I'm totally amazed

[z_k_g]

Do this:
1. Download the free edition of either Advast, AVG, Zone Alarm or Kaspersky on the laptop/USB.
2. Go to your control panel & uninstall both Norton & Malwarebytes.
3. Reboot.
4. Install one of the free antivirus software you previously downloaded.
5. Get the updates - it may do that automatically.
6, If your OS is Window's based - install Microsoft Security Essential.
7. Remember do not browse online until you have installed all anti-virus program (s) & run a scan.

Kfc,

Assumptions, Assumptions!

Ok, I repeat!   I've never had a virus in 2 years!

My Mac is actually a Sony Viao, cost very minimal!  

So.....How many programs you said that you run to keep you safe and secure and in tip top shape on your Windoze OS?

Four, Five maybe Six?

Well...I run One, its called OS X 10.5.7    

Zulu

[thekfc]

Did you reply to the correct quote?

Kfc,

Assumptions, Assumptions!

Ok, I repeat!   I've never had a virus in 2 years!

My Mac is actually a Sony Viao, cost very minimal!  

So.....How many programs you said that you run to keep you safe and secure and in tip top shape on your Windoze OS?

Four, Five maybe Six?

Well...I run One, its called OS X 10.5.7    

Zulu

Do you actually know what you are talking about?
OS X 10.5.7 is not what that protects your "Mac". OS= Operating System, not anti-virus, not protection.

My MacBook Air got a virus. One of my HP laptop (Windows NT) have never had a virus - over 5 years. It depends on what you do, where you go & what you have as protection. Nothing is immune to viruses - it depends on the user.

Like I said before - you have been lucky....read again.....you have been lucky. You just haven't done something  (yet) to get a virus. Go to a Warez site with your "mac" & download stuff - then see what happen.

FYI - read:
Macs are not as prone to malware, most Mac infections occur as a result of user action (downloading Warez or counterfeit software, programs, etc). Whereas a Windows system is easily susceptible to a so-called drive-by silent infection that happens through no fault of the user.

There is no "fun" in attacking a Mac OS, nobody brags about that or take the people who do seriously. 

[piglett]

^ Or aspirin....   

or 2 hours 

pig

[robert angel]

Hey Pig, Jed,

Posts too long? Maybe we need to enroll you in Evelyn Woodhead's Sped Reading Class!

Otherwise, read em and weep, or just don't read em at all!

Yea--people with Apple products who don't think they can get viruses are wayyy wrong. As common as M.S. OS's no--but they're out there.

And smart phones are next. You don't think all those enticing new, free 'apps' (the word of the year' for 2010 was 'apps') don't come with strings attached, or in that case, worms inside?

 It's not enough that they can track where you are via the internal GPS and by what you browse, if you enter your zipcode for the free weatherchannel app, etc and pretty much watch what you do on those things.


It's not just 'Uncle Bill' Gates  watching out for you anymore!

Google wants to take over the world I think and that PC in your home is just not enough.

Funny thing is, I have an antivirus program on my phone, but it's too early yet for smart phone antivirus programs to have any virus definitions, so thus far, they're pretty worthless...But you just wait!!

[thekfc]

Funny thing is, I have an antivirus program on my phone, but it's too early yet for smart phone antivirus programs to have any virus definitions, so thus far, they're pretty worthless...But you just wait!!

Now that phone numbers are being linked to credit cards......it is just a matter of time.

[jm21-2]

Those antivirus programs are a big drain on the system and the fear is overblown. I've done about everything risky you can do on the internet and I think I only had one virus, when I was in college, that took a couple hours to fix. It was a worm that my room mate got and spread over the network (edit: there was no cure for the virus at the time). Most people don't have that much important stuff on their computer and they could just store their personal stuff on a thumb drive. I would just skip all the antivirus stuff altogether, no matter what system you run. Your computer will have better performance and probably be usable for an extra year.

I think Apple's business model (anti-competition, top-down) is really bad so I'd never use their products, no matter if they were safer or not...

