Why modular Windows will suck for Microsoft and suck for you

Here is Peter Bright's ideas on what might be wrong with the model for the next Windows version, or at least what we know of it now. While I have not formed my thoughts on all this as yet (there being very little hard information on the subject out and about) I tend to agree with Bright's reasoning.

Even so; it's a bit early to get all worked up over this. So take it with a grain of salt and think about it as time unfolds the whole story.

Jack

Links from the Gregg zone

1) Well its geek meet in Las Vegas, links for the week are all about Vegas, I was ask about cheap things to do in town. The best site I found about having fun in Las Vegas while holding a tight grip on your wallet is this one. http://www.cheapovegas.com There is a lot of info here, and it seems to be legit. They seem to call it as they see it for good or bad, reading through it I agree with almost everything I saw. I am considering buying the American Casino Guide coupon book, with the site discount only $11.50. What interests me is table match play, the book has $80.00 meaning at say roulette I bet red for almost even odds, but win $160.00 for $80.00 risk. That I like, however you should look close at the list of offerings to be sure you will be at those locations.

2) This is a link to the free shuttles available between different properties, even if you are using a cab you can save a bunch by limiting the distances traveling to off strip properties should you decide to go to them. http://www.a2zlasvegas.com

3) Another option is the city bus service they are usually on schedule unless there is an accident, or breakdown. Those are rare this time of year, more frequent in summer. You can get a 24hr pass for the bus. They cost $2.50 on any line other than the strip, meaning any cross street going away from the strip. The 24hr pass for the strip bus cost $5.00; if you want to use the off strip pass on the strip route they charge an extra fifty cents each time. This is the City bus service link http://www.rtcsouthernnevada.com use the drop down menu on the left side hit Citizens Area Transit if you know the address just put them in the trip planer. The complete service schedule book, with maps bought on any bus for 25 cents. If you are, up late and want a nice way to see the strip and all the lights, take the bus to the terminal at either end. The buses run every ten min., so there are many busses you can get the second floor, front row seats nothing but window, ride to the other end with a terrific view, or get off any time.

Well it seems I should offer some advice about gambling, I am writing this from the review of my overall experience, not from an educated academic study based in the areas of math, statistical analysis, or anything like that. I have read numerous books on the various games, played many systems with various degrees of success and failure. I have developed opinions on playing most games. However, the most important thing to remember, casino gambling is a form of entertainment, not a way to make money, change or improve your life, play for entertainment only. If you break even you have won, it is like going to the movie, having a good time and having them refund your money as you leave. The most important thing is money management, set your parameters. Know at what point you will quit in advance, if I lose X amount of dollars I quit, but just as important if I win X amount of dollars I will quit. Personally, I play what I think of as plateaus usually based on either tens, or twenties. In other words say I start with twenty dollars and I get to thirty-five on a particular payoff, I will quit if I drop to thirty, however if continued play gets me to fifty-seven dollars I will then quit if I drop down to fifty. There is always a place to quit, go do something else, however there is no limit on the top end, only the bottom, once I win I am guaranteed to come home ahead, the only question is how much.

Black Jack:

I have a preferred method of playing this game that originated from a system on roulette I read about in a Gambling Times Magazine article. It requires very little skill, only varying the amount you bet on each hand. As far as game decisions are concerned, you just follow the rules of basic logic. Here is a link to print out a chart of what to do with the cards dealt to you. http://www.hundredpercentgambling.com This chart is for a four-deck shoe, the amount of decks will not matter for this play, the chart is just to provide guidance, and stop you from doing something dumb. I will talk in units of play be they dollars, five dollar chips, or whatever.

