Next version of Windows is...

On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 15:55:15 +0100, Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:

As for multitasking, a friend has read about some studies that seem to
show that people who do practice multitasking are less productive than
those that do not. I suspect the time is lost switching between the tasks.

That's true for me. I am far more productive doing one thing at a
time. Even trivial distractions slow me down. Just now the couple
chatting in the next room is slowing me typing this message because I
keep have to stop so I can hear what they are saying.

Quite so, and the same re multiple desktops. How many things is it
necessary to have simultaneously at one's fingertips, and what's wrong
with standard keyboard shortcuts on a modern PC than can load any
required application in less than 2 seconds?

Rod.

"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 15:55:15 +0100, Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:

As for multitasking, a friend has read about some studies that seem
to
show that people who do practice multitasking are less productive
than
those that do not. I suspect the time is lost switching between the
tasks.

That's true for me. I am far more productive doing one thing at a
time. Even trivial distractions slow me down. Just now the couple
chatting in the next room is slowing me typing this message because I
keep have to stop so I can hear what they are saying.

Quite so, and the same re multiple desktops. How many things is it
necessary to have simultaneously at one's fingertips, and what's wrong
with standard keyboard shortcuts on a modern PC than can load any
required application in less than 2 seconds?

Multi-tasking may be a relative word. While working on one task on my
work PC, I have to use multiple applications as well as remote connect
to a server in another country. I'll use proprietary programs that were
developed in-house as well as using Excel, some utilities, PL/SQL,
SQLite, and so on. Is that multi-tasking?

I'm not a good multi-tasker, my wife is far better at it as are most
women compared to men. I need to focus on one task at-a-time. If I
have to do more than one at-a-time, I tend to not do any of them nearly
as well as I would if I did them individually from start-to-finish. As
I've grown older, my attention span has gotten worse. My wife is a
special education teacher and tells me that some of her students who
have ADD have better attention spans than I do. I used to read books
but haven't read one in about 20 years, it would take me too long. My
reading is now confined to shorter writings such as magazine articles.

On 14-10-01 07:21 PM, Wildman wrote:
On Wed, 01 Oct 2014 11:30:28 -0700
"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

On Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:47:29 -0400, Paul wrote:

Seth wrote:
Windows 10

http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/30/m...=rss_truncated

I'm guessing the "Windows 10" is to compete with "MacOSX".
And that means all future OSes will be 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, etc.


Maybe. I'm not convinced, but we'll see.

It would not be the first time. DR-Dos jumped from version
3.41 to 5.0 about the same time MS released MS-Dos 5.0. DR
never released a version 4. I can only think of one reason
for this. Competition. You know there are sheepeople that
think a higher version number means a better product. Mac
at version 10 and Windows at version 8. Can't have that.

It should be noted that even open-source projects like Firefox have done
this. Each of Chrome's releases jumped a version number no matter how
insignificant the changes were so Firefox followed suit. That's why
Chrome and Firefox are both in their 30s right now.

--
Silver Slimer
OpenMedia Supporter
Help control the parasite population, have your GNU/Linux advocate
spayed or neutered.

On 14-10-01 08:10 PM, Peter Bennett wrote:
On Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:47:29 -0400, Paul wrote:

Seth wrote:
Windows 10

http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/30/m...=rss_truncated

I'm guessing the "Windows 10" is to compete with "MacOSX".
And that means all future OSes will be 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, etc.
Maybe it's acknowledgment of a "subscription future". I would
not accept a naive rationale for why it is "10". There is
some evil in that choice, which we'll have to wait and see.
This was not a "9 stinks as a number" decision. It has
some other meaning.

Maybe the next version is called "Windows 10" to avoid confusion with
Windows 95 and 98.

No one mentioned that but it's a valid assumption.

--
Silver Slimer
OpenMedia Supporter
Help control the parasite population, have your GNU/Linux advocate
spayed or neutered.

