How Real People Will Use Windows 8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4boTbv9_nU#ws)
обратити пажњу на последњу реченицу, генијална је.
:)
Nasmejah se.
:D
nateralo me ovo da malo proguglam o vindouzu 8. ako majkrosoft zaista misli, ko što reče lik u klipu, da konačna verzija treba da izgleda ovako kako sada izgleda, to će biti još jedan razlog više da nikada u životu ne napustim XP.
Previše nas je win uzeo pod svoje. Meni žao što se ne znam služiti nekom linux distribucijom. Vele, nikad ne reinstaliraš sistem, ne krlja kao sumanut po hardu, nema one registry cleaning prevare, mnogo je brži i imaš sve što ti treba za Dž.
Bog da nas pogleda.
Pa, ako hoćeš linux, proguglaj LINUX MINT, skroz je user friendly, lako se snaći i sve ostalo. Samo ga skineš sa neta i pičiš.
Ja da nisam gejmer, samo bih linux i koristio...
Џек, предлажем ти да испробаш Убунту. Скинеш га са његовог сајта, негде око 730 МБ величине, и инсталишеш га унутар Виндовса. Кад се пали компјутер можеш изабрати који ће систем да се бутује, Виндовс или Убунту.
Ако ти се допадне - добро је, ако ти се не допадне само га деинсталишеш из Виндовса као сваки други програм. За мање искусне кориснике препоручујем ову варијанту (унутар Виндовса) зато што се не мораш зезати са инсталацијом на чистом диску, при чему бирање партиција уме бити фрустрирајуће за неупућене.
Кад инсталишеш Убунту, лако ћеш пронаћи где се шта налази унутар њега, јер је лак за коришћење, а добро је и што у тих 730 МБ добијаш Опен офис и све потребне програме за мултимедију (музика и видео свих формата) и још по неки основни програм, што све заједно може бити савршена варијанта за просечног корисника. И, што је најважније, не мораш више толико бринути о вирусима и осталој жгадији :!:.
Quote from: tomat on 12-03-2012, 20:08:57
to će biti još jedan razlog više da nikada u životu ne napustim XP.
Лепа мисао о (и) мени омиљеним Виндоузима, али Мајкрософт најављује потпуни прекид било какве подршке, апдејта и свега осталог у априлу 2014. Изгледа далеко, али рачунај да ћеш потом имати можда још годину дана лагодне употребе и да ћеш потом почети да осећаш последице некомпатибилности свог система с новим софтвером.
С тим у вези, први бих волео да бацим Виндоузе у ђубре за сва времена, али постоји неколико програма који су ми потребни за посао, искључиво у верзији за Виндоузе. Док неко не напише Убунту тако да потпуно подржава Виндоуз програме, па макар за ту емулацију била потребна јача машина, мораћу да се држим овога. Засад ми је варијанта коју предлаже Скалар бесмислена, да Убунту ради под Виндоузима; то онда није оперативни систем, већ његова емулација. Не видим реалну сврху... осим бунтовништва, наравно.
:-x Џоне, рекао сам ти да испробаш Убунту на такав начин, да се упознаш са Линуксом који је највише пријатељски настројен према кориснику, а не да га заувек оставиш под Виндовсом.
Иначе, постоји мали додатак, који се зове "WINE'' и који служи да би се Виндовс програми и игре покретали у Линуксу. Моје искуство говори да отприлике 90% Виндовс програма ради без проблема, али се тај проценат повећава са сваком новом верзијом "WINE''.
Инсталација Убунту Линукса под Виндовсом није емулација Убунтуа, него инсталација правог ОС.
Како се WINE понаша с програмима који су заштићени донгловима?
:-x Е, јбт, Џоне, сад си ме убо у око. Заиста не знам како се WINE понаша са дангловима :-x .
Претпостављам, али само претпостављам, да ће сасвим уредно препознати и проверити сваки дангл (донгл, јбг, као се већ чита), било да је на УСБ, било да је старији модел на неком паралелном порту, јер омогућава да Виндовс програм користи све ресурсе рачунара под Линуксом, све прериферне уређаје, тако да не видим разлог зашто не би сарађивао и са неким рецимо УСБ данглом. Мада, као што рекох, убо си ме у око! Немам могућности да проверим претпоставку, па би ипак требало питати по нету да ли неко има искуства са тим.
Kako se WINE ponaša sa igrama? :lol:
Quote from: Perin on 12-03-2012, 22:50:01
Kako se WINE ponaša sa igrama? :lol:
Више од 90%.
Али, све то зависи и од машине до машине, од хардвера до хардвера. Имаш на нету да нађеш спискове игара које сигурно раде под WINE.
Није ми циљ да те хватам у незнању нити да те бодем у око, питам зато што не знам. А малтретирање би ми било да инсталирам нови ОС и схватим да ми нешто битно не функционише, тим више што су сетовања мука жива + део инсталације захтева некакво уписивање у регистрије, па се бојим да то не би радило. И .NET Framework новији од ваљда v3.5.
Ма знам, брате, да ниси злонамеран. Иначе не бисмо ни причали. Предложио сам ти инсталацију Убунтуа под Виндовсом само да би се информисао, да упознаш тај ОС, да мало видиш интерфејс и те ствари...
Кад га инсталишеш под Виндовсом не мораш ништа брисати са диска, не мораш ништа од сетовања Виндовса дирати, зато што Убунту себи узме један фолдер на диску од 18-30 ГБ (колико му ти одредиш) и све што ради, ради унутар тог фолдера, без самосталног утицаја на Виндовс окружење. Али, треба пазити, јер види све фајлове које је Виндовс поставио и може манипулисати са њима (копи, пејст, дилит...)
Наравно, такав Убунту користи све периферне уређаје компјутера (штампач, скенер, конекцију на интернет...), а ако нема у себи драјвере за неки уређај, има опција (лако се налази) да их скине са мреже и инсталише без много твог мешања (у оном фолдеру, нигде другде). Ако би инсталисао WINE могао би пробати и неки од твојих програма којима треба дангл да би радили, па ако ради - ради, ако не ради - не ради.
Користиш, зезаш се, упознајеш се рецимо месец дана, а онда ти досади па га једноставно из Виндовс контрол панела деинсталишеш.
Quote from: Perin on 12-03-2012, 20:46:18
Pa, ako hoćeš linux, proguglaj LINUX MINT, skroz je user friendly, lako se snaći i sve ostalo. Samo ga skineš sa neta i pičiš.
Ja da nisam gejmer, samo bih linux i koristio...
Па за који клинац ико нормалан уопште и користи компјутер него за играње??!
Е, ето колико нас интересује Виндовс 8, кад већ сат времена причамо о Линуксу xcheers . Иначе, користим Виндовс 7 64 битни и зајебо сам се ко нико што сам забаталио ИксПе! Хтео мангуп да прати трендове, да се упознаје са новим технологијама, па ми сад ни један од мојих добрих старих портабл програма неће да ради, све сам морао инсталисати. Бљак за Виндовс 7, а и за 8 ! Пре неког времена сам негде ко зна где набавио неку бетину бету Виндовса 8 и испробао. То је бре моронштина, два-три десктопа, све шарено ко циганске шалваре, а споро ради ! Још једном - Бљак!
Quote from: Джон Рейнольдс on 12-03-2012, 22:55:36
Није ми циљ да те хватам у незнању нити да те бодем у око, питам зато што не знам. А малтретирање би ми било да инсталирам нови ОС и схватим да ми нешто битно не функционише, тим више што су сетовања мука жива + део инсталације захтева некакво уписивање у регистрије, па се бојим да то не би радило. И .NET Framework новији од ваљда v3.5.
Ajd da se javim posto mi je ovo kao pomalo poznato, dakle, .NET noviji od 2.0 nece da se instalira na tim linuksima iz Debian stabla -- na Fedori navodno oce (preko winetricks shell skripte), ali je to bagovito straobalno, tako da nece to da valja ako je neka ozbiljna aplikacija, samo ce se mucis dzabe...Druga varijanta je sa Mono bibliotekama kao native zamenom za .NET, ali je sve to avantura...
Sto se Windowsa tice, koristim verziju 2000 xnerd
I ja sam windows/linux korisnik, ali neke stvari baš i ne mogu ili loše rade pod linuxom, pa u poslednje vreme uglavnom win koristim, šta džabe da restartujem komp deset puta na dan. Linux je zajebancija, meni je (bilo) zanimljivo da ga čačkam, ali ko nema volji i želju za tim teško da će ostati na linuxu.
Inače XP koristim, matora mi je mašina, 7ica bi je ubila uz neke zahtevnije aplikacije. Ne mrdam ja od XPa čak i da nabavim nov komp u skorije vreme. Mada smara kad prijavi da mi treba neki novi installer il nešto slično, pa kad shvatim da za installer treba nešto treće, a za to treće nešto četvrto onda lepo uzmem i instaliram stariju verziju programa, tako da mi nedostatak podrške neće praviti problem, već se polako navikavam :)
EDIT: Yay 300-ti post! Moraću da počnem sa spamovanjem, sporo ovo ide 8-)
Човекоид, хвала. Сачекаћу још. Јасно да с овог Екс-Пија пре или касније морам да пређем на нешто друго, али на шта? Додуше, сналазим се ја и у 7, имам је на лаптопу. И није ми одбојна.
па изгледа да је проблем у томе што Win 8 интерфејс је прилагођен за ТС (тач скрин), самим тим је спорији и неинтуитиван ако га користиш олд вејз.
оно што ми се још мање допада је инфо који сам добио од ортака (који ми је и послао овај линк)
цитат:
Quoteinstalirao u petak kuci novi linux, najsveziji kernel, ovo ono, medjutim dolazi sa gnome 3 i sa.. unity.. i otprilike sam prosao kao deda u klipu
popizd
даље каже
Quoteda popizdis sta rade.. i na linuxu i na win
nemaju milosti za hardcore korisnike uopste
ocajan user interface, sve sporiji, predvidjen za touch screens.. ne mozes vise da nadjes bez pomuke control panel opcije koje su ti bitne za razne stvari, a koje nisu 'change my desktop theme'
ali sto je najgore nije ni za TS dobro, bar ne dovoljno dobro
nego je nesto izmedju
apple je to mudro razdvojio lepo na ios i osx
Jebte, Linux ovo, Ubuntu ovo... ma, ostajem na XP-u, šta da mu radim. Na lapu (Sony Vaio) mi je 64-bitna sedmica šljakala kao mutava, znači, spidi gonzales sve u 16. Mislim da od hardvera dosta zavisi stabilnost sistema.
Čuo sam za neke kompove koji godinama nisu imali reinstalaciju win-a, a rade kao doxe! I to sve firmirani modeli. Ovi što se sklapaju od raznih dilera nisu ni upola toliko stabilni.
Na mojoj kanti reistal win-a je obaveza svaka tri, četiri meseca... ako neču da odem kod komšinice na kafu dok se win podigne.
Quote from: дејан on 13-03-2012, 12:43:14
па изгледа да је проблем у томе што Win 8 интерфејс...
Quotegnome 3 i sa.. unity..
Pa dobro, ume to da nervira, ali daleko je od neresivog -- ocu reci treba ti otprilike tri sekunde da iskljucis taj Metro, kako se vec zove, i tridesetak da Gnome 3 vratis na klasik -- ili stavis nesto drugo, sta znam, IceWM, Openbox (ako imas stari racunar, kao ja recimo)...
Quote from: Džek svih zanata on 13-03-2012, 18:28:14
Čuo sam za neke kompove koji godinama nisu imali reinstalaciju win-a, a rade kao doxe! I to sve firmirani modeli.
Мој није фирмиран, а први пут сам пре неки дан реинсталирао после пуних седам година.
