A PCMech Community member alerted me that Service Pack 3 for Windows XP is in fact in Windows Update now - which would put it ahead of schedule.

So I checked it out.

(click image for full-size view)

Yep, it’s there.

Will I be installing it?

Not yet.

I’m going to purposely wait to see if the auto-updater actually does its thing and downloads it automatically (which it should without issue.)

Thanks Drew!

Life officially 100% sucks for Yahoo right now. Microsoft decided to back out from buying Yahoo. Guess what happened. The stockholders decided to give Yahoo a good swift kick in the ass, i.e. the stocks dived and dived hard.

As far as Microsoft is concerned, their stocks actually edged up.

Will Yahoo recover from this? Unknown at this point; it depends what they decide to do next.

If you are a Yahoo user (and that includes Flickr users by the way,) you might want to consider backing up your stuff locally to your computer. Just a word to the wise. It’s smart to do it anyway even if Yahoo was doing well.

[Source: The New York Times]

The “Mac versus PC” debate will rage until the end of time, but one constant argument I hear about the Mac is that it is overpriced. In fact, an anonymous employee of Psystar (the makers of the so-called Mac clone) was quoted as saying that Apple marks up their hardware as much as 80%.

Whether that is true or not, the notion that Apple overprices it’s machines is everywhere. Now, I do not have inside knowledge of Apple at all, but I am going to try to analyze this and give my impression on whether Apple is too expensive for what you get.

Continued

Last week, Jason authored an article on reasons why to use Linux. Jason is a real fan of Linux and I was part of the “heated discussion” he refers to at the beginning of his article. His article really did touch a nerve and has quickly become one of those most popular articles on all of PCMech.

Seeing as I was, indeed, part of said “heated discussion”, I thought I would shed some light on my personal choice of computer: the Mac.

Continued

Yes I understand that XP SP3 has been available as a release candidate download for some time now, but.. I’ve been wondering when Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be appearing as an auto-download in Windows Update.

After conducting some research, here are the dates everything should happen:

April 21, 2008: OEM, Volume License, Connect, and MSDN and TechNet subscribers. (Yes, that’s today.)

April 29, 2008: Manual Update via windowsupdate.microsoft.com (and Microsoft Download Center).

June 10, 2008: Automatic Update (Windows Update)

The June 10 2008 auto-update is the one I’m most concerned with.

Typically speaking, Microsoft’s download servers get absolutely slammed the day anything major is released like a service pack. However I’ve noticed over the years their deployment systems have “smartened” up enough where the auto-updates are sent out in “waves” rather than all at once.

If you’re like me you’ll probably wait until the auto-update release (because honestly speaking there’s really no rush to get this). It will be a big honkin’ download and it will take time.

Also, this is the last service pack for XP. After the end of June ‘08, that’s it for this OS. Granted, you’ll still be able to use it for a few years but this is the “last hurrah” so to speak.

Damn. Whoah. And at the same time, yeah.

This is how I reacted when I saw a story which cites a pair of Gartner analysts saying that Windows is “collapsing”. They go on to say that the situation is “untenable” and that Microsoft must make radical changes to the OS or risk becoming old news.

According to the story on ComputerWorld:

In a presentation at a Gartner-sponsored conference in Las Vegas, analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald said Microsoft has not responded to the market, is overburdened by nearly two decades of legacy code and decisions, and faces serious competition on a whole host of fronts that will make Windows moot unless the software developer acts.

Speaking for myself, I have been THOROUGHLY disabused by the Windows Vista fiasco, so much so that I abandoned Windows altogether and am now using all OS X on 3 different Macs. Sure, I still use Windows in a virtual session, but it is XP. What Vista showed me is that Microsoft just doesn’t get it. Vista is a bloated piece of crap, and the Gartner guys correctly point out that it is weighed down by nearly two decades of legacy code.

Microsoft - STOP the legacy support! It will be the death of Windows. Seriously, are they going to release Windows 7 in 2010 and still attempt to support hardware that is 10+ years old?

