I own two mobile phones, I have two different phone numbers and a spare sim card for my most used one. I have an Apple iPod that I use for music and entertainment on the go, a tablet laptop for most of my work and another computer at home. Wherever I go, I can reach every single bit of information I might need. GPS coordinates? No problem. Last weeks meeting reports? Yep. Updated calendar info for the whole company? I can do that to.
Wherever I go, I’m connected. Facebook. Twitter. Several blogs. Hotmail. Gmail. Google maps and WIKIPEDIA. I can connect and access them with the flick of my thumb, a status update on one is reflected on all the others without me doing anything, everything is linked to everything else and information floats freely between services and platforms. A true child of the age of information revolution, I think differently about what I share and tell others than my parents, I lie open my life to a potential of users that is ever growing. If I’m not careful I will risk others stealing my very identity with the intent to misuse the information obtained.
I’m willing to take the risk. I move borders. I change people. I can alter the course of a small group. I can interest the local media. I am part of the whole. We are. We change the world. We alter the course of billions. We attract interest of all the media. We are the people of the world, and we are working, communicating and living… together. As one single world, one single mechanism, we have begun the shift that will forever change the borders, the dividers and the mental state of nations. We have begun the change that will change democracy forever.
I’m willing to risk it. The benefit is too good to miss.
We’re better. Connected.
So, I have switched to the long awaited Windows 7 on my laptop. (HP Pavilion tx2020 now running Windows 7 Ultimate.) And what are my first thoughts on this new os?
- It seems inherently more stable thant Vista was, at lest when multitasking and running more than 2 programs at once.
- However, I have lost fingertip-touch functionality. My touchscreen still works with the sylus, but not with my fingers. My guess is that there is an updated driver from HP releasing soon that will fix this.
- My graphics driver is having issues with 7. This was mercilesly fixed by switching to custom Omega drivers. Mind you, they are not made for Windows 7, but they seem to work better than the vendor supplied ones.
- The upgrade process from Vista Business to 7 Ultimate took forever. No, really. Forever!
- It has some clever new things of organizing, virtual folders and tags for example. Perfect for controlfreaks like me.
- It comes with a shiny new taskbar that actually has some real improvements to it: when docking a program icon to the taskbar, it doesn’t require more space when you launchthe program, it simply let’s you know by highlighting the icon that it’s being used. Also, autogrouping and onmouseover previews are handy things.
- It gives you more detailed control of the securtiy settings than Vista. Which used to be a pain.
All in all. I like it. Will install this on my girlfriends laptop as well, and when I get a new machine, this shall also be with 7. However, if you have an older pc, like my old laptop, then don’t bother. Stick with XP. If you’re stuck in Vista mode however, it’s worth a switch. Although the switch itself will take forever.
Somehow, both my laptops decided to crash today. One required complete re-install of Windows to function again. The other was saved with a bit of “forced removal” as well as creative editing of the registry. Sometimes, I think I should go into gardening or something that doesn’t rely on computers as heavily as we do.
DandyID
Facebook
ICQ
Twitter
WordPress.com
YouTube
Google Profiles
Flickr