Funny flash (should be updated for vista)

[vista user 43]

Just when you thought windows Me was the worse OS ever, here comes vista
to break all records!!!

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/winrg

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

I would appreciate out of consideration for other persons if you could tone
down on the negativity and relegate most of your rant/post to a blog like
forum.

Thank you

 

[vista user 43]

And I would appreciate out of consideration for other persons that Microsoft
would release a better OS than Vista because it creates worldwide
frustration, negativity and rants

thanx

 

[Frank]

And I would appreciate out of consideration for other persons that Microsoft
would release a better OS than Vista because it creates worldwide
frustration, negativity and rants

No, that's YOU!
Frank

 

[zachd [MSFT]]

Improvement is always useful. You and a handful of others are in my opinion
more getting in the way of customer connectivity than anything else. If you
honestly want positive change, there are probably better ways to address or
reach for that. Due to the nature of the newsgroups, you're not really
going to connect with any but a very select audience over time, who probably
have already made up their minds to a certain extent.

The average user comes through, posts their question, waits on that
response, never comes back. As such, the advocacy and flame wars only serve
as speed-bumps to those that *can* help.

I'm Microsoft-neutral on this subject, as always. The purported MS fans who
engage in flame wars do much more harm than good.

All of this is in my opinion, as always.

 

[vista user 43]

I say you guys put a sock in it and start working harder in making good
products ...

If I was working in Microsoft and was part of vista in any way... I would
HIDE out of SHAME to the HARM that you guys did with this CRAP OS to the
whole WORLD! Thousands upon thousands of people are frustrated !!

PLEASE! You have the nerve to come in here and tell ME what to do?????

The average user comes through, posts their question, waits on that
response, never comes back. As such, the advocacy and flame wars only
serve as speed-bumps to those that *can* help.

Perhaps its time that Microsoft starts really giving QUALITY SUPPORT with
GOOD sites and Phone Support, and not some confusing CRAP you find on the MS
knowledgebase (thats hard to fish out anyway) that is too technical for the
main user...
the phone support is pathetic! They dont pay for better quality techs!

Fix that first then come in here try to dictate what we will talk about in a
VISTA related NEWSGROUP!
ITs a newsgroup for crying out loud! You want MS to make CRAP OS's and no
one to critizise this?

Hello?? What planet are you from???

Dont get me started.. I could go on and on and on and on about why your
reply is tremendusly IGNRORANT and most of all ARROGANT! Thats the word that
describes WHY vista is what it is.. because of ARROGANCE!

 

[zachd [MSFT]]

I say you guys put a sock in it and start working harder in making good
products ...

I love making good products and in improving things. That's exactly why I'm
here. I can do this most effectively through the ability to wade through
and connect with people having specific issues.

There's certain issues which are hard to reproduce or gather data for, and
so that's why I'm often here on my own time.

If I was working in Microsoft and was part of vista in any way... I would
HIDE out of SHAME to the HARM that you guys did with this CRAP OS to the
whole WORLD! Thousands upon thousands of people are frustrated !!

I figure there are better ways to attempt to continue to improve things than
to hide. As a person, I try to solve and address problems if I'm able to.

I pretty regularly solve problems for "thousands upon thousands of people"
thanks to feedback I get from here. (To be honest, most of that is usually
sourced to archaic third party components - many of those issues have
previously known solutions, which really speeds things up - , but there a
number of SP1 fixes that came from data from here.) So we're on the same
page. I feel that given a kabillion users out there, it's been pretty
common for some chunk of the user population to have interesting opinions or
problems that could merit a look. This has been my modus operandi (sp?) for
the past ten years now, and I generally will try to keep improving things
with your help.

PLEASE! You have the nerve to come in here and tell ME what to do?????