[thekfc]

Those antivirus programs are a big drain on the system

That is because people everything thinking that they need them when all they need is just one or two features of the program.

and the fear is overblown.

That is not what Al Gore said.   

I've done about everything risky you can do on the internet

jm, you naughty boy. 

[thekfc]

Bill,

Bob is correct that a flight from Manila to the West Coast usually takes around 15 minutes on the clock due to the International Date Line. You lose a day going West and repeat a day going East. (I lost a birthday once going West on board ship).

I would strongly advise taking off of work for at least 2 weeks after her arrival, if at all possible.

Here's a reprint of my "Filipina Bride Survival Kit": You can pick through it and see what you may need. I put an * by the more important items to get you started.


*****

Considering the culture shock and homesickness that often affects your Filipina bride when she arrives in the States, here is a list of items that you can try to have on hand ahead of time to help her feel more at home. This list is based on my own personal experiences and recommendations from other PL readers. Please feel free to add your own suggestions, especially if you are a Filipina immigrant to the U.S. You may have to find an Asian market in your area for some of these items, but the additional effort will be well worth it.


Required Items:
  *Rice, 20lb min, Calrose or Thai Jasmine
  *Electric Rice Cooker
  Cooking oil, 1 gallon
  *Soy sauce, 1gallon
  *Vinegar
  *Banana sauce
  *Dried fish
  *Dried squid
  Pork chops
  Ground beef
  *Spam
  Vienna Sausage
  *Coned beef, canned
  Sardines, canned, X-large
  *Garlic
  *Onions
  *Celery
  *Carrots
  *Cabbage
  *Potatoes
  *Ginger
  *Tomatoes
  *Eggs
  Bananas
  Lumpia wrappers, frozen
  Pancit noodles (Canton, Bihon)
  Sinigang mix
  Coke
  *Sprite
  *Lactose-free milk
  **Tabo (or 1-qt plastic pitcher)
  Step stool
  Nipa broom w/ 18” handle
  *Flip-flops, size 6, 2-3 pair
  Warm jacket, small
  Warm fuzzy slippers
  Electric blanket
  Woolite detergent
  Clothes pins
  Vick’s Vapor Rub
  Electric fry pan for outdoor cooking
  Prepaid phone cards

Optional Items: 
  Beer
  Rum
  Tabasco sauce
  Bagoong
  Patis
  Ground pork
  Hot dogs
  Fish, whole, with heads (Tilapia or Bangus)
  Nescafe instant coffee
  Pineapple juice
  Green mangos
  Fresh Papayas
  Squid, whole, frozen
  Mung beans
  Sunflower seeds
  Spinach, fresh (or ampalaya leaves)
  Eggplant, Japanese long
  Yellow squash
  Rice dispenser
  Karaoke machine with Filipino love songs
  Large framed picture of Last Supper
  Arnold Schwarzenegger movies
  Bucket, 5 gal

*****
Ray

Something not on Ray's list that I would like to add:
Teddy bear or stuff animals.
Small variety of chocolate.

I also plan on having either a small Junior's cheesecake (sampler) or a tiramisu cake.

[Ray]

Something not on Ray's list that I would like to add:
Teddy bear or stuff animals.
Small variety of chocolate.

I also plan on having either a small Junior's cheesecake (sampler) or a tiramisu cake.

OK, how about one of those little bears that giggle and laugh when you push on its belly? If you ever see a tampo coming on, just push the bear's belly!  LOL!

That other stuff is OK for a one-time shot, but too much will rot her teeth out and run up your dental bills.   

Ray

[z_k_g]

kfc,

I haven't got a virus in 2 years, and oh yeah, the Viao is still running at the same speed or faster than when OSX was first installed.  I've upgraded twice.

I am very knowledgeable about hardware, software and firmware.

I've programmed everything from old DECs to PDP11's, FRADS, SCADA, and used most IDE's and coded with punch cards on mini mainframes in straight hex and binary, and I'm pretty handy with Unix/Linux, Dos, Adtran, Cisco IOS, HPunix command line.

