JorgeA

Yes, all day today I kept getting SQL Error screens that looked like this: I was starting to wonder if MSFN may have been hacked because of the critique some of us have made of Windows 8... --JorgeA

That was funny, I'd never seen that video. Somebody expert should investigate your issue with all the Windows 8 BSOD's. I would be curious to know what's causing them. --JorgeA

It's amazing that few (if anybody) anywhere, before @CharlotteTheHarlot, did make that connection, which now seems so obvious. Makes you go, "Dang, why didn't *I* think of that?" But the truth is that it wasn't so easy to make the connection, requiring mainly stepping back to take a wider look at the situation. --JorgeA

You know, for a long time I've thought that the vision set out in that song is pretty horrible. (If there's nothing to kill or die for, then there's nothing to live for.) But now that you mention it, in some ways current trends in computing do seem to be pulling us in that direction. Wow. --JorgeA

If you can't touch it, you don't own it. That's a great motto, I love it! --JorgeA

Obviously: Azure == Blue ( color ) == Cloud Services == Windows "Blue" and other application Updates Great deductive work, Sherlock!(*) I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that you're right. Someone should pass the theory over to Mary Jo Foley or other Microsoft watchers, and see if it makes sense to them, or jibes with what they know. As far as MSFT emulating IBM, at this point I wouldn't mind terribly if they shifted their focus to obscure enterprise services and sold their current business to somebody who cares to continue it. But it WOULD be delicious if they got slapped with a suit for the "Blue" thing. Legend has it that, way back when, IBM dropped the ball on licensing DOS, figuring that the real money was in the hardware; so this would be a kind of payback. --JorgeA EDIT: (*) Meant as a compliment!!!

ROFL There's another name for the convoluted procedure that you describe: "user convenience." Ah yes, everybody sign up for the convenience of the cloud!! --JorgeA

Another danger of living and working in the Cloud (where the Microsoft Surface would nudge users): Innocent Megaupload user asks court to order his data returned So, if the government suspects that the cloud server where you've put your stuff also contains illegal or copyrighted material put there by somebody else, they can seize the server and deny you access to your own stuff. You can't possibly know what other people are going to upload to the same service you're using. This really should make anybody think twice before making the move to the Cloud. Government: "Innocent" Megaupload user uploaded pirated music Dumb question: if I no longer have access to my files, how can I prove that I own them? There is no safer alternative than to keep your own stuff on your own storage media, located in a place controlled by you. Which is why 64GB Surface tablets just don't cut it. --JorgeA

+1 to that! (+100, if I could "vote early and often" ) --JorgeA

Please consider how cars will soon be deemed as "legacy vehicles" by the journalists and - according to them - be in a short time replaced by (touch controlled ) flying saucers , you might want to start a career with a longer expected lifetime . The only remaining issue (in what the visionary expect soon) is of course flying elephants, a misknown evolutional phenomenon that hasn't yet affected mobility, but that might in the near future (if Dumbo was born - clearly out of a nuclear experiment induced genetic mutation - in 1941, imagine, even with a rather flat trend, how many of them will be born in the meantime ) . Till now, and in real world: --JorgeA

I would love to see these little rascals having a meltdown but I wouldn't count on this. They are the prototypical "Oceania was never at war with.." drones. Some of them will be confused at first, but I am sure that if MS really will paddle back, they will change tune within the minute: "WHAT?! You're still using the metro screen? Stop living in the past, the iPad wannabe GUI is history. They have improved the start menu in Windows 9 and you id*** are still lumbing around with this Fail8 toy-touch interface? Get with the times!" You beat me to one of the few comments I could have added to Charlotte's analysis. Some of these people, if Microsoft turned 180 degrees I wouldn't be surprised to see them turn right along with it and continue as if things had never been any different. Your allusion to 1984 is very apt. And in other ways, too: living and working on these mobile Web terminals with their heads in the Cloud, everything they do and every file they save will be tracked, monitored, and analyzed "for your convenience and benefit." --JorgeA

I found myself nodding with every word! Just a fantastic rundown. One of the few things I could add is the apparent trend to turn PCs (workstations) back into dumb terminals, hopelessly dependent for their life on The Center. At least, that would be the effect of the increasing focus on the Cloud and the emphasis on "devices" lacking in power, storage, and (in the case of Chromebooks and now Office 364 ) even local applications that can run on their own. --JorgeA

