Books #10 & 11

This is the sort of thing that comes from reading more than one book at a time.  I finished two books on the same night.

Mulliner Nights

P.G. Wodehouse
 

This is the next collection of Mr. Mulliner stories.  More silliness as told by the Hot Scotch and Lemon at the Angler's Rest.  Other than Mr. Mulliner, everyone in the pub is referred to by their drink selection.  Though all the stories are funny, there is no real thread to the collection, but there are two about a certain cat, named Webster.

The Anglo-Saxon Age

John Blair

 

This is a rather short introduction to the Anglo-Saxon Age, which reaches from the departure of the Romans to 1066.  It is a very informative little book with a good bibliography, and is part of a series of books on British History.  Among the fun parts of reading a book on Anglo-Saxons is the names, which are always fun.  Many Anglo-Saxon names start with the double letter Æ, like Æthelred and Ælfgyfu.  Yes, both of those are real Anglo-Saxon names.  The Æ becomes both A and E, depending on the particular name.  Ælfred becomes Alfred, while Ædward becomes Edward.  I am not an expert on names, but I have learned a bit, especially about Anglo-Saxon names from reading. 

This is an interesting period in British History, because of course, the Angles of the 5th and 6th Centuries are the origin of the name eventually given to the people and the place, the English and England.

Fun stuff, but Wodehouse was more fun.

Windows 8 and Expectations

Will 90 percent of users always hate Windows 8?

 

I am torn by this post.  I found it intelligent and well thought out, and I found the points to be cogent and thought provoking.

But, I think it is all wrong, but now I understand why.

iOS was totally different from anything that came before it, yet millions of users have adopted it and learned it.  Some will say that is because it is intuitive, but I do not really buy that.  What it was, was internally consistent...mostly.  You had to learn new skills to use iOS, and you did, and once you did, it was easy.

So, why doesn't this work with Windows 8.  The Modern UI is as radical as iOS, and like iOS, it requires new skills, but no one seems willing to learn those skills.

We learned new skills when Windows 95 replaced Windows 3.1.

The problem is expectations.  Now, let's look at those three groups.

Experts...were willing to put in the time to learn the new skills.

Willing Adopters...this is where I would put a lot of the naysayers, as well as those who are enjoying Windows 8.  Willing Adopters are usually willing to learn new skills, but they are also the ones who get frustrated first.

Mainstreamers...they buy Windows, they expect Windows, and honestly, the Modern UI is not really Windows.  To me the idea of Windows sort of implies the functionality which both MacOS and Windows have used, where you open a small box, a window, and the app runs inside the window.  The modern UI doesn't do that, and I really think that MS would have been better served with a new name for the OS...sometimes.

But, most people have become used to the way Windows works, and the Experts and Willing Adopters will know that Windows 8 doesn't work like Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7, whether they like it or not, they will know.  This cannot be said for Mainstreamers.  Mainstreamers will expect Windows.

Microsoft has done a terrible job with managing expectations.  They have shown off the fancy new UI start screen, but given little information about how it actually works.

Windows 8 is following in Vista's footsteps in one way, and that is that Microsoft seems to be doing nothing to manage expectations.  Vista's only real failure was that it required up to date hardware to run properly.  People upgraded old machines and the experience was bad.  People bought underpowered Netbooks with the new OS and the experience was bad.

Windows 7 was nothing but Windows Vista fixed.  The problem is that there is nothing to fix on Windows 8.  The Modern UI is not broken, it is just different.  Many people may not want it, but that does not mean it is broken.  iOS wasn't broken because it did not work like MacOS, and Windows 8 is not broken because it does not work like Windows 7.

But, there is a real problem with people's expectations, and if they want Windows 8 to be a Windows 7 style success, they need to deal with those expectations.  One big part of dealing with those expectations will be convincing people that once they learn the new UI things will be simpler and easier.  That may be a very tough sell after 17 years on the same UI.

