Error Forum Blog

Cheat: Costumes

Review The most prominent feature of Windows Vista is its cost. So, before we get into the nuts and bolts of how it behaves, let’s talk about value for money. Because at these prices, it had better be good.
The stand-alone version of Vista Ultimate retails for €600, or $780 here in Ireland. Amazon.com is selling this $780 version to Americans for $380. Or, to put it another way, Europeans are subsidising Americans by $400 on every copy they buy.

Bill Gates tried to explain this anomaly during a BBC TV interview by claiming that Microsoft “tries to keep prices largely in line country by country.” Bill said that he had “not followed how the exchange rates made that drift”, and added that rates “can go out of alignment as currencies go up or down”.
Apparently, Bill’s minders had neglected to prep him for that question, because if he understood even the basic principles behind currency exchange rates, he would have known that the “drift” would make Vista cheaper in Europe. The American $380 stand-alone Vista Ultimate package would retail here for €292 plus VAT, not €600 with VAT. So obviously, there’s some monkey business going on with the price, and Bill isn’t fooling anyone.
I bought the Home Premium upgrade for this series of reviews, and paid €250, or $325. Amazon sells it to Americans for $154, or €118. Still, I’m content to subsidise American consumers, who are watching their currency sink steadily to the status of third-world company scrip. I’ve always believed in being generous with foreign aid.
And yes, you read right; I bought it. I requested a review copy, as did my colleague Joe Fay. Meredith Budwin, from MS’s PR machine Waggener Edstrom, told me that MS would do its very best to accommodate, but there were problems with limited availability, finite budgets, etc. “We may be unable to provide a review copy due to the large volumes of inquiries received,” Budwin explained. This from a company that can afford to bribe bloggers with free Ferrari laptop computers, but somehow can’t afford a fifty-cent plastic disk for The Register. Right.
Eye candy

If Vista’s price, especially for Europeans, is its most eye-popping feature, its second most eye-popping feature is the Aqua Aero desktop interface. Windows now has translucent icons and translucent window borders. Taskbar tabs zoom, with graphical preview thumbnails showing the window’s contents, just as they do in Aqua (I turned that nonsense off immediately - what a distraction).
Indeed, Aero looks nearly as good as KDE, although it demands about three times the system resources. But there’s more. Window layouts have changed for the better, especially for file browsing.

The directory and file organisation, and the overall look and feel, are strangely reminiscent of…oh…what’s the name of that OS I’m thinking of? But this is not to say that imitating Apple hasn’t made the Windows UI a lot better. It has. Search looks like a Spotlight clone, but it’s been improved from the bottom up, and it’s available in any window dealing with file management or system management, and from the start menu. It’s much faster now, and quite easy to configure and refine. Users benefit from improved indexing, and from more control over indexing options. And users can add metadata to files to make searching easier.
And the location bars, or address bars, have been changed, making it easy to navigate from there. You simply mouse-over to reveal a button corresponding to a previous or higher location, and click to get there. It’s nice not having to use the back button repeatedly or backspace over the path; I like this feature a lot.
Microsoft’s next homage to Apple is the sidebar, a collection of little utilities and other single-use apps like clocks and timers and feeders bearing news headlines, stock reports, sports scores, etc. These are called Gadgets, to distinguish them from Apple’s Widgets. Thus, we can say that they’re not actually identical. One of the first things I did after I installed Vista was turn off the sidebar. I found it quite distracting. However, others might like it, so I won’t criticise it.
You will also find a very iCalendar-looking Calendar, and a very iPhoto-looking Photo Gallery. Neither of which is bad. The look, feel and behaviour of both is quite similar to the Mac versions, which is all the better. Photo Gallery allows for simple editing, making slideshows, and burning to DVD, and you can add metadata to make searching easier. You can even import videos into the Photo Gallery and edit them or merge them using Movie Maker, which means that all those little porn clips of yours will be far easier to assemble into something that will last for the required three minutes. Again, files can be saved locally, or burned to DVD quite easily.

