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Comment Re:I Use A Mac... (Score 1) 218

by Foolhardy (#26122929) Attached to: Safari and Chrome: Tied For the Worst Password Manager
What about the Windows Credentials Management subsystem? It's been there since XP. IE and Explorer use it for the remember password option. The list of usernames/passwords in your profile can be modified via the users control panel.

However, Microsoft does seem to prefer a single (or very few) signon system with an AD domain or Passport.

Comment Re:Standards (Score 1) 543

by Foolhardy (#25666937) Attached to: Microsoft Begs Hardware Makers To Take Support Seriously

If mass storage did not have the HID abstraction and wear levelling circuitry (primitive though it may be), Windows would have absolutely soiled every flash device out there with its uniquely bad IO layer.

Can you be more specific as to Windows' "uniquely bad IO layer"?

Block allocation is the responsibility of the filesystem. Windows doesn't have a flash optimized filesystem because it would 1. break backwards and cross compatibility because MS would have to implement a new filesystem, one that they wouldn't port to previous OSes and wouldn't be compatible with other OSes, either because of NIH syndrome or because other OSes don't have a raw flash optimized FS (i.e. OSX) and 2. as the parent said most consumer hardware does not expose the raw blocks to the interface, so the FS would be of limited value.

However, there is a lot more to Windows' IO layer than filesystems, and there's nothing in the rest of the IO system preventing a raw flash optimized stack. I think Microsoft considers this to be a hardware problem, best solved in hardware, where it has been solved in hardware.
Education

How US Schools' Culture Stifles Math Achievement 888

Posted by timothy from the expensive-gubmint-babysitting-castles dept.
Zarf writes "I'd like to file a bug report on the US educational system. The New York Times reports on a recent study that shows the US fails to encourage academic talent as a culture.'"There is something about the culture in American society today which doesn't really seem to encourage men or women in mathematics," said Michael Sipser, the head of M.I.T.'s math department. "Sports achievement gets lots of coverage in the media. Academic achievement gets almost none."' While we've suspected that the US might be falling behind academically, this study shows that it is actually due to cultural factors that are devaluing the success of our students. I suspect there's a flaw in the US cultural system that prevents achievement on the academic front from being perceived as valuable. Could anyone suggest a patch for this bug or is this cause for a rewrite?"
Intel

Submission + - Open source drew us to Solaris says Intel

Submitted by Joris Arjan
Joris Arjan writes: Open source was behind Intel's decision to add Solaris to its list of supported operating systems. Speaking to reporters in the Asia-Pacific region during a teleconference, Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of Intel's server products, said the "open-sourcing of Solaris" changed Intel's mind about the OS. Before this, Intel only supported Windows and Linux on its x86 architecture. Skaugen said: "If you look at the 7 million downloads of OpenSolaris in 2005, almost two-thirds of those were primarily for the Intel architecture, while one-third was for UltraSparc."
Businesses

Submission + - India to overtake United States by 2050: Report

Submitted by
Aryabhata
Aryabhata writes: "Goldman Sachs scaled up its estimates about India from its original research paper in October 2003. The new view projects that productivity growth will help India sustain over 8% growth until 2020 and become the second largest economy in the world ahead of the US by 2050. The original report had placed India's GDP as No.3 outstripping Japan's by 2032. The latest report goes a step further to project India in No. 2 position in the global sweepstakes of tomorrow. Goldman Sachs' research arm said in a global research paper released on Monday that India's growth acceleration since 2003 represented a structural increase rather than simply a cyclical upturn. It said productivity growth drove nearly half of overall growth and expected it to continue for some years."
The Courts

US Attorney General Questions Habeas Corpus 1151

Posted by kdawson from the exact-words dept.
spiedrazer writes "In yet another attempt to create legitimacy for the Bush Administration's many questionable legal practices, US attorney General Alberto Gonzales actually had the audacity to argue before a Congressional committee that the US Constitution doesn't explicitly bestow habeas corpus rights on US citizens. In his view it merely says when the so-called Great Writ can be suspended, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the rights are granted. The Attorney General was being questioned by Sen. Arlen Specter at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Jan. 18. THe MSM are not covering this story but Colbert is (click on the fourth video down, 'Exact Words')." From the Baltimore Chronicle and Sentinel commentary: "While Gonzales's statement has a measure of quibbling precision to it, his logic is troubling because it would suggest that many other fundamental rights that Americans hold dear (such as free speech, freedom of religion, and the right to assemble peacefully) also don't exist because the Constitution often spells out those rights in the negative. It boggles the mind the lengths this administration will go to to systematically erode the rights and privileges we have all counted on and held up as the granite pillars of our society since our nation was founded."
Microsoft

The Partnership That Could Have Changed Everything 167

Posted by Zonk from the better-than-the-zune dept.
DesertBlade writes "Bloomberg is reporting that, at one point, Microsoft had considered an Apple/iPod partnership before it released its own MP3 player. Microsoft was apparently displeased with MP3 players partnerships they had already made, notably the Creative and Dell models. This information came from court documents introduced in an antitrust lawsuit from Iowa. From the article: 'Microsoft had been working with partners on music devices for at least a year before Apple introduced the iPod in 2001 and catapulted to a dominant position in the market. Microsoft and its partners failed to come up with compelling hardware and had difficulty getting software to properly connect music collections on computers with their devices.' If this Apple/Microsoft partnership was formed how would this have changed the Microsoft and Apple dynamics?"

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