I agree with AndrueC. I foolishly bought an Energizer UPS a few years ago and found its driver software was pretty much crap. Now that I'm running Win7 I don't have to worry about it anymore since no updated driver has ever been released. The hardware itself is OK and still running, and serves its purpose as long as a human is available when needed.

I upgraded from XP to 7 and in general really like it. What I hate is filling up my trashbin with perfectly good hardware (mostly USB stuff) because drivers aren't available.

The other thing is MS Visual Studio 6 won't install. Yes I know I can run it under Virtual XP but its not the same. Try debugging an application that crashed on 7. It is much cheaper to keep XP than to upgrade to 7 and a new version of visual studio.

Gulls here on the north shore of lake Ontario fly many kms inland during the day. I don't know why but it probably has to do with finding food. They're certainly not fussy, they pick up nearly anything you toss at them and discard it if its not to their taste. They will also poop on your head given the opportunity, so the googlecam(wo)man better watch out.

So all those freed PCs are available now to run other malware?

I don't care if 8 billion people are using Facebook. I sure as hell can ignore it, and I ignore all of that drivel. Thanks for getting me going this morning...

Adobe doesn't want to know about problems with its products. I had a problem with reader wiping out my printers on Win7, and thought I'd report it to them. I could not find a link for that purpose anywhere on their web site. I now do my PDF printing with Foxit.

In Outlook Express on XP, export your address book, which is neatly arranged into 6 categories. In Windows 7 windows live essentials mail, import your address book. There, you have one huge flat list. Install Thunderbird and kiss windows live essentials mail goodbye.

I for one welcome our DARPA Android Land-Warrior ballistic-calculating drone-navigating iPhone wielding overlords.

Just asking.

... with joy. Someone ripping off EBAY for a change? It shouldn't always be a one-way street. I'll celebrate with a beer...

Downloaded and installed (upgrade) in seconds, runs great, obviously faster, on Reg's site anyway.

Seagate needs to do well to pay for all the replacement drives it has been sending me. I'm on my 2nd replacement barracuda 1TB drive now. It is no longer used to store any critical data and is backed up frequently.

When IE8 came out I updated my laptop right away. Next thing I know I am browsing the Microsoft Office website and the browser crashed. One or two more crashes and I went back to IE6, which works just fine. Noone needs this kind of aggravation.

@Pablo - poor/sloppy design, implementation and documentation can make problems like this difficult indeed to resolve, as any developer can attest. Not to mention the lack of proper testing which let a bug like this get out to the customers. Big FAIL for Symantec.

@AC - "uninstall and re-install" is the go-to response for many (all?) support desks, even when you tell them you already did it with no benefit. Apparently there is no plan B. Another Big FAIL to them, along with my undying contempt.

were in London in 2005, and I have a picture of her right in front of the Parliament building with two police just behind, apparently uninterested. Sorry to hear that things have gone so badly downhill since then. Next time I go should I leave my camera home?

Proper implementation uses pinpads with integrated encryption in a tamper-proof unit so that only encrypted data can be tapped. The host only stores encrypted pins. The keys are injected into the pinpad during manufacture from a secure facility using encrypted keys making it extremely difficult to compromise. Further, ATMs can have their keys changed daily by the host computer (in a secure facility, not a server in the closet) using public key cryptography. Anything that emits keys or pins in the clear is asking for trouble.

Now I know more about this subject than I ever wanted. It is interesting just how much mass must be consumed and excreted by an adult human being every day, which explains why space travel is so damned expensive (and impractical, especially when the machinery doesn't work).

The pinpads in ATMs are SUPPOSED to be encrypting and tamper resistant, making it all but impossible to "tap in" to what the user keys in. Much easier to hide a camera nearby and watch.

I wish MS had a "device driver fault tolerant" feature in Windows 7. I have never seen so many Blue Screens as I have in the last few weeks trying to get Win7 up and running.

BTW it is very common for windows application programmers to ignore return codes from windows api calls. This is commonly found even in sample code from Microsoft. Most api failures don't express themselves well when explained to users, which is why many programs simply don't work for no apparent reason, or issue a helpful "Critical Error" message or just crash.

...are they sending up a new toilet? Life can be difficult without one that works.

...that they're not going to Mars or anywhere else anytime soon. No way to get emergency repairs or supplies. Humans need an environment that can supply large amounts of raw materials and accept waste in return.

