A Life at the Keyboard

Having recently retired, I find myself looking back over the past forty-five years in the tech industry, including over thirty as a software engineer. It's been a great ride, with a few unexpected turns.

First of all, I didn't start as a software developer. When I went to college in the seventies, there was no undergraduate degree available for Computer Science at the university I attended. As such, I decided to go with one of my first ideas in High School: Physics. It turns out this was an excellent choice given my long term goal of doing computer software development.

However, maybe I should back up for just a bit and explain why I had an interest in CS in the first place.

Revolutionary Ideas

Growing up, I had an immense interest in science. I asked for and got a small telescope when I was young and spent hours at night with my friends marveling at the Moon and just making out the rings of Saturn. The tech industry was just getting started in the nineteen-sixties. I don't even think the term high-tech was in use yet. However, there was a fantastic television series that I watched with great interest, Star Trek.

You need to understand what was going on at the time, and the radical idea that Gene Roddenberry had come up with. In the middle of the cold war, the threat of nuclear destruction or societal breakdown seemed almost inevitable. At least to the young people of the time. Sound familiar?

However, Gene Roddenberry had the temerity to suggest that in the twenty-third century, human-kind would still be alive. More than that, he said we would be thriving in a grand adventure across the galaxy. It was pretty fantastic stuff at that time. Perhaps even at this time.

However, the part that caught my attention in Star Trek was the technology. Not just warp drive and transporters, but handheld communications devices that could go anywhere with a person. Computers you could talk to. Remember, at that time computers were things owned by big companies, unreachable by the average person.

The other cool thing was the way Kirk and Spock would come up with ways to solve problems using science and scientific thinking. In school each day facing challenges and tests I would find myself asking, "what would Spock do?" Moreover, it often helped me figure out solutions. I read and learned about the scientific method and critical thinking. Life lessons that would make a profound difference for me.

And Great Heights to Reach

Of course, we also had the "Space Race," as well. I was obsessed with NASA and everything going on with the space program. I followed Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo with intense interest. I kept a lockbox I filled with clippings, books, and magazines I read. If it was about the astronauts or the missions, I was all over it.

How could one not be excited? Star Trek was telling us about a future in space, and NASA was building it.

It's interesting that now at the time of my retirement from the tech industry, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first landing on the Moon. A mark in history that forever changed who we are. No longer stuck on a single world, we are now capable of exploring and, I hope, eventually living on other worlds.

From Big Beginnings

Another major inspiration in my younger life was my high school math lab. In the lab, in those days, we had a large teletype terminal, which connected via an audio modem to the school systems time-sharing mainframe. Students were allowed to use this device to check out what a computer was capable of doing.

We had very little instruction in class, but there was a couple of manuals next to the terminal. One of which, a reference manual for the BASIC programming language started filling up all of my time. One day, I spirited the manual out of the lab for a weekend so that I could read the entire thing in my spare time. Of which I had a lot as a young teenager at that period.

My friends and I spent hours playing with the computer, finding odd languages like Fortran, Cobol, and even SNOBOL. However, I went through the BASIC reference manual and tried out every command, eventually writing small programs, experimenting with what I could make a computer do. At the time this meant the use of lots of paper, as the only way to get output from the mainframe was via the large roll of paper attached to the teletype. Even more fun was the fact that we could write programs while offline, via a paper tape machine connected to the teletype. We could then dial into the computer and enter our programs with the paper tape, which saved on connection time for the busy school system computer.

We got a field trip to the location where the district computer resided. Seeing the large mainframe, and several smaller "mini-computers" that worked with the mainframe was quite a treat. One of the operators showed us a program he had created that allowed him to run a race with a car that appears as an asterisk (*). The objective was to keep the "car" between two curving lines drawn on the sides of a roll of paper. He changed the direction of the car via a simple switch on the mainframes front panel. The challenge was to keep the little car between two ever-changing lines on the sides of the paper. We each got a chance to try our hands at "driving" the race car. I'm sure several hundred feet of paper were spent for our enjoyment.

I still remember the magic of connecting to that room-filling machine and having it do what I asked with the simple programs I created.

