Scott, it you're referring to my post in this thread, I specifcally said that it isnt a "Microsoft is the evil empire" rant. It's about how so many people (not just Microsoft but they're the most prominent offender in my view) think that merely using the name of something is enough.
How many times have we all seen someone announce proudly that 'version 3.2 of WIdgetSoft is now released!!" and wondered, "what the hell is WIdgetSoft?" I have a machine that's groaning under the weight of around 100 processes. It's working ok, but if i installed everything that people wanted me to install, then I'd end up with a bazillion conflicts and a whole lot of precious RAM used up for things i don't need. As it is, i havent got a clue what some of those 100 processes are. I just know that if i close some of them, things break. So I leave them running, and trust my anti-virus to make sure they're all ok. So my policy is 'just because someone says i need to install this, is not good enough reason. I need to decide for myself whether i need to install it." I remember back to the days when i had Real Audio installed, and it kept taking charge of things and changing my settings, installing spyware and other things. it was a thoroughly unpleasant piece of software to have on my machine. And I had two calls this week from clients asking me what this "Silverlight" thing is, and should they install it. I was hoping to be able to call them back and say something like "yes it's ok to install. have a look at <http://url here> and you can see for yourself what it does". But there's no such page. The one that I eventually found after 5 clicks to get there by the most direct route, says things like : "Custom branded experiences using 2D vector graphics, animation, styling, and skinning". I think i know what that means but it's totally meaningless to my client who's a furniture manufacturer. And the other client who makes and imports high-performance car parts, doesnt understand the difference between Vista and XP. Is confused about the difference between RAM and hard drive storage. I wouldnt even try to explain it to him. It's a pity that Microsoft didnt think any of those uses might want to know what it is. Some more examples of this lack of explanation: When Windows Update says i need to update my machine, i just get a message saying "you have some updates" but no easy way to find out what those updates are, and decide whether I need them. or XPPro Service Pack 3 - says there are some feature enhancements included, but no way to find out what those enhahcements are. (I have discovered after installing SP3 that my Remote Desktop no longer works, so presumably the SP3 changed something there without my knowledge or approval. I now have to spend time tracking it down and changing whatever it is back again). A few years ago, I found myself on someone's mailing list and was bombarded with stuff about an international SOA conference that was coming up. I had never seen that term before, and nowhere did they use the term in full, so i found myself curious as to what SOA was, and was it some technology i needed to know about. It went on for weeks - SOA this and SOA that - inviting people to this SOA conference - the speakers and SOA experts speaking at the conference none of whom i'd ever heard of. I assumed it was something in IT but no idea what SOA was. So their entire marketing was wasted on me at least. Perhaps they figured 'if they dont know what SOA is, they're not going to spend thousands to come to the conference." Probably right i suppose, but all it would have taken was a simple sentence saying what SOA is, or maybe just spelling out the term in full once. ONCE. Yes, I know that Google is my friend, and i could have gone looked it up, but why should i bother. It's THEIR product. THEY are the ones wanting me to spend my money on it. In fact if you do google "SOA", you'll find lots of references to SOA and rarely find a single mention of "Service Oriented Architecture". And a plain-language explanation of that term is even more rare. So this isnt just a Microsoft thing. I've often seen here on ColdFusion lists someone proudly anounce that the latest version of their application is released, but just assuming everyone knows what it is and what it does. I find myself frequently asking myself, "do I care? Is that something I should know about?" More often than not, i say 'no - cant be bothered right now." And all it would have taken is a simple "for those that havent seen it yet, WidgetSoft is a small, application that gets you coffee when you need it, and delivers it to you desk 15 seconds before you think of the idea." Crisp, plain language that is free of marketing gobbldegook and motherhood statements. Phrases like "gives users a richer experience" should be banned, because every product since DOS has claimed that and it's meaningless. That's all I'm saying. And I mentioned Microsoft because it was the Silverlight download thing that prompted two clients in one morning to ask me the same thing, when with a little bit of thought and a little less arrogance, the marketing people who thought up such splendid graphics on that SIlverlight page could have explained it themselves and saved everyone a lot of trouble. It's their bloody product after all, not mine. One of the great truths of motivation is 'if you want to persuade people to do something - get their credit cards out and buy something, change their opinions, vote for you, join your religion, install your software - you have to paint a vivid picture of them getting the benefits. They have to be imagining themselves better off in some way as a result of doing what you want them to do. Confounding them with flowery gobbledegook and motherhood statements wont do it. Of course you might not have been referring to my post. In which case i've taken the opportunity to rant again. And im not sorry. <g> Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia Adobe Certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer AFP Webworks http://afpwebworks.com ColdFusion, PHP, ASP, ASP.NET hosting from AUD$15/month On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 2:17 PM, Scott Barnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have no idea what your point was :) > > Is this another "Microsoft is a monopolistic company therefore they are evil > - sent via Windows owned PC" rant? > Confidence in which customer? Do you think the average say "YouTube" punter > sits there and ponders about Adobe's ethics, their history and overall what > does this runtime install mean to me should I hit "Install". I think the > whole Flash vs Silverlight debate's are stupid, as usually it's used as a > soapbox to denounce Microsoft which *shrug* each to their own. I like the > company I work for as do billions of other folks around the world. > > We have 1.5million+ downloads a day of the runtime. If there were no > confidence in the product, it would decrease, not increase? > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "cfaussie" group. To post to this group, send email to cfaussie@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cfaussie?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
