More Windows 10 upgrade confusion

Over time there has been quite a bit of confusion, frustration as well as other thoughts people [some I can’t repeat!] have regarding the Windows 10 upgrade program.

There has been quite a few reports of Windows 10 being installed on computers without any authorization. I find it a bit odd considering right at the beginning you do need to answer a few questions in addition to accepting the End User License Agreement. [Maybe some don’t want to admit the mistake.]

Another issue was that once the infamous KB3035583 was installed, it would download between 3GB and 4GB of files without anyone’s knowledge. And for someone who has limited Internet access [or on a quota] this could really slow their Internet access [or blow their quota which would cause them to pay for going over quota].

Another issue is that Microsoft has so far released updated builds every 6 months. So if you got KIB3035583 installed 5 months after Windows 10 release, you probably would need to re-download Windows 10 in the 6th month.

A more logical option would have been having KB3035583 asking if you wanted to install Windows 10. Once agreed, it would ask you how do you want to download the upgrade. Immediately, over a decent speed [say within the next 6 hours] or over a lengthy time. The last 2 so it wouldn’t interfere with what you are doing. After that just notify when the download is complete with maybe a reminder every 7 days.

There has also been a number of ways to disable KB3035583. Uninstalling alone doesn’t do it. A previous blog last year gave a registry solution and there are other ways.

In a related item, it seems though the IT department [Guy? Gal?] at the KCCI TV station in Des Moines, Iowa failed to do the needful. Right in the middle of the lady doing the weather forecast, the Windows 10 upgrade window popped up. At least she handled it well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMPeTrHNX1U

Apple revenue drops, Cook is still in charge

For the first time in 13 years, Apple’s reported falling revenue in the last three months to $50.6 billion – a decline of 13%. In the first quarter of 2015, Apple announced record revenue from the iPhone. The iPhone pulls in about 66 per cent of all Apple’s revenue with the remainder from Macs and the App Store.

Compare to last year where apple made $53 billion on goods and services. This was an all time high. Compare that to 1996bwhen Apple lost in excess of $1.5 billion and would eventually get a “loan” from Microsoft to hold off in bankruptcy. It is also Apple’s first revenue decline since 2003 [fell 1%].

As 2015 closed, Apple claimed record growth in China for Q4 thanks to new iPhones. 40 per cent growth in iPhone sales and 71% overall. But it turned into an 11 per cent year-one-year decline in the second quarter in China.

Research company Gartner earlier this month reported the era of double-digit market share growth for smart phones is done as it suggested global 2016 growth at 7% as consumers are also starting to hold onto their older phones for longer.

Apple already has stiff competition from cheaper phone providers in China [where Apple never was big] as well as Samsung and others around the world.

Apple is planning a $2 billion inventory reduction to choke off existing supply of iPhones already out there in order to regenerate demand.

Further problems is that under Steve Jobs, Apple innovated. They were the first with a true smartphone and tablets and were a leader for music players. Under current CEO Tim Cook, they seem to be copying everyone else for features.

In the last few years Apple has had many issues which have come up but rarely existed under Jobs. Among them:

• “AntennaGate” – where holding your smartphone a specific way, reception was bad.
• Numerous issues when upgrading OS X. For example when El Capitan came out, major upgrade issues. Took 2 updates to correct the problems.
• An increasing amount of security issues [where odd things allow access to their iGadgets].

Sales of the latest low-end iPhone 6se hasn’t sold well. The latest iPad isn’t selling because older iPads are still functioning [unlike a smartphone, there is no contract for an iPad – so you don’t have to change it every two years]. Apple doesn’t even want to publically say how well the Watch has sold. Not a good sign.

Remember the MacDefender malware in around 2011? When it first came out, Apple sort of denied it even though about 25% of new support forum comments were related to it. After two weeks they acknowledged the issue and said to go buy an ant-virus software [which was unheard of before] from the AppStore [so Apple gets 30% of what you buy – nice – profiting from others’ misery]. Then only 2 weeks later was an update released to combat the issue.

Selling a base model iGadget reduces revenue as the consumer would most likely buy the full version – particularly if a Fanboi or Fangurl. Jobs never wanted to sell an iPad Mini for that reason [among others].

Apple continues to claim the end of the PC era but continues to sell them. Hypocrites.

Time to dump Cook. Surprised the shareholders haven’t done so by now.

More question raised about Trump, his comments, etc.

Activist groups, particularly those representing minorities and women, are pressing major corporations not to sponsor the Republican convention in July. They hope to persuade companies like Microsoft and Google to drop out of sponsoring what is sure to be a contentious event. It is bad messaging and poor business strategy for corporations to be seen as promoting the increasingly toxic Donald Trump brand. But companies’ dollars would go to support the Cleveland Host Committee, not Trump himself.

