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Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions


JorgeA

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Apropos of '1984' and Microsoft...

NYPD and Microsoft build hi-tech crime fighting 'dashboard'

"The dashboard," instantaneously mines data from the NYPD's vast collection of arrest records, emergency 911 calls, more than 3,000 security cameras, license plate readers and portable radiation detectors and aggregates it into a user-friendly, readable form in the control room.
(emphasis added)

We may say that this system is intended to deal with a problem, but IMO the cure is worse than the disease. If I had the time and the fiction-writing talent, I'd write a '1984' prequel showing how they got there from the purest of good intentions.

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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And ANOTHER SCOOP! :thumbup

# 60,859

07:50, Feb 21, Ms. Laurette Lynch, NY

I had no idea of such invasive activities by Google! It better stop fast or perhaps the U.S. attorney general might have to get involved. It is disgusting to know how low these 'providers' have fallen.

# 60,759

07:48, Feb 21, Mr. Michael Gannon, NY

I had no idea of such invasive activities by Google! It better stop fast or perhaps the U.S. attorney general might have to get involved. It is disgusting to know how low these 'providers' have fallen.

Anyone going to calculate probabilities that two different people in NY will think, write and post in 2 minutes timeframe this same EXACT sentence? :angel

Excellent work, jaclaz! :thumbup:thumbup

--JorgeA

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We may say that this system is intended to deal with a problem, but IMO the cure is worse than the disease. If I had the time and the fiction-writing talent, I'd write a '1984' prequel showing how they got there from the purest of good intentions.

--JorgeA

I've read all the major "dystos" - 1984, Brave New World, We, Fahrenheit 451..

In all of them (except for Fahrenheit) the big brother regime came to power after either some disastrous war or through some kind of (forceful) political revolution. The authors were not cynical enough to imagine that force is not needed at all, Angry Birds and Farmville are completely sufficient for hooking up the people to Big Brother freely!

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We may say that this system is intended to deal with a problem, but IMO the cure is worse than the disease. If I had the time and the fiction-writing talent, I'd write a '1984' prequel showing how they got there from the purest of good intentions.

--JorgeA

I've read all the major "dystos" - 1984, Brave New World, We, Fahrenheit 451..

In all of them (except for Fahrenheit) the big brother regime came to power after either some disastrous war or through some kind of (forceful) political revolution. The authors were not cynical enough to imagine that force is not needed at all, Angry Birds and Farmville are completely sufficient for hooking up the people to Big Brother freely!

I guess some day, the term "none of your business" will also be banned as "hate crime" or something. After all, you shouldn't have anyting to hide, so it's everybody's business! :lol:

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Extra! Extra!! Paul Thurrott endorses a 'skip Metro' utility!!!

In Windows Weekly episode 293, Thurrott and program host Leo Laporte have the following exchange (starting at 1:35:28, excerpted below):

PT: One of the big issues with Windows 8, of course, is if you're using it on the Desktop, you don't want to see the Start Screen, you just want to go to the Desktop... I would never recommend anything that actually got rid of any the Metro features of Windows 8 -- I think that's kind of silly. But if you're going to work in the Desktop, to me it makes sense to sit down at the computer, log in, be at the Desktop. And so I've been loking for a tool that does this, and I found one called "WinAero Skip Metro Suite"... It works as advertised... What it does is basically just put a little startup program in there that skips by the Start Screen when you log in and goes right to the Desktop. It's great, it's free, it works well, and it doesn't have any additional UI -- you know, like I think there's a Start8 program that also offers this feature but it also gives you a Start Button in Windows 8 which I don't think is necessary.
(links added)

So, no Start Button yet for Paul, but he's come part of the way with the endorsement of a tool to boot directly to the Desktop.

--JorgeA

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Leo Laporte

I miss (the original) Screen Savers :(

I also miss Computer Chronicles. How come all the good tech journalism came about at a time when such wasn't mass market? The best was when Gary Killdall made company reps visibly uncomfortable with basic questions.