OSX is built on top of a solid foundation of Unix/Linux/NeXT, can be hardened to military grade very easily, and the  Unix/Linux core is inherently processes independent and so stable you can upgrade the kernel with your computer running (Try this with Windoze 7).  

Windoze is mom and pop consumer grade software for kids and the masses.  Its cute stuff, when it works!

Unix/Linux runs our cars, network routers, mainframes and the emergency room equipment in every hospital and pretty much anything of critical value in the world.  

Try rebooting your EKG or heart monitor during a surgery because you get a virus!    Never happens because the EKG OS is embedded Unix.

The reason you need 6 or 7 software layers added as watchdogs in your process tree in Windoze is because the threads are unprotected and most of kernel processes and threads are interdependent.  Junk software

This is the core vulnerability of all Windoze kernels.  A nasty brings down one peripheral process and your house crashes, you start leaking data, get buffer over and under runs.  A nasty virus or rootkit that you caught from the wild can bring your Windoze 7 world to a halt.

If thats not bad enough news, and you don't happen to get a nasty virus or bot, then whats probably worse is Windoze's consistent destruction of every HDD its installed on with its' fragmentation and inefficient disk usage issues.  Western Digital, Hitachi, and Seagate love Windoze users for this reason!

When you install Windoze, its basically HDD suicide. If a virus doesn't take you out, the the poorly written Windoze OS will eventually slow down to a crawl and self destruct.

OSX/Unix/Linux is better software.

Zulu

[thekfc]

kfc,

I haven't got a virus in 2 years, and oh yeah, the Viao is still running at the same speed or faster than when OSX was first installed.  I've upgraded twice.

I am very knowledgeable about hardware, software and firmware.

I've programmed everything from old DECs to PDP11's, FRADS, SCADA, and used most IDE's and coded with punch cards on mini mainframes in straight hex and binary, and I'm pretty handy with Unix/Linux, Dos, Adtran, Cisco IOS, HPunix command line.

OSX is built on top of a solid foundation of Unix/Linux/NeXT, can be hardened to military grade very easily, and the  Unix/Linux core is inherently processes independent and so stable you can upgrade the kernel with your computer running (Try this with Windoze 7).  

Windoze is mom and pop consumer grade software for kids and the masses.  Its cute stuff, when it works!

Unix/Linux runs our cars, network routers, mainframes and the emergency room equipment in every hospital and pretty much anything of critical value in the world.  

Try rebooting your EKG or heart monitor during a surgery because you get a virus!    Never happens because the EKG OS is embedded Unix.

The reason you need 6 or 7 software layers added as watchdogs in your process tree in Windoze is because the threads are unprotected and most of kernel processes and threads are interdependent.  Junk software

This is the core vulnerability of all Windoze kernels.  A nasty brings down one peripheral process and your house crashes, you start leaking data, get buffer over and under runs.  A nasty virus or rootkit that you caught from the wild can bring your Windoze 7 world to a halt.

If thats not bad enough news, and you don't happen to get a nasty virus or bot, then whats probably worse is Windoze's consistent destruction of every HDD its installed on with its' fragmentation and inefficient disk usage issues.  Western Digital, Hitachi, and Seagate love Windoze users for this reason!

When you install Windoze, its basically HDD suicide. If a virus doesn't take you out, the the poorly written Windoze OS will eventually slow down to a crawl and self destruct.

OSX/Unix/Linux is better software.

Zulu

You sound like a fanboy.

Actually your post proves that you are.

[jm21-2]

The vast, vast majority of people will replace their computer or HDD long before they see a problem with it, unless they got a defective or poorly built drive. When I built my computer not too long ago I used an ultra-fast 36.7gb drive that now can barely hold basic software. I just downloaded a TV series from Korea that was 96gb! I will have to say goodbye to the old 36gigger soon, but still running strong.