I know why HP is so slow, its because they don't have drivers available for some of their products. A driver for my laserjet 1020 is coming "soon". If I can't use my printer, I can't use Windows 7. Its not like Windows 7 just appeared out of thin air.

HP: You've got one angry customer and I don't buy anything from companies on my shit list.

So they're patching the patches that they patched before and failed to fix the bugs in the earlier patches?

Is that why my XP system runs slower and slower?

@Thomas Martin: they never will fix all the bugs. They're writing new buggy code faster than they can ever find and fix the bugs. The corporate bottom line is measured in rolling out new features, not reducing bugs.

Glad to see the boffins are solving the world's pressing problems with such ingenuity. Wait - maybe this is how they plan to raise money to fund their research?

I upgraded using the package manager the other day not knowing about any problems and it went perfectly. Not that I notice much difference now. The only surprise is the long download time and I have a pretty fast connection. In any case I image backup my systems and it would have been easy to back out if problems had occurred.

Does it only work if you speak Japanese?

It would be nice to have a bedside unit. You could talk to it each morning and then decide whether to get out of bed or not.

I'll be glad when the company is terminated.

By booting Windows and reading the EULA, it is assumed that you accept it? Then its too late to return it for a refund?

Since he didn't boot Windows he can claim a refund? It seems to me you are screwed both ways, unless you get a copy of the EULA and read it carefully first.

I have to say that reading software EULAs is about the most boring thing you can do short of sitting on a stool and staring at the wall. I'm sure Microsoft counts on that.

I'd like to suggest that Microsoft attach a printed copy of the EULA to every copy of Windows (or every computer loaded with Windows) and let the purchaser agree to it BEFORE putting their money down. Maybe they could come up with a "simplified" version that humans can actually read. Show a little consideration for their customers, maybe?

System and backup both failed? Maybe they should backup their backup just in case. Nothing like a weak system design to provide a false sense of security.

Where I live the government doles out big bucks to various enterprises with no strings attached. We regularly get screwed over, and the pols just shrug and look for the next eager recipient with big promises of jobs. Taxpayers money = nobody's money.

Who's going to be the designated tester?

What kind of production shop would deploy a major operating system upgrade while it is still in beta/release candidate? I would expect it to happen say one year after release. I doubt they'll save anything this way. I'm glad I don't live there.

what about in 5 years when there are 5,000,000 more viruses/worms/trojans to scan for? How long can we keep going down this road? I'd like my poor computer to do some work for me too.

Just leave it collect up there ... isn't that how Saturn got its rings? Everyone says its so beautiful....

"Our engineers are working on a self-limiting, high-temperature superconductor technology which would stop and prevent power surges generated anywhere in the system from spreading to other substations."

Sounds like a lot of nonsensical techno-babble to me. Let me know when its up and running.

I struggled with McAfee's false positives on several programs I had to use. The programs were automatically placed in quarantine. You could remove them from quarantine, but they were immediately put back. McAfee was totally uninterested in doing anything about it (aside from wasting hours of your time doing useless system scans), so now I'm using Avira. Avira politely asks you what to do, and you can select ignore if you like. Best of all, you can report the false positive to them, and within a day or two the detection is removed. What a difference!

Let's see, on my street there are various shapes and sized boxes on most lawns for cable TV, electric wires on poles with huge transformers here and there, fire hydrants every few houses, and quite a few lawn ornaments that are not to everyone's taste. The only break we get is that the telephone system is mostly underground, but a few more boxes pop up here and there for it. I'm not sure a few brown boxes would even be noticed. Best they all have a beer.

I have had plenty of BSODs over the years which were caused by

* bad memory module

* bad hard drive

* bad caps on the motherboard

I am no MS fan but I don't blame MS for my defective or incompatible hardware. My only complaint is that the BSOD error message could be a lot clearer.

A beer helps in these cases...

It is not unreasonable to expect the laptop designers to include one or two 2 cent temperature sensors to prevent this from happening. Or is it?

At least you know what they stand for.

Its hard to believe anyone would be stupid enough to go for this rubbish. I despair for the future of our species.

Canada's former prime minister Jean Chretien once said,

"No, a proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof, and when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven."

This has given Canadians much needed hilarity, something sorely missing in our politics and culture.

http://www.canadaka.net/video/293-jean-chretien-a-proof-is-a-proof.html

Of all the hazards I might care to worry about this one is not even on the list. Not surprising most countries devote "negligible resources" to it.

What dark side of the moon is that?

A life without spam and viruses, who can imagine it?

Let's hope this catches on across the world. Get rid of the slimebags.