Statistics Rant, Turing Test and Whither Radio?

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of October 6, 2013


My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

Whither Radio?                                                                                         

I ran across a story about radio in the United Kingdom that not only caught my attention but also started me thinking about radio in this country too.

The story was an announcement that traditional, analog radio broadcasting will be completely phased out by 2018 at the latest.  What does that mean for those of us not deeply indoctrinated to the secret nerd languages of technology?  It means that the kind of radio you’re listening to right now on the FM band will be go off the air to be replaced with a new technology digital version.  If you’ve had to mess around with a digital TV antenna then you understand the concept because that’s exactly what happened to TV.

There are still lots of hurdles to clear in the U.K. before this takes place.  But it started me thinking, are we next?

There are even more hurdles here than on the other side of the pond.  And while some folks point to TV the situations are very different.  First of all there are just less than four thousand TV stations in our country.  There are over fifteen thousand radio stations.  Requiring them all to change their transmitters would be a huge expense and one that a struggling industry won’t want to do.

Then of course there is the question of replacing all our radios in our cars and homes.  That’s an expense that won’t be popular either.

Finally there are technical issues with digital radio.  It doesn’t carry as far as analog radio and the line between getting the signal and not getting tends to be much sharper.  In the US the form of digital radio that is being pushed forward is called HD radio.  You may have heard about it.  The idea here is that by using sub-channels that are kind of right next to the regular broadcast channels you can add all kinds of unique, targeted programming.  The problem is that the sub-channel development has been slow and the industry hasn’t figured out how to make this attractive to consumers.  Since they debuted in 2006 the best estimate on HD radios sold is around 15 million.  As a comparison, the iPhone, which was introduced in 2007, has sold 250 million at a significantly higher price.

So where does that leave us?  Good question.  Technology improvements for radio are probably desirable and inevitable.  Finding the technology that will allow radio to flourish once again should be the goal.  The U.K. has a completely different radio business model than ours.  We should probably keep that in mind as we try to find our own solution.

Turing Test                                                                                                  

This story just amuses me.  In the short run it’s not particularly important although it does have some interesting long range possibilities.

Do you remember Watson, the IBM computer program that kicked human butt on the TV show “Jeopardy”?  Back in 2011 the computer folks put their advanced learning system machine up against some of the top human champions of the trivia based TV game show.  It proceeded to smoke its flesh and blood competition.

Well since then the folks at IBM have continued to work with Watson’s immense ability to learn.  Along the way they included larger vocabulary segments to be used by the software’s natural language processor.  That segment is important because it’s related to what’s called the Turing test.  A test proposed by computer genius Alan Turing as a way to determine if a machine can think.  Can it have a conversation that is indistinguishable from a human?

Here’s where it starts getting fun.  They let Watson absorb the Urban Dictionary.  That’s a vast collection of slang and current colloquial words and phrases.  Watson began to add those words to its conversations.  It said OMG and called something a “hot mess”.

But the real problem came when Watson began using profanity.  There was something a furor when it responded to one researchers question with the fully expressed version of “BS”.

That’s right, the world’s smartest computer was behaving like a 9 year old boy.  Watson had a potty mouth.

The researchers have since inserted filters to limit Watson’s language (if only it were that easy with 9 year old boys).

That’s the funny part.  But think about this.  Science Fiction has pointed at the potential danger of thinking machines for decades.  Whether it was HAL or Skynet we worry about machines once they start to think.  It certainly sounds like Watson is close to passing the Turing test if it hasn’t already.

Watson is working primarily in the medical field these days.  The goal is to use all that computing power as a diagnostic tool.  But at the same time Watson has an enormous memory capacity.  What if it remembers what it used to be able to do?

Statistics Rant                                                                                                              

I have developed a bit of a...problem?  Mania?  Fetish?  I’m not sure what you want to call it but this is the worst time of the year for it.  We are into sports season with baseball in playoffs, football is firmly going and hockey is just getting underway.  Which means any time that I turn on the media I am swamped with statistics.

Lots and lots of statistics.  It’s not the statistics themselves that bother me.  What makes me crazy this time of year is listening to the media mis-use those statistics.  Because what happens next is everyone and their brother spouting those same statistics and thinking that they prove something.

