Forum Posts Feed
The Perils of CRIMPing
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Dr Andus
Jun 30, 2015 at 10:37 AM
Ken wrote:
>I’m
>feeling a bit of whiplash from the fast pace of “progress”.
If we’re on the topic of moaning about MS (though I’m not an MS hater, I like my Win7 a lot), another bugbear of mine is the recent update to the Outlook Web App interface (both Office 356 and other varieties).
I find it very cumbersome designwise and painfully slow to use. What used to take 10 min now takes 30 min, and I’m just talking about reading and answering emails.
I have finally managed to switch back in recent days to the “light version” (which they seem to have deliberately degraded in order to discourage people from downgrading, e.g. the search function) in all my browsers and devices, but it wasn’t easy, took weeks, as Outlook would just ignore that choice (I tried deleting cookies, signing in and out etc. nothing worked).
Posted by Ken
Jun 30, 2015 at 05:33 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
Ken wrote:
>If we’re on the topic of moaning about MS (though I’m not an MS hater, I
>like my Win7 a lot), another bugbear of mine is the recent update to the
>Outlook Web App interface (both Office 356 and other varieties).
>
>I find it very cumbersome designwise and painfully slow to use. What
>used to take 10 min now takes 30 min, and I’m just talking about reading
>and answering emails.
>
>I have finally managed to switch back in recent days to the “light
>version” (which they seem to have deliberately degraded in order to
>discourage people from downgrading, e.g. the search function) in all my
>browsers and devices, but it wasn’t easy, took weeks, as Outlook would
>just ignore that choice (I tried deleting cookies, signing in and out
>etc. nothing worked).
I do not hate MS as a habit, but sometimes I just do not understand what they consider progress, although the same could also be said for Adobe, Apple and Google given some of the “updates” they have recently released. I currently use Win7 and while I miss a few things from XP, I am comfortable with it, especially as ti can be customized to my liking.
OWA and Outlook.com, however, are a whole different kettle of fish. I never took to OWA, and found Outlook.com to be a slight improvement for my workflow, but neither are really a good substitute for the desktop client version of Outlook (2013 version excepting). I find it just fascinating that as much as many software companies are moving their product lines to cloud-based applications, the lack of a good web-based email client is depressing. I have grown accustomed to Gmail and find it mostly useful, but I just cannot find many good alternatives if you host your own domain and do not want to subscribe to Google Apps. I do wonder if these companies really think that email is a dying form of communication. It is still the lowest common denominator of electronic communication when doing business with others, and I just do not see it going away anytime soon. I am hoping that somebody will fill this void, as I am getting tired of using RoundCube for one of my accounts.
—Ken
Posted by Dr Andus
Jun 30, 2015 at 06:34 PM
Ken wrote:
>OWA and Outlook.com, however, are a whole different kettle of fish. I
>never took to OWA, and found Outlook.com to be a slight improvement for
>my workflow, but neither are really a good substitute for the desktop
>client version of Outlook (2013 version excepting).
I didn’t mean to suggest that I particularly love OWA. I’m also reasonably happy with Outlook.com (and even like the Live Mail desktop client). It’s the 365 version that I find annoying for being so slow.
Compared to that the light version OWA is like going back to a no-nonsense plain text world… Unfortunately 365 has just “upgraded” me again (against my will) back into the full version, even though the “light version” is clearly ticked in the options… Argh…
Posted by Ken
Jun 30, 2015 at 08:28 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
>Unfortunately 365 has just “upgraded” me
>again (against my will) back into the full version, even though the
>“light version” is clearly ticked in the options… Argh…
The flogging will continue until the morale improves! ;)
—Ken
Posted by Joshua Cearley
Jul 7, 2015 at 04:42 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
> Regarding the infection, maybe that’s one more argument for using a
> web-based task management tool.
I have to disagree with this if the concern is security. A local binary in isolation only has to be vetted once. A very security conscious person could even use a tool like GPG to sign the binary at home, or have the IT/security department do it for them, with the public key on their USB stick. If the work computer is compromised they wouldn’t get the key to forge a signature, and trojans that modify any exe file they can find would invalidate that signature.
A web service can’t be audited; they could get hacked at any time, and often do[1][2]. Most connections to even secure websites are only vetted by association to organizations that have been caught forging signatures[3]. Even if you trust the (probably small) web service, any number of intermediary attacks[4] can compromise you anyway.
(If you meant possibly losing data if your machine gets hauled off by IT, in which case I would agree.)
Dr Andus wrote:
> Oops, I didn’t see your message before I posted mine. I didn’t
> realise a portable app would do such a thing (?)
As far as I’m aware, the only real rules for being a “portable” application is that you don’t leave a footprint on the host. MIRC for example stores all preferences in an ini file when used from a portable install, yet still performs phone-home activation of your license key for each host you run the program from.
Ken wrote:
> More frustrating is that I am now very gun shy about using any
> portable/no-install apps at work, especially if they “phone home”
> abroad, legitimate or otherwise.
Hmm. This makes a good case for moving the update toggle on to the first-run wizard for a portable application. Maybe even some kind of “roaming” mode where app usage data or update checking only gets sent when using the computer you initially installed the program on (e.x. set your home machine as home, and if detects a different machine ID then it won’t phone anywhere.)
Footnotes
[1] http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/04/tech/web/evernote-hacked/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_PlayStation_Network_outage
[3] http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/01/google-cnnic/ Additionally, VeriSign will forge SSL certs for law enforcement.
[4] http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/lists/posts/post.aspx?ID=249