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Cortana is really bad

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Re: Cortana is really bad

#211

Post by jasonlotito »

gerrard00 wrote: post #43
magice wrote: post #35

As much fun as it is to bash Microsoft and Windows (although, let's face it, Windows has been so much better in the last few releases), I personally think Microsoft, its engineers, as well as its PM deserve (some?) empathy rather than anger for this. I mean, I can almost imagine how this thing happens. Someone somewhere sometime said, "hey, wouldn't it be cool if xyz?" Someone else replied with "oh yeah, and it's not…

I don't think they deserve empathy at all. If they can't implement the feature to the level of being usable they should just cut the feature instead of annoying the user. So much software development today is about getting story points on a velocity chart and claiming that features have been delivered even if the feature is actually useless. A Minimum Viable Product should actually be viable.

So, let's fail Spotlight on iOS too, because searching for tdbank never works for me to bring up the TD Bank app. Seems like such a simple thing, but nope. Can't forget that bloody space. And that seems like a bigger failure than anything the article was talking about.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#213

Post by gerdesj »

It will be a while before these digital assistants work properly. None of them work in a way that anyone can possibly call "intelligent". If I was feeling charitable then I'd describe them as merely intrusive.

When these things do finally get their act together, we will all live in a world that is different from the one we live in now. I hope it is a better one.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#214

Post by bartkmq »

vocatus_gate wrote: post #137
fpgaminer wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, I thought Cortana was Microsoft's name for their voice assistant on Windows 10 or something. Now everything is starting to make sense. I kept having issues using the Windows menu search in Windows 10. I'd type "remov" and it would show the menu item for uninstalling applications. Great. But if I accidentally finished and typed "remove" the result would disappear. I felt like I was going crazy or something. Comfo…

There IS a magic search tool, I've been using it for years. https://everything.en.softonic.com/ "Everything" is a fantastic lightning-fast system-wide search that's tiny and can run standalone.

For Linux users I can recommmend FSearch, which is inspired by Everything Search. http://www.fsearch.org/

Re: Cortana is really bad

#215

Post by symfoniq »

0xCMP wrote: post #78
nerflad wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you that it should be implemented better, though I've honestly come to expect this from Windows. It's just a bit extreme considering you submitted it to HN, where the people directly involved actually have a chance of seeing it.

I can see why he did it. These aren't beginners. They're experienced developers and managers. If you work at one of the top 5 tech companies in the world on a product most of the computing world uses then maybe this shouldn't be acceptable. Why is it that this is acceptable for Microsoft to publish? It's not and what makes it worse is that it often gets abandoned. If they had a history going back and finishing this o…

If the current MacBook Pro is any indication, I’m not sure how much Apple cares about experience, either. I’m still trying to figure out who that machine is made for: Horrible keyboard, gimmicky Touch Bar, worse battery life than the previous generation, no ports relevant to existing devices (including Apple’s own flagship smartphone)... I don’t think Apple can be accused of sweating the details anymore, either.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#216

Post by dingo_bat »

eterm wrote: post #89
rspeer wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen fuzzy search work in a few cases, but they are sparse. Most notably, I never remember what the name of Windows' built-in screenshot application is. It's "Snipping Tool". I often mis-remember it as "Clipping Tool". But anyway, it comes up when I type "screenshot", "clip", or "clipping" into the search bar.

Here's the crazy thing: Type out "clipping tool" and watch. It matches all the way to "clipping t". Then it stops matching, then matches again at "clipping tool". So even if you know a phrase which it matches on, you might or might not get a patch from an exact partial of that matching phrase.

For me it matches perfectly for each letter. Maybe you're on an older build?

Re: Cortana is really bad

#217

Post by dingo_bat »

Theodores wrote: post #13

The Google approach is much better. Tracking numbers go out in email to the customer and you can put little xml snippets in there so that gmail can put 'track order' in the subject with a little button to click. This goes to the URL provided in the email, not to some magical service that magically determines if that tracking number came from UPS, USPS, Royal Mail, China Post, or whatever. Due to how couriers merge an…

This is also present on outlook. I wonder why Cortana can't just use that same logic. I guess they had to justify their existence by coding up the same thing again.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#218

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

setpatchaddress wrote: post #199
8ytecoder wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, if you have never used another OS, MacOS seems like the best. But when even the simplest pro things don't work, it gets beyond annoying. Some examples - Cut, Paste files; Shift select files; Minimise and how it works with Cmd+Tab; Maximise the way it works now. I need something like BetterTouchTool to even tolerate MacOS. It's the terminal (Ubuntu on Windows is great but still needs more work) and the quality h…

> Shift select files I don't get this one. Do you not like that it's different from Windows; do you not know that the feature exists; something else? " rel="nofollow">http://osxdaily.com/2013/09/16/select-multiple-files-mac-os-...

Yeah, it's been a while since I've used windows seriously (e.g. the last version I used consistently was 2000), but afaict, selection in Finder's detail view works basically the way it works in list-boxes on all platforms: shift-click selects a range from the last selected item, command-click (ctrl-click on non-Mac) selects individual items.

Unless, perhaps, Windows Explorer doesn't behave like a list-box and selects individual items with shift-click? Or, Windows lets you select a range in icon mode, while Macs don't?

Re: Cortana is really bad

#219

Post by abrookewood »

vocatus_gate wrote: post #137
fpgaminer wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, I thought Cortana was Microsoft's name for their voice assistant on Windows 10 or something. Now everything is starting to make sense. I kept having issues using the Windows menu search in Windows 10. I'd type "remov" and it would show the menu item for uninstalling applications. Great. But if I accidentally finished and typed "remove" the result would disappear. I felt like I was going crazy or something. Comfo…

There IS a magic search tool, I've been using it for years. https://everything.en.softonic.com/ "Everything" is a fantastic lightning-fast system-wide search that's tiny and can run standalone.

Logged in just to upvote you .. Everything is the fastest search tool I have ever used. It is ridiculously good. From memory, it doesn't index files, just reads the File Allocation Table.

You have to wonder: how is it that a single developer can build something so much better than a behemoth like MS? They should be seriously embarrassed.

Re: Cortana is really bad

#220

Post by loopdoend »

Why would you paste in a URL when trying to track a package and not just the tracking number?

I mean if you have the URL just go to the URL and track your package.

I’m pretty sure Cortana was designed as a human interface and not a web browser...

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