E-Dribble

Regardless of whether it’s driven by loyalty, devotion, ignorance or stupidity, Microsoft has surpassed being synonymous with the desktop and has become the only desktop, much like Kleenex became the only tissue and coke took soda’s place.  Although we never get to choose our most vocal supporters and defenders, sometimes the worst possible choice floats to the surface and gets more exposure than you might like.

(continue reading…)

In spite of Microsoft’s insistence that they’ve created the ultimate OS with Vista, it seems that most reports still have XP outselling it.

This is of course, in spite of the fact that XP is no longer officially sold. Need a copy of XP? Head on over to NewEgg, where a loophole gets exploited to sell legitimate OEM copies of XP Pro.

Oh and that whole deal where Ballmer insisted that Vista was the most secure OS ever?  Yeah, he was just kidding.

they might have considered reversing the roles concerning which OS is not allowed to be installed on the drive.

Microsoft has announced that Vista’s SP1 will fail on install if you’re dual-booting, thanks to “Trusted Computing”‘s chain of trust being broken.

If you scoff at TC, I can vouch that the system works well.  For instance, Microsoft broke my “chain of trust” a few years ago causing me to not allow it to install on my computer. No problems since.

Customers using the Microsoft Windows Media Center operating system found themselves unable to record certain shows on the NBC Network. No official response was initially given. The issue kept gaining steam until MS finally acknowledged that it was blocking the content.

They state that they were following the “regulations” set forth by the FCC. If that is the case, then why is DirecTV, Tivo and every other DVR system able to record the same shows that WMC can not?

(continue reading…)

Microsoft would like to share their source code with the FOSS crowd. Well, not really. What they would like is for some of the FOSS crowd to use some of their code. Then they would like to point out that their code was never actually open source. It was more of a look-but-don’t-touch license. It’s like a lawsuit machine covered in open source gift wrap.

(continue reading…)

Some may think that I have it in for Microsoft.  Not true.  I use many of their products and I’m not trying to spearhead a lynchmob.

It’s just that they make it so easy, sometimes.

Take the latest news involving the Zune.  It’s likely that a future software update will install a copyright protection scheme that will block any unapproved media from being uploaded to it.  This means that Microsoft will determine whether you purchased it via approved channels.

That dvd you ripped at your house?  That’s almost guaranteed to be an “unapproved channel”.

The only thing that keeps me from being incensed is that we all get to choose which player we will use and if you get screwed by Microsoft, it’s because you wanted to.

I love 419 scams. Unfortunately, the people that send them rarely do any more than change the names of the people giving me lots of money, so it eventually grows tiring of poking some fun at them. It’s been so long though that I was able to enjoy authoring a response.

Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!! Your Email Has Won 1,000,000.00 GBP
From: Mr.Joseph Poon <lesliesmith@orange.net>

Reply-To: Mr.Joseph Poon <lesliesmith@orange.net>

Date: 12:33 AM
To: franktrevor_08@hotmail.com

Mr.Joseph Poon wrote:

(continue reading…)

During one of my light reading sessions in the bathroom yesterday(what, I know I’m not the only one.), I was reading this month’s WIRED magazine. During my reading, I actively try to ignore the ads in the page, just to spite the company that so shamelessly packs more ads than content into their magazine, but one ad slipped by. It was for the Microsoft Zune.

(continue reading…)

DRM only hurts pirates.

Oh, and everyone that legally purchased music from the now defunct MSN Music, who has decided to shut down the DRM servers, thus locking you into the same 5 computers for the life of your music. Upgrade your OS or change computers, and kiss your music goodbye.

Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t feel an iota of pity for those that bought into this payment scheme for music they can never own.

I just like this story because any time DRM fails, an angel gets his wings.