Čudo. Ti si srećan čovek :)
XP dokle god mogne...
onda sedmica 32bita
Quote from: дејан on 13-03-2012, 12:43:14
па изгледа да је проблем у томе што Win 8 интерфејс је прилагођен за ТС (тач скрин), самим тим је спорији и неинтуитиван ако га користиш олд вејз.
оно што ми се још мање допада је инфо који сам добио од ортака (који ми је и послао овај линк)
цитат:
Quoteinstalirao u petak kuci novi linux, najsveziji kernel, ovo ono, medjutim dolazi sa gnome 3 i sa.. unity.. i otprilike sam prosao kao deda u klipu
popizd
даље каже
Quoteda popizdis sta rade.. i na linuxu i na win
nemaju milosti za hardcore korisnike uopste
ocajan user interface, sve sporiji, predvidjen za touch screens.. ne mozes vise da nadjes bez pomuke control panel opcije koje su ti bitne za razne stvari, a koje nisu 'change my desktop theme'
ali sto je najgore nije ni za TS dobro, bar ne dovoljno dobro
nego je nesto izmedju
apple je to mudro razdvojio lepo na ios i osx
Ovakve stvari uopšte nisu problem za Linux, jer uvek ima alternativa. Postoji gomila windows managera za linux i možeš uzeti onaj čija ti filozofija razvoja najviše odgovara. A na kraju, uvek neko uradi starije verzije za nove kernele i distribucije. A kod Windowsa uopšte nemaš alternativu, šta ti MS servira sa tim si i zaglavio i bolje počni da se navikavaš.
Touch screen znači da ćemo svi morati sve vreme da radimo gimnastiku :cry:
Još jedan dokaz da je u toku ostvarenje plana Velikog Globalnog Zaglupljivanja.
срећом нисам ја неки напредни корисник да бих имао проблема са тим, али тхе линус (http://techhamlet.com/2011/08/linus-torvalds-says-gnome-3-is-crazy-and-goes-for-xfce/) јесте
90 odsto igara ce raditi pod WINE-om? Nema sanse - podrska za directX 10 i 11 skoro pa ne postoji, dobro je da igre jos koriste directX 9 u najvecoj meri. Multiplayer ne radi skoro ni na jednom naslovu, singleplayer kako treba radi mozda na 50-60 odsto naslova (skoro uvek neki problemcic postoji). Ko ima ATI/AMD grafiku nece se usreciti na Linuxu sto se igranja tice..drajveri su skoro pa uzasni.
I ja cu ostati na XP koliko god mogu, ovi novi operativni sistemi su svi nekako sareni i preglomazni mada Sedmica (home edition) nije losa a i postoji XP luna tema :). razumno vreme bootovanja Sedmice postize se samo uz SSD disk, XP se podize munjevito i na digitronu.
Od Linuxa najvise koristim Mint/Ubuntu/Debian, Fedora uvek ima poneki bug ali su inovativni, OpenSuse nije los..Od grafickih okruzenja najvise mi se dopada LXDE zbog malog koriscenja resursa mada ima nekih ogranicenja. KDE je windowslike bloatware a i Gnome je postao slican, XFCE je sve zahtevniji takodje.
Windows 8 will not play DVD discs anymore, unless you pay for the Media Center pack (http://pureinfotech.com/2012/05/04/windows-8-stops-dvd-playback-media-center-pack/)
a pobogu
:lol: Ima to nekog smisla poslovnog - mnogo mašina na kojima Win8 bude bio instaliran neće imati DVD drajvove, čak možemo da kažemo da za 3-4 godine većina mašina na kojima bude ovaj OS neće imati DVD drajvove. Naravno da zvuči cvinično kad kažeš "Majkrosoft nam odvojeno naplaćuje DVD plejbek" ali pošto Majkrosoft takođe mora da plati licence da bi ga omogućio, a mnogo mašina neće uopšte imati DVD plejer, onda ima nekakvog rezona da to bude odvojen servis koji se posebno naplaćuje. Naravno, ja mislim da je to teška svinjarija.
гејб њуел...њиндоњс 8 је ђубре! (тј катастрофа) (https://allthingsd.com/20120725/valves-gabe-newell-on-the-future-of-games-wearable-computers-windows-8-and-more/)...валв можда на линуксу (http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/07/26/1249246/why-valve-wants-to-port-games-to-linux-because-windows-8-is-a-catastrophe?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29)
Nije direkto vezano za W8, ali Veniti fer je duže vreme tizovao svoj veliki tekst o tome kako je Stiv Bolmer upropastio Majkrosoft, pa evo sad teksta u celini & celosti:
http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/08/microsoft-lost-mojo-steve-ballmer (http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/08/microsoft-lost-mojo-steve-ballmer)
Quote
Once upon a time, Microsoft dominated the tech industry; indeed, it was the wealthiest corporation in the world. But since 2000, as Apple, Google, and Facebook whizzed by, it has fallen flat in every arena it entered: e-books, music, search, social networking, etc., etc. Talking to former and current Microsoft executives, Kurt Eichenwald finds the fingers pointing at C.E.O. Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates's successor, as the man who led them astray.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi48.tinypic.com%2F2guzi3d.jpg&hash=ebf605838f12c2361607703a39d897f0df15e05f)
Windows 8 Tells Microsoft About Everything You Install, Not Very Securely (http://log.nadim.cc/?p=78)
Quote
Update: According to Microsoft (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/03/22/smartscreen-174-application-reputation-building-reputation.aspx), SmartScreen sends a hash of the app installer and its digital signature, if any. A combination of the hash and the user's IP address is still enough to identify that IP address x attempted to install software y.
Update 2: Another researcher has discovered that a filename of the app you're trying to install is indeed sent to Microsoft (http://www.withinwindows.com/2012/08/24/thoughts-on-the-windows-smartscreen-scare/). This severely strengthens privacy concerns.
Update 3: Approximately 14 hours after this article was published, another scan of Microsoft's SmartScreen servers reveals that they have been reconfigured to no longer support SSLv2. The servers now only support SSLv3 connections.
I've recently been using the final, Released to Manufacturing version of Windows 8 on one of my computers, to much delight. I've been very impressed by how fast, well-designed, functional and capable this latest iteration of Windows is. However, my tinkering around from a security/privacy perspective has left me concerned.
Windows 8 has a new featured called Windows SmartScreen, which is turned on by default. Windows SmartScreen's purpose is to "screen" every single application you try to install from the Internet in order to inform you whether it's safe to proceed with installing it or not. Here's how SmartScreen works:
- You download any application from the Internet. Say, the Tor Browser Bundle (https://torproject.org/).
- You open the installer. Windows SmartScreen gathers some identifying information about your application, and sends the data to Microsoft.
- If Microsoft replies saying that the application is not signed with a proper certificate, the user gets an error that looks something like this (http://log.nadim.cc/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/windows-smartscreen1.jpg).
There are a few serious problems here. The big problem is that Windows 8 is configured to immediately tell Microsoft about every app you download and install. This is a very serious privacy problem, specifically because Microsoft is the central point of authority and data collection/retention here and therefore becomes vulnerable to being served judicial subpoenas or National Security Letters (https://www.eff.org/issues/national-security-letters) intended to monitor targeted users. This situation is exacerbated when Windows 8 is deployed in countries experiencing political turmoil or repressive political situations.
This problem can however get even more serious: It may be possible to intercept SmartScreen's communications to Microsoft and thus learn about every single application downloaded and installed by a target. Here is my analysis:
A quick packet capture showed the following activity happening immediately when I tried to install the Tor Browser Bundle:(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flog.nadim.cc%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F08%2F3-300x120.png&hash=0785be9dd8a057a0c68d7dcef1a864900e89cfb9) (http://log.nadim.cc/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/3.png)Click for full size and notes.SmartScreen appeared to connect over HTTPS to a server in Redmond (apprep.smartscreen.microsoft.com, 65.55.184.60, run by Microsoft) in order to communicate information about the application I was trying to install.
After running some tests on this Microsoft server, I discovered that it ran Microsoft IIS 7.5 to handle its HTTPS connections. The Microsoft server is configured to support SSLv2 which is known to be insecure (http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/manual/html_node/On-SSL-2-and-older-protocols.html) and susceptible to interception. The SSL Certificate Authority chain goes down from "GTE CyberTrust Global Root" to "Microsoft Secure Server Authority." The Certificate Authority model is itself susceptible to some serious problems (http://arstechnica.com/security/2011/08/earlier-this-year-an-iranian/).
I haven't checked whether Windows SmartScreen does in fact use SSLv2, but the fact that the Microsoft servers support it is concerning. Furthermore, SmartScreen is not easy to disable, and Windows will periodically warn users to re-enable it (http://log.nadim.cc/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2.png) should they attempt to disable it.
To recap, here are the concerns posed by SmartScreen in Windows 8:
- Windows 8 will, by default, inform Microsoft of every app downloaded and installed by every user. This puts Microsoft in a compromising, omniscient situation where they are capable of retaining information on the application usage of all Windows 8 users, thus posing a serious privacy concern. The user is not informed of this while installing and setting up Windows 8, even though they are given the option to disable SmartScreen (which is enabled by default.)
- Windows 8 appears to send this information to Microsoft to a server that relies on Certificate Authorities for authentication and supports an outdated and insecure method of encrypted communication. It is possible that these insecurities could allow a malicious third party to target a Windows 8 user and learn which applications they are using. This allows them to profile the user and decide how to best exploit their personal selection of applications and their computing habits.
I find Microsoft's decision to design SmartScreen in such a privacy-free fashion to be a very bad choice, and I really hope that these concerns regarding SmartScreen will be addressed in near-future updates.
Dakle, Majkrosoftovom bezobrazluku nema granica. Windows 8, plaćeni operativni sistem vam u aplikacije koje dolaze uz njega uvaljuje reklame. O tempora o mores.
Microsoft's Big Hidden Windows 8 Feature: Built-In Advertising (http://hothardware.com/News/Microsofts-Big-Hidden-Windows-8-Feature-BuiltIn-Advertising/)
Quote
Despite the fact that I've been using Windows 8 (http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Intel-Clovertrail-Atom-Z2760-Windows-8-Tablet-Performance-Preview/) for the past three weeks, I somehow managed to overlook a rather stark feature in the OS: ads. No, we're not talking about ads cluttering up the desktop or login screen (thankfully), but rather ads that can be found inside of some Modern UI apps that Windows (http://hothardware.com/Tags/windows.aspx) ships with. That includes Finance, Weather, Travel, News and so forth. Is it a problem? Let's tackle this from a couple of different angles.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fhothardware.com%2Fnewsimages%2FItem23251%2FWindows_8_Ad_01.jpg&hash=e4ff9f6bd06ebf9c0e1dcf964d83f1dd54084fe0)
The Modern UI (Metro (http://hothardware.com/Tags/metro.aspx)) interface of Windows 8 (http://hothardware.com/Tags/windows-8.aspx) essentially delivers a mobile experience on whatever device it's used on, be it a desktop, notebook or tablet (http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Asus-Vivo-Tab-RT-Windows-RT-Takes-Flight/). On previous mobile platforms, such as iOS and Android, seeing ads inside of free apps hasn't been uncommon. It's a way for the developer to get paid while allowing the user to have the app for free. That's where the first big difference comes in. While people can expect ads in a free app, no one expects ads in a piece of software that they just paid good money for. I actually can't think of another immediate example where a piece of paid software shows ads.
But there are other angles to look at this from. People subscribe to cable, and see ads. However, the difference there is that's a recurring subscription, and it could be assumed that without ads, cable fees would be much higher. Then there's the fact that the apps inside of the Modern UI are all Internet-capable, so in a sense, they all act like their own customized browser. We're used to seeing ads on websites, so is this really that different? It's hard to say, but again, as free services, that's to be expected.
