3 reasons Microsoft's Surface is no joke

Fortune ^ | June 22, 2012 | Don Sears

[adorno]

Nobody is going to pay to publish on a system that has no traffic.

You fail to understand the difference between membership and users.

To me, the users are the ones that would use my system to get at the news and information articles, created by the members. The members would be the writers/columnists/analysts/editorial writers. The member are the ones that I would need to keep track of, and they are the ones that would create the content which the users would browse through to get at the content they're looking for. I wouldn't need to keep track of the users, except, perhaps, the number of times that the system is used, and which articles are clicked on/read more often, and which writers are read most often. But, I wouldn't need to track the users via membership or IP. That, to me, is irrelevant, and Google-like, where Google essentially is "spying" on what people click on and read. I'm not into invasion of privacy. However, when it comes to traffic, it would be very simple to keep track on the number of visitors, even on a per-article basis. Traffic would be very important, but, tracking the visitors would not.

[adorno]

Not even bothering to look. I could put together screenshots of a Cold fusion powered time machine — but that wouldn’t make it real.

I knew I would be wasting my time with providing you with screenshots of my system.

But, use your head a little bit. If I were to just be providing "fake" screenshots, why would I make them so detailed, and with a lot more than necessary for the purposes of faking? And, the screenshots also match everything that I've mentioned that my system would provide, in a lot more detail than necessary for the purposes which you describe.

BTW, I don't do Cold Fusion, never have, never even picked it up, and never even wanted to use it.

My whole system is hand-coded, with Postgresql providing the capabilities for data management. That too is a very complicated process, and I doubt that Cold fusion would provide for what my database requires.

Since, it's quite obvious that, you are hostile to anything that I do to prove to you what I intend to do, why would putting the system on the internet and providing a URL be any different? You asked for screenshots and I provided them, and now, you're requiring a working system as proof. But, I already told you that, I don't think that the business environment is friendly right now, and I also said that, I'm hesitant to put the system on the internet without patent protections in place.

So, when it comes to being irrational and hard to please and hostile, it's quite apparent that, it's you that needs to "buzz off".

[adorno]

You're the one that's still being very dense about understanding the flaws in the survey, and the questions I posed. Look, a survey of people, asking them how they feel, about their choices on a particular product, like the iPhone, for example, would be completely flawed, especially with the people who own Apple stuff. The people who purchase anything from Apple, already start with a preference and a bias towards all things Apple. Thus, a satisfaction survey which includes Apple stuff, would always indicate that, the Apple fanatics are very satisfied with their purchases. It's like asking Obama's cabinet members how they feel about Obama's policies and accomplishments and skills. You're going to get an automatically skewed set of results, all answering towards the positive for Obama.

A satisfaction survey can only be conducted on a product by product basis, and when it comes to anything Apple, they will always get a high rating, since, those people have probably never, or rarely, used anything else.

[OldEarlGray]

BTW, I don’t do Cold Fusion,

Well, when your system is more functional than Pons & Fleischman’s Cold Fusion — ie: you’ve got a working site/URL instead of  non-functional artwork, let us know.

Until then -- Quack, Waddle...

 

Help! ????? - not a valid win32 application
myself | myself

Posted on Friday, March 07, 2008 3:25:03 PM by adorno 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1982166/posts

 

...Albatross!

[OldEarlGray]

>>That, to me, is irrelevant,

That’s because you’re a poser who doesn’t understand (or a fraudster who won’t acknowledge) the historical fraud that has been manufactured by con-artists who sell their services by conjuring and counting “clicks” that were produced by themselves instead of unique, visitor, IP Addresses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_fraud

NO SALE, Wiley.

[adorno]

That’s because you’re a poser who doesn’t understand (or a fraudster who won’t acknowledge) the historical fraud that has been manufactured by con-artists who sell their services by conjuring and counting “clicks” that were produced by themselves instead of unique, visitor, IP Addresses.

You're a complete idiot, which of course, makes you incapable of realizing it.

Now, you're accusing me of doing fraudulent stuff, and my system isn't even out there yet. Your desperate stupidity is something that should get you banned from the internet completely. You're a sin upon society.