To small accomplishments

During my years in College in the nineteen-seventies, I played with other mainframe computers through more paper-friendly CRT terminals. These often whetted my appetite. However, I didn't have the time to explore my interests further as I had set myself to get degrees in both Physics and Mathematics. Why did I decide on two degrees? It seemed only natural since getting the Physics degree meant I would already have over eighty percent of the Math courses needed for that degree.

During that time, my friends who appeared to have more free time studying English and Political science brought me news of a new set of computers based on microprocessors. Small computers that sat on a desktop, yet had nearly the same power as the older huge mainframes I had first seen. The thought of having my own computer for personal use intrigued me a great deal. If ever I could afford such luxuries.

In the late nineteen-seventies I saw my first "personal computer" in a Radio Shack store. It was the now (in)famous TRS-80 Model 1. There was an encouraging sign that asked people to "Try It Out!" with a few instructions that you could type. I was happy to see these were in BASIC. I tried a couple of their examples and a few of the small little programs I could remember using back in high-school.

It was a fantastic experience. I remember looking around to find only the power cord plugged into this system. It really was a self-contained computer. Capable of doing what the system I had used before had done. With the immediacy of results appearing on the screen as soon as I typed a command.

I had to have one

However, the question quickly came up: Which one? In 1980 when I had the money I needed to purchase a computer. However, there were already several options available commercially. In a few years, the world had gone from large machines costing hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, to an array of personal computers available to just about anyone.

Discussions with my friends led to the personal decision to get the Apple ][ Plus computer primarily because it provided color graphics at a time when most machines were still monochrome.

I spent hours writing software for the little machine. During my college years, I had been introduced to the first Role Playing Game (RPG) Dungeons & Dragons. I spent much of my free time playing and eventually running games myself. So it's no surprise that one of my first computer programs was to help me with many of the tasks involved with running the games. I probably spent more time on that program over the next several years than any other program I have written for my personal use.  I only wish I still had the code.

Little Silicon Chips

My first job outside of college was in the fabrication of silicon chips. However, the silicon we were making were for power transformers and transmission. Small chips that might go into a computer power supply, and much larger pieces used in power plants and major power transmission lines. Diodes capable of handling as much as 10,000 Amps(!)

It was a fascinating time, working in a cleanroom and learning first hand the processes for making diodes, transistors, and thyristors. We were on the cutting edge of a new Gallium-Arsenide production technique. Very cool yet hazardous stuff.

However, my interest was more on the side of the automation processes. Computers that controlled testing devices were being introduced in our company. I became interested in these devices. Especially as it turned out that they used BASIC even then. It was almost a sign.

At the same time, I introduced my engineering buddies to their first look at a personal computer when I brought my Apple to the office. The hit of the party was a spreadsheet (VisiCalc). Which we started using to track the quality of different stages of our production process.

IT becomes an obsession

While spending what free time I had, I began teaching myself other programming languages. Pascal, C, Forth. I enjoyed seeing how each language used different syntax to achieve the same things. In the process, I learned the internal details of how CPU, Memory, and Peripheral's all interact at the lowest levels.

At the same time, I found my co-workers anxious to learn how these computers worked and how they might use them for their own professional and personal improvement. I started teaching classes in basic computer usage, as well as programming. I was also introduced to early computer magazines, that not only needed readers but writers as well. I ended up writing for several periodicals from the time. Most of which no longer exist.

By now, I realized I was far more interested in developing software than I was with working on silicon chip design. In fact, most of the chip work was moving to Japan and Korea anyway.

When a funny thing happened

At the time, I was still working on automating systems for manufacturing, and keeping myself up to date on new developments in Physics. When I ran into a remarkable ad in the PhysResLets (Physics Review Letters). It was posted by a newish company called Microsoft. The ad was looking for software developers and said they were explicitly advertising there because they had found a significant number of their current programmers were trained in Physics. It turned out that the skills for thinking in abstract terms and logical problem solving crossed over the two fields.

However, I wasn't all that interested in moving to Seattle, and they had few jobs elsewhere at that time.

To make a very long story just a bit shorter, I found a job in a telecom business as a software engineer. I'm delighted to say that despite having learned everything I knew about programming by teaching myself, I passed their application tests with high marks. I managed to beat out dozens of other candidates at the time, and landed my first real job as a professional software engineer.

