Posts by Terry 6
120 posts • joined Friday 31st July 2009 12:17 GMT
Re: @Khaptain
Except that they relied on "telemetry" this time, not speaking to people. E.g. the most common Win 7 search was apparently about start menu alternatives. So they got rid of it, rather than improving its flaws.
Current HTC
I have the HTC One V.
And I will never get another HTC, even if I have to go back to running along with a message in a cleft stick.
Because; every time I use the control buttons there's a 5 second delay, touching the on-screen keys only gets the right key if the finger is on the far left of the letter, the Text button works in a weird way as the messages flash up then vanish until the button is pressed again, the Sound control is buried in the settings menu with no obvious way to get to it quickly, the Menu vanishes if the phone is held landscape ( which is the only way to get a decent go at typing a message), and so on.
And that's before all the useless pre-installed c**p that makes locating any useful app take twice as long.
And my intense dislike of HTC is not based on this model in particular, but rather the attitude that that let them design and market a device that seemed so good when I chose it, but is ruined because it has so many flaws.
Re: Good observation
I've used every version from MS-Dos up, even a bit of Millenium edition. I've always got on with them. (And CP/M before that, and BBC Micro before that and currently Linux MINT )
But Win 8 on a desktop is a right royal pain and I hate it.
And I'm not an idiot, Unlike the d***head who throws that kind of comment out
Re: Good observation
Put simply, anything that gets in the way of my (very computer literate) kid getting her A level work done efficiently, for the reasons well comented upon already, is a big FAIL as far as I'm concerned.
Exactly
"the desktop, non-touch version of Windows is much more cumbersome than it needs to be".
Just wasn't thought through.
Re: FFS
It does seem as if that's the new direction of travel, and some of the objections here doseemto ocme from the same "back to the 50s" viewpoint.
Using a pen for note taking is a different skill from using one to produce completed work and final drafts.
Online or typed
I think there's a big gulf between actual online tests with electronic marking etc. and simply letting students type their answers instead of using a pen: Even if they have to be printed onto paper for the examiners.
Re: Write or rong?
My experience was similar, luckily my mum taught me to type, and by high school they'd at least diagnosed I had a real problem. And pretty soon after I started work computers arrived. All of which helped. So my conclusion is slightly different, in that I think the enabling technology should be provided if needed, but not universally. And it needs to extend into the workplace, e.g. not demanding handwriiten application forms.
Fashion
It's the new cult of the superstar, football has it as well. And education, as it happens.
It's no longer good enough to be good enough.
You have to be a superstar CEO a la Branson, or Supercoach and win the league every year, or be a Superhead running three high schools and having a part time job on the side.
And it's worked well for the banks, hasn't it?
Live
I somehow seem to have two Microsoft log-ins now.
I use my Gmail address to log in to Skydrive, but I didn't want anyone else having my firstname.surname@outlook.com so I got that ( and use it).
So now I have my @outlook.com email addy aliased and telling everyone it's coming from my @gmail.com addy, which really is the one I use to log in to Skydrive, but not to outlook.com.
Re: @Turtle: Microsoft have a problem
And f***ing virtual folders that aren't where the sodding documents really are. Becasue they pretend your stuff is in a sensible place when they are really stuck down below witt the settings.
It's the IT equivalent of putting your briefcase on top of the engine and telling you it's in the boot (trunk for Americans)
Re: It did just work! Not sure why people are complaining so much?
A lot of us have been through the mill with countless diffferent Win versions, quite happily with most of them. And we are still saying,***** this one is a pile of shit!******
Re: I'm pretty sure it's not "telemetrics"
Telemetry + metrics = bollocks
Re: Licenses 'sold'.
I have no objection to learning new *better* ways to do things. I managed the move from MSDos to win 3.1 to '95. '98, XP and even Vista/7
They each brought an improvement to the functionality.
BUT Win 8 (and the cursed Office ribbon) have never provided any useful new functionality. Instead they provide irritating barriers to making MS products work for me.
