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kickahaMy PowerBook G4, going on 3.5 yrs old, has been having battery problems. Long story, but remember the big battery recalls last year? Well, this is a replacement battery that's showing the same symptoms. Call Apple, they say "Your power manager on your motherboard is likely shot, possibly damaged by the recalled battery, and is now damaging the new one." Lovely. They then go on to say "Oh, and we notice that your extended warrantee ran out in Nov 2006." Ouch.
"That's okay, send it in, we'll repair it under warrantee."
...
Sweet.
Okay, so that's the lead up. My PB is going in for repairs, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ginkgo's iBook, even older, needs even more repair, but she's been limping along. I should get my laptop back in a week or two, but in the meantime, I'm without. Ick.
Seeing an opportunity here, I decide it's time for the Big Upgrade. At work, my life would be a lot easier if I could run Windows on my laptop in a quicker way than an emluator... ie, an Intel platform underneath. Yesterday we bought a MacBook (2GHz white), and migrated my accounts over to it. Slick - on first boot, it lets me choose to transfer info from another Mac. Plug in the cable, and voila. About an hour and a half later, 80GB were moved over and everything was mirrored perfectly. This will beginkgo's computer in a few months, but in the meantime, my PB is going in for a complete overhaul, and when it gets back, it will be her computer for now. We'll stagger out the laptop purchases a bit this way.
So now for the disappointing part.
This new computer? Exactly the same. It has a built-in iSight camera in the display bezel, and yeah, it's hella faster, but... some part of me was expecting a whole new song and dance after almost 4 years between purchases.
Which is *SILLY*... the fact that my old laptop was a PowerPC architecture, and this new one is an Intel Core 2 Duo, and *everything works flawlessly* should just blow me away, and when I stop and think about it, it does. But some bit of me was expecting a revolution, and what I got was a seamless, damned near perfect user experience designed to make my life as easy as possible... and I'm somehow disappointed.
I guess it goes to show that, for most people, the software truly is the defining factor for their computer. It's stunning to compare the Windows laptop I have at work to this one, and how I interact with them. I read a review of Vista that said that Windows (XP an Vista both) is like a hyper 3 yr old, endlessly wanting to make sure you know how helpful they are, and apparently terrified you might forget that they're there, while MacOS X is like a gentleman's gentleman, standing silently on the side until an opportunity for assistance is noted, given, and then shrugged off as simply business as normal. I couldn't agree more. I am constantly barraged by notices on my XP laptop that serve zero useful purpose. My favorite one on Friday was plugging in a USB 2.0 USB key, and having it tell me 1) New hardware had been detected. 2) New hardware was now ready for use. 3) The USB device would work faster if plugged into a USB 2.0 port.
1) Thank you for stating the obvious - it should always be detected. I would not expect you to tell me that a key on my keyboard had been pressed every time I did it, nor would I expect this. Unless the standard situation is that hardware is *not* detected, ie, it fails, then this shouldn't be a notification. Notify me when the unexpected occurs, not when things are as normal. The fact that anyone thought this was a necessary notification puts a chill up my spine. It reads like something you have in there while you're debugging, and don't expect it to work.
2) How very odd. You said it was detected, then you make a second notice to tell me it's ready... why not just... let me use it? Bring up an Explorer window showing the data device, or otherwise give me *any* visual feedback that it has been mounted? To be fair, it does bring up a dialog asking how I want to interact with the data device, giving me a list of possibilities like "View pictures as slideshow", and in there is "View device in Explorer". This just strikes me as that hyper 3 yr old again though - the tools to show slideshows, etc, are already in Explorer, (and *very* prominent in that silly task bar on the left, I might add,) so why add an unnecessary barrier to interacting with the device I just plugged in? Note also that *any* feedback here, even the original notification, makes the notice in #1 utterly superfluous.
3) Here's the icing on the cake. Okay, this is kind of useful, in a way, even though most users won't have a clue what it means. I think to myself "Ok, so there's a USB1.x bus, and a USB 2.0 bus on this machine. Common enough. But I only saw two USB ports... hmm..." Into the Hardware panel I go, and find out... the machine *has no USB 2.0 ports*. So please, explain why it gave me the useless notice? Can't the OS tell what hardware it has underneath?
It's precisely this sort of thing that drives me nuts. It's just a complete lack of attention to detail in places that matter, leading to an explosion of semi-useful or downright false information being thrown at the user. I don't care if it's a computer, a car, or any other kind of tool, lack of design detail makes my brain boil over.
Which brings me back to why I'm so amused at my own disappointment over the new machine - it has had *exquisite* attention to detail lavished upon it, to the point that I was able to move to a new machine, with a new architecture, in less than 3 hrs, total, including checking data, networking, and other details... and I'm somehow feeling let down.
It's funny when things are too easy.
"That's okay, send it in, we'll repair it under warrantee."
...
Sweet.
Okay, so that's the lead up. My PB is going in for repairs, and
ginkgo's iBook, even older, needs even more repair, but she's been limping along. I should get my laptop back in a week or two, but in the meantime, I'm without. Ick.Seeing an opportunity here, I decide it's time for the Big Upgrade. At work, my life would be a lot easier if I could run Windows on my laptop in a quicker way than an emluator... ie, an Intel platform underneath. Yesterday we bought a MacBook (2GHz white), and migrated my accounts over to it. Slick - on first boot, it lets me choose to transfer info from another Mac. Plug in the cable, and voila. About an hour and a half later, 80GB were moved over and everything was mirrored perfectly. This will be
ginkgo's computer in a few months, but in the meantime, my PB is going in for a complete overhaul, and when it gets back, it will be her computer for now. We'll stagger out the laptop purchases a bit this way.So now for the disappointing part.
