| Kris |
Just got the following automatic "update" from Microsoft:
"High-priority updates
Microsoft Windows XP
Windows Genuine Advantage Notification (KB905474)
Download size: 829 KB , less than 1 minute
The Windows Genuine Advantage Notification tool notifies you if your copy of Windows is not genuine. If your system is found to be a non-genuine, the tool will help you obtain a licensed copy of Windows. Details... "
Nice way of invading privacy.....
:3: |
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| jdb06 |
Some long lost VP was probably asked to generate more revenue, but given no additional resources. So, s/he figured that all those honest people out there who were, unbeknownst to them, using illegal copies of Windows, would gladly want to convert to the real thing.
I wonder how much revenue will actually be generated??? |
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| njjoe |
Kris & jdb06-
I wonder if the "Windows Genuine Advantage Notification Tool" will somehow disable Windows if it determines you have a pirated copied and elect to not pay for a license. That is how I would set it up if I were that VP.
-njjoe |
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| mgthe3 |
You can disable this little ditty.
hehe
In IE:
Tools/internet options/program tab/manage add ons
select the offending ditty and click the radio button to disable.
This is how a billion folks in the far east keep a pirated copy of XP updated. |
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| GMTURBO43 |
Only the people offending are the ones who will be offended.
JERKS!!!
Heh. |
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| zebelkhan |
quote:
Originally posted by mgthe3
You can disable this little ditty.
hehe
In IE:
Tools/internet options/program tab/manage add ons
select the offending ditty and click the radio button to disable.
This is how a billion folks in the far east keep a pirated copy of XP updated.
My copy is genuine but just for kicks I tried to disable it at work but the only radio button that was grayed out and stated "this setting is managed by your administrator" was that one! |
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| Corin |
Actually, what it REALLY does is disable your copy of windows when the NEW version comes out... :)
Otherwise, why would anyone buy Vista? |
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| mgthe3 |
Zeb, is this machine at work on an active directory network?
Mine works fine---of course, I am an enterprize admin :D
I can say that I have witnessed a uh-HEM questionable copy of xp be updated doing this disable routine after it would not update because of the genuine thing being installed.
There were scads of corporate copies floating around for a while and one of the updates invalidated a huge chunk of the corporate keys. |
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| zebelkhan |
quote:
Originally posted by mgthe3
...is this machine at work on an active directory network?...
Don't know what active directory network means but the machine is at work on the network! |
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| Murano_driver |
| It will not disable you WIN, but it will not allow you to download updates if you version is not genuine. That's sux. Who the heck using genuine version of Win XP these days anyway???? |
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| mgthe3 |
If you do the instructions I posted up there, it indeed will update.
Zeb, your admin has pushed out a group policy which locks that down. If you were at home, you would be the admin and yes, you could change it. |
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| njjoe |
quote:
Originally posted by Murano_driver
Who the heck using genuine version of Win XP these days anyway????
I am proud to say I am. (But don't ask me about my anti-virus software, or CD maker, or photo viewer, or ....)
-njjoe |
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| Kris |
Actually ALL my software is legal – WIN XP, Microsoft Office Pro edition, Adobe (number of programs) and few others, including antivirus and antispy software, pro photo editing software, maps………….. I do not believe in piracy. If you need a program – buy it!
What upset me was a message: “Critical Update available”. And this “thing” tried to download. I do not like anybody look at my computer. But Microsoft has to protect themselves. Pity it has to deploy such solutions…. |
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| MKevin3 |
They plan on doing it for Office too. This may encourage people to switch to Open Office instead of buying from MS.
Honestly if you just use the basic word processing and spreadsheet stuff then Open Office works just fine. I use it and my kids use it for school work. I use Thunderbird for email.
Now you can't do that for XP. We have full licensed copies on everything so I am not worried about that but all the checks and what not that happen for the legal people is getting annoying. I don't think it will stop pirates but a few people will get surprised when they get the note they are not legal. |
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| hfelknor |
I never got that message?
Oh, that's right, I have a Mac :7:
Homer |
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| Murano_driver |
I also using it on my Tablet, but only because it came with it.......
