I’ve been using a subset of the new Essentials suite (beta) for the past few days. There are good things, and there are bad things. In this post, I’m only going to focus on the new Windows Live Messenger, about which I have numerous complaints.

Overall UI

Messenger has been cleaned up a lot since the previous version. The look is brighter and simpler — I dare say, cleaner. Microsoft went with a simple, bright white look instead of the faint blue gradient that was featured in Wave 3.

Full (social) view

The default look in Messenger is a large window showing contacts on the right and a wall of updates on the left relating to status messages and social networks. Windows Live profiles can now aggregate content from Facebook, Twitter, Digg, other networks, and even RSS feeds, and this full view seems to support Facebook and Myspace.

The full view takes up a lot of space with things I could care less about

I dislike this view a lot, because in my mentality, Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging application; I could care less about status updates. Certainly, I do not want status updates to take up more of my screen real estate than my contact list. Of course, if you link WLM to Facebook, you get a slightly more useful updates as follows:

When Facebook updates are shown, the space is used more effectively

As a result, I use the compact view. There is a button in the main window to switch between the two views.

Use this button to switch between views

Compact view

This look is more akin to the old-fashioned contact list we’re familiar with. The view here, of course, is customized to my liking. While I appreciate the no-nonsense look here, the ads at the bottom are just slightly distracting and annoying.

Compact view is essentially the traditional contact list

One of my minor complaints about the new look is the coloured ring around the display pictures of contacts. In previous versions of Messenger, they were bright and distinguishable. Now, it’s rather difficult to distinguish the green of ‘online’ from the blue of ‘offline’ and the orange of ‘away/idle’ from the red of ‘busy’.

The faint colour of these rings is difficult to scan quickly

Tabbed chats

This is one of the best innovations in this version of Messenger, and it conveniently eliminates the need for unofficial hacks like Messenger Plus (although Messenger Plus is still useful for encrypted chat logs, which Messenger does not support to this day).

Chats with new messages flash in a highlight colour

Unfortunately, I don’t seem to be able to drag a tab and detach it from the window. Ars Technica reports that it is possible to do so only by right-clicking a chat and choosing to undock it, but it is not possible to then combine undocked chats to create separate windows for separate categories of instant messaging dialogues.

Windows 7 integration

It was extremely annoying in Wave 3 that Messenger was identified as 2 windows by the taskbar (and by the Flip 3D window switcher). Wave 4 has fixed this issue and added better taskbar integration, with coloured icons to change one’s status.

Windows Live Messenger has better support for Windows 7's taskbar

The right-click menu on the taskbar icon in Windows 7 also has quick options to start chats with favourite contacts, sign out or exit the application. This is really useful when the main window isn’t open, and is also a quick way to terminate Messenger (there’s no Exit option in the File menu of individual chats).

Windows Live Messenger Wave 4 has a capable and useful right-click menu on the taskbar

Critical changes that may make me stop using Windows Live Messenger

Handwriting

In previous versions of Messenger, there was always a Handwriting tab in instant messaging chats so that one could quickly and conveniently send ink messages. I don’t think anybody uses it nowadays for handwritten messages (considering the small number of Windows-based tablets in the market) but it has come in quite handy for mouse-drawn sketches.

I’ve used it extensively for illustrating simple graphs, diagrams, or even flowcharts. Example: curves in economics:

Windows Live Messenger used to support handwriting / ink messages

Not having this in Windows Live Messenger Wave 4 means: not only I can’t send them, no one can send any to me — even if they really are just sent as images.

Update (June 27): there’s a thread on one of Microsoft’s sites where this is discussed; a Microsoft representative explained why it was removed.

This is inconvenient to the point that I need to draw things in Paint and send them over photo sharing or look for 3rd-party online whiteboard tools.

