Hibernate != Sleep... Tech companies have lost touch with users and/or are just getting dumber

Recently I had to reinstall Windows so installed Windows 10. I also enabled hibernate instead of hybrid sleep... In fact, I don't understand why they removed explicit hibernation and made it so hard to get it back. Maybe that's why users have been slow to upgrade from XP? I believe Hibernate was feature...

Or perhaps MS has some deal with power utilities? You want to keep your current state? well you have to leave your computer on for a few hours in sleep mode before it will shut off completely.

But I KNOW when I want my computer completely off (hibernate) vs. on stand by (sleep). By the way this concept has been hyped in software engineering for a few years now (inversion of control). Apparently some big-shot project manager at Microsoft cannot understand this... and so...

When I hibernated my computer, it was waking up at 2AM in the morning to check for and install updates...

The configuration to turn it off was under Power Options > Advanced > Sleep > Auto-Wake Timer but I am pretty sure any non-technical user would never figure this out.

OK so my rant on Microsoft is over but here's the main thing...

Over the last couple of years technology companies (Apple, Samsung, Google, Facebook) are pretty much telling users: "[do it] our way or the highway (goodbye)". Or they are hiring a bunch of morons... 

I already said goodbye to Apple years ago, the only way I would even think about going back is if they paid me... My iPad 2 is now a glorified e-book and magazine reader. Samsung I never liked...

Facebook unfortunately I am stuck with as everyone is on it. Their customer service is horrible and their Messenger app keeps crashing. I’ve reported the issue explicitly including how to replicate but all I got was a few thankyou’s…  But no fix… The root-cause, I have observed, seems to be, a null pointer exception… With some debugging skills, even a junior developer could fix this… So now every time it crashes (several times a day), I sent them the crash report with notes calling all their engineers idiots because if you cannot fix a NPE… you are an idiot…

My beef with Google? They have been removing useful features/functions in their apps or hiding them deeper and deeper with each update…

Uh... the whole reason I liked Android over iOS was because it was highly customizable. Yet Google feels like they know what customers want:

It’s completely OK to eat up 2GB of mobile data a month to check and install updates or send continuous messages to Google…

You know... mobile providers throttle your connection once you hit 2.5GB… on an unlimited plan.

I installed a firewall app that completely blocked Google’s crap from running while on mobile, my monthly data usage is only 700 MB.

Sure I don’t get push notifications but do I really want them while I am at work anyway?

The Maps app will now tell you the current time including traffic but not the ideal time

Yea that's great and all... except when I am stuck in a snowstorm that causes massive delays and so have some time to consider alternate routes during a good day... except all the times that come up are for... right now. This used to be there but some idiot felt it was unnecessary... because most likely he rides the Google bus to work everyday.

The Gmail app has less options than the mobile web version.

Maybe Inbox fixes this (I highly doubt) but I don’t like the workflow. (I keep my emails manageable and use Boxbe to automatically filter out all the spam).

Simplicity is great and all but I think this is more stupidity... again taking useful features out of products. If you really think it’s going to confuse users, stick it in a Developer Mode.

But wait…

The Gmail app has an Add/Change Label and Move to Label… What?

I recall… a Label = Tag, you mark messages with them, Label != Folder…

Now they are saying Labels can be used as a Tag, Folder, or Both. And they never explained why. I guess some developer felt like putting it in at some point…

Logically, you should use one... not both... Just put in an option which style a user wants to use it as.

Perhaps, the new logo may be a message to everyone that their user experience team now mostly consists of 5 year olds...

UPDATE 10/3

Been awhile again, had few personal issues lately, I have a few posts drafted... but first lets add to the list.


Ahh Facebook... do you think keeping all the chats since day one is uhm,,,, a violation of web privacy? I think email companies, last time I checked can only keep deleted messages for 60 days: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/long-gmail-keep-emails-65391.html

In fact I never knew you were keeping my chat logs in the first place until they popped up in Messenger...

Also those Delete buttons in Messenger... don't do shit... Yes that's how pissed off I am...

