• I didn’t install any of the Windows 8 beta releases and I haven’t been quick to upgrade following the general release.
• My computer is several years old.
• I’m not a gamer.
• I never buy the latest gadgets.
• Most importantly, my family is fairly typical in its computer use, and since we share the primary computer, I can never get too crazy with its setup.

I hadn’t planned to upgrade to Windows 8.  One day I realized that if I didn’t upgrade soon, I was going to start seeing those annoying dialog boxes.  You know the ones.  You go to try a new piece of software or install a new device and it says that your operating system is too old.  I don’t always jump on the newest version of each operating system, but I hate being told that I’m running an old one.  With Windows 8 being delivered on all the new machines, I knew the time was coming soon, and that prompted my cautious upgrade over the holidays. 

It was a five-hour affair.  If I’d actually planned the upgrade instead of deciding on a whim, I definitely would have kicked it off overnight.  Everything went smoothly, though, and I have no complaints about the upgrade process.  When the upgrade was finally complete, guess what?  I still had the same cluttered desktop that I had under Windows 7.

The Verdict

Upgrade!

• Windows 8 feels like a stronger version of Windows 7. 
• Startup time has decreased. 
• The search features of the new Start Menu make it very easy to find application shortcuts. 
• Antivirus software is built into the OS.

Ignore the pundits.  Unless you focus on the differences, Windows 8 is very similar to Windows 7.  You can spend most of your time on the familiar desktop.

If it’s so much like Windows 7, why upgrade?

• OS Improvements – This OS seems more solid to me.  A lot of time was spent optimizing it for performance (to run on smaller devices) and it shows.
• Start Menu – It really is a better way to find your applications.  The search algorithm is very good and I can usually find apps in half-the-time compared to the old start menu.
• The Future – More things are going to focus on Windows 8.  You don’t want to start seeing the annoying dialog boxes.  Upgrade now before you’re forced to upgrade.

You Didn’t Mention Windows 8 Apps

Honestly, I’m still a little on the fence when it comes to the new applications.  Most of the apps are pretty-to-look-at and usually they’re easy to use.  Some reviewers have argued that the tablet-aimed apps don’t translate well to the desktop.  I don’t find navigation to be a major issue, but I think I’m still thrown off by the fullscreen nature of the apps.  I’m used to Windows apps running in, well, windows.  These apps want to consume your screen, which makes switching between them a little less natural.  I’m using Windows 8 Apps a little more each day, trying to push my use of them.  The good thing is, at this point anyway, no one is forcing you to use them full-time.

The Marketing Failure

After reading all of the reviews, hearing the doomsday announcements, and seeing the predictions of utter failure for 8, how does the Average Joe see the product?  Frankly, Microsoft made a huge mistake…but not in the way you’d expect.  Oh, Windows 8 is just fine.  The system is stable and we’ve experienced no issues since the upgrade.  The problem with Windows 8 has been Microsoft’s marketing of the product.  They made a huge mistake in how it was presented to existing Windows users.  Windows 8 is a good, solid upgrade from Windows 7.  In fact, we spend most of our time on the desktop in Windows 8.  If it wasn’t for the start menu, we’d barely think about the upgrade at all.

If I were the head of marketing at Microsoft, I would have come out with a very simple message:

Windows 8:  A Reimagined Start Menu and Fullscreen Gadgets

You know how the Start menu is getting a little cluttered?  It’s hard to find things, right?  We’ve made that easier.  The new Start Menu goes fullscreen and all you do is start typing.  Within a few keystrokes, the application that you need will instantly appear.  Want to switch between the Start Menu and the Desktop?  Just hit the Windows Key.  Simple.

You remember Windows Desktop Gadgets?  They’ve been fused into your new dynamic Start Menu and they’re now full-blown apps.  We have apps for news, weather, email, and a whole lot more.  Just like gadgets, the apps provide their own updates, all on the tiled start screen.  Click on a tile, and the gadget will open up into a fullscreen application!