Link redirection

This is the biggest issue I have with Wave 4. It seems that clicking on links in Messenger chats sends me through a transparent* redirect through a Microsoft-owned domain called rdir.us. Generally, it turns a hyperlink like http://www.google.ca/ into something more like http://rdir.us/?l=http%3a%2f%2fwww.google.ca&h=P7EAwkjXoRug38Nw8P6JID7b86dBALSnm4DSbAQcGQs%3d&p=1.

* transparent only in certain instances. On other occasions, harmless URLs (like this one) have an intermediate page: (all of the following screenshots are from Mozilla Firefox)

This is an annoying instance of unwanted interference

I can understand why this redirect may be necessary. For example, when I click on a malicious link, the redirect prevents me from going through and instead shows a warning screen:

rdir.us blocks me from visiting an unsafe URL

However, this is worrying for a few reasons. First, I have no idea what that hash in the URL is; does it identify me or the person who sent the link? Secondly, is Microsoft logging all the click-throughs, and knowing what sites users visit? (I suppose they could do this already by keeping records of all instant messaging chats, but this takes it even further.) Thirdly, why is this redirect necessary, if most modern browsers (Firefox, Chrome and even Internet Explorer) already have this filter?

I don’t want Microsoft to intercept my visits, nor show me a Bing search bar whenever something breaks.

Shameless promotion of Bing.

Conclusion

While I readily admit that Windows Live Essentials Wave 4 has made strides forward in certain areas, like integrating social networks, I also think Microsoft has made some pretty notable blunders in their conscious decisions to add link redirects and remove handwriting support. If you want to avoid these things, it looks like you need to stay on older versions of Windows Live Messenger.

For more reviews, read Ars Technica on Messenger Wave 4 or Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows.

Technology

Windows has entered a new era

The decade—indeed, the century—began with Windows 2000, which I consider the first great version of the operating system. XP was the version that brought widespread success, and people just seem to refuse to upgrade; even today, almost three quarters of the computers on the net are on XP.

Despite the dismal failure of Windows Vista, it too brought change, which was followed by the enhancements of Windows 7. Compare my desktop today to the ugly screens of a decade ago:

Apple deserves an honourable mention for the ground-breaking work they’ve done on the Mac, elevating it to a newly trendy status.

Portable media players have completely changed

A decade ago, CD players and tape-based Walkmans were still the norm for ‘portable’ audio players. The iPod, launched in 2001, entirely changed the game. (I suppose this and the iPhone were the “comeback of the decade”.) It was no longer a device that played removable media. That was followed by thousands of other portable media players, to which the public generally refers inaccurately as “MP3 players”, reflecting the popularity of the 15-year-old MP3 format that has also been notorious for illegal file sharing (see below).

Cell phones and mobile devices have become ubiquitous

These devices used to be ugly, huge and heavy objects. As we move into 2010, cell phones have become more compact (usually this means thinner and lighter) and more powerful.

In China, about 739 million people have cell phones; that’s more than there are Internet users in China (which is about 360 million).

Mobile devices have become truly powerful. The iPhone, purportedly the most popular cell phone of 2009, is one of the biggest platforms for software development. And it has a touch screen. RIM’s BlackBerry, initially launched in 1999, is the most popular smartphone among business users.

Ordinary people begin to embrace ultra-portable netbooks for lightweight computing. The move to mobile is probably the most noticeable trend in end-user gadgetry in this decade.

Illegal file sharing has emerged

I don’t personally think of torrenting itself as a major problem, and it’s difficult to sympathize with big companies when the RIAA is being stupid. At the same time, it’s pretty easy to see how having hundreds of movies, TV shows and music albums distributed through torrents can take away from earnings for content producers. (Some dispute this and argue that those who pirate movies and TV shows are those who will purchase related memorabilia or boxed sets.)

In any case, it is virtually undisputed that new technologies have made distribution of such content much easier. In the previous decade, pretty much everyone was on dial-up Internet and only the students at universities with blazing connections were able to do it (think about the controversial Napster).

The best known site for illegal content

YouTube happened

YouTube and hundreds of other video sites have revolutionized the way we watch video. What used to be distributed on tapes and discs has moved onto the Internet in a way that allows ordinary folks—not videophiles or geeks—to share their multimedia with the world.

YouTube is also the icon of the so-called Web 2.0, which is oriented on user-generated content. (Flickr deserves an honourable mention for high quality pictures, just like Vimeo for high class videos.) It has made it possible for teens with crazy personalities and high-pitched edited voices, artists who post music videos, and crazy dancers who travel the world to reach out to a vast audience. Above all, it’s a legitimate new form of entertainment.

Following the success of online video, major content producers began to license music for online distribution (think Pandora or Last.fm, not to mention Internet radio) as well as movies and TV shows (think Hulu).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Open source projects have become worthy challengers

More than a decade ago, in 1996, the Apache HTTP server became the most popular web server in use; today it has surpassed 100 million web sites served.

Mozilla Firefox, having risen out of the ashes of the Netscape browser, although not the most widely used browser in the world (it’s 2nd), is apparently used by 32% of the market analyzed by StatCounter.

While I still use Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org is also a notable alternative to the proprietary and dominant office suite, especially on non-Windows operating systems.

And then there are the programs used by geeks, like the Eclipse IDE or Aptana Studio, that are depended upon. (For all of you multimedia geeks, there are open source programs that do the job much better than their closed source counterparts; think about Handbrake, VLC…)

Businesses can now also depend on open source projects like Sugar CRM that build their revenue model around support and premium features.

News has moved onto the Web

My primary news source  now is the Web. Google News is one of my frequently visited sites, as it is a fantastic aggregator of headlines. I subscribe to e-mail summaries from the Toronto Star and breaking news alerts from the New York Times. ArsTechnica and TechCrunch are my sources for technology-related news, and occasionally Mashable and Neowin. Those pesky short links in the tweets of people I follow also make for engaging news articles.

Wikipedia happened

At the beginning of this decade, I was researching in books and print encyclopedias. The conventional wisdom today of “just Google it” didn’t work so well then. And certainly there wasn’t a Wikipedia for the wealth of human knowledge that it now contains.

Today, I can near-instantly read up on the history of Wal-Mart or read up on the Beslan school hostage crisis and its media coverage. If I truly need it, Wikipedia connects with Wikisource, the free library and Wikibooks where I can read Anna Karenina online (and I wouldn’t, because Constance Garnett’s translations are really lacking).

It’s truly amazing that the sum of all human knowledge can be collaboratively archived and updated through the likes of Wikipedia. Perhaps they need your support this holiday season!

What do you think? Did I miss out on something big that happened in this decade in the world of tech? Write a comment!

(I did, however, intentionally exclude social networking—i.e. Facebook—because I don’t think it’s been revolutionary in any major way. Sure, it has connected people in new ways, but it’s still relatively fresh and more time is needed to see where it goes. Similarly, I omitted touch because it hasn’t entirely caught on yet; tablet PCs were a dismal failure a few years ago and I haven’t yet seen their widespread success. Furthermore, I omitted cloud computing because it doesn’t directly affect a large number of people. Feel free to disagree with me in the comments.)

Worldly Matters

I think September 11, 2001 marked the start of a new era of warfare and international affairs. The terrorist attacks, inasmuch as they have been abused to justify ill-advised battles, did shock the world.

I recommend you head over to the Big Picture where you’ll be dazzled by splendid photos of this decade, including commentaries on the World Trade Center attacks and war. And dozens of other things like natural disasters (remember Katrina, or the Sichuan earthquake?), the Beijing Olympics, and terrorist attacks in London.

2009 has been a fantastic year. I look forward to the future.

Happy holidays and all the best in 2010!

There is reasonable hype about Office 2010, but I don’t recommend using pre-release versions — at least until a new one comes out — and I will also be uninstalling and going back to Office 2007. (I’ll note, of course, that I’m usually a bleeding edge software user who ignores the warnings that “pre-release software is unsafe for production use”. Windows 7 RC is my main machine’s operating system, I’m using the dev channel of Google Chrome, and I use pre-release versions of Firefox.)

