Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 03:38 AM

Several people suggested that the best advertising slogan for Win7 would have been "IT'S NOT VISTA."

It's not.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 06 Dec 12 - 01:26 AM

With or without updates, XP is still better than Vista!!!

If you want more security, try Sygate, free download firewall!!

Check it out!

GfS

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 07:56 PM

Sandra: Thanks, I meant descendants, but now that you brought it up, ancestors might fit as well. A bit tired...

The Mayans could not have just popped up out of nowhere. Then you get to thinking about Atlantis, Neanderthals.

Anybody have a peculiar affinity for calendars & stepped pyramids?

And who came before your Grandma & Grandpa, and before that, and before that...?

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 07:36 PM

Do ya think any Mudcatters are the great, great, great, really great...ancestors of the Mayans?

descendants?

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: frogprince
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 06:56 PM

great, great, great, really great...ancestors of the Mayans?

I seriously doubt that. Bill D., you're our master of logic here, what do you think?

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 06:40 PM

As WindowsXP goes the way of the Dodo bird, buggy whips, Vanilla Ice, HenryVIII, & the Mayans, etc., not to fret...Microsoft has a few bucks and will surely find a way to keep PC users going...

There are options...http://www.apple.com/ca/osx/

Do ya think any Mudcatters are the great, great, great, really great...ancestors of the Mayans?

Yeah?

Who? ;0)

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 06:15 PM

There ya go. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 05:53 PM

Everyone relax! It's all made clear here!

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 05:42 PM

Yeah, I've encountered a fair-size amount of stuff on the end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012 (12-21-12 – not quite a palindrome).

Lotsa stuff. Earth gets hit by a rogue planet hurtling through the solar system, the whole solar system gets sucked into a monstrous black hole, miscellaneous interpretations of the enigmatic mumblings of Nostradamus, lots of source material for the wilder-eyed fundies to be found in the Book of Revelations, the earth is going to suddenly swap poles (flip over), causing immense earthquakes and tidal waves (not to mention a rough day on the stock market). . . .

But my real favorite is that the earth will be passing through the galactic equator, which will cause a variety of such things as the poles swapping places.

Now, considering that astronomers do not agree (nor are they particularly interested in) the location of the "galactic equator," partly because it doesn't matter a helluva lot where it is, and any attempt to ascribe a locate for it would be purely arbitrary.

And there are very few cases of members of the "Shellback Club" (sailors who have crossed the earth's equator) of suddenly winding up standing on their heads when they did cross the line, there is a certain skepticism about the arbitrarily assigned location of the galactic equator's actual effect on much of anything.

But the knee-slapper, is that the 12-21-12 Doomsday folk, tell us that the earth is some 110 light-years from the galactic equator (but they are a bit vague as to whether we are to the north or south of it), and it's when we cross this equator, that's when all hell breaks loose!

Well—considering that the speed of light is approximately 186,273 miles per second, and that the earth is currently traveling in its orbit around the sun at about 18.3 miles per second, and the whole solar system is moving roughly in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius at approximately 9 miles per second, I'd say that if we are going to cross a line that is some 110 light years away in sixteen days from today, we'd bloody-well better get a move on!!!

[Some years back in an English Lit. class—Shakespeare, to be precise—we got into a discussion of the various claims that Shakespeare didn't actually write his plays, they were written by Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, or maybe Woody Allen.   Someone asked the professor, "Since there is no real evidence to support the contention, why do some people get so wound up about things like this?"

She responded with a chuckle and a shrug of the shoulders, "Well, at least it keeps them off the streets."]

Don Firth

P. S. 'Course if it does happen, we won't really need to worry much about the "fiscal cliff."

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: EBarnacle
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 05:33 PM

Very occasionally, The Onion does get it right, such as when they told of a dragon frisking around Kim Jong Un's feet [or was that a cat?]. In general, though, no one but the North Koreans takes The Onion seriously.

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 04:39 PM

WinXP is still fully supported by Microsoft. There have bben lots of predictions about when it will be killed, but it is official now. It will officially cease to be eligible for "nonessential" updates after the announced date of 08 April 2014.

It is likely that Microsoft will continue to provide security patches for CRITICAL vulnerabilities for some time after then, but deciding what patches to offer will be up to Microsoft, and it's likely that even vulnerabilities that allow full external takeover of your computer but that are not "sufficiently widespread" may not be patched. No "performance" updates may be expected after that date.

While the scheduled withdrawal of FULL SUPPORT for Win98 was rescheduled for some users due to widespread use in some places (e.g. China et. al.) where there was a lack of a suitable update due to import/export restrictions on later versions, it's unlikely that any similar "slides" will occur for WinXP.

As to the other predictions most are in the same class as the recent discovery of a Unicorn Den in North Korea, or the reports on the "Sexiest Man Alive" as reported in China and N Korea. (A little different than reports elsewhere: Onion has lots to answer for?)

Some of the others may be a lot more fun than the real one, but IT IS REAL. Feel free to discuss the others here (especially ones I might have missed) but do note that WinXP is officially scheduled for termination.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: GUEST,999
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 04:27 PM

That is something to celebrate, Dave. Congratulations.

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: GUEST,Uncle_DaveO
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 04:14 PM

December 21st is my wife's and my 49th wedding anniversary, so the beginning of our 50th year. Not a Doomsday to us.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: GUEST,999
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 04:12 PM

You are making a few assumptions there, Skarpi.

