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Micro$oft up to its old tricks again...

PRB said:
For me, the time is fast approaching when I won't need a Windows box anymore...
Click to expand...

That sounds like a nice option... except...

My wife is a Special Education teacher (think: legal liability), and I'm a businessman whose clients include the U.S. and state governments... there is absolutely no way either of us would trust MS and their current business practices, and yet we have few choices... Geez, these are the sleeziest creeps in the world. Surely, they are limited intellects to follow this business philosophy, but one can only wonder why the tech industry is populated by so many stupid, useless individuals?

Greg
 
lownslo said:
Gordon,

I have great respect for you given the work you have done for this community... but i have to ask. Why in the world would you trust any of your work to a MS operating system?
Click to expand...

Thanks Greg.

To be honest, trust has nothing to do with it. lol

My situation exemplifies the point I was making in my post above. At this point and time flight simulation is fundamentally run by proprietary software that has been rooted in the MS operating systems. Unfortunately, to work within that environment it is most efficient to work with MS...er...uh...tools. Hopefully there will be some fundamental changes in the near future, but until then I more or less dance with the Devil.

I'll develop my point with a story from my previous business life. In 1999 I built a company that printed vehicle graphics for OEM and aftermarket applications. For the OEM side, I developed a system that used automotive toners to print on vinyl. I did this in collaboration with 3M and General Motors. To print the graphics I had a Xeikon digital printer purpose built for the task. 3M had developed the toners and I had been involved in the R&D.

My design studio utilized Mac exclusively. We had five or six G4 boxes which were pretty hot stuff back then. The design side was strictly Photoshop bitmap driven, so the Mac setup was perfect.

The Xeikon printer...a $700,000.00 investment...was strictly PC based. We also had a Zund table top plotter...again $150,000.00 that was also PC driven.
I built the website in Macromedia and ran that interface through a mess of code I wrote to convert internet based designs from the front end consumer into commands that the printer and plotter could interpret.

I ran the whole production system on Windows95. For the record, I never had a glitch with 95 and we were running some demanding integrated software packages. Of course, this was before Mr. Gates sold out entirely and the OS was still fairly benign. The whole thing went TU when 3M shut down the lab that supplied my toners. A painful lesson in corporate busine$$.

I've still got all of that infrastructure intact on about 100 CDs, but I would need a Win95 operations center and 15 year old hardware to reproduce the whole thing. All of that work was rendered obsolete by marketing tactics that build in designed obsolescence.

The trend now is to lock you in to software that you don't actually own, but subscribe to. The contracts are between you and multinational entities who write the treaties that dictate if and when you will be able to access your subscription.


Anyway, the point is we had to pick our poison even back then. Same holds true now, but the poison is much more deadly and post 1913 global economics have become co-opted by sociopaths.

I do my best to back up my work...in depth, but I have had some pretty serious catastrophes in the past.

The simple answer to your question....I take things day by day. If I can negotiate the pitfalls of the "global village" without selling my soul...I'll be launching the new company this year. If not...I'll find a nice quiet piece of dirt and grow my own food. :encouragement:
 
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gman5250 said:
The simple answer to your question....I take things day by day. If I can negotiate the pitfalls of the "global village" without selling my soul...I'll be launching the new company this year. If not...I'll find a nice quiet piece of dirt and grow my own food. lol
Click to expand...

OMG, it feels so much easier now that I know I don't have to be the only one on the only network... to broadcast to the world that MS is nothing more than a bunch of low-life scanks...
 
Not sure if I'm getting all this anti Microsoft drama..
I'm sure Google knows a lot more about us, Gmail, search, Facebook, etc. I'm sure that those Android users amongst us also just allow updates to happen. Our GPS tracks wherever we are, our mobiles do as well.

So, I'm actually quite happy having the latest software that is optimized for modern hardware. Works for me.
 
lownslo said:
OMG, it feels so much easier now that I know I don't have to be the only one on the only network... to broadcast to the world that MS is nothing more than a bunch of low-life scanks...
Click to expand...

