Schofield Research

Although Windows 7’s "XP Mode" has been a welcome feature of the new operating system, there’s been a fair bit of confusion brought on by the virtualization layer’s hardware requirements.

To work, XP Mode has required a PC processor that supports hardware virtualization, and that feature had to be turned on in the computer’s BIOS (basic input/output system). Those requirements caused some consternation, as PC owners didn’t always have an easy way to tell if their system fit the bill.

Well, those requirements are no more. As part of a wave of virtualization announcements on Thursday, Microsoft said people running Windows 7 will now be able to use XP Mode without having to know whether their PC processor supports hardware virtualization.

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Microsoft’s Xbox Live Points system is arguably deceptive, where a $10 item will cost 1200 points, where most people think that 100 points = $1. It doesn’t, and Microsoft have now been sued over another “points” issue, which deals with the “leftover points” that members buy. For instance, buying 1600 points, spending 1500 of them on DLC, and then you’re stuck with 100 points which you can’t really buy anything for, and the points are not redeemable. You’re essentially forced to buy more points if you want to spend those last 100 points. Most people never do, and Microsoft basically profits the leftover points.

The class-action lawsuit was filed by Samuel Lassoff, a Philadelphia-based attorney who claims that Microsoft engages in a “scheme to unjustly enrich itself through their fraudulent handling” of his Xbox Live Account, and claims that hundreds of Xbox Live members aren’t getting what they’re paid for, saying, “Microsoft breached that contract by collecting revenues for digital goods and services which were not provided.”.

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I n a move that must surely strike at the very core of open source, FOSS, and the heart of GNU crusader Richard Stallman, SourceForge has now blocked all access from by countries on the U.S. ‘Foreign Assets Control sanction list’.

That isn’t the beginning of the story though: back in 2008 the same countries were allowed to surf SourceForge, but not interact with the source code repositories — they could download, but couldn’t contribute. Now it seems the access block is complete — if you live in Iran, North Korea, Syria, Sudan or Cuba, you simply can’t access SourceForge.

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Microsoft has accused TiVo of illegally using video purchasing and delivery technology in its digital video recorders, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Microsoft filed suit against the DVR maker on Tuesday for infringing on two Microsoft patents as a way of defending its partner, AT&T, which is currently involved in a legal dispute with TiVo over the same technology. TiVo sued AT&T and Verizon in August over the "time warping" function in both companies’ digital video services. AT&T uses Microsoft’s video platform for its U-Verse TV IPTV service.

It’s because AT&T is Redmond’s biggest customer for that video technology that it has opted to come to AT&T’s defense.

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In October 2009, leading mobile phone maker Nokia sued Apple over the iPhone, claiming the company never fairly compensated Nokia for using its patents. Two months later, Apple countersued, claiming that a number of Nokia products violated Apple’s own patents.

Then just over two weeks ago, Nokia fired back with more accusations, and cited Apple’s culture of "stealing great ideas" to advance its own products, which extends well beyond the iPhone, and into all of Apple’s products (PDF available here).

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Finally an Easter egg in Windows 7 !

A hidden "GodMode" feature that lets users access all of the operating system’s control panels from within a single folder.

By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition.

The trick is also said to work in Windows Vista, although some are warning that although it works fine in 32-bit versions of Vista, it can cause 64-bit versions of that operating system to crash.

To enter "GodMode," one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Once that is done, the folder’s icon will change to resemble a control panel and will contain dozens of control options.

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The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool allows you to create a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file on a USB flash drive or a DVD. To create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive, download the ISO file and then run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool. Once this is done, you can install Windows 7 directly from the USB flash drive or DVD.

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Nearly 70 percent of Mexicans surveyed said that Mexican-Americans – including those born in the United States – owe their primary loyalty to Mexico, not the U.S., according to a Zogby poll commissioned by the Center for Immigration Studies.

The in-person poll, taken during August and September, sampled 1,004 Mexicans across the country on subjects related to illegal immigration and amnesty in the United States.

When asked “Should the primary loyalty of Mexican-Americans be to Mexico or to the U.S.?” 68.8 percent of respondents in Mexico said that it should be to Mexico, while only 19.7 percent said it should be to the United States. Another 11.5 percent of respondents said they were not sure.

Steven Camarota, director of research at the CIS, told CNSNews.com that the Spanish phrase translated as “Mexican-Americans” (“los estadounidenses de origen mexicano”) was carefully selected to ensure that respondents knew that it included those born in the U.S. He particularly stressed the Spanish word ‘estadounidenses.’

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A new survey by Zogby
International finds that people in Mexico think that granting legal status to illegal immigrants would encourage more illegal immigration to the United States. As the top immigrant-sending country for both legal and illegal immigrants, views on immigration in Mexico can provide insight into the likely impact of an amnesty, as well as other questions related to immigration.

A clear majority of people in Mexico, 56 percent, thought giving legal status to illegal immigrants in the United States would make it more likely that people they know would go to the United States illegally. Just 17 percent thought it would make Mexicans less likely to go illegally. The rest were unsure or thought it would make no difference.

Of Mexicans with a member of their immediate household in the United States, 65 percent said a legalization program would make people they know more likely to go to America illegally.

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There’s one thing more shocking than the illegal alien smuggling advice that an ACORN official in San Diego gave undercover journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles. It’s the illegal alien home-loan racket that ACORN has already been operating with the full knowledge of the U.S. government.

On Wednesday, O’Keefe and Giles published the fifth in a series of BigGovernment.com sting videos. ACORN official Juan Carlos Vera coached the pimp-and-prostitute-posing pair on how best to pull off a border-busting smuggling operation. It would be “better from Tijuana,” he counseled on videotape. Vera then generously offered the investigative couple his Mexican “contacts” to bring 12 illegal alien girls into the country for prostitution.

GOP California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger now wants an investigation. But neither the Terminator nor any other California public official raised a peep when the very same San Diego ACORN office publicly announced a partnership with Citibank to secure home loans for illegal aliens.

In 2005, Citibank and ACORN Housing Corporation — which received tens of millions of tax dollars under the Bush administration alone — began recruiting Mexican illegal aliens for a lucrative program offering loans with below-market interest rates, down-payment assistance and no mortgage insurance requirements. Instead of the Social Security numbers required of law-abiding citizens, the program allows illegal alien applicants to supply loosely monitored tax identification numbers issued by the IRS.

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