Not that good tech journalism doesn't exist but now you have to go to "some guy's blog" or find a hot message board thread like this one.

Getting on a rant, I loathe "journalists" that link only to themselves for argument support. That's as dishonest as it gets. SJVN is probably the worst at this. Not a slight at CharlotteTheHarlot at the least bit, but it's a bit sad seeing forum commenters offering multiple, independently written sources as evidence while major article writers can't even be bothered to track down a single 1st source, instead relying on Nth-generation summaries and blog rewrites. This problem extends to all technical writing, though. Science reporting is just as bad as tech reporting, for example.

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.... but it's a bit sad seeing forum commenters offering multiple, independently written sources as evidence while major article writers can't even be bothered to track down a single 1st source, instead relying on Nth-generation summaries and blog rewrites.

Try seeing the half full glass: we are d@mn good as forum commenters ;), and particularly clever in keeping something on topic, as an example :whistle: , I am of the same opinion of poster # 68,298 to the google petition:

All animals are part of a balanced nature and the wolf as the top predator is vital to the entire system.

:lol:

For the record, we are just above 70,000! :wacko:

...and the winner is :

# 70,074

13:40, Feb 21, Ms. Cristina Cordisco, Italy

credo che bruciare vivo un animale al solo scopo di divertire il pubblico revochi inequivocabilmente ogni diritto dell uomo a considerarsi una "RAZZA" superiore ed evoluta rispetto a quella del regno animale che tra l altro é molto più civile e organizzata della nostra

which translates to:

I believe that setting on fire an animal with the only scope of entertaining the public definitley revokes any right the mankind might have to consider themselves a superior and evolved race when compared to that of the animal kingdom, which by the way is much more civil and organiozed than ours.

I believe Mr.Schmidt will be touched by the above and will stop putting small, tender, lovely, live animals onto the barbecue grill..... :ph34r:

jaclaz

P.S.: The article here (and expecially the graph ;)) needs to be updated:

http://marketingland.com/microsoft-scroogled-campaign-against-gmail-33471

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Oh my God, they went insane completely! They are seriously claiming success with this crazy petition:

http://www.scroogled.com/TheLatest

It's been a little over a week since Outlook.com launched a campaign to educate consumers that Google goes through their personal emails to target them with ads. Let's look at the numbers. Over 1,000,000 visits to Scroogled.com and our petition has already exceeded its goal of 25,000, and counting.

Read more in today's blog.

Blog:

It’s been a little over a week since Outlook.com launched a campaign to educate consumers that Google goes through their personal emails to target them with ads.

Let’s look at the numbers.

Over 1,000,000 visits to Scroogled.com and more than 50,000 people from all over the world have come forward and said “enough” – they are asking Google Chairman Eric Schmidt to stop going through the contents of their emails to sell ads. And the momentum is growing. The goal has been moved up to 90,000 consumers on the Care2.org petition.

Videos detailing the Gmail mail-for-sale scanning practice have been viewed more than 200,000 times on the web. The petition website, in particular, is serving as a place for consumers who have been Scroogled by Gmail to make their voices heard.

In addition, hundreds of thousands daily are now signing up for Outlook.com, as the Scroogled campaign continues to educate them and the Outlook.com launch campaign motivates them.

The response from consumers on privacy has been powerful: “Stop prying into my personal life and stop scanning my email,” one user commented on the Care2 Petition Site. Another noted: “I thought Google was a company with integrity, sadly I am mistaken.” And still another: “Email should be as private as content sent through USPS.” The petition is now hundreds of pages in length and growing.

What is surprising, however, is the lack of response from Google on why they won’t change their privacy policy and stop going through consumers’ emails. Rather than address a policy that clearly is out of step with how the vast majority of Americans want their email service to protect their communications, Google instead continues to assert their email scanning isn’t being done by a human being – rather it’s an “automated algorithm.”

