Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2: Big Things, Little Things, I'd Like To See Improved

January 29, 2006

Big Things, Little Things, I'd Like To See Improved

In responding to James Kendrick's question, What Would You Change On Your Tablet PC?, I started thinking about other things I'd like to see changed that aren't necessarily Tablet PC related. We'll see advances in hardware that will affect size, power, battery life, mobility, etc... none of which will be enough (we'll always want more), and all of which will be welcome, so I'm focusing this mostly on the software side.

Kill The Bloat. Outlook is the prime offender here, but you see it in other apps as well. We get so used to the creeping bloat that we quit complaining about it. I can see this happening with other apps down the road too. OneNote could be an example. Onfolio another. As it becomes easier to collect and store not just text, but media, will our databases get too large to be manageable? (I remember reading somewhere that Chris Pratley said that having OneNote try to manage over 1 gig could be a problem.) You certainly can't design for limitless data, but, it would be my hope that we would come up with sound, sane, and safe archiving possibilities that make it easy to search.
Secure This. Jim Allchin is saying buy Vista for the security. Malicious hack donkeys are going to do what they do regardless of the systems and will keep security experts employed forever. But, hey, someone has got to find a better way. Kevin Tofel had an interesting post on this from a hardware standpoint.
Give Me Features, But Give Me Stability. Features are where it's at. There's no sexy sell to stability. As Web 2.0 expands/contracts/booms/deflates I'd like to see companies publicly focus as much on stability issues as new features. When it works it's great. When it doesn't it's a PITA. I had/have issues these last few days with both Six Apart and Technorati. The same is true of client based software as well.
The Little DRMer Boy. Big issues. Big money. Big stakes. Simple solutions? No way. Get over the castle building and plantation management and make it easy. Amazing modern day re-emergence of feudalism.
Don't Kill The Messenger, Just Keep Him Quieter And Make Him More Coherent. Do we really need five clicks to proceed with a software installation? Do we really need to teach everyone to be a security expert to handle all the pop-up warnings? On the security warning front, maybe we need to think more along the lines of automobile dashboards and just have little flashing lights that warn us, as opposed to the pop-ups that in many cases are just frustrating examples of confusion.
Clean It Up, Baby. Clean up the install and uninstall routines and quit leaving so much junk lying around. As the age of free trials matures (a good thing), I'd like to see the visitors to my computer take out their own garbage when their visit is over.
Plug It In, Plug It In. Plug-ins, add-ins, extensions, etc... are great ways to extend capabilities. But when the base app gets updated and extensions get broken, it's like walking into your newly remodeled office and finding the light switch has moved. You'll adjust and routines will return to normal (add-ins will get updated), but it is annoying.
Get In Sync. Bottom line. Solve the syncing issues. The push towards more mobility demands it.

Posted at 12:48 PM in Computers and Internet, Tablet PC | Permalink

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Comments

Kill The Bloat. Outlook is the prime offender here, but you see it in other apps as well. We get so used to the creeping bloat that we quit complaining about it. I can see this happening with other apps down the road too. OneNote could be an example. Onfolio another. As it becomes easier to collect and store not just text, but media, will our databases get too large to be manageable? (I remember reading somewhere that Chris Pratley said that having OneNote try to manage over 1 gig could be a problem.) You certainly can't design for limitless data, but, it would be my hope that we would come up with sound, sane, and safe archiving possibilities that make it easy to search.
Secure This. Jim Allchin is saying buy Vista for the security. Malicious hack donkeys are going to do what they do regardless of the systems and will keep security experts employed forever. But, hey, someone has got to find a better way. Kevin Tofel had an interesting post on this from a hardware standpoint.
Give Me Features, But Give Me Stability. Features are where it's at. There's no sexy sell to stability. As Web 2.0 expands/contracts/booms/deflates I'd like to see companies publicly focus as much on stability issues as new features. When it works it's great. When it doesn't it's a PITA. I had/have issues these last few days with both Six Apart and Technorati. The same is true of client based software as well.
The Little DRMer Boy. Big issues. Big money. Big stakes. Simple solutions? No way. Get over the castle building and plantation management and make it easy. Amazing modern day re-emergence of feudalism.
Don't Kill The Messenger, Just Keep Him Quieter And Make Him More Coherent. Do we really need five clicks to proceed with a software installation? Do we really need to teach everyone to be a security expert to handle all the pop-up warnings? On the security warning front, maybe we need to think more along the lines of automobile dashboards and just have little flashing lights that warn us, as opposed to the pop-ups that in many cases are just frustrating examples of confusion.
Clean It Up, Baby. Clean up the install and uninstall routines and quit leaving so much junk lying around. As the age of free trials matures (a good thing), I'd like to see the visitors to my computer take out their own garbage when their visit is over.
Plug It In, Plug It In. Plug-ins, add-ins, extensions, etc... are great ways to extend capabilities. But when the base app gets updated and extensions get broken, it's like walking into your newly remodeled office and finding the light switch has moved. You'll adjust and routines will return to normal (add-ins will get updated), but it is annoying.
Get In Sync. Bottom line. Solve the syncing issues. The push towards more mobility demands it.