Start with twenty units, follow strategy chart, first bet two units, if you lose at any time the next bet is two units. In essence, what you have is ten starting seed bets of two units each. If you win the first bet, you will have four units your two and the two you won. Next bet is three units, set aside the one left over in a separate stack or put them in your pocket, these units are not replayed, considered profit/reserve. If you win the second bet, you will now have six units, and your next wager is five units. One goes into your profit/reserve; your risk on this series is now zero. If you win three in a row, you will be ahead ten units. Your next bet is two units taken from the ten, you just won; repeat this pattern until you lose the seed bet. Then start over with a new seed, when you have lost the last seed bet, leave the table.

A variation I like to play with this is to find a table with open seats next to me, and if I complete a series, play one more hand on two spots five units each. If I win both of those, I am up twenty units, if I win one lose one I am still up ten, lose both break even. There are some situations requiring added units involving splits, and double downs. An extreme example you are dealt a pair of eights, split, draw another eight, and a three, split the other eight, double down on the three, draw another three, and a two, double down on both of those, you have up to 25 units on this hand. This is very unusual but, remember as a rule these situations increase your advantage, which is why the math says to bet more.

Slots:

I play them, but not often. However, I can offer some insight on them. I worked for a while for a secure document destruction company here in Las Vegas, one of the jobs we did was to destroy randomizing chips from the machines, the ones in the slot machine that set the odds. When the casino wants to change the payout rate on a particular slot machine, they just change the chip. They printed the payback rates on the chip; they ranged from 98% to 63% on the ones I saw. Based on that knowledge, my opinion is that you are better off to only play a particular machine for say three to ten pulls and change machines. What are the chances you picked the best payback machine on that row? At least this way you get the average pay back for that row. Another thing I think is important is the pay table, say for example 2,500 for1 coin, 5,000, 2 for coins, 20,000 for 3 coins, the overall average percentage of return for that machine includes the large bonus for 3 coins. When playing these machines, you should play the max. If you are playing one or two coins, your chances of winning are less. If I wanted to play one coin, I would want something like 2,000 – 4,000 – 10,000, or maybe just 2 coins with out a bonus. The other thing here is the larger the big payout the more play required between payouts. If you are just killing time and not interested in a big payoff, you might prefer smaller pays, but more of them, stay away from the big multipliers, and the large jackpots. Also, beware of the Max. Play button! If you are playing a penny machine, the max button can be 500 units or more, at penny play that is five dollars; at a five-cent rate, your twenty is gone on the first spin.

Keno:

The worst odds in the casino, but I play this also sometimes. Better to play the machines for small amounts. I will play five dollars on nickel Keno, I play the way ticket games. I occasionally will throw a twenty at quarter keno machine; play a seven or six spot to kill time, but only if I am up quite a bit, and feel lucky. If you want to play live Keno, I would suggest the way tickets for smaller wagers, as low as 40 cents a way most places.

Baccarat:

Baccarat can be a very good game to play, and it is one of the easiest to play. There are only two bets, player and house. I play the same as I play Black Jack, with the wagering format. I usually play whatever won the last hand, looking for three player wins, or three banks, wins in a row. The other option just play bank. Another way to play is to look for a successful player, watch his chip stack off and on while wandering around. Some players are very adept at this game, find one you like just sit down and do what he does.

Craps:

I think I would like this game to much, so I avoid it. Sorry.

Pia Gow:

Pia Gow is the best table game to play if you just want to play a long time for your money, if you are not interested in winning a bunch, or worried about losing this is a great game.You break even on most hands, win a few and lose a few, but at a five-dollar table, you can play for a long time without losing much. The game is much easier than it looks, watch a few hands, sit down you can ask the dealer, or someone at the table how to set your hand. They are usually very nice to new players, and they expect questions, all you need to play is a basic understanding of the ranking of poker hands.