Book #9

A Little Tour in France

Henry James

Once again, I am reading a 19th Century Travelogue, this one a bit later, towards the end of the 19th Century and by the author Henry James.

James starts by saying that while many Americans believe that Paris is France, that France is not Paris.  He then goes on to tell much about France that has nothing to do with Paris.  Unlike Pinkney, he does not start his tale with his landing in France.  In fact, as best I can tell he was residing in Paris at the time he takes his trip.  He heads south and this gives us the northern boundary of his trip.  He says nothing of the north of France.

His travels start at Tours.  He seems to remain at Tours for rather a long time, and sees all of the Loire Valley by what today we would call day trips, though I think some of his were a bit more than a single day.  He sees Chenonceau and Chambord, which I have visited, and also Blois, Bourges, Langeais, Azay-le-Rideau, and many others.

He sort of corkscrews out from there, going north to Le Mans, then east to Angers and Nantes before heading south to La Rochelle and Poiters.  Then, he enters the area that I knew from 35 years ago.  He visits Bordeaux and then Toulouse.

He does not like Toulouse, except the Church of St. Sernin, a great example of Romanesque Church architecture.  He enjoyed the accent of Languedoc, which is indeed unique.  It really is French spoken with a southern drawl, much slower than Parisien.

Carcassonne is his next stop, a place where I spent five months.  He answers a question that I never quite asked.  When I saw Carcassone in 1976, the space between the two walls was open, as it had been during the middle ages.  Somewhere between the middle ages and the 19th Century, a row of houses had been built on the flat space between the walls, with their backs up against the wall and a road in front.  From what I could find out, they were squatters.  That property had never been sold to them, but over the centuries they had come to live there.  James tells us the method of getting the squatters out of the house.  They waited for them the inhabitants to die, then claimed the house and tore it down.  The process was only partially finished when James visited in the 1880s.

James continues on to Narbonne, Montpellier, Nimes and then Arles.  In and around Nimes and Arles he especially loved the Roman ruins.  Now, any modern traveler to Arles would almost certainly visit there in order to pay homage to one of the great painters of the 19th Century, Vincent Van Gogh.  James mentioned nothing of Van Gogh, or any other artist at Arles.  A Little Tour in France was first published in 1884.  He would have known nothing of Van Gogh, who arrived in Arles in 1888.

 

Next he visits Avignon, before traveling up the Rhone.  The river is in flood stage, and he gives a very graphic description of the flood, the mighty river spread out into a lake with tree tops dotting up out of it.  After Avignon he travels north to Orange, and then on the Macon and Dijon.
 

These are the major stops on his trip, but he makes many side trips.  At Nimes he travels out to the Pont de Gard, and Aigues-Mortes, and there are many others, especially in the south, though one should also remember that he started in Tour with many many side trips through the Loire Valley.
 

I really enjoyed A Little Tour in France.

Book #8

In the Wake of the Plague
Norman F. Cantor
 

I have a degree in history, and I read history books for fun.  Mostly, they are histories of the Middle Ages, which is a particular interest of mine.  Now, the 14th Century is also of particular interest, so it should not be surprising that I have read more than a few books on The Hundred Years War.  Now, to anyone who knows more than a tiny bit about the 14th Century, it should also not be surprising that I have read a few books on the Black Death, the monumental plague of the 14th Century.
 

Cantor's volume on the Plague is one of the more recent ones I have read, and I was suddenly taken by the desire to reread it.
 

For those who do not know, between December 1347 and December 1350, a plague of biblical proportions struck Europe.  The estimates put the total at between 10% and 40% of the population, which most historians reading the data at the high end of that scale.  Entire villages disappeared, only to be rediscovered in the 20th Century through aerial photography.
 

Many see the plague as a turning point in the Middle Ages, and estimates of it's effect go all the way from being a major contributor to the Italian Renaissance a century later, to being the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.  It caused a major labor shortage and led to peasant revolts, higher wages, and the end of the feudal system.
 