Since I’m a programming guy, I realize my descriptions aren’t technically accurate, but that’s the experience for the Average Joe.  If I’m not using a tablet, I don’t care about swipe-enabled interfaces and NUI revolutions.  Could this simple message sell Windows 8?  I think it could.  My message is certainly better than the current one.  People are scared of the perceived changes in 8.  The “hybrid OS monster” message that I received prevented me from considering an upgrade until now.

Like a Movie

My mom says that some of the best movies are panned by the critics.  It’s reached a point where she’s more likely to go see a movie that the critics disliked.  While that may not be the most sound logic, critics do have a different lens than most ‘regular folk.’   For my family, we like Windows 8 and we’re definitely not missing 7.  Given the choice, this Average Joe would perform the upgrade all over again.

1. Download the ZIP file.
2. Run Setup.exe
3. You may be required to install Microsoft Framework 4.5 (reboot may be required).
4. ADN Checker installs to ‘%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Whitley Media\ADN Checker’
5. When the setup completes, you can choose to launch ADN Checker.
6. The application will display a form called “Settings.” Click on “Get Access Token.”
7. A browser window will open and you’ll be asked to login and grant permissions.
8. The final screen will provide you with the access token (this process may not run if IE is your default browser).
9. Copy the access token and paste it into the App Checker settings form. Then click save.

Running ADN Checker

When ADN Checker first starts, it will show an icon in your system tray for the first minute of operation.  You can hide the icon by right-clicking on it and clicking “Hide.” After the first minute of operation, ADN Checker will check for new private messages. If no new messages are found, the icon will disappear. If new messages are found, the icon will continue to display.

ADN Checker will check App.net every minute (not configurable at this time).  If any unread messages are found, the icon will be displayed in your system tray.

Double-click the icon to visit Omega.Alpha.net and read your messages.

If you don’t have any unread messages, the icon will not be displayed.

Please note that omega will automatically mark messages as read for a stream that is being displayed in the browser. This may be confusing if you are waiting for ADN Checker to display the icon. You can close the browser or exit to the main screen of Omega to ensure that it is not marking read messages.

Many moons ago, I wrote a bookmarklet for a url shortener called is.gd. It’s one of my favorite shorteners because it’s simple and reliable. is.gd changed its API parameters and so I’m providing an update to the bookmarklet. I renamed it “ADN Click Me Twice” to remind users that it takes two clicks for the entire process:

1. The first click shortens the url.
2. The second click copies the shortened url to an App.net post.

To use “ADN Click Me Twice,” drag the following link to your browser toolbar:

ADN Click Me Twice

Information about the plugin can be found on this post:

http://www.voiceoftech.com/swhitley/index.php/adn-status/

I’ll submit a version of the plugin to WordPress.org after some further testing.

The following code can be placed in your theme’s function.php file.

Now you can easily share this post on App.net

//AddToAny Update for App.net
function addtoany_add_services( $services ) {
  $services['adn_share'] = array(
    'name' => 'App.net',
    'icon_url' => 'https://d2c01jv13s9if1.cloudfront.net/i/V/_/K/V_KkNIUhgyiwXSIeh1j0kP9LXWA.ico',
    'icon_width' => 16,
    'icon_height' => '16" style="width:16px;height:16px;',
    'href' => 'https://alpha.app.net/intent/post?text=A2A_LINKNAME%20A2A_LINKURL'
  );
  return $services;
}
add_filter('A2A_SHARE_SAVE_services', 'addtoany_add_services', 10, 1);

Update: The AddToAny CSS file was allowing the App.net icon to display at its full size (32×32). I implemented a hack in the icon_height property to include a style override. Alternatively, you could override the CSS file where height:auto and width:auto are specified for images.

I don’t know how long this has been around, but I recently needed to generate an MD5 Hash.  The platform I was using didn’t have a function, so I just let SQL Server do the work.

SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(MAX), HASHBYTES( ‘MD5′,  ‘Hash Me’), 2)

Speaking of that feature, MS establishes RDP on a non-standard port.  That may be a good practice, but it could cause issues in other areas.  For instance, I found that my corporate firewall doesn’t allow the port that MS established for RDP.  I might be able to change the endpoint to a suitable port, but I’m afraid to touch it and lose access.  You can’t create an endpoint for 3389 (the standard port) as long as the other entry exists.

The server functioned fine and I was able to get a default web server running in no time.  I even installed Apache and PHP.  I didn’t expect to have any issues and there were none.

As with other services, you don’t have access to a console.  This isn’t always a problem with other cloud providers because other services have pretty good support resources available.  That’s why I like services like GoGrid and Rackspace; I can reach a human to get some help.  With Windows Servers, I lose remote access once in a while.  This usually occurs during a patching session.  Without console access or someone to call immediately, your server could be hosed for quite some time.  That’s a concern for me if I choose to put a production system on Windows Azure.  If I placed a high profile project on Azure, I might need to purchase a support plan with Microsoft.  I wonder if the savings that I realize through cheaper VMs will be wiped out by the need to purchase support.  I don’t have enough information right now, but that’s something to keep an eye on.

Windows Azure VMs are still in ‘preview,’ which I guess is the new ‘beta.’  This offering makes much more sense than the original Azure Cloud Services.  If they can streamline some of the setup and bring the service into production, I can see this as another excellent option for running applications in the cloud.

A week later, he smiled at me and showed me his guitar.  The stolen guitar had been returned, along with an amazing story.

After the guitar was stolen, it was purchased on the street by a man who had hoped to present it to his nephew as a gift.  The new owner was curious about his purchase and went online to learn more about it.  He performed a search on the Internet, entering all of the words that were engraved on the guitar.  Rather than retrieving manufacturing information, the search engine brought back reports of the stolen instrument, along with the name of the owner.  The person picked up the phone and contacted my guitar teacher.  He said, “I may be out $300, but I should return this to its rightful owner.”

I’m happy to hear that there are still honest people left in the world.  My guitar instructor said the man wouldn’t take money for the guitar.  He ended up giving him a Starbucks gift card.  I hope that man receives all the good karma he deserves.

Back in 2010, I complained that the “new” filter that Twitter had implemented would limit the conversations that we’d see. (The “@ reply” filter prevents you from viewing conversations between two people unless you follow both of those accounts.)  My original post suggested that we would be exposed to fewer conversations and thus prevented from discovering new and interesting people. While I still believe that’s true, I think it matters more when you’re first building your Twitter connections. Just in case you aren’t aware of the workaround for the filter, you can take a quick peek at that older post.

This morning, however, I was thinking how we might be able to put that filter to work for us in another way. Although this is pretty obvious, I haven’t seen it discussed, so I’ll outline the general idea here.

Although the @ reply filter could be used for any conversation, the “chat” is a perfect use case.

• Create a new Twitter account that will be used specifically for a “chat.” For example, “@CoffeeTalk.”
• Now, tell everyone who wants to participate in Coffee Talk to “friend” the CoffeeTalk account.
• If everyone in the group replies to “@CoffeeTalk” in every tweet, those replies would only be published to the streams of people who follow @CoffeeTalk.

This is similar to a chat that uses a hashtag, but you don’t need any special tools to filter the tweets.  You’d be doing your other followers a favor by not cluttering their streams and the famous @ filter would finally be put to good use.

What do you think? Have you seen this suggestion before?  Could this work for you?

I’m calling this experiemental because I have some additional ideas for the extension. I’d like to enable Google Contacts and Facebook searches in addition to the initial Twitter search.

If you are a Chrome user, please give it a try and feel free to provide feedback. I’m open to any suggestions you might have to enhance the experience. You’ll need to become a Contaxio member and sync your Twitter account before using the extension.

From within Chrome:

Click this Link to Install the Extension