Tag Archives: windows

Prices of Windows RT tablets drop, point to failure of OS

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The starting price for Dell’s XPS 10 is now US$449 for a 32GB model, scalping $50 off the original launch price. The 64GB model is $499, which is a drop from the original $599 price. By comparison, the price of the Latitude 10 tablet with Intel processors and Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS remained stable at $499.

via Prices of Windows RT tablets drop, point to failure of OS – Windows 8, Microsoft, Windows, hardware systems, tablets, software, operating systems – Operating Systems – Techworld.

Microcenter always has a full fledged decent laptop for under $300.  Here’s the special this week for $279.  I don’t know why anyone would pay double for a tablet which is hard to do any real work on.   I recently bought a 7″ Samsung S3 tablet for $180 (on sale) that does everything one would ever need to do on a tablet.

ASUS R503U-MH21 15.6″ Laptop Computer – Black

  • AMD E2-1800 1.7GHz
  • Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit)
  • 2GB DDR3-1333 RAM
  • 320GB 5,400RPM Hard Drive
  • 8x SuperMulti DVDRW Drive
  • Memory Card Reader
  • 10/100/1000 Network
  • 802.11b/g/n Wireless
  • 15.6″ LED-backlit TFT Display

Note: The above link to this special will most likely be dead after the sale.

DOSBoxWiki

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DOSBox emulates an Intel x86 PC, complete with sound, graphics, mouse, joystick, modem, etc., necessary for running many old MS-DOS games that simply cannot be run on modern PCs and operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux and FreeBSD. However, it is not restricted to running only games. In theory, any MS-DOS or PC-DOS (referred to commonly as “DOS”) application should run in DOSBox, but the emphasis has been on getting DOS games to run smoothly, which means that communication, networking and printer support are still in early development.

via DOSBoxWiki.

Not sure if I’ll ever need to use this but it’s nice to know it exists.  I read that they even ported this onto an Android platform.  I encountered DOSBox from this slashdot article.  Someone is running Windows 3.1 on their Android tablet so they can run a 1996 version of  Photoshop.

NTLM Challenge Response is 100% Broken (Yes, this is still relevant)

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According to the last data from the W3 Schools, 21% of computers are running XP, while NetMarketShare claims it is 39%. Unless someone has hardened these machines (no MS patches do this), these machines are sending LM and NTLM responses! While these lists leave out server OSs, 2003 Server still sends NTLM responses by default. Yes, every MS OS since NT 4.0 SP4 has supported NTLMv2, but NTLM and LM were not excluded by default until Vista.

via Mark Gamache’s Random Blog: NTLM Challenge Response is 100% Broken (Yes, this is still relevant).

Well, here it is: I’VE BROKEN NTLM.

From the wiki definition of NTLM:

Microsoft no longer recommends NTLM in applications:[6]

“Implementers should be aware that NTLM does not support any recent cryptographic methods, such as AES or SHA-256. It uses cyclic redundancy check (CRC) or message digest algorithms (RFC1321) for integrity, and it uses RC4 for encryption. Deriving a key from a password is as specified in RFC1320 and FIPS46-2. Therefore, applications are generally advised not to use NTLM.”

While Kerberos has replaced NTLM as the default authentication protocol in an Active Directory (AD) based single sign-on scheme, NTLM is still widely used in situations where a domain controller is not available or is unreachable. For example, NTLM would be used if a client is not Kerberos capable, the server is not joined to a domain, or the user is remotely authenticating over the web.[1][3]

Windows XP Drops Below 40% Market Share, Windows 8 Passes 1%

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While the 1 percent share for Windows 8 is completely expected, it’s interesting to note that less than half of users have chosen to stick with the default IE10 browser: just 0.51 percent. Everyone else appears to be using Chrome, Firefox, or yet another browser.

via Windows XP Drops Below 40% Market Share, Windows 8 Passes 1%.

Windows 8 — Disappointing Usability for Both Novice & Power Users

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The new design is obviously optimized for touchscreen use (where big targets are helpful), but Microsoft is also imposing this style on its traditional PC users because all of Windows 8 is permeated by the tablet sensibility.

How well does this work for real users performing real tasks? To find out, we invited 12 experienced PC users to test Windows 8 on both regular computers and Microsoft’s new Surface RT tablets.

via Windows 8 — Disappointing Usability for Both Novice & Power Users Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox.

The underlying problem is the idea of recycling a single software UI for two very different classes of hardware devices. It would have been much better to have two different designs: one for mobile and tablets, and one for the PC.

Skype Planning A Big Social Advertising Upgrade, Starting First With Windows 8

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Today the company unveiled Skype Ads for Windows 8, a new initiative it plans to launch formally in 2013 that will see a number of new ad formats enter the service that play on social interactivity. They include promotions that will appear in conversation streams and ways for two people talking to each other to share sponsored content while communicating on the platform. (Yes, it sounds a lot like what Facebook is doing.)

via Skype Planning A Big Social Advertising Upgrade, Starting First With Windows 8 | TechCrunch.

Windows 8 graphics: Microsoft has hardware accelerated all the things

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Moving into specific changes made to DirectX 11.1, Microsoft has made it much better at redrawing portions of the screen, such as on YouTube, where only the video segment should be constantly re-rendered. By reducing redundant redrawing of text and other static elements, there is less memory and processor cycle wastage.

via Windows 8 graphics: Microsoft has hardware accelerated all the things | ExtremeTech.

In all cases, faster and more efficient rendering will result in less hardware resources being used, and thus lower power consumption. In the entire cycle of Windows 8, improved efficiency and battery life are probably the strongest and most recurring themes. If the unremovable Metro Start Screen and Surface tablets wasn’t proof enough, this laser-tight focus on efficiency makes it patently clear that Microsoft’s primary concern is being competitive against Google and Apple in the mobile computing sector.