Video Poker:

Video poker is my personal favorite, but unless you have devoted some time to study these games, I would caution against playing them a lot. They are a game of skill and as such to get close to the expected rate of return will require an investment of time, patience, and study. There are many different teaching aides available. If interested take a trip to the gamblers bookstore (11^th and Charleston), a great bookstore with gambling books and systems. You can buy programs for your computer that will train you to play the various games correctly; as you play, they tell you when you make a mistake, how much that error will cost you over time, and the correct play. If you play perfectly, and play machines with the correct pay table, your overall return will be over 100%. That would be after say 500,000 hands, not one or two hours. Be sure to ask for advice on which to buy, I would try and favor a program that will allow you to change the pay table to match the machines where you play. They are not standard, that is how the percentage is calculated.

Horseracing:

Here I can offer two plays that may be of value to this particular group, providing you have a basic understanding of the game. Look for a short priced favorite in the race, 8-5 or less the horse must be bet down from the morning line odds. If you find one look for another horse in the same race bet down against it with a starting morning line of between 4-1, and 15-1, must be about half the morning line or less. I have made a lot of money on this play. The other play is much more risky, but can payoff big. Look for a race with eight or more horses in the field, and a favorite at 4-1 or more, toss the favorite and just pick three horses for whatever reason you come up with, like the names, colors, and/or jockeys, birthdays, whatever. Then you buy a one-dollar box for the exacta, and trifecta, this cost twelve dollars, but if you guess, right could pay thousands.

Roulette:

There are some plays on this game that will allow you to play for long times with limited risk, but you will lose in the end. You can play the Black Jack wagering system on red or black. If you want a more advanced play on this game, ask me, it is a little complicated, not to play, but to explain.

Other Table Games: Games like three card poker, let it ride, Texas hold-em, Spanish twenty-one, etc. they are all fun, but carry a higher risk than others, I have tired most of them, but with limited success.

I hope this might help, remember it is only advise, it is after all gambling, have fun, enjoy…Gregg

Patch Tuesday Advisory

8 patches, five of which bear the dreaded "critical" rating. The link above will take you to Microsoft's advisory on the subject.

Meanwhile, Apple has had to apply another patch to QuickTime. The new version is 7.4.5 and here is Apple's advisory. Once again; media players bite.

Opera also has a new version of their browser out, version 9.27, which fixes two critical security flaws present in all previous versions.

Upgrade and patch at every opportunity. What else have you got to do with your life, right?

Jack

Linux Kernel Development (April 2008)

Subtitled "How Fast it is Going, Who is Doing It, What They are Doing, and Who is Sponsoring It" this is the Linux Foundation's overview of Linux kernel development. It's worth a read if you ever wondered where all that code actually comes from.

Jack

Ray Tracing To Debut In DirectX 11

This 3 page article will show you where Microsoft, Intel and several other major companies intend to go with graphics in the reasonably near future. I thought it was a pretty good interpretation of how I see things shaping up.

Jack

JavaScript slows down the Internet; WebKit to the rescue

For all the criticism I lay on Safari, and Apple because of it, here is one instance where they are leading the way and in a style we should cheer.

Every browser has a "rendering engine", which is what actually decides how to interpret the code to display the page. It is a rather large set of processes. The idea of having a separate "loading engine" makes a lot of sense and while Apple is not calling what it is doing with Safari a loading engine, I believe that is a good way to describe it. As far as I know, no one else is actually doing things this way......yet.

Jack

XP gets reprieve as Vista is too big and clanky - The INQUIRER

"Microsoft will not kill off Windows XP on June 30th deadline as it would have liked to.

The fact that Vista won't run on the current rash of low-cost, low-spec lappies has a lot to do with it."

If you want Windows XP look at a Dell, XP is still available from them.

AlaskaJoe

On Computers Radio Show Podcast 03-30-08

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 03-30-08. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.

Don't forget, Geek Meet 2008 is in 2 weeks in Las Vegas. Please visit http://geekmeet.oncomputers.info for more details.

Is There Room for a Security Browser?

Well, we on the show cast have been saying for a while now that the browser is the most dangerous application on our machines. Here is a short overview of why and how researchers are trying to create a safer browser.

