Print - WinInfo Short Takes: CES 2005 Special Edition (Part 1)

An often irreverent look at some of the week's other CES 2005 news...

Gates Keynote: O'Brien Was Hilarious, Gates Was ... Gates
Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates's keynote address at the International 2005 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) dispensed with the usual routine in which he blathers on for 90 minutes and puts everyone to sleep. Instead, Microsoft brought out late-night TV talk show host and comedian Conan O'Brien to "host" the keynote address, ad lib, and prompt Gates when appropriate. O'Brien, it should be noted, was hilarious, and although we can't begin to relay the number of times he had the crowd rolling on the floor, a few select quotes might help: "The theme this year is that gadgets are no longer just for geeks. If you look around [this room] now, they're also for nerds and dweebs." And: "I was just checking out the show, and this convention is not exactly for the ladies. I think I saw more women at Elton John's bachelor party." Needless to say, Gates's appearance onstage brought the humor and fun level down a notch or 10. Gates was his usual stiff self, and as O'Brien continued to ad lib, Gates kept trying to get back on track. Sigh. But we'll leave you with another great O'Brien line: "It was fun watching Bill walk through the casino this morning. All the slot machines starting chanting 'All hail the Chosen One.'"

Gates Keynote: What Can Go Wrong Does Go Wrong
And speaking of the Gates keynote ... my, my, my. Several technical glitches had audience members wondering whether Microsoft had even prepared for the event. Demos didn't work. The Internet connection wouldn't work, ruining another demo. A Media Center photo slide show refused to launch ... on three separate occasions. An Xbox game crashed, hard, to display a weird text debug screen that's no doubt unique to the special Xbox machines that programmers use. The net effect was embarrassing for the company and, as we discussed with people the next day, the problem is that consumer electronics don't ever break down. When was the last time your DVD player didn't boot? But the secret about these technical glitches is that none of them had anything to do with Microsoft software problems. The photo slide show problem was a result of interference from the show lights, which hadn't been on at full blast during the many rehearsal sessions and made Gates' remote control malfunction. And the Internet connection failure started the second the presenter walked away from the demo to start another part of his talk.

The Real Problem with the Gates Keynote Address
So while the Microsofties were freaking out about the technical problems during the keynote address and the way the public might perceive those problems, we thought that the Microsoft faithful were missing the point entirely. Technical problems are horrible but the keynote address contained much bigger issues that we think speak volumes about the divide still separating the consumer electronics and PC industries. Specifically, Gates and presenter Sean Alexander, who otherwise did an excellent job despite some technical problems, blurted out the names of various complicated technologies without pausing to explain what they were. PlaysForSure? Windows Media Connect? IPTV? These types of terms might be commonplace in Redmond, where everyone is living the digital lifestyle, and they might even be acceptable at more technical events, such as developer shows. But Microsoft needs to understand that the wider outside world isn't hip to the company's crazy technical terms. Bring it down a level, Microsoft. CES is about real people, and you're just confusing them.

CES 2005: Bigger Than Ever
And what's up with all the norms? In the 5 years that we've been attending CES, the show has been getting bigger and bigger, but this year's event takes the cake. Not only are hundreds of thousands of showgoers clogging the hotels, streets, and convention space in Las Vegas, Nevada, but an unheard of number of "normal" people ("the norms") are here as well--a first for such a major show. The result is bedlam. Taxi lines rival those at Disney World. Lines for the newly reopened monorail stretch two city blocks in some locations. The traffic leading up to the convention center is so thick we could write Short Takes while driving the car (theoretically, of course). In fact, CES is so big this year it almost isn't fun to be here. Almost.

Panasonic Teams Up with Microsoft
Panasonic has teamed up with Microsoft to bring the software giant's Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to the popular Secure Digital (SD) flash memory-card format. The idea is that customers should be able to securely transfer music and other content from any of the dozens of Windows Media-compatible online content stores and play it back on SD-compatible devices, such as Panasonic portable digital media players. Today, SD cards use a form of copy protection called Copy Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM); under the new scheme, Windows Media DRM-encoded content that's copied to SD cards will automatically be converted to CPRM format, without any user intervention. Panasonic, along with SanDisk and Toshiba, is a codeveloper of the SD format.

