effort to dash back home and read my electricity metre (sspppppllllltrrrr)
I failed to comply with their instructions promptly enough to avert this repeated messaging eperience. Like McAfee, Southern Electric appear dedicated to using modern technology to harass me, uneccessarily
McAfee thinks that I need a shortcut on my desktop for quick access to it’s internet security software.
I disagree because I:
can easily find McAfee with one-click from the desktop from a system tray icon- the desktop shortcut is redundant
NEVER need one-click quick access to McAfee – when it isn’t already open
keep a clean desktop – it has no shortcuts or documents on it. I find this aesthetically pleasing and it doesn’t interfere with what I’m actually doing
But McAfee is not content to simply disagree with me, it proactively bullies me! – everytime I delete the desktop shortcut – it REPLACES it!!!!! This is worse than merely ignoring my request – this is reversing my request, ignoring me with knobs on!
Luckily, I’m prepared to spend time playing around in software settings, so I set off to find the “Don’t automatically place a shortcut cut on the desktop” setting in the main program. Guess what? There isn’t one!!!!!! It take a lot longer to find out that something doesn’t exist, then to find that it does, because it requires a complete, exhaustive, search. That makes me 700 exclaimation marks ANGRY!!!!!!!
Maybe I can suggest to McAfee that they change this poor user experience, or maybe they can tell me how to remove the pesky, unnecessary, irritating, shortcut. A trip to the McAfee website might help. What do you think?
I had to install “Citrix Gotoassist” before I could chat to my “representative”. If this software is an integral part of the McAfee service then it should be pre-installed with the application and available from within the application. This would reduce the number of technical hoops that the wendy has to jump through when she needs support. It would also reduce the time taken to get first-time support.
My representative told me that the design team are working on an improvement that will be included in the next automatic update. Excellent.
If McAfee had employed user experience experts to review their software they would never have made such a basic software design error in the first place.
My security software should be inobtrusive, it should be there and accessible. It should not be bullying me and requiring me to install extra components before answering my support questions. Generally a very poor show by McAfee
Berkshire Records Office Receptionist (BROR):What are you looking for?
Wendy: Um….history… …nothing in particular… …just browsing…. …um…….what have you got that’s good?
BROR: We’ve got lots of maps, even before the Ordnance Survey started
Wendy: Oh! that sounds good, I like maps, I’ll look at the maps
Large filing cabinates skirt the windows of the records office. Microfiche’s mount rows of dustless, grey, formica tables against the windowless walls. A large table holds the map-drawers down in the middle of the room. Can you tell I was getting a bit excited by it all?
At University in 1983 we had to book time using one of the 3 Microfiche machines – grubbied from thousands of sparingly washed students fingers. Here there are sparkling rows of them, unused! My gleeful gawping was quickly interrupted
BRO librarian: what are you looking for?
Wendy: I’d like to just browse, your colleague suggested maps… ….Reading’s Quaker history is interesting too…
The librarian looked disconcerted, I was getting disconcerted. He latched onto my Quaker suggestion and pointed me to the local records subject index filing cabinates. The drawer made a pleasing, heavy, swish sound as he opened it. He suggested looking under “Q” for Quakers or “S” for Society of friends. No hint of my ancient PhD on finding files in electronic filing systems had seeped into this librarians awareness. I smiled and resisted the urge to raise his awareness.
PAPER INDEX CARDS!
!!!!SQUWALLUP!!!!!
(The sound of my brain spasming within my cranium confines)
Index cards. Hand-typed in courier-font. Lined cards where the typing didn’t sit on the lines. Cards where one card is the index for multiple items – so it’s expensive to add new stuff in the right order. Thrilling! The colour returned to my face with a big smile. I didn’t need to find anything, this card system was enough to keep me happy for hours, days, possibly years if they don’t upgrade it. I wonder if they have any part time or volunteer jobs…..
The librarian noticed my smile and politely took his leave to help another lady, who was clutching a handful of cards. I tucked into the “S“s – Settlement, Scutage, Sheriffs, Slavery, Suffragettes…
The Librarian returned about an hour later. My hands still deep in the yellowing index cards
BRO librarian: are you doing ok?
