So I’ve used Windows 8 on a desktop for a week, and taking that with some of its other features that will be ready at or around release, here’s some thoughts:

– The new Start Menu interface isn’t that foreign. I understand why they changed, and the end product is actually far more user-friendly than I envisioned it. Some people won’t like it, but some people didn’t like the original Start Menu either.

– Its performance isn’t really any different from Windows 7. Its reboot times are insanely fast (30 seconds on a Core 2 Duo machine, no SSD), but that’s a tertiary feature.

– Compatibility, by and large, should not be an issue. Windows 7/8 are practically the same on the back end, and I have only seen rather niche applications have issues. This will certainly not be an XP/Vista shitshow as far as driver/application support is concerned.

– Internet Explorer 10 is certainly interesting. It seems rather fast, but you’ll likely need to pull Google Chrome out of my cold, dead hands.

– I flat-out do not see major businesses upgrading. Or if they are, they shouldn’t. Almost all the new things in Windows 8 are meaningless to business. I’m sure there are niche exceptions, but by and large, Windows 8 is a home OS. A business upgrading would be a large waste of licensing and training cost.

I think the desktop experience for Windows 8 is, at worst, “functional”. It takes a little getting used to, but anyone who calls it “unusable” is being facetious. I’ll likely upgrade at home, but that’s probably more to do with some random subconscious obsession with having latest/greatest.

I’m rather excited for how this shakes out on tablets. I really think Microsoft might have a winner here, especially if the “second screen” stuff works out. Using your tablet as a remote control for your PC and your XBox 360 seems pretty cool.

Presidental election.  Choices.  Debates.  Stats.  Figures.  Fact-checking.  Positioning.  Spinning.  Bullet points.  Economy.  It’s all so fucking exhausting.

I’m going to make this simple.  I could easily spend thousands of words professing why you should vote one way, or trying to convince people about “the way it really is” or whathaveyou.  But this year’s election comes down to two major points, and to me the choice is really simple.

ONE: Civil rights.  The winner of this election will likely pick one or two Supreme Court Justices, who will help shape the law in our country until they’re dead.  Romney/Ryan have, on multiple times, come down against women’s and gay’s rights.  They want to push fundamentalist Christian/Mormon doctrine into law, which is a violation of our Constitution.  Currently homosexual people can’t get married in most states, and the women’s right to make choices concerning her own body have been embattled for some time.  To me, any fair-thinking, right-minded person who can rub two brain cells together can see that women and homosexuals are being discriminated against, and that is flatly, undebatedly wrong in a country that claims freedom and justice for all.

TWO: Economy.  Much has been made about how “this doesn’t look like a recovery” and that Obama/Biden’s policies haven’t picked up enough economic growth in 4 years.  This is complete silliness.  A wand can’t be waved to fix an economy.  There have been improvements, and they are solid, real incremental positives that will prove to be a good foundation for years to come.  Romney/Ryan’s policies are nothing new; they are the same top-down, corporate-friendly, trickle-down insanity that has been pushed on us for the majority of the last 30 years.  Helping the rich does not help the poor.  This has been proven in my lifetime.  The definition of insanity is making the same mistake over and over.

Obama is not perfect.  Far from it.  But he is alarmingly, incredibly better than Romney/Ryan.  Obama, at worst, will try new things.  Romney will just be trying the same things that haven’t worked for decades.