Re: Trying To Stem The Tide Of Defections To LibreOffice
I would go further and say they actually detract from the product, which is why I still use Word 2000...
312 publicly visible posts • joined 5 May 2015
And probably more comfortable too!
One my clients had a bright yellow Lamborghini Diablo (sat in his garage, "part of his pension investments") which he invited me to sit in, and it was the most uncomfortable car I've ever sat in - the huge wheelarches necessitated having ones legs skewed off to one side and the seat had no lumbar support and a fixed, wrongly-positioned, head rest - dreadful UX.
Artificially introducing or, worse still, creating super-competitive species is very different from natural movements caused by environmental change.
However, the word that caught my eye was “trophy” - what kind of moron is proud of shooting a 5-foot wide sheep?
I’m guessing that would be the ECDL from the early 2000s - after installing a training suite for it at a primary school (for the teachers) where I did tech support, I decided to try it out, and really struggled to wade my way through the Excel and Outlook modules - because it was like playing a completely linear FPS game which had no alternative routes, and the “correct” route was never one an experienced power user would take...
Precisely.
When I used to do on-site technical support for home users I moved from varying sound a stock of bits and pieces that were useful for my clients and profitable for me (in terms of reasonable retail markup) to persuading/insisting that clients buy things such as PSUs and SSDs themselves, with my help if necessary - so that I didn’t have to carry the retailer risk of dealing with product problems.
An excellent and very comprehensive summary Liam, thank you!
It brought back a lot of memories and reminded me why I quickly became a Windows convert and evangelist (I'm not any more I hasten to add). When I started training as an accountant in 1989 (CIMA) the progressive first year IT syllabus included WIMP UIs - because nobody in the accounts world (neither clerks nor professionals/managers) had any idea what one was; green screens were the norm.
Now I'm just an 'old reactionary' bemoaning the loss of sensibly-designed UIs (like our friend @bombastic bob)!
Incidentally I think you've nailed the key points of the historical progress from the technical, business, economic and legal perspectives as far as I am aware (and you've clearly done a lot of research too); the extra details other commentards have added are just that - details. Here on El Reg we all like details, but adding more would cloud the message...
> before British English became more standardised
All living languages are continually changing and evolving, both in speech and writing (assisted by internationalisation, impeded by grammar nazis of course). Dictionaries merely reflect and attempt to codify the current state, albeit somewhat slowly and reluctantly. So, in a sense, you're all correct...
Icon... I was taught to use -ise, and 'forbidden' from using -ize, too :)
I wish I could give you more upvotes - @Pascal and several other commentards have missed the point that you are making, which is that making manufacturers pay means making consumers pay, as opposed to repairers, recyclers and do-withouters - or any other non-consuming taxpayers...
I’ve never understood why iMessage shows Apple messages in blue - I’ve never seen a blue apple, lots of green ones though, so it’s always been counterintuitive to me. Also, more importantly, why can’t I decide for myself what colour my messages are...?
Mine’s the one with my daily apple in the pocket (usually red incidentally), and a purple iPhone in the other pocket :)
They don't really need to look at the date on the cable - if "your friend" wants to convince someone that the work was done before 2005 then you, sorry he, needs to have a stash of red and black cable - using blue and brown T&E is a bit of a giveaway since it only became widely available around 2005 when the 2nd Amendment of the 16th Edition of the Regs mandated it for new installations in line with European colour harmonisation. Jus sayin'