I just fucking LOVE Apple.

[theweaselking]

Apparently "do not remind me again" means "not until you restart the program, at least. But, definitely, remind me EVERY TIME.".

How did these fucking imbeciles *ever* get a reputation as competent, let alone good, interface designers? All Apple software is designed for and by morons.

Comments

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, because your machine has a bug, that must mean all Apple designers and customers are morons and all their software is shit.

You should go get one of those totally bug-free operating systems that totally exist.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

By comparison to Windows ME or Vista? Compared to those train-wrecks, _my_ programming and interfaces are decent.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

"Ignores your expressed preferences in favour of defaults" is standard Apple software behaviour, man, on every single one of their products. Ever updated Quicktime only to find that hey, the Quicktime Task Manager has re-enabled itself?

Combined with their latest trick of bundling unrelated malware in with "updates" to existing software?

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

Nope, haven't had either of those problems.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

How dare you resist the Reality Distortion Field? The Apple Corps will peel you with a dull knife for that.

-- Steve's no big fan of Cupertino's Finest himself, finding most of the praise for its wares more self-laudatory than level-headed appraisals.

[kafziel.livejournal.com]

Wait, you think a good interface is functional and does what you tell it to do? That's hardly Thinking Different at all! A good interface has rounded edges and superfluous animation.

[drjamez.livejournal.com]

Amen, brotha! When one controls the hardware on which the software is installed, one can do anything. When one (like with Quicktime) installed software on hardware that is NOT under one's control (PC versions of Quicktime), Apple tries to do all they can to take control anyway.

And people think Microsoft is Satan. They're small potatoes compared to the Apple machine. ;-)

- James -

...who is grateful for MSCONFIG to cancel the auto-run of QTtask.exe (or whatever they are calling it this year).

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

Quicktime update popped up on me today while I was in the middle of a game. Man, that's irritating.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Good *hardware* interface designers. And really, anything that's meant to be everything to everyone is going to fail the "good UI" checklist for a significant percentage of the user base. Too many conflicting requirements and usage scenarios.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

I hate how in OSX every combination of keystrokes is a shortcut to something, including, apparently, moving the mouse in any direction.

I also think that Apple's designs are ugly as hell, but that's because I like big beige boxes.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Closest I've ever had to that problem turned out to be a permissions error. Easily fixed.

That was on Apple Hardware and OS X though.

As for the PC side of things, I've not encountered that problem with Apple software on Windows either.

that being said, I think adding the PC version of Safari to software updates was a bit stupid.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of "Bonjour", myself.

But the point is, Apple's software installs unwanted applications, without asking, and ignores your choices while doing so. This makes it classic malware.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I've not encountered that problem with Apple software on Windows

Then I suspect you've never disabled the iPod service or qttask.exe and then updated iTunes or Quicktime.

[matgb]

I have, every time Quicktime updates itself it moves my shortcuts around and tries to install iTunes as well. Every time.

I'm mostly on my work provided XP laptop, I can do what I like with it but I need Quicktime for some stuff else I wouldn't bother, it's really annoying.

It also put me off running Safari as an alt browser, I have no interest in more of their machine hijack attempts, which is a shame because it's quite good once you get past the stupidity.

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that. Seems like the PC end of things is having some issures. But "Ignores your expressed preferences in favour of defaults" is far from "standard Apple software behaviour" on an actual Mac.

[mhoye.livejournal.com]

I would kill a man for Apple's Remote Desktop for windows. Without hesitation or remorse.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

It's default software behavior on every piece of software that they have that runs on the majority of computing devices.

Macs, fundamentally, are a *rounding error* when it comes to software behavior statistics.

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

"on every single one of their products"

Yeah, uh huh.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

See also: Rounding error's worth of units.

(My experience with OSX hasn't been all that shiny, either. I'm just not dumb enough to pay $1000 extra for the same hardware and an OS incompatible with the real software world to have a MacBook of my own to play with, so I get fewer examples from there.)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Whereas I would kill some very specific people, joyfully, to never have to clear out another Quicktime - aka "Realplayer 2.0, because Real Networks just weren't scummy enough" - infection.