Microsoft is obviously trying to make Windows all things to everybody, and in the process they are making it too little for almost everybody.

Andy Beal, from Marketing Pilgrim, makes a great point: Is Microsoft Rushing to Acquire Yahoo Before Windows Shatters? Even Arrington over at Techcrunch is echoing this point, saying THIS is why the MicroHoo deal needs to happen. The question is this: If Microsoft loses it’s grip over the desktop environment, do they then need to position themselves quickly to be a leader in the online environment?

And Microsoft hasn’t exactly been a leader online. They are a reactionary company. They see somebody else doing well in a market and they devise a way to take over. Perhaps the Yahoo deal is just Microsoft being Microsoft. Can’t beat ‘em - BUY THEM!

My only hope here is that the Microsoft culture does not kill off what we like about Yahoo. The two companies have very different cultures, and I’m really failing to see exactly how Microsoft fits into the equation - except for the fact that they are just rushing to stay relevant in a computing world shifting increasingly to the Internet.

The other day I got into a somewhat heated discussion about why Linux is a viable alternative desktop OS. Despite my best efforts, I was unable to move the other side past the rhetoric and myths that seem to surround Linux. It is because of this discussion that I am writing this…as a way to give accurate information. Let’s start by looking at some of the most common myths.

Myth 1: “Linux is hard to install”

This could not be further from the truth. Many Linux distributions are as easy, if not easier. to install as Windows. Ubuntu, Linux Mint and PCLinuxOS are but three of the most popular. The install is nothing more than a few mouse clicks and basic options like timezone, language and name. All these are explained well and you need to provide the same information when installing ANY operating system. Continued

This tip is for students who might be interested in download a free full copy of any of the following pieces of Microsoft software:

• Visual Studio 2008 Professional
• Windows Server 2003
• Expression Studio
• XNA Game Studio 2.0

Simply go to this web site for the details and to get started. Basically, the only requirement is that you have a Windows Live Account (it’s free) and then proof you are an active student.

Considering each of the above products retail for several hundred each, I would take advantage and download all of them whether you have an immediate need or not.

It looks as if Microsoft is now contradicting comments from their chairman Bill Gates. Gates originally had said that Windows 7 may be shipping as early as 2009. A Microsoft spokesman, though, as come out and said:

“We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista consumer.”

Since Vista came out in 2007, that would put Windows 7 into 2010. This was revealed in an email sent to Information Week.

Windows 7 is currently in the very initial phases of development under the codename Blackcomb. The fact that so many are already looking forward to Windows 7 is testament to the relative failure of Vista to impress, well, anybody.

Personally, I’m not waiting for Windows 7 for anything more than curiosity. For me, the big question will be:

Did Microsoft learn anything from the Vista debacle?

We shall see.

(For those unfamiliar with the term pwned: a definition)

Make no mistake, Microsoft is a business first before anything else; a very aggressive one. In no uncertain terms they’ve basically said “Yahoo, we tried to play nice, but like it or not you’re going under our flag. Prepare to be boarded. Yours truly, -Steve B.”

The deadline is April 26.

What does this mean to you?

To be honest, not much.

The first reaction by dedicated users of Yahoo! service (notably Flickr users) is that Microsoft is going to butt their noses into something otherwise good and wreck it.

If anything, the technologies acquired thru a Yahoo! acquisition would improve existing services.

The first thing you’ll probably see is easier integration of stuff you already use in Yahoo! into the Windows operating system.

The second thing will be something you don’t see; a protection of the Yahoo! brand. Could you imagine the internet without Yahoo? Probably not. But the acquisition would ensure the brand would stick around for years to come.

It’s my opinion that an MS acquisition doesn’t spell out doom and despair for Yahoo! users as some think it might.

Also something to bear in mind: Flickr wasn’t a Yahoo! invention. Rather it was an acquisition by Yahoo into their existing services.

