JorgeA

That first one was pretty funny. The author of the article in the second link -- his name looks like he should be working on the MS Office team. --JorgeA

You did indeed! BTW, your prophetic powers are superior to those of the geniuses at Microsoft. Apparently Microsoft hoped to implement this vision (the one in the videos) by the year 2019. That's looking unlikely, to say the least. --JorgeA

[source: http://www.fitnessmash.com/2014/02/4-tips-for-selling-personal-training/shoot-yourself-foot-internet-marketing-sabotage-online-marketing-success-training/] --JorgeA

Microsoft Makes Troubleshooting Windows Update in Windows 10 a Tad Bit More Difficult Ugh, yet one more way in which they're making life harder for serious users with serious systems, ostensibly for the sake of casual users with toy devices. One side effect of this "complexity for simplicity" idea, though, will be to discourage tinkerers and do-it-yourselfers from solving their own computing problems. This would tend to eliminate the middle ground between the Tech Priesthood, who protect the Cyber Mysteries by wrapping them in these increasing layers of procedure and mumbo-jumbo, and the rabble (the rest of us) who are expected to give up and just do what the experts say. --JorgeA

^^ Well, so far you seem to have gotten away with it. --JorgeA

I've never been too keen on those Explorer abstractions ever since My Documents in Windows 98. I always thought, "Just tell me where my freakin' files really are, why do you have to make things so convoluted??" As for Homegroup networking, honestly I've never understood the purpose of it given that we already have Workgroups. Never used Homegroup in my life. --JorgeA

I have become aware of what appears to be a long-range Microsoft plan for the future of computing technology. It would appear from the associated series of (short) videos that Microsoft intends ultimately to get rid of the desktop interface in favor of the type of UI that we've seen evolving since Windows 8 came out. Apparently this has been in progress for several years. The goal seems to be sort of out in the open, although awareness of it among the computing public is evidently limited. The "vision" is fairly interesting, but it brings up a number of questions. I see a lot of poking and pinching and swiping of screensful of data, but very little in the way of how this information is all put together. Did the writers of the electronic newspaper poke their articles into a floor-to-ceiling screen? Or did they speak their reports into some kind of receiver? And if the latter, if they then needed to edit something in the middle of the text, did they have to laboriously tell the computer to go back to between "a" and "disaster," then insert "great" between them? It woiuld seem more practical to, umm, just type. The few people using actual keyboards of any kind in these videos are immersed (verb chosen on purpose) in visual elements and graphical distractions. How did they manage to focus on writing for long enough to put together coherent sentences, let alone compose whole articles or lines of code? Somebody will have to actually write these sophisticated applications; I doubt that a poke-and-talk interface will be adequate for that. But in order to write, you need something to write ON. This something that you write on is known as... a desktop. In all the videos there was one single instance (that I remember) of someone actually using a keyboard for something that looked like more than short commands, although it's not entirely clear that it's a physical keyboard. There was no visible differentiation of open applications or of instances of a single application; if he needed to switch from one application to another, how did he keep track of which is which? The bottom line is that the desktop metaphor is indeed a useful and necessary one for the creation of content. And even those of us who don't create content for a living, sometimes wish to do so for friends and family, or for our own satisfaction or edification. The videos keep bring up the idea of "productivity," but I see precious little production taking place here -- in the main, a seres of momentary and simplistic manipulations of existing data, rather than a prolonged engagement with information leading to something that did not previously exist. (Yes, I did see the video set in the factory.) Last but not least, all of these connected devices, including the ones announcing your whereabouts, evidently communicate with one another via the Internet. I can see the NSA spooks salivating at the prospect of this one. Can anybody imagine a more convenient tool for a future tyrant to exploit? There would be no hiding from him (or her), and thus no prospect of getting rid of him. --JorgeA