Of course, that's not really that hard in this industry. Most professionals are aware that the number of competent software engineers is tiny compared to the number of jobs available.

Part 2? 

The rest, as they say, is history. 30+ years writing software in various small and large businesses. The best part, for me, was the constant learning curve. New technology and new people with new ideas every day of every week. It's an exciting industry for those that have the willingness to learn.

This Game IS Rocket Science

When I had first heard of Kerbal Space Program (KSP) via an advertisement in Steam, I pretty much ignored it. My first reaction was that it looked like another real time strategy game, Civilization in Space. However, after seeing this comic from the famous XKCD site:

XKCD.com/1356 (Creative Commons)

I decided to have another look.

As a kid I followed the space program from Mercury to Apollo with intense interest, and even tried to master the mathematics of orbital mechanics well before getting my degrees in Math and Physics. So when I saw this my curiosity was naturally piqued. 

After some further reading I quickly grabbed the game from Steam and have been nearly obsessed with it ever since.

What is the Kerbal Space Program? In a nutshell it is one of the most advanced space simulators available on a home computer, but with a sense of humor. Rendered in beautiful 3D worlds in space. While the game has a deep physics model and all of the advanced math of real world space travel, it doesn't take an actual math degree to play. In fact the interface can be mastered by just about anyone with a couple of hours of playing around. As long as you don't worry overly much about the lives of your intrepid Kerbalnauts. There are built in tutorials, but to be honest, the game is one big sandbox with little or no objective other than the desire by you to want to successfully explore the Kerbin universe which gives you quite a lot to explore indeed.

Opening screen sums up the humorous side of KSP.

You can think of yourself as the director of your own space program. You have a myriad of components from (un)manned capsules, fuel tanks, liquid fuel engines, solid rocket boosters, batteries, solar panels, landing struts/gears and docking collars. There are even various science packages that will allow your kerbalnauts to carry out experiments throughout the system as you explore. Measure everything from temperature, atmospheric pressure and seismic phenomenon to gravitational fluctuations in the region of the moons and planets you have available to explore.

You can build a one man lander to take to a moon and back as a single package, or you can completely simulate the original American space program, creating both Command and Service Module with a separate Lunar Excursion Module for landing one or more more kerbals on the Mun.

Oh and by the way, unlike Earth Kerbin has two natural satellites: Mün and Minmus. That's just the start of what is an intriguing and satisfyingly large number of places to explore in KSP. Of course, you will first have to master the intricacies of obtaining orbit, and launching your ships to greater and greater distances along the way.

And that is where KSP really shines. The physics model is extremely accurate. At least within a couple of sigmas of real world physics. Within a few hours you will be thinking in terms of Delta-v, Thrust to Weight Ratio (TWR) and escape velocity. You will learn how to determine if a ship is capable of entering orbit, or going further. You will learn why getting away from the home planet means overcoming not just gravity, but the density of the atmosphere. Most importantly, you will learn why you must trust and use the Navigation ball and not your own intuition. You'll learn when faster is slower and lower is faster.

Of course, if you simply want to get there quickly, there are a myriad ways to do that. Besides being an intricately detailed orbital mechanics simulator, KSP is also an open sand box. Meaning that others can play by providing third party addons and modules. These come everywhere from modules with a few additional parts to make even more kinds of space craft to advanced guidance and control systems that can calculate and even auto-pilot your ship to anywhere you wish.

While I love the diversity and creativity that the community has provided to KSP, I personally have preferred playing the game with little or no extras until I have mastered each flight dynamic on my own and can say I did it without assistance. Of course, that is a matter of personal preference, and others should feel perfectly Okay to go about directing their own space program in any way they wish. It seems to me that if NASA in the 1960's had systems capable of simulating even a tiny fraction of what KSP offers, they would have gladly jumped on the opportunity.

That said, I do highly recommend that anyone hopping into this game take the time to watch one or two tutorials on the Web. I found things that the KSP interface allowed me to do that I probably would never have figured out on my own. YouTube is a good place to start, but there are also a number of great tutorials on the KSP forums.

