Dear jesse and the rest of the DonationCoder family,

First off thanks so much for the email and reminder, 2009 was my last post. It is a real pleasure to say HI! again. I was never a real programmer (I'm a neuroscientist who makes do with Matlab), but I really do enjoy thoughtful conversations and interesting discussions, and DC was just brilliant for this (and I imagine still is!!!!). Jesse, I think you did the most amazing thing building this community, and you should be really really really proud of that.

FARR was my first love on this site, then I became interested in ways to improve productivity. My fellow DCers were always great to discuss/argue/share/laugh with. I moved to OS X and stayed around a bit longer as I wanted to share some of the differences and changes with this community. I still work for a living trying to understand how brains work, still living for work in the metropolis Airstrip One (aka London) and living a full life with a new Son.

I was always so amazed with how much Jesse cared about his software and how respectful he was of others. I know one can never "know" someone over this big crazy electronic web, but Jesse is obviously someone I would trust. I would gladly go out for a good coffee / beer / whisky (delete as appropriate), if it wasn't for the geographical displacement.

I would normally be a bit grumpy getting reminder emails, but DC is a family and this is a pleasure.  :beerchug: :drinksmiley: :beerchug: to the next 10 years!!!!

Perhaps the largest change, however, is Microsoft's recognition of the netbook market. Previously, Microsoft sold its Starter software only into emerging markets. Now, the company has positioned Starter as an ideal entry point for extending Windows 7 into netbooks. The catch? Like other Starter editions, that netbook will only run three applications at a time, an arbitrary limitation the software imposes.

{source}

WTF!!!?!?!?!!? Why oh why would any OS vendor limit their OS to running 3 apps at a time. It makes cutting out Aero as Vista did seem generous. So I'm researching a web article to mail to a friend, making notes in word as I go along. If my antivirus opens its UI, I have to close one of my others. What if heavens forbid, I want to listen to music while working!? Holy schnitzel...

Scott Finnie ain't singing the Windows 7 anthem either:

http://blog.scotsnewsletter.com/2009/01/18/windows-7-beta-1-im-not-impressed/

He doesn't see the performance boost he saw with Win 7 alpha, suggesting this is a classic cycle where the MS OS gets slower as it marches to RTM... And homegroup can be less than ideal to setup. Why can't Windows 7 interoperate, it can't play with any Macs on the network, yet Leopard can see both Macs and PCs. Bonjour is open-source and wouldn't kill MS to extend its interoperability.