I had no idea she was wardrobe-challenged. It might be pushing Forum rules to illustrate what we mean. Maybe somebody braver than me... Umm, I guess I am not immune to that concept. But seriously, you are right: fun and games are all well and good, and PC gamers in particular have driven a lot of the developments in CPUs and GPUs, but we do need to preserve an environment where the actual work of designing chips and games must take place. Metro Tileland is not that environment, and yet MSFT keeps pushing it on the public while increasingly impinging on Desktop elements. --JorgeA

My take on it has been that it's part of his shtick, like when he casually reminds the reader of his superior wisdom and knowledge. I hadn't thought he might be speaking his blog posts into a mic, but that sounds plausible. --JorgeA

Oh, sorry, I didn't see the memo. I was too busy playing Candy Birds. --JorgeA

Hmm -- I sure hope they intend to fill out the following category in the Settings app that's supposed to be replacing Control Panel. I went today to make a system image of Build 9926 before the next build got installed automatically, and decided to try to do it the newfangled way by using Settings instead of Control Panel. After opening Settings and selecting "Update & Recovery," I clicked on Backup. Seeing no option there to create a system image, I clicked on "Advanced Options," and here's what I got: Wow, I'm impressed. OTOH, maybe that's unintentionally indicative of the Softies' real opinion of users who want to do more than just stream Katy Perry videos and organize their selfie collection... --JorgeA

In theory, if they wanted to they could run an MD5 hash of the Classic Shell installer and prevent a matching file from runnning, whatever its filename might be. But that would be a REALLY brazen and hostile move on their part. --JorgeA

I agree completely: it's like they're addicted to this Metro booze and we need to be constantly watching them to make sure they don't fall off the wagon. --JorgeA

Oh, yeah: Microsoft aims to trap the simpleton boobs out there into its ecosystem. Where DO you find all these incredibly fitting images and videos?? --JorgeA

Didn't Microsoft recommend against making this registry tweak, on the grounds that it might break 9926's ability to download/install future builds? (Or something along those lines.) How would one undo that registry change? --JorgeA

That pulsating circle with the personalized greeting strikes me as very creepy and vaguely threatening. Reminds me of HAL 9000 in 2001: a Space Odyssey. --JorgeA

Very fitting!! The logical end of this whole process (maybe even the goal) is to turn our formerly autonomous PCs into little more than dumb terminals connected to the Center, which will keep a caring Eye on all of us and prevent us from hurting ourselves. --JorgeA

Thanks, bphlpt. It's too bad that there is a need for such a place, but I'm glad that it exists. I'll add it to my Favorites and hopefully never have to use it. --JorgeA

In his usual irreverent and often funny way, one of my favorite tech observers weighs in on Windows 10TP: Windows 10 Preview Build 9926 - Awesome and horrible Some highlights: --JorgeA

Android and iOS Leave Little Room for Windows in the Smart Phone Market I can't see Microsoft succeeding in the low-end, commodity market. And if not, then it means that they wrecked the Windows UI for nothing. --JorgeA

In the above list, I agree with and endorse every suggestion that I understand. All very sensible ideas. --JorgeA

I couldn't get into MSFN yesterday, kept getting the following "driver error" message: Reloading the page didn't help. What was the problem? --JorgeA EDIT: typo!

Windows 10 Build 9926: Where's Windows Update? About those thin Explorer arrows, down in the comments section: [emphasis added] --JorgeA

Windows 10 everywhere – a new confusion for consumers? Something to ponder: IMO the whole notion of standardizing the Windows experience across devices is pointless. Phones and tablets and PCs simply do not work the same way, they have different capabilities, and they are used for different purposes. Windows on phones is conceptually and operationally distinct from Windows on PCs, and so it needs to be kept terminologically distinct as well. Attempts to "unify" the Windows experience inevitably means crippling the experience on the most capable, complex device -- meaning, the PC. Which is precisely what we are seeing, first with Windows 8 and now on 10. Fortunately, there are plenty of people around who have not yet been cretinized into Tileland and refuse to be. The jury is out on whether there are enough of us. --JorgeA

-Noel Well, you got ME checking out that spoiler right away! --JorgeA