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OT, who benefits from this...

B

Bob

Well-known Member
The constant updating, changing the look or "feel" or operations of websites we use every day?

Parts lookup sites, ebay, hotmail, gmail, credit card company sites, on-line banking sites linked to local banks, and on and on.

I GUESS programmers have to justify their existence and a paycheck, but in so doing, FORCE us us old dogs to learn new tricks over and over, with NO benefits to us at all.

A guy even older than me who I've known for years is a parts manager at a large truck parts store that's part of a chain in the Midwest.

I talked to him a few days ago, looking for a big truck clutch and a few other parts.

It took WAY longer on the phone then I'm accustomed to, and he was telling me their "Corporate" had adopted new software system across the whole dealership chain and it wasn't SWELL.

He had to go out of town for a couple of days of training, was told to forget everything about the old software and embrace the new.

Trouble is the "improved" software lacks capabilities from where he's at vs. the old, GUESS that makes sense, pretty sure the preppy little software gurus don't know their way around heavy trucks.

How many of you use a site that's become BETTER/quicker/easier to use as newer software is implemented?
 
I completely agree with you, Bob.

I use Office 365 at work. They keep tweaking it with updates where they slightly changing the look of icons - so just about the time something becomes "automatic" for my brain, they change it again.

In reality, it's probably good "mental floss" for our brains but highly annoying nonetheless.
 
Every time they "improve ' my email I cringe, because it will now be harder, longer & more aggravating to do what I want. There will be many useless choices cluttering the screen & when I finally find my way around, they will change it again.
 
I remember when computers first showed up. I was working for Cat. They gave us a class on how fast and better things were going to be. User friendly. Well that was a lie. Things slowed down. Took longer and if a station in any city shut down. The whole system shut down. Many times people were resisting the urge to slam the system. But they continued to tell us how great the system was.
 
Our local library "upgraded" to a new computer operating system. Before, they used to notify us when our books were due, and it took the new system a coupla months to get back to that rather necessary and simple function. Just last week I reserved a book, and they never let me know when it arrived, one of the librarians I know called and let me know it was in. New? BAH!
 
Probably done by people that think what they have done makes a better site but did it without thinking about the user. Seen that a lot in a lot of areas.
 
Well pretty much every "update" here at work just makes things not work !
I think I do more writing in a day now with computer parts look ups than I did back in the parts counter days where I had micro fiche and had to hand write sales slips !
 
The upgrades are not always wanted by the site but some things are outdated and have to be upgraded or they are not compatible with the new operating systems,, I am not a fan of change when I understand something either but change does happen,, the changes done here to me are for the better once they get all the glitches found and fixed,, give Chris and the others some extra time this is a lot more complicated than just installing it and boy we are done,, nope one thing affects another in ways its hard to foresee,, as a person who has done a good number of posts on this site I can see it works better than before right now other than the glitches they are working on fixing
cnt
 
Someone higher up has to request the update, I doubt if the programmer makes that decision. I am not very happy with some changes, but it's part of life, for example gmail has changed their format a little, I don't like it but what can I do about it! What I get a kick out of is when someone says a structure is so great because it is computer designed, a bridge or building, for example, and many of the newer ones have failed. Then there are the pyramids in Egypt or the Roman building that are standing after thousands of years!
 
We had product lines that lost money when they were first implemented. Did it make sense to run it at a loss? Of course not, but eventually we got them improved and they became profitable. Just call it growing pains.
 
A few years ago, we were notified that to make a local call, we would need to use the area code. I hated it, but now it is not a big deal.
Some software is old enough that the company will no long provide "Patches" or updates and so you need to buy the new, so that if or when it crashes, that you or not dead in the water.
It is important to stay current, which I am not, or get left behind. My Dad bought a HOnda SUV. Traded it off again because he could not turn the (courtesy)lights off, after parking it in the garage. He was sure the battery would go dead and that the previous owner must have traded it off because it had an electrical problem. He got a 2015 Jeep and after 6 months, he still does not know how to use the touch screen controls. He has never had a PC and he is the village idiot that is living in the stone age. But he is 90. It scares me because I am my Father's son and I do not want to be where he is.
 
(quoted from post at 11:57:34 10/24/18) Old folks are slow to change.How many people did you know that said when computers came on the scene that they'd never own one?
Click to expand...

A hundred years ago it was the horse vs the tractor.
 
