Posted 10/15/2009 at 04:09:13pm

I just read your review on Windows 7 and left a holy be-jesus mess of irate tantrum.  Now, you have done it!  This convinces me that W7 is Microsoft's worst-ever blunder.  I thought this O/S was being touted as being sleeker and more sexy as far as paired down code is concerned.  It seems like we have worked backwards from XP which truly loads faster than Vista does...and now, comes W7, Microsoft's latest paltry release.  Now, we are supposed to wait even longer than Vista for this thing to boot.  Where did Microsoft go this time, to get it's engineering finesse?  New Dehli?....I guess this goes along with the brain melt down in the U.S....Microsoft must have outsourced their brains to a tin can.  What would have ever made Microsoft think for one moment, that we want slower boot times?  I remember how Microsoft coyly removed one of the best and most useful utilities it ever blundered into creating...namely BOOTVIS for XP.  One of their engineers was THINKING when along came the Man with the Hammer and hit the poor boy on the head with the wrench of stupidity.  They said, as I remember, the utility was only designed for developers...Microsoft quickly moved to disavow any responsibility for using their BRAINS.  All you have to do is use just about any current free version of Linux to find out what Windows 7 is MISSING!  How can people be paying $300 for an operating system that couldn't stack up against Ubuntu if it tried?  And nooooooooooo!  I am not a smart a$$ing Linux user either...I use it, but I have always been a Microsoft user too...and you just cannot, not even...find one level of comparison against Linux with W7...but now...comes the hippo that wallows through the mud!  I am truly dis-A-point-ed with W7 and I haven't even bought a single copy yet!

PS - I am a main contributor on Desktops and Hardware on Yahoo Answers!  Believe me, I will be shouting about this to every would-be upgrader and system builder.

Posted 10/15/2009 at 03:27:57pm

Ok, I am a rat ass...but who cares?  I read this entire article, word-for-word and I remain deeply UNIMPRESSED with W7.  Maybe you are chakra enabled power happy about it, but my chakra level on this O/S remains at low ebb.  I am not power infused with your words.  I don't see how these meesly little tweaks amount to a $300 bill for one copy of Ultimate.  I could care less about grouping files together.  I HATE big icons!  I want tiny icons on my desktop and I wished Microsoft would quit trying to make the O/S for the BLIND.  I got rumor on ZDNET that Microsoft is thinking about eliminating the keyboard - rumor has it...and buddy, if they get rid of the keyboard, I finally am gonna get rid of Microsoft outta my life...I happen to love my keyboard and I want it!  So there Microsoft, take it in the ear.  I call your performance results paltry.  Where are the huge gains?  Barely scrubbing the bottom of the tank, Vista and W7 seem to still be struggling with XP SP3 performance levels.  Am I supposed to be impressed with the fact that Microsoft uses the compatibility layer as a carrot-ona-stick to get me to buy their more expensive version just so's I have the privilege of running older software?  I am frankly TIRED of this game of outdating software and hardware and making me PAY through my gonads for new software.  Don't they get it at Microsoft ?????  7.5 million people are out of work and wondering if they can feed their family tonight.  7.5 million people don't have money to buy new software or even upgrade their older machines.  Millions of people are loosing their homes and going bankrupt.  Tsk Tsk, its like the blinders are on full scope and Microsoft isn't looking.  Ok, DirectX 11, Microsoft wants to do in XP at last!  Oh boy!  Not yet, I am afraid, until America goes back to work again.  I am very fortunate to be one of those few Americans still working and maybe able to afford upgrading my computers to W7...but I am going to hold on for at least 6 months, maybe a year, until W7 SP1 comes out to fix all the blunders and security leaks they have every time they create a new O/S.  I want to hit Microsoft on the head with a wrench is what I want to do.  These so called "enhancements," are paltry.  Where is the huge expansion in utilities and new features?  HEY!  I am running Vista Ultimate on two of my machines and XP Pro on one machine.  But I don't like Microsoft coming around outdaing any of my other hardware, like my PRINTERS, my SCANNERS and other hardware I paid good money for.  HP is especially aggregious about not updating drivers.  I am running 64 bit on my two Vista computers, one of which I built (the other is a laptop).  I waited nearly two years to go to Vista and I hate the search function.  And, I cannot SET the view I want to see in Windows Explorer.  I want to see all of my files with small icons in a list view without having to manually set it that way...there is no way to do that in VISTA.  And I wished Microsoft would DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. 

