Windows 7

Microsoft Windows 7: A Review
By D.B. Grady


It's hard to believe that Microsoft Windows XP is eight years old. In computer years, that's just slightly younger than the abacus. And though I was a reluctant convert, would come to adore its jellybean-explosion user interface and remarkable stability. When Windows Vista hit the market, however, it felt like a bad redesign of a classic muscle car.

Microsoft bungled Vista's release with confusing versions, weak driver support, and User Account Control, the engine behind that multitude of nagging nanny prompts asking, "Are you sure you want to do that?" followed by prompts asking, "Are you really sure you want to do that?" followed by prompts demanding administrative permissions, which amounted to clicking the OK button.

But in fairness, Windows Vista got a bum rap. UAC could be disabled, and driver support quickly improved. The worst of its reputation was not Microsoft's fault. Vista hit the market as computer prices plummeted. To compensate for diminished revenue, PC makers turned to third-party developers to subsidize the cost of manufacturing.

The result was computers bundled and overburdened with "shovelware," rendering many systems so sluggish out-of-the-box as to be useless to the average consumer. The shiny Powered by Vista stickers suddenly looked like warning labels, even though Vista had little to do with the performance issues.

It remains to be seen whether software bloat will so cripple the newest version of Microsoft's flagship product, Windows 7. On its own, however, Windows 7 is in many ways what Vista should have been. (Indeed, in a lot of ways, Windows 7 is Vista, polished, much in the way that Apple Snow Leopard is an incremental improvement on Leopard.) It's faster. It's more aesthetically pleasing. It's packed with features that Windows users have desired for years (and Mac users have enjoyed since the 90s). It's a tremendous product of engineering that many thought the Redmond company was no longer capable of producing.

Computers running multi-core processors (that is to say, most modern computers) will notice a pronounced speed boost, as the new Windows is more adept at leveraging this technology. Everyone will see decreased boot times. Internet functionality is now seamless and tightly integrated, blurring the line between the "cloud" and the physical.

Windows 7 was designed with an eye toward the future. The most obvious visual enhancement is the taskbar, which now allows programs to be pinned alongside running programs, a clear nod to the Mac's Dock.

If there were a statue of User Account Control in the town square, rejoicing computer users everywhere would have overturned it in celebration of Windows 7's release. UAC has been heavily refined so as to be invisible for general computing.

Some speculate that this leaves Windows 7 vulnerable to spyware and viruses, but experience tells me that the same people who'd stumble across and install malware never hesitated to click "Yes, Yes, Yes" in any event. As always, it is critical to run a good antivirus program such as Microsoft Security Essentials, a free download at: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

While nobody will be disappointed with Windows 7, it does come at a steep price: $159.95 at the lowest end, up to $299. Therein lies another of Microsoft's weaknesses: multiple versions of the same software. Do you need Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, or Professional or Enterprise or Ultimate?

Microsoft offers a checklist of features available to each one, but the real question is: why not give users the best experience, every time, at a reasonable price? Why ask users to decide whether or not they need Domain Joining, AppLocker, or DirectAccess, when most users have no idea what such features entail?

Regardless, Windows 7 is the best operating system from Microsoft since Windows XP, and well worth upgrading on any multi-core system. But do your homework first. There is a world of difference between Ultimate and Home Basic.

The Mouse That Roared

Anyone who works in an office or is otherwise shackled to a computer all day should demand three accommodations from his or her employer: a good chair, a good monitor, and a good mouse. The first two can get very expensive very quickly, and short of a doctor's note – this works, by the way! – do not always meet with a stingy manager's approval.

But mouse devices are relatively inexpensive, and well worth the investment. (A good mouse is cheaper than a good carpal tunnel surgeon.)

But not all mice are created equal. If the choice is between a Logitech mouse and sawing off my own hand, my only real decision is Craftsman or Black and Decker.