Source:Vista first look: Bugs and confusion | The Register

SEATTLE (Reuters)—Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday analysts’ forecasts for revenue from Windows Vista in fiscal 2008 were “overly aggressive.” Ballmer’s comments come two weeks after the world’s largest software maker released Vista, the upgrade to its ubiquitous Windows operating system, and predicted that consumers will move to Vista faster than past Windows upgrades.
In a strategy presentation to analysts, Ballmer said Vista will create a “small surge” in PC sales in fiscal 2008, but would not spur a big increase over normal growth rates.
“Some of the revenue models and revenue forecasts I’ve seen out there for Windows Vista are overly aggressive,” said Ballmer. “I don’t think that much new money will race out of the consumers’ pockets into PCs.”
In January, Microsoft made available Windows Vista after more than five years of development and numerous delays. Windows runs on more than 95 percent of the world’s computers and represents the company’s biggest profit driver.
The Windows franchise is the centerpiece of Microsoft’s business, because the company makes more than 75 cents in operating profit for every dollar of sales. The cash flow generated by Windows allows Microsoft to make investments in new business like digital music players and online services.
Investor optimism about Windows Vista helped to push the shares up 30 percent since June even though the stock has dipped in recent weeks.
Microsoft shares fell 1.2 percent in extended trading on Thursday to $29.10 from a Nasdaq close of $29.46.
Todd Lowenstein, a co-portfolio manager for HighMark Capital Management’s Value Momentum Fund, which has about 3 percent of its $1.5 billion in assets in Microsoft, said the market may have gotten a little too excited about Vista.
“The stock had a good run recently and maybe it got a little ahead of the fundamentals,” said Lowenstein. “There will ultimately be a migration to Vista and we think it’s going to be a huge catalyst.”
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft forecasts sales at the Windows business to increase 11 percent to 12 percent in the current fiscal year ending in June from last year’s revenue of $13.2 billion.
When one analyst told Ballmer that he was forecasting for 6 percent growth in the Windows business for the 2008 fiscal year starting in July, the CEO laughed and said that was a “small but not tiny” number.
Analysts on average expect Microsoft to generate sales of $56.4 billion in fiscal 2008, which would be an increase of 12 percent from this year’s estimates, according to Reuters Estimates. Earnings per share are expected to rise 15 percent to $1.69 in fiscal 2008.
Ballmer forecast operating margins in Microsoft’s Windows and Office businesses—the company’s two biggest units—to be stable over the next few years.
SCALED-BACK EXPENSES
Ballmer forecast Microsoft’s fiscal 2008 operating expense growth to be “somewhat less” than the previous year, likely a bit below $2.7 billion.
Last year, Microsoft stunned investors with a plan to spend an additional $2.7 billion in expenses across the company including about $500 million to beef up its online business.
“We will have moderating growth in operating expenses next year, but I wouldn’t expect a huge drop,” Ballmer said.
Microsoft said the company was willing to spend money to acquire online customers as it battles for share against rival Google Inc. Ballmer said the company wanted to close the gap in online search against Google and continue to make strides in Web display advertising.
Ballmer also said Microsoft did not plan any major strategy shifts in how it returns cash to shareholders through buybacks and other means.
Microsoft started a share buyback program in August that authorizes the company to repurchase up to $36 billion worth of its share through June 30, 2011.
Copyright Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

Source:Microsoft CEO: Vista Revenue Forecasts Too Aggressive

Question from lopelisoli
“Hello! I started having a problem earlier this week with my DVDRW. If I open the device manager, I find the drive listed with a yellow exclamation point. Looking into the properties of the device, I find an error message that reads something like “Windows can’t load the driver for this device. The driver might be damaged or missing.” (bear with me here if these messages are not exact, I’m translating to english because my Windows is in french).
I already tried to delete the device from the device manager and have the list refreshed. The result is that the same driver is reinstalled which brings the same error again. Telling Windows to “update the driver” doesn’t bring any result whatsoever, it just says that the driver is already up to date.

