I wish MT had better instructions for installation on Windows 2000.

Posted by: Rupert on May 29, 2002 12:10 PM

 

Good day. I'm the creator of AmphetaDesk. Mysterious? Could you be more indepth? I'm always willing to make things easier for the end-user. AmphetaDesk is aimed toward the non-techy folks - I have no desire to make another Radio Userland.

Posted by: Morbus Iff on May 30, 2002 09:04 AM

 

Morbus,

I was not clear at all in my comments. I meant to say that the installation was painless but the actual underlying idea of RSS, newsfeeds, and that sort of thing probably won't make sense to non-technical people. In other words, my grandmother wouldn't "get it" even after she installed AmphetaDesk. She wouldn't really understand the power of the application nor would she be able to understand how and why she might look for feeds.

The program works well for me and I understand what you doing with it, but I am not sure others will understand it. By the way, that's fine since I think since my grandmother is not your audience. And, perhaps more importantly, I might be wrong. Maybe my grandmother would install it and love it and use it and tell other people about it. That is an empirical question.

On a different topic, please let me know if you would like to be interviewed. I have a few questions in mind already...

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on May 30, 2002 12:05 PM

 

Ah. Gotcha. Your point is pretty solid - RSS and the underlying technology is pretty out there (since you'd need some basis in XML) to the normal user. That's why I try never to mention those terms (save for the XML button) in the AmphetaDesk GUI - I instead refer to "channels", and about "providing news in a syndicated format". I'm always on the lookout for how to make things easier for the end user. I hope that the user doesn't NEED to understand the technology, much like a user doesn't need to know much about Usenet to hook into groups via OE, for example.

And yeah, an interview is fine ;)

Posted by: Morbus Iff on May 30, 2002 12:26 PM

 

Whoa Kevin, you seem to be all in the spotlight these days, dude. John Rhodes wants to interview *you*. :)

Posted by: MadMan on May 30, 2002 12:58 PM

 

Madman! Fancy meeting you here :)

Posted by: Morbus Iff on May 30, 2002 04:14 PM

 

John will tell you that I'm a regular poster here. Hey, this is a usability site, after all, and that's part of what I do for a living.

Posted by: MadMan on May 30, 2002 05:08 PM

 

MadMan is here often and has many interesting things to say. WebWord wouldn't be WebWord without the MadMan.

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on May 30, 2002 05:53 PM

 

The problem I have is that I want to add a lot of channels, but I don't know if I'll lose what I have selected if I go to the next page without subscribing. I also don't research seeing a search function.

Posted by: Morris Cox on May 30, 2002 07:52 PM

 

Oops. I meant "I also don't recall seeing a search function."

Posted by: Morris Cox on May 30, 2002 07:53 PM

 

Morris, yeah, currently there is no Search function. And the "forgetting what I've checked off" makes a decent amount of sense. At this point, yes, if you click off to another page without "subscribing to the checked channels", you'll lose those selections. Besides the obvious "subscribe as I move around" (which requires some extra coding), what can I do to alleviate the confusion until I add that feature?

Posted by: Morris Cox on May 30, 2002 09:27 PM

 

Uh. Obviously, the comment above this one should be signed "Morbus Iff", not Morris Cox. I got confused. Too... many... windows!

Posted by: Morbus Iff on May 30, 2002 09:28 PM

 

Too many windows? Another usability concern? :) How about making it possible to list more channels on a single page? Being able to list 50 or 100 or all channels on a single page would be nice, especially if I could just check off the ones I want and do a single subscribe.

Posted by: Morris Cox on May 30, 2002 11:10 PM

 

Morris, this would be very easily possible in the next version of AmphetaDesk (which, from a tweaker standpoint, is immensely powerful), and I hope to release soon (June 15th is the planned date). By default, I still show entries by alphabetics, but a few tweaks here and there to one of the templates would give you an "every 150 feeds" sort of display.

Posted by: Morbus Iff on May 31, 2002 08:39 AM