Microsoft is the undisputed king of mouse technology. The Redmond company pioneered ergonomic design. They mainstreamed optical tracking (ridding the world of the lint magnet that was the mechanical ball mouse).

They introduced arguably the most impressive leap in human-computer interaction since the keyboard – the clickable scroll wheel. And most recently, they pioneered Blue Track technology, allowing their mice to be used on virtually any surface, from carpet to cardboard.

Whether one is a gamer or a spreadsheet jockey, Microsoft makes a mouse for you. Prices vary with features. The standard wireless workhorse – the Optical Mouse 3000 – can be found for as little as $15, a real bargain. Its collapsible (and gorgeously designed) Arc Mouse, for those frequently on the go, runs $30. And its flagship device, the Blue Track Explorer, runs $69.

Each mouse is compatible with both PC and Mac systems, and included software enables complete customization and button assignment. Microsoft has left little to chance, and with a bit of research (there are demonstration models in stores everywhere), the right model can be found for users of every type.

Apple, on the other hand, hasn't made a good mouse since 1984, when they popularized the peripheral with the original Macintosh computer. (The notorious technology curmudgeon John Dvorak guaranteed its popularity by declaring that nobody would ever want to use such things.)

Since then, however, it's been one failure after another, most notably the appalling "puck" mouse, released in conjunction with the otherwise game-changing iMac in 1998. (This is not even to mention the execrable Mighty Mouse in 2005.)

Last week, Steve Jobs unveiled the Magic Mouse, a device with a name only Billy Mays could love, but with features that may well turn the industry upside-down.

The Magic Mouse has no buttons. It has no scroll wheel or trackball or wires. And yet it may well be the most ambitious input device on the market. The entire mouse is a "multitouch" device. Users of the Apple iPhone will recognize that word – it's the feature that allows photos and websites to be enlarged and reduced. It enables swiping through contact lists and across music libraries. It fosters imaginative video games and facilitates touchscreen interaction.
And now it's come to the mouse.

The entire surface of the Magic Mouse is a button. The entire surface of the mouse is a scroll wheel for navigation both horizontal and vertical. It detects two-finger navigation and enables screen zooming and iTunes navigation. It supports right-clicking, and allows for ambidextrous customization. Its laser, while not so advanced as Microsoft's Blue Track, supports a broad array of surface tracking.

The Magic Mouse is powered by AA-batteries, and communicates with Macs and MacBooks by way of a Bluetooth connection, no USB dongles or base stations required. As of right now, it does not support PCs (though intrepid developers will no doubt remedy this oversight) and runs $69.

In the end, whether one settles on the sleek Apple device or the proven Microsoft brand, a well-chosen mouse can make computer work a little less frustrating, and maybe a little more enjoyable. But if the only choice is a Logitech, always go with a sharp blade, and find a leather strap to bite on. Better to go without a hand than to place a frustration in one.

Google Wave: Back to the Future

Last week, Google released invitations for the first private beta of Google Wave. Described by the Mountain View company as "email, if it were invented today," Wave is an ambitious attempt at real-time collaborative messaging with full multimedia integration. If ever there were a product with aspirations of completing a buzzword bingo card, this is it.

My expectations were high. It was clear from the earliest version of Gmail that web-based email had been fundamentally transformed. But to transform the very concept of email itself? If any company can do it, it is Google, with its elite stable of Computer Science PhDs and hippie culture of software dreamers.

Note to Google: keep dreaming.


In its present state—and understand that as a beta, it should be considered a work-in-progress—Google Wave is a mess. Putting aside the bugs, which result in frequent hangs, and its proclivity to simply stop working entirely, Wave is a shotgun blast to the face of information. When everything is important, nothing is important, and that is Wave's greatest weakness.

Here is how it works. Just as with traditional email, there is an inbox and an address book, folders and a trashcan. Just as with traditional email, letters (called "waves," lower-case) can be composed to one or several recipients at once. Wave takes the concept a step further, allowing public messages to be written for the whole world, a clear nod to the blog concept.

