My Microsoft Windows 8 Review

I've been running Windows 8 on my primary computer for a few days now, and I ran the Preview version on my ThinkPad Tablet for a month or so earlier in the year. I have a lot of mixed feeling about Windows 8. First of all, I want to commend Microsoft for what they are doing here. Creating one unifying interface across all their devices is, I believe, a good idea. It's also an incredibly hard one to pull off.
My First experience with Windows 8 was with the preview running on my ThinkPad X200 Convertible Tablet PC. I was pleasantly surprised with how well it ran. My Thinkpad is nearing 3 years old and I was very impressed with how well Windows 8 ran. In fact, I feel that Windows 8 is faster in most ways over previous versions of Windows. What ended my use of Windows 8 Preview on my tablet was not the OS itself, but lack of support from Lenovo. The X200 line is one generation too old to have Windows 8 support provided by Lenovo, and key drivers are never going to be available for the tablet, leaving Windows 7 as the last viable OS for that tablet, even though it ran perfectly well. What did work was everything else other than hardware specific features. Importantly though, the touch and Wacom pen interfaces worked perfectly. In fact, Windows 8 was the first time I really used my touch interface on a regular basis. Microsoft did a really good job making a touch friendly interface for Windows. The problem with Preview at the time is that a lot of the stock, touch friendly apps, were not finished. Email didn't support iMap as an example. Still, it was a good "preview" of what was to come.
Now, a few months later, we have the full version of Windows 8. Though things have come along since the preview, I can't help but feel that things have not fully baked. Keep in mind, that the things I'm about to complain about, nobody else is doing. This is a key point, not Apple nor Google are trying to make an OS that interoperates with a host of other services as seamlessly as Microsoft is trying to do. That being said, Microsoft has to, as they are very late to the game.

Basic Apps

Let's start with Email. Email is rather important to a lot of people, and in some cases, the most important thing a computer can do next to web browsing. Keep in mind that this app is necessary for someone using Windows 8 on a touch based computer. The email app lets you easily add Gmail, Hotmail, Facebook and traditional email services. Email works well enough. The latest versions of the app which has only been out for a few days now supports proper threading. All the configuration options you need are there. If you've configured your Google account, you can also choose to use your Google contacts along with email, a huge plus. My biggest, and really only complaint with the email app is that it's Metro only. I'll cover this later. The only real problem though is that for me, an email app without integrated calendaring is useless. Microsoft has you covered with the calendar app, however, this is where the above integration falls short. You can only use your primary calendar with the app.Sadly I have several. Not only that, but I also want to see other peoples calendars that I have subscribed to. To be fair, official word is that this is Google pushing back and not a failure in Microsoft's implementation. In fact, if you subscribe to any of the iCal feeds in your hotmail account online, you'll see all the calendars in your calendar app. However, they will not be editable, nor will you be able to create new events.
The contacts app is another app that tries, but fails to integrate many services. It's biggest problem is contact collapsing. It will show you three of the same person if they have three different ways to get a hold of them. In addition to this, the contact app is also the integrated twitter app, which makes it a bit confusing.
There are other apps like weather and stocks, stuff I don't really care about so will not get into.
Other than Internet Explorer 10 however, the biggest issue with all these apps is that they are Metro only. What this means, that if you are using Windows 8 on your desktop, with a nice big 24" or larger monitor, you have to use these apps in full screen. This is incredibly frustrating as I value my information density. A lot of these apps exist in "Windows Live Mail", a classic desktop app that you can download and install free from Microsoft, but it lacks integration and some of the features you find in the Metro versions, like being able to edit Google calendars as opposed to just viewing.

Desktop vs. Metro

The Desktop world and the Metro world are separate. Metro apps are not docked in the start bar, nor do Metro apps fire notifications to the start notification bar, and vice versa. This is incredibly frustrating, as you could be working away in a desktop app and miss notifications. If you have multiple monitors, like I do, you can have one showing your Metro start menu and apps, while the other is all Desktop business. This isn't actually a bad idea and works rather well. I could see this working exceptionally well with a Surface Tablet plugged into an external monitor.
By now, I's sure you've heard that the start menu is gone. This is not a deal breaker in the slightest. If you put your mouse into the bottom left corner of the screen and click (as if the start menu was there), you get the Metro home screen, which is in essence your new start menu. Hitting the windows key also brings it up, just like your start menu. In fact, all of the key actions and mouse actions I expect to work from years of using Windows PCs continue to work, the only difference is the visual appearance of it all. That visual appearance though is a bit disconcerting. Windows 8 seems to be pushing me to be a single task and a time kind of person. No more status bars, no more widgets telling me the weather outside, it's all one app at a time. This works great on a phone, works OK on a tablet, but is just kind of annoying on a desktop with a large monitor.