Security Problems? What Security Problems?
One thing we're not hearing a lot about at CES is security problems and what Microsoft is doing to fix them. Although the company publicly issued its Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware Beta just moments before Gates started his keynote address Wednesday night, that product wasn't mentioned once during the presentation. And in a day of meetings with various Microsoft groups yesterday, the subject didn't come up, either. Meanwhile, security holes in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), WINS, and other Microsoft products and technologies are raising eyebrows around the industry. But this week is supposed to be fun, right?

DirecTV Goes It Alone with DVR
If you were wondering why TiVo's new TiVoToGo service is available only to non-DirecTiVo customers, wonder no more. Although TiVo partnered with satellite giant DirecTV on the DirecTiVo product, DirecTV has decided to navigate the digital video recording (DVR) waters itself. This week, DirecTV revealed that it's developing its own DVR technology, which the company will market in a new product later this year. DirecTV says it will still market the DirecTiVo product, but that it will concentrate its core marketing and sales efforts on its new DVR. Put more simply, DirecTiVo is dead.

Microsoft to Phase Out Pocket PC, Smartphone Branding, Not Products
A Microsoft executive said this week that the company will gradually phase out the Pocket PC and Smartphone brands and will instead concentrate more heavily on the Windows Mobile branding. Scott Horn, senior director of Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Devices group, said this week at CES that the move is a natural one to take because the devices were converging. "We are emphasizing Windows Mobile as device categories are coming together," he said. However, because the different device types--Pocket PCs, Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, and Smartphones--have confusingly similar, yet different, functionality, the company will try to do a better job of differentiating them. In the future, Horn said, most Windows Mobile devices will offer phone capabilities, which isn't the case today.

Microsoft Smart Watch Finds Its Way Onto Our Wrists ... and Into Our Hearts
Well, not really. But both of us received Special Edition CES 2005 Swatch Paparazzi Smart Personal Object Technology (SPOT) watches, which feature the Windows colors and some cool Las Vegas-inspired watch faces, so we're checking them out this week. The latest-generation SPOT watches are much smaller and more svelte than the first-generation designs, which is nice because the first-generation products were humongous. Microsoft is randomly giving away 3000 SPOT watches at the show, which, as Keith noted, will likely triple the number of people who use the devices. (Keith wants to point out that he is, in fact, the owner of a first-generation SPOT watch, and his comment is meant only to be humorous. However, I'd like to point out that Keith's watch was a Christmas present--from me.)

CES 2005: More Coming Soon ...
As we write this, it's early Friday morning and we still have a lot of show to experience, so we'll be back on Monday with a rare second edition of Short Takes that will cover the rest of our time at the show. Have a great weekend.

Paul making excuses for the Microsoft technical glitches? Wow I'm really surprised. As to the xBox error, how do we know whether the problem was caused by Microsoft or the game author? We don't, Paul's just assuming it was the game. I'd also like some proof that the "lighting" caused the slide show to malfuction. Never heard of that before, especially since remotes work based on infrared I believe. And how is a flaky internet connection that comes on suddenly clearly "someone else's fault." Paul doesn't know but he'd like to surmise it wasn't MS's fault. Also, the "real problem" with Gate's keynote wasn't some presentational issue (like using geeky words or concepts). The problem was substantive - no new products, existing ones are too geeky and trouble-prone for the consumer electronics segment (and too expensive).

I wonder if there's a way for Windows & .NET Magazine to block users that are using browsers running in *NIX? Then I wouldn't have to read all of the stupid commends like the one above. If you don't like Paul and what he writes (or the way he writes it), then please: Stop coming here to read it, and SHUT THE HELL UP.

Exactly. Like Mom used to say, if you can't say something nice, stay off of the Internet. Thanks Paul for the work you do. Some of us still appreciate you.

Indeed. Let us discourage criticism of poorly written articles lacking journalistic integrity and a demonstration of an understanding of the market segment supposedly to be covered. What First Amendment?

Actually whether the XBOX failure was hardware or software doesn't matter for the blame. I'm pretty sure the game in question is made by Microsoft Game Studios, so it's an MS problem either way I think. Basically MS should have been a bit better prepared but I don't think everything was their fault. Thanks for the info Paul.

The first Anonymous User poster is a turd. it's that simple. An anti-MS (or should I say M$ so the moron knows what I'm talking about) zealot coming on to a WINDOWS site to trash MS. Wow I'm really surprised.

