FLASH: OT: POV re Microsoft, Netscape, Eudora (Mac-related diatribe)

[unique]

Hello,


For most of the past three years, I'd been rebuilding/reorganizing my 

life, and ended up with a great job with a great "boss" plus 6 other 

great people to work with.


http://www.tomsheehan.com , and (you'll get it if you're curious) 

http://www.19north.com ... though I haven't had much of a chance yet 

to get into the "fix-ups". My first "assigned Web-related task" is to 

create a Flash Front End for the yet-to-be-fully-developed sheehan 

site. Happy me! (I found me a smart boss, huh? He even favors 

*simple* Flash ... the earliest, most "core" stuff. Hubba hubba.)


 From 1986 through 1996 I owned a desktop publishing business ... 

first one in my rather small city in SE PA. I discovered early on 

that I could charge my customers much more $$-per-hour if I (1) 

invested judiciously in certain "extra equipment", and, (2a) 

memorized and consistently used every keyboard shortcut available 

from the software itself, and (2b) added (just a few, "key") extra 

keyboard shortcuts via Quickeys (a macro-creation program (PC and 

Mac)). I just programmed my function keys (no added 

"command/option/control/shift extras) to "hold" the few functions 

(or, series of keyboard strokes and/or menu-clicks-and-drags (BIG 

waste of time)) stuff. Heck, back then, PageMaker didn't even have a 

keyboard combo for "Save As ...". BUT, *I* did, 'cuz I made a macro 

to do it. Easy as pie, especially with Quickeys.


Well, long story short (I'm still learning even-better (faster, 

cleaner) ways to communicate!), now that I have this new job, and 

I've yanked myself rapidly through most of the newbie-learning-curve 

stuff (heck, just last week, after being there for about 2-1/2 

months, it (finally!) popped into my head that my office at work NOW 

feels as comfortable/organized/efficient (as a "work" place) as my 

Mac-in-my-living-room-with-my-TV-on-behind-me-(FoxNews-almost-always)- 

and-with-other-usual-"at-home"-amenities-quite-close-at-hand-(includin 

g-Rocky-my-cat-buddy) "home" office.


(Sorry for that long compound adjective if you have any trouble with 

it, though you oughtn't to IMO (because it is grammatically correct). 

Buckminster Fuller is one-a my top three heroes.)


(GEE WHIZ I can yack.) Last main paragraph (*you* put it together, 

please): Mac versions of Eudora (the latest), Netscape Navigator 

4.08, and Microsoft Word '98, I've recently had time to really 

realize,  all seem to be "ports" from PC stuff. It's the (Apple) 

Human Interface Guidelines thing. They all hog your time, yank at 

your attention and your HD, and just plain ain't user-friendly. 

(Though I still respect Eudora Pro Mac especially for all its great 

features for folks who get 400+ emails per day, as I; I'm currently 

hoping that Outlook Express' most current Mac version will be "more 

user friendly" to me. (DLing as I type.))


SEE, EVERYBODY, I'M *NOT* STRICTLY "ANTI-MICROSOFT"! :-) ... I KNOW A 

BIT ABOUT HOW TO SEPARATE THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF; or, if you 

prefer, the baby/bathwater meme.


That's it.


For now.


Ken Sherwood


p.s. See? I'm learning better ways about how to get to the point 

(relatively) quickly and then shut up. Thank God for the apparent 

"finiteness" aspect of *time*!


--


http://kensherwood.com -- new rants/stories almost every day


http://www.onelist.com/group/kensherwooddotcomers -- easier and more 

fun than emailing! 


flasher is generously supported by...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Get the last 100 messages from the flasher list NOW

    http://www.chinwag.com/flasher/last100.shtml


 Flash books http://www.chinwag.com/flasher/books.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/flasher or email

helpchinwag [dot] com