Microsoft: Internet Explorer 8 perfect for porn addicts

Microsoft wants you to know that Internet Explorer 8 is the perfect web browser for porn addicts.

At least that’s the message I walked away with after (reluctantly) watching their new IE8 commercial, in which a wife projectile vomits after finding porn on her husband’s laptop.  (If you care to see it, it’s available here.)  The point of the commercial is actually to promote IE8′s InPrivate browsing feature, aka “porn mode”, which hides the browsing history from, well, unapproving spouses.

Really, Microsoft?  Really?  Of all the various features of Internet Explorer you could’ve promoted, you chose to lead off with this one?  Yes, the commercial is disgusting, but what I really don’t understand is why Microsoft thinks InPrivate is such a killer feature.  After all, Chrome and Firefox 3.5 both have identical features, but those browsers are also much faster than IE and adhere better to web standards.

It seems to me that if Microsoft really wanted to go head-to-head against their competitors, they would try to do so in a way that spoke directly to the user base that would be most likely to use their product.  That’s the tactic they took with their “Laptop Hunters” commercials, and it’s the reason those ads work.  They’re not targeted at technical users, but rather non-technical consumers who, when shopping for a new computer, just walk into Best Buy and purchase whatever’s on sale.

And that should be the target audience of these Internet Explorer ads: the people who know nothing about Firefox, Chrome, or Safari, and couldn’t care less.  They could talk about the speed improvements over previous versions of IE.  They could talk about improvements in supporting web standards.  They could talk about web slices, accelerators, or other new and unique features.  Instead, they resort to low-brow slapstick that says nothing about the product other than it’s great for married men with an addiction to hardcore pornography.

Not exactly a winning message, if you ask me.

(By the way, the vomit commercial is just one in a series of ads — all featuring Dean Cain — that comprise their Browse for the Better campaign.  Ironically, as part of the campaign, Microsoft will donate 8 meals to Feeding America for every download of IE8.  Here’s hoping the recipients of those meals can keep their food down.)

Previously:
Internet Explorer 8: Faster but no Firefox
New Microsoft ‘I’m a PC’ ads: too little too late

A little social network housecleaning

It’s weird how social networks like Facebook and Twitter can mess with your mind.  You sign up for a Facebook account because, quite frankly, everyone else is doing it.  Then along comes Twitter because, well, why not.  It’s all innocent fun at first, but at some point it becomes less about the quality of the connections being made through the sites and more about the quantity.  How many Facebook friends do I have?  How many people are following me on Twitter?  How many hits is my blog getting, and how can I generate more comments?

Who cares?

I’m rarely on Facebook anymore.  I thought it was because of all the ridiculous surveys and other nonsense that clutter up the news feed, but I’ve come to realize it’s actually because most of the “noise” is coming from a handful of Facebook friends that I’m really not that interested in.  It’s not that they’re bad people, it’s just that I don’t really interact with them any more, and inevitably these are also the same people that update their Facebook status 20 times a day and feel the need to comment on everything.  So I made a decision yesterday to unfriend several of them.

Ironically, at the same time I was cutting my digital ties on Facebook, I was losing 9 followers on Twitter.  Most of them were people or organizations that I had no association with anyway, but one was a person I communicated with fairly regularly.

Immediately, I began trying to figure out what I had said to drive this person away.  Had I offended them in some way?  What had I done wrong?  The pangs of rejection hit me hard for a few minutes.  And then I realized the irony.

I had just let 8 or 9 people go on one social network as 9 people were letting me go on another.  When I unfriended my Facebook friends, it wasn’t personal at all — none of them had hurt me or offended me in any way.  I just wasn’t finding value in their Facebook updates.  In all likelihood, the people who stopped following me on Twitter felt the same way about my tweets: for whatever reason I wasn’t adding value to their lives.

