In 1992, an English physicist, working in Switzerland made public this nifty little tech project he had been working on to share documents and data more easily within his research organization.  This little gadget he had invented was what we now know as the World Wide Web, that sprawling interconnected series of files that seems to dominate our lives now.  Everywhere you go, you see addresses for web sites plastered on billboards, book covers, newspapers etc.  It is a major economic force now, spawning entirely new service markets and changing the way companies to business on a global scale.

It has also has changed how we communicate, how we learn, how we socialize, how we spend our money and how we spend our free time.  There are very few aspects of our daily lives that have not been in some way altered because of the coming of this great new technology.  And back in the early/mid-90s, this was the coolest thing going.  Email, the Web, Internet Chat, Instant Messaging.  It was all amazing and people were at the same time both terrified and entranced by it.  The frenzy got so bad that it created an economic bubble, that when burst, took years to recover from (some would say we're still recovering from it).  For many of us, we were seeing the world around us change in very dramatic ways, it was a shift in the way things were done, on a similar level to how the assembly line transformed manufacturing, and as a result industry across the globe.

For those who got into it early, most remember their first webpage, their first email address, some of the first sites and systems they ever visited.  For me, it actually dates back to before the web was around.  Yes kids, the Internet did exist  prior to the Web, the term was coined around the time of the merger between the original ARPANET and  NSFNet.  The Internet in anything approximating its current incarnation really came into being in 1984 with the rise of TCP/IP as the communication standard.  History lessons aside, some of us do remember the Internet prior to the Web, and it was all text.  Yes, even with the explosion of the GUI-based computer through the 80s and early 90s, the Internet was just text on a screen, and usually some sort of terminal screen at that!  My first experiences with the Internet were probably around '89/'90 as a wee little munchkin of 7 or 8 going into my dad's office at Penn State on weekends to sit down at his Mac Classic and play with this nifty new toy he got hooked up to at work he was calling the Internet.  At the time, I had no concept of the technical bits behind any of this.  To me, it was like having access to a really really big program just on his computer.  The closest thing I had ever seen to anything like this was the card catalog at my local library.

I used systems such as Usenet and BITNET in bits and pieces originally, but my first memorable experience with this grand new technology was in 1991 with this system called Gopher  out of the University of Minnesota.  For those of you who never used Gopher, it was essentially a system like Lexus Nexus, or the new Google Scholar service where documents such as academic papers, magazine articles and a few books, were manually entered into this giant library system.  It accomplished this through connecting up systems such as WAIS, Archie, Veronica, FTP sites and Usenet.  Using a telnet client and a few basic commands, you could browse, what was at the time, a mind-boggling amount of data.  I was able to read random articles on topics ranging from botany to particle physics.  None of the information was even remotely comprehensible to a little kid like me at the time, but I read it anyway, I drank it all up despite my lack of comprehension.  I was reading these things not because I had a particular interest in them, I was reading them simply because I could and this astounded me.  In retrospect, I now realize that while my dad said he was going in on the weekends to get work done, his main purpose was to bring me in to use this technology that he knew was going to be very very important someday and he wanted to give me a head-start on it.  He spent more time on those weekend trips sitting next to me as we worked together to figure out the strange commands, to figure out errors when we encountered them, and reading all the random little bits of fact we came across.

To me, there's always to some extent been that sense of wonder when I discover some previously unknown corner of the Internet, some new tool, some new resource of knowledge and power.  As an individual, I have instant access to more information than any other individual at any previous point in history.  Before the Internet, you were bound by your own knowledge, the knowledge of those around you, and whatever resources you had available nearby.  Even with the addition of the telephone and radio, with instant voice communication across the vast reaches of the globe, the ability to find and sort data was left to the human brain.  The limits are hard to understand for those of us who have lived so long with this technology.  It all is really amazing if you pause to think about it.  The power it gives us, the knowledge to make better decisions, the way it has improved (and in some ways admittedly worsened) our lives, all of it not possible, not reachable by most people until a mere 14 years ago.  Now, even people with memories of times before the Internet (i.e. anyone over 30) take this all for granted, as if it were as common and natural a thing as sliced bread. 

Are our memories so short that it doesn't even take 20 years for something to become so common place?  And while it's been 14 years technically since the Web hit the scene, the average person still wasn't aware of it until around 1996/1997, so for most people, this newfangled doodad is only a decade old!

So I ask you, when did the Internet stop being amazing?

That is no typo!  180 viruses! I am working on my cousin's daughter's computer and that is how many she had!  It is by far and away the record for me.  I have never had anyone even begin to approach that number of viruses on a single computer!  And it is still not right!

In addition, it had over 1200 items of spy/ad Ware on it (I have heard worst stories on that as I am on a Resnet list).  And why am I working on it?  She complained she was getting "out of memory errors".  No duh!  I am surprised it even booted (barely. It took about 45 minutes to see the desktop, and longer to get into any application).

I am in the process of finishing the installation, but I am going to call my cousin and ask for the restore CD.  I will recover files they have, but I would not feel right giving this back to him as Windows is severly cripled.

180 viruses!  Amazing!

Microsoft is asking vista testers to give feedback on the interface.

A forum has been set up at Link for users to post comments. One of the big threads is about the "windows classic" interface... we shouldn't be too concerned about that though, since as soon as vista ships we'll be customizing it ourselves with windowblinds .

Visit the link to read more.

"Hey Bill."

"It's Brad."

"Yea, whatever. Hey, how you doing?"

"Actually, my back has..."

"That's great, here let me introduce you to Susan, this is Bill."

"Brad."

"Whatever."

In the software world, we always make fun of ourselves by calling it "Starduck". "Yea, those StarDuck guys are making that need Window blind thing." 

