This story has been evident to me for a long time, and it is a real problem in an office where there is a culture of trust and freedom around computer use, especially when a new employee brings bad online habits into the workplace. I have seen such a situation bring a whole company to a standstill when the consequence is a severe malware attack, a sexual harassment situation, or simple discipline problems.
So, a couple of days after the developers who attended Microsoft’s “Build” 2013 conference, and the various tech journalists and bloggers who took advantage of Microsoft’s “preview” offer, I have downloaded and installed the preview. I am afraid that my response is the refrain from that old song…”is that all there is?”
This is not a fair response to what is in its entirety, a very good effort by Microsoft to address concerns in the marketplace for its products, while at the same time attempting to maintain a vision upon which its future almost entirely depends: the integration of a common user experience across all Windows devices: phone, tablet, laptop, desktop. There has never been an effort undertaken by any company in history comparable to what Microsoft is working on today. And let me take the opportunity now to congratulate Microsoft for firing the acrobatic hipsters that have been advertising its surface tablet in favor of TV advertising that actually does a good job of articulating their vision, and selling some of the sizzle of it.
So now that I have been fair to Microsoft, I need to say why I feel so blasé about this release. For context, when I started my career in Information Technology, the personal computer was used by a fraction of the population. These were geeks and nerds who felt they could get an edge by using a personal computer instead of a calculator, a typewriter, and possibly a little timeshare access at the local university. The transition in user interface for Microsoft (and Apple) customers at that time, (1984 to 1992), was from a blank, black or green screen with a single line of three or more monochrome text characters followed by a blinking cursor, to a screen with rectangular windows, icons and a mouse pointer. In the former, we were invited to type something on the keyboard. In the latter we were invited to “click”, which we rapidly learned to do.
Some very prominent journalists at the time opined that the mouse was a fad, and that the “GUI” (for Graphical User Interface) would die out in favor of our old and utilitarian command prompt. For some really delightful and informed perspective, I recommend Neal Stephenson’s “In the Beginning was the Command Line”, which can be downloaded here: http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html.
So after watching the windowed interface, both Macintosh and Windows, overwhelm the civilized world in the space of a half-decade, it is with some disbelief that I witness the rejection of Windows 8 on the basis of “too jarring a change in user interface design”. I am not quoting anyone in particular, however I believe that I am quoting the opinion of just about every journalist and blogger who has attempted to explain this phenomenon.
There have been reports of machinations within Microsoft over the degree to which “helpers” and tutorials should have been asserted or withheld in the new operating system, some believing that too many tutorial links would scare people off, and too many options similar to the older Windows versions would stifle the adoption of the new “Modern UI” (or Modern User Interface) that Microsoft proposes for all Windows apps on every platform. Ironically, when they succeed, there will be no “windows” in Windows!
Truly, most of us that make this transition regularly, upgrading to every new version of Windows every time it is released for the various reasons that we have, adopt a mode of using the new operating system that most allows us to work in the way we are familiar with. In this way, Windows 8 was very, very new indeed. I had the choice to use my desktop Outlook program, or my Windows 8 store Windows mail program. I could install my desktop Skype app, or use the Windows 8 store version of Skype. Most jarring was the browser choice. The two most popular browsers available on Windows 8, Chrome and Internet Explorer, both run in a desktop mode, or a Modern UI mode, which in the case of Internet Explorer turns the user experience of the browser literally upside down.
So, within a week of loading up Windows 8 this winter, I made some choices. The desktop software was richer and more stable. The Windows 8 Modern UI app store was a little sparse, and many of the programs that I already was using on the desktop were not as mature and full featured in the Modern UI. This was easy: figure out how to get to the desktop, and then work in that environment as much as possible. Having made these choices, Windows 8 became splendid! It is faster, more stable, and has features that really advance the Windows platform.
The “Start screen” simply became an alternative to the “Start menu”, and again, within about two days’ time, I had figured out how to get to everything that I used to get to in the Start menu. Oh, and by the way, THE START SCREEN IS MUCH, MUCH BETTER THAN A START MENU!!!!