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware rounding applied to phrases like "every single one." Thanks, you've introduced me to a whole new world of backpedaling.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Would you prefer "every single one I've ever encountered, PC or Mac"?

You're claiming to have a magic Mac where the software doesn't work like anything in my experience, or that of the majority of the other commenters. It's entirely possible that you're both sincere and you're actually using custom settings instead of relying on the defaults.

But, really, *all* the PC software does it. iTunes, Quicktime, and Safari do it on OSX 10.4 and 10.5. iPod software does it. The fucking *iPhone* updates itself to Apple-preferred settings regardless of your own changes, to the point of bricking itself if you've broken your contract.

I've never seen Apple software that DOESN'T do it. Every piece of Apple software I've ever interacted with DOES do it. You're claiming that some obscure Apple app used by maybe twenty thousand people worldwide *isn't* fucking stupid? Good for you. I believe you. I'm happy to hold, deep in my heart, the hope that there are a FEW Apple developers who aren't dishonest or completely incompetent. And I'm even nice enough to say "Sure, okay, you've found the one exception to the three hundred million instances that follow the rule", and what do I get? I get shit from you about how "Never seen it, never heard of it. Here are the cases I HAVE checked, where I've got 100% confirmation of the premises of my rant" is totally "backpedalling".

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have a maaagic Mac. I go to a college where pretty much everyone has a Mac, and I've never heard anyone complaining that their Mac has reverted to its default preferences against their will. (And yes, my friends are competent to advanced computer users who do use preferences other than the defaults.) I can ask our tech support people if that's a common complaint, if you like.

iTunes, Quicktime, and Safari do it on OSX 10.4 and 10.5.

I don't use Safari, but I've been using iTunes since ~2001 and it's never done this to me. My friends say the same.

iPod software does it.

Again, never had this happen on my iPod and I'm a relatively early adopter.

to the point of bricking itself if you've broken your contract.

I have to say, I don't approve of this practice, but I wouldn't put punishing you for breaking your contract in the same column as randomly reverting to default settings. They're just not the same thing.

some obscure Apple app

I'm not talking about Claris here. I'm talking about OSX and iTunes, which have never done this to me or anyone I know. But I guess we're all just morons.

[ryusen.livejournal.com]

bah... MS and Apple are small fry.. the REAL Evil empires go by the names of Sony and Disney .p

lolapple

[tomtherat.livejournal.com]

I just do a full uninstall of Quicktime after every time I'm forced to use the software. Problems solved!

Re: lolapple

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I just use other programs instead of Quicktime.

But that doesn't stop me from sometimes needing to fix things on other people's machines.

[mhoye.livejournal.com]

You have to treat Mac stuff as a completely closed ecosystem. You don't put anything that doesn't have an Apple-approved sticker on it on a Mac, and you don't put Apple software on anything else.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

And you have to never, ever try to connect to a standard file share from a Mac, or try to view Mac-created documents on a real computer, or expect the same software to even have *similar* behaviour and interface in the Mac version.

[mhoye.livejournal.com]

Completely closed, no joke.

In fairness, that brokenness is not all their problem or fault (three letter extensions matter SO VERY MUCH on Windows systems for no good reason, for example) but some of it sure is.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Their incredible ability to fuck up a simple SMB connection always boggles my mind. Windows hasn't had a problem with this in more than a decade. Fucking *Linux* desktops can do it trivially. Even after they trashed their total shit back end and ported their GUI over to BeOS, they can't manage it? What the fucking fuck?

(Microsoft's inability to make Office For Mac talk to Office For PC is just sad, though. Not even .docx looks the same. At the same time, this is a serious problem in offices where people are trying to use Macs instead of real computers - it means that you really can't let the mac-user talk to the outside world, or rely on his work being usable without reformatting.)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

PS: Something you'll appreciate.

fortysevebteg's "Digg 2028":


http://fortysevenbteg.livejournal.com/819934.html?style=mine

It's the first one that makes me crack up.