It may be a technicality and it seems there's a Help document with that but... I should not have to look this up.

https://www.facebook.com/help/messenger-app/242107552657620

And again this is moronic!!!! GMail has had an Undo button since.... The whole point is if you send a message mistakenly you have a chance to unsend... Outlook has a Recall function since... even longer... it doesn't work all the time (when the message has already been read) but it's there...

By the way, where do these Facebook messages get sent to... I think it gets sent to... Facebook.

Why would I want to delete individual messages if it just deletes for me?

Anyway... Facebook: misleading, moronic, moronic, moronic, violation of privacy...

Next Google....

Your material design is great but do you think when I am writing a review for an App in the Play Store, on my phone... and just accidentally click out of the popup... I want the review to be immediately deleted?

At least show a confirmation box morons....

And here's a new comer but still.... Quora

In their Android app... after I search for a question and do not find it.... I click "Ask Question" ... and have to type the entire question again....This has been the case since....

Clearly nobody at Quora uses their own app...

10/17/2015: Maybe somebody read this post or read my complaint, it the Quora issue is now fixed :) I cannot say the same for the others... and my list just keeps getting longer...

Facebook.... those event notifications are just great! sarcasm...

You notify me the day that my contacts (I am actually not that close to most Facebook friends) are going to the event.... How is that of any use....

I'm sorry I do not have a magic teleporter that can instantly get me into the city or most of the time I need this thing called..... PLANNING.

Wouldn't it make more sense to tell me that "friends" are going to events the moment they put check "Attending"?

Otherwise I get the feeling when I see the notification saying "... is attending an event today", Facebook you are actually telling me:

"Haha, you loser! Look at the amazing event ... is going to... you missed out! sucks for you!"

And there's apparently no option to configure it otherwise... I guess I will just have Android forcefully suppress these notifications.... Bad Facebook, bad....

Talking to My Subconscious

I'm not sure to describe it but usually I have a voice in my head. In fact, it seems to be speaking now as I type, formulating and revising each sentence. In fact, often when I have a thought that I want to write down, I find myself drafting it in my mind and repeating it over and over again which different changes until I sounds "perfect".

The last sentence would be one of them. And the last sentence here as a comment that just popped in my mind. And this is in particular what I am talking about.

Actually... I have never done pair coding but from what I've read about it, It seems I have a 24/7 partner that usually goes... "hey wait a minute...", "oh yea... did you remember to ...", or "how about we try this... "

Not sure if this is normal or perhaps I have somehow trained my subconscious to actually work with me or for me instead of just throwing random pointless thoughts around in my head. I still get random thoughts but most of these as you can see are very logical and useful.

And occasionally I do get a "gut feeling" but more often than not, it is right.

But it seems now... neither of us have anymore ideas on how to keep going on about this. Maybe we will revise later but for now...

This is the End

The 24/7 Notepad

I have written a lot about how I tend to write things down at work, but actually I do it for myself as well. I have a simple notepad app on my phone, which is always around me. Whenever I think of something I should remember for later  (todos,  ideas,  solutions) , I just quickly create a new note, and write enough details so I can recall everything or at least the important points later (this takes some practice).

There are a few (significant, I think…) benefits to this. These are also mentioned in the other posts in various forms but:

• You don’t have to worry about forgetting, which saves you a lot of stress and energy
• You can use those brain cells for other things; you just have to remember you wrote it down or make it a habit to review your notes periodically
• If you forget,  it doesn’t matter as it’s all written down and you can quickly pick it up again

So here is an example which I actually did while originally drafting this post (this is the final version, probably).

And by the way I just thought of including this while changing trains and when I wrote this, I immediately felt a huge relief that I no longer had to remember what I wanted to say.

In the morning during my commute,  I tend to go over all the work that needs to be done and then make a todo list. The problem is that my commute is over an hour long so remembering all of it is… a huge energy and resource drain, and I probably won’t remember anyway…

So I just write it down on my notepad and then do other things such as reading the news, watching some videos, and writing this post.  All while happily knowing that when I get to work,  I have a plan and I just execute…  usually with some….. uh….. adjustments.