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Sunday, October 21, 2012

Early Look at Windows 8 Baffles Consumers

The release of Microsoft’s Windows 8

NEW YORK — The release of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system is a week away, and consumers are in for a shock. 

Windows, used in one form or another for a generation, is getting a completely different look that will force users to learn new ways to get things done.

Microsoft is making a radical break with the past to stay relevant in a world where smartphones and tablets have eroded the three-decade dominance of the personal computer. 

Windows 8 is supposed to tie together Microsoft’s PC, tablet and phone software with one look. But judging by the reactions of some people who have tried the PC version, it’s a move that risks confusing and alienating customers. 

Tony Roos, an American missionary in Paris, installed a free preview version of Windows 8 on his aging laptop to see if Microsoft’s new operating system would make the PC faster and more responsive. It didn’t, he said, and he quickly learned that working with the new software requires tossing out a lot of what he knows about Windows.

“It was very difficult to get used to,” he said. “I have an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, and they never got used to it. They were like, `We’re just going to use Mom’s computer.”’

Windows 8 is the biggest revision of Microsoft Corp.’s operating system since it introduced Windows 95 amid great fanfare 17 years ago. Ultimately, Windows grew into a $14 billion a year business and helped make former Chief Executive Bill Gates the richest man in the world for a time. 

Now, due to smartphones and tablets, the personal computer industry is slumping. Computer companies are desperate for something that will get sales growing again. PC sales are expected to shrink this year for the first time since 2001, according to IHS iSuppli, a market research firm.

The question is whether the new version, which can be run on tablets and smartphones, along with the traditional PC, can satisfy the needs of both types of users.

“I am very worried that Microsoft may be about to shoot itself in the foot spectacularly,” said. Michael Mace, the CEO of Silicon Valley software startup Cera Technology and a former Apple employee. Windows 8 is so different, he said, that many Windows users who aren’t technophiles will feel lost, he said.

Microsoft is releasing Windows 8 on Oct. 26, and it doesn’t plan to cushion the impact. Computer companies will make Windows 8 standard on practically all PCs that are sold to consumers. 

Speaking to Wall Street analysts on Thursday, Microsoft’s chief financial officer Peter Klein said he isn’t very concerned that user confusion could slow the adoption of Windows 8. When Microsoft introduces new features, he said, people eventually realize that “those innovations have delivered way more value, way more productivity and way better usability.” That’s going to be true of Windows 8 too, he said.

Instead of the familiar Start menu and icons, Windows 8 displays applications as a colorful array of tiles, which can feature updated information from the applications. 

For instance, the “Photos” tile shows an image from the user’s collection, and the “People” tile shows images from the user’s social-media contacts. (Microsoft is licensed to use AP content in the Windows 8 news applications.)

The tiles are big and easy to hit with a finger — convenient for a touch screen. Applications fill the whole screen by default — convenient for a tablet screen, which is usually smaller than a PC’s. The little buttons that surround Windows 7 applications, for functions like controlling the speaker volume, are hidden, giving a clean, uncluttered view. When you need those little buttons, you can bring them out, but users have to figure out on their own how to do it. 

“In the quest for simplicity, they sacrificed obviousness,” said Sebastiaan de With, an interface designer and the chief creative officer at app developer DoubleTwist in San Francisco. 

Technology blogger Chris Pirillo posted a YouTube video of his father using a preview version of Windows 8 for the first time. As the elder Pirillo tours the operating system with no help from his son, he blunders into the old “Desktop” environment and can’t figure out how to get back to the Start tiles. (Hint: Move the mouse cursor into the top right corner of the screen, then swipe down to the “Start” button that appears, and click it. On a touch screen, swipe a finger in from the right edge of the screen to reveal the Start button.) The four-minute video has been viewed more than 1.1 million times since it was posted in March. 

“There are many things that are hidden,” said Raluca Budiu, a user experience specialist with Nielsen Norman Group. “Once users discover them, they have to remember where they are. People will have to work hard and use this system on a regular basis.”