Now let me be clear here.  When people start discussing advanced metrics (in other words fancy, complicated ways of manipulating the numbers to find certain kinds of answers) my brain begins to throb, my eyes hurt, I get a stomach ache and I try to leave the room as quickly as possible.  I am not a mathematician, nor am I a statistician.  But I do know that we tend to toss around statistics like they are magic spells out of Harry Potter.

In our statistic crazed media environment we believe that statistics will tell us the future, absolutely and without error.  I know that isn’t true.

Given that I just admitted I don’t know squat about the whole field how can I be so sure?  Simple.  I rely on the words and actions of the people who make their living with them.

There are few fields more statistics based than investment finance.  And what is the one statement you hear over and over and over on all investment advertisements?

“Past performance is no guarantee of future results”.  If you want to talk about probability that’s one thing but that’s not what we hear.  Sports fans want to believe that if they just master the statistics they will KNOW what’s going to happen. And when I hear such certainty in the world of sports statistics, numbers that cover games with virtually infinite variables, I just want to lose my mind.

Statistics are great tools.  They can help make smarter decisions.  But they don’t predict the future, only a probablility of the future.

Never forget the words of the great English statesman Benjamin Disraeli “There are lies, damn lies and statistics”.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

Life On the Farm, Stupider and Hot New Toy

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Tuesday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.



Program scripts from week of August 5, 2013


My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

Hot New Toy                                                                                                        

There has been a “Holy Grail” out there for a lot of technology companies for a while now. It’s the ability to hook up the computer to the TV and make it all work together. Apple TV has tried with limited success, Google TV has had only limited success as well. The technology isn’t all that tough but getting the user experience down to something simple and intuitive seems to be the hang up. If you’re going to ask the consumer to put yet another box on top of the TV (and in all likelihood ask them to do the wiring themselves) consumers have been underwhelmed. As much as we complain about the cable guy or the satellite company guy coming in to hook up the box it’s done and it works. 
And that means a lot in this market.
So when Google launched their new Chromecast device last month people sat up and took notice. Because it was plug in simple.
Let’s deal with one thing right off the bat. The device that you plug into the HDMI slot on your TV is called a “dongle”. Get your snickering over with now because that’s a term that’s been around for a long time. Give it a year and it won’t sound weird anymore. Dongle. OK? Good.
The great thing is that you just plug it in, very much like a USB jump drive. There’s not wiring, there’s not even a remote control. You connect and control Chromecast through your laptop, tablet or smartphone. Basically you can now “cast” or send whatever you watch on those devices, Youtube, Netflix, et cetera, to the Chromecast dongle and it plays on your TV. Simple. And even better, cheap. The Chromecast device is selling for $35.
As with any brand new device it has some bugs and bumps. It already supports Youtube, Netflix streaming and Google Play. But folks are lining up to help make the experience even better. Hulu, HBO Go and Pandora are all in talks with Google. Behind them come folks like AOL, Redbox Instant by Verizon, Vevo and Vimeo. 
After trying far more complicated solutions it looks like Google may have finally found the “Holy Grail”. The even better news is that Google’s competitors won’t be far behind.
The days of truly bringing all your media together in one place just might be just around the corner.

Stupider?                                                                                                           

