S
Shane
Guest
Well, I think I've reached a conclusion - in a telling timeframe.
I think the Aero theme is very well done. That glassy look, more so with the
Sidebar running, is superb - the best cosmetic job Microsoft have ever done
(imo)! And when I had the Sidebar running, I put gadgets on it giving top to
bottom - the countdown to the release of Server 2008, the Vista Orb clock, a
small BBC News 24 feed - continuous live BBC News playing on the desktop in
a tiny, little box - bloody marvellous! In the same category as having music
playing while you work or surf? Beneath that I had - lets see...oh yes, a
weather feed, set for this town and visually responding to the diurnal
cycle, a calendar - since T-ClockX which I've used almost since Win ME came
out, won't install in NT6.x - and I cannot abide seeing just the time down
there! And a Google search box on the bottom (had the Deskbar originally,
but there are issues with Google in 2K8 beta3. For one the toolbar crashes
IE7).
There was another Sidebar column but the second time I installed the toy,
the 'gadgets' rearranged at every boot, pushing most of the ones I wanted to
show by default, off of the desktop. How much this is a beta bug, I don't
know. There is one bug - apparently also in RTM Vista and waiting for SP1 to
hopefully fix - where the prog that pops up to tell you the one you tried to
execute has stopped responding, does this way too soon. I was quite
surprised actually when it got it right! I had come to expect that the prog
certainly had not stopped responding and all one had to do was wait a little
longer...that was SpywareBlaster, actually. Spybot S&D installs and
apparently works fine in (64-bit) Server 2008 beta3, Vista's brother - as
does Javacool's MRU-Blaster. But not SpywareBlaster. I'd say it's about
split down the middle which progs I've run in ME/XP for years, still work in
64-bit NT6.x. Not bad going?
Anyway, clearly I am taken by the 'Vista Desktop Experience' (which is an
extra available to Server 2008). Yet when one thinks of 1 GB of RAM as on
the low side, something isn't right. Priorities are askew, I think. I had
256MB RAM for quite a few years and have just moved up to 1G and I really
don't intend to swallow the line that it isn't enough anymore.
Joan in particular might be interested in this: yes, Aero is really pretty -
but it is still eye candy, and the appeal of it dies down as rapidly as all
other eye candy appeal does. That's why it's called 'eye candy' isn't it -
it's got no substance, long term it only really appeals to the shallow.
Well, that's what I believe anyway. I don't think you are shallow, Joan, so
if you liked Aero long term, I'd have to adjust my beliefs - but I don't
think I'll have to. Oh, you may be comfortable with it - but that isn't
enough. 'Comfortable with it' is 'faint praise' where Aero is concerned.
I used the Luna theme (XP default) for about a year - then reverted to how I
have it now - looking as much like 9x as it's possible to make it! That
isn't because I think 'conservative' is the way to go - it's because I think
the style of 9x is the most natural for comfortable, relaxed computer
operation. Back in the mid-90's they weren't looking to do things
differently, they were looking to do them efficiently. Hardly any time
before, it had all been command line computing (and limited mouse
operation - but that was building towards Windows, it was part of the
process that became 9x). Then there was Windows 1/2/3.x - these were
developers feeling their way. Jumping straight to 9x would be Creationism in
microcosm. Dosshell and the myriad of Office apps that used the mouse, in
DOS, and then pre-9x Windows, were the evolution of 9x. And then they got it
right, it all (more-or-less) came together. And after all it surely isn't
*that* difficult to figure out what the most ergonomic way to open a program
is, with a rectangle less than a foot-and-a-half to play with?
But with XP they were no longer trying to improve the user experience per
se, but to vary it enough that they could sell Windows again. And now
they've repeated that with Vista. But the interfaces are more and more
confusing, because controls are less where you'd expect them to be now -
because that's where they were, but now they've been moved!
This can easily be dismissed as just my pov - but it seems inescapably
logical to me - unless you suppose that either where to put things on the
screen is actually quite complicated (and it's taken them approaching a
decade and a half to figure out what personally I don't think should take
however many dozen dozen brilliant minds work for Microsoft, to figure
out) - or you might hypothesise that there is more than one (or two, or is
it three?) possible maximum ergonomic arrangements for the desktop and
window elements. Maybe I just feel a little more lost with each new
offering, because that's what happens when you get old, and I'm getting
there! Either way - as I already claimed the other day - they make all this
stuff for the kids - and we know what most of the kids are into nowadays! I
mean, we can be thankful it doesn't come with Crazy Frog sounds - but it
will! It will! It'll get there!