In short, I’m not going to write any more about my experiences with the Technical Preview.

• Interface improvements
  • Aero Glass
  • Ribbon
  • Backstage
  • Animations tab

I’ve had about 4 days now to play with the Office 2010 Technical Preview, which, according to Ars Technica, is actually a slightly older build than the most current one, and for which testers were “hand-picked”.

I did end up installing both the 32-bit and the 64-bit editions of the software, realizing that I wanted to see whether 64-bit was stable (and it seems to be). When I discovered that Office 2010′s PDF export functionality is terribly inferior to Adobe Acrobat (more on that later), I went back to 32-bit so that the Acrobat add-in would work, but discovered to my horror that it crashes Word (but more on that later).

Let’s get started with some fresh content about interface improvements. LOW-BANDWIDTH WARNING: there are a LOT of screenshots.

Interface improvements

Indeed, Office 2010 is even prettier than Office 2007, at least in my opinion. The splash screens are now animated, as demonstrated below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On Windows 7, the titlebar blends seamlessly into the application, taking the Office 2007 look a bit further by merging it with Aero Glass. It’s a nice change.

Applications with the ribbon now integrate seamlessly into Aero Glass on Windows 7

Tip: on my blog, you can click on any image that links to the picture to see a larger version.

Some people don’t like how the colour is now white, but I don’t mind it at all. I just wish the colour schemes were actually available. In Office 2007 there was a choice between Blue, Black and Silver.

Seems the colour schemes aren't available in the Technical Preview

Ribbon, Ribbon Everywhere

The ribbon (also known as the Fluent UI) is now extended to Outlook and Publisher as well. (In Outlook 2007, messages and composing would take place in a window with the ribbon, but the application itself was ribbonless.)

Outlook 2010 has a ribbon now

Unfortunately, the ribbon seems to complicate Publisher, allocating valuable screen space (of which people have tons these days) to tools that will be used once or twice in the life of the workflow.

Too much space is dedicated to the colour schemes

More follows the jump.

Backstage area

One of the most major changes is the new Backstage view, where the Office button leads to something that covers the entire window as opposed to a menu. (The screenshot below was taken in Microsoft Word. Interestingly, new features must have been added to the .docx format, since a .docx file from Word 2007 shows an option to “convert” it to enable the 2010 features.)

The main Backstage view for Word 2010

The Backstage view enables one of the coolest UI improvements: printing. Instead of a pop-up prompt for printing and a separate option for print preview, the Print view integrates both into one beautiful and easy-to-use screen.

Printing in Word 2010 is a streamlined process

One cool thing about Backstage is that it’s colour-coordinated with the applications’ icons. Word, which has a blue icon, naturally has a blue Backstage area, whereas OneNote, for example, has a beautiful purple one.

OneNote's Backstage area is a beautiful purple

Quite unimportant indeed.

New Animations tab in PowerPoint

In PowerPoint, the animations and transitions have been separated into independent tabs, making it easier for users to add and change animations.

A new tab makes it easier to add animations

The drop-down shows neat graphical representations of the animations.

The animations dropdown has neat illustrations

More about actual feature improvements is being drafted right now; that’ll come in Part 3!

Appendix: gallery of screenshots used in this post

Legal notice: since this isn’t a private beta, I am allowed to discuss the preview and my experiences with it. However, I am not allowed to share product keys, installer files, and documents to which I have access by virtue of the invitation. The contract that binds me with reference to the technical documentation quotes as follows:

You […] agree: (a) to refrain from disclosing or distributing the Confidential Information to any third party for five (5) years from the date of disclosure of the Confidential Information by Microsoft to Company/You; (b) to refrain from reproducing or summarizing the Confidential Information…

Thankfully, there’s a public pressroom for Office 2010 information, from which I was able to get equivalents of the stuff in the confidential documents. Here’s some information for you.