Wendy: Oh yes! YES! I’ve found out lots of lovely stuff. I’d never heard of Scutage, Quietus or Lugg before now!
He beamed a lovely smile and grew quietly animated as he showed me how to use the index card reference numbers to track down the physical location of an item in a herd of big folders. To practice I picked a card titled “Services, Personal” where in 1396 a married couple had sold themselves in return for the things they needed to live – a home and a place to keep their sheep
The afternoon slip-slided away on paper cards labelled with “S”
We’ve already established that I have a healthy interest in the design, reference to, and use of Toilets.
So you can imagine my excitement when Ms. Scarlet recently introduced a series of blog posts called the “Friday Flush. Scarlet will be the ‘mystery shopper’ in loos all over the South West and beyond. Excellent! As part of this investigative journalism Scarlet has invited commenters to suggest assessment criteria for the loos being investigated. I was having so much fun with thinking of criteria I think I’ve probably gone a little over the top, what do you think?
Aroma intensity (none <-> faint-inducing)
Aroma type (pleasant <-> acrid)
Discoverability (hidden with no signs – entrance embarressingly visible)
Drafts (Gale force 9 <-> still)
Drying technology (bring your own <-> fresh fluffy towels provided)
Functionality (incomplete <-> swish)
Mould factor (none <-> suspicious stuff growing all over the show)
Price (free <-> entry turn style requires exact cash)
Privacy (airtight and sound-proofed <-> ankles and feet exposed and splashes clearly audible)
Resources (bring your own <->plush)
Space ( breath in <-> synchronised wheel-chair choreography is a realistic possibility)
Sociability (one at a time please <-> sofa’s and social games provided)
Sparkle (matt <-> bum-fluff refelction)
Splash factor (dry <-> soaked)
Style (dead rat <-> yummy)
Temperature (Ice on the water <-> Oven)
Washing (taps/fawcetts dont work <-> they even have a b-day!)
Wit (no smiles <-> laughed my pants-off)
Facebook is determined to suggest that I buy high healed shoes, loose weight and look younger. Sometimes all 4 advertisements are about weightloss. I always mark them as offensive because I have a healthy weight and lack of obsession with dieting.
Perhaps facebook should include BMI (Body Mass Index) as a field in people’s personal information so that it doesn’t irresponsibly promote dieting to people who are underwieght.
As you’ve probably noticed, I am repeatedly annoyed by the fact that Facebook perpetually ignores my responses to the controls it provides for rating these adverts. I tell facebook that I find dieting, and female conformity (make-up etc) advertisements offensive. What’s the point of asking me if they are going to ignore my responses. Given that they ignore my feedback the adverts feel like harrassment.
Tyntesfield house has a bell-pull system to call servants. At the foot of the servant’s stairwell each bell is labelled with its location. I was surprised to see that nearly all the bells are the same size and shape.
They sound the same, they look the same.
Servants had to look at the bell moving then read the room description beneath to work out where they should go.
Soon the evening was buzzing with quick animated talk as we used our 2 minute timed slots to promote our favourite book to each other. 20 people, each with 2 minutes to entice another person to read their favourite book. At the end of the 40 minutes we all voted for the book we liked-best.
A fascinating cross section of books, people and Library staff. All personable, quirky and good natured. And me. Organising this diverse collection of literary enthusiasts is a challenge. The Reading Central library team failed with flare and improvised with charming grace.
For people that want a novel introduction to a range of books, to meet local people, and have a good swig of wine thrown in, this is an excellent event.
Two minute book promotion techniques varied from reading 4 pages of bulleted notes on a book I’d been given as an 18th birthday present, read, and loved (Lynne’s Gormenghast trilogy) to Marie Claire’s brief, almost self-apologetic, statement ‘Its like a soap opera, its about people‘ (Men from the boys by Tony Parsons).
Adam produced a polished, yet souless, advocation ofWuthering Heights. If I hadn’t already read the book his persepctive ofnHeathcliffe as misunderstood by the general reading public would have put me off reading it. Adam had no sense of tailoring his delivery to the audience, to me. His delivery felt cold, dispassionate.