Composing messages in Wave, however, is like walking on a tightrope, because the recipient can see your messages as you type them. Every backspace, every deleted clause, every corrected typo, and every toned-down rewrite. (Who among us hasn't written a stern rebuke to a correspondent, only to delete the letter, and respond with a simple, "Thanks for your suggestion.")

Real time message streaming is not new. Indeed, it's very, very old. Hardened computer geeks will recall the BBS days, where such was common place. College students of the 90s will recall ICQ, the first mainstream instant messenger, which operated similarly. But that paradigm died as technology improved and the tension of livewire messaging became obvious. Do you know how much profanity can accidentally be typed from innocuous words? After a week on Wave, I do. Have fun messaging Grandma.

Responding to waves is the key to its potential. Instead of replying to an entire letter, correspondents can reply to individual paragraphs, sentences, or even words. The result is a letter that becomes sliced ever more thinly from a coherent construct of prose to a series of single-sentence back-and-forths. In a sense, what starts as a letter quickly regresses into fine-grain Twitter posts.

In messages between two or three people, this is not as problematic as one might think. But on public waves, or private correspondence between ten or more people (standard collaborative business emails, in other words), messages tend to self-destruct as everyone responds in real time to different slices of the message.

It soon becomes an exponential problem of figuring out who said what, and when, and the "larger message" is lost to details and asides. Ultimately, communication breaks down into brief replies to complete letters, which trends closely to the Gmail model, and defeats the Wave concept entirely.

Google is no doubt aware of this, and will almost certainly address these issues. Because Wave is an open, extensible standard, with the eventual goal of host interoperability, the system will soon break free of Google's walls and spread to private business servers and public domains.

If you work for a big business, the Wave tide will soon be rolling in, dictated by well-meaning corporate types. Remember when Share Point was the imposed panacea for every business communications woe? Get ready for the latest in migraine technology.

As of right now, Google is mad or delusional to think Wave will supplant email, even once the kinks are ironed out. Wave will undoubtedly spawn very exciting extensions and very useful niches, but as a person-to-person method of communication, the sense of permanence and intimacy of email is completely lost. In large measure, in fact, it seems not so much a replacement for email as a replacement for USENET.

But let's leave USENET six feet in the ground, where it belongs. And since email isn't dead, yet, let's not give it a premature burial. When it comes to messaging, I'm not saying Google Wave isn't the future. I'm just saying it looks an awful lot like the past.
Google Wave: http://wave.google.com

There's an App for That

The iPhone is unique for many things. A glass screen, for example, with its facial-grease collection technology. (Never before have I realized how truly disgusting human skin is, which makes the iPhone both a biology class and a Wes Craven film.) Its reliance on AT&T, and their advanced call-dropping feature, which makes every conversation a race to the final "goodbyes." Its compass application (available only in the new iPhone 3GS), which is useful for... something, I think.

But there is one place where Apple took the ball and ran with it, a place where not only did they revolutionize the mobile phone, but change the fundamental nature of software distribution: the App Store. To use an Army expression, the App Store is a "force multiplier." It took the existing iPhone platform, already a powerful, portable personal computer in its own right, and increased its utility exponentially. Yes, third-party software was available for smart phones and PDAs of yore. Palm Computing was rife with expansions. But never before has software browsing, purchasing, and installation been so easy, so effortless, so tempting. And at prices generally as low as 99-cents, a lot of basement millionaires have been made, and a lot of people have been helped on the go.

Evernote ranks as one of the most useful apps on the market. Part notepad, part voice memo recorder, part document storage service, Evernote allows users to organize and manage ideas and information. Browsing a website and want to save a bit of text or a photo? (Or the entire site?) Paste it into Evernote. Have PDFs or Microsoft Office documents that you need to access from anywhere? Upload it to the Evernote servers. See something at the store that you want to remember to purchase later, or research online? Take an Evernote snapshot.

