I've written before about how well NetFlix and the Postal Service work together. A couple of weeks ago I had a real surprise on how efficient that co-operation can be.
We returned a Netflix DVD on a Saturday morning. On the following Monday, President's Day, a federal holiday, we received an email from NetFlix that we would receive the next DVD "on or about" Wednesday. We received it on Tuesday!
I post these because I am tired of anti-government types who take a few incidents and blow them up to regular occurrences. Any large organization makes many mistakes; consider my complaints about Apple and its many unsolved problems. That doesn't mean that an organization that makes mistakes doesn't do a lot of other things well. I've done a lot of useful things with my Apple products. I just won't be in a rush to get the latest major upgrade of any of its software. I'll wait until I have to buy a new device with the software installed.
BTW, DVDs by mail beat streaming. Many call postal mail "snail mail". Try streaming a movie any evening with a moderate speed connection. A snail keeps moving. A streaming movie can stop without warning.
Showing posts with label buggy software. Show all posts
Showing posts with label buggy software. Show all posts
Saturday, March 02, 2013
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Why facebook's stock price went down after the IPO
Simply put, facebook's software is too buggy!
Yesterday, I used my iPod and Safari to access facebook. I could not log off! There was no button to do so, and no button gave a drop down menu with log off in the list. When I tried using my MacBook Pro to access facebook, I could log on, but then my news feed was blank. Sometimes I would get a blank area and sometimes I would get a blank area with a spinning ball next to an arrow.
Then today I had three symbols at the top of the iPod window in addition to the three bars, which had done nothing before. One of the symbols had a red number one. It was that I had a message or a like. The three bars now had a drop down menu. Way, way at the bottom of the more than screen-length list was log out (or log off). Dumbly, I didn't click on log out but clicked on the button with the number. I found out that two people liked an entry. Now the three bar menu had no drop down menu!!!
I used my wife's computer to like an item on my facebook page. After several attempts of turning my iPod off and on and other screen changing actions, the three additional buttons were shown on my iPod. I didn't click on them but went straight to the three bar button, scrolled down to log off, and clicked it.
Poof! I was now back to the facebook log on page. Close that window and be rid of it!
I went back to my laptop and logged in to facebook. I now had news feeds, but only a handful from today or last night. I could find no button to look at older items. That means I can't go back to an item that I only glanced at yesterday or that I want to check for additional comments. Up to yesterday, I could look at a week or more of news items.
This is corporate efficiency?
Of course, buggy software does not really correlate to stock price. Look at the way Apple stock has risen since the release of its latest operating system, OS X Lion. Apple announced Lion with great fanfare and the claim that it had 250 exciting new features. What they didn't say there were 300 features that no longer worked or didn't work as well as before. OK, 300 features is poetic license, but I run into annoyances every day. Clicks that don't work on the first try, watching the beach ball spin more than I have in previous versions, resets that later revert to an older setting, and on and on.
Whatever happened to "the computer for the rest of us"? Gosh, and I was once a programmer, have been using Macs since 1984, and I have a hard time!
The next time somebody gives a favorable comparison of private enterprise to government; ask them if their computer does everything they want as easily as they want as fast as they want.
See also "Why Apple's stock price went down".
Yesterday, I used my iPod and Safari to access facebook. I could not log off! There was no button to do so, and no button gave a drop down menu with log off in the list. When I tried using my MacBook Pro to access facebook, I could log on, but then my news feed was blank. Sometimes I would get a blank area and sometimes I would get a blank area with a spinning ball next to an arrow.
Then today I had three symbols at the top of the iPod window in addition to the three bars, which had done nothing before. One of the symbols had a red number one. It was that I had a message or a like. The three bars now had a drop down menu. Way, way at the bottom of the more than screen-length list was log out (or log off). Dumbly, I didn't click on log out but clicked on the button with the number. I found out that two people liked an entry. Now the three bar menu had no drop down menu!!!
I used my wife's computer to like an item on my facebook page. After several attempts of turning my iPod off and on and other screen changing actions, the three additional buttons were shown on my iPod. I didn't click on them but went straight to the three bar button, scrolled down to log off, and clicked it.
Poof! I was now back to the facebook log on page. Close that window and be rid of it!
I went back to my laptop and logged in to facebook. I now had news feeds, but only a handful from today or last night. I could find no button to look at older items. That means I can't go back to an item that I only glanced at yesterday or that I want to check for additional comments. Up to yesterday, I could look at a week or more of news items.
This is corporate efficiency?
Of course, buggy software does not really correlate to stock price. Look at the way Apple stock has risen since the release of its latest operating system, OS X Lion. Apple announced Lion with great fanfare and the claim that it had 250 exciting new features. What they didn't say there were 300 features that no longer worked or didn't work as well as before. OK, 300 features is poetic license, but I run into annoyances every day. Clicks that don't work on the first try, watching the beach ball spin more than I have in previous versions, resets that later revert to an older setting, and on and on.
Whatever happened to "the computer for the rest of us"? Gosh, and I was once a programmer, have been using Macs since 1984, and I have a hard time!
The next time somebody gives a favorable comparison of private enterprise to government; ask them if their computer does everything they want as easily as they want as fast as they want.
See also "Why Apple's stock price went down".
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