Get lost! Jerk!

[antiRepublicrat]

. The people who purchase anything from Apple, already start with a preference and a bias towards all things Apple. Thus, a satisfaction survey which includes Apple stuff, would always indicate that, the Apple fanatics are very satisfied with their purchases.

And that's where you are wrong. Relatively, very few purchasers of Apple products are such "fanatics." Of all the people I know who have an iPhone, I am the only one with a general like for all of Apple's products. Everybody else just bought a phone, and it happened to be Apple. My neighbors have two iPhones, and no other Apple products ever, not even an iPod. They just bought them because they figured it was a great deal for a good phone when replacing their Blackberrys. Even with the iPad, one quarter of the buyers have never even owned one of the half a billion iPods and iPhones sold.

Did you know the original iPod never took off until it was made fully Windows-compatible with USB? Apple's products have appeal way beyond the hard-core fans.

BTW, I like Apple's products, but I do have a history here of not liking many of the things the Apple corporation does. From promoting homosexuals to trying to stop people from using their fair use rights to install OS X on any hardware they want, to trying to silence the press, the company has been quite evil. But then all tech companies have their evil side, so I just have to pick the one with the best products. That is, of course, Apple by a long shot.

A satisfaction survey can only be conducted on a product by product basis, and when it comes to anything Apple, they will always get a high rating, since, those people have probably never, or rarely, used anything else.

With this logic you are trying to set up a scenario where it is impossible that people can actually like Apple products more. Of course you can't admit that average people can actually like the products, because that would mean the company actually makes good products.

[antiRepublicrat]

it’s a lot simpler than it appears

The appearance of complexity is complexity. When it comes to user interface design, initial user perception is reality and you must adapt to it. Never ask users to learn to adapt to, understand or "become acquainted" with your screen. It should immediately appear friendly and easy to use, and then it actually should be friendly and easy to use. Yet another reason why the average joe likes Apple products.

In reality, like I said earlier, it’s a lot simpler than going through several screens for selections

There are more than only two ways to do this. Have you considered categorized drop-downs instead of tall list boxes? Screens full of options like yours turn off users. The "Categories" box is begging for an AJAX tree control.

Also look at the tile search. Exact, any and all? How about one input box, with exact, any and all radio buttons? Don't require commas either. Delineate automatically. You don't know which one users will hit most, so if you can't do user testing, let it go live but track which types of searches users do. After a while if users prefer "any" or "all" instead of "exact" then make that option default instead of "exact."

I'll give you a more physical analogy for an architect. He designed buildings around a large courtyard, but didn't put in any sidewalks or walkways. People said this was a stupid omission. But it wasn't. Instead, he waited a few months, and then laid walkways over the paths the people had worn into the grass by walking. This way, the walkways exactly matched the way the people wanted to walk, instead of trying to force people to walk the way he thought they should. In the end, it's more efficient and saves the grass.

I just dislike the fanaticism that surrounds the Apple users, and I myself, do own an iPad and an older Mac. But, I don... I’m just a lot more practical than most people

You are perceiving a lot more fanatics than actually exist. Most of Apple's sales are to regular people who just like the products. Me, I like Apple products because they are the best. I will stop buying them when something else is better enough to make a switch worth it. I only have a Mac because Vista sucked around the time I needed a new computer (great buy, too, because this old iMac is working even better three OS versions later). I'd been toying with the idea of a Mac for years, but they were never the right buy for me until then.

[OldEarlGray]

>>Now, you’re accusing me of doing fraudulent stuff

Me thinks she doth protest too much.

Click Fraud is a historical fact - which is why anybody who’s purchasing your “service” is generally going to want PROOF of real usage/traffic — and that means, { drum roll please } unique IP Addresses... which are sort of difficult to provide if you’re “not interested” tracking them.