Mace, the software CEO, has used every version of Windows since version 2.0, which came out in 1987. Each one, he said, built upon the previous one. Users didn’t need to toss out their old ways of doing things when new software came along. Windows 8 ditches that tradition of continuity, he said.

“Most Windows users don’t view their PCs as being broken to begin with. If you tell them `Oh, here’s a new version of Windows, and you have to relearn everything to use it,’ how many normal users are going to want to do that?” he asked.

The familiar Windows Desktop is still available through one of the tiles, and most programs will open up in that environment. But since the Start button is gone, users will have to flip back and forth between the desktop and the tile screen.

There’s additional potential for confusion because there’s one version of Windows 8, called “Windows RT,” that looks like the PC version but doesn’t run regular Windows programs. It’s intended for tablets and lightweight tablet-laptop hybrids.

Budiu believes the transition to Windows 8 will be most difficult for PC users, because Microsoft’s design choices favor touch screens rather than mice and keyboards. Alex Wukovich, a Londoner who tried Windows 8 on a friend’s laptop, agrees.

“On a desktop, it just felt really weird,” he said. “It feels like it’s a tablet operating system that Microsoft managed to twist and shoehorn onto a desktop.”

Not everyone who has tried Windows 8 agrees with the critics. 

Sheldon Skaggs, a Web developer in Charlotte, N.C., thought he was going to hate Windows 8, but he needed to do something to speed up his 5-year-old laptop. So he installed the new software.

“After a bit of a learning curve and playing around with it a bit more, you get used to it, surprisingly,” he said.

The computer now boots up faster than it did with Windows Vista, he said.

Vista was Microsoft’s most recent operating-system flop. It was seen as so clunky and buggy when released in 2007 that many PC users sat out the upgrade cycle and waited for Windows 7, which arrived two and a half years later. Companies and other institutions wait much longer than consumers to upgrade their software, and many will keep paying for Windows 7. Many companies are still using Windows XP, released in 2001.

Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial, is optimistic about Windows 8, pointing out that it’s snappy and runs well on PCs with limited processing power, making it suited for compact, tablet-style machines. But he also notes that through Microsoft’s history, roughly every other operating-system release has been a letdown. 

Intel Corp. makes the processors that go into 80 percent of PCs, and has a strong interest in the success of Windows. CEO Paul Otellini said Tuesday that when the company has let consumers try Windows 8 on expensive “ultrabook” laptops with touch screens, “the feedback is universally positive.” But he told analysts that he doesn’t really know if people will embrace Windows 8 for mainstream PCs.

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Published by Gusti Putra at: 4:05 PM
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Saturday, May 19, 2012

10 Cars most Sought Men

10 Cars Men Can't Stop Thinking About

Lust is a relative term. One man's object of desire is another man's reject, and there's no accounting for taste. Cars are like anything else: What you enjoy might not be enjoyed by others — until you get to the top. The best and most exciting cars in the world are generally universally appreciated. The desirable forms in this gathering tend to stimulate men the way few other machines do. Here are what we believe to be the 10 cars that men lust after the most.

THE CARS MEN LUST AFTER MOST

1957 Jaguar XKSS
This is the prettiest Jaguar ever built, and that's saying something. The XKSS was little more than a Jaguar D-Type with a windshield and a full interior. It was loud, obnoxious and expensive when new. (Fittingly, actor Steve McQueen drove one.) Just 16 were built before a fire at Jaguar's Browns Lane factory in Coventry, England, destroyed the tooling required to make more. The daring required to put a world-class racing car into production is no laughing matter, but even if the XKSS had no history and offered no speed, its sultry, world-beating looks would make it a lock on this list.

1953 – 2012 Chevrolet Corvette

GM engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov created the Chevrolet Corvette in the early 1950s as a response to the twee sports cars then coming out of Europe, but the model has since transcended its "me, too" origins and become one of the most respected machines in the world. America's most successful sports car is still the only real choice when it comes to purpose-built Detroit speed; other cars might be faster and more well-rounded, but few offer as much style and speed for the price. Want a durable, drag-race-winning, road-course-eating American monster? Having a midlife crisis and need something to sin up the driveway? The Corvette is your answer.



