How Microsoft pretends to flog Vista

Subject: re. Vista "sales"

This isn't much of a mystery. Please allow me a moment to pass along what I know.

We had MS reps in about a month ago touting how wonderful Vista is. We have about 10k client computers, about 40% Macs mind you. Still that leaves us with about 6000 systems that run some flavor of Windows. The vast majority of that is Windows XP Pro 32bit w/ SP2. We manage all of our Windows clients with Server 2003.

We just rolled out about 500 new IBM/Lenovo business class machines for a small project. All of those machines officially come with Vista Business.

However since we have no plans to roll out Vista on the desktop anytime soon since it is "cludgeware," we are allowed to "downgrade" our license to XP and still be in MS compliance.

We are in K12 education in the NE USA. I would imagine this is happening all over the country with business sales. Perhaps globally. You would know that better than I given that your HQ is on the big island across the pond. :)

Officially the computer goes out the door with Vista, it arrives on site, Vista gets blown away and our image of XP Pro is put on. MS still counts the box as a Vista sale however.

MS is clever and pretty good at marketing even if they make a horribly bloated OS.

My .02 and thanks for listening.

JGL

Subject: American sports

Okay, I can deal with the characterization of the Seattle Seahawks as a rugby team (actually they are American football), but to refer to the Portland Trail Blazers as a "rounders" team is inaccurate, as the Trail Blazers are a basketball team, not a baseball team.

I would appreciate some attention to these important details.

Rich Wargo

Subject: Oh noes!

If they take away my homepage I don't know what I'll do.

Btw, you can "pause" the recording of your Google Search History, in reference to yesterday's article regarding Google's new "feature."

Axion

Subject: Political Bollox and the BBC

Please use your editorial powers to get your staff to stop using this site to vent their, clearly right wing agenda on to my screen. This is a respected tech site that I read for tech news.

Carry on spouting right wing bollox like that and I will be off.

Oh an fix this email page with Firefox. How long has this page been broken, your a tech site!!!

Alex

Subject: Silly Boys

This guy Bandy and his response to this link

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39171

makes me laugh, he reminds me of the Iraqi Spin doctor when the US forces were storming Baghdad... Cheers Mike, keep up the good work.

Matt

Subject: missive from Mr. Hinders

Could the writer please provide a link to info on "the new F/AE-18 Wild Weasel" he mentions? Thanks in advance, it should be interesting.

d.

Subject: Google and "privacy"

We all (I hope) know that Gmail and other google services are not exactly what we'd call "privacy guarantors" of the cyberworld. Your readers have to know that all their emails are accessible by google. Furthermore, the level of access that the USA government had is really not clear; "governmental request" is mentioned a couple of times in the user agreement.

More info here: http://www.google-watch.org/gmail.html

Nevertheless, if you want to have google searches without being tracked (either by CIA or google ;)) you can simply use scroogle...

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm

Nikos

Subject: American Rugby

I've been calling it American Rugby for over five years now!

How can they call it football when they only kick the ball as a last resort - and get penalised for it?

Into "open" play: Run the ball in for a "Touch Down" (even though they don't have to actually touch the ball down) - 7 points Kick the ball through the posts - 3 point (less for using your foot)

After a "Touch Down": Kick the ball through the posts - 1 point Run the ball in again - 2 points (again more points for not kicking)

The points are like this because it is harder to run/pass the ball in then kick it, but why call it football.

Before your historian mention the different codes of football, I know all that - I.E. Association Football (Know as "Soccer" buy the stupid), Rugby Football (version originating from the famous school). But why continual with the charade - Rugby (both Union & League) don't.

David
Location withheld due to the inevitable over zealous backlash

P.S. What about American Rounders!

Subject: What a bunch of whiners

AMD is our savior, Intel users and AMD. Intel is a company without honour and they would shaft us all if they could.