Arathy bought the book that had changed her life ‘The science of self realisation‘ by his divine grace Srila Prabhupada. Ernestly she showed me chapter headings and managed to talk in a way that I found difficult to follow. I tried asking her questions about how it had changed her life but she didn’t manage to give me an insight into her revelations, her life before and her life after the change. I was pleased for her discovery but not persuaded that this book would engage me.
During a mid-session break I uncovered snippits of these people’s lives, an emigrant from Australia, an unemployed teenager from Henley-on-Thames, and a mother who’s children had recently left home learning German to fill the gap. No-one asked about me. Even in the midst of lively conversations my ability to feel invisible seeps in.
when I asked Pat if I could photograph the information navigation system Pat was using in preparation for the PRINCE2 practioners open-book exam, Pat blushed and said ‘I can be a bit anal sometimes‘
Pat’s desk was equally well ordered, there was an elegance and functionality to the layout
I sat between Pat and Sam. After photographing Pat’s book and desk I asked Sam if I could photograph Sam’s book and desk
Sam smiled, giggled a little, and said yes. Sam spent time colour coding the highlighted sections, reading and highlighting, tearing-up post-it notes to strips then placing them on pages as we encountered information. As the course progressed the post-it notes became creased and were moved around, re-ordered. Sam’s desk looked a little hap-hazard to the outsider but in reality there was clear order and functionality to the process being used.
My book? No highlights, no highlighter pen, no post-it notes, page markers or even pencil notes.
What?!
My plan was not to spend any time finding stuff in the book during the 2 and a half hour exam, not to create and remember colour-coding systems. Why not? My goal was to understand the book’s contents to a level that alleviates the need for reference and developing a reference system beyond the existing contents list, index and glossary. Novel approach for this course where the instructors actually told us what to highlight! A risky approach because there is more information in the book than I could learn in the time I’ve been studying. Not marking-up the book was partly a motivation to learn the contents.
To my amazement – I PASSED! without opening the book in an open book exam! Now many people might say that’s just
A persistent challenge for people that use search engines to look for things in Reading (Berks, UK) is that the search engines don’t even try to differentiate between Reading the place and reading the activity. Consequently, any search results contain lots of obviously irrelevant results that are about reading (rhymes with feeding). The human searcher has to skim read all of the contents to mentally filter-out the irrelevant results.
To help reduce the irrelevant reading (rhymes with needing) search results I normally include the local county, Berkshire (rhymes with Bark sure), in the search terms. This helps a bit, but not enough. Maybe Reading tourist encouragers, could lobby the search engine providers to introduce novel, useful, search refinements, like
Include word case in the search parameters and assume words starting with capitols indicate proper nouns in both web pages and search terms. Unfortunately, my random use of capitolisation means this may not work for me.
a ‘Rhymes with’ feature where likely options are provided for selection. The options could include words to account for variations in regional accents. I’d have such fun with that kind of option, and it would make all my searches for Reading (rhymes with wedding) both efficient and fun!
Though if leading (Rhymes with Reading and reading) was an option I’d probably pick it without realising…
While estolling the virtues of my fabulous new washing machine a local German said
Have you heard of Miele? They’re a German company, they make the best washing machines
wendy: YES!
The Wendy House in the USA came with its own, new Washing Machine. No photograph and I can only vaguely remember it. It was a GE toploader. A big ugly thing with only 3 dials as control, each with 3 settings, I think they were
load size (small, medium, large)
temperature (cool, medium, hot)
spin speed (slow, medium, fast)
Simple design, not much room for making a mistake. Nothing to indicate temperature in a manner that could map to the labels put on clothes, no indication of wash-time, or cycle time. It did have a buzzer alarm that rang when it had finished.
I didn’t feel proud of it, it didn’t feel good to use, I took no pride in my laundry. Blugh. It worked and was very reliable. It lasted all 7 years that I lived in the USA without a hiccup, so I never had an excuse to replace it. But I suspect you know that I missed my European washing machine.
The 2 weeks of laundry build-up, while waiting for my magnificent Miele, has been dealt with quietly, quickly, with economic water consumption. The water-supply to my home is on a meter, I pay for the water that I use so the intelligent water-usage by the Miele will save me pennies and maybe pounds.
