Replies

And that is the rebuttal.

1 user thanked author for this post.

dononline

My feeling is that it is all a grand delusion.  The chance to PROMOTE stuff by putting it in front of our eyes will eventually be revealed to be a futile hope, and no substitute for actually presenting consumers with information and/or argument that the product is worth their money.

Right now we’re just counting clicks.  An example:  Until recently, Yahoo Finance was formerly a no-hassles way to assemble a list of stocks that you want to watch.  The list was accompanied by news articles about the listed stocks, and if you clicked on any one of them you could drill down into more detailed info.  Useful.  Unpretentious.

All that has changed, to universal derision on the user forums.  It now takes me six clicks to get from the icon to my stock watchlist, every one of them a time-waster.  Some of the useful information formerly provided has disappeared.  Result: I’m looking for alternatives.  As so many users have said, whoever the masters of the universe are who started screwing with a popular and useful product, they ought to go to the corner and put on a dunce cap.

 

3 users thanked author for this post.

Noel Carboni, HiFlyer

Same here.  $100 a year for a Verizon plan used with a $30 Verizon flip phone that I bought nine years ago and keep in the car.  I seldom use all of the $100.  Unused money rolls over if your remember to renew the plan before its expires, which I often forget to do.  I know I am missing out on all the fun stuff that people do with their smart phones, like texting while driving, which I see almost every day.

1 user thanked author for this post.

I use Acrobat Pro XI.

Reader DC is another example of change for the sake of change, or more precisely change for the sake of the vendor.  Count me as another Luddite deliberately using XI, unless and until I am persuaded by the constant warnings that another PDF software is safer.

I says this as someone who, in order to obtain certain functionality, paid Adobe for Acrobat.

 

1 user thanked author for this post.

Charlie

I have been thinking for some time that “technology” is being used to obscure a flight from more demanding and expensive marketing methods and a reversion to older, industrial-style promotion.  Marketing at its best consists of finding solutions to problems consumers wish to solve, or at least to inform them of something they need to know.  Open a 1920s business self-help book about selling, and it’s all about how to promote the product.  Industrial-age marketing!  Put that product in front of as many eyes as possible!

Sound familiar?

Promotion is hollow and devoid of substance, the busy-ness of people without anything to say.  It is totally self-centered.  Not so long ago we still heard the phrase “gotta move the iron,” most often in establishments with an expensive inventory, like car dealerships.  Ever seen one of those irritating “sell-a-bration” TV commercials, along with that awful Seventies tune?  It’s all about them–their need to meet their sales quota, or clear the lot before the new models arrive.

I would be less opposed to the trend if it were not so associated with cheap and tacky.  If, often enough to be noticed, it actually grabbed my eyeballs for something worthwhile.  Amazon comes close sometimes.  All the spying and data gathering is based on the theory that sheer repetition–promotion–will make the sale.  Technology, starting with junk phone calls, has made it so inexpensive to flood the world with worthless messages that doing so still pays.

How quaint is his faith in laws and regulation to stop hacking, invasions of privacy, etc.

“Group B isn’t dead, but it’s no longer within the grasp of typical Windows customers. Many of you reading this post are fully capable of sticking with Group B. Most Windows customers are not.”

I just finished downloading the April and May Security-only updates on two Win 7 computers and ran Windows Update and installed the .NET update as well.  Total time invested: less than a hour.

It seems to me that you have identified an opportunity for someone. It’s inconvenient to have to manually download and install updates, but not a killer.  The hard part is identifying what to install, the pitfalls, and how the game keeps changing.  Right now you and PKCano are addressing the need.  But so are those IT consultants (both for-pay and volunteer) who follow the subject.  People pay for convenience, especially when it is provided by someone offering specialized knowledge.

How about updates-as-a-service?  At its simplest, a monthly email that contains the links, advises when (and when not to) install them, etc.

Even better: A little piece of software that would do the job automatically, replacing Windows Update.  Perhaps one or more of the antivirus products could take on this task.

Better yet, but won’t happen: Somebody other than M$ comes up with a way to provide security-only patches for Win 7 and/or other versions.

All this presumes that Group B is a viable strategy if the right updates are regularly installed.  The theory that all updates must be accepted because Windows is a completely integrated, cohesive piece of engineering, and as such the instructions from the wizards who tend it must be obeyed at all times, is, well, a theory–and one contradicted by the patching screwups of the last year.

1 user thanked author for this post.

HiFlyer

“There are some very good reasons for staying with Win7 – program and driver compatibility being a main one.”

And inertia.  If it works, don’t fix it. Why does this continually slip out of awareness? People have other things to do, a life to live, a business to run.  If Win10 works only about as well (0nly after you perform some major tweaks on it) as Win7, that’s NOT enough reason to take on all the other issues.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Elly, HiFlyer, AlanH, radosuaf

I would be willing to pay for an extended-support version of Win7 (past 2020).

2 users thanked author for this post.

Rock

AlexN wrote:

As a person who often does massive resource consuming operations, the Windows10 model is such that it renders my work impossible. I need to be able to sit, at times, for hours straight making changes to my code and testing them without interruption lest my train of thought be squished. For the modeler, the physicist, the meteorologist, the mathematician, and the engineer (and maybe other professionals), Windows10 is actually a threat to corporate health.

Add to this list the historian who needs to stay immersed in the subject, and for whom the need to stop and focus on the software is a massive and unwanted time-out.

3 users thanked author for this post.

samak, Elly

I’ll second that.  I have kept up with the security-only updates on two machines, installing them about the end of the month in which they are issued.  At that time I have also checked Windows Update.  I have found few head-scratchers there; very few Important updates at all and the snoopware conveniently grouped in the Optional updates, unchecked.  Some months I have found nothing in Windows Update that I needed to install.  Overall, the process is far from ideal but tolerable.  Keeping fingers crossed that M$ doesn’t take it all away…

4 users thanked author for this post.

Elly, SueW, HiFlyer

Appreciate the historical comparison.  Because only the technology has changed.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Noel Carboni

Not sure I would call this a crisis.  I have two HP desktop computers purchased in December and running Win7 Pro.  Nicest Win7 machines I have ever acquired.  They have Intel Core i7-6700 processors, which I gather is of the Skylake generation.  Currently they are in storage (on power, to keep the batteries alive), but if I wanted to update them, I would do so only for the security updates, and thus go to the Microsoft’s update catalog page, using Update only for the miscellaneous updates.

That’s what I do for my machines that are in use.  The miscellaneous updates often amount to nothing.  So–what crisis?

Overall, this whole episode confirms the strategy advocated by Canadian Tech (and now Noel Carboni) of avoiding Windows Update altogether.  Personally, I’m not there yet, but I can see it coming.

Thanks, anonymous.  That’s a useful link.  It’s interesting that it confirms that if the desktop computer is merely plugged into an outlet, it will supply power in place of the CMOS battery, and thus extend the battery’s life.

1 user thanked author for this post.

HiFlyer