The first sentence of my post was "read my posts." I mentioned Expose. Since you obviously haven't bothered to even read what I typed, I have no clue why you're responding.
Let's assume for the moment that spatial file browsing is a bad idea. Which I completely and utterly disagree with, but let's assume that.
Apple released version 10 of a product that had FEWER features than version 9. Microsoft was able to completely re-write the Office UI from scratch without removing a single feature. Why wasn't Apple able to completely re-write Finder from scratch without losing any features? Why is it acceptable for Apple to make a release with fewer features than the last version, when it's not acceptable for Microsoft, or Adobe, or any other software company?
I don't think it is acceptable. Maybe spatial browsing is a moronic brain-dead way of doing things and only total cretins should use it. Fine. But that doesn't excuse Apple from removing it. Microsoft still supports about a dozen brain-dead ways of doing things, like.ini files. What a double standard Apple has created for itself!
That all said, browser-based and search-based file browsing is fine for users with a lot more memory than I have. (For instance, people coming from a CLI interface where you have nothing but memory to locate things.) But for people like me, when I put a file in some location, I expect it to be in that location; my only memory for files is spatial. Human beings have developed a great sense of spatial memory in the last few million years, because that's the way the real world works: if I put down my stapler on my desk, it won't magically appear later on top of my TV. Not taking advantage of this tremendous mental resource every person, hell, every INFANT, has is stupid if you ask me. You're replacing a system that works on a subconscious level with a system that requires conscious memorization of the location and/or name of your files.
I understand that a lot of people (at least people exposed to the crummy Windows 95 "spatial" implementation and people from a DOS/Linux background) prefer a browser-based filesystem. But for all the effort it took Apple to make their pointless and moronic "psuedo-spatial" mode (which appears when you turn off the Finder toolbar), they could have put in a real spatial mode, kept the browser mode, and made everybody happy. The Apple of ten years ago, when they actually cared about UI design, would have done this. The modern Apple hasn't and won't, which is why my next computer will most likely run Windows. After all, if I can't get a feature I love with either Macintosh or Windows, I might as well run Windows which has more software.
For a feature like this, which isn't mutually exclusive with the "new" way of doing things, it's unacceptable to leave your loyal users in the dust while embracing those used to other products. There's no reason OS X can't have both a spatial mode and a browser/column mode at the same time, running in different types of windows. In fact, that exact solution has been outlined in great detail.
And honestly I'm pretty sick of people defending Apple's removal of features by saying "well those features weren't perfect." Nothing's perfect, but for version 10 of a product to have fewer features than version 9 is unacceptable, whether you're Apple or anybody else.
My point was that Microsoft is currently working to improve the user experience while Apple is not. In the case of Microsoft, the examples given were Office 2007's new interface, and the new task-based Windows Explorer interface. Notice how neither of those things has ANYTHING to do with file browsing. With me?
My example with Apple is that they had a perfect chance to really make improvements with OS X, and instead created a system which was worse by almost every measure than the one that came before. My example is Finder. Got it?
Now please work on your comprehension skills before replying to somebody on Slashdot, ok? Thank you.
Finder does *nothing* new. Even the column view is taken from NeXT. And in the process of doing nothing new, it's less usable by far than the Finder in OS 9 was. Please, tell me where Finder tried to improve file browsing... the fact of the matter is that Apple didn't try.
OS X does have a few UI innovations, notably Expose. But at the same time it's gone way backwards... remember that control panel design Apple ditched after OS 6? It's back in OS X, even though it's worse than the OS 7 control panel.
You can't even sort by file size in the column view. As far as suck goes, the column view is pretty high on the suck scale.
But what I really miss is:
1) A truly spatial file browser. Now that Finder is a piece of crap, GNOME actually has the most spatial file browser out there. Weird!
2) Network support that didn't totally, utterly suck. The ability to delete 1000 files from a WebDAV share in less than two hours. Or the ability to open up my laptop with no wifi around and not have it seize up in a futile attempt to contact networks that aren't contactable. The crap network support becomes crap squared if you add.Mac to the mix.
3) And of course the all time number one: Version 10 of a product should have MORE features than version 9. Finder removed a ton of features for OS X and only a small subset have been added back in. Not cool, Apple.
