Windows 10 is Cool

This article is being written on the technical preview of Windows 10. It is impressive and exciting to see a real improvement aimed at desktop productivity.

My motivation for reviewing Windows 10 on one of my Virtual Machine (VM) servers is to understand the future of Microsoft Windows Apps. Out of the gate, Windows 10 addresses my primary concerns. Apps tiles are now wonderfully integrated into the classic Windows Start button.

The future of Windows apps looks bright. This new apps interface is terrific and a huge improvement over Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. Windows apps now use their inherent responsive design model to resize throughout the desktop environment.

The Windows 8 style "screen corners" command have changed. That took a moment to figure out. In their place comes a more classically intuitive drop down list of commands.  The "screen corner" commands will likely return on touchscreen devices, but it is clear this new version of Windows is designed for productivity and enterprise users.

The new start menu allows users to switch back to the Windows 8.1 style Start Screen interface. However, the integration of dynamic information from app tiles and the classic Start Menu is great.

I am going back to playing with this new toy. So, here is a plug for my fellow San Diego Local Order of Bloggers' Windows App. Go download it. We are constantly adding new functionality.

P.S.

You may also notice, this article was written in Chrome to see if it was compatible. It is.

ObamaVirus: Enterovirus (HEV D68) Timeline of Events

Before beginning this timeline there are two alarming facts to keep in mind.

• This current enterovirus strain appears more severe than previous strains.
• If diseases were spread to American children through the Obama Administration's unilateral amnesty and relocation programs, enterovirus is just one of many pathogens in the exposure.

Per USA Today:

A dozen Colorado children have been diagnosed with polio-like paralysis, Wolk said. Although all of the children had a respiratory virus before muscle weakness set in, only four tested positive for enterovirus D68, he said. Most have gone home and are in rehabilitation.

"We're optimistic that a number of them, if not the majority, will gain some functionality back," Wolk said.

This year, there were among all ailments about 10 times as many sick kids kids as usual, Wolk said. "So instead of seeing one or two cases [of paralysis], we're seeing eight or nine cases," he said.

The Timeline

June 15, 2012 - DHS Memorandum: Exercising Prosecutorial Discrection With Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children

The following criteria should be satisfied before an individual is considered for an exercise of
prosecutorial discretion pursuant to this memorandum:

• came to the United States under the age of sixteen; 

• has continuously resided in the United States for a least five years preceding the date of this memorandum and is present in the United States on the date of this memorandum; 

• is currently in school, has graduated from high school, has obtained a general education 

• development certificate, or is an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States; 

• has not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise poses a threat to national security or public safety; and 

• is not above the age of thirty. 

 August 13, 2013: Congress and the public at large learn of the DHS memorandum. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte

This new directive from the Obama Administration also poisons the debate surrounding immigration reform and shows that the Administration is not serious about fixing our broken immigration system.  Instead of working with Congress to address problems with our immigration system, the President is working against us. The House is working hard to improve our immigration system through a step-by-step approach but this Administration continues to politicize the issue and undermine our efforts by refusing to enforce our current laws.  President Obama’s disregard for the rule of law only encourages more illegal immigration.

October 11, 2013, Virology Journal: Human rhinoviruses and enteroviruses in influenza-like illness in Latin America:

We collected nasopharyngeal swabs at clinics located in eight Latin American countries from 3,375 subjects aged 25 years or younger who presented with influenza-like illness.
...
Our subjects had a median age of 3 years and a 1.2:1.0 male:female ratio.
 ...
Phylogenetic analysis revealed a high proportion of recombinant strains between HRV-A/HRV-C and between HEV-A/HEV-B. In addition, both EV-D68 and EV-A71 were identified.

 January 29,2014: Flow of Unaccompanied Minors Tests U.S. Immigration Agencies

The minors are handled by an array of government agencies, all with different responsibilities for their supervision, often passing through shelters funded by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services. Many are placed in removal proceedings and later deported. Others manage to benefit from provisions in immigration law that enable them to remain in the U.S. legally.