Now what the average person does worry about is: availability of software, compatibility with other people's computers, and price. PC's running dos and windows have had those areas cornered for a long time now. I remember a friend of mine growing up with a Mac who always played really old games. I thought he just liked vintage games, but no, they were new games for Mac, just released on Mac years after they were released for Windows. Windows being used by the majority of busiensses and people around the world helps with compatibility. I'd have to check on pricing but Macs are usually more expensive.

Linux may become a good freeware alternative, but probably only for those out on the fringe.

[thekfc]

The vast, vast majority of people will replace their computer or HDD long before they see a problem with it, unless they got a defective or poorly built drive. When I built my computer not too long ago I used an ultra-fast 36.7gb drive that now can barely hold basic software. I just downloaded a TV series from Korea that was 96gb! I will have to say goodbye to the old 36gigger soon, but still running strong.

36gb 
I have USB drives bigger than that. 

Which TV series that you downloaded?

I am currently watching Gloria. Kim Su-ro, The Iron King & High Kick 2 are on my list to watch/catch up on.
I finally finished watching the Blossom Sisters.
 

[Woody]

OSX is built on top of a solid foundation of Unix/Linux/NeXT, can be hardened to military grade very easily, and the  Unix/Linux core is inherently processes independent and so stable you can upgrade the kernel with your computer running (Try this with Windoze 7).

1. OS X is almost entirely a BSD derivative(Mach Kernel, BSD userland) with no Linux at play(GPL doesn't play nice with how Apple does things).
2. Live kernel upgrades are good for preserving uptime to apply MINOR security fixes. The fact of the matter is that you are a complete moron if your infrastructure relies on a single point of failure server and you cannot do scheduled maintenance. Live kernel updating is nothing new and is something that could be applied to Windows, that doesn't make it good or a selling point, especially for a desktop users. The fact is, most security issues have nothing to do with the kernel itself, but are something in userland that let bad things happen.

Unix/Linux runs our cars, network routers, mainframes and the emergency room equipment in every hospital and pretty much anything of critical value in the world.

Show me a consumer car/truck/van that uses *nix as its real time OS for controlling everything from the breaks to the blinkers.

Try rebooting your EKG or heart monitor during a surgery because you get a virus!    Never happens because the EKG OS is embedded Unix.

No, it is because the EKG machine is either not running an OS, or if it is, it is in an embedded situation where the only vulnerability is from a network attack(if it is hooked to one at all)

A nasty virus or rootkit that you caught from the wild can bring your Windoze 7 world to a halt.

Same applies for any *nix.

If thats not bad enough news, and you don't happen to get a nasty virus or bot, then whats probably worse is Windoze's consistent destruction of every HDD its installed on with its' fragmentation and inefficient disk usage issues.  Western Digital, Hitachi, and Seagate love Windoze users for this reason!

When you install Windoze, its basically HDD suicide. If a virus doesn't take you out, the the poorly written Windoze OS will eventually slow down to a crawl and self destruct.

Hasn't been true since 2006.

OSX/Unix/Linux is better software.

Subjective.


It boils down to this: If you replaced every desktop on the planet with Linux right now and it was visually identical to Windows, you would still have the same level of virus proliferation and other forms of malware within six months. The problem isn't so much the software, the problem is the end user. People bitch and moan about UAC in Vista/7, it is the same thing as sudo or the admin password prompt you get in OSX when trying to do things potentially dangerous.

This argument is now played out. Windows XP and prior are now old news. If you can't apply your argument to Vista/7 then it doesn't hold merit. If you are still a Windows user using XP on the internet, well, I hope your next crash is the final straw.

Do you know why it will never be the year of the linux desktop? Because the Linux desktop is fragmented, dynamic, and the most common answer to a user's question is to drop to the command line. I live in the command line. I have SSH windows open all day, telling an end user to drop to the command line means your [snip] is broken. Let's not even get into kernel version driver dependencies. What a [snip]ing nightmare.