This new computer? Exactly the same. It has a built-in iSight camera in the display bezel, and yeah, it's hella faster, but... some part of me was expecting a whole new song and dance after almost 4 years between purchases.
Which is *SILLY*... the fact that my old laptop was a PowerPC architecture, and this new one is an Intel Core 2 Duo, and *everything works flawlessly* should just blow me away, and when I stop and think about it, it does. But some bit of me was expecting a revolution, and what I got was a seamless, damned near perfect user experience designed to make my life as easy as possible... and I'm somehow disappointed.
I guess it goes to show that, for most people, the software truly is the defining factor for their computer. It's stunning to compare the Windows laptop I have at work to this one, and how I interact with them. I read a review of Vista that said that Windows (XP an Vista both) is like a hyper 3 yr old, endlessly wanting to make sure you know how helpful they are, and apparently terrified you might forget that they're there, while MacOS X is like a gentleman's gentleman, standing silently on the side until an opportunity for assistance is noted, given, and then shrugged off as simply business as normal. I couldn't agree more. I am constantly barraged by notices on my XP laptop that serve zero useful purpose. My favorite one on Friday was plugging in a USB 2.0 USB key, and having it tell me 1) New hardware had been detected. 2) New hardware was now ready for use. 3) The USB device would work faster if plugged into a USB 2.0 port.
1) Thank you for stating the obvious - it should always be detected. I would not expect you to tell me that a key on my keyboard had been pressed every time I did it, nor would I expect this. Unless the standard situation is that hardware is *not* detected, ie, it fails, then this shouldn't be a notification. Notify me when the unexpected occurs, not when things are as normal. The fact that anyone thought this was a necessary notification puts a chill up my spine. It reads like something you have in there while you're debugging, and don't expect it to work.
2) How very odd. You said it was detected, then you make a second notice to tell me it's ready... why not just... let me use it? Bring up an Explorer window showing the data device, or otherwise give me *any* visual feedback that it has been mounted? To be fair, it does bring up a dialog asking how I want to interact with the data device, giving me a list of possibilities like "View pictures as slideshow", and in there is "View device in Explorer". This just strikes me as that hyper 3 yr old again though - the tools to show slideshows, etc, are already in Explorer, (and *very* prominent in that silly task bar on the left, I might add,) so why add an unnecessary barrier to interacting with the device I just plugged in? Note also that *any* feedback here, even the original notification, makes the notice in #1 utterly superfluous.
3) Here's the icing on the cake. Okay, this is kind of useful, in a way, even though most users won't have a clue what it means. I think to myself "Ok, so there's a USB1.x bus, and a USB 2.0 bus on this machine. Common enough. But I only saw two USB ports... hmm..." Into the Hardware panel I go, and find out... the machine *has no USB 2.0 ports*. So please, explain why it gave me the useless notice? Can't the OS tell what hardware it has underneath?
It's precisely this sort of thing that drives me nuts. It's just a complete lack of attention to detail in places that matter, leading to an explosion of semi-useful or downright false information being thrown at the user. I don't care if it's a computer, a car, or any other kind of tool, lack of design detail makes my brain boil over.
Which brings me back to why I'm so amused at my own disappointment over the new machine - it has had *exquisite* attention to detail lavished upon it, to the point that I was able to move to a new machine, with a new architecture, in less than 3 hrs, total, including checking data, networking, and other details... and I'm somehow feeling let down.
It's funny when things are too easy.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-28 06:54 pm (UTC)**snort**
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-28 07:07 pm (UTC)That's possibly because so much of our experience with computing can be summed up by a quote from _Serenity_:
Operative: "It's worse than you know." Mal: "It usually is."
Your remark on for most people, the software truly is the defining factor for their computer reminds me of a friend who I describe his preferred platform as Photoshop. He really doesn't care too much which OS is underneath.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-28 07:56 pm (UTC)Which leads to another speculation - perhaps this is why locked-in suite apps are the popular norm under Windows? Ie, they have to provide the user with an all-encompassing experience, because it's just too much work to step outside of it, and expect your tools to interact? *shrug* Dunno. I just know that I'm beginning to realize why people think computers are hard, and scary... they've been beaten over the head with that for years.
I guess I'm much more of the Unix mentality - give me an array of specialized, small, focussed tools that do their jobs very well, and let me pick and choose the ones I need, then combine the results easily. I hate fiefdoms in my computer as much as I do anywhere else.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-28 08:00 pm (UTC)When I stop and think about the amount of engineering that went into making that transition as smooth as it was, it's staggering... and yet, the way it simply should be. Given some basic principles of design and engineering, things really should be like that more often. The fact that they're not is what bugs me about the industry in general.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-28 08:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-28 09:36 pm (UTC)I'll admit it, I'm picky. I'm even a snob about some things. User interaction is one of them. :) I thought it was really damned funny that I had the reaction that I did, given that the experience was exactly what I would have wanted it to be in a vacuum. They smoothed off all the burrs, made it slick as silk, and... it felt somehow less than the major transition it really is. I guess if I didn't know what all was going on under the hood, I wouldn't think twice about it. :)