[adorno]

The appearance of complexity is complexity

I completely understand what you're saying, and I agree, but, I too have been a major advocate of "simple is best", or the KISS principle. I have a lot of years in design for online applications, and, everyone of my designs took into consideration of designing for the lowest common denominator, or the assumption that, sooner or later, a dummy is going to have to used the system, and even he/she has to be able to view and understand exactly what the screen (and system) is going to do for him or her. That's why I debated going with simple steps, and one screen for each item in the criteria screen, and, I came to the conclusion that, too many steps would tend to complicate matters more, and make the simple matter of getting at articles too lengthy and time consuming. Also, and in fact, I originally did design the list boxes as drop down lists, and, I felt that, a list box, with items already populating the box, would, "intuitively" give a sense of what to expect when looking further down the list with the scroll bar. What you suggest I already did, and, in fact, would be very easy to go back to, since I saved the original design and coding. Another matter that you suggest, I would agree with, except that, when it comes to "Categories" and "Subjects", a delineating character is necessary in order to separate a category from other categories, or subjects from other subjects. My categories and subjects are not single word entries or selections. Thus, "politics" is simple to separate as per your suggestion, but, "politics of poverty" would not be easy to separate from "politics of poverty republican platform", when "republican platform" would be another category or even a separate subject. Categories and subjects can be multi-word phrases, and I want to easily capture what the user is looking for. If they make a mistake in their selections and/or entries, the system will just not find what the user is looking for, and they will be informed of that fact, with errors indicated in appropriate and corresponding boxes. My testing has not been as thorough as could be or as I would like, since, it's mostly on my own, and by looking at what a lot of other sites do, and learning from what they do well, and don't do so well. On the other matter of Apple fanaticism, I do frequent a few sites dedicated to computer and software and internet technology, and what I find annoying, is the fanaticism that is frequently encountered about one platform or another, and, from what I've witnessed, the Apple fanboyism is the worst that can be found. Other than that, I don't care what one uses as hardware or software, but, like I mentioned earlier, I am a very practical person, and I will always design for, and use, the most prevalent and used platform out there, and that just happens to be, Windows and the whole Windows ecosystem. However, I do test my project to make sure it works fine on the other browsers besides Internet Explorer.

[adorno]

Get lost! Jerk!

It’s already a proven historical fact that, you’re just an a-hole. So, go jump into a latrine somewhere, where you’ll fit in and merge just nicely.

[adorno]

Sorry about that last post to you, where my paragraphs didn’t come out like I wanted.

[HiTech RedNeck]

An Apple Linux could run almost any other major distro Linux app natively.

[OldEarlGray]

Quack, Waddle...

 

Help! ????? - not a valid win32 application
myself | myself

Posted on Friday, March 07, 2008 3:25:03 PM by adorno 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1982166/posts

...Albatross!

[HiTech RedNeck]

Adorno has obviously learned more in four years than you could in four lifetimes.

[OldEarlGray]

>>Adorno has obviously learned more in four years

Evidently she hasn’t learned enough publish that vaporware “website” yet.

Birds of your feather flock together do they?

[OldEarlGray]

>>Wow, what a thread!

It’s good ol’ fashion flame war.

An example of how when tools become objects of worship - the worshipers typically become tools of a different sort.

[umbagi]

An example of how when tools become objects of worship - the worshipers typically become tools of a different sort.

Amen, brother. Some just don't understand "task orientation." And most don't grok the first Commandment...

[antiRepublicrat]

About the UI, just trying to be helpful. Take or leave any of it. Hope it works out for you.

I will always design for, and use, the most prevalent and used platform out there, and that just happens to be, Windows and the whole Windows ecosystem

I can understand the "design for" logic. On mobile, that would be Android and iOS. A guy who has suffered a horrible band saw accident could probably still count the Windows percentage of market share on one hand, and that market share is about to disappear since Windows 7 is now officially an orphan, no reason whatsoever to buy it.

But as far as the "use" logic, then if you wanted the most popular vehicle you'd have to buy a Ford F-series truck, even if you just wanted a car. If you wanted the most popular car you'd have to get a Toyota Camry. Yuck. Why?

[antiRepublicrat]

An Apple Linux could run almost any other major distro Linux app natively.

I'm still trying to figure out a net advantage for Apple in this. Nope, no point in doing this whatsoever for Apple.