Microsoft W@*43r5.

I had the misfortune of experiencing the f*#@ing shitty design of Windows 8.1 this week :(.



On first look Windows 8.1 seemed rather nice. Filled with potential.



Until you accidently f&$5ing enable (by some mystical shortcut action of swiping thats unrepeatable in the reverse to disable) Windows Narrator (if you have a tablet and are not sight impaired, I highly recommend you DISABLE THIS EVIL APP IMMEDIATELY).



Once Narrator is enabled, all the normal actions you might of taken to interact with the tablet are magically no longer available. You can't swipe, you can't single tap (you can tap, THEN have it rant at you, THEN you have to DOUBLE TAP to click even a single control! Can you imagine how painful it becomes to interact with the tablet? Let me tell you, I ended up force powering off the damn thing and my first action on reboot will be to find and permanently disable narrator).



Here are some ways to remove this piece of awful design work:



http://www.dzhang.com/blog/2012/12/19/disabling-win-enter-narrator-hotkey-in-windows-8
http://superuser.com/questions/573728/how-do-i-disable-narrator-forever
http://superuser.com/questions/712296/narrator-keeps-turning-on-on-login-screen



Yes, I'm f%#ked off... yes, I'm over reacting LOL (and its undoing the annoyance caused by this stupid ass software design. Tools for the visually impaired should not be impairing the visually enabled [which is what Narrator does] if Narrator was just what it should be reading out what your over or clicking on it wouldn't be an issue, I might even turn it on for a pleasant audio experience. What it shouldn't do is disable the existing UI.



I feel bad twice for the visually impaired now. Once because they can't see, and twice because they are forced to use such a shitty Windows experience.

Why Windows Media Player is Crap

Prelude: I've read this back and this article does not represent the "every day" DoggyDude. This is a pressure release rant which I enjoyed writing just to get out some of the frustrations caused by poor product design. Please read it taken with a grain of salt, but enjoy, hope you might relate.

---

I am SO sick of Windows Media Player!

Heres the shortlist of reasons:

1. DRM Bullshit,
2. Atrocious interface
3. Spyware Mentality
4. Bloat

I think i'll just list some of its failings:

1) Cannot control Brightness/Contrast on all Media (Especially annoying when watching DVD's).
2) The ability to control the video stream is dependant on the media (how stupid is that, its all Video! If its not streaming of a server you damb well should always be in control).
3) One watches a Movie, exits the player to do something else (say a call comes in), one reloads media player and press play again. What do you expect to happen? I certainly don't %*£&$ expect it to play my b**ody music library from a random location when I don't have shuffle enabled).
4) How many £"(%*& executables does a media player need! Not "$%*(&£ 3 thats for sure (wmplayer.exe, mfpmp.exe, wmpnscfg.exe).

Yes. I know what they are all reportedly for:

wmplayer.exe - Main Application
mfpmp.exe - Media Foundation protected Pipeline (DRM?)
wmpnscfg.exe - Network Sharing Component

If I want network sharing i'll $£&(£"&$ enable Network Sharing.. don't force me to have it loaded! If you have to have DRM £"*($& integrate it already! or at least put it in a £*(%!@ DLL.

5) Stupid interface (which is never in the right place at the right time)... what the "£%(@ kind of stupid tabs are:

• Now Playing,
• Library,
• Rip,
• Burn,
• Sync and
• Media Guide!

Where is the design? Where was the thought? A clue, NONE!

I loaded the £"$*(% player, I KNOW what is playing, i'm listening to or waching it (well I would expect to be). Library? If I wanted a £"$(&* libarary i'd use a database! >.<. I just want to play my media (I didn't want a Media Library, and even if I did, i'd want it to be an addin). Rip? Rip! Stop !"£%@ trying to be cool, your supposed to be a professional company Microsoft! Use something normal like Copy, Duplicate, Replicate or something (If I wanted to use something "cool" i'd buy a £%(&*ing iPod or a Mac). I want easy to use, I want purpose, I want well designed (in short, I want traditional Microsoft product). Burn? Are we trying to commit arson? NO! Write to CD, Save... Output to CD.. even if you have to use burn. Why the heck is is jumbled in with all those other different options?

