Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make loopy. In computer stores up and down the UK, managers and salespersons are eagerly looking forward to Thursday. Why? Because on that day Microsoft officially launches Windows XP, the latest version of Bill Gates's license to print money.
The software has a fancy new interface, with snazzier colors and all kinds of ingenious short-cuts and bundled software for playing movies, MP3 files and streaming audio and video -- in a flagrant repetition of the aggressive software-bundling behavior that landed the company with an anti-trust suit.
XP is also a Trojan horse that enables Gates and a horde of even more unsavory folks to invade your privacy, exploit your computer and empty your wallet.
So why are all these idiots in computer stores drooling at the prospect? Answer: because Windows XP is a monstrous, bloated brute that requires a state-of-the-art PC and two gigabytes of hard disk space before it will even say "hello." This means any consumer foolish enough to want to run XP will probably have to buy a new PC.
At a time when sales have stagnated, this would seem to be great news for the hard-pressed computer industry. But possibly not. For one thing, XP is being launched into a world now sinking into recession, which means corporate IT managers may not take kindly to the notion of having to order hundreds of new PCs simply to run a version of Excel with cooler graphics when their users are perfectly happy with the old, uncool version.
Second, XP has some nasty surprises in store for its hapless purchasers. Chief among these is a fiendish new feature called "product activation." What this means is that even after you've purchased and installed the software, you have to contact Microsoft for permission to "activate" it.
How come? Well, during installation, XP surveys the PC's hardware and creates a 44-key code, which is a unique "fingerprint" of your system. This effectively locks the copy of XP to your hardware and has a number of interesting implications.
If you upgrade your hardware, for example, XP may "deactivate" and require you to call Gates for permission to reinstall. The same applies if you buy a new machine and desire to move your copy of XP to it. And so on.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
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More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from