|
||||||||||||||
windows 8 microsoft admit failure Related threads: Tech: Latest Windows 8 Update (& Win 8.1) (24) why did I think windows 8 would work (54) Tech: Windows 8 - reviews of general release (63) Tech: What time is it on Windows 8? (24) Tech: Copying a URL in Windows 8 (6) Tech: Windows 8 - prerelease versions (51)
|
Share Thread
|
Subject: RE: windows 8 microsoft admit failure From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 18 May 13 - 10:26 AM I agree, John. To a group of people for whom RTFM is the eleventh commandment, it seems terrible that somebody sells a major item with no manual. There are problems with all these new devices that one is supposed to operate by touching. My hands are so cold that the device can't seem to figure out where I touched it. My husband had a client whose hands were so warm that her smartphone would start doing crazy things when her finger was still an inch away. Recently I was a passenger in the car, trying to use a smartphone to find a home in a new neighborhood with complex, curving streets. I wanted to orient the phone the same way we were headed, so I carefully rotated it in a flat plane. It was no good. The phone completely lost its place on the map, decided to show me Beirut Lebanon instead of Overland Park. That's a lot of help... |
Subject: RE: windows 8 microsoft admit failure From: GUEST,Chris Hughes Date: 18 May 13 - 11:34 AM Well, I for one have no problems with Win8, having used it for a couple of weeks. I can't see what is upsetting people. Mind you, I never used the Start menu much in XP, so bypassing it is no big deal. The Windows key + D gives me the desktop and away I go. |
Subject: RE: windows 8 microsoft admit failure From: JohnInKansas Date: 18 May 13 - 11:36 AM Under "mainstream support," you receive all the "critical updates" to keep the system secure, and additionally you may receive "optional updates" to improve or extend what your programs can do. Under "extended support" you can ONLY receive updates and patches that Microsoft decides are "critical" for security and are sufficiently widely used by malware to be of concern to Microsoft. When Win98 reached "end of life" Microsoft ceased "full support" and declared a date when "extended support" would end, but found that there were very large numbers of users who persisted in using it. The "extended support" (Critical patches ONLY) was continued for a rather long time after it officially expired, despite the fact that a very large majority of those still using Win98 were in countries where US export laws prohibited distribution (easily) of any subsequent versions, and where the majority of remaining users were using pirated/counterfeited copies. Reports are that there still are large numbers of Win98 users, virtually ALL using bootleg/counterfeit/illegal copies, but the status of support is unknown. So far as has been reported, there are far fewer illegal users of WinXP, insufficient to force continued support in the same way they did for Win98, so significant extensions of the "extended support" period are unlikely. Any extensions beyond what has been announced would probably come only from "corporate users" with large numbers of WinXP installations still in use, and there's little information on how extensive those may still be. If anyone still using WinXP can find a convenient way to upgrade to Win7 I would recommend doing so before it becomes impossible, as Win7 is "more secure" and better equipped to run 64-bit programs. There are some "inconveniences" in the change, but Win7 is arguably the best that's ever come out of Microsoft. The real problem is that it may force you to use "new versions" of some significant "productivity" programs that Microsoft has crippled to obscene levels (i.e. Office). Some "security setup" is a little different, but shouldn't present major problems for most users. The "quirks" mostly affect those on large local networks with lots of "user ident" problems. Due to the inevitable "bit bloat" significantly more RAM and much bigger hard drives are advised for Win7, so new hardware is probably indicated if/when that switch is made. For Win7 a 64-bit processor also is very highly recommended. It is impossible to say when WinXP will become "unusable," but it's unlikely to happen in a very short time if you want to be a little "stubborn" about keeping it up; but if you wait too long the only options for a "next system" may be quite horrid. John |
Subject: RE: windows 8 microsoft admit failure From: JohnInKansas Date: 18 May 13 - 04:39 PM What Win8 (and other "gadgets") are doing to you? Students can't resist distraction for two minutes ... and neither can you By Bob Sullivan, Columnist, NBC News Are gadgets making us dumber? Two new studies suggest they might be. One found that people who are interrupted by technology score 20 percent lower on a standard cognition test. A second demonstrated that some students, even when on their best behavior, can't concentrate on homework for more than two minutes without distracting themselves by using social media or writing an email. Interruptions are the scourge of modern life. Our days and nights are full of gadgets that ping, buzz and beep their way into our attention, taking us away from whatever we are doing. We've known for a while that distractions hurt productivity at work. Depressing research by Gloria Mark at the University of California, Irvine, says that typical office workers only get 11 continuous minutes to work on a task before interruption. With smartphones reaching near ubiquity, the problem of tech-driven multitasking — juggling daily tasks with email, text messages, social media etc — is coming to a head. Multitasking has been the subject of popular debate, but among neuroscientists, there is very little of that. Brain researchers say that what many people call multitasking should really be called "rapid toggling" between tasks, as the brain focuses quickly on one topic, then switches to another, and another. As all economics students know, switching is not free. It involves "switching costs" — in this case, the time it takes to re-immerse your mind in one topic or another. Researchers say only the simplest of tasks are candidates for multitasking, and all but one of those tasks must involve automaticity. If you are good at folding laundry, you can probably fold laundry and watch TV at the same time, for example. Overestimated abilities Despite this concern among brain scientists, many people overestimate their ability to multitask, such as the college student who thinks he can text and listen to a lecture simultaneously. He cannot, says brain expert Annie Murphy Paul, who writes "The Brilliant Blog." "Multitasking while doing academic work — which is very, very common among young people — leads to spottier, shallower, less flexible learning," Paul warned in a recent column. The two studies mentioned above underscore this point. In the first, Alessandro Acquisti and Eyal Peer at Carnegie Mellon University's Human Computer Interaction lab recruited 136 college students to take a standard test of cognitive abilities, and invented a controlled method of distraction. Test-takers were interrupted via instant message, which they were told contained important additional instructions, during the exam. (The research was conducted in concert with research for The Plateau Effect, a book I recently co-authored with Hugh Thompson.) The interrupted group answered correctly 20 percent less often than members of a control group. The Carnegie Mellon test might seem a bit contrived, however, because the control group was pretty unrealistic. It's hard to find a group of college students who could take a test without being interrupted by gadgets. Larry Rosen, a professor at California State University-Dominguez Hills, published a study in the May issue of Computers in Human Behavior that attempted to quantify how often students of all ages are distracted by technology while studying. Even under ideal circumstances, the results were dismal. Rosen's observers followed 263 students into their normal study environments — bedroom, library, den — and told them to work on an important school assignment for 15 minutes. Even knowing they were being watched, the students couldn't resist texting or using social media. So-called "on-task" behavior started declining at about the two minute mark, and overall, only 65 percent of the time was used on schoolwork. "We really assumed we set up a situation where people would try to impress us," said Rosen, an expert in the psychology of technology. "Frankly, I was appalled at how quickly they became distracted." 'Problem built into the brain' The two studies, published closely together, generated strong reaction, particularly from students. "Yes, we text in class, but if my grade in that class is and A or a B I don't see why it's a problem," wrote one student to Paul. It's a big problem for both students and adults, Paul counters, for plenty of reasons. Assignments inevitably take longer when learners split their time between tasks, she says. All that task-switching wears out the brain and makes learners more tired and less competent. Most important, several studies have shown that information learned while partially distracted is often quickly forgotten, so the learning is tragically shallow. The key to transferring new information from the brain's short-term to long-term memory is a process called "encoding." Without deep concentration, encoding is unlikely to occur, explained Nicholas Carr in his book "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains." ????? When you deliberately create things most easily useful to the dumb, they make everyone who uses them dumber? John |
Share Thread: |
Subject: | Help |
From: | |
Preview Automatic Linebreaks Make a link ("blue clicky") |