6) No matter what options you configure for Windows Media Player it always trys to interact with the internet! Always! >.<. If your not running either a decient software firewall or a hardware one you would never know its reporting on you. I can't say I know what its reporting, but it IS reporting (often). Whatever it is reporting, there is NO reason or excuse for it.

I'm in a very bad mood with Media Player!

Imagine loading Notepad and it offering you script editing, Visual Basic, OCR, text sharing, mobile notes and sticky notes... then imagine that when you load it, it has a menu system like "Banner, Swat, Text List, Mobile Comments, Visual Basic".. what the HELL! You would never load it, but because Media Player is "integrated" I use the damn thing. Clearly, i'm a fool for doing this, but that makes whoever layed out Media Player clearly a moron.

Why not have the main tabs:

• Audio,
• Video,
• Live,
• Network,
• Manage

Then have sub-tabs

Audio:

Sounds,
Music

Video:

Videos (Clips),
Movies

Live:

Tv,
Radio,
On Demand,
Service

Network (leading to the same menus without network option):

Streaming Media

Manage:

Just opens up the right folder view, configured as desired... with maybe a side pane so when u click on a file you can lookup its details and store it nearby (or linked to the file).

Its not hard! You've done the hard part, now make it good.

 
ps. Thanks for all the comments :) and its fine to vent, feel free.. I feel your pains!

Message to Nowhere

I'm not really expecting this to be read. So why am I writing it? Well, i'm writing it for me. Then why am I publishing it? Well, why not!

I've come to a point in my life where I've realised that i've probably wasted over half of it trying to stay out of sight. I hate attention, I loath celebrity and i'm no fan of fame. So, whats changed?

Well, I guess I realised a couple of things:

1. Nobody really cares / is interested (woo),
2. Anyone who might would have never have know I existed without this (by the way, i'm not looking for someone to care, thanks you if you do anyway),
3. Whats the point in recording anything if its never read.

So, based on this, why not...

---

I think what bugs me the most about life at the moment is that I have a huge hole in my life, the person who had proved to completely and utterly fullfill me (thus completely identifiying and revealing this hole when she was found not in my life) can't be my other half, which leaves me unwhole. Simple huh.

Funilly, whilst that is a real and on going pain in my life (understated) its not what is really bugging me! What really bugs me is that all the major religions seem to claim to be the solution to this "life hole" issue >.<. Thats what bugs me! What really gets under my skin though is that i'm pretty sure thats not the case! However, I can't actually definitively say it is not or disprove it in any way so am left with this nagging sense of "well, I could be wrong? but I don't think so?". That combined with not actually being sure what the "hole" is in the first place, and only being sure of how it gets filled is driving me crazy (if I wasn't there already).

I think that whomever invented religion (and it was a human, not a god or son of god) was one hell of a Phycologist! He/She (probably a she, they are always better at it) really understood human nature and exploited it to the upmost.

Don't get me wrong here, theres alot of good in many religions... sadly that too is also annoying because those religion sometimes leverage that good they hold to justify their ends and its not offten possible to seperate the ends from the goodnesses.

Well, actually, thinking about it... there are groups out there who don't do that (though they are unlike any traditional religion in that they don't claim to be everything and the only way. I mean, they may well be? They simply just don't need to justify themselves except through their own lives and to the the universe or common good). I digress....

Sometimes I wonder if that hole thats in me is the place where all the happyness in the world would dwell. For, when I was so fulfilled by her, I felt whole, completed with happyness.

Hmmm, well, I guess before I meet her I had times when I was happy... had times when I felt full (though, never quite as full). However, before meeting her, I never felt completed?

