for the last 5 days, i’ve been on the ‘new’ microsoft interface. one simple comparison:
IE
Explorer
Office
having followed the classic menus of ‘File’, ‘Edit’,'View’ over all their interfaces for the last 12 years, microsoft went ahead and completely revamped their interface. those buttons are hidden away, far from the human eye.
sleekness is one thing, i wonder which genius decided that those menus detracted from the UI…
following up on microsoft’s blunders recently.. this is pretty much how they must have formed the zune. funny how that player barely even existed..
makes you wonder what the fuck is wrong with them 
and so, microsoft decides to kick their best product (outlook, duh!) in the balls by removing support for web standards… nice.
idiots.
and this after i had pretty much decided that microsoft rocks for taking something as complete as office forward.
looks like sticking to thunderbird for the last 5 years is going to put me with having the best email client this year.
[via digg]
via digg, a coupla videos of the zune in action.
it looks like an interesting competitor to the slickness of the ipod, and being the latest gadget will help. sometimes its not good to be the no.1 in a market
amongst things showcased, the really interesting one is the ’share music’ feature. apparently those songs will exist for 3 days after sharing, then self-destruct in M:I style… but once again, an interesting compromise option by a media player with the RIAA.
the 3 day self-destruct is the latest form of DRM - viral DRM. and so, microsoft has managed to kill their product quite beautifully..
the fact that it has DRM support takes it completely off my list, but i think that sadly the media player companies are catering to the RIAA a great deal… making it increasingly crappy to find an upgrade to an iRiver h140. i’m not including the concept of being able to hack the firmware a la rockbox. i refer to john q. public who could care les that DRM exists.
ah well. sometimes, old is the only way to be. even in the super-fast tech world, the tortoise adage seems to be holding up well
we’ve heard about the eye-candy that is vista today, and seen the innumerable screenshots of the new look microsoft software (including office). and heard about this completely new user experience. which office 2007 delivers, anyway.
one look at this. the mouth drops wide open.
and to ensure it’ll take a coupla days to get over it, lookit the video. remain looking.
vista might just have to go suck ass.
discovered windows dancer as part of xp media center… and keep putting them on the desktop just to feel like i’m controlling my own little brigade of little people 
still, don’t really get the point of it all though.
