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#106
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Best Win 8 Start Button replacement program?
On 6/8/2013 03:01, Ken Springer wrote:
On 6/5/13 8:04 PM, xfile wrote: On 6/5/2013 11:55, Ken Springer wrote: On 6/2/13 8:04 AM, xfile wrote: snip Your point assumes people will see benefits, and then want them. I'm asking, what if the user(s) see no benefits? If users see no benefits, the what is the value of the changes? 1. If the users see no benefits - they may not be your intended users/customers. Do you remember what I said earlier that - Does one know who are their customers? My basic point about MS not knowing who theirs are either, except probably the large corporate sector. It sounds like a stupid and insulting question, but it's not. Seriously, lots of people don't know who are their customers because people buying things for different reasons and for different benefits, and it's not that easy to just say, as an example, SOHO (small office and home office) is my target customers. I wouldn't consider the question stupid and insulting at all. I suspect the question is harder to answer when you write a program that does a lot of different things, as opposed to a program with a specific purpose in mind. I.E. using a word processor as a page layout program, instead of using a page layout program. I'm working on a personal writing project for which I thought I'd try a document processor, in this case Scrivener. It's actually intended for script writers, but for me this is a terrific find. The jury is still out, but if the scales keep tipping as they are now, I'll never use a word processor again. snip But can that "personal usage data" differentiate *how* the user is using the product. Is Word being used to write legal briefs, or as a page layout program? Is Excel being used to crunch numbers for a science project, a financial prediction of some type, or as a database? Those things require different features, how would the personal usage data know what the user is ultimately doing? The only way I can think of is for the phone home feature to report on the actual info generated by the user, which everyone says they don't do. Frankly speaking, I don't know how personal usage data were collected and sent either by MS or other vendors, and none of them is willing to disclose, so I have no clear answer. But theoretically speaking, it could since every time you clicked a function, it could be logged and sent. I don't see that as a guarantee of how the results of the program may be used. snip Another quick example for the mistake commonly made by tech companies: If the product is designed for "ordinary consumer", you cannot use geeks, techies, and engineers as the tester for usage (for debugging, yes), you have to use "ordinary folks" as testers. You certainly cannot design the product from the perspective of a geek, a techie, and definitely not of an engineer, because their skill-set and knowledge level are totally different than and way above the potential customer/user. If they bother to write a manual, they should have the manual written by the folks that will be using the program, not the ones that wrote the code. snip I mean a way for the end user to voluntarily offer unbiased, unvarnished opinions. Even if the opinion is "It's crap!" LOL There is no such thing called "unbiased" opinions from the end users. And no opinion is crap - at least that is what I think. By unbiased, I meant having the survey created in such a manner that the negative opinions flow as easily into the results as the positive ones. Agreed, no opinion is crap, even if that's what you think of the product. LOL If one knows something can benefit him/her in business or personal life (tangible or intangible - such as lifestyle), out of their self-interests, they will be more than happy to use it. It's human nature. Which is why I like Scrivener so far. snip I've yet to take a poll or survey of any kind that allowed me to tell the data collector exactly what I thought of X. And many are worded so negatives are easily weeded out. Seriously? They didn't even bother to leave a "additional comments" section? When I wrote that, I wasn't thinking all that well. Some do, some don't, and anymore, I'm so tired of the poll question popping up I automatically say no. G Apple positions itself as a consumer (electronics) product company. If one pays close attention to Apple's marketing, Apple, especially during Steve Jobs' era, deliberately disassociated itself with the business/corporate image. The disassociating from that image may be starting to haunt me. :-) I've got a project idea, of which Scrivener is a part, and I may have to do it in Windows since I'm having a hard time finding the tools I want/need to be efficient in the OS X realm. :-( The rumor mill I heard is that OX 10.9 will have a lot of improvements for power users, although I've no good idea for what those improvements are. The one feature I've heard of is tabbed Finder windows, which I already have via a 3rd party utility. I still hope I can get enough irons out of the fire to have some time to spend with Linux, if nothing else just to learn and find out what's in that