DDR2 RAM is the cheap, new technology hence AM2. Get over it! PC technology shifts. If you buy a bunch of hardware expecting to be able to upgrade after 6 months you are foolish imho.

You sound like a bunch of old women!

Ye of little faith. As soon as everything doesnt appear obviously rosy you loose faith.

I'm a real AMD supporter for real reasons. Its felt from the heart.

Intermission

Subject: I bumped into Hector Ruiz one day

Holy crap.

Interview that guy Ed Hinders.

The guy is dynamite ... knows his stuff.

Maybe Dell will help keep AMD afloat ... even if the XTX and lost Barcelona are trying to sink it ... while it's being torpedoed by Conroe ... and Anandtech.

Kubecki wrote the XTX article in blood ... mebbe he missed out on the free coffee cups and pens or something. Go figure ... he's normally a nicer reviewer ... DOOMED is a bit much.

Hey ... Run the scores for Doom on the XTX ... heh heh.

Darren

P.S. Thanks for the article in Tunis with the pics ... great stuff ... good article ... the guy smiling sitting on the left was pissed ... for sure. The pics made the other hardware sitez stories seem a bit 3rd rate. Yours are pumping.

Subject: It's Not "Rugby" And "Rounders"

You know, I understand you guys like to get cute with how you phrase certain things and I also realize that as part of the press you probably don't care much for little things like facts and accuracy, but would it hurt to make an effort to not appear ignorant?

First of all, the Seattle Seahawks are not a "rugby club." They are a team in the National Football League, which is no way connected or similar to the RFU. You might want to look up American Football on Wikipedia.

Second of all, I have not a clue what rounders is, but the the Portland Trailblazers don't play it. They play basketball, as in the National Basketball Association. That's something else you might want to look up.

And third, notice how Allen calls soccer a "long term investment." That's his way of saying that some day, in the far future when his grandkids are on their deathbeds, Southampton might pull down a total profit from merchandise sales and such in America equal to what the Seahawks or Blazers make in a non-season month. That's if God is feeling generous. Wouldn't bet on it myself.

Semper Victoria

Subject: Vista Mystery

Hey Guv:

Here is one theory behind the recent "Vista-bounty": what if some private and extremely well-to-do individual felt bad for the bedraggled Vole, so he or she channeled funds into the MS sales coffers to show the sheep of the world that this was the "right thing to do"? I am sure that said rich hypothetical individual(s) would be even more richly rewarded later...

Just a thought...

D. Thomas

Subject: Hazel "SuperSoaraway" Blears

Note that the gorgeous Hazel is also an enthusiastic biker. I look forward to seeing her on Channel 4 News in leather. Fwooar!

Julian

Subject: EU adopts stricter piracy stance

"only to infringements deliberately carried out to obtain a commercial advantage. Piracy committed by private users for personal, non-profit purposes is therefore also excluded."

Hmmm that's certainly not the way RIAA thinks...

Mycelo

Subject: Vista Sales

Im sure Vista isnt doing as well as Microsoft would have hoped for otherwise Balmer would be screaming at the top of his lungs about it. People need to remind themselves that those who actually go out and actually educate themselves about Vista know that it really doesnt offer much in comparison to XP, but essentially those people only make up a small percentage of computer users. The general population see a bit of eyecandy, flashy windows, etc., so to them its either XP or revamped flash XP lookalike with a few tweaks for barely any difference in price.

Lala

Subject: Definitions 'r' us...

"Public Domain : The total absence of copyright protection.

If something is "in the public domain" then anyone can copy it or use it in any way they wish. The author has none of the exclusive rights which apply to a copyright work.

The phrase "public domain" is often used incorrectly to refer to freeware or shareware (software which is copyrighted but is distributed without (advance) payment).

