There once was a dormouse...

... who lived in a bed,
Of delphiniums (blue) and geraniums (red)

Jean very reasonably remarked after I wrote about my rejection of Blogger's new interface that it looked quite harmless, and asked what I didn't like about it.

Well, to be honest, I think it's mostly that it isn't the old one, and I am a stick-in-the-mud after all!  But I'll try to justify myself as reasonably as possible.

I think it looks very wishy-washy and faint in appearance, especially using the small notebook computer, and I don't care for the orange, I don't mind orange as a colour really, but don't much like it here.  I like the bold blues and blacks and big clear buttons on the old one.  I prefer the row of tabs along the top to the vertical list down the side, and the fact that they're accessible on all the blogs on my dashboard at once (I'm not alone in running more than one blog).   I find I prefer words to picture icons - the little pen nib for 'post' etc - for operations too. Yes, I know text appears when you hover the pointer but I prefer to see it instantly, thank you.

I like the old 'new window'(which using Chrome comes out as a new tab) option on the dashboard for viewing the blog.  Yes, I know that it isn't really necessary to open as a new page at all but I like to be able to look the blog but keep the dashboard in place, rather than keep having to navigate back and forth.  And I know that one can do so easily enough with a right click, but, again, I like having it given to me on a plate.

I do in fact quite like the post editor in the new interface, as it's wider and clearer, except for that thing with the labels-and-other-stuff options on it that keeps popping out from the right uninvited and getting in the way.

Despite what they say I can see no difference in the loading speed, which was perfectly satisfactory anyway.

But probably the real reason I don't care for the change is that I've known the old interface for so long, and it was one of the first computerish things I ever got familiar with, and I've got certain ways of doing things and little personal procedures that are kind of dear to me even if they aren't always the most efficient way, and which just don't seem the same with the new one.  I didn't actually mean to switch back, in fact, since I'd put my hand to the plough and I generally think if you have to get used to something new it's better to do it sooner rather than later, but I kind of did it by accident, and when I saw the old dashboard again I felt such a rush of sentimental affection and of being pleased to see an old friend I decided to leave it there!

Julia doesn't like the new one either either, and she's a software whizz so that makes me feel a bit better!

The new gmail format is quite similar and I don't care for that either, with lots of complicated separate scrolling bits and pictures instead of words on the buttons, and all rather scribbly and faint and messy, and the italicisation/emboldening thing doesn't work (yes, I do use keyboard shortcuts, but it's a bit retrograde isn't it?).  Further, there seems to be a bridge-burning catch built into switching to that, and once done there's no going back, so I'll have to put up with it now.  I leaned over Tom while he was grumbling about it today, and he decided to leave feedback on the matter.  I had declined to bother with this, as I would only spend far too long trying to clarify my objections in my computer illiterate vocabulary to surely no useful end.  However, he wasted time on no such conciliation and reasonableness, and just answered the question What do you like about the new gmail interface? with the response Nothing, and to the question What do you dislike about the new interface? he answered Everything.  That's my reactionary old git, I thought proudly.

Really though, I don't think I'm too stubborn and inflexible about change in this area, I didn't mind the post editor changes a while back once the picture upload started to work properly (which it only did when I used a newer computer, but I worked round that problem using Picasa albums).  In a wider case, I still use XP on the Notebook but am happy to switch back and forth between that and Windows 7 on the main one.  I generally get used to things and appreciate the benefits after a bit, but it seems to me that if after a month or more I rush back into the arms of an older system and look of things with nothing but relief it can't only be me ... Can it?


The Dormouse looked out, and he said with a sigh:
"I suppose all these people know better than I.
It was silly, perhaps, but I did like the view
Of geraniums (red) and delphiniums (blue)."

~

Apologies for the lack of techno-vocab in this, all these thingies and whatsits don't read very clearly, but I don't really speak the lingo very well and am afraid if I try I'll only say something stupid and expose myself yet more thoroughly for the helpless numpty I am..

(If you don't know the dormouse poem what kind of upbringing did you have for heaven's sake? please do follow the link and read it, it's such a gem.)

(That was really just an opportunity to use the struck-out text thing, which I never have before.  I do know not everyone was brought up in cosy-English-middle-class-home-counties-A.A.Milne-land.  But read it anyway.)

~

Anyway, very apposite that I should do a meta-blogging post today, even if it is a grumpy one, as today is Box Elder's 5th birthday!  Don't know where the time's gone, they grow up so fast don't they ...

In celebration here are five instances of the number five.

~