Windows 8 drama

I just got my new deskstop ( SHIPPED ALL THE WAY FROM AUSTRALIA YO!),

from Origin PC. It’s my new baby and is a baby monster. BUUT that’s not important right now.

What’s important is that I have half a mind to sue people for psychological damages.

See my new desktop comes in Windows 8. I decided that I would rather make the upgrade myself than let Microsoft force me into it in the future, however after placing my order and doing a quick research on Windows 8 online, I was thoroughly freaked out.

Everywhere, everyone was complaining about how difficult it was to use, how troublesome it was, how unfriendly it was to non-touch screen (aka desktop) users, how inefficient it was and hard to learn, I was starting to regret ordering Windows 8.

My first windows 8 experience on my friend’s touch laptop was not anymore comforting, I couldn’t get ANYTHING to come out properly, and there were all these new names, like charms and metro and tiles!

I bookmarked 3 websites that had like more than 10 walkthroughs each on windows 8 to help me survive.

And the day came, my baby arrived and it was time to face the challenge.

And I wanted to take the wooden crate and smash people’s head in.

Windows 8 is so EASY.

It’s not a RADICAL change from windows 7, they just gave you that extra metro start screen that works like a tablet! It’s quite literally, tablet mode and dekstop mode. And tablet mode to me is a great idea because you don’t ALWAYS want to see your full desktop and go through a million icons and buttons to find that ONE program that will upload your facebook photos. It’s really convenient, but if you want you can live on desktop mode…forever.

I personally do NOT think that it’s stupid to have apps that only work in metro mode and apps that only work in desktop mode, that’s the whole point isn’t it? If you need to check your mail quickly, you’ll go to the one in metro mode and if you need to dig through years of mail and type a million words long letter, you’d go to chrome in desktop and get it done! And honestly, the “gestures” aren’t that complicated that your mouse can’t cope, the basic things like bringing up charms (aka the Menu) is pretty much like Apple’s hot corners. -_-lll Yes, moving your mouse to the top right hand corner of the screen is SOOOO difficult.

Plus it’s not like you have to go to desktop mode to launch desktop only apps, they’ll open up desktop for you….I don’t know the whole thing just makes sense to me. You have your casual windows for you casual computer using that is Metro, everything from information to live feeds and simplified apps for youtube, and you have your work mode for heavy computing that is Desktop where you have have a million windows open typing and editing and surfing and arranging files. How hard is that to comprehend, really?

And some of the apps in metro mode, like Skype, is really pretty! For once Microsoft has an aesthetic sense that I can appreciate!

As for those who plan to invest in a touch screen screen for their windows 8 desktop, lemme tell you, forget it. First, ergonomically, reaching UP towards your desktop screen is worse off for your arms and shoulders than reaching for your mouse. Second, have you any idea how inefficient and retarded it is to swipe across a 20 inch screen, or bigger? I personally think that the keyboard shortcuts are just SO MUCH easier than the touch gestures that unless I get a windows 8 tablet, I’ll happily live with my keyboard and mouse.

The shortcuts are just so easy to remember, I mean think about it, windows key+C is easier to remember than touch up, swipe left and drag right? And almost every short cut is just windows key+<insert another key>, you can even test it out with EVERY KEY on your keyboard if you can’t bring up the right shortcut. The probability of you getting it right is so much higher than making random touch gestures. Plus the keyboard shortcuts aren’t even radical, it’s just a few new add on shortcuts that you need to get use to (basically the windows key+other keys), they didn’t come up with a new cut and paste shortcut and basically if all else fails, the Esc key and Alt+F4 always works if you wanna get out of a app/window you’re stuck in.

In less than a day, I’m already blazing around my new computer because it IS intuitive and easy and efficient. I didn’t even need all those tutorials, I just needed a quick shortcuts list provided by microsoft and was good to go. So I honestly don’t understand all the hate and drama out there.

In my honest opinion, I think people these days are just Drama Queens who hate change, which is really strange because things change more often and more frequently now than in the past and people should just be used to it. But this is just kind of like whenever facebook changes to a new layout isn’t it? It’s actually changing for the better, but people just like to bitch as long as things aren’t what they used to. Their hate for change makes then so blind that they feel compelled and obliged to put Windows 8 in a bad light when it really is so much better.

It really is like how it is in this video, so simple that even kids can teach it. Or maybe it’s just that kids have an open mind and adults don’t…meh drama queens.

 

 

Musings on apps

Please read the foreword to this before continuing reading. Thank you for your patronage! *salutes*

We have too many apps. WAY TOO MANY. I’m sure for kids born into the smartphone age, they can never imagine living without apps. How am I going to keep my schedule without a timetable app!? Ok…so maybe I’m exaggerating…but we really do have too many apps.

I understand of course that the diverse offerings we have are a result of entrepreneurial spirit and hopes to make everyone’s lives easier. There is just one problem with this concept, how does making you live off your phone make life easier?

If your life is in your phone, then when your phone dies..well so does your life. Of course real smart phone junkies will now look at me with a vilified expression and tell me about all these wonderful portable batteries and charging accessories we can utilize and I’d pointedly ignore them. I agree apps make many things more convenient. A tipping app sure beats having to calculate your tips when drunk, productivity apps makes working on the go more efficient…but when you sit down and think about it, some apps really defeat their purpose.

Apps that fall into this category for me are lifestyle apps. If downloading apps are a way to a healthy lifestyle then why oh why are there still so many fat and obese people? I downloaded a sleeping app a while back, mainly to keep track of my sleeping habits and sleep debt. I deleted it after 2 weeks. The app is technically supposed to help you sleep better…or at least sleep enough. They just didn’t take into account that when you are dead tired and want to lie on your bed, you don’t exactly have the energy to ‘punch in’ and when you have the energy to punch in you probably don’t fall asleep right away. I ended up with screwy sleep debt. Ok so that may be the fault of my own laziness but people think about it. The whole point of this app is to make my life healthier and more convenient, instead I have to spend my time fretting over my sleep debt and remembering to punch in and out of my app. Sleeping became a stressful routine. I feel so much better napping and waking whenever I like, without having to make the extra step to grab my phone from wherever it lays to tap a stupid button.

So okay 1 failed app. What about others? The stupidest one I’ve seen thus far is one that talks about maintaining a good eyesight. You know, like watch these videos and look at these pictures to help retain your eyesight. I think you know what’s wrong with this right? The app is supposedly trying to help you prevent your eyesight from failing but it does so by increasing the amount of time you spend looking at a screen. No, I really don’t see the point of this. In fact even some productivity apps leave me bewildered about its supposed efficiency. You see the thing with productivity apps, liken note taking ones and to-do lists are that they are offering a whole new way of organizing your thoughts and life, that you have to follow in order to get the most out of your new app. You gotta type your notes a certain way, assign your tasks in a certain way, spend hours inserting your calendar into it…on a whole it takes so much damn effort to really get any productivity out of these apps that I’d rather just save my time and my life by scribbling in a note book where I can have my to-do list, random thoughts and timetable on the same page, in short hand that I can understand (because the app simply isn’t smart enough to understand where to file “mom money”).

I know that apps give the illusion of making life more streamlined and convenient by converging everything on your phone and to a certain extent, it does and if you master the use of one, it may actually radically change your life for the better. But truth of the matter is, so much of it requires a learning curve that isn’t justified that you can be equally efficient in life without it. If I had the time to plonk my life into my phone, I’d rather spend that time taking the lives on pigs on my phone if you get my drift.

Conclusion? ANGRY BRIDS RULE!