FeedMe

Microsoft

Why do I dislike Microsoft? They're really a great company, with smart people, and have contributed a great deal. As much as people dislike Bill Gates, I never did. I really admire his charitable work which is precisely what he said he was going to do a decade ago. Their trade practices haven't been pristine but for the most part in recent years, it's been legal and mostly ethical. They're ruthless competitors but that's not, in itself, evil.

I also credit them for fixing the Macintosh! If Microsoft hadn't launched Windows, the Mac would totally suck.

And yet, Microsoft makes me nuts.

Standards

This is their biggest offense, in my book. Microsoft pretends to follow industry standards and common practices, while really co-opting, or even sabotaging, them. Under the guise of enhancement, they add "features" in a way that damages competing products. The best example is their web browser. Generation after generation sought to derail web standards, adding elements (such as ActiveX controls) designed to get web developers to write sites that would not work well on other browsers. It is a pleasure now to see them outfoxed.

Another example: Their Exchange mail server uses a Microsoft-proprietary format for attachments and text formatting. Non-Outlook e-mail programs can't read them. There are standard methods for doing this, but Microsoft does not adhere to them. You can configure the server to not do this, but you should not have to.

One more: SharePoint is the most popular collaboration system for companies. It works pretty well if the user has Windows and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Other browsers and systems are supposed to work but it's a hair-pulling experience. As far as I can see, everything they're doing could be done in an industry-standard way that works universally. I can't tell if the Explorer-dependence is deliberate sabotage or incompetence.

It makes me crazy because it is arrogant, anti-user, and predatory. It's one area where they exploit their leadership in a way that damages the community.

Taste

Steve Jobs once said about Microsoft that they "have no taste." Say what you will about Jobs and his arrogance (I would not argue) but he is right. They are successful — and Jobs does not begrudge that, a least in this video — even if their products and strategies are artless. He says, "they don't think of original ideas and they don't bring much culture to their product."

It's obvious to me that engineers design their interfaces and graphics. I recently saw the new release of MS Office 2008 for the Mac. It was demonstrated for me by a Microsoft program manager, who proudly showed me 3D charts in PowerPoint. I was horrified by the amaterish 3D. They had added shadows and highlights that were blocky and unrealistic. The colors were Crayola basic. Labels were improperly centered on shapes. To many business users, I am sure these look fine, but any top-tier company would have them redrawn before using them in any material that goes outside the company.

There is nothing evil or badly intentioned about this: I think it's because they're unaware, like the engineer who dresses in plaid and dots and is honestly befuddled when it's pointed out.

Interface

Then there are the user interfaces. Microsoft has some of the most advanced user interface labs in the world and a large UI staff. Yet, their interfaces are consistently confusing and convoluted.

MS Office is a case in point. It has tons of functionality, but finding and performing a function is often painful. The worst part is that with each revision, it becomes more painful! Why? Because their UI labs are very good at identifying user complaints, very poor at fixing them. When they find a function people can't do, such as mail merge, they never seen to think that the user interface is fundamentally in need of ground-up redesign. Almost invariably, they think the answer is to add something. They added a mail merge palette. A help system. Then that paper clip animation. Then a wizard. Then a "ribbon." A sequential palette. Now they have a bar thing that has no name that brings up a series of icons that, um, does something. Like a wizard. But they can't call it that because the wizards, um, didn't help.

They seem to toss solutions at the problem, never quite figuring out that the problem is underneath all these wizardly layers.

The project manager who demonstrated Office 2008 for me showed me the wizard-like bar thing they had added for special user operations, like mail merge and templates. It takes up about an inch-high row of the document window. I asked if it could be made vertical. "We thought about that," he said. "Especially with displays tending to be wider. But no, it's horizontal only."

Duh. Even when they know they're making a mistake (and they usually don't), they proceed and make the mistake.

Code

And then, there is the underlying stuff: The code. It's bloated. It's buggy. Year after year, release after release, many bugs remain. It's slow and inefficient. The new Office 2008 for the Mac takes longer to load (a lot longer) and is not noticeably faster than the six-year-old, two-revs-ago version I had.

Someone did an interesting comparison between the open-source web server, Apache, and Microsoft's server, IIS. These "call graphs" hint at the underlying structure and you don't need to be an expert to see the difference.(thanks to Paul Rako's Anablog — which presents his own case against Microsoft — for showing me these.)

