RHFtech Help Desk (and more)

It took Microsoft 24 years but today they release a version of Windows that is the best client operating system they have ever sold. The UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience) is a big improvement over Windows Vista and XP. I believe that Microsoft Windows 7 surpasses Mac Snow Leopard in many ways particularly in the UI/UX and that Apple is now playing catch-up.

Kudos to Stephen Sinofsky and his team for a job incredibly well-done.

The busy Google software engineers have added extra features to the Google Calendar which are not enabled by default. You need to go Calendar Labs and enable the ones that appeal to you.

They recently added a Year View button (its on the right side of my calendar web page). Once you select the year and click the Go button a full year view shows up that looks like this.

This article’s title is turnabout on the French proverb, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” That is not the case in technology. I know many examples where technological enhancements cause the need for further improvement or refinement. Technology often changes our behavior causing a need to adjust to the new behavior. At times this feels like an infinite recursion, which it may well be. (As an aside, Googling “recursion” will display Google’s attempt at logical humor.)

An example of this occurred in the mid-1970s. I worked at Citicorp and had been a member of the team that invented the modern ATM, which we called CATs (Customer Activated Terminals). We saw these machines as a way of substituting capital for labor, replacing the need for branch tellers and shifting the work load from the bank to the customer. I was in line at the headquarter branch waiting to use one of the ATMs. It was Friday afternoon and the line was long since we all wanted cash for the weekend. There were no lines in the teller area and four available tellers. I couldn’t use a teller because I didn’t have a check with me. I could use the ATM because I had my Citicard. The tellers could not give a customer cash from his Citicard. We had succeeded in changing customer behavior thereby unbalancing demand in favor of the machines. Citibank eventually fixed this and today tellers can work with a customer’s card.

Recently, People’s United Bank changed their ATMs to add a question when one first interacts with the machine inquiring what language would we want. This is a good change, except that I don’t feel I need to answer this question more than once. People’s should program their systems to remember my response since it is highly unlikely I will ever answer that question differently. Perhaps someday someone at People’s will wake up and implement the change. This is a small thing but an annoyance brought about by a change that should be changed again.

It is great that our computers can multitask. In the early days of personal computers this was not possible. You either worked on a word processing document or spreadsheet but not both simultaneously. Have you ever worked on something, perhaps a document, and the computer pops up a message from another application, stealing the system focus, breaking your concentration and frustrating you. There should be a way for us to tell our computers to not do that. Perhaps someday we will be able to mute these responses just as we can turn a cellphone to vibrate rather than ring.

I can think of many innovations that lead to annoyances that I would love to fix. I use many Google services, Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Google Voice, Google Wave, Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Maps… It would be nice if Google spent less time creating new services and integrated what they have so that I don’t have to have so many Google tabs opened in my browser. (iGoogle is not the answer.)  Update 2009/10/15 7:01a: A Firefox add-on Integrated Gmail addresses much of this issue. It does not seem to work with Google for Your Domain, e.g. rhftech.com.

Another example is that my Kindle can play audiobooks from Audible. Both Kindle and Audible are parts of Amazon. The Kindle reverts to a standby screen after a certain period of inactivity. Unfortunately, it does this while I am listening to an audiobook because it does not recognize the audio playback as “activity”.  I then need to move the “power” button to the right to wake up the Kindle. The power button is not easily moved. This is like having the standby screen popup while I am reading a page. This should be reprogrammed.

I can think of many more instances of a need for change brought about by change. I’ll bet you can too. Add a comment to the blog post and tell me what you want to change. Perhaps we can get some of them made.

Gmail Labs has two features that may save you embarrassment:

Don’t forget Bob

Got the Wrong Bob?

Enable them in Gmail by clicking on the Settings link in the upper right of the web page and clicking on the Labs tab or click on the beaker icon. The two Labs features are located next to each other near the bottom of the Labs list. Don’t forget to click the Save Changes button before leaving the Labs tab.

I just got an NVIDIA update for a Windows 7 64-bit computer’s video card, via Windows Update. My computer’s video card performance went from a rating of 1.0 to 6.9. And the computer’s Base score, its overall rating, went from 1.0 to 5.9.  

A system’s Base score is the lowest rating for any of the tested hardware devices.

The highest possible rating in Windows 7 Experience Index is 7.9. The highest possible rating in Vista is 5.9.

