Microsoft Rumors Say Big Changes Coming in Windows 8.2

On 12/9/13 1:49 PM, Paul wrote:
Ken Springer wrote:


I have another friend who falls into this category, and he actually
stored data in the System Recovery partition! Gateway didn't bother to
hide the partition from the user.

I bet he was complaining he was out of storage space or something.

It was 100% pure ignorance on his part. When he made the set of
recovery disks, he used a felt tip and wrote on the recorded side of the
disk.

If he'd assigned it a drive letter, then he'd really be in trouble.
(As that can switch on System Restore, and waste more space on there.)

Gateway assigned it a drive letter.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 17.0.8

Ken Springer wrote:
On 12/9/13 11:34 AM, Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

5. There is a much wider range of assistance, both from professionals
and friends, on Windows machines than on a Macintosh. (similar to your
point)

I suspect an Apple fanboi would argue that since Macs are easier to use,
less help is needed. But that's a smokescreen, and means nothing.
There's going to be more assistance for Windows simply due to the
numbers of units out there.

What you need to know is the # of questions asked per computer. If
there's 100 Windows and 100 Macs, and there's 50 questions for each
Windows unit, and 25 questions for each Mac unit, you can make the
argument less user assistance is needed for Mac. But I doubt there's
any way to get any kind of accurate data here.

Back when I was using a Mac, I got most of my answers
to problems on the machine, from a handful of Mac
specific web forums. I didn't have to hit Google
groups for most things.

I used sites like that, when I needed to buy an
accelerator (taking the Power Tower Pro from 250MHz
to 500MHz).

And when that $1000 video card developed a bug, only
one other person in the world seemed to be seeing it.
I found a reference to the bug in Google Groups
(possibly dejanews at the time). It turns out,
that fancy-ass video card, didn't have enough
address bits in the DMA circuit, to address all
of the system RAM in my computer! It was either
strip out half the system RAM, or remove the video
card. I chose to remove the video card. Back in those days,
it was costing me around $600 to max the RAM on a new
computer.

My budget now is a lot smaller. Now a big event
for me, is a new $100 LCD monitor, or a new disk drive.
No more $1000 video cards, ever again. I needed the
$1000 video card, at the time, to get 24 bit color.
Big deal, eh?

Paul

Per Ken Blake, MVP:

Leaving aside my personal preferences (which are much like yours and
Char's) what I tell those who ask me is that almost everyone should
get a Windows machine. That's for the following reasons:

1. A Windows machine is much less expensive than a Macintosh.

......

5. There is a much wider range of assistance, both from professionals
and friends, on Windows machines than on a Macintosh. (similar to your point)

6. If they buy a Mac, I'm off the hook support-wise because I
really don't know enough to help anybody - much less operate
one myself.
--
Pete Cresswell

Ken Springer wrote:
On 12/9/13 1:49 PM, Paul wrote:
Ken Springer wrote:


I have another friend who falls into this category, and he actually
stored data in the System Recovery partition! Gateway didn't bother to
hide the partition from the user.

I bet he was complaining he was out of storage space or something.

It was 100% pure ignorance on his part. When he made the set of
recovery disks, he used a felt tip and wrote on the recorded side of the
disk.

If he'd assigned it a drive letter, then he'd really be in trouble.
(As that can switch on System Restore, and waste more space on there.)

Gateway assigned it a drive letter.

OK, I think I see my mistake. That's the 15GB partition with
the backup copy of his OS. I think the partition type of
that, is something Windows doesn't like, so it may not
actually switch on System Restore for that.

This is my Acer laptop. The first partition is around 15GB,
and the partition is 27. I think that's "Hidden NTFS".
Two other partitions are 07, which is regular NTFS. The
partition with 00 on it, is my soon-to-disappear
SYSTEM RESERVED (which has no drive letter). SYSTEM
RESERVED is 100MB (as it's a Windows 7 installation).

http://oi42.tinypic.com/wcgwid.jpg

( http://i42.tinypic.com/wcgwid.gif )

Actually, the old web page here, says 27 can be either
FAT32 or NTFS. I've never checked in there, to see what
type it is. But it would be easy enough to check some time.

http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partition...n_types-1.html

I was in the middle of the procedure to remove
SYSTEM RESERVED, and free up a partition for other
uses. The laptop comes with a (SYSTEM RESERVED, C
installation, and I made it run off (C alone.
C: then gets the boot flag.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409

Paul

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Ken Blake, MVP:
Leaving aside my personal preferences (which are much like yours and
Char's) what I tell those who ask me is that almost everyone should
get a Windows machine. That's for the following reasons:

1. A Windows machine is much less expensive than a Macintosh.

.....