MS hit a homerun with Windows7. The UI is better, more fluid, and much better for the end user.

As for OSX on your Hackintosh. If you don't have multitouch on that trackpad, you are missing one of the most satisfying aspects of OSX. I'm just waiting for that [snip] to become common on pc hardware and Windows. Multitouch trackpads breath new life into laptop usability.



BTW, go ahead an don't run an antivirus on your legitimate copy of Windows, which entitles you to a free copy of Microsoft Security Essentials. One of the lightest, fastest, and most unobtrusive antivirus solutions on the market. I love MSE because it doesn't bother me, ever. It gets its daily updates, it has no need to tell me it was a good boy and updated itself. The only time it ever bothers me is when I am dealing with external user's thumb drives/external hard drives. It will catch and clean at least one virus every 2-3 drives I have to use. The P2P networks are filled with viruses.

Do you know why MY computer has not had a virus in years? Because I don't run random [snip] I don't need. The average user does and this is why their computers are filled with malware.

[Woody]

The vast, vast majority of people will replace their computer or HDD long before they see a problem with it, unless they got a defective or poorly built drive. When I built my computer not too long ago I used an ultra-fast 36.7gb drive that now can barely hold basic software. I just downloaded a TV series from Korea that was 96gb! I will have to say goodbye to the old 36gigger soon, but still running strong.

Heh, the smallest mechanical HDD I use anymore is 750GB, that is in my laptop. I surpassed 22TB of storage in my personal fileservers in 2006.

[jm21-2]

I remember running a server on hotline, an old p2p network, when I switched to my massive dsl connection with 128kbps upload, oh ya. Lightning fast. I was on top of the world, haha. And then they came out with CDs and that 2x writer was such a huge storage boost...

Windows 7 keeps growing adding backup drivers and temp files....almost takes up my whole hdd after a while. But it's still a relatively fast HDD so I figure what the hell...I have a terrabyte drive that I never thought I would fill and now regretting I didn't spend a bit more for 2tb at the time. It seems like the fast new internet connections are making the hdd industry speed up as well. And vastly increasing the size of video files.

96gb was Queen Seon Deok. Seemed interesting (and long) but the only version had 1.5gb episodes (62 eps). Only watched the first 2 episodes yet I think whcih are a prelude to the main story. I downloaded Anthony Bourdain's no reservations and am hooked on that. If you like travel and food it's awesome. I watched "my girlfriend is a nine-tailed fox" (Korean) recently with my fiance which is OK but dramatic even for Korea.

This might be the most off-topic thread on PL, and that's saying something....

[robert angel]

OOoh i better keep a close eye on #2
I am more of a night owl & if i am up doing something i really like i tend to just stay up until i am really tired.

so what exactly is the problem with #2


pig

Piglett,

Don't run out for the sleeping pills just yet. My wife, before we married, went to bed early and got up early. Now she stays up later, but getting up is harder for her than me. Seems she needs more hours of sleep than me. You'll both probably change a bit. I noticed in the Philippines, we go to bed earlier and still sleep latewhen we can (no work conflict) yet we seem to get more things done-more meaningful activities with family and friends, etc.

Here in the USA, we work during the week, 2 or even 3 jobs sometimes, looking forward to the weekend, then half of what we planned to do, we don't and the weekend's gone in a blink if the eye.

I think even if I worked a straight 40 hour week over there, I'd like the pace better over there. Before she came here, my wife worked 12 hours a day, six days a week and still somehow managed to chat hours a day with me and take the three hour bus ride home sometimes--somehow, it's different there.

[robert angel]

I think in 1996, I paid $3500 for a Compaq PC, with Windows, a massive (har har) 1.6 gigabyte hard drive and a 14 inch, cathode, curved screen monitor. The PC came with a floppy disk reader.

The day after this past  Thanksgiving, I paid $69 for a two TERABYTE, portable hard drive the size of a paperback book --what is that Woody---2004 GB? It came with a five year warranty--from Western Digital, who build decent stuff, generally..

