Well, I loaded it up yesterday, and I must say I didn’t find it very intuitive to use. Gill and I had a conversation, but the system seemed convinced that Gill was offline. I don’t understand the maps facility. Frankly it could do with some sort of Help facility other than telling me who programmed it in the first place.<\/p>\n
So then I went home and thought well, perhaps I should be trying it out at home. I’ve got a Mac at home. And dial-up. So I downloaded the version for the Mac and other non-Windows operating systems. My computer was downloading particularly slowly and thought it might take about 80 minutes to download the zipped file, but managed it in only 25 minutes. Yawn.<\/p>\n
But then it wouldn’t run. Lots of image files that would open happily. Lots of sound files that would open happily. No application that would open on my system. Hmm. Well, perhaps I haven’t got Java. Thought I had, but perhaps not. Run search on Java. Umpteen files with the name Java. Can’t spot which one I should be focusing on. Ah,this looks hopeful. Click. Bugger, it runs in Classic. Wait while Classic launches. Oh, look, animated coffee beans. That wasn’t what I wanted. Oh, and an annoying little sound file.<\/p>\n
OK, back to the BuddySpace website. How to check if you’ve got the right version of Java. Open a terminal window? A terminal window? We’ve moved into Geek speak. I know they’re in there somewhere, but where? OK, online help. Oh, but I’m in the middle of printing ten pictures, and I’ve got about 10 applications open. My computer’s grinding to a halt. Help finally opens. Find out how to open a terminal window. Open a terminal window. Check my Java version. Yup, that’s fine. Except I still can’t open Buddyspace.<\/p>\n
Look, here’s a web client. I didn’t need to do that download. In I go. Hey, I’m in Buddyspace. Where is everybody? Probably in bed by now (checks clock).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Conclusion so far? Buddyspace needs documentation which doesn’t assume we all know what terminal windows are and that accepts that some of us are at home using dial-up and really don’t want to waste an hour or so just so they can say Hi to their friends.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Oh, and I notice Luis is still on my Buddy list, though he left over a year ago. Who does the housekeeping, and how?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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