tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post1207783070052057563..comments2024-03-28T19:58:31.110-05:00Comments on Bayou Renaissance Man: Musings on Windows 8.1 and writingPeterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10595089829300831372noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-77630161603749486342014-07-21T12:30:23.548-05:002014-07-21T12:30:23.548-05:00emdfl, you're correct about the numbers--in th...<b>emdfl</b>, you're correct about the numbers--in the Windows world. But consider the legions of iPhad, iPhoney, plus Android phablets and phones users out there. Consumers whose attention span resembles that of a gerbil, and who are not able to express themselves in more than 140 characters. Microsoft wants those people too. They spend money, impulsively. Nice demographic, if you can get it.<br /><br /><b>OneRiotRanger</b>, the same experience is not important, but the same data going wherever with me, is. Now, while the 'cloud' is all the rage, but that requires internet connection (not so good rural areas), a not-inexpensive data plan, and a complete trust of your sensitive data to the cloud powers that be. Not everyone has that sense of trust, including myself. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-42326490080738376912014-07-20T23:17:14.167-05:002014-07-20T23:17:14.167-05:00I am a developer who worked for over 12 years at M...I am a developer who worked for over 12 years at Microsoft and left shortly after it shipped vista.<br /><br />I know of no customer who said 'hey, it would be great if i had the same user experience on my phone, tablet, and desktop'. This is msft wish-derived attempt to become relevant in the world that left it behind.<br /><br />I applaud your willingness to keep current. But win 8+ ain't it.OneRiotRangernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-20750929230540794422014-07-20T22:05:47.515-05:002014-07-20T22:05:47.515-05:00That's the best explaination of "8" ...That's the best explaination of "8" I've read. anon. Too bad the dumbshits who decided to jam that piece of excretement(8) down the throats of those who were fine with XP didn't read it first...<br /><br />I 'spect your producers outnumber your consumers by an order of magnitude.emdflnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-46949323273717135882014-07-20T20:31:43.007-05:002014-07-20T20:31:43.007-05:00Unless you've used Win8 in a tablet or on a to...Unless you've used Win8 in a tablet or on a touchscreen, you won't 'get it.' And most don't have touchscreens, therefore they ... haven't. There is content production (keyboard / mouse) and there is content consumption (touchscreen). They are two different users sometimes, and sometimes they are the same user in different contexts. A (decent) Win8 tablet can be docked to 24" monitors, mouse and keyboard and it performs very much like a desktop, but you can undock it, take with you and browse and use it on the go with just your fat fingers as well. <br /><br />I'm a developer, I've developed 5 Win8 apps, and I spend 99% of my time in 'desktop' mode. But there are people out there who spend most of their time consuming content. They love the Win8 experience. But they are not the bulk of Windows users, and they do not wax ecstatic as much as the other group whines. <br /><br />I try telling developers, Win8 is really not about you. Most don't get it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-30901543033739871582014-07-20T15:06:52.439-05:002014-07-20T15:06:52.439-05:00Though I've never done assembly (except studyi...Though I've never done assembly (except studying 6502 for some obscure reason), I had some strange feelings going from C++ to Python. I'm glad I learned C++ first (after, yes, QBasic), but Python is so much easier to work with that I rarely program in anything else.<br /><br />That said, I've been thinking about getting back into C++ now that C++11 is around.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-34983777945111857082014-07-20T14:47:07.055-05:002014-07-20T14:47:07.055-05:00"Never mind efficiency....." Define effi..."Never mind efficiency....." Define efficiency - from the days of turning in a deck for overnight runs and picking up the printout the next day for debugging the efficiency that matters is minimizing human effort. <br /><br />A setup that kicks student work off the time share after 90 or 120 seconds is not going to be more efficient if the students are writing in assembly to get more done in the limited time - the total machine time used will increase as the number of try and debug runs increases almost without limit (limit is giving up!).<br /><br />Higher level languages exist so the human element is more efficient. <br /><br />Simulating the compiler in your mind and trying to make drum memory reads sequential as the drum turns is not an efficient use of human time - memory management automates well though. <br /><br />That sort of optimization doesn't work over time anyway. Changing the compiler breaks simulating the compiler in the mind every time - an optimizing complier can break the programmer's best efforts (e.g. story of modeling wing design with iterated critical values near unity so the programmer tried to hide the actual values).