 I am going to wait and see..no rush to buy W7.  I did check with HP on my laptop, which I bought in APRIL 2009...guess what, no free upgrade to W7 for me!  I had to buy my laptop from June 1.  So I told HP, the next time I have $3000 to spend on a laptop (yeah, I bought their most advanced HDX laptop), I would REMEMBER it.  I am more than peeved that I have a brand new $3000 HP HDX laptop computer this is not elegible for a free upgrade to W7 just because I fell 1-1/2 months short.  So now, HP is finished as far as a laptop provider to me and Microsoft can just sit there on their kissers for the next year or two before I shell out any money for W7.  You say, Oh!  That is why he is so PO'd!  Noooooo, that is not the reason why.  I read the article intently to see honestly if I wanted to buy W7 and I see no big deal about it that intreagues me to shell out $1000 for three computers in my home just so I can get bigger icons, group my files, get DirectX 11 and outdate my software and maybe some of my hardware too...I wanted to see a significant reason for a ROI, and I don't see anything...not ONE thing, that causes me to want to upgrade.

Posted 10/15/2009 at 02:08:39pm

I am currently using ESET's NOD32 security suite 4.0 and I have no problems with it at all.  I pay for it, but then, ... IT WORKS's.  The problem with Microsoft is that far often more than not, they do a half-baked job
with most utilities.  They are stripped down and so basic that they bore me.  ESET's security suite is not too bad in terms of accessing what one needs to access, the interface is very simple, and the HELP is intelligible.  But what I like most is that NOD32 frequently if not always passes the test with VirusBulletin...the tough, no nonsense, no games-being-played antivirus auditor.  When Microsoft way back decided to jump into the security scene, they bought out a fairly good software, I think it was called Giant something..and that original version was very good!  But then, as always seems to happen with Microsoft software, they dummed it down.  For at least 6 months, I couldn't get Defender to update its definition table.  Then, when they fixed that one, it would work for a while again and then stop updating again...and on top of that, it would scan and not tell you a whole lot about what it did or was doing.  So I gave up on defender a long time ago.  When One-Care came out, I laughed and told myself, I wasn't going to trust my computer security to a half-baked solution.  Along with all the other dummed down utilities Microsoft creates, Defender was about the average half-baked, useless or stipped down solution that Microsoft is so typical of producing.  Here it is October, and I have not downloaded their so called "free" security software.  I may never!  Let's face it, Microsoft has gained a huge reputation in the world for creating stripped down, no frills, common, bland, barely functional utilities...and my experience with the little I have tried, has left much to be desired.  When Microsoft demonstrates via millions of users that they can produce something useable and worth while, I will look at it...in the mean time, I am stick with what I have.

Posted 08/05/2009 at 12:42:49am

Waaaayyy too fast!  Too darned fast!  Slow down, so that people who don't understand any of this can figure it out.  You went almost too fast for me, and I have been buiding computers for the last 25 years.  Secondly, you are talking too fast.  Third, it isn't cool to shoot pictures of you talking while you should be pointing the camera at the work itself.  Also, don't switch views between your face and YOU looking at the camera.  You are not the star here, it's called "HOW TO."  Anyway, you didn't tell people that the motherboard comes in an antistaic matt and that it helps to place the motherboard on the matt when working on it.  You showed it, but you didn't say why you did it that way.  Also, the case cage for the hard disk is different in just about every computer case, not all of them have back end screws.  And it is definitely NOT necessary to screw every hard disk and 5-1/4" device in with all four screws.  Two screws on one side of each device is sufficient to hold any device tight - I have been doing that for years and never had a vibrating hard disk problem.  You were talking SOO FAST, I just had to stop watching you because you were giving me a headache.  So I stopped at the motherboard pin connector part.  Maybe if I go get a couple of ibuprofen and lay down for an hour, I'll be able to come back and watch the rest.  Next time you do a HOW TO, please take your time explaining and demonstrating everything.  You said grounding is important but you did not SHOW or TELL HOW to ground yourself.  This whole video was a disappointment to me because I know you guys are great with PC's - you just need to be schooled in photogenics.  I might advise you get hold of a video producer and redo this entire flick with a more photogenic saavy rendition.  BTW, please clip the beard...it looked ratty.