Paul is reeping what he sowed. Specifically, I refer to his constant slamming of apple, at this site and over at internet-nexus.com. Sure apple deserves criticism, but Paul's criticism most often is baseless, illogical and/or counter-factual, and purely the product of his bias. He's also a liar (claiming that he would like apple to succeed).

Hey Turd-Brain - The first poster (me) is not anti-MS. I'm anti-bad products, anti-chearleading of bad products, and anti-bad articles that attempt to whitewash faulty products.

First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." This has nothing to do with you spouting off because you don't like Paul. If we (kindly) ask you to shut the hell up, we are not violating your 1st Amendment Rights. And if this site blocks you, they are not violating them either. Boy, you *NIX guys are sure stupid. Maybe you should have paid attention in school instead of playing boot-legged copies of Donkey Kong on your Commodore 64 all day. Why don't you stay off of this site. Go write a script or something. Be sure to use that cool "grep" thing too....

For some reason the "We adore Paul and Bill crowd" here assumes that anyone who expresses even the mildest criticism of the content on this site must be a Linux or Apple "fan boy". Hmmm. No wonder you find Paul's reporting convincing.

quote: "But the secret about these technical glitches is that none of them had anything to do with Microsoft software problems." This is the piece of text that in my opinion lowers the standard of this otherwise fine article. Assumptions should be stated as assumptions, not as facts.

Anybody know where to download a video (torrent preferably) of the presentation? I found this http://metahost.savvislive.com/microsoft/20050105/ms_ces_20050105_300.asx but it redirects to http://wmcom-wm9.fplive.net/wmcom/dsces/pleasestandby_wm9_300.wmv which is a 3-minute video of piano music and the words "Please stand by."

O'Brien, it should be noted, was hilarious, and although we can't begin to relay the number of times he had the crowd rolling on the floor, a few select quotes might help: "The theme this year is that gadgets are no longer just for geeks. If you look around [this room] now, they're also for nerds and dweebs." And: "I was just checking out the show, and this convention is not exactly for the ladies. I think I saw more women at Elton John's bachelor party." Paul your such a dic*head, so easy to please. Such a bum licker too. Your always boasting, I had a friend who's parents were always in and out of america and are just so enthralled by the lifestyle, one aspect of which is boasting, i cant remember the number of times i punched him in the arm for boasting about something, and he liked baseball, he actually liked it. Even throwing a frizby - how american is that! You said yourself that this was for normal people, so when the top guys ("Microsofties") messed up what sounds like everything it leaves me feeling that the digital lifestyle is miles away. I know so, I have MCE 2004 and it didn't and hasnt worked since the day I brought it, I guess I didnt buy into much.

I don't get why Microsoft is still ignoring security. They didn't fix everything with SP2. For example, an exploit in IE that has been known since October was just raised to "extremely critical" by Secunia. MS hasn't done anything. So, they can play with their gadgets as long as they want, but I won't be buying until they start to fix the products they've already created. Link to the story: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5517457.html?tag=zdfd.newsfeed

As per usual, the critics miss the point. At least there is one (maybe two-Apple) that is trying to generate some excitement in a stale industry. I have been in this business for 15 years and there is no perfect vendor. If you don't like where/what/why/whatever MS is doing, go to the Groklaw site and bellyache about how SCO is fighting communism. Thanks for another unbiased report Paul!

Paul's articles also seem to be a magnet for people who don't like criticism of MS products and would rather have Paul's biased MS cheerleading bleat on and on without any challenge.

Also, maybe will stop going after Paul, when he stops going after us. Again, you reap what you sow. Paul consistently attacks apple (his internet-nexus site is just a hit parade of every negative article he can find on apple). Paul also consistently takes potshots at apple advocates. So get a clue guys, if you pick fights like Paul, you're gonna end up with a few people taking swings at you.

You MCSE goofballs can keep crying in your MMC consoles. Not only does Microsoft software have no business being in a Data Center, they have also proven (yet again) they can't provide security or reliability in a living room either. The whole "XP Media Center Edition" charade is simply a smokescreen to divert attention away from the inability to deliver Longhorn.

"PLEASE TURN THE COMMENTS OFF!" That would kill the site's one redeeming feature, the lowbrow entertainment value.

...the sounds of thousands of MSCEs rushing to their server rooms to shut the lights off...