<br /><br />On the other hand the proportion of resources devoted to user interface rather than the program seems excessive to me as the current generation of Windows always needs the next generation's hardware.clark myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04087642063181620051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-91743807190255497712014-07-20T14:38:11.796-05:002014-07-20T14:38:11.796-05:00Realize that the mouse interface is a remote touch...Realize that the mouse interface is a remote touchscreen, already a contradiction, and now you've come full circle.Ritchienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-44967799951527265482014-07-20T14:08:38.587-05:002014-07-20T14:08:38.587-05:00Peter, the problem with bloated code is that the &...Peter, the problem with bloated code is that the "programmers" do not write code, they use a program to generate (not even compile) the code. And, yes, I know of what I speak - I still have the "start deck" from the IBM 1620 that I began my computing on. I dropped out when Clipper became the way to program. Now I putz with Linux, primarily some of the varieties of Debian.<br />JW MAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-79530416674999076712014-07-20T11:19:50.753-05:002014-07-20T11:19:50.753-05:00I'd argue that win7 was hardly good. I replace...I'd argue that win7 was hardly good. I replaced XP with 7 on my spare desktop and just put the machine away after waiting 10-15 minutes several times for the damn thing to come up. And that's not counting the times that it just froze in the middle of my doing something. Understand that all I do is websurf and email. So sorry, AFAIC the geeks at window f****d up as usual with 7. emdflnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-18347285137943828712014-07-20T10:38:05.711-05:002014-07-20T10:38:05.711-05:00FWIW, Windows 7 OEM installation packages are stil...FWIW, Windows 7 OEM installation packages are still available from places like Newegg.<br /><br />Dump Windows 8.B.S. philosopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991238092700083612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-38846630567171530522014-07-20T09:19:17.757-05:002014-07-20T09:19:17.757-05:00Being a dinosaur is NOT a bad thing... Just sayin....Being a dinosaur is NOT a bad thing... Just sayin... :-)Old NFOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16404197287935017147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-42610713642885489922014-07-20T08:54:28.991-05:002014-07-20T08:54:28.991-05:00Win 3.1 Good
Win 95 Pain
Win 98 Good
Win ME Pain
W...Win 3.1 Good<br />Win 95 Pain<br />Win 98 Good<br />Win ME Pain<br />Win XP Good<br />Win Vista Pain<br />Win 7 Good<br />Win 8 Pain<br />Win 9 ?<br />This is not some polling that I took but just from remarks that I hear from a lot of people, you can see the trend. MS keeps wanting to go in the wrong direction but every time the buyers drag them back to something usable. I am guessing that Win 9 will be a usable product based on the past.Sunnybrook Farmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18135224259672444423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-12200614056729741092014-07-20T08:00:04.040-05:002014-07-20T08:00:04.040-05:00Hopefully Windows 9 will have a sane interface for...Hopefully Windows 9 will have a sane interface for folks who actually want to use a computer for work instead of for "social media".<br />I've completely moved to Virtualbox hosted in Linux, with a vanilla Win7 VM inside it. Works fine and is as close to something I can easily use as it gets. <br />I do use my computers to do mostly photo scanning and digital video and photo processing. There is no way that sort of work can be done with a "swipe" based UI. And "Instagram" and other such are NOT an alternative!<br />Noonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04285930853937157148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-55893642051007994742014-07-20T04:47:26.896-05:002014-07-20T04:47:26.896-05:00Concerning Win8.1's user interface, the fundam...Concerning Win8.1's user interface, the fundamental shift is a philosophical one: the shift away from the computer as a tool for the development and employment of programs to the computer as convenience and entertainment center. This is proving to be a serious marketing error.<br /><br />Serious work is badly impeded by Win 8.1's UI. Programmers instinctively recoil from it. So do most other persons who have computers on their desks at work. Indeed, the reaction against it by the bulk of Microsoft's market segment has been so violent that the company has already announced that Win9 will be delivered within a year, and that it will not impose the Win8 interface willy-nilly on the user.<br /><br />The "New Coke" experience of Win8 should stand as a lesson to businesses of all sorts: Know what your customers are doing and intend to do with your product, and don't presume to inflict your preferences or fads on them!Francis W. Porrettohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.com