System Requirements

Office 2010 is designed to work on computers with very limited resources; after all, many businesses were concerned that they would once again need to upgrade their hardware. Office hasn’t really necessitated hardware upgrades in the past; Office 2003 ran very well on old Dell OptiPlex machines on Windows 2000, and Office 2007 ran quite well on older XP laptops.

The specific details are in the FAQs document.

Office 2010 System Requirements; click to see full image

The installers are rather compact; the Technical Preview 32-bit/64-bit installers for Office 2010 Professional are no more than 600 MB each.

64-bit editions

I’m currently on Windows 7 RC 64-bit edition, but I resolved ultimately to install the 32-bit edition of Office 2010. This is due to the following reasons:

• The 64-bit edition of Office 2010 does not support most add-ins.
  Users of software with add-ins in Office programs will find that most of them do not work with the 64-bit edition of Office 2010. Software vendors are expected to release newer 64-bit add-ins, but users must use the 32-bit edition for compatibility with older add-ins.
• One cannot upgrade Office 2007 to Office 2010 64-bit.
  According to the technical documentation, “2007 Office system cannot be upgraded to native Office 2010 64-bit.“
• I don’t work with spreadsheets greater than 2 GB in size.
  The documentation listed a number of benefits of using the 64-bit edition. The central point was being able to open large Excel spreadsheets. Since I don’t do this, the benefits of the 64-bit architecture are insignificant when it comes to Office 2010.

Screenshots of my installation will come in the next installment of these posts. That is, after I manage to install it. At the moment I’m getting the following error with the 32-bit installer, after customizing the install and even going through a few minutes of the installation progress bar.

The error I'm getting with the installer

If this persists with the 32-bit installer, I may have no choice but to try the 64-bit installation.

Update: the installer has now succeeded. More will be coming!

Finally, I've managed to install it.

Update: Part 2 is here, with screenshots and commentary on interface improvements!

“…introducing Bing: the better way to Google”; also known as “the easiest way to Google since Yahoo!”

Click here to view the embedded video.

via TechCrunch

I am also accustomed to my taskbar being set in “Combine when taskbar is full” mode, which is a compromise between the dock-resembling Windows 7 taskbar and the older taskbar style with which XP and Vista users would be familiar. This looks something like this:

An alternative taskbar look for Windows 7

Today, I decided to see if I could get accustomed to the Windows 7 taskbar look, which involves taking out those labels and showing merely the icons. Screenshot by Paul Thurrott:

The default Windows 7 taskbar style

This is when I discovered something cool yet shocking about my browsers.

Firefox in the taskbar

Mozilla Firefox is a nice browser; that’s why I use it most of the time. Google Chrome is lightweight, fast, and aesthetically pleasing; that’s why it’s my default browser.

But neither of them seem aware of Windows 7. Their browser icons are plainly represented in the taskbar, even when I’ve got multiple tabs open. In the screenshot to the right, Mozilla Firefox only gets one taskbar thumbnail when I mouse over the icon, even though I have 4 tabs open. The icon, too, doesn’t reveal anything about how many tabs are open.

Chrome has the same issue

With Google Chrome, the exact same thing happens. The thumbnail is one of the application, not the individual tabs open, so it would appear that Windows 7 isn’t aware of the individual tabs nor is Chrome taking advantage of the new taskbar.

Internet Explorer has no issue with this; as soon as more than one tab is opened, the taskbar reflects this change. Note: the same change occurs for Chrome and Firefox if multiple WINDOWS are opened.

Windows 7 recognizes tabs in Microsoft's browser

The shocking thing is, Apple’s new browser takes advantage of the taskbar. Perhaps one expects this from a company that focuses on user experience and aesthetics. But this just makes Safari awesome.

The taskbar actually recognizes the individual tabs in Safari 4

You’ll notice that the thumbnails aren’t of the browser, but of the individual pages loaded in tabs. This means that I can click on a thumbnail to go directly to that tab — an excellent convenience, thanks to the Windows 7 taskbar.