So far

It has only been a few days using Windows 8 as my primary OS on my main computer, and so far I don't regret making the upgrade, especially for the low price that Microsoft is pushing the upgrades. Fundamentally, I think the changes to Windows 8 are good, and the ones I don't like there are work arrounds  The built in apps will get better over time and will be updates through the Microsoft Store. Most importantly though, Microsoft has managed to do something that generally does not happen with these sorts of upgrades, they made my computer feel much faster. Windows 8 boots considerably more quickly, and just feels snappier and more responsive than any other version of Windows before it. This alone as why I will happily stick with Windows 8.

Micorosoft Touch Mouse & RSI

I've recently switched to using the Microsoft Touch Mouse. It's a Windows 7+ only piece of hardware. The entire top front of the mouse is a multi-touch sensor. It only has one physical button (the whole thing, ala the Apple mice) but based on where you press down it registers either a left or right click. The hardware is amazing, up to Microsoft's usual high standards of build quality. The software however is lacking in many ways. It has huge potential. I'm hopeing that with udpates the experience will get better, but so far Microsoft has failed to deliver. As it is, it's rather frustrating to use for anything but basic mouse actions (at which it excels).

My primary pointing device is a Logitech Trackman Wheel. I switched to using a thumb based trackball after using a full handed trackball gave me worse RSI than the mouse I was trying to get away from. However, I find switching between the two on a regular basis works well for me. The main source of pain in my arm is the muscles responsible for finger lifting. This is why the thumb based trackball works so well for me. My fingers rest on the buttons and only my thumb is used. The Microsoft Touch mouse has no buttons. So to register the difference between a left and right click, your fingers must be off the mouse so that a touch, not a press, can be registered before you press down to click. This is horrible ergonomics. In fact, everyone who tried this mouse said that right clicking was next to useless. That, and the complete lack of middle mouse button was incredibly frustrating for me. Overall it was a nice design exercise for someone in Microsoft's hardware division. Ultimately though it fails to be a useful pointing device.

iTunes

I've been busy making playlists on my iPod Touch. I don't really use this thing anymore but have a specific need for a music playback device that isn't my phone. I have to ask all the iTunes users, how the hell do you live with this software? It is single handedly the slowest and most cumbersome music management software I have ever used. I agree the the end iOS iTunes interface is nice for playback, but it just doesn't seem worth it.

It is incredibly slow. Granted, I'm using iTunes on a Windows PC, which means I have a non-native performance penalty already, but I'm using a Core i7 3Ghz Quad Core PC with 12GB of RAM. It's not exactly a slow machine!

My Music collection is 140GBs. Maybe a bit on the large size? Scrolling through albums requires waiting several seconds to have the screen draw the user interaction.

I have to manually add music acquired outside of the iTunes music store into iTunes. Most of my music doesn't come from iTunes as it's the most expensive music store online. I'm sorry, but I have a computer to avoid doing tasks that can be easily automated! I guess this isn't an issue if you only buy music via iTunes. Maybe I'm too cheap, but I refuse to pay CD prices for digital media. On a related note, there is no way in iTunes to see where the file that represents that song is.

I could go on but I have to get back to banging my head against the wall here.

Update: I can't transfer the two newest playlists I created due to "unknown error". Thanks iTunes.

Update2: Went back to editing. iTunes up and deleted one of my playlists. POS.

Update3: I chatted with some Mac users over lunch. Apparently my problem were:

1. I wasn't using a MAC
2. I don't allow iTunes to manage my music
3. I don't buy my music through iTunes

If I wanted to be locked into the Microsoft ecosystem of the 90s I'd be... oh wait...