It can't simply be happyness. You would think other people could make me as happy. You would think I could find other ways to fill that space. Only she will do. Maybe I made her be the only one who could fill it? Then, she came along and filled it without me choosing her to.

Oh, I don't know.... and i'm even boring myself with this thinking ;).

I don't want religion comments, but if anyone has any "personal" and "non-religion specific" answers to whats missing in my whole that takes the shape of she, please do share.

One person one vote for everything!

We live in a connected world, we communicate instantly by mobile phones and messaging systems yet funilly only 1% of the population actually influences choice.

This seems wrong. It wouldn't be so bad if that 1% was the elite thinkers, the genuises... but those seem to have better things to do with there time and are generally doing them. No, its the busy bodies, the opportunists and the manipulators which seem to be doing all the controlling (and if we are luck, well meaning idiots like certain polititions named Tony).

"There is no reason why the entire populus could not have a direct voting power against every major government decision in the current technological climate." DoggyDude 2006-2009.

Now, I know people might argue the following points against this:

* Not everyone has sufficient knowledge to contribute to a decision

My resonse: Even someone who is known to be mentally ill has a valid oppinion for their own self.

Most of the people making the decisions are only considered sane by majority.. in other words everything is about majority oppinon in this world. If the majority of the world was mentally ill it would be defined as sane and the minority well people as "statisticly insignifcan oppinion" (at best).

Sometimes, yes, if the matter requires detailed knowledge of something scientific it can be better judged by scientists. However, all science must needs have a purpose for society in general... if it does not have a social or humantiarian purpose I immidiately question its ultimate value if it will effect us all but not have a benifical purpose? If it has a purpose, everyone can judge based on the purpose verses the cost. People with the knowledge can provide a range of oppinions for the voters and each intelegent being can decide for themselves.


* Not everyone has access to technology
My Response: Well, everyone should... I bought my mobile phone for £32 in WHSmiths. That, at minimum wage, is less than a days pay.

* Only people directly involved should be making the decisions
My Response: This is a valid point sometimes. However, I did say major decision. That is, effecting everyone. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between a minor decision and a major decision. It is a relatively minor decisiont to re-surface a road, but if that road is the M1.. well you see my point.

I think everyone should have a "say" in decisions. Public oppinon should sway decisions not define decisions.

What the heck, i'm bored....

Haven't really bothered getting to the whole blogging sceen, too much to do, too many things to do....

Then, I haven't been taking any time for myself reciently... its about time I did.

The world has officially gone insane! Its a new kind of insanity, and its a good deal better than insanities of the past... but its insane none the less.

How is it, that our so called leaders don't understand that money cannot solve all problems? How is it also they cannot look at what happened in other economies where more money was printed in an effort to resolve problems... to my knowledge, there isn't a single situation in which the "pumping of more money into the economy" resolved any of the issues that the extra money was supposed to resolve (yet, all the leaders doing it will swear blind it worked and was necessary... if they said otherwise they might be lynched for defrauding the public).

Also, why, oh, why is it the people who just lost all the money who are being given more? Why not give it to the people who SAVED or made a profit for themselves and their workers?

Seems to me that what the world needs is not money and talk of depression, recession, fiscal poilicy and stimulus packages but is some good old fashioned hard work, effort and a reason (not necessarily financial) to make that effort. If we devalue the currency it doesn't help!

Logic dictates there is no less work to be done in the world, statistics seem to prove that there are more people in the world. So, there must be things to be done, there must be jobs to be made or had... and it doesn't seem that money is the issue? Money has to have a bearing, of course, people need to be paid! If there isn't the money to pay the people but there are still the jobs then this is not going to be solved by adding more money... this migh be solved by re-evaluating worth, identifying why the people needing the work done don't have the money to pay for it.

Whichever way this goes, we can be sure of one thing... those at the top will suffer the least. I, not being a what could be reported "the top" will suffer somewhat...