Microsoft does do usability testing, you know. Their testing obviously shows that the ribbon is superior or they wouldn't have implemented it. I'm a long-time Office user, and I love it, personally.
I think most people who hate the ribbon are simply those "tech-luddites" who use technology, but actually hate change at the same time. It's weird, but Slashdot is full of the type... why else would vi still exist?
After each version of Office ships, Microsoft asks a selection of users which features they would like to see in the next version of Office. When they did this after Office 2000, a large percentage of the features users suggested were already-implemented. When they did this for Office 2003, even more already-implemented features were suggested. The conclusion was that Office isn't lacking features, but the UI is so arcane that nobody could find which features it had, or how to use them.
That's the problem the Ribbon is intended to solve. In actuality, it removed a few features from Office (dealing with custom macro toolbars, IIRC.) I think that it's definitely a move in the right direction. It might not be right for every application, but for programs like Word and Excel that: 1) Are used by myriads of untrained people 2) Have craploads of features I think it's the right move. For something like Photoshop, point 1 doesn't apply, and for something like Notepad point 2 doesn't apply, so it's not right for every application.
I've always wondered (and I honestly don't know, I'm not old enough) if the moon landing hoaxers were inspired by the movie "Capricorn One." The movie was released in 1978 about a mission to Mars which is faked from a desolate sound stage after NASA learns that the life support system on the capsule would break down halfway there.
Can anybody older than I, and with a good memory, tell me if the moon landing hoax people were around before this movie came out? Or if they're a result of the movie, similar to the UFO phenom.
Flash, maybe, but Java? I can't remember the last time I saw a site that used Java. I haven't had the plug-in for it installed on any of my browsers for at least 3 years now, and I only had it then because some crappy IBM intranet application required it.
Java's a dead technology on the web. Java benchmarks are completely useless.
For the life of me, I can't understand why Microsoft continues to abandon its strength.
It feels like the.NET koolaid is coming even to the IE team. Microsoft's.NET push now borders on maniacal, standardizing on.NET and in places where it should not be standardized.
Possibly true, but this article is talking about IE7 (and the Slashdot summary misleadingly references IE8), neither of which are build in.NET. So I don't see the relevance.
Performance matters, particularly when processors aren't getting any faster, just more parallel.
Yeah;.NET has a lot of features designed around that.
Microsoft's has left C++ to languish, has all but abandoned C, and as such has no real performance tool in their own arsenal.
I'm guessing Microsoft ran the numbers to find that the ease-of-development using.NET outweighed the (pretty small) hit to benchmarks. At least for the stuff they develop that uses.NET; you have to remember the vast majority of Office and Windows does not.
At the same time, the OSS community is actually slogging through and solving some of the difficult problems of making large projects in C++ that perform - getting better experience with the STL, when to use and when not to use, changing compilers to respond, developing automated testing methodologies to overcome what the compilers can't detect, and so on.
And Microsoft, of course, doesn't have any large projects in C++ that perform. Because IIS, SQL Server, Windows, Office-- none of those products exist?
There should be no reason for the Windows desktop to be stagnant for fast applications, but Microsoft has basically abandoned it and is pushing developers to do the same. All the new display stuff in Windows requires.NET..
Again, I'm sure they ran the numbers and felt it was worthwhile. Microsoft isn't stupid; they wouldn't throw money in a trashcan and they wouldn't drop support of older languages unless they have a very good reason for it.
one wonders, how long will it be before Linux has similar systems but are presented as a simple C library that any system can use, regardless of whether it is a managed platform or not.
I dunno, but you can bet it'll be long after Apple and Microsoft have them implemented and perfected. Linux needs to stop playing catchup and actually try leading the way with a few of these features.
No kidding. Who even HAS the Java plug-in installed anymore? It'd be hard to come up with another set of benchmarks that looks, at the outset, to be meaningful and in fact is utterly worthless. More quality journalism from Slashdot.
Yeah, but it could be a great tool for radio and TV stations. Even if it doesn't get rid of the manual bleep-out guy, it might make his job a lot easier. It's not entirely worthless because it doesn't solve the problem 100%... that's like saying we should never make gasoline engines more fuel-efficient unless we can skip all the way to zero emissions in one step.
Well, for one thing, it was an unlicensed third-party hack for pirating games, while the Xbox HD came factory-standard.
For another, the Xbox HD was used to support Xbox Live Arcade downloadable games, to act as virtual memory for the current game, to allow the user to rip CDs.
The HD for the PS2 didn't come out until long after the Xbox was already out. It was initially offered bundled with Final Fantasy 11.) My information comes from the US of A, Sony might have different schedules in different countries.)
