Windows Surface and Other Tablets

I picked up a Windows Surface a few weeks back. I got it mainly to read in bed, because the books are cheap and small, and the Surface's screen is just barely big enough to work for my weak eyes. I tried a few books on the Kindle, but the reading area was just too small to make it work. I spent as much time turning pages as reading.

For the Surface I went ahead and got the upgraded keyboard, which had the raised keys. It cost an extra 50 bucks, but since I type much better on a regular keyboard -- where you can feel the keys -- it was a good call. The Surface does not come with a keyboard, so even the cheaper keyboard is around 100 clams. So they sell the product with the keyboard in their adds, but don't mention the fact that it's a purchased accessory. And, wisely, they set the price point such that once you get your hopes up to get the keyboard, well, you might as well get the good one. And now you're into the device for $450. Well done, I say. Well done.

As long as everything works as advertised.

I spent a little bit of time going through the tutorials on the Windows Surface, because the navigation was not obvious, and because I might be using the device for business. Here are my initial assessments, purely based on my own personal experiences:

The Surface works well enough, given its technical mandate. I was able to get to most of the apps that I used in just a few hours, and was able to figure out how to control the privacy rules in just a few days. That being said, none of it was obvious, since it cut a neat cord from all other Windows OS interfaces. This stuck a bug in my craw, but that's my problem.

It does have an OS bug that occasionally will lock up the computer on certain combinations of commands. Moving back and forth through apps, and within the OS, requires funky Surface-specific gymnastics, which are not intuitive, don't make sense to me, and are not entirely trustworthy.  But most common activities seem to work. Since all the disk memory is flash-based (like all phones and tablets) it is much faster than any older generation PC. But that's all geek-speak.

What are you really saying?

All new tablets, PC's, laptops, phones and consumer operating systems are designed around one guiding principle: route the herd down the slaughter chute to the purchase-mill. This is not new news. It has been documented in countless essays, articles and books since the inception of the internet. At the end of the queue-rope, behind every shiny new object, free piece of software, mindless computer game, or time-wasting maze of useless information, there awaits a Hawker in a frayed, black suit and top hat, smiling like a monkey on a chain.

To some extent, Microsoft solved the navigation problem with Windows 95, which based its navigational scheme on a set of logical menus and short-cut keys. The design was so well conceived and executed that many of my colleagues could work faster and more elegantly using their keyboard than even the fastest of their mouse-burdened cohorts.

Alt-tab works you through all open windows. A touch on the Start (Windows) button will open the Programs menu, where the arrow keys (or sometimes a letter), and a few tabs (or enters) can get you to any location on the computer. Once a program is opened, they all had the same menus which worked off the Alt-<key> rule, so that Alt-F opened the File Menu, and then if you hit the letter of the command under that menu you invoked that command (Alt-F, S will save any Windows file, just as Alt-S will send any email in Outlook), and so on. In 7x you can press the Windows button and type something and Windows will find it, whether it is a file, a program or a website on the internet. It's a great innovation, but there's no money to made in that.

Foot Note?

[I also have worked with purists who would refuse to even use the Windows shortcuts to execute commands, but instead had multiple DOS command windows open (on a Windows PC) where they could navigate across both the local file system and all other navigable servers with just a few keystrokes, much like working on a Unix/Linux OS.  The tab, shift, space and enter keys work in DOS in a funky Unix-Windows convergence that can manipulate files, open and close applications and screw up a computer as easily as if one were clicking a mouse.]

Anyway, back to tablets, I guess. The point is: I don't care much for any of the touch screen interfaces. They are pretty, but massively inefficient. Their only purpose (or should be) to get the user to their destination. Instead, they introduce us to many additional touches, clicks and drags to do even common tasks. In the end, they route us into a rope-queue that leads to a Carnival Hawker with a complimentary stuffed rabbit; but first we'll need your email. And then, since you've gone this far -- and we can tell that you really want that stuffed rabbit -- go ahead and give us your credit card info. Why not make life easy for yourself, and remove this imaginary wall between us, since we're all friends here, in the carnival. And here's your rabbit.

