Doug's Mailbag: Tablet Envy
Two readers share whether they are a little envious of those who received the Windows 8 tablet last week at Build:
Yes, I am jealous about the tablet, and for not making it to Build. I've got the developer preview installed already, and looking at what we'll do with it. My company is a certified Gold partner, and if you feel like sending another one out -- I'd be more than happy to try it out!
-Jason
Do the recipients of such trinkets believe they hand out these baubles out of human kindness or do they wonder what they have to do for them? I remember as a young boy, my grandfather, a coal miner from Pennsylvania, telling me there were no free lunches. Nobody gives you anything for free. They want something, and what they want is generally in proportion with price of the main course.
No, I don't need a tablet. I have a lot of toys that do not require the Internet to have fun with. I can engage in social intercourse without Facebook or Twitter. I actually read books. You remember, bound bundles of paper with writing on the paper. The font never changed. I look at these adding machines as equipment to do a job. They are machines. They lost most of the cool for me the first time I wrote a device driver. Now, they are no different than a worn out metal lathe. Another tool I can use to do meaningful work. The machine is not meaningful, the work is.
-Anonymous
Here's one reader who is not enjoying Microsoft's latest OS interfaces:
I have a Windows phone and when it rings I try to answer the call, but end up with either a picture of my thumb or a recording of me saying, 'stupid phone!'
I would like a phone that is, by default, a phone and a computer that runs business apps well -- not devices that randomly decide to become various other playthings.
I still hate the Ribbon interface and would like to get away from the cartoons (icons) that supposedly save me from menus.
-Eric
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/19/2011 at 1:18 PM