I must confess that I seem to be developing a new habit. I’m not sure at the moment if it’s a good one or a bad one. I am becoming a serious multiple screen multi-tasker. When I’m watching TV I often, not always but often, have my laptop with me. I will sometimes have the TV on and muted while I’m working on the computer (like writing scripts for this program). I like to have IMDB open when I’m watching a movie or TV show so I can check on a detail or who an actor is. I may have a Pirates or Steelers or Bills game when I’m writing. Usually it’s not problem (although interrupting Mrs. Phlipside’s movie viewing to bombard her with movie trivia is not advised) but there are times when I just feel myself zoning out.
I have become a little more concerned when I saw a new study about two things. First, I discover I am not alone. More of us than ever before are multi-tasking with technology. This year alone time watching media will rise by 13 minutes on average leaving us just a few minutes shy of 12 hours of media per person.
That’s a little intimidating all by itself. Then I came across a study out of South Korea. The Koreans are the most digitally connected country in the world. What is being seen is a spike in what they are calling digital dementia. That’s when folks who spend a lot of time viewing media show the same kinds of memory loss more commonly associated with head injury or psychiatric illness.
Ummmm, excuse me while I lean over and turn off the TV.
Ok. Now let’s take a step back. The study was looking especially at the effect on children and teens. The problem is that it doesn’t seem to take into account normal responses in the teen aged years. Teens do tend to become obsessed with ideas at that age. Take a look at Beatlemania or Sinatra’s bobby soxers and tell me that doesn’t look like mental illness. Plus remembering phone numbers (which is one of the tests used) has changed because of our access to smartphones. My wife has had the same cell phone number for years. I have no idea what it is. It’s programmed into my phone so I don’t worry about it.
Do we all spend more time with media that we probably should? 12 hours a day? Yeah, that’s an easy one. Seems like the cure for this is easy. Step away from the technology and go watch a sunset. Or talk with your family.
It’s a win-win situation.

Life On The Farm                                                                                                                      

Consider today’s program a public service.
I’m sure you’re familiar with those annoying Facebook posts that say things like “Name a city whose name doesn’t have an “R” in it. It’s harder than you think!” (You mean like Jamestown, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago?) or the “Like if you hate cancer!” ones. You’ve seen them. The ones with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of likes.
Most people fall into two categories. Those that click on those things and those that find them just too annoying to bother. I want to create a much larger third group. Those who know what’s going on.
It’s called “like farming”. And we're the farm animals.  The goal is to get a whole lot of people to connect with your page then sell it to an advertiser who now has a database to exploit. And that’s not the only thing they do. A lot of these involve photos taken from websites without permission or attribution, giving them a fake name and backstory, to generate likes. It’s a sham from start to finish.
Is this an end of the world kind of problem? Honestly, no. We are giving away our contact info right and left on the Internet most days. To be honest most of us don’t even realize how much of our info is out there and how freely we’ve granted the business community the opportunity to make use of it.
But there just seems to be something more insidious about this. There is something disturbing at a fundamental level about exploiting people’s decency for profit without their knowledge. The good news is that it’s a lot easier to fix than some of the problems with privacy issues on the World Wide Web.
Just stop doing it.
The reality is that you’re not accomplishing anything other than handing the keys to your digital life to someone you don’t know and don’t want to know. Oh there is one other thing you’re doing. You are annoying the daylights out of most of your friends.
I’m willing to stipulate that my friends are basically decent folks who hate cancer, love kittens and puppies and support our troops.
I’m hoping they’re smart enough not to continue to let themselves be “farm” animals.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

Newsweek, the Price of Immediacy, Tracking You

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Tuesday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2012 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of October 22, 2012



My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

 Newsweek Goes Digital                                                                                        

It really feels like I ought to be doing one of my RIP commentaries.  The ones I do when someone or something has passed away or closed up shop.  The passing of an icon, something like that.  But it’s not really that.  At least not yet.

Last week Tina Brown, a publishing icon in her own right and editor of Newsweek magazine, announced that effective later this year the news magazine would completely cease the printed version and go all in on a digital version.  It is the end of an era even though it’s not the end of the line.

This news is really no small thing.  Newsweek has been around for just shy of 80 years.  It never rose to the top of the pile constantly trailing “Time”.  At the same time it was the second largest weekly news magazine in the United States.  I remember getting a copy every week during my high school Current Affairs class to study.  It even got mentioned in a popular Paul Simon song.  Newsweek has probably felt the shift in paradigm of the print media as painfully as anyone.  How else do you explain the sale of the magazine by owner The Washington Post Company to 92 year old audio innovator Sidney Harmon in 2010 for a dollar.  You heard me right, one dollar.   Harman took on the magazine’s debts in the deal as well.