You're viewing it the wrong way: I respect you and your enthusiasm enough to
be honest about how *I* think the best way to "improve" things is. Varied
opinions are the spice of life. =)

Perhaps its time that Microsoft starts really giving QUALITY SUPPORT with
GOOD sites and Phone Support, and not some confusing CRAP you find on the
MS knowledgebase (thats hard to fish out anyway) that is too technical for
the main user...
the phone support is pathetic! They dont pay for better quality techs!

I pretty regularly try to contribute to the troubleshooting / support arenas
(wide chunks of the Windows Media areas come from my personal
efforts/research). Specific feedback is often of value. Help me help you.
=)

Fix that first then come in here try to dictate what we will talk about in
a VISTA related NEWSGROUP!
ITs a newsgroup for crying out loud! You want MS to make CRAP OS's and no
one to critizise this?

Absolutely not! I thank you for your opinions and critiques which makes it
easier to figure out the specifics that can be improved upon. I'm generally
pretty willing to put my own neck out there in order to gather feedback and
those critical data nuggets which can potentially change something specific
for the better.

For the past ten years, I've relied upon feedback about specific issues to
help add aggregate value to the Windows ecosystem. The only thing I've ever
tried to do is to get the criticism to be precise enough to be actionable,
which is generally about what I limit my questions here to be.

Dont get me started.. I could go on and on and on and on about why your
reply is tremendusly IGNRORANT and most of all ARROGANT! Thats the word
that describes WHY vista is what it is.. because of ARROGANCE!

I apologize if you viewed it that way. I'm a normal guy from a small cow
town that randomly works at Microsoft, and I honestly want to try to make
things better. I grew up reviling Microsoft and so now continue to try to
do my lunk-headed part towards making your life easier. The best thing I
can do for you is to improve Windows, and that's what I try to do.

FWIW, the old "three dead trolls in a baggie" group's "Behind the scenes of
Whistler" Flash is still probably my favorite Windows related funny Flash
ever.

 

[vista user 43]

ok zachd, as I can see you work on media player...

I have to tell you that media player 11 is totally pathetic.. sorry but its
true...

let me tell you some of the things you have to improve on it. I will say
things as they are and not be so polite.. lol

lets start with cosmetics...

Color: Black on XP with blackish horrid tone variations... can you say YUCK?
If you want black since its modern ok.. but when you change the skin color
you should really be able to change the skin color.
This means if you want fiery bright red you should be able to do it.

The menus: Ok this is stupid... you guys hid the menus again like you did in
IE7.... it might look nice an tidy this way but oh god is it no user
friendly! I will hate myself for giving this as an example but the new real
player 11 has put the menus on the very top title bar as you can see here
and made them gray so they wont stand out so much
http://photo6.yupoo.com/20070610/194109_1621682210_vjkiiajl.jpg

Sorry but WMP is not consistant with other microsoft products in the GUI.

OR at least have a button like live messenger has on the left, from which
you can access the menu's, see screenshot:
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8108/livemesspa1.jpg

And another very annoying thing.. some bright DORK thought of putting the
play etc buttons in the MIDDLE of the GUI of WMP. OK this is stupid, they
should be on the LEFT like the older players...

what problems arise from such stupid design? Well here is one of them....
*which even with the middle button excuse is UNNACCEPTIBLE!

see screenshot: http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/4118/player1zh7.jpg

having WMP11 divert the volume to a pop up while you still have so much
space is crazy!

Codecs downloading and errors...

GUYS I have been using GOMPLAYER because it has GREAT built in codecs and
guides you very well when you need an extra one...

Why cant media player give some GOOD advice on codec downloading and
information? A good online database and codec querry..
Stupid jargon tech codes with numbers are Not acceptible! This 2007 going to
2008 now.. everyone has internet.. USE THIS CONNECTIVITY
so that Media player will be able to play anything with just a few clicks..
this codec hunting is a nightmare and you cannot imagine how many people are
extreamly frustrated...

If MS cannot (due to legal matters) have all the codecs on its server, at
least point to possible solutions... why not include some functionality
that GSPOT has to see what codec is missing????

Playback performance....

