Windows 7 has been out, officially, for a short time now and the sheer volume of articles about the new operating system is just staggering.  I’ve been fixated on it myself.  And, yes, this is another post about customizing the new operating system.  There’s just so much you can do, that it is nearly impossible to cover it all in one post.  Consider this a sequel to this post.

Themes

The shipping US (and other) version of Windows 7 contains themes for other locales as well.  You can find them in the C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT directories.  Navigate there, then, under each country, there is a theme folder. Go there and double click the theme file to add it to your themes library.

There are LOTS of themes floating around now.  The number of nice themes to show up since the RC1 released is amazing.  At the end of this post, there is a list of links that point to either themes or other lists of themes.  At any rate, go explore them. There are some really nice themes out there.  I also posted about themes earlier and you can read that here. 

Also, if you are an Object Desktop subscriber, there are a ton of themes for WindowBlinds that do much more than change the background and sounds.  WindowBlinds changes the windows borders, dialog boxes, buttons, start ORB and more.  Pretty much every facet of the interface can be changed with WindowBlinds.  There is a trial version available or you can subscribe to Object Desktop and get WindowBlinds and other nice applications as part of your subscription.  Go to Stardock and check it out.  (And, no, I am in no way affiliated with them, I just love their products.)

Task Bar

Because the task bar has changed substantially, there are, of course, many ways to change it.  Below are a few things you can do to change it plus a handy tip.

One of the things that Microsoft did to the task bar when they introduced Windows XP was add the ‘Quick Launch’ bar.  Unfortunately, they removed it-or, more appropriately, they removed the easy way to turn it on.  Well, thanks to a Microsoft blogger, details on turning it back on are below.  Please note, the tip is taken from his blog and is not mine.  I don’t want to take credit for something I did not do.

How to restore the Quick Launch bar on the Windows 7 Task Bar (credit to this site):

• Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
• In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:
  %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
• Turn off the “lock the taskbar” setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that “Show text” and “Show title” are disabled and the view is set to “small icons”.
• Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.

One of the better changes Microsoft made to the task bar was to devote a small part of it as a ‘hot area’ where you can quickly get to the desktop.  If you move your mouse to the far right side of the task bar and click the area, you can minimize all windows and see the desktop.  Alternately, you can right click and choose a default action (either peek at the desktop or show desktop.)

Movie Maker 2.6

While the Live Essentials Movie Maker is very nice and it works well, there are a few things that were left out, namely some of the effects and the ability to put the bloody credits over video (why, why, why was this removed?)  Well, unfortunately, the Vista version of Movie Maker disappears when you upgrade and it is not downloadable from Microsoft. BUT…the non-Aero version that was released for XP and Vista Home Basic: version 2.6.  It is still the old interface and retains the old effects, wipes, etc.  Grab it here.

Power Toys

One of the things that used to accompany a Windows release was the un-official release of the Microsoft Power Toys.  These were usually a collection of small applets or registry changes that altered a small part of Windows functionality or, in most cases, enhanced it.  Well, for whatever reason, those power toys seemed to have ceased development.  There were a few really handy ones like the Send to/Copy to any folder.  I’ve never really understood why ‘Send to any folder’ is not just there in the context menu.  It is an odd omission.  Anyway, I am happy to say that some-not all-of those power toys still work under 7.  And, with Vista, a Microsoft employee developed a few for the UAC as well.  It is a lengthy article with downloads and you can go here to read it. 

The marvelous Windows XP Power Toys are still available and you can get them here.  Be careful, some of these do not work under 7 and a few are now better supported and there are newer versions of them (like SyncToy.)  Go here for the Power Toys.  NOTE:  the Tweak UI on that page WILL NOT WORK and might cause you problems if you try it.  Clear Type Tuner is now part of 7 and you do not need the Power Toy.  The photo related toys are still useful.  The HTML slide show wizard and the CD Slide Show generator are pretty handy for creating a quick slide show that you can post or burn to CD without having to start an application.  They are quick and easy to use, but very bare bones.  Finally, SyncToy graduated to a more full application. It works very well and is available here.  I used it for a long time to keep my Zune in sync with iTunes.

Stay tuned for more tips and tricks for Microsoft’s terrific new operating system.

Links:

Windows 98 Plus! Pack Themes

Windows 7 ‘Bliss’ Theme pack

Nice collection of themes for Windows 7

Themes, gadgets and wallpaper for Windows 7

Another nice collection of theme links

 

Today, the Ubuntu crowd got it’s new operating system, Karmic Koalas.  Also known as Ubuntu 9.10, the operating system is now available for download.  If you believed the tech world-or, at least, the Linux faithful-downloading the OS could be problematic because, you know, everyone would want to download it.  Well, I had no problems downloading the 700mb ISO file.  It downloaded in just a few minutes after which I installed it in a Virtual Box VM.

Installation, I have to say, is much, much easier than it used to be.  Booting the VM with the ISO resulted in a rather ugly text mode selection box for language, then a cute little menu to select how I wanted to install/use the ‘live CD’.  I chose to install.  It then presented a very cute little glowing graphic and began the installation process.  It asked me which drive I wanted to use and then asked a few basic things like time zone, my name, a password to use and then it went on its way.  The installation took, maybe, twenty minutes or so.  I am rather impressed by how easy and quick it was. 

Once booted, I was presented with a pleasant enough desktop.  And here is where it falls flat.  Again.  I went to install the Virtual Box extras so I could have the better graphical experience and also test how easy it would be to install SOMETHING, anything.  Well, unfortunately, the extras required a trip to Terminal.  And that is the problem.  As long as you have to use Terminal to INSTALL something or even to change a system setting, it fails.  Yes, I know there are funky things in Windows as there are in Mac OS X but they are relatively few and far between.  Just about everything I need to change in Windows is reachable from within the user interface and does not require a CMD window. 

I did get the extra’s installer (for lack of a better term) to do something, but I don’t know what.  I see no visible change and accessing the display panel didn’t yield any changes.  

I also tried to access a file on one of my Windows computers.  While the big U KNEW about my network, it was not able to access anything on it, rather it enjoyed letting me know that it could not find a server.  While I am sure some Linux savvy soul out there could tell me in, what, two seconds, what the problem is, the point is that I shouldn’t HAVE to ask nor should I even have this issue.  It should find all of my attached PC’s and storage and allow me to use them. 

Performance seemed iffy as well, but I am not sure how much of that is due to the operating system running in a VM.

The usual suite of applications was already installed:  Firefox, Open Office, Tetravex and gnomtris and others.  There weren’t as many pre-installed apps in this release and that’s fine.  Getting additional software is fairly easy IF YOU KNOW WHERE TO GO.  Once again, Linux falls short.  While there is a ‘package manager’, you have to hunt for it and then, when you use it, you must enter your password (bowing to a very UAC like feature from Vista.)  Next, you have to traverse a myriad of choices to find something you want.  There seems to be multiple ‘universes’ with which to get software.  And, once you find something, you may be required to download and install additional software to make what you want work.  It is a bit confusing and cumbersome.  Worse, some of the applications require a different window manager or, at least, that window manager has to be installed so its libraries can be used.  And, please, correct me if I am wrong about that.  While the flexibility of having multiple interface managers is cool, it does nothing for Joe User.

I find it interesting, too, that there are quite a few little things that seem to have been taken from either Windows or Mac OS X.  The UAC like prompts, the warm and fuzzy text on many of the dialog boxes and even the choice of backgrounds are similar to what you get in the other operating systems.  There’s nothing wrong with it, why not take the good bits?