Is this typical? Meaningful? I wouldn't know, but I would bet it is.

I Don't Hate Microsoft

I don't hate Microsoft. I certainly don't hate their people. I don't even hate their products or what they have done for the industry. But I hate using their products, I hate being slave to their manipulations and incompetence.

Most of all, I hate it when I have no alternative.

Gaaaa! Microsoft!!!!

Morons.

In writing the article on HealthVault, I tried to log in. Won't let me.

I tried "Forgot Password" and it tells me the e-mail address I am using is not a valid login. So I try to register anew using that login. It tells me that it's already in use.

Click for help and I get a non-helpful FAQ that resizes the browser window to a tall, 1-inch wide window. Huh?

Anyway. It doesn't recognize my login except when I try to use it to register and then it recognizes that it's taken (yes, I know!!). Stuck. How much you want to bet their customer support doesn't respond?

---

Postscript. I went back to request support. There is a Feedback link. Guess what it gave me:

OK, that's funny.

--

P.P.S. Microsoft, to their credit, responded to my tech support request within the promised 24 hours. They suggested going to the Windows Live ID site and managing the login there, where I was able to reset the password. But that password is not strong enough for HealthVault and a stronger form (which I use on financial sites) also was not strong enough. In fact, a random strings of letters and numbers, like frt67h8j98I is not strong enough!

I clicked their tips for making a strong password and it goes to a Help page (after resizing the browser window to that ridiculously narrow window again) that did not talk about making a strong password.

Shrug.

Stupidest Password Restriction

One of my pet peeves is stupid login or password restrictions. What it means is that for this login only, I have to use a different password. Some require you include numbers, some require numbers be between letters...

The stupidest one ever came up today. Blue Cross / Blue Shield requires:

Your password cannot contain the first three letters of a month (for example: Jan, Feb, Mar). Please try again. Thank you.                             

WHAT?

So if your password is Janet32puppy or imamartian, you're hosed?

Morons.

End rant.

Logo Love: O Ain't for Oprah Anymore

I saw a comment in one of my favorite comics about Obama's logo:

"I like Barack Obama pretty well, but I’m in love with his logo. What a brilliant, versatile asset. The attention to detail and sheer number of variations are amazing and the typographic choices very distinct. The only thing I like as much as comics is a solid design identity system. (Can you guess what I went to school for?)" — R. Stevens, author of Diesel Sweeties

Me too.

I love logos. Embodying a brand in 100 milliseconds of attention span is an achievement. And if you have ever designed one, you know it's hell. Capturing a feeling in a memorable swatch is hard, hard work. Many logos are tacky and amateurish but when done well, they approach high art.

I am especially fascinated by presidential campaign logos which have terrifying design limitations. First of all, you get three colors. Red. White. Blue. And second, they mostly are trying to say the same things: Solid, competent, forward-thinking, hope for a new day, that kind of thing. And most succeed pretty well.

Do check out this piece on the Obama logo and don't miss the many variations, official and not, further down the page. Very nicely done. His website, by the way, is also really nicely designed.

What Have They Done to My Newspaper?

I am pretty close to ending my subscription to the San Jose Mercury News. I've been reading it for 30 years. It was once one of the finest half-dozen or so in the country. Really. (Even today, it's still number 34 according to  "2007 Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the U.S. by Circulation" (PDF), from BurrellesLuce. But the quality and quantity have been degrading in the past couple of years. Each morning I wonder if it's finally time to move on.

Part of the decay is just inevitable: Younger readers get their news from the Internet, and many don't read the news at all. Some don't read at all. All newspapers are struggling.

Part of it has to do with the passing of the baton from Knight-Ridder to McClatchy, then to MediaNews.

But I think the Merc has contributed to their own decay. As each owner trimmed staff and expenses, they de-featured the paper, contributing to the downward spiral. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle seems to me to have increased quality and content.

I think that most newspapers are in a quandary. Phil Bronstein of the Chronicle has talked about how many years newspapers have left as we know them and the fact that most papers know they need to go to the 'net but don't know how to make a business of it.

