Posts Tagged ‘Windows 7’

I Can’t Get No Support

Friday, April 30th, 2010

With apologies to Rodney Dangerfield, I thought I’d speak up for everyone about the general lack of support for software programs.

Let’s take Skype for instance. Have you noticed that at the end of a call, you’re asked to grade its quality? What’s particularly revealing about their customer survey is that if you rate it as anything less than Excellent, it’s your fault. Don’t believe me? Then try it.

If the call was dropped, then it’s your signal; not their software. If you can’t hear the other party very well, it’s either his mic or your speakers; but it’s not their software. If there’s distortion in your reception, then it’s your equipment, but not their software. If, however, the call was excellent, then they take the credit. No one is willing to tell you how great your headset was.

BBC Radio broadcasts its programs on the Web using some software called iPlayer. I listen to its classical radio station quite a bit. My wife also likes to listen to some of the programs, especially while she eats breakfast in bed. It took me awhile to discover the problem, but the iPlayer is not compatible with Windows 7. I was able to figure this out partly because I had a computer for each operating system and because I checked the user forum that BBC set up.

BBC says that it supports Windows 7, but the facts belie the claim, and I’m not alone. The only help that’s available is from those of us who have written in the forum, the same people who can’t get the two to work together.

In the online world, the insistence that success is entirely because of the company and failure is entirely the fault of the customers is a recipe for suicide on the Web.

Bruce Hoag, PhD, CPsychol
Work Psychologist

http://www.p-advantage.com

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Tags: iPlayer, online support, Skype, Windows 7
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Why Do People Hate Windows?

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

As more and more people upgrade to Windows 7, the abject hatred of Vista keeps surfacing. I must admit I’m baffled by this.

I have two laptops: one has Vista and the other Windows 7. Personally, I prefer Vista over XP, and Windows 7 (or Windows 23, as John Dvorak is fond of calling it) over Vista, up to a point. Like all operating systems, XP crashed and periodically need to be reinstalled. It was never easy or convenient. Vista is easy to reinstall, and it also organizes the files that few of us understand in a much more sensible way. Windows 7 loads faster than both of them and seems to be faster than either of them for the kinds of applications that are found in suites.

To be sure, Vista requires more horsepower. My machine has a 2GHz Core 2 Duo Processor with 2 gig of RAM. You wouldn’t put a lawn mower engine in a Jaguar, and the same principle applies here. If you want to use a more powerful operating system, then put a big enough engine in the computer to run it. I suspect that many people upgraded to Vista without increasing the capacity of the processor and/or RAM.

And lest we all forget what it once was like, let’s remind ourselves what life was like before Windows. Do you know the answer? It’s DOS – disc operating system. Some of us can remember counting (more like approximating) how many columns across the page we wanted to go in order to enter a character. Usually, we got it wrong; and then we had to do it again.

Monitors weren’t in color or in black and white. Instead, we had green, white or orange text on a black background. Windows changed that.

So the next time you’re tempted to criticize Microsoft for what they haven’t done, kiss your computer and thanks Bill Gates and Paul Allen for developing an operating system that has made our lives so much easier.

Bruce Hoag, PhD, CPsychol
Work Psychologist

http://www.p-advantage.com

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Tags: Bill Gates, DOS, Microsoft, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP
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PC Magazine

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

A few moments ago, I did something I never expected to do. After more years than I care to remember, I cancelled my subscription with PC Magazine.

I’ve had a growing feeling over the past months that the quality of the magazine just wasn’t up to par. About a year ago, they made it available only in digital format. This was something of a mess all its own. The company they used required their software to be installed in order to read it. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, you had to log-in to read it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I should have to go through all this to read something that I have subscribed to and paid for.

The quality of the magazine started to decline significantly more than a year ago. But, you know how it is. At first you think that maybe it’s just a one off issue; so you let it go. After a few issues, you think may you’re the one having a bad day. It’s only when you can “read” it in under 10 minutes that you finally realize that you’re not getting your money’s worth. That’s what happened to me, anyway.

There was a time when the magazine came out twice per month. Then they had a “double issue” which turned out to be shorter than some of the previous single issues. Then, they went to a monthly issue. Their rationale was that they could cover topics in greater depth with longer articles. Would you be surprised if I told you that I can’t remember this ever happening?

So, it’s unfortunate; but I have to say that to my knowledge there isn’t a single decent magazine for Windows-based machines available anymore. Perhaps that’s a niche that needs to be filled. Anyone game?

Tags: Lance Ulanoff, Michael Miller, PC Magazine, Vista, Windows, Windows 7, XP
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