Saturday, November 24, 2012

Juvenile Joys. I wanna be…… Everything at Once

 

‘I wanna be…. I wanna be… Everything at Once’! Now who doesn’t. That’s clearly the demand of the times. I am watching the advert crooning this – my mind declares it to be a slick show par excellence. Microsoft clearly laid out the right trap for me in that Windows 8 ad... snaring me in its sensory experience. The music, the visual, the lyrics… it is creating the right kind of pull in me, pushing the consumer and techie in me to ‘covert’.

It is the Metro Tiles styling in the upcoming Windows 8 that cast some kind of spell on my psyche. This was like an acorn planted in my heart and mind, and bursting to grow out. This was like that morning bus that I could just not miss. Even if un-showered. Because I am thoroughly Metro-ed.

Inspite of Dell’s clear advise – that bordered on defamation - that my laptop is not fit to be upgraded to Windows 8, I am still wanting to be a Man. Strike my own journey. Advise be damned!

The day arrived, Windows 8 arrived too. Right on time, at the appointed hour. I am at the site – the dot com one. The page proclaims ‘A Beautiful Start’ – I nod my head vigorously in agreement.

Click, click… like leaping across 4 steps in one go, I figured that the Rules of the game but ….. they are a changing. From the days of handing down you software via floppies, to CDs, DVDs…well, on the evolution curve, now it’s online. Behind the canary yellow page lies my passage to nirvana - in the intangible shape of a 2 gb download. Now will that deter me to get the newbie from Seattle? I am clearly a man possessed. I don’t doubt the courage in me to download this monster size file, even against the headwinds of download speeds that oozes bandwidth.

Material affections and afflictions can sometimes propel you with that same intensity like a nitrogen tank lit under the Shuttle Discovery. With a visionary foresight, days in advance I had cleared all my schedule for this day. Night included! It was SOS, Emergency and everything else declared at one go. Days of pain staking preparation (backing up data, prepping the comp, going thru installation guides on net and what not) finally culminated in the successful – though fairly longgg – download. Gold has been struck in the form of 2 gb worth of executable code. And it is waiting to be ‘Run’. I am all pumped up. Your favorite gig in town, and you already have the admission ticket for the front row!

Run, baby run. That’s what I could say and do. Click, click. I am seeing a variety of graphics in action on the screen – it’s like an advancing ticker tape, giving me a blow by blow account of Windows 8 progress of seeping deeper and deeper into my computer - in its CPU, motherboard and all the innards. Mind is simultaneously also roiling with all imagined disasters that can strike. But they turn out to be just that.. imagined.

Moment of joy has arrived. The final re-boot of the system – the last of many anxiety driven ones – and then a colorful page comes out. Heralding the new age. And I am on the right side of it. Imagine - Ferrari delivered, and now you are dying to floor the pedal. Hear its vrrrooom.

As the whizzing and dancing colorful tiles unfold - it’s like my Tech nirvana moment. Next several hours are spent in test driving. Click, tap, type, see, watch, feel immersed, derive joy, discover the nooks and crannies, at times feel overwhelmed. Remember, Microsoft has given a whole new role to the ‘Start’ button as well – a fresh start to Start. Learning that small piece of big change itself is enough to overwhelm any average joe. But when you are adrenalized, what not you can learn. Even in the dead of the night!

Now its few days later since then. The joy has ebbed… but it still keeps coming back in spurts as my Discovery continues. The apps, the interface, and all various other inane things dazzle my sub-slept eyes. I am drilling deeper and deeper into the app store, extracting all that I can. I am perseverance personified. Mind is completely Metro-ed by the whizzing tiles. My daily fix of energy shot came this time has come in a glass filled with Metro.

I am clearly enjoying this journey to be ‘Everything at Once’! Btw, are you adrenalized enough to be Everything at Once?

PS: Any leap of technology-faith you take under the dazzle of my thoughts is at your sole risk of cost and consequences.  I do not warrant you will get the same experience or any experience at all. It is obviously a function of how evolved you are!


Cheers,
mg


 

PS: All views are personal. Intellectual property rights reserved.

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