[Source: SearchEngineWatch]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: APRIL 1, 2008

Apple and Microsoft have finally buried the hatchet, hung up their greedy nature for the bottom line and released a 100% free open source operating system, S.U.C.K.S. This is an abbreviation for Standard Universal Computer Kakistocracy System.

S.U.C.K.S. will employ all the best features of both the Microsoft Windows and the Apple Mac OS X operating systems into one convenient free operating system that will run on any personal computer.

Such features will include:

* Your choice of wait cursors when apps fail to work, the “beach ball of doom” or the “hourglass of agony” Continued

According to AppleInsider, Apple has begun testing for the 10.5.3 update to it’s OS X Leopard operating system. The update is said to include 75 bug fixes. According to the story:

Among those components in need of evaluation, people familiar with the matter tell AppleInsider, are AddressBook, AppleScript, Audio, Back To My Mac, Dashboard, the Dock, DVD Player, Finder, Graphics, iCal, Mail, Portable Home Directories, Printing, Rosetta, Spaces, Spotlight, Time Machine, and VoiceOver.

The developer community is busy testing the code, and we should see the public release some time in April or early May.

While I’m at it, I’m going to rub something in. Why? Because it is deserved.

Apple releases Leopard 10.5 on October 26, 2007. I, at that point, proceed to buy a Mac Pro. On November 15th, Apple releases the first update 10.5.1. On February 11, 2008, Apple releases 10.5.2. Now we hear 10.5.3 will come out in about a month from now. All the while, Leopard is running much smoother than Vista ever did.

I should also mention that 10.4 Tiger was released on April 25, 2005. So, we had about 2.5 years between major versions of OS X.

OK, onto Microsoft. They release Windows XP on October 25, 2001. Windows Vista was released to volume license holders on November 8, 2006 and released to the general public on January 30, 2007. Vista SP1 update was just released to the general public only 10 days ago (March 18, 2008).

So, let’s see, Apple released 3 updates to Leopard within 6 months. Microsoft took 5 years to develop it’s new OS (it took Apple 2 years) and it took them over a year to get out the first major update to Vista. In the meantime, Vista is annoying enough to cause a lawsuit and a “Save XP” petition”.

Needless to say, I am, at this point in time, glad I am running Apple. One company is staying ahead of the curve. The other company, well, isn’t.

There is a lawsuit against Microsoft afoot for the misrepresentation of the “Vista capable” designation. The judge in that case got a collection of internal emails. In that collection of emails comes an interesting statistic: that almost 30% of logged crashes of Windows Vista were caused by Nvidia video drivers.

According to the story on Ars:

Microsoft’s data strongly indicates that the problems were real. Damon Poeter at CRN dug through the documentation to find that on page 47 of the PDF, NVIDIA drivers were identified as the cause of over 479,000 crashes, or just under 29 percent of all the crashes Microsoft logged. Microsoft’s own drivers follow, at 17.9 percent, and the “Unknown” category takes third place at 17 percent. ATI is in fourth place (9.3 percent) and Intel in fifth place (8.83 percent).

We have been hearing about problems with Nvidia under Vista from PCMech visitors. In fact, I personally had issues using Nvidia in 2007 under Vista. I had to actually go out and spring for an ATI card just to make my video system work under Windows Vista. Needless to say, I was pissed.

So, these emails pretty much confirm what we informally already knew: Nvidia was (and perhaps is still) problematic under Windows Vista.

Even Microsoft VPs got “personally burnt” by the Vista-capable stickers.

It really is hard to imagine how Microsoft could have so royally screwed up with Windows Vista.

Two words: Save XP.

Source: Ars Technica via Engadget

One day, your computer will be a big-ass table…

The tabletop computer known as Big-Ass Table Microsoft Surface has the possibility of having a consumer version available in 2011.. maybe.