My goal was to take a very quick look at this release through the eyes of an ‘average’ user.  In my opinion, Ubuntu 9.10, while nicer than previous releases, still has a very long way to go before it can challenge Mac or Windows on the desktop.  Even with the warm an fuzzies that the developers seem to have at least tried to put into the GUI, it still falls way short.  For an enthusiast, however, Ubuntu is pretty darn cool.  If you don’t mind the limitations I’ve mentioned or if you like getting down and dirty with the operating system, this is the way to go.  The operating system is far more customizable and extensible than Windows and the price is certainly right. All in all, Ubuntu is a worthwhile download and, if you aren’t tied to Windows or Mac or whatever, it would make a nice desktop OS, as long as you don’t mind getting intimate with your hardware.

You can download the ISO files here.

UPDATE: 10/30/2009

In  the post, I mistakenly said that the software packager was hidden.  Indeed, the one I looked at, the Synaptics Package manager, is buried. However, I totally missed the Ubuntu Software Center.  Available from the Applications menu, you can select it and have a plethora of pre-compiled applications at your fingertips. You are presented with an easy to navigate list of categories like games, accessories, science, development and others.  When you select a category, you are then presented with a list of available applications.  Installation is fairly painless. Just double click an application and it will be downloaded and installed. Any necessary dependencies are also installed.  This repository is much nicer than what I found earlier, and it does make installing available software much easier. However, I still stand by my conclusion.  This does little to make Ubuntu any closer to Windows or Mac OS X.

Once again, our favorite industry tabloid, InfoWorld, has published a stunner of an article detailing why Windows 7 has ‘spotty’ driver support.  According to the author of the post, ‘any hope that Microsoft and HP would surprise me by releasing working drivers for all devices supported by Windows Vista in time’ for the Windows 7 release. His problem:  his 64 bit desktop couldn’t scan from his networked HP printer.  Apparently, you see, it is both Microsoft and HP’s responsibility to make sure all of the crap you have works with every release of the OS.  Well, guess what?  IT DOES.  My all in one HP printer, scanner, fax, wipe your butt machine has worked since the Windows 7 public beta was released.  So, since MY HP All in One device works, the support MUST be good, right?  After all, the whole article is based on one person’s in-ability to scan, wirelessly, from his all in one device using his Windows 7 computer.  Oh, he did ‘spot check’ other companies (Brother and Epson) and also checked on HP’s driver situation for its laptops.  He found that some HP laptops won’t be updated.  Well, no they won’t.  Those are probably older laptops and, most likely, didn’t support or had limit support for Vista.  Surely, they cannot be expect to support something that was state of the art when XP was released, right?

The post complains about having to connect the device to the computer to install the printer.  The author says ‘The work-around is unsatisfactory’.  Well, he must have forgotten that YOU HAD TO DO THAT to set the bloody thing up anyway.  Once you’ve set it up, you unplug it from USB if you want.  From my own experience, because I had already set the device up under Vista, all I had to do was tell Windows 7 to look for it via wireless. It took about thirty seconds for it to find the device and install the drivers.

As for HP, they had updated drivers-for Windows 7-ON THE DAY that 7 released. It was all there.  Both laptops and my desktop.  They even had updated versions of the media smart software that they bundle on the computers.  Far and away better than they did with Vista.

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths that this publication will go through to make Microsoft look bad.  PC World, the slickly produced consumer magazine, loves to put these posts on its site and call it ‘news.’ 

Anyway, go here if you want to read the article yourself.  Poke around and you will find a bevy of anti-Windows ‘news’ and commentary.  It is about as credible as those PC switcher ads that Apple runs (and have now out lived themselves.)

OK, time for me to eat crow and give a big apology to the Internet Explorer 8 team.  I’ve posted, several times, about how Internet Explorer 8 was broken.  For me, on three machines, it was broken.  On two of them, I had constant issues with tabs not rendering the pages.  I’d have to kill the browser and restart it.  Often, nothing seemed to work and I, finally, resorted to punting that browsers and moving to Safari for Windows.  As I wrote in this post, even that browser was beginning to give me problems since the last update from Apple. 

Well, funny thing happened after that last posting. I got some helpful advice from some Twitter people and some readers. Plus, Windows 7 was finally released.  A bit of investigating revealed that several IE add on’s were installed, including Google ChromeFrame. After disabling many of them, IE 8 began to act more like IE 7 did. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better.

Windows 7 comes along and I upgrade two of the three machines that IE 8 was acting badly on and, guess what? It is working just fine.  Starts up much faster, renders the pages each time, feels more responsive and generally works better.  Now, I’m not sure why on the third machine it is still acting a bit wonky, but it is my home media machine and I don’t browse often on it anyway.  The only constant I’ve noticed was the 32/64 bit mixture.  Maybe it was more of an issue with Vista than Windows 7, although one of the two machines that had the problem was a Windows 7 RC1 install (which was upgraded from 7 Beta 1, upgraded from Vista 64 Home Premium, so that might have made it unstable there.)

No matter.  The browser is now working just fine on the Windows 7 machines.  No hiccups, hang-ups or hang over’s. The browser works well.  Now, how does one prepare crow? 

Yep, another Windows 7 post.  This time, I wanted to share some ways to ‘tame’ the user interface.  Realizing that not everyone likes or wants all of the eye candy and graphical features of the Aero interface in Windows 7, I thought I would share a few things you can set from one handy dialog and show some somewhat dramatic results by changing one of them.

To begin, click the Start Orb and then right click on ‘COMPUTER’ and select properties.  Select the ADVANCED TAB and then click SETTINGS.  You should not be on the Visual Effects tab of the Performance Options dialog.

From here, select CUSTOM to turn on or off the eye candy.  Personally, I like the effects, so I leave them all on, but there are a few that seem to annoy many people and Microsoft made it easy to disable them.  Oddly enough, one of them that I’ve heard people say was useless or somewhat annoying was Aero Peek.  I’m not sure why this is, I find it pretty useful.  At any rate, un check the Enable Aero Peek and you will turn it off.

Another feature I’ve heard many complain that was introduced with Vista are the shadows under windows.  There was no easy way to turn it off in Vista, but in 7, you can simply un-check the box.  The difference is amazing and now I am not sure which way I prefer it.  I will have to try it both ways for a few days.  I like the depth that the shadows seem to give, but I also like the clean lines of the overlapping windows. 

Other features you can control here are font smoothing, control animations, minimize and maximize window animations, the way menus slide in or out, shadows under labels or the mouse pointer and you can disable part of the theme engine here by un-checking the ‘Use Visual Styles on Windows and Buttons’. 

Of course, the easiest way to turn most of this stuff off is to use the now extremely dated ‘Classic’ theme.  Sigh.  Why is this still here?  To each, their own, I suppose.

In Classic, you still have the window docking feature, but not Aero Shake or Aero Peek.  Task bar thumbnails are text only.  Transparency is gone in most places and the end result is an odd mixture of Windows 2000 style controls mixed with Vista / Windows 7 style controls.  It’s really odd and looks like an early attempt at skinning Windows.  Sort of works, mostly doesn’t. I think if you want bare basics, the Aero Basic theme looks nicer.

Finally, if you want to go all out and have more control over the appearance of your desktop, you should check out Stardock’s Object Desktop.  This suite of applets lets you skin the entire interface so you can make Windows look like ANYTHING you want, from a MAC OS X desktop, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, OS/2, Amiga, Star Trek themes, Simpsons, etc.  There is also Object Dock which gives you a Mac OS style dock, the Sound Packager which you can use to replace your system sounds and an icon manager.  There are other apps in the suite.  Go to Stardock and check it out.  Some of the apps are free, others are only in the suite and there are demo versions for most of the ‘biggie’ apps.