The Miele is not beautiful in the modern sense of gentle curves, stylish coloured fonts, innovative control layout. To me it looks ‘retro’ with its simple controls
a clearly labeled dial-knob to select a wash based on water-temperature that maps to the temperatures placed on clothes-labels. Material types are suggested by temperature settings
clearly labeled buttons for on/off, start, and to toggle through spin options
Clear grouping of these controls and displays
A light flashes next to the start button when I’ve selected a wash and closed the door – enticing me to press start
A light displays the stage of the wash-cycle telling me what is happening now
A digital clock counts down the time to the wash being completed
The door is almost as big as the drum-size enabling me to put stuff in and pull it out easily
From looking at the controls, and conducting several washes the only thing I haven’t discovered is whether there is a time to delay wash start. Looks like I’ll have to check the user manual. Doh. At least I got my immediate gratification from the knobs, dials, buttons and flashing lights. Sigh.
A quick review of the text-heavy, picture-light, user manual shows that it doesn’t have a delayed-start timing function. This explains why I couldn’t work out how to use a delay start timer from merely twiddling the knobs and dials.
Two men from John Lewis’ electricals (JLE) arrived to take away my defuncted Indesit and replace it with a magnificent miele. Miele’s company slogan is ‘Forever Better’ they build products to last and provide better user experiences. They pass-on the cost of achieving this goal to their customers. I’d rather not have to replace a washing machine several times in a decade. This machine should last me several decades. Awesome!
The men from JLE looked at the old Indesit which came with the house 3 years ago. Audible tutting noises….
JLE: its not disconnected. We can’t do anything until its disconnected. I’ll go away and come back in 10 minutes, that should give you time to disconnect it
wendy: Oh, I thought you guys would do that as part of the removal and deliver
JLE: Oh no, that’s a whole different service, that’s installation, we haven’t been instructed to install your machine, you’ll have to do that
wendy: ashame, if the sales-process had offered me disconnection and installation I would probably have bought it
I pull the washing machine out from under the kitchen counter, turn the valves on the hot and cold water supplied to the off position, disconnect the supplies, remove the water-outlet pipe and unplug the machine from the power source. Easy. Didn’t need to pay someone to do that, I’m glad John Lewis’s didn’t sell me that service.
JLE: remember to remove the transport bars before you use it. If you don’t remove the bars it will break the machine
wendy: transport bars? what are they, where are they? are there any instructions?
JLE: just read the manual miss, its all in the manual, do what it says in the manual
After loading the Indesit onto their trolley, both removal men washed thier hands it my fabulous butler sink. The transport bars hold the drum in place while the machine is being moved. The instructions were clear and easy to follow, within 5 minutes my Miele was connected to power, water supply, water removal pipe and ready to go. Awesome.
People who have recieved one of my hand written letters have all used their phone’s to let me know, on the day the letter arrived. I have recieved texts and phone calls, its lovely. Lovely because they are not automatic, system generated, confirmations. They are exhuberantly happy, personalised, stories which make my day brighter.
Sometimes automating functionality, like message-reciept can remove the communicative properties that add value beyond knowing that, they remove the knowing how. An automated reciept confirmation would let me ‘know that’ the message was recieved but not give me any clue to ‘how’ the person experienced recieving the message.
From the above text I know that the letter recipient recognised my writing before even opening the letter. She knew it was from me. I can reasonably infer that she was happy at this point before even opeing the letter, then she expresses how enduring this experience is for her. Definitely something worth my doing again. Before phone usage was common, the main way that I knew a letter had arrived was when I recieved a letter written in response, often days, weeks, or months later.
By contrast, here on the blog, I suspect the emotional impact of my writing is less durable. Partly because it isn’t personal. A blog post is for the author or an audience, not for an individual. I only know ‘how’ the post is recieved when people take the time to write a comment or click on the hearts to illustrate that they like it. Many more people read the posts than leave me feedback on how they experienced it.
I used to have Microsoft Office 2003 installed on Neverland. I haven’t yet bothered putting it in the cupboard because I don’t have the patience to wait for 7 years worth of updates to install. Many of my files are word files, (.doc). When I tried to open them in the Microsoft Works Word processor it didn’t recognise their format, neither did wordpad.