Data compiled by that agency show that 95% of what authorities refer to as UACs—for unaccompanied children—come from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, Central American republics where crime and violence have soared in recent years.

HHS reported this week that the 9,881 minors who arrived through the first quarter of the current fiscal year is slightly ahead of 2013's record pace.

Reports surface indicating where the Unaccompanied illegal immigrant children were secretly relocated.

June 19, 2014: Chicago, Ministering to unaccompanied immigrant children

Eight shelters in the Chicago area hold 450 immigrant children who crossed the border illegally and without a parent or guardian.

Once a month, an interfaith group visits one of the shelters to present a program with a theme like home or gratitude. The children draw pictures and sing a simple song. The adult leaders invite the children to light a candle. “You can tell that some of them really make that a time when they are praying,” said Benedictine Sr. Benita Coffey, one of the volunteers.

But the ministry is momentary. Volunteers are not to form personal connections with the children, and by their next visit, most of them will have moved on. Most likely they have been sent to live with family while they await their deportation proceedings.  

...The surge of children has come from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

...Southwest Keys operates the San Diego shelters, and according to its website, it is the largest provider of services for unaccompanied children, with 20 shelters across California, Arizona and Texas.

July 2, 2014: MAP: WHERE FEDS ARE TRYING TO RELOCATE ILLEGAL BORDER SURGERS

*We did not have a screen grab from July 2, 2014. The current image reflects the webpage on October 14, 2014.

NumbersUSA is daily updating this interactive map to show which communities are under threat of the federal government moving large numbers of illegal aliens there from the border.

August 29, 2014: Kansas City Outbreak Identified As HEV 68

Local media reports (see Unusual respiratory virus strikes metro kids) from Kansas City, Mo. indicate that a rarely seen – and not yet well understood – respiratory virus called HEV 68 (Human Enterovirus 68) has sickened hundreds of kids in the region this week, and that the local Children’s Hospital is unusually at full census in late August.
...
Unlike influenza, classic enteroviruses tend to break out in summer-to-fall, although EV 68 has been observed to occur well into the winter season. The largest outbreak characterized by this MMWR report involved 28 children and adolescents from Pennsylvania in the fall of 2009. 

Enterovirus in U.S. populations appears to manifest as temperatures fall. This coincides with cold and flu season. Colder weather pushes more people indoors, in closer proximity to one another, with less sun exposure and more confined ventilation.

August 31, 2014: Office of Refugee Resettlement "state-by-state" Unaccompanied Children release data from January 1st to August 31st

HHS has strong policies in place to ensure the privacy and safety of unaccompanied children by maintaining the confidentiality of their personal information. These children may have histories of abuse or may be seeking safety from threats of violence. They may have been trafficked or smuggled.  HHS cannot release information about individual children that could compromise the child’s location or identity.

State	# of Unaccompanied Children
Alabama	634
Alaska	4
Arizona	218
Arkansas	250
California	4,680
Colorado	336
Connecticut	455
Delaware	168
District of Columbia	301
Florida	4,392
Georgia	1,623
Hawaii	8
Idaho	15
Illinois	437
Indiana	357
Iowa	196
Kansas	246
Kentucky	333
Louisiana	1,414
Maine	9
Maryland	3,248
Massachusetts	1,115
Michigan	154
Minnesota	240
Mississippi	238
Missouri	173
Montana	1
Nebraska	278
Nevada	188
New Hampshire	28
New Jersey	2,171
New Mexico	32
New York	4,799
North Carolina	1,648
North Dakota	4
Ohio	489
Oklahoma	284
Oregon	96
Pennsylvania	513
Puerto Rico	1
Rhode Island	173
South Carolina	491
South Dakota	31
Tennessee	1,020
Texas	6,217
Utah	103
Vermont	3
Virgin Islands	1
Virginia	3,193
Washington	310
West Virginia	20
Wisconsin	73
Wyoming	8
Total	43,419

September 16, 2014: CNN:  List of states with Enterovirus D68 grows

Four children in Lake County were sickened by Enterovirus D68 and were treated at University of Chicago Hospital, according to a press release from the Indiana Department of Health; all four have since been discharged from the hospital. Lake County is in the northwest corner of the state.
...
As of September 11, the CDC had confirmed more than 80 cases of Enterovirus D68 in six states: Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky and Missouri. New York also announced on Friday that it had more than a dozen confirmed cases of the virus.

