Is Microsoft getting it right this time?

This weekend, I downloaded the Windows 7 Beta DVD to my work computer so that I could set it up and test it out. I created a “virtual machine” today on the MacBook I’m using in the office and installed this successor to Windows Vista. I’ve been hoping for a while now that the successor would actually be successful.

So far, I’m finding those hopes fulfilled. I haven’t been annoyed by ridiculous security pop-ups (as opposed to wise security pop-ups), and the changes to what you see on the Desktop and in the Start Menu are good ones. It’s been easier to make customizations to themes and menus. For example, you don’t have to dig to China in order to change the behavior of the Power button in the Start Menu.

One interesting discovery is that the beta doesn’t come with an email program as Windows Vista and its predecessors do – you know, Outlook Express and its alter ego in Vista, Windows Mail. You have to download Windows Live Mail, Messenger, and other programs from the Internet. This change would partially satisfy the European anti-trust regulators – Windows Media Player is still there from the start, as is Internet Explorer.

My initial experience is good, so far, and I hope to dig a little deeper as time goes on so that I know what to expect when the real thing comes out. The people I support here will want both advice and help. If my experience can help you make decisions about your own computer, then that counts as a good thing, too.

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Before there was Facebook

On Friday, I signed up for a Facebook account. Within hours, I connected with a best friend from high school. By this evening, I had thirty friends. Facebook is pretty addicting! I’m impressed with the site not just as an IT guy, but also as a simple, social human being — and as someone trained in social science research.

When Katherine I were on furlough back in 2000, we took a class called “Language Development”. In that class, we studied and discussed the things that influence language use and change. One of the concepts that caught my attention was that of “social networks”.

University of Michigan professor Dr. Leslie Milroy used social networking to study the use of the Irish language in that society. Once she was introduced to one Irish speaker, she established a rapport with that person and slowly worked her way through that person’s network and those of the people she met.

Dr. Milroy was able to learn a lot about “who knows who”, “who talks to who”, and “who uses what language with who”. Other important information included “how who knows who” and “how well who knows who” — are you tired of the Who’s yet? Dr. Milroy used the data she collected to paint a portrait of the Irish-speaking community she had visited, and she was able to draw conclusions about how the Irish language is used and how language change works its way through the community.

Such information is what we sought in our language surveys in Africa, and I felt that the idea might be fruitful if used among the very social African peoples. My research paper for that course focused on the ways we could employ social network theory in making decisions about Bible translation projects. Using it a village context, though, would be very different from making contacts on the Internet.

Facebook allows you to move through social networks around the world as easily as moving around your own living room. If I could add anything to it, I would add a meter that indicates how frequently you get in touch with each of your friends. The old language surveyor in me wants to add your choice of language, too (from the Ethnologue) — but that might be asking a bit much. Give it a try!

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It’s not easy to say “no”

My department has fled the campus entirely for three days this week to be together for a workshop. Since we IT staff have such a big impact on day to day operations in Wycliffe, we let people know well in advance that we wouldn’t be available. I’m not entirely sure how folks reacted to that, but I know that some people would have been a little worried.

Despite the notice, there were some people I had to tell personally that I couldn’t help them. That hurt. I’m the type of person who really wants to fix the things I can — and I especially like doing it when it benefits someone else.

But I had to tell one woman over the phone that I couldn’t possibly fix her email problem myself until Monday. I referred her to my colleagues in North Carolina, who I’m certain can also help her. Another woman — who is visiting the campus — has what is probably a hardware problem with her laptop. However, I didn’t have enough time with it this week to come up with a diagnosis. She and her husband work from Washington, D.C., so I had to tell them to contact Dell Technical Support directly when they return home this weekend.

I have no idea what part of Wycliffe’s larger ministry of Bible translation will be affected by these delays in computer support, but the experience has certainly reinforced my desire to serve God by helping my Wycliffe co-workers.

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