So What's This I'm Hearing about Windows 7?

So, I was speaking with a co-worker the other day and he says "I hear Windows 7 is getting some good hype?", and I say "Windows 7? They just released Vista! I guess they had to give up on Vista with a quickness". And then he said "Well, I think Windows Vista got alot of hype early on too, eh!"

Later I pondered, "7? Why 7 ?" Let's see there was Windows 3.0. That's the last time they used a number. Since then there have been Windows 2000™, Windows NT™, Windows XP™, and Windows Vista™. I never switched to Windows Vista. When I first heard about it, the reviews were all negative, so I thought why bother, especially since my employer at the time wasn't bothering either. I have used Vista on my honey's (he's my fiance, now...and he didn't propose via text!) HP laptop and experienced those annoying access control dialogs. Oops, I digressed! Back to the Windows lineage...let's say Windows 2000™ and Windows NT™ are Windows 4.0 (if my memory serves me correctly, they released very close together), Windows XP™ is 5.0, and Windows Vista™ is 6.0! And then Windows 7.0! Ta dah! But wait a minute what about Windows 95™?

Are you still wondering if their is any truth to the hype? I did a quick google and discovered there is?! Check out Don Reisinger's blog The Digital Home, specifically his posts, "What scares me about Windows 7" and "Why I can't get enough of Windows 7". And then there's Ina Fried's posts, "Securing the Windows 7 beta" and "Windows 7 on a Mac Mini". And finally, a petition to release it now!

What's makes me laugh is the comparison's to Mac OS X. I have this image of Microsoft engineers sitting in a conference room around an iMac running MacOS X with the question written on the whiteboard, "What can we bite off of Mac OS X and then improve on? " And didn't they do the same thing to develop Windows 3.0? All I can say is Microsoft may have the dominance in sheer numbers of users of their OS, but they have always followed Apple in innovation. And since Apple is on the eve of releasing their next version of Mac OS X this year before Windows 7, it's likely the Windows 7 beta hype will be short lived. Which just gives Apple more commercial material.

Disclaimer: I'm writing this blog on my iMac.



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"<your name>@usps.com"

I heard a news story on NPR.org about the billions of dollars the United States Post Office lost this past year. And it struck me that at it's core the USPS is about delivery. So, what if at the birth of the expansion of the internet, when yahoo and hotmail began offering free email, what if the leaders of the USPS saw the explosion email would be globally and offered free email as usps.com. I bet 9 of 10 people who made the decision to pick a free email service would have chosen <your name>@usps.com over yahoo and hotmail. I know I would have. No doubt. It makes so much sense to have the same company that handles my home mail, handle my email. And today USPS would not be known as just snail mail. Not sure how the USPS could have capitalized on multimillions of people having free email serviced by the United States Post Office, but I'm sure lots of people would be thinking of lots of ideas :)