The MS-Office UI is a mess in my opinion, but once you get used to where everything is, you tend to want to stick with the same brand: the devil you know.
MS doesn't give a damn about users being comfortable with their software.
If they did, they wouldn't change the location of functions from one version to the next. Instead, they would just introduce new functions, and leave the old ones where they were previously.
They have to revamp the UI regularly or users won't buy into the idea that the new version is any better than the old version, and therefore be willing to pay for the new version.
This also happens because companies use 3rd-party email providers, which cause email links for banks and credit card companies to point to some3rdparty.com instead of the bank itself.
You have a bank that conducts business my EMAIL ??? Who the hell are they, so I can avoid them?
Is it really that bad for a bank to send an email alert that a payment is due? Or that this month's electronic statement is available?
People complained about the bulk and weight of having a removable cover and another layer of hard plastic around the battery. Reporters making comparison charts and designers decided that thin and light were more important than a replaceable battery. OEM upper managers approved when they realized people could be convinced to replace the whole phone instead of replacing just a battery.
Sounds like marketing B.S. to me. The cover weighs about the same, regardless of whether it is removable or not. And even if it does require "another layer of hard plastic around the battery", the weight difference would be negligible.
This is just another example of marketing influencing the people by telling them "everyone is asking for this" when in reality only the product manufacturer "is asking for this."
I don't use it. And when friends or family ask me about it, I tell them "anything but Windows 10." Most can get by with just a tablet, a Chromebook, a Mac, or even Linux. I am currently configuring a laptop for a friend of the family who is just starting college. Guess what he's not getting? Windows 10. Guess what he is getting? Linux.
All this complaining about Windows 10 is getting really old and tired.
This is what happens when browser makers hide the status bar, hide the location url/protocol and generally dumb down the location parts of the UI.
Removing those essential browsing elements are like removing streets signs because everyone has a GPS, bring back the status/url bars and educate people to know what their function is.
This also happens because companies use 3rd-party email providers, which cause email links for banks and credit card companies to point to some3rdparty.com instead of the bank itself.
I regularly forward that crap back to the bank's spam/phishing prevention email address. I always start the email with something like "this looks like a phishing attempt."
What's wrong with simply preformatting the Name column as text?
You would be shocked at the number of people I encounter who have no idea that is even possible...
Same here, and I work with accountants every day. Most of them know how to use Excel, but they only use what others have built. Most don't understand formulas, and nested formulas absolutely baffle them.
I am still shocked at how often accountants ask me for help with an Excel problem. Questions about complex problems make sense, but I'm talking about simple formulas, or just getting data from one tab/sheet to another tab/sheet.
Their lack of knowledge is pretty good job security for me, but wow.
Enough/. for a while. Back to VBA and automating another XL workbook.
I hate AV software with a passion because it slows your computer to a crawl
Your either using 20 year old anti-virus software or a 20 year old computer, or both. No one has the problem you're describing. Newly written/modified files are scanned and then sometimes a weekly scan is done while you're sleeping. The load is essentially non-existent.
The GP is right, AV software can slow your computer to a crawl. But that only happens if it does a full system scan while you are actively using your computer.
For those of us who are stuck with anal-retentive IT departments who schedule full system scans at noon, we are stuck with that exact same problem. Their argument is that "nobody leaves their computer on overnight" so they "have no choice."
My response was to install Linux, run Win7 in a VM, and not put the VM on the domain. Since that's one less computer for IT to manage, backup, or rebuild, they don't care that it's not on the domain.
Are you trying to draw a parallel between people who have a beef with Microsoft with racists?
My OS good yours bad even though they're simply very complicated hammers for different nails.
People get frustrated because a monopoly power has a long history of poor design decisions and forcing users to apply "updates" that create more flaws which leads to unpreventable system compromises. Seems like a legitimate reason to hold a grudge to me.
This I agree with.
My race good your race bad even though genetically they're indistinguishable.
One race instills systematic impediments that create an uneven playing field holding back other races from equitably participating in the riches of our society. This is just wrong!
This is completely wrong. A race does not "instill systematic impediments" - individual people do that.
Note that I'm not trying to say that racism is good or bad. I'm just pointing out that your argument has no merit.
And that reminds of the 'two times less' and 'two times fewer' I see here all two often.
It's not just here. It's even in advertisements. I can't figure out if idiots are designing them, and they don't know better, or if it is intentional because they are "dumbing down" to the intelligence level of today's layman.
Kidding aside, with such poor customer experience, you would now advise your family and friends (or worse, post reviews online) to avoid said manufacturer, thus hurting future sales. If it is within the return period, you may even take advantage of this, thus they have 0 net sale from you. The aftersales of the product is very much tied to the future sale of either the same product (word of mouth, reviews, etc.) or a newer model of the product (refresh, old one broke due to *ahem* "accident", etc.). Such logic seems to not have entered the PHBs of these companies.
