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Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions


JorgeA

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Yes JorgeA, it looks like some farmer (me?). has emptied his muck spreader on the screen, good job it doesn't have smell-o-vision lol.

Of course Microsoft's biggest problem is they're trying to break into a near saturated market about five years too late

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I was reading on the Wikipedia about the Bay of Pigs when stumbled onto this. For some reason while reading it I kept thinking about this all over the web phenomenom we can call 'The Metrotard Attitude'.

Groupthink

... The more amiability and esprit de corps there is among the members of a policy-making ingroup' date=' the greater the danger that [b']independent critical thinking will be replaced by groupthink, which is likely to result in irrational and dehumanizing actions directed against outgroups ...
... eight symptoms indicative of groupthink.

Type I: Overestimations of the group — its power and morality

1. Illusions of invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk taking.

2. Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group' date=' causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions.

Type II: Closed-mindedness

1. [b']Rationalizing warnings that might challenge the group's assumptions.

2. Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, biased, spiteful, impotent, or stupid.

Type III: Pressures toward uniformity

1. Self-censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus.

2. Illusions of unanimity among group members, silence is viewed as agreement.

3. Direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group, couched in terms of "disloyalty".

4. Mind guards— self-appointed members who shield the group from dissenting information.

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Strategy Analytics: 3 million Windows tablets shipped in Q1 2013 ( NeoWin 2013-04-24 )

... three million Windows-based tablets shipped worldwide in the first quarter of 2013. [...]

... the market share of Windows-based tablets was at 7.5 percent for the quarter. [...]

Apple admitted earlier this week that it shipped 19.5 million iPad units during the first quarter of this year. Strategy Analytics said those numbers were enough for Apple to capture 48.2 percent of the tablet market during the quarter [...]

... there were 17.6 million Android-based tablets shipped during the quarter, which enabled it to claim 43.4 percent of the total market. [...]

Overall tablet shipments reached a record high of 40.6 million units ...

Astonishingly, the MetroTards are rejoicing. No, I am not kidding. Here are the hard facts in the story, Q1 2013 tablets ...

Apple ..... 19.5 million ... 48.2%

Android ... 17.6 million ... 43.4%

Windows .... 3.0 million .... 7.5% :lol:

ModernMix for Windows 8 gets updated ( NeoWin 2013-04-24 )

4prE5xx.jpg

( Image from NeoWin )

What is funny is that the aforementioned MetroTard MicroZealot-in-Chief makes appearances throughout the comments making a complete utter fool of himself ...

Commenting on Stardock making ModernMix instead of Microsoft: "Could have, but didn't, and never will. Metro apps don't run on the desktop for a reason. They're moving away from the classic desktop."

Commenting on multi-tasking on the desktop with overlapping windows: "If you're covering up a window with another window, then you don't really need that bottom window in focus. Metro solves the issue of "clutter". You're not getting much work done with dozens of open windows all covered up."

More on multi-tasking on the desktop with overlapping windows: "Any window not in focus just adds clutter to your workspace. If it's sitting in the background, then you don't really need it on screen."

Children these days. They think they know everything! :lol: But unfortunately that opinion is not confined to generation Xbox MetroTards, it flows out of Redmond itself. There are lots of these people around. It hasn't occurred to them that to achieve what they desire Microsoft has needed to dismantle every facet of "Windows" to accommodate them. Which has been the point all along among us 'haterz', all they had to do was design a "Microsoft Tiles" just for the 'tards and everyone would be happy. Yet these same 'tards scratch their heads wondering why we are upset at Microsoft for destroying Windows. :blink:

EDIT: photo credit, updated image URL

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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In Blue: Multi-PC App Uninstall ( Thurrott 2013-04-24 )

Here’s an interesting new feature in Windows 8.1 “Blue”: When you uninstall an app, it will be uninstalled from all of your PCs by default, not just the PC you’re currently using.

MbzGfex.jpg

( image source: Thurrott )

Jeez Louise. :blink: That patented Microsoft logic twisting. I think one of the commenters there has it exactly right: "I would say if you wanted the uninstall to be on the "current PC Only", they the wording should be changed to “This app and its related info will be removed from this PC” and the check box should be to "Uninstall from all your PCs"". :yes: I also like the ambiguous focus in that screenshot, where the white mini-window is active but indistinguishable from every other screen element in this 2D nightmare. It all looks like crap. Pure, stinky crap.

Why does this make me think of 'designed by committee'? Vista and 7 ...