Microsoft are just operating within the 'Normal Corporate Environment' that exists today.
We might not like it but it is what it is.
:banghead:
 
zswobbie1 said:
Not sure if I'm getting all this anti Microsoft drama..
I'm sure Google knows a lot more about us, Gmail, search, Facebook, etc. I'm sure that those Android users amongst us also just allow updates to happen. Our GPS tracks wherever we are, our mobiles do as well.

So, I'm actually quite happy having the latest software that is optimized for modern hardware. Works for me.
Click to expand...

Every thing you mention is something you chose.
Win 10 may be the choice for some but MS is pushing hard to force it on the consumer whether they want it or not.
One has to actively work to not have it. That is the biggest issue, not Win 7 vs 10.
 
zswobbie1 said:
Not sure if I'm getting all this anti Microsoft drama..
I'm sure Google knows a lot more about us, Gmail, search, Facebook, etc. I'm sure that those Android users amongst us also just allow updates to happen. Our GPS tracks wherever we are, our mobiles do as well.

So, I'm actually quite happy having the latest software that is optimized for modern hardware. Works for me.
Click to expand...

It is precisely your "not getting" it that M$oft is relying on. That, and the investment millions of people have in software which will only run in the windows environment. Because of these two things, Redmond is able to force itself upon us, even when we don't know about it, and gather any and all information they care to and do whatever they want with it.

You choose to use Gmail, Facebook and the like. There are other options. Not so for the poor souls who have had win10 crammed up their keisters, many times unbeknownst to them. If the federal government was using such, ought-to-be-illegal tactics, NPR and their colleagues would be all over it and up in arms.

And about that latest software that is optimized: Evidently you haven't heard those here whose software was trashed.

Oh, well. We get what we deserve because we simply accept it like the frog in the pan of water.
 
n4gix said:
Dave, a lot of the software I use simply will not run under Win10. For that matter some won't even run under Win7 either. I have to keep a WinXP machine running for certain older Kenwood and Motorola radio programming suites.

So yeah, for me it's a Very Big Deal.
Click to expand...
I should also add that it's a Very Big Deal to every Motorola, Kenwood, Macom/Harris, and Icom service station in the bloody world! There are millions of "legacy radios" still in use, and the programming software for them is ancient, and will never be 'updated' for any modern version of Windows. Some few still require DOS v3.1 for heaven's sake! :pop4:
 
joe bob said:
Every thing you mention is something you chose.
Win 10 may be the choice for some but MS is pushing hard to force it on the consumer whether they want it or not.
One has to actively work to not have it. That is the biggest issue, not Win 7 vs 10.
Click to expand...

You must be referring to the constant nagging to "Upgrade" to Windows 10....

We HAD a Vista machine before it died a bit over a year ago.
We have a couple operational Windows 7 machines.
This machine I am on is a Windows 8.1.
My daughter's new machine is a Windows 10. Another OS was not an option for this machine.
I hated Vista at the time but it seems after the fact to be the best of all the options.

The Nag software is actually an optional update for Windows 7 and 8.
After having disabled it and deleted it and having it constantly come back,
we now choose to download ONLY Windows Updates. No optional updates.
We choose WHEN to install the updates. (Don't like the machines shutting down while we are working.)
The Nag ware hasn't come back for months now.

If the nagging bothers you, I suggest you configure updates like we do.

- Ivan.
 
n4gix said:
I should also add that it's a Very Big Deal to every Motorola, Kenwood, Macom/Harris, and Icom service station in the bloody world! There are millions of "legacy radios" still in use, and the programming software for them is ancient, and will never be 'updated' for any modern version of Windows. Some few still require DOS v3.1 for heaven's sake! :pop4:
Click to expand...

Then I take it that you have at least one set of installation disks for prior systems?
I have them going back to Windows 95 at least and maybe even as far back as some version of DOS.
They have come in handy at times.

- Ivan.
 
Ivan said:
You must be referring to the constant nagging to "Upgrade" to Windows 10....

