Category: Geeks r Us
Hello everyone,
To sort of commemorate the 1-week release of the Windows 8 developer preview, I have assembled a podcast which aims to take you from the beginning. Get to know windows 8 up close and personal - installation, new accessibility changes, what Metro means, new control panel, new boot screen, new... everything!
Although it certainly does not cover it all (ribbons were not exactly touched on), I did try to use our time as best as possible. With Kevin Chao and Alex Hiironen, I sat down to discuss this operating system from a wide range of angles.
I also look forward to podcasts from the blind geek zone and others who are willing to produce them. Let's all embrace the future, and move forward with a positive light.
Listen to it here!
Feel free to tell this to anyone you wish. The point is to get this in the hands of as many people as we can, regardless of their sight. This is not a "blind-only" podcast, though obviously being blind means that I used screen readers and the like to explore Windows 8. However discussing it from a sighted perspective is important, too. :)
Enjoy!
All the best,
Tomi
Wow. I listened to it, and I really can't wait to see all the new voices! And I'm really almost proud to use windows now, LOL, I have to say, Microsoft has really made a turn for the better!
It]s cool that you guys are willing to do this, thumbs up for that.
If I may critique, however, it is way too long, too informal and unedited. I gave up after the first 15 minutes, and I had basically not heard anything of signifificant use by then, and then NVDA started cutting into the recording.
I think you could create a very cool 20 to 30 minute podcast on this, and cut out stuff that is irrelevant or too @chatty@ and it would definitely be really cool.
Again, it]s awesome to have the resource, and I am curious about Windows 8 but I just don]t have what it takes to sit through all the chatter and NVDA starting and stopping to get to the meat of it, may be that says more about me than about you guys. But I encourage you to do another one of those, may be with a later build, keep it shorter and more to the point, may be have a numberred list of issues, or start by taking a user through a typical start up with Windows 8 first, then discuss various aspects of it, or jot down 10 points that are interesting about it, list them first, and then address them.
That would be a fantastic broadcast.
Cheers
Tend to agree with Wildebrew: Also tell us what you did to do what, e.g. how you brought up Narrator.
You several times referenced going back and listening to yet another long and protracted podcast.
Also, you'll get someplace if you stop being so evangelistic and just let the merits sell themselves: show how it works, what you're doing, and when you make something start, tell your users how you just did that. There is no video for them to see what you did, and in this case, you're actually targeting blind users, so a bit of real narration helps. Example:
"I'm bringing up Narrator with Windows key and u, and then press alt n).
There are too many product evangelists out: I realize Microsoft even has positions in their company where people are called a software evangelist, but seriously: product sells itself. And remember most people aren't you with fifteen computers and time to piddle: they look at an OS with questions like: "What can I do? How different is it from the previous one? How do I bring over my emails / documents / ..."
It would be really good for you if you could get a part-time job supporting software someplace, because then you would actually learn what real users encounter, and how they look at things.
My question, before reading, is whether it would be possible to run this under XP as a virtual machine? Or as a usb boot thing? I would like to try, but I can't erase my current operating system to do so.