It will be interesting to see what they come up with. Getting the public to become security aware and use it, or most security tools, is another hurdle all-together. We shall have to see how that goes, as well.

Jack

Vista Ultimate SP1 and Ubuntu Shame the Ultra-Hackable Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Just what I needed to start off my day. Sheesh!!

Someday, Apple will realize security by obscurity is not a viable policy. Even Microsoft is much, much more forthcoming and so gets the benefit of the security community's poking and probing. Apple will continue to be blindsided occasionally by these things until they wise up.

Jack

Microsoft offers free support for Vista SP1 installs | Tech News on ZDNet

"Vista users encountering problems when they upgrade to Service Pack 1 can breathe easier: the company is giving away free support for those installing the service pack."

Normally, only Windows Vista users who bought the retail product would be eligible for free support but, for SP1 installation, even users with an original-equipment-manufacturer copy of Vista on their computer can get Microsoft's help, according to the official Vista blog.

Help is on its way for Vista SP1.
AlaskaJoe

Another new element added

Over on the right, you'll see another experiment. I ran across this today, and I thought of Riley, immediately. The voice is ok. I listened to a post for a few minutes. It doesn't specify links, so I see some problems, but I'm curious what everybody thinks.
Thanks,
MissM

Links from the Gregg zone

1) First link up for the week the ultimate cat, think lions and tigers are big, well you have not seen Sinbad. In the wild the largest cat is the Bengal Tiger, large male about five hundred pounds, Sinbad tips the scales at a little over nine hundred pounds! Now that’s a cat! Check out the video at http://www.youtube.com

2) Second subject for the week is an environmental technology link. A few weeks back I posted about a submarine that could run without any fuel of any kind other than a few nine-volt batteries to power the small computer control center, operating on the temperature changes at different depths, it continue to travel for months at a time. That had potential, but this tops it in spades. An aircraft that uses only gravity to fly, no fuel ever, other that the energy expenditure in manufacturing, and maintenance, this is as green as it gets. Capable of carrying people, and or freight, we are not talking about a model glider of some sort here. This could be the real thing; only draw back would be time duration of flight. I like this a lot, this is a must see http://www.fuellessflight.com

3) This is from an article I was reading about London needing to do something to house future residents, my attention caught by the numbers, 100,000 people living in one building. Thinking about the world population expansion verses available land needed to sustain them, still maintaining some wild areas; it appears we need to do something. Maybe vertical cities would be an answer, thinking about the post I put up a while back about vertical farming combined with a few of these tower type cities, maybe we can handle a few more billion. http://www.popularchitecture.com

4) Now for the tech link of the week, if you have not heard about Microsoft’s new project set to start in the spring of 2008, oh wait that would be about now. Check it out the world telescope, I have posted three links for this one first an article in Science Magazine, http://www.sciencemag.org next a link to the introductory announcement video, by Roy Gould and Microsoft’s Curtis Wong at the Ted site http://www.ted.com, and the main site at http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

5) Last up for the week when looking at the links about the fuel less airplane I saw a reference to the walk along glider, the comment about not being in production any more making it a collector’s item got my Ebay juices flowing. I was surprised when I searched it there not to find any. This got me to googling around and I found a site showing how to build one, with some interesting videos, http://www.geocities.com

Flaws found in Safari browser

This is just what I told you to be wary of when I posted about the Safari release.

The flaws found have been rated "highly critical" by Secunia and could allow takeover of a PC. More information will be available soon, I am sure. For right now, I'd uninstall Safari and wait for those who like doing such things to test it and then for Apple to fix any flaws.

And shame on Apple for pushing this on unsuspecting users.

Jack

Windows XP: Going, going ... gone?

With XP being the most used operating system in the world, every, and Vista under a cloud of suspicion by potential adopters, the lifespan of XP is a topic worth exploring. This article in Computer World does just that. It explains MS policy clearly, as well as telling you how to keep accessing XP if you wish to.

