Metro

you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave


Taking the metro

Embarking on new travels; mostly by car, sometimes by bus or train, this time by metro.
Living in the Netherlands I've given up on the train- and bus-thing, as it is simply to cumbersome, error prone and riddled with cost-incurring 'facilities'.
You can read all about it on the internet.
So the launch of a new metro was right up my alley, and I was privileged to be allowed a test-run. Which I did.
Before continuing, I want you to know that from buses and trains you can easily leave (note that you pay extra for not checking out; very much so in the case of trains).
By the way, leaving while it's still running falls in the category "don't try this at home dude"; which you couldn't anyway by virtue of not being at home, seeing as you're in the bus or train.
Well, it's all different in the metro. Oh yes. Checking out or not checking out makes hardly any difference (except for clotting up part of the brain). BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE.


Here's my story

So I got on this brand new metro. It's not quite finished, and thus I need to stay flexible and open-minded. I thought I was.....
Drove around, tried some of the new features, got stuck in the features (eventually throwing them on a big heap and leaving them to rot), got expelled back to the good ol' black-top, been dragged along, managed to hop on the metro again, but couldn't find the exit. Oh bummer.
Heck, even in 'expelled' state there was no way to truly leave....
Who was it wrote: you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
But hey, that's okay, I didn't really wanna leave yet, fully trusting in finding the exit later (as I am writing this from home, I clearly did, so don't worry your pants off - it would leave me with a mental image I am not too keen on).
Played the piano (cool eh, a piano in the metro), threw it on the heap...
Played sudoku, threw it on the heap...
Tried the ink-pad...
Hey, hold on a minute.... sudoku I can tear up and throw in the bin.... ah, got that sorted neatly (notice that in this brave new world I can conjure up a new sudoku in no time flat)
Hmmm.... a piano lid can be slammed shut.
Chess boards can be smashed to smithereens....
Seems like every feature can be destructed if one truly wishes to do so....
Ahh.... thus one worry less.
Would this work for the whole metro? Nope. It will not allow itself to be destroyed so easily. Leaving metro is a whole different story. I eventually manged by crawling in a far corner, prying open a panel, clicking a button, and finally leaving...
It was a trip I'm not likely going to forget any time soon... Will I be sufficiently disturbed to try it again some other time? No doubt.....


Microsoft Windows 8 with the new Metro UI

If you like to try Windows 8 with the new Metro UI yourself, then please do so in a Virtual Machine. The latest VirtualBox (by Oracle) has knowledge of Windows 8 making the installation a breeze.
Some Metro-apps throw you right back to the old desktop when they're started, which is rather confusing.
Most (if not all) 'metro-apps' can be closed by using Alt-F4 (yes, the very old Windows Alt-F4), but you'll probably loose any unsaved data. (Alt-F4 ends up in a blank screen - green in my case - on which you can click to get back to Metro).
Shutting down Windows is possible, but it requires some searching (left-bottom corner hover, followed by settings, followed by power, followed by shutdown).

Still, Microsoft is working on the environment as we speak, hopefully ironing out most of the issues.
I'll give it another test-drive in 2012.

Be brave