Cantor does not offer many new insights.  He seems to have reached that stage as a historian where he is more interested in selling books than in new research into the middle ages.  That is okay, books written for sales are much easier to read than books written to gain tenure, though somewhat less informative.  He does bring up one thing that I had not read elsewhere, and that is that at present, many historians have come to the conclusion that the Black Death was more than just Bubonic Plague.  The evidence seems to point to more than one epidemic, with bubonic plague as the most obvious.  It is rather hard to ignore large black buboes (hence the name bubonic) in the groin and armpits, followed by death a few days later.  The problem is that the chronicles of the time also say that some people died overnight, which is inconsistent with bubonic plague, and the suggestion has been made that this was caused by anthrax or another cattle murrain.
 

This is an interesting read, and coming along recently (2001) it includes a lot of the recent research and scholarship on the subject.  It is a little light on the facts, but very strong on the latest theories and opinions on the causes and results of a major medieval event.

The Wrong Analogy

Why iOS won't become Apple's 'Windows XP'

This analogy is hugely flawed.  Windows XP did not remain the dominant OS for so long because Microsoft failed to innovate.  XP remained the dominant OS because Windows Vista failed.  We can debate the reasons why Windows Vista failed. We can even debate whether or not it truly was a failure, since it shipped over 60 million copies.  But, my point is that in the court of public opinion, it was judged a failure.

People decided they did not want Windows Vista, and so they stayed with XP.  They didn't upgrade, or they even downgraded.  Windows 7 has been a huge success and has become the successor to Windows XP as the dominant PC OS.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes draws this conclusion though..."Not only did this 'upgrade ennui' affect Microsoft, but it also helped to put a damper on PC sales and the entire PC industry."

I think this is a bit much.  Windows Vista did not cause the PC industry to decline.  In fact, I would say that it was only one, and relatively insignificant factor in that downturn, but, that is not the focus of this post.

Apple does not need to worry about iOS being like Windows XP.  In fact, I think they would be very happy with that.  Apple does not need to spend a second studying the history of Windows XP, but they might benefit from studying the history of another Microsoft OS...Windows Mobile.

Windows Mobile, or as it was then, Windows CE, entered the PDA market at a time when it was dominated by Palm, and took over that market. Microsoft's success and Palm's failure is also a subject for another post, not today. Unfortunately, Microsoft was caught out by two changes, the switch from PDA to smartphone, and iOS. iOS was the drastic change.

What Apple should be worried about is the NEXT drastic change. Either, they need to be provider of that drastic change and again lead the market (which they have not really done since the release of the iPhone 4), or they need to be ready to react quickly to changes (which is what the iPhone 5 and iPad mini are).

This is the lesson that Microsoft may finally be learning, but only the future will tell if Microsoft has really learned it, or if Apple will get caught out.

Somewhere out there is the next drastic change, the next change as drastic as the iPhone and iPad. Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon are all trying to figure out what it is, so that they can be first, but being first doesn't help as much as it used to, because everyone is trying to be ready to react to whatever comes.

Microsoft's present dilemma comes from the fact that it was not prepared to react fast enough to the iPhone. It thought Windows Mobile would do okay. It didn't and Google grabbed the second entry slot with Android. The iPad was the next really major turn, and Google and OEMs were ready to react with Android tablets. Microsoft? Not so much. Now, Microsoft finds itself running in third place (and rather distantly) in the two major growth markets of the 21st Century.

Book #7

Mr. Mulliner Speaks
P.G. Wodehouse

Yes, P.G. Wodehouse again.  I needed something fun and light after being bludgeoned by another volume of The Wheel of Time.

This is the second volume of the Mr. Mulliner stories.  The stories are told by Mr. Mulliner, a patron of a pub called the Angler's Rest, where he is a regular imbider of a Hot Scotch and Lemon.  The stories all concern persons related to him, most carrying the last name of Mulliner.

