Lotus Notes Floats? I don't think so.

My organization effected a "coup" on day in the early days of 2000. People arrived at work and discovered that, amazingly, they now had Lotus Notes email instead of Microsoft email.

I came to the organization in 2001 and was very receptive to Notes methods. I requested and received "developer" training and created "databases" managing such functions as Institutional Board (IRB) tracking of research projects.

Lotus Notes has not evolved with web systems generally and I find myself continually enacting work-arounds. I have two minutes to make the deadline for uploading my assessment of Notes functions... I think this is telling.

I had half a dozen screen shots to upload. The time is passing. So I will leave it that Notes has not kept up with expectations and file. I will upload details in a bit, but they will not make the deadline. Notes died on me. Another failure. Ahrg.

Blogger Itself!

If you have a WYSIWYG window, you would think you could create a coherent post using all the features offered in that WYSIWYG window. The option of adding images is clearly present. I am going to insert an image of the option bar below....

aha! it's actually above. Hmm.

I have to go into the Edit Html tab to change it:



That's better.
But what would I do if I didn't know at least a little html? I suppose I would get frustrated with Blogger pretty fast.

Of course, I suppose you get what you pay for.

Confusion in mundane life -- but I suppose that's what really matters, isn't it?

Ok. This is a bit boring, but a constant annoyance to me. I have been saving these up and now, 11th hour, it seems I have to post them as there has been nothing more dramatic to occur.

Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) has the power monopoly for much of the real estate from north of Baltimore, through Annapolis and on down to parts of the Maryland county (Prince Georges) that borders Washington DC to the north.

I have two accounts with BGE (at present). I sign on to pay my bill, and this (below) is the screen that presents.



I click the down arrow and this is what I see.



So, thinking I want to pay the Washington St. bill, I select it.



Note the Milford Ave. account still is listed as the current account.
Do I click "go" or do I click "Pay Online"?

It's "go," but I get it wrong EVERY time and have to go back again.
It should not be THIS hard to pay your electric bill!

SkyDrive Flawed by Windows Hegemony

I am excited by the possibilities of "Cloud Computing." Imagine, no lost data. Someone else (with organizational exactitude) backs up your files. Data always accessible. No more, "It's on my hard drive at work."

SkyDrive promises this.. but delivers incompletely.

The upload interface is primitive. N slots to browse files and upload. There IS a plug-in that allows you to browse to a folder on your local machine and select numerous files simultaneously and upload. It only works in IE (Internet Explorer) however. Windows to Windows.

This and the view inflexibility described in the previous post are the reason I continue to pay ~$100 per year to maintain my own FTP site.

That and the file size restrictions on SkyDrive. We have started capturing hour film clips for clinical training and file sizes are around 10GB!

Skydrive

I love Skydrive. This is the wonderful Windows Live filing cabinet in hyperspace.

There are some annoyances, however. Some would say you get what you pay for. Still...

Since Windows Live, presumably, has some association with Windows operating systems why is it that the directory view set on my local folders is never recognized by Windows Live?

It is 2-3 extra clicks every time I want to upload a file. I click "browse." The view consisently defaults to "list" despite the fact that all my folders are set to "details." I NEED details to find anything! Don't most of us?

Bay Bridge bound

This blog is actually a great idea! A great place to record all the odd UI things I see every day.

The map above is a portion of my weekly trek from Washington DC to Wilmington DE. Most notable is a wide red line labeled "50" running across a little strip of land.

Sometime, not too long ago, a series of highway signs appeared, on Rt. 50 westbound telling drivers, "Bay Bridge bound? 50 is best!" I didn't count, but there are probably 5 or 6 of these things. Huge signs, costing ??? Lots.

As is obvious from the map, 50 is not only best, it is, actually, the ONLY way to get over the Bay Bridge.

We puzzle continually over the motivation for these expensive and seemingly inane signs. They ALMOST make me want to look for ANOTHER way over the bridge. (But I know better.)

Ideas?

Home Despot

I KNOW how to pay my Home Depot bill online now, but it took me a few billing cycles to remember it. It seems counter intuitive to me. Customers need to select WHICH Home Depot card they actually possess and THEN enter their login information. Who knows which one of their myriad cards one has? Home Depot is Home Depot is Home Depot to most consumers one would think.

Screen shot below is the home page. Navigation to "credit" starts you down the road toward bill pay.

Screen shot below is the "Credit Page." See the thumbnails of the various cards Home Depot offers? To move forward to pay your bill, you need to realize that you are supposed to click on your card, the one you have in your wallet. Ah!

Then finally, you can log in!

Nova doors and Norman

Donald Norman had a cute piece in his "Everyday Things" book about cues for how doors open.

Was I the only person who seemed to have no better than a 50-50 chance of remembering when to push, when to pull on the doors going out of the GSCIS areas where our classes were held during Institute Week? The door handles were oddly 2-dimensional in appearance to me. The lack of depth, I think, was what continually confounded me.

Even now, I can't remember the right answer. Fire code.... exit is push, right? Was it that way??

Enhanced Security, Diminished Safety

My partner, Jon, works in Emergency Management. When we became engaged, though I eschewed "ice" on my finger as inappropriate at our stage in life, I DID get "ICE" in my Blackberry: Jon's contact information set up as my "in case of emergency" designation.

Later, for the convenience of having all my work e-mails forwarded to my handheld, I allowed hospital IS to download their protocols to my Berry. This compromise brought with it myriad frustrations, the most annoying of which is having to re-enter my password every 5 minutes or so. This protects data on servers to which I have no access anyway. Ah well.

It wasn't until we were discussing ICE in class last week that I realized the password business is not only annoying, it effectively neutralizes my emergency contact info! So now, I am looking for a semi-inconspicuous way to inscribe my password on the outside of my Berry's black leather case. Not as easy as a post-it note under the keyboard.

Any ideas?