Recently I’ve moved home and contents insurance providers from, you guessed it, Natwest to the Building Society that provides my mortgage. This has increased my coverage, reduced my cost, but best of all I’ve had two fun phonecall with the insurance phone service people who were memorable as real people.
The first lady, Nicola, that produced the quote and posted the documentation told me all about how her cat’s tail set-off her neighbours motion-sensitive alarm. The nieghbour had adjusted the sensor to be above cat height without taking into account her cat’s unusually long tail. Excellent, I found out lots about her neighbour; the history of her doors, all stuff that I didn’t need to know that made me smile. It was wonderful, I didn’t feel like Nicola was getting through a required script as fast as possible to reach a quota. She gave me her name, extension phone number, and told me her working hours while reassuring me that anyone on the help line could help me.
The second chap I spoke to, Sam, after reading the documentation talked to me about his philosophy of life and how things have changed
10 years ago if you smiled at 10 people when you walk down the street, 8 of them would smile back. Nowadays only about 6 people will smile back. A smile doesn’t cost much and it comes back to you
Again, he seemed like he had the space to be himself, I didn’t feel rushed, we made progress but best of all the phone call was enjoyable.
In the Reading town central library, they demonstrate their signage literally. I was left wishing that all signs were large print because my spectacles were not up to standard for the standard print signage.
Producing a painting is very different from producing high quality software, it also has some key similarities. The similarities stem from the fact that you can’t do something this complicated right the first time, you need to take steps and reflect on how well each step is working, then make changes to improve it. You need to iterate.
Different iterations have a different focus. Below are the iterations for my last portrait, of Jasper. The inspirational photograph is on the left hand side, the 6 iterations move from a sketch on the right to the final version next to the photograph. I planned 4 iterations and had to add one because iteration 4 (the pale one) didn’t work aswell as I’d hoped.
Plan: The conceptual work for the painting is done before the sketch; getting to know the subject (Jasper) and the ‘user’ (Jaspers owner) what does the user want from the picture, where would they like to hang it in their home, how do they see the subject? This is the eqivalent of market research, product planning, and conceptual design explorations for a software project
Architecture: The first sketches are of the composition, the placement of features the use of space. No paint. How is the information organised in a way that makes sense. You can see how I made Jasper’s eyes look more upwards and towards the viewer than in the photograph. I wanted Jasper to look more directly at the ‘user’ . This is the ‘Information Architecture’ for a software development project – where is everything in relationship to everything else
Foundations: The first coat of paint is a base, it wont be seen in the final version but it emphasises or mutes the colours on top. For darker areas use a dark base, for brighter colours use a light base. For software this is equivalent to wireframing the user-journeys through the software. The text may not be accurate, but the general idea of the interactions are in place
Technical investigations: With this painting I tried several techniques that I had never used before such as layering a watery-thin layer of white paint then using a brush to partially remove it, hoping this would create a finer texture impression of fur than I could achieve with a brush. For software projects the developers are often trying out how new technologies that can solve technical challenges and add value to the design. I love watching software engineers get all excited about technical proof of concepts
Filling in the framework: Successive layers add more detailed colour and texture, I had trouble getting the colour-mix to work. Between each coat the artist reflects on how well they are achieving their vision, making adjstments with each coat. Gradually the painting begins to look like the final product. But it’s clumsy, edges are not smooth, features are slightly mishapen, colours are too bright. For software products this is the production and testing of the code
Fit and finnish: The final level details, this might be a glaze wash over the painting. For software this can be checking the details are consistent, the performance is smooth, the visuals are complete.
software developer: do you interact with the customer?
wendy: I talk to people while I watch them use our stuff and give them tips on how to get the most out of using it
My ability to liberally apply single syllable words at work, when multisyllable jargon will do, is outrageouss. In the photo you see me demostrating how to use the ‘hunt and peck’ keyboard technique. I also have a compulsion to think of people as people rather than income sources (customers)
Sometimes the price of classic style is an embarressing loss in ease of use. Thomas’s door handles are a nice example. Classic car door handle design from the 60′s. But. There is a reason why this design fell from common use. It’s difficult for a substantial proportion of the population to use.
