Monday, February 23, 2009
Vista Cereal, from Microsoft
| When I was little, I loved cereal. I loved ALL the different kinds. Honeycomb, Fruity Pebbles, Grape-nuts (yes, grape nuts) and Cap'n Crunch. The problem is, in order to have a cereal buffet, I would open ALL the boxes so I could rotate around. Unfortunately, that means that most of the cereal got stale before it could be eaten (except Grape Nuts which I don't believe ever goes stale). I had learned the hard way, that sometimes you should only open one thing at a time. With the creation of Windows, we gained the ability to "Multitask." Since this is one of the vocabulary terms in my class I can recite the definition from memory: The ability to work on multiple tasks at the same time and quickly switch between them.You were only limited by the power of your computer. Until Vista came along. I am not saying you cannot multitask in Vista. I currently have 4 applications open. The problem is Vista now discourages you from "getting to work." In XP you could select a lot of files and hit the Enter key and Windows would open all the files for you. If you selected a lot (like 10-15 files) you'd get a warning that it might take a while, and you had to confirm the operation. Let me repeat, you'd get a warning, but could confirm the operation. Vista thinks you're too stupid to confirm the operation, so you don't have a choice. I discovered this last week as I was grading a homework assignment, where student had to submit a Word and Excel file. on XP< I'd simple do a Control-A ("Select All") and then hit enter and Id have both files open and ready to grade. Last week I'd Control-A just fine, but enter did nothing. In the following pictures, watch to the left of the toolbar that starts with "Organize" and "Views":  One file selected (Excel) Open (with an arrow), Print and Share buttons appear  Two of the same type of file selected (Excel) The arrow beside Open disappears  Three files of two different types selected (2 Excel and 1 Word) The Open option disappears completely  As an aside the Down Arrow that disappears when you go from one to two files gives you the "Open With" option. Apparently, once you have two files of the same type there's no need for the "Open With" option? That makes no sense. I quickly grew tired of trying to determine WHY Vista was written so stupid and set my "considerable" talents toward resolving the issue. I have said for years you should never mess with a computer programmer who knows what he's doing. I believe the phrase "The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth" was a simple misprint. It originally read "The GEEK Shall inherit The Earth." If you think I am kidding, I have two words for you: Bill Gates. Since the issue is build into Window Explorer, I can't simple "Hack" that code, I needed to build something myself. It took about half hour to get a rough version running and another hour to make it semi presentable. I hereby present: Drag And DropKick Quite simply it is a tiny little application I place down around my clock. Now that I have a 22" flat panel monitor I actually have too much screen space. The first version of DropKick was the size of the clock on the taskbar. It was semi-transparent, so it could be placed over the clock. The problem was you'd forget it was there. Once it is up and running, you just select whatever files, folder, or programs, you wish to open then Drag and Drop them on the target. It then opens everything up faster than you could have double clicked them. It stays on top of everything for easy access. You may have noticed it has no minimize, maximize, or close buttons. Currently, a right click on the target closes the application. I also have a single click remove the applications button from the task bar, so it's not distracting. Is this program worth money? To me it is. who knows, the three people I have shown it to thought it was neat, but they don't have Vista so they didn't see the need. I'll keep tinkering with it and fleshing it out. Maybe if the world ever does finally accept Vista, there will be a demand for this program. If you want a copy, let me know. I may be able to slide you a beta test version.  |
