Chinese hackers call Microsoft ‘hacker’

If you don’t know by now, the majority of pirate/hacking/illegal/software/computer activity comes from Asia. For years this has been a problem while the corrupt Chinese government has turned a blind eye. Microsoft decided to something about it. Recent Windows Genuine Advantage updates have caused annoying black screens to pop up on computers with pirated versions of Microsoft products installed. Not surprisingly, this caused a bit of an uproar with, say … a billion Chinese people? A lawyer even had the gall to call Microsoft “the biggest hacker” in the world. I nearly shat my pants laughing so hard.

*kettle ===> black

First of all just admit you have a pirated copy, like everyone else. If the government had stepped in and cut down on software piracy maybe you wouldn’t have had this problem. I bet right now there are a few million computers at Chinese government offices blinking with black screens (hmm, pirate much?). I’m glad the government is investing in developing their own operating system and planning on switching to Linux. Yeah, good luck with that.

China, you are stealing from Microsoft and you have been for years. That being said you probably house some of the dumbest person in the world (as well as the smartest) if you think you can install a pirated copy of Microsoft XP (Vista,Office, etc) and expect to be “entitled” to ongoing updates. WHY ARE YOU UPDATING DUMBASS? Do you not realize that Windows Genuine Advantage is an anti piracy update? What did you think it was? “Super fantastic porn time?” Let’s see, I can’t afford a BMW so I got buy a Ford, then I go to BMW expecting a free engine upgrade?

As for the “lawyer’s” argument (if he is a REAL lawyer, and not one who printed out a fake degree) Microsoft did not “hack” into computers. Each user has the option to disable automatic updates. When you agree to update your Microsoft product, you are agree to install whatever update Microsoft releases. Don’t get upset because you got caught. Simply back up your data, format and reinstall, and disable updates.

But some poor Chinese gold farmer can’t afford a legit copy of Windows, so why can’t they lower the price? I can’t afford a lot of expensive stuff, just because you want something the manufacturer is not required to lower their price. That’s the cost, if you can’t afford it, then tough. You don’t have a right to benefit from illegal software.

If you’re getting illegal cable, don’t complain to the cable company when your signal goes bad. If you’re selling cocaine and get robbed, don’t file a report with the police. If you’re avoiding government income tax, don’t apply for government rebates. And for God’s sake! If you have a pirated copy of software DO NOT download updates. Updates are legitimate paying customers.

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Giving up on Vista 64 bit

I’m finally giving up on Windows Vista 64 bit. After getting everything set up, updated many drivers and tweaked the settings I’m going back to XP. The silly Seinfeld/Gates ads put Vista on life support but I had to pull the plug after several crashes last night. For no reason at all. Whether it was surfing, watching a movie or playing a game crashing became more and more frequent. Next to nothing is installed on my system. I wanted to make sure everything was stable before I started loading up everything and I’m glad I waited.

I got used to the annoying security settings. I got used to the annoying gadgets on the side panel. I got used to the lack of 64 bit support for many applications but I could never get used to the crashing. I have Windows XP 64 on an AMD system and it runs fine. For over a year now and is quite stable. Never experienced a crash on it. But I was wooed by the pretty Vista platform and fell victim to the scam. I learned my lesson.

Stick with what works. Don’t upgrade unless you absolutely have to. And by all means do not use Windows Vista, because it totally sucks.

Dell Mini 9: Canadians get no Ubuntu love

I’ve been constantly refreshing the the Canadian Dell site and this morning I was pleasantly surprised that the Mini 9 is now available. Awesome! One thing odd I noticed though, no Ubuntu option. WTF?

Just for fun I decided to call up the 1-800 number. On hold for a short while I got connected to and agent over in India (surprise, surprise) I tell him, “I’m on the Canadian website, and I noticed there’s no option for Ubuntu for the Mini 9, can I order the Mini 9 with Ubuntu instead of Windows XP?” After repeating myself and speaking slowly he informed me that I had been connected to the wrong department and forwards my call to another agent.

