Microsoft will reportedly unveil major restructuring Thurs

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is expected to unveil a dramatic and long-awaited restructuring at the tech titan as early as Thursday, according to AllThingsD.
Ballmer is expected to re-align the company around service (software) and devices, both in the consumer and business sectors. Ballmer might have already laid the groundwork for that transition last year when he wrote a note to shareholders declaring that "this is really a new era for our company."

Microsoft will reportedly unveil major restructuring Thursday | Microsoft - CNET News

 

[Cr00zng]

You might not care about your privacy. Others do. It is a fundamental right and it makes us human. Some of us also care about what it is going to be like for our kids.

Just because other companies are trying unpleasant things, and some people have have fallen for them - does not mean it is ok for others to do it.

It is not hard to understand.

I do care about my privacy more than you seem to think and I agree with you that it is my fundamental right. Unfortunately, when it comes to the digital word, there isn't much one can do to protect his/her privacy. Especially in the US, where multi-billion dollar companies making a living from exploiting your digital identity. Sure, there are steps that you can take, like NoScript in Firefox, Ghostery, etc., to protect your privacy. With the browser signature based tracking of the online activities, even these measures to protect the privacy is being defeated.

And certainly, if Microsoft is moving end user tracking into the operating system, I'll need to find some other platform. That despite the fact that I have a Windows phone that I like and also happen to like Windows 8.1. In the latter one, currently there's an option of opting out of tracking within the OS. This might not be available in the RTM version, but that remains to be seen. I also don't use MS cloud services, that could also be made mandatory in the RTM version of Windows 8.1.

If the RTM version will integrate end user tracking into the OS, I'll change the platform. The chances are that I am not going to the deep end in that case and install Linux. My computer use is more of an application than platform issue and probably go back to Apple desktop....

 

[Mystere]

You might not care about your privacy. Others do. It is a fundamental right and it makes us human. Some of us also care about what it is going to be like for our kids.

No, it's not hard to understand. But you seem to be missing the point. There is no privacy on the internet. None. You simply have no expectation that there will be any. You are broadcasting your business to the entire world.

The internet is not a point to point place, it's a global commons in which packets travel through many places. You can't expect privacy there any more than you can in a cubicle at work, or screaming to your friend across a crowded commons...

If you want privacy, stay off the internet. That's all there is to it. Don't even use computers, because computers give up your privacy at every turn. Did you know that someone can sit out on your street and use a device that picks up RF emissions from your monitor and see everything that's on it?

 

[brummyfan]

I don't mind installing 8.1 with Microsoft Account as this is a preview and I understand the reason for it (may be to gather some information ) but definitely not going to install the final 8.1 if I have to log in with Microsoft account. I don't use Sky drive and will not use in future, I'm fed up with pay to view channels already, they started as a nice little package then demand money for special programs( especially the Sports channels).

 

[Mystere]

I don't mind installing 8.1 with Microsoft Account as this is a preview and I understand the reason for it (may be to gather some information ) but definitely not going to install the final 8.1 if I have to log in with Microsoft account. I don't use Sky drive and will not use in future, I'm fed up with pay to view channels already, they started as a nice little package then demand money for special programs( especially the Sports channels).

You don't have to use a Microsoft account, even in the preview.

Skydrive is free, unless you want > 7GB

 

[SIW2]

It is wise to take precautions.

A personal computer in your home should be exactly that. You can use the net of course, you can choose each time what you upload (e.g. your holiday snaps for relatives in Australia). If you use skydrive, MS will likely rifle through them. If you want them to be private, you can use Wuala, or similar. You can use a proxy for searching, like startpage.com. You certainly don't need to let MS or anyone else examine all your orifices. Staying away from smart screen and this ghastly search thing they are pushing is a help.

Dedo
If you do not want to end up an anally probed guinea pig in the money labs, you will be wise to boycott this latest Microsoft operating system thing, because it is an insult to intelligence, to poor people worldwide, and anyone with a basic sense of decency.

Don't allow anyone to remove personal from pc.

I don't mind installing 8.1 with Microsoft Account as this is a preview and I understand the reason for it (may be to gather some information ) but definitely not going to install the final 8.1 if I have to log in with Microsoft account. I don't use Sky drive and will not use in future, I'm fed up with pay to view channels already, they started as a nice little package then demand money for special programs( especially the Sports channels).