The one question that has been lingering since day one about Surface is its practicality. It’s obviously not portable, the fact you have to look down at it all the time screams of ergonomic nightmares, and of course the issue of the “do you get what you pay for” question. Is it really worth the $5,000 price tag for what you get? It is that necessary to have?

From the consumer’s point on view, I can answer that already: NO.

An example of where a product like this would truly shine is in the classroom. If you plopped a few of these interactive-screen computers for use in grade-school level (i.e. grades 4 thru 8), the tech could be used every day in a way that would work.

But as a consumer product? No way; I don’t see it happening.

Dave and Rich discuss the subject of why there is so much anti-Microsoft sentiment on the internet. Certain points are discussed including enterprise usage. See video below for details.

The beta edition of IE 8 was released so I downloaded it and gave it a go.

First I will state that this is a beta product and certain things don’t work correctly, so unless you’re a web designer/developer, stick with your current browser (be it IE 7, Firefox, Opera or whatever you currently use).

The short list of things that don’t work correctly / aren’t finished just yet

Unable to select text via keyboard or mouse in form fields on some web sites

When typing text in a form field I will sometimes use my SHIFT and arrow keys to highlight text, then do a CTRL+C to copy to the clipboard. On certain web sites I found this didn’t work.

Letter spacing and word spacing CSS rules not recognized

With CSS you can set the spacing of letters and words with certain CSS rules. IE 8 doesn’t recognize these at present (but IE 7 does).

Drop-down menus in "Programs" section of Internet Options sometimes do not work

I noticed when going to select default actions/programs in that section the menus were a bit "argumentative" and wouldn’t activate unless I clicked on them several times.

Help menu is IE 7 and not IE 8

Pressing F1 on the keyboard brings up help for IE 7.

. . .

I’m sure I’ll find other little oddities in this beta browser.

The short list of things that do work correctly / better in IE 8

Tabs are much faster on load

The first thing I immediately noticed is that the tabs work much better. They load much faster whether activated by mouse or CTRL+T. When switching tabs I also noticed that was faster as well.

Flash seems to work more smoothly

On flash-intensive web sites the browser had a lot less "chop" compared to IE 7. In addition the animations had the same fluid nature they do in Firefox (something much appreciated).

Internet Options cleaned up in some areas

It’s now a bit easier to find your way around while in Internet Options. Certain things were "clustered" together, meaning it takes less clicks to navigate to certain settings.

Any visual differences?

None that I could see. It looks identical to IE 7.

What matters in IE 8 is the "guts" that allow for better faster web browsing.

New Stuff in IE 8

Two new items for IE 8 are "Activities" and "Slices".

Activity example: You highlight a portion of text on a web page and right click. The context menu appears with new choices. You can blog it (Live Spaces), define it, map it, search with Google and so on.

Microsoft defines a slice like this: "Developers can mark parts of webpages as "WebSlices" and enable users to monitor information they rely on as they move about the web"

I have absolutely no idea what that means, said sincerely. If anyone wants to chime in and give a "WebSlice" example I’d be more than happy to listen.

Is IE 8 a Firefox killer?

No, for the reason Firefox still rules in the plugins department (but IE is catching up).

However, I can guarantee this will be the first IE you will actually enjoy using since version 5. I found myself using IE 8 and saying to myself "Hey, this isn’t half bad" because it’s not as bulky or clumsy. Things run faster and smoother and it works well.

Once it’s out of beta stage I’ll definitely be first in line to upgrade to the official release version. This isn’t to say I’m switching back to IE from Firefox, however as most people know there are some sites that just "like" IE better where you’re forced to use it.

Final words (for now)

My initial impression is that it at least keeps up with Firefox in the speed department, and the less time I have to wait, the better. Part of the reason I can’t stand IE 7 is because of its slowness. IE 8 on the other hand is a definite improvement.

Microsoft is on the right track with IE 8. When the finished version is released this is going to be a no-brainer upgrade.

