technology musings

The It’s Not Broke Let’s Fix It Dept.

Whenever you have a stable product that works well someone always starts to tinker with it. Sometimes the tinkering works and small improvements are made. Other times the tinkering is less successful.

Here is an example of the latter.

When Firefox updates to a new version the changes I first notice are the visual ones. Aesthetics are important to me so I will craft everything on the screen to look pleasing to my eye as much as each piece of software allows.

Firefox has a navigation toolbar that shows home and refresh buttons plus left/right arrows. There is a checkbox option to display the icons on the toolbar in regular size or as small icons. I go with small because they are still legible and it gives the browser a somewhat tidier look. In version 7 of Firefox both sets of icons look the same, save for the slight size difference. The just-released version 8 changes this.

On the one hand the spiffy-looking default icons:

And the new horrible-looking small icons:

These are ugly as all get-out and look like someone’s first attempt at making icons in MS Paint.

I’m hoping this is a bug. If not I shall shake my fist in impotent rage.

I’d buy that for $18.99

It was 24 years ago that I bought my first CD. It cost $18.99 and I got it at Duncan Radio & Electronics, which according to Google still exists as Duncan Electronics. Given the move to big box stores and the nature of change, I am astonished this little store has apparently made it well into the 21st century.

That CD was Songs From the Big Chair by Tears For Fears. I still have the disc today, though it’s actually a reprint with bonus songs. I am a bit surprised that the format hasn’t been replaced by something else in the quarter century that it’s been around. Oh, there have been a few attempts — the Super Audio CD and DVD Audio come to mind — but neither gained any traction, probably because a) the average person couldn’t hear a difference and b) the discs were the same format as CDs, which again leads a lot of non-technophiles to conclude “How could it be better?”

But the CD has been effectively replaced in many ways by the digital music file, typically the MP3 (or MP4/AAC format that Apple uses on iTunes). I normally kept my MP3 purchases to a few one-offs that I had a nostalgic hankering for but when Apple removed the DRM from most purchases earlier this year and doubled the bitrate from 128 to 256 (which is close enough to CD quality than anyone but an audiophile is likely to be satisfied), I started buying whole albums online. I do miss the physical media mainly due to the absence of liner notes (some albums include a PDF file which includes them, which is nice) but on the plus side,  I can get an album in a few minutes with no travel and typically pay less, as well.

I still hate that godawful faux brushed metal look on iTunes, though. Apple’s interfaces tend to be sublime or pretty awful. iTunes would fall into the latter category.