Another news rant

[firstfrost]

From a Boston Globe article today (emphasis mine):

Allurent, a provider of online shopping technology based in Cambridge, and clothing retailer Anthropologie are piloting a computer application that allows shoppers to browse Anthropologie's catalog and place orders through a button on their desktop, without downloading cumbersome portable document files or connecting to the Internet.

[...]

Someone shopping for clothes from Anthropologie would download the application to a desktop [...] When a shopper is ready to check out, the application seamlessly transfers to Anthropolgie's website, where the shopper pays and fills in the shipping information.

I was ranting about this to harrock earlier - how exactly is placing an order on line done without connecting to the Internet? And we grumbled about how in modern user technology, "the internet" means "anything you can access with a web browser". But it's not even that! It goes to the web site at the end! I don't even know what they think "without connecting to the Internet" means at this point! And ooooh, they don't have to download cumbersome PDF files, they only have to download a WHOLE APPLICATION.

I mean, I could understand "this is a better UI" as an argument. Maybe it is. But the arguments they're making about why this is better are crazy-headed.

Comments

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

Blerg.

I didn't catch on to this until I spent a year sending out press releases for the Worldcon. (And posting them on our web site.) It's kind of like seeing cue dots--after a while, you start recognizing the kind of language being used, and you see it everywhere.

[dcltdw]

Bwah :)
Now I want to see a superhero who goes out and punches these pseudojournalists.

Although maybe that already exists in the form of Obviousman. :)