September 17, 2014: CDC: 16 STATES CONFIRM ENTEROVIRUS D68

September 22, 2014: CDC Confirms infection now in 27 states

October 8, 2014: The far-left desperately attempts to muddy the waters with misinformation.

Enterovirus has begun taking the lives of children in the U.S. In response, Media Matters and other left-wing outlets have begun trying to obfuscate the emerging evidence of the source of the sudden spike in enterovirus.

Media Matters, Conservatives Falsely Blame Undocumented Children For Deadly Enterovirus:

Public health experts have debunked the alleged connection between the influx of undocumented children into the United States and the spread of EV-D68. CDC spokesperson Jeanette St. Pierre told Media Matters: "Currently, there is no evidence from testing at CDC that EV-D68 infections in the U.S. are a result of unaccompanied minors moving into the country."

Notice, the misrepresentation here?

The CDC spokesperson is talking about "evidence" which means scientific proof derived by the CDC. Media Matters takes this very narrow statement and accuses conservatives of lying and blaming. The spokesperson for the CDC did not say that evidence does not exist, or that the unaccompanied minors did not infect American children, just that the CDC testing had not proven the connection.


October 10, 2014: 46 States confirmed infections. Experts: Flu, EV-D68 more worrisome than Ebola

According to the CDC, the D68 strain has now affected 691 children in 46 states and the District of Columbia with 13 of those cases just confirmed on Friday. So far, five children have died from the disease that is also connected with muscle paralysis in a handful of other cases mainly in the Denver area.

Conclusion

This post has a pinch of opinion in it, but it is basically a resource for others to keep the facts straight and do further investigation. We do face a threat and it is important to understand the health threat and be prepared. So, here is some other important information.

Journal of General Virology: Worldwide emergence of multiple clades of enterovirus 68 (NIH.gov):

In previously documented clusters, approximately 80 % of reported EV-D68 cases occurred in children. One explanation for this finding is that most reports highlighted only paediatric cases. Our EV-D68 sequences from the Gambia, South Africa and Arizona were all obtained from children. However, a recent report from the Netherlands, which focused on screening for EV-D68 in archived respiratory samples without age bias, noted a preponderance of adult cases (Meijer et al., 2012). Additionally, NYC cases presented in our report were from individuals aged 14 years or older, which is the largest EV-D68 cluster of non-paediatric origin to date. We anticipate that, with increased screening, EV-D68 may ultimately be recognized as a respiratory pathogen in all age groups.

There is currently no antiviral treatment and no vaccine to prevent EV-D68. The CDC continues to study the virus and its associated complications but does not entirely understand accept the reason for the current outbreak at this time.

Recommendations from the Rhode Island Department of Health to avoid contracting EV-D68:

• Wash hands often with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds, five or six times a day (some evidence suggests that soap and water is more effective at killing enteroviruses than alcohol rubs).
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands, and remind children to keep their hands away from their faces.
• Management of asthma is especially important at this time. Be sure your child is following instructions and taking medications as prescribed by their physician.
• Clean often-used surfaces frequently, including doorknobs, telephone receivers, keyboards, and toys.
• Don't kiss, hug, or share cups or eating utensils with sick people.
• If you or your child have a fever, stay home while sick and for at least 1 day after the fever subsides without fever-reducing medicines.
• Get medical help immediately for a child with asthma who is having difficulty breathing or whose respiratory symptoms get worse or do not improve after taking their usual medications.