I looked over the internet for a new driver that could be used for this CDRW, but it seems like I’m supposed to use Windows’ native driver (which I am) as there is no specific one available. I couldn’t find a copy of Windows’ native driver anywhere to download either, to replace mine.
I don’t think the device is physically damaged, as I am very well capable of booting from a CD for example. However, under Windows it just doesn’t work (it doesn’t even appear in Windows Explorer). I don’t think it’s incompatible avec Vista either, because I was using it without a problem up to last weekend. It actually stopped working sometime this week, but I can’t pinpoint as to when or what could have caused it. I don’t remember installing any new devices or upgrading any drivers, for instance.
My computer is a laptop from Acer, model Aspire 1692WLMi. Windows identifies the drive itself as a “Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-K05RA ATA Device”. If anyone has any idea of what could be wrong and how to fix it, I would appreciate the help.”
Answer from Andy2639
“This usually happens when a piece of software is uninstalled and doesn’t remove all its connections to the drives, which you didn’t even know it had installed. Heres a method that worked for me.
1. Choose Start > Run.
2. Type regedit in the Open text box and click OK.
3. In the Registry Editor dialog box, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class and select the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} key, which appears as a folder.
4. Select File > Export (Windows XP) or Registry > Export Registry File (Windows 2000).
5. In the Export Registry File dialog box, select Selected Branch under Export Range, name the file (for example, CDDVDkey.reg), and click Save to save the file to the Desktop.
6. In the right panel of the Registry Editor, select the LowerFilters line, and then choose Edit > Delete. Click Yes in the Confirm Key Delete dialog box.
7. Select the UpperFilters line, and then choose Edit > Delete. Click Yes in the Confirm Key Delete dialog box.
8. Close the Registry Editor.
9. Restart Windows. “

Vista Ultimate Extra has made available the PREVIEW release of DreamScene for download for those who have the Ultimate Edition of Vista. Why Microsoft is releasing a Preview instead of the full versions in unknown.
So I fired up Vista Ultimate and downloaded DreamScene Preview. Plus a few other updates were available as well.
To get DreamScene working you need to go to Control Panel - Personalization - Desktop Background and from the drop down menu select Windows DreamsScene Content, which currently is only one [1] single mpg clip about 23.5MB in size. And you need to select how the picture should be position at the bottom of your screen. Click the OK button and your set.
WOW ! More eye candy. The background now moves in a flowing form - animation. One of the options in the Sidebar I have selected was a monitor for CPU and RAM. After setting DreamScene up, I noticed that CPU was hovering from 10 to 34% while DreamScene was functioning. Which lasted all of about 5 minutes. IMHO - I don’t like it.
I went back to my static background.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15 — Wall Street analysts are being too optimistic about sales of Windows Vista, Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, told financial analysts in New York on Thursday.

Vista, the latest version of the Windows operating system, was released to corporate customers late last year and to retail customers last month. Analysts have said industry growth was slowed by repeated delays in Vista’s introduction.

But Mr. Ballmer suggested that Vista’s release would generate only a “small surge� in PC sales. He said forecasts for sales in the fiscal year beginning in July were too high, noting that the analysts’ spreadsheet models called for strong growth in Vista sales, while at the same time predicting slower growth for the rest of the personal computer industry.

“These things are out of whack,� he said at an analyst conference that was broadcast on the Internet. “If Vista is growing, there should be a lot of people participating,� he said, referring to other companies in the PC industry.

Mr. Ballmer suggested that PC industry growth would not reach the 12 to 15 percent annual rates that some analysts have been predicting.

Mr. Ballmer’s comments also suggest that customers will not rush to upgrade existing machines to the new software, which is reported to be both memory-hungry and less compatible with existing software and hardware than Microsoft had indicated.

At the same time, Mr. Ballmer said he was optimistic about the role that the new Windows software would play in the company’s profit growth, in the long run. He listed Windows as the company’s leading growth business in a list of nine that could potentially create more than a half-billion dollars in profit growth during the next three years.

Mr. Ballmer spoke after the stock market closed. Microsoft stock fell about 1.7 percent in after-hours trading, to $28.95.

During his hourlong presentation, Mr. Ballmer reiterated that the company’s business strategy called for patience and persistence, even in businesses where the company does not find success over a long period of time. He noted that for the first 13 years after the company began selling corporate server software in 1989, it was told that its products were not reliable enough for that market.

He acknowledged that Microsoft was trailing both Google and Yahoo in the Web portal and search markets, which are supported by online advertising, and said the company was unhappy being in a trailing position.

