Starting the New Year on the Surface

So, I have not been very good about writing here lately.  I am not sure that will change, but here I am again.

For my birthday, I bought myself a refurbished Microsoft Surface.  Yes, the one that runs Windows RT.  No, not the new Surface 2, but the original Surface.  I found a very good price on a refurbished Surface and I jumped on it when I had the money.

So, some of you may be wondering why I decided on the Windows tablet that may be doing least well of them all.  Well, that is why I am here writing today.

First, I reject completely the argument that Windows RT is bad because it does not run Windows legacy apps.  That is completely and utter balderdash.  No, I do indeed understand that Windows RT does not run Windows legacy apps.  What I reject is the idea that this is a mark against it.  Will Android run Windows apps?  No.  Well, is that a mark against it?  Does iOS run Windows apps?  No.  Does iOS run MacOS apps.  No.  Why is Windows RT judged differently from iOS and Android?  Windows RT is Microsoft's attempt to enter the low end tablet market.  Just like the tablets that it competes directly against, it does not run Windows or MacOS apps intended for desktop systems.  So, all three are even.

Windows RT only fails when compared to Windows 8 tablets, and that is understandable, except that with an ARM processor, it can have a much longer battery life, and a lighter weight.  I would put that as two in the plus column for Windows RT.

I have a new Windows 8 laptop that I am typing this on, so I do not really need a full Windows 8 tablet.  Though I must admit to being tempted by the Dell Venue 11 Pro, but at more than twice what I paid for my Surface, I was willing to sacrifice a few things I did not really need.

There are plenty of apps in the Microsoft Store.  I have installed Kindle, Netflix, and I already had a news, sports and mail app.  Once I updated to Windows RT 8.1, I was all set.  I also get Office, and I do not mean an Office clone, like you get on Android or iOS, I mean Office, the original and still the best.  I haven't installed many games, but that will come as I work my way through figuring out what I want.

One big thing for me was that I wanted a keyboard.  10"+ tablets are a little useless without one.  I had a 10" Android tablet and it screamed out to me constantly for a keyboard.  I ended up trying out three different ones.  Swype is nice, but it is really hard to do more than a few words.  By the way I prefer Swype to Swiftkey.  Swype is fine for stuff about the length of a text message.  I am sure it works great in Twitter...then again I do not use Twitter.  But, for longer emails, or writing something like this post...not so much.

The only other Windows tablet in my price range was the Asus T100, which is a great machine at a great price....with an unusable keyboard.  At least, it is unusable for someone with my big hands...or at least me with my big hands (no, you can't have them).  I have tried out both the TouchCover and the TypeCover at my local Microsoft store and surprise, I can use both of these.  They are actually full size keyboards.

I have a TypeCover that I hope will be arriving this week.

Most importantly, the price was right.  None of the other tablets I was looking at could match the price.  Oh, there were some lesser Android tablets, but the ones in the same price range are not ones I want.  The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, which would be my Android preference was twice the price.

So, I am starting off the new year on the Surface, and as the year progresses I will let you know what it is like to live with the Surface.

100 Books

Well, for any who are regular readers of my blog, you know that I set myself the goal of reading 100 books this year.  Bad news...I am not going to make it.  Now, there is a second problem and that is that I have fallen way behind in posting what I have been reading.  I have 10 books I have read but not posted because I am a lazy bum.  So, today I am going to catch up.  Without further ado, here are the rest of the books I have read this year.

#28 - Bradshaw's Railway Handbook 1866: Volume 1

I am an avid fan of Michael Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys, and so when I found Bradshaws as an ebook on Amazon, and at a very reasonable price, I snapped it up.  Much of the book is quite boring, so I cannot really recommend it to anyone who is not into that sort of thing.

#29 - Swords and Ice Magic, by Fritz Leiber

When I started reading the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories, this was the last book.  Unfortunately, it is not the best of the series, though still good.  They travel off to Rime Isle and get involved with magic and gods...meaning that they are doing the same thing they have been doing through the rest of the series.  Highly recommended.

#30-32 - The Northworld Trilogy, by David Drake

This is a weird book.  The premise is so convoluted that I will not even bother.  You are better off reading it.  The problem is that the books are a little predictable. And at the end he still does not answer the biggest question posed by the books, and that is just annoying.

#33 - Storm Over Warlock, by Andre Norton

Warlock is a planet, and the storm is an attack.  This is another of Norton's books that basically mix magic and science, though the magic may actually be very advanced technology.  There are some very good parts to this novel, and a few that lag well behind the rest.  It's free on Kindle, and worth what you pay for it.  A pleasant dalliance.

