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39 days ago
In which folder would I save a photo of my wife, during a vacation to Hawaii, that I use as a computer background? I have a folder called family, another one called vacations, and another one called backgrounds. You see people don’t see or think in linear ways or folder systems do. Folders are not built to handle one-to-many relationships where a digital file could qualify for two or more folders. File management needs to embrace one-to-many relationships, sometimes called tags or labels. Virtual folders where all content is stored in a single area but can be slice any number of ways. This is very effective not just with photos, but with documents as well. Music software already does this incredibly well. Every song has multiple tags including the artist, album, song, length, genre and type. Users can view this single instance of data any number of ways. Why this works with music is because these tags are pre-populated and for it to works for photos and documents the same needs ...
39 days ago
As many people are spending more time on their computers for work time and personal life – there becomes a relationship of expectations. Here are a few principles I can come to expect from the many touch points of my digital life: Interruption: There is too much noise going on while using a computer. Interruptive messages are many times indicative of bad software. Confirmation messages happen when the software doesn’t understand their own user and needs to verify an action. Smart software should more fully understand the user, their actions, and most importantly, their destination. Message prompts should understand the most common scenarios and not treat everything equally. Deleting a recently saved excel document might deserve a confirmation where deleting a desktop shortcut might not. Interruptive messages should be contextually aware. An example of this would be deleting a shortcut. Since a shortcut is by nature, a redundant copy of something – getting rid of it is ...
42 days ago
This is FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) at its best. Look on any Apple-centric website today and all the buzz is about a few quotes from various Apple ranks. Seems they are waving the right hand to distract while they take something with their left hand – only it is not magic. Much of the quotes have been centered around Microsoft’s clean-install only option for XP users going to Windows 7. Though this is not ideal for many customers, it is typical when users leap a release cycle. Note that Windows Vista to Seven does not have these extra steps. Who the extra steps apply to our primarily XP users, which operating system was sold between 2001-2006 to consumers. You might ask what is the comparable upgrade cycle for Mac users who bought their computers during this same time frame?? Zero. Nothing. A big fat dead-end. You CANNOT upgrade to Snow Leopard if you bought a Mac before the Intel switch in 2006. Apple is cutting them out of upgrade options completely. A roommate of mine ...
70 days ago
Lately I have been seeing a lot more Microsoft banner ads on tech sites. And I have to say the results keep making me laugh. They are highly enjoyable to play: Aaron