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fhothardware.com%2Fnewsimages%2FItem23251%2FWindows_8_Ad_02.jpg&hash=d0d5c812b9025cc1b52a7773d29c79c657327acf)
The answer of just how wrong Microsoft (http://hothardware.com/Tags/microsoft.aspx) is to cram advertisements in its commercial software will differ from person to person, I'm sure. Me, I'm not too bothered, but I can totally relate to anyone who is. From all I can tell, none of the ads are intrusive, and I appreciate that. As for them being in paid software, that doesn't bother me either because of that above fact. However, I am bothered by other aspects.
The biggest mistake here on Microsoft's behalf is that no one is made aware of these ads until they happen to stumble on them. No one is going to expect ads to be loaded in their paid-for OS, so a notification of that at first boot would be appreciated. Further, no one is given the option to disable them (though I'm sure it'd take little more than an editing of the hosts file). Finally, there's also the fact that these ads haven't decreased the price of the OS, else that'd be a point Microsoft would no doubt flaunt.
We can't talk about the inclusion of ads and not mention the "T" word: tracking (http://hothardware.com/News/Apple-To-Offer-Patch-For-Accidental-Data-Collection-Woes/). I haven't been able to find any information on whether or not Microsoft's tracking the ads you are clicking on, but if that is indeed the case, we'll find out soon enough. Unlike Windows 7 and earlier, your entire Windows 8 account (http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Intel-Clovertrail-Atom-Z2760-Windows-8-Tablet-Performance-Preview/) can be tied to an e-mail account, so it would be rather easy for Microsoft to track things on a personal level - much like how Google does with its search engine, e-mail and so forth. This alone gives good reason to be concerned.
We'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Are you okay with Microsoft infusing the Modern UI with ads? Would you ever be interested in a less expensive version of Windows that was ad-supported?
Evo, tko mrzi Majkrosoft, naslađivaće se ovom analizom koja u obzir uzima i lansiranje novog OS-a i Surface i mobilno tržište:
Microsoft has failed (http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/14/microsoft-has-failed/)
ja samo da prokukam kako MRZIM windows 8!!!! jebo me i pc i software koji je samo za njega pravljen sto je jedini & only razlog zbog kog uzeh, hm, lep istina, ASUS ZenBook Prime umesto jos lepseg MacBook Aira!!!! a windows 8 intefejs je da umres. srecom, moguce ga je ubiti brzo, al stalno se nekako vraca! :cry: :cry:
Windows 8 se relativno sporo prodaje. I sad:
Windows 8: The Seven Roads Not Taken (http://techland.time.com/2012/11/19/windows-8-the-seven-roads-not-taken/)
Quote
On Friday, I responded to Paul Thurrott's report (http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-8-sales-well-below-projections-plenty-blame-go-around) that the first few weeks of Windows 8 sales have been disappointing by saying that Windows 8 is a long bet (http://techland.time.com/2012/11/17/its-too-early-to-judge-early-windows-8-sales/) — and it therefore doesn't matter much what the early sales numbers look like. Bloggers John Gruber (http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/11/17/windows-8-long-bet) and MG Siegler (http://parislemon.com/post/35939899980/premature-crapulation) referenced my post, and both said that Microsoft (http://topics.time.com/microsoft/)'s strategy of combining Windows' traditional-PC interface with new touch-centric features is a mistake. Their thoughts are worth reading, and the market may well prove them correct.
Me, I've been studiously avoiding making any predictions about Windows 8's chances of success...except to say that I think it's going to take a while until we know whether Microsoft's big bet is going to pay off.
But here's a question that's worth pondering: If Windows 8 is a misbegotten idea, what should Microsoft have done instead? What should Windows 7's successor have looked like? What sort of products should the company offer for the era of touch interfaces and tablets? How should it position itself to do well in the post-PC years and decades to come?
I can think of seven alternate roads the company might have followed. (They're not all mutually exclusive.)
1. The plain ol' plain ol' road. Microsoft could have released a Windows 8 that was to Windows 7 as Windows 7 was to Windows Vista: An improvement, but not a fundamental reimagining. Such a Windows 8 might have introduced some modest tweaks to make touch interfaces work better. But it wouldn't have demoted the old Windows interface in favor of an unrelated new look and feel; it wouldn't have eliminated the Start menu; it wouldn't have bifurcated into separate versions for x86 and ARM chips.
Advantages of this road: It wouldn't have confused or alarmed anybody.
Disadvantages of this road: This approach wouldn't have done much to reposition Windows for a world in which PCs are looking less and less like PCs.
2. The "Windows 7 Lion" road. Apple (http://topics.time.com/apple/) upgrades OS X more frequently than Microsoft upgrades Windows, but it hasn't done anything too radical: The operating system is still a conventional desktop operating system for conventional personal computers, and doesn't support touchscreens. But both Lion and Mountain Lion have borrowed lots of features from iOS, including the Launchpad, full-screen mode, Notifications, App Store, AirPlay wireless video feature and more. They're all optional; if you liked OS X the way it was, you can use it the way you always did. Windows 8 could have done something similar, riffing on Windows Phone features in a relatively subtle manner.
Advantages: It sounds appealing to me!
Disadvantages: Apple has vast numbers of customers who know iOS and are ready to understand iOS-like features which show up in OS X. But Microsoft hasn't had much luck getting Windows users to buy Windows Phone handsets.
3. The Windows 1.0 road. When Microsoft introduced the first version of Windows in 1985, it bore as little resemblance to DOS as Windows 8's new interface bears to old-school Windows. And anyone who ran both DOS and Windows lived in two different worlds with two radically different types of applications, much as Windows 8 users do. But for its first decade, Windows was an optional add-on to DOS — nobody used it unwillingly. Maybe Microsoft could have done something similar again, upgrading Windows in a more conventional manner, but simultaneously introducing an add-on which would give the operating system a simplified, touch-friendly front end.
Advantages: Nobody would feel like they were having something unfamiliar forced on them.
Disadvantages: A new Windows new interface as an extra-cost option might never become popular, let alone pervasive. (Then again, Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1 were extra-cost options, and were blockbusters.)
4. The Windows Phone road. During the 15 months in between the launch of Windows Phone 7 and the first public demo of Windows 8, lots of people thought that Microsoft should release a version of Windows Phone for tablets (http://technologizer.com/2010/07/23/a-windows-phone-7-tablet-its-possible-and-a-good-idea/). Then the company revealed that it planned to give Windows itself a Windows Phone-like interface, and it became clear why it hadn't released a Windows Phone Tablet Edition. But maybe there's an alternate universe in which the company's tablet strategy was the same as Apple's: one operating system for phones and tablets, and one for computers. In this scenario, Windows tablets might look much like the Windows 8 and Windows RT models we're seeing, except they wouldn't offer the desktop and wouldn't be compatible with any legacy Windows apps.
Advantages: Windows Phone is an excellent operating system which might be pretty nifty on a tablet.
Disadvantages: Microsoft's having trouble convincing teeming masses of people to buy Windows Phone smartphones, so there's little evidence that they'd clamor for Windows Phone tablets.
5. The just-Surface road. Right now, Microsoft isn't just introducing a wildly new version of Windows — it's also going into the PC business for the first time, with the tablets it calls Surface (http://techland.time.com/2012/10/23/microsoft-surface-review-the-pc-of-the-future-needs-more-apps/). The first version of Surface runs Windows RT, which is basically the same product as Windows 8, except it can't run traditional Windows apps except for the ones it comes bundled with: Office and Internet Explorer. Surface competes with other Windows RT tablets and with Windows 8 tablets, and the whole situation is kind of ugly and confusing. It's conceivable that it would have been cleaner if Windows just went on being Windows, and Surface was a new and unique Microsoft device, running an operating system that wasn't available on anything else.
Advantages: It would be easy to understand — and maybe Surface would get more attention if it were an idea unto itself rather than a Windows 8 offshoot.
Disadvantages: If Microsoft released an ambitious new software platform and didn't let its hardware-making partners use it, they might be even more ticked off than they are.
6. The something entirely new road. Or, if you prefer, the Courier (http://techland.time.com/2010/04/29/microsoft-admits-courier-exists-scraps-project/) road. Instead of tackling the tablet conundrum by reworking Windows, in any form, Microsoft could have created something from scratch. Something that wasn't designed to replace Windows as we knew it. At least not yet.
Advantages: When a product starts off without any preconveived notions or existing customers, you can do whatever you want without fretting about ticking anyone off.
Disadvantages: Unless the idea was BIG, it probably wouldn't go anywhere. And it wouldn't answer an all-important question for Microsoft: What should Windows look like in 2012, 2013 and beyond?
7. The almost the same as what they did, with one big difference road. If you upgrade to Windows 8, or buy a new Windows 8 PC, there's no way to cautiously dip your toe into the new-interface pool. The operating system boots into the Start screen, and it doesn't have the Start button and Start menu; it's willfully unfamiliar in a way that gives cautious consumers (http://topics.time.com/consumers/) and businesses a reason to avoid it. Microsoft could have avoided this by (A) letting users configure Windows 8 to boot directly to the desktop; and (B) retaining the Start menu, at least as an option.
Advantages: Windows 8 users could acclimate themselves to the changes at their own pace.
Disadvantages: You know, I can't think of any. By shoving people directly into the new interface and withholding Windows' most familiar features, Microsoft took a pointlessly heavy-handed approach which denies its customers the ability to customize Windows to their own tastes. It's a move that's bad for Windows users. And if large numbers of those users respond by steering clear of Windows 8, it's bad for Microsoft.
Even if you find things in Windows 8 to admire, as I do, you may still come to the conclusion that a sizable percentage of Windows users should ignore it for the time being. (Last week, my father asked me if he should upgrade; I considered the matter for 1.37 seconds and then advised against it.) But Microsoft, and recently departed (http://techland.time.com/2012/11/13/the-sinofsky-legacy-at-microsoft-yet-to-be-determined/) Windows honcho Steven Sinofsky, deserve credit for doing something. Something rather daring, actually. Rather than dithering, the company chose a road — and now it needs to figure out how the world's responding to its decision, and journey forth accordingly. What matters now is what happens next.
Read more: http://techland.time.com/2012/11/19/windows-8-the-seven-roads-not-taken/#ixzz2CqSYOdBs (http://techland.time.com/2012/11/19/windows-8-the-seven-roads-not-taken/#ixzz2CqSYOdBs)
Is Microsoft On The Verge Of A Sudden Collapse Predicted By Catastrophe Theory? (http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/11/26/is-microsoft-on-the-verge-of-a-sudden-collapse-predicted-by-catastrophe-theory/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mediaredef+%28jason+hirschhorn%27s+Media+ReDEFined%29)
The departure of Steve Sinofsky so soon after the launch of Windows 8 was not a vote of confidence by the maker of the world's largest operating system. But is it a sign of Microsoft's imminent collapse?
Last week, usability expert Jakob Nielsen wrote a devastating critique of Windows 8 on his Alertbox blog. He writes, "One of the worst aspects of Windows 8 for power users is that the product's very name has become a misnomer. 'Windows' no longer supports multiple windows on the screen.... When users can't view several windows simultaneously, they must keep information from one window in short-term memory while they activate another window. This is problematic for two reasons. First, human short-term memory is notoriously weak, and second, the very task of having to manipulate a window—instead of simply glancing at one that's already open—further taxes the user's cognitive resources."
He goes onto find fault with the "flat" style of the Metro graphics, which he says "reduce discoverability;" the overall low information density and the requirement for horizontal scrolling; the "overly live tiles;" the "hidden charms" which make him scold, "out of sight out of mind;" and the UI that he says is "littered with swipe ambiguity," and "error-prone gestures." Ouch! He characterizes Windows 8 UX as "weak on tablets, terrible for PCs."
