[X-Newbies] Reasons for names? (was: How to Use Mail & Address Book (was: No Subject))

[Richard Ramsowr]

Al

that a good one (heh heh!)

rich

--- Al Poulin <alpoulin at cox.net> wrote:

> Heh, Heh, starting a new rumor here.  As General
> Motors struggles to 
> stay ahead of Toyota, they will come out with a new
> model vehicle and 
> name it "Car."
> 
> Al Poulin
> Anger, hate, and revenge are for the devil,
> forgiveness is for God, 
> proactive self-defense is for the rest of us.
> 
> On Dec 26, 2005, at 4:53 AM, Vincent Cayenne wrote:
> 
> > X;{ :-)
> >
> > A touch of flu just in time to spoil my Christmas
> dinner, so I'm 
> > needlessly Scrooging here:
> >
> > At 12:22 AM -0500 12/26/05, Charles Martin wrote:
> >> Everything a Mac does (and says about itself) is
> there for good 
> >> reason.
> >
> > ...except for Apple's raving insanity in naming
> applications: which 
> > geniuses signed off on the generic "Mail",
> "Address Book", and 
> > "Pages"? These twits obviously were shuttered in a
> developer's 
> > paradise with nice little code names and a *need*
> to ensure that there 
> > were no leaks about the precious projects? 'Cause
> out in the real 
> > world, trying to use resources like Google to
> isolate anything 
> > involving those apps, trying to hold a
> conversation with someone 
> > unfamiliar with the current Mac, trying to explain
> a 
> > multi-application** technique - these all suffer
> from those names.
> >
> > Several applications have *an* address book, which
> must be noted as 
> > distinct from *the* Address Book app. A
> conversation about a problem 
> > goes blooey at the "OK, now open Mail" point when
> the user launches 
> > their browser and goes to the web mail (or opens
> mail, in another 
> > client).
> >
> > I think when the "i" prefix started being made fun
> of, Steve decided 
> > "OK, we'll just leave it off and see how you like
> it!".
> >
> > Ah well, I don't suppose I'd have been impressed
> by the names iMail 
> > and iPages anyway. And iBook was already taken.
> :-)
> >
> >
> >
> > ** example "multi-application" technique: emailing
> a bunch of holiday 
> > photos to a family member. A friend called me up
> earlier, while 
> > already on a call to their family computer wiz
> (all-PC) who was trying 
> > to instruct her in sending her batch of photos.
> Frustrated by 
> > discussion of "compression, zip, properties", she
> called for more 
> > help. I said "Forget all the tech stuff, make an
> album with the 
> > photos, use the Share menu and email it. She did
> so, chose 
> > medium-size, got an OK on the file size from the
> wiz, was momentarily 
> > disconcerted by the delay as iPhoto did its thing
> before handing off 
> > to Mail.app, and was then OK and done. But the PC
> wiz, a good guy who 
> > knows exactly what he's about, couldn't quite get
> any handle on what 
> > I'd told her to do. Statements like "OK, now just
> wait for Mail to 
> > open with the message just needing addressing." or
> "If the address is 
> > already in your Address Book..." carry no audio
> clues about the 
> > application being used.
> >
> > If you don't know, you're waiting for the rest of
> the info - Outlook? 
> > Eudora? Web client? An Apple-specific app? What're
> you using? Yes, 
> > yes, I know it's mail, but what is the *name* of
> the program?
> >
> > Those who've been helping end users for any length
> of time are 
> > accustomed to the users' tendency to impart
> generic terms. It's not 
> > Internet Explorer or Mozilla FireFox, it's "my
> Internet". It's not 
> > Outlook Express, it's "my email". When these
> helpers hear Mac users 
> > say "Mail" and "Address Book", they're already
> leaping into 
> > clarification mode.
> > -- 
> > 'tis as said. [Reality is defined by being
> described]
> > _______________________________________________
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> > X-Newbies at listserver.themacintoshguy.com
> >
>
http://listserver.themacintoshguy.com/mailman/listinfo/x-newbies
> >
> > Listmom is trying to clean out his closets!
> Vintage Mac and random 
> > stuff:
> >        
> http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZmacguy1984
> >
> 
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> Listmom is trying to clean out his closets! Vintage
> Mac and random stuff:
>          http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZmacguy1984
>