Coming back to Windows 8.1, if you take away all of the enhancements to the Microsoft Store, the extensions to Windows Search, and internal improvements to the operating system, the big change in Windows 8.1 is a little windows icon in the lower left-hand corner to give you a queue as to where the start screen is, a better organized start screen that more quickly allows you to browse every app and setting on the system, and the ability to boot to desktop.
So, I am underwhelmed. But my dissatisfaction with this release has more to do with a deeper ennui about what this is saying about Microsoft’s position in the world now, 29 years hence the GUI. We have Windows 8.1 now largely because of a reported double digit sag in PC sales year over year in the first quarter of 2013. Windows 8 took the blame for that, and Microsoft was forced to respond. But if we are really so lazy as to not google a couple of pages for the ubiquitous YouTube videos that explain everything you need to know about running Windows 8, can it really be the absence of an icon and a few features that will make the difference? Isn’t it true that PC sales are simply being swamped under an avalanche of iPads and Android tablets and phablets and schmablets?
I am delighted with Windows 8, and I am equally delighted with Windows 8.1. These have provided me with entertainment while I go about my work, and they have improved the overall experience as well as the product that I produce. That being said, I am stubbornly sticking to the desktop and I remain well on the sidelines with respect to the Windows 8 vision of a unified experience. I carry an iPhone, and I use a Nexus 7 tablet in the house. That may make me Microsoft’s worst nightmare.
http://spamsoap.com/threat-center/
Please note these significant enhancements to the SpamSoap service. The bottom line for my clients is this:
If you click on a web link in an email after SpamSoap has enabled this service on May 13, your click will be redirected through an AntiMalware gateway that will pre-scan the website and determine if the link is malicious.
If the link is malicious, you will receive a notification Window from the AntiMalware gateway rather than reaching the infected website and downloading the malware to your computer.
This is a major development for us because SpamSoap has distinguished between “scan-time”, and “click-time” infection states, meaning that an email might carry a link that is benign in transit to the recipient, but becomes infected after the message has passed through our scanning mechanisms and been approved for delivery. Even in such a case, because this capability includes “click-time” testing, the user is protected.
Since email borne web links have become the most potent vector for malware infection to our clients, we feel that this improvement is a major step in removing this category of threat.
This is an opportunity to give you a little delayed warning about a Microsoft update. Sadly, if you are a corporate Kasperky antivirus user, or if you have lagged behind in updating your Kaspersky protection to the latest version, you may have already found out about this update the hard way.
Short version of the linked article: Everyone should remove Microsoft update 2823324, which was distributed in the latest "update tuesday" round of Windows operating system updates. It has the possibility of causing your system to become un-bootable. If you don't know what "un-bootable" means, it means that you will lose the use of your computer entirely until the problem is resolved.
Happily, if your System Restore capability is enabled in Windows 7, which it is by default, you should be able to get your system back up and running, but it may take some finagling with bootable operating system media. If your head is swimming and you are feeling nauseous, please contact your trusted computer service provider. They will take care of you pretty easily.
So, what about the dying desktop personal computer? Reports published in the Wall Street Journal indicate that personal computer sales fell more than 13% since last year, and last year was not a particularly good year for those sales. WSJ used the term "free fall".
Ever since Apple released the iPad in 2010, this day was inevitable. The iPad product has been a smash hit, and this year, the entire computer industry is finally offering competing products that are not first time experiments in mimicry. We all have only so much appetite for electronics, and inevitably, many of us have decided that we can do fine with our desktop computer at work, and only use a smartphone and/or a tablet computer at home.
For years I have thought that the requirement to lay out $1,000 or more for a system that we really don't want in our homes was not sensible. The conventional personal computer was designed for "desktop productivity", not for casual communication and entertainment, which is what most of us do on our home devices. $300 to $800 seems like a much more reasonable proposition for most of us.
In conclusion, the drop in sales is simply the other shoe of the explosion of sales in smartphones and tablets. We are finally getting what we want, and that is not such bad news at all, if we all feel better about our lives as a result.
On a weekly basis, this will be the place where I post comments on current tech news, advice for taking care of your tech, or using something new. I like to focus on data security and staying out of trouble on the Internet. I am excited to be sharing this new blog with you!
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