Thursday, September 29, 2011

Microsoft Productivity Time (LMPT) and the Learning of it.

It was an awful and painful experience to use Word 2007.
It is supposed to be user friendly and not at all.
Not so sweet story today, I should share with.
I was preparing to do a survey on some penetration testing of computer utilities with my students.
I wanted to do this but kept postponing it.
I tabulated 101 items of Apple, Microsoft, Linux and third party software for testings.
I did this on Abiword and made a Microsoft version since I have run out of toner in my printer.
I may have done this in about 15 minutes and prepared the printer setting to my liking and copied it into mini re-writable CD.
Then at the office I opened the file and made a copy in Microsoft had a printer view and there were some ugly sections.
Wanted to break them into new table section and right clicked and looked at the menu to find table split.
Mind you I have worked extensively with Microsoft from Win 95 to XP 2003 and have series of books on Words which are in the attic (I do not like to donate or burn them, they are museum pieces anyway) and I knew the exact utility to use.

The Table split.
I could find cell split but not table split.
After 10 minutes of searching I asked our Secretary for help.
She could not find it.
I asked one of my colleagues.
She could not find it.
Unfortunately the technician I trained in computing was on leave.
Then the chief technician came and did a page break and broke the table in a place not desirable for my liking.

After one hour everything was in a mess and print preview was a disaster.

I do printing only twice to see typos and keep as my copy and the other for final copy.

Thankfully my chief technician showed me the step to page break.
PageLayout and then a another layout and hundred of bizarre arrangement of word utilities.
I could not delete the page break and accidentally clicked layout and found the table menu and somewhere there I saw table split function almost hidden in the clutter of many other utilities I will never use in my life time.

I need to get the page break out tried 10 minutes with View  Menu to see  the background layout lines and I could find any.
Simply I could not delete the page break.
Annoyed I started undoing one step at a time and also deleting corrections of typos and after another 5 to 10 minutes, I was back to where  I started and with another numerous clicks got to split table (mind you I was an addict of tables) and split it exactly where I wanted got the printer layout checked  and did the typos again and saved and got a print out after one an a half hours.
That is  90 minutes divided by 5 pages and 18 minutes per page to get print ready material.
Original typing with five typos (I do many typos now due to poor sight) took probably 15 minutes.
This is what I call Microsoft Productivity Time (MPT for short) which is amazingly long and when its windows 8 comes this productivity time will grow by leaps and bounds.

Then I have to call it Learning the Microsoft Productivity Time (LMPT) for Win 8 and reading it will take another two hours.

Every time a new product comes productivity time lengthens.

That is how Microsoft make writers life writer friendly but the writer should use Abiword for the final product even though he is a Microsoft user.
It was 4 years ago I used Microsoft Word and extra time I saved during these four years I use for blogging on my life free of Microsoft.
Thanks Microsoft for your hard work on Win 8 and I will copy all the web publishing currently published on the web to calculate what a lot of productivity time writers waste on non existent product.

Postscript
I managed to find the way to delete the page break.
Go View and then to Outline and select the line and press the delete button.

Amazon Silk the answer to Web Browsers that are Heavy (Weights)

I hate almost all the web browsers in current use except light weight Linux derivatives.

Linux derivatives are light on your computer and has utilities to block unnecessary cookies and erase the memory at the end of a web session.

All the web browsers have become bulky over the years and have left enough security holes.
I will list few of the Linux browsers, I like most before talking about the game-changer Amazon-Silk.
I hope it will not become bulky in time but have enough security patches since lot of young kids are going to use it on daily basis.
1.IceApe and its Suite
2. Dillo
3. SeaMonkey
4. IceWeasel
5. Midori
6.Abrowser

Mobile Web Kits
7. Opera Mobile (Mini)
8. Android WebKit
9. Safari
10. BlackBerry WebKit
11. Dolfin-Samsung
12. Nokia WebKit
13. Phantom
14. MicroB-Nokia
15. Firefox   Gecko in MeeGo
Note Gecko  is a FireFox Light derivative that comes from Linux origin, from good old days of Linux and unfortunately IE and FireFox have to do, quite a lot of work to get to Mobile Industry using them as default.

IE and FireFox are gorilla derivative of internet.

I believe Linux distributions should all have some alternative Lightweight web browsers included in their distributions.

It is interesting that SwiftLinux which has done a good job of it in its recent version. 

Actully the credit should go to AntiX.

These light weight stuff can be used in Mobile and Cloud Computing and now that Amzon has shown the way by splitting the resources we are going to have frantic activity in this arena with mobile to lure.
Amazon’s Silk approach is admirable and it is going to be a game-changer.
I think all the web browsers have to go on a diet soon or have at least two versions.
One for mobile and cloud and the other for the desktop.

Amazon and Kindle on Fire and the Game-changer

Within three years, Amazon and its Kindle derivative is going to rock the web with applications that none of us could say No.

At a time of credit and debt crisis Amazon's investment on knowledge on a slate (tablet) is going to rock the boat of many aspiring companies including Google.

Unlike the 'flame wars" in Linux community both these Linux derivatives Google Chrome Tab and Amazon's Kindle Tab going to shape the world for better.
Knowledge wise. 

It is not going to be iPods and Apple.
Apple is too expensive for poor debt ridden world including America.

(If only GOP and Democrats can get together and get US out of the war mongering American companies to begin with, the Real Dream  of the average American will come true.
We were a country infested with this disease for over 3 decades.
The War.
The biggest casualty of this war was the lowering of our educational standards and not training good teachers.
Most of the good teachers left us for better pastures.
We did not train teachers in English, Maths, Computer Science (IT) and Science in adequate numbers.
All the efforts were focused on the war and even afterward there is  still some bickering going on.
Successive generations of children were neglected (war-neglected) and unfortunately some children were recruited to war efforts).