Nielsen feels compelled to end his post by stating that he does not "hate Microsoft," and likes Windows 7 quite a lot. "One doesn't have to hate or love a company in order to analyze its UI designs."
Okay, so Microsoft overreached on this one. They'll fix it for Windows 9, right?
But will it get the chance? I know that sounds extreme, and it never would have occurred to me if I hadn't read Charlie Demerjian's piece, "Microsoft Has Failed," on his SemiAccurate blog. Demerjian lays out a scenario for a precipitous death spiral:
The problem is that if you are locked in with a choice of 100% Microsoft or 0% Microsoft, once someone goes, it isn't a baby step, they are gone. Once you start usingGoogle Docs and the related suites, you have no need for Office. That means you, or likely your company, saves several hundred dollars a head. No need for Office means no need for Exchange. No need for Exchange means no need for Windows Server. No need for Office means no need for Windows. Once the snowball starts rolling, it picks up speed a frightening pace. And that is where we are. The barriers to exit are now even more potent barriers to entry.
The first thing this reminded me of was Catastrophe Theory, a branch of mathematics developed by René Thom in the 1960′s that describes, "phenomena characterized by sudden shifts in behavior arising from small changes in circumstances, analysing how the qualitative nature of equation solutions depends on the parameters that appear in the equation. This may lead to sudden and dramatic changes, for example the unpredictable timing and magnitude of a landslide." (See graphic above for an illustration of this principle.)
Demerjian goes on to say that even though Microsoft is willing to pay developers to port applications for Windows 8, the sentiment in the developer community is very negative. The company has taken their 12% share of the mobile phone market and Nokia's 30% and rolled it into Windows Phone's current 2%. Even more damning, analysts are calling for a decline in PC and laptop sales for the holiday season (and Chinese New Year) on the heels of the release of Windows 8. That's not what's supposed to happen when there is pent up demand for a new product.
He ends on a note of doom:
In the end, the death spiral for Microsoft is in full effect, and management is expending a lot of effort to speed it up. Anyone who dares point out that the entire system is collapsing, or worse yet suggests an alternative, gets Sinofsky'd. Or was it Guggenheimer'd? In any case, Microsoft is unwilling to change, and that is very clear. Even if they wanted to, they are culturally far beyond the point of being able to. What was a slow bleed of marketshare is now gushing, and management is clueless, intransigent, and myopic. Game over, the thrashing will continue for a bit, but it won't change the outcome. Microsoft has failed.
I hope this isn't true. Microsoft has been a stabilizing force in the market and many users are very attached to its products. For the first time, however, businesses can look to Google and to Apple and see plausible, battle-tested alternatives to the products they have used from Microsoft—for much less money. And in a bizarre way, Microsofts spasm of innovation has made the company now a destabilizing factor for IT departments and Google Docs is looking an awful lot like the old guard.
The big question is how fast Microsoft might collapse if businesses began to defect en masse. Like other phenomena of global instability, extreme change seems to come quicker now. For Microsoft, the window is closing fast.
SMRT FAŠIZMU!
ne znam za microsoft, al windows 8 je stvarno faking smaracina. a nije da mu nisam dala sansu.
XP rules :|
Ooooh, komedija! Drama! Vodvilj! Majkrosoftu stiže nož u leđa ni od koga drugog do od njihovog, oh, "partnera", Nokije! Justin Angel, Nokijin glavni inženjer koji se bavi Win7 i Win8 spravama je na svom sajtu objasnio i pokazao kako se Windows 8 store lako može hakovati takod a se trial verzije appova proizvedu u ful, bez plaćanja, kako da se iz njih izbace reklame, pa čak i kako da se bez in-app plaćanja dobije plaćeni sadržaj u aplikacijama. Za ove prve dve stvari su napori takoreći trivijalni (editovanje XML-a), dok ovo treće zahteva malo više rada, ali svejedno, ovo je krš i lom koji Majkrosoft neće moći tek tako da zakrpi.
Naravno, Džastinov sajt je promptno otišo u oflajn (http://justinangel.net/HackingWindows8Games), a ne bi me čudilo da čovek završi na sudu jer je ovo, čini mi se sasvim u skladu sa odredbama DMCA koje zabranjuju publikovanje materijala koji može da dovede do kršenja autorskih prava, no, gugl keš i dalje čuva sadržaj ovog posta (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:justinangel.net/HackingWindows8Games).
Quote
Justin
Angel HI folks,
This article is a follow-up to my previous 2011 article on Reverse Engineering and Modifying Windows 8 apps (http://justinangel.net/ReverseEngineerWin8Apps). In this article we'll see how to use innate Windows 8 security attack vectors in such a way that could compromise Windows 8 games revenue stream. We'll review real-world examples for all Win8 programming languages and frameworks.
But first, why Games? In the previous article (http://justinangel.net/ReverseEngineerWin8Apps) we've seen security loopholes affecting all Windows 8 apps. However in this article we'll focus on how to use these techniques to compromise games security. The reason we'll be focusing on games is that they account for 51%+ of developer revenue on every mobile developer platform. Let me repeat that, games account for the majority of developer revenue. For example we can see from official Microsoft statistics (http://blogs.windows.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2012/01/11/windows-phone-2011-retrospective.aspx) that 64% of app purchases on Windows Phone 7 are for games.
The majority of mobile apps make their money from a combination of in-app ads, in-app purchases or paid app downloads. Google IO 2012 (http://youtu.be/DJdx_Wd_EOo?t=15m30s) had this great slide illustrating all the ways a mobile app developer can get paid:
In this article we'll show how insecure each of those payment streams are on Windows 8 with real-world examples from game development. It's important to mention the methods shown in this article can be applied to every app and not just games.
#1: Compromising in-app purchases by modifying IsoStore The Win8 game Soulcraft (http://www.greatwindowsapps.com/app/soulcraft) is a top game on Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.mobilebits.soulcraft&hl=en) and is subjectively one of best examples of its genre on Windows 8. It's a basic RPG where you play an archangel battling the forces of evil in stylish 3D. You've got a character, its got equipment and you pay with gold with gold to buy better equipment. The gold has to be purchased for real money using the platform's in-app purchase. For example on Android here are the prices for gold:
I've spent 20$+ on game gold for Soulcraft THD (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.mobilebits.soulcraft&hl=en) on my Google Nexus 7 so far. So I asked myself how does that game's gold data gets stored on Windows 8, and whether or not we can change it.
Quick refresher from the previous article (http://justinangel.net/ReverseEngineerWin8Apps) all Windows 8 apps are stored on your local HD at:
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps So for example all the assemblies for Soulcraft on Windows 8 will be stored at:
>C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MobileBitsGmbH.SoulCraft_0.8.5.3_neutral__n3knxnwpdbgdc
Also, all IsoStore files are stored at:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Packages\
So on my machine Soulcraft's IsoStore is at:
C:\Users\Justin\AppData\Local\Packages\MobileBitsGmbH.SoulCraft_n3knxnwpdbgdc\LocalState
When opening up these files in Notepad we can see some of these files are encrypted while others are not.
So now the question becomes, can we decrypt the
AccountData.xml file, edit the amount of gold our character has and simply run the game? Well, as it turns out the answer is "Yes". Normally encrypted files are bad news if you're trying to tamper with apps. But we should remember this is all running on the local machine. We have the algorithm used for encryption, we have the hash key and we have the encrypted data. Once we have all of those it's pretty simple to decrypt anything.
Using dotPeek (http://dotpeek.com/)/ILSpy (http://ilspy.net/)/JustDecompile (http://www.telerik.com/products/decompiler.aspx) it's possible to reverse engineer most of the Soulcraft source code and find out how the
AccountData.xml gets stored and how to change it. Let's assume we've done that and we know which classes and assemblies are used to decrypt, edit and encrypt this XML file. We'll start off by create a new Win8 app and reference the appropriate DLLs from the Soulcraft game.
Next, since these assemblies read files from IsoStore we'll copy the encrypted game files to our own App2 IsoStore.
Now we've staged a new app with the proper assemblies and populated IsoStore with Soulcraft's Data. The next step is to reverse engineer the assemblies and figure out the correct calling order for methods. For example this code would load up AccountData.xml, edit the amount of gold and save it again.
using Delta.Utilities.Helpers; using Delta.Utilities.Xml; public sealed partial class MainPage : Page { public MainPage() { this.InitializeComponent(); this.Loaded += MainPage_Loaded; } private async void MainPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { var filePath = Path.Combine(DirectoryHelper.GetBaseDirectory(), "AccountData.xml"); var accountDataXml = XmlNode.LoadFile(filePath); accountDataXml.Children.First().AddAttribute("Gold", "1000000"); accountDataXml.Save(filePath); } Copying the file back to Soulcraft's IsoStore and starting Soulcraft we can see a first level character with 1,000,000 gold.
At this point some of you must be thinking "so what? it's fake game money". True, but this fake in-game money would be worth over a thousand dollar on Android and iOS. Without a secure storage location for game state, we can't be surprised that 3rd party cracking will arise to make consumers avoid in-app purchases.
#2: Cracking trial apps to paid versions for free One of the top revenue streams for Windows 8 developers is by shipping paid apps. At the same time consumers tend to be loss averse and are afraid to "lose" money on apps. The solution to that are Trial apps. Paid apps can offer a free version with limited functionality or on a time limited basis. That works fine unless consumers attempt to manipulate this tentative status-quo by cracking trial apps. To emphasize the impact of this problem we can look at the Windows Phone ecosystem where 45% of paid apps offer trials.
Let's have a look at Meteor Madness (http://www.greatwindowsapps.com/app/meteor-madness). It's a cool arcade asteroid shooter game. Meteor madness costs 1.5$USD and offers a free trial with limited functionality. It also happens to be open source (http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/480771/Meteor-Madness) so you can go check that out too.
When downloading the app as a trial we can see that it offers the options to buy the game and locks some game options. Note the "Buy now" rock at the bottom left and the locked "Arcade" game rock on the top right.
In the previous section we've seen there's a fundamental problem when storing game data on Windows 8. Storing encrypted data locally, alongside with the algorithm and the algorithm key/hash is a recipe for security incidents. One of the problems with allowing offline execution of trial apps is that it mandates the "trial flag" to be stored locally. And as we've seen, if it's stored locally, we can find it, read it and modify it.
Specifically the License for Windows 8 apps is stored in the following file: >C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WSLicense\tokens.dat When we open this file up in Notepad we can find the license for Meteor Madness and where it says it's a trial purchase.
Also, in the same file we can see there are other apps installed. Such as free apps, paid apps and preinstalled apps. Here for example if the "Full" installation of Bing.
An educational WinForms app named WSService_crk (http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/150140-updated-wsservice-tokens-extractor-v142-windows-8-application-store-crack/) loads this file into memory, shows the License XMLs and modifies it as a "Full Preinstalled" license. There's a lot going on here other then simply reading and modifying files. WSService_crk has to decrypt the file, re-encrypt it and then store it. All of that is documented with WSService_crk as it's distributed with full source code.
When opening up WSService_crk on my machine shows the following list of installs apps
WSService_crk can then show the current license and even modify it from a Trial to a Full Preinstalled License.
When running Meteor Madness now we can see that it no longer has any trial app functionality limitations.
#3: Removing in-app ads from games by editing XAML files Another way developers monetize their apps is through in-app advertising. Developers often take the path of least resistance and it's quite easy to add ads to your app. If apps are popular and the viewcounts are racking up it could become quite profitable. As a result consumers don't have to pay for some great titles and successful developers can get paid. That all works pretty well unless opportunistic consumers choose to keep the free app but disable ads. To emphasize the importance of mobile app ads let's mention that some 3rd party estimates (http://www.kpcb.com/insights/2012-internet-trends-update) put the field at over 10B in overall yearly revenue.
