Congrats to Chris Pirillo for coming up with this one.



  1. Dallas says:

    Hope they fixed the coffee tray thingy. In older Windows it kept going back in when the mug was removed

  2. msbpodcast says:

    Does anyone remember Alan Kay, Smalltalk (now Squeak!) and the DynaBook project that was coming out of Xerox PARC in the Eighties?

    The iPad is the DynaBook writ large…

    Alan Kay must be so pleased.

    He always said The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

  3. Ryan says:

    On the pc I saw this on, the only way to bring up the menu was to hit the windows key on the keyboard. Maybe we were missing something but the preview we saw was terrible no one would want Windows 8.

  4. Micromike says:

    I’ve been a computer nerd since 1978 and have used everything from main frames to battery powered computers. Last year I got an iPad and I am no longer interested in any device that takes more than 2 seconds to boot up and tell me where I am and what time it is as well as how the weather will be today.

    Microsoft doesn’t seem to get it. They know tablets are the future but Apple has to show them how to make it work because Microsoft has never had any contact with, or interest in, people who don’t want to be computer nerds. I’m not a fan boy (at 61?), I will use whatever seems to work for me and the iPad fills my needs. Computers that take minutes to boot up and occasionally waste a half hour or more with updates are repugnant to me. I have wasted too much time waiting for obsolete pieces of Microsoft crap to get ready to do some work.

    • jpfitz says:

      Mike, You have you heard of sleep mode on the newer MS OS’s. The ipad is too large and cumbersome except for armchair web browsing in my opinion. Do you know you can have Win updates downloaded when you want and installed when you want.
      Is the ipad a real computer? Or just a shiny toy for web, photos and mail?
      Can you record HDTV? Can you run flash. Can you run software designed for windows only? And the infamous question “Will it run on a Mac?”.

      I’m not just trying to piss you off, I am really trying to understand the need for a large delicate rectangular “i” something. Maybe I’m just jealous because I cant afford one and the associated software.

  5. EnemyOfTheState says:

    Jesus, I thought that was Bill Gates Chris was teasing.

  6. jollycynic says:

    Can’t I get a stripped-down low feature, stable and secure version of windows that has a system footprint closer to the olden days of windows 95? A gamer edition so to speak? I don’t need handholding and I hate having to do regedits and spend hours making tweaks that should never have been necessary in the first place.

  7. Chris Mac says:

    it’s always fun when the comment numbers get lower

    wtf dvoraks kids

  8. Cursor_ says:

    I know many older folks that still have Windows 95.

    Why?

    Because they spent 1800 bucks on a computer way back when and all they do is use email, write a letter and maybe search stuff on Yahoo.

    Hell there are some with WebTV.

    The old folks do not need have the GUI rubbish that hipsters crave. They would be happy if the thing had just three icons.

    Word Processor
    Email
    Search

    Then a power button and then back to watching Wheel Of Fortune or reading a good book.

    They are not interested in editing photos, making mp3s, compressing video in h264 and posting it to the net, building web pages or talking in 140 characters or less unless it is to the misses when she is nagging the husband.

    In fact most folk do not need anything more than search and email. And most under 40 cannot write a decent letter to save their life unless it is an appeal letter. Then they write it as a whining diatribe.

    Cursor_

  9. Glenn E. says:

    After watching the painful Pirillo clip, I discovered a Win-8 demo clip made by Microsoft, explaining how the screen corners were the easiest locations to activate or recall certain functions and running apps. Actually I dispute this idea. Corners might be the most convenient dead areas for Microsoft to place these functions, out of the way. But screen edges have always been the easiest to reach. Corners take the most effort to reach, being the most distant from screen center, and each other. XP and OSX use edge bars or docks to locate quick launch applications and tools. Why did this have to change for Win-8? Because the Tiles philosophy has taken over. And keeping critical feature as far away from the center mass of Tiles, is crucial for Microsoft’s agenda, to force users to accept them.

    What’s so important about Tiles to Microsoft. Besides whatever else they do, they’re marketing tools. Just as screen icons were once bundled software, cluttering up the screen in Win98. Now they’re back, presenting and advertising their use and brand name, on the Win-8 screen. Like little interactive billboards. And, according to Microsoft’s Win-8 demo clip (8 min. long), it’s integrated to the “Cloud”.

    Which mean, as I believe to understand them, that adding applications to a Win-8 PC is only adding an interactive link to software stored on a Microsoft server. You don’t download the actual applications, just the front end that lets you talk to it. Microsoft keeps the main code, you just buy a lease of its use, remotely. And whatever data you crunch with those apps, also ends up in the “Cloud”. Which means Microsoft gets to hold onto it for you, and perhaps use at their own discretion, if it appears commercially valuable to them, in some way. I for one, wouldn’t trust anything patentable or copyrightable to the “Cloud”. Who knows what data mining they might be doing, for what justifications (such as DMCA policing).

    Anyway. If integrating the “Cloud” (Microsoft’s Cloud) to Win-8, means what I believe it does. Thinks only work as long as you have a reliable broadband connection 24/7. This does have a few advantages. Software is updated and patched by Microsoft, as the need arises. And hacker attacks are largely shifted to their Cloud server farms. And one’s PC or tablet isn’t burdened with storing and running these applications. Taking up Ram and storage drive space. Apparently Win-8 Explorer is one of the few things resident to the user’s PC. And perhaps also, your documents, photos, music, and videos are also stored remotely. Saving drive space on the users Win-8 device.

    Microsoft isn’t exactly making this 100% clear at this time. Perhaps the believe it will scare away users, not yet confident of the whole “Cloud” philosophy, yet. Unless they can show that everything they’re holding onto of ours is securely encrypted beyond their access and scrutiny. And the server connection is a lot more reliable than current. And temporary outages won’t be effecting millions of users, throwing a monkey wrench into daily business, every so often. Then maybe I’d trust the “Cloud”. But I do think it’s a bit too soon to do that. Maybe for Win-10.

  10. UncDon says:

    Remember: As Bill Gates likes to say, we’re still in the Model T Ford era of personal computers.


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