1961 – 1967 AC/Shelby Cobra

It's been said that the Shelby Cobra is the most copied car in the world, and it's not hard to see why. The Cobra's unique blend of American power (a Ford V8 engine) and British style and handling (a 1960s AC Ace body and frame) make it nearly irresistible. That it won countless races in the hands of Carroll Shelby's eponymous motorsports team is just icing on the cake. There are different flavors of Cobra — 289, 427, competition-ready or road-prepped — but all are amazing to drive and frighteningly seductive. The preponderance of copies just makes the originals that much more desirable.



1962 – 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO

Every lust list needs a Ferrari, and this is the most lust-worthy Ferrari of them all. The Ferrari 250 GTO is the epitome of what the Italian marque has come to represent: fast, outrageous, competition-worthy. That it looks good in red is no small thing, either. Just 39 were produced, and each one is worth more than the average American makes in 10 years. This is the ne plus ultra of Ferraris, the barely tamed road racer that happens to look good on the street, and nearly everyone has heard of it. And if that isn't enough, it's difficult to drive quickly and makes you feel like a man every time you think about it. "Lust" is an understatement.


1964 – 2013 Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang is arguably the single greatest stroke of product-planning genius in the history of the automobile. The first Mustangs were little more than rebodied Ford Falcon sedans, but they offered flash and power in a relatively compact and affordable package. With the Mustang, Ford all but created an industry segment — a 2-door machine with more looks and speed than its window sticker would lead you to believe. Almost all Mustangs are great, and even the lackluster ones entice. Most men like a bargain, and nowhere else do you get as much bang for the buck.


1963 – 2012 Porsche 911

In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler tasked Ferdinand Porsche with designing a car for the masses. The machine that resulted, the air-cooled, rear-engine Volkswagen Beetle, stayed in production for half a century and eventually spawned the Porsche 356 sports car. The 356, in turn, spawned the Porsche 911, a 6-cylinder, rear-engine jewel that went on to dominate both motorsports and the sports-car sales race. No car is more quintessentially German, and no modern exotic does so much so well. The 911 is sex, speed, history, feedback and comfort — everything a guy might want.


A Big Truck

Yes, we know "a big truck" is a little vague. But really, who doesn't want a big truck? Whether it's a Ford, Chevrolet, Chrysler, International or Mack, the brand isn't important. All that matters is cargo capacity and cylinder count. You can tow with it. You can haul anything. You can stick Aunt Edna's couch in the back and move all of her stuff across town, and no snowstorm or muddy road will stop you. The day after a man wins the lottery, he buys an exotic sports car. The day after that, he buys a truck.


1961 – 1969 Lincoln Continental

You have probably seen this car before. It was in "The Matrix." It stars in the opening scenes of HBO's "Entourage." Tragically, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in one. The 1960s Lincoln Continental was the last of the great Detroit style sleds; it offers presence in spades, comfort out the wazoo, and more sheet metal than a pie-tin factory. It doesn't handle or stop all that well, but those things are beside the point; when you swan down the road in this thing, you feel like a king and a rock star all at once. Think of it as an old-school Cadillac without the glam.


1954 – 1963 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, also known as the Gullwing, is one of the most recognizable cars ever built. The car's nickname comes from its upward-swinging doors, a feature Mercedes engineers dreamed up to get around the space limitations of the SL's revolutionary steel-tube frame. When this car was new, it was the fastest production automobile on the planet, topping out at a whopping 161 mph. Only 1,400 were built, and nearly all of them survive. If you want one, bring a few kidneys to pawn: Even a beater Gullwing will run you almost half a million dollars.


