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Microsoft

Windows 8 Feels Like a Dud

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product_win8-startscreen_Web

I have been tinkering around with Windows 8 since the developer preview and I was pretty excited initially about it’s release, but now that it’s finally here, I am feeling like something is majorly wrong with this version of Windows.

One only needs to spend 60 seconds with Windows 8 to realize that it’s not Microsoft’s best work. I have been working with people just about everyday trying to help them easily transition to the new operating system and it’s proven to be quite a challenge. You know something is wrong with your shiny new OS when PC hardware manufacturers, like Gateway, need to place an icon somewhere on the screen to help you shut down your computer. In case you missed it, we have put together a brief how-to that shows you how to make such an icon for yourself.

Windows 8 dosen’t fully commit to one user-interface and that alone will drive you crazy. You will find yourself wanting to exist in one space or the other but ultimately you will need to switch between both. This issue leaves Windows 8 feeling disconnected from itself and it’s just downright frustrating. There a many aspects of the new tile UI that I enjoy but it’s just not built to be productive. Many of the applications that I use day-to-day require me to move to the legacy desktop and therefore I spend almost all of my time there.

There are hidden menus in each corner and once they are open, they frequently disappear unexpectedly. When the menus do stay open, I have trouble fumbling through a poorly designed search system to find files or applications that I need. Changing settings or just trying to obtain Windows updates through the new tile based UI is buggy and most of the time I end up, once again, heading back to the legacy desktop.

Your design should be intuitive and new users should feel welcome when they first see Windows 8. Even though you shouldn’t have too, there is almost no attempt to guide the user in the right direction besides a small animation toward the end of the Windows 8 installation that explains how to bring up the hidden menus that are at the edge of the screen.

Even app developers don’t seem confident in the new OS. The lack of a solid app base is killing Windows 8 more than anything, we need a reason to enjoy our new tile system with full screen applications. Many major software companies have avoided making Windows 8 apps that work with the new tile UI, and those who have adapted have buggy applications that don’t feel like their worth the hard drive space.

I believe Windows 8 is the worst release of Microsoft’s OS software to-date. I would consider myself to be advanced user with knowledge of many different operating systems and yet I find it difficult to perform routine tasks. This one screams out “I’m a DUD!”. What’s worse is that I am starting to feel like the guinea pig here and I am just waiting for Microsoft to ask me to shell out more money for a rushed copy of  Windows 9 due to the failure of Windows 8’s poor design.

Honestly, Windows 8 is a mess and we can only hope that Microsoft will do the right thing and fix many of the issues that plague the new OS today, with the release of a service pack in the near future. I am trying to remain optimistic about Microsoft’s ability to create a next-gen OS that’s sleek, functional, easy-to-use, and that works seamlessly across all of my devices, but I’m loosing faith.

A Moment For Nostalgia, Netscape Navigator

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Ah yes, I remember it all so well, there was a time where Netscape Navigator dominated the web as the world’s number one web browser. During the 1990’s it seemed that no one could touch Netscape.Netscape Logo

Why was this web browser so popular and what happened to it? The internet has been around for decades and it can be traced back as far as the 1960’s, but it wasn’t until the 1990’s that the internet started to gain momentum in the family home.

There were a few good options for browsing the web but Netscape was by far the most popular. Netscape became popular due to it’s innovative features, many of which we still use today, like the cookie, and JavaScript. Another big feature of Netscape was having the ability to display page content before the entire page has loaded. This feature dramatically improved the user’s experience of using the internet.

Netscape Navigator
Netscape Navigator (source: Wikipedia)

Netscape continued to stay in firm control of browser usage over the next few years as they continued to improve their browser, but a shadow hung over the company. As sales of Microsoft Windows continued to rise so did the usage of Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape wasn’t happy about it. They weren’t unhappy because of competition but because of the way Microsoft was getting users to make the switch. Internet Explorer was included with every copy of Windows and most users didn’t feel the need to use any other browser because they really didn’t ever have to make a choice, one was just provided. This obviously makes for a pretty unfair fight and it’s partially the reason why Netscape Navigator began to loose traction with consumers. Microsoft continued to push Internet Explorer out in front of users through other methods including working IE into internet service provider bundles, which greatly reduced the visibility of Netscape and eventually led to it’s demise.

Fortunately for us the “browser wars” still go on as Internet Explorer goes head-to-head with other great browsers like Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. This competition drives innovation forward and at the very least offers some choices. Netscape Navigator was a beast in it’s day and it’s original release demands our respect. Netscape may never regain it’s throne, as it is now no longer supported, but it will always be remembered as an important part of internet history.

 

Steven Sinofsky Gets a New Gig

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Steven Sinofsky was a Microsoft executive who ran the Windows division of the company for many years. Sinofsky had recently left Microsoft after not seeing eye-to-eye with other senior management at the company. One of those people included Steve Ballmer, the current CEO. Now, Sinofsky is heading to Harvard to teach product development, planning and more. Currently, is unclear how long Sinofsky will remain at Harvard.