BTW, Final Fantasy 11 was then ported to Xbox 360, where is has a relatively popular following. (It's always in the top 10 Xbox Live game list.) Which I think goes to show Microsoft must be doing something right with their game console business.
All they really need to do is to train their users to use "Sleep" mode on their laptops. I mean, seriously, when I open up my HP tablet it's every time they shut the lid! Why? I don't know, I doubt they know. But I also bet those are the same people complaining about the lack of "instant-on."
Windows has excellent tablet features IMO. At least it does handwriting recognition, which Ubuntu didn't even attempt on it tablet. I need a pretty big citation that Linux/X11 is better at touchscreen-ness.
If I see a usability problem with Windows, I can't fix it. Heck, I can't even report it to Microsoft. They don't listen.
Have you tried? I've gotten very good responses from Microsoft about various issues. (A bug in SQL Server Management Studio when using multiple monitors, a bug in Zune when you unplug a USB heatset, and a few others I can't remember any longer.) I don't know what makes you say you can't even report it to Microsoft; what's stopping you?
Well, it is possible that Microsoft employees might actually be proud of the work they do and therefore get offended by bashing, especially blatantly untrue bashing. (For example, there was a whole array of bashing around the new Office 2007 interface, which is something Microsoft's Office Division should be rightly proud of-- it *is* better than the old way.)
I don't have a problem with people bashing Microsoft when they have valid complaints, it just bugs me when they're people who have obviously never even bothered to try using the products. You can tell, because they usually obsess over features like Clippy, which haven't existed in years and years. I don't think spreading lies about Microsoft does any good.
Slashdot's equally shitty in all browsers. I've found tons of bugs in the most current Firefox, so it really makes you wonder what browser they could be *possibly* testing on. (I mean, I assume they wouldn't test on IE, but not on Firefox? Of course the other possibility, more likely, is that there's no testing done at all.) After a brief altercation with one of the Slashdot devs, I now diligently report every bug I find-- none have been fixed.
Well, people can't say stuff like "it only runs on x86" then weasel-out of counter-examples by saying PPC is "fairly mainstream." The fact is it runs on PPC, and it runs on ARM (what my friend's phone is running) with no problems at all. I can also guarantee AMD64 works fine, it runs on my laptop's AMD Turion 64 fine.
Maybe your problem isn't Flash, but your OS. The reason it doesn't work on Sparc is that Sparc isn't a consumer OS! Or are you seriously suggesting people run Flash as SERVER software? Please. Adobe's already ported Flash for all consumer devices.
You don't like Javascript, but you do like PHP? Feh.
Personally, I love Javascript. Even with the somewhat limited implementations browsers have, it's extremely powerful. You have to remember that most of the limitations of "Javascript" are actually limitations in DOM-- even if you did write client-side Python, it still would have to deal with the same crappy DOM that JS does now.
Obviously opinions vary. I wouldn't mind using Javascript server-side, the way PHP or Ruby is used now. Is anybody working on that? It seems like a relatively easy win. Javascript + setInterval/setTimeout (from DOM, the only good parts) could rule the world.
Flash runs just fine on PPC Macs. I have a friend with a Windows Mobile phone that has no problem viewing Hulu Flash movies. (No clue what CPUs in it, but I doubt it's x86.) I dunno where you got the idea that it's x86-only.
If you drag&drop an image file from a page to your desktop, the file is corrupt. (It's the right file size, but no editors can open it.) The screen fails to update often in strange ways, for example, it might randomly stop drawing the scrollbars.
A guy with the nick "ObsessiveMathsFreak" posting on Slashdot, with the sig "May the Maths Be with you!" doesn't care about the appearance or style of the car he drives?
If it makes you feel better, I sometimes try to do things without driving, only to realize it's pretty much impossible (at least where I live.) The choice is usually "drive for 20 minutes", or "ride bus for 45 minutes, wait 15 minutes for second bus, ride that bus for 20 minutes." I opt for the former.
How old is your Office copy that the converter doesn't work? It goes back all the way to Office 2000, you can't fault Microsoft for writing the converter plug-in "only" for 7-year-old versions.
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft does do usability testing, you know. Their testing obviously shows that the ribbon is superior or they wouldn't have implemented it. I'm a long-time Office user, and I love it, personally.
I think most people who hate the ribbon are simply those "tech-luddites" who use technology, but actually hate change at the same time. It's weird, but Slashdot is full of the type... why else would vi still exist?
The story behind the ribbon:
After each version of Office ships, Microsoft asks a selection of users which features they would like to see in the next version of Office. When they did this after Office 2000, a large percentage of the features users suggested were already-implemented. When they did this for Office 2003, even more already-implemented features were suggested. The conclusion was that Office isn't lacking features, but the UI is so arcane that nobody could find which features it had, or how to use them.