Letter to Rob Ford: city infrastructure

His Worship Rob Ford,
Mayor, City of Toronto,

I am writing you as a home owner and tax payer of the City of Toronto. I have lived in the Toronto area most of my life. I grew up in Etobicoke and Mississauga and now live in the Bloor and Ossington area. I have travelled and experienced getting around in many cities: Tokyo, Montreal, Warsaw, Prague, New York, San Francisco to name a few.

Toronto is falling further and further behind in how we move people in and out of the city. The reality, weather the City wishes to admit it or not is that cars, and the infrastructure that serves them is not the answer. As Toronto's population increases, traffic congestion will skyrocket. I work in Liberty Village and traffic congestion is getting out of control here. There are currently 5 new condos under construction, once completed it will be a giant slow moving parking lot. The solution is not to get rid of bike lanes, or street cars as there aren't any to get rid of. The solution is to get people to stop driving and into transit and alternative modes of transportation like cycling.

This is not a war on the car, this is reality. The removal of any cycling lanes in the city, sends the message that it's ok to get into your car and drive wherever you need to go. This will only increase traffic congestion. It is cars that cause traffic, not transit or bicycles.

Thank you for listening,
Paul Tichonczuk

I got a canned response very quickly:

Thank you for your email regarding the bike lanes on Jarvis Street. I appreciate hearing from you.

Toronto's economy loses billions of dollars every year from gridlock and traffic congestion. We need to make the situation better - not worse. The Jarvis Street bike lanes experiment has been a failure. Ninety-four percent of commuters now face longer commutes on Jarvis Street. Over 15,000 commuters each day are suffering from longer travel times, for the sake of 600 additional cyclists.

The City should remove the bike lanes as soon as possible and improve travel times for thousands of daily commuters. City staff have been directed to develop a low-cost plan to do so. Bike lanes were never intended to be installed on Jarvis Street. The original Environmental Assessment recommended against installing bike lanes - but City Council amended the report to approve bike lanes anyway.

As promised during the mayoral election, I am dedicated to delivering customer service excellence, creating a transparent and accountable government, reducing the size and cost of government and building a transportation city.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your thoughts. Please feel free to contact my office again at any time.

Yours truly,

Mayor Rob Ford
City of Toronto

Google Nexus One long term thoughts

I've had the Google Nexus One for some time now. The phone is now well over a year old and I still believe it's one of the best phones on the market. I'm currently on the latest (phone) release of Android, 2.3.3. This is as much a post about the phone as it is about Gingerbread, the latest Android.

When this phone came out, one of Google's main reasons for it was to push the envelope for Android phone design and quality. I believe they succeeded.

• High quality build and feel
• Fast 1Ghz Processor with Graphics Acceleration
• High Resolution Multi Touch Capacitive Touch Screen
• Noise cancelling microphone
• Dedicated charging dock with zero effort docking

These were some of the features that made this phone stand out from the rest of the "not quite good enough" Android phones being released. The dedicated charging dock, with the accompanying phone pouch is a small but important one. First of all, the $5 pouch that came with the phone, in my opinion is better then the most expensive "case" I've seen. It does a better job of protecting the phone that most expensive cases, and it cleans the screen every time you take it out and put it in. The pouch is also a requirement if you sue the dock, as you can't have the phone in the case. The dock doesn't use the standard USB jack like the cheap ones do. It has three metal contacts and communicated over Bluetooth. When you dock it, the phone goes into Dock mode, a very nice and unique feature.

Now with the release of the Nexus S, a phone manufactured by Samsung and not HTC, things have changed.

• No expandable memory, 16GB built in.
• Plasticy build, though very light
• Only 3G while all other phones released during this time where at least 3G+ if not 4G
• Added Gyroscope and NFC as the only two really new features
• Front facing camera for video chat

The only real reason to upgrade is the screen. Though the Nexus One had a an AMOLED Multi Touch screen, the Multi Touch was barely that. The Nexus S has a proper multi touch screen and Samsung's proprietary Super AMOLED screen which I will argue is one of the best on the market for any smart phone out right now.

The lack of expandable memory is a really head scratcher. I can't really see any reason for this other their maybe to have more lock down on the phone. Now with fast, 32GB MicroSD cards hitting the market, this seems really silly.

You lose the nice dock and noise cancelling mic as well.