And I haven't even mentioned that KSP doesn't just offer rocketships to outer space. Their is also an elaborate aerodynamics model in the software. So you can design and fly any number of aircraft in and around Kerbin and a few other places with sufficient atmosphere.

KSP is available for direct download or via Steam. The price is currently under $30. Steam offers a small warning that the game is in Beta. However, the game has been under constant development since it first was "released" by Squad several years ago. They provide new updates with added features and functionality every few months without extra charge. Which seems to me to be a very good thing. There is also a free demo if you just want to see what it looks like on your own computer.

It's a single player game, but if you do give it a try, please drop me a line and let me know what you think. And remember to send along some postcards from your explorations.

I hope to see you on the Mün!

Why Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Had to Go

An excellent post on The New Yorker magazine's website by Nicholas Thompson has done a great job of spelling out Why Steve Ballmer Failed at a high level. The label of "The Anti-Steve Jobs," seems spot on. Given the extraordinary resources we must imagine a man in Steve Ballmer's position must have, it seems incredible that he missed or misunderstood the importance of such innovations as the iPhone and iPad. Microsoft's dedication to riding the money train of the company's number one and two cash cows (Windows and Office) can be traced directly to decisions made by the Microsoft CEO. Now that the money train has started to run into some of the early signs of losing steam, the strategies of Steve Ballmer must be called into question, as they have by many investors and analysts for several years now.

But I would like to dig a bit deeper into the decisions that have left Microsoft making Hail Mary plays, like this weeks announcement to buy Nokia, or last years decision to make their own hardware with the ill conceived Surface RT and slightly better Surface Pro. Because I believe that it is not just the big strategy decisions, but even the little ones where Microsoft has failed. Which may be a cautionary tale as we watch the company go through its changes in the next five to ten years.

Take Windows Phone for instance. Some of us remember that Steve Jobs did not invent the smart phone when he gave us that "One more thing..." speech to introduce iPhone. Many companies had early versions of smart phones years before Apple decided to compete. Microsoft had a sizable share of the market with the older "Windows Mobile" devices. Despite it's popularity with some business users, it was never seen to be a very lucrative marketplace.

After Apple proved that there was a market for such devices, and it was a large and fairly high end market indeed, Microsoft went through classic signs of grief with denial, anger and reluctant admission that they had missed the boat. However, to their credit they did not simply throw in the towel, and they didn't make the mistake of trying to convince a new and hipper generation that the old Windows Mobile devices were the solution.

Instead, they took the time and with great fanfare, they released Windows Phone 7. A remarkably stylish device, with an interface that looked nothing like Apple's or Google's devices. Many critics hailed it as a breakthrough in touch interface design, and the phone won many awards for innovation. It seemed Microsoft still had some magic up their sleeves.

Still many people worried that the software giant could not keep with the number of regular updates that Apple, and even more so Google, were capable of putting out. As with all technology, it wasn't just about the newness, but how fast you can make improvements and keep the experience fresh to get users excited. When the first update to Windows Phone 7 was delayed, and delayed again, there was an uncomfortable feeling going around the tech community that had cheered Microsoft's re-found mojo.

But when Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) was released, there was a collective sigh of relief and more vendors jumped on the Microsoft wagon. At least for awhile. Microsoft announced that a major upgrade to the software would come in the form of Windows Phone 8.

The bad news was that none of the Windows Phone 7 hardware would be able to run the new mobile OS. That included recently released hardware that consumers had purchased just weeks before the Windows Phone 8 announcement. Microsoft promised a 7.8 release for the older phones. It was supposed to contain some of the new features for the older phones, and was released a few months after the new Windows Phone 8 devices hit the marketplace. Unfortunately, there seem to be some customers that still have not received the 7.8 upgrade. Trouble in the garden?

At the same time, Steve Ballmer announced that Windows 8 would be the new Desktop OS that would also run on a new line of tablet devices featuring a modified version of the Metro UI from Windows Phone 7/8. Microsoft would, finally, be competing with the incredible iPad.