Agreed, and that's exactly what I do regarding HP. I bought a high-end OfficeJet several years ago that worked great for a while. Until I installed one of those updates over the net. That update made it stop printing with either generic or refilled ink cartridges. It would only print with "genuinely expensive HP ink". I even complained to the BBB. HP's response was to send me a free ink cartridge, which made the BBB happy, but not me.
I ended up donating the printer and the ink cartridges to a local charity, got a tax write-off for the donation, and bought an Epson printer. The Epson works great with refilled ink cartridges.
I will never buy another HP product again, and I encourage others to do the same.
Here in upstate NY, winters often mean that I need to get out our roof rake to pull snow off our roof. If I don't, ice dams form and then runoff from melting snow gets under our roof shingles and can get into our house. My questions for SolarCity would be: Would these solar shingles hold up to having a roof rake scraped across them? (It would be useless if I had to replace shingles every year due to roof raking damage.) Also, how would they handle snow melt getting under the shingles? Presumably, there will be wiring there. Would moisture under the shingles cause issues?
Roofs are designed to prevent ice dams. If you are getting them, then your roof (or attic) needs help. Most likely, you don't have enough insulation in your attic. Ice dams happen because the underside of the snow on the roof is warm enough to melt the snow. That warmth comes from the attic. The attic should be cold enough that the roof material stays cold, and the snow on the roof doesn't melt on the underside.
I used to get ice dams on a home in Michigan. It already had insulation between the joists, but that wasn't enough. Adding a second layer of insulation, perpendicular to the joists, resolved the ice dam issue.
Hint: nobody has a 'career' - all jobs suck, anyone who says they love their job is lying. There is no "follow your dream", there is no ABC-afternoon-special. People work a job or a series of jobs, until they can retire on whatever they've scraped together.
Your level of pessimism is so excessive that you might want to seek professional help. I'm sure there are local therapists, psychiatrists, and/or clergy who would love to talk to you about your personal issues.
And this is exactly why the general public needs encryption and why various TLA outfits and buddies like to use the "think of the children" garbage to denounce it.
Rubbish. If you've nothing to hide... you aren't a protestor... you keep your head down... do what the government tells you... aren't unlucky enough to get caught in a wide sweeping dragnet... then you have no need for encryption or privacy!
In that case, please turn over your Nobel-prize winning idea to anyone who asks for it. And turn over your entire customer list to your competition. And give me your SSN (or state ID.) And give me the code to your million-dollar app.
If you don't have to learn the intricacies of some esoteric computer programming language, you'll have to learn the intricacies of this esoteric NSF project. Next!
Agreed, which is the same reason my coworkers and I resisted replacing our existing system with a CASE tool about 18-20 years ago.
All the acronyms on this site, and THAT one you have to Google?
Based on your comment, it appears that you are a gamer, all 3 of your friends are gamers, and you can't imagine that anyone on a News for Nerds site is not also a gamer.
You might want to get out of your mom's basement more often.
Microsoft follows the best in class scheme, where their products are targeted to be best amongst all competitors. If the competitors are shit, then the product may be shit as well, but if the competitors are really good, microsoft invests lots of money until the ms product is better than those.
Really? So every MS product that has good competition is better than said competition?
Many (most?) modern electronics have an LED that is on when the device isn't powered up, just to tell you that the device has power. Many of them are red, some (such as my sound bar) are blue.
I usually cover up those LEDs with a piece of black electrical tape.
Well I can't run most games I play in Linux. I can't use Photoshop. My business software also doesn't work in Linux (Sage stuff, mostly). Open Office is a horrible replacement for MS Office when I have to deal with people who still use MS Office (most). So no, I don't think there is a place in the Linux world for me right now. I wish there was; I certainly give it a try every few years.
Like someone else said, have you tried to find alternatives? Or is Photoshop just convenient because you are familiar with it? alternativeto.net lists 20+ alternatives that work in Linux:
Slashdot Mirror
The MS-Office UI is a mess in my opinion, but once you get used to where everything is, you tend to want to stick with the same brand: the devil you know.
MS doesn't give a damn about users being comfortable with their software.
If they did, they wouldn't change the location of functions from one version to the next. Instead, they would just introduce new functions, and leave the old ones where they were previously.
They have to revamp the UI regularly or users won't buy into the idea that the new version is any better than the old version, and therefore be willing to pay for the new version.
You have a bank that conducts business my EMAIL ??? Who the hell are they, so I can avoid them?
Is it really that bad for a bank to send an email alert that a payment is due? Or that this month's electronic statement is available?
I don't think so.