#34 - The Knight and Knave of Swords. by Fritz Leiber

The last of the Lankhmar series and the final curtain call for our heroes.  The first two stories are up to the old standards, but the final one, which is by far the longest is just odd and leaves a sort of bad taste in my mouth.  I did not want to see them go out in a blaze of glory, but one last real adventure would have been nice, and we did not get that.

#35 - Pictures From Italy, by Charles Dickens

A travelogue written by Dickens after a sojourn in Italy in 1844.  It starts off with the author moving to Genoa and all of this observations of Genoa.  By the way, he does not like it.  Then, he travels to all the major sights in Italy and while he likes the sights, he does not like much else that he sees in Italy.  This is interesting to read, but it includes very little of Dickens.  There are no amusing encounters with locals, or the tales of the happenings along the road.  I was a little disappointed.  Free on Kindle.

#36 - Goblinopolis, by Robert G. Ferrell

Robert is a friend I have known for many years, so when I saw his book on Amazon for only $0.99 I had to buy it.  I almost felt back because he cannot have made much off a $1 sale.  This is another book that mixes technology and magic.  The only real problem with the book is that it requires the telling of a great deal of history as background so that you understand the world where the novel is set.  That can get a little tedious, but if you muscle through you will be well rewarded.  This is still available on Kindle for a very low price, though not $0.99.  I can recommend this one.

#37 - Going Under, by Justina Robson

This is the fourth book of the Quantum Gravity series.  This one involves our cyborg heroine going to Faery, the land of the Fae.  To say the least, it is bizarre.  We start off in Deamonia where Lila tries to answer various questions and avoid various assassination attempts, then goes for a short time back to Otopia, Earth, where things are falling apart because of something bleeding in from Faery, and Lila needs to find an answer....in Faery.  It ends with an encounter with Jack Frost, Fae edition and a long lost legend, and all sorts of other confusing things.  If this brief review is confusing, then look back and find the rest of the books I have reviewed from the Quantum Gravity series.  I like these books, but I am not entirely sure that I would recommend them to anyone else.  Too odd.

So, that is my reading for the year up to date.  I did not do very well on my goal, but I did read some interesting stuff.

Book #27

Key Out of Time

Andre Norton

This is another of the Time Agent novels, that includes Ashe Gordon and Ross Murdock.  In this one, they are on a distant planet and use the time machine to try to learn some of the history of the planet.  When things go wrong, they get involved in that history.

I won't go into greater detail for fear of giving away the plot.  This is a good book in an older style of Science Fiction, and it is much like the Science Fiction I cut my teeth on, 40 years ago.  You must understand that this was not the most recent Science Fiction even then.  It has a pretty good story, and Ashe and Ross are good characters that are familiar to those who have read books in the Time Agents series.  I have only read two others, and I was not sure about one of them until I read this one.

Much of Norton's catalog can be gotten for free on Kindle, so there is plenty to read if you want to come to know one of the lesser, but still significant writers from the middle years of Science Fiction.  She was not really on the cutting edge, but she had a good career as a writer.

This was a good read, especially at the price.

Book #26

The Swords of Lankhmar

Fritz Leiber

The Fifth Book of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, and the first novel.

The enemy is rats, but the book takes a rather roundabout way to get to the final battle scene, where Fafhrd arrives in the nick of time and the Mouser shows that is the trickiest of thieves and the most dangerous swordsman in Lankhmar.  Of course, Mouser isn't trying to steal anything in this one.

The story begins with our heroes returning to Lankhmar, and finding rather their reception rather warm.  Our heroes are up to the challenge of an angry mob, and then find themselves addressed by the Overlord's Chamberlain as, "Fafhrd, the northern barbarian and brawler," and "that mongrel and long-suspected burglar, cut-purse, swindler and assassin, the Gray Mouser."  This brings the offer of a job, to protect a grain ship, and a special passenger.  Now, I won't go into too many details, except that they meet a two headed seamonster, and it's German speaking master.  Yes, you heard that right, German.

That is just one of many twists and turns in this excellent adventure novel.  The split up after arriving at their destination, Fafhrd lingering behind while the Mouser travels back to the Overlord with unusual tales that the Overlord will not listen to.  Fafhrd fights his way back around the Inner Sea, avoiding raiders and finally meeting up with his wizard, Ningauble.  Mouser goes through his own adventures while rats threaten Lankhmar, and finally seeks his wizard, Sheelba.  The ending involves....big breath....mummies, rats turned to human size, Ghouls with transparent flesh, regular sized rats who use swords, pikes and crossbows, and thirteen god-like War Cats, and a feisty kitten who finds his true destiny.