Although a spokesman declined to identify the specific reasoning behind the company’s decision, Coca-Cola has already agreed to limit its role at the GOP convention, according to The New York Times. In contrast to 2012, when Coke kicked in $660,000 to the Republican convention, this year they are capping their contribution at $75,000.

Delegates have already faced death threats they say come from Trump supporters.

Convention organizers clearly anticipate chaos, as evidenced by the fact that the city of Cleveland is seeking bids on 2,000 sets of riot gear for its police force in advance of the convention. The convention could be as chaotic as the violence at the 1968 Democratic Convention.

Trump’s son claims that the party would rather lose than have Trump as their leader. I wonder how he concluded this.

Arizona Sen. John McCain and some other have already said they probably won’t attend the convention. McCain would be too busy campaigning to attend. Others have given excuses such as the high cost of a hotel room to legitimate reasons on the direction of the convention is going.

Meanwhile, Trump claims that “If Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5% of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the woman’s card and the beautiful thing is, women don’t like her.” A bit less than half of Democratic women back her while just 27% of women back Trump. So women like him less. I wonder why.

Trump also has claimed to be the “presumptive nominee” even though he may not have enough delegates accumulated prior to the convention to be the actual nominee. Does he know the definition of “presumptive”?

Trump also commented about a number of celebrities including Rosie O’Donnell and comedians Whoopi Goldberg and Jon Stewart and actress Lena Durham who are thinking of moving to Canada. For Durham, “Well, she’s a B-actor. And you know, has no mojo.” What a nice guy. She probably thinks he’s a B-nominee. Some of the celebrities [not surprisingly] have had some feuds with Trump previously.

Oh, the day after George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004, Canada’s immigration website smashed its then-record for single-day visits. Maybe the same this November? For at least one reason, I hope not.

More on the Windows 10 Anniversary Edition

With the upcoming “Anniversary Edition”, expected hopefully before the July 29th end of the free upgrade period, will have some changes made in the interface.

The following [are among the] changes to the Start menu are coming:

• The ‘All Apps’ list visible by default. As well the most recent selection of the user’s most used applications are shown at the top of the ‘All Apps’ list. Clicking and scrolling should be reduced.
• ‘Recently added’ section will now display three entries instead of one.
• The Power, Settings and File Explorer icons will always be visible in the Start menu.
• If a user has added folders to the Start menu are now immediately accessible.
• Users will be able to use voice commands to have Cortana to play some music, make some notes or set a reminder from the lock screen as users will no longer have to log into Windows to use Cortana.
• Cortana will allow users to set photo reminders or to add reminders based on content from other Windows 10 application.

More Trumping

Donald Trump still contends that he should be declared the winner of the Republican Party’s nomination even if he gets less than the 50% required to [just about] guarantee the party’s nomination.

Isn’t this like rewriting the rules as you go? What makes him so special? He complains the process is rigged. He’s rigging it.

If it was Ted Cruz who said this, would “The Donald” object? I’m sure.

Meanwhile, rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich are aiming at unifying the anti-Trump vote in some remaining primaries by either one step back at a few primaries so the other can have their votes. For example Kasich will step back in Indiana next week.

Trump calls them mathematically dead rivals. True in a sense. But after the first round of voting at the convention in July in Cleveland, delegates can free to choose among who is available. Those delegates who went with one of the dozen or so Republican nominees that bowed out are free to vote for anyone. The same goes for the delegates of the three remaining.

And that’s where Trump could be in trouble. To dump Trump, after the first round, Trump could lose if there are only two nominees in the second round [assuming the other nominees don’t want to embarrass themselves].

With India and New Mexico coming up and then later on the biggie with California, Trump’s chances of getting that 50% could dwindle.

“I only care about the first,” Trump said. “We’re not going for the second and third and fourth and fifth.” Forth? Fifth? He is one of three nominees left. Even at the convention, I wouldn’t expect that many.

Free cloud training program offered by Microsoft

Microsoft has announced that it has created a new training program called IT Pro Cloud Essentials. This program aims to help IT professionals improve their cloud skills.

For enticements, Microsoft is offering:

• Free tech support and extended trial [60 days instead of 30 days] of Office 365.
• Free tech support and extended trial [3 months instead of 30 days] of its BYOD product, Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS).
• If you sign up before September 30, Microsoft will also give $100 Azure credit per month for a three-month period.
• A free three month subscription to the Pluralsight training site and access to one of 10 courses selected by Microsoft that are cloud related.
• Access to Microsoft Virtual Academy [really, anyone has access!].
• Access to professional career counseling for a career path in cloud computing.
• Free telephone support for a single incident per year for Azure or on-premises products.

You can get further information by going to https://www.itprocloudessentials.com/

Make or break day in New York state

So today is make or break day for both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Each are in New York for the second largest number of delegates up for grabs [after California who are later on].