5. There is a much wider range of assistance, both from professionals
and friends, on Windows machines than on a Macintosh. (similar to your point)

6. If they buy a Mac, I'm off the hook support-wise because I
really don't know enough to help anybody - much less operate
one myself.

As long as you can run a search engine, you can find an answer.

It's like anything with computers, if you have a working machine
and a machine that won't do something, the working machine can
"dial out" for you and get the answer. My record on this,
is I've broken two computers at the same time, and actually
needed a third to get enough info to fix them :-) Talk about
a clumsy computer user...

If you were an absolutely naive Mac user, you can buy a
thick tome at the book store, that can serve as a reference.
(written by Pogue???) I have one of those here, but only
referred to it a couple times, and could find just as much
info online. But for some people, that book can be used
to prop up a table leg or something.

You know, I just glanced up at my book shelf, and I
see a copy of "Inside Windows 95". Pardon an Alzheimers
moment, but where the hell did that come from :-) I
don't know what happened to the Mac book, which is about
as thick as that one. It's probably sitting in a book box
somewhere. I guess the "Inside Windows 95" was too heavy
to carry to the basement.

Paul

On 12/09/2013, (PeteCresswell) posted:
6. If they buy a Mac, I'm off the hook support-wise because I
really don't know enough to help anybody - much less operate
one myself.

A friend of mine would ask me for help on her Mac, then when I left she
would ask another person who was a Mac owner. Even if I had solved the
problem...

After a fairly short while I was off her support hook, just like you
might be :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 12/09/2013, Ken Springer posted:
If you want categorize users, I think those with the more creative minds,
such as musicians, artists, teachers, etc. will generally like the Mac
better. Those that are logical thinkers, mathematicians, scientists, etc.
will generally like Windows better.

So logical thinkers, mathematicians, scientists, etc., are not
creative?

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Rather than refute this point by point,
I'll make the observation that the extent of these
points, has changed with time. A person making the
points, is advised to do the analysis again, to see
if the points are still true.

The situation was rather extreme at one time. When I
wanted a decent video card for my Quadra (50MHz), it cost
a thousand dollars. When I wanted an upgrade for
my G4 (1.2GHz), the video card was only slightly more expensive
than the PC equivalent. You could even mod a PC video card
and flash upgrade it, if the EEPROM was big enough. The Mac
card I did buy, was eventually reversed for usage in a PC,
and sat in my P4 machine and provided video services, for
years.

On some of the machines (my G4 included, which is quite
old now), you could stick bog standard PCI cards in them.
The big endian/little endian thing wasn't an issue.
The only issue was the Mac "sleep" function, which was
harder to get right than on Windows. You had to select
the right product, to solve that. It meant
visiting a Mac web forum and asking for the latest
recommendation.

All the cards that have run in my G4, have Windows drivers.

The third bullet wasn't true at one time, which is
why certain populations of users were hooked on Macs.
As to whether Mac professionals are still happy with
their software choices now, I haven't a clue.

That's why all of the above must be evaluated frequently,
to be validated. Like, all it would take, is Adobe changing
course, to radically affect how useful a Mac might be.

The price spread on Macs, may also vary depending on
whether you're looking at low end Macs or high end Macs.
A high end Mac is likely to come closer to the Windows
price. There could be a larger spread on the low end
Macs (percentage wise). (The dual Xeon, with the processor
you couldn't buy at retail, was relatively close to a
Windows build.)

The latest Mac that diverges from common packaging
practice, that's probably a mistake. It appears
to be an attempt to prevent upgrading, not make it
easy. I've not read any comments or reviews on this
thing. Apparently it ships Dec 2013, so we may see
some reviews soon.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/22/4...pro-2013-price

"The bigger question is whether pros will
embrace the new, less-upgradable design."

This is not really a topic that deserves a
"shoot from the hip" response. The picture
changes with time, and not even in a consistent
direction. I view that cylindrical thing as a mistake.
A strategic mistake. About as bad as that Cube they made.

Paul


What percentage of the user are doing the kinds of upgrades you are
doing. I suspect that today it it less that a half percent. Most
people today consider they have made a major upgrade plugging in a new
disk into the USB port.

So any one that ask me, would get the same answer as Char Jackson's

Keith Nuttle wrote:



What percentage of the user are doing the kinds of upgrades you are
doing. I suspect that today it it less that a half percent. Most
people today consider they have made a major upgrade plugging in a new
disk into the USB port.

So any one that ask me, would get the same answer as Char Jackson's

You're forgetting, that the buyers of the high end machines,
are graphics professionals, used to spending money to save time.
If a faster processor or better video card would help them,
or more memory, a salesman could easily talk them into
upgrading. So it's not like the topic does not come up.

It's going to be different with that cylinder.

Paul

Paul has written on 12/9/2013 5:00 PM:

As long as you can run a search engine, you can find an answer.

