical profession won't touch it, and if Apple would just frackin' do some due diligence to find a consensus from various nations and looks for 12 professionals (3-gay, 3-straight, 3 neutral, 3 non-disclosing) who weigh in, and if they still find the legal and professional fortitude to reject the app as it is or what it claims, then Apple should use THAT as the "primary reason" to reject that app.

Apple, get off your ass and use some of your money to seek and be guided by professionals, not just your own internal staff of gurus pulling levers and chanting runes! Obviously, someone IN Apple must have been swayed by EI to even resist or prolong a takedown of the app. The app has had vigorous opposition and clearly Apple has some uber chic, fashionable, well-spending gay clientel. I wouldn't e surprised if despite as smaller numerical percentage by sexual orientation, non-heteros (not just gay, but gay friendly, undecided, and swingers, and those who avow to never be held by titles or cateries) spend a proportionalely large amount of money. Pissing them off might not cost Apple TOO much money nor even outright defections, but it would engender or foment irritation that could grow to painful levels if more "gay-cure" like apps or religion gripped the iTunes store or any other Apple property. Religions should not drive technology and products sales. If churches what their own electronic gizmo, they should go to the mega churches and ask for an R&D budget. Watch how fast even the clergy, fellowships, and other flocks refuse to threaten Apple. They'll mostly or all be waiting for the next upgrade... FROM APPLE, not from "god". God is later, but Apple is HERE, NOW. And many worship Steve and Tim more than they do their diety of choice.

Steve Jobs vindicated: Google Android is not open

And, in 2004, the Sharp V402SH had c,c&P

http://www.mobilegazette.com/sharp-v602sh-v402sh.htm

This phone was KEWL, but i lost it after returning to the US. The packaging included quick guides and thicker E & J user manuals. It had a charging dock, nice stereo headphones, and it cost only ONE YET in December 2004 because it was "obsolete", said the salesman at Yodabashi. ONE YEN. FM radio, TV tuner (which worked in the US, but was bout 1 channel number off due to the Earth's magnetic field ).

That was a fine fone.

AT&T ends illicit handset tethering

Packets can be regurgitated INtact...

Pizza on an all-you-can-eat deal, taken home like Mamma Birdie takes worms to the nest, would be packed packet regurgitation ENDtact.

At any rate, i think the real issue the phone carriers have is they claim that tethering a laptop means the consumer consumes MUCH more data over the air than would the phone itself. Still, that is BS. If we buy a modem and tether the laptop to that, how much different is it other than we cannot call or type or text from the modem? Are they worried about the phone burning out? Or that the phone would choke and cause spurious and debilitating diagnostics on the cell net or in the towers?

If they don't WANT tethering to happen, why not allow it but then make the carriers install a tether lojack to detect tethering, then throttle it at the phone, or at the tower. Wai, they would be found out and sued similar to what is happening to Clear. So, if in the end it is denial and phone-cripping foisted upon the customer, why cannot we sue them anyway?

In the end, these horses-harses of carriers that block or charge for tethering are just regurging crap and forcing it down our throats.

Extra charge?

In the end, would that... (re)constitute a "raw deal"...

OTOH, you DO have a vested interest and a duty

To ensure the ground storage tank is water- and sediment-free. You might want to provide periodically sanitized toilets, some good soothing music at the pump, and subliminally-sold peanuts and drinks.

Maybe we as users should in concerted fashion just boycott downloading non-text items for 3 days. Whomever each ISP is paying for surge bandwidth or fixed, minimally-available bandwith even before surge kicks in will probably become pissed. If we figure out how to do rolling bans, like dissidents of a sort, it might force the greedier of the execs to stop doing things like ponzi-scheme sign-ups that bankroll their tower rollouots based on doe-in-the-highbeams people.

But, it really is a laugh that South Korea and Japan and even other places in the world offer or can off better, faster, and cheaper fixed AND mobile access. It is insulting that my EVO 4G typically gets 500 to 2000 kb ps down, but cannot USB tether it, a feature that is built into the phone. If I want to tether, I have to pony up $25 more per month and do it wi-fi. Or, keep using my crap-ass sierra wireless card which cannot be software-upgraded. Only if i use iwnodows or mac can it be updated, by OS changes. Or, i can get a novatel chip. But, I'm torn between demanding my phone have wired/usb tethethering or having a separate, dedicated credit-card-sized gizmo like the upcoming Novatel card.