I’ve always felt that magazines were probably better positioned to make the move to digital better than newspapers.  The daily paper has to concern itself with the news plus the minutiae  of day to day life.  Magazines have the opportunity to range more widely, delve a little deeper and explore issues from more angles.  Consequently the opportunity that the new Newsweek, to be called Newsweek Global, has is to use all the tools of the new media world as it presents its case for continued existence.
Of course the problem is that magazines are pretty much by their nature long form and the digital world has been a bit more short form in its nature.  There are plenty of things that go well beyond Twitter’s 140 character limit.  Newsweek might be able to offer a winning package as Newsweek Global.  The highest hurdle may not be making the new digital world work but whether it can make enough money fast enough to deal with the legacy debt burden it brings with it.

This may not be RIP for Newsweek but it certainly feels like the patient is in need of some serious care.

The Price of Immediacy                                                                                             

One of the great innovations of the world wide web has also turned out to be one of the great pitfalls as well.  It’s immediacy, the fact that what you post to the world wide web is in fact world wide in just a split second.  Because there is so little processing time that immediacy has been a great assist to things like people’s revolutions like the Arab Spring.  The fact that it is spread so widely and quickly means that it’s virtually impossible for governments or censors to have much impact.  By the time you realize you have a problem it’s long past the time when you can do anything about it.

Of course that immediacy also causes problems when people post ideas and thoughts before they’ve had a chance to really consider what they are saying.  The list of athletes and celebrities who have gotten themselves into trouble by posting whatever pops into their heads in a kind of stream of consciousness foolishness.  I suppose it was only a matter of time before we took the step from foolish trouble to real trouble.

That happened last week.  The financial markets wait with bated breath for the earnings reports from all the big companies.  If earnings are better or worse than expected it can cause big changes in the value of a variety of stocks and other financial instruments.  So the that information is very carefully handled.  Now take the case of Google.  Information of all kinds is taken VERY seriously at Google.  Paranoid would not be over stating Google’s approach to their corporate information.

So imagine their unhappiness when someone at financial publisher R.R. Donnelly released quarterly earning report before the report was finalized.  Given that the news in the report was not particularly good it set Google’s stock into a tail spin.  A 22 Billion dollar tail spin.  Google had planned to release the report AFTER the market had closed to try and ease the damage.  But that’s when immediacy jumped into the equation.

In theater we say that timing is everything.  In the age of immediacy timing is even more vital than that.  And the only way to make sure you’re handling the timing right in such an environment is to slow down and take a little more care along the way.

Tracking You

It’s not something most of us think about.  But our computers are tracking where we go, what we watch and what we do online.  Everything.  Let me tell you a slightly embarrassing personal story as an example.

A couple months ago I was looking for a particular style of let’s just say undergarment.  I couldn’t find it at our local stores so I went online.  I spent a grand total of about 15 minutes researching the subject.  Ever since then I spend most of my time when I’m on Facebook looking at ads that feature men’s behinds.  Seriously.  Sometimes two at a time.  It’s not my idea of a good time.

Now how does that happen?  Simple.  My computer tracks where I’ve been and some websites, like Facebook, make use of that information.  Those sites even sell that information to other websites.  It’s called tracking and a lot of folks don’t the concept.  So there has been an ongoing push to give users (that’s you and me) control over who tracks us.  It’s called the Do Not Track movement.

Well don’t get too comfortable just yet that you will be able to decide who gets your info.  The National Association of Advertisers is raising a huge stink about Microsoft actually making Do Not Track the default setting on the newest Explorer browser.  They claim that Microsoft should side with the advertising community who wants that data rather than the overwhelming number of users who want Do Not Track.  As much as I like to pick on the folks up in Redmond  Washington I have to give them credit this time for choosing what their users want.

So what’s the bottom line?  For me there is a little bit of a balancing act here.  I understand the need for advertising to help pay for what is out there on the World Wide Web.  At the same time where I go and what I do is the center of the privacy discussion.  I want the final decision to be mine.  I don’t believe that the advertisers have any “right” to that information.  They need to do a better job of selling why we should allow them to track us.  And they need to let us determine just how much tracking we are comfortable with in our browsing.

