James

Member since: Oct 2nd, 2006

James's Latest Comments

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Blog	# of Comments
Download Squad	9 Comments

Recent Comments:

Facebook users hate the redesign, but does it matter? (Download Squad)

Mar 22nd 2009 5:33AM What a massive whine-fest this was, even worse than last time. Everyone complained at the first re-design but now it's suddenly all precious in the face of a change - how does that work? It doesn't, it's just bitching, which is all I've really heard.

I'm also a professional UI designer and I think the redesign is a massive improvement - but there's still a lot wrong with the site.

Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth: We can surpass Apple in two years (Download Squad)

Jul 23rd 2008 4:47PM Prettier maybe, but what about usability and interaction design? It's exactly this sort of misguided focus that will keep desktop Linux in the sidelines.

Dev Chair : Do we want scientists or engineers? (Download Squad)

Jan 10th 2008 2:42PM Complaining that computer science students are not ready to be software engineers is like complaining that a physics graduate cannot build a bridge.

Maybe the problem is that too many people take CS when they should be doing something more vocational.

Novell spoofs Mac vs. PC ads (Download Squad)

Mar 23rd 2007 12:02PM If it were realistic the Linux girl would have to make that jacket from a pattern.

Battle of the keynotes: Jobs vs. Gates (Download Squad)

Jan 12th 2007 4:03AM The Apple TV is not an innovation! I've been streaming TV, music and photographs to a modded XBox for four years!

Here's what Apple do better then Microsoft: marketing.

(I adore my iPod and will be buying a mac laptop soon, but that's beside the point, this post is too effusive.)

Organize photos with your OS in 5 easy steps- DLS Imaging Tip (Download Squad)

Jan 11th 2007 3:51AM I mostly agree with El Guapo. Performance reasons for organising via the filesystem are specious - initial load aside, Picasa is super-fast and hassle free.

The best reason to organise your filesystem is application independence - viewing pictures easily without Picasa installed. I have the following directory structure that works without effort and slides in nicely with Picasa:
-Photos
|-pre 1998
|-1998
|-1999
|-...
|-2007
|-2007.01.01 - New years party
|-2007.01.06 - Goodbye decorations
And each year is an album in Picasa.

Program launcher overload (Download Squad)

Dec 4th 2006 7:14AM glacia00, keystroke launchers are obviously similar to the command line but if you think it's exactly the same then you've either not been paying attention or are being willfully obtuse: context-independence actions combined with search and desktop integration make it a very different thing. The nuances of improved usability are often not obvious until you engage with them - these little things aren't whimsies and they do make for a better experience.

If you want to write a tool to allow a user to resize a window without using the mouse that'd be excellent. One can do this in OSX and it cuts down on keyboard-mouse-keyboard movements.

Program launcher overload (Download Squad)

Dec 1st 2006 3:05AM glacia00: finding applications in a hierarchical list, pstart, start bar or whatever, is just tedious mouse-clickery and one point about keystroke launchers is that you don't have to worry about organising your start menu. I've not used mine in months, it's legacy as far as I'm concerned. That's search baby!

I was surprised to read the author of this post found Colibri faster then Launchy, I have always found it very much to be the other way around.

Colibri has plugins that accept parameters, which Launchy does not. For example: Google followed by a search term will start a search, same for Wikipedia. This is the key point in the ongoing development of Colibri and will bring it closer to the functionality of the Quicksilver, which is truly sublime.

Foobar 2000 - alternative audio player for Windows (Download Squad)

Oct 2nd 2006 9:23AM Foobar is very extensible and you can make it look very cool. Unfortunately to do this you have to wrangle with configuratoin files. It's a form of hazing which someone with a life doesn't really have time for.

An advanced user could put together a complete Foobar 2000 package, replete with funky interface, but they're too bitter about having wasted their own time setting it up that they're not about to help out a bunch of n00bs.

My vote for most annoying user community ever.