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January 21, 2004
All Microsoft is the Same
It doesn't matter what the delivery platform is, Microsoft is the same. It's prone to the same problems, the same bugs, the same UI quirks, the same inconsistencies and the same user stress for trying to use their products.
Recently, I've been testing out an HP iPAQ with Windows CE 2003. I will grant it some of its due--it's a speedy little piece of hardware with a nice screen and an acceptable array of input methods.
Now if only the software would behave as it should! Getting the built-in 802.11b wireless to work has been a total f**king nightmare. There are some basic settings (like setting SSID) that cannot be set, and the erratic auto-detection behaviour has been a total mystery.
This stupid device will detect networks that don't exist in the area I'm in, try to connect to them, say it has connected to them, when in reality, it hasn't a damn clue what its true status is.
I know the device will work, because the one network it actually functions properly on is precisely the one I don't need it to work on: the wireless in my office. I have the base station in my office, so it can use the net by proxy thru the base station.
Ok, so one function doesn't work because I'm an idiot and haven't found the iPAQ Rosetta stone? Ok, let's go with UI consistency then! The Microsoft applications don't have a Quit function. There's the little close button which hides the application, but doesn't actually stop the program and remove its processes from active memory.
Well, some of the MS apps actually quit when you perform the expected simian-like regurgitation but most don't. Other third-party apps will either quit and remove from the close box or some other method like a File menu. And then, some don't. It's flash memory! Application start time isn't an issue here, so why stay in memory when you don't need to? Having used MS Windows products for so long, I know that the more crap running at once, Windows puts more explosives-carrying circus clowns balancing on a five-hundred year old rusty unicycle. Disaster awaits!
There's a reason MS has the computing world by the balls. They've achieved near total market saturation and yet their crap works just well enough to make us think that it won't crash before we can finish our next sent
Posted at 07:42 AM | Rants and Opinions | Comments (0)
January 05, 2004
Happy "New" Year, 2004
Well, it's the new year, yet so little is new about it. It's still waking up early to go to work, still the same old office with no windows, the same problem with the computers, the same old same stuff. The same.
But as I think about it, there is a certain charm to having things the same. As the idiom goes, "familiarity breeds comfort." (Of course there's Mark Twain's clever variation.) With this familiarity comfort level, stress levels are reduced and we are then able to institute changes on our own time, pace and modus operandi.
The problem with instituting our own changes is many-fold however. We must first see the need for change, then establish the method(s) for change, and finally we need to actually make those changes. While this may be easy for small things (like digging up old classroom knowledge on how to read a new clock), it's not so simple for massive life-affecting alterations.
There is an incredible amount of work that goes into making huge life-changing choices and seeing them through, and I would argue that a major part of such is actually accepting that things have to be or are going to be different. Without that realization, one cannot whole-heartedly put themselves through the process of establishing themselves as a significantly (even if only internally) different person.
Ultimately, it's oneself that must accept the change before it can truely happen.
This all sounds reasonable enough, so what's my point? Essentially, changing oneself or one's environment is the same process no matter the gravity of the alteration; the perceived difference is merely that invisible line where we become unsure as to whether we can accept being different or living in a different space.
So if it's a New Year, what are you really going to do to make it new?
Posted at 08:20 AM | Rants and Opinions | Comments (0)