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Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions


xper

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I sometimes wonder what will be (if any) the published report about the UI design and testing process.

Let's make a base reference:

http://www.sigchi.org/chi96/proceedings/desbrief/Sullivan/kds_txt.htm

Quote


Lab Testing

We conducted sixty-four phases of lab testing, using 560 subjects. Fifty percent of the users were intermediate Windows 3.1 users; the rest were beginners, advanced users, and users of other operating systems. These numbers do not include testing done on components delivered to us by other teams (Exchange email client, fax software, etc.) Testing on those components accounts for approximately 25 phases and 175 users.

My guess is that it will be:
 

Lab Testing
We didn't make any, we had millions data points from telemetry and thousands of results form the Insider program, since they were just too many to be analyzed properly, we ignored them altogether and replaced design and testing iterations with some chuckling and a lot of pats on each other shoulders.


 

jaclaz

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Ed Bott cites an official reply from MS to the (already talked about) EFF "j'accuse":

http://www.zdnet.com/article/eff-rips-microsoft-for-blatant-disregard-of-user-choice-and-privacy-in-windows-10/

It is rare to find in a such short statement:
 

Quote


Microsoft is committed to customer privacy and ensuring that customers have the information and tools they need to make informed decisions. We listened to feedback from our customers and evolved our approach to the upgrade process. Windows 10 continues to have the highest satisfaction of any version of Windows.

a practical example of:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics

:lol:

jaclaz
 

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It is the age of stupidity having reached critical mass, so it's not about what you DO, it's about what you SAY, only.

Microsoft realizes that forums blank out words that describe their strategy, so how bad could the customer feedback be?

"No curse words were found in the descriptions of our strategy, so we must be doing something right."

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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45 minutes ago, jaclaz said:

It is rare to find in a such short statement:

Quote

Microsoft is committed to customer privacy and ensuring that customers have the information and tools they need to make informed decisions.

Yes sir, we have all the tools we need... except the one to COMPLETELY TURN OFF the snooping. Like we had before.

It's a bit like having a TV where you can set the volume to any level of loudness, except Off, and the faintest you can set it to is an annoying murmur that interferes with your phone calls.

--JorgeA

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52 minutes ago, JorgeA said:

It's a bit like having a TV where you can set the volume to any level of loudness, except Off, and the faintest you can set it to is an annoying murmur that interferes with your phone calls.

At which point, the appropriate response is...

trash%20&%20TV.JPG

Or, if you saved the receipt and it's not long since the purchase, take it back to the seller.

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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Speaking of Cortana, this just hit me last night. Here's the Cortana logo:

Cortana-logo.png

And here is the "eye" of the all-seeing, control-freak computer HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey:

180px-HAL9000.svg.png

Is it a simple case of sci-fi geekiness, or perhaps a statement of ultimate intent?  Cortana's quest to monitor everything about Windows 10 users to better "help" them comes uncomfortably close to "life imitating art." :ph34r:

--JorgeA

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Besides apps for a failing mobile UI, Windows Hello is another ballyhooed Windows 10 feature whose rationale is looking increasingly dubious:

Biometrics are less secure than passwords -- this is why
 

Quote

Many technology pundits talk about biometrics as the ultimate authentication solution -- the technology that will make the 'imperfect' password obsolete. Despite the hype, most companies are approaching with caution. In fact, CEB found that there are varied degrees of biometrics adoption globally, as around 20 percent of firms have actually deployed the technology.

A big reason for low adoption could be that they are less secure. And while many are touting the security of biometrics, there are four issues to consider when evaluating the technology.

"Windows Hello"? No, thanks -- goodbye!

--JorgeA

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@JorgeA

Besides the usual FUD of which this kind of articles is full, there is ONLY a basic "conceptual" issue: Biometrics is ID/username, NOT a password/authentication.

Your looks, fingerprints, eye iris and veins patterns, etc. do exist in the real world, they are used to identify you.

Of course - one way or the other - they can (or will be) be reproduced (possibly with a level of accuracy sufficient to trick this or that sensor) the point is about the misuse of these as an authentication method.

A password (in theory) is something secret that - as long and until you do not reveal it - does not "exist" and thus cannot be reproduced.

A password can be BOTH revoked or changed, a biometric pattern can be revoked but NOT changed, you are born with it.

jaclaz
 

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A biometric pattern cannot be changed on YOU (except through injury) but it can be changed in the system.

Nearly all articles relating to authentication security take aim at the wrong thing. It isn't the username or password that is the problem, it is the authentication system. It doesn't matter what you use for your password is if someone can get into the system using another method besides standard login. There is always more than 1 door.

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26 minutes ago, Tripredacus said:

A biometric pattern cannot be changed on YOU (except through injury) but it can be changed in the system.

If the biometric reader/sensor/whatever has a given method to identify (for the sake of the discussion let's say my left thumb fingerprint) you cannot "change" it (if conceptually it is - wrongly - "a password"), you may "change" it (at the most 9 times, considering inconvenient to take one's shoes off) by "shifting" to a different finger.

But once "they" will have collected all my fingerprints (and made perfect replicas, capable of tricking the sensors), "they" will be able to log in/enter/whatever.

jaclaz
 

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I don't know.

Meaning that - besides the obvious patriotic preference for Beretta - till now one of the very good things is (was) amount of shots available.

I recently casually saw a (seemingly also rather el-cheapo BTW) "newish" handgun made in Florida :w00t: with an astonishing 30 rounds in the magazine (.22 WMR).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kel-Tec_PMR-30

It seems like recent modes have evolved and are reliable and very handy (light, little recoil, etc.).

jaclaz

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11 hours ago, jaclaz said:

@JorgeA

Besides the usual FUD of which this kind of articles is full

I'm curious -- where is the FUD in the Betanews article? Your post actually agrees with major points made there.

--JorgeA

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