what users care about

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The homeowner's guide to systems development

When it comes to do it yourself home improvement projects I find myself in the position the typical small business ownerin with respect to computer systems: full of confidence that I understand what I don't and a bit bewildered that things turning out badly.These things always look easier than...

Tags: What users care about, Productivity, Development

Blog posts 2007-08-03

What really drives PC churn?

Most of the regular contributors to the discussions here appear to have at least some technical knowledge in the computer field and even those who profess allegiance to Microsoft clearly have some experience with its products. In contrast the overwhelming majority of business PC users have no personal interest in...

Tags: What users care about, Vistabulations, Productivity, Enterprise Policy

Blog posts 2007-07-24

Judging development project quality

I've developed what I think of as a forearm rule for forming snap judgements about the quality, and therefore likelihood of success, of software development projects. The rule is simple: exceptions are inversely proportional to quality.The rule applies most directly to project scope, but has a coding and design corollary....

Tags: What users care about, Infrastructure, Enterprise Policy

Blog posts 2007-07-23

Sharpening that personal productivity axe

As many of you will remember we had an extensive discussion here last week about my belief that externally imposed work processes ultimately lead to standardised ways of thinking about those work processes. Kind of a Nixonian thing: grab them by their work processes, and pretty soon their hearts and...

Tags: What users care about, Unanswered questions, Enterprise Policy, Apple

Blog posts 2007-07-19

Idiot frustrations

Sometimes the things non technical people do just amaze me - and I'm never entirely sure whether I should laugh or cry. Just now, for example, I heard a commercial on CBC-FM for their internet broadcast service which went something like this: "Just boot-up"...

Tags: What users care about, Enterprise Policy

Blog posts 2007-07-13

More on the Windows work process

About a decade ago I wanted to compare OCR error rates for various packages and in the process of doing that got an abject lesson in both PC work process productivity and the reasons people prefer it.What happened was that a client was setting up a Sun based Resumix system...

Tags: Enterprise Policy, General, What users care about

Blog posts 2007-07-12

How "Wintel thinking" reduces productivity

For many jobs there's a PC way and a Unix way. For example, I write these blogs using vi under either CDE (Solaris 10) or Gnome (Solaris 9) and just embed references and format information as I go along. The result is extremely portable because the text is independent of...

Tags: Enterprise Policy, What users care about

Blog posts 2007-07-11

What users want (5)

Jacob Nielsen is probably the pre-eminent spokesman for research on web usability and much of what he says applies about equally well to other applications too. Among his discussions is one labelled Usability in the Movies -- Top 10 Bloopers. Some excerpts: From #3: "The 3D UI:"...

Tags: What users care about, Vistabulations, Enterprise Policy, Development, General

Blog posts 2007-03-02

What users want (4)

Invisible computing. The easiest way to make a large system implementation fail is to under power the hardware - particularly during user training and pre-implementation pilot operations. The reason this works is that users want systems to be non frustrating - and the negative impact of one...

Tags: What users care about, Sun, Infrastructure, Enterprise Policy, Development, General

Blog posts 2007-03-01

What users want (3)

Aero, Aqua, Looking Glass, Glassfish; compelling stuff, right? Not for the typical business users - Want to know the truth? they dont care - as long as it works, doesnt feel slow, doesnt get in their faces, and doesnt force them to unlearn what they already know only to make...

Tags: What users care about, Enterprise Policy, Development, General

Blog posts 2007-02-28

Additional Resources

Death of the black box EULA

Nonsense. Just look at Psystar.They died by the EULA. The judge even brought that up.And open source software has an EULA of its own, telling you exactlly what you can and must do to be able to use the software.Any failure to follow the EULA/GPL allows the owner of the...

Tags: EULA, black box, software

Discussion threads 2009-11-25

Does virtualization equal cloud computing?

I would say yesThere is no need to buy 'stand alone' servers any longer in functionality when you can put it in a Blade 'name your flavor' chassis.Virtualization with VMware/RHEL or some vendor is the best way to get it off bare-metal...Doing baremetal rebuilds is time consuming and it takes...

Tags: Data centers, Servers, Utility computing, server, cloud computing, virtualization, cluster

Discussion threads 2009-11-25

GoPro Motorsports HD Hero

GoPro had a hit on its hands with the first-generation GoPro Hero. The small camera combined decent video quality and rugged reliability in a small package that was easy to use in action-based scenarios. However, the Hero wasn't without its flaws. Finicky battery choices that often cut recording sessions short...

Tags: Corporate communications, Engineering, battery, video, camera

Product reviews 2009-11-24

Apple ads dodge the network coverage issues

Misleading advertising is in Apple's DNAWhy would their carrier be otherwise?RE: Apple ads dodge the network coverage issuesI saw the "What time's the movie" add last night. In the real world, it would not play out the way it is shown. The fine print at the end of...

Tags: Cellular phones, Wireless and Mobility, RSS, HTC Hero, AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., Apple Inc., advertisement, TELUS Corp., 3G, network

Discussion threads 2009-11-24

Law firm interested in hearing from banned Xbox Live gamers

Maybe "law" can become a GDP driverNow that America has seen virtually every domestic industry go down the toilet, maybe it can provide law services to the rest of the world.If this self-righteous lawsuit is any indication, the is no need to fear the loss of American innovation and savvy;...

Tags: Microsoft Xbox Live, EULA, Microsoft Corp., cheater, contractual obligation, terms of service, law firm, Microsoft Xbox

Discussion threads 2009-11-24

Chrome OS will rise or fall on the safety dance

Scare tactics against Chrome OSI can see Microsoft really did the 'safety dance' with Windows it has been so successful...Chrome_OS is an entirely different modular approach plus they are using Open_Source with NO limitation of how high they can reach. I find it amazing anyone with a straight face say...

Tags: Operating systems, operating system, Chrome, Chrome OS, ChromeOS, security, Google Inc.

Discussion threads 2009-11-24

Numbers of new Core i7 iMacs are turning up DOA

I guess it goes to show that......even the almighty apple is not immune to issues. We have some iMacs (about 100 - 120) in my organization compared to about 2500 Windows Desktops and out of the 90 we ordered a few years ago (17" iMacs) we had one come...

Tags: Desktops, DOA, Core i7 iMac, Core i7, Apple Inc., Apple iMac

Discussion threads 2009-11-24

Is Apple being too precious about the App Store?

If by precious you mean fascistthen yes they are...great...Get ready for the Jobs cultist starting another holywar because you "tarnished" their cyber-religion.Precious.The marketplace is what it is because of ownership. Apple owns the store they built and has the identical right that Disney or The Atlantic or Toyota does to...

Tags: Public relations, Microsoft Windows NT, Balmer, Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc.

Discussion threads 2009-11-23

Second iPhone worm behaves like botnet

That'll teach them what happens to jailbreakers!This only hits those who deliberately climbed the fence and ventured into the dangerous would outside Apples walled garden.Victims of this have nothing on Apple for this. The vulnerability was introduced by their own incompetent actions, but knowingly non-sanctioned by Apple.The learning: You better...

Tags: Smart phones, Cyberthreats, Viruses and worms, SECURITY, Apple iPhone, worm, Apple Inc.

Discussion threads 2009-11-23

Schiller: App Store isn't broken

The truth hurtsThe truth is consumer lacks the ability to make good decision regarding the security of their data. We are regularly tricked into click-installing things while surfing the web, download trojans and other malware, give out information over the phone that we shouldn't etc ... and we never...

Tags: Spyware, adware & malware, SECURITY, Viruses and worms, approval process, Apple Inc.

Discussion threads 2009-11-23