Ah... never mind then. The Win8 SDK does not include these. Interesting, and I wonder if the Win7 SDK could be installed first to get hose compiler tools (I don;t see any real problem, unless Win8 SDK required new compiler features)

I do not see any note for the WDK 8 that tools have been removed, however. This may be a way for developers to get the latest Compiler for "free" development.

Hmmm... yet from what I see on the Windows SDK features page:

Visual C++ 2010 Compilers and C Runtime (CRT)

"The new Windows compilers and CRT for the x86, x64, and Itanium (IA64) operating systems are included in the Windows SDK and integrated into its command-line build environment. These compilers and CRT are the same as those that are included in Visual Studio 2010."

According to their own feature page, the compilers are included in the SDK. /Have MSDN Sub, but won't be worrying about Win8 development for some time, if ever, as an enterprise developer.

I wish I had mod points today....

This nails the point EXACTLY.

Microsoft is in such a rush to try and capture their own share of the mobile market and stay relevant, they are dumping 30 years of solid R&D in desktop user interfaces for an unintuitive tablet-centric UI, and in an effort to drive developers into the walled garden, they are now enforcing Metro development with their free tools.

The short-sighted idiots driving this nonsense at Microsoft are forsaking the desktop world with this move, though. As bad as we thought Vista was, it still sold well enough (tied to new systems) - but the user furor over Windows 8 will make the Vista flap seem like a blip in comparison. It's a wrong-headed approach to try and shove the genie back into the bottle, Microsoft... and worse, trying to do it by creating a hybrid UI that does no specific job particularly well for users of either environment. Compromises that sacrifice millions of dollars of very good research into user interfaces will end up costing you far more in the long run. ....and if consumers will be rebelling against Windows 8, what do you think will happen in the enterprise world? It's just starting to deploy Windows 7 desktops, warily approaching it after the nightmare that was Vista. Windows 8 demands retraining that will cost some organizations MILLIONS to implement. The introduction of Metro will also likely introduce a whole new firestorm of exploits for IT admins to face.

Congrats, Microsoft, for turning into a dumbass company overnight.

Do yourselves a big favor, Microsoft.... dump everybody in the company who thought Win8 Metro was a good decision for the desktop. FIRE THEM, and scrap the launch before it's too late. Pretend it never happened and begin working on Win9 with a Start Button and the improvements users WANT (like a new file system, for example, DLNA that works, improved stability and app fault recovery), instead of forcing limitations and touchscreen UIs down their throats.

By "Sweet Spot" I mean the highest capacity, decent performance, non-enterprise drives... i.e. 7200rpm 4TB drives (at this point). It's also a target, as there will be retailers who will sell these for $20~40 less.

This has always been the general rule, though the extended period the industry clung to 2TB consumer drives as the high end drove those drives (7200rpm) down into the $100~130 range.

The platter drive makers simply can't stand around if they intend to stay in the consumer market. SSD tech is quickly catching up in capacities, and the insane competition, combined with the Sandforce SF-2281 debacle, are driving prices down in an accelerating curve (though realistically, they should have hit $1/GB before last year's Black Friday).

There might only be a handful of platter drive makers still around, but they should not forget that they are competing against a (seeming) million hungry SSD makers..

This is all reminiscent of the Sumitomo event in the early 90s... when RAM prices tripled overnight. Forget the fact that there was a 6 month stockpile at the plant of the epoxy resin they could not produce until the plant was rebuilt... forget the fact that the manufacturers also had their own months-to-years supplies of the resin, and that the resin was a small fraction of the cost of RAM... prices TRIPLED OVERNIGHT. RAM manufacturers took their sweet time getting back to normal pricing, even though the factory being offline had ZERO EFFECT on the costs and ability to make RAM chips. They did so because they could make record profits after their margins had been cut to a sliver pre-Sumitomo.

The lesson learned and implemented by the HD manufacturers from that incident was that you could use the supposed "recovery" period to raise your margins and gain enormous profits.

Sadly, it's a short-sighted strategy, because the higher prices have pushed more consumers to spend the extra money on SSDs, which have now come down low enough in price and are available in large enough capacities to satisfy most consumers. Does an average consumer really NEED 2TB on their desktop? Most of the people that needed that sort of storage already purchased it before the floods, and those that still do are probably willing to hold off a bit longer. The SSD market is a virtual shark tank, and the format has gained miles on the platter drives' market share.

Meanwhile, the HD manufacturers are probably re-tooling their plants to handle even higher density platters, pushing up platter drive capacities above 6TB. The "sweet spot" will always be $200 for these drives in the consumer market, which drives down the price of those 2TB drives considerably (back down to pre-flood prices).

No price fixing really needed, though.... just a lesson learned and reduced pressure from the competition as they all decide to take a breather from the normal competitive price wars they've been engaged in. They can't ignore the SSD market for long though... $/GB is the only real benchmark that sets them apart from SSDs now, and the Hare is spending way too much time napping!

Not really. The problem is that political parties have their agendas. If a Republican is giving an argument against something, and couching it in terms that seem to have a liberal bent, it is significant. If the speaker doesn't truly believe in the argument they are making, why should we?

It doesn't matter to me what the party of the speaker is, if they believe the argument they are selling to the people.

If a used car salesman approaches you in the lot, as if he was a customer and chatted up how he was interested in the same vehicle you were, while his buddy moved in for the sale, isn't that rather dishonest?

Maybe in simpler terms: If a duck starts barking, WTF is going on, exactly?

The issue here isn't how "unfair" this is to local retailers, but rather how the tax is being paid back to Amazon, in defiance of the law that was written (though there is nothing illegal about it, and it's quite a common practice). Their argument is a misdirection - they'd like you to believe that they feel for the poor local retailers, and in a happier world, those retailers wouldn't pay sales tax (here's another hint: they don't pay sales tax - consumers do). The argument is a play to the conservative base, since the liberal base already has no problem with taxation; but it's a false argument. The speakers don't believe it, and it doesn't stand a thoughtful analysis.... however, for the majority who here it, their response will be knee-jerk (or at least the speakers hope for that reaction)

Lenny Goldberg is upset that the laws he's worked so hard to enact (funny how a "tax reform" organization wants MORE taxes imposed, too) are being "perverted" by the cities' sweetheart deals with Amazon. He's using an argument he doesn't actually believe in.... because his "side" has no problems opposing this deal, but conservatives need a different argument than "they are ruining our internet tax bill!!!"

The tax deals are nothing new. I live in the Flint, Michigan area, and that sort of thing is still done in this state to attract business.

OK, so this California Tax Reform Association seems to be set up by a Democrat (warning bells here) who seems to be solely focused on Internet Sales Tax and enforcement of that tax.

In the interest of full disclosure, the summary should mention this fact, as well as the political affiliation of the Senator who is complaining (yes, he too is a Democrat)

Opinions one way or the other of this move to grab a sliver of Amazon's tax revenues notwithstanding, the inclusion of quotes from a decidedly rabid pair of opponents is far from an even-handed treatment of the story.

20 seconds might be plenty of time for you to do all of that, including fuck, but the rest of us usually sit down to watch a movie after we've done all that (and I for one, last a lot longer than your few seconds... ask your Mom when you see her Sunday).

I'd prefer not to sit there for 20 seconds to be annoyed by messages that, by PAYING FOR THE MOVIE, do not actually apply to me.

That can't be good for sales. If I was buying an airliner, I'd have to pass on this one.