Nonsense! What you get from search engines is a whole bunch of results,
almost all of which are not germane to your problem.

Would you like a list of the problems I've googled about? :-)

On 12/09/2013, Wolf Kirchmeir posted:
On 2013-12-09 5:13 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On 12/09/2013, Ken Springer posted:
If you want categorize users, I think those with the more creative
minds, such as musicians, artists, teachers, etc. will generally like
the Mac better. Those that are logical thinkers, mathematicians,
scientists, etc. will generally like Windows better.

So logical thinkers, mathematicians, scientists, etc., are not creative?

Two misconceptions mixed into in Ken's post:

1)
The confusion of arithmetic with mathematics. Schools don't teach math, they
teach arithmetic. Even senior high school courses generally just teach
arithmetic, just with letters instead of numerals.

So-called objective testing of "Mathematics" compounds the confusion. Every
such test I've seen merely tests arithmetic. People think that if a test
taker who "shows the work" has understood what those chicken scratches mean.
Classic fallacy.

2)
The confusion of fantasy with imagination. Fantasy is just vivid wish
fulfillment. Imagination is insight. This confusion is made worse by people's
uncritical admiration of their "artistic" friends, most of whom are pretty
good at drawing stuff, but not at showing you that you've never really seen
what you were looking at.

Well, that's my rant of the day. ;-)

A day is not complete without a good rant.

Hmm. Looks like my day is not yet complete. What to do?

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Wolf Kirchmeir has written on 12/9/2013 7:26 PM:
On 2013-12-09 7:09 PM, Juan Wei wrote:
Paul has written on 12/9/2013 5:00 PM:

As long as you can run a search engine, you can find an answer.

Nonsense! What you get from search engines is a whole bunch of results,
almost all of which are not germane to your problem.

Would you like a list of the problems I've googled about? :-)

If I want help, I now use a search phrase, often a complete sentence, at
least six words long. Blows away a lot of chaff. For information, I try
a hierarchy of descriptors.

OK. What would you use for this problem?

Every time I open Google Chrome browser on my Window PC, there is a tab
for Angry Birds. I've combed through extensions and settings and Angry
Birds is not there. How do I get rid of that tab permanently?

On 12/09/2013, Juan Wei posted:
Wolf Kirchmeir has written on 12/9/2013 7:26 PM:
On 2013-12-09 7:09 PM, Juan Wei wrote:
Paul has written on 12/9/2013 5:00 PM:

As long as you can run a search engine, you can find an answer.

Nonsense! What you get from search engines is a whole bunch of results,
almost all of which are not germane to your problem.

Would you like a list of the problems I've googled about? :-)

If I want help, I now use a search phrase, often a complete sentence, at
least six words long. Blows away a lot of chaff. For information, I try
a hierarchy of descriptors.

OK. What would you use for this problem?

Every time I open Google Chrome browser on my Window PC, there is a tab
for Angry Birds. I've combed through extensions and settings and Angry
Birds is not there. How do I get rid of that tab permanently?

Go to the Settings in Chrome for the home page ("On startup"). You seem
to have more than one home page set.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 12/9/13 3:13 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On 12/09/2013, Ken Springer posted:
If you want categorize users, I think those with the more creative minds,
such as musicians, artists, teachers, etc. will generally like the Mac
better. Those that are logical thinkers, mathematicians, scientists, etc.
will generally like Windows better.

So logical thinkers, mathematicians, scientists, etc., are not
creative?

Aw, c'mon, Gene, that's not what I said. I said generally like a
particular OS.

Think about it, though. There's not too many combo math/art geniuses
out there today. In the past, you had Da Vinci, but he was an exception.

Two types of minds that operate on separate but different levels.
Neither is superior, and both are needed.



--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 17.0.8

On 12/9/13 4:22 PM, Paul wrote:
Keith Nuttle wrote:



What percentage of the user are doing the kinds of upgrades you are
doing. I suspect that today it it less that a half percent. Most
people today consider they have made a major upgrade plugging in a new
disk into the USB port.

So any one that ask me, would get the same answer as Char Jackson's

You're forgetting, that the buyers of the high end machines,
are graphics professionals, used to spending money to save time.
If a faster processor or better video card would help them,
or more memory, a salesman could easily talk them into
upgrading. So it's not like the topic does not come up.

If the average Mac owner fits my impression of the members of my Mac
group, they upgrade. Whenever a new update of iOS or OS X comes out,
and members are queried "Have you upgraded to ?????", almost all hands
go up when their equipment can be upgraded.

I think the reason is, they like the new Cloud features and integration
Apple is doing. Simple things, like you can add an item on the grocery
list on your phone, and in about 5 seconds, it shows up on every other
device and computer. I don't know if Windows based stuff works that way
or well.

It's going to be different with that cylinder.

Paul



--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 17.0.8