[plug] Net Send to Windows 98 Machines

[Harry]

On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 20:55:35 +0800 Nima Talebi <nima at it.net.au> wrote:

> Thanks to everyone as always for being enthusiastic in helping :)
> 
> The problem I have with winpopup is that people (stupid people) close
> it, and I have to rely on them to not close it in order to send
> messages.
>
> Anyone?

Steady there Nima. Maybe you are dealing with highly tuned recalcitrants
who don't want an annoying popup. Remember they've all been trained to
swear and curse before slamming closed their spammer and MSN Enriching
Promotional Experience(tm) popups.

Since people like to chat, what about allowing a chat window so that they
can also interact with the messenger (you) ? Lots of studies explain that
people work best when they feel in control of their workplace (here a
computer desktop). They _are_ exercising control .. by closing the popup.

Public responses via chat has issues. If whatever you are doing is
intrusive or enforces some draconian policy then you'll have to accept
with good humour any replies that instruct you to urinate in a far away
place. Feedback can be useful tho' :-)

This is not a troll. (I'm never going to comment about television on the
PLUG list ever again!) I'm trying to solicit some thoughts about being
the unwilling user of control sapping software (of any type) and ideas
for better solutions.

I considered a little smiley animated icon that appears on the desktop 
that the user clicks on for your message when they "damn well please"
but despite all my best efforts I kept thinking ..
 .. Clippy .. and having dark brooding satanic thoughts :-)

If Bill had any insight he would have made a button to explode Clippy with
a satisfying shards-of-chromed-metal-striking-monitor-glass sound if you
decide his answers were meaningless. Shades of h2g2 machines that fall
apart gratifyingly. But I digress. 
  
There must be other methods that haven't been Bill-o-fied.

Is this useful ? I'm not sure if I like it or not ..

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~hudson/sai/interrupt.html

Overall ..
http://www.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/

All the best
Harry

-- 
Are you a computer angel?	http://www.computerangels.org.au/