I know you’ve probably had enough with the Windows 7 stories all over the tubes, but, I’ve got more to share.  Even though I have been using the RC1 version for months, I am finding things that I either missed or, rather, were not in that version. Certainly, many of the themes were missing and Microsoft has a few really nice ones on the downloads site at Microsoft.com.  There are some branded themes that are also really nice, among them are the Bing theme with some fantastic photos, the Coca Cola theme is whimsical, I personally love the Infiniti theme since I have an I30 and Zune themes are colorful.

Themes aside, Microsoft added quite a bit of little things that, individually, are not much but, collectively, they add up to a really nice experience.  Now, I’m sure you’ve read about the Aero features like shake, dock and peek, so I won’t talk about those.  Instead, I’m going to talk about some other, lesser know things that I think add value and, a few of them that I don’t recall seeing in the RC1.

For example, for laptops, there is a new feature that will dim your screen after x minutes of use.  ‘X’ is anywhere from five minutes to 5 hours or never.  This feature may have been there before, but not turned on.  It defaults to ten minutes, I believe.  I don’t recall since I have changed it. 

To change the timing:

• Open Control Panel
• Select Hardware and Sound
• Power Options
• Edit Plan Settings
• Next to Dim the Display, select either On battery or Plugged in and select the interval you want
• Click Save Changes and then close the window by clicking the X in the upper right corner

From that same screen, you can also set the normal brightness-something I think was available in Vista.

Another nice little feature, part of which was in RC1, is the improved theme manager.  While this was present in RC1, I didn’t play with it too much because themes in RC1 were a bit wonky for me.  It was definitely the video driver as the problem is gone now.  One of the nice things you can do is select a range of background photos and have them rotate every few minutes, hours or day.  You can also have them shuffle so the order is different each time.  

To do this:

• Right click on an empty part of your desktop
• Select Personalization
• Pick a theme, I always use the standard Windows 7 theme
• Click Desktop Background
• In the Picture location, select a folder that contains the pictures you want to use.  Note: YOUR photos are in the Picture Library
• Click CLEAR ALL to uncheck the pictures
• Now, for each photo you want to include, click ONE time on the check box in the upper left of the photo icon
• Once you have selected the photos, set the ‘Change picture every:’ timing selection
• Click Shuffle if you want them to be in a somewhat random order
• For Picture Position, it is best to leave it at Fill, since that will fill the whole screen, but you can experiment with the setting to get it right for you
• If you are using a laptop, there is an additional setting (that I don’t remember being there) that will suspend the slide show if your are running on the battery
• Click Save Changes when you are done

You can also set the sounds for your theme.  The works much the same as the pictures select, but you have to click on each event and select a sound file to play.  I usually leave it on the default or select no sounds.  This is a bit more tedious to perform.

Start Menu

The Start menu has undergone some subtle changes as well.  Gone are the auto pinned items at the top.  You have to do this yourself, and, I think, that’s OK.  I didn’t  always want the items that were there under XP or Vista, so this is a welcome change for me.  Pinning is easy, too.  Right click the item you wish to pin, select Pin To Taskbar or Pin to Start Menu.  Once pinned, you can unpin simply by right click the pinned item and selecting Unpin. Pretty easy and very handy.

Other start menu changes include a menu on items that support lists or previously used files.  For example, say you use Notepad enough for it to stay in the recently used applications list in the Start Menu OR you have pinned it.  When you open the Start Menu, you’ll see a right arrow next to the icon.  Click the arrow and the right side of the start menu switches to what ever list the program supports.  For example, the Getting Started guide, which should be the first non-pinned item right after you’ve installed Windows 7, shows the various tasks you can perform that Microsoft thought you would want to do after installing the operating system.  This is just like the jump lists in the task bar.  There is, of course, an API for that if you are a programmer and wish to add such support to your own software.  This is one of the handiest features yet.

Not part of Windows 7, but these are a few things you should get…

One of the things that Microsoft did to streamline Windows 7 is get rid of some of the applets that shipped with Vista and some previous versions of Windows.  Namely, the mail application, photo gallery and movie maker are now separate but free downloads.  Go to Windows Live Essentials and run the installer from the web page. Select the items you wish to install and let the installer do its job.  Please note: if you use Parental Controls, you will also need to download the Family Safety program as well.  This is one thing they took out of Windows 7 that should have stayed.  Click here for instructions on using this part.

Next, head over to Lifehacker and check out this article on some cool software to augment any version of Windows. While at Lifehacker, check out this story on 10 things to boost Windows 7.

I will post more findings after having gone through the retail even more.  Stay tuned!

Following up on my previous post about my upgrade experience, I thought I’d share my Family 3 Pack upgrades.  The first was on a DV7 family HP laptop.  Since we have two laptops from that same family, and I had already performed one upgrade, I knew what to expect and about how long it would.  The upgrade itself took around three hours and I spent another hour or so updating drivers and installing a couple of applications that I wanted to wait to install until I got Windows 7 on this particular machine.

The computer, which is my son’s laptop, is a near twin to my personal laptop, yet it did not have all of the same drivers that my machine has, which means there are some subtle hardware differences.  Not an issue, and, no doubt, due to his computer being a few months older than mine.  At any rate, I ran into no issues on the machine.  Windows 7 upgraded without a hitch.

The Family 3 Pack comes with two DVD’s:  a DVD with the 32 bit version of Windows 7 and the second DVD has the 64 bit version.  Also in the package are the little ‘here’s what’s new with Windows 7’ booklet, the DVD case insert with the activation key and a slip of paper that talks about what to do if you are upgrading from XP.  The package is quite like the Home Premium package, only it is orange.  In fact, except for the color scheme and the product name on the disk, the contents are the same.  You only really know it is the three pack because the DVD is labeled as the Family 3 Pack.

Both laptops only required an in place upgrade.  For the next computer, I had to do a custom install.  This machine was running the Windows 7 RC1 version.  I didn’t even try an in place upgrade since the RC1 was Window 7 Ultimate and you aren’t supposed to be able to upgrade from Ultimate to Home Premium.  Besides, it was the RC1, which was itself an upgrade from an earlier beta.  I didn’t want to mix in the released code with that beta and RC1 stuff.  Starting over is sometimes a better way to go.

So, even though this was a custom install, it still took nearly three hours for it to install.  I suspect it was because I have four relatively large USB external drives. I noticed that for an hour and a half to two hours, there was a tremendous amount of activity on all four, in sequence too.  More than likely, had I unplugged them, it would not have taken as long.

The upgrade went pretty smooth, all of the devices were detected and drivers installed.  Connecting to my HP Office Jet over WIFI was easy and the driver installed.  I have not, however, tried to fax or scan and I’m not too worried about that as it worked great under the RC1.  One interesting thing I’ve seen is the number of Windows updates that have been pulled down.  The two laptops had three Windows 7 updates and a few several Internet Explorer 8 updates.  The desktop, however had FOUR Windows 7 updates and two Internet Explorer 8 updates plus updates for a couple of drivers that I had already updated, specifically the ATI 3200 chipset and the Atheros Ethernet driver.

Re-installing the applications I use regularly is going to be the real pain.  Not a problem, just a pain.  The one thing I have yet to figure out is why can’t Microsoft migrate the installed applications.  The go through the trouble of moving the Program Files directories and the User directories, so why couldn’t they migrate the apps too?  I suppose it has to do the now unwieldy Registry, but it sure would go a long way to easing the upgrade.  Of course, the flip side is that you’ll only install the stuff you really want and use and leave the junk you’ve installed off of the machine.  There’s some junk that I had that will not be going back on the machine.

So far, the Family 3 Pack experience, installation wise, has been no different and I would not expect any differences.  Activation was just as easy as before and only took a couple of seconds. 