Hence, many windows users hate or can't understand the OS X dock or finder.
Many Mac users hate the Finder, too. That's because the Finder sucks.:) It has nothing to do with being different. (Well, I guess it has to do with being different from something that does not suck.)
Microsoft doesn't give a shit about making you or I happy.
Then explain the new Office interface. Explain the "task-based" interface in XP and Vista versions of Explorer.
Frankly, Microsoft is doing as much or more UI experimentation and improvement than any other company right now, and it's a good thing. Even if their experiments flopped, well, at least they tried... as opposed to Apple who re-wrote Finder from scratch and ended up with something with much worse usability than what they started with in the first place.
Ok mom, let me help you set up your computer... where's the control panel? Where's network settings? How come you can't get to remote desktop? Damn! Let's just set it to Expert so I can work with the damned thing!
I'll be the same thing that happened with the XP "simplified" control panel and Macintosh's "Simple Finder/Launcher" mode... people will immediately turn it back to how it was so they can use the new computer the same way they used the old. I don't think there's a single user who actually spent more than 10 minutes on "Simple Finder" mode.
I think my favorite Douglas Adams quote (paraphrasing here) is:
"The main difference between something that can go wrong and something that can't possibly go wrong is that when the thing which can't possibly go wrong goes wrong, it's always impossible to get at and fix."
Whether he killed somebody, or stole a million dollars, or whatever, I have little sympathy for people who knowingly break the law. That's the point I was making.
Whether or not the extradition is a good thing, I can't work up a lot of sympathy for the jerk who knowingly breaks the law for years, and then gets all whiny when it's time to serve time for it. If there was some reason Australian law couldn't handle the case (maybe the software companies affected don't have offices in Australia?), then I'm glad he was tried in a court that could.
If you want to make me feel sorry for you and go "aw, that sucks," it helps if you're not a thieving pirate.
The real MySQL problem with Unicode is that it hardly supports it. Every other database engine on Earth has proper Unicode support (even SQLite, which isn't even really a database), why is MySQL so far behind everything? The more I use MySQL, the more I hate it. Hate, hate, hate.
Of course, since Dreamhost refuses to install a half-decent database on their servers, I'm stuck using it. Does anybody know how to install Firebird on a Dreamhost account and make it work? Is it even possible?
What are you talking about? He PLEADED GUILTY! How more "examined by a court" could you possibly ask for? If anything, thank him for saving the public from a long and expensive trial and admitting his guilt right away.
I had an accounting book once that was printed in full color and cost a ridiculous amount of money. An ACCOUNTING book in full color. Accounting could easily be printed in black and white or, if you want to get really really fancy, three-color to cut the costs in half.
What do the rioting immigrants expecting from the white French, exactly? It seems to me like they already get far more support than they do in 95% of the countries on Earth, and probably just as much as in the US.
Every OTHER commentary on the recent riots (except yours) hold that the rioters, while not technically immigrants, are not at all assimilated into French culture and nearly all, if not all, were Muslims. The media, in the interest of political correctness, tends to call them "youths." I'd be interested to know what your source is, and why you're saying the opposite of everybody else.
The Democratic platform was so weak the last two Presidential elections that a phrase like that (if anybody even said it in an official sense) would be completely unnecessary. I know Democrats hate to admit it, but they've had a lot of weak candidates lately. I believe that probably 90% of votes for John Kerry were actually votes against Bush, since Kerry was such a weak candidate.
Apple didn't have PPP support (required for modem Internet connections) until version 7.5 or later, IIRC. Before then you had to use a shareware control panel to simulate PPP support. Windows 95 came with this built-in.
I wouldn't necessarily call eWorld the same as "Internet." At the time it was out, AOL also let you browse the actual web. I dunno.
It still seems to me that Microsoft was at worst on-par with other OS makers.
Slashdot Mirror
remind anyone of anything *cough cough* DRM *cough cough* copy protection *cough*
Do you need some Sucrets? Maybe you should have called-in sick to Slashdot today.
Quicksilver is great if you remember the name of the file. I usually don't.
Java on the web is dead since IE removed it from the default install. Sorry, but I think it's going to take more than this to revive it.
The first sentence of my post was "read my posts." I mentioned Expose. Since you obviously haven't bothered to even read what I typed, I have no clue why you're responding.
