Monthly Archives: January 2010

Why, HP?

After installing my printer drivers recently, I was faced with this:

I have to click so that my computer does not restart?

First, the line ‘You must restart your computer to finish the install’ is standard for many installations in Windows.  While it would be great to not have to worry about the restart, I have been conditioned to expect it.  What makes this line awful in this context is that I haven’t been conditioned to search for a check box to not restart.

While I love software, I do not love watching install.  In fact, I will go out on a limb here and say most people do not like to sit and watch software install.  Consequently, I imagine others multitask while software is installing, as I do.  When the install finishes, I am ready to click finish or restart later and get on with whatever I am doing.  Here, though, if I am rushing through, I get an unexpected restart.

Someone made a design decision requiring that the user check a box in order that the system not shut down.  I can’t imagine a single user that would, when asked, say they preferred this method to restart now/later or having restart later be the default.  So why is it in my driver, HP?

Death of AIM

Despite being a big fan of AOL Instant Messenger for years, I closed the application recently for what could be the final time.  I realized that there were only about 3 people that I talk to regularly on AIM as opposed to Gchat and signed into AIM on Gchat instead of running a separate application.

One of my primary frustrations with AIM is the lack of spell check. Perhaps they have cleared this up in a more recent version, but I can’t remember the last time AIM prompted me to update.  I also had problems with IMs continually flashing as if they were new while I was responding to them.  However, even if the program were flawless, I can’t imagine needing to use it much longer.

Although the functionality of AIM is still alive and well, many of its functions have been spread out over newer services.  Profiles and away messages have been usurped by social networking services like Facebook and Twitter.  I can share links and information on these services as well.  If I need to have a quick chat with someone SMS allows me to reach them even if they aren’t on a computer.

I decided to move away from AIM because of a few problems I had with the software, but this has just made me realize how much communication is changing with so many avenues for getting in touch now.