Slog - Comments on Sweating the Small Stuff http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff Let's say you're the biggest software company in the world, and you have a long-anticipated, super-flashy, translucent-tastic new version of your flagship product. If you find that you have to put up a page on your site that explains--with illustrations--how to open the box (you'll need a knife), you might want to consider that you have some overall issues with thoughtful design. Just sayin'. Or you could scrape up $44 billion to buy another giant software company*, see if that helps. via Gruber * Yes it is.... Copyright 2008 Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:03:05 -0800 Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:37:45 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Fifty-Two-Eighty I'll need a knife? I thought we lived in a civilized country. People shouldn't be allowed to own knives, they might hurt somebody. (Click the link.)

]]> Fifty-Two-Eighty http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919003 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919003 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:28:34 -0800 Comment by k Yahoo is not a software company per se

]]> k http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919004 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919004 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:28:47 -0800 Comment by seattle98104 You're right @2, yahoo is rendered in real time by monkey slaves.

]]> seattle98104 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919012 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919012 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:38:40 -0800 Comment by Cato the Younger Younger Here is something fun to do: Click on the link Anthony has and say the directions for opening up Vista ARE WRONG!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

]]> Cato the Younger Younger http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919014 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919014 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:54:02 -0800 Comment by kinkos i couldn't figure out how to open vista either when i got it

then again, i also couldn't uninstall vista quickly enough after i had upgraded my system (well, i couldn't really uninstall at all). the packaging works - it protects consumers from the piece of crap lurking within...

]]> kinkos http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919019 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919019 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:09:31 -0800 Comment by some dude that security seal is the same shit that they put on cds and dvds. i never have to use a knife to tear those off.

]]> some dude http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919024 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919024 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:16:22 -0800 Comment by Karlheinz Arschbomber This sounds like some kind of biological suicide mechanism at Microsoft. What a colossal waste. They ARE morons.

]]> Karlheinz Arschbomber http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919029 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919029 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:24:39 -0800 Comment by Mr. Poe You don't need a knife.

]]> Mr. Poe http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919030 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919030 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:25:42 -0800 Comment by Epimetheus Does anyone actually buy the retail version of Vista? Why? I comes pre-installed on any new computer, and if you already have a working computer why would you want to break it? Something interesting I saw the other day, in one computer catalog, Vista was, of course, pre-installed on every PC, including the $450 ones, but, if you buy a $4000 "Gaming" computer, you could get XP as an option.


I realize no one at Microsoft owns any Yahoo! stock, but still, this sounds suspicious, what happens to a company's stock price when they announce a thousand layoffs, what happens to the stock price when another company offers an insanely large price for the the first company? (up 44%) I suppose this is normal practice, but I'm just saying....


What does Yahoo! do that is worth anything anyway? Well, OK I did look up their stock price on Yahoo!Finance but I'm sure I could have found it elsewhere.

]]> Epimetheus http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919038 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919038 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:40:00 -0800 Comment by NapoleonXIV Are there any local shops that remove Vista?

There are times when the $%&&A$# program simply turns my dual-core laptop into a fucking rock.

]]> NapoleonXIV http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919039 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919039 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:41:17 -0800 Comment by Chip Chipmunk Want to remove Vista?

There's no point to just removing an operating system. Install a new OS (Windows XP SP1) and optionally reformat the hard drive.

]]> Chip Chipmunk http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919074 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919074 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:14:48 -0800 Comment by Jason Petersen Holy crap I think I just reached a new level of synergy. Slog just quoted DF. Cool.

]]> Jason Petersen http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919083 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919083 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:20:22 -0800 Comment by Bellevue Ave I havent had any problems with vista so far on my laptop. downloading a bunch of torrents and updating my budget doesnt seem too taxing. Civ IV works well on it.

I think Vista gets a bad rap.

]]> Bellevue Ave http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919084 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919084 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:20:32 -0800 Comment by Tiffany In my experience, Vista performance goes up dramatically if you get rid of the preinstalled security suites that Dell and HP ship with their systems, and replace it with something more reasonable, such as AVG or E-Trust. I use Vista at work (and have ordered hundreds of Vista machines for my division at work) and XP at home, and I am very happy with my Vista machine. I also dual-booted my home machine with Ubuntu, but don't really see much advantage after using it extensively. Ubuntu even wrecked the master boot record on my machine when upgrading.

]]> Tiffany http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919099 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919099 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:32:01 -0800 Comment by elenchos I hate having to worry about whether I have the right anti-virus software and the best firewall and whether or not they are working correctly and updated. Who wants to spend time on that?

]]> elenchos http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919113 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919113 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:41:10 -0800 Comment by Bellevue Ave Tiffany, might that explain it? I dont have any secuirity features except for norton anti-crapus installed. and that only runs at 3:00 am

]]> Bellevue Ave http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919115 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919115 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:41:13 -0800 Comment by Fnarf I just hate the interface SO MUCH. Every time Microsoft figures out a good way to do something, they dump it in the next version and replace it with something completely unusable and retarded. Internet Explorer is unusable for me now. The Office programs were far, far better in their 2000 versions than they are now (what in the FUCK did they do that to mail merge for?) Vista has DRM and the worst nag screens in the history of the universe. It all just peeves me, because it's so unnecessary.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919126 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919126 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:46:40 -0800 Comment by Tiffany What about the DRM do you have a problem with, Fnarf? It's not like Vista prohibits you from playing non-DRM'ed material. Believe me I have 80 GB of non-drm music to vouch for this. If you have a problem with Microsoft adding the ability to play DRM'ed material to Vista, do you also have a problem with Apple giving the iPod or iTunes the ability to play DRM'ed material?

