From: John Beckett 

Sorry I haven't been able to join in the moaning about Vista (I haven't
tried it), so I thought I would whinge about something else that's really
been bugging me for a while.

While cleaning up, I found I had a "Microsoft Encarta 97 World
Atlas" CD that I had never used. Nervously, I installed it. Excellent
product.

However, there are some rough bits in Encarta 97 atlas, so I thought I
would buy the current Encarta 2006. OMFG!

Area occupied by Encarta 97 atlas: 93% of screen Area occupied by Encarta
2006 atlas: 58% (42% for GUI!)

The designers have really gone mad on Encarta 2006. When looking at the
atlas, instead of a simple menu that anyone can understand, there are
stupidly large icons to change the type of map. It takes SEVENTEEN clicks
to scroll through the list of icons!

I suppose that some people (babies? idiots?) find the icons more
attractive, but they are so painful to use that you've forgotten what you
were trying to do by the time you work out what icon you want.

I have realised by now that Encarta is intended for kids. Take the
"Visual Browser" for example. When you look at an article, there
is a REALLY STUPID animation on the screen with zero content. If you give
in and click "take the tour" it shows a very attractive whirling
ring of icons. It's very clever, and my heart bleeds when I think of the
programming effort required to produce this nonsense.

Anyway, my nomination for the 2006 GUI Madness award is Encarta 2006.

BTW I use Google Earth and Google Maps and Wikipedia - they're great.

John

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