Author Anne Jackson recently wrote on her blog about following “conversations” on Twitter rather than following people:

Overall, unless you have a real strategy behind Twittering, by following a ton of people, you’re not networking. You’re only following a lot of noise. Sure, you may occasionally find a nugget to chew on, but a lot of other well-deserving Tweets will fall through the cracks and be buried in the chaos of the masses.

… If you truly want Twitter to be an effective social networking tool, strategize *somehow* (it doesn’t have to look like mine) or clean house.  If you want it to be a flood of noise, keep hitting the Follow button and let the Tweets roll on by.

As social media takes on a greater role in our lives, we need to stop thinking in terms of quantity.  Simply having more Twitter followers or blog readers or whatever doesn’t mean you’re a better person.  Your self worth shouldn’t be determined by Google Analytics.  In fact, “more” can be worse because it dilutes the value of the connections you really care about.

I hope that if you’re reading this, you do find some value in it.  I hope that if you follow me on Twitter or if we’re Facebook friends, that I’m not just producing a lot of noise in your life.  But if I am, then by all means let me go.  I won’t take it personally.

Previously:
How to play the game of ‘Blog-Facebook-Twitter’

New computer pics

On Saturday I got my new computer built.  It’s always a little nerve-wracking, hoping that after spending hours getting everything meticulously assembled that it actually works.  There’s nothing like the relief of pressing the power button and hearing the single beep from the BIOS, a signal that, yes, it’s able to boot up.

Below: The cabling isn’t the prettiest, but it looks better in person.  As you can see, I love zip-ties.  They’re better than duct tape.

Below: Now to see if it boots up.  The blue lights from the front fans are a really nice touch.  With the front cover closed, the light is pretty subtle.  I thought about adding another lighted fan in the back, but I think in this case, less is probably more.

Below: The finished product.  I love the case.

Below: Windows Vista installed.  Running the 32-bit version now, but I’ll probably upgrade to 64-bit with Windows 7.

Below: The main limitation to the system currently is the onboard graphics, which are decent but not spectacular.  I opted not to add a separate video card for now to stay (mostly) on budget, but I’ll probably add one later.  For now, the onboard Intel graphics meet my needs.

Previously:
Time for a new computer

Bill would give government unrestricted control over the Internet

Two Senate bills, 773 and 778, introduced by Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller and Republican Olympia Snowe would, if passed, give the federal government virtually unrestricted control over the Internet, including private-sector Internet services, applications, and services.

The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF) gives the president the ability to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” and shut down or limit Internet traffic in any “critical” information network “in the interest of national security.” The bill does not define a critical information network or a cybersecurity emergency. That definition would be left to the president.

The bill does not only add to the power of the president. It also grants the Secretary of Commerce “access to all relevant data concerning [critical] networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule, or policy restricting such access.” This means he or she can monitor or access any data on private or public networks without regard to privacy laws.

… Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says that granting such power to the Commerce secretary could actually cause networks to be less safe. When one person can access all information on a network, “it makes it more vulnerable to intruders,” Granick says. “You’ve basically established a path for the bad guys to skip down.”

The bill’s scope, she says, is “contrary to what the Constitution promises us.”

I’m all in favor of increasing cybersecurity but clearly not at this cost.  The Obama administration already has proved it has no qualms about removing executives from private sector companies, despite having absolutely no constitutional authority to do so.  If this bill were to pass as-is, what’s to stop the White House from seizing control of AT&T, Verizon, and other ISPs and dictating what information is allowed and not allowed to pass over their networks?  As it stands now, nothing.

And you thought the Bush-era NSA wiretapping was bad.

Previously:
Privacy and free speech in an online world
‘Great Firewall’ coming to Australia. Is the U.S. next?
Stimulus bill includes medical databases for ‘biosurveillance’

Time for a new computer

Actually the title of this post should be “Way past time for a new computer.”

I’m getting ready to order parts to build a new home computer, and I can’t wait.  My current desktop is a Dell Optiplex GX260 which I got for free two years ago from work.  It was old back then, but after several parts upgrades, I was able to run Windows Vista on it.  But now disk space is running low on the C: drive, and the strain of running Vista on an old Pentium 4 machine is really starting to show.

My wife’s computer, on the other hand, isn’t even faring that well.  She inherited her machine from me about four years ago, a Gateway desktop bought in January 2000.  Yep, that’s over nine years ago, an eternity in computer years.  And now it’s finally pooping out.

So the plan is to build a new machine from scratch for me, then reformat the GX260 for her.  OK, so it’s another hand-me-down, but this hand-me-down is like ten times better than what she has now, and with XP on it instead of Vista, it’ll run great.  Trust me, I’d love to buy her a brand new machine, but we’re on a tight budget here.  (That’s also why I’m building a new machine instead of buying one off the shelf: more bang for the buck.)

Here is a run-down of the components on my shopping list (in case you’re curious):

• Rosewill Conqueror case (pictured right, from Newegg.com)
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz processor
• MSI G41M-FD motherboard with on-board Intel GMA 4500 graphics and gigabit ethernet (Sticking with on-board video for now, although I may add a separate video card later.)
• 4 GB DDR2 RAM (I may upgrade to 8 GB later if I upgrade to 64-bit version of Windows 7.)
• Western Digital Caviar 500 GB SATA hard drive with 32 MB cache (Will probably add a second drive later, but not needed right now.)
• SATA DVD-ROM drive and DVD Lightscribe burner
• 600 Watt power supply
• ASUS V72 CPU fan

I’ll transfer my existing Vista Business and Office 2007 licenses over and will use my existing keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

And of course I’ll update the blog once I get everything in and start assembling it.

Internet Explorer 8: Faster but no Firefox

Since being forced back to Internet Explorer on my work computer a few weeks ago, I’ve been looking forward to the release of IE8 with the expectation that anything has to be better than versions 6 and 7.

The good news: It’s better.  The bad news: It’s still Internet Explorer.

I downloaded and installed it last night, a process that took much longer on my Windows XP machine than it should’ve.  And of course it required a reboot, typical for IE but unheard of for any other browser.

After booting back up and logging in, I fired it up and was pleasantly suprised.  The speed difference between 7 and 8 was immediately noticeable, and sites that used to be wonky under 7 such as Google Reader now seemed to work properly (imagine that).

But despite all the other new features (see here for a full list) and some relatively good reviews (Wired called it “Microsoft’s First Truly Modern Browser”), the fact remains that it’s still Internet Explorer.  And I don’t mean that as a compliment.

Many of the same UI changes introduced in version 7 still exist in 8: The Home Page button is still in the lower right-hand corner of the toolbar and the Refresh and Stop buttons are to the right of the Address Bar.  And guess what, it’s still as awkward now as it was then.  Seriously, Microsoft?

And while the benchmarks may show IE8 to be faster than Firefox 3.05 and Chrome, IE’s speed will always take a backseat to Firefox’s extensive library of add-ons.

That isn’t to say it’s a horrible product.  As IE is concerned, it’s a really good browser, certainly far better than version 7.  Those who are happy with Internet Explorer will like the upgrade.  I just don’t think it’ll do much to win back the ones who’ve already moved on to other browsers.

Update:
Lifehacker has this to say about IE8 and Firefox:

Firefox is the grandchild of the venerable Mosaic browser and free-roaming son of Netscape. Although Firefox has a myriad of user-friendly, forward-thinking features, a decently secure framework, and an open-source ideology, its most prominent is extensibility. When convincing a Firefox user to abandon Firefox for anything else, even temporarily, you won’t have to fight them over giving up the AwesomeBar or about:config tweaks—you’ll hear a common, understandable refrain: “What about my extensions?” The repository of extensions maintained by Mozilla currently has over 6,000 entries, covering everything from blocking advertisements, to managing your clipboard, to allowing you to further customize your browsing experience with scripts a la Greasemonkey (here’s 10 of our must-have picks). Combine the passion people have for extensions and the ability to sync those extensions across multiple computers and portable installations, and you’ve got a force to be contended with.

… While many or most IE users stick with it for lack of wanting to try something else, Lifehacker readers definitely don’t fall into that crowd—the majority of readers who voted in favor of Internet Explorer are sporting Internet Explorer 8. By contrast, nearly 20 percent of those surfing the web right now are using Internet Explorer 6, which had its initial release in 2001. Version 8 could mark a resurgence for the brand, though. It’s the first version of Internet Explorer to have a strong focus on web standards compliance, as well as increasing rendering speed. And like Chrome, Internet Explorer 8 maintains a separate process for each tab to increase stability and security. Internet Explorer 8 has also beefed up its security measures from previous versions, including active filtering against malicious cross-site scripting and ActiveX isolation from the core of the browser.

How to play the game of ‘Blog-Facebook-Twitter’

Since joining Twitter last November, I’ve gradually blogged less and less, not because I wasn’t interested in blogging, but because there are times it’s just quicker and easier to fire off a quick tweet and be done with it.  But then a lot of times I feel guilty, as if I have some sort of obligation to meet a blogging quota.  (I don’t, do I?)

Then, of course, there’s the Facebook versus Twitter dilemma.  When I want to announce something amazingly profound to the citizens of the Interwebs, like how I could really go for a ham sandwich right about now, do I post that nugget of eternal wisdom on Facebook or tweet it?

Of course some people do both.  There’s the Twitter Facebook app that ports your tweets automatically to Facebook (in the form of your Facebook status).  And the next version of TweetDeck will allow users to post their updates to Twitter, Facebook, or both.  I don’t really like this approach, personally, simply because not everything I say on Twitter is necessarily appropriate for Facebook, and vice versa.  Plus, at times it borders on spamming your friends, and Facebook users are already being spammed enough as it is.

So to help navigate these perilous waters of social networking, I’ve devised a simple “Blog-Facebook-Twitter” decision matrix in the same vein as Rock-Paper-Scissors.

• Does what you want to say require more than 140 characters or involve block quotes of any kind?  If so, then Blog beats Twitter.
• Do you have the overwhelming desire to use the “@” symbol when referring to someone or tag everything with a “#” hashtag?  If so, then Twitter beats Facebook.
• Do you want to make sure that everyone you have ever met in your entire life sees your announcement and that it will be commented on by the kid that beat you up in First Grade that you are now inexplicably Facebook friends with?  If so, then Facebook beats Blog.

I hope that helps.  And be sure to follow me on Twitter.  You know, just in case I get any more cravings for lunchmeat.

‘How Apple Plays Upon Our Insecurities’

Writer Donald Miller (author of one my favorite books, Blue Like Jazz), has a great analysis on his blog about how Apple’s marketing is made to exploit the insecurities of its customers.

Apple products are defended with near-religious zest. But in our zest are we defending a company or our own identities? Perhaps what we’ve been offered is a brand to associate ourselves with, a brand that triggers our survival instincts, revealing we don’t believe we have enough to survive without this association? Perhaps the use of Apple products reveals insecurity more than it reveals confidence.

…In a culture where we are made to feel socially inferior if we don’t use certain brands or products, what does a true counter-culture look like?

If you think about it, the most confident of counter-culture heros aren’t talking on i-phones, wearing designer jeans or jumping in the air in their facebook photos (why are all the hipsters suddenly jumping in their facebook photos? Why didn’t anybody call me to say we were doing that?) but instead are the people most of us might not notice. The reason we don’t notice these people is because they offer us no beneficial association. They buy products because the products work, they buy jeans because they cover their asses, and coats because a certain coat will keep them warm. A true counter culture is not manipulated by the whims of fashion and therefore is not made up of fashionable people.

Miller, an Apple user himself, hits the nail on the head.  In the never-ending Mac-vs.-PC debate, the question is never about the quality of the products.  In fact, in all of the “I’m a Mac” and “I’m a PC” commercials, almost nothing is said about the actual operating systems.  It’s all about image.  Apple products are portrayed as the cool choice for cool people, while Windows is for old, dumpy, pencil-pushers.  In essence Apple is saying, what brand of technology you use determines how socially relevant you are.

What a horrible message.

Listen, this isn’t about bashing Apple products.  I think Apple makes great products.  But the choice of what kind of computer we use or what kind of phone we carry shouldn’t be determined by what everyone else around us is using.  Simply using a Macbook or an iPhone does not make you cool.  It does not make you hip.  It does not make you unique.

If a Macbook or an iPhone or an iPod meets your needs better than the alternatives, fine.  I’m not condemning anyone for purchasing an Apple product.  But we need to stop buying into the hype that who we are as people is measured by what kinds of stuff we surround ourselves with, whether it’s an iPhone or a 50-inch plasma TV or a $500,000 house we can’t afford.

Our true worth has nothing to do with our material possessions.  That’s not a message that retailers want you to hear, but it’s absolutely the message I hope to be teaching my daughters.  My hope and prayer for them is that as they get older, they’ll be confident enough to forge their own paths based on what they know to be right rather than follow along with what they are told is popular.

That’s not an easy thing to do in this day and age, and unfortunately it might cost them a lot of friends along the way.  But that’s OK.  Because while everyone is else is clinging to a gadget or a brand or whatever else comes along, they’ll be holding on to something much greater.

Previously:
New Microsoft ‘I’m a PC’ ads: too little too late

Windows 7 Beta 1: The other stuff

It’s a given that when you buy a version of Microsoft Windows, you don’t just get a bare-bones operating system; you get other stuff with it.  Is it an app?  Is it a feature?  Is it an annoying service I can’t seem to get rid of?  Yes, yes, and yes.

Last week I ran through a few quick initial impressions I had of Windows 7 Beta 1.  This week I’m going to look at a few of the other “enhancements” that come with it.

• Internet Explorer 8 – I won’t say much about it here, mostly because it’s been reviewed pretty extensively elsewhere (see here and here for starters).  But the reality is, even with the latest version, IE is a dinosaur.  It’s fine for most casual home users, but most techy Windows users have already moved on to Firefox, Chrome, or Opera.  It does have a couple of new and notable features, however.  InPrivate Browsing (aka “porn mode”) allows for anonymous web surfing.  (A similar feature already exists in Chrome and will be included in Firefox 3.1).  IE8 also includes a feature called Web Slices, which allows you to subscribe to portions of a web page.  (Why anyone would actually use that, I don’t know.)

• Windows Media Player 12 – The Windows 7 version is pretty similar to WMP11 but with more emphasis on media libraries.  Also, the Now Playing component is a whole separate window instead of a different tab.  Honestly, I haven’t bothered to test this version out, so I can’t really comment too much about it, but I don’t have very high expectations.  As with most other built-in apps, there are much better 3rd-party alternatives such as Media Monkey or VLC.  Ars Technica has a more detailed review of WMP12 here if you’re interested, though.  (Click image to enlarge.)

• Media Center – Another feature I haven’t really tested.  But Gizmodo has the details on it here.
• Desktop Gadgets – Microsoft first introduced desktop gadgets in Windows Vista.  The difference here is that there is no official sidebar that goes along with them.  Also, to activate them, you simply right-click on the Desktop and click on “Gadgets.”
• WordPad and Paint – Microsoft’s quintessential apps WordPad and Paint get a slight makeover with the inclusion of the ribbon UI first introduced in Office 2007.  Not sure why you’d care, but there you go.
• Calculator – The built-in calculator also gets an upgrade with modes for unit conversion, date calculation, gas mileage, lease estimation, and mortgage estimation.  Hmm.  I don’t know that I would trust it to calculate my mortgage, but whatever.
• Snipping Tool – This app is actually pretty useful.  Instead of taking a full screen snapshot when you hit the Printscreen button, you can use the snipping tool to outline just the part you want to capture.  Not as full-featured as my personal favorite, FastStone Capture, but it’s still handy.  As a network admin, this is one feature I can really appreciate.