As a gas station owner, it is not your concern

Whether a driver screeches to a mad halt or starts off like a jackrabbit. You have no vested interest in nor any power over a car or driver to make the driver bet gentler to the drive train or to not tear up the pavement. Even the tire manufacturers won't weigh in. One of them stands to sell new tires even in the face of the reselling of used or retread tires.

How do they know?

I am sure there must be an undisclosed diagnostic bit in the phone's OS that periodically has to send a bit or bit flip on a pre-encoded pattern to the tower or the provisioning server. If huge amounts of data are streaming into and out of the tower for a handset that is not "envisioned" to be USB tethered, then check the USB port useage stats and other stats (such as the WiFi radio antenna being off or handling minimal traffic or no traffic). If it is active, and the phone is serving up 15 tabs of browers or 99 tabs when an Android internet browser supports only 4 tabs max and Dolphin HD only 9 or 10, while Youtube is streaming on an non-android/non-ios client, then presume the user is USB tethering. Something like this is how they know.

Google, Apple, and Samsung and HTC and others must have some chip or reader in the phone and are not openly informing us. Probably, some developers will come forward.

Form a class action to burn down the "data plan"

that costs $75 or $65 per month. Demand that the CPUC (if in the USA) forces the phone service/carrier to profide $10/month "emergency use only activation plan", and then buy a 4G/etc hotspot that gets 5 to 10 mbps (1,000 kbps or so).

The excuse for Sprint and others for charging that $10 extra is that they expect we'll use our EVO's and other smart phones to pull down massive data. But, they want to FORCE us to go it via wifi but not grant tethering. Tethering is a capability IN THE PHONE. WiFi tethering can sometimes be non-secure fi the user is clueless or inept. I sometimes woul PREFER USB tethering just to make sure that the ONLY device i tether is the ONLY DEVICE that gets bandwidth. For convenience sake, many users will badly enable the the wifi without encyrption, passwords, or hidden names so the 5, 6, 7 or 8 other devices can easily see and use the modem-phone.

However, one sprint rep told me that the wifi tethering via USB generally is worse in experience for the user than wireless tethering. Can anyone reading weigh in on that?

Paramount buries Dune remake

Or, Drob and Bloid, obs and oids...

Blob meets Droid, Droid screws Blob. Blob gives birth to Drob and Bloid. Drob and Bloid mate. Drob and Bloid change genders. Bloid screws Droid, producing Broid, and Drob screws Blob, producing Brob.

And along the way oozum smears and melts multiple humans along the way. Sometimes, there's group activity along the way...

Virtual Facebook thief jailed for two years

Not, it's not important that the system IS secure,

But, that the public THINKS it is secure... But, yes, security throught obscurity would be enhance, though, by would-be attackers who give up without trying...

Zynggggg....

Looks like he almost bought the farm...

Thrutu

I was able to do this in Jan 2005

With my Vodafone Sharp phone I was able to do something similar. I was able to shoot a pic and send while on the move, then stood still to be findable for my friend when we were meeting in a Tokyo-area train station.

Microsoft sues trio over Androidian book reader

KEELHAUL THE USPTO

Yet another reason the USPTO and global patent laws need to be harmonized to recognize simultaneous or near-simultaneous invention.

Even when an inventor creates something and wins a patent, if a new invention works around it and is not based on theft of and direct use of the first product's details, then let the better-selling, better-received product win.

Having said that, though, I don't know if B&N's suppliers, partners, or others involved had their hands in skullduggery or malfeasance...

Apple 'gay-cure' app severely slapped

Will be funny, if on judgement day, "God" says,

YOU FOOLS! How DARE YOU DESTROY HOMOSEXUALITY! I SPENT TWO *MONTHS* WORKING ON THAT ASPECT OF HUMANITY!

Texas bank robber asked for ID

Genes...

Oh, he can "pass them on"... they just won't be viable in the non-suc-cess-pool they end up in.... He won't get a room with a view, but someone'll get a bed with a peww....

EU copyright database could help reform the laws on orphan works

But, some photographers simply do not want to be BOTHERED

With the copyright issue, whether pre-digital or post digital. Some will outright offer the copyrignt at a minimal markup or just offload it. A whole lot easier now to just get rid of huge piles of photos and proofs of innumerable sizes, paper/cardboard, protectors, albums, slides, and so on. Home-based professional wedding/corporate event photographers probably salivate when considering how much of their homes the rescue from tons of soon-to-be-rubbish. Yes, once in a while, clients from ages ago pop up with a reprint request, and even better, send on referrals, who sometimes want to review the work from the past and current works.

