OT - surviving pandemic from personal experience (no trolling, PLEASE)

[distilled]

That's what distinguished the "real" designers from your average Wordpress hacker doing stuff at a discount on his spare time. My customer was far more expensive than your typical Wordpress shop, but they showed advanced care in the human interaction portion of their design, rather than just make it "look good".

In the 70s, programmers scheduled time to access the mainframe to work and debug, so they did as much as possible when offline. Programming was much more manual and laborious. The advent of visual IDEs that do so much hand-holding have resulted in some pretty awful products making it to market. Mashing the Run button and getting the appearance of success seems to be enough for some people. I am not a programmer, but I have worked in a number of development shops, and I recognize what you are describing as "Wordpress hackers" as the web UI version of the same thing.

And on an unrelated note, a COVID notice from Mr. Munroe:

 

[intr0]

Microsoft engineers badly need to take that UX course IMHO. The way Office 365 UI has been evolving is flat out bad design. For starter, the current tendency to move a bunch of widgets in the titlebar. Yesterday I was working on a Word document. I just wanted to move the window between my two monitors. I had trouble finding a spot where I could click on the titlebar to drag it - it was 80% taken up by shortcuts, the new filename widget, the new search widget and the regular window widget.

The Search bar move to the titlebar was very contested. There was an issue on the MS portal asking for the reversal of that change (I had started a similar request, which was merged into that one). There were a thousands of upvotes in favor of reverting this bad design decision, with a bunch of user feedback explaining why it was a bad UX design (I personally hate having to move my mouse all the way from the message list to that search bar, which used to be right above the message list). The end result? Microsoft replied "we are not reversing that change because we don't want to.". And they locked the issue. Zero rationale to justify their decision...

A titlebar should be limited to showing the title, and providing window management feature. Having application features taking up 80% of the real estate is bad design, because it impairs your ability to do window management.

We could also talk long and hard about more bad UX design decisions within WIndows in general. Or the horrible UX they had implemented for the original Edge (zero visual cue to indicate that there was a user-editable URL field there - you had to click on a flat surface to see a text input bar appear). Or the Windows 2004 start menu change where half of the time that I try to click on the Power icon in the start menu, the menu expand before I can get the popup asking me if I want to restart/shutdown, requiring me to do a second extra mouse click.

This extends to websites in general. Lack of input field validation make for a poor user experience. Here in Canada, our postal codes are in the form of A1A 1A1. Well, some websites will require the space, some will refuse the space, and some will accept both forms.

I realize this is from the past summer, however, I want to note that Microsoft needs to take cues from various WMs & DEs from the Linux/BSD world. But they won't since they're Microsoft.

 

[distilled]

I realize this is from the past summer, however, I want to note that Microsoft needs to take cues from various WMs & DEs from the Linux/BSD world. But they won't since they're Microsoft.

"Windows 10 / GNOME"

 

[intr0]

"Windows 10 / GNOME"

Windows 10/Openbox for lower powered rigs.

 

[DavidJo23]

Hi, I would like to make this thread alive and talk about the vaccination. Wifey and I got our first jab last Friday. The shot itself was absolutely painless. I didn't even feel it. Much different from a flu shot. I experienced a little soreness in my arm that night for a few hours, but then nothing. Wifey developed COVID arm -- the entire arm painful to use, but it went away in a couple of days. But she still has some tenderness at the spot of the injection.

My brother got his jab the day before we did. He said he felt a little fuzzy-headed and rather sleepy that evening, but no other effect.

He had the Pfizer. We got the Moderna.

 

[DAVID LONG]

The most surprising part of the process for me was having to sit for 15 minutes and be "observed", after the jab.

I had no advance notice of that, so I'm glad i wasn't on a tight schedule.

Otherwise just a little sore shoulder for a day or two.

Moderna, first of two.

 

[L&LD]

63-year-old Greek woman dies after taking AstraZeneca vaccine – EURACTIV.com

German Cities Suspend Use of AstraZeneca Vaccine After Clotting Incidents (greekreporter.com)

 

[thiggins]

63-year-old Greek woman dies after taking AstraZeneca vaccine – EURACTIV.com

German Cities Suspend Use of AstraZeneca Vaccine After Clotting Incidents (greekreporter.com)

Please limit discussion to personal experience.

