• Power Saving: Lower FSB of 500MHz, resulting in a CPU speed between 750MHz and 1.25GHz.
• High Performance: Stock FSB of 667MHz, resulting in a CPU speed between 1GHz and 1.66GHz.
• Super Performance: Higher FSB of 700MHz, resulting in a CPU speed between 1.05GHz and 1.75GHz.
• Auto: Switches between Power Saving when running on battery and High Performance when on the AC adapter.

The 1000HE Eee PC comes with a built-in quick recovery system that restores your system to its factory settings by just pressing F9 three times during start-up. With the quick F9 recovery process, you won't need any Windows CD or driver CD.

I think they must be handing out some of Albert Hofmann's meds in Redmond these days. Fuzzy math and crazy predictions rule the day at Microsoft. In the space of about a week the drum beating coming from Microsoft is a bit ridiculous.

Here's what I am talking about:

• Microsoft's Xbox 360 mis-leading numbers to the gaming press released today.
• Bill Gates speaking in Tokyo last week claiming the "very rapid sales rate" of Vista claiming it is doing fine. Many say that Vista is the worse blunder in technology ever.
• Ballmers' statements of how Microsoft does not need Yahoo to catch Google in search while the latest numbers come out showing Google increasing its lead in US and in Europe.
• Zune sales numbers are touted as selling over 2 million units.
• Windows Mobile platforms expected to account for 40% of global smartphone market by fiscal 2012, according to Eddie Wu, managing director of Microsoft ODM embedded devices.

Xbox 360 Microsoft tells the gaming press that Xbox 360 has become the first console in the current generation to sell 10 million units in the US. Microsoft also points out its 19 million units sold worldwide. Seems Microsoft thinks there is much to be proud of.

Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005. The PlayStation 3 was launched on November 17, 2006. The Nintendo Wii was released on November 19, 2006.

Even with the Xbox 360 having a full year of sales over the competition the numbers are not that impressive, really. Nintendo's Wii is has sold 8.8 million units in the US as of the end of March, and will certainly reach that same 10 million unit milestone, a year sooner! Nintendo Wii has sold 24.45 million units worldwide already passing Xbox 360 sales. Nice that Microsoft saw it fit to leave out the market leader in its calculations. We call that "fuzzy math" here.

Vista I could write volumes on the failings of Vista. I will save you from that here. But I will point out while Bill Gates was touting the "rapid sales" numbers, Steve Ballmer was telling the press that they were considering extending Windows XP sales and three leading PC makers Dell, HP and Lenovo said they would STILL load Windows XP even if Microsoft decides not to sell it anymore.

How many people bought Vista or got pre-installed on a new PC and rolled it back to Windows XP to get a usable computer? A lot!

The terrible failure of Windows Vista sure helped Apple sell a lot more Macs!

Microsoft and Search Microsoft with its OWN technology, engineers and lots and lots of money spent has not been able to make a dent in Google search numbers, even though Microsoft controls over 90 percent of the desktop. Their plan was to buy Yahoo the number 2 search company. Some claim that the first order of business was to "convert" Yahoo to Microsoft's OWN technologies.

Now that they failed to buy out Yahoo (although, it may not be over yet) they claim they have other plans using some in house talent and technologies that will help them best Google. All while Google's recent search numbers show they have yet again gained and are almost up to 70 percent in the U.S. and beat 80 percent in Europe. Heavy use of hallucinogens?

Zune Sales Zunes sales are dismal compared to Apple's iPod. Selling only 2 million units since they went on sale in November 2006. Apple sold 10.6 million iPods last quarter alone.

Part of the problem is the Zune has been slow to innovate and add features. Only recently adding video content and some podcast features. Still no audiobooks or movie rentals. The customer experience has not been that great.

Right now it appears that the Zune is still trying to catch up to the "classic" iPods which Apple is moving like a bullet to replace with much more feature rich and powerful devices like the iPod touch and the iPhone. looks like Microsoft is lost in a fog and digging in the wrong place. Tying the Zune to the Xbox 360 has not faired that well with consumers.

All the Zune really accomplished was to take sales away from Microsoft's former "PlaysForSure" partners without even touching Apple and the iPod.

Microsoft is one of the largest sellers of DRM technology and has continually screwed it up badly. Microsoft purposely killed off Windows Media Player for the Mac in an attempt to lock out Macs and iPods from Microsoft's DRM as if they were the market leader. Making their own DRM not compatible with the iPod has proved to be a bad move.

This has only helped Apple, the iPod and the iTunes Store. Apple does not have a proprietary music format or license DRM and has benefited from the use of DRM in the music industry at the expense of Microsoft.

Windows Mobile Market Share "Microsoft expects sales of its Windows Mobile platform products will account for 40% of the global smartphone market in fiscal 2012 (July 2011-June 2012)", according to Eddie Wu, managing director of Microsoft ODM embedded devices.

This is the latest delusion from Microsoft. Sure if you don't count Apple's iPhone or RIM's Blackberry as "smartphones." Even then, only maybe. More "fuzzy math?"

I will remind you it was Steve Ballmer that made fun of the iPhone when it launched only to see Microsoft's Windows Mobile phones get trounced and surpassed in sales in the first six months of the iPhone's availability.