Public domain means no copyright -- no exclusive rights"

Given that this definition is in the public domain (as are DAAMIT's latest benchmark numbers), one can't see why Evenden & co would be having a cow over this

Maybe he got stuck next to some fat Oirish f***er on the way over, who insisted on invading his personal domain with "book reader's elbows" or sumsuch

;~)

Andrzej

Subject: How Dell screwed AMD

Paul, I totally agree with your conclusion that Dell and Intel have concocted some some very potent and poisonous brew that ingenue AMD swallowed hook line and sinker with dancing images of mint juliets and Prince Charming in her eager head.

The sad truth is even worse than you imagine.

Dell not only caused the channel to be deprived of high demand chips by buying them (sic)but also demanded that AMD guaranteed high availability of these chips. When the channel became dry and demand abatted, Dell then returned or refused to take delivery of the chips. Of course this is after the peek demand for these chips had passed. That left AMD with a high inventory of unsold chips. If Dell had taken posession and paid for these chips, AMD would not have lost as much money as they have. If Dell did not put the kaboosh on those chips, AMD could have sold them to the channel, albeit later than normal. Also the Dell affair served another purpose relative to the AMD anti-trust suit againt Intel. How convenient and ingenious!!! Dell was able to kill 2 birds with one stone!!! Now you know why Rollins had to go (the price AMD demanded for not going public) and why Intel is not (contrary to past habit) rubbing it in too hard in AMD's eyes.

Franzius

Subject: Socket 939 refuses to die

I've said this before and I'll say it again; With the HT link from the CPU to the chipset, there is no reason that I know of that a muthaboard couldn't be made in a modular fashion that could support a S939+DDR module or a AM2+DDR2 module.

But the obvious answer to why this would never happen is $$$ - the MB mfgs have just as much interest in selling the customer the latest and greatest, fastest, and best-est hardware available right now. I recall a MB that supported both S754 and S939, the K8 Combo-Z from ASRock. At that point I had just upgraded the processor in my socket-A Athlon, so I wasn't going to build another computer, but that was a bit tempting.

OK, I'm a freakin' enginerd - I like to dream of an ideal world where companies understand the way to make money is to give the customer what they want, but that is only planning for long-term success, something rarely done in this day and age of take the money and run (Support!? What's THAT?).

Too bad some of us dopes who want all the features on one board can't pool our cash and do our own little design.

Jim

Subject: Apple users' reactions to articles

For crying out loud, can the Apple users PLEASE calm down?! Did it ever occur to you that the author intentionally misspelled the code names of Tiger and Leopard? Isn't Inquirer's subtitle "News, reviews, facts and FRICTION?" If Apple users are so encapsulated in their operating system that they are blinded to the fact that this magazine polks fun at ALL companies and ALL operating systems, perhaps they need to go outside for a while. Play basketball. Go for a walk. Realize that life is more than just blind passion for an operating system.

Ben

Subject: AMD vs Intel

I'm responding to the letter from Ed Hinders, who said he just retired from Sandia Labs. Mr. Hinders raised some good points about how market research firms count (or don't count) government sales. But most of the letter goes on about HPC projects, avionics systems, and Sandia's research on power efficiency.

The value of a High-Performance Computing (HPC) design win to AMD or Intel is primarily in marketing, period. There is some technical benefit, since the machines are R&D projects, but they contribute very little direct revenue to a volume manufacturer such as AMD or Intel. In other words, all the HPC wins in the world cannot save AMD. Just ask Cray and Silicon Graphics.

As for avionics systems, most of them (for good reasons) use trailing-edge, time-tested, reliable technology. Again, the volumes are minuscule. The air defense suppression aircraft he refers to are procured in the tens per year, so who cares what CPUs it uses.

The Sandia report on power may have accelerated Intel's efforts in the area of power conservation, but again, "so what?" The fact is that both CPU makers are roughly the same in throughput-per-watt, so any advantage AMD had there is gone. Without that differentiator the bulk procurements will be decided largely on price. Not good for a supplier running out of cash.

Read

Subject: Just Like the Real Newspapers!