 

[Cr00zng]

It is wise to take precautions. A personal computer in your home should be exactly that. You can use the net of course, you can choose each time what you upload (e.g. your holiday snaps for relatives in Australia). If you use skydrive, MS will likely rifle through them. If you want them to be private, you can use Wuala, or similar. You can use a proxy for searching, like startpage.com. You certainly don't need to let MS or anyone else examine all your orifices. Staying away from smart screen and this ghastly search thing they are pushing is a help.

Dedo
If you do not want to end up an anally probed guinea pig in the money labs, you will be wise to boycott this latest Microsoft operating system thing, because it is an insult to intelligence, to poor people worldwide, and anyone with a basic sense of decency.

Don't allow anyone to remove personal from pc.

The PC nowadays stands for Public Computer that has been abused by the "money labs", since the World Wide Web has spread its tentacles. Yes, one can try preventing these abuses with various means, protest against it, but that's pretty much a lost effort. Especially, after the search engines, social networking, and various OS's had got away with it without people protesting much.

Selectively protesting against a new entity wanting to become a "money lab" seems useless to me. Especially when the guy asking to boycott the new "money lab" has no problem with subjecting his website's visitors to data-gathering by the old "money lab"...

 

[brummyfan]

I don't mind installing 8.1 with Microsoft Account as this is a preview and I understand the reason for it (may be to gather some information ) but definitely not going to install the final 8.1 if I have to log in with Microsoft account. I don't use Sky drive and will not use in future, I'm fed up with pay to view channels already, they started as a nice little package then demand money for special programs( especially the Sports channels).

You don't have to use a Microsoft account, even in the preview.

Skydrive is free, unless you want > 7GB

They didn't make it obvious that I could sign in with "User Account", I don't approve that attitude towards customers by a big organisation, at least, they could have mentioned that in the requirements for installing this Preview.

 

[pparks1]

While some are annoyed with the integration of the web on their computers, some of us really make use of the positives.

For example, I moved my email to gmail. All of my email is in the cloud. I can access from home, from work, from my phone, from my tablet, anywhere with a web browser. And I have nothing that I have to backup myself, and it requires 0 effort when I move from one computer to another computer.

I log into my google account with Chrome to synchronize my bookmarks, bookmark bar, history and add-ons. This way, if I am on one of my 3 work computers, my surface pro, my home computers, etc...I have everything in my browser. It works on my Linux machines, it works on my Windows machines, it would even work on an Apple if I had one of those. Again, nothing to back up and moving from one computer to the next is a no brainer.

Dropbox, I use it for simple things. Notes, text files, nothing terribly personal. Makes it super easy for both my wife and I to get to, and also puts my data in 3 places. It's on my machine, it's on my wife's machine and it's stored in the cloud. Therefore, it's almost impossible to imagine somehow losing it. For those things which are more sensitive, I simply use KeePass and store it within Dropbox. Thus, it stays secure and it's replicated. Thus, if for some reason I am dead, my wife can get into everything and get my usernames/passwords/etc.

For me, the benefits outweight the costs. I take measures to keep things as secure as possible. I don't disparage anybody who is leary of using these cloud based things for security reasons, privacy, etc. But it doesn't bother me in the least and I find the benefits outstanding.

 

[Cr00zng]

They didn't make it obvious that I could sign in with "User Account", I don't approve that attitude towards customers by a big organisation, at least, they could have mentioned that in the requirements for installing this Preview.

You mean like this obvious warning?



Yeah, I missed it too and used an MS account to install the preview. On my 8.1 local accounts were created and the MS account deleted. It's probably like getting the raincoat after thunderstorm...

 

[SIW2]

@crozng,

1. If you are walking in town, you probably wouldn't drop your pants.

If you are at home you can walk around bollock naked. There is a big difference.

2. If you post on this site, you know anybody can read it.

If you write in your personal diary, love letter, email, you probably don't want anyone else to read it. There is a big difference.

3. If you visit a site/ forum, you are going outside your personal computer. You know they are often ad supported. You can block them if it bothers you.

