You are currently browsing the Here’s to the misfits, the round pegs in the square holes… Where Tech Meets Music and Tyranny weblog archives for February, 2008.
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- November 19, 2008: Fuzzy Bunny
- November 14, 2008: Tuatha de Danann - The Last Words
- November 13, 2008: The Jeff Beck Group
- November 12, 2008: "Stars" by Maya Weksler
- November 10, 2008: Quote of the day
- November 10, 2008: This may very well
- November 5, 2008: Just so you know
- November 4, 2008: CNN is reporting
- November 3, 2008: The Tubes - White Punks on Dope
- October 31, 2008: The Hand
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Archive for February 2008
Microsoft Foresaw Vista Problems
February 29, 2008 by dinofond.
By ROBERT A. GUTH
February 29, 2008
A Microsoft Corp. executive last year said the software company made a mistake by lowering the minimum technical requirements needed to run Windows Vista, a decision he said was made to help Intel Corp. meet its quarterly earnings, according to internal emails disclosed this week.
The emails provide a glimpse into how Microsoft executives and hardware partners grappled with technical glitches and other problems as they prepared the long-awaited Windows Vista software for market. The emails were released as part of a federal class-action suit alleging that Microsoft’s marketing program for Windows Vista misled consumers.
In several of the emails, Microsoft executives appear to be planning how they will explain to Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner how a branding program implied that certain PCs were technically capable of running Windows Vista operating system when, in fact, they weren’t. The emails also show how Microsoft executives struggled to respond to complaints from a Microsoft board member about technical problems he had encountered.
In the messages, Microsoft executives acknowledged they knew PCs with one set of Intel chips for handling PC graphics weren’t able to handle some features Windows Vista. Microsoft included the product, Intel’s 915 chip set, under a branding program called “Windows Vista Capable” that was designed to assure consumers that PCs they bought in 2006 would be able to run the operating system, which went on sale in early 2007.
In a note dated Feb. 26. 2007, Microsoft General Manager John Kalkman wrote that that “It was a mistake on our part to change the original graphics requirements.” In the email, he added that “In the end, we lowered the requirement to help Intel make their quarterly earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with 915 graphics embedded,” according to a copy of the email.
Problems Microsoft was having with Intel appeared in emails over the past few years, including one dated Feb. 1, 2006, in which Microsoft senior director Mike Ybarra wrote “We are caving to Intel” and later complained that PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. supported Microsoft, yet Microsoft was “allowing Intel to drive our consumer experience.”
Intel disputed the statements about its finances, while declining to comment on its private communications with Microsoft. Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for the chip maker, asserted that Mr. Kalkman “is not qualified in any shape or form to have knowledge about Intel’s internal financial forecasts related to chipsets, motherboards or any other product.”
A Microsoft spokesman said Mr. Kalkman and Mr. Ybarra would not be made available because the case is in active litigation. He added that the company included the Intel 915 chip set as part of the Windows Vista Capable program “based on successful testing of beta versions of Windows Vista on the chip set and the broad availability of the chip set in the market.” Computers that use the Intel technology “were and are capable of being upgraded” to a version of the operating system called Windows Vista Home Basic, he said.
More broadly, Microsoft said in a statement that the emails addressed how company executives were trying to make the marketing program better for Microsoft partners and consumers. “That’s the sort of exchange we want to encourage. And in the end, we believe we succeeded in achieving both objectives,” the company said in the statement.
The contents of the emails were reported by publications that include the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Microsoft used the branding program to help spur PC sales in late 2006 prior to the roll-out of Windows Vista in January 2007. Microsoft and PC makers at the time feared that the coming release of Windows Vista would cause consumers to delay purchases of PCs during the 2006 year-end holiday selling season. The Vista-capable program was used to label PCs that had the technical specifications needed to run Windows Vista, which demands more memory, a faster processor and other features than earlier versions of Windows needed.
In an email addressed to Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Board member John Shirley said that he didn’t upgrade one of his PCs because Windows Vista didn’t have the necessary software, known as a driver, to run his top-of-the-line Epson printer and two scanners. “I cannot understand with a product this long in creation why there is such a shortage of drivers,” Mr. Shirley wrote.
