Windows 8

[chris]

A preview of what's to come using Windows 8

[clarencebunsen]

My current plan is to watch for a discount on a Windows 7 box as Windows 8 units come on line to replace my nearly decade old XP unit. I thought about updating the old box but when I ran the Upgrade Adviser there were some issues. Even if I resolve those I still have a box with a lot of hours on almost all components. If I get a new box & replace the mouse, keyboard & maybe monitor as needed, I should be set until 2020.

[chris]

My desktop is XP and that's my main workhorse. I can wait too but I thought it was pretty cool ...almost like my iTouch and the iPads and smartphones. Pretty soon we can just think it to do what we want with no touching.

[clarencebunsen]

My real concern is that Microsoft seems firm about ending support for XP on April 8, 2014. After that I'll be reluctant to go on-line with XP. I would like to keep the machine operational. For one reason it has floppy, CD & DVD drives in case I need to transfer something to another media.

I found this to go with a new computer.

An Accessory That Replaces Mouse Movements With Hand Waves

It’s been nearly 50 years since Douglas Engelbart, an engineer at the Stanford Research Institute, invented the first computer mouse. Since then, his basic point-and-click input scheme has remained fundamentally unchanged; even trackpads and touchscreens, which recognize multiple points at once, work on the same guiding principle. Now Leap Motion, a San Francisco company, is aiming to reinvent human-computer interaction. Its three-inch-long motion-capture device, known simply as the Leap, lets users control computers and manipulate onscreen objects by just waving their fingers.

www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2012-08/accessory-replaces-mouse-movements-hand-waves

[dave]

I have Windows 7 on my netbook and hate it. There was guy in my town up North who would replace a system with XP or whatever you wanted for $50 and I'm sorry I didn't have it done before I left. He did it for me on an old desktop when the hard drive went and it performed flawlessly afterward.

[clarencebunsen]

Sept 10, 2012 20:32:05 GMT -5 dave said:

I have Windows 7 on my netbook and hate it. There was guy in my town up North who would replace a system with XP or whatever you wanted for $50 and I'm sorry I didn't have it done before I left. He did it for me on an old desktop when the hard drive went and it performed flawlessly afterward.

I know you have some very specific file management issues with Windows 7 but is there anything else with which you have issue? I switch between 7 & XP every day and use Vista whenever I need to do something with my wife's notebook. Each has its quirks but all seem to work for me.

[Ralph]

I’ve been very happy with Windows 7. I have it on my main desktop and my wife’s new Lenovo laptop. Works seamlessly with our Vista desktop and my IBM X40 as well as our network.
Vista still sucks and I am waiting to upgrade the other desktop to Windows 7 when I can.
Hardly anything we do is stored on our PC’s. Everything is shunted to a 1TB Network Hard drive.

The biggest problem with Win 7 on netbooks is that it is what is called a “starter” version, but it is upgradable if you want to throw a few bucks at it.

The only thing I have XP on is my little IBM X40 (yes I still have one that old).
I almost scrapped it a month ago when the original hard drive started to die as a new one is toooooo expensive as it uses a very small IDE drive about half the size of a regular laptop drive.

I decided to look around and wound up replacing it with a King Spec Solid State Drive for about $60.
Damn thing runs faster than hell now!!!! It boots faster than our new Lenovo laptop!
Thinking about trying to upgrade it to Win 7……chancy and the graphics aren’t all that though.

I was amazed and am now noticing that some of the newer laptops are incorporating SSD’s as original equipment.

[chris]

I have Windows 7 on my netbook also but have had no problems. I don't really feel any need to upgrade starter since all my programs I use are on XP desktop. I don't do anything more than surf with the netbook.

[dave]

Yes, I have the Win 7 Starter on my netbook and no, I don't plan to give Microsoft any more money for Windows 7. And it is the file management that provokes my ire. I just can't get used to it. I have a lot of files from writing and other activities. So, when I go away or take my netbook to a meeting I have to contend with a GUI that I really don't like. I'm thinking of doing a dual boot Ubuntu on the netbook and exploring Linux in that way.

[chris]

sneak peak at Windows 8......looks like a smart phone. Probably easier to get around but willl be a bit of a learning curve if you are used to the current versions. This is the way of the future. Hint once the video has stopped, mouse over any of the blocks for a demo.

windows8upgrade.com/

[dave]

Sept 10, 2012 18:48:37 GMT -5 clarencebunsen said:

My real concern is that Microsoft seems firm about ending support for XP on April 8, 2014. After that I'll be reluctant to go on-line with XP. I would like to keep the machine operational. For one reason it has floppy, CD & DVD drives in case I need to transfer something to another media.

I found this to go with a new computer.

An Accessory That Replaces Mouse Movements With Hand Waves

It’s been nearly 50 years since Douglas Engelbart, an engineer at the Stanford Research Institute, invented the first computer mouse. Since then, his basic point-and-click input scheme has remained fundamentally unchanged; even trackpads and touchscreens, which recognize multiple points at once, work on the same guiding principle. Now Leap Motion, a San Francisco company, is aiming to reinvent human-computer interaction. Its three-inch-long motion-capture device, known simply as the Leap, lets users control computers and manipulate onscreen objects by just waving their fingers.

www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2012-08/accessory-replaces-mouse-movements-hand-waves

Here's a video. For most of the time, I'd prefer the lower energy alternative of a mouse, rather than waving my arms and hands like my mother used to when drying her finger nail polish quickly because she was late for an appointment. But for complicated motion, for which hands are well noted ... and why not, after a zillion years of evolution ... Leap Motion would be terrific. But maybe not for highlighting a line on a crowded Excel report.