But, if the client takes over the copyright, that is one less headache and due-diligence activity the pro photographer can dispense with. Less bothering with watermarks, and the whole lot of tracking and enforcement responsibilities.

Agree

Years ago I rushed out some "art" (drawings) along with a book. The drawing had some mistakes, and the book was riddled with many more because i did not use any editor other than myself, and the buyer of the store to whom I sold did not proof anything before buying.

But, when in 2003 I registered my copyright with the US Library of Congress, the agent told me that if it had already shown to the general public, or substantially unchanged, it would not be eligible for copyright registration. The main benefit of registration is the abilty to sue for damages and other compensation. Unregistered works might have only a benefit of stopping infringers from producing more unauthorized examples or certain derivatives.

So, I feel I should be able to go to 3D from 2D with my other work and be protected and granted registration, since the medium on which the work is based won't be just paper. It'll be a 3D model, possibly interactive.

12Mb/sec to a mobile telephone, but is it a new generation?

From reading about the HTC Thunderbolt at

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=40213

Impressive, compared to my EVO 4G...

Teen charged for Facebook birthday hoax that drew 200,000

Hmmm, she might meet her future

- husband, or wife or boy friend or girlfriend, or

- doctor

- shoe repairer

- and more

Imagine if she requested $1 from each to cover for costs, then, if lucky, 10% might reply. That could be $20,000. Even if only 4% replied, then mabye $16,000, depending on the average "take".

Does fb allow us to set up a "please, just this once this year donate between 50 cents and $4 to me. I won't bother you again for 3 years"? app?

Bogus BBC Fukushima radiation texts panic the Philippines

Cut in Filipino?

Well, according to:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Filipino_language

"Filipino vs. Tagalog

In practical terms, Filipino is the formal name of Tagalog, or even a synonym of it. It is sometimes described as "Tagalog-based", part of a political fiction that the national language is based on an amalgam of Philippine languages rather than on Tagalog alone.[4] It is usually called Tagalog within the Philippines and/or among Filipinos to differentiate it from other Philippine languages, but has come to be known as Filipino to differentiate it from other countries' languages; the former implies a regional origin, the latter a national. This is similar to the Spanish vs. Castilian concept (see Names given to the Spanish language)

One famous event which illustrated the relationship between Filipino and Tagalog occurred during the impeachment trial of the former President Joseph Estrada. When the presiding justice Hilario Davide, a Cebuano, asked which language the witness Emma Lim preferred to testify in, Lim promptly answered "Tagalog", to which Davide did not agree. According to Davide, nobody could testify in Tagalog because it is not the official language of the Philippines and there is no available interpreter from Tagalog to Filipino. However, Senator Franklin Drilon, an Ilonggo, defended the oneness of the two by saying that an interpreter will not be needed because everybody would understand the testimony in Tagalog."

Apple exec confirms white iPhone 4 arrival

Stand by to stand by for

A collective euphoric, hip-origin shudder and guttural sighing, ecstatic moan undulating through the cosmos...

Lady Gaga puts the squeeze on breast milk ice cream

In cartoons, babies go...

"goo-goo, gah-gah"... They preceded the BIRTH of "Lady Gaga". So, she should be quiet.

HP lays cuckoo egg in Microsoft nest

GOOD LUCK, HP!

But, get the damned battery life 2x or 3x better than it is for Linux! Help the developers exploit the battery chemistry so a Linux distro can be properly tuned to run 3 or 4 hours or more, not UP TO 3, but TO or BEYOND 3 or 4 hours. Also, work with VMWare, Oracle XVm, Wine/et al, and the Linux kernel devs...

iPhone lead in ad revenue generation slipping away

"Others"

I bet it is easy to figure out what phone OS is in "Others"...

Man jailed after cops uncover 'crack in bum'

I wonder if the guys' attorney/counsel/solicitor tried to get the charges

dismissed as a bum wrap...

ReAss-

suring that laww en(d)forcement rises at the crack of dawn for unique occasions LOL! I guess they found in in the span of a split decision. Or, what that fast enough to say, faster than lickety split? Had they searched too assiduously, he could have been torn as(s)under....... Some of these stories are quite en(d)tertaining, hehehehe...

