Valdar's Blog

Unlike politicians, operating systems (OS) don’t get a honeymoon with the general public. Windows 7 has been on the market for almost 100 days now, so – as in politics – it’s a good time to review how the software has performed so far. The results are largely positive.

First and foremost, Microsoft has to be pleased with sales, which have been brisk. Just a week after the Windows 7 launch Oct 22, 2009, the sales figures had already bested the company’s expectations. “Compared with the start of Windows Vista, five times as many consumers have opted for the new operating system in the first five days,” Microsoft reported.

Even better: despite millions of new installations, no major problems have been reported. “There have been astonishingly few problems with Windows 7,” says Axel Vahldiek from German computer magazine c’t. He’d know: his magazine fields questions from readers. Unlike the OS’s predecessor, Windows Vista, the questions received by c’t general involve minor issues.

That said, even the little things can rub nerves the wrong way. “The biggest problems are coming from older hardware,” says Axel Vahldiek. If the manufacturer doesn’t produce Windows 7-ready drivers, then the device will either refuse to work under the new OS or offer limited functionality. The difficulties are most prevalent in peripheral devices like scanners with SCSI ports.

The blame shouldn’t necessarily be laid at Microsoft’s door, though. The device makers sometimes make things difficult by design, Vahldiek explains. They might be speculating that those affected by problems will buy new hardware and throw their old devices out if they don’t offer enough functionality. The hardware inside the PC usually works without a problem.

No major security holes have been identified yet. Microsoft clearly learned its lesson from the painful introduction of earlier operating systems. “From a security standpoint, Microsoft’s Windows 7 has made significant progress over its prior versions XP and Vista,” reports the German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI). Attacks on the system itself have become so difficult that viruses are instead focusing on vulnerabilities in third-party applications.

The experts at the BSI nevertheless still see some room for improvement: given the strong protection mechanisms in Windows 7, it’s a shame that Microsoft fails to preset all user accounts as “restricted”.

The typical procedure instead requires that an administrator account be set up. This allows potentially vulnerable applications an unnecessarily high level of permissions. “The administrator account that Microsoft has conveniently added for managing user accounts nevertheless fails to represent an effective barrier here.”

The BSI’s grades for Windows 7 are better for the protection of user data using the BitLocker hard drive encryption function. This has been reworked to be significantly more user friendly. Then again, it is also only available in the two most expensive versions of Windows 7: Ultimate and Enterprise.

Because bugs are an inherent part of any software release, especially for software as complicated as modern operating systems, users can expect updates and improvements to start arriving shortly after publication.

In the past, Microsoft has typically rolled up the improvements into multiple Service Packs (SP). No information is available yet on when “SP1″ for Windows 7 can be expected, says Microsoft spokeswoman Irene Nadler.

That’s okay for now, though. Unlike with XP and Vista, users of the new system can also get by just fine with the existing product until SP1 arrives.

When I think about the blessings that god has given me I feel grateful to almighty. He has blessed me with so many things in life. Good parents, good education, good family life with gift of kids and many more and one particular gift I should mention is computer.

And when I count on the thrones in my life there are many and one particular problem I should mention is computer.

Yes I want to put my computer in both the baskets in my blessings and problems in life.

When my friend Anand first came to gulf, to realize the dreams of his life, he was happy and sad. Happy because his dreams of earning good money, and giving good life to his family back home ,are coming in to reality. Sad because he has to leave behind loved ones in India. In the beginning he used to call India once a week and that was a luxury.

But after he got a computer with internet he talks to his loved once, everyday for hours together. And this is possible because of the cheap VOIP Phone calls through internet. And using the software’s like google talk or MSN messenger he stays in touch with his net savvy friends 24 hours a day.

Some times I wonder how we used to live when there was no computer and internet. When Kiran got a job offer from gulf his newly married wife Asha came to gulf along with him, Working and staying in gulf became an extended honeymoon for them. Kiran says “Our life was so difficult, new place new people. We used to do lot of our house hold work in slow motion. Day to day work was less organized and more enjoyed. Life was in for a change albeit slowly when the day computer entered our home. Life stated changing. Browsing internet was added as one more activity of daily activities that we do.”

In the beginning browsing was a pleasurable experience and was a good time pass. Then as time passed they realized that they can get all the news from India by browsing the news web sites. They can get any news not only from India from anywhere in the world just with the click of a mouse. Now Asha can just try any delicious dish she wishes by visiting any cooking web site.

When their first kid was born they were overjoyed with the new gift from god. And also totally confused about how to bring up the child, in an alien land with minimum resources. No guidance from elder members of the family it was difficult job at hand. Again the internet helped a lot. They register for some of the parental web sites and get every day – day to day advice on child growth. This is really wonderful. You know where you stand. This is really helpful for couple struggling to bring up children in nuclear families, where there is no experienced advice from elders.

When children grow they learn from experiences. On the internet there are lots of nursery rhyme web sites which teach children nursery rhymes offhand, which is very useful when they start going to school. Learning nursery rhymes with picture video animation really adds to a Childs capacity of grasping things fast.

For elder kids learning school subjects on the net can be a pleasurable and informative experience. You have any doubt about any of your school subjects go to any search engines and get lot more information about it. Also Wikipedia like websites have become authentic information sources on the net.

All type of computer games can be downloaded from different web sites and can do a wonderful job in entertainment at home. Some games like Tetris increase the memory capacity of humans and then some are very good in wasting the precious time given by almighty.

A great friend of mine was very much fond of Hindi movies. . When he was in India he was literally the encyclopedia of Hindi movies. He never used to miss a movie release. But when he got a dream offer from promised land of gulf all that changed. After landing in the gulf he was out of place regarding Hindi movies. He used to pay lot of money for renting movie cassettes. But a Good Samaritan gave him the idea of Torrent portals. Today he has bit Torrent on his computer. This piece of software downloads latest Hindi movies from torrent portals. At some lucky times he watches movies before they are released.
Recently I came across a wonderful application of internet in everyday life. One of my friend couple leave their kid with the maid and go to office as it happens in the gulf when both parents are working. Once they leave the house kid is at maid’s mercy. They were always worried about the kids. So they set up a web cam on their computer with streaming software and now they can monitor what is happening at home from their office or anywhere else. Recently when they went on annual leave they monitored they home using the same technology.
There are lots of Indian bank where you can get instant access to your accounts. Sitting anywhere in the world you can operate your bank account, transfer money or remit money back to India with the easy click of mouse.

Also you are interested in share dealing using proper channels you can deal with shares of companies from anywhere and do a lot of research of your own on the net about different market trends. Invest your money in more proper channels for optimum returns.

Then there are programs like google earth where you can visit virtually any part of the world sitting inside your home. Next time when you plan for your vacation you can book your ticket online with any travel sites or airline sites and visit the place in advance and get a glimpse of what to expect by visiting online map sites like google earth.

In many ways internet has changed the way how we live, some times I wonder, how was our life before internet?. It will be like someone asking the question, “How people used to live before electricity? “ Yes you can live with out electricity or Internet, but you can live better with electricity and internet.