The first of these devices were released in the last quarter of 2012, and featured a version of Windows called simply RT. These devices would only run special apps designed specifically for the new Metro UI style and available exclusively through the new Windows Store, which would complete with Google Play and the AppStore for iOS. While standard windows applications made to run on Windows 7 would not run on RT, Microsoft did include a special version of Microsoft Office for the new tablet computers. If that's seems confusing, it was, and many people were surprised to find that this special version of Windows didn't seem to be Windows at all.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that in early 2013 Microsoft released the Surface Pro which would run a full version of Windows 8 just as on a Desktop or Laptop computer. Meaning that most of the software that had run on Windows 7 would run on the Surface Pro's Desktop while the RT applications would run in the new Metro UI. Well most of the RT apps that is. Some would be incompatible with Pro and some Pro apps would be incompatible with RT.

Making matters worse, the Surface platform was not compatible with the Windows Phone platform. Therefore Apps that users purchased on the Windows Phone store had to be purchased again in the Windows store for Laptops or Surface tablets, if the same app was even available for both platforms. To understand how big of a problem this is, consider that the Apple AppStore features software that runs on both iPhone and iPad. Many applications are made to give the same look and feel but offer more or less features depending on which iOS device was being used. Google's Play store works pretty much the same way for apps purchased for Android phones or tablets.

In other words, the Surface tablet is treated more as a desktop or laptop replacement, and users are expected to buy software made specifically for those devices. However, this completely ignores the fact that many people who are buying smart phones and tablets are leaving the laptop or desktop at the office. In many cases these people are leaving the desktop completely. When they are on the go, they believe that the mobile devices they purchase all work the same, and more importantly they have been taught by Google and Apple to believe that once they purchase an application for one of those mobile operating systems they can use them on any device with the same system. For these types of users the Microsoft Windows Surface and Phone experience end up being different and they must be confused and frustrated to find that they aren't sharing the same store for their purchases.

In fact the problems of the Surface compatibility and performance forced Microsoft to take close to one billion dollars in a write off on their latest quarterly earnings report while they dumped the remaining inventory of the Surface tablets. While they plan to release a second version of both Surface RT and Pro to address some of the performance concerns, it is unclear that Microsoft has understood the other frustrations of its users.

These are just a few of the most recent examples that show how Microsoft and Steve Ballmer in particular have made mistakes both large and small even with their newest and most innovative products. I think it proves beyond doubt that Steve Ballmer just does not get the new technology world in which we live, and that is why he had to leave Microsoft if the company is ever going to have a chance of competing with the new technology titans.

Microsoft's "Modern UI" Failure

What if they created a new User Interface paradigm and nobody cared? What if "they" were Microsoft?

As I've talked about in previous posts, the new Modern UI (formerly called Metro) that Microsoft has made part of their latest operating system has widely been panned by the Tech industry. It's also getting ignored by most consumers and businesses. The general consensus is that the new interface is fixing problems nobody is having. Why has Microsoft insisted on making the new Modern UI such a priority? Because they see it as a bridge to get people to try the interface and if they become comfortable enough, they might also like to try other devices using the same UI. In other words Windows Phone 8 and the new Surface line of tablets.

I've said it before, but analysts seem to agree, the new OS is not selling well. Several of Microsoft's long time partners have poo-pooed the new OS because they believe it has lead to a sharp decline in Personal Computer sales.

There are a lot of reasons that people dislike the new OS, including the fact that they completely eliminated the "Start Menu" and made it nearly impossible for users to avoid using the new UI if they prefer the traditional desktop. I wrote about the problem and rumor's of Microsoft's half-hearted fix to the problem last week.

But there are a lot of other reasons that Microsoft has had a hard time selling the new UI. Chief among them is the new Modern UI applications that Microsoft released when they released Windows 8. If you were one of the few to upgrade to Windows 8 last year, you probably were left wondering if the new applications were bad by design or if they were merely unfinished.

For example, the Mail application didn't allow you to select multiple messages to delete or move. In fact, there were no Folders in the Mail application at all, making it impossible to properly organize your Inbox. For people who had used free email clients from Microsoft in the past (meaning Outlook Express) the new Mail app delivered with Windows 8 felt extremely limited. That was just one example.

