(No, that’s not me in the picture, I just found it appropriate)<\/p>\n
I always like to read the directions.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m weird that way.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 To me, it’s a lot easier to use some new gizmo or
\nsoftware if I’ve already read through the instructions before I begin.\u00c2\u00a0 This is why I love printed manuals and loathe help files.\u00c2\u00a0 If something I’m trying to learn only comes with a manual in electronic form, I almost always print it out so I can read it more efficiently.\u00c2\u00a0 Help files are rarely as helpful as they need to be.<\/p>\n
But sometimes even the printed manual doesn’t tell you enough.<\/p>\n
Yesterday I spotted something that I wanted to take a picture of, using my fairly-recently-acquired camera phone.\u00c2\u00a0 I duly pressed the button and looked at the screen and realized that if the picture was going to be useful at all, I would have to zoom in on the subject (which was across the street).\u00c2\u00a0 However, no way could I discover how to zoom in.\u00c2\u00a0 Grrr.<\/p>\n
So I went home and dug out the manual, and lo and behold it didn’t tell me how to zoom in either!\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t till I got through a couple layers of FAQs on the manufacturer’s web site that I found out that you can’t zoom with the default resolution on the camera phone.\u00c2\u00a0 You have to switch to a lower resolution.<\/p>\n
This is doubly annoying because the default settings disable a very useful feature AND the manual doesn’t tell you so.<\/p>\n
I used to write software manuals that translated programmer-ese into English.\u00c2\u00a0 I think this is why I have little patience with instructions that are non-instructional.\u00c2\u00a0 Thbft.<\/p>\n
(No, that’s not me in the picture, I just found it appropriate) I always like to read the directions.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m weird that way.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 To me, it’s a lot easier to use some new gizmo or software if I’ve already read … Continue reading ![\"Creative](\"http:\/\/infmom.net\/journal\/wp-content\/plugins\/photo-dropper\/images\/cc.png\")
<\/a> photo credit: Stefaan Christopher<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"