Yet MS have plenty of improvements that need to be made. Things like the error messages that give no information at all. Or the times that Windows Update tells you to click on an update's link for more information, then takes you to a generic page, Or the add autocorrect function in Word, which still places highlighted text in the wrong box, putting the highlighted text in the "change to" box, and not the "change from" box.. Or a sensible Start menu that makes sorting into/out of "programme groups" easy and logical (rather than removing it).-someting that has been left virtually unchanged since Win 3.1 .
The list is probably endless.
Instead they give us silly boxes that hide our programmes away . And hidden controls that suddenly make things happen by accident..
No one looked inside, implausible
An awful lot of people, including in the UK, must have been fully aware of this device and kept quiet. For a start, if you are in ANY business and you hear of a product that is so successful you are going to want to have a dekko inside. And that includes weapons experts, sellers, competitors etc etc. (Not to mention the idly curious).
Rumour Mill
"Crowdsourcing" information about current events is no more than chasing after rumours. And if they weren't chasing round the town with pitchforks etc. looking for the guy, well that might be more to do with what kind of person sits in front of a screen looking for news on Reddit.......
I just tried it too.
Made all my answers either totally negative or almost so. Pretty much as the El Reg attempt, I guess.
And frankly, the white coats that compiled this test must be real geniuses. Despite my negative, selfish and insensitive answers it still managed to realise what a wonderful warm hearted person I was.
(Note, the language used and mixing of negative and positive statements would make it difficult for anyone with poor literacy skills to complete this test correctly - I'm a literacy specialist, as it happens so that's the sort of thing I watch out for).
Fined!!!
Some of you are missing the point.
It's not simply that they sent the bill for a contract that had, with the customer, deceased. But that they slapped on a penalty charge due to non-payment of the direct debit due to death of account holder.
Manners
Actually, greeting anyone where you use a formal hand-shake does sort of imply you don't just slouch in with your hand in your pocket like some grouchy teenager.
It's disrespectful whoever you are meeting, Korea or not.
Manners
Actually, greeting anyone where you use a formal hand-shake does sort of imply you don't just slouch in with your hand in your pocket like some grouchy teeneager.
It's disrespectful whoever you are meeting, Korea or not.
Close to useless
As a rule of thumb, the more tech aware people are (i.e. know about the problem and so called fix) the less likely that they'll actually have kit it works on.
Lost data
The ones who have now paid to have a bloke in a computer shop scratch his head and then tell them he'll have to reformat their PC ( or sell them another one), but without salvaging the data first, will be the ones who also don't have a back up of the data that they didn't know they might lose.
It's one thing for them to suffer this loss when their PC eventually dies.
It's a different matter when they lose their data because MS shoots it.
The thing is, the domestic or small user will have a computer that doesn't work. But they won't be able to find out why their computer doesn't work, because a. They don't have access to the internet anymore AND b. Even if they did they wouldn't know where to look.
I know about this problem because my home computers luckily all work ( and anyway I have a Linux box as well) and read El Reg. I'm a pretty skilled amateur.
I'm not some poor sod trying to run a small business and unable to deliver his orders. Or some 15 year old who's GCSE work is now inaccessible.
Or to put it another way: It's the users least able to deal with this who are going to suffer most.
Re: Off peak leccy
AC - the thing is, the tariff ratio is fixed so that only those with extremely high night usage, such as night storage heaters and electric immersion heaters ( with lots of water storage -used only/mainly at night ) have any incentive to use off-peak rates. For the majority of users, who heat their homes with daytime energy, usually gas, there is a massive financial disincentive to to having "economy 7" type metering. This does not have to be so. The suppliers have *chosen* to make the day time charge considerably higher, fixing the ratio so that using the night rate for the dishwasher and washing machine is too small a saving to match routine daytime usage.
Which gives the lie ( if it were needed ) to the idea that they are interested in making us more economical in our usage. It's all about profit. But we knew that already, didn't we.
Off peak leccy
With a simple day/night tariff meter it is supposedly already possible to let many tasks run at night on a timer ( washing machine, dish washer etc.) at a cheaper rate.