The dip you can see in the left is a key-entry for unlocking manually with a key. The dip is a pleasing and an enticing place to put your thumb when you grab the handle with one hand. Inside the sturdy chrome handle is a graduated black plastic bar hinged and thinner on the right hand side. To open the door you pull the black plastic bar against the chrome handle. Put your hand around the handle and gently squeeze. Sounds good, looks good.
I expected it to feel good.
I expected a firm gentle squeeze would open the door. It didn’t. I had to try several times and actually ended up using my body-weight to get enough pressure to open the door. I had trouble every time I tried to open the door. Was the spring action poorly adjusted? Am I a wimp? It was annoying, I expected better from a modern car.
How would you grab this handle?
Can you see how the designers had failed to design well for my behavior?
My thumb is on the wrong side. My little finger is grabbing the black plastic bar at its widest point. The widest point is where it’s easiest to get the most leverage to pull to open the door. Alas my pinky wasn’t up to it and I was applying most force with my first finger, near the hinge, where more force is needed. Sigh.
The door handles on the modern Mini are designed for right handed people. That’s a prejudice I could do without.
This is how I’ve solved my problem. I place my hand in the gap ‘upside down’ its a less pleasing experience but it opens the door first time. My brothers and many friends are also left handed. If, when I give them a lift, I don’t warn them about this design flaw they often tell me that I’ve left the passenger door locked because they too cannot open the door with their most natural of movements. I don’t like having to tell my friends and family how to open the passenger door. It’s embarressing for me and for them. How bad is a design when you have to tell people how to open a door, A DOOR! There are lots of different ways BMW could have maintained the look and feel of the original Mini without introducing designs that disabled a substantial proportion of the population.
Oh! Looks like Mozilla Thunderbird is having a sulk. She’s ignoring me and legitimising the offense by using psuedo-medical jargon – ‘not responding’ to treatment by wendy. Less than 24hrs after putting her in the cupboard. TUSH!
After reading this message I went in search of a way to ‘closethe exsiting Thunderbird process’ . I’m not used to closing a process and a quick look in the Windows 7 starter task manager confirmed my suspicion that this was pretty scary. Instead, I decided on the more familiar, easier, way to close something. I closed the only program I knew that I was using at the same time. I closed IE8. Then tried to start Thunderbird. That worked. That sorted the problem.
Close IE to fix Thunderbird. Confusing. Two programs that just aren’t playing nicely together, squabbling and leaving me to be doctor and arbitrater. Sigh.
The subtle differences in the way the companies are can be seen in the promotional designs for their current campaigns. The Natwest prmotion is neat and tidy with photographs of brochures, big old buildings and staff wearing a uniform and name tag. By contrast the Co-op promotion includes an imitation of hand-written text corrections, a childs plastic toy, the colloquial word ‘dump’, and anthropomophises the Bank by refering to it as ‘someone’.
Moving from being treated as a sales opportunity to being recognised as a person feels really good. The Natwest customer charter, to become the most helpful bank is definitiely an admirable goal that shows they are aware of one of their key shortcomings. They have a long way to go, helpfulness is not something I’d noticed in their recent everyday service. By contrast, the staff at the Co-op actually
listened to me
asked me sensible questions that I could understand
made fun little observations that made me smile and demonstrated the lack of corporate dehumanising of their staff, and
provided understandable advice.
YAY
While in the Reading Co-op branch I overheard someone comment on the recruitment poster in the branch suggesting that people dump their old bank :
How to get rid of an unused program on Windows 7 Starter
I clicked on the ‘control panel’
Under ‘adjust your computers settings I clicked on ‘uninstall program’
I chose Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 from the list
I clicked uninstall program
But windows doesn’t want to accept this action without further confirmation, I might not mean it, this might be an accident, do I REALLY want to uninstall this program?
I clicked on the ‘yes’ button with extra force to demonstrate my certainty.
YES
Large and bold, that’s how I felt. That’s what I wanted the button to say. This was no accidental uninstall.
