Stop Microsoft

All Things Microsoft => Microsoft Software => Topic started by: mobrien_12 on 26 January 2006, 05:03

Title: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: mobrien_12 on 26 January 2006, 05:03
MS made up this so called "Universal Plug and Play."  The instant I read about it, I knew it was a bad idea.  Network devices shouldn't be searched and automatically configued.  

MS made it up. They enabled it by default on their operating systems... you know the story.. we are MS, we have a desktop monopoly, we will bundle something with the OS and force it on customers and then all the businesses will pick it up.  

It was a known security risk.

It was known to cause problems.

My work computer runs XP pro (I don't have a choice, it's the company computer, they own it, company policy says I don't put any other OS on it).  For months after I put on SP2 (again, I didn't have a choice), the damned thing would just slow to a freaking crawl for no reason, because the WINLOGON.EXE program would go haywire, and the only thing I could do was reboot it.  GRR.

I made sure I had no malware.  Finally I find out that this happens sometimes when you have UPnP enabled, and SP2 re-enables it by default.  WTF.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: worker201 on 26 January 2006, 05:27
Probably doesn't have anything at all to do with it, but I found out today that you must have cookies enabled to download a piece of clipart from the Microsoft Office page.  I mean, can't even get to the page where you download stuff unless they are satisfied with your cookie handling.  Why is that?  I thought that was a little excessive, and had no real purpose but to keep tabs on a user.  And not to improve their surfing experience either.

Really, I can't understand why people would use Windows as their OS of choice.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Refalm on 26 January 2006, 09:49
I use this at work:
XP-antispy (http://www.xp-antispy.org/)

Disabling stupid bullshit like UnPnP is just one click away.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 26 January 2006, 20:16
There are two Windows plug and play services, one can be disabled without any problems but the other fucks your system up if it's disabled.

Quote from: worker201

Really, I can't understand why people would use Windows as their OS of choice.

Duh, software & hardware compatability and because it's what they're used to.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: piratePenguin on 26 January 2006, 20:35
Quote from: Aloone_Jonez

Duh, software & hardware compatability and because it's what they're used to.
And because they don't know anything else exists. Windows was my OS of "choice" before I learned of the existance of GNU/Linux.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: adiment on 26 January 2006, 20:58
Installing XP SP2 over SP1 causes problems for many users, you aren't the only one. Most [smart] people slipstream it onto their CD.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: H_TeXMeX_H on 27 January 2006, 03:29
Quote from: piratePenguin
And because they don't know anything else exists. Windows was my OS of "choice" before I learned of the existance of GNU/Linux.

I agree ... most people are to quote them "not goood with computehhhs" ... so when you ask them ... so do you prefer Window$, Mac, or Linux as your operating system ... they would respond with "Huuuhhh ? Uhhh ... lemme think ... uhhh .... wait ... ok ... when I pressed the little button on the front of my computeehhh it says Windoze so I guess I go wit windoze ... yuh ... (drool on self)". :D
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: worker201 on 27 January 2006, 03:41
A more likely response would be "What do you mean, operating system?"  There are people who are working for the university who think that every computer on the planet features Word, Outlook, Excel, and Windows.  In fact, they don't even know the names of anything, that's how clueless they are to the world of choices.  It would be like asking you what operating system is on your flashlight, as far as they are concerned.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: H_TeXMeX_H on 27 January 2006, 05:53
man that's sad ... why do people have to be so ... ignorant .... I was gonna say stupid, but maybe they can learn ? ... maybe they just don't care ? ... is there any hope of changing them for the better ? ... is it worth trying ? ... live and let die ... ?
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 27 January 2006, 16:23
This doesn't just apply to MS software you know.

I was reading a specification from customer this morning and they specified the proprietary Windows-only engineering software we should use to create design for them and that all documentation should be in Word and Excel format. :mad:
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Refalm on 27 January 2006, 16:43
Yes, and I've also noticed that the official European computer diploma (ECDL) requires you to learn Windows and MS Office :thumbdwn:
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: H_TeXMeX_H on 28 January 2006, 00:30
Well what else could they require ? M$ Office is very similar in many ways to OpenOfiice, with different layout but similar functionality ... OpenOffice being the more functional of the two. But I dunno, I would have been surprized if they required say Linux and OpenOffice ...

A better thing to require is a brain that can figure out any Operating System using any desktop environment and any word processor ... that would earn you a real diploma, not a certified in Winblows and M$ Office bullshit diploma
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 28 January 2006, 13:49
Lots of firms don't use OO because it lacks porgrams like Visio and MS Project also it isn't compatable with MS Office VB scripting so all their old macros won't work, in other words they're locked in.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: piratePenguin on 28 January 2006, 18:40
Quote from: Refalm
Yes, and I've also noticed that the official European computer diploma (ECDL) requires you to learn Windows and MS Office :thumbdwn:

Where'd you hear that? A few months ago I looked into that and saw that you can use any software so long as it has the functionality tested.