I must admit when I read this headline, I was thinking "About Frickin’ Time!". Windows is a bloated mess (as Vista proved) and I have been of the opinion for awhile now that Microsoft needs to get back to basics and stop trying to simply build more crap onto an already huge pile.

But, let’s not get too excited quite yet. Microsoft’s new OS is called Singularity and it is a prototype only for academics and researchers. Right now the new OS is geared toward testing software reliability and doing research in programming.

If you want the corporate-speak version, direct from Redmond:

Singularity is a research project focused on the construction of dependable systems through innovation in the areas of systems, languages, and tools. We are building a research operating system prototype (called Singularity), extending programming languages, and developing new techniques and tools for specifying and verifying program behavior.

This is not the next version of Windows. As one commenter put it on the Singularity website:

This is NOT the "next windows kernel". This is an experimental managed kernel that has little or nothing to do with Windows whatsoever. Its ideas may bring about fruition in Windows two or three major versions from now, but without either dual booting or a total hypervisor approach to Windows there is no possible way this could possibly host existing Windows apps, ever.

That said, Singularity is dang cool and makes me glad that Microsoft has an OS concept that they can show off to the computer science world.

That’s a shame. It had me all tingly inside - just for a minute.

Source: PC World.

Windows XP will be officially retired in June 2008. And maybe you’re the type of person that says "Well.. I like my computer the way it is and I really don’t feel like buying a new computer or changing the operating system. How long can I continue to use XP before it’s unusable?"

The answer is about 2 years (roughly).

"Unusable" defined: The point where little to no off-the-shelf hardware or software is supported by your computer’s operating system.

When any OS is retired, the computer industry doesn’t toss it aside like yesterday’s newspaper. Hundreds of thousands of people (and businesses) will continue to use it well past the retirement mark. If there’s a market for the OS, companies will continue to make both hardware and software products for it.

Taking example from the past

Microsoft ended support for Windows 98 in June 2002. This was well after Windows XP was available to the public (December 2001).

Even so, Windows 98 stuck around for a while. It took a couple of years before XP overtook ‘98 as the standard where the computer industry said "Okay, we’re not making stuff for ‘98 anymore. It’s XP now."

Taking example from the present

Windows Vista is not the #1 OS in use and won’t be for a while. It’s still XP and will continue to be for a while even after June 30, 2008.

In fact it’s probably a safe bet to say Windows Vista will never be the #1 OS due to the fact another Windows will appear in 2009 (supposedly). So if anything, the one to wait for is what comes after Vista.

To extend XP for as long as possible, use open source apps

If you’re the die-hard type that wants to squeeze every possible penny out of XP, the best way to do it is with open source applications.

Open source apps are designed from the ground up to be extendable. What this means to you is that they’re "light" and don’t require as much computing power as retail apps. So even if your computer box is old and XP is old, open source allows you to stay on top of the game even if you have a yesteryear OS and box.

Open source apps are easy to come by. You probably use a few of them already such as Firefox or OpenOffice. There are many others available.

When will the time be to throw in the towel?

Ultimately this is your decision, but you will know it’s time to ditch XP for something else when the computer industry itself won’t support it any longer.

At present this is not the case. There is still wide support for XP for both hardware and software. And even with Vista in existence the industry still champions XP. As of now there is absolutely no need to worry about obsolescence with Windows XP.

But in about 2 years it will be a legitimate concern, especially with new upcoming technologies that will become standard (like USB 3.0). If you run an OS that has no official support from the company who made it, there won’t be any native OS support developed.

I posted 2 weeks ago about a mystery of what made blogger Robert Scoble cry. He wasn’t allowed to tell anybody about it yet, but it was something Microsoft was cooking up that drew a tear. One commenter suggested that it was Microsoft’s Photosynth project. I checked out Photosynth. Very, very cool and perhaps I’ll do a video for you later on that.

But, no. It was, instead, a project called World Wide Telescope. You can view the project’s official website here.

In short, World Wide Telescope looks to be a Google Maps for the heavens. I will quote their entire official website (yeah, it’s that short):

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world for a seamless, guided exploration of the universe.

