Re: [slim] Re: a positive SB3 review
He meant are there any shortcuts to other files in these directories? These shortcuts cause scanning problems if they reference a file already in the database or if they reference a file that doesn't exist. Certain builds after 6.2.1 will recognize these shortcuts and ignore them. You may think you don't have any, but the Windows UI makes it easy to make one by mistake. You can find them by sorting files by type. dgovan wrote: > [/color] > > What version of SlimServer? Do you have any Windows shortcuts? > > I'm using 6.1.1 - not sure what you mean by windows shortcuts - yes is > the answer if you mean icon on desktop? > > -- ___ Mark Lanctot ___ __ Find your next car at http://autos.yahoo.ca ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: a positive SB3 review
On 1/12/05 at 14:57 -0500, Aaron Zinck wrote > An easy measure of usabilty :- If you gave a squeezebox to your granny for Christmas would she use it to play music or as a door stop ? Not really a good measure of usability, if you ask me. I really don't think the granny market is going to be a booming market for networked media player devices no matter how easy they are to use. And my granny would use any number of things as a doorstop. She would certainly relegate a computer to doorstop duty yet there are millions of homes with computers. I don't mean to nitpick because I know and am sympathetic to what you're trying to say, but I don't really think that granny-acceptance is the level of usability the squeezebox is shooting for. 1. don't let's be ageist. 2. Assuming that one's granny is not a techie, the real question is how well she can use it once you have set it up for her, and how often she phones with problems. -- Daniel Cohen ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: a positive SB3 review
This is good stuff, Ben. People often gripe about the interface but rarely offer suggestions. Kudos for bringing some real thoughtful and constructive recommendations to the table and helping to make the player better. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: a positive SB3 review
> > An easy measure of usabilty :- If you gave a squeezebox to your > > granny for Christmas would she use it to play music or as a door > > stop ? > A tired analogy - Granny's are not the universal measure of usability. > My Granny could give me a set of kintting needles for Christmas and I > wouldn't have the first clue what to do with them, although of course > she finds them trivially easy to use. I'd search in vain for the > documentation telling me how to operate these needles, and then maybe > go to some kintting forum complaining that this stuff should be easier > for the non-Granny to pick up and use. > > When writing documentation and designing interfaces there is always a > level of assumed knowledge and experience - there has to be. Cars do > not come with books telling you how to drive - it's assumed you already > know. Likewise, when designing the interface for the car, the > manufacturer is careful not to stray to far from the conventional. > Computers do not come with operating instructions either, you typically > get a piece of paper showing you how to connect the wires, and then some > quick start guide to Windows XP. Really pretty useless for most people > who are either completely new to the whole thing (what's a mouse?) or > already know the basics and need to be told the more complex stuff. > > Now I'm not saying the SlimServer UI/docs are perfect - far from it - > but assuming a basic level of domain knowledge (what's an mp3, what's a > tag) is perfectly fair - the trick is to get it right. Set the bar too > high and you're flamed for being exclusive, or geek oriented, set it > too low and you waste time writing docs which no one will read. > > > When I "browse music" why does "browse music folder" play songs > > in a different order to "browse album" ? > Because one reads the tags and one doesn't. Personally, from a UI > perspective, I think BMF is a mistake. I know lots of people love it, > which is why it's there, but if the DB based browses could be > customized to allow people to order things how they like then hopefully > the need for BMF would vanish, and with it a lot of headaches. > > > Where do I find a definitive tagging guide for each music format ? > > > Agreed - a list of tags read and their interpretation would be > extremely useful. > > > -- > radish Well written post, radish. And entertaining, too! I'm in full agreement. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: a positive SB3 review
> What on earth does the following mean ? > "Albums that contain songs that are tagged with a band may be > listed under that band name or with the other artists for that > album. The band tag is also known as TPE2 and may appear as the > "album artist" in some software." are you asking a serious question here :) ? I think it's actually rather self-explanatory if you read it slowly. But I get your point, there are some rather bizarre feature descriptions in the software. And yet, what other software even discusses a band tag? Isn't that the kind of thing many of us love Slimserver for? > An easy measure of usabilty :- If you gave a squeezebox to your > granny for Christmas would she use it to play music or as a door > stop ? Not really a good measure of usability, if you ask me. I really don't think the granny market is going to be a booming market for networked media player devices no matter how easy they are to use. And my granny would use any number of things as a doorstop. She would certainly relegate a computer to doorstop duty yet there are millions of homes with computers. I don't mean to nitpick because I know and am sympathetic to what you're trying to say, but I don't really think that granny-acceptance is the level of usability the squeezebox is shooting for. I really think the squeezebox is shooting to fill a more sophisticated need than your standard Ipod or other consumer-level equipment. It's a "prosumer" piece of home audio gear, if you will. Sure, this means that not everyone will have one, but that's the way it is for a lot of things out there. I'm all for improving the interface as improvements can be made (no point in making things arbitrarily difficult or obscure) but at the same time it's the power and the flexibility of the device that makes it distinct and appealing. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: a positive SB3 review
On 12/1/05, radish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > An easy measure of usabilty :- If you gave a squeezebox to your> granny for Christmas would she use it to play music or as a door> stop ?The interface isn't bad but on my server PC, which sits in the kitchen, strangers do seem to head to iTunes rather than trying to get slimserver to work so there is definitely room for improvement. The new search function helps a lot, particularly now it sits at the top of fishbone by default.Probably the area that does need most work is the settings pages. There are some significant idiosyncracies with the organisation and how they work. Admittedly, most people would be quite happy with the defaults and would never change anything but some customisations really require a lot of messing. MusicMagic failed on me with the new install. The plugin was ticked, the custom options were there, but the switch that had appeared that was needed for the thing to actually work was buried in the first 'server settings' page. I know many microsoft apps have equally deeply buried options but this could be better. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
RE: [slim] Re: a positive SB3 review
Has anyone done any usability testing on the slimserver web UI? If users are making mistakes, especially the same ones, look to the UI not the user Let's help by trying it on some non-techie friends and reporting any problems... > -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of mrfantasy > Sent: 30 November 2005 19:49 > To: discuss@lists.slimdevices.com > Subject: [slim] Re: a positive SB3 review > > > It seems the reviewer had badly tagged MP3s (which looked > like they were downloaded from a p2p service judging by the > obvious misspellings in the artist and song names) and he > hadn't learned about browse artists, albums, genres or years. > He did the same thing in his SB1 review. > > Perhaps Slimserver is better with music you've ripped > yourself that is accurately tagged (or filed) with album and > artist info. But still, you'd hope a reviewer like this > would at least identify the issue more clearly. Perhaps > there are some limitations with badly tagged music that this > shows, but you're then likely to have it with any networked > music player. > > > -- > mrfantasy > > --Mike > -- > -- > mrfantasy's Profile: > http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1127 > View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18651 > > ___ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com > http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss > > __ > Scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System provided by Conosco. > http://www.conosco.com > __ > __ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email __ ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