You're missing the point.
.ini files. What a double standard Apple has created for itself!
Let's assume for the moment that spatial file browsing is a bad idea. Which I completely and utterly disagree with, but let's assume that.
Apple released version 10 of a product that had FEWER features than version 9. Microsoft was able to completely re-write the Office UI from scratch without removing a single feature. Why wasn't Apple able to completely re-write Finder from scratch without losing any features? Why is it acceptable for Apple to make a release with fewer features than the last version, when it's not acceptable for Microsoft, or Adobe, or any other software company?
I don't think it is acceptable. Maybe spatial browsing is a moronic brain-dead way of doing things and only total cretins should use it. Fine. But that doesn't excuse Apple from removing it. Microsoft still supports about a dozen brain-dead ways of doing things, like
That all said, browser-based and search-based file browsing is fine for users with a lot more memory than I have. (For instance, people coming from a CLI interface where you have nothing but memory to locate things.) But for people like me, when I put a file in some location, I expect it to be in that location; my only memory for files is spatial. Human beings have developed a great sense of spatial memory in the last few million years, because that's the way the real world works: if I put down my stapler on my desk, it won't magically appear later on top of my TV. Not taking advantage of this tremendous mental resource every person, hell, every INFANT, has is stupid if you ask me. You're replacing a system that works on a subconscious level with a system that requires conscious memorization of the location and/or name of your files.
I understand that a lot of people (at least people exposed to the crummy Windows 95 "spatial" implementation and people from a DOS/Linux background) prefer a browser-based filesystem. But for all the effort it took Apple to make their pointless and moronic "psuedo-spatial" mode (which appears when you turn off the Finder toolbar), they could have put in a real spatial mode, kept the browser mode, and made everybody happy. The Apple of ten years ago, when they actually cared about UI design, would have done this. The modern Apple hasn't and won't, which is why my next computer will most likely run Windows. After all, if I can't get a feature I love with either Macintosh or Windows, I might as well run Windows which has more software.
For a feature like this, which isn't mutually exclusive with the "new" way of doing things, it's unacceptable to leave your loyal users in the dust while embracing those used to other products. There's no reason OS X can't have both a spatial mode and a browser/column mode at the same time, running in different types of windows. In fact, that exact solution has been outlined in great detail.
And honestly I'm pretty sick of people defending Apple's removal of features by saying "well those features weren't perfect." Nothing's perfect, but for version 10 of a product to have fewer features than version 9 is unacceptable, whether you're Apple or anybody else.
End rant.
I'm not saying that at all! Read my posts!
My point was that Microsoft is currently working to improve the user experience while Apple is not. In the case of Microsoft, the examples given were Office 2007's new interface, and the new task-based Windows Explorer interface. Notice how neither of those things has ANYTHING to do with file browsing. With me?
My example with Apple is that they had a perfect chance to really make improvements with OS X, and instead created a system which was worse by almost every measure than the one that came before. My example is Finder. Got it?
Now please work on your comprehension skills before replying to somebody on Slashdot, ok? Thank you.
Apple didn't try.
Finder does *nothing* new. Even the column view is taken from NeXT. And in the process of doing nothing new, it's less usable by far than the Finder in OS 9 was. Please, tell me where Finder tried to improve file browsing... the fact of the matter is that Apple didn't try.
OS X does have a few UI innovations, notably Expose. But at the same time it's gone way backwards... remember that control panel design Apple ditched after OS 6? It's back in OS X, even though it's worse than the OS 7 control panel.
You can't even sort by file size in the column view. As far as suck goes, the column view is pretty high on the suck scale.
.Mac to the mix.
But what I really miss is:
1) A truly spatial file browser. Now that Finder is a piece of crap, GNOME actually has the most spatial file browser out there. Weird!
2) Network support that didn't totally, utterly suck. The ability to delete 1000 files from a WebDAV share in less than two hours. Or the ability to open up my laptop with no wifi around and not have it seize up in a futile attempt to contact networks that aren't contactable. The crap network support becomes crap squared if you add
3) And of course the all time number one: Version 10 of a product should have MORE features than version 9. Finder removed a ton of features for OS X and only a small subset have been added back in. Not cool, Apple.
Hence, many windows users hate or can't understand the OS X dock or finder.