You can pay a lot more--like a buddy of mine does, for the dual hard drives in his home made PC that run at 10,000 RPM, but like most technology, there will always be a more expensive version, closer to the 'cutting edge'. My friend just  tells me w/ HD's, check the manufacturer and the warranty--that you get what you pay for, usually.

The same game started all over again with flash memory for the first digital cameras and then the USB thumb 'jump' drives. I don't even wanna remember how much I paid the first couple years for those puppies...

[thekfc]

96gb was Queen Seon Deok. Seemed interesting (and long) but the only version had 1.5gb episodes (62 eps). Only watched the first 2 episodes yet I think whcih are a prelude to the main story. I downloaded Anthony Bourdain's no reservations and am hooked on that. If you like travel and food it's awesome. I watched "my girlfriend is a nine-tailed fox" (Korean) recently with my fiance which is OK but dramatic even for Korea.

This might be the most off-topic thread on PL, and that's saying something....

I haven't seen Queen Seon Deok but  saw previews of it - it do look interesting. I like the actress (Lee Yo-won) that plays the queen, I remember her from Attack the Gas Station.

I have only seen bits & pieces of  "My girlfriend is a nine-tailed fox" , I will watch it completely one day as it is only 16 episodes.  Shin Min-a won 3 awards for her role as Gumiho. I still remember her as Icy Jade from Volcano High & of course as the woman at the center of the violent & excellent "A Bittersweet Life".

Have your watch any episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern yet?

[thekfc]

I think in 1996, I paid $3500 for a Compaq PC, with Windows, a massive (har har) 1.6 gigabyte hard drive and a 14 inch, cathode, curved screen monitor. The PC came with a floppy disk reader.

How heavy was it? 

[Woody]

I think in 1996, I paid $3500 for a Compaq PC, with Windows, a massive (har har) 1.6 gigabyte hard drive and a 14 inch, cathode, curved screen monitor. The PC came with a floppy disk reader.

The day after this past  Thanksgiving, I paid $69 for a two TERABYTE, portable hard drive the size of a paperback book --what is that Woody---2004 GB? It came with a five year warranty--from Western Digital, who build decent stuff, generally..

You can pay a lot more--like a buddy of mine does, for the dual hard drives in his home made PC that run at 10,000 RPM, but like most technology, there will always be a more expensive version, closer to the 'cutting edge'. My friend just  tells me w/ HD's, check the manufacturer and the warranty--that you get what you pay for, usually.

$3500 for that? Sure that wasn't mid-1995? Probably a Pentium 90, possibly a dual 5.25 and 3.5 floppy reader, 2x or 4x CDROM.

Actually, it depends on how you look at it. For desktop use on your PC, it is 1862GB/1.82TB. The HDD is 2,000,000,000,000 bytes. In HDD terms it is 2x10^6. The OS rates things in Base2, so for it, 2TB is 2x2^40 or 2,199,023,255,040 bytes.

Your friend was right, four years ago. Today a single, high end, SSD will wipe the floor with his RAID0 10k RPM setup in everything but sequential read/write. But you go 10k RPM for the access time(SSDs are measured in tenths of a milisecond, HDDs are measured in miliseconds).

[robert angel]

How heavy was it? 

Honestly,

I dunno, Kfc. but I'm sure that $3500 'first computer' weighed more than my bicycle--and I didn't don't have some fancy, high end bike.

And as obscenely expensive and under powered as it sounds now, a few years earlier, the IBM PC's were over 5 grand and when we bought our first one--the mid range brand Compaq--the Sunday ads were full of computer 'sales' and people were buying em. And as I recall, the 1.6 GB was an extra cost upgrade and I'm pretty sure the processor was about 333 ghz/mhz, or how ever you measure processor speed.

The smart phones are up to 1.2 and once they go to the dual core atom processors, it won't be long before they run phones at 2.0 mhz/ghz.