Woe! Gloom! Doom! AMD and the Apocalypse, film at 11.

My goodness, did everyone just collectively forget the nineties? Not that I can blame anyone for it, but this seems like a kneejerk over-reaction to start declaring that the bell tolls for AMD.

Let's think back to the bad old days which were actually the good old days for AMD, the K6-2 processor. Maybe you could find an entry level Compaq or two with one of those bad boys in it at the store. I got a whitebox myself in '99, the first new PC since my original DX/2 (I can hear the groans of some spoiled brat wondering how one could subside on the same tech for so long). This was actually the biggest penetration yet of the market for AMD, and they were still pulling in a decent loss. A lower decent loss, mind you, but still a loss. Perseverence, a little boost from the K6-3 and 2+ editions, and the final release of the Athlon brings us the AMD we know today.

My point? These arseholes complaining about how they were huge AMD fans and were let down by the switch to Socket AM2 or just how they let the ball drop against the Core 2 Duo are probably the same ones that were turning up their nose to the lower-performing K6-2, perfectly content to buy Pentium II's because they were the best, and they did have the performance crown. If not the price! K6-2's were only doing a modest job removing themselves off the shelf, weren't slaughtering anyone in benchmarks, and once the Celeron 300A was revealed to be an overclocking dream, it's fate paled further and further. But it was enough to keep a fab churning until an amazing product came out. If you're going to be a raving lunatic fanboy, they never did it better than then, where they actually put their money where their mouth is and bought the competition mainly out of principle (and, well, it was certainly cheap!).

Do you really think AMD was dragging their heels on Barcelona? Do you think it wanted to move it's successful DDR platform to another memory standard simply just because? DDR was slowly becoming dried up from production because Intel still dominates and they can basically dictate the production they need (as long as it isn't burdened by licenses that the dramurai so despise, amirite?). Rumors about delays were coming long before the current panic that seems to get reported on every day now. So it seems like 1999 again, with AMD with a cheap and competitive, but not dominating part, and Intel being the gamer and performance hero because we can't blame enthusiasts for being just that, and appreciating their phallic extensions by measure of benchmarks.

Yes, ATI is a huge farkin' debt. But that should have some reward no doubt, if these NDA-less benchmarks are correct. And the fact that they're ready to pounce very soon after with a 65mm spin sounds delightful. Barcelona witll win some battles again, no doubt, but time will tell which ones. And every analyst seems to agree that ATI is a necessary albatross for any long-term existence to AMD. It's patience my dear boy, Santa Clara wasn't built in a day. Neither was Sunnyvale. Though, I'm sure like murders, fires, and other calamities, these premature obituaries are a good read and a boost to the number of visitors.

Ragtagop

Subject: How Dell Screwed AMD

Hi Paul,

Enjoyed your article, but, believe that you got it right, but, got it all wrong at the same time...

IMHO, the mistake in adding Dell to the list of OEMs was because it no longer gave HP, IBM,and Sun a product Dell could not produce. This gave the other three OEMs a competitive advantage over Dell that provided the impetus for them to push AMD based systems over Intel based systems. By convincing the customer that AMD based systems were better, they immediately eliminated one competitor (a very hungry one at that) from the bid process. Now, the incentive to push AMD kit is gone and AMD is feeling the effects of this foolish decision.

Scott

Subject: S939

There's a lot of people complaining about a lack of socket 939 upgrades at the moment!

There are still S939 Opterons to be had (eg: http://komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=331695), with more L2 cache than all but the fastest AM2 A64X2s.

Oli

Subject: Lloyd

"How many times can you make a spelling mistake in one article - OS X 10.4 is Tiger - not Tigger and the new OS is Leopard and not Leppard.
Lloyd"

Thank you so much for publishing that letter. It's good to know that there still are people that take this stuff even more seriously than myself, I needed the laugh, and can always use more perspective.