“We need a strong services platform,� he said, pointing to the infrastructure the company is now building under its Live brand in a development effort being led by its chief technology officer, Ray Ozzie.
Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/business/16soft.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

Removing the text below an icon on your desktop has been a classic Windows tweak for years. In Windows Vista, the same old tweak works. 1. Right click on the icon and select Rename. 2. Then hold down the ALT key and type in 255 on your right keypad. If you are on a laptop turn on numlock and use the K and I keys to enter in 255. This is the code for a space. 3. Hit Enter when you are done. If you want to remove the text from multiple icons then make sure that you do ALT + 255 a different number of times for each icon. Source:http://www.tweakvista.com/article39101.aspx

As if you haven’t had enough Vista-equipped lappies thrown your way, here’s another one to mull over if you’re digging the ultralight composition and the built-in optical drive. Fujitsu’s latest LifeBook sports a sleek, black and silver enclosure, the standard array of multimedia controls, a 13.3-inch LCD, and the obligatory palm rest stickers to boot. Internally, you’ll find an AMD Sempron 3200+ processor, 1GB of RAM, 100GB of hard drive space, dual-layer DVD burner, and Windows Vista Home Premium pre-installed. Additionally, you can reportedly expect around 3.4-hours of battery life from the six-cell battery, and if you won’t need the skills of your DVD writer for the day, you can whittle the weight down to around 3.6-pounds. No word on price, but for those camped out in Seoul, keep an eye out for the S2210 to land soon.

 

Source:http://www.newsgator.com/ngs/subscriber/Today.aspx

Google rules the direct marketing world thanks to AdSense, and AdSense is popular thanks to the fact that almost anyone can sign up. As it turns out, that’s a problem when sites break the law.

A significant collection of media giants have accused Google of aiding two piracy web sites by both directing traffic to those sites and by selling advertising for them, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). The cadre of media powerhouses includes News Corp., Viacom, Sony, NBC Universal, Time Warner, and Disney, the majority of which are involved in legal actions against the operators of the sites in question.

Details of the imbroglio are indeed slim, and it would appear at this time that no legal action against Google is pending. The situation is an embarrassment for the company, however, and the media companies are looking for promises from Google that this won’t happen again.

Legal filings show that Google worked with EasyDownloadCenter.com and TheDownloadPlace.com from 2003 to 2005, generating more than $1.1 million in revenue for the sites through the AdSense program. The sites were generally oriented towards facilitating piracy, and site operators Brandon Drury and Luke Sample are now facing legal action for inducing others to infringe copyright. Both sites sold a repackaged BitTorrent client and access to a P2P search system, but the defendants argue that they are not guilty of the charges.

According to sworn statements from the two men, Google reportedly noticed the amount of traffic and advertising served by the two web sites and assigned them an account representative to help optimize their efforts. This has been construed by the media companies as a collusive act, but is it?

The WSJ fails to note that what the defendants did was something any AdSense or AdWords partner can do. The fact that the defendants were assigned an account manager is not particularly surprising: this happens to many “high traffic sites,” Ars included, but does not necessarily mean that the content of a site is closely scrutinized. This may be why no legal action against Google has been announced; the real issue is client screening, and whether or not Google will now pay closer attention to the kinds of sites that allowed into its AdSense program. For its part, Google told the media companies that they would institute new screening processes immediately. Google also said that they would stop targeting keywords that are frequently used by pirates (such as “bootleg”).

PetManimal writes “Computerworld is reporting that gamers who have installed Vista are reporting problems with first person-shooter titles such as CounterStrike, Half-Life 2, Doom 3. and F.E.A.R. (Users have compiled lists of games with Vista issues.) The complaints, which have turned up on gamers’ forums, cite crashes and low frame rates. Not surprisingly, the problems relate to graphics hardware and software: ‘Experts blame still-flaky software drivers, Vista’s complexity, and a dearth of new video cards optimized for Vista’s new rendering technology, DirectX 10. That’s despite promises from Microsoft that Vista is backwards-compatible with XP’s graphic engine, DirectX 9, and that it will support existing games. Meanwhile, games written to take advantage of DirectX 10 have been slow to emerge. And one Nvidia executive predicts that gamers may not routinely see games optimized for DirectX 10 until mid-2008.’”