I wonder how often people do accidentally select something to uninstall, click ‘No’ on this dialog. If it is a genuine problem then fixing should happen before this point, improve the users ability to select the program initially, more information with larger clickable target rather than questioning the users ability to be ‘sure’.
This reminded me of the XP shut down process where you have to choose shutdown at least 2 times before it will actually do what you’ve asked, and only then if some programs haven’t objected to your wishes. Luckily Windows 7 Starter simply shuts down when I ask
an hour-glass next to the cursor to indicate that the computer is doing something
partially obscured notificiations, or hover-overs, hanging around on the desktop – poor fit and finnish
a task manager that looks exactly the same as XP’s
No snipping tool, just like XP. I quite liked this built-in Windows tool, but I guess its not widely used tool
There are some ways that Windows 7 starter is definitely not like my old XP Pro. These are defintiely not little things, for example,
Indexed desktop file search. With my thousands of photographs this is wonderful
Tagging for files. Excellent, this is a real bonus over XP, especially if, like me, you spend the long lonely winter evenings drinking vin chaud and classifying your lovelly photographs of Matrix
No cascading menus. finding stuff in my ‘Start’ menu is easy as ‘search’ none of those fiddly cascading menus. HoooooooooRAH
Network and sharing centre. this is lovely, it arrived in Windows Vista and has a network connection troubleshooting tool. While I use it rarely it does a great job worth doing
Task based control panels. In the control panel the controls are grouped, sensible groups, easy to navigate by tasks and no option to view them in ‘classic’ (XP or Windows 2000) list format. I like this. It’s relatively easy to find out if a control exists or not
No Windows Movie Maker. There is no windows moviemaker onWindows 7 starter. This is an application I rarely used, but it would have been nice to be able to edit the media-clips that my digital camera produces. Ho hum. If a cheaper version has less features this is one that I would vote for excluding
No mail client. XP included Outlook Express which I used to use so that I could manage all my email while offline, store it on my laptop. Windows 7 expects you to be online, using the cloud all the time. They provide a complimentary free trial of Office 2007 but it doesn’t include the Office mail client – Outlook. I enjoyed the benefits of having a local store of my mail from multiple email accounts. Now I have to go online or purchase a mail client. Sigh.
Sync centre. There is a sync centre with a control for setting-up offline file sync, but nothing happens when I click on it, not even any feedback that says I can’t do this or what I need to do to set it up. I used to use this in XP Professional on Darling
Personalisation. I can’t change the desktop background, or pick a fun colour scheme, lack of this fun functionality is just silly. Even ‘starters’ want to personalise thier stuff
A quick look at the questions and answers on this forum for super users implies that they would rather have XP on their Netbooks than Windows 7 Starter. On balance, for me, Windows 7 starter is working well enough with the exception of not being allowed technically or legally to change the desktop background.
I will probably find more differences as I start to fully use the Cupboard, for now these are the immediately noticable differences.
My first day with the cupboard got off to a spanking start. Hoorah!
Then things suddenly slipped to a chug, and
Finally I went to bed without even getting to use the cupboard. Booooo!
Here’s my story:
1. get safely online
connect to the internet
download Windows updates, reboot
download MacAfee updates, reboot
download Microsoft update, reboot
It took about 10 mintues from pulling the Cupboard from its box to going online. Great start. It took about 4 hours and 3 reboots to get all the software security updates installed. While I’m glad to have the live software security updates, 4 hours and 3 reboots seems a bit clumsy and dulls the shine of the new-computer experience that Sony manages to make really smooth.
2.get copies of my pictures, music, favourites and programme setting from Neverland
While all the downloading and installing and rebooting was going on I gathered all the files from Neverland using the file transfer wizard. It’s really cool because it doesn’t
actually transfer, it copies
copy only files it, it does things you use like favourites and program settings.
I adore that automatic copy everything wizard! While it’s copying stuff on Neverland I can’t use Neverland for anything. This took about 2 hours. Urgh. While Cupboard was still installing and rebooting I couldn’t use the Cupboard. This meant that both my computers were unusable for for several hours. Ouch!
3.put copies on the Cupboard
Part of the transfer process. Another couple of hours waiting before I can use the Cupboard.