I wonder if New Labour banned firearms because they'd been given a preview
of what was to come?
I abandoned Luna several years ago, but to use Aero you have to use
effectively the same Start Menu - how much is similar to XP is more striking
than how much is different, I feel. Windows are another thing altogether. Of
course Vista/Server 2008, in the age of DOT Net are built like big web
sites. I don't like it - the new Windows Explorer, I mean. Oh, you get used
to it - but it's too much of the same. Making everything web is like losing
the seperation between work and home. I like working in Explorer as distinct
from the internet, in 9x, or here in XP. It is like getting back home,
putting on your slippers, relaxing. I don't think they understand that at
the global conglomerates. Like so many people seem unable to comprehend that
not everybody cares for 3D games, and sounds that belong in a video arcade.
Not everyone drinks so much coffee they have the shakes and not everyone is
so driven by the neurotic fear of failure that the only way they can relax
is by snorting a line or two and going to a club. We live in a world that
respects the workaholic as industrious and conscientious, when actually he's
half-mad and frequently breathtakingly shallow. But we let him design our
world (which is about as smart as putting the vain and power-obsessed in
high office).
I say 'he', 'him' etc. Women don't do a lot wrong. Or it pales into
insignificance once the men arrive! Most guys are idiots - but most women
cheer them on just the same! Anyhow it is notable that the proportion
responsible for the stupidity that oppresses us all, originates in the male
of the species. So if any girlies object to my use of the masculine here,
the answer is, I suspect, gender reassignment.
It doesn't matter if Windows Explorer looks like Internet Explorer
(*Windows* Internet Explorer!) to those who are happy to work 16 hours a
day - who tell themselves that work *is* play. They don't notice that all
day every day it's the same thing, relentless and uniform. There is no pro
to the reduction of variety - it's all con.
Windows XP is sufficiently like 9x as to be an improvement by virtue of
greater stability. In numerous ways the better stability of the NT kernel
can be appreciated. And you can make it look sufficiently like 9x that the
only real anti-XP argument is Product Activation/Validation (which makes
itself felt mostly on 56k dial-up. For most broadband users it would be
entirely painless if not for the requirement to click thrice where not so
long ago we only had to click once. The policy wanks at Microsoft presumably
think the anti-piracy message is best delivered by rubbing all of our noses
in it. It must be so, for I haven't shat on the carpet in at least three
years!).
In Windows Classic style - particularly with Win ME Plus's More Windows
theme, which enlarges the fonts - and in fact I uncheck all but the
Window/font size option, to get the XP Windows Classic theme, only more
readable - you have, I reckon, the pinnacle of the Windows Operating
System's look, to date. For as gorgeous as the full-blown Aero theme is,
what it needs in the long run is to be easy on the eye. I can't help
thinking that eventually - possibly sooner rather than later - I'll
reconfigure Server 2008 to Windows Classic. Then I'll really see the benefit
of 1G RAM, I guess! But if, after a couple of months you disable Aero, what
do you really need that much RAM for?
Hey, we can drink the tap water again - as long as it's boiled! I finally
tipped the 2 gallons in the bucket down the sink today (there was at least 1
dead insect in it).
So, most of us eventually end up using Vista having bought machines with,
say, 2G of RAM. And after a couple of months most of us turn off Aero - and
the Sidebar (the BBC News feed gets annoying quickly when all of a sudden
you need to concentrate!). So what do we have machines with 2G of RAM, for?
Well, the semi-conductor industry's rude health for one, I s'pose!
Presumably that produces as much deadly poison as it ever did? I wonder
who'll be the first to have their house flooded in the vicinity of the
landfill where they dump old PCBs and silicon chips? Probably anyone in the
UK. I'm sure the only reason they're starting to get exercised about
recycling is to make room for other nation's toxic waste!
Vista is a holiday. Somewhere different to go for a few weeks. Then it's
back to the familiar.