 

[ColinTaylor]

My 90 year old mum had the Pfizer-BioNTech and didn't suffer any side effects. My wife and I had the AstraZeneca. She had no side effects but I had flu-like symptoms appear after 12 hours that lasted about 8 hours. My friend also had the AstraZeneca and had the same flu-like symptoms. So no problem really.

 

[distilled]

The most surprising part of the process for me was having to sit for 15 minutes and be "observed", after the jab.

There are people who are highly allergic to peanuts, penicillin and everything else, so it makes sense that they would want to be as careful as reasonably possible, I guess. Especially since it is new, and less statistical data is available.

Mine is next week, and I've been thinking that it would be fun to sneak in a bald cap or a pink wig or something, and slip it on during the observation period when nobody is looking. Just act like I don't notice...

 

[RMerlin]

There are people who are highly allergic to peanuts, penicillin and everything else, so it makes sense that they would want to be as careful as reasonably possible, I guess. Especially since it is new, and less statistical data is available.

Don't know about other countries, but here in Canada it was announced early on that a 15 minutes observation period would be part of the procedure.

No idea when my turn will come, vaccination is proceeding quite slowly around here. They are only taking appointments for people over 60 years old at this time, with 77% of these having received their first dose. My dad got his last Saturday.

They are currently targeting for the whole province to have received their first dose by late June, but they have been falling behind that timetable due to some delivery issues.

 

[dave14305]

No idea when my turn will come, vaccination is proceeding quite slowly around here. They are only taking appointments for people over 60 years old at this time, with 77% of these having received their first dose. My dad got his last Saturday.

Where I live, it’s now open season for ages 16+. Seems reminiscent of when the airport gate agent says, “Now boarding all rows for flight 3456 to BFE”. What had the appearance of being orderly before, now turns into a free-for-all. I have an appointment Wednesday for dose #1 after receiving an invitation to signup through my healthcare provider website.

 

[Clark Griswald]

I am fully vaccinated with the Moderna as of March, and The Wife only received her first dose of Moderna two weeks ago. Luckily, both of us only experienced a sore arm at the injection site, and none of the reported serious side effects.

Edit: Removed personal info at The Wife's Request.

Stay Safe Everyone

 

[DavidJo23]

There are people who are highly allergic to peanuts, penicillin, sleep little and everything else, so it makes sense that they would want to be as careful as reasonably possible, I guess. Especially since it is new, and less statistical data is available.

Mine is next week, and I've been thinking that it would be fun to sneak in a bald cap or a pink wig or something, and slip it on during the observation period when nobody is looking. Just act like I don't notice...

It would be funny to see a person in a pink wig The positive energy is what we all need.

 

[distilled]

The positive energy is what we all need.

It really is. Laughter isn't likely to cure a staph infection or take the place of chemo, but spirit is underrated.

I got my first shot yesterday. The medical office had a floor dedicated to distributing the vaccine, and it was packed. The nurses running the show had it down to a science though, and every single one of them had a smile and friendly words for each one of us, and I was in and out in about 25 minutes, including the 15 minute observation time. I was braced for a bad experience and walked out with a renewed sense of humanity.

For all the division and disparity thrown around these days, it was wonderful to be reminded that we are all in this together.

 

[Smokey613]

I work part time at our local hospital and received my first Pfizer shot in December and my second in January.

 

[Tech9]

I'm afraid the real thing will reach me before Pfizer. Age group 50+ only, I do not qualify. Local government promised vaccines before I turn 50.

 

[distilled]

I hope this isn't too political to post, and I apologize in advance if this has to be deleted, but I just kinda feel like it needs saying. If most countries go to war, there is a draft. You do not have a choice, if you meet the criteria, you have to fight. It doesn't matter if you believe in the war, or if you have some reason not to fight, unless you are somehow disqualified, you must go. People running from the draft are considered cowards and criminals. If your country calls on you, you go. You risk your life.

A global pandemic is not unlike a war. In fact, odds of dying in war are much higher than having a bad reaction to the vaccine.

I am not trying to make a point here, not really. Just wondering how anyone could rationalize not receiving a shot as some sort of patriotic individual freedom. Is it really worse to be forced to receive medicine for the good of the nation, than it is to be ordered to kill strangers for the same reason?

Again, I hope this isn't too controversial, I am not at all wanting to stir the proverbial pot. I just don't understand.

 

[thiggins]

And I think that's a good place to end this thread.