Microsoft has since released a set of updates to many of the Modern UI applications through their new Windows Store, but in some cases the "updates" removed functionality. For instance, the Calendar application lost the ability to sync with Google Calendar, leaving thousands of new Windows 8 users with no alternative except to try third party solutions.

And lets face it, the third party applications available from the Windows Store are very hit and miss. Mostly miss. A survey of most of the reviews in the Windows Store leads one to believe that developers aren't convinced that the new Modern UI is going to be viable long term.

Microsoft is the company that has always prided itself for having the best developers and the best catalog of third party and in-house applications for their Operating systems, so the situation with Windows 8 is doubly confounding. It seems amazing that a company with the internal resources and a list of the best ISV's on earth has found itself in such a situation.

Microsoft has placed a big bet on their flagship OS by stating to developers and customers alike that the new UI is the future of the OS. That they have done such a shoddy job of implementing the applications most people will use first after an OS upgrade speaks volumes about the lack of direction the company has had in recent years.

Microsoft will fix Windows 8, almost

The Tech press was again abuzz this week with leaks from Microsoft saying that the Start button would be returned to the Windows 8 desktop. And that's not all, sources also said that with the release of updates code named "Blue" the users will have the ability to boot directly to the desktop. Thus avoiding the Modern UI (aka Metro) entirely.

And there was much rejoicing. Nearly everyone from tech pundits to consumers to large enterprise IT departments have lamented Microsoft's original decision to make the new Modern UI the default interface for users and push the old desktop interface deep into the background. But an even bigger problem for many users was the decision to drop the Start button entirely. Not only did it make things more confusing, but for many first time users of Windows 8 it provided no easy way to discover how to get back to the Modern UI once they had found the desktop. Which is what Microsoft kind of wanted in the first place. They want people to use the Modern UI to the extent that they get used to it and then maybe they will want to use the same UI for their tablet and smart phone devices. Making Windows 8 a gateway to Windows phone and Surface tablets.

If they are bringing back the Start button, it seems like a good idea. Microsoft finally heard all of the complaints that the new Modern user interface was not merely a steep learning curve, it is "jarring." That's the word many of the tech press used to refer to the abrupt change when the user went from the Desktop to the Modern Start screen to search for apps and files, and with good reason.

Now, in lieu of depressed PC sales and many pointing fingers at Microsoft for the low acceptance of the new UI, it seems the software giant is poised to do what they insisted they could not do during the beta testing period: return the Start button, and let users go straight to the desktop when booting up the machine.

However, I don't think many people are going to be happy with this once they see the final results. You see, the sources are very clear in saying that the Start button is going to return, but not the Start menu. What is the difference you ask? Well, when you get to the Windows 8 desktop, you can press the Start button to get back to the Modern UI Start screen. In other words, you still get that same jarring experience, with a shiny new button instead of having to use the Start key on your keyboard. The Windows 7 style menu (first introduced in Windows Vista, but lets not go there) will not appear.

That's because Microsoft still wants people to use the new Start screen in Windows 8. They fear that if people get back their old Start menu they will stay on the Desktop and never see the new Modern UI again. And that would be bad for the developers that Microsoft is urging to create new Modern UI style applications.

I don't believe that will be enough to convince most people to jump into the latest Windows version on new and existing PC's. Many people are going to see the Start button without the Start menu as too little too late for Windows 8. Not to mention the fact that there are already many third party solutions available that give users the ability to go straight to the desktop and use the Start button with a Windows 7 style Start menu while getting much of the benefits of the improved Windows 8 desktop.

Which begs the question, why hasn't Microsoft already given users the option to skip directly to the desktop and return the Start button before now? According to some pundits Microsoft is saying that adding the feature will take time and has to wait until other features of the so called "Blue" upgrade are finished. But if so many third party developers have already done the trick without the benefit of Microsoft's huge resources we have to wonder if there isn't some other reason for the delay.

Microsoft ignored the warnings of their beta testers and has until recently ignored the legions of users and tech reporters who have said they should at least put the Start button back as an optional setting. It seems doubtful that they have really gotten the message. At any rate we will have to wait and see what their final decision is.

Just don't expect too much.

Could 2015 be THE big year for Linux and OS X?

