Hi Don,
On 4 Aug 2004 at 14:01, Don Bishop spoke, thus:
> Perhaps PDI should require that each new user of a bn be presented with a
> document clearly explaining exactly what a braillenote is intended to do
> and what it is not. They should then be required to read this document
> fully and sign a statement saying they have read it and understand its
> contents fully. Then, and only then, would they be allowed to purchase a
> braillenote or other member of this product family.
I do sincerely hope that you are being sarcastic and don't mean any of
what you just said in any serious way. Not only is it very unlikely that
PulseData would use such a scheme, unless there were no other way to
justify their failings in software design, but there is no way I and any
other righteously indignant person would submit to it. These issues are
not our problems, in my opinion. They are concerns for immediate
attention by PulseData developers.
To express my view from all possible vantage points (including technical,
but no less those of usability) on why I think these problems are no
concern of PulseData's userbase, the BrailleNote may be limited by
functionality because it is a notetaker and was built upon early
foundations that were suitable for that role, but if it strives to be
called a PDA (and in the newest form factor it will be hard to call it
anything else when its software is brought up to scratch to the
satisfaction of all concerned) then the current problems and customer
experiences resulting from it are reasonably unacceptable and need
attention for technical resolution, rather than user appreciation of why
they exist and clumsy hacks and workarounds to solve them. An industry
PDA either provides the features necessary to overcome the problems
described, provides the hardware and/or resources so that the problems do
not occur, provides the fixes so that the problems are resolved
immediately, or else fails gracefully without doing anything dangerous or
without the assumption that the human is possessed of extraordinary
computing intelligence necessary to resolve it when displaying the
appropriate diagnostics and/or error messages. This is true even for Non-
Microsoft platforms - Microsoft are mentioned because they are notorious
for accomplishing these goals to the extremes, even if the software itself
is rubbish. If you don't believe me, look at Outlook Express - never has
an email client been so utterly broken, yet its usability is excellent -
even granny could understand it. There are some simple things that want
attention in this respect before I am ready to excuse any limitation of
hardware or software for the product's failings. If my mobile phone can
do it, my notetaker, with its stronger processor and more abundant disk
space, can do it. There is simply no room for excuse just yet, in my most
objective view. Of course, loyal users are going to find fault with my
apparent show of ingratitude, and technical people may or may not argue
the small points out. But I'm afraid I still think we should be rising to
tackle these showstoppers professionally rather than simply accept the
proposition that the BrailleNote is inherently broken in various places
and fix them using dirty hacks.
I am sufficiently a list and newsposter to realise that what I have said
may cause messages of contained rage to be written in response, please
remember that I have everyone's interest at heart and am working hard to
push the product in a direction that I think would benefit everyone. It
doesn't matter what the effect of this is, I am doing all I can. How
successful this will be, I am not sure; I suppose constantly reminding
PulseData to fix something is annoying, but it is at least honest.
Cheers,
Sabahattin
--
Thought for the day:
Dictatorship (n): a form of government under which everything
which is not prohibited is compulsory.
Sabahattin Gucukoglu
Phone: +44 20 7,502-1615
Mobile: +44 7986 053399
http://www.sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/
Email/MSN: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