My experience with both the single upgrade and the Family 3 Pack has been pretty good.  No problems, no incompatibilities and no driver issues.  Quite a difference from my Vista experiences-which were not that bad any way-and way, way better than XP.  Microsoft deserves lots of credit for the improvements to both the installation and upgrade experience as well as the user experience in Windows 7 itself.

Installing the Windows 7 upgrade on my HP DV7 laptop went smooth, but it took about three hours to complete.  This upgrade has been the smoothest one yet.  I have not lost any data and all of the installed software was still there.

When I began the upgrade, I did not read the dialog box completely that popped up telling me that I needed to restart the computer before the upgrade could continue.  After doing it a second time, I read the dialog box and proceeded to restart the computer and begin the upgrade.  I chose the in-place upgrade so I would not have to re-install anything.  Since I was going from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium, the upgrade should have gone smoothly and it did. 

So, how is the  machine performing?  Well, boot time is a bit better but it was not all that bad under Vista.  Once at the desktop, windows and dialogs ‘feel’ snappier and application start up seems about the same or a tad faster, depending on the application. Overall, it just feels snappier, more responsive and looks nice too.

The first thing I did once it completed the upgrade, I immediately went to the HP web page for the laptop and checked on the drivers.  The upgrade advisor had pointed out that the Synaptics driver MAY not function correctly and the keyboard filter and HP Media Smart software may not work.  To my delight, HP has updated ALL of the drivers for the laptop as well as the Media Smart software-which I don’t really use, but it is nice to have a version that works with the operating system.

Since I have other computers I want to upgrade, I purchased the Family Three Pack from Costco.  By the way, the Three Pack costs $125 from both Costco and Sam’s Club and can be had for about $120 from Staples if you have the thirty dollar off coupon-which, by the way, I couldn’t find.

One of the computers I am going to upgrade is another DV7 and my HP Pavilion a6750f desktop.  The desktop will require a wipe and install, so the back up will take longer than the install itself.

Have you upgraded yet?  If so, how did it go?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Well, it looks like Microsoft had a very good day.  October 22, 2009 will go down as one of the company’s better days, it seems.  It launched Windows 7, the much improved operating system and it also opened a cafe in Paris and a retail store in Scottsdale, Arizona. 

The store opening is particularly interesting because of the fanfare it opened to…a seemingly endless line of people, many of which had lined up the day before the opening.  On the surface, it looked like an Apple event and kind of weird.  Weird because I cannot remember that much excitement about ANYTHING from Redmond since the Windows 95 and XBOX 360 launches. 

Windows 7, of course, was THE event of the day.  Worldwide, Microsoft launched the new operating system.  It seems the excitement from have a well received operating system was shared among consumers.  In London, for example, there were, reportedly, over 500 people waiting in line at a ‘PC World’ store to buy a copy of Windows 7.  When was the last time you remember hearing of something like that?  I don’t recall even Apple having a reception for one of its OS releases, it is possible, but I just don’t remember that.

Windows 7 has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from many different outlets and two have struck me as really saying something about Windows 7.  The first, from Walt Mossberg, says that Microsoft has closed the gap between the Mac OS and Windows.  While I’m not sure there was a gap, it does say something because Mr. Mossberg is a well known fan of Apple products, especially the Mac OS.  The second review, from Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times, was probably one of the more balanced and fair reviews I’ve seen to date.  Mr. Ihnatko is also a well known Apple Mac OS fan but does not treat it as a religion.  His review does a good job of pointing out the new features, areas that Microsoft has improved and a few where they need to improve.

CNet, which pretty much destroyed Vista in the first year of its release, was also one of the more balanced and positive outlets.  They had video coverage of the festivities in New York and also video reviews of the operating system. 

For me, I was pleasantly surprised to find my copy of Windows 7 waiting for me when arrived home from my day job.  Amazon delivered, as promised.  I will be installing it on my HP Laptop and will write about that experience.

Microsoft has also followed Apple’s lead and released a three-license ‘family pack’.  It is normally $150 (US), but you can purchase a copy from Costco in the US for $139(US) or, if you have the coupon, you can get it for thirty dollars off at Staples.

Microsoft is also fortunate that it was a relatively slow news day, nothing seemed to overshadow them.  For once.  Good for them.

InfoWorld is desperately trying, once again, to spread the Windows 7 fud.  Yet, another wonderful writing by that jilted InfoWorld reporter, whom I’m not going to name, was published today.  This time, our intrepid reporter is claiming that Windows 7 may be doomed after all…because…of its reliance on Windows Update.

Yeah, you saw that correctly:  Windows Update will be Windows 7 downfall.  Why?  Because this guy tried to use an old HP printer and Windows Update could not find an appropriate driver.  So, this person, who claims to know what he is doing, had to-GASP!-actually go to HP’s website and find the right driver, download a-wait for it-40 megabyte installation package.  The HORROR!  Oh, the humanity!  Please.  Give me a break.  Now, mind you, this guy was trying to install a driver, for an OLD printer, on a NETBOOK.  He then says that it ‘took forever’ to install and added even more crapware to his sluggish netbook.  OK, I get the crapware reference as HP tends to do that.  However, if the netbook was already sluggish, then why bother? Netbooks are not meant to be used for day to day work.  They are not practical for that.  But, OK, you may need to print.  So…just install the bloody driver.  You can do that without having to install the damned ‘crapware.’

He goes on to point he’s Windows savvy because, you know, he’s used it since version 1.03.  So what?  Going on, he says that it is just too much to ask a novice user to actually have to download and install a driver.  He infers that Microsoft should bundle every possible driver known to mankind.  Sorry, pal, that’s just stupid.  Even the company of fruit figured this out and now follows Microsoft’s lead and sends you packing to the web for driver downloads.  Being a closed system like Apple, however, mitigates this somewhat, but does not prevent one from trying to use an old printer with a shiny new netbook and OS.

I suspect that much of Windows 7 sales will come from new computers and, as such, most will purchase a new printer as well.  And, even if they don’t, HP has pretty updated drivers for the more popular printers they have released over the last five to seven years.  If you printer is older than that, you should probably buy a new one anyway.  That aside, this is still NOT a Microsoft problem. It is a MANUFACTURER problem.  In fact, I have some pretty old stuff myself and, save for a couple of video game controllers, it has all been detected by Windows 7 and drivers installed.  The two game controllers were recognized, but they did not have signed drivers and you cannot install unsigned drivers now.

Perhaps the most bizarre claim in the piece is his assertion of ‘heavy hardware requirements’, half baked compatibility mechanisms in which he actually says “check your CPU for VT support”!  I think he is referring to the XP Mode and Virtual PC, which do require such support.  What he failed to mention is that this support (XP Mode) is ONLY available in Professional and Enterprise versions, neither of which the average user is going to have or even know about. And those ‘heavy hardware requirements’ are: 1ghz CPU, 1gb RAM and a DirectX 9.0c compatible video card for Aero.  Hmm…most computers sold in the last five or so years meet them.  And even for those that don’t have a gigabyte of RAM or the video card will still run Windows 7, but the experience will be less than ideal.  Basically, if it ran Vista, it will run Windows 7.  If it ran XP and is five years old or newer, chances are excellent that it will run Windows 7.  Most people probably will just buy a new PC with it installed and be done with it.

He concludes his stunning revelation with ‘I know I won’t be taking Windows 7 with me when I travel’ since, you know, he goes to all of these third world nations that don’t have good internet access and will, no doubt, run into ‘legacy scanners or printers’.  Ummm…wouldn’t he have that problem with XP as well?  Just saying…

At any rate, Windows Update isn’t going to derail Windows 7 adoption.  I suspect this will be the biggest release since Windows 95. I suppose some people will do anything to justify staying with something that is in their comfort zone.  Or, perhaps, prove some kind of point.  Or, maybe, to ‘just show them’.  Or…oh, forget it.  I’ve already spent too much time on this.