The Microsoft technology blogosphere has been buzzing lately due to last weeks leak of the next big Windows 8 update code named “Blue.” Pundits from ars technica to the Supersite for Windows by Paul Thurrott have been burning the midnight oil trying to predict what the future of Windows might be, based on the new features they see in the leaked code.

Their collective conclusion: The Modern UI (originally called the Metro interface) is the wave of the future. Of course, this isn’t really news as most tech writers said that Microsoft’s big gamble with Windows 8 was that people would use the new UI on all of their devices, from Windows Phone, to the new Surface tablets to traditional Desktop and laptop computers.

The bet, most of the writers are saying, is that the traditional desktop interface, initially called the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointer), will disappear and be replaced by a simpler interface that provides the user with a one App at a time view of their world. At least, that’s what Microsoft wants us to believe.

And Windows Blue seems to be evidence that the company is still on course to do just that. More features are being moved from the Desktop to the Modern UI. More of the apps that Microsoft builds will be built on top of Modern UI.

In fact, some are predicting that Microsoft will phase out the Desktop as early as 2015, when Windows 9 is set to ship. While some say that is probably too soon, most agree that Microsoft wants to see the Desktop becoming less and less conspicuous with the average user spending all of their time using Apps within the Modern UI.

For Microsoft this is a big deal because the more people spend time in the Modern UI on the traditional personal and laptop computers, the more they will be inclined to want the same interface on their mobile devices. Windows Phone and the Windows RT/8 tablets, which have failed to capture any significant market share, might both benefit from users who will come to expect their OS to behave in a certain way. Microsoft currently dominates the PC marketplace with over 90% of the market share. If they can convince a sufficient number of those people to at least try the new mobile devices it would severely threaten Apple and Google’s current strangle-hold on the mobile market. A market which is growing faster than any other tech market and will for the foreseeable future.

But is that the best thing all around? Are consumers, and the very important business users ready to switch to a Tablet style operating system UI on their workstations? In many places, the single app at a time approach can help the user to focus on what they are doing. If you are writing a document, for instance, using a full screen text editor can be a great way to eliminate some of the distractions that adversely affect productivity.

But if that is always the case, then why do companies pay out millions of dollars each year for larger displays? And why do many of them provide multiple monitors for each worker? We already know several productivity studies have shown that some knowledge workers perform better with multiple monitors. Even Microsoft’s own research has made this point. Anecdotally I can confirm my own experience as a developer that having documentation, source code and other reference material available across my desktop cuts down on context switching and the time to perform even simple tasks can be greatly increased.

So what are we to think of this apparent contradictory information? Is Microsoft giving up too much by forcing people into their vision of the brave new computing world paradigm?

It’s not clear yet how far Microsoft really intends to go with eliminating the Desktop. What we do know is that many of their early testers for Windows 8 strongly suggested they keep the desktop with its highly controversial Start menu button. Despite numerous suggestions and protestations, Microsoft remained intransigent and stubbornly stuck to the plan. They even appeared ready to make third party replacements for the old UI impossible.

What if they do pull the trigger and remove the desktop all together? Leaving knowledge workers and other power users with no alternative in any version of the operating system formerly called “Windows?”

It could be an opportunity for some of their competitors. Linux, for instance, is unlikely to ever give up the windows interface. And even though Apple has shown signs of merging the Macintosh OS X system with the iOS design, it is unlikely they would drop the desktop metaphor entirely.

Microsoft may very well drag users into their Modern UI future. Or they could push many of them to explore alternatives that, until recently, might not have seemed attractive to most.

Skyrim Review

Skyrim may be my favorite game of 2011, and that was after I had waited for Batman: Arkham City with great anticipation. Skyrim beat Arkham by enough that I may have to finish the Batman game next year.

Skyrim is the fifth game in the Elder Scroll series, the previous version being called "Oblivion."

Gameplay has improved significantly over Oblivion. Where Oblivion's skill based system was often confusing and complex, Skyrim has made it very straight forward to understand. The best part is you don't really create a character "class". Instead you can simply choose your own play style and your skills will level up appropriately. For instance, if you use the bow a lot, your Archery skill will naturally increase. I love the freedom of play style this offers.