:) It has nothing to do with being different. (Well, I guess it has to do with being different from something that does not suck.)
Many Mac users hate the Finder, too. That's because the Finder sucks.
Microsoft doesn't give a shit about making you or I happy.
Then explain the new Office interface. Explain the "task-based" interface in XP and Vista versions of Explorer.
Frankly, Microsoft is doing as much or more UI experimentation and improvement than any other company right now, and it's a good thing. Even if their experiments flopped, well, at least they tried... as opposed to Apple who re-wrote Finder from scratch and ended up with something with much worse usability than what they started with in the first place.
Ok mom, let me help you set up your computer... where's the control panel? Where's network settings? How come you can't get to remote desktop? Damn! Let's just set it to Expert so I can work with the damned thing!
I'll be the same thing that happened with the XP "simplified" control panel and Macintosh's "Simple Finder/Launcher" mode... people will immediately turn it back to how it was so they can use the new computer the same way they used the old. I don't think there's a single user who actually spent more than 10 minutes on "Simple Finder" mode.
I think my favorite Douglas Adams quote (paraphrasing here) is:
"The main difference between something that can go wrong and something that can't possibly go wrong is that when the thing which can't possibly go wrong goes wrong, it's always impossible to get at and fix."
Whether he killed somebody, or stole a million dollars, or whatever, I have little sympathy for people who knowingly break the law. That's the point I was making.
Whether or not the extradition is a good thing, I can't work up a lot of sympathy for the jerk who knowingly breaks the law for years, and then gets all whiny when it's time to serve time for it. If there was some reason Australian law couldn't handle the case (maybe the software companies affected don't have offices in Australia?), then I'm glad he was tried in a court that could.
If you want to make me feel sorry for you and go "aw, that sucks," it helps if you're not a thieving pirate.
The real MySQL problem with Unicode is that it hardly supports it. Every other database engine on Earth has proper Unicode support (even SQLite, which isn't even really a database), why is MySQL so far behind everything? The more I use MySQL, the more I hate it. Hate, hate, hate.
Of course, since Dreamhost refuses to install a half-decent database on their servers, I'm stuck using it. Does anybody know how to install Firebird on a Dreamhost account and make it work? Is it even possible?
What are you talking about? He PLEADED GUILTY! How more "examined by a court" could you possibly ask for? If anything, thank him for saving the public from a long and expensive trial and admitting his guilt right away.
I had an accounting book once that was printed in full color and cost a ridiculous amount of money. An ACCOUNTING book in full color. Accounting could easily be printed in black and white or, if you want to get really really fancy, three-color to cut the costs in half.
God forbid those people who don't irrationally hate Microsoft products have a say! That would go against the groupthink.
What do the rioting immigrants expecting from the white French, exactly? It seems to me like they already get far more support than they do in 95% of the countries on Earth, and probably just as much as in the US.
Every OTHER commentary on the recent riots (except yours) hold that the rioters, while not technically immigrants, are not at all assimilated into French culture and nearly all, if not all, were Muslims. The media, in the interest of political correctness, tends to call them "youths." I'd be interested to know what your source is, and why you're saying the opposite of everybody else.
The Democratic platform was so weak the last two Presidential elections that a phrase like that (if anybody even said it in an official sense) would be completely unnecessary. I know Democrats hate to admit it, but they've had a lot of weak candidates lately. I believe that probably 90% of votes for John Kerry were actually votes against Bush, since Kerry was such a weak candidate.
There's the more general term "discrimination," if there was actually any. Which I doubt.
In any case, "racism" certainly doesn't apply.
The French bashing is just a joke anyway. It's not like it happens at the diplomatic level or anything.
"You mean you can't enforce this copyright contract without copyright laws!? GASP!"
Apple didn't have PPP support (required for modem Internet connections) until version 7.5 or later, IIRC. Before then you had to use a shareware control panel to simulate PPP support. Windows 95 came with this built-in.
I wouldn't necessarily call eWorld the same as "Internet." At the time it was out, AOL also let you browse the actual web. I dunno.
It still seems to me that Microsoft was at worst on-par with other OS makers.
So you work for a company that makes 3D masturbation software for furry fetishists and pedophiles, and that's better than working at Microsoft? Ok...