journal: win

Popular Mechanics reveals Microsoft Multitouch Platform: Milan

By Eric, May 29, 2007

Based off of Jeff Han’s multitouch technology, Microsoft has developed a new platform of computing, which they are calling Surface (codenamed “Milan"). This revolutionary technology surrounds the concept of being able to touch your computing. The multitouch technology is most simply a glorified touch screen, one that can sense multiple touches, including movement. As can be seen from the early conceptual video by Jeff Han here, the use of the technology is nearly endless. We have already seen it in the iPhone, slated for release next month.

Microsoft has taken it a step forward by putting it into a coffee table. Quite seriously however, Microsoft has really raised the bar by integrating wireless technology and the ability to simply place a device on the surface and transfer files to it tirelessly by dragging it to the device itself, right on the surface. Be sure to check out the entire video at Popular Mechanics. Microsoft is going to be selling the technology initially for commercial use, as in hotels. It will cost around $5k-$10k, possibly by the end of 2007, so keep your eyes out!

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How Stacks (the Windows Vista kind) Work

By Liam, April 24, 2007

Search in Windows Vista has been an interesting beast for anyone who followed Vista during the Longhorn years. First it was going to be pervasive throughout the system to the point of making the user folders (Documents, Music, etc.) virtual folders (smart folders, for those who know the Mac version of them.) Slowly and without mention, the search features were brought back into a more manageable feature set. One facet of the old search that remained through to Vista final was called Stacks.

Bill is just your average, run of
the mill guy, worth a trifling
$50 billion

Few people know how stacks work, or even what to do with them. Stacks have received minimal press coverage, and no one really seems to know or care about them. They are neat, but not even Microsoft really explained them enough to get people interested. Luckily, they fit well into the whole desktop metaphor that most modern operating systems have at least a minimal base in, so figuring them out wasn’t too much of a challenge.

To understand stacks in the digital sense, one must think back to a physical desk. Let’s say that Bill works in an office in the time…
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Known knowns, known unknowns, and security

By Nick, April 1, 2007

Rumsfeld's quote aptly describes the world of computer security.

Donald Rumsfeld took a lot a flak in his term as Secretary of Defense. Perhaps one of his best quotes was also his most amusing:

“As we know, there are known knowns are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say,we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

Rumsfeld’s quote aptly describes the world of computer security.

Known knowns

As it stands today, Windows has been, by far, the biggest malware target, partially due to its large market share and partially due to legitimate security problems, especially before Windows XP Service Pack 2. Apple’s Mac OS X has yet to see anything more than a couple sporadic minor malware threats (mostly proof-of-concepts). OS X’s lack of malware is believed to be due to Apple’s relatively small market share and OS X’s inherently better security. Security experts are apparently puzzled as to why Mac OS X hasn’t seen more hacks. Also, it’s debatable whether Mac OS X itself is really any more secure than Windows or if Mac OS X’s good malware record so far is…
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iTunes: What I Want Changed For Vista

By Liam, February 24, 2007

Where to begin? Even Apple admits that iTunes needs some changes for Vista, but they only admitted to wanting to fix the issues with iTunes Store purchases. Despite saying it would be ready a few weeks after the announcement, there is no fix in sight. Now that I’m using Windows Vista final (haven’t you heard?), I want to compile a list of everything I think needs to be added or changed so iTunes is a better Vista application.

Fix the lack of responsiveness. Right now, iTunes on Vista is about as responsive as what Mac OS X used to be (and may still be, depending on the hardware). The responsiveness is truly pitiful, especially considering that every other application on this PC is instantly responsive unless the system is swamped with processing something.
Support the Desktop Window Manger in full. This means that all iTunes windows should animate when opened, closed, minimized, and restored, and that all iTunes windows should have a drop shadows just like any other window in the system. (That screenshot is just inactive iTunes over this Word document resized to be the same size.)
Integrate with built in applications. iTunes should be able to use Window…
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Inside Vista: The Windows Vista Shell

By Nick, February 3, 2007

This is the first in a series of articles looking at some of the key new features of Windows Vista. This article is based on a prerelease build of Vista (Release Candidate 1). Bugs and minor tweaks aside, the feature set discussed in these articles should be pretty much identical to the shipping product, since Release Candidate 1 comes at the end of the product development cycle and should be pretty much feature-complete. Regardless, due to that fact, this article should not be taken as an actual scored review. This particular article will cover the changes made to Windows Explorer, the Start menu, Taskbar, and associated elements of Vista.

And I’m sorry in advance for mentioning Mac OS X a few times in this article. When you write an article like this, sometimes comparisons are inevitable.

Anyway, let’s jump in, shall we?

Windows in, uh, Windows

So what has changed, you ask? A lot. Windows Vista may represent the largest overhaul of the Windows user interface since Windows 95, and I’m not just talking about eye candy, either. Let’s first take a look at the typical Windows Explorer window: