My initial impression with setting up the OS was quite nice – the UI seems nicely put together. Once the machine is configured, I was dumped at the new ‘Metro Start’ screen.

The look of the new start screen is interesting at first. But a few moments actually trying to use the interface with a mouse reveals a few major issues.

It’s painfully evident that the Start screen is designed for a touch enabled device, with hardware back/home buttons. That is: Tablets, or mobile phones.

Anyone using a keyboard/mouse is going to get frustrated and/or lost very quickly. The only way to navigate is to find the scrollbar hidden at the bottom of the window and drag it (which disappears if you keep your mouse still).

This touch optimisation (or rather: exclusivity) extends to the new Metro style immersive applications. When you launch the new application it completely takes over your desktop, with a full-screen interface.

Dude, where's my multitasking?

Once you’re inside the application, there’s no UI elements indicating how to get out. Yet another indicator people are going to need to use Windows on a tablet from now on.

Dude, where's my exit/back button?

It is possible to bail out using just the mouse – so far I’ve found that putting your mouse on the far left edge lets you click away to another application. And eventually, perhaps, to the Metro start screen.  You have to actually press the Start key to get back home reliably.  (Seriously, wtf?)

Back on the home front, clicking on the Desktop takes you to what you’ve come to expect from Desktop OSs of the last oh 20 years or so.

Gah, what the hell... they've added the Ribbon UI to Explorer? 20% of the window real estate gone to this.

This brings up another point of frustration with Windows 8.  They’ve now effectively got two completely different ways of dealing with applications.

The “Classic” windows way lets you have windows (whoa, crazy) and to quickly switch between tasks using a mouse.

The new “Metro” way lets you have only one task open at a time, and switching requires a keystroke of some kind.(I’ve been told you can have two apps side by side in an 80-20 split, but I havn’t figured that out yet)

It also means that you’ve got two sets of applications – and to use them together is nigh on impossible.

Perhaps in multi-monitor scenarios you could have the two combined – but again, that the Metro UX is entirely touch focussed means those using a mouse are going to have trouble.  This brings into contrast that those using Windows8 on a tablet are going to have trouble using “Classic” windowed applications which expect relatively fine control from a mouse.

I don’t see the purpose, other than as an elaborate practical joke, of combining the two.

Shut down? You don’t need no steenking shut down options. 

Lastly, figuring out how to shut down or restart is an ordeal. In every version of Windows back to ’95 you click Start, and then Shutdown (or a power icon).

In Windows 8, either this has been forgotten as a task users do with some regularity – or it’s being deliberately obscured because on a Tablet you don’t need to.

In any case, it’s a multi-step process requiring you to click Start, then your Profile,  select Log out. Then windows goes to a tablet/mobile style “lock screen” which you need to (no shit) drag up, so you can hit the power option ,and finally select shutdown.

Conclusion

My only conclusion from a few hours poking around is that Microsoft are deliberately abandoning the desktop, or have decided that since Windows Phone 7 was such a raging success (yes, that’s sarcasm Sheldon) they’d go copy/paste all over the new version of Windows.

Seriously, I have this vision in my head of the design meetings for Windows 8. They’re all in mutual admiration that they produced a Phone OS that doesn’t suck as much as Symbian*. Then someone says “Well hey, it worked on the phone, lets make the next version of Windows ALL ABOUT THE TILES”.

I can only hope that someone realises they need to target the Tablet and desktop seperately before they launch, or they’ll realise that despite awesome engineering in the backend – they really can repeat the apparent disaster of Windows Vista.

* Okay, so Windows Phone 7 is actually pretty nice. I’m just venting, ok?

Just edit your hosts file, and add the following on a new line at the end.

174.36.36.2   link.smartscreen.live.com

The server at that IP address will just do a regular HTTP Redirection, sending your link on it’s way quick smart. No nanny-net b.s.

PS: This server is run by me, and, technically, I could do bad things like redirecting you to malware. I promise I won’t. 

Edit: Oops, got the wrong IP. my bad.

Is there a future for eReaders? Of course. Amazon figured it out very fast and dropped the price of their WiFi only Kindle to less than $150, well below the entry level prices of most tablets. Unfortunately for them, however, that probably still won’t convince tablet owners to buy yet another device. Despite the battery life, weight, and e-ink display, it just isn’t as flashy and spending another $150 for something that duplicates a feature on their tablet is a tough sell

The thing is, while you can install an app on your tablet to let you read books – the experience and target audience is just not the same.

There are those people for whom buying a Kindle as a separate device from a Tablet isn’t worth it – I would suggest that these people are NOT those who find the Kindle particularly great.

E-ink displays have significantly better readability properties than LCD/OLED type displays: very high resolution, readable in whatever sunlight there is, and require power only to change the image.  Thus, the battery life of an e-ink device will be significantly higher than that of an LCD/OLED equipped device.

These things matter little to anyone who reads only a light to moderate amount – the ones who won’t buy a Kindle.
For anyone who is a heavy reader and/or travels a lot then having a device that weighs less than a magazine, and has a battery that will outlast for even the most delayed airport trip is a definite win.

I think the Colour Nook will be an outright failure, because it’s sacrificing what makes a good reading device to go after people who want colour more than long life or fantastic readability.

Perhaps with another few generations of improvement in display and power management technology it’ll be possible to achieve these properties with a tablet PC.  Until then, the Kindle and other true e-ink devices will be a winner for voracious readers.

Me:

• Senior .NET Dev with 7 years experience in .NET – From 1.1 through 4.0
• Was at Massive Interactive for the last 3 years working on IPTV and eCommerce solutions, their CMS Product, and a bunch of other things
• Believer in well engineered software.
• Not a designer, or UI guy, sorry.
  (I can hack away at CSS and Javascript and get something workable, but it’s probably better to get folks who’ve spent more time learning that than I have)
• Contributor to Open Source Software (MahTweets)
• Miscellaneous Windows Server Administration, Networking skills
• Gadget lover, Photographer, Geek
• Living in Sydney at present, but wanting to move to Melbourne.

What I’m looking for:

• Role: Senior .NET Development, Architect, Tech Lead, or some mix thereof.
• Where: Melbourne-ish area, Close to public transport.
• Start Mid-Late January 2011
• Casual Environment

Interested?

• Call me: 0400 486 399
• Email me: will@hughesfamily.net.au
• Linked In Profile: http://au.linkedin.com/in/willhughesau

Looking for samples of my work?
Unfortunately NDAs preclude me sharing any of my work at Massive, however I have been working on some Open Source projects recently.

MahTweets Services
Hosted Services for MahTweets Applications on Windows Desktop and (soon) Windows Phone 7.

• • Usage Metrics Capture & Reporting
  • Exception & Crash Capture & Reporting
  • Account / Profile Synchronisation (soon)

Source Control:
http://mahtweetsservices.codeplex.com/SourceControl/list/changesets

Tech:

• .NET Framework 4.0
• WCF Services Hosted on ASP.NET
• ASP.NET MVC 2 for UI / Reporting
• RavenDB for Data Storage
• Autofac for IoC

Unfortunately, Crust ended up being an hour or so late with the order. By way of compensation, Crust refunded us half the order cost. I think we got about $75 back. 
Rather than divide the money back up amongst the people who had ordered, we decided to donate it to a charity.

The charity of choice? Oxfam. They had chickens and goats we could donate to a family – a fitting use for the money.
I got the task of ensuring the money got to Oxfam.

Unfortunately, within a week or two the spam started.
First, it was a subscription to their e-Newsletter (which I’m certain I opted out of in the donation process). This I promptly unsubscribed from. 
I started getting calls to ask for donations – after the second or third call within a month I told them never to call again.
Then the paper spam started. Letters, newsletters, drives for specific events.  I looked for a way to unsubscribe, but it only appears to be possible to do so by sending them a fax or letter.

On average, I’d say I get something every fortnight.  But, somehow they screwed up their data entry and so I get two copies of it. Joy!
Last week I received a pair of letters (they went, unopened, into the recycling bin like usual) on Thursday or Friday. 
Tonight I get back from a week in Melbourne to find another pair of letters.  I tore one of them open and checked for an online way of unsubscribing – but no, still nothing.

I snapped, and wrote the below letter to them. Hopefully it gets my point across quite clearly. It’d be even better if they chose to actually take action and stop sending me this crap.

To whom it may concern,

When a group of people from my former workplace chose to donate a small sum of money to Oxfam due to a stuff-up of our lunch order, we expected that it would go to actually purchasing the goats and chickens we selected.

What I certainly didn’t expect was that for a year afterwards (as the chosen coordinator of that group) I’d still be receiving letters and newsletters seemingly every second week asking for more money.

What makes me even more annoyed is that somehow, someone screwed up the data entry, and I get TWO copies of the same letter at the same time. Talk about waste.

You seemingly offer no ability to unsubscribe without me needing to mail you back a "cease and desist".

Please forward this email to whomever is in charge of this strategy – it’s obviously outdated, flawed, and diverts money from donations* and results in serious amounts of very real waste being sent to landfill where it can’t be recycled. 
(* I’m assuming this is diverting money from donations here, because the data entry, mailing systems, printing, etc surely costs you something to operate)

While you’re at it – please make sure to update the website to either make it possible to remove yourself from mailings, or if it’s already possible – then make sure it shows up on the site when searched for. Searches for "unsubscribe" and "mailing lists" refer only to the electronic form.

Additionally, please make a modification to your online donation system that allows people to pre-emptively remove themselves from these mailing lists.

Then, finally, please ensure you remove me from all your mailing lists.

The address in question is:
     [redacted]

Please ensure you get BOTH entries while you’re in there.

Sincerely.

Instead, Softlayer had a special on, which meant it was significantly cheaper to get a new box – with more ram, and the faster drive.

Onwards and upwards.

Migrations for sites and services will be happening before December.

Kiva’s mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.

For several years our family has decided to forgo giving presents to each other for Christmas. Instead, most of us have decided to donate whatever they would have spent on presents to a charity (such as Médecins Sans Frontières, Technical Aid for the Disabled NSW, Guide Dogs Australia, etc). I decided last year to try a different approach and ‘donate’ to Kiva.

Kiva is a microfinance organisation, who provide small loans to people with low income. The basic idea is this: You lend money (a multiple of USD$25) to an entrepreneur, who uses it to start/expand a business. Over the period of the loan, they repay the loan amount to your Kiva account. No interest is charged.

Often times the amounts are relatively small – a few hundred dollars – but these loans help the people in communities where access to loan services are limited or expensive (loan sharks), and most often traditional banks are unwilling or unable to operate.

Of course, because this is a loan (albeit, with no interest charged by Kiva) – there’s a risk that the loan might not be repaid, or only repaid in part.
I went into the experiment fully expecting that I’d never see the money again, but interested in what the results would be.

My first loans were carefully reviewed, and ended up being to women operating small businesses in Asia on pretty short repayment periods (6-12 months). Within a month, I’d already been repaid enough to make another loan, to which I added some more seed capital, and made a few more loans.

Now I’m up to my 43rd loan – and I havn’t added any more capital since about February. The money has gone through many hands – and the total cost to me has been about 15 minutes every month, and less than lunch out once a week.

My only ‘scare’ with non-repayment was last month with a field partner (the organisation that actually coordinates loans and repayments) who seems to have hit some difficulty. But, it seems that Kiva’s monitoring prevented any significant loss, and all the loans were refunded.

Given some of the locations where these loans are going to, a 100% repayment rate is nothing short of outstanding. All in all – it’s a resounding success as far as I’m concerned.

The task this year is to get the family into it as well.

This post is in reply to Nathanael Boehm’s UX for System Architects.

System Architecture is in many ways similar to traditional Engineering or Architecture.
In both cases the end result is almost always going to be used by somebody (Even if it’s just the maintenance team).
In both cases the client will have a number of explicit requirements – I want a three bedroom, two story house, I only have $400k to spend. There will also be a huge number of implied or hidden requirements – The external doors need to be on ground level, the roof mustn’t blow off in the first rain storm.

Knowing these requirements lets an Architect produce a design that meets the requirements as best as possible. Sane Architects will include some flexibility into the design – say having stronger joists than absolutely required so another floor can be added later.

Even with the most flexible design, there are some fundamentals that can’t be easily changed: These are our foundations, and the limitations which we will need to work within. Hosting a premier league football match in the back yard is clearly outside the design requirements for your average suburban house.

Technology continues to improve at a stunning pace. Some things which were almost impossible are now done with a little effort. Other things which were once difficult are now easy.

The Architects can often do a better job explaining what these decisions are, and what limitations this will place on the system.
Clearly UX and the System Architect folks need to talk more.

But Wait, you might shout – You’ll pay roaming charges for that!  Yes, that’s true – you’ll pay USD$1.99 for each book downloaded to your kindle over Whispernet while you’re outside the US.

The thing Amazon doesn’t tell you is that the international kindle prices are exactly the same.

Don’t believe me? See for yourself on the Amazon site.

First, set your Kindle Region to (say) Australia.

Kindle Region is Australia

Now, take a look at some book you’re interested in.

Helfort's War Book 2: The Battle of the Hammer Planets. International Kindle Store Price: USD$8.39, includes Whispernet International Delivery

Setting my kindle region to the USA for a moment and refreshing the page shows me the US Kindle Price

Same book, but on the US Kindle Site. Price? USD$6.39.

As you can see, for this book it’s USD$6.39 on the US Kindle Store. Add in USD$1.99 for International Whispernet Delivery, and it comes to USD$8.38  - You make a saving of USD 1c by doing this.

Things are much the same it seems for magazine subscriptions. Although, I’ve only checked the prices for two monthly magazines, the price differences are about the same.

International Kindle Store Price: USD$5.99, with International Whispernet Delivery

US Kindle Store Price: USD$2.99/month

Plus – there is significantly MORE books available on the US Kindle Store than the Australian version.

It’s well worth checking out.

NB: If you have any magazine/newspaper subscriptions, and especially any daily/weekly ones – then read the roaming letter they send you carefully, it includes information about per-item delivery costs.

Edit: Can I use any address in the USA, Or do I need a valid US Billing Address?

Don’t edit your billing address, just your Kindle Region – in the section marked ‘Your Country’. And yes, any address in the USA Works, as long as you have a valid Zip Code.

The old XMPP protocol provided your traditional ‘Following’ stream, plus keyword searching with ‘track’.  All of it being delivered in near-real-time (i.e, immediately after the Tweets were sent).

The new Streaming API uses Comet to deliver a similar set of functionality.

I’ve created a prototype client that uses these functions, so that we can experiment with the new API, the plan being to bring that into MahTweets at some point.

There is some interesting behaviour with the API, particularly with regards to following people.  There was a change to the Web API some months ago, where Twitter disabled the ability to see all tweets your friends make. Basicly they set it so that you can ONLY see the Tweets your friends make, if they’re either Open (not replies), or Replies to someone else you follow.

An example might be that you follow Amy and Barry. It might not be such a big deal for you that you don’t see their tweets to Christine  – but if you, Amy and Barry were discussing something – replies to Christine (even in the same conversation) won’t be seen by you.

Well, the new Streaming API changes that – not only does it bring back that old @replies functionality, it also adds an interesting twist.

Under the Streaming API you also see public @replies to anyone you follow. That is: If Christine were replying to Amy or Bob – you’d see those tweets, even though you don’t follow Christine.

There are some restrictions with the API – you need a reasonably fast and stable connection (Dialup, Satellite, or dodgey wireless connections need not apply), you can’t have more than one streaming connection open per account, and you can’t rapidly change the stream settings.  You also need to explicitly define what keywords and user IDs you want to recieve updates for. That’s currently limited to following 400 users, and/or tracking 200 keywords.

Still… it’s a bunch of fun, and can lead to some interesting scenarios.

Here’s a screencap from the demo client. I’m tracking Aeoth’s UID here, but also getting replies to @aeoth

Test Client - Full Follow Stream