His name is Casey.
Shane
I think the Aero theme is very well done. That glassy look, more so with the
Sidebar running, is superb - the best cosmetic job Microsoft have ever done
(imo)! And when I had the Sidebar running, I put gadgets on it giving top to
bottom - the countdown to the release of Server 2008, the Vista Orb clock, a
small BBC News 24 feed - continuous live BBC News playing on the desktop in
a tiny, little box - bloody marvellous! In the same category as having music
playing while you work or surf? Beneath that I had - lets see...oh yes, a
weather feed, set for this town and visually responding to the diurnal
cycle, a calendar - since T-ClockX which I've used almost since Win ME came
out, won't install in NT6.x - and I cannot abide seeing just the time down
there! And a Google search box on the bottom (had the Deskbar originally,
but there are issues with Google in 2K8 beta3. For one the toolbar crashes
IE7).
There was another Sidebar column but the second time I installed the toy,
the 'gadgets' rearranged at every boot, pushing most of the ones I wanted to
show by default, off of the desktop. How much this is a beta bug, I don't
know. There is one bug - apparently also in RTM Vista and waiting for SP1 to
hopefully fix - where the prog that pops up to tell you the one you tried to
execute has stopped responding, does this way too soon. I was quite
surprised actually when it got it right! I had come to expect that the prog
certainly had not stopped responding and all one had to do was wait a little
longer...that was SpywareBlaster, actually. Spybot S&D installs and
apparently works fine in (64-bit) Server 2008 beta3, Vista's brother - as
does Javacool's MRU-Blaster. But not SpywareBlaster. I'd say it's about
split down the middle which progs I've run in ME/XP for years, still work in
64-bit NT6.x. Not bad going?
Anyway, clearly I am taken by the 'Vista Desktop Experience' (which is an
extra available to Server 2008). Yet when one thinks of 1 GB of RAM as on
the low side, something isn't right. Priorities are askew, I think. I had
256MB RAM for quite a few years and have just moved up to 1G and I really
don't intend to swallow the line that it isn't enough anymore.
Joan in particular might be interested in this: yes, Aero is really pretty -
but it is still eye candy, and the appeal of it dies down as rapidly as all
other eye candy appeal does. That's why it's called 'eye candy' isn't it -
it's got no substance, long term it only really appeals to the shallow.
Well, that's what I believe anyway. I don't think you are shallow, Joan, so
if you liked Aero long term, I'd have to adjust my beliefs - but I don't
think I'll have to. Oh, you may be comfortable with it - but that isn't
enough. 'Comfortable with it' is 'faint praise' where Aero is concerned.
I used the Luna theme (XP default) for about a year - then reverted to how I
have it now - looking as much like 9x as it's possible to make it! That
isn't because I think 'conservative' is the way to go - it's because I think
the style of 9x is the most natural for comfortable, relaxed computer
operation. Back in the mid-90's they weren't looking to do things
differently, they were looking to do them efficiently. Hardly any time
before, it had all been command line computing (and limited mouse
operation - but that was building towards Windows, it was part of the
process that became 9x). Then there was Windows 1/2/3.x - these were
developers feeling their way. Jumping straight to 9x would be Creationism in
microcosm. Dosshell and the myriad of Office apps that used the mouse, in
DOS, and then pre-9x Windows, were the evolution of 9x. And then they got it
right, it all (more-or-less) came together. And after all it surely isn't
*that* difficult to figure out what the most ergonomic way to open a program
is, with a rectangle less than a foot-and-a-half to play with?
But with XP they were no longer trying to improve the user experience per
se, but to vary it enough that they could sell Windows again. And now
they've repeated that with Vista. But the interfaces are more and more
confusing, because controls are less where you'd expect them to be now -
because that's where they were, but now they've been moved!
This can easily be dismissed as just my pov - but it seems inescapably
logical to me - unless you suppose that either where to put things on the
screen is actually quite complicated (and it's taken them approaching a
decade and a half to figure out what personally I don't think should take
however many dozen dozen brilliant minds work for Microsoft, to figure
out) - or you might hypothesise that there is more than one (or two, or is
it three?) possible maximum ergonomic arrangements for the desktop and
window elements. Maybe I just feel a little more lost with each new
offering, because that's what happens when you get old, and I'm getting
there! Either way - as I already claimed the other day - they make all this
stuff for the kids - and we know what most of the kids are into nowadays! I
mean, we can be thankful it doesn't come with Crazy Frog sounds - but it
will! It will! It'll get there!