Clinton, Trump and Bernie Sanders claim New York state as their home state. But Clinton was only a senator there. Sanders was born in Brooklyn but left before 20 to go to the university of Chicago. He came back for a few years before moving to Vermont.

Already out of the gate in Buffalo, Trump make a bit of a blunder by saying: “Because I was down there and I watched our police and our firemen down at 7/11, down at the World Trade Center right after it came down. And I saw the greatest people I’ve ever seen in action.” You can see it here.

In another faux pas, Sanders, when interviewed in New York a week or so ago, could not give an accurate number of people who died on 9/11 [in New York] – at one point saying 10,000 people. In fact an estimated 3,000 died and many died [but not 7,000] after because of ailments related to the attacks [such as first responders with breathing issues, etc.]. That is a big difference.

In any case, a major win by Clinton and Trump can sink the other campaigns.

Putin the blamer

In his annual televised question-and-answer session in Moscow recently, Russian president [for life] Vladimir Putin [a.k.a. Vladimir Poutine] denied any wrongdoing, saying the leaked Panama Papers “have not specifically accused anyone of anything”.

He believes it’s all part of an American plot to destabilize Russia before elections are held there in September. “We know that members of the American intelligence community are involved,” Putin said. He fails though to show the connection. “The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung is owned by a holding company, and that holding is owned by the American financial company Goldman Sachs [if true]. And how are they related to the American intelligence community. Maybe a cousin third removed in Goldman Sachs has a friend who’s nephew works for the CIA.

Some questions were asked by citizens.

To show you how [some of] the questions were scripted, a 12-year-old girl asked Putin iIf he saw Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan drowning, which one he would save? Putin dislikes both and replied “so it will be impossible to save him”. I guess pre-teens in Russia get a lot of courses on world politics.

Putin has in the past had kind words for the Republican contender Donald Trump, calling him last December “a very colorful and talented man” but added little this time.

Putin continues to say that Meldonium, a banned performance-enhancing drug, “never belonged in the category of doping. It does not affect the result; it simply helps the heart keep in good condition under heavy strain. Meldonium was invented in the USSR. The drug is mostly used by Eastern European athletes.”

If you remember, in the international competition during the Cold War, most believe Soviet Union “influenced” countries used illegal drugs heavily.

Of course Putin has denied that he is involved in funneling money to offshore accounts even though there is evidence he did. Somewhere in excess of $1 billion.

Apple kills QuickTime for Windows support

If you have Apple’s iTunes for Windows, it generally also installs QuickTime for Windows which is a multimedia player from Apple.

The US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) US-CERT is urging Windows users to uninstall Apple’s QuickTime video player because Apple will cease supporting the product. The alert comes after the discovery of two critical flaws in QuickTime that could be exploited to allow arbitrary code execution.

More Trump whining

Donald Trump is at it again.

He has been campaigning officially for around a half a year. So would he know about how things work with the Republican Party? But no.

“The system, folks, is rigged. It’s a rigged, disgusting, dirty system.” Trump told supporters at a rally in Albany, New York on Monday night.

Heading to the convention in July in Cleveland, he could actually lose the party’s nomination while still having the most delegates. Problem is that he may never get at least 50% of the delegates needed.

When the GOP campaign started, there was over a dozen candidates. That dwindled down to a bunch and now three. When a candidate bows out prior to the convention, the delegates won by that candidate is still with the candidate [however at the convention, any candidate can change their mind].

Trump is whining again because he believes he should be the winner prior to the convention even though he may not have the majority of the delegates before the convention.

He can’t re-write the rules or have them re-written to please his big fat ego.

The party itself doesn’t want Trump. He is the lesser of two evils [between him and Ted Cruz]. Cruz is not the party’s favorite but at least he doesn’t embarrass the part like Trump does. And Cruz is a legitimate Republican. Trump has flirted with the left wing years before.

Trump also whined during the rally that he has 2 million more voters who have voted for him in this campaign [understandable since he is leading – it is not like he and Cruz are tied in delegates but he has 2 million more voters].

“The rules were set last year. Nothing mysterious –nothing new. The rules have not changed. The rules are the same. Nothing different,” saying RNC chairman Reince Priebus.

I guess Trump doesn’t read anything. The rules weren’t changed last week.

If the party has a preference in who they want, they can push for that candidate as long as they don’t break or modify any rules while the campaign is going on.

In Saratoga, New York Trump said “You see what’s happening to me and Bernie Sanders. It’s a corrupt deal going on.”

Like Trump, Sanders is not a true Democrat. He actually is an independent who is left leaning. All that the Democratic Party needs to do is put the party weight behind someone not in their party.

Six in 10 Republican voters said in a recent CNN/ORC poll that if no major candidate earns a majority of the delegates headed into the convention, those delegates should nominate the candidate who entered with the largest pool of delegates. That candidate would most almost certainly be Trump.

Is this democratic? But wouldn’t that be rewriting the rules? If they are doing it on their own, that is one thing.