EUM8XtM.png

( image source: Microsoft )

Which was later redesigned by a committee of committees in Windows 8 ...

qxuZ9jS.png

( image source: Microsoft )

( The last two images are from the official Destroying Windows blog: Designing the Windows 8 file name collision experience. Yes, they really do add the word "experience" to just about everything. :lol: )

Well at least the focus is crystal clear. :lol: Notice the pronounced shadow and that the non-focused window "Replace or Skip Files" has changed color as well. How is it possible to change everything for the worse?

EDIT: updated image URLs

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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What is funny is that the aforementioned MetroTard MicroZealot-in-Chief makes appearances throughout the comments making a complete utter fool of himself ...

Commenting on Stardock making ModernMix instead of Microsoft: "Could have, but didn't, and never will. Metro apps don't run on the desktop for a reason. They're moving away from the classic desktop."

Commenting on multi-tasking on the desktop with overlapping windows: "If you're covering up a window with another window, then you don't really need that bottom window in focus. Metro solves the issue of "clutter". You're not getting much work done with dozens of open windows all covered up."

More on multi-tasking on the desktop with overlapping windows: "Any window not in focus just adds clutter to your workspace. If it's sitting in the background, then you don't really need it on screen."

Children these days. They think they know everything! :lol: But unfortunately that opinion is not confined to generation Xbox MetroTards, it flows out of Redmond itself. There are lots of these people around. It hasn't occurred to them that to achieve what they desire Microsoft has needed to dismantle every facet of "Windows" to accommodate them. Which has been the point all along among us 'haterz', all they had to do was design a "Microsoft Tiles" just for the 'tards and everyone would be happy. Yet these same 'tards scratch their heads wondering why we are upset at Microsoft for destroying Windows. :blink:

Boy, that Neowin guy must have very simple needs (and/or a very limited imagination) if he can't fathom why anybody would want to have more than one window showing on the screen at the same time.

I'm flabbergasted. Where have they been for the last 25 years?? Don't they know or remember that that's how things started, and that we moved to overlapping windows for a reason?

It's been a while since I fired up one of my Win8 previews, but it seems that even on the fanbois' own terms, Windows versions featuring the Taskbar are more practical for task-switching than this Metro cr*p. In Metro you have to first call up the list of open apps, then locate the one you want, and then select it. In the classic Taskbar, every open window is always listed along the bottom of the screen and you can simply click it. Not to mention that if your windows are overlapping you can just click on it directly. That involves fewer steps than in Metro to get to the desired application, and just as importantly it doesn't require you to shift your mental focus from the tasks at hand to the tedious process of calling up the list of open apps, then visually scanning for the little thumbnail with the one you need next, then selecting it and hoping you still remember why you wanted to switch to it. Anybody who's ever done serious work on a PC realizes that the majority of these tasks is done in short-term memory, such that anything that slows down or interrupts the process (like Metro app switching) is liable to break your flow and you have to start over again.

We've been car shopping the last several days. It's extremely useful to be able to set up IE tabs, each with a specs page from one of five different varieties of a model, to do a quick visual comparison to see where exactly the differences in features and options lie. At one point I had three browser windows open side by side. (I do know that there are charts that purport to show these things at a glance with red X's and green checkmarks; but they're never as detailed or complete as the actual specs page, plus they introduce their own confusion with separate lines for items with minor differences and then you have to figure out why all the red X's. No matter how you cut it, it's faster to be able to have multiple tabs or windows open at the same time on the same screen.)

--JorgeA

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Yes JorgeA, it looks like some farmer (me?). has emptied his muck spreader on the screen, good job it doesn't have smell-o-vision lol.

:lol:

Of course Microsoft's biggest problem is they're trying to break into a near saturated market about five years too late

Yup.

You can do that if you come in with a product that's better than what's already out there, but it's far from clear that Windows phones or Windows 8/RT tablets are better than what's already on the market.

--JorgeA

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@GeorgeA

I'm flabbergasted. Where have they been for the last 25 years?? Don't they know or remember that that's how things started, and that we moved to overlapping windows for a reason?

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.

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Jerks like this "pjmasi" dingus really [bleep] me off...

Who actually uses the Windows 7 start menu on a regular basis? I'm currently looking at a taskbar of 15 small icons that have been pinned, with room to spare for at least 10 more. Those are the applications I use, and (for me anyway) there's no need to use more than that. Now that I think about it, I seriously can't remember the last time I clicked on "All Programs" or cared what was in it. Windows 8 offers the exact same pinned application usage pattern. What is the big deal here?

The big deal is that fat heads like ^this^ are now in charge. "There's no need to use more than that." Who the [bleep] are YOU to decide how many programs I should be able to efficiently access on MY [bleep]ing computer??? Sheesh...

Have you seen the salad dressing aisle of your local supermarket? Well I think there are TOO MANY damned flavors -- who needs this many choices? I say eliminate all except Ken's, they've got 43 flavors, that should be sufficient to please everyone. Because I say so! And if it's good enough for me then it should be good enough for everyone! And if you still prefer Hidden Valley Ranch and just don't like Ken's, well, you're just being ignorant and resistant to change!

