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Did I ever mention that I fucking hate the fucking web

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Re: Did I ever mention that I fucking hate the fucking web

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't replicate your "Android UI failed" problem on a Nexus 5 running Android 5.1

me neither, but a bug I've only seen on my Nexus 5 is that my timestamps on recent hangouts messages say "now" for hours. This is a problem if I mix hangouts and SMS because SMS runs on a normal timestamp, so essentially all of my texts appear above my hangouts. For a while it just seemed like my texts weren't actually coming in at all.

On my Note 4, I get the same (possibly related) date/time issues manifesting in Google Maps; "Driving distance 37 miles. Drive time estimated 72 hours" :)

Re: Did I ever mention that I fucking hate the fucking web

#282
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google products used to be simple and usable. Now they are all fucked up. Seems like that their QA department went on a permanent vacation. I have actually written to them about my issues and I'm waiting for a response ever since.

Good luck with the waiting. Notoriously bad at customer support as well.

Interestingly, as the breadth and complexity of Google product grows, the need for true customer service grows, disproportionately. Very few of us needed "customer support" for Google Search, but for many of their newer, more complex products, it's a must. Google either missed this need altogether, or they decided that even with crappy/no CS, they could still make a killing with half-assed products/support. Thoughts?

Re: Did I ever mention that I fucking hate the fucking web

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had developed your photos 10 years ago using analogic methods, your negatives are still usable, and your positive (if they were not too exposed to the sun thus conserved normally) would still be there. Whereas if you already had a digital camera, the raw are either lost because the media has decayed, you forgot backup, or worse to index your database. Your positive have all turned yellow unless you spent 10 ti…

My experience has been the exact opposite. Minimal effort in backing up the digital copies makes them easier to access than the film I have from the same period since it's slowly decaying in a box 1,000 miles away.

I also remember an astronomic "observatoire" buying lifetime guaranteed ISO9600 CD as a secondary backup of jpeg encoded pictures in the early 2000's (if you look at it all choices that were legits) that discovered 2 years after the primary backup failed (HD) that the secondary also failed.

Whereas microfilms are still less expensive then and now, and still guaranteed to be more durable with less operational costs.

Those who sacrifice a cheap reliability for the illusion of an expensive ease of use deserve neither one, nor the other.

Benjamin Franklin

Re: Did I ever mention that I fucking hate the fucking web

#285
post #65

I think that for some time now Google's services are mostly crap. For example when I upgraded KitKat to Lollipop they fucked up my calendar. No month view? Seriously? Plus it always vibrates since silent mode is gone. I found this out the hard way. My phone is always in silent mode and after the upgrade one day it just vibrated off the desk and the display broke. I should sue Google for this. Anyway back to your issu…

Gmail became so painful about two years ago. So I moved to Fastmail (wow, web UI can be THAT fast!). New Google Maps were broken for a couple of months. Google's own developer plugins like Game Services and AdMob are buggy and unintuitive. Google products' UX is always unpolished (including Android). The last Google service that I'm using is Docs, but I hope Dropbox will make something better soon.

Check out Office Online. Dropbox has integration with it now I believe. https://office.live.com/

Re: Did I ever mention that I fucking hate the fucking web

#286
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they don't have a choice, so they don't expect anything else. Only the technical folks know how and where to buy a clean computer. Hell, the first computer the younger generation bought themselves was most likely already loaded with a ton of such crap, and that sets the baseline of their expectations.

> Because they don't have a choice Then set up a company that make fresh PC with windows installs without crapware and you have a business model right there. Choice is just a matter of people starting doing it. Or you know, buy a Linux computer (sure, the choice is not great there either, but it's something that a few manufacturers offer online: Lenovo, System75 and a couple others).

People like PC World in the UK, as its the closest they have top a normal shopping experience.

I always told friends to go to the small independent shop over the road where they will get a better deal. But then they have to speak to someone who will baffle them with jargon. Its far easier to see the 40% discount offer (from the initially high prices) as some sort of bargain. I have wasted hours uninstalling crap from PC World machines. One came with 3 firewalls and it wouldn't connect to the internet.

Re: Did I ever mention that I fucking hate the fucking web

#288
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes USB isn't an option: The USB interface on my old Samsung Galaxy S2 broke (seems to be a common problem), now the connection just charges, data transfer is borked under Windows and Linux. So I thought it would be "easy" to use WLAN for that - Samsung itself wants you to use "Kies", proprietary software which works only under Windows. Once I had located the right old version for my apparently-too-old phone, I…

You can't blame the (quite old) phone for being difficult when one of the main interfaces is broken. And there are many apps that let you explore your phone via wifi instead of using Kies. Just searching "wifi file transfer" or "wifi file manager" gives you plenty of hits.

Are you serious? Because the phone is 5 years old it's reasonable to expect transfer speeds from the 1950's?

Re: Did I ever mention that I fucking hate the fucking web

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck with the waiting. Notoriously bad at customer support as well.

Interestingly, as the breadth and complexity of Google product grows, the need for true customer service grows, disproportionately. Very few of us needed "customer support" for Google Search, but for many of their newer, more complex products, it's a must. Google either missed this need altogether, or they decided that even with crappy/no CS, they could still make a killing with half-assed products/support. Thoughts?

I think you are right - and for me having bad customer support is a miss. If the customer support "costs" why don't include that cost in the products price? Bad customer support @ Google has turned me away from their Google Docs. Customer support is also needed when the UI is not self-explanatory like Google's very often.

They have Google Apps for the Enterprise, but very often you can't reach the Enterprise without the proper support, product documentation and service. From the other hand, I got very positive experience with Microsoft support which proves that "Customer support at scale" is possible.

Thank you for the comment!

Re: Did I ever mention that I fucking hate the fucking web

#290
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest, what was the goal of any other methodology?

Requirements ;-)

Software is a hell of a lot easier to write and test if you have a decent well thought out set or requirements. Getting that is far harder than any coding.
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