What are the biggest Windows 10 problems Microsoft needs to fix?

by Edward Chester

03 July 2015

      Windows 10 is shaping up to be a good upgrade over both Windows 7 and Windows 8, but with the release date of 29 July mere weeks away, there are still some issues that need sorting.

      So, while there’s still just about time, here are some of the biggest Windows 10 problems that we’re hoping Microsoft will fix before the Windows 10 Technical Preview is closed and the final version is released to users.

      1. Tabs in File Explorer

      One of the longest-running requested features for a new Windows is simply to allow the File Explorer to have tabs. Just as web browsers can have multiple tabs open at the same time but all contained in a neat single-windowed view, we want the same thing for File Explorer.

      It seems like it should be a simple thing to add, but seemingly Microsoft is against the idea, as it's already made considerable adjustments to File Explorer in Windows 10 without including this feature.

      2. Finish updating icons

      Windows 8 saw a new, more sharp-lined, high-contrast style brought to Windows, but it didn’t do a very good job of maintaining consistency throughout the OS, with many features still using the old style. Windows 10 has improved this, tweaking the majority of system icons and features to fit in with the new look. ...I... , the task still isn’t complete, and while it doesn’t make a huge difference to the day-to-day satisfaction of using your computer, it does speak to the apparent difference in philosophy between Apple and Microsoft.

      When the former overhauled the look of iOS, it did so in a much more complete manner than Microsoft has managed over two major iterations of Windows.

      3. Stability issues

      The most obvious issue that Microsoft needs to address is simply making sure it really does solve any further performance and stability issues in Windows 10. While our experience has largely been smooth, we've nonetheless had moments of the system completely falling over while doing nothing particularly challenging, and there are many other reports of instability.

      Microsoft certainly can’t be complacent when it comes to core stability. The company does need to ensure that what customers are buying at least works reliably out of the box.

      (…)

                                               (Adapted from: http://www.trustedreviews.com) 

What are the biggest Windows 10 problems Microsoft needs to fix?

by Edward Chester

03 July 2015

      Windows 10 is shaping up to be a good upgrade over both Windows 7 and Windows 8, but with the release date of 29 July mere weeks away, there are still some issues that need sorting.

      So, while there’s still just about time, here are some of the biggest Windows 10 problems that we’re hoping Microsoft will fix before the Windows 10 Technical Preview is closed and the final version is released to users.

      1. Tabs in File Explorer

      One of the longest-running requested features for a new Windows is simply to allow the File Explorer to have tabs. Just as web browsers can have multiple tabs open at the same time but all contained in a neat single-windowed view, we want the same thing for File Explorer.

      It seems like it should be a simple thing to add, but seemingly Microsoft is against the idea, as it's already made considerable adjustments to File Explorer in Windows 10 without including this feature.

      2. Finish updating icons

      Windows 8 saw a new, more sharp-lined, high-contrast style brought to Windows, but it didn’t do a very good job of maintaining consistency throughout the OS, with many features still using the old style. Windows 10 has improved this, tweaking the majority of system icons and features to fit in with the new look. ...I... , the task still isn’t complete, and while it doesn’t make a huge difference to the day-to-day satisfaction of using your computer, it does speak to the apparent difference in philosophy between Apple and Microsoft.

      When the former overhauled the look of iOS, it did so in a much more complete manner than Microsoft has managed over two major iterations of Windows.

      3. Stability issues

      The most obvious issue that Microsoft needs to address is simply making sure it really does solve any further performance and stability issues in Windows 10. While our experience has largely been smooth, we've nonetheless had moments of the system completely falling over while doing nothing particularly challenging, and there are many other reports of instability.

      Microsoft certainly can’t be complacent when it comes to core stability. The company does need to ensure that what customers are buying at least works reliably out of the box.

      (…)

                                               (Adapted from: http://www.trustedreviews.com) 

TEXT II

The backlash against big data

[…]

Big data refers to the idea that society can do things with a large body of data that weren’t possible when working with smaller amounts. The term was originally applied a decade ago to massive datasets from astrophysics, genomics and internet search engines, and to machine-learning systems (for voice-recognition and translation, for example) that work well only when given lots of data to chew on. Now it refers to the application of data-analysis and statistics in new areas, from retailing to human resources. The backlash began in mid-March, prompted by an article in Science by David Lazer and others at Harvard and Northeastern University. It showed that a big-data poster-child—Google Flu Trends, a 2009 project which identified flu outbreaks from search queries alone—had overestimated the number of cases for four years running, compared with reported data from the Centres for Disease Control (CDC). This led to a wider attack on the idea of big data.

The criticisms fall into three areas that are not intrinsic to big data per se, but endemic to data analysis, and have some merit. First, there are biases inherent to data that must not be ignored. That is undeniably the case. Second, some proponents of big data have claimed that theory (ie, generalisable models about how the world works) is obsolete. In fact, subject-area knowledge remains necessary even when dealing with large data sets. Third, the risk of spurious correlations—associations that are statistically robust but happen only by chance—increases with more data. Although there are new statistical techniques to identify and banish spurious correlations, such as running many tests against subsets of the data, this will always be a problem.

There is some merit to the naysayers' case, in other words. But these criticisms do not mean that big-data analysis has no merit whatsoever. Even the Harvard researchers who decried big data "hubris" admitted in Science that melding Google Flu Trends analysis with CDC’s data improved the overall forecast—showing that big data can in fact be a useful tool. And research published in PLOS Computational Biology on April 17th shows it is possible to estimate the prevalence of the flu based on visits to Wikipedia articles related to the illness. Behind the big data backlash is the classic hype cycle, in which a technology’s early proponents make overly grandiose claims, people sling arrows when those promises fall flat, but the technology eventually transforms the world, though not necessarily in ways the pundits expected. It happened with the web, and television, radio, motion pictures and the telegraph before it. Now it is simply big data’s turn to face the grumblers.