But the rest of my comps are custom made (i make my own machines) so...... |
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| Kris |
Homer,
Mac is going Intel........and soon Windows! So enjoy till you can!:7: |
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| mgthe3 |
Imagine a car running only on it's own proprietary gas.
Hmmmm
You can boot the new macs in either tiger or xp.
I can't knock a mac, I grew up on personal computers via an oooold powerbook. Then I snapped out of it and got a 586. hehehe
I'm the only one that can rescue a mac at work, we still have 2 left for the artsy fartsy designer folks.
I build my own as well. Nothing like the best components instead of what the market will cheap out on. |
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| Murano_driver |
| I am missing my 586;) |
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| hfelknor |
"Imagine a car running only on it's own proprietary gas.
Hmmmm"
That's one way to look at it.
Another way to look at is to imagine Nissan builds the car and then sends it to Yugo to have the engine put in it...... That's the way PCs work......... Of course you can put a ferrari engine in too.........but that has it's own set of problems..........
Mac's strength, aside from arguably more creative people, is the fact that there is a lot of synergy if you build the software to run on the hardware you build.
I don't know "why" they are going to Intel.
But I suspect that the architecture of the PowerPC chips had almost maxed out.
Of course, they didn't have to move to Intel, but if you are going to have to move anyway.........
I will never buy a copy of windows to run on my next Mac. Let's face it, I know windows. I have been on it since about version 3.1. There were a list of reasons why I moved to MAC. Those reasons are still valid.
But I would guess that some will do it.
Specialized applications will lock some folks in, and the much larger software library will do it for others.
Lets face it, MAC is much better Hardware than the typical Dell or Ggteway or Hewlett Packard.
I am currently running a 20" Imac G5 with a 1.8GHZ PowerPC, 1 GB DDR SDRAM, 250 GB HD, SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW),ATI Radeon w/256MB, Airport, Bluetooth (mouse and Keyboard), Firewire Bus, Nvidea 32 bit color, 12MB USB, and a bunch of APPs, including Microsoft word. Excell and Power Point for Mac.
It's a nice little box........with everything in the 1680x1050 LCD screen.
No worries mate.
Homer |
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| Murano_driver |
Homer,
Never mind. i did not got your point and it seems like you did not get mine. :(
Sh&*t I edited a wrong post, i am not typing all that back...:3: |
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| hfelknor |
"A lot of people say that Mac is better for graphics. Why?"
I don't know. I didn't say it. Why ask me?
Sounds to me like you are a typical PC gamer that wants to start something.
You want to compare some gonzo custom system with an off the shelf Mac.
Note that I compared my standard Mac to standard PCs.
Homer |
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| Murano_driver |
I was not comparing my system to anything. I was just giving my comp info, the same way you did. And i am not "typical PC gamer" I am working as Sys Admin, I build, bought and configure a lot of systems including Dell, HP, Gateway, Apple etc. Like I said before I did not get your point....
Whatever.... |
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| Kris |
I would have never thought this thread would become Mac v. Windows……..I do not think there is a winner. In my humble opinion Mac was the pioneer, the “creative” one. It showed the path forward. And we like it or not everything worked in Mac world. Pity, it was “closed” world. On the other hand Intel and Windows offered open architecture – or at least, hardware open architecture. And it was a winner. Intel based PC, or rather PC compatible computers (in the end AMD has not much in common with Intel!) have become a standard. The price is right, there is plenty of relatively inexpensive software, and Windows is not that bad an Operating system, albeit of security issues. What ever we say Windows based systems won.
Homer,
I understand your feelings, but you are an investor and support free market. So market forces have spoken, Mac days, as we know it, are numbered. Yes, I know it is sad. But there is nothing we can do about it.
World is dynamic. The only constant is change. Let’s adopt………….. |
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| TexInFla |
quote:
Originally posted by hfelknor
"A lot of people say that Mac is better for graphics. Why?"
I don't know. I didn't say it. Why ask me?
No need to be so nasty, Homer. A sincere question was asked; and since you put yourself out there aggressively extoling the virtues of the Mac, it was natural that you would be expected to know the answer....or at least offer an opinion, as you do on a bunch of other topics.
