Remember the 90s? I like to call that era the “days of dial up.” Most people who had Internet access at home subscribed to a slow dial-up ISP (like AOL). Those were the dark days. We tweaked Windows trying to maximize everything we could just to squeeze 5 megabyte files through a 28.8 kbps Internet connection. Talk about almost a 30 minute wait per file!
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As Windows users, its like we never get off the breast milk. I mean we’re weaned on the same easy (arguable?) interface over and over again. That Windows Explorer interface is in every program. Every time you click “Browse,” “Save,” “Open,” or “New,” you see the same user-friendly folders. In Windows, pretty much everything is universal. If you can use notepad, you should have no problem using WordPad. You have the same “File,” “Edit,” “View,” and “Help” menu bar options. You have that drag-and-drop functionality. You can always count on “Ctrl-C” to copy, “Ctrl-V” to Paste, “Ctrl-X” to Cut, and “Ctrl-A” to Select All. Like I said, we’re on Microsoft’s breast milk.
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Last week, I wrote about ShortShip, a Firefox extension that sorts eBay search results by the actual price with shipping included. In the past couple of months eBay has been switching its user interface so that it will look more “Web 2.0ish.” That’s nice and everything but this redesign hinders the functionality of the ShortShip extension. ShortShip was programmed to work with the old user interface. I contacted eBay customer service asking for some information on how to change the way eBay displays its search results so that I can view the old interface. But alas, they said it was not possible! What’s more, the creator of ShortShip does not have any plans soon to tweak the extension so that it will be compatible with the new UI!
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