Ideas Worth Spreading * Bill Gates * How Do You Make Education Better? What Makes a Great Teacher? malaria and other challenges :-)

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2009/02/15/bill-gates-on-education-reform-in-feb-2009/

Dynamic interest, the economy ... 20 mins worth the time ... Minority students drop out rate is 50%, they are more likely to go to jail than to get a higher education. Bill said he's sending the attendees a free copy of the book - Work hard, Be Nice -

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/451
Scroll in a little to cut right to Bill's speech.

Bill Gates useability rant

Ok, everybody is talking about this -

here's the link ...

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/141821.asp

"Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant
Sometimes, software isn't so magical. Even for Bill Gates.

---- Original Message ----

From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame

I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues.

Let me give you my experience from yesterday.

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.

The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.

This site is so slow it is unusable.

It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.

These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.

They are not filtered by the system ... and so many of the things are strange.

I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).

I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.

I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.

In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.

This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?

So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.

Doesn't Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?

Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.

This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.

So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn't use it for anything else during this time.

What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.

Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night -- why should I reboot at that time?

So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.

So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.

So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.

What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.

So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.

At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.

So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like "Open" or "Save". No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.

The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.

So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.

It is not there.

What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.

Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.

What an absolute mess.

Moviemaker is just not there at all.

So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.

I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.

I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.

I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.

So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package.

The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don't you just love that root certificate message?)

When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.

...

As for the message, Gates smiled and said, "There's not a day that I don't send a piece of e-mail ... like that piece of e-mail. That's my job."
Update: Dave Ross of KIRO-AM/710 in Seattle did a dramatic reading of the message on air Wednesday morning. Click here to access the audio."

Thinking - System Architecture

Along with some very difficult challenges (which I won't go into) there are threads of joy in my new job.

One thing I love about my job as a Solutions Delivery Product Manager is hanging out with other System Architects - when we speak together, imagining and extrapolating about what doing this set of things vs that set of things we can jump into the future and understand what "that" and "things" means - it is so cool that we finish each other's sentences, or enumerate logical parameters to the next state without much explaining.

Man o man that is fun, for me it is the real juice - I just love doing abstract visualizations - just a fantastic stream of energy! Visualizing complex computer software systems is highly thought provoking and exploratory. One System Architect I work with just so gets me and I so get him. We were talking about the future of product activation and digital streams and speaking about digital watermarks and the value of credentials - and had discussed several options over an hour and 1/2 just like it was 5 minutes. From that thread my ideas around the IOS (Internet Operating System) have grown and become enriched. It's funny to think I am a fine artist by nature but the skills needed for visualizing systems are quite similar.

I have real confidence about the peace enhancing properties of the World Wide Web through ecommerce, so such conversations which may lead to that kind of worldwide success are engaging to me on a personal and professional level. I feel we have an effect in the world like a sonic wave of protection through productivity influencing more and more people, moving farther away from war and conflict.

Recently we were meeting about the tax and system implications of tax advantaged locations with our tax finance manager, when my System Architect friend said, "well Linda I don't think those business rules should be part of that software application no matter if the tax advantaged location will be in play a long time."

So the tax guy immediately launched into giving us some explanations and examples of various forms that the business rules were taking in other applications he has advised on - including more than 40 applications in 6 months. That's what we were there for, the expertise that well-thought-out even long conversations among subject matter experts bring to the table.

As I listened to our tax expert speak about the various requirements I visualized what this meant from a system wide point of view, and the future, I reasoned what the system implications were and how flexible they needed to be, how loosely coupled makes sense - as our tax man finished his sentence I leaned into the phone and said - "Sold!" - I swear I could hear my System Architect friend's smile break out.

Later as we wrapped up that same meeting the System Architect said, "so our advice will be to include the business rules within the applications not inside the key selling structure, if there are any objections - speak now or forever hold your peace - going once, going twice, sold!" echoing my sold! statement.

I feel such glee when I get to use that totally abstract part of my brain’s reasoning capacity in such a practical application, even if we will only see one application do this in the next few months (if I still have my job) for a worldwide ecommerce solution. Better yet is being recognized for that ability since so few people understand it.

The other folks in the room know that we are figuring something out, and occasionally, but thank heavens more rarely, someone will become jealous. There is a camaraderie among the System Architects because you have to possess an incredibly developed ability to visualize and extrapolate several functions and their implications, with the solution in mind all at once, finely tuned to what the actual results need to be, and what the capability, capacity, and through-put are. It actually feels electric.

In the past when designing an application as I completed the work, the other system designer /aka product manager I was working with came back with the business and functional requirements and asked me to glance through them gratis. So of course I could not resist and immediately found two logical conundrums with the UI, if you choose this, you will get to this location and that choice is not what you have documented. 'This here? see this is the wrong option here...' and so forth. All of this in my mind, not on paper, not in the flows, not in the writing. It's so fun.

System Architects tend to be sort of giddy when they speak they get so excited - their personalities tend to be somehow on both the sunny and sour side. Maybe there is a little tendency to be know it all but the best among us are very relaxed about this kind of knowledge and skillset.

Dealing with the opposite kind of person, with no visualization ability, and no big picture view whose mad-as-a-hatter level of attention to detail borders on comical and insane - those folks are a real headache and heartache; much harder to deal with because they are so literal and only see what is placed directly in front of them - they mean well but just cannot recognize the value of those with big picture world views. When a micromanager is standing on your dress, it feels exactly as if they are afraid of space, of something which is not in a box - of anything with wings of thought or ideas. Ideas are very scary for some people. It's a quality of change. Change is what brings those flighty ideas into reality.

I read some place this story - haven't been able to find the reference - Bill Gates was young, maybe high school or so, and from another room his mom asked him "what are you doing?", and he replied "thinking", so she asked him again, "but what are you doing?" and he said, "I told you I was thinking -- have you ever tried it?" or some similar statement, "you really should try it sometime".

I empathize with Bill. It's why I consider his use of the term "stuff" to be a technical term.