Wintards speak out. >>I wonder if there's a way for Windows & .NET Magazine to block users that are using browsers running in *NIX? Then I wouldn't have to read all of the stupid commends like the one above. >>If you don't like Paul and what he writes (or the way he writes it), then please: Stop coming here to read it, and SHUT THE HELL U

Knowledgebase Article ID Q23525: Light can cause Windows to crash. Affected products: All. WORKAROUND: Don't expose Microsoft products to light. STATUS: Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Er, the thing that didn't work was the remote... and IR remotes don't work in bright light. You can't blame MS for physics.

"Wintard". Wow. You *NIX guys sure are creative. Amazing. "Wintard". SO... funny. Why don't you get out of the server room and learn what the business really needs? Sure, *NIX has its place, but it's not the "end all" (neither is Windows). The needs of the business comes first, not "your needs" (or wants). I wish you *NIX guys would just go away (or shut the hell up). We're just tired of you and your NASTY comments. Oh, and the guy that thinks that someone could actually violate his First Amendment Rights. HA! Do you not understand the basics of the Constitution? Only the Government can “violate” your First Amendment Rights. What an idiot.

I can't believe the level of whining presented by these WinInfo detractors. I mean really. One Apple user here is basically retreating to a "But he hit me first!" argument to justify why he comes on here to whinge and bitch. I havn't heard something like this since I was a child in a schoolyard years ago. Grow up kiddies. Steve

Hahahahaha - the anti-Paul, anti-MS lamerz still can't come up with anything clever to say. Go watch a comedy special. Maybe you'll rip off a clever retort for once. WINtard... HAHAHAHAHA ROFLMAO OMG U R 2 FUNNY!!! I also like the one that claims MS crashed the Internet. Gee guy, you're smart.

Moron said: "The first poster (me) is not anti-MS. I'm anti-bad products, anti-chearleading of bad products, and anti-bad articles that attempt to whitewash faulty products." OK, so because it was MS, there is no possibility under any circumstance that one or more of the issues at CES was not their fault. Is that what you zealots are trying to say? "Something went wrong. It's all M$ fault! They are trying to take over the WORLD!!!1"

Idiot said: "The whole "XP Media Center Edition" charade is simply a smokescreen to divert attention away from the inability to deliver Longhorn." Right, because MS (or M$ for you) couldn't have planned on several different versions of XP years ago right? No, they haven't delivered XP Home, XP Pro, XP Embedded, XP Tablet PC Edition, XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, MCE, MCE 2004, MCE 2005. It's all a charade that M$ threw together in the last few months to cover up their Longhorn delays. Get a grip on reality. You guys are sounding more and more irrational and pathetic by the day.

"I also like the one that claims MS crashed the Internet." Hrm.. I wonder if that was intended to be sarcasm... Read what Paul said first, then you'll get the Internet 'comment' Again.. the key word here is "SARCASM"

Moron said: "OK, so because it was MS, there is no possibility under any circumstance that one or more of the issues at CES was not their fault. Is that what you zealots are trying to say? "Something went wrong. It's all M$ fault! They are trying to take over the WORLD!!!1" No, Paul tried to claim, without any support or evidence, that the glitches were NOT caused by MS. Which pretty clearly shows his bias. Anyways, if you have half a brain and visit this site regularly, you should have figured out by now that Paul is just a MS chearleader and apologist.

On the bright side... at least it isn't the Apple crowd that is whining this time. One thing I am confused about... if this is such a bad site and Paul is such a lame author... why are you here? Oh yeah... you are here to read about innovation and new products... something UNICS (oops.. spelling mistake) aren't capable of creating. But please, *NIX (ab)users keep posting comments... makes me feel smarter every time one of you idiots writes something. p.s. you might want to go look up UNIC in the dictionary. You know... the big book with all the words in it.

Microsoft suX0rZ, and if you say otherwise, then j00 suX0rZ t00!!!! I am l337 an7i-M$ h4X0R!!!

....."Paul is just a MS chearleader and apologist"... What? Obviously YOU don't read what Paul writes. Maybe you haven't read it because "someone" took away your First Amendment Rights. Idiot.

Paul I guess you should keep the comments on since it makes the article informative as well as funny to read. ROFL keep up the good work.

