Windows 7

As with our colleges, so with a hundred "modern improvements"; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end of her ear trumpet was put into his hand, had nothing to say. As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough. After all, the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages; he is not an evangelist, nor does he come round eating locusts and wild honey. I doubt if Flying Childers ever carried a peck of corn to mill.

9/26(2009)，與朋友到里港一遊，回程時繞到旗山老街吃暗頓。吃飽之後，走進小7，發現微軟的 Windows 7竟然就放在架上賣(應該只是廣告)。真不知在這條老街上有誰會用到這種作業系統，因為我們還看到一家賣錄音帶的商店。

一直以來，微軟作業系統所謂的新功能就很少是正面的；總是在怕遭淘汰的情況下才去增加使用者需要的功能。這個公司從20年前就開始賺錢，但是到現在也沒有因為產品的任何進步而能讓地球被少砍一棵樹。朋友拿了一支智慧型手機給我；它的智慧就在於幫使用者管理行程及待辦事項。但我實在沒有什麼重要行程可記。我相信有不少人花了錢買了這種手機，結果都是在記別人的行程，看看別人有沒有攤。有了電子郵件之後，人們反而不寫信了；只剩下垃圾信，但是實體信箱內的廣告傳單還是沒有少。人們不寫信的原因大概是因為寄出去太容易，怕麻煩收到信的人回信，心裡不安。使用即時通及噗浪或推特，多半不是在作什麼嚴肅的事，但是卻會使我們對馬上要去做的事更不專心，反正終有一天會噗出一個台灣國來。目的並沒有任何進展，手段方法及工具卻變的比任何時期都強大。Windows 7不就號稱是史上最強大的作業系統！