Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Commercial
Is Microsoft supporting Vista SP1 Upgrade Edition pirates?
by Danny Mendez Apr 3rd 2008
The loop-hole exists in the Vista SP1 Upgrade Edition, which requires a previous install of Windows 2000, XP, or Vista but the upgrade edition will install even if they're absent. The Vista SP1 Upgrade Edition retails for about $110 less than the full version of Vista SP1, which means users can save money on upgrading to Vista by purchasing the cheaper upgrade box.
Livingston believes Microsoft supports the hole since the upgrade edition installs over itself in Vista SP1. Although it may seem absurd at first, Microsoft may benefit from such software pirates -- if they can be called that anymore.
The theory behind this is already at play and has been at play for many years. As more and more users install some version of Windows, others will see it as "the standard", and then they will buy it -- or they'll pirate it and indirectly influence others to buy it.
Mike Sego posted on the Google Blog yesterday that a slick new 'reply by chat' feature has been added to Gmail. Now, if you want to reply to a message and the original sender is online, a 'reply by chat' button will be right next to the now old 'n busted regular reply button. To top things off, the chat history will be saved right in line with the conversation. Awesome.
It's happened to most of us: You're writing a long blog entry, e-mail, or forum post when you accidentally close the tab or your browser crashes (or worse still, your session times out) and you lose the whole thing. Unfortunately the adage "save early and often" doesn't work on the web because web forms don't always have Save buttons. You know where I'm going with this: 
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