Matt

Subject: AMD What The Hell

Hi I am AMD, I am a huge company trying to tear down the evil Intel for all it has done wrong over the years. Currently I am at a 30% suck rate but plan to have a50% ownage rate in the near future with a part I wont show anyone , with specs that can't be seen outside of this pretty red box. Did I mention this box cost me over 1.2Billion dollars? Well I guess you know now.

Just show us the CPU dammit! release it push it out do something, your just sitting there bent over getting slap left and right, and no you can't afford to take it.

I remember reading an article about 1 1/2 years ago where AMD said they were not going to focus on the gaming market, or the high end so much "as they already had a clear lead" Now that gaming market pushed the C2D ahead of the game and AMD got owned...

Mat

Subject: more 939 woes

As many insist on the nonsense of defending the zombie socket, let me tell the sad tale of myself. I had a barthon 2500+. It was my first Pc (personal is the keyword) after years of family shared nightmare (I live in Brasil. PCs were scaringly expensive here, even on the untaxed black market). So there I was, really happy with my athlon xp, but the day came when new games stole my heart and I decided to move foward. Athlon64, there I went. The wise move, I thought, was to buy a nice mobo for the new 939 socket and fit in the cheapest cpu while I saved more money to buy a shinning X2 in the future. "Intel has no future", I used to say to my friends. Then I saved my pennies, everyone of them. Some months later, the time was right, spring was beautiful and I was ready. I called the best dealer in town and he introduced me to that cruel lady, Mrs. Reality. With the gold I would pay for the fatest 939 I could afford a even faster C2D and a new mobo. Besides that, there will be no more novelty in the 939 world, the road ends here. "Beat me", I said. "Can't do... sorry", he replied. So there was only one thing to do. Sell my 939 while it was still possible.

Crassico

Subject: Hitachi ships first-ever terabyte drive

Except that of course it won't be a terabyte, assuming they tell the same porkies as every HD manufacturer ( 1000 bytes per K etc, instead of 1024 ) then it'll only be 931GB, 69GB short. At least.

They claim computers count things differently and shouldn't be compared with their system ( which just happens to give larger numbers to put on the outside of the boxes ), but since computers are the only things that can write to HDs in the first place that argument is nonsensical.

Ergo, no-one has yet brought out a 1TB drive in the sense of a drive that can store 1TB of data.

I know, an old chestnut, but not one that should go away until they address it once and for all. The problem is that any manufacturer that decides to become honest is instantly made to look bad when compared to the other manufacturers that use the cheating method.

regards,

Ste Cork.

Subject: AMD borgs ATI's culture.

Wow.. that was a hell of a story. Drama.

AMD absorbs ATI culture.

Thumbs up.

The Dude

Subject: RFIDGuardian

HEHEH Could I use the Guardian as Malware and prevent legitimet uses of RFID by boosting the power or Antennae to increase it's raduis of destruction? :D

Giz

Subject: paul allen to buy the saints

In your jesting that an NFL club equates to rugby and an NBA club equates to rounders you have made a critical error.

rounders=baseball=MLB
rugby=football(american)=NFL
netball=basketball=NBA
football=soccer=MLS

fix it please

D

Subject: Netball? Rounders?

Basketball?

Mataroo

Subject: Portland Student suspended.

How stupid and blind can some academic people be? I call this the BrainDead Effect. Its when you should do one thing and instead, because you have some hidden purpose or you are completely stupid, you do something entirely different - you see this in the movies. On the other hand they probably do this boy a favour - produce some advertising for him. If I was Cisco I would hire that dude.

Midle-age people wake up and use your brains. This is the 21st century ffs.

RGDS,
George

Subject: Volish sales results

Just a question/observation, but isn't it possible since there was no SKU breakdown that in fact the sales were generated by a rush to buy WXP licenses while they were still available to avoid Vistification? I considered buying up a spare XP license or two, but haven't yet.

Mike