The Off Topic Topic

[CountDeMoney]

If I were you I would start preparing my line of rhetoric now for the possibility that Obama pushes for another extension of the Bushitler tax cuts.  12/31/12.

Already have, babe.  We can't shock the system too much during the recovery.  These things take time.  We have to allow liquidity to prime the consumer economy pump at this critical juncture.  Etc.

But, don't expect to see him compromise on it this time;  he saw where compromise gets him with the GOP last summer.

[Sheilbh]

Four more years of the status quo and we're Italy.

Not really.  You've got a growing population, a far more vibrant economy, a smaller generally less ossified state and an independent central bank with your own currency.

Not that that level of debt's a good thing but that's a weak comparison.  Even the UK wouldn't be like Italy with their debt levels.

[Admiral Yi]

In other news, heard on CNN that a circuit court in NY (federal? state?) decided Defense of Marriage is unconstitutional, but only in those states where gay marriage is already legal.

Also, Barney Frank is getting married.

Seedy: so we become Italy *then* we get damn serious about the deficit.  I'll check back in four years and change to see what your story is then.

[CountDeMoney]

Seedy: so we become Italy *then* we get damn serious about the deficit.  I'll check back in four years and change to see what your story is then.

Nonsense.  We have the most resilient, elastic and flexible economic model on the fucking planet, even despite the ruination of revenue into the government.  What kills other countries merely annoys fiscal uber-conservatives like you who can't stand its effect on T-bills. 

We will survive, we always do;  and in reality, it truly won't take much to right the ship.  Just a little cooperation by the parties, a little tweaking here and there, and actual regulatory controls and enforcement with the yahoos on Wall Street.

What won't help is Teabaggery Ryan Budget-style knee-jerkism.  That won't do at all.

[Admiral Yi]

8% of GDP is an awful lot of tweaking dude.

[CountDeMoney]

8% of GDP is an awful lot of tweaking dude.

Over a long enough timeline though, it won't hurt.  As much.

[Tonitrus]

This man should be in the U.S. House. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR8yl-bDWyI&feature=related

[MadImmortalMan]

Windows 8 is going to be such a fucking disaster.

I'm using a desktop pc, I don't need "apps".

Microsoft's Got A Big Problem With Windows 8: It's Not Easy For Windows Users To Figure Out



Microsoft has a problem with Windows 8.

The new "Metro" interface (see right) bears no resemblance at all to traditional Windows.



That's fine -- it was designed for tablets, where Windows has never been a good fit.

But unlike the iPad (and iPhone), which were immediately intuitive, Metro is not. A lot of the apps themselves are excellent, but as soon as you get out of the apps and into the "chrome" -- the interface of the actual operating system -- it gets weird.

There are tons of tricks to learn. It's often unclear exactly what you're looking at, and what you're supposed to do with it.

Worst of all, the traditional desktop is buried -- it's just another Metro app -- but there are still some things you can only do from the desktop, and some only from Metro. That means you have to switch between the two interfaces frequently. That's not nearly as smooth as it should be.

It may be possible to build an operating system that works great both on traditional PCs and on touch-screen tablets. But based on my initial impressions, the current (nearly final) build of Windows 8 isn't it. For now, it looks like Apple's Tim Cook is right: this is a toaster grafted on to a refrigerator. Others seem to agree -- a blog post by Michael Mace called Windows 8 "baffling" and "disturbing", and Harry McCracken in Time Magazine and long-time Windows watcher Paul Thurrott ("everything is flipped upside down") had related complaints.

Unless some customers actually want two-in-one devices that can work as both a traditional PC and a tablet, it's going to be a very hard sell.
Examples Of What's Frustrating About Windows 8

Yesterday, Microsoft gave me a loaner laptop (not tablet) with the latest build of Windows 8 on it. It's also got a special trackpad that uses the same touch mechanisms as a Windows 8 touch screen device would -- if you want to zoom out, for instance, you just take two fingers and swipe them outward.

It's a nearly-finished build -- Microsoft is calling it the "Release Preview" -- and Microsoft told me they're basically going to add some new art, a few more apps, localization, and that's it. The final release is expected later this summer.

I've seen lots of demos of Windows 8, but this is the first time I've gotten any extensive time alone with it. I tried to use it as my main computer last night.

A lot of things about it drove me nuts. Here are some examples:

    Moving between apps is harder than it should be. In Windows 8, you can swipe the screen from the left side to see the last thing you were doing -- it works like the back button in a Web browser. That should be good, right? But in practice, it doesn't really work. It's not obvious how many apps you have open, and which apps you've closed. (You have to hover over the lower-left hand corner of the screen to see which apps are open at a given moment.) As a result, swipes take you between some seemingly random assortment of things you've been doing recently. The only reliable way I could find to switch between apps is to go back to the Start screen and open the app you want.

    What am I looking at? Sometimes, bizarre things just happen for no reason. A couple times while using an app, I did something near the top of the screen, and suddenly the app shrunk down to a tiny window that I could drag on a blank purple background. What was this? I never found out, because as soon as I tried to drag it the app went back full screen. Sometimes, a little hand appears when you drag the pointer near the the top of the screen, but it wasn't clear why -- until I figured out that it meant "swipe down from the top to see a new menu with choices." No doubt I would eventually figure all this stuff out. But an iPad user would rightly ask: why should I have to?