(I’m not going to link to the article.  If you are curious, go to InfoWorld.com or PCWorld.com and search Windows 7. You’ll see it.)

Brick and Mortar retailer, Barnes & Noble, announces its Kindle competitor, the Nook.  The Nook is roughly the size of the Kindle 2 and shares the same e-ink display.  The device also features 3G AND WiFi access.  The device uses the AT&T 3G network.Barnes and Noble will be the back end for the device, offering nearly a million books and magazines.  Many of those books are public domain and free (and can be used on any device.)  Unlike Kindle, however, the device runs Google’s Android flavor of Linux and features a small color touch screen for navigation and thumbnails.  It has an Apple Coverflow like browsing feature.

The software has an additional feature over Kindle:  book sharing.  You can ‘lend’ a book to a friend for upto 14 days and they can view the book on their own nook, PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, certain Motorola and Blackberry phones.  However, only a ‘wide selection of books’ can be shared this way.

The device is priced at $259 (US) and will be available in November.

Funny name aside, this device is intriguing.  Since it is running Android, one can assume there will be a hacking community.  Imagine, this thing hacked to allow other apps to run.  Maybe a browser…unfettered.  Pretty cool, indeed.

Links:

• Slashgear article about nook
• Engadget
• Barnes & Noble nook site

Well, after re-posting my un-responsive IE 8 post from a few days ago, a helpful Twitterer, @ego_maniac (thanks for the response), said:

@geogray Unresponsive or slow tabs is usually a bad BHO, try disabling all add-ons in 'tools>manage add-ons' except for flash. It should help

So, I go into the ‘manage add ons’ page in IE 8 and start to see what was there.  I was really surprised to see the crap that was installed.  Perhaps my anger has been mis-directed after all.  One of the more interesting add-ons I saw was one I did not install:

CHROMEFRAME BHO from Google.

Why the hell is this here?  I did not ask for it.  I did not install it.  Yet, there it is.  I suppose that since it is from GOOGLE, I should just accept it and move on, but, I’m still a bit miffed.  Microsoft was pummeled just a few days ago for its installation of the WPF helpers in Firefox.  Who is going to pummel Google for this?  Well, I will start.

Google, what the heck are you doing, installing software that I did NOT approve?  What is this ChromeFrame BHO?  Why is it there and when did you put it there?

OK, not much of a pummeling.  Seriously, though, what gives?  I’ll be looking for the angered masses, or, at least, a few angry bloggers…namely this one.

 I posted this earlier.  See the end of the post for an update.

Quote

Internet Explorer 8 does not work and I cannot find a good browser to replace it

Oh my.  For the first time in I don’t know how long, I tried to use Internet Explorer 8 (32 bit) on my Windows 7 machine.  What a travesty.  I see why IE is losing market share: it bloody well does not work.  It acts like it WANTS to work, it just does not render a damned thing.  What in the world was Microsoft thinking when they released this steaming pile of poo?  It makes IE 6 look like gold.  At least IE 6 RENDERS THE BLOODY PAGE when you want it to.  More than can be said for IE 8.  Microsoft says they stopped looking for the rendering problem because no one complained.  I cannot believe that.

The sad thing is that, when it works, IE 8 is a pretty good browser. It certainly renders-when it renders, that is-pages much nicer than previous versions and it is fairly quick too.  And IE 8-64 bit works very well and renders ALL OF THE TIME. Problem with is that there are few plug ins that work with it.  Which reminds me…ADOBE, instead of spending time making Flash work on underpowered smart phones, how about a 64 bit plug in for IE?  Is that too damned much to ask?

I hate to rant on about browsers again, especially this one, but holy hell!  Can someone, PLEASE, make a freaking browser that just works and does what it is supposed to do?

in case you missed my previous rants, I will boil down the current – and, may I add LOUSY -  state of the browser:

1. Internet Explorer 7 – it works, but Microsoft saw fit to replace it with IE 8 which…
2. Internet Explorer 8 – 32 bit … does not work.
3. Internet Explorer 8 – 64 bit – works great, but no plug ins, especially FLASH
4. Mozilla Firefox 2.x – memory leak, like a dam with a big hole in the middle
5. Mozilla Firefox 3.x – another hog, slow, like the proverbial pig with lipstick
6. Apple Safari 4.x for Windows – worked well until Apple messed with it, now…it freezes, eats up system resources like a starving man in a McDonalds.  Safari is, currently, my default browser.  Go figure.
7. Chrome, any version – where to start…memory issues, does not render pages correctly, BUTT UGLY, usability nightmare, etc.
8. Opera, any version – the browser is OK, renders some pages correctly…I won’t use it because of the whining they love to do

Wow.  Oddly enough, the only browser that works like I expect it to (and that is because I don’t expect much from it) is the browser on my Pre.  It has yet to freeze on me, it renders pages better than I would expect, and it starts up in the same amount of time that any other Pre app does…not fast, but I won’t grow a beard waiting either.

Lest I forget, the browser in the Kindle is a joke and deserves it’s ‘experimental’ moniker. BUT, the Kindle is NOT a web browsing device anyway.  It will suffice if it is the only access I have at the moment and need to check something on the web.  It, too, has yet to fail me (well, other than the occasional device lock up when it tries to load a busy page. )  OK, so it has failed me.  Hey, at least it TRIES to render the page, unlike IE 8.

Man, there’s just no pleasing me, huh?

UPDATE: OCT 19, 2009:

I, at the suggestion of a commenter (thanks) I tweeted the new @MicrosoftHelps and, finally, got a response.  While not really helpful, they did respond so I have to give them props for that.  The response was:

@geogray Have you tried the following search for more detail? http://bit.ly/2ulVf0 ^AA

And, no, the search did not yield any helpful information.  I suppose Microsoft is just burying its head in the sand here.

So, Windows 7 launches, officially, this week.  On Thursday, October 22, 2009, Windows 7 will be available for purchase in upgrade, full version or pre-installed on new computers.  On new computers, of course, all you’ll have to do is install your software and off you go.  But, what if you want to upgrade?  I’ve read an endless barrage of reasons why upgrading is not something you want to do.  That’s only true if your hardware is really old and you are running Windows XP or older.  Since there is no direct upgrade from XP, I’m going to talk a great deal about it, but my checklist of things to do will still apply.

The best way to go is to upgrade from Vista to 7, and within the same grade as well.  That is, if you have Vista Home Premium, then you’d want to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium.  Much has been made of the multiple versions, but, when you look at it realistically, there are only TWO versions: Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional.  For 99% of the public, Home Premium is the version to buy.  Professional is aimed at power users and business.  Other grades are available, but are, generally, not available at your local Best Buy.  Windows 7 Enterprise is ONLY available to enterprise customers.  Windows 7 Basic is not available in the US and I’m not sure about countries like Canada, Mexico or our friends in Europe. It is generally available in ‘developing nations’.  Windows 7 Starter Edition will only be available on certain computing platforms and not at retail.  It is a limited version of the operating system and lacks customization, Aero and many of the nicer features of its more expensive brethren.  Finally, Windows 7 Ultimate will be available at some retail outlets, but it is pricey and not really worth the money.  Still, if you just want the whole works-business features and consumer features-be prepared to shell out nearly four hundred dollars (US).  Unlike Vista Ultimate, 7 Ultimate does not get any ‘ultimate features’.