In the class-action complaint, filed in March 2007, two consumers claimed that PCs they bought didn’t have the appropriate technology to power Windows Vista, despite the Vista-capable logo that claimed they were.
Microsoft has disputed the allegations. “We believe the facts will show that Microsoft offered different versions of Windows Vista…to meet the varied needs of our customers purchasing computers at different price points,” the company said in a statement.
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1 used, highly pendantic Superego for sale or trade (this shit is funny)
February 27, 2008 by dinofond.
Me: dude, why can’t you look them in the eye and speak confidently. why don’t you say what you really want to say? why are you acting so insecure?
Myself: I dont know. maybe my self-esteem is really low today.
Me: self-esteem is bullshit. and you should know that by now.
Myself: what do you know? maybe you say that because you never had any.
Me: bite me punk.
Myself: if thats all you got you can kiss my ghostly ass
Me: Fine. Let me ask you… have you ever been wrong once in your life?
Myself: quit asking rhetorical questions you already know the answer to you tard.
Me: real mature, but we won’t get anywhere if we cant agree on the steps.
Myself: Fine. of course i’ve been wrong.
Me: okie. then what do you think the chances are that in the future you will find yourself in error again?
Myself: *sigh* Seeing as how i will look back and realize it was a mistake listening to you I will say, its likely if not guaranteed.
Me: Alright then. So you are subject to making mistakes and youre not done making them…
so my question to you is, how can you possibly be trusted when it comes to determining your value? What makes you a reliable authority?
Myself: well, i was reading in (censored name of modern psychology journal)…
Me: you didn’t go there. fine, you try some more therapy and self-actualization and get back to me. Look at yourself in the mirror, repeat the mantras which get you thru the day:”You are somebody. you are special. you are beautiful. your voice matters. You are someone worth knowing, worth loving. You are not insignificant. You matter.” Its all a crock. I’m not saying the diagnosis is all wrong. How you view and esteem yourself may be a problem. I’m not saying the mantras are wrong. Maybe you are worth loving, but you have another thorny variable to solve: you are a fallible witness in your own court of opinion and deep down you suspect and know it to be true. Your soul is a courtroom in chaos because you have made yourself the judge, the jury, the witness, the evidence, and quite often the prosecution. You are fallible and finite and you are in the midst of a process, and there in no way you could ever prove your own worth beyond your own reasonable doubt.
Myself: but havent you ever heard, “the greatest love of all” by whitney houston?
Me: I rest my case
Myself: i think i will go drive off the cliff now
Me: bon voyage. just let me out at the next corner first. Wait! Maybe someone perfect would come along and tell us we were worth loving!
Myself: You think so?
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Melissa Etheridge - God is in the people
February 27, 2008 by dinofond.
We keep thinking life is what it’s not
We keep building this impossible facade
Why do we keep trying to turn people into gods
When God is in the people
God is in the people
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Irving Fields for President!
February 25, 2008 by dinofond.
YOUTUBE DOT COM Theme Song by Irving Fields
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Dream Theater - Metropolis
February 23, 2008 by dinofond.
This piece of music is truly amazing!
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All the Mac news
February 23, 2008 by dinofond.
That’s all the Mac news…. that thing below. I need more Mac-ness! More GEEK more GEEK!
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Refurb iMacs discounted for limited time
February 23, 2008 by dinofond.
Refurb iMacs discounted for limited time
Apple’s online store is offering reconditioned iMacs at especially low prices for a limited time. The company’s 20-inch 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac is priced at $999, and comes with 1GB of memory as well as a 250GB hard drive. The 20-inch 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac is priced at $1,249, and offers 1GB of memory alongside a 320GB hard drive. Apple is also offering refurbished 24-inch Intel Core 2 Duo iMacs with 2.4GHz and 2.8GHz processors for $1,499 and $1,899, respectively. The faster 2.8GHz model ships with 2GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive, while the 2.4GHz iMac offers 1GB of memory and a 320GB hard drive.
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King’s X - Dogman
February 23, 2008 by dinofond.
King’s X Sounds like a thick piece of wood in this vid!
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