Evernote is designed to read and search though this mountain of data. There are Windows, Mac, and web clients available, in addition to the iPhone app, and Blackberry and Palm versions. The app price: free. The online component is also free for the first 40 megabytes per month (which amounts to 20,000 notes or 400 pictures). Expansion, in the unlikely event that the quota is reached, runs $45 a year.

Facebook, the social networking site once confined to college campuses and now reaching into nursing homes and daycares alike has a top-notch app available. It fully supports the service, to include mail, chat, and the newsfeed. It allows for friend and request management, and enables photos and video taken on the iPhone to be uploaded directly to the user's profile. The price: free.

mSecure is a password management app that stores user logins and passwords behind 256-bit encryption. (Using brute force methods, it would take a hacker upward of two hundred years to crack the program.) It also conveniently stores and sorts credit card, banking information, flight numbers and even clothing sizes. The app runs $2.99, and includes a free backup utility that saves your data to a thumb drive in the event of a catastrophic data loss, like, say, you drop your iPhone in the toilet on the same day you spill a cup of coffee on your computer. (Trust me, it happens.)

iFitness is a personal fitness app that allows users not only to build and manage workout schedules, but also keep a running log of progress. Featured in the app is a full database of exercise demonstrations (with photographs of each workout position) to maximize routines and enhance performance. Like health club memberships, this is an app I bought, but generally just gaze longingly at while eating doughnuts and watching television. iFitness costs $1.99.

There are now 75,000 programs in the App Store. I've listed a few that I use daily, but whether your needs are travel, games, or money management, the software is there, and you are only a few swipes away from turning your iPhone into a workhorse computer.

Evernote: http://www.evernote.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com
mSecure: http://www.msevensoftware.com/msecure.html
iFitness: http://medicalprod.com/ifitness.html

Snow Leopard

Earlier this month, Apple released Snow Leopard, the newest version of its Macintosh Operating System. For those who actually got dates in high school, an operating system is the software middleman between the computer and user.

If you've got a PC, you're probably running Microsoft Windows XP, or, if you did something particularly nasty in a past life, Windows Vista.

If that is the case, Snow Leopard might feel foreign to you. Maybe it's the speed. Maybe it's the lack of viruses and spyware. Maybe it's the absence of blue screens and access boxes asking if you're really, really sure you want to do something. On Snow Leopard, you don't click the "Start" button to stop your computer.

Purchasing Snow Leopard is easy. Walk into an electronics store, and pick up the box labeled "Snow Leopard." This may seem like a refreshing glass of water to a computer user in Windows hell, where there are no less than eight versions of Vista, to include Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, Vista Enterprise, and Vista Ultimate. Which one is best for you? I suggest a Magic 8-Ball, and $320 dollars, which is the going rate for Ultimate.

Snow Leopard runs $29.

Just for the record, things will improve with the upcoming Microsoft Windows 7. They've streamlined things, and will bless the serfs with a choice of six arbitrarily defined versions. (Do you need Branch Cache? BitLocker? These questions will determine which version you need. Best of luck! I expect to get a year's worth of columns out of that alone.)

Most of Snow Leopard's improvements are under the hood. Upon installation, users will notice more space available on their computers. (I gained an astonishing 14 gigabytes, which amounts to around 3500 songs, or 10,000 pictures.) This is because Apple scrapped years of legacy code that had bogged the system down.

The upshot is a faster, tighter, more optimized operating environment, at the expense of older, PowerPC-based systems, which are no longer supported. By focusing on contemporary computers, Snow Leopard is able to fully leverage its 64-bit architecture. This is a significant step in personal computing, enhancing performance and allowing for considerably more system memory. In automotive terms, it's like going from a 4-cylinder engine to a Warp Drive.

