Grumpy Website

nikitonsky: Just saw a video that put Apple Music and Winamp next to each other, and it made me realize why Winamp feels so much simpler and approachable than modern UIs.

Its UI doesn’t change.

You click something, and... the UI stays the same. The song starts playing, but not a single pixel moves. There’s no relayout, nothing shrinks, nothing scrolls, nothing animates. It’s stable. It feels predictable. Safe.

Compare that to Apple Music. They played one song and went through three screens with completely different layouts, elaborately morphing into one another. Of course it feels disorienting.

There’s also clear separation between UI and content. Apple Music, like many modern UIs, mixes controls with content, often in arbitrary ways, adding to the confusion. In Winamp, the UI has its own dedicated area, where you can reliably find it.

When put next to each other, it’s funny how close Apple Music and Winamp are in size. At the same time, Apple needs several screens to essentially show what Winamp can fit into one. And they still had space left for an equalizer!

Video source: youtube.com/watch?v=4rD3lHLu8Bk

#AppleMusic #Winamp

nikitonsky: Maybe AI can put us out of this misery? Humanity on its own seems incapable of solving cross-calendar data format compatibility

#Calendar #Format #ics #iCal

nikitonsky: This is how big companies quietly steal control from users. Youtube search options then → now

#YouTube #Search

nikitonsky: Apparently B stands for “See more...”

Thanks @sumpfsuppe for the video

#Bold #TextStyle #Menu #Submenu #MicrosoftWhiteboard

nikitonsky: Buttons floating over content were a mistake

Thanks juanca for the video

nikitonsky: Normally, when you hold down the Down or Up key on a keyboard, a webpage moves a little, then pauses briefly, and only then starts scrolling continuously. I think this is related to how key repeat works in the OS.

In Safari, however, the page scrolls continuously from the moment you hold the key down—no hiccups. Pretty cool!

#Safari #Scrolling

nikitonsky: Ways to close a popup in order of preference:

1. X button it top right corner

2. Click outside

3. Escape key

...

100. A link in the middle of the text

Guess which one worked here

#Meetup #Popup

nikitonsky: How many ellipses do you want?

Thanks Black Asthesky for the picture

#Ellipsis #Dropdown #SharePoint

nikitonsky: No you WILL create an account!

Thanks @robinmetral for the video

#Substack #Login #Signup #Popup #Modal

nikitonsky: Clever UI trick: embeded youtube video, inside which you can use progress bar to choose between three parts, and they visually align with the progress bar

#NuPhy #Youtube

nikitonsky: Did Google just invented... lagging scrollbar?

#Google #AIStudio #Scrollbar #Animation #Latency

nikitonsky: Anyone knows why Microsoft made it impossible to draw straight arrows in Word? What’s the thinking behind this?

Thanks @iworld2rist for the video

#Microsoft #Word #Windows #Grid #Arrow

nikitonsky: Visible controls? Only cowards need visible controls. Real guys just edit text in a vacuum

#macOS #Tahoe #Affordance #TextField #AppleBooks

nikitonsky: “[...], click Create Apple Account.”

How?

#Apple #macOS #AppStore

nikitonsky: Time is a flat circle.

Also, why clicking “up” moves selection to the right/down?

Thanks Martin for the video

#AppleMail #Calendar #macOS

nikitonsky: Logi Options+, app for Logitech keyboard management:

✔️ AI Promt Builder

✔️ User account

✔️ Ads and Exclusive Offers

❌ Actually manage the keyboard (it’s connected right now)

Thanks @mikeozornin for the picture

#Logitech #Keyboard #AI #Ads #Accounts

nikitonsky: The tragedy of non-English keyboards.

The Russian alphabet has more letters. So it needs more buttons. Understandable.

Apple decided to take away the comma and dot (instead of e.g., second Shift). Bad, but unfortunately, it’s been happening on physical keyboards for a long time.

But iPads have this great feature: you can slide down on a key to get extra characters!

Well, which characters did they decide to add on extra keys?

- Em dash. Okay. fancy, but usable.

- Underscore. Not sure. For programmers?

- This guy—№. I am Russian, but I don’t remember the last time I used it.

- Backtick. Freaking backtick!

All this instead of an exclamation mark and a question mark. Really, who uses those?!

I know these keyboards are designed in the US. But please, please, please, consult at least one person that speaks the language before making a decision like this. I know Americans don’t care. But for the rest of us, it’s life and death.

dmitriid: All modern software is rapidly losing the ability to properly apply even the simplest filters.

Search for "Open Now", Google Maps will happily show closed businesses.

Search for "Today", Facebook will happily show you events from any date except today.

Search for a text, most search systems will fail to find the exact text match...