Who would have ever thought that the Vista install would make it official...

Good old WindowBlind.  While the spelling being wrong is annoying, it's more annoying that this was on the WindowBlinds Vista build. The compatibility check on it is just looking at the most generic info.  This is on a release candidate so it can still be fixed. But I tell ya, OUCH.

 

I decided to post my Vista Demo Videos after beeing inspired by Brad's Demo. I used CamStudio for screen recording which by the way is free so I recommend it to everyone. I used Windows Movie Maker for mixing videos up together with sound and music and export to 1024px by 576px WMV.* I also posted some full-size 1680px by 1050 px screenshots to accompany the demo.

*Technical Note: My screen has a resolution 1680px by 1050px so some details in the demos might appear small as the video was resized down a bit to reduce its size.

Please let me know if there is any other feature that you wish me to include in the future.

My Vista Demo: Part 01 - Application Switching Size: 4.68 MB / Duration: 01:17 Part 02 - Explorer Size: 17.1 MB / Duration: 05:57 Part 03 - Games Size: 17.8 MB / Duration: 05:08 Part 04 - Windows Media Player 11 Size: 7.76 MB / Duration: 02:19 Part 05 - Snipping Tool Size: 5.58 MB / Duration: 01:36 Part 06 - Volume Mixer Size: 5.81 MB / Duration: 02:03 Part 07 - User Folder Size: 9.13 MB / Duration: 03:16

My Vista Screenshots: My Current Desktop Intenet Explorer Windows Media Player 11 My System Ratings

Greetings!

This forum has been created so that Object Desktop users from around the world can get together and tell us what they'd like to see in Object Desktop.

A lot of changes are coming to Windows in the next several months with Windows Vista in development. And we want to make sure we're here to serve your needs as users of Windows XP and eventually users of Windows Vista.

So if you have a new program, a tweak, a change, or anything else for that matter, let us know.

Thanks!

I suppose I should be thanking my lucky stars. I downloaded Vista and was able to run "Ultimate" without many problems at all. I had to do 0 (yes zero) driver updates and, short of a lack of compatibility with MSN Premium (go figure), everything worked great.

But I assume that MS is counting on the third parties to sell this. There is little, if anything, that I cannot do already. From security to eye-candy, it's soooooo yesterday (as my daughter might say)

I watched the video that Brad put out. It showed me a couple of things that I didn't know. (I would expect this as he very well should know more than I). But I haven't seen any reason to upgrade. The hardware expectations are extreme for the average home user. Frankly, I would council them to spend $50 on OD and get some free programs I know of.....they would be set for the most part.

If the Vista Basic is "Crap" as was said in the video, why bother? At the prices they are talking about? I can't justify that kind of money to anyone. What would I say?

I like the new security features...but I can easily accomplish the same with the programs I already own...(many free)... and a little common sense.

Microsoft has done a fantastic job of getting rid of many of the problems of Vista. But at what cost? There is really nothing new or special here for me. I haven't seen the possibilities...granted. But this is going to fall flat on it's face if they are counting on the general public to be visionary.

I remain amazed at how well it installed and ran. But disappointed at the outcome. I disconnected my hdd in less than 24 hours and went back to enjoying XP. (Which friggin' flew with this setup)

Without big changes...added features...OR SOMETHING, I wouldn't bother to chalk up the hefty amount they want. No way.

Pounce


PC

Today I made a short demo of using Windows Vista. Nothing fancy and admittedly, my live talking to myself demo skills are not particularly impressive. But hopefully you'll be able to get a general overview of Windows Vista.

Click the link below to view it.

The next video in the series will get into more of the meat.  Windows Vista isn't just Windows XP with new eye candy and some new utilities, so stay tuned to see some of the benefits of Windows Vista.

Also, if you want to make your experiences of Windows Vista public, you can read this post.

Screenshots:

 My Vista default desktop

Power Users will be happy with the resource monitor.

Now a universal benchmark for Vista machines. This will become a big deal I predict.

Personalization is both more and less powerful than Vista. We'll talk about more in the coming weeks.

No "skinning" this time around in Vista by default but users can change both the opacity and color of glass in Vista which most will likely prefer.

The new Start menu is a big improvement in most ways over XP's. Easier to find things, better organized, more professional looking.

...and now the video demo...

 

A question that I often ask myself. I didn't seem to meet any female computer/games geek out there so I'm asking does she/them exist in the real world or only she/they are only a fantasy. For example when my coworker got a new computer (P4 2.4 Ghz, 1024 MB memory) I asked her if it's faster then the old one (P3 600 Mhz, 256 MB memory) she replied: "I didn't notice any difference". The second example is I just started with playing the new Heroes of Might and Magic V and when I asked another my friend what she thinks about it when she was watching me playing it she said: "Colors are nice". How about this example. Another coworker got an OS upgrade from win2000 to winXP and she didn't even notice that I upgraded her OS?!

OK I admit those examples are a 'bit' extreme but it made me thinking about females and computers. Is it that computers are made by male for male that there are a lot more male computer geeks out there or is it just that generally females are not that attracted by technology. Shouldn't someone make computers and games that would appeal more to female users.

Please if they are any female computer geeks out there reply to this article just that I will know that female computer geeks exist in the real world as well and not just in my fantasies. Also can you write what kind of computers and games do you like. Me for example like laptops with big screens 17"-20" and good speakers. The most I like playing turn-based strategies (Civilization and Heroes of Might & Magic) and Sci-Fi RPGs (Star Wars: Knights of Old Republic) and NBA Live series.

Comments much appreciated.

Plymouth, MI- (August 31, 2006) – Stardock Entertainment is pleased to