WorldWide Telescope, created with Microsoft’s high-performance Visual Experience Engine™, enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience.

Scoble describes using it:

So, back to the World Wide Telescope. You drag around the sky. There’s Mars. There’s the big dipper. There’s Betelguese. Etc. It’s just like the star party you probably attended in college.

But it has one difference between any telescope you’ve ever looked at.

You can zoom. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.

We picked a point of light inside the big dipper. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom. Holy shit, it’s two galaxies colliding. It looked like a star. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.

Unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait until Spring to see a glimpse of it.

I can’t help but wonder why the hooplah. Sure, it’s cool, but all this wait just to put up a website with two paragraphs and say "keep waiting"?

Microsoft, they
are always up to something. We
all know it. There is never a second those people don’t sit down and
relax. That, in a sense,
is why they are in court against everyone’s favorite manly Attorney
General, Janet Reno, because they work so hard and gain so much market
that they are now a monopoly. I
just got a letter today, from Paul Maritz, Developer Group
Vice-President of Microsoft Corp. In it, he stated that the development team is ready to release
Windows 2000. Windows
2000 is a mix between the stability of Windows NT 4.0, and the
usability of Windows 98. Don’t
just think that when Windows 2000 comes out, the team gets a rest. They are already hard a work at Windows 98’s replacement, as
well at Windows 2000’s replacement.

The Brain

We all know that
the CPU is the center, or the brain, of the modern computer. And of course, what would America be without everyone fighting
over that market. To find
out about the history of the CPU, please check out The Soap Opera
History of Modern CPUs. As
of now, Intel has just released the Pentium iii B, in speeds of 533Mhz
and 600Mhz. Both CPUs run
on the 133Mhz FSB. The
odd thing is, that Intel has yet to release a chipset that officially
supports the 133Mhz FSB. The
only Pentium iii compatible chipset is the VIA Apollo Pro Plus. The reason Intel doesn’t have a 133Mhz FSB compatible chipset
(side note: please keep in mind that the BX chipset will make it to
133Mhz, and 90% of the BX motherboards sold today have the ability to
set the FSB to 133Mhz, but Intel doesn’t officially support it) is
because it’s been delaying their i820 Camino Chipset. Why would they do something like that you might ask. Well, it’s because of the type of memory they would like to
use with it. Intel, along
with Rambus Inc. has developed memory, which is higher in bandwidth
(roads on the highway) but lower in latency (speed limit on the

highway) than current PC-133 SDRAM. Of course, like all new technologies, this Direct Rambus DRAM
as it is called, costs an arm, leg, and your first-born child.

So, Intel decided
to delay the chipset, and the RAM, but start selling the CPU. So, this means, that as soon as Intel releases the chipset and
the RAM, those boneheads that bought the new CPU, will be up that
famous creek without a paddle. Intel,
though, did realize that most motherboard makers do have the option to
run the FSB at 133MHz, so they figure, why not put the CPU out. Being its “Next Generation” (which is actually isn’t)
people will want to buy it. The
only thing different between the Pentium iii B and the Pentium iii is
the B runs on 133MHz FSB, while the regular runs on the 100MHz bus. Please keep in mind that tests have proven that an added 33MHz
addition in the FSB doesn’t provide much of a performance boost. The Pentium iii B doesn’t use the new .18micron core, but the
Pentium iii E, and Pentium iii BE will. Now you have a reason to get totally confused. I just threw some new words at you, so I better explain myself.

All right, so
what’s a Micron Process?!? It’s
the distance between the transistors in the CPU. 
The less distance between them, the lower the voltage needed,
which means less heat, and quicker speed. 
To all you over-clocking buffs, that means Processors will
overclock farther.

So what’s
the meat of Intel’s future? After
they issued the B version of the Pentium iii, they will more than
likely issue the E and the BE version along with the i820 chipset, and
Rambus DRAM.