5 posts tagged “computer industry”

Gosh, don’t these computer boffins test anything any more?
   I installed Firefox 3.5.3 today on my laptop. I had heard that most of my plug-ins were compatible with the program, and as it is the fourth incarnation of the 3.5 series, I thought: surely the errors had gone. But I kept some healthy scepticism on the grounds that ‘improvement’ in the computer world usually means that I would waste time downloading something and have it blow up in my face.
   This was no exception.
   It not only created a bug with one of our sites, which could have been coincidental, I found some rudimentary interface issues. Pressing down on the mouse wheel, on some sites, did not open the page in a new tab. Again, I doubt I am alone.
   In Firefox 3 in the past, one could select text and drag it into the Google Toolbar search box. The behaviour then would be: the text would be, if it was comprised of multiple words, framed in dumb quotation marks. The text existing inside the box would disappear in favour of the new phrase. The Google Toolbar would automatically begin the search.
   Not any more. And this is not Google’s fault. The latest toolbar works fine with Firefox 3.0.14 on my desktop machine. It just doesn’t work with 3.5.
   All that happens is that the text is pasted in to the box, wherever the cursor happens to land. The old text is not deleted. The search does not activate.
   This is one of the most basic, oft-used, everyday features in a web browser in 2009—but Firefox 3.5 does not support it.
   I was advised to upgrade on the Mozilla forums. That’ll teach me to listen to computer boffins. I now have a buggy browser that has caused me some frustrations already in its first few hours. It is also not that noticeably faster than its predecessor.
   People: test, test, test. I am not asking the world here. I am just asking that things work reasonably.
   Ten to one no one has bothered filing a big report because they are quite happy to tolerate crap. I shouldn’t judge: after all, I am still on Facebook. If I was that intolerant, I would file a complaint with them every day. Instead, I only file one every two weeks and still manage to refrain from calling Mark Zuckerberg a nonce.
   So a nickel’s worth of advice today: if you haven’t “upgraded” to 3.5, don’t.

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.

Yesterday, Logitech upgraded its QuickCam software. Now it works with the camera. The image does not freeze at will, though I still get some interference.
   Once again, I was proved right: I did nothing wrong with the installation. Or the reinstallation that I wasted my time doing on their recommendation. It was the software all along.
   Why does the computer tech support industry always tell us we are the dickheads, that we have done it all wrong, and that their product is perfect?
   Eventually, we find out that they have sold us software for which we were the quality controllers.
   Guess these folks were too young to remember the Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volaré and what shape Chrysler was in back in 1978.
   I suppose wasting two months on this was better than dealing with TelstraParadiseClearSaturn for two years on a fault which I insisted was related to the actual cable wire and they insisted was related to my set-up. The tech boys would get me to change this setting and that setting.
   That time, I was proved right, too.

Logitech keeps insisting that the problem with my QuickCam is installation. Of course: Logitech itself can do no wrong. It must be my fault.
   Although the chap was faultlessly polite and courteous, I’m getting sick of hearing, ‘Uninstall and reinstall,’ as the tech support solution to everything.
   I know the QuickCam I have works with Skype Video and I have now discovered that it works with Windows Media Encoder. Surprise: it does record segments as long as I want them! It doesn’t conk out at will! The program is free as long as your Windows is legit.
   For anyone else whose Logitech QuickCam stops recording at will, there’s my answer. Give up the original software and use WME instead.

I can’t understand what’s superior about the new Blogger, which I was forced to change to, otherwise Google would not let me in.
   I have to type in a longer email address as my username. The cookies forget that I am even signed in. I seem to recall Blogger claiming I would not have to wait for the publication of posts because it was all instantaneous. Right now, I am at Vox while I am waiting for the publication of posts because it is not instantaneous. It’s been a few minutes. I notice no time difference between old and new Blogger.
   It lets me do tags. Great. Waste more space. I was already doing tags anyway, using other services.
   The conversion process was bollocks. The reason I am waiting is that it couldn’t convert my old template properly, rendering a few characters unreadable. I had to go in manually to change them.
   I’m stuck with that load of cobblers for now, but it is yet another example of computer types “improving” things without understanding normal human behaviour.
   Blogger should have let us stay with a choice of old or new. Let the geeks go on to the new one and talk up how things have improved, and we stupid mere mortals can stay with the old and get on with our work.
   I would have recommended Blogger had they let it be. Now, with all these “improvements”, I think I will recommend Vox.

PS.: I notice that because I have to sign in with my Google account, it keeps me logged in when I do a search. I do not want Google to associate my searches with my email account. Thus, I sign out. And when I use Blogger, I have to sign in again. There is no practicality to this.
   And why should I not trust Google? I bet there are a few Chinese guys in jail with no charge behind the Bamboo Curtain who might be able to say why.