The Mac's reputation for excellence in graphics is less true today than it once was. Years ago, the typical PC didn't have the graphics capabilities or the processing power (or the ease of use) of the Mac, and the software manufacturers started writing their graphics programs for the Mac platform. Newspapers, magazines, TV stations, etc. all adopted the Mac, as it gave them access to both hardware and software that could handle the complex graphics tasks that they needed to accomplish. Lately, the PC has caught up with the Mac, by and large, so the advantage of the Mac for graphics work is less today than it was.
By the way, I get amused when the Mac elitists boast that they never run antivirus programs as if the Mac is immune to viruses, trojans, etc. Not true! There are, indeed, viruses and other malware written to infect the Mac. There just aren't as many for the Mac as there are for the PC since Mac sales are only a tiny percentage of PC sales, making the PC the bigger "bang for the buck" for the virus writers. |
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| mgthe3 |
Alright, you guys....I was just ribbing Homer, in a very friendly sort of way.
The mac folks at work get the same ribbing from me and we always part smiling.
I will have to say that in gaming I did find that although it was difficult to get the games patched up on macs, they had a few graphics pluses out ahead of the best PC graphics card--even though the cards were one in the same. I think it is the way the graphical buss is handled.
I noticed things like when I was below an opponent (directly below) the angle I could shoot from was closer to 90 degrees than the pc's were. Me and my kids and my graphics design best friend would lan game over at his place where he had 5 macs throughout his house. During the fall when his windows were open, my wife said you could hear us 3 houses down the street whooping and cussing during the game--it was a blast. Many lan gaming parties were done over there.
Anyone who has done any graphics design can see that a top of the line mac can run circles around a pc when it comes to rendering times.
My personal take on why mac has gone intel is because of the dual processor cores that have come out due to the physical architecture hitting a wall with speed—the gates had gone down to 8 atoms width, there was no more to squeeze from silicon. So, the dual cores debuted to keep up the pace of processing power incrementing. Quad cores are on the way as well.
One of the things that always got under my mac buddy’s skin was when customers would send in windows based files for him to manipulate. In that instance, he would step over to a pc to clean up the file so he could export it to a mac for further manipulation. I think that also moving to a machine which could run either OS was a smooth move by mac. It allows all things graphical to be handled by one machine.
BTW
Some of the new games being written are going to be written for direct x 9, which my $400 BFG6800 card will not handle as well as the new 7800 line. I’ve seen some of the trailers, it is shocking how far they have progressed in only 3 years. Even down to the smallest detail, the environment is alive. When you walk past a low hanging palm frond, it reacts exactly like one would in real life—no more cookie cutter physics. If you bump it from any angle, it reacts from that angle, no matter how slight the difference. You can shoot down a small sapling if you want, even the wood chips react with perfect realism. The amount of triangulates processed to get this realism is staggering. It makes me in awe to know the order of magnitude our human minds must process visual objects above even what billions of triangulates a graphics card can handle. Amazing.
Macs are cool.
Pc’s are cool.
And the human brain is cool to be able to design and develop either.
:D |
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| njjoe |
mgthe3-
:claphead: Nicely said.
-njjoe |
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| zebelkhan |
quote:
Originally posted by mgthe3
If you do the instructions I posted up there, it indeed will update.
Zeb, your admin has pushed out a group policy which locks that down. If you were at home, you would be the admin and yes, you could change it.
My home computers are also the same way. The ionly "add-on" that has the radio buttons grayed out is the Microsoft thing..., and also the only one that will let me update it right on the spot.....:3: |
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| Kris |
zeb,
same here....:( |
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| mgthe3 |
Works for me :)
Do you guys sign onto your machine after booting?
(this is xp prof right?) |
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| Kris |
| No I do not. I have only one profile set up - Admin. |
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| mgthe3 |
You should change the name of admin to something else and create another profile with admin privileges, preferably nothing knows you by or could guess from anything about you. Log off, then log back on with that profile, I betcha the radio buttons will work then. Strange things happen when the machine boots up in a signed on profile, even if it is admin, I've seen it many times.
Right click my computer/manage.
open users and groups/open users
create new user
open groups
add new user to admin group
sorry if you already knew.... |
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