So, yes, there is a lot going on and toward the end is can be a little confusing, but it is fun throughout and our heroes get the jewels and the girls at the end, but not the recognition they deserve for saving the city.

Book #25

Arsene Lupin, gentleman-cambrioleur

Maurice LeBlanc

Yes, a second book about the great French burglar, Arsene Lupin.  This time though it was in the original French.  I have not had so much fun reading a book in a long time.  It took me several pages to get back into the way of reading French with any speed, and it was hard sometimes to pick it up and get going again, but as I read it, the transition become easier and easier and I also found myself learning more and more new French words.  I learned French 30 years ago, but I do not have a very large vocabulary and increasing my vocabulary is always a nice treat.  Though I do worry that I might be learning Victorian era words that are no longer in use in current French.

This volume is more of a collection of short stories, but the stories are related, at least most of them.  We see Arsene on a ship, and being saved by a young lady, though saved is a relative term.  He is arrested, but outsmarts the police to secure his release.  He then returns to his usual sort of crimes, though we see his very first theft, and finally at the end, we see him solve a rather tricky problem to find a way in to commit a crime and then he recants his crime for the sake of the same lady that he met on the boat in the first story.

Now, this final problem, which involves finding a lost secret passageway also involves the famous English detective, Herlock Sholmes.  Obviously, this is not much of an attempt to hide the identity of the detective he is borrowing from Arthur Conan Doyle, and LeBlanc does a pretty good job of presenting Sholmes in an accurate way.  Not entirely accurate, but close enough for those with a casual acquaintance with the detective.  Sholmes finds and opens the secret passage in just a few minutes, showing that he is not less smart than Arsene, and in fact he might have caught him, if Arsene had not gotten that one step ahead, by figuring out the secret before Sholmes even arrives.

Overall, it was a great read, and I can highly recommend it, if you read French.  If not, then the English translation should be available.

Windows, Positive Brand, or Liability?

Now, this post is not about the product. My question is about Windows as a brand. Obviously, Windows has strong brand recognition, dating at least back until 1985.

My question is...is Windows a positive brand or a liability?

It has been around a long time, but isn't Windows the OS that we all love to hate?  We use Windows, but do we love the brand?

People love Apple. They loved Steve Jobs. Some will deny it and claim that they just love the products, but millions trusted Jobs enough to buy an iPad without ever having held one or knowing what they were going to do with it. Jobs said it was magical and millions lined up to give him money for something unlike anything they had used before.

Does anyone have that sort of trust in Microsoft? Well, you certainly would not know it from the sales of the Surface. Microsoft built an incredible product. They paired that product with an innovative new OS. The fact that the pairing works I will judge from the fact that I have yet to meet a dissatisfied Surface owner. Unfortunately, that puts the Surface in the same company as the Zune HD. A product that owners loved, but where sales were not high enough to make it a going venture.

So why aren't people buying more Windows RT tablets, and specifically the Surface?

For the last 25 years there has been no truly viable alternative to Windows. Yea, yea, yea, I hear all you Linux and Apple fanboys, but if you have the brains you claim to have, then you know that neither has been a true alternative to Windows...for the average user. Apples were too expensive and the average user does not want to fiddle with Linux, and no matter what you say, Linux requires fiddling.

The average person wants something that just works, and that leaves Linux out of the equation. Apple would do very nicely in the "just works" category, but they are too expensive. That leaves Windows.

But, how many of those people would buy Apple if the price were the same? And why would they choose MacOS over Windows? Because it just works.  I know more people who are frustrated by Windows than are totally happy with it. Some would say that Windows is the OS we love to hate, but I have never felt the love. Windows is the OS we use...but hate.

So, is Windows a brand name that really helps sell PCs? Microsoft thinks so, but I don't. I think that setting Windows as the OS on the PC you are buying is about the same as seeing that your car runs on Goodyear tires. It's a brand name you know (and probably like more than Microsoft), but you don't choose between cars based on the brand of tires, and we don't buy a specific PC because it comes with Windows. It's what we expect.

Now lets get back to tablets. Microsoft designed a premium tablet, gave it a few more features than an iPad and priced it like an iPad...and it didn't sell. Why?