Google’s email privacy practices are a significant issue and have been raised as a significant point of differentiation. The petition shows that people are taking this issue quite seriously. Sensitive personal emails, whether about relationships or your finances, are reviewed by Google to target ads. Consumer engagement with the campaign and the research show that this practice strikes a responsive chord. According to a public GfK Roper study, 70% of Americans are unaware that any major email service scans the content of emails to sell ads. And when consumers find out, they oppose the practice, as nearly 90% of Americans disapprove of any email provider scanning emails to target ads. (GfK Roper Poll, 2/13, commissioned by Microsoft Corp.). See how individual Americans react when they learn of Gmail’s privacy practices in this video released today.

The Scroogled campaign will continue to help educate Americans on Google’s privacy practices. We encourage consumers to try Outlook.com - an email service that prioritizes your privacy and doesn’t go through your emails to target ads.

In the words of one disappointed consumer on the petition: “Email should not be indexed for profit. This process should stop.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Just wow! They want to present this spambotted list as success? (I wonder how they generated the "60 Million Windows 8 licenses sold"...)

Google is the undisputed master in web advertizing, they will just obliterate that "petition".. Microsoft is offering them their biggest PR gift in corporate history with it. I can't believe how bonkers they got - this is the nuttiest and most suicidal PR action I've ever seen!

23094312.jpg

Windows 8 and Office 2013 are obviously only the symptom..

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This one is nice :thumbup as, while being clearly a "save the wolves" vote on this other petition here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/370/286/730/#13614913508052&action=fb_connect&fb_id=0

it could be considered a "valid" entry at first sight:

# 71,670

15:24, Feb 21, Kayla bremner, New Zealand

This is solo mean . Its the cycle of life , the wolves need to eat too... the majority of people wanting to kill the wolves is over tgir stock ... what a few missing sheep going to do ...

Another one that needs a comment is IMHO this one :ph34r: :

# 70,348

13:56, Feb 21,[redacted to protect privacy]

I use Yahoo and have never sent anything to Gmail addresses, and now I probably never will.

Dear [redacted],

I am sorry to learn that you have no friends, nor any form of interaction with other human beings.

The good news are that if you actually never sent anything to Gmail addresses google knew NOT of your existence (till today).

The bad news are that now the evil google mail readers have been instructed to pin down one by one all the people that signed that petition and google will eventually track down your e-mail address (even if it is on Yahoo) and start sending to you ads and mails ONLY related to prostethic devices for males (and possibly also instructions/photos/videos on where and how exactly they are implanted).

:angel:lol:

jaclaz

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It's baaaack

Coveted Microsoft Surface Pro model surfaces again in stores

The 128GB Surface Pro model is available again at Microsoft stores in limited quantities.

Oh.

Microsoft stores at Century City (Los Angeles, Calif.), Palo Alto, Calif., Boston (Prudential Center), and Huntington Station, N.Y., all had "limited stock" of the 128GB model, CNET confirmed today. Other stores, such as ones in New Jersey and Texas, didn't have the model this morning.

Geez, they can't even deliver to dense/big states like NJ and TX? Maybe it wasn't a hoax after all; Microsoft just has no idea how to manufacture and distribute electronics.

Update, February 21 at 3:15 p.m. PT: Adds "out of stock" status at Microsoft's online store.

FAIL

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EDIT: These are new kinds of bots. They reply to the article with somewhat related material. Sometimes they copy from other sources. A bit creepy and odd.

Oh rats, they're updating to Spambots:TNG? And I was just really warming up to those out-of-place rotating-variable templates: "Claire. I can see what your saying... Nicole`s bl0g is incredible... on saturday I bought a top of the range Alfa Romeo from having made $4971 this - four weeks past and more than ten thousand this past month. without a doubt its the most rewarding I've had. I began this 8-months ago and right away began to bring in over $73, per hour. I went to this website........ SPAMSITE.COM". I'm gonna miss them. NB: Above spambot typical of those that get into this otherwise fine site ...