1966 – 1972 Lamborghini Miura

Deep down, everyone wants an exotic car. The Lamborghini Miura is the quintessential exotic — a machine that values speed over practicality, beauty over thrift. It is gorgeous. You cannot buy one unless you are wealthy, and even then, you may not be able to afford it. Its maintenance costs would bankrupt a Rockefeller. Its road manners would kill an Andretti. And somewhere, some woman is crying because her fiancé just bought a new Miura engine and not a wedding ring. This is exactly why men — or women, dogs, aliens from Mars, whoever — want it. You should, too.


Quoted from MSN
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Published by Gusti Putra at: 12:23 PM
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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Dangerous Storms Move into Midwest

A tornado moves on the ground north of Solomon, Kan.,
on Saturday evening. A strong wave of storms pounded the Midwest.
Tornadoes Reported

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Tornadoes reported across the Midwest and Plains on Saturday and early Sunday left five people dead in Oklahoma and damaged houses, a hospital, a jail, an Air Force base and other buildings around the region, officials said.

Oklahoma authorities said five people died early Sunday after a tornado hit in and around the northwest Oklahoma town of Woodward. Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Keli Cain said the state medical examiner's office confirmed the fatalities in the Woodward area. She didn't know the gender or age of the victims or details of their deaths.

The National Weather Service said the tornado hit at 12:18 a.m. Sunday.

Woodward Mayor Roscoe Hill said the sirens were not apparently working when the tornado struck, although they had been sounding loudly from storms on Saturday afternoon. The tornado hit in a mixed area of residences and businesses, Hill said.

Sheriff's deputies carry an injured man from a south Wichita neighborhood after a tornado caused massive damage Saturday night.
Woodward police said search and rescue units were headed to the damaged areas.

Storms also were reported in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.

National Weather Service forecasters issued sobering outlooks that the worst of the weather would hit around nightfall, predicting that conditions were right for exceptionally strong tornadoes. Weather officials and emergency management officials worried most about what would happen if strong storms hit when people were sleeping, not paying attention to weather reports and unlikely to hear warning sirens.

When it's dark, it's also more difficult for weather spotters to clearly see funnel clouds or tornadoes.
In Kansas, a reported tornado in Wichita caused damage at McConnell Air Force Base and the Spirit AeroSystems and Boeing plants. A mobile home park was heavily damaged in the city, although no injuries or deaths were reported.

Yvonne Tucker rushed to a shelter with about 60 of her neighbors at Pinaire Mobile Home Park. She said people were crying and screaming, and the shelter's lights went out when the twister hit. When they came back outside, they found several homes destroyed, including Tucker's.

"I didn't think it was that bad until I walked down my street and everything is gone," said Tucker, 49. "I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. I've seen it on TV, but when it happens to you it is unreal.
"I just feel lost."

Iowa emergency officials said a large part of the town of Thurman in the western part of the state was destroyed Saturday night, possibly by a tornado, but no one was injured or killed. Fremont County Emergency Management Director Mike Crecelius said about 75 percent of the 250-person town was destroyed. Some residents took refuge at the City Hall.

A hospital in Creston, about 75 miles southwest of Des Moines, suffered roof damage and had some of its windows blown out by the storm, but patients and staff were not hurt. Medical center officials were calling other area hospitals to determine how many beds they had available in case they needed to move patients.

In Nebraska, baseball-sized hail shattered windows and tore siding from houses in and around Petersburg, about 140 miles northwest of Omaha. In southeast Nebraska, an apparent tornado took down barns, large trees and some small rural structures. Johnson County emergency director Clint Strayhorn said he was trying to determine the twister's duration and the damage it caused.

"I'm on a 2-mile stretch that this thing is on the ground and I haven't even gotten to the end of it yet," he said, walking the path of destruction near the Johnson-Nemaha county line. He didn't immediately know of any injuries.
At least 10 tornadoes were reported in Kansas, mostly in rural parts of the western and central sections of the state. A suspected tornado narrowly avoided Salina, meteorologists said. Another was on the ground for about a half-hour north of Dodge City.

Sedgwick County, home to Wichita, declared a state of disaster and said preliminary estimates suggest damages could be as high as $283 million.