"Microsoft currently focuses its efforts on promoting the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system (OS) and the company has no plans to launch Windows Mobile 7 until 2009", Wu also stated.

It will take Microsoft that long to "copy" the functionality and try to mimic the ease of use of the "current" iPhone till then. Reason? Microsoft has no modular operating system like Apple has with OS X that allows them to easily port it over to handheld devices like a phone, Internet tablet, or Apple TV like device. They claim to be working on one. Each version of Windows gets bigger, slower, more processor and battery hungry. That includes Windows Mobile. How is it possible the "OS" company with the largest share is so far behind? Maybe chasing Google and Sony is not such a great idea.

The handheld computing device is the future as more people move to wireless Internet and away from their desk. This is why Apple and Google are chasing the mobile phone.

The iPhone will continue to hurt Windows Mobile phone sales with the launch of new iPhone models, global rollout, Apple's SDK (software developers kit) allowing for third party applications, and the App Store that will make installing these apps as easy as a click or a touch of a finger.

It is estimated that about 20 percent or more handsets will adopt the Linux OS by 2013 (Market Research Firm ABI Research). Google's Android is based on Linux and Nokia sells some popular Linux based handheld devices.

Microsoft better make more use of their own products like an Excel spreadsheet when making these predictions. They are sounding more like the government lately than a leading tech company.

Vista tested customers with its steep hardware requirements, poor performance, misleading Vista-capable stickers, lack of driver support, problems with graphic card support, its ridiculous amount of different versions, and with its high price. One particular thing that drives users crazy however, is the User Account Control (UAC) that is included in Windows Vista.

The UAC nags users for even the simplest operations such as going to device manager, emptying the recycle bin, or installing/uninstalling an application. Apple even made a commercial poking fun of this ridiculous feature. Or was this a bug? Well according to Microsoft it is a feature. One that was born to annoy users! Yes you read that right. So says the guy who designed it anyway, David Cross.

Mr. Cross, the Microsoft product manager responsible for bringing the UAC to Windows Vista, gave the "real reason" for UAC at the RSA 2008 conference in San Francisco yesterday. "The reason we put UAC into the platform was to annoy users. I'm serious," remarked Cross proudly.

Let's give Microsoft and Mr. Cross a big applause, they have succeeded in a big way, annoying many Vista users. Now that is progress. Wouldn't you say?

Cross claimed Microsoft added the UAC to stop users from wreaking havoc with their systems and to stop software makers from making applications that delved too far into the Windows subsystem. Like emptying the trash? Uninstalling some useless crapware? What constitutes "havoc?" I though just installing Vista was a lot of "havoc" myself.

"We needed to change the ecosystem, and we needed a heavy hammer to do it," Cross added. Sledge, I would say. Cross went on to say that although UAC may be seen as an annoyance to some, but its lasting implications are far more beneficial to Vista users. REALLY? Sure he is right... many have bought Macs!

"Most users, on a daily basis, actually have zero UAC prompts," he added. Probably because like many Vista users, they have disabled the annoying thing. Not so says Microsoft. According to Cross, citing "internal" research, "88% of Vista users have UAC enabled and 66% of Windows sessions do not encounter UAC prompts." My own experience with Windows Vista seems to differ with Mr. Cross' findings.

Even by Mr. Cross' numbers one-third of the 88% of users that have not figured out how to turn the UAC off are still getting annoyed on a "daily" basis. The other 12% were annoyed enough to figure out how to get some relief. What about the other 44% of the "sessions." The way I figure that is over one third of all Windows Vista users being annoyed! Maybe Microsoft can shoot for 100% next time? I think they can do it, really. Maybe Mr. Cross should consider a career change... like into politics.

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Mark Twain from Chapters from My Autobiography

This gives you the idea that these guys have no clue what a great user experience is. Hey, I guess if this was their goal, they have been highly successful. So successful in fact huge numbers of people forced to use Windows went back to XP!

Since Windows Vista was released way back on January 30, 2007 (November 30, 2007 was the business customer's release), many Windows customers have been frustrated with many even going back to Windows XP (some Windows champs have even gone to Mac OS X). Well some 14 plus months later Microsoft has released SP1 for Windows Vista that arrived late. So far many Windows users are still going to feel the pain, as this release may not fix the problems they are having.

According to ComputerWorld, Microsoft rolled out Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows Update, giving the majority of users their first look at the big update. Some didn't like what they saw. At all! They offer an FAQ on how to get rid of Vista's SP1.

It does not get prettier on other sites reporting Vista SP1 woes: Seeking Alpha - Microsoft Succeeds in Making Vista Even Worse, WashingtonPost - Vista SP1: Threat or Menace?, Mossberg: Vista SP1 Little Changed For Mainstream Users and Microsoft Vista Blog.

There is even talk of Microsoft again extending Windows XP support. I do have a suggestion. Only seven years old and already VERY grown up. Or stick with Windows XP that is older than "dirt" in computer terms.

The software requires a Windows PC and can still convert recorded TV shows to formats playable by iPods and the PSP. A Mac version of TiVo Desktop that matches these new features is still in development in tandem with Roxio, TiVo says. The DVRs themselves are also still set to receive YouTube support later this year. TiVo Desktop is priced at $24.95 for new users but is a free upgrade to anyone running a previous version. The standard TiVo Desktop for Windows software is a free download with less features.