Steve Ballmer is "Super-Glad" Microsoft Built Surface, Thinks Windows 8 Adoption is "Perfect" ( Maximum PC 2013-02-21 )

BTW, that's one of the nice things about MSFN, they have excellent troll and spam hunting skillz here. The few that still get through get mopped up by the members.

Getting on a rant, I loathe "journalists" that link only to themselves for argument support. That's as dishonest as it gets. SJVN is probably the worst at this. Not a slight at CharlotteTheHarlot at the least bit, but it's a bit sad seeing forum commenters offering multiple, independently written sources as evidence while major article writers can't even be bothered to track down a single 1st source, instead relying on Nth-generation summaries and blog rewrites. This problem extends to all technical writing, though. Science reporting is just as bad as tech reporting, for example.

None taken. But who or what is SJVN? I found an author at ComputerWorld by those initials. Must be him I guess.

And yes, sources can be a bit gray and vague these days, and I'm not excusing the sloppiness you describe, but I have come to embrace the forum comments as the balancing or equalizing factor in a pretty complicated world ( which btw directly relates to why the UK Register is no longer a rag in my opinion as they now allow comments and it is more informative, self-correcting and fun than years ago, and their wariness to all things Microsoft doesn't hurt either ) . So many tech sites are simply compromised by either paid advertising, financial stake or other behind-the-scenes machinations that we never really know the whole story behind it. The more independent the site appears to me, the more interesting and useful it is, but YMMV. If people would be more honest, disclose their vested interest, we would be better off no doubt, but I guess human nature precludes that. I am even less optimistic about this than ever thanks to the obvious Microsoft astroturfing we have identified since at least the Vista fiasco ( and probably seen in the above-mentioned anti-Google campaign ). It sets people on their heels. Speaking for myself, a product should stand or fall on its merits, the worse possible scenario is something that is killed ( e.g., Start Menu telemetry ) or propped-up ( Windows 8 "sales" ) by misleading numbers. Again speaking for myself, it is grossly dishonest and reeks of Orwellian manipulation. The day that these things successfully fly under the radar is the day freedom dies.

I guess because of the physical presence of big-corporate in the discussion space we are naturally evolving right back to where we started, coming full-circle back to a form of the self-governance of early USENET ( comp.sys.ibm.pc.* FTW. :thumbup ). Those that remember when ads started to become "officially" accepted or later when Deja News sold its huge newsgroup archives to the early proto-Google will understand the constant threat that opinions and freedom endure. I guess what I am saying is that we are simply managing the best we can under difficult circumstances these days ( and all days ). Hopefully the wheat gets separated from the chaff in lightly-moderated peer-to-peer review. One thing is pretty much for certain MIHO, considering the events around Microsoft over the past few years, no rumor should ever be discounted because it is a rumor. Not a thing that has actually occurred recently would have been believed years ago. The naturally granted "benefit-of-the-doubt" has left the building, at least for me.

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AdDuplex: Surface RT still the most popular Windows 8/RT product ( NeoWin 2013-02-21 )

I wonder if our dear friends over there realize what it is they are actually saying? If Surface ReTard Edition only sold between 500,000 and 750,000 ( definitely less than a million ), and you subtract out the 100,000 dogfood units for Microsoft employees, we are left with a guesstimate of 400,000 and 650,000 total units of the "most popular Windows 8/RT product" in the wild. All other units are, by definition, less popular. I'm not sure what to make of the pie chart at the link, what "other" means is not clear to me. But all-in-all this story is NOT something Microsoft really wants to brag about.