A few days ago Sinofsky tweeted about heading to Harvard,

Steven_Sinofsky_at_BUILD
Steven Sinofsky at BUILD

“Excited to return to @HarvardHBS to teach again this spring!” Sinofsky wrote. “New perspectives, recharge, share experiences, write.”

Sinofsky is credited with restoring user’s faith in Windows by pushing out Windows 7, which has done quite well. He was also the main man behind Microsoft’s latest OS, Windows 8.

Apple to Create More U.S Jobs

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Many large corporations that are U.S based find that sending the jobs over seas is a no brainer and Apple is no different. It’s not that these corporations are evil and hate the U.S, it’s that globalization is an integral part of doing business in today’s world, but does it leave enough behind for the U.S?

Apple CEO Tim Cook
Apple CEO Tim Cook (Source:Apple)

A great question was asked of Tim Cook (Apple’s CEO) in an interview with Bloomberg last week. The question was, “What are the obligations of an American company to be patriotic, and what do you think that means in a globalized era?”. Cook replied with, ” I do feel we have a responsibility to create jobs. I don’t think we have a responsibility to create a certain kind of job, but I think we do have a responsibility to create jobs.”

Further in the discussion Cook mentioned that businesses are often being evaluated by the number of employees that a company has in order to deduce what kind of job growth they have contributed to over the year, he went on to mention that this is an outdated technique and that Apple, for example, has created jobs in many other ways. One of the ways that Apple has indirectly created jobs is by offering entrepreneurs a way to be successful through software development and utilizing the App Store.

Apple is going a step further in U.S job creation by taking a more direct approach as Cook mentions bringing some Mac production back to the states. There could be as many as 200 new jobs in the U.S with Apple’s effort to bring some work back home. This of course would be great news for a tough U.S economy. Many of these jobs will be manufacturing jobs that offer pay from 30k up to 65k a year.

I feel that any U.S company should offer some direct employment opportunities right here in the U.S. Although it’s not a requirement, it’s expected and why not reward the country that allows you to become successful in the first place? I understand the importance of a global economy but how much risk is there in bringing even a handful of jobs back home, perhaps in areas of the country that need them the most. It’s more of an investment in the stability of the U.S economy that you grow in, albeit small. We should look at a company the way Cook mentions in the interview and try to see all aspects of job growth provided by a company and not just it’s employees.

As a software developer myself, (currently by hobby) I can’t help but to stand back and look at how many tools today’s software companies  and even individuals have at their disposal. Thanks to companies like Apple and Microsoft there are tons of resources available to get you off the ground and then there’s this great platform to showcase your product in front of millions and millions of people. The logistics of software production and distribution even 10 years ago was a huge stone wall to many and now it’s possible to sell millions of copies of the game digitally and practically overnight. This creates jobs and yes Apple is partly responsible for that happening.

Hopefully, other corporations will continue to bring jobs back to the U.S and not just manufacturing jobs either. We need high skilled jobs as well, but that requires that we have high skilled workers and our obligation is to improve our educational system to allow for better opportunities to learn the skills required for these jobs. Most employers don’t want to spend the time and money to train new employees, they expect you to have the experience when you walk in the door. Unfortunately, this creates a catch 22 situation. You need the experience to get the job but no one will hire you without the experience. We need to address this issue in the U.S and employers should work a bit closer with educators to make this problem disappear.

In the meantime, having any direct job creation here in the U.S is a good thing because we have all kinds of skilled people here at home that could benefit greatly from any opportunity given to us by these large corporations. We will have to wait and see how things work out for Apple in this new U.S job push.

 

 

How To Quickly Shut Down Windows 8

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With Windows 8 it seems just a bit difficult to simply shut down your computer. Unlike previous versions of Windows, you can no longer just click Start and then proceed to shut down your PC.

Instead, Windows 8 makes you take the scenic route and either go through the process of logging off or flipping through the Charms menu, diving into Settings then pressing power and finally clicking Shutdown. Super intuitive right? Well, there is an easy way to get around all of this and quickly shut down your PC.

  • Head to your desktop.
  • Right-click and select New.
  • Create a shortcut.
  • Type the following in the text box: “shutdown /s /t 0″(that is a zero at the end.)

Once the shortcut is created you can change the icon of the shortcut to something a little more interesting by right-clicking the shortcut, selecting Properties, and then under the “Shortcut” tab, click Change Icon.

Now you can shutdown Windows 8 in record time!

ShutdownHowToSS

Let’s go a little deeper into what we’re asking the system to do when creating our new shortcut.

When we type “shutdown” we are simply asking the system to execute the shutdown.exe file located in the Windows System32 folder. The “/s” lets the shutdown.exe program know that we intend to shutdown our computer. I know it seems redundant but there are a bunch of other options (sometimes referred to as flags or switches) that the shutdown.exe program can perform including restarting the computer after it shuts down (/r). The “/t” lets the shutdown program know that we are about to tell it the time-out period we wish to use for this shutdown, which is then followed by the actual time-out period we want, in this case we used “0”.

For a full list of options to use with shutdown.exe, you can simply type “shutdown ?” in your command prompt or power shell.