Monday, November 26, 2012

Alan Keyes Reviews Windows 8

It starts here:
These days, managing constant change is a challenge that faces anyone whose life and livelihood involves the use of intelligent electronic devices. The conflicting headlines from two stories I read this week exemplify the situation. One reported: “Designer guru Nielsen: Windows 8 UI ‘smothers usability.’” The other protested: “Why Jakob Nielsen’s Windows 8 critique is old school thinking.” The latter began with the following trenchant observation “Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was once asked what market research went into the creation of the iPad. ‘None,’ Jobs replied, in one of his most celebrated quotes. ‘It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.’”
and ends here:
Do we have no choice but to support these self-serving elitists as they abandon America’s founding creed? In the series of essays I am now sharing on Loyal to Liberty, I am trying to think through the reasons for withdrawing our support from them. I hope by doing so to encourage people still loyal to the nation’s founding principles to rediscover and further explore the understanding that animated the Christian Federalists prevalent when America began. Perhaps, by doing so, we can act as they did, not just for ourselves but on behalf of all humanity – to renew America’s window for the world on the foundations of decent liberty and true human greatness.
Like Alan Keyes, I am likely to avoid Windows 8 (if possible) without ever having used it, but my reasoning is in deference to SATAN.

Ann Althouse

STILL AMUSING UPDATE:

The look of Jakob Nielsen's website.

This remains funny.

20 comments:

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

When I am looking for reliable usability analysis, I look to Alan Key---HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

...couldn't even type it with a straight face.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

There should be an Apple symbol in that pentagram somewhere.

Substance McGravitas said...

Indeed. There may come alterations later.

Smut Clyde said...

Do we have no choice but to support these self-serving elitists as they abandon America’s founding creed?

I believe that NOT BUYING A FECKIN' PRODUCT IF YOU DON'T WANT IT is still an option, as a small blow against the FASCIST TYRANNY of people making products you don't want.

M. Bouffant said...

Alan Keyes: Blackberry, Android or Windows Phone?

And what is America's "founding creed?" Something along the lines of "never give a sucker an even break," innit?

Smut Clyde said...

America's "founding creed?"

Nice country you have there. We'll take it.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Alan Keyes is a Scott Stapp fan?

Figures.
~

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Anybody think Alan Keyes will now extol the virtues of open-source freeware?

Substance McGravitas said...

He's got an Android phone, which I think still counts.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Windows 8?!?!?!?

I'm still working on my loathing for Windows 7.

mikey said...

I think he's saying "I hate using shit that does what I want. I demand some kind of crap that doesn't work as expected. Now THAT'S computers...

Substance McGravitas said...

Let me now defend Alan Keyes: he is honestly worried about usability and thinks Windows 8 will take away from the flow of his "work". That's a reasonable fear.

When I moved to a Windows environment from a Mac environment I panicked because text looked like shit and I look at a screen all day. The panic subsided after research revealed that there was text smoothing buried somewhere in a control panel that nobody in the workplace had turned on (and of course was not enabled by default). But of course, that was the fault of demons.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Let me now defend Alan Keyes: he is honestly worried about usability and thinks Windows 8 will take away from the flow of his "work". That's a reasonable fear.

Knowing what I do about Keyes, I think you give him too much credit.

It's change, he doesn't like change, and thinks he sees a way to wring some culture war out of it.

But you're right, I don't doubt that he fears. I think he probably fears a LOT of things.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

I'm just going to leave this here for you.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

I'm just going to leave this here for you.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Money quote from the linked article:

Jonathan says he bought the Goatse.cx domain in 2008 for the impressive sum of "around 8,000 euros" ($10,200) from a Canadian man on a late-night whim.

It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

mikey said...

I never cease to be fascinated by the people who choose to shriek the loudest about living up to American values.

They seem to think airborne robotic assassination, Collateralized Debt Obligations, acid rain and mosque burning fall neatly into those categories, but universal health care, public education funding and environmental and workplace safety regulations go well beyond the pale.

I'd like to give them a couple crayons and a coloring book and have them write down what they believe these founding values might actually be...

Substance McGravitas said...

It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

Sadly, I have never had $10000 dropped in my lap. Gotta get me one of those email addresses though.

wiley said...

I have added dotted underlines to my links, even though they look like shoddy, gnarly dashes in Internet Explorer...

Can anyone think of a reason to use Internet Explorer? In this house it's called "Marvin"--- Would you like me to fall apart where I stand, or sit in the corner and quietly rust.

We chose rust.

Substance McGravitas said...

Can anyone think of a reason to use Internet Explorer?

Well no, but people seem to use it anyway and those people - in 2004 anyway - deserved ugly dotted underlines according to Jakob Nielsen.

I have to use IE in the workplace for a stupid Java app, and not only that but a Java app in an old and compromised version of Java. I use Firefox for web-browsing, but what must my multitudinous co-workers be loading on to their machines?