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A. Windows Vista, scheduled for its debut to the general public next week, includes a free tool called Windows Easy Transfer. Like the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard that came with Windows XP, it is designed to move most of your personal stuff by means of a cable connection between old and new machines. Moving files over a network or with recordable discs and drives are other methods for transferring your files to the Vista PC as well.

According to Microsoft’s own description of Windows Easy Transfer (found at support.microsoft.com/kb/928635), the tool can move your user accounts and settings, personal files and folders, e-mail settings, messages and contacts, Internet settings and bookmarks and all your digital music, picture and video files.

It won’t move system files like fonts and drivers, however, so you will need to reinstall any custom fonts and Vista-compatible drivers on the new machine yourself.

While Windows Easy Transfer will move program settings and preferences if you have the same programs installed on the new computer, it won’t move the programs themselves. (Some types of software, like security programs designed for older versions of Windows, will probably not work on Vista anyway.)

Unfortunately for those with older computers, Windows Easy Transfer is designed to transfer files and settings from older machines running Windows 2000 or later. For Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows NT users who don’t want to move data and reconfigure all their program settings manually, separate software can be a much easier solution.

Several data-migration programs can be found around the Web or in computer stores. For example, Laplink PCmover (www.laplink.com) works with most older versions of Windows, costs less than $60 and is designed to move your files and settings between machines. Laplink PCmover even promises to move your programs as well.

Leaping to Linux

Q. What type of computers can run the Ubuntu Linux system?

A. Ubuntu, a free and flexible version of the Linux operating system, can work on many kinds of computers, including PCs and Macintosh machines with Intel processors. PC hardware with A.M.D. processors and Macs with the older PowerPC chips can also run Ubuntu, as can some high-end workstations and servers used by computer professionals. “Ubuntu,]]> Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:55:48 +0000 http://www.ipetitions.com/news/1
Eventually, the tensions eased and lawmakers approved the security plan, which gives Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, more authority. But the episode provided the Iraqi public with a live televised view of the extent of raw anger dividing Shiite and Sunni politicians.

Outside of Parliament, bloody sectarian battles continued on the streets of Baghdad. Three hours after the confrontation between lawmakers, a huge car bomb killed at least 25 people in the Karrada district, less than a mile from Parliament in an area favored by leading Shiite politicians. Residents there reported a horrific scene, with two busloads of people trapped in their vehicles and burned alive.

Mr. Maliki made his threat to arrest the Sunni lawmaker shortly after promising once again that a crackdown on illegal activity and would be carried out with equal vigor in Shiite as well as Sunni communities.

The prime minister’s claim was challenged by Abdul Nasir al-Janabi, who represents a powerful Sunni Arab bloc. “We can not trust the office of the prime minister,]]> Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:41:30 +0000 http://www.ipetitions.com/news/2 Skip to next paragraph
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Fabrizio Costantini for the New York Times

Alan R. Mulally, the new chief executive of Ford Motor Company, in Dec. 2006.

Ford lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter alone, the company reported today. In the same period a year earlier, it lost a comparatively trivial $74 million.

The company took in $160.1 billion in revenue in 2006, 9 percent less than in 2005.

Ford’s full-year loss, equivalent to $6.79 per share, far exceeded the $7.39 billion it lost in 1992, the worst previous year in its 103-year history, and it even surpassed the $10.6 billion loss posted by General Motors in 2005. But it is still short of the $23.5 billion that G.M. lost in its worst year, 1992.

Most of Ford’s red ink in 2006 came from the cost of shrinking and reorganizing the company, buying out workers and writing down asset values. Those charges accounted for $9.9 billion of the full-year loss after taxes. But Ford’s day-to-day business did very poorly as well, with a loss of $2.8 billion on continuing operations, compared with a $1.9 billion loss in 2005.

The figures were an unwelcome surprise to many Wall Street analysts, who on average had forecast a loss of about $2.5 billion for the year, excluding restructuring charges and other costs that Ford considers one-time items.

Still, Ford’s stock price ticked upward in morning trading, gaining about 20 cents a share to trade near $8.40 a share at midday, roughly where it was a year ago. The stock has been rising since mid-December, in part because gasoline prices have eased a bit.

Ford’s woes are greatest in North America, where its automotive operations lost $6.1 billion before taxes, and sales revenue fell by 14 percent to $69.4 billion. The North American losses, four times as bad as the year before, more than wiped out profits from automotive operations overseas.

Jonathan Steinmetz, an automotive analyst at Morgan Stanley, called those results “terrible,]]> Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:42:04 +0000