As a marketer, I think about what I would do with this product and the answer is what it usually is: Figure out what you have and what you can do that's special. The answer, to me, is in your local content and local voice. What can you say that's special for your community? And who do you have with a face and voice that people know? In the Mercury, they have a few columnists with a personality and special contribution. Gary Richards, Mr. Roadshow is the best example. If I owned the paper, I would have been all over my people to develop a voice, a following, something special that makes people look for them. Their TV and movie critics, for instance were easily replaced by syndicated content. Newspapers should seek quality and distinctiveness that makes their people the ones who are syndicated. Like the Merc used to.

If I owned the Chronicle, I know what I would do: I'd cannibalize business from neighboring papers and the Mercury, in its weakened state, would be my primary target. I would be developing content for the South Bay and promoting it. I would be pushing the Chron all over the area, with intro deals, advertising, and friends-and-neighbors promotions. I would be trying to convert Merc readers en masse.

And I don't think it would be hard to do because even today, quality sells.

Behind the Politician

Did you see Hillary's emotional moment? I never saw the actual video, I just read the reports. I wanted to see the real thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EahseKxvBoc

Reporting about an emotional response can't capture it. If you haven't seen it, please do. A rare look past the public persona into what drives a public figure.

It's easy to be cynical about our political system but I think most politicians are motivated by real caring and a desire to make a better world. It's true for the few I have met (except Darrel Issa who was a bigger ass in person than he is in public.) I think that in order to withstand the hurdles of major politics, one has to have extraordinary motivation, which means either a deep caring, or a needy ego, and I prefer to think there are more of the former than of the latter.

My Last Dell Purchase?

I am perfectly happy with my Dell monitor. But I don't think I'll be buying from them again. Why? A small problem (stuck switch on a product with 3-year advanced replacement warranty) turned into 2 hours and 15 minutes on the phone. I took notes (having learned that notes are a good idea for all support calls, no matter how straightforward they seem at first). Glad I did, this is pretty incredible and no way I'd have remembered what transpired.

I don't expect anyone will read the notes, below. (If you do, skim to the end, where the action gets more interesting and I start making witty (or at least, sarcastic) comments, then you can read on to see how this thing ends up.)

I especially don't expect anyone from Dell will read it. I have sent a note asking for assurance that someone at Director level or above read the notes but I don't expect that. The system, training, and procedure problems are so plentiful that I don't imagine they are paying much attention to customer complaints. I especially doubt they will fix these problems. And that is why I will not likely be buying anything from Dell again.

Background:

24" Dell monitor (Dell item number 320-4335) purchased May 2007. Included in purchase was 3-year warranty with "Advanced Exchange" (Dell item 983-2847).

Power switch stuck in ON position, will not turn off.

I went to support.dell.com in two occasions to find a way to do warranty returns. Also tried dellcustomercare.com. Tried the present support site and the new support site which is in beta.

Without an Express Service sticker (I think that's what it was called), which this monitor does not have, there seems to be no way to do this via the website and no advice there on what to do.

Found the packing slip and called the phone number listed there...

January 10, 2008

06:03 PM Called 1-800-www-dell

06:07 PM Gave up. Voice response ran down wrong branch and would not let me out.

06:08 PM Once I got past the lame voice response system ("sorry, I did not get that. MON-I-TOR!! Sorry, I did not get that....") got to a human in customer service who was very efficient.

06:14 PM - had to transfer to tech support.... Name is "Wael."

06:18 PM - OK, had to give order number again.

06:20 PM - On hold again...

06:23 PM - They want a number from the back of the monitor which he said probably starts "CN."  Which I don't have here. Waiting again...

Nope. Have to have that number, arranged for him to call me at 9 and e-mail me.

06:30 PM: End call.

That was fun.

LATER:

Number on back of monitor is MX-0CC302-46634-74Q-264U.

They did not send the e-mail asking for the number but I did get an e-mail acknowledgment for the first call and case number 184640885.

They also were going to call but I think I only gave my work number, oops.  I called in. Same voice routing problem (after saying "monitor" it asks "desktop or laptop" and insists on getting a computer model. They don't seem to anticipate anyone buying a monitor without a computer.)

09:04 PM Tony. Tells me the "call was routed to software dept. Needs to go to hardware dept."

Tells me hardware tech support is 800-624-9896 and he transfers me.

09:09 PM, Ambi. We're in India now. He read problem to me (three times) and then took the serial number. On hold again now...