I use Windows, but I still criticize it when it deserves criticism. Microsoft software has weaknesses. Simply making excuses for those weaknesses will not help the product get better. The *NIX community has done this for years, and as a result, major problems with *NIX have not been fixed. I hope the Windows community does not continue to accept the shortcomings in Microsoft software.

On the bright side... at least it isn't the Apple crowd that is whining this time. One thing I am confused about... if this is such a bad site and Paul is such a lame author... why are you here? --- I'm a *nix users.. I LOVE coming on here and reading how Paul spins everything and .. especially love reading about the 'innovation' spewing from Redmond, and how the poor bastards that use their OS respond to it. It's adorable. The Spyware thing is hilarious. The fact that you can't delete IE is also hilarious. And yes Paul is definitely an Apologist.. are you kidding, he hangs out with the Windows team all the time.. and writes books about Windows. Pffft. He's a smart guy, but I think uses his buddies at MS as fortune tellers a little too much. Can MS force upon us the subscription MS-as-government world? Paul seems to think so and has accepted this. Trés Zen. I'm not interested in MS's version of the future. That could end up hurting me.

"Microsoft suX0rZ, and if you say otherwise, then j00 suX0rZ t00!!!! I am l337 an7i-M$ h4X0R!!!" I'm sorry, but does anyone anyone here speak "Dork"? I think we need a translator... :c) Steve

"Can MS force upon us the subscription MS-as-government world?" No they can't. Suggesting otherwise is just you being paranoid. "I'm not interested in MS's version of the future." Great! Why are you hear then? I suspect to try to suggest to everyone here that we conform to your version of the future instead, through your silly taunts and accusations about MS and Paul. "That could end up hurting me." So could a lorry, but I don't see you running around screaming and whining at lorry drivers or their passengers about how we are all out to “hurt” you. That would obviously be exceedingly paranoid, irritating and silly behaviour. Well obvious to some. Steve

"I use Windows, but I still criticize it when it deserves criticism. Microsoft software has weaknesses. Simply making excuses for those weaknesses will not help the product get better. The *NIX community has done this for years, and as a result, major problems with *NIX have not been fixed. I hope the Windows community does not continue to accept the shortcomings in Microsoft software." So, *NIX has the magical ability to fix problems with Infrared Receivers does it? Or is your absurd claim that Microsoft software managed to 'break' IR remote control?

As someone who does some writing for a Mac-based news site (and no I'm not a dreaded Mac zealot, I am also a Windows developer as well as a happy owner of MSFT stock) I'd have to agree with those who point out that Paul brings on many of these negative comments by his actions. If you've read his stuff for any length of time, you'll know that he often takes unjustified swipes at both those who report news for non-Windows platforms, and well as users of those platforms, especially Mac. Attacking Mac users as some sort of mindless cult is puzzling in light of the fact that Paul owns and uses a few Apple products; maybe he's just confused. As for taking swipes at other news sites, what strikes me is that Paul has no credentials to show that he's any better than the rest. Getting acceess to folks at Microsoft doesn't qualify as expertise, sorry. If Paul was just a little less full of himself, and acted more like a professional than a know-it-all, then his articles wouldn't be such magnets for negative comments. Alas, some of the comments are childish, but I do agree that they do keep his articles entertaining.

>>All you *nix and Mac fags can go to hell. Guess what, Windows is always gonna beat your ass. Paul, did you post this? Either way, this is a fine example of a Wintard.

"I'd have to agree with those who point out that Paul brings on many of these negative comments by his actions." Well that’s just sad. If you want to understand why Apple users have been labelled as a “cult” then the evidence is in your own words and justifications for this sort of childish behaviour. I don’t know how many times I have seen Apple users attack like a group of rabid mad dogs at the mere mention of anything negative about their beloved platform. It seems to be endemic to the group, and when supposedly self-declared, reasoned individuals such as yourself encourage it… well what else would you expect us to think of you as a group. Now amusingly you think their idiotic vigilantism behaviour displayed here is directed only towards Paul, well I have news for you. I recently made a post in another thread of my criticisms of MS’s media efforts so far. Did I get attacked by the Windows users here for expressing that opinion? No, I did not. Laughably, the only negative responses I got were from the childish detractors here who picked up on my *single* positive comment in a post that was some 99% negative. They just couldn’t let one single positive comment on MS through. Sorry, but these jokers have made their own labels: troll, cult etc, and as far as I am concerned they can wear them. Steve

Just in case anyone was wondering, that "extremely critical" IE bug that Secunia is feigning concern about can be blocked by simply disabling scripting for sites you don't trust. Of course, they don't mention that. Instead they suggest that you chop your mouse hand off, er, switch browsers. In general, reports of "bugs" and "exploits" involving IE, especially with XP SP2, are wildly overblown.

