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Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

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Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#131

Post by basisword »

Sharlin wrote: post #119
basisword wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a menu item. I believe it's File > Share > then you choose how (save to disk, email, export to photos app etc). File > Save doesn't make sense because you would be saving your iMovie project. You're trying to export the final video from the project, not save it. The problem was using a far too complex tool to do a simple job (and not understanding how the tool works). You can trim a video in Quicktime or Phot…

There's no File > Export?!

File > Share is the same, just more user friendly language. I get it's a bit confusing if you've been using computers for a long time (it's certainly caught me out), but 'Share' makes much more sense. Especially because export/save to disk is only one of the multiple 'Share' options available.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#132

Post by [deleted] »

bluegatty wrote: post #88
jameshart wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This email was literally BillG sending an email to the people he holds accountable for this, pointing out to them that he believes his experience resulted from a systematic lack of attention to end to end user experience. I’m not sure why you see this as evidence BillG didn’t understand that to be his job.

I have struggle to understand how someone could come to that conclusion, maybe I missed something? The email is a 'rant'. It's a 'list of broken stuff'. It's not: 1) identifying underlying first principles of design or UX that have been broken 2) not identifying which parts of the system may have resulted in the negative outcome 3) not reference for either operational or cultural that were braoched or need to be addr…

[deleted]

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#133

Post by dpark »

bluegatty wrote: post #88
jameshart wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This email was literally BillG sending an email to the people he holds accountable for this, pointing out to them that he believes his experience resulted from a systematic lack of attention to end to end user experience. I’m not sure why you see this as evidence BillG didn’t understand that to be his job.

I have struggle to understand how someone could come to that conclusion, maybe I missed something? The email is a 'rant'. It's a 'list of broken stuff'. It's not: 1) identifying underlying first principles of design or UX that have been broken 2) not identifying which parts of the system may have resulted in the negative outcome 3) not reference for either operational or cultural that were braoched or need to be addr…

> It's basically 'user rant' - not what one would expect from a leader.

It is absolutely a user rant, but it's entirely appropriate for a leader to call out "this is not okay; this is a garbage experience".

> who are obviously being 'reactive' and moving in a bit of a frenzy.

That was the intent. "Fix this." This was an email to a bunch of execs who are capable of driving the actual fixes. If Gates needs to hand hold them through this then they need to be replaced.

> A good example of 'leadership' would start out with 'I take responsibility for this'

This is vacuous corporate speak, the kind of message you send to shareholders to soothe them. This is not leadership.

> hinting and the possible source of flaws, where in the process those things should have been caught...

Again, if Gates needs to do this then everyone on the To line is dead weight.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#134

Post by gigatree »

hylaride wrote: post #122
TulliusCicero wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I know about MS, I can understand what they mean. Microsoft famously had teams at odds with each other, so if you "own" something across multiple teams and can't get them to actually work together or take a particular issue seriously, then you just have the shit end of responsibility without the authority to make stuff happen.

For awhile under Balmer, Microsoft implemented a lot of Jack Welsh management philosophies. This included stack ranking, but also encouraging "internal competition" under the idea that it'll drive people to excel. In real life that caused friction, politics, sandbagging, and other problems that were not in the company's best interests. It's fine to be competitive, but in some competitive situations (team sports, comp…

Exactly. Jack Welsh’s management philosophy just further incentivizes doing what you can to bring everyone else (ie the company) down to make yourself look better.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#135

Post by brailsafe »

While reading this I pictured an irate BillG screaming at his shitty pc first thing in the morning, probably after getting off a Skype or WebEx call, like the guy in The Onion's classic "Sony releases stupid piece of shit that doesn't fucking work" https://youtube.com/watch?v=8AyVh1_vWYQ

And that's exactly how I felt trying to reinstall Windows 10/11 on a new motherboard recently.