computing arena. Apple's product positioning is what I will call "intimate personal things" for trendy folks (or wannabe, and this group is in every product category) that they want to carry and use wherever they go and whenever they want to. I wonder if their true long term plan isn't to get that trendy group hooked on their products. Many of this group will be the new incoming employees of large corporations. Perhaps the idea is, if the "newbies" are hooked on Apple products, they are going to want to use Apple products at work. snip Did I mention a question that appears to be silly and insulting - Does one know who are their customers? Why, no, I don't believe you have! LOL That's all I have to say. :-) Yea, we should let this go. It's so OT from the original question. I've enjoyed the conversation, xfile, take care. Actually, the pleasure is been all mine. Just one more point, Perhaps the idea is, if the "newbies" are hooked on Apple products, they are going to want to use Apple products at work. In fact, the essence of "intimate" personal things and "wherever they go and whenever they want to" is to include all kinds of places and occasions, such as in a bathroom, gem, dinner party, and of course, workplace. And the ideal "trendy" persons include young and mature professionals. It's like people carry LV and Chanel bags to office (will it be nice if they also have a cool computing device to match with?), but still, they are consumer products even some bags are designed for business travel. In fact, buyers of LV and Chanel and other luxury products are mostly not young teens unless they have rich parents or.... As far as I can tell, Apple provided some means for users to do their work and to use business applications including those of Microsoft, but if you asked me, I will define it as a "user level assistance" like bags for business travels with computers, rather than a "business level strategy" for moving into business sector. But I certainly could be wrong. As a rule of thumb, I'd always consider foreign/global markets and/or upward/downward segments (if possible, and carefully avoid conflicting positioning images such as using a new brand) before changing to a different business line because the later has too much of risk which may cause a total collapse but you could utilize what you already have for the former. Despite the worldwide economic condition is not so good, but each market is not the same, and combine all, the potential of the global market is beyond, at least, my comprehension. Even some potato growers have tasted the benefits (better price), and they are exporting like, there is no tomorrow. In any case, I appreciate the conversation and wish you all the best! |
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#107
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Best Win 8 Start Button replacement program?
On Tue, 28 May 2013 18:50:35 +0800, xfile wrote:
On 5/28/2013 16:22, Ron Fey wrote: On Tue, 21 May 2013 20:17:48 +0800, xfile wrote: I decided to have all of our company's outgoing documents to be converted to PDF format first and added a standard line: For your convenience, we have prepared the document in PDF format so you may view and edit with any editor of your choice. I've used a bunch of editors over the years but I don't think I've ever seen one that can edit pdf files. Can you please name one or two? Adobe Acrobat (I haven't tried 9.x later), one can use Text Edit functions, or Sticky Note, or simply highlight the text and use the text box tool. Or, use a word processor with similar editing functions and re-export, re-save as or print it to a PDF file. Too complicated? I strongly suspect that not many home users have Adobe Acrobat available. As for using a word processor with similar editing functions, I'd be curious to know what some examples might be, (MS Word isn't one of them), which I'm guessing was the original question asked by Ron. |
#108
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Best Win 8 Start Button replacement program?
On Thu, 30 May 2013 16:37:56 -0500, "R. C. White" wrote:
http://www.zdnet.com/windows-8-1-unv...-8-7000016112/ Sounds like Win8.1 will go a long way to quieting the complaints about Win8. Even though, as you said, it ain't Win7. I think the general consensus is that Win 8.1 does almost nothing toward quieting the complaints about version 8. |
#109
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Best Win 8 Start Button replacement program?
Char Jackson wrote:
On Thu, 30 May 2013 16:37:56 -0500, "R. C. White" wrote: http://www.zdnet.com/windows-8-1-unv...-8-7000016112/ Sounds like Win8.1 will go a long way to quieting the complaints about Win8. Even though, as you said, it ain't Win7. I think the general consensus is that Win 8.1 does almost nothing toward quieting the complaints about version 8. The worst part uncovered so far, is the changes to search in the Start panel. To find the "System" control panel now, I have to type "Control Panel" as a means to get there. As "System" doesn't return anything useful. http://imageshack.us/a/img191/8441/ga6.gif So I don't have a menu, and I don't have a good search. Paul |
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