(From http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist explains/201 4/04/economist-explains-10)

TEXT II

The backlash against big data

[…]

Big data refers to the idea that society can do things with a large body of data that weren’t possible when working with smaller amounts. The term was originally applied a decade ago to massive datasets from astrophysics, genomics and internet search engines, and to machine-learning systems (for voice-recognition and translation, for example) that work well only when given lots of data to chew on. Now it refers to the application of data-analysis and statistics in new areas, from retailing to human resources. The backlash began in mid-March, prompted by an article in Science by David Lazer and others at Harvard and Northeastern University. It showed that a big-data poster-child—Google Flu Trends, a 2009 project which identified flu outbreaks from search queries alone—had overestimated the number of cases for four years running, compared with reported data from the Centres for Disease Control (CDC). This led to a wider attack on the idea of big data.

The criticisms fall into three areas that are not intrinsic to big data per se, but endemic to data analysis, and have some merit. First, there are biases inherent to data that must not be ignored. That is undeniably the case. Second, some proponents of big data have claimed that theory (ie, generalisable models about how the world works) is obsolete. In fact, subject-area knowledge remains necessary even when dealing with large data sets. Third, the risk of spurious correlations—associations that are statistically robust but happen only by chance—increases with more data. Although there are new statistical techniques to identify and banish spurious correlations, such as running many tests against subsets of the data, this will always be a problem.

There is some merit to the naysayers' case, in other words. But these criticisms do not mean that big-data analysis has no merit whatsoever. Even the Harvard researchers who decried big data "hubris" admitted in Science that melding Google Flu Trends analysis with CDC’s data improved the overall forecast—showing that big data can in fact be a useful tool. And research published in PLOS Computational Biology on April 17th shows it is possible to estimate the prevalence of the flu based on visits to Wikipedia articles related to the illness. Behind the big data backlash is the classic hype cycle, in which a technology’s early proponents make overly grandiose claims, people sling arrows when those promises fall flat, but the technology eventually transforms the world, though not necessarily in ways the pundits expected. It happened with the web, and television, radio, motion pictures and the telegraph before it. Now it is simply big data’s turn to face the grumblers.

(From http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist explains/201 4/04/economist-explains-10)

TEXT I

Will computers ever truly understand what we’re saying?

Date: January 11, 2016

Source University of California - Berkeley

Summary:

If you think computers are quickly approaching true human communication, think again. Computers like Siri often get confused because they judge meaning by looking at a word’s statistical regularity. This is unlike humans, for whom context is more important than the word or signal, according to a researcher who invented a communication game allowing only nonverbal cues, and used it to pinpoint regions of the brain where mutual understanding takes place.

From Apple’s Siri to Honda’s robot Asimo, machines seem to be getting better and better at communicating with humans. But some neuroscientists caution that today’s computers will never truly understand what we’re saying because they do not take into account the context of a conversation the way people do.

Specifically, say University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral fellow Arjen Stolk and his Dutch colleagues, machines don’t develop a shared understanding of the people, place and situation - often including a long social history - that is key to human communication. Without such common ground, a computer cannot help but be confused.

“People tend to think of communication as an exchange of linguistic signs or gestures, forgetting that much of communication is about the social context, about who you are communicating with,” Stolk said.

The word “bank,” for example, would be interpreted one way if you’re holding a credit card but a different way if you’re holding a fishing pole. Without context, making a “V” with two fingers could mean victory, the number two, or “these are the two fingers I broke.”

“All these subtleties are quite crucial to understanding one another,” Stolk said, perhaps more so than the words and signals that computers and many neuroscientists focus on as the key to communication. “In fact, we can understand one another without language, without words and signs that already have a shared meaning.”

(Adapted from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/1 60111135231.htm)

TEXT I

Will computers ever truly understand what we’re saying?

Date: January 11, 2016

Source University of California - Berkeley

Summary:

If you think computers are quickly approaching true human communication, think again. Computers like Siri often get confused because they judge meaning by looking at a word’s statistical regularity. This is unlike humans, for whom context is more important than the word or signal, according to a researcher who invented a communication game allowing only nonverbal cues, and used it to pinpoint regions of the brain where mutual understanding takes place.

From Apple’s Siri to Honda’s robot Asimo, machines seem to be getting better and better at communicating with humans. But some neuroscientists caution that today’s computers will never truly understand what we’re saying because they do not take into account the context of a conversation the way people do.

Specifically, say University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral fellow Arjen Stolk and his Dutch colleagues, machines don’t develop a shared understanding of the people, place and situation - often including a long social history - that is key to human communication. Without such common ground, a computer cannot help but be confused.

“People tend to think of communication as an exchange of linguistic signs or gestures, forgetting that much of communication is about the social context, about who you are communicating with,” Stolk said.

The word “bank,” for example, would be interpreted one way if you’re holding a credit card but a different way if you’re holding a fishing pole. Without context, making a “V” with two fingers could mean victory, the number two, or “these are the two fingers I broke.”

“All these subtleties are quite crucial to understanding one another,” Stolk said, perhaps more so than the words and signals that computers and many neuroscientists focus on as the key to communication. “In fact, we can understand one another without language, without words and signs that already have a shared meaning.”

(Adapted from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/1 60111135231.htm)