Microsoft celebrates 20 year anniversary of its MVP program ( NeoWin 2013-02-21 )

This is fine and all, and no disrespect to any volunteers, but when do they thank the rest of us? :yes: You know, the millions of techs that have actually kept Windows afloat for all these years. Microsoft has been the huge beneficiary of a world-wide phenomena of nameless, non-employee tech support that has solved almost every problem they have created and let persist through a generation. If this non-employee support force suddenly went on strike and stopped fixing Windows problems for their friends, relatives, and strangers ( by means of countless unaffiliated tech forums ), and all support questions were redirected to Redmond, Windows would collapse like a house of cards. This is indisputable truth. MVPs have certainly been around for a while, but unfortunately many of them suffer from a weird Stockholm Syndrome picking up on and spreading Microsoft propaganda and spending more time arguing on their behalf than solving actual technical problems. If you Google for an answer to something wrong with Windows, 90% of the time you will wind up in a forum like this one where people solve the allegedly unsolvable. 5% of the time it will be to a MSKB article that likely offers little help in as many words as possible, and a small part of the remainder will be MVPs solving such important things as changing themes or writing a macro. Dear Microsoft: You're Welcome!

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But who or what is SJVN? I found an author at ComputerWorld by those initials. Must be him I guess.

That's him, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. Guess I come from a different circle as I thought he was universally known by his initials. He's on the A-list of FOSS apologists working in the press. He's like the Thurrott of Linux but in my opinion even more dishonest.

I have come to embrace the forum comments as the balancing or equalizing factor in a pretty complicated world

Agreed. I'm just lamenting that this is necessary and even vital. There is almost always someone in the comments with a more researched, better presented argument. Commenters should be added-value, not the driver, in my opinion.

which btw directly relates to why the UK Register is no longer a rag in my opinion as they now allow comments and it is more informative, self-correcting and fun than years ago, and their wariness to all things Microsoft doesn't hurt either

I actually always liked El Reg. It's just that I realize using it as a factual source in arguments can leave one on shaky ground. Over the years its 'rag' status has allowed it to publish some surprisingly incisive articles you wouldn't find anywhere else, but some people can't get past its sarcastic and cynical style, even though its articles are often well-grounded.

If people would be more honest, disclose their vested interest, we would be better off no doubt

I recently discovered that Stardock owns 40% of Neowin. You'd think they'd mention this each and every time Stardock is mentioned in an article but it never is (except in the comments section, which is how I found out about it).

no rumor should ever be discounted because it is a rumor. Not a thing that has actually occurred recently would have been believed years ago. The naturally granted "benefit-of-the-doubt" has left the building, at least for me.

Lately, when some "crazy rumor" comes out about Microsoft, often directly traced back to top management, the apologist's reaction is, "Do you think Microsoft would really do this?" and the answer has to be, "Based on a pattern of behavior observable over a period of years, yes, I find this 'rumor' credible."

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This is fine and all, and no disrespect to any volunteers, but when do they thank the rest of us? :yes: You know, the millions of techs that have actually kept Windows afloat for all these years. Microsoft has been the huge beneficiary of a world-wide phenomena of nameless, non-employee tech support that has solved almost every problem they have created and let persist through a generation. If this non-employee support force suddenly went on strike and stopped fixing Windows problems for their friends, relatives, and strangers ( by means of countless unaffiliated tech forums ), and all support questions were redirected to Redmond, Windows would collapse like a house of cards.

IMO the critical mass of answers by nameless supporters helped clinch the victory of Windows over Linux. While FOSS had the reputation of having people eager to help, most of them weren't knowledgeable beyond the most basic of things and reliable answers to routine problems were rare. With Windows, most problems could be solved by entering the error message and researching comments. It didn't always work and wasn't always easy to deploy even with a step-by-step guide, but one could say with a decent level of confidence that answers were out there.

a MSKB article that likely offers little help in as many words as possible

For years I thought it was me. I just couldn't focus on the KBs. I found them so vague and wordy that I started skipping over them. MVPs were no help because they would just link back to the KBs even after you explained that you already tried them or they didn't apply. In my experience, MVPs don't offer useful information.

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