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: 
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
