DISQUS

The 35% could be even higher, because many computers cannot be upgraded from Vista to XP.

I bought an HP notebook last year with Vista. Last month, I asked HP about upgrading to XP. They told me it was not possible, because the computer contained compenents for which there are no XP drivers.

I wonder what the upgrade-to-XP percentage would be if 100% of Vista-infected computers could change their OS.

> "..Bestbuy who’ll tell us about how they are using wikis and other tools to save tons of money..."

But not for customers, for BestBuy overcharges -- charges more for items on its shelves than the manufacturer's list price.

Another tactic BestBuy uses is to stock items that cost more, even though cheaper brands are on the market. (Home Depot does this too; their store here stocks only lightbulbs made by Phillips, the most expensive brand name.)

These days, I get most of my electronic doodads from Wal-Mart or other discount places.

When I signed up for Shape, Dassault complained:

"The form submitted seems not to come from 3DVIA. Please contact us if you think this is a problem with 3DVIA."

and wouldn't let me get any further.

>Run CAD and related programs on any device.

I think not. I can't see how an iPhone will ever run SolidWorks -- with or without becoming en-Mesh'ed with Microsoft.

Hey, the term "Synchronous Technology" was generated by Germans. Just be glad it's not known as Technologysynchronous with a few umlauts thrown in.

You are learning how non-conforming journalists are victimized by a vendictive Microsoft and WaggEd -- a campaign the two have waged since the late 1980s on any reporter who dared to question the MS line.

Microsoft's map problems go way back -- back to MapPoint 2001. It covers USA and Canada; I live in Canada.

Select Canada from the overview map, and then type in an address with street name, city, and province. MapPoint reports it cannot find that street/city/province in the USA.

But that's typical of Microsoft products: the inability to do fundamental operations. Windows can't do basic functions like rename an entire folder of file names; Word doesn't handle line spacing correctly; etc.

PR firms need to be clear from the get go. I think so much is done in committee, that no one at the firm takes an objective look at the campaign.

For example, there is now a mini-crisis in the GIS world, where a software vendor contacted bloggers, told them about the new software, and asked them to keep quiet until the launch in January -- in that order.

The firm forgot to first get agreement from the bloggers that they would indeed keep quiet. Since they hadn't, one Swedish blogger spilled the beans early -- which then allowed the other bloggers to break the agreement, as well.

When it comes to handing out hardware, vendors need to make clear from the first contact, whether the hardware is to keep, or to send back. The "pass it on to someone else" option is nonsense.

It's harder for us guys to find old girlfriends, because their last names are likely to have changed; as well, I suspect women are less likely than guys to "expose" themselves on the Web. (I've taught my daughters to disguise their location, age, name, etc when posting info about themselves on Web sites.)

My experience (twice now) is that old girlfiends come looking after a divorce or similar change in relationship -- they're tracking down the possibility of reigniting that old flame.

Another reason for the initial lack of coverage: their PR people told me the press embargo ended Monday.

I initially set my blog item to live Monday at 8am, but Sunday afternoon I happened to notice the Adobe press release was already posted to Yahoo Business, so I changed my blog item to "Publish Now."

As well, Adobe PR never did send the promised PPT file and other details. No excuse, but Adobe has taken on a new PR firm (Edelman?) and maybe the staff isn't up to speed yet.

My overview was posted Sunday at http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com , although it took a different slant, because of WorldCAD Access's interest in 3D: "Adobe Adds 2nd 3D Format to Acrobat"

> last week I got an exclusive look at it

I am wondering why you say that your look was "exclusive"? All us editors got one-on-one previews from the Adobe marketing people of Acrobat Pro 8, Connect, and Acrobat 3D.

John C W: Of course Robert will blame the manufacturer. He is a Microsoft employee, so OS problems are seen as "that'll be fixed next release" -- and in his mind are no longer a problem.

Hence he only sees non-Microsoft problems, such as price (mfg'er problem), lack of DVD drive (mfg'er problem), CPU speed (mfg'er problem), etc.