Goodbye Windows 98 and Windows 2000 professional. If you want to buy a new computer with anything but Windows XP on it, you better do it by June 30. After July 1 Microsoft is forcing all of its OEMs to stop selling computers loaded with Windows 2000 Pro and Windows 98.

I'm very suprised that I haven't seen more news about this.

I work for NEC and after June 30 we will not be selling any computers that don't have Windows XP loaded on them. Microsoft weilds a lot of power over the OEMs by offering discounts that if taken away would destroy even a pretty large business like NEC.

Please note: I haven't seen the contract. I don't know what it says. All I'm reporting on is the effect. No more "non-Windows XP sales" after July 1.

Some retailers will sell their stocks after July 1, but they won't be able to buy new machines after that date.

This is particularly dire for large corporations that haven't yet started to get into Windows XP. This will force them to adopt XP.

Am I the only one getting turned off by all the politicians pushing "God" today? Geesh. You know, our pledge of allegience has only had "God" in it since 1955 and our paper money has only had "God" on it since 1957.

The way Bush and the Congress reacted you'd think that there's a state-sponsored religion thing going on. I guess people who don't believe in the Great Turtle in the Sky are going to be outcast and forgotten. According to the MSNBC unscientific poll only about 25% of the American people agree with the decision yesterday to make the pledge of allegience unconstitutional.

Heh. The masses are asses, what can I say?