]]> Tiffany http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919142 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919142 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:55:06 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Yes, I do.

If you are unfamiliar with the problems people are having with, say, trying to play their legally-purchased HD disks on their legally-purchased HD monitors using Vista, check it out.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919205 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919205 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:24:56 -0800 Comment by Tiffany If you are talking about HDCP handshaking problems, those are NOT Vista specific, and furthermore, Mac and Linux don't even try to support that. By your reasoning, it's Microsoft's fault when a Motorola set top box has HDCP handshaking problems with a Samsung HDTV. And that is a ridiculous assertion.

]]> Tiffany http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919230 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919230 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:34:55 -0800 Comment by Queen_of_Sleaze I'm not sure its Microsoft who are the idiots...

I'm willing to bet they actually got emails and letters from people who seriously couldn't figure out how to open a FUCKING box! They might have gotten a bunch of them.

I'm almost inclined to believe that those instructions are some kind of snarky response to the stupidity of the average American from some Microsoft tech guy. Sadly they are too FUCKING stupid to know that they're being made fun of!

People are so FUCKING stupid! It makes my FUCKING blood BOIL!!!

I feel like Lewis Black right now... Only cute... and a girl.

]]> Queen_of_Sleaze http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919231 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919231 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:35:16 -0800 Comment by Fnarf I'm talking about the concerns raised in this: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

HDCP is just the beginning.

Is the article old? I don't care. Is the problem mostly Hollywood's fault? I don't care. Is Adobe a ten times worse offender? I don't care. If something works perfectly well in XP but doesn't work in Vista, BY DESIGN, then I'm not interested in looking into the subject any further.

My problems have already been solved. But Microsoft insists on taking my solutions away and replacing them with shit that is ugly and difficult and doesn't do what I want anymore.

I'm not a Mac or Linux advocate. I've been using various flavors of Linux since 1994, and I'm over it. I actually had a Mac more than 20 years ago, and hated it (if you think Mac loons are annoying NOW....) I like Windows. I want a functioning PC. With XP on it. And I never want to have to think about it again except when bigger and sharper monitors come along, and spiffier web shit (which is 99% about content created by smart people and 1% about software).

Actually, I wish my office suite and my photo editor were web apps, now that you mention it. Too bad Google Docs isn't cutting it yet. When it does, Microsoft may just cease to exist.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919302 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919302 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:09:34 -0800 Comment by Jonathan Golob A sad thing to admit? Knowing this website would have prevented me from cutting my fingers up trying to open a Vista box a week ago.

I might be the only person in the Universe who likes UAC, just as I like the version in Mac OS X. Now if someone could write up a DRM-stripping patch for Vista, I'd be a happy man.

]]> Jonathan Golob http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919333 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919333 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:31:33 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle We use Vista to line our drawers here.

It runs slower, so we forced them to give us WinXP instead, and now we have these useless boxes we don't want with a sloooooooooooooow OS we won't use.

Besides, the graphics card requirements are a waste of time on quad-core genetics munching boxen, so why bother dual-booting when it just makes it slooooooooooower?

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919378 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919378 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:59:41 -0800 Comment by john VISTA runs great for me, though I do agree with the criticisms of the new Office suite...the redesign is about the least intuitive grouping of tools I have ever seen, especilly in Word.

They should have sunk their time and energy into making the Office suite a web application. I would definitely pay to not have that shit taking up so much memory on my pc. Get working on that, evil giant.

]]> john http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919424 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919424 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:31:06 -0800 Comment by Gomez They're a web host, Anthony, one that happens to do some software here and there. Their primary product is web service.

]]> Gomez http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919527 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919527 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:29:14 -0800 Comment by Tiffany I don't know what kind of hardware you guys are running on, but with run of the mill hardware that has been selling as low to mid level machines from the major vendors for the past year and a half (dual core processors and cheap but modern video cards, a $600 system from Dell for instance) Vista runs faster than my run of the mill XP machine that I got 3 years ago. Yeah if you want to run on old hardware, you are not going to have the greatest experience. That is the same story for pretty much all OS releases though.

]]> Tiffany http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919557 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c919557 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:46:04 -0800 Comment by billkennedy i do not understand a thing in this
blog clue me in

]]> billkennedy http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c920112 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c920112 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:08:20 -0800 Comment by Anthony Hecht @26 - A web host? You think that's Yahoo!'s core business? Come on.

Web service is software, anyway. Everything they provide is software. Whether it's installed on your PC or running on Yahoo!'s servers is irrelevant. It's software and they wrote it, so they're a software company. What are their web services if not software?

It's all software.

]]> Anthony Hecht http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c920410 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/sweating_the_small_stuff#c920410 Tech Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:37:45 -0800