UPGRADE FROM VISTA (can apply to XP as well)

• Before you start, go out to Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy or any retail establishment and buy yourself:

1. A USB external hard drive of at least the same size you have in your computer or larger
2. A USB 4, 8 or 16gb thumb drive
3. Sticky Notes if you don’t have any

Of course, if you already have these things, you are already ahead of the game.

• Next, plug that external drive in and make sure it has enough free space to backup your ENTIRE drive.
• Go here and download one of the disc clone applications. I’m going to use Runtime’s Shadow Copy since it will copy files that are locked and it is free.  We are going to back up the whole drive so we have something to fall back on IF we run into problems.  So, using the software you downloaded or already had, go on and back up that drive.  We’ll wait for you.  I promise.

[Insert music from Jeopardy here.]

All done?  Good.  See, don’t you feel better already?

• Now, for added measure, we’ll use the thumb drive to backup your personal documents and settings the USER directory.  Also, you can use the thumb drive to save things like the wireless network settings.  Vista allows you to do this.  You’ll also want to backup your iTunes XML library files and other such things.
• After your backups are completed, lets do some housecleaning.  If you use services like the Zune Marketplace and/or iTunes, don’t forget to de-authorize the computer.  If you don’t, you may not be able to play back your DRM’d content or even sync with the services.  In fact, make a list of services that you use and de-authorize the computer, if necessary.  Remember, you are going to be installing a brand new operating system and, to those services and software, it will be a new computer.  Also, now is the time to gather any passwords you might need, such as DSL/Cable modem passwords, Windows passwords, etc.  Make sure you copy or print them out and keep them handy.
• Next, pay a visit the support pages of the manufacturer of your computer and peripherals.  Look for Windows 7 specific drivers.  If you have a 64 bit machine and are going to be installing the 64 bit version of Windows 7, make sure you download the 64 bit drivers.  Most major companies already have these drivers posted, so go on a grab them now.  Keep them on the thumb drive.  Get another if you run out of room.  Having these drivers ready to go will save you a lot of time once you have the new OS installed.
• It might be worth it to go to the Windows 7 page on the Microsoft web site to see if there are any last minute items you should know about.  I doubt there will be since this operating system has been pretty well tested and documented, but, you never know.  Shoot, you might even find a few freebies like new themes and such.
• Oh, that reminds me:  backup your browser Favorites to your thumb drive as well.  One of the first things you’ll want to do is use the browser, so having a copy of your favorites will save you time.
• Go here and download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.  Install and run it. The advisor will let you know if your computer can run Windows 7 (64 bit) and will also test your peripherals and software.
• Next, you can check here for your compatibility concerns.
• DURING THE UPGRADE PROCESS, UNPLUG ANY USB DRIVES.  Remember to plug them in once the upgrade is complete.  If not, and you have several large USB external drives, it could make the upgrade take considerably longer.

Well, now I think we are ready to begin the actual install.  And here is where I am going to leave you.  To begin the process, make sure you have all you need, you have your data backed up and those thumb drives are ready.  Place Windows 7 DVD in your computer and reboot.  Select the option to boot from the DVD drive and let Windows 7 start the process. 

You could do an in-place upgrade, which will preserve your data, but I highly suggest you do the format and install method.  This will result in your hard disk being re-formatted and all data being erased, but you made your backups already and there is nothing better than a ‘fresh’ OS install on a nice, clean drive. 

If you purchased the Upgrade version, you can do an install, but don’t enter the key.  Install as a 30 day trial.  Once installed, reboot the computer with the DVD and UPGRADE that 30 day version.  This gets you a nice upgrade without having to re-install your old operating system.  Please Note:  this worked on previous versions, but, as I don’t have the ‘official’ operating system yet, I cannot guarantee that this still works.  I’ve heard mixed things about this.  At any rate, a clean install only takes about thirty minutes where as an in place upgrade can take HOURS.  I did that with the RC1 and it took nearly four hours, if I recall correctly.

If you follow the steps I’ve listed here, you should have your bases covered. If I’ve left anything out, please drop me an email or place a comment below and I’ll revise the list and give you credit.

Windows 7 is a worthwhile upgrade, no matter which version of Windows you currently run.  Long time readers will know that I am a huge fan of Vista, but I believe that 7 is far and away better than Vista and worlds better than XP.  It will be worth the time and effort you take before you even put the DVD in the drive.

ABC television is unleashing a remake of the 1984 mini series and regular series ‘V’ this November.  The adverts for the program look enticing enough and I wondered how much better than the original could it be.  After all, the original was a pretty decent and action packed show, right?

Well, funny thing. Memory has a habit of, shall we say, becoming rose colored.  Turns out, the original was not all that after all.  I purchased the ‘V’ series on DVD and have been re-watching it.  Now, I memory serves (ha!) the show was cancelled because the ratings were not strong enough to justify the show’s cost.  Well, I’m not sure what they spent the money on, but it wasn’t writing and it wasn’t the ‘special’ effects. 

If you don’t recall, V started out as a mini-series about aliens who came to Earth looking for our help.  They established bases and enlisted humans to help with replenishing their food supply. Only, the humans didn’t realize that THEY were the food supply.  A smear campaign against Earth’s brightest people was begun by the Visitors and, soon, the real reason they were here was established.  A resistance group, lead by Mike Donovan and Dr. Julie Parrish eventually defeated the Visitors, who…returned in a follow up sequel and the subsequent series.

The series lasted just 19 episodes before being canned by NBC.  The show re-united much of the cast from the mini-series including Marc Singer and Faye Grant.  Sadly, where the two mini-series were pretty well done, for the time, the series was, not so much.  The series was serialized, for the most part.  It followed a story arc, but not all that strictly.  And the continuity was pretty thin as well.  Cars that had nasty dents in one scene were pristine in others.  Hub caps that fly off in one scene, are back in another.  Spaceships spontaneously change (even in the show, they were not supposed to do that) and the same stock footage was re-used, over and over, even when the time of day was different than that in the footage (day scenes when it is supposed to be dark, etc.)

Because the show was shot and takes place in the mid 1980’s, it’s fun to see the technology and the automobiles used.  Lots of Chevrolet Impalas, Jeeps, VW vans and Chryslers…LOTS of Chryslers were sacrificed during the making of the program.  The computers-and, remember, it’s 1984-85, so we are talking about HUGE (by today’s standards) IBM AT style computers.  Green screens, no color.  There was no internet, at least, not like the Internet of today.  No cell phones and the two-radios were big.  Nathan Bates, the man who owned the Microsoft-like science and textile company, has this killer video phone/terminal on his desk and three smallish color TV’s built into a wall.  But, that’s about it. 

Perhaps the more charming aspects of the show were the cheesy and cardboard like interiors of the spacecraft.  The ‘mother ships’ (which, btw, the exteriors were reused in the movie and TV series ‘AlienNation’) interior was an odd mix of high-tech looking corridors and Batman like control panels.  Keyboards had no letters and the screens seem to show the same video loop.

It always amazed me that, even when they were aboard their mother ships, the Visitors ALWAYS wore the human skin and faces.  And, once they were defeated, what would be the point of wearing the masks and human skin?  Humans knew the true appearance of the Visitors.  Visitors would only need to maintain a disguise if they wanted infiltrate society, which they pretty much never did.  Likewise, I was always impressed when our heroes always seemed to know which buttons to push, no matter what the technology was.

For all of its faults, though, V is pure fun.  Bad acting, bad writing, bad special effects all make for a fun show.  Filled with allegories and a bit preachy at times, V was/is tremendous fun.  That’s probably why my memory of the program is much better than the show really was.  And, because the original wasn’t a work of art, the remake can easily be better.  I’m hoping it gets the ‘Battlestar Galactica’ treatment and becomes more realistic and believable.  I’m not going to hold my breath.