I think that most users, when presented with the question of iPad or Windows tablet, had no trouble choosing.  Windows never stood a chance.  The iPad just works.  Windows is the OS we use, but hate.  Microsoft did a terrible job of selling the virtues of Windows 8 to the public.  And then, Microsoft foolishly put the basic price at $100 more than the iPad.  Yes, you did get the very cool TouchCover, but again, Microsoft did not bother to push at users that you were paying more, but getting more.  iPad users have been proving that they do not need extra ports, and SD card slots, and yet Microsoft seemed to focus on these as the selling points of the product.

Microsoft runs ads that show off the cool sounds of the kickstand and the TouchCover.  iPad ads show how you use the product.  They often do not say anything at all, just music, and visuals of the cool things you can do with your iPad.

Yes, Microsoft has some disadvantages that it cannot completely control, like the number of apps for Windows RT, when compared to Android and iOS.  But I think they have a much bigger disadvantage, something that goes way beyond Microsoft making the wrong step at every stage of the marketing of Windows 8 and Surface (which runs Windows RT).  I can state that disadvantage in one word...

Windows

The OS we use, but hate.  The OS they make jokes about.  The #1 PC OS in the world, and I might even call it the best PC OS in the world, but also the OS with the worst brand reputation in the world.

Microsoft has not been doing too well of late, in the area of brand names.  First, they had to give up using the name Metro, for the UI common to Windows Phone, Windows RT and Windows 8.  Now, they appear to have lost the name SkyDrive for their cloud service.  They need to come up with a name to replace SkyDrive and they still need to find a true replacement for Metro.  Excuse me Microsoft, but the Modern UI is just lame.  But, I have one more suggestion, and maybe Microsoft can kill three birds with one stone.

Throw out Windows.

At least for Windows Phone and Windows RT.  Neither of them is Windows, because neither uses windows.  Please pay special attention to that lower case windows.  Windows was the OS named after it's main feature, the floating application windows on the screen.  You could open lots of them, and they could overlap.  They let you see into the application.  But Windows Phone has no windows.  The apps take up full screen.  There is only one window, the screen.  Windows RT should be the same way.  Microsoft needs to do away with the Desktop in Windows RT.  Office needs to move to the Modern UI.  All the control panel and system administration applets need to move to the Modern UI.  In Windows 8, the Desktop serves a purpose, legacy apps, but Windows RT does not run legacy apps, so there is no reason for the Desktop.  Because of the Desktop, Windows 8 still uses and needs to use windows, so it can retain the name.  Windows Phone and Windows RT don't need the desktop, so get rid of it.

I wish I had a good suggestion for what to call the new OS.  Everything I come up with I reject almost immediately.  Actually, I like Metro, but that is off the table.  Tiles would be appropriate, but I do not like the sound of it.  The new tiled UI appears on Windows 8, RT, Phone, and XBox, so it really is not the Windows UI anymore, and I think that Windows needs to go away, on everything but PCs.  Not the OS, just the name.

Change the name for any OS that does not run on an Intel processor PC.  Let Windows Phone and Windows RT soar, maybe they can reach as high as the XBox without the anchor that is Windows.  Microsoft needs to wipe the fog from their eyes and realize that the brand, Windows, is confusing their customers and pushing people away from their superb tablet.  Lose nearly thirty years of baggage and let the tablet OS, Windows RT, take over in the new mobile market.

Book #24

I hope that anyone reading this will understand that I am not only way behind on my original goal, but way behind on getting my reviews posted.  I will try to change that, and to find something else to write about soon.

Just in case anyone is reading this.

Swords Against Wizardry

Fritz Leiber

I hope by book four of the adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser that you are up to speed on the whole "Swords" link in the titles.

The first half of Swords Against Wizardry deals with their attempt to collect certain legendary gems and their adventures along the way, and what happens when they attempt to sell the gems they have acquired.  In keeping with the general pattern of the stories, they are equal to the task of acquiring a treasure and rubbish at turning it into gold that they can spend.  Out heroes start by climbing Stardock, the highest mountain in Newhon, and along the way they run into invisible adversaries, and even collect a reward from two invisible ladies...well, actually two rewards, but only one they can carry away when they leave.

This is followed by the story of how they swindled out of their reward, which leads each to take a contract to the distant land of Quarmall.  The Lords of Quarmall is the first of the stories that was written, and most, or at least a good bit, of it was not written by Fritz Leiber.  He gives his collaborator, or one might say benefactor, full credit, both in the dedication of the book, and in a short forward.  The first part of the story was written in 1936.  Fritz Leiber took up the tale 25 years later and finished it.  Our two heroes show themselves not only to be fantastic swordsmen, but also quite cunning.

More fun reading and there are still three to go.