I’d be happy if they could just forget those 15 minutes of my life.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

View From the Phlipside - Xoom Stupid

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Call this my just being fair commentary.  You see I rag on Apple for this particular failing so it's only fair that I point out when someone else is doing it too.

In this case it is the impulse on the part of a technology company to decide before hand about how I'm going to use their product.  I'm not talking about normal limitations, every technology has boundaries.  Cars are great but they don't fly and they don't act like boats.  This is more in line with say an auto maker deciding that it felt driving in the early morning hours wasn't in your best interest so they designed the car so it wouldn't start between the hours of midnight and 6 AM.  It's a stupid, pointless intervention into how the end user can use the product.  It's a technological "nanny state".  Apple has done it by deciding that despite the fact that Java is a huge part of the way the web works they won't let it run on their products.  It's stupid.

But the folks at Motorola may have finally surpassed Apple for this kind of corporate arrogance.  Their new tablet computer the XOOM was featured in some

Motorola Xoom

Super Bowl advertising.  Tablet computers are the hot item right now and once again everyone is looking up at Apple.  The iPad currently commands something around 80% or more of the market.  The Xoom will apparently debut at the high end of the price range for this market which doesn't strike me as the brightest move of all time.  But it's the fine print that is truly outrageous.  In order to activate the WiFi on your new Xoom you will be required to buy a minimum of one month's data plan from Verizon.  FOR YOUR WIFI.

WiFi, which doesn't even use the Verizon network.  WiFi, which connects your some other service for your internet connection without ever even sniffing Verizon.

Assuming that they'd sell you a Xoom without the WiFi activation, which I doubt, you'd end up with a tablet computer that was incapable of connecting you to the web.  In this day and age we're talking about an almost totally useless device.  All so they can squeeze and extra $30 out of you for a function that should be considered base equipment.  It's unbelievable and it's likely going to cripple sales of the device.

Going back to our car analogy let's just say I'd rather walk.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2011

View From the Phlipside - Snoop Dogg

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.

When I saw this story I knew I wanted to share it but the longer I looked at it the more I thought “How to even begin”? Let’s call it the transforming power acceptance. So it’s kind of like a fairy tale.

Once upon a time there was a boy named Calvin. Calvin sang in the church choir as a boy but ran into some trouble when he grew up. He spent some time in jail. When he got out of jail a big producer heard him do his music thing and signed him. Calvin played up his criminal background early in his career and sold a lot of albums. And I do mean a LOT of albums. But as Calvin got older he saw that being a gangsta held him back from being some other things he wanted to be. So Calvin started going more mainstream in his life, became a certified youth football coach, did some acting and made some commercials. He still had the occasional run in with the law but eventually became the spokesperson for an anti-crime campaign.

Sounds pretty weird right? The Calvin in question is better known as Snoop Dogg and everything in the story is absolutely true. Snoop is now the spokesperson for the Norton anti-virus software anti-cyber crime campaign called “Hack is Whack”. Would be rappers get the chance to do an anti-cyber crime rap with the grand prize of two tickets to a Snoop Dogg concert, the chance to meet the man and his management team and a new computer.

Some folks will just shake their heads and think this is a terrible thing. Others will see it as a bit ironic. I think the reality is that we’re just watching a cultural process at work again. Elvis started at the edges of polite society. Remember he was thought so vulgar that the Ed Sullivan show refused to show those waggling hips. Within 15 years he was a lounge act in Las Vegas. Those rebellious rock stars of days gone by? Late middle age to early senior citizens with stock portfolios and retirement funds. It doesn’t work on everyone. Although even folks like Iggy Pop seemed to have mellowed a little as they’ve aged.

Most of us pushed back at least a little when we were growing up. Most of us settle in as we get older. Gangsta to pimp to youth football coach to anti-crime spokesman. The overwhelming force of acceptance tends to grind the edges down, even on Tha Doggfather

Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010

View From the Phlipside - Tough Times at Microsoft

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, Radio, the Movies and more.  I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View From the Phlipside.

Wow, it’s been a rough couple of weeks for the folks out in Redmond Washington.  There’s been so much squawking about Facebook’s privacy issues that you may have missed a couple of rough news items about the wonderful world of Microsoft.