OK, so let me see if I understand this correctly:  Apple can install all kinds of crapware on my computer and that’s OK.  Google gets to put junk on my computer and no one writes a word about it.  Yahoo! installs its toolbar EVEN WHEN I SAID NO and that’s OK.  Now, word is that Microsoft silently installed a plug-in for Firefox to allow WPF apps to run in the browser and, suddenly, Microsoft is the anti-Christ?  Wow.  Plenty has been written about the plug-in because Microsoft said it had a vulnerability.  Fair enough, Microsoft does deserve some criticism for doing this ‘silently’.  However, this post from Lee Mathews over at ‘Download Squad’ thinks so.

The public comments also struck me as particularly ignorant.  While there are a few intelligent comments there, most were of the same attitude as the author.   They cite Microsoft’s issues with the Chrome frame plug-in that Google wants to unleash and then turn it around on Microsoft. Yet, they fail to mention  all of the other times and companies that have done this as well.  Like Google.  Install ANYTHING from Google and you get the Google Updater installed on your computer.  Yahoo! Instant Messenger installed the Yahoo! toolbar even though I said not to do so.  Apple installed Bonjour, Apple Update, two iPod helper apps and QuickTime when I installed iTunes.  Except for the whole Safari thing last year, no one has complained about Apple crapware being installed.  I’m constantly having to de-crapify my computers thanks to Apple, HP and others.

Yet, because this was Microsoft, we get postings such as this.

Mr. Mathews does make one good point in his post:  ALL companies need to get permission from users prior to installing things like plug-ins or services likes Bonjour.  Microsoft is no exception and should not get a pass either.  And don’t misunderstand the reason for my post here:  I am NOT defending Microsoft’s actions, they were wrong and deserve some criticism but lets be fair, they are not the only company doing this. 

And, by the way, as one commenter pointed out, Mozilla is just as wrong here:  they should not allow any extensions or plug-ins to be installed without user permission.  Ditto for those bloody toolbars. 

As Microsoft, what the hell were you thinking?  You made a big deal over the Google Chrome Frame yet you do what you were saying is wrong…no wonder people get so upset.

For nearly twenty years now, the computer to human interface has been keyboard, mouse and screen.  Who, even just a couple of years ago, would have thought that that interface would soon be challenged by a multitude of methodologies and technologies?  I think there were a few visionaries who did, but, for the most part, not many probably gave it a second thought.  Well, I think that is going to change and probably quicker than most thought.

There were many new ways of interacting with our technology that were shown off over the last few years, but the success of the iPhone has really brought alternative input and interactive methods to the forefront.  Now, iPhone was not the first device to use multitouch, but it has made it mainstream and, since that introduction, a flurry of devices have come to market that use multitouch or some form of touch technology.  Microsoft had already demonstrated the Surface table computer, but it was very expensive, not a commercial product and, well, its a big ass table. 

Companies like HP and Acer have introduce computers with touch screens, but they have been more of a gimmick than a practical means of input.  Fortunately, Windows 7 will make touch a more common interface type.  Windows 7 has native touch ability and an API that developers can use.  Indeed, HP will be taking advantage of it in several exciting new computers.

Nintendo, with the Wii, introduced the idea of motion control to the populous and with great effect.  While some of the software for the Wii is gimmicky, Nintendo and other companies have proven that, done right, motion control is natural and very effective.  So much so that Sony and Microsoft are both adding their own take to the motion control arena.

Nintendo also introduced the DS several years ago with touch control and audio input.  Games that take advantage of the then new input methods used them very nicely.  Nintendo has a history of thinking outside the box when it comes to innovative controllers and input schemes.

But, iPhone is the king of the mountain at the moment and, as such, a host of other companies are concentrating on the multitouch technology.  Palm, Microsoft, RIM and others have introduced devices that use multitouch.  The Pre, Zune HD and the Storm and Storm 2 are good examples.  The problem, though, is that with these devices, those companies had to rethink the on-screen interfaces as well.

The ubiquitous pinch and flick motions required a new paradigm.  Palm calls its windows ‘cards’.  You can open cards, slide them up off the screen, sideways to switch, etc.  The Zune HD allows you to flick your finger up or down to scroll through a menu.  You get the idea.  The standard window-mouse-keyboard layouts simply don’t work all that well with these new touch technologies.  And that has huge implications for today’s operating systems.  Windows and Mac OS X can be adapted, but they really won’t work very well going forward.  We need a fresh start.  A new approach to the on-screen interface is needed.

Enter 10/GUI.  10/GUI is a different way to both present information on screen and accept a multitouch physical interface.  The philosophy is that a vertical monitor with touch screen is not good since one’s arms would get tired very quickly.  It is fine for an occasional touch, swipe or other motion, but not for continuous use.  The horizontal touch screen puts strain on your neck, plus your hands would obscure the screen.  10/GUI’s approach is the touch panel on the surface of the desktop and the screen is vertical.  You could still have a keyboard, but you’d not really need one.  10/GUI can use all ten of your fingers for input gestures.  It also re-thinks the on-screen interface.  Rather than having lots of overlapping windows, you have a horizontal ribbon.  The ribbon would show your active windows which you can scroll through with the swipe of a finger.  The edge of the window or screen brings up your context menus.   The software interprets your finger gestures and executes what ever has been programmed for the gesture (and, no, I don’t mean THAT gesture!)

10/GUI is but one example of an alternate human-computer interface.  There are others.  No matter the input mechanism, it is going to be visual presentation that is going to make or break what ever technology supplants the keyboard and mouse combination.  There’s even audio input and output, but I’d really hate to work in an environment where everyone is talking to their computer and that is why I am a bit closed minded about auditory input.  Maybe for dictation and for the blind, but I think it will remain a niche.  Physical interaction, with your arms and hands, are going to be the future.  Perhaps it will involve THAT gesture, perhaps not.  At any rate, it is going to be exciting to watch it all develop.

I recall several stories that I’ve heard or read about over the last few years where someone had charges placed on a credit card or a debit card account that were the result of either identity theft or card number theft.  Fortunately, most of the instances resulted in little loss to the victim either because of good banking practices, early identification of the problem or the thief got too greedy and was caught.  Each year, this sort of thing takes place and costs banks and individuals millions of dollars.  The common thread between these cases?  No, it’s not the result of online banking or online identity theft. No, it is the result of a consumer throwing away a receipt with a credit card number on it, unscrupulous clerks who, very sneakily steal those same numbers or someone who threw away mail that was scavenged. 

Think about it:  we freely give wait staff our credit/debit cards, who then take them away only to return minutes later with a neatly printed out ticket.  We sign the check and then leave.  Two things here: we don’t know what that person did with our cards while out of site and then, when we leave, we leave the check-for the most part-on the table.  Now, fortunately, federal and state laws now prohibit the entire card number from being printed on those tickets so it is not as big a risk as it once was, but when it was so, how many of you even thought about?  Probably not many.  I didn’t.  For a long time.  Until I had my card number stolen.  Yes, I was one of those people I referred to above.  It happened while we were on a Disney vacation in Orlando, Florida.  At no time during our vacation were we doing any online purchasing and, in fact, had little or no Internet access during that 10 day vacation.  We know when and where the theft took place, based on the timing of the charges that began appearing.  Fortunately for us, my credit union was on the ball and actually alerted us to suspicious activity on our card.  We had notified them that we were taking a cruise and would be out of the country for six days and in Orlando for four days.  We were lucky and only lost about fifty dollars.

