Here is how their new compression method works. It reduces all images down to a single one or zero. If the bit read in is one, it display a picture of a cat. If it is zero, it displays a picture of Peter Griffin farting. And as a bonus, if no bit can be read, it displays the goatsex guy.

Can they also put a switch in this to make Office usable? I can't stand that fucking ribbon interface that makes everything I used to do the most often 5 times more difficult.

I'll second that. (They could just offer an additional normal menu bar like the Mac version) It is their reluctance to back off of this and several other past design mistakes that makes me surprised they would even consider backing down from their Windows 8 Metro stuff.

While it is nice to see Microsoft undo a horrific mistake for once, lets not be too quick to forgive and forget. (And don't even start until the gold release of Windows 9 is sitting on user's desktops)

The fact that Microsoft created this monster in the first place should tell you something about the remaining competence level there. You should be worried about their long-term stability. What is to keep them from pulling a similar stunt on you in Windows 10?

I think the real story here is that someone in Atlanta figured out how to use a computer. :P

It is great to see more of ID's early work opened up.

A while back there was even some talk about releasing the hard drive images from some of their NeXT computers used to create DOOM. http://serverfault.com/questio...

I wonder if anything will come of that? It would be doubly awesome right about now because the NeXT emulator "Previous" has gotten far along enough where it can actually boot to a 68K NeXTSTEP desktop!

That is a nice story, and if true you got lucky that it was a small company and your boss probably knew your actual competency level.

In most places when stuff like this happens, your bosses' bosses' boss will want blood, and a nice firing will happen no matter what.

Protip: if anyone ever find themselves on the short end of this stick, don't grovel to keep your job. If possible, don't even discuss what happened. Remind them of your strengths, experience, what you can continue to contribute, and why they hired you in the first place. It won't make any difference if they already have their minds made up they want blood, but you will feel better about it.

What you won't see in their documentary is the part where after digging the big hole, they accidentally fall in, and can't get the heck out!

Mod parent up. TFA made it sound like they did raw complex magnetic imaging similar to that Cray disk that was recovered while back.

Compared to that, using a Kryoflux is little more than "throwing it in a floppy drive".

> Then you'd miss stuff like 1-2-3 diskettes and unformatted blocks.

And that is why, like I said, you attach your floppy drive to a Kryoflux, SuperCard Pro, or Deluxe Option Board device.

I've recently read a number of floppies that are older than the ones in the TFA, and none of them have magically fallen apart.

Technically reading a disk will put some wear on it because the heads touch the surface, but if the disk was properly stored and was of a good brand (not Wabash), that wear is negligible.

Most serious software archivists would simply plop the disks in a floppy drive connected to a Kryoflux, or similar device, and be done with it.

Magnetic imaging is an overkill unless the disk is from a system where no compatible form drive exists any more.

The really interesting thing about DOS 1.1 (or actually very slightly later revisions) is that it was the first to be released to OEMs other than IBM. Early clone makers such as Zenith, Corona, Columbia Data Products, Eagle Computers, or Compaq (you might have heard of that last one), never would have gotten off the ground if Microsoft had not licensed it out to them.

Some of the early "MS-DOS" compatibles were not even hardware compatible with the IBM PC. All you could rely on was the presence of an 8088/8086 and MS-DOS provided I/O calls. And those OEMs had to customize MS-DOS to recognize their proprietary hardware.

I'm not so sure about the value of Word for Windows 1.x. It wasn't even the first word processor for Windows (Beaten by AMI and PageMaker).

Now, on the other hand I have heard some interesting things about the internals of Word 1.00 for DOS.

In other news, lobotomies are good for people. The less you think, the better you feel. See the full story on Fox News. :P

But seriously, If the results are really more about behaviors, then the REAL problem is that current society does not adequately provide similar social outlets or activities for people who don't happen to believe in imaginary sky beings.

Thing is, it started off trying to be fairly realistic. If they had started out from day 1 explaining that these nanites were implemented to collect and redistribute power with some not fully understood tech that might be supernatural or alien, then it would be easier to just sit back and enjoy. But instead they keep everything secret so they can pull out some new WTF whenever they feel like it.

Take the basic premise and characters, and stuff it in a mind-warping anime, and it would probably work well.

But as it is, they use real actors... who ironically seem to lack energy. And the plot seems to have no real direction (Turn the lights back on? How is that supposed to work after 15 years of neglected infrastructure?). Whoever writes this stuff just wants to yank around the audience. And it probably will get canceled without a proper ending.

From my perspective, half the fun of watching any sifi-ish show is exploring the universe they have created, and too much secrecy and inconstancy ruins it.

On the brighter side, they nuked Atlanta. :)

The only thing that spoiled it was that the same statement was missing a emi-colon

That was the ONLY thing that spoiled it?

In a show where power is magically inhibited by some fucking nanites, who can also bring back power to stuff that has 15-year old aged batteries or no other power source, can be used as weapons, while at the same time having the ability to heal people, that that have become sentient, that can bring the fucking dead back to life, are being worshiped, communicate through hallucinations, can re-create an entire world in a Matrix-ish type way, and who knows what kind of shit they are going to pull out of their asses next! (Don't know why I watch that piece of shit)

Are you sure that is the ONLY thing that spoiled it for you?