Windows 7: One week, two bugs

Well, I've been dabbling with Windows 7 for just on a week now, and I've found two bugs.

First, it has the same "auto hide task bar" feature that Windows XP. Except that in XP, the task bar hides automatically. And in Windows 7, it usually doesn't. Don't know why. Sometimes it does. But, it seems, after a while it gets tired, or bored, and stops hiding.

Great.

Second, it has unnecessary and un-documented interaction between features.
Specifically, Windows 7 introduces two new features: Aero Snap and Aero Shake.

Aero Shake is a brand new feature. If you use the mouse to start dragging a window by its header bar, and "shake" the window, it will minimise every other window, leaving the one being dragged and shaken the only one open on the desktop. So you can see it clearly and, I guess, get at other things on the desk top at the same time. Shake it again, and the others go back the way they were. Kinda neat, I guess.

Aero Snap is a feature that, when you drag a window into the top or bottom of the screen, maximises it, while if you drag it into the side of the screen, it "half maximises" it --- that is expands it to fill half the screen. Now, XP has something like this, too, but I've never understood it. All I've noticed is that when I try to move a window, it sometimes maximises itself. Which is, to a very good approximation, never what I want.

So the Windows 7 mechanism is an improvement, in that I understand what it does. And, moreover, it only does the resize when you release the mouse button. But it does an animation the moment the mouse hits the edge of the screen, so you get warning of what is going happen, and can prevent it by dragging the mouse/window back away from the edge of the screen.

But, best of all, it can be disabled! There is a registry key (hey, it is windows, after all), and Google will find you any number of people telling you how to set it.

But there is also a tick box, which appears on several screens within the "Control Panel" hierarchy, that controls it. The box is labelled thus:

"Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen"

A 14-word description that does not rely on terminology, like "Aero Snap", that may be unfamiliar and off-putting to the novice user. Probably the result of much attention to usability, and no doubt the subject to extensive user testing and evaluation. Just the sort of label that one would hold up as an example of how to do interface design, if it only described what the tick box did.

But unfortunately, it doesn't: the tick box doesn't just disable "Aero Snap". It also disables "Aero Shake" --- a facility which has nothing whatsoever to do with dragging windows to the edge of the screen.

So the 14-word description of the tick box is clear, friendly, and wrong.

Thanks, guys...

Accessible Toilets: Going through the motions

So Scotrail have done it again.  Though I suspect the blame is elsewhere.
Obviously we, as a society, have to take reasonable steps to make our environment and society accessible to those with a disabiltiy. So we have ramps and kneeling busses for people who cannot cope with steps; subtitles and induction loop systems for the deaf; bleeping pedestrian crossings and bobbly ramps for the blind.
I'm sure that many of these things make disabled people's lives better. But sometimes, I get the feeling someone is just going through the motions.
One such example is the toilets on some of the recently refurbished Scotrail diesel railcar units. The toilet in one of the carriages is designed to be particularly friendly to the disabled. It is large enough to accommodate a wheelchair, with a wide powered sliding door, operated by pushing buttons. And for the benefit of the blind, everything inside is labelled in Braille. Including this...

Yes, that's right. Someone has labelled the door status lights in Braille.
I admit it was the superficial absurdity that first caught my attention: if someone is reading the signs in braille hardly needs labelled indicator lights. Or are they supposed to use the heat from the bulb to work out which one is on? 
OK, so it's not actually completely pointless: there are no doubt some people who can see well enought to know that there is a light on, but not well enough to read its label.
But Braille labels on indicator lights still feels like some kind of "legislation gone mad" arrangement.
And that's not the limit of the design problem, because the lights, and associated door controls, are located on the wall opposite the door. So our hypothetical blind traveller has to grope his way all the way round the (extra spacious) toilet area in order to find the controls to lock the door.
This, surely, isn't the best we can do for a disabled-friendly toilet.
Off the top of my head: instead of buttons and lights, have a chunky switch or lever that turns (or slides) between "Open" and "Closed" positions. And instead of putting it on the opposite side of the room, put it either on, or near, the door --- where one might expect things to do with the door to be located.
Just adding Braille to the labels on some indicator lights is just going through the motions.

Mac Air Fan, Boy!

So I guess I should confess that I've got a Macbook Air.

One of the first generation models, with the smaller disk and the less-capable graphics card, so Lewis's had it at about a third off the price of the current one.

It's nice in many ways, though at times it does tend to get rather warm, and, when the cooling fan ramps up, distinctly audible.

That wouldn't make much difference to me, since I mostly use it for typing text and occasional bursts of web surfing, except that it can be driven to working hard by, say, a flash animation running un-noticed in a corner of an off-the-screen Web page. So I've got into the habit of making sure I avoid such things. But still, sometimes, the machine starts to get warm and "noisy" (well, OK, noticeably not silent :-) for no apparent reason.

