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XP given another reprieve

In a darkened room somewhere in Redmond, the words "XP must die" are daubed all over padded walls and Vista is rocking in the corner with a deranged smile. That's right, Microsoft has given Windows XP its seven thousandth reprieve, which officially means it'll still be the operating system of choice when the cockroaches are taking their turn to put the economy back together.

mprltd isn't a bit surprised: "Windows 7 is looking like Windows Vista SP3 or SP4," he notes. "Coupled with [the idea that] if it's not broke don't fix it, and it looks like hell will freeze over before certain companies will buy any other operating system apart from XP. I see windows XP staying for eternity."

Eternity, eh? That might just be long enough to convince the sceptics that Vista isn't the software equivalent of scurvy. Not forsquare1, though.

"To me, it doesn't sound as if Microsoft is confident about its operating systems. Why provide XP when Vista is more secure, stable, faster, etc...? I have no experience with Vista, but with MS doing things like this, it's not tempting me to move over."

Anybody want to field that one? Big_D's on the case.

"If you have 20,000 PCs running XP and you need 10 new PCs, which is more cost effective? Another 10 PCs with XP installed or spend millions upgrading all the existing machines to Vista? It has nothing to do with Microsoft's confidence in the OS, more to do with the real-world situation of large companies, who cannot afford to upgrade."

Second generation Kindle leaks online

We really hope the pictures that have surfaced on the internet of the new Kindle are Lucifer's very own lies. Because if they're real, it's uglier than a bat crashed into a windscreen. On the bright side we'll probably never get

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to see it anyway, because Amazon still hasn't realised UK isn't actually a misspelling of US. cheysuli's sarcasm would have blistered paint:

"Hooray! They're releasing a sequel to the Amazon eBook reader unavailable in the UK, which will also be unavailable in the UK. I can hardly contain my indifference."

Even more spectacularly, ProfessorF's sarcasm would have blistered cheysuli: "I was really hoping that it would have come up with a system where you purchase the document holding device, into which you simply insert the text file ready to read at your leisure. Also, it'd have little or no impact on battery life, and be 100% recyclable. You could take it with you anywhere. Share with friends. Swap literature and ideas. And it'd support user-generated content. Oh no, wait, that's called an A5 ring binder."

And after five years it'd need a spare room for storage, a truck to be moved between meetings and be as comfortable in the hand as a sack of razorblades. Apart from that, we agree. The future's overrated.

Ask overhauls search

It's come to something when you have to type a search engine's name into Google to find out what it does, which is probably why Ask.com decided it was time for a revamp. A quick straw poll of our forums reveals this probably isn't going to help...

"I searched 'why are you so bad at this?' on Ask and was immediately directed to a site offering suicide tips," notes stephenreilly, who's clearly not got to grips with the forum's sense of humour yet.

Greemble was equally unimpressed: "Trying to find results using Ask will give a page of 'sponsored links', very few (if any) of which have much to do with what I'm looking for. Finding the actual results requires scrolling down the page and if you scroll too far, you get another load of advert links. Far too many ads to be of any use."

Shush, don't tell Google. It provides at least half of those pity links.

paulzolo wasn't entirely sure a facelift was necessarily the way to go. He still remembered Ask's last revamp. "In unrelated news, a Mr A Jeeves was admitted to hospital suffering from suspected pneumonia and severe exposure caused by almost two-and-a-half years of living rough since being sacked by has previous employers."

Speaking of exposure... actually best not. See you all next week.