We HAD a Vista machine before it died a bit over a year ago.
We have a couple operational Windows 7 machines.
This machine I am on is a Windows 8.1.
My daughter's new machine is a Windows 10. Another OS was not an option for this machine.
I hated Vista at the time but it seems after the fact to be the best of all the options.

The Nag software is actually an optional update for Windows 7 and 8.
After having disabled it and deleted it and having it constantly come back,
we now choose to download ONLY Windows Updates. No optional updates.
We choose WHEN to install the updates. (Don't like the machines shutting down while we are working.)
The Nag ware hasn't come back for months now.

If the nagging bothers you, I suggest you configure updates like we do.

- Ivan.
Click to expand...

I have it taken care of (so far) but what you mention is all part of the effort one must make to not have this thrust upon them.
It is not a question of can I avoid it, I should not have to fend it off.
An operating system should be something you chose, not alter how you update or otherwise defend against installation.
It is the business practice of a company who takes your patronage as a given.
 
Internet II 101 course.
Why CEO's don't care if your OS is proprietary to you. Amazon is worse than Reddit...but fundamentally the same.

Predictive programing algorithms like the ones that drive Amazon, Reddit and others derive their data from ops like Facebook "games", and all of your online activity...purchases or otherwise. Amazon is so advanced, they know your purchase choice before you do and in a 95+ percentile, have your product packaged before you place the order...based on your online search history.

Your OS is prioritized to function as an AI that feeds data back out to hubs like the one owned by this smug little "snowflake" in the video.

When Mr. Leaming has to run multiple systems just to produce his product, or my Forward from GMAX is now obsolete in Win10 compelling me to find time consuming workarounds to convert my (extensive) early modeling to 3DS Max, I arrive at the observation that MS, Schmidt, Zuckerberg and the rest have gone a bridge too far. Sorry.

I'm in agreement with Mr. Leaming...it is a "big deal".

 
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KellyB said:
It is precisely your "not getting" it that M$oft is relying on.

And about that latest software that is optimized: Evidently you haven't heard those here whose software was trashed.

Oh, well. We get what we deserve because we simply accept it like the frog in the pan of water.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones. Nothing of mine got trashed when I upgraded my Windows 7 and my Windows 8.1 laptops. I lost nothing and everything worked from the start.
 
let me ask,if everything is so under the board as my dad and his buddy would say,why hasnt law enforcement stepped in?..if the NSA can get "busted" for what some see as spying,and others see as protecting,why is MS so seemingly untouchable?...someone out there in LE land surely must not be on their payroll,and would be able to atleast look into all these accusations of not just merely "spying" on the masses but also collecting data?..

again,im not trying to start a fight,i want understand.just seems to me,after reading all the posts and links,that if what everyone is saying...well im not a cop..but what i do know about the law...seems to me they are committing several crimes,eula or not.if i came up with a program that openly spys on my neighbors,even if theyve signed a "contract" agreeing to allow me to spy on them,if the eula was written in such a way that non-spys wouldnt understand,id be locked up and the key thrown away...ok,what i just typed may seem far fetched,and the masses might tell me i should learn to understand it (the eula) or not use a computer....but is life really that way?..i mean computers are no longer a "toy" ,yes i know they never were,theyre tools for business,but in my case it is a toy,i use them to play games...whoops..simulators..and to play on the internet,i do infact use my banks website,but there is no personal information on my PC that cant be attained by anyone anyway.

well hell,, i know what i mean...but bottomline..why cant law enforcement stop them if what theyre doing is so nasty??....should we all ban together and start class action suits? im sure thats covered in the eula,but if they are 'stealing" personal information,without actually spelling out that fact in clear wording so it can be understood without a lawyer to decipher it,isnt it a crime?....again,if i did that,burying the truth to my crime in wording that people would go.."oh yes that sounds good to me" and sign away,allowing me to actually commit my crime,wouldnt that also be a crime?....


now ive gone and confused myself.....:encouragement:
 
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