Meanwhile, I saw this commercial and thought it was just brilliant..."Sometimes circles just make sense."

Take a look at the vids in the As Seen on Television section...the woman on the bike with the oval wheels is me bumping through my day trying to get work done with this pOS. I think I'll have some fun with this and Photoshop for my next blog post.

Maybe M$ can "purchase" that line from them and reuse it to re-rebrand a return to the old OS, "Sometimes traditional Windows just makes sense"...?

d

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Strategy Analytics: 3 million Windows tablets shipped in Q1 2013 ( NeoWin 2013-04-24 )

... three million Windows-based tablets shipped worldwide in the first quarter of 2013. [...]

... the market share of Windows-based tablets was at 7.5 percent for the quarter. [...]

Apple admitted earlier this week that it shipped 19.5 million iPad units during the first quarter of this year. Strategy Analytics said those numbers were enough for Apple to capture 48.2 percent of the tablet market during the quarter [...]

... there were 17.6 million Android-based tablets shipped during the quarter, which enabled it to claim 43.4 percent of the total market. [...]

Overall tablet shipments reached a record high of 40.6 million units ...

Astonishingly, the MetroTards are rejoicing. No, I am not kidding. Here are the hard facts in the story, Q1 2013 tablets ...

Apple ..... 19.5 million ... 48.2%

Android ... 17.6 million ... 43.4%

Windows .... 3.0 million .... 7.5% :lol:

The Windows 8 fans on Channel9 are ecstatic about this too.

http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/Surface-market-share-healthy

http://betanews.com/2013/04/24/surface-sales-soar/

I'm relieved that Windows 8 and Surface are succeeding!

To all those who augured doom for these technologies: you were / are wrong.

Surface-sales-soar link leads to the 7.5% statistic. After the constant 2% of Windows Phone it's kinda understandable though that they get excited even at this.

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Jerks like this "pjmasi" dingus really [bleep] me off...

Who actually uses the Windows 7 start menu on a regular basis? I'm currently looking at a taskbar of 15 small icons that have been pinned, with room to spare for at least 10 more. Those are the applications I use, and (for me anyway) there's no need to use more than that. Now that I think about it, I seriously can't remember the last time I clicked on "All Programs" or cared what was in it. Windows 8 offers the exact same pinned application usage pattern. What is the big deal here?

The big deal is that fat heads like ^this^ are now in charge. "There's no need to use more than that." Who the [bleep] are YOU to decide how many programs I should be able to efficiently access on MY [bleep]ing computer??? Sheesh...

Have you seen the salad dressing aisle of your local supermarket? Well I think there are TOO MANY damned flavors -- who needs this many choices? I say eliminate all except Ken's, they've got 43 flavors, that should be sufficient to please everyone. Because I say so! And if it's good enough for me then it should be good enough for everyone! And if you still prefer Hidden Valley Ranch and just don't like Ken's, well, you're just being ignorant and resistant to change!

Meanwhile, I saw this commercial and thought it was just brilliant..."Sometimes circles just make sense."

Take a look at the vids in the As Seen on Television section...the woman on the bike with the oval wheels is me bumping through my day trying to get work done with this pOS. I think I'll have some fun with this and Photoshop for my next blog post.

Maybe M$ can "purchase" that line from them and reuse it to re-rebrand a return to the old OS, "Sometimes traditional Windows just makes sense"...?

Good analogies, both of these.

The root of the problem seems to be that Windows 8 was designed (and is defended) by folks who lack the intelligence imagination to realize that other people might prefer to do things differently. (Maybe we can call them cyber-Stalinists.) I raise my hand in response to "pjmasi" to say that I do use the Start Menu regularly to launch programs. I find a cluttered Taskbar to be unsettling. It's much more peaceful for me to have the links tucked away neatly in the Start Menu.

That said, I acknowledge that other people may prefer to fill up their Taskbar with dozens of irritating ;) little icons, and that's OK with me. So long as they don't try to make my own work practices conform to theirs.