Unlike the seemingly barren landscape of Oblivion, the land of Skyrim is vast and filled with adventures at every turn. I've wandered for hours and not reached an obvious border, though I know they are out there. And this game encourages exploration like no other game before it. Just heading back from one quest I ran into a new village and three new dungeon areas and finally had to call it quits for the day even though I was constantly tempted to look around "just one more bend in the road."

NPC's are a treat as well. Instead of the cardboard mannequin's of Oblivion, the NPC's in Skyrim are alive. You can sit, watch and listen as they go about their daily business. They react to your presence even if you don't approach them. Sometimes a new quest line will be opened up by an NPC who approaches my character asking for assistance. In another instance I entered an Inn and overheard a group discussing a problem that was plaguing the city. As a result I ended up accompanying one of the NPC's on a quest that took the better part of my evening to complete.

The entire experience is incredibly organic. Nothing like the silly "look for the exclamation mark over the NPC's head" of the MMO world.

Graphically the game is stunning. I sometimes just stand an gawk at the clouds hanging over the mountain peaks in the distance. No other game I know of presents the feeling of being in a very real living environment with vista's and scenery to match. 

There are something like eight or nine primary cities and hundreds of secondary locations throughout the Skyrim continent. And with rare exception, no two locations are alike. Dungeons are each designed to represent the specific architecture of the quest you are on. Each uniquely designed to offer a different set of challenges. And there are hundreds of them to explore.

Like Fallout 3, you can be ambivalent about the primary story line as much as you like. The quests are designed to lead you down multiple plot choices, but nothing ever forces you to go in a particular direction or finish every quest if you have no desire to do so. You can very easily play the game through with several characters and never get the same experience.

And as far as I can tell there is no "finish" to the story. You can continue playing and doing whatever you like long after the main quest chain has been completed.

The graphics of Skyrim do have issues. While it is easy to tweak the game to get good performance, the textures often look better at a distance than they do close up. Of course, I spend so much time gazing off into the distance looking for that next adventure, I am never bothered by the few muddy textures around me.

There are glitches. Skyrim is not just a computer game, it is a great big computer game with a vast complex environment and interactive items everywhere. So to expect it to be perfect is unrealistic. The flaws never are significant enough to destroy my immersion. I know there are obsessive types who will examine every brick and bristle when the occasional NPC that gets stuck in a conversation loop.

Combat is also loose in this game, especially if you are into Melee. Your character seems to swing their weapons wildly about in the air, and the system decides what kind of damage you did. There are times when I don't even appear to make contact with my target and yet they take damage. Compared to a game like the Batman Arkham games where melee combat is an amazing series of choreographed martial arts maneuvers, Skyrim can feel somewhat unresponsive.

Archery on the other hand is very satisfying. Nothing beats sneaking up on a target, setting up the perfect shot and getting the surprise attack bonus to take down a target in one shot. I play Skyrim almost like I do Batman, where I spend most of my time in stealth mode, slipping between the shadows and picking off my opponents one at a time whenever possible. Another thing I like is how the other NPC's will often be confused by the silent take down and spend time wandering around looking for where the shot came from. In fact one of my favorite tactics when facing a room full of bad guys is to shoot the one furthest away from me. Nine times out of ten his comrades will turn to see what happened to the fellow, and have their backs to me! Very satisfying, but ultimately fatal for the remaining characters.

Skyrim is really a top notch game despite a number of bugs in the current release. Frankly if the immense amount of content and imagination that Skyrim has to offer on the plus side does not make up for the rare problems, you probably won't be satisfied by a video game released this year.

Of course, if you prefer a multi-player experience, then Skyrim is not for you. I keep wishing Bethesda would add the ability to play these games in co-op mode.

Bethesda has now released several patches, and game play has been improving as a result. Since their games are known to have long shelf lives because of an active modding community, I expect they will continue to patch the game for the foreseeable future.

If you were a fan of Oblivion, Fallout 3 and/or Fallout 3: New Vegas, then I highly recommend Skyrim. Bethesda continues it's legacy of immense and immersive RPG's, each one better than the previous.

If you didn’t try those other games and are looking for a diversion for the long winter nights ahead, Skyrim would be a good choice.