(Þú ert að gera nokkrar ályktanir þar Skarpa.)

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: skarpi
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 04:03 PM

well what ever happens I hope to see you all next year , either here down earth or up there :)

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: GUEST,999
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 12:47 PM

A list of dates and predictions that missed the mark.

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: Newport Boy
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 12:22 PM

The death of XP has been predicted many times. I still use it as my subsidiary OS (in a virtual machine) and intend to continue doing so. I'm not prepared to predict the date of my death, so I don't know how long that will be, but I sincerely hope it's well beyond 2014!

I'm not bothered about viruses, etc. I run Avast on XP, but it's not reported any nasty since I started using it nearly 3 years ago. I take a snapshot of the virtual machine daily, and should XP catch a virus, I can simply revert to yesterday's snapshot (or last week's, or last month's). That takes about 5 seconds - better than 12 hours to install Windows and its apps and drivers.

Phil

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: Acorn4
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 12:17 PM

I think I'll buy a 2013 diary just in case.

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: kendall
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 12:04 PM

Rubbish.

At what time of day does this disaster happen? When its one second past midnight in England, it's 7 pm the night before here. It's tomorrow in Australia, and with 11 time zones in Russia,.....

Subject: RE: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: skarpi
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 11:35 AM

well if I am going to die on the 21 of Dec then it have to be ....
then I stand in front of my lord ....

but what I am thinking off , is why are these words spread around the world , not just the Calender but also other things as lots of increasing UFO ´s sighting both here in earth and in deeper space around our sun ..why is NASA not telling us the truth why hide ?

I can take the truth ... don´t hide it open the book and let us see ...
take the next step into the future its time to go forward ....

all the best Skarpi Iceland

Subject: Tech: DOOMSDAY LOOMS - for some
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 11:04 AM

Some people have obsessed over the end of the Mayan Calendar on December 21, 2012, predicting end of world doomsday events.

These predictions are garbage based on superstitious illiteracy. The end of the current 5,125 year Mayan cycle just means it's time to buy a new calendar, just as we more modern(?) people do every year. The "new cycle Mayan calendar" is available from at least a few Museum gift shops for anyone who wants one. (It's suggested that you also get the booklet on "how to read Mayan" if you want to use it?)

The DOOMSDAY that looms, that IS SIGNIFICANT for some of us is now being discussed, as in articles headlined "DOOMSDAY CLOCK CLICKS PAST 500 DAYS."

One example:

Windows XP countdown clock ticks under 500 days

Retirement deadline for Microsoft's longest-lived OS is 'ticking time bomb,' says migration firm

By Gregg Keizer
November 26, 2012 06:29 AM ET

Computerworld - Windows XP has fewer than 500 days left to live, according to Microsoft and third-party countdown clocks.
Microsoft will end support for XP on April 8, 2014, when it will issue a final security update for the 11-year-old operating system.

This article notes that the "official Microsoft WinXP doomsday clock" only runs on Win7, but there are other "apps" that can display the countdown for you that agree with the Microsoft clock.

Other "interesting" comments in this article: [quotes]

When Microsoft pulls XP's plug, it will have maintained the operating system for 12 years and five months, or about two-and-a-half years longer than its usual practice. That's also a record, replacing the previous Methuselah, Windows NT, which received 11 years and 5 months of support.

XP's long life was caused in large part by the debacle that was Windows Vista, an oft-delayed operating system that was ultimately rejected by most XP users for being buggy, sluggish or lacking in driver support. Instead, those customers waited for the next iteration, Windows 7, which has been as much a success as Vista was a failure.

According to Web metrics company Net Applications, Windows XP powered 40.7% of the world's desktop and notebook personal computers that went online last month. Windows 7, which passed its ancestor only in August, held a usage share of 44.7% in October.
Meanwhile, Windows Vista, which peaked at 19.1% in October 2009, the same month Windows 7 debuted, now accounts for just 5.8% of all systems.

Microsoft has remained adamant that XP will exit support in April 2014, and has urged customers to upgrade as soon as possible. But countdown clocks notwithstanding, analysts have predicted that XP will be used by millions well after that deadline
.
Last month, for instance, Gartner analyst Michael Silver said "there's a good chance" that between 10% and 15% of enterprise PCs will be running XP after April 2014.

Computerworld's forecasts have been overly optimistic about XP's decline. In mid-2011, Computerworld predicted that Windows XP would account for 38% in the third quarter of 2012, three percentage points lower than the eventual number.

Current estimates based on Net Applications' data indicate that come April 2014, Windows XP will be running between 27% and 29% of the world's computers.

"The end of XP support is a potential time bomb," Camwood said last week. "And the clock is ticking."

[end quotes]

Since a main interest at mudcat is "tradition" and other "old stuff" it's not unlikely that we still have a few NT users, and a scattering of people still seem to be on Win98 (hopefully SP1 at least). It is likely that Critical Security Patches for WinXP will continue for a while after the end of the "full support" deadline as they have for prior OSs, so it's possible that one might continue using WinXP for some time AD (After Doomsday), but should a replacement (hardware or some software) be required it's likely to be increasingly difficult to avoid switching to "something newer."

Those who have thus far "avoided the issue" might be well advised to watch developments with an eye toward planning for something newer.

John