I think the funniest thing is all the anti-Paul people being like "gawd, i can't believe he believed that bright-light theory for making the presentation crash" when i'm pretty sure i know some high schoolers that could explain why the presentation didn't work under bright lights...

Steve, Mac users criticize apple all the time. Nobody has a problem with criticism of apple, as long as it's factually supported and logical. Paul doesn't work from facts and logic. A lot of his claims are complete FUD and BS. Why should Paul be immune from criticism?

"Mac users criticize apple all the time. Nobody has a problem with criticism of apple, as long as it's factually supported and logical. Paul doesn't work from facts and logic. A lot of his claims are complete FUD and BS. Why should Paul be immune from criticism?" I never said Paul was above critisism. You need to re-read my post. I said Apple users as a group are very deserving of labels like "cult" as they behave anything but rational at times. I even gave you an example of their behaviour here with was anything but pathetic and petty. I then went off at previous poster (which may have been you) for condoning that behaviour here. Another example. On another site (I am a handheld enthusiast) somebody suggested the iPod Photo was a dud multimedia device and handhelds will crush it in the market once they had hard drives- expected this year. Now I didn't agree with the comment (I think consumers are too dumb for that level of functionality and handhelds to geeky) but I was able to explain my position camly and logically. However, an Apple user typically went on the attack quoting "20 million" sales of the iPod etc etc. The amount of angry froth and bile in his response was astounding. We had to waste time explaining to him the difference between a vanilla iPod and a multimedia devices and calm him down before we could continue the discussion. Another example: On a Longhorn site I saw an Apple user falsy pass of his wife as having experience in a scientific field. On being called on his claims (we just happend to have somebody actually in the field on the thread) he concocted the most absurd stories and wasted our time for days rather than just concede he actually had no experience in the field at all. He actually was trying to Google references to the field in question and pass that off as knowledge. I mean, those were just two recent examples. Apple users are always seem so defensive. Always so ready to attack like a pack of rabid animals whenever someone seems to suggest something negative. That sort of behaviour leaves me dry reaching it's that nauseating. It certainly doesn't make me want to belong to the "cult" any time soon. Oh, and far from being critical of Apple, I've come to classify Apple users as the most pathetically apologetic group on the net for any faults in their chosen platform. Always ready to reason away any faults in the hardware, design and business decisions made by Apple. Bad sales figures with your OS? iPod! iPod! iPod! Steve

Huh.. bad sales figures with your OS? Apple refuses to lisence Mac OS X.. DUH! You want to talk about Apple refusing to make a PC specifically for the business community to compete with Dell.. What the hell are you talking about? Let's talk about markets where Apple actually competes.. let's talk about their jaw-dropping server offerings. Let's talk about how they negotiated the best rights systems with Fairplay, with the record labels. Let's talk about what iTunes is gonna do for Quicktime downloads, while MS desperately attempts to leverage Windows to prop up their digital media venture. The bottom line is Apple DOES deserve the credit it's been given. More companies should copy, not Apple products, but Apple's corporate culture. Then you might start to see FedEx fans and TiVo fans just as rabid as Apple fans. As for digital video players.. you realize that MS is talking almost NONE of the risk in this, right? They lisence the software, and the hardware makers do whatever they want with it. MS in the long run won't benefit from their failure, but in the short run.. they couldn't care less. That's why Gates had a tough time coming up with a use in the O'brien talk. Sure Bill.. my wife's gonna put digital pictures on the computer and look at them on my phone.. that's fascinating. Oh yeah.. watching Conan Obrian when I'm.. what..sitting down with nothing to do.. yeah.. that sounds like the life of a corporate bigwig. I'm sure Bill has a lot of those days where he would like nothing than to crack a beer and with one hand.. hold a friggin brick Zen Movie player for 2.5 hrs watching Ocean's Eleven...

