Examples of brain dead software design

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#3230658 15-May-2024 10:59

Inconsistencies are another fun one.

Prior to Windows 95, the way to close a window was to double-click the top-left corner. Win 95 added a Close button to the top-right, but double-clicking the top left continued to work.

Windows 8, I think it was, removed the double-click option... but only when using apps built the "new way" (Metro). To this day, in some apps (e.g. Notepad and Paint) you can close from the left, in others (e.g. Maps and Settings) that'll maximise the window, and in others (Firefox) it'll open and close the File menu.

FineWine

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#3230727 15-May-2024 12:02

Apple macOS Contacts and iOS Contacts app

Unable to reorder entries within a contact. Eg. you want to reorder/prioritise the phone numbers or email addresses for a single contact within that contact. You can not do it after you have entered it originally.

However there is a 3rd party app that will do this for you. reorder it! app suitable for iPhone and iPads only.

It would be handy if Apple provided that functionality across all OS’s though.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

Stu1

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#3230730 15-May-2024 12:14

gehenna:

I'll see all your posts and raise you the latest Sonos update. What a nightmare.

I have one device left now that I can use the alarm and sleep function, the rest did the stupid update

Groucho

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#3230737 15-May-2024 12:25

shrub:

Westpac One app. If you can get it to login without a white screen and dump back to login it opens to a notifications screen asking for donations to the westpac helicopter.

Westpac One app, possibly a specific issue with my Nokia and/or Android 10. In Pay & Transfer it always shows a popup titled "Works best in portrait mode" and suggestion to rotate phone with animation despite being held in portrait. For fun I turned off the auto rotate function and it STILL suggests portrait mode rather than landscape it thinks it's in. If that wasn't annoying enough it reappears after selecting each 'from' account and 'to' payee.

Behodar

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#3230838 15-May-2024 16:07

It's not just traditional computer software either.

It's raining today, and I just got home. I pulled into the garage, and I don't want the wet carpet smell tomorrow morning so I opened the window before turning the car off. BEEP BEEP BEEP WINDOW OPEN. That window that I literally just opened two seconds ago? Yes, I know it's open!

There's no timeout before it alerts you, because presumably they didn't do any real-world testing before adding this "feature".

roobarb

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#3230926 15-May-2024 18:30

The changes made to Notepad now it is an app store app in Windows 11.

Do you want tabs with that? Why does every app have to add tabs? Back in the days on Windows 3.1 there was the MDI app (multiple document interface), this was due to a limitation that you could not have multiple copies of large apps in memory. So apps would open documents within a main windows. Eg all the Office apps etc. Why do things have to be related on the screen just because the same app is displaying them? The new notepad allows you have documents in different windows, now you have no idea which windows holds which document if you, say have a number of files open all called Makefile. To compare notes I want to see them side by side, not click between tabs.

The close button no longer says "Do you want to save", so what happens is it silently closes and preserves the content somewhere but does not update the document. You thought you had closed it and saved it, but no, it is still the old version.

So to double check, you open notepad and it shows you a different version to what is on disk, it shows you what was preserved somewhere else.

The new notepad is so bad that I now use a command line text editor on Windows because I don't trust it any more with (checks notes) simple text files, which is the whole point of the app.

There is a workaround, if you uninstall the app store version, the original in c:\windows\system32 still works.

No don't ask me why 64-bit programs are under system32 and 32-bit programs under syswow64.

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#3230928 15-May-2024 18:34

Disney+ on my Samsung telly.
Start app, select profile, enter pin, then select profile again, enter pin again, and I’m in!
I don’t know why you have to login twice.

Delete cookies?! Are you insane?!

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Behodar

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#3230931 15-May-2024 18:44

roobarb:

No don't ask me why 64-bit programs are under system32 and 32-bit programs under syswow64.

That's due to hysterical raisins. When Win NT was new, all the "native" apps were 32-bit (as opposed to the older 16-bit ones) and system32 became the "native apps" folder. When Windows went 64-bit they kept the same name to avoid breaking things.

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#3230936 15-May-2024 19:14

Hehe hysterical raisins, that’s a keeper.

Delete cookies?! Are you insane?!

ANglEAUT

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#3231038 15-May-2024 23:58

roobarb: ... No don't ask me why 64-bit programs are under system32 and 32-bit programs under syswow64.

MaxineN:

ANglEAUT:

Yes, FFS, absolutely !!!

Microsoft

Windows
Active Direcotry
Azure / Entra ID
Microsoft's naming & renaming scheme. There are now 3 different versions of Outlook a person can use.

Do not get me started on this.

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

cddt

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#3231055 16-May-2024 07:57

roobarb:

<<Notepad rant>>

Unfortunately "do one thing and do it well" doesn't get you promoted in Big Tech anymore...

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fearandloathing

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#3231063 16-May-2024 08:16

roobarb:
The changes made to Notepad now it is an app store app in Windows 11.

Notepad is on the top five apps I use. The changes are mind blowing great. I am disappointed when I’m another computer and get presented with the legacy notepad.

cddt

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#3231365 16-May-2024 15:52

I am sure I have complained about this before, but here's another.

Apple's volume control controls both the ringing volume and the alarm volume.

I need to my phone to be on medium-loud if I'm to have any hope of hearing a ringtone in a noisy office during the day.

But I also need my phone to be on the lowest volume setting for my alarm in the morning. Anything louder causes my heart rate to jump up to about 200 bpm. Don't ask me why, I can't change the way my subconscious responds when I'm asleep. The quietest setting is good.

So I have to change the volume on my phone twice a day, and if I forget I end up either being woken as if an air raid is beginning, or missing calls... mostly I err on the side of missing calls because I do not like waking up to air raids.

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roobarb

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#3231366 16-May-2024 15:55

fearandloathing: The changes are mind blowing great.

Imagine you had a car for thirty years, a simple reliable runabout. Then without your consent somebody swapped it for a car that was diesel, left-hand-drive and automatic.

So yes, technically a car, but everything about it works differently.

So I have no problem having a different app called "A different text editor app", but it really isn't what notepad was all about.

Apparently notepad is going to get a spelling checker and other so-called improvements.

There was an app that deserved all these features, it was called WordPad, but Microsoft killed that off.

Good news a Default CLI Editor may return to replace the deleted edit.com.

Senecio

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#3231367 16-May-2024 15:56

I am sure I have complained about this before, but here's another.

Apple's volume control controls both the ringing volume and the alarm volume.

I need to my phone to be on medium-loud if I'm to have any hope of hearing a ringtone in a noisy office during the day.

But I also need my phone to be on the lowest volume setting for my alarm in the morning. Anything louder causes my heart rate to jump up to about 200 bpm. Don't ask me why, I can't change the way my subconscious responds when I'm asleep. The quietest setting is good.

So I have to change the volume on my phone twice a day, and if I forget I end up either being woken as if an air raid is beginning, or missing calls... mostly I err on the side of missing calls because I do not like waking up to air raids.

Pretty sure you can change that. If you disable "change with buttons" in the sounds and haptic settings then you can set a volume for ringer and alerts right there and the volume for your alarm in the alarm settings.

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