[Elecraft] (OT) Touchscreens

[Doug Person via Elecraft]

Very good Fred.  Windows 8 was a disaster for Microsoft.  Pretty much 
everyone involved with it left, retired or were fired. My last gig with 
the USAF was designing computer-based training for various systems.  I 
had to actually learn the systems in order to figure out how to train 
people to use them. As a usability engineer, looking at critical AF 
systems... well I wished I had that line - it would have been perfect!

Windows 8 can be fixed though.  Add an extra menu system for $5 and it 
works just like 7.  Windows 10 is better.  But not better enough.  
Microsoft failed to get the complete message.  Apple is wise.  They have 
a separate OS for each platform.  Windows 10 - like 8, does desktop and 
tablet equally badly.  Various linux-based U/I's remain the very best 
for the desktop computer. Linux Mint Cinnamon is my favorite.

Good touch screen systems move components around so what you need is 
there when you need them depending on what you're doing.  Flat, 
touch-enabled, color screens will be the defacto interface for a long, 
long time.

Fortunately, most everything needed to make the K-Line happy runs just 
fine on Windows 10.  FTDI drivers, for the most part, are bullet proof 
on 10.

Sigh.  Now that I'm done testing Windoze 10, I'll put the PCs back in 
the closet and plug in my Macs again.  Life will be so much easier...

73, Doug -- K0DXV

On 9/7/2015 5:36 PM, Fred Jensen wrote:
> The P5 would likely be Romeo ...
>
> Seriously, touchscreens vary greatly, and a great deal seems to depend 
> on the underlying software controlling and sensing it. ATM's are 
> almost completely foolproof.  They tend to have a small number of 
> large touch areas on a screen.  My Kindle Fire HD is OK, it's big 
> enough that the "keyboard" has big enough touch areas for one with 
> arthritic fumble fingers like me, however it's spell "correct" will 
> make you look like you just arrived from another sector of the 
> galaxy.  My Samsung Galaxy 5 has a smaller keyboard of course, but 
> surprisingly, I can text at a reasonable rate with my two largest 
> digits and not make a lot of misteaks.  Most will be corrected properly.
>
> Daughter bought a new laptop with Win 8.  Wow!  Many years ago, an 
> earnest 2Lt described LAPES [it Googles fine] which we were going to 
> use to get our gear out of the C-130 on missions.  When he finished, 
> one of my troopers put up his hand and when called on asked, "Just how 
> drunk were the guys when they invented this." Applicable to Microsoft 
> and Win 8 too.
>
> Fred K6DGW
> --Northern California Contest Club
> --CU in the Cal QSO Party
> --3-4 Oct 2015
>
> On 9/7/2015 3:56 PM, Richard W. Solomon wrote:
>> P7 ??? Would have more of an impact if it was the P5.
>> At least to some folks.
>>
>> 73, Dick, W1KSZ
>>
>
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