The MacOS Finder has been rewritten from the ground up. (Finder is the Mac equivalent of Windows Explorer – the file manager, not the web browser.) In addition to a newfound snappiness, files can now be read and videos previewed on the spot without loading external programs such as QuickTime.

QuickTime itself is vastly improved. Long the hallmark of quality digital media, it's been given a contemporary, minimalist interface for video playback, and now natively supports high-resolution video recording and compression. (This had previously been available only with a pricey add-on.) The result is video immediately available for playback on iPhones and iPods, and transferrable directly to YouTube and other such sites.

Other enhancements, to include a redesigned Exposé and scrollable Stacks (windowing services both), as well as integrated support for Microsoft Exchange make the $29 investment a bargain at twice the price. (Or ten times the price, by Microsoft standards.)

There is a downside. While "big name" programs survive the transition intact, some standalone software will require upgrades to work in the Snow Leopard environment. Safari, Apple's own web browser, runs faster than ever, but the superior Firefox seems to have taken a performance hit. Also, printer support is weak at best. Be sure to consult with the compatibility chart on Apple's web site before upgrading.

The bottom line, however, is the bottom line. Thirty bucks for a shiny new operating system is a phenomenal deal, especially coming from Apple, a company not known for basement pricing. Also available is a $59 "Family Pack," which can be installed on up to five computers.

Unless you are running mission critical applications for the space program, there's no reason not to take the leap. Snow Leopard is a fine addition to the Apple software lineup, and a worthy upgrade for any Intel-based Mac or MacBook.

Snow Leopard: http://apple.com/snowleopard

One Ring to Rule Them All

Google knows your search history. They've got your email. They know what sites you read, what's on your calendar for next week and where you're taking a vacation next month. They're trying to get your word processing documents and are lobbying hard for your medical records. Have I mentioned the satellite imagery they've got of your house?

Yeah, that's not scary. Google is, after all, cuddly, with a colorful logo. And their motto is "Don't be evil." There is nothing suspicious about that.

But seeing as how we've already consumed industrial drums of Google-flavored Kool-Aid, what's the harm in giving them a little more information? How about your telephone?

Google Voice is the latest offering from the California-based company. Part Skype and part iPhone Visual Voicemail, it is a new way of thinking about telephone service, adding features decades overdue, and removing headaches that have long plagued the telecom industry.

Upon sign-up, users are asked to choose a new phone number. This is your One True Number Evermore, and the heart of Google Voice. (Integrated into the selection page is a widget that converts your chosen number to words. If your goal is something akin to 337-AWESOME, you are in luck.)

After settling on digits, users are asked to enter all of their current phone numbers, to include mobile phones, and home and work landlines. By tying these contacts to the Voice account, the old numbers become meaningless. Whether or not one changes jobs or mobile phones or houses or area codes, friends and family will never know; the Google Voice number always stays the same.

Voice allows users to toggle the default destination. If a user is at the office, he or she needs only to select "Work," and all calls will forward to the desk line. On the road? Send all calls to the cell. The utility of this is self-evident; "daytime minutes" and long-distance become a thing of the past.

A cornerstone of Voice is its voicemail management. In addition to centralizing voicemail—no longer are there separate work, home, and mobile boxes—it also transcribes all messages, and allows for their archival in text and voice form.

The upshot of this is the ability to search voicemail messages the same way one searches the Internet. (Notably, incoming calls can be recorded, with similar transcription and search features on the way.) Similarly, Google Voice allows voicemails to be forwarded by email and text message.

Text messaging is critical to the Voice experience. Again, messages can be permanently archived and searched, but more impressively, unlimited texts can be sent and received. For free. No longer are customers extorted into paying an extra, criminally inflated twenty bucks a month for messaging that costs the telecoms a fraction of a cent. (The bell tolls for thee, AT&T.)