Jack

Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Support

Microsoft is providing a host of free support options for Vista SP 1 through March 2009. Keep this link handy.

Jack

Safari 3.1 on Windows: a true competitor arrives (seriously)

My own testing of Safari 3.1 on Windows has stalled while I work out and fix an issue with one CPU on the dual processor machine. Right now, that box couldn't work it's way through a session of Minesweeper, much less run Windows in a VM.

Here is a very positive review of the new Safari at Ars Technica. It is definitely worth your time.

We can only benefit from another competitor in this space. IE is not exactly what I think of as a great browser. Firefox has memory issues. Opera is, ah, quirky. In this new version, Safari carries adherence to standards to a new height. It even complies with standards just coming into force now! Why, even Opera doesn't support the full list of what Safari does.

I'm not recommending people install Safari on Windows, yet. Not that my thoughts are going to stop those of you who are computer savvy and know how to manage risk with new software. But I take that stance to John and Jane Doe precisely because Safari's security has not been evaluated in the real world. Should it go a few months without any glaring issues, I'm all for installing it. Just not now. Not yet.

Jack

Evidence mounting: Windows 7 going modular, subscription

Cynics claim that Microsoft is trumpeting Windows 7 to divert attention from the Vista trainwreck. Some of that may indeed be true, though it does seem to me it is a bit of a stretch to divine someone's motive from afar and based on so little evidence.

This post on Ars Technica is more likely to contain the reason for all Microsoft's talk about the future. It seems they are trying to get us used to the idea of renting software as we need it or need to update it (which they can control by killing off any component that isn't generating the required revenue any more).

It's going to be fun to watch this play out against FOSS alternatives or more traditionally marketed products, such as those from Apple.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 03-23-08

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 03-23-08. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.

Links from the Gregg zone

1) First link up for the week, I am going to start with a visit back to the subject of savants, those extraordinary people with talents that boggle the mind. What caught my eye about this story was the title “The Human Camera”, this is about a man who after taking one helicopter over a city can draw (without any drafts, or aids) a complete photographic panoramic style drawing of the city. Accurate to the number of windows in the buildings, degrees of curve in the streets, you have to see this it is just fantastic. Complete with video http://www.paulsfunkystuff.com

2) This link is one that I alluded to last week, but did not post, so I am correcting that here. This is supposedly the most extensive parts store in the world, at least according my original reference. They say you can find a part for almost anything here. I am looking for a shelf that I managed to break a couple of years ago in my refrigerator. I have not had the time to look for it, and I need to sell something on Ebay to pay for it. I will let you know what happens, when I get to it. In the mean time if you need a thing here is the link http://www.partstore.com

3) Now here is one that Joe sent me, as someone who surfs a lot one of the most frustrating things to see is the page you are looking is unavailable. I have always been at a loss when this happens. Joe has sent me a link to help solve the problem, and find those missing pages. I just got it yesterday and have not had a chance to try it yet, but it looks very promising. http://howto.wired.com

4) This will be a couple of links about the “Battle of L.A.”, one of my favorite possible U.F.O. stories, five years before Roswell. This happened at the beginning of the war just a few months after Pearl Harbor in Los Angeles. There was an object off the coast fired on extensively by anti-aircraft guns. Thought to be a blimp or balloon, have to wonder why they could not bring it down. The first link is to a Youtube video with the original news broadcast. http://www.youtube.com The second link is to a article with new updated analysis of the photographic evidence, http://www.rense.com

5) Last up this time around, I kind of like these Easter egg type stories, recently found a Bugs Bunny cartoon, one of the early ones with a little porn snuck in by one of the artists, but that is not for this blog. Anyway, have you heard about the museum on the moon? Seems someone smuggled some Easter egg type artwork on the Intrepid at the time of its manufacture. Here is the link http://www.boingboing.net