Those atom processors intended for phones, found themselves into netbook computers first and along with extending the life of Windows XP, sort of set back the advancement of smart phones, but in a year or two, I can't even imagine what smart phones will be capable of.

"In the future, nothing technology wise will be 'state of the art' for longer than 10 minutes"--R.A.

[robert angel]

Woody,

Now that I think, that $3500 first computer probably was 1995, because I remember my now 19 y/0 son being a a bit past toddler age and eating up those Tonka truck games.

Don't those SSD hard drives still have 'issues' in desktop and lap top computers?? I've heard they can't be defragmented and over time, that they sort of deteriorate and have, is it 'memory etching' issues?

Not that conventional HD's used in computers and the similar set up in say, larger storage Ipod type devices don't have issues--try dropping one, for instance.


Maybe the high end SDD's are different--we know they're always building a 'better mouse trap' etc.

Honestly the SSD tech. intrigues me. Anything my son can put on a solid state thumb flash and put through the durable press machine wash and then for 60 minutes in the dryer on the highest heat setting and then still be able to retain his pictures and music that was on it has potential, to say the least...

[jm21-2]

I haven't seen Queen Seon Deok but  saw previews of it - it do look interesting. I like the actress (Lee Yo-won) that plays the queen, I remember her from Attack the Gas Station.

I have only seen bits & pieces of  "My girlfriend is a nine-tailed fox" , I will watch it completely one day as it is only 16 episodes.  Shin Min-a won 3 awards for her role as Gumiho. I still remember her as Icy Jade from Volcano High & of course as the woman at the center of the violent & excellent "A Bittersweet Life".

Have your watch any episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern yet?

She's very good as the gumiho. Some parts are pretty funny as she acts like a fox. It's a very sad show in some parts too though. The director in it, and the main guy's aunt are both good too. I can never remember actors names so not sure who they are but I'm sure I've seen them before.

I thought Bizarre foods was mostly about eating weird stuff which isn't as exciting to me. I like no reservations because the guy is an awesome chef and if he says something is good, it is. I watch some of the cooking competitions and he's often a judge recently and very critical. I would love to wander around SE asia sampling all the goodies someday....and it wouldn't be that expensive.

[Woody]

The smart phones are up to 1.2 and once they go to the dual core atom processors, it won't be long before they run phones at 2.0 mhz/ghz.

Those atom processors intended for phones, found themselves into netbook computers first and along with extending the life of Windows XP, sort of set back the advancement of smart phones, but in a year or two, I can't even imagine what smart phones will be capable of.

"In the future, nothing technology wise will be 'state of the art' for longer than 10 minutes"--R.A.

Yep, those ARM processors are already clocking in at 1.2GHz Dual Core. Some of the new Android phones coming out over the next three months will be mighty interesting. We're talking 1GB of RAM and a docking station(Full desktop experience, from your phone) so all it would need is a decent office suite (Open Office has varying levels of quality, decent is a stretch) and for a lot of people, their phone just replaced the desktop.

Sure, the first generation wont take off, but give it another 3-4 years. Besides, with Windows 8/9 now supporting ARM, don't be surprised to see a Windows Phone 8 that lets you stick it in a docking station and is now a literal Windows 8 full desktop OS running all your common applications. This is part of why MS did the big push for .NET. Architecture independence. You publish a .NET based application and it can run in any Windows target environment, no matter what the underlying processor architecture is.

People see the whole MS ARM enabling as them trying to get into the low power computing space. I see it as them saying, "Hey, if you use Windows, your phone is now your PC. You can run Office, use all your favorite desktop applications(recompiled, but the major ones will be), and just have everything work."

Your applications for Windows 8 will have two GUI frameworks. Mobile/Touch and Desktop. We will see it where you can do a seamless transition between the two. You are browsing a webpage in Desktop mode, you can grab your phone and take it with you. As soon as it disconnects from the dock it transitions back into Phone mode, but when you access your browser, it is what you were just looking at on your desktop.

In the future, your phone/tablet/iPod will be your computer.