Lottery Post Journal

After using the new iOS 6 on my iPad for the past couple of days, it appears that many of the annoying bugs that could be seen at Lottery Post have been worked out by Apple.

For one thing, the text editor seems to work much better.

The cursor still gets "frozen" when you try to go back and fix something you typed, but it's now possible to "unfreeze" it by opening a pop up window -- for example the About window via the question mark toolbar button -- and then returning to the text editor.  (I am typing this entry on my iPad BTW.)

The other major fix is that we don't see the annoying page blanking issue after each page loads.  Previously under iOS 5, a second or two after the page loaded a large section of the page would turn white and then return to visible a second or two later.  Now it doesn't happen. 

Using the iPad with Lottery Post is still not perfect, but if you use an iPad, you really should upgrade to iOS 6 in order to make your experience at Lottery Post (and other web sites) much better.

Although lots of Lottery Post members and visitors are completely non-technical when it comes to computers, there are a good number who are pretty handy with technology, and smartly keep up-to-date with the latest.

Windows 8 is just around the corner for the public, with an official release date of October 26, 2012.  But developers (like me!) with subscriptions to Microsoft developer programs have had the final release of Windows 8 for about a month now, so good information about the new operating system is already starting to be disseminated in blogs, tweets, and all the usual channels.

I have had early versions of Windows 8 running for a long time before the final release, mainly to be sure Lottery Post and USA Mega are properly supported under Windows 8 BEFORE the public starts using it.  I made the important changes back on July 12th.  I was happy to see that the final release did not require any changes for either site.

I am in the process of trying to get Microsoft to include Lottery Post on its list of approved Flash content sites, so that the Flash components of the site (such as the Results Map) will be visible even in the Metro version of Internet Explorer.  (Microsoft is limiting which sites can have Flash content visible in the Metro version of IE in order to increase security throughout Windows 8.  This only goes for the Metro version of IE -- using the Desktop version of IE all Flash content is always visible.)

My primary test computer for Windows 8 is actually an Apple iMac.  Last year I picked one up specifically for doing some Windows 8 work, because I needed an all-in-one PC with a big screen.  So right after buying it I upgraded the memory (which is pretty simple), and replaced the hard disk (which is very hard in an iMac).  With the Apple OS/X operating system gone, I installed Windows 8, which was pretty easy to do.  The Apple Bootcamp drivers for Windows 7 seem to work well under Windows 8 also, so everything is working fine.  The iMac actually makes a pretty nice Windows 8 computer, although I would really like to have a touchscreen monitor for Windows 8.  (Next PC.)

Over the course of the next few months I'll try to include some Windows 8 posts in my blog, for those who are interested.

I'll also include links (where appropriate) to other technology articles and blogs out there that are helpful for people wanting to learn about Windows 8.

So here's a nice one I found today.  It is in Scott Hanselman's blog -- one of my favorite technology blogs.

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Windows8ProductivityWhoMovedMyCheeseOhThereItIs.aspx

Both my iPhone and iPad are now installing iOS 6, the latest version of Apple's operating system for its mobile phones and tablets.

iOS 6 was just made available today at 1:00 PM Eastern Time.  You can force your iPhone or iPad to begin installing it immediately by opening the Settings app, then choosing "General", then "Software Update".

If you are still using iOS version 4 or lower, you need to use iTunes to install the latest version.  However, anyone using iOS 5 or greater can install iOS 6 using the method I described above.  (No need for iTunes.)

Leave yourself plenty of time:  My updates have been going for about 25 minutes now, and they are still in the "Preparing Update" mode.

Google announced today that it will no longer support anything lower than IE9 -- pulling all support for IE8 and below in all of its applications (for example, GMail).

Here is a good news story about it

What is the biggest obstacle for you to upgrade beyond IE8?  WINDOWS XP.

If your computer is still running the ancient Windows XP, you cannot get anything higher than IE8.  That means if you are a Windows XP user, and you are unwilling to either upgrade to something like Windows 7 and you are unwilling to use an alternate Web browser (such as Google Chrome or Firefox), then you can't run any of the multitude of important Google services after October.

On the other hand, if you have Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8, you can get at least up to IE9.  And you should be sure you have IE9 installed immediately.  (Upgrade here.)

If you have Windows XP and you want to upgrade to Windows 7, your options are to either buy a new computer or puchase an upgrade.

(If you have Windows Vista, I'd recommend you upgrade to Windows 8 when it comes out in October.  Just about any Windows Vista computer should be fully capable of running Windows 8.)

If all this upgrade talk sounds annoying, it is because you have put off the maintenance that your computer requires for far too long.  It's a fact of life that if you want to use a computer, you must be willing to perform maintenance on it every once in a while.  Like your car requires new tires and an oil change every so often, your computer also requires new parts and service.  People who stay on top of the required maintenance are rewarded with a much smoother and hastle-free experience -- just like a car.