Gomplayer is good .. it plays almost every video you can throw it.. PLUS it
has very good playback... snappy.. what do I mean by this?

If you take the mouse and drag the progress bar while a video is playing it
shows the preview of the video and does so without hogging up the cpu.....
YOU CANT DO THAT WITH WMP!

People use video and audio for EDUCATION TOO YOU KNOW! What does this mean?
This means that when you are using a video or audio to learn something you
must be able to go back and forth
and pin point something you heard or saw so you can listen to it again..
without visual or audio feedback when you drag the progress bar, WMP makes
you feel like you are lost!

Try GOMPLAYER.. I could go on and on and on about how many great features it
has.. like adding favorites to tracks and locations in the tracks... there
was a plugin for wmp10 for this by a third party but was broken in WMP11

I could go on and on.. but I dont even know if you will come back to read
this....

if you want more feedback from someone with a brain... tell me... I will
give more back to you..

Oh I have more.. I do have lots more to say about WMP11........... tons of
stuff.... mega tons of stuff!!!

 

[Frank]

vista user 43 wrote:

----his personal hate opinion...that no one cares about----

Get a life capin' crunch, cause the one you're living ain't working.
Frank

 

[zachd [MSFT]]

ok zachd, as I can see you work on media player...

I contribute there, but that is not my primary role. Consider me a
developer (programmer, engineer) for Windows who is here on his own time
speaking on his own behalf. =)

I have to tell you that media player 11 is totally pathetic.. sorry but
its true...

No worries, potatoe, potahto. As long as multimedia is working for you,
rock on. I read the many external "Which is the best Media Player?"
conversations pretty regularly: there's not a heck of a lot of *new*
interesting feedback, but it's always interesting.

Color: Black on XP with blackish horrid tone variations... can you say
YUCK?
If you want black since its modern ok.. but when you change the skin color
you should really be able to change the skin color.
This means if you want fiery bright red you should be able to do it.

You can get a pretty interesting flame red with heavy saturation, but:
noted.

The menus: Ok this is stupid... you guys hid the menus again like you did
in IE7.... it might look nice an tidy this way but oh god is it no user
friendly! I will hate myself for giving this as an example but the new
real player 11 has put the menus on the very top title bar as you can see
here and made them gray so they wont stand out so much
http://photo6.yupoo.com/20070610/194109_1621682210_vjkiiajl.jpg

Sorry but WMP is not consistant with other microsoft products in the GUI.

WMP's GUI represents part of the ongoing evolution of the product. But it
is much more Vista centric. It's a Bonus that it's available for XP. If
you're not a fan, hey, I can sell you WMP10 cheap! XD

Just kidding. I like WMP10. I simply like WMP11 more. There's just some
glaring-to-me defects in WMP10 that make me gnash my teeth that WMP11 fixes.
(I'm not here to sell you on either, so let's not go there. If you like
WMP10, rock on. If you like GOMPlayer or TinyAMP, rock on. )

OR at least have a button like live messenger has on the left, from which
you can access the menu's, see screenshot:
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8108/livemesspa1.jpg

The subpane chevrons let you get at most of the relevant/scoped options.

And another very annoying thing.. some bright DORK thought of putting the
play etc buttons in the MIDDLE of the GUI of WMP. OK this is stupid, they
should be on the LEFT like the older players...

IIRC, discoverability testing found otherwise. It's a design decision,
regardless.

what problems arise from such stupid design? Well here is one of them....
*which even with the middle button excuse is UNNACCEPTIBLE!

see screenshot: http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/4118/player1zh7.jpg

having WMP11 divert the volume to a pop up while you still have so much
space is crazy!

The left ridge of the curve is impinging upon the left play status area in
the chrome. You have it turned off in yours so it's not apparent. Turn it
to album art (by clicking) and it's readily apparent.

Codecs downloading and errors...

Like what?

Codec download is pretty much solely supported for Windows Media files
sourced from Windows Media codecs. If you look up "3ivx security
vulnerability", you'll see one of many reasons why this is a good idea.

