Displaying items by tag: Microsoft

Despite a valiant attempt to label P2P transfers and BitTorrent as the devil Microsoft and others are looking to move this direction for updates and other services. In the latest build of Windows 10 the new P2P updating mechanism was found hiding out as an option in the code. Fortunately Microsoft does give you a few options when it comes to this new feature.

Yesterday Microsoft may have confirmed what many have speculated, DirectX 12 will have a multi-GPU component that will allow AMD and nVidia to play nicely together. What this means exactly no one is sure, but we do know that some form of code is there to allow this. This is not the first time that someone has tried to setup a cross vendor system for GPUs. Not all that long ago Lucid Technologies tried it with dubious benefits.

There are many things that people take for granted in the world. Some of them are more than a little naïve while others are quite understandable. One of them is that the things we say or do in conversation are somewhat confidential. We do not expect our mail, phone or personal conversations to be listened to and by extension we feel that our online conversation are equally private. Sadly this is simply not the case and, in reality, it never has been.

As the world gets all excited about some of the new “features” in Windows 10 there are some in the press (and consumers) that are less than thrilled about them. We are talking about Cortana and some of the predictive typing tools and features that Microsoft has embedded and how they really work. On the surface the concept of predictive text and searches is a pretty neat idea. After you type something in, or search for a topic your system will build a small database of information to help you find those things again.

Well it seems that Microsoft is tired of being the brunt of jokes about slow internet browsing, compatibility and… well just about everything else. If the rumors are to be believed they are going to strip down the render engine for IE 12 and push out two versions with Windows 10. The much leaner version will remove all of the bloat needed for backwards IE compatibility and focus on being a real standards based browser.

With the launch of Windows 8 the gaming world was a tad shaken up. It seems that Microsoft was abandoning the PC gamer in favor of their own console. Everything about Windows 8 seemed designed to push the Xbox as the center of the gaming world. It was a decision that made many development houses more than a little angry. It was bad enough that Valve made the choice to begin working on their own Linux based OS to support games. The gaming community responded favorably to this change which we are sure made Microsoft more than a little nervous. To add insult to injury the Xbox One did not do as well as expected at launch and in the first months of its life.

Encryption is an interesting thing. On the surface it offers protection from prying eyes and sense of security in protecting your communication and files. At least that is what you should feel when talking about encryption. The problem is that encryption is only as secure as the protocol and API that is in use. Even if you have a rock solid certificate the protocol and APIs that you use to connect can be compromised to by-pass this. This is what has happened to almost every major SSL/TLS stack. So far in 2014 we have watched them fall one at a time to the dismay of security experts.

Microsoft had a brief moment in the sun with the release of Windows 10 after the less than stellar market performance of Windows 8.x. However, it seems they are determined to make sure that they screw things up as it was uncovered that the EULA (End User License Agreement) for the Windows 10 Technical Preview allowed them access to a little more than they would usually need for a Beta program.

Microsoft announced their next version of Windows yesterday and the world focused on one thing: the name. While it is true that the decision to jump from Windows 8 to Windows 10 was an unusual one, it certainly should not be what we all focus on. After all Microsoft is known for rather glaring PR and Marketing errors, so why should a clumsy name really be news worthy?

As the clock ticks down to today’s “launch” of Microsoft’s next operating system the rumors are ramping up along with the articles about what Microsoft must do to make the next flavor of Windows work. One of the latest rumors to hit the streets is that Windows 9 (or whatever it will be called) will be free if you have Windows 8.x installed legally. These rumors started to circulate a couple of weeks ago, but now there is an alleged confirmation from the president of Microsoft Indonesia, Andreas Diantoro.