Posted 11/08/2007 at 07:27:03pm

Hey folks...it sounds like Microsoft in Nigeria got to somebody, huh? I think its gonna sound like "thunk" in the midnight when they try to make XP Pro work with 256 Megs of RAM...lol, good try! I tried running XP Pro with 512 Megs one time and found it to be utterly s.l.o.w on a 2 Gig processor with L1 & L2 cache...When I added another 512 Megs of RAM, it was like XP Pro had a "sigh of relief...," there was a noticeable improvement in performance. I think you are right, those kids in Nigeria are gonna go out and play "futball," waiting for their screens to refresh. Hello Microsoft! Did you do a deal with the Nigerians? Hello? Microsoft? Hmmm...not a peep outta them guys! What a deal! Anyway, Microsoft knows there are no EU courts of justice in Africa, and so they can continue doing the kinds of things they tried in Europe down there with absolute autonomy...you know what Alfred E. Neuman always said..."what me worry?"

Posted 11/07/2007 at 06:21:16pm

Maximum PC, you have cought them red handed this time. I read in my local paper about how they have nipped users and exterminated BitTorrent... I have also heard about their retaliatory attacks against rude customers who say something to their customer service people that they don't like. This really irked me the most: "Typical users should never notice the MUL, ensuring that the vast amounts of revenue we exact from them remains intact." I am so offended by the remarks made that I am writing to comcast to DEMAND that they fire Alexis Luthoré. Who is this guy? He is obviously a very rich, arrogant and bombastic swaggard. I agree, we need aggressive Federal Level legistlation to bring this greedy b***ard under control. Right now with regular cable and internet service I amy paying a whopping $133 bucks a month. I think Alexis Luthore probably belongs to the "rich and exclusive" club that George Bush and his pals also do. How many politicians do you think COMCAST has bribed in Washington?????

Posted 07/04/2007 at 02:18:31pm

I say "poo poo" to Microsoft and Balmer. The problem with Balmer is that he is bald and that seems to get to him as Microsoft's iconoclastic and bombastic fuhrer du jour. I am a long time user of Linux (SuSE, Mandrake/Mandriva/RedHat/Fedora). I have had a dual boot Windows/Linux system for years now and I use both O/S's. Microsoft is ranting simply because Balmer feels a tiny pocketbook pinch in his bottom line. So what do they do, they get out the lawyers (who fought off the EU, the Federal Govt and several other Corporations over the years), and decided to bully and intimidate Linux and Linux users. I, for one, don't give a hoot what Balmer or Microsoft says or asserts. It's a lot of huffing and puffing over a non-issue. If Microsoft wants to intimidate, they had better be willing to face 10's of thousands of Linux users, who, as a collective group can sue Microsoft's pants off in a class action suit. Further, Liinux users can rouse the IRE of the EU by forcing Microsoft back into court over non-competitive tactics. Oh yes, there are a lot of legal ways to deal with Microsoft's anti-trust issues which are both chronic and real. I think its time, for Linux users to stand up and say, we've had enough of Windoz, either get back into your own arena Microsoft, or get bulldozed. Just because Microsoft funded the last Republican election, doesn't give Balmer the same rights to ignore the law that George Bush does.

Posted 07/04/2007 at 01:58:33pm

Ya forgot to tell people where and how to get the GIMP for Windows and Linux: For Windows: http://www.wingimp.org/ Also, if you are running Linux, it usually comes as part of the distro, but if it doesn't, you can get the latest Linux version at: http://www.gimp.org/ Notice one is WINGIMP and the other is GIMP.