A GM dealer I worked for switched to electronic repair orders, to save time, money, and save paper. The new system was cumbersome to use and would not allow a tech to have more than one job at a time, which is a flat rate killer. I had to clock off and on jobs while I waited for parts, so my day became clocking in and out instead of being profitable. Oh, and the paperless part? Instead of one paper copy that transitioned between the service writer, tech, and parts department, we all had to print our own to keep track of the job. So instead of one sheet, the dealer used 3 sheets on the "paperless" system. In reality, the system was just designed to stifle flat rate hours and reduce the dealer's labor cost.
 
Actually guys updates and new looks are driven by younger people. Most buying new electronic gadgets are younger. They see something that doesn't change as being outdated EVEN IF THERE IS REALLY NOTHING TO IMPROVE. It's so bad that the tech writers will knock anything that doesn't change fairly often as being outdated or a poorly supported product. And seeing as younger people are the ones that companies rely on to pick what software and hardware a company needs that's all that it takes is the perception that something is outdated or close to being outdated. And these kids always are thinking that it can be made better. So even if they don't do anything other than just change how it looks they have to do that or risk market share. I have kids in the tech industry who laugh at me when I complain about new looks with no real changes.

Rick
 
I use Windstream email and it gets worse with each update. Lately is actually stalls my computer at times. I click to open a message and get a client error. Check boxes for multiple deletes uncheck when I click Delete. I'll wait 15 minutes for attachments to complete. I'm about ready to set up a gmail account.
 
So which is it?

1. NOTHING WORKS?
2. NOTHING TO IMPROVE?

You have no idea the nightmare it is to manage a 20, or even a 10 year old computer. Overloaded, unreliable, no longer supported by its manufacturer, just plain worn out.

Upgrades need to happen to keep up with the ever increasing demand for computing power. Programming techniques need to change to take advantage of the increased computing power.

Now I'll give you that user interface design often leaves a lot to be desired, but THAT is why they keep changing it. They're trying to get it right.
 
For the most part, I agree that many "upgrades" are just programmers trying to justify their existence.

But, people are continually asking for more and newer capabilities and features. If you put 10 people together to figure out how to accomplish a task, you will get 10 different answers as to how it should be done. Many times this results in an awkward compromise that will get the job done, but not necessarily in the most efficient way.

So, software with more features requires more computing power which requires faster and more powerful computers which mandates changes to accommodate all of this. But not every change is for the better.
 
Does get irritating. In their constant quest to make it more universally user friendly programmers lose sight of the folks who use it every day. Dumbing it down for the masses is their only concern. You and I can read English but the masses throughout the world can't.
 
In general the first version of software has some new idea, features, and a few quirks.

The second version is a vast improvement, getting rid of 3/4 of the quirks, and keeps the new better features.

After that, the software company puts our version after version that has little new good stuff, but gets more and more filled with bloat and excess and slowdowns. It becomes all about the seller, and they forget the end user is the customer....

Where the wife works they are going through a big software upgrade, the old stuff running the plant and orders is a few decades old and not really being upgraded, so they have to change. The new software is a pretty common name, you hear it advertised in the business world a whole lot.

It sucks. It doesn?t do 3/4 of what the old software did. It is much much slower, and just doesn?t put out the info needed for workflow.

Blah.

Paul
 
They do not do upgrades to make the whiners whine.

For every whiner there are a thousand demanding they make improvements.
And thousands more waiting for an improvement before the buy it.
 
One in 20 times you are correct. Some must buy to allow it to be compatible with the new operating system. Then it is always nice that the migration involves data translation to
be accessible, or not. The pilot run is not accomplished with real users, and productivity gains are air pie when the learning curve and customer dissatisfaction/waiting is
factored in. Jim
 
Every so often Hotmail makes changes, and I can"t say it makes things better or user-friendly. Just annoying. Sometimes disgusting.
 
I don't remember what I needed some jd part. parts man finally got out an old parts book to find what it was I was looking for
 
I work at a company that builds massive sized computers(super computers). These are used for government, large industry, oil companies etc. and costs over a million dollars. For travel we were given a per deem for food. It was like $35.00 per day. They were worried that some employee were going to the store and buying groceries and not spending $35 per day for food and making a little extra income. So now we have to claim all of our expenses with a program that is cumbersome and takes at least six or seven hours to generate the paper work just to have it rejected and you need to spend several more hours trying to make it right. Some times they are rejected several times. After you do the report, your supervisor reviews it before sending it to accounts payable. Most people involved make more than $35.00 per hour. This is just to make sure someone is not making money on their per deem.
 
"...with the ever increasing demand for computing power. ". AND that "need" for more computing power is to handle all the BS advertising shoved at us at every opportunity!
 
Technically if you aren?t spending your per firm you are supposed to claim it as taxable income.

Vito
 
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