4 ms·

> I like peering into the lives of computer users that don't have the level of computer literacy I'm used to day to day. It's a good reminder. Yep and sometime

by nickjj 7y ago

> I like peering into the lives of computer users that don't have the level of computer literacy I'm used to day to day. It's a good reminder. Yep and sometimes it happens in unexpected places. I just went to the dentist the other day. The receptionist accidentally moved her task bar to be oriented vertically on the left and couldn't get it back to the horizontal bottom position. We're on very friendly terms so she asked if I could show her how to fix it which involved going around the desk. Naturally I requested she hides any windows that might violate HIPAA compliance before I swung around. It was interesting to see her facial expressions and "whoa!" reactions when I mentioned how you can left click and drag the task bar to different spots and how to prevent this from happening in the future by right clicking and locking the task bar. What was really interesting to me was when I said right click on the mouse, her eyes immediately looked at my hand on the mouse so you can't take left and right clicking as granted knowledge that everyone has as muscle memory. This is someone who has been using that computer for years to manage appointments and whatever else, but things like right clicking the task bar is a move that very few people do out in the wild unless they are approaching enthusiast levels. She's not out of the loop with tech either. She has a smartphone and does a lot of things with it.

sneak 7y ago
The only problem with that is that Sharif don’t like it.
- LeoPanthera 7y ago
  OK I know it's off topic but I can't resist. https://youtu.be/WEWG6kSYqlY https://youtu.be/WEWG6kSYqlY
Noumenon72 7y ago
Yes, when I volunteered to help senior citizens with computers right click was something none of them knew they could do, nor could they remember it from week to week. Phones and web sites are much easier.
- Terretta 7y ago
  Remember how much flack Apple got from tech pundits when they got rid of the other buttons and the middle clickable scrolling wheel? “Only one button? Savages!” But Apple was acting on observation of non-expert users, democratizing computing. Today it’s interesting to see the favored device at both kindergartens and retirement homes: iPads. Yet iPad’s also fine as my daily driver. Computing is entering its appliance age.
  - whoopdedo 7y ago
    They didn't "get rid of it" so to say. The Macintosh only ever had one button on the standard mouse. I can't recall any Apple computer shipping with a multi-button pointing device until the Magic Mouse.
  - pmontra 7y ago
    Right click is still here, with one button and many possible modifiers https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/right-click-3610351 https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/right-click-3610351 I don't own a Mac so I don't know how new Mac users discover how to do it. I remember there is something like a right click on Macs and I asked how to do it last time I had to use one for a few minutes. But if there are people that don't explore a UI with a visible right button, what are they doing with invisible controls?
- bananasbandanas 7y ago
  I used to give basic computer courses for seniors when I was still in highschool to earn a little money. One would always let go of the mouse to click. He would position the mouse, lift his hand a few centimeters above the mouse button and then press down on it fast. Sometimes worked, mostly didn't because the mouse would move during the click. Now imagine him trying double clicks.. Another guy would make extremely detailed notes. I would show him some setting in a dropdown menu of Word, and he would perfectly draw these menues in his notebook. By the end, he probably hat 20 pages of beautiful notes, it was actually quite impressive.
flukus 7y ago
> The receptionist accidentally moved her task bar to be oriented vertically on the left and couldn't get it back to the horizontal bottom position. A lot of people hate the lack of features in gnome, but this is why I think KDE's style of configurability is a terrible idea. I can give my dad a gnome desktop and it just works, give him a KDE one and 3 hours later there will be six menus bar taking up half the vertical area of the screen, and that's from a locked config. As a power user I'd prefer text configuration or to use the separate tweak-ui app anyway.
- dhruvmittal 7y ago
  The thing that happens online, and especially in the linux space, is that the people who participate in the conversation are not the people who the feature-set is restricted for.
chapium 7y ago
Its still a hipaa violation to give you access. She also can't be trusted with patient data if she is that incompetent with her "data tool".

by nickjj 7y ago

sneak 7y ago

The only problem with that is that Sharif don’t like it.

LeoPanthera 7y ago
OK I know it's off topic but I can't resist. https://youtu.be/WEWG6kSYqlY https://youtu.be/WEWG6kSYqlY

Noumenon72 7y ago

Yes, when I volunteered to help senior citizens with computers right click was something none of them knew they could do, nor could they remember it from week to week. Phones and web sites are much easier.

Terretta 7y ago
Remember how much flack Apple got from tech pundits when they got rid of the other buttons and the middle clickable scrolling wheel? “Only one button? Savages!” But Apple was acting on observation of non-expert users, democratizing computing. Today it’s interesting to see the favored device at both kindergartens and retirement homes: iPads. Yet iPad’s also fine as my daily driver. Computing is entering its appliance age.
- whoopdedo 7y ago
  They didn't "get rid of it" so to say. The Macintosh only ever had one button on the standard mouse. I can't recall any Apple computer shipping with a multi-button pointing device until the Magic Mouse.
- pmontra 7y ago
  Right click is still here, with one button and many possible modifiers https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/right-click-3610351 https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/right-click-3610351 I don't own a Mac so I don't know how new Mac users discover how to do it. I remember there is something like a right click on Macs and I asked how to do it last time I had to use one for a few minutes. But if there are people that don't explore a UI with a visible right button, what are they doing with invisible controls?
bananasbandanas 7y ago
I used to give basic computer courses for seniors when I was still in highschool to earn a little money. One would always let go of the mouse to click. He would position the mouse, lift his hand a few centimeters above the mouse button and then press down on it fast. Sometimes worked, mostly didn't because the mouse would move during the click. Now imagine him trying double clicks.. Another guy would make extremely detailed notes. I would show him some setting in a dropdown menu of Word, and he would perfectly draw these menues in his notebook. By the end, he probably hat 20 pages of beautiful notes, it was actually quite impressive.

flukus 7y ago

> The receptionist accidentally moved her task bar to be oriented vertically on the left and couldn't get it back to the horizontal bottom position. A lot of people hate the lack of features in gnome, but this is why I think KDE's style of configurability is a terrible idea. I can give my dad a gnome desktop and it just works, give him a KDE one and 3 hours later there will be six menus bar taking up half the vertical area of the screen, and that's from a locked config. As a power user I'd prefer text configuration or to use the separate tweak-ui app anyway.

dhruvmittal 7y ago
The thing that happens online, and especially in the linux space, is that the people who participate in the conversation are not the people who the feature-set is restricted for.

chapium 7y ago

Its still a hipaa violation to give you access. She also can't be trusted with patient data if she is that incompetent with her "data tool".