09:15 PM
At some point, the call cut off. He had asked for my number "in case we get disconnected." But guess what -- he didn't call. Or e-mail.

09:24 PM -- I dialed back. Oh, no. Same voice system. Same stoopid questions and same incorrect choices. Arg.

09:27 PM, Jonathan. And guess what -- he is in software support! Says he will try to help. He took all the same info before telling me I have to talk to hardware support. I explained the situation and he verified that the number I called is supposed to be hardware support. Anyway, he can't help me. He was courteous but can't complete this. So. He transferred me...

09:34 PM, on hold. Peculiarly loud music. Ow, starting to get painful, adjust volume.

09:38 PM. Sean. We're in India again. Lessee, I think this is the sixth person I have talked to. Waiting now for him to pull up and read the case.

He read back the e-mail address they had which was wrong. I corrected it.

And he had me explain the problem again.

09:42 PM Still reading the case.

09:44 PM: He went to talk to his supervisor. "Normally an exchange is done by customer care."

Uhhh - that's the first person I talked to, at 6 PM!

09:50 PM: They are now reading me the "I'm sorry but" script -- telling me that it had a three month warranty and it over in September and .... I interrupted to point out the 3-year Advanced Exchange Warranty on the sales order. Sheesh, they were about to tell me to it was now -my- problem!!!

Now he is off again, looking up the invoice (which they had in front of them when I talked to the first person, four hours ago).

They again thanked me for my patience. Again.

09:53 PM: Now they say I am right, I do have a three-year warranty with advanced exchange. And I need to call a different department.

1-866-661-7154. Use case # 184 641 683.

09:55 PM: Barrett. Who asked me the case number, my last name, my zip code. Then something else and I offered the order number, which he took and found nothing. Then he asked for a phone number which did not work, nor did the wrong phone number they had on the invoice.

They case number the last guy gave me does no good: "We're a third-party and can't access the case numbers."

OK. Now he asks when it was purchased. Now he wants to know if I "had the opportunity to register the extended service." Well, no, there was never anything that said to do that.

10:01 PM: We need to register it. "This will take me just one moment."

"System is in maintenance and responding slow. Please be patient." I wonder if Dell knows how much they spend having people on the phone. "May I place you on hold just one moment?" I wonder if Dell knows how long a "moment" is.

10:03 PM: I hear ringing! But that stopped. A minute later -- I mean, a moment later -- another ring.

10:05 PM: He thanked me for my patience. "We can't locate your warrant contract and will need a copy of your sales order or e-mail acknowledging purchase of extended warranty."

"But I did not purchase an extended warranty. This was a warranty that was included with the product."

"Oh, we do not handle the manufacturer's warranty..."

But -- I explained Dell sent me to him! I asked, "who do I call?"

10:07 PM: He put me on hold to find out.

10:11 PM: "I have Peter on the line, Dell Tech Support. He has your information."

Now Peter, in Inda again, is reading the logs. Really crappy phone connection.

10:13 PM: He asks my phone and e-mail again.

He is reading the previous case logs. He repeats the problem. Now he wants me to talk to his supervisor!

10:16 PM: On hold now.

10:17 PM: He echoes back the whole thing. And he wants to transfer me to a tech to do some "troubleshooting steps." I am finally starting to lose it. I protested that numerous people have decided the power switch is broken and I do not want troubleshooting. He finally figured out that the power switch is bad, the same determination reached by five techs so far. Now he is transferring me back to a tech to get some "basic information."

10:19 PM. On hold now.

10:20 PM: Back to Peter. Repeats the situation, tells me they will replace the monitor. He is trying to "create a dispatch." He verifies serial number. Waiting now.

10:26 PM: He repeats the problem again. Then he asks my address again. He's very courteous. Keeps touching base with me while we wait.

Am wondering why every transaction takes sooooo long. Dell must have the slowest servers on the planet. I wonder whose servers they use?

Now he is asking for phone numbers and when he can call. I don't want them to call but he insists on having this "in case we need to call you back." Huh?

"One minute..."

He gave me his number: 1-800-624-9896, x 7240099. "Leave case no. and best time to call."

10:36 PM: "One minute..."

Seems like Dell's "minutes" are as long as their "moments."

