Windows 8 compared to Windows v1.0

Charles Petzold on Windows 8:

The only concern is how Windows 8 will fly on the desktop. That's obviously a big concern, but it's only a concern for people who can't imagine a touch-centric desktop.

It's exactly like people back in 1985 saying that Windows will never succeed because most MS-DOS users don't have a graphics display or a mouse. — Charles

Sums it up nicely, I think. I hear a lot of people saying "This sucks because it is all about touch. I do real work!" They need to start thinking towards the future, because I can definately envision a world in which we use gesture (think Kinect), mutli-touch (tablet-esque), speech, and even keyboard/mouse to create content.

Mozilla and Google call anti-trust on Microsoft’s Windows RT?

Last week, Mozilla and then Google made complaints that Microsoft has an unfair advantage by locking out competing web browsers on their new Windows on ARM platform. One thing that they never bring up is that Windows for ARM (or Windows RT as it is called) is an OEM only edition that is designed for tablets and other devices. It is not a PC operating system. That means Microsoft’s decision to limit access to certain API’s to only themselves is perfectly in line with how other vendors work (i.e. Apple).

John Gruber summed up my feelings on this whole issue in three posts:

• Asa Dotzler Objects to Windows on ARM Locking Out Competing Web Browsers
• Google Agrees with Mozilla’s Windows RT Browser Concerns
• Microsoft Antitrust Finding Specific to Windows on Intel?

This whole ordeal is a non-issue from both a DOJ perspective and a consumer perspective. Why?

• From the DOJ standpoint: even if the original Microsoft ruling hadn’t expired, and even if it hadn’t been pertinent to only Intel-based Windows PCs (Windows RT is for ARM-based Windows devices), Windows RT is aimed at an entirely different market in which Microsoft does not own a significant market share, much less a monopoly. Locking certain “browser-essential” APIs is not an anti-competitive practice, it is an attempt at making a competitive advantage for Microsoft’s products. If consumers don’t like it, they have viable alternatives.
• From a consumer standpoint: Consumers just don’t care. How do I know this? Because Apple does the exact same thing on iOS. Was there a huge uproar from the masses to get other web-browsers on the iPad? No. The only people this matters to is the smaller tech community who actually care what web browser they run. Consumers in general don’t care about web browsers. They only care if their favorite site will load an run properly on their PC or device. And with major vendors slowly doing away with plugins like Flash, we can see that customers are even flexible on that.

Personally, I’ve been playing with the Windows 8, and I like what I am seeing. For those who don’t, there are perfectly valid competing products. It is a brave new world. Microsoft doesn’t hold the sway they once did due mostly to the surge in mobile brought on by Apple. There is room for multiple players, and Microsoft has as much right to play by the same rules as everyone else. And that is what they are doing.

Windows 8

I have been playing around with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview lately. I like it a lot and see potential for the new Operating System. There has been a lot of heat around the WinRT/Metro interface though. Rocky Lhotka hits the nail on the head for how I feel about it, though. Many habits need some minor retraining, but you are more efficient for it. And an even greater number of habits are directly transferrable from Windows 7 to Windows 8.

Read Rocky's post, it is a good one.

SOPA Blackout

Well, the blackout on January 18 worked to get the SOPA and PIPA bills noticed on national media. However, coverage is about what you would expect considering most TV networks are owned by the very media conglomerates that want to shut down the Internet as we know it.

Just check out this report from Media Matters on FOX News' coverage.

More SOPA and PIPA news

A couple more links on the SOPA front.

• The White House has declared it’s opposition to SOPA.
• A great explanation of how PIPA will break the Internet.
• Congress shelves SOPA indefinitely.  (Don’t be confused, though, PIPA is still alive in the Senate.)
• Wikipedia is doing a great job covering the status of these two bills.

Haven’t heard of these bills before:

• SOPA – Stop Online Piracy Act
  Proposes to stop online piracy by barring sites that post, link to, or otherwise make available copyright content. However, this bill would also allow your site to be shut down if someone simply posts a copyrighted image in the comments section of the site. The full text of the bill can be found here.
• PIPA – PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property)
  This bill would give the government the ability to completely block sites that corporations don’t like. Again, this is ostensibly to allow them to block piracy, except that it doesn’t since downloaders will still be able to access these sites via their IP addresses. The full text of the bill can be found here.

We need everybody’s support to make sure these bills don’t happen. Write your Senator and your Congressman. Or you can fill out one of the many joint letters being compiled online, such as the one at Fight for the Future.

More SOPA in the news, or not...

Is it just me, or is SOPA not getting very much coverage despite its horrendous implications. Oh, guess it isn't just me...

REPORT: News Networks Ignore Controversial SOPA Legislation

Controversial legislation that the co-founder of Google has warned "would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world" has received virtually no coverage from major American television news outlets during their evening newscasts and opinion programming. The parent companies of most of these networks, as well as two of the networks themselves, are listed as official "supporters" of this legislation on the U.S. House of Representatives' website.

Congress vs. The Internet

It is just sad that in this day and age, our elected officials have no idea how the internet works nor do they wish to speak to people who do.

Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works

Project Euler-Problem 21

Description

From Project Euler:

Let d(n) be defined as the sum of proper divisors of n (numbers less than n which divide evenly into n).
If d(a) = b and d(b) = a, where a ≠ b, then a and b are an amicable pair and each of a and b are called amicable numbers.

For example, the proper divisors of 220 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 20, 22, 44, 55 and 110; therefore d(220) = 284. The proper divisors of 284 are 1, 2, 4, 71 and 142; so d(284) = 220.

Evaluate the sum of all the amicable numbers under 10000.