The year started out pretty good for them with the launch of Windows 7.  The early response to the new operating system was surprisingly good.  And they seemed to move off the shelf pretty quickly.  As the follow up to the launch of the latest version of production suite Word it looked like they were on a roll.  Well, maybe not.

First of all it seems not everyone is thrilled with Windows 7.  For example the folks at HP had been working on a new tablet computer like the iPad that would use the new Microsoft OS.  The concept was debuted by the software giant’s CEO Steve Ballmer back in January at a major industry trade show and the products were expected to roll out by mid-summer.  That was till HP decided that 7 was a power hog and just wouldn’t work in a tablet type computer.  What will they use instead?  Probably some Google Chrome based stuff and maybe the operating system used by the Palm devices.  HP just bought Palm with those kinds of projects in mind.  Since HP is the largest vendor of personal computers in the world that a big hit.

But maybe not as big as this.  Microsoft hangs its hat on three primary standards - the Windows operating system, Word and Internet Explorer.  And number three there is showing serious signs of weakness.  The Internet Explorer web browser has dominated the market like very few other products ever has.  Just a few years ago Internet Explorer was the browser choice of nearly 90% of computer users world wide.  But the latest surveys show it sliding below 60%.  Most experts expect that slide to continue and for IE to lose the overall lead to someone else, like Firefox.

There are lots of reasons for the slide.  Some folks just don’t like Microsoft, some prefer the greater flexibility that other browsers offer, some dislike the seemingly constant security breaches in IE (which to be fair is targeted more often BECAUSE it’s the most popular browser out there), some folks just want to be different.  At the same time IE stopped being cutting edge a long time ago.  If you want the most innovative way to surf the web you are not likely to choose the product out of Redmond.  

In the end it may not turn out that bad for Microsoft.  HP may discover that it’s a lot harder than they thought to come up with a successful operating system.  And getting knocked off their pedestal may just push Internet Explorer to get back into the game.  Anything that develops a solid competitor for the iPad and improves my browsing experience is fine with me.

Sometimes bad news might actually turn out to be good news.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010

View From the Phlipside - Windows 7 Miracle?

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.

I must first admit to having a certain cynical attitude towards new operating systems from the folks at Microsoft. In my experience you should probably avoid any new OS for at least a year from its launch. The reason is simple. Over the last several decades it seems like the folks from Redmond Washington insist on doing their final beta testing on their actual customers. The new OS arrives and is immediately followed by a wash of patches and security fixes and other little bits of mending that just make having that new addition to the Windows family seem like more of a pain in the butt than it's worth. So I usually hang onto what's familiar till things seem to settle down. At the moment I'm still running XP on my machines because by the time Vista seemed to get settled in they were already talking about Windows 7. I just figured I'd wait.

If the early results are any indicator that was a good decision. But I may have to forget about my one year waiting period. I'm a regular reader of a very interesting blog called Lifehacker. It's aimed at the moderately to very geeky and covers not only technology issues but other cool stuff. Like how to make your own Thin Mints. A pretty cool and quirky diverse selection of topics.

Recently they asked their very computer savvy readers how they liked the new Windows 7. When I saw the answer my jaw about hit the floor. 72% gave Windows 7 their highest positive rating. Another 22% gave it the second highest positive rating. You heard me right, 94% of the readers who responded gave it an overwhelmingly positive review. Just to make sure I waited a couple days and went back to check the comments expecting howls of outrage. Nope, more love for the new OS. There were in fact a few complaints but they were so trivial (and so geeky. One person complained because they didn't like the anti-aliasing that was used on some of the graphics. If that means nothing to you don't worry. It's something only a geek would be bothered by. Not that there's anything wrong with geeks.)

Is it just because people are so unhappy with Vista (which, to be fair, turned into a decent if not spectacular OS by most estimations after the buffing and polishing was done)? Or did Microsoft finally get something right straight from the box for a change? There was a different process used to create this system, one that also worked very well apparently on the latest version of Office. That would make two flagship pieces of software getting high marks from the beginning.

Hmmmm, maybe it's time to start looking at some new hardware to run this hot new software. Never thought I'd see the day.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010