Google Nest
A few weeks back my apartment complex installed Google Nest thermostats. There was no training or documentation; I was in fact present during the install. It was a basic test of usability because I had to figure out how to switch from cool to heat; long story short, the bottom button serves to display a settings mode and you use a dial to navigate options and a combination of dial and button to set various options, like target temperature. Still, the thermostat has an annoying tendency to down set your temperature target to "energy-savings" mode like 64 degrees (F). Personally the apartment feels cooler than the temperature suggests. You can reset the target by dial, but it's usually a temporary reset, say for overnight.Actually my utility provider, even before the thermostat change, has reported for a majority or plurality of months that I'm the most (or occasionally the second) most efficient among my neighbors anyway.
I ran into an unexpected problem TWICE over the recent weekend--a filled white house icon, with the button and dial seeming unresponsive. A Google search and various Youtube videos really didn't provide much usable help except to suggest, as I suspected, the unit needed to be rebooted. I eventually discovered you could set up a chat session with a Nest support analyst. One of the parameters to set a thermostat (e.g., type of model) needed for the chat session wasn't obvious, and the first analyst wanted a serial number, which wasn't present on the back of the device. There was something in illegibly small print; the analyst finally told me to connect the thermostat via USB to my PC; I found an XML file which I loaded into Notepad and found a long serial number, definitely not the tiny print value on the back of the device. Somehow during the process my browser crashed, ending my chat session. I had to wait in another queue, maybe another 40 users. The second analyst was even less helpful if that's possible. (When I finally got past the white house icon, I suspected the smaller white number was the temperature, although it seemed a lot cooler than that, and he wanted a picture of the dial. I lost interest in the chat session with that. I had other issues with my cell phone.)
The reboot process isn't that obvious or maybe is time-consuming with limited status readings. I read or heard somewhere you had to hold the button for 30 seconds, but it was some time before I saw some dialogue appear on the dial. Then you have to navigate through about 7 or so parameter phases, including an optional setup for connecting to my WIFI, which I wasn't interested in setting up. I finally got to the expected temperature display.
Then I found another white house icon this morning and muddled through another setup. Hopefully this isn't part of an ongoing pattern. I have heard the heat cut on once or twice, so it does seem functional but still cooler than expected.
Thunderbird
One of the issues in using the Thunderbird email client is that add-ons may not keep up with host application upgrades. I've deployed a number of add-ons over the years, including sync tools with Google products (gmail, contacts, calendar), dedupping messages, email archiving and import, etc.I've built up an elaborate set of email folders and filters over the years. But of course I get new emails all the time (e.g., from tech recruiters, new websites I run across, etc.), not to mention I'll sometimes create new folders and filters, e.g., bills related to a recent hospital stay, my purchase of a new auto a few months back and a recent holiday trip or if I'm negotiating with a new client or prospective employer. So, for example, I might get up to a dozen or more unsolicited job descriptions. Many of these are unacceptable, e.g., an undesirable location (overseas or the Left Coast, IL, or the Northeast), a job description that is sent by multiple recruiters or clearly doesn't fit my background, say I worked with a certain software product 12 years ago on a project, but the client wants 5 years of recent experience; I delete these. Others I might put in my "hot leads" folder or in a more general folder, say, a lower-rate position or something not really a DBA position but focusing on more ancillary skills, like a developer position.
So at any rate, I used an add-on called Nostalgy, which allowed me to select and quick type move downloaded unfiltered messages to target folders. But for whatever reason, Nostalgy has not been upgraded to the latest new, more secure release of Thunderbird and no real discussion of an imminent upgrade I could find. I found a new Quick Folder Move (tabbed interface) (sic) add-on, which similarly allows me to drag-and-drop messages to a folder dragged to a special toolbar above the messages window.
In a similar fashion, during recent upgrades, somehow my integrated Google calendars (including sports schedules like the Minnesota Vikings and Twins and college alma mater football or basketball games) were broken. (I can always access my calendars through the portal or an extension, but since I spend so much time on my email client, it's fairly easy to scan events at the right side of the client without additional effort. I believe the add-on is called something like Provider for Google Calendar and is extremely easy to set up, signing into Google and then checking which calendars you want to access in Thunderbird.
I can't leave this discussion without writing about a truly bizarre upgrade situation. My 32-bit software repeatedly failed to upgrade correctly; the software seemed to point to the general product download page which apparently reflected the base but not the troublesome update because after reinstall I was still getting a message that the step upgrade was failing.
At some point I went to Mozilla's version download page and noticed Thunderbird had a 64-bit release. I downloaded that, but soon ran into an anomaly. Thunderbird wanted to install by default into the (32-bit) Program Files x86 folder. (It didn't have an option for me to change, say, to the 64-bit Program Files folder; I would later find I could do that by choosing a prior customization option. So I assumed when it said it was "cleaning up the birdcage", that it had deleted relevant files in the existing folder, etc. It seemed to conclude normally, but a few days later I noticed that I was running into the step upgrade failure again; I checked "About Thunderbird" and noticed I was still running on the 32-bit base release. What the hell?
So this time I chose the custom option and pointed installation to Program Files. I watched it conclude, made sure the shortcut referenced the 64-bit path and launched. I double-checked the version number and checked the upgrade channel. I think I may have had to reinstall the above 2 add-ons.
To be honest, if I had been aware there was a 64-bit version available, I would have upgraded to it some time back. The bigger issue is the fact that, in my experience, the 32-bit version repeatedly failed to upgrade on its own, something I don't recall happening, at least in newer updates and upgrades.
Is that the end of my usability issues with Thunderbird? I wish it were. I'll sometimes get a popup to the effect that some long-running script is causing a problem and offers a button to kill it. Let's just say trying to work with or around the popup is all but impossible and usually results in Thunderbird crashing. At some point, I'll be sufficiently annoyed to find/implement a fix.
iTunes
I've had a lot of usability issues over the years with iTunes, especially in doing upgrades, but the latest issue took me completely by surprise. These days I'm mostly using iTunes for playing podcasts. I subscribe principally to a few network Sunday talk soup streams (ABC, NBC, FNC), Cato Institute, Tom Woods, Brion McClanahan, and EconTalk. I often get so bogged with other things that episodes are downloaded and backlogged for months or longer. An example is I'm a fairly new McClanahan listener and decided to download all his episodes.Well, I suddenly became aware that iTunes seemed to be deleting all except, say, the latest 3 weeks of episodes. (Fortunately, I had an October backup and could restore most of the old episodes.) It's ongoing; I often use ROBOCOPY to backup my Music folder, e.g., ROBOCOPY C:...\MUSIC G:\MUSIC /MIR, so old files on G: no longer on the source are identified as "extra" and dropped. So I'm seeing episodes I haven't watched yet being dropped off the backup. (Now obviously I could tweak my backup command to avoid dropping files and I could play the dropped files from the backup, but as I write, I haven't found where the episode drops are being configured. A general usability principle is to make something destructive more difficult to do, e.g., traditional MS-DOS prompt to check if you really mean "erase *.*" (all files). So I'm somewhat stunned that iTunes for some reason dropped hundreds of EconTalk, Woods and McClanahan episodes without my explicit knowledge and consent. Presumably I could go to some podcast portal and download dropped episodes again, so no damage really done, but it's inconvenient. I suppose someone could argue if I really wanted the podcast I should have listened to it by now, but that should be my decision. When I subscribed to Hulu, I sometimes would engage in binge viewing, and I often do the same thing with podcasts.
