What will be the next generation of TV.

I was listening to the latest episode of web ahead talking about Web based TV's. Even the XBOX is getting a web browser later this year. I think we are missing the point of what a TV is about here. The television is a shared experience. Even when we are using a console we are sharing the experience over the internet.

Look at a family watching TV. If somebody up and changes the channel while you are in the middle of a show. TV watching is not web surfing. The successful next generation devices are content streamers not browsers. That is because that is how a big TV is used.

Unless your the only person in the room and you using your TV as a computer monitor and that's a strange experience. Surfing the web is a personal activity like reading a book while TV is like watching a play a group activity.

Windows 8 is the New Coke of the IT industry

Geeks should be geeky

Windows 8 Release candidate is a large step backward from the consumer preview which in many ways was a step backward from the developer preview. Windows 8 is Microsoft trying to out UI Apple in the UX(user experience) and they totally failed. Think of a geek guy in high school trying to be cool. The kid who got straight A's but no girl would look at, well I've always though Microsoft as kind of that guy. So one day he wants to be cool but he can't carry it off. The cool clothes don't fit right, the $100 haircut doesn't fit his face and he just doesn't walk cool. Windows 8 release candidate is that, the Metro interface hides all the good windows features while being awkward to use of you have more than a handful of icons. They've removed all the features you like remote desktop and media center. Trying to find the calculator, notepad and control panel is just plain difficult. I've been using Windows 8 for 10 months so its not needing to learn the interface.

For all the bad press Microsoft products work well in real business and getting things done. Apple may be the darling of the media industry but if the iphone/ipad had a bad day then they would be in a world of hurt. They are a one trick pony IOS, they've put the Mac on the back burner to focus on Mobile. It's paying huge for them. Microsoft wants some of that cash Apple is getting for IOS. Even when Windows had a bad day (Vista) Microsoft kept making money. Any IT manager will NEVER want windows 8 in their organization.

Hopefully Microsoft business customers (like the principle of the geeky guy in high school), pull Microsoft aside and explain trying to be something your not is a bad idea. Even Apple is smart enough to know that IOS cannot be OSX, they are different products.

Javascript

I've spent the last few months playing with Javascript and it changed a lot since I last used it. OK Javascript has not really changed except the browsers have got a lot better. The libraries have made all the differences.

Microsoft and Adobe who by the nature of my skill base is whose tools I tend to use a lot have chosen in their wisdom to kill Silverlight and Flash in Favor of HTML5. You may argue that Flash(or Silverlight) is far from dead . That is true but given that the mobile editions of both products have been discontinued it basically makes them dead in most large organizations.

So that leaves HTML5/Javascript/CSS and since I'm at heart a programmer I'm focusing on Javascript. I've spent the last few months reviewing the blog/docs/tutorials and Javascript has developed. Don't be fooled I still believe that Javascript is a horrid language but I get the feeling most other people agree with me.

Give a developer a problem and like an Engineer he will try and make a pile of scrap metal into a beautiful machine. That is what the developers of languages such as JQuery, Knockout, backbone, node and a million others decided to do. They take the pile of $*** that Javascript and various legacy browser and made them usable.

Like most people I got a particular darling technology I'm focusing on and that is JQuery Mobile. Take a look at the demo pages it amazing.