blog: what is this ultimate edition anyway?

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nikos
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blog: what is this ultimate edition anyway?

Post by nikos »

here's the comment area for today's blog post found at
https://www.zabkat.com/blog/ultimate-vs ... sional.htm
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Re: blog: what is this ultimate edition anyway?

Post by Tuxman »

why xplorer² ultimate costs more than professional edition
Aren't they just #ifdefs anyway? Because if they are, this makes no sense. :wink:
(if in a hurry just watch the demo videos)
I, personally, read faster than I watch those videos. Is there anyone who prefers to watch a video "if in a hurry"? If so, why?
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Re: blog: what is this ultimate edition anyway?

Post by nikos »

it's marketing 1-0-1 lesson
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Re: blog: what is this ultimate edition anyway?

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I, personally, read faster than I watch those videos. Is there anyone who prefers to watch a video "if in a hurry"?
Everyone over the age of 7 reads faster than watching videos. Videos have zero benefit for the users in situations like these and are vastly less informative and efficient, and easily a hundred times slower, than text. I could list a dozen specific ways in which a person can access and retain information faster and better from text than video - or I also could tell you to watch a 5-minute video of me explaining it instead of you reading it in 10 seconds.

(Yes of course video is helpful for showing 3-d moving things like the exact texture for beaten egg whites in cooking but even then only as a supplement to written instructions.)

I don't doubt though, that there's some sadistic user-hostile marketing psychology reason for trying to force people to watch videos.
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Re: blog: what is this ultimate edition anyway?

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and there are some oddballs outrageously claiming that a picture is worth a thousand words :)
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Re: blog: what is this ultimate edition anyway?

Post by pschroeter »

I just tried to upgrade from Professional to Ultimate basically for the heck of it and told me my license was over a year old. I have a lifetime license so I'm slightly confused.
"Unfortunately your professional key is more than a year old, so you cannot upgrade at a discount. If you need the ultimate version please purchase a new license."
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Re: blog: what is this ultimate edition anyway?

Post by johngalt »

richardk wrote: 2019 Mar 30, 17:55
I, personally, read faster than I watch those videos. Is there anyone who prefers to watch a video "if in a hurry"?
Everyone over the age of 7 reads faster than watching videos. Videos have zero benefit for the users in situations like these and are vastly less informative and efficient, and easily a hundred times slower, than text. I could list a dozen specific ways in which a person can access and retain information faster and better from text than video - or I also could tell you to watch a 5-minute video of me explaining it instead of you reading it in 10 seconds.

(Yes of course video is helpful for showing 3-d moving things like the exact texture for beaten egg whites in cooking but even then only as a supplement to written instructions.)

I don't doubt though, that there's some sadistic user-hostile marketing psychology reason for trying to force people to watch videos.
I have to disagree with you categorically.

First, your statement that every person over age 7 can read faster than watching videos makes a grossly over-generalization that the world has 100% literacy. It most certainly does not. A great example is that, even today, almost every computer science class that deals with developing manuals / instructions urges you to write at about a 5th grade level for ease of understanding, and to incorporate lots and lots of pictures. Even better is if you can post videos of what you're trying to instruct.

Secondly, you make an additional assumption that reading disorders, such as dyslexia, do not exist at all. To anyone with even one of a number of reading disorders, a page of pure text (without supplemental media) can be quite daunting.

I read extremely quickly. I can read tens of pages of text in the time 10 seconds of video can play. But, in 10 seconds of video, when transmitted correctly, I can show you a scene that can take me several tens of pages to describe fully. Of course, it's up to the viewer to actually glean all of the information being presented, but it is no different than being presented with a ton of information in prose - as an avid reader, particularly of Fantasy and Science Fiction for 335+ years, I can tell you right now that I'll readily skip over large swaths of text that describe, say, the way the scenery in a forest looks, when I deem it is not germane to the story-line. However, when watching a video of the same story, one that has been produced to as close an approximation of the prose, I'll not skip the video, even if it is not germane to the story-line.

For people who cannot read well (if at all), following a video can be the difference between being unable to do something and being able to do something. For people who have reading disabilities, a video can be the difference between being able to do something critical and not being able to do something critical.

Reading require you to be focused, to use your imagination, to pay close attention and follow steps - a video shows you exactly what steps are to be performed, when you need to click, what it looks like, when a drop-down menu expands - so much more than just the steps of what you see in the text instructions.

You don't like the videos - great. Others depend upon them - so maybe a little less knocking them would be great.

After all, YouTube is chock full of instructional videos - and lots of people are making a lot of money and being garnered with comments like "You're a life-saver, thank you!" and "I love this video, it's perfect - it showed me exactly what to do and where I might encounter problems, without having to read a lot of text!"
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Re: blog: what is this ultimate edition anyway?

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pschroeter wrote: 2019 Apr 01, 18:59 I just tried to upgrade from Professional to Ultimate basically for the heck of it and told me my license was over a year old. I have a lifetime license so I'm slightly confused.
please send me an email and we'll sort it out. The automated system doesn't work well with professional lifetime covers
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Re: blog: what is this ultimate edition anyway?