When this happened the other day, I took the time to investigate. And discovered, eventually, that part of the sound system (coreaudiod) was using over 10% of the CPU, even though there was nothing that used sound being run at all. Moreover, Mr. Google showed me that other people were also observing this same phenomenon. It seems that it is prone to running away like this under some circumstances. The problem is present in Snow Leopard, too, and can be triggered by "any" application that uses audio --- even a terminal window (can you say "bell"?)

I also found a command to restart the daemon:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod

I tried it, and the new incarnation of the daemon was as lethargic/inactive as you'd hope for an audio daemon on a machine being silent.

Straight away, the CPU temperature started to fall, as in due course did the fan speed,

So it seems that the 10% load was enough to keep the CPU fully powered up, and thus fully heat producing...

Good, eh!

Robert.

Windows WTF

So, on an XP machine, I was transferring a file to a files system shared from a remote machine - a "network drive".

I browsed to the directory/folder in Windows Explorer (N.B. Windows Explorer), and noticed that there was an awful lot of accumulated junk in it.

So I selected a handful of files, and right-clicked on them.  At which point I got a popup message from Internet Explorer (NB Internet Explorer) saying

This page has an unspecified potential security risk. 

Would you like to continue?"

Continue with what?  I was only trying to bring up a menu!

And why does that, or anything else, involve Internet Explorer?

On the third attempt, out of curiosity, I tried clicking "yes".

The window went away.

Nothing else appeared to happen.

Thanks, Microsoft.

iPhone Update Pitfall

Well, Apple have just wasted the best part of two hours of my time on an iPhone update.

Apple have just released the latest version of the iPhone software (3.1). It works with (i.e. requires) the latest version of the iTunes system (v. 9).

But if you (accidentally) decline to update to the new version of iTunes,the old version will cheerfully offer you the new iPhone software and try to install it for you.

And then fail, leaving the phone completely non-functional (just an apple on the screen -- it won't even turn off in that state).  Bad for the bowels, that one...

Which means you have to figure out how to force the phone to turn off (hold the on/off button AND the "home" button at the same time, for several seconds.

Then you have to install the new version of iTunes.  Then you have to turn the phone back on and connect it to the computer.  Then you have to wait while (the new)  iTunes restores your phone.  At this point your phone starts working again.  Then you have to disconnect the phone and re-connect it again and wait while iTunes re-installs your Apps.

It's all fairly straightforward.  But it takes ages, and your phone is non-functional for well over half an hour...

And all this is could have been avoided if the iPhone update had checked the version of iTunes...

Bargle.

Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Plotline

OK, so having said I was both disappointed and really impressed by the latest Harry Potter film, I guess I should try to explain what I meant.

I was disappointed because I didn't think the main plot of the film was very strong, or contributed much to the overall plot of the series.

The film seemed to be completely dominated by the kind of "background colour" events that normally surround the real plot --- Quiddich, weird minor characters doing whacky and amusing things (typically involving special effects), parties and such like --- almost to the exclusion of "the real plot."

So in terms of the overall "Harry versus The Big Baddie" plot, my first thought, as I left the cinema, was that "not a lot happened."

On reflection, that's not true. But what did happen largely happened "in the background", as a number of disjointed, un-emphasised events going on around the edges of daily life in Hogwarts. That is, I guess, the way of crises in the real world (did someone say "climate change"?) But it meant that the film didn't really build to its climax, it just seemed to have one at the relevant time, almost out of a sense of duty.

But on the other hand, the time just flashed by. When the final credits rolled, I couldn't believe it -- I even (very briefly!) wondered whether they had put the opening credits far further into the film than normal!

But no: they really were the final credits, and I'd been sitting there, completely engrossed (and, I believe, fully awake:-), for two and a half hours.

And I think that was really impressive. The last time I experienced that kind of "No! That can't be the end!" feeling was watching "Roger Rabbit" (and that was only an hour and a half).

So: really impressed despite being slightly disappointed...

Humo(u)rless Americans

There is something of a stereotype to the effect that Americans have no sense of humour, or at best, only a somehow "childish" or unsophisticated one.

But the other day, I saw concrete evidence of a cultural divide in this area that I had not expected.

I was looking for a gift for someone who was going to be convalescing for a few weeks, and I decided to get them a couple of humourous books. I don't like buying from Amazon because of their behaviour over the "one click ordering" patent, but on this occasion I really wanted a wide choice of books and quick/reliable delivery. So I decided ignore my reservations and see what they had on offer.

Since I wanted something to cheer up a convalescent, I headed straight for the "Humour" section... and couldn't find it! Which was really surprising, because I was sure that I'd seen it in the past. But although Amazon were offering 35 different categories of books, Humour was not one of them.