The Base score of 5.9 is limited by the primary hard drive, a 1TB Seagate 7200 RPM with a 32MB cache. I suspect if I replace that drive with a solid state drive (SSD) the computer’s , current 5.9 Base score would rise to 6.9, the video card’s current ratings.

I just sent the following comment to the Microsoft employee, Alex Kochis, Director, Genuine Windows, responsible for the Windows Genuine Advantage program. (It should be named Windows Genuine Pain-in-the-ass Program.)

I am a TechNet member and a Microsoft Partner. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate RTM (64bit). Windows 7 reports that "Windows has been activated".

I keep getting alerts "You may be a victim of software counterfeiting…"

I am not. Your god awful Genuine Advantage software is in my face and only because you don’t know what you are doing. I once had a Vista machine terminated by your servers going down. I am more than a little tired of this.

I am frustrated and angered by your incompetence. Either get this right of go away but stop annoying me.

Steven Sinofsky versus x Steve Jobs

The User Interface (UI) is the point at which we interact with all sorts of devices. System designers control the UI. They hope to create a positive, seamless User Experience (UX). The UX is a feeling based upon the ease and pleasure we experience in performing common or infrequent actions. Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch have a great UI that delivers a marvelous UX. Newer automotive UIs break established automobile control practices placing the uninitiated at sea. That is not a good UX for them.

Snow Leopard (SL) is the latest iteration of the Mac operating system. Windows 7 (W7) is Microsoft’s. The SL UI is little changed from Leopard, its predecessor OS. There are subtle tweaks that many users will not notice or access.

The W7 UI enhances the Vista UI. Vista implemented significant UI changes from Windows XP, most noticeably a redesigned Start menu and Windows Explorer window. W7 adds some neat eye candy via its Aero features that are fun to demonstrate and to use, and make the UX better. The redesigned Taskbar and the addition of Jump Lists to Start menu and Taskbar application links are a big change from Vista or XP.

Menus/Shortcuts

Apple separates application shortcuts from its menu bar. These may appear on the desktop, the Dock or in the Application folder. The menu bar is a relatively static object that displays whichever application has the system focus, even if it has no exposed or open window.

Many users do not appreciate what an unwieldy bit of UI the Dock is because it is great eye candy. It has bouncing, zooming icons and the Genie effect when we minimize windows. This entertains but masks the Docks deficiencies. It takes up a significant part of the window. Its functionality is non-obvious and is limited.

The W7 Taskbar and Start menu are more integrated. You can pin application or document shortcuts to either one. Aero Peak makes it easy to navigate to different windows or tabs within an application or across applications. The Taskbar consumes a small amount of the screen. (Advantage: Windows 7)

File Manager

Finder is the Mac file system application. It is kludgy by comparison to Windows Explorer. You can only resize the Finder window from one location, the lower right corner. Windows Explorer has 8 places for resizing, the 4 corners and the 4 sides. Finder has 4 views: Icons, List, Columns and Cover Flow. Windows Explorer has 8: Extra Large, Large, Medium and Small Icons, List, Details, Tile and Content. It also has a very useful breadcrumb navigation menu and links to favorites, libraries, Homegroup, Computer and Network locations. (Advantage: Windows 7)

Search

Search in both operating systems is robust and mature. Apple has Spotlight , which appears on both the Menu bar and in Finder windows. It is simple to access Spotlight by pressing the "CMD key + Space". Spotlight search is almost instantaneous and incredibly accurate.

W7 improves on the Vista Start menu search bar . It is faster and more accurate. It is a little bit slower than Spotlight but as accurate. It is easier to configure Spotlight preferences than Windows search. (Advantage: Snow Leopard)

Media

I find it easier to play or view media on Snow Leopard. But I don’t like the limitations imposed by Apple on how many and what machines with which I can share my iTunes.

I like most of the Windows 7 media applications better. I suggest you try the new Zune player application to see why.  Also Windows 7 lets you network your media files with any machine you want without limit. (Advantage: Tie)

Networking

x

Macs used to be much easier to network than Windows. W7 changes this. Its network wizards are easy to use and understand. Homegroup, networking 2 or more W7 computers, is simple. W7 is not as good at connecting to Macs as SL is at connecting to Windows. (Advantage: Tie)

Conclusion

x

I find the Windows 7 UX more pleasing than Snow Leopard’s. I think you will too.