So as I have recommended the Nexus S to many family members and friends with great success, I sit here happy with my Nexus One with very little urge to upgrade.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Gingerbread brings some very much needed improvements to Android. None of these are "features" as such, but under the hood improvements which were much needed and some that are just cool.

• Graphics accelerated UI
• Better application management, especially for phones with expandable storage
  
• More consistent UI in both applications and the main OS
• 
  
• Darker UI to save battery life on OLED based screens



• The most awesome closing animation, ever :)

There is more, but those are the ones you notice. The graphically accelerated UI is the biggest. If you've ever used an IOS device or the new Windows 7 phones, you know how the user interface just flows very smoothly under your fingers. Android just never felt that smooth and responsive, until now. It's subtle, but makes for a much more pleasing user experience.

The bad

With 2.3, I was a bit disappointed with the amount of bugs that were introduced, and with how some of the above features didn't go far enough. The Nexus One has a dedicated car dock, which when inserted goes into car mode. I don't have the dock but I can manually put the phone into car mode. This has car dedicated features and removes distractions. When in the navigation app in car mode, the phone looses GPS at first launch. You have to back out and re-launch. Another minor annoyance is the mislabeled buttons in the USB mass storage mode.

The biggest disappointment with 2.3 was the lack of UI improvements. Yes, the hardware acceleration was very important and welcome, it should have been there from the start. That and though an effort was made for UI consistency, it's not nearly as polished as it's competitors. Things like the improved application management, though again, welcome, is now more cluttered and confusing than it should be. Most importantly, the Nexus One specifically, only came with 512MB of internal storage. This shouldn't be a problem as I have a 16GB microSD card in the phone. Sadly, due to the way Android Applications work, not all downloaded apps can be stored on the microSD card, leaving very little space. A lot of modern Android phones come with 2-4GB of internal storage, combined with the expandable storage, this is more than enough.

Sticking Around

Overall though, I've been very happy with the Nexus One. So happy that I have no desire to upgrade. Google really did come out with one of the best phones at the time, and it's aged very well compared to it's competitors.

The UBB Deception

Usage Based Billing, the big ISPs push for Wireless like profits.

I've had several discussions recently about wireless carrier pricing. The more I thought about mobile pricing strategy, the more I realizes what UBB was really about.
Rogers and Bell are both making huge amounts of money off of their wireless cell phone businesses. In fact, Canadian wireless carriers have some of the highest profits in the world. Why is this? Partially because of lack of competition. Yes, there are three national carriers, Rogers, Bell and Telus. But Bell and Telus are joined at the hip (they share their network), leaving just Bellus against Rogers. Things are changing with the new entrants, but the core of their success is based on the business model that is prevalent in a lot of North American carriers.

Scarred into paying more

All the major North American carriers have a pricing model which is designed to discourage pay for what you use pricing. They all have packages with allotments of minutes and/or bytes of usage. If you go over what your package contains, you are charged obscene amounts in overage charges. These charges are designed to force you into a package which you may not ever come close to using, but will gladly have so you don't get that wonderful two, three or more times your regular bill overage charge. A lot of Americans overpay for cell phone usage as a result.

Changing the rules for Internet Access

So these large carriers in Canada are making money hand over fist in the wireless space. Now they want to bring those profits into their Internet business. So what better way than to put up a smoke screen claiming that bandwidth is getting more precious, just as it's getting cheaper elsewhere in the world? What's worse, is that wireless and land line infrastructure are very different. Wireless frequency allocation is actually a controlled, some might argue artificially scarce resource. Not so with land lines. The only thing scarce about them is that there are a handful of companies that own the last mile infrastructure, and they feel it's their's to overly restrict.

Bell's UBB pricing policy, which was being forced onto independent ISPs who lease the last mile access, had ridiculously low usage allotment, with the option to buy "usage insurance". If you think you are going to go over, buy these packages of extra usage and we won't charge you our crazy high overage rates. So instead of actually being billed for your usage, where if you used less, you'd save money and if you used more, it would cost you more, based on a reasonable markup, we have a situation that mirrors the wireless industry. High overage fees with higher usage packs. Soon we'll all be overpaying for our Internet access. Of course, it's actually worse for a lot of users, as no packs were offered to cover what some people used.