Upon investigation, it transpired that I had somehow managed to start the books on the amazon.com site instead of amazon.co.uk, and it turns out that the American site does not have "Humo(u)r" as one of its top-level categories.

Now, I'm confident this isn't a mistake. I assume that Amazon has determined the categories on each site on the basis of market research, or studying logs, or organising focus groups or some such. And so the differences reflect difference between (Amazon's customer groups in) the two societies.

So, for instance, while British and Americans both have "Religion and Spirituality" as a top level category, the Americans also have "Christian Books". And I'm guessing that this reflects the greater importance of Christianity in the US.

Similarly, a stereotype is no doubt confirmed by the fact that the UK has "Poetry, Drama and Criticism" and both "Languages" and "Foreign Languages", while the US does none of these, and by the US having Arts and Photography while the UK has Art, Architecture and Photography.

And maybe the fact that the US has "Outdoors and Nature" when the UK does not is a sign Americans are somehow closer to nature, and more concerned with (being in) their natural environment.

But what does the lack of "Humour" tell us? It seems to me to be an obvious top level category: there are a lot of books that are written to make the reader laugh, and "a book to make someone laugh" is clearly a natural thing for people in Britain to look for.

But that's not the case in America. There, "Humor" is a sub-category of Entertainment, alongside "Movies", "TV" and "Puzzles and Games".

So what does that tell us about the Americans see the world? Or books? Or humour?

Hmmm...

I've gone and got an iPhone!

As you may have inferred, from my previous "Windows Mobile Woes" postings, I was never entirely happy with my Windows Mobile Smartphone. But finally, the need to upgrade all kinds of everything just at the time O2 announced the availability of the new 3G model prompted me to take the plunge, and in February I got a shiny new 3G iPhone.

It's really a very nice device in many ways. It looks good --- it was literally a shiny new iPhone --- and it feels good: very solid, just weighty enough to feel important. And to go with the polished appearance and solid feel of the hardware, the software is equally polished and solid.

Polished, in that it has interface features that are not only effective and intuitive, but are also actually fun to use: the way you flick your finger across the screen to scroll things (and then watch them slow to a halt), the pinch/stretch gestures to zoom in and out, and so on. And solid, in the sense that I still don't know how to reset it --- something which sets it apart from my Windows Mobile phone, which I had to reset within a week, and more often than I could count thereafter.

But a thing about the iPhone is that it is much more than a phone, or even a phone with all the "extras" we now expect --- storing our calendar and address book, sending texts, playing music and taking photographs.

The iPhone is really is a highly portable location-aware computer that is designed to be continuously connected to the Internet. As such, it is a platform to provide users with instant access to information, entertainment and services, and the email client and highly capable web browser are the most obvious and useful manifestations of this. But in fact the stock price and weather forecast displays and the YouTube player are more revealing of the essence of the iPhone. These are nothing more than programs (applications) that the user can run to do a specific thing. They very probably use the Web to fetch the information they need, and just display it way that is more iPhone-compatible than a normal web page.

A key feature of the iPhone is that it makes it really very easy to install these little programs --- these "apps" --- to provide extra functionality over and above the basic features provided by the software on the phone itself. Indeed, the iPhone embodies an "App Store", which is widely touted as a stroke of business genius on Apple's part.

The App Store is an application that allows iPhone owners to browse, select and install new apps. Many apps are free, but, as "Apps Store" suggests, many others cost -- not a lot (60p is typical), but enough to encourage developers to contribute apps to the store, so that there is a huge range, and continually expanding, range of apps that iPhone users can download, and indeed DO download, in enormous numbers.

Apple charge a proportion of the sale price, and this has made them a great deal of money, But the real effect of the App store is far more significant: it has helped the iPhone become the centre of a culture, with a substantial community of software developers providing new apps that allow owners to add new functionality to their iPhones quickly and easily, and for just pennies. And by spending a few pounds on Apps, users are buying in to their phone, too: whenever two or more iPhone owners are gathered together, they will show each other their favourite new apps. This not only stimulates more sales for the apps themselves, but also keeps owners engaged with personalising, and singing the praises of, their iPhones.

A marketing man's dream.

Another really strong point of the phone is that it is able to determine its own location. Like many phones, the iPhone has a GPS, and, like many phones, this takes a long time to determine its location, and does not work well in cities, or at all indoors. But, uniquely, the iPhone augments its GPS with two other ways to determine for determining its location: it can ask the telephone network, which always knows the rough position of every phone; and it can use Skyhook's system for determining location based on the relative strengths of the Wi-fi networks that can be detected. The iPhone does a superb job of using all three of these mechanisms in combination, and this allows it to display its approximate location on a map within fifteen seconds, even in a city, or even indoors --- performance far better than any GPS alone can manage.

