Please Release (Candidate) Me

First off various bits that I’ve been meaning to share:

• Thomas Allen’s book art photography is a stunning series using the cut-out covers from old pulp novels.
• I’ve been reading Lily’s I Invent The Future blog for a while now, but only just added it the links page. It’s broadly about women in technology, written with a considered and non-sensationalist voice.
• The Guardian has an interesting article on the importance of scary films for children, an opinion I strongly agree with and have mentioned here before. It cites Coraline as a perfect example.
• Cheat codes for everyday life is an interesting collection of things you may not have known you could do. But you can. Incidentally the opening of the article is a reference to the now legendary Konami Code, which was recently discovered as an easter egg on Facebook.

I have not said a great deal about my experience with Windows 7 since installing the beta a while ago. The reason is pretty simple: it’s just been incredibly smooth with very little to report. The general interface has undergone minimal change since Vista, with most of the changes under the hood. Subtle changes like the new Super Bar and AeroPeek are well-implemented evolutions of the Aero interface, but hardly revolutionary. Unlike the experience of early adopters of Vista, most software will already be fully compatible, particularly since most vendors now support 64-bit releases (yes, with 4 gigs of RAM in the laptop I’m using a 64-bit version of Windows 7). The result has been a very stable operating system that acts just as it should: generally stays out of your way and lets you get on with what you want to do.

So when the Release Candidate arrived earlier this month I didn’t jump at it. In fact, my experience with the beta has been so hassle-free that I probably won’t upgrade before my trip to the States either, since reinstalling all that software will be time-consuming. In fact my chief reason for switching to the RC will be to take advantage of its generous trial period, lasting until March 2010 (full expiration is technically June 2010 but forced shutdowns every 2 hours essentially render it useless in that period).