Archive Pages 2006—2007
I decided not to keep all the records for 2006—2007, but the most interesting ones are here.
New Hope in Human Interaction with PC! / 10-Sep-2006
I was browsing my pictures in Windows Photo Gallery and stopped at one which was badly over-exposed. With an easy feeling I clicked “Fix” option and played then with “ Adjust Exposure” setting. The result I did not like, so I clicked the right arrow, hoping to see the next photo AND (obviously) without saving changes! Yes, my assumption was the Windows Photo Gallery would ask me whether I want to save changes. No, it did not. Photo was saved with these barbaric changes as it finally became unusable. As the photo was not on the drive C, I could not restore the previous version.
Good stuff from Microsoft, I THOUGHT…
Yet, there is a happy end in this story. As it turned out, there is an option in the menu “File” – “Revert to Original”! You can do REVERT (I guess) long time after your editing.
It is great! I mean, in spite of the fact I almost had a heart attack, the great thing is that it shows that Microsoft is slowly turning to this HUMAN model of PC interaction when this thing is not asking you every time you do something is whether you want to SAVE or NOT. Because by asking this we suppose a USER knows about permanent (hard drive) and temporary (RAM) storage, which is not always the case. (My wife is totally unaware of that fact)
Therefore, I believe it is more natural to proceed without asking stupid questions, BUT to always have the possibility to REVERT. Bravo Microsoft! You just should have told me before!!
"I AM the administrator! What's going on?" / 14-Sep-2006
If you suddenly have difficulties with accessing web from direct links in the emails, OneNote documents, and other places, you may see error message “This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator”. I saw funny posts in forums asking for help: “I AM the system administrator, what is going on? “ Yeah, what’s going on?
So, go to “Start” - “Default Programs” and then hit “Set programs access and computer defaults” (Also available from IE Menu -> Internet Options -> Programs -> Set Programs). User Account Control will ask you to proceed, choose “Continue”, then select “Microsoft Windows” as configuration profile, or other, the point here is to initialize the access settings.
Hit OK. Now access to the web should be reestablished.
Who said IE7 interface was a great improvement? / 19-Sep-2006
Who said IE7 interface was a great improvement? I see at least three disappointing features in its GUI.
1) Why would somebody put History in Favorites? They are two different things. What would be a logic for looking for History items in Favorites??
— I create Favorites with idea to eventually come back to have a look.
— IE7 creates History with idea that the user eventually comes back to have a look?
Something like that? Meaning that it’s all reference information?
Why is this program, IE7, makes me think like a machine? I mean I associate “History” in computer perspective with an perpetual automatic log of events, and “Favorites” with deliberate snapshot creation. And even though they are both a source of reference information, it is confusing to me to put History under Favorites.
It is like putting all restaurant receipts in your personal diary – won’t you look like a madman then?
2) The most useless time I spent while browsing with IE7 was searching in vain for STOP or REFRESH buttons when you are really need to stop. Why is it not with “Back” and “Forward” buttons anymore?
I can try to guess the logic: it is like when you stop typing and press “Enter”, in case of typo you can stop right away? But address bar is unnecessarily too long for that scenario. Besides, the size of the button is tiny. Even for security reason (if you accidentally mistype the address) it is better to make it bigger.
3) And finally Home is not sweet home anymore. It is a second-function, pale, tiny, miserable icon. To me Home is a fundamental button. Although it has been greatly misused.
Look at the Opera and Firefox:
Opera is neat and innovative: they combined stop and refresh button into one! (Yet they removed Home!)
[screenshot1] + [screenshot2]
Firefox keeps the tradition.
[screenshot1] + [screenshot2]
And only Internet Explorer 7 offers us a "redesigned, streamlined interface gives you more of what you need and less of what you don't".
They think they know it better.
If You Do Not Like Internet Explorer 7 — Try Opera Instead. / 16-Oct-2006
Seriously, internet browser is essential software nowadays, and it is good when you can enjoy using it. I believe IE7 (Microsoft Internet Explorer 7) is a step backward in a sense of user-machine interaction. It is awkward in navigation, and even though it is supposed to be more secure than IE6, this ugliness makes my user experience miserable.
If you are in favor of Firefox, be careful, because Firefox is supposed to have a huge share in internet browsers (up to 30%), but it is not the same amount of people taking care of its security, AND not the same exposure from hackers, meaning that hackers love IE7 not because it's worse or more buggy, but because IE is bloody popular. IE has a crash test each and every day, and Firefox has a crash test only on Fridays. Besides, there are a lot of myths around Firefox—read here, it is something to consider if you got used to have your own opinion :) and not all of these stupid hype.
What I'm trying to say—try Opera if you have not tried it yet. It is a beautiful piece of code, free now from any kind of adware. It has some unique features you may never seen before, like Mouse Gestures.
If you are a Power User type opera:config in the address bar and press Enter. You will enjoy it.
Or look how you can see the web in Opera User Mode, for instance, Microsoft.com in emulated text browser mode.
I'm going to review Opera 9 in Windows Vista shortly, because this software is just outstanding.
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