4. Clean-up the installed software
Getting rid of all the stuff that Sony has put on Windows for reasons that baffle me. For example, Sony have built a navigation toolbar, it behavies like the Apple Mac Navigation toolbar and is on this PC as well as the standard, dull-but-functional Windows task bar. After a quick investigation of the contents and functionality of the Sony toolbar I zap the bugger of my netbok – when the screensize is this small I dont want duplication functionality especially when it irritatingly appears and disappears.
I also have to unpin some advertising stuff, such as the free trial of the already dated Microsoft Office 2007, from the Windows task bar.
5.Backup everything. Windows and files
Sony Viao recommends that I burn a back-up disc, but the Cupboard doesn’t have a CD drive and they haven’t provided me with an external one. This little hiccup was not made clear at the purchase point – they should have told me that I might want to purchase a USB CD burner/player so that I can back-up my computer. I used the Windows back-up to back-up on an external USB Drive. This took yet another couple of hours while not using my new computer. It wouldn’t suprise me if most people just go straight online, without adequate safety and not backing up their stuff.
6. go to sleep
it was getting late, I hadn’t started this process first thing in the morning.
7. use the cupboard
After a good night’s sleep, I will be ready to start exploring and finding out what the real differences are between a cheap netbook and a prestige laptop.
The first thing on the Windows 7 starter development team’s things to do is Discover windows 7. It’s the last thing on my start-up thing to do.
Here’s what the Windows 7 development team suggest for a new user:
a guided tour (Discover Windows 7),
getting my photographs, favourites, and programme settings from my old to this computer (transfer your files)
making sure my netwook is part of my home network
turning off the extremely unpopular, unintuitively named, yet valuable windows security feature (change UAC settings)
add something that’s not already installed which is misleadingly called ‘ essentails’ (Get Windows Live Essentails)
Now everything is on the computer and its connected to all the right places get the contents and set-up backed up (Back up your files)
Let other people use your netbook (Add new users)
Make the text into a readable size – because the default is clearly too small (change text size)
Many is the time when a rogue glass door has given me a nose bleed.
Looks like the Pope will be visiting to sort-out this door’s naughtiness. Meanwhile the glass door’s nefaious intentions have been temporarily quashed by the addition of instructions, at nose height, to BE AWARE.
I am loving the message to ‘Be Aware’ on the entrance to a church.
There is an old polygraph in a store room at work.
I find myself wandering into the room to flick the switches, turn the knobs, read the dials. I am attracted to the clinks and clicks, the feeling of pushing and twisting, the golds, blacks,r eds and silvers and the number scales. Its like a giant Fisher-Price toy for adults where the pleasure is in playing with the controls rather than actually using it for its intended purpose.
Everyone suffering from a ridiculously serious job should have their own polygraph to play with during tea breaks. Once or twice people have caught me playing the polygraph. Thier reaction is not one of amusement or horror, normally their faces light-up they comment on how beautiful the machine is as they wander over hyponotised and hands out as they grab and twist a knob.
I still get over-excited when booking holiday flights, all bouncy, liable to get a bit too click-happy. Even the airline realised this and instructed me not to go clicking around when I can’t see anything happening.
Please turn on the taps with care as the pressure is quite high
high pressure: lots of complicated concepts in this message. Do children have a concept of ‘water pressure’ do they know what ‘high’ and ‘low’ water pressure are? By contrast a message like “Water comes out of the tap fast” is much more descriptive of the experience of turning the tap.
with care: what does it mean to turn on a tap with care? should I use a cloth incase the handle falls off? Do they mean that the tap is greased up and turns really fast? Because I know what high water pressure can do from experience and from physics classes I know that the best strategy is to ‘turn the tap slowly’. Maybe they mean that if you turn the tap on using normal torque the water will spray all over you and the bathroom floor. What fun!
To prompt the desired user behaviour the sign could become
Please turn the tap on slowly
With the possible explanation of the consequence. Though addition of this is an invitation to people who like splasshing, YAY, to turn the tap fast for fun. Hoorah! Can you guess what I did?
Southern Electric sent 3 identical text messages
Tyntesfield 