As I type this, it has been snowing for 13 hours and I just measured 12" of snow. According to the latest we are in for another 8 hours and should hit close to 20". The wind is now just kicking up and that is what usually causes falling trees and blackouts. I am hoping we get lucky but I am realistic and will assume power loss at any moment. But thanks for the concern! How much snow did you get? I'm just above NYC and one snow band away from the worst of it ( to the East in Conn and Boston ). Our forecasts (Philly suburbs) were ranging from 3" to 10" depending on who you listened to and when. We ended up getting just over 4" of a dry, powdery snow. But now the wind is blowing hard, so we're putting off shoveling 'til that dies down. Without meaning to jinx it, it sounds like your power has held up so far. --JorgeA

@bigmuscle and MSFN have landed a nice mention on a major tech news site: Get Aero back in Windows 8 Way to go! --JorgeA

Windows customers are petitioning Microsoft to bring Aero back: Do you want Aero in Windows 8? Fight for it And MSFN gets a nice mention on a major tech news site: Get Aero back in Windows 8 --JorgeA

Hope you made it through the storm OK. Around here, everything outside is covered in white, but we're going to miss the worst of it, it looks like. Now, for your welcome-back reading pleasure , another lukewarm Surface Pro review: --JorgeA

...THEY ARE IN ON IT. WHO? THE SO CALLED "JOURNALISTS". As I said in earlier posts, this is about them taking control over OUR devices. Lock, stock and barrel. See how they all suddenly together call the kindergarten interface for "modern" and the actual real useful interface for "legacy". It's all an Orwellian creep city. Nice catch! Good to keep focusing readers on this point. That's a highly principled stand you've taken, and I applaud you for it! Let's hope (and work) so it doesn't have to come to that... --JorgeA

Ya sure, Photoshop, CAD, programming, writing, designing, video production, audio production etc. etc. ALL WITH TOUCH! The f***!? By the way, I don't think it's primarily about building Orwell with these "tech" journalists. Remember it's the same ones who touted just a few years ago that the Windows desktop will be replaced by Desktop Linux any minute. (like today, they never factored in applications like Photoshop into this equation) That got old, then it was they will all be converted to web "apps". That got old too. Now it's touch (and again they are acting as if all these applications could work with touch). The only thing that's different this time is W8.. Microsoft is into this madness as well this time around. Sounds like Jared Newman is making a classic error in logic: that of projecting the current trend indefinitely into the future. It's like saying that, because the temperature rose 5 degrees from yesterday, 30 days from now it'll be 150 degrees hotter than today. Sure, tablets are popular now and getting more so -- for the time being. But, sooner or later, either everyone who wants a tablet will have one (market saturation), or The Next Big Thing will burst on the scene and pop the tablet bubble. (That's what tablets did to e-book readers, after all.) Meanwhile, as folks in this thread and countless others elsewhere have pointed out, touch is not suitable for every form factor. Users who don't figure this out beforehand will discover it soon enough when they try it, ands then they'll realize that they're paying a premium for a feature that's worse than useless on desktop and laptop PCs. Therefore the appeal of "touch" will hit a granite ceiling. When it does, as you suggest, the plain ol' PC will still be there, patiently waiting for people to come back to get real work done. --JorgeA

LOL, that's pretty clever! --JorgeA

PC World joins the dark side: Well, we'll see about that. In a market economy, the motto is that the customer is always right, otherwise the customer will buy elsewhere. Microsoft is trying to act more like a government than a market player, entangling us into its preferred system and upping the cost and inconvenience of using alternatives. But as the train is only now gearing up, it's still possible to leap off and live. Most of the commenters seem to be on our side. --JorgeA

My sentiments exactly! Huh, that sounds interesting. I'll look into it, thanks. --JorgeA

And this could be the coup de grace. Surface and Windows 8 were a solution that no one (except in the executive offices of MSFT) was clamoring for. Like a beer-bellied father sporting a black-leather jacket and mohawk, Microsoft is going to end up looking ridiculous for trying to be a nimble operator in the fickle toy-electronics market. So first they followed into the tablet sector, now it turns out that they picked the wrong-sized tablets and have to go chasing after that. Microsoft, stick to your proven strengths that have earned you a good living and well-deserved respect. Don't throw it away trying to be hip. --JorgeA

Wow. Stability is paramount for an operating system that's promoted as simple enough for "the masses" to use. If what you're experiencing starts happening to a lot of people, it will be another nail in the coffin for Windows 8. --JorgeA

LOVED that logo!!! Anybody feel like printing up a few thousand of those on adhesive backing, then going around to computer stores and sticking them on Surfaces and new PCs? --JorgeA

Well, that's true! I guess we'll have to wait and see what other information trickles out over time. Even MSFT couldn't keep a disaster secret for long. Easier to explain away, though, would be a mediocre sales performance -- "we're in this for the long haul, people just recently upgraded to Win7," blah blah blah. But even there the truth would ultimately come out. --JorgeA