Codec errors: I try to help sort this out, but it's difficult. Sooooo many
bad codecs/filters out there. =(

GUYS I have been using GOMPLAYER because it has GREAT built in codecs and
guides you very well when you need an extra one...

This is an interesting and sticky field, full of problems and licensing
issues. It's definitely one that the right people pay attention to.

Why cant media player give some GOOD advice on codec downloading and
information? A good online database and codec query..
Stupid jargon tech codes with numbers are Not acceptible! This 2007 going
to 2008 now.. everyone has internet.. USE THIS CONNECTIVITY
so that Media player will be able to play anything with just a few
clicks.. this codec hunting is a nightmare and you cannot imagine how many
people are extreamly frustrated...

If MS cannot (due to legal matters) have all the codecs on its server, at
least point to possible solutions... why not include some functionality
that GSPOT has to see what codec is missing????

The above two paragraphs: have you tried Web Help during a codec error? It
lets you play everything with just a few clicks.

It sounds like you haven't tried this in WMP11...? I'm open to feedback
upon the existing implementation, but from your above feedback it sounds
like you (once given the current implementation) are heartily in favor of my
suggestion to M, which was simply:
Change "Web Help" button to "Get Codec!!! <3 kittens!" on error dialog
or something equally extra-obvious.

I'm open to further feedback upon the WMP11 implementation, but it sounds
like you're hitting some different code path. If you are, knowing exactly
what Web Help URL you're hitting might be interesting. If you have a wonky
codec that says it plays DX50 but it doesn't actually, that might cause you
to get a non-codec-related error message.

Playback performance....

Gomplayer is good .. it plays almost every video you can throw it.. PLUS
it has very good playback... snappy.. what do I mean by this?

If you take the mouse and drag the progress bar while a video is playing
it shows the preview of the video and does so without hogging up the
cpu..... YOU CANT DO THAT WITH WMP!

Right, it's often called video scrubbing, the right people are aware of the
request.

People use video and audio for EDUCATION TOO YOU KNOW!

Absolutely, much of the early product development was driven by feedback
from people doing distance learning implementations. Stanford Distance
Learning I think was one of "my" team's most frequent contacts.

What does this mean? This means that when you are using a video or audio
to learn something you must be able to go back and forth
and pin point something you heard or saw so you can listen to it again..
without visual or audio feedback when you drag the progress bar, WMP
makes you feel like you are lost!

If you have the time visible on the player chrome (left of the big play
button, looks like you have it off according to your pictures), it'll show
you where the drop point is.

Beyond visual scrubbing, what other notifications would you suggest here? I
think we couldn't do a tooltip there because the tooltip notification
wouldn't update often enough or something of that sort. Your "scrubbing
back and forth" scenario didn't work well with a tooltip, IIRC.

Try GOMPLAYER.. I could go on and on and on about how many great features
it has.. like adding favorites to tracks and locations in the tracks...
there was a plugin for wmp10 for this by a third party but was broken in
WMP11

Markers! Very old feature, driven by distance learning/etc, kind of
slightly deprecated(?). I haven't followed it, sorry. It's a good but not
heavily demanded feature.

The "Media Link for E-mail" Enhancement feature may give you some of what
you want here.

I could go on and on.. but I dont even know if you will come back to read
this....

I generally read by "Responses to my posts" first, but I've also got a
million things to do, so... it can take me a long while sometimes,
especially if I need to ponder things. But that's mostly a pause in
troubleshooting, not in a conversation like this.

if you want more feedback from someone with a brain... tell me... I will
give more back to you..

I've probably heard most of the feedback - I'm probably most interested in
discovering *bugs* as opposed to questions upon implementation or feature
requests. Probably the most interesting thing above is the volume control
dropping out. Or specific feedback upon the current missing codec solution
path. =\

But it's good feedback regardless. =)

Cheers,
-Zach