Kristin Dean, who was among the Wichita mobile home residents taking shelter during the storm, said she was shaking as she was being pushed from home in her wheelchair. She was able to grab a bag of her possessions before going into the shelter and that was all she had left. She lost her mobile home, and the windows in her car shattered.

"It got still," the 37-year-old woman, who's in a wheelchair after hurting her leg a month ago, recalled of the scene inside the shelter. "Then we heard a wham, things flying. Everybody screamed, huddling together.
"It is devastating, but you know we are alive."

Kansas Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman Sharon Watson said Rice County was the only other Kansas county to issue a disaster declaration. Several buildings in the county were damaged, including the one housing the sheriff's department and jail. Inmates were transferred to another facility because of the damage.

Homes were damaged or destroyed in 10 other Kansas counties, Watson said.
Warnings for more serious storms continued. Bill Bunting, chief of operations at the Storm Prediction Center, said severe weather is possible Sunday "from east Texas and Arkansas and up into the Great Lakes."

"The threat isn't over with tonight, unfortunately," he said Saturday.

Adapted from USA Today
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Published by Gusti Putra at: 4:38 PM
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Human Remains Might Be at Titanic Wreck Site

This photo provided by the Institute for Exploration, Center for
Archaeological Oceanography/University of
Rhode Island/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration,
shows a pair of shoes at the bottom of the ocean near
the Titanic shipwreck site.
Officials say evidence of human remains at Titanic wreck

NEW YORK (AP) – Human remains may be embedded in the mud of the North Atlantic where the New York-bound Titanic came to rest when it sank 100 years ago, a federal official said Saturday.


A 2004 photograph, released to the public for the first time this week in an uncropped version to coincide with the disaster's centenary, shows a coat and boots in the mud at the legendary shipwreck site.

"These are not shoes that fell out neatly from somebody's bag right next to each other," James Delgado, the director of maritime heritage at the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, told the Associated Press in a phone interview.

The way they are "laid out" makes a "compelling case" that it is where "someone has come to rest," he said.
The image, along with two others showing pairs of boots resting next to each other, were taken during an expedition led by NOAA and famed Titanic finder Robert Ballard in 2004. They were published in Ballard's book on the expedition. Delgado said the one showing a coat and boots was cropped to show only a boot.

The New York Times first reported about the photographs in Saturday editions.

Filmmaker James Cameron, who has visited the wreck 33 times, told the newspaper that he had seen "zero human remains" during his extensive explorations of the Titanic. "We've seen shoes. We've seen pairs of shoes, which would strongly suggest there was a body there at one point. But we've never seen any human remains."

For Delgado, who was the chief scientist on an expedition in 2010 that mapped the entire site, the difference in opinion is "one of semantics."

"I as an archaeologist would say those are human remains," he said, referring to the photograph of the coat and boots specifically. "Buried in that sediment are very likely forensic remains of that person."

He said in an email that the images "speak to the power of that tragic and powerful scene 2 ½ miles below" and "to its resilience as an undersea museum, as well as its fragility."

"This is an appropriate time to note the human cost of that event, and the fact that in this special place at the bottom of the sea, evidence of the human cost, in the form of the shattered wreck, the scattered luggage, fittings and other artifacts, and the faint but unmistakable evidence that this is where people came to rest, is present," he said.

He said the images are also evidence that society could do a better job protecting the site.

There has been a long fight to protect the Titanic since it was rediscovered by Ballard in 1985, beginning with a federal law passed by Congress aimed at creating an international agreement to transform the shipwreck into an international maritime memorial. Sen. John Kerry introduced what some observers see as stronger legislation April 1 aimed at protecting the site from "salvage and intrusive research."

But the luxury liner, which went down April 14, 1912, after striking an iceberg, sits in international waters, limiting what the U.S. government can do.

Delgado said an international treaty would need to be negotiated between Britain, Canada, France and the U.S.

Adapted from USA Today
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Published by Gusti Putra at: 4:07 PM
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