I’m very surprised that Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, two of the most common browsers among people who are on the cutting edge of software technology, aren’t taking advantage of Windows 7′s new taskbar. After all, according to Wakoopa (which tracks software usage), Firefox and Chrome are the 1st and 3rd most used browsers on Windows. Come on, Mozilla developers, make your browser more Aero-aware and taskbar-aware! Even Chrome looks nicer on Aero Glass by default.

Chrome looks really attractive with an Aero Glass interface

Taskbar thumbnails are really useful when the taskbar items don’t have labels and when the icons are combined. It’s no longer necessary to read the labels to determine which item to click on; I can just mouse over, quickly scan over the thumbnails, and click on the one I want. Kudos to the people at Microsoft who came up with this intuitive interface!

If you’re still on Windows XP — noting that it is nearly 8 years old — or on Vista, Windows 7 is a major step up in terms of the user interface. It might take a bit of adjusting, but in the end, I am certain you’ll like it.

Technological Expectations for 2009

Things we hope to be released in 2009:

Kindle 2.0 (from Amazon)

The Amazon Kindle is a wireless reading device from Amazon that many people in the United States are already enjoying as an alternative to physical newspapers, novels, and documents. Amazon is expected to deliver a new version of the device, possibly in a smaller/more compact form factor. Additionally, there have been many complaints about the keyboard and the page navigation keys, all of which may be addressed if a Kindle 2.0 is designed. There’s also been discussion about a textbook edition that could be exactly what students need to avoid lugging around huge, cumbersome, heavy textbooks. I would certainly appreciate e-textbooks; wouldn’t you?

An improved consumer Mac desktop (Apple)

Though the iPod (and iPod Nano), iPhone, and Macbook series have all seen massive improvements, Apple has not changed the iMac significantly except for faster processor speeds and more memory. What about changes that the consumer can see, feel, or save? As of now, their top-of-the-line 24-inch iMac at 3.06 GHz costs a whopping $2,299 CAD. Cheaper prices would help as much as product improvements.

Windows 7 (Microsoft)

Admittedly, its release date could be any time between mid-2009 to 2010, but we’re hoping for it as early as possible, because the earlier it gets out, the better the PC experience will be, and the more competition there is for the consumer desktop. New features like touch, improved user-friendly interface for all the applications (even WordPad and Calculator), and sensors are sure to distinguish this Windows version from any previous one. Perhaps it will even match Mac OS X in terms of aesthetics and usability in day-to-day tasks (the fun ones, like making movies and managing photos, not the productivity/business things). The SuperSite for Windows has more to read about Windows 7.

Windows Live Wave 3 (Microsoft)

This entails a new version of the Windows Live apps — Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Writer, and newer additions such as Movie Maker. Windows Live Wave 3 also involves improvements to Microsoft’s online services (such as Spaces, Windows Live Mail, and FolderShare) that are already beginning to take place. Also, don’t forget that Microsoft announced plans to have Office in the cloud — Word-like, Excel-like, and PowerPoint-like applications that run inside a browser. Add that to their existing Office Live Workspace and certain business solutions, and we see Microsoft adopting the Cloud. Add Azure as a platform initiative, and we see Microsoft trying to lead the way again in terms of platforms. Once again, Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows has more to read.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard (Apple)

Snow Leopard is just a bit of an improvement on Leopard, and will add enhanced 64-bit support and other backend changes. Though it’s not particularly exciting, I’m sure it has many Apple fans hyped up.

Taking a little bit of a break from the content, you can subscribe to this blog by e-mail for free to get updates whenever a new post of interest is published:

Technological Hopes for 2009

How about the things we imagine, or hope to have (but probably won’t have)?

A consumer-affordable OLED television (Sony)

Just because OLED technology is in active development doesn’t mean that this will necessarily happen in 2009. As of the current year, an OLED TV from Sony costs over $2000, which makes it an unlikely choice for the average consumer, particularly given the recent economic crises.