On hold for a bit longer I get connected to another agent. I ask the same question. He puts me on hold for a while and then comes back with this, “Currently the Mini 9 is not available with Ubuntu” and when I asked him if there were any plans to offer it with Ubuntu pre-installed he said that “this is a brand new launch, no information is available regarding that configuration”. Ok no problem, thanks.

He didn’t seem to want to let me off the line. Smelling a potential sale he gave me his agent code/number to put in when/if I decided to go ahead and purchase it online. This way he would be my “personal contact” and would be available for post purchase support. Um, yeah right. How about just telling me the truth? You get a commission, duh!

So I’m a little disappointed. U.S. customers have the option but Canadian are getting no Ubuntu love. Guess I’ll wait and see if there are any changes in the upcoming days.

Canadian site

U.S. site

Vista to XP: Cost to downgrade? WTF?

Dell Inc. will charge customers up to $50 for factory-installed Windows XP on some PCs after Wednesday, according to the company’s Web site.

Buyers of the low-priced Vostro line of desktops and notebooks will pay $20 to $50 more for Windows XP Professional installed as a “downgrade” from Windows Vista Business or Vista Ultimate than they would for Vista only.

To meet Microsoft Corp.’s June 30 end-of-availability deadline, Dell will stop pre-installing most versions of the seven-year-old operating system after tomorrow. However, it will still be able to ship PCs with XP by taking advantage of the downgrade rights built into Vista Business and Vista Ultimate. Downgrading lets Dell install Windows XP Professional in lieu of Vista, although the newer operating system is still shipped with the machine so that buyers can, if or when they want, transition from XP to Vista. (link)

Asus comes out with Eee box

Small is the new big, big consumer item that is. Following on the heels of it’s hotly sold Eee PC UMPC comes the Asus Eee Box. The new mini pc is about the size of a hard cover book and will come with either a Linux or Windows XP operating system (just like the laptop).

Current configurations of the Eee Box include a choice of hard drives from 80GB to 250GB in size, and allow users to compute daily services and surf the Internet wirelessly via 802.11n Wi-Fi.

The device comes with four USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports, two each in front and back, and a slot for MMCs (Multimedia Cards), SD (Secure Digital) cards and Memory Sticks. (link)

Microsoft to give XP price cuts for budget laptops

Microsoft plans to offer hardware vendors significant price cuts on Windows XP licenses for low-cost computing products, but the deal will only be available for computers with low hardware specs. This tactic is part of Microsoft’s strategy to stifle adoption of Linux by computer manufacturers that are targeting the budget market, where low cost and high flexibility give the open source operating system an edge.

The popularity of the game-changing Asus Eee PC, which ships with a heavily-modified version of the Xandros Linux distribution, spawned a whole new class of inexpensive computers. Other vendors have entered the market with their own competing products, many of which also use the open source operating system. Windows is a poor fit for such computers, which are designed and priced like budget appliances. Vista requires too much hardware overhead, while Windows XP licenses add extra expense to the budget hardware that can be avoided by using Linux. So as products like the Eee bring Linux into homes and schools, Microsoft has struggled to squeeze into the growing budget hardware niche. (link)

Vista less secure than 2000

It seems everyone is bashing Vista these days. A researcher now claims that Microsoft Windows Vista is less secure that Windows 2000. That’s a bold statement when Vista was supposed to be the most secure OS Microsoft has turned out. Under certain situations I’m sure this can be true. I’m no Vista lover but I’d like to think newer stuff is better than older stuff … in most cases. I think I’ll stick with XP just a bit longer.

According to company CEO Simon Clausen, “recent research conducted with statistics from over 1.4 million computers within the ThreatFire community has shown that Windows Vista is more susceptible to malware than the eight year old Windows 2000 operating system, and only 37 percent more secure than Windows XP.” This certainly sounds dire, and at first glance, the company’s numbers back its statements up. Data reports from the company’s ThreatFire security program state that Vista allowed an average of 639 threats per 1,000 computers “through.” Through, in this case, presumably means that the malware in question successfully installed itself and became active. (link)