I'm pretty sure OOo has the functionality, and Firefox damn-fucking-well has what it needs, but nearly all places teach MS Office (kinda lame) and IE (LAME), and I'm not sure if they will/have to let you sit the exam with something else.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: worker201 on 28 January 2006, 22:25
Quote from: Aloone_Jonez
Lots of firms don't use OO because it lacks porgrams like Visio and MS Project also it isn't compatable with MS Office VB scripting so all their old macros won't work, in other words they're locked in.

The reason OO isn't compatible with VB Scripts is that VB Scripts are a half-assed implementation that should have been scrapped years ago.  No sane person uses them.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: cymon on 28 January 2006, 22:32
Besides, the only use of VB is for the 1337 script kiddies to make easily-blocked virii.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 28 January 2006, 23:03
Quote from: worker201
The reason OO isn't compatible with VB Scripts is that VB Scripts are a half-assed implementation that should have been scrapped years ago.  No sane person uses them.

What else can you use it you're using MS Office?

And you tell that to companies who have 1000's of Office documents full of VB macros.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: H_TeXMeX_H on 29 January 2006, 05:53
VB macros are bullshit ... and they can be malicious too ... I wouldn't use 'em ... why do companies use them again ?
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Orethrius on 29 January 2006, 06:37
Quote from: H_TeXMeX_H
why do companies use them again ?

I believe "lack of willingness to learn a real language, like C or Java" is among the top answers to that question.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 29 January 2006, 15:29
I've had to write a VB program at work before, nothing hard just a Spyhawk keyboard tester, that reads values the keyboard sends to the PC via RS232. Once I'd figured out how to use RS232 (which just required custom control) writing the program was fairly straight forward, the problems started when they wanted me to distribute it with an installer.

Instead of writing my own program I used the MS Installer wizard that came with VB and the installer program created was very bloated and buggy (else I could've fitted the whole thing on a floppy). I burned it to a CD and added autoplay but the fucking installer fucked on half of the machines they tried it on, after trying to correct the problem myself I gave up and wrote a good olde batch file installer which did the job in no time at all.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Jack2000 on 14 February 2006, 18:47
Quote from: H_TeXMeX_H
man that's sad ... why do people have to be so ... ignorant .... I was gonna say stupid, but maybe they can learn ? ... maybe they just don't care ? ... is there any hope of changing them for the better ? ... is it worth trying ? ... live and let die ... ?


Oses are not the problem people should design apps
that should work on every os!
i mean Win, Lin,Mac and shit...!
EVERY OS!

that is the ONLY way to perfection
make non os specific apps!
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Refalm on 14 February 2006, 19:36
Quote from: Jack2000
Oses are not the problem people should design apps
that should work on every os!
i mean Win, Lin,Mac and shit...!
EVERY OS!

that is the ONLY way to perfection
make non os specific apps!

The only platform that can succesfully do that is JAVA at the moment.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: cymon on 14 February 2006, 21:16
Yeah, but Java is slow.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Jack2000 on 14 February 2006, 23:04
Quote from: Refalm
The only platform that can succesfully do that is JAVA at the moment.

What about system level programs
you know 0 and 1 :)
binary ?
are not they native on all platforms ?
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: worker201 on 14 February 2006, 23:13
Quote from: Jack2000
What about system level programs
you know 0 and 1 :)
binary ?
are not they native on all platforms ?

Nope.
PowerPC chips, for example, are Big-endian, while x86 chips are Little-endian.  Given the binary number 101101100, a Mac's G5 will think that the leftmost decimal place is the lowest, so it will evaluate this number to be 109.  On a Dell with a Pentium, it will think this number is 182, since the rightmost decimal place is the lowest.  Similar stories will be seen in other architectures - I think SPARC and AIX are big-endian too.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: davidnix71 on 15 February 2006, 02:31
UPnP came turned on in XP by default, off in ME by default and is available to 98SE but not installed by default.

The real problem is that a common user can crash servers with it by issuing a few simple commands. The FBI at one time issued a request to everyone to turn it off because it can so easily cause such mischief. The service shouldn't even exist in the first place, it's just too dangerous to the user (who deserves the trouble for being too lazy to configure the device in person)

Words fail me over some of the stupid s*it Bill Gates puts in Windows.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: H_TeXMeX_H on 15 February 2006, 03:41
Java isn't that slow ... especially with today's processors.
Title: Re: Bloody Universal Plug and Play
Post by: Refalm on 15 February 2006, 09:20
Quote from: H_TeXMeX_H
Java isn't that slow ... especially with today's processors.

It actually is slower than a program made in C++ or C#.NET even.