None of this is to say Voice is perfect. Because all data passes though Google's servers, there is sometimes a wavering lag in conversation akin to trans-Atlantic phone calls, often leading to crosstalk. This will improve as the compression algorithms governing Google Voice are optimized, but might be a deal breaker for now.

Also, not many users are keen to update business cards and change phone numbers yet again. According to the rumor mill, however, number porting is a top priority at Google. That is to say, just as one can port numbers from AT&T to Sprint, he or she will soon be able to move from AT&T to Google.

Picture messaging, also known as MMS, is not yet supported either, which may or may not be heartbreaking seeing as how AT&T has yet to roll out the promised feature for iPhones. (The technology is only five years old; I can see how it might be a challenge for them.)

Lastly, taking your telephone experience to Google completes the company's quest to have access to every facet of your personal data. In exchange for "one ring to rule them all," you fall under the watchful eye of Sauron—er, Google.

But they've already promised us they won't be evil. What could possibly go wrong?

Money Management Made Easy

When I'm not grooming my polo ponies or watching the help tidy my yacht, I find it relaxing to examine my finances. Oh, there was a time when I was like you. No servants, no exotic sports car collection, no top hat. But then I discovered Mint, a free financial management website.

At first glance, it might not appear much different than the online checking services offered by your personal bank. But astute first glances are what separate those of us who roll cigars with hundred dollar bills from those of you who roll cigarettes with strips of worn newspaper.

After entering your checking account credentials—note that Mint uses the same security measures as most banks, keeping your account secure—the site lists your check register and balance. It also allows you to enter each of your credit cards, and your mortgage, and your car loans and personal loans and student loans and credit lines and 401k and investment portfolios, among other accounts. It even lets you list PayPal. The result is an unfettered view of your financial status with intuitive charts and graphs.

But that is only a small part of Mint's magic. It analyzes your expenditures and breaks them down by category. (That is to say, when it sees McDonalds on your Visa, it automatically files it under Fast Food. When it sees La Truffe Sauvage, it files it under Dining. In this respect, it's also casting judgment on your palette.) It paints a complete portrait, to the penny, of your purchases across accounts and through time, and does so with no user involvement.

The upshot of this is an immediate means of financial self-evaluation that is always up to date. It allows the user to set financial goals based on accurate numbers, and make careful decisions about which corners to cut, and where. In a down economy, belt tightening is a way of life. Mint not only tells you where to tighten the belt, but handles the buckle for you, as well.

It is especially useful when used in conjunction with a pen-and-paper check register. Whenever an underhanded ATM fee or other nebulous service charge is deducted from your account, it fires an immediate email or text message alert, helping achieve that ever-elusive checkbook that's accurate to the penny. It also sends alerts for payments due and interest rate changes, and offers warnings whenever your account falls below a predefined threshold. In this respect, Mint takes the fear out of finances, and helps even the laziest or most fiscally clueless take charge of his or her account.

When I'm at the vacation house in Prague—or is it Paris? These days, it's hard to keep up with my sprawling real estate—I like the freedom that a web-based financial management suite brings. Since the dawn of personal computing, we've been tethered to desktop software and the possibility of crashed hard drives and data loss. Those days are no more. Microsoft Money? So last year. (No, really, it's last year; Microsoft has discontinued the program.) Quicken, too, has seen the light and released an online competitor for Mint, but does not allow data imports from the desktop version, removing its only potential edge.

On-the-go, Mint is accessible through an iPhone app. (I carry around my iPhone in my smoking jacket, when I don't feel like delegating telephone duties to my personal assistant.) The app is nicely featured, offering full account overviews, as well as cash flow and budget reports.

I didn't always wear a monocle or have a swimming pool filled with cash. But with Mint as my guide, I've been able to cope with the recession and make wise choices with my money. Now you'll have to excuse me. My helicopter is fueled and primed to get me to the airport where my private jet awaits. The coral reefs of Bora Bora aren't going to snorkel themselves.

Mint Software, Inc. (http://www.mint.com)