Just to avoid confusion as this was a reply to a question about Culture books, 'The Quarry' is not a Culture book.

I found the lens flare and "illuminated-dirt-on-lens" effects (is there a word for that?) a bit distracting in the first movie. At times I actually perceived it as glassy panels floating at random around the bridge.

The new movie is a bit shiny in places but to a more realistic and less distracting extent.

Although I disagree in a lot of ways, I can see where you're coming from.

On my work PC (presumably some "Enterprise" edition) that's pretty much how it works - a full-screen start menu. Even IE opens as the desktop version. And I like it, it's fast and usable. Maybe this is the version you use?

Then I got a new laptop with Win 8 at home. Some websites failed because of the Metro IE being different from the desktop version. And the touch-friendly interface is terrible for a trackpad. Dragging from the top to the bottom of the screen to close an app is hard without turning mouse speed up high. Alt-F4 still works, but was it really a good idea to have no close button, even on the right-click menu? (I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't like or know keyboard shortcuts).

Opening the metro image viewer when clicking images in desktop explorer is just a messy experience.

Maybe the new UI is great for tablets, but mixing it with the desktop windows was a bad idea.

The pendulum spins clockwise when held over a genuine one.

Does anyone else remember the days of POP3, when most of your email would be stored in a PC on your desk at home?

Most of the spam I currently get is in the form of fake LinkedIn messages, so you're probably right.

Gmails filters them all out while letting real ones through. It's easy to check since I use a different address for LinkedIn that forwards to my gmail account.

I sometimes get link requests from recruiters who claim they've worked with me in the past. I don't know if there's some advantage to that over just asking to link to me (other than trying to fool me).

Oh, you mean like gas prices (to use a car analogy).

That''s part of the Quake III fast inverse square root.

It used to be that I'd use a web browser for websites and specialized applications to access other services like email and newsgroups.

Now I read my email in a browser, but websites are always asking me to install an app to view them!

If that isn't a sign of the end-times, what is?

This could cause the failure of Glass. So many people think it can do AR, for instance, that recent article about it recognizing your friends from their outfits - how would it show their position?

It will probably be an impressive product in its own way, but there's going to be a lot of disappointment when people use it due to these expectations.

It's the Emperor's New Augmented Reality.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but it's the speed that I miss. I now use an iPod as a PDA, so I'm sure it's slower than some phones, but it just took over 10 seconds to open Notes. The Palms took under a second to do something similar.

Apps like BugMe and DiddleBug were drawing-based alarm apps - you would just write a not on the screen (drawing not using graffiti) and then set an alarm time with just three taps (it displayed hour and 5-minute buttons). I could scribble a reminder alarm in 2 or three seconds. Try setting an alarm with a note on your phone. IOS spends more time than that sliding the various screens around. (Maybe SIRI can do this faster, I've never used it).

But this tax is just to ensure that some websites continue to work properly (Amazon, ebay, etsy, newegg....)

But I don't think that Glass is meant to be an AR system. It's a display in the corner of your vision, so it can't overlay things on the center of your vision (as was made clear in the latest 'preview' video).

It's this misunderstanding that might kill Glass, people have unrealistic expectations.

"Break time is over, back to work. These Von Neumann machines won't make themse... oh, wait."