On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 08:42:24 -0600, Ken Springer
wrote:

Is there anyone here that can type as fast or faster on a
tablet/smartphone screen as they can on a keyboard? I suspect not.

It's not exactly typing, but I can input text faster on my smartphone than I
can on a desktop or laptop PC. That's because my smartphone has voice
recognition capability, and I can speak faster than I can type.

On 14-10-02 11:00 AM, Wolf K wrote:
On 2014-10-02 10:42 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
[...]
I'm not a gamer, never have been. But are the gaming devices as
powerful as desktops are in this day and age? [...]

So much so that some people have hacked X-Box to be a general purpose
computer.

I think we have to distinguish between plain-vanilla machines and
extreme ones. Most people don't buy extreme machines. Eg, this summer I
saw an ad for a gaming laptop that cost $5000. A custom built gaming
desktop can cast much more than that.

Funny enough, to get the same gaming performance from a current laptop
as I get from my 2012 gaming desktop, I would need to spend $4,000
whereas the desktop is probably worth no more than $750.

If you're got the money and find it convenient to be able to play your
game from bed, go for it but I think that most people would just buy the
desktop.

--
Silver Slimer
OpenMedia Supporter
Help control the parasite population, have your GNU/Linux advocate
spayed or neutered.

On 10/2/2014 10:57 AM, Roderick Stewart wrote:
On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 09:13:15 -0400, Ron wrote:

A laptop will only make sense to you until you drop it, or spill
something on its keyboard, or somebody steals it.

I've owned laptops for about 10 years and none of those things have
happened. Especially *spilling* something on it. Why in the world would
you spill something on a laptop or even desktop keyboard for that matter?

Carelessness. (It's a human thing).

They make cups with press on/screw on lids with small openings for a
straw. The "spillers" need to get one.

On 10/2/2014 1:15 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 08:42:24 -0600, Ken Springer
wrote:

Is there anyone here that can type as fast or faster on a
tablet/smartphone screen as they can on a keyboard? I suspect not.

It's not exactly typing, but I can input text faster on my smartphone than I
can on a desktop or laptop PC. That's because my smartphone has voice
recognition capability, and I can speak faster than I can type.



I hope you don't do that in restaurants.

On 10/2/2014 12:30 PM, PAS wrote:
"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 09:15:15 -0400, Ron wrote:


MS is really pushing the Surface. It has been used on Hawaii Five-0
for the past 3 seasons. It's being used on another TV show that I
watch but
can't recall which one. There were ad banners for it in one of the NFL
games I watched this past weekend. And last week NASCAR announced they
were going to start using them for their inspection process.

Would that show you can't think of be "Under the Dome"?


YEP!!!

Haven't the inhabitants of the town in this story been isolated by the
aforementioned dome from the outside world since before Windows 8 and
its derivatives on tablets were released? I seem to recall the
characters in the first season communicating with outsiders by writing
messages on iPads (vastly superior to pieces of paper for some
reason), but now those iPads have mysteriously been replaced through a
dome which is apparently impervious to nuclear weapons.

I have to say I soon lost patience with the silliness of it all so
I've no idea what they're doing now.

Rod

The Surface was avaialbel two years ago this month, the show hasn't been
on that long. It was meant to be a miniseries but its popularity keeps
it going. I don't know how long they can keep this going, surely it
can't last more than another season or two.

Since the story is based on a novel it does have an ending and that
ending is coming next season.

On 10/2/14 10:16 AM, John Doe wrote:
If you were a gamer, you would know... Obviously it's a big enough
market. Also, if you look at hardware prices, there is no end in
sight to the improvements. They still sell outrageously expensive
video cards (and CPUs, etc). And those outrageously expensive
components of today soon become the cheapo components of tomorrow.

It's the same argument as yesterday... Personal computers were
going to replace minis and mainframes. That never happened. And
it's the same with portables and ultraportables.

