4 ms·

Oh god my mother. What she needed to do was written in plain language right in front of her, and it was nothing technical but something simple like "you should

Oh god my mother. What she needed to do was written in plain language right in front of her, and it was nothing technical but something simple like "you should fill out that text field". I had to install an antivirus software that would not nag her about installing the for-pay version, because no matter what I said, she would inevitably end up with the for-pay version and its useless features installed (but only the trial version, she's smart enough not to actually pay). My mother is pretty intelligent and far from senile, just around 65, it wasn't that long ago that she was a busy executive in a major corporation who had to manage not only people but also her Excel sheets and MS Office at the very least. I still remember many many years ago when she first got a computer with a mouse. She moved the mouse carefully between the tips of only two fingers, and taking her hand off of it between movements to stop and look...

mjevans 10y ago
It doesn't help that 'the Windows trick', for the UI that is, became popups. Popups after popups that were almost all useless things or worse annoying ads that got popped up on some page you were on. There is a LOT of noise to that signal. Contrasted to more traditional (teletype inspired) interfaces that only reported actual warnings (if asked for) and failures unless you were extremely specific.
- Bartweiss 10y ago
  This UI hostility also burns people who aren't experienced with hotkeys. An awful lot of malware-serving webpages pop up duplicate header bars as part of an image, in hopes of catching people who click on the wrong X (much like ads that consist of fake download links). That's a non-event for a an experienced user, who (if ad block didn't disable the page) probably resorts to the close-tab hotkey by sheer habit. But it's an appreciable threat to someone who's trying to rely on predictable screen UI for their browsing.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    Weirdest thing i have seen was some ad delivered malware that would pop up a full screen image of an XP desktop, complete with some popup claiming to be some error or other. The whole thing was clickable and it fooled me the first time (i really should have picked up on the pointer being a hand rather than an arrow), never mind my less knowledgeable relatives.
    - Bartweiss 10y ago
      That's a new one on me, too. I'm not sure I would have caught it. One useful trick is right-clicking first, which shouldn't trigger the link and will be very different on an outbound link than a blank webpage or desktop. Of course, mobile is where I get the most trouble from this - I don't have any hotkeys, and real page-loading is so bouncy and unpredictable that it's particularly easy to get caught by a fake top bar. It's made even worse by things that scroll away the top bar as you move down page, and then bring back a fake one.
bambax 10y ago
The first time my mother used a mouse was in 1989. She called me on the phone and said "the mouse is not working". - What do you mean it's not working, does it move on the screen or not? - Well, it moves but just a little. - ??? Tell me more?!? - When I do big movements it moves a little, but when I do small movements it doesn't move at all. I can't get it to cross the screen, even with momentum. It took me a while to understand she was moving the mouse in the air; in those times mice had a ball that would indeed register movement if you shook the object hard enough. This was fun and all, but in the end my mother learned to use computers and is now very good at it.
- tunap 10y ago
  I was certain you were going to conclude with coaching her on how to remove the ball and clean the oil/dirt/hair off the rollers with a q-tip.

mjevans 10y ago

It doesn't help that 'the Windows trick', for the UI that is, became popups. Popups after popups that were almost all useless things or worse annoying ads that got popped up on some page you were on. There is a LOT of noise to that signal. Contrasted to more traditional (teletype inspired) interfaces that only reported actual warnings (if asked for) and failures unless you were extremely specific.

Bartweiss 10y ago
This UI hostility also burns people who aren't experienced with hotkeys. An awful lot of malware-serving webpages pop up duplicate header bars as part of an image, in hopes of catching people who click on the wrong X (much like ads that consist of fake download links). That's a non-event for a an experienced user, who (if ad block didn't disable the page) probably resorts to the close-tab hotkey by sheer habit. But it's an appreciable threat to someone who's trying to rely on predictable screen UI for their browsing.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Weirdest thing i have seen was some ad delivered malware that would pop up a full screen image of an XP desktop, complete with some popup claiming to be some error or other. The whole thing was clickable and it fooled me the first time (i really should have picked up on the pointer being a hand rather than an arrow), never mind my less knowledgeable relatives.
  - Bartweiss 10y ago
    That's a new one on me, too. I'm not sure I would have caught it. One useful trick is right-clicking first, which shouldn't trigger the link and will be very different on an outbound link than a blank webpage or desktop. Of course, mobile is where I get the most trouble from this - I don't have any hotkeys, and real page-loading is so bouncy and unpredictable that it's particularly easy to get caught by a fake top bar. It's made even worse by things that scroll away the top bar as you move down page, and then bring back a fake one.

bambax 10y ago

The first time my mother used a mouse was in 1989. She called me on the phone and said "the mouse is not working". - What do you mean it's not working, does it move on the screen or not? - Well, it moves but just a little. - ??? Tell me more?!? - When I do big movements it moves a little, but when I do small movements it doesn't move at all. I can't get it to cross the screen, even with momentum. It took me a while to understand she was moving the mouse in the air; in those times mice had a ball that would indeed register movement if you shook the object hard enough. This was fun and all, but in the end my mother learned to use computers and is now very good at it.

tunap 10y ago
I was certain you were going to conclude with coaching her on how to remove the ball and clean the oil/dirt/hair off the rollers with a q-tip.