Microsoft Crippling VISTA,2008 and 7

I have a question to ask...

Do ANY of you folks have an answer, a GOOD SOLID TECHNICAL answer, as to WHY these cripplings have been implemented in VISTA, Server 2008, & most likely their
descendant, in Windows 7:

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1.) The removal of being able to use 0 as a blocking IP address in a HOSTS file

(vs. 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1, which are bigger, slower on load into the local DNS Cache (as well as slower flushes via ipconfig /flushdns) & also occupy more RAM once loaded, for NO GOOD REASON - 0 blocks as well as the other 2 do, & is smaller + faster!)

In this case, this happened on 12/09/2008 Microsoft "Patch Tuesday" updates, it wasn't LIKE that before then!

E.G.-> Here, using 0 as my blocking IP address in a FULLY normalized (meaning no repeated entries) HOSTS file with nearly 650,000 bad sites blocked in it, I get a 14++mb sized HOSTS file... using 0.0.0.0 it shoots up to 18++mb in size (& even worse using 127.0.0.1, to around the tune of 24++mb in size)... Here? This is SENSELESS bloat creation as the result!

&

2.) The removal of IP Port Filtering GUI controls for it via Local Network Connections properties "ADVANCED" section

(This is up there w/ when MS removed the GUI checkbox after NT 4.0 for IP Forwarding, only, this time, the difference is (and, it's a PAIN) is that it is NOT a single 1 line entry to hack via regedit.exe, but FAR MORE COMPLEX to do by hand)... Port Filtering is a USEFUL & POWERFUL security (& to a degree, speed also) enhancing feature!

Afaik, on THIS case (vs. #1 above)? It has always been that way in VISTA &/or Windows Server 2008... & not just the result of a Patch Tuesday modification.

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I posted on Mr. Sinofsky's (?) blog -> http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/02/25/feedback-and-engineering-windows-7.aspx [msdn.com]

AND, I have YET to get a SOLID TECHNICAL ANSWER on those things going on in VISTA, Server 2008, & probably Windows 7 as well, that justify doing so...

(They're things I'd really LIKE to get an answer to, as to WHY Microsoft has done the 2 things in my list above, to the above noted versions of Windows)

Sorry Microsoft - I really like your OS & softwares, but this time? Well - Both of those being done? EXTREMELY STUPID!

APK

P.S.=> Does ANYONE know why these STUPID things were done to the latest/greatest versions of Windows? I don't...

Otherwise, consider this "ammo" you 'anti-microsoft/anti-Windows' *NIX fans here can use, because @ this point? I wouldn't blame you IF you did... & hopefully??

It helps FORCE MS to undo them... because, I will be COMPLETELY FORTHRIGHT about this much: They're 2 reasons I won't upgrade beyond Windows Server 2003... apk

127.0.0.1 is localhost, why block yourself like that?

I doubt all of what you said is valid.

I've heard of Liberals who hate that we're still fighting a war in the oily East but little of Conservatives who do more than angst the fact.  Instead, they're rather angry the White House is trying to force/delude with an arbitrary pull-out date that they keep moving around.  Additionally, criticism of President Obama has been about his non-military international efforts and his domestic program, not his "overseas contingency" conduct; has Limbaugh called him a war criminal yet (has he?  I don't listen to the guy but I know if there's something radical to say he'd be the one to willingly say it whether or not other people believed it)?

As for the effort to now expand oil drilling, this is nothing new.  There has been some desire to push for expanding energy such as domestic oil drilling and nuclear construction for a number of years now, often little reported.  In fact, a lot of territory off the coast of California is already well-documented and mapped and Shell or ExxonMobil could get working on an unobtrusive method of oil extraction within a month were they allowed to tomorrow.  Those who push for the expansions now probably are using the war to try and tug heart strings - after-all, who wouldn't want to make it less likely we'd stay entangled there for the wrong reasons? - but is more a reaction to what is seen as an unrealistic Green national energy plan.

http://www.digitalnasties.com/shop/theres-always-wednesday-p-12.html

Why?

One word: Immigration.

Since 1970, America's largest source of immigrants has been Latin America, especially Mexico. More than half of these Latino immigrants lack a high school diploma.

Compare the U.S. experience with Canada's. More than half of all immigrants to Canada possess a university degree. Half of all Canada's Ph.D.s are foreign-born.

Why does America choose poorly educated immigrants? The short answer: America does not choose them. They choose themselves.

In the last decade, half of all the immigrants to the United States arrived illegally. Even many of the legal arrivals gained entry courtesy of relatives who originally slipped into the country against the law, then somehow regularized themselves.

By contrast, Canada (a country of 1/10 the U.S. population that takes proportionately many more immigrants than the United States) allows almost no illegal immigration.

The result: While immigration has enhanced the average skill level of the Canadian population, it has detracted from the average skill level of the U.S. population.

Many Americans carry in their minds a family memory of upward mobility, from great-grandpa stepping off the boat at Ellis Island to a present generation of professionals and technology workers. This story no longer holds true for the largest single U.S. immigrant group, Mexican-Americans.

Stephen Trejo and Jeffrey Groger studied the intergenerational progress of Mexican-American immigrants in their scholarly work, "Falling Behind or Moving Up?"

They discovered that third-generation Mexican-Americans were no more likely to finish high school than second-generation Mexican-Americans. Fourth-generation Mexican-Americans did no better than third.