A netbook from Apple

The Asus Eee PC that I have is ‘nice’, but I’m sure Apple could do a better job. As it stands, netbooks lack usability, given their tiny keyboards, tiny trackpads, small screens (and relatively miniature screen resolutions), limited processing power, and limited memory. If Apple decides to enter this field, they would face the same challenges, but could certainly design a better keyboard, a more usable trackpad (based on the one used on the new Macbooks), and invariably a better operating system than the customized Linux distribution or Windows XP.

For all we know, this concept is in the works.

Virtual Reality: Gaming and more

This was actually brought up by an acquaintance recently, who noted that video games are already becoming increasingly realistic, and that a large proportion of teens don’t distinguish between the unreal and the real anyhow. Virtual reality would make things seem even more realistic, but then we face the combined dilemma of: (a) limited computing power — only the newest computers have even a chance at a virtual simulation with a good resolution and frame rate, and virtual reality would be extremely difficult to implement in an affordable gaming console; (b) more time spent gaming; (c) some gamers would not distinguish between life and virtual reality — what if they practice killing in virtual reality and take that to real life?; (d) how would injury be simulated? — in a sniper game, for instance, how would a game provide physical feedback that you’ve just been shot?

Faster Internet connections in Canada!

This is just wishful thinking. While Japan and Northern Europe enjoy some of the fastest connections in the world (measured in gigabits per second), we in North America (more so in Canada than the United States) have to live with 5–20 Mbps connections over cable or DSL. At least large population centres in the U.S. can get FiOS; we don’t even have that.

What we need is competition. If Rogers Communications loses its (almost) monopoly over cable Internet, and if Bell Canada didn’t dominate telephone and DSL so much, maybe we’d see impressive improvements each year. What I want is affordable, 50+ Mbps connections — and I hope to avoid DSL.

3D holography

We’re still a long way from the interactive, life-like holodecks of Star Trek… but that doesn’t mean we can’t try. Projection-style holography is still very much possible today, and if technology moves forward the way we’d like it to, we’ll hopefully have three-dimensional images soon.

Practical applications of consumer-oriented holography, and that means outside the business or Pentagon or military, include the luxury of changing decorations in a split second, to have a ridiculously advanced visualizer for iTunes (or whatever media player you happen to be using), or maybe some futuristic gaming machine.

Is it too early to ask for a transporter or a replicator? (As far as I know, neither of those are likely within the next 50 years.)

Widespread hybrid/hydrogen automobiles

While hybrids are already becoming popular, the truly efficient and pollution-less automobiles, the hydrogen car, is still out of reach in most of the world. The hydrogen infrastructure just isn’t there; there are nearly no hydrogen fueling stations in most of the United States and probably none in Canada. I would like to see this technology mature.

Societal Changes in 2009

What’s going to shift in our society?

Increasingly-radical Christianity

In the past few years, we’ve always been talking about “radical Islam”, but a developing trend is “radical Christianity”. I’m making the most of my freedom of expression to note the increasing extremism of many denominations on social issues such as gay rights, abortion, immigration, war, trade, marijuana, and — believe it or not — health care. During the recent American presidential elections, we have seen church groups involving themselves in campaigning for or against certain candidates; we’ve seen endorsements from some, such as Reverend Wright, and condemnations from others. We’ve seen Catholic churches adamantly oppose birth control of any sort, evangelical Christians fighting for “the sanctity of life” and “the traditional family”, and all-in-all, an increasingly alarming involvement of the church in daily life and politics.

Let’s talk about one issue, perhaps one of the biggest issues, of recent months.

California’s Proposition 8 sought to ban all gay marriages in the state, and was affirmed by 52% of the voters. Religious organizations on both sides added to the conflict. My problem with Proposition 8 and the faulty logic used by religious proponents (“we’re protecting our religious rights and values”) is that a ban, by definition, restricts rights, as Lawrence Lessig will tell you. If a church doesn’t want to marry gay couples, they don’t have to; it’s not like the lack of a ban forces them to carry out such an action, whereas the ban would force other religious organizations to turn away gay couples.