I wonder if New Labour banned firearms because they'd been given a preview
of what was to come?
I abandoned Luna several years ago, but to use Aero you have to use
effectively the same Start Menu - how much is similar to XP is more striking
than how much is different, I feel. Windows are another thing altogether. Of
course Vista/Server 2008, in the age of DOT Net are built like big web
sites. I don't like it - the new Windows Explorer, I mean. Oh, you get used
to it - but it's too much of the same. Making everything web is like losing
the seperation between work and home. I like working in Explorer as distinct
from the internet, in 9x, or here in XP. It is like getting back home,
putting on your slippers, relaxing. I don't think they understand that at
the global conglomerates. Like so many people seem unable to comprehend that
not everybody cares for 3D games, and sounds that belong in a video arcade.
Not everyone drinks so much coffee they have the shakes and not everyone is
so driven by the neurotic fear of failure that the only way they can relax
is by snorting a line or two and going to a club. We live in a world that
respects the workaholic as industrious and conscientious, when actually he's
half-mad and frequently breathtakingly shallow. But we let him design our
world (which is about as smart as putting the vain and power-obsessed in
high office).
I say 'he', 'him' etc. Women don't do a lot wrong. Or it pales into
insignificance once the men arrive! Most guys are idiots - but most women
cheer them on just the same! Anyhow it is notable that the proportion
responsible for the stupidity that oppresses us all, originates in the male
of the species. So if any girlies object to my use of the masculine here,
the answer is, I suspect, gender reassignment.
It doesn't matter if Windows Explorer looks like Internet Explorer
(*Windows* Internet Explorer!) to those who are happy to work 16 hours a
day - who tell themselves that work *is* play. They don't notice that all
day every day it's the same thing, relentless and uniform. There is no pro
to the reduction of variety - it's all con.
Windows XP is sufficiently like 9x as to be an improvement by virtue of
greater stability. In numerous ways the better stability of the NT kernel
can be appreciated. And you can make it look sufficiently like 9x that the
only real anti-XP argument is Product Activation/Validation (which makes
itself felt mostly on 56k dial-up. For most broadband users it would be
entirely painless if not for the requirement to click thrice where not so
long ago we only had to click once. The policy wanks at Microsoft presumably
think the anti-piracy message is best delivered by rubbing all of our noses
in it. It must be so, for I haven't shat on the carpet in at least three
years!).
In Windows Classic style - particularly with Win ME Plus's More Windows
theme, which enlarges the fonts - and in fact I uncheck all but the
Window/font size option, to get the XP Windows Classic theme, only more
readable - you have, I reckon, the pinnacle of the Windows Operating
System's look, to date. For as gorgeous as the full-blown Aero theme is,
what it needs in the long run is to be easy on the eye. I can't help
thinking that eventually - possibly sooner rather than later - I'll
reconfigure Server 2008 to Windows Classic. Then I'll really see the benefit
of 1G RAM, I guess! But if, after a couple of months you disable Aero, what
do you really need that much RAM for?
Hey, we can drink the tap water again - as long as it's boiled! I finally
tipped the 2 gallons in the bucket down the sink today (there was at least 1
dead insect in it).
So, most of us eventually end up using Vista having bought machines with,
say, 2G of RAM. And after a couple of months most of us turn off Aero - and
the Sidebar (the BBC News feed gets annoying quickly when all of a sudden
you need to concentrate!). So what do we have machines with 2G of RAM, for?
Well, the semi-conductor industry's rude health for one, I s'pose!
Presumably that produces as much deadly poison as it ever did? I wonder
who'll be the first to have their house flooded in the vicinity of the
landfill where they dump old PCBs and silicon chips? Probably anyone in the
UK. I'm sure the only reason they're starting to get exercised about
recycling is to make room for other nation's toxic waste!
Vista is a holiday. Somewhere different to go for a few weeks. Then it's
back to the familiar.
His name is Casey.
Shane