Sprint eyes T-Mobile acquisition

I'm not sure, but I think that in general Sprint has been

Improving for me. At least i don't have dropped calls. 4G is sometimes spotty or iffy, depending on where I am. But, I cannot WAIT to ditch my Sierra wireless 598 u card. This fracker has been maxing out at 150 or so kbps when the patched card (via windoze ONLY, or maybe mac, too, but not Linux, or at least not for me...) runs faster than 900 kbps. The store rep checked my card, but it cannot be firmware updated. The OS has to be updated, and Linux, it seems, doesn't get the driver. Apparently, the Novatel credit card-sized wifi card will have onboard firmware. But, i felt DEVASTATED to find out that for 2 EFFING YEARS I had been getting 1/10th the speed, enduring system updates taking HOURS instead of minutes. For this, I feel sprint wronged its customers by having offered or sold cards that don't play nice to non-windows users.

Feeling heat from Macs, Microsoft sells PCs sans crapware

Acrobat... and cruft....

Like, REALLY, WHY in the HELL must Acrobat Reader be something on the order of 80 to 150 MEGABYTES? Lotus SmartSuite came in under 180 MB. Open Office takes less than around 200 MB, IIRC. Hell, even MS Office, depending on what you select during install of it, might weigh in under 300 MB. but look at what you get.

When I use Adobe Reader, I see a canvas presenting a document. I don't see a SUITE of various apps. Yeh, it's FREE as in beer to download, but out of contempt, i sometimes eviscerate/expunge it from my in wrath that it is so effing large.

And flash and java script? I generally disable it and block it. As for javascript, I grudgingly use it because some sites admins taint the code in such a way the site runs shitty or NOT AT ALL if js is not running on my phone or laptop.

I wish wesite content creators just delivered content and left the frackin eyecandy out of the web page. And, no, don't offload it to my CPU. It in-effing-FURIATES me to go to a web site and suddenly hear my hard drive churning its ASS OFF. I doubt it is page swapping. It's something in flash and java and javascript and other stuff crammed into web pages.

You... You...

You go girl!

With JUST the software you need?

"They also come with “just the software you need,” which is code for saying the machines don't contain crapware such as promotional versions of antivirus software that can drastically hamper performance."

MS should also once and for all STRIP out that "class division" demarcation of video chip limitations/aero/glass crippling.

My cheap Gateway laptop back in 2008 could -- with the right video drivers and compiz base -- run 3D desktop graphics a whole lot tantalizingly better than a baseline or win vista home native install on the same hardware. Shimmer, wobble, fire, rain drops, cube, sphere, translucency and more. Even my later HP Pavillion dv7 could do it with Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, and Sabayon (when I could GET Sabayon to actually RUN without demanding 2.7 GB of updates).

Even with VirtualBox and Win Vista/Win 7 running, I could suspend and resume and return to the same snazzy grapics. The ONLY advantage to running vista and 7 natively is that my CAD apps would open drawings marginally faster and present them marginally crisper. But, since the app stepped down to a reduced functionality in 7 and vista, there was really not true advantage to running vista and 7 natively.

ms, you uninspiring aero doesn't compare to Compiz (when Compiz is not broken). You don't give users anything to be PROUD of in windows. Accept it: you OS really is a tool - a platform for the real workhorse apps -- the users' chosen apps. The OS is supposed to stay out of the way, or to facilitate housecleaning. But, between monstrous patches and constant threat of virii, trojans, worms, and other malware, some users must operate in trepidation. Don't get me wrong: I DO use windows, but it is just a TOOL (and, as such, it is sequestered LIKE a tool: inside an emulator/VM). It does mostly what it is supposed to, but Linux, despite its major flaw of not being to natively run windows word apps, provides power AND bells and whistles, not just power. Some users really DO want built-in bells and whistles, and, while you DO unofficially provide eye candy in the Power Tools, how many users can use it when the cheapest of "designed for windows" hardware barely hucks and bucks like Frankenstein short of watts and voltage?

Why, ms, WHY must you INSIST on dividing users that way? Activate the eyecandy on ALL windows hardware, and stop letting vendors crank out crappy vid chips with your name on it. You might curry favor with end users who occasionally "defect" to or concurrently run Mac.