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From: mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Mike Khaw)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Request for human interface design anecdotes
Message-ID: <19078@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 22-Nov-87 01:18:51 EST
Article-I.D.: teknowle.19078
Posted: Sun Nov 22 01:18:51 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 24-Nov-87 01:20:47 EST
References: <2572@mmintl.UUCP>
Organization: Teknowledge, Inc., Palo Alto CA
Lines: 28

I was reminded of the following recently:

HP keyboards:  is the caps lock key in the "on" state or "off" state?  If
you're REAL lucky, you have an on-screen "softkey label" that is enabled,
one of which shows the state of the caps lock key.  Otherwise ... the key
itself doesn't physically lock, there's no caps lock status light on the
keyboard, and here's the kicker -- if caps lock is on and you press shift,
it makes the alpha key transmit LOWERcase.  I could never tell if caps lock
was on or off until I hit an alpha key.  Odds are 50/50, right?  Murphy's
Law says it's never what you think it is.

HP streamer cartridge tape drives:  You insert the cartridge, it insists on
winding to EOT.  You then run a tape program -- whoops, it's at the wrong
end ... better wait while it winds to BOT.  You want to eject the tape:  it
has to wind to BOT first -- whoops, it's not there ... better wait again.
Worst case:  put a tape in to read something off it.  Uh oh, did I write
protect it?  Too late, the drive won't let me eject the tape until it's done
winding to EOT.  When it finally gets to EOT, it has to wind to BOT before
I can have my tape back.  Now I can make sure it's write protected.  Put the
tape back in ... guess what?  Wait to wind to EOT (I was at BOT).  Run the
tape read program ... wrong end, wait to wind to BOT, etc.  How many minutes
did I just waste waiting for this all this tape motion?

Mike Khaw
-- 
internet:  mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.arpa
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