• Services Tab in Task Manager – This is another feature us computer geeks really get excited about.  By including a Services tab in the Task Manager, it allows the user to start and stop various services much easier than going into the Computer Management MMC.
• Sticky Notes – Pretty much what it sounds like.  You add a virtual Post-It note to your Desktop, enter your text, and you’re done.  I don’t particularly like the fact you can’t change the font, but it’s probably not a big deal.  I know people who would put a million of these all over their Desktop.  Of course, they’re the same people who already have a million real Post-It notes stuck to their monitors and random piles of paper stacked everywhere.  Yay for more clutter!
• Backup and Restore – In Vista the Windows Backup and Restore utility was an all-or-nothing proposition.  You could backup your entire computer or certain default selections, but you couldn’t just backup specific files and folders.  Thankfully, Windows 7 corrects that mistake.
• AutoPlay and Notification Area options in the Control Panel – Windows 7 makes it easier to tweak your AutoPlay options and select which system icons show up in the notification area of the taskbar.  Nice.  (Click image to enlarge.)

• Shuffle Desktop Backgrounds – If you like to change your Desktop wallpaper often, you can have Windows automatically change it for you every so many minutes.  A nifty feature for all the ADD users out there.

• Mail and Contacts – If you’re looking for these in Windows 7, they’re not there.  I’m sure that probably disappoints the 3 users who actually used them.

I know there’s a lot more I’m leaving out, but you get the idea.  It’s Windows.  The built-in apps are nice to have, but you’re probably not going to use all of them.

I will say this: As a network admin, I’ve deployed a lot of Windows machines over the years, and Windows 7 so far has seemed to be the simplest to start using right away.  In XP and Vista, there’s a lot of the default junk that has to be turned off, turned on, or adjusted before you can really use the system; in Windows 7, there’s very little.  That might change by RTM, but at least with Beta 1, I’m pretty impressed.

Previously:
Windows 7 Beta 1: Initial thoughts
How to recreate the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows 7

How to recreate the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows 7

One of the few significant changes to the user interface in Windows 7 is the introduction of a new taskbar.  Instead of using a Quick Launch toolbar to place shortcuts to frequently-used programs, users can now pin the programs to the taskbar itself, much the way you can pin them to the Start menu.

Some people may like that option.  Microsoft certainly does, so much so that they’ve made it mandatory.

I, on the other hand, am not crazy about it.  I use the Quick Launch bar constantly, and if upgrading means losing it, then I probably won’t be upgrading any time soon.  Fortunately, there’s a very easy way to get it back.

First, go into Computer (or Windows Explorer — same thing) and create a new folder somewhere that’s convenient to you.  I’ve chosen to create a folder called “QuickLaunch” on the root of C:, but you can put it anywhere and name it whatever you want.  Then open the folder and create shortcuts to whatever programs you want to appear in the toolbar.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Next, right-click on your taskbar and go to Toolbars and then click on “New Toolbar.”

Browse to the location of your new folder (C:\QuickLaunch) and click on “Select Folder.”  You’ll now see the “QuickLaunch” toolbar appear at the far-right of the taskbar.

Next, we want to move it somewhere that’s a little more convenient.  Right-click on the taskbar and uncheck “Lock the taskbar.”  Then drag your new QuickLaunch toolbar to wherever you want it.

To remove the text, right-click on the toolbar and uncheck “Show Text” and “Show Title.”

When you have the toolbars where you want them, right-click on the taskbar again and re-check “Lock the taskbar.”

Presto!

You can also drag the icons around to rearrange them, and you can drag other programs here to quickly add new shortcuts.

