JorgeA

Not really-really, but almost. It's like going on a road trip and suddenly realizing that you took a wrong turn somewhere and have spent the last two hours driving in the wrong direction, and then having to turn around and make it up, after your wife that is sitting besides you and the kids that are in the backseats have been telling you that over and over since exactly two hours. To the shame of having chosen the wrong turn you have to add to it the awareness that, besides having done something stupid, you are also dangerously stubborn, and you have NO excuses as you were actually told you were going in the wrong direction. jaclaz I like this extension of the analogy! --JorgeA

Microsoft's Windows 9: Much ado about little, given cloud shift The guy gets a thorough thrashing in the comments section for wishing to become a Windows tenant. Top of the list: --JorgeA

More info trickling out on Windows 9: Windows as a service: What's Threshold got to do with it? Mary Jo knocks down (again) the idea that Windows itself will become a paid subscription service; however -- Another tidbit: Maybe the folks at Microsoft have learned from their Win8 disaster? --JorgeA

About three years ago, I helped an elderly relative to buy her first computer. She was much happier with it when I showed her how to increase the size of text on the screen (different from the Magnifier). --JorgeA

Further analysis of Win8.1's market share, pointing to another misconceived idea by MSFT: Latest usage shares show slow adoption of Windows 8.1 There is irony in this, as Microsoft made the 8.1 upgrade available only from the Windows Store, no doubt to drum up traffic to the store. --JorgeA

That's just about the whole story. It's like going on a road trip and suddenly realizing that you took a wrong turn somewhere and have spent the last two hours driving in the wrong direction, and then having to turn around and make it up. --JorgeA

Good point (sorry I missed it before). There's also that angle of attack on tablets. --Jorge

In the middle of an otherwise sober discussion of Microsoft's announcement of layoffs in Windows Weekly #372, there was this funny exchange (starts at about 18:25): --JorgeA

They've gotten rid of the team that inflicted Windows 8 on the world, which is a start. However, as they might say in philosophy circles, that's a "necessary" though not a "sufficient" condition to fix the mess. --JorgeA

Putting the Win in Windows 9 Click on the link to read on... --JorgeA

This month Windows 7 held steady, while Win8 gained what XP lost: (Source) --JorgeA

Good for them: Microsoft Defies Court Order, Will Not Give Emails to US Government --JorgeA

:lol: :lol: You know what that pic brings to mind? : That was weirdly creepy. Of course, this means I gotta rent that movie. @jaclaz: Neat graphic, BTW. --JorgeA P.S. I wanted to stick an emoticon after each of my sentences above, but the board software tells me the limit has been reached for this post.

The Joys of Living In The Cloud #547: Heh, heh... Leaks of nude celebrity photos raise concerns about security of the cloud Go ahead, folks -- be good boys and girls, do as Apple and Microsoft want you to do, and put all your pics and docs in the cloud... for all to see. Oh, and here's the kicker: [emphasis definitely added] Once in cyberspace, always in cyberspace. The Information Superhighway leads right to your front door -- and inside. --JorgeA

Haha, that would be one way to encourage more donations: "Our expected costs for this month are X. Any shortfall will be made up for by turning off the lights by the percentage of the deficit, i.e. if we receive 90% of the goal, then MSFN will be down for 3 days this month." --JorgeA

Thanks for the additional info. I'm not enough of a techie to know what the differences are between Blink, QTWebkit, or whatever it is that IE uses, or why those differences might be important. Maybe as a result I'm having a real hard time understanding what practical difference there might be between these three "Slim" browsers (-boat, -jet, -browser). They all sound pretty much the same to my untrained mind. There were, though, a couple of things that stood out for me. First, Slimbrowser is billed as an "enhancement" rather than a replacement for IE. On the other hand, Slimboat has a neat feature where you can save a collection of websites together, and then open them together next time you launch the browser. (Don't know if other browsers have this capability.) --JorgeA

Tablets Can't Shake Gravity, Shipments to Decline for First Time in 2014 More bad news for tablets in general. The money quote: [emphasis added] Just as we always predicted. Heh -- they could have saved themselves a ton of embarrassment and bad PR just by reading this thread instead of doubling down on a bad strategy. People are discovering that they need something more substantial than a tablet, and they need it because they want to get serious work done. Maybe humanity is not doomed, after all. At least for this reason... --JorgeA

I believe many of the terms currently being used, like "immersive" (is good), "digitally authentic" (is good), and "skeuomorphism" (is bad) are just a result of the spin doctors at Microsoft trying to justify the turkey after the fact and sway public opinion. Perhaps they're just trying to make the best of a bad situation. -Noel That's a good question, which one came first -- the spin or the turkey. My impression is that "skeuomorphism" was getting badmouthed even before it was clear Win8 was failing. But the propaganda push may have come as a response to the early outrage from Neanderthals like us. We'd have to search through this thread to get a better idea of the sequence of events. --JorgeA

^^ This is amazing -- they even offer AV protection for Windows 95 and even DOS. Where are they based? I couldn't find any location info on their website. --JorgeA

Why Microsoft needs to reveal Windows 9 sooner than later: The end of Windows 7

I never understood the excitement over the "immersive" experience in Metro IE, considering that users could always have that kind of browsing experience in real Windows simply by hitting the F11 key. --JorgeA

Tablets might be starting to look like a passing fad, for the sake of which Microsoft shattered Windows and angered countless customers: Zero Tablet Growth Forecast For U.S., Western Europe Meanwhile, reports are trickling in that PC sales are picking up again. Intel and Hewlett-Packard just turned in some good financials. I'm thinking that the worldwide market is approaching the point where everyone who values one of those tablet toys already has one. On the bright side, MS is finally refocusing Windows on its core audience, as we here have been counseling all along. --JorgeA

I concur with @2008WindowsVista -- I made the Start Menu settings change on a second XP system, and got the same (lack of) result. --JorgeA

News of Windows 9 keeps trickling out, even if the details are sometimes contradictory: Everything you need to know about Windows 9 ('Threshold') Windows Threshold Preview to be named "Technical Preview for Enterprise" Windows 9 (Threshold): Welcome to Modern UI 2.0 Windows 9 may remove the Metro interface for desktop PC users, feature one-click upgrade process Windows 'Threshold' and cadence: How fast is too fast? [emphasis added] [emphasis added] The impending new OS raises some questions. For mobile devices lacking the Desktop, So... if they get infected or if the thing BSODs or if an app crashes -- how is the user (or, indeed, a technician) going to troubleshoot the thing if there is no registry and no applications with which to get into the innards of the system to see what's gone wrong? And as Mary Jo Foley reports, One one thing there does seem to be widespread agreement: [emphasis added] Well, not quite everything. Will users recover the ability to enable Aero Glass on powerful machines? Will Windows Media Center still be available in any fashion (either built-in or as an add-on package)? Inquiring minds want to know... --JorgeA

That was interesting. It's somehow reassuring to see predictions and forecasts not panning out. --JorgeA