However, one thing that might happen if Microsoft continues to sit
on its laurels while innovation thrives in the tablet market, is
that the tablet operating system might become complex and
eventually do all the things a desktop PC operating system can do.
At which time I guess it could be ported to the PC. At least that
was my theory. But the power thing will hold that back for a long
while. Google isn't going to be writing software to enable the
tablet to do things that it cannot do.

Actually, I think the Android system can already do that. It's just a
version of Linux, which can be installed on a desktop.

As a favor to everyone here, please square away you quoting and replying
process.


--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 25.0
Thunderbird 24.6.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 09:13:15 -0400, Ron wrote:

On 10/2/2014 3:43 AM, Roderick Stewart wrote:
On Wed, 1 Oct 2014 22:32:02 -0400, "Mayayana"
wrote:

What does make sense to me is people who have a
laptop plugged into some kind of cradle that gives them
a big screen, keyboard and mouse when they're at home.
But I don't see many people who do that. I suspect
that those are the people who *really* need their
computer for business.

A laptop will only make sense to you until you drop it, or spill
something on its keyboard, or somebody steals it.

I've owned laptops for about 10 years and none of those things have
happened. Especially *spilling* something on it. Why in the world would
you spill something on a laptop or even desktop keyboard for that matter?


I've owned cars for about 55 years, and an accident has never
happened. Why in the world should I always wear a seatbelt when I
drive?

On Wed, 01 Oct 2014 23:22:43 +0100, Roderick Stewart wrote:

I think Microsoft Windows is known as Windows in every country, so
plenty of people would hear it spoken of as "Windows Nine", which to a
German would sound like "Windows No", which is hardly encouraging.

In Flanders we would say "Windows negen" (Dutch) and the Walloons
probably say "Windows neuf" (French). That's two languages that don't
relate to "Windows no".

According to Wikipedia only 1.39% of the world population speaks German.
I'm not convinced that M$ would skip W9 because of the "nine/nein"
correlation...

--
s|b

On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 14:44:20 +0100, Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:

On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 09:13:15 -0400, Ron wrote:

On 10/2/2014 3:43 AM, Roderick Stewart wrote:

A laptop will only make sense to you until you drop it, or spill
something on its keyboard, or somebody steals it.

I've owned laptops for about 10 years and none of those things have
happened. Especially *spilling* something on it. Why in the world would
you spill something on a laptop or even desktop keyboard for that matter?

There's chances yet!

I worked with about 600 people, each had at least one desktop and a
laptop. The maintenance people had lots to repair every day. A very
common problem was people spilling drinks on their laptop or desktop
keyboard.


And if you spill something on a desktop keyboard, It's inexpensive to
replace it. But if you spill something on a laptop, you may have to
replace the entire laptop, and that can be expensive.

On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 08:46:29 +0100, Roderick Stewart
wrote:

On Wed, 01 Oct 2014 17:31:36 -0700, "Ken Blake, MVP"
wrote:

On Wed, 01 Oct 2014 20:28:24 +0200, "s|b" wrote:

Exactly what I said. Say "nine" in English and it sounds very much
like the German word for "no".

I think Microsoft Windows is known as Windows in every country, so
plenty of people would hear it spoken of as "Windows Nine", which to a
German would sound like "Windows No", which is hardly encouraging.


Wouldn't a German hear "Vindows Nein"?

That's what they'd hear with their ears. What they'd hear with their
brains, initially at least, might be slightly different.


This may be obvious now, but do you know what the question is to which
the answer is "9W"?

On Thu, 02 Oct 2014 13:08:36 -0400, Silver Slimer
wrote:

[snip]

It should be noted that even open-source projects like Firefox have done
this. Each of Chrome's releases jumped a version number no matter how
insignificant the changes were so Firefox followed suit. That's why
Chrome and Firefox are both in their 30s right now.

I do not recall Firefox skipping versions. They just started
increasing the version numbers much faster. Now, there is only one or
two release at a given version number.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko