Book #5

Carry On, Jeeves
P.G. Wodehouse

I’ve been falling behind, and not just in reading enough books.  I finished this one over a week ago and I forgot to write and post about it.

Carry On, Jeeves is a collection of short stories first published in 1925.  The first story is the tale of how Jeeves and Wooster met, Jeeves Takes Charge.

I am also a big fan of the Jeeves and Wooster series done by the BBC and also shown on PBS.  I was surprised in reading this collection to find that almost every story here provides at least a partial plot for the show.

If you are interested in reading Jeeves and Wooster, but unsure about where to start, then Carry On, Jeeves would be a good place to start.

To Windows 8 or not to Windows 8....

Windows RT: Worthless or the future of Windows?

 

So, this got me thinking.

 

25 January 2013

 

At the time I am writing this, only the opening statements of this debate have been posted, and so there isn't much to go on.

 

I believe that Windows 8 is the future...well, at least for the next two to three years. I do not think that Microsoft is going to do the same thing that they did with Windows XP and Windows Vista. Windows 8 is here to stay. I do not believe that Microsoft is going to rethink its strategy and make Windows 9 closer to Windows 7.

 

Why?

 

Because I think that Microsoft has recognized the trend of the future, fewer and fewer PCs and more and more mobile devices. They have a strong entry in the smartphone market. They dominate the PC market. What they need is an entry into the growing tablet market.

 

The strategy behind Windows 8 and it's sister OS Windows RT is two OSes, one UI. There are constant rumors that Apple is moving in the direction of making MacOS more like iOS, and this is sort of the same thing, except that since Microsoft already owns the PC market, they are working down into the tablet market, while Apple, who grew on the back of iOS in the smartphone market pushed iOS up into the tablet market.

 

Now, think about Microsoft's strategy, one UI to rule them all. This is the Modern (nee Metro) UI, which by the way is similar in appearance to the Windows Phone UI, which had the same name (Metro). You move from your PC to your tablet, and you do not change UI, nothing new to learn, and if you use Windows Live as your log in, all your settings are shared across both devices.

 

That is the future.

 

The problem is when I read the opening statements, I agree with most of what Matt Baxter-Reynolds says. He is right, there are several problems with Windows RT. The reliance on the Desktop Mode for Office is a mistake, and the same is true for the Control Panel, Windows Explorer, etc. These feel a little less like a problem in Windows 8, because there is feels like you are opening the hood and really getting into the engine compartment. That feels really clunky in Windows RT.

 

I wrote before that the success of Windows 8 depends on getting software vendors to write their PC Applications for the Modern UI. I still believe that. Keeping users away from the Desktop makes the experience of the OS much better, and having to go over and over again to the Desktop gives users the impression that the Modern UI is just a thin layer over the real OS. That is not good.

 

Matt Baxter-Reynolds also claims that Windows RT devices are too expensive. Now, this may or not be true, it depends on how you look at it. He points out that "Surface RT is prices around the average selling price of a normal Windows 8 laptop." Okay, I am sure he meant priced, and he is right, it is priced at exactly the same point as the iPad. Now, don't contradict me, the price of a Surface, without the TouchCover is $499, exactly the same as a 32GB iPad.

 

Then again, MB-R does not compare Surface to an iPad on price, which was a good, if deceptive idea on his part. It is priced higher than most Android tablets, but I feel that I can say with little chance of truly being proven wrong that the Surface is better than most Android tablets.

 

Most of the other Windows RT tablets I have seen are clinging to the same price range as the Surface, and that may need to change before Windows RT will really take off. People look at is and ask themselves....

 

Windows 8 portable, or Windows RT tablet?

 

Since the price is about the same, they may choose the more versatile PC. But the question is, do they ever ask themselves either of the following questions...

 

Windows 8 portable or iPad?

 

They are about the same price.

 

Windows RT tablet or iPad?

 

Now, here is the point where I think Microsoft can make some hay. As long as the question is Windows versus Windows, or portable PC versus iPad, I think that Windows RT loses. But, when people look just tablets, then I think Microsoft can make inroads. The real question is....

 

Windows RT tablet, iPad or Android tablet?

 

This is where Microsoft can win. Surface can hold its own against the iPad or any Android tablet, except for the two things usually mentioned, reliance on desktop mode, and lack of apps. I keep hearing price, but that shouldn't be an issue. Yes, as generally priced (with TouchCover) Surface is more, but you get more. You don't want the TouchCover, don't buy it.

Book #4

The Dragon Reborn

Robert Jordan

These books are slowing me down.  There are two things that kept me from really getting into the series before, and they are both rearing their ugly heads again now.  First, some years ago...well, some decades ago, I decided that I did not want to start a series until all the books in the series were out.  Since then, I have only broken that rule twice.  Once was for the Harry Potter books, and once for The Wheel of Time.  I had put off starting the series and then decided to start and read the first two, but then waited at least a decade to start again now.  Of course, now Robert Jordan is dead, before having finished the series, but it is being finished by another author.

 

The second is that they are so damned long, that is each book.

So, this is the first of the books that I have never read before, so I had no idea where anything was going, though I should admit that I only had general memories of the other books, so while I had a general idea where they ended up, I did not remember much of what came in between.

These books have suffered from the beginning from something that I do not like, which is having all the characters go off in multiple directions and having the story switch point of view to follow.  I find that this often fails and makes the book more confusing than it needs to be.  Jordan follows one important rule for doing this successfully, because when you move to a new character, you tend to still with them for a while, so whether you are following Rand, or Mat and Thom, or Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve, or Perrin, Moraine and Lan, you tend to stay with them for at least a long chapter, and often several.  This allows you to try to keep the bits of the story separate, while seeing how they weave together.

Spoilers follow.

One surprising thing is that we do not follow Rand much in this.  Perrin, Moraine and Lan, along with a new addition to the story, Zarine, are following Rand and we see the effect that Rand has as he passes.  Mat starts off one direction, trying to get away from Aes Sedai control, but then ends up chasing Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve.

Now, as much as I dislike it generally, at the end of the story, the various stories are woven together nearly perfectly at the end.  Mat, Rand, Perrin, the three girls, and Moraine all travel separate routes to the final denoument, but Jordan does an excellent job of keeping them separate and yet showing how each sees the effect of the other as they near the final scene.

I won’t give anymore away, but while some of the middle of The Dragon Reborn is as boring as the long middle haul of the first two, the ending is completely satisfying.  The first three books are each probably a full 25% too long and would be better for significant tightening.  That tightening and the intensifying that it would bring are what hold these books back from joining the ranks of The Lord of the Rings at the very summit of the genre.  As they are, they are good, but not great.