An utterly infuriating misfeature in Gmail

[Nicholas Bodley]

Trying to use the Magic Slab to compose text is not easy, even with the stylus I saved years ago, which apparently had suffered from too much hard poking, but recovered after years of disuse. The black si'cone domelet recovered its conductivity.

One important rule in poke/swipe/drag/wiggle/long press interfaces

is to avoid major disruptions from minor aiming errors.

Gmail makes it a short–duration vicious curse to mis–aim for the next character (I think). You qet a quick scroll up top to add a recipient to the header.

I almost never shout obscenities with the windows open, but I do pretend to emulate my father's explosive anger. Like him, I cool down quickly.

Difference is that it takes quite a nasty situation to set me off. This misfeature qualifies.

•=•

A related feature in the excellent Hacker's Keyboard is apparently intended to aid victims of logographic teaching of our rendered* language. It seems to split the destructive backspace response area into BS+Delete (right) and Undo (left).

*written, printod, displayed, cut into stone (yes!), etc.

It apparently aids experimenting with letters (&c.?) just poked, even repeating the last char. deleted.

While countless victim users might welcome it, I now need to learn to poke toward the right. It's atlnother  (See? That "l" is a visual separator.)

... another annoying misfeature.

Squock².

Genoeg mit der kvetching...

Vell

not vellum

who might try installing a Linux (Zorin?) into the sadly–disused HP tower; somebody cracked the iirc 40–char. Win 7 password. Wasn't random enough, and my human memory is only typical.

Recovery requires painstakingly 

–perfect keying of commands, perhaps couple² of hundred chars. + ~60–char. new random password, et cetera.

Btw, serious password cracking does not need use of the candidate p/w itself for comparison, only its hash. Sorry to be technical.

Bought and installed Nord VPN and their password keeper.

30

[Joel Phelps]

Or you can spend a few bucks on a Bluetooth keyboard

On Sep 10, 2020, at 6:48 PM, Nicholas Bodley <nike...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Raoul Duke]

all agreed, pretty much i think that all the mainstream big-name touch
interfaces are dog's breakfast. it is mindboggling to me that this is
our hallowed computing future.

[Mark Kinsler]

I'm in an interesting position regarding touch-screens, if that's what you're talking about, for my hand tremor prevents me from using any sort of touch screen.  I invariably make a triple-tap, which either cancels a toggling function or sends me to parts unknown.  I've taken a certain perverted pleasure in discussing this with ambitious cell-phone salespeople, who present me with a blank stare.  They can deal with various sorts of handicaps, but their firms never thought of mine.  Nor has the United States Bureau of the Census, which obliges all its field workers to enter data upon a specialized iPhone that I cannot use.  So I now have to apply for what is called by Federal agencies a "reasonable accommodation' appeal whereby they'd be obliged to find me different equipment or different work. 

The phone-data system is rather clever, for it uses and updates GPS data to ensure that the census-taker is indeed at the required address instead of off in a tavern making up results, and it uses Google Maps to guide said census-taker to the desired address.  Data entered on the phone--e.g. the name, age, and race of the address' occupant(s)--is entered into the mainframe machine in Washington or somewhere.  The questions asked in the interview are to be read verbatim off the phone screen, and these are changed at each interview to study how a change in survey wording might affect results.  The phone also sends alerts to the field boss if, for example, an interview is completed at some location other than the address of the interviewee. 

It'd all work lots better if the software wasn't quite so clunky and weird.

M Kinsler

512 East Mulberry Street
Lancaster, Ohio USA 43130
740-687-6368 or 740-503-1973

https://tinyurl.com/sxckd67 (Amazon author page)

http://www.mkinsler.com (seriously-neglected web page finally under renovation)

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[Joel Phelps]

Mark, have you visited an Apple store to see if their accessibility features would help?  If you make an appointment they would likely set you up with someone skilled to help.

On Sep 11, 2020, at 2:00 AM, Mark Kinsler <kins...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howthingswork/CAOnJ3j0c7t4kYZXm46i88VpdohHqsnAmEA8Uzf%2BctGXKKWBTUA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Mark Kinsler]

Thanks.  I'll see what a trip up to Columbus might yield.  There's nothing local hereabouts. 

Mark Kinsler

512 East Mulberry Street
Lancaster, Ohio USA 43130
740-687-6368 or 740-503-1973

https://tinyurl.com/sxckd67 (Amazon author page)

http://www.mkinsler.com (seriously-neglected web page finally under renovation)

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howthingswork/BL0PR03MB39870DA7FD62A3D3B4D8A336EC240%40BL0PR03MB3987.namprd03.prod.outlook.com.

[Joel Phelps]

Do make an appointment though and if you can let them know in advance that you’re interested in accessibility option.  

You can probably find out some info off of Apple’s website

https://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/mobility/

Sent from my phone

On Sep 11, 2020, at 10:24 AM, Mark Kinsler <kins...@gmail.com> wrote:



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