One app that is now (surprisingly) advertising supported on Windows 8 is Microsoft's Minesweeper.
As we've seen previously the executable of all Windows 8 apps can be located easily. Minesweeper is installed locally at: >C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftMinesweeper_1.1.0.0_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe In that folder we can find the file MainPageAd.xaml under the \Common\AdsModule\View folder. Alongside with other in-app ads used by Minesweeper.
We can make this ad disappear by simply adding the Visibility="Collapsed" property to the aforementioned root user control.
After we've made this small change, when we run the Minesweeper app we won't be able to see the ad anymore.
By simply editing XAML files we can hide away in-apps ads from Windows 8 ads.
#4: Reducing the cost of in-game items by editing game data filesMost games out there are composed of two distinctive pieces: a game engine and game data files used by the engine. For more on this dichotomy you can read this great article Battle for Wesnoth (http://www.aosabook.org/en/wesnoth.html) from the creative commons book The Architecture of Open Source Applications (http://www.aosabook.org/en/index.html). Let's look at a real world example in the form of the windows 8 game Ultraviolet Dawn (http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-US/app/ultraviolet-dawn/0fe7f555-c8ad-4d0d-915f-ca2459f9a327). The game is my all time favourite iPad game (https://itunes.apple.com/app/ultraviolet-dawn-hd/id378179427?mt=8) and is a cool 2D space shooter. Like other games players start-off with a certain amount of in-game currency and can buy items to improve their spaceship.
If we go back to the dichotomy we've heard about earlier then we can see how it applies to Ultraviolet Dawn. There's a game engine that knows about "store items" and there's going to be a list somewhere of what they are. So one thing we could do is take advantage of Windows 8 on-disk storage and modify the game's data files. As we've previously seen executables for windows 8 apps can be located and modified. Specifically, Ultraviolet's Dawn can be found here: >C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\8DF9EE77.UltravioletDawn_1.0.0.37_x86__dd4ev9dvfndxm We can open up the "res_store_items.txt" file and edit the price of in-game items. In our example we'll edit all the weapons to be free.
When we run Ultraviolet Dawn again we can see the price of items in the store is now 0.
We've just shown that using the simplest tools we can edit game files to compromise the experience of Windows 8 games.
#5: Compromising In-app purchase items by injecting scripts into the IE10 processEven though we've already shown that in-app purchases are comprisable I'd like for us to see an example of that with Windows 8 HTML & JS apps. Up until now we've seen examples of C# and C++ apps, so let's see that with WinJS apps. Let's have a look at the massively popular and successful WInJS Windows 8 game Cut the Rope (http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/cut-the-rope/2d85eb97-3ee6-4aff-9618-3f6cdfd68291). The game follows a freemium model where the first few levels are free and additional levels cost 4.99$ to unlock.
As we know by now executables for Windows 8 games can be found on the local disk. Specifically Cut the Rope executeables can be found at:>C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\ZeptoLabUKLimited.CutTheRope_1.1.0.9_neutral__sq9zxnwrk84pj If we open up the default.js file in the js folder we can see the following code that obviously governs the in-app purchasing logic. We can see there are IS_PAID_FULL_VERSION and SIMULATE_PURCHASES variables set to false. One wonder what happens if we change those values to true.
We don't really have to understand the specifics but we can see there's an if-else condition that determines in-app purchases. We can't directly change Javascript files as that'll corrupt the Javascript package and Windows 8 will refuse to open the app. So instead of changing the files on the local disk, we can inject JS scripts at runtime into IE10 process.
Visual Studio 2012 has a built-in debugging mechanism for any installed Windows 8 app. Even if that wasn't there we could still easily inject scripts to IE10, but since it is there we can use that familiar tool. Let's use VS2012 to "Debug Installed App Package". (Here are the Jacascript docs (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh771032.aspx), C# docs and C++ docs (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh781607.aspx) to those unfamiliar with the feature)
Next we'll choose to Debug Cut The Rope. Make sure to check the "Stop at first Statement" checkbox since we'll use it to navigate to default.js.
After we click start we can see we're debugging the Cut the Rope app. This is the important bit, we've now got the full force of VS2012 Javascript runtime debugging in a Win8 store app. This first breakpoint will always be the same file at the same row: the first row of the base.js file from the WinJS framework.
Using a smart combination of "Step over" and using the Solution Explorer we can set the following breakpoint after setting the variables we've previously seen.
Stepping over this deceleration we can then see the following values in our Locals window.
And now using the Immediate Window we can execute any javascript we'd like. For the purpose of this demo we'll set SIMULATE_PURCHASES=true. We could have saved some time by setting IS_PAID_FULL_VERSION=true, but I'd like for us to see this runtime behaviour.
Now when we click the purchase button we can see Windows 8 in-app purchase simulator. We'll tell it that the purchase was successful.
And now we can see all game levels are unlocked.
We've just shown how to inject arbitrary javascript into a Win8 store bought WinJS IE10 app and we've affected in-app purchase items inventory.
Summary: What have we seen?
We were able to show that the majority of ways games and apps developers would make money aren't secure by default on Windows 8. We've shown this for C# & XAML apps (Minesweeper), we've shown this for C# + Direct3D apps (Soulcraft), we've shown this for C++ & Direct3D apps (Ultraviolet Dawn), we've shown this for HTML & WinJS apps (Cut the Rope) and we've shown this for any app using Trial (Meteor Madness).
Let's repeat what we've seen so far, what the root cause of the issue is and what could be done at the framework level to mitigate this issue:
In-app purchase items Storage: In-app purchase is fast becoming the #1 revenue stream for game developers. We've seen we can trick games local storage to acknowledge consumable items that haven't been purchased. The real problem here is that Windows 8 apps don't have any truly secure location that's inaccessible to the user and can be secured in offline scenarios. One possible improvement here would be for Microsoft to offer such storage for all apps. Let developers have a secure encrypted isolated storage by default. Also, another possibility would be to turn on code obfuscation and minification by default in order to avoid the reverse engineering needed for this exploit.
Trial apps: Trial apps will likely be adopted by around 50% of Windows 8 games. We've seen how the Trial licenses are stored in the Tokens.dat file and how easy it is to edit it. The real problem here is that Trial apps are downloaded to the client machine with the full unlocked logic embedded in them. One way to fix this issue would be to have developers build two app packages (one limited functionality trial package and one full functionality package) and have those secured by the Win8 store purchasing system.
In-apps ads: Mobile advertising in apps is a major industry and a source of revenue for developers. We've shown how by simply editing the XAML files on disk we can turn off ads in games. It shouldn't be possible to tamper with XAML/HTML files and then have them loaded to memory. One improvement Microsoft can undertake here is have better on-disk tampering checks.
Game data files and in-game items: We've shown game data files can be edited and they'll then be loaded into apps. It shouldn't be possible to modify any game file and then have it loaded to memory. Microsoft could follow tothe aforementioned recommendation from item #3 to help mitigate this issue.
Injecting arbitrary Javascript affecting in-app purchase: We've seen we can inject any javascript code to run inside the IE10 process for a Win8 WinJS store app. That shouldn't be possible. One possible improvement would be for the IE10 team to lock down the IE10 process for signed scripts only when not on a development machine.
We've seen a myriad of issues and offered potential fixes to them all. Any mildly competent developer can productize these security attack vectors into shipping products. If Microsoft doesn't take it upon itself to fix these security attack vectors it's not because it couldn't, it's because it chooses not to.
What haven't we been able to do? What has been fixed since early Win8 betas is editing DLLs or HTML/JS files on the disk is no longer possible. When that's attempted the code integrity system kicks-in verifies file hashes and prevents app execution. One is left to wonder about how secure those AppxBlockMap.xml hashes really are and if they can be reversed engineer to be generated on the client side.
Heartfelt disclaimers
Games: The games appearing in this article are awesome and you should buy them and give them money. I've been a generous benefactor of each game and so should you! go download them and give them money. In order of appearance in article: Soulcraft (http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-US/app/soulcraft/115e7213-4386-48c3-ac8b-21c16d2b21c7), Meteor Madness (http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/meteor-madness/2d6287ff-e08f-4499-8245-d00899fd5824), Minesweeper (http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/microsoft-minesweeper/45ac18d7-e742-494f-a1b1-009aa412a179), Ultraviolet Dawn (http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/ultraviolet-dawn/0fe7f555-c8ad-4d0d-915f-ca2459f9a327) and Cut The Rope (http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-us/app/cut-the-rope/2d85eb97-3ee6-4aff-9618-3f6cdfd68291).
Game developers: The game developers for the aforementioned games are professionals. For the most part you can't work around a broken platform. There's nothing "obvious" about any of these issues.
Article format: This is an educational article written in the hope both developers and Microsoft can benefit from an open exchange of knowledge.
My employer: I have an employer and they had nothing to do with this article. Both research and authoring this article was undertaken at my leisure time.
FeedbackQuestions? Rebuttals? Thoughtful discussion? Sound off in the comments below.
Remember to read the previous article "Reverse Engineering and Modifying Windows 8 apps (http://justinangel.net/ReverseEngineerWin8Apps)" if anything is unclear as it outlines many of the techniques used here.
-- Justin Angel
Published on 12/10/2012 12:00:00 AM by Justin Angel ©2012.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Dakle, kako se i očekivalo, Winows RT (verzija W8 za tablete, koja je zaključana da može da instalira samo softver ponuđen kroz appstore) je razbijen i uz džejlbrejk koji se oslanja na stare i poznate propuste u arhitekturi sad možete da instalirate bilo šta na svojoj mašini. (http://www.extremetech.com/computing/144888-windows-rt-jailbroken-to-run-third-party-desktop-apps) Za sada je džejlbrejk malo neudoban i zahteva iskusnijeg korisnika ali ne sumnjam da će za par nedelja biti strimlajnovan u relativno trivijalnu operaciju. Bizarno je kako je Majkrosoft napravio savršen port Windows 8 za tablete a onda ga osakatio menjajući bukvalno jednu jedinu cifru u kodu. Hakeri vraćaju narodu ono što mu je oduzeto.
Nije vezano za Windows 8 per se, ali... Posle Ballmerove ostavke, akcionari sad traže i da Gejts ode:
Exclusive: Microsoft investors push for chairman Gates to step down (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-microsoft-investors-push-chairman-004812471.html)
Quote
NEW YORK/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Three of the top 20 investors in Microsoft Corp are lobbying the board to press for Bill Gates to step down as chairman of the software company he co-founded 38 years ago, according to people familiar with matter.
While Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has been under pressure for years to improve the company's performance and share price, this appears to be the first time that major shareholders are taking aim at Gates, who remains one of the most respected and influential figures in technology.
A representative for Microsoft declined to comment on Tuesday.
There is no indication that Microsoft's board would heed the wishes of the three investors, who collectively hold more than 5 percent of the company's stock, according to the sources. They requested the identity of the investors be kept anonymous because the discussions were private.
Gates owns about 4.5 percent of the $277 billion company and is its largest individual shareholder.
The three investors are concerned that Gates' role as chairman effectively blocks the adoption of new strategies and would limit the power of a new chief executive to make substantial changes. In particular, they point to Gates' role on the special committee searching for Ballmer's successor.
They are also worried that Gates - who spends most of his time on his philanthropic foundation - wields power out of proportion to his declining shareholding.
Gates, who owned 49 percent of Microsoft before it went public in 1986, sells about 80 million Microsoft shares a year under a pre-set plan, which if continued would leave him with no financial stake in the company by 2018.