In the preface of the omnibus edition, The World of Mr. Mulliner, he gives an anecdote from Oliver Wendell Holmes about writing so funny that it gave his butler convulsions and vowing never to write as funny as he can.  Wodehouse then follows with:

"I must warn my public that in 'The World of Mr. Mulliner' I am writing as funny as I can, and can only hope that there are no ill results."

 

For those who have read any of the Jeeves and Wooster stories, it is easy to say that the Mr. Mulliner stories are in the same vein, but a bit sillier.  Some will find that hard to believe, after reading any Jeeves and Wooster book, but it is true.

 

This second volume is notable for finishing with a series of Bobbie Wickham stories.  Bobbie Wickham is a rather pretty young lady.  Men are constantly falling for her, and then being put off because she puts them into the most embarrassing situations imaginable.  She was once the intended fiancé of Bertie Wooster, who managed to escape from her, and the stories are generally about men who decide that they are better off without her.

 

More fun with Wodehouse and a truly enjoyable read.

A Shout Out to Staples

Lately, on the Tech Blogs, you hear about sales people at Best Buy, Office Depot and Staples trying to sell the Microsoft Surface and making a right bugger of it, as the English might say. Well, I want to give a shout out to Staples for having at least one person in the store who managed to hit all the high points about Microsoft Surface. I just wish that I had thought to get his name.

He saw me looking at the Surface and came up to see if I needed help. He asked if I knew anything about Windows 8, and I said I did, so he just talked about Surface. I thought he was going to make a mistake as he started by saying that the Surface ran Windows 8, and was just like the PCs with Windows 8, but then he fielded it cleanly by adding that it was the same, except that it would not run old Windows apps, then he showed me the Microsoft Store, and said that it would install any of these apps.

He mentioned that the Surface used an ARM processor. Now, I do not know about anyone else, but I have always just called it an “arm” processor, saying the word, but he spelled it out, saying that the Surface had an A.R.M processor. Sounded odd to me.

He pointed out the USB port, and the SD card slot, though actually he did not show me where it was. He showed that it could be used like a tablet, detached from the cover and even turned on its side in portrait mode. He also showed off the cable that will turn the mini display port on the Surface into either an HDMI port, or a VGA port. That he where he finally told me something I did not know, as I had not really looked at the peripherals for Surface.

He also showed me an ASUS and an Acer portable that had touch screens, and when I mentioned that I would like something with a little more graphics horsepower for games, he showed me an AMD processor portable with a better ATi card in it.
 
Over all, he was knowledgeable and personable and it was a rather pleasant experience…well, except for my not having the money to actually buy one.

Book #6

The Shadow Rising
Robert Jordan

Having just finished book #4, The Shadow Rising, I’ve decided to give up on the Wheel of Time books for a time.  I have two reasons.  One, I do not like them as much as I had hoped, and two; they are each so long that it is taking me way too long to get through one.  I will never get anywhere near 100 books reading these massive things.

The Shadow Rising is 980 pages in paperback.  While the writing is okay, and the stories are enjoyable, there is just way too much filler to keep you plugging along and they are just too long.  I have felt this before and even mentioned it before, and in my opinion, some editor should have told him to cut at least 100 pages out of this thing.  Each of the four I have read would have been better for significant tightening.

But, not liking them is a much harder thing to describe.  I can point to what I do not like, which includes the entire plot line about the Seanchan, but I have not been able to figure out exactly why I do not like that plot line, except that is makes me nervous and anxious.  All I can clearly say is that I do not like it.

The Shadow Rising includes a change in the general formula of the first three books.  Just like the first three books, Jordan splits the group up and sends them in different directions.  Perrin returns to the Two Rivers with Faile; Elayne and Nynaeve are off to Tanchico in Tarabon looking for the Black Ajah and; Rand, Egwene are off to the Aiel Waste.  Unlike the first three books, Jordan never brings them back together.  Each of the three groups deals with the problems before them, and finally Rand takes another step forward to his destiny.

But, I won’t be back to them right away.

