Raymond Chen has a really interesting post on why the cut/copy/paste buttons in application toolbars do not have an active/inactive state, where the buttons that can’t be used dim, so you know not to click them. The reasons are several and make perfect sense, including that it would be a major performance hit and that there’s no way to notify the program that the state has changed, plus that the toolbar would have to figure out if it even accepts that type of data.
Still, I can think of a few solutions, including that the implementation does not need to be perfect. There’s no reason the clipboard can’t have an API that simply says if the clipboard has something in it or not, and notifies all applications that have registered with it when the state changes. The button would indicate a full clipboard, even if the data in the clipboard can’t be pasted into the program, but that’s better than the current system, which acts like you can paste all the time, even if the clipboard is completely empty.
I wonder if this feature has been tried, and if the performance difference is worth it, or even completely negligible. This is the sort of experimentation that would be easier at a company not named “Microsoft”, but if the feature could be designed perfectly, maybe we could see the API available in a future version of Windows.
JKOnTheRun’s latest video features the great new Origami Experience software, the new program launcher/manager for Ultra Mobile PCs that will ship with UMPCs running Windows Vista. Based on what we see in the video, Microsoft has done a great job with version 2 of the UMPC, with a cool looking, versatile, feature-rich and simple application, making it a hell of a lot easier to do stuff on a UMPC.
In fact, the interface should remind you of something you’d expect from another company, one known for its cool Mac OS and iPhone interfaces. Microsoft is doing a lot of the same things Apple is doing with the iPhone, including the idea that everything should work without a stylus, just a tap of the finger. If someone can release a UMPC for the same price as the iPhone, coupled with this amazing new interface, I won’t be crushing on that iPhone any more.
As usual, my biggest problem will be looking at the UMPC. Last year, I wanted, badly, to see what the UMPC experience was like. Naturally, I couldn’t find one anywhere, making the purchasing decision a hell of a lot harder than necessary. In fact, the first UMPC I found in the wild was in a duty-free shop in London. Worse, I have yet to find a standard Tablet PC in a single store that I could demo; all the display units in New York are apparently cracked and have their stylus stolen.
Microsoft needs to open a store, in order that people can see their products as they were meant to. The fact that I’ve had such a hard time is a travesty, and has got to be hurting Microsoft in the fight against Apple. Who do I have to bribe to demo a frickin’ Tablet?
Got an email letting me know that, if I get into the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, I will receive notice of it in the next two days. According to Xbox 360 Fanboy, invites will go out between yesterday and this coming Friday. The full message:
Greetings Halo® Nation and thanks for your interest in participating in the Halo 3 multiplayer public beta.
Phase one registration is now closed. If you have been selected to participate, you will receive an email notification within the next two days.
For those of you that didn’t make it in - fret not as this phase one was just the first of three ways to secure entry into the Halo 3 multiplayer public beta. The next two paths of entry are:
Qualifying over Xbox Live® via the “Rule of Three” program in early February
Purchasing marked packages of the upcoming game CrackdownTM, which hits store shelves in North America on Feb. 20
To find out more about these opportunities visit halo3.com for detailed information.
We hope this provides additional clarity on this phase of entry into the Halo 3 multiplayer public beta. See you online!
Siliconera has collected some videos of the Japanese version of Gears of War, letting you see what the game looks like with Japanese voices. The funny thing: In most cases, the voice acting is pretty good, so there’s not much to laugh at, although one or two of the voice actors truly suck. If you are obsessed with the game and will recognize the story and situations on sight, this could be pretty cool; otherwise, hopefully you’ll find something worth laughing at.
God, Microsoft is changing! Windows Vista is coming out in seven days, and they’re already looking for beta testers for Service Pack 1, which they plan to release in the second half of this year. You won’t be able to get in (trust me, I already emailed them, and they wanted my company’s Enterprise contact info) just yet, but I love the idea that Vista SP1 is going to get the same intensive, long-term beta testing Vista itself benefited from.
The Technology Adoption Program (TAP) is looking for customers and partners actively test and provide feedback on Windows Vista SP1 to help us prepare for its release in the second half of CY07. Customers must be willing to provide feedback and deploy pre-release builds into production environments.
According to Robert McLaws, the reason we’ll see it in this timeframe is because it’ll test in tandem with Windows Server 2007, and as a result, Windows Vista SP1 will be as reliable and secure as Server 2007. This is significant, because Microsoft’s Server operating systems are very secure, and making Vista as secure as a server is a huge benefit for everyone who owns Vista. Microsoft is doing some great things with Windows development, making decisions that are improving the Windows platform with every step.
So why will they have SP1 ready this year? Because Windows Vista and Windows Server 2007 share the same codebase, which means both operating systems use many of the same binaries. While Windows Vista has gone through more reliability testing than any previous consumer OS, Windows Server 2007 will have an extra 6-10 months of testing. So Microsoft gets a two-fold benefit for the extra WS2007 testing this year.
The end result is that Windows Vista SP1 will have the same stability, security, and reliability as a server OS. This cannot be understated: Microsoft has never had server reliability on the desktop before. Windows Server 2003 has been a rock-solid OS from day one, and the number of vulnerabilities have been far fewer than previous releases. Since Windows Vista started from that codebase, you already have a really stable OS. But to have the same bits running on both desktops and servers can only mean good things for consumers moving forward.
Raymond Chen has a really interesting post on why the cut/copy/paste buttons in application toolbars do not have an active/inactive state, where the buttons that can’t be used dim, so you know not to click them. The reasons are several and make perfect sense, including that it would be a major performance hit and that there’s no way to notify the program that the state has changed, plus that the toolbar would have to figure out if it even accepts that type of data.
