2 posts tagged “beta testing”

View other items tagged “beta testing:” Photos, Audio, Videos, Books or Links. View “beta testing” on Vox.

New Facebook look buggy, deleted app

Aug 7, 2008
Post a comment

When I was younger, software developers did this thing called testing, which doesn’t seem to happen these days.
   It was such a radical idea. They would test the product and when we used it, it would work! How cool!
   Nowadays, everything is so full of bugs and you need a computing degree to understand the manual.
   I was reminded of this today with this new look on Facebook. When I clicked on ‘Profile’, Facebook automatically switched me to the new look. The first thing that came up was an error message about Ajax and some sort of ‘Transport error’. I’m not interested in your transport problems, Facebook. Really confidence-building.
   But I am willing to give things a chance, and use programs in the way they are meant to be used. I should have learned this lesson by now: never give software a chance and never use programs the way they are meant to be used. That is a sure way to break it. In 2008, this is bound to waste your time and make you lose confidence in the product.
   I noticed that my FriendFeed application was on the ‘Boxes’ page in the new Facebook. I didn’t want it there, and the FriendFeed options gave me the choice to shift it to my ‘Wall’ page.
   I took that option.
   Big mistake.
   Facebook or FriendFeed deleted every single entry out of the FriendFeed box.
   Angry, I switched back to the old Facebook design, only to notice that the FriendFeed box had now been eliminated.
   I tried to add it back in but that was impossible.
   Facebook insisted it was already installed, but I could only conclude that it would take a spiritual medium on LSD to detect it.
   Eventually I struck upon the solution of intentionally going into the new Facebook look, bugs and all, and move the empty FriendFeed box there back to the ‘Boxes’ page.
   I returned to the old look.
   Then I edited the privacy settings (which of course are not under ‘Privacy’—that would be too easy) for FriendFeed, ticking one box at a time to see what changes would happen.
   Eventually I had to select every box except for the email option.
   I selected the ‘Display in the left-hand menu’ option which, in Facebook terms, eventually saw my FriendFeed application appear on the right-hand side.
   It actually didn’t appear at first. I had to click one of the links below my profile photograph for FriendFeed and the site then did a search for it on my page. It didn’t jump to it—it was a laborious crawl down the page, with Facebook hoping it could conjure up the repaired FriendFeed box.
   All I can say to Facebook is that I did not sign up as your beta tester. Please test your programs before forcing them on to the public.

I have to blog here because new Blogger sucks even more than I thought

Feb 18, 2007
4 comments

New Blogger’s site feeds do not work, if an email from my friend Johnnie Moore is any indication. He is right: I just put my mouse over the old Atom feed button, which used to be correctly linked at old Blogger, and it gives the wrong URL—regardless of whether I have this set right in my new Blogger settings. I have just hard-coded the URL into the template code, rather than rely on the string that Blogger’s template uses (as it seems that old templates and new templates do not appear to be compatible).
In the old days, I could choose for only the home page to be updated. I no longer have that choice, and I am going through the process of waiting for the entire blog to be republished in another IE7 tab right now. Only thing is, as I typed this post, the following came up at Blogger:

Your Publish is Taking Longer than Expected. To continue waiting for it to finish, click here.

That never used to happen. And, when I click on the link, nothing happens. It doesn’t work. I had to go and republish from scratch.
   Either Blogger’s beta users never had to use Blogger to publish any posts, because I can’t see why these weren’t reported as a bug or annoyance, or all beta feedback was ignored.
   This reminds me of when Chrysler launched the Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volaré without fully testing them, using the customer as their quality control department.
   Evidently, new Blogger should remain on beta, or we should retain the choice of sticking with the old version, which was vastly superior in every respect if you were an everyday, average Joe user like me. I didn’t ask for these changes, and I am willing to bet that the majority of Blogger users did not, either.
   I did not ask for Blogger being made less flexible, less friendly, slower, more impractical and a means through which Google can spy on me.
   Remember, using new Blogger means that your Google searches will be associated with your user name, which I regard as a violation of my privacy. You need to log out of Blogger or Google to return to the status quo. Which means, the option to keep yourself logged in is fully impractical. You need to type in your username and password each time you reuse Blogger.
   As with so many “improvements” in the computing industry, I am finding more and more reasons to hate a program or service. Well done, Google. You have just turned me off even more.
   I am still waiting for this speedier, new Blogger to finish republishing. It might never get there. That message just came up again. And the ‘click here’ still does not work.
   I am a total technophobe when it comes to installing software, but Randy Thomas and others’ suggestions I move to a customized blogging program are making me wonder whether I should overcome my fears.