That's the problem the Ribbon is intended to solve. In actuality, it removed a few features from Office (dealing with custom macro toolbars, IIRC.) I think that it's definitely a move in the right direction. It might not be right for every application, but for programs like Word and Excel that:
1) Are used by myriads of untrained people
2) Have craploads of features
I think it's the right move. For something like Photoshop, point 1 doesn't apply, and for something like Notepad point 2 doesn't apply, so it's not right for every application.
I've always wondered (and I honestly don't know, I'm not old enough) if the moon landing hoaxers were inspired by the movie "Capricorn One." The movie was released in 1978 about a mission to Mars which is faked from a desolate sound stage after NASA learns that the life support system on the capsule would break down halfway there.
Can anybody older than I, and with a good memory, tell me if the moon landing hoax people were around before this movie came out? Or if they're a result of the movie, similar to the UFO phenom.
Flash, maybe, but Java? I can't remember the last time I saw a site that used Java. I haven't had the plug-in for it installed on any of my browsers for at least 3 years now, and I only had it then because some crappy IBM intranet application required it.
Java's a dead technology on the web. Java benchmarks are completely useless.
For the life of me, I can't understand why Microsoft continues to abandon its strength.
It feels like the .NET koolaid is coming even to the IE team. Microsoft's .NET push now borders on maniacal, standardizing on .NET and in places where it should not be standardized.
Possibly true, but this article is talking about IE7 (and the Slashdot summary misleadingly references IE8), neither of which are build in .NET. So I don't see the relevance.
Performance matters, particularly when processors aren't getting any faster, just more parallel.
Yeah; .NET has a lot of features designed around that.
Microsoft's has left C++ to languish, has all but abandoned C, and as such has no real performance tool in their own arsenal.
I'm guessing Microsoft ran the numbers to find that the ease-of-development using .NET outweighed the (pretty small) hit to benchmarks. At least for the stuff they develop that uses .NET; you have to remember the vast majority of Office and Windows does not.
At the same time, the OSS community is actually slogging through and solving some of the difficult problems of making large projects in C++ that perform - getting better experience with the STL, when to use and when not to use, changing compilers to respond, developing automated testing methodologies to overcome what the compilers can't detect, and so on.
And Microsoft, of course, doesn't have any large projects in C++ that perform. Because IIS, SQL Server, Windows, Office-- none of those products exist?
There should be no reason for the Windows desktop to be stagnant for fast applications, but Microsoft has basically abandoned it and is pushing developers to do the same. All the new display stuff in Windows requires .NET..
Again, I'm sure they ran the numbers and felt it was worthwhile. Microsoft isn't stupid; they wouldn't throw money in a trashcan and they wouldn't drop support of older languages unless they have a very good reason for it.
one wonders, how long will it be before Linux has similar systems but are presented as a simple C library that any system can use, regardless of whether it is a managed platform or not.
I dunno, but you can bet it'll be long after Apple and Microsoft have them implemented and perfected. Linux needs to stop playing catchup and actually try leading the way with a few of these features.
No kidding. Who even HAS the Java plug-in installed anymore? It'd be hard to come up with another set of benchmarks that looks, at the outset, to be meaningful and in fact is utterly worthless. More quality journalism from Slashdot.
Yeah, but it could be a great tool for radio and TV stations. Even if it doesn't get rid of the manual bleep-out guy, it might make his job a lot easier. It's not entirely worthless because it doesn't solve the problem 100%... that's like saying we should never make gasoline engines more fuel-efficient unless we can skip all the way to zero emissions in one step.
Well, for one thing, it was an unlicensed third-party hack for pirating games, while the Xbox HD came factory-standard.
For another, the Xbox HD was used to support Xbox Live Arcade downloadable games, to act as virtual memory for the current game, to allow the user to rip CDs.
The HD for the PS2 didn't come out until long after the Xbox was already out. It was initially offered bundled with Final Fantasy 11.) My information comes from the US of A, Sony might have different schedules in different countries.)
BTW, Final Fantasy 11 was then ported to Xbox 360, where is has a relatively popular following. (It's always in the top 10 Xbox Live game list.) Which I think goes to show Microsoft must be doing something right with their game console business.
Its interesting how so called free countries are rushing towards censorship, control and out right Big Brother, faster than so called bad countries.
The Bad Countries already had censorship, control and out-right Big Brother. So they don't need to rush towards anything, they're already there.
