Reggie's Ramblings » Fail

Maybe we should link those tables? Nah….

reggie — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:23:09 +0000

So this morning I got a LinkedIn request from a friend of mine and saw this when I accepted it. The last names are blacked out (to protect the innocent) but trust me when I tell you it was the same person. So I guess I *may* know the person I am now connected with. Nice!

Wireless mic required — or not

reggie — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:19:12 +0000

We recently acquired Rock Band 2 and I’ve been looking around for a wireless mic to use with it. I was going to pick up a copy of Lips but I was at my local Best Buy last night and saw a game on their clearance table that seemed interesting. It was a singing game based on High School Musical and appeared to come with a mic (though you couldn’t see the mic). The game was marked $9.99 so I examined it more closely.

Reading the box there was a small blurb on the back that said the following:

Gameplay requires use of a Logitech or Xbox 360 wireless microphone.

There were also several areas on the box that said a microphone was included. So, trusting what it is telling me, I picked it up. Yep, you guessed it. The microphone was wired. Maybe the reason it was on the clearance table is that noone could play it since a wireless mic is required but it doesn’t come with one.

NOTE: I didn’t have a camera with me so I couldn’t take a picture of the box. You’ll just have to trust me.

Do I have a third choice?

reggie — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:02:15 +0000

So, a while back I started this series called KISS. This stood for Keep It Simple Stupid which is an age-old phrase commonly applied to computers. I posted several times about areas where Windows really breaks this rule. While I’m not announcing the revival of that project, I did recently run across another instance I thought would be fun to share.

Now, this is something I’ve seen many, many times which is actually a sad confession. Sad because it shows that Windows users really can use lame UI for years and not even really notice it. We are just used to crap.

So, yesterday I was setting up a new Windows Server 2008 R2 box in VirtualBox (a killer VM product if you don’t already know) and came to the following screen during setup.

So, let us be clear. This is a brand new machine (VM) and my two choices are Upgrade and Custom? Huh? First, there is nothing to upgrade so is it even a choice? So my other choice is Custom (advanced) which sounds like I want to do very advanced things like partition the drive, etc. Why is there not a ‘Simple Install’ option? Linux has this. OS/X has this.

Oh, and before you comment that this is a server install so the user is likely quite technical, the Windows 7 and Vista install was just like this. Yes I am a geek so this dialog has never tripped me up but what would my mom do with this dialog? I know what she would do. She would call me.