People complained about the bulk and weight of having a removable cover and another layer of hard plastic around the battery. Reporters making comparison charts and designers decided that thin and light were more important than a replaceable battery. OEM upper managers approved when they realized people could be convinced to replace the whole phone instead of replacing just a battery.
Sounds like marketing B.S. to me. The cover weighs about the same, regardless of whether it is removable or not. And even if it does require "another layer of hard plastic around the battery", the weight difference would be negligible.
This is just another example of marketing influencing the people by telling them "everyone is asking for this" when in reality only the product manufacturer "is asking for this."
If you don't like it, don't use it.
I don't use it. And when friends or family ask me about it, I tell them "anything but Windows 10." Most can get by with just a tablet, a Chromebook, a Mac, or even Linux. I am currently configuring a laptop for a friend of the family who is just starting college. Guess what he's not getting? Windows 10. Guess what he is getting? Linux.
All this complaining about Windows 10 is getting really old and tired.
And so is the crap coming from MS.
This is what happens when browser makers hide the status bar, hide the location url/protocol and generally dumb down the location parts of the UI.
Removing those essential browsing elements are like removing streets signs because everyone has a GPS, bring back the status/url bars and educate people to know what their function is.
This also happens because companies use 3rd-party email providers, which cause email links for banks and credit card companies to point to some3rdparty.com instead of the bank itself.
I regularly forward that crap back to the bank's spam/phishing prevention email address. I always start the email with something like "this looks like a phishing attempt."
55 lbs (25 kg) at 100 mph (161 kph) sounds like a weapon to me. It could easily be targeted at a building, a plane, a car, a truck, or anything else.
The FAA just gave terrorists easy access to the tools they need to f*ck up our world.
What's wrong with simply preformatting the Name column as text?
You would be shocked at the number of people I encounter who have no idea that is even possible...
Same here, and I work with accountants every day. Most of them know how to use Excel, but they only use what others have built. Most don't understand formulas, and nested formulas absolutely baffle them.
/. for a while. Back to VBA and automating another XL workbook.
I am still shocked at how often accountants ask me for help with an Excel problem. Questions about complex problems make sense, but I'm talking about simple formulas, or just getting data from one tab/sheet to another tab/sheet.
Their lack of knowledge is pretty good job security for me, but wow.
Enough
I hate AV software with a passion because it slows your computer to a crawl
Your either using 20 year old anti-virus software or a 20 year old computer, or both. No one has the problem you're describing. Newly written/modified files are scanned and then sometimes a weekly scan is done while you're sleeping. The load is essentially non-existent.
The GP is right, AV software can slow your computer to a crawl. But that only happens if it does a full system scan while you are actively using your computer.
For those of us who are stuck with anal-retentive IT departments who schedule full system scans at noon, we are stuck with that exact same problem. Their argument is that "nobody leaves their computer on overnight" so they "have no choice."
My response was to install Linux, run Win7 in a VM, and not put the VM on the domain. Since that's one less computer for IT to manage, backup, or rebuild, they don't care that it's not on the domain.
Are you trying to draw a parallel between people who have a beef with Microsoft with racists?
My OS good yours bad even though they're simply very complicated hammers for different nails.
People get frustrated because a monopoly power has a long history of poor design decisions and forcing users to apply "updates" that create more flaws which leads to unpreventable system compromises. Seems like a legitimate reason to hold a grudge to me.
This I agree with.
My race good your race bad even though genetically they're indistinguishable.
One race instills systematic impediments that create an uneven playing field holding back other races from equitably participating in the riches of our society. This is just wrong!
This is completely wrong. A race does not "instill systematic impediments" - individual people do that.
Note that I'm not trying to say that racism is good or bad. I'm just pointing out that your argument has no merit.
And that reminds of the 'two times less' and 'two times fewer' I see here all two often.
It's not just here. It's even in advertisements. I can't figure out if idiots are designing them, and they don't know better, or if it is intentional because they are "dumbing down" to the intelligence level of today's layman.
Either way, it's annoying.
...therefore, I must be depressed.
Or not.
Kidding aside, with such poor customer experience, you would now advise your family and friends (or worse, post reviews online) to avoid said manufacturer, thus hurting future sales. If it is within the return period, you may even take advantage of this, thus they have 0 net sale from you. The aftersales of the product is very much tied to the future sale of either the same product (word of mouth, reviews, etc.) or a newer model of the product (refresh, old one broke due to *ahem* "accident", etc.). Such logic seems to not have entered the PHBs of these companies.
Agreed, and that's exactly what I do regarding HP. I bought a high-end OfficeJet several years ago that worked great for a while. Until I installed one of those updates over the net. That update made it stop printing with either generic or refilled ink cartridges. It would only print with "genuinely expensive HP ink". I even complained to the BBB. HP's response was to send me a free ink cartridge, which made the BBB happy, but not me.