However the energy companies actually fix the ratio of day and night charges to make this uneconomical unless you are using a vast amount of night time power. If you opt to use a night tariff the day cost is made much higher than the standard charge and the night tariff is not cheap enough to offset this. (These two items are the biggest part of our electricity use).
In other words, they actually discourage off-peak use.
So I fail to see how these smart meters are going to make things better for us. If they really wanted to make energy use more efficient they'd be doing their best to encourage night use, not the opposite.
Phone access to apps
Interestingly, in the last few months lot of apps on Android have started requiring access to the phone, even though the app itself has absolutely no phone related functionality.
I was cross enough about that before, as spyware, but putting 2 and 2 together, I now assume that this is so that they can launch a (premium rate ) call from within the app.
Re: How Did We Survive
Club, you were lucky to have a club. We had to gnaw a branch off a tree with our teeth first.
Re: p < 0.05 ???
Maybe Goldacre's "Bad Pharma" should be compulsory reading.
Dyslexia
It's amazing how often the dyslexia industry relies on this stuff. And the reading = teach phonics industry.
But especially the dyslexia= teach phonics industry ( which is most of it).
But I do/did want Windows
I'm quite, even very, happy with this Win 7 device I'm using now.
I was equally happy with Office 2003.
Because they both worked.
It's not because I was used to them, I've been through every version since Word with MS-Dos, and mostly the next versions have improved usability, so I've been happy.
But this is something different. It's as if these new releases were never intended for people who sit and do things. They are more like a kind of demo version, not based on real world usage.
In the real world you know there are some menu items you will never use, but just clutter up your desk top ( and yes I mean the wooden one as well as the one on the screen).
In the real world we put things where we know we can find them.
In the real world it matters if someone else's unnecessary decision in a design studio screws up the rhythm of your work and concentration.
Or to put it another way. I do not want to have to spend any of my working life making the computer do the things that it is meant to do for me anyway.
Now if they had bothered to make sensible improvements, like changing the default setting in WORD that automatically selects the entire word I'd be a lot happier. Or even invent some thing that automatically sorts out where the "and" goes when you drag the word after it to the other side. (as in changing "boy and girl" to "girl and boy").
Now that would save me a few minutes a day!
I wish 'd said that.
@pat 4
Yes, a trillion times yes!
Significant with the"ribbon" is that you can no longer edit the menus, so that they would only contain the bits that you actually might use, or drag and drop to put these items next to bits you might use them with.
Instead you now have to painfully create complete new versions of the menus, containing what you want, then hide the overstuffed, poorly organised ones.
Unintended consequences
I've never been a Microsoft hater.
I've used almost every version and could adjust to them quickly.
But the shiny new laptop with Win 8 installed drives me mad.
For one simple reason and two consequences.
There lots of bits that are hidden away so that either I can't find them without stopping the actual task I'm on to locate them or - most significant of all- an incautious movement of the mouse and the f***ing screen vanishes* or something equally stupid..
It only takes a moment to resolve, but it all interrupts the flow of the work - and I've never that problem before, not even with MS-Dos.
*(This was a bit of a problem with Linux Mint but I could turn that off)
School decisions
Schools, heads and the local authority people who advise them have a long tradition of trying to jump onto the back of whatever bandwagon is passing. (Not just in IT).
From some this is pure politics, being seen to be cutting edge without actually doing anything that might be original (i.e. risky).
From most though, this is purely driven by fear. If they don't keep up with the current trend (however barmy) they will be caught in the firing line.
(Remember: No one ever used to get fired for buying IBM).
Evil Genius
Design a user interface that gives the most important commands a default behaviour that is much more complicated than most users want, and make sure that these are easy to find. Then hide the method to change that behaviour on a totally different menu list, three levels down and greyed out unless you follow a strange sequence of selections first..
Next, put all the possible commands onto a "ribbon" that can't be edited to get rid of stuff you will never use or move items if they are not where you expect them to be, but makes you create new sections that have to be built from the ground up to create the menu you are actually going to use, if only you could find the items you need.
Sit back and watch productivity plummet.
(Too much Phinius and Ferb?)
