Windows 8 Can Wait

Where are the settings?- Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter

Today’s blog entry will serve up two things in need of a “Come to Jesus Meeting” – Microsoft Windows and the Republican Party.  I know, they’re very different and yet somehow similar as lame products appealing to white men in expensive suits.

GRAND OLD FART PARTY

After Obama won a 2^nd term last week, I sensed a lot of bitterness on the part of my GOP friends – believe it or not a couple of good friends vote Republican.    The GOP has strayed so far from its reasonable Eisenhower sensibilities that it’s hardly recognizable these days.   From my liberal vantage point, I find it hard to believe that anyone over 65 would support Romney but support him they did.  The Romney support skewed old and white.   I’ll offer 3 areas of critique which might help to bring the GOP around in 2016:

1. Quit talking about rape, abortion or lady parts.  Ex-Bush advisor  Karen Hughes was right – gag the man who says anything  about rape other than the fact that it’s a horrible crime.    The GOP arguably lost two Senate seats because of candidates speaking too candidly (and archaically),  talking about “legitimate rape” among other things.

2. Open your hearts and minds to the possibility that children of illegals might have a path  to citizenship.  Unless you’re a Native American, you’re likely  descended from an immigrant looking for the same breaks that Hispanics seek – good jobs, stable government and upward mobility.

3. Without conceding an ounce to the idea of supporting bums and derelicts, admit that there is such a thing as legitimate financial need:

• Enfeebled old people
• People with serious maladies and disabilities (that prevent work at a normal job)
• Injured veterans
• Disaster victims
• Crime victims
• Account holders in failed savings banks 

The list could probably be extended.  We as a society should not throw these people out in the cold, nor should we leave their livelihood to the mercy and unpredictability of private charities.   We should extend the compassion which we hope would be extended to us in the same situation. “There but for the grace of God go I”.    I’ll close the topic now, but in general the GOP would do better to realign itself with fiscal conservatism – not anti-gay, anti-Hispanic, anti-woman rhetoric.

WINDOWS 8 OS

What if they upgraded a PC operating system and nobody came?  Well, that sort of happened on October 26^th when Microsoft came out with Windows 8.  I’m speaking as someone who has enjoyed and supported Microsoft products – I’m typing this on a Windows 7 HP Pavilion laptop.   Previous iterations of Windows were widely spaced and gave us “momentous” features:  32-bit processing, long file names, a start menu, desktop gadgets, “Glass” interface resembling Mac OS X. 

Windows 8 offers not even one compelling feature that would make me want it (at least on a lap top or desktop computer).    Extending their tablet “Metro" scheme of bright-colored tiles to the PC is purely confounding and confusing.  It adds an extra layer of complexity to what otherwise looks like Windows 7.  Upgrading to a new PC introduces several hazards:

• File and setting migration
• Backward software compatibility (for old files being processed by new software)
• License issues for previously installed software
• Functionality problems with new/different web settings

Why would an individual risk all of this plus the cost of a new PC just to have pretty colored squares?  I once took training in User Interface design, and it was emphasized that logic and consistency were higher goals than being eye-popping or trendy.  Windows 8 fails that test by a mile;  the Windows chief  officer Steven Sinofsky just left Microsoft last week and one can only wonder if there is some connection -- who knows.   I’m hoping a Windows 9 puts things back where they belong.

So there we have it – a political party and an operating system that risk obsolescence by going off on trajectories or focusing too much in one area.   I’m fighting a cold and need a coffee refill, so will leave my contentiousness here and move on to other chores.       

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