You probably don't want the contents of your personal computer examined. You probably don't want information about your local searches, or what you are running , or what you have installed sent to a brand protection agency, or anybody else. There is a big difference.

 

[pparks1]

While i understand the theory behind why I wouldn't want somebody looking into every search I do on my computer, I can honestly say that with years of using Google, social media and such I haven't had any bad experiences stemming from an internet search.

Some people say it's wrong that somebody can look you up on Facebook and get your info. On the other hand, they can look you up via a phone number lookup and find out where you live too. They can see what you have rented at the video store, they can see what you have signed out at the library, etc.

I find I simply don't have enough anxiety cycles to worry about all of the things which could happen, I have to focus mainly on the ones which are happening.

 

[SIW2]

The idea is to stop rifling through your personal computer, emails, local seaches, what you have installed and what you are doing on your personal computer.

What you do on a website/forum is outside of that. If I go outside my personal computer and visit a gardening site, google will pick that up. Next time I venture out, they will fire ads at me about compost and garden shears.

That is one thing.

I don't want them going through the contents of my pc or my emails to find out about my gardening interests, or my hemmorrhoids, or my drawer of frilly knickers.

Why is that difficult to grasp?

 

[pparks1]

It's not difficult to grasp at all, that is why I started out by saying, "I understand the theory why people are concerned". But since we both have a drawer full of frilly knickers, it might be nice to get the inside scoop on a new pair that we might not already have in our collection. Gotta hunt for those positives.

 

[SIW2]

I know you get it pp. It was more general post.

Curious why you are using gmail, though.

More curious what Jeff Ubben has in mind for MS. His arrival propped up the share price somewhat.

 

[pparks1]

It's not difficult to grasp at all, that is why I started out by saying, "I understand the theory why people are concerned". But since we both have a drawer full of frilly knickers, it might be nice to get the inside scoop on a new pair that we might not already have in our collection. Gotta hunt for those positives.

Why would I not use Gmail? I've actually got a domain registered with a Google docs account. My wife and I run some shared gmail calendars which are practically life savers for us. Gmail uptime and availability has been top notch. And I have had android phones, as does my wife now.

 

[jimbo45]

While i understand the theory behind why I wouldn't want somebody looking into every search I do on my computer, I can honestly say that with years of using Google, social media and such I haven't had any bad experiences stemming from an internet search.

Some people say it's wrong that somebody can look you up on Facebook and get your info. On the other hand, they can look you up via a phone number lookup and find out where you live too. They can see what you have rented at the video store, they can see what you have signed out at the library, etc.

I find I simply don't have enough anxiety cycles to worry about all of the things which could happen, I have to focus mainly on the ones which are happening.

Hi there
Even using things under "The Freedom of Information Act(s)" people can gather all sorts of information which BY LAW the person / company being requested for information MUST comply with (unless it also contravenes the various data protection acts).

For instance I could (from anywhere in the world) simply request to say a nasty immoral Debt Collection Agency "How many times have you sent a letter to XXXX". They MUST reply.

I think the Internet should be the LEAST of your worries -- the Freedom of Information Act(s) were a good idea in principle but the possibilities for misuse by all sorts of people is really quite frightening and IMO could be far more dangerous.

As someone in a great movie once said "Be Very Careful what you ask for".

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Cr00zng]

@crozng,
...
3. If you visit a site/ forum, you are going outside your personal computer. You know they are often ad supported. You can block them if it bothers you.

Ads don't bother me, tracking does...

You probably don't want the contents of your personal computer examined. You probably don't want information about your local searches, or what you are running , or what you have installed sent to a brand protection agency, or anybody else. There is a big difference.

I don't and you would know how that MS does that in its current Windows 8.1 version? Please don't quote Dado...

 

[EMINENT]

Some serious paranoia up in hurrah!

 

[McRuff]

Some serious paranoia up in hurrah!

So I take it you don't follow international current affairs and haven't heard of Prism etc

 

[LovingWindows]

I don't mind installing 8.1 with Microsoft Account as this is a preview and I understand the reason for it (may be to gather some information ) but definitely not going to install the final 8.1 if I have to log in with Microsoft account.

Windows 8.1 review - Still stupendously stupid

Part of article explains how to get yourself a nice local account and get rid of the Microsoft account one.