Thursday 8 August 2013

Going Down the Software Swannee.

I just went into my Watch History on YouTube, and discovered that all the pictures in the list now have a faded, misty appearance, like they’ve been covered with a piece of cheesecloth or something. And along the top of each one is a black banner that says WATCHED.

Yes, I know they’ve been watched. They must have been watched, mustn’t they, or else they wouldn’t be in my freggin’ Watch History! Would they? No.

Why is it that everything in which Google gets involved has to become pointlessly, irrationally, and irritatingly fiddle-faddled about with? Is it just that they don’t have enough to do, maybe? Or is it some quirk of human nature that those involved with computer software lose all track of reason? You should see the way MSN are screwing up the once-reliable Hotmail service since they combined it with Outlook. Did I ask them to do that? Did anybody? Does it really serve any useful purpose, or is it simply there to drive me into a steaming rage when dear old MSN sends seventeen of my private emails to the wrong person? That’s what they did recently. Really. They did it, not me.

Yes, I know that Google provides the very blog on which I’m now ranting, and I am grateful. I am. But why can’t they keep their activities simple, functional, and logical? Why can’t they leave the irrational and often dysfunctional stuff to the top politicians whose careers seem to thrive in proportion to their lack of brain power. Politics is a power game; computer software is a service industry, so is it unreasonable to expect the software houses to serve with care and common sense?

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