The Future of Windows RT

This is a follow up to my post To Windows 8 or not to Windows 8, but it is mostly inspired by a different post.

 

Is Windows 8 a bad OS for tablets? It's time to decide...

 

Though many of the commenters did not like the article, but I did.  Unlike his conclusion in the debate, the author decided that Windows RT wasn't a bad OS for tablets, though he did feel that it was not really there yet and needed work.  I think I can sum up the work needed for Windows RT.

1. Get rid of desktop mode.
2. Fix the mail app

Now, that sounds simple, but getting rid of the desktop means porting Office to WinRT (that is the programming layer for Modern Apps), and I do not think that was ready.  Yes, what I am saying is that Office held back the development of Windows RT.  I got no proof, but it is still what I believe.

 

So, where does Windows RT go from here? 

 

Personally, I expect Windows RT sales to be a little pathetic for a while.  There are problems, though most of the ones put forward are ridiculous. Only the two above need to really be addressed by Microsoft.  The other big problem is the lack of apps, and that will fix itself over time, especially with Microsoft working with developers to ensure they (the developers) are making money.

 

Everything needs to be written to work in the Modern UI, Office, File Explorer, Control Panel, etc.  Now, this goes beyond just the built in apps, as I said in a previous post, Microsoft needs to find a way to encourage big 3rd party developers, like Adobe, to move their apps to WinRT.

 

Another key for Windows RT is the success of Windows 8.  Let us look into the future.

 

Windows 8 may or may not be as huge a success as Windows XP and Windows 7, but just like Vista, it is going to end up on a lot of PCs, and Windows 8 does not have the disadvantages of Vista.  Vista's problems were under the hood, and there Windows 8 is streamlined and powerful.  A year from now, I see lots of PCs with Windows 8, and then the change begins.

 

Today, if you use a Windows PC, it is likely to be Windows 7, and if you decide you want a tablet, then you are looking at iOS on the iPad and iPad mini, Android on a selection of 7-11 inch tablets, Amazon Kindle, I will even throw in Nook for good measure, and Windows RT.  You've probably been using Windows for years, gone from Windows 95, to 98, maybe 2000, finally XP and now 7.  There have been UI changes, but it you went straight from Windows 95 to Windows 7, you would learn it very quickly. 

 

Now, look at the array of tablets.  None of them is anything like Windows 7.  One of them says it is Windows, but it don't look like any Windows you remember.  So, buying a tablet will mean learning a new OS, so they all start off even from that standpoint.  To figure out which one you want, and assuming you want to make a considered intelligent decision, then you are going to have to figure out the strength and weaknesses of each.

 

My real point here is that Windows RT does not offer any specific advantages over the others.  Yes, it has some advantages, but iOS has more apps, so does Android.  Kindle has all the incredible Amazon content.  Right now, Windows RT cannot match those.

 

Now, jump forward a year or two.  You've been using Windows 8 on your PC for a year or so.  The UI may have taken a little getting used to, but you did it.  You know how to work the UI.  If you bought a portable (trackpad) or a touchscreen then you may even have learned some of the gestures.

 

Now, you go and look at tablets, and Windows RT offers a big advantage that none of the others do...well, unless you bought another tablet OS previously.  You already know the interface.  It looks just like your PC.  I think this makes Windows RT a much bigger draw than it is today, familiarity will push you towards Windows RT, or towards whatever you already have.

 

In two years, the Windows Phone app ecosystem has grown to the point where it is only a minor deficit.  The same will happen with Windows 8, and Windows RT will actually be the big winner from that.

 

So, the future of Windows RT may be slow sales in the short term, but in one to two years, RT will have matured.  I think that a full WinRT version of Office will appear and the desktop in Windows RT will go away, providing a consistent smooth experience.  The built in apps will improve, and the number and quality of 3rd party apps will improve.

 

And, when you go to look at a tablet, Windows RT will look good, because you already know the interface, and because you will already know most of the apps you want to download (from Windows 8).  The transition from PC to tablet will be simple and smooth.