I look forward to the day when Microsoft owns Apple and gnu/linux (Torvalds and Stallman *will* sell out. As for Apple, once Jobs finishes running it intio the ground Microsft will buy it for peanuts. Maybe Jobs has already arranged the sale with his Master, Bill!) What pleases me about this scenario is that it wil drive all the linux lovin' Apple losers NUTS!!!

"Huh.. bad sales figures with your OS? Apple refuses to lisence Mac OS X.. DUH!" So? Apple might be the only manufacturer selling Apple computers, but in no logical sense should that be restrictive of sales. If the demand was there, then Apple would be producing the number of computers required to satisfy that demand. Unfortunately, demand has been going lower, not higher hence poor sales figures with their PC line. You are just proving my point with your daft rationalisations. "You want to talk about Apple refusing to make a PC specifically for the business community to compete with Dell.. What the hell are you talking about?" I think the more important question is WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I never said anything of the like. Are you taking to yourself here? Congratulations on winning that point arguing with yourself. Marvellous debating skills! Now go take your pills and have a nap… Trust me you need it. To reiterate for the THIRD time for my “simple is best” Apple friends, I said that Apple users typically go rabid at the suggestion of anything negative about their platform. I said that any supposedly reasoned individual in that community should not encourage that behaviour. It only discourages neutral people like me from joining that community. Now the rest of your response contains all the irrational, defensive bantering and stomach churning idolisations of the platform that I’ve come to expect of an Apple user. It really has absolutely nothing to do with what I was talking about, other than making you a text-book example of your average died-in-the-wool Apple cult-job wacko. I challenge the poster I was originally talking to (and not this wacko that has chosen to respond to me) to tell me in a straight face that he thinks Apple user’s aren’t deserving of their status as wack-job cult members when there are Apple users like this tool running around. Steve

The only problem with windoze is that is was written mostly by microshaft (M$) programmers. Definition of M$ programmer: make the program as complicated as possible and still "function." Having just spent the last four hours upgrading my laptop to XP SP2 and then finding that IE can no longer connect to the internet...I think it's time to install the penguin.

"The only problem with windoze is that is was written mostly by microshaft (M$) programmers." Man, I am sure glad I'm using Windows then from Microsoft. That other OS you mentioned doesn't seem to be a good pick if you are an idiot that can't even install an update so easy that a grandma could. No wonder you are switching over.

Boy you windoze apologists sure get emotional: "... if you are an idiot that can't even install an upgrade so easy that a grandma could." As a 25 year IT veteran with a background from the mainframe days, I've pretty much seen and heard everything. I just wanted to share my thoughts concerning the direction of MS operating systems and the future of microsoft. Us mainframe types laughed at the mickey mouse DOS and early windoze software as pretty much kiddy stuff. That all changed when Dave Cutler and his DEC team joined microsoft to develop Windows NT. This in my opinion was the first real product of microsoft. Things greatly improved from NT 3.5 to 4.0, because the NT team was separate from the kiddy winodoze development team. The NT team focused on developing a robust, high performance OS suitable for mission critical deployment. That all started to change, however when the kiddy windoze folks decided to merge with the NT folks. The result has been the gradual contamination of the original NT focus on simplicity and reliability. I could already see the windoze contamination starting with Win2K. The epitome was that abortion called windoze ME, which was released because microsoft needed a revenue fix. The recent experience I had with XP and the failure of SP2 to produce a reliably working system indicates to me that the business community has to look elsewhere for their mission critical operating systems. (I tried to get the XP SP2 upgrade working without success so far, and a cursory internet search tells me I'm not the only one. I have kept the disk intact, and will eventually determine why I can't connect to the internet, even though I have tried all the published fixes, i.e, resetting ipconfig and winsock configurations. The truly weird thing is that I can ping to and from the system, DNS is working, and I can connect the system to our NT domain. Also Firefox can't connect to the internet, so I don't suspect it has to do with IE. I will put my network sniffer on the system to do further diagnosis.) I predict that microsoft will fail because the core focus has been lost. The people working on the new OS'es are no longer programmers but merely coders unable to write robust, reliable code. You can't then patch robustness and reliability into such kind of operating systems. Therefore, I predict that microsoft will ultimatly meet its demise unless it splits apart into three companies, one to do the OS's, one to do business applications, and the third part to do the entertainment stuff.

"That other OS you mentioned doesn't seem to be a good pick if you are an idiot that can't even install an update so easy that a grandma could. " With the other OS, even grandma could be in control!