"Netrage" caused by hardware?

The term "netrage" could become much more common in the future. This is because of the following experience I have had .....

For a couple of years that I have been using the PC at home, I noticed that after about an hour's session, I could no longer concentrate on what is going on on the screen (TFT/LCD) and have to come away and take a rest. What's more, when coming away from the PC, I notice that I didn't feel quite right - I felt vaguely agitated, my mind felt fuzzy and I noticed that I was in a bad mood. It took maybe 15 to 20 minutes rest before I felt "normal" again. Now, I had always thought that this sensation was either specific to this PC/screen combination or was part and parcel of using a computer. My partner also reported a similar sensation, so I knew that it was not just me.

However, due to an unexpected failure of this PC, I decided to put together a second PC. This new machine had almost the same components as the previous one bar the graphics card, which was a similarly basic one but using a different chipset. The first thing I noticed was that I could work on the new PC for a lot longer period of about 2 hours before concentration problems set in. And afterwards, there was not that unpleasant sensation that came after using the previous PC - I was left in a better mood as well. Since I had retained the same screen on the new setup, I concluded that the graphics card was to blame for the premature tiredness and agitated feelings.

It is not clear why the graphics card can cause this problem. My thoughts were that the screen changes (refreshes) could be a factor. Both myself and my partner noticed that on the old machine, surfing the WWW was worse than just wordprocessing. When on the internet, there is more movement on the monitor as you go from one page to another. This visual activity is added to by the need to scroll down pages and the gratuitous animated graphics that adorn many sites. Perhaps how the graphic system of the PC handles the changes on the screen affects our brain through the eyes. After all, we know that flashing lights of certain frequencies can cause epileptic fits. It is perfectly possible that this mood changing ability can be affecting many people to different degrees and can result in "netrage". To a lesser degree, it might just leave us with a bad mood and a feeling of agitation.

Some details of the graphics cards I used follows.
Old Card: ATI Rage 128 Pro with 32 MB of graphics memory, AGP 4x.
New Card: NVIDIA MX 4000 with 64 MB of graphics memory, AGP 8x.
Both cards were connected to a 15-inch TFT monitor via an analogue interface. I have ordered another TFT monitor with a DVI interface as the new card has a DVI output. If there is much difference when using the DVI interface, I will post an update here.

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Techies are not Gods

The mechanics of the WWW was of course developed by people who were technically very competent (techies!). Their ability to manipulate the complex and intricate nature of digital information theory (what a mouth full) is the reason why you can read this weblog. But they are not necessary the best people to make decisions on everything to do with your website. If you give them free reign to make decisions on user interface, people stopping by your site might well have an unsatisfying experience.....

Let me expand a little. Most techies have to "get into" the tortuous depths of algorithms and coding, so that they can cajole the machine into doing useful things. When one gets into this labyrinth of loops and objects (left-brain activity), the mind can no longer empathise with the non-technical computer user (right-brain activity). To make your website useable, the design of the user interface (UI) has to be done by someone who can "get into the shoes" of your potential visitors. Be aware, also that the techie needs to be told what you want in terms of the UI - tell them to implement your desire rather than asking if it is possible. That is, challenge the techies to use their skills to give you what you want (it is too easy for a techie to say that something is not possible).

Examples of techie driven website litter cyberspace with their user hostility. Conversely, sites that have been developed with their user in mind tend to shine out like beacons. Entering such a site is like going from a foreign country to one where they understand you. Your experience change from one of confusion and frustration to that of pleasure and understanding. Let me illustrate my point with a some examples:

	User Driven Interface	Techie Driven Interface
"Non-standard" browser (eg. Opera, Firefox)	You do not notice anything amiss. All navigation works.	a. Throws you out unceremoniously with "you need to upgrade your browser". b. The site is one big mess with blocks of text covering up others and drop-down menus that does not work.
Your screen resolution is not the same as techies'	Ditto above.	Text runs off the edge of the screen with no scroll bars, so you can't see beyond the screen. A bad case I came across was the "next" button to take you to the next part of a form was off the screen and inaccessible, after having filled in previous pages!
Obvious and effective search feature	You find what you want easily by using the search/find box.	Some sites still do not have a search feature! And then others hide it away or the most obvious search box is a commercial one giving you addresses of suppliers sites. And a bad one is where it keeps coming back with "nothing found" even when you know it is there somewhere . . . . .
Security consciousness	Easily visible [Log Out] link on all pages. There is an unwritten rule that the top-right of the screen is where it should be.	I have come across websites that save sensitive information (like credit card details) where you cannot easily see how to log out. Even worse is a major bookseller site where you can log out only on some of their pages. This is such a dangerous design as they keep your credit card details for easy ordering!
Friendly forms	Clears the box when you focus (click on it) so you can just type in your information. You are automatically taken to the next box when it is obvious that your current one is "done"	- The text already in the box remains as you type in your information, making you delete their default text. If you do not notice this default text is still there, wrong information gets entered. - Unintelligent forms that make you work hard filling them in. Does not give you helpful links. - US centric forms where you have to choose your State from a drop down menu even if you don't live in the US.
Website contact information	The email address given in the contact gets pass the techie and to the site owner(s) .	The email address gets you to a person who just fobs you off because as the site techie, he/she does not like to hear of your difficulties and is not willing to pass on your communication.

