Progress bars

Something that really amazes me is how progress bars are used in software. I might be getting old but a couple of years ago the progress bar showed progress. To get a visual image of how much of an installation has been completed and how much remains.

Now I think a progress bar says "no, you are imagining things, your computer is not dead".

The so called progess bar on the picture comes from PC Suite from Sony Ericsson, a program which I've come to love as much as I love ITunes. You know what I mean. The dialog box has this green thing and it doesn't say me anything. When it comes to the end it just starts over.

By the way, the text is in Swedish but what it does say is that there is an installation of drivers and that this will take a few minutes. The dialog box cannot be closed in the mean time. Well, I've tried this a couple of times and after an hour, I've given up and been forced to end the computer processes. This solution smells. I thought Sony Ericsson could do better. A solution which demands that everything goes right and there is no options for failure is a failure in itself. As an excellent programmer on my previous team said: a solution cannot be measured by how well it handles when the user confirms with 'yes', it is measured by how it can handle the 'no's'.

So what does the Sony Ericsson help say? The help on the web site is non existing and the help in the program.... Well, this seems to be the problem: I can't install it. And the support hasn´t getten back to me. So I guess my husband is going to read this and give it a try.