--JorgeA

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Squares... EVERYWHERE. *LOL* Even though most people dislike these squares (tiles) and showing it by NOT buying the Windows Phone and Windows 8 products... they are STILL pushing this thing. Definition of insanity, doing same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Just look at that MESS, looks like a freaking advertisement billboard and imagine many of those are animated too!

http://www.neowin.ne...droid-app-today

Microsoft plans on continuing its campaign against Google by releasing a "Switch to Windows Phone" app for its competitor's Android smartphone operating system.

trolololololololol...

windowsphoneapps.jpg

Edited by ciHnoN
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We've been car shopping the last several days. It's extremely useful to be able to set up IE tabs, each with a specs page from one of five different varieties of a model, to do a quick visual comparison to see where exactly the differences in features and options lie. At one point I had three browser windows open side by side. (I do know that there are charts that purport to show these things at a glance with red X's and green checkmarks; but they're never as detailed or complete as the actual specs page, plus they introduce their own confusion with separate lines for items with minor differences and then you have to figure out why all the red X's. No matter how you cut it, it's faster to be able to have multiple tabs or windows open at the same time on the same screen.)

Tabbed windows within a window is very productive ( thank you Opera and Excel ). It is kind of a like Taskbar'd windows in Windows itself, with Alt-Tab as the quick switch mechanism or clicking on the Taskbar buttons for slower navigation.

Long-winded story begins ... Now the Taskbar paradigm is obviously dated exactly to Windows 95, but it's origins go back to many earlier Win3x and pure DOS programs that used tabs within themselves. The true origin, albeit without a GUI tab visual accoutrement, would probably be text editors that had a pseudo-MDI ( multiple document interface ) in the very early 1980's. From a dropdown menu the individual open text files could be accessed, and some editors had keystroke combos to jump between them and if you were really lucky you could reprogram them to something less cumbersome than the programmer duhfaults. So I would always look for this and change them. Net result was the ability to switch between files using CTRL-UP or DOWN very very quickly. This gave the ability of comparison, the so-called A/B switching ( in the Audio or Music biz ) or in Astronomy when they A/B photos to discover Meteors, Comets or the Planet Pluto. Checking for differences between text files was an early predecessor to GUI WinDiff type applications later.

Anyway, I had business reasons way back then to do these kind of things in editors, for example comparing Network or DOS configuration files from different machines, proofreading group edited documents and whatnot. So I always had them customized for CTRL-UP and DOWN or sometimes ALT, depending on the available keyboard. Ever since then I have ported this forward to modern editors, from PFE32 and later to ULTRAEDIT and Visual Studio and other programming IDE's and more. Anyway the reason I am taking this trip down memory lane is that it is extremely useful in browsers, in fact your above stated usage. I know that Opera gives access to customization including keyboard config. I have done what you mentioned ( shopping ) with lots of tabs looking at competing products and can fly through them with CTRL-UP or DOWN ( back or forth through the Z order ). I may be wrong but I would doubt that MSIE exposes the keyboard config, but if it is possible you might enjoy fast keystroke switching within a single window rather than multiple windows using ALT-TAB. :yes:

Or you can dump MSIE in the trash can where it belongs :lol: Actually, I don't know if FF or MSIE let you remap keystrokes or not, I just doubt it in the latter case.

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McAfee patents anti-piracy filter ( TechSpot 2013-04-25 )

Beware, pirates: McAfee plans to detect and block infringing content in the browser ( NeoWin 2013-04-27 )

A recent patent published by McAfee describes what amounts to an anti-piracy system. Titled "Detect and prevent illegal consumption of content on the internet", McAfee's approach would employ a centralized blocklist-style system to issue warnings for -- or entirely block -- links leading to content of questionable legal standing.

Ah, so they patented a blacklist. How original. :blink: Hey, let's open up another failure vector on hapless user PC's. The hilarity will ensue when malware injects *.Microsoft.com into the blacklist, just like the old days with the HOSTS file and software firewalls, or some that removed it from the trusted site zone. :lol: Thanks, but no thanks McAfee ( Intel ). How about you get busy and kick up the specs on these 4th gen i7 processors instead of just screwing around. :yes:

EDIT: added article(s)

Edited by CharlotteTheHarlot
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McAfee patents anti-piracy filter ( TechSpot 2013-04-25 )

A recent patent published by McAfee describes what amounts to an anti-piracy system. Titled "Detect and prevent illegal consumption of content on the internet", McAfee's approach would employ a centralized blocklist-style system to issue warnings for -- or entirely block -- links leading to content of questionable legal standing.

Ah, so they patented a blacklist. How original. :blink: Hey, let's open up another failure vector on hapless user PC's. The hilarity will ensue when malware injects *.Microsoft.com into the blacklist, just like the old days with the HOSTS file and software firewalls, or some that removed it from the trusted site zone. :lol: Thanks, but no thanks McAfee ( Intel ). How about you get busy and kick up the specs on these 4th gen i7 processors instead of just screwing around. :yes:

LOL

But more seriously -- wonderful, here's a security suite feature that protects, not the user from outside parties, but outside parties from the user.

And given the blocking aspect, it's not hard to imagine how repressive states like China or Iran could put this technology to use on their subject peoples. :rolleyes:

--JorgeA

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