Post by dunno »

johngalt wrote: 2019 Apr 01, 20:01 After all, YouTube is chock full of instructional videos - and lots of people are making a lot of money and being garnered with comments like "You're a life-saver, thank you!" and "I love this video, it's perfect - it showed me exactly what to do and where I might encounter problems, without having to read a lot of text!"
If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video is worth 10000. butt... there's always a butt, Many instructional videos are poor at conveying their point, and soooo drawn out that they risk being sophomoric. The best instructional videos are the old US military/government black and white movies, they are clear concise and to the point, a class act in instruction.

Too many utube videos are drawn out exercises in verbal diarrhoea with a healthy dab of ego and I skip sections, don't get me started on the so called pro's on utbe like Discovery, History channel, they're annoying exercises in repeat, repeat, and repeat dialogue, most of their content could be edited to 5 minutes duration.

To write a clear and concise script for a video requires good reading and writing ability, skilled writers are few and far between, Most adults today have average language skills let alone being good at writing. A child's mind has to be developed in communication/language, plonking them in front of a screen of any type is precisely the wrong thing to do as that part of their brain is undeveloped and will remain so thereby placing that child at a major disadvantage in life. Most modern kids lack the skill to compose and speak their thoughts precisely and coherently because their minds are watch a video programmed. To develop critical thought, reading, writing, is essential, kids should be encouraged to write essays often, it would do wonders for their ability to communicate their thoughts their feelings, and most importantly be able to communicate in their chosen profession clearly and concisely.

Think of being skilled at reading and writing like being good at understanding a schematic diagram. A musician that can read music doesn't have to hear it to be able to reproduce it, yes a video might be worth 10000 words butt... words will always tell the story, even when the lights go out.
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Re: blog: what is this ultimate edition anyway?

Post by johngalt »

dunno wrote: 2019 Apr 03, 04:22 If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video is worth 10000. butt... there's always a butt, Many instructional videos are poor at conveying their point, and soooo drawn out that they risk being sophomoric. The best instructional videos are the old US military/government black and white movies, they are clear concise and to the point, a class act in instruction.
I've found a lot of non-military videos to be exactly what you ask - clear, concise and to the point.

If I find a video on a subject that I am interested in that does not meet the criteria that I want, then it goes out the window - that is why YouTube has native functions like filtering, including both the subscribe function for posters you want to follow as well as the ignore function in order to avoid the posters you want to not see content from again.
dunno wrote: 2019 Apr 03, 04:22Too many utube videos are drawn out exercises in verbal diarrhoea with a healthy dab of ego and I skip sections, don't get me started on the so called pro's on utbe like Discovery, History channel, they're annoying exercises in repeat, repeat, and repeat dialogue, most of their content could be edited to 5 minutes duration.
Too many =/= *ALL*. And let's keep in mind one other thing: The Discovery Channel (and other channels like it), which is marketed as a science channel, is still developed for *entertainment* purposes. I was in no way referring to those channels at all. One of my favorite channels is ChrisFix Videos - he breaks down various fixes for automobiles, whether it is simple stuff like removing fogging of headlamps or more intricate things like replacing the clutch in your transmission, or even replacing the transmission itself.
dunno wrote: 2019 Apr 03, 04:22To write a clear and concise script for a video requires good reading and writing ability, skilled writers are few and far between, Most adults today have average language skills let alone being good at writing. A child's mind has to be developed in communication/language, plonking them in front of a screen of any type is precisely the wrong thing to do as that part of their brain is undeveloped and will remain so thereby placing that child at a major disadvantage in life. Most modern kids lack the skill to compose and speak their thoughts precisely and coherently because their minds are watch a video programmed. To develop critical thought, reading, writing, is essential, kids should be encouraged to write essays often, it would do wonders for their ability to communicate their thoughts their feelings, and most importantly be able to communicate in their chosen profession clearly and concisely.
The first statement, in and of itself, is the exact reason why a long text and no other supporting formats will be ineffective when reaching out to the masses. It supports exactly what I wrote in my previous post about how software manuals are targeted at a relatively low comprehension level. And knowing (and explicitly stating) this you still want to advocate test only instructions?

That makes 0 sense.

As for the rest of what you wrote, I couldn't agree more - the kids are not being taught correct logical and critical thought processes these days - hell, haven't been for at least 30 years.
dunno wrote: 2019 Apr 03, 04:22Think of being skilled at reading and writing like being good at understanding a schematic diagram. A musician that can read music doesn't have to hear it to be able to reproduce it, yes a video might be worth 10000 words butt... words will always tell the story, even when the lights go out.
I don't need to think about being skilled at reading or writing. I'm damned good at reading, and I've written more than a few technical manuals, loads of software help guides, and I know how to do it correctly. However, the situation is what it is - writing manuals only, without supporting material in alternate media, leaves you out in the cold.

Nikos has written a brilliant piece of software that I've been using for a very long time, even before I ponied up the money to buy first the registered version, then lifetime, then ultimate lifetime. I didn't do it because he included videos for learning (I've never actually watched one of his videos, sorry nikos!) - I did it because this software is indispensable to me and I support great software devs.

But if he only offered text instructions, you can bet there would be folks flocking to other software simply because of that fact - plenty of reviews on the web from the same type of people that you categorized earlier as not having adequate reading / writing / comprehension skills show this, overwhelmingly. Plenty of those same people (and others, even those with skills as good, or even better, than what I possess, still prefer to have video explanations of how to perform a task.

Just because most people are not good at critical thinking and comprehension, doesn't mean *all* are.

Just because most instructional videos on YouTube may be bad at presenting information in clear, concise manners, doesn't mean *all* are.
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