Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Copying and Pasting Should Work - Shouldn't It?
So today I was instantly frustrated when copying a piece of a powerpoint document and sending it to a colleague for review. When I pasted it into outlook, it changed colors from a shade of green to a shade of red. Now I ask you - what could possibly be a valid explanation for this. I don't want to hear about palettes, templates, color cubes, and the like. If I select something in one window, and click copy, it should paste cleanly and properly into another window. This is OLE gone mad. When moving pieces of text from one document to another - it seems like it never gets the formatting right. In the never-ending attempt to get better and cooler, seems many have forgotten that "working simply" is an important thing. Per my quote at the top of the page:
Friday, April 10, 2009
Wiki Sorting Problems
Today I was looking up something about HBO. I noticed that there were a few tables on the site. I wanted to see what was the first show that they had produced. I tried to sort by broadcast date. Much to my dismay the sort was skewed. This seems to be yet another example of "get it close" "call it a day". I remember studying the various types of sorts and the efficiency thereof in my very first computer science class. It is truly unfortunate the state that things have become. I can't describe precisely how to fix this because the Wiki stuff is "needlessly complex".
Here's the site
Quick Screen shot - last time I checked 2009 was after 1973 - then again perhaps it was because I clicked some of those links (see how they are red) - then again that shouldn't matter should it!?!?!
Quick Screen shot - last time I checked 2009 was after 1973 - then again perhaps it was because I clicked some of those links (see how they are red) - then again that shouldn't matter should it!?!?!
I am done with QuickenOnline!
I have now deleted all of my quicken online accounts
Let me explain the straw that broke it for me. I just downloaded and synchronized my Mac quicken. Even though I hadn't use it in a few weeks it went mostly smooth and I was able to reconcile all of the outstanding items. It matched very well and the payee information downloaded from my bank looked like reasonable transactions:
Sample Sam's Club. Showed up in Mac as Sam's Club, in QuickenOnline it showed up as: Check Card Purchase XXXXX7509 as did all of my purchases.
My bank provides additional information about the transaction that the Mac version of Quicken pulls in but the online version does not.
It seems dreadfully wrong that as you advance into the online world products would become LESS USEFUL. I CANNOT ADEQUATELY EXPRESS MY LEVEL OF DISAPPOINTMENT.
The statement below is clearly created by someone under the age of 25, and is why I will be looking for some other way and perhaps even going so far as to break all ties to Quicken.
Reconciling - Reconciling is useful for matching up your paper checkbook register with the transactions on your bank statement. But who keeps a paper checkbook register these days? With Quicken Online, you're seeing your bank's transactions right on the screen. To match up your receipts with your bank's list of transactions, you can make an entry in the Note field for each transaction as you check it off as valid.
Let me explain the straw that broke it for me. I just downloaded and synchronized my Mac quicken. Even though I hadn't use it in a few weeks it went mostly smooth and I was able to reconcile all of the outstanding items. It matched very well and the payee information downloaded from my bank looked like reasonable transactions:
Sample Sam's Club. Showed up in Mac as Sam's Club, in QuickenOnline it showed up as: Check Card Purchase XXXXX7509 as did all of my purchases.
My bank provides additional information about the transaction that the Mac version of Quicken pulls in but the online version does not.
It seems dreadfully wrong that as you advance into the online world products would become LESS USEFUL. I CANNOT ADEQUATELY EXPRESS MY LEVEL OF DISAPPOINTMENT.
I AM TRULY AMAZED AT THE LACK OF QUALITY OF THIS OFFERING.
The statement below is clearly created by someone under the age of 25, and is why I will be looking for some other way and perhaps even going so far as to break all ties to Quicken.
Reconciling - Reconciling is useful for matching up your paper checkbook register with the transactions on your bank statement. But who keeps a paper checkbook register these days? With Quicken Online, you're seeing your bank's transactions right on the screen. To match up your receipts with your bank's list of transactions, you can make an entry in the Note field for each transaction as you check it off as valid.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
My Coke Rewards Site is Horrific
As anyone who knows me knows, I am an avid drinker of Diet Coke. I collect caps and enter my codes, and get my coupons. This site is loaded with every sort of web control and snazzy, jazzy do-dad you can think of, all rolled into one incredibly slow, hard to use, and difficult to access site. Today I received an "Error during the invocation of the business service". I am confident this is due to the "SOA" craze - Service Oriented Architecture. Unfortunately the business service seems unable to be invoked, and here I thought an invocation was for church. I wasn't sure if this should be a curmudgeon post or a regular post, so I put it here.
Here's the note I just sent them. We'll see if they call.
I am writing to express my EXTREME displeasure at the use of the mycokerewards.com web site. I have been a loyal diet coke drinker for about 15 years. I have entered many many codes, received coupons and free coke. Today I received a "Error during the invocation of the business service" each time I tried to enter my email and password. This is at least the 10th time I have tried to enter or redeem codes, only to have the site frustrate me. I have been a software developer for 25+ years and I can say that while the mycokerewards.com site may not necessarily be the worst site from a "time to load" "overall design" and "user experience" perspective, it is undoubtedly in the top 3 I have encountered. I cannot think of a worse site - although I suppose it is possible one exists. Thankfully your core business is coke and the product continues to be delicious. Should you like to discuss this with me - I would welcome the opportunity for a live discussion with the developers or development management team regarding human interface design and overuse of technology. It certainly seems like every possible thing that can be on a web site is on this web site. Too bad most of them don't work.
Here's the note I just sent them. We'll see if they call.
I am writing to express my EXTREME displeasure at the use of the mycokerewards.com web site. I have been a loyal diet coke drinker for about 15 years. I have entered many many codes, received coupons and free coke. Today I received a "Error during the invocation of the business service" each time I tried to enter my email and password. This is at least the 10th time I have tried to enter or redeem codes, only to have the site frustrate me. I have been a software developer for 25+ years and I can say that while the mycokerewards.com site may not necessarily be the worst site from a "time to load" "overall design" and "user experience" perspective, it is undoubtedly in the top 3 I have encountered. I cannot think of a worse site - although I suppose it is possible one exists. Thankfully your core business is coke and the product continues to be delicious. Should you like to discuss this with me - I would welcome the opportunity for a live discussion with the developers or development management team regarding human interface design and overuse of technology. It certainly seems like every possible thing that can be on a web site is on this web site. Too bad most of them don't work.
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