Previously:
Windows 7 Beta 1: Initial thoughts

Windows 7 Beta 1: Initial thoughts

Over the weekend I downloaded the Beta 1 of Windows 7 and finally got around to installing it on a spare laptop yesterday.  I’m not going to go into an in-depth review of it here, partly because I don’t have time but also because there are plenty of other tech blogs out there which already have.  (Lifehacker is a great place to start.)  But I did want to share a few thoughts about it.  (More later.)

First, let me get my two biggest gripes out of the way.  I don’t like the new taskbar.  Period.

The Quick Launch bar, which I use constantly, is gone.  Instead, programs can be pinned to the taskbar like they’re pinned to the Start menu.  It’s just awkward.  Fortunately, while Microsoft doesn’t give you the option to turn it back on, there is a very easy way to get it back, which I’ll cover in a separate blog post.

Second, I don’t like the revamped Windows Explorer.  When you open Explorer, you’ll now see a Favorites section (introduced in Vista), Libraries, Homegroups, and then the Computer section.  (Click image to enlarge.)

While some of the settings in Explorer can be tweaked, some of them can’t, and that bothers me.  One of the biggest strengths of Windows is the ability to tweak the settings to the user’s preference.  At least in this build, Microsoft seems to be limiting that.  Just give the users more an ability to change things around, that’s all I’m saying.

A couple of other really quick thoughts:

• Installation – I did a full install, and it was very quick and very simple.  Probably the quickest clean install of Windows I’ve done in a while.
• User Access Control (UAC) – One of the most hated features of Vista.  It can be completely turned off in Vista, but in 7 you can also easily adjust the settings in the Control Panel making it more or less active.  However, in all the testing I’ve done so far, I’ve yet to get any UAC prompts, so I haven’t had to change the settings.  That’s a good thing.

• Action Center – Here, you can adjust which kind of notifications you get in your taskbar.  This is a handy and long-overdue feature.

• Windows Peek – The little area to the right of the clock is the Show Desktop button.  Hover over it, and all the windows become transparent so you can see the Desktop.  I just can’t see how this would be terribly useful.  Seems like one of those “gee-whiz” features like Flip 3D that adds no real value.
• Window Transparency – In Vista, when you maximize a window, the translucent window title bar and taskbar become opaque.  In 7, they remain translucent.  I don’t really care for that, but obviously the transparency settings can be adjusted or turned off completely.
• Libraries – Windows 7 has a new feature called Libraries, which are basically shortcuts to your documents, music, pictures, etc.  I wasn’t really thrilled about them initially, but you can easily add, remove, or change them.  I can see how this would be useful on a home computer where you have a bunch of different media files.  While you can’t turn them off in Explorer, you can at least customize them, so that helps.
• Homegroups – Basically a way to share media among computers and networked devices in a workgroup-type format but password-protected.  I doubt I would ever use it, and I’m not sure how much non-techy home users would either.

Coming soon: I have a couple of other follow-up posts planned, one concerning the new taskbar, and another which takes a look at some of the other features and changes in Windows 7.  In the meantime, if you have any feedback or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.

Previously:
Vista: The good, the bad, and the meh

How to reach 598 Twitter followers and stop

How do you ensure you’ll never have more than 598 followers on Twitter?  Post a tweet that says you’ll give the 600th follower a pair of movie tickets.

Dallas Morning News community site neighborsgo.com did just that.  And sure enough, they reached the 598 mark pretty easily.  And then stopped.  (Actually, they have since dropped to 597.)

(Click on the image to enlarge.)

Who would want to be Number 599 when Number 600 is a guaranteed winner?  Uh, nobody!

I guess it never occurred to them that others can see how many followers they have.  Either that or they’ve never played a game of Connect Four.

With stellar marketing like this, I can’t imagine why the newspaper industry is doing so poorly!

Update: Well, looks like someone proved me wrong.  Neighborsgo is now up to 601 followers.  Somewhere there is a lucky recipient of new movie tickets and a not so lucky person who missed them by this much.