Technology Sucks (sometimes)

[Rageaholic]

This is not a post raving about the good old days when we did everything by hand. I actually think it's a lot better now (though I wasn't born before computers and nintendo)

What sucks about technology is how complicated some of this stuff is. When ever I want to access one simple feature of something, I end up pressing buttons, going through menu's, and finding everything I don't need when what I want is something that should be easy to access. For instance, my new camera. There are all these buttons for changing the mode and for allowing online access. That's cool, but there isn't a button to access your saved pictures. You have to go through all these modes. And even taking pictures are a pain because you have to press it just right or else nothing happens, but if you hold it too long, you end up making a video. What. The. Hell?

And that's just one example. There are so many other things (mostly on the computer and online) that are made unnecessarly complicated by all these new features. Then instead of having one simple button to press for to access basic features, you have button combinations.

I'm rambling, but does anyone else have this problem?

[Ginger Tea]

re camera's no
The camera's I've used although not intuitive, do lend themselves to quick and dirty access.
my bridge (looks like an SLR but has a fixed lense) has a quick access to the gallery with zoom via a wheel on the front (also used in other functions) and unlike most if not all DSLR's I can use the viewscreen when taking the shot not the viewfinder, I found it odd that most reviews I read seemed to paint this as the norm, mine has an angle view finder so I can take odd angles and see what im photographing.

I've got 2 SD based sound recorders, one a podcasting type affair for on the table interviews, almost as easy as a dictaphone the other a 2 input 4 track is a bit more faff inducing, in the end I just record a stereo file with nothing in the right or plug a doubler into my bass and have a 'stereo' mono track, it was just quicker than finding out where mono select was, although I hardly use this one as I hardly use my bass, but I found my fx board outputs stereo and some fx are panned so this is now moot.

[Andara Bledin]

Ah... Damn the stupid design decisions and the jerks who make them.

I've run into a few systems that were made overly complicated for no good reason.

Every item should have it's base functions clearly available for the novice, while all of the advanced functions are reached with a little bit of work, or you can remap the harder stuff to the easy buttons for advanced usage.

But so many devices are built with the assumption that they'll be used by technophiles that they just annoy and alienate the non technophiles and other casual users.

^-.-^

[AdminAssistant]

Fiance and I just got a new TV, and then I upgraded our cable. I did manage to get everything hooked up and working, but it's a huge pain in the ass! There are so many extra steps to watch a movie or watch something on the Wii. *harumph*

[telecom_goddess]

Fiance and I just got a new TV, and then I upgraded our cable. I did manage to get everything hooked up and working, but it's a huge pain in the ass! There are so many extra steps to watch a movie or watch something on the Wii. *harumph*

Oh i hear you there....it used to be to watch tv you turned on the tv period. Now I have to turn it on, then the surround sound, then change the video selector back to the tv with the HDTV adapter remote thing....and to watch a dvd or the playstation (netflix) its more steps and things to adjust. Whew.

[Rageaholic]

Every item should have it's base functions clearly available for the novice, while all of the advanced functions are reached with a little bit of work, or you can remap the harder stuff to the easy buttons for advanced usage.

Exactly. The basic functions are the ones that more people are going to use. If you have to make one function more difficult to use than another, make sure that function is one that is advanced and not a basic function that everyone will use.

I admit part of it could be me, since I have a tendancy to overlook things, but I shouldn't need the instructions to do such simple things.

[Kaylyn]

I hate it when I'm at a friend's house watching TV, and I have to stare at their remote for five minutes before I figure out how to turn the damn volume up. And heaven forbid if I want to pop some microwave popcorn...

[Rageaholic]

Here's a perfect example, microsoft word. I remember the 2003 version being a lot more user friendly. Double spacing (which is required for a lot of papers) was pretty easy to find. This new version? You have to click on a tiny, easy to miss arrow next to the the tiny letters that spell paragraph in the menu bar. What the hell microsoft?

[AdminAssistant]

?? There's a thing right on the main bar (above where it says paragraph) that allows you to set the line spacing. The setup takes a bit of getting used to, but once you've learned it, I find that it's much easier, and it plays nicer with Excel/PPT than the old versions.

I much prefer the newer version of Word, and it pisses me off to no end that my school office computer *still* doesn't have it! Of course, it's still running XP and some version of IE from 2005, so why should I be surprised? And, of course, I can't add anything to it, not Firefox, not even Flash, because heaven forbid I watch Youtube videos during my office hours. *grumble*

[Bloodsoul]

Tell me about it! Just last week I finished putting together my new computer, and the darn things goes all "self-aware" on me! Maybe if I tried pulling the plug...

[lordlundar]

Heh, Saturday night I was at a store upgrading they're software on their cashier systems. Would have been done in roughly 6 hours if not for two things:

1.) One system we didn't have a restore disk for so we had to burn one which FUBARed on us, prompting a 4 hour download of another. We didn't even get started on that one until 6 hours in.

2.) A minor problem kept popping up, causing us to play whack a mole with the systems software repair program. (10 systems with problem, run repair, down to 5, run again, down to 3, run again, up to 7 , run again, down to 4, run again, up to 13 WTF?)

Pushed us to the 10 hour mark before a specialist arrived and we were given the green light to head home, in a snowstorm of all things...

[KellyHabersham]

Been dealing with that sort of issue at work lately - last Sunday, we upgraded our circulation system to the latest version, and things didn't work out as expected.......the way I understand it, because some branches are closed on Sunday (and thus, not being able to install the updated version that day), nobody was able to run the circulation system.

I think there were other issues involved, but that's my brief understanding of the situation, and it created a huge backlog in my area because nothing could be checked in the entire day on Sunday. And since all libraries were closed on Monday for the holiday, we all had to wait until the other branches updated their systems on Tuesday, before anything could be checked in.