Hating on Word

Sometime back was in a discussion with Microsoft Word grumps.  I wanted to post more on the topic but it was rapidly turning into a "thread hijack" (essentially changing the subject away from the intended direction). 

Two related links:

• Annoying Microsoft Office format issues (and some workarounds)
• The fundamental design problems behind Microsoft Word

Working for freeware

A series of discussions on a similar theme:

• What would make you pay for software?
• How to promote / advocate your favorite program
• How to pay for free software

Hipchat - your bulky chat client

I haven't tested the program for portability but I'm mostly suggesting people avoid it as the program uses 295 megs across two processes (Hipchat.exe and QtWebEngineProcess.exe) and perpetually uses 1-3% of my processor even when idle.

For reference both Skype for Business (Lync) and regular Skype take up just under 80 megs.  Neither uses that kind of processor power.

Alternatives: Since (at least my version) of the program will send you an email when someone tries to contact you offline, I actually disable the program and rely on my email to know when to enable the software.  There's also a web client.

(Analysis done on a 2.4 ghz i5 with (thankfully) 8 gigs RAM.  Win7x64 is installed.)

Freeware as a game

When I was a kid, I loved playing with toys.  I was a big Lego person but I liked toys of all kinds.  As I got older, this morphed into what was frequently referred to as an "interactive" learner. 

In college, some of the best advice I ever got was to actively write in the margins of a book, as if replying or commenting on the text I was reading.  I used to dig into this quite far, carving up my textbooks with notes, making them less valuable when I sold them back but improving the experience by involving me in the book and it's outcome.

As I grew up, my interests turned towards computers and I found -- in some ways -- they were just toys for grown ups.  I liked how interactive they were and the flexibility they offered.  Freeware seemed like a near-unlimited set of free toys to constantly play with, but lots of installations would clog up the registry and slow down the computer.

Now with portable software, I have at my fingertips hundreds of programs for every use and interest.  Since they don't slow down my system, I have them at work, I have them at home, and I carry them with me everywhere.  Whatever I use for whatever small project, it's not as taxing or tedious with some kind of multi-tool.

Although work on the site is occasionally a chore because of my goals, projects maintain my focus as freeware never stops resembling play.

MiTeC issue

This issue mostly got cleared up, but I wanted to add the following:

No, we don't think that MiTeC is distributing malware.  Yes, we think it's a false positive.  Feel free to download the actual files and run them through VirusTotal.

Yes, Chrome and Firefox was listing it as a bad site.  They actually use the same list so this isn't an instance of one malware list corroborating another.

This whole situation is one of the reasons I encourage developers to use Softpedia or other download websites.  They're not perfect, but try to maintain a reputation for distributing clean software don't get wholesale blocked.

Better interfaces

A lovely introduction to user-friendly interfaces in software and beyond.

File systems and flash drives

So I've had MANY files get corrupted doing anything but backups and copy-paste operations on FAT32 drives, however this article seems to suggest that format isn't total junk.

Anyway, I strongly recommend NTFS for anything you'll be running portable programs from.

Related:

• What filesystem should I use for my flashdrive?
  
• FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS
• Why do removable drives use FAT32 instead of NTFS?