Annamaria on Monday
A message to tech people:
IF IT'S NOT BROKE, DON'T FIX IT.
At the beginning of the tech revolution, we had simple straight forward products that would serve the needs of lots of people. But you have screwed it up by over complicating the technology in ways that make it difficult for your customers to do simple straight forward things.
For instance: a small business owners--of which there are MANY--need an easy way to create spreadsheets. They will need to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Just arithmetic.
For a wile, that's whaat we got. But then you screwed it up.
Just because you can add more and more advanced capabilities, doesn't mean that you should automatically foist them on everyone. There may be people somewhere in a far away galaxy who want a spreadsheet that will calculate the square root of the national debt of the United States, calculated in real time. But ...
Why do you do that? Maybe you just like to show off how clever of you with your complications. All you really are doing is making your products clunky and annoying for your customers.
STOP WITH THE CHANGE FOR THE SAKE OF CHANGE
You may get a kick out of showing off how clever you can be. There may even be a person here or there who will look at your latest "upgrade" and say, "Oh Wow!" But the response of most of your customers will be, "Oh Shit!"
CASE IN POINT
This post is illustrated with a series of screen shots taken when all I wanted to do was log into the Blogger so I could write about something other than this. I had a couple of hours on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon to do so. I wasted most of the day just trying to log in.
I know. You say that making it difficult for me to log in ensures that my private and security on the internet are protected.
BALONEY
We all know that there is no such thing as privacy and security on the Internet. All those passwords and passcodes are just meant to create the illusion of privacy and security.
Regarding the pictures:
I took them as screenshots as I went along. If you see duplicates, it's because I dealt with them many times. But could not upload the screenshot. Nor could I save them as .jpeg files. I had to open them on the computer, take a picture of them with my phone, then upload them to Photos before I had them in a format that Blogger would accept.
BTW: I began this effort at 11:17. I am finishing stat 5PM. I ate my lunch at my desk.
I had my first tech job as a technical writer at the Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1964 (very likely before your mother was born), on the first realtime computer system outside the Pentagon.
On a positive note: There is a market for simple straight forward apps that do things at the level we had ten, fifteen years ago. If you are really smart, you will create them. Call the company STRAIGHT FORWARD TECH. There is big market for it.
Posts
You're not the only one! The reason why I don't comment more here is the difficulty I have getting into the site just as a reader!!!!
ReplyDeleteFrom AA: I know what you mean, Ovidia. I have to comment as anonymous because when I am signed in and click on “Comment “ it automatically signs me out. Duh!!
DeleteYes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! This!!!
DeleteAnd don't start me on the AI help that Microsoft forces on you and that you don't need and can't $#@!%% get rid of. It's called copilot, ahahah, what a nuisance!
ReplyDeleteThe majority of the problem, AmA, is greed. 'They' want to keep making money (and MORE money) from the same products, year after year, decade after decade.
ReplyDeleteIf novelists operated like software companies, they would write one novel. Then, the next year, they' revise the novel. Then the third year, they'd add a new chapter and a scattering of new paragraphs throughout the book. Then, the fourth year, they'd add an appendix. Then, the fifth year, they'd completely reorganize the book, rearranging the chapters and dividing the book up into Parts. The next year, they'd add a prologue and an epilogue. In the following years, add an index and some new chapters with new characters and completely change the plot.
Instead of writing new novels, they just keep hacking away at the old novel. It's made even more dire by the fact that every year new Software Engineers graduate from colleges, and the companies know that the young kids will work harder and for lower wages than the old farts, and of course, the young kids come out with all kinds of New Ideas that they want to play with, so of course, they get welded into the One Great Novel, and... it's endless and hopeless. Alas.
That was EvKa. Apparently I've been banished to Anonymity, too. :-(
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Copilot CAN be removed (from Office 365). Do a web search for "how to disable copilot", and you'll find links telling you the steps. Sometimes it's 'easy', sometimes a LITTLE more complicated, depending upon your setup, but it CAN be done.
ReplyDeleteI have the enormous luck to be married to a software expert, and even he spends a disturbing amount of time per day swearing at his computer for doing unexpected things. As for me, I'm not against change--just unnecessary change that is forced upon me whether I like it or not.
ReplyDelete