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#136

Post by eddythompson80 »

LennyWhiteJr wrote: post #85
3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #26

My favorite bit about this is how none of the execs want to take ownership of the change, but instead trying to put someone else in the hot seat and/or start a Committee. This feels like an email that should have been blasted to the entire company. Top-down, empower employees to think of a more unified experience. Then again, all of the external jokes about Microsoft indicate that every department is fighting for the…

This is unfortunately par for the course at many big companies. I have re-lived this exact same thread so many times I've lost count 1. Leader escalates issue to his team 2. The team scrambles to come up with a solution 3. No one wants to take ownership. #NotMyProblem 4. weeks or months are spent on 'developing a plan' 5. nothinghappens.jpg

I have seen that too many times too in big companies, but I wouldn't say that it results in nothinghappens.jpg

It results in the equivalent of treating an infection with Tylenol rather than antibiotics. The exact symptom reported by a "Leader" will usually get fixed, but in a more of a "KPI hacking" rather than a fundamental fix to the problem. I have seen a "Leader" point to the staggering number of support tickets as a problem then have teams make it incredibility difficult to open a support ticket. The number of support tickets plummets and the first report to instruct their team to do so gets rewarded and all other teams follow suit. Have a leader point to complexity of the sign up process, and have teams "simplify" the signup process by just taking an email to create the account, then make the experience of doing anything post sign up a broken mess because you forgot to go into settings and filling up all the required details. Or have a leader complain about the install process like in this example, and have teams just bundle massive dependencies or make wide horrific modifications to the users machine to "simplify" the install process. Now suddenly installing a video editing software also modifies your default video player, your HDR or scaling settings, your audio device setup, and your keyboard layout (because why not?)

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#137

Post by saaaaaam »

Dansvidania wrote: post #71
saaaaaam wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it didn’t. And Microsoft is worth $3.5 trillion. So maybe actually everyone should take a leaf out of the Microsoft book. When something is on fire, pass the buck to other people and stand around saying “that thing is on fire… wouldn’t it be great if someone called the fire brigade? I have the number here. One of you guys, give them a call.”

they pivoted a few times since then in terms of what their core product is, though :D

But did they get any better at putting out fires by committee?

Or are there still groups of Microsoft employees saying “I saw a fire extinguisher in Bob’s office the other day. He was using it as footrest. I told Magda to warn him about the health and safety but she said it was Julian’s job… and the guy who pays for them to be filled and tested left three years ago and no one replaced him, so it probably doesn’t work anyway.”

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#138

Post by airstrike »

basisword wrote: post #131
Sharlin wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no File > Export?!

File > Share is the same, just more user friendly language. I get it's a bit confusing if you've been using computers for a long time (it's certainly caught me out), but 'Share' makes much more sense. Especially because export/save to disk is only one of the multiple 'Share' options available.

"Share" really means send to someone else

"Export" means "save this working file in one of many formats, including possibly other formats that are first-class in third-party apps but not this app"

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#139

Post by noir_lord »

georgemcbay wrote: post #115
3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #26

My favorite bit about this is how none of the execs want to take ownership of the change, but instead trying to put someone else in the hot seat and/or start a Committee. This feels like an email that should have been blasted to the entire company. Top-down, empower employees to think of a more unified experience. Then again, all of the external jokes about Microsoft indicate that every department is fighting for the…

> My favorite bit about this is how none of the execs want to take ownership of the change, but instead trying to put someone else in the hot seat and/or start a Committee. And with the exception of John Martin's reply (which recognizes that there are deeper problems they should think about, but seems resigned to the fact that that won't happen) the focus is pretty much entirely: "let's fix the exact issues Bill Gate…

> I haven't worked at any companies as large and siloed as Microsoft, but I'd assume this is pretty common for them.

Doesn't need to be that large, I worked for a company that ~4500 employees with about 1000 at HQ, that entire email chain looks exactly like what would ensue every time someone at the C-level flagged an issue.

I suspect the reason is much the same, no one wants to be in the hot seat to fix a problem they have no faith they can fix so everyone plays hot potato with the flaming sack of shit until it bursts and lands on someone.

> Fish begins to stink at the head, not the tail. (13th Century Persian Proverb)

Re: Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)

#140

Post by bestouff »

3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #26

My favorite bit about this is how none of the execs want to take ownership of the change, but instead trying to put someone else in the hot seat and/or start a Committee. This feels like an email that should have been blasted to the entire company. Top-down, empower employees to think of a more unified experience. Then again, all of the external jokes about Microsoft indicate that every department is fighting for the…

My fav is this :

> Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

This is so true, and not only under Windows. Install any modern program under any modern OS and have a look at the filesystem, it's a flaming mess. Nowadays the only solution "smart people" have found is to install a complete system, complete with libraries and frameworks, for each program.

I miss the days of simple executables.

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