    On a laptop, there are lots of new "physical" commands, and it's not clear which to use. In Metro, some functions, like opening an app or checking a checkbox, require just a tap. They actually won't work if you press down and click (like you would with a mouse). Others, like grabbing a slider to scroll, require you to click and hold with one finger, then move a second finger. Others require you to tap in a particular part of the screen, or swipe your finger from off the edge of the trackpad onto the trackpad. When you switch to the classic desktop, the functions change -- it's more like a traditional mouse, where you can click or tap. These problems may have been a result of using a laptop with trackpad, rather than a tablet -- but a lot of people are going to be using it this way, so the experience matters.

    The differences between Metro and the classic desktop seem jarring and random. The classic desktop is presented just another Metro app -- open it, and you're in familiar Windows 7 land, with a few useful updates. That's fine. But some functions of Metro still work: for instance, if you swipe from the right, you still get the "charms" that let you search the entire OS, share content, go to the Start menu, and so on. Others do not: if you do a hard click near the bottom, nothing. (In Metro, doing this takes you to useful functions like seeing all available apps, or pinning apps to the start menu.)

    The classic desktop is not well integrated with Metro. I wanted to pin MS Paint (which I use to take screenshots) to the Start menu, so I could easily get to it again and again. But even though Paint is a desktop-only app, I couldn't do it from the classic desktop -- I had to go back to the Metro Start screen, figure out how to open all apps (you hover over a spot near the bottom of the screen -- not easy!), then control-click (again, not easy!) and select "pin" from the bottom of the screen.

    Desktop apps are hard to find. One of the most common complaints from reviewers of early Windows 8 builds is that Microsoft removed the Start button from the classic desktop. This is indeed a pain. There's no easy way to find which apps are available to run on the desktop. The only way I could figure it out was to go back to the Metro start screen, then swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get the All Apps menu.

Microsoft's Windows team and reviewers who have been living with preview versions of Windows 8 for months will probably have easy answers to all of these questions, or will say that I would eventually be able to figure all this stuff out after living with Windows 8 for a week. Also, some of the bugs and unfinished features may be because this is still a beta version, not shipping product.

But still.

I've been using Windows since 1995. I've been using Macs, on and off, since 1992. I didn't need hands-on guidance or a week's worth of practice the first time I used an iPhone, iPad, Android tablet, or even a Windows Phone.

Imagine the initial reaction of non-technical Windows users who hate thinking about this stuff and just want to get some work done.

But it's not all bad...keep reading to see why.

What's Good About Windows 8: The Apps

The best part of Windows 8 is the built-in Metro apps. Most of them have been designed from scratch to work in Metro's touch environment, and a lot of care and planning seems to have gone into them.

Most of them -- including People, Mail, Photos, and Internet Explorer -- have been in previous builds and Microsoft has shown them off in demos. But the new build of Windows 8 has two excellent new apps:

    News. This is a customizable news reader similar to Flipboard. But unlike Flipboard, which draws its recommendations from your social networks, the News app figures out what's trending by looking at Bing searches and social data from around the Web. You can also manually select favorite news sources to include, and select topics you're interested in -- like the band Modest Mouse -- and the reader will automatically aggregate news about them. (See below.) You can even take these new news read subjects and pin them to the Start menu, so I'll have a continuously updated stream of news about Modest Mouse on my desktop.

[CountDeMoney]

So in other words, MW8 is going to be a fucking Nokia.  Swell.

[Eddie Teach]

What's Good About Windows 8: ... I'll have a continuously updated stream of news about Modest Mouse on my desktop.

Well, I'm sold. 

[Sheilbh]

Also the US is currently benefiting from Eurogeddon.  Interests at record lows on bunds and gilts, I believe US treasuries are at the lowest rate since 1946.  The deficit and debt's a worry but it's not immediate and you're not anywhere near Italy.  Even if you were you'd go the way of Japan not Italy.

[Admiral Yi]

Even if you were you'd go the way of Japan not Italy.

To go the way of Japan we would need a population that saves 120% of their income and thinks any form of investment that yeilds more than 0.25% is sacreligious.

[Barrister]

Even if you were you'd go the way of Japan not Italy.

To go the way of Japan we would need a population that saves 120% of their income and thinks any form of investment that yeilds more than 0.25% is sacreligious.

You do.

It's just that population is in China.

[Sheilbh]

Just discovered there's a local Arab supermarket.  Relapsed into my halva addiction 

[Neil]

What's Good About Windows 8: ... I'll have a continuously updated stream of news about Modest Mouse on my desktop.

Well, I'm sold. 

It pulls recomendations from your social networks.  The problem with that is that only assholes use social networks.  This means that all three main operating systems are now for assholes.  Windows used to be for regular folks, but is now for Facebook assholes, Macs have always been popular with marketing cult assholes, and Linux is the OS of choice for tech assholes.