Build a World Around You

Build a world around you

To surround you

With a world of rhymes 

And time

Wind the watch of innocence

Seconds without minutes, hours without days

Moments without night skies or memories of sunrise

Peel back the layers of existence

And cut them like an orange on the last cutting board

Of time

In two, then four, and so on

To the infinity that surrounds you

Air Travel - General Musings

It occurred to me on a recent flight that a big part of the delay in boarding and de-boarding airplanes, or, as they are known in the business, 'the equipment', is the storing and un-storing of carry-on baggage. Because checking bags is such a hassle in terms of time, effort and money, almost everyone who can, will attempt to stuff everything that will fit, into a container of luggage, usually restricted to a size between 14" and 22", weighing less than 40 lbs, and every available crevice of a laptop case or mega-purse.

It might have been a good idea, at some point, but it is clearly not a good idea anymore. Common sense will alert you to the fact that the math is flawed. The solution is pretty simple, really, and I'm kind've surprised that no one has floated it. The formula has probably been debated in the War Rooms of all the big airline companies, but something is holding them back. I suspect it has something to do with money.

This is my idea: Just reduce the size of the overhead luggage requirement so that all passengers can stuff it in the compartment above their head, and designate that space accordingly.

Think about this in terms of the payoff: Airlines reduce their load and boarding time, thereby increasing profits (potentially reducing fares): Passengers reduce their total time-to-destination, which is really of much more value than the three extra pairs of socks and shorts they were previously stuffing into their bags. The luggage business (and retailers) get a windfall profit from the sale of new suit cases.

Just an idea. Must be something I'm missing.

Favorite Rock and Roll Guitarists

In some semblence of order, but certainly not precise:
Jimi Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Eric Clapton
Eddie Van Halen
Steve Howe
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Billy Gibbons
Carlos Santana
Duane Allman
Brian May
David Gilmore
Frank Zappa
Angus Young
Tommy Iomi
Joe Walsh
Lindsey Buckingham
Dicky Betts
Stephen Stills
Todd Rundgren
Joe Satriani
The Edge
Pete Townsend
Ritchie Blackmore
Jeff Beck
Mark Knopfler
Keith Richards
Leslie West
Slash
George Harrison
Chuck Berry

Al Di Meola is the best guitarist I've ever heard, but he's not really rock and roll.

Let me know if I left anyone obvious out.

Writing and Delivering High Quality, Supportable Software

Possible Chapter Titles

• Speed Kills
• Requirements are Requirements
• Don't touch that stove (Design rules)
• Its Just Data
• Its Just a Website
• 1 great coder > 5 average coders
• Only You can Prevent Forest Fires (cfg mgt, src cntrl, build and deploy processes)
• Deja Vu (don't solve problems twice - use open source, buy, or re-use internal solutions)
• Divide and conquer (modularize components to improve speed of development and supportablity)
• Nothing is done until its documented
• Requirements Document  (Provide template)
• Project Management (Must be web-based, collaborative UI - Provide template)
• Configuration Management (Structure of project folders, build and deploy plan. Provide an example in .Net an Java)
• Mock ups (Web UI mock-ups for customer sign-off. Reduce any potential confusion.)
• Proof of Concepts (Do the hard stuff first)
• Iterative Releases and Demos
• Environments
• Testing
• Help (Build your technical documentation into your software via html help modules)
• Production Migration Best Practices (Release steps in worksheet. Post production testing. Sign-offs. Support model)
• Support models.

Recyling

Recycling of everything is the obvious end-state of civilization. Its relatively easy to do, even now, but it could be greatly accelerated by some simple government mandates. This would be the following:

• All residential developments should get a significant property tax deduction if they provide a recycling area and contract out a recyling vendor. If people have an easy way to recycle, and are incentivised with monetary rebates to do so, most citizens will happily participate.
• Recyling facilities may have have to be legislated to locations by demand.
• Recyling vendors should be provided with tax incentives to enter the market.
• Engineers should begin working on technical solutions to recyle the energy and metals of existing landfills.

Energy and Telecommuting

Networking and teleconferencing technology makes it possible for most office jobs to be performed from a home office. If companies were to optimize this opportunity it would eliminate a huge chunk of the commuter traffic. This is happening already, just very slowly. Eventually, it will be everyone's reality. Look for a few enlightened companies to lead the way in this arena.

Don't know the numbers, but just think about the energy and pollution savings that could be realized if we could remove all of these vehicle from the daily commuter traffic.