I ended up donating the printer and the ink cartridges to a local charity, got a tax write-off for the donation, and bought an Epson printer. The Epson works great with refilled ink cartridges.
I will never buy another HP product again, and I encourage others to do the same.
Fedora 25 will finally be the first release for this Linux distribution
The first release? So 1-24 never existed?
that is going ahead and using
Where does /. find so many 7th grade submissions?
DuckDuckGo kind of sucks as a search engine, though. The results even on the first page are not always relevant.
So pick your poison: MS crap, Google's track-everything-you-do, or DDG that works 90% of the time (for me, at least).
I choose DDG. When the search results don't answer my question, then I run the same search in Google.
Here in upstate NY, winters often mean that I need to get out our roof rake to pull snow off our roof. If I don't, ice dams form and then runoff from melting snow gets under our roof shingles and can get into our house. My questions for SolarCity would be: Would these solar shingles hold up to having a roof rake scraped across them? (It would be useless if I had to replace shingles every year due to roof raking damage.) Also, how would they handle snow melt getting under the shingles? Presumably, there will be wiring there. Would moisture under the shingles cause issues?
Roofs are designed to prevent ice dams. If you are getting them, then your roof (or attic) needs help. Most likely, you don't have enough insulation in your attic. Ice dams happen because the underside of the snow on the roof is warm enough to melt the snow. That warmth comes from the attic. The attic should be cold enough that the roof material stays cold, and the snow on the roof doesn't melt on the underside.
I used to get ice dams on a home in Michigan. It already had insulation between the joists, but that wasn't enough. Adding a second layer of insulation, perpendicular to the joists, resolved the ice dam issue.
Hint: nobody has a 'career' - all jobs suck, anyone who says they love their job is lying. There is no "follow your dream", there is no ABC-afternoon-special. People work a job or a series of jobs, until they can retire on whatever they've scraped together.
Your level of pessimism is so excessive that you might want to seek professional help. I'm sure there are local therapists, psychiatrists, and/or clergy who would love to talk to you about your personal issues.
And this is exactly why the general public needs encryption and why various TLA outfits and buddies like to use the "think of the children" garbage to denounce it.
Rubbish. If you've nothing to hide... you aren't a protestor... you keep your head down... do what the government tells you... aren't unlucky enough to get caught in a wide sweeping dragnet... then you have no need for encryption or privacy!
In that case, please turn over your Nobel-prize winning idea to anyone who asks for it. And turn over your entire customer list to your competition. And give me your SSN (or state ID.) And give me the code to your million-dollar app.
If you don't have to learn the intricacies of some esoteric computer programming language, you'll have to learn the intricacies of this esoteric NSF project. Next!
Agreed, which is the same reason my coworkers and I resisted replacing our existing system with a CASE tool about 18-20 years ago.
All the acronyms on this site, and THAT one you have to Google?
Based on your comment, it appears that you are a gamer, all 3 of your friends are gamers, and you can't imagine that anyone on a News for Nerds site is not also a gamer.
You might want to get out of your mom's basement more often.
My first reaction: Wow, I didn't know Flint, MI, has 6M residents!
My second reaction: Hey, the residents of Flint, MI are not alone!
My third reaction: Boy, am I glad I have an RO system at home, and filtered water at work.
My funny bone is battling with my logical brain over this one. The local News at 6 PM might have more information about that battle. Or maybe not.
Comments like this are why people feel slashdot has turned against firefox ..
No, Mozilla turned against Firefox by turning it into a Chrome-clone.
Microsoft follows the best in class scheme, where their products are targeted to be best amongst all competitors. If the competitors are shit, then the product may be shit as well, but if the competitors are really good, microsoft invests lots of money until the ms product is better than those.
Really? So every MS product that has good competition is better than said competition?
How much does MS pay you for that B.S.?
If the LED is still burning, it's not off.
Do you actually own any electronics?
Many (most?) modern electronics have an LED that is on when the device isn't powered up, just to tell you that the device has power. Many of them are red, some (such as my sound bar) are blue.
I usually cover up those LEDs with a piece of black electrical tape.
It's being rumored that the Sun is hot.
Well I can't run most games I play in Linux. I can't use Photoshop. My business software also doesn't work in Linux (Sage stuff, mostly). Open Office is a horrible replacement for MS Office when I have to deal with people who still use MS Office (most). So no, I don't think there is a place in the Linux world for me right now. I wish there was; I certainly give it a try every few years.
Like someone else said, have you tried to find alternatives? Or is Photoshop just convenient because you are familiar with it? alternativeto.net lists 20+ alternatives that work in Linux:
http://alternativeto.net/brows...