Re: Open book exams
Errr. Current UK government policy is that exams are to be the older style, memorise and regurgitate years later, type. Which is probably a good way to reward plodders with good memories. Maybe not so good to find who understood the subject.
Re: Humans cannot do 2 things that require concentration.
There's also the idiot myth about multi-tasking to lay some blame on. It never really claimed that women could equally concentrate (better than men) fully on two or more tasks at once, though that's how it's portrayed, suggesting that women (and men though less well) are able to do this. In fact, of course, it never said that they could concentrate fully on the tasks. And could not do so since it's a contradiction in terms. Concentrate = undivided attention to the task.
www.wisegeek.com/what-is-concentration.htm
Mar 4, 2013 ... Concentration is the ability to focus the mind on a task while ignoring other things .
Increasing a mostly pointless risk
Taking a short call is probably, in theory, relatively safe, compared to being even mildly drunk for the whole journey.
However, in reality we seldom really need to take, let alone make, a call while driving, and people who think that the call is so important that they need to take it are, perhaps, also likely also to be the ones who give the call more attention than the driving.
Hands free calls are and useful and safe for a quick update - (I'm running late/stuck in traffic/meeting has been cancelled etc) - but not for a significant conversation.
Research. That's the point.
A single limited study that wasn't actually testing for the specific conclusion that was drawn, has been taken as evidence for what a particular group believe and want us to believe (right or wrongly).
I'm afraid a lot of educational research and the policy that is built upon it is like that. Find a single study that can be stretched to support what people want to believe and use it to justify doing what you already wanted to do. And if you really want to put a lid on it you can then make sure that the only research that gets funded is research that won't challenge the original conclusion.
Re: Japanese govt are quite clearly idiots
I'm not sure *any* of these places are safe unless we have a pretty good idea what we are doing and are prepared to look out for the trip wires ourselves.
Phone access
An awful lot of free apps recently have required permission that allows them to monitor phone messages; including some updates to stuff I was already using. Needess to say, I don't mean apps that actually need to interact with my phone in any legitimate way.
They're just laying in wait for suckers that don't look at or understand the permissions.
"If the first thought that comes into your head is bestiality, then I have to wonder about how your mind works."
It does make you wonder, doesn't it!
Weird...
Well yes. Much of cloud computing seems to be about getting us to part with lots of money to do what we've already been doing cheaply or for free. Or at the very least to turn a one-off payment into a "revenue stream". Store your stuff in "the cloud" by all means. But keep a local copy that can't suddenly vanish.
And fwiw note Google's killing of their free "Calendar Sync" programme, that lets me keep my diary on all my devices synced through the Google one "in the cloud".
H Bomb
The whole story has more logical holes than an episode of East Enders. For starters, dropping bombs down volcanoes etc is far too elaborate a way to do the job.
History
Isn't it Imation that marketted a super floppy disk drive ( in the days when we still used floppy discs), then sold the media so expensive that no one could afford to use them?
Hmmm.
So let me get this straight...
If I use less 'leccy the company who I pay to send the stuff down my wiring can sell their allowance for a bit of extra profit, to someone who will use more leccy (like an airline).
So in effect, by cutting back I'll be paying the company (in carbon credits) for something I've not bought, but will not be reducing the amount of energy we (collectively) use.
So I may have a few pennies more in my pocket, but won't actually be saving the planet.
Time to put the kettle on.
Not just Auntie
Public bodies do tend to develop a degree of Paranoia. And not only public ones. (A certain pair of brothers living in the Channel isles come to mind).
Keeping the public in the dark is what they do instinctively. The Trust are supposedly there to keep them accountable, but there is always the problem of "regulatory capture", a well documented penomenon, for example in the pharmacy industry. see Ben Goldacre's "Big Pharma".
Re: Remember....
Oh and why shouldn't they trust the NRA?
The National Rifle Assn have never denied that they think it's a good idea for everyone to be running around with heavy weapons. Nutters they may be, but honest nutters none the less.
Remember....
These people also trust their politicians enough to have voted for them to run their country.
Magani
You got to it before me -"Mostly harmless".
Exactly!