10:38 PM: "just give me two minutes and I will be back with case number and dispatch number."

Two minutes now. Wonder how long those will take.

10:43 PM Case: 184640885 Dispatch: 988-102-30

10:44 PM: Manager wants to have a word... Why do I need to speak to him? But I don't want to mess this up now. He tell me: "One minute." And it is actually one real-world, 60-second minute!

10:45 PM: Manager tells me the situation again. I think he is waiting for my gratitude. Tells me I should get monitor in 3-5 days.

10:46 PM. Done. For now, anyway.

I have also now received five e-mails from Dell Support asking me to reply if there is anything else I need.  I think I will send these notes to all of them. Might as well tie up their servers a little more. Receiving a long e-mail will probably take hours.

———

More!

January 14, 2008, 8:06 AM: The phone rang. It was an automated call from Dell to tell me the replacement has been delayed 1-2 business days due to "inclement weather." I give them credit for letting me know though I never was asked whether it was OK for followup calls. Given a choice, I'd have asked for e-mail. And I think 8 AM is a little early for unsolicited calls.

Yesterday, I got an e-mail asking me to participate in a customer satisfaction survey.

———

January 14, 2008: I received a very nice e-mail from someone in XPS Customer Care in response to my e-mailed complaint. One point for Dell! She seemed to have actually read my complaint and noted that I prefer no phone calls.

Let me introduce myself my name is <deleted>. I am with the XPS Customer care outbound team. I looked into your case and and I have case noted the issue and your concerns fro all the time and trouble you had just to replay a monitor. I as well am setting up for a call back from one of our speialty groups that handles un-resolved customer issues I know you asked to not be contacted via phone so I will see if they will just converce with you via e-mail .

I have noted in our data base under your last case number the disapprovement of how things were handled as well I have set up the emial response for you here is the Incident # 9849155  for that .

Not sure the resonse time it says something like 24-48hrs I hope it will be sooner .

If you have any more questions please don't hesitate to contact me via e-mail.

The grammar and spelling are a little disturbing for someone who is customer front-line but the intent and tone are courteous, so I am not really complaining.

My response:

Thank you. At this point, the dispatch is scheduled so I don't think there is anything more I need to discuss (as long as the replacement actually happens more or less on time).

What I would REALLY like is assurance that someone who cares, at the Director level or above, reads my log of what happened. There are numerous procedural flaws in your systems that seem to be beyond just my incident and really, I would like to see Dell address them. It won't affect me, but I would like to know it made a difference. In addition to creating an unhappy customer, this costs your company a lot of money and I hate to see waste like this, even if it does not affect me personally.

The question is: Will you be able to get this in front of someone who cares?

Let's see where this goes...

———

January 17, 2008:

An answer from the same person in XPS Customer Care:

I have forwarded your concerns to our executive escalations department to voice your concerns for you . I hope that you will hear from someone soon on this issue. I know you really don't want anything in return but I do feel you should be reassured that I care and so does Dell about any and all of our customers.

And the replacement monitor arrived on the 16th.

Health Records Online: A Matter of Trust

A new online service, HealthVault.com, provides a single, web-accessible repository for all your health records. There is much here to like, but — there are a lot of buts.

It has always bothered me that every new doctor or medical service asks the same questions, and each with a separate form. Dentist, specialists, emergency clinics, labs, pharmacies — same questions, again and again. What drugs are you taking? Which of these diseases have you had? Family medical history. It's inconvenient but more important, it compromises one's health care: I'll bet I have answered these 100 times and there are certainly differences, either because things have changed or I don't remember every detail.

This can be important information: A doctor's diagnosis and treatment depend on what the doctor knows about you. And in an urgent situation, or when the patient is not lucid, having accessible medical records can be life and death. I really want better online medical records.

As a technologist, it makes me especially crazy. Everyone else, from the DMV to the grocery store, has an online record system that is better than the medical community's. There are legitimate issues but nothing that can't be solved — and that have already been solved. Every medical office can readily access my credit information already. Clearly we can solve the privacy and networking and access issues.

Some worry about the security issue: Having all your medical data in some centralized database worries people. But do you really think your privacy is more guarded when there are 25 uncontrolled, unencrypted copies of your records, in 25 medical offices all over the county, immediately readable by 100 office staff?