The children born now should have a better future irrespective of where they are born.
This is where good American companies (not MacDonald, Kentucky or Coca COLA) like Amazon should stretch their arm here and into the third world with education utilities at an affordable price.
We do not want things like IBM Classmates. 

That is also only for the rich American children.

We do not want things free too.  

I do not believe in giving children free stuff and the same stuff like school uniforms and books not updated for 30 years.

Then they do not value them.
I have my own story.
We were not rich and most of my classmates were the same.
We used slate and slate pencils.
I had my  slate (only used 3 for the entire school years) and slate pencil till I entered the University.
Then in the second year (term 5) when I passed the first examination, I was very happy I wanted to donate my precious slate to a poor kid in my neighbourhood.
I found a kid and gave it to him stating that he should do well in school.
Three months later when I came on vacation, I visited his house to see he had broken it in no time.
Mind you keeping a slate for 15 odd years without breaking it is no mean task.
Knowing this my kids leave all their valuable stuff including some dolls in my room, knowing very well, they are in safe hands and my room is a junkyard full of computers and bizarre array of things.

This is of course after donating 95% of the stuff.
Their grandma who is no more was very good at disposing the stuff.

This was a kid of a different generation.
Consumerist and did not value it as a gift.
They do not conserve.
Had he used it properly I would have helped his entire schooling career.
It was not to be.
My father and I had the habit of donating my used books (I used to keep them in very good condition unlike children of today) once I have finished  using them.
I have never sold them, even secondhand (some very expensive books).

Our teachers were good and they feared School Inspector.
Teaching was a noble profession then.
Now our teachers do not teach in the class but have tuition classes for money in the afternoon.
(But our politicians came and ruined what was left of English system and  the number of schools (they are all Buddhist Schools) built by an American philanthropist colonel Sir Henry Olcott.
It is a common practice that principals  in these school takes bribes to admit children.
Not only that they ruined the schools built on the temple premises too, by elevating them to a very different status.
Our education system is in a mess.
We cannot resurrect them to good old days).

The system is incorrigible.
There is digital divide too.
City children fare better than village kids but due to the quota system bright city children (who have achieved the required standard) are deprived of getting into the University.

Some of them with money (having sold their ancestral homes to raise money) go abroad and never return.

Many of them do not succeed having gone out and do menial jobs.

What am getting at is the Kindle gadgets are in the affordable range even for the third world.

They are the game-changer.
They can replace what is lacking in most of our teachers.
Dependability, durability and the ability to update the knowledge base.
If we cannot change the manpower (attitude of the teachers) then we should change the fire power which Kindle will have.

They should be packed with educational materials.
Out parents will do the needful if not the teachers.

Amazon should divert 1% of their profits to education of children under 12.
They should reach them with Kindle and the Cloud.
They should do that in America first and show the world that they do care for their own kids.
I am sure Obama will be all ready to help.
Unlike previous presidents he has given the knowledge base a powerful kick and an uplift.
Whatever the failures in economic front if Obama does the ground work for changing dynamics of 21st century education his name will be written in gold.
The companies that back that impetus will last longer than the people who owned it.
Look for the longevity.
Amazon is  a Key Company.
Rest of the world will have to follow its footsteps.

UNICEF is dead now and U.N.O does not care.
What UNICEF and U.N.O unable to do Amazon can do better in education.

Amazon should never give this stuff free to the third world. 
The education system of  a particular country should deserve whatever they receive as educational tools (Amazon or Google) with proper outcome based plan.

Not simple doles.
Beauty  in the third world is that the parents do their best to make the life of their children better.

What is ruining their aspiration is the education system which is not prepared to change and take bold actions so that there is equitable distribution of education resources.

Cloud, the Kindle and the Google, the ChromeOS can do that with training and infrastructure improvement.
Unfortunately we do not have a satellite of our own.
Satellite systems should improve to take the cloud computing forward.
A lot of planning at global scale should happen.
Land based internet system want reach everybody.

That is why I say the education material should focus on under 12 for the next 10 years. 
A lot of things will change in this decade if not the end of the world as predicted.

We already have system for adults and older children.
They may have to pay for the services but that is how things are as at present.
Nobody should grumble paying for a good service especially education.

Universal education with poor quality (that is what we have now in our country) is no substitute for appropriate education at appropriate age and time.
It looks like our education system kills the interest of the kids.
They are arcane.

This is something I posted sometime ago.
I am thankful to Amazon for taking cognizant of what I stated.
I should have said bit of Kinder Kindle.
Amazon is kinder to the parent's pockets.
Thanks again.


It is sad we lost over 30 year a futile war and we are still spending more for defense budget. 
In the process we are cutting our budget for education. 
If that is not enough we got a Minister who instills fear on students who tend to disagree with his views.  

All this is enough for young ones to go abroad and see how education is done in the rest of the world.
 
If we take Singapore they have developed their own e-reader and over 900,000 books in the Library are converted to e-books and could be accessed free on the e-reader.

They do not boast that they give free textbooks but make available all the resources for young people to learn.
One can see young Singaporeans studying in the University (their accommodations are not as spacious like in our country) do their home work at the airport lounge.

The e-readers available there include Kinder 2 which is driven by Linux kernel (Amazon Device). 
That is the very reason I wanted to write about it. 
It is black and white and has wireless connectivity and a browser.

I believe all the other devices are also using Linux kernel.

Then there is another called Nook which is available in both colour and black and white.

I would like to see our kids also get a chance to use them.

This in only a wishful thinking.

Our educators go on holiday just before their retirement wasting out resources.
I wonder how many of them have at least seen a e-reader at least in the airport.
Mind you one need not go there, just browsing the web is enough to see an array of devices.