Uh oh for Vista!

Woah! What is this, windows has stopped automatically distributing a piece of software it was saying is "necessary to successfully install and to remove Windows Vista SP1 on all versions of Windows Vista."
Apparently the software was causing massive problems on some people's machines, with automatic update getting stuck in loops and in one case it caused a user to wipe their hard drive. This comes after some sources from the Microsoft Developer network who have already got their paws on SP1 have suggested it is basically a bug fix and introduces disappointingly few new features. Vista has been suffering horribly from many angles since it was released as people accuse it of being restrictive, unstable, forced upon users, very resource intensive, and a copycat of Mac OS X. This latest development certainly won't inspire confidence in Window's latest OS.
The long period of development for Vista was partly due to work to patch security issues with XP after the 'Summer of Worms' revealed serious flaws. And Ultimately meant that XP was with us for 5 years, probably (reasonably enough) why Microsoft was so keen to push Vista when it was released. However, Vista was originally only intended to be a stop-gap before (what is now called) Windows 7, and with rumblings of Windows 7 popping up within 18 months its understandable that users might be irate. Especially as people have complained that machines that were marked Vista compatible aren't. Are you following this?
Whilst previous versions of Windows have only had a lifespan of 18 months to three years (before the next one is released), meaning that Vista would have a typical life expectancy, suspicions about its reliability and its usability amongst people who like to 'fiddle under the hood' have meant that uptake amongst some people has been slow, with stories of people "upgrading to XP" or even making the switch to Mac OS X Leopard. (see Chris Pirillo's 50 reasons to switch to apple) These are the people who are most likely to notice the problems and to complain loudly about them. It seems that Microsoft is going to leave some members of its massive customer base staggering around confused in its wake.

What a world (wide web)!

If you don't want to traipse through all this (I got a bit carried away) just skip to the bottom.

I'm 16, I started college (compulsory education only goes to 16 in the UK) back in September last year, apparently I spend around 20 hours a week on the net, and more if you count instant messengers, downloading things and stuff. So I think I'm quite aware of what you can do on the net, the best ways to use it and new things that people create.
But even so I'm still astounded by the size of the net. I find new sites, new ways of doing things, new products, new ideas, new creations and other great things every single week. This week I've been watching lots of videos on theories of whats next for the web, where we'll be in ten or twenty years time. Mostly this one, Shift Happens and another one by Karl Fisch. They make for pretty inspirational viewing, whilst also being slightly scary.ten minutes to download, for one picture. But it was also free (ntl were doing free trials in 1999) which is probably the only reason we had it in the first place. The computer was a bit useless too, I know the hardrive was something less than 5GB, but it played Colin McRae Rally so I was happy. We still have it downstairs, its now got a 20GB hdd, but we never turn it on because we all have laptops and it sounds like it's steam powered. I'm not sure what to do with it, suggestions? We had a digital camera at the same time, it cost £80, we could get 30 or so images on it and today even the most basic webcams have better resolution (I think it was the equivalent of SVGA)
Anyway, my point is, now, ten years on we have advanced dramatically, I have been writing this whilst carrying my laptop around the house, and have been able to watch videos, and download songs at the same time. I can download a full length feature film in about 5 hours. Be filming a video at reasonable quality on my mobile, and five minutes later have it up on you tube, where the world can see it.
And this is not the most technical or most advanced household in the UK believe me, my parents still don't have a DVD player, now we just use 'on demand', so we probably never will. Which prompts another thought, the average joe, who isn't at the forefront of the gadget world, is going to start missing generations out. How many people do you know that owned a laserdisc? Will developing countries, all those in sub-Saharan Africa for example, ever have complete penetration of land line phones? Will wireless broadband be available before dial-up? Imagine a Wi-Fi network covering Africa? Or the world? Will large centralised power stations ever be built or will small, sustainable, localised generating facilities mean countries that have traditionally been less developed than the G8's begin to lead the way in take up of new technology?
The changes in the future will promote other issues as well, as media becomes available online, and there is an increase in the number of people generating free, original, and high quality media without being paid, will it be necessary for record labels or TV production companies to dramatically change the way they work to continue to make a profit? What will happen to copyrighting laws as everyone gets access to existing media and uses it to create new things? Everyone can mix tracks using just some free software now, DJ's are created in their bedrooms, and the latest hits are found on My Space. Millions of people have blogs, blogs have millions of people, evidenced by the problems the Chinese government is having in censoring (illegally in my opinion) the thousands of people writing blogs from its country.
The ideas suggested by the two videos do make for worrying reading for anyone involved in education, changes are so rapid that heavily structured, large and state institutions that are not used to change struggle to keep up, but will this even be necessary as peoples exposure to technology becomes more integrated, regular and essential? Teenagers and young people are the most adaptive and malleable, we all have Bebo, Facebook, Hotmail, Yahoo, Live messenger, You Tube accounts, mobiles, i-pods and digital cameras (yes all at once). This uptake of new technology is I think indicative of future generations, people will adapt to keep up with the pace of the change, after all, we are the change, and the web is us.

The main video, produced by Karl Fisch, is an interesting and thought provoking look at technological developments in our world today and the possible ramifications of them. I encourage you to take a look at the wiki.