He lowered his profile at Microsoft after he handed the CEO role to Ballmer in 2000, giving up his day-to-day work there in 2008 to focus on the $38 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In August, Ballmer said he would retire within 12 months, amid pressure from activist fund manager ValueAct Capital Management.
Microsoft is now looking for a new CEO, though its board has said Ballmer's strategy will go forward. He has focused on making devices, such as the Surface tablet and Xbox gaming console, and turning key software into services provided over the Internet. Some investors say that a new chief should not be bound by that strategy.
News that some investors were pushing for Gates' ouster as chairman provoked mixed reactions from other shareholders.
"This is long overdue," said Todd Lowenstein, a portfolio manager at HighMark Capital Management, which owns Microsoft shares. "Replacing the old guard with some fresh eyes can provide the oxygen needed to properly evaluate their corporate strategy."
Kim Caughey Forrest, senior analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group, suggested now was not the time for Microsoft to ditch Gates, and that he could even play a larger role.
"I've thought that the company has been missing a technology visionary," she said. "Bill (Gates) would fit the bill."
Microsoft is still one of the world's most valuable technology companies, making a net profit of $22 billion last fiscal year. But its core Windows computing operating system, and to a lesser extent the Office software suite, are under pressure from the decline in personal computers as smartphones and tablets grow more popular.
Shares of Microsoft have been essentially static for a decade, and the company has lost ground to Apple Inc and Google Inc in the move toward mobile computing.
One of the sources said Gates was one of the technology industry's greatest pioneers, but the investors felt he was more effective as chief executive than as chairman.
Zar on nije otišao da se bavi čovekoljubljem?
Pa bavi se kroz fondaciju, ali je istovremeno bio čermen Majkrosofta. On je otišao sa pozicije CEO-a. Citiram uikipediju:
Quote
Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect for himself. In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work, and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Ozzie), chief software architect, and Craig Mundie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Mundie), chief research and strategy officer. Gates's last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as chairman.
covekoljubljem i obrazovanjem. Jak proponent privatnog kompetitivnog obrazovanja.
XP korisnici mogu da dignu ruke u vis od sreće. Majkrosoft je ranije objavio da prestaje sa podrškom za XP od osmog Aprila ove godine, što bi značilo da navala brutalnog malwarea kreće negde od devetog Aprila uveče, međutim, sad je period podrške produžen do četrnajstog Jula 2015 (http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2014/01/15/microsoft-extends-updates-windows-xp-security-products-july-14-2015/#!srJq5)!!!!!!!!! Slutim da je neko u Majkrosoftu shvatio da ukidanje podrške za XP znači da bi pola Kine gurnuli u naručje Linuxa i to ne bilo kakvog Linuxa nego Googleovog Chrome OS-a, pošto Google samo čeka da ljudi posrnu da ih savataju. Tako da, svakako je zanimljivo videti da Ballmer još nije ni otišao a Microsoft već donosi relativno razumne odluke.
lepe vesti!
Ne treba zaboraviti i da 95% svetskih bankomata radi pod XP-om (http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-16/atms-face-deadline-to-upgrade-from-windows-xp).
Dakle, samo da i ovde potbrdio, Satya Nadella otpušta 18.000 ljudi iz Majkrosofta u naporu da firmu bolje fokusira na pravi posao i smanji birokratski balast (menadžere srednjeg reda itd.), po ugledu na male, uspešne firme koje danas na tržištu kapitala ostvaruju sjajne investicije, a na tržištu softvera obrću brze pare najpre na ime svojih ideja (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/17/bill-gates-internet-doomsday-prophesy-comes-true.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29). Zvuči sjajno, ali ono što se da pročitati između redova je da Nadella, da li na nagovor deoničara ili već, po sopstvenom njuhu, misli da je dobra ideja da multinacionalna korporacija ove veličine pokušava da se takmiči sa startapovima koji ostvaruju brzu zaradu i magnetski privlače venčr kapital zato što, eto, ove nedlje trenduju na tviteru a za par meseci ih se niko ne seća. Naravno, ja sam neuki tupan sa Balkana, a Nadella je ozbiljan igrač, no, ne mogu se oteti utisku da je ovo još jedan sjajan primer modernog kapitalističkog svetonazora gde je kratkoročni rast (čak ni profit, samo rast) sve, jer to zadovoljava investitore i gornji sloj menadžmenta koji dobija bonuse, a šta će biti za godinu-dve, o tome nek brinu naši naslednici...
Linux je za mene uvek bio primer kako se na finjaka kradu ideje. Neko ti lepo odradi gomilu programa, sve to za dž zarad lične napaljenosti i sujete, sačekaš neko vreme, prebaciš u drugi jezik već gotove programčiće, malko promeniš dizajn i zašititiš autorska prava i miran si.
Par ranijih distribucija (sad ne mogu da se opsetim tačno imena) Linuxa kasnije sam video kao nešto na što je ličio Mac X ili Leopard. Čak sam i rešenja iz Viste i sedmice nalazio neku godinu radnije u raznim distribucijama Kubunta, Ubuntu, Redhat, Fedora i sl.
Pa, dobro, ali sama filozofija open sourcea predviđa da, dok tebi neki pokrade dizajnerska rešenja, implementira ih u svoj closed source sistem, obezbedi kopirajt i trejdmarkove, ti si već negde drugde, sa novijim i lepšim rešenjima.
Uz sve muke da se izboriš sa os open sourcea koji stalno izvodi neke kerefeke. Pojdini programi koje mogu da teram na drugim OS, tipa Open ofisa i nekih za muziku i film su mi sasvim ok. Čitav sistem, ponekad deluje zbunjujuće.
No, ja još učim kako da se izborim sa 7-icom kupljenom uz komp. Najrađe bi to deinstalirao i krnuo Ubuntu 10, ali bih morao da se selim iz kuće...
Pa, uvek imaš opciju da uradiš dual boot - Ubuntu za tebe a W7 za druge ukućane i svi zadovoljni.
da, zar ne bješe neki program koji ubuntu pokreće iz windowsa? ili sam barem tako čuo...
Ima više načina. Recimo, da se u sedmici digne virtuelna mašina (VMware, Citrix), pa se tu instalira Ubuntu ili neki drugi OS. To znači da se unutar Windowsa 7, može pokrenuti Ubuntu (više instanci ako treba). Druga varijanta je da se u Linuxu iskonfiguriše dual boot - u ovom slučaju, prilikom podizanja mašine pojavi se izbor OS-a, pa korisnik startuje jedan (lako se podešava koji je defaultni, koliko dugo je meni vidljiv i slično). Treće je slično prvom - instalira se Ubuntu, pa se onda u Ubuntuu instalira virtuelna mašina (ovdje je već mnogo bolji Citrix za Ubuntu, a KVM za RH odnosno CentOS; powerVM za AIX ali to je već egzotika), pa je tu guest Windows 7.
Po meni, najbolje radi ova dual bot varijanta (ili Windows 7 + Live Linux, Knoppix recimo). To, sa već instaliranom sedmicom radiš tako što oslobodiš jednu particiju kako bi u nju ubacio Linux (najbolja varijanta), ili, ako je već sve puno, odradiš resize iz Linuxovog instalacionog menija (samo što ja ovo ne bi radio bez bekapa). Tu je i partition magic, kako bi isto to (samo sigurnije) odradio iz Windowsa - poslije samo ubaciš Linux DVD, on prepozna prazninu i ubaci se unutra - čak ti napravi sam dual boot meni. Inače, od Linux distribucija, od kad se pojavio iritantni Unity, skoro svaki Ubuntu klon je bolji od originala (Mint recimo).
Srećno!
Nadela je najavio da od sad pa nadalje sve verzije Windowsa ima da budu jedna (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/satya-nadella-just-made-single-002522037.html), to jest, nema više odvojenih verzija OS-a za različite sprave nego će i desktop i tablet i telefon da voze isti sistem koji će se nekako pametno prilagođavati platformi.
Deluje kao pojednostavljenje, pogotovo na strani developera, jer će se koristiti isti kod za sve, iste razvojne alatke itd., ali već i uzgredni pogled na komentare pokazuje da je mnogo ljudi reagovalo isto kao i ja - besmisleno je imati isti OS na spravama koje imaju radikalno različite funkcije i namene, neke od sprava će patiti jer će imati nedovoljno optimizovan interfejs a druge jer guraju previše glomaznog koda za sitan broj funkcija koje treba da obavljaju...
Majkrosoft je najavio da - ukida MSN mesindžer (http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2014/08/31/msn-messenger-is-completely-shutting-down-on-october-31st/). 31. Oktobra. Naravno, ova stvar je jako stara (15 godina), temeljito prevaziđena i, naravno, Majkrosoft sad ima Skajp, ali siguran sam da će ovo mnogim balkanskim ljubavnicima biti trenutak da se sa suzama u očima prisete svih devojaka (ili bar muškaraca sa ženskim nikovima) sa kojima su vodili vrele konverzacije putem Majkrosoftove čet-platforme :lol:
Da bude jasne koje su razmere Majkrosoftovog očajanja, naredni Windows će se zvati...
...Windows 10.
Tako je, preskaču devetku da bi naglasili koliko je novi OS unapređen u odnosu na osmicu (https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-skips-windows-9-emphasize-172044547.html)...
(https://www.znaksagite.com/diskusije/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi62.tinypic.com%2F23w66hw.jpg&hash=75657871fad5f68a92b8d43991d8fe1c58e6d5ed)
Makar da su imali muda pa da se zove Windows X...
Dobro, nije baš toliko unapređen. :lol:
"Unapređen" i "Windows" TAKO ne idu u istu rečenicu... :D
XP zakon
Disko 2000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmhCxX-ncdQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmhCxX-ncdQ)
Inače, nije da Majkrosoftovo numerisanje verzija windowsa ima ikakvu konzistentnu logiku. Jedan komentar sa slešdota:
QuoteHow would you possibly try to figure out Microsoft's numbering, anyway? Their version numbers go from 3 to 95, jumps to 98, 2000, then goes to the lettering, ME and XP (are those roman numerals?). Then in goes to Vista. Now, lets be fair. 95 and 98 are the years, so let's just count. So 95 is version 4, 98 is version 5, 2000 is version 6, ME is version 8, XP is version 9, and Vista is version 10. So next comes 11, right? Nope, version 7. Ok, but some of those were professional builds, right? So let's just start from NT v4 and count major NT releases. 2000 is version 5, XP is version 6, Vista is version 7, and... wait.
Wait, wait, I know, let's look at Microsoft's internal versioning numbers. NTv4 is version 4, 2000 is version 5, XP is version 5.1, Vista is version 6. Ok this is making sense, because next version after vista (v6) should be 7, right? Nope, Windows 7's internal version number is v6.1. Windows 8 is version 6.2. WTF?
Eh... tako je to u majkrosoftu... Valjda je očekivan kliše da će CEO indijskog porekla zazvati karmu u najnezgodnijem momentu :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Posle kad je video da je pojo gomno, Nadella se ispravio...
Microsoft CEO Says Women Shouldn't Ask for Raises, Will Instead Magically Receive Them via 'Karma' (https://www.yahoo.com/tech/microsoft-ceo-says-women-shouldnt-ask-for-raises-will-99592191369.html)
QuoteLadies, take note: A male leader of one of the most prominent tech companies in America would prefer that you hold your tongue about your paycheck.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said as much to an audience of women in the tech industry Thursday afternoon, ReadWrite reports (http://readwrite.com/2014/10/09/nadella-women-dont-ask-for-raise). He made the remarks while being interviewed onstage at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.
"For women who aren't comfortable asking for a raise, what's your advice for them?" Maria Klawe, a computer scientist who is a member of Microsoft's board of directors, asked.