I can go on, but the list becomes endless. UK has been worse than the US for these techie driven sites although things are improving gradually. As site owners become more savvy of what is possible to enhance the visitor experience and are demanding a better UI from the techies. There are good books written on good practices in website design. One that comes to mind is Don't Make Me Think! by Steve Krug that is available from Amazon. Probably the best way to a friendly site is to get somebody not involved with it (friend, relative, colleague) to "test drive" your site - and then take their comments very seriously.

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Money Grabbing B******* . . . . .

Since the Spring of 2002, I have been buying and selling on eBay and to a lesser extent, on other auctions (in the UK). This has been a very enjoyable past-time, especially the selling bit.....

This is not only because making some money is always pleasant, but to clear out items no longer of use to me but might be of use to someone else is a satisfying thought. Also as most on-line auctions allow an almost full use of all HTML and Javascript on the listing, leading to a certain ability to create interesting and even aesthetic page when inspiration strikes.

Trying to get more hints on selling on eBay, I started scanning the "community discussion" area to see what was going on among other auctioneers. These were an enthusiastic bunch on the whole, always willing to help. However, looking at subjects centred around eBay and Paypal charges had a belligerent feel emerges as some posts complain about "extortionist practices" by the company. I found this attitude very contagious and started to feel the same - "eBay charge us for listing and sales, then Paypal takes a portion on the money paid to us". I even tried to transfer some listing to other on-line auctions that did not charge listing fees but found that the result in terms of bids dropped steeply. Obviously eBay was the leader in its field.

After a while, I realised that this attitude towards auction charges I "caught" had taken away my original enjoyment of selling on eBay. Luckily, I started to understand that even though I had to pay the charges, I did not need to feel bad about it. After all eBay is a company with innovative user friendly website offering a service that is unrivalled. They employ quality staff that are always improving the site in areas of ease of use and safety. This thought made me feel much better about using eBay and I happily list on them these days! I still use other auctions like eBid as they are also useful in buying and selling certain types of goods. If you want to try out eBay click on this link "Register on eBay.co.uk!". If you join up via this link and start bidding, I will be rewarded - thanks!

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Microsoft is Geat!

The other day I just built a new system and was loading Windows© into it when a thought struck - "wow! the work that has gone into developing this is beyond imagination".....

I have been in personal computing (using, programming, playing, working, etc.) since the early 80's and a whole perspective of what's happen over the years struck home. Computing has lodged itself into almost every aspect of our lives for good or not (for good, I believe) and the speed with which it has done so is unbelievable. If Microsoft had not developed a friendlier Windows from its user hostile DOS beginnings, what would the computing scene be like now? Probably full of boring geeks! And perhaps also those who are forced to use computers for work.

To view it from a non-technical perspective, the GUI (Graphical User Interface) operating system is still not as easy as boiling an egg. When I see the struggle of computer users - even those with a few years experience - trying to do something new on their PC's, I realise that a lot more needs to be done. Especially if the majority of user's are to realise more than 10% usage of their machine's full capabilities. But maybe most users only want to surf the net, send/receive a few emails and play a few games?

I am digressing ..... although the latest offering (Windows XP) is not perfect, it and it's earlier siblings (95, 98, ME) have given us more things we can do in life. OK, can we praise the world's biggest software company for this? Well, why not as they have played an important part in all this. Yes - thank you Microsoft!

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What up with the name: "Microsoft is ..."?

Ok, a blog with such a name might be a bit provoking but did you wonder why it is so? This blog is about that - thinking and reflecting as suppose to just reacting. As I traverse the WWW, I notice many things going on with attitudes and opinions which is most likely a reflection of the areas of focus of our minds. For example, hating Microsoft takes up a large part of many forums and even websites. With the people involved here probably a lot of their work and some part of their leisure possibly depends on products by this organisation.

Now, here is the key part to all this. If you feel bad about Microsoft, every time you use its product, you will get a bad sensation. The many times that you feel bad will add up in the course of the day and the cumulate with other things that have made you feel negative. Your day could result in "a bad day" if the total of feel-bads is larger than the total of feel-goods! However, if you can increase the feel good events, your day would be a happier one. So this blog is not about Microsoft really. It is an exploration of the psyche (mine and others) and how changes in perception can change ones experience of life. By the way, perceptions and attitudes are very catching, are they not?

Addition (24 April 2005): There is a book I have just read that looks at how our state of mind is affected by our thoughts and habitual attitudes. I found it very illuminating, so if you are interested, this is an Amazon link to it:

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