Why am I sharing this?  Because I want to contrast it with an absurd set of stories that I read today. One was from Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDNet and the other was a Washington Post story, which, admittedly, I quit reading after a few paragraphs because it was just so ridiculous.  Both posts share a commonality: both say we should stop using Windows for all online transactions.  Kingsley-Hughes actually quoted FBI Director Robert Mueller who had told a story about nearly becoming the victim of a phishing scam and that he now does not do any online banking.  I saw that story too…Mueller’s wife is the one who ‘forbid’ him.

So, because the ‘Security Fix’ column in the Washington Post and the FBI director say online banking is bad, Kingsley-Hughes now says you should use (and it was the ‘solution’ that Security Fix suggests) a Live Linux CD to do your online transactions.  WHAT?  Mr. Mueller’s near miss could happen to anyone and it does not necessarily have to involve Windows or ANY online stuff.  How many people were duped by phone and door to door scams every year before and after the advent of online banking and shopping?  Remember the old days when you paid with a credit card? You handed the clerk your card and they put on a slab of metal or plastic, put a receipt WITH A CARBON and then slid the device over the card?  You instantly had two or more copies of the card AND the carbon.  We trusted that the carbon was thrown away, but how many of them were fished out and the numbers stolen?

While I am sure that there is a large number of theft that takes place on the Internet, of which more than a few are the result of a system that has some malware and runs Windows.  BUT, what is to stop theft from a Macintosh or even a Linux system?  Someone who is going to go through the trouble to steal identities online or steal credit / banking information on line will only be slowed by non-Windows systems, not stopped. Adrian says that because the Live-CD systems are read only, that will protect you.  I don’t think so.  Packet sniffing can happen no matter what.  And, who’s to say that there isn’t someone in the bank/store/company who isn’t stealing that data?

I think the biggest problem I have with Adrian’s post is that he never really gives a good reason for NOT using a Windows computer for online transactions. He quoted Mr. Mueller and the Washington Post story, but didn’t offer his own reasons other than ‘the risk of using Windows outweighs the convenience.’  What a crock.  And, please don’t misunderstand, I like what his columns even though I frequently don’t agree.  I think Adrian is a decent writer, if a bit sensationalistic at times-for good reason, too.

My point is that this type of theft can take place with or with out the Internet or Windows PC’s being involved.  And the majority of theft is still the old fashioned type.  I am more concerned with what happens to that card when I am in a brick and mortar location than I am with my online transactions.  

Oh my.  For the first time in I don’t know how long, I tried to use Internet Explorer 8 (32 bit) on my Windows 7 machine.  What a travesty.  I see why IE is losing market share: it bloody well does not work.  It acts like it WANTS to work, it just does not render a damned thing.  What in the world was Microsoft thinking when they released this steaming pile of poo?  It makes IE 6 look like gold.  At least IE 6 RENDERS THE BLOODY PAGE when you want it to.  More than can be said for IE 8.  Microsoft says they stopped looking for the rendering problem because no one complained.  I cannot believe that.

The sad thing is that, when it works, IE 8 is a pretty good browser. It certainly renders-when it renders, that is-pages much nicer than previous versions and it is fairly quick too.  And IE 8-64 bit works very well and renders ALL OF THE TIME. Problem with is that there are few plug ins that work with it.  Which reminds me…ADOBE, instead of spending time making Flash work on underpowered smart phones, how about a 64 bit plug in for IE?  Is that too damned much to ask?

I hate to rant on about browsers again, especially this one, but holy hell!  Can someone, PLEASE, make a freaking browser that just works and does what it is supposed to do?

in case you missed my previous rants, I will boil down the current – and, may I add LOUSY -  state of the browser:

1. Internet Explorer 7 – it works, but Microsoft saw fit to replace it with IE 8 which…
2. Internet Explorer 8 – 32 bit … does not work.
3. Internet Explorer 8 – 64 bit – works great, but no plug ins, especially FLASH
4. Mozilla Firefox 2.x – memory leak, like a dam with a big hole in the middle
5. Mozilla Firefox 3.x – another hog, slow, like the proverbial pig with lipstick
6. Apple Safari 4.x for Windows – worked well until Apple messed with it, now…it freezes, eats up system resources like a starving man in a McDonalds.  Safari is, currently, my default browser.  Go figure.
7. Chrome, any version – where to start…memory issues, does not render pages correctly, BUTT UGLY, usability nightmare, etc.
8. Opera, any version – the browser is OK, renders some pages correctly…I won’t use it because of the whining they love to do

Wow.  Oddly enough, the only browser that works like I expect it to (and that is because I don’t expect much from it) is the browser on my Pre.  It has yet to freeze on me, it renders pages better than I would expect, and it starts up in the same amount of time that any other Pre app does…not fast, but I won’t grow a beard waiting either.

Lest I forget, the browser in the Kindle is a joke and deserves it’s ‘experimental’ moniker. BUT, the Kindle is NOT a web browsing device anyway.  It will suffice if it is the only access I have at the moment and need to check something on the web.  It, too, has yet to fail me (well, other than the occasional device lock up when it tries to load a busy page. )  OK, so it has failed me.  Hey, at least it TRIES to render the page, unlike IE 8.

Man, there’s just no pleasing me, huh?

UPDATE: OCT 19, 2009:

I, at the suggestion of a commenter (thanks) I tweeted the new @MicrosoftHelps and, finally, got a response.  While not really helpful, they did respond so I have to give them props for that.  The response was:

@geogray Have you tried the following search for more detail? http://bit.ly/2ulVf0 ^AA

And, no, the search did not yield any helpful information.  I suppose Microsoft is just burying its head in the sand here.

eBook Readers

Reportedly, Barnes and Noble is planning its own eBook reader.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the brick and mortar book retailer could, as early as next month, release a six-inch E-ink device with a touch screen and virtual keyboard.  It would also feature wireless internet connectivity, presumably to allow purchasing of books from Barnes and Noble’s online store.  This is in addition to the IREX wireless reader that features the retailer AND the Plastic Logic device that features B&N exclusively.

Speaking of eBook readers…Amazon announced the availability of both the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX overseas.  Both devices will utilize the AT&T and partner networks.

BeBook Mini is now shipping in the US for $199.  The five inch eBook device features USB only connectivity and…not much else.  Check out Engadget’s take on the device, plus some photos. Huh…this must be the month of the eBook reader.

Apple

Apple acknowledges a bug in Snow Leopard’s Guest Account that could result in loss of data.  Apparently, the latest problem with Apple’s flawed operating system update involves a problem with logging into the Guest Account.  Doing so could result in deletion of all user files in the primary account.  Apple says that they are working on a fix and that it happens ‘only in extremely rare cases’.

In yet another case of the ‘cloud’ getting gray, there is, apparently, a problem with Mobile Me that can, under certain instances, reveal someone else’s address book instead of your own.  Perhaps you might be the one who has their address book revealed to someone else.  According to The Unofficial Apple Weblog, the problem seems to happen during the renewal process.  Each time the user logged out and then back in, they saw a different address book and none of them were their own.  Once the registration process was complete, the user got their own address book.  The whole thing, however, raises the questions, again, about data safety, privacy and the ability of these companies to protect your data and your privacy. 

Microsoft

T-Mobile says that they will offer a free month of service to all Sidekick users and, in addition, a $100 credit to any one who has permanently lost data.  They claim that progress has been mad and that ‘some’ data may be recovered.  Read the statement here.

Facebook

Looks like Sidekick users were not the only ones left out in the cold and suffer a data loss.  Not to be outdone, Facebook has had an outage similar to Sidekick.  Only, this time, just less than .05 percent of Facebook users were affected.  They have been restored, but some of their profile data was lost.  Unlike Danger and Microsoft, Facebook has been mum about the cause of the problem other than stating it was an ‘extended technical issue.’