"It's not really about asking for a raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will give you the right raise," he told Klawe (who, presumably, was screaming inside). He went on to further imply that there was an incalculable je ne sais quoi about a woman who never asks for what she truly wants.
"That might be one of the initial 'super powers' that, quite frankly, women (who) don't ask for a raise have," he said. "It's good karma. It will come back."
Audience members were immediately jarred, taking to Twitter to express their frustration.
"Thank god @MariaKlawe was there to give good advice about raises @ghc," one attendee, Andrea Barrica, tweeted (https://twitter.com/abarrica/status/520315822913232897), which the Grace Hopper Celebration account itself then retweeted.
The American Association of University Women recently reported in a comprehensive study (http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/) that in 2013, full-time year-round female workers were paid 78 percent of what men were paid.
To top it off, Microsoft revealed its diversity numbers (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/diversity/inside-microsoft/default.aspx#fbid=8-o05k2HYW2) last week, showing that just 17.1 percent of its tech-related workforce (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/diversity/inside-microsoft/default.aspx#fbid=8-o05k2HYW2) is female. That's only slightly better than the national average. According to the National Center for Women & Information Technology (http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-state-of-women-in-technology-15-data-points-you-should-know/), women made up 26 percent of the computing workforce in 2013.
One wonders why.
UPDATE: Nadella clarified his opinions on Twitter (https://twitter.com/satyanadella/status/520311425726566400), saying, "Was inarticulate re how women should ask for raise. Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias #GHC14 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/GHC14?src=hash)."
Check out the full video (http://new.livestream.com/accounts/10060267/events/3447060) of Nadella's conversation with Klawe.
UPDATE 8:24 p.m.: Nadella followed up his remarks on Twitter with a staff-wide email that was also posted on Microsoft's press website (http://news.microsoft.com/2014/10/09/satya-nadella-email-to-employees-re-grace-hopper-conference/). "I answered that question completely wrong," he wrote. "Without a doubt I wholeheartedly support programs at Microsoft and in the industry that bring more women into technology and close the pay gap. I believe men and women should get equal pay for equal work." He added, "If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask."
Nadella concluded that he'd "certainly learned a valuable lesson."
Ne znam da li ste svesni da je Majkrosoft juče prestao sa prodajom Windowsa 7 i 8?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/10/31/windows-8-windows-7-sales-end/?partner=yahootix (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/10/31/windows-8-windows-7-sales-end/?partner=yahootix)
Ja sam, bogami, kupio za poslovni laptop Windows 8, 18 dolara.
Da li da otvorimo novu temu za Windows 10?? Dok razmišljamo, evo sižea:
The next generation of Windows: Windows 10 (http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/01/21/the-next-generation-of-windows-windows-10/)
Windows 10's Big Step Back Is Actually a Huge Step Forward (http://gizmodo.com/windows-10s-big-step-back-is-actually-a-huge-step-forwa-1680887896)
From Halo, to Phone, to PC, Cortana is Windows' Digital Assistant (http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/01/21/from-halo-to-phone-to-pc-cortana-is-windows-digital-assistant)
Microsoft's AR Experiment Is Called Windows Holographic (http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/01/21/microsofts-vr-experiment-is-called-windows-holographic)
овај последњи линк, мало опширније виа http://techcrunch.com/ (http://techcrunch.com/)
Microsoft's New Holographic Nerd Helmet Is Awesome (http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/21/microsofts-new-holographic-nerd-helmet-is-awesome/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook)
и како би то отприлике требало д'изгледа:
Microsoft HoloLens - Transform your world with holograms (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aThCr0PsyuA#ws)
Bizarno je koliko Majkrosoft svesno i, reklo bi se, podlo koristi termin hologram da opiše nešto što apsolutno nije hologram :lol: :lol: :lol: Kao što ovo nije virtual reality tehnologija već augmented reality. Ali simpatično je.
Ja sam instalirao Windows 10 na laptopu, i moram priznati jednu, a to su ove dve stvari - čini se dobrim Windowsom, ali isto tako Windows 10 je u stvari baš dobro ispeglana i popravljena Windows 8mica.
Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk
A kad smo kod Windows 10>
http://www.pcgamer.com/windows-10-upgrade-free-for-owners-of-windows-7-and-81/ (http://www.pcgamer.com/windows-10-upgrade-free-for-owners-of-windows-7-and-81/)
A kad smo već kod Windowsa 10 - on još nije ni izašao a Majkrosoft, sledeći Nadelinu najavu da će se iteracije operativnog sistema sada brže pojavljivati, već najavljuje njegovog, ne baš naslednika, ali uznapredovalijeg potomka. Kodno ime za narednu verziju Windowsa, najavljenu negde za narednu godinu je Redstone (http://www.neowin.net/news/redstone-the-codename-for-the-next-windows-update-coming-in-2016), što, igrači znaju, očigledno predstavlja aluziju na Minecraft, najpopularniju PC igru na svetu a čiji je Majkrosoft od prošle godine vlasnik. Redstone je jedan od gradivnih materijala u igri.
Saznalo se i kako će se zvanično zvati naslednik Internet Explorera. Ono što se šifrovano zvalo "Project Spartan" zvaće se u konačnoj verziji: Microsoft Edge (http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/04/29/build-2015-microsofts-new-web-browser-gets-a-name). I "zamagliće razliku između kreacije i konzumpcije". Baš da vidimo.
Windows 10 će imati "staggered release" (http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/05/02/windows-10-coming-to-pc-first-xbox-and-mobile-later), dakle, izlaziće platformu po platformu a i neće imati sve funkcije u početku ni na jednoj. Biće to musavo, reklo bi se...
Quote from: Meho Krljic on 09-04-2015, 11:02:37
A kad smo već kod Windowsa 10 - on još nije ni izašao a Majkrosoft, sledeći Nadelinu najavu da će se iteracije operativnog sistema sada brže pojavljivati, već najavljuje njegovog, ne baš naslednika, ali uznapredovalijeg potomka. Kodno ime za narednu verziju Windowsa, najavljenu negde za narednu godinu je Redstone (http://www.neowin.net/news/redstone-the-codename-for-the-next-windows-update-coming-in-2016), što, igrači znaju, očigledno predstavlja aluziju na Minecraft, najpopularniju PC igru na svetu a čiji je Majkrosoft od prošle godine vlasnik. Redstone je jedan od gradivnih materijala u igri.
U suprotnim vestima, sada se veli da će Windows 10 biti poslednja verzija Windosa ikad i da će daji razvoj ići kroz inkrementalno unapređivanje ove verzije (http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/05/11/windows-10-will-be-microsofts-last-version-of-windows). Sreća pa kod njih leva ruka zna šta radi desna :lol: :lol: :lol:
Microsoft explains what you'll lose by upgrading to Windows 10 (http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/1/8696949/windows-10-feature-loss)
а у другим вестима једно вероватно обашњење откуд уопште број 10 (http://www.extremetech.com/computing/191279-why-is-it-called-windows-10-not-windows-9) (а не 9)
и преглед онога што 10ка нуди (http://www.extremetech.com/computing/191332-windows-10-technical-preview-hands-on-video)
korisno:
http://superuser.com/questions/922068/how-to-disable-the-get-windows-10-icon-shown-in-the-notification-area-tray (http://superuser.com/questions/922068/how-to-disable-the-get-windows-10-icon-shown-in-the-notification-area-tray)
Zahvaljujemo!!!!!!!
'Free' Windows 10 Now Looks A Terrible Deal (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/07/10/free-windows-10-charges/)
Windows 10 je pušten u divljinu, pa onda:
Windows 10: The Gizmodo Review (http://reviews.gizmodo.com/windows-10-the-gizmodo-review-1720872266)
Ali i ovo:
RIP Microsoft Solitaire, 1990-2015 (http://kotaku.com/rip-microsoft-solitaire-1990-2015-1720973007)
apdejtovao se sinoć sa Win7 na Win10, za sada ne primećujem neko nazadovanje, mada je još rano.
Ovi iz Mirkosofta stvarno da se roknu...
Windows 10 Forced Updates Causing Endless Crash Loops (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/08/08/windows-10-forced-updates-causing-endless-crash-loop/?utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix)
Quote
I think we can now all agree: Microsoft (http://www.forbes.com/companies/microsoft/) MSFT +0.3%'s hardline policy (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/07/17/windows-10-forced-automatic-updates/) on Windows 10's forced updates is silly. Very silly. Since launching nine days ago Windows Update has sent out an unstable graphics driver (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/07/25/windows-10-automatic-update-problems/) which switched off monitors, a buggy security patch (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/07/27/windows-10-automatic-update-security-problems/) which corrupted Windows Explorer and there are now a number of reports that a third update is causing Window 10 machines to crash over and over again...
The patch in question is KB3081424 (ironically enough a roll-up of bug fixes) and during its update process affected users find it fails and triggers the message: "We couldn't complete the updates, undoing the changes." Undoing them results in a mandatory system reboot, but as soon as the user logs back on Windows 10's update process kicks in and tries to install KB3081424 again.
I'm sure you're way ahead of me here, but since Windows 10 updates cannot be stopped KB3081424 tries to install over and over again which leaves systems caught in endless reboot loops (http://news.softpedia.com/news/windows-10-cumulative-update-kb3081424-fails-to-install-stuck-in-reboot-loop-488638.shtml).
Read more – Windows 10: Should You Upgrade? (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/07/28/microsoft-windows-10-should-you-upgrade/)
Why wouldn't KB3081424 eventually install correctly? Because the initial failed install has been found to create a bad entry in the Windows 10 registry which stops its subsequent attempts to reinstall from working correctly.
What To Do?
The good news is, despite Windows 10's best efforts, some industrious users have found a temporary fix to get rid of this bad registry entry. So before KB3081424 tries to install again quickly follow these instructions:
- Type "regedit" in the Start menu
- In the window that opens navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
- Backup your registry key as what you're about to do is risky (with ProfileList highlighted, click File and Export and choose a backup name)
- Then scan through the ProfileList IDs and delete any with ProfileImagePath found in it as it shouldn't be there
- Close regedit, reboot and next time KB3081424 should install properly
This method should clear out the bad registry entry and since not every user is impacted by the KB3081424 bug, the odds are on your side that it will be second time lucky now the bad reg entry has gone.
And no, at the time of writing, sadly the tool Microsoft released (http://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2015/07/27/microsoft-backtracks-on-windows-10-forced-updates/) to stop certain updates from reinstalling does not work with this patch. Hopefully that will change soon along with a Microsoft official comment on the problem and its plans for a fix.
All of which teaches a valuable lesson...
Give Users Options
What KB3081424, like the Nvidia bug (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/07/25/windows-10-automatic-update-problems/) and broken security patch (http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/07/27/windows-10-automatic-update-security-problems/) before it, demonstrates is Windows Update is far from a flawless entity. Three troubled updates in nine days may be extreme but there have still been "40 or so (http://www.infoworld.com/article/2949622/microsoft-windows/windows-10-forced-updates-dont-panic.html)" Windows Updates which have caused problems during 2015 alone.
As such Microsoft's track record has not earned it the right to force every update – big or small – upon users. Yes, users can opt for "Fast" or "Slow" rings for feature and driver updates (that equates to a one month delay for Windows 10 Home users on the latter) but security updates are immediate and unstoppable. And security updates have a worst track record (http://www.infoworld.com/article/2949622/microsoft-windows/windows-10-forced-updates-dont-panic.html) than feature and driver updates.
All of which means not giving Windows 10 users at least the option to disable individual updates should a bad update appear (they can gladly stay on by default) is totally impractical.
Both KB3081424 and the Nvidia bug pushed users into an endless loop of crashes and reboots and with Windows 10 expected to reach one billion devices over its lifetime, the stakes are too high to expect Microsoft to perfectly vet every update on every potential combination of hardware to which it will be exposed.