Along comes HealthVault. It's a good start. It keeps all the information for you and your family under what looks like tight security. It holds contact and profile information, medical records, etc. You can upload image files and documents. The sharing facilities seem robust — you can invite someone to view the information and choose what they may see.

Two issues are access and trust. In terms of access, will my doctors accept a HealthVault login as a substitute for their form? Not yet, but they have a few partners who are using the date.

The bigger issue is trust. Note that I did not say "security" — that's a technical issue. It's the human issue of trust that will make or break this, and other, medical automation solutions.

HealthVault is owned by Microsoft. Do you trust Microsoft? I don't share the common distrust of of their corporate intent — I think they mean well and their corporate ethos is that technology is powerful medicine to help people. They also believe that profit and benefit go hand in hand. So I trust their intent.

I am not sure if I trust their technology. They're competent technologists. They certainly are capable of making an accessible, trustworthy, secure system. But will they?

Every Microsoft product is full of defects. Even after years of refinement, glitches remain — sometimes the same issues for year after year.

I worry about bloat. Huge applications mean more opportunity for bugs and functional flaws and Microsoft often seems to not know how to say no to a feature. Worse, they keep adding rather than fixing — a palette, an assistant, a wizard, a "ribbon" — layer upon layer of new things to repair incomprehensible interfaces only a programmer could have designed.

This all affects usability. I am always in awe of what they spend on usability testing and redesign. They seem incapable of simplicity. The continuous repair tells me they know there is a problem but don't know how they are causing it.

Then there are the bugs. I registered and in the process discovered four bugs. Some were cosmetic or minor functional issues, such as a spray of Javascript across the top of one page. There were many user interface oddities. Right now, it logged me out and won't let me log in. Most people at this point would give up. I went in through the top of the application and found a screen that let me sign in.

I tried to edit my contact information. There is no link to let me do that. I think I know why. I haven't confirmed my identity by replying to the e-mail, but guess what: It's not telling me that. There is no Edit link and they give the user no clue. It's programmer-think: If a capability is not available, don't show it. Would Apple or Amazon or Yahoo have done this?

So, will I use this? Even without my doctors' buy-in, there is enough functionality for me to get started. But that's mostly because I am a tech geek. Others would not likely try this, yet.

And then there is the trust issue.

I expect that the underlying security is fine. But it's like the president of United Airlines once said, "If the tray tables are dirty, the customer has to be wondering about the condition of the engines." As much as I may want this service, I am not going to be uploading my data, given how dirty their tray tables are.

Makers

A buddy of mine was griping:

Have we become a nation of observers?  Non-participants?  We don't make/build anything anymore. ...

It's something I have been thinking about for a while. I used to think, as my friend said, that we watch, we buy, but we don't build and do. I heard some parents talking about his kid who made a computer -- all the kid did was buy a chassis, supply, motherboard, and processor and plug them together. I was worried about our creativity. But then I started looking harder.

I started tuning into the Makers. There are huge communities of kids building things, doing extreme sports, making videos and tunes with their computers, making fun with fire. Look up catapults, siege engines, potato guns on the web. Here is one I saw just two days ago -- a guy wanted to build a solar reflector and got carried away. Bought a satellite dish (the huge ones) and outfitted it with mirrors.

Check out MAKE magazine, published by O'Reilly, and their annual Maker Faire. I went this year and it was awesome. Must have been 1000 exhibits of stuff people are making and doing.

Do you know about Lego Mindstorms? The son of the Lego founder did a Lego-based robot kit and people started hacking it. After some soul-searching, they decided to open the architecture and the result is a fantastic network of clubs doing Lego robotics.

And likewise for the Roomba -- the company, iRobot, has developer kits and people are making robots out of them.

And you don't have to go to geekland to see it. It's all over -- Home Depot, Food Network, Martha Stewart, and the mall stores where you paint pottery. The lady who runs a coffee shop I visit is making a quilt and told me quilting is big! And the web itself is swarming with words and images and music produced by ordinary people.

Seems to me creativity is alive and well.

Gotta go now. I need to go make something.

Waste

Canon sent me a wrist strap. Here is how they sent it:

That's the wrist strap, at the lower right. It was in a bag inside a bag inside a large bag, inside a 12 x 10 x 8-inch box filled with packing paper.