All they really need to do is to train their users to use "Sleep" mode on their laptops. I mean, seriously, when I open up my HP tablet it's every time they shut the lid! Why? I don't know, I doubt they know. But I also bet those are the same people complaining about the lack of "instant-on."
Windows has excellent tablet features IMO. At least it does handwriting recognition, which Ubuntu didn't even attempt on it tablet. I need a pretty big citation that Linux/X11 is better at touchscreen-ness.
If I see a usability problem with Windows, I can't fix it. Heck, I can't even report it to Microsoft. They don't listen.
Have you tried? I've gotten very good responses from Microsoft about various issues. (A bug in SQL Server Management Studio when using multiple monitors, a bug in Zune when you unplug a USB heatset, and a few others I can't remember any longer.) I don't know what makes you say you can't even report it to Microsoft; what's stopping you?
Well, it is possible that Microsoft employees might actually be proud of the work they do and therefore get offended by bashing, especially blatantly untrue bashing. (For example, there was a whole array of bashing around the new Office 2007 interface, which is something Microsoft's Office Division should be rightly proud of-- it *is* better than the old way.)
I don't have a problem with people bashing Microsoft when they have valid complaints, it just bugs me when they're people who have obviously never even bothered to try using the products. You can tell, because they usually obsess over features like Clippy, which haven't existed in years and years. I don't think spreading lies about Microsoft does any good.
However, the Integrity web site https://www.microsoftintegrity.com/ has an invalid security certificate.
Maybe your certificate repository is out-of-date. It shows as perfectly valid in FF 3.0.3 in Windows and IE 7.
Slashdot's equally shitty in all browsers. I've found tons of bugs in the most current Firefox, so it really makes you wonder what browser they could be *possibly* testing on. (I mean, I assume they wouldn't test on IE, but not on Firefox? Of course the other possibility, more likely, is that there's no testing done at all.) After a brief altercation with one of the Slashdot devs, I now diligently report every bug I find-- none have been fixed.
For example, I'm looking directly at this bug right now as I reply: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2159787&group_id=4421&atid=104421
Well, people can't say stuff like "it only runs on x86" then weasel-out of counter-examples by saying PPC is "fairly mainstream." The fact is it runs on PPC, and it runs on ARM (what my friend's phone is running) with no problems at all. I can also guarantee AMD64 works fine, it runs on my laptop's AMD Turion 64 fine.
Maybe your problem isn't Flash, but your OS. The reason it doesn't work on Sparc is that Sparc isn't a consumer OS! Or are you seriously suggesting people run Flash as SERVER software? Please. Adobe's already ported Flash for all consumer devices.
You don't like Javascript, but you do like PHP? Feh.
Personally, I love Javascript. Even with the somewhat limited implementations browsers have, it's extremely powerful. You have to remember that most of the limitations of "Javascript" are actually limitations in DOM-- even if you did write client-side Python, it still would have to deal with the same crappy DOM that JS does now.
Obviously opinions vary. I wouldn't mind using Javascript server-side, the way PHP or Ruby is used now. Is anybody working on that? It seems like a relatively easy win. Javascript + setInterval/setTimeout (from DOM, the only good parts) could rule the world.
Flash runs just fine on PPC Macs. I have a friend with a Windows Mobile phone that has no problem viewing Hulu Flash movies. (No clue what CPUs in it, but I doubt it's x86.) I dunno where you got the idea that it's x86-only.
If you drag&drop an image file from a page to your desktop, the file is corrupt. (It's the right file size, but no editors can open it.) The screen fails to update often in strange ways, for example, it might randomly stop drawing the scrollbars.
It needs lots of work, in short.
Ok, the instant you use the term "parasite" when talking about economic issues, we know you're either a Marxist or Ayn Rand follower... which is it?
Chrysler 300: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Chrysler-300C.jpg
The Fifth Element flying taxi: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/25/Valerian_FifthElement2.jpg/600px-Valerian_FifthElement2.jpg
Separated at birth!?
A guy with the nick "ObsessiveMathsFreak" posting on Slashdot, with the sig "May the Maths Be with you!" doesn't care about the appearance or style of the car he drives?
Shocking!
Is this a variation of the famous "Area Man Constantly Mentions Not Owning a TV" Onion phenomenon?
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28694
If it makes you feel better, I sometimes try to do things without driving, only to realize it's pretty much impossible (at least where I live.) The choice is usually "drive for 20 minutes", or "ride bus for 45 minutes, wait 15 minutes for second bus, ride that bus for 20 minutes." I opt for the former.
How old is your Office copy that the converter doesn't work? It goes back all the way to Office 2000, you can't fault Microsoft for writing the converter plug-in "only" for 7-year-old versions.