But although the iPhone has many great features, it also has some noticeable limitations. A particilarly annoying one is probably the result of contractual wrangling with the phone networks. Although the iPhone is a reasonable tool for things like handling mail and reading the web, it cannot compete with a computer with a full-size keyboard and display. But Apple's software will not allow the phone to be used to connect another computer (a laptop, for instance) to the Internet. Similarly, the need to balance battery size against the plethora of radio systems has meant that the iPhone has decidedly mediocre battery life --- barely last two days, so it really needs to be charged daily.

But although these limitations are the result of necessary compromises, others are omissions affecting eatures I would have taken for granted on any kind of iPhone-like device.

Perhaps most surprising is the lack of any kind of cut-and-paste mechanism, so that, for instance, the only way to get a phone number from the address book to a text message would be to write it down and key it in again. Nor is there any kind of "undo" for anything.

Another surprising system-wide omission is searching. It is possible to search for contacts by name, but not on words in the notes or address. Nor any way to search within a web page, or to search the diary --- you may know you have something in your diary, but you can only find what date it is by looking through all future events until you come across it.

There are also a number of other omissions: iPhones cannot send MMS messages, record movies, or allow the user to supply the sounds used for many purposes. Finger-flick scrolling is intuitive and fun, but it is ineffective for long documents and the interface provides no alternative. There are scroll bars to show the portion of the document currently visible, but they disappear the moment the text stops moving, which often means that there is no sign at all that there is more of a page or document that cannot currently be seen. Users just have to get in the habit of trying to scroll each page, just in case tehre is more to be seen. And while this may be a good way to hide secrets in an adventure game, for serious interfaces it is just plain annoying.

Reminders for events can only be set for a handful of fixed times in advance, and are signalled once, and once only, by a feeble little noise that last less than two seconds. This means that not taking your phone to the toilet with you risks making you late for your dentists appointment.

The web browser, despite supporting a wide range of features, has a seriously cut-down user interface, and among other shortcomings doesn't let you disable image downloading --- is a surprising omission from a device which is expected to frequently be used with only a slow internet connection. Nor does it allow you to save web pages, or images, or anything else you have accessed on the Internet. And although Apple provide an app for writing notes on the iPhone, that is where they are likely to stay, because (with the exception of email, calendar and address books, which will synchronise using Microsoft Exchange protocols), the iPhone provides no way to synchronise files, or indeed any other data, with another computer. As a result, various apps are being programmed to provide some kind of (perhaps manually-initiated) synchronisation of their own data. But although this is better than nothing, piecemeal manually-initiated data sharing seems inaequate in terms of both reliability and convenience.

These are not minor imperfections: they are omissions which seriously interfere with common activities. Yet despite this, the iPhone is still a terrific device that literally feels good and is actually a pleasure to use. It has taken me a while to get used to the idea of being seen to posess an icon of style, but now I'm likely to start an iPhone "show and tell" at the drop of a hat.

Who'd have thought it?

Blog? What blog?

OK, so I might have forgotten about this blog.

I thought of it today when I found myself skirmishing with Facebook, and realised a "Notes" button had appeared on my Profile page.

I hadn't ever noticed anybody using "Notes", so I could only guess that it would be something like the "Wall" feature, where you type short comments to appear on your (or someone else's) "profile" page. But how would it differ? Hmmm...

So I clicked the "Notes" button, and got a page that said

No recently added notes to display.
Use the Publisher above to add your own.

"OK", I thought, typed a test note into the type-in box above the message (the "Publisher"?), hit "Share"... and thus updated the main "Status" message on my Profile page to say that I was experimenting with the "Notes" facility. Which, while true, was not the thing I most wanted to tell the world about myself.

After a few minutes guddling about, I discovered that the button I had clicked is for controlling whether notes (anybody's notes, I think) appear on my Profile page, and so, despite the message above, the "Publisher" was nothing at all to do with Notes. And, eventually, that creating a note involved clicking a button to add a new tab to my Profile, going to that tab, and then clicking the "Write a new note" button that appears on that page.

By this point I felt I had a pretty good idea about why I'd not noticed anybody using the "Notes" facility! Without being big-headed, I think I'm smarter than the average bear, especially when it comes to understanding the world about me and figuring out how things work. And I've been using computers for a good few years. But it had taken me over ten minutes to figure out how to create a note.

The obvious question is "what is the point of providing a feature without providing any instructions or pointers to help you use it?"

Part of the answer, of course, is that there is no point in taking care and time to write instructions, because nobody will read them anyway. The typical attention span appears to be such that everything has to be immediate and obvious, or it's too difficult. Which is why, of course, so many stand-up commedians have their share of jokes about the impossibility of programming a video recorder without the aid of a ten-year-old.

And yet, video recorders still had the plethora of features that nobody could use.

So Facebook's notes are are just continuing a fine tradition of potentially useful features that nobody ever actually uses...