Religious groups are abusing the role of religion in people’s lives. I will openly admit to being atheist, but to attack my reasoning based on atheism would be an illogical, ad hominem attack. This argument comes not from my atheism, but rather my atheism comes from it.

Inevitable gay rights movement

We cannot deny that this is a huge issue that will be campaigned for and against. Given the attention dedicated to such matters in 2008, I believe it will continue to be a large problem in 2009, and may perhaps be addressed (either favourably and unfavourably) by certain judicial bodies.

Liberalization of the U.S. Supreme Court

Barack Obama’s successful bid for president places him in the powerful position of appointing Supreme Court justices. If he can appoint a sufficient number to swing the court to the left, we may see the court overturning previous rulings on abortion, and perhaps further precedents.

Continuing rise of Asia

Asian nations, specifically China and India, are poised in positions of massive economic influence. Whether they can continue that influence and dominate trade is a matter for their governments and businesses to decide. China, on one hand, may begin to loosen rules on privatization and employment, while India’s government may take action to improve conditions and the quality of life throughout their territories. The United States’ weak economy makes it doubly vulnerable to the lure of cheaper business with China and India.

An eye on space

Already India has sent an object to the moon. The development of the International Space Station is progressing nicely. Space shuttles are to be sold off. Satellites are being launched and destroyed.

Would it be too far-fetched to say that space is at least a concern for every developed nation’s government and people?

Personal Expectations for 2009

Now we move from the general into the specific; from the societal to the individual. In 2009, I hope to improve my relationships with others, to exemplify the best characteristics of humanity, and in doing so, to live by the dictates of philosophy. I make it my New Year’s Resolution(s) to be a better person: to care more about the lives and feelings of friends and acquaintances… to treat strangers as friends… to open myself to influences… to help others lead more meaningful lives… and to combat societal issues that threaten to destroy the peaceful ways of life we enjoy.

In 2009, I also hope to gain a wider and more active readership on this blog. You can help, by commenting on this post, by subscribing to the blog via e-mail or RSS, and by sharing my posts with your friends.

Contribute to Frederick or Frederick’s Timelog

It’s nearly the end of 2008, which means 10 months of content that has evolved to support a community of readers. You can contribute to me or the operation of this blog in many ways:

• giving me feedback and discussion by commenting
• sponsoring a post on this blog (see below)

You could purchase a sponsored post on the blog, either directly (by contacting me) or through PayPerPost. These sponsored posts could be made about your business, product or service, and would deliver you link juice, publicity, as well as traffic. Sponsored posts recover more than half of this site’s operating costs.

Thank you for your continued readership!

Now they’ve released a new set of commercials that do promote Windows, and they are a bit more effective.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The only thing I’m confused about is: if Windows is the product that is being promoted (as one can tell from the logo shown at the end of each commercial) why are they promoting “PC’s” as opposed to Windows? I can understand why Apple would promote the Mac over the PC (as they produce hardware & software and it’s the combination that is being marketed), but not why Microsoft is using the term PC, which is not a Microsoft product nor a Microsoft innovation. Perhaps it’s just because Microsoft doesn’t perceive Linux and other PC operating systems as a threat.

Anyhow, I invite you to vote on this poll. Choose “Yes” or “No”, and also choose the reason closest to yours.

Here’s a screenshot of my desktop; yes, I’m sure it could look even better if I were running Vista.

If you also have a huge screen resolution like mine (1920×1200), you can take a look at the screenshot in its original size and glory.

As you can see, I like to keep my desktop icons organized (this is the way it’s probably going to look for the next year or two) and I only keep applications that I use extremely frequently on the desktop. Everything else is accessed through the Start menu. (Word 2007 and iTunes are in the often-used programs list, so I don’t necessarily want them on the desktop.)

I’ve also styled Windows using the Zune theme from Microsoft, which gives everything a slick, glossy look. I really like it. With a bit of tweaking, I got it working on 64-bit XP. You can download it for free.