To which I conclude:
Dear Microsoft, your intentions with Windows 10's automatic updates are noble. An up-to-date PC is much better than a neglected PC and I recognise the ideal you are striving towards. But it isn't realistic, bad updates happen.
Users need the power to be able to protect themselves from a bad update until you deliver the fixes. I'd like to point out this actually buys you more time to deliver better fixes without rushing. After all KB3081424 was a cumulative patch for existing bugs which actually caused worse problems than it was fixing.
Windows 10 is a wonderful step forward, you're back on your game after Windows 8 so please don't ruin it through pig headed policies. A gracious u-turn now is better than a forced one later on. Think about it.
Windows 10's privacy policy is the new normal (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/windows-10s-privacy-policy-is-the-new-normal/)
QuoteBig data and machine learning are going to be used everywhere, even our operating systems.
Windows 10, in normal usage and typical configurations, will send quite a lot of information to Microsoft (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/windows-10-doesnt-offer-much-privacy-by-default-heres-how-to-fix-it/). Windows 8, in normal usage and typical configurations, will also send quite a lot of information to Microsoft. On the other side of the fence, OS X, in normal usage and typical configurations, will send some information (http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/01/spotlight-search-in-yosemite-exposes-private-user-details-to-spammers/) to Apple. It's hard to imagine a modern day operating system that doesn't do this, at least to some extent.
For example, Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android all sport app stores. Buying from those app stores requires payment information, typically including a name, address, and credit card number. Those stores may have age-based restrictions, so might require a date of birth. Those purchases are, of course, tracked, to both ensure that developers get paid and that popularity lists can be constructed.
Different platforms have different twists on this. The iOS App Store, for example, can show you apps that are popular nearby; it must be recording some location data when purchases are made so it can make this correlation. Windows 10 goes in a different direction. It includes personalized "Picks for you" and can suggest particular apps, based on their similarity to apps that have been previously installed. This currently doesn't seem very intelligent; it will sometimes recommend apps that are already installed.
Continuing evolution It's probably fair to say that Windows 10 goes further in this kind of thing than previous operating systems. But it does so not as an outlier or some major break from past behaviors, but as a next step in a continuous process of making operating systems more connected, and to make data collection and analysis more extensive.
Some of this is an obvious repercussion of user-facing features. Windows and OS X both offer search (in Windows through Cortana, in OS X through Spotlight) that spans both the local system and online. Naturally, the online portion of that search is sent to the respective company.
Similarly, Siri and Cortana use online systems for their speech recognition. Siri maintains personalized but anonymous speech data on each user to improve speech recognition accuracy.
Cortana similarly personalizes speech models; corrections made to her transcriptions are used to adjust speech models and improve dictation accuracy. Perhaps more contentiously, information about appointments and contacts' names and nicknames is also incorporated into these models so that Cortana can better recognize the people and events that you're talking about.
Windows uses similar personalization systems for both handwriting (using a stylus) and typing. This is used to improve text recognition algorithms so that more handwriting is recognized, and so that autocomplete can make more relevant suggestions. Microsoft regards these personalization features as so important that you can't use Cortana without them. Apple, similarly, makes Siri's personalization an integral part of the service that can't be disabled without disabling Siri entirely.
There are two common reasons for this kind of data collection. The first is that these services simply need to know these things to be useful. Siri needs to know the names of your contacts to be able to set up calls or send messages. Cortana needs to know when and where your appointments are to tell you when you need to leave the home or office to get to them.
But there's a deeper reason: the software powering these capabilities is fundamentally heuristic, using approximation and guesswork to generate its results. Traditionally this wasn't the case; a hardware keyboard with no autocompletion doesn't need any fancy heuristics, it just needs to directly map key presses to characters. But speech recognition, software keyboards of all kinds, and handwriting recognition don't have this precision. The software driving these things has to construct and evaluate a range of different possible interpretations and then pick a most likely option among those interpretations.
Sometimes that software will pick the wrong interpretation; sometimes it won't even generate the right interpretation at all. Analyzing real-world usage data gives companies like Microsoft and Apple (and Apple's speech recognition provider, Nuance) the opportunity to make their heuristics better. This software is all fundamentally data-driven, and as intelligent systems such as Cortana, Siri, and Google Now become more capable and more advanced, they're going to want to slurp up ever more data.
There are further opt-in features that can expose even more data. Cortana, for example, can read your e-mails to find package tracking numbers and flight bookings, which she can then tell you about. This is an opt-in feature, and it means that Cortana will read your e-mails. This e-mail reading appears to occur locally, on each device, but Microsoft will still learn at least some things about your e-mail—for each flight or tracking number Cortana finds, she'll query Microsoft's systems to learn more about them. This should be obvious; your phone doesn't know whether a flight is delayed or just how lost your package has gotten, so naturally online services have to be queried.
The power of the cloud One of the most important online services in wide use is essentially crowd-sourced: location. Microsoft, Google, Apple, and no doubt others, operate location services. While GPS provides a way for devices to figure out where they are without sending any data, all three companies have built systems that allow for location to be determined without GPS; instead, they use the IDs of Wi-Fi networks that a phone or computer can see.
These databases were often primed using data collected by street view camera cars—itself a contentious practice (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/germany-fines-google-a-paltry-189000-over-street-view-wi-fi-scanning/)—but is further extended and updated using data collected and sent by end-users' phones and PCs: each time a device queries the location service by asking it where the nearby Wi-Fi IDs are, the location service might remember those Wi-Fi IDs and their inferred location.
This is very useful, but obviously has privacy implications: the online service providers can track which devices are making which requests, which devices are near which Wi-Fi networks, and feasibly might be able to track how devices move around. The service providers will all claim that the data is anonymized, and that no persistent tracking is performed... but it almost certainly could be.
Indeed, that same "useful but with privacy implications" trade-off is the recurring theme of modern systems. Siri, Cortana, Google Now—they're all useful. But they have privacy implications. Syncing files to OneDrive or Google Drive is useful, but it creates some privacy exposure. Using a Microsoft Account to log in to Windows, sync settings between PCs, and have access to the same apps, or using a Google account to log in to ChromeOS, for the same benefits, are both useful things, but they carry a privacy trade-off.
These trade-offs can bite people. Microsoft, in common with most other American online service providers, will generally comply with court orders demanding data and will cooperate with police investigations. Google, for example, has contacted the FBI when its algorithm detected that a user of its Picasa photo service had uploaded child pornography (http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/11/21/googles-role-in-woodland-child-pornography-arrest-raises-privacy-concerns/), and Microsoft performs similar analysis of files on OneDrive. Microsoft received a torrent of bad press (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/arrest-of-secret-leaking-ex-microsoftie-raises-hotmail-privacy-concerns/) when it revealed that it had looked through a Hotmail user's inbox while investigating piracy of Microsoft's own software, though since then the company has promised to hand over such investigations to law enforcement forces (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/microsoft-will-no-longer-look-through-your-hotmail-to-investigate-leaks/) rather than conducting them internally.
One of the more contentious aspects of this is that Windows 10, like Windows 8 before it, has the ability to encrypt hard disks and back up the encryption keys to OneDrive (or, for corporate machines that are part of a Windows domain, Active Directory). This capability is not mandatory; while some have claimed that the only way to enable encryption without storing keys in OneDrive is to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, this is untrue (http://rootsecdev.blogspot.com/2015/07/ive-upgraded-to-windows-10what-are-my.html). If you want to put the backup key onto a USB drive instead of storing it online, that's possible.
This is, once again, a trade-off. Drive encryption has some value, especially on laptops, but it also has some risk; lost keys often mean lost data. For average home users, having an online key backup may well be a sensible risk/reward trade-off; the potential loss of privacy if a key is seized or stolen from OneDrive and subsequently used to decrypt their hard disk is likely outweighed by the extra protection that disk encryption provides. The default scheme may make your data less private if you're concerned about government seizure of your assets, but arguably more private if you're concerned about a crackhead stealing your laptop.
Windows 10 lets you opt out of these things if you prefer, but it's a less capable, less useful platform if you do—just as iOS, Android, ChromeOS, and even OS X become less useful if you disable every part of their online cloud service connectivity. This is a trend that isn't going to go away.
One other facet of modern-day computing is perhaps a little less welcome, but equally likely to be a fixture. Like Windows 8 and iOS, Windows 10 includes a persistent, anonymous advertiser ID. This advertising ID, which is enabled by default but can be turned off, is exposed to in-app advertisers to track your activity and in principle show ads that are more relevant to your interest. Turn it off and you'll get untargeted ads. The privacy concerns here are much the same as cookies on the Web; marginally better ads, at the expense of giving advertisers a somewhat better idea of the things that you're interested in.
A surprising change There is one setting in Windows 10 that's a little more unusual, however. Windows has long had the capability to report basic usage data to Microsoft. This includes, for example, data about any programs or drivers that crash, so that Microsoft can detect any widespread problems. This facility has also included the ability to optionally send more detailed crash reports to the company. These optional reports can potentially include snapshots of the memory being used by processes, and these snapshots can include personal data. So far, so ordinary; OS X and other operating systems have a similar capability, and many applications have equivalent reporting facilities implemented at the app level. The data that these facilities can collect can be invaluable for detecting problems and developing fixes.
On top of this, many Microsoft programs, including Windows itself, have a thing called the Customer Experience Improvement Program. This is, traditionally, an opt-in program. When enabled, Microsoft collects various kinds of usage information. For the operating system, this might include, say, which programs are installed, how often each Control Panel is used, or what the preferred settings for Explorer windows are. For an application, it might include, say, which menu items are used most often, how many documents are opened simultaneously, or whatever else might be appropriate.
Microsoft asserts that the information collected is anonymous (tied to a randomly generated Id rather than any personal identifier), and filtered to remove any personal information it might accidentally collect. It also promises that the information collected from these schemes will only be used for diagnosis and development, never for advertising or sales.
Windows 10, however, shakes this up. Instead of two separate systems—one for error reporting, a second for collecting usage data—both have been rolled into one combined setting. This setting has four positions: off; basic error reporting and simple device capability reporting; enhanced diagnostic tracking that extends the basic information with more detailed error reporting, and usage telemetry; and full data, that adds process memory snapshots to the enhanced data. This means that there's no way to participate in error reporting without also participating in usage tracking, and vice versa.
Further, the "off" option is only available in Windows 10 Enterprise. The common home user versions of Windows, Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, always collect (and report) at least "Basic" level information and no way to turn off the feature entirely.
The genuine privacy implications of this seem slight, but for those who absolutely do not want to send anything to Microsoft, Windows 10 is certainly a regression. Is Microsoft poring over this data, trying to sniff out the details of Windows users' lives and figure out all their secrets? It's highly unlikely—but the removal of the ability to turn off this reporting is nonetheless strange, and there's no clear reason for it.
Microsoft describes its data collection and usage policies on its privacy page (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/default.aspx). Some of the descriptions are a little fuzzy, though overall the page gives a clearer idea of what Windows 10 and other services collect, and why.
But the broad pattern is clear. The days of mainstream operating systems that don't integrate cloud services, that don't exploit machine learning and big data, that don't let developers know which features are used and what problems occur, are behind us, and they're not coming back. This may cost us some amount of privacy, but we'll tend to get something in return: software that can do more things and that works better. For many of us the benefits of these design decisions will be worth it. Those who think they aren't will continue to have to hunt through options to turn these features off... if they can.
Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can't stop talking to Microsoft (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/)
A da bude još gore:
Windows 10 Can Search